Weird News Compilation

[jack action]

I now feel protected.

The EU Just Banned Rolls-Royce’s Illuminated Hood Ornament to Reduce Light Pollution

​

The $4,558 optional hood ornament has been available since 2013.

[...] if you live in an EU country and Rolls is already fitted with the glowing figurine, you’ll have to take it into an authorized dealership and have it swapped out for the traditional stainless-steel version free of charge.

The ban can be traced back to Regulation No. 48 of the ECE, which aims to cut down on light pollution caused by motor vehicles within the political and economic union. [...] In fact, the illuminated figurine is only lit when the car is stationary and its other lights are on.

 

[mfb]

All this seems to be "sourced" to the Daily Mail and then everyone copied it (with or without reference), I would be skeptical.

£3,500 for a piece of glass and an LED looks a bit overpriced.
At the current conversion rate this is $4,516 but different news include different prices, some up to $6000, and you can find these prices in groups, i.e. people copy them from each other blindly.

Edit: I checked the EU regulation and "pollution" doesn't appear there. Not even once.

 

[Ibix]

All this seems to be "sourced" to the Daily Mail and then everyone copied it (with or without reference), I would be skeptical.

"Skeptical" doesn't even begin to describe the appropriate reaction to anything sourced from the Daily Mail, particularly if it's about Europe.

Edit: I checked the EU regulation and "pollution" doesn't appear there. Not even once.

From what I read of it, it appears to be a standards document for legal layouts and colours of lights on some classes of vehicle. Presumably a Rolls is a class M or N vehicle and a glowing figurine doesn't meet the standard. Edit: on the plus side, I've now found an advantage of Brexit - if I had a Rolls with a glowing hood ornament, I could keep it.

 

[mfb]

Break in at Escape Room: thieves crack safe but find only riddles

No, this is not from a satire website.

 

[Keith_McClary]

I now feel protected.

Hood ornament? What hood ornament?

 

[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.