# Strange stories and bizarre news



## KenOC

Maybe it's just me, but I keep seeing things suggesting that the end times are near. Here's today's:

Some may remember two years ago when Jeff Bush of Seffner, Florida, was getting ready for bed. A sinkhole suddenly opened in his bedroom floor and he was swallowed up. His body was never recovered. The home was demolished and the sinkhole filled in.

Now, the sinkhole has re-opened. The earth has not yet vomited forth his decayed and shambling remains to stagger through the neighborhood hungry for human flesh or, perhaps, small pets. But neighbors are, unsurprisingly, concerned.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/20/us/florida-sinkhole-seffner/index.html


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## Lucifer Saudade

actually, I'll find another one. Ignore.


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## Guest

Here's one about another planet!

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/08/america-guide-englishman-new-york


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## Taggart

We have sinkholes too

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/01/sinkhole-opens-in-st-albans-street


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## TurnaboutVox

We've got 'em 'oop North' an' all...


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## SixFootScowl

We had a sinkhole in Detroit too (looks like good rat habitat):


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## KenOC

And Guatemala.


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## SixFootScowl

I think this has turned into the sinkhole thread! 

Here is a recording of a sinkhole:









The editorial review on Amazon says,


> Combining ambient/experimental entities Bad Sector and Where, Olhon's 'Sinkhole' is already being hailed as a masterpiece in the dark ambient world. Entirely composed using field recordings taken in Pozzo del Merro, the world's deepest sinkhole, Olhon's earthy emanations are appropriately dark, deep, claustrophobic and frightening.


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## GreenMamba

Turning away from sinkholes, a strange protest:

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens...aters-protest-outside-boston-museum-1.3258769


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## Huilunsoittaja

This is perfect time to post an Onion article, but nah.


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## Huilunsoittaja

I got something real this time:

'Tense' piece of Russian classical music helped push murder suspect over the edge, court hears

Who would have thought?  

No seriously... this person really identified with Scriabin the man besides Scriabin the composer.


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## geralmar

Two newspaper stories have haunted me for more than three decades:

A young man who was "mentally challenged" was given a card by his parents and told to give it to anyone who wanted to interact with him. The card described his disability and instructed the reader to contact the parents if there was any problem. One day the young man was stopped on the sidewalk by two policemen who witnessed him commit some minor infraction. When one of the policemen started to question him, he automatically reached into his pocket for the card. The policeman thought he was reaching for a weapon and drew his gun and fired; he missed and shot the second officer in the hand. Thinking he was under attack, the second policeman drew his gun and shot the young man dead.

A young man, who lived alone, began acting bizarrely and fantasized himself to be a superhero crime fighter. He made himself a caped superhero costume and began running around the neighborhood at night. He came to the attention of the police when neighbors complained that his jumping around on the apartment buildings rooftops was keeping them up nights. Then he abrubtly disappeared. After some time had passed, the police finally broke into his apartment. He was found suffocated in a large box he had constructed, either an accident or a suicide. In the middle of the room was a large cardboard robot he had fashioned and built. In the news conference the police chief said he twisted the knobs on the robot, but nothing happened. I have always wondered what prompted the police chief to test the controls on a cardboard robot.


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## KenOC

geralmar said:


> Two newspaper stories have haunted me for more than three decades:


Those are, indeed, strange strange stories.


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## geralmar

Another newspaper story that still bothers me decades later:

Chicago authorities were struggling to decide what to do with a six-year old boy who murdered a five-year old boy by pushing him off an apartment building roof. The six-year old had accosted the five-year old and demanded money. The victim was found clutching the best payment he could offer: a potato chip.


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## Huilunsoittaja

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/19/man-24-dies-on-board-dublin-bound-aer-lingus-flight

"A man has died on board an Aer Lingus flight bound for Dublin, Irish police said on Sunday night. The 24-year-old was reportedly restrained after becoming agitated and *biting *a man about halfway through the two-hour journey from Lisbon."

You can _guess _what social media's been saying about this....


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## KenOC

I can see the movie in my mind: "Zombies on a Plane."


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## geralmar

KenOC said:


> I can see the movie in my mind: "Zombies on a Plane."


Been done: "Plane Dead: Zombies on a Plane" (2007). I recently watched it on YouTube.


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## KenOC

I must have been planting radishes at the time... :lol:


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## geralmar

Decades ago, when I was a child, I read a local story in a Texas newspaper about a little girl who was sitting on a horse; the horse turned its head back and with its teeth ripped the girl's face off. A couple days later I read a followup story that doctors were helpless and the girl had died in the hospital. I have been suspicious of horses since.

Sometime later I read a short and cryptic newspaper story about five prisoners on a southern chain gang killed while spreading hot tar on a road. A motorist ran the barricades and hit the tar, splashing it on the prisoners. My father had to explain to me that hot tar sticks to the skin and all the guards could do was watch the men roast to death.


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## SixFootScowl

I am going to stay away from horses and hot tar for sure!


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## Guest

Apples fall from sky in UK
Rush hour drivers in one English city (Keresley, Coventry) were surprised to see apples falling from the sky. Scientists say they probably came from a nearby orchard but did explain how they fell from the sky. 
15 December 2011

http://specials.msn.com/a-list/news/apples-fall-from-sky-psp

*Blast but 'no bomb' in Pakistani cities*
Explosion heard in two cities likely was caused by a sonic boom 
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A loud blast alarmed residents and security officials in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, and nearby city of Rawalpindi on Monday but police later said it appeared it had been a sonic boom.
Residents of both cities heard a big blast just before 11 a.m. (1 a.m. ET).
About 45 minutes after the blast was heard, a senior police official stated, "We have checked everywhere in Rawalpindi, all the main areas and hospitals, but there is nothing. It could have been a sonic boom but we are still investigating."
No air force aircraft had been over the city at the time of the blast, said a Pakistani air force spokesmen.
A military official said there had been no bomb at any of the main military installations in Rawalpindi.

*Camera lens mysteriously falls from sky, damages roof*
Camera lens crashes through roof of 55-year-old Debbie Payne. Her neighbor heard a loud noise near the Payne's home a few weeks ago. When he stepped out to help Payne investigate the source of the ruckus, the two discovered that the roof of her two-story home had a hole and that two window screens were sliced open.
Sitting in the neighbor's driveway was a two-pound nine-inch Canon camera lens - and no one knows how or why it fell from the sky only that it was the cause of the damage.
Petaluma police are attempting to track down the owner by tracing its serial number and questioning whether it was possible that someone dropped the lens out of a plane.
FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said he had never heard of a camera lens falling from an aircraft, adding that "simply proving it came from a plane would be difficult to do."

http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_new...lens-mysteriously-falls-from-sky-damages-roof

*Clipboard Falls From sky*
Gus Binos was washing a van outside his Long Island home on Thursday at about 3:30 p.m. when he heard a startling noise and saw shocked when a metal clipboard landed 20 feet from where he was standing.
"I just jumped and turned," Binos said.
"Wow, what if I got hit with it?" Binos said. "It is a very sharp piece of metal. I mean, with the velocity that it was coming down, it would have stuck a hole in my head."
Jammed inside the clip was a thin stack of aviation documents, including flight patterns and navigation guidelines for flying through New York City's Hudson River corridor and around the Statue of Liberty. The clipboard also held a runway map of nearby MacArthur Airport in Islip.
It's possible, pilot Adam Rosenberg said, that a pilot accidentally left the clipboard resting on the exterior of the aircraft before takeoff.
"Sometimes in the process of preparing to 'pre-flight' an airplane, or after you get out of an aircraft, you will put something on the wing. However, the odds of it making it off the airport property once the airplane begins taking off are very slim," Rosenberg said.
Rosenberg said it is highly unusual -- but not unheard of -- for a pilot to accidentally lose an item like a clipboard while in mid-air. A cockpit door could accidentally come open and some planes have exposed cockpits.
FAA investigators want to speak with Binos and examine the clipboard to trace its origin.
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/n...and-Aviation-Documents-Mystery-213433311.html

*Mysterious Rumble Felt in Jersey*
The ground in south New Jersey shook Saturday morning according to many witnesses, but no earthquakes or military training exercises were reported.
The U.S. Geological Survey suggested a possible sonic boom although the military was not training on any aircraft at the time.
"I'm in LEH [Little Egg Harbor] and my basement door shook violently for 15 sec or so long enough to creep me out. Sounded like someone was trying to get out," Dana Re posted on her Facebook page.
John Tefankjian left a comment stating that he felt his house in Brigantine shake, but differently from when fighter jets go by in training.
Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst spokesman Pascual Flores stated, "There currently is no training of any type that would have resulted in today's incident." 
Residents in Atlantic, Cape May, Ocean, Salem and Camden County also experienced the shaking.
Comments left on the independent Earthquake-Report.com:
"Felt like a rumble, everyone ran outside, we all noticed on our street." (Ocean City)
"Whole house started shaking, outside sounded like a bomb with slight shaking." (Little Egg Harbor)
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/20/14580549-mystery-ground-shaking-rattles-south-jersey?lite


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## Guest

_The Mad Gasser of Mattoon_

Mattoon, Illinois - August 31, 1944, Urban Raef of Grant Avenue stumbled out of bed and vomited in the bathroom. He woke his wife to ask her if she'd left on the gas. She had not but also found herself paralyzed. That same night in another part of Mattoon, a woman awoke to hear her daughter coughing violently and, in attempting to go to her aid, found herself barely able to walk.

The next night at 11 p.m. Mrs. Bert Kearney of 1408 Marshall Avenue awoke to a sweetish smell of cloying potency. She first thought it was the flowers outside her window. As the smell grew stronger, she found herself paralyzed. She called to her sister, Mrs. Ready, who was in the house. Mrs. Ready smelled the odor and said it was coming from the window. They called the police who searched the grounds but found no evidence of a prowler or a strange odor. At 12:30 a.m. Mr. Kearney, a cab driver, returned home and saw a stranger crouching at a window of his house. He described the stranger as "tall, dressed in dark clothing and wearing a tight-fitting cap" who fled at his approach. Kearney gave chase but the stranger had vanished into the night. That same night, Mrs. Charles Rider reported an attack at her residence on Prairie Avenue.

In the four ensuing days, four more gas attacks occurred each involving a victim smelling a "sickly sweet odor" and suffering a subsequent bout of nausea and paralysis which would last a couple of hours. On September 5th, Beulah Cordes and her husband Carl were returning to their home on North 21st Street at about 10:30 p.m. Mrs. Cordes noticed a white cloth the size of a man's handkerchief lying on her porch by the door. She picked it up and noticed that it gave off an odor that gave her body an electrifying jolt that seemed to settle in her knees where a paralysis immediately set in followed by a swelling in her lips and face. Her mouth began to bleed and she was unable to talk. Within two hours, though, she made a complete recovery. When the police searched the area, they found a "well used" skeleton key and a nearly empty tube of lipstick on the sidewalk next to the porch. The cloth, apparently not a handkerchief, was examined but no evidence of any kind of strange chemical was found on it. That same night on North 13th Street, Mrs. Leonard Burrell reported a stranger broke through her window and attempted to gas her.

The following day, Mrs. Ardell Spangler (or Spangle) smelled a sickly sweet odor at 10:00 p.m. and suffered mild nausea and paralysis. Two hours later, Laura Junken was similarly stricken and Fred Goble reported a similar attack at 1:00 a.m. Goble's neighbor, Robert Daniels, saw a "tall man" running from Goble's house at about that time.

In the ensuing days, "Mattoon's Mad Anesthetist" would use gas to knock 11-year-old Glenda Hendershot (another report calls her Mrs. Glenda Hendershott) unconscious in her bedroom on South 14th Street, attempt to force his way into the home of a very frightened Mae Williams, gas the home of Violet Driskell and her daughter Ramona on DeWitt Avenue, gas the home of Russell Bailey on Westwood where four people lay sleeping, gas the bedroom of Frances Smith and her sister Maxine on Moultrie Avenue. All suffered roughly the same symptoms. The Smith sisters also reported hearing a strange buzzing noise and seeing a blue vapor just prior to the attack. They believed the Mad Gasser carried a flit gun which is used to spray pesticides. Another attack occurred on Moultrie Avenue that same night but the victim remains unidentified and the incident was not reported in the media.

Police checked out all of Mattoon's most suspicious characters but no one fit the gasser's description. Illinois State Attorney W. K. Kidwell checked out the state's mental institutions' release files but nothing unusual turned up. City officials tried to downplay the hysteria that gripped the town. Meanwhile, the gasser struck the home of Kenneth Fitzpatrick causing he and his wife to fall ill. That same night, three sisters were gassed in their living room and also fell ill. Commissioner of Public Health Thomas V. Wright stated: "There is no doubt that a gas maniac exists and has made a number of attacks. But many of the reported attacks are nothing more than hysteria. Fear of the gas man is entirely out of proportion to the menace of the relatively harmless gas he is spraying. The whole town is sick with hysteria."

On September 13th, Bertha Bench (or Burch) saw a pale face looking into her bedroom window and then was struck with the gas and fell ill. She reported that the face was that of a woman and insisted that the gasser was a woman in a man's clothing. Police found the prints of high-heeled shoes outside her bedroom window the next morning. After that, the gasser was heard from no more. All in all, at least three-dozen people had reported being attacked. The police chased down so many false alarms that they were forced to lower the priority of apprehending the Gasser and Police Chief C. E. Cole pronounced it all to be mass hysteria.

Had the Gasser been to other towns prior to his two-week visit to Mattoon? On February 1, 1944, a neighborhood in Coatesville, Pennsylvania was struck by a "sweet-smelling gas" that left three people dead in one house and put several neighbors in the hospital. No explanation was ever found. In December of 1961, 100 people were sickened by a "sickening sweet gas" at a Baptist church in Houston, Texas. The gas caused nausea, headaches, sweating and vomiting.


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## Guest

_The Mad Gasser of Botetourt County_

But the Mad Gasser made an earlier appearance in Virginia between December 22, 1933 and February 3, 1934, about the time the Ghost of Paris was winding up her annual visits to the little Missouri town. The Virginia attacks occurred in Botetourt County (pronounced "Bah-tah-tot") and extended in Roanoke. The first attack occurred in Haymakertown at 10:00 p.m. at the home of Cal Huffman when his wife noticed a strange odor and was overcome by nausea. A half-hour later, the odor returned and Cal Huffman called the police. Officer O. D. Lemon investigated and, in a remarkable similarity to the last gas attack at Mattoon a decade later, found the prints of a woman's high-heeled shoes outside a window and under the porch where the stranger apparently hid. Immediately after Officer Lemon left at 1:00 a.m., the odor returned sickening all eight members of the household and a guest, Ashby Henderson. The symptoms included nausea, headaches, swelling of the face, mouth and throat. One of the Huffman children, 20-year-old Alice, had actually stopped breathing and had to be resuscitated by physician S. F. Driver.

Two nights later, Christmas Eve, Clarence Hall, his wife and two children returned to their Cloverdale home at 9:00 p.m. after a church service. Inside the home, a strong, sweet odor greeted them and they immediately fell ill with weakness and nausea. They called the police whose investigation revealed that the odor seemed to be strongest by a rear window where a nail had been removed. Police theorized that the assailant may have sprayed the gas through the resulting hole.

On December 27, A. Keely and his mother were sickened by a mysterious odor in Troutville. On January 10th, Mrs. Moore, a guest in the home or Haymakertown resident Homer Hylton heard voices outside a damaged window in the home just before a noxious gas was sprayed through the window. That same night, G. D. Kinzie was attacked with "a potentially lethal chlorine gas" in Troutville. On January 16, F. B. Duval returned to his Bonsack home at 11:30 p.m. to find his family had been attacked by a gas and, on his way to meet police, saw a man running towards a nearby car with a woman in it. An attack occurred in Carvin's Cove and another in Colon on the 19th. On the 22nd, three houses in Carvin's Cove were believed to be attacked in consecutive fashion going in a southerly direction but, due to a police mix-up, turned out to be only the Reedy home where a running figure was fired at by one of Mr. Reedy's sons. On the 23rd, the Hartsell (or Harteel) house in Pleasantdale Church (or just Pleasantdale) was apparently attacked. The attacker had barricaded the door apparently to hinder escape-a useless tactic since no one was home.

On the 25th, the Cloverdale home of Chester Snyder was prowled by a stranger. Alerted by his dog, Snyder fired at a figure walking around outside. Police confirmed that someone had left footprints outside the home although the stranger may have just been passing through. Whether this was related to the gasser is unknown since no gas was released in this incident. Three days later, at the Colon Siding home of Ed Stanley, he, his wife and three guests were attacked by a gas and saw four men scampering away towards the nearby woods. One of the guests, Frank Guy, fired at them.

By January 30th, due to many false alarms and at least one prank involving someone tossing an ordinary fly spray through someone's window, the residents of Botetourt County began to express doubts that the gasser was real. Dr. Driver believed that some of the gassings were real but also stated that many were the result of overactive imaginations or mistaking ordinary odors for the mysterious gas. Sheriff L. T. Mundy declared the whole thing mass hysteria and would believe it only if he personally was gassed. Yet, at Nace on February 3rd, Mr. and Mrs. A. Scaggs and three guests were acutely affected by a noxious gas. Six days later, J. G. Schaefer's home in Lithia was attacked. A police investigation located discolored snow near Schaeffer's home that gave off a sweetish odor which an analysis revealed to be sulfur, arsenic and mineral oil. The conclusion was insecticide residue. Weeks after the attack on the Huffman household, Alice Huffman was still suffering from fits and convulsions. Dr. Driver concluded them to be anxiety attacks rather than affects of the gas.


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## Guest

*Afghan girls hit again by suspected gas attack*

KABUL - Thirty schoolgirls in the northern city of Kunduz and six in Kabul were admitted to hospital, health officials and the interior ministry said due to an attack of an unknown gas by unknown assailants dressed in black.

"Others are also coming in. We don't know the exact number of girls affected, it could be many. It's a similar incident to what happened in Kabul and Kunduz last week," said Homayun Khamosh, head of the Kunduz city hospital where girls were admitted.

A Kunduz girl who said her name was Farzana told Reuters that she saw a man in black clothes, with his mouth and nose wrapped in a cloth, throw a bottle near the school. The bottle appeared to release a smelly fume.

The attacks are the latest in a string of incidents at girls' schools involving an airborne substance which officials say could be poisonous gas. Blood tests taken from girls affected by previous attacks have not yet yielded any results.

An interior ministry spokesman confirmed that half a dozen schoolgirls and one teacher from a school in Kabul's fourth precinct were also taken to a nearby clinic after smelling a gas and falling ill.

"It's not clear what was the cause of the poisoning, whether it's a destructive action or a kind of gas used for something else but we will check whether this is an action of the enemies or food poisoning," Zemarai Bashary said.

A Reuters reporter outside the Kabul school said several police officers and police cars had surrounded the area. One schoolgirl, a 15-year old called Samira, was on gate duty shortly before her classmates were taken ill.

"*I smelled something very sweet* and when I went and told my teachers about it they said it was not a big incident but later on I saw girls falling down and collapsing and vomiting so we called the police," she said.

Samira said she saw three men standing outside the school shortly before smelling the gas.
Police at the school played down the incident and said the gas was coming from a leak in a shop across the street, but the shop vendor said he had no gas on his premises.

Three suspected poison gas attacks on girls' schools have taken place in Kunduz over the past few weeks and last week 22 schoolgirls and three teachers fell ill when their school was struck.
It is not clear who is responsible for the attacks. In the past officials have blamed the Taliban but the Islamist group has denied involvement and condemned the possible attacks.

The Taliban banned education for girls when they ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, and in many rural areas where the Taliban hold sway, girls' schools remain closed, teachers have been threatened and some girls have been attacked with acid.

Attacks on girls' schools using suspected poisonous gas have increased since last year. *In most cases the girls reported smelling something sweet, then fainting, dizziness and vomiting.*
None of the cases was fatal.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37078727/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

*Afghan girls fall ill after apparent gas poisoning*

KABUL - About 40 schoolgirls became ill and were taken to hospital after a suspected gas poisoning in the Afghan capital Wednesday, another apparent attack by hardline Islamists opposed to female education.

The Taliban banned education for girls during their Afghan rule from 1996-2001, but have condemned similar attacks in the past. They have, however, set fire to dozens of schools, threatened teachers and even attacked schoolgirls in rural areas.

Wednesday's incident followed a similar pattern to other recent attacks at girls' schools involving an airborne substance which officials said could be some form of gas.

Asif Nang, a spokesman for the Education Ministry, said the girls, of differing ages from a school in Kabul's east, were being treated in hospital. Their illnesses were not believed to be serious.
"It looks like it is another case of gas poisoning, but it is being investigated now," he said.
The Afghan government, however, did not suggest who may have been responsible for the apparent attack.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38845340/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/


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## Guest

Psychologists Robert E. Bartholomew and Erich Goode examined the phantom assailant phenomenon for Skeptical magazine in the Vol. 7, No. 4, 1999 issue in an article called “Phantom Assailants & the Madness of Crowds: The Mad Gasser of Botetourt County.” They write: “From time to time, under certain conditions and in various locales, episodes of collective delusion erupt, then quickly subside. One common subtype of the collective delusion is a widespread fear of a phantom assailant. Such outbreaks are remarkable, noteworthy, and in need of systematic study; we ignore them at our peril.”


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## Guest

Author Loren Coleman has cataloged many instances of weird and inexplicable occurrences as phantoms. Coleman's phantasms come to us in the form of clowns, strange animals and apparitions. Such occurrences, often bordering on the frightening and bizarre, are collectively titled "high strangeness." One of Coleman's weirdest cases was "the Blue Phantom of Route 66." The famous Route 66 was a project begun in the twenties that joined the vast Midwest together, from Illinois to Arizona, by a main artery, a two-lane highway that wound through the endless American countryside and passed through the centers of town after town. By the time the project was completed in the 50s, the route was already obsolete and no longer able to handle the increased volume of traffic. One by one, towns built freeway bypasses to cut down the endless traffic that had begun to parade down Route 66. Parts of the historic route fell into disrepair and remain so today (although parts have been restored). As traffic thinned out on the old highway, a new phantom flier-or perhaps driver would be better-appeared in Joliet, Illinois in late May of 1952.

Two cars driving down Route 66 were fired on by another moving car-a blue one. One driver received a minor wound. A while later, another driver reported being fired on by a blue car while driving down Route 66 south of Lincoln.

As the year entered June, more people reported being fired up by a speeding blue car. Eleven reports were filed by June 10th, one by a patrol car fired upon from a blue car. The patrol car gave chase but could not overtake the mysterious vehicle. One witness saw a man in khakis holding a revolver standing by a blue Chrysler on Route 121. The next day, a truck driver reported being fired on and two bullets had pierced the windshield but no bullets were found in the cab. Two days later, June 19th, a couple reported being fired on from a blue Ford they chased but could not overtake. That same night in Mattoon at about 7:30, another man was fired on with a shotgun by someone driving a yellow Chevrolet truck on Route 16. On June 24th, a man was fired on from a black sedan in Champaign. He gave chase but could not overtake the vehicle.

Police could not decide if the mysterious sniper used a .22 or a .38 because for, despite the shattered windows and bullet holes, no bullets were ever recovered despite diligent searches by police determined to apprehend the culprit (and even though police were able to determine no bullets had passed through any of the cars that had been fired on). After that, the Blue Phantom of Route 66 was heard from no more.

Or was he?

From the book _Clear Intent_, author Lawrence Fawcett and Barry Greenwood documented occurrences of "high strangeness" during what is now known as the Great Midwest UFO Flap of the mid-70s. One particular incident took place at Grand Forks AFB in Grand Forks, North Dakota concerning a phantom shooter on November 3rd of that year. At about 0130, military sentries reported gunshots "fired from on base toward hard alert aircraft on the Sac alert ramp," according to an official report. In all, four security policemen heard gunshots and possible hits on two aircraft in the 319 Bomb Wing. The firearm report sounded like a .22 or other small caliber rifle and came from the direction of the base golf course. No one heard less than four shots but some claimed to have heard as many as eleven. The hits on the aircraft were clearly heard but no damage was found. The area was immediately and thoroughly searched. No evidence of any kind was recovered, no footprints, no eyewitnesses, no firearm, no spent cartridges or casings. A tracking dog was dispatched to the area. The dog sniffed the area and began to track across Highway 2, over a large pile of broken concrete. The guard's report states, "The track turned east nearly parallel to the highway and…approximately 100-150 yards to a small trailer court (20 trailers) then turned south along a tree line and then southeast toward a trailer. The track was lost at a picket fence adjoining the trailer. No lights were on in the trailer and no one was located in the vicinity."


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## Guest

*Odd shootings put California town 'on edge'*
No suspect, no one hurt in mysterious spree of gunfire on cars, buildings

updated 6:07 p.m. ET, Tues., Jan. 26, 2010 
VALLEY SPRINGS, Calif. - For the past month, someone in this Northern California town has been shooting a gun at cars and buildings.
No one knows who might be doing it or why, or whether or when the person will strike again. It is one big, unsettling mystery.
Since mid-December, the shooter has fired at six buildings and nine cars. In three cases motorists were driving as a bullet shattered a window or windshield or pierced the driver's side door too close for comfort.

"It leaves me on edge," said Hazel Provost, who moved to Valley Springs from crime-prone Stockton, 30 miles away, 12 years ago. "I'm not going out after 4:30 in the evening any more."
The Calaveras County Sheriff's Office has little to go on - one witness's glimpse of a late model, light-colored sedan with square head lights. For now, all that is certain in this country town 60 miles from Sacramento is uncertainty.
'We're worried'
Most of the shootings have taken place before dawn or after dusk. No one has been hurt, but no one is sure that no one will. The sheriff's office has not released the names of those who've been targeted
"Of course we're worried," said Kathleen D'Angelo, who moved to Valley Springs six years ago from Milpitas, near San Jose. "You watch everything."
Valley Springs, part of a large, unincorporated section of western Calaveras County (population 2,500) in the Sierra foothills, is known for a golf course, a reservoir and more than its share of big-city refugees. People use guns for hunting, scaring coyotes, target practice. Not on each other.
"We don't typically have Joe Q. Citizen be the victim of a crime," said Sgt. Dave Seawell of the sheriff's department. "It's usually bad guy on bad guy."

Nick Baptista, editor of the _Valley Spring News_, a twice-weekly newspaper, said that most people believe the shootings have something to do with gang activity. Second, down on the list, is that it's a young person, though the two theories are not mutually exclusive.
"My first thought was that someone got a gun for Christmas," said Patricia Sowards, who has lived in Valley Springs for over 20 years.
Six motorists fired on
Most of the shootings have taken place during the last two weeks of December. The worst was Dec. 22, when six motorists were fired at either just before dawn or after dusk. The most recent shootings confirmed as part of the spree happened Jan. 9 in a neighborhood with closely spaced homes. There have been other scattered reports of shootings, but authorities have found no bullets in those cases.

The gun is a small-caliber weapon, though authorities will not say what caliber or give any other details on the weapon.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has posted a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a suspect and the FBI is assisting the investigation as well.
Jack Duffett, 20, who grew up in Valley Springs, said that young people get bored in the town and find themselves eager to leave, or make their own fun. "I think it's someone who is bored," he said, "Or trying to make themselves look like a gangster. Nothing like this has ever happened, but I just know it's a kid."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35085663/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/


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## Adagietto

The following took place around Turlock California out in the country, and took place 25 minutes ago. 

I was just out walking my dog. I saw a comet-looking object streaking across the sky. It left a white hazy light that looked like an arrowhead with part of the shaft attached to it. It was pretty large in size. The arrowhead part eventually dispersed and decreased in light as the object continued on and disappeared. The light of the arrowhead became so weak I couldn't see it by the time I got home, but it took over a large area. The shaft part could still be seen and dispersed completely. I unfortunately didn't happen to take my phone so I do not have video.


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## KenOC

Many videos and photos of that object, and news coverage. Visible well into Arizona. It turns out that it was a Trident II missile, fired from the submarine USS Kentucky.


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## Huilunsoittaja

Unfortunate for the young woman, unfortunate for art:

http://pix11.com/2015/12/05/witnesses-thought-woman-stabbed-at-art-basel-was-performance-art/

(oh warning, picture contains actual blood, so if you're not in mood for that please don't click)


----------



## KenOC

Kyle Odom, an honorably discharged Marine and a Dean's List graduate from the University of Idaho, was arrested yesterday throwing thumb drives and other things over the White House fence. He had flown to Washington from Idaho, where he had just shot a pastor six times. Yes, there's a story here, and a strange one. A sample:

"On that flight, Odom claims an older gentleman looked at him from his seat in front of him and Odom's head began to hurt, the man responding to his pain with what Odom called an "evil looking smile." Another person on the flight held up a newspaper that said "Psychic Reading" on it, and by the end of the flight, the old man told Odom to buy a TracFone.

Odom claims he bought a TracFone and then, about a month later, he says someone sent him a text message. That person, he claims, was John Padula, a pastor at the Altar Church in Coeur d'Alene. He went to the church, felt something was wrong, and a few days later he claims he started receiving text messages from Tim Remington, also a pastor at Altar Church. At first he received biblical passages he dubbed innocuous, he claims the messages later became threatening, followed several days later with helicopters buzzing Odom's house day and night."

Read more at your peril!

http://www.kxly.com/news/north-idaho-news/kyle-odoms-martian-chronicles/38416090


----------



## SixFootScowl

> A motorist who knew he was headed for jail decided he had some unfinished business to complete before pulling over for a traffic stop on Sunday in Macomb County, police said.
> 
> The 36-year-old Clinton Township man kept driving for several miles after state troopers first attempted to pull over his Lincoln Continental because of an improper plate, according to Michigan State Police. At one point, he even put up a finger signaling he would pull over in a minute, police said..
> 
> So what was so important? He told troopers he wanted to finish his marijuana joint and call his family before he headed to jail, police said.


Here is the Full Story


----------



## Cosmos

Don't have the specifics, but one newspaper story that disturbed me, when I was younger, was about an accident at a basketball game.

Girl's basketball, local high school, in the middle of the game, one girl reaching for the ball accidentally poked another girl's eye from an angle that caused it to pop out of her socket. The picture showed her on her knees, one eye closed in pain, the other bulging out. Doctors fixed it and she can see fine, but in the paper she said she had lost her vision from that eye at the time. Makes me queasy thinking about it


----------



## TxllxT

http://metro.co.uk/2016/03/09/penguin-swims-5000-miles-every-year-for-reunion-with-the-man-who-saved-his-life-5741518/

Reminds me of Hemingway


----------



## geralmar

After spending eight hours trying to rescue a black bear perched 50 to 60 feet up a pine tree near Shreveport, Louisiana, sheriff's deputies, game wardens and wildlife biologists discovered they had been trying to tranquilize a tattered plastic garbage bag that had caught on a branch.

--Undated press clipping in my file.


----------



## KenOC

Remember Jason Dalton, that Uber driver in Kalamazoo who was shooting people all over the place and in between picking up fares? He says his Uber app was "like artificial intelligence that can tap into your body...the iPhone could take you over."

He said he "wishes he would never have spoken what that symbol was when he saw it on his phone." It looked like a "horned cow head or something like that and then it would give you an assignment and it would literally take over your whole body."

Dalton said when he logged onto the Uber app it "started making him be like a puppet." He told police he would have tried to have a "shootout with police, when the log in went from the black symbol back to the red, that's when Dalton stopped his thought." Dalton explained that when the app changed from red to black is when he started having problems."

When police caught up with him he was he was "eerily passive" during his arrest.

Sounds like one heckuva iPhone bug. I'm sticking with Android, thank you very much.


----------



## KenOC

Just when you thought it couldn't get any stranger.
-------------------------------------------------------------
KALAMAZOO, Mich. - The man charged with killing six people and wounding two others at three locations in Kalamazoo last month is suing Uber.

Jason Dalton filed a handwritten lawsuit with the U.S. Federal District Court for the Eastern District in Detroit asking for $10 million from the ride-sharing company for ruining his life...

In interviews with officers from the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety after his arrest, Dalton said he was directed when and where he was to shoot people by a Uber app on his phone that showed a devil's face and also directed him to wear body armor.


----------



## Huilunsoittaja

^^^^^^ Is someone gonna make a horror movie flick now based on his life? The Phone Demon...


----------



## mstar

Huilunsoittaja said:


> ^^^^^^ Is someone gonna make a horror movie flick now based on his life? The Phone Demon...


More like the Uber blame-me-not pity party demon.


----------



## mstar

KenOC said:


> Remember Jason *Dalton*, that Uber driver in Kalamazoo who was shooting people all over the place and in between picking up fares? He says his Uber app was "like artificial intelligence that can tap into your body...the iPhone could take you over."
> 
> He said he "wishes he would never have spoken what that symbol was when he saw it on his phone." It looked like a "horned cow head or something like that and then it would give you an assignment and it would literally take over your whole body."
> 
> *Dalton* said when he logged onto the Uber app it "started making him be like a puppet." He told police he would have tried to have a "shootout with police, when the log in went from the black symbol back to the red, that's when *Dalton* stopped his thought." *Dalton* explained that when the app changed from red to black is when he started having problems."
> 
> When police caught up with him he was he was "eerily passive" during his arrest.
> 
> Sounds like one heckuva iPhone bug. I'm sticking with Android, thank you very much.


Oh my gosh - Dalton went from shooting particles at gold sheets to shooting people on city streets.
What a shame.


----------



## geralmar

Years ago near where I live a young landscaper was pulled into a wood chipper when his shirtsleeve caught on a branch he was feeding into the machine. His body was discovered when a coworker noticed the chipper was vibrating and grinding in an odd manner.


----------



## SixFootScowl

geralmar said:


> Years ago near where I live a young landscaper was pulled into a wood chipper when his shirtsleeve caught on a branch he was feeding into the machine. His body was discovered when a coworker noticed the chipper was vibrating and grinding in an odd manner.


I used to operate one of those things. We always pitched the butt end of the branch into the opening as we darted to one site of it. Also have to beware of passing cars if as usual you are chipping on the street. The blades are made to pull the branch in so anything else goes in there it has the same tendency. I had a wrist watch go through, found the backing plate in the chips. Stupid to wear a wrist watch while chipping but they never really trained us. The other problem was getting whipped by the passing branch--elm was the worst and you wanted to wear leather to protect from the whipping.


----------



## geralmar

Florestan said:


> I used to operate one of those things. We always pitched the butt end of the branch into the opening as we darted to one site of it. Also have to beware of passing cars if as usual you are chipping on the street. The blades are made to pull the branch in so anything else goes in there it has the same tendency. I had a wrist watch go through, found the backing plate in the chips. Stupid to wear a wrist watch while chipping but they never really trained us. The other problem was getting whipped by the passing branch--elm was the worst and you wanted to wear leather to protect from the whipping.


I admire your courage. Whenever I see one of those things in operation I cross the street.


----------



## mstar

geralmar said:


> Years ago near where I live a young landscaper was pulled into a wood chipper when his shirtsleeve caught on a branch he was feeding into the machine. His body was discovered when a coworker noticed the chipper was vibrating and grinding in an odd manner.


Mental note: If I see one of these, run like it's one of those atonality debates...


----------



## Ingélou

The zany life of Princess Joan of Sealand, R.I.P.
Only in Britain...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/12205685/Princess-Joan-of-Sealand-obituary.html


----------



## Guest

I have an interest in Fortean phenomena and am always combing the news for weird stories such as the ones I posted earlier on this thread. I remember one that happened one July night around 2002 just a couple of blocks from me. People came out of their houses and about 10:20 pm only to discover that the street was filled from curb-to-curb with pills! They were generic tranquilizers and muscle relaxers of various types. Most of the pills were white but some were yellow, orange or red. The street was covered uniformly and not in patches and the pills were more than ankle deep. They covered the street for about a block. 

According to the report, there were so many pills in the street that "it looked like it had snowed." Strangely, no one saw or heard anything. The last witness to be outside before the pills were discovered was about 20 minutes earlier--10 pm--and he did not notice anything amiss. 

The police had to bring a dumpster and small loader vehicles while people came put with snow shovels and deposited all the pills in the dumpster. The report contained a photo of the pills as one man had saved a handful of them for study and curiosity. Police did not know what type of vehicle had transported the pills, which numbered into the tens of thousands, nor how it had managed to dump its cargo in the unusual manner it did nor why nobody heard or saw anything during that 20-minute window. No pill manufacturer or pharmaceutical company has reported any losses or thefts of pills.

As of this writing, no explanation has been given.


----------



## mstar

^^^ Very interesting... I couldn't find it online though! Care to share a link to the story?


----------



## Guest

I found the following account in a 1955 UFO book from England although the account is hardly anything that could be termed UFO-like. The author, Harold T. Wilkins, may have gotten the story from the works of Charles Fort although I've never located it in any of Fort's works.

9 December 1873, 4:30 am, T. Harker, the night superintendent at the Bristol & Exeter Railway Temple Meads station, was huddled in his office poking up the coals to warm himself and his two sleeping assistants, against the chill winter north wind. The bleak station was dark which the gas lanterns did little to dispel due to the long row iron pillars that did little more than create eerie, flickering shadows across the tracks. Two trains-one from Derby and one from Paddington, London-were not due for an hour. All was quiet and nothing stirred except for the occasional howling of the wind. "The sort of early morning not fit for a dog to be abroad."

As Harker sat poking at the coals, he suddenly leapt from his chair at what sounded like the report of a firearm accompanied by screams of "Murder! Murder!" Harker peered out the window of his office and saw a young woman still in her nightdress running barefoot down the platform. Behind her ran a man also in nightdress holding a smoking pistol in his hand. Both kept looking over their shoulders towards the Victoria Hotel from which they had just exited. The woman beat on Harker's door in an extremely agitated state. The man came up behind her and also began beating on the door. Harker gave them admittance and then closed the door against the cold. He demanded to know what was going on. "They will murder us!" yelled the woman. "They have followed us to the station. I demand you search it at once!"

Harker rousted his two sleeping assistants and bade the agitated couple to remain in his office while he and the two porters made a search of the premises. They found nothing and returned to the office. Harker tried to talk to the man but found him in such a state of agitation that he was utterly unintelligible so he turned to the woman who, despite her state of hysteria, could at least be made sense of but her story was so chaotic that Harker supposed them to be in drink or under some other such delusion and sent one of the lads to fetch a policeman who arrived and duly transported the excited couple to the police station where he charged them with disorderly conduct and the discharging of firearms. They were to appear before the magistrates the following morning.

The 11 December issue of the _London Times_ takes up the story:

"Thomas B. Cumpston and his wife, Mrs. Annie Martha Cumpston, of Virginia Road, Leeds, Yorkshire, were brought up before the magistrates for being disorderly at the Victoria Hotel, Bristol, and letting off firearms. It is said by the landlady of the hotel, Mrs. Tongue, that the defendants took an apartment at the hotel, on Monday evening. They retired to rest about 12 o'clock. About 4 A.M., she was awakened by loud screams and shouts in the bedroom, succeeded by reports of firearms. She went down and found that both had leapt from their bedroom to the yard, twelve feet below. They then both made their way to the railway station opposite.

"Mr. T. Harker, night superintendent of the Bristol and Exeter Railway, said the Cumpstons rushed into his office partly dressed and crying out, 'Murder!' They were in a terrible state of excitement. They told me they had escaped from a den of rogues and thieves and that they had to defend themselves. They were under the impression that someone was following them, and made me search the waiting-room to see that no one was there. Upon my sending for a policeman, Mr. Cumpston was searched and a revolver and three knives were found on him.

"Asked by the magistrates what they had to say, Cumpston, who has an impediment in his speech, said that he and his wife…came to Bristol and engaged a room at the Victoria Hotel, being near the railway station. They were alarmed at 4 A.M. by terrible noises they could not explain, and were badly frightened. The bed seemed to open and he heard all sorts of strange things. The floor, too, opened and they heard voices. They were so terrified that they opened their bedroom window and leapt out.

"Mrs. Cumpston gave her version of the affair. She said: 'We heard terrible noises at 4 A.M. The floor seemed to be giving way. It certainly opened. My husband fell down some distance and I tried to get him up. What we said was repeated every time we spoke!' Being very much frightened, she asked her husband to fire off his pistol, which he did, into the ceiling. The noises continuing, they got out of the window, but she did not know how. When they got outside, she asked her husband to fire off his pistol again. Then they ran up to the railway station."

Eventually, one Mr. Butt came from Gloucester and told the magistrates that the Cumpstons occupied respectable positions at Leeds and that he was willing to take charge of them should the court be good enough to release them into his custody which was ultimately done with no further charges filed. The court chalked up the incident to the husband's hallucination or delusion.

The _Bristol Post_ added more details:

"As Cumpston was about to be dragged into the opening in the floor, his wife says she dragged him back. In Court, Cumpston's excitement was still so intense that he could not clearly express himself. Mrs. Cumpston said that, earlier in the evening, they had been alarmed by loud sounds, but the landlady reassured them. At three or four in the morning, the sounds were heard again. They jumped out on the floor which was giving way under them. Voices, repeating their exclamations were heard, or their own voices echoed strangely. Then, according to what she saw, or thought she saw, the floor opened wide. Her husband was falling into the opening, and she dragged him back. The landlady was called and she testified the sounds had been heard, but she was unable to describe them clearly. Policemen said they went to the Victoria Hotel, examined the bedroom, but found nothing the justify the extraordinary behavior of the Cumpstons. They suggested it was a case of collective hallucination."

An interesting story, to be sure. I first read it when I was about 15. I decided to see if it was verifiable. Not the experience itself was which was obviously subjective but the incident. So I googled up Annie Martha Cumpston. I found an entry for a clergyman named William Hudson Cumpston which reads:

William Hudson Cumpston was the Son of Thomas Bowser Cumpston by his wife Annie Martha Carter…

He was born April 16, 1878 in Leeds, West Yorkshire. He died in New Jersey in 1960.

I found a document about the will of William Hudson drawn up February 18, 1879, in which part of the estate went to nephew Joseph Barton Carter, grand-nephew Francis Edward Carter and grand-niece Annie Martha Cumpston. This has to be the same person as she is placed among the Carters and her maiden name was given as Carter in other documents as well as her son bearing the name William Hudson Cumpston. I found a Church of England marriage listing in West Yorkshire covering the years 1813-1935 for Thomas Bowser Cumpston and Annie Martha Carter. I also learned that Cumpston's father was also named Thomas Bowser Cumpston and that he died in 1873, the year of the incident. He had been a businessman engaged in the wool industry of Leeds. Thomas Jr. died in 1893 at age 46. So he was 26 at the time of the incident. That lines up. His son was born five years later so that lines up. Annie Martha is listed as dying December 31, 1930. We can surmise she was perhaps 3-5 years younger than her husband and so probably died in her late 70s or early 80s so that lines up too.

So, this couple mentioned in this incident did exist to my satisfaction. The Temple Meads station for the Bristol & Exeter Railway exists as does the Victoria Hotel which I have verified is directly across the entrance to the station. One can see the windows they would have leapt from which does look to be about a 12-foot drop so that too checks out.



















So everything about this story lines up. So I can only wonder about the story itself and what really happened.


----------



## Guest

mstar said:


> ^^^ Very interesting... I couldn't find it online though! Care to share a link to the story?


I used to have the link and the whole story but I do not have it anymore. I usually save stuff like that but somehow I lost this one.


----------



## geralmar

Not long ago I read that a popular children's bear repellent was discovered to actually attract bears. I thought that was a bit silly; but a little internet searching shows that that is a problem with the product.

http://www.explorenorth.com/library/misc/bl-pepper.htm


----------



## Huilunsoittaja

Wuuuuuuuuut?! Hitler enjoyed Tchaikovsky, Borodin, and Rachmaninoff (them inferior Russian peoples)?? ............... 

http://www.dw.com/en/hitlers-unearthed-music-collection-yields-surprising-finds/a-2722872

I opened the article hoping to find a listing that maybe, just maybe, he had a Glazunov record LOL but maybe better that he didn't...

The German article also includes Mussorgsky:

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-52485425.html&prev=search


----------



## KenOC

"A US sperm bank is getting sued for presenting a mentally ill felon as a healthy donor"

His sperm has conceived at least 36 children.

"...They discovered that Donor 9623 was James Christian Aggeles of Georgia. He was diagnosed as having schizophrenia, narcissistic personality disorder, drug-induced psychotic disorder and significant grandiose delusions. Aggeles committed a residential burglary in 2005 and spent eight months in jail. He dropped out of college and just last year graduated with a bachelor’s degree.

"However, the families had been told Donor 9623 had an IQ of 160, an undergraduate degree in neuroscience and a master's degree in artificial intelligence - and that he was pursuing a PhD in neuroscience engineering."

I wonder if they give refunds.


----------



## KenOC

"The people of Midleton, County Cork, in the Republic of Ireland, have been warned to check their toilets after an elderly man was bitten on the bottom by a rat. The man was taken to hospital for treatment following the incident, The Evening Echo reports...

"Cllr Collins added: 'I would advise homeowners to keep their toilet seats down when not in use, and to watch their posteriors.' " Good advice for all of us.


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> "The people of Midleton, County Cork, in the Republic of Ireland, have been warned to check their toilets after an elderly man was bitten on the bottom by a rat. The man was taken to hospital for treatment following the incident, The Evening Echo reports...
> 
> "Cllr Collins added: 'I would advise homeowners to keep their toilet seats down when not in use, and to watch their posteriors.' " Good advice for all of us.


Yes, the rats can travel up the sewer lines. Not sure can they push the seat up. Maybe not because it would be hard to get a grip on the sides of the bowl to push against. Maybe keep a couple bricks on top of the seat for good measure. :lol:


----------



## geralmar

I recently read the wikipedia entry on Ward Churchill, who is active in AIM (American Indian Movement) in the U.S. and who gained some notoriety when he called those who died in the World Trade Center "little Eichmanns". In a non-related matter he sued the University of Colorado after he was fired for academic misconduct-- plagiarism and fabricated research were among the charges. The jury found in his favor but only awarded him one dollar in damages. As one of the jurors explained, "it wasn't a slap in his face or anything like that when we didn't give him any money. It's just that [his attorney] kept saying this wasn't about the money, and in the end, we took his word for that." Maybe it's only because I'm an attorney that I find this funny.


----------



## Vaneyes

geralmar said:


> Years ago near where I live a young landscaper was pulled into a wood chipper when his shirtsleeve caught on a branch he was feeding into the machine. His body was discovered when a coworker noticed the chipper was vibrating and grinding in an odd manner.


Mental note to watch *Fargo *(1996) again.


----------



## Pugg

KenOC said:


> "A US sperm bank is getting sued for presenting a mentally ill felon as a healthy donor"
> 
> His sperm has conceived at least 36 children.
> 
> "...They discovered that Donor 9623 was James Christian Aggeles of Georgia. He was diagnosed as having schizophrenia, narcissistic personality disorder, drug-induced psychotic disorder and significant grandiose delusions. Aggeles committed a residential burglary in 2005 and spent eight months in jail. He dropped out of college and just last year graduated with a bachelor's degree.
> 
> "However, the families had been told Donor 9623 had an IQ of 160, an undergraduate degree in neuroscience and a master's degree in artificial intelligence - and that he was pursuing a PhD in neuroscience engineering."
> 
> I wonder if they give refunds.


On the one hand we can laugh on the other, very sad for those people


----------



## Vaneyes

$70K for whale vomit?

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/14/europe/couple-finds-whale-vomit-irpt/?iid=ob_article_footer_expansion


----------



## TxllxT

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/leicester-city-s-soccer-underdog-story-rivals-miracle-ice-n564766

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/01/sports/soccer/how-leicester-city-went-right-side-up.html?_r=0


----------



## Vaneyes

Dangerous selfies.

http://www.cnn.com/videos/world/201...rig-vstop.cnn?iid=ob_homepage_singleLink_pool


----------



## Vaneyes

Health issue.

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/wo...nsplant+hospitalized+body/11898775/story.html


----------



## geralmar

Vaneyes said:


> Health issue.
> 
> http://www.vancouversun.com/news/wo...nsplant+hospitalized+body/11898775/story.html


The history of Travis the chimpanzee is also interesting:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_(chimpanzee)


----------



## Vaneyes

geralmar said:


> The history of Travis the chimpanzee is also interesting:
> 
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_(chimpanzee)



"Until you've eaten with a chimp and bathed with a chimp, you don't know a chimp." - Sandra Herold


----------



## Vaneyes

Cement shoes.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/06/us/brooklyn-cement-shoes-body/index.html


----------



## geralmar

This is all very interesting as well as strange. Years ago I read that as a prank a fraternity encased the feet of a pledge in a bucket of wet concrete to create "cement shoes." The fun ended when fraternity members discovered that as cement hardens it also shrinks and therefore it began to crush the feet of the pledge. So I presumed that unless cement shoes includes slow torture it is more of an urban myth.


----------



## geralmar

I once read that in the mid-1950s the U.S. Air Force wanted to determine if civilian populations could be acclimated to the sound of sonic booms created by military aircraft. For several weeks one summer Air Force jets were used to deliberately create sonic booms over Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Why Oklahoma City? Because the Air Force didn't dare conduct the experiment over New York City or Washington, D.C. There is a reason politicians derisively call the American Midwest "flyover country."


----------



## SixFootScowl

> Up to 11th Century - Since the urine of people with diabetes is thought to be sweet tasting, diagnosis is often made by "water tasters" who drink the urine of those suspected of having diabetes. Mellitus, the Latin word for honey, is added to the term "diabetes".


From: http://www.defeatdiabetes.org/diabetes-history/


----------



## sospiro

Not sure if this qualifies as strange or bizarre but it's a good contender for a Darwin Award.

Teenagers rescued from Kent beach after getting stranded by the tide.

The RNLI said the group had walked past *nine signs* warning them not to continue. (my bold)


----------



## SarahNorthman

The most bizarre news always begins with "A Florida Man...."


----------



## geralmar

This is strange on several levels:

http://slippedisc.com/2016/06/engli...campaign=Feed:+slippedisc/nICW+(Slipped+Disc)


----------



## dieter

KenOC said:


> Maybe it's just me, but I keep seeing things suggesting that the end times are near. Here's today's:
> 
> Some may remember two years ago when Jeff Bush of Seffner, Florida, was getting ready for bed. A sinkhole suddenly opened in his bedroom floor and he was swallowed up. His body was never recovered. The home was demolished and the sinkhole filled in.
> 
> Now, the sinkhole has re-opened. The earth has not yet vomited forth his decayed and shambling remains to stagger through the neighborhood hungry for human flesh or, perhaps, small pets. But neighbors are, unsurprisingly, concerned.
> 
> http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/20/us/florida-sinkhole-seffner/index.html


Got the wrong Bush's if you ask me....


----------



## dieter

Just about anything Trump says and Rumsfeld, Bush and Cheney said. Really bizarre stuff...


----------



## geralmar

From today's local newspaper:

Gun-a-Day Raffle to benefit teacher with double-lung transplant

St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church Men's Group has set a Gun-a-Day Raffle for this September to benefit St. John's teacher Kristin Jackson for costs associated with a double-lung transplant.

The Gun-a-Day Raffle will run Sept. 1-30 and the ticket price of $20 is valid for the entire drawing.

Tickets are available at the church office... .


----------



## KenOC

Saw a story the other day about a dealership offering a free AR-15 to each buyer of a new car...


----------



## SixFootScowl

Cockroach milk anyone? The new health supplement.


----------



## TurnaboutVox

It's the headline that's odd here (the story is a bit more straightforward, if very sad).

GP labelled hypochondriac criticises colleagues after dying from cancer


----------



## KenOC

The epidemic of evil clowns in South Carolina spreads.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/cr...pand-to-second-south-carolina-city/ar-AAiw1KT


----------



## Guest

From Loren Coleman's book, _Mysterious America_.

In the spring of 1981, phantom clowns began appearing from Boston to Kansas City through Nebraska and into Colorado. The first one appeared in May in Boston driving a black van and trying to lure kids inside. He was naked from the waist down. At this same time, reports of clowns trying to lure children was also reported in Providence, RI.

May 22, 8:30 a.m., Kansas City, MO, a yellow van approached two girls standing on the sidewalk. They reported the driver was a clown holding a knife who ordered them to get in. They screamed and ran off. The van sped away. The police were swamped with reports of a knife-wielding clown in a yellow van frightening children until about 5:00 p.m, when the the reports stopped.

This incident tied into reports from a week earlier in Kansas City, KS of a clown in a van wielding a sword ordering children into his van. He was never successful. A sixth-grader named LaTanya Johnson described him as "dressed in a black shirt with a devil on the front. He had two candy canes down each side of his pants. The pants were black too, I think, I don't remember much about his face." She spotted him in the schoolyard and some of the bigger kids gave chase but he ran to a yellow van and sped off.

June 1981, Pittsburg, PA, reports of clowns in vans targeting children began pouring in including a pink and white rabbit-suited clown that drove a blue van. The same or similar clown was also reported hopping through a cemetery. In Arlington Heights, PA, a boy reported that "Spiderman," a "gorilla" and a clown tried to lure him into their vehicle. According to police, 15 clown incidents were being reported everyday.

Late March in Mineral Point, Wisconsin, children were frightened by a "clown" or "vampire" haunting nearby Graceland Cemetery. They said the creature stood a good eight feet tall! Police officer Jon Pepper actually saw the apparition which he described as a "huge person with a white painted face" and wearing a dark cape.


----------



## Guest

I've figured out how to deal with these clowns!


----------



## Ingélou

Swans (some swans) really might sing before they die! 
Who knew?

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


----------



## Flamme

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2804631/Double-Lamb-born-TWO-heads-China.html
http://biblehub.com/revelation/13-11.htm


----------



## geralmar

Many years ago I read a short newspaper story about an employee who failed to show up for work one morning. His boss phoned him at home. The employee seemed very agitated and kept repeating a nonsensical question. Perplexed, and probably presuming his employee was drunk, the boss hung up the phone and shrugged it off. Later the police concluded that it was immediately after the phone call that the employee and his entire family were brutally murdered. The employee, in the presence of the assailants, had been trying to signal his boss to call the police. I never saw any follow up story and always wondered how the boss felt about failing to recognize the desperation his employee was trying to convey.


----------



## Flamme

Blood chiling...


----------



## SixFootScowl

I once (like about 40 years ago) read a news clipping about a man in California who faked a motorcycle accident and tried to chop off his foot with a hatchet hoping to collect disability insurance for losing his foot to the motorcycle accident.


----------



## Pugg

Florestan said:


> I once (like about 40 years ago) read a news clipping about a man in California who faked a motorcycle accident and tried to chop off his foot with a hatchet hoping to collect disability insurance for losing his foot to the motorcycle accident.


I've seen something like that on "Strange stories " on T.V.


----------



## geralmar

"Budget US Android smartphones found secretly sending personal data to China"

https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/15/b...ound-secretly-sending-personal-data-to-china/


----------



## KenOC

A man unwisely decided to "hotpot" by soaking in a thermal pool in Yellowstone. Very hot, very acidic. He dissolved before his remains could be recovered.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38018209


----------



## geralmar

KenOC said:


> A man unwisely decided to "hotpot" by soaking in a thermal pool in Yellowstone. Very hot, very acidic. He dissolved before his remains could be recovered.
> 
> http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38018209


Stories like this are why Yellowstone has long been on my "Do Not Visit" list.


----------



## SixFootScowl

The Gruesome Origins of Fairy Tales: article


----------



## SixFootScowl

$5 for a heavily circulated $1 bill. 86 sold!


----------



## TxllxT

http://rbth.com/arts/2016/12/15/modest-but-modish-moscows-first-clothes-store-for-orthodox-believers_658829

The Christian answer to burkas


----------



## geralmar

Dog Mauls Family After They Try to Dress It in a Christmas Sweater

http://people.com/human-interest/pit-bull-attacks-owner-christmas-sweater/


----------



## TxllxT

*Record low water-levels in Venice*

http://www.news.com.au/travel/world-travel/europe/low-water-cripples-venices-gondolas/news-story/9a1257327e8f6e7b9da4d656269647e6

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4075726/The-water-s-gone-dola-Unusually-poor-tide-causes-record-low-levels-Venice-s-canal-network.html


----------



## TxllxT

*Major Tom calling*

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4087942/A-source-mysterious-alien-signals-Fast-radio-bursts-coming-dwarf-galaxy-3-billion-light-years-away.html


----------



## SixFootScowl

TxllxT said:


> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4087942/A-source-mysterious-alien-signals-Fast-radio-bursts-coming-dwarf-galaxy-3-billion-light-years-away.html


Stranger yet, all the weird stories in the sidebar of that page.


----------



## KenOC

'A Taiwanese funeral featuring 50 pole dancers has become the talk of the Chinese internet this week.

'Videos of the funeral procession, which took place on Tuesday, have been circulating online showing skimpily-clad women gyrating on top of jeeps in the southern city of Chiayi.

'The funeral was for local politician Tung Hsiang, who died last month. His family said they wanted to honour Mr Tung, who loved "having a lively fun time", local media reported.'

Pictures!

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38528122


----------



## Huilunsoittaja

Classical musicians should be doing this too... If only ordinary people did this more often... :tiphat:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/chris-brown-soulja-boy-to-settle-social-media-feud-in-the-ring/


----------



## Vaneyes

Weird tale from Brookline.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...th-her-sisters-corpse/?utm_term=.f073a52efec8

And, please keep those checks coming.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...sion-checks/?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.26d3317ff029


----------



## Huilunsoittaja

This is bizarre news, but also just plain funny. :lol:

https://www.rt.com/business/373568-finnair-ay666-hel-flight/

There can be only one reason for the conquest over superstition.... SISU!!!


----------



## TxllxT

Epiphany, 19th January 2017: Crazy Russians jumping with - 55 degrees Celcius into the water


----------



## Bettina

TxllxT said:


> Epiphany, 19th January 2017: Crazy Russians jumping with - 55 degrees Celcius into the water


The Rite of Winter.


----------



## TxllxT

Bettina said:


> The Rite of Winter.







(turn the direction in the top left corner) CRAZY DUTCH


----------



## KenOC

A basketball player [Akil Mitchell] says he is "doing pretty well, all things considered" after his eye popped out in the middle of a game, New Zealand media report. The finger of an opposing player accidentally dislodged his eyeball.

The American fell to the ground holding his hands to his left eye and was rushed to hospital. "With the palm of my hand I felt my eyeball on the side of my face," he told New Zealand's Radio Sport. "I could still see out of the eye."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38767179


----------



## SixFootScowl

I don't know if this is necessarily strange, but it is noteworthy. 

It appears that we have a monster thread on TC, one that has grown to over 925 pages in little over 6 months: Stupid Thread Ideas. Other than Current Listening with somewhere around 10,000 pages in four separate threads over a 10-year period, there appear to be few threads anywhere near that size. 

Stupid Thread Ideas also may have the greatest growth speed of any thread on TC. Current Listening over it's four separate threads is running on average roughly 1000 pages per year, but Stupid Thread ideas, if extrapolated, would be averaging roughly 1800 pages per year. 

I find it remarkable! And so did I remark.


----------



## KenOC

France is suffering a scourge of deranged cannibal hamsters. Discovered in northeastern France:

"An all-corn diet can quite literally turn a female hamster into a cannibal. A new study found that the European hamster, which once used to feast on a varied diet of grains, roots, and insects, is not doing so well on a diet limited to industrially grown corn. Indeed, the study, published in the_ Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B_, notes that the hamster species is 'on the verge of extinction in Western Europe.' The all-maize regimen has turned the burrowing critters into 'deranged cannibals' that eat their own offspring, the AFP reports."


----------



## Marinera

^
Cats and meercats do that too, when confused and hungry after giving birth, some other animals also, I suppose, like hamsters. It's natural.


----------



## SixFootScowl

Woman Arrested At Dallas Airport With Raw Animal Brains In Luggage


----------



## TxllxT

*89 year old surgeon still operates*

https://sputniknews.com/society/201702111050582374-russian-oldest-surgeon-video/

Utterly bizarre news: In Moscow there is an 89-year old woman surgeon still at work, doing 4 operations each day. In total she has performed 10.000 operations


----------



## KenOC

In England, a 17-year old girl won the lottery, equivalent to $1.25 million. She now says she was too young to handle all that money, and it has made her life miserable. So she's suing the lottery.

http://video.foxnews.com/v/5327113990001/?#sp=show-clips


----------



## JAS

KenOC said:


> In England, a 17-year old girl won the lottery, equivalent to $1.25 million. She now says she was too young to handle all that money, and it has made her life miserable. So she's suing the lottery.
> 
> http://video.foxnews.com/v/5327113990001/?#sp=show-clips


I can solve that problem for her.


----------



## KenOC

ATHENS, Ga. - An Athens man was arrested for assaulting his mother with a pork chop

This is wrong in so many ways...


----------



## TxllxT

https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/zhdun-interview-57121










On the Russian internet this Dutch artifact is the latest craze. Russians identify with this _zhdun_ as the best expression of their Russian soul (which resembles IMO Oblomov). Russians' typical way of spending time is waiting................

This _zhdun_ reminds me strongly of Alfie....


----------



## KenOC

"A Georgia woman was arrested Wednesday after she reportedly slammed into a chicken truck, fled and then told officers who tracked her down that she hit the vehicle because she was a vegan." Why is all this news from Georgia?

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/03/0...ed-into-chicken-truck-because-shes-vegan.html


----------



## KenOC

OMG they're back, and worse than ever! "Shotgun wielding clowns terrorize kids outside Pittsburgh."

https://heatst.com/life/clownpocalypse-killer-clowns-are-back-and-this-time-theyre-armed/

At least it's not from Georgia.


----------



## Huilunsoittaja

TxllxT said:


> https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/zhdun-interview-57121
> 
> On the Russian internet this Dutch artifact is the latest craze. Russians identify with this _zhdun_ as the best expression of their Russian soul (which resembles IMO Oblomov). Russians' typical way of spending time is waiting................
> 
> [/IMG]


LOL!! That's hilarious!! :lol:


----------



## geralmar

This happened some time ago; but I remember reading that Santa Claus was supposed to arrive by parachute to a supermarket parking lot in some southwestern U.S. city. Unfortunately Santa's parachute didn't open... .


----------



## geralmar

Somewhere in my clippings folder I have a brief news article about a man who was beaten to death in class by his anger management counselor.


----------



## KenOC

"A village in Switzerland has voted to ban tourists from taking photos.

"The commune of Bergün/Bravuogn near St Moritz decided to take the measure on Monday... Locals believe that their village is so beautiful that visitors' pictures of it, when uploaded to social media, will make other people miserable."

http://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/new...utiful’/ar-BBBJJGE?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartanntp


----------



## geralmar

These are anxious times. From today's Ann Arbor News:

School Locked Down When Person Walks in With Sandwich


----------



## Guest

https://www.tuko.co.ke/57710-angry-husband-beheads-wife-for-calling-him-uncircumcised.html

Furious Man Beheads His Wife For Calling Him Uncircumcised


----------



## KenOC

A New Mexico dealer in antiquities says he has hidden a chest of gold and jewels in the area. He has written a poem that he says has the clues necessary to recover the treasure.

So far two people have died searching for it. Others have required rescues needing "extensive resources, including air support, the state police dive team, numerous officers, canine teams and volunteers."

Authorities have called on the man to bring this to an end. He hasn't, yet.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/po...o-says-he-hid-treasure-to-end-hunt/ar-BBCXFnV


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> A New Mexico dealer in antiquities says he has hidden a chest of gold and jewels in the area. He has written a poem that he says has the clues necessary to recover the treasure.
> 
> So far two people have died searching for it. Others have required rescues needing "extensive resources, including air support, the state police dive team, numerous officers, canine teams and volunteers."
> 
> Authorities have called on the man to bring this to an end. He hasn't, yet.
> 
> http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/po...o-says-he-hid-treasure-to-end-hunt/ar-BBCXFnV


Sounds like the story of the Lost Dutchman Mine.


----------



## ldiat

KenOC said:


> A New Mexico dealer in antiquities says he has hidden a chest of gold and jewels in the area. He has written a poem that he says has the clues necessary to recover the treasure.
> 
> So far two people have died searching for it. Others have required rescues needing "extensive resources, including air support, the state police dive team, numerous officers, canine teams and volunteers."
> 
> Authorities have called on the man to bring this to an end. He hasn't, yet.
> 
> http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/po...o-says-he-hid-treasure-to-end-hunt/ar-BBCXFnV


sorry i did not view this post.. i posted the same thing on a starter thread so sorry i will edit or delete if posted. strange


----------



## elgar's ghost

Reminds me of a private treasure hunt allegedly set up in my home town back in the 1980s where a man offered a series of increasingly cryptic clues for some of his friends (who were apparently sworn to secrecy) over the course of a couple of years but died before the final clue was set (or given) - this game was apparently influenced by the then-popular TV show _Treasure Hunt_ featuring Anneka Rice and Kenneth Kendall.

After the man's death the story somehow leaked out and rumours abounded as to what the treasure was and to its actual whereabouts, but the most enduring one was that the item in question was a very expensive gold and gem necklace and that it was placed inside the small hollow of a certain tree situated on the canal bank somewhere near the back of the church in the nearby village of Salwarpe. Another theory was that there was no actual treasure at all - what was awaiting the successful participant was nothing more than a statement containing a homily on the evils of greed.

The sting in the tail is that apparently someone knew much later which tree it was but the bark has since healed over during the course of time thus sealing in the booty possibly forever (assuming the story is actually true, of course - my belief is that it was a hoax).


----------



## KenOC

Only in the state known for brotherly love? "A Pennsylvania woman was nabbed after cops say she lit her boyfriend on fire and then used urine to put out the blaze."

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/07/1...re-used-urine-to-put-out-flames-cops-say.html


----------



## TxllxT

http://www.newsweek.com/mystery-radio-signals-ross-128-star-637682

mystery signals from space


----------



## SixFootScowl

TxllxT said:


> http://www.newsweek.com/mystery-radio-signals-ross-128-star-637682
> 
> mystery signals from space


Love this part of the headline:
*...Just 11 Light-Years Away*
No big deal, we can just hop on over before dinner.


----------



## TxllxT

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/woman-murder-husband-parrot-witness-don-t-shoot-convicted-michigan-glenna-duram-a7852476.html

Parrot witnessing in court: @@@@***** Don't shoot!!!!!


----------



## ldiat

KenOC said:


> Only in the state known for brotherly love? "A Pennsylvania woman was nabbed after cops say she lit her boyfriend on fire and then used urine to put out the blaze."
> 
> http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/07/t...re-used-urine-to-put-out-flames-cops-say.html


the state is the "keystone state" the brotherly love come from the city "philadelphia". or as we in the "burgh like to say "filth-a -delphia:lol:


----------



## SixFootScowl

Man demolishes new Ferrari in a wreck within one hour of purchase. Walks away with only cuts and bruises.


----------



## geralmar




----------



## KenOC

Truly a tragedy. But still, I wish I'd seen it!


----------



## KenOC

A current story, still developing, that seems a bit strange: Peter Madsen is a Danish enthusiast who built a functional submarine. Kim Wall is a lady journalist from Sweden who is writing about Mr. Madsen. He agreed to take her on a cruise in his submarine.

The submarine sank, and Mr. Madsen was rescued from the waters. When asked about Ms. Wall, he said he had dropped her off before the malfunction occurred. However, he later changed this story to something else, currently not public information.

The submarine was raised and her body was not aboard. The police now say they believe the sinking was deliberate. Mr. Madsen has been arrested and charged with manslaughter.


----------



## TxllxT

Norfolk is a famous TC spot


----------



## SixFootScowl

TxllxT said:


> Norfolk is a famous TC spot


Massive device, but what is it?


----------



## TxllxT

Florestan said:


> Massive device, but what is it?


TC Senior moderator Taggart's plaything? (It's his beach).


----------



## geralmar




----------



## geralmar




----------



## Huilunsoittaja

geralmar said:


>


Yeah naming hurricanes is not really ideal for protecting people's lives.


----------



## geralmar




----------



## Johnnie Burgess

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Ge...ed-Best-Arabic-numerals/2017/09/03/id/811447/

Wonder if they guy knows what arabic numbers are?


----------



## KenOC

Department of unusual customs: An Indian man in Florida decided that his wife was disobedient. So he asked his parents to fly in from India to help beat her, and they did.

All three (not the wife) are awaiting charges and possible deportation.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/09/0...ns-wife-for-being-disobedient-police-say.html


----------



## geralmar




----------



## SixFootScowl

geralmar said:


>


Strange but sad story because I heard it is true.

Perhaps she should try Beano:


----------



## KenOC

Looks like Fox News is branching out from teacher-student sex stories. New headline today: "British man calls 911 after Tinder date gets stuck in window trying to grab discarded feces."

I read the story and the headline is quite accurate.

http://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/20...in-window-trying-to-grab-discarded-feces.html


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

KenOC said:


> Looks like Fox News is branching out from teacher-student sex stories. New headline today: "British man calls 911 after Tinder date gets stuck in window trying to grab discarded feces."
> 
> I read the story and the headline is quite accurate.
> 
> http://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/20...in-window-trying-to-grab-discarded-feces.html


----------



## KenOC

21st century problems: "Hackers could program sex robots to kill."

Another darn thing to worry about.

http://nypost.com/2017/09/11/hackers-could-program-sex-robots-to-kill/


----------



## Dr Johnson

KenOC said:


> 21st century problems: *"Hackers could program sex robots to kill."
> *
> Another darn thing to worry about.
> 
> http://nypost.com/2017/09/11/hackers-could-program-sex-robots-to-kill/


Damn !


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

But what a way to go


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese




----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

KenOC said:


> 21st century problems: "Hackers could program sex robots to kill."
> 
> Another darn thing to worry about.
> 
> http://nypost.com/2017/09/11/hackers-could-program-sex-robots-to-kill/


and the news story was by George Harrison - weird


----------



## KenOC

From Cuba, definitely not humorous. "Soon came the hearing loss, and the speech problems, symptoms both similar and altogether different from others among at least 21 U.S. victims in an astonishing international mystery still unfolding in Cuba. The top U.S. diplomat has called them 'health attacks'. New details learned by The Associated Press indicate at least some of the incidents were confined to specific rooms or even parts of rooms with laser-like specificity, baffling U.S. officials who say the facts and the physics don't add up…"

"Some felt vibrations, and heard sounds - loud ringing or a high-pitch chirping similar to crickets or cicadas. Others heard the grinding noise. Some victims awoke with ringing in their ears and fumbled for their alarm clocks, only to discover the ringing stopped when they moved away from their beds… Some have mild traumatic brain injury, known as a concussion, and others permanent hearing loss… Other symptoms have included brain swelling, dizziness, nausea, severe headaches, balance problems and tinnitus, or prolonged ringing in the ears."

Some Canadian diplomats have been affected as well. Cuba says it has no clue about any of this. The US can't identify the cause or even imagine what the cause might be.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/attacked-bed-safe-feet-cuba-mystery-deepens-49841122


----------



## ldiat




----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Policing Kiwi style

*Kapi-Mana police call for owners of half a kilo of cannabis* 
MATT STEWART
Last updated 15:08, September 18 2017








Wellington District Police
Optimistic Kapi-Mana police are calling for the owner of this lost cannabis stash to come forward.

It's a lost and found story worthy of Cheech and Chong after dopey dope fiends let their stash find its way to police. 

Wellington District Police posted a picture of the half-kilo of primo buds in a tongue-in-cheek appeal to its owners on its Facebook page on Sunday night replete with the hash... tag #wonderiftheywillcall. 

"We've located a substantial amount of cannabis and would like to speak to its owner. If this is yours can you please get in touch with us."

The post sparked up the comments section with at least one commenter offering the orphaned herbs a good home. 

Another was simply a GIF of Homer J. Simpson vanishing, backwards as he is swallowed by a hedge of marijuana leaves. 

"It needs to be thoroughly destroyed by being rolled up in paper and burnt," another commenter quipped. 

While clear-headed readers would probably think twice before contacting the authorities, many commenters were lobbying for the stash on "medicinal" grounds. 

Given the highly unlikely chance of the stash being claimed police can always follow Billy T. James' lead and create "hats" from the illicit haul. 

A spokeswoman said police were always looking at different ways to communicate on social media. 

"We try to be informative and fun at the same time. This approach works well for us, and often results in much higher engagement with our followers. It's one way of reminding the public to let us know about concerning activity in their communities, by notifying police through official channels," she said.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/oddstuff/969529 ... f-cannabis


----------



## SixFootScowl

Only 20 miles from where I live: The Radioactive Boyscout.

Edit: I should add his picture for effect:


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Florestan said:


> Only 20 miles from where I live: The Radioactive Boyscout.


WOW- just as well that Kim jongun didn't get hold of him, his body alone could be used as a WMD


----------



## TxllxT

In the Central Station of the Hague an experiment is going on in order to get harassing youngsters & homeless out of the complex during the late hours: *Classical music* seems to do a very effective job!


----------



## SixFootScowl

TxllxT said:


> In the Central Station of the Hague an experiment is going on in order to get harassing youngsters & homeless out of the complex during the late hours: *Classical music* seems to do a very effective job!


Drive them out even faster with opera. Many classical listeners and most pop listeners are repulsed by opera.


----------



## TxllxT

Florestan said:


> Drive them out even faster with opera. Many classical listeners and most pop listeners are repulsed by opera.


Well, to be honest, I have my doubts about Wagner: the ride of the Valkyries may attract a lot of street scum. But an endless loop with Wotan's grumbling monologue may do the trick


----------



## Granate

Florestan said:


> Drive them out even faster with opera. Many classical listeners and most pop listeners are repulsed by opera.


Going into deeper terms, opera *without context,* specially atonal, can be very repulsive.


----------



## KenOC

An early Hallowe'en decoration sparks 911 calls in Tennessee.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41355592


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> An early Hallowe'en decoration sparks 911 calls in Tennessee.
> 
> http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41355592


That's a sick joke.


----------



## TxllxT

Breaking back into jail:

https://globalnews.ca/news/3764039/inmates-escape-from-mississippi-jail-rob-convenience-store-then-break-back-into-jail-police/


----------



## Manxfeeder

Florestan said:


> Drive them out even faster with opera. Many classical listeners and most pop listeners are repulsed by opera.


I think they did this in England by playing Delius.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Granate said:


> Going into deeper terms, opera *without context,* specially atonal, can be very repulsive.


Wow, Atonal Opera think your on to something there. Maybe we could apply for a weapons research grant and then explore the possibilties of combining Wagner/ Atonality/ Cage and Opera into some sort of antimissle defence system...... I'd call it WACO


----------



## TxllxT

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Wow, Atonal Opera think your on to something there. Maybe we could apply for a weapons research grant and then explore the possibilties of combining Wagner/ Atonality/ Cage and Opera into some sort of antimissle defence system...... I'd call it WACO


What about casting the president into a new war opera against Rocketman? Veryyyyy repulsive indeed!


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

TxllxT said:


> What about casting the president into a new war opera against Rocketman? Veryyyyy repulsive indeed!


If only Wagner was alive, he could write an Opera about it and it would go for years...........


----------



## starthrower

Emperor Drumpf wants to fire football players. **** that arrogant jerk!


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

The world of Musical Weapons technology move quickly you know. I've already moved on from WACO, as I found the Wagner and Cage musical notes cancelled each other out like matter / antimatter and produced something resembling Timberlake (you now bland white style pop music), so I calling that the Timberlake effect.
My new studies however have produced something more horrible- which I call KAOS, which combined KPop, Atonality, Opera and Sprechgesang (Speaksinging). I'm sure to win a weapons research grant for this one but I've gotta move quick before the UN bans this new weapon...........

All I want is a Helpmann Award thats all not much to ask.......

http://www.helpmannawards.com.au/


----------



## Johnnie Burgess

starthrower said:


> Emperor Drumpf wants to fire football players. **** that arrogant jerk!


There a lot of Americans who agree with me. Maybe they would love to see empty stadiums and getting no more money.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Johnnie Burgess said:


> There a lot of Americans who agree with me. Maybe they would love to see empty stadiums and getting no more money.


Its only American Football, so who cares only the Americans- now for the really game played by real Kangaroos
Aussie Rules 
http://websites.sportstg.com/club_info.cgi?c=1-7993-111808-0-0&sID=389874


----------



## ldiat

Johnnie Burgess said:


> There a lot of Americans who agree with me. Maybe they would love to see empty stadiums and getting no more money.


i really don't think that will happen at all. 3 reasons. too much money involved in betting-too much money from TV and fantasy football.


----------



## Bulldog

starthrower said:


> Emperor Drumpf wants to fire football players. **** that arrogant jerk!


I think it's safe to say that many more Americans want NFL football than they want to see our President continue in office.

I do notice that Trump doesn't own an NFL team where he could fire at will. He likely doesn't have the finances to buy a team.


----------



## mmsbls

Please refrain from political posts.


----------



## SixFootScowl

> opera without context





EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Wow, Atonal Opera think your on to something there. Maybe we could apply for a weapons research grant and then explore the possibilties of combining Wagner/ Atonality/ Cage and Opera into some sort of antimissle defence system...... I'd call it WACO


Would that include a liberetto that is composed of the output of a random word generator?


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Florestan said:


> Would that include a liberetto that is composed of the output of a random word generator?


I think Cage would have approved for that and let run for 666 years to keep Wagner happy also


----------



## TxllxT

Florestan said:


> Would that include a libretto that is composed of the output of a random word generator?


It would also include a robotised audience that would applaud at random...


----------



## SixFootScowl

TxllxT said:


> It would also include a robotised audience that would applaud at random...


In that case, why have anything physical beyond the silicon chip? Let it all happen there to the satisfaction of the programmer and spare the rest of the world of it. :lol:


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

TxllxT said:


> It would also include a robotised audience that would applaud at random...


,

First our jobs ,then our entertainment, we need the terminator


----------



## TxllxT

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/czech-republic-most-unhealthy-country-world-diet-drink-food-exercise-smoking-drinking-a7966306.html

The world's most unhealthy country: Czech Republic, the world's most healthy country: Afghanistan & Somalia.

Smoking, drinking, greasy _Bratwurst_...:devil: But when you come to Prague, the noisy drunkards in the streets happen to be Danes.


----------



## TxllxT

https://www.novinky.cz/koktejl/450405-pumpar-v-polsku-si-pri-prepadeni-cetl-noviny-zlodej-radeji-odesel.html

Today's Polish hero is Lukasz Szymański, employee at a gas station. All of a sudden a robber entered and demanded the cash. Szymanski happened to read a newspaper, looked up and dryly answered: 'You're joking'. The robber pulled out a big knife and repeated his words, but Szymanski just told him to stop bothering him, because he was reading his newspaper. About 20 seconds there happened an eerie quiet. Then the robber fled. Szymanski called the police, the robber was arrested and he faces a jail sentence of twelve years.

A few days ago a drunken Polish driver on the _Autobahn_ near Frankfurt turned his car on the highway and caused a fatal accident in which three people from Holland lost their lives. He faces a jail sentence of five  years.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Weird weather: Dead bullock in a tree, frozen goannas & jellyfish rain

https://weirdaustralia.com/2015/10/25/weird-weather-dead-bullock-in-a-tree-frozen-goannas-jellyfish-rain/


----------



## SixFootScowl

New fad, eyeball tinting, gone horribly wrong.


----------



## KenOC

New job opening: "NASA announced that it is searching for a planetary protection officer to protect Earth from extraterrestrial contamination." Are you up to it? Bruce Willis can't do everything, after all. Down in the article a bit.

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2017...pace-rock-to-test-global-warning-network.html


----------



## KenOC

"Nose hair extensions become latest beauty trend." What was that again about the end times?

http://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/2017/10/12/nose-hair-extensions-become-latest-beauty-trend.html


----------



## SixFootScowl

Teenager has stomach removed after drinking liquid nitrogen cocktail

Another story with video.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese




----------



## SixFootScowl

^ Awesome! A little genetic engineering and our progeny will be much safer on the roads.


----------



## hpowders

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


>


Didn't I PM you not to use my profile pic?


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

^ Sorry I forgot


----------



## Barbebleu

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


>


I'm sure I used to see this guy on the train.:lol:


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Barbebleu said:


> I'm sure I used to see this guy on the train.:lol:


Was he the driver


----------



## hpowders

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


>


No wonder he looks like that! He needs a fine Brooks Brothers button down shirt and a fine silk Armani tie! Can help any monster look his best!


----------



## hpowders

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


>


Looks like my clarinet teacher except this guy looks like he's got the better embouchure.


----------



## hpowders

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> ^ Sorry I forgot


I woke up this morning and all my female friends de-friended me.

Nah....probably just a coincidence....only 37 were female.


----------



## KenOC

"A Canadian man has filed a lawsuit against Sunwing Airlines for promising a champagne service and instead serving sparkling wine. 
…
"Mr Paquette said references to real champagne - a sparkling wine variety made specifically in the Champagne region in France - was front and centre in Sunwing's marketing materials.
…
"Mr Paquette said about 1,600 other plaintiffs have come forward in Quebec to join the lawsuit."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41669611


----------



## TxllxT

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/elderly-people-stop-seat-offers-public-transport-health-expert-a8006641.html

Stop offering seats to elderly people


----------



## KenOC

Fox headline: "Farmer dead after cow rebels against him."

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/10/26/farmer-dead-after-cow-rebels-against-him.html

Brings to mind this story:


----------



## KenOC

Two stories today that caught my eye.

1. Christ Church in Alexandria VA, which George Washington and his family attended, has a plaque next to the pew where the Washington family always sat. The church is removing the plaque. “The plaques in our sanctuary make some in our presence feel unsafe or unwelcome,” leaders said.

2. Colleges nationwide are cracking down on Halloween costumes that some might find offensive.

Good news! Soon we’ll have a country where no citizen need ever feel offended or disturbed by the views of others, or even by history.


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> 2. Colleges nationwide are cracking down on Halloween costumes that some might find offensive.


Gotta ban clown costumes. I just read that there is a phobia that is fear of clowns. Makes sense with all the mahem clown movies and such that we have these days, not to mention (but I do) the thieves accosting people in clown suits. We had one of those in the Detroit area last year.


----------



## Blancrocher

Fritz Kobus said:


> Gotta ban clown costumes. I just read that there is a phobia that is fear of clowns. Makes sense with all the mahem clown movies and such that we have these days, not to mention (but I do) the thieves accosting people in clown suits. We had one of those in the Detroit area last year.


As a first step, I think TC should eliminate the smiley face emoticon.


----------



## Totenfeier

KenOC said:


> Two stories today that caught my eye.
> 
> 1. Christ Church in Alexandria VA, which George Washington and his family attended, has a plaque next to the pew where the Washington family always sat. The church is removing the plaque. "The plaques in our sanctuary make some in our presence feel unsafe or unwelcome," leaders said.
> 
> 2. Colleges nationwide are cracking down on Halloween costumes that some might find offensive.
> 
> Good news! Soon we'll have a country where no citizen need ever feel offended or disturbed by the views of others, or even by history.


I am seriously offended by the growing lack of offense in this country. Where is my plaque?

_Seriously_, who would have ever guessed that dour, unsmiling Puritanism mixed with weepy emotionalism would become the default mode for the progressive Left? At least the original Puritans were concerned lest God be offended; now we are wholly consumed with the fear that man, mon, min, womyn, whatever, will be offended. (I carry no water for any political stance; I am a freelance hater of foolishness wherever it be found, right or left).


----------



## SixFootScowl

A huge college party in Texas got so rowdy on Saturday night that jumping partygoers caused the floor to collapse, sending people flying down into the apartments below. Story.


----------



## geralmar

And I always thought earthworms were good for the soil:

https://daily.jstor.org/maybe-earth...l&utm_source=Act-On+Software&utm_medium=email


----------



## KenOC

"A 70-year-old retiree in Vermont made ricin and tested the deadly toxin on her retirement home neighbors by putting it in their food or beverages, federal officials said Friday.

"Betty Miller, of Shelburne, told FBI agents she wanted to test the poison's effectiveness on other residents at the Wake Robin senior living facility before using it on herself… She added that she found instructions online and then used 30 to 40 castor beans from plants growing on the property to make the ricin…

"Miller was charged with processing a biological weapon."

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/12/01/police-retiree-made-ricin-tested-it-on-neighbors.html


----------



## wkasimer

KenOC said:


> Two stories today that caught my eye.
> 2. Colleges nationwide are cracking down on Halloween costumes that some might find offensive.


This was the subject of a major brouhaha at Yale a couple of years ago:

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/08/us/yale-lecturer-resigns-after-email-on-halloween-costumes.html


----------



## LezLee

Fritz Kobus said:


> Gotta ban clown costumes. I just read that there is a phobia that is fear of clowns. Makes sense with all the mahem clown movies and such that we have these days, not to mention (but I do) the thieves accosting people in clown suits. We had one of those in the Detroit area last year.


Fear of clowns (coulrophobia) is pretty common. My mum took me to the circus when I was about 5 and when the clowns came on, I started screaming and had to be taken home. How anyone could find them funny is beyond me.There was a recent craze for people dressed as clowns accosting people in the street, the practice has now been banned.


----------



## KenOC

I like this one, it's so suggestive. "Man who used potato chip bag to skip work for years has been fired"

http://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/2...ag-to-skip-work-for-years-has-been-fired.html


----------



## KenOC

From the BBC: _Man 'cements microwave to head' in Wolverhampton_

This was, it seems, not the right thing to do.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-42271150


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

KenOC said:


> From the BBC: _Man 'cements microwave to head' in Wolverhampton_
> 
> This was, it seems, not the right thing to do.
> 
> http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-42271150


Aussie are so inventive


----------



## KenOC

A little late night humor (?) "Woman ripped man's testicle out with her teeth"

BBC seems to be on a roll.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-42267533


----------



## LezLee

At least she wasn’t Scottish.

A recent article in the Guardian about rubbish tourist attractions included this:

“A new zoo in southern China left attendees distinctly disappointed with the range of ‘exotic’ animals on offer. Guishan Zoo, the first zoo in Yulin, Guangxi province, promised an array of rare animals – only to display some inflatable penguins in a waterless pool, a couple of roosters, geese and ducks, as well as a tortoise in a tank surrounded by some money (reasons unclear). Bemused visitors added images of the underwhelming zoo on Chinese social media and they were soon shared far and wide.”

This was followed today by this letter:

“Visitors to the Chinese zoo should not have been surprised at its lack of animals. China is the home of the shih-tzu”


----------



## TurnaboutVox

LezLee said:


> This was followed today by this letter:
> 
> "Visitors to the Chinese zoo should not have been surprised at its lack of animals. China is the home of the shih-tzu"


I saw that too, showing that the Guardian letters page is often the home of the shih-tdzoke.


----------



## KenOC

A Fox headline caught my eye: "There's room for all God's creatures, right next to my mashed potatoes."

A bit of satire on modern feminism. An excerpt:'I spotted an intriguing article titled "Doing Vegetarianism to Destabilize the Meat-Masculinity Nexus in La Plata, Argentina." This, I thought to myself, looked almost as promising as the last article I had read in this same journal; "Knit and Resist: Placing the PussyHat Project in the Content of Craft Activism." Intrigued, I used my often remarked upon ability to manipulate the Dewey Decimal System and quickly tracked down the November 2017 issue of the journal.'

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017...eatures-right-next-to-my-mashed-potatoes.html


----------



## LezLee

A present suggestion from today’s Observer:

“For the friend who has everything: luxury, vegan, Fair Trade condoms in a discreet box”


----------



## Guest

Oumuamua, from another solar system...


----------



## Flamme

Well, no surprise here...


----------



## KenOC

This may not belong here, but here's a picture that made my testicles retract up into the region of my shoulder blades. Unfortunately, this Chinese rooftopper fell to his death a couple of days ago. He's holding a selfie stick here.


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> This may not belong here, but here's a picture that made my testicles retract up into the region of my shoulder blades. Unfortunately, this Chinese rooftopper fell to his death a couple of days ago. He's holding a selfie stick here.


Apparently the conveniences of modern society has given too many people too much free time.


----------



## Potiphera

It looks to me like its is photoshopped.


----------



## Flamme

Sadly its true...




He tried to do 3 push ups but failed at third, being not strong enough


----------



## KenOC

Natalio Conde, 92 years old and infirm, heard people in his Bronx apartment at 4:00 AM. His brother-in-law, Mario Sanabria, 69, who was looking after him, may have grabbed a souvenir machete from behind a door, fearing a home invasion. But it was the police, executing a no-knock search warrant. They shot Mario dead.

The police were looking for Mario's nephew, Miguel Conde. The officers believed that Miguel had a gun and narcotics in the apartment.

But they found only a crumbling stub of a marijuana cigarette and a pocketknife. Miguel was later taken into custody, but after being questioned for several hours, he was released with a summons for the marijuana and the knife.

What sort of country are we coming to be?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crim...family-asks-why-trigger-was-pulled/ar-BBGIt71


----------



## KenOC

A couple of quick pick-me-ups for the holiday season:

_'Jingle Bells' rooted in racism, Boston University professor says_
_
Santa, Christmas trees 'not appropriate' for holidays, students told at University event_


----------



## KenOC

BBC headline: “Royal Blood gig phone thief used swimsuit”

Sometimes it’s fun just trying to figure out what a story like that could possibly be about.


----------



## KenOC

Fox headline: "American University frat house tested positive for booze, police say"

Makes me think of Captain Renault in _Casablanca_, while in Rick's: "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!" He then collects his winnings…


----------



## SixFootScowl




----------



## LezLee

On Scottish TV news: “Buffalo on the run in Fife”

There’s even a helicopter search!
(Fife is an east coastal district of central Scotland, buffalo are not indigenous).


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

LezLee said:


> On Scottish TV news: "Buffalo on the run in Fife"
> 
> There's even a helicopter search!
> (Fife is an east coastal district of central Scotland, buffalo are not indigenous).


You sure it not just a hill dweller who has not had a shave for a while


----------



## KenOC

"Man arrested after repeatedly calling 911 about restaurant's small clams"

Real headline, real story.

One person commented on the story that the guy should have taken it to small clams court.


----------



## KenOC

Two California professors are criticizing farmers' markets for causing "environmental gentrification" in which "habits of white people are normalized"

White privilege bolstered by teaching math, university professor says


----------



## KenOC

A sad story. Two thieves in Detroit decided to steal copper cable. They broke into a substation and grabbed some 24 kv cables. Their bodies are now fused together. The good news: The cost of a one coffin has been saved.


----------



## KenOC

DPRK News Service: "US city of Los Angeles is upgraded from secondary to primary missile target upon news that 'millennial YouTube celebrity' Logan Paul is resident."


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/948225570067943429


----------



## Totenfeier

Ken OC - you're a hoot!

I'm not up to linking right now, but I read an article yesterday about how a professor has decided that Prince Charming kissing Sleeping Beauty is an example of male aggression and coercive, non-consensual sexual assault.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Gosh, I'd better go find his version of Snow White.......


----------



## Totenfeier

She won't be ("pure as the driven snow," that is) when _he_ gets through with her, apparently...


----------



## znapschatz

Totenfeier said:


> Ken OC - you're a hoot!
> 
> I'm not up to linking right now, but I read an article yesterday about how a professor has decided that Prince Charming kissing Sleeping Beauty is an example of *male aggression and coercive, non-consensual sexual assault.*


Or, the courageous act of a resolute knight errant. It takes a powerful boost of high quality testosterone to get that close to the mouth of someone who has been asleep for 100 years.


----------



## Jos

KenOC said:


> A sad story. Two thieves in Detroit decided to steal copper cable. They broke into a substation and grabbed some 24 kv cables. Their bodies are now fused together. The good news: The cost of a one coffin has been saved.


Must notify Darwinawards.com for their 2017 nominations !


----------



## KenOC

From the BBC: "Thai p e n i s whitening trend raises eyebrows"

A previously undiscovered neural pathway, perhaps?

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42575155


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

KenOC said:


> From the BBC: "Thai p e n i s whitening trend raises eyebrows"
> 
> A previously undiscovered neural pathway, perhaps?
> 
> http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42575155


I liked your typing to avoid censorship- next they will offer a p e n i s colouring service


----------



## LezLee

The 2017 Darwin Awards:

The winner:

When his .38 caliber revolver failed to fire at his intended victim during a hold-up in Long Beach, California, the would-be robber James Elliot did something that can only inspire wonder. He peered down the barrel and tried the trigger again. This time it worked.

The honorable mentions:
The chef at a hotel in Switzerland lost a finger in a meat cutting machine and after a little shopping round, submitted a claim to his insurance company. The company expecting negligence sent out one of its men to have a look for himself. He tried the machine and he also lost a finger.. The chef's claim was approved.

After stopping for drinks at an illegal bar, a Zimbabwean bus driver found that the 20 mental patients he was supposed to be transporting from Harare to Bulawayo had escaped. Not wanting to admit his incompetence, the driver went to a nearby bus stop and offered everyone waiting there a free ride.
He then delivered the passengers to the mental hospital, telling the staff that the patients were very excitable and prone to bizarre fantasies. The deception wasn't discovered for 3 days.

An American teenager was in the hospital recovering from serious head wounds received from an oncoming train. When asked how he received the injuries, the lad told police that he was simply trying to see how close he could get his head to a moving train before he was hit.

A man walked into a Louisiana Circle-K, put a $20 bill on the counter, and asked for change. When the clerk opened the cash drawer, the man pulled a gun and asked for all the cash in the register, which the clerk promptly provided. The man took the cash from the clerk and fled, leaving the $20 bill on the counter. The total amount of cash he got from the drawer... $15.

Seems an Arkansas guy wanted some beer pretty badly... He decided that he'd just throw a cinder block through a liquor store window, grab some booze, and run. So he lifted the cinder block and heaved it over his head at the window. The cinder block bounced back and hit the would-be thief on the head, knocking him unconscious. The liquor store window was made of Plexiglas. The whole event was caught on videotape.

As a female shopper exited a New York convenience store, a man grabbed her purse and ran. The clerk called 911 immediately, and the woman was able to give them a detailed description of the snatcher. Within minutes, the police apprehended the snatcher. They put him in the car and drove back to the store. The thief was then taken out of the car and told to stand there for a positive ID. To which he replied, "Yes, officer, that's her That's the lady I stole the purse from."

The Ann Arbor News crime column reported that a man walked into a Burger King in Ypsilanti, Michigan at 5 A.M., flashed a gun, and demanded cash.
The clerk turned him down because he said he couldn't open the cash register without a food order. When the man ordered onion rings, the clerk said they weren't available for breakfast... The frustrated gunman walked away.

When a man attempted to siphon gasoline from a motor home parked on a Seattle street by sucking on a hose, he got much more than he bargained for. Police arrived at the scene to find a very sick man curled up next to a motor home near spilled sewage. A police spokesman said that the man admitted to trying to steal gasoline, but he plugged his siphon hose into the motor home's sewage tank by mistake. The owner of the vehicle declined to press charges saying that it was the best laugh he'd ever had and the perp had been punished enough!


----------



## KenOC

Deep thinking from NBC: "*LGBTQ nonprofits fear 'disastrous' losses under new tax plan*"

It's all a Republican plot! Since the new tax plan doubles the standard deduction (and in doing so reduces taxes), more people will choose that and fewer will itemize deductions. And if you don't itemize, you won't get a tax break for charitable contributions. Is that sneaky or what!

Obviously the solution is to raise taxes, not lower them, if you want to promote tax-exempt contributions. This is actually true, though it doesn't seem very appealing to me. BTW there's nothing in the article as to why LGBTQ nonprofits will be any more affected than churches, thrift stores, etc. But that's NBC of course.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/l...ax-plan/ar-BBHWtsR?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartanntp


----------



## KenOC

Headline: Professor claims 'meritocracy' in math class is a 'tool of whiteness' 

After reading this, looks like we have to give up either math or merit.


----------



## Totenfeier

KenOC said:


> Headline: Professor claims 'meritocracy' in math class is a 'tool of whiteness'
> 
> After reading this, looks like we have to give up either math or merit.


Oh, that choice has already been made, and we're living the fruits of it.


----------



## KenOC

Couldn't resist this.

New Regulation Requires All Protected Species To Be Actively Looking For New Habitat In Order To Receive Funding


----------



## Totenfeier

KenOC said:


> Couldn't resist this.
> 
> New Regulation Requires All Protected Species To Be Actively Looking For New Habitat In Order To Receive Funding


Almost got me with that one - but anything seems possible coming out of Washington these days. Deport the bears! Sad!


----------



## Dr Johnson

*Black pudding saved my life, says butcher*

http://www.cetusnews.com/news/Black...himself-from-locked-freezer.S1HeH07meHEM.html

The headline reads like something out of Withnail & I.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Dr Johnson said:


> *Black pudding saved my life, says butcher*
> 
> http://www.cetusnews.com/news/Black...himself-from-locked-freezer.S1HeH07meHEM.html
> 
> The headline reads like something out of Withnail & I.


Is he related to Bill Oddie :lol:


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Totenfeier said:


> Almost got me with that one - but anything seems possible coming out of Washington these days. Deport the bears! Sad!


Made me think of this song


----------



## Dr Johnson

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Is he related to Bill Oddie :lol:


Ecky-Thump gets a mention in other coverage of the story:

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/11/butcher_breaks_out_of_own_freezer_using_black_pudding/


----------



## KenOC

This is really starting to scare me. "Slaughterbots", autonomous micro-drone swarms used by US troops in warfare - or really, by anybody anywhere. What will be our future?

First, read this upbeat article on Fox:

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2018/01/11/how-deadly-drone-swarms-will-help-us-troops-on-frontline.html

Then watch this video, and you may be as scared as I am.


----------



## Totenfeier

KenOC said:


> This is really starting to scare me. "Slaughterbots", autonomous micro-drone swarms used by US troops in warfare - or really, by anybody anywhere. What will be our future?
> 
> First, read this upbeat article on Fox:
> 
> http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2018/01/11/how-deadly-drone-swarms-will-help-us-troops-on-frontline.html
> 
> Then watch this video, and you may be as scared as I am.


Not to be that guy, but:

Revelation 9:1-4


----------



## geralmar

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> I liked your typing to avoid censorship- next they will offer a p e n i s colouring service


Splitting the word between lines also works:


----------



## KenOC

More scary stuff. How many young adults live in their parents' basements playing first-person shooter video games? Lots, I suspect.

Video-gamer, 28, kills mom after blaming her for broken headset, police say

Of course this may lead to behavioral abnormalities, ranging from notorious school massacres to more mundane violence.

Do violent video games boost aggression? Study adds fire to debate


----------



## LezLee

Dr Johnson said:


> *Black pudding saved my life, says butcher*
> 
> http://www.cetusnews.com/news/Black...himself-from-locked-freezer.S1HeH07meHEM.html
> 
> The headline reads like something out of Withnail & I.


Barry Florence from suppliers HM Sheridan said the firm was "absolutely delighted" to "play a small part in saving this man's life". He said it was the first time he had heard his black pudding, which he supplies to the Queen and the Prince of Wales, being used to batter a door down.

"We only use the finest Scottish ingredients. That might make it harder," Florence said"

Might be all that iron in the blood?


----------



## Guest

This must qualify for this thread...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-42610625


----------



## TxllxT

Feodor Chaliapin (1873 - 1938) was known to cross himself at every performance as opera singer before showing himself on the stage. Once a small boy watched him inside an opera house, where Chaliapin performed as Mephistofele. "Dad, dad, this devil is crossing himself!" "Never mind, my son, don't believe it, it's all just theatre!"


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Queensland to remove sex from drivers licences
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/othe...ender-from-licences/vi-AAuzGPr?refvid=AAuBSIg

Well it is Queens land after all, so I guess the cops already know


----------



## KenOC

Fascinating news - "U.S. counterintelligence officials in early 2017 warned Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, that Wendi Deng Murdoch, a prominent Chinese-American businesswoman, could be using her close friendship with Mr. Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, to further the interests of the Chinese government."

Wendi was the third wife of Rupert Murdoch, the Fox News magnate and Trump booster. Rupert filed for divorce in 2013 when he found out she was having an affair with (wait for it) Tony Blair.

Anyway, hijinx in high places. Here's the full article from the Wall Street Journal. And here's a nice picture of Wendi with some well-known friends.


----------



## KenOC

"Navy files homicide charges against commanders of 2 ships in deadly crashes"

I don't know if this is "bizarre" or not, but I can't remember anything like it in recent years. You may recall that two US warships were involved in collisions in the Pacific a few months ago with loss of life. Now the commanders of both ships have been charged by the Navy with negligent homicide. Serious jail time for that if convicted by military courts!

"Former Cmdr. Bryce Benson of the USS Fitzgerald and former Cmdr. Alfredo J. Sanchez of the USS John S. McCain are among those charged, according to USNI News. Additionally, two lieutenants and one lieutenant junior grade of the Fitzgerald also face charges, the Navy said. Among the charges are dereliction of duty, hazarding a vessel and negligent homicide."

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/01/1...nst-commanders-2-ships-in-deadly-crashes.html


----------



## KenOC

Warning: Television doctor at work! One of the weirder things to happen here recently.

Dr. Ronny Jackson, a rear admiral and for several years the White House physician, reported yesterday on the results of Pres. Trump's physical examination. The exam took several hours and was conducted by about a dozen physicians from various specialties. Dr. Jackson said that Trump is "in excellent health," including earning a perfect score on a cognitive functioning test, the first time such a test has been administered to a sitting president (at Trump's request). The only things noted were the need to get more exercise and eat a bit better to lose 10-15 pounds, and to increase the current light dose of a statin (Crestor) to knock down the LDL cholesterol levels a bit.

Much of the press audience seemed dismayed by the news. They have long been casting doubts on Trump's mental health, evidently based mostly on their views of his political positions. Dr. Jackson was peppered with questions sometimes bordering on accusations of either incompetence or malpractice. For me, it was embarrassing to watch.

CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta asked Dr. Jackson if Trump had heart disease. Dr. Jackson's reply: "No, he does not have heart disease."

So today Dr. Gupta, who has never examined the president, tweeted twice: "The president has heart disease." This line is being duly echoed by the New York Times and some other sources, none of them really surprising. As somebody else tweeted, "It's touching to see the concern our press has for the President's health."

However, there's some humor here. A new "girther" movement, modeled on the "birther" movement that claimed Obama wasn't born in the US (a view that Trump talked up), claims that Trump's health report has his height wrong, and thus he's too fat and medically obese.










More: Despite Trump's "Fake News Awards" and his physical exam, Newsweek soldiers on: "President Still Taking Hair Loss Drug Even After Research Revealed It Causes Erectile Dysfunction and Depression."

http://www.newsweek.com/trump-healt...kTwitter&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social

This is becoming quite hard to believe. It never stops.


----------



## KenOC

I know our mods are getting impatient, but... Just one day of MSNBC Trump headlines:

- One year after Trump's inauguration, no one will say how they spent the extra money
- Russia researcher testifies that Trump had ‘pattern’ of Kremlin-connected money laundering
- Trump lawyer used private Delaware company to pay adult film star: report
- Trump personally made decision to limit Bannon testimony: report

Wow! Can anybody doubt the good health and vigor of our septuagenarian president? I think we should be proud of a leader who can pursue so many felonious ends at one time! Over the past year, this is well over 1,000 evil deeds. Way to go, Donald!


----------



## KenOC

"Youtube Video Personalities" added to list of 135 classes of social parasites barred from travel to DPRK, alongside "Davos Participants," "Reactionary Japanese Spies," and "Convicted Donkey Molesters."


----------



## Pugg

Doctors warning people not to eat dishwashers tablets, new "fun" amongst people, how long can you chew before you get sick. 
Disgusting.


----------



## SixFootScowl

Pugg said:


> Doctors warning people not to eat dishwashers tablets, new "fun" amongst people, how long can you chew before you get sick.
> Disgusting.


I guess people are so jaded with all the free time that the modern world gives them (in some societies) and so lacking in purpose and meaning that they will do just about anything for a kick. A sad situation. When you have to have heated car seats to drive in winter, things have gotten pretty bad. Developed nations (at least USA) have gotten way past the point of fulfilling necessity that most products are way over developed and over designed.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Spinal Tap's Derek Smalls To Drop Debut Solo Album In Character
By Holly Williams in Music / Festivals on 19 January 2018

'Smalls Change (Meditations Upon Ageing)' arrives in April. 

For comedy value and genuine musical fun 'This Is Spinal Tap' star Harry Shearer is launching a new solo album as his mockumentary character Derek Smalls. 'Smalls Change (Meditations Upon Ageing)' will be released later this year followed by a US tour with full details yet to be announced.








Derek Smalls performing with Spinal Tap at Glastonbury

It's been 34 years since the parody rockumentary became a cult sensation, and now Spinal Tap bassist Derek Smalls himself is releasing his debut solo venture this Spring. He's also set to follow-up with a tour entitled 'Lukewarm Water Live: An Adventure in Loud Music'.

'[It's] halfway between 'rage against the dying light' and trying to find the light', Harry Shearer as Derek Smalls told Rolling Stone of the album.

Smalls has also released the track listing complete with hilarious descriptions. For example, he describes how 'in one lifetime, the telephone has gone from a miracle to a pain in the ****' in 'Butt Call', how 'MRI' matters because 'Everybody's going to have one, eventually. It's just another ride. To hell, but still'. Then there's 'Gummin the Gash' which he calls the 'celebration of the meeting of two toothless cavities'.

The guests credited on the record are no joke, however. Among those who have contributed include David Crosby, Peter Frampton, Steely Dan's Donald Fagen, Foo Fighters' Taylor Hawkins, Red Hot Chili Peppers' Chad Smith, Yes' Rick Wakeman, Frank Zappa's son Dweezil Zappa, touring guitarist Joe Satriani and it also sees the return of Steve Vai who worked on the original Spinal Tap music.

'Lukewarm Water Live' will take Smalls to New Orleans' Saenger Theater on April 14th with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as Atlanta's Symphony Hall with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra.

'Smalls Change (Meditations Upon Ageing)' will be released on April 13th 2018 through Twanky Records and BMG.

Contactmusic

http://www.contactmusic.com/spinal-tap/ ... um_5963682


----------



## DeepR

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/...mbered-parents-not-psychopath-hong-kong-court

"A piano piece by Russian composer Alexander Scriabin might have driven a man who later killed and butchered his parents into a frenzy, the Court of First Instance heard yesterday."


----------



## KenOC

DPRK newswire: US senator Mitch McConnell stares into void of ultimate experience in grueling terror. Yog Sothoth knows the gate. Yog Sothoth is the gate. Yog Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog Sothoth.


----------



## geralmar

LezLee said:


> At least she wasn't Scottish.
> 
> A recent article in the Guardian about rubbish tourist attractions included this:
> 
> "A new zoo in southern China left attendees distinctly disappointed with the range of 'exotic' animals on offer. Guishan Zoo, the first zoo in Yulin, Guangxi province, promised an array of rare animals - only to display some inflatable penguins in a waterless pool, a couple of roosters, geese and ducks, as well as a tortoise in a tank surrounded by some money (reasons unclear). Bemused visitors added images of the underwhelming zoo on Chinese social media and they were soon shared far and wide."
> 
> This was followed today by this letter:
> 
> "Visitors to the Chinese zoo should not have been surprised at its lack of animals. China is the home of the shih-tzu"


----------



## LezLee

A recipe in today’s Observer Food Magazine contains smoked water.


----------



## SixFootScowl

LezLee said:


> A recipe in today's Observer Food Magazine contains smoked water.


Interesting. Do they collect run off from when the fire department is fighting a house fire?


----------



## geralmar




----------



## geralmar

Sorry; I no longer do Trump.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

geralmar said:


> Sorry; I no longer do Trump.


In what way?


----------



## KenOC

State Department spending $592,500 to 'explore gender identities of boys and men in Kenya'
--------------------------------------------------
The department's Bureau of Counterterrorism is seeking a nonprofit group to "explore gender identities of boys and men in Kenya." The grant proposal states that men being "tough, heterosexual, aggressive, unemotional, and achieving" can make them vulnerable to joining Islamic extremist groups.
--------------------------------------------------
I'm curious what our State Department intends to do about this. :lol: Perhaps a Logan Paul training course?


----------



## KenOC

Oh, just to mention that Logan Paul should not be confused with Paul Logan, who is a bit more buff and -- dare I say it? -- manly. Likely fodder for that Islamist extremist group, our State Department might well judge.


----------



## Art Rock

The Netherlands: An escaped kangaroo was caught on Australia Lane in Maastricht.


----------



## SixFootScowl

Sushi Fanatic Rethinks Raw Fish After Pulling 5-Foot Tapeworm From Body


----------



## KenOC

"Alabama lawmakers move to eliminate marriage licenses, throw up hands in culture wars"
-----------------------------------------------
Todd Stacy, the publisher of the Alabama Daily News, says "…if the state cannot define marriage the way it wants, why should it be in the marriage business at all?"
-----------------------------------------------
A good question. Over a third of children in the US are born outside of marriage, and over half of marriages end in divorce. Why should the government be involved in what seems a not-very-successful undertaking?

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...-licenses-throw-up-hands-in-culture-wars.html


----------



## Johnnie Burgess

KenOC said:


> "Alabama lawmakers move to eliminate marriage licenses, throw up hands in culture wars"
> -----------------------------------------------
> Todd Stacy, the publisher of the Alabama Daily News, says "…if the state cannot define marriage the way it wants, why should it be in the marriage business at all?"
> -----------------------------------------------
> A good question. Over a third of children in the US are born outside of marriage, and over half of marriages end in divorce. Why should the government be involved in what seems a not-very-successful undertaking?
> 
> http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...-licenses-throw-up-hands-in-culture-wars.html


Most states in the US did not issue marriage licenses till the 1920's to stop interracial marriages and maybe to collect money as a second reason.


----------



## Johnnie Burgess

The USS Little Rock has been trapped in Montreal since Christmas eve because of ice. It cost $440 million to build and was on its first voyage.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/01/2...ship-trapped-in-canada-amid-cold-and-ice.html


----------



## KenOC

Johnnie Burgess said:


> The USS Little Rock has been trapped in Montreal since Christmas eve because of ice.


"The warship known as a Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) cost $440 million to build… Such combat ships are described as agile and designed for rapid transitions between missions with minimal manning. They are used for surface warfare, counter piracy and drug operations, as well as other first response missions."

But only in warm weather, of course. Didn't we mention that?


----------



## Johnnie Burgess

KenOC said:


> "The warship known as a Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) cost $440 million to build… Such combat ships are described as agile and designed for rapid transitions between missions with minimal manning. They are used for surface warfare, counter piracy and drug operations, as well as other first response missions."
> 
> But only in warm weather, of course. Didn't we mention that?


I thought Al Gore told us all sea ice would be gone by now?


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

^ Maybe you should use it to build a wall


----------



## KenOC

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> ^ Maybe you should use it to build a wall


Aussies will still be welcome, so long as they carry big knives and fight crocodiles with their bare teeth. They'll be handy in Florida.


----------



## Pugg

KenOC said:


> Aussies will still be welcome, so long as they carry big knives and fight crocodiles with their bare teeth. They'll be handy in Florida.


No stingray's in Florida?


----------



## SixFootScowl

Johnnie Burgess said:


> I thought Al Gore told us all sea ice would be gone by now?


He missed a few critical pieces of data. We very well could be going the opposite direction:

You Tube explaining why we might be going into a mini ice age.


----------



## KenOC

"Tammy Duckworth set to be first Senator to have baby in office"

Duckworth, a veteran, lost both legs when her helicopter was shot down in Iraq. The Republicans funded an anti-Duckworth ad in the last election, accusing her of not "standing up" for vets. Well, yeah. A big oops for them!


----------



## KenOC

Pugg said:


> No stingray's in Florida?


