In Other News

[Ming]

California nabs insurance fraud suspects in bear-y unusual case
They submitted an insurance claim for a bear attack. But the video showed it was allegedly a person in a bear costume.


Detectives found a bear costume and meat claws, which are used by chefs to shred meat, in the suspects’ home after executing a search warrant. | Courtesy California Department of Insurance

SACRAMENTO, California — Four Californians allegedly used a bear costume to damage their luxury vehicles and claim insurance payouts, California officials announced Wednesday.

State Insurance Department officials said they had investigated claims that a bear clawed its way into a 2010 Rolls Royce Ghost, a 2015 Mercedes G63 AMG and a 2022 Mercedes E350 on Jan. 28 in the forested resort town of Lake Arrowhead, causing interior damage. The suspects’ insurance company, which officials did not name, sought an investigation after reviewing the attached grainy black-and-white video footage.

Insurance Department detectives reviewed the footage, which showed a large, furry creature entering the vehicles and causing scratches and other interior damages, and concluded “it was actually a person in a bear costume.” The detectives nicknamed their investigation “Operation Bear Claw.”

“To further ensure it was not actually a bear in the video, the Department had a biologist from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife review the three alleged bear videos and they also opined it was clearly a human in a bear suit,” the Insurance Department said in a release.

Detectives found a bear costume and meat claws, which are used by chefs to shred meat, in the suspects’ home after executing a search warrant.

Police arrested the four suspects on insurance fraud and conspiracy charges.

The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s office, which is prosecuting the suspects, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The allegedly fraudulent payout was $141,839, the Insurance Department said.

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/13/california-arrest-insurance-fraud-00189470

[-Jrabbit]

That's just weird. Definitely in the category of "other" news.

[BeBMan]

Found this mildly amusing:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/11/china-midnight-dumpling-bike-ride-zhengzhou-kaifeng

[BeBMan]

Lol, Pr0nBarbie?

[Broken_Erika]

Mattel 'deeply regrets' porn site misprint on Wicked dolls

Toy manufacturer Mattel has said it "deeply regrets" a misprint on packaging for dolls inspired by the new Wicked movie which listed the address for an adult website.
The company recently released the singing dolls ahead of the long-awaited film starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.
But eagle-eyed fans posted images on social media showing the packaging had a pornography website on it, instead of the movie's web address.
In a statement, Mattel apologised for the "unfortunate error" and advised parents that the misprinted website "is not appropriate for children".

The BBC has seen online instructions on Mattel's website, for both the Glinda and Elphaba dolls, listing the erroneous website underneath the Universal Pictures logo - the film studio behind the movie.
Mattel recommends the dolls for children aged four and above.
Fans who bought the doll posted about their surprise on social media.
"I purchased the Singing Elphaba doll and upon inspection, the website printed on the back side [of the] Mattel box, right above the barcode is listed as... an unaffiliated adult [not safe for work] 18+ website," one person posted on Reddit.
"Anyone else seeing this!?"
In another post, a US-based woman said: "Went to Target and Walmart today and yeah, the Wicked dolls have the [porn] website listed."

Mattel said the dolls had primarily been sold in the US.
It added: "We deeply regret this unfortunate error and are taking immediate action to remedy this."
"Consumers who already have the product are advised to discard the product packaging or obscure the link and may contact Mattel customer service for further information."
The Wicked movie comes after two decades of the musical on stage.
Set in the Land of Oz before Dorothy Gales' arrival from Kansas, the movie covers the musical's first act.
British actress Erivo plays Elphaba, a young woman misunderstood because of her green skin and who is yet to discover her power which will eventually lead her to becoming the Wicked Witch of the West.
She strikes up an unlikely friendship with classmate Glinda, played by Grammy-winning singer Grande, who will go on to become the Good Witch of the North.
The movie is set to be released in the US and UK on 22 November.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gz91pp5llo

[BeBMan]

Black balls of goop on Oz beaches...






[Originally from CNN, but I found it on Yahoo]
https://www.yahoo.com/news/mysteriou...909892.html

I reject these disgusting blobs, and declare other disgusting blobs to be the only true disgusting blobs!

[-Jrabbit]

Dude, the whole point of this thread was to have a place free from pandemics, politics, and such.
See Ming's OP. Kthx.

[Dauphin]

I think it's a toss up between 45 and 47.

[My Wife Hates CIV]

Both President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Fox News in October that they considered any Iranian threats against Trump to be a "top-tier" national security issue, and said any attempt by the IRGC to actually harm Trump would be met with kinetic military action equal to "an act of war."

Now that this has happened... DOJ released findings. Biden will do nothing. This is why he got voted out. He will go down as the worst president in history.

[-Jrabbit]

Black balls of goop on Oz beaches...

Mysterious black balls that washed up on Sydney beach were foul-smelling mini ‘fatbergs’

Lex Harvey
Updated Thu, November 7, 2024 at 10:35 AM CST·2 min read

The mystery of the black balls that washed up on some of Sydney’s most iconic beaches last month has now been solved – and it’s more disgusting than you could ever imagine.

Australian beachgoers were turned away from seven beaches last month after lifeguards spotted thousands of black spheres, prompting closures and clean-up efforts. A team of scientists at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) has revealed the black balls – initially thought to be made of tar – were actually mini “fatbergs,” made up of human feces, methamphetamine, human hair, fatty acids, and food waste, among hundreds of other vile and befuddling substances.

