Strange / Funny events in, the world

[Chimpzy]

The cattle empire that turned out to be a giant Ponzi scheme - The Currency

BENTON, Ky.—“There are two sides of me,” Brian McClain scrawled on a piece of paper to his wife. One that loves you, he wrote. “The other that stole from people.” For years, McClain had kept cattle here in his hometown and on the Texas Panhandle, buying calves at auction and selling them for...

thecurrency.news

There is no cow level

 

[Cicada 5]

Fake story about disguised San Antonio woman arrested for winning all-male BBQ contest goes viral

A story purporting that a San Antonio woman was arrested for winning an all-male barbecue contest while disguised as a man has gone viral on Instagram and X.

The online yarn even included a photo depicting the San Antonio cook, Leticia “Letty” Ramirez.

While the tale is hilarious, it’s sadly a fake. But that didn’t stop the internet from having a field day.

According to the Twitter rumor machine, Ramirez embodied the male alter ego “L.J. Ramirez” to win the fictional Lone Star Men’s Smoke-Off in the Texas ‘cue capital of Lockhart. The viral story even alleges she took home $7,500 for the succulence of her brisket, ribs, and sausage before getting busted.

Busted for what crime, you may ask?

The original tweet circulated by @Theveripost just says “Texas woman arrested for ‘Disguised as a Man.'” Last we checked, that wasn’t a crime. However, that cheap Party City mustache might be.

The story racked up millions of views, eliciting comments like “free my man” and “close enough, welcome back Mulan.”

“Controversial opinion but I don’t think people should go to jail for objectively funny crimes,” one commenter posted.

Only a few in the thread actually thought to question what the crime in fact was — or whether the story was even true.

Both the image and the story are AI-generated.

But how we wish Letty was real so she could continue to smoke the brisket and the competition.

 

[Cicada 5]

Hugh Laurie schools a House hater on how television works

Once upon a time, there was a website where everyday people could interact with celebrities. Twitter, it was called, and it was the only place where Tony Hawk could thank someone for “the hesitation” before killing him during the Race War. Alas, those days are long over. But every once in a while, amid the clips of Clavicular, seemingly legal CSAM, and Nazis laundering ideas to people who believe propaganda doesn’t work on them, it shows remnants of its former self.

Such an event happened over the weekend after Hugh Laurie searched his name on X, the Everything App, and found a post criticizing his hit show, House, M.D., which ended, oh, about 14 years ago. “Late to the party, but I’ve started watching Season 1 of House. Same narrative every episode,” writes journalist Janet Murray. “Patient has mysterious illness. Hugh Laurie (House) gets diagnosis wrong. Patient nearly dies. Hugh Laurie gets diagnosis wrong again. Gets threatened with being fired. Patient nearly dies again. Hugh Laurie has last minute leftfield idea. Gets diagnosis right. Doesn’t get fired. Eight seasons of this?”


Murray must not have been paying attention to Laurie’s character because Dr. House is sort of a smart ass who enjoys putting people in place. It’s a trait he got from the actor who played him, Hugh Laurie, who was more than happy to explain why Murray’s “trenchant analysis” missed the point of the show, which is ostensibly to create entertaining drama through “variations on a theme” week after week.


“Thanks for your critique, Janet,” Laurie wrote. “We actually tried a couple of episodes where House (Hugh Laurie) (please put the brackets in the right place) gets it right first time, but they were only 6 minutes long. NBC weren’t happy. Then we tried some where House never gets it right and the patient dies. The audience wasn’t happy.”



Laurie went on to sarcastically explain how Murray’s critique would stack up against other art forms: “JS Bach wrote 30 Goldberg variations on the same chord structure; Frida Kahlo painted 50 portraits of herself; Henry Moore, what??” Weekly, episodic television has more to offer audiences than plot, such as characters and how they react to the plot. “The point is, or was, variations on a theme; if all you see is hospital, medical blah blah, then it wasn’t meant for you,” Laurie continued. “Nonetheless, I look forward to your first novel!”

 

[Gordon_4]

Hugh Laurie schools a House hater on how television works

Yeah, I know streaming has sort of made people used to long form storytelling on TV, but you’d have to have zero interest in any tv show produced before Netflix launched to not know that formulaic repetition was how television use to be. Sure House has a through line - how big a prick can we make House before even Hugh Laurie’s charisma can’t save him - but the meat of the show is watching cases get solved a Sherlock Holmes style.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

Yeah, I know streaming has sort of made people used to long form storytelling on TV, but you’d have to have zero interest in any tv show produced before Netflix launched to not know that formulaic repetition was how television use to be. Sure House has a through line - how big a prick can we make House before even Hugh Laurie’s charisma can’t save him - but the meat of the show is watching cases get solved a Sherlock Holmes style.

The show starts of that way for sure but I recall after a few seasons, the show became more of a character study where the cases took a back seat most episodes vs CSI: Hospital Edition.

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

Did you read the whole article, which put that quote into context?

"

At first glance, the line sounds like Billie is simply roasting people for their looks. But when you listen to the full conversation, it’s less about appearance and more about attitude.



She was pointing out how some guys, when dating a woman they see as more attractive than themselves, suddenly get an inflated ego. Instead of being appreciative or humble, they start acting like they’ve just won a prize and can now do whatever they want. Billie even doubled down, saying: *“Because they got a hot girl, they can be horrible? Like—you’re still ugly though.”*



Her words were sharp, sure, but the point was clear: arrogance in relationships often comes from insecurity."