Actually stingrays are a much bigger problem on this coast lately.

http://www.ibtimes.com/record-number-stingray-attacks-one-day-huntington-beach-california-2635700


----------



## KenOC

“Republicans’ criticism of the FBI hit a fever pitch this week amid reports that 50,000 texts between two FBI employees who wrote anti-Trump messages to each other went missing because of a software glitch on Samsung phones.

“Where are the 50,000 important text messages between FBI lovers Lisa Page and Peter Strzok? Blaming Samsung!” Trump said in a tweet Wednesday.

“In a letter sent last week to Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, Stephen Boyd, the assistant attorney general for legislative affairs at the Department of Justice, said that the FBI’s system was not able to preserve messages between Strzok and Page that were sent between December 16, 2016, and May 17, 2017.”

Uh, wait a moment. That’s (wait for it) 329 text messages per day. Didn’t these people have real jobs? What, exactly, are we paying them for? Am I the only one to find these numbers ridiculous???


----------



## KenOC

Kerry urges Abbas to "resist Trump, stay strong"
---------------------------------------
'Former US Secretary of State John Kerry sent a message to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas urging him to "stay strong in his spirit and play for time and not yield to President Trump's demands." Kerry offered to help the Palestinians, hinting that Trump would not be around for long and he, himself, may be considering another run for president in 2020.'
---------------------------------------
That's bizarre because it's simply astonishing if true (the source is chancy). "The Logan Act (enacted January 30, 1799) is a United States federal law that criminalizes negotiation by unauthorized persons with foreign governments having a dispute with the United States. The intent behind the Act is to prevent unauthorized negotiations from undermining the government's position… Violation of the Logan Act is a felony." (Wiki)

https://www.debka.com/mivzak/kerry-urges-abbas-resist-trump-stay-strong/


----------



## KenOC

On the more serious side, this must be the headline of the day: "Cow runs off to live with Polish Bison." Only on the BBC.

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-42803471


----------



## geralmar

Twelve camels expelled from Saudi Arabia beauty contest for using botox:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/pets/ct-camels-beauty-contest-botox-20180124-story.html


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Reminds me of the Cheech and Chong Movie "Things are Tough All Over"


----------



## KenOC

The state of California is considering a bill that would punish waiters at sit-down restaurants for offering plastic straws without a specific customer request.

Assembly Majority Leader Ian Calderon (D-Whittier) says the intent is not to criminalize waiters. However, AB-1884 inserts new language into the Retail Food section of the California Health and Safety Code, violations of which are misdemeanors punishable by a fine of up to $1,000, or by imprisonment in the county jail for a term not exceeding 6 months, or by both.

The bill's proponents point to a figure of 500 million plastic straws used and discarded daily. That figure (I'm not making this up, folks) was developed by a nine-year old kid in 2011 and lacks any further support.

Only in the Golden State.

http://reason.com/blog/2018/01/25/california-bill-would-criminalize-restau


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> The state of California is considering a bill that would punish waiters at sit-down restaurants for offering plastic straws without a specific customer request.


Crazy! I will note that when I go to a restaurant I always and only get water, and I tell them no straws. Sometimes they bring them anyway. Habit is hard to break. Without habits we could not function.


----------



## Pugg

Fritz Kobus said:


> Crazy! I will note that when I go to a restaurant I always and only get water, and I tell them no straws. Sometimes they bring them anyway. Habit is hard to break. Without habits we could not function.


Compulsive buying, I know hard not to do it. :angel:


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Damn there goes my Straw bridge


----------



## SixFootScowl

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Damn there goes my Straw bridge


Nice Eddie. So you saved your Kindergarten art project all these years.

But, what will we do if restaurants stop handing out straws? It could impact our whole society by a loss of significant straw art. Where else does one get great straw-art ideas but twiddling with straws in the restaurant while waiting for their meal?


----------



## Totenfeier

Fritz Kobus said:


> Nice Eddie. So you saved your Kindergarten art project all these years.
> 
> But, what will we do if restaurants stop handing out straws? It could impact our whole society by a loss of significant straw art. Where else does one get great straw-art ideas but twiddling with straws in the restaurant while waiting for their meal?


On the other hand, an advantage would be that, as a society, we wouldn't suck quite so much.


----------



## KenOC

"India has 21 million 'unwanted' girls"
----------------------------------
The desire of Indian parents for sons has created an estimated 21 million "unwanted" girls because couples keep having children until they produce a boy, the government said Monday…

"Families where a son is born are more likely to stop having children than families where a girl is born. This is suggestive of parents employing 'stopping rules' -- having children till a son is born and stopping thereafter," it said.
----------------------------------
Sounds good until you realize that such "stopping rules" can never change the balance of boy/girl births. Easy to work out with probabilities. 50% of families will have a boy and then stop. 25% GB. 12.5% GGB. 6.25% GGGB. And so forth. In the end, boys = girls.

The article also mentions selective abortions, specifically of females, although that would result in a surplus of males, as it has in China, not females.

The answer lies elsewhere.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/india-has-21-million-unwanted-girls/ar-BBIoKUV?ocid=spartanntp


----------



## KenOC

Irony perfected. "Norwegian Air flight carrying 85 plumbers forced to turn around due to broken toilet."

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2018/...rced-to-turn-around-due-to-broken-toilet.html


----------



## Johnnie Burgess

Australian secret documents were found in locked filling cabinets in a second hand store:









http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/0...filing-cabinets-sold-at-second-hand-shop.html


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

They documented the Pub with no beer


----------



## Art Rock

KenOC said:


> Irony perfected. "Norwegian Air flight carrying 85 plumbers forced to turn around due to broken toilet."
> 
> http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2018/...rced-to-turn-around-due-to-broken-toilet.html


All of them said they could come and fix it in about 3 weeks time.


----------



## KenOC

"Nuclear Posture Review: US wants smaller nukes to counter Russia"

This has been around for a while. Fearing that our huge nuclear weapons are perceived as "too big to use," the US may develop much smaller bombs that Russia and others can more easily believe that we _would _use. Trouble is, they might be right.

Why does this not make me feel safer? BTW these bombs would be really small - say, about the size of the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hardly worth talking about. 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42925375


----------



## geralmar

Computer analysis proves sun is actually giant light bulb:

http://www.aulis.com/jackstudies_0.html

Contrary assertion:

https://www.metabunk.org/apollo-12-photo-analysis-shows-sun-as-bulb-claim.t9431/


----------



## senza sordino

Viola player suing orchestra for hearing damage. Player claims acoustic shock during 2012 production of The Ring

 Strad Magazine


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

I knew all rings were bad


----------



## ldiat




----------



## KenOC

"NYC School Cancels Father-Daughter Dance to Comply With New Gender Guidelines"

"PS 65 had the event scheduled for Friday, February 9, until the school's parent-teacher association realized it would not comply with the Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Student Guidelines, which went into effect in March 2017."
-----------------------------------------------
I was going to post this as a sardonic comment on our gender Nazis, but reflected for a moment. Over a third of US children now live in single-parent homes, mostly without fathers; in some urban areas it is higher than 70%. So a father-daughter school event definitely excludes a lot of students, and maybe in a very hurtful way.

At this point in our history, it may be best just to let such things go. Maybe Paul Harvey would agree.

http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/02/...e-because-gender-guidelinesnyc-school-cancels


----------



## LezLee

At my all-girls school in the 1950s we had a garden party/sports day which included a very popular, dads versus daughters cricket match. The dads would take the opportunity to go off to the pub afterwards, the mums would go to a café for tea and cakes.
It’s really sad those days are gone but I can see how unfair it would be on the large numbers of single-parent families.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Elon Musks dumb doppelganger is attempting space exploroation in his backyard built steam powered rocket all to prove the earth is flat!
Darwin award here we come


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Previous attempt of the steam rocket


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese




----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

well there is a youtube of this guy doing a test flight somewhere !


----------



## SixFootScowl

Poll: Is this guy an idiot or just drunk?


----------



## KenOC

Trump, inspired by a parade he saw in France, wants a grand parade in Washington celebrating our military and troops. We haven't had such a parade since 2001.

The liberal press is aghast at the idea. The NY Times story on the idea opens with a hand-wringing "Tanks, jets and other killing machines painted olive-drab and tan could be rolling the routes of the nation's capital later this year…"

This is very sad. If this kind of thinking is in ascendance, it doesn't bode well for the future of the country.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018...al-just-more-proof-its-right-thing-to-do.html


----------



## KenOC

Another one of these: "Spirit Airlines employee told student to flush emotional support hamster down the toilet, student alleges."

The student is considering legal action. Because she flushed her own hamster? Could be interesting!

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2018/...port-hamster-down-toilet-student-alleges.html


----------



## SixFootScowl

Or Woman denied emotional support peacock on United flight


----------



## Jos

senza sordino said:


> Viola player suing orchestra for hearing damage. Player claims acoustic shock during 2012 production of The Ring
> 
> Strad Magazine


That one made it to a Dutch radio station. Heard it in the car the other day. You beat me to it Senza !
The brass section in the Ring apparently peaks at 135 dB, that is a jet taking of ! Wagner trumps Lemmy


----------



## KenOC

Arrests and criminal charges in Sarov, Russia, at a top secret nuclear weapons lab. Scientists connected their petaflop-grade computer, one of Russia's most powerful, to the Internet - an absolute no-no. Why? They wanted to use it to mine bitcoins.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43003740


----------



## KenOC

BBC headline: “Don’t worry says NASA as asteroid nears”

The last time I heard somebody say “Don’t worry” it was my doctor. He added “It’ll only hurt for a few seconds.”


----------



## LezLee

KenOC said:


> BBC headline: "Don't worry says NASA as asteroid nears"
> 
> The last time I heard somebody say "Don't worry" it was my doctor. He added "It'll only hurt for a few seconds."


Reminds me of the phlebotomist who came to take blood from the ladies in the hysterectomy ward. Her warning of "You'll just feel a little prick" was of course answered by a chorus of: "We should be so lucky"


----------



## geralmar

KenOC said:


> Arrests and criminal charges in Sarov, Russia, at a top secret nuclear weapons lab. Scientists connected their petaflop-grade computer, one of Russia's most powerful, to the Internet - an absolute no-no. Why? They wanted to use it to mine bitcoins.
> 
> http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43003740


In the mid-1980s I read that the Russians were using Commodore 64 computers to control their missle launches. I didn't feel very safe.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Don't worry NK is using an old arcade game to do theirs


----------



## KenOC

I post this only because C. K. McClatchy was my very own high school, many years ago.

"California school science project that connected race and IQ is pulled after complaints"

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/02/1...d-race-and-iq-is-pulled-after-complaints.html


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Nazis everywhere


----------



## KenOC

“One Year of Needless White House Turmoil”

While the White House is in the “turmoil” reported daily, it has managed to pack the courts with conservative judges, significantly shift US foreign policy, kill numerous government regulations, institute a new and different tax regime, and begin a major and costly update of American nuclear weaponry.

God alone knows what it might do without all that turmoil!


----------



## senza sordino

Worms removed from woman's eye

 Guardian Newspaper


----------



## SixFootScowl

Mouse Droppings Baked into Pizza Crust!


----------



## Johnnie Burgess

Graffiti artists works protected in New York city:

https://www.newsmax.com/us/us-judge-awards-5pointz/2018/02/13/id/843096/

Judge in New York city awards someone over 6 million dollars after owner destroys the graffiti.


----------



## KenOC

Today's news: "Flier's flatulence forces plane to make an emergency landing"

No word if anybody on the ground was overcome as the plane passed overhead…

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2018/...-forces-flight-to-make-emergency-landing.html


----------



## Totenfeier

KenOC said:


> Today's news: "Flier's flatulence forces plane to make an emergency landing"
> 
> No word if anybody on the ground was overcome as the plane passed overhead…
> 
> http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2018/...-forces-flight-to-make-emergency-landing.html


Sonic booms, perhaps?


----------



## LezLee

*The Best of the Worst Country/Western Titles*

1 - Drop Kick Me, Jesus, Through The Goalposts Of Life

2 - Get Your Biscuits In The Oven And Your Buns In The Bed

3 - Get Your Tongue Outta My Mouth 'Cause I'm Kissing You Goodbye

4 - Her Teeth Were Stained, But Her Heart Was Pure

5 - How Can I Miss You If You Won't Go Away?

6 - How Can You Believe Me When I Say I Love You When You Know I've Been A Liar All My Life?

7 - I Been Roped And Thrown By Jesus In The Holy Ghost Corral

8 - I Changed Her Oil, She Changed My Life

9 - I Don't Know Whether To Kill Myself Or Go Bowling

10 - I Fell In A Pile Of You And Got Love All Over Me

11 - I Flushed You From The Toilets Of My Heart.

12 - I Keep Forgettin' I Forgot About You

13 - I Wanna Whip Your Cow

14 - I Would Have Writ You A Letter, But I Couldn't Spell Yuck!

15 - I Wouldn't Take Her To A Dawg Fight, Cause I'm Afraid She'd Win

16 - I'd Rather Have A Bottle In Front Of Me Than A Frontal Lobotomy

17 - I'm Just A Bug On The Windshield Of Life

18 - I'm The Only Hell Mama Ever Raised

19 - I've Been Flushed From The Bathroom Of Your Heart

20 - I've Got The Hungries For Your Love And I'm Waiting In Your Welfare Line

21 - If I Can't Be Number One In Your Life, Then Number Two On You

22 - If Love Were Oil, I'd Be A Quart Low

23 - If My Nose Were Full Of Nickels, I'd Blow It All On You

24 - If You Don't Leave Me Alone, I'll Go And Find Someone Else Who Will

25 - If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too?

There are 100 of these so I'll feed them in gradually!


----------



## LezLee

*Roman boxing gloves found near Hadrian's Wall*

Roman boxing gloves have been discovered near Hadrian's Wall, thought to be the only known surviving examples, even though the sport was well- documented on Roman wall paintings, mosaics and sculptures.
With a protective guard designed to fit snugly over the knuckles, the gloves were packed with natural material which acted as shock absorbers. They date from around AD120 and were certainly made to last: they still fit comfortably on a modern hand. One of them even retains the impression of the knuckles of its ancient wearer.

They are among the latest discoveries at a pre-Hadrianic Roman cavalry barrack, which was found last year beneath the fourth-century stone fort of Vindolanda, south of Hadrian's Wall near Hexham, Northumberland.
Unearthed near Hadrian's Wall: lost secrets of first Roman soldiers to fight the barbarians

Dr Andrew Birley, the Vindolanda Trust's director of excavations, said: "The hairs stand up on the back of your neck when you realise that you have discovered something as astonishing as these boxing gloves."

Archaeologists stumbled across the site by chance and were taken aback by extraordinary military and personal possessions left behind by the men and their families some 2,000 years ago. Other finds include complete swords, which are exceptionally rare, even across the north-west provinces of the Roman empire.
The finds are in a remarkable state of preservation because they were concealed beneath a concrete floor laid by the Romans about 30 years after the barracks was abandoned, shortly before 120. Oxygen-free conditions prevented materials such as wood and leather from decaying.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/feb/19/rare-roman-boxing-gloves-found-hadrians-wall


----------



## KenOC

"Positive she saw Bigfoot, she's suing California"

By not believing her or acting on her sighting, the state is failing to protect an endangered species. Or something like that.

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2018/02/20/positive-saw-bigfoot-shes-suing-california.html


----------



## KenOC

"Angry Brits keep reporting KFC to the police because its stores ran out of chicken"

Yes, we're entitled!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...ause-its-stores-ran-out-of-chicken/ar-BBJoZo1


----------



## LezLee

KFC have apologised! :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-43169625


----------



## Johnnie Burgess

People in Seattle think this is the Confederate battle flag:










When this is it:









Hope they do not see this one and get confused again:










https://www.seattletimes.com/seattl...norwegian-flag-mistaken-for-confederate-flag/


----------



## Guest

Johnnie Burgess said:


> People in Seattle think this is the Confederate battle flag:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> When this is it:
> 
> View attachment 101821


_Everyone_ or just "Trumpers"?


----------



## Johnnie Burgess

Kontrapunctus said:


> _Everyone_ or just "Trumpers"?


I do not think the Seattle times supports Trump but it confused them.


----------



## KenOC

"Beijing firm slated to buy Westminster Choir College for $40 million"

"…The company, Beijing Kaiwen Education Technology Co., Ltd., which has no experience operating an institution of higher education…was called 'Jiangsu Zhongtai Bridge Steel Structure Co' until December of 2017."

https://planetprinceton.com/2018/02...buy-westminster-choir-college-for-40-million/


----------



## KenOC

"International Red Cross says 21 staffers paid for sexual services"

I certainly hope they were worth it! Sounds like a good source of extra funding for the Red Cross...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...or-sexual-services/ar-BBJwKOv?ocid=spartanntp


----------



## KenOC

"Molly the pig, adopted from animal rescue group, is eaten weeks later"

Only in Canada.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/0...animal-rescue-group-is-eaten-weeks-later.html


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Maple Syrup and Bacon mmmmm


----------



## Capeditiea

The true reason for sinkholes is because Cthulhu is waking up... just saying.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Down-under we call it the Muldjewangk


----------



## Capeditiea

KenOC said:


> Oh, just to mention that Logan Paul should not be confused with Paul Logan, who is a bit more buff and -- dare I say it? -- manly. Likely fodder for that Islamist extremist group, our State Department might well judge.


Can you imagine how confused the Japanese would be when an american would be discussing the one or the other?


----------



## LezLee

A student on tonight’s University Challenge is doing a PhD in Superconducting Spintronics.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

LezLee said:


> A student on tonight's University Challenge is doing a PhD in Superconducting Spintronics.


I read that as Spittronics........


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Goat reaches fruit by balancing on a donkey!
http://www.msn.com/en-au/video/watc...y-balancing-on-a-donkey/vi-BBJDfWK?ocid=ientp


----------



## KenOC

BBC sez "Moon to get 4G mobile network"

"Mobile giants Vodafone and Nokia have laid out plans to launch a 4G mobile network on the Moon in 2019."

Real story. Yeah, really!

http://www.bbc.com/news/av/technology-43211192/moon-to-get-4g-mobile-network


----------



## KenOC

There are just too many ridiculous stories, more each day.

"A school in Britain is defending itself after being mocked for banning students from touching snow on school grounds. Ges Smith of the Jo Richardson Community School in Dagenham, England, claims the ban is a "duty of care issue" that protects the school from potential lawsuits, the Telegraph reported."

http://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/2018/02/27/snowflake-school-bans-students-from-touching-snow.html


----------



## Capeditiea

what is next? rainy days for school? 

Parent: I am sorry kids, you can't go to school today it is raining out all day. 

Kids: Yay! No School. 

half hour later,

Kid #1: Let's go play in the rain
Kid #2: okay. 


that night on the news.

One kid was out playing in the rain, they have drowned in a puddle.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Here its, if you don't put your sun hat on you can't go and place in the school yard- prob a good thing otherwise the kids would get burned to a crisp


----------



## Capeditiea

10 years from now... the latest trend. bubblewrap.


----------



## MarkW

Before the Pyeong Chang Olympics recede into history, it's worth remembering that Berlioz used to moonlight as an Olympis figure skating judge. During the 1844 Winter Games in Ruritania, he actually judged and graded a program by Ruth Bader Ginsberg's great-grandmother which didn't go well, and was instrumental in the familiy's deciding to go into the oil business.


----------



## elgar's ghost

KenOC said:


> There are just too many ridiculous stories, more each day.
> 
> "A school in Britain is defending itself after being mocked for banning students from touching snow on school grounds. Ges Smith of the Jo Richardson Community School in Dagenham, England, claims the ban is a "duty of care issue" that protects the school from potential lawsuits, the Telegraph reported."
> 
> http://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/2018/02/27/snowflake-school-bans-students-from-touching-snow.html


If the school playground contains anything like the kind of detritus which proliferates in other parts of Dagenham then they might have a point, snow or not.

:devil:


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

*
Thinking outside the box: The moment a motorist dubbed 'demerit man' wearing an empty VB beer carton on his head covers a speed camera with a tea towel

*http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/austr...camera-with-a-tea-towel/ar-BBJIpGP?ocid=ientp

A man wearing a beer box on his head runs up to cover a speed camera with a tea towel in bizarre footage going viral online.The new 'hero', nicknamed the Demerit Man, took to the streets of Tamworth, northern New South Wales, on Friday to rid drivers of the scourge of speed cameras.
The prank starts by wearing the carton over his head and approaching the back of a speed camera truck parked up on the side of the road.
Masking his face by covering his head with the photo-proof VB crate, he covers the back window with a tea towel.
Vision originally shared on Snapchat has now been viewed more than 5,000 times on Facebook and Instagram after it was posted on Monday afternoon.


----------



## Capeditiea

Heroes nowadays...


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Nestle removes Milo's 4.5 Health Star Rating in response to criticism from public health groups
Nestle has bowed to pressure from public health advocates and is removing the Health Star Rating from Milo.Public health groups have targeted the food giant for labelling the sugary chocolate powder with 4.5 stars, when they claim it should only score 1.5 out of a possible maximum of five stars. 
http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/austr...om-public-health-groups/ar-BBJIrFN?ocid=ientp


----------



## KenOC

The Unification Church ("Moonies" to some) held a gun-blessing ceremony today in Pennsylvania. The church believes the gun is the "rod of iron" cited in the Book of Revelation.



















http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43231638


----------



## KenOC

"California has worst 'quality of life' in US, study says"

"California ranks dead last among U.S. states in quality of life, according to a study by U.S. News, ranking behind New Jersey (49th) and Indiana (48th)."

Must be true! I read about it down by the surf at Laguna Beach today. Iowa took first place. That must be why they're fighting off those hordes of out-of-staters trying to cross their borders. :lol:

http://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/2018/03/01/california-has-worst-quality-life-in-us-study-says.html


----------



## Capeditiea

KenOC said:


> "California has worst 'quality of life' in US, study says"
> 
> "California ranks dead last among U.S. states in quality of life, according to a study by U.S. News, ranking behind New Jersey (49th) and Indiana (48th)."
> 
> Must be true! I read about it down by the surf at Laguna Beach today. Iowa took first place. That must be why they're fighting off those hordes of out-of-staters trying to cross their borders. :lol:
> 
> http://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/2018/03/01/california-has-worst-quality-life-in-us-study-says.html


...is there a list for all 50?

but really statistically yes, the more folk of various ethnic backgrounds tend to have more conflict than those of the european or southeast asian ethnicality. But only when they come to the states... but this being said they are often quite nice people.

 this has been, before morning tobacco news from Capeditiea.


----------



## SixFootScowl

Capeditiea said:


> ...is there a list for all 50?


Best States for Quality of Life

How can North Dakota and Minnesota rank #1 and #2? What if you don't like snow? Where's the quality of life in that?


----------



## Capeditiea

Wow, my state is #14... i figured it would be lower... and way lower in the environment section... while the social seems accurate...


----------



## KenOC

From the BBC: "Here, people engage in the Maori Powhiri welcome ceremony."

Wow. I wonder how you're greeted if you're not so welcome.










http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43265137


----------



## KenOC

"These Pipe Homes could Fight High Rents"

The New World Order is readying us for our future: Living in sewer pipes so that we can trudge off to work each morning and bring more wealth to our masters, who we will never see. But be not downhearted, we'll be taught to love it.

http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20...concrete-tubes-could-solve-the-housing-crisis


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> "These Pipe Homes could Fight High Rents"
> 
> The New World Order is readying us for our future: Living in sewer pipes so that we can trudge off to work each morning and bring more wealth to our masters, who we will never see. But be not downhearted, we'll be taught to love it.
> 
> http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20...concrete-tubes-could-solve-the-housing-crisis


Perfect home for this guy:


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Horror at Prague National Museum as curators discover their 'priceless' diamonds are cut glass and rubies are synthetic
http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world...nd-rubies-are-synthetic/ar-BBK20bC?ocid=ientp


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Capeditiea said:


> Wow, my state is #14... i figured it would be lower... and way lower in the environment section... while the social seems accurate...


Where did Tasmania come


----------



## Capeditiea

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Where did Tasmania come


I am about 95% certain Tasmania is not part of the 51 states... unless in this dimension the states have different names... :O


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Man tries to kill cockroaches, blows up home by using fly spray as a flamethrower 









Nobody was seriously injured when the explosion blew out the kitchen.

An Australian man used insect spray as a flamethrower to kill cockroaches, blowing up his kitchen in the process.

Luckily, the three children in the Queensland home, aged 9, 11 and 17, were unharmed after the Wednesday night explosion, which happened about 8pm.

Not so lucky was their father, who was taken to Mount Isa Hospital with "abrasions" to his face and arms. 

"It looks like the guy was using pest spray in the kitchen, then a flame was lit, which caused a small fire," a police spokesman said.

Nobody was seriously injured when the explosion blew out the kitchen.

An Australian man used insect spray as a flamethrower to kill cockroaches, blowing up his kitchen in the process.

"It looks like the guy was using pest spray in the kitchen, then a flame was lit, which caused a small fire," a police spokesman said.

The mother of the injured man said she only found out about the explosion on Thursday morning.

"Just looking at the house now is a shock," the man's mother, who gave her name as Bernice, said.

"What I heard happened was the explosion caused the stove to fire up and it hit him in the chest. He is out of hospital now and I am going to go and see him," she said.

"I am so thankful that nobody was seriously hurt."

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia ... amethrower

Go Aussie Go


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Man tries to kill cockroaches, blows up home by using fly spray as a flamethrower 









Nobody was seriously injured when the explosion blew out the kitchen.

An Australian man used insect spray as a flamethrower to kill cockroaches, blowing up his kitchen in the process.

Luckily, the three children in the Queensland home, aged 9, 11 and 17, were unharmed after the Wednesday night explosion, which happened about 8pm.

Not so lucky was their father, who was taken to Mount Isa Hospital with "abrasions" to his face and arms. 

"It looks like the guy was using pest spray in the kitchen, then a flame was lit, which caused a small fire," a police spokesman said.

Nobody was seriously injured when the explosion blew out the kitchen.

An Australian man used insect spray as a flamethrower to kill cockroaches, blowing up his kitchen in the process.

"It looks like the guy was using pest spray in the kitchen, then a flame was lit, which caused a small fire," a police spokesman said.

The mother of the injured man said she only found out about the explosion on Thursday morning.

"Just looking at the house now is a shock," the man's mother, who gave her name as Bernice, said.

"What I heard happened was the explosion caused the stove to fire up and it hit him in the chest. He is out of hospital now and I am going to go and see him," she said.

"I am so thankful that nobody was seriously hurt."

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia ... amethrower

Go Aussie Go


----------



## TxllxT

https://themoscowtimes.com/news/siberians-use-300-cars-to-recreate-huge-portrait-of-putin-60770

Putin's portrait made with cars.


----------



## Pugg

TxllxT said:


> https://themoscowtimes.com/news/siberians-use-300-cars-to-recreate-huge-portrait-of-putin-60770
> 
> Putin's portrait made with cars.


I was expecting the nice report about all the little lambs born on your island. :angel:


----------



## TxllxT

Pugg said:


> I was expecting the nice report about all the little lambs born on your island. :angel:


Guess you must start a new thread: Cute, nice & lovely stories + news. 

http://www.nhnieuws.nl/nieuws/221008/Geboortegolf-lammetjes-op-Texel-is-in-volle-gang


----------



## KenOC

College student kicked out of class for saying there are only two genders
--------------------------------------------------
Lake Ingle, a senior at the university, said he was silenced and punished by IUP Professor Alison Downie for questioning her during a Feb. 28 "Christianity 481: Self, Sin, and Salvation" lecture.

After showing a 15-minute TED Talk by transgender ex-pastor Paula Stone Williams discussing the "reality" of "mansplaining," "sexism from men," and "male privilege," the professor asked the women in the class to share their thoughts. When no women in the class said anything, Ingle spoke up, challenging the professor on biology and the gender wage gap.

He told the class that the official view of biologists is that there are only two genders.

The feminist professor booted him from class and asked him not to come back. She referred him to the public university's Academic Integrity Board (AIB). Ingle needs to complete the class to graduate at the end of the semester.

"You are barred from attending this class in accordance with the Classroom Disruption policy," IUP Provost Timothy Moerland told Ingle in a March 2 letter.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/03/1...ing-professor-there-are-only-two-genders.html


----------



## Capeditiea

KenOC said:


> College student kicked out of class for saying there are only two genders
> --------------------------------------------------
> Lake Ingle, a senior at the university, said he was silenced and punished by IUP Professor Alison Downie for questioning her during a Feb. 28 "Christianity 481: Self, Sin, and Salvation" lecture.
> 
> After showing a 15-minute TED Talk by transgender ex-pastor Paula Stone Williams discussing the "reality" of "mansplaining," "sexism from men," and "male privilege," the professor asked the women in the class to share their thoughts. When no women in the class said anything, Ingle spoke up, challenging the professor on biology and the gender wage gap.
> 
> He told the class that the official view of biologists is that there are only two genders.
> 
> The feminist professor booted him from class and asked him not to come back. She referred him to the public university's Academic Integrity Board (AIB). Ingle needs to complete the class to graduate at the end of the semester.
> 
> "You are barred from attending this class in accordance with the Classroom Disruption policy," IUP Provost Timothy Moerland told Ingle in a March 2 letter.
> 
> http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/03/1...ing-professor-there-are-only-two-genders.html


sigh... why do folk not understand, there are several genders...

but sincerely, he was stating his opinion.  which is pretty gangster in this day and age... where women rule the world. :O it scares me...

Subsequentially, Ingle was more correct... while the professor was really unable to explain the various reasons there are more than one gender... even in biology. So instead, they have ended up being all mean and decided to silence Ingle. Thusly, this is the real state the world is in.

Of course i am intelligent enough to know there are more than two genders in biology. 
1. male
2. female
3. asexual 
4. hermaphrodites. 
5. single celled organisms that end up just spliting with no gender whatsoever.

After this, every human in the womb starts out as a female. it depends on how much testosterone inducing diet the mother has.  which is usually compared with how much meat or nuts the mother eats during the first trimester.

But that all aside... isn't college or universities supposed to expand the mind, openning it to more possibilities rather than devising a structure of feminist superpowers?

to those who fail to realize which side i am on... none. i am objectively explaining this...  i was just inspired to write this.


----------



## Dan Ante

Why couldn't she/he/it just give him six of the best and leave it at that?


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Does that involve Wellingtons of some sort..................


----------



## TxllxT

*St Petersburg beach season opened*

The beach season has started again, spring is coming:

http://www.the-village.ru/village/city/gallery-city/304433-spb-winter-beach


----------



## KenOC

"New Wicker Man wooden roller coaster bursts into flames mid-ride"

This is by design. It's supposed to do that. I mean, what could go wrong?










http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2018/...ller-coaster-bursts-into-flames-mid-ride.html


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

don't want them to start sagging too much': 17 years after winning $100,000 in breast implant bet, man worries about how age will impact surgery he decided to keep

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...s-100k-bet-worries-sagging.html#ixzz5A8RtyGeZ


----------



## KenOC

"DC council member apologizes after blaming snowfall on Jewish bankers controlling climate"

Well, he _did _apologize…

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...ll-on-jewish-bankers-controlling-climate.html


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

First there was Bach, then came Bento, the Keyboard Cat but alas we have lost another Keyboard God

http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/techandscience/bento-the-keyboard-cat-has-died/ar-BBKp4N3?ocid=ientp


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Man caught with Homer Simpson licence in Milton Keynes








Perhaps the driver thought he would never be stopped. Or that traffic officers do not watch The Simpsons. Or that Homer Simpson really does live in Milton Keynes. 
Whichever way, it was not the best choice of fake picture. Not if you want to evade detection, anyway.
When an officer from the Thames Valley force stopped a driver recently, the picture on the licence he handed over was of Homer Simpson.
The name was H. Simpson, and the address was 28, Springfield Way, USA.
Thames Valley Police said in a tweet: "Earlier this week, PC Phillips stopped a car in Milton Keynes.
"When she tried to identify the driver's ID, she found the below... (pictured licence)."


----------



## Capeditiea

KenOC said:


> "New Wicker Man wooden roller coaster bursts into flames mid-ride"
> 
> This is by design. It's supposed to do that. I mean, what could go wrong?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2018/...ller-coaster-bursts-into-flames-mid-ride.html


Well, this adds to the thrill.


----------



## Capeditiea

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> don't want them to start sagging too much': 17 years after winning $100,000 in breast implant bet, man worries about how age will impact surgery he decided to keep
> 
> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...s-100k-bet-worries-sagging.html#ixzz5A8RtyGeZ


that is hot. *nods


----------



## KenOC

Not just Trump, it seems. "Obama 2012 campaign 'sucked' data from Facebook, former official says"

"Carol Davidsen, the former director of integration and media analytics at Obama for America, explained how the 2012 campaign harnessed Facebook's Application Programming Interface (API) to access the company's "social graph" that maps users' connections. This enabled the campaign to access information on users' friends when they used the Facebook log-in button to access the campaign's website, according to the Washington Post."

Well, maybe not surprising, since that's what Facebook does: packages and sells our identities and preferences. And those of our friends as well, evidently. Scary though. But here's something even scarier:

"They came to office in the days following election recruiting & were very candid that they allowed us to do things they wouldn't have allowed someone else to do because they were on our side."

Houston, we have a problem.

https://heavy.com/news/2018/03/carol-davidsen-obama-facebook-tweets-davidson/


----------



## KenOC

"Florida men, one dressed in bull onesie, attempt to burn down house with Ragu sauce"

Not a strong argument for the existence of intelligent life in the known universe.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/03/2...rn-down-house-with-ragu-sauce-police-say.html


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Maybe they were really trying to recreate a hot Raga house music vibe but got confused


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

'Wagner Group': the mercenaries serving Putin in Syria 
http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world...-serving-putin-in-syria/ar-BBKyqnO?ocid=ientp

Wagner Strikes Again?


----------



## SixFootScowl

He was known as Malaysia's 'snake whisperer' - until a cobra fatally bit him. Guy must have been crazy, would kiss live cobras on the mouth.


----------



## KenOC

"Self-taught rocket scientist blasts off into California sky"

" 'Mad' Mike Hughes, the rocket man who believes the Earth is flat, propelled himself about 1,875 feet into the air Saturday before a hard landing in the Mojave Desert. He told The Associated Press that outside of an aching back he's fine after the launch near Amboy, California."

This is supposed to be real news. Mr. Hughes, who is on a mission to prove the earth is flat, rode a rocket powered by (wait for it) steam. Pictures!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/tech...ist-blasts-off-into-california-sky/ar-BBKEr5H


----------



## Kieran

KenOC said:


> This is supposed to be real news. Mr. Hughes, who is on a mission to prove the earth is flat, rode a rocket powered by (wait for it) steam.


I think "Hot Air" is the scientific term...


----------



## Jos

Excellent candidate for Darwin award. Watch this space.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Wile E. Coyote would be so proud


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> "Self-taught rocket scientist blasts off into California sky"
> 
> " 'Mad' Mike Hughes, the rocket man who believes the Earth is flat, propelled himself about 1,875 feet into the air Saturday before a hard landing in the Mojave Desert. He told The Associated Press that outside of an aching back he's fine after the launch near Amboy, California."
> 
> This is supposed to be real news. Mr. Hughes, who is on a mission to prove the earth is flat, rode a rocket powered by (wait for it) steam. Pictures!
> 
> https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/tech...ist-blasts-off-into-california-sky/ar-BBKEr5H


Here is the You Tube video of it:


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

^ Bananas, maybe we should pass the hat around and get him some solid fuel rockets to strap on the side of it. 
Give him a one way ticket to see the curvature of the earth


----------



## SixFootScowl

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> ^ Bananas, maybe we should pass the hat around and get him some solid fuel rockets to strap on the side of it.
> Give him a one way ticket to see the curvature of the earth


Also give him a limited supply of oxygen and Bowie's song "Space Oddity."


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

*Driver derailed Vic tram while sleeping*

"The *take-home message* no matter what you're driving, don't drive tired" 
http://www.news.com.au/national/bre...t/news-story/e1579152e1a68e793ed2564d8aa5583d
A tram driver could be charged after his tram derailed in suburban Melbourne.

A tram driver who crashed through a bus shelter and hit a fire hydrant in Melbourne's northwest overnight has told police he fell asleep.
The 49-year-old nodded off as his tram quickly approached an intersection on Maribyrnong Road at Ascot Vale and derailed about 12.20am on Tuesday.
The tram slammed into a bus shelter and hit a fire hydrant before settling on a footpath.

"Unfortunately, the tram driver has admitted to falling asleep at the wheel of the tram," Sergeant Jason Doyle told reporters.
"He's obviously approached (the intersection) at a speed that's not able to handle the track."
It was unclear if the driver would be charged with careless driving, police said.
"People often use it (falling asleep) as a defence but it's not a blanket defence, but if they fall asleep it makes it difficult," Sgt Doyle said of the potential to lay charges.

The driver has been stood down as Yarra Trams conduct a separate investigation.
He was the only person on board and wasn't injured, but the accident caused major traffic delays for peak-hour commuters.

A massive tow truck was sent to re-rail the tram, which was eventually towed to Essendon depot about 7.30am. Ascot Vale Road re-opened a short time later.
"The take-home message is no matter what you're driving, don't drive tired," Sgt Doyle said.


----------



## KenOC

For those who haven't been keeping up: A California judge has ruled that places serving coffee must display notices that coffee may cause cancer. This will apply to Starbucks and all such places. The reason is that these places haven't conclusively proved that coffee _doesn't _increase the risk of cancer. Yep, that's the way the law is written in sunny California!


----------



## KenOC

"Woman mistakes 37-week pregnancy for bad Chinese food"

Not much of a story, but the headline's good!


----------



## geralmar

"Affluenza" driver out on probation:

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo...out-on-probation-after-nearly-2-years-in-jail


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Where is Modi, is he on TC? 

Nirav Modi, Jeweler to the Stars Flees as India Seethes Over Bank Fraud

http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world...seethes-over-bank-fraud/ar-AAvoU2y?ocid=ientp


----------



## geralmar

Fascinating video imbedded showing local "independent" newscasters reading from same script:

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo...as-local-news-anchors-recite-script-in-unison


----------



## geralmar

Mom tasers son to get him up to go to church:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...er-service-police-say/?utm_term=.675275706608


----------



## Guest

All my lost posts have turned up on the PimpMyTrailer forum. Got some Likes, too.


----------



## KenOC

"Navy chaplain fired after he was caught having sex at New Orleans bar"

Why? Maybe because he wasn't doing it right?

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/04/0...aving-sex-at-new-orleans-bar-report-says.html


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Porn on public screen: Perth's Yagan Square hacked

http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/austr...ths-yagan-square-hacked/ar-AAvx51C?ocid=ientp

Hackers uploaded the home page of a porn website to an electronic touch screen at Perth's new Yagan Square.The Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority has begun an investigation into who uploaded the Pornhub home page, which pedestrians saw when they walked past the information screen at a mall entrance on Thursday evening.
An MRA spokeswoman said the inappropriate content was on show for a brief period of time, and promised a full investigation would be undertaken.


----------



## KenOC

"Moose stomps man's foot in Alaska after he kicks her"
---------------------
A man was injured north of Anchorage after a moose that he had just kicked stomped his foot in return, state officials said…

The two moose left the area after the man had his foot stomped, said Alaska Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters."I am not a biologist, but as a lifelong Alaskan I would advise people not to go around kicking moose," Peters said.

http://abcnews.go.com/Weird/wireStory/moose-stomps-mans-foot-alaska-kicks-54287548


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

*Of Course Australian Scientists Are On A Mission To Bring Beer To Space








http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/techa...-to-bring-beer-to-space/ar-AAvoKDn?ocid=ientp
*If you were to travel to space, what's something you'd miss? If having a beer sprung to mind - you're in luck. No, seriously. I spoke to the people making having a cold one while in zero gravity a reality. 
But wait - what? How? 
If you've watched any relatively realistic space movie in the last 50 years you'll know how space travellers drink liquids - in one of those squeezy packs, through a straw. Vostok don't want you to drink beer in space like that. Gross. The company is now in the final stages of testing the prototype of a beer bottle that will enable you to drink the beer just as you do on Earth. 
What exactly is Vostok, you ask? It is a joint venture between the Sydney-based 4 Pines Brewing Company, and space engineering company Saber Astronautics. It was formed seven years ago with the sole purpose of creating the world's first beer to be drunk in space - from the beer recipe to the patented bottle technology. The next step in its mission to get beer on the moon is to send Earthlings 32,000 feet above our beautiful planet on a Zero Gravity Corporation (ZERO-G) research flight.


----------



## KenOC

Noted that "Vostok" was the name of the spacecraft that carried Yuri Gagarin, the first person to orbit the earth. An illustrious brand!

In other news, new progress in the movement to disarm the citizenry:

"London Mayor Sadiq Khan targets knives as murder rate spikes: 'There is never a reason to carry a knife' "

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/0...kes-there-is-never-reason-to-carry-knife.html

Next week: Rocks.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

^ Then Guns.........................


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

*The Queen is drinking to Excess and the Cat did it *

http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world...mation-war-with-britain/ar-AAvGtUj?ocid=ientp








Skripal's two guinea pigs were found dead from starvation, while his cat was put down, a strand of the case which has become another strange Kremlin talking point.
Kiselyov said:
"They decided to put the devoted, heroic cat to sleep. Or, as they officially say in the UK, Nash van Drake the cat was euthanised in its best interests.
"Euthanasia is a voluntary process, and this cat didn't seek death. The experts and Her Majesty made this decision for it since they know better what the cat needs, in the name of the Queen."
Russia's embassy in London appeared to endorse Kiselyov's accusations by tweeting the video clip and saying: "This is how the Salisbury poisoning is seen by the Russian TV."

Aleksey Pushkov, a Russian senator and close ally to Vladimir Putin, separately accused the Queen of excessive drinking on state-run TV, an unrelated slight on her character.
He claimed,  according to a translation by The Sun:
"Before dinner, she drinks a ­cocktail made from gin and another based on wine, with ice and lemon.
"After the meal, she has a glass of wine with a bar of chocolate. She also drinks dry Martini.
"At the end of the day, she likes to drink cool champagne."


----------



## elgar's ghost

^
^

Just as well it's Lizzie II and not Georgie Porgie (later George IV) - anyone wanting to home in on how embarrassing a royal can be when it comes down to over-indulgence would have had a field day with him...


James Gillray - ​_A Voluptuary Undergoing the Horrors of Digestion_ (1792):​


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

*An Australian Court dismissed a $1.8 million workplace bullying case that accused a boss of 'malicious' farting
*http://www.msn.com/en-au/money/comp...ss-of-malicious-farting/ar-AAvHHEu?ocid=ientpA $1.8 million negligence case by a retrenched contracts administrator against his former employer has been rejected by Victoria's Supreme Court with the judge accepting that farting in the office is not bullying and just part of Australian humour.Former employee David Hingst alleged his supervisor in Melbourne repeatedly abused him, including by holding him down and farting on him. Hingst alleged to the court that his supervisor, Greg Short, would "lift his bum and fart" on or at him, sometimes daily.Short told the court while he remembered farting, he didn't recall thrusting his backside directly at Hingst to deliberately offend him. He said that there may have been some cultural misunderstanding because Hingst was German, and didn't really understand that farting was just an Australian way of joking around.

Moral of the Story, if your German employee is not Mozart, don't fart on him............


----------



## Capeditiea

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> *An Australian Court dismissed a $1.8 million workplace bullying case that accused a boss of 'malicious' farting
> *http://www.msn.com/en-au/money/comp...ss-of-malicious-farting/ar-AAvHHEu?ocid=ientpA $1.8 million negligence case by a retrenched contracts administrator against his former employer has been rejected by Victoria's Supreme Court with the judge accepting that farting in the office is not bullying and just part of Australian humour.Former employee David Hingst alleged his supervisor in Melbourne repeatedly abused him, including by holding him down and farting on him. Hingst alleged to the court that his supervisor, Greg Short, would "lift his bum and fart" on or at him, sometimes daily.Short told the court while he remembered farting, he didn't recall thrusting his backside directly at Hingst to deliberately offend him. He said that there may have been some cultural misunderstanding because Hingst was German, and didn't really understand that farting was just an Australian way of joking around.
> 
> Moral of the Story, if your German employee is not Mozart, don't fart on him............


informative .


----------



## SixFootScowl

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> *An Australian Court dismissed a $1.8 million workplace bullying case that accused a boss of 'malicious' farting
> *http://www.msn.com/en-au/money/comp...ss-of-malicious-farting/ar-AAvHHEu?ocid=ientpA $1.8 million negligence case by a retrenched contracts administrator against his former employer has been rejected by Victoria's Supreme Court with the judge accepting that farting in the office is not bullying and just part of Australian humour.Former employee David Hingst alleged his supervisor in Melbourne repeatedly abused him, including by holding him down and farting on him. Hingst alleged to the court that his supervisor, Greg Short, would "lift his bum and fart" on or at him, sometimes daily.Short told the court while he remembered farting, he didn't recall thrusting his backside directly at Hingst to deliberately offend him. He said that there may have been some cultural misunderstanding because Hingst was German, and didn't really understand that farting was just an Australian way of joking around.
> 
> Moral of the Story, if your German employee is not Mozart, don't fart on him............


I hope my dog is not doing this. Last night she discovered an old bag of dog treats (pheasant/vege jerky dated 2009) in the basement and ate all of it before we discovered she had journeyed to forbidden parts of the house. Today she is passing an awful lot of gas all around the house.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Things keep getting stranger and stranger Downunder

*Deputy head to return to Trinity Grammar after 'unjustified' sacking for cutting students hair!
*http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/austr...ter-unjustified-sacking/ar-AAvKwR4?ocid=ientpTrinity Grammar's sacked deputy principal will return to the school next week after an independent review found his dismissal over cutting a student's hair was unjustified.After weeks of unrest, the Kew private school offered deputy principal Rohan Brown his job back on Wednesday evening - an offer he swiftly accepted.
"I want my job back," he told _The Age,_ fighting back tears.
"I am so proud of the Trinity community. It is a great profession and I adore the boys and parents."

The review by high-profile silk and former judge Ray Finkelstein, QC, and barrister Renee Enbom found that while deputy principal Rohan Brown's actions may have breached the school's code of conduct and constituted serious misconduct, his dismissal was unwarranted.

The review recommended that Dr Davies should write to Mr Brown and advise him that he should never cut students' hair. This letter should also advise Mr Brown of the school's personal appearance policy, and that breaching these instructions may result in dismissal.
It also recommended that Trinity Grammar write to parents explaining how it deals with students who don't conform with its appearance policy.
First they get off for farting and now cutting hair...............


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

*Big Singlet Problems Downunder
Singlet ban only for blokes 'discriminatory', Queensland surf clubs warned 
*Surf clubs in southern Queensland are facing increasing pressure to rethink dress standards seen to be discriminating against men because the rule does not apply to women.
http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/austr...sland-surf-clubs-warned/ar-AAvMns5?ocid=ientp
The problem arises in venues that set different standards for men and women on the same item of clothing - namely singlets.
Clubs Queensland is taking the issue seriously and recently sent out a newsletter to member clubs drawing attention to the possibility of a club's dress code inadvertently being discriminatory.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

*Scientists highlight plight of endangered Australian 'genital breathing' turtle







A "punk turtle" with a green mohican is the star attraction in a new list of endangered reptiles.
*The Mary River turtle (Elusor macrurus) has a head crowned by vertical strands of algae that also grow on its body.
It sports long fleshy barbels under its beard and, in perhaps its most unusual feature, can breathe through its genitals.*
*http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/techa...enital-breathing-turtle/ar-AAvMZ9H?ocid=ientp


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

^


----------



## Capeditiea

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> *Scientists highlight plight of endangered Australian 'genital breathing' turtle
> View attachment 102839
> 
> A "punk turtle" with a green mohican is the star attraction in a new list of endangered reptiles.
> *The Mary River turtle (Elusor macrurus) has a head crowned by vertical strands of algae that also grow on its body.
> It sports long fleshy barbels under its beard and, in perhaps its most unusual feature, can breathe through its genitals.*
> *http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/techa...enital-breathing-turtle/ar-AAvMZ9H?ocid=ientp


That is amazingly similar to how i breath.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

*Police fired after claiming mice ate half a ton of marijuana that mysteriously disappeared from warehouse

*http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world...appeared-from-warehouse/ar-AAvPotZ?ocid=ientp
When more than 500kg of marijuana disappeared from a police warehouse in Argentina, officers had an improbable explanation: it must have been eaten by mice.
Senior officers, it seems, were not convinced, and eight members of staff have now been fired in connection with the missing drug. The cannabis had been in storage for more than two years at an impound warehouse in the city of Pilar, 35 miles north of Buenos Aires, reported news outlet Pilar de Todos.

Cheech & Chong have denied any involvement


----------



## Capeditiea

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> *Police fired after claiming mice ate half a ton of marijuana that mysteriously disappeared from warehouse
> 
> *http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world...appeared-from-warehouse/ar-AAvPotZ?ocid=ientp
> When more than 500kg of marijuana disappeared from a police warehouse in Argentina, officers had an improbable explanation: it must have been eaten by mice.
> Senior officers, it seems, were not convinced, and eight members of staff have now been fired in connection with the missing drug. The cannabis had been in storage for more than two years at an impound warehouse in the city of Pilar, 35 miles north of Buenos Aires, reported news outlet Pilar de Todos.
> 
> Cheech & Chong have denied any involvement


:O just recently in the state i reside in... a dude got pulled over and had 8 dufflebags of cannabis... 1 million USD worth.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Capeditiea said:


> :O just recently in the state i reside in... a dude got pulled over and had 8 dufflebags of cannabis... 1 million USD worth.


So money does grow on trees


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

*World's first electrified road for charging vehicles opens in Sweden
*http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/techa...ehicles-opens-in-sweden/ar-AAvPGrN?ocid=ientp


An all-electric truck is attached to the first "eRoad" of its kind on Wednesday at Arlanda airport, north of Stockholm An all-electric truck is attached to the first "eRoad" of its kind on Wednesday at Arlanda airport, north of Stockholm. The world's first electrified road that recharges the batteries of cars and trucks driving on it has been opened in Sweden.


----------



## hpowders

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> *World's first electrified road for charging vehicles opens in Sweden
> *http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/techa...ehicles-opens-in-sweden/ar-AAvPGrN?ocid=ientp
> 
> 
> An all-electric truck is attached to the first "eRoad" of its kind on Wednesday at Arlanda airport, north of Stockholm An all-electric truck is attached to the first "eRoad" of its kind on Wednesday at Arlanda airport, north of Stockholm. The world's first electrified road that recharges the batteries of cars and trucks driving on it has been opened in Sweden.


You narrowly missed having this post deleted.


----------



## hpowders

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> ^


This photo appeared om Match.com, the free section. I think I will cough up the bitcoin they asked me 4.

I'm sure I can do better. I've got to!!! I wanna have kids!!!


----------



## KenOC

BBC front page deadline: “Man made football mascot in stag do prank”

I realize I’m in the wrong country, but that makes no sense at all.


----------



## KenOC

"Tarantula burger special sold at North Carolina restaurant has legs"

Yes, that's a real tarantula. Celebrating _Exotic Meat Month_.










http://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/2018/04/13/tarantula-burger-special-sold-at-north-carolina-restaurant-has-legs.html


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

KenOC said:


> BBC front page deadline: "Man made football mascot in stag do prank"
> 
> I realize I'm in the wrong country, but that makes no sense at all.


ah, a bucks night prank - Mischievous football fans sign their 38-year-old mate up to be Brentford's mascot in inspired stag do prank
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...38-year-old-Brentfords-mascot-stag-prank.html


----------



## Dan Ante

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> *World's first electrified road for charging vehicles opens in Sweden
> *http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/techa...ehicles-opens-in-sweden/ar-AAvPGrN?ocid=ientp
> 
> 
> An all-electric truck is attached to the first "eRoad" of its kind on Wednesday at Arlanda airport, north of Stockholm An all-electric truck is attached to the first "eRoad" of its kind on Wednesday at Arlanda airport, north of Stockholm. The world's first electrified road that recharges the batteries of cars and trucks driving on it has been opened in Sweden.


That looks like poetry Edd, a friend writes his poems in the same format


----------



## KenOC

"Man bitten by shark, bear, snake in less than 4 years"

I wouldn't sell him any life insurance...

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2018/04/22/man-bitten-by-shark-bear-snake-in-less-than-4-years.html


----------



## Flamme

Never heard of a case where the coined term ''poor devil'' would be more appropriate!!!
:devil:
Anyway...Today its ''Earthsday'' so there you go... http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40892336


----------



## KenOC

BBC reports: "Rotten egg gas around planet Uranus"

Why did I snigger when I read this? Rational minds, of course, will not be surprised.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43871497


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> BBC reports: "Rotten egg gas around planet Uranus"
> 
> Why did I snigger when I read this? Rational minds, of course, will not be surprised.
> 
> http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43871497


I double checked the URL line expecting this to be The Onion.

They do show modesty by including the word "planet" in the headline.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Fritz Kobus said:


> I double checked the URL line expecting this to be The Onion.
> 
> They do show modesty by including the word "planet" in the headline.


- Dr Irwin explained: "If an unfortunate human were ever to descend through Uranus's clouds, they would be met with very unpleasant and odiferous conditions."But he added: "Suffocation and exposure in the negative 200 degrees Celsius atmosphere made of mostly hydrogen, helium, and methane would take its toll long before the smell."

Thank Goodness for that but explains why its is tilted sideways................. and why Neptune keeps a safe distance


----------



## Dan Ante

You can experience the same exotic perfume at Rotarua even driving around the town will fill you nose holes with an unfogetable pong


----------



## LezLee

An essential piece of equipment that could save your life:

https://toilet-guru.com/snorkel.php


----------



## SixFootScowl

LezLee said:


> An essential piece of equipment that could save your life:
> 
> https://toilet-guru.com/snorkel.php


Now I HAVE heard everything. Do they sell a family pack and what if you have a big family but only one toilet?


----------



## KenOC

The re-write continues. Ideology trumps history.
-------------------------------------
"After more than 100 years, the Stephen Foster statue in Pittsburgh has been removed"

A 118-year-old statue of "Oh! Susanna" songwriter and Pittsburgh native Stephen Foster was removed by city workers on Thursday morning… The statue has drawn controversy because it depicts Foster with a slave at his feet, strumming a banjo.
…
"Hopefully it will be replaced with a statue of an African-American woman," McNulty said.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a...tue-in-pittsburgh-has-been-removed/ar-AAwmpHd


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

KenOC said:


> The re-write continues. Ideology *trumps* history.
> -------------------------------------
> "After more than 100 years, the Stephen Foster statue in Pittsburgh has been removed"
> 
> A 118-year-old statue of "Oh! Susanna" songwriter and Pittsburgh native Stephen Foster was removed by city workers on Thursday morning… The statue has drawn controversy because it depicts Foster with a slave at his feet, strumming a banjo.
> …
> "Hopefully it will be replaced with a statue of an African-American woman," McNulty said.
> 
> https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a...tue-in-pittsburgh-has-been-removed/ar-AAwmpHd


Was Trump involved?


----------



## LezLee

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/winning-image-disqualified-wildlife-photographer-104819604.html


----------



## KenOC

Neither strange nor bizarre, but some good news hopefully.

"North Korea's nuclear test site will close in May, the South Korean president's office has said."

"A spokesman said the closure of the Punggye-ri site would be done in public and foreign experts from South Korea and the US would be invited to watch."

Icing on the cake: "The office also said North Korea would change its time zone - currently half an hour different - to match that of the South."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-43939375


----------



## geralmar

Having failed to prove vaccines cause autism in human beings, proponents have shifted to proclaiming vaccines cause autism in dogs:

https://www.inquisitr.com/4882942/v...dogs-confirms-british-veterinary-association/


----------



## joen_cph

Fancy a try ? 
Filmed world record of surfing a high wawe (25 m) ...


----------



## geralmar

Cynical use of a stuffed anteater:

https://www.dpreview.com/news/91442...-winner-disqualified-for-using-stuffed-animal


----------



## KenOC

"Saudi Arabia's crown prince slams Obama's Iran nuclear deal, backs Israel's right to exist"

Big changes this year: Prince Mohammed backs Trump's Middle East policies and issues a strong attack against Iran, calling Iran's Supreme Leader "the Hitler of the Middle East." He confirms Israel's right to exist and calls on Palestinians to "quite whining."

In a separate article, when asked if women were equal to men, Prince Mohammed said: "Absolutely. We are all human beings and there is no difference." He said the government was working on regulations to ensure equal pay.

Who'd have thought it? Along with the news from North Korea, there seem to be major things happening.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/0...uclear-deal-backs-israels-right-to-exist.html


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

^ Are there incriminating Russians pics some where ?


----------



## KenOC

Current Fox News headlines:

Kate Upton's hottest shots
Star's dress comes off completely
Best of the Bella twins (a breast size contest, looks like)
Meet SI's newest models
Woman cuts off husband’s…

That last seems to have something to do with garden shears.

“All the news that’s fit to print” is evidently not Fox’s motto.


----------



## LezLee

Sad news:

http://time.com/5259382/worlds-oldest-known-spider-dies-43/


----------



## LezLee

I’ve been wondering if there are specialist spider-ageing biologists who go round the world checking them on their birthdays?


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

LezLee said:


> I've been wondering if there are specialist spider-ageing biologists who go round the world checking them on their birthdays?


Yes .


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

McDonald's torched, 200 arrested in May Day protests in Paris
http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world...y-day-protests-in-paris/ar-AAwCEJT?ocid=ientp

What happens when you serve cold French fries


----------



## Rogerx

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> McDonald's torched, 200 arrested in May Day protests in Paris
> http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world...y-day-protests-in-paris/ar-AAwCEJT?ocid=ientp
> 
> What happens when you serve cold French fries


When I am severed French fries, I _screaming murder and send them back_.


----------



## geralmar

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> McDonald's torched, 200 arrested in May Day protests in Paris
> http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world...y-day-protests-in-paris/ar-AAwCEJT?ocid=ientp
> 
> What happens when you serve cold French fries


That's "freedom fries," thank you.

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Freedom_fries


----------



## KenOC

Mystery School Pooper Found

Staff at a New Jersey high school complained to the police that somebody had been defecating on the school running track almost every day. So the police set up a camera and soon found the guilty party. It was the Superintendent of Schools for nearby Kenilworth. He has been placed on paid leave.

I suspect this tawdry tale is causing much merriment among local students.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43998174


----------



## KenOC

"Police stun man attempting to have sex with car's exhaust pipe"

I'd like to say I didn't read the article. I'd really like that.

http://www.foxnews.com/auto/2018/05...pting-to-have-sex-with-cars-exhaust-pipe.html


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> "Police stun man attempting to have sex with car's exhaust pipe"
> 
> I'd like to say I didn't read the article. I'd really like that.
> 
> http://www.foxnews.com/auto/2018/05...pting-to-have-sex-with-cars-exhaust-pipe.html


Perhaps worse (because this guy was not drunk out of his mind) is what happened in Ohio.


----------



## KenOC

Fritz Kobus said:


> Perhaps worse (because this guy was not drunk out of his mind) is what happened in Ohio.


Sadly, that makes me think about the guy who joins the Navy and is assigned to a destroyer at sea. The Captain is showing him around, and he asks "So, I've got to ask, what do people do on this ship to satisfy their sexual needs"?

The Captain replies, "See that barrel over there? They just use that. Go ahead, give it a try. I'll step into the next compartment."

The guy tries it out and then goes to see the Captain. "That was really great! Can I do that every day?"

The Captain says, "Well yes, every day except Thursday."

"Why not Thursday?"

"Because that's your day in the barrel."

(I hope the mods are understanding...)​


----------



## Dan Ante

KenOC said:


> "Police stun man attempting to have sex with car's exhaust pipe"
> 
> I'd like to say I didn't read the article. I'd really like that.
> 
> http://www.foxnews.com/auto/2018/05...pting-to-have-sex-with-cars-exhaust-pipe.html


Was it rape or sex with a minor. ....


----------



## KenOC

"North Korea Is Letting Trump Choose If He Wants Three American Hostages Returned Or A Mysterious Box That Could Have Anything Inside It"


----------



## LezLee

KenOC said:


> "North Korea Is Letting Trump Choose If He Wants Three American Hostages Returned Or A Mysterious Box That Could Have Anything Inside It"


It's actually a Masterchef mystery box and contains either a pitbull or a chihuahua


----------



## joen_cph

British schools taking down traditional clocks, also during examinations, since younger people don´t know how to use them

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/educati...-analogue-clocks-exam-halls-teenagers-unable/


----------



## LezLee

Mrs May practises her air guitar moves


----------



## Sloe

joen_cph said:


> British schools taking down traditional clocks, also during examinations, since younger people don´t know how to use them
> 
> https://www.telegraph.co.uk/educati...-analogue-clocks-exam-halls-teenagers-unable/


:scold:

Seriously!
What is wrong with that country?


----------



## Dan Ante

Seems pointless as they will all have phones.


----------



## LezLee

My 4 nephews and nieces aged from 4 to 8 could all tell the time before they went to school. None of them have phones yet and they don’t have digital clocks at home.
One problem with digital timepieces is they don’t show seconds. The clock might show 8.43 but it could be 8.43.01 or 8.43.59 which is almost a minute’s difference.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Chinese passenger opens plane's emergency door 'to get some air'

http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/offbe...cy-door-to-get-some-air/ar-AAwFuSV?ocid=ientp


----------



## Dan Ante

Dan installed a shade cloth on one side of a car port and only hit his finger once!


----------



## SixFootScowl

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Chinese passenger opens plane's emergency door 'to get some air'
> 
> http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/offbe...cy-door-to-get-some-air/ar-AAwFuSV?ocid=ientp


I thought it was going to be during flight so the guy would get sucked out the door to his death.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Fritz Kobus said:


> I thought it was going to be during flight so the guy would get sucked out the door to his death.


Next Time  .


----------



## LezLee

They questioned him for *15 days*? I hope he won the jackpot!


----------



## KenOC

Darwin wins again, in India. "Man mauled to death while trying to take selfie with a bear"

And he has accomplices: "The Hindustan Times also reported the bystanders 'were busy shooting the incident on their mobile phones instead of trying to rescue him.' The newspaper quotes forest official Dhanurjaya Mohapatra as saying 'Bhatara died on the spot.' "

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...selfie-with-a-bear/ar-AAwTRBV?ocid=spartanntp


----------



## Dan Ante

I support the Bear, Idiots are everywhere.


----------



## geralmar

Tourists tossing dinosaur tracks into reservoir.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/t...ake-at-a-utah-state-park/ar-AAwVjSM?ocid=AMZN


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

This man avoids rent by living in a sandcastle

With a crown on his head, Marcio Mizael Matolias sits on a throne in front of his sand castle, despite the 40-degree heat that punishes bathers on a sunny summer afternoon on the beach of Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on January 18, 2018. For the last 22 years, Matolias has lived inside his sand castle surrounded by books, golf clubs and fishing poles. Neighbors and friends call him 'The King'.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

'They're barely on the planet': Ryan Reynolds takes a swipe at Australia over entering Eurovision and takes umbrage that the song contest 'let in' the non-European nation

Blo*dy whinging Canuck- I say and hasn't Celine sung there anyway- would make a great South Park Episode Ryan Reynolds vs Hugh Jackman lol








http://www.msn.com/en-au/entertainm...the-non-european-nation/ar-AAx0CEx?ocid=ientp


----------



## Dan Ante

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> 'They're barely on the planet': Ryan Reynolds takes a swipe at Australia over entering Eurovision and takes umbrage that the song contest 'let in' the non-European nation
> 
> Blo*dy whinging Canuck- I say and hasn't Celine sung there anyway- would make a great South Park Episode Ryan Reynolds vs Hugh Jackman lol
> View attachment 103511
> 
> 
> http://www.msn.com/en-au/entertainm...the-non-european-nation/ar-AAx0CEx?ocid=ientp


*Just another Drongo Eddie*


----------



## KenOC

DPRK news feed: "Noted global icon Robyn 'Rihanna' Fenty assumes Papal control over Catholic Church, making for most beautiful and 8th female Pope."


----------



## KenOC

Maybe more amusing than bizarre...


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

^ Australia's not there so I'm ok with it


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Sharks really like jazz music, scientists say 
http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/offbe...zz-music-scientists-say/ar-AAx3HoU?ocid=ientp







Quite unlike the monsters they're portrayed as, sharks are actually sophisticated creatures with an affinity for jazz music, according to new research. 
Scientists at Australia's Macquarie University Fish Lab have found that the fish are able to associate music with food rewards - and* jazz is more their bag than classical.*
The researchers trained baby Port Jackson sharks to associate music with reward as part of a study published in the Animal Cognition journal.
They found the sharks learned to go to a feeding station far better when played jazz music than other kinds of songs.

I coulda told them that Sharks like Mac the Knife & Westside Story and not so much Bach, Mozart and Beethoven and saved heaps of tax payer dollars on this one


----------



## Dan Ante

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> ^ Australia's not there so I'm ok with it


Yes it is look for Israel and you will see a dot just above it


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

The answer to life, the universe and everything might be 73. Or 67
http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/techandscience/the-answer-to-life-the-universe-and-everything-might-be-73-or-67/ar-AAx51U2?ocid=ientp







 crisis of cosmic proportions is brewing: the universe is expanding 9% faster than it ought to be and scientists are not sure why.The latest, most precise, estimate of the universe's current rate of expansion - a value known as the Hubble constant - comes from observations by the European Space Agency's Gaia mission, which is conducting the most detailed ever three-dimensional survey of the Milky Way.
The data has allowed the rate of expansion to be pinned down to a supposed accuracy of a couple of percent. However, this newest estimate stands in stark contradiction with an independent measure of the Hubble constant based on observations of ancient light that was released shortly after the Big Bang. In short, the universe is getting bigger quicker than it should be.
The new data puts the Hubble constant at 73, which translates to galaxies moving away from us 73km per second faster for each additional megaparsec of distance between us and them (a megaparsec is about 3.3m light-years).
Scientists then use the cosmic equivalent of a child growth chart (a computational model that roughly describes the age and contents of the universe and the laws of physics) to predict how fast the universe should be expanding today. This gives a Hubble value of 67.


----------



## SixFootScowl

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> ^ Australia's not there so I'm ok with it


Austria is there and so I wonder if their roads are as bad as the roads in Michigan.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Fritz Kobus said:


> Austria is there and so I wonder if their roads are as bad as the roads in Michigan.


Arnold Schwarzenegger is from Austria not Australia we are the Outback Truckers people you know Paul Hogan and big Knives. You want bad road we got Bad roads


----------



## Art Rock

French tourists in a Dutch Safari Park decided to leave the car and walk around a bit. In the middle of the cheetahs' hunting grounds. They just managed to get back to the car in time, while the animals were targeting a child in the arms of one of them. Idiots.


----------



## Capeditiea

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> ^ Australia's not there so I'm ok with it


*cries, at least you are not confused even more on where the hell you live now. :O


----------



## KenOC

Elon Musk is disturbed by these things. He tweets "This is nothing. In a few years, that bot will move so fast you'll need a strobe light to see it. Sweet dreams…"


----------



## SixFootScowl

Thankfully a happy ending on this one:
Man tosses baby off second floor balcony in panic over apartment fire.


----------



## Capeditiea

this is probably the most informative things i have on the outside world


----------



## Dan Ante

Capeditiea said:


> this is probably the most informative things i have on the outside world


Are you still here or some where else?


----------



## Capeditiea

Dan Ante said:


> Are you still here or some where else?


i am not entirely sure. :3


----------



## Dan Ante

Capeditiea said:


> i am not entirely sure. :3


Ha enter my world of the confused and bewildered


----------



## Capeditiea

Dan Ante said:


> Ha enter my world of the confused and bewildered


:O your world is confused and beliwildered too?


----------



## Dan Ante

Capeditiea said:


> :O your world is confused and beliwildered too?


Slorry what are you on abourt


----------



## Capeditiea

Dan Ante said:


> Slorry what are you on abourt


I still have no idea. :O only think i know is, that i am safe as long as i look at my lappy screen. if i were to look away, they will get me...


----------



## Norman Gunston

*Video: Toronto driver smashes a McLaren into an Audi R8*

http://driving.ca/mclaren/auto-news/news/video-toronto-driver-smashes-a-mclaren-into-an-audi-r8
Expensive driving lesson for unlicensed young man, who takes off after crash


----------



## KenOC

More from Canada, the New York Times reports on an ongoing story:

"MONTREAL - The mystery has haunted Canadians for more than a decade: One by one, human feet clad in running shoes have floated ashore on British Columbia's southern coast with gruesome regularity.

"Last weekend, foot No. 14 was discovered by a man strolling on a beach on Gabriola Island, a sleepy and picturesque enclave, population 4,000, that is known for its captivating sandstone and close-knit artistic community."

There have been no reports from people missing their feet.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...e-as-14th-human-foot-washes-ashore/ar-AAx9qJn


----------



## LezLee

It says ‘not all belonged to Canadians’. How do they know that?


----------



## Dan Ante

LezLee said:


> It says 'not all belonged to Canadians'. How do they know that?


 The labels said made in China


----------



## SixFootScowl

LezLee said:


> It says 'not all belonged to Canadians'. How do they know that?


Easy, all Canadians have 6 toes. :lol:


----------



## Capeditiea

KenOC said:


> More from Canada, the New York Times reports on an ongoing story:
> 
> "MONTREAL - The mystery has haunted Canadians for more than a decade: One by one, human feet clad in running shoes have floated ashore on British Columbia's southern coast with gruesome regularity.
> 
> "Last weekend, foot No. 14 was discovered by a man strolling on a beach on Gabriola Island, a sleepy and picturesque enclave, population 4,000, that is known for its captivating sandstone and close-knit artistic community."
> 
> There have been no reports from people missing their feet.
> 
> https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...e-as-14th-human-foot-washes-ashore/ar-AAx9qJn


so this might be part of the answer for the mystery of how random shoes appear in the road...


----------



## LezLee

.......and odd socks in the washing-machine?


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

LezLee said:


> .......and odd socks in the washing-machine?


Moose powered .


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Court bans woman from singing due to her drowning cat-like voice
http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/offbe...drowning-cat-like-voice/ar-AAx6sgY?ocid=ientp

The woman was handed a 24-month Criminal Behaviour Order in December last year. According to the court order, the 48-year-old was ordered to not sing "at a volume which can be heard from outside her property." But she ignored the order thrice.
One of her neighbors, Paul Burford, complained that the woman sings loudly in her ground floor apartment. He added that "she sounds like a drowning cat to be honest."

Anyone we Know?


----------



## Dan Ante

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Court bans woman from singing due to her drowning cat-like voice
> http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/offbe...drowning-cat-like-voice/ar-AAx6sgY?ocid=ientp
> 
> The woman was handed a 24-month Criminal Behaviour Order in December last year. According to the court order, the 48-year-old was ordered to not sing "at a volume which can be heard from outside her property." But she ignored the order thrice.
> One of her neighbors, Paul Burford, complained that the woman sings loudly in her ground floor apartment. He added that "she sounds like a drowning cat to be honest."
> 
> Anyone we Know?


Same as all of today's pop singers wailing cats or 9 year old girls...


----------



## Johnnie Burgess

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> ^ Australia's not there so I'm ok with it


Australia would fall between Texas and New York in rank not on the map.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Pet dog raised by Chinese family for two years turns out to be a black bear







When Su Yun bought her family a puppy two years ago, she was surprised by how much the dog ate. "A box of fruits and two buckets of noodles every day," she told Chinese media There was, it turns out, a reason for its prodigious appetite: the animal has grown into a 250lb bear. The family realised their error when the pet did not stop growing and started showing a talent for walking on two legs.


----------



## KenOC

In Belgium, they know how to have fun.

"Clown accused of killing ex, tying up kids with aid of yodeling sidekick"

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/0...tying-up-kids-with-aid-yodeling-sidekick.html


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

^ Anyone we know?


----------



## Dan Ante

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> ^ Anyone we know?


A bit like DAVE don't you know.


----------



## Metairie Road

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/62245...ed-about-them-being-naked-in-their-own-home/#

And who is 'We'. The note was from an individual, not the neighbourhood watch committee. I'm sure the other neighbours either don't mind or don't care.

It's not like they were doing it on the front lawn.

I wouldn't do it myself (with the curtains open anyway), I wouldn't want to frighten anyone. My parts are a bit saggy these days.

Best wishes
Metairie Road


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Bill Gates Says Trump Didn't Know The Difference Between HPV And HIV








Microsoft founder Bill Gates told his foundation's staff that President Donald Trump didn't know the difference between HPV and HIV when they met with each other on two different occasions, according to an exclusive clip obtained by MSNBC's Chris Hayes.
The clip shows Gates telling the room that in two separate meetings with the president, specifically recalling a March 2017 meeting, Trump asked him about the difference between the two viruses.
"He wanted to know if there was a difference between HPV and HIV," Gates said in the clip. "So I was able to explain that those are rarely confused with each other." 
HPV, the human papillomavirus, is an infection that can cause warts and lead to cervical cancer, while HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus,


----------



## KenOC

"Republican congressman explains sea-level rise: it's rocks falling into the sea"

Well, now that _that's _out of the way, we can move on to important issues.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/poli...into-the-sea/ar-AAxrdgO?ocid=spartanntp&pfr=1


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Anwar Ibrahim confident Malaysia Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad will hand over top job
http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world...-will-hand-over-top-job/ar-AAxnpBd?ocid=ientp

Former Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim says he is confident Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad will keep his promise of handing over the top job in coming years.
"I think people would recognise that this is a new Mahathir, rejuvenated, and at his age, 92, is keen to do it fast, and I think we should give him that recognition."

At 92, yeah he has got heaps left in the tank..................?


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Mind-boggling paper says octopuses & Gay Frogs may have come from outer space 







Octopus vulgaris. An absolutely mind-boggling paper published in the academic journal Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology speculates that life on Earth had a not so little push from outer space.
The study, which is the result of decades of research, does not come from a tin foil basement theorist, nor was it published on some fringe site along with the mention of gay frogs.
The paper was published in a respected peer-reviewed journal and has 33 authors. The report, titled "Cause of Cambrian Explosion - Terrestrial or Cosmic?", pulls out piles and piles of existing research in fields from Geology, to Astrobiology to conclude that retroviruses brought from outer space on comets played a key role in the evolution and diversification of life in our planet.
"In our view the totality of the multifactorial data and critical analyses assembled by Fred Hoyle, Chandra Wickramasinghe and their many colleagues since the 1960s leads to a very plausible conclusion - life may have been seeded here on Earth by life-bearing comets as soon as conditions on Earth allowed it to flourish (about or just before 4.1 Billion years ago);" they state on the paper.
It was during the Cambrian period when the group of molluscs known as cephalopods diversified into a wide array of sizes and shapes in a remarkably short timespan.
These organisms, which include today's cuttlefish, octopuses and squids, have the outstanding ability to edit their DNA on the fly. This paper says all these weird, fabulous fellows are one of those consequences life from space fiddling with terrestrial genetics.
The authors even stretch the imagination a bit, hypothesizing that these animals might be aliens altogether, "Thus the possibility that cryopreserved squid and/or octopus eggs, arrived in icy bolides several hundred million years ago should not be discounted,"


----------



## LezLee

I might regret posting this ad spotted by one of our UK female posters. No-one else has seen it so perhaps it has been pulled lol


----------



## Dan Ante

LezLee said:


> I might regret posting this ad spotted by one of our UK female posters. No-one else has seen it so perhaps it has been pulled lol


Oh yeeks ung gerfectedle, I have had post much milder than this removed


----------



## Norman Gunston

Tragic end to mystery disappearance of Egg, the pet pug from Sydney









Egg's owner was charged with making a false report to police, claiming the puppy was stolen during a late-night robbery.

A pet pug dog whose mysterious disappearance sparked a search across Sydney, Australia, has died, detectives say.

The 14-week-old puppy, named Egg, died at his owner's home and his "body was disposed of", a NSW Police spokeswoman said on Thursday afternoon.


----------



## Capeditiea

Norman Gunston said:


> Tragic end to mystery disappearance of Egg, the pet pug from Sydney
> 
> View attachment 103838
> 
> 
> Egg's owner was charged with making a false report to police, claiming the puppy was stolen during a late-night robbery.
> 
> A pet pug dog whose mysterious disappearance sparked a search across Sydney, Australia, has died, detectives say.
> 
> The 14-week-old puppy, named Egg, died at his owner's home and his "body was disposed of", a NSW Police spokeswoman said on Thursday afternoon.


poor little puppy.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Time travellers have been formally invited to Stephen Hawking's farewell service







http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/techa...king’s-farewell-service/ar-AAxnOr7?ocid=ientp
The organisers of a service to commemorate Professor Stephen Hawking's life have thrown open the invite list to people of all walks of life - including those who may have journeyed back in time.Professor Hawking was one of science's great equalisers - a man who took some of the most complex, difficult-to-understand topics humans have ever contemplated and did his best to make them accessible to the average person.
So it should come as no surprise that the 'Service of Thanksgiving for Professor Hawking', to be held at Westminster Abbey on June 15, will have a ballot so that 1000 of us everyday - as in non-genius, famous or royal - people can attend.
But while attendees must be aged 12 or older, the service isn't ruling out the possibility of time travellers being present.
Specifically, you need to give your date of birth to enter the ballot - with the last date available to enter being December 31, 2038.

Maybe they can prove or disprove his theories................


----------



## Capeditiea

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Time travellers have been formally invited to Stephen Hawking's farewell service
> View attachment 103903
> 
> http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/techa...king’s-farewell-service/ar-AAxnOr7?ocid=ientp
> The organisers of a service to commemorate Professor Stephen Hawking's life have thrown open the invite list to people of all walks of life - including those who may have journeyed back in time.Professor Hawking was one of science's great equalisers - a man who took some of the most complex, difficult-to-understand topics humans have ever contemplated and did his best to make them accessible to the average person.
> So it should come as no surprise that the 'Service of Thanksgiving for Professor Hawking', to be held at Westminster Abbey on June 15, will have a ballot so that 1000 of us everyday - as in non-genius, famous or royal - people can attend.
> But while attendees must be aged 12 or older, the service isn't ruling out the possibility of time travellers being present.
> Specifically, you need to give your date of birth to enter the ballot - with the last date available to enter being December 31, 2038.
> 
> Maybe they can prove or disprove his theories................


:O here i am just time travelling... yet not many believe me... even though i put out so much music... i mean that should be enough proof...

i mean what is more easier to believe... i am a goddes - or - i am a time traveller - or - i am fae?


----------



## Dan Ante

Norman Gunston said:


> Tragic end to mystery disappearance of Egg, the pet pug from Sydney
> 
> View attachment 103838
> 
> 
> Egg's owner was charged with making a false report to police, claiming the puppy was stolen during a late-night robbery.
> 
> A pet pug dog whose mysterious disappearance sparked a search across Sydney, Australia, has died, detectives say.
> 
> The 14-week-old puppy, named Egg, died at his owner's home and his "body was disposed of", a NSW Police spokeswoman said on Thursday afternoon.


What on earth does it have around its neck?


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Dan Ante said:


> What on earth does it have around its neck?


Renee Flemings Necklace?


----------



## KenOC

"Ohio man calls police to report he's being followed by a pig"

They thought he was drunk and hallucinating, but found that he was sober and, indeed, being followed by a pig. I love this comment: " 'You'd have thought we would have learned our lesson after the kangaroo incident,' the police department said, referencing to a 2015 incident…"

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/05/20/ohio-man-calls-police-to-report-hes-being-followed-by-pig.html


----------



## Capeditiea

KenOC said:


> "Ohio man calls police to report he's being followed by a pig"
> 
> They thought he was drunk and hallucinating, but found that he was sober and, indeed, being followed by a pig. I love this comment: " 'You'd have thought we would have learned our lesson after the kangaroo incident,' the police department said, referencing to a 2015 incident…"
> 
> http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/05/20/ohio-man-calls-police-to-report-hes-being-followed-by-pig.html


this post wins.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Man accused of indecently assaulting carer 75 years younger than him 
Australia Day honours recipient, aged 96, accused of indecently assaulting two female carers
A 96-year-old man who was awarded an Australia Day honour this year has been charged with indecently assaulting two nurses who cared for him at his Sydney home.


----------



## Capeditiea

eddierukiddingvarese said:


> man accused of indecently assaulting carer 75 years younger than him
> australia day honours recipient, aged 96, accused of indecently assaulting two female carers
> a 96-year-old man who was awarded an australia day honour this year has been charged with indecently assaulting two nurses who cared for him at his sydney home.


 .


----------



## joen_cph

Alternative approach. Kyiv city administration says Ukrainian police and border guards will welcome fans of Real Madrid and Liverpool at Boryspil airport with their faces painted in the teams' colors (26th of May).


----------



## KenOC

Maybe off-topic, but I just heard a TV spot for a candidate for governor of my fair state. He strongly opposes school shootings. I suppose he's also against throwing cute little puppies into meat grinders. Profiles in Courage, and all that!


----------



## joen_cph

_Trump's tweets include grammatical errors. And some are on purpose_

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/na...L7AtKLPevJDIIOMG7TrN/story.html?event=event25


----------



## KenOC

"Grocery store censors request for cake with 'summa cum laude' -- Instead, a Publix store provided the customer with a cake that said 'summa --- laude.' "

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/na...ory.html?p1=Article_Recommended_ReadMore_Pos4


----------



## SixFootScowl

Disappearing Lake


----------



## Capeditiea

KenOC said:


> "Grocery store censors request for cake with 'summa cum laude' -- Instead, a Publix store provided the customer with a cake that said 'summa --- laude.' "
> 
> https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/na...ory.html?p1=Article_Recommended_ReadMore_Pos4


*quadrouple facepalms.


----------



## Capeditiea

Fritz Kobus said:


> Disappearing Lake


great... now i am gonna end up looking up everything natural in a sequential manner now... and here i was gonna go to sleep. :O thanks.


----------



## Capeditiea

https://www.buzzfeed.com/simoncrerar/natural-phenomena-you-wont-believe-actually-exist?utm_term=.bj3gnXP1L#.irJ8gVw9p

thusly the first site i ended up at... after this all... 
Eddie... have you experienced #7 on this list? :O


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Will check it out and get Bach to you


----------



## Capeditiea

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Will check it out and get Bach to you


:O i often get scared since you guys have these huge spiders and such... :O i hear, some aussies have them as pets. have you ever had a hunts'man spider just chilling when you get home?


----------



## Capeditiea

Capeditiea said:


> :O i often get scared since you guys have these huge spiders and such... :O i hear, some aussies have them as pets. have you ever had a hunts'man spider just chilling when you get home?


but as you could probably tell what this research evolved to... :3


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

As Spiders go it the little ones like Redbacks to watch out for as they are known to inhabit toilet seats.........


----------



## Capeditiea

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> As Spiders go it the little ones like Redbacks to watch out for as they are known to inhabit toilet seats.........


Brown Recluses are pretty bad too... :O i recently found out they are called violin spiders in africa. :O which it just does wonders... since i relate a lot with the brown recluse/violin spider... plus the venom can erode skin fairly quickly.  if i only had that kind of venom...


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Capeditiea said:


> Brown Recluses are pretty bad too... :O i recently found out they are called violin spiders in africa. :O which it just does wonders... since i relate a lot with the brown recluse/violin spider... plus the venom can erode skin fairly quickly.  if i only had that kind of venom...


What sort of damage does it do to a violin


----------



## SixFootScowl

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> As Spiders go it the little ones like Redbacks to watch out for as they are known to inhabit toilet seats.........


Another good reason I stay in Michigan. Only time I ever saw a redback was in southern Illinois. It was creepy.


----------



## Capeditiea

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> What sort of damage does it do to a violin


well... it is a scary site, they first fuse into the violin. which then captures the soul of the violin, then a photo of a violin appears on their butt,


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Capeditiea said:


> well... it is a scary site, they first fuse into the violin. which then captures the soul of the violin, then a photo of a violin appears on their butt,


Sort of like a tattoo..........


----------



## KenOC

The mildly venomous green tree snake in Guam, an invasive species there, has some unpleasant habits. It slithers through drain pipes and sometimes will come up through the toilet and bite the hindquarters of whomever is using it, or whatever's hanging down. Ugh. I'll take spiders.


----------



## SixFootScowl

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> What sort of damage does it do to a violin


The violinist must take charge. Set the violin down and let the spider make web strands to be played with the bow. Some of the strangest music ever comes out of it.


----------



## Guest

Candirus give me the willies.


----------



## Capeditiea

Tulse said:


> Candirus give me the willies.


overlooking the pun... *nods, they do seem scary. :O just don't go pee in the Amazon... where everything is big and scary...


----------



## SixFootScowl

Fritz Kobus said:


> *Disappearing Lake*


Then there is the strange case of *the missing lake*.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Or the Pink Lake
http://www.dimboola.com.au/index.aspx?PageID=19


----------



## SixFootScowl

Hey, maybe we should have a thread titled, Freaky Lakes!


----------



## elgar's ghost

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Or the Pink Lake
> http://www.dimboola.com.au/index.aspx?PageID=19
> 
> View attachment 103984


Isn't that colour caused by some kind of algae pigment? One of Michael Tippett's final works, _The Rose Lake_, was about a similar-looking lake in Africa.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

elgars ghost said:


> Isn't that colour caused by some kind of algae pigment? One of Michael Tippett's final works, _The Rose Lake_, was about a similar-looking lake in Africa.


There are about half a dozen lakes in OZ that are called the Pink Lake
https://www.australia.com/en/places/perth-and-surrounds/guide-to-pink-lake.html

here is another that is very popular with Chinese tourists. I'm not sure why they are Pink, think its algae but know most of them are salt lakes.


----------



## laurie

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Or the Pink Lake
> http://www.dimboola.com.au/index.aspx?PageID=19
> 
> View attachment 103984


That's actually beautiful . Wouldn't it be a surprise to see it out of the airplane window?!


----------



## KenOC

"The New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission said Tuesday the 77-year-old man who was driving the school bus involved in last week's deadly crash has held a driver's license since 1975 and had a total of 14 license suspensions and eight speeding tickets, a careless driving ticket and a ticket for an improper turn..."

Good to hear their background check procedures are in fine shape!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/7...j-crash-had-14-license-suspensions/ar-AAxEUCT


----------



## KenOC

This just in: Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX has gone on the warpath against the big news media, threatening to start a site rating both news organizations and individual reporters.
---------------------------------
Musk swiftly dismissed suggestions that he's veering into territory occupied by President Trump, who has similarly blasted the news media for reporting he dislikes.

"Thought you'd say that," he said in response to one reporter who made the comparison. "Anytime anyone criticizes the media, the media shrieks 'You're just like Trump!' Why do you think he got elected in the first place? Because no ones believes you anymore. You lost your credibility a long time ago."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/t...te-journalists-no-one-believes-you/ar-AAxImzY

Another story on this from the BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44233811


----------



## joen_cph

KenOC said:


> This just in: Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX has gone on the warpath against the big news media, threatening to start a site rating both news organizations and individual reporters.
> ---------------------------------
> Musk swiftly dismissed suggestions that he's veering into territory occupied by President Trump, who has similarly blasted the news media for reporting he dislikes.
> 
> "Thought you'd say that," he said in response to one reporter who made the comparison. "Anytime anyone criticizes the media, the media shrieks 'You're just like Trump!' Why do you think he got elected in the first place? Because no ones believes you anymore. You lost your credibility a long time ago."
> 
> https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/t...te-journalists-no-one-believes-you/ar-AAxImzY
> 
> Another story on this from the BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44233811


Megalomania in full blossom?


----------



## KenOC

News from Oklahoma, where two "good guys with guns" made a difference.
----------------------------------------------
Police have praised two armed bystanders after they shot and killed a gunman who opened fire on diners at a restaurant in the US state of Oklahoma. Oklahoma City police said four victims were injured on Thursday before the duo confronted the shooter as he fled the scene and "fatally shot him"…

Mr Tilghman [the shooter] had a YouTube channel where he posted videos talking about demonic attacks… In one of his clips, he complains of a demon-possessed squirrel, and in another of his refrigerator attacking him. In a video uploaded weeks before the attack, he said: "I am under hardcore demonic attack, you know."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44256763


----------



## joen_cph

joen_cph said:


> Alternative approach. Kyiv city administration says Ukrainian police and border guards will welcome fans of Real Madrid and Liverpool at Boryspil airport with their faces painted in the teams' colors (26th of May).


Overall, quite nice, but perhaps with a varying artistic result ............


----------



## LezLee

Asking for trouble!


----------



## LezLee

Headline in today’s Guardian:

‘Little appetite for more babies in China’

Good to know cannibalism’s on the wane.


----------



## joen_cph

LezLee said:


> Asking for trouble!


The designs are probably adjusted to the exact flights they are receiving.


----------



## TxllxT

Bizarre & rather sad news:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-03-16/japan-s-prisons-are-a-haven-for-elderly-women

For regaining human contact & companionship elderly women in Japan start / repeat stealing things, just to get into prison. Tells a lot about the Japanese society...


----------



## LezLee

I expect Japanese prison cells are bigger than their normal bedrooms.


----------



## KenOC

Train gets 'lost' in England when driver 'went the wrong way'

Passengers aboard a CrossCountry Train in England were disgruntled to discover their long-distance express train from Newcastle to Reading ended up in Pontefract, which is roughly two hours by car in the wrong direction.

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2018/05/26/train-gets-lost-in-england-when-driver-went-wrong-way.html


----------



## Guest

Fox News
Fox News


----------



## joen_cph

_The Hero of the 18th_ -

climbed 4 stories in 30 secs.


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1000849064475406336


----------



## SixFootScowl

joen_cph said:


> _The Hero of the 18th_ -
> 
> climbed 4 stories in 30 secs.
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1000849064475406336


Spiderman?
. . .


----------



## joen_cph

Yeah, the 'Mali Spiderman' is what they call him now:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europ...l&ns_campaign=bbc_breaking&ns_mchannel=social


----------



## SixFootScowl

joen_cph said:


> Yeah, the 'Mali Spiderman' is what they call him now:
> http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europ...l&ns_campaign=bbc_breaking&ns_mchannel=social


For whatever reason this guy had to climb up the building, to stand on the balcony and pull the boy to safety. The whole time someone was standing on the balcony right next to the boy. What is that all about. Was that person an invalid or petrified with fear so they could not pull in the boy?


----------



## joen_cph

This wasn't staged. Obviously, as can be seen, the person on the nearby balcony came later.


----------



## SixFootScowl

joen_cph said:


> This wasn't staged. Obviously, as can be seen, the person on the nearby balcony came later.


You are right. It threw me because the opening image had the person standing on the balcony.


----------



## Guest

Great publicity for the caring French government. But do you know how North Africans really live in their country?


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Six Qld islands closed to remove rats ie Cheap holidays currently available








Six far north Queensland islands will be closed as authorities work to control an infestation of rats which have been harming wildlife.Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service officers will carry out a pest control program to remove black rats from the Frankland Islands and Southern Barnard Islands, near Cairns, from Monday.
"The control of black rats on these islands is a high priority (and) will play a significant role in restoring valuable seabird nesting habitat in the area," a Department of Environment and Science spokesperson said in a statement.

http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/six-qld-islands-closed-to-remove-rats/ar-AAxTKW4?ocid=ientp


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Opera in Australia is know where it belongs - Underground in Caves 
Want to hear the best opera in the country? Forget the Sydney Opera House and head to Capricorn Caves
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-29/queensland-cave-has-best-acoustics-in-australia/9810304
Forget the Sydney Opera House, the best place to listen to opera lies under 30 metres of limestone, through tunnels and narrow passages, in a spectacular cavern that is described as the closest thing to having perfect natural acoustics.
It is for this reason that for 10 years Bruce Edwards has been bringing his Underground Opera Company to the Capricorn Caves, just north of Rockhampton in central Queensland.
"If you're looking for acoustics, this is the place to be," Mr Edwards said.
"They say a perfect acoustic equals a value of two, which is about two-tenths of a second before your voice is reverberated back to you.


----------



## LezLee

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Opera in Australia is know where it belongs - Underground in Caves
> Want to hear the best opera in the country? Forget the Sydney Opera House and head to Capricorn Caves
> http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-29/queensland-cave-has-best-acoustics-in-australia/9810304
> Forget the Sydney Opera House, the best place to listen to opera lies under 30 metres of limestone, through tunnels and narrow passages, in a spectacular cavern that is described as the closest thing to having perfect natural acoustics.
> It is for this reason that for 10 years Bruce Edwards has been bringing his Underground Opera Company to the Capricorn Caves, just north of Rockhampton in central Queensland.
> "If you're looking for acoustics, this is the place to be," Mr Edwards said.
> "They say a perfect acoustic equals a value of two, which is about two-tenths of a second before your voice is reverberated back to you.


Should definitely be encouraged, most opera belongs out of earshot! :lol:


----------



## Dan Ante

LezLee said:


> Should definitely be encouraged, most opera belongs out of earshot! :lol:


Together with some modern music ...


----------



## SixFootScowl

4'33" best in a cave.


----------



## geralmar

Televangelist wants followers to buy him a private jet.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...sse-duplantis-private-jet-20180529-story.html

Note: Doesn't want to have to fly commercial with "a bunch of demons."


----------



## geralmar

KenOC said:


> News from Oklahoma, where two "good guys with guns" made a difference.
> ----------------------------------------------
> Police have praised two armed bystanders after they shot and killed a gunman who opened fire on diners at a restaurant in the US state of Oklahoma. Oklahoma City police said four victims were injured on Thursday before the duo confronted the shooter as he fled the scene and "fatally shot him"…
> 
> http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44256763


OK; but note that the two heroes shot the gunman AFTER he shot up the restaurant and was running away. Not exactly deserving of accolades to me.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

^^Another one - Hope this one achieve orbit of some kind









http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-rocket-man-blast-20180325-story.html


----------



## Bulldog

geralmar said:


> OK; but note that the two heroes shot the gunman AFTER he shot up the restaurant and was running away. Not exactly deserving of accolades to me.


After is better than nothing. They deserve at least a fine dining experience at Ok. City's most expensive restaurant. But perhaps they would prefer Burger King.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Bulldog said:


> After is better than nothing. They deserve at least a fine dining experience at Ok. City's most expensive restaurant. But perhaps they would prefer Burger King.


Less bullets more fries I say......................


----------



## SixFootScowl

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Less bullets more fries I say......................


The fries will kill him, just not as quickly.


----------



## joen_cph

Seen before, but the scam is still being done. Just received this mail:

_"I NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE !!

Hello, I am (...) and a personal Accountant/Executive board of Directors with Foreign Trade Bank of Cambodia (FTB).
it is with good spirit of heart i opened up this great opportunity to you A deceased client of mine that shares almost the same name as yours died as a result of heart-related condition on march 2005.His heart condition was duo to the death of the members of his family in the tsunami disaster on the 26 December 2004 in Sumatra Indonesia where they all lost their lives

There is a draft account opened in my bank in 1999 by a long-time client our bank,a national of your country.he was a CEO/a textile company owner,business man,a miner at kruger mining company here in Cambodia. he was a geologist and consultant to several other mining conglomerates operating in Cambodia,China,Taiwan,Japan,Indonesia,Pakistan,Vietnam all in Asia,before he passed away on 12th march 2005 leaving nobody as the next of kin of his account after his death.

The amount in this account is currently $32,640,000 (Thirty Two Million Six Hundred and Forty Thousand United States Dollars) I want to present you as a beneficiary,I will use my position and influence in our bank to make they release this money to you for us to share.If i wait for days and i do not hear from you,I shall look for another person.

Kindly get back to me for more details. Yours sincerely (...)"._

Identical ones have been sent at least since 2014, cf. web info.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

*Christmas Island facing economic collapse as mine expansion rejected to save red crabs







*The community of Christmas Island could face an economic collapse after a proposal to expand the island's phosphate mine was knocked back over fears of the impact to the island's wildlife, including its world-famous red crabs.
Phosphate Resources Limited has been mining on the Indian Ocean Territory for more than 100 years, but claims it needs to clear more crown land to access new deposits in order for the operations to remain viable. 
Under the expansion, the company wanted to clear an additional 6.83 hectares of land to undertake exploration drilling to determine the extent of more phosphate resources, in what has been described as a pristine area of the island


----------



## KenOC

What's worse than when your plane crashes?

"A Transavia flight to the Spanish island of Gran Canaria was forced to make an emergency landing in Portugal when several passengers reportedly became ill by the 'unbearable' smell of an 'unwashed' man onboard.

"The male passenger allegedly smelled so bad that others on the flight began fainting and vomiting once the plane took off from Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands.

"...airline crew members tried to keep the man contained in the airplane bathroom while the pilot diverted the flight."


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

KenOC said:


> What's worse than when your plane crashes?
> 
> "A Transavia flight to the Spanish island of Gran Canaria was forced to make an emergency landing in Portugal when several passengers reportedly became ill by the 'unbearable' smell of an 'unwashed' man onboard.
> 
> "The male passenger allegedly smelled so bad that others on the flight began fainting and vomiting once the plane took off from Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands.
> 
> "...airline crew members tried to keep the man contained in the airplane bathroom while the pilot diverted the flight."


I wonder if the man was from the Netherlands and would that explain an absence from this esteemed forum


----------



## Dan Ante

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> I wonder if the man was from the Netherlands and would that explain an absence from this esteemed forum


I suspect Dave he is usually at the bottom of things! see what I did


----------



## KenOC

Not really apropos here, and a bit sad. One of the world's last watchmakers, who spends better than half a year making each watch, has nobody to take over his shop. From the BBC, a short video.

http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-44333446/the-swiss-master-watchmaker-running-out-of-time


----------



## KenOC

"A French swimmer has set off from Japan aiming to become the first person to swim across the Pacific Ocean. Ben Lecomte, 51, will swim for eight hours a day for more than six months as he heads towards the US west coast."

His 5,500-mile solo swim will take 6 months. If that sounds crazy, he already swam the Atlantic, 4,000 miles, 20 years ago. Again, he will have a support boat for eating (8,000 calories a day) and sleeping.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44358680


----------



## Guest

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/video_and...cer-fired-for-hitting-suspect-with-patrol-car


----------



## KenOC

Tulse said:


> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/video_and...cer-fired-for-hitting-suspect-with-patrol-car


Utterly disgusting. The officer (now ex-officer) should go to prison.


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> Utterly disgusting. The officer (now ex-officer) should go to prison.


On what basis would you have him go to prison?


----------



## Dan Ante

KenOC said:


> "A French swimmer has set off from Japan aiming to become the first person to swim across the Pacific Ocean. Ben Lecomte, 51, will swim for eight hours a day for more than six months as he heads towards the US west coast."
> 
> His 5,500-mile solo swim will take 6 months. If that sounds crazy, he already swam the Atlantic, 4,000 miles, 20 years ago. Again, he will have a support boat for eating (8,000 calories a day) and sleeping.
> 
> https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44358680


Now if he did the swim in one go I would be impressed.


----------



## LezLee

“....he will have a support boat for eating..”

He’ll be getting plenty of fibre then


----------



## KenOC

Fritz Kobus said:


> On what basis would you have him go to prison?


Use of excessive force, attempted homicide, assault with a motor vehicle -- I'm ceretain there are more grounds in the state where this occurred. I'd also bet that his false statements made after the incident, clearly contradicted by the video, are potentially a criminal matter.


----------



## Guest

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/04/canada-poo-plane-blame-town-hit-by-slops-from-sky

'I cried and couldn't sleep until 4 in the morning.'


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> Use of excessive force, attempted homicide, assault with a motor vehicle -- I'm ceretain there are more grounds in the state where this occurred. I'd also bet that his false statements made after the incident, clearly contradicted by the video, are potentially a criminal matter.


From what I saw he was only trying to block the guy. It was stupid, but hardly attempted homicide. As for assault with a motor vehicle, it looked from the video as if the suspect ran purposefully into the car. The guy would have to be half blind or have no peripheral vision to not have seen the car. The cop did something stupid and reckless. He lost his job. That is enough IMO.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Where I live does not exist......................I must be in another dimension?

Why Australia doesn't exist according to flat-Earthers

http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/austr...ording-to-flat-earthers/ss-AAy8XYu?ocid=ientp

Australia doesn't exist, flat-Earthers say Take a deep breath because this is about to get wild. Flat-Earthers have got it in their head that the entire land mass of Australia is a ruse to fool the world into believing the Earth is a globe. But what about the 24 million people who live there? Well, Aussies are actors employed by NASA, flat-Earthers say, hired to complete the massive cover up. Check out these flat out preposterous arguments on why down under is fake news.


----------



## Dan Ante

Tulse said:


> https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/04/canada-poo-plane-blame-town-hit-by-slops-from-sky
> 
> 'I cried and couldn't sleep until 4 in the morning.'


Wimps! they should consider themselves lucky they were not in my roaster.


----------



## KenOC




----------



## Art Rock

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Where I live does not exist......................I must be in another dimension?
> 
> Why Australia doesn't exist according to flat-Earthers
> 
> http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/austr...ording-to-flat-earthers/ss-AAy8XYu?ocid=ientp
> 
> Australia doesn't exist, flat-Earthers say Take a deep breath because this is about to get wild. Flat-Earthers have got it in their head that the entire land mass of Australia is a ruse to fool the world into believing the Earth is a globe. But what about the 24 million people who live there? Well, Aussies are actors employed by NASA, flat-Earthers say, hired to complete the massive cover up. Check out these flat out preposterous arguments on why down under is fake news.


And I'm sure you can find people down under who believe in the flat earth theory.............


----------



## geralmar

Redwood Falls (Minnesota) Gazette (6/4/18):


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

^ Nasty Nasty Nasty


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Art Rock said:


> And I'm sure you can find people down under who believe in the flat earth theory.............


I've never come across any...................


----------



## Dan Ante

Art Rock said:


> And I'm sure you can find peoople down under who believe in the flat earth theory.............


Hi.I am Dan were you looking for me.


----------



## KenOC

From Australia: "Crocodile eats small dog that spent years chasing it back into river"

When it comes to small, yappy dogs, one's patience is at some point exhausted. Even the patience of crocodiles. The story includes a video of the not-so-surprising event.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/0...t-spent-years-chasing-it-back-into-river.html


----------



## Capeditiea

geralmar said:


> Redwood Falls (Minnesota) Gazette (6/4/18):


:O that escalated quickly


----------



## znapschatz

LezLee said:


> Should definitely be encouraged, most opera belongs out of earshot! :lol:


Boo Hiss! Opera (most of it) is not only good, but good for you, and yes, even Wagner. My first exposure was a recording of Puccini's *La Boheme*, a present from my then GF, an opera lover, who picked the right training wheels for getting into the art, followed by *Turandot*, also an easy one for beginners. The first live performance I ever attended was *Die Walkure*, with Birgit Nillson in her Met debut performance at the old Metropolitan house, and I was hooked for life. I don't care for all of the repertoire, but those that I like, I love, including *Boris Godunov*, it's "companion" *Khovanschina*, and an eclectic bunch of others. It is not trivial that some of the greatest of composers have lent their talents to opera. I beseech* you, open your mind to the sublime marriage of drama, orchestra and glory of the human voice, and become a better person for it.

*This word should demonstrate how serious I consider the matter  .


----------



## Art Rock

The Man Who Became a Millionaire by Selling Fake Dog Balls.


----------



## joen_cph

Fox News in awe - it´s even "_a historic meeting between the two dictators_"

0:55 in the video 
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/06/fo...-korea-summit-historic-meeting-two-dictators/


----------



## KenOC

After the US-NoKo summit in Singapore, there are some pretty vague promises that both sides prefer to believe for the time being at least. But Trump is thinking ahead and already hatching his plans. The Washington Post reports:

"I think he's going to do these things," Trump said. "I may be wrong. I may stand before you in six months and say, 'Hey, I was.' "

He paused for a moment, then added: "I don't know that I'll ever admit that. I'll find some kind of excuse."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...ave-developed-a-very-special-bond'/ar-AAyx0hn


----------



## SixFootScowl

Landfill dregs to beer kegs
Since the article is 2014 I wonder if they implemented it.


----------



## SixFootScowl

Family outing? Lets take the kids to a landfill for the day!


----------



## Norman Gunston

And search for some reality


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

*Ute lands on three cars after plunging from Queensland highway overpass
**(nice driving I say, a three for one deal)
*A ute has careened off a highway overpass north of Brisbane and landed on three cars below, trapping two women.
Two women in their 40s were trapped in the crash, near the D'Aguilar Highway overpass on Pumicestone Road at Caboolture, after 8.30am on Thursday


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

*There is now a blockchain-based religion. No, this is not a joke.








http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/techa...n-no-this-is-not-a-joke/ar-AAyB7p8?ocid=ientp*Matt Liston would like to publicly refute the claim that he is a "Cryptprophet." He'd also like to clarify that he is not the "Cryptsiah" or the "CryptChrist." ("I grew up Jewish," he points out.)
Despite being the originator of what may be the first blockchain-based religion, Liston is but a humble developer, and doesn't suggest to possess divine knowledge.
"It makes me uncomfortable to think about that," says Liston. "It seems inappropriate. If I'm claiming to start a religion, it's probably disingenuous if I claimed not to be a figure within the religion. But I don't like the sound of that."


----------



## KenOC

"Liston, who recently left his position as CEO of the blockchain project Augur amid a cloud of controversy, has spent the afternoon in Bodega Bay developing what he describes as "mechanisms for worship" for his new religious order..."

It will not escape some that Bodega Bay was where the birds went murderously whacko in that Hitchcock film. Coincidence? I think not!


----------



## elgar's ghost

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> *Ute lands on three cars after plunging from Queensland highway overpass
> **(nice driving I say, a three for one deal)
> *A ute has careened off a highway overpass north of Brisbane and landed on three cars below, trapping two women.
> Two women in their 40s were trapped in the crash, near the D'Aguilar Highway overpass on Pumicestone Road at Caboolture, after 8.30am on Thursday
> 
> View attachment 104700


There would have been more justice if a juggernaut had landed on the ute.


----------



## Madiel

the US is an amazing country


----------



## KenOC

Talented clarinetist loses a big scholarship and an opportunity to study with a world-class teacher. His girlfriend, not wanting to lose him, impersonates him and ruins his future.

The monetary damages he is awarded seem hardly enough.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...000-after-girlfriend-stalls-career/ar-AAyFW6M


----------



## DaveM

It occurs to me that I likely lost several offered scholarships because a ticked-off girlfriend deleted a crucial email from my laptop. On the other hand, it just occurred to me that there was no email and there were no laptops. Okay, there was probably nobody interested in giving me a scholarship. Never mind.


----------



## SixFootScowl

DaveM said:


> It occurs to me that I likely lost several offered scholarships because a ticked-off girlfriend deleted a crucial email from my laptop. On the other hand, it just occurred to me that there was no email and there were no laptops. Okay, there was probably nobody interested in giving me a scholarship. Never mind.


Well it is good that you have thought this through. Now you can sleep better knowing you were not impacted.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

*Huawei's history in Britain may help explain why Australia is so nervous

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-16/huawei-britain-history-helps-explain-australia-anxiety/9875582?section=politics*


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

*World Cup fans in Mexico City celebrating a goal set off earthquake sensors
**[url]http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-18/world-cup-fans-in-mexico-may-have-caused-earthquake-after-win/9879224*[/URL]








Thousands of exuberant Mexican soccer fans celebrated so hard after their nation's team defeated Germany at the World Cup that seismic detectors in Mexico City registered an artificial earthquake.
Mexico's seismic monitoring network, Simmsa, said the vibrations were picked up by at least two sensors when Mexico's Hirving Lozano scored.


----------



## KenOC

Jordan Easton, 22, of Thornaby, thought he was wearing a stab-proof vest. He demonstrated it for a friend. Services will be held on Saturday at 1:30 PM.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/0...b-proof-vest-dies-after-stabbing-himself.html


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> Jordan Easton, 22, of Thornaby, thought he was wearing a stab-proof vest. He demonstrated it for a friend. Services will be held on Saturday at 1:30 PM.
> 
> http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/0...b-proof-vest-dies-after-stabbing-himself.html


Very strange. I can't imagine doing this without verifying on a dummy or seat back first.


----------



## joen_cph

KenOC said:


> Jordan Easton, 22, of Thornaby, thought he was wearing a stab-proof vest. He demonstrated it for a friend. Services will be held on Saturday at 1:30 PM.
> 
> http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/0...b-proof-vest-dies-after-stabbing-himself.html


What we as readers is left with here, is the sensationalist story of a youngster who behaved in a not very gifted way, resulting in a fatal accident. A good, thorough journalist, not only registering click bait potential here, would have tried to find out more about the vest, if it is marketed as particularly safe, or the kid had unrealistic perceptions of reality, etc.


----------



## joen_cph

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> *World Cup fans in Mexico City celebrating a goal set off earthquake sensors
> **[url]http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-18/world-cup-fans-in-mexico-may-have-caused-earthquake-after-win/9879224*[/URL]
> 
> View attachment 104812
> 
> Thousands of exuberant Mexican soccer fans celebrated so hard after their nation's team defeated Germany at the World Cup that seismic detectors in Mexico City registered an artificial earthquake.
> Mexico's seismic monitoring network, Simmsa, said the vibrations were picked up by at least two sensors when Mexico's Hirving Lozano scored.


Funny, but the story has later been modified - the correct seismic detector term is "cultural noise". The system is very sensitive and it will also register big events in traffic, a lot of people jumping, surface explosions, falling buildings, etc.


----------



## KenOC

joen_cph said:


> ...A good, thorough journalist, not only registering click bait potential here, would have tried to find out more...


The story, after all, is from Fox News. Your expectations may be too high. :lol:


----------



## KenOC

"Poll: Kim Jong Un has higher approval among Republicans than Pelosi"

It had to happen.

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/3...higher-approval-among-republicans-than-pelosi


----------



## Madiel

bizarre behavior by the Japanese goalkeeper, it's a few years now that goal-line technology is around, nonetheless after Colombia's goal in today's game, the Japanese GK has put on a scene claiming that the ball had not crossed the goal-line. 
Technology, like truth, is inhuman I guess.


----------



## geralmar

joen_cph said:


> Funny, but the story has later been modified - the correct seismic detector term is "cultural noise". The system is very sensitive and it will also register big events in traffic, a lot of people jumping, surface explosions, falling buildings, etc.


I remember in the early 1970s reading in the Washington Post about serious speculation in some quarters that if the government of (then) Red China ordered the entire population to jump off six-foot high platforms at the same time the impact of two billion six hundred million feet hitting the ground at once could cause devastating earthquakes in the U.S. Geologists and seismologists pointed out problems with the theory and public interest and worry quickly faded. I can't recall any of the scientific criticisms; but one columnist mentioned the deafening screams of millions of Chinese breaking their legs simultaneously.


----------



## Metairie Road

Maybe it's just me (a phrase I'm using more often these days).

Investigating the Bear? It's a F###ING bear, it does what bears do. It's the idiot humans that need investigating.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...-mauled-search-party-member-alaska/720430002/

Like building your million dollar house on top of an active volcano.

Maybe it's just me.


----------



## KenOC

Scary story: "The man who was fired by a machine"

And nobody could fix it. He was escorted from the premises and barred from his offices and his building. It all got sorted out three weeks later. "He had to explain his disappearance to others and found his co-workers became distant."

AI, anyone?

