I remember from many years ago the "Life Hack" videos suggesting to lie one's toaster on its side to grill cheese on bread. After several fires, too-late but better advice circulated to not do this.

Oh... and don't eat Tide Pods either, kids. No, I don't care what some random liar said on YouTube. :^D

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The most catastrophic thing in videos I've heard of is a suggested challenge with painkillers based on paracetamol, which you can get everywhere without a prescription. An overdose of just a couple of these can easily destroy your liver and require a liver transplant. Irresponsible and completely crazy.

paracetamol

(Note to North Americans: paracetamol = acetaminophen aka Tylenol)

And yes, it's safe in recommended doses but overdoses of it are the #1 ER cause of liver failure (unexpected as opposed to known ie cirrhosis or hepatitis, etc.) It is in many medications' fine print so it's easy to take several "cold remedies" that have it if the ingredients aren't checked.

I would not sympathize if that "suggested challenge" poster was criminally charged.

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Would you buy one and/or drive one?
The Yugo, as it turns out, isn’t dead yet

* Plans in motion to resurrect the Yugo name
* Resurrected from ashes of Zastava, aims to rival Dacia
* First sketches and teasers ahead of planned 2027 reveal

That’s all history now, as the Yugo name is set to make a return. Naming rights have reportedly been secured by Prof. Dr. Aleksandar Bjelic – a university professor that has links with the automotive industry in Germany – who has recruited Serbian designer Darko Marceta to help mock up the look of the new model.

The first sketches seen in public show a boxy, but modern-looking small car. As well as a chunk of simplicity, there’s a smidge of retro-ness to the look, indulging in similar design tropes that have been carried out by cars like the latest Renault 5 or the new Fiat Grande Panda.

Given it’s a car that’ll wear the Yugo name, the aim is for it to be cheap. Bjelic intends for the Yugo to use a combustion engine to keep costs down, and is reportedly looking to secure ‘an established platform from a co-operation partner.’ Serbian automotive outlet Emisije SAT has discussed the Yugo’s planned return on its YouTube channel.

Work on clay models is ongoing, with the aim to officially reveal the first prototype of a new Yugo model at the 2027 Belgrade Expo.

Would you buy one and/or drive one?
The Yugo, as it turns out, isn’t dead yet

Yugo??? Why on earth did Americans ever bought something like that? Because of it's ridiculous price, the only reason.

Good for jokes: "Yugo nowhere!"... "Yugo, but it doesn't"

The previous Zastavas had been bad quality replicas of Italian Fiats. Even in the scarcity economies of the Eastern bloc these Yugoslavian models weren't sought for (different than Soviet Shigulis (alias "Lada": heavily modified 1960s Italian Fiat 124 replicas), or Czech Skodas (the most progressive Eastern bloc car manufacturer).

A cheap, soulless, inferior car, without an iconic design, history, a narrative, or memories; that was only bought because of its grotesquely low price, cannot be revived as a retro car. No one will buy it.

Totally in contrast to e.g. "Austin Mini", "Fiat 500", VW's "New Beetle"... or think of American Icons... Thunderbird, Mustang, ... Same with Fiat Panda, Renault 5 or Citroen 2CV (colloquially: "the Duck"). They became 'cult' long time ago; forever in the memories of millions of Europeans; care-free youth days; university periods, apprenticeships... in short: first freedom.

Renault's Dacia brand is successful today because of down-to-earth, practical, spacious everyday vehicles based on modern Renault plattform; modern engines; without any luxuries or prestige. Simply: high quantities for reasonable prices. Just like Czech Skoda was made VWs most successful (lower-priced) brand. The German automotive industry won't think a second about reviving a faded Yugoslav brand no one still remembers in Europe.

Naming rights is funny. Yugo simply means "south" in a couple of slavic languages. Yugo-Slavia... the southern slavs, a post-WW2 Communist ideology to define a common shared slavic origin for a couple of quite different peoples on the Balkans (a true melting pot: different cultures, different history... since centuries).

