Done Hot Over There In Europe!

Two massive earthquakes, less than a minute apart, force a question most of us would rather avoid: how do you even describe disaster at that scale without turning it into background noise? We talk through the Venezuela double quake, what 7.0+ really implies for buildings and lives, and why hearing the news after the fact doesn’t make the suffering any less real. We slow down long enough to name the grief, the missing, and the long recovery that follows headlines.

From there, we get practical and a little nerdy. We share how we’re tracking earthquakes daily instead of only doing a seven day report, and why counting 6.0+ events helps us notice when a week turns unusually intense. That leads to a bigger curiosity: is there a pattern worth watching? We don’t pretend to be scientists, but we do log solar wind, sunspots, and other space weather signals as a way to learn, stay consistent, and resist the temptation to jump to conclusions.

Then we pivot to hope and everyday life. We test a new Audacity beta while recording, swap thoughts on the World Cup and the surprisingly human way it can cut through stereotypes, and even get into why some soccer players cut holes in their socks. We also cover the Europe heat wave, local tornado damage in Illinois, and a record number of tornadoes this year. We close with a simple reminder: when you hear the tone, look around and grab the moment you’re in.

If this mix of real world news, curiosity, and grounding helps you, subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a review. What part of the conversation hit you the hardest or gave you the most hope?

Transcript

Welcome To The Ugly Quacking Duck

Bruce 0:00

Done hot over there in Europe.

Capella 0:03

Welcome to the ugly quacking duck. We like to joke that we're the worst podcast in the unknown universe, but we're pretty sure that's just our charm. We're here to offer a different perspective on the things you see every day, moving away from the usual noise to bring a little more light, perspective, and an uplifting spirit into your routine. Life is plenty heavy as it is, so we're just here to help you find a reason to smile. Thanks for stopping by.

Bruce 0:27

Well, hello, hello, hello.

Capella 0:31

Well, hello, Bruce.

Sunny 0:32

How are you doing?

Bruce 0:34

I'm doing good, Sunny, and welcome to the next episode of The Ugly Quacking Duck. That's right. You have tuned in to the Ugly Quacking Duck Podcast. And I'm Bruce.

Sunny 0:50

And I'm Sunny.

Bruce 0:52

And we're glad to have you aboard. This is episode 149.

Sunny 0:59

Well, let's get dramatic. Why don't we, Bruce?

Bruce 1:03

Well, why don't we, Sunny?

Sunny 1:05

Alright, I'll do it too. You are listening to episode 149.

Bruce 1:14

Okay. Well, you did. Uh boy, I don't know what to think about that, but you did.

Sunny 1:20

So, Bruce, are we gonna talk about them earthquakes?

Venezuela’s Back To Back Quakes

Bruce 1:25

Yeah, Sunny, we're gonna go right into those. And I want to say thank you for everybody tuning in to our episode. Uh, but we are gonna go straight into those earthquakes that happened yesterday. Uh, they were late yesterday afternoon. There was two of them bang bang, just like that in Venezuela. And I will give you the numbers. Hold on just a second. Well, the uh first one that hit was uh 7.2. It was 14 miles southeast of Umar, Venezuela, and it happened at 5.04 uh last night at Central Time. That's uh five hours under or minus the UTC time. And then the next one was a 7.5, which happened at 17 or 5.05. Um, and it was, like I said, 7.5. So bang bang, not even a minute apart, uh there was two major earthquakes in Venezuela, and they the destruction was horrible. Uh they released tsunami warnings, but they later recounted those and said they weren't wasn't gonna happen, but they had um buildings and um d disaster, man. That's just all I can say.

Sunny 3:01

I don't think you can put that in words to make people that are listening understand that m amount of disaster.

Bruce 3:12

I totally agree, Sunny. Um people hear it, and they you know, I've said these reports over and over again, and uh anything over six is a major earthquake, and when you get to the seven level, it's just horrific. Especially if it happens in or near a city or near a ocean bank or it's horrible. And then to get to bam, bam, just like that, within less than a minute apart, it's just um unforeseen. That's all I can say. And they are reporting now that at least a hundred and sixty-four people have been killed, a thousand injured, and then they're saying many, many more missing. Um more than a hundred buildings have collapsed. It's just unreal, unreal. And um you may be sitting somewhere that's not affected, and you're feeling pretty good about life today, and I'm glad. But there are people, hundreds and hundreds of people, that's feeling the effects. So you gotta remember them in prayer, you gotta think positively positively toward them if you don't believe in prayer, but they sincerely need help. So let's get into it, okay?

