In Other News

[Uncle Sparky]

That is quite a tail.

[Ming]

And I thought the "dog ate my homework" was a lame excuse...


Cops Fired After Blaming Missing Half-Ton Of Pot On Stoner Mice

A judge tried to weed out the truth.



What a ratty thing to do ― blaming mice for 1,000 pounds of missing marijuana.

That’s the dubious excuse eight police officers in Pilar, Argentina, gave after a half-ton of pot disappeared from a police warehouse.

About 13,000 pounds of bud were supposed to be in storage, but a recent police inspection revealed 1,000 pounds were missing, according to The Guardian.

Javer Specia, the city’s former police commissioner, was ordered to explain the shortfall to a judge. He and three subordinates told the skeptical jurist the missing marijuana must have been eaten by mice.

Experts, however, sent that theory up in smoke, saying rodents wouldn’t confuse marijuana with food. In the off-chance they did, the mice likely would have died from the dope, and investigators would have found the cannabis-laden corpses, according to USA Today.

“Buenos Aires University experts have explained that mice wouldn’t mistake the drug for food, and that if a large group of mice had eaten it, a lot of corpses would have been found in the warehouse,” a spokesperson for the judge said.

All eight officers were dismissed from their jobs, and will testify in front of the judge on May 4. The judge will then decide if the drugs are missing due to “expedience or negligence,” according to the BBC.

[BeBMan]

Something that normally only happens in movies:

Whale sculpture stops Dutch train crashing into water

A metro train that overran the stop blocks at a station outside Rotterdam has been left balancing 10 metres above ground on the plastic tail of a whale sculpture.

The metro driver was reportedly able to free himself from the train without injury after the incident shortly after midnight on Monday morning. There were no passengers onboard.

Maarten Struijs, who made the sculpture of two tails emerging from water beneath the elevated metro line, said he was surprised the sculpture had held together.

(...)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/02/all-cetaceans-go-whale-sculpture-stops-dutch-train-crashing-into-water

[ricketyclik]

I've sleep-weed many times. Always while very drunk.

[Ming]

Ronald McDonald appears if you say ‘canceled clown’ in Burger King mirror



Bloody Mary is getting a run for her money.

As part of a Halloween publicity campaign, Burger King has summoned the mascot of its rival fast food chain:

“Four years ago a particular clown was abruptly cancelled by his employer,” reads the text on a trailer Burger King released Monday on its Swedish YouTube channel. The clip then cuts to black and white security camera footage of customers walking into a restaurant bathroom and recording themselves saying “cancelled clown,” three times into the mirror.

The words trigger the lights to turn off and for Ronald McDonald to appear in the mirror — causing horrified customers to make faces in the dark and run out of the bathroom, according to the rest of the trailer.

To create the prank, the chain installed voice-recognition software in the bathrooms, Business Insider reported.

“Do you dare to make him appear?” the trailer asks. “Summon him and you might be rewarded,” teases the video description.

The spooky trick is a riff on the “Bloody Mary,” urban legend. According to folklore, saying “Bloody Mary,” in a mirror repeatedly makes a ghost appear and cause any number of kinds of pain and suffering to the chanter.

The 2020 Halloween stunt is only the most recent in Burger King’s campaigns taking a bite out of McDonald’s.

In 2017, in another jab at Ronald, the chain offered free Whoppers to anyone dressed up like a clown for their “Scary Clown Night.” In 2019, Burger King went after McDonald’s following its failed bid to trademark “Big Mac” in Europe, with Burger Kings’ Swedish operation revamping its menu to have an entire section called “Not Big Macs,” including options such as “Like a Big Mac but Actually Big,” “The Burger Big Mac Wished it Was” and “Anything but a Big Mac.”

