The "And in other news..." thread

[Ashley Hill]

A Dutch man suspected of fathering more than 550 children worldwide through sperm donations has been ordered to stop.
A case of Courtus Interuptus?

 

[birchesgreen]

Didn't see this one coming:

Sperm donor who fathered 550 children ordered to stop

The Dutch man, 41, could be fined more than $100,000 by a court if he tries to donate again.

www.bbc.co.uk

Need to come down hard on this.

 

[edwin_m]

Yes, it should definitely be condomned.

 

[D6130]

Which came first....the Dutchman or the egg?

 

[High Dyke]

BBC News - Maurizio Cattelan: Banana artwork eaten by Seoul museum visitor

Maurizio Cattelan: Banana artwork eaten by Seoul museum visitor

A university student told staff he ate the fruit on display because he was hungry.

www.bbc.co.uk

The artwork called "Comedian", part of Cattelan's's exhibition "WE", consisted of a ripe banana duct-taped to a wall at Seoul's Leeum Musuem of Art.

After eating the banana, the student, Noh Huyn-soo, taped the peel to the wall.

 

[D6130]

BBC News - Maurizio Cattelan: Banana artwork eaten by Seoul museum visitor

A bit of a slip-up on the part of the museum's security staff?

 

[swt_passenger]

Yes, it should definitely be condomned.

His numbers appear to have been Dutch capped…

 

[brad465]

The Official UN Geneva account made quite the blunder recently (which was deleted and corrected in a later tweet), where they meant to say "Invest in Peace":

https://twitter.com/saintjavelin/status/1655050238372065280

This is real. #IncestInPeace The quality of the UN on full display.

Tweet from UN account saying "We want peace. Silence the guns. #StopWar #IncestInPeace

 

[GusB]

It's good to see that silly local authority rules don't just exist in this country:

Italian man fined nearly €900 for filling in pothole hits out at ‘injustice’

Claudio Trenta, 72, has triggered a national debate after deciding to fix 30cm hole himself in Lombardy

www.theguardian.com

An Italian pensioner has pledged to fight against the “injustice” of being fined almost €900 for fixing a pothole.

Claudio Trenta was so frustrated by the local council’s failure to repair the 30cm pothole on a pedestrian crossing in Barlassina, a small town in Lombardy, that the 72-year-old decided to take action himself by filling it with cold bitumen.

This led to a fine of €882 (£767) – but has also triggered a debate about the potholes plaguing Italy’s roads.

In a post on Facebook, Trenta shared a photo of the letter he received from the police accusing him of violating the highway code. He was fined for carrying out a potentially dangerous job in a public space without permission or the competence to do so.


Trenta has been ordered to restore the hole to its original state. “If they think I’m an idiot, they are wrong,” he told Corriere della Sera. “They’ve provoked me, and so now I’m filing a countercomplaint against the council for negligence.”

 

[pdeaves]

It's good to see that silly local authority rules don't just exist in this country:

Italian man fined nearly €900 for filling in pothole hits out at ‘injustice’

Claudio Trenta, 72, has triggered a national debate after deciding to fix 30cm hole himself in Lombardy

www.theguardian.com

They really want him to restore the hole to its original state?!?

 

[birchesgreen]

Dear Mr Trenta, come to Erdington but bring plenty of bitumen...

 

[Lost property]

Two self absorbed non entities on television are, it appears, having a mutual hissy fit and foot stamping session.

For some inexplicable reason, this is classed as headline "news " ...

 

[D6130]

Two self absorbed non entities on television are, it appears, having a mutual hissy fit and foot stamping session.

Really? Who could they be?

 

[swt_passenger]

Really? Who could they be?

A plank of wood and a woman called Holly Willoughby, I think…

 

[D6130]

A plank of wood and a woman called Holly Willoughby, I think…

I've heard of one or two planks of wood....but never heard of anyone by the name of Holly Willoughby. Is she anything to do with Christmas by any chance?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

I've heard of one or two planks of wood....but never heard of anyone by the name of Holly Willoughby. Is she anythging to do with Christmas by any chance?

Daytime television presenter on ITV1. Tabloid media is making a big fuss about a supposed rift between Ms. Willoughby and her on-air co-presenter Philip Schofield, (whom you've presumably not heard of either).

 

[PG]

They really want him to restore the hole to its original state?!?

Sounds like a wholly inappropriate request

 

[Purple Train]

Sounds like a wholly inappropriate request

Well, if the repair turns out to be sub-standard we could end up seeing the Swiss cheese model at work.

 

[edwin_m]

Sounds like a wholly inappropriate request

No doubt the police are looking into it.

 

[AndyPJG]

Stolen car found on top of metal drum at roundabout in Annan

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-65625831

A stolen car has been found stuck on top of a metal drum at a roundabout in the south of Scotland.

