News Weird News Compilation

[DaveE]

Hood ornament? What hood ornament?

Thank god Rolls Royce engineers spent resources on solving this. Now we can all breath easier knowing that the 3,762,917,174^th most important problem facing humanity has been eliminated. This is the sort of thing that Marie Antoinette got her head chopped off for.

 

[nsaspook]

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/d...trous-crash-by-whale-sculpture-140248785.html

Derailed Dutch metro train saved from disastrous crash by whale sculpture

 

[mfb]

The best part is in the article:

The artwork, aptly named Saved By The Whale’s Tail, prevented the train from plummeting 10 metres (32ft) into a cycle lane below at around midnight in the city of Spijkenisse.

 

[nsaspook]

https://calcoastnews.com/2020/11/humpback-whale-scoops-up-kayakers-in-avila-beach-spits-them-out/

Spoiler

 

[Astronuc]

https://www.wired.com/story/nameless-hiker-mostly-harmless-internet-mystery/

A man on the Appalacian Mountain Trail went by “Mostly Harmless." He was friendly and said he worked in tech. After he died in his tent, no one could figure out who he was. In April 2017, the man started hiking in a state park just north of New York City. On July 23, 2018, two hikers headed out into the Big Cypress National Preserve. About 10 miles into their journey, they stopped to rest their feet at a place called Nobles Camp. There they saw a yellow tent and a pair of boots outside. Something smelled bad, and something seemed off. They called out, then peered through the tent’s windscreen. An emaciated, lifeless body was looking up at them.

Sheriff's office in Collier County, FL is looking for help in identifying the man. A company, Othram, in Houston is doing DNA analysis and trying to match the man's DNA with others in known databases.

 

[Tom.G]

"Leave nothing but footprints."

 

[waternohitter]

Really a mystery.

 

[Keith_McClary]

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/video/monster-wolf-protects-japanese-towns-161020459.html

 

[nsaspook]

https://www.kptv.com/news/crazy-chaos-corvallis-residents-react-after-tesla-crash-sent-batteries-car-parts-flying-into-nearby/article_a7e0b04a-2a1a-11eb-9ea1-273ab7e02bb6.html

'Crazy chaos': Corvallis residents react after Tesla crash sent batteries, car parts flying into nearby homes

 

[DrGreg]

https://www.kptv.com/news/crazy-chaos-corvallis-residents-react-after-tesla-crash-sent-batteries-car-parts-flying-into-nearby/article_a7e0b04a-2a1a-11eb-9ea1-273ab7e02bb6.html

'Crazy chaos': Corvallis residents react after Tesla crash sent batteries, car parts flying into nearby homes

451: Unavailable
The page you are attempting to access is not available in your country.

 

[fresh_42]

451: Unavailable
The page you are attempting to access is not available in your country.

Same here. Germany is not allowed to laugh about New Mexico.

 

[BillTre]

451: Unavailable
The page you are attempting to access is not available in your country.

I could see it, but I live in Oregon.
Its a story from Corvallis, Oregon, not New Mexico.
Feel free to laugh at both.

Don't forget the exploding whale.

 

[mfb]

Oh the wonders of a virtual travel. Don't like my IP? Let me get an IP from a different country.

Corvallis Police said the driver, 21-year-old Dylan Milota, was stoned and going more than 100 mph just after 10 p.m. when he lost control of the Tesla, hit some trees, a power pole, and a phone box before coming to a stop on an embankment along Northwest Walnut Blvd.

Investigators said that hundreds of the Tesla’s hot batteries were thrown from the vehicle, and two of them crashed through windows at separate homes, starting small fires.
[...]
Police said the tire broke a water pipe and flooded the apartment.

Hole left by the tire:

 

[OmCheeto]

https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-s-crash-corvallis-oregon/

One battery landed on a person’s lap

Reminds me of Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy, for some reason.

 

[Keith_McClary]

Your neighborhood The Home Depot Store has partnered with Call2Recycle, a non-profit battery recycling program. You can recycle rechargeable batteries free by placing them in Call2Recycle bins at the store. Any rechargeable battery, including lithium batteries, or cellphone that weighs up to 11 pounds is accepted.

