In Other News

[N35t0r]

I just never heard unliving before.
New P.C.

It's not political correctness.

[Ming]

How about sticking to the topic... there are more than enough other threads where this can be discussed if you wish

[SlowwHand]

Another b.s. pne

[EPW]

Have you heard the word "unhoused" as a substitute for homeless? That one always makes me cringe when they say it on NPR.

[SlowwHand]

I just never heard unliving before.
New P.C.

[EPW]

It's also not true, he died 4 months later.

[Ming]

Not what I would call a funny or feel good story

[SlowwHand]

Former N*zi concentration camp guard Michael Kolnhofer points a revolver at reporters and TV cameramen who want to interview him about the denaturalization proceedings just initiated against him. He was taken out by the police after a brief shootout, Kansas City, Kansas, 1996.

In 1996, a quiet Kansas neighborhood became the site of a dramatic confrontation with the past. Michael Kolnhofer, a 75-year-old retiree living in Kansas City, had been identified by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Special Investigations as a former concentration camp guard. After decades of living under his American identity, Kolnhofer was facing denaturalization and possible deportation for concealing his wartime record.

When journalists arrived to cover the story, Kolnhofer refused to speak and instead appeared at his front door brandishing a revolver. Moments later, he fired at reporters and police. Officers returned fire, unaliving him at the scene. The event was captured on camera and broadcast nationwide, serving as a grim reminder that the legacy of World War II atrocities still lingered in unexpected corners of the modern world.

Kolnhofer’s case reflected the ongoing U.S. effort to identify and prosecute N*zi collaborators who had entered the country under false pretenses. By the late twentieth century, dozens of similar investigations had uncovered men who had lived quietly for decades before being exposed for their wartime roles.

Added Fact: The Office of Special Investigations, founded in 1979, ultimately stripped U.S. citizenship from over 100 former collaborators and deported many to face justice abroad, marking one of the longest and most complex efforts to confront war crimes within American borders.

[BeBMan]

Apple's selling diving goggles now:

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/15/apple-macbook-pro-laptops-m5-chip.html

[BeBMan]

Godzilla Dog!

[Broken_Erika]

'He just kept growing': Life with a 13-stone Arctic dog


Fluffy ears, tiny paws and adorable eyes. Picking an Alaskan Malamute puppy was not hard for owner Amy Sharp. But as her four-legged friend grew tremendously in size, so did the responsibility.
"His collar is as big as someone's belt. We didn't think he'd get this big," says Amy, laughing.
Mal is five years old and now fully grown, weighing in at 13 stone (82 kg).
He is strikingly similar in size to a Shetland pony but large dogs have always been part of 27-year-old Amy's life.
When her family's 13-year-old husky passed away they decided to get an Alaskan Malamute puppy - a breed originally used as sled dogs and relied upon for endurance and strength.
Mal lives a much slower life than that. But Amy, from Bourne, says his strength can still be very much witnessed, often when she is walking him.
"I'm always being asked, who's walking who?" she says. "We get a lot of head turnings, if people are driving by, you can tell by their eyes they're just like, what?"

Alaskan Malamutes take their name from an Inuit tribe that settled along the shores of Kotzebue Sound in north-western Alaska, according to the American Kennel Club.
The PDSA says they typically grow to between five or six stone (34-39kg) and have a special "double coat" which helps keep them warm in Arctic temperatures.
Amy says she "didn't really notice" how big her dog had grown until he started to grow quickly out of harnesses and collars.
"He just got bigger and bigger," she says.
One of the challenges has been finding someone to groom Mal's coat.
She recently had to make an appeal on social media to ask for help brushing him because previous groomers were not able to do it anymore.
The post was met with hundreds of likes and comments with people marvelling at Mal's size and wanting to help.
Later, while waiting for an appointment in a salon, someone asked if she'd seen the post of "the big dog on Facebook".
"I said, he's mine!" she laughs.

Amy's plea was successful and she quickly found a groomer eager to work on Mal simply because of his breed.

It's considered the "four by four" version of the Arctic dog class because they're used to pulling heavy weights for long distances, according to Joan Sheehan from The Alaskan Malamute Club of the UK.

