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[AvastMH]

We can fight them all - honest - I've got my gloves on. I bet we all do

[Randi]

On a cheerier note: MDOT reveals 299 winners of Michigan snowplow naming contest

Blue Water Bridge
Blue Water Express
Huron Hero
Ol' Blue
Sarnia Scooper

Bay region
Beast
Big Bertha
Blade of Glory
Blizzard Boss
Chippy
Coyote
Dreams of Summer
Frankenmuth Chicken
Gordie Plow
Hannah's Hero
Herbert H. Plow
Highway Hero
Ice Princess
Ice to Meet You
I'd Rather Be at the Beach
Large Marge
Ol' Seven Fingers
Pillsbury Plowboy
Plower Power
Polar Patroller
Road Warrior
Rolling Thunder
Salt Salt Baby
Saltosaurus Rex
Slushy
Snow Force 1
Snow Mater
Snowdown Please, I'm Plowing
Snowflake
Sparkles
Spirit of Saginaw
Storm Slayer
The Abominable Snowplow
White Out
Will B. Snoday
Winslow

Grand region
Aaron Brr, Sir
Applesauce
Arctic Fox
Auntie Arctica
Baby Snowda
Cheerio, Snow!
Clearing Present Danger
Clementine
Derek Sleeter
Driftcatcher
Fast and Flurryous
Flake Michigan
Frost Responder
Gladiator of the Great Lakes
Glitter Gator
Grind Line
Heikki Lunta
Icicle
Jon Bon Snowi
King of Winter
Lumi
Marshmallow
Mitten Muscle
Mr. Salty Pants
Newaygo River Roadster
Northstar
Plowderpuff
Plownelope
Rupert Slushington IV
Scooper McGavin
Sleetwood Mac
Snow Rapids
Snow Wolf
Snows Buddies Business
Sparky
The Big LePlowski
The Great and Plowerful Oz
The Scrape Gatsby
Thunder Blade

Metro region
Blizzard Wizard
Bringin' Pavement Back
Drift Master
Droppin' Salt Like It's Hot
Ice Ice Baby
Kid Rock Salt
Mr. Snow Miser
PlowMaster
Salt Life
Sleety Pie
Snow Warrior
SnowJoe
Trail Blazer

North Region
Alice Scooper
Bluster Buster
Captain Banks
Chill Out
Drift Buster
Frostin Powers
Han Snow-Lo
Ice Buster
Old Salty
Optimus Plow
Orange Blazer
Orange Slush
Plowzilla
Rusty McSaltmeister
S'no Problem
Salty Dogg
Scoop Dogg
Sno-no-mo
Snow Slayer
Snowbegone Kenobi
The Beast

Superior region
Biboon Ogichidaa
Big Mac
Blizzard T Snowplow
Catch My Drift
Close Shave
Coldfoot
Da Rumbler
Dr. Plow Good
Drift Crusher
Frostbite
Get Into Scrape
Have Snow Will Plow
I Think I Can
Ice Force One
Ice Sleigher
Laker Scraper
Mighty Mac
Mighty Yooper
Mr. Sandman
Nick Flurry
Orange Crush
Orange Yooper Storm Trooper
Plow Avenger
Plowdy Duty
Polar Express
Shock and Thaw
Sisu
Snobank Maker
Snomac
Snowba Fett
Sparky McChatter
Superior Snowbuster
UP Winter Force
Whitefish Plowder
Winter Fresh
Yooper Scooper

Southwest region
Almost Summer
Barry Salt-and-Sanders
Beach Buggy
Betty Whiteout
BettyLou Blizzard
Big Kahuna
Big Poppa
Blade Runner
Blades of Steel
Bliz Wiz
Blizzard Buster
Buffy
Buzz Iceclear
Cheese Puff
Chill Bill
Ctrl Salt Delete
Darth Blader
Detroit SnoWings
Frosted Flake
Frosty
Git Snow Git
Hamilton
Hulk
It's Snow Problem
Kalamazoo Canoe
K-zoo
Lady Lake Effect
Lake Effect Collect
Lead Dog
Let It Snow
Licensed to Chill
Lil Snow Peep
Love Mi Plow
Lumber Jack
Machine Plow Kelly
Move It Move It
Moxie
Mr. Plow
Pavement Liberator
Plowabunga
Plowasaurus Rex
Plower Ranger
Plowriffic
Plowthagorean Theorem
Ramrod the Destroyer
Rocky Salterton
Salt Whitman
Salt-N-Peppa
Salty Attitude
Seymour Snow
Sir Plows-A-Lot
Sir Salts-A-Lot
Slush Puppy
Snow Can Do
Snow Captain
Snow Digitty
Snow Hunter
Snow It All
Snow Place Like Home
Snow Shall Not Pass
Snow Shifter
Snowbacca
Snowboni
Snowcrusher
Snowfire
Snowmaggedon
Sodium Slinger
Steve Icerman
The Kraken
Tiger
Winter Commander
Winter Express
Winter Snowdier
Yukon Cornelius