What it needs to make a reborn Yugo successful? A reality distortion field.

Who'd have thought? It is worth wearing safety gear when working...

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Grant
Darwin NT

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Grant
Darwin NT

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You really have to wonder about the mentality of many people these days- HP forced customers to wait 15 minutes for tech support - on purpose.

In what might be one of the biggest gaffs of the year, HP is trying to dislodge its foot from its mouth after getting caught intentionally forcing customers to wait for 15 minutes on technical support calls. Even HP's customer service staff criticized the bafflingly dumb move.

The Register reports that HP intentionally forced customers to wait 15 minutes when trying to reach tech support. The "minimum" wait time idea mentioned in an internal memo that The Register obtained was floated as a way to push users to go online and look for "self-support" as the company tried to "improve" its overall customer service experience.

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Grant
Darwin NT

Don’t question a man’s pet food choice.
Fresh Pet my boy Junior commercial.

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To err is human. To really foul things up requires a computer!
Citigroup nearly credited client with $81 trillion instead of $280

Citigroup, one of the world's largest financial institutions, narrowly avoided a colossal error that would have sent ripples through the banking industry. Last April, the bank inadvertently credited a client's account with an astounding $81 trillion when it intended to transfer a mere $280.

This monumental mistake, previously unreported, has come to light at a critical time for Citigroup. The bank is currently striving to convince regulators that it has addressed long-standing operational issues, and this incident may undermine those efforts.

The erroneous internal transfer occurred due to oversights and system quirks. An internal report of the event, obtained by the Financial Times, notes that the error slipped past two staff members. A payments employee made the initial mistake. A second bank official overlooked the error when verifying the transaction. Fortunately, a third auditor caught the mega-blunder after detecting an anomaly in the bank's account balances 90 minutes after the transaction posted to the account.

An unnamed source familiar with the incident said a combination of human error and a cumbersome user interface in the bank's backup system caused the mistake. In mid-March, the bank posted the payment to a customer's escrow account in Brazil, but a screening process blocked it over a sanctions violation. Although quickly cleared, the payment remained stuck in the bank's system.

To resolve this, Citigroup's technology team instructed the payments processing employee to manually input the transactions into a rarely used backup system. However, its interface had a peculiar quirk: the amount field automatically pre-populated with 15 zeros, which the employee should have deleted before entering the correct amount but didn't.

Bank error in your favor. Lol.

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I'd settle for 10% of an error like that.....

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

I'd be happy with just 1% of that.

Cheers.

Did anyone else get a PM from a new user named Rambo?

How de we report and get rid of spammer?

He's(?) obviously being selective in who to contact....
A word in Eric's ear may well be the best way of sorting him/her/undefined out.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

I dunno if Dr. K. will respond but you can block PMs from anyone from the msg. itself with the little square with a dot (same icon for reporting posts) and it will add them to Filtered.

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No pm here.

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I have a message from Victor I think. Was asked to post it here.

Dear Admiral:

Maybe Dr Korpela will drop in and check his pm's.

No I can't post, I wish I could, my current user id has zero credits, since my old ID doesn't exist anymore. I wish they had a warning that it was permanent, so now I get to haunt people like a ghost.

Someone would just need to change my rac to something above zero and credit to reflect my credits, the site is in html, but I only know of one person who has access to the backend, that would be Eric Korpela, he's off teaching a course at some college and who knows where Angela is at.

This site doesn't even have emoji compatibility, except in the preview it does, now that is weird.

You can post this in the "Don't know where it should go? Stick it here! Part VIII" thread if you so choose.

Victor

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Wait we all have zero RAC and I received the spam from someone who just created a new account with zero RAC and credit? I also see that Victor's account has been deleted here and also on Facebook. Something is not passing the smell test.
Admiral if you have contact with Vic I can be the middle man. I can contact Eric and Angela.