OK lets Unpack the layers of stupid here.

Layer 1 - Billie has never publicly dated a guy, has led a very protected life with her family rallying round to help her become a star even I think it was her brother stopping his own moderately famous career (he was in Glee I think) to help push her and make her a success. The only implied relationships she's ever had were with women.

Layer 2 - This is Billie "Men don't get judged for their looks only women do" Ellish.

Layer 3 - I get don't act like an ass but really clearly if she's with you she picked you for a reason and pushing this idea of "Ugly men need to be thankful and and super humble and all and meek and just be glad they're with you uggo". What the absolute reality tv fuck is that attitude? A person who isn't conventionally physically attractive has less worth or something based on Billies position? Nothing matters but looks? Guess this is what social media does to people now. No wonder fucked up "Looksmaxxing" is a thing

 

[Gergar12]

Brad Lander to win 10th Congressional District Democratic primary, AP says

The district covers Lower Manhattan and part of Brooklyn from downtown to Park Slope.

ny1.com

Progressive except Palestine - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

PEP loses.

 

[Cicada 5]

Newly Discovered Spider Uses a Web Catapult to Launch Ants Into the Air

Chalk up another entry into the canon of animals that definitively use tools in order to find a meal–in addition to the likes of primates, dolphins, octopuses and certain birds, you can now add spiders to the list as well. Or a very special and newly discovered Australian (of course) spider, anyway, which researchers have observed building a catapult of webbing specifically to target the sole species of ant it preys on in the tropical rainforests of the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland. The “catapult” is so powerful, in fact, that it’s shattered all known records for the amount of energy that can be expended by a biological catapult per “firing” when adjusted for its size–it’s so strong that the researchers who discovered and filmed the new species have calculated that the unlucky ant is hauled off the ground at an acceleration of up to 1,367 meters per second squared, which is equal to roughly 140 times the force of gravity, or 15 times more than the strongest g-forces typically experienced by a jet fighter pilot. This is one seriously yeeted ant.

 

[Thaluikhain]

I believe redback spiders use something broadly similar, vertical lines between two horizontal surfaces, and disturbing one ends with the prey being pulled off the ground and suspended above, though with much less acceleration involved.

 

[Chimpzy]

U.S.-themed World Cup beaver designed by Ottawa artist destroyed in Toronto

An Ottawa artist who painted a beaver celebrating the United States for a World Cup promotion in Toronto has learned her creation was destroyed over the weekend.

www.ctvnews.ca

Oh no, someone smashed her beaver.

 

[Cicada 5]

Is It Even Possible to Sell Food Truck Burgers Without the Dumbest Sex Puns You’ve Ever Heard?

On one hand, free speech. On the other hand, is it that hard to find a way to sell burgers without reusing the most tired jokes possible?

www.jezebel.com

 

[tstorm823]

Is It Even Possible to Sell Food Truck Burgers Without the Dumbest Sex Puns You’ve Ever Heard?

On one hand, free speech. On the other hand, is it that hard to find a way to sell burgers without reusing the most tired jokes possible?

www.jezebel.com

I agree with that author almost entirely, but for the suggestion that dumb sex jokes are specifically for a male audience. I wonder if he has interacted with women, particularly the kind at a Midwestern state fair.

 

[Cicada 5]

There’s an Instagram Dedicated to People Who Fight at Ariana Grande Concerts

It's my new favorite show.

www.jezebel.com

 

[Seanchaidh]

to the mainstream English-speaking international press, having elections means letting the United States decide the winner. If Ortega had said that he would strive to no longer have a world with widespread poverty, would it have been reported as "Ortega threatens to destroy the world"?

 

[Cicada 5]

Michelin Chef Facing Jail in South Korea for the Crime of … Serving Ants on Sorbet

Did you know that it is not only illegal to serve diners ants in South Korea, but really quite illegal, to the point that they’ll throw your ass in jail over it? Turns out, that is indeed the case: Korean prosecutors recently sought a year long jail term for the owner of a restaurant with not one but two Michelin stars, after he was found to have been serving ants as a dessert garnish on bowls of sorbet. Mmmmm.


At the same time, though, the South Korean authorities might have a bit of a point on the health front. The country apparently has a 10 species list of insects that are “approved for human consumption” under Korean food safety laws, and ants aren’t on it. Now, if the Michelin restaurateur had been sprinkling his desserts with grasshoppers or crickets, no problem! But the country’s health authorities are arguing in court that the specific ants used in this case “contained up to 55 times more heavy metals than typical edible insects,” making them potentially hazardous. Still, feels like the sort of thing you could maybe just order a chef to stop using, rather than putting a guy in prison? Prosecutors also apparently asked for the restaurant–unnamed in court documents–to be fined 20 million Korean won, or roughly $13,500. Given that there are apparently only 10 restaurants in the country with two Michelin stars, all in Seoul, it probably wouldn’t be difficult for a curious gourmand to figure out the restaurant and chef identity.


The South Korean government’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety apparently came across the case after seeing reviews that diners had posted online from the restaurant, which included photos of the ant-laden desserts. The owner and chef, meanwhile, argued that the ants made up just a tiny component of the large, 15-course tasting menu, and that diners were given options on sorbet toppings and could choose to pivot from the intimidating ants to other options such as fermented vinegar and edible flowers. But where’s the fun in THAT? Prosecutors estimated that the restaurant had actually been merrily serving the banned ants for as long as four years, possibly serving up to 49,000 of them to diners in that period.