University region
Austin Plowers
Baby It's Cold Outside
Below Zero Hero
Borealis
Bumble
Burley Bear
Buttercup
Chilly Dog
Clearopathtra
Dewey Defroster
Dolly Plowton
Dottie
Eagle Eye
Ebenezer Scoop
Edgar Allan Snow
Fluffy
Freezy
Frostbitten Mitten
Frosty the Snowplow
Good Roads Earle
Happy
Herbie
Hercules
Hipplowpotomus
Ice Cube
Kaplowie
Lake Scooperior
Lightning McClean
Little Mack
Lola
Marco Plowo
Maximus
Meatball
Melton John
Melty the Snowplow
Mishigami
Mission Implowsible
Moose
Mr. Blade
NaviGator
Nieve
Ol' Gus
Patience
Pebbles
Pegasus
Peppermint
Peppy Le Plow
Remy
Road Runner
Roxy
Saltimus Brine
Saltnado
Salty Sven
Saul T. Streets
Scooter
Señor Flurry
Snow Worries
Snowball
Snowprah Winfrey
Snowy Robinson
Spirit of Michigan
Squall Bunyan
Still Shorts Weather
Stormbreaker
Subzero
Sunny
Sunshine
ThawSome
Thunderhawk
Tiny
Truck Norris
Walter
Weird Plow Yankovic
Whiteout Wrangler
Wolverine Whiteout
Yeti

[Michael]

[pommystuart]

What great names.

[AvastMH]

Goodness me! What an amazing list - and all very good

[Randi]

There are some really clever ones there, but I find Buttercup hard to resist (especially since it probably is yellow)

[pommystuart]

I think this may have been mentioned before but ...

Boaty McBoatface is the lead boat of the Autosub Long-Range class of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). It is used for scientific research and is carried on the research vessel RRS Sir David Attenborough.

They had a competition to name the Research vessel and Boaty McBoatface won. But after some mixed comments it was decided to call the vessel RRS Sir David Attenborough and its AUV, Boaty McBoatface (which is also yellow)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boaty_McBoatface

[I think it was the Pommy's that first came up with that name]

[Randi]

I remember that

[Hanibal94]

Indeed, it is always risky to let people who use the Internet decide such things.
Some more good ones I found include:

* Greenpeace does a whale-naming contest, the winner is "Mr. Splashy Pants" - and they accepted it!
* Walmart sponsors a Pitbull concert at the store with the most votes - which ends up being the one in Kodiak, Alaska. And Pitbull did actually go there and do the concert!
* An online poll asked where Justin Bieber should do his next concert tour. It had to be shut down after North Korea took a huge lead.
* Canadian couple asks what they should name their newborn daughter, the winner is "Cthulhu All-Spark" (which they fortunately did not use)
* Papa John's and Chegg did an online contest where Taylor Swift would perform a free concert at the school that received the most votes on Facebook. The Horace Mann School for the Deaf won by a lot (Couldn't find out if Taylor Swift really did go there, though)

[Randi]

[AvastMH]

[AvastMH]

A very happy 200th birthday to HM Coastguard!

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/keep ... k-birthday

Claire Hughes, Director of HM Coastguard said:
'When you look at how we started and where we are now, it’s easy to celebrate the innovation and development that can be seen throughout the service. And yet, we are far more proud of the people, the volunteers and the staff who throughout two centuries have continued to strive to keep people safe at the coast and out at sea. We always have and always will respond to those in distress.
While this milestone is an opportunity for us to look back with pride on what we’ve achieved, we have always looked to the future, and I’m proud that we continue to look for ways in which to improve and save lives. I’m proud of the commitment, the dedication and selfless sacrifice and I’m proud of how the service has developed and continues to do so'

I couldn't find a suitable cake but I did find this fabulously dated advert from Brit TV (shown on ITV and the Beeb) telling us more about calling the Coastguard. It is of its age...
https://www.youtube.com/embed/I6x236Q82_A

[Randi]

Happy Birthday
to
Her Majesty's Coast Guard!

I couldn't find a cake either

[AvastMH]

We just don't seem to celebrate things quite as you do across The Pond. What a shame for us

[pommystuart]

This is a Twitter article with video from space of the Tonga Volcano exploding. Worth a look just to see how powerful it was.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1482362563807621121

[AvastMH]

I looked through a lot of that information. It is breath-taking. The immensity of it, the way it travelled around the world by air and water, and the images are astounding.

[AvastMH]

BTW for anyone able to see the moon tonight it is the first full moon of January which makes it a Wolf Moon

[Hanibal94]

A while back, I mentioned how someone had used a neural network to generate images based on the lyrics of "The Wellerman".
I just found out they did this for a few more shanties - including one with mondegreen lyrics!

https://www.aiweirdness.com/the-terror-of-the-sea/

[Michael]

[AvastMH]

Brilliant! Barrett's Privateers is one of my favourites so it was great to see the different versions. The mondegreen version was a howler