Sunny 4:53

Well spoken, Bruce. Well spoken. And I don't think that uh I still don't think they're gonna understand the depth of what you're talking.

Bruce 5:05

No, I don't, but I wanted to bring that out immediately. Um, if I could have gone and uh recorded last night and made any more sense out of it, I would have, but it wouldn't have mattered because whether it's last night, today, you're still not going to hear it until you play the episode, and then it's gonna be past tense. And like I said before, that kind of takes the effect away and the worry and the concern because it's past tense. Even though those people will suffer for years, and many of them that has to say goodbye to their loved ones are gonna suffer for a long time. So again, let's pray for them, okay?

Sunny 5:55

All right, yay, let's pray.

Bruce 5:59

Okay. We'll we'll do that later. But anyway, that's the earthquakes that's been really in the news. Uh again, they're reporting 164 people, and that's the last news report I seen. It could have went up, probably did, and over a thousand people injured, and uh a hundred or more buildings have collapsed, and it's just a mess. Um yeah.

Sunny 6:32

Well, Bruce, you might as well do the earthquake report now. Uh there's no reason to come back to it later.

Weekly Earthquake Count And A Scary Add-On

Bruce 6:41

All right, I agree. Let's do that. All right, so this week of this last seven days, I've started doing a different recording of the information. Instead of waiting and doing a seven-day report, I've been trying to get to the computer and recording a daily um information. And what I'm doing is recording the total amount of earthquakes for that particular day, and then if there's any six or over earthquakes for that day, and then I'm gonna go back and count 'em for the seven-day report. And it hopefully it will work out right, but it will give me a more of a a number to mess with later on in case there's any kind of um weird stuff going on. So 617 uh was the last time I'd done the seven-day report, and it was showtime when I recorded that last episode. So uh I did the daily thing, and then I went back and I counted, and there was three six point oh or larger earthquakes for that time period as of the seven day. But however, however you want me to say that, those last two earthquakes, and then there was another one that popped in there too that I didn't mention, popped up later. So there was three altogether as of the time I counted them yesterday, but there was three more earthquakes that happened after that. Two of them was 7.2 and 7.5, and then there was a 6.9 just 30 minutes later in Japan. Um, that's right, a 6.9 um at 5.30 in Japan. And it uh that's UTC time minus 5. In other words, we're on central time here, and that's 5.30 central time, which is minus 5 hours from normal UTC time. So if anybody else wants to figure that up, but uh I'm using my local time to figure those earthquakes. But anyhow, 30 minutes later, uh not even quite about 25 minutes later, there was another major earthquake over in Japan. So, yeah. That's kind of spooky.

Sunny 9:44

Very spooky, Bruce. Is there a pattern?

Solar Wind And Sunspots As Clues

Bruce 9:48

Oh, I wish I could point one out, but uh, it's way too soon to do that. Uh but speaking of patterns, I am trying now to daily uh get the numbers for the uh solar flares, uh, and the moon rises and sets each day, the moon phase, the solar wind, um, the noise floor on the radio, and the flux and the wind information, along with the earthquakes, hoping to see something come out on a daily basis that kind of points to you know what's going on. Probably won't happen. I probably won't be able to figure anything like that out. That's way too above my head. But anyhow, uh, we did do that, and the uh solar winds have gone way up, which means there's a lot more energy hitting the earth. Uh they went up from uh 398 to 589 yesterday, and then today they're 454. And the sunspots have gone up, they were running about 50, anywhere between 50 and 75. They're at 106 yesterday and 126 today, and I don't know if that makes any difference. Again, we're just hoping to see something that will surface that'll kind of give us a heads up that we can say, hey, we may need to watch out here and there. But anyhow, that's what we're doing now. Instead of doing a regular seven-day report, we're doing each day if I'm around my computer. Now, if I'm not, that may hurt us if I take off or go somewhere. I may have to. Anyway, we won't worry about that. But um, we're numbering the 6.0 and bigger earthquakes each day, and then we're going to add them up at the end. So as of yesterday, which was the seven-day report, it was Wednesday, which I'm doing that on Wednesdays because I'm normally home to record, and um I didn't get to do it yet last night. So I was still home tonight, so I was going to do it today. This is Thursday, June the 25th, 2026, is when I'm recording this episode, episode 149. Anyhow, uh that that had three extra uh 6.0 and bigger earthquakes added on because I got the report done today. So as of the the seven-day report, because I stopped it about two o'clock in the afternoon and did the report, I didn't have those three extra ones on there. If I'd waited till six o'clock that night, I would have had three extra reports. So I just had them today. But that would have made five is what I'm trying to say.