The trolling has also gone in the other direction. In 2017, a McDonald’s street sign placed directly outside a Burger King outlet urged customers to make a U-turn, reading: “You’ve just passed us.”

https://nypost.com/2020/10/28/ronald-mcdonald-appears-if-you-say-canceled-clown-in-burger-king-mirror/

[BeBMan]

The saying "better late than never" has never been more apt than for Berlin's new airport which is finally opening — nearly 10 years behind schedule.

The Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER), which continues its streak of luck by opening in the middle of a pandemic that has caused travel worldwide to plummet, was meant to open its door on October 30, 2011, but poor planning and construction work has delayed the project multiple times and inflated its cost to the tunes of billions of euros.

Euronews recaps the whole saga.

(snipsnap)

full: https://www.euronews.com/2020/10/31/...es-over-budget

The project had become more of a running gag over the years. Now it opens the gates - and will start with losses in the first year due to the pandemic. With some luck it may become an important hub for air travel in the future though....if air travel come back that is...

[Kidlicious]

Man falls 15 ft into pit of rats after sinkhole opens up in NYC.

https://dailycaller.com/2020/10/29/leonard-shoulders-new-york-city-bronx-rats-sidewalk-sinkhole/

[Uncle Sparky]

https://www.advocate.com/news/2020/10/28/majority-gays-are-possessed-ghosts-so-called-study-says?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=news&fbclid=IwAR1gLM75V4mTNPsNp6wi4H4ZFokhCpagKLo1yC0WNHcbz6rqx4OeSIvqxv0

Majority of Gays Are Possessed by Ghosts

Sugar, spice, and ... ghostly possession? Those are ingredients that make up a huge chunk of the LGBTQ+ population, if one absurd "research study" is to be believed.

[Ming]

Detroit woman left horrified after a well-known North Carolina pastor 'peed on her as she slept on a red eye flight from Las Vegas'

• · Alicia Beverly had been flying from Las Vegas to Detroit, Michigan after enjoying a girl's trip in Sin City
  · She was sleeping next to her sister when she felt a warm liquid fall on her
  · Beverly screamed and discovered the puddle of urine in her seat
  · An off-duty cop happened to be on the flight and detained the pastor from North Carolina
  · The unidentified pastor is said to have had a reaction to a sleep aid
  · FBI will determine whether the man will be charged

A woman catching a red eye flight from Las Vegas has been left traumatized after a pastor from North Carolina allegedly urinated on her while on the plane.
Alicia Beverly had been flying from Las Vegas to Detroit, Michigan on Monday after enjoying a girl's trip in Sin City.
She had been sleeping next to her sister on the Delta flight when she suddenly felt a warm liquid splashing on her.



Beverly looked about in her sleepy haze and was shocked to discover what she found.
'I jump up and I seen his private area out and I screamed and that woke everybody up,' she said. 'By that time I actually looked at him and I see him shake himself off and I'm like this man just peed on me! I looked and there was a puddle of pee in the seats!'
Beverly immediately got up and screamed, waking up everyone on the plane, including an off-duty officer who came and restrained the man.
The unidentified pastor is said to have had a reaction to a sleep aid, according to sources familiar with the incident.
'He didn't say anything the whole time he was standing there,' Beverly shared.
The woman had to sit in her wet clothes for several hours before landing at Detroit Metro Airport in Romulus.
While the pastor has been taken into custody, he has not been charged as of yet. The case is being handled by the FBI as they deal with incidents in the air.
Beverly has been left with severe anxiety, getting overcome with emotions as she talks about the impact of the incident.
'I left work yesterday because I couldn't stay but I had to tell them why I needed to leave. It was a lot. My anxiety was really high literally. Since then I have only gotten 4 hours of sleep,' she said.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8843595/Woman-left-horrified-known-pastor-peed-slept-red-eye-flight.html

[pchang]

Its time for steak!

[Ming]

Wandering herd of cows trashes school's fall harvest display


A herd of hungry cows made a late-night visit to Edneyville Elementary School in North
Carolina and trashed the school's fall harvest display in an apparent search for snacks.
Photo courtesy of Edneyville Elementary School

Officials at a North Carolina elementary school said they checked security footage and identified the culprits behind the destruction of the school's fall harvest display -- some pumpkin-loving cows.

