I’m a little disappointed that Jersey Girl Susan Sarandon doesn’t have one of her “SPiN” ping pong bars here in her home state.

> Each month my electric bill is $3.25 for the consumption fee since I produce more than I consume

If you’re producing more than you consume shouldn’t your consumption fee be $0, if not negative (money coming to you)?

They’re using sonar to survey the sea floor in preparation for building wind turbines there. People are claiming that the sonar activity is what’s causing the “recent” increase in whale beaching.

…except the trend of increased beaching goes back at least 10 years, well before any wind farm related activity. And the organizations making the most noise about “those poor whales” are very clearly funded by the oil industry, who would obviously prefer that we keep burning their product instead of making electricity from wind.

> That will be banned May 2025

…maybe. It was originally supposed to be banned in 2012, and they keep postponing the deadline.

Well, it’s not just a star- it has other security markings too. But the important thing is they (supposedly) do a much more extensive background check on you before they give you the version that has the star.

I learned recently that Wayne Gretzky was commonly counted as 2 separate players for fantasy hockey purposes (goals Gretzky and assists Gretzky), just to keep things fair. I feel like you have to do something similar for Rt 1 in the “worst road in NJ” contest. So what’s worse: Rt 1- Trenton to South Brunswick, Rt1- SB to Woodbridge, or Rt 1- WB to the GWB?

> Ewing High School and Fisher Middle School were mentioned in the note, a Ewing police spokesman said in an email.

…two sentences later…

> Ewing police did not specify which two schools were included in the threat.

Which is it?

Diplurus is literally in my backyard (or maybe my backyard is in diplurus to be precise). I’m wondering where specifically it and others were found. Anyone know a good list of fossil finds in NJ?

Michael McKean is a lot more than “Spinal Tap”.

And Spinal Tap is a lot more than him, too.

I think I’m gonna go put a work glove on a beer bottle.

Break out the fava beans and Chianti!

I went there with my dad for his birthday! I hope the tour is still as good as it used to be (we went pre-COVID). The tour was led by a 30+ year veteran of the factory, and we got to walk right among the work benches and talk to people who were in the middle of making instruments. At the end of the tour everybody got one of the round pieces of wood they cut out to make the sound holes, with the Martin logo burned onto it.

We were able to just walk in, but it looks like you have to pre-register now.

If you’re into music or woodworking or just appreciate craftsmanship, the Martin guitar factory in Nazareth, PA is amazing. Yes, I know it isn’t in NJ but it isn’t far. (Edited to include a link).

It may be apocryphal- I'm skeptical that "bread" as slang for money was a thing in 1905, or that Wilson would have used it even if it was.

But if it's a lie, it's an entertaining one.

Supposedly Woodrow Wilson (President of Princeton at the time) quipped about Carnegie "we asked him for bread, but he gave us water".

The big problem with trampoline parks is that you have many people of multiple different sizes jumping at the same time. That causes unpredictable movements of the surface that can snap smaller people’s leg bones. Here’s a study published by the NIH that goes into details.

A 6 year old might not hurt themselves on a trampoline, but 10-year-old and a 36-year-old parent jumping with them could cause a lot of damage (and has, many times).

I wouldn’t surprise someone with passes to a trampoline park. Some people aren’t ok with the injury risk.

If you already know that they like those places then it could be a good gift.

Why just go for truck nuts when you can have the full package?

Were you taking it to the dentist?

Do they average out to a Pine Meadow?

We played the theme from Underdog in similar situations.

Do you have a source for that? Our World in Data shows that transportation is responsible for 16.2% of global greenhouse gas emissions, while livestock is just 5.8%

I know this isn’t the point of your post, but TIL that the police academy is actually a place you go away to. I always thought they just made that up for comedic effect in the movie.

Can someone ELI5 why this happens? When there's no eclipse, light spots like this are roughly the shape of the aperture rather than the (circular) shape of the sun. Why does the shape of the hole not matter when the sun is a crescent shape?

Isn’t welding a type of connecting? What’s the difference in this context?

If it’s not clear, I know almost nothing about steelwork. Please pardon my ignorance.