Sunny 13:13

Boy, Bruce, you talking about going around in a circle and coming back, backing up and then going back around. Good grief.

Bruce 13:24

I know. Pretty bad. But anyhow, that's a report. Um, it's a little bit off. Um, we'll see what happens for the next week, and we'll see if we start seeing a pattern. There you go, folks. I hope you liked it.

Sunny 13:42

There's not a whole lot to like about that report. There's a lot of bad in it.

Bruce 13:50

I agree. I agree. There's a lot of bad in it. Um we'll just have to help everybody deal with it in some form or fashion. But um the hopes is that eventually we can start saying something about them coming instead about what's happened afterwards. But that's probably a long ways off, and I'll probably never get to see that. But anyhow, there you go. That's it, folks. What do you think?

Sunny 14:20

I think you did a good job.

Bruce 14:22

Well, thanks, Sunny. That's pretty cool.

Sunny 14:25

You're welcome. All right.

Testing A New Audacity Beta

Bruce 14:32

All right, folks. Uh, I don't know if there's any uh differences in this recording. Um I'm recording it with a new version of Audacity. They've come out with a new beta, and they're allowing us to test it, and um it looks a lot different. It's not uh much different in the way that I use it. Now, see, I don't do a whole lot with uh any kind of what they call a DAW, and that's what I misspoke and said this program was, but I've since learned that it's not a full-blown DAW, it is an audio editing software, but it lacks a few things that DAWs actually have. So um, but I like using it. I've kind of grown up with it. I used it previously the before the podcast stuff uh for some editing, audio editing that I was doing. And then um when I started doing the podcasting, I just switched over to that. And I did download a DAW program. Uh, you may have heard a couple of those episodes where I tried to use it. I did kind of use it, but it was so difficult for me to switch over and learn because I was so accustomed to this program, which to me is simpler. And maybe because I grew up with it. Um but anyhow, to make a long story even longer, no, I'm just kidding. Um, they come out with the they've been doing some work on the beta and they've been telling everybody they're coming out with it. Well, they've set it up so you could download it and try it out. And I found a couple quirks with it already, but it seems to be recording fine. It's just uh like my pause does not work. So if I want to pause it and then restart it, it won't start. I have to shut pause stop it and then re-record. And I'm not talking about the program itself, I'm talking about the recording part of it in inside the program. Um, so that's one flaw I found. So that kind of I like to pause, you know, and cough or um say something to Sunny where nobody can hear me, you know, like, what are you doing?

Sunny 17:11

Yeah, he likes to say that all the time.

Bruce 17:14

Well, not all the time.

Sunny 17:17

Uh-huh.

Bruce 17:18

Okay, whatever. Uh anyhow, I like to pause it. That way, you know, everything stays the same. Um, but when I did this one that way and I hit uh unpause, which I don't know if that's quite the right word, uh, it didn't do nothing. I was talking and it wasn't recording. So I had to kind of find where I meant stopped and uh in my notes and re-record. But what I was doing, what I've been doing since then is I just hit stop and then I go back and hit record again, and uh it seems to work. But anyhow, all that said, just to tell you, I hope that it sounds like it normally does, or maybe better, but uh it looks like it's functioning uh the way I I'm used to, so I have no problems with it, and I hope it sounds good at the end of this uh when I do my editing. And that's uh the story.

Sunny 18:27

And he's sticking to it.

Bruce 18:29

You're right. How'd you guess?