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44561838


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

*Animal catcher performs CPR to revive frog regurgitated by snake







*A Townsville snake catcher who revived the regurgitated body of a green tree frog says the creature will be ready for release soon.
Jamie Chapel told that he was called to a property to remove a common tree snake earlier this month when he found the frog, nicknamed Lucky, in a bad way.
It was 20 centimetres down the snake's gullet, but the reptile regurgitated its prey as Mr Chapel approached.
"He looked like a squashed frog full of mucous," Mr Chapel said.
"As I've gone to remove the frog, its leg twitched." He further stated however, that had the Frog been called Renee he would not have done CBR.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-22/snake-catcher-revives-frog-regurgitated-by-snake/9898234


----------



## KenOC

"Gateshead 'try before you buy' sex doll firm fined"

Seems that a special license is required for that sort of thing. Maybe also some hygienic requirements given the likely string of potential customers lining up for a try…

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-44521763


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

*'Soccer-roo' disrupts local Canberra match, makes social media splash

*






An interruption by a real-life 'soccer-roo' halted a local match in Canberra this weekend for more than half an hour, with commentators saying the animal even sent "a good quality pass".
The large eastern grey kangaroo first hopped onto the field during half time in the game between the Belconnen United Blue Devils and the Canberra Football Club on Saturday.
Officials tried to move it on from the grounds in Deakin with a soccer ball, but the roo seemed to enjoy having a go at the sport - using its hind legs and paws to temporarily dribble the ball.
The roo's antics made headlines around the world after the video went viral on social media.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-25/socceroo-disrupts-local-canberra-match/9905876


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

*Anyone want $5000 Aussie bucks -Dick Smith offers reward to find out who created the infamous Marree Man outback artwork*
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-25/dick-smith-offers-marree-man-reward/9905548







Entrepreneur Dick Smith is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to who created the infamous Marree Man artwork 20 years ago.
He has been investigating who created the three-kilometre tall etch in the desert about 600km north of Adelaide.
Despite many clues and leads, he is no closer to finding out its creator.
Suggestions Mr Smith has researched include rumours it was created by late Alice Springs artist Bardius Goldberg, by local Indigenous people, by Americans and by the Australian Army
There's been so many different claims and the only one I don't believe in is that it was done from outer space," Mr Smith told ABC Radio Adelaide.
When the artwork appeared in 1998, accurate GPS was not available to the public, however Mr Smith believes the satellite technology must have been used to create a figure accurate to within centimetres.
"There were no mistakes - it was very professionally done," he said.

"I can't see how it was done by one person, you'd have to have three or four to do it, and it would take weeks to put in.
"In that case, how has it been kept secret for 20 years?


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

*Russian billionaire declares himself leader of new 'space nation' Asgardia at lavish castle ceremony







http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-26/asgardia-space-nation-leader-declared-igor-ashurbeyli/9909686*A Russian billionaire has held a lavish ceremony at a castle in Austria to declare himself the leader of a new, independent "space nation" called Asgardia.
The self-funded event was held at the opulent Hofburg palace in Vienna and included a choral performance of the nation's anthem, an official oath, and a video message from Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemiev on the International Space Station.

So what is Asgardia, who is the man behind it, and why are thousands of people signing up to be part of it? Here's what you need to know.

What is Asgardia?Asgardia is the brainchild of Russian rocket scientist Igor Ashurbeyli.
He wants it to be *the first fully independent "nation" in space, with its own government, virtual currency, justice system and calendar*.
In 2016, Dr Ashurbeyli and a team of scientists, engineers and law expertsunveiled plans to establish an Asgardian colony on the Moon and to build a series of special space platforms, called Space Arks, where people can live.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

*They might be beating us at Cricket but we can still beat them at Beer- Britain faces beer shortage in the middle of the World Cup and as a heatwave bears down








*A shortage of carbon dioxide has hit Britain's biggest brewers and soft drink makers, disrupting production just as drinkers' thirst peaks due to a heatwave and a World Cup soccer tournament in which England is doing unusually well.
Hot weather and a build-up of beer stocks ahead of the World Cup lifted CO2 demand from brewers just as the gas was in short supply due to production shutdowns at chemical factories that produce it as a by-product.
The CO2 shortage is also affecting producers of meat and frozen foods, which could put a chill on summer barbecues.
CO2, well-known as a greenhouse gas, is also used to stun animals before slaughter, to increase the shelf-life of foods and to make dry ice, which keeps frozen food cold in transit - so it's not just the brewers who are feeling the pinch.


----------



## SixFootScowl

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> *They might be beating us at Cricket but we can still beat them at Beer- Britain faces beer shortage in the middle of the World Cup and as a heatwave bears down
> 
> **A shortage of carbon dioxide has hit Britain's biggest brewers and soft drink makers*, disrupting production just as drinkers' thirst peaks due to a heatwave and a World Cup soccer tournament in which England is doing unusually well.
> Hot weather and a build-up of beer stocks ahead of the World Cup lifted CO2 demand from brewers just as the gas was in short supply due to production shutdowns at chemical factories that produce it as a by-product.
> The CO2 shortage is also affecting producers of meat and frozen foods, which could put a chill on summer barbecues.
> CO2, well-known as a greenhouse gas, is also used to stun animals before slaughter, to increase the shelf-life of foods and to make dry ice, which keeps frozen food cold in transit - so it's not just the brewers who are feeling the pinch.


The can get their CO2 from the landfill:


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Fritz Kobus said:


> The can get their CO2 from the landfill:


But will it make there bitters taste better


----------



## LezLee

*Remembering a dead pet* 
With Latin, fireworks or freeze-drying?
An Oxford lecturer has begun a business writing Latin poems for dead pets. For the less cultured, there are other unusual ways to remember them.
Being publicly clever is still prized in Oxford - so much so that it has now spread to pet memorials. John Davie, a lecturer in classics, has set up a business, Dead Pets Society, writing Latin verse to commemorate domestic animals. "By using the elegiac metre, I'm putting myself in a linguistic straitjacket," Davie says. "It's like a love poet in a sense, like John Donne or Andrew Marvell, writing in verse about something that burns them up inside. It's therapeutic and at the same time shows respect and strength of feeling." With poem, translation, calligraphy and transfer to vellum, the whole thing will set you back about £150. Not every pet memorial is as cultured, but many are just as far out. Here are some of the options:

*Freeze-drying*

The technology to freeze-dry pets has been around for years, but societal crassness has only recently caught up. Your pet is left in a sealed chamber at a very low temperature for up to six months, and its moisture is slowly harvested, apparently leaving the animal in a far more realistic state than simple taxidermy. Yours for around £2,500 from the likes of Eddy's Wildlife Studio, Missouri.

*Snout Imprint Jewellery*

If the idea of mounting Trixibelle above the fireplace doesn't fit in with your decor, why not have a snout imprint made from Rock My World on Etsy, a latter-day death mask for your own little Emperor Napoleon? £156.

*A firework display*

Australian company Ashes to Ashes will blast your pet's cremated remains into the sky and explode them with gunpowder, raining a tasteful rainbow of animal mortality over your grieving family in a beautiful firework display, with full video coverage. Prices vary.


----------



## KenOC

Yes, Virginia there is another Darwin award. A recent winner is Winston Blackmore, 61, of British Columbia, who has been convicted of bigamy. He has 24 wives and 149 children. And he seems pretty darned happy about that.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/0...use-arrest-following-polygamy-conviction.html


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

*In an action to uphold good Musical taste 'Bowie Bonds' creator sues Ed Sheeran for copying Marvin Gaye hit







*The lawsuit was filed by a company owned by David Pullman, an investment banker who in 1997 arranged the pioneering $55 million sale of "Bowie Bonds," which made David Bowie the first musician to sell bonds backed by royalties from his catalog. According to the complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, "Thinking Out Loud," which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 2015, copies the "melody, rhythms, harmonies, drums, bass line, backing chorus, tempo, syncopation and looping" of "Let's Get It On," which hit No. 1 in September 1973. So not much of it LOL


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

*In a startling similarity to a classic Seinfeld plot, a Australian man fined after trying to bring cans into South Australia to benefit from container deposit scheme.........
*







http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-...einfeld-container-deposit-plot-foiled/9924002
In a startling similarity to a classic Seinfeld plot, a New South Wales man has been convicted and fined with attempting to bring drink cans into South Australia to reap the financial rewards of the state's container deposit scheme.
A 36-year-old man from Broken Hill has been fined $4,800 - ordered to pay $960 in court costs and to the victims of crime levy - after pleading guilty to the scam.
He was also ordered to forfeit 45,000 of his drink containers to the Environment Protection Authority (EPA).
For Seinfeld's Kramer and Newman, it seemed like the perfect plan - collect tens of thousands of drink containers and drive from New York to Michigan to reap the financial rewards of their paid container deposit scheme.
But in the 1996 episode, the cans never make it to the depot, leaving the two men stranded deep in midwestern America dodging bullets from an angry farmer.


----------



## Guest

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> But will it make there bitters taste better


If a brewer needs CO2 to make beer then it will be stale execrable stuff that is suitable only for landfill.


----------



## LezLee

Tulse said:


> If a brewer needs CO2 to make beer then it will be stale execrable stuff that is suitable only for landfill.


You mean like Foster's?


----------



## SixFootScowl

Tulse said:


> If a brewer needs CO2 to make beer then it will be stale execrable stuff that is suitable only for landfill.


As far as I am concerned all beer is suitable for the landfill. I don't drink the stuff. Used to be the guy who carried the six pack with me everywhere I went, beer for breakfast, etc.--you know the type. But I have probably not had more than a six pack of beer in the last 20 years and none in the past 5-10 years, and haven't been inebriated in over 30 years. I don't miss it at all and find more productive things to to than drink. However, there is nothing wrong with a couple of cold ones in the evening for those who do partake. Just not my thing anymore.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

LezLee said:


> You mean like Foster's?


That's why it is Export only and not available for sale in Aussie


----------



## Guest

VB isn't much better. Sorry Eddie!


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Tulse said:


> VB isn't much better. Sorry Eddie!


Its disgusting, we have moved on in Aussieland we now drink craft beers over here - we got microbreweries all over

My current fav is Little Creatures
https://littlecreatures.com.au/agegate/


----------



## Guest

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Its disgusting, we have moved on in Aussieland we now drink craft beers over here - we got microbreweries all over
> 
> My current fav is Little Creatures
> https://littlecreatures.com.au/agegate/


That's great news Eddie. Are the craft beers widely available?


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Tulse said:


> That's great news Eddie. Are the craft beers widely available?


Almost too many


----------



## Art Rock

Elon Musk in Farting Unicorn Copyright Quagmire....


----------



## SixFootScowl

Man in hospital after wombat attack.

"A wombat attacked a man in the state of Victoria, Australia, injuring him so badly that he had to be sent to hospital."

"Bruce Kringle, 60, was stepping out of his caravan in the rural town of Flowerdale, when he felt something attack his leg. In an assault that lasted 20 minutes, the wombat brought him to the ground before climbing onto Mr Kringle's chest to continue the attack. Luckily, Mr Kringle was able to reach for a nearby axe and kill the animal."


----------



## KenOC

More on our antipodean brethren down under: Bag rage!

"Tempers flared in Australia over the weekend as retailers implemented a ban on single-use plastic bags. One customer reportedly grabbed a shop assistant by the throat, while another called staff 'money-grabbing scum'."

I'm _almost _sure it wasn't Eddie.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-44674112


----------



## Dan Ante

KenOC said:


> More on our antipodean brethren down under: Bag rage!
> 
> "Tempers flared in Australia over the weekend as retailers implemented a ban on single-use plastic bags. One customer reportedly grabbed a shop assistant by the throat, while another called staff 'money-grabbing scum'."
> 
> I'm _almost _sure it wasn't Eddie.
> 
> https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-44674112


We have the same campaign running here, but by the Greens saying the bags are killing sea life, my bags are not single use we use them for many things, and from what I have seen in the papers Indonesia is the biggest culprit by dumping them in the sea.
No one has offered a free alternative such as the good old paper bag.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

I going to start marketing a reuseable multi-purpose use Hemp bag, think I'll do well particularly around Byron bay and the Gold Coast


----------



## SixFootScowl

Dan Ante said:


> We have the same campaign running here, but by the Greens saying the bags are killing sea life, my bags are not single use we use them for many things, and from what I have seen in the papers Indonesia is the biggest culprit by dumping them in the sea.
> *No one has offered a free alternative such as the good old paper bag*.


But as I recall some decades ago there was a big push to get away from paper ("save trees" they said) and go with plastic.


----------



## Dan Ante

Fritz Kobus said:


> But as I recall some decades ago there was a big push to go to get away from paper ("save trees" they said) and go with plastic.


Yeh, they don't think these things through eh.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

'Mansplaining' ad removed from future university building site, following online criticism







http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-03/mansplaining-ad-removed-following-criticism-online/9934590

An advertisement outside a future university building in Adelaide which attracted big criticism on social media has been replaced just days after making international headlines.
The ad hoardings outside the old Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) site featured an image of five women surrounding a man talking with his arms raised.
It wasn't long before the image circulated online, with many describing it as "mansplaining".

What the............


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Queensland lungfish may face decline due to breeding habitat changes 







http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-...-for-this-ancient-queensland-lungfish/9927268It is an ancient creature thought to have remained unchanged for more than 140 million years, but could time be running out for Australia's lungfish?
Neoceratodus forsteri, also known as the Queensland lungfish, is a living fossil that existed as long as 400 million years ago and is native to two of the state's rivers, the Burnett and the Mary. 
But while it may have survived among dinosaurs since before Jurassic times, conservationists fear changes to its breeding habitat may mean the species is facing a steep decline.

In 2005, Paradise Dam on the Burnett River was officially completed, and while the $200 million state government project brought water security to the region's farmlands, it forever changed the course of the river. 
As part of its approval the operator, now SunWater, had to monitor lungfish numbers for 10 years - a study that concluded in 2016.
The findings were then analysed by independent researchers and have now been released, showing no change in the population of lungfish in the river. 
This study confirmed that lungfish remain a common and widespread species in the Burnett River, 10 years after the construction of Paradise Dam.
A total of 7,458 lungfish captures were recorded during the survey including 5,601 individual fish. A total of 1,967 lungfish eggs were recorded during the study.
SunWater's executive general manager of operations Colin Bendall welcomed the findings.








Hope there aren't too many greenies here as I built that Fishway - looks like it doing pretty well to me


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Milky Way saturated in 'space grease', astronomers discover
Now that's what I call Pollution on the grand Scale and No its no another far out remake of Grease
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-28/milky-way-galaxy-contains-space-grease/9921076







The Milky Way contains about 10 billion trillion trillion tonnes of greasy matter - or enough for 40 trillion trillion trillion packs of butter - according to research from a joint study by astronomers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and Ege University in Turkey.
The researchers were able to duplicate the "space grease" in their laboratories by mimicking the process that occurred in space.
"This space grease is not the kind of thing you'd want to spread on a slice of toast. It's dirty, likely toxic and only forms in the environment of interstellar space (and our laboratory)," Professor Tim Schmidt from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science said


----------



## SixFootScowl

92-Year-Old Woman Accused Of Killing Son Over Nursing Home Move


----------



## geralmar

In reading an article in the July 4 Detroit News about the current rising sales of the U.S. flag I came across this strange paragraph:

"After 9/11, a rise in patriotic spirit among Americans wiped (flag seller) (Tim) Mohney's shelves clean. He had difficulty ordering stock. Some people bought French flags because they were red, white and blue. "


----------



## KenOC

"I would have liked to go to his funeral, but good tee-times are hard to come by."


----------



## Dan Ante

KenOC said:


> "I would have liked to go to his funeral, but good tee-times are hard to come by."


Is it a faulty link Ken??


----------



## DaveM

Fritz Kobus said:


> 92-Year-Old Woman Accused Of Killing Son Over Nursing Home Move


She's 92 years old and killed her son because he was going to put her in a nursing home. The judge sentenced her to life in a nursing home.


----------



## KenOC

Dan Ante said:


> Is it a faulty link Ken??


Not a link, just a picture of a headline that caught my eye. I was imagining what the story might be...


----------



## laurie

Poetic justice, if you ask me!

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-44728507


----------



## KenOC

The US Post Office has sold 4.9 billion stamps featuring the face of the Statue of Liberty. But it turns out that the face on the stamp is of a replica at the New York-New York hotel/casino in Las Vegas, not the original statue in New York. The post office has been ordered to pay the sculptor $3.5 million.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/07/0...-for-using-wrong-statue-liberty-on-stamp.html


----------



## Kjetil Heggelund

Recent figures indicate that there are more than 200 million insects for each human on the planet! A recent article in The New York Times claimed that the world holds 300 pounds of insects for every pound of humans.
...I took a walk on an overgrown path...


----------



## KenOC

"Sperm count drop 'could make humans extinct' "

Researchers assessing the results of nearly 200 studies say sperm counts among men from North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, seem to have halved in less than 40 years…. Dr Levine, an epidemiologist, told the BBC that if the trend continued humans would become extinct.

Well, given the countries involved, humans like me. Maybe not like you!

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-40719743


----------



## Metairie Road

It seems the Post Office needs better lawyers.


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> "Sperm count drop 'could make humans extinct' "
> 
> Researchers assessing the results of nearly 200 studies say sperm counts among men from North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, seem to have halved in less than 40 years…. Dr Levine, an epidemiologist, told the BBC that if the trend continued humans would become extinct.
> 
> Well, given the countries involved, humans like me. Maybe not like you!
> 
> https://www.bbc.com/news/health-40719743


Well at least we'll be rid of the bogans.


----------



## Dan Ante

KenOC said:


> "Sperm count drop 'could make humans extinct' "
> 
> Researchers assessing the results of nearly 200 studies say sperm counts among men from North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, seem to have halved in less than 40 years…. Dr Levine, an epidemiologist, told the BBC that if the trend continued humans would become extinct.
> 
> Well, given the countries involved, humans like me. Maybe not like you!
> 
> https://www.bbc.com/news/health-40719743


If I remember correctly this is what nature does in the wild, if a species say 'Antelope' gets to a point of over population they stop producing, perhaps nature is giving us a warning.


----------



## KenOC

"Married woman, mechanic having sex in garage die from carbon monoxide poisoning"

I'll wait for the movie, thanks.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/07/11/married-woman-and-mechanic-die-from-carbon-monoxide-poisoning-while-having-sex-in-garage-report.html


----------



## DaveM

KenOC said:


> "Married woman, mechanic having sex in garage die from carbon monoxide poisoning"
> 
> I'll wait for the movie, thanks.
> 
> http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/07/11/married-woman-and-mechanic-die-from-carbon-monoxide-poisoning-while-having-sex-in-garage-report.html


"Honey, why don't we relive our first experience and do it in the car."

"Gee, this backseat is not as comfortable as I remember from last time, but oh, you better close the garage door so the neighbors don't see anything."

"Okay, it's closed, but gee, it's awfully stuffy in here. Just a minute, where's my keys, I'll turn on the air-conditioning. Oh here they are."


----------



## joen_cph

Are you actually aware of the dangers posed by Montenegro, that small country with 623,000 inhabitants?

Donald Trump:"_Montenegro is a tiny country ... They're very strong people. They're very aggressive people. They may get aggressive and, congratulations, you're in World War 3_."


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1019427556683067393https://edition.cnn.com/2018/07/17/politics/trump-nato-fox/index.html


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

joen_cph said:


> Are you actually aware of the dangers posed by Montenegro, that small country with 623,000 inhabitants?
> 
> Donald Trump:"_Montenegro is a tiny country ... They're very strong people. They're very aggressive people. They may get aggressive and, congratulations, you're in World War 3_."
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1019427556683067393https://edition.cnn.com/2018/07/17/politics/trump-nato-fox/index.html


Gosh, I would not want to see a war b/n Papua New Guinea and Montenegro


----------



## KenOC

The Donald, speaking about tiny Montenegro, a NATO member with a population of 640 thousand: "They're very strong people, they're very aggressive people. They may get aggressive and, congratulations, you're in World War Three."

A former President of Parliament comments: "With this kind of president, with his knowledge of foreign policy, who knows what is going on? Foreign policy is not his big thing."

Evidently Montenegrins are masters of understatement as well as being aggressive.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44877718


----------



## Dan Ante

KenOC said:


> The Donald, speaking about tiny Montenegro, a NATO member with a population of 640 thousand: "They're very strong people, they're very aggressive people. They may get aggressive and, congratulations, you're in World War Three."
> 
> A former President of Parliament comments: "With this kind of president, with his knowledge of foreign policy, who knows what is going on? Foreign policy is not his big thing."
> 
> Evidently Montenegrins are masters of understatement as well.
> 
> https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44877718


Ken, he just used the wrong words, for goodness sake cut him a bit of rope. He means what he says and says what he means, it just comes out kind of confused.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Yeah, like wood Would Wouldn't peck a pickle


----------



## joen_cph

I am browsing a major, local guide book for Estonia from 1993, published by HUMA. On p.242, describing the most important town on the island of Hiiumaa called Kærdla, it says about the main church:"it only got its organ in 1904; before that the paris clerk had to ride 14 km to Reigi church to get the right tone for the Kærdla church choir and had to hum it all the way back."


----------



## SixFootScowl

Old story but strange: 
Police in Malaysia are hunting for members of a violent gang who chopped off a car owner's finger to get round the vehicle's hi-tech security system.

Let's not get into iris recognition cameras for car security!


----------



## geralmar

Sacha Baron Cohen (as the interviewer who was not with Mosad for thirteen years) dupes a Georgia (U.S.) State legislator into betraying his bigotry. I am linking the Washington Post article which links to the video. The legislator has resigned.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/poli...n-pants-dropping-debacle/ar-BBL1yUm?ocid=AMZN


----------



## Gordontrek

So my hometown is FINALLY getting another minor league baseball team. I'm super excited about that. EXCEPT, the owners just released a list of ten names for the locals to choose from, and I'm really shocked at how bad they are. HERE are the ten:
*Army Ants*
*Puffy Head Bird Legs* (no, I'm not kidding)
*Comet Jockeys*
*Space Chimps*
*Glo Worms*
*Space Sloths*
*Lunartics*
*ThunderSharks*
*Moon Possums*
*Trash Pandas*
What a bunch of god-awful nonsense! My hometown has a substantial NASA and military presence, and its identity comes from that. I think it deserves something with just a _little_ more dignity, don't you think?


----------



## KenOC

Anj oldie: "Visitors hoping to see an exhibition displaying thousands of "dancing butterflies" in China last weekend were left disappointed after realising they had bought tickets to see plastic butterflies attached to sticks instead."

This is on the heels of other scandals involving donkeys painted like zebras and plastic blow-up penguins.

https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-42353106


----------



## joen_cph

The inflatable penguins are kind of funny - including the rather carelessly spread plastic tubes on the ground ...

not much animal welfare among the living, exhibited animals though, it seems.









https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-42193721


----------



## joen_cph

"European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker used 'brightly coloured flash cards' to explain international trade to US president Donald Trump."

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...-white-house-meeting-flashcards-a8467051.html


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

joen_cph said:


> "European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker used 'brightly coloured flash cards' to explain international trade to US president Donald Trump."
> 
> https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...-white-house-meeting-flashcards-a8467051.html


Looks like he know how to deal with the mentally impaired


----------



## KenOC

From the BBC:











Nah, you can get pretty much whatever weapon you want.


----------



## laurie

Gordontrek said:


> So my hometown is FINALLY getting another minor league baseball team. I'm super excited about that. EXCEPT, the owners just released a list of ten names for the locals to choose from, and I'm really shocked at how bad they are. HERE are the ten:
> *Army Ants*
> *Puffy Head Bird Legs* (no, I'm not kidding)
> *Comet Jockeys*
> *Space Chimps*
> *Glo Worms*
> *Space Sloths*
> *Lunartics*
> *ThunderSharks*
> *Moon Possums*
> *Trash Pandas*
> What a bunch of god-awful nonsense! My hometown has a substantial NASA and military presence, and its identity comes from that. I think it deserves something with just a _little_ more dignity, don't you think?


Are these honestly for real??   :lol:


----------



## KenOC

True story: "Amazon's Jeff Bezos would need to spend $28 million a day to avoid getting richer"

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/a...y-just-to-keep-from-getting-richer-2018-08-01


----------



## Dan Ante

KenOC said:


> From the BBC:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Nah, you can get pretty much whatever weapon you want.


Did you see the joker on TV that is uploading the plans for military weapons to be made by anyone with a 3D printer


----------



## KenOC

Headline: "Alleged Russian agent cozied up to ex-Trump aide near end of 2016 race"

Clickbait par excellence from the WaPo. "Maria Butina, the Russian gun-rights activist who was charged last month with working as an unregistered agent of the Kremlin, socialized in the weeks before the 2016 election with a former Trump campaign aide who anticipated joining the presidential transition team."

That's news? Maybe better would be, "Close Trump associate met with mystery man who had once read Dostoyevsky." But hey, she's kind of cute. She can cozy up to me any time, and I don't even own a gun.


----------



## KenOC

But don't worry, folks. There's _real _news. "Maine Lobster Festival Sea Goddess resigns over 'inappropriate behavior' on social media." Seems somebody uncovered an old photo of her holding a joint.

Yes, it's a slow news day all around I guess.


----------



## Jos

joen_cph said:


> "European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker used 'brightly coloured flash cards' to explain international trade to US president Donald Trump."
> 
> https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...-white-house-meeting-flashcards-a8467051.html


His first good idea in a while. He must have been sober....


----------



## KenOC

" 'Obese' tourists from US and UK blamed for crippling donkeys in Greece"

Officials say that increasing numbers of overweight tourists are opting to ride, not walk, up the steep hills of the popular cruise ship destination, thus crippling the animals in the process.

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2018/...ntcmp=ob_article_footer_text&intcmp=obnetwork


----------



## LezLee

KenOC said:


> " 'Obese' tourists from US and UK blamed for crippling donkeys in Greece"
> 
> Officials say that increasing numbers of overweight tourists are opting to ride, not walk, up the steep hills of the popular cruise ship destination, thus crippling the animals in the process.
> 
> http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2018/...ntcmp=ob_article_footer_text&intcmp=obnetwork


There are weight limits on some of our beaches, usually about 112lbs. Some just ban adults altogether.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

LezLee said:


> There are weight limits on some of our beaches, usually about 112lbs. Some just ban adults altogether.


Would definitely ban most Americans


----------



## Dan Ante

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> Would definitely ban most Americans


Islanders????????????????


----------



## KenOC

O tempora, o mores! Fox has two headlines on its front page linking to stories on the Bali earthquake:

“At least 82 killed, hundreds more wounded after quake strikes near Bali”

And, right below that,

“Chrissy Teigen live-tweets, reveals she was naked during massive earthquake in Bali”


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Dan Ante said:


> Islanders????????????????


As in Rhode


----------



## geralmar




----------



## KenOC

A chortling Elon Musk says that even Hitler is a Tesla shortseller. Here's a video he tweeted.


----------



## joen_cph

Musk is surely making himself increasingly unpopular these days, with an increasingly dubious and/or eccentric behaviour, and the various statements. But some people at least must have warned him against the negative aspects of using this as a advertizing/joke/PR initiative.


----------



## geralmar

Not sure how to categorize this one.

screenshot program


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

geralmar said:


> Not sure how to categorize this one.
> 
> screenshot program


Typical of the modern day politician


----------



## LezLee

A friend on the Goodreads forum posted this:
She had bought a CD by ‘The Darkness’ from eBay and they emailed her with follow-up suggestions:
‘
A Gruffalo Pop-up Indoor Play Den/Tent

An Elastic Mesh Hairnet - for wearing under Wigs or for sleeping in.

A Green Expandable Flexible Garden Hosepipe with optional Multi-function Nozzle Outdoor Spray Gun Attachment

A Severed Cut Off Bloody Lifelike & Life-size Fake Arm 

A Thermo Sweat Neoprene Body Shaper Slimming Waist Trainer 

A Pair of Retro Hanging Furry Dice - to attach to a Car Windscreen

And a Cosplay Medieval/Renaissance Hooded Monk's Habit


----------



## Dan Ante

LezLee said:


> A friend on the Goodreads forum posted this:
> She had bought a CD by 'The Darkness' from eBay and they emailed her with follow-up suggestions:
> '
> A Gruffalo Pop-up Indoor Play Den/Tent
> 
> An Elastic Mesh Hairnet - for wearing under Wigs or for sleeping in.
> 
> A Green Expandable Flexible Garden Hosepipe with optional Multi-function Nozzle Outdoor Spray Gun Attachment
> 
> A Severed Cut Off Bloody Lifelike & Life-size Fake Arm
> 
> A Thermo Sweat Neoprene Body Shaper Slimming Waist Trainer
> 
> A Pair of Retro Hanging Furry Dice - to attach to a Car Windscreen
> 
> And a Cosplay Medieval/Renaissance Hooded Monk's Habit


A bit pointless I reckon most normal people would have at least
half of these any way.


----------



## joen_cph

A lonely house was found drifting way out on one of the fiords here, the Limfjord.

The police then had to advertize for the owner of such a 'homeless' house.

It turns out that he was working on it as a houseboat, and that someone apparently had sabotaged the ropes.









(the photo is real, though it looks a bit photoshopped)


----------



## Granate

LOL What a legend!

*Woman detained in Slovakia for playing Verdi for 16 years*



> According to Hungarian news site Parameter.sk, the woman, identified only as Eva N, played a four-minute aria from Giuseppe Verdi's 'La Traviata' non-stop, in her house with on speakers full blast, from morning until night.
> 
> Parameter.sk says that the homeowner in the southern town of Sturovo played the music for years to drown out a neighbour's loud barking dog, and had simply continued doing it.
> 
> Residents poured out their anger to local media, furious that the high volume harassment had been allowed to go on for so long.


*If you wonder why I "consider" her a legend, try to go for a walk every day with dogs barking at you repeatedly. I hate that noise.


----------



## Dan Ante

Granate said:


> LOL What a legend!
> 
> *Woman detained in Slovakia for playing Verdi for 16 years*
> 
> *If you wonder why I "consider" her a legend, try to go for a walk every day with dogs barking at you repeatedly. I hate that noise.


 Oh what a great idea I have a noisy dog next door whines and barks, drives you up the wall, I also have some spare speakers :devil:


----------



## KenOC

"German police have come to the rescue of a man being chased by a baby squirrel. Officers in the south-western city of Karlsruhe responded to the call for help and arrived to see the creature still terrorising the caller.

"The squirrel was taken into custody after it abruptly fell asleep."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45150298


----------



## DaveM

KenOC said:


> "German police have come to the rescue of a man being chased by a baby squirrel. Officers in the south-western city of Karlsruhe responded to the call for help and arrived to see the creature still terrorising the caller.
> 
> "The squirrel was taken into custody after it abruptly fell asleep."
> 
> https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45150298


Squirrels are no dummies. We have a chihuahua that chases the squirrels that come down into our patio area, but when the sliding glass door to the patio is closed, the squirrels will come down and taunt the dog trapped in the house.

The following is like your story above. Darn cute!


----------



## SixFootScowl

Woman to cops: I'm a 'clean, thoroughbred, white girl'



> Atlanta - A woman seen speeding through a stop sign at 60 mph told officers they shouldn't arrest her because she's a "very clean, thoroughbred, white girl," police said.


----------



## RogerExcellent

Fritz Kobus said:


> Woman to cops: I'm a 'clean, thoroughbred, white girl'


neigh.......................................................


----------



## KenOC

“US military parade originally scheduled for November is delayed to 2019, Pentagon says”

Trump asked for the parade months ago. If we can’t even arrange a parade, I sincerely hope the US doesn’t have to fight a major war any time soon.


----------



## RogerExcellent

*Black Mirror Scam*
Porn scam claiming to have hacked webcam on the rise, eSafety office warns
Authorities are warning of a scam where an anonymous email claims to have accessed a target's webcam and recorded them watching pornography.

The scam, which is strikingly similar to an episode of the popular sci-fi series Black Mirror, uses the victim's password in order to bolster its claims that the victim has been hacked.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-17/porn-scam-black-mirror-extortion-warning-esafety-office/10133048


----------



## KenOC

The rise of the robots has begun. Arnold can't be far away. We have moved from Mutual Assured Destruction to (wait for it) Adaptive Kill Webs.
-------------------------------------
Advances in computer power, processing speed and AI are rapidly changing the scope of what platforms are able to perform without needing human intervention. This is mostly developing in the form of what Air Force scientists describe as "decision aide support," meaning machines will be able to better interpret, organize, analyze and communicate information to a much greater extent - without have humans manage each individual task.

"Different people have different views. We believe in a control-based approach that leverages AI but does not relinquish control to AI. As a pilot develops trust, he knows what that aircraft can do and tells it to do something," Stolz said.

Currently, there is widespread consensus that, according to DoD doctrine, decisions regarding the use of lethal force should always be made by a "human-in-the-loop," despite advances in autonomy which now enable unmanned systems to track, acquire and destroy targets without needing human intervention.

Nevertheless, the Mitchell Institute paper introduces a way to maintain this key doctrinal premise, yet also improve unmanned enemy attacks through what DARPA and the Air Force Research Lab call "adaptive kill webs."

https://tinyurl.com/y8hqv8nq


----------



## joen_cph

"_Blogger Discovers Abandoned Moscow Police Station With Hundreds of Passports"
_
https://themoscowtimes.com/news/blo...-police-station-with-hundreds-passports-62564


----------



## joen_cph

_3,200 years old cheese found in Egypt_

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-...-discovered-in-ancient-egyptian-tomb/10133178


----------



## DaveM

A strange medical finding:

Everyone has heard of Parkinson’s Disease, the disease of tremors, progressive limited mobility and possible earlier onset of various levels of dementia. We have two friends with it. Generally it is caused by deposits of a protein call alpha synuclein that targets the Substantia ***** in the brain and dopamine production decreases over time. Obviously a disease of the brain.

But maybe not! Recent studies indicate that a primary cause may be a virus that invades the colon, causes changes that result in alpha synuclein accumulating in the nerve supply to the colon which then travels up the Vagus nerve to the brain!


----------



## Dan Ante

DaveM said:


> A strange medical finding:
> 
> Everyone has heard of Parkinson's Disease, the disease of tremors, progressive limited mobility and possible earlier onset of various levels of dementia. We have two friends with it. Generally it is caused by deposits of a protein call alpha synuclein that targets the Substantia ***** in the brain and dopamine production decreases over time. Obviously a disease of the brain.
> 
> But maybe no! Recent studies indicate that a primary cause may be a virus that invades the colon, causes changes that result in alpha synuclein accumulating in the nerve supply to the colon which then travels up the Vagus nerve to the brain!


Very interesting Dave does that mean there is hope for sufferers? a golfing mate of mine has developed it he can still walk with an aid.


----------



## DaveM

Dan Ante said:


> Very interesting Dave does that mean there is hope for sufferers? a golfing mate of mine has developed it he can still walk with an aid.


Unfortunately, not likely for those with the disease now. The symptoms often only occur years after the disease process is well underway. But, this may mean that sometime in the future, there may be a way of preventing infection by the virus in the first place. However, there are other causes of Parkinson-like syndromes such as exposure to pesticides and brain trauma (eg. Muhammad Ali).


----------



## joen_cph

You´ve probably heard about "_Alternative facts_".

Well, now it´s been replaced by

"_Truth isn't truth_", ¨

from roughly the same sources.

You´ll hear more about it, if you follow politics in the news.


----------



## Norman Gunston

In Oz, we have now reached to situation where we have had more People as Head of Government than Days in the week..........

I think the way forward is that we all take turns, one day each- at least this will give some certainty

Ps My turn next week 
http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/how-cash-profile-and-coup-fatigue-will-save-malcolm-turnbull/ar-BBMgzYn?ocid=ientp


----------



## Guest

More from Australia.......... http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-23/peter-dutton-from-texas-becomes-twitter-sensation/10156728


----------



## joen_cph

In Venezuela, due to the current inflation, it is now cheaper to use small cash bank notes than toilet paper ...


----------



## Kieran

In Liverpool, in the UK, police are investigating people who have stated the obvious: "women don't have penises."

Biology departments all over the country are rapidly erasing their text books....


----------



## SixFootScowl

Rock Snot:


----------



## Dan Ante

Fritz Kobus said:


> Rock Snot:


We had and may still have infections of this in our rivers it is spread by fishermen going from one river to another without cleaning their boots.


----------



## KenOC

Handsome fellow faces felony charges, possibly 13 years in prison for bailing on his dates before the dinner check is brought.

'She said he was "good looking" and she thought: Why did he choose me?'

' "He ordered a salad with shrimp, a filet mignon, yes, he went all out. All of a sudden he's all, oh, my phone's dying and I'm waiting on the call from my mom about my aunt. I'm going to go to the car to get my charger." '

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/08/2...skipping-out-on-dates-before-bill-report.html


----------



## joen_cph

I don´t sympathize with this scumbag, but Fox News mentions potentially 13 years in prison for the frauds that amount to a total of $ 1000 ... the details and byways of US sentence laws are often hard to understand. No wonder the US prison system is so full, and strained.


----------



## KenOC

joen_cph said:


> I don´t sympathize with this scumbag, but Fox News mentions potentially 13 years in prison for the frauds that amount to a total of $ 1000 ... the details and byways of US sentence laws are often hard to understand. No wonder the US prison system is so full, and strained.


And, in fact, under law why is it he that's responsible for the dinner bill and not her?


----------



## joen_cph

Interesting yes, I guess only the verdict/proceedings can tell. 

But besides the social conventions (a very relative term), maybe they interviewed waiters who could verify his role as an inviter (?). Or there were other sources??


----------



## Kieran

He sounds like an old fashioned cad, a bounder, a wicked jackanapes! He should be sentenced to 14 hours tied up in stocks in the public square, where discontented females (and anyone else with a good aim!) can chuck rotten tomatoes at him!


----------



## SixFootScowl

Woman pulled her eyeballs out and squished them. Now she is blind.


----------



## KenOC

Never think that demographics don't drive politics -- even when the right to vote is (theoretically) absent.

"California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), who is running for governor, said in an interview released Tuesday that he would like to see the state pay for universal healthcare for all illegal immigrants."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/poli...thcare-for-undocumented-immigrants/ar-BBMzq6v


----------



## geralmar

New Zealand village intends to ban cats.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...-ban-cats-sparks-outrage/ar-BBMEe52?ocid=AMZN

The odd thing is I have some sympathy for the proposal-- and we own two cats.


----------



## KenOC

"In a major boost for a group of Asian Americans suing Harvard University over its affirmative action admissions policy, the Trump administration on Thursday signaled its support of a federal lawsuit against the university and contended that it illegally discriminates against Asian applicants in favor of whites."

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-harvard-race-admissions-20180830-story.html#

From another article: "In court papers, SFFA claimed an Asian-American male applicant with a 25 percent chance of admission would have a 35 percent chance if he were white, 75 percent chance if he were Hispanic and 95 percent chance if he were black."

It will be interesting to see where this goes.


----------



## Dan Ante

geralmar said:


> New Zealand village intends to ban cats.
> 
> https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...-ban-cats-sparks-outrage/ar-BBMEe52?ocid=AMZN
> 
> The odd thing is I have some sympathy for the proposal-- and we own two cats.


A NZ story but a pic of Czech Cats ?? the cats also keep down the pests such as mice rats etc as is mentioned in the article, now if these bird lovers actually lived in the country they would realise what a pest birds can be, bird poo every where, fruit tree crops devastated when birds take one peck of a Nashi then move on to the next so that the Wasps can finish them off. Survival of the fittest worked in nature and Birds are pretty dumb. We have plenty of islands which are used as conservation areas perhaps we should just convert the south isle to one big wild life park and the people can go and live in Auckland, the politicians would love that. :devil:


----------



## KenOC

From the BBC: "US news anchor's skull fractured in fracas with colleague"

The perils of alcohol! In West Virginia, a local TV weatherlady was drinking with a female station host in a bar. Thinking the station host was hitting on her husband, she started an altercation that resulted in a skull fracture and a ruptured eardrum. The authorities are taking a dim view of this.

For the record, both ladies appear quite…healthy. This is evidently a requirement in this country to read the news.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45371607


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> For the record, both ladies appear quite…healthy. This is evidently a requirement in this country to read the news.


Seems like a form of discriminatory hiring. I have noticed this in clothing catalogs too.


----------



## joen_cph

I didn´t know that Commemoration Coins were released so often in the US. 
But:

_"White House Releases Coin Commemorating Trump-Putin Summit
The $100 summit coin is available for pre-order on the White House gift shop website."_

https://themoscowtimes.com/news/white-house-releases-coin-commemorating-trump-putin-summit-62753


----------



## geralmar

joen_cph said:


> I didn´t know that Commemoration Coins were released so often in the US.
> But:
> 
> _"White House Releases Coin Commemorating Trump-Putin Summit
> The $100 summit coin is available for pre-order on the White House gift shop website."_
> 
> https://themoscowtimes.com/news/white-house-releases-coin-commemorating-trump-putin-summit-62753


You forgot the White House commemorative coin for the historic Trump-Kim Jong-un Singapore Summit.

https://www.whitehousegiftshop.com/product-p/un-summitcoin.htm

Today only, $75.


----------



## Guest

*Fish fraud: Googly eye trick forces shop to close*

A fish store in Kuwait has reportedly closed down after its owners were caught putting plastic eyes on fish to make them appear fresh.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/fish-fraud-googly-eye-trick-forces-shop-to-close


----------



## KenOC

"*Russia: Hole in space station was likely act of sabotage*"

"...But the hole may have been a cosmically twisted plot to sabotage the satellite - possibly carried out by a psychologically disturbed astronaut who wanted to go home early, the science news outlet reported, citing experts and government officials."

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2018/09/04/russia-hole-in-space-station-was-likely-act-sabotage.html

I gather from the article that the hole appears to have been purposely drilled.


----------



## Dan Ante

KenOC said:


> "*Russia: Hole in space station was likely act of sabotage*"
> 
> "...But the hole may have been a cosmically twisted plot to sabotage the satellite - possibly carried out by a psychologically disturbed astronaut who wanted to go home early, the science news outlet reported, citing experts and government officials."
> 
> http://www.foxnews.com/science/2018/09/04/russia-hole-in-space-station-was-likely-act-sabotage.html
> 
> I gather from the article that the hole appears to have been purposely drilled.


Or the revenge of The Don...


----------



## joen_cph

There´s a whole website related to bizarre stories from current day Russia. I´m not able to verify their authenticity, some of it could be fake, most of it true. But they are entertaining.

https://weirdrussia.com/


----------



## KenOC

Brown University has removed from its web site the results of its own study on why teenagers change their gender identities. Read this *RINGING *defense of academic freedom:
-------------------------------------
Bess Marcus, dean of Brown's School of Public Health, said the university "has heard from Brown community members expressing concerns that the conclusions of the study could be used to discredit efforts to support transgender youth and invalidate the perspectives of members of the transgender community."

"The University and School have always affirmed the importance of academic freedom and the value of rigorous debate informed by research," Marcus continued, noting that all studies "should be debated vigorously."

"The spirit of free inquiry and scholarly debate is central to academic excellence," she added. "At the same time, we believe firmly that it is also incumbent on public health researchers to listen to multiple perspectives and to recognize and articulate the limitations of their work."
-------------------------------------
Very dispiriting to read this disgusting half-baked gobbledygook. "We love academic freedom, so we'll suppress any information not in accord with the current orthodoxy."

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/08/3...idate-perspectives-transgender-community.html

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/brian...lencing-research-on-gender-dysphoria-n2516468

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc...icized-over-removal-transgender-study-n906741


----------



## joen_cph

"_If you ran an illegal gambling ring in Siberia, your bathroom would look like this_"


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1037966317167538176


----------



## KenOC

Keystone Kop department: A Dallas police officer, returning to her apartment after a shift, walked in and found a man there, whom she shot and killed. Unfortunately, she had walked into the wrong apartment...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45450558


----------



## Dan Ante

KenOC said:


> Keystone Kop department: A Dallas police officer, returning to her apartment after a shift, walked in and found a man there, whom she shot and killed. Unfortunately, she had walked into the wrong apartment...
> 
> https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45450558


Probably on the happy baccy.....


----------



## KenOC

Joe Exotic (his real name???) is a former candidate for governor of Ohio and a well-known trainer of wild big cats. He has just been indicted by the feds for hiring people to murder the owner of a Florida animal sanctuary.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/09/08/feds-indict-oklahoma-big-cat-breeder-in-murder-for-hire.html

Well yes, an unusual character. Here he is after being ejected from a Trump fund-raiser. Now WHO gets ejected from a Trump fundraiser?


----------



## geralmar

Egyptian zoo paints donkey to look like zebra.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-44968509


----------



## KenOC

I think we can safely avoid reading the stories behind these two food-related headlines, which tell it all.

“Owner of Chinese restaurant in Louisiana found with roadkill in cooler”

“Nude man sets house on fire trying to bake cookies on George Foreman Grill”


----------



## hpowders

Getting Bach on topic:

Washington Post finds President Donald Trump complicit in producing Hurricane Florence.

Doesn't get more strange/absurd/bizzare news than that!!

I guess late at night he borrowed the wind machine from Strauss' Don Quixote!!!


----------



## KenOC

I'm seriously weirded out. The remote Sunspot solar observatory in the mountains of New Mexico, along with its nearby post office, has been shut down and all scientists and other workers evacuated from the area. The FBI has taken things over.

County Sheriff Benny House says, "The FBI is refusing to tell us what's going on. We've got people up there (at Sunspot) that requested us to standby while they evacuate it. Nobody would really elaborate on any of the circumstances as to why. The FBI were up there. What their purpose was nobody will say."

"But for the FBI to get involved that quick and be so secretive about it, there was a lot of stuff going on up there. There was a Blackhawk helicopter, a bunch of people around antennas and work crews on towers but nobody would tell us anything."

This is so bizarre that it defies even speculation.

https://www.kvia.com/news/top-stori...rvatory-remains-shrouded-in-mystery/793035021


----------



## joen_cph

Strange, indeed. 
..................>


----------



## KenOC

"A small town in the US state of Missouri is stirring controversy after announcing the title of its new local newspaper, the _Uranus Examiner_. The newspaper, which was 'launched' in the town of Uranus on Wednesday, was threatened with a boycott by the mayor of nearby Waynesville, Luge Hardman."

Probably thinks it will be the butt of too many jokes…

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45519884


----------



## KenOC

OK. I'm getting a bit curious. Here we have a remote mountain solar observatory, operated by a consortium of universities, that does nothing but capture images of the face of the sun in order to study its features and improve forecasting of solar storms. Or so it is said. All of its data is published daily in the web. The facility is normally wide open, gives tours, and even has a gift shop.

Suddenly the FBI swoops in, orders its evacuation, and sends its own people in to crawl all over the site. Nobody's saying anything, not the federal government, not the group operating the observatory, not the people evacuated. Not. One. Word. Even local law enforcement is totally in the dark.

It's close to a week now. I can't imagine what this is all about, or what it could even remotely possibly be about. (cue eerie music…)

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/tech...say-why/ar-BBNlq3v?li=AAa0dzB&ocid=spartanntp


----------



## joen_cph

This is probably the main Twitter update source for the events. Also has some links to serious media articles.

https://twitter.com/hashtag/solarobservatory?f=tweets&vertical=default&src=hash

Lots and lots of conspiracy theories etc., I´m not able to judge the validity, but .... entertaining.

Among the theories is that of Chinese hacking/espionage in relation to a nearby military field:
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...-sands-smells-like-espionage?xid=twittershare
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...uated-sunspot-observatory-and-walk-all-around


----------



## KenOC




----------



## KenOC

A bit more on the Sunspot Solar Observatory mystery. (1) A YouTuber walked up the taped-off access road (no guards) to the observatory. He reported no people, no cars, no activity at all except for a drone buzzing around, probably our no. 2. (2) Another guy flew a drone over and around the observatory. Nobody can be seen and there appear to be no parked vehicles. (3) The drone guy reported that there seems to be no cell service for several miles around the observatory, whereas it used to have good coverage.

This is all interesting but brings us no closer to knowing what is going on. And as before, neither the FBI, the operating agency, nor the staff are saying anything at all.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/new...ot-observatory-and-walk-all-around/ar-BBNlF4l

https://www.express.co.uk/news/scie...ot-alien-conspiracy-mystery-drone-footage-FBI


----------



## joen_cph

If for example there had been a bomb threat, as some suggest, I think people would have been able to return quickly ... but maybe some sort of other, general threat say by phone or the like?

The place has a Wiki page, but it´s without any important news, for the time being
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunspot_Solar_Observatory


----------



## KenOC

OK, here’s a guess. The feds have received a threat that the Sunspot facility will be destroyed as a demonstration, possibly by a space-borne charged-particle beam weapon. My logic:

- The threat must be external, because if it were internal surely people would be working to counter it. Ditto for some kind of contamination, radioactivity, etc. But the facility is simply abandoned.

- It has been totally abandoned, not even guarded at this time, because anybody nearby would be at risk. Walk-ins and drone fliers are not stopped because people posted to do this would be themselves in danger and, after all, there's nothing to see.

- There is nothing else nearby, so its destruction would be “clean.”

- The threat is to a limited area. The Apache Point observatory, not far off, appears to be still in operation.

- A demonstration might be desirable if the threat were from a new and novel weapon. Such a demonstration of the atomic bomb was proposed and discussed prior to the attack on Hiroshima, but was decided against.

- The facility is almost 2 miles up and the skies are usually clear, making it an attractive target from above.

But this doesn’t explain why the feds haven’t established a cordon further out to prevent people from entering the area. Maybe we should start a betting pool on this…


----------



## joen_cph

Statement from the observatory that they'll be back to normal now, "after a threat":

" _The residents that vacated their homes will be returning to the site, and all employees will return to work this week. ... *AURA has been cooperating with an on-going law enforcement investigation of criminal activity that occurred at Sacramento Peak. During this time, we became concerned that a suspect in the investigation potentially posed a threat to the safety of local staff and residents.* ... The decision to vacate was based on the logistical challenges associated with protecting personnel at such a remote location, and the need for expeditious response to the potential threat. AURA determined that moving the small number of on-site staff and residents off the mountain was the most prudent and effective action to ensure their safety._ "

http://www.aura-astronomy.org/news/news.asp?newsID=389

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1041437180260835328


----------



## KenOC

My guess was more entertaining...

Added: Something doesn't seem quite right here. Let me noodle...


----------



## geralmar

KenOC said:


> My guess was more entertaining...
> 
> Added: Something doesn't seem quite right here. Let me noodle...


I want to hear more again about how it wasn't aliens.


----------



## KenOC

geralmar said:


> I want to hear more again about how it wasn't aliens.


Obviously not aliens! As the AURA spokeswoman said, "The decision to vacate was based on the logistical challenges associated with protecting personnel at such a remote location, and the need for expeditious response to the potential threat."

You can tell by her monotone voice and her unfocused eyes that she's entirely sincere.

"We urge all citizens to listen to the instructions they will receive from their new overlords and obey."


----------



## joen_cph

We mostly hear about it from Siberia: mammoth mummies often about 40,000 years old ... 
but now they´ve found a 50,000 years old, frozen mummy of a wolf in Canada.

Fascinating stuff.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/gyngpj/yukon-ice-age-wolf-pup-caribou-mummy


----------



## Dan Ante

KenOC said:


> Obviously not aliens! As the AURA spokeswoman said, "The decision to vacate was based on the logistical challenges associated with protecting personnel at such a remote location, and the need for expeditious response to the potential threat."
> 
> You can tell by her monotone voice and her unfocused eyes that she's entirely sincere.
> 
> "We urge all citizens to listen to the instructions they will receive from their new overlords and obey."


Sounds like War of the Worlds 2.


----------



## KenOC

In case you missed it, all that hoorah at the Sunspot solar observatory was because a janitor was downloading and distributing child porn using the facility's Internet connection. And for that they evacuated for a week?

Anyway, here's a Newsweek headline: “Quake expert: California’s ‘big one’ is ‘inevitable’ “

They’re digging deep to find something to scare us with. And it took an “expert” to figure that out? Of course it was inevitable yesterday, it is today, and it will be again tomorrow. And when it finally happens, it’ll be inevitable all over again.

Funny how that works.


----------



## KenOC

"Kavanaugh hit with new allegations as Avenatti claims 'evidence' of 'targeting' women for gang rape"

Yes, here in the US we take our judgeship appointments quite seriously! :lol:

Next we'll hear how he was running a white slavery ring out of his garage...

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...s-evidence-targeting-women-for-gang-rape.html


----------



## geralmar

Alarmist Headline of the Week:

What Brexit Could Mean for Your Ferret

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/what-brexit-could-mean-for-your-ferret/ar-AAAAvkE?ocid=AMZN


----------



## Dan Ante

KenOC said:


> In case you missed it, all that hoorah at the Sunspot solar observatory was because a janitor was downloading and distributing child porn using the facility's Internet connection. And for that they evacuated for a week?
> 
> Anyway, here's a Newsweek headline: "Quake expert: California's 'big one' is 'inevitable' "
> 
> They're digging deep to find something to scare us with. And it took an "expert" to figure that out? Of course it was inevitable yesterday, it is today, and it will be again tomorrow. And when it finally happens, it'll be inevitable all over again.
> 
> Funny how that works.


----------



## KenOC

The animals are finally getting back at us, and they're finding new weapons to do it.

"Seal slaps man with octopus in NZ"

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-45660839/seal-slaps-man-with-octopus-in-nz


----------



## joen_cph

The American former actor Steven Seagal is ready to jump in as a new governor in the Russian Vladivostok Region, following election vote scandals there.
"I represent the interests of President Putin," he says.

https://www.rferl.org/a/governor-se...uld-like-to-head-russian-region/29510471.html

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1044845995358650368


----------



## geralmar

joen_cph said:


> The American former actor Steven Seagal is ready to jump in as a new governor in the Russian Vladivostok Region, following election vote scandals there.
> "I represent the interests of President Putin," he says.
> 
> https://www.rferl.org/a/governor-se...uld-like-to-head-russian-region/29510471.html
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1044845995358650368


Seagal may be in violation of the 1799 Logan Act, which criminalizes a citizen unauthorisedly negotiating with a foreign government with which the U.S. has a dispute. We can hope, anyway.


----------



## joen_cph

Interesting ...


----------



## DaveM

Good buddies.....


----------



## KenOC

geralmar said:


> Seagal may be in violation of the 1799 Logan Act, which criminalizes a citizen unauthorisedly negotiating with a foreign government with which the U.S. has a dispute. We can hope, anyway.


The Logan Act applies "in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States." I don't think Mr. Seagal would be found in violation simply for running for a local office in another country since no US disputes with Russia appear to be involved, nor does the US have "measures" applying to that contest.

Now John Kerry, engaging in backdoor meetings in Iran, may be another matter.


----------



## LezLee




----------



## KenOC

'A senior scientist who said physics "was invented and built by men" has been suspended with immediate effect from working with the European nuclear research centre Cern.'

Interesting story. The truth of the matter seems not to be relevant.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45709205


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

KenOC said:


> 'A senior scientist who said physics "was invented and built by men" has been suspended with immediate effect from working with the European nuclear research centre Cern.'
> 
> Interesting story. The truth of the matter seems not to be relevant.
> 
> https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45709205


Einstein should have come out of the closet


----------



## Dan Ante

KenOC said:


> 'A senior scientist who said physics "was invented and built by men" has been suspended with immediate effect from working with the European nuclear research centre Cern.'
> 
> Interesting story. The truth of the matter seems not to be relevant.
> 
> https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45709205


So Orwells 1984 is spot on..


----------



## joen_cph

Turkmenistan's president announced the end to free gas, electricity, water, and salt. 
What does the country's People's Assembly say?

"_We, the happy youth of a beautiful epoch, support your domestic and foreign policies with all our hearts_."

[video]https://flashvideo.rferl.org/Videoroot/Pangeavideo/2018/10/8/83/83869f8d-d4d9-4ca5-81ff-f345675b159f.mp4[/video]

https://www.rferl.org/a/our-hero-lavish-praise-for-turkmen-president-s-cutbacks/29521371.html

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1047125640334516226


----------



## KenOC

Bizarre but definitely unfunny. Headline: "_Seattle Starbucks baristas dispose of hypodermic needles left behind by drug users nearly every day: report_"

"…Three employees at the North Seattle-area Starbucks revealed to KIRO that they had been forced to take anti-viral medications after being poked by the needles while working…."

"The Seattle region had the third-highest number of homeless people in the U.S. last year, despite the city spending $68 million on combating homelessness…" (!)

"And earlier this year, KIRO obtained a letter sent to Visit Seattle by the organizers of a large pharmaceutical convention claiming they felt unsafe during a recent visit because of behavior they encountered in the street, including people openly urinating and defecating in the street… They 'lost count of the number of people walking around talking to themselves.' "

"Last month, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said her proposed budget for the city would set aside $1.3 million for a pilot program that would create an injection site for drug users."

Seattle, where I lived for many years, seems to think it can solve its homeless problem by increasing payments and benefits. It's hard to believe a municipal government can be so fundamentally, absolutely clueless.


----------



## joen_cph

"_Last month, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said her proposed budget for the city would set aside $1.3 million for a pilot program that would create an injection site for drug users_."

This will undoubtedly save lives among drug addicts and provide more street safety. That is the lesson for example from Copenhagen.


----------



## Dan Ante

KenOC said:


> They 'lost count of the number of people walking around talking to themselves.' "


We have one of those jokers on our road some times he is normal and other times he is in La La land.


----------



## KenOC

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse - in the UK, the Advertising Standards Authority has censured Costa Coffee for an ad insulting avocados and banned the ad.

https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/costa-coffee-commercial-banned-for-bashing-avocados


----------



## joen_cph

"_This Russian Double Agent Was A Lot Less Dead Than He Seemed_"
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/articl...yev-cia-vladimir-putin-russian-spy-undercover

versus, for instance,

"_Mystery as agent who exposed 'James Bond' glamour spy found dead in US_" (2016)
"https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/528351/Russian-double-agent-spy-found-dead-in-US"

or

"_Runaway Russian intelligence agent dies in the U.S._" (2016)
https://www.rbth.com/defence/2016/07/07/runaway-russian-intelligence-agent-dies-in-the-us_609709 (overall, a pro-Kremlin media)

Many Western news sources did have reservations about the reports of his death, though.


----------



## joen_cph

_At least than 250 people have lost their lives since 2011 because of taking selfies_,

and many more weren´t registered, say due to traffic accidents, according to today´s story in CNN. 
The survey also suggests the establishment of offical _No Selfie_ zones, to reduce the problem.


----------



## LezLee

KenOC said:


> Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse - in the UK, the Advertising Standards Authority has censured Costa Coffee for an ad insulting avocados and banned the ad.
> 
> https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/costa-coffee-commercial-banned-for-bashing-avocados


Typical ASA behaviour, no sense of humour. When there are justified complaints about something they discuss them for months then decide not to do anything.


----------



## KenOC

" 'Why Don't You Put Him Next to Charles Manson?': Tucker Battles ACLU Director Over Kavanaugh-Bill Cosby Ad"

People in the US are going completely bonkers over the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The fiery opposition to his candidacy mostly has to do with the earlier _Roe v Wade_ Supreme Court decision, which gave abortion rights federal protection. Opponents think he'll vote to overturn that, even though he's never stated an opinion on the matter and never will unless a case comes before him. In fact, neither Trump nor anyone else has the slightest idea how he would rule after hearing the facts of the case brought.

Amazing. One (female) professor has stated that senators supporting Kavanaugh should be castrated and killed. Politics is great fun here!


----------



## Dan Ante

For a small, tiny country we get our fair share of the same sort of thing, at least it stops us hearing any of the serious things that are going on, Politicians eh.


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> " 'Why Don't You Put Him Next to Charles Manson?': Tucker Battles ACLU Director Over Kavanaugh-Bill Cosby Ad"
> 
> People in the US are going completely bonkers over the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The fiery opposition to his candidacy mostly has to do with the earlier _Roe v Wade_ Supreme Court decision, which gave abortion rights federal protection. Opponents think he'll vote to overturn that, even though he's never stated an opinion on the matter and never will unless a case comes before him. In fact, neither Trump nor anyone else has the slightest idea how he would rule after hearing the facts of the case brought.
> 
> Amazing. One (female) professor has stated that senators supporting Kavanaugh should be castrated and killed.* Politics is great fun here*!


Politics? It sounds more like lunatics.


----------



## KenOC

Fritz Kobus said:


> Politics? It sounds more like lunatics.


Yeah, that's when it gets fun. :lol:


----------



## joen_cph

The abortion question is one subject, regarding the interest in Kavanaugh's views. Another issue is his apparent opposition to investigating a sitting president, cf. the ongoing Mueller probe. He now seems to believe that impeachment should be reserved for post-presidential times. Which would be a certain relief for Trump.


----------



## KenOC

I know of no evidence that Kavanaugh holds this view. I believe he wrote a position paper on it in support of Clinton at one point (doing his job as a hired lawyer). His views as a judge are, I believe, unknown.


----------



## joen_cph

He stated it in a long paper in 1998 and later repeated the view in a comprehensive article in the Minnesota Law Review (2009). One source is the Business Insider article about him and his views, with links.


----------



## KenOC

Somehow I cannot believe that Kavanaugh (or anybody else) believes that a sitting president cannot be investigated and impeached. The constitution is pretty clear on this. Need more info, references please.


----------



## joen_cph

"_Noting that he had "seen first-hand how complex and difficult" the job of president is, he argued that civil lawsuits against the president in his personal capacity should be postponed until he leaves office and urged Congress to "consider doing the same" for criminal investigations and prosecutions of the president. The best-case scenario for a criminal investigation of the president, he observed, would be that it would distract the president from more pressing duties. But if the president were indicted and stood trial, he continued, it could "cripple the federal government, rendering it unable to function with credibility in either the international or domestic arenas. Kavanaugh stressed that he "strongly" agreed with the idea that no one, including the president, should be above the law: "The point," he explained, is "simply to defer litigation and investigations until the President is out of office." Moreover, he added, "the Constitution establishes a clear mechanism to deter executive malfeasance" - the impeachment process_." 
-> http://www.scotusblog.com/2018/07/introduction-a-close-look-at-judge-brett-kavanaugh/

"_In 1998, Kavanaugh wrote extensively on the matter of impeaching a president, writing that independent counsel investigations can take "too long," easily become "politicized," and investigations can go beyond their original scope. He also seemed unconvinced that a president can even be indicted while in office.
"Whether the Constitution allows indictment of a sitting President is debatable," he said.

Over a decade later, Kavanaugh reiterated this belief in the Minnesota Law Review saying, "a serious constitutional question exists regarding whether a President can be criminally indicted and tried while in office."

""I believe that it is vital that the President be able to focus on his never-ending tasks with as few distractions as possible." Having to respond to civil litigation, discovery requests, deposition demands, questioning by prosecutors or even sitting through a trial, Kavanaugh believes, imposes an intolerable diversion of attention and energy on any sitting president.

Kavanaugh acknowledges the irony in his saying that - after all, he began his career working for Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, helping to impose those exact burdens on President Bill Clinton. But "in retrospect," he writes, "that seems a mistake." Looking back to those times, he says, "the nation certainly would have been better off if President Clinton could have focused on Osama bin Laden without being distracted by the Paula Jones sexual harassment case and its criminal investigation offshoots."

To be clear, Kavanaugh is not recommending that the president be completely immune from civil or criminal liability, only that the litigation be deferred until the president leaves office."
"This recommendation has led some, including Caroline Fredrickson and Norman L. Eisen in the New York Times and John Nichols at The Nation, and Democrats in Congress, to conclude that Kavanaugh is in the bag for putting the kibosh on Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Trump. Others, including Benjamin Wittes at Lawfare and Noah Feldman at Bloomberg, have argued that the article, in fact, shows that Kavanaugh would take the opposite position. I think the truth is somewhere in between_."
-> http://www.scotusblog.com/2018/07/k...icle-on-investigations-of-sitting-presidents/


----------



## KenOC

From your source: ‘Kavanaugh stressed that he “strongly” agreed with the idea that no one, including the president, should be above the law: “The point,” he explained, is “simply to defer litigation and investigations until the President is out of office.” Moreover, he added, “the Constitution establishes a clear mechanism to deter executive malfeasance” – the impeachment process.” ’

I read this to suggest that it’s a bad idea to subject a sitting president to “litigation and investigations” while in office. He was writing, of course, with reference to the Clinton matter. However, the constitutional remedy of finding a president guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” however defined by Congress, is still available at any time. I admit to some sympathy for Kavanaugh’s views.

What this means, of course, is that the House can bring impeachment proceedings for whatever reason it likes, and the senate can then expel the president from office without further ado and without any legal case being made. That's just the way it is. Why dink around with lawsuits and so forth? If the president's a scoundrel, just get rid of him (or her).


----------



## joen_cph

I deliberately chose some balanced views as sources. The point in both of them is that Kavanaugh leaves the option open, of a possible postponement of the investigations or the impeachment of a President, under certain circumstances. Which is a point of some importance.


----------



## KenOC

"The U.S. Senate may yet confirm Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, but he should stay off basketball courts for now when kids are around," reads the article by a [USA Today] staff sportswriter. The report, which was presented as a news story rather than an opinion article (etc.)…
----------------------------
Judge Kavanaugh coaches a Catholic girls' basketball team. Disgust is raised to a new all-time high. Or low.


----------



## KenOC

King Henry required only a single false witness to execute Sir Thomas More. In my country, such people seem more numerous, to our shame.


----------



## SixFootScowl

Toddler runs over $1,000 his parents saved through a shredder.


----------



## bravenewworld

Sydney Opera House to be used as a billboard to promote a horse race

This is supposedly what it will look like:









This kind of thing makes those of us in Sydney really very angry. There's a state election next March; let's see what happens then.


----------



## KenOC

Dr. Carol Christine Fair is an associate professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University. She seems to have strong political views.

A few days ago, she tweeted that the Republican party was a "pro-rape, pro-pederasty, pro-perjury, pro-corruption, pro-Russian hacking, pro-child trafficking, pro-white male supremacy, pro-VERY-late-term abortion of children with AR-15's … a f---ing death cult."

Finding that insufficient, she more recently took senators supporting Judge Kavanaugh to task, tweeting: "Look at [this] chorus of entitled white men justifying a serial rapist's arrogated entitlement. All of them deserve miserable deaths while feminists laugh as they take their last gasps. Bonus: we castrate their corpses and feed them to swine? Yes."

Since Dr. Fair has tenure, she can pretty much say what she wants. But the university has decided to send her on "research leave" to engage in "previously scheduled international research travel." Hey, I could use a bit of that!


----------



## geralmar

Trump boards Air Force One with toilet paper stuck to shoe. (Or not.)






Well, it was important enough to also be reported by the Washington Post.


----------



## joen_cph

Just after reaching a final bid of 1 mio. £, a work by the artist Banksy partly maculates itself through a hidden device in the frame, in front of the Sotheby's audience:

https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/sothebys-gets-banksyed-at-contemporary-art-auction-in-london






""_It appears we just got Banksy-ed," said Alex Branczik, Senior Director and Head of Contemporary Art, Europe London. The unexpected incident became instant art world history and certainly marks the first time in auction history that a work of art automatically shredded itself after coming under the hammer_."

Apparently, in spite of it being an expensive art work, the auction house didn´t do much technical investigation of the sold object ??

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


----------



## joen_cph

"_Mrs Hajiyeva used 35 credit cards issued by her husband's bank_"

- signs of the UK actually implementing a new anti-corruption and anti-bank-secrecy policy.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-4581221


----------



## Guest

joen_cph said:


> "_Mrs Hajiyeva used 35 credit cards issued by her husband's bank_"
> 
> - signs of the UK actually implementing a new anti-corruption and anti-bank-secrecy policy.
> 
> https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-4581221


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45812210


----------



## KenOC

Two interesting stories today. In the first, a Russian Soyuz rocket failed about a minute and a half after launch toward the ISS. The two astronauts aboard, one American and one Russian, survived unhurt because the escape rocket jutting from the nose of their craft actually worked as designed. To my knowledge, this is the first time astronauts have survived a launch phase failure.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/tech...-fails-on-launch/ar-BBOe9X8?OCID=ansmsnnews11

In the second, it looks like mankind is a bit closer to the day of reckoning with those beings it originally bred to be its servants.


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Who wants to be in the next rocket to go up, anyone keen....................


----------



## SixFootScowl

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> How wants to be in the next rocket to go up, anyone keen....................


How about we just send one of those Boston Dynamics robots up instead?


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Fritz Kobus said:


> How about we just send one of those Boston Dynamics robots up instead?


Yeah, just strap a booster pack on the backs


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

Only in Sydney 
*Happiest feet: Australia has its first same-sex penguin foster parents *
Two male gentoo penguins at a Sydney aquarium who began building a nest together are handed an egg to foster - and zoo staff say they've taken to parenting like "absolute naturals".
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-...-at-sydney-aquarium-fostering-an-egg/10369530
A same-sex penguin couple at a Sydney aquarium has become the first in Australia to be handed a foster egg and staff say the two are showing signs they'll be "amazing parents".

Magic and Sphen, two gentoo penguins at the Sea Life Sydney Aquarium, formed a bond before the 2018 breeding season.

Tish Hannan, the aquarium's penguin department supervisor, said staff suspected love was in the air when they began noticing piles of ice pebbles set up as a nest each day.

"We'd go over there and Magic and Spehn would be bowing to each other," she said.

"Bowing is a gentoo way of saying they love each other, which is super cute."

The couple then began collecting actual pebbles when staff put them out for the breeding season and built a real nest.

They were then given a dummy egg to practice their parenting skills.


----------



## geralmar

I read this one sentence "finding" in this June's Harper's Magazine; unfortunately there is no citation to judge its accuracy.

"Two thirds of adults tasked with searching aerial landscapes for artificial structures failed to detect a man in a gorilla suit, which may suggest a Cosmic Gorilla Effect of inattentional blindness in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence."


----------



## KenOC

_Essays reveal Stephen Hawking predicted new race of 'superhumans'_
---------------------------------------------
The late physicist and author Prof Stephen Hawking has sparked controversy by suggesting a new race of superhumans could develop from wealthy people choosing to edit their own and their children's DNA…

"Once such superhumans appear, there will be significant political problems with unimproved humans, who won't be able to compete," he wrote. "Presumably, they will die out, or become unimportant. Instead, there will be a race of self-designing beings who are improving at an ever-increasing rate."
---------------------------------------------
So what exactly should we improve? Are we really smarter than Darwin? I seem to remember on old cautionary ad for butter: "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature!"

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/tech...-predicted-new-race-of-superhumans/ar-BBOm9Ax


----------



## KenOC

"Man dies from extremely rare disease after eating squirrel brains"

I'll have to tell my wife to stop buying squirrel brains -- even if they're on sale.

https://www.foxnews.com/health/man-dies-from-extremely-rare-disease-after-eating-squirrel-brains


----------



## geralmar

KenOC said:


> _Essays reveal Stephen Hawking predicted new race of 'superhumans'_
> ---------------------------------------------
> The late physicist and author Prof Stephen Hawking has sparked controversy by suggesting a new race of superhumans could develop from wealthy people choosing to edit their own and their children's DNA…
> 
> "Once such superhumans appear, there will be significant political problems with unimproved humans, who won't be able to compete," he wrote. "Presumably, they will die out, or become unimportant. Instead, there will be a race of self-designing beings who are improving at an ever-increasing rate."
> ---------------------------------------------
> So what exactly should we improve? Are we really smarter than Darwin? I seem to remember on old cautionary ad for butter: "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature!"
> 
> https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/tech...-predicted-new-race-of-superhumans/ar-BBOm9Ax


Hmmm.... Since the population of super-wealthy is relatively small, wouldn't they have to start inbreeding and eventually produce offspring with the looks and intelligence of my wife's family?


----------



## Dan Ante

Men will not be required for reproduction but would make ideal slaves.


----------



## KenOC

Dan Ante said:


> Men will not be required for reproduction but would make ideal slaves.


Likely true, if gelded at the proper age.


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> Likely true, if gelded at the proper age.


And they can put some sopranos out of business!


----------



## KenOC

Does "astonishing" count here? If so, check out this Volvo ad from about five years ago. No fakery here.


----------



## KenOC

The world's largest living thing is dying. It's about 80,000 years old and weighs 13 million pounds. The culprits? Deer and possibly cattle.

https://www.foxnews.com/science/lar...year-old-utah-forest-is-dying-scientists-warn


----------



## KenOC

No, of course it's not discrimination, silly!
------------------------------------
A Harvard University dean testified that the school has different SAT score standards for prospective students based on factors such as race and sex - but insisted that the practice isn't discriminatory, as a trial alleging racism against Asian-American applicants began this week.

The Ivy League school was sued in 2014 by the group Students for Fair Admissions, which claims that Asian-American students, despite top-notch academic records, had the lowest admission rate among any race…

He said Harvard sends recruitment letters to African-American, Native American and Hispanic high schoolers with mid-range SAT scores, around 1100 on math and verbal combined out of a possible 1600, CNN reported. Asian-Americans only receive a recruitment letter if they score at least 250 points higher - 1350 for women, and 1380 for men.

https://nypost.com/2018/10/17/harvards-gatekeeper-reveals-sat-cutoff-scores-based-on-race/



> William Lee, the lawyer representing the Cambridge, Mass., school, denied that it engages in discriminatory practices, saying its doors are "open to students of all backgrounds and means." "Harvard never considers an applicant's race to be a negative," he said.


I won't even comment on that!


----------



## geralmar

When I was in the army the other soldier in my office, a Harvard graduate*, told me that Harvard's admission standards were intentionally "fluid" so as to permit the acceptance of the offspring of wealthy alumni.

*This was when the draft was still in effect.


----------



## KenOC

geralmar said:


> When I was in the army the other soldier in my office, a Harvard graduate*, told me that Harvard's admission standards were intentionally "fluid" so as to permit the acceptance of the offspring of wealthy alumni.
> 
> *This was when the draft was still in effect.


From the articles covering the current lawsuit, those preferences are still in effect.


----------



## KenOC

"Saudi state media reports Jamal Khashoggi, missing activist and writer, was killed in fight."

He grew combative while they were cutting his fingers off. Yeah, I know this is not particularly funny.


----------



## KenOC

Sorry, can't resist this.


----------



## KenOC

BBC headline: "I woke up unable to speak English"

I didn't read the story, but I'm pretty sure that most people in the world wake up unable to speak English.

https://www.bbc.com/news/disability-45804613


----------



## KenOC

"It feels like the makings of a joke, but for a Belgian e-cigarette shop owner this was a frightening reality. Six people entered Didier's shop in the suburbs of Charleroi in daylight with the intent to rob him.

"The salesman told the group to return at the end of the day, when he could give them more money...

"When the men returned a third time, at 18:30, the police were at the back of the shop ready to catch them. Five males were arrested, including a minor."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45958404


----------



## Luchesi

KenOC said:


> "It feels like the makings of a joke, but for a Belgian e-cigarette shop owner this was a frightening reality. Six people entered Didier's shop in the suburbs of Charleroi in daylight with the intent to rob him.
> 
> "The salesman told the group to return at the end of the day, when he could give them more money...
> 
> "When the men returned a third time, at 18:30, the police were at the back of the shop ready to catch them. Five males were arrested, including a minor."
> 
> https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45958404


I wonder how clueless young men like this will ever make a living in this highly technical modern world. It used to be that the un-inclined could take machine shop or automotive courses and they could make an adequate living.. quite well-adjusted and self-actualized.


----------



## joen_cph

It´s been widely published now, but still, the finding of a complete shipwreck from the Greek Antiquity, 400 BC, in the Black Sea, unusually well-preserved because of special conditions there, is a fascinating story:

https://www.theguardian.com/science...cient-greek-discovered-at-bottom-of-black-sea


----------



## LezLee

A must-have for the man-about-town:

https://www.dresslily.com/raw-meat-...MI4POZycOf3gIVF-XtCh2ewgpkEAEYASAAEgIJE_D_BwE


----------



## joen_cph

LezLee said:


> A must-have for the man-about-town:
> 
> https://www.dresslily.com/raw-meat-...MI4POZycOf3gIVF-XtCh2ewgpkEAEYASAAEgIJE_D_BwE


No wonder it´s on sale, besides the looks ... Eating meat is becoming an issue increasingly accompanied by controversies, at least in parts of Western Europe, and probably elsewhere too in the future.


----------



## joen_cph

Luchesi said:


> I wonder how clueless young men like this will ever make a living in this highly technical modern world. It used to be that the un-inclined could take machine shop or automotive courses and they could make an adequate living.. quite well-adjusted and self-actualized.


Stupid actions don´t just take place among lower class people coming to get you:

"_A company that sells spyware to authoritarian governments left all of its data online, including hacked victim data and passport and credit card scans belonging to the founder of the company ... this is a very stupid story in the sense that you would think that a company actually selling surveillance tools like this would know more about operational security_"

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/vbka8b/wolf-intelligence-leak-customer-victim-data-online


----------



## KenOC

Are you afraid of heights? I am. Here's Taft Point at Yosemite, a popular (and unfenced) overlook 3,000 feet above the valley floor. A young couple took the fast way down earlier this week. Their bodies were recovered today. Was it selfie-related? That's a happening thing.


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> Are you afraid of heights? I am. Here's Taft Point at Yosemite, a popular (and unfenced) overlook 3,000 feet above the valley floor. A young couple took the fast way down earlier this week. Their bodies were recovered today. Was it selfie-related? That's a happening thing.


Interesting that the image URL you posted includes this: AAAAAAAAAIE

Looks like some guy standing near the precipice in the photo you posted. Crazy. Conceivably, if one were standing at the very edge, they could actually sneeze themseves over the edge. No, I do not like heights. They spook me. I want a railing and a high one at that. But I won't lean on the railing for fear it is not fastened well.


----------



## KenOC

There are pics of weddings performed at Taft Point. It's named for President Taft, who visited there with John Muir in 1909. They couldn't find a big enough horse for Taft's 350 pounds, so he joined Muir in hiking down the 3,000 feet to the valley floor. He was said to be soaked in sweat, not very surprising! But a great effort from the only president who had to be pried out of a bathtub he was stuck in, using butter.


----------



## KenOC

BTW the Taft bathtub story may be an urban myth. Feeling somewhat cramped, he had a special large bathtub made for the White House, capacious enough for four ordinary men. It weighed about a ton.


----------



## Ingélou

In today's newspaper I learned that Russian divers have found, off Franz Josef land, the wrecked ship of a British polar explorer of whom I'd never heard - Benjamin Leigh Smith, a cousin of Florence Nightingale.

I was fascinated to read about his exploits -

*'Born in 1828, Leigh Smith worked as a barrister in London before leading five expeditions to the Arctic... Sheltering behind Cape Flora in August 1881, the Eira's crew failed to see a mass of icebergs sweeping in from the Kara Sea, and the ship was crushed.

The expedition's 25 men were stranded for the winter with only a few rowboats. Luckily they included hunters from the Shetland Islands and they survived for 10 months eating seals, walruses and polar bears.

After the ice cleared, they fashioned sails out of tablecloths & made it across 200 miles of rough sea to Novaya Zembla, Russia, where a British rescue party found them.' 
*
:tiphat: They don't make 'em like that any more!


----------



## LezLee

First catch your polar bear! 
I’m intrigued by the fact they took table-linen with them


----------



## Ingélou

LezLee said:


> First catch your polar bear!
> I'm intrigued by the fact they took table-linen with them


Those Victorians knew about the Art of Refined Living! 

When I was a junior school teacher in London in the 1970s, I took a class of 8-year-olds to Greenwich, first looking round the Cutty Sark, and then the Royal Maritime Museum. There was a big display of relics of the lost Franklin expedition - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin's_lost_expedition - including some fine silver cutlery from the captain's table which had been picked up from the Inuit in one of the desperate search expeditions organised by Lady Franklin.

I must admit, that song about the Franklin expedition - ending with the lines 'Ten thousand pounds would I freely give, To know on earth that my Franklin do live.' - always has the power to make me cry.


----------



## KenOC

"Bee-sized bots set to dominate future battles for cities"

Autonomous drone swarms? Sounds like a great idea in this story.

https://www.foxnews.com/tech/bee-sized-bots-set-to-dominate-future-battles-for-cities

But then, watch this cheery video. Still a great idea?






Sorry folks, there's no stopping this.


----------



## Metairie Road

LezLee said:


> First catch your polar bear!
> I'm intrigued by the fact they took table-linen with them


Being English gentlemen they probably dressed 'cravate noire' for dinner and were served port from a cut glass decanter by the butler.

These things have to be done right.


----------



## Ingélou

Metairie Road said:


> Being English gentlemen they probably dressed 'cravate noire' for dinner and were served port from a cut glass decanter by the butler.
> 
> These things have to be done right.


:lol: :tiphat:

They weren't *all* English gentlemen, though, and a good thing too - thank goodness for the Shetland hunters!
I'm thinking of their little flotilla of rowboats, each with a tablecloth hoisted aloft & a Shetlander in charge, setting off together once the sea had thawed. 
'Time to make a run for it, lads!'


----------



## KenOC

"America's most expensive house listed for $245M"

It's in the Bel Air district of Los Angeles. 25,000 square feet should keep you from feeling too cramped. 10 acres of grounds, a 12,000-bottle wine cellar, 11 bedrooms and 18 full baths. But it does take a long time to vacuum the floors, not to mention trimming that shrubbery.


----------



## Ingélou

KenOC said:


> "America's most expensive house listed for $245M"
> 
> It's in the Bel Air district of Los Angeles. 25,000 square feet should keep you from feeling too cramped. 10 acres of grounds, a 12,000-bottle wine cellar, 11 bedrooms and 18 full baths. But it does take a long time to vacuum the floors, not to mention trimming that shrubbery.


Only 11 bedrooms!


----------



## LezLee

Ingélou said:


> :lol: :tiphat:
> 
> They weren't *all* English gentlemen, though, and a good thing too - thank goodness for the Shetland hunters!
> I'm thinking of their little flotilla of rowboats, each with a tablecloth hoisted aloft & a Shetlander in charge, setting off together once the sea had thawed.
> 'Time to make a run for it, lads!'


Ingélou, do you know about the 'Shetland Bus'? Not connected with exploration but another story of Scottish bravery in boats. It was a Special Operations group operating a flotilla of fishing boats ferrying Norwegian refugees to Shetland during the war. An amazing story.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shetland_bus


----------



## Ingélou

LezLee said:


> Ingélou, do you know about the 'Shetland Bus'? Not connected with exploration but another story of Scottish bravery in boats. It was a Special Operations group operating a flotilla of fishing boats ferrying Norwegian refugees to Shetland during the war. An amazing story.
> 
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shetland_bus


Thanks, LezLee :tiphat: - I didn't know, (Taggart did - he did a lot of reading about WWII when he was a teenager in Glasgow) but I always love to read of these tales of bravery during war time. 
It is very interesting & also inspiring.


----------



## LezLee

Ingélou said:


> Thanks, LezLee :tiphat: - I didn't know, (Taggart did - he did a lot of reading about WWII when he was a teenager in Glasgow) but I always love to read of these tales of bravery during war time.
> It is very interesting & also inspiring.


As a fiddler, you might like:
Jenna and Bethany Reid - Escape - The Story Of Jan Baalrud And The Shetland Bus

https://www.musicscotland.com/cd/Jenna-Reid-Shetland-Bus.html


----------



## SixFootScowl

Need a ride to the hospital? Don't call 911, call Jimmy Johns.


----------



## KenOC

Must be getting on toward Halloween!

"Every year, gourd enthusiasts gather for the West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta, where participants race across the Tualatin Lake of the Commons in kayaks made of, yes, giant, hollowed-out pumpkins."

https://www.opb.org/news/article/west-coast-pumpkin-regatta-2018/


----------



## Dan Ante

KenOC said:


> Must be getting on toward Halloween!
> 
> "Every year, gourd enthusiasts gather for the West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta, where participants race across the Tualatin Lake of the Commons in kayaks made of, yes, giant, hollowed-out pumpkins."


Mr Bo is the Pumpkin King:

On the Coast of Coromandel
Where the early pumpkins blow,
In the middle of the woods
Lived the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò.
Two old chairs, and half a candle,--
One old jug without a handle,--
These were all his worldly goods:
In the middle of the woods,
These were all the worldly goods,
Of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò,
Of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò.

Once, among the Bong-trees walking
Where the early pumpkins blow,
To a little heap of stones
Came the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò.
There he heard a Lady talking,
To some milk-white Hens of Dorking,--
''Tis the lady Jingly Jones!
'On that little heap of stones
'Sits the Lady Jingly Jones!'
Said the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò,
Said the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò.

'Lady Jingly! Lady Jingly!
'Sitting where the pumpkins blow,
'Will you come and be my wife?'
Said the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò.
'I am tired of living singly,--
'On this coast so wild and shingly,--
'I'm a-weary of my life:
'If you'll come and be my wife,
'Quite serene would be my life!'--
Said the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò,
Said the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò.

'On this Coast of Coromandel,
'Shrimps and watercresses grow,
'Prawns are plentiful and cheap,'
Said the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò.
'You shall have my chairs and candle,
'And my jug without a handle!--
'Gaze upon the rolling deep
('Fish is plentiful and cheap)
'As the sea, my love is deep!'
Said the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò,
Said the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò.

Lady Jingly answered sadly,
And her tears began to flow,--
'Your proposal comes too late,
'Mr. Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò!
'I would be your wife most gladly!'
(Here she twirled her fingers madly,)
'But in England I've a mate!
'Yes! you've asked me far too late,
'For in England I've a mate,
'Mr. Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò!
'Mr. Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò!'

'Mr. Jones -- (his name is Handel,--
'Handel Jones, Esquire, & Co.)
'Dorking fowls delights to send,
'Mr. Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò!
'Keep, oh! keep your chairs and candle,
'And your jug without a handle,--
'I can merely be your friend!
'-- Should my Jones more Dorkings send,
'I will give you three, my friend!
'Mr. Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò!
'Mr. Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò!'

'Though you've such a tiny body,
'And your head so large doth grow,--
'Though your hat may blow away,
'Mr. Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò!
'Though you're such a Hoddy Doddy--
'Yet a wish that I could modi-
'fy the words I needs must say!
'Will you please to go away?
'That is all I have to say--
'Mr. Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò!
'Mr. Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò!'.

Down the slippery slopes of Myrtle,
Where the early pumpkins blow,
To the calm and silent sea
Fled the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò.
There, beyond the Bay of Gurtle,
Lay a large and lively Turtle,--
'You're the Cove,' he said, 'for me
'On your back beyond the sea,
'Turtle, you shall carry me!'
Said the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò,
Said the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò.

Through the silent-roaring ocean
Did the Turtle swiftly go;
Holding fast upon his shell
Rode the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò.
With a sad primæval motion
Towards the sunset isles of Boshen
Still the Turtle bore him well.
Holding fast upon his shell,
'Lady Jingly Jones, farewell!'
Sang the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò,
Sang the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò.

From the Coast of Coromandel,
Did that Lady never go;
On that heap of stones she mourns
For the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò.
On that Coast of Coromandel,
In his jug without a handle
Still she weeps, and daily moans;
On that little hep of stones
To her Dorking Hens she moans,
For the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò,
For the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò.


----------



## KenOC




----------



## KenOC

From the BBC: "Surgery students 'losing dexterity to stitch patients' "

Students are doing little except swipe their smartphone screens. They are increasingly lacking the manual skills needed for surgery, it's claimed.

https://www.bbc.com/news/education-46019429

No problem, they just need to warm up with this.


----------



## KenOC

KenOC said:


> Are you afraid of heights? I am. Here's Taft Point at Yosemite, a popular (and unfenced) overlook 3,000 feet above the valley floor. A young couple took the fast way down earlier this week. Their bodies were recovered today. Was it selfie-related? That's a happening thing.


Well, it seems they were, indeed, taking a selfie. They set up their tripod and camera and then went to stand at the very edge of the drop-off. Oops.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/couple-w...national-park-was-taking-selfie-relative-says


----------



## Taggart

KenOC said:


> Must be getting on toward Halloween!
> 
> "Every year, gourd enthusiasts gather for the West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta, where participants race across the Tualatin Lake of the Commons in kayaks made of, yes, giant, hollowed-out pumpkins."
> 
> https://www.opb.org/news/article/west-coast-pumpkin-regatta-2018/


In York, they merely attempt to get the world record https://www.ybw.com/news-from-yacht...rld-record-sailing-largest-pumpkin-boat-70844










There's a gallery of pictures here https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/17...-man-takes-to-ouse-in-giant-pumpkin/#gallery0


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> Well, it seems they were, indeed, taking a selfie. They set up their tripod and camera and then went to stand at the very edge of the drop-off. Oops.
> 
> https://www.foxnews.com/us/couple-w...national-park-was-taking-selfie-relative-says


Wow, the comments on that article are really callous.


----------



## Dan Ante

Just another example of a Darwinism.


----------



## KenOC

Fritz Kobus said:


> Wow, the comments on that article are really callous.


You should never read the comments on a Fox news article. Way too depressing.


----------



## LezLee

Taggart said:


> In York, they merely attempt to get the world record https://www.ybw.com/news-from-yacht...rld-record-sailing-largest-pumpkin-boat-70844
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> There's a gallery of pictures here https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/17...-man-takes-to-ouse-in-giant-pumpkin/#gallery0


Nice to see the cruise boat. 12 years ago my sister had a 'booze cruise on the Ouse' for her 60th birthday. It was September so it was quite dark and as we passed, all the ducks on the banks woke up. There were about 25 of us, some meeting up again after several years. A lovely night.


----------



## KenOC

Holy c**p, is this true? "Two generations of humans have killed off more than half the world's wildlife populations, report finds"
----------------------------------------
Human activity has annihilated wildlife on a scale unseen beyond mass extinction, and it has helped put humans on a potentially irreversible path toward a hot, chaotic planet stripped clean of the natural resources that enrich it, a new report has concluded.

Populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians have declined by 60 percent since 1970, according to a report released Monday by the advocacy group World Wildlife Fund. The animals that remain will fight against warming oceans choked with plastic, toppled rain forests may zero out fragile species, and refuges such as coral reefs may nearly die off.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/scie...t-finds/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.91f510749ae2


----------



## KenOC

"Man plays piano to soothe ailing elephants"

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/good-news/man-plays-piano-to-soothe-ailing-elephants/ar-BBP7Npq


----------



## KenOC

"*US troops drink Iceland capital's entire beer supply in one weekend*"

I hope they fight as enthusiastically as they drink…

https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/...ntcmp=ob_article_footer_text&intcmp=obnetwork


----------



## geralmar

U.S. Post Office issues "scratch and sniff" postage stamps.

They have been available for almost six months; but I was unaware of them until my wife showed them to me today. The smell is a bit on the putrid side even before scratching which, I gather, is the privilege of the recipient. Overall I think it is an act of desperation by the Post Office which has been losing money for years.


----------



## SixFootScowl

geralmar said:


>


Odd that the word FOREVER is struck out.


----------



## KenOC

Just when you thought things couldn't get any weirder, Pres. Trump has enlisted HBO on foreign policy re Iran, via Twitter:










Even weirder, Gen. Qasem Soleimani, chief of the elite Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, has responded in kind:


----------



## geralmar

Fritz Kobus said:


> Odd that the word FOREVER is struck out.


I hope that the intended message is not that the nation's time remaining is now in doubt.


----------



## DaveM

A man from Michigan USA sat in a pile of feces left by a service dog in the previous Delta flight. The flight attendants gave him only 2 paper towels and a small bottle of gin. It’s unclear whether the the gin was to help him forget he had just sat in feces or was to be used as a disinfectant.


----------



## joen_cph

"_Harvard Scientists say mysterious 'Oumuamua' object could be an alien spacecraft_"

Here´s one of the slightly more sceptical versions:

https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/scienc...a-object-could-be-alien-spacecraft-ncna931381


----------



## LezLee

Glasgow’s huge main music venue is featuring slash metal bands next Monday. 

Slayer, Anthrax, Lamb of God and Obituary. 

One can only hope the Scottish Ambulance Service will be standing by.


----------



## SixFootScowl

Squirrel stampede took out crops.

"In the year of 1826 the great emigration of squirrels occurred. The squirrels passed through this county from west to east. The number could not be estimated. The time occupied in passing was about two weeks. They destroyed all the corn in the fields they passed over. They could not be turned in their course, but went straight on in the route taken. When they came to White River they entered the water at once and swam across. Hundreds of them were shot. Others were killed with clubs and stones. It was never known from whence they came or where they went."

"The corn this year was literally destroyed, unless in the prairies, by grey and black squirrel. Sir, there was by one man killed round one cornfield 248 in 3 days about 4 miles of this place. Many people lost whole cornfields - 12 squirrels were supposed to destroy as much corn as one hog. They eat only the heart or pit of the kernel. The squirrel appeared to be emigrating towards the S.W. instead of the E. as he has always done heretofore. The reason for his emigration this year was this - our woods or wilderness, it scarcely ever fails to produce a sufficient quantity of mast to support such vermin but this year they entirely fail'd - the word mast is used by the people here for the fruit and nuts that grow on forest trees."


----------



## joen_cph

China State media introduce AI robot news anchor

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1060549273975177217¨
A school in China scans the students every 30 seconds, evaluating their facial expression and behaviour

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1008257253302939649
The Chinese "Social Credit System" includes AI scanning surveillance on board trains

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1056811593177227264


----------



## SixFootScowl

Patient Records Doctor's Rude Comments While Under Anesthesia:


----------



## SixFootScowl

Yikes! Abandoned toddler rescued and raised by feral dogs:


----------



## KenOC

From Fox news: "The lizard - which officials with the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) said measured more than 8 feet in length - was seized Tuesday, ending the animal's nearly 3-month diatribe in a Davie neighborhood."

Can you imagine the unpleasantness of being verbally abused by a monitor lizard for such a long stretch of time?

https://www.foxnews.com/science/gia...nths-after-terrorizing-family-evading-capture


----------



## Josquin13

canceled post..................


----------



## Dan Ante

KenOC said:


> From Fox news: "The lizard - which officials with the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) said measured more than 8 feet in length - was seized Tuesday, ending the animal's nearly 3-month diatribe in a Davie neighborhood."
> 
> Can you imagine the unpleasantness of being verbally abused by a monitor lizard for such a long stretch of time?


Are there Moderator Lizards?


----------



## SixFootScowl

He ate a slug on a dare, became paralyzed and died.
"So Australian teenager Sam Ballard grabbed the slimy creature and gulped it down. He had no idea that the slug carried a potentially deadly worm [Rat Lung Worm] that would put him into a coma that lasted more than a year, paralyze his body and ultimately take his life."


----------



## hpowders

Oh wow! Two more Democrat ballots found in favor of Senator Nelson in Florida. They opened up an alligator’s stomach and there they were!

Believe it or not. Strange story or tall tale?

I leave that up to you, dear reader.


----------



## DaveM

hpowders said:


> Oh wow! Two more Democrat ballots found in favor of Senator Nelson in Florida. They opened up an alligator's stomach and there they were!
> 
> Believe it or not. Strange story or tall tale?
> 
> I leave that up to you, dear reader.


Round up all the alligators. There's more votes where those came from!


----------



## KenOC

That ol' credit card is getting maxed out. "As reported by The Wall Street Journal citing data from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the U.S. will spend more on interest than it spends on Medicaid in 2020, in 2023 interest spending will exceed national defense spending, and by 2025 it will spend more on interest than on all nondefense discretionary programs combined."

Does that make you nervous? No? Well, never mind then.

Our good President Trump is continuing our recent policy of creating prosperity by piling up debt for our children, which they may or may not be able to repay. Living high on the Visa card!

https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/us-debt-payments-will-soon-exceed-military-spending

"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." ― Alexis de Tocqueville, ca 1830


----------



## KenOC

"Drunk Mississippi man drove truck into courthouse to report his drugs were stolen"

It's hard to figure the number of stupidities in this one. Oh yeah, this being a courthouse after all, there's a nice picture of it.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/drunk-man-drove-truck-into-courthouse-to-report-his-drugs-were-stolen


----------



## KenOC

Headline: "CIA determines Khashoggi's death was ordered by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman"

Of course, the crown prince has vowed to severely punish those responsible…and you just know he means it. His expression says it all!


----------



## Dan Ante

KenOC said:


> Headline: "CIA determines Khashoggi's death was ordered by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman"
> 
> Of course, the crown prince has vowed to severely punish those responsible…and you just know he means it. His expression says it all!


Goodness gracious me what a surprise it is hard to believe


----------



## senza sordino

Someone farted toward the end of a championship darts match.

"Stink hits darts grand slam as match features flatulant end"
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/nov/17/stink-hits-darts-grand-slam-as-match-features-flatulent-end


----------



## Tikoo Tuba

I'll be on the search for Bigfoot . I want to make the gift of flute made for big fingers . In trade , I desire some conversation .


----------



## Tikoo Tuba

A camp fire in paradise ? Strange news makes it sound awful .


----------



## joen_cph

"_... I can't wait to see them around the throne of God worshipping in their own language as Revelations 7:9-10 states_ ..."

was one of the diary entries of the young American missionary going to the Andaman islands - ignoring the potentially deadly diseases he would bring to an island people, that has been largely isolated from the rest of the word for around 55.000 - 60.000 years, the prohibited zone established by the authorities, and previous killings of visitors there.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/new...hn-allen-chau-last-days-island-tribe-10961684

Apparently the only video recording of the tribe from a relatively close distance: 
https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/udland/da...r-han-blev-draebt-paa-isoleret-oe-er-denne-oe

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


----------



## KenOC

Here we go. "HONG KONG - A Chinese researcher claims that he helped make the world's first genetically edited babies - twin girls born this month whose DNA he said he altered with a powerful new tool capable of rewriting the very blueprint of life.

"If true, it would be a profound leap of science and ethics.

"A U.S. scientist said he took part in the work in China, but this kind of gene editing is banned in the United States because the DNA changes can pass to future generations..."

Redefining human beings, or at least the better sort.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...s-claimed-in-china/ar-BBQ6aZJ?ocid=spartanntp


----------



## Tikoo Tuba

Ok , we are re-defindinededned .


----------



## KenOC

"No sale for Australia's enormous Knickers"

Now there's a mystifying headline! But it's about an oversized steer that's too big to slaughter and so escapes the knacker. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-46357449


----------



## joen_cph

Good times indeed.


----------



## Dan Ante

joen_cph said:


> Good times indeed.


He will tell him the way they do it....


----------



## KenOC

Along the same lines…


----------



## geralmar

Woman jailed for three months when her cotton candy is mistaken for methamphetamine.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/mone...l-time-cotton-candy-mistaken-meth/2123922002/


----------



## KenOC

Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer is already reduced to smoking ruins due to racism charges. Now, from Minnesota State University: “Dr. Eric Sprankle, a professor of clinical psychology, wrote that ‘the virgin birth story is about an all-knowing, all-powerful deity impregnating a human teen. There is no definition of consent that would include that scenario. Happy Holidays.’ “

He may have a point. 

Added: Nebraska principal bans candy canes!
--------------------------------------
Decorations that included Santa, Christmas trees, reindeer, green and red colored items and even candy canes, however, were not acceptable for the elementary school.

The candy canes, according to KETV, were prohibited because Sinclair deemed them to have religious significance. "Historically, the shape is a 'J' for Jesus. The red is for the blood of Christ, and the white is a symbol of his resurrection," she reportedly wrote. "This would also include different colored candy canes."


----------



## KenOC

“ 'Beloved' wolf killed just outside Yellowstone renews buffer zones debate”

Odd how these animals are never “beloved” until they’re killed. And they always seem to have cute nicknames (or, I suspect, one is invented for them by our creative press).

But where’s the love for the 10 million cows slaughtered each year to make McDonald’s hamburgers? That’s well over a thousand every hour, 24 hours a day, day in and day out. Maybe because they taste better than wolves?


----------



## TxllxT

Bizarre news from Belgium: When the prime minister Charles Michel will board the plane tomorrow and be lifted towards Marrakesh (for signing a UN treaty), his government will fall.
(Breaking news)


----------



## Dan Ante

A young guy gave synthetic Cannabis to his sister she died he then gave the same stuff to one of his friends and he died, he was found guilty and was sentenced to 4 1/2 months home detention. What is the point?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/109137946/West-Auckland-man-who-supplied-deadly-synthetics-to-sister-cousin-sentenced-to-home-detention"]http://https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/109137946/West-Auckland-man-who-supplied-deadly-synthetics-to-sister-cousin-sentenced-to-home-detention

Click on stuff.co.nz.


----------



## joen_cph

One of the main Russian television channels, Rossija24, presented an allegedly highly advanced Russian robot, "the most modern there is", but some viewers quickly found out it was just a guy in a costume:


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1072769449369976832
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ussia-forum-turns-out-to-be-man-in-robot-suit


----------



## joen_cph

Forget tattoos - marbling is the new thing:


----------



## Vronsky

Russian Priest Investigated After Flaunting 'Gucci' Lifestyle on Instagram

https://themoscowtimes.com/news/rus...jjKP-goZWL8UiviuWnqbjxlxtxHz9FZZbRwo5lP1vhLkg


----------



## LezLee

The World Pie Eating Championship thought its flatulence fix for competitors would come up trumps but it has caused an almighty stink.

Organisers of the annual contest will use chicken as a filling next Tuesday over fears the traditional meat and potato makes eaters break wind. They reckon the move will help tackle climate change and stop crowds turning their noses up at the event. But purists have cried fowl on the switch, saying there is little time to adjust training regimes and chicken is too easy.

Tony Callaghan, owner of contest venue Harry’s Bar in Wigan, Greater Manchester, said: “We’re steering things away from red meat this year for health considerations and also to avoid the methane issue.” He cited “the warnings about greenhouse gases from cattle and the controversy involving farting at major darts tournaments which recently distracted players”

But Dave Smyth, the 1992 winner, said: “Competition has been softened. There is great skill in downing a pie without spillage, crumb splatter or swallow-stall – talent developed over years. Chicken is less demanding and requires a different and less challenging technique" ...

“The introduction of chicken means lower-level weekend competitors will be mixing it with the elite. I predict not just a shock win but an unrepresentative win, possibly even by a southerner. The title must not go to Warrington or Stockport. This last-minute rule change is like swapping regulation footballs for plastic balls. Cristiano Ronaldo would not tolerate playing with plastic balls”


----------



## LezLee

A mischievous parrot was caught ordering strawberries, watermelons and ice-cream after 'falling in love' with Amazon's voice-activated device Alexa.

Rocco, a homeless African grey, keeps using the personal assistant to order his favourite treats, as well kites and light bulbs, and likes to set the mood by playing romantic music.

The clever bird was taken in by the National Animal Welfare Trust's Berkshire centre earlier this year after he was found as a stray. But staff member Marion Wischnewski agreed to become his foster parent after he caused a few issues in the Great Shefford office by swearing and throwing his water bowl around.

Ms Wischnewski said fun-loving Rocco enjoys dancing and putting on his favourite tunes. But thanks to a parental lock on her Amazon account, the attempted purchases have not gone through, The Times reported.

"I've come home before and he has romantic music playing," she said, "He loves to dance and has the sweetest personality"

African grey parrots are one of the most intelligent bird species.
They are capable of building vocabularies of up to 1,000 words or more.

One of the most famous African greys was Alex, who was the subject of a 30-year experiment by animal psychologist Dr Irene Pepperberg in America. By the time Alex died at the age of 31 in 2007, he could count, identify objects, shapes, colours, and materials, and understood the concepts of bigger, smaller, same and different.
Dr Pepperberg said the parrot had the intelligence level of a five-year-old human and the emotional level of a two-year-old by the time he died, and that he hadn't reached his full potential.

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat...


----------



## KenOC

"SAN ANTONIO DE CORTEZ, Guatemala (Reuters) - The 7-year-old Guatemalan migrant girl who died after being detained by U.S. border agents this month was inseparable from her father and had looked forward to being able to send money home to support her impoverished family, relatives said on Saturday..."

And her little dog. Let's talk about her little dog.


----------



## KenOC

More on the same story. The ACLU, an organization that I used to have a lot of respect for, has claimed that a young Guatemalan immigrant girl died in US custody as a result of ICE's "culture of cruelty." But read this short article from NBC.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/g...ing-border-hospital-officials-said/ar-BBR4gDF


----------



## KenOC

Popeyes is offering travelers at Philadelphia International Airport an "Emotional Support Chicken" disposable tote when they purchase a 3-piece chicken tender combo meal. The promotion provides guests with a carry-on box in the shape of a chicken and a sign boasting about its chicken's "comforting" effects for travelers.

PETA, however, wasn't amused by the move, and responded on Twitter. "#Popeyes is selling boxes of dead 'emotional support chickens' for the holidays, proving they're not above mocking mental illness AND animals who died gruesome deaths."

Hey, can't we all just get along? Guess not…


----------



## Luchesi

[video=youtube;oiNPYwtUYMo&feature=youtu.be&t=54]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiNPYwtUYMo&feature=youtu.be&t=54[/video][/QUOTE]


----------



## Luchesi




----------



## Luchesi

bad video sorry


----------



## joen_cph

Giving it all away. An interestingly modest billionaire:

"_The multimillionaire Chow joined the Forbes list of the highest-paid actors in the world for the first time in 2015, sharing 24th place with Russell Crowe. Yet in wealthy Hong Kong, he can be spotted taking public transport and lining up for tickets to watch his own movie_."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...r-star-chow-yun-fat-to-give-away-700m-fortune


----------



## LezLee




----------



## Dan Ante

LezLee said:


>


Thats spot on, couldn't be more explicit.


----------



## LezLee

Dan Ante said:


> Thats spot on, couldn't be more explicit.


Sorry, I've tried to post a picture 3 times but it just comes up blank.


----------



## Dan Ante

LezLee said:


> Sorry, I've tried to post a picture 3 times but it just comes up blank.


No need for apologies old chap I get into all sorts of trouble


----------



## SixFootScowl

LezLee said:


> Sorry, I've tried to post a picture 3 times but it just comes up blank.


Looks like a very long link. There are some tricks to posting pictures and sometimes if the link is taken too far from the source, a lot of URL baggage gets in the way, I think things such as search parameters or secondary URLs for a site that has the picture posted from somewhere else.


----------



## LezLee

Success!










The Angel of the North sculpture has an addition just in time for Christmas - a Father Christmas hat.
The red and white hat was noticed atop Gateshead's famous 65ft (20m) steel structure by motorists driving along the nearby A1 on Christmas Eve.
Several people on social media posted photographs and videos clips of the statue with its festive feature.
A group of pranksters later admitted responsibility, saying they had planned for the stunt for years.
No-one in the group wished to be named, but they told the Press Association they "wanted to do something people might find uniformly enjoyable, something that might bring people together".


----------



## joen_cph

LezLee said:


> Success!


I must say I never understood the hype around this apparent British "attraction" 

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

And it looks like it's an awkward thing from the 1920s, not from the 1990s, 
making it even more awkward ...

The Christmas feature is a nice idea, though.


----------



## LezLee

Most people love it! It's quite breathtaking in reality.

For overhyped pretentious crap, here in Falkirk we're stuck with the hideous Kelpies:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kelpies


----------



## KenOC

"Frenchman sets off to cross Atlantic in a barrel"

He's kind of hoping that the currents will take him to the right place. It's a pretty fancy barrel, though!

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46690647


----------



## LezLee

It’s as big as some London flats and less expensive. Perhaps he can help solve the housing crisis?


----------



## SixFootScowl

LezLee said:


> It's as big as some London flats and less expensive. Perhaps he can help solve the housing crisis?


If they orient it vertically they can stack them and use a ladder to access the upper "flats." :lol:


----------



## KenOC

From the BBC:









"Too bad about old Fred, but hey, wanna hear my frog talk?"


----------



## Guest

LezLee said:


> Most people love it! It's quite breathtaking in reality.
> 
> For overhyped pretentious crap, here in Falkirk we're stuck with the hideous Kelpies:
> 
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kelpies


I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks the Kelpies are too big and hideous. I wouldn't mind if they were a bit smaller, I don't think there is anything inside such a vast waste of space. I visited them and the Falkirk Wheel before I left .


----------



## KenOC

Several schools in China are now using "smart" student uniforms with embedded GPS chips and various sensors. Administrators can easily find any student playing hooky and even detect a student falling asleep in class. "In addition, if students try to swap uniforms in order to leave the campus, the system is designed to prevent that: Facial recognition scanners at school gates match the chips with the correct student."

https://www.foxnews.com/tech/chinese...rveil-students

This will nicely introduce the kiddies to China's "social credit" scoring system that rates citizens according to their behavior.

"Get a bad score, and the government will block you from certain activities like booking flights and riding trains. In the first five months of this year, the Chinese government had already used results of this scoring system to block more than 11 million people from booking flights and another 4.25 million from taking high-speed train trips. There are also punishments beyond those, which are believed to include little inconveniences like the government slowing down your internet speed, preventing booking at certain hotels and losing the right to own pets."

https://bgr.com/2018/12/28/chinese-school-uniforms-track-students-chips/

A glimpse of mankind's future more generally?


----------



## KenOC

BBC reports on a recent American tragedy.


----------



## KenOC

Our Aussie cousins are at it again. According to police, a passerby raised an alarm after hearing a screaming toddler and a man repeatedly shouting "Why don't you die?"

According to a police tweet, "Multiple police units responded lights and sirens to this incident this morning."

But after arriving at a home in suburban Perth, they found the man had merely been trying to kill a spider.

Police said there had been no injuries during the incident "except to the spider."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-46735263


----------



## KenOC

"Beijing (CNN) -- In an historic global first, China's space agency has successfully landed a rover on the far side of the moon, Chinese state media announced Thursday.

"The successful landing of the Chang'e 4 lunar probe is an important milestone in China's attempt to position itself as a leading space power."

Not bizarre, but indeed a first. Since the far side of the moon points permanently away from earth, a separate satellite orbiting a LaGrange point near the moon was earlier placed to assure communications. A great achievement. More to come.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/tech...-of-the-moon-state-media-announces/ar-BBRJR9o


----------



## KenOC

Washington Post: “Three days after most of the federal workforce was furloughed on Dec. 21, a 14-year-old girl fell 700 feet to her death at the Horseshoe Bend Overlook, part of the Glen Canyon Recreation Area in Arizona. The following day, Christmas, a man died at Yosemite National Park in California after suffering a head injury in a fall. On Dec. 27, a woman was killed by a falling tree at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which straddles the borders of North Carolina and Tennessee.

“The deaths follow a decision by Trump administration officials to leave the scenic — but sometimes deadly — parks open even as the Interior Department has halted most of its operations.”

How horrible! People can go to National Parks without minders! And would those minders have prevented any of these fatalities, which occur on average a six per week throughout the year? Tiresome and totally biased reporting.


----------



## TxllxT

KenOC said:


> Washington Post: "Three days after most of the federal workforce was furloughed on Dec. 21, a 14-year-old girl fell 700 feet to her death at the Horseshoe Bend Overlook, part of the Glen Canyon Recreation Area in Arizona. The following day, Christmas, a man died at Yosemite National Park in California after suffering a head injury in a fall. On Dec. 27, a woman was killed by a falling tree at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which straddles the borders of North Carolina and Tennessee.
> 
> "The deaths follow a decision by Trump administration officials to leave the scenic - but sometimes deadly - parks open even as the Interior Department has halted most of its operations."
> 
> How horrible! People can go to National Parks without minders! And would those minders have prevented any of these fatalities, which occur on average a six per week throughout the year? Tiresome and totally biased reporting.


Could any American explain to me what the expression 'to be on strike' means? To be on strike = to work unpaid for the federal government?


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> Washington Post: "Three days after *most *of the federal workforce was furloughed ...


According to this article, only (as opposed to "most") about 38 percent of federal employees are furloughed.


----------



## KenOC

AP reports: "NAACP links earthquake signs in Oregon to white supremacy"

Not the total clickbait it might seem. Read on to find out why.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/n...to-white-supremacy/ar-BBRQaqC?ocid=spartanntp


----------



## KenOC

TxllxT said:


> Could any American explain to me what the expression 'to be on strike' means? To be on strike = to work unpaid for the federal government?


