News Miscellany

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Do you pronounce Gizmodo with a hard G or a soft G?

— Cates 🍺 (@DoughyRamone) September 17, 2019

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

kaboom Thomas Cook - stranded Brits

I suppose I could have posted in Brexit.

[JoeP]

It looks like the Greek government are taking this more seriously than the British, um, "government".

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by Kamilah Hauptmann

I suppose I could have posted in Brexit.

Waaait... [conspiracy mode on] They let Thomas Cook go bust to annoy other European countries (including Germany, lots of German tourists affected) precisely to nudge them closer to not offering a Brexit extension. Lots of EU governments are already fed up with it and publicly saying there shouldn't be another extension.

Or it could just be Westminster incompetence (plenty of that from all sides) and refusal to spend money (which is right-wing philosophy).

[Miisa]

Not just stranded Brits, TC had taken over lots of foreign agencies. Stranded Finnish tourists, the end of our beloved Tjäreborg and the death of Lapland tourism are the main news story here.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

I don't know, one might find this is an ideal opportunity for Britons to escape the UK just in time for a chaotic Brexit, and stay in politically stable countries like *checks notes* Greece and Tunisia.

Misc: Thomas Cook is almost synonymous with the traveler's cheque in Canada.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

See you in the basement!

The Canadian Election is Not What You, An American, Think - Paste

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Violent political lawn sign warns of shooting Liberals in Ottawa-area riding | Globalnews.ca

Both the Liberal and Conservative candidate thought it was so hilarious the Tory collected her campaign sign.

Couldn’t agree more with you, Karen. Threats of political violence have no place in our democracy. I’ve instructed my campaign to remove our sign from this property.

— Justina McCaffrey (@JustinaCPC) September 23, 2019

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Police retrieve stolen mascot costume after sightings of cycling canine - CBC

[JoeP]

Utrechtse politie pakt vogel op | RTV Utrecht

Utrecht police arrest a lovebird and put it in a cell with bread and water.





Twitter notices:

Thinking about how the Dutch police arrested a bird for taking part in a robbery, put it in a jail cell with bread and water & when the media reported on it they put a little black bar over the face to protect its identity pic.twitter.com/2ly0zsoAw6

— Emma (@CampbellxEmma) 29 September 2019

RTV Utrecht responds, including some of the best retweets, which are in English for our benefit:

Aangehouden dwergpapegaai weer vrij: "Hij beroept zich op zijn zwijgrecht" | RTV Utrecht

show spoiler

Flight risk.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Zwarte Parrot.

[JoeP]

Spanish PM ridiculed for mixing up his hams | Spain | The Guardian

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has confused jamón ibérico, the prized Spanish ham, with run-of-the-mill jamón serrano in a gaffe on a par with a French politician referring to a fine burgundy as plonk.

Speaking at the centuries-old livestock fair in Zafra in Extremadura, western Spain, Sánchez left his audience open-mouthed when he told them “you can be sure that when the Chinese president visited Spain he would have been served a plate of jamón serrano from Extremadura”.

Extremadura is the cradle of jamón ibérico, a delicacy capable of throwing Spaniards of all political persuasions into a gastronomic swoon. The local farmers’ association said it had dispatched some to Madrid to educate Sánchez, lest he once again cast his swine before pearls.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Why do these snow communists hate Freedumb?

Asking an employee to get a sick note is a ‘public health risk,’ experts say - National | Globalnews.ca

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Welcome back, buddy.

The North American house hippo is back — and ready to tackle fake news

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Tory peer in dressing gown confronts Extinction Rebellion activists | Environment | The Guardian

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

This seems like a good day to remind everyone that the Armenian Genocide occurred between 1915 and 1917.

1.5 million innocent Armenian men, women and children were murdered.

— Craig Mazin (@clmazin) October 9, 2019

[JoeP]

Why do you have to dig up distant historical events, Kam? How could that possibly be relevant to anything happening today?

In the same vein, I was (can't remember why) reading up on the famine of 1845 onwards (specifically the Irish famine although many European countries were affected, which played a part in the 1848 revolutions). (Did you know that the population of Ireland has not yet returned to its level in 1841? Starvation and disease killed up to 1 million; huge numbers emigrated over the next 50 years.)

How many potatoes does it take to kill an Irishman?

show spoiler

None

Anyway, in Great Famine (Ireland) - Wikipedia I read:

the impact of the blight was exacerbated by government laissez-faire capitalism economic policy, common in the world at that time

and promotion of exports over domestic consumption was a major factor.

It's such a relief that these kinds of things do not apply in our modern enlightened world.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

I'd like to put in a rush order for some bread and circuses.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Russia's Vladimir Putin Is Helping Venezuela Evade Oil Sanctions and Preparing for a Conflict With the United States

the Russians have openly mused about stationing cruise missiles in Venezuela as a response to the U.S. withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty

cool, cool

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

"Nobody Died at Sandy Hook" author must pay victim's dad $450,000, jury says

[erimir]

A million people are jailed at China's gulags. I managed to escape. Here's what really goes on inside - World News - Haaretz.com

Sickening

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Feels weird reading that on a site originating in the country that turned Gaza into a gulag. So I did some reading about Haaretz. Still feels weird, less weird, but weird.

[JoeP]

Pablo Escobar bought a bunch of animals for his mansion - the hippos have been doing too well.

How to handle Colombia’s narco-hippos - Pablo Escobar’s love for animals

Among Pablo Escobar’s few endearing qualities was his love of animals. In the 1980s the drug lord brought perhaps a half-dozen hippos to join the rhinos, giraffes, zebras and camels at his zoo at Hacienda Nápoles, his mansion east of Medellín. After he was killed in 1993, anti-narcotics agents moved the camels and zebras to other zoos (the giraffes predeceased him). They did not tangle with the big, aggressive rhinos and hippos, which went free.

The rhinos, which are less hardy, quickly died out. The hippos, though, are thriving, in part because big cats and hyenas, their predators in Africa, are absent from Colombia. At least 50 adult hippos wallow happily in the Magdalena river, 18km (11 miles) from Hacienda Nápoles. “We might be dealing with 200 hippos in 20 years”

Other species are not faring so well. The hippos are competing for food and destroying their habitats. That is a threat to the local manatees, an endangered species in Colombia. Hippo dung sucks oxygen from riverside marshes, dooming some fish.

Africa doesn't want them back, due to concerns over inbreeding and possible diseases. So they are looking at contraceptives. The manatees were not available for comment.

:lolhippo:

[lisarea]

But there was also that thing where, supposedly, his daughter wanted a unicorn, so he had a horn and wings sewn onto a horse, which, of course, died because of it.

Even Pablo Escobar wasn't without his flaws.

[SR71]

Democrats suffer a setback in New Jersey as Republicans win battleground legislative districts

Democrats lost state seats here in New Jersey yesterday. This seems weird since they flipped some strong Republican counties right across the river in the Philly burbs. I think it's because the Dems couldn't swing legalization. No voter enthusiasm after that. We wanted legalization and they didn't deliver despite having a strong majority and strong public support for it. I think the feeling was something like, if they want to vote like republicans, fuck it, wither on the vine and we'll let the real republicans have your slot. Maybe the next crop of Democrats will get a clue. I mean, the Dems for Camden voted against. Camden. Jesus Christ.