The black Honda Civic was discovered at 05:10 at Scott's Street roundabout in Annan. Police Scotland said it had been stolen from a property in the town. ....

 

[JD2168]

Another one of those that makes you think: how did that get there?

 

[birchesgreen]

Another one of those that makes you think: how did that get there?

The jockey ran out of talent.

 

[AndyPJG]

I'm amazed the wheels weren't taken, but seems be be a prank maybe?

 

[Ediswan]

A possible explanation: https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/motors/10683419/car-plonked-annan-roundabout-revenge-stunt/

But it's been claimed by locals that a scrap yard boss may have targeted an employee's vehicle for revenge amid claims of metal theft.

One resident said: “It’s a bit of a mystery but rumours are rife the boss dumped his employee’s car after accusing him of stealing.”

Another person added: "Rumour has reached Dumfries that a peeved scrap dealer has put that up there using a forklift truck".

 

[brad465]

Talk about commitment:

India official drains entire dam to retrieve phone

The man, who has now been suspended, was taking a selfie when he dropped his phone into the water.

www.bbc.co.uk

A government official in India has been suspended after he ordered a reservoir to be drained to retrieve his phone.
It took three days to pump millions of litres of water out of the dam, after Rajesh Vishwas dropped the device while taking a selfie.
By the time it was found, the phone was too water-logged to work.
Mr Vishwas claimed it contained sensitive government data and needed retrieving, but he has been accused of misusing his position.
The food inspector dropped his Samsung phone, worth about $1,200 (100,000 rupees), into Kherkatta Dam, in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, on Sunday.
After local divers failed to find it, he paid for a diesel pump to be brought in, Mr Vishwas said in a video statement quoted in Indian media.
He said he had verbal permission from an official to drain "some water into a nearby canal", adding that the official said it "would in fact benefit the farmers who would have more water".
The pump ran for several days, emptying out roughly two million litres (440,000 gallons) of water - reportedly enough to irrigate 6 sq km (600 hectares) of farmland.
His mission was stopped when another official, from the water resource department, arrived following a complaint.
"He has been suspended until an inquiry. Water is an essential resource and it cannot be wasted like this," Priyanka Shukla, a Kanker district official, told The National newspaper.
Mr Vishwas has denied misusing his position, and said that the water he drained was from the overflow section of the dam and "not in usable condition".
But his actions have drawn criticism from politicians, with the state's opposition BJP party's national vice-president tweeting: "When people are depending upon tankers for water facility in in scorching summers, the officer has drained 41 lakh litres which could have been used for irrigation purpose for 1,500 acres of land."

 

[Baxenden Bank]

mmm, cake.

The Guardian, Saturday 27 May 2023

Black bear takes 60 cupcakes from US bakery, scaring staff

A hungry black bear barged into the garage of a Connecticut bakery, scared several employees and helped itself to 60 cupcakes before ambling away.

Workers at Taste by Spellbound in the town of Avon were loading cakes into a van for delivery on Wednesday when the bear showed up. There are 1,000 to 1,200 black bears living in Connecticut, the state environmental agency says, with sightings last year in 158 of the state’s 169 towns and cities.

The bakery’s owner, Miriam Stephens, wrote in an Instagram post that she heard employee Maureen Williams “screaming bloody murder” and yelling that there was a bear in the garage.
Williams told TV station WTNH that she shouted to scare the bear off but it retreated and came back three times.

Williams said the bear charged at her so she backed out of the garage and ran.

Surveillance video obtained by WTNH shows bakery workers walking around the side of the business to try to scare the bear, but then running away after it scares them.

The video shows the bear dragging a container of cupcakes from the garage into the parking lot. Stephens said the bear ate 60 cupcakes.

A baker finally got the bear to leave by honking a car horn, Williams said.

The four-footed thief was gone by the time police and officers from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (Deep) arrived.

No one was injured in the encounter – one in a series of recent troubling interactions between black bears and humans in Connecticut.

A 74-year-old woman suffered bites to her arms and legs last month when she was attacked by a bear while walking her dog in a suburb of Hartford, the state capital – the first such attack this year. There were two attacks last year, including one in October where a 10-year-old boy was mauled in a back yard.

“The frequency and severity of bear-human interactions is increasing,” Deep spokesperson Paul Copleman said on Friday.

Statistics compiled by the department show there were a record 67 reports of bears entering Connecticut homes in 2022. The previous record was 45 in 2020.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I don't see what the problem is... Americans are usually in favour of the right to bear arms, I don't see what difference it makes if those arms are full of cupcakes.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

I feel like the solution is we just give the bears cupcakes directly, then they won't need to steal them.

 

[Cowley]

I feel like the solution is we just give the bears cupcakes directly, then they won't need to steal them.

It starts with cupcakes and ends with bear dentistry…

 

[D6130]

It starts with cupcakes and ends with bear dentistry…

Like!