Weird News Compilation

  • Thread starter Thread starter Evo
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    News Weird
Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
Sign up Log in
2,158 replies · 174K views
Physics news on Phys.org
I cannot read this, pay wall. Do mammals get drunk in the wild or not?
 
fresh_42 said:
It's one thing to get drunk, but another to get addicted to opium for months. And especially funny in the article was that the number of swans constantly increased.
Yes I believe opiates are quite moorish.

Could ergot get in there? That's a mischievous little thing.

 
https://cowboystatedaily.com/2023/0...s-at-150-mph-destroys-scottsbluff-solar-farm/
1687982795414.png

1687983174672.png
 
Reply
  • Wow
  • Informative
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: Astronuc, BillTre and jack action
pinball1970 said:
Do mammals get drunk in the wild or not?
My understanding is that wart hogs get drunk on fermented berries --- they are so ugly that that's the only way they can work up the nerve to mate. :oldlaugh:
 
Reply
  • Haha
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: BillTre and pinball1970
Astronuc said:
Don't put your hand in 174.7 degrees Fahrenheit, or 79.3 degrees Celsius water!

https://www.yahoo.com/news/visitor-yellowstone-national-park-scrambled-051005711.html

Do authorities need to put up signs that say "Don't be stupid"? I wonder if she got 2nd or 3rd degree burns on her hand. She's fortunate that she didn't slip and fall in, and pull her companion in. They both would have died.
Hiking in Sumatra I lost my balance and put my foot in hot water. It was only a moment but all the skin on top of the foot came off. We still had to get out of the jungle wearing sandals without getting the burn dirty. I had some tape and some clean underwear. If wrapped just right it would cover the foot nicely. So nicely that I kept using it as a dressing after I got back to civilization. The scars faded away over the years.

It was the sort of place we had to leave a guard at the camp so the monkeys wouldn't mess with it.

In Sumatra I saw the crater of the largest volcanic explosion known, now Lake Toba. Two hundred miles wide. Some believe the resulting dust almost wiped out the human race. Also saw a doctor named Elvis and met a Veronica.
 
Reply
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: Astronuc
BillTre said:
I don't golf, but this is impressive:


He did it on purpose. This is traditional.

 
Reply
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: BillTre
Oops...

1688400367060.png

A Philippines advertising agency has apologised for using footage of other countries in a promotional tourism video.
The campaign used images of rice terraces in Indonesia, sand dunes in the United Arab Emirates and an aircraft landing in Switzerland.
The agency, DDB Philippines, apologised for the "unfortunate oversight".
 
Reply
  • Wow
  • Haha
Likes   Reactions: Rive and Ibix
Um...

1688761921181.png

https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/nat...-be-better-world-leaders-than-humans/3267877/

Robots told reporters Friday they could be more efficient leaders than humans, but wouldn't take anyone's job away and had no intention of rebelling against their creators.

Nine AI-enabled humanoid robots sat or stood with their creators at a podium in a Geneva conference center for what the United Nations' International Telecommunication Union billed as the world's first news conference featuring humanoid social robots.

Among them: Sophia, the first robot innovation ambassador for the U.N. Development Program; Grace, described as the world's most advanced humanoid health care robot; and Desdemona, a rock star robot. Two, Geminoid and Nadine, closely resembled their makers.

The event was part of the AI for Good Global Summit, meant to illustrate how new technology can support the U.N.'s goals for sustainable development.

Reporters were asked to speak slowly and clearly when addressing the robots, and were informed that time lags in responses would be due to the internet connection and not to the robots themselves. That didn't prevent awkward pauses, audio problems and some robotic replies.
 
Reply
  • Haha
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: OmCheeto and Ivan Seeking
On another note, I won't say more for now, but check out what Senator Marco Rubio is doing these days [key word "whistleblower"].

PS It was Senators John McCain and Harry Reid who started all of this.
 
Last edited:

Toronto Zoo Asks Visitors to Stop Showing Gorillas 'Upsetting' Cell Phone Videos​

...Nassir [a teenage gorilla] is described on the zoo’s website as “truly the epitome of a teenager, fascinated by videos and screen time would dominate his life if he had his way.”

“We’ve had a lot of members and guests that actually will put their phones up to the glass and show him videos,” Maria Franke, the zoo’s director of wildlife conservation and welfare, reported to The Toronto Star.

