News Weird News Compilation

[Astronuc]

Feds arrest husband-and-wife team and recover $3.6 billion in bitcoin stolen in 2016 from Bitfinex — the largest government seizure in history​

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/f...in-2016-hack-of-bitfinex-exchange-11644339957

The U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday that it had executed its largest financial seizure in history, recovering $3.6 billion in bitcoin stolen in a 2016 hack of the currency exchange Bitfinex.

A husband and wife with a background as tech entrepreneurs in blockchain technology were arrested for their alleged role in the theft.

Prosecutors said they had managed to trace the stolen money — nearly 120,000 bitcoins — through an intricate web of transactions done to hide its origins, to a number of crypto wallets controlled by Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, and his 31-year-old wife, Heather Morgan.

The pair were arrested Tuesday morning at their lower Manhattan apartment on charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and to defraud the U.S. government, authorities said. They have not been charged with perpetrating the hack itself.

Not all of the bitcoin stolen in the 2016 hack has been recovered, and the investigation is ongoing, prosecutors said. When the hack occurred, the bitcoin was worth approximately $71 million. Today, it would be worth $4.5 billion, they said.

 

[Astronuc]

A woman spent two days floating alone on an air mattress atop a frigid lake. A pair of watchful freight train workers came to her rescue on Thursday.

Conductor Cristhian Sosa told CNN on Monday the BNSF southbound train was headed to Irving, Texas, from Madill, Oklahoma, in the afternoon. That was when Sosa and train engineer Justin Luster noticed her.

The woman was stranded on rocks next to Lake Texoma, a large reservoir on the border of Oklahoma and Texas, about 85 miles north of Dallas. She was waving her arms and yelling for help, according to the two men.

They stopped the train and Sosa said he walked to the woman.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/08/us/woman-rescued-floating-air-mattress-trnd/index.html

She is very fortunate for the alert train crew.

 

[nsaspook]

Things are getting really bad there.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-60362529

New Zealand plays Barry Manilow to repel parliament protesters

Authorities in New Zealand have been playing Barry Manilow's greatest hits in an attempt to dislodge protesters camped outside the parliament building.
Songs by the US singer are being played on a 15-minute loop, along with the Spanish dance tune, Macarena.
The demonstrators, who are angry at Covid-19 vaccine mandates, responded by playing songs such as Twisted Sister's We're Not Gonna Take It.

 

[Keith_McClary]

Things are getting really bad there.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-60362529

New Zealand plays Barry Manilow to repel parliament protesters

In Ottawa they could play the "Convoy" song. But the protesters would probably like it.

 

[fresh_42]

In Ottawa they could play the "Convoy" song. But the protesters would probably like it.

 

[Keith_McClary]

View attachment 297026

There was a cartoon of a coach talking to a men's hockey team: "Get out there and play like a girl."

 

[fresh_42]

There was a cartoon of a coach talking to a men's hockey team: "Get out there and play like a girl."

Sure it wasn't the US-American soccer team?

 

[sysprog]

@Astronuc, I can almost hear Desi wondering aloud why Lucille had the air mattress handy $-$ "Lucy; you got some 'splainin' to do . . ."

 

[Keith_McClary]

VIDEO: Mesmerizing 'satellite' ice disc captured on Alberta waterway
https://www.theweathernetwork.com/c...tellite-ice-disk-captured-on-Alberta-waterway

 

[nsaspook]

Going nuclear.

https://www.nme.com/news/music/jame...new-zealand-to-repel-covid-protesters-3160626

James Blunt’s music deployed in New Zealand to repel COVID protesters

 

[Jarvis323]

 

[berkeman]

Rhut-Rho...

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/airasia-malaysia-snake-plane-rerouted-intl-hnk/index.html

 

[OCR]

Rhut-Rho...

Lol, it was probably trying to find the. . . RAT. . . .

 

[Astronuc]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/drained-crypto-accounts-ira-financial-205505694.html

They joined IRA Financial Trust eager to build a nest egg in crypto. Instead, some users told CoinDesk their retirement accounts were drained, frozen and locked – with little explanation of what happens next.

It’s been nearly one week since an apparent security breach threw IRA Financial’s clients into crisis mode. With $36 million of their retirement savings in limbo and no full explanation from either IRA Financial or Gemini – the crypto exchange owned by the Winklevoss twins, Cameron and Tyler, and custodian where their crypto was held – they’ve begun organizing a response to crypto’s latest hack.

Users, appearing to count in the dozens, have begun reaching out to news organizations and regulators, wanting to know how they lost possibly millions of dollars on Feb. 8, when an apparent bad actor began withdrawing funds en masse from Gemini. IRA Financial Trust is one of a handful of firms that run their retirement account services atop Gemini’s institutional trading and custody suite.

 

[nsaspook]

Hometown in the news.