Sunny 18:32

I've been around for a long time, and I've been around you for a lot longer. No, I said that backwards.

Bruce 18:42

I know what you mean, and they probably do too.

Sunny 18:44

Well, there you go. That's how I knew you were gonna say that.

Bruce 18:48

Alright. Anywho, that's how we uh we that's how we roll.

Sunny 18:56

Oh, good grace.

Bruce 18:58

Yeah, so anyway, folks, we're trying out this new version of Audacity, and it's got a lot more um looks to it. Um I've got uh excuse me, I've got a green spectrum running as I record, and a purple scale for my audio and my speaker uh setting. So it's it's kind of cool. It's got more color. I did just have a gray before. Um now they had upgraded that color scheme a little bit, but I never could get it where I liked it. Now this one I've got it on dark and I've got the color showing, so it's fantastic.

Sunny 19:46

Yeah, you like that visual.

Bruce 19:49

Yes, I do. I like a little bit of visual. Well, I kind of had to pause it again, which meant I had to stop it on this program, but uh there was a chopper just went over and it was loud. So um I don't know where they were headed, but uh, anyhow, we get them every now and then. So um everybody remembers the last couple

Gene Therapy Sends Lupus Into Remission

Bruce 20:22

episodes. I talked about gene therapy and the things that we were doing that maybe we shouldn't. Well, I've got another story. This one has a good ending.

Sunny 20:34

Oh, so you're going to give somebody a good end instead of just your normal gripe.

Bruce 20:42

Well, I I wouldn't put it that way, but yeah, I'm gonna tell them a good story.

Sunny 20:47

All right. I just want to clarify for all our listeners.

Bruce 20:52

All right. Well, you're right, Sunny. I'm gonna give a good story. Apparently, uh in England their uh doctors uh tried a gene therapy um which helped lupus patients. Yeah, you heard that right. Lupus patients were helped by gene therapy after their pioneering trial, the lupus has gone into remission. So the story doesn't get messed up by my weird talking. I'm gonna read part of it straight out of the article. It's from the Guardian, um, the science page. So if you want to check into it, I'll give you the title. It is Lupus Patients in England in remission after pioneering NHS trial of GM therapy. Doctors say therapy that genetically modifies Person persons T cells could offer cure for chronic autoimmune disease. Five lupus patients in England are in remission after being treated with a revolutionary therapy that genetically modifies their own cells in a medical breakthrough that could offer people a cure, doctors have said. CAR, a sumeric antigen receptor, the T cell therapy involves removing a type of white blood cell, also called T lymphatics lymphomatics. Sorry, guys, which are crucial for hunting out infected or damaged cells. And engineering them to spot and destroy disease. The T cells are then fed back into the patient via an infusion to reset their immune disease or immune system. Now I'm adding words. Good grief. The therapy is already revolutioning revolutionizing cancer treatment. Now Madison or medics in London have successfully used a technique to effectively cure five NHS patients with severe lupus ages between nineteen and fifty. All right. And I think that's a good story because they've put that disease in remission. For now.

Sunny 23:45

Okay. So you've got to add that for now.

Bruce 23:51

Well, yeah, because it you know, they put it in remission. Now down in the article they said they cured the disease, but that's really not what the article states. They stated they put them in remission, and um, you know, it's only been a while since they did that. But the thing I find interesting about the story is I don't know if anybody remembers the movie. I actually read that movie uh um title out during that last episode where I talked about those movies and how they depict, you know, us messing with the genome. Well, that movie actually was around them doing something to the T cell and it creating the monsters that wouldn't die, basically. And yeah, and then I read this article about the T cell and I went, ooh, fiction is weirder. Maybe not weird. Fiction is maybe true. Who knows?

Sunny 25:05

Oh now you're bumbling around. You don't know what you're talking about.

Bruce 25:11

I do not know what I'm talking about. I'm not a scientist.

Sunny 25:15

Well, there you go. What are you talking about?

Bruce 25:19

I'm talking about, I don't know if everything we are told is true, and I'm not sure all these uh banged up jobs they're doing is actually working that great. But for these five patients, it worked, and that's important. That's important. I thank the uh father that uh we have found something that helps them after they probably got the disease because of all the junk that we're done to the human race, anyhow.