“It was causing him to be distracted and not interacting with the other gorillas, and you know, being a gorilla. He was just so enthralled with gadgets and phones and the videos.”
https://www.mensjournal.com/news/gorilla-videos-toronto-zoo
 
Reply
  • Wow
  • Informative
  • Haha
Likes   Reactions: collinsmark, jack action and BillTre

When an airline made his bag disappear, a magician bought another plane ticket just to get back in the airport and track it down with an Apple AirTag — and found it sitting right on the tarmac.​

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/ne...nd-it-sitting-right-on-the-tarmac/ar-AA1e8Giu

Danny Orleans told Insider he got off the plane around 12:15 p.m., went to the United Lounge for a free lunch, and then headed to baggage claim. When he arrived, everyone on his flight was still waiting for their luggage to appear.

Thankfully he had a trick up his sleeve — an Apple AirTag in his missing bag.

"I checked and I could still see that it was still out on the runway. It was not in the terminal," Orleans said. "I waited and it didn't move. I waited and it didn't move. I waited about 30 minutes, and then it moved — but it moved to another place on the runway."

He explained that he could see where his bag was on the AirTag app, but the employee said they could not do anything with the information. Instead, they said they could send his luggage to where he was staying within five days, but he needed the bag for his show the following day and was only planning to be in town for three.

"After I waited in that line I said, 'I'm going to take matters into my own hands,'" he said.

He consulted the terminal map and thought it looked like his bag might be near gate 90, even though his flight had pulled in at gate 113. But, he was outside security in baggage claim.

Orleans said he bought a fully refundable ticket to Boston that he had no intention of taking. He went back through security, walked all the way to gate 90, and looked out the window.

There was his bag, right where the AirTag said it would be, stranded and alone on the tarmac.

He found a United employee who listened to his story and went out of their way to help. Orleans pointed out his bag on the tarmac and said the employee's "eyes got really big," adding "he hadn't seen that kind of thing before."

The employee then went out to the tarmac to recover the bag, all while Orleans watched through the window. The employee could not bring the bag directly to Orleans, but moved it into the proper channels so it would come out at baggage claim, where Orleans was finally able to pick it up — four hours after his flight had landed.

He made it to the trade show the following day and was able to perform.
 
Reply
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: OmCheeto, collinsmark, mfb and 2 others
Astronuc said:

When an airline made his bag disappear, a magician bought another plane ticket just to get back in the airport and track it down with an Apple AirTag — and found it sitting right on the tarmac.​

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/ne...nd-it-sitting-right-on-the-tarmac/ar-AA1e8GiuHe consulted the terminal map and thought it looked like his bag might be near gate 90, even though his flight had pulled in at gate 113. But, he was outside security in baggage claim.

If you aren't a magician, it's bye-bye luggage.
 
1690217938342.png

https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/24/entertainment/oppenheimer-flag-mistake-intl-scli/index.html
CNN —

Christopher Nolan’s latest film, “Oppenheimer,” has become one half of the box office and pop culture phenomenon “Barbenheimer,” sweeping up glowing reviews along the way.

But eagle-eyed fans have spotted a mistake in a scene set in 1945, as Cillian Murphy’s J. Robert Oppenheimer stands among a crowd waving American flags – bearing the wrong number of stars.

“It was good and all, but I’ll be that guy and complain they used 50-star flags in a scene set in 1945,” Twitter user Andy Craig wrote on Friday.

In 1945, the American flag featured 48 stars, as Alaska and Hawaii hadn’t yet become US states.

It wasn’t until July 4, 1960 that a 50-star flag was first flown in the US.
 
Reply
  • Like
  • Love
  • Informative
Likes   Reactions: mfb, phinds, BillTre and 2 others
If you can hear them talk, you can hear them breathe. The "fourth wall" convention allows the audience to hear their radio comms. Or am I missing something?
 
Reply
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: Hornbein
Swamp Thing said:
If you can hear them talk, you can hear them breathe. The "fourth wall" convention allows the audience to hear their radio comms. Or am I missing something?
Although I share your puzzlement, I don't agree that this has anything to do with the "forth wall". "Breaking the forth wall" specifically means that an actor turns to the audience (or camera) and address us directly.

EDIT: OOPS ! Looked it up just to be sure. Your use is of the "forth wall" is correct. Sorry. My understanding of "BREAKING the forth wall" is also correct (and the only way in which I had ever heard the term used), but that's not the sense in which you were using it.
 
Borg said:
My favorite science blooper has always been this one from the movie 2010.


How are they holding on to the rotating sphere?