Edneyville Elementary School posted a photo to Facebook in early October showing the fall harvest display donated by The Nix Pumpkin Patch, but weeks later a follow-up post showed the display in disarray following an apparent act of vandalism.

Principal Marsha Justice said she reviewed security camera footage from outside the school and identified the perpetrators as a group of 11 cows rummaging around the pumpkins and gourds for snacks.

"Thank goodness the damage was repairable, and that we were able to check security footage and get pictures of the 11 perpetrators! If you recognize any of these hooved hoodlums, let us know," the school said in a Facebook post.

Officials said the incident brought some much-needed mirth to the community.

"Needless to say, the unexpected visitors brought some welcome joy and humor to the Edneyville staff this week, and we're happy to share the laughs with our local community," Henderson County Public Schools Public Information Officer Molly McGowan Gorsuch told Blue Ridge Now.

[Ming]

A giant inflatable Borat statue wearing nothing but a mask as a mankini is floating on the Thames ahead of the sequel’s release



Fans of Borat will be able to get an epic selfie with a spectacular semi-naked inflatable of the lead character which is currently floating on the Thames.

The second movie following the antics of the Kazakh ‘journalist’ is set for release on Friday, and the hairy effigy wearing nothing but a surgical mask as a mankini has been tied to the top of a barge in celebration of the release.

The inflatable – showing Borat reclining seductively while throwing up a thumbs up sign – is the size of a whole barge and is clad in just the mask, some socks and shoes, and is frankly a little bit terrifying.

The Sacha Baron Cohen character was first seen in 2006’s Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan and the upcoming film has just as long a title – Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

The film was shot in secret, and sees Borat on a mission to ‘save 2020’, including by hitting coronavirus with a pan to get rid of it as well as gatecrashing political events.

Sacha, 49, revealed he feared for his life while filming, telling Time magazine: ‘While filming my latest Borat film, I showed up as a right-wing singer at a gun-rights rally in Washington State.



‘When organisers finally stormed the stage, I rushed to a nearby get-away vehicle. An angry crowd blocked our way and started pounding on the vehicle with their fists.

‘Under my overalls, I was wearing a bulletproof vest, but it felt inadequate with some people outside toting semiautomatic weapons.

[BeBMan]

Mutant crayfish should be in the next X-Fish movie.

[pchang]

Time for Belgians to develop a taste for crayfish.

[Broken_Erika]

Escaped cloned female mutant crayfish take over Belgian cemetery

Escaped self-cloning mutant crayfish created in experimental breeding programmes have invaded a Belgian cemetery.

Hundreds of the duplicating crustaceans, which can dig down to up to a metre and are always female, pose a deadly threat to local biodiversity after colonising a historic Antwerp graveyard.

"It's impossible to round up all of them. It's like trying to empty the ocean with a thimble," said Kevin Scheers, of the Flemish Institute for Nature and Woodland Research.

Marbled crayfish, which travel across land and water at night and eat whatever they can, do not occur in nature and are banned by the European Union.


Instead, the freshwater beasts, which are about 10cm big and voracious, are thought to have been bred by unscrupulous German pet traders in the 1990s.

They are similar to the slough crayfish found in Florida but are parthenogenetic, which means they reproduce with themselves and all their children are genetically identical females.

The mutation, which occurred about 25 years ago, means populations can spring up rapidly from just a single Procambarus virginalis.

In 2018, scientists established the global marbled crayfish population was descended from a single female and didn't need males to reproduce.

The EU banned possession and release of the uncanny crayfish in 2014 but it is impossible to trace the owners because all the crayfish are genetically exactly the same.

The crayfish have taken root in the pools and streams of the Schoonselhof cemetery in Antwerp, which is known as the Flemish city's Pere Lachaise.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/esc...7Y76OELOTHGPA/