A Tesla battery in small pieces would be OK.

 

[Tom.G]

451: Unavailable
The page you are attempting to access is not available in your country.

That message could be from either end of the (attempted) connection.

https://news.umich.edu/extremely-aggressive-internet-censorship-spreads-in-the-worlds-democracies/

Cheers,
Tom

 

[DrGreg]

451: Unavailable
The page you are attempting to access is not available in your country.

That message could be from either end of the (attempted) connection.

https://news.umich.edu/extremely-aggressive-internet-censorship-spreads-in-the-worlds-democracies/

Cheers,
Tom

As a general rule, yes.

In this particular case, I assume that kptv.com is the website of a TV station. (Google confirms that KPTV is an Oregon station.) TV websites often block anyone outside their own country or region from streaming, for copyright reasons, although in this case they seem to have blocked the entire website (I can't even access their home page from the UK).

 

[fresh_42]

As a general rule, yes.

In this particular case, I assume that kptv.com is the website of a TV station. (Google confirms that KPTV is an Oregon station.) TV websites often block anyone outside their own country or region from streaming, for copyright reasons.

My suspicion in this case is, that they simply do not want to bother with those stupid EU regulations about Cookies.

 

[fresh_42]

Europe definitely didn't invent pc. Here is an example from east England, where even the parrots give a ...
⚒☢

 

[mfb]

The Austrian village of Fu**ing changes its name to Fu**ing.

Hmm, let's try again.

The Austrian village of Fu**ing (censored) changes its name to Fugging.

Neither one has a meaning in German, but the first one caused trouble and they never managed to capitalize on the coincidence (the name is far older than modern English).

https://www.dw.com/en/austrian-village-of-****ing-decides-to-change-its-name/a-55740967

The forum censors the name of the village even in the URL, but luckily the article ID is sufficient to show the article.

 

[fresh_42]

The Austrian village of Fu**ing (censored) changes its name to Fugging.

Neither one has a meaning in German, but the first one caused trouble and they never managed to capitalize on the coincidence (the name is far older than modern English).

My teacher and I passed an exit sign on the highway naming the local village 'Nittendorf'. My professor read something else than me, but both of us had a different name in mind

 

[wukunlin]

The Austrian village of Fu**ing changes its name to Fu**ing.

Hmm, let's try again.

Huh what happened on the first try on typing the new name?

 

[mfb]

If you write ****ing then it looks like this.

 

[BillTre]

Monolith in the desert:
AP story with good video.

Deep in the Mars-like landscape of Utah’s red-rock desert lies a mystery: A gleaming metal monolith in one of the most remote parts of the state.

The smooth, tall structure was found during a helicopter survey of bighorn sheep in southeastern Utah, officials said Monday.

A crew from the Utah Department of Public Safety and Division of Wildlife Resources spotted the gleaming object from the air Nov. 18 and landed to check it out during a break from their work.

They found the three-sided stainless-steel object is about as tall as two men put together. But they discovered no clues about who might have driven it into the ground among the undulating red rocks or why.

Sadly, its human-made, triangular, and not black.
No radio emission, aimed at Jupiter, has been noticed.

 

[DaveE]

Happy Thanksgiving

 

[BillTre]

The monolith has been found:
CNN article with videos.

GPS coordinates are supposed to be on Reddit.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

The monolith has been found:
CNN article with videos.

GPS coordinates are supposed to be on Reddit.

The guy in that first video was actually a monkey when he first arrived. Very strange!

 

[BillTre]

Monolith creator may have been identified.
NY Times article here.

Some cheekily wondered if it was planted there by aliens. Others thought it might be a tribute to the monolith in “2001: A Space Odyssey.” But the most tantalizing speculation was that it might be the work of John McCracken, a Minimalist sculptor with an affinity for science fiction who died in 2011.

The David Zwirner gallery, which has exhibited the artist’s work since 1997 and represents his estate, has asserted that the mystery monolith is a bona fide McCracken.

The artist’s son, Patrick McCracken, remains completely puzzled by the monolith. But when he heard the news, he thought back to an evening in May 2002, when his father was living in Medanales, N.M., in a small adobe house overlooking a mesa. “We were standing outside looking at the stars and he said something to the effect of that he would like to leave his artwork in remote places to be discovered later,” he recalled in a phone interview.