In some cases, esp. the federal government, "strike" means "If you don't pay me, I will no longer pretend to work." :lol:


----------



## KenOC

The Wayback Machine dredges up post #36 from March 2016: "Remember Jason Dalton, that Uber driver in Kalamazoo who was shooting people all over the place and in between picking up fares? He says his Uber app was 'like artificial intelligence that can tap into your body...the iPhone could take you over.'

"He said he 'wishes he would never have spoken what that symbol was when he saw it on his phone.' It looked like a 'horned cow head or something like that and then it would give you an assignment and it would literally take over your whole body.' "

Today 's news: "An Uber driver who went on an hours-long shooting spree in a Michigan city -- killing six people and injuring two others between picking up customers -- pleaded guilty to the murders Monday." His sentence will be life in prison without possibility of parole. His attorney says he has never before had a client who accepted this without a fight.

Dalton, 49 years old, had no criminal record at all. No reason was given in court for his murders.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/uber-driver-who-killed-6-in-2016-shooting-spree-in-michigan-pleads-guilty


----------



## geralmar

Alabamans warned not to eat chicken fingers spilled on highway.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a...ighway-after-crash/ar-BBRX4Ml?ocid=spartanntp


----------



## KenOC

Remember the mysterious "sonic attacks" at the US Embassy in Cuba and in some nearby hotels? "Scientists studying recordings made by diplomats of the unusual high-pitched sounds, which reportedly triggered symptoms such as headaches, nausea and hearing loss for over two years, say the source is the common Caribbean cricket."

https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/a...s-suspect-crickets-sonic-attacks-us-diplomats


----------



## TxllxT

*Looking for a job?*

https://www.glamour.nl/nieuws/wil-je-weten/a25831177/vacature-efteling-machinist-stoomtrein/

If you have always dreamed about steam trains and being a steam engine driver, come to the Efteling (Dutch variant of a Disney park) pretend you know Dutch and get the job. Your kids will love you even more, because your family will get free access to all the attractions every day!


----------



## KenOC

"Joshua Tree National Park has been trashed in the shutdown. Now visitors are cutting down trees."

The usual crock reporting on this issue. In normal times, it's rare to see a park ranger outside of the visitor centers. Joshua Tree, after all, is the size of Delaware! People routinely indulge in vandalism, including cutting down the "iconic" trees.

But suddenly, because of the partial government shutdown, we read that visitors are running wild and ruining the park for all eternity. This in spite of the fact the only campground services are closed and rangers are still on duty. It seems that some reporters will do anything for a story.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/j...ow-visitors-are-cutting-down-trees/ar-BBS5jSo


----------



## KenOC

"Walmart bans woman who rode cart while drinking wine from Pringles can"

Best headline of the day. The story naturally generated some comments.


----------



## LezLee

Walkers are being told to stay away from footpaths on a north-east (Scotland) estate to avoid disturbing an aggressive capercaillie on the hunt for a mate.
The bird has been displaying "lekking" behaviour on trails on the Glen Tanar estate near Aboyne in Aberdeenshire.
There are fears the male could attack passers-by if they get too close.
The local ranger service, the Cairngorms National Park Authority, Scottish Natural Heritage and the police have agreed to the action.
They have pointed out that disturbing a lekking capercaillie is an offence.
Signs are now being put up in the area, as well as posts on social media, urging hikers and dog-walkers to steer clear.
A spokesman for the Glen Tanar Estate said: "We can understand peoples' desire to catch a glimpse of the rare capercaillie, but it is important that this protected species be left alone.
"Please help us to ensure the welfare of this bird and ensure that everyone follows all on-site signage and respects the restrictions in place."
Eric Baird, the head ranger with the Glen Tanar Charitable Trust, said it was not clear what had prompted the bird's behaviour.
He said: "It could be because the weather has been so mild. It could be because the food source is very good for him.
"It could also be because he is coming under increasing pressure from visitors and so he is reacting to that by trying to protect what he regards as his territory."


----------



## Dorsetmike

Is this a step too far?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-46876941


----------



## KenOC

"An alpaca walks into an optician's shop…"

Sorry, not a joke. A real news story from the BBC.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46933720


----------



## LezLee

I’ve just ordered a couple of soap dishes on ebay, described as follows:

100% Brand new and high quality!
After waterproof outer layer paint process plant, easy to clean, no deformation.
Unique design that allows Soap Soap keep dry, more conducive Handmade soap persisted.
Natural Bamboo material, there will be a natural Bamboo soap dish and there is a normal phenomenon tiny flaws you know!
Easy to clean, no deformation.


----------



## geralmar

Scientists have discovered how wombats produce cube shaped feces.

https://www.theguardian.com/science...s-unravel-secret-of-cube-shaped-wombat-faeces


----------



## SixFootScowl

Dog backs motorhome into lake.

"A professional fisherman got a big surprise as he tried to launch his boat at Lake Sam Rayburn to practice for a fishing tournament this past weekend. Eric Jackson, of Rock Island, TN, told 12News his two-year-old Dalmatian, Bodi, stepped on the gear shift switch, putting the 38-foot RV in reverse. Jackson says he was on the back bumper unloading his boat when the RV began backing into the lake."


----------



## Luchesi

Jeff Bezos as a victim 
"The photos (or videos) are proof positive they're just like us, the rich and famous. Look: an ill thought out photo of a gleaming erection to demonstrate beyond argument the world's most successful man operates, just like you, within the often ridiculous parameters of the human condition. Master of the universe, perhaps, but slave to his passions. Feel better now? It's no cakewalk, being a human male. Not appearing daft can be a full time job."

https://spectator.us/must-jeff-bezos-*****/


----------



## KenOC

Department of wretched excess:

"A Manhattan apartment has just been sold for $238m (£183m) - the most expensive home ever sold in the US. The property, in the luxury 220 Central Park South building, has four floors and - naturally - overlooks the famous New York park. The buyer is billionaire Ken Griffin, founder of the hedge fund Citadel.

"Mr Griffin, 50, also made headlines on Monday for buying another high-priced property - a $124m house near Buckingham Palace in London. He already holds records for buying the most expensive apartments in Miami, which he bought for $60m in 2015, and in Chicago, which he spent almost $59m on last year.

"The billionaire also owns three other luxury homes in Chicago, six in the Palm Beach area of Florida, and two homes in Hawaii."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46986362


----------



## KenOC

BBC: Spider bites Australian man on ***** again

Not the luckiest guy around…


----------



## LezLee




----------



## geralmar

Huawei, the Chinese company under fire in the U.S. for theft of trade secrets, has announced the completion of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony through the artificial intelligence of a smartphone:

https://slippedisc.com/2019/01/chinese-ai-completes-schuberts-unfinished-symphony/


----------



## LezLee

BBC Weatherâ€™s Simon King was talking to viewers about the UKâ€™s frosty forecast on Tuesday in front of a background which showed a road blanketed in snow in Strathaven. 

However, eagle-eyed viewers noticed the picture was sent in by a prankster called ...

â€œI C Rhodesâ€�

The windup was branded â€œgeniusâ€� by some on Social Media as someone posted on Twitter: â€œA photo of a snowy road has been sent in by â€˜I C Rhodesâ€™. I think the BBC have been had here í ½í¸‚" ...


----------



## KenOC

Tomorrow it’s Groundhog Day! In Pennsylvania, Punxsutawney Phil will be taken from his comfy home and asked to check the weather outside. If he sees his shadow, then we can expect six more weeks of frigid wintry weather. Otherwise, there’ll be an early spring.

Punxsutawney Phil is managed by the Groundhog Club, whose president says that there has been only the one P. Phil since the predictions started in 1886.* He ‘gets the privilege of hearing Phil’s prediction in “Groundhogese” and translating it for the public.’

Unfortunately P. Phil has a poor track record, being wrong quite a bit more than half the time. But locals are unfazed, blaming the poor Groundhogese of the club president. How do they know this? Simple. “Punxsutawney Phil is never wrong.”

*Quite a good performance by an animal with a typical lifetime of six years.


----------



## Luchesi

KenOC said:


> Tomorrow it's Groundhog Day! In Pennsylvania, Punxsutawney Phil will be taken from his comfy home and asked to check the weather outside. If he sees his shadow, then we can expect six more weeks of frigid wintry weather. Otherwise, there'll be an early spring.
> 
> Punxsutawney Phil is managed by the Groundhog Club, whose president says that there has been only the one P. Phil since the predictions started in 1886.* He 'gets the privilege of hearing Phil's prediction in "Groundhogese" and translating it for the public.'
> 
> Unfortunately P. Phil has a poor track record, being wrong quite a bit more than half the time. But locals are unfazed, blaming the poor Groundhogese of the club president. How do they know this? Simple. "Punxsutawney Phil is never wrong."
> 
> *Quite a good performance by an animal with a typical lifetime of six years.


39 percent accuracy. But it depends upon your definition of winter vs spring conditions.

We're seeing polar vortices reaching their most influential positions later in winter. The weakened north south gradient allows more of them to fall down into the northeast part of the US. Winters are slightly milder across most of the US but these are very cold shocks (and memorable).


----------



## Art Rock

_Link: Musicians in the Orchestre National de France were asked by their management if they agreed to have Charles Dutoit come in place of Emmanuel Krivine to conduct Berlioz next week.

Radio France reports that a vote was taken among 83 musicians. Sixty percent said they did not want Dutoit, who has been accused of sexual misdemeanours by eight women.

The management then said it had already invited Dutoit and it was too late to disinvite him. Quite a few players are furious._

One of my favourite Dilbert comics comes to life.

EDIT: I managed to find the Dilbert I referred to:

https://dilbert.com/strip/2007-07-18


----------



## Zofia

Art Rock said:


> _Link: Musicians in the Orchestre National de France were asked by their management if they agreed to have Charles Dutoit come in place of Emmanuel Krivine to conduct Berlioz next week.
> 
> Radio France reports that a vote was taken among 83 musicians. Sixty percent said they did not want Dutoit, who has been accused of sexual misdemeanours by eight women.
> 
> The management then said it had already invited Dutoit and it was too late to disinvite him. Quite a few players are furious._
> 
> One of my favourite Dilbert comics comes to life.


I can understand why but unless it is proven you cannot sanction someone in my thoughts. Innocent until found guilty no?


----------



## KenOC

"$190 million gone forever? Crypto boss dies with passwords needed to unlock customer accounts"

A cautionary tale for our modern age. Maybe stashing it under your mattress really _is _the best way!


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> "$190 million gone forever? Crypto boss dies with passwords needed to unlock customer accounts"
> 
> A cautionary tale for our modern age. Maybe stashing it under your mattress really _is _the best way!


Hoard Gold but best to have done it in the 1990s when it as around $350 an ounce! Wish I had.


----------



## LezLee

‘The British chip has been left an inch shorter by the 2018 heatwave, according to a report on the risks to UK fruit and vegetable growing from climate change.
The spell of baking summer weather was made 30 times more likely by global warming and left spuds substantially smaller than usual. Yields of carrots and onions were also sharply down.
The report, Recipe for Disaster, was produced by The Climate Coalition, which brings together 130 organisations including WWF, the National Trust, the Women’s Institute and Christian Aid, and represents more than 15 million UK members. The report calls for urgent reductions of carbon emissions and food waste by, for example, eating more wonky veg.’


----------



## geralmar

Hawaii considering banning cigarette sales to anyone under age 100.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/04/heal...cmp=newsletter-The+National+Today+(Feb.+5/19)


----------



## Luchesi

geralmar said:


> Hawaii considering banning cigarette sales to anyone under age 100.
> 
> https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/04/heal...cmp=newsletter-The+National+Today+(Feb.+5/19)


 If you survive early death because you're one of the few people in the population who will live long and healthy while continuing to smoke...Harvard researchers were among the first to provide convincing evidence that smokers were less likely to develop Parkinson's. In a study published in Neurology in March 2007, these researchers found the protective effect wanes after smokers quit.

A study by Korean researchers in the October 2010 issue of the journal Thrombosis Research builds upon work by Harvard researchers published in 2009 that demonstrates the benefit of smoking at least 10 cigarettes a day. It seems that something in cigarette smoke activates certain proteins called cytochromes, which convert clopidogrel into a more active state.

It could be that the nicotine in tobacco helps prevent cartilage and joint deterioration.

Nicotine itself acts as both a stimulant and appetite suppressant; and the act of smoking triggers behavior modification that prompts smokers to snack less. Smoking also might make food less tasty for some smokers, further curbing appetite. As an appetite suppressant, nicotine appears to act on a part of the brain called the hypothalamus, at least in mice, as revealed in a study by Yale researchers published in the June 10, 2011, issue of the journal Science.

Compared with non-smokers, smokers who have had heart attacks seem to have lower mortality rates and more favorable responses to two kinds of therapy to remove plaque from their arteries: fibrinolytic therapy, which is basically medication; and angioplasty, which removes the plaque by inserting balloons or stents into the arteries.


----------



## LezLee

The Official Monster Raving Loony Party Vote For Insanity

The A-Z of the OMRLP Manicfesto Just a sample of what you’d get by voting for insanity – you know it makes sense!

A.AIR bags will be fitted to the Stock Exchange immediately, ready for the next crash.

B. BRITAIN will exit Europe and join the Duchy of Cornwall to benefit from tax exemptions.

C. CAPITAL Punishment will be opposed on the grounds that it is unfair to Londoners.

D. DATA will be secured, placed in a brown bag and hidden in the PM’s socks and pants drawer.

E. Education. All University Tuition fees for women would be free as we are strong believers in Female intuition. (Due to gender equality laws we would include males as well)

F. FRIVOLOUS Fraud Office setup to inspect fraud too silly for the Serious Fraud Office.
G. GREYHOUND racing will be banned to prevent the country going to the dogs.

H. HALF the grey squirrels will be painted red to increase the red squirrel population.

I. INNOCENT prisoners will be released in order to reduce prison overcrowding.

J. JOBSEEKERS will be made to stand two abreast in order to halve dole queues.

K. KIDS will be made to sit closer together on smaller desks in to reduce school class sizes.

L. LONDON Marathon free to anyone finishing in sub-2 hours wearing large clown’s shoes.

M. MEGA carwash will be created by punching holes in the roof of the Channel Tunnel.

N. NATIONAL debt will be cleared by putting it all on our credit card.

O. OAPS will qualify for a Summer Ice Lolly Allowance if temperatures exceed 70 degrees.

P. PUDDLES deeper than 3 inches will be marked by a yellow plastic duck.

Q. QUITTERS will be encouraged not to start in the first place to improve their self esteem.

R. REGULATIONS concerning car boot sales will be relaxed to permit selling of all car parts.

S.STAMP duty will be cancelled as stamps are expensive enough without having to pay duty.

T.TERRORISTS will be made to wear Bells and Horns so we know where they are.

U.UNRULY teenagers will be superglued together as if you can’t beat them, join them.

V. VEHICLES will be fitted with bungy ropes in order to save fuel on the return journey.

W. WIND farms will be created nationwide, where breaking wind will be encouraged.

X. X-RAY machines will be manned by a skeleton staff.

Y. YELLOW lines will be painted where you can park instead of where you can’t to save money.

Z. ZEBRA crossings will be made permissible to all animals wishing to cross the road.

———————————————————————————————————————————————-
For non-Brits: The Official Monster Raving Loony Party is a properly registered political party.


----------



## LezLee

‘The British chip has been left an inch shorter by the 2018 heatwave, according to a report on the risks to UK fruit and vegetable growing from climate change.
The spell of baking summer weather was made 30 times more likely by global warming and left spuds substantially smaller than usual. Yields of carrots and onions were also sharply down.
The report, Recipe for Disaster, was produced by The Climate Coalition, which brings together 130 organisations including WWF, the National Trust, the Women’s Institute and Christian Aid, and represents more than 15 million UK members. The report calls for urgent reductions of carbon emissions and food waste by, for example, eating more wonky veg.’


----------



## eugeneonagain

LezLee said:


> 'The British chip has been left an inch shorter by the 2018 heatwave, according to a report on the risks to UK fruit and vegetable growing from climate change.
> The spell of baking summer weather was made 30 times more likely by global warming and left spuds substantially smaller than usual. Yields of carrots and onions were also sharply down.
> The report, Recipe for Disaster, was produced by The Climate Coalition, which brings together 130 organisations including WWF, the National Trust, the Women's Institute and Christian Aid, and represents more than 15 million UK members. The report calls for urgent reductions of carbon emissions and food waste by, for example, eating more wonky veg.'


In terms of greater risks from climate change I'd say this is really just small potatoes.


----------



## geralmar

More stupid Americans:

https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/e...?cmp=newsletter-The+National+Today+(Feb.7/19)


----------



## Dorsetmike

I sometimes wonder.............................

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-47154287


----------



## SixFootScowl

Dorsetmike said:


> I sometimes wonder.............................
> 
> https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-47154287


That is insane!


----------



## KenOC

A blind date gone terribly, terribly wrong.


----------



## KenOC

_Theresa May scrapes mold off jam to prevent food waste: report_

"The Daily Mail says she told top MPs gathered in Downing Street on Tuesday that she scrapes the mold off to tuck into the lower layers. A Whitehall source is quoted as saying the prime minister described what's left as 'perfectly edible' and encouraged shoppers to use 'common sense' when it comes to binning out-of-date food."

My kind of girl!


----------



## KenOC

"Speaking at the London-based Royal United Services Institute think tank, British defense secretary Gavin Williamson said Britain will fund the development of 'swarm squadrons of network enabled drones capable of confusing and overwhelming enemy air defenses,' noting that such vehicles would complement the British fleet of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters."

Drone swarms look like they're coming quickly. Some people are a bit concerned about how this will work out. See, for instance, this video:


----------



## LezLee

KenOC said:


> _Theresa May scrapes mold off jam to prevent food waste: report_
> 
> "The Daily Mail says she told top MPs gathered in Downing Street on Tuesday that she scrapes the mold off to tuck into the lower layers. A Whitehall source is quoted as saying the prime minister described what's left as 'perfectly edible' and encouraged shoppers to use 'common sense' when it comes to binning out-of-date food."
> 
> My kind of girl!


We old folk have been doing this since the war! Indeed some of the jars date from wartime


----------



## LezLee

My friend has just received this magnificent bit of spam:

URGENT REPLY! - UNPAID FUND!

INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND (I.M.F) 
IMF WEST AFRICAN REGIONAL OFFICE,
5TH, FLOOR, IMF BUILDING, PLOT 447/448 CONSTRUCTION AVENUE, CENTRAL 
BUSINESS DISTRICT, AVAKPA, BENIN REPUBLIC
OUR REF: W****B/NF/IMF/WA-***27/N**

Dear Customer,

Have you received your fund? NO! - you have suffered for nothing without receiving your fund due to over greediness. You would have received your fund since last year but your problem is over greediness that cost you a lot of money and still yet, you never have recieved $1 into your account.

Your total money US$5,700 000.00 has been lodged with UBA bank department, this is a secret information!, and I’m expecting your urgent response now before I can give you many more details and some contact information of the bank.

Listen very carefully, this information is a secret and I want you to keep it as a secret between you and me. If you have received your money US$5,700 000.00, you must let me know but if you did not receive it till today. Contact me through this my private e-mail[email protected])

NOTE: I created a different e-mail to contact you because this piece of information I revealed to you is our secret about your UNPAID FUND. Wherefore, you should keep it a secret!

I await your urgent reply.
Thanks!

Rev. James Michael
Senior Supervisor: Fund Discovary Managment And Payment Bureau West African Regional Office, 
International Monetary Fund, Federal Republic of Benin,
Direct Line: +229-9949 8677


----------



## Guest

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... sheep.html

https://www.namibian.com.na/184779/arch ... ious-beast

Bad links-sorry.


----------



## LezLee

Naked man saved after fire started in 'Brothel' ...

"A man wearing his birthday suit had to be rescued from a roof after a fire broke out in a suspected brothel. Firefighters got something of an eyeful when they went to help the man who was clinging to his final scraps of dignity after climbing through the window to escape the blaze in Northenden, Greater Manchester. He had been in adult 'health club' Ladybirds above the Simply Delicious takeaway.

Ladybirds is described as a 'bijoux parlour' with a 'welcoming and discreet atmosphere'. It's website states: 'We are the height of class and sophistication, our elite 5* ladies have been hand picked to provide quality over quantity, consistently providing a seductive and sensual massage whilst delivering pure indulgence every time.' Naturally his appearance caused something of a stir locally with people taking pictures and videos.

A fire service spokesman said: 'We were called out at 3.09pm on Tuesday and sent a fire engine from Withington. We helped a man down from a shop signage using a nine metre ladder.' A police spokesman said: 'Police were called shortly after 3pm on Tuesday 19 February 2019 to a report of concern for the welfare of a man on Palatine Road, Northenden.' He was taken to hospital and firefighters confirmed Ladybirds has already reopened for business"

https://metro.co.uk/2019/02/21/nake...imply-delicious-takeaway-8692408/?ito=cbshare


----------



## SixFootScowl

LezLee said:


> Naked man saved after fire started in 'Brothel' ...
> 
> "A man wearing his birthday suit had to be rescued from a roof after a fire broke out in a suspected brothel. Firefighters got something of an eyeful when they went to help the man who was clinging to his final scraps of dignity after climbing through the window to escape the blaze in Northenden, Greater Manchester. He had been in adult 'health club' Ladybirds above the Simply Delicious takeaway.
> 
> Ladybirds is described as a 'bijoux parlour' with a 'welcoming and discreet atmosphere'. It's website states: 'We are the height of class and sophistication, our elite 5* ladies have been hand picked to provide quality over quantity, consistently providing a seductive and sensual massage whilst delivering pure indulgence every time.' Naturally his appearance caused something of a stir locally with people taking pictures and videos.
> 
> A fire service spokesman said: 'We were called out at 3.09pm on Tuesday and sent a fire engine from Withington. We helped a man down from a shop signage using a nine metre ladder.' A police spokesman said: 'Police were called shortly after 3pm on Tuesday 19 February 2019 to a report of concern for the welfare of a man on Palatine Road, Northenden.' He was taken to hospital and firefighters confirmed Ladybirds has already reopened for business"
> 
> https://metro.co.uk/2019/02/21/nake...imply-delicious-takeaway-8692408/?ito=cbshare


Just goes to show ya. Never do anything you would not want your own mother to see.


----------



## LezLee

Feel sorry for the fireman giving him a hand. Must have been hard looking each other in the eye (or anywhere else) afterwards. 

And the ladies being ‘hand-picked’? Oh dear.


----------



## geralmar

Firefighters free fat rat stuck in manhole cover.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/examv...ed-by-team-of-german-firefighters-907345.html

Slow news day?


----------



## KenOC

Tennessee man accused of dipping testicles in customer's salsa

No, even I wouldn't stoop so low as to post a link to this story. Oops. Looks like I just did...


----------



## LezLee

KenOC said:


> Tennessee man accused of dipping testicles in customer's salsa
> 
> No, even I wouldn't stoop so low as to post a link to this story. Oops. Looks like I just did...


Are you very tall, Ken?


----------



## LezLee

It doesn’t say if they were stiil attached?


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> Tennessee man accused of dipping testicles in customer's salsa
> 
> No, even I wouldn't stoop so low as to post a link to this story. Oops. Looks like I just did...


Too bad it wasn't ghost pepper concentrate!


----------



## LezLee

*The Wild Haggis*

The Wild Haggis (Haggis scoticus) is a creature native to the Scottish Highlands. It it is the True source of Haggis, a Scottish Treat said to be made from the organs of sheep. It is a furry relative of sheep, which gave birth to the Myth that Haggis is made from sheep's organs.
The Wild Haggis's right and left legs are of different lengths, allowing it to run quickly around the steep mountains and hillsides which make up its natural habitat, but only in one direction. Owing to a process of natural selection, there are therefore two varieties of Wild Haggis, one with longer left legs and the other with longer right legs. The former variety can run clockwise around a mountain while the latter can run anticlockwise. The two varieties coexist peacefully but are unable to interbreed in the wild because, in order for the male of one variety to mate with a female of the other, he must turn to face in the same direction as his intended mate, causing him to lose his balance before he can mount her. As a result, differences in leg length between the Haggis populations have become further accentuated with the passage of time.

*Hunting Wild Haggis*

First, be sure to identify whether the creature you are stalking is a clockwise or anti-clockwise variety. Dig a large hole in which to hide and then, as it approaches, leap up and yell, "BOOOO!!" in its face as loudly as your lungs permit (It will be noted that facing in the wrong direction at this point would be rather ineffectual, hence the importance of pre-determining the rotational preference of the intended prey). Correct application will cause the animal to take fright, recoil and turn to attempt to run in the opposite direction, the consequences of which will be immediately apparent. While it is still stunned from rolling downhill, simply pick it up (assuming that you have managed to keep pace with its rate of descent and reach it before it has recovered), whack it over the head with your walking stick and pop it into your backpack.


----------



## Guest

I'd rather go to the butchers and buy a Macsween Haggis. :lol:


----------



## KenOC

(RANT) It's really irritating to see so much sloppy and dishonest reporting about climate change. People notice this stuff and it makes them dismiss the entire AGW issue as fake news, which isn't a good thing.

From the WaPo: Ruined crops, salty soil: How rising seas are poisoning North Carolina's farmlands

If you read the article, it seems unlikely that "rising seas" (or global warming, which is identified as the ultimate culprit) are involved at all, at least to this point. Actual ocean rise in that area is estimated at just 4.4 mm a year, and no estimates are given of how much rise has already taken place. It seems far more likely that farmer Pugh's woes result from the inundation of his fields, for days at a time, by saltwater storm surges from hurricanes Matthew (2016) and Florence (2018). And it's noted that the oceanside land in his area has been sinking for many years.

His problem may also be partly due to underground saltwater intrusion. The article claims that nothing can be done about this. That's quite wrong of course. Saltwater intrusion often results from pumping fresh water for crops and other uses; as the fresh water is pulled out, saltwater flows in to replace it. This is dealt with by "barrier wells," which inject freshwater under pressure into the affected strata, preventing the advance of saltwater. Two strings of such wells operate in my area of coastal California.

In summary a BS article that reads like political propaganda masquerading as science. Why do they do this when they should know better and certainly could do better? Combine this sort of thing with the right's extreme politicization of science, and it drives me to despair. (/RANT)


----------



## elgar's ghost

LezLee said:


> Naked man saved after fire started in 'Brothel' ...
> 
> "A man wearing his birthday suit had to be rescued from a roof after a fire broke out in a suspected brothel. Firefighters got something of an eyeful when they went to help the man who was clinging to his final scraps of dignity after climbing through the window to escape the blaze in Northenden, Greater Manchester. He had been in adult 'health club' Ladybirds above the Simply Delicious takeaway.
> 
> 'We are the height of class and sophistication, our elite 5* ladies have been hand picked to provide quality over quantity, consistently providing a seductive and sensual massage whilst delivering pure indulgence every time.'


Blurb like this always makes me snicker. Another example is something that goes like _'an evening of sophisticated entertainment tailored to meet the expectations of the discerning gentleman'_ - in other words, it's stripper night.


----------



## LezLee

In the ‘50s, the Pavilion theatre in Liverpool, as well as having great Sunday jazz concerts (Chris Barber, Humphrey Lyttleton, Ken Colyer) also had imaginatively titled strip nights. I thought ‘Tease and Hot Snacks’ was quite clever :lol:


----------



## KenOC

You NRA people out there, careful with those handguns!

"Police said the bullet entered Jones slightly above his ***** and exited his scrotum. Jones did not have an Indiana Handgun License, police said. It wasn't immediately clear why Jones was standing near a Girl Scout cabin when the mishap occurred."

Added: Hard to believe the word "*****" is censored on this forum while if you simply write "dick" that's quite OK!


----------



## LezLee

You might need a chocolate Allen key...


----------



## KenOC

"Billionaire diamond trader dies during p**** enhancement procedure, reports say"

A short man, said to have a "Napoleon complex."

"According to Laniado's friends, the only time he forgot about his short height was when he asked his accountant to read out his bank statement, something which he did multiple times a day, it was reported."

Well, yeah, I do that too. But it takes less than a second for my reading!


----------



## Dorsetmike

Who in their right mind would pay $11M for a car?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47469562


----------



## BobBrines

If you have to ask the price....


----------



## Art Rock

A hipster complained to a magazine that said all hipsters looked the same and the final twist is just perfect....


----------



## KenOC

"Man told he's going to die by doctor on video-link robot"

Actually this is my own HMO. I can see it now: "Please respond to the following survey to let us know how well we have served you."


----------



## joen_cph

"_Awaiting their predicament at a police station, these are balloons seized by police as "unmanned aircraft" at the protest rally against internet censorship in Moscow today. Detained activists underneath. Photo by Mikhail Biryukov._"


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1104832443708788737

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1104751095593746432


----------



## LezLee

Seems to be lost in translation - how do you await a predicament? Anyway they should be prosecuted for polluting the environment.


----------



## joen_cph

LezLee said:


> Seems to be lost in translation - how do you await a predicament? Anyway they should be prosecuted for polluting the environment.


There's no doubt the authorities would love that idea


----------



## KenOC

"US seeks to allay fears over killer robots"

A bevy of new automated weapons are being developed, including guns that choose targets by themselves as well as other systems that "acquire, identify, and engage targets at least three times faster than the current manual process."

But don't worry, says the US Army. There will always be a human finger on the trigger - somewhere. Sounds like Tesla "requiring" hands on the steering wheel even though its customers are actually sleeping in their drivers' seats on the way home from those late nights…

Anyway, why get uptight? What could possibly go wrong?


----------



## joen_cph

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1104730703638523905


----------



## SixFootScowl

Funny I never heard of this one before. I do remember he banged his head getting onto an airplane.


----------



## StrangeHocusPocus

wow.........................


----------



## LezLee

A fox has died in extraordinary circumstances after losing the ultimate game of chicken during a night-time raid on a henhouse.
Students at Gros-Chene secondary school in Brittany were shocked to discover the dead body of the fox riddled with peck marks during their morning rounds last week.
The school maintains their brood of free-range chickens ganged up on the animal, attacking it in large numbers and overcoming it.

“There, in the corner, we found this dead fox,” Pascal Daniel, head of farming at the school, told news agency AFP. “There was a herd instinct and they attacked him with their beaks.”
The animal was reportedly surrounded, then killed in a corner of the building home to 3,000 chickens.

“It was a juvenile of five or six months, about 60cm long. He did not seem sick and in any case, he did not have scabies,” Mr Daniel said.
He suggested in recent months the hens had “learned” how to deal with such a scenario.
He said: “The hens can arrive en masse and the fox, surprised, could panic in front of the number.
“The hens have been there since July, so for more than seven months, and have probably learned to defend themselves.”
Apparently no chickens were found to have been injured during the incident.
It is thought the fox entered at dusk and then become trapped inside by light-controlled automatic doors that close when the sun goes down.
Regional paper France Oest quoted a wildlife expert from Brittany who said they were “surprised” by the turn of events.
They said: “There may be a group effect, but also other reasons – the fox was young so inexperienced. It could already be weakened, even injured, and we know that chickens will confront a weak animal with no vigour.”


----------



## Luchesi

LezLee said:


> A fox has died in extraordinary circumstances after losing the ultimate game of chicken during a night-time raid on a henhouse.
> Students at Gros-Chene secondary school in Brittany were shocked to discover the dead body of the fox riddled with peck marks during their morning rounds last week.
> The school maintains their brood of free-range chickens ganged up on the animal, attacking it in large numbers and overcoming it.
> 
> "There, in the corner, we found this dead fox," Pascal Daniel, head of farming at the school, told news agency AFP. "There was a herd instinct and they attacked him with their beaks."
> The animal was reportedly surrounded, then killed in a corner of the building home to 3,000 chickens.
> 
> "It was a juvenile of five or six months, about 60cm long. He did not seem sick and in any case, he did not have scabies," Mr Daniel said.
> He suggested in recent months the hens had "learned" how to deal with such a scenario.
> He said: "The hens can arrive en masse and the fox, surprised, could panic in front of the number.
> "The hens have been there since July, so for more than seven months, and have probably learned to defend themselves."
> Apparently no chickens were found to have been injured during the incident.
> It is thought the fox entered at dusk and then become trapped inside by light-controlled automatic doors that close when the sun goes down.
> Regional paper France Oest quoted a wildlife expert from Brittany who said they were "surprised" by the turn of events.
> They said: "There may be a group effect, but also other reasons - the fox was young so inexperienced. It could already be weakened, even injured, and we know that chickens will confront a weak animal with no vigour."


A long time ago birds used to eat horses, ..when birds were large predators and horses were small.


----------



## SixFootScowl

Australian woman bitten by snake in toilet

An Australian woman "jumped off her seat" after being bitten by a snake on the toilet, a reptile handler says.

Helen Richards, 59, received the non-venomous strike in the dark at a relative's house in Brisbane on Tuesday.

She received minor puncture wounds from the 1.5m (5ft) carpet python.

Handler Jasmine Zeleny, who retrieved the reptile, said it was common to find snakes seeking water in toilets during hot weather.

"Unfortunately, the snake's preferred exit point was blocked after being spooked by Helen sitting down, and it lashed out in fear," Ms Zeleny told the BBC.


----------



## KenOC

Driverless cars will lead to more sex in cars, study finds

More than now? Amazing. But the article does have some other interesting ideas along this line.


----------



## Zofia

KenOC said:


> Driverless cars will lead to more sex in cars, study finds
> 
> More than now? Amazing. But the article does have some other interesting ideas along this line.


From American drama I think most relations may happen in cars while they are parked. I think maybe if the car drives itself you could start en route.

Never understand the naughty behaviour in cars can't be very comfortable. Maybe in the Rolls Royce I could see there being room for such debauchery.


----------



## StrangeHocusPocus

Zofia said:


> From American drama I think most relations may happen in cars while they are parked. I think maybe if the car drives itself you could start en route.
> 
> Never understand the naughty behaviour in cars can't be very comfortable. Maybe in the Rolls Royce I could see there being room for such debauchery.


is that why limos are stretched..................?


----------



## geralmar

Man killed while mooning cars:

https://www.smh.com.au/world/man-wh...fortune-nz-coroner-finds-20150826-gj84b8.html

I think this won a Darwin Award.

While on the subject, I don't understand the attraction of mooning Amtrak trains.


----------



## LezLee

.................


----------



## LezLee

French marathon where runners eat cheese, steak and oysters and sip on glasses of the region's finest wines opens registration for a 35th year

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/worl...UVK0u?li=BBoPWjQ&ocid=ientp#image=BBUVK0u_1|1


----------



## LezLee




----------



## Tikoo Tuba

I awoke in the early , early morning to see a circle of light like the moon on the floor near my bed . As if from above , and I wondered at this . So I looked to the only window at the north . The light was modestly bright . Then returning my gaze to the circle it had gone . Looking again to the window the lightness had dimmed . I asked what this meant if anything . Mysterious the reply to my mind : _spirit seeks action _.


----------



## geralmar

Melting glaciers exposing dead bodies on Mt. Everest.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-en...p=newsletter-The+National+Today+(March+21/19)

(No offensive photos.)


----------



## Gordontrek

There's a new thing going on in the U.S. called the *Florida Man Challenge*. You go to Google, type in "Florida man" followed by your birthday, and post the first relevant news result that was posted on that date sometime in the past. If your birthday is August 24, for example, you type in "florida man august 24" and the first relevant result is:
"Florida man threatens co-worker with box cutter in argument about Christian music"- Aug. 24, 2018
Some others:
February 28- "Police: Florida man ends standoff for slice of pizza"
December 19- "Florida man dupes Texas school district into sending him $2M"
July 29- "Florida man makes beer run with gator in hand"

In the past 24 hours or so this has gone viral. Apparently so much garbage goes on in Florida that for nearly every day of the year there is a police blotter article from some year in the recent past where a man in Florida did something really stupid. 
So, what did Florida Man do on your birthday?


----------



## KenOC

“Naked Florida man revealed on video sneaking into restaurant and munching on ramen."

Hey, this is OK!


----------



## KenOC

From Yahoo news: Bannon: With Mueller probe over, Trump 'is going to go full animal'

Now _that _I really want to see!


----------



## joen_cph

Busy day in the UK House of Commons.

They have to debate and choose between quite a lot of different Brexit subjects


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1110829533316505600








Edit: Bercow limited the voting programme to only 8 of them ...:


----------



## KenOC

Bizarre indeed. The 2020 election is shaping up to be the most interesting since 1948, when left-winger Henry Wallace challenged Harry Truman for the Democratic nomination for President. Truman had fired Wallace from his cabinet two years earlier for his outspoken politics, and Wallace himself apologized for his pro-Soviet positions in a book he published in 1952.
---------------------------
A conference featuring eight prominent 2020 Democrat presidential hopefuls kicked off in Washington, D.C,. with the fiery rallying cry of a fugitive cop-killer on Monday, as the labor and political groups in attendance shouted in unison, "We have nothing to lose but our chains."

Jamal Watkins, the Vice President of Civic Engagement at the NAACP, began by telling the audience at the We the People conference that he would invoke the words of Assata Shakur, also known as Joanne Chesimard.

Shakur was convicted of the 1973 murder of a New Jersey state trooper when she was in the Black Liberation Army. After escaping from prison in 1979, Shakur fled to Cuba, which granted her asylum even as she remains on the FBI's list of most-wanted fugitive terrorists.

"Now I came here not to talk at you -- it's gonna be a long and powerful day," Watkins said. "But I want you to do something with me. I'm gonna actually have you participate with me in repeating some words from a leader by the name of Assata Shakur. So if you could stand up -- if you can't stand, it's okay -- but I want you to repeat after me."

Watkins then quoted Shakur, pausing to let attendees repeat after him: “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”


----------



## TxllxT

Sometimes it can be useful to know a few words in Ivrit. 'Alah' in Ivrit means: Mouse. 'Ahbar' in Ivrit means: is broke. In Israel it often happens that someone calls an IT-person on the phone and shouts: "Allah Akhbar!" (as in Arabic), to which the IT-person coolly will respond:"Did you check the battery?" "Otherwise, change the mouse!"


----------



## LezLee

From the Edinburgh Fringe site (Part of the Edinburgh Festival)

April 1st 2019

Fringe to launch new dogs' section of the programme

Due to popular demand and following intense consultation with members of the pet-owning cultural community, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society is pleased to announce a new section for the 2019 Fringe Programme – dog shows.

The new category will showcase dog-centric performances across all genres, from theatre and comedy through to live music and dance. Not only will the shows be about dogs – they will also be performed by dogs, to largely canine audiences (owners are welcome too).

The Society has been increasingly aware of mounting interest in the programme from arts-loving pets, and have responded by making sure the new section is as comprehensive as possible – ensuring it’s printed in black and white to better suit dogs’ vision, and liaising with Fringe venues to install dog flaps and water bowls.

‘We are passionate about making sure the Fringe is available to all who want to attend,’ said the Society’s Chief Executive Shona McCarthy.

‘We’ve put a lot of thought and care into how this new programme category will be implemented, and we think the results will set a lot of tails wagging.’

As well as a whole new programme category, other developments include: workshops and talent labs for performers, hosted as part of our Fringe Pawticipants’ strand in the Fringe Central Events Programme; the option to subscribe to daily and weekly email pupdates: and an exclusive Boxer Office with a range of ticket options from free to ‘Shar-Pei what you want'.

Confirmed shows for 2019 in the Fringe Beagletent

50 Shades of Greyhound
Abracalabrador
Waiting for Dogot
Aisling Beagle
Miles Pupp
Much Adog About Nothing
Pugsy Malone
Shih Tzu Perkins
Spaniel Kitson
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woof
Early feedback from performers has been robust. ‘For years we’ve been overlooked in favour of more traditional human performers,’ said Jack Russell Howard, canine comedian and spokesdog for the organisation Better Arts Representation for K-9s (BARK). ‘And don’t get me started on the programme’s traditional categories.

‘I’m happy that the Fringe is finally throwing us a bone,’ he added. ‘It feels like we’re achieving some overdue sense of recognition, of validation for all our hard work – now, when someone asks, “Who’s a good boy then?”, I can simply refer them to my star rating.’


----------



## geralmar

Two Arkansas men arrested for taking turns shooting each other:

https://www.newsweek.com/charles-eu...icks-rogers-arkansas-bulletproof-vest-1384395

Sometimes I'm embarrassed for my country.


----------



## KenOC

geralmar said:


> Two Arkansas men arrested for taking turns shooting each other:
> 
> https://www.newsweek.com/charles-eu...icks-rogers-arkansas-bulletproof-vest-1384395
> 
> Sometimes I'm embarrassed for my country.


Shucks, just a couple of good ol' boys havin' some fun. Where's the harm???


----------



## KenOC

Marketwatch headline “Boeing CEO Muilenburg: Sorry for the lives lost in recent 737 Max crashes.”

Imagined story: “But in recompense for their loss, Boeing is offering 10,000 free bonus miles on the airline of their choice to each member of the victims’ immediate families.”


----------



## SixFootScowl

Trump was blamed for the last hurricane. Now walruses falling to their death is blamed on climate change.

In the autumn of 2017, about 250 walruses in Russia, having climbed up to rocky slopes overlooking a beach, just walked over the edge.


----------



## Luchesi

Fritz Kobus said:


> Trump was blamed for the last hurricane. Now walruses falling to their death is blamed on climate change.
> 
> In the autumn of 2017, about 250 walruses in Russia, having climbed up to rocky slopes overlooking a beach, just walked over the edge.


Quakenbush and others also doubt that the climbs and falls are related to climate change, because such tragedies have been reported since before sea ice showed substantial declines. Walruses have shown similar behavior on the U.S. coastline when space and ice were not an issue, and the reason is unknown. They have so much faith that they'll go directly to walrus heaven. Humans have so little faith, comparatively.


----------



## LezLee

Boris Giltburg “Never play Ravel to bats”

Bats like to live in theatres, particularly in old Italian-style ones that provide them with comfortable rafters above the stage, and plenty of flying space in the darkness above. I discovered this fact during a rehearsal in one such theatre, when loud, neurotic squeaks erupted above me as I started playing. “Ah, the bats!” the promoters said with smiles, in reply to my slightly concerned questions. “They’ve lived here since always. Don’t worry – you can’t hear them from the hall. The sound only carries down to the stage.” This was at least somewhat reassuring and, during rehearsals, I grew accustomed to the occasional squeak.

That night during the concert, though, it turned out that having had the theatre as their residence for ages, the bats had become very cultured – and also very opinionated. They liked the Rachmaninov preludes well enough and listened politely. The darkening mood of Prokofiev’s 8th sonata, however, put them into a state of nervous agitation. They clearly didn’t like my take on it and I heard them fluttering above me, conversing in worried squeaks.

First came one, then many brown-black signs of the animals' displeasure
Then came Ravel’s La Valse, darker still. That turned out to be too much. At first there was ominous silence from above but then in the coda, as the demise of the Old World inescapably approached in rising waves, first one and then many black-brown signs of the bats’ displeasure rained down on to the stage.

“Do you mind,” I’m sometimes asked, “if there’s noise from the audience?” I don’t, but I never knew until that evening how very much I did mind when dark stuff fell from above on my hands and the very brightly lit keyboard. The first made me jump – literally — and I pulled my hands off the keys for a split second. I then managed to go on, all the while noticing in growing discomfort and disbelief the continued delivery of the bats’ verdict on my performance. I think that was the bat equivalent of zero stars.

After the concert, I was livid with indignation and shock. I expected the same sort of reaction from the promoters, but they took a much more pragmatic and good-natured view of the situation. Bats lived in theatres, they said, and that was that. Apparently they saw the discharge from their vantage point in the hall and thought it quite funny.

They also told me of a previous attempt to curtail the bats’ activity (and population) with the help of an owl – but the owl proved to be just as, well, opinionated as the bats. It had nothing against Ravel, but seemed to show a particular dislike of the cello, which it let be known in no uncertain terms. After two cellos and their adjoining players had to be wiped clean, the owl was dismissed, and the bats had free rein to continue their musical education.

I go back to that theatre almost every year. The audience is wonderfully enthusiastic, the acoustics clear and carrying, and the promoters’ hospitality among the warmest I’ve ever experienced. But I still haven’t been able to win over the bats. During my last visit, they pooh-poohed the 2nd movement of Beethoven’s Emperor concerto. “You might be getting it wrong,” a friend said. “Or maybe it’s their seal of approval.” “Apooval,” I answered grimly.


----------



## SixFootScowl

........................................


----------



## KenOC

In Florida (why is it always Florida?) a man was killed by his pet bird. Yes, it was a *rather large bird*.


----------



## KenOC

"A decision to affix an American flag graphic to the side of freshly painted Laguna Beach police cars is dividing residents, who are alternately praising the image as patriotic or panning it as too aggressive."

Sign of the times. The American flag is considered "*too aggressive*" by an element of the country's own population.


----------



## geralmar

Florida man arrested for "eating spaghetti belligerently".

https://fox61.com/2019/04/12/florid...d2a2&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter


----------



## joen_cph

geralmar said:


> Florida man arrested for "eating spaghetti belligerently".
> 
> https://fox61.com/2019/04/12/florid...d2a2&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter


News story admission blocked in my country. Another source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ive-Garden-shoving-spaghetti-mouth-hands.html


----------



## Larkenfield

The Catacombs of Paris. “During 2004, police discovered a fully equipped movie theater in one of the caverns. It was equipped with a giant cinema screen, seats for the audience, projection equipment, film reels of recent thrillers and film noir classics, a fully stocked bar, and a complete restaurant with tables and chairs. The source of its electrical power and the identity of those responsible remain unknown.”


----------



## geralmar

Naked Florida man wanted for burglary and stealing pack of hot dogs

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/naked-florida-burglar-little-league_n_5cb8a112e4b09dc528cf3978


----------



## KenOC

Florida yet again! In today's news, from Doral FL, some irony.


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> Florida yet again! In today's news, from Doral FL, some irony.


Just goes to show, if you flunk out of scohol you get to paint stuff onto roadways for a living.


----------



## joen_cph

KenOC said:


> Florida yet again! In today's news, from Doral FL, some irony.


Obviously, they need their school.


----------



## SixFootScowl

joen_cph said:


> Obviously, they need their school.


Maybe painting the word SCHOOL on the road should be supervised by the 4th grade students.


----------



## DaveM

joen_cph said:


> Obviously, they need their school.


Here's what happened. One worker, noticing that the worker laying down the letters has placed an 'O' (apparently thinking that the spelling is SCOOL) cries out, 'There's supposed to be an 'H'!


----------



## Luchesi

You Have 330 Unread Posts


----------



## DaveM

Trump tweets 138 million killed in Sri Lanka, a country of about 22 million!


----------



## DaveM

A U.S. Federal court has ruled that a parking cop putting chalk on tires -an age-old parking control practice- is an unreasonable search under the 4th Amendment. This is not over; it will be appealed to the next highest court.


----------



## Jacck

Grapes grow faster when they listen to Mozart, say Italian winemakers
https://www.classicfm.com/composers/mozart/wine-vineyard-mozart-grow-grapes/


----------



## SixFootScowl

Jacck said:


> Grapes grow faster when they listen to Mozart, say Italian winemakers
> https://www.classicfm.com/composers/mozart/wine-vineyard-mozart-grow-grapes/


I wonder what happens to grapes under Beethoven's music? Do they get a tough skin?


----------



## Pat Fairlea

Fritz Kobus said:


> I wonder what happens to grapes under Beethoven's music? Do they get a tough skin?


Play 'em Mendelssohn and they make wine that is really sweet but lacking in depth! 
Play them Bruckner, and they store really well. In fact they last forever. Or that's how it feels.


----------



## Jacck

Pat Fairlea said:


> Play 'em Mendelssohn and they make wine that is really sweet but lacking in depth!
> Play them Bruckner, and they store really well. In fact they last forever. Or that's how it feels.


and play them Schoenberg....


----------



## TxllxT

Tomorrow King Willy celebrates his birthday:


----------



## LezLee

A parrot has been taken into custody in northern Brazil following a police raid targeting crack dealers.

According to reports in the Brazilian press, the bird had been taught to alert criminals to police operations in Vila Irmã Dulce, a low-income community in the sun-scorched capital of Piauí state, by shouting: “Mum, the police!”

The parrot, who has not been named, was seized on Monday afternoon when officers swooped on a drug den run by a local couple.

“He must have been trained for this,” one officer involved in the operation said of the two-winged wrongdoer. “As soon as the police got close he started shouting.”

A Brazilian journalist who came face to face with the imprisoned parrot on Tuesday described it as a “super obedient” creature – albeit one that had kept its beak firmly shut after being “arrested”.

“So far it hasn’t made a sound … completely silent,” the reporter said.

Alexandre Clark, a local vet, confirmed the parrot had not cooperated: “Lots of police officers have come by and he’s said nothing.”

The Brazilian broadcaster Globo said the “papagaio do tráfico” (drug trafficking parrot) had been handed over to a local zoo where it would spend three months learning to fly before being released.


----------



## geralmar

High school principal enacts dress code for parents.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/othe...g-dress-code-for-parents/ar-BBWkwOb?ocid=AMZN


----------



## SixFootScowl

geralmar said:


> High school principal enacts dress code for parents.
> 
> https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/othe...g-dress-code-for-parents/ar-BBWkwOb?ocid=AMZN


Good for her! Now if only municipalities would do the same for public spaces.


----------



## SixFootScowl

*Man Beaten Up Outside Theater After Spoiling Avengers: Endgame to Fans*



> What was supposed to be an exciting evening for Marvel moviegoers at a Hong Kong cinema turned sour on Friday, when a man decided to shout major spoilers to fans waiting in line to see Avengers: Endgame. Per Deadline, the unidentified man spent a few minutes taunting the fans with plot developments (obviously, we won't be repeating them here) before being "beaten" and "left bloodied" on the side of the street. A photograph circulated online reportedly shows the man with blood coming out of the side of his head while he awaits medical treatment.


Reminds me of this spoiler scene:


----------



## KenOC

Headline: Colorado State U. fears 'Undie Run' could provoke sexual misconduct

"Past participants, particularly women, have reported groping and sexual assault during the run and at after-parties. The run creates an environment where this sort of behavior more easily occurs."

The horror!


----------



## joen_cph

They can be tough people, those Inuit. Six Greenlandish hunters have been stuck in an ice desert for almost three weeks now, 40 km north of the Upernavik village, their three small boats being caught in the ice, and the only provisions available being the stuff in the boats.

Yet when they finally called the authorities, it wasn't in order to be rescued - but they'd like a bit of fuel, just to keep them warm ...









https://maritimedanmark.dk/?Id=40819 (in Danish)


----------



## KenOC

Trump eases past Maguire to reach World Championship semis

Well, a different Trump. This is snooker!


----------



## joen_cph

Can't it be fixed so that he can run for US presidency next time?


----------



## LezLee

An Amazonian parrot called Freddy Krueger has made headlines in Brazil after managing to find its way back to the zoo from which it was stolen while recovering from a four-year nightmare that saw it shot in a gun battle, abducted by armed thieves and bitten by a snake.
The turquoise-fronted Amazon parrot – whose Elm Street-inspired moniker stems from its bullet-disfigured face – was pilfered from a zoo in the southern city of Cascavel on the night of 16 April.

According to Brazil’s Folha de São Paulo newspaper, Freddy’s capture was just the latest in a series of misadventures to affect the Amazona aestiva bird.

Freddy was first brought to the zoo about four years ago, having been severely injured in a shootout between police and gangsters during a raid on the drug den where he had lived with his villain owner.

“In the shootout, Freddy was hit in the upper-beak … blinded and suffered burns to the feathers that grow between the eyes,” the Folha de São Paulo reported.

Freddy’s ordeal was far from over. Earlier this month, the parrot was reportedly bitten on the leg by a snake – thankfully of a non-venomous variety.
Freddy bled profusely but survived, only to be stolen days later when three armed raiders burst into Cascavel’s zoo, overpowered its security guard and made off with two parrots and a cylinder of gas.
Two days later, however, Freddy returned, discovered by zoo staff at the foot of a pine tree beside his cage.
The details of Freddy’s comeback remain murky, although drops of blood found near his former abode have fuelled speculation that the notoriously aggressive parrot bit his way out.
“He’s a bit of a wild one,” Ilair Dettoni, the zoo’s vet, was quoted as saying.
Dettoni suspected Freddy’s mangled features might have proven his salvation, given the limited market for deformed parrots. “I don’t know if Freddy is really unlucky or really lucky,” he said.
The second parrot and the gas cylinder have yet to be found.


----------



## geralmar

"Hibernators"?

https://theoldcontinent.eu/sleeping-beauties-scientific-journal/


----------



## SixFootScowl

aishyoung056 said:


> We have sinkholes.


Where? How big?


----------



## KenOC

“Mom left with 'horrendous' tan after drooling in her sleep”

I’m sure this is a truly important story from Fox news, but I’m giving it a pass.


----------



## SixFootScowl

*Firefighters dunk smoking $150,000 electrified BMW in tank of liquid to extinguish it.*



> The Brandweer Midden- en West-Brabant firefighters were responding to reports that smoke was coming from the plug-in hybrid as it sat in a garage. Instead of just spraying it with water or suppressant, however, they brought it a crane and a giant tub of liquid and lifted the car into it, fully submerging it.
> 
> Electric car fires are notoriously difficult to extinguish out because of all of the electronics and chemicals involved, especially when they have lithium-ion batteries like the i8. There have been recent instances where crashed Teslas that caught fire, for instance, reignited several times in the hours and days that followed their accidents.
> 
> The department didn't explain where the tank came from in a Facebook post about the situation, but said that* the car would be left in it for 24 hours as a precaution*.


So much for wasting money on an electric car! I'll stick with internal combustion engines! :lol:


----------



## KenOC

A man in China has been locked up for ten days in an "administrative detention center." His crime? Giving his dogs illegal names.


----------



## KenOC

College Board, the company that administers the SAT, is rolling out an "adversity score" that will accompany the raw SAT results. The adversity score indicates a student's socio-economic background. "The number will look at 15 factors, including the crime rate in a student's neighborhood and whether the student was raised in a single-parent household."

Race is said to not be a factor, though beta tests indicate use of the score in the admissions process increases the admission rates of non-white students. (And, I assume, raises even higher the "SAT penalty" bar that Orientals already face at the better colleges).

Neither students nor their parents will have access to the new score, which will be supplied only to college administrators.

And here I thought the use of "class background" to gain preference went out of fashion with Bolsheviks and the dictatorship of the proletariat! *Here's a link*.


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> Race is said to not be a factor, though beta tests indicate use of the score in the admissions process increases the admission rates of non-white students. (And, I assume, raises even higher the "SAT penalty" bar that *Orientals *already face at the better colleges).


Ah, but it is now politically incorrect to refer to them as Orientals you insensitive Occidental! :lol:


----------



## Jacck

KenOC said:


> College Board, the company that administers the SAT, is rolling out an "adversity score" that will accompany the raw SAT results. The adversity score indicates a student's socio-economic background. "The number will look at 15 factors, including the crime rate in a student's neighborhood and whether the student was raised in a single-parent household."
> Race is said to not be a factor, though beta tests indicate use of the score in the admissions process increases the admission rates of non-white students. (And, I assume, raises even higher the "SAT penalty" bar that Orientals already face at the better colleges).
> Neither students nor their parents will have access to the new score, which will be supplied only to college administrators.
> And here I thought the use of "class background" to gain preference went out of fashion with Bolsheviks and the dictatorship of the proletariat! *Here's a link*.


this is sick. Some Political Commitee for Diversity and Inclusion will give each student a non transparent score, penaling those with "white male privilege". It reminds me of the Social Credit System in China. 
https://www.mindingthecampus.org/2019/02/04/the-cult-of-diversity-shows-its-true-face/
https://www.mindingthecampus.org/2019/01/15/the-toxic-mission-to-reengineer-men/

this cancer that has spread on your campuses and will spread to the rest of the country (large tech companies) will seriously cripple your international competitivenes and economy. From the US, this cult has metastasized to some European countries (some are more afflicted than others) and is corrupting western civilization further.


----------



## Jacck

Trump's schizophrenic demands
First he claimed that the EU is a freeloader, not contributing enough to NATO and defense and demanded that EU increases its defense budgets. After repeatedly criticizing the EU and uttering things such as that the EU should be disbanded, some EU leaders used such a strong language as to describe Trump a threat to Europe alongside Russia and China. So Trump essentially convinced Europe, that it cannot rely on the US as a reliable partner (at least until Trump is there) and Europe decided to become more self-reliant concerning defense. And now the Trump's administration starts to utter threats when Europe wants to develop its own weapons and defenses. Trump will actually make Europe great again, by forcing it to become more self-reliant


----------



## KenOC

The BBC reports that North Korea has commented on the Democratic presidential primaries, which are just getting started.
-------------------------------------------
Mr Biden had "gone reckless and senseless, seized by ambition for power", a commentary on the news website KCNA said. He was "an imbecile bereft of elementary quality as a human being, let alone a politician", the commentary said, adding that he was "a fool of low IQ".
-------------------------------------------
So I guess they'll vote for AOC instead, unless they've registered Republican.


----------



## KenOC

Why does this generate a bit of *cognitive dissonance* in my mind?

"The owners of a replica of Noah's Ark featured at the Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Ky., sued its insurers who refused to cover rain damage."


----------



## KenOC

A highway in Colorado has been closed after a rock was found on the road. A 2.3 million pound rock. A second rock had crossed the road entirely, leaving an eight-foot-deep trench. That rock weighs 8.5 million pounds.


----------



## KenOC

There was these two good ol boys down Loosiana way, thot theyd do a Dukes of Hazzard thing and jump there car over an open drawbridge. Dont know how many good ol boys they got down there in all, but now they got two less than they did.


----------



## KenOC

Venezuelan criminals curse economic crisis, complain that bullets are unaffordable, people have no money to steal

Every cloud…


----------



## SixFootScowl

*Body of woman, 56, who collapsed and died in her home is gnawed and eaten by her own CATS on her kitchen floor.*



> This too was a distressing experience because it was clear that certain parts of Mrs Veal's body were missing and had, the officer formed the view, effectively been gnawed and eaten away by the animals.


To the animals' credit, they were left confined in the house for weeks with no food. Ironically, the half-gnawed lady's last name was Veal.


----------



## KenOC

“Former porn star lawyer Michael Avenatti is back in the headlines, this time for being indicted Thursday on 36 charges, which range from fraud to concealing a $4 million settlement from a mentally ill, paraplegic client. Incidentally, this is the same Michael Avenatti whom broadcast and cable news networks have hosted a whopping 254 times over the past year, according to the MRC's latest count of the spotlight-loving attorney's televised escapades.”

Mostly CNN and MSNBC of course. They loved him when they thought he had the goods on Trump! Charges currently filed against him, which also include trying to extort millions from Nike, threaten 69 years in prison; and the California bar has suspended his law license as a prelude to disbarring him because his alleged conduct "poses a substantial threat of harm to clients or the public."

Major tax evasion charges are waiting in the wings, so the story’s not over yet.


----------



## geralmar

Florida teacher writes "WTF" on student's homework.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/flo...-wtf-is-this-on-students-paper-162312998.html



No indication that student didn't deserve it.


----------



## KenOC

Is cowardice a crime? "Florida resource officer who didn't enter school during shooting massacre is arrested."


----------



## Johnnie Burgess

geralmar said:


> Florida teacher writes "WTF" on student's homework.
> 
> https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/flo...-wtf-is-this-on-students-paper-162312998.html
> 
> 
> 
> No indication that student didn't deserve it.


The student is in the 2nd grade. Do they have to see such language as that. School should fire the teacher.


----------



## KenOC

Posted, trembling in fear at having my thoughts removed as inappropriate. Though…this does strike me as bizarre!

The US gov’t has succeeded in moving Mexico to work harder to block Central American immigrants from transiting through their country en route to the US. The problem has become quite significant recently, with Central American migrants surging across the US border in groups of greater than a thousand to claim asylum. Records are being set. "More than 100,000 people crossed the U.S. border and sought asylum last month alone." (LA Times)

It took a threat to impose duties on imports from Mexico to accomplish this. Democrats are (for whatever reason) outraged. Nancy Pelosi says, “Threats and temper tantrums are no way to negotiate foreign policy.” Of course they seemed to work in this case and have often worked in the past.

She also says the agreement “fails to address the root causes of migration flows from Central America.” It’s fairly obvious that several of those countries are impoverished and unpleasant places with corrupt and cruel governments, offering their people miserable and uncertain lives with nothing better to look forward to. Any sane person would sacrifice almost anything to enter the United States. Perhaps Rep. Pelosi will honor us with a good plan to address these “root causes.”

I wait patiently.


----------



## joen_cph

'_Use My Back Garden'_ is the latest example of sharing economy here; a non-profit initiative via FB, where you allow guests on holiday to camp in a corner of your garden for free or a symbolic payment for a shower etc. Relevant especially for hikers, cyclists or families. Within a very short time, 600+ hosts have volunteered, and the FB community has now got almost 7000 members. These numbers are expected to grow considerably, due to television reporting about the idea.


----------



## SixFootScowl

*Man slices friend's nose off with a sword after betting he could chop sausage in his mouth*.


> A man wearing a baseball cap leans back with the large sausage protruding from his mouth as another brandishes the weapon, ready to strike it in two with the sharp weapon. But the onlookers' cheers quickly turned to screams as they watched on in horror as the man misses the food, accidentally slicing the other guy's nose instead. The victim can be seen recoiling away in shock, covering his face from the camera as his friend realizes the error and covers his mouth in horror. It is clear that the man needed hospital treatment following the accident.


----------



## geralmar

Florida manatee orgy causes traffic jam.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/27980...im0AF9Ctd0TXRF-aE_Gm1ZLuwMAzAX55yYBYCxbAPYryo


----------



## SixFootScowl

geralmar said:


> Florida manatee *orgy* causes traffic jam.
> 
> https://www.thedrive.com/news/27980...im0AF9Ctd0TXRF-aE_Gm1ZLuwMAzAX55yYBYCxbAPYryo


Orgy? Sounds more like gang rape!


----------



## KenOC

Some indication that truth still matters, even in American academia. Oberlin college has been dinged *$40 million in damages* for actions it took against a local bakery accused (falsely) of racism.


----------



## joen_cph

A hi-level tech conference in Italy resulted in the obligatory _group photo._

However, the lack of female participation in the group photo was discovered as perhaps somewhat embarrassing.

So it was decided to photoshop in a few extra figures ...

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/tech-titans-women-fake-photoshop-cucinelli-gq


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1138154023066984448


----------



## joen_cph

Today, our national flag here, '_Dannebrog_', has its official anniversary, of 800 years 

It's been quite a ride, up and down.









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


----------



## Luchesi

.............................

https://wtffunfact.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/fun-facts-danish-protest-pig-wtf-fun-facts.png


----------



## KenOC

From the NY Times:
---------------------------------------
WASHINGTON - The strange objects, one of them like a spinning top moving against the wind, appeared almost daily from the summer of 2014 to March 2015, high in the skies over the East Coast. Navy pilots reported to their superiors that the objects had no visible engine or infrared exhaust plumes, but that they could reach 30,000 feet and hypersonic speeds.

"These things would be out there all day," said Lt. Ryan Graves, an F/A-18 Super Hornet pilot who has been with the Navy for 10 years, and who reported his sightings to the Pentagon and Congress. "Keeping an aircraft in the air requires a significant amount of energy. With the speeds we observed, 12 hours in the air is 11 hours longer than we'd expect."
---------------------------------------
More, in this story.


----------



## joen_cph

KenOC said:


> From the NY Times:
> ---------------------------------------
> WASHINGTON - The strange objects, one of them like a spinning top moving against the wind, appeared almost daily from the summer of 2014 to March 2015, high in the skies over the East Coast. Navy pilots reported to their superiors that the objects had no visible engine or infrared exhaust plumes, but that they could reach 30,000 feet and hypersonic speeds.
> 
> "These things would be out there all day," said Lt. Ryan Graves, an F/A-18 Super Hornet pilot who has been with the Navy for 10 years, and who reported his sightings to the Pentagon and Congress. "Keeping an aircraft in the air requires a significant amount of energy. With the speeds we observed, 12 hours in the air is 11 hours longer than we'd expect."
> ---------------------------------------
> More, in this story.


There's been brief mentioning of this interesting stuff here in a few media, but good to read this very detailed source, with clips. Hard to see this as any 'computer failure' etc.


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> From the NY Times:
> ---------------------------------------
> WASHINGTON - The strange objects, one of them like a spinning top moving against the wind, appeared almost daily from the summer of 2014 to March 2015, high in the skies over the East Coast. Navy pilots reported to their superiors that the objects had no visible engine or infrared exhaust plumes, but that they could reach 30,000 feet and hypersonic speeds.
> 
> "These things would be out there all day," said Lt. Ryan Graves, an F/A-18 Super Hornet pilot who has been with the Navy for 10 years, and who reported his sightings to the Pentagon and Congress. "Keeping an aircraft in the air requires a significant amount of energy. With the speeds we observed, 12 hours in the air is 11 hours longer than we'd expect."
> ---------------------------------------
> More, in this story.


See https://alienintrusion.com/


----------



## joen_cph

Fritz Kobus said:


> See https://alienintrusion.com/


Judging by that short trailer, apparently also dealing with the "abduction"-theme, the point seems to be that it's some sort of Biblical sign or proof.


----------



## joen_cph

Probably related to this (I hadn't imagined that one before):

"_Pentagon and MoD officials feared UFOs were either 'demonic' or sent by God, former investigators reveal"_ https://metro.co.uk/2018/05/08/reli...ent-investigators-reveal-7529174/?ito=cbshare

BTW, here's another take: UFOs as being at the center of new religions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UFO_religions


----------



## DaveM

Strange story and bizarre news: A Canadian sports team just won a major title.

(I’m a born Canadian, now American)


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

DaveM said:


> Strange story and bizarre news: A Canadian sports team just won a major title.
> 
> (I'm a born Canadian, now American)


Was there any syrup involved?


----------



## SixFootScowl

joen_cph said:


> Judging by that short trailer, apparently also dealing with the "abduction"-theme, the point seems to be that it's some sort of Biblical sign or proof.


That does seem a bit peripheral to me and not so much a sign as a confirmation. What they are really saying if you read the book Alien Intrusion is that the various alien/ufo sightings and encounters are not extra terrestrials from another planet but are demons (fallen angels), which are spoken of in the Bible.


----------



## joen_cph

Fritz Kobus said:


> That does seem a bit peripheral to me and not so much a sign as a confirmation. What they are really saying if you read the book Alien Intrusion is that the various alien/ufo sightings and encounters are not extra terrestrials from another planet but are demons (fallen angels), which are spoken of in the Bible.


Thank you for the supplementary information. It is enough for me. I mentioned the abductions (a clip with a person who claimed she'd been shouting for help) because it also seemed representative for parts of the style and content.


----------



## joen_cph

"_Leo Tolstoy learned to ride a bike at 67 after buying an English-made Rover bicycle. Back then you needed a license to operate one in Moscow and he passed the test even though he kept knocking women off their bikes while practicing._"


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1142062738203709440


----------



## KenOC

From the BBC: Urinating man causes injuries on Berlin boat

Four people to the hospital? This one is hard to credit.


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> From the BBC: Urinating man causes injuries on Berlin boat
> 
> Four people to the hospital? This one is hard to credit.


A friend of mine once drove his car under a bridge and the car was hit by the stream of a man urinating off the bridge. I think he went straight to the car wash after that.


----------



## geralmar

Texas woman in SUV playing "chicken" with her children, runs over, kills, her three-year old.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/23/us/suv-chicken-child-death/index.html


----------



## SixFootScowl




----------



## KenOC

Injuries being reported in China from the trendy trick of opening beer bottles by striking a chopstick with the open palm. This seems to be a less-than-excellent idea.


----------



## geralmar

Not sure why; but this story lifts some of my gloom about the world:

Arctic fox travels 2,200 miles in 76 days

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...2-200-miles-76-days-norway-canada/1626814001/


----------



## KenOC

A Swiss aerial display team has performed a fly-by over the wrong town, surprising people at a yodelling festival taking place nearby.


----------



## KenOC

"Loud flatulence gives away suspect's hiding spot, Missouri police say"

No, I won't even post a link to this one...


----------



## KenOC

"In honor of National Hot Dog Day (July 17), Oscar Mayer has announced it will list one of the six Wienermobiles in its fleet for overnight stays during Lollapalooza weekend - a first for the hot dog-shaped vehicle since hitting the streets in 1936, according to the brand." Price is $136 per night.


----------



## KenOC

Yes, it's all very good to love those beautiful animals. But let's try to be a little bit realistic, eh?

"A zookeeper mauled to death by a tiger was found by a member of the public, an inquest has heard. Rosa King, 33, had been cleaning windows in the tiger enclosure at Hamerton Zoo Park in Cambridgeshire on 29 May, 2017, when she was attacked by a Malayan male called Cicip…

"Immediately after the attack two gates and a metal vertical slide, designed to ensure staff and tigers were kept separated in the paddock, were found open, Mr Moss said."


----------



## KenOC

Only in La-la land: A "Dine-and-Dash" serial dater haunting the area's singles sites.
-------------------------------------------------------------
…Smooth-talking Paul shared her love for fine dining, and invited her to the Tam O'Shanter, one of LA's oldest eateries. "I'm going to go with or without you," he told her, removing any indecision. Soon she was driving across the city, full of hope that Paul, 43, could be 'the one.' He had sent her videos of his two adorable young sons, and said he was the CEO of the LA Fitness gym franchise. But as Moon handed her car keys to the valet, she saw her date arrive on foot. She wondered, did he not have a car? Paul's dyed-black hair was thick with gel, and he exuded short-guy energy. As he held open the restaurant door, his light green eyes sparkled.

"Look how beautiful she is!" said Paul, as the waitress seated the couple. Then, loud enough for everyone to hear, he boomed: "I don't deserve to be with her! She's so gorgeous!" Paul edged his seat closer to hers, then got to work on the menu. Moon said he ordered: "A salad, chicken, fish, and two lobster tails on the side." When Paul finished, he summoned two more lobster tails. After rounding off the meal with a devilish chocolate soufflé, Paul declared that he wanted to date Moon "exclusively," then stepped outside to make a phone call. "A few minutes in, I had a funny feeling," she said. He never came back.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Marjory Moon paid and was $250 poorer.

Well, they finally caught up with this guy after many such instances and arrested him. But what was he guilty of? An interesting question…

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/how-scorned-women-and-a-casanova-cop-caught-las-dine-and-dash-dater/ar-AAEBQan


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> Only in La-la land: A "Dine-and-Dash" serial dater haunting the area's singles sites.
> -------------------------------------------------------------
> …Smooth-talking Paul shared her love for fine dining, and invited her to the Tam O'Shanter, one of LA's oldest eateries. "I'm going to go with or without you," he told her, removing any indecision. Soon she was driving across the city, full of hope that Paul, 43, could be 'the one.' He had sent her videos of his two adorable young sons, and said he was the CEO of the LA Fitness gym franchise. But as Moon handed her car keys to the valet, she saw her date arrive on foot. She wondered, did he not have a car? Paul's dyed-black hair was thick with gel, and he exuded short-guy energy. As he held open the restaurant door, his light green eyes sparkled.
> 
> "Look how beautiful she is!" said Paul, as the waitress seated the couple. Then, loud enough for everyone to hear, he boomed: "I don't deserve to be with her! She's so gorgeous!" Paul edged his seat closer to hers, then got to work on the menu. Moon said he ordered: "A salad, chicken, fish, and two lobster tails on the side." When Paul finished, he summoned two more lobster tails. After rounding off the meal with a devilish chocolate soufflé, Paul declared that he wanted to date Moon "exclusively," then stepped outside to make a phone call. "A few minutes in, I had a funny feeling," she said. He never came back.
> -------------------------------------------------------------
> Marjory Moon paid and was $250 poorer.
> 
> Well, they finally caught up with this guy after many such instances and arrested him. But what was he guilty of? An interesting question…
> 
> https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/how-scorned-women-and-a-casanova-cop-caught-las-dine-and-dash-dater/ar-AAEBQan


I can't get your link to work. This one works and tells the story of many such incidences with this same guy and how difficult it was for a detective to track him down. His penalty was a paltry $240 restitution to two of the victims and 120 days.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-scorned-women-and-a-casanova-cop-caught-las-dine-and-dash-dater


----------



## KenOC

Maybe *this link* will work better. Anyway, the question is -- who's obligated to pick up the bill? The law doesn't say that it has to be the guy!

Oh. I think this is actually the same as Fritz's link...


----------



## KenOC

Here in the US, they've given up teaching English in schools. From tonight's news:
---------------------------------
"I'm sure she has really good reasons, but if any of them are political, she'll be reaping what she sewed," Wallace said. The "Deadline: White House" host insisted that the Justice Department thought the Mueller report would "illicit" the impeachment proceedings.


----------



## Dorsetmike

> Here in the US, they've given up teaching English in schools. From tonight's news:


On this side of the pond we've known that for years


----------



## joen_cph

Roy Greenslade:

"_@TheSun speaks with three voices.

English edition: Boris made 'a brilliant debut' 
Scottish edition: Boris 'is deluded' 
Irish edition: joke-cracking Boris's 'no-deal Brexit is a lose-lose affair'

The paper that tells it like it is, but differently, to suit different audiences_"










__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1154304486195830784


----------



## KenOC

Welcome to the Internet! Science stories are written by people ignorant even of high school science and obviously not given adult supervision.

“USA Today reported that the dino skull was found in the Hell's Creek formation, which spans Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming, where dinosaurs roamed anywhere from 100.5 to 23 million years ago.”


----------



## KenOC

Socialists - it's not just doctrinal disputes any more. In the US, they seem now to be the party of the "woke" and easily "triggered."

"The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) National Convention in Georgia this weekend came to a screeching halt when one delegate formally complained of "sensory overload" from "guys" whispering in the room -- prompting another "comrade" to grab the microphone to angrily demand an immediate end to the use of "gendered language."

The totally biased but nevertheless amusing article is *here*. Also referred to is a hilarious BBC skit on a *support group* for the "woke."


----------



## KenOC

This headline made me look twice.

*Lollapalooza festivalgoer dies for second straight year*

I bet he's just doing this for the attention. :lol:

(added: Looks like somebody noticed and changed the headline...)


----------



## KenOC

Why is it always Florida? _Toilet explodes in Florida home after lightning strikes septic tank_.

Yes, there's a picture!


----------



## KenOC

In the wake of the El Paso shooting, which seemingly targeted Mexican nationals, BBC offers a headline: “America should realize how loving Hispanics are.”

Snookie wookums indeed! Per Wiki, Mexico ranks 212th out of 230 for its murder rate. The US, at #143, has one-fifth of Mexico’s murder rate. The country of brotherly love? Just today: “Mexican police have found the bodies of nine people hanging from a bridge and seven more corpses hacked up and dumped on the road.”


----------



## SixFootScowl

Camera shows cat trying to 'murder' its owner while he sleeps



> A Twitter user claimed he was having trouble breathing in his sleep, so he set up a camera to see what was going on at night. What he saw, however, was ... terrifying.


----------



## joen_cph

Due to the repeated reports in the media, also statements by people related to the US presidential administration, our Prime Minister has felt it necessary to publically announce, that Greenland is not and will not be, 'for sale' to the USA.


----------



## KenOC

joen_cph said:


> Due to the repeated reports in the media, also statements by people related to the US presidential administration, our Prime Minister has felt it necessary to publically announce, that Greenland is not and will not be, 'for sale' to the USA.


She added, "But just out of curiosity, how much money are we talking about here?"


----------



## joen_cph

No she did not. I'm not sure many Americans understands the reaction here, of experiencing neo-colonialist insulting arrogance. Including of course the option that it is a brutal attempt at creating disruption in the relation, into negotiating more American influence in Greenland.


----------



## SixFootScowl

joen_cph said:


> Due to the repeated reports in the media, also statements by people related to the US presidential administration, our Prime Minister has felt it necessary to publically announce, that Greenland is not and will not be, 'for sale' to the USA.


Why not sell (or part of it) it but retain sovereignty over it? Then can regulate any development, set aside park and natural area, etc, and rake in a huge wad of money.


----------



## joen_cph

Fritz Kobus said:


> Why not sell (or part of it) it but retain sovereignty over it? Then can regulate any development, set aside park and natural area, etc, and rake in a huge wad of money.


I edited my answer above. I see it in a lot of American comments - '"everything is for sale". The Greenlandish people, the Inuit, have no interest in a complete society transformation and becoming a part of the US.


----------



## KenOC

joen_cph said:


> No she did not. I'm not sure many Americans understands the reaction here, of experiencing neo-colonianist insulting arrogance. Including of course the option that it is a brutal attempt at creating disruption in the relation, into negotiating more American influence in Greenland.


Sorry, I didn't mean to offend! However, there is a long history here, dating back to the 1860s. The US actually offered to purchase Greenland in 1946 for $100 million. Obviously the offer wasn't accepted.


----------



## joen_cph

That is true. As far as I understand, recent historical research has shown that the US Virgin Islands, previously Danish, were also sold on the background of the alternative of an invasion there.


----------



## Johnnie Burgess

joen_cph said:


> I edited my answer above. I see it in a lot of American comments - '"everything is for sale". The Greenlandish people, the Inuit, have no interest in a complete society transformation and becoming a part of the US.


I just the people illegally crossing our borders would do the same.


----------



## SixFootScowl

joen_cph said:


> I edited my answer above. I see it in a lot of American comments - '"everything is for sale". The Greenlandish people, the Inuit, have no interest in a complete society transformation and becoming a part of the US.


Oh, sorry, I was thinking more as a private landholding not to make it part of the U.S.


----------



## joen_cph

Fritz Kobus said:


> Oh, sorry, I was thinking more as a private landholding not to make it part of the U.S.


The US already has very important military facilities there, the Thule base etc. 
I doubt there'd be much sovereignty left over time, if just selling substantial areas of land to a foreign superpower and big conglomerates. Plus you have the people's history related to the land.


----------



## KenOC

joen_cph said:


> That is true. As far as I understand, recent historical research has shown that the US Virgin Islands, previously Danish, were also sold on the background of the alternative of an invasion there.


Interesting. I read some of the history of the islands. It was Denmark who offered to sell two of the islands to the US in 1867, but the US declined for a variety of reasons. Denmark was finding the islands were unprofitable and difficult to govern properly.

Negotiations on a sale resumed in 1899 and lasted through 1902, when the sale was approved by one chamber of the Danish parliament but failed in the other.

Finally, negotiations from 1915 to 1916 were successful, with the islands changing hands for $25 million. I can find no mention of an implied threat of invasion, though that could well be possible since the US feared Germany might seize the islands for a major submarine base.

In any event, in those days Denmark was obviously quite happy to treat parts of its territories like properties in Monopoly. The apparent outrage today seems to be new.


----------



## joen_cph

(sorry, double posting)


----------



## joen_cph

I know the general story and the recent information, read via a link the other day, was a surprise for me to.

It is an article in an acknowledged Danish scientific paper
https://olfi.dk/2017/03/31/usa-truede-danmark-krig-sikre-herredoemme-vestindiske-oeer/
telling of the US Foreign Minister Lansing literally informing the Danes that the alternative would be invasion.

I haven't read the full article (it is from 2017, joining a lot of articles and arrangements 100 years after the sale) & I haven't checked the further debate about this article, which seems to have been surprisingly subdued. But it is said to be based on archive material. Acquiring the islands was among the preconditions for the US president Wilson to enter WWI, since they were seen as strategically important and had potential to be a threat to the US, the article says.
It was also believed that German submarines had associates on the islands.



> In any event, in those days Denmark was obviously quite happy to treat parts of its territories like properties in Monopoly. ...


I think this applies to all former colonial powers in the West. We've had small, real colonies in Africa and Asia too, albeit long ago.


----------



## KenOC

joen_cph said:


> It is an article in an acknowledged Danish scientific paper
> https://olfi.dk/2017/03/31/usa-truede-danmark-krig-sikre-herredoemme-vestindiske-oeer/
> telling of the US Foreign Minister Lansing literally informing the Danes that the alternative would be invasion.


Thanks! I can only see the first page, a sort of summary, without subscribing. It's clear enough and, given the many US interventions in that part of the world in those days, quite believable.

Added: In 1902, the agreed price was $5 million. But in 1916 the agreed price was $25 million. Sounds like there may have been a bit of the carrot as well as the stick.


----------



## KenOC

Yes, it's complicated. NC man found wrapped in Christmas lights with dead cat in freezer died of natural causes, investigators say.


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> Yes, it's complicated. NC man found wrapped in Christmas lights with dead cat in freezer died of natural causes, investigators say.


Probably murder / suicide committed by the cat. You just can't trust cats. Remember *the cat that tried to murder its owner.* This is typical of cats.


----------



## Luchesi

joen_cph said:


> The US already has very important military facilities there, the Thule base etc.
> I doubt there'd be much sovereignty left over time, if just selling substantial areas of land to a foreign superpower and big conglomerates. Plus you have the people's history related to the land.


There were people living there and the Danes claimed it. I doubt they paid anything for it, but it was more of a cooperative arrangement than what the British, Dutch, Spanish and Manifest Destiny did. More like what the French did?


----------



## KenOC

Luchesi said:


> There were people living there and the Danes claimed it. I doubt they paid anything for it, but it was more of a cooperative arrangement than what the British, Dutch, Spanish and Manifest Destiny did. More like what the French did?


Actually it was the Norse who settled southern Greenland. There seem to have been some remnant Dorset people, but much farther north. They were in terminal decline as a civilization, and the Inuit didn't arrive until the 13th century.

Denmark didn't claim Greenland on a sole basis until 1814.

In any event, given it's current status, it's unclear to me that Denmark "owns" Greenland or has the right to sell it. Of course Greenland costs them a lot of money, and they could just walk away. BTW there are about 56,000 people in total in the territory, 88% of whom are Inuit or Inuit/European mix. Almost all are rock-ribbed protestants and _all _are Danish citizens.


----------



## Luchesi

KenOC said:


> Actually it was the Norse who settled southern Greenland. There seem to have been some remnant Dorset people, but much farther north. They were in terminal decline as a civilization, and the Inuit didn't arrive until the 13th century.
> 
> Denmark didn't claim Greenland on a sole basis until 1814.
> 
> In any event, given it's current status, it's unclear to me that Denmark "owns" Greenland or has the right to sell it. Of course Greenland costs them a lot of money, and they could just walk away. BTW there are about 56,000 people in total in the territory, 88% of whom are Inuit or Inuit/European mix. Almost all are rock-ribbed protestants and _all _are Danish citizens.


"...that Denmark "owns" Greenland or has the right to sell it." They didn't pay for it, but they have the right to sell it? I would think the native people 'owned it' before any other humans lived there. But we probably don't want to start thinking like that...

Because my ancestors were driven out of Germany into France and then the Huguenots drove them out, to Ireland. Some went to England to find work, then came over in 1630 to New England - then returned to England? and then returned to the Colony aboard the "Mary & John" on 23 Mar 1633.


----------



## KenOC

Luchesi said:


> "...that Denmark "owns" Greenland or has the right to sell it." They didn't pay for it, but they have the right to sell it?


As I wrote, it's not at all clear they have that right.


----------



## joen_cph

KenOC said:


> As I wrote, it's not at all clear they have that right.


No, during the post-Viking colonization of Greenland, Denmark and Norway was the same country, under the Danish King. This until 1814, when Norway got independence. The Vikings had died out very early. A number of changes in the official and juridical relationship has taken place since 1953, leading towards more independence for Greenland. For example, it is not a member if the EU. The population is a mere 56,000.

Experts disagree about the proceedings or lawfulness of someone 'buying' Greenland. There'd probably have to be referendum(s) too.

Hypothetic situations regarding someone wanting to buy say Hawaii, Alaska, Guam, Puerto Rico or native-American areas in the future (maybe Russia, China, or locals) might have a more transparent legal situation, I don't know.


----------



## Luchesi

Bizarre..
On May 24th 1626, Peter Minuit (also spelled ‘Minuet’) purchased the island of Manhattan for the equivalent of $24 worth of beads and trinkets. Even adjusted for inflation, this is probably the real Greatest Trade Ever, with apologies to John Paulson.
Here’s some historical/legendary color on the trade:
On May 24 1626, he is credited with the purchase of the island from the natives — perhaps from a Metoac band of Lenape known as the “Canarsee” — in exchange for trade goods valued at 60 guilders. This figure is known from a letter by a member of the board of the Dutch West India Company Peter Stuyvesant to the States-General in 1626; in 1846 the figure was converted by a New York historian to $24, and “a variable-rate myth being a contradiction in terms, the purchase price remains forever frozen at twenty-four dollars,” as Edwin Burrows and Mike Wallace remarked: a further embellishment in 1877 converted the figure into “beads, buttons and other trinkets.” A contemporary purchase of rights in Staten Island, New York, to which Minuit was also party, involved duffel cloth, iron kettles and axe heads, hoes, wampum, drilling awls, “Jew’s Harps,” and “diverse other wares”. “If similar trade goods were involved in the Manhattan arrangement,” Burrows and Wallace surmise, “then the Dutch were engaged in high-end technology transfer, handing over equipment of enormous usefulness in tasks ranging from clearing land to drilling wampum.” If the island was purchased from the Canarsees, they would have been living on Long Island and maybe passing through on a hunting trip. The “purchase” was understood differently by both parties, the local group having no conception of alienable real estate, as is always pointed out in modern accounts of the supposed transaction.
Here’s the punchline…after a series of brutal conflicts between the new Dutch inhabitants of Manhattan and various tribes who really had no concept of real estate or land ownership ensued, Peter Minuit was recalled back to the Netherlands to explain himself. He was then fired!


----------



## KenOC

From the BBC: Fidel Castro's crocodile bites man at Swedish aquarium

Even more unlikely, the man was giving a speech at the time.


----------



## Guest

Yes, in olden times counties would buy and sell territories. But in those days non-European populations were commonly treated more-or-less as chattel. The absurdity of it is that Trumps doesn't seem to realize those days are past. The indigenous population of Greenland actually has Danish citizenship and if he "bought Greenland" he would effectively be buying them too. He doesn't seem to realize they have rights (just as he doesn't seem to realize that residents of Puerto Rico are American citizens and have rights). 

It's also bizarre that he seems to have been planning to go to the state visit that had been arranged some time in the past and spring it on them, "Tell ya' what, waddya you say you sell us Greenland? You're not doing anything with it. Name your price. Let's say a trillion? We'll both leave this dull meeting with smiles on our faces. Vladimir promised he would front me the money."


----------



## KenOC

There is still such a thing as realpolitik. Russia recently annexed Crimea, an integral part of Ukraine -- land, people, and all. At least Trump was willing to pay for Greenland! :lol:


----------



## Guest

I seem to recall they went to the trouble of arranging a rigged referendum in which the residents of Crimea approved (which reversed Khrushchev's _gift_ of Crimea to Ukraine).


----------



## KenOC

Baron Scarpia said:


> I seem to recall they went to the trouble of arranging a rigged referendum in which the residents of Crimea approved (which reversed Khrushchev's _gift_ of Crimea to Ukraine).


Quite true. However it's also true that many Crimean residents, as well as people in some other parts of Eastern Ukraine, prefer to be part of Russia. The pianist Valentina Lisitsa, a partisan of that point of view, has gotten into a bit of trouble for letting her views be known.


----------



## Guest

KenOC said:


> Quite true. However it's also true that many Crimean residents, as well as people in some other parts of Eastern Ukraine, prefer to be part of Russia. The pianist Valentina Lisitsa, a partisan of that point of view, has gotten into a bit of trouble for letting her views be known.


Well, yes, Crimea was part of Russia for a thousand years or so, until Khruschev decided to give it to Ukraine as a gift in the 50's, if I remember correctly. Still, the affair was emblematic of Putin's willingness to sow chaos in order to regain Russia's "sphere of influence."


----------



## KenOC

Baron Scarpia said:


> Well, yes, Crimea was part of Russia for a thousand years or so, until Khruschev decided to give it to Ukraine as a gift in the 50's, if I remember correctly. Still, the affair was emblematic of Putin's willingness to sow chaos in order to regain Russia's "sphere of influence."


Not original with Putin! Read up on the Monroe Doctrine.


----------



## Guest

KenOC said:


> Not original with Putin! Read up on the Monroe Doctrine.


That's quite a stretch. There is a huge difference between letting the rest of the world know their meddling in the Americas is not welcome, and going around annexing chunks of countries against their will. Putin's actions are more akin to Hitler and the Sudetenland than to the Monroe doctrine.


----------



## Strange Magic

DrMike said:


> That's quite a stretch. There is a huge difference between letting the rest of the world know their meddling in the Americas is not welcome, and going around annexing chunks of countries against their will. Putin's actions are more akin to Hitler and the Sudetenland than to the Monroe doctrine.


Mexican War? Israel &West Bank/Golan Heights?


----------



## KenOC

A kindler, gentler Orwell? San Francisco is creating its own Newspeak. The Board of Supervisors has voted to not use certain words, but to substitute others:

- Convicted felon: “justice-involved person.”
- Felon released from custody: “formerly incarcerated person” or “returning resident.”
- Juvenile offender: “young person with justice system involvement.”
- Drug addict or substance abuser: “person with a history of substance use.”

The San Francisco Chronicle noted that an individual whose car has been broken into (a common occurrence in SF these days) could well be known to police as “a person who has come in contact with a returning resident who was involved with the justice system and who is currently under supervision with a history of substance use.”


----------



## Jacck

Baron Scarpia said:


> Well, yes, Crimea was part of Russia for a thousand years or so, until Khruschev decided to give it to Ukraine as a gift in the 50's, if I remember correctly. Still, the affair was emblematic of Putin's willingness to sow chaos in order to regain Russia's "sphere of influence."


not exactly. Crimea historically belonged to the Crimean tatars. Russia did not even exist 1000 years ago. They as a nation emerged as a hybrid of vikings, slavs and mongols (The Golden Horde). Ukraine (Kievan Rus) is older than Russia. The Russian Empire anexed Crimea but granted the Crimean Tatars autonomy, so they were autonomous region. Under SSSR, Stalin commited genocide on the Tatars and mass deported them. They are opressed by Putin even now. 
http://euromaidanpress.com/crimea/
the Euromaidanpress is a Ukrainian web, which I read a lot during the Russian Anschluss. It is also a good source of info about Russia in general.


----------



## KenOC

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula is the home of Russia's Black Sea Fleet. I believe that this is the only major warm-water port available to Russia and its main path to projecting naval power in the Mediterranean area. Obviously in 1954 when it was the Soviet fleet, the transfer of the peninsula to Ukraine, then a Soviet republic, was no big deal. But after the dissolution of the USSR it was a _Russian _fleet, Sevastopol was _not _Russian territory, and a foreign (and not very friendly) power controlled access.

I am convinced that if the US found itself in such a position, it would act the same way Russia acted -- and rather quickly.


----------



## Jacck

US would send snipers to shoot into civilians in a neighboring country during anti-government protests (the Maidan massacre) and after the puppet government was forced to flee as a result of the demonstrations, send "little green men" to start a war against it, organize fake referendums etc? What naval bases had Russia in Donbas and Donetsk? The whole thing started because of the planned Ukraine-European Union Association Agreement, ie Ukraine started to orbit out of the Russian "sphere of influence" and started to orbit towards the EU. Yanukovych (the Russian puppet) was ordered by Putin to stop this deal, so the protests started. Putin of course claims that it was a coup organized by Clinton (then foreign minister under Obama). But I doubt Clinton paid all those people to go to Maidan
http://euromaidanpress.com/2016/02/20/the-story-of-ukraine-starting-from-euromaidan/2/
(see the photo)
The real reason is that nobody wants to be in a "Russian sphere of influence", because Russia is country run by mafia and devoured by corruption like a cancer


----------



## Guest

Jacck said:


> US would send snipers to shoot into civilians in a neighboring country during anti-government protests (the Maidan massacre) and after the puppet government was forced to flee as a result of the demonstrations, send "little green men" to start a war against it, organize fake referendums etc? What naval bases had Russia in Donbas and Donetsk? The whole thing started because of the planned Ukraine-European Union Association Agreement, ie Ukraine started to orbit out of the Russian "sphere of influence" and started to orbit towards the EU. Yanukovych (the Russian puppet) was ordered by Putin to stop this deal, so the protests started. Putin of course claims that it was a coup organized by Clinton (then foreign minister under Obama). But I doubt Clinton paid all those people to go to Maidan
> http://euromaidanpress.com/2016/02/20/the-story-of-ukraine-starting-from-euromaidan/2/
> (see the photo)
> The real reason is that nobody wants to be in a "Russian sphere of influence", because Russia is country run by mafia and devoured by corruption like a cancer


If you look in the past you will find actions by the U.S. which are comparable, such as the CIA plot to overthrow Mohammad Mosaddegh in Iran. But the action taken by Russia with regards to Ukraine was against a neighboring and country with close cultural ties. It would be like the U.S. taking such an action against Canada.


----------



## Guest

Baron Scarpia said:


> If you look in the past you will find actions by the U.S. which are comparable, such as the CIA plot to overthrow Mohammad Mosaddegh in Iran. But the action taken by Russia with regards to Ukraine was against a neighboring and country with close cultural ties. It would be like the U.S. taking such an action against Canada.


Good Lord, 2000 years from now they are still going to trot out the US CIA operation in Iran. That event is about as relevant to current events as the Dreyfuss affair.


----------



## KenOC

DrMike said:


> Good Lord, 2000 years from now they are still going to trot out the US CIA operation in Iran. That event is about as relevant to current events as the Dreyfuss affair.


But what's nicely called "regime change" is still practiced. Current targets are Syria and Venezuela. Seems like we're getting rusty.


----------



## Strange Magic

DrMike said:


> Good Lord, 2000 years from now they are still going to trot out the US CIA operation in Iran. That event is about as relevant to current events as the Dreyfuss affair.


It is totally relevant today. To willfully ignore the overthrow of Mosaddegh is to be willfully ignorant of the roots of America's troubles with Iran today.


----------



## joen_cph

KenOC said:


> There is still such a thing as realpolitik. Russia recently annexed Crimea, an integral part of Ukraine -- land, people, and all. At least Trump was willing to pay for Greenland! :lol:


Those interested can now buy t-shirts to support the Republicans in their effort to grab territories from a close ally, and make Greenland the 51st US state, including a map showing Greenland as a part of the US
https://www.newsweek.com/republicans-fundraising-greenland-united-states-shirts-1455721

Btw, we sent 10,000 troops to Afghanistan and, if considering population size, lost proportionally more men than the US there.

But following diplomatic talks and efforts, Trump now calls our PM "a wonderful woman" (before, she was 'nasty'). There are currently no comments regarding this from the Danish side. So I guess something, real or future, was probably offered.


----------



## Jacck

KenOC said:


> But what's nicely called "regime change" is still practiced. Current targets are Syria and Venezuela. Seems like we're getting rusty.


there were some theories that the Arab spring was started by Obama through social media. It might be disinformation spread by Russians or it might be true, who knows. But Obama certainly was a technocrat who believed in using social media to do propaganda and manipulate the masses. He won the second election through abusing Facebook, he did nothing to curtail the surveillance state etc. He was/is probably not a bad man, but as the saying goes the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Now he opened a can of worms. 
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/...a-took-us-from-tahrir-square-to-donald-trump/


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

https://redirect.viglink.com/?forma...-japan-on-the-map-where-new-zealand-should-be
















New channel apologises to New Zealanders for map mix-up that also labelled Papua New Guinea as South Korea








Russian news channel RT has apologised for apparently accidentally labelling New Zealand as "Japan", and Papua New Guinea as "South Korea" in an embarrassing southern hemisphere mix-up.

The mistake came in a segment produced by their US bureau about potential new missile bases in "Japan, South Korea and Australia". But in a large, erroneous graphic only Australia was correctly labelled.

It is the latest in a long line of incidents involving New Zealand and geographic mistakes. The country is left off maps so frequently it prompted the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, to star in a special light-hearted campaign in protest, back in 2018.

A spokesperson for RT confirmed to New Zealand news site Newshub that the mistake was genuine.

"Our American early morning news team suffered a little geography mishap," a spokesperson said. "We ... have corrected ours as soon as it was spotted, and have given our team a new map of the southern hemisphere to ensure it doesn't happen again."

The segment, aired on 15 August, has since been corrected in the online version and remains available on YouTube on RT America's channel. The caption makes clear that "this video includes a corrected map".

In the segment, titled "Manoeuvring missiles", correspondent Ashlee Banks explained how the US was looking at potential missile bases in Asia.

"Another fight between the US and China is heating up, this time it's over missiles," she said. "The US has officially withdrawn from the intermediate range nuclear forces treaty and now plans to place weapons across the Asia Pacific.

"The US is looking to place missiles in Japan, South Korea and Australia," she said, even as the graphic showed something else.

New Zealand, a country of 4.7 million people, is so often forgotten on maps that Tourism New Zealand launched an entire campaign based on the phenomenon.

With Ardern and comedian Rhys Darby, it described it as "the next great conspiracy: New Zealand is disappearing off world maps".

A Reddit thread dedicated to recording incidents where New Zealand is left off global maps has more than 74,000 subscribers - among them the infamous map of the world made entirely out of chicken nuggets, but without New Zealand.

I always thought Kiwi's where weird , hope they don't confuse the Sheep for Whales


----------



## joen_cph

_The case of the dropped, mysterious metal boxes, containing money:_

Seems to be a recent global trend - dropped metal boxes you find somewhere, containing a bit of money, and a written note. Maybe a case of social activism or experiment, or something else ... Has reached Denmark now also.
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2019/08/12/open-me-boxes-boston-cambridge


----------



## Room2201974

DrMike said:


> Good Lord, 2000 years from now they are still going to trot out the US CIA operation in Iran. That event is about as relevant to current events as the Dreyfuss affair.


You must have missed the first 5 minutes of the movie _Argo_. You can draw a direct line from the overthrow of Mosaddegh, the installation of the Shaw, the establishment of the SAVAK - and the 1979 Iranian revolution.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAVAK

Pay particular attention to the description of the variations on the theme of torture!

Next week, we can discuss United Fruit, Dulles, and Operation PBSUCCESS.


----------



## Room2201974

EddieRUKiddingVarese said:


> https://redirect.viglink.com/?forma...-japan-on-the-map-where-new-zealand-should-be
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> New channel apologises to New Zealanders for map mix-up that also labelled Papua New Guinea as South Korea
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Russian news channel RT has apologised for apparently accidentally labelling New Zealand as "Japan", and Papua New Guinea as "South Korea" in an embarrassing southern hemisphere mix-up.
> 
> The mistake came in a segment produced by their US bureau about potential new missile bases in "Japan, South Korea and Australia". But in a large, erroneous graphic only Australia was correctly labelled.
> 
> It is the latest in a long line of incidents involving New Zealand and geographic mistakes. The country is left off maps so frequently it prompted the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, to star in a special light-hearted campaign in protest, back in 2018.
> 
> A spokesperson for RT confirmed to New Zealand news site Newshub that the mistake was genuine.
> 
> "Our American early morning news team suffered a little geography mishap," a spokesperson said. "We ... have corrected ours as soon as it was spotted, and have given our team a new map of the southern hemisphere to ensure it doesn't happen again."
> 
> The segment, aired on 15 August, has since been corrected in the online version and remains available on YouTube on RT America's channel. The caption makes clear that "this video includes a corrected map".
> 
> In the segment, titled "Manoeuvring missiles", correspondent Ashlee Banks explained how the US was looking at potential missile bases in Asia.
> 
> "Another fight between the US and China is heating up, this time it's over missiles," she said. "The US has officially withdrawn from the intermediate range nuclear forces treaty and now plans to place weapons across the Asia Pacific.
> 
> "The US is looking to place missiles in Japan, South Korea and Australia," she said, even as the graphic showed something else.
> 
> New Zealand, a country of 4.7 million people, is so often forgotten on maps that Tourism New Zealand launched an entire campaign based on the phenomenon.
> 
> With Ardern and comedian Rhys Darby, it described it as "the next great conspiracy: New Zealand is disappearing off world maps".
> 
> A Reddit thread dedicated to recording incidents where New Zealand is left off global maps has more than 74,000 subscribers - among them the infamous map of the world made entirely out of chicken nuggets, but without New Zealand.
> 
> I always thought Kiwi's where weird , hope they don't confuse the Sheep for Whales


Let's not cut up on the Kiwi's too much. Te Awamutu is the home of one of the world's greatest songwriters - who's oeuvre is the admiration of many creative minds (outside the States that is ).


----------



## Guest

Yes, to many, the problems of the world will always ultimately be the fault of the United States. It's so much easier than to admit that so many places are absolutely capable of completely screwing themselves up.


----------



## Jacck

DrMike said:


> Yes, to many, the problems of the world will always ultimately be the fault of the United States. It's so much easier than to admit that so many places are absolutely capable of completely screwing themselves up.


the truth is somewhere in the middle. US is neither the devil, nor the angel. Despite all of its imperfections, it is still much better than if Russia or China ruled the world. US has still made some very bad mistakes, such as the invasion of Iraq. The rise of ISIS and the whole mess in the Middle East are the results of it. The worst danger from the US are these "war hawks" like Bolton, Cheney, Rumsfeld. They are a combination of utter psychopathy with utter stupidity with utter arrogance, the worst cases of the American exceptianalism delusion. They have no clue about how the world works, cannot forsee the consequences of their actions and take no responsibility for the mess they create.


----------



## Johnnie Burgess

Jacck said:


> the truth is somewhere in the middle. US is neither the devil, nor the angel. Despite all of its imperfections, it is still much better than if Russia or China ruled the world. US has still made some very bad mistakes, such as the invasion of Iraq. The rise of ISIS and the whole mess in the Middle East are the results of it. The worst danger from the US are these "war hawks" like Bolton, Cheney, Rumsfeld. They are a combination of utter psychopathy with utter stupidity with utter arrogance, the worst cases of the American exceptianalism delusion. They have no clue about how the world works, cannot forsee the consequences of their actions and take no responsibility for the mess they create.


You left out the war hawk Hillary.


----------



## Strange Magic

Johnnie Burgess said:


> You left out the war hawk Hillary.


I forget what wars Hillary started. Refresh my memory.


----------



## Johnnie Burgess

Strange Magic said:


> I forget what wars Hillary started. Refresh my memory.


Voted for second Iraq war. Pushed for the overthrow of Egypt and Libya governments under Obama. Wanted to send troops into Syria.


----------



## Jacck

Johnnie Burgess said:


> Voted for second Iraq war. Pushed for the overthrow of Egypt and Libya governments under Obama. Wanted to send troops into Syria.


wars can be justified and unjustified. To send more troops to Syria might have been the right thing to do, now Russia gained the upper hand there. If anything, I blame Hillary (and Obama and Merkel) for being too weak on Putin and unable to confront this criminal. Merkel was trying to appease him all the time. But enough politics from me.


----------



## Guest

Jacck said:


> the truth is somewhere in the middle. US is neither the devil, nor the angel. Despite all of its imperfections, it is still much better than if Russia or China ruled the world. US has still made some very bad mistakes, such as the invasion of Iraq. The rise of ISIS and the whole mess in the Middle East are the results of it. The worst danger from the US are these "war hawks" like Bolton, Cheney, Rumsfeld. They are a combination of utter psychopathy with utter stupidity with utter arrogance, the worst cases of the American exceptianalism delusion. They have no clue about how the world works, cannot forsee the consequences of their actions and take no responsibility for the mess they create.


I'm sorry, but the Middle East is a perpetual morass. So long as countries are ruled by autocrats who convince their masses that all their problems are to be blamed on everybody but themselves - but most especially Israel and the Great Satan- it will continue to be a region that is on a relatively unbroken decline since it's high water point in the Middle Ages. ISIS is but the latest manifestation of an ideology that has long been prevalent in that region, madmen who think Allah will finally once again grant them their caliphate if they just kill enough infidels.


----------



## Jacck

DrMike said:


> I'm sorry, but the Middle East is a perpetual morass. So long as countries are ruled by autocrats who convince their masses that all their problems are to be blamed on everybody but themselves - but most especially Israel and the Great Satan- it will continue to be a region that is on a relatively unbroken decline since it's high water point in the Middle Ages. ISIS is but the latest manifestation of an ideology that has long been prevalent in that region, madmen who think Allah will finally once again grant them their caliphate if they just kill enough infidels.


ISIS was started and organized by the former Saddam Hussein-era officers
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...itary-intelligence-operations-Iraq-Syria.html

concerning islam religion, as a result of ISIS, young muslims are becoming more and more irreligious (which is a good thing)


----------



## Strange Magic

DrMike said:


> I'm sorry, but the Middle East is a perpetual morass. So long as countries are ruled by autocrats who convince their masses that all their problems are to be blamed on everybody but themselves - but most especially Israel and the Great Satan- it will continue to be a region that is on a relatively unbroken decline since it's high water point in the Middle Ages. ISIS is but the latest manifestation of an ideology that has long been prevalent in that region, madmen who think Allah will finally once again grant them their caliphate if they just kill enough infidels.


For once The Doctor and I agree. The Middle East is the Playland of religious enthusiasm of every sort, where the most irrational and bizarre aspects of religion get free rein. Our best action is inaction, drawing a _cordon sanitaire_ around the area while quietly, surreptitiously aiding the minority who seek to free themselves from the shackles of religious tyranny. Otherwise, let Divine Intervention work its will.


----------



## joen_cph

_"Trump reportedly suggested using nuclear bombs to stop hurricanes from striking the US"_

Could be that he is uninformed about radioactive waste problems.

https://www.axios.com/trump-nuclear-bombs-hurricanes-97231f38-2394-4120-a3fa-8c9cf0e3f51c.html


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese

joen_cph said:


> _"Trump reportedly suggested using nuclear bombs to stop hurricanes from striking the US"_
> 
> Could be that he is uniformed about radioactive waste problems.
> 
> https://www.axios.com/trump-nuclear-bombs-hurricanes-97231f38-2394-4120-a3fa-8c9cf0e3f51c.html


The White house needs a Neutron Bomb


----------



## Strange Magic

joen_cph said:


> _"Trump reportedly suggested using nuclear bombs to stop hurricanes from striking the US"_
> 
> Could be that he is uninformed about radioactive waste problems.
> 
> https://www.axios.com/trump-nuclear-bombs-hurricanes-97231f38-2394-4120-a3fa-8c9cf0e3f51c.html


Almost all objective observers, inside the Oval Office or outside, agree that Trump is the least-informed president in living memory (and likes it that way, as he is bone-lazy as well). He is content to let Sean Hannity supply all the "facts" he needs. Yet 80% of Republicans approve--what does that tell us?


----------



## Joe B

joen_cph said:


> _"Trump reportedly suggested using nuclear bombs to stop hurricanes from striking the US"_
> 
> Could be that he is uninformed about radioactive waste problems.
> 
> https://www.axios.com/trump-nuclear-bombs-hurricanes-97231f38-2394-4120-a3fa-8c9cf0e3f51c.html


----------



## starthrower

Aaron Burr's double life recently revealed. https://beta.washingtonpost.com/his...-new-research-shows/?utm_source=pocket-newtab


----------



## geralmar

State of Florida warning residents not to shoot at Hurricane Dorian.

https://www.politicususa.com/2019/08/30/shoot-hurricane-dorian.html


----------



## KenOC

James Comey, 7th Director of the FBI, is back in the news. And not necessarily in a good way.


----------



## KenOC

ABC reports that 500+ people were injured by stingrays over the Labor Day weekend, most of them right nearby at Huntington Beach and Bolsa Chica Beach. The ocean people say that the rays are not unusually numerous, but the number of people going into the ocean during our end-of-summer heat wave certainly is.

Stings range from minor to nasty; some may require surgery to get all the pieces of the stinger out. Although painful, the stings are rarely fatal. One exception was Steve Irwin, the "Crocodile Hunter," back in 2006. He was standing in a small boat that was moving at a good clip. A ray jumped from the water ahead of the boat and was overtaken from behind; its stinger penetrated Irwin's thoracic wall, causing grave damage. That was Australia's second-ever recorded sting ray fatality.

Here's the local stingray story.


----------



## KenOC

Bernie Sanders, facing further population growth, speaks truth and get into serious trouble.

“Women in the United States of America, by the way, have a right to control their own bodies, and make reproductive decisions. The Mexico City Agreement which denies American aid to those organisations around the world that allow women to have abortions or even get involved in birth control to me is totally absurd.

"So I think, especially in poor countries around the world where women do not necessarily want to have large numbers of babies, and where they can have the opportunity through birth control to control the number of kids they have, is something I very, very strongly support."

Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican congressman, tweeted: "Bernie Sanders said YOUR tax dollars should be used to fund abortions in foreign countries to reduce population size." 

Conservative writer Liz Wheeler tweeted: "Imagine being so disgusting that you want to force Americans to pay for abortions to kill brown babies in foreign countries so you don't feel guilty flying private jets & visiting communist nations."

CNN host SE Cupp accused Mr Sanders of entertaining the racist ideology of eugenics.

Another conservative commentator, Ben Shapiro, tweeted that Mr Sanders wanted to facilitate abortions for "disproportionately babies of colour, in order to fight climate change".


----------



## Strange Magic

KenOC said:


> Bernie Sanders, facing further population growth, speaks truth and get into serious trouble.
> 
> "Women in the United States of America, by the way, have a right to control their own bodies, and make reproductive decisions. The Mexico City Agreement which denies American aid to those organisations around the world that allow women to have abortions or even get involved in birth control to me is totally absurd.
> 
> "So I think, especially in poor countries around the world where women do not necessarily want to have large numbers of babies, and where they can have the opportunity through birth control to control the number of kids they have, is something I very, very strongly support."
> 
> Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican congressman, tweeted: "Bernie Sanders said YOUR tax dollars should be used to fund abortions in foreign countries to reduce population size."
> 
> Conservative writer Liz Wheeler tweeted: "Imagine being so disgusting that you want to force Americans to pay for abortions to kill brown babies in foreign countries so you don't feel guilty flying private jets & visiting communist nations."
> 
> CNN host SE Cupp accused Mr Sanders of entertaining the racist ideology of eugenics.
> 
> Another conservative commentator, Ben Shapiro, tweeted that Mr Sanders wanted to facilitate abortions for "disproportionately babies of colour, in order to fight climate change".


I have editorialized upon this story earlier downstairs in one of the political Groups:

https://www.talkclassical.com/groups/general-politics-d1788-massive-right-wing-faux.html


----------



## Guest

KenOC said:


> Bernie Sanders, facing further population growth, speaks truth and get into serious trouble.
> 
> "Women in the United States of America, by the way, have a right to control their own bodies, and make reproductive decisions. The Mexico City Agreement which denies American aid to those organisations around the world that allow women to have abortions or even get involved in birth control to me is totally absurd.
> 
> "So I think, especially in poor countries around the world where women do not necessarily want to have large numbers of babies, and where they can have the opportunity through birth control to control the number of kids they have, is something I very, very strongly support."
> 
> Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican congressman, tweeted: "Bernie Sanders said YOUR tax dollars should be used to fund abortions in foreign countries to reduce population size."
> 
> Conservative writer Liz Wheeler tweeted: "Imagine being so disgusting that you want to force Americans to pay for abortions to kill brown babies in foreign countries so you don't feel guilty flying private jets & visiting communist nations."
> 
> CNN host SE Cupp accused Mr Sanders of entertaining the racist ideology of eugenics.
> 
> Another conservative commentator, Ben Shapiro, tweeted that Mr Sanders wanted to facilitate abortions for "disproportionately babies of colour, in order to fight climate change".