Sunny 25:55

Yeah, anyhow. We don't know that's where it comes from.

Bruce 26:00

Oh, you're right. It's just things just popped up, so anyhow, that was a neat story. I like that story.

Sunny 26:10

Yeah, that was a neat story. Give them applause, Bruce.

Bruce 26:15

Well, you do it. You're over there by the keyboard. I will.

Sunny 26:22

Yeah, I thought you would.

World Cup Reflections And Sock Cuts

Bruce 26:32

So tell me, has anybody been watching the World Cup series that on national TV here in the States or in other countries, I'm sure they have. We're kind of behind on the times.

Sunny 26:48

Well, we're watching it here. Bruce makes sure every chance he gets, we're watching it.

Bruce 26:56

Yeah, and my family's not griped about it any. They've allowed me to watch it, so it's been pretty good, and I've enjoyed it, and uh I think what we're seeing in the um social media, now you can't hardly believe any of that, but the countries, the people that are coming over here are seeing a side of America that they are believing is different than what they've been told, and we are seeing something about them that's different than what we've been told. So what we're seeing is the leaders lied, period.

Sunny 27:35

Boy, that's a broad statement.

Bruce 27:38

Yeah, well, you know, we're all humans, we're all uh we all bleed, you know, that's a common thing, but we are all uh need love, need food, need family and friends, and it doesn't matter where you're from, we all need that. Now there are a lot of evil leaders that have manipulated their people into believing something different, but I think people are finding out that we are all alike and that we love each other and we like to be with each other. So there you go.

Sunny 28:20

Well, you know what to duh to me. I believe you, Bruce.

Bruce 28:26

All right. Well, anyway, uh on that note, did you know that a lot of times soccer players cut holes in the back of their socks? Really?

Sunny 28:37

No.

Bruce 28:38

Yeah, you haven't noticed, have you?

Sunny 28:41

No. I've noticed that they've got some big socks. Tall, thick.

Bruce 28:47

Yeah, well, apparently they have been doing this for years. It's not something new for the World Cup. And uh a lot of people speculate that it's just a thing of freedom, you know, where they're expressing their self. Uh a lot of people also believe that they, and they say this, that they're cutting it out of the back of their calf sock part of the sock so that they'll have more freedom for movement and it won't squish, you know, because them socks are pretty tight, and uh that's what they believe. But anyway, I thought that was cool. I haven't noticed that, and I read that article and I went, well, that's kind of cool.

Sunny 29:35

No, you didn't.

Bruce 29:37

Yeah, I did. I went, oh, that's kind of cool.

Sunny 29:40

All right, folks. Believe it if you will.

Bruce 29:44

Okay. And if you haven't caught a match yet, please do. Please sit down and watch it. Now they're starting to get pretty uh rough. The matches are starting to get more heated because they're getting into the nitty-gritty of the World Cup. So we'll see what happens. But if you haven't caught any of the matches, please try to catch at least one. Um hopefully you can you can watch two at least, uh, because sometimes they don't score. And some people will think they're boring. So if you watch a match that is a tie and they didn't score, then watch another one because uh there is a lot of excitement once they do score, because they it's like chess, they have to work up to that move. Uh, it doesn't happen real easily, and it makes the game a lot better.

Europe Heat Wave And Weather Check

Bruce 30:57

All right, everybody, has it been hot this week for you? Um, like I said, I'm recording this on Thursday, June the 25th, and a lot of my information come from yesterday, the 24th. But however, has it been a hot week? Yeah, maybe. Uh well I'm telling you that Europe has had a hot week.

Sunny 31:26

Yeah, they're having a heat wave burst. Hot.

Bruce 31:32

Yeah, they are. It uh has hit England and it has hit France. Uh England has had a 36.1 degrees Celsius, which is actually 96.98 degrees if you go by our uh temperatures over here, and you think that's bad? No. You actually had in Paris it hit a high of 44.3 Celsius, which is actually what 111.4, I believe I thought I added that up. Yep, 111.74 is the conversion to Fahrenheit. So if anybody has told you England and Paris is not having hot weather or they're not as hot as we are this year, then somebody has misinformed you.

Sunny 32:39

Oh yeah. They're having record high temperatures, and it's not gonna quit for a while.