(A few days earlier, a gallery spokesperson was quoted in the press saying that the sculpture was not a McCracken but probably a touching homage to him done in his style and created by an unknown acolyte.)

Some online sleuths, using Google Earth to determine when the sculpture materialized in the desert, are still asserting that it was placed there around 2016, well after McCracken’s death.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Hey, when I was ten I stuck a pipe in the ground in my backyard. I never knew it was art!

 

[BillTre]

You got to do it with the right attitude.

 

[fresh_42]

"Is it art or can it go?" became a pun over here, since cleaning staff once removed a greasy corner in museum:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fettecke

 

[BillTre]

Utah state Bureau of Land Management says the monolith has been removed (by not them) some time Friday night.
CNN story here.

Maybe it went to the Moon!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Utah state Bureau of Land Management says the monolith has been removed (by not them) some time Friday night.
CNN story here.

Maybe it went to the Moon!

The culprit was captured on a parks dept cam

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Since August 20, 2007, at least 20 detached human feet have been found on the coasts of the Salish Sea in British Columbia, Canada, and Washington, US. The first discovery, on August 20, 2007, was on Jedediah Island in British Columbia. Feet have been discovered on the coasts of islands in British Columbia, and in the US cities of Tacoma and Seattle...

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

Authorities have been beating feet to get to the bottom of this.

 

[wukunlin]

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

Authorities have been beating feet to get to the bottom of this.

Ugh, human feet? I thought pig feet are scary enough already
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ing-pig-trotters-wash-ashore-on-chinese-beach

 

[OCR]

The culprit was captured on a parks dept cam

You got to do it with the right attitude.
Lol. . .

.

 

[nsaspook]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-55154525

An unusual sequence of numbers drawn in South Africa's national lottery has sparked accusations of fraud after 20 people won a share of the jackpot.
Tuesday's PowerBall lottery saw the numbers five, six, seven, eight and nine drawn, while the PowerBall itself was, you have guessed it, 10.
The organisers say the sequence is often picked. But some have alleged a scam and an investigation is under way.

 

[Ibix]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-55154525

Where's that Dilbert cartoon with the Accounts demons' random number generator? "Nine, nine, nine, nine..."

 

[Ivan Seeking]

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

Authorities have been beating feet to get to the bottom of this.

They had to send a toe truck.

 

[mfb]

[Lottery] has sparked accusations of fraud

That would be one of the most stupid frauds ever. If you can pick a number sequence then clearly you would pick one that doesn't get worldwide attention, and one where you don't need to share your jackpot with 20 others.
With so many lottery drawings worldwide it's not surprising to see such a pattern eventually.

 

[Keith_McClary]

If you can pick a number sequence then clearly you would pick one that doesn't get worldwide attention, and one where you don't need to share your jackpot with 20 others.

There are sequences in Chinese fortune cookies, which people presumably use. So you should avoid using any of those sequences, to avoid sharing. But how could you know? Be the fortune cookie manufacturer!

 

[Astronuc]

Pilot blown out of cockpit, held by crew members, survived!
https://www.thevintagenews.com/2020/12/02/captain/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_5390

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/i...story-30-years-on/GR2HBBCBUGMOTA7MEYPI7UR54A/

 

[fresh_42]

Birmingham - Malaga with emergency landing in Southampton means, they had probably their travel height already, or almost. Unbelievable.

 

[mfb]

17,300 ft = 5300 m. High enough to make both temperature and oxygen an issue.

 

[BillTre]

I just found this:

Nice. Keeping religion up with the times!

 

[Astronuc]

Let's Colonize Titan - https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/lets-colonize-titan/

Let's not!

 

[mfb]

But we would have superconductors at ambient temperature!

 

[jack action]

Florida man accused of stealing fallen utility pole:

​

 

[nsaspook]

Spoiler

 

[nsaspook]

https://news.sky.com/story/breakdancing-confirmed-as-olympic-sport-for-2024-paris-games-12154546

Olympics 2024: Breakdancing confirmed as new sport for Paris games