It never ceases to amaze me how some find it controversial that many people don't think their tax dollars should be used to pay for abortions in our own country, let alone in some far flung country. But this does sound incredibly close to the solution that Garrett Hardin proposed of sterilizing minorities and those he seemed inferior for the purpose of controlling population.


----------



## Jacck

DrMike said:


> It never ceases to amaze me how some find it controversial that many people don't think their tax dollars should be used to pay for abortions in our own country, let alone in some far flung country. But this does sound incredibly close to the solution that Garrett Hardin proposed of sterilizing minorities and those he seemed inferior for the purpose of controlling population.


the hypocrisy of some people never ceises to amaze me. They defend the right of unborn fetuses to life (while depriving the mothers of their rights), and at the same time support death penalty for the mentally ill and the underage, or support wars and export of weapons to third world countries where the weapons are used to kill civilians including children etc. These self-alleged "pro-life" people support death pentalties and wars.


----------



## Guest

Jacck said:


> the hypocrisy of some people never ceises to amaze me. They defend the right of unborn fetuses to life (while depriving the mothers of their rights), and at the same time support death penalty for the mentally ill and the underage, or support wars and export of weapons to third world countries where the weapons are used to kill civilians including children etc. These self-alleged "pro-life" people support death pentalties and wars.


That's a great straw man to divert attention away from what I said. My argument is that my tax dollars shouldn't go to pay for abortions in another country. What that has to do with war and guns and the death penalty is beyond me.


----------



## Jacck

DrMike said:


> That's a great straw man to divert attention away from what I said. My argument is that my tax dollars shouldn't go to pay for abortions in another country. What that has to do with war and guns and the death penalty is beyond me.


If I read the Sanders quote correctly, he was primarily speaking about contraception (birth control). Better not think about how many people the Pope infected with HIV when he was preaching in Africa against the use of contraception and condoms. Subsequently, the republican politicians twisted and misrepresented Sanders. It is very sensible to give money to education campaings in Africa that support the use of contraception. Much more sensible than selling weapons there.


----------



## Guest

Jacck said:


> If I read the Sanders quote correctly, he was primarily speaking about contraception (birth control). Better not think about how many people the Pope infected with HIV when he was preaching in Africa against the use of contraception and condoms. Subsequently, the republican politicians twisted and misrepresented Sanders. It is very sensible to give money to education campaings in Africa that support the use of contraception. Much more sensible than selling weapons there.


Then you didn't read what he said - he said the Mexico City policy is absurd, and the Mexico City policy is this:


> The policy requires foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to certify that they will not "perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning" using funds with any source (including non-U.S. funds) as a condition for receiving U.S. government global family planning assistance and, as of Jan. 23, 2017, most other U.S. global health assistance.


So you see, he actually WAS arguing that the U.S. should be able to spend our tax dollars to fund organizations that perform or actively promote abortion in other countries.
The Mexico City Policy says absolutely nothing about organizations that promote or provide other forms of contraception - so there is nothing in it that prohibits the dissemination of condoms and other forms of contraception - other than abortion - that would cut down on population growth or the spread of HIV and other STDs. 
Nobody twisted what Bernie said. He wants to eliminate the Mexico City Policy, which by definition means he wants to make it possible for U.S. tax dollars to support abortion and abortion counseling in other countries.


----------



## Strange Magic

As a public service, I will bring my Groups story upstairs:

Strange Magic - Yesterday, 23:04

"It is clear to even the simplest, most primitive mind that runaway population growth is a major factor driving AGW and the biosphere to fatal ruin. Extending equality and freedom to women to exercise control over their bodies and reproductive functions is the surest, most rational, most efficacious, and most humane method of stabilizing and then reducing populations. These enhanced freedoms are largely widely and legally available to women in the western democracies right now--even in the USA, though under constant threat from religious fanatics, misogynists, and other ideologues. Bernie Sanders is just the latest figure to urge that American and Western and Developed Nation freedoms be utilized worldwide to allow women everywhere to control their fertility. But the hysterical ideologues of the Right have decided that American freedoms are too good for the rest of the world and have attacked Sanders for suggesting that we extend them to others. Pathetic but not unexpected, given the nonsense and misrepresentation that has greeted my identical suggestions here on TC. Here's a BBC report:"

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49601678


----------



## KenOC

Jacck said:


> ... It is very sensible to give money to education campaings in Africa that support the use of contraception. Much more sensible than selling weapons there.


Nonsense. Weapons sales are FAR more profitable. For many years the US has been the world's largest arms dealer, a much-needed assist to our balance of payments deficit. (Just being pragmatic here... )

BTW I fail to see how anybody can confuse monetary assistance for voluntary family planning programs with forced sterilization of undesirables. But that sort of mental crosswiring evidently _can _happen!


----------



## Guest

KenOC said:


> BTW I fail to see how anybody can confuse monetary assistance for voluntary family planning programs with forced sterilization of undesirables. But that sort of mental crosswiring evidently _can _happen!


The connection lies in the history of this thinking. The neo-Malthusianism of Paul Ehrlich and Garrett Hardin, who are still revered by people like SM around here and were pushing this notion of population catastrophe back when Bernie Sanders was just a young commie vacationing in Russia and writing about rape fantasies, called explicitly for involuntary sterilization of undesirables. I'm glad they have watered things down now, but that is what the original experts in this field advocated.


----------



## KenOC

DrMike said:


> The connection lies in the history of this thinking. The neo-Malthusianism of Paul Ehrlich and Garrett Hardin, who are still revered by people like SM around here and were pushing this notion of population catastrophe back when Bernie Sanders was just a young commie vacationing in Russia and writing about rape fantasies, called explicitly for involuntary sterilization of undesirables. I'm glad they have watered things down now, but that is what the original experts in this field advocated.


Oh, OK. The confusion of monetary assistance for voluntary family planning programs with forced sterilization of undesirables is only natural because -- eugenics was once a popular idea. Whatever.


----------



## Strange Magic

The Good Doctor not only wants to make sure that women all over the world are denied the ability to control their bodies and reproductive functions, but he wants to also hobble women in the advanced countries who have elements of that freedom from fully exercising it.


----------



## Guest

KenOC said:


> Oh, OK. The confusion of monetary assistance for voluntary family planning programs with forced sterilization of undesirables is only natural because -- eugenics was once a popular idea. Whatever.


The implication in all of this, including in what Bernie Sanders said, is that we can help the environment by getting those dark-skinned people in other countries to abort more of their babies, and we'll pay for them to do it. Sure, that sounds miles apart from what Hardin and Ehrlich wanted.


----------



## KenOC

DrMike said:


> The implication in all of this, including in what Bernie Sanders said, is that we can help the environment by getting those dark-skinned people in other countries to abort more of their babies, and we'll pay for them to do it. Sure, that sounds miles apart from what Hardin and Ehrlich wanted.


Now you're just being silly. Direct quote from Sanders: "So I think, especially in poor countries around the world where women do not necessarily want to have large numbers of babies, and where they can have the opportunity through birth control to control the number of kids they have, it's something I very, very strongly support."

Exactly what part of this do you object to? It seems to me that, in your lurid imaginings, you're the one who's being racist.

Of course, the question of whether US tax dollars should foot some of the bill is a separate issue, and an arguable one.


----------



## Guest

KenOC said:


> Now you're just being silly. Direct quote from Sanders: "So I think, especially in poor countries around the world where women do not necessarily want to have large numbers of babies, and where they can have the opportunity through birth control to control the number of kids they have, it's something I very, very strongly support."
> 
> Exactly what part of this do you object to? It seems to me that, in your lurid imaginings, you're the one who's being racist.
> 
> Of course, the question of whether US tax dollars should foot some of the bill is a separate issue, and an arguable one.


Right, because they're good progressives, they can't possibly be racist. Let's make it easier for these poor people to abort their children so we can pat ourselves on the back for helping the planet. I honestly think that his bigger concern is population control, and not the well being of these women. And the condescension of knowing better what these women really want. Sure, Bernie is really tapped into the thoughts and desires of third world women from his multiple mansions in Vermont.

And no, my tax dollars should not be paying for overseas abortions, or any abortions at all. I recognize it is legal in this country, but there is no logical next step that says I should pay for your abortion. Gun ownership is a constitutional right. You gonna buy me a gun? Freedom of worship - should your tax dollars provide me with a church?


----------



## KenOC

DrMike said:


> Right, because they're good progressives, they can't possibly be racist. Let's make it easier for these poor people to abort their children so we can pat ourselves on the back for helping the planet. I honestly think that his bigger concern is population control, and not the well being of these women. And the condescension of knowing better what these women really want. Sure, Bernie is really tapped into the thoughts and desires of third world women from his multiple mansions in Vermont.


There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Sen. Sanders, crazed by his readings in Eugenics, is determined to rid the world of the plague of junk DNA by positioning the entire economic power of the USA behind his program. After all, don't we want a president with vision? I think you so much for bringing this to my attention.

(On the other hand, he many mean exactly what he said. But that's no fun, is it.)


----------



## Strange Magic

For many of Bernie Sanders' hysterical critics, their tenderness toward third-world babies stops at the Mexican border. They not only cut off family-planning money to the countries from which the third-world "dark-skinned" babies come, but also cut off all aid. Teach them a lesson...Syrians, Guatemalans.......


----------



## Strange Magic

> DrMike: "And no, my tax dollars should not be paying for overseas abortions, or any abortions at all. I recognize it is legal in this country, but there is no logical next step that says I should pay for your abortion. Gun ownership is a constitutional right. You gonna buy me a gun? Freedom of worship - should your tax dollars provide me with a church?"


I bitterly resent that my tax dollars paid for the Vietnam War--I should be allowed to pick and choose how every one of my tax dollars is spent. Buy you a gun? Yes, if you're US military; otherwise we shield the gun manufacturers from legal liabilities arising from saturating American society with military-style weaponry and handguns. And your church? How about tax-exempt status? We don't have a State Church in America, at least not yet.


----------



## Guest

KenOC said:


> There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Sen. Sanders, crazed by his readings in Eugenics, is determined to rid the world of the plague of junk DNA by positioning the entire economic power of the USA behind his program. After all, don't we want a president with vision? I think you so much for bringing this to my attention.
> 
> (On the other hand, he many mean exactly what he said. But that's no fun, is it.)


Sure, it is absolutely plausible that Bernie Sanders is the one politician that is absolutely honest. That certainly seems more likely. Just like when he becomes a Democrat suddenly in presidential election season. Or just like when he used to be more of a supporter of gun rights until he wanted to run for president and Hillary started to attack him for it.

But in one sense I absolutely do believe what he says - he wants my tax dollars to go to other countries to pay for abortions. You claimed that was up for debate, but ignore it when I bring it up.


----------



## Strange Magic

Perhaps the Good Doctor is unfamiliar with the US-imposed Global Gag Rule:

https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/explainers/what-global-gag-rule



> The global gag rule prohibits foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) who receive U.S. global health assistance from providing legal abortion services or referrals, while also barring advocacy for abortion law reform-even if it's done with the NGO's own, non-U.S. funds. The policy allows access to abortion only in cases of rape, incest, or when a woman's life is at risk.
> 
> President Ronald Reagan first enacted the global gag rule-also known as the Mexico City Policy-in 1984. Every president since Reagan has decided whether to enact or revoke the policy, making NGO funding vulnerable to political changes happening in the United States. The rule forces organizations to choose whether to provide comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care and education without U.S. funding, or comply with the policy in order to continue accepting U.S. funds.
> 
> In 2017, President Donald Trump's Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance policy expanded the global gag rule, applying it to recipients of any U.S. global health funding, totaling an unprecedented $8.8 billion. This means that everything from HIV and AIDS programming and health systems strengthening to programs that support water, sanitation, and hygiene are negatively impacted.
> 
> *In 2019, the Trump administration announced a further expansion of the implementation of the global gag rule, restricting "gagged" organizations from funding groups that provide abortion services and information, even though those organizations don't get any U.S. aid. This means that organizations, donor governments, and funders will be bound by a U.S. government policy, even if they do not accept any U.S. government funding.*
> 
> Does the global gag rule create more unsafe abortions?
> 
> Yes. Past iterations of the global gag rule have shown [PDF] that the policy does not reduce the number of abortions and has instead increased unsafe abortions. It also has negative impacts on maternal, newborn, and child health.


The references to studies showing no decrease in abortion numbers under the Gag Rule can be found here:

http://www.genderhealth.org/files/u...Chaos_in_Global_Health_full_report.pdf#page21


----------



## Johnnie Burgess

Strange Magic said:


> Perhaps the Good Doctor is unfamiliar with the US-imposed Global Gag Rule:
> 
> https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/explainers/what-global-gag-rule
> 
> The references to studies showing no decrease in abortion numbers under the Gag Rule can be found here:
> 
> http://www.genderhealth.org/files/u...Chaos_in_Global_Health_full_report.pdf#page21


I do not want other countries getting funds to provide abortions. If this hurts you so much, do you donate money to help them women have an abortion?


----------



## mmsbls

This thread is about strange stories and bizarre news - not politics. The last several pages have turned purely political. Please get back to the thread topic.


----------



## Strange Magic

Johnnie Burgess said:


> I do not want other countries getting funds to provide abortions. If this hurts you so much, do you donate money to help them women have an abortion?


I definitely support Planned Parenthood with dollar$. And definitely support overthrowing all reproductive policy gag rules, foreign and domestic. Does that answer the question?


----------



## Strange Magic

mmsbls said:


> This thread is about strange stories and bizarre news - not politics. The last several pages have turned purely political. Please get back to the thread topic.


Do we notice a recurrent pattern here? If so, what are we going to do about it, other than to reaffirm that these subjects belong in the Political, Religious, and Science Groups?


----------



## Jacck

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...-prague-orchestra-tour-amid-taiwan-row-mayor/
China cancels Prague orchestra tour amid Taiwan row with mayor
the Chinese comrades are really sensitive to any kind of dissent. Punishing Czech orchestras for the personal attidudes of a city mayor.


----------



## joen_cph

Sensitive, or maybe not so sensitive.


----------



## KenOC

*French company liable after employee dies during sex on business trip*

A Paris court ruled that it was an "industrial accident." Uh, OK.


----------



## joen_cph

Sounds absurd, but it's no doubt being appealed, and we might not hear that much about the result then.

EDIT: he was married, but the family sued the company & will receive 80% of his salary until his expected retirement age. It is possibly a final rule! But I think it is doubtful that the system can allow such procedures in the future, or you'd have to limit all business travelling due to various sorts of health failures, accidents and criminal incidents might taking place, partly due to people's lack of responsibility ...
https://www.ballinaadvocate.com.au/news/business-trip-sex-death-a-work-accident/3828756/


----------



## KenOC

Just when new measures seem to be slowing the flow of illegal immigrants from the south, this has to happen. 

*Feral hogs headed for US from Canada; wildlife officials warn of widespread damage*


----------



## Totenfeier

But after causing said damage, can they be expected to say "Sorry, eh?"


----------



## KenOC

Hitchcock would love this story. Magpie attack: *Australian cyclist dies while fleeing swooping bird

*


----------



## Jacck

birds are wicked
Hitchcock-like scene as vomiting vultures swarm NY couple's $700K vacation home
https://nypost.com/2019/08/16/hitch...vultures-swarm-ny-couples-700k-vacation-home/


----------



## Luchesi

Jacck said:


> birds are wicked
> Hitchcock-like scene as vomiting vultures swarm NY couple's $700K vacation home
> https://nypost.com/2019/08/16/hitch...vultures-swarm-ny-couples-700k-vacation-home/


Birds are related to crocodilians and due to their lifestyle they never needed to evolve empathy or defecation habits to avoid predation.

I was also surprised to read that if you disturb nestlings the mother can't smell you. I'm not sure if that's true.

https://news.ucsc.edu/2014/12/crocodile-genomes.html

Crocodiles are the closest living relatives of the birds, sharing a common ancestor that lived around 240 million years ago and also gave rise to the dinosaurs. A new study of crocodilian genomes led by scientists at UC Santa Cruz reveals an exceptionally slow rate of genome evolution in the crocodilians (a group that includes crocodiles, caimans, alligators, and gharials).
The UC Santa Cruz team used the crocodilian genomes, combined with newly published bird genomes, to reconstruct a partial genome of the common ancestor of crocodiles, birds, and dinosaurs. The study, part of an ambitious international collaboration to analyze the genomes of modern birds and gain insights into their evolution, is one of eight papers from the Avian Phylogenomics Consortium being published in a December 12 special issue of Science.


----------



## KenOC

*California bans employee travel to Iowa* due to that state's failure to use taxpayer funds for sex-change procedures. This is the eleventh state on the California list! Years from now, when historians write of the brief eminence of American civilization on the world stage, there will be no shortage of amusing anecdotes.


----------



## DaveM

7-11 Stores in Los Angeles are playing continuous classical music outside (such monotonous tracks as Pachelbel’s Canon) to reduce the number of vagrants, loiterers and homeless soliciting and hanging around. Apparently, it’s fairly effective. A company delivers all-in-one units that have the fixed playlists. Some are back-ordered so some stores are still waiting for them.


----------



## Dorsetmike

Bournemouth counci lused a similar tactic to discourage vagrants sleeping in the travel interchange (bus and rail station) but instead of classical music they played bagpipe recordings.


----------



## Jacck

Luchesi said:


> Birds are related to crocodilians and due to their lifestyle they never needed to evolve empathy or defecation habits to avoid predation.


they are certainly much more intelligent than crocodiles. The European magpies (unrelated to the Australian horror magpies) are some of the smartest animals on Earth
Magpies as smart as apes


----------



## Guest

Jacck said:


> they are certainly much more intelligent than crocodiles. The European magpies (unrelated to the Australian horror magpies) are some of the smartest animals on Earth
> Magpies as smart as apes


Reminds me of a Garfield comic I once read. Garfield (a cat) and Odie (a dog) were watching a televised debate over what animal was smarter. One said cats, and Garfield cheered. Another said dogs, and Odie cheered. A third then said pigs. Garfield looked at Odie and said, "Well that is interesting. I think we should go discuss it over a ham sandwich."


----------



## Guest

I read today that the U.S. may go into its emergency petroleum reserves and China may go into its emergency pork reserve...


----------



## geralmar

DaveM said:


> 7-11 Stores in Los Angeles are playing continuous classical music outside (such monotonous tracks as Pachelbel's Canon) to reduce the number of vagrants, loiterers and homeless soliciting and hanging around. Apparently, it's fairly effective. A company delivers all-in-one units that have the fixed playlists. Some are back-ordered so some stores are still waiting for them.


Some years ago the same strategy was used in shopping malls to discourage teenagers loitering. It must have been more successful than anticipated because no one goes to malls anymore, at least in the U.S.


----------



## Strange Magic

geralmar said:


> Some years ago the same strategy was used in shopping malls to discourage teenagers loitering. It must have been more successful than anticipated because no one goes to malls anymore, at least in the U.S.


Old joke: Man sits on bus, continually snapping his fingers. Other passenger, curious, asks why. Snapper says: "To keep the elephants away.". Passenger: "But there are no elephants within thousands of miles of here!". Snapper: "Effective, isn't it!"


----------



## joen_cph

Cattle and cow industry to be almost gone within a few decades, and the biggest agricultural revolution within the last 10,000 years will take place.

Well, at least according to this source: https://www.rethinkx.com/food-and-agriculture


----------



## KenOC

joen_cph said:


> Cattle and cow industry to be almost gone within a few decades, and the biggest agriculatural revolution within the last 10,000 years will take place.
> 
> Well, at least according to this source: https://www.rethinkx.com/food-and-agriculture


Interesting especially considering that well over half of all the earth's land used in agriculture is currently devoted to meat production, mostly beef.

Actually the thesis here looks reasonable. GMO on steroids!


----------



## geralmar

KenOC said:


> Interesting especially considering that well over half of all the earth's land used in agriculture is currently devoted to meat production, mostly beef.
> 
> Actually the thesis here looks reasonable. GMO on steroids!


Coincidentally, Burger King is poised to release its meatless "Impossible Burger" nationwide.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/mone...-vegan-burger-released-nationwide/3591837002/


----------



## KenOC

It's available here now. YouTube comparos suggest it's as good as the meat version. However it's also pointed out that if you eat a regular Whopper meat patty by itself, it's none too good!


----------



## Guest

geralmar said:


> Coincidentally, Burger King is poised to release its meatless "Impossible Burger" nationwide.
> 
> https://www.usatoday.com/story/mone...-vegan-burger-released-nationwide/3591837002/





KenOC said:


> It's available here now. YouTube comparos suggest it's as good as the meat version. However it's also pointed out that if you eat a regular Whopper meat patty by itself, it's none too good!


I have tried it. While it does not taste bad, I was not under any misconception that it was a meat patty. I prefer the meat Whopper, and I doubt these will replace meat. I have read that they aren't necessarily healthier - they have much more sodium than a regular meat patty - and that makes sense, as you have to add a lot of stuff to get it to "taste" like a Whopper. So it isn't necessarily healthier. I guess if you want to cut meat out of your diet, it isn't bad. I don't think I'll get it again.


----------



## Luchesi

DrMike said:


> I have tried it. While it does not taste bad, I was not under any misconception that it was a meat patty. I prefer the meat Whopper, and I doubt these will replace meat. I have read that they aren't necessarily healthier - they have much more sodium than a regular meat patty - and that makes sense, as you have to add a lot of stuff to get it to "taste" like a Whopper. So it isn't necessarily healthier. I guess if you want to cut meat out of your diet, it isn't bad. I don't think I'll get it again.


They could make it tastier with a little meat juice. ..But they won't.

All or nothing is the mind set. You shouldn't cut out meat unless you're aware of your B12 sources. Without it arterial inflammation is a biggie.

What about gorillas?

added:

Be aware that exercising depletes vitamin B12 and that is a very dangerous condition for arteries, especially if you also avoid most meats in your diet.

This is an entertaining video about B12 and other essentials, and the science. The doctor is funnier than most;


----------



## joen_cph

Chinese police has begun patrolling on an everyday basis in .......... Serbia.


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1175711333645508608


----------



## KenOC

*Camel's testicles bitten by woman at Louisiana truck stop petting zoo: authorities*

Not in Florida this time..,.


----------



## TxllxT

*A real recent story from Russian FaceBook about Opera & Learning Opera texts by heart*

This tale is not about work, but about relaxation. Once we went to Slovenia, and from there we decided to drive away to Venice for a day. One day. Everything would be fine, but in the first three hours of tourism, we were robbed. They pulled everything out of the bag: credit cards, cash and passports. Passports with VISAS, and the worst thing is an English visa, through which I had to fly to London three days later to sing a performance. Coronation of Poppea Monteverdi. One of the main roles. Replacements / insurance singer thrifty English did not bother to get it.
I had a nervous breakdown. We immediately called the consulate (the nearest was in Milan), but summer, lads, summer! Consul on vacation. Lol
We got into the international police at San Marco. But this is the international police in Italy! They do not speak English. But I didn't speak Italian in tepors. What to do? My moss, seething with heat and adrenaline, gives an original solution: try to communicate phrases from operas with carabinieri (since I always translated the texts of the games verbatim).
I began with a mixture of "Coronation of Poppea" and Gluckovsky Orpheus:
- Son disprezzata e sconsolata! Io manco, io moro ... (I am rejected and inconsolable by everyone! I lose consciousness, I die.)
The policemen would be glad to burst into my face, but seeing my buried physics and general hysterical state, they sat me down and gave me water. Further it was necessary to somehow outline the essence of the problem. I decided to go further along Orpheus and Eurydice, especially since in my view the words "Eurydice" and "passport" were interchangeable.
- Che faro senza mio passaporte? Dove andro senza mio passaporte? (What will I do without a passport? Where will I go without a passport?)

It worked. The police were active. They began to show me photos of various thieves and tweezers, until I saw a lady in a hijab that crashed into me with all the dope on the bridge.
- Ecco la donna maledetta! Vorrei smembrarla! (This damn woman! I want to dismember her!)

Having recovered from the shock, the police gave us a certificate according to which we were to be taken free of charge to the place of our departure (Trieste), they gave us water and rations, and promised to keep us informed. All the way to the train station, I prayed to the spirit of Senor Monteverdi, whose opera was to remain without prima.

Already at the station a call - an excited policeman asked me to return to the station. When we dragged along, all the policemen lined up at the entrance with happy faces, shaking our passports - it turns out that the thief threw them along with credit cards in the men's toilet in San Marco, where they were found by a boy from Bangladesh who brought them to the police.

Dying from the happiness that suddenly fell on us, I cried out:
- Signore cavalliero! Vi benedico per la vostra bonta e gentilezza! (Signor Knight, I bless you for your kindness and affection!)

The dead policeman said goodbye to me:
- Signora, la sua lingua e molto elegante! (Senora, you have a very elegant Italian)
(c)
Maria Ostroukhova


----------



## TxllxT

http://robertgilder.co/test/wp/portfolio-item/maria-ostroukhova/


----------



## geralmar

Stray cat hired by Brazilian law agency. (Feel good story).



https://www.boredpanda.com/homeless...r&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=Newsletter


----------



## KenOC

Sad story from Dallas, Texas. A young lady cop, returning home after her shift and still in uniform, found her apartment unlocked. Entering, she saw a black man eating ice cream. Convinced he was a burglar, she shot and killed him.

Unfortunately she was on the wrong floor, and the apartment was that of the fellow she shot, an accountant. Did she commit a crime? *The courts are sorting this out*.


----------



## Guest

Yes, that's right; the default position is always to shoot somebody who's eating an ice cream. Why was she carrying a gun? 

I'm afraid decades of ultra-violent film and television have had a shocking legacy for the USA. There was always going to be an opportunity cost to carrying guns and pulling one out as and when needed. And, no, I'm not talking about the old west.


----------



## KenOC

Actually Trump carries a gun when he's in New York, where he has a license to do so. Hasn't shot any ice cream-eaters yet, SFAIK.


----------



## Jacck

KenOC said:


> Actually Trump carries a gun when he's in New York, where he has a license to do so. Hasn't shot any ice cream-eaters yet, SFAIK.


and even if he did, he would not lose any supporters because they are so smart and love him so much


----------



## starthrower

^^^
As soon as I turned that on, Joe Pesci's portrayal of a mafia thug in the Goodfellas movie came to mind.


----------



## Jacck

It looks like Trump is finished. I am almost starting to feel sorry for him, but then I remeber how he mocked the disabled reporter and remind myself, that this guy does not deserve any pity. But this ukrainegate is demonstrating how corrupt the whole US politics is. The democrats are so self-righteous in criticizing Trump over corruption, but when Ilhan Omar just stated the obvious fact, that AIPAC corrupts US politicians, she was called antisemitic by her own party. That is the real bipartisan swamp
https://theintercept.com/2019/02/12...izing-aipac-and-ilhan-omar-just-destroyed-it/
the whole US election process is corrupt and foreign governments can abuse it by donating money (through third parties) for the campaigns and thus INTERFERE in US election process. A pity that Trump could not drain the swamp, but became part of the swamp.


----------



## Strange Magic

Trump never intended to drain any swamps. He only wished to replace existing swamp creatures with his own, but Pence & Company made sure their creatures became the ones Trump picked.


----------



## KenOC

Free speech is becoming history in the US. I had hoped never to see this.

​


> New York City's Commission on Human Rights announced on Thursday that residents could face up to $250,000 in fines if they use terms such as "illegal alien ... with intent to demean, humiliate or harass a person."
> 
> "Hate has no place here," a tweet from the City of New York read. The city's announcement ticked off a list of offensive ways to address immigrants -- including threatening to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), or harassing someone for their "limited English proficiency."


"Illegal alien" is a legal term used in US code to describe a non-citizen resident in the US in an unlawful manner.


----------



## Strange Magic

Source, please?


----------



## Jacck

KenOC said:


> Free speech is becoming history in the US. I had hoped never to see this.
> "Illegal alien" is a legal term used in US code to describe a non-citizen resident in the US in an unlawful manner.


this is a standard practice in some european countries, most notably Germany 
https://newrepublic.com/article/147364/verboten-germany-law-stopping-hate-speech-facebook-twitter
they implement censorship and repression to supress so called hate speech (Haßsprache). It is probably given historically in Germany, given their experience with nazism and hate speech from that time. On the other hand it gives powerful tool to Russia to capitalize on the supressed anger and chanel it through parties such as AfD (a Russian project)
https://theconversation.com/how-russians-have-helped-fuel-the-rise-of-germanys-far-right-105551

Czech Republic is much more free than e.g. Germany in this regard. I am aware of just one word, that was discontinued because it was considered offensive. It is politicially incorrect to refer to gypsies as gypsies and now the word Romani people is used instead.


----------



## Jacck

Mattel, Maker of Barbie, Debuts Gender-Neutral Dolls
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/sep/25/barbie-maker-gender-neutral-dolls-release
where has this been all my childhood? As a boy, I wanted nothing more than to play with gender neutral dolls

and Hasbro released new Ms Monopoly, where women will make more than men
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/sep/16/woke-washing-ms-monopoly-toys-gender-race-equality
it really is a great idea to combat supposed gender inequality by implementing gender inequal rules into a game for kids


----------



## Johnnie Burgess

Strange Magic said:


> Source, please?


[/url]https://nypost.com/2019/09/26/city-bans-calling-someone-an-illegal-alien-out-of-hate/


----------



## starthrower

KenOC said:


> Free speech is becoming history in the US. I had hoped never to see this.


Not if people resist and keep talking. And it's not a new phenomenon. The late Nat Hentoff, a long time free speech advocate chronicled many cases of first amendment violations in US history that were compiled in the Nat Hentoff Reader.



> "Illegal alien" is a legal term used in US code to describe a non-citizen resident in the US in an unlawful manner.


Obviously the key is educating ourselves about the law and our rights as citizens.


----------



## Strange Magic

KenOC said:


> Free speech is becoming history in the US. I had hoped never to see this.
> 
> 
> 
> "Illegal alien" is a legal term used in US code to describe a non-citizen resident in the US in an unlawful manner.​




I agree. Overkill. Silly. Showing intent to demean , etc. may prove problematic, and judges may throw the whole thing out.​


----------



## KenOC

“California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, on Tuesday signed a bill that no longer requires any ‘able-bodied person 18 years of age or older’ in the state to help an officer who requests assistance during an arrest.

“The Sacramento Bee reported that the old law, the California Posse Comitatus Act of 1872, was common in the country’s early days, but Sen. Bob Hertzberg, a Los Angeles Democrat who sponsored the bill, called the old law a ‘vestige of a bygone era.’ The law was employed to help catch runaway slaves, the report said.”

Uh, boys and girls, there were no slaves in the US after 1865… And in any event, California entered the union as a free state in 1850.


----------



## KenOC

Christabel said:


> Yes, that's right; the default position is always to shoot somebody who's eating an ice cream. Why was she carrying a gun?
> 
> I'm afraid decades of ultra-violent film and television have had a shocking legacy for the USA. There was always going to be an opportunity cost to carrying guns and pulling one out as and when needed. And, no, I'm not talking about the old west.


She was carrying a gun because she was a police officer in uniform. She panicked when she found an "intruder" in "her" apartment and shot and killed him. Racial issues aside, I find hard to think of this as Murder One, which normally requires premeditation and for which she has been convicted. Negligent homicide, certainly. And she should be barred from law enforcement duties and never, ever, allowed to own or carry a firearm.


----------



## geralmar

KenOC said:


> She was carrying a gun because she was a police officer in uniform. She panicked when she found an "intruder" in "her" apartment and shot and killed him. Racial issues aside, I find hard to think of this as Murder One, which normally requires premeditation and for which she has been convicted. Negligent homicide, certainly. And she should be barred from law enforcement duties and never, ever, allowed to own or carry a firearm.


The only choices before the jury were murder and manslaughter; likely a combination of prosecutor strategy and peculiarities in Texas criminal law. Also defense's cynical use of the "castle doctrine"-- basically it's OK to use deadly force against an intruder in your own home-- didn't impress the jury. Obviously Guyger was not in her own home. Finally, Guyger didn't help her case by "sexting" before and after the shooting. The sentence for murder (in Texas) is five years to life in prison. I believe an appeal is automatic. The case is not over.


----------



## starthrower

KenOC said:


> And she should be barred from law enforcement duties and never, ever, allowed to own or carry a firearm.


Any police officer that can't recognize their own apartment should have never been on the force. I don't care how identical they look. I wonder if she would have pulled the trigger so quickly if it was a white person? I have an 84 year old family friend who has dinner with my wife an I a couple times a month. We drive her home to her condo that looks identical to all the others and she knows exactly which one belongs to her. Even after dark.


----------



## geralmar

starthrower said:


> Any police officer that can't recognize their own apartment should have never been on the force. I don't care how identical they look. I wonder if she would have pulled the trigger so quickly if it was a white person? I have an 84 year old family friend who has dinner with my wife an I a couple times a month. We drive her home to her condo that looks identical to all the others and she knows exactly which one belongs to her. Even after dark.


The defense itself eliminated the manslaughter option before the jury by stipulating that the shooting was intentional. However it then argued the shooting was lawful because it was prompted by honest mistake of fact-- defendant was unfortunately in the wrong apartment. (Defense attorneys were invoking a twisted version of the castle doctrine). If I were Guyger I wouldn't use the same team of lawyers on the appeal.

Guyger just got off a thirteen hour shift and was exhausted. She, however, failed to notice the red crescent rug in front of the victim's door, which was apparently improperly latched. Also she had the option (stipulated in department protocols) of requesting backup before charging into the apartment. I leave open the issue of race in what ensued.

The jury was five black, five Hispanic/Asian, and two white.

Note: I've taken all this off various Internet sources so I apologize for any errors.


----------



## Guest

starthrower said:


> Any police officer that can't recognize their own apartment should have never been on the force. I don't care how identical they look. I wonder if she would have pulled the trigger so quickly if it was a white person? I have an 84 year old family friend who has dinner with my wife an I a couple times a month. We drive her home to her condo that looks identical to all the others and she knows exactly which one belongs to her. Even after dark.


Wow - when she is specifically seeking out her condo to direct you where to take her, she finds it? That is amazing. And if you weren't with her, and she was just casually walking along, paying attention to something else, she also never makes a mistake? Look - who here hasn't made the mistake? Forgot where you parked your car? I park in a parking deck all the time for work - numerous times I have forgotten the floor, and walked up to a car I thought was my own (I have a very common make, model, and color).

This was a tragic accident. I don't think she intended to kill anybody. That being said, a man is dead who shouldn't be, and she is to blame. As a police officer, she should have been a little better prepared to handle a situation like what she imagined had happened - police officers shouldn't shoot that quickly unless they see specific cause to, which there was not here. Even if she legitimately thought there was an intruder in her home. Cops should be held to higher standards, since they are in a unique position in our society where they are legally charged with the ability to use force - even deadly force - against others. Still - murder one? That seems excessive.

And why do we always have to assume racism? Seriously. Are we perfect on the issue of racism? No. But this isn't the America of the 60's - the 1860s or 1960s. We have elected a black man two times to be president. Let's quit throwing these accusations around unless we actually have evidence to that effect - you know, the way we should treat anything.


----------



## starthrower

Go ahead and make excuse for her. And no I don't agree with murder one but she needs to do some time. Sure, we all make mistakes but we don't pull out a gun a shoot someone.


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## Guest

I have read a few reports and I don't see any of them specifically referring to "first degree murder." I have never lived in Texas and don't know how murder is defined and whether there are distinctions between first and second degree murder in Texas law.

In New York State, where I have spent the most time, it would seem most natural to convict for second degree murder, which is generally non-premeditated and doesn't require intent to kill if the accused exhibits a "depraved indifference to human life." In New York I would have expected a second degree murder conviction.

I see no overt indication of racism, but there was testimony that the bullet entered the victim with a downward trajectory. This contradicts the convict's account of the incident, and indicates the victim was in a cowering posture when he was fatally shot.


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## Guest

One further thought, the wrong apartment mistake is totally understandable, but no excuse. Once I was returning home to my apartment, which was an array of identical buildings in an row. I was distracted and went up the steps of the wrong building. I came to "my" door and was surprised it was open. I stepped in and saw a strange, surprised person. I was flummoxed for a split second, then said, "ooops, wrong apartment" and sheepishly retreated. Even if I did have a gun, I don't think I would have shot that person full of holes.

Amber Guyger is a murderer. We can argue first verses second degree.


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## Guest

starthrower said:


> Go ahead and make excuse for her. And no I don't agree with murder one but she needs to do some time. Sure, we all make mistakes but we don't pull out a gun a shoot someone.


I think she should be absolutely punished. Even if it was an honest mistake due to a combination of her being tired and distracted, a man is dead and she is to blame, and should have a higher standard applied to her than a normal citizen. I'm just saying it is ridiculous to dismiss the possibility that she may actually have made a mistake in entering the wrong apartment - the only other possibility is that she absolutely intended to enter a different apartment than her own.


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## starthrower

DrMike said:


> And why do we always have to assume racism? Seriously. Are we perfect on the issue of racism? No. But this isn't the America of the 60's - the 1860s or 1960s. We have elected a black man two times to be president. Let's quit throwing these accusations around unless we actually have evidence to that effect - you know, the way we should treat anything.


The evidence shows that far too many citizens are being shot by police. 4,400 fatal shootings since 2015. And of the unarmed citizens shot and killed by police, 36 percent are black even though they only account for 13 percent of the total population. Unarmed black men are shot and killed at a rate of almost 5 to 1 compared to whites. So it's about time the courts started making an example of some of these careless officers shooting people dead when it didn't need to happen. And higher ranking officials need to be held accountable because as you stated, many officers are not receiving proper training, or screening before they are hired. I took my figures from this article in the Washington Post.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...e-shootings-years-after-ferguson/?arc404=true


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## Guest

starthrower said:


> The evidence shows that far too many citizens are being shot by police. 4,400 fatal shootings since 2015. And of the unarmed citizens shot and killed by police, 36 percent are black even though they only account for 13 percent of the total population. Unarmed black men are shot and killed at a rate of almost 5 to 1 compared to whites. So it's about time the courts started making an example of some of these careless officers shooting people dead when it didn't need to happen. And higher ranking officials need to be held accountable because as you stated, many officers are not receiving proper training, or screening before they are hired. I took my figures from this article in the Washington Post.
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...e-shootings-years-after-ferguson/?arc404=true


What concerns me is police training. I have seen some articles which contrast policing techniques in the U.S. and in other countries. Current training in the U.S. seems to be based on a warrior mentality (kill or be killed) which is disproportionately focused on intimidation and neglects de-escalation as a way to get out of a fraught situation. I think it is possible that this sort of training was a factor in the officer's response to immediately draw her gun and fire before she had any idea what she was shooting at.


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## KenOC

A jury has fixed Amber Guyger's sentence at ten years. The prosecution was asking for 28 (based on the victim's age!)


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## Guest

starthrower said:


> The evidence shows that far too many citizens are being shot by police. 4,400 fatal shootings since 2015. And of the unarmed citizens shot and killed by police, 36 percent are black even though they only account for 13 percent of the total population. Unarmed black men are shot and killed at a rate of almost 5 to 1 compared to whites. So it's about time the courts started making an example of some of these careless officers shooting people dead when it didn't need to happen. And higher ranking officials need to be held accountable because as you stated, many officers are not receiving proper training, or screening before they are hired. I took my figures from this article in the Washington Post.
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...e-shootings-years-after-ferguson/?arc404=true


The evidence is not as cut and dry as that. This article in the journal Nature gives a very good rundown on why it is so hard to nail down the reasons for disparity in police shootings, the biggest reason being that the data has only recently begun to be collected in any meaningful way.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02601-9


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## starthrower

An interesting and informative article. And although there's a lot more work to be done, it seems as though the sheer number of guns on the street in the US have police officers on edge more so than in a country like Australia. But France was third behind the US and Canada in fatal shootings despite a much lower estimated percentage of gun owners.


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## Strange Magic

starthrower said:


> An interesting and informative article. And although there's a lot more work to be done, it seems as though the sheer number of guns on the street in the US have police officers on edge more so than in a country like Australia. *But France was third behind the US and Canada in fatal shootings despite a much lower estimated percentage of gun owners.*


True, but France's 3rd ranking at 26 deaths is trivial when compared with the US number, especially when considering the relatively large population of France. Also, the killings by police in both No.2 Canada and No.3 France, few as they are, may be directly related to the presence of large ethnic minority Indian/Inuit populations in Canada and African populations in France, suggesting a "racial" component in those two countries similar to that observed in the US figures.


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## Jacck

it's not only the guns and police killings, but also the number of prisoners where the US is an extreme outlier. The U.S. has 760 prisoners per 100,000 citizens. That’s not just many more than in most other developed countries but seven to 10 times as many. Japan has 63 per 100,000, Germany has 90, France has 96, South Korea has 97, and Britain–with a rate among the highest–has 153. Even developing countries that are well known for their crime problems have a third of U.S. numbers. Mexico has 208 prisoners per 100,000 citizens, and Brazil has 242. Over all, there are now more people under ‘correctional supervision’ in America - more than 6 million - than were in the Gulag Archipelago under Stalin at its height. At the height of the Gulag system under Stalin, the incarceration rate was 800/100,000

what is the explanation of this? Is someone making profit from the prisoners?


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## starthrower

Yes, companies are profiting from incarceration. I haven't read any recent articles but I know it started in the 1850s with San Quentin which is now state owned. And I've read of lobbying efforts for stiffer sentences that mostly affect the poorer segment of the population.


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## Guest

Jacck said:


> it's not only the guns and police killings, but also the number of prisoners where the US is an extreme outlier. The U.S. has 760 prisoners per 100,000 citizens. That's not just many more than in most other developed countries but seven to 10 times as many. Japan has 63 per 100,000, Germany has 90, France has 96, South Korea has 97, and Britain-with a rate among the highest-has 153. Even developing countries that are well known for their crime problems have a third of U.S. numbers. Mexico has 208 prisoners per 100,000 citizens, and Brazil has 242. Over all, there are now more people under 'correctional supervision' in America - more than 6 million - than were in the Gulag Archipelago under Stalin at its height. At the height of the Gulag system under Stalin, the incarceration rate was 800/100,000
> 
> what is the explanation of this? Is someone making profit from the prisoners?


How would that work? Judges and prosecutors are being paid by prison wardens?

No - I think it simply has to do with more criminal penalties, and with a greater demand for law enforcement. True, we have a lot in prison. One of the biggest problems stems from non-violent offenders, particularly petty drug offenders, being incarcerated due to an ill-advised drug war.

But that to the side, we have also seen a massive drop in crime, particularly violent crime, in this country, over the last 2-3 decades, and that would be predicted to be associated with a rise in incarceration. I don't think you can compare that to some places like Mexico and Brazil, where the lower level of incarceration may very well also be associated with poorer policing - more criminals getting away with things. We know there are cities and regions heavily controlled by drug cartels. We also know that more homogeneous societies tend to have lower crime rates, so lower levels of incarceration would also be predicted there.

Comparing it to Stalin's gulag? Really? As if there was any comparison? Presumably there was also a common criminal incarceration system alongside the gulag - that might be something better to compare. At any rate, the Gulag Archipelago is likely also an artificially low number, as it doesn't account for those who were simply executed rather than sent to the gulag.


----------



## Jacck

DrMike said:


> How would that work? Judges and prosecutors are being paid by prison wardens?
> No - I think it simply has to do with more criminal penalties, and with a greater demand for law enforcement. True, we have a lot in prison. One of the biggest problems stems from non-violent offenders, particularly petty drug offenders, being incarcerated due to an ill-advised drug war.
> But that to the side, we have also seen a massive drop in crime, particularly violent crime, in this country, over the last 2-3 decades, and that would be predicted to be associated with a rise in incarceration. I don't think you can compare that to some places like Mexico and Brazil, where the lower level of incarceration may very well also be associated with poorer policing - more criminals getting away with things. We know there are cities and regions heavily controlled by drug cartels. We also know that more homogeneous societies tend to have lower crime rates, so lower levels of incarceration would also be predicted there.
> Comparing it to Stalin's gulag? Really? As if there was any comparison? Presumably there was also a common criminal incarceration system alongside the gulag - that might be something better to compare. At any rate, the Gulag Archipelago is likely also an artificially low number, as it doesn't account for those who were simply executed rather than sent to the gulag.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison–industrial_complex
the comparison to Gulag might not be so outragous, because in both cases the reasons for the prison-industrial complex is to supply cheap slave labor. There is a rich lobby of private prisons, who make money from selling the slave labor, and this lobby corrupts politicians to keep the system in place. So the ultimate reason for the prisons is not to correct and rehabilitate prisoners, but to supply slaves, just like in Gulag.


----------



## Guest

Jacck said:


> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison–industrial_complex
> the comparison to Gulag might not be so outragous, because in both cases the reasons for the prison-industrial complex is to supply cheap slave labor. There is a rich lobby of private prisons, who make money from selling the slave labor, and this lobby corrupts politicians to keep the system in place. So the ultimate reason for the prisons is not to correct and rehabilitate prisoners, but to supply slaves, just like in Gulag.


Slave labor was a side effect of the gulag, not it's reason for being. It was to incarcerate political enemies and undesirables. The American prison system is to incarcerate criminals. There is absolutely a major difference. Only conspiracy theories conflate the two.


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## Strange Magic

> Jacck: "what is the explanation of this? Is someone making profit from the prisoners?"


The explanation is centuries of all-pervasive racism saturating American society top to bottom, and the decades of the War on Drugs, itself a rebirth and continuation of the same thinking that brought us the catastrophe of Prohibition. The twin ideas are that some races are inherently inclined to criminality, and that the cure for the disease of addiction is incarceration. Only in America.


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## starthrower

U.S. Growth In Private Prisons

https://www.sentencingproject.org/p...-incarceration-u-s-growth-in-private-prisons/


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## Guest

starthrower said:


> U.S. Growth In Private Prisons
> 
> https://www.sentencingproject.org/p...-incarceration-u-s-growth-in-private-prisons/


What is with the bias that private institutions are less to be trusted than government? Tell me - when do government organizations actually get punished when they screw up? When the IRS admitted to wrongfully targeting conservative groups, who ended up being punished or fired for that? The EPA claimed responsibility for the 2015 Gold King Mine waste water spill - but they refused to pay for any damages. Would a private company have gotten off like that? When the government screws up, they hold hearings, politicians bluster, and in the end, there is little to no accountability. And they waste our money all the time. The difference is that the government can sack a private company that doesn't meet its obligations. No accountability like that ever happens in government - more often than not politicians simply chalk it up to that agency being underfunded and just throw more money at their mistakes, throwing good money after bad.


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## Jacck

DrMike said:


> What is with the bias that private institutions are less to be trusted than government? Tell me - when do government organizations actually get punished when they screw up? When the IRS admitted to wrongfully targeting conservative groups, who ended up being punished or fired for that? The EPA claimed responsibility for the 2015 Gold King Mine waste water spill - but they refused to pay for any damages. Would a private company have gotten off like that? When the government screws up, they hold hearings, politicians bluster, and in the end, there is little to no accountability. And they waste our money all the time. The difference is that the government can sack a private company that doesn't meet its obligations. No accountability like that ever happens in government - more often than not politicians simply chalk it up to that agency being underfunded and just throw more money at their mistakes, throwing good money after bad.


and when do bankers get punished when they screw up? They screwed up massively in 2008 through their greed and psychopathy, caused a worldwide crisis, many people lost money, jobs, there were suicides. And not a single one of those crooks went to jail. The state bailed the banks out. And it is similar with most of these big companies and industries. The right-wing parties serve those industries and the rich, and brainwash people with claims how everything private is good and everything state owned is bad. The root of this toxic ideology is Reaganism-Thatherism, which caused the disappearance of the middle class and the ever increasing gap between the rich and the poor.
https://thedailybanter.com/2017/08/...w-reaganomics-has-destroyed-the-middle-class/


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## starthrower

There's a half senile orange headed blabbermouth in the White House being held accountable at the moment. The article did mention that there are inadequacies in the public incarceration system as well. But mostly your response was decidedly general for the sake of argument.


----------



## Guest

Jacck said:


> and when do bankers get punished when they screw up? They screwed up massively in 2008 through their greed and psychopathy, caused a worldwide crisis, many people lost money, jobs, there were suicides. And not a single one of those crooks went to jail. The state bailed the banks out. And it is similar with most of these big companies and industries. The right-wing parties serve those industries and the rich, and brainwash people with claims how everything private is good and everything state owned is bad. The root of this toxic ideology is Reaganism-Thatherism, which caused the disappearance of the middle class and the ever increasing gap between the rich and the poor.
> https://thedailybanter.com/2017/08/...w-reaganomics-has-destroyed-the-middle-class/


You seem to have more of an emotional reaction here, so laying out a logical argument I don't think will accomplish anything. Private enterprises get punished all the time - you offer an example, but a poor one, given that it was the government who stepped in, first to require those banks to take on risky loans, and then decided to bail them out. Hardly the example to use to make your point. But yes - crony capitalism is bad all around, because it distorts the natural corrections of the market. I fully support the notion of businesses being punished or going under if they can't provide a service that people want without government propping them up, or act in deceitful ways.


----------



## Guest

starthrower said:


> There's a half senile orange headed blabbermouth in the White House being held accountable at the moment. The article did mention that there are inadequacies in the public incarceration system as well. But mostly your response was decidedly general for the sake of argument.


Meh - Democrats have been hell-bent on impeaching Trump since the second he won the election. They've just been waiting for anything even remotely plausible. Believe it or not, I'm actually fine if they want to impeach him on this Ukraine thing. Impeachment is a political issue, and if they think that this behavior is impeachable, they should go for it. I think he treats the executive branch as his own personal stick with which to beat whomever he wants for whatever he wants, and that is wrong. That being said, I think the whole thing is a farce. This is what we think is impeachable? Seriously? The guy bombed Syria without Congressional approval, and they didn't think that warranted impeachment? Obama assassinated an American on foreign soil by drone strike without due process, and nobody thought that was impeachable? Obama said he couldn't just institute DACA, that he didn't have the authority, and then he did it in spite of what he had earlier said, and nobody thought that was impeachable? Obama attacked Libya and helped unseat the government without Congressional approval, and nobody tried to impeach him. George W. Bush said McCain-Feingold was unconstitutional, and then he signed it into law anyways, and nobody thought that was impeachable? I think the very notion of what should and shouldn't lead to impeachment anymore is a joke - more serious, more straightforward violations of constitutional authority have been going on since at least back to the George W. Bush administration, but this? This is what gets them excited? Sorry - impeachment is no longer a tool to hold the executive to account for wrongdoing - it is now simply being wielded as a petty weapon to vent frustration about losing an election.


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## starthrower

What's farcical is that enough citizens thought it was a good idea to elect Trump for president in the first place.


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## Johnnie Burgess

starthrower said:


> What's farcical is that enough citizens thought it was a good idea to elect Trump for president in the first place.


He is far better than hillary the rotten.


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## KenOC

Political discourse at the level of a bad comic book! I mean, I enjoy a good booger fight as much as the next guy, but I won't want to see the mods shut this thread down.


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## starthrower

Johnnie Burgess said:


> He is far better than hillary the rotten.


A moot point since Hillary has never been the president.


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## Johnnie Burgess

starthrower said:


> A moot point since Hillary has never been the president.


Either Trump or Hillary was going to win in 2016. The third-party candidates had no chance.


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## Jacck

DrMike said:


> You seem to have more of an emotional reaction here, so laying out a logical argument I don't think will accomplish anything. Private enterprises get punished all the time - you offer an example, but a poor one, given that it was the government who stepped in, first to require those banks to take on risky loans, and then decided to bail them out. Hardly the example to use to make your point. But yes - crony capitalism is bad all around, because it distorts the natural corrections of the market. I fully support the notion of businesses being punished or going under if they can't provide a service that people want without government propping them up, or act in deceitful ways.


not all markets and not all private enterprises are equal and certain markets need to be regulated. The free markets work well with potatoes, refrigerators etc. But other markets such as healthcare need more regulation (due to market failures such as information asymmetry). Financial markets absolutely need regulation, but the capitalists at the top of their markets corrupt politicians to lift or not implement those regulation




and no sane person would privatize the judical system, the prison system or the army. The state needs to control these things. Through elections, people have some form of control over these things. If these things were private, people would have absolutely no control.


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## Jacck

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/10/mi...ating-frightening-divisions-within-the-ranks/
will there be a civil war in America, if he is removed from office? It looks like it. Thanks to NRA, the country is now much better prepared for this eventuality than during the last civil war.


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## starthrower

There isn't going to be any civil war. This is nonsense. Some of these religious right folks think Trump a gift from their God, but nobody else believes this bunk.


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## philoctetes

starthrower said:


> A moot point since Hillary has never been the president.


She did enough damage in the State Department.


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## starthrower

philoctetes said:


> She did enough damage in the State Department.


And how is Trump doing? The problem is the major party committees and type of candidates they want to win the nomination. Somebody who will perpetuate the status quo.


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## Strange Magic

philoctetes said:


> She did enough damage in the State Department.


The State Department today: "The beatings will continue until morale improves!" Every day brings new wonders.


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## philoctetes

Strange Magic said:


> The State Department today: "The beatings will continue until morale improves!" Every day brings new wonders.


More Adam Schiff parody for analysis... a slope so slippery the "analyst" doesn't know they're descending.....


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## Strange Magic

philoctetes said:


> More Adam Schiff parody for analysis... a slope so slippery the "analyst" doesn't know they're descending.....


Thank goodness at least you understand your cryptic posts. Otherwise......


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## philoctetes

Strange Magic said:


> Thank goodness at least you understand your cryptic posts. Otherwise......


it's over your head again... right? How embarrassing for you!


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## Strange Magic

philoctetes said:


> it's over your head again... right?


Absolutely! I try always to opt for intelligibility. The air is so thin where you are usually comfortable that you never notice the loss....


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## philoctetes

Strange Magic said:


> The air is so thin where you are usually comfortable that you never notice the loss....


Not a bad job matching what you claim not to understand! I conclude your word can't be trusted...


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## Strange Magic

philoctetes said:


> Not a bad job matching what you claim not to understand! I conclude your word can't be trusted...


An unmixed blessing! Will you now move on to a new shiny thing? (I hope so!)


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## philoctetes

Strange Magic said:


> An unmixed blessing! Will you now move on to a new shiny thing? (I hope so!)


Sure man... from dirty old thing to shiny new thing.... bye now...


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## starthrower

philoctetes said:


> bye now...


Trump's latest message to the Kurds fighting in Syria. And now it's bombs away from Turkey.


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## Jacck

starthrower said:


> Trump's latest message to the Kurds fighting in Syria. And now it's bombs away from Turkey.


Vlad was celebrating birthday yesterday, so his best friend in the WH gave him some gifts
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ev37ya/trump-syria-troop-withdrawal-isis
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/10/li...-to-pull-put-of-treaty-for-monitoring-russia/
who could have thought 30 years ago, that the two superpowers will get so friendly one day


----------



## Guest

Jacck said:


> Vlad was celebrating birthday yesterday, so his best friend in the WH gave him some gifts
> https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ev37ya/trump-syria-troop-withdrawal-isis
> https://www.rawstory.com/2019/10/li...-to-pull-put-of-treaty-for-monitoring-russia/
> who could have thought 30 years ago, that the two superpowers will get so friendly one day


Oddly enough, many of those who 30 years ago wanted us to be more friendly are now the ones complaining the most about the apparent closeness. It really is funny how situational our ethics are on these issues. Reminds me a lot of how so many American communists at the start of WWII were opposed to American intervention when Stalin had his treaty with Hitler, and then changed their minds when Hitler turned on Stalin.


----------



## Jacck

DrMike said:


> Oddly enough, many of those who 30 years ago wanted us to be more friendly are now the ones complaining the most about the apparent closeness. It really is funny how situational our ethics are on these issues. Reminds me a lot of how so many American communists at the start of WWII were opposed to American intervention when Stalin had his treaty with Hitler, and then changed their minds when Hitler turned on Stalin.


the whole West (both USA and EU) failed spectacularly on Putin and are now paying the price. If the West confronted this little dictator during the Georgia crisis militarily, Ukraine and the rest might not have followed. The political crisis and the deep societal divisions that you have have been in part caused by Putin and his hybrid war (information warfare, spread of corruption etc). Putin has been using the same strategy in Europe, in US and elsewhere. He is stealing money from the Russian people and using this money to corrupt western politicians and he is very successful at that. He does that even in Isreael
https://www.timesofisrael.com/netan...uthoritarian-threat-isnt-warns-russia-expert/
and the West is totally incapable to mount any reasonable defense. In the US you have those corrupt Republicans. Vlad likely hacked not only DNS but also the RNS servers and has likely so much dirt on the Republicans that they rather betray their country and keep the russian troll as president than to fight back. In the EU, you have the same spineless politicians. Macron has already been advocating lifting of sanctions against Russia and "reset" of relationships and the whole EU is willing to throw the whole Ukraine to Russia through the Steinmeier formula etc. What lifting of sanctions, if Russia is still waging a war against us?


----------



## Guest

Jacck said:


> the whole West (both USA and EU) failed spectacularly on Putin and are now paying the price. If the West confronted this little dictator during the Georgia crisis militarily, Ukraine and the rest might not have followed. The political crisis and the deep societal divisions that you have have been in part caused by Putin and his hybrid war (information warfare, spread of corruption etc). Putin has been using the same strategy in Europe, in US and elsewhere. He is stealing money from the Russian people and using this money to corrupt western politicians and he is very successful at that. He does that even in Isreael
> https://www.timesofisrael.com/netan...uthoritarian-threat-isnt-warns-russia-expert/
> and the West is totally incapable to mount any reasonable defense. In the US you have those corrupt Republicans. Vlad likely hacked not only DNS but also the RNS servers and has likely so much dirt on the Republicans that they rather betray their country and keep the russian troll as president than to fight back. In the EU, you have the same spineless politicians. Macron has already been advocating lifting of sanctions against Russia and "reset" of relationships and the whole EU is willing to throw the whole Ukraine to Russia through the Steinmeier formula etc. What lifting of sanctions, if Russia is still waging a war against us?


I'm more interventionist than some. And I certainly don't like Putin, nor do I like how recent presidents (both Trump and Obama) have responded to Putin.

But I'm sorry - Europe needs to get its own affairs in order. The US is a favorite punching bag for all of you. I suppose it is easy to rip on us - we won't come and invade you. Trump may say some ridiculous things about our European allies, but it isn't like our European allies have been that friendly towards us. And while they like to criticize us to no end, they seem to always look to us to come clean up their problems. Russia is your neighbor - why don't you do something about it before telling us we need to deal with it? No - Europe likes to have its cake and eat it too. So I am less interested in European complaints about what the US should and should not be doing about Russia.

And both parties in the US have misjudged Putin and given him far too much. But then, when Mitt Romney stated that he felt Russia was one of our greatest geopolitical problems back in the 2012 election debate, Obama mocked him, and the Democrats and their accomplices in the media loved it. And then Obama was caught on microphone telling Medvedev that after his re-election, he'd be more free to deal with Putin, and nobody was worried at that point either about Russia and Putin. George W. Bush negotiated putting more missiles in Eastern Europe (particularly Poland) to help keep pressure on Russia, and Obama cancelled it. And then Obama, through John Kerry, turned the Syria problem over to Putin.

i think Republicans were trying for a while to deal with Russia and Putin, and Democrats had no interest in doing so. And now the problem is much bigger. And Republicans got the message - nobody cares about Russia. But now they do. All the problems in the last election - that was while Obama was running things.

And that is the last political comment I'll make in this thread.


----------



## Jacck

DrMike said:


> I'm more interventionist than some. And I certainly don't like Putin, nor do I like how recent presidents (both Trump and Obama) have responded to Putin.
> 
> But I'm sorry - Europe needs to get its own affairs in order. The US is a favorite punching bag for all of you. I suppose it is easy to rip on us - we won't come and invade you. Trump may say some ridiculous things about our European allies, but it isn't like our European allies have been that friendly towards us. And while they like to criticize us to no end, they seem to always look to us to come clean up their problems. Russia is your neighbor - why don't you do something about it before telling us we need to deal with it? No - Europe likes to have its cake and eat it too. So I am less interested in European complaints about what the US should and should not be doing about Russia.
> 
> And both parties in the US have misjudged Putin and given him far too much. But then, when Mitt Romney stated that he felt Russia was one of our greatest geopolitical problems back in the 2012 election debate, Obama mocked him, and the Democrats and their accomplices in the media loved it. And then Obama was caught on microphone telling Medvedev that after his re-election, he'd be more free to deal with Putin, and nobody was worried at that point either about Russia and Putin. George W. Bush negotiated putting more missiles in Eastern Europe (particularly Poland) to help keep pressure on Russia, and Obama cancelled it. And then Obama, through John Kerry, turned the Syria problem over to Putin.
> 
> i think Republicans were trying for a while to deal with Russia and Putin, and Democrats had no interest in doing so. And now the problem is much bigger. And Republicans got the message - nobody cares about Russia. But now they do. All the problems in the last election - that was while Obama was running things.


But you are completely missing the whole context why the EU was established, why the US supported it and why the US did offer protection to the EU in exchange that the EU gives up its weapons (and buys US weapons). It is the same reason like in Japan. Japan demilitarized in exchange for US protection. US needs allies and alliances and those are vitally important for its interests. If you think that isolationism will do you any good, you are wrong. The main difference between the US and China is that China is isolated and has few friends worldwide, while US have had a vast system of alliances, and the allinace between the EU and USA the most important one. And that is where Trump is doing all the job for Putin, he is destroying all those alliances and causing the world to decouple from the US. 
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/07/0...-the-rest-of-the-world-trade-fta-mercosur-eu/
https://www.birchgold.com/news/the-world-is-quietly-decoupling-from-the-us


----------



## starthrower

Those are two very worrisome articles, Jacck. The domestic fallout has already begun and I'm not looking forward to further negative developments over the next year. https://www.axios.com/trumps-trade-...omy-cf192439-cd83-4bfa-a9b8-a28e4659d8b1.html


----------



## Jacck

starthrower said:


> Those are two very worrisome articles, Jacck. The domestic fallout has already begun and I'm not looking forward to further negative developments over the next year. https://www.axios.com/trumps-trade-...omy-cf192439-cd83-4bfa-a9b8-a28e4659d8b1.html


economic depression might not be the worst. (I am in fact looking forward to one, since I hope it will lower the prices of houses). The real question is if Trump will be able to dismantle the international order established since WW2
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/11/trump-election-foreign-policy/505934/
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/11/military-officers-trump/598360/
He has no understanding of the reasons behind American prosperity of the post-WW2 order and is working hard to dismantle it


----------



## Jacck

DrMike said:


> And both parties in the US have misjudged Putin and given him far too much. But then, when Mitt Romney stated that he felt Russia was one of our greatest geopolitical problems back in the 2012 election debate, Obama mocked him, and the Democrats and their accomplices in the media loved it. And then Obama was caught on microphone telling Medvedev that after his re-election, he'd be more free to deal with Putin, and nobody was worried at that point either about Russia and Putin. George W. Bush negotiated putting more missiles in Eastern Europe (particularly Poland) to help keep pressure on Russia, and Obama cancelled it. And then Obama, through John Kerry, turned the Syria problem over to Putin. i think Republicans were trying for a while to deal with Russia and Putin, and Democrats had no interest in doing so. And now the problem is much bigger. And Republicans got the message - nobody cares about Russia. But now they do. All the problems in the last election - that was while Obama was running things. And that is the last political comment I'll make in this thread.


Putin is definitely the biggest threat facing the western civilization today
Top Secret Russian Unit Seeks to Destabilize Europe, Security Officials Say
he is not fighting with traditional armies, but by intelligence operations
and it is really frustrating to see what is happening and observe the absolute impotence, corruption and unwillingness of the western politicians to fight. If I express here my frustration with Trump or US politics, I have the same frustration for European politicians. Putin is with war with us and they are doing nothing. They should have listened to Kasparov. Putin needs to be deterred by force. It needs to hurt him so much, that he will think twice before medling again. And I do not mean war, but freezing all Russian cash flows to the west. But the money.... this is a grand failure by western elites
http://euromaidanpress.com/2019/06/28/europe-is-for-sale-and-putin-is-buying/


----------



## Strange Magic

Besides giving aid to Vladimir Putin as Putin's finest Useful Idiot, Trump's most dangerous aspect is his giving "permission" to the long-murmuring crypto-fascist American extreme far right to seriously consider armed uprising against legally constituted government. In my quiet corner of NJ, we are treated to a weekly(?) newsletter distributed in local shops. This publication repeatedly declares that "we" are now in a civil war (read: race war, culture war) with The Others. We are invited to a Freedom Festival at a gun shop over a two-day weekend where we can meet our concerned brethren. "So if you're coming, wear your MAGA gear, bring your flags, and carry your patriotic spirit proudly." In the Internet age, and the zenith of NRA gun worship, these people are playing with fire.


----------



## starthrower

Is America being destroyed from within as Nikita Khrushchev predicted? It's starting to look that way.


----------



## starthrower

Duplicate post...


----------



## Luchesi

Jacck said:


> But you are completely missing the whole context why the EU was established, why the US supported it and why the US did offer protection to the EU in exchange that the EU gives up its weapons (and buys US weapons). It is the same reason like in Japan. Japan demilitarized in exchange for US protection. US needs allies and alliances and those are vitally important for its interests. If you think that isolationism will do you any good, you are wrong. The main difference between the US and China is that China is isolated and has few friends worldwide, while US have had a vast system of alliances, and the allinace between the EU and USA the most important one. And that is where Trump is doing all the job for Putin, he is destroying all those alliances and causing the world to decouple from the US.
> https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/07/0...-the-rest-of-the-world-trade-fta-mercosur-eu/
> https://www.birchgold.com/news/the-world-is-quietly-decoupling-from-the-us


100 years ago we could go in and root out the troublemakers. They would be gone. How long would it last?


----------



## Jacck

starthrower said:


> Is America being destroyed from within as Nikita Khrushchev predicted? It's starting to look that way.


basically yes, you have been betrayed by the Republican party
https://www.politico.eu/article/how-the-gop-became-the-party-of-putin/
https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-plot-against-the-west-vladimir-putin-donald-trump-europe/
Let us hope, that DJT explodes within the swamp and takes half of it with himself. Then the process of moral cleansing can begin.


----------



## KenOC

starthrower said:


> Is America being destroyed from within as Nikita Khrushchev predicted? It's starting to look that way.


If memory serves, Khrushchev said, "We will bury you." So kind of the opposite.

"About the capitalist states, it doesn't depend on you whether or not we exist. If you don't like us, don't accept our invitations, and don't invite us to come to see you. Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you!"


----------



## Guest

Jacck said:


> basically yes, you have been betrayed by the Republican party
> https://www.politico.eu/article/how-the-gop-became-the-party-of-putin/
> https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-plot-against-the-west-vladimir-putin-donald-trump-europe/
> Let us hope, that DJT explodes within the swamp and takes half of it with himself. Then the process of moral cleansing can begin.


I'm amazed that someone in the Czech Republic is such an expert on American politics! Moral cleansing! Betrayal!

You know the average American goes from one day to the next much as they have for most of their lives. The economy is going well. Whether or not Trump is impeached is going to make about as big of a splash as when Clinton was impeached. Moral cleansing - right. Regardless of how far you think Trump has corrupted us morally, exactly which alternative is going to be the great moral paragon that brings us back to the path of righteousness? One of the 20+ munchkins competing for the nomination from the opposing party?


----------



## Guest

starthrower said:


> Is America being destroyed from within as Nikita Khrushchev predicted? It's starting to look that way.


It wasn't long after that remark that Khrushchev was ousted by Brezhnev and given a little apartment and a retirement pension of 400 rubles per month.  Poor guy.


----------



## Jacck

Baron Scarpia said:


> It wasn't long after that remark that Khrushchev was ousted by Brezhnev and given a little apartment and a retirement pension of 400 rubles per month.  Poor guy.


he was lucky given Russian history. I just quickly google translated from Czech this primer on Russian history
_
Anyone who wants to navigate very quickly and effectively in the history of the USSR will serve well the following text. As soon as Lenin died, it turned out that the second man in the party, Comrade Trotsky, was a traitor. Kamenev, Zinoviev, Bucharin and Stalin overthrew Trotsky and expelled him from the USSR. But in a few years it was discovered that Kamenev, Zinoviev and Bucharin were also enemies and traitors. And so the brave Genrich Jagoda shot them. And a little later Yezhov shot foreign agent Jagoda. Over the next few years, however, it turned out that Yezhov is not a comrade, but a dirty traitor and a foreign agent. So Beria shot him. After Stalin's death, everyone understood that Beria was a traitor, too. So Zhukov overthrew and shot Berija. But Khrushchev soon understood that Zhukov was an enemy and a conspirator. And he sent him into retirement. And a little later it was discovered that even Stalin was an enemy, a pest and a traitor. And with him a large part of the Politburo. So Stalin was thrown out of the mausoleum and honorary party leaders led by Khrushchev scattered the Politburo and Sepepov. Several years passed and it was no longer possible to deny that Khrushchev was a voluntarist, miserable, avanturist and enemy. So Brezhnev sent him to retire. As soon as Brezhnev died, he was found to be a senile, a pest and an obstacle to development. Then came two more seniles, whose names no one remembers, because they fell one by one like flies. Until Gorbachev became the young and energetic new leader. And it turned out that the whole country was full of traitors and enemies, but he said he would fix it. And then the USSR fell apart and it was discovered that Gorbachev was an enemy and a traitor._

Putin's end it coming too. Then he will be declared a traitor.


----------



## Jacck

a good resource for following the Syria conflict 
https://syria.liveuamap.com/


----------



## philoctetes

"Then the process of moral cleansing can begin"

Naivete reigns like evergreen...


----------



## joen_cph

philoctetes said:


> "Then the process of moral cleansing can begin"
> 
> Naivete reigns like evergreen...


So does coquettish cynicism


----------



## Guest

Jacck said:


> he was lucky given Russian history. I just quickly google translated from Czech this primer on Russian history
> _
> Anyone who wants to navigate very quickly and effectively in the history of the USSR will serve well the following text. As soon as Lenin died, it turned out that the second man in the party, Comrade Trotsky, was a traitor. Kamenev, Zinoviev, Bucharin and Stalin overthrew Trotsky and expelled him from the USSR. But in a few years it was discovered that Kamenev, Zinoviev and Bucharin were also enemies and traitors. And so the brave Genrich Jagoda shot them. And a little later Yezhov shot foreign agent Jagoda. Over the next few years, however, it turned out that Yezhov is not a comrade, but a dirty traitor and a foreign agent. So Beria shot him. After Stalin's death, everyone understood that Beria was a traitor, too. So Zhukov overthrew and shot Berija. But Khrushchev soon understood that Zhukov was an enemy and a conspirator. And he sent him into retirement. And a little later it was discovered that even Stalin was an enemy, a pest and a traitor. And with him a large part of the Politburo. So Stalin was thrown out of the mausoleum and honorary party leaders led by Khrushchev scattered the Politburo and Sepepov. Several years passed and it was no longer possible to deny that Khrushchev was a voluntarist, miserable, avanturist and enemy. So Brezhnev sent him to retire. As soon as Brezhnev died, he was found to be a senile, a pest and an obstacle to development. Then came two more seniles, whose names no one remembers, because they fell one by one like flies. Until Gorbachev became the young and energetic new leader. And it turned out that the whole country was full of traitors and enemies, but he said he would fix it. And then the USSR fell apart and it was discovered that Gorbachev was an enemy and a traitor._
> 
> Putin's end it coming too. Then he will be declared a traitor.


According to Wikipedia Krushchev made the following remarks to a friend after his ouster:



> I'm old and tired. Let them cope by themselves. I've done the main thing. Could anyone have dreamed of telling Stalin that he didn't suit us anymore and suggesting he retire? Not even a wet spot would have remained where we had been standing.


----------



## philoctetes

joen_cph said:


> So does coquettish cynicism


coquettish
adjective
(of a woman) characteristically flirtatious, especially in a teasing, lighthearted manner.

Sorry I'm not looking for a date.


----------



## KenOC

13-foot king cobra caught in Thai sewer. Now this is a job I wouldn't fancy!
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-50067105/thailand-giant-4m-long-king-cobra-caught-in-sewer


----------



## joen_cph

philoctetes said:


> coquettish
> adjective
> (of a woman) characteristically flirtatious, especially in a teasing, lighthearted manner.
> 
> Sorry I'm not looking for a date.


There is a wider definition of the word too, cf. also its French origins.


----------



## TxllxT

Bizarre news from the Netherlands https://www.krone.at/2024687 (Austrian newspaper Krone Zeitung). Involved are an Austrian man (carpenter & member of a sect) + 6 children who are not his (age between 18 - 25 years old). They lived for nine year in a cellar, in expectation of the End of Time. The children were not registered at the municipal office and therefore managed to escape schooling. Rumors have it, that some of these children were really dumb, not knowing anything. The eldest child (25 years old) escaped from the cellar, went to the local pub, was clothed in clothes from the eighties, talked like a child and ordered five beer gulping them down in no time. Really weird & bizarre is the location where the Austrian carpenter came from: from a neighbouring village of Anstetten, where the infamous Fritzl abductor & cellar imprisoner lived, close to Linz. Linz by the way, was the town where both Anton Bruckner and a fake painter (A.H.) grew up.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7578557/Pictured-Man-raised-alarm-family-waiting-end-times-Dutch-house.html

They belonged to the Moon sect, from which they received lots of cash money. Part of the Moon rituals is walking every hour in a circle. The family was brought from the farm to a park of holiday homes, but there they started doing their ritual again. Now they have been moved to an unknown location.


----------



## Strange Magic

^^^^“There is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of man.”


― Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, or, the Whale


----------



## SixFootScowl

*Greedy killer monkeys found eating large rats in Malaysia*


----------



## geralmar

Rats learn to drive tiny cars. Video:






Query. If researchers are measuring "stress hormone levels" in the driver rats' brains, doesn't that imply dissection and a 100% mortality rate for all rat drivers? If so, the story is no longer as "warm and fuzzy."


----------



## SixFootScowl

geralmar said:


> Rats learn to drive tiny cars.


Good idea. Now they have a way to escape the greedy killer monkeys!


----------



## KenOC

Fritz Kobus said:


> *Greedy killer monkeys found eating large rats in Malaysia*


Odd. I swear I saw that picture on the wall at Wendy's...


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> Odd. I swear I saw that picture on the wall at Wendy's...


If not, you can put one up next time you are there.


----------



## Guest

geralmar said:


> Rats learn to drive tiny cars. Video:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Query. If researchers are measuring "stress hormone levels" in the driver rats' brains, doesn't that imply dissection and a 100% mortality rate for all rat drivers? If so, the story is no longer as "warm and fuzzy."


Nah, you can usually implant a probe in their head without killing them.


----------



## SixFootScowl

DrMike said:


> Nah, you can usually implant a probe in their head without killing them.


Is that like a rat lobotomy?


----------



## KenOC

Upon the successful mission to kill the head of ISIS, the Washington Post runs the headline, “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, austere religious scholar at helm of Islamic State, dies at 48."

Due to his penchant for sawing off heads and such things, some were unamused. They suggested that the WaPo might have run such headlines on previous occasions:

“Genghis Khan, accomplished horseman and indefatigable traveler, breathes his last."

"Adolf Hitler, passionate community planner and dynamic public speaker, dies at 56.”

“Mao Zedong, who saved 20-45 million of his own people from having to suffer through the struggle of existence, dies at 82.”

It’s all in how you look at it.


----------



## Strange Magic

Source for WaPo headline, please? I found only this:

"Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, extremist leader of Islamic State, dies at 48".

Anyway, Good Riddance!

[Edit] Nevermind, I found the BBC story myself: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50205592. Looks like somebody at WaPo actually had the lampoon idea from the get-go and it just got out of hand:

From the BBC story:

"The first version of the Washington Post's headline called Baghdadi "terrorist-in-chief", before it was changed to "austere religious scholar at the helm of Islamic State"."


----------



## SixFootScowl

Strange Magic said:


> Source for WaPo headline, please? I found only this:
> 
> "Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, extremist leader of Islamic State, dies at 48".
> 
> Anyway, Good Riddance!
> 
> [Edit] Nevermind, I found the BBC story myself: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50205592. Looks like somebody at WaPo actually had the lampoon idea from the get-go and it just got out of hand:
> 
> From the BBC story:
> 
> "The first version of the Washington Post's headline called Baghdadi "terrorist-in-chief", before it was changed to "austere religious scholar at the helm of Islamic State"."


Story here:
https://www.dailywire.com/news/58280


----------



## Guest

KenOC said:


> Upon the successful mission to kill the head of ISIS, the Washington Post runs the headline, "Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, austere religious scholar at helm of Islamic State, dies at 48."
> 
> Due to his penchant for sawing off heads and such things, some were unamused. They suggested that the WaPo might have run such headlines on previous occasions:
> 
> "Genghis Khan, accomplished horseman and indefatigable traveler, breathes his last."
> 
> "Adolf Hitler, passionate community planner and dynamic public speaker, dies at 56."
> 
> "Mao Zedong, who saved 20-45 million of his own people from having to suffer through the struggle of existence, dies at 82."
> 
> It's all in how you look at it.


Stipulating that just about every criticism you can think of for Trump is most likely justified, the press has really beclowned itself in their constant tripping over themselves trying to go above and beyond painting Trump in a bad light. These are the supposed bulwark of our right to free speech? I'm sure only Fox News, though, will ever be denounced. Meanwhile Brian Williams and Dan Rather continue to be trotted out to tell us what is happening.


----------



## KenOC

Great news from Seattle Public Schools! They are preparing an alternate K-12 math curriculum that will essentially make math a branch of ethnic studies. Optional, fortunately.



> Seattle's four-page framework is still in the proposal stage. If adopted, its ideas will be included in existing math classes as part of the district's broader effort to infuse ethnic studies into all subjects across the K-12 spectrum…
> 
> This is verbatim from the proposal: Students will be able to "identify the inherent inequities of the standardized testing system used to oppress and marginalize people and communities of color," "explain how math has been used to exploit natural resources," and "explain how math dictates economic oppression."


I have no problem with this. I'm sure that China will be happy to send people over to design our bridges and all that kind of stuff.


----------



## Taggart

A number of purely political posts have been removed.

If you wish to have a political discussion, please use the social groups.


----------



## Strange Magic

Taggart said:


> A number of purely political posts have been removed.
> 
> If you wish to have a political discussion, please use the social groups.


Many thanks to Taggart for strangling the latest thread after it predictably metamorphosed into a political "debate". Some suggestions, though: A) that banished posts be transferred into an appropriate Group downstairs; and B) that Management vigorously reiterate, demand, insist, advocate that the Groups are where such topics should even be first broached. There are Compleat Anglers consciously using the Community Forum to cast, cast, cast repeatedly for nibbles and bites that will lead to such "debates"; this in ongoing defiance of the clearly-stated rules governing threads in Community Forum.

Herewith again some slightly outdated info on the Groups:

"Groups Update: Now that political and religious and contentious scientific discussion has become commonplace in the Community Forum, thanks to the exertions of one of our most prolific members, I again recommend the TC Groups "downstairs". The Management of TC has wisely set up the Groups as the venue where such topics are to be discussed in detail and at length, reminding all of the clear injunction that:

"Any/All discussions about Politics or Religion are restricted to the Social Groups 
Members can create their own Social Group. If you need assistance, please contact a staff member via Private Message."

Here is an update of the recently active Groups and their latest topics:

Government is the Solution: Donald Trump: Sociopath 
Conservative Talk: Carbon Tax: Idea Gains Steam Among Conservatives
The True Conservative: Voluntary Carbon Tax
Book Chat: Henry Worsley and The White Darkness
Beginning Linux: Is It Finally Time to Leave Windows?
Experience Musical and Religious: Post Links to Music that Reaches Your Spirit
Christian Fellowship Group: What Denomination do You Belong to or Associate Your Beliefs With?
General Politics: Second Amendment Psychotic Causes Panic in Walmart
Brahms: Brahms and Joachim

How to access Groups: Go to the thin black bar just under the blue-grey bar under the Talk Classical masthead. Click or tap "Community", then click or tap on "groups", and you're there. Scroll to the bottom right and you'll find the complete listing of Groups. Bring your friends; the more the merrier, and the more vibrant and maybe contentious (though the mods do check in now and then, but display admirable circumspection and tolerance)."


----------



## starthrower

Taggart said:


> A number of purely political posts have been removed.
> 
> If you wish to have a political discussion, please use the social groups.


Except for the political posts you chose to leave here.


----------



## Strange Magic

starthrower said:


> Except for the political posts you chose to leave here.


Post #1339 began the process, casting out the first bait with an unsourced quote.
Post #1342 was the first predictable bite at the lure, beginning the descent.......


----------



## starthrower

DrMike said:


> Stipulating that just about every criticism you can think of for Trump is most likely justified, the press has really beclowned itself in their constant tripping over themselves trying to go above and beyond painting Trump in a bad light.


As if he needed any help! It's a bit difficult to paint someone with positive attributes they don't possess.


----------



## SixFootScowl

Strange Magic said:


> Source for WaPo headline, please?











From: https://thefederalist.com/2019/10/2...-out-over-trumps-successful-baghdadi-mission/


----------



## Luchesi

Strange Magic said:


> Many thanks to Taggart for strangling the latest thread after it predictably metamorphosed into a political "debate". Some suggestions, though: A) that banished posts be transferred into an appropriate Group downstairs; and B) that Management vigorously reiterate, demand, insist, advocate that the Groups are where such topics should even be first broached. There are Compleat Anglers consciously using the Community Forum to cast, cast, cast repeatedly for nibbles and bites that will lead to such "debates"; this in ongoing defiance of the clearly-stated rules governing threads in Community Forum.
> 
> Herewith again some slightly outdated info on the Groups:
> 
> "Groups Update: Now that political and religious and contentious scientific discussion has become commonplace in the Community Forum, thanks to the exertions of one of our most prolific members, I again recommend the TC Groups "downstairs". The Management of TC has wisely set up the Groups as the venue where such topics are to be discussed in detail and at length, reminding all of the clear injunction that:
> 
> "Any/All discussions about Politics or Religion are restricted to the Social Groups
> Members can create their own Social Group. If you need assistance, please contact a staff member via Private Message."
> 
> Here is an update of the recently active Groups and their latest topics:
> 
> Government is the Solution: Donald Trump: Sociopath
> Conservative Talk: Carbon Tax: Idea Gains Steam Among Conservatives
> The True Conservative: Voluntary Carbon Tax
> Book Chat: Henry Worsley and The White Darkness
> Beginning Linux: Is It Finally Time to Leave Windows?
> Experience Musical and Religious: Post Links to Music that Reaches Your Spirit
> Christian Fellowship Group: What Denomination do You Belong to or Associate Your Beliefs With?
> General Politics: Second Amendment Psychotic Causes Panic in Walmart
> Brahms: Brahms and Joachim
> 
> How to access Groups: Go to the thin black bar just under the blue-grey bar under the Talk Classical masthead. Click or tap "Community", then click or tap on "groups", and you're there. Scroll to the bottom right and you'll find the complete listing of Groups. Bring your friends; the more the merrier, and the more vibrant and maybe contentious (though the mods do check in now and then, but display admirable circumspection and tolerance)."


Please post a link. Or is that not allowed?


----------



## Luchesi

Fritz Kobus said:


> From: https://thefederalist.com/2019/10/2...-out-over-trumps-successful-baghdadi-mission/


His religion. This will never end. There's always a rallying cry which becomes attractive to the down and out.


----------



## Guest

Fritz Kobus said:


> From: https://thefederalist.com/2019/10/2...-out-over-trumps-successful-baghdadi-mission/


In retrospect, this isn't really surprising. It was also the Washington Post that posted the following obituary headline at Fidel Castro's death, "Fidel Castro, revolutionary leader who remade Cuba as a socialist state, dies at 90."


----------



## starthrower

Will the press refer to W. Bush or Cheney as war criminals after they pass? I doubt it.


----------



## Guest

starthrower said:


> Will the press refer to W. Bush or Cheney as war criminals after they pass? I doubt it.


...........................


----------



## starthrower

Yeah, it's tough to argue with the truth.


----------



## Guest

starthrower said:


> Yeah, it's tough to argue with the truth.


Remind me - are they the ones that assassinated an American citizen by drone strike without due process of law? I can't remember.


----------



## starthrower

DrMike said:


> Remind me - are they the ones that assassinated an American citizen by drone strike without due process of law? I can't remember.


You love red herrings don't you? It's easier than addressing the subject at hand. I've already mentioned elsewhere how I feel about the executive branch exercising that kind of power. I don't think too many citizens would be in favor of it. The American press is great at demonizing the other. They seem to have amnesia when it comes to remembering the heinous crimes of their own.


----------



## Guest

starthrower said:


> You love red herrings don't you? It's easier than addressing the subject at hand. I've already mentioned elsewhere how I feel about the executive branch exercising that kind of power. I don't think too many citizens would be in favor of it. The American press is great at demonizing the other. They seem to have amnesia when it comes to remembering the heinous crimes of their own.


So you are all for that president facing Justice as well? I'm sorry, I was looking for that statement in your response, but didn't see it.


----------



## joen_cph

Fancy an airborne flame-thrower with remote control?

It's on the market - yours for ~$ 1500. Effective for about 1.5 minutes per flight.

https://throwflame.com/products/flamethrower-drone-kit/


----------



## KenOC

joen_cph said:


> Fancy an airborne flame-thrower with remote control?
> 
> It's on the market - yours for ~$ 15,000. Effective for about 1.5 minutes per flight.
> 
> https://throwflame.com/products/flamethrower-drone-kit/


Looks to me like $1,500 (sans drone). It's being sold as an agricultural tool, but I suppose many will see it as a way to deal with troublesome neighbors.


----------



## joen_cph

Yeah, you're right. Edited.


----------



## Strange Magic

Luchesi said:


> Please post a link. Or is that not allowed?


In Praise of Groups

See Post #22.


----------



## Strange Magic

DrMike said:


> In retrospect, this isn't really surprising. It was also the Washington Post that posted the following obituary headline at Fidel Castro's death, "Fidel Castro, revolutionary leader who remade Cuba as a socialist state, dies at 90."


Something erroneous here? What is headlined is true--something we've become less used to from the White House.


----------



## starthrower

DrMike said:


> So you are all for that president facing Justice as well? I'm sorry, I was looking for that statement in your response, but didn't see it.


Probably because the subject we were discussing is the press. Not the legal system. But good luck with getting any president charged with murder for a targeted killing of a so called enemy combatant/terrorist. US citizen or not.


----------



## Strange Magic

DrMike said:


> Remind me - are they the ones that assassinated an American citizen by drone strike without due process of law? I can't remember.


Whataboutism is alive and well. Here's Wikipedia on Donald Trump's mastery of Whataboutism, that his explainers and excusers seek always to emulate:

"Further information: Veracity of statements by Donald Trump

US President Donald Trump has used whataboutism in response to criticism leveled at him, his policies, or his support of controversial world leaders.[4][88][89] National Public Radio (NPR) reported, "President Trump has developed a consistent tactic when he's criticized: say that someone else is worse."[4] NPR noted Trump chose to criticize the Affordable Care Act when he himself faced criticism over the proposed American Health Care Act of 2017, "Instead of giving a reasoned defense, he went for blunt offense, which is a hallmark of whataboutism."[4] NPR noted similarities in use of the tactic by Putin and Trump, "it's no less striking that while Putin's Russia is causing the Trump administration so much trouble, Trump nevertheless often sounds an awful lot like Putin".[4]

When criticized or asked to defend his behavior, Trump has frequently changed the subject by criticizing Hillary Clinton, the Obama Administration,[89] and the Affordable Care Act.[4] When asked about Russian human rights violations, Trump has shifted focus to the US itself,[88][80] employing whataboutism tactics similar to those used by Russian President Vladimir Putin.[4][90]

After Fox News host Bill O'Reilly and MSNBC host Joe Scarborough called Putin a killer, Trump responded by saying that the US government was also guilty of killing people.[4][80][91] Garry Kasparov commented to Columbia Journalism Review on Trump's use of whataboutism: "Moral relativism, 'whataboutism', has always been a favorite weapon of illiberal regimes. For a US president to employ it against his own country is tragic."[50]

During a news conference on infrastructure at Trump Tower after the 2017 Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, a reporter linked the alt-right to the fatal vehicle-ramming attack that was inflicted against counter-demonstrators, to which Donald Trump responded by demanding the reporter to "define alt-right to me" and subsequently interrupting the reporter to ask, "what about the alt-left that came charging at [the alt-right]?"[92][93] Various experts[who?] have criticized Trump's usage of the term "alt-left" by arguing that no members of the progressive left have used that term to describe themselves[94][95] and furthermore that Trump fabricated the term to falsely equate the alt-right to the counter-demonstrators.[96][97]"


----------



## SixFootScowl

*Halloween horror: severely injured boy, 9, given sweets rather than medical attention!*


----------



## KenOC

Fritz Kobus said:


> *Halloween horror: severely injured boy, 9, given sweets rather than medical attention!*


"Honest news" my butt! Typical headline: "Bone find proves early man lived horizontally beneath the earth"

More to the point: "Trump becomes Florida Man." This one'sreal!


----------



## SixFootScowl

*A MCDONALD'S super-fan has kept a burger and fries in a glass cabinet for 10 years - and it still looks fine to eat.*

Back in 2009, McDonald's closed down all three of its restaurants in Iceland.

And one man decided to buy the icy nation's final hamburger and fries - so the meal could live on after the chain's closure.

"I had heard that McDonald's never decompose so I just wanted to see if it was true or not," Hjortur Smarason said.

It's now been exactly 10 years since Smarason made his purchase, and the meal barely looks older.

... this hamburger preserves itself," Smarason said.


----------



## Guest

Yeah, I'm calling ****** on that. I don't think McDonald's uses any more preservatives in their food than anybody else. Honestly, they aren't making it for long-term storage. Besides, you don't go to McDonald's for healthy food. If you are expecting healthy food there, then the preservatives in the food are the least of your worries.

Quite honestly, that burger looks like some "fresh" burgers I was served over in Hungary, where McDonald's was a godsend!


----------



## joen_cph

Yes, the cheaper fast food, especially non-native, in the former Eastern Bloc countries is still often not very good. The Kebab stands tend to be awful, compared to say Copenhagen, and hamburger stands can be of varying quality, but they are often poor. They add local ingredients that just doesn't fit well for those used to more authentic or better-quality ingredients, using poor, stale and cold buns or white bread, splash everything with tons of poor ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise, add a lot of sour cabbage, etc.

At least a couple of years ago, McDonald's French Fries in the US contained 18 ingredients besides potato, including salt and 4 different oils, but also stuff like 'dimethylpolysiloxane' (some sort of silicone, that works against foaming in the cooking process), the preservative TBHQ, and the golden-colour preserving 'natrium pyrophosphate' (to prevent any developed greyness), and some meat flavouring.

In Western Europe, McDonald's fries have much fewer ingredients - usually, they just consist of potatoes, some vegetabile oils, a bit of dextrose, salt, and a bit of stabilisator ('dinatriumphosphate').

(sorry, only links in Danish https://livsstil.tv2.dk/2015-01-23-ekspert-om-mcd-fritter-ingrediensliste-vil-overraske-mange, https://www.bt.dk/utroligt-men-sandt/se-opskriften-saadan-laver-mcdonalds-pommes-frites)


----------



## Luchesi

A cow had died from mad cow disease. They incinerated it and they buried it deep in the ground.

6 years later they came back and dug it up and mixed it with feed for a cow. That cow got mad cow disease.


----------



## Guest

It depends on what you want. At MacDonalds the meat patties are pre-cooked and kept in little humidity controlled drawers before being assembled into a sandwich. The fries come pre-processed at a factory and many chemicals are used. I heard on a radio program that, driven by the popularity of delivery services, making the french fries stay crisp longer is an active area of food research, with propriety chemical treatments under development to make them stay crisp for up to 45 minutes. No, MacDonalds food isn't poison, but all of the chemistry is to prevent you from recognizing that the food is stale.

On the other hand, at In-N-Out Burger, you see them chop a raw potato and deep fry it just before it is handed over to you. French fries consumed straight out of the frier are more tasty. The burgers, likewise, straight from the grill. It is no more expensive than MacDonalds, but a better experience, although it has to be consumed right away.

I find the simpler the food, the better.


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## Strange Magic

Our fast-food source here is Panera Bread. Below is a partial list (the No-No List) of materials never added to food at Panera:

https://www.panerabread.com/panerabread/documents/panera-no-no-list-05-2015.pdf


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## KenOC

*Snopes* shoots down the silly claims about Mickey D's burgers: "McDonald's hamburger patties in the U.S. are made with 100% USDA-inspected beef. They are cooked and prepared with salt, pepper and nothing else; no preservatives, no fillers."

Further, McDonald's is phasing out frozen beef and has already switched to never-frozen for its quarter-pounders, cooked only when ordered. When I was working with McDonald's auditors some years back, franchisees were required to discard any food that wasn't sold within ten minutes of preparation. In fact, corporate sent people around to surreptitiously observe this and other aspects of store operations.


----------



## Guest

Strange Magic said:


> Our fast-food source here is Panera Bread. Below is a partial list (the No-No List) of materials never added to food at Panera:
> 
> https://www.panerabread.com/panerabread/documents/panera-no-no-list-05-2015.pdf


Still zillions of chemicals not on that list. 

I feel fairly comfortable at Chipotle. The meat and vegetables are cooked before your eyes in the store, although I suppose there are sauces, etc, which are prepared off site. There is a regional chain of Mexican Food restaurants called "La Salsa" which I used to frequent, but I do not live near one now.


----------



## Guest

Baron Scarpia said:


> It depends on what you want. At MacDonalds the meat patties are pre-cooked and kept in little humidity controlled drawers before being assembled into a sandwich. The fries come pre-processed at a factory and many chemicals are used. I heard on a radio program that, driven by the popularity of delivery services, making the french fries stay crisp longer is an active area of food research, with propriety chemical treatments under development to make them stay crisp for up to 45 minutes. No, MacDonalds food isn't poison, but all of the chemistry is to prevent you from recognizing that the food is stale.
> 
> On the other hand, at In-N-Out Burger, you see them chop a raw potato and deep fry it just before it is handed over to you. French fries consumed straight out of the frier are more tasty. The burgers, likewise, straight from the grill. It is no more expensive than MacDonalds, but a better experience, although it has to be consumed right away.
> 
> I find the simpler the food, the better.


I suppose if you went to a McDonald's that wasn't particularly busy you might get stale fries. But usually I see them refilling the frier numerous times during my time in the place. So they usually are pretty fresh.

I'm not the biggest McDonald's can. I much prefer several other chains of I'm going for a fast food burger. But they really are a lifesaver in some foreign countries. Like has been said, in Hungary, getting a burger elsewhere was always a gamble - frequently a pre-cooked meat product of some kind pulled out of the fridge and thrown into a microwave, topped with shredded cheese and loads of cucumbers and diced tomatoes and a poor excuse for ketchup. At McDonald's they have perfected the art of making things almost identical anywhere in the world. So my quarter pounder was virtually indistinguishable from one I'd get in the U.S.


----------



## philoctetes

I had a ranch-fed rib eye at a casino in Nevada last week. It was delicious and only $22 with veggies potato and salad. No McDonalds for 50 miles.


----------



## KenOC

Casinos (CA too!) are great places for really excellent and affordable meals.


----------



## starthrower

The wife and I have been frequenting Core Life Eatery. Tasty, fresh made full size green leaf salads is what I always order. They have spicy stuff and soup too. And we have a great local Vietnamese restaurant. I never darken the door of a McDonald's or Burger King. Seems like whenever I give in and do the 5 dollar junk meal at Wendy's or Dairy Queen I don't feel good afterwards, so I quit going to those places.


----------



## Strange Magic

Baron Scarpia said:


> Still zillions of chemicals not on that list.
> 
> I feel fairly comfortable at Chipotle. The meat and vegetables are cooked before your eyes in the store, although I suppose there are sauces, etc, which are prepared off site. There is a regional chain of Mexican Food restaurants called "La Salsa" which I used to frequent, but I do not live near one now.


I used to occasionally eat at Chipotle but a series of "incidents" hit the news and put me "off my feed" there. Since switching to Panera and watching them remove non-food item after non-food item from their ingredients list over the years, I'm now a steady customer. Food is fresh, tasty, and ample. I will be paid $10,000 for this post.


----------



## KenOC

I never feel more INVIGORATED than after gulping down a Whopper meal! Or more recently, a burger from Hole in the Wall Burger, the new pride of our neighborhood. Here's their California burger with Swiss, avocado, and a fried egg, ten bucks with fries and a drink. Yes, that's real Mexican Coke they serve, made with cane sugar instead of corn syrup, quite superior to the American product.


----------



## Guest

philoctetes said:


> I had a ranch-fed rib eye at a casino in Nevada last week. It was delicious and only $22 with veggies potato and salad. No McDonalds for 50 miles.


Subsidized by poor saps feeding the slot machines...


----------



## starthrower

KenOC said:


> I never feel more INVIGORATED than after gulping down a Whopper meal! Or more recently, a burger from Hole in the Wall Burger, the new pride of our neighborhood. Here's their California burger with Swiss, avocado, and a fried egg, ten bucks with fries and a drink. Yes, that's real Mexican Coke they serve, made with cane sugar instead of corn syrup, quite superior to the American product.


It's great once a month or so, but without the 60 mg sugar coke. If I eat this at a good local restaurant I feel okay. But the chemical additives used by the fast food chains give me a strange metabolic feeling when I'm done eating.


----------



## philoctetes

Baron Scarpia said:


> Subsidized by poor saps feeding the slot machines...


Also explains why gas is cheaper in Nevada, and why I got great service from upbeat waiters, and why just crossing the state line one feels depression turn to happiness.

Someone said that if I leave California, I should never come back. Bitter words of someone who doesn't have the option to leave. Poor saps, they don't realize Gavin is just another slot machine that never pays off...


----------



## starthrower

It's the same in upstate NY. If I drive 35 miles east or west on the NYS Thruway there are two giant casinos.


----------



## Guest

philoctetes said:


> Also explains why gas is cheaper in Nevada, and why I got great service from upbeat waiters, and why just crossing the state line one feels depression turn to happiness.
> 
> Someone said that if I leave California, I should never come back. Bitter words of someone who doesn't have the option to leave. Poor saps, they don't realize Gavin is just another slot machine that never pays off...


I left California for good 22 years ago and have happily made the South my new home. At first it was because I just couldn't afford it - as a recently graduated scientist with a Ph.D. and 1 kid on the way looking for a postdoc position, I heard horror stories about trying to do that postdoc in California. With an average income at the time for a postdoc of ~$50,000/year, it just wouldn't work for anybody but a single person. So I went to Ohio, and lived quite well with mine and my wife's income. We even bought a starter home. Then 5 years later, looking for a job, I realized that entry salaries wouldn't be large enough for my now family of 4, even though I wanted to be close to my mother. But again, the South beckoned - $80K per year, my wife worked part-time, we could afford a home in the school district we wanted for my 2 kids, and my commute was 20 minutes. Such a thing does not exist in California.

I wish I could just blame Newsom, but honestly, this has been a problem for years. The existing population that already has housing is comfortable. Unfortunately, the only new blood that can come in is someone making a small fortune at one of these new tech companies, but they can't afford a home, and when they have kids and realize school district matters, they also run into problems.


----------



## philoctetes

I could have easily said "Sacramento" instead of "Gavin". That Gavin wants to keep more Californians in poverty makes him a special target.

Just drive from Bishop to Carson City like I did last week and the difference between the two towns is night and day. Could it be the way state taxes differ? or that California no longer has a viable, meaningful culture? Deep thought! Nobody forces anybody to gamble, and many of those slot machine saps are from California anyway.


----------



## Guest

philoctetes said:


> I could have easily said "Sacramento" instead of "Gavin". That Gavin wants to keep more Californians in poverty makes him a special target.
> 
> Just drive from Bishop to Carson City like I did last week and the difference between the two towns is night and day. Could it be the way state taxes differ? or that California no longer has a viable, meaningful culture? Deep thought! Nobody forces anybody to gamble, and many of those slot machine saps are from California anyway.


I know we are not supposed to be discussing politics, but I think it would be refreshing if it were possible to disagree with a political program without attributing malice or a conspiracy to those who advocate it. Gavin Newsom does not want to "keep more Californians in poverty." He wants to lift people out of poverty. It is quite possible his policies are ill-conceived, will backfire, and make things worse. If someone thinks that is so it is quite reasonable to point that out. It doesn't mean he is a diabolical villain who wants to make things worse.

Now, I will sit back and wait for this to be deleted.


----------



## philoctetes

Baron Scarpia said:


> I know we are not supposed to be discussing politics, but I think it would be refreshing if it were possible to disagree with a political program without attributing malice or a conspiracy to those who advocate it. Gavin Newsom does not want to "keep more Californians in poverty." He wants to lift people out of poverty. It is quite possible his policies are ill-conceived, will backfire, and make things worse. If someone thinks that is so it is quite reasonable to point that out. It doesn't mean he is a diabolical villain who wants to make things worse.
> 
> Now, I will sit back and wait for this to be deleted.


Well, when you play the "conspiracy" card you deserve it.


----------



## Guest

philoctetes said:


> Well, when you play the "conspiracy" card you deserve it.


I don't know what you are referring to.


----------



## philoctetes

"I think it would be refreshing if it were possible to disagree with a political program without attributing malice or a conspiracy to those who advocate it"

Reaaaaaly now. This is why I want to leave California. Thanks for the push.


----------



## KenOC

Baron Scarpia said:


> Now, I will sit back and wait for this to be deleted.


It has already been deleted. Our new policy is to make deleted posts visible, but only to the member who posted them. Nobody else will see them. Deletions will not be announced, and members will never know that their posts have been removed. Clever, huh?

--The management


----------



## Guest

philoctetes said:


> "I think it would be refreshing if it were possible to disagree with a political program without attributing malice or a conspiracy to those who advocate it"
> 
> Reaaaaaly now. This is why I want to leave California. Thanks for the push.


You want to leave California because of my post? I don't get it. You really think the governor _wants _more people in poverty?


----------



## Guest

KenOC said:


> It has already been deleted. Our new policy is to make deleted posts visible, but only to the member who posted them. Nobody else will see them. Deletions will not be announced, and members will never know that their posts have been removed. Clever, huh?
> 
> --The management


That would explain a lot. :lol:


----------



## philoctetes

Baron Scarpia said:


> You want to leave California because of my post? I don't get it. You really think the governor _wants _more people in poverty?


No point explaining myself to someone who has to be reminded why they wanted me to do so.

Do you really think that my steak dinner was "subsidized by poor saps feeding slot machines'? Cause that's how this all started. At what point do we start talking earnestly? And what was your purpose other than to play buzz-kill over something I enjoyed? Do you realize I was in Nevada due to evacuations at my home?

Yes, this is why I hate California.


----------



## Guest

philoctetes said:


> No point explaining myself to someone who has to be reminded why they wanted me to do so.
> 
> Do you really think that my steak dinner was "subsidized by poor saps feeding slot machines'? Cause that's how this all started. At what point do we start talking earnestly? And what was your purpose other than to play buzz-kill over something I enjoyed? Do you realize I was in Nevada due to evacuations at my home?
> 
> Yes, this is why I hate California.


My purpose was not "buzz-kill" but just an ironic reference to the fact that casinos use low prices and "comps" to attract people who gamble, and generate casino profits. And no, how would I know you were in Nevada due to evacuation of your home? Sorry you had to go through that.

I like California, except for the fact that there are so many people here with so much more money than me that it hard to keep a roof over my head.


----------



## joen_cph

So you're worried about some journalists and social media beginning to debate your dubious, fraud-appearing business activities. 
What do you do?

You set up a company called 'Fraud Guarantee',
trying to passify and legitimize the use of the word 'fraud' in relation to your name, when people are searching on the web.

It partly works ... at least until the load of negative information becomes massive.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/giulia...b03e3769e1aca3f0&reflink=share_mobilewebshare


----------



## KenOC

A murderer in Iowa was sentenced to life without parole. But recently he became ill and died on the operating table. He was brought back and argued for release since his life had, in fact, ended with that episode.

The court was unpersuaded, noting that if he was really dead he would have been unable to sign his own papers in the case. “It added that his sentence would not end until a medical examiner formally declares him dead.”

Good try through.


----------



## TxllxT

KenOC said:


> A murderer in Iowa was sentenced to life without parole. But recently he became ill and died on the operating table. He was brought back and argued for release since his life had, in fact, ended with that episode.
> 
> The court was unpersuaded, noting that if he was really dead he would have been unable to sign his own papers in the case. "It added that his sentence would not end until a medical examiner formally declares him dead."
> 
> Good try through.


https://sputniknews.com/world/201911091077262768-pope-francis-denies-physical-resurrection-of-christ-from-the-dead-claims-his-interviewer/ Pope Francis denies the physical resurrection of Christ, claims his atheist friend.


----------



## SixFootScowl

Stray puppy most likely dropped by a bird turns out to be rare endangered dingo



> The unnamed resident who discovered Wandi heard the pup "hiding and crying in the garden," the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported. The resident initially thought Wandi was a stray dog or a fox and soon took him to Bec Day, a local veterinarian.
> 
> Wandi's original journey may have ended with him being dinner for an eagle or other bird of prey. Instead, the young pup was likely dropped from its captors' talons, Ms Day told ABC, noting what appeared to be claw marks on Wandi's back.


----------



## TxllxT

St Petersburg, Russia. A professor of Bonapartism at the Petersburg university was found in the Moika drunk, with two women's arms in his rucksack. At the apartment of the professor the rest of the body + a saw was found. Here a number of links to the Russian Petersburg website 'Fontanka' (with Chrome / Google translate easy to read): https://www.fontanka.ru/2019/11/09/063/ https://www.fontanka.ru/2019/11/09/036/ https://www.fontanka.ru/2019/11/09/048/ By the way, the TV series of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson was filmed at Saint Petersburg.


----------



## Jacck

we have already first snow in Czech Republic (in the mountains, not in the lowlands) and a guy responsible for cleaning the snow from the roads found a camel there
https://www.idnes.cz/liberec/zpravy...-silnicari.A191113_081156_liberec-zpravy_jape
no need to read the text, the picture is enough


----------



## joen_cph

Jacck said:


> we have already first snow in Czech Republic (in the mountains, not in the lowlands) and a guy responsible for cleaning the snow from the roads found a camel there
> https://www.idnes.cz/liberec/zpravy...-silnicari.A191113_081156_liberec-zpravy_jape
> no need to read the text, the picture is enough


 Great picture.
An escaped kangaroo was found up here the other day too ... unfortunately it was later run over by a car.


----------



## joen_cph

When you send someone to town to pay a bunch of people to show up in your protest demonstration about financial legal matters, and the fellow is a bit lazy at his job:


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1194944179446669317


----------



## Jacck

joen_cph said:


> So you're worried about some journalists and social media beginning to debate your dubious, fraud-appearing business activities.
> What do you do?
> 
> You set up a company called 'Fraud Guarantee',
> trying to passify and legitimize the use of the word 'fraud' in relation to your name, when people are searching on the web.
> 
> It partly works ... at least until the load of negative information becomes massive.
> 
> https://www.wsj.com/articles/giulia...b03e3769e1aca3f0&reflink=share_mobilewebshare


these funny crooks that the crooked Guiliani was dealing with are associated to Firtash, another russian crook
http://euromaidanpress.com/2015/04/03/russias-fifth-column-in-ukraine/


----------



## joen_cph

A global, detailed map of the *Saturn moon Titan,* far, far away, has been completed, based on the research by the Cassini/Huygens mission

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7542


----------



## KenOC

"On Monday, Manfred Nowak, an expert from the U.N. Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty, claimed that 100,000 migrant children were detained by the Trump administration and indicated that it was the "world's highest rate" of detained children. The following day, however, he acknowledged that the cited number actually was from 2015 -- under President Obama."'

The media made much of this story, but their later retractions (when they were made) were mostly vague and non-specific. For instance, NPR: "We have temporarily withdrawn this story because the study's author has acknowledged a significant error in the data. We will post a revised article with more complete information as soon as possible."


----------



## Guest

KenOC said:


> "On Monday, Manfred Nowak, an expert from the U.N. Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty, claimed that 100,000 migrant children were detained by the Trump administration and indicated that it was the "world's highest rate" of detained children. The following day, however, he acknowledged that the cited number actually was from 2015 -- under President Obama."'
> 
> The media made much of this story, but their later retractions (when they were made) were mostly vague and non-specific. For instance, NPR: "We have temporarily withdrawn this story because the study's author has acknowledged a significant error in the data. We will post a revised article with more complete information as soon as possible."


When they thought it was recent data and that Trump was responsible, Bernie Sanders called it "immoral," the Democratic National Committee said it was "disgusting," the product of "white nationalist" influence, and "a violation of the U.N. treaty, the Convention on the Rights of the Child."

Since it has been revealed to have been from the Obama administration, those same sources are surprisingly quiet. Wonder why? Is it no longer immoral, disgusting, evidence of white nationalist influence on our politics, and in violation of U.N. treaties? Oh, right - only Trump would be so evil. Obama must have had some really good intentions.


----------



## Guest

The Jeffrey Epstein case continues to get weirder. Prince Andrew, Duke of York, is in the headlines due to an interview he just did talking about his relationship with Epstein. One of Epstein's accusers claims that she had sex with Andrew while she was a minor. He claims to not remember her, in spite of a picture of him with his arm around her bare waist. And even though he claims to not remember this interaction with a 17-year old girl, he claims, as his alibi, a very specific recollection of of going to a Pizza Express in Woking. Furthermore, the girl claims to remember dancing with him, and him sweating profusely - he claims this as evidence the story is false because a medical condition from the Falkland War had rendered him incapable of sweating, he claims caused by an overdose of adrenaline [a medical doctor stated that such an overdose would result in more sweating, not less], but that he has since regained the ability to sweat [I wonder whether he was sweating during this interview?].

Note that he continued his interactions after Epstein was outed as a pedophile.

The overwhelming problem with monarchies over time has not necessarily been the monarchs themselves (although perpetual inbreeding amongst them produced some doozies), so much as all the idiot "spares" that have too much time and too little to do. One suspects that the current British monarch is hoping to outlive her immediate offspring, as she sees not a lot of promise, and hopes the next generation might be better suited.


----------



## Guest

All unaccompanied migrant children are "detained" for some period of time, so the raw number doesn't say anything in particular about the authorities. The difference is what subsequently happens. Under the Obama administration detained parents and children were held together, under Trump they are separated. Under Obama the typical result for an unaccompanied minor was that the migrant would be released to a relative in the U.S., to appear later at a court proceeding. In the Trump administration anyone seeking to pick up migrant children gets vetted by ICE, and themselves subject to deportation.

The salient point is that the migrants in question are not "illegal" until their refugee status has been rejected in a court proceeding. Trump is subjecting migrant children to inhumane conditions and/or ejecting them to Mexico before their status has been decided. 

Despite what people say, Obama supported robust enforcement of immigration laws, partly because he thought it would set the stage for a comprehensive immigration law. But it seems to me his administration was unwilling to subject children to inhumane conditions.


----------



## Guest

Baron Scarpia said:


> All unaccompanied migrant children are "detained" for some period of time, so the raw number doesn't say anything in particular about the authorities. The difference is what subsequently happens. Under the Obama administration detained parents and children were held together, under Trump they are separated. Under Obama the typical result for an unaccompanied minor was that the migrant would be released to a relative in the U.S., to appear later at a court proceeding. In the Trump administration anyone seeking to pick up migrant children gets vetted by ICE, and themselves subject to deportation.
> 
> The salient point is that the migrants in question are not "illegal" until their refugee status has been rejected in a court proceeding. Trump is subjecting migrant children to inhumane conditions and/or ejecting them to Mexico before their status has been decided.
> 
> Despite what people say, Obama supported robust enforcement of immigration laws, partly because he thought it would set the stage for a comprehensive immigration law. But it seems to me his administration was unwilling to subject children to inhumane conditions.