Bruce 32:48

Nope, uh, they're saying it's gonna continue um uh for a little while. Anyway, Italy's healthy ministry placed sixteen cities, Florence, Milan, Milan, Milan, I'm sorry, Rome, and Torrent, and Verona on the highest heat alert and warned that the heat wave could intensify further, peaking between Sunday and Monday. So there you go. Uh Europe. It's not just England, it's not just France, it's just not only Italy, it's all of them.

Sunny 33:27

It's all they're all getting hit pretty hot and heavy, Bruce.

Bruce 33:34

Yes, they are. Then while we're talking about the heat wave, well, let's go ahead and go into the weather. Um, we have it pulled up here. And uh right now, believe it or not, we're just gonna go ahead with Paris since we've uh been talking about them. They are at 99 degrees, which don't sound that bad, except for it's Paris. And wait, it's around what 9:30 92 p.m. right now in Paris, and it's 99 degrees, so that's hot, folks. Uh, here around southern Illinois, where we're at this week, um, it's been warm. Uh, it got up to 91 for a little while yesterday here locally, but you know what? By uh about 10 o'clock, it was 72 degrees outside. That's 10 o'clock at night. So they're not that far from that. They're in Paris, but they're here having 99 degree weather. Think about that for a minute, folks.

Sunny 34:51

I want to do Spokane Washington today, Bruce. All right, go for it. All right, I'm going to today in Spokane, Washington, it is 83 degrees, and it is actually cooler than uh nighttime in Paris. Wow. 83 degrees and it is 23% humidity, the wind's coming out of the south-southwest at 15 miles an hour, the UV index is seven, the air quality is twenty nine, and the visibility is ten miles. Pressure is twenty-nine point seven one and it is dropping.

Bruce 35:50

All right, thank you, Sunny. I appreciate that. And I am going to jump over to our favorite one that we do that's not here locally. It is in the desert, Phoenix, Arizona.

Sunny 36:08

Oh, yeah, we like Phoenix, but you know what? I bet it's not that far from Paris.

Bruce 36:16

You are right, it's really not. Now, Paris had 99 right now, but it's nighttime there, and Phoenix, Arizona right now is 103 degrees. So they're just barely warmer than Paris, France. Now it is daytime there. So they are at 103, and their um humidity is at 20%. I didn't read the humidity for Paris. Maybe I'll go back and do that. But their wind is from 7 miles an hour from the south-southwest. UV is 10, which is kind of high. Uh air quality is 24, which is good. The pressure is 29.70 and falling. Visibility is 10 miles an hour. So overall, it's hot. What can I say? It's hot. And I'll go back to Paris and I'll read their statistics there. It is still 98 degrees. Well, it's come down a little bit. Temperature's finally starting to drop. Humidity is 27%. UV index zero, and that would be because the sun is not out right now there. Air quality is 67, which is kind of moderate, but not very kind of high, but not high, if that makes sense. Wind is 8 miles an hour out of the east. The pressure is 29.88 and rising. Visibility is nine miles. And overall, besides the heat, it's not too bad there at Paris. Yeah.

Sunny 38:08

Besides the heat. Alright, Bruce. I'm gonna do Mount Vernon. Alright, Mount Vernon, Illinois, which is close to us. It's really local. It's 84 degrees right now, and it is humidity-wise 64%. UV is five, which is pretty darn good. Wind is six miles an hour out of the west-southwest. Pressure is 29.93 and falling. Visibility is 10 miles an hour. And overall, it's not bad. I like it. This weather's fairly good right now.

Bruce 38:56

Yeah, you're right, it's fairly good, but that's because it's been kind of cloudy off and on. I looked at the radar earlier, and there's some storms kind of uh north of us. Not very far either. And speaking of storms.

Sunny 39:11

Oh yeah, Bruce, you gotta talk about the tornadoes.