 

[Keith_McClary]

Hometown in the news.

I didn't watch the whole 15min. I was hoping it would be installed in the road.

 

[berkeman]

Google Maps Navigation... "Keep right at the fork"

 

[fresh_42]

Google Maps Navigation... "Keep right at the fork"

And be careful with art! It doesn't prevent you from getting a ticket!

 

[nsaspook]

I didn't watch the whole 15min. I was hoping it would be installed in the road.

It's pretty close to the road.

 

[Astronuc]

A very dated (San Bernardino Sun, Volume 51, 2 July 1945), but amusing story (although not amusing for the owner of the automobile). I saw the headline and wondered how an aircraft carrier could interact with an automobile, since both occupy very different realms. I figured it must have something to do with a port or ship collision.

Aussie's Car Squashed by U. S. Carrier
SAN FRANCISCO, July 1, 1945 (LP)
An Australian motorist has collected insurance for damages suffered when his automobile was hit by an American aircraft carrier, the Melbourne radio said today.

The motorist, Keith Waters of Sydney, parked his car on a wharf beside the carrier. Tides were unusually high.

While Waters was dining aboard a nearby vessel, the tide fell. Part of the American carrier projecting over the end of the wharf descended upon Waters' car and squashed it flat.

 

[fresh_42]

Ouch!​

Remi Lindholm says goodbye to the Beijing Winter Olympics with what is probably the strangest injury: the Finnish cross-country skier froze his penis during the last competition, as he told the Finnish media after the race. Lindholm had had the same mishap a few months ago at the competition in Ruka - now history was repeating itself.

 

[Keith_McClary]

Ouch!​

I think frostbite damages the circulation, making you more susceptible.

 

[strangerep]

I think frostbite damages the circulation, making you more susceptible.

There's a reason Nature arranged for the little guy to retreat back into his cave during inclement weather...

 

[Astronuc]

Half a Billion in Bitcoin, Lost in the Dump​

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/13/half-a-billion-in-bitcoin-lost-in-the-dump
For years, a Welshman who threw away the key to his cybercurrency stash has been fighting to excavate the local landfill.

In a cluttered desk drawer, he [the gentlemen in question] found two small hard drives. One, he knew, was blank. The other held files from an old Dell gaming laptop, including e-mails, music that he’d downloaded, and duplicates of family photographs. He’d removed the drive a few years earlier, after he’d spilled lemonade on the computer’s keyboard. Howells grabbed the unwanted hard drive and threw it into a black garbage bag.

His girlfriend took the garbage bag to the local landfill per his request.

He left for Cyprus and apparently started to realize what he had done.

A rather costly mistake.

 

[Keith_McClary]

Bitcoin, Lost

There are quite a few stories like that. If Bitcoin is lost, does that make the remaining bitcoin worth more?

 

[Astronuc]

There are quite a few stories like that. If Bitcoin is lost, does that make the remaining bitcoin worth more?

I don't understand bitcoin, but it has something to do with blockchain.

Bitcoin is a digital currency, a decentralized system that records transactions in a distributed ledger called a blockchain. ... Upon success, these blocks are added to the blockchain record, and the miners are rewarded with a small number of bitcoins.

or
https://www.pwc.com/us/en/industrie...intech/bitcoin-blockchain-cryptocurrency.html

I guess that fact that there is a demand and some rapid appreciation makes it desirable, until it doesn't. I suspect it works like real estate, which is in demand until it isn't, partly because the majority cannot afford it.

According to the article, "Illicit activity likely helped bitcoin appreciate in value, . . . " As I recall, for example, some malevolent actors using ransome malware required bitcoin funds to unlocked hijacked computers.

 

[nsaspook]

https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/georgia-toddler-lock-samples-rare-uncombable-hair-syndrome
Georgia toddler diagnosed with extremely rare uncombable hair syndrome

 

[nsaspook]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02...haviour-by-removing-tracking-device/100851458

Magpies have outwitted scientists by helping each other remove tracking devices​

When we attached tiny, backpack-like tracking devices to five Australian magpies for a pilot study, we didn't expect to discover an entirely new social behaviour rarely seen in birds.

Our goal was to learn more about the movement and social dynamics of these highly intelligent birds, and to test these new, durable and reusable devices. Instead, the birds outsmarted us.

As our new research paper explains, the magpies began showing evidence of cooperative "rescue" behaviour to help each other remove the tracker.

 

[Keith_McClary]

https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/georgia-toddler-lock-samples-rare-uncombable-hair-syndrome
Georgia toddler diagnosed with extremely rare uncombable hair syndrome
View attachment 297476

They took sample locks of Lock Samples' hair.

 

[strangerep]

Georgia toddler diagnosed with extremely rare uncombable hair syndrome

On first glance, I thought that must be a toddler pic of Boris Johnson.