See? I just knew there had to be a really easy way to rationalize that it wasn't bad when Obama did it! Phew - thought we might have to speak ill of the "Chosen One."


----------



## Guest

DrMike said:


> See? I just knew there had to be a really easy way to rationalize that it wasn't bad when Obama did it! Phew - thought we might have to speak ill of the "Chosen One."


The point under the current administration migrant children are treated differently than they were under the Obama and Bush administrations. The number of detainees is not the most important factor.


----------



## Guest

Baron Scarpia said:


> The point under the current administration migrant children are treated differently than they were under the Obama and Bush administrations. The number of detainees is not the most important factor.


Oh, of course, of course. Because it is inconceivable that Obama would have done anything bad. Gee - imagine if reporters actually did their jobs for the 8 years of his presidency. Just think of how many other stories about how lucky it was that kids got "detained" under his benevolent rule we might have read.

So is detainment under Obama better than detainment under Trump sort of like Whoopi Goldberg's excusing Roman Polanski's rape of a minor because it was rape, but not "rape rape?" Or is it like people who claim that African slaves were actually lucky because their slavery saved them from a worse life in Africa? Just trying to figure out which level of tortured logic we are employing here to excuse what the DNC called disgusting and a violation of U.N. treaties.

Situational ethics are fun.


----------



## KenOC

DrMike said:


> The Jeffrey Epstein case continues to get weirder. Prince Andrew, Duke of York, is in the headlines due to an interview he just did talking about his relationship with Epstein. One of Epstein's accusers claims that she had sex with Andrew while she was a minor. He claims to not remember her, in spite of a picture of him with his arm around her bare waist. And even though he claims to not remember this interaction with a 17-year old girl...


Sex with a 17-year old girl? I've done better than that, and am still happily married to her after almost 50 years!


----------



## Guest

KenOC said:


> Sex with a 17-year old girl? I've done better than that, and am still happily married to her after almost 50 years!


Statutory rape is funny? Were you significantly older and was she being prostituted out to you by a pedophile?


----------



## KenOC

DrMike said:


> Statutory rape is funny? Were you significantly older and was she being prostituted out to you by a pedophile?


Your outrage is impressive. I'm sure you think yourself quite the righteous person!

I suspect that a 17-year old girl can decide for herself whether to accept money for sex, as was the case here. Or do you think that capability magically appears on the 18th birthday?


----------



## Guest

KenOC said:


> Your outrage is impressive. I'm sure you think yourself quite the righteous person!
> 
> I suspect that a 17-year old girl can decide for herself whether to accept money for sex, as was the case here. Or do you think that capability magically appears on the 18th birthday?


I think that your hypothetical doesn't change the facts of the case here, that an adult having sex with a minor is illegal, that prostituting a minor is illegal, and that in the eyes of the law, and in the eyes of anybody with decency, this was both creepy and criminal. Your personal exception to the rule doesn't overrule any of that, and this notion that, "well, these girls probably wanted to do it, and is it really that bad?" just needs to be extinguished.


----------



## Johnnie Burgess

Baron Scarpia said:


> The point under the current administration migrant children are treated differently than they were under the Obama and Bush administrations. The number of detainees is not the most important factor.


If the kids are released after capture they never show like they are ordered to. Then it takes years to find them again. Then they claim they should be allowed to stay because this is the only country they know. Why should they be rewarded for breaking the law?


----------



## Strange Magic

DrMike said:


> See? I just knew there had to be a really easy way to rationalize that it wasn't bad when Obama did it! Phew - thought we might have to speak ill of the "Chosen One."


As often is the case, the facts can be uncovered and stated following a simple search of the Internet. There are dozens of fact-checker links that clearly show that A) the Obama administration detained migrant children who appeared at the border unaccompanied by their parents, whereas B) the Trump administration separated migrant children from their parents. There is a big difference. The only solace that Trump enthusiasts can claim is that the media did erroneously use 2014 photos to illustrate children in detention under Trump. Thankfully we have a robust mainstream media and a robust fact-checker mechanism, if only people who should know better would do the obvious research before discharging their blunderbusses.

https://www.hispanicoutlook.com/articles/family-separation-policy


----------



## Johnnie Burgess

Strange Magic said:


> As often is the case, the facts can be uncovered and stated following a simple search of the Internet. There are dozens of fact-checker links that clearly show that A) the Obama administration detained migrant children who appeared at the border unaccompanied by their parents, whereas B) the Trump administration separated migrant children from their parents. There is a big difference. The only solace that Trump enthusiasts can claim is that the media did erroneously use 2014 photos to illustrate children in detention under Trump. Thankfully we have a robust mainstream media and a robust fact-checker mechanism, if only people who should know better would do the obvious research before discharging their blunderbusses.
> 
> https://www.hispanicoutlook.com/articles/family-separation-policy


If they do not want to be separated from their kids do not cross the border illegally.


----------



## Guest

Johnnie Burgess said:


> If they do not want to be separated from their kids do not cross the border illegally.


No, no, no - don't you understand? Being detained and separated and locking kids up is an absolute blessing if Obama does it!!! We should all be so lucky to have been locked up in cages by Obama! I mean, just look at these kids! They aren't miserable - in fact, what you don't realize is that these children are actually prostrating themselves before a picture of Obama, praising his name and the great joy they feel at the privilege of being caged in His name! And in the background, they can hear that wonderful "Barack Hussein Obama" song that those wonderful schoolchildren sang!


----------



## Strange Magic

DrMike said:


> No, no, no - don't you understand? Being detained and separated and locking kids up is an absolute blessing if Obama does it!!! We should all be so lucky to have been locked up in cages by Obama! I mean, just look at these kids! They aren't miserable - in fact, what you don't realize is that these children are actually prostrating themselves before a picture of Obama, praising his name and the great joy they feel at the privilege of being caged in His name! And in the background, they can hear that wonderful "Barack Hussein Obama" song that those wonderful schoolchildren sang!
> View attachment 126884


While the gods are known to first blind those whom they would destroy, what are we to make of those who deliberately blind themselves such that the disagreeable views of others no longer can threaten their equilibrium? Such self-mutilation is a curious thing indeed.


----------



## Guest

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you . . . the Hudson - no, sorry, I mean the Tesla Cybertruck!

https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/22/cars/tesla-cybertruck-electric-pickup-truck/index.html








Comes complete with unbreakable metal glass windows:








This looks like the perfect kind of truck that Silicone Valley tech gurus will want their friends to see them driving! Meanwhile, the guy in the midwest will continue to buy his Ford F-150.


----------



## KenOC

Looks like it should be named The _Zumwalt_.


----------



## joen_cph

A better, true car for any Dystopian future of social unrest: SKODA PA-II "The Turtle"









(albeit designed in 1923 ...)


----------



## Strange Magic

The Wonderful World of Frank Tinsley is slowly being realized......

http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blogs/frank-tinsleys-atomic-punk


----------



## KenOC

Country music artist and Grammy winner Lee Greenwood is unconvinced by Tesla’s new Cybertruck. “Every ******* in Texas will have a Ford, Chevy or Dodge with cow balls hanging off the trailer hitch. I don’t know if this fits into their hauling fertilizer around and carrying stuff.”

For my part, I don't think my gun rack would mount in that thing.


----------



## Luchesi

A lawyer opened the door of his Tesla, when suddenly a car came along and hit the door, ripping it off completely. 

When the police arrived at the scene, the lawyer was complaining bitterly about the damage to his precious Tesla. "Officer, look what they've done to my Model S!!!", he whiningly said. 

"You lawyers are so materialistic, you make me sick!!!" retorted the officer, "You're so worried about your stupid Tesla, that you didn't even notice that your left arm was ripped off!!!" "Oh my god....", replied the lawyer, finally noticing the bloody left shoulder where his arm once was, "Where's my Rolex?


----------



## KenOC

Here's a short video clip on the Tesla truck, incl. a ride in it. Most interesting. The base model is $10K less than a Ford F-150.


----------



## Jacck

Tesla was in the Czech media the last couple of days, because a Tesla car in neigborhing Austria had an accident and the battery started burning and they could not put the fire out
https://www.thesun.co.uk/motors/472...erno-that-took-35-firefighters-to-extinguish/

more interesting tech is invisibility
http://www.hyperstealth.com/


----------



## Guest

Jacck said:


> Tesla was in the Czech media the last couple of days, because a Tesla car in neigborhing Austria had an accident and the battery started burning and they could not put the fire out
> https://www.thesun.co.uk/motors/472...erno-that-took-35-firefighters-to-extinguish/


That's the thing, people think electric is safer than gasoline, but in that battery you have a full gas tank's worth of energy and a short circuit releases it as readily as a burning gas tank.


----------



## Luchesi

It's dangerous to be in a Tesla (well actually it's safer).

"A big rig lost a tire that jumped the center divider of the 5 freeway in San Clemente and hit a Tesla on Friday morning, killing a woman inside, according to the California Highway Patrol."


----------



## Strange Magic

Not really bizarre news: New Jersey easily the smartest state in the USA! . Incontestable proof here:

https://www.safehome.org/smartest-americans/


----------



## Luchesi

Strange Magic said:


> Not really bizarre news: New Jersey easily the smartest state in the USA! . Incontestable proof here:
> 
> https://www.safehome.org/smartest-americans/


From my experience, not musical intelligence.


----------



## Strange Magic

Luchesi said:


> From my experience, not musical intelligence.


Some Well-Known NJ Musical Artists:

https://theculturetrip.com/north-am...articles/15-iconic-musicians-from-new-jersey/


----------



## Forsooth

*Stuffed? Woman Needs Her A** Amputated After "Enhancing" It With Illegal Injections*

Model Courtney Barnes may have a little less room this Thanksgiving to stuff her turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and dessert.

That's because she has been told by doctors she may need to have her entire a** amputated, after "enhancing" it with illegal injections, according to the NY Post.

Barnes, who is known as Miss Miami, said on the E! show "Botched" that she is desperate to get her body back after the injections. But Doctors told her that in order to fix her a**, it may have to be amputated.

"Amputate the whole booty? I'm not doing that. No, I'm not doing that. I'm not amputating butts," she responded.

She had the illegal fillers injected when she was 22 years old and working as a dancer in a club.

She said: "When I was in college I got a job dancing at a club. The first night, after really not making no money on the stage, there was a dancer who walked up to me and she told me that I needed some more booty if I wanted to make some more money. That's when I found out about the injections that gave me my big booty problems....................."

Complete story with photos -- 
https://www.zerohedge.com/health/woman-needs-her-***-amputated-after-enhancing-it-illegal-injections


----------



## EddieRUKiddingVarese




----------



## KenOC

*Why Shade Is a Mark of Privilege in Los Angeles*

Global warming meets racial injustice! The rich relax by huge swimming pools on tree-studded and well-shaded Beverly Hills estates. Meanwhile the poor, marginalized by generations of neglect and discrimination, spontaneously burst into flames while crossing barren and unshaded streets in the burning hell of a Los Angeles summer.

Well, it _is _from the New York Times. And I guess there's not a whole lot of news today.


----------



## Jacck

KenOC said:


> *Why Shade Is a Mark of Privilege in Los Angeles*
> 
> Global warming meets racial injustice! The rich relax by huge swimming pools on tree-studded and well-shaded Beverly Hills estates. Meanwhile the poor, marginalized by generations of neglect and discrimination, spontaneously burst into flames while crossing barren and unshaded streets in the burning hell of a Los Angeles summer.
> 
> Well, it _is _from the New York Times. And I guess there's not a whole lot of news today.


yes, I read about the spontaneous human combustion. I did not know it is so common in L.A.


----------



## SixFootScowl

I know there are some pretty nasty tattoo jobs but *check these out*. There are some gems in there such as this one:


----------



## Dorsetmike

^ only viewable in USA


----------



## SixFootScowl

Dorsetmike said:


> ^ only viewable in USA


That is strange. Well there is one that I could not even post the image for because the guy has a full sized sex organ tattooed onto the side of his face. I can't imagine what drives one to such. How can anyone like that face the public, their boss (where in the world do they work), a prospective date (she must be similarly adorned?), etc.


----------



## KenOC

*For 2nd time in 2 days, a student is shot by an officer in a Wisconsin school
*
If I was that student, I'd stay away for a couple of weeks. Twice is more than enough!


----------



## Jacck

Fritz Kobus said:


> That is strange. Well there is one that I could not even post the image for because the guy has a full sized sex organ tattooed onto the side of his face. I can't imagine what drives one to such. How can anyone like that face the public, their boss (where in the world do they work), a prospective date (she must be similarly adorned?), etc.


http://www.sickchirpse.com/vladimir-franz/
this guy was our candidate for president a couple of years ago. According to the rules, there are 3 ways to become a candidate - a political party nominates you, you gather some prescribed amount of senators to support you, or you gather some 300K signatures from people (in a country of 10 milion). He looks bizarre, but he would have been better than the Russian troll we have there now.


----------



## KenOC

Further tales from "He's got _WAY _too much money":

"An Italian artist duct-taped a banana to a gallery wall in Miami as part of the Art Basel festival - and it sold for $120,000. Actually, he's sold two editions already.

"It's unclear how often the banana will be replaced, as it will probably turn black and begin to spoil in about a week. The gallery expects to throw out the one currently on view at the end of the week, unless the collector wants to keep it."

Pictures included in *the story*!


----------



## Guest

KenOC said:


> Further tales from "He's got _WAY _too much money":
> 
> "An Italian artist duct-taped a banana to a gallery wall in Miami as part of the Art Basel festival - and it sold for $120,000. Actually, he's sold two editions already.
> 
> "It's unclear how often the banana will be replaced, as it will probably turn black and begin to spoil in about a week. The gallery expects to throw out the one currently on view at the end of the week, unless the collector wants to keep it."
> 
> Pictures included in *the story*!


How absolutely spot-on is "The Emperor's New Clothes?"


----------



## Totenfeier

KenOC said:


> Further tales from "He's got _WAY _too much money":
> 
> "An Italian artist duct-taped a banana to a gallery wall in Miami as part of the Art Basel festival - and it sold for $120,000. Actually, he's sold two editions already.
> 
> "It's unclear how often the banana will be replaced, as it will probably turn black and begin to spoil in about a week. The gallery expects to throw out the one currently on view at the end of the week, unless the collector wants to keep it."
> 
> Pictures included in *the story*!


I recall many, many, many, many decades ago, in high school, seeing an "enrichment" film in which there was the following quote (obviously from no one special): "Whatever an artist spits is art (I suspect the original may not have been exactly "spits")." So, all you lumpen non-artists out there, give it up.

However, I am offering an unprecedented opportunity for you to get in on the ground floor of an artistic revolution that will change the world - my Conceptual Sculptures Collection. I have transcended the use of ordinary materials; my creations exist solely as metaphysical conceptions in my mind. Prices start at $50,000. Call for details - just don't use a..._phone_ (shudder).


----------



## Jacck

KenOC said:


> Further tales from "He's got _WAY _too much money":
> 
> "An Italian artist duct-taped a banana to a gallery wall in Miami as part of the Art Basel festival - and it sold for $120,000. Actually, he's sold two editions already.
> 
> "It's unclear how often the banana will be replaced, as it will probably turn black and begin to spoil in about a week. The gallery expects to throw out the one currently on view at the end of the week, unless the collector wants to keep it."
> 
> Pictures included in *the story*!


Someone ate a $120,000 banana that an artist had taped to a wall


----------



## geralmar

Eleven minutes before eruption of White Island volcano, New Zealand. Insets show tourists walking on crater rim:


----------



## Luchesi

...documentary based on the book by Professor Martin Jarvis which seeks to prove through forensic document examination that Anna Magdalena Bach was, in fact, the composer of the six cello suites and a number of other works attributed to her husband. Modern science techniques prove she was a composer and not a copyist, as previously thought.


----------



## geralmar

Patients die as lawyers attack Lahore hospital:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-50757383

I'm a lawyer and find this appalling.


----------



## geralmar

Christabel said:


> All the boys are out at the hugely dangerous NZ volcano, as we speak, retrieving the bodies. Where are the females on this mission? I think we deserve to be told.


I was completely unaware of world "volcano tours" until this disaster. I knew that tourists were mucking around Kilauea and Mauna Loa in Hawaii; but I thought this was a peculiarly American (U.S.) stupidity. I have an aversion to going anywhere near lava. I am sickened about White Island.

https://www.volcanoadventures.com/tours/around-the-world-volcano-tour.html


----------



## Guest

geralmar said:


> I was completely unaware of world "volcano tours" until this disaster. I knew that tourists were mucking around Kilauea and Mauna Loa in Hawaii; but I thought this was a peculiarly American (U.S.) stupidity. I have an aversion to going anywhere near lava. I am sickened about White Island.
> 
> https://www.volcanoadventures.com/tours/around-the-world-volcano-tour.html


These people died literally for nothing!! Road accidents are needless deaths too, but at least we all HAVE to travel by car.


----------



## Jacck

Christabel said:


> These people died literally for nothing!! Road accidents are needless deaths too, but at least we all HAVE to travel by car.


why are you so sure? You think it is easy to predict the eruptions with 100% accuracy? I doubt it. I visited some active volanoes in Indonesia (Bromo caldera, Mount Rinjani, the famous sulphur mines) where we had to wear gas masks to get close to the crater or to the bubbling mud. Sometimes it just erupts without much warning and kills people that are nearby. It is an unfortunate accident, but why to blame somebody without having any proof that they did anything wrong? Or are you like the stupid italian authorities who wanted to jail the geologists who failed to predict an earthquake?
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/oct/22/scientists-convicted-manslaughter-earthquake


----------



## Luchesi

Coincidentally, I got this recently in an email;

Maybe, perversely, we should be grateful that high school prepares us for this life. The isolation, the shame, the aggression from those years—all of it readies us to cope. But one also has to wonder whether high school is to blame; whether the worst of adult America looks like high school because it’s populated by people who went to high school in America. We’re recapitulating the ugly folkways of this institution, and reacting with the same reflexes, because that’s where we were trapped, and shaped, and misshaped, during some of our most vulnerable years.
High school itself does something to us, is the point. We bear its stripes.


----------



## Strange Magic

Luchesi said:


> Coincidentally, I got this recently in an email;
> 
> Maybe, perversely, we should be grateful that high school prepares us for this life. The isolation, the shame, the aggression from those years-all of it readies us to cope. But one also has to wonder whether high school is to blame; whether the worst of adult America looks like high school because it's populated by people who went to high school in America. We're recapitulating the ugly folkways of this institution, and reacting with the same reflexes, because that's where we were trapped, and shaped, and misshaped, during some of our most vulnerable years.
> High school itself does something to us, is the point. We bear its stripes.


I'd like to see a return in high schools to a robust mandatory course on US civics and the duties and responsibilities of the citizens of a democratic republic. This would include the Constitution and its history, checks and balances, the obligation to vote as an educated citizen, to keep well and accurately informed, etc. Might improve things.


----------



## TurnaboutVox

As predicted somewhere above, "the Mods have shut this down".

A number of off topic posts have been removed.

Please remember that the main forums should not be used to post about your political (or religious) opinions or beliefs. If you want to do that, do so in an appropriate social group.


----------



## Strange Magic

TurnaboutVox said:


> As predicted somewhere above, "the Mods have shut this down".
> 
> A number of off topic posts have been removed.
> 
> Please remember that the main forums should not be used to post about your political (or religious) opinions or beliefs. If you want to do that, do so in an appropriate social group.


Many thanks to TurnaboutVox for the timely reminder and much needed purge! The following may be A Strange Story and Bizarre News to some of our newer members. To the rest it will be like hearing a lovely old melody yet again....

Now that political and religious and contentious scientific discussion has become commonplace in the Community Forum, thanks to the exertions of some of our most prolific members, I again recommend the TC Groups "downstairs". The Management of TC has wisely set up the Groups as the venue where such topics are to be discussed in detail and at length, reminding all of the clear injunction that:

"Any/All discussions about Politics or Religion are restricted to the Social Groups 
Members can create their own Social Group. If you need assistance, please contact a staff member via Private Message."

I don't think that enough TC members are aware of the existence of the various Social Groups that can be found when you click on "Community". I know I remained in unthinking ignorance for quite a while before discovering several Groups. I've chosen Religion and also Politics to talk about, feeling that they were probably areas where one has the least chance of getting in trouble. And there are Groups addressing Science, History, Books, other topics. I've posted there also.

How to access Groups: Go to the thin black bar just under the blue-grey bar under the Talk Classical masthead. Click or tap "Community", then click or tap on "groups", and you're there. Scroll to the bottom right and you'll find the complete listing of Groups. Bring your friends; the more the merrier, and the more vibrant and maybe contentious (though the mods do check in now and then, but display admirable circumspection and tolerance).


----------



## Luchesi

Strange Magic said:


> Many thanks to TurnaboutVox for the timely reminder and much needed purge! The following may be A Strange Story and Bizarre News to some of our newer members. To the rest it will be like hearing a lovely old melody yet again....
> 
> Now that political and religious and contentious scientific discussion has become commonplace in the Community Forum, thanks to the exertions of some of our most prolific members, I again recommend the TC Groups "downstairs". The Management of TC has wisely set up the Groups as the venue where such topics are to be discussed in detail and at length, reminding all of the clear injunction that:
> 
> "Any/All discussions about Politics or Religion are restricted to the Social Groups
> Members can create their own Social Group. If you need assistance, please contact a staff member via Private Message."
> 
> I don't think that enough TC members are aware of the existence of the various Social Groups that can be found when you click on "Community". I know I remained in unthinking ignorance for quite a while before discovering several Groups. I've chosen Religion and also Politics to talk about, feeling that they were probably areas where one has the least chance of getting in trouble. And there are Groups addressing Science, History, Books, other topics. I've posted there also.
> 
> How to access Groups: Go to the thin black bar just under the blue-grey bar under the Talk Classical masthead. Click or tap "Community", then click or tap on "groups", and you're there. Scroll to the bottom right and you'll find the complete listing of Groups. Bring your friends; the more the merrier, and the more vibrant and maybe contentious (though the mods do check in now and then, but display admirable circumspection and tolerance).


We know why few people use the Groups.


----------



## Strange Magic

Luchesi said:


> We know why few people use the Groups.


Some desire only to dip their Political toes in the water, cause a bit of a splash, then exit the scene while watching others mill about. The Community Forum is perfect for that. The Groups call for a more committed, more robust engaging with contentious issues (or any non-musical issues for that matter).


----------



## Jacck

Lawyer punched fashion designer in seat dispute at opera 
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...-punched-royal-opera-house-seat-dispute-court


----------



## TxllxT

Wild boars pig out on gardens & garbage in Haifa, Israel, at the foot of mount Carmel: https://www.rt.com/news/476055-haifa-hogs-battle-residents/


----------



## Triplets

TxllxT said:


> Wild boars pig out on gardens & garbage in Haifa, Israel, at the foot of mount Carmel: https://www.rt.com/news/476055-haifa-hogs-battle-residents/


They aren't even kosher.


----------



## Jacck

Triplets said:


> They aren't even kosher.


but they are delicious
https://www.wideopenspaces.com/top-8-wild-boar-recipes/


----------



## KenOC

The Far Side returns! Gary Larson is back and promises new original content. His site is right *here*.


----------



## Johnnie Burgess

https://sfist.com/2019/12/18/man-photographed-pooping-in-an-aisle-at-the-marina-safeway/

What a wonderful sight that must have been.


----------



## KenOC

*Transgender worker suing Nike for $1.1M cites pronoun abuse*

"A transgender former Nike contractor is seeking $1.1 million in damages from the sporting goods giant for allegedly allowing gender identity-based harassment… [Nike] discriminated against computer engineer Jazz Lyles, who identifies as transmasculine and prefers the pronouns they/them/their."

"…the engineer was repeatedly 'misgendered' by co-workers, the complaint said."

Not quite sure what "transmasculine" means, or why it deserves a plural pronoun. But I'm sure there's a simple answer.


----------



## LezLee

While in exile in Holland, Kaiser Wilhelm II passed the time by chopping wood. Every thousandth log was signed and auctioned off to admirers. During his first year he stacked 13,000 logs, despite having a withered arm.
(More like this in Charles Emmerson's newly published book 'Crucible').


----------



## Strange Magic

Medical billing overkill: Bill presented for head cold diagnosis for almost $26,000, and the insurer pays. Feeding at the trough...

https://www.npr.org/sections/health...9/for-her-head-cold-insurer-coughed-up-25-865


----------



## KenOC

Strange Magic said:


> Medical billing overkill: Bill presented for head cold diagnosis for almost $26,000, and the insurer pays. Feeding at the trough...
> 
> https://www.npr.org/sections/health...9/for-her-head-cold-insurer-coughed-up-25-865


Worth reading this article. Seems to be due to one of the common "comfortable arrangements" in the US health care industry. "The third reason for the high bill may be the connection between the lab and Kasdan's doctor. Kasdan's bill shows that the lab service was provided by Manhattan Gastroenterology, which has the same phone number and locations as her doctor's office."


----------



## Strange Magic

KenOC said:


> Worth reading this article. Seems to be due to one of the common "comfortable arrangements" in the US health care industry. "The third reason for the high bill may be the connection between the lab and Kasdan's doctor. Kasdan's bill shows that the lab service was provided by Manhattan Gastroenterology, which has the same phone number and locations as her doctor's office."


I enjoy reading through my periodic Medicare summary of charges (astronomical) presented to Medicare, and then alongside is the tiny fraction that Medicare will actually pay the provider and that the provider agrees to accept. Then my AARP supplemental tags behind and cleans up the even smaller residue......


----------



## Guest

Strange Magic said:


> Medical billing overkill: Bill presented for head cold diagnosis for almost $26,000, and the insurer pays. Feeding at the trough...
> 
> https://www.npr.org/sections/health...9/for-her-head-cold-insurer-coughed-up-25-865


Sure, they like to present extreme and rare examples to push the narrative of single payer. But it is only because private insurers agree to pay higher prices that Medicare can survive. Government Healthcare forces prices on health care professionals regardless of what the actual cost is. Medicare would crumble without private insurance, in the same way that the only reason other countries can force pharmaceutical companies to charge less than cost is because we in the U.S. supplement the cost. If we didn't pay what we do, the world doesn't get new drugs.


----------



## Guest

Strange Magic said:


> I enjoy reading through my periodic Medicare summary of charges (astronomical) presented to Medicare, and then alongside is the tiny fraction that Medicare will actually pay the provider and that the provider agrees to accept. Then my AARP supplemental tags behind and cleans up the even smaller residue......


Because you can't negotiate with an organization that has a monopoly on force.


----------



## Strange Magic

^^^^I guess our American healthcare system is not only the best in the world as it is, but it would be even better if there were no Medicare at all. I assume Medicare's critics, driven by ideological purity, will voluntarily renounce any personal participation and will urge their older relatives to do likewise. Ditto public transit, public schools, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Centers for Disease Control, even the Weather Bureau. All these things--and more---are surely best done by private enterprise. Strangle Socialism in its cradle!


----------



## Jacck

An (Almost) Comprehensive History of Rat Kings
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/506504/almost-comprehensive-history-rat-kings


----------



## Guest

DrMike said:


> Sure, they like to present extreme and rare examples to push the narrative of single payer. But it is only because private insurers agree to pay higher prices that Medicare can survive. Government Healthcare forces prices on health care professionals regardless of what the actual cost is. Medicare would crumble without private insurance, in the same way that the only reason other countries can force pharmaceutical companies to charge less than cost is because we in the U.S. supplement the cost. If we didn't pay what we do, the world doesn't get new drugs.


It is not an extreme and rare example. I had outpatient surgery to remove two small fibroids from my leg. A nurse took my vital signs, the surgeon spent 15 minutes doing the surgery under local anesthesia and a nurse put a dressing on and took my vital signs afterwards. I was out in an hour. I was billed $20,000, my private insurance said they would pay $800, and the bill was adjusted.

Private healthcare in the US is an organized crime syndicate.


----------



## Johnnie Burgess

Strange Magic said:


> ^^^^I guess our American healthcare system is not only the best in the world as it is, but it would be even better if there were no Medicare at all. I assume Medicare's critics, driven by ideological purity, will voluntarily renounce any personal participation and will urge their older relatives to do likewise. Ditto public transit, public schools, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Centers for Disease Control, even the Weather Bureau. All these things--and more---are surely best done by private enterprise. Strangle Socialism in its cradle!


Ask Mick Jagger why did he have his recent heart surgery in the United States instead of in England. A lot of rich people decide to come here and not use the country's that have socialised healthcare.


----------



## Guest

Strange Magic said:


> ^^^^I guess our American healthcare system is not only the best in the world as it is, but it would be even better if there were no Medicare at all. I assume Medicare's critics, driven by ideological purity, will voluntarily renounce any personal participation and will urge their older relatives to do likewise. Ditto public transit, public schools, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Centers for Disease Control, even the Weather Bureau. All these things--and more---are surely best done by private enterprise. Strangle Socialism in its cradle!


Absolutely - exactly like I'm sure you have gone completely carbon neutral so that you don't appear to be a hypocrite when it comes to your belief in anthropogenic climate change. You don't use a gas-consuming vehicle, do you? No plastics of any kind? You don't purchase anything produced in China, contributing to their increased carbon output? You are an absolute paragon of carbon neutral virtue? And you are prepared to leave this life as soon as your usefulness has ended in order to do your part in reducing overpopulation?

Or, like the rest of us, do you live in the system that exists because there currently really isn't another viable option, regardless of whether you think it is good or not?

You like to ignore the true definition of socialism, because it doesn't fit your narrative. You really should study up on it a bit more.


----------



## Guest

Baron Scarpia said:


> It is not an extreme and rare example. I had outpatient surgery to remove two small fibroids from my leg. A nurse took my vital signs, the surgeon spent 15 minutes doing the surgery under local anesthesia and a nurse put a dressing on and took my vital signs afterwards. I was out in an hour. I was billed $20,000, my private insurance said they would pay $800, and the bill was adjusted.
> 
> Private healthcare in the US is an organized crime syndicate.


Why? Did you actually pay $20,000? See, the difference is that you can negotiate with the private insurance. That is what private individuals do with one another, and that is why capitalism has worked so well and made all who embrace it so wealthy and successful. In contrast, when the government comes to you and says you owe so much in taxes, could you, say, negotiate a $20,000 tax bill down to $800? No. Because the government has no need to negotiate with you. They have a monopoly on force and can simply throw you in jail if you choose to not pay their bill.


----------



## Strange Magic

^^^^I'd better brush up on my Ayn Rand! But let's ask a few simple questions: Yes/No answers will be fine.

Get rid of the FDIC?
Get rid of the Centers for Disease Control?
Get rid of the FDA?
Get rid of Medicare?
Get rid of the National Parks?
Get rid of child labor laws?
Get rid of the preamble to the US Constitution that asserts that a purpose of government is to "promote the general welfare"?

We're talking purely theoretically here, for purposes of discussion and clarification of basic principles--if critics of "Socialism" could wave a magic wand and reset government and society, would they really get rid of the above entities and either not replace them or rely upon the benevolence of the private sector to do an even better job? Watching people intellectually choke upon their obsession with ideology is a sad and wearying experience. But I'm sure The Disney Corporation would do a great job running our national parks!


----------



## Johnnie Burgess

Strange Magic said:


> ^^^^I'd better brush up on my Ayn Rand! But let's ask a few simple questions: Yes/No answers will be fine.
> 
> Get rid of the FDIC?
> Get rid of the Centers for Disease Control?
> Get rid of the FDA?
> Get rid of Medicare?
> Get rid of the National Parks?
> Get rid of child labor laws?
> Get rid of the preamble to the US Constitution that asserts that a purpose of government is to "promote the general welfare"?
> 
> We're talking purely theoretically here, for purposes of discussion and clarification of basic principles--if critics of "Socialism" could wave a magic wand and reset government and society, would they really get rid of the above entities and either not replace them or rely upon the benevolence of the private sector to do an even better job? Watching people intellectually choke upon their obsession with ideology is a sad and wearying experience. But I'm sure The Disney Corporation would do a great job running our national parks!


Strange do you use public transportation or own a vehicle? You claim to love public transportation do you use it?


----------



## Strange Magic

Johnnie Burgess said:


> Strange do you use public transportation or own a vehicle? You claim to love public transportation do you use it?


Ask me what my favorite color is!


----------



## mmsbls

Please refrain from purely political discussions.


----------



## KenOC

Mood Media, the world’s leading purveyor of shopping music (their holdings include Muzak) has pulled a popular Christmas song from their in-store playlists.
----------------------
"It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" was written in 1951 by Meredith Wilson and famously sung by Perry Como and The Fontane Sisters. The song's third verse opens with the lines: "A pair of hop-a-long boots and a pistol that shoots/Is the wish of Barney and Ben."
----------------------
Too horrible to contemplate!


----------



## Johnnie Burgess

KenOC said:


> Mood Media, the world's leading purveyor of shopping music (their holdings include Muzak) has pulled a popular Christmas song from their in-store playlists.
> ----------------------
> "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" was written in 1951 by Meredith Wilson and famously sung by Perry Como and The Fontane Sisters. The song's third verse opens with the lines: "A pair of hop-a-long boots and a pistol that shoots/Is the wish of Barney and Ben."
> ----------------------
> Too horrible to contemplate!


Time to boycott mood media and put them out of business.


----------



## Room2201974

Johnnie Burgess said:


> Time to boycott mood media and put them out of business.


Let's take them out back and beat the turkey stuffing out of them. How dare they violate the true meaning of Christmas!


----------



## Strange Magic

Johnnie Burgess said:


> Time to boycott mood media and put them out of business.


Just how would one do that? Stop shopping?


----------



## Johnnie Burgess

Strange Magic said:


> Just how would one do that? Stop shopping?


Get the places that use them to stop using them. Let them business know that you can take your business somewhere else.


----------



## Strange Magic

Johnnie Burgess said:


> Get the places that use them to stop using them. Let them business know that you can take your business somewhere else.


You would have to be very specific in your speech to the store or mall owners. Tell them "I want you to cancel your contract with Muzak because they have not been playing a certain song that refers to someone--likely a child--getting a Real Gun that Shoots. I want to hear that song played or else I'll take my business elsewhere!". Should do the trick.


----------



## KenOC

Possibly a place to avoid next time you need a surgical procedure:

*Cancer patient set on fire during operation in Romania*


----------



## geralmar




----------



## SixFootScowl

geralmar said:


>


Apparently *this is the couple *(if not, they are still pretty strange):


----------



## KenOC

Wonderful. Moron.com has a section dedicated solely to Florida.

*Florida Man checks if gun is loaded by putting it to head, pulling trigger*

It was a mistake. "Many experts believe Chambers will win a Darwin Award this year." Posthumously of course.


----------



## Luchesi

geralmar said:


>


Yes, they sell a stairway to heaven.


----------



## Room2201974

geralmar said:


>


Those of us who grew up reading Carl Hiaasen find the "Florida Man" stories on the net as being somewhat anticlimactic.


----------



## EdwardBast

Johnnie Burgess said:


> Time to boycott mood media and put them out of business.


Wait a second. These are the people who torment us with Muzak and your complaint is they took a Christmas song off the playlist? These sons and daughters of Satan and purveyors of human misery should be publicly neutered on general principle and you come up with this trivial whinge?


----------



## Kjetil Heggelund

Here is a story from when I studied in San Francisco...The librarian at SFCM had a thing with "Tom Waits sightings". Apparently he used to go to different bars and chat with people. I think I did once, but I was too drunk to know if it was him or if I was hallucinating. Only a few people know about this since it is very, very embarrassing...Well, there it is! Your welcome.


----------



## KenOC

A strange story. For the last month, residents in sparsely-inhabited rural counties in Colorado and Nebraska have reported night-time maneuvers by large groups of drones. No mystery about what they are - they're plainly large commercial drones, about six feet in diameter, without markings. They fly around at night, seemingly obeying the flight rules for their kind. Drones are sometimes used in such areas to record land use, tally livestock, and so forth - but at night? Makes no sense.

All government agencies with drone capability have been queried but all deny any role in this, and most have actively denied any involvement. The federal government is now investigating but without any announced results as of yet.

*Curious*.


----------



## Luchesi

KenOC said:


> A strange story. For the last month, residents in sparsely-inhabited rural counties in Colorado and Nebraska have reported night-time maneuvers by large groups of drones. No mystery about what they are - they're plainly large commercial drones, about six feet in diameter, without markings. They fly around at night, seemingly obeying the flight rules for their kind. Drones are sometimes used in such areas to record land use, tally livestock, and so forth - but at night? Makes no sense.
> 
> All government agencies with drone capability have been queried but all deny any role in this, and most have actively denied any involvement. The federal government is now investigating but without any announced results as of yet.
> 
> *Curious*.


This is just a guess but maybe it's stores testing the latest functionings of their drones for delivering their packages. Of course they should tell the authorities, at least the authorities, but they know if word gets out they will get a boatload of complaints from people who are just upset about drones in general. Bad PR for the online outlets who are doing the testing.


----------



## geralmar

This hardly qualifies as current news; but in the movie Joyeux Noel 2005), about the spontaneous 1914 Christmas Eve truce along sections of the Western Front during WWI, a French general makes a bizarre off-hand comment about arresting and shooting a cat for treason. That was apparently true:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3242394/posts


----------



## geralmar

I could think of a less celebratory headline.


----------



## SixFootScowl

geralmar said:


> I could think of a less celebratory headline.


Perhaps there are some folks who feel it will be a happier new year if they off somebody who they find bothersome.


----------



## SixFootScowl

*Popcorn stuck in man's tooth leads to life-threatening infection, open heart surgery*



> A 41-year-old British man who attempted to dislodge a piece of popcorn stuck in his teeth using various objects claims he later developed a life-threatening infection that required him to undergo open heart surgery.
> 
> Adam Martin, a firefighter and father of three from Cornwall, England, said he noticed the piece of popcorn stuck in a back tooth after he and his wife watched a movie in September. For three days, he was unable to remove the popcorn. He claims to have used multiple objects - a pen lid, a toothpick, a piece of wire and even a metal nail - to remove the food, but was unsuccessful, and even damaged his surrounding gum when doing so.
> 
> A week later, Martin began to suffer from night sweats, fatigue, headaches- all of which he initially thought were signs of the flu but would later learn were signs of endocarditis, or an infection of the endocardium, "the lining of the interior surfaces of the chambers of the heart," ... he reportedly underwent a seven-hour open heart surgery to repair his mitral valve and replace his aortic valve.


----------



## KenOC

More on those *pesky drones*, now sighted nightly over an area larger than the entire state of Nebraska:

"Flying in grid-like formation in groups of six to 10, the drones have 6-foot wingspans and come out during the evening, flying in airspace controlled by the federal government. The Federal Aviation Administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Air Force and the Army Forces Command said they don't have any information on the drones.

"Though it's unclear how the drones are operated, federal, state and local law enforcement agencies suspect that a command vehicle in the area - probably a closed box trailer with antennae or a large van - controls the drones, according to a Facebook post from the Phillips County Sheriff's Office in Colorado."

An interagency task force has been set up to find out what's going on. Authorities note that the drones are apparently breaking no laws and that shooting them down would be illegal.


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> More on those *pesky drones*, now sighted nightly over an area larger than the entire state of Nebraska:
> 
> "Flying in grid-like formation in groups of six to 10, the drones have 6-foot wingspans and come out during the evening, flying in airspace controlled by the federal government. The Federal Aviation Administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Air Force and the Army Forces Command said they don't have any information on the drones.
> 
> "Though it's unclear how the drones are operated, federal, state and local law enforcement agencies suspect that a command vehicle in the area - probably a closed box trailer with antennae or a large van - controls the drones, according to a Facebook post from the Phillips County Sheriff's Office in Colorado."
> 
> An interagency task force has been set up to find out what's going on. Authorities note that the drones are apparently breaking no laws and that shooting them down would be illegal.


I suppose it is not possible, nor practicable, to try picking up the signal the drones are receiving and trace it back to its source.

I say shoot them down, but apparently they need more air restrictions before that can happen. What are the regulations? How low over someone's house can they fly these things?


----------



## mikeh375

Are some so gullible?......


----------



## Luchesi

mikeh375 said:


> Are some so gullible?......
> 
> View attachment 128728


I'm selling indulgences. It makes people feel good.


----------



## Guest

Fritz Kobus said:


> I suppose it is not possible, nor practicable, to try picking up the signal the drones are receiving and trace it back to its source.
> 
> I say shoot them down, but apparently they need more air restrictions before that can happen. What are the regulations? How low over someone's house can they fly these things?


Maybe some industrious organization is looking for minerals, looking for archeological sites, counting wild horses, measuring soil moisture, etc. I can think of many possibilities, few of which are nefarious. The suggestion that they should be shot down strikes me as absurd.

Some states restrict drones in state parks, that seems sensible. There is a proposal that all drones weighing more than a certain amount (half a pound, I think) would be required to emit an identifying signal (some sort of serial number). That sounds sensible.


----------



## KenOC

Baron Scarpia said:


> Maybe some industrious organization is looking for minerals, looking for archeological sites, counting wild horses, measuring soil moisture, etc. I can think of many possibilities, few of which are nefarious.


Most (not all) such uses involve cameras and visual imaging. Flying only after dark would seem a curious strategy! Also, I'm not sure what anybody thinks remains undiscovered in Nebraska, most of which seems covered with cornfields and little else.


----------



## Guest

KenOC said:


> Most (not all) such uses involve cameras and visual imaging. Flying only after dark would seem a curious strategy! Also, I'm not sure what anybody thinks remains undiscovered in Nebraska, most of which seems covered with cornfields and little else.


Maybe they are using infrared imaging. Maybe they are collecting data to optimize corn yield, maybe they are looking for archeological sites under the corn field. Can you come up with a plausible nefarious purpose for this perfectly level activity?


----------



## SixFootScowl

Baron Scarpia said:


> The suggestion that they should be shot down strikes me as absurd.


Depends on where they are flying. If over private property, then perhaps the owner should have the right to shoot them down.

Best regulation would include obtaining approval for flying these things, with blanket permits in place for routine activities over certain areas, but specific permission required for other flights. You don't legally walk on private property without permission, so there needs to be some air space associated with the private property.

When would you finally shoot one down? When it is hovering at 16 feet over your yard? If it lands in my yard, I feel I have the right to confiscate it and recycle it to the garbage can.


----------



## KenOC

Baron Scarpia said:


> Maybe they are using infrared imaging. Maybe they are collecting data to optimize corn yield, maybe they are looking for archeological sites under the corn field. Can you come up with a plausible nefarious purpose for this perfectly level activity?


In fact, I can't think of _any _activity that makes economic or any other kind of sense, nefarious or otherwise. This seems to me to be an expensive undertaking and difficult to understand given:

- Flying only at night but no other attempt at secrecy.
- Obeying FAA flight rules re altitude, etc.
- Flying in groups organized in grids.
- No markings on the rather large drones.
- Getting a lot of publicity but nobody's claiming the activity.


----------



## Strange Magic

"Find a dog who'll eat a dog!": Caligula to Tiberius in the series _I, Claudius _. We'll be hearing about drone-killing (or drone-disabling, or drone-blinding) drones soon.


----------



## Room2201974

I think the bigger question here is whether or not the drones are vibrating in sympathetic harmony with each other.....


----------



## KenOC

Scary possibility -- maybe those drones are testing systems for something like this:


----------



## Jacck

Drones die by two ways
*Death by Mating* - When a drone mates with a queen and releases his semen, it happens with such a force that his endophallus is ripped from his abdomen. When his abdomen rips open he usually dies shortly after.
*Kicked Out of the Hive* - You might think that most drones die because of sex, but this is not the case. In the fall, when foraging becomes scarce, drones become just another mouth to feed, but without contributing to the hive. Therefore, worker bees kick drones out of the hive, leading to their death. The worker bees will starve the drones to weaken them, then escort them to the hive entrance and throw them out of the hive. The drones die from hypothermia or starvation.


----------



## KenOC

Not bizarre so much as absurd.

Actor Joaquin Phoenix criticized meat eaters at a DC climate change rally. His speech was two minutes long. He flew across the country to give it.


----------



## Luchesi

KenOC said:


> Not bizarre so much as absurd.
> 
> Actor Joaquin Phoenix criticized meat eaters at a DC climate change rally. His speech was two minutes long. He flew across the country to give it.


I think the plane was going to fly anyway. Humans aren't going to fix climate change?

There will be winners and losers. We're already benefiting here where I live.


----------



## Strange Magic

KenOC said:


> Not bizarre so much as absurd.
> 
> Actor Joaquin Phoenix criticized meat eaters at a DC climate change rally. His speech was two minutes long. He flew across the country to give it.


A gentle suggestion: when dropping these one-liners, how about supplying the relevant reference? Easy to do, and it will lend some credence to the broad outlines of the tale. We may find, though, as we sometimes do, that there is more to the story (or less). Nobody here on TC wants to be accused of spreading Fake News.


----------



## Strange Magic

In contrast, here's a story about efforts to draw attention away from the role climate change--heat and drought--is playing in aggravating the Australian fires....

https://www.npr.org/2020/01/10/7952...information-battle-as-they-take-a-tragic-toll


----------



## KenOC

Strange Magic said:


> A gentle suggestion: when dropping these one-liners, how about supplying the relevant reference? Easy to do, and it will lend some credence to the broad outlines of the tale. We may find, though, as we sometimes do, that there is more to the story (or less). Nobody here on TC wants to be accused of spreading Fake News.


Ye ask and I respond with joy. Glacier National Park in Montana is stealthily replacing some signs -- for obvious reasons. Actually the glaciers are still doing rather well.










To assuage the righteous anger of SM, the source is *here*. Of course it's a rightish source, so its probably all made up. Or perhaps dictated by evil aliens, masquerading poorly as humans, over at the NRA. :cheers:


----------



## Strange Magic

^^^^Thanks much Ken; it's good to find out what your primary news sources are--in this case the esteemed New York Post tabloid, but not their own penetrating reportage but rather picking up something from somebody at Breitbart, perhaps a distinguished glaciologist:

"James Delingpole is executive editor of Breitbart London and host of “The Delingpod” podcast." From the bottom of your link.

I can see why you are sometimes coy about revealing your sources. Were I you, I would be also.


----------



## KenOC

Attacking the soiurce rather than the argument is not often of much use.


----------



## Strange Magic

KenOC said:


> Attacking the soiurce rather than the argument is not often of much use.


I think we would agree that the input of a glaciologist familiar with the area would be worth 275 NY Post/Breitbart tales on the same subject. That can be your compensatory project.

Updated National Park Service input on Glacier National Park glaciers and their retreat:

https://www.nps.gov/glac/learn/nature/melting-glaciers.htm


----------



## Guest

Strange Magic said:


> I think we would agree that the input of a glaciologist familiar with the area would be worth 275 NY Post/Breitbart tales on the same subject. That can be your compensatory project.


The moderators need to step in; this is a political statement.


----------



## Guest

Strange Magic said:


> In contrast, here's a story about efforts to draw attention away from the role climate change--heat and drought--is playing in aggravating the Australian fires....
> 
> https://www.npr.org/2020/01/10/7952...information-battle-as-they-take-a-tragic-toll


These Australian fires have seen the highest number of arsonists than ever before - eerily similar to the recent terrible fires in Greece. I'd like to know the politics of these arsonists but, having said that, I expect the moderators to step in to prevent counter-factual discussions.


----------



## Room2201974

https://flpythonchallenge.org

It's one of the last "bowl" games of the season. Vegas oddsmakers have established House Slithern as favorites!


----------



## Strange Magic

Christabel said:


> These Australian fires have seen the highest number of arsonists than ever before - eerily similar to the recent terrible fires in Greece. I'd like to know the politics of these arsonists but, having said that, I expect the moderators to step in to prevent counter-factual discussions.


Here is part of the NPR report on Fake Reporting of an "Arson Crisis" being the cause of the Australian fires. The same Fake Sources also assert that the fires are caused by "ecoterrorists". This is a factual discussion, and reputably sourced.

"The hashtag #ArsonEmergency began trending shortly after the new year. Queensland University of Technology researcher Timothy Graham says he identified troll and bot social media accounts that tried to shift the narrative about the fires as being the work of dozens of criminals.

"We studied about 300 Twitter accounts driving the #ArsonEmergency hashtag to identify inauthentic behavior," Graham said Friday in an essay for The Conversation, which he co-wrote with fellow researcher Tobias Keller.

"We found many accounts using #ArsonEmergency were behaving 'suspiciously,' compared to those using #AustraliaFire and #BushfireAustralia," they said. "Accounts peddling #ArsonEmergency carried out activity similar to what we've witnessed in past disinformation campaigns, such as the coordinated behavior of Russian trolls during the 2016 US presidential election."

Read the NPR story for full details.


----------



## KenOC

Strange Magic said:


> I think we would agree that the input of a glaciologist familiar with the area would be worth 275 NY Post/Breitbart tales on the same subject. That can be your compensatory project.
> 
> Updated National Park Service input on Glacier National Park glaciers and their retreat:
> 
> https://www.nps.gov/glac/learn/nature/melting-glaciers.htm


Ah, thank you! A much better approach.


----------



## KenOC

Current *BBC story*:









I didn't read the story, but it reminds me of the old joke:

"Understand you have quite a drug problem there in Denver."

"Not really. I can generally find anything I want."


----------



## mrdoc

I realise this post is almost certain to be deleted or at best moved to another location but from news reports over the last 24 hrs the *accidental *bringing down of an airliner in Iran completely justifies the effort to ensure that this country never has nuclear weapons. It would be a race between which comes first annihilation from global warming or the insane use of these nuclear weapons.


----------



## Jacck

mrdoc said:


> I realise this post is almost certain to be deleted or at best moved to another location but from news reports over the last 24 hrs the *accidental *bringing down of an airliner in Iran completely justifies the effort to ensure that this country never has nuclear weapons. It would be a race between which comes first annihilation from global warming or the insane use of these nuclear weapons.


the US (and Russia) accidentaly shot down a plane too and have nuclear weapons. If the "Iran hawks" haven't pushed for abandoning the JCPOA and the "maximum pressure" campaign, none of this would have happened. And there is not much the US can do to stop Iran from developing the nuclear weapons. The Iranian response with ballistic missiles (purposefully shot not to kill anyone) has shown the fundamental limits of the US military strength. If they attack Iran, Iran can launch many hundreds of these missiles across the whole Middle East (hitting US military bases in the region, as well as Israel, Saudi Arabia and others). From the point of view of Iran, acquiring nuclear weapons is a matter of survival, since countries that do not have them end up like Iraq.
Here some behind the scenes description of the whole crisis
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/11/us/politics/iran-trump.html

and here is some reason, why the US cannot win a war against Iran
https://www.forbes.com/sites/thebak...ived-irans-nuclear-program-is-war-inevitable/
Iran in unconquerable. It would be more difficult than Vietnam or Afghanistan (both of these wars the US basically lost).


----------



## mmsbls

This thread started with posts referring to such things as sinkholes, Renior haters, apples falling from the sky, and comets streaking across the sky. These were strange stories and bizarre news. Recently posts have simply been political. I understand that liberals may view conservatives as strange and conservatives may view liberals as bizarre, but please return to the truly strange and bizarre.


----------



## Guest

Apparently Gwyneth Paltrow is really selling this:










I can imagine the conversation among the scent chemist as they sniff her ho-ha...

"You know Bob, I think we have too much methyl anthranilate in our mixture and should include a little more putrescine diaminobutane to really capture it, sniff, sniff."


----------



## SixFootScowl

*Man requests 'trial by combat' with Japanese swords to settle custody battle with ex-wife*



> DES MOINES, Iowa - A Kansas man asked an Iowa court to grant his motion for trial by combat, so he can meet his ex-wife and her attorney "on the field of battle where (he) will rend their souls from their corporal bodies."
> 
> "To this day, trial by combat has never been explicitly banned or restricted as a right in these United States," Ostrom argued in court records, saying it was used "as recently as 1818 in British Court."


----------



## Jacck

He must be on a FAT-wa: Obese ISIS religious leader is arrested in Iraq and is so heavy he has to be loaded onto back of truck
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...S-mufti-arrested-Iraq-heavy-loaded-truck.html


----------



## Guest

The new Brazilian culture minister gave a speech in which he quoted and closely paraphrased Goebbels, while Wagner's Lohengrin played in the background.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...i-propaganda-speech-inciting-fierce-backlash/


----------



## pianozach

Victor Redseal said:


> I found the following account in a 1955 UFO book from England although the account is hardly anything that could be termed UFO-like. The author, Harold T. Wilkins, may have gotten the story from the works of Charles Fort although I've never located it in any of Fort's works.
> 
> 9 December 1873, 4:30 am, T. Harker, the night superintendent at the Bristol & Exeter Railway Temple Meads station, was huddled in his office poking up the coals to warm himself and his two sleeping assistants, against the chill winter north wind. The bleak station was dark which the gas lanterns did little to dispel due to the long row iron pillars that did little more than create eerie, flickering shadows across the tracks. Two trains-one from Derby and one from Paddington, London-were not due for an hour. All was quiet and nothing stirred except for the occasional howling of the wind. "The sort of early morning not fit for a dog to be abroad."
> 
> As Harker sat poking at the coals, he suddenly leapt from his chair at what sounded like the report of a firearm accompanied by screams of "Murder! Murder!" Harker peered out the window of his office and saw a young woman still in her nightdress running barefoot down the platform. Behind her ran a man also in nightdress holding a smoking pistol in his hand. Both kept looking over their shoulders towards the Victoria Hotel from which they had just exited. The woman beat on Harker's door in an extremely agitated state. The man came up behind her and also began beating on the door. Harker gave them admittance and then closed the door against the cold. He demanded to know what was going on. "They will murder us!" yelled the woman. "They have followed us to the station. I demand you search it at once!"
> 
> Harker rousted his two sleeping assistants and bade the agitated couple to remain in his office while he and the two porters made a search of the premises. They found nothing and returned to the office. Harker tried to talk to the man but found him in such a state of agitation that he was utterly unintelligible so he turned to the woman who, despite her state of hysteria, could at least be made sense of but her story was so chaotic that Harker supposed them to be in drink or under some other such delusion and sent one of the lads to fetch a policeman who arrived and duly transported the excited couple to the police station where he charged them with disorderly conduct and the discharging of firearms. They were to appear before the magistrates the following morning.
> 
> The 11 December issue of the _London Times_ takes up the story:
> 
> "Thomas B. Cumpston and his wife, Mrs. Annie Martha Cumpston, of Virginia Road, Leeds, Yorkshire, were brought up before the magistrates for being disorderly at the Victoria Hotel, Bristol, and letting off firearms. It is said by the landlady of the hotel, Mrs. Tongue, that the defendants took an apartment at the hotel, on Monday evening. They retired to rest about 12 o'clock. About 4 A.M., she was awakened by loud screams and shouts in the bedroom, succeeded by reports of firearms. She went down and found that both had leapt from their bedroom to the yard, twelve feet below. They then both made their way to the railway station opposite.
> 
> "Mr. T. Harker, night superintendent of the Bristol and Exeter Railway, said the Cumpstons rushed into his office partly dressed and crying out, 'Murder!' They were in a terrible state of excitement. They told me they had escaped from a den of rogues and thieves and that they had to defend themselves. They were under the impression that someone was following them, and made me search the waiting-room to see that no one was there. Upon my sending for a policeman, Mr. Cumpston was searched and a revolver and three knives were found on him.
> 
> "Asked by the magistrates what they had to say, Cumpston, who has an impediment in his speech, said that he and his wife…came to Bristol and engaged a room at the Victoria Hotel, being near the railway station. They were alarmed at 4 A.M. by terrible noises they could not explain, and were badly frightened. The bed seemed to open and he heard all sorts of strange things. The floor, too, opened and they heard voices. They were so terrified that they opened their bedroom window and leapt out.
> 
> "Mrs. Cumpston gave her version of the affair. She said: 'We heard terrible noises at 4 A.M. The floor seemed to be giving way. It certainly opened. My husband fell down some distance and I tried to get him up. What we said was repeated every time we spoke!' Being very much frightened, she asked her husband to fire off his pistol, which he did, into the ceiling. The noises continuing, they got out of the window, but she did not know how. When they got outside, she asked her husband to fire off his pistol again. Then they ran up to the railway station."
> 
> Eventually, one Mr. Butt came from Gloucester and told the magistrates that the Cumpstons occupied respectable positions at Leeds and that he was willing to take charge of them should the court be good enough to release them into his custody which was ultimately done with no further charges filed. The court chalked up the incident to the husband's hallucination or delusion.
> 
> The _Bristol Post_ added more details:
> 
> "As Cumpston was about to be dragged into the opening in the floor, his wife says she dragged him back. In Court, Cumpston's excitement was still so intense that he could not clearly express himself. Mrs. Cumpston said that, earlier in the evening, they had been alarmed by loud sounds, but the landlady reassured them. At three or four in the morning, the sounds were heard again. They jumped out on the floor which was giving way under them. Voices, repeating their exclamations were heard, or their own voices echoed strangely. Then, according to what she saw, or thought she saw, the floor opened wide. Her husband was falling into the opening, and she dragged him back. The landlady was called and she testified the sounds had been heard, but she was unable to describe them clearly. Policemen said they went to the Victoria Hotel, examined the bedroom, but found nothing the justify the extraordinary behavior of the Cumpstons. They suggested it was a case of collective hallucination."
> 
> An interesting story, to be sure. I first read it when I was about 15. I decided to see if it was verifiable. Not the experience itself was which was obviously subjective but the incident. So I googled up Annie Martha Cumpston. I found an entry for a clergyman named William Hudson Cumpston which reads:
> 
> William Hudson Cumpston was the Son of Thomas Bowser Cumpston by his wife Annie Martha Carter…
> 
> He was born April 16, 1878 in Leeds, West Yorkshire. He died in New Jersey in 1960.
> 
> I found a document about the will of William Hudson drawn up February 18, 1879, in which part of the estate went to nephew Joseph Barton Carter, grand-nephew Francis Edward Carter and grand-niece Annie Martha Cumpston. This has to be the same person as she is placed among the Carters and her maiden name was given as Carter in other documents as well as her son bearing the name William Hudson Cumpston. I found a Church of England marriage listing in West Yorkshire covering the years 1813-1935 for Thomas Bowser Cumpston and Annie Martha Carter. I also learned that Cumpston's father was also named Thomas Bowser Cumpston and that he died in 1873, the year of the incident. He had been a businessman engaged in the wool industry of Leeds. Thomas Jr. died in 1893 at age 46. So he was 26 at the time of the incident. That lines up. His son was born five years later so that lines up. Annie Martha is listed as dying December 31, 1930. We can surmise she was perhaps 3-5 years younger than her husband and so probably died in her late 70s or early 80s so that lines up too.
> 
> So, this couple mentioned in this incident did exist to my satisfaction. The Temple Meads station for the Bristol & Exeter Railway exists as does the Victoria Hotel which I have verified is directly across the entrance to the station. One can see the windows they would have leapt from which does look to be about a 12-foot drop so that too checks out.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> So everything about this story lines up. So I can only wonder about the story itself and what really happened.


Great descriptions of the "event".

Very, very, very Science Fiction-y.

Since they exited through the window and had to drop 12 feet to street level, we can safely assume they were on the second floor. There were no reports from anyone on the ground floor of any unusual events above their heads.

The bed and the floor "opened up" and the husband was dragged away from the opening by his wife. Yes, it's possible it's a "mass hallucination", but something of this nature, being so unusual, would be a strange mass hallucination to have occurred.

The loud sounds were not described, other than that they were 'loud'. But the wife reported that it 'echoed' back everything they said.

Considering this event was well over a hundred years ago, before the advent of sound reproduction, and certainly of popular science fiction-based TV and film. However there's plenty of 'proto' Sci-Fi literature from the likes of Chaucer and Shakepeare, and the advent of real Sci-Fi is usually pegged at Mary Shelley's *Frankenstein* in 1818.

The first novel to use the notion of time travel was in 1836 from Alexander Veltman, who published *Predki Kalimerosa: Aleksandr Filippovich Makedonskii*, well before *Jules Verne*'s The Time Machine in 1895, although *H.G. Welles* had published *Journey to the Center of the Earth* (1864), *From the Earth to the Moon* (1865), and *Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea* (1869) prior to this apparent wormhole event. And even *Victor Hugo* wrote about a dystopian future prior to that in *The Legend of the Centuries* (1859)

So, Sci-Fi was becoming a pop culture thing by then.



In SciFi terms, though, this sounds like several things rather common in today's books, films, and television:

1. *Wormhole*
2. *Time Portal*
3. *Interdimensional rift*
4. *Transporter technology*
5. *Attempted alien abduction*


----------



## KenOC

pianozach said:


> Great descriptions of the "event".
> 
> Very, very, very Science Fiction-y.


"In November 1809, an Englishman named Benjamin Bathurst vanished, inexplicably and utterly. He was en route to Hamburg from Vienna, where he had been serving as his government's envoy to the court of what Napoleon had left of the Austrian Empire. At an inn in Perleburg. in Prussia, while examining a change of horses for his coach, he casually stepped out of sight of his secretary and his valet. He was not seen to leave the inn yard. He was not seen again, ever."

But he earned a place in numerous science fiction stories, most famously in H. Beam Piper's _He Walked Around Horses _(a free Kindle download from Amazon). Jimmy Hoffa would have been proud!


----------



## pianozach

KenOC said:


> The re-write continues. Ideology trumps history.
> -------------------------------------
> "*After more than 100 years, the Stephen Foster statue in Pittsburgh has been removed"
> 
> *A 118-year-old statue of "Oh! Susanna" songwriter and Pittsburgh native *Stephen Foster* was removed by city workers on Thursday morning… The statue has drawn controversy because it depicts Foster with a slave at his feet, strumming a banjo.
> …
> "Hopefully it will be replaced with a statue of an African-American woman," McNulty said.
> 
> https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a...tue-in-pittsburgh-has-been-removed/ar-AAwmpHd


A different time, a different culture of appropriateness.

Most of *Stephen Foster*'s lyrical racism has been white-washed for quite some time, but if you ever get a chance to read some of his original lyrics, you'll find that some are incredibly are cringe-worthy by any standard.

As the MD for a *Gilbert & Sullivan* Repertoire group, we have to 'modify' some of Gilbert's original lyrics.

As for removing the statue, there have been plenty of other statues of racist war heroes and mythological gods removed as well, moved sometimes to museums where their existence can be placed in a proper historical context.

As we slowly evolve into beings with a horror for racism or backwardsness, we will understandably remove symbols of our previous ignorances.


----------



## KenOC

pianozach said:


> ...As we slowly evolve into beings with a horror for racism or backwardsness, we will understandably remove symbols of our previous ignorances.


Reminds me a bit of the Soviet historians under Stalin erasing "backward" officials from prior group photos of the leadership. Of course, since the unfortunate officials were sometimes still alive, they were also erased in a more tangible sense. 

Regardless, such forms of intolerance have always lived and live still. Remember the Taliban in Afghanistan blowing up famous huge statues of the Buddha in caves...thus did they deal with "previous ignorances." My compliments on carrying forward this important work.


----------



## pianozach

KenOC said:


> Keystone Kop department: A Dallas police officer, returning to her apartment after a shift, walked in and found a man there, whom she shot and killed. Unfortunately, she had walked into the wrong apartment...
> 
> https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45450558


This was big news for quite awhile. The follow-up is that she was found guilty of murder on October 1, 2019. Former police Officer Amber Guyger faced a possible punishment of 5 to 99 years in prison, but was sentenced to only 10 years in state prison by the same jury that had convicted her.

The apartment she shot the tenant in was on a completely different floor. Different apartment, different number on the door, and a bright red doormat. She shot a 26-year-old black accountant who was sitting in his living room eating ice cream just seconds after she discovered the door was unlocked.





geralmar said:


> U.S. Post Office issues "scratch and sniff" postage stamps.
> 
> They have been available for almost six months; but I was unaware of them until my wife showed them to me today. The smell is a bit on the putrid side even before scratching which, I gather, is the privilege of the recipient. Overall I think it is an act of desperation by the Post Office which has been losing money for years.





Fritz Kobus said:


> Odd that the word FOREVER is struck out.


This graphic is an advertisement for the stamps. The deliberate defacement is to prevent counterfeiting.


----------



## pianozach

KenOC said:


> Is cowardice a crime? "Florida resource officer who didn't enter school during shooting massacre is arrested."


Actually, the Florida "resource officer" is an armed security guard posted at a school to protect students in case of a campus being threatened by an armed shooter.

He had ONE job, and he not only FAILED to protect any students (THAT was his job), he actively prevented others from doing anything to protect the students.





joen_cph said:


> Due to the repeated reports in the media, also statements by people related to the US presidential administration, our Prime Minister has felt it necessary to publically announce, that Greenland is not and will not be, 'for sale' to the USA.





KenOC said:


> Sorry, I didn't mean to offend! However, there is a long history here, dating back to the 1860s. The US actually offered to purchase Greenland in 1946 for $100 million. Obviously the offer wasn't accepted.





joen_cph said:


> That is true. As far as I understand, recent historical research has shown that the US Virgin Islands, previously Danish, were also sold on the background of the alternative of an invasion there.





KenOC said:


> Interesting. I read some of the history of the islands. It was Denmark who offered to sell two of the islands to the US in 1867, but the US declined for a variety of reasons. Denmark was finding the islands were unprofitable and difficult to govern properly.
> 
> Negotiations on a sale resumed in 1899 and lasted through 1902, when the sale was approved by one chamber of the Danish parliament but failed in the other.
> 
> Finally, negotiations from 1915 to 1916 were successful, with the islands changing hands for $25 million. I can find no mention of an implied threat of invasion, though that could well be possible since the US feared Germany might seize the islands for a major submarine base.
> 
> In any event, in those days Denmark was obviously quite happy to treat parts of its territories like properties in Monopoly. The apparent outrage today seems to be new.


See, we've been buying additional land since before we were a country. In addition to those examples, in 1803, in return for $15 million, or approximately $18.00 per square mile, the United States nominally acquired a total of 828,000 sq mi., called the *Louisiana Purchase*, effectively doubling the size of the country.

In 1867 the *Alaska* purchase added 586,412 square miles of new territory to the United States for the bargain cost of $7.2 million


----------



## pianozach

KenOC said:


> Reminds me a bit of the Soviet historians under Stalin erasing "backward" officials from prior group photos of the leadership. Of course, since the unfortunate officials were sometimes still alive, they were also erased in a more tangible sense.
> 
> Regardless, such forms of intolerance have always lived and live still. Remember the Taliban in Afghanistan blowing up famous huge statues of the Buddha in caves...thus did they deal with "previous ignorances." My compliments on carrying forward this important work.


Love some of your posts, and hate some of them, but thanks for always being entertaining.

I think you can see that removing statues of Confederate generals and the Taliban waging a religious war on religious iconography to be somewhat different things.

Context.


----------



## mrdoc

Baron Scarpia said:


> Apparently Gwyneth Paltrow is really selling this:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I can imagine the conversation among the scent chemist as they sniff her ho-ha...
> 
> "You know Bob, I think we have too much methyl anthranilate in our mixture and should include a little more putrescine diaminobutane to really capture it, sniff, sniff."


This product was used by Fanny Chmelar but did not seem to help!


----------



## Strange Magic

KenOC said:


> Reminds me a bit of the Soviet historians under Stalin erasing "backward" officials from prior group photos of the leadership. Of course, since the unfortunate officials were sometimes still alive, they were also erased in a more tangible sense.
> 
> Regardless, such forms of intolerance have always lived and live still. Remember the Taliban in Afghanistan blowing up famous huge statues of the Buddha in caves...thus did they deal with "previous ignorances." My compliments on carrying forward this important work.


Here is the Ultimate Commemorative statue to a Confederate general, the lovely and talented Nathan Bedford Forrest. It is safely installed on private property and may, in the passage of time, become a site of religious pilgrimage devoted to worship of the Lost Cause, the KKK, and the martyrdom of the South and its Peculiar Institution...

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









Such calm blue eyes.....


----------



## Jacck

The Bizarre Fight Over a Wealthy Biochemist's Frozen Head Keeps Getting Weirder
https://www.thedailybeast.com/heirs...n-over-dads-frozen-head-keeps-getting-weirder


----------



## pianozach

starthrower said:


> Will the press refer to W. Bush or Cheney as war criminals after they pass? I doubt it.





starthrower said:


> Yeah, it's tough to argue with the truth.





DrMike said:


> Remind me - are they the ones that assassinated an American citizen by drone strike without due process of law? I can't remember.


Speaking of assassinations, we just assassinated a sovereign country's well-respected 2nd in command by drone strike without due process of law?

Of course, back in July 2018 *Gen. Qassem Sulaimani* mocked *Donald Trump* as displaying the ethics of *"nightclubs and gambling halls"*.

It started after some initial threats from *Trump* (who warned Iran of _*"consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before"*_), prompted by a speech by the Iranian president, *Hassan Rouhani*, who had warned that the US shouldn't *"play with lion's tail"* and that *"America should know that peace with Iran is the mother of all peace, and war with Iran is the mother of all wars"*.

*"What could you do that you haven't already done over the past 20 years?"* *Suleimani* asked of the US. *"You came to Afghanistan with tens of tanks and armoured vehicles and hundreds of advanced helicopters and committed crimes there but what the hell have you achieved [in Afghanistan] between 2001 and 2018 with 110,000 troops? Isn't it that now you are begging the Taliban to negotiate?"*

*That* was when *Sulaimani* intervened, *"It is not in our president's dignity to respond to you, but I, as a soldier, will. As a soldier, it is my duty to respond to Trump's threats. If he wants to use the language of threat, he should talk to me, not to the president (Hassan Rouhani)."*

*Trump* then used his Tweeter Device to raise the stakes: *"Never, ever threaten the United States again or you will suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before. We are no longer a country that will stand for your demented words of violence & death. Be cautious!"*

. . . . which is when Sulaimani responded, *"Trump's language is still the ethics of nightclubs and gambling halls. Trump should know that we are nation of martyrdom and that we await him.

"You know that this war will destroy all that you possess.

"You will start this war but we will be the ones to impose its end. Therefore you have to be careful about insulting the Iranian people and the president of our Republic.

"You know our power in the region and our capabilities in asymmetric war. We will act and we will work."*

While the story is inherently political, it's also strange and bizarre that a US President

1. is using the bullying language, and escalating a disagreement into threats of war, complete with apocalyptic descriptors. Ever since he pulled the US out of the Nuclear Agreement Trump has been deliberately antagonizing Iran in every way he can conjure.

2. is using the Twitter social media app as a preferred method of communicating both orders and insults.


----------



## pianozach

starthrower said:


> Will the press refer to W. Bush or Cheney as war criminals after they pass? I doubt it.





starthrower said:


> Yeah, it's tough to argue with the truth.





Fritz Kobus said:


> *Halloween horror: severely injured boy, 9, given sweets rather than medical attention!*





KenOC said:


> "Honest news" my butt! Typical headline: "Bone find proves early man lived horizontally beneath the earth"
> 
> More to the point: "Trump becomes Florida Man." This one'sreal!


Postillon:

FAQ
1. Are these true news and stories?
No, everything you can read here is satire and therefore all made-up. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.


----------



## pianozach

KenOC said:


> A murderer in Iowa was sentenced to life without parole. But recently he became ill and died on the operating table. He was brought back and argued for release since his life had, in fact, ended with that episode.
> 
> The court was unpersuaded, noting that if he was really dead he would have been unable to sign his own papers in the case. "It added that his sentence would not end until a medical examiner formally declares him dead."
> 
> Good try through.


Just started rehearsals for Gilbert & Sullivan's The Grand Duke, or The Statutory Duel. One of the many plots weaved throughout the operetta is that of two conspirators that are discovered in their plot to overthrow the Grand Duke.

As it turns out, a century ago the Grand Duke of the time, concerned about the loss of life in duelling, had created the _statutory duel_: The duellers draw cards, and the one who draws the lower card loses. He becomes legally dead, and the winner takes over his position: his property, responsibilities and debts. The law regulating statutory duels, like all laws of Pfennig-Halbpfennig, lasts for one hundred years unless revived, and it is to lapse tomorrow.

The two plot to fight a statutory duel will begin almost immediately: the loser will be legally *dead*, and the survivor can go to the Duke and confess the whole plot. As informer he will be spared, while the other party will be dead and so beyond retribution. *The next day, the loser will come to life* when the law lapses, but since *death expunges crime*, his character will be unstained.

Of course, the plot twist here is that the Grand Duke, in the meantime, has learned about the plot to blow him up. When Ludwig arrives, intent on denouncing the plot to him in order to be pardoned, the Grand Duke Rudolph instead declares that he would give anything to avoid being blown up the next day, and Ludwig sees a way out. He feigns patriotism and suggests that *they* engage in a statutory duel.

He explains that they will hide cards up their sleeves, guaranteeing victory to Ludwig. When the plot unfolds, Ludwig will bear the brunt of it. The next day, when the Act authorizing statutory duels expires, Rudolph can come back to life unharmed.

They stage a mock quarrel and conduct the rigged statutory duel as planned: Rudolph's king is beaten by Ludwig's ace, making Ludwig the Grand Duke.

Ludwig uses his new powers to extend the Act for another hundred years, thus ensuring that neither Rudolph nor Ernest can come back to life.

The 11th hour twist is that the Act regulating statutory duels specifically states that the ace shall count as lowest, so Ludwig did not win, was never Grand Duke, and cannot have revived the act. Within seconds, the Act expires, returning Grand Duke Ludwig and Ernest (the other co-conspirator) to the living.





KenOC said:


> More on those *pesky drones*, now sighted nightly over an area larger than the entire state of Nebraska:
> 
> "Flying in grid-like formation in groups of six to 10, the drones have 6-foot wingspans and come out during the evening, flying in airspace controlled by the federal government. The Federal Aviation Administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Air Force and the Army Forces Command said they don't have any information on the drones.
> 
> "Though it's unclear how the drones are operated, federal, state and local law enforcement agencies suspect that a command vehicle in the area - probably a closed box trailer with antennae or a large van - controls the drones, according to a Facebook post from the Phillips County Sheriff's Office in Colorado."
> 
> An interagency task force has been set up to find out what's going on. Authorities note that the drones are apparently breaking no laws and that shooting them down would be illegal.





KenOC said:


> In fact, I can't think of _any _activity that makes economic or any other kind of sense, nefarious or otherwise. This seems to me to be an expensive undertaking and difficult to understand given:
> 
> - Flying only at night but no other attempt at secrecy.
> - Obeying FAA flight rules re altitude, etc.
> - Flying in groups organized in grids.
> - No markings on the rather large drones.
> - Getting a lot of publicity but nobody's claiming the activity.


Two things:

1. 6 to 10 six-foot wide drones - how are they transported to the areas in which they are spotted. Not only would a command vehicle be needed, by a drone transport vehicle as well.

2. Perhaps they are not on a mission. Perhaps they are merely being tested, a 'rehearsal' as it were. And they're flying at night to also test their night vision performance.


----------



## Jacck

Gwyneth Paltrow: queen of the ******-industrial complex
https://tinyurl.com/uczk75z

Gwyneth Paltrow is crazy, no? And also dangerous
https://www.sciencealert.com/a-woma...om-vaginal-steaming-and-it-s-really-not-funny


----------



## Guest

pianozach said:


> Speaking of assassinations, we just assassinated a sovereign country's well-respected 2nd in command by drone strike without due process of law?


Hah! Well respected 2nd in command? You mean the guy whose primary job was to oversee the terrorist operations of Iranian Quds forces in other countries where they were not legally engaged in war, and to support their terrorist proxies? The guy who oversaw the killing of at least 600 American troops in Iraq? Not to mention the hundreds of not thousands more injured and maimed by his actions? Go research shaped charges and you can see his handiwork. He was a legitimate military target, and he was killed on foreign soil in uniform. That was not an assassination.


----------



## Luchesi

DrMike said:


> Hah! Well respected 2nd in command? You mean the guy whose primary job was to oversee the terrorist operations of Iranian Quds forces in other countries where they were not legally engaged in war, and to support their terrorist proxies? The guy who oversaw the killing of at least 600 American troops in Iraq? Not to mention the hundreds of not thousands more injured and maimed by his actions? Go research shaped charges and you can see his handiwork. He was a legitimate military target, and he was killed on foreign soil in uniform. That was not an assassination.


Yes, why aren't the US and Western news outlets pounding this home? Like they do that prince's huge problems??

What a screwy and partisan this world has become, so slanted. They assume everyone knows the facts? Well, they over-estimate the average person because they don't know.


----------



## Jacck

Luchesi said:


> Yes, why aren't the US and Western news outlets pounding this home? Like they do that prince's huge problems?? What a screwy and partisan this world has become, so slanted. They assume everyone knows the facts? Well, they over-estimate the average person because they don't know.


I am sure that before the Iraq war you were also repeating the propaganda about how Saddam has WMD, is sponsoring terrorists and is a threat the US national security and interests, and that is why he has to be deposed. Do you actually know what is happening in the Middle East, what the US military is doing there? Do you think that Iran has a right to self-defense? The CIA messed the country up
https://theintercept.com/2018/02/05/iran-cia-coup-mossadegh-ayatollah/
as a result, ayatollahs came to power, then the embassy hostage crises etc. And hawks like Bolton, Pompeo have been obsessed with Iran ever since. I am sorry, but if I try to impartially judge the situation, I am not sure who the good guys and the villains actually are in this situation.


----------



## Guest

Jacck said:


> I am sure that before the Iraq war you were also repeating the propaganda about how Saddam has WMD, is sponsoring terrorists and is a threat the US national security and interests, and that is why he has to be deposed. Do you actually know what is happening in the Middle East, what the US military is doing there? Do you think that Iran has a right to self-defense? The CIA messed the country up
> https://theintercept.com/2018/02/05/iran-cia-coup-mossadegh-ayatollah/
> as a result, ayatollahs came to power, then the embassy hostage crises etc. And hawks like Bolton, Pompeo have been obsessed with Iran ever since. I am sorry, but if I try to impartially judge the situation, I am not sure who the good guys and the villains actually are in this situation.


I'll help you out. Suleimani was a legitimate bad guy. And for crying out loud, how long are we going to use CIA operations from the 1950s to excuse the evil that Iran has been perpetuating? For crying out loud, are they a bunch of children that we need to excuse their actions? Is the U.S. just the root cause of all evil? They back Hezbollah. They prop up Assad in Syria, who used biological weapons on his own people. Was that the CIA's fault as well?


----------



## Jacck

DrMike said:


> I'll help you out. Suleimani was a legitimate bad guy. And for crying out loud, how long are we going to use CIA operations from the 1950s to excuse the evil that Iran has been perpetuating? For crying out loud, are they a bunch of children that we need to excuse their actions? Is the U.S. just the root cause of all evil? They back Hezbollah. They prop up Assad in Syria, who used biological weapons on his own people. Was that the CIA's fault as well?


if I look at the Middle East, all I see are civilians suffering under endless proxy wars by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran, Israel, Russia and the US as the chief actors. I would not say that any of these powers are forces of good. The current US administration look like a bunch of mercenaries hired by Israel and the Saudis (I do not know whether the reason are religious or just pure corruption through AIPAC and weapon sales).

Nevertheless, Iran is being demonized by certain people who want to start a war
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/iran-demonize-evil-tehran-213539


----------



## Johnnie Burgess

Jacck said:


> I am sure that before the Iraq war you were also repeating the propaganda about how Saddam has WMD, is sponsoring terrorists and is a threat the US national security and interests, and that is why he has to be deposed. Do you actually know what is happening in the Middle East, what the US military is doing there? Do you think that Iran has a right to self-defense? The CIA messed the country up
> https://theintercept.com/2018/02/05/iran-cia-coup-mossadegh-ayatollah/
> as a result, ayatollahs came to power, then the embassy hostage crises etc. And hawks like Bolton, Pompeo have been obsessed with Iran ever since. I am sorry, but if I try to impartially judge the situation, I am not sure who the good guys and the villains actually are in this situation.


Bill Clinton had Iraq bombed 10,000 times as President claiming that Iraq had wmd's. So how do you give him a pass for that?


----------



## Jacck

Johnnie Burgess said:


> Bill Clinton had Iraq bombed 10,000 times as President claiming that Iraq had wmd's. So how do you give him a pass for that?


I did not give him any pass.

1) WMDs were give to Saddam by the US
https://rense.com/general29/wesold.htm
2) Saddam destroyed the WMDs
https://www.historytoday.com/what-did-happen-saddam’s-wmd
3) The US either did not believe him, or - which is more probable - they knew but purposefully used lies about the WMDs as an excuse to start an illegal war. The reason were likely religous and ideological delusions by warmongering neoconservatives (by far the most dangerous and psychopathic political group within the US)


----------



## Dorsetmike

Luchesi said:


> They assume everyone knows the facts? W.


I am reminded of a previous boss who frequently said

"Don't confuse me with facts - my mind's made up"


----------



## Guest

Jacck said:


> if I look at the Middle East, all I see are civilians suffering under endless proxy wars by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran, Israel, Russia and the US as the chief actors. I would not say that any of these powers are forces of good. The current US administration look like a bunch of mercenaries hired by Israel and the Saudis (I do not know whether the reason are religious or just pure corruption through AIPAC and weapon sales).
> 
> Nevertheless, Iran is being demonized by certain people who want to start a war
> https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/iran-demonize-evil-tehran-213539


Well good news - the strike only took out Suleimani and some militia leaders responsible for strikes in the country. The only civilians who have died were the ones in the plane the Iranians shot down over their own country. And given that their own people are protesting, it really does make it pretty simple to weigh in on this one.


----------



## Luchesi

Jacck said:


> I did not give him any pass.
> 
> 1) WMDs were give to Saddam by the US
> https://rense.com/general29/wesold.htm
> 2) Saddam destroyed the WMDs
> https://www.historytoday.com/what-did-happen-saddam’s-wmd
> 3) The US either did not believe him, or - which is more probable - they knew but purposefully used lies about the WMDs as an excuse to start an illegal war. The reason were likely religous and ideological delusions by warmongering neoconservatives (by far the most dangerous and psychopathic political group within the US)


It seems true what you say. But also, I read that Saddam could've acquired nuclear weapons very quickly and he had underground facilities which would've kept the improvings and installations all hidden. They wanted rid of Saddam. He was unpredictable and an extreme character! If he got the Bombs it would have been very wild around the world indeed! They feared the worst.


----------



## DaveM

Fwiw, it's WMD (weapon*s* of mass destruction), not WMDs


----------



## pianozach

DrMike said:


> Well good news - the strike only took out Suleimani and some militia leaders responsible for strikes in the country. The only civilians who have died were the ones in the plane the Iranians shot down over their own country. And given that their own people are protesting, it really does make it pretty simple to weigh in on this one.


The DIRECT casualty list of the 2020 Baghdad International Airport dronestrike includes *10 fatalities* that we know of:

Iranian major general Qasem Soleimani of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, 
Deputy chairman of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and commander of Kata'ib Hezbollah, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis,

Four other IRGC officers:
- Brigadier General Hossein Pourjafari, 
- Colonel Shahroud Mozafarinia, 
- Major Hadi Taremi
- Captain Vahid Zamanian

Four other Iraqi members of the PMF (Popular Mobilization Forces) 
- chief of protocol and public relations Muhammed Reza al-Jaberi,
- Mohammad al-Shibani, 
- Hassan Abdul Hadi 
- Heydar Ali

But there were ripples.

Right away, in the aftermath, Iran 'accidentally' shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, mistaking it for a possible American cruise missile as part of a counter attack, *killing all 176 people* aboard, including 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, four Afghans, three Germans and three British nationals.

At the emotional funeral parade for the slain general, *56 people were trampled to death* in a stampede, with more than 200 injured.

There were, of course, less violent consequences of Trump's drone strike assassination of Soleimani:

All American embassies were put on high alert, 
Americans have been asked to evacuate the region
3,000 troops American troops were mobilized and sent to the area, 
By assassinating number second person in the Iran political system, it undermines the regime
An ongoing and imminent possibility of cyber attacks intended to be undetectable, inconvenient, and annoying for the U.S.
An ongoing and imminent possibility of physical or terror attacks of U.S. targets


----------



## Jacck

Frozen iguanas forecast to shower south Florida as temperatures drop 
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/21/florida-frozen-iguanas-weather-report


----------



## KenOC

News: It's a sad day for anyone who has ever truly loved a legume. On Wednesday, Planters announced it has killed off the iconic Mr. Peanut for the sake of good television.

"It's with heavy hearts that we confirm Mr. Peanut has passed away at 104 years old," Samantha Hess, Planters brand manager at Kraft Heinz, said in a statement. "He will be remembered as the legume who always brought people together for nutty adventures and a good time."

I was a *heroic sacrifice*.


----------



## Strange Magic

The retirement of Mr. Peanut brought back memories of two villains from my youth, the feared Peter Pain, bringer of torment to sufferers of muscle aches and pains. Only Ben-Gay ointment could overcome Peter Pain's cruel reign of pain:









The second fiend was the dreaded Mister Coffee Nerves, destroyer of relationships and entire families. But switching from the drug caffeine and coffee, its delivery system, to Postum, a wholesome grain-derived beverage, would restore victims to sanity:


----------



## DaveM

Apparently, some people have been associating Corona Beer with the coronavirus outbreak.


----------



## Jacck

Firms urged to crack down on office football chat
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51261999


----------



## Dorsetmike

I live in a block of retirement appartments, just the opposite here, the woman in the next flat (in her mid 60s) holds forth on soccer and formula 1 (especially Lewis Hamilton - even goes to F1 venues all over the world waving a banner) & uses all the expected obscene words at the weekly coffee morning in a loud grating voice,  as you can guess, somewhat mixed reception, a few take it in their stride but the older ones (80's and 90's) are not amused.
I think they tolerate her because she helps with the washing up.


----------



## Art Rock

DaveM said:


> Apparently, some people have been associating Corona Beer with the coronavirus outbreak.


Think how stupid the average person is nowadays (check Facebook if you're unsure). Then realize that half of the people are more stupid than that.


----------



## DaveM

Art Rock said:


> Think how stupid the average person is nowadays (check Facebook if you're unsure). Then realize that half of the people are more stupid than that.


I see an opportunity for the manufacturer of: Corona Beer. Rename the beer Corona, Killer Beer! The company could say that they are merely saying that Corona is a 'killer beer'. Suggestible consumers might see it as Corona Killer.


----------



## Luchesi

DaveM said:


> I see an opportunity for the manufacturer of: Corona Beer. Rename the beer Corona, Killer Beer! The company could say that they are merely saying that Corona is a 'killer beer'. Suggestible consumers might see it as Corona Killer.


I had a Corona Light with my taco plate last night. I didn't remember that it's quite sour tasting, but some people like it.

The little town of Corona, NM is not far from here. It's famous now because of the 2 surviving aliens taken to Roswell, all described in the book Crash at Corona.


----------



## pianozach

Luchesi said:


> I had a Corona Light with my taco plate last night. I didn't remember that it's quite sour tasting, but some people like it.
> 
> The little town of Corona, NM is not far from here. It's famous now because of the 2 surviving aliens taken to Roswell, all described in the book Crash at Corona.


*Corona* beer has been my least favorite beer for decades now, ever since that contest at the Disco bar in the 1980s, where we had to compete drinking an entire 12-oz Corona beer through a baby bottle nipple. Can't stand the sour taste ever since.

Strange, since I still enjoy all the other Mexican beers, notably *Pacifica*.


----------



## DaveM

pianozach said:


> *Corona* beer has been my least favorite beer for decades now, ever since that contest at the Disco bar in the 1980s, where we had to compete drinking an entire 12-oz Corona beer through a baby bottle nipple. Can't stand the sour taste ever since.
> 
> Strange, since I still enjoy all the other Mexican beers, notably *Pacifica*.


What's your feeling now towards baby bottle nipples?


----------



## mrdoc

DaveM said:


> What's your feeling now towards baby bottle nipples?


So that's how I got the addiction


----------



## pianozach

DaveM said:


> What's your feeling now towards baby bottle nipples?


Haven't sucked on one since


----------



## Luchesi

pianozach said:


> Haven't sucked on one since


John Cage was bottle fed.


----------



## Guest

Angela Hewitt's custom made Fasoli piano has been destroyed in a moving accident in Berlin.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/11/americas/piano-fazioli-smashed-movers-intl-scli/index.html


----------



## SixFootScowl

Baron Scarpia said:


> Angela Hewitt's custom made Fasoli piano has been destroyed in a moving accident in Berlin.
> 
> https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/11/americas/piano-fazioli-smashed-movers-intl-scli/index.html


Was it insured?


----------



## SixFootScowl

*fake cop car pulled over by Oakland County, Michigan, Sheriff*



> But the man driving the car isn't a deputy. He's a mechanic. And the SUV he tricked out to look like a police cruiser was a fake. Funny to some, but what worried Bouchard was what he saw inside the vehicle.
> 
> "He's got a loaded 45 semi-automatic handgun, a large bowie knife. He's not a licensed concealed weapons person," said the sheriff.
> 
> Bouchard said 'well, why do you have this car like this?' and he said 'well sometimes I help police.'
> 
> The driver is currently booked in the Oakland County Jail and charges are pending. Investigators want you to call if the sheriff's office if you've had any encounters with someone in this vehicle.
> 
> In case anyone is wondering, it is illegal to impersonate a police officer, even if you do it really well.


----------



## Guest

SixFootScowl said:


> Was it insured?


According to the article, yes. Apparently she had it shipped to use on all her recordings. Maybe she'll go back to a Steinway, which I like better.


----------



## SixFootScowl

*Macomb County (Michigan) man gets 'super drunk' before driving to court for drunken driving hearing*



> James Gird, 57, of Harrison Township, was due in court Thursday for an operating while intoxicated charge from Dec. 30, police said.
> 
> During the hearing, Magistrate James A. Verploeg noticed Gird was having trouble carrying on a conversation and couldn't speak without slurring, authorities said.
> 
> Verploeg requested testing, and Gird failed the standard field sobriety tests, according to police. Officials said he had a blood alcohol content of almost four times the legal limit, which qualifies as "super drunk."
> 
> Gird admitted to having "a couple" of shots, and officials said they found an empty vodka bottle in his vehicle.


----------



## pianozach

Baron Scarpia said:


> Angela Hewitt's custom made Fasoli piano has been destroyed in a moving accident in Berlin.
> 
> https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/11/americas/piano-fazioli-smashed-movers-intl-scli/index.html





SixFootScowl said:


> Was it insured?





Baron Scarpia said:


> According to the article, yes. Apparently she had it shipped to use on all her recordings. Maybe she'll go back to a Steinway, which I like better.


I've been following this story. Of course it was insured, but that doesn't make her hand-made $194,000 F278 Fazioli replaceable any more than a loved husband being unsalvageable. Yes, sure, you can remarry, but the new husband will not be like the old husband.

The movers dropped the 590-kilogram (= 1,300 pounds) instrument while trying to place it on a trolley. The instrument split in two due to the force of the fall.

"The iron frame is broken, as well as much else in the structure and action (not to mention the lid and other parts of the case)," Hewitt wrote.

Fazioli personally came to inspect the piano carnage and deemed the instrument unrepairable.

The handmade F278 Fazioli was the only one in the world to have four pedals, a feature normally reserved for the F308 model, and that she had recently replaced its hammers and strings.

He has three new ones waiting for her to choose from at his manufacturing plant in Italy. Due to her touring schedule, it may take her a few months to actually get there.

She's used this piano for ALL of her recordings since 2003. It also travelled with her throughout Europe for her concerts.

The piano sounds great:






Of course, as a pianist myself, I can appreciate that you can't actually "hear the action", only how well a piece is played by a pianist. But I'll bet the action was awesome.


----------



## mrdoc

Just a slight diversion have you heard her "Goldberg Variations" rec April 2009 at Festival Hall?


----------



## Jacck

Man fighting to take emotional support cutout of President Trump to dialysis appointment


----------



## Jacck

Russian Soldier Wins Girl Over With Tanks on Valentine's Day
Russian military fetishization brought to a new level


----------



## Dorsetmike

Saw this linked on another forum

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/brexiteer-mocked-for-complaining-about-waiting-in-airport-queue-a4362511.html

The mind boggles!


----------



## SixFootScowl

*Daredevil "Mad" Mike Hughes dies in homemade rocket launch*



> Daredevil "Mad" Mike Hughes died Saturday when a homemade rocket he was attached to launched but quickly dove to earth in the California desert.
> 
> The mishap was reported at 1:52 p.m. on private property in the Barstow area, San Bernardino County Sheriff-Coroner spokeswoman Cindy Bachman said by email. She did not identify Hughes.
> 
> "A man was pronounced deceased after the rocket crashed in the open desert during a rocket launch event," she said.
> ...
> Hughes is known both for his homemade rockets and for his belief the earth is flat.
> 
> His desire to prove the planet is "shaped like a Frisbee" inspired his vertical endeavors, he has said. But Saturday's launch did not appear to be directly tied to Hughes' flat-earth argument.
> ...
> His landing that year [2018] was softened when he deployed a parachute. In social media video of Saturday's accident, a parachute-like swath of fabric can be seen flying away from the rocket shortly after blast-off.
> 
> "This thing wants to kill you 10 different ways," Hughes said in 2018. "This thing will kill you in a heartbeat."


----------



## pianozach

Shocked I am.


----------



## mrdoc

pianozach said:


> Shocked I am.
> 
> View attachment 130716


*Thats all we need some silly b=***r to set fire to the Sun*


----------



## Strange Magic

More of the Same:


----------



## Strange Magic

US House of Representatives votes 410 to 4 to outlaw lynching as a federal crime. Three "republicans", one from Texas, one from Kentucky, and one from Florida, and an independent vote against the bill.

https://www.npr.org/2020/02/26/8097...historic-bill-making-lynching-a-federal-crime


----------



## Totenfeier

"Dang Big Gubmint gonna take away all our rights iffen we let's 'em!"


----------



## BobBrines

What I find strange about this is why on God's green Earth we need a law to specify one form of murder to be murder. Or is this simply another example of politically correct politics?


----------



## pianozach

Strange Magic said:


> US House of Representatives votes 410 to 4 to outlaw lynching as a federal crime. Three "republicans", one from Texas, one from Kentucky, and one from Florida, and an independent vote against the bill.
> 
> https://www.npr.org/2020/02/26/8097...historic-bill-making-lynching-a-federal-crime





BobBrines said:


> What I find strange about this is why on God's green Earth we need a law to specify one form of murder to be murder. Or is this simply another example of politically correct politics?


Lynching is murder with an "*". Lynching in the USA has a long history of being a specifically racist affair.

And "generic" murder is handled on the state level, not on a Federal level (unless there's some sort of thing that brings it to the Federal lever, for instance, across state lines, hate crime, multiple murders, mass murders, etc.).


----------



## Jacck

BRITAIN'S oldest neighbour from hell has been convicted after using her parrot to squawk opera at her locals.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11053767/oap-81-parrot-torment-neighbours/


----------



## Jacck

If you drive an expensive car you're probably a jerk, scientists say
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/26/world/expensive-car-drivers-study-scli-scn-intl/index.html

that explains why my former boss had an Audi TT


----------



## Guest

Strange Magic said:


> US House of Representatives votes 410 to 4 to outlaw lynching as a federal crime. Three "republicans", one from Texas, one from Kentucky, and one from Florida, and an independent vote against the bill.
> 
> https://www.npr.org/2020/02/26/8097...historic-bill-making-lynching-a-federal-crime


Oh - the Democrats finally found it within their hearts to outlaw lynching as a federal crime, decades after it ceased being a problem. How big of them. Shame they wouldn't do it back when it mattered.


----------



## Guest

pianozach said:


> Lynching is murder with an "*". Lynching in the USA has a long history of being a specifically racist affair.
> 
> And "generic" murder is handled on the state level, not on a Federal level (unless there's some sort of thing that brings it to the Federal lever, for instance, across state lines, hate crime, multiple murders, mass murders, etc.).


It is pointless now. It was necessary back prior to Civil Rights legislation, because state and local jurisdictions would refuse to prosecute lynchings of black people. So by making it a federal crime, federal law enforcement could get involved and prosecute what the states wouldn't. But the Democratic party back then, being the party of the KKK, wouldn't support such legislation for that very reason. Now they are jumping in to do this when it is purely symbolic and won't change a single thing. They think that will absolve them of the sins of their past.


----------



## Luchesi

DrMike said:


> It is pointless now. It was necessary back prior to Civil Rights legislation, because state and local jurisdictions would refuse to prosecute lynchings of black people. So by making it a federal crime, federal law enforcement could get involved and prosecute what the states wouldn't. But the Democratic party back then, being the party of the KKK, wouldn't support such legislation for that very reason. Now they are jumping in to do this when it is purely symbolic and won't change a single thing. They think that will absolve them of the sins of their past.


3 Republicans voted against it, even today.


----------



## Guest

Luchesi said:


> 3 Republicans voted against it, even today.


Against a now pointless piece of legislation? It may look bad but that is the extent of it. It is bad for optics, but it was worse to oppose it over half a century ago. Luckily all of those people are long gone.


----------



## KenOC

Is "lynching" defined as white people hanging black people and not the opposite? If so, the legislation clearly results in unequal protection of the law and would seem, on the face of it, to be unconstitutional.


----------



## Guest

KenOC said:


> Is "lynching" defined as white people hanging black people and not the opposite? If so, the legislation clearly results in unequal protection of the law and would seem, on the face of it, to be unconstitutional.


No, it isn't. But historically it as overwhelmingly a white on black crime. Like I said, now it is a pointless law, and we don't need to be giving the federal government more power over criminal law. But at the time when it really mattered, it was important because certain states were not giving black people equal protection under the law and so the federal government was seen as a corrective to that. Not an ideal situation under our Constitution but there were a lot of corrections needed to undo slavery and it's legacy.


----------



## Strange Magic

Luchesi said:


> 3 Republicans voted against it, even today.


Roughly 185 "republicans" must have voted for the bill, a great disappointment to the Good Doctor. He expected better of them, but they were clearly brainwashed into voting for it by distant, fading memories of when the Real Republican Party--the Party of Lincoln, Sumner, Stevens, Seward--still existed so long ago.....


----------



## millionrainbows

There was always a rumor among beer drinkers that Corona was p***ed in.


----------



## millionrainbows

KenOC said:


> Is "lynching" defined as white people hanging black people and not the opposite? If so, the legislation clearly results in unequal protection of the law and would seem, *on the face of it, to be unconstitutional*.


You mean, on the "blackface" of it?


----------



## Guest

Strange Magic said:


> Roughly 185 "republicans" must have voted for the bill, a great disappointment to the Good Doctor. He expected better of them, but they were clearly brainwashed into voting for it by distant, fading memories of when the Real Republican Party--the Party of Lincoln, Sumner, Stevens, Seward--still existed so long ago.....


Nothing to say at all about why it took Democrats so long to get around to pass an anti-lynching law? They nominated and elected a black man as president before they could bring themselves to denounce lynching - now that it is meaningless.


----------



## Guest

millionrainbows said:


> You mean, on the "blackface" of it?


Yet another peculiar problem that Democrats have - particularly Virginia Democrats.


----------



## Strange Magic

DrMike said:


> Nothing to say at all about why it took Democrats so long to get around to pass an anti-lynching law? They nominated and elected a black man as president before they could bring themselves to denounce lynching - now that it is meaningless.


African-American voters know who their friends are; know which party--Trump or Democrat--has the better track record when it comes to their essential needs and rights. Even the Good Doctor may be able to get his mind around the fact that 85% of black voters will vote for any Democrat over the diseased boy currently soiling the Oval Office.

https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/4...ck-voters-choose-any-given-2020-democrat-over


----------



## Johnnie Burgess

Strange Magic said:


> African-American voters know who their friends are; know which party--Trump or Democrat--has the better track record when it comes to their essential needs and rights. Even the Good Doctor may be able to get his mind around the fact that 85% of black voters will vote for any Democrat over the diseased boy currently soiling the Oval Office.
> 
> https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/4...ck-voters-choose-any-given-2020-democrat-over


If Trump gets 15% of the African American vote he will win in a landslide.


----------



## pianozach

DrMike said:


> Nothing to say at all about why it took Democrats so long to get around to pass an anti-lynching law? They nominated and elected a black man as president before they could bring themselves to denounce lynching - now that it is meaningless.


That's silly.

By your measure, then, the Republicans must be even MORE despicable than Democrats, as they have NEVER denounced lynching by getting around to passing an anti-lynching law.


----------



## Guest

Strange Magic said:


> African-American voters know who their friends are; know which party--Trump or Democrat--has the better track record when it comes to their essential needs and rights. Even the Good Doctor may be able to get his mind around the fact that 85% of black voters will vote for any Democrat over the diseased boy currently soiling the Oval Office.
> 
> https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/4...ck-voters-choose-any-given-2020-democrat-over


Democrats haven't done anything for black voters since the 60s. Since then it has just been empty promises and fear-mongering about Republicans ("gonna put you all back in chains."). You other claim is a paternalistic, condescending one, that black voters need their new "masters" to provide them with their essential needs because you have the soft bigotry of low expectations that they can't do for themselves, and need you to help them. Just a plantation of a different name . . .


----------



## Guest

pianozach said:


> That's silly.
> 
> By your measure, then, the Republicans must be even MORE despicable than Democrats, as they have NEVER denounced lynching by getting around to passing an anti-lynching law.


The first anti-lynching bill - the Dyer act - was brought forward by a Republican and passed the House, but Democrats filibustered it in the Senate. For a good deal of the 20th century, Democrats controlled the House, and not wanting to upset their Southern constituency, they wouldn't bring such legislation forward to be passed. No - the reason that anti-lynching legislation never passed has nothing to do with Republicans.

Regardless of what the Democrats are now, Jim Crow, blocking anti-lynching laws, segregation, filibustering civil rights legislation - that is their legacy, not the Republicans. Go read your history.


----------



## Strange Magic

Strange Magic said:


> African-American voters know who their friends are; know which party--Trump or Democrat--has the better track record when it comes to their essential needs and rights. Even the Good Doctor may be able to get his mind around the fact that 85% of black voters will vote for any Democrat over the diseased boy currently soiling the Oval Office.
> 
> https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/4...ck-voters-choose-any-given-2020-democrat-over


I think DrMike missed this post, so repeating it here. It's now the year 2020. Check your calendar.

If we start with, say, President Truman's desegregating the military in 1948, we have now 72 years of Democratic reversal of the party's past Southern/Jim Crow legacy. Since then, and increasingly after Nixon turned the White Supremacy South Republican, the Democratic Party has led the movement to expand all sorts of civil rights and liberties. No amount of sophistry can alter those facts.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_9981


----------



## Strange Magic

Johnnie Burgess said:


> If Trump gets 15% of the African American vote he will win in a landslide.


What percent of the White Supremacy vote will Trump get?


----------



## Guest

Strange Magic said:


> What percent of the White Supremacy vote will Trump get?


What percent of the anti-semitic vote will Bernie get? In addition to you and Ilhan Omar?


----------



## Guest

Strange Magic said:


> I think DrMike missed this post, so repeating it here. It's now the year 2020. Check your calendar.
> 
> If we start with, say, President Truman's desegregating the military in 1948, we have now 72 years of Democratic reversal of the party's past Southern/Jim Crow legacy. Since then, and increasingly after Nixon turned the White Supremacy South Republican, the Democratic Party has led the movement to expand all sorts of civil rights and liberties. No amount of sophistry can alter those facts.
> 
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_9981


Yes Truman worked to desegregate things after the great progressive Woodrow Wilson segregated them in the first place. Your implication that Republicans are racist is based on conjecture and your own bias. In contrast, the racist history of the Democratic party is part of the historic record. And the Civil Rights legislation along with Truman's work were only necessary because of actions by Democrats in the first place.


----------



## Strange Magic

DrMike said:


> What percent of the anti-semitic vote will Bernie get? In addition to you and Ilhan Omar?


Good question. Is the pope Catholic?

Most studies show your standard Trump White Supremacist to be also a rabid anti-Semite. But you knew that.

*Bantustans for the Palestinians*

In a move that reminds us (and many Israelis; see BBC article) of Apartheid South Africa, Trump has recreated the concept of Bantustans as the gerrymandered "homeland" of the Palestinians. The Palestinians, according to Trump's map, will legally occupy a small fraction of the West Bank in a series of disjointed Bantustans, but will be gifted a few new and sterile "manufacturing and industrial or agricultural zones" along the Israel/Egyptian border, linked by easily cut roadways. All of the illegal settler cult West Bank settlements will be recognized as part of Israel. The Palestinians can either accept the deal, or they will likely be driven into the Dead Sea. So much for the Two State Solution.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-51288218


----------



## Strange Magic

DrMike said:


> Yes Truman worked to desegregate things after the great progressive Woodrow Wilson segregated them in the first place. Your implication that Republicans are racist is based on conjecture and your own bias. In contrast, the racist history of the Democratic party is part of the historic record. And the Civil Rights legislation along with Truman's work were only necessary because of actions by Democrats in the first place.


Then how on Earth can you possibly explain the affection of the African American electorate for the Democratic Party? Are Blacks not aware of who are their friends? There is an almost childlike refusal by The Doctor to acknowledge the simplest truths--funny, and yet sad.


----------



## mmsbls

The thread has turned purely political for at least the 5th time now. Many have enjoyed this thread over the past 4 years so we'd greatly prefer not to close it permanently. Please post strange and bizarre stories rather than political content. The thread will be opened in a little while.


----------



## geralmar

Traffic jam on summit of Mt. Everest last May. Two deaths.


----------



## KenOC

geralmar said:


> Traffic jam on summit of Mt. Everest last May. Two deaths.


One climber during this period described stepping over the bodies of climbers who had died while waiting in line to summit. Nepal is reluctant to cut back on climbing permits because of the revenue they're earning.


----------



## LezLee

Pig starts farm fire by excreting pedometer

Firefighters in North Yorkshire have tackled a blaze that broke out after a pig swallowed a pedometer which then combusted in its pen after excretion.
The fire crews were called to a blaze covering 75 square metres at four pigpens in Bramham, near Leeds, on Saturday afternoon.

The North Yorkshire fire and rescue service said the fire was caused by “nature taking its course” and copper from the pedometer battery reacting with dry hay and the pigpen’s contents.

The pedometer was being used to prove the animal was free range and had been taken off one of its fellow pigs.

No animals were harmed as a result of the fire.


----------



## KenOC

Fox News's unique brand of journalism: *Bella Hadid shares coronavirus do's and don'ts while eating burrito topless*. Yes, there's a picture!


----------



## DaveM

KenOC said:


> Fox News's unique brand of journalism: *Bella Hadid shares coronavirus do's and don'ts while eating burrito topless*. Yes, there's a picture!


I looked only to be abreast of the situation.


----------



## Luchesi

_"We are testing and validating the diagnostic kits proposed by them. We may come up with some good kits and it may take at least 2-3 weeks if everything goes well. Quality and accuracy of the kits are the most important things. If the kits give 100 percent results, then only they will be approved,"_ said Dr. R K Mishra, Director, CCMB."


https://www.techexplorist.com/ccmb-...tm_source=BNA&utm_medium=BNA&utm_campaign=BNA


----------



## Guest

KenOC said:


> Fox News's unique brand of journalism: *Bella Hadid shares coronavirus do's and don'ts while eating burrito topless*. Yes, there's a picture!


And when you are done there you can go read the fascinating story at CNN about the latest in the world of sex toys.


----------



## Guest

Poor placement of renewable energy facilities could result in extinctions before climate change does.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-52023881


----------



## Strange Magic

DrMike said:


> Poor placement of renewable energy facilities could result in extinctions before climate change does.
> https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-52023881


Yet another strong argument for reducing global human populations to a fraction of its current number. On the subject of non-fossil-fuel energy sources, were a rational global approach taken, guided by science, areas of very low biological diversity or abundance would be targeted for large-area utilization. Vast areas of Australia, to cite one example, are ideal for solar arrays of great size, with the electricity generated converted to hydrogen via electrolysis using seawater pipelined in. The hydrogen can then be exported globally. Instead, Australia currently digs filthy coal and ships it to China and India, endangering the Great Barrier Reef.

One can report stupidity in the siting of non-fossil-fuel power sources, and that's OK. I miss the constructive alternative, though, in these sorts of posts, but perhaps there is neither appetite nor capability for same.


----------



## Guest

Strange Magic said:


> *Yet another strong argument for reducing global human populations to a fraction of its current number. * On the subject of non-fossil-fuel energy sources, were a rational global approach taken, guided by science, areas of very low biological diversity or abundance would be targeted for large-area utilization. Vast areas of Australia, to cite one example, are ideal for solar arrays of great size, with the electricity generated converted to hydrogen via electrolysis using seawater pipelined in. The hydrogen can then be exported globally. Instead, Australia currently digs filthy coal and ships it to China and India, endangering the Great Barrier Reef.
> 
> One can report stupidity in the siting of non-fossil-fuel power sources, and that's OK. I miss the constructive alternative, though, in these sorts of posts, but perhaps there is neither appetite nor capability for same.


When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.


----------



## Strange Magic

DrMike said:


> When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.


Now that's the sort of response that is itself a hammer. Do you have any thoughts on the post's content? (Other than seeing it as yet another nail.)


----------



## Guest

Strange Magic said:


> Now that's the sort of response that is itself a hammer. Do you have any thoughts on the post's content? (Other than seeing it as yet another nail.)


Given that I know your preferred strategy is to mock conservatives where at all possible, I'll decline to play.

From Strange Magic:


> My political program would be relentless attack through inspired advertising and PR on the Right as dangerous radicals who have eaten away at what makes America great . . . . I would make greater use of ridicule . . . . The idea? don't fight and argue with Trump and the Right; mock them relentlessly.


----------



## Strange Magic

DrMike said:


> Given that I know your preferred strategy is to mock conservatives where at all possible, I'll decline to play.


It's a great strategy. The mocking of opponents by Donald Trump: Sleepy Joe Biden, Shifty Adam Schiff, Little Mike Bloomberg, and so, so many other examples known to millions, is one of the catalysts and templates for a vigorous campaign to expose Trump and his acolytes, toadies, explainers, and handlers as the disreputable creatures that they are. Trump is the Master, the Prime expositor of calumny, and can provide valuable lessons to those seeking to free America from this aberration.


----------



## Guest

Strange Magic said:


> It's a great strategy. The mocking of opponents by Donald Trump: Sleepy Joe Biden, Shifty Adam Schiff, Little Mike Bloomberg, and so, so many other examples known to millions, is one of the catalysts and templates for a vigorous campaign to expose Trump and his acolytes, toadies, explainers, and handlers as the disreputable creatures that they are. Trump is the Master, the Prime expositor of calumny, and can provide valuable lessons to those seeking to free America from this aberration.


Not exactly in keeping with the TOS on here, though.


----------



## Strange Magic

DrMike said:


> Not exactly in keeping with the TOS on here, though.


Note to readers: the excerpt quoted by The Good Doctor is lifted from a post of mine found in the Government is the Solution Political Group found downstairs. I was honored to see that The Doctor has yet again broken his pledge to never, ever visit any of the Political Groups. Clearly the attraction of the Forbidden Toys has again mastered his resolve.


----------



## Guest

Strange Magic said:


> Note to readers: the excerpt quoted by The Good Doctor is lifted from a post of mine found in the Government is the Solution Political Group found downstairs. I was honored to see that The Doctor has yet again broken his pledge to never, ever visit any of the Political Groups. Clearly the attraction of the Forbidden Toys has again mastered his resolve.