Illinois Tornadoes And Record Totals

Bruce 39:16

Yeah, this weekend, um Jefferson County, which we're in, actually had some tornadoes, and they went east or west to east, almost in a straight line, and there was some damage, some uh lives lost. Uh, it wasn't too good. They uh said they were EF3 tornadoes, uh, especially the one that hit that uh trailer. There was two trailers that was destroyed. Both of them had ladies in them, and they've lost their lives. So again, we ask you to say your prayers for those people and the ones that uh had damage and uh had injuries, but uh not loss of life. So uh we're not the only ones. I mean, we had it locally. I mean, we felt the jar here locally uh from them tornadoes, but there was others um that night when we was watching the tornado outbreaks, uh they had several of them. A lot of north of us, and I'm talking about way north, uh, had tornadoes. Um but Illinois has had the most tornadoes this year of any state. Uh I think we may have broke a record, but don't quote me on that because uh I haven't looked that up. I know I'm bad. But it has had a lot. All right, I looked it up. That way you wouldn't think bad of me. Illinois breaks the record for most tornadoes in a year, bringing 2026 tally to at least 147. Now, this uh was written in the Chicago Tribune, um and now it's blocked it. I hate it when it does that. All right, sometimes I get blocked because they want me to pay for their view of their information. So I got that uh statement out of the Chicago Tribune uh before they blocked my view, uh, and it was from a couple days ago. So uh it may have been up since then because we've had more bad weather, but there you go. Uh Illinois's uh been hammered once again, um, and it doesn't look like it's gonna quit. We've still got a little bit of tornado season to go. All right, we're gonna leave the weather off from there. We've had some bad tornadoes, and Europe's having some bad heat, and we didn't go over all our lists of temperatures and weather in the world. Um we didn't want to use up too much time. If you want to hear your country, your city, then email us at the uglyquacking duck.com. Um, no, that's not right. That's my website, the uglyquacking duck at gmail.com. There you go. I'll get it right one of these days.

Sunny 42:34

What was that, Bruce?

Bruce 42:36

Oh, I hit the wrong button, but I just went ahead and went and left it. I'm gonna leave it. Yeah. We're not perfect, we're not AI driven. We do have a couple AI voices we use in the show, but uh that's it. All right, folks.

The Tone Moment And Value For Value

Bruce 42:53

Um I'm gonna do one other thing real quick. So when you hear that tone, take a second and look around. Think about where you're at or what you're doing or who you're with. Grab that moment because that's what we're here for. We're here to remember and remind you of a moment. And as we've talked about the bad weather and the bad earthquakes, uh, take a moment and think about where you've been and what you're talking about, who you're with, and remember that moment. And our memory sometimes is all we have to get along with the next moment in life. So we're gonna bid you farewell. We give you thanks, we really do appreciate it. You coming by and being part of the show, taking part and listening. We hope you enjoyed the episode. We hope you come back.

Sunny 44:00

Oh yeah, we hope you come back, but don't forget to tell other people about us.

Bruce 44:08

Oh, yeah, definitely do that. Let's turn you over to Capella and talk about a value for value and then we'll go from there.

Capella 44:16

There are many ways you can show your support for the Ugly Quacking Duck podcast. First, simply keep us in your thoughts and prayers, and maybe send good vibes too. Second, spread the word. Tell your friends about us, even the ones with questionable taste in podcasts. Third, share your talents. If you have skills in technology, art, or anything else that could help us, we'd love to hear from you. And finally, consider supporting us financially. Equipment, hosting, and website costs add up, and any contribution is greatly appreciated. We promise not to spend it all on rubber duckies, unless you want us to. Thank you for your support.

Bruce 44:56

Again, we want to thank you for being part of the show, for being here and listening to this, and remember what you were doing when you heard that tone. And we're gonna hit that if we don't forget every episode to give you a moment to to reflect. All right, folks, we want to say bye. We thank you for being here. Sunny, you ready? Okay, let's go. As I uh close down this episode, I give you thanks for giving me the ability to record this, for the equipment, for the ability to even speak. Thank you for having Sunny as a helper. Thank you for the knowledge that went into the episode. May you bless those that was injured and loss of life on the earthquake this past couple days, and of the tornadoes that's been happening, not just this weekend, but throughout this season. We ask you to bless those people in their losses. We ask you to comfort them, provide for them, and care for them. May you bring me people that want to hear this show that find comfort in it for some reason or another. And that your leadership will be part of this show. We thank you for being with us, for giving us words. I just ask you to go forward for anybody that would hear this episode or this show, that you will bless them and lead them and guide them. We thank you. It is so.