Weird News Compilation

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In summary, a man who used to be a Fox News guest analyst and claimed to be a CIA agent was sentenced to 33 months in prison for lying about his security clearance, criminal history, and finances.
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  • #389
fresh_42 said:
Various drivers here drove (on different occasions) into a river, because their navigation system told them where to cross, but not that it is a ferry and not a bridge.
We had someone whose satnav said something like "after the bend, take the first right". After the bend was a level crossing, and then the right turn he was supposed to make. You can guess where he ended up...
 
  • #390
Ibix said:
We had someone whose satnav said something like "after the bend, take the first right". After the bend was a level crossing, and then the right turn he was supposed to make. You can guess where he ended up...
I observed that many drivers had their satnav switched on while they clearly were on their way home during business traffic. (You can see the light in winter when darkness comes early, and the license plates reveal whether they locals or not.)

Have they forgotten their way home? Aren't they annoyed by the voice telling them what they know anyway? I didn't get it.
 
  • #391
fresh_42 said:
Have they forgotten their way home? Aren't they annoyed by the voice telling them what they know anyway? I didn't get it.
Well it IS a different mindset! You can shut off the part of your brain that keeps track of place. You can then "automatically" respond just to the local traffic and perhaps carry on a conversation with a passenger; without worrying about tracking, and processing, where you are in relation to 'the next turn'.

Personally, I don't care to use satnav (GPS) for known routes, it makes me lazy. I've read reports (don't recall where), and know at least one person, that people lose their orienteering skills with constant satnav use.

It sure is handy though in an unfamiliar central city area at night with no Moon for a reference!
 
  • #394
fresh_42 said:
I observed that many drivers had their satnav switched on while they clearly were on their way home during business traffic. (You can see the light in winter when darkness comes early, and the license plates reveal whether they locals or not.)

Have they forgotten their way home? Aren't they annoyed by the voice telling them what they know anyway? I didn't get it.
I often use Google Maps for local navigation. While position is only so-so, the app works well for routes; choosing optimum path to a destination. Maps app offers expected travel times for alternate routes with near-time hazard and accident updates, planned road closures and severe weather warnings. A quick check helps me decide freeway (autobahn?) or city streets.
 
  • #395
Klystron said:
I often use Google Maps for local navigation. While position is only so-so, the app works well for routes; choosing optimum path to a destination. Maps app offers expected travel times for alternate routes with near-time hazard and accident updates, planned road closures and severe weather warnings. A quick check helps me decide freeway (autobahn?) or city streets.
I like the Zen navigation:

“He had a tremendous propensity for getting lost when driving. This was largely because of his method of “Zen” navigation, which was simply to find any car that looked as if it knew where it was going and follow it. The results were more often surprising than successful, but he felt it was worth it for the sake of the few occasions when it was both.”

― Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
 
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  • #396
fresh_42 said:
I like the Zen navigation:

“He had a tremendous propensity for getting lost when driving. This was largely because of his method of “Zen” navigation, which was simply to find any car that looked as if it knew where it was going and follow it. The results were more often surprising than successful, but he felt it was worth it for the sake of the few occasions when it was both.”

― Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
Yup. I've some neighbors that seem to apply that to life!
 
  • #398
Was the rattlesnake in a box with the Uranium?
 
  • #400
Reminds me of a store that we used to drive past an hour before we got to our mule deer hunting camp in the Modoc National Forest. LOL.

246684
 
  • #403
I'll never be able to watch a Disney cartoon again... o0)
 
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  • #404
berkeman said:
I'll never be able to watch a Disney cartoon again... o0)
No problem. Watch Looney Tunes, Wile E. is on meth anyway.
 
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  • #409
Aww, darn. I wanted to see one of those!
(Preferably with one of us in a cage.)
 
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  • #411
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  • #412
Not a news story but definitely weird.

Today, I went to a conference across town. As the conference began, I soon realized that I had previously met one of the presenters and his wife at a party several years ago. Afterward, I went up and talked him a little. I go home and look forward to telling my wife that I ran into him. Nothing too unusual but something of interest to discuss at home.

Now here's where it gets weird. I started by asking my wife if she remembered him and she said "Did you see my email today?". Long story short - my wife ran into his wife at her office today also. While those two have occasionally emailed each other, they haven't talked in over six months. And, even though they both work in the same building, it's large and they have never run into each other there until today. I wonder if I should buy a lottery ticket. :oldtongue:
 
  • #413
Borg said:
I wonder if I should buy a lottery ticket. :oldtongue:
Yes, but let your dog choose which one!
 
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  • #414
Sorry, no English source for it, but somehow funny, and no, it is not India:

Herd of cows disappeared without a trace since mid-July

"A farmer from Greifenstein has lost eight cows and twelve calves. They have been missed since mid-July, when they were standing on a pasture between the districts Arborn and Nenderoth police reported. Suddenly they had disappeared. A similar case happened a few weeks ago in Edertal. ... The farmer suspects that they have made an unauthorized excursion into the forests of the area. He excludes that the herd was stolen and taken away. The animals are beige and all have ear tags. The police themselves do not look for the cows, but ask for advice from hikers or motorists."

So if you find black and white cows in your garden, don't call the police. Only if they are beige.
 
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  • #415
Okaay... :wideeyed:
Japan temple puts faith in robot priest

The android Kannon, based on the Buddhist deity of mercy, preaches sermons at Kodaiji temple in Kyoto, and its human colleagues predict that with artificial intelligence it could one day acquire unlimited wisdom.
 
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