I said I would never participate in them again. Big difference. But just as I regularly follow other sources of information with which I don't agree philosophically (Slate's Political Gabfest podcast, MSNBC, among others) I also pay attention to what the other side on here is saying. Only a fool ignores what his opponents are saying. Doesn't mean I have to engage them - don't feed the beast.


----------



## Strange Magic

DrMike said:


> I said I would never participate in them again. Big difference. But just as I regularly follow other sources of information with which I don't agree philosophically (Slate's Political Gabfest podcast, MSNBC, among others) I also pay attention to what the other side on here is saying. Only a fool ignores what his opponents are saying. Doesn't mean I have to engage them - don't feed the beast.


Your participation, even as voyeur, in the Political Groups I'll take as an endorsement and as encouragement to others to so participate and even contribute. Thanks for the publicity!


----------



## Guest

Strange Magic said:


> Your participation, even as voyeur, in the Political Groups I'll take as an endorsement and as encouragement to others to so participate and even contribute. Thanks for the publicity!


Misinterpret it any way you like.


----------



## Strange Magic

DrMike said:


> Misinterpret it any way you like.


I will! And again, Thank You! Knowing you're reading my posts in the Groups makes my toes tingle.


----------



## Guest

Strange Magic said:


> I will! And again, Thank You! Knowing you're reading my posts in the Groups makes my toes tingle.


I know you'd like to provoke a rise out of me. Sorry to disappoint.


----------



## Strange Magic

DrMike said:


> I know you'd like to provoke a rise out of me. Sorry to disappoint.


_Res Ipsa Loquitur!_


----------



## Guest

Strange Magic said:


> _Res Ipsa Loquitur!_


Häsch e chli eine?


----------



## geralmar

On the lighter side of the news there's the Coronavirus Challenge:

https://nypost.com/2020/03/25/influ...alized-with-coronavirus-after-licking-toilet/


----------



## Guest

geralmar said:


> On the lighter side of the news there's the Coronavirus Challenge:
> 
> https://nypost.com/2020/03/25/influ...alized-with-coronavirus-after-licking-toilet/


I don't particularly think anybody should catch this virus - but if it has to be somebody, I nominate this guy. As if being an "influencer" wasn't proof enough of mental incompetence, licking a toilet?


----------



## Flamme




----------



## pianozach

Flamme said:


>


Laughed through most of this guy's rant.

Funny that he thinks these acts of stupidity are done by "Lefties" though.


----------



## Dorsetmike

Don't think I'd fancy this as a cure!

https://www.arabnews.com/node/1642006/offbeat


----------



## mrdoc

Dorsetmike said:


> Don't think I'd fancy this as a cure!
> 
> https://www.arabnews.com/node/1642006/offbeat


I would suggest going to sleep on the rails in front of a Stanier Black Five but not N gauge try 12inches to the foot :tiphat:


----------



## SixFootScowl

*Pig sparks farm fire after eating, defecating battery-powered pedometer*



> Firefighters in England were called to a pig farm Saturday after a pig sparked a fire in its pen by swallowing a pedometer which then combusted "after nature had taken its course," officials said.
> 
> Copper from the pedometer's batteries apparently reacted with the pig's excrement to ignite the fire.
> 
> The pedometers were being used on pigs to prove they were free-range.


----------



## geralmar

Speaking of unfunny coronavirus pranks:

https://nypost.com/2020/03/25/woman...sylvania-grocery-store-in-very-twisted-prank/


----------



## SixFootScowl

geralmar said:


> Speaking of unfunny coronavirus pranks:
> 
> https://nypost.com/2020/03/25/woman...sylvania-grocery-store-in-very-twisted-prank/


She either is deranged or has a really sick mind. I understand frustration over coronavirus, but people coughing on produce or licking groceries or toilets makes no sense. Put them all on a cruse ship and let them cough at each other and lick toilets and cabin doorknobs together.


----------



## Johnnie Burgess

SixFootScowl said:


> She either is deranged or has a really sick mind. I understand frustration over coronavirus, but people coughing on produce or licking groceries or toilets makes no sense. Put them all on a cruse ship and let them cough at each other and lick toilets and cabin doorknobs together.


Hope she gets the next two decades in a nice small jail cell. She should also be made to pay for the food thrown out.


----------



## SixFootScowl

Johnnie Burgess said:


> Hope she gets the two decades in a nice small jail cell. She should also be made to pay for the food thrown out.


She can lick all over inside the cell.


----------



## Art Rock

SixFootScowl said:


> She either is deranged or has a really sick mind. I understand frustration over coronavirus, but people coughing on produce or licking groceries or toilets makes no sense. Put them all on a cruse ship and let them cough at each other and lick toilets and cabin doorknobs together.


A new reality show!


----------



## pianozach

geralmar said:


> Speaking of unfunny coronavirus pranks:
> 
> https://nypost.com/2020/03/25/woman...sylvania-grocery-store-in-very-twisted-prank/


I expect we'll be seeing a rise in *Strange coronavirus stories and bizarre coronavirus news*

Woman coughs all over the produce, meat, bakery and grocery areas. $35,000 worth of food tossed.

Man licks the toiletries and posts video of it on social media. People from several different countries complain. Man arrested on four felony charges.

Person coughs on employee.

YESTERDAY: *Cat in Belgium first known to test positive for coronavirus: report*

Also YESTERDAY: *After $25 million stimulus, stunned National Symphony Orchestra players receive one-week notice from Kennedy Center*

Kennedy Center Deborah Rutter told orchestra leaders that the 96 musicians would receive their last paycheck on April 3 and that they will not be paid until the arts center reopens. In addition, she said their health-care benefits would stop at the end of May if the arts center is still closed at that time. 


. . . And, in news that is neither strange or bizarre . . .

*In memoriam*

*Krzysztof Penderecki*, Influential Composer, Dead at 86

The avant garde Polish composer's work prominently appeared in The Exorcist, The Shining, Twin Peaks, and Wild at Heart

As one in a group of young avant garde Polish composers, he found international acclaim with his 1960 composition _*Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima*_ (1960).

https://pitchfork.com/news/krzysztof-penderecki-influential-composer-dead-at-86/


----------



## DaveM

A fitting sentence for people who do this (coughing on someone or on food on purpose): Make the individual sit in a room and have 3 people come in and cough on him/her and tell them that one of them may have coronavirus.


----------



## Johnnie Burgess

DaveM said:


> A fitting sentence for people who do this (coughing on someone or on food on purpose): Make the individual sit in a room and have 3 people come in and cough on him/her and tell them that one of them may have coronavirus.


That is not enough punishment. They should get a couple decades of jail time and pay for the cost of any medical tests. If they cough on food, they pay for all food that is thrown out.


----------



## TxllxT

The miracle of tapwater turned into wine https://www.unilad.co.uk/food/water-taps-pour-wine-in-italian-village-after-fault-at-local-winery/

A Coronavirus miracle https://www.afrinik.com/mystery-of-ferrera-erbognone-residents-all-appear-to-be-immune-to-coronavirus/


----------



## pianozach

Speaking of miracles . . . .

My favorite is the *Weeping crucifix in Mumbai*, a statue of the crucified Jesus in Mumbai.

A constant stream of water began to seep from its feet, and thousands would visit and drink the 'tears', which turned out to be water overflowing from a faulty sewage system of a nearby toilet.


----------



## geralmar

Man, teaching dog to drive, arrested after high speed chase.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/03/30/...ive-trnd/index.html?__twitter_impression=true


----------



## geralmar

Medical warning against frozen potatoes cure:

https://vt.co/lifestyle/doctors-are-warning-people-not-to-put-frozen-potatoes-in-their-anus/


----------



## mrdoc

DaveM said:


> A fitting sentence for people who do this (coughing on someone or on food on purpose): Make the individual sit in a room and have 3 people come in and cough on him/her and tell them that one of them may have coronavirus.


We had one of these he said he did not know how serious Covid19 was???? the offense falls under a certain category and caries a max sentence of 14years. We also had our minister of health break the level4 lockdown rules, it beggers belief where 99% are obeying the rules there are nit wits putting all our efforts at peril. A pox on all their houses


----------



## KenOC

From the *DPRK News Service*: "Upcoming US Presidential Election expected to be Final Revenge of Baby Boomer Generation on country, pitting Short-Sighted Cynical Racism against Cowardly Cynical Mediocrity."

Seems accurate. :lol:


----------



## Flamme

Boomers Vs Zoomers, The Last Crusade.


----------



## SixFootScowl

*Indiana man checked his bank account for his $1,700 stimulus check and found $8million had been deposited by the feds*



> A man from Indiana ended up receiving what appeared to be a lottery win rather than a stimulus check.
> 
> Charles Calvin checked his bank account and found that $8.2million dollars had been deposited into his checking account instead of the $1,700 he had been expecting to cover himself and a child.
> 
> Calvin, a volunteer firefighter in New Chicago, Indiana, couldn't believe what he was seeing when he checked his balance at the ATM.
> 
> 'I went to the ATM at the Family Express and once I withdrew $200 out of my account I looked at the available balance still left in my account,' he said.
> 
> At first, he through the machine had thrown up some sort of error so he ran his card again but the exact same amount was shown.
> 
> On Monday, he called his bank and was told the money was no longer in his account, although the $1,700 stimulus money was.


----------



## Flamme

Xmas came early, very early...


----------



## SixFootScowl

Flamme said:


> Xmas came early, very early...


Ha yes, but he waited too long. Should have transferred it to a different bank. If I accidentally transferred a huge sum to the wrong persons account, what are the chances I could get it back?


----------



## pianozach

SixFootScowl said:


> Ha yes, but he waited too long. Should have transferred it to a different bank. If I accidentally transferred a huge sum to the wrong persons account, what are the chances I could get it back?


Years and years ago I recall hearing a story of someone discovering their bank had mistakenly inflated their bank account by at least six zeros.

They immediately took the money and deposited it into a year-long locked high-yield account. The bank discovered their error and asked for the money back. The customer agreed to give back the exact amount when it became available in a year, but would be keeping the money earned in interest.


----------



## Flamme

Mxy dad and grandad played LOTTERY 4 years and only got like 4 or 5 couple of times, 7 being the highest number...Some ppl play it 4 fun once or to spend a pitiful change and BANG, guess it all...


----------



## Flamme

This news caught me unprepared...A very...Odd...Happening
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...hooting-canada-nova-scotia-rcmp-a9473441.html


----------



## pianozach

Flamme said:


> This news caught me unprepared...A very...Odd...Happening
> https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...hooting-canada-nova-scotia-rcmp-a9473441.html


In the wake of the mass shooting, this is not really an article about the shooting. It's a list of all the mass shootings in Canada.

And while the list is long, it is just a trickle when compared to the USA, where we typically don't go a day without a mass shooting.

I don't usually use the *Independent* as a source of news . . . it takes too long to load, has pop-ups and adds, and it's a cluttered mess, like a flea market or garage sale; there's no order, no sections.


----------



## Dorsetmike

> I don't usually use the Independent as a source of news . . . it takes too long to load, has pop-ups and adds, and it's a cluttered mess, like a flea market or garage sale; there's no order, no sections.


I can't use it, it objects to my ad blocker! Expects me to subscribe if I want to read it ad free.


----------



## Flamme

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52346447
So now its 18...What a fanatic...I have a friend who is a dentists and a month ago he told me how stressful his job is...It was b4 corona I can imagine how it is now, when he cant work...


----------



## Luchesi

SixFootScowl said:


> *Indiana man checked his bank account for his $1,700 stimulus check and found $8million had been deposited by the feds*


At least he got to keep the extra $200??


----------



## starthrower

Indiana man must have been mistaken for a hedge fund manager.


----------



## Luchesi

starthrower said:


> Indiana man must have been mistaken for a hedge fund manager.


Right now is the greatest investment opportunity in my long lifetime. After the crash of 1987 the potential wasn't nearly as great (but the dollar is worth less).

I was half invested this time and lost about 30 percent, but I'm just waiting for some light at the end of the tunnel to back up the truck, as they say (and hope it's not the approaching head lamps of another locomotive).


----------



## SixFootScowl

Luchesi said:


> Right now is the greatest investment opportunity in my long lifetime. After the crash of 1987 the potential wasn't nearly as great (but the dollar is worth less).
> 
> I was half invested this time and lost about 30 percent, but I'm just waiting for some light at the end of the tunnel to back up the truck, as they say (and hope it's not the approaching head lamps of another locomotive).


Between COVID and the upcoming (if not postponed) presidential election I think the stock market is going to be very uncertain the next 6 months.


----------



## Ekim the Insubordinate

SixFootScowl said:


> Between COVID and the upcoming (if not postponed) presidential election I think the stock market is going to be very uncertain the next 6 months.


I keep emailing the oil companies, letting them know I have a huge backyard if they want to pay me to store their oil for them. Nobody is getting back to me.


----------



## starthrower

Screw the stock market. We're looking at the prospect of 250 million people starving to death due this pandemic.


----------



## Ekim the Insubordinate

starthrower said:


> Screw the stock market. We're looking at the prospect of 250 million people starving to death due this pandemic.


But if the stock market crashes, where do we get the money to help these people not starve to death?


----------



## starthrower

I'm speaking only for myself. I can't think about my own personal gain while millions are suffering and dying.


----------



## Ekim the Insubordinate

starthrower said:


> I'm speaking only for myself. I can't think about my own personal gain while millions are suffering and dying.


I can't help millions, but I do have a responsibility to my wife and kids. And I'm sure that governments will have less money to help those millions if the stock market collapses and even more millions of people lose their jobs. So I think it is in everybody's interest that the stock market not crash.


----------



## starthrower

Everytime my IRA and 401k are looking good we have one of these nosedive crises. Oh well, I'm glad to be alive and healthy. I just hope the decision makers act swiftly to aleave as much suffering as possible.


----------



## pianozach

starthrower said:


> Screw the stock market. We're looking at the prospect of 250 million people starving to death due this pandemic.


It's gallows humor. Being funny in the face of disaster.



Ekim the Insubordinate said:


> But if the stock market crashes, where do we get the money to help these people not starve to death?


Oh Gawd. *You're* still here?



starthrower said:


> I'm speaking only for myself. I can't think about my own personal gain while millions are suffering and dying.





Ekim the Insubordinate said:


> I can't help millions, but I do have a responsibility to my wife and kids. And I'm sure that governments will have less money to help those millions if the stock market collapses and even more millions of people lose their jobs. So I think it is in everybody's interest that the stock market not crash.


Yes the economy is tied to the pandemic. We know.

On a related note, perhaps we could review not only the *1918-1920 Spanish Flu pandemic*, but the Roaring Twenties that was a gallows humor ramp up to the *Stock Market Crash of 1929*, the various causes for *that*, and the responses by the government, as well as the politics involved.

*1918 spanish Flu Pandemic and 1929 Stock Market Crash FUN FACTS:
*
1. In 1933 President Roosevelt launched the *FDIC* (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) to insure bank deposits, because after the 1929 crash, banks only had enough to honor 10 cents for every dollar. That's because they had used their depositors' savings, without their knowledge, to buy stocks.

2. It wasn't until 1954 that the Dow finally regained its September 3, 1929, high, closing at 382.74. Twenty-five years later.

3. The Crash of 1929 was predicted less than a month before it happened, by none other than Great Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Phillip *Snowden*, who called the U.S. stock market a *"speculative orgy."*

4. Between 1921 and 1929 the stock market had grown by 600% with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising from 63 points to 381 points.

5. One of the major causes of the 1929 crash (in addition to wild market speculation, and a slowing economy) was people buying stocks on credit ("*margin" buying*).

6. *President Herbert Hoover*, elected in November 1928 was inaugurated January 1929. By midsummer of 1929 some 300 million shares of stock were being carried on margin. After the stock market tanked President Hoover and Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon led the way with optimistic predictions that business was "fundamentally sound" and that a great revival of prosperity was "just around the corner." As the Depression deepened, Hoover failed to recognize the severity of the situation or leverage the power of the federal government to squarely address it. Hoover's conservative political philosophy (a limited role for government, excessive federal intervention posed a threat to capitalism and individualism, assistance should be handled on a local, voluntary basis) led him to veto several bills that would have provided direct relief to struggling Americans. "Prosperity cannot be restored by raids upon the public Treasury."

7. *50 to 100 million people* are thought to have died in the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, representing as much as 5 percent of the world's population.

8. It was in the *second wave*, from October through December of 1918, that the highest death rates were observed. A third wave in spring of 1919 was more lethal than the first but less so than the second.

9. *The "Spanish" Flu* got its name because it was the media in neutral Spain that first reported it. Allied countries and the Central Powers had wartime *censors* who covered up news of the flu to keep morale high. Because Spanish news sources were the only ones reporting on the flu, many believed it originated there.

10. The *parallels* between 1918 and 2020 are still striking. In both cases, there was no vaccine and no treatment for the disease along with an overriding fear that a besieged health care system might be overwhelmed.


----------



## Ekim the Insubordinate

pianozach said:


> It's gallows humor. Being funny in the face of disaster.
> 
> Oh Gawd. *You're* still here?
> 
> Yes the economy is tied to the pandemic. We know.
> 
> On a related note, perhaps we could review not only the *1918-1920 Spanish Flu pandemic*, but the Roaring Twenties that was a gallows humor ramp up to the *Stock Market Crash of 1929*, the various causes for *that*, and the responses by the government, as well as the politics involved.
> 
> *1918 spanish Flu Pandemic and 1929 Stock Market Crash FUN FACTS:
> *
> 1. In 1933 President Roosevelt launched the *FDIC* (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) to insure bank deposits, because after the 1929 crash, banks only had enough to honor 10 cents for every dollar. That's because they had used their depositors' savings, without their knowledge, to buy stocks.
> 
> 2. It wasn't until 1954 that the Dow finally regained its September 3, 1929, high, closing at 382.74. Twenty-five years later.
> 
> 3. The Crash of 1929 was predicted less than a month before it happened, by none other than Great Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Phillip *Snowden*, who called the U.S. stock market a *"speculative orgy."*
> 
> 4. Between 1921 and 1929 the stock market had grown by 600% with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising from 63 points to 381 points.
> 
> 5. One of the major causes of the 1929 crash (in addition to wild market speculation, and a slowing economy) was people buying stocks on credit ("*margin" buying*).
> 
> 6. *President Herbert Hoover*, elected in November 1928 was inaugurated January 1929. By midsummer of 1929 some 300 million shares of stock were being carried on margin. After the stock market tanked President Hoover and Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon led the way with optimistic predictions that business was "fundamentally sound" and that a great revival of prosperity was "just around the corner." As the Depression deepened, Hoover failed to recognize the severity of the situation or leverage the power of the federal government to squarely address it. Hoover's conservative political philosophy (a limited role for government, excessive federal intervention posed a threat to capitalism and individualism, assistance should be handled on a local, voluntary basis) led him to veto several bills that would have provided direct relief to struggling Americans. "Prosperity cannot be restored by raids upon the public Treasury."
> 
> 7. *50 to 100 million people* are thought to have died in the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, representing as much as 5 percent of the world's population.
> 
> 8. It was in the *second wave*, from October through December of 1918, that the highest death rates were observed. A third wave in spring of 1919 was more lethal than the first but less so than the second.
> 
> 9. *The "Spanish" Flu* got its name because it was the media in neutral Spain that first reported it. Allied countries and the Central Powers had wartime *censors* who covered up news of the flu to keep morale high. Because Spanish news sources were the only ones reporting on the flu, many believed it originated there.
> 
> 10. The *parallels* between 1918 and 2020 are still striking. In both cases, there was no vaccine and no treatment for the disease along with an overriding fear that a besieged health care system might be overwhelmed.


Good Lord, you going to post an entire book every time I post anything? That almost is enough to convince me to leave. Almost.


----------



## starthrower

You already left but returned with your name spelled backwards.


----------



## Ekim the Insubordinate

starthrower said:


> You already left but returned with your name spelled backwards.


What are you talking about? I haven't changed my name on here. Yeah, ekim is Mike backwards. And?


----------



## Flamme

Seems legit


----------



## KenOC

Flamme said:


> Seems legit


I can tell you, _as a fact_, that almost all of the world's religious and political leaders have been replaced with holograms. There is no longer any doubt about this. There are people trying to find out who is behind the substitutions and what their agendas are, so we may soon have some answers. Unless, of course, the investigators are themselves holograms!


----------



## Luchesi

KenOC said:


> I can tell you, _as a fact_, that almost all of the world's religious and political leaders have been replaced with holograms. There is no longer any doubt about this. There are people trying to find out who is behind the substitutions and what their agendas are, so we may soon have some answers. Unless, of course, the investigators are themselves holograms!


almost all? .....


----------



## geralmar

California city planning commissioner under fire for throwing cat during commission meeting.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/27/politics/california-chris-platzer-cat-zoom-trnd/index.html


----------



## pianozach

geralmar said:


> California city planning commissioner under fire for throwing cat during commission meeting.
> 
> https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/27/politics/california-chris-platzer-cat-zoom-trnd/index.html


I am continually amazed, and constantly NOT surprised, that people seem to be clueless that we now live in a camera society. From cops planting evidence, to using unnecessary force, to people caught being racist by a bystander's smart phone, to amazing dumb-åzzery on dashcam, I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone did something stupid on Zoom.


----------



## SixFootScowl

geralmar said:


> California city planning commissioner under fire for throwing cat during commission meeting.
> 
> https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/27/politics/california-chris-platzer-cat-zoom-trnd/index.html


What is retarded is that anyone got upset over him playfully tossing the cat. Probably landed on a cushioned couch.


----------



## KenOC

SixFootScowl said:


> What is retarded is that anyone got upset over him playfully tossing the cat. Probably landed on a cushioned couch.


A poor second to dwarf tossing, whiich had a vogue not too long back.  It's an altogether more strenuous sport.


----------



## Jacck

One of world's oldest men marks 116th birthday in S.Africa
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...n-marks-116th-birthday-in-safrica/ar-BB13OgdG
116 and still with a cigarette


----------



## Luchesi

Jacck said:


> One of world's oldest men marks 116th birthday in S.Africa
> https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...n-marks-116th-birthday-in-safrica/ar-BB13OgdG
> 116 and still with a cigarette


A while back a paper said that cigarettes forestall the onset of dementia. One of the poisons in the smoke acted on and light up that part of the brain.


----------



## KenOC

In Austin, a 737 airliner struck and killed a man on the runway while landing. The man was not dressed as an airport worker and had no identification. That seems passing strange to me.

The 737 did not escape unscathed.


----------



## SixFootScowl

Luchesi said:


> A while back a paper said that cigarettes forestall the onset of dementia. One of the poisons in the smoke acted on and light up that part of the brain.


So maybe the answer is, don't take up smoking until you retire.


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> In Austin, a 737 airliner struck and killed a man on the runway while landing. The man was not dressed as an airport worker and had no identification. That seems passing strange to me.
> 
> The 737 did not escape unscathed.


That is a vicious dent when you consider what made it.


----------



## pianozach

Luchesi said:


> A while back a paper said that cigarettes forestall the onset of dementia. One of the poisons in the smoke acted on and light up that part of the brain.


There has been a study in France suggesting that smoking might make people less susceptible to COVID-19 infection.

https://theconversation.com/does-nicotine-protect-us-against-coronavirus-137488


----------



## SixFootScowl

pianozach said:


> There has been a study in France suggesting that smoking might make people less susceptible to COVID-19 infection.
> 
> https://theconversation.com/does-nicotine-protect-us-against-coronavirus-137488


I think coffee might protect against Corona virus. I don't know anybody who drinks a lot of coffee that has gotten the virus. Of course I don't know anybody at all who has gotten it.


----------



## Flamme

KenOC said:


> In Austin, a 737 airliner struck and killed a man on the runway while landing. The man was not dressed as an airport worker and had no identification. That seems passing strange to me.
> 
> The 737 did not escape unscathed.


A time traveler? A poor devil who fell into hole between space and time and met him doom in a strange and hostile world...


----------



## Art Rock

Flamme said:


> A time traveler?


Which reminds me of a "joke" I recently read ...

A time traveler suddenly materializes in a San Francisco Walmart, to the surprise of the shoppers. 
"What year is this?" 
"... 2020..." whispers someone.
"Oh, ****, the virus year!" 
"Yeah, it already killed 60000 Americans in a few weeks!" 
<stunned silence> 
"So... *May *2020?" 
"Yeah!" 
"Corona?" 
"Yeah!" 
"So... not the other one yet that killed half the world population?"


----------



## SixFootScowl

Strange, or perhaps not very smart, and sad, but could have been much worse I guess:


----------



## Flamme

This a bit disturbing...A crazy year ahead...https://nationalpost.com/news/world/earth-magnetic-field-weakning-scientists-dont-know-why


----------



## Jacck

Boys let black widow bite them in hopes of turning into Spider-Man
https://nypost.com/2020/05/25/boys-let-black-widow-bite-them-in-hopes-of-turning-into-spider-man/


----------



## Flamme

https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2018/09/411565/ducati-rider-coma-after-being-trampled-herd-cows


----------



## pianozach

Jacck said:


> Boys let black widow bite them in hopes of turning into Spider-Man
> https://nypost.com/2020/05/25/boys-let-black-widow-bite-them-in-hopes-of-turning-into-spider-man/


No, no, no.

In the original Spider-Man, he'd been bitten by a _radioactive_ spider.


----------



## SixFootScowl

pianozach said:


> No, no, no.
> 
> In the original Spider-Man, he'd been bitten by a _radioactive_ spider.


And maybe in the process of becoming radioactive, the spider lost its ability to manufacture venom. I have read about black widow bites and the victim writhing in agony for a week. That is why I really felt creepy the one time I ever saw a black widow. That was in southern Indiana. They are not supposed to be in Michigan but it is possible.


----------



## Flamme

I have couple of very strange spiders in my crib...Thank God 4 canned insecticide.


----------



## SixFootScowl

*Boy Swallowed up by Sand Dune*



> When a boy suddenly disappeared into a sand dune, a scientist embarked on a quest to find out where he went.
> 
> Over the next three and a half hours, rescuers with flexible probes, shovels and heavy machinery would excavate a pit a dozen feet deep and at least 50 feet across. At about eight feet down, they began noticing odd features in the sand: pipe-like cylinders, eight inches in diameter and a foot or two long, of what looked like old bark. Brad Kreighbaum, 36, a third-generation firefighter, soon came across a six-inch diameter hole that shot deep into the sand: "You could shine a flashlight and see 20 feet down." Almost as soon as the holes were uncovered, sand rushed in to fill them. "Just like an hourglass."
> 
> When he scooped Nathan's body out of the sand at 8:05 p.m., Kreighbaum noticed other patterns, in the cavity cocooning the boy. Its inside wall was sandy and soft, but bore the imprint of bark, almost like a fossil. It was as if the boy had wound up at the bottom of a hollowed-out tree trunk, except not a bit of tree was there.


----------



## mrdoc

SixFootScowl said:


> *Boy Swallowed up by Sand Dune*


I think you are barking up the wrong tree!


----------



## pianozach

mrdoc said:


> I think you are barking up the wrong tree!


I'm sure we can go out on a limb and get to the root of the problem.


----------



## Dorsetmike

pianozach said:


> I'm sure we can go out on a limb and get to the root of the problem.


Leaf it alone bud!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


----------



## mrdoc

pianozach said:


> I'm sure we can go out on a limb and get to the root of the problem.


Or we could fork off the main trunk and try a branch.


----------



## KenOC

Some years back a man hid a chest of treasure worth more than a million dollars somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. He then published hints on its location over several years. This was big news a few years ago when several people died looking for the treasure.

In any event *it has now been found*, making for an interesting story.


----------



## Flamme

Wonder if X marked the spot! I read b4 about some treasures of the Rockies, that were accursed!!!


----------



## SixFootScowl

Flamme said:


> Wonder if X marked the spot! I read b4 about some treasures of the Rockies, that were accursed!!!


*
Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine*


----------



## geralmar

Consequences of leaving eBay a bad review:

https://boston.cbslocal.com/2020/06...ed-u-s-attorney-andrew-lelling-cyberstalking/


----------



## Flamme

A truly bizarre story right there...Hard to believe ppl from e-bay would go to such lengths for not even so harsh a critic, in news I read there were much stronger words used by ppl and medias...


----------



## pianozach

Flamme said:


> A truly bizarre story right there...Hard to believe ppl from e-bay would go to such lengths for not even so harsh a critic, in news I read there were much stronger words used by ppl and medias...


This is the new Bully Culture, in which you smear, intimidate, and threaten those that publicly criticize you. (There's another name for it, but it's a political one involving the name of a current president.)

This sort of behavior is now considered to be "acceptable" in some circles.

What have we become?


----------



## KenOC

*Vienna police fine man €500 for 'massive intestinal wind'*

…aimed in the general direction of some nearby officers with whom he had a difference of opinion. Actually that's the whole story - not much, but it's all I've got right now. :tiphat:


----------



## KenOC

Yet again: If you have *precious artwork* to restore, probably best not to choose the low bidder.


----------



## mrdoc

KenOC said:


> *Vienna police fine man €500 for 'massive intestinal wind'*
> 
> …aimed in the general direction of some nearby officers with whom he had a difference of opinion. Actually that's the whole story - not much, but it's all I've got right now. :tiphat:


When I was in hospital a few years ago in a room with 6 beds I experienced a disgusting display of disregard for others, A young ethnic male had approx 8 - 10 visitors, the max allowed was 2, they made a lot of noise and had a farting competition which produced hysterical laughter among other things. The staff did nothing? happy days...


----------



## SixFootScowl

mrdoc said:


> When I was in hospital a few years ago in a room with 6 beds I experienced a disgusting display of disregard for others, A young ethnic male had approx 8 - 10 visitors, the max allowed was 2, they made a lot of noise and had a farting competition which produced hysterical laughter among other things. The staff did nothing? happy days...


Just one more reason to avoid hospital stays (and public transportation).


----------



## KenOC

*Tombstoning at Durdle Door*

I had no idea what this was all about, but it quickly became apparent why the owner said, "It does illustrate, not to put too fine a point on it, the stupidity of some people…" Curious? Click through and read on!


----------



## That Guy Mick

Hello KenOC! It's Mick! Long time no see! Hope you are doing well. 

I guess that Durdle Door looks innocent enough to a young Englishman who has had a few pints too many, probably a lot of fun on the descent...

The most bizarre thing that I have seen in a while. Social distancing. Surreal. And apparently it is too dangerous to hold religious gatherings, but not so for a gathering of protesters. Very strange, indeed.


----------



## Luchesi

That Guy Mick said:


> Hello KenOC! It's Mick! Long time no see! Hope you are doing well.
> 
> I guess that Durdle Door looks innocent enough to a young Englishman who has had a few pints too many, probably a lot of fun on the descent...
> 
> The most bizarre thing that I have seen in a while. Social distancing. Surreal. And apparently it is too dangerous to hold religious gatherings, but not so for a gathering of protesters. Very strange, indeed.


Mick from Amazon days?


----------



## That Guy Mick

Hi Luchesi. Yes, Mick from Amazon. I remember quite a few names, but don't recognize the one you are using. You must have changed it. Your TC moniker pic is a piano and I remember very well a piano player and science lover whose name began with B, but changed later. Can't remember the new name. Am I way off the mark?


----------



## KenOC

The US continues to find more elegant ways to eliminate its enemies. The latest variant of the drone-launched Hellfire missile kills not by exploding but by extending multiple blades - death by Ginsu. The idea is that you can kill the passenger but not the driver.

"The modified Hellfire missile carried an inert warhead. Instead of exploding, it hurled about 100 pounds of metal through the top of Mr. al-Aruri's car. If the high-velocity projectile did not kill him, the missile's other feature almost certainly did: six long blades tucked inside, which deployed seconds before impact to slice up anything in its path.

"The Hellfire variant, known as the R9X, was initially developed nearly a decade ago under pressure from President Barack Obama…"

Gruesome but fascinating.


----------



## Flamme

Smh...


----------



## pianozach

Flamme said:


> Smh...


OMG.

A "new superstitious belief"?

"How do such ignorant things happen?", asks the guy whose country elected a potato-brain president . . .


----------



## KenOC

Bizarre perhaps, but also probably the *saddest news* I can remember on my country's Independence Day.
---------------------------------------
Virginia state officials ordered the removal of an American flag from the construction site in Richmond, citing concerns that the flag would become a "target" for protesters this Fourth of July… "When we saw the flag, we were concerned that it could become a target so we told the contractor to remove it," department spokeswoman Dena Potter told The Washington Post in an email.


----------



## mrdoc

........................................................... removed as it was too far out of date.


----------



## mrdoc

removed as it was too far out of date


----------



## pianozach

KenOC said:


> Bizarre perhaps, but also probably the *saddest news* I can remember on my country's Independence Day.
> ---------------------------------------
> Virginia state officials ordered the removal of an American flag from the construction site in Richmond, citing concerns that the flag would become a "target" for protesters this Fourth of July… "When we saw the flag, we were concerned that it could become a target so we told the contractor to remove it," department spokeswoman Dena Potter told The Washington Post in an email.


Simply a paranoid abundance of caution.


----------



## That Guy Mick

KenOC said:


> Virginia state officials ordered the removal of an American flag from the construction site in Richmond, citing concerns that the flag would become a "target" for protesters this Fourth of July… "When we saw the flag, we were concerned that it could become a target so we told the contractor to remove it," department spokeswoman Dena Potter told The Washington Post in an email.


Hello Ken,
I have to wonder why the flag owner obeyed. Was it some form of blackmail? It's doubtful that the order carries the authority of law.

This has been a strange year. Since the Floyd riots began the country seems to be suffering from some form of mental illness among its leadership both in the public and private sectors. The pathology of big network news is ascending to new levels. I can't help drawing comparisons to Maoism. Welcome to the new world of the "Woke" overlords!


----------



## That Guy Mick

Uh Luchesi, you seem a little shy.  It has been a few years since I visited Amazon, but I still remember Greg, Superhuge, Phil, Edgar, Flavius, Angelo, Joe Anthony, and some others whose names I can't recall at the moment, but with whom I conversed with quite awhile.


----------



## Guest

With the state of Florida emerging as the epicenter of Covid-19 in the U.S., Disneyworld in Florida is opening today.


----------



## Luchesi

That Guy Mick said:


> Uh Luchesi, you seem a little shy.  It has been a few years since I visited Amazon, but I still remember Greg, Superhuge, Phil, Edgar, Flavius, Angelo, Joe Anthony, and some others whose names I can't recall at the moment, but with whom I conversed with quite awhile.


Hey Mick, you're an interesting poster, you'll do fine here. You just have to give it some time for members to recognize your avatar.

Here's a list from Amazon; their names then and now. Of course some people haven't posted much..

wyote is Science
Angelo Mandillo, AB Mandillo
distantprommer, Distant Prommer
Jlspinks, J Spinks
Larkenfield, Larkenfield
MusicBear88, Thomas B Dawkins
Pesaro, HB
Phil in Magnolia, Phil (not) in Magnolia
Philoctetes, Vaughan Otter
Ras, Rasmus
Robert Pickett, Cute 'n Cuddly Bartok
St Omer, Saint Omer
Last edited by KenOC; Oct-08-2017 at 02:30.

Originally Posted by KenOC 
I see Roeselare/barbW is here now, new username Luchesi. Welcome!
Thanks Ken.
Back when Yippers was Ypres (the first city of WWI mustard gas) I became Rosealare (also in Belgium, 15mi NE of Ypres) because I spent some time there in the military. He was tickled about my name change.

Josquin13 replied to a thread Julia Fischer in Musicians
It's good to see your posts here, Ras(mus) and Bill! I'm MRS from Amazon--my new name is Josquin13.​


----------



## That Guy Mick

Thanks for the list Luchesi. I'm familiar with most of the Amazon names. My uber wild guess hit the mark! You did use the name barbw at one time, but I could not remember the more recent. The names bring back memories. And some of them are actually good... Just kidding, of course.  Lotsa good memories.

I have to wrap up income taxes tonight. Good night and take care.


----------



## Luchesi

That Guy Mick said:


> Thanks for the list Luchesi. I'm familiar with most of the Amazon names. My uber wild guess hit the mark! You did use the name barbw at one time, but I could not remember the more recent. The names bring back memories. And some of them are actually good... Just kidding, of course.  Lotsa good memories.
> 
> I have to wrap up income taxes tonight. Good night and take care.


Yeah, taxes. TurboTax wouldn't work until I upgraded my Mac! A couple of hours to download and a couple of hours to install. Another hour to set it up the way I had it before the install. (They can't give us the same preferences I guess). Then on to the taxes..

But the password I use every year to get my tax info didn't work Whatever ... they're trying to protect me I guess. Got a new password.

Yes, barbW stood for barbed wire. A member suggested that to me. But later I guessed that it was a veiled comment about my online personality. Anyway, people started thinking I was female, but I didn't care. They treated me differently - and it was a trip!


----------



## geralmar

A harbinger of the simian apocalypse?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/safari-park-baboons-knives-chainsaw-160316231.html


----------



## Guest

I was reading somewhere, if Trump manages to prevent a November vote, by closing the post office, sending DHS goons to close polling stations, etc, strictly speaking that won't help him. His term still ends January 19, 2021. If there is no President the Vice President is next in line, but there is no Vice President either so the Speaker of the House of Representatives is next, except there is no House of Representatives since the terms of all Representatives have expired. There is a Senate, there are 65 members not up for reelection, and Democrats have a majority among those. So the President pro tempore of the Senate becomes President. Bernie Sanders, perhaps 

What would Justice Roberts do?


----------



## pianozach

Baron Scarpia said:


> I was reading somewhere, if Trump manages to prevent a November vote, by closing the post office, sending DHS goons to close polling stations, etc, strictly speaking that won't help him. His term still ends January 19, 2021. If there is no President the Vice President is next in line, but there is no Vice President either so the Speaker of the House of Representatives is next, except there is no House of Representatives since the terms of all Representatives have expired. There is a Senate, there are 65 members not up for reelection, and Democrats have a majority among those. So the President pro tempore of the Senate becomes President. Bernie Sanders, perhaps
> 
> What would Justice Roberts do?


yeah, i've been thinking along those lines as well.

There are two components missing from your scenario though.

1. The *President pro tempore* is selected by the Senate at large. Since 1890, the most senior U.S. senator in the majority party has *generally* been chosen to be president pro tempore and holds the office continuously until the election of another.

The longest serving Democratic Party Senator is 80-year-old *Patrick Joseph Leahy* from Vermont, and began his first term in 1975.

*Ed Markey* has only been in the Senate since 2013, but served 20 terms in the House prior to that.

2. *The Electoral College* might get to have a say in who the next President is, even if there is no election.


----------



## Guest

But without an election there are no electors in the electoral college.


----------



## pianozach

Baron Scarpia said:


> But without an election there are no electors in the electoral college.


Yes there are.

The Electoral College is a completely separate entity than the voters-at-large.

Each political party with a candidate on the ballot designates its own set of electors for each state, matching the number of electors they appoint with the number of electoral votes allotted to the state. This usually occurs at state party conventions.

By federal statute the electors for each state are required to cast their votes in mid-December, after which the votes are sealed and sent to the president of the U.S. Senate. Though the public votes for the party as a whole, the electors cast individual votes on separate ballots for president and vice president. This has become important in several elections in which electors voted for candidates other than those to whom they were pledged.

But "*Electors*" are chosen in processes defined by state law, creating a patchwork of selection processes. In some cases, state laws defer to political party bylaws to define how electors are chosen.

33 states choose electors by party convention, while seven states and the District of Columbia select electors by state party committees. 10 states use gubernatorial appointments, appointment by party nominees, state chair appointments, presidential nominee appointments, and hybrid methods for elector selection.


----------



## Jacck

Fox steals over 100 shoes in Berlin
https://www.dw.com/en/berlin-fox-steals-shoes/a-54330292


----------



## mrdoc

The little fat man trumps Trump.

https://waterfordwhispersnews.com/2014/01/21/north-korea-lands-first-ever-man-on-the-sun-confirms-central-news-agency/


----------



## Jacck

Cheeky boar leaves nudist grunting in laptop chase
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53692475


----------



## Strange Magic

mrdoc said:


> The little fat man trumps Trump.
> 
> https://waterfordwhispersnews.com/2014/01/21/north-korea-lands-first-ever-man-on-the-sun-confirms-central-news-agency/


The intrepid astronaut's traveling by night to avoid the sun's rays was a stroke of genius, but it was--truth be told--suggested to him by an American Expert who modestly remains nameless.


----------



## mrdoc

Strange Magic said:


> The intrepid astronaut's traveling by night to avoid the sun's rays was a stroke of genius, but it was--truth be told--suggested to him by an American Expert who modestly remains nameless.


Yes in hindsight it is so obvious, perhaps if we could somehow just turn the Sun a wee bit on its axis so reducing its hot side area we could stop man made global warming.


----------



## Jacck

Canada brewery apologises for beer named 'pubic hair' in Maori
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53706732


----------



## En Passant

Jacck said:


> Canada brewery apologises for beer named 'pubic hair' in Maori
> https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53706732


https://www.carthrottle.com/post/49rx9gg/


----------



## Ich muss Caligari werden

Jacck said:


> Fox steals over 100 shoes in Berlin
> https://www.dw.com/en/berlin-fox-steals-shoes/a-54330292


Foot Fetishist Fox! Foxes (and many animals and birds) of all predilections are abundant in Berlin. Never forget the night (around 11:00 PM) I was exiting the Museum of Natural History (it was open late for the semi-annual "Long Night of Museums") and crossing the street in the opposite direction was a fox, looked at me once and went about its business, staying in the crosswalk.


----------



## SixFootScowl

"A Brooklyn College professor has said that the idea that math is objective or neutral is a myth. The math educator Laurie Rubel also tweeted that *the mathematical equation 2+2=4 "reeks of White supremacist patriarchy"*. She has also received support from several academics at universities and colleges across the country who retweeted and promoted her claims. The tweets from Rubel are part of a trend on social media where a number of math professors and academics from top universities have debated the 'Eurocentric' roots of American mathematics."
https://meaww.com/brooklyn-new-york...ty-math-reeks-of-white-supremacist-patriarchy


----------



## Guest

SixFootScowl said:


> "A Brooklyn College professor has said that the idea that math is objective or neutral is a myth. The math educator Laurie Rubel also tweeted that *the mathematical equation 2+2=4 "reeks of White supremacist patriarchy"*. She has also received support from several academics at universities and colleges across the country who retweeted and promoted her claims. The tweets from Rubel are part of a trend on social media where a number of math professors and academics from top universities have debated the 'Eurocentric' roots of American mathematics."
> https://meaww.com/brooklyn-new-york...ty-math-reeks-of-white-supremacist-patriarchy


The article you cite has deliberately misconstrued the statements of Laurie Rubel and others to make them seem ridiculous.

She is not claiming that 2+2=4 itself is a white supremacist statement. She is pointing out that people use the statement that 2+2=4 is neutral and therefore math is neutral to claim that algorithms that enforce white supremacy are "just math" and therefore "neutral." Such algorithms might include algorithms that calculate your credit score, determine whether to approve you for a credit card, decide what mortgage interest rate to offer you, decide whether to flag you as a qualified job applicant, etc. These algorithms are not "just math" and therefore "pure" because they are created by people who can consciously or unconsciously embed their racial bigotry or misogyny.


----------



## Jacck

SixFootScowl said:


> "A Brooklyn College professor has said that the idea that math is objective or neutral is a myth. The math educator Laurie Rubel also tweeted that *the mathematical equation 2+2=4 "reeks of White supremacist patriarchy"*. She has also received support from several academics at universities and colleges across the country who retweeted and promoted her claims. The tweets from Rubel are part of a trend on social media where a number of math professors and academics from top universities have debated the 'Eurocentric' roots of American mathematics."
> https://meaww.com/brooklyn-new-york...ty-math-reeks-of-white-supremacist-patriarchy


Academic Journal: Newtonian Physics Is 'Oppressive' to Marginalized People
https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/05/quantum-physics-oppressive-marginalized-people/


----------



## SixFootScowl

Baron Scarpia said:


> The article you cite has deliberately misconstrued the statements of Laurie Rubel and others to make them seem ridiculous.
> 
> She is not claiming that 2+2=4 itself is a white supremacist statement. She is pointing out that people use the statement that 2+2=4 is neutral and therefore math is neutral to claim that algorithms that enforce white supremacy are "just math" and therefore "neutral." Such algorithms might include algorithms that calculate your credit score, determine whether to approve you for a credit card, decide what mortgage interest rate to offer you, decide whether to flag you as a qualified job applicant, etc. These algorithms are not "just math" and therefore "pure" because they are created by people who can consciously or unconsciously embed their racial bigotry or misogyny.


If you would, please link up where her accurate statements may be found. I just took what came up in a search, so really have no idea if that news source is biased or what.


----------



## Guest

SixFootScowl said:


> If you would, please link up where her accurate statements may be found. I just took what came up in a search, so really have no idea if that news source is biased or what.


I read her tweets that were referenced in the article. They struck me as taken out of context and much more subtle than they were represented. I'm not sure I agree with every point she is making, but her views are not as absurd as represented in the opening paragraph of that article.


----------



## SixFootScowl

*Mask in a restaurant? This mask can gobble like Pac-Man*



> A squeeze of a lever, much like a cyclist operates a handbrake, opens a slot in the front of the mask so that food can pass through.


----------



## TxllxT

https://www.sheepcentral.com/british-texel-ram-lamb-sets-a-new-world-record-sheep-price/

'Texel Ram with the golden guns' - https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/aug/28/worlds-most-expensive-sheep-sold-in-scotland-for-367k-double-diamond I always associate the masculine looks of a Texel ram with a nasty bulldog.


----------



## Malx

TxllxT said:


> https://www.sheepcentral.com/british-texel-ram-lamb-sets-a-new-world-record-sheep-price/
> 
> 'Texel Ram with the golden guns' - https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/aug/28/worlds-most-expensive-sheep-sold-in-scotland-for-367k-double-diamond I always associate the masculine looks of a Texel ram with a nasty bulldog.


Baa humbug.....


----------



## Jacck

Man using A SNAKE 'as face covering' seen riding bus in Greater Manchester


----------



## Jacck

Ig Nobel Prizes reward research on helium-huffing alligators and knives made of feces
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/202...lium-huffing-alligators-and-knives-made-feces


----------



## Jacck

Stained relations? Israeli PM accused of taking dirty laundry on state trips
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...yahu-accused-taking-dirty-laundry-state-trips


----------



## Jacck

'Hero rat' wins gold medal from UK charity for hunting landmines
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/25/asia/hero-rat-landmines-award-intl-hnk-scli/index.html


----------



## Jacck

Five parrots at a wildlife park have been removed from public display after they started swearing at visitors.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-54340425


----------



## mrdoc

Jacck said:


> Five parrots at a wildlife park have been removed from public display after they started swearing at visitors.
> https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-54340425


Sounds like as if one of our mods has been to the Park,,,:lol:


----------



## TxllxT

Jacck said:


> Five parrots at a wildlife park have been removed from public display after they started swearing at visitors.
> https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-54340425


They seem to heave learned this from each other.... What about having a presidential debate between parrots?


----------



## Guest

Donald Trump has tested positive for Covid-19, the Democrat hoax that affects nobody. I guess that means Joe Biden, who was on stage with him for 90 minutes, has to quarantine for 14 days?


----------



## pianozach

Baron Scarpia said:


> Donald Trump has tested positive for Covid-19, the Democrat hoax that affects nobody. I guess that means Joe Biden, who was on stage with him for 90 minutes, has to quarantine for 14 days?


I'd say there was more than 6' between them. Probably more than 20'.

Still, they were indoors, and it sort depends on how the ventilation was.

I think it's rather ironic that the germaphobe that ran around claiming COVID-19 was a "Democrat hoax" and made light of face mask guidelines, even going so far as, this week, making fun of Joe Biden for actually wearing one, yes, ironic that he'd be diagnosed by a virus that was going "to disappear"

I find it difficult when hypocrites are smacked upside the head with blatant Karma.


----------



## Jacck

pianozach said:


> I find it difficult when hypocrites are smacked upside the head with blatant Karma.


I am sorry to be so cynical, but the timing before the election might be just an attempt the "wag the dog"


----------



## Guest

Jacck said:


> I am sorry to be so cynical, but the timing before the election might be just an attempt the "wag the dog"


It wasn't just the tweet. The official White House doctor announced the positive test. That suggests there's something to it. The next question, will Trump die of hydroxychloroquine poisoning? Has a secret service detail gone around and hidden all of the bleach in the White House?


----------



## SixFootScowl

I've never heard of Covid-19 being called a Democrat hoax until here in this thread.


----------



## Strange Magic

SixFootScowl said:


> I've never heard of Covid-19 being called a Democrat hoax until here in this thread.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...80ecf4-a425-11ea-bb20-ebf0921f3bbd_story.html


----------



## Strange Magic

SixFootScowl said:


> I've never heard of Covid-19 being called a Democrat hoax until here in this thread.


https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-calls-coronavirus-democrats-new-hoax-n1145721


----------



## Guest

SixFootScowl said:


> I've never heard of Covid-19 being called a Democrat hoax until here in this thread.


In all fairness, he did not quite call the coronavirus a hoax, He described Democratic Party criticism of his administrations coronavirus response a hoax.

What's True
During a Feb. 28, 2020, campaign rally in South Carolina, President Donald Trump likened the Democrats' criticism of his administration's response to the new coronavirus outbreak to their efforts to impeach him, saying "this is their new hoax." During the speech he also seemed to downplay the severity of the outbreak, comparing it to the common flu.
What's False
Despite creating some confusion with his remarks, Trump did not call the coronavirus itself a hoax.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-coronavirus-rally-remark/

Hi did say, just a week ago, that it affects "virtually nobody."

https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4908758/president-trump-coronavirus-affects-virtually-nobody


----------



## pianozach

Baron Scarpia said:


> In all fairness, he did not quite call the coronavirus a hoax, He described Democratic Party criticism of his administrations coronavirus response a hoax.
> 
> What's True
> During a Feb. 28, 2020, campaign rally in South Carolina, President Donald Trump likened the Democrats' criticism of his administration's response to the new coronavirus outbreak to their efforts to impeach him, saying "this is their new hoax." During the speech he also seemed to downplay the severity of the outbreak, comparing it to the common flu.
> What's False
> Despite creating some confusion with his remarks, Trump did not call the coronavirus itself a hoax.
> 
> https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-coronavirus-rally-remark/
> 
> *Hi did say, just a week ago, that it affects "virtually nobody."
> *
> https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4908758/president-trump-coronavirus-affects-virtually-nobody


Yet Trump has been affected. Does that make him a "nobody"?


----------



## Luchesi

pianozach said:


> Yet Trump has been affected. Does that make him a "nobody"?


How will the pastors sermonize about this? Can it be found in prophecies?


----------



## mmsbls

This thread is about strange stories not politics. Please refrain from purely political comments.


----------



## pianozach

mmsbls said:


> This thread is about strange stories not politics. Please refrain from purely political comments.


We can try.

But as practically everything has been politicized in the last four years, there's hardly a topic that hasn't somehow now been linked to politics:

Science, climate change, epidemiology, the 1st and 2nd Amendments, energy sources, unauthorized use of music by political campaigns, criminal investigations, civil rights, psychology, women's rights . . .

And _THAT_, in and of itself, is a _*"strange and bizarre story"*_.


----------



## Luchesi

pianozach said:


> We can try.
> 
> But as practically everything has been politicized in the last four years, there's hardly a topic that hasn't somehow now been linked to politics:
> 
> Science, climate change, epidemiology, the 1st and 2nd Amendments, energy sources, unauthorized use of music by political campaigns, criminal investigations, civil rights, psychology, women's rights . . .
> 
> And _THAT_, in and of itself, is a _*"strange and bizarre story"*_.


Moderators have a difficult job figuring out what should be nipped. A line of replies begins innocently enough and then I inadvertently post about TV pastors sizing up this quantum event of our president contracting a deadly disease using all the many prophecies they press into their service all the time. Who's to say what's political in this (unless you're not familiar with prophecies)?


----------



## Guest

After seeing a suggestion on twitter I looked at the video of Trump walking from the white house to his helicopter on his way to Walter Reed medical center. There appears to be a white tube coming up from under his collar at the back of his neck, which looks like it might be going over his ear and presumably behind his mask to a nasal cannula. This suggests he may have been on supplemental oxygen with a small portable oxygen concentrator under his jacket.






Although the official statements describe "mild symptoms" and "doing very well" anonymous sources describe "having trouble breathing" and "vital signs of serious concern." I suspect a serious case.


----------



## pianozach

Baron Scarpia said:


> View attachment 143931
> 
> 
> After seeing a suggestion on twitter I looked at the video of Trump walking from the white house to his helicopter on his way to Walter Reed medical center. There appears to be a white tube coming up from under his collar at the back of his neck, which looks like it might be going over his ear and presumably behind his mask to a nasal cannula. This suggests he may have been on supplemental oxygen with a small portable oxygen concentrator under his jacket.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Although the official statements describe "mild symptoms" and "doing very well" anonymous sources describe "having trouble breathing" and "vital signs of serious concern." I suspect a serious case.


You're probably right.

We actually cannot trust that official statements about the President's health are 'transparent". We know that the President himself is a well-documented liar, especially in regards to the pandemic, and *there is ALSO a long history* of presidents being less than forthcoming about their actual health. *JFK* and *FDR* most certainly hid their health issues, and *Woodrow Wilson*'s wife secretly ran the Presidency while he was bedridden after a stroke, half paralyzed.

Reports that his blood oxygen level was low also indicated a poor prognosis.

I find it sad that we're up to 218,000 COVID-19 deaths in the US. These people are dying, often in hospitals, sometimes on ventilators, and the doctors have no treatment to cure it, only to keep people alive while they suffer.

Many recover, although there's a lot of discussion about lingering health issues afterwards affecting the heart, lungs, and other organs. Broadway actor *Nick Cordero* died from COVID-19 at the young age of 41.

He developed symptoms of pneumonia. He was admitted into Cedars-Sinai Medical Center where he was diagnosed with COVID-19, put into an induced coma and placed on a ventilator. He was given blood thinners but developed clots and _had his right leg amputated_. He also underwent dialysis, was placed on a heart-lung bypass machine, was given a temporary pacemaker, had mini-strokes and sepsis, and lost more than 60 pounds. Kloots told Gayle King on *CBS This Morning* in early July that Cordero's lungs were so damaged he'd likely need a double lung transplant to survive.



I keep thinking about how even last week Trump was mocking Joe Biden for wearing a mask, particularly pointing out that Biden _*"shows up with the biggest mask I've ever seen."*_

He went on to suggest that his rival covered his face not to protect others or himself from the pandemic viral illness but *"because, you know what, it gives him a feeling of security. If I were a psychiatrist, I'd say: 'This guy's got some big issues.'"*

In last week's Presidential Debate, Trump also made fun of Biden for observing social distancing at small-scale campaign events during the pandemic, and denied that the crowded rallies he has held recently to make himself feel loved have threatened public health. *"So far we have had no problem whatsoever,"* the president claimed, relying on voters to have forgotten, or never heard, that his supporter *Herman Cain tested positive for Covid-19 nine days after sitting unmasked at Trump's indoor rally in Tulsa in June, and died weeks later.*

On a lighter coronavirus note, there are a handful of Republican senators that have either been diagnosed positive for COVID-19, or are preventatively quarantining after a Presidential super-spreader event (SCOTUS nomination announcement), and that means that the Supreme Court nomination process may be delayed after Mitch McConnell put it on a fast track.

In fact, Supreme Court nominee *Amy Coney Barrett* tested positive for the coronavirus this summer. If you subscribe to the concept of *Herd Immunity*, then she should be OK, but many doctors have cautioned that since COVID-19 is a virus, it's reasonable to assume that people can 'catch it' more than once, like the common cold or the flu. They've also cautioned that they actually have no data on how long an immunity may last, but since this coronavirus has been around for less than a year, and some people have already been infected twice, you can deduce that immunity lasts for less than a year - in fact, this is one of the reasons why flu shots are recommended every year (the other being that it mutates every year).

Oh, yeah . . . This particular coronavirus, *SARS-CoV-2*, could *mutate*, and, in fact, there are theories and evidence that there are already at least two different strains. . . .

*FUN FACT: COVID-19* is the name of the DISEASE caused by the specific coronavirus named *SARS-CoV-2*. COVID-19 is just an acronym for *CO*rona *VI*rus *D*isease 20*19*. SARS is an acronym for *S*evere *A*cute *R*espiratory *S*yndrome.

*Human Coronavirus Types*
Coronaviruses are named for the crown-like spikes on their surface. There are four main sub-groupings of coronaviruses, known as alpha, beta, gamma, and delta.

*Human coronaviruses* were first identified in the mid-1960s. The seven coronaviruses that can infect people are:

*Common human coronaviruses*
229E (alpha coronavirus)
NL63 (alpha coronavirus)
OC43 (beta coronavirus)
HKU1 (beta coronavirus)

*Other human coronaviruses*
MERS-CoV (the beta coronavirus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS)
SARS-CoV (the beta coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS)
SARS-CoV-2 (the novel coronavirus that causes coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19)

People around the world commonly get infected with human coronaviruses 229E, NL63, OC43, and HKU1.

Sometimes coronaviruses that infect animals can evolve and make people sick and become a new human coronavirus. Three recent examples of this are *2019-nCoV, SARS-CoV*, and *MERS-CoV*.

*Now you know*.


----------



## Luchesi

^^^^^^ Thanks, but what about the word corona?


----------



## DaveM

Trump’s case does not appear to be minor given the treatment being used. Longer term complications after initial recovery are thus more likely. Residual effects from the lung inflammation and inflammation of the heart are two of these.


----------



## Luchesi

Luchesi said:


> ^^^^^^ Thanks, but what about the word corona?


from wiki

The name "coronavirus" is derived from Latin _corona, meaning "crown" or "wreath", itself a borrowing from Greek κορώνη korṓnē, "garland, wreath".[SUP][9][/SUP][SUP][10][/SUP] The name was coined by June Almeida and David Tyrrell who first observed and studied human coronaviruses.[SUP][11][/SUP] The word was first used in print in 1968 by an informal group of virologists in the journal Nature to designate the new family of viruses.[SUP][8][/SUP] The name refers to the characteristic appearance of virions (the infective form of the virus) by electron microscopy, which have a fringe of large, bulbous surface projections creating an image reminiscent of the solar corona or halo.
_
Folks around here say the Roswell aliens crashed near Corona NM.


----------



## Guest

On the subject of bizarre news, the treatment plan for Trump makes no sense.

He was given remdesivir and an antibody treatment, both of which are effective in early stage when the virus is just starting to propagate, and the steroid dexamethasone, which is effective when the viral load is already very high and the body's excessive immune response is causing self-harm. If he is in late stage and needs the steroid it is too late for remdesivir or an antibody treatment to do anything. If he is in early stage and needs remdesivir and antibodies the steroid would be harmful, tamping down his immune response just when it is needed to stop the virus. It makes me wonder if Trump is demanding treatments that his doctors don't recommend. Maybe Trump demanded his favorite hydroxychloroquine and the doctors managed to convince him to take dexamethasone instead, which has a similar function but doesn't cause fatal heart arrhythmia.

My suspicion is that the steroid is making him feel better by tamping down his inflammatory response, and simultaneously letting the virus run amok.

Interesting comments here

https://www.ft.com/content/428bcf66-c348-4d82-8bd2-ba1059c0312e


----------



## Jacck

maybe the Regeneron antibodies were given (or declared publicly to be given) to manipulate the stock-market? I read that Trump has some ties to the director of Regeneron. And we know he and his family need money.


----------



## Guest

He looks visibly altered in this photo taken upon his return to the White House.










I suspect the steroids have pushed down the inflammation response and made him feel better in the short term. But the virus may come roaring back.


----------



## Jacck

Baron Scarpia said:


> I suspect the steroids have pushed down the inflammation response and made him feel better in the short term. But the virus may come roaring back.


as far as I understand, corticosteroids are usually only given in severe cases of pneumonia (such as ARDS) to calm the cytokine storm, ie to dampen the immune system from doing damage to the lung tissue. At the beginning of the ilness, they are more harmful than helpful because they block the immune response necessary to clear the virus and might prolong the treatment. 
https://www.covid19treatmentguideli...sed-therapy/immunomodulators/corticosteroids/


----------



## pianozach

Baron Scarpia said:


> On the subject of bizarre news, the treatment plan for Trump makes no sense.
> 
> He was given remdesivir and an antibody treatment, both of which are effective in early stage when the virus is just starting to propagate, and the steroid dexamethasone, which is effective when the viral load is already very high and the body's excessive immune response is causing self-harm. If he is in late stage and needs the steroid it is too late for remdesivir or an antibody treatment to do anything. If he is in early stage and needs remdesivir and antibodies the steroid would be harmful, tamping down his immune response just when it is needed to stop the virus. It makes me wonder if Trump is demanding treatments that his doctors don't recommend. Maybe Trump demanded his favorite hydroxychloroquine and the doctors managed to convince him to take dexamethasone instead, which has a similar function but doesn't cause fatal heart arrhythmia.
> 
> My suspicion is that the steroid is making him feel better by tamping down his inflammatory response, and simultaneously letting the virus run amok.
> 
> Interesting comments here
> 
> https://www.ft.com/content/428bcf66-c348-4d82-8bd2-ba1059c0312e


..........*paywall*.


----------



## Guest

pianozach said:


> ..........*paywall*.


Yes, I know, it let me see it once. I guess you weren't as lucky.


----------



## Jacck

The Nobels honored 4 women this year. But the awards still lack diversity
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/10/world/nobel-prize-diversity-2020-intl/index.html
I find it bizarre to demand "diversity" in a prize that is and should be primarily about achievement. Should the comission reward "diverse" people for lesser achievements just because they are "diverse"?


----------



## Jacck

After 3,000 years, Tasmanian devils return to mainland Australia
https://www.livescience.com/tasmanian-devils-return-australia.html


----------



## Luchesi

Jacck said:


> After 3,000 years, Tasmanian devils return to mainland Australia
> https://www.livescience.com/tasmanian-devils-return-australia.html


This can lead to important human cancer research according to the interesting followup article.


----------



## Jacck

Indian Man Who Worshiped Donald Trump As God Dies Of Heart Attack After Knowing The President Contracted Coronavirus
https://thenewspit.com/world/indian...knowing-the-president-contracted-coronavirus/


----------



## Jacck

Police find cash hidden between Bolsonaro ally's buttocks
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-jair-bolsonaro-ally-buttocks-chico-rodrigues


----------



## pianozach

Jacck said:


> Police find cash hidden between Bolsonaro ally's buttocks
> https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-jair-bolsonaro-ally-buttocks-chico-rodrigues


Now THAT'S the humorous end of the corruption spectrum.


----------



## SixFootScowl

Jacck said:


> Police find cash hidden between Bolsonaro ally's buttocks
> https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-jair-bolsonaro-ally-buttocks-chico-rodrigues


I take your word for it. Not going to look. By the way, who is Bolsonaro?


----------



## pianozach

SixFootScowl said:


> I take your word for it. Not going to look. By the way, who is Bolsonaro?


*Jair Bolsonaro* is the President of *Brazil*.

The "ally" referred to in the headline is Chico Rodrigues, the Brazilian president's deputy leader in the senate.


----------



## Guest

pianozach said:


> Now THAT'S the humorous end of the corruption spectrum.


An enema of the people??


----------



## pianozach

Christabel said:


> An enema of the people??


If the raid was first thing in the morning, it might be the crack of doom.


----------



## Guest

pianozach said:


> If the raid was first thing in the morning, it might be the crack of doom.


Public enema number two??


----------



## Dorsetmike

Probably felt like the world fell out of his bottom.


----------



## Guest

Dorsetmike said:


> Probably felt like the world fell out of his bottom.


A bottom-feeder? (This IS silly!)


----------



## pianozach

Why're you guys making cracks like that?


----------



## Guest

It's way too cheeky!!


----------



## Strange Magic

Schopenhauer: _Obit anus, abit onus._

Figure out how that applies.


----------



## Guest

It's a bummer, that's for sure


----------



## Guest

Bolsonaro's ally Chico Rodrigues sticking a wad of cash betwen his cheeks - _qué culo_!


----------



## Guest

What a butt of the joke!


----------



## Guest

Hiding money in one's _derrière_, now that's really hitting rock bottom.


----------



## Guest

Sorry guys, I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel trying to come with a new one...


----------



## KenOC

Hiding money that way -- it's just fundamentally wrong.


----------



## pianozach

Like, he's so rich he's got money coming out of his a$$.


----------



## Guest

Baron Scarpia said:


> He looks visibly altered in this photo taken upon his return to the White House.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I suspect the steroids have pushed down the inflammation response and made him feel better in the short term. But the virus may come roaring back.


Would you like to make a small bet? He's very much fitter and strong and I am, that's for sure.


----------



## Guest

pianozach said:


> Like, he's so rich he's got money coming out of his a$$.


He's gotta be an#l-retentive? He needs an _economic colonic irrigation_! (This latter is what I suggested to my sister had happened to the elderly, indigent males she meets on the internet dating sites; those men who have no cash because their partners have made off with it!!)


----------



## SixFootScowl

Baron Scarpia said:


> He looks visibly altered in this photo taken upon his return to the White House.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I suspect the steroids have pushed down the inflammation response and made him feel better in the short term. But the virus may come roaring back.


You or I would look something like that too if we had a bad head cold. I saw him on You Tube at the Michigan rally today and he looked his usual healthy self. Even at his first rally after he was sick, he looked perfectly normal.


----------



## Guest

SixFootScowl said:


> You or I would look something like that too if we had a bad head cold. I saw him on You Tube at the Michigan rally today and he looked his usual healthy self. Even at his first rally after he was sick, he looked perfectly normal.


He probably won't be feeling so hot in a couple of weeks, though!!!


----------



## Guest

Well, this isn't a 'strange' story per se but a funny experience from teaching which I was sharing with somebody who was here last night. In fact, I've told the story many times as it suits the Australian sense of humour.

I was teaching a low ability Year 12 class for their Higher School Certificate (A Levels, I think you call it in the UK). It's the final year of school and preparation for work, technical college or university - depending on results. This low ability class was never going to be equipped for such an academic hurdle but the school encourages them to 'stay on' to 'get an education'. OK, if we HAVE to!!

This day they were doing a school-based assessment task to contribute to their overall marks, the final exam representing only 50%. (No wonder Australia is behind Kazakhstan in performance results!!). The same boy is the subject of the anecdotes.

The written task had started; it was 9.30am. Suddenly a male student from the class appears at the door... "Nathan, why are you late; the task has already started". He was covered from head to toe in black grease and he reeked of diesel fumes. I couldn't help laughing...."well, what's the story?".

"Sorry miss, I had to strip me mate's engine this mornin' before I came to school". 
"Well, go and clean off some of that grease because the smell is distracting everybody; at least wash your hands".

Came time to mark the assessment task for the same student (a nice fellow, just not very bright). It was a question about a play we'd been studying. The students had to answer questions on the text and then provide one visual representation (again, think Kazakhstan!) of some of the key ideas in the play. For example, if it was Hamlet the students could draw a sword and a crown - something like that. The play was Michael Gow's "Away". I turned to the last page of the task and there was a pencilled square on the page, the size of a postage stamp, with 2 stick figures drawn next to each other: the caption underneath those figures was very revealing:

"_Roy shouts at Coral because she's a bloody idiot_"!! (I was surprised he'd remembered the names of the characters!)

Never a dull moment in the teaching of English.


----------



## Jacck

The Tower of London's ravens are missing tourists and fleeing in search of food
https://www.tatler.com/article/tower-of-london-ravens-are-leaving-due-to-boredom


----------



## Guest

Jacck said:


> The Tower of London's ravens are missing tourists and fleeing in search of food
> https://www.tatler.com/article/tower-of-london-ravens-are-leaving-due-to-boredom


"The raven himself is hoarse that croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements". (Macbeth)


----------



## Jacck

The Tower of London’s seven ravens are named Jubilee, Harris, Gripp, Rocky, Erin, Poppy and Merlina. The ravens are fed twice a day by the Ravenmaster and dine on a special diet of mice, chicks, rats and assorted raw meats with the occasional treat of biscuits soaked in blood. It is said that the kingdom and the Tower of London will fall if the six resident ravens ever leave the fortress


----------



## Guest

SixFootScowl said:


> You or I would look something like that too if we had a bad head cold. I saw him on You Tube at the Michigan rally today and he looked his usual healthy self. Even at his first rally after he was sick, he looked perfectly normal.


His face looked less puffy, which I thought might be an effect of the steroids. He was breathing abnormally upon his return to the white house, but seems to have subsequently recovered. A person in his age group has a ~3% chance of mortality, so he seems to be in the lucky 97%. Having hospital in your house to administer oxygen and a team of 20 doctors must help your chances.


----------



## Guest

Baron Scarpia said:


> His face looked less puffy, which I thought might be an effect of the steroids. He was breathing abnormally upon his return to the white house, but seems to have subsequently recovered. A person in his age group has a ~3% change or mortality, so he seems to be in the lucky 97%. Having hospital in your house to administer oxygen and a team of 20 doctors must help your chances.


Yes, ask the Queen of England and her (nearly 100 year) old husband!!


----------



## Guest

Jeff Toobin has been suspended from The New Yorker and CNN after reportedly exposing himself while mastubating on a zoom call with staff. He states he did not know his camera was on and did not know he was visible to other participants in the call. Even if I believe that excuse, I'm not sure it entirely exonerates him.


----------



## Jacck

New female-friendly toilet headed to the International Space Station
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/ne...endly-toilet-headed-to-the-space-15615642.php


----------



## Eclectic Al

Baron Scarpia said:


> Jeff Toobin has been suspended from The New Yorker and CNN after reportedly exposing himself while mastubating on a zoom call with staff. He states he did not know his camera was on and did not know he was visible to other participants in the call. Even if I believe that excuse, I'm not sure it entirely exonerates him.


Yeah. I think he had it coming.


----------



## Jacck

Kim Kardashian diligently pops pimples on sister Khloe Kardashian's face and neck in KUWTK video exclaiming she 'should have been an esthetician'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowb...-Khloe-Kardashians-face-neck-KUWTK-video.html

I missed this world shattering news in January


----------



## Jacck

Van Damme saves life of chihuahua after row over fake passport
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ife-of-chihuahua-after-row-over-fake-passport
The dog named Raya was sold to new owners in Norway in September but officials there would not register her because she had travelled on a fake Bulgarian passport. Norway tried to repatriate the animal but Bulgaria refused to take her back because of European Union rules on the transport of live animals, leaving the dog facing euthanasia - until the Belgian film legend got involved.


----------



## pianozach

Ironically, some of the *strangest and most bizarre news* involves stories that report on things our President says and Tweets, but when you share those stories with others there is always someone who thinks that you're being political.

If it were anyone else saying these things, they'd be considered _*strange and bizarre*_, but when *President #45* says them and you tell others you're being "_partisan_".

So I'll sum it up and move on . . .

. . . . This weekend the *President* called a reporter _*"a criminal"*_ for *not* reporting on his conspiracy theory du jour, which has something to do with a kilt-wearing Trump-supporting blind computer technician named Isaac claiming that Hunter Biden flew from California to New York to drop off a water-damaged laptop, and at some later point hooks up the hard drive, reads the emails, and watched a video that supposedly shows *Hunter Biden* having sex with a prostitute while smoking crack.

Isaac copies the hard drive, then hands it over to the FBI, which asks Isaac for help in accessing the data on the drive, and then hands it subsequently to Rudy Giuliani, who tells the New York Post what's on it, and the Fox News runs with the story.

Meanwhile, both *Facebook* and *Twitter* have flagged links to the *New York Post* story about this as being _"spammy"_ and _"potentially harmful"_


----------



## KenOC

Pure politics again. Some is OK but lately it's far too much. Please stop this.


----------



## Guest

Jacck said:


> Van Damme saves life of chihuahua after row over fake passport
> https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ife-of-chihuahua-after-row-over-fake-passport
> The dog named Raya was sold to new owners in Norway in September but officials there would not register her because she had travelled on a fake Bulgarian passport. Norway tried to repatriate the animal but Bulgaria refused to take her back because of European Union rules on the transport of live animals, leaving the dog facing euthanasia - until the Belgian film legend got involved.


Reminds me of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard arriving in Australia with Pistol and Boo - two small dogs which should have gone into quarantine: "Snuck them in"? Is that even correct grammar?


----------



## Guest

pianozach said:


> Ironically, some of the *strangest and most bizarre news* involves stories that report on things our President says and Tweets, but when you share those stories with others there is always someone who thinks that you're being political.
> 
> If it were anyone else saying these things, they'd be considered _*strange and bizarre*_, but when *President #45* says them and you tell others you're being "_partisan_".
> 
> So I'll sum it up and move on . . .
> 
> . . . . This weekend the *President* called a reporter _*"a criminal"*_ for *not* reporting on his conspiracy theory du jour, which has something to do with a kilt-wearing Trump-supporting blind computer technician named Isaac claiming that Hunter Biden flew from California to New York to drop off a water-damaged laptop, and at some later point hooks up the hard drive, reads the emails, and watched a video that supposedly shows *Hunter Biden* having sex with a prostitute while smoking crack.
> 
> Isaac copies the hard drive, then hands it over to the FBI, which asks Isaac for help in accessing the data on the drive, and then hands it subsequently to Rudy Giuliani, who tells the New York Post what's on it, and the Fox News runs with the story.
> 
> Meanwhile, both *Facebook* and *Twitter* have flagged links to the *New York Post* story about this as being _"spammy"_ and _"potentially harmful"_


Why in the world would anybody get the impression this was political???!!!


----------



## Jacck

Hand over the trash: raccoons break into California bank 
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...our-trash-raccoons-break-into-california-bank


----------



## Flamme




----------



## Guest

Flamme said:


>


Surely this guy is a character in the hilarious Canadian TV show, "The Red Green Show"!!!!


----------



## Jacck

Donald Trump's tweets on classical music
https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/humour/donald-trump-reviews-music/


----------



## Guest

Jacck said:


> Donald Trump's tweets on classical music
> https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/humour/donald-trump-reviews-music/


My eldest son gave me a little book for Christmas last year, "The World According to Trump". There wasn't anything in there about classical music but there was other very amusing stuff. It was published in 2016 just before the election. We've all had a good laugh about it, especially the accompanying illustrations.

But, seriously, if you took many of the comments of people out of context there would be grist for the ridicule mill in much of what we say in our daily lives, when you think about it.

I remember one of my witty colleagues in teaching who used to say, "No wonder people hated the Christians; after thousands of years of pantheism along comes this chap who says 'forget all that - there's only one (!!); just me and m'dad'"!!


----------



## Jacck

Nebraska man hits jackpot twice in one year
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/24/us/nebraska-man-wins-lottery-twice-trnd/index.html


----------



## pianozach

*Roald Dahl*'s widow reveals that the publishers of *Charlie and the Chocolate Factory *pressured him to change the race of young *Charlie Bucket*. Roald Dahl's widow says that Charlie Bucket from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was originally black.

https://movieweb.com/willy-wonka-chocolate-factory-black-charlie/

Too much diversity for the publishers in 1964.

Absolutely understandable. Ever notice that Charlie was the only poor kid to "win" a Golden Ticket? That's because the rest of them were wealthy enough to buy cases and cases of Wonka bars to raise their chances of winning.


----------



## Flamme

Old news but still
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smar...te-coating-help-super-white-beetle-180968488/
IDK if this is considered racist in this day and (r)age!?


----------



## Strange Magic

Flamme said:


> Old news but still
> https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smar...te-coating-help-super-white-beetle-180968488/
> IDK if this is considered racist in this day and (r)age!?


Perhaps a fishing expedition?


----------



## Flamme

That reminds me of


> I told my Democat friend that I think all fishes look the same. Then he started yelling at me...
> He's involved in an anti-fishism movement.


----------



## Jacck

Police officer raiding illegal cockfight gets killed by rooster
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-54715327


----------



## Flamme

I saw that! In Philippines...! It seems that the ''perp'' in question, had some sort of metallic claws, if Im correct!?


----------



## Jacck

Two "murderous hornet" queens captured in Washington state
https://www.fr24news.com/a/2020/10/two-murderous-hornet-queens-captured-in-washington-state.html


----------



## Jacck

Man swarmed by rats after falling through sinkhole in NYC
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...new-york-city-leonard-shoulders-b1379787.html


----------



## KenOC

*Florida Man* once again. "A Florida man was mauled by a leopard after paying $150 for a 'full-contact experience'." Truth in advertising, at least.


----------



## Jacck

Whale sculpture stops Dutch train crashing into water 
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ulpture-stops-dutch-train-crashing-into-water


----------



## SixFootScowl

Jacck said:


> Man swarmed by rats after falling through sinkhole in NYC
> https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...new-york-city-leonard-shoulders-b1379787.html


Funny thing. I read the article and the next night dreamed of a rat infestation, but thankfully it was not near as horrifying as the article.


----------



## Jacck

Vladimir Putin 'will quit as Russian President in January amid fears he has Parkinson's disease', Moscow sources claim
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...-Parkinsons-disease-Moscow-sources-claim.html

I trust nothing coming from Putin and his regime. But maybe after the loss of Trump, Russia wants another "reset" and concluded that it would be impossible with Putin in power. Who knows?


----------



## Guest

Jacck said:


> Vladimir Putin 'will quit as Russian President in January amid fears he has Parkinson's disease', Moscow sources claim
> https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...-Parkinsons-disease-Moscow-sources-claim.html
> 
> I trust nothing coming from Putin and his regime. But maybe after the loss of Trump, Russia wants another "reset" and concluded that it would be impossible with Putin in power. Who knows?


Well, maybe he just wants to shake things up a bit!!


----------



## Jacck

Pharmacist and Drug Dealer Sentenced to Prison in Plot to Firebomb Rival Pharmacy
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/20/us/pharmacist-nebraska-drugs-dark-web.html


----------



## Flamme

Jacck said:


> Vladimir Putin 'will quit as Russian President in January amid fears he has Parkinson's disease', Moscow sources claim
> https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...-Parkinsons-disease-Moscow-sources-claim.html
> 
> I trust nothing coming from Putin and his regime. But maybe after the loss of Trump, Russia wants another "reset" and concluded that it would be impossible with Putin in power. Who knows?







Idk...They way his right hand lays down in this video...Its unlike him...He is getting really old and stress gets the best of him, thas how I see it, maybe he is just tired of it all...My dad was born the same year but seems healthier...I see a quick deterioration in putin in last couple of mnths...


----------



## NoCoPilot

Christabel said:


> Well, maybe he just wants to shake things up a bit!!


Maybe he's got a gig planned in Washington.


----------



## Flamme

It is funny how many liberals said that he will flee to russia or be arrested, after he is out of WH and I'm waiting for that day...

This is not especially bizarre or strange just a funny and bizarre headline and wording...:lol:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/431043/eyes-will-be-plucked-out-over-hong-kong-china-warns


----------



## pianozach

Flamme said:


> Idk...They way his right hand lays down in this video...Its unlike him...He is getting really old and stress gets the best of him, thas how I see it, maybe he is just tired of it all...My dad was born the same year but seems healthier...I see a quick deterioration in putin in last couple of mnths...


OMG.

Yeah, his right hand is out to the side and flexed throughout the entire seven minutes or so, never moving even though his other hand is active.

I've read that some folks are saying he's got Parkinson's, but I think we're in _*stroke*_ territory here. And while conducting an interview while seated isn't unusual, he's not standing either, which would probably reveal additional clues.


----------



## TxllxT

Brooklyn, 7000 uninvited wedding crashers, no mouth-caps, but yes, they have charisma...


----------



## pianozach

TxllxT said:


> Brooklyn, 7000 uninvited wedding crashers, no mouth-caps, but yes, they have charisma...


Yikes. Spike in cases in a week. Spike in deaths in 2-4 weeks.


----------



## Jacck

Charles Darwin's notebooks stolen from Cambridge University
https://www.theguardian.com/educati...oks-reported-stolen-from-cambridge-university


----------



## Flamme

Them orthodox jew dont BOW to anyone!!! https://odishabytes.com/british-man...a-covid-snake-bite-while-on-charity-in-india/


----------



## geralmar

Mystery metal "monolith" discovered in remote area of U.S.



https://dpsnews.utah.gov/dps-aero-bureau-encounters-monolith-in-red-rock-country/


----------



## Jacck

Minnesota Squirrel Accidentally Gets Drunk After Feasting on Fermented Pears
https://people.com/pets/minnesota-squirrel-gets-drunk-after-eating-fermented-pears/


----------



## pianozach

Jacck said:


> Minnesota Squirrel Accidentally Gets Drunk After Feasting on Fermented Pears
> https://people.com/pets/minnesota-squirrel-gets-drunk-after-eating-fermented-pears/


Ah, if only drunk squirrels could talk.

"Whaddaya lookin' at, punk? Yeah, nuts to you!"


----------



## Jacck

Fugging hell: tired of mockery, Austrian village changes name
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ired-of-mockery-austrian-village-changes-name


----------



## KenOC

geralmar said:


> Mystery metal "monolith" discovered in remote area of U.S.
> 
> 
> 
> https://dpsnews.utah.gov/dps-aero-bureau-encounters-monolith-in-red-rock-country/


It is now known just where in Utah this mysterious monolith is. It was evidently set up four or five years ago.


----------



## pianozach

kenoc said:


> it is now known just where in utah this mysterious monolith is. It was evidently set up four or five years ago.


38°20′35.2″n 109°39′58.5″w


----------



## Flamme

KenOC said:


> It is now known just where in Utah this mysterious monolith is. It was evidently set up four or five years ago.


Looks like a tombstone! Did they chekc the ground beneath?


----------



## Jacck

Alleged drunk man gets hair stuck in tarmac after sleeping on it overnight
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/video/new...ac-after-sleeping-on-it-overnight/vi-BB1bo5ZH


----------



## Guest

Jacck said:


> Fugging hell: tired of mockery, Austrian village changes name
> https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ired-of-mockery-austrian-village-changes-name


Now these just have to change their best wishes for a good journey: gut fahrt.


----------



## elgar's ghost

I'm impressed that Orcadians have steadfastly refused to change the name of one of these villages...


----------



## Dorsetmike

These villages cause some giggles, they get the name from the river, the Victorians tried changing the name to the river Puddle, but only about 3 villages retain Puddle in their names having reverted to the original some of which can be dated back to the Doomsday book, one name on the sign meaning 30 hides of land on the river P-----


----------



## Flamme

Aaand its gone...https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55119940
Just a pile of (s)tones where it once proudly stood!

__
http://instagr.am/p/CIKBagwlSLb/


----------



## Ich muss Caligari werden

Jacck said:


> Minnesota Squirrel Accidentally Gets Drunk After Feasting on Fermented Pears
> https://people.com/pets/minnesota-squirrel-gets-drunk-after-eating-fermented-pears/


Not at all unusual in the animal world - many years ago, on a country road, I struck an inebriated deer who'd been feasting on fallen apples that had fermented. A state police officer arrived on the scene and had to shoot him, he actually told me he could smell the alcohol on the deer's breath. A neighbor exited his house to see what the commotion was about and told me he'd help me put the deer on my car (still drivable) to take home. "Good eatin'!" he exclaimed. I told him I was a vegetarian and he thought that was the funniest thing in all the world: a vegetarian killing meat with his car...


----------



## Luchesi

Hell, Michigan
"...origin of Hell's name. The first is that a pair of German travelers stepped out of a stagecoach one sunny afternoon in the 1830s, and one said to the other, "So schön hell!" (translated as, "So beautifully bright!") Their comments were overheard by some locals and the name stuck. Soon after Michigan gained statehood, George Reeves was asked what he thought the town he helped settle should be called and replied "I don't care. You can name it Hell for all I care." The name became official on October 13, 1841.


----------



## SixFootScowl

Luchesi said:


> Hell, Michigan
> "...origin of Hell's name. The first is that a pair of German travelers stepped out of a stagecoach one sunny afternoon in the 1830s, and one said to the other, "So schön hell!" (translated as, "So beautifully bright!") Their comments were overheard by some locals and the name stuck. Soon after Michigan gained statehood, George Reeves was asked what he thought the town he helped settle should be called and replied "I don't care. You can name it Hell for all I care." The name became official on October 13, 1841.


I was once out for some hiking near Hell, Michigan. A number of people came in several cars. At the end of the hike, one person said they were almost out of gasoline and asked where the nearest gas station would be. Someone replied, "I guess you'll have to go to Hell."


----------



## Malx

elgars ghost said:


> I'm impressed that Orcadians have steadfastly refused to change the name of one of these villages...


Having visited Orkney regularly on business I can assure you Tommy watt does not want the sign changed 

There is also a Twatt church - about which I will pass no comment.


----------



## Jacck

The Vanishing German ***** & Other Alien Monoliths
https://tinyurl.com/y5rhropr/


----------



## Flamme

_Try a different filter_


----------



## perempe

Hungarian MEP admits he was at lockdown 'orgy'


----------



## Flamme

perempe said:


> Hungarian MEP admits he was at lockdown 'orgy'


Kinda shocked me. And not many things can...Because he was a staunched supporter of totally opposite moral politics...What say you?


----------



## perempe

I just wanted to share it because it fits the topic. I really like the fleeing along the gutter part.

It's suspicious that this came right after the veto.


----------



## Flamme

Maybe he was...Kidnapped??? Nothing here makes sense.


----------



## perempe

He is what he is, but was probably tracked. This is similar to the Ibiza scandal in Austria.


----------



## Jacck

Adolf Hitler Wins Election in Namibia, Has No Plans for World Domination
https://www.newsweek.com/adolf-hitler-germany-namibia-elections-1552056


----------



## pianozach

Jacck said:


> Adolf Hitler Wins Election in Namibia, Has No Plans for World Domination
> https://www.newsweek.com/adolf-hitler-germany-namibia-elections-1552056


*Newsweek* used to be a fairly unbiased respectable weekly news magazine.

Somewhere along the line the news website that calls itself Newsweek has gravitated towards sensationalistic tabloid-type stories, and a pointedly anti-leftist bias.

I rarely click on links to Newsweek. Garbage articles.  Trash viewpoints.


----------



## Flamme

This news is very funny to me https://www.newsweek.com/adolf-hitler-germany-namibia-elections-1552056#slideshow/1680675 I see some resemblance! lol


----------



## KenOC

Steve Adler, the mayor of Austin, Texas, posted a video urging his city's citizens to "stay home" to help curb the spread of Covid-19. Unfortunately, it was found out that he had posted the video from his timeshare in the tony resort city of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, where he had flown with several friends on his private jet.

As the news report says, you just can't make this stuff up.


----------



## Jacck

Latvians arrested for kidnapping turkey to vodka party
https://find-it.co.za/2020/12/04/latvians-arrested-for-kidnapping-turkey-to-vodka-party/

Police in Latvia have arrested three men for stealing a turkey from a private zoo and then plying it with vodka at the beach to celebrate a birthday.


----------



## Guest

Jacck said:


> Latvians arrested for kidnapping turkey to vodka party
> https://find-it.co.za/2020/12/04/latvians-arrested-for-kidnapping-turkey-to-vodka-party/
> 
> Police in Latvia have arrested three men for stealing a turkey from a private zoo and then plying it with vodka at the beach to celebrate a birthday.


Slow news day!!


----------



## pianozach

A dog that went missing from her owner's Alabama back yard turned up three weeks later when the canine wandered into a Walmart store and found her owner working at a checkout lane.

https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2020/1...finds-owner-working-at-Walmart/2881607115314/


----------



## Jacck

Quantum physics student rakes in £600 monthly selling used tights to 'sugar daddies' & it's put her through her course
https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/13383671/quantum-physics-student-funds-degree-selling-used-pants/


----------



## perempe

Former Socialist politician busted in Ukraine for smuggling cigarette


----------



## Flamme

perempe said:


> Former Socialist politician busted in Ukraine for smuggling cigarette


Well, times are tough, many mighty have fallen.






An edible golden leaf just what I needed mm


----------



## Jacck

Pythons might become a new menu item in Florida if scientists can confirm they're safe to eat
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/20/us/florida-pythons-eat-study-trnd/index.html


----------



## Flamme

https://life.gomcgill.com/man-under...QJNEF8obBkapR5EEcfjMjpmlw0omoEK_ny6GXGxy7uAV4 I almost puked...What more has 2020 in store for us.


----------



## joen_cph

perempe said:


> Former Socialist politician busted in Ukraine for smuggling cigarette


I saw cigarette smuggling beyond belief years ago on the Poland-Ukraine border. On the train, many, many people would hide packets in various places before customs inspection. Given the amount, I'm pretty sure there must have been a facilitating extra payment to officers, and it being an important income for some of those ordinary people. In the cities, pensioners would stand on the street and sell a bit of vegetables, or lighters or matches etc, even washed plastic bags. However I admired their often friendly and good humour. This was quite a few years ago, though.


----------



## Jacck

Thai Rescue Worker Uses CPR To Save Baby Elephant Hit By Motorcycle
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/baby-elephant-cpr-thailand-mana-srivate_n_5fe1005fc5b6a7df6666ff26


----------



## Flamme

Being Xmas and all...https://www.ripleys.com/weird-news/creepy-victorian-christmas-cards/


----------



## perempe

Hungary publishes new, stricter drone regulations after Átlátszó videos


----------



## Flamme

Speaking of the drone.https://www.rt.com/usa/510964-drone-rules-night-deliveries/


----------



## joen_cph

Flamme said:


> Speaking of the drone.https://www.rt.com/usa/510964-drone-rules-night-deliveries/


RT are good at fishing for audience via conspiracy- , tech- and sensationalist stories. Their real objective is another, however (and it's been publicly proclaimed and well proven, so there's no conspiracy theory in saying that).


----------



## TxllxT

https://www.rbth.com/history/333247-when-did-first-glasses-appear-russia
Interesting story about wearing glasses in Tsarist times. Almost all Romanov tsars suffered from congenital myopia.


----------



## Flamme

Awarewolf 
https://www.coasttocoastam.com/arti...fPRClx1bvuwlGpstedAvTpoKb6ck6fLV18hBfpjVDr-6M


----------



## Jacck

Children's TV show about a man with an uncontrollable giant ***** launched in Denmark
https://tinyurl.com/y4vjw98t


----------



## geralmar

Waitress saves child abuse victim:

https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/i...ndured-before-being-rescued-by-orlando-server


----------



## Flamme

Truly bizarre https://iheartintelligence.com/teen...v0gU2PvRd4j7PTf-ZxweSMDt988SADFrckLeBulAg0iBs


----------



## pianozach

Flamme said:


> Truly bizarre https://iheartintelligence.com/teen...v0gU2PvRd4j7PTf-ZxweSMDt988SADFrckLeBulAg0iBs


Bizarre? Maybe.

I have so many thoughts on this story, and it's just one of the hundreds of smaller stories that make up a shameful event in American History.

An American president whips his supporters into a frenzy (not just that day, but over the course of years), and they end up storming the Capitol building while both Houses of Congress are in session to count votes with the Vice President presiding. Some of our elected representatives thought they were going to _*die*_. Many did. Both a Capitol policeman and a protestor killed _*themselves*_ within days, raising the death toll to six.

Some were chanting _*"Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!"*_ as they made there way there.

A cop was beaten by protestors, one of whom was carrying a Blue Lives Matters flag. He thought he was going to die as protestors grabbed his gear, and one shouted, *"Kill him with his own gun!"*

Another cop was beaten to death with a fire extinguisher.

A protestor was shot to death as she breached the final doors to the Senate lobby.

The Vice President was whisked away, missing coming face-to-face with an angry mob by mere seconds.

Yeah. Bizarre AND strange.


----------



## Flamme

Yeah buddy but what you are doing now is called ''whataboutism''...Excusing one madness with another...


----------



## TxllxT

https://www.rbth.com/lifestyle/333291-russian-epiphany-photos

Epiphany photos from all over Russia


----------



## Jacck

TxllxT said:


> https://www.rbth.com/lifestyle/333291-russian-epiphany-photos
> Epiphany photos from all over Russia


when I was a child, we told some jokes about the Russian winter, such as eskymo dogs start to break in curves etc. I forgot them and I am lazy to translate them anyway. But Russians have many jokes about their winter
https://www.rbth.com/lifestyle/329719-russian-jokes-cold


----------



## Jacck

Invasion of the hippos: Colombia is running out of time to tackle Pablo Escobar's wildest legacy
https://www.washingtonpost.com/clim...11/invasive-hippos-escobar-colombia-castrate/


----------



## Flamme

A (dreadful) story behind one of my favorite ''ghost horror movies''...The ''truth'' is often more terrifying then fiction. I always had, in the back of my mind, a hunch that ''evil spirits'' or what ever they are, exist and this terrorizing is a prime sample, when they use stressful occasions to breach into ''our'' world...https://www.ranker.com/list/true-st...80NK1qXaqUsND9OFQxTZnVMfLuLObc22GQleu79vAnp_A


----------



## geralmar

Best excuse for U.S. Capitol insurrectionist: He was there to see the historical art.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crim...e-to-see-historical-art/ar-BB1d0rC3?ocid=AMZN


----------



## Flamme

https://www.coasttocoastam.com/arti...7Qhf2Zpd3O_L9J6QtfGbFIY5K4KX40J5vjHCzGpX-PKeg


----------



## perempe

Czech woman performs oral sex to stop robbery of Slovak gas station


----------



## GucciManeIsTheNewWebern

Oh man, I saw this thread and couldn't _not_ share this one:

"Florida man eaten by alligator actually died from meth overdose" 
https://www.foxnews.com/us/florida-man-eaten-by-alligator-meth-death


----------



## TxllxT

Japanese investigators have found out that German singing choirs are very contagious while Japanese singing choirs are not.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/japan-covid-19-singing-choir-research-languages-super-spreader-coronavirus/

Does anyone on TC know an example of Classical Music in Japanese Choir singing?


----------



## TxllxT

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/29/trump-russia-asset-claims-former-kgb-spy-new-book

40 years!

https://www.timesofisrael.com/kgb-groomed-trump-as-an-asset-for-40-years-former-spy-says/


----------



## TxllxT

Strange & bizarre indeed: Video made by journalists of 'Putin's Palace' in Gelendzhik, how it looks in real (Russian spoken)


----------



## perempe

perempe said:


> Czech woman performs oral sex to stop robbery of Slovak gas station


She was the robber's companion according to the latest news.


----------



## Jacck

perempe said:


> She was the robber's companion according to the latest news.


no, she wasn't
https://translate.google.com/transl...ralni-sex-lupic.A210129_114717_zahranicni_kha
(the google translater is pretty bad)


----------



## Flamme

Like my polish friend said ''it looks like a plot from a porn movie''...Life is indeed stranger than fiction!


----------



## perempe

Bizarre accident between two cyclists

This is the article I've read.
Színlelte az orális szexet a bűntárs


----------



## SixFootScowl

perempe said:


> Bizarre accident between two cyclists
> 
> This is the article I've read.
> Színlelte az orális szexet a bűntárs


Wonder why the guy was bicycling backwards? Not a good idea in town I guess.


----------



## SixFootScowl

*Driver stuck in snow burns to death after repeatedly revving SUV's engine.*



> ...two officers found a 62-year-old driver repeatedly revving up the engine and rocking his Mazda SUV back and forth to dislodge the vehicle from the snow....[They] told the man to stop accelerating to no avail before telling him they were returning to their vehicle to call for a tow truck. While walking back to their vehicle, the officers heard a popping sound and saw the SUV catch fire.


----------



## TxllxT

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/communities/san-diego/story/2021-02-04/san-diego-man-reunited-with-wallet-lost-in-antarctica-53-years-ago

San Diego man reunited with wallet lost in Antarctica 53 years ago


----------



## Jacck

Hitler's toilet expected to fetch up to $15K at auction
https://nypost.com/2021/02/02/hitlers-toilet-expected-to-fetch-up-to-15k-at-auction/


----------



## joen_cph

Jacck said:


> Hitler's toilet expected to fetch up to $15K at auction
> https://nypost.com/2021/02/02/hitlers-toilet-expected-to-fetch-up-to-15k-at-auction/


I'd say, let them have it ...


----------



## pianozach

Jacck said:


> Hitler's toilet expected to fetch up to $15K at auction
> https://nypost.com/2021/02/02/hitlers-toilet-expected-to-fetch-up-to-15k-at-auction/


But wait. What if they're able to scrape some Hitler DNA off the seat and clone him?


----------



## KenOC

A fascinating story: Tesla's purchase of $1.5 billion in bitcoins has driven prices WAY high and caused big increase in bitcoin "mining", which in turn has increased the amounts of energy needed to power all those computers.

"At an estimated 121.9 annualized terawatt hours, bitcoin now requires more electricity than Argentina, the United Arab Emirates or the Netherlands did for all of 2016. According to the University of Cambridge's calculations, one year's worth of bitcoin electricity consumption could power all the tea kettles of the U.K. for 27 years."

There's more.

Electricity to power bitcoin surges to new heights as price gets Tesla boost - MarketWatch


----------



## TxllxT

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/edvard-munch-the-scream-message-madman-b1805462.html
Edvard Munch left a message on his painting 'The Scream' in pencil writing "Can only have been painted by a madman" that has now been confirmed to be authentic.


----------



## TxllxT

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/landslide-cemetery-italy-coffin-float-sea-b1806529.html
200 coffins floating in the Mediterranean near Genua because of landslde


----------



## KenOC

A sign of our rather strange times: "California lawmakers are considering a bill that would penalize department stores for separating children's toys, clothing and other items by gender."

California law would fine department stores $1,000 for separating toys by gender | Fox Business


----------



## KenOC

"A group of Russian diplomats and their family had to leave North Korea on a hand-pushed rail trolley due to Pyongyang's strict anti-Covid measures. The eight people travelled by train and bus before pushing themselves across the Russian border…"


----------



## SixFootScowl

KenOC said:


> A sign of our rather strange times: "California lawmakers are considering a bill that would penalize department stores for separating children's toys, clothing and other items by gender."
> 
> California law would fine department stores $1,000 for separating toys by gender | Fox Business


That's insane! .............


----------



## KenOC

From the BBC, a sign that Ray Bradbury's killer robot dog featured in _Fahrenheit 451 _may not be far off: "A US art installation that will let people control a paintballing robot in a mock art gallery has been condemned by the firm that made the robo-dog.

"Boston Dynamics criticised the project, calling it a "provocative use" of its quadruped robot, Spot. It warned that if the 'spectacle' goes ahead, Spot's warranty might be voided, meaning it could not be updated."


----------



## senza sordino

One very interesting mirage










https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/mar/05/ship-hovering-above-sea-cornwall-optical-illusion


----------



## joen_cph

Headlines today said that Iceland has experienced 22,000 earthquakes in a week, so they must be feeling quite groovy up there.

Apparently a volcano eruption is now expected.


----------



## pianozach

joen_cph said:


> Headlines today said that Iceland has experienced 22,000 earthquakes in a week, so they must be feeling quite groovy up there.
> 
> Apparently a volcano eruption is now expected.


https://www.livescience.com/iceland-earthquakes-volcanic-eruption-2021.html


----------



## SixFootScowl

Brussels Sprout Caused Disabled Woman To Die


----------



## pianozach

SixFootScowl said:


> Brussels Sprout Caused Disabled Woman To Die


Oh, brother. The assisted living home is being sued. It doesn't really matter WHERE you place someone, sometimes you cannot control their environment to that micro degree. It's sad, because the suit mentions that the family "was deprived of [her] society, care, attention, guidance, love, affection and companionship ....", in spite of them having placed her in "a home" for challenged individuals. I'm sure that the Care facility will produce the visitor logs as part of their defense, just to show how very little anyone visited her.

You know, people with multiple living issues as this lady did, are a real challenge. She had CP AND developmental issues; she would also swipe food from other residents' plates. This time she swiped a Brussel Sprout and choked on it.

I used to date a woman that worked as the exercise/activity therapist at a few CP homes. One of the residents had such severe tics that they had to remove his teeth so he wouldn't chew his own lips off. He was a sweet guy, but couldn't control this issue, and the doctors had to make a decision as to the lesser of two evils.


----------



## SixFootScowl

*ALWAYS SAVE YOUR RECEIPTS!
*
Man Sues Hertz Over Lost Receipt That Was His Murder Alibi

He spent four years imprisoned on a murder conviction before the car rental company finally located a receipt showing he was nowhere near the scene of the 2011 killing in Michigan.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/11/us/herbert-alford-hertz-lawsuit-receipt.html


----------



## EdwardBast

KenOC said:


> From the BBC, a sign that Ray Bradbury's killer robot dog featured in _Fahrenheit 451 _may not be far off: "A US art installation that will let people control a paintballing robot in a mock art gallery has been condemned by the firm that made the robo-dog.
> 
> "Boston Dynamics criticised the project, calling it a "provocative use" of its quadruped robot, Spot. It warned that if the 'spectacle' goes ahead, Spot's warranty might be voided, meaning it could not be updated."


Boston Dynamics makes scarier stuff than that, and as far as "provocative use," most of their robotics research is funded by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), which should tell you everything you need to know about the future militarization of robotics in the US. First, however, they will make Amazon warehouse workers obsolete.


----------



## Jacck

EdwardBast said:


> Boston Dynamics makes scarier stuff than that, and as far as "provocative use," most of their robotics research is funded by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), which should tell you everything you need to know about the future militarization of robotics in the US. First, however, they will make Amazon warehouse workers obsolete.


and then Skynet becomes self-aware


----------



## senza sordino

https://www.theguardian.com/science...abled-ship-hover-dorset-coast-superior-mirage

The second ship in two weeks off the coast of England. This time near Bournemouth


----------



## SixFootScowl

*Clients drop $180 for bird poop facials at NYC spa*

The facial is a traditional Japanese treatment using imported Asian nightingale excrement mixed with rice bran, and goes for $180 a pop.


----------



## Helgi

joen_cph said:


> Headlines today said that Iceland has experienced 22,000 earthquakes in a week, so they must be feeling quite groovy up there.
> 
> Apparently a volcano eruption is now expected.


The eruption started last night and I could see a faint glow on the horizon from my living room window. Seems to be dying down now.

It's been an "exciting" few weeks with the earthquakes, the biggest one a 5.7 and always the talk of the possibility of a 6.5-ish quake just outside of Reykjavik.

Here's a pretty great close-up video from the eruption: https://www.mbl.is/frettir/innlent/2021/03/20/storbrotnar_dronamyndir_af_gosinu/


----------



## Ingélou

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-56523779

British father and daughter build an Anglo-Saxon helmet out of Lego & it will go on show at Sutton Hoo, where the veritable helmet was found. It makes me proud to be British!


----------



## pianozach

Ingélou said:


> https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-56523779
> 
> British father and daughter build an Anglo-Saxon helmet out of Lego & it will go on show at Sutton Hoo, where the veritable helmet was found. It makes me proud to be British!


Legos are distinctly _Danish_.


----------



## Ingélou

So if the Taj Mahal had used marble imported from Spain, it would be a Spanish achievement? 

It would be a futile exercise, explaining the British use of irony. :tiphat:


----------



## pianozach

Ingélou said:


> So if the Taj Mahal had used marble imported from Spain, it would be a Spanish achievement?
> 
> It would be a futile exercise, explaining the British use of irony. :tiphat:


If the United States built its world-dominating economy by "importing" slave labor from Africa, would that be an African achievement?


----------



## Ingélou

pianozach said:


> If the United States built its world-dominating economy by "importing" slave labor from Africa, would that be an African achievement?


Not a valid analogy, to compare living creative human beings with inanimate material.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Ingélou said:


> https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-56523779
> 
> British father and daughter build an Anglo-Saxon helmet out of Lego & it will go on show at Sutton Hoo, where the veritable helmet was found. It makes me proud to be British!


Lego bricks may be Danish :tiphat: but are incapable of having quirky ideas or building themselves into Anglo-Saxon shields. The makers of the shield, a father and daughter enjoying themselves during Lockdown, were British; the museum at Sutton Hoo, that amazingly decided to put the eccentric Lego-Shield on display, is also British.









Quirky - eccentric - funny - those are the traits that made me proud to be British. 

Memo to self: I must stop making jokes even on threads that are about jokes (Strange Stories & Bizarre News) because there will always be people who misunderstand.


----------



## Andrew Kenneth

The dutch town of Spijkenisse made over existing bridges to resemble the bridges seen on the different euro notes.

=> https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/euro-bridges?rebelltitem=9#rebelltitem9


----------



## Andrew Kenneth

The dutch town of Geldrop (near Eindhoven) has a whole subdivision with streets named after Tolkien characters and places.

Image living in Lorien 5 or Aragorn 4.

=>https://www.google.de/maps/place/La...9a7d3e6991!8m2!3d51.4108111!4d5.5482419?hl=de


----------



## SixFootScowl

On the afternoon of April 13, 2018, a large wave of water surged across Lake Michigan and flooded the shores of the picturesque beach town of Ludington, Michigan, damaging homes and boat docks, and flooding intake pipes. Thanks to a local citizen's photos and other data, scientists reconstructed the event in models and determined this was the first ever documented meteotsunami in the Great Lakes caused by an atmospheric inertia-gravity wave.

An atmospheric inertia-gravity wave is a wave of air that can run from 6 to 60 miles long that is created when a mass of stable air is displaced by an air mass with significantly different pressure. This sets in motion a wave of air with rising and falling pressure that can influence the water below, as it synchronizes with water movement on the lake's surface like two singers harmonizing.

https://www.weathernationtv.com/news/new-study-shows-promise-of-forecasting-meteotsunamis/


----------



## pianozach

SixFootScowl said:


> On the afternoon of April 13, 2018, a large wave of water surged across Lake Michigan and flooded the shores of the picturesque beach town of Ludington, Michigan, damaging homes and boat docks, and flooding intake pipes. Thanks to a local citizen's photos and other data, scientists reconstructed the event in models and determined this was the first ever documented meteotsunami in the Great Lakes caused by an atmospheric inertia-gravity wave.
> 
> An atmospheric inertia-gravity wave is a wave of air that can run from 6 to 60 miles long that is created when a mass of stable air is displaced by an air mass with significantly different pressure. This sets in motion a wave of air with rising and falling pressure that can influence the water below, as it synchronizes with water movement on the lake's surface like two singers harmonizing.
> 
> https://www.weathernationtv.com/news/new-study-shows-promise-of-forecasting-meteotsunamis/


I find that fascinating. Atmospheric pressure and hydrodynamics working in synchronicity to create tsunami conditions.

Crazy world we've got here.


----------



## TxllxT

Especially for TC a song (uploaded 2 says ago on YT) by Till Lindemann, the lead singer of Rammstein.






Who would ever have thought it possible that Rammstein would be performed on TalkClassical  with such a nice song?


----------



## TxllxT

TxllxT said:


> Especially for TC a song (uploaded 2 says ago on YT) by Till Lindemann, the lead singer of Rammstein.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Who would ever have thought it possible that Rammstein would be performed on TalkClassical  with such a nice song?


Out of the comments: The two aircraft in Till's video are Bell Airacobras. Delivered to the Soviet Union via lend lease from the USA. They were hated by the US Pilots and they were outdated. The Brits, even in times of the highest need for anything that flies, refused to accept them into the RAF service. US pilots deliberately damaged them at the end, when better fighters were available... to get those better types as a replacement.
But the Russian pilots loved them. Especially, because that aircraft was an unusual one. The motor was BEHIND the pilot and the propeller was driven by a large shaft that went through a tunnel between the legs of the pilot.
The Russians loved the fact, that the motor was in their back. It was a large protection against the bullets of enemy fighters, who mostly came from behind.
Grüße aus Deutschland!


----------



## Jacck

60 years ago, the Russian surgeon Rogozov operated his own appendix without any anesthesia in Antarctica

https://nimedhealth.com.ng/2019/08/...y-perform-appendix-surgery-on-himself-photos/


----------



## SixFootScowl

Jacck said:


> 60 years ago, the Russian surgeon Rogozov operated his own appendix without any anesthesia in Antarctica
> 
> https://nimedhealth.com.ng/2019/08/...y-perform-appendix-surgery-on-himself-photos/


Reminds me of *this story*.


----------



## WNvXXT

Both named Henry, and both born in 1863 - Henry Roycehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Royce and Henry Ford. From Simon Winchester's The Perfectionists.


----------



## WNvXXT

Northwest Angle... imagine having to cross into Canada every time you leave home, and every time you want to get home!


----------



## Dorsetmike

It does have an "airport" although Google satellite view doesn't show any runways just grass and buildings. Google street view hasn't reached there either!


----------



## Art Rock

There are lots of places like that (exclaves) in Europe. One with a border in front of someone's entrance:


----------



## TxllxT

*Till Lindemann (lead singer from Rammstein) in the Hermitage*






Till Lindemann epitomizes the extreme of hardrock music. Recently he made videoclips with a famous Russian romance song, which is now remade in the surroundings of the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. I guess that this is a  eyeopener for his fans.


----------



## Flamme

https://futurism.com/the-byte/vanda...dR1txy-EPbhf5EvJfJj0unLXft0qrYG-Vc1SIhnHR80j8


----------



## perempe

Lit cigarette, hand sanitizer ignite major car fire in Maryland
I blame covid.


----------



## pianozach

perempe said:


> Lit cigarette, hand sanitizer ignite major car fire in Maryland
> I blame covid.


I blame cigarette addiction.

I mean _really_. Lighting dried plants on fire, putting it in your mouth and inhaling the smoke. Sounds stupid, because it _*is*_ stupid. Even intelligent people do this, because ADDICTION. And it's legal, and a profit is being made.


----------



## SixFootScowl

pianozach said:


> I blame cigarette addiction.
> 
> I mean _really_. Lighting dried plants on fire, putting it in your mouth and inhaling the smoke. Sounds stupid, because it _*is*_ stupid. Even intelligent people do this, because ADDICTION. And it's legal, and a profit is being made.


When I was a smoker I once tried to light up in a strong wind and so turned the flame on my disposable butane lighter up really high. The result was that I burned the hairs in one nostril that the flame found. Burnt hair smells horrible and is hard to get away from when it is in your nose.


----------



## Flamme

OIn that note, do you guys believe in spontaneuos human combustion?


----------



## SixFootScowl

Flamme said:


> OIn that note, do you guys believe in spontaneuos human combustion?


I have heard of it. Back in the 1970s my sister's boyfriend put lighter fluid in his lower lip then lit a match and blew fire. I suspect learning that trick could be painful.


----------



## pianozach

SixFootScowl said:


> When I was a smoker I once tried to light up in a strong wind and so turned the flame on my disposable butane lighter up really high. The result was that I burned the hairs in one nostril that the flame found. Burnt hair smells horrible and is hard to get away from when it is in your nose.


I smoked for a couple of years many decades ago. I was never really very good at it, sometimes forgetting to have a cigarette until the day was half over.

But when I tried to quit the cravings were quite intense. Took me nine months to quit.

•••••

*Back in the 70s I was driving with the window open, and someone in front of me tossed their lit ciggy butt out their window. One of the embers flew through my open window and right into my eye. It burned a hole in my contact lens.*


----------



## perempe

pianozach said:


> I blame cigarette addiction.
> 
> I mean _really_. Lighting dried plants on fire, putting it in your mouth and inhaling the smoke. Sounds stupid, because it _*is*_ stupid. Even intelligent people do this, because ADDICTION. And it's legal, and a profit is being made.


People are too cautious, follow stupid rules. COVID-19 rarely spreads through surfaces.


