This roundup of newsoids will cover the strangest news over the past four months, since I had not posted one of these since November of last year.
Big fish story. Off an island in the northern part of Norway called Tromsø, a crew aboard a fishing trawler were looking for halibut. Without them noticing, its net was being dragged away. They were later contacted by the US Coast Guard who notified them by radio that their net snagged a 115-metre long American nuclear submarine named the USS Virginia, which was there to keep surveillance on nearby Russia, and had been using Norway as a place to gather supplies and change personnel. (14 Nov)
AI in the News. Data centers providing data for artificial intelligence is known for its huge energy demands. Developers are saying that the amount of land needed, as well as the amount of energy needed, will be harder and harder to attain as time goes on. One proposed data center claims it will require 1 gigawatt or more of power – more than double the power needs for the entire city of Pittsburgh. The land needed by one company will be in the range of 23,000 acres, distributed across several American states. (23 Nov)
The right to religious education. In Marysville, Ohio, pupils at Edgewood Elementary School are allowed to take time out of school once per month for religious instruction in the religion of their choice. A program of such instruction offered by the Hellion Academy of Independent Learning (HAIL), is offered by a satanic group. And despite the program being from The Satanic Temple, according to organzer Betty Elswick, she insists that the program is “not about Satan”. (6 Dec)
Robot Death. Moxie, the AI-powered robot offered to autistic children by a company called Embodied, will soon die because the company, which provides the robot with AI services is going broke. According to a press release, parents are now being told to warn their children in advance of the pending death of their AI robots. The AI bot was intended to teach children emotional regulation, as well as social skills. Parents, who had spent close to $1000, on their robots, are outraged. (11 Dec)
Getting tough on sexually explicit material in schools. The state legislature in Austin, Texas passed House Bill 900, banning sexually explicit and vulgar material in schools. In the Canyon Independent School District just outside Amarillo, Superintendent Darryl Flusche announced that they will include the Holy Bible among the banned material, which they say is rife with vulgar and sexually explicit content, and is therefore unsuitable for children. However, he said that books citing portions of the Bible will remain in the district’s libraries. He promises to “partner” with the district’s churches to provide a complete Bible to any pupil who wishes to access one, with parental permission. Libraries will still contain books which contain portions of the Bible. This decision outraged many parents, many of whom may not have read sufficiently enough of the Bible to have read the sexually explicit and gratuitously violent material it contains. (19 Dec)
Questionable Imitators of Luigi Mangione. It is almost hard to believe that the whole Luigi Mangione incident happened last year. It feels as if less time has gone by since he shot an executive from United Healthcare, but by Boxing Day, he already had imitators. 34 year-old resident of Houston, Texas, Taylor Bullard had been pestered by Capital One over a $543 debt which, with a $100K income, he clearly had the ability to pay, and claimed he did, “several times”. One day he had had enough and threatened to go to executive offices with “a machete and gasoline” if they don’t stop bothering him over it, he said in an email to them, and claimed that the debt “ruined his ability to buy a home”. Bullard, a somewhat successful online salesman of Beef Jerky, had previously threatened other companies with releasing anthrax and with a public suicide. He now faces 5 years in prison for the Capital One incident. (26 Dec)
People who lighten our dull existence. In New London, Connecticut, people leaving the Grace Fellowship Evangelical Free Church services at mid-morning of December 11, were visited by a 53 year-old man named Jason Mitchell, who wore a helmet with a dildo attached to it (to evoke reminders of a World War II German helmet, according to Mitchell) as he was riding a bicycle back and forth, and was screaming profanities. Mitchell had previously been seen on other days riding the same bicycle naked but for a cowboy hat and defacing local street signs, according to an affadavit made public by Connecticut Superior Court. He has been charged with breach of peace in the second degree, and is held on bond. (3 Jan)
The latest food taboos: 1) The Belgian Food Agency has issued its Belgian residents a warning: don’t eat your Christmas tree. This came following a fringe environmental group in Ghent circulated suggestions on how to “recycle” conifers at your dinner table. The Agency warned that trees can contain significant amounts of pesticides, as they were never meant to be eaten. (7 Jan) 2) Dictator Kim Jong Un of North Korea has warned that anyone caught eating hot dogs will be arrested for treason as they are trying to crack down on the infusion of Western culture into their country. (5 Jan)
Hoping the parents won’t notice. In North Providence, Rhode Island, Sarah Batista was waiting for her autistic son to be dropped off at her home by the school bus. When they arrived, they dropped off the wrong kid. After Sarah said “That’s not my kid,” the driver walked back to the bus but returned with the same kid but a different backpack. After she repeated that he was not her son, she finally received her son on the bus attandant’s third attempt, but without his jacket and backpack. Sarah told reporters that her son refused to go to school the next morning. The problem, which has happened before, was traced to untrained substitute staff, who are unaware of kids with special needs. (8 Jan)
The Florida police blotter. 1) Mr. Clean and Mrs. Dookie: In Mulberry, a man and woman walked into a Family Dollar store, and while the woman “relieved herself” on the floor of the store to distract the cashier, the man stole $500 worth of cleaning products. The couple ran off in a white van. (9 Jan) 2) 41 year-old Octavia Wells of Bay County wanted to text her pusher for a shipment of fentanyl, but ended up texting the sherrif’s office instead. She was told by the “pusher” to meet at a certain gas station. But when she arrived, she was arrested by police. She has been charged with unlawful use of a communication device, possession of drug paraphanelia, and driving with a suspended license. (8 Jan) 3) Tristan Macomber, a Florida police officer, crashed into another police cruiser stopped ahead of him, and later admitted to watching porn while driving. He has not been charged. (10 Jan)
People not like us. Chen Wei-Nong, A Taiwanese plastic surgeon performed a vasectomy on himself (using local anaethesia), since his wife didn’t want more children, having already borne 3 kids. He made a video of his self-surgery and posted it to Facebook. The operation was successful, and Chen is said to be doing well. (20 Jan)
The latest internet sensation. While 20,000 or more people had visited the corpse flower named Putricia that has been growing in the Botanical Garden in Sydney, Australia, more than a million more had been following the stinky flower on social media. Its odour has been variously described by visitors with descriptions ranging from a wet towel to “poo”. (23 Jan) A similar corpse flower “bloomed” on the other side of the world, in New York City. This time, its name was “Smelliot”, and had similar descriptions. (27 Jan)
The state of computer security. Mark Zuckerberg, who is trying to stem the tide of leaked information, who said in an internal online chat that leakers would be fired, was leaked. (30 Jan)
With Charizard on my side, we’re invincible! A man from Busan, South Korea, whose name has been withheld by the Gigang police, attempted to rob a bank using a water gun in the shape of a toy dragon. He was arrested within 2 minutes. (10 Feb)
Number of “Wal-ocaust” T-shirts sold by a Georgia man before Wal-Mart ordered him to cease and desist: 1