Weird News

[Trilby]

Originally Posted by infinite monkey

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/31...len/?hpt=hp_t3

This is clearly a French Canadian move to dominate, nay, control the maple syrup supply. It's a kin to North Korea controlling plutonium. We're in wicked deep trouble people. Wicked deep.

I imagine the Mounties are searching the toque's of every trapper for evidence of the crime. Also, the article doesn't mention-but were any trees violated in the process? That could narrow down the suspects...

[Trilby]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

Attachment 40676



I love how they've narrowed down the possible location -- "somewhere in west Texas".

that looks like the thing Homer throws out of his car window on the way home (though his is glowing an eerie greenish color)

so, now we know Springfield is somewhere in Texas! it all makes sense now!

[footfootfoot]

A Dorwin Award Winner

http://metronews.ca/news/canada/3476...wedding-dress/

[glatt]

Los Angeles is cutting down 400 mature trees so Space Shuttle Endeavour can be trucked from the airport to a museum. 400 trees!

Space shuttle Endeavour's final 12-mile journey through the streets of South Los Angeles already promises to be a meticulously planned spectacle: a two-day parade, an overnight slumber party in Inglewood and enough hoopla to create a giant traffic mess.

But for some residents in South L.A., the excitement of the shuttle rumbling through their neighborhoods quickly faded when they learned that 400 trees will be chopped down to make room for the behemoth.

The California Science Center — Endeavour's final home — has agreed to replant twice as many trees along the route from the shuttle's docking place at Los Angeles International Airport to Exposition Park.

But that's not enough to satisfy some tree lovers.

"They are cutting down these really big, majestic trees," said Lark Galloway-Gilliam, a longtime Leimert Park resident and neighborhood council director. "It will be beyond my lifetime before they will be tall like this again."

Many worry that the replacements — young, wiry trees that will provide little shade — will pale in comparison to the mature magnolias that line the Crenshaw corridor. Others are concerned that the bare streets will further depreciate property values.

City officials and the science center are hoping the historical significance of housing the shuttle will offset the tree loss.

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

...Our local trash-to-steam incinerator has a thingy that can detect a smoke detector in the middle of a trash truck...

Why would it need to do that? Don't want to burn a smoke detector?

Originally Posted by Trilby

Also, the article doesn't mention-but were any trees violated in the process? That could narrow down the suspects...

Narrow down to what? Ents?

[Trilby]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

Narrow down to what? Ents?

twas a joke, Spexx. a little tiny joke.

PS what's an Ent?

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

Why would it need to do that? Don't want to burn a smoke detector?

They're radioactive.

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by Trilby

twas a joke, Spexx. a little tiny joke.

PS what's an Ent?

I know it was. I was joking back. An ent is a "tree-person" from The Lord Of The Rings

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

Why would it need to do that? Don't want to burn a smoke detector?

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

They're radioactive.

Americium, IIRC.

[Cyber Wolf]

1) Volunteer to repaint a decaying picture in a church.
2) Botch the job tremendously.
3) ???
4) Profit.

A Spanish woman who made headlines worldwide for her botched attempt to restore a 20th-century painting of Jesus Christ says she has hired lawyers and wants royalties from the fees church owners are charging visitors, according to the daily Spanish-language newspaper El Correo.

The local artist, 80-year-old Cecilia Gimenez, initially defended her volunteer work saying she was restoring the decaying "Ecce Homo" ("Behold the Man") portrait because no one else would. The before and after pictures went viral across the globe and tourists began arriving in droves -- but very few were leaving donations according to Ars Technica. The sanctuary's owners, the Santi Spiritus Hospital Foundation, reportedly made $2,600 in four days from visitors wanting to see "Ecce Mono," or "Behold the Monkey" as it's now called, Ars Technica reported.

The church has hired lawyers of its own to protect its revenue, Ars Technica said, "Luckily, though, Gimenez is not charging the millions of Internet users who have shared and spoofed her painting all over the world with copyright abuse."

The story blew up on social networks and put the northern Spanish town of Borja and its population of about 30,000 at the center of an international joke. Gimenez said she suffered from anxiety attacks, according to El Correo, and sought privacy. With upcoming litigation though, she "apparently recovered from the anxiety she initially experienced and is now looking to get paid," as Gawker said.

[Gravdigr]

WTF?

A rapper that goes by his real name...?
A rapper that drives a Sentra...???

[BrianR]

ASPIRING rapper.

He wasn't really thug yet. Only real thugs drive Escalades with $100,000 in add-ons.

[Lamplighter]

Maybe this belongs in the "You know you are old" thread
... but I find this completely weird and insane.

Wall Street Journal
Amir Efrati
September 25, 2012, 11:00 PM

California Legalizes Self-Driving Cars

California on Tuesday became the third state to effectively legalize
self-driving car technology, which Google and many automakers are developing.

I was sensitized to something similar several weeks ago when I drove
into an industrialized area of PDX for the first time in a couple of years.
At a railroad crossing (with a stop sign) there is another sign that says something like:
"Beware - driverless trains on these tracks"

My thought was "Jeez, has the Afghanistan War brought us drone trains now" ?
But I can sort of understand driverless (commuter) trains,
but I'm way too old to accept driverless cars on the roads.

[glatt]

The DC Metro used to be driven by computer and the drivers were only there to make announcements and to open the doors.

Then there was the accident because of the faulty track sensors, so now the drivers drive the trains again. There have been two driver error accidents since that switch was made.

Out at Dulles airport, the trains to the far terminals have no drivers at all. Everything is automated, and they are much smoother riding than Metrorail ever was.

I think when the system works, computer controlled vehicles are better. But we've all seen how computers can fail.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by glatt

I think when the system works, computer controlled vehicles are better. But we've all seen how computers can fail.

All systems can fail, but when computers fail we freak out because they fail in a way that we can't envision ourselves doing.