----------



## SixFootScowl

pianozach said:


> I smoked for a couple of years many decades ago. I was never really very good at it, sometimes forgetting to have a cigarette until the day was half over.
> 
> But when I tried to quit the cravings were quite intense. Took me nine months to quit.
> 
> •••••
> 
> *Back in the 70s I was driving with the window open, and someone in front of me tossed their lit ciggy butt out their window. One of the embers flew through my open window and right into my eye. It burned a hole in my contact lens.*


That could have been worse if you only wore glasses. Speaking of embers and car windows, I have another story.

Was about 18 years old, driving a 1963 Chevy Biscayne. It had the vent windows. I was a heavy smoker and worked as a gas station pump jockey. So I went to some event at a hotel conference room and on the way there with the vent open and the window down a few inches I flicked my cigarette out the vent window (litter bug, I know). Later in the conference room I heard my car described over the loud speaker as being on fire. I ran out the door only to see the car filled with white smoke, the fire department axe the side window and proceed to hose the inside of the car.

Apparently the cigarette I flicked out the vent window came back in tthe side window and went under the seat where there were surely some of those oil rags us pump jockeys always had hanging out our back pocket to check oil with. The driver's side of the bench seat was burnt to the springs. I threw an old couch cushion on the springs and kept driving it.

EDIT: Both our stories are from the 1970s but at least I am not the culprit for burning your contact lens since I am in Michigan and you are in California--or were you on vacation to Michigan at the time?


----------



## SixFootScowl

Speaking of things coming out of cars and affecting other cars and/or drivers, also back in the 1970s I had a motorcycle. My sister had sewn back pockets from an old pair of blue jeans onto the inside of my blue Jean jacket. So I am cruising a state highway one day and enjoying a canned beverage that I kept in the right side pocket between sips. Then I came upon a line of cars (someone going slowly at the front of the pack), so when the other side was clear, I gunned it and flew past the cars. It was then I noticed my jacket waving wildly in the wind and beverage raining out behind me. I wonder if the cars caught any of it.


----------



## Art Rock

Just now the mailman shoved a bundle of letters from the tax office through our door. I was downstairs, and picked them up - they were all for the restaurant next door (one even number higher than our address). As it was raining pretty hard, I did not want to go out, but when I opened the door, I saw the mailman still busy at our other neighbors (one even number lower than ours), so I called him back to collect the mail and deliver it where it belonged (I even pointed to the restaurant). He shrugged, put the letters in his bag, and continued his route.


----------



## Flamme

https://www.historicmysteries.com/c...W_3MdiMTtmBAcpWCFFRRD6og1bhEYyBTnSCQiub7fx2zw


----------



## perempe

Champion shooter implicated in doping sabotage case


----------



## perempe

Body of missing man found in Spanish dinosaur statue


----------



## SixFootScowl

perempe said:


> Body of missing man found in Spanish dinosaur statue


Wonder if he crawled in there to mess with people, make noises as they walk by, but got stuck and died of heat exhaustion.


----------



## TxllxT

SixFootScowl said:


> Wonder if he crawled in there to mess with people, make noises as they walk by, but got stuck and died of heat exhaustion.


His mobile phone fell through a hole, he tried to get it by climbing into the hole and fell down with his head getting stuck in a papier-maché leg of the dino. Nobody heard his call for help. So this story is tragic, beginning with a lone man and his smartphone..


----------



## SixFootScowl

TxllxT said:


> His mobile phone fell through a hole, he tried to get it by climbing into the hole and fell down with his head getting stuck in a papier-maché leg of the dino. Nobody heard his call for help. So this story is tragic, beginning with a lone man and his smartphone..


Reminds me of the guy who dropped his phone in a pit toilet and went down after it and could not get out. Can't find that one, but here are some others:

https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/ent...uck-in-toilet-trying-to-retrieve-mobile-phone

Ooooh, this one even worse: 
https://www.newsweek.com/brothers-die-trying-recover-phone-1050373


----------



## Dorsetmike

And people wonder why I don't want a mobile phone!!!!!!!


----------



## pianozach

SixFootScowl said:


> Reminds me of the guy who dropped his phone in a pit toilet and went down after it and could not get out. Can't find that one, but here are some others:
> 
> https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/ent...uck-in-toilet-trying-to-retrieve-mobile-phone
> 
> Ooooh, this one even worse:
> https://www.newsweek.com/brothers-die-trying-recover-phone-1050373


That is probably an awful way to die.

Here's some less awful examples of what happens when people text while just walking.


----------



## SixFootScowl

^ I l iked it but had to unlike it because the second one is too sad. First one funny though. I think there are people who got hit by trains walking and texting. And people do this in cars!


----------



## pianozach

SixFootScowl said:


> ^ I l iked it but had to unlike it because the second one is too sad. First one funny though. I think there are people who got hit by trains walking and texting. And people do this in cars!


The second one is interesting for a few reasons.

Her son explains that she's diabetic and has some vision issues. But there she is, walking around unaided, and simply isn't paying attention to where she's walking


----------



## Flamme

Makes me wanna visit...Massa-chu-setts!!!


----------



## perempe

Drug dealer jailed after sharing a photo of cheese that included his fingerprints


----------



## SixFootScowl

perempe said:


> Drug dealer jailed after sharing a photo of cheese that included his fingerprints


The two follow-on stories are good too. Burglars rob McDonalds that has nine special forces members armed and plain clothes eating there. And in a separate incident, the burglar accidentally pocket dials emergency number and whole robbery is recorded by the authorities.


----------



## perempe

SixFootScowl said:


> The two follow-on stories are good too. Burglars rob McDonalds that has nine special forces members armed and plain clothes eating there. And in a separate incident, the burglar accidentally pocket dials emergency number and whole robbery is recorded by the authorities.


French robbers pick the wrong McDonald's
'World's unluckiest burglars' arrested after pocket-dialing police during robbery


----------



## Art Rock

This week William Shakespeare died - the first Briton to receive the Pfizer jab. 

An Argentinean newsreader presented the news and mourned the passing of "one of the most important authors in the world, who wrote works like Macbeth, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello and King Lear".


----------



## joen_cph

Art Rock said:


> This week William Shakespeare died - the first Briton to receive the Pfizer jab.
> 
> An Argentinean newsreader presented the news and mourned the passing of "one of the most important authors in the world, who wrote works like Macbeth, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello and King Lear".


I believe her words about his importance were, "in my personal opinion" ...


----------



## SixFootScowl

*Bagpipes - A Weapon of War!*



> It's interesting to learn that until 1996 the bagpipes were classified as a weapon of war. This does not simply mean an instrument played in battle, or a tool used to direct troops, it actually means a physical weapon, like a sword or a musket. The origins of this take us all the way back to the Battle of Culloden and a piper named James Reid.
> 
> James Reid was one of several pipers who played at the Battle of Culloden. He was captured along with 558 men by Cumberland's troops and taken to England. There James was put on trial and accused of high treason against the English Crown. Piper Reid claimed that he was innocent because he did not have a gun or a sword. He said that the only thing he did that day on the battlefield was play the bagpipe.
> 
> After some deliberation the judges had a different opinion on the matter ...


----------



## Flamme

Well the history knows lots of SOUND WEAPONS from Jericho trumpets forward...Even tody armies and police seriously work on making sound wave weapons...


----------



## SixFootScowl

*Cape Cod fisherman OK after whale gulps him down, spits him out *


> A Cape Cod fisherman is recovering after miraculously emerging without serious injuries after spending nearly a minute in the maw of a humpback whale who mistook him for a snack. "I was lobster diving and a humpback whale tried to eat me," fisherman Michael Packard wrote on Facebook.


----------



## Flamme

Freakin jonah...Bible comes to life...


----------



## perempe

Czech nudists told to wear face masks by police
You can rob banks there...


----------



## That Guy Mick

Corkeron said there’s actually evidence that humpbacks can be “altruistic” toward humans — the whale swam to the surface to spew him out. It’s perfectly believable that the whale was trying to help him,” Corkeron said.

More likely it was a gag reflex... Oh, and white privilege!


----------



## joen_cph

Difficult to enter the mind of a humpback ... but here's another sweet story of help/protection:

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-42630468

Perspectives:

("_Of all the incidents the scientists investigated over the last five decades, killer whales targeted humpbacks just 11 percent of the time. The other 89 percent involved orcas hunting seals, sea lions, porpoises, and other marine mammals._")

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/...k-whales-save-animals-killer-whales-explained


----------



## Flamme

https://www.coasttocoastam.com/arti...UUQAZFh0jreaZE9D2HOh5uTSybDwKO8SREFOQrDKnl62w


----------



## perempe

More than 41,000 people have signed petitions to stop Jeff Bezos from returning to Earth after his trip to space next month


----------



## pianozach

perempe said:


> More than 41,000 people have signed petitions to stop Jeff Bezos from returning to Earth after his trip to space next month


Oh. Online petitions. Those always work.


----------



## SixFootScowl

pianozach said:


> Oh. Online petitions. Those always work.


About as valuable as polls on TC?


----------



## TxllxT

https://www.telegraaf.nl/nieuws/1975002714/dodelijke-kopschop-mallorca-om-ajax-feyenoord-rel
This weekend a Dutch 27 old was attacked and kicked to death by nine 18-20 year old brainless Dutch on the Spanish island of Mallorca. The reason why this happened? The hapless guy was said to be a fan of the Rotterdam football club Feyenoord, while his attackers were fans of the Amsterdam football club Ajax.


----------



## pianozach

TxllxT said:


> https://www.telegraaf.nl/nieuws/1975002714/dodelijke-kopschop-mallorca-om-ajax-feyenoord-rel
> This weekend a Dutch 27 old was attacked and kicked to death by nine 18-20 year old brainless Dutch on the Spanish island of Mallorca. The reason why this happened? The hapless guy was said to be a fan of the Rotterdam football club Feyenoord, while his attackers were fans of the Amsterdam football club Ajax.


Isn't it nice how sports brings us all together?

Seriously though, if something as innocuous as a sports competition staged as an entertainment event using professional and highly paid participants can inspire viewers and fans to beat someone to death, is it any wonder that someone will murder a cashier at a grocery store for insisting a mask be worn because it's company policy?

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/na...0210617-3mchuldtibgrfpwk3mgjnt6kdm-story.html

Laquitta Willis was working the checkout aisle at a Big Bear Supermarket in DeKalb County on Monday afternoon when she got into an argument with a customer who was not wearing a face mask. . . . [The] suspect, identified as Victor Lee Tucker Jr., walked out of the store without completing his purchase, only to return a short time later with a gun.

He fatally struck Willis, an employee at the store for nearly 10 years, before exchanging gunfire with an off-duty deputy, who attempted to intervene. Both were wounded and Tucker was arrested as he attempted to crawl from the store.


----------



## TxllxT

*Cow swims 100 km downstream the flooded river Maas & survives*

https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2021/07/cow-survives-100-kilometre-swim-downstream-in-river-flood-waters/

A swimming cow among the debris of the recent flooding was spotted by a cyclist and rescued by firemen. Because of the ear mark the cow's homestead could easily be traced back.

Today we visited the Dutch town of Kampen which has a fun tradition of cows hanging from the city tower (where a cow was towed up to graze off the grass up there). While we admired the high water of the river IJssel (a branch of the river Rhine) I asked one the elderly Kampen people sitting on a bench nearby whether they had seen a cow floating by. Immediately the man grasped the joke connection with the 'Kampen onions' (that's how the fun tradition is called). He told me that he was sitting on the lookout for a 2nd cow coming down the river, which by the way was streaming with an impressive speed :lol:


----------



## TxllxT

https://www.telegraaf.nl/nieuws/1264779403/man-naar-rechter-om-gekrijs-van-hongerige-meeuwen-ik-doe-geen-oog-dicht

In the Dutch town of IJmuiden, close to the North Sea, a man has started a lawsuit against his neighbour because she is feeding seagulls and he cannot sleep because of the constant screaming of these Hitchcock birds. Countlessly he has begged her to stop doing this, but to no avail. Each morning from four o'clock onwards the noisy birds come flying to his apartment.


----------



## SixFootScowl

TxllxT said:


> https://www.telegraaf.nl/nieuws/1264779403/man-naar-rechter-om-gekrijs-van-hongerige-meeuwen-ik-doe-geen-oog-dicht
> 
> In the Dutch town of IJmuiden, close to the North Sea, a man has started a lawsuit against his neighbour because she is feeding seagulls and he cannot sleep because of the constant screaming of these Hitchcock birds. Countlessly he has begged her to stop doing this, but to no avail. Each morning from four o'clock onwards the noisy birds come flying to his apartment.


Not good to feed seagulls. Not good to feed squirrels. We have too many squirrels and the neighbor throws out pieces if Italian bread for them (or for birds). Somehow the bread gets in my yard and my dog will try to eat it. I think some communities may have an ordinance against feeding wild animals.

Even having a bird feeder can draw rats with so much seed falling to the ground under it.


----------



## Luchesi

SixFootScowl said:


> Not good to feed seagulls. Not good to feed squirrels. We have too many squirrels and the neighbor throws out pieces if Italian bread for them (or for birds). Somehow the bread gets in my yard and my dog will try to eat it. I think some communities may have an ordinance against feeding wild animals.
> 
> Even having a bird feeder can draw rats with so much seed falling to the ground under it.


Some people would say the government should get involved and legislate. Other people say no, she should have the "liberty" to feed them. It might be a large part of her life. So keep the government out of it.


----------



## joen_cph

In some cities it has become so much of a problem, that a prohibition or a softer recommendation against any feeding was set up, as a necessity. Venezia began with this 13 years ago for example, when the fine would be 50 Euros for feeding pigeons. Apparently partly because of the pollution involved by having the very large flocks of birds. 

However, rules should be related to the amount of actual problems in situ, of course. Lakes here in Copenhagen have become so polluted by bird droppings, accentuated by the bread feeding effects, that signs telling of prohibition were set up. Though it's not really being administered, this seems to have largely worked OK; you only rarely see people feed the birds, compared to earlier.


----------



## SixFootScowl

Luchesi said:


> Some people would say the government should get involved and legislate. Other people say no, she should have the "liberty" to feed them. It might be a large part of her life. So keep the government out of it.


Ya always hate to drag the government into it. They are pretty good at growing themselves without our adding to it.

Much to consider. Yes a lonely old lady and her only joy in life is feeding the gulls, but the neighbor is driven nuts. Maybe she needs a pet bird instead.

I know there are many gear-heads who like to work on cars over the long haul and many communities will cite them for a car if it is not registered and driveable. Kind of kills the hobby for some, but with a big enough garage, one can keep it out of sight.

I just looked at a used car, the guy had a 60' wide lot in a residential area and had a dozen vehicles crammed into his back yard he is selling. I wonder how his neighbors feel about it. But he is about 6'3" and build like a football player, so they maybe don't bother him about it.


----------



## pianozach

Pretty strange, but in some communities it become an issue, and legislation was drafted (or interpreted) to make it illegal to feed the homeless humans. All sorts of rationales were used as support for banning giving food to the homeless, but most revolved around hygiene, sanitation, public health, and food safety. There were even attempts to link feeding the homeless with Hepatitis A outbreaks.

It didn't last long, as the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals then officially ruled that feeding the homeless is “expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment.”

Of course, homeless advocates say that food-sharing bans are a trend toward criminalizing homelessness


----------



## Luchesi

SixFootScowl said:


> Ya always hate to drag the government into it. They are pretty good at growing themselves without our adding to it.
> 
> Much to consider. Yes a lonely old lady and her only joy in life is feeding the gulls, but the neighbor is driven nuts. Maybe she needs a pet bird instead.
> 
> I know there are many gear-heads who like to work on cars over the long haul and many communities will cite them for a car if it is not registered and driveable. Kind of kills the hobby for some, but with a big enough garage, one can keep it out of sight.
> 
> I just looked at a used car, the guy had a 60' wide lot in a residential area and had a dozen vehicles crammed into his back yard he is selling. I wonder how his neighbors feel about it. But he is about 6'3" and build like a football player, so they maybe don't bother him about it.


She probably thinks she's helping Nature, but things get out of balance, diseases flourish.

My brother and his two sons have some acreage and they built a track for "mudding". They get filthy, but that's the fun of it I guess. I wouldn't want to live next door, but they don't get complaints (loud mufflers). They do fix everyone's cars in the area for reasonable rates. My brother put in an expensive lift years ago.


----------



## geralmar

Technical explanation for suggestive shape of Jeff Bezos rocket:

https://news.yahoo.com/very-solid-engineering-reasons-why-170209303.html


----------



## SixFootScowl

Luchesi said:


> She probably thinks she's helping Nature, but things get out of balance, diseases flourish.
> 
> My brother and his two sons have some acreage and they built a track for "mudding". They get filthy, but that's the fun of it I guess. I wouldn't want to live next door, but they don't get complaints (loud mufflers). They do fix everyone's cars in the area for reasonable rates. My brother put in an expensive lift years ago.


That is awesome. A good and available mechanic is worth his weight in gold!

I had my S10 pickup looked at for water sloshing sound and they found the AC drain was not plugged (had to pull inner fender out to get access). I picked it up and the owner would not charge me a thing. Said that I get a lot of work done there and never complain, so no problem.


----------



## pianozach

An old actor/dancer friend of mine from my Melodrama days in the 1980s moved to New York four years ago. She seemed quite happy, and even found some work in a film a month after moving there. She'd occasionally post happy photos of stuff in New York - parades, events, landmarks, and photos of her and her dog Jackie.

She'd been featured in a series of one act plays back in October 2020 for *"At Home Artists Project"*.

Linda jumped off the roof of the Hell's Kitchen 46-story luxury apartment building she was living in, holding her beloved 16-year-old dog Jackie.

The news article described my 60-year-old friend as "elderly", as well as mentioning that there were medications found in her apartment.

The first article about the incident framed it this way:

_"The unidentified Manhattan woman had just finished her last meal on top of the 46-story apartment complex where she lived - The Victory at 561 10th Ave. near 41st Street in Hell's Kitchen - when she leaped with her little pooch, a rescue dog, just before 1 p.m., police and sources said.

"The woman left behind a handwritten note talking about stress - then just walked to the edge and jumped, sources said. Bottles of medication were found in her apartment, sources said.

""Looks like depression," a source said."_​
Being an actor during a pandemic must be a horror. I know that as a musician I've spent the last year pretty stressed myself. The scarcity of work is . . . wearying. I've had plenty of time to tackle home projects, yet felt unmotivated to even start any.

The news of her suicide has left me a bit numb. I honestly don't know how to feel or respond . . . like, I'm not sure what sort of reaction is appropriate. We worked together, 35 years ago, as musical director and choreographer for the first six months of a brand new repertory theatre group, three full shows. She was nice, brassy, full of energy, and very talented. After that we drifted apart of course . . . that happens in theatre. You're a big 'ol family for 4 to 8 weeks of rehearsals, and 3 to 7 weeks of performances, and then it's done. We connected again on *Facebook*, but she didn't really post that much there, and I was not likely to see her posts anyway because "_*algorithms*_".

In fact, I wasn't even aware that she'd moved to NY 4 years ago. We were most pointedly not keeping in touch very well.

But she had some lunch, grabbed her precious dog, and walked off the roof of a 46-story building after leaving a note about "stress". I feel just as sorry for the dog as I do for her.

Four years ago she posted some photos of her yard, presumably in New Mexico. There was a picnic bench, and an oversized colorbowl of bright flowers. Her comment was *"I am so happy"*.

I can't help think that she was a victim of the pandemic. Not from the virus, but from the effects of the stress caused by the lockdowns and how performance venues took a hit of epic proportions.

https://nypost.com/2021/07/24/woman...5J9Pp6BwtsAvJQezLbtpx6nRZfL__9MFhHHSieMFSgaRM


----------



## TxllxT

*Tropical snowfall in Brazil (bad for the coffee harvest)*









(as illustration: a winter photo of the oldest (anno 1578) building on the Dutch Wadden island Texel)

https://gizmodo.com/6-surreal-images-showing-rare-snowfall-in-tropical-braz-1847394247


----------



## TxllxT

https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/jewishstudiesatcul/2021/07/29/spinozas-death-mask-and-reflections-on-working-at-the-rbml/

Spinoza's death mask found in America? Spinoza never became famous during his life, his remains are located in a wider area inside the protestant cemetery of the Hague's New Church but have never been dug up. Why should a philosopher, unknown at the time of his death, have got a death mask (Rene Descartes did receive a death mask)? Questions, speculations....


----------



## geralmar

Landmark Study on Honesty and Cheating Relied on Faked Data

https://twnews.co.uk/uk-news/landma...eating-was-found-to-have-relied-on-faked-data

Not amusing in the least.


----------



## SixFootScowl

geralmar said:


> Landmark Study on Honesty and Cheating Relied on Faked Data
> 
> https://twnews.co.uk/uk-news/landma...eating-was-found-to-have-relied-on-faked-data
> 
> Not amusing in the least.


Makes you wonder about other studies and science so called.


----------



## Luchesi

geralmar said:


> Landmark Study on Honesty and Cheating Relied on Faked Data
> 
> https://twnews.co.uk/uk-news/landma...eating-was-found-to-have-relied-on-faked-data
> 
> Not amusing in the least.


Psychology. Intelligent people don't realize that you need to know a lot about a person in order to do any 'psychology' with them? Psychology is the softest science there is. Only some specific statistical insights can be derived from psychology.

Maybe there is a very slight increase in honesty, but what a waste of money and effort!


----------



## Flamme

A jump scare...https://news.sky.com/video/australia-snake-startles-shopper-in-sydney-supermarket-12384526


----------



## TxllxT

Flying cows (not Pink Floyd) https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/injured-swiss-cows-get-helicopter-ride-alpine-pastures-2021-08-27/


----------



## Flamme

This occupies me for some time now... https://www.pri.org/stories/2012-02-12/zimbabwe-mermaids-appeased-traditional-beer-ritual


----------



## Art Rock

In the international shooting sports event in Kuwait, one of the winners was a woman from Kazakhstan. The organizers played the Kazakhstan national anthem during the medal ceremony. Unfortunately they picked the Borat parody version....


----------



## TxllxT

Art Rock said:


> In the international shooting sports event in Kuwait, one of the winners was a woman from Kazakhstan. The organizers played the Kazakhstan national anthem during the medal ceremony. Unfortunately they picked the Borat parody version....






 I see the video is 9 years old


----------



## Art Rock

I did not say it was recent news...


----------



## pianozach

TxllxT said:


> I see the video is 9 years old


The Kuwaiti's apologized, but their explanation for the screw-up was crappy: They claimed that no one expected that Khazakstan would win the event, so they quickly uploaded the anthem after doing a quick search on Google.

It's not as though the event ends and the winners take an immediate 30 second walk to the podium.

Then again, if you Google "Kazakhstan Nation Anthem" the first hit is *Kazakhstan Nation Anthem (Borat)*.


----------



## TxllxT

Art Rock said:


> I did not say it was recent news...


It has the feel of a typical Borat joke in itself...


----------



## TxllxT

https://www.novinky.cz/zahranicni/evropa/clanek/v-tatrach-zachranovali-99leteho-turistu-40373683#dop_ab_variant=0&dop_source_zone_name=novinky.sznhp.box&dop_req_id=y7CD8tbnZSg-202110021730&dop_id=40373683&source=hp&seq_no=8&utm_campaign=&utm_medium=z-boxiku&utm_source=www.seznam.cz

This week, the Slovak Mountain Rescue Service provided assistance to an elderly tourist who was found injured on the hiking trail from Popradský pleso. The rescuers were surprised to find out that the tourist was 99 years old. 
When he fell, he caused a laceration to his face and other superficial injuries. "Rescuers provided him with urgent medical care and, using stretchers and an off-road vehicle, transported him to Starý Smokovec, where they handed him over to the crew of an ambulance for transport to the hospital," the mountain rescuers said on the social network. He was released after treatment in the hospital.
The daily Nový čas found out that it was Karol Mikuláš of Prievidza, who took an active part in the Slovak National Uprising and worked in the mines for many years. On Wednesday, he decided to take a tour from Štrbské pleso to Popradské pleso.

Just before the Poprad Ball, he tripped, lost his balance and fell. "The Lord had a wounded head after falling on a stone pavement. We treated him and when he stated the year of his birth in 1922, we did not want to believe it, "the mountain rescuer Juraj Janko told the News paper.


----------



## SixFootScowl

I hesitated to put this here because while strange in the sense of unusual, there is nothing strange about it. Rather, it is mind blowing.


----------



## SixFootScowl

Man turns house into cat playground


----------



## TxllxT

Bolshoi Theatre performer killed in accident on stage during opera

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/bolshoi-theatre-performer-killed-accident-stage-during-opera-2021-10-09/

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/10/europe/bolshoi-theatre-performer-killed-intl-hnk/index.html


----------



## pianozach

TxllxT said:


> Bolshoi Theatre performer killed in accident on stage during opera
> 
> https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/bolshoi-theatre-performer-killed-accident-stage-during-opera-2021-10-09/
> 
> https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/10/europe/bolshoi-theatre-performer-killed-intl-hnk/index.html


Yikes.

I've worked in amateur theatre and operetta practically my entire life, and accidents do happen, although no one has died onstage in any production I've been associated with.

Our current production of The Pirates of Penzance is very safety conscious, as we're working with swords (there are no quick set changes, only the leisurely change from Act 1 to Act 2).

I have, however worked on a show in which an actress was "trapped" (merely boxed in) when she was in the wrong place during a set change, and had to wait until the next scene to be "freed".

I've also worked in larger theatres with rail systems that allow sets and decor to be flown in from above; the operator ALWAYS checks to be sure it's clear before bringing anything down.

Of course, one can check all you want, but if an actor wanders into the path of a descending ramp after it's already in motion, then it's the actor's fault: Actors are given specific directions as to where they definitely CANNOT be at particular times.


----------



## TxllxT

pianozach said:


> Yikes.
> 
> I've worked in amateur theatre and operetta practically my entire life, and accidents do happen, although no one has died onstage in any production I've been associated with.
> 
> Our current production of The Pirates of Penzance is very safety conscious, as we're working with swords (there are no quick set changes, only the leisurely change from Act 1 to Act 2.
> 
> I have, however worked on a show in which an actress was "trapped" (merely boxed in) when she was in the wrong place during a set change, and had to wait until the next scene to be "freed".
> 
> I've also worked in larger theatres with rail systems that allow sets and decor to be flown in from above; the operator ALWAYS checks to be sure it's clear before bringing anything down.
> 
> Of course, one can check all you want, but if an actor wanders into the path of a descending ramp after it's already in motion, then it's the actor's fault: Actors are given specific directions as to where they definitely CANNOT be at particular times.


The Bolshoi accident reminded me of Kierkegaard's diaries, where a clown comes on the stage to warn the public that fire has broken out behind the stage and the public thinks it's the best act of the evening. In the Bolshoi theater the public also at first thought that it belonged to the opera Sadko...


----------



## TxllxT

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/17/europe/spanish-female-writer-revealed-intl-scli/index.html

Lauded Spanish female crime writer revealed to be three men


----------



## joen_cph

TxllxT said:


> https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/17/europe/spanish-female-writer-revealed-intl-scli/index.html
> 
> Lauded Spanish female crime writer revealed to be three men


This was quite amusing indeed. Other sources have given further examples of how the 'female' writer has been lauded for aspects of her 'female/~feminist' contribution to the genre.


----------



## TxllxT

https://nltimes.nl/2021/10/27/covid-access-pass-qr-code-issued-adolf-hitler-ministry-investigating#:~:text=2021%20%2D%2013%3A37-,Covid%20access%20pass%20QR%20code%20issued%20for%20Adolf%20Hitler%3B%20Ministry,any%20name%2C%20RTL%20Nieuws%20reports.

Covid access pass QR code issued for Adolf Hitler; Ministry investigating


----------



## DaveM

Awfully big violin being used here!


----------



## TxllxT

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/river-alcohol-beer-discovery-hawaii-b1959394.html

River on Hawaii smells of beer and is discovered to be alcoholic.


----------



## geralmar

Daily life in the U.S.

Sheriff turns gun on church youth group leaving Thanksgiving thankyou note at his house:

https://www.eastidahonews.com/2021/...ly-threatening-church-youth-group-and-leader/


----------



## pianozach

geralmar said:


> Daily life in the U.S.
> 
> Sheriff turns gun on church youth group leaving Thanksgiving thankyou note at his house:
> 
> https://www.eastidahonews.com/2021/...ly-threatening-church-youth-group-and-leader/


Truly disturbing.

It's frustrating that the article is able to deliver SOME news about the Sheriff threatening a bunch of church group members leaving Thanksgiving Thank You notes for congregation members, but unable to give any deeper reporting as they've been stonewalled by the AG's Office, and the Sheriff isn't talking.

_"The Attorney General's Office denied EastIdahoNews.com's request for records"
""I have no comments," [Bingham County Sheriff Craig] Rowland responded when contacted by EastIdahoNews.com"_

It just leaves one with random speculation as to motivation.

This sounds like it would be a classic "alcohol was involved" incident, except that Mormons generally aren't alcohol drinkers.

So that leaves mental illness. The Sheriff.

[sigh]


----------



## perempe

She died from a snakebite. But the real killer was her husband (CNN)


----------



## TxllxT

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/16923295/bomb-squad-hospital-bottom-shell/

The most bizarre news of 2021


----------



## TxllxT

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/11/26/notre-dame-risks-becoming-woke-disneyland-controversial-renovation/

Exclusive: Notre-Dame interior faces woke 'Disney' revamp


----------



## TxllxT

https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/southeast-asia/otters-british-man-singapore-park-b1973475.html

Beware of otters!


----------



## Art Rock

A few decades ago, the Dutch Consumers Association, famous for critically comparing and rating different brands of refrigerators, TV's, vacuum cleaners, etc, tried their hand on a classical music CD (it must have been mid eighties, when CD's were getting more common). They ranked the various available CD's of Vivaldi's Four Seasons from top to bottom. Their criterion? Playing time.


----------



## SixFootScowl

Strange now, maybe not so strange back then. 2 minute video of live volunteers instead of crash test dummies.


----------



## TxllxT

https://www.inquirer.com/life/yiran-keating-sherry-wayne-rafa-maeve-tesla-shanghai-san-francisco-teachers-china-mandarin-20211215.html

Baby born in Tesla while the car was driving on the autopilot.


----------



## TxllxT

*A miracle during a boosterrally*

https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2021/12/24/de-dokter-de-dominee-en-een-boosterrally-in-rouveen-gemeente-staphorst-a4072007

In the church in Rouveen (Netherlands) there are more people who want to be pricked than vaccines - but then a miracle happens

On Saturday morning at five to nine GP Reza Pezeshki Nia (46) collected a box of vials with vaccine liquid from the GGD and at ten past nine he entered the service building of the Reformed Church in Rouveen, behind his practice. wow! So many people! And the boosting wouldn't start until ten o'clock. He had put it on his website, his Facebook page and in the Meppeler Courant. Everyone was also welcome for a first vaccination. And now the hall of the church was almost full.

It didn't take long before the queue of those waiting meandered along the Oude Rijksweg to the square with the fish stall, in the direction of Staphorst. "I had counted on two hundred and fifty people," says Reza Pezeshki Nia. "There were more than six hundred. And then a miracle happened."

"A miracle?" says Rev. Douwe Geertsma (62), who is sitting opposite him in the consulting room. "You mean a miracle?"

"Yes," says Reza Pezeshki Nia. "I don't believe in God, but this was truly a miracle."

He walks to the treatment room and returns with the empty vials. "The GGD had given me forty, I certainly didn't get any more, and I thought" - he clutches his forehead - "how can I help all those people? I can't send them away, can I?" About three hundred syringes can be filled with forty vials.

"And then?" asks the pastor.

"The box didn't get empty." Reza Pezeshki Nia, back at his desk, starts laughing. "My assistants and I - we stood poking and poking, and the box didn't empty."

"The widow from Zarephath," says the pastor. "There is a famine and she has only one loaf of oil in her pitcher. But when she starts baking bread for the prophet Elijah, the oil will not run out."

"That's exactly how it was," says Reza Pezeshki Nia. "At the end of the afternoon it turned out that we had received eighty-two vials. eighty-two! And there was another miracle, because there were a couple of nurses in that line and when my assistants and I could hardly take it anymore, they said: Shall we help, doctor?" He leans back in his chair. "Yes! Gladly! I hardly had to send anyone away on Saturday."

Douwe Geertsma, from the village of IJhorst, on the other side of Staphorst, had read in a local newspaper about the despair of Reza Pezeshki Nia, only about six weeks ago. He wanted so badly to vaccinate all his patients and there were so many who did not dare, for fear of the wrath of God. Or out of distrust of the government, that too, because what was in the vaccines? Potato chips? Embryos? And wasn't corona a sign that the end times were approaching?

Douwe Geertsma, also a spiritual counselor, had called the doctor. If he could help, because he understood that fear, he had been brought up with it himself. Sin, guilt and punishment, that was the keynote of his childhood, in the Frisian village of Zwagerveen. "I told Reza," he says, "that he could always send doubting or frightened patients to me, so I could talk to them."

He does that now, several times a week. And Reza Pezeshki Nia is overjoyed with him. The more pastors willing to work with him, the better. "In mid-November I had three or four shots every day," he says. "People got very sick. People had to go to the ICU. And then Omikron arrived. Something had to be done!"

Only in His blood is salvation
He had befriended Rev. Harm Romkes of the Old Reformed Congregation a few years ago, when he had just taken over the general practice in Rouveen. He is from Tehran himself and often did not know what he heard when his patients told him about their fear of God. Harm Romkes, van Urk, had given him a Bible, in the King James Version of 1637, and since then they often talked about faith together.

But when corona came, in March 2020, the conversations got a bit more difficult. They told about it in NRC. Reza Pezeshki Nia thought that the church services should stop and Harm Romkes thought that people should turn to Christ, because only in His blood was salvation. Reverend Romkes did not think otherwise. He does not think about calling on people to get vaccinated. Every believer should know that for himself.

For the boosterally last Saturday in that service building of the Reformed Church, Reza Pezeshki Nia had asked the sexton for permission. A patient gave him a booklet about polio in which two professors and a pastor explain the arguments for and against vaccination. Perhaps the doctor could learn something from it. In 1971 and 1978 there had been polio epidemics in the Netherlands, which had led to great misery, especially in Staphorst: children dead or disabled for life. There had been another outbreak at the end of 1992, when the Department of Health had that booklet written, with the intention of "entering and staying in touch" with people who "have difficulties with vaccination for religious reasons."

"Keep talking," says Reza Pezeshki Nia in his consulting room. "So I want that too. Don't reject people for their beliefs. Don't polarize."

Seven skinny cows
Reza Pezeshki Nia has started to read the Bible he received from Harm Romkes and uses his knowledge to convince his patients that there is much in the Old Testament that advocates vaccination. "Joseph in Egypt," he says. "Pharaoh dreams that seven fat cows come out of the Nile, and then seven lean ones. Those skinny cows eat the fat cows, and what does Joseph do?"

Reverend Geertsma: "He explains to the pharaoh that there will be a famine and arranges for gigantic stocks of grain to be stocked."

"That's what I meant. God apparently provides what people need and has created them so that they can take precautions."

Reverend Geertsma nods.

"We see dangers coming and God gives us the means to protect ourselves from them. Isn't that right, Douwe?"

"That's how it is."

And now Reza Pezeshki Nia wants nothing more than to organize another boosterally after Saturday's success. Everything to stay ahead of the Omikron variant. Now is the time, he says. Most people in Rouveen are now convinced that it is wise to get vaccinated. Or they are just really scared. Or they think: now my grandchildren have to get a shot because I don't want to be protected? That's the world upside down, isn't it?

But unfortunately. Whatever he has tried in the past week, he is not getting any new vaccines from the GGD. He doesn't understand at all. "They don't even answer the phone anymore."

Yes, registration issues, that would be the reason. Minister Hugo de Jonge has said in the House of Representatives that general practitioners may not put the vaccinations properly in the system and then the QR codes will no longer be correct. "But we have registered, triple checked and implemented all vaccinations." In Persian, he says, there is a proverb that says you should stick the dough when the oven is hot. "It dates back to the time when bread was baked in pits. You stuck the dough to the hot wall. We must do that now!"

Reverend Geertsma nods. "We say strike while the iron is hot." He would like to return for a moment to the miracle of the vaccines that did not run out. Does the doctor know the story of five loaves and two fish?

"They certainly multiplied too," says Reza Pezeshki Nia.

"Yes," says the pastor. "And that night five thousand people were fed, the lame and the blind, the paralytic and the deaf-mute. They had come to the Sea of Galilee, for there Jesus was and he healed them."

The judgment seat of God
There are people in the village, says Reza Pezeshki Nia, who think he earns a lot of money from the vaccinations. "Nonsense, I don't even know if I'm getting paid for it, maybe not." There are also people, he says, who are very angry with him and email him to tell him to stop the vaccinations. Does he not know that there is pure poison in it? One day he will have to answer for the judgment seat of God. And there are those who call the office in a distorted voice and say "murderer" to him. "The hatred that expresses it," he says, "isn't it terrible?"

"Jesus was also hated," says Pastor Geertsma. "He came through it on the cross."

"There was a patient," says Reza Pezeshki Nia, "who warned me not to openly praise vaccinated people, because doing so would again reject the unvaccinated." He sighs deeply. "Well, I won't do that anymore."


----------



## Flamme




----------



## SixFootScowl

I don't think this is all that strange or bizarre, but nowhere else I can think of to post it.

Russian ship played classical music to rescue entrapped belugas:
https://whalescientists.com/russian-ship-entrapped-belugas/


----------



## Luchesi

A California Businessman attempted to sell parts of Beethoven's skull in 2010

https://markchristensenwriter.com/2016/11/22/case-study-beethovens-skull/


----------



## joen_cph

The _Bogdanoff Brothers._

Never heard about them until today, due to headlines about them passing away. Contrary to one's expectations perhaps, they were French-related, not US-related.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/frenc...ations-days-after-twin-brother-grichkas-death
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_and_Grichka_Bogdanoff


----------



## TxllxT

For cat lovers https://www.rbth.com/lifestyle/334606-siberian-cats-facts About the Siberian cat "who can talk back".


----------



## joen_cph

Video in no.9 there was a good deal of fun.


----------



## perempe

*Italian mafia fugitive arrested in Spain after Google Street View sighting*


----------



## Guest

Novak Djokovic has been detained at Sydney Airport because he failed to provide proof of vaccination; he's here for the Australian Open. Apparently it's not enough that he's actually had Covid!! A diplomatic stoush has arisen with Serbia, unsurprisingly. The latest threat is deportation for Novak as early as tonight, and his entourage. I can only say I'm ashamed and embarrassed about my increasingly authoritarian country and its terribly fearful people.


----------



## pianozach

Christabel said:


> Novak Djokovic has been detained at Sydney Airport because he failed to provide proof of vaccination; he's here for the Australian Open. Apparently it's not enough that he's actually had Covid!! A diplomatic stoush has arisen with Serbia, unsurprisingly. The latest threat is deportation for Novak as early as tonight, and his entourage. I can only say I'm ashamed and embarrassed about my increasingly authoritarian country and its terribly fearful people.


Oh. Requiring visitors to provide proof of being vaccinated against a disease that has caused a worldwide pandemic? Authoritarian? Howsabout he gets vaccinated? No one else in the Australian Open seems to be having a problem with providing a proof of vaccination. Authoritarian? No, this event does not rise to the expectations of that word.


----------



## Luchesi

pianozach said:


> Oh. Requiring visitors to provide proof of being vaccinated against a disease that has caused a worldwide pandemic? Authoritarian? Howsabout he gets vaccinated? No one else in the Australian Open seems to be having a problem with providing a proof of vaccination. Authoritarian? No, this event does not rise to the expectations of that word.


Yes, the more people spread the virus, into more people, the more mutations there will be, and the longer these pandemics will cycle through their flare ups. As they say, this isn't rocket science. It's simple, the more viruses that are reproduced (trillions and trillions) the more strains which will arise. Some of the variants will be very dangerous. We haven't seen it yet. I hope I'm wrong.


----------



## Guest

pianozach said:


> Oh. Requiring visitors to provide proof of being vaccinated against a disease that has caused a worldwide pandemic? Authoritarian? Howsabout he gets vaccinated? No one else in the Australian Open seems to be having a problem with providing a proof of vaccination. Authoritarian? No, this event does not rise to the expectations of that word.


Novak Djokovic has had Covid last year. That's far more effective than 'booster dependency', which is what we now endure. Our governments asked us to get vaccination, we did that 3 times, and they're still in control. I say "time to get them out of our lives".


----------



## Guest

Luchesi said:


> Yes, the more people spread the virus, into more people, the more mutations there will be, and the longer these pandemics will cycle through their flare ups. As they say, this isn't rocket science. It's simple, the more viruses that are reproduced (trillions and trillions) the more strains which will arise. Some of the variants will be very dangerous. We haven't seen it yet. I hope I'm wrong.


One thing is certain; all these strains are occurring DESPITE vaccinations.


----------



## pianozach

Christabel said:


> One thing is certain; all these strains are occurring DESPITE vaccinations.


Actually, "all these strains are occurring" because the virus is running rampant because too many people are as yet *un*vaccinated


----------



## Guest

pianozach said:


> Actually, "all these strains are occurring" because the virus is running rampant because too many people are as yet *un*vaccinated


Wrong, sir. You can still pass on the virus if vaccinated. And Novak is a very healthy 30 something; not a candidate for aged care. Also he's contributed a great deal of money to charity and when the bushfires occurred in Australia he put on a special tournament to raise money, not taking a cent of the proceeds for himself. I'm absolutely in his corner on this. Besides, I want to watch him play in the Australian Open!!


----------



## Chilham




----------



## Guest

Here's a good one about it:

https://www.spiked-online.com/

I'm in this guy's corner; uber-fit 30something; has had Covid; knows vaccination doesn't stop the spread; knows other 'celebrities' have been allowed into Australia without these caveats. It's so embarrassingly accurate, all of it.


----------



## Chilham

Spiked!? :lol:


----------



## Luchesi

Are governments telling people that when you’re vaccinated you grow cells which look for invading covid and send forces to eat them up very quickly? While un-vaccinated bodies won’t detect the virus for many hours. So, millions of more replications in their bodies, millions of more chances that one will mutate into a more dangerous variant. I think they were saying that a while ago, but stopped. Strange (bizarre)..


----------



## Ariasexta

UFOs shot from ground just minute before earthquake 6.9 Magnitude in Qinghai 8th Jan, around 1:30am. 
Search “青海地震光”.


----------



## TxllxT

https://metro.co.uk/2022/01/07/farmer-gives-cooped-up-cows-vr-headsets-to-increase-milk-production-15880604/
Cows get virtual reality headsets to increase milk production ('think they are on the meadow').


----------



## joen_cph

TxllxT said:


> https://metro.co.uk/2022/01/07/farmer-gives-cooped-up-cows-vr-headsets-to-increase-milk-production-15880604/
> Cows get virtual reality headsets to increase milk production ('think they are on the meadow').


Very 21st century ...


----------



## Ariasexta

joen_cph said:


> Very 21st century ...


Cyborg punkow.:lol:


----------



## Guest

Christabel said:


> Novak Djokovic has had Covid last year. That's far more effective than 'booster dependency', which is what we now endure. Our governments asked us to get vaccination, we did that 3 times, and they're still in control. I say "time to get them out of our lives".
> ...
> I'm in this guy's corner; uber-fit 30something; has had Covid; knows vaccination doesn't stop the spread; knows other 'celebrities' have been allowed into Australia without these caveats. It's so embarrassingly accurate, all of it.


You are a font of disinformation.

1) Data published by public health authorities shows that immunity conferred by covid-19 infection is weaker than that conferred by vaccines and decays just as fast. (And you can maintain immunity by getting vaccine boosters on a regular schedule, you can't get covid infection on a regular schedule.)

2) Data published by public health authorities shows that vaccination prevents the spread of covid-19 by preventing people from getting infected. It was determined that people infected with covid-19 had the same viral load and the same level of contagiousness whether or not they were vaccinated. But since vaccinated people are less likely to get infected, then are less likely to transmit it, overall.


----------



## Guest

Baron Scarpia said:


> You are a font of disinformation.
> 
> 1) Data published by public health authorities shows that immunity conferred by covid-19 infection is weaker than that conferred by vaccines and decays just as fast. (And you can maintain immunity by getting vaccine boosters on a regular schedule, you can't get covid infection on a regular schedule.)
> 
> 2) Data published by public health authorities shows that vaccination prevents the spread of covid-19 by preventing people from getting infected. It was determined that people infected with covid-19 had the same viral load and the same level of contagiousness whether or not they were vaccinated. But since vaccinated people are less likely to get infected, then are less likely to transmit it, overall.


Nope; he's won the case and the government has had to capitulate. Seems the courts don't buy the idea *that having had Covid makes him any more of a danger in passing it on than somebody already vaccinated*. A win for sanity and a loss for authoritarianism.

Novak 1; The government and its fearful people 0.


----------



## Chilham

Christabel said:


> .... *that having had Covid makes him any more of a danger in passing it on than somebody already vaccinated*....


That wasn't what the court was asked to assess and I doubt the judgement makes any mention of that. The issue was did he have an exemption and if so, was his visa retracted illegally? The judgement was on the law, not the medicine.


----------



## Guest

Chilham said:


> That wasn't what the court was asked to assess and I doubt the judgement makes any mention of that. The issue was did he have an exemption and if so, was his visa retracted illegally? The judgement was on the law, not the medicine.


The fact remains as I said: vaccination does NOT confer immunity from SPREADING. All the lawyers knew that and so do I. This is Medical Apartheid, nothing more. And in this case it's impossible to separate the law from the medicine because *this latter is behind all current restrictions in liberty. * This is the basis for determining validity of Visa.

And if the Australian people boo Novak Djokovic on the courts it will only add to the national humiliation.


----------



## Chilham

Christabel said:


> The fact remains as I said: vaccination does NOT confer immunity from SPREADING. All the lawyers knew that and so do I. This is Medical Apartheid, nothing more. And in this case it's impossible to separate the law from the medicine because this latter is behind all restrictions in liberty.


The fact seems to me that you were challenged about spreading disinformation. You denied it and spread more disinformation.


----------



## Luchesi

A person who has been infected has millions of viruses reproducing (before symptoms are felt). The viruses eventually get disabled and they're mopped up. Even after a week(?) there might be a few viruses available to be expelled. 

A vaccinated person who's exposed - already has his first line of defense against this specific virus. They are called memory cells. With this long-evolved system functioning properly far fewer of the viruses will get a chance to reproduce. 

So with my basic knowledge, it looks like they're about equally dangerous to others, within the same short window of time. 

I'm just thinking out loud here, I know very little about the immune system. How are the immune cells communicating? and what is it that they communicate about a virus they've never encountered before? I’ve learned that your thymus kills 98% of the cells that you generate and are suspected by the thymus of being dangerous to the cells of your body. Inefficient system? They take up so little in the way of resources that the body can be wasteful. Why take even small chances? Only 2% go on to do the crucial job of protecting you against diseases you’ve already survived! All from, it’s said to be, the largest library of information in the known universe! 'Lucky to be alive on a planet of pathogens.

added:
I learned that the thymus is very strong to protect you when you're young, but as you get older and you have more exposures the thymus decays somewhat, so that you can retain more of the powerful, adapted memory cells. This is part of the reason why older people have weaker immune systems and they also are more likely to succumb to cancer.


----------



## Guest

Christabel said:


> The fact remains as I said: vaccination does NOT confer immunity from SPREADING. All the lawyers knew that and so do I. This is Medical Apartheid, nothing more. And in this case it's impossible to separate the law from the medicine because *this latter is behind all current restrictions in liberty. * This is the basis for determining validity of Visa.
> 
> And if the Australian people boo Novak Djokovic on the courts it will only add to the national humiliation.


For others, here is the science, such as we know it. The scientific papers are tough going, but here are two articles that review the data and conclusions for a general audience:

From The Atlantic, an article by the director of global health at the Columbia University Medical Center

*No, Vaccinated People Are Not 'Just as Likely' to Spread the Coronavirus as Unvaccinated People*
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/a...-arent-just-as-likely-to-spread-covid/620161/

From the Harvard Gazette, a review of research published in the New England Journal of Medicine by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health:

*Vaccine reduces transmission in breakthrough cases*
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/st...-get-breakthrough-infections-less-contagious/


----------



## mmsbls

This thread is for strange stories and bizarre news. Discussions of the Covid virus are neither. Please return to the thread topic.

Please also do not make negative comments about other members.


----------



## Flamme

https://www.thoughtco.com/colored-snow-chemistry-606776


> Yellow Snow
> 
> If you see yellow snow, chances are it is caused by urine. Other causes of yellow snow could be leaching of plant pigments (e.g., from fallen leaves) up into the snow or the growth of yellow-colored algae.


----------



## Chilham

Sometimes I laugh 'cos I'm happy, and sometimes, I just laugh.


----------



## Art Rock

We have deleted the second wave of Covid-19 discussions that went on in spite of the statement in post 2084. Let's not have a third wave. The thread is open again for its original purpose


----------



## TxllxT

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/10/san-francisco-millennium-tower-sinking Millennium Tower in San Francisco is sinking (already 40 inches since 2009) and leaning (3 inches a year). Soon the elevators and the plumbing will fail.


----------



## SixFootScowl

TxllxT said:


> https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/10/san-francisco-millennium-tower-sinking Millennium Tower in San Francisco is sinking (already 40 inches since 2009) and leaning (3 inches a year). Soon the elevators and the plumbing will fail.


Not a good situation anywhere but especially not good in an earthquake prone area. Hopefully they shore it up well before the next earthquake.


----------



## pianozach

TxllxT said:


> https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/10/san-francisco-millennium-tower-sinking Millennium Tower in San Francisco is sinking (already 40 inches since 2009) and leaning (3 inches a year). Soon the elevators and the plumbing will fail.





SixFootScowl said:


> Not a good situation anywhere but especially not good in an earthquake prone area. Hopefully they shore it up well before the next earthquake.


40 inches (3'4", or 1m) is a _very_ significant distance.

And if it's LEANING 3" per year ("tilt to the side by about 3in (7.5 cm) a year") . . . well . . . "An inch of tilt at the foundation of the building translated into an additional 5in lean at the top of the high-rise, NBC Bay Area reported last summer, pushing the building's total tilt at the time to 22in".

This 58-story building is 645 feet tall (197 m).

But the Guardian article stops short of any sort of investigative reporting. It turns out that the developer blames the sinking problem on the Transbay Joint Powers Authority (*TJPA*), who were responsible for construction of the neighboring Transbay Transit Center (TTC). The TJPA points fingers right back at the developers, claiming it had already started sinking prior to any work on the TTC. Naturally, if the TJPA is found at fault, the City ends up paying for it.

The repair costs may cost more than the liability insurance on the building. IN 2017 there was already damage to the electrical system, and by 2018 residents reported hearing various "creaking sounds" including a loud "popping sound", which turned out to be a cracked window in a corner unit on the 36th floor. That is probably far worse than it sounds, as the glass used in the building's windows and facade is rated to withstand hurricane force winds.

An engineering firm's solution is installation of 52 piles along the north and west sides to stop the sinking, while letting the south and east side "catch up", until the building is again level, THEN anchoring THAT side of the building to the bedrock. Work began in June 2021.

The work came under heavy scrutiny following the deadly partial collapse of *Champlain Towers South* in Surfside, Florida in June 2021, which killed 98 people.

However, in August 2021, it was discovered that the pilings (of which 39 had been installed) we NOT halting the sinking, and work was halted.

The city is has been reviewing an "updated" construction approach since September 2021. The Millenium Tower has 366 units, and a restaurant and bar on the ground level.

Just one other thing: This is a two building complex, with an 11-story building (with 53 condos) located to the northeast of the Tower, which happens to be the direction the Tower (the 4th tallest building in San Francisco) is leaning.


----------



## SixFootScowl

pianozach said:


> 40 inches (3'4", or 1m) is a _very_ significant distance.
> Just one other thing: This is a two building complex, with an 11-story building (with 53 condos) located to the northeast of the Tower, which happens to be the direction the Tower (the 4th tallest building in San Francisco) is leaning.


Solution is simple, just put some struts between the two buildings to brace the one that is leaning. :lol:


----------



## SixFootScowl

*Unwanted visitor in basement *


----------



## TxllxT

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/pope-makes-surprise-visit-rome-record-store-gets-classical-cd-2022-01-11/

Pope Francis loves Mozart!


----------



## TxllxT

SixFootScowl said:


> *Unwanted visitor in basement *


No access for Europeans to this basement. Could you tell a bit more about the story?


----------



## SixFootScowl

TxllxT said:


> No access for Europeans to this basement. Could you tell a bit more about the story?


........................................


> Colorado Parks and Wildlife rescued a moose that found its way into the basement of a Breckenridge home on Monday. According to CPW, a call came in at 3:30 p.m. that a moose was trapped in the house located off of Ski Hill Road. The curious creature had been grazing near the home when it fell through a snow-covered window well right into the basement.
> 
> When CPW officers arrived, they opened doors in the home to create exits for the moose. However, the exits required going up the basement staircase, and the moose was hesitant about leaving. Ultimately, CPW officers tranquilized the moose and cut off its antlers so that it could fit up the staircase and reduce further damage to the home. CPW said that moose antlers typically fall off this time of the year anyway, and they will regrow in the spring. The moose appeared to be healthy other than a small cut on its leg and was released back into the wild.


----------



## TxllxT

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-15/argentine-town-invaded-by-thousands-of-beetles/100758826

Because of an invasion of billions of bugs the Argentinian town Santa Isabel has shut off street lights during the night hoping that the bugs will b#g off.


----------



## pianozach

TxllxT said:


> https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-15/argentine-town-invaded-by-thousands-of-beetles/100758826
> 
> Because of an invasion of billions of bugs the Argentinian town Santa Isabel has shut off street lights during the night hoping that the bugs will b#g off.


https://gizmodo.com/ground-temperat...7jsZTYMPI_6riXZ80aZjpuDNv-k-YWaM3oCKphDgIr8z0

Ground Temperatures Hit 129 Degrees as Argentina Suffers Blackouts

The country is suffering through a heat wave that knocked out power in Buenos Aires and challenged all-time records.

Ground temperatures climbed above 129 degrees Fahrenheit (54 degrees Celsius) in parts of Argentina this week as the country suffers through a shockingly hot start to summer. Air temperatures were equally suffocating, leading to *widespread blackouts* as the Southern Cone attempts to beat the heat.

Copernicus's Sentinel 3 satellite recorded the extreme ground temperatures. Those temperatures are different than air temperatures, which is our usual way of conveying how hot a place is. The surface of the Earth tend to be hotter than air temperatures, given that heat can more easily dissipate in the air.


----------



## perempe

Times Investigation: In U.S. Drone Strike, Evidence Suggests No ISIS Bomb


----------



## pianozach

perempe said:


> Times Investigation: In U.S. Drone Strike, Evidence Suggests No ISIS Bomb


Most of us suspected that as soon as we got news about it.


----------



## Kjetil Heggelund

Today I got one of many e-mails from companies that want to sell stuff. Since we're having an insane electricity price situation, they came up with 5 tips to spare the cost. No. 5 was to just eat your coffee, save electricity on making it...


----------



## SixFootScowl

Kjetil Heggelund said:


> Today I got one of many e-mails from companies that want to sell stuff. Since we're having an insane electricity price situation, they came up with 5 tips to spare the cost. No. 5 was to just eat your coffee, save electricity on making it...


A former military guy told me that there were times he didn't have time to make the instant coffee in his meal kits and so he would dump the instant coffee in his cheek and suck on it to get the caffeine buzz.


----------



## pianozach

Today I was getting ready for a choir rehearsal and my cellphone rang. On a whim I answered it and put it on speaker. 

It was a recording that started out, "We've been trying to reach you regarding your car's extended warranty." 

Honest.


----------



## TxllxT

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60091753#:~:text=An%20investigation%20has%20begun%20after,attempt%20to%20claim%20his%20pension.&text=Irish%20broadcaster%20RT%C3%89%20reported%20that,behalf%20of%20an%20elderly%20man. An Irish joke?

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/garda%C3%AD-investigating-after-man-s-body-used-in-apparent-attempt-to-claim-pension-1.4782598


----------



## TxllxT

https://www.gld.nl/nieuws/7536650/scooterrijder-knalt-op-wild-zwijn-en-dat-is-al-de-derde-keer

LOENEN - A scooter rider was slightly injured on Monday morning in a collision with a wild boar in Loenen. Remarkably enough, this was not the first time for the young man.
The accident on Monday morning happened on Groenendaalseweg around 05.30 am. The scooter rider was on his way to work when he drove from the Woeste Hoeve in the direction of Loenen.
A lot of damage
The scooter rider could no longer avoid the wild boar when the animal suddenly crossed the road. He fell hard and was left with scrapes and a painful knee. The scooter was badly damaged.
The boar stumbled toward the wooded area. A game manager later sets out in search of the injured beast.
Third collision
A little further back on the same road, the same scooter rider also collided with a wild boar last year. Then it concerned a boar that was injured on the road surface after a previous collision with a car.
And also in Belgium, the young man once hit a crossing boar, then with a car.


----------



## SixFootScowl

TxllxT said:


> https://www.gld.nl/nieuws/7536650/scooterrijder-knalt-op-wild-zwijn-en-dat-is-al-de-derde-keer
> 
> LOENEN - A scooter rider was slightly injured on Monday morning in a collision with a wild boar in Loenen. Remarkably enough, this was not the first time for the young man.
> The accident on Monday morning happened on Groenendaalseweg around 05.30 am. The scooter rider was on his way to work when he drove from the Woeste Hoeve in the direction of Loenen.
> A lot of damage
> The scooter rider could no longer avoid the wild boar when the animal suddenly crossed the road. He fell hard and was left with scrapes and a painful knee. The scooter was badly damaged.
> The boar stumbled toward the wooded area. A game manager later sets out in search of the injured beast.
> Third collision
> A little further back on the same road, the same scooter rider also collided with a wild boar last year. Then it concerned a boar that was injured on the road surface after a previous collision with a car.
> And also in Belgium, the young man once hit a crossing boar, then with a car.


The whole story with the repetitions of similar events is becoming rather boring.


----------



## SixFootScowl

> David Colombo discovered a flaw in a piece of third-party open source software that let him remotely hijack some functions on about two dozen Teslas, including opening and closing the doors or honking the horn. In trying to notify the affected car owners, he then found a flaw in Tesla's software for the digital car key that allowed him to learn their email addresses.


 He then notified the owners by email that they are at risk.
https://europe.autonews.com/automakers/tesla-hacker-gained-access-car-owners-email-and-warned-them


----------



## Luchesi

TxllxT said:


> https://www.reuters.com/world/europ...me-record-store-gets-classical-cd-2022-01-11/
> 
> Pope Francis loves Mozart!


It was thought that Pope Callixtus III had ordered Halley's comet to be "exorcised", but info about the incident has become muddled, with passing history.


----------



## Flamme

TxllxT said:


> https://www.gld.nl/nieuws/7536650/scooterrijder-knalt-op-wild-zwijn-en-dat-is-al-de-derde-keer
> 
> LOENEN - A scooter rider was slightly injured on Monday morning in a collision with a wild boar in Loenen. Remarkably enough, this was not the first time for the young man.
> The accident on Monday morning happened on Groenendaalseweg around 05.30 am. The scooter rider was on his way to work when he drove from the Woeste Hoeve in the direction of Loenen.
> A lot of damage
> The scooter rider could no longer avoid the wild boar when the animal suddenly crossed the road. He fell hard and was left with scrapes and a painful knee. The scooter was badly damaged.
> The boar stumbled toward the wooded area. A game manager later sets out in search of the injured beast.
> Third collision
> A little further back on the same road, the same scooter rider also collided with a wild boar last year. Then it concerned a boar that was injured on the road surface after a previous collision with a car.
> And also in Belgium, the young man once hit a crossing boar, then with a car.


Did they arrest the Boar?


----------



## TxllxT

Flamme said:


> Did they arrest the Boar?


I guess it was the same boar in this boar hype, who first a year ago tackled the scooter driver, then fled to Belgium (the Dutch love boar jokes from Belgium) and finally returned to the same place 'by accident'.


----------



## TxllxT

https://www.noen.at/erlauftal/hype-saugroboter-fluffy-der-neue-medienstar-aus-wieselburg-wieselburg-redaktionsfeed-saugroboter-schmankerlladen-skurril-ingrid-pruckner-redaktion-310898174
Fluffy the robot vacuum cleaner escaped from a house in Wieselburg, Austria, and was found safe and well 7 hours later after an adventurous tour downtown, miraculously not being crushed by a car.


----------



## TxllxT

https://www.novinky.cz/koktejl/clanek/behem-pandemie-se-zacala-starat-o-vrany-ty-se-ji-za-to-stedre-odmenily-40385477 [cannot find the American source, the Czech article features a video with the crows].

The story goes from a fairy tale to an enthusiastic amateur ornithologist from Alexandria, a city of 150,000 located in Virginia in the eastern United States. During the coronavirus pandemic, she began feeding on crows that were growing around her house. She received unexpected gratitude from the birds.
The 37-year-old woman, who calls herself Tango, has been preparing to feed crows from the neighborhood since the summer of 2019. As the coronavirus crisis deepened and the measures became more restrictive, she began to put more time and energy into caring for birds.

According to her own words, she started feeding about $ 30 a week. However, the birds richly repaid her for this. In return, a trio of crows, named Doc, Dottie, and the little birds Dot-tok, began carrying various gifts.
And so leaves and twigs began to appear on its roof, but also glass balls, pieces of pottery, but also real money, such as the American quarter, or even a one-euro coin.

However, it did not end with even small gifts. Tango noticed that crows were watching over her as she drank her morning coffee in the garden or waited for the school bus with her children.

A social bird that is easy to familiarize with
The American Crow, like many other members of the raven family, is a social and docile bird, in which a certain degree of domestication is surprisingly easy. The socialization of these birds is a commonly observed phenomenon, especially when a bond of food addiction is established between it and man.
When comparing the American crow with the black crow, which lives in our country, it is slightly smaller in overseas and differs mainly by its different body structure, where up to 40% of the total 40-50 centimeter length of the bird is the tail.


----------



## SixFootScowl

TxllxT said:


> https://www.novinky.cz/koktejl/clanek/behem-pandemie-se-zacala-starat-o-vrany-ty-se-ji-za-to-stedre-odmenily-40385477 [cannot find the American source, the Czech article features a video with the crows].
> 
> The story goes from a fairy tale to an enthusiastic amateur ornithologist from Alexandria, a city of 150,000 located in Virginia in the eastern United States. During the coronavirus pandemic, she began feeding on crows that were growing around her house. She received unexpected gratitude from the birds.
> The 37-year-old woman, who calls herself Tango, has been preparing to feed crows from the neighborhood since the summer of 2019. As the coronavirus crisis deepened and the measures became more restrictive, she began to put more time and energy into caring for birds.
> 
> According to her own words, she started feeding about $ 30 a week. However, the birds richly repaid her for this. In return, a trio of crows, named Doc, Dottie, and the little birds Dot-tok, began carrying various gifts.
> And so leaves and twigs began to appear on its roof, but also glass balls, pieces of pottery, but also real money, such as the American quarter, or even a one-euro coin.
> 
> However, it did not end with even small gifts. Tango noticed that crows were watching over her as she drank her morning coffee in the garden or waited for the school bus with her children.
> 
> A social bird that is easy to familiarize with
> The American Crow, like many other members of the raven family, is a social and docile bird, in which a certain degree of domestication is surprisingly easy. The socialization of these birds is a commonly observed phenomenon, especially when a bond of food addiction is established between it and man.
> When comparing the American crow with the black crow, which lives in our country, it is slightly smaller in overseas and differs mainly by its different body structure, where up to 40% of the total 40-50 centimeter length of the bird is the tail.


Here is a source in English language:
https://news.fox-24.com/news/293768.html


----------



## joen_cph

A good deal of birds, including crows, are currently being upgraded by researchers on the species IQ scales - I've seen specialists saying that they are now considered to be on the level of chimpanzees, for example.


----------



## Ariasexta

chinese Spring festival is tomorrow but civilians are banned to use firecrackers across the whole country since 2018, in order to make up for those industrial emissions which keep sending pm-2.5 or anything-you-either-like-or-dislike into the atmosphere everywhere. I know china would be a fantastic place if not for those pollutions and massive useless condominiums and infrastructures of bubble. Now, as the profit from pollution goes to the tops, and the footing-bills hail to every common person. This is very bizarre: chinese people is going to celebrate another Spring festival without fireworks.


----------



## joen_cph

Well, there's a growing opinion here in Denmark that fireworks shouldn't be allowed for ordinary citizens, only professionals. I'm not sure it will gain majority, but it's partly based on the pollution, partly on the anarchy of the New Year celebrations.


----------



## Luchesi

joen_cph said:


> Well, there's a growing opinion here in Denmark that fireworks shouldn't be allowed for ordinary citizens, only professionals. I'm not sure it will gain majority, but it's partly based on the pollution, partly on the anarchy of the New Year celebrations.


130 DBs. It can tear an ear drum, but if it's only a temporary hearing loss, people don't realize that the damage is accumulative. There's little pain to warn the enthusiasts and until we reach 50 or 55 we won't understand how much damage has accumulated (it reminds me of circumcision), because your hearing brain compensates while we're young. When hearing naturally declines the prior damage becomes a big issue.


----------



## joen_cph

I'm probably for at least some further regulations, than it is sometimes the case:

Here's a central public square with big crowds in Copenhagen; all the fireworks are just 'private initiatives'; injuries under such circumstances, including a good deal of drunk people, brain-dad teenagers and macho youngsters, are pretty unavoidable:


----------



## SixFootScowl

My state legalized fireworks some years back and the result has been chaos. Dogs freak out and I hear war veterans can freak out too if they have had battle stresses. I think they need to restrict these displays to large public areas and run by professionals. We have a guy a block away who runs $5000 worth of fireworks every 4 July and it is like and sometimes better than the professional displays, running 30 + minutes, but the dog has to cower in the basement under the stairs with Beethoven symphonies playing rather loudly. Plus, in Michigan they allow fireworks fhe day before, during, and the day after every major holiday so it is not just the 4th or New Year's Eve. And for teh 4th the fireworks start a couple weeks ahead. There is no prediciting when they will go off but it is very disruptive trying to walk the dog and someone lights off even a pack of small firecrackers, and she is making a bee line for home.

I think the governor at the time (same one under whom the Flint MI water crisis occurred) opened up the fireworks for the economy (read state sales tax revenues) because people would just go over the border to Ohio and buy them anyway.


----------



## Ariasexta

Spring festival is almost synonymous to fireworks, it has become like an eerie season to welcome a silent Spring festival, adding to the cloudy sky too. I think if there is a spiritual realm of the deads, they could be complaining...This imagination is more real than our share of the responsibility for the emissions of pollutants. It is amazing to know in the West people can play with fireworks, it is like a chinese cultural reminder if I am not mistaking. India celebrates with bathing and bonfires, Tibet with great horns and drums, japanese with sushis, europeans with swords and canon and Sonatas, chinese with their firecrackers. Banning firecracker in china is like sacrilege against the cross in the west. This is not good, seriously. About the animals and birds, stupid officials in order to flaunt the illumination for prsoperity, they put multicolored lamps on the mountains and mounds near the towns and cities, wasting a lot of power also disturbing animals anf fowls inhabiting there. I knew and saw it all with a sense of oppressed anger. I wanted to vandalize those but it is all across the whole china. But since 2020, those mountain lamps have been off but I am not sure if it is only an isolated case in my town or enforced new policy across the region and country, but I would rather celebrate silent Spring festivals for the rest of my life than to see those lunatic mountain lamps turned on again ever. 

BTW Happy Chinese New Year of Tiger to everybody on TC.


----------



## Luchesi

Ariasexta said:


> Spring festival is almost synonymous to fireworks, it has become like an eerie season to welcome a silent Spring festival, adding to the cloudy sky too. I think if there is a spiritual realm of the deads, they could be complaining...This imagination is more real than our share of the responsibility for the emissions of pollutants. It is amazing to know in the West people can play with fireworks, it is like a chinese cultural reminder if I am not mistaking. India celebrates with bathing and bonfires, Tibet with great horns and drums, japanese with sushis, europeans with swords and canon and Sonatas, chinese with their firecrackers. Banning firecracker in china is like sacrilege against the cross in the west. This is not good, seriously. About the animals and birds, stupid officials in order to flaunt the illumination for prsoperity, they put multicolored lamps on the mountains and mounds near the towns and cities, wasting a lot of power also disturbing animals anf fowls inhabiting there. I knew and saw it all with a sense of oppressed anger. I wanted to vandalize those but it is all across the whole china. But since 2020, those mountain lamps have been off but I am not sure if it is only an isolated case in my town or enforced new policy across the region and country, but I would rather celebrate silent Spring festivals for the rest of my life than to see those lunatic mountain lamps turned on again ever.
> 
> BTW Happy Chinese New Year of Tiger to everybody on TC.


These celebrations probably cut down on the divisiveness in tribes which always arises, and organized larger groups for survival, and brought together new mating pairs for healthier children etc. etc.

How did they determine when the equinox was?


----------



## TxllxT

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/02/01/megaflash-world-record-477-mile-long-lightning-bolt-stretches/ Lightning bolt in three US States that stretches over the distance from London to Hamburg.


----------



## Ariasexta

Luchesi said:


> These celebrations probably cut down on the divisiveness in tribes which always arises, and organized larger groups for survival, and brought together new mating pairs for healthier children etc. etc.
> 
> How did they determine when the equinox was?


Not sure, tradition should not be vilified just for it being a tradition, even system as vile as hindu caste system, I have to respect. I am still mystified as why modern mainstream ideologies have to attack anything that is not as based on tangible science as chemical experiments.

Chinese calendar before Adam Schall von Bell（1592-1666）was inaccurate as for the leap years and equinoxes, but not significantly ebbing. There was a contest in 1644 of calculating the coming solar eclipse`s beginning hour and the total lapse of time of the complete event, presided by chinese emperor Chongzhen(1611-1644): the jesuit astronomers led by Adam Shall against the chinese astronomers led by Yang Guang Xian(1597-1669) as two contestant groups.

The latter group used traditional chinese methods and naked eyes as the jesuit group used binoculars and were armed with the latest observatory datas collected from contemporary european astonomers in the west brought into manchurian china by Adam`s direct predecessor to the manchurian jesuit mission Father Terentius (1576-1630) at the end of his life. The result was that the jesuits produced exact minutes of the beginning and the time length of the whole eclipse event; the chinese group gave two comparing results using two traditional chinese calendars, the best with an error of 30 minutes, the last with an hour of error. All calendars used by all contesting groups succeeded in predicting the the event within 24 hour accuracy, but Adam Schall`s group pinpointed the event correctly to the exact 15-30 minute space of time of the day in question. Since 1645, modern chinese calendars was made with the decree that Adam Schall`s version of chinese calendar adjusted to the latest observations from the west shall be the only formal calendar of China. This is the Lunar calendar we have been using to celebrate our traditional festivals untill today.

To mark the seasonal changes, chinese have the 24 solar term system, equinox is a term that is determined by the exact length of a day`s time compared to the night as the result of Earth`s revo position around the Sun. But chinese did not determine when the spring began with Sun`s position( technical equivalent to the set ratio of length of day VS night for each equinox events of a year), but with the arm of Ursa Major as the pointer of each season as the constellation moves around the fixed star of Polaris. When the arm points to the east, it is the spring; to the west the autumn; the south the summer; the north the winter. It goes like that, but there is an exact position in the eastern sky to correspond to the arm as the pointer to pinpont the exact day of chinese equinox(Lichun), which is not the same day and the same concept of the western equinox anyway.



> This was Father John Terrentius, or to call him by his true name, Schreck. Born at Constance on Lake Geneva in 1576, he embraced the religious life in Rome at the age of thirty-five being then in possession of an enviable renown as physician, botanist, and mathematician. The Academia dei Lincei (founded at Rome by Prince Frederico Cesi) had admitted him among its earliest members; here he had as colleague Galilei, whose discoveries he followed with sympathy. In his first letters from China, which he had entered secretly in 1621, we find Father Terrentius endeavouring to obtain from the Florentine astronomer through the mediation of mutual friends, "a calculation of the eclipses, especially solar, according to the new observations", for he says, "this is supremely necessary to us for the correction of the [ Chinese] calendar. And if there is any means by which we may escape expulsion from the empire it is this". This learned missionary died prematurely on 13 May, 1630, and Father Schall was summoned to Peking to replace him. Father James Rho, a native of Milan, who had also come from Europe to China in 1618, and who since 1624 had been working in the Christian settlements, was also called to the capital to assist Father Schall in his scientific undertaking.


China does have a long tradition of astrology but most of the knowledge and skills related are considered as either the priviledge for the dynastic ruling class or a part of the Yiching esotericism practiced by convention of recommended apprenticeship, ordinary people can not learn them by will in ancient times nut nowadays is available for the enthusiasts who are interested in chinese culture. The system is highly complex and require an internet video class for hundrels of dollars per term, it is said one can also see into the future by using this skills of stellar observation and calculation.


----------



## Ariasexta

The edit does not work: here is the final editing :

To mark the seasonal changes, chinese have the 24 solar term system, equinox is a term that is determined by the exact length of a day`s time compared to the night as the result of Earth`s revo position around the Sun. But chinese did not determine when the spring begins with Sun`s position( technical equivalent to the set ratio of the length of day VS the nights` for each equinox events of a year), but with the *tail *of Ursa Major as the pointer of each season as the constellation moves around the fixed star of Polaris. When the tail points to the east, it is the spring; to the west the autumn; the south the summer; the north the winter. It goes like that, but there is an exact position in each cardinal direction in the sky to correspond to the arm as the pointer to pinpont the exact day of each chinese equinoxes, which are not the same day and the same concept of the western equinoxes anyway. *These positions are called in esoteric chinese terms, for example, 寅位 for the chinese spring equinox, it is the near the position the tail of Ursa Major points to today, because the chinese spring equinox is 4th this month. *


----------



## Dorsetmike

Suspect there are some red faces around

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60218573


----------



## pianozach

Dorsetmike said:


> Suspect there are some red faces around
> 
> https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60218573


I imagine that when a design is designed, it passes through several hands before a final product is produced.

And no one noticed. Either that or they didn't care. Or didn't know the difference between Jubbly and Jubilee.

So sad.


----------



## SixFootScowl

Dorsetmike said:


> Suspect there are some red faces around
> 
> https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60218573


Decades ago I worked at a shop that screen printed shirts. we had a job for a couple dozen shirts for a restaurant that had the restaurant name plus "food and spirits." After the shirts were picked up, the buyer came back complaining because what we printed actually said "food and spirts."


----------



## SixFootScowl

*Artist sells invisible sculpture for over $18K *


----------



## Luchesi

Ariasexta said:


> China does have a long tradition of astrology but most of the knowledge and skills related are considered as either the priviledge for the dynastic ruling class or a part of the Yiching esotericism practiced by convention of recommended apprenticeship, ordinary people can not learn them by will in ancient times nut nowadays is available for the enthusiasts who are interested in chinese culture. The system is highly complex and require an internet video class for hundrels of dollars per term, it is said one can also see into the future by using this skills of stellar observation and calculation.


If we discover star wars out there and we assume that they're using advanced technology to kill each other, then our astrological traits set during the time of our conception, could have been determined by the exposure FROM that point in the sky.


----------



## TxllxT

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/planes-guns-night-vision-goggles-talibans-new-us-made-war-chest-2021-08-19/
"Aviva said the average VR-related claim for accidental damage in 2021 was about £650, often from broken TVs smashed by overenthusiastic gamers.

Claims to Aviva involving virtual reality headsets can get wacky. One customer launched a controller at his TV when a zombie jumped out during the game. Multiple people reported cracking TV screens. One child smashed two designer figurines - perched on the mantelpiece - when his game demanded a "swipe" move."


----------



## Ariasexta

Luchesi said:


> If we discover star wars out there and we assume that they're using advanced technology to kill each other, then our astrological traits set during the time of our conception, could have been determined by the exposure FROM that point in the sky.


Gods war with each other all the time, even Christianity as the religion of peace has to war with the dragon of the end time. But it would be wrong to assume devinity in our earthly wars as an excuse for the evils. In space, human eyes can not see stars, it is also unknown whether people can see stars upon other planets even if given a position of optimal visibility of the sky from that particular climatical environment of the planet. The true mechanism of stellar visibility is not as scientifically proven as we think, there is much room for doubt.


----------



## Luchesi

Ariasexta said:


> Gods war with each other all the time, even Christianity as the religion of peace has to war with the dragon of the end time. But it would be wrong to assume devinity in our earthly wars as an excuse for the evils. In space, human eyes can not see stars, it is also unknown whether people can see stars upon other planets even if given a position of optimal visibility of the sky from that particular climatical environment of the planet. The true mechanism of stellar visibility is not as scientifically proven as we think, there is much room for doubt.


Humans see stars on Earth and in space. Our star too would be too far away to see at a distance of only 450 trillion miles (80 LYs).


----------



## pianozach

According to the African American Museum in Washington D.C., a reliable authority concerning all things related to slavery, escaping slaves would throw _*balls of fried cornmeal*_ out to distract the hounds from tracking them.

The hounds stopped barking and tracking thanks to the cornmeal which later adopted the name "*hush puppies*".


----------



## TxllxT

https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/storm-dudley-train-trampoline-cardiff-b2017064.html Storm Dudley: Train named after Captain Tom Moore stuck for two hours after hitting trampoline outside Cardiff station


----------



## perempe

U.S. LNG exporters emerge as big winners of Europe natgas crisis


----------



## perempe

TikTok stars receive White House briefing on Ukraine


----------



## perempe

Emergency measures can quickly cut global oil demand by 2.7 million barrels a day, reducing the risk of a damaging supply crunch
With Russia's invasion of Ukraine resulting in lower supplies to oil markets ahead of peak demand season,
IEA 10-Point Plan proposes actions to ease strains and price pain


----------



## Roger Knox

............................ erroneus


----------



## Roger Knox

Dorsetmike said:


> Suspect there are some red faces around
> 
> https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60218573


_*Platinum Jubbly*_ -- the next big metal band. Or a new British Vodka brand, to replace the Russian ones.


----------



## TxllxT

https://www.autobild.de/artikel/e-auto-autobahn-reichweite-test-tempo-130-km-h-20977681.html

A German test of 28 electric cars driving at a constant speed of 130 km/h on the Autobahn shows up with a sobering result. The worst result has the Mazda MX-30 with 140 km (after 140 km the accumulators are completely empty) and the best result has the Mercedes EQS with 444 km. But even 444 km is IMO still peanuts. According to Autobild electric cars start to be energy guzzlers above the speed of 80 km/h.


----------



## Philidor

TxllxT said:


> https://www.autobild.de/artikel/e-auto-autobahn-reichweite-test-tempo-130-km-h-20977681.html
> 
> A German test of 28 electric cars driving at a constant speed of 130 km/h on the Autobahn shows up with a sobering result. The worst result has the Mazda MX-30 with 140 km (after 140 km the accumulators are completely empty) and the best result has the Mercedes EQS with 444 km. But even 444 km is IMO still peanuts. According to Autobild electric cars start to be energy guzzlers above the speed of 80 km/h.


Maybe it is not the (artificial?) limit of 80 km/h, but rather the simple fact that air resistance is quadratic in speed?


----------



## TxllxT

Philidor said:


> Maybe it is not the (artificial?) limit of 80 km/h, but rather the simple fact that air resistance is quadratic in speed?


I have no inside knowledge of electric cars, but my Peugeot diesel is just about as fuel-efficient at 80 km/h as at 130 km/h. Not so long ago I was driving in a petrol/gasoline car and I noticed that at very low speed that car was not so fuel-efficient anymore. But I was really taken by surprise/shock that electric cars are still a very local affair with little hope of becoming inter-state.


----------



## perempe

*Ihor Surkis, the president of Dynamo kyiv who fled Ukraine with 16 million euros while his ultras fight*


----------



## perempe

Radical Mi Hazánk to file report over Facebook page deletion
Their page was deleted just before the election. Mi Hazánk got 6% of the votes.


----------



## pianozach

perempe said:


> Radical Mi Hazánk to file report over Facebook page deletion
> Their page was deleted just before the election. Mi Hazánk got 6% of the votes.


This is amusing for a couple of reasons.

The headline that calls a political party "radical". I don't know if they are or not; the article doesn't really delve into any explanation as to what makes them radical.

"Community Standards had been violated". Even in the US, Mr. Trump had his Twitter account either suspended, revoked, or deleted, but it's understandable as the ex-President had a long history of violating Twitter's "community standards", mostly in the form of spreading misinformation and inflammatory rhetoric.

Facebook is not limited by the Free Speech rights guaranteed by the US Constitution; although they're pretty lax in what they allow, they have limits that are a bit more severe than the Constitution. As a private company they have the right to refuse service to anyone. For any reason.

Sounds to me as though *Mi Hazánk*'s propaganda left the boundaries of what is considered to be "civil" discourse. They are still free to use other means to spread their "message".

This led me to the *Wikipedia* rabbit hole to find what might possibly lead *The Budapest Times* to consider a political party to be "*radical*". As *Wikipedia* is crowd-sourced, political and religious entries may be inaccurate, and the entry for *Our Homeland Movement* (Mi Hazánk Mozgalom) STARTS by saying it's a radical organization formed by "dissidents" and out-of-office politicians, then claiming that those dissidents left after the party abandoned its radical roots.

Evidently the party claims to be both anti-Left _AND_ anti-right, but *The Japan Times* describes its ideologies as *"far-right and extremist"*.

All I can gather about the party is it is . . .

*anti-LGBT
Green conservatism
anti-vaxx and anti-lockdown
pro-death penalty
Hungarian nationalism
National conservatism
Hungarian irredentism (national unification)
Agrarianism
Social conservatism
Hard Euroscepticism
Anti-corruption
Anti-communism
Anti-immigration
*
Of these, I find that the catch-all phrase "social conservatism" to be the most vague description of the bunch.

Again, *Wikipedia* offers a long winded explanation, although it's in the context of American social conservatism (although the description contains the NON-American spelling of "organisation":

*Social conservatism*_ is a political philosophy and variety of conservatism which places emphasis on traditional power structures over social pluralism. It also engaged with the economic insecurity of lower-class Protestant Americans, McCarthyism and other challenges to social institutions. Social conservatives often promoted the organisation and politicisation of social issues.

Sociologist Harry F. Dahms suggests that social conservatism relates to a "commitment" to *traditional values* concerned with family structures, sexual relations, patriotism, gun ownership and military invasions, describing Christian doctrinal conservatives (anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage) and gun-use conservatives (pro-NRA) as the two domains of ideology within. Social conservatives also value the rights of religious institutions to participate in the public sphere, thus supporting government-religious endorsement and opposing state atheism._​.

But hey, that's Wikepedia for ya . . . There's probably enough truth in the description to conclude that *Mi Hazánk* is very likely a Hard Extremist Right party misrepresenting itself to be that perfect "middle ground" that's "for the people".


----------



## mmsbls

A Reminder: This thread is for strange stories and bizarre news that *do not involve politics*.


----------



## pianozach

mmsbls said:


> A Reminder: This thread is for strange stories and bizarre news that *do not involve politics*.


OK, but some of the strangest stories and bizarre news are inherently political. _Everything_ is political, and always has been.

Even music is often political, although frequently in subtle ways.

My apologies for commenting on a comment about a Hungarian political party.

Carry on.


----------



## joen_cph

perempe said:


> *Ihor Surkis, the president of Dynamo kyiv who fled Ukraine with 16 million euros while his ultras fight*


Seems to be a news website from El Salvador. One doesn't see them that often otherwise.


----------



## Luchesi

A giant black hole has captured another large black hole (9 Blys away, masses of about 300 trillion Earths and 60 trillion Earths respectively), and this explosion will reach Earth soon. 

It seems bizarre, but now we know that these detectable collisions happen once a month or more. Many more collide and aren't detectable. Their signatures are blocked by dust or they're pointed away from our planet.


----------



## SixFootScowl

pianozach said:


> Facebook is not limited by the Free Speech rights guaranteed by the US Constitution; although they're pretty lax in what they allow, they have limits that are a bit more severe than the Constitution. As a private company they have the right to refuse service to anyone. *For any reason. *


Any reason? I think the government has made some restrictions, such as you cannot deny service based on skin color.


----------



## pianozach

SixFootScowl said:


> Any reason? I think the government has made some restrictions, such as you cannot deny service based on skin color.


I stand corrected. Facebook may not "break the law". Denying service based on gender or ethnicity or skin color is a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.


----------



## perempe

Driverless car appears to flee after being pulled over by officer


----------



## Luchesi

perempe said:


> Driverless car appears to flee after being pulled over by officer


Interesting. The car is pulled over, because its headlights had been turned off (human error the car's company rep said).

Then the car 'realizes' that it needs to find a safer spot to park. The cops didn't say, "Stop or I'll shoot.", for some reason. lol


----------



## joen_cph

Driverless cars are no doubt going to cost a lot of future cyclist fatalities. I'm not looking forward to when they become abundant. And the legal side of this will become foggy. 

But then, in some areas, cyclists are a rare species anyway ...


----------



## Luchesi

joen_cph said:


> Driverless cars are no doubt going to cost a lot of future cyclist fatalities. I'm not looking forward to when they become abundant. And the legal side of this will become foggy.
> 
> But then, in some areas, cyclists are a rare species anyway ...


Aren't pedestrians and cyclists supposed to be safer? Inattentive drivers are the big danger.

Is it true that there were only two cars in Ohio in 1895, and they crashed into each other?

https://www.quora.com/Is-it-true-th...Ohio-in-1895-and-they-crashed-into-each-other


----------



## joen_cph

There are many problems involved for cyclists. 

An Uber automatic car killed a cyclist, estimating the cyclist was ... a plastic bag. 

I prefer seeking eye contact with the driver, when in doubt about something; but forget having eye contact with an automatic car ... and if there's an unfortunate software glitch, or the car needs to prioritate somehow? That's just too bad ...

In countries with a developed cycling structure, including a dense network of marked cycling paths and separate lanes for them, maybe on a separate level, the problem might be less marked; but in other places, where this isn't a priority, it can likely become unsafe.

Another aspect is that of the most modern cars becoming silent, so that it's more difficult to notice them in the traffic. They should have some sort of artificial, engine-like sound, IMO.


----------



## Luchesi

joen_cph said:


> There are many problems involved for cyclists.
> 
> An Uber automatic car killed a cyclist, estimating the cyclist was ... a plastic bag.
> 
> I prefer seeking eye contact with the driver, when in doubt about something; but forget having eye contact with an automatic car ... and if there's an unfortunate software glitch, or the car needs to prioritate somehow? That's just too bad ...
> 
> In countries with a developed cycling structure, including a dense network of marked cycling paths and separate lanes for them, maybe on a separate level, the problem might be less marked; but in other places, where this isn't a priority, it can likely become unsafe.
> 
> Another aspect is that of the most modern cars becoming silent, so that it's more difficult to notice them in the traffic. They should have some sort of artificial, engine-like sound, IMO.


Good info, thanks.

"*More than 38,000* people die every year in crashes on U.S. roadways. The U.S. traffic fatality rate is 12.4 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. An additional 4.4 million are injured seriously enough to require medical attention."

When a majority of cars are self-diving I expect we won't reach these numbers.


----------



## joen_cph

Also, my understanding is that automatic cars so far aren't able to identify people who stand still.

Some updated articles:https://www.newscientist.com/article-topic/driverless-cars/

A danger-reducing perspective might be installing some sort of a sender in bicycles, thus warning about the cyclist. And pedestrians too? Would that be accepted everywhere, or considered an attack on liberty by some?

As some pointed out, if there'll be massive risk-reducing priorities in the systems, how would that effect human traffic behaviour in general ? Will people start ignoring rules more, and rely on automatic proceedings?

In DK, safety measures tend to be better; traffic cost 135 fatalities in 2021 - a record low. Cyclists usually amount to around 30 or less. That's from 5.6 mio inhabitants and 3 mio cars. Apparently there are 284 mio cars in the US. The proportionate Danish traffic fatalities level (includes having advanced cycling facilities) is somewhat lower, about 1/3.


----------



## pianozach

joen_cph said:


> Also, my understanding is that automatic cars so far aren't able to identify people who stand still.
> 
> Some updated articles:driverless cars news, articles and features | New Scientist
> 
> A danger-reducing perspective might be installing some sort of a sender in bicycles, thus warning about the cyclist. And pedestrians too? Would that be accepted everywhere, or considered an attack on liberty by some?
> 
> As some pointed out, if there'll be massive risk-reducing priorities in the systems, how would that effect human traffic behaviour in general ? Will people start ignoring rules more, and rely on automatic proceedings?
> 
> In DK, safety measures tend to be better; traffic cost 135 fatalities in 2021 - a record low. Cyclists usually amount to around 30 or less. That's from 5.6 mio inhabitants and 3 mio cars. Apparently there are 284 mio cars in the US. The proportionate Danish traffic fatalities level (includes having advanced cycling facilities) is somewhat lower, about 1/3.


Several weeks ago (or was it months ago?) there were ads on the TV for a new TV comedy series ("American Auto") about a corporate executive that becomes the new CEO of a struggling automobile manufacturer, the joke being that she knows absolutely nothing about cars at all, and doesn't even know how to drive.

She's taken out for a test drive in the new driverless car they've just developed, and it turns out that it cannot "see" people with brown or black skin, and hits a black worker on their test range. Yes, it's a racist car.


----------



## pianozach

*Girl shot while waiting for Easter Bunny after shop owner opens fire on shoplifters*

*








Girl shot while waiting for Easter Bunny after shop owner opens fire on shoplifters


A shoe store owner aiming at would-be shoplifters opened fire in a California mall but struck a 9-year-old girl waiting in line to see the Easter Bunny, police said.




www.cnn.com





I imagine the girl's parents will be filing a lawsuit on her behalf, and will likely be the new owners of the shooter's shoe store.*

Three bullets shattered her arm. It's astonishing that no one else was hit, while she managed to take three bullets in the arm. 
I suppose it could have been worse: The moronic store owner could have killed the Easter Bunny in front of a line of children.


----------



## perempe

The members of the Hungarian National Dance Ensemble may have been hit by an electric shock


----------



## perempe

A wave of suicides of top managers swept through Russian gas companies


----------



## 4chamberedklavier

That recent story about Johnny Depp revealing his ex wife pooped on his side of the bed 💩


----------



## pianozach

4chamberedklavier said:


> That recent story about Johnny Depp revealing his ex wife pooped on his side of the bed 💩


Truth is stranger than fiction.

If this were a screenplay it would be rejected.


----------



## perempe

Russia's Gazprom suspends supplies to Poland and Bulgaria


----------



## pianozach

perempe said:


> Russia's Gazprom suspends supplies to Poland and Bulgaria


Yeah, heard that this morning.

From the article: 

_". . . “unfriendly” foreign buyers would have to pay the state-owned Gazprom *in rubles* instead of other currencies. . . . _​​_"Around 60% of imports are paid in euros, and the rest in dollars. *Putin*’s demand was apparently intended to help bolster the Russian currency amid the war in *Ukraine*."_​
This could be a bit of a problem for *Bulgaria*, as 90% of their natural gas supply is imported from Russia.

Most Americans don't really know where Bulgaria is, and couldn't find it on a blank map.


----------



## perempe

A police officer was able to rob a savings bank in Pécs


----------



## Johnnie Burgess

Freshii in Canada in attempt to lower cost has started using virtual cashier located in Central America.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/gizmodo.com/want-to-order-food-from-a-minimally-paid-call-center-em-1848844961/amp


----------



## perempe

*European Commission VP Tells People to ‘Support Ukraine’ by Taking Fewer Showers & Not Washing Their Clothes*


----------



## pianozach

perempe said:


> *European Commission VP Tells People to ‘Support Ukraine’ by Taking Fewer Showers & Not Washing Their Clothes*


I think George Carlin said this first: "Face, feet, pits, and ***."


----------



## perempe

unfortunately Timmermans isn't a comedian.


----------



## perempe

Schools in Oregon install menstrual product dispensing machines in BOYS' restrooms after Governor signed law forcing them to provide free period products


----------



## perempe

Sweden's failed integration creates 'parallel societies', says PM after riots


----------



## Roger Knox

As for non-political stuff, is anyone convinced by the 2022 Loch Ness Monster sightings? I haven't been able see some of the videos.


----------



## fbjim

Students at a high school in Berlin replaced their long-time human skeleton specimen with a model human skeleton, and decided to give the medical specimen a proper burial. 

Peace at last: German students bury classroom skeleton


----------



## pianozach

fbjim said:


> Students at a high school in Berlin replaced their long-time human skeleton specimen with a model human skeleton, and decided to give the medical specimen a proper burial.
> 
> Peace at last: German students bury classroom skeleton


I have a skeleton in my closet.

Well, actually, just the spine and pelvis. From my doctor days.

I acquired it from the adopted daughter of a local chiropractor after he passed away. After his office caught on fire years before, it suffered some smoke damage, and he spray painted it silver.


----------



## SixFootScowl

I find this a strange story and it is the first time I heard of these sleeveless T-shirts as "wife-beater t-shirts." There are a half-dozen stories how this name came about:








The Story Behind the Wife Beater Tank Top


If you own what is officially known as an A-shirt or an A-style tank top, you probably call it by a different name. This type of shirt is much more commonly referred to as a wife beater shirt, a wife beater tank top, or simply a wife beater. While today that term may be politically incorrect...




www.gozatowels.com


----------



## geralmar

I'm summarizing a disturbing newspaper article I read three decades ago. The images conjured haunt me still:

An overloaded boat of refugees fleeing Cuba for sanctuary in the U.S. foundered and sank in the straits of Florida. As a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter hovered helplessly overhead, the entire boat crew and passengers were devoured by sharks.


----------



## perempe

Kremlin says West triggered global food crisis with sanctions


----------



## pianozach

perempe said:


> Kremlin says West triggered global food crisis with sanctions


Well, uh, the Kremlin's credibility is garbage at the moment. 

They invaded Ukraine on the pretext that they were protecting themselves from Nazis.

No other country in the world believes that, so when they say that "the West" "triggered a global food crisis with sanctions", we all a sure to think the opposite is true.


----------



## perempe

Thanks to our goverment today I bought pork leg for 1249HUF(/kg).

Without the goverment's support it costs 1699HUF(/kg).


----------



## perempe

Kiel, Wisconsin school charges kids for using wrong pronouns


----------



## perempe

P.S.G. Player Benched for Refusing to Wear Rainbow Jersey


----------



## perempe

New Aurora Law Fines For Dogs Barking Longer Than 15 Minutes, Puts Limits on Number of Pets in Home


----------



## pianozach

perempe said:


> Thanks to our goverment today I bought pork leg for 1249HUF(/kg).
> 
> Without the goverment's support it costs 1699HUF(/kg).


Today, thanks to oil industry greed, I paid $72 to fill up my tank.


----------



## perempe

How much did you pay before?


----------



## pianozach

perempe said:


> How much did you pay before?


A year ago I might be able to squeeze $50 worth into the tank if it was really really low. I think the car has a maximum tank capacity of 15.9 gallons (roughly 60L).

The cheapest fuel within 10 miles is $5.67/gallon. 

Funny, but as we live in a townhome community, all parking on the street taken in the evenings, and for the past couple of years there have been cars that have had their catalytic converters stolen. That continues, but it won't be long before we start seeing gasoline siphoning.


----------



## Malx

pianozach said:


> A year ago I might be able to squeeze $50 worth into the tank if it was really really low. I think the car has a maximum tank capacity of 15.9 gallons (roughly 60L).
> 
> The cheapest fuel within 10 miles is $5.67/gallon.
> 
> Funny, but as we live in a townhome community, all parking on the street taken in the evenings, and for the past couple of years there have been cars that have had their catalytic converters stolen. That continues, but it won't be long before we start seeing gasoline siphoning.


Don't grumble too much as the best current price for unleaded in my area of Scotland is the equivalent of $7.49 a gallon ( using 1.26 dollars to the pound as a conversion rate).


----------



## perempe

thanks for the answers.

with goverment support gas & diesel is 480HUF(/l) here, cheaper than in the US. can't believe it.


----------



## perempe

Olena Zerkal: Ukraine has a powerful lever of influence on Hungary – Druzhba pipeline
She stressed that a separate line of the Druzhba oil pipeline is going to Hungary, and “something may happen” with it.

“And, in my opinion, it would be very appropriate if something happened to it (oil pipeline). But then again, it is in the hands of the government and the president to decide politically whether we really want to speak to Orban in the language he understands and which he imposes on the European Union, or whether we are not ready for that yet,” Zerkal emphasized.


----------



## pianozach

*Scientists discover an ancient forest inside a giant sinkhole in China*

The prehistoric trees at the bottom of the pit are almost 130 feet high

LINK to NPR article: *Scientists discover an ancient forest inside a giant sinkhole in China *

*








 *


----------



## perempe

Que calor! Spain tells civil servants to limit use of air conditioning


----------



## perempe

France: Illegal Tunisian immigrant accused of raping English woman directly on a street in Nice


----------



## perempe

Lake Garda: riots of young asylum seekers against tourists


----------



## perempe

US denies permission for special flight to carry Russian diplomats home — MFA


----------



## pianozach

perempe said:


> US denies permission for special flight to carry Russian diplomats home — MFA


LOL

Looks like they'll have to take a "non-special" flight.

Or they could take a boat I suppose. . . .


----------



## perempe

Ukraine to ban music by some Russians in media and public spaces


----------



## perempe

Dozens of Nigerians freed from church awaiting 'Second Coming' in Ondo


----------



## perempe

Hamburg senator warns hot water rationing if gas shortage becomes acute


----------



## perempe

Cops back plan to stop arrests for people stealing essentials like food or nappies


----------



## perempe

Stove sellers were raided after the government’s announcement
Back to the middle ages...


----------



## hammeredklavier

"In 2019, a man slipped and fell down while climbing Mount Fuji. What made this particular case stand out was that the man was on live stream when the accident occurred. People would later criticize the man for being reckless and underprepared, with some speculating that it might have been intentional. What made this case even more famous was that what seems to be the voice of a female ghost can be heard warning the man to turn back, even though he should have been alone on the mountain..." -Kenji Pictures


----------



## perempe

More Russians in Croatia than Ukrainian refugees


----------



## perempe

Explosion near Moscow kills daughter of Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin


----------



## pianozach

*A distillery is fighting invasive crabs by turning them into whiskey*









A distillery is fighting invasive crabs by turning them into whiskey


Invasive green crabs are destroying marine ecosystems in the United States. A New Hampshire distillery is making crab-flavored whiskey to take them on.




www.npr.org


----------



## perempe

How two Canadian tourists came to believe that Romania was invaded by Russia because of a RO-Alert message


----------



## perempe

German publisher pulls Winnetou books after accusations of racism
Texas school district pulls the Bible, The Bluest Eye and other books from library


----------



## pianozach

perempe said:


> Texas school district pulls the Bible, The Bluest Eye and other books from library


Brilliant.

It's not even ironic. Religious zealots tend to crusade against "things", and are indignant when their arguments are used against them.

There's some guy in Florida attempting to get the Bible banned in that state as well.

_"My objection to the Bible being in your public schools is based on the following seven points, offered for your learned consideration,"_ said Florida activist Chaz Stevens.

Stevens proceeded to question whether the Bible is age-appropriate, pointing to its "casual" references to murder, adultery, sexual immorality, and fornication. _"Do we really want to teach our youth about drunken orgies?"_

He also took issue with the many Biblical references to rape, bestiality, cannibalism and infanticide. _"In the end, if Jimmy and Susie are curious about any of the above, they can do what everyone else does – get a room at the Motel Six and grab the Gideons,"_ he wrote.

_"If you want to teach morality and ethics, do you really want to turn to a book that wants you to dash babies against rocks?"_









Florida man asks schools to ban Bible following the state's efforts to remove books


Activist Chaz Stevens says the book isn't age appropriate and contains references to rape and bestiality. It's a not-so-subtle dig at Florida's recent efforts to ban books.




www.npr.org


----------



## perempe

In Switzerland, an advert urges people to report neighbours who heat their homes more than 19 degrees


----------



## Art Rock

perempe said:


> In Switzerland, an advert urges people to report neighbours who heat their homes more than 19 degrees


Fake news.









Falso manifesto Datec, la Fedpol vuole vederci chiaro


La polizia federale ha aperto ufficialmente un’inchiesta sull’annuncio fasullo che invitava a segnalare chi riscalda la propria casa oltre i 19 gradi




www.laregione.ch





The article is in Italian, but can easily be translated to English (which I will not post for copyright reasons). The gist: Swiss police is investigating the abuse of official symbols on a fake poster that appeared on social media in the past few days.


----------



## perempe

Erkel Theatre will close in November due to gas prices


----------



## pianozach

*Trail of slime leads German customs to bags of giant snails*










Trail of slime leads German customs to bags of giant snails


BERLIN (AP) — German customs officials say a trail of slime led them to a stash of almost 100 giant African land snails and other items hidden inside bags at Duesseldorf Airport this month. In a statement Friday, authorities said officials stumbled over one of the snails on a baggage truck and...




apnews.com


----------



## perempe

President Biden on Nord Stream 2 Pipeline if Russia Invades Ukraine: "We will bring an end to it."


----------



## pianozach

perempe said:


> President Biden on Nord Stream 2 Pipeline if Russia Invades Ukraine: "We will bring an end to it."


Interesting, although it's from 7 months ago. 

I will make the observation that American Presidents are great with the threats, but generally lousy with the follow-through.

While this is merely an anecdotal quote, it's also worth noting that the disruption of the pipeline was done in a manner that would have likely required the tech and equipment of a powerful country such as the USA.


----------



## pianozach

*Woman hit by train while in police car takes steps toward lawsuit*









Woman hit by train while in police car takes steps toward lawsuit


The attorney representing Yareni Rios-Gonzalez has notified the towns of Platteville and Fort Lupton a lawsuit may be filed against their police departments.




www.9news.com





Colorado police release video of police car with suspect inside hit by a train 

Absolutely crazy story. Police pull over 20-year-old lady for "road rage" and brandishing a weapon (although none was found either on her or in her truck).

Police park behind her on the railroad tracks, force her out of her vehicle at gunpoint, arrest her, handcuff her, and place her in the police cruiser that's parked on the railroad tracks. They search her truck, and discuss the arrest, all while ignoring the approaching train, which eventually hits the cruiser with the suspect handcuffed and locked in the back seat, and make no effort to move her to safety.

The cruiser is totalled, and the suspect survives with nine broken ribs, a fractured sternum, and a broken arm and leg.

Police released a redacted and edited 8 minute clip of the arrest and lack of situational awareness on the part of all deputies involved.






It should be noted that once a suspect is in custody their welfare, health, and safety is fully in the hands of the arresting officers until they are transported to a police facility.


----------



## pianozach

pianozach said:


> *Woman hit by train while in police car takes steps toward lawsuit*
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Woman hit by train while in police car takes steps toward lawsuit
> 
> 
> The attorney representing Yareni Rios-Gonzalez has notified the towns of Platteville and Fort Lupton a lawsuit may be filed against their police departments.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.9news.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Colorado police release video of police car with suspect inside hit by a train
> 
> Absolutely crazy story. Police pull over 20-year-old lady for "road rage" and brandishing a weapon (*although none was found either on her or in her truck*).


*CORRECTION*: After she was hit by the train, _and_ trapped inside the demolished police cruiser, the deputies continued the search of her vehicle, joking about this and that, without any regard that 200 feet away a young lady was possibly dying inside that vehicle. *They finally "found" the gun they were looking for *in the center console of her truck, although enough time had passed that it would have been plausible for a deputy to have planted it there in all the confusion. We see a deputy "finding" it there, although the released footage does NOT include ALL bodycam footage from ALL officers at the scene. They also mentioned that there was a bullet hole in the driver's door of the truck, although it's unclear whether that hole was fired from inside the vehicle (firing through the door of your own truck!), or if it was caused by someone shooting AT the vehicle.

But even if a gun was found, and she's as guilty as sin of what they allege, it really doesn't excuse the gross negligence and stupidity of the officers' actions of leaving a handcuffed suspect locked inside a police cruiser on clearly marked active railroad tracks.


----------



## perempe

Air Force Academy promotes fellowship that bans ‘cisgender' men: ‘This program isn’t for you’
Who will be the star in Top Gun 3?


----------



## pianozach

perempe said:


> Air Force Academy promotes fellowship that bans ‘cisgender' men: ‘This program isn’t for you’
> Who will be the star in Top Gun 3?


That is not the link that you think it is . . .


----------



## perempe

The link has been edited.


----------



## pianozach

perempe said:


> The link has been edited.


It still just takes me to *Hammeredklavier*'s post #2,201 in this thread.


----------



## perempe

EU will not ban russian diamonds in new sanction package


----------



## perempe

'He Picked The Wrong House': Powerlifting 82-Year-Old Grandma Takes Down Home Intruder
It was 3 years ago, but love it. Watch it on YouTube!


----------



## geralmar

Old news; but still...









Mexico City hotel guests sleep with dead body under bed for a week


Guests at Mexico City's Hotel El Senador might be surprised at a recent gruesome...




www.chron.com


----------



## perempe

Cruise ship that will house 1,000 asylum seekers docks in Amsterdam


----------



## geralmar

Animal habit considered worthy of scientific study:









Aye-aye recorded picking nose and eating snot for the first time


The aye-aye is one of 12 primates that pick their nose - but we have no good reason why the behaviour evolved.




www.nhm.ac.uk


----------



## perempe

12-year-old Lola's funeral held 10 days after vicious Paris murder


----------



## perempe

Tourist hostages including British and US holidaymakers are RELEASED after they were held for 24 hours on a river boat by indigenous group in Peru


----------



## pianozach

perempe said:


> Tourist hostages including British and US holidaymakers are RELEASED after they were held for 24 hours on a river boat by indigenous group in Peru


Vacationing on a houseboat in Peru.

Well, they WANTED an adventure, didn't they?


----------



## perempe

EU to provide Ukraine with €18 billion in financial assistance for 2023, says von der Leyen


----------



## perempe

The Ukrainian owner threw the Russians out of the hotel in Miskolc


----------



## perempe

72-year-old German hospital patient arrested for allegedly switching off roommates ventilator


----------



## perempe

Schoolgirl killed in knife attack in Germany


----------



## perempe

*Romania vexed by yet another Schengen refusal*
Romanian politicians deplored Vienna’s “unjustified” decision to block the country’s access to Schengen, with many voices calling for a boycott of Austrian goods or companies.


----------



## geralmar

A hippo attacks a young boy, and then spits him out


The attack took place on a recent afternoon, as the boy was playing at his home near a lake in western Uganda.




www.npr.org


----------



## Luchesi

I guess fusion works after all. Check the fusion headlines. There's been a breakthrough.


----------



## NoCoPilot

I know fusion works. Every day the sun shines.

Which this time of year in Seattle, isn't often.


----------



## Luchesi

NoCoPilot said:


> I know fusion works. Every day the sun shines.
> 
> Which this time of year in Seattle, isn't often.


Ya know, I was going to write "I guess fusion is workable after all.", but I changed my mind because of the way it sounded.


----------



## pianozach

Luchesi said:


> Ya know, I was going to write "I guess fusion is workable after all.", but I changed my mind because of the way it sounded.


It's true. Fusion works.


----------



## NoCoPilot

But it takes a lot before fusion generates more energy than it consumes.


----------



## Luchesi

NoCoPilot said:


> But it takes a lot before fusion generates more energy than it consumes.


I think they got 20 or 30 percent more than they put in. It's a miracle of free energy. BUT, to scale up the huge process everywhere will result in other huge problems.


----------



## NoCoPilot

It was actually 0.05%, and the containment is still an unworkable problem.








Why the nuclear fusion ‘net energy gain’ is more hype than breakthrough


The Department of Energy announced last week that scientists have finally achieved the "net energy gain." What does this “breakthrough” actually mean, and why some are calling it a ‘scam.’




whyy.org


----------



## perempe

*The Block 'conwoman' speaks out as she's probed over disappearance of multimillion-dollar medical shipment from Ukraine military - brutal reports slam her conduct since volunteering for the war effort*


----------



## geralmar

Why I'll never visit Yellowstone National Park:









After foot discovered in Yellowstone hot pool, investigators find handwritten poems, photo album and $447


No other remains were found after a search of Abyss Pool but investigators noted apparent "fatty tissues" floating in the 140-degree Fahrenheit pool.




www.cbsnews.com


----------



## geralmar

U.K. medical practice mistakenly texts patients they have "aggressive lung cancer" instead of wishing them a merry Christmas


They were also sent a form meant for people with terminal illnesses to apply for benefits.




www.cbsnews.com


----------



## perempe

*6-year-old in custody after shooting teacher in Virginia*


----------



## pianozach

perempe said:


> *6-year-old in custody after shooting teacher in Virginia*


OMG. Just saw this on my news feed.

Newport News: Boy aged six detained after shooting teacher in US

1st grader shoots teacher with a handgun. In a classroom. A school with a 550 student enrollment. It's a typical public school. Kindergarten through Fourth Grade have four teachers for each grade, and Fifth Grade has two teachers, so around twenty-five students per classroom.

Neither article doesn't mention if it was just the two of them in the classroom, or if the event happened with a class full of First Graders.

Police are still investigating, obviously, but one of the obvious questions is how the 6-year old got a hold of a loaded gun. My guess is that one or both of the parents are going to see jail time.

I do have a very strong opinion about whether or not guns make us "safer", but I'll refrain from stating it, as discussing the issue of gun regulation is justly considered a political misdemeanor around here.

But we can all agree that this is a tragic and horrific event.


----------



## pianozach

The actual transgression is bad enough, but the follow-through was abysmal.









Wells Fargo Fires Top Exec After He Allegedly Urinated on Elderly Woman During Flight to India


Shankar Mishra, the now-former Vice President of Wells Fargo in India, is accused of urinating on a woman mid-flight




people.com





Every employee on the flight, including the pilot, did not show this poor lady the least bit of consideration or empathy. The airline practically ignored the whole thing (although they DID ban the urinator from flying with Air India for 30 days), and it wasn't until 6 weeks later, after public outcry that the man was arrested.










My opinion is that the entire flight crew should be fired, including the pilot, flight crew AND ground crew, and the airline should be somehow punished for their lack of consideration of their passenger's needs.

The assailant _was_ employed by Wells Fargo as Vice President in charge of operations in India, and has now been fired and jailed.


----------



## That Guy Mick

perempe said:


> *6-year-old in custody after shooting teacher in Virginia*


Yes, very strange. The six year old was incarcerated when enlistment in the Marine Corp is the obvious path. The parents should be jailed for providing the child with a firearm and not providing proper training!!!


----------



## That Guy Mick

perempe said:


> 'He Picked The Wrong House': Powerlifting 82-Year-Old Grandma Takes Down Home Intruder
> It was 3 years ago, but love it. Watch it on YouTube!


I suspect that the press did not reveal that she was also proficient in the Clean and Jerk and other barbell lifts, not just powerlifts. Mainstream media lies!


----------



## That Guy Mick

geralmar said:


> Why I'll never visit Yellowstone National Park:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> After foot discovered in Yellowstone hot pool, investigators find handwritten poems, photo album and $447
> 
> 
> No other remains were found after a search of Abyss Pool but investigators noted apparent "fatty tissues" floating in the 140-degree Fahrenheit pool.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.cbsnews.com


It is best to avoid any kind of nature, as Woody Allen has accurately pointed out that it is like one big restaurant.Nuff said!


----------



## perempe

*Millions of people worked in China’s mass testing system. Now they’re out of a job*


----------