Though she described the breed as "stunning", she warned that owning one comes with challenges.

"You've got to have strength in mind and body [and] be mindful that if you go for a lovely looking fluffy one, then you've got to be prepared to work with the coat," she says.

"Because you will be living with it in your bed, in your food, on your clothes and everywhere else."

Amy has been on the receiving end of Mal's strength and accompanying stubbornness countless times - often he sits down at the end of his walks and refuses to come inside.

"You can't move him, so the neighbours come out and they'll try and get him to move," says Amy.

"He'll just lay there and be like, I'm not ready to go home yet."

Though he can also be "very loud" with his "back-chatting", Amy has no regrets about her choice of dog.

She would encourage people to do their research before buying a large breed but says her life has become entwined with her furry friend.

"He's a gentle giant. It's Mal's world and we're all just living in it."

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20vr00plz4o

[BeBMan]

California police stumped after trying to ticket driverless car for illegal U-turn

If a driver makes an illegal U-turn, but no one is behind the wheel, does the car still get a ticket? A police department in California grappled with this existential question last week.

During a DUI enforcement operation, officers in San Bruno pulled over a car without anyone behind the wheel after the autonomous vehicle made an illegal U-turn at a light. A post by the San Bruno police department on Saturday shows an officer looking into a Waymo – the leading autonomous ride-hailing vehicle in the San Francisco Bay Area – after stopping the signature white car.

“Since there was no human driver, a ticket couldn’t be issued (our citation books don’t have a box for “robot”),” reads the post.

(...)

https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...driverless-car

[BeBMan]

Next: Albertan steer vs. aggressive squirrel deadmatch

[Broken_Erika]

Meet Beef: a mega-sized Albertan steer with a record-breaking height
The massive steer is taller than a pickup truck and as heavy as a rhinoceros




It was love at first sight when Jasmine Entz locked eyes with Beef's scrawny, slimy body covered in straw that had emerged from the womb at the first slip of dawn in August 2017.

"He looked at me and I looked at him and I thought: that one's cute," said Entz, of Vulcan County, Alta.

She asked her boss at the dairy farm if she could take the calf home once he was weaned off milk. He said yes.

For reasons she didn't understand, Entz, 29, had always wanted a steer she could ride.

She had no intention of raising one that would become a global phenomenon, taller than a pickup truck, as heavy as a rhinoceros — her own bovine version of Clifford the Big Red Dog.

The Guinness Book of World Records announced Beef as the world's tallest living steer at 1.95 metres tall (six foot five), edging out by one centimetre the record held by an Oregon steer named Romeo.

Beef, now eight years old, last weighed in at 1,100 kilograms (2,400 pounds), when officials took his measurements two years ago as the first step in confirming the record.

He's grown since then, Entz said, which Beef confirmed when he could no longer fit inside his trailer earlier this year.

About 45 kilograms of hay is needed each day to power the hulking Holstein, Entz said, at a cost of about $400 a month.

"I was always told that steers never stopped growing. And I was like, 'That's got to be a lie,"' she said. "Except here we are, at eight years old, and he's still growing."

Beef is a breed of cattle often fed to eventually be slaughtered for meat. Despite his name, he was never meant to be anything more than a pet.

Entz started training him to pull a cart and later to saddle up and ride.

She was riding him by the time he turned two, and it was sheer joy, she said.

But that only lasted one season. That year, Entz gave Beef the winter off after he was injured. She hasn't saddled him up since, in part because she'd need to get a customized tack to fit his body.

In those intervening years, she said she realized through suggestions from friends that Beef's size likely put him in record territory.

Beef is now living out his days grazing across the farm with his "best buddy" Josie, a white cow covered in black speckles, a horse named Talent and more than 50 miniature goats.

"He literally lounges. That's the best way to put it — he doesn't do much of anything," Entz said.

Except eat.

And that makes fall a special time.

Last year, Beef needed just three hours to polish off an entire post-Halloween pickup full of pumpkins.

"He sees a pumpkin coming towards him," said Entz, "and he lights right up."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/beef-tallest-steer-alberta-1.7645648

[SlowwHand]