“They smell absolutely disgusting, they smell worse than anything you’ve ever smelt,” lead investigator Associate Professor Jon Beves told CNN affiliate 9News.

The New South Wales Environment Protection Authority (EPA) first warned Sydney residents to avoid swimming or touching the balls on October 17, after they were spotted at seven beaches including the city’s famed Bondi Beach.

At that stage their contents were “a mystery” and local officials ordered a series of tests to find out what they were and where they came from.

Initial testing suggested they were made from unrefined oil, potentially from an oil spill, Beves and UNSW professor William Alexander Donald wrote on website The Conversation.

“However, further testing indicated a different, more disgusting, composition.”

The balls were consistent with fatbergs, congealed masses of fats, oils and greasy molecules that can accumulate in sewage, the scientists wrote, noting their presence highlights the issue of pollution along Sydney’s coastline.

“I wouldn’t want to be swimming with them,” Donald told 9News.

Fatbergs come in all shapes and sizes. In 2021, a massive, 330-ton fatberg wreaked havoc in Birmingham, UK when it clogged a city sewer for weeks.

These Sydney fatbergs were no ordinary fatbergs, however. The blobs contained everything from fecal matter to medication and recreational drugs, the scientists wrote.

Where these gross balls came from still remains a mystery.

The balls likely originated from “a source that releases mixed waste,” according to a media release from the EPA Wednesday.

“Authorities have considered several possible causes, such as a shipping spill or wastewater outflow,” the statement said.

“However, due to the complex composition of the balls and the time they have spent in the water, testing has not been able to confirm their exact origin.”

[Originally from CNN, but I found it on Yahoo]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/mysterious-black-balls-washed-sydney-074909892.html

[EPW]

No, but I admit I did see post # 1122

[N35t0r]

I have bad news for some Poly posters

Did you not read the news posted immediately above yours?

[EPW]

I have bad news for some Poly posters

Those typing monkeys will never produce Shakespeare’s works, mathematicians say



By Amarachi Orie, CNN

3 minute read
Published 12:08 PM EDT, Fri November 1, 2024


Researchers from Australia have rejected the Infinite Monkey Theorem as "misleading."


Independent Television News/Shutterstock Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.
CNN —
Talented though they may be, monkeys will never type out the complete works of William Shakespeare, or even a short book, a new study suggests.
The Infinite Monkey Theorem is a famous thought experiment that states that a monkey pressing random keys on a typewriter would eventually reproduce the works of the Bard if given an infinite amount of time and/or if there were an infinite number of monkeys.
However, in the study published in the peer-reviewed journal Franklin Open, two mathematicians from Australia’s University of Technology Sydney have rejected this theorem as “misleading” within the confines of our finite universe.
They challenged it by looking at the Finite Monkeys Theorem, in which there is a finite amount of time and a finite number of monkeys.



Related article These monkeys use names to communicate with each other, study finds

They took the assumption that the current population of around 200,000 chimpanzees would remain the same over the lifespan of the universe of one googol years (that’s 1 followed by 100 zeros). They also assumed that each chimpanzee would type one key per second for every second of the day, with each monkey having a working lifespan of just over 30 years.
Using these assumptions, the researchers calculated that among these randomly-typing monkeys, there is just a 5% chance that a word as simple as “bananas” would occur in the lifespan of one chimpanzee.
They found that a short sentence such as “I chimp, therefore I am” will “almost certainly never be produced by any currently living chimp,” study co-author and mathematician Stephen Woodcock, an associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney, told CNN on Friday.
“By the time you’re at the scale of a full book, you’re billions of billions of times less likely,” he continued.
Woodcock and co-author Jay Falletta, a senior research consultant at the university, concluded in the study that, even with more chimpanzees or quicker typing, it is “not plausible” that monkey labor will ever be a viable tool for “developing written works of anything beyond the trivial.”

“Even if every atom in our known universe were its own universe on the scale of ours, we would still have pretty much no chance of ever seeing something as long as even a short book,” such as “Curious George,” which is around 1,800 words, “before the end of the universe,” Woodcock told CNN.

“Personally, I think it’s fascinating how misleading the well-established result for the infinite resource case is,” he added. “Yes, it is true that given infinite resources, any text of any length would inevitably be produced eventually. While true, this also has no relevance to our own universe, as ‘reaching infinity’ in resources is not something which can ever happen.”
Interdisciplinary clinician-scientist Chris Banerji, theme lead for Clinical AI at the Alan Turing Institute in London, agrees that monkeys randomly typing Shakespeare’s works is unlikely since the Finite Monkeys Theorem is “correct,” but he told CNN on Friday that the Infinite Monkey Theorem “still holds.”
“While the situation seems dire, there may be hope for the monkeys yet,” said Banerji, who was not involved in the study. “The universe is very large, and there is room for many more chimps than live here on Earth, under some cosmological theories there may even be infinite space or infinitely many universes.”
He said that “if we accept the possibility of these infinite worlds” then “the monkeys’successful replication of Shakespeare is an ‘eventual certainty,’” as the Infinite Monkey Theorem states. “In the words of the Bard ‘Until I know this sure uncertainty, I’ll entertain the offered fallacy.’”

[N35t0r]

The only thing I'm getting here is that we need more monkeys. Or BETTER monkeys!

Let's genetically engineer monkeys to love longer and type faster, and her the cloning vats going!

[Uncle Sparky]

Tests show it take 26 monkeys 10 day to write 'The Art of the Deal'.