And Finally...

A Nottinghamshire man has become so frustrated with drivers speeding down his road that he plans to suit up as Deadpool to stop them. Mark Spaven, 59, says motorists have been whizzing down Cavendish Drive in Carlton for years and his cat, Groot, was struck and killed by a suspected speeding driver two weeks ago.

Now, feeling as though his complaints to the council have fallen on deaf ears, the self-confessed Marvel aficionado plans to take to the street as comic book anti-hero Deadpool - but promises not to chop anybody's heads off. "I'm going to be going up and down dressed as Deadpool," said Mr Spave, who has a hand-made 'slow down please' sign.

A mysterious person known as the ‘Piss Bandit’ has been causing a stir in Pasadena, California, for the past six years.

The person comes out at night donned with a mask and latex gloves, regularly leaving bottles of urine in an influential neighbourhood, carefully arranging them on a utility box before vanishing into the night, as reported by New York Post.

The bottles, which include soda bottles, juice cartons, and gallon jugs are filled with yellow liquid, and are accompanied by crude drawings and notes like ‘human urine’ and ‘HIV positive.’

The bandit sometimes strikes multiple times a week, leaving behind fresh bottles each morning that disappear by nightfall.

The city attempted to stop the bandit by adding a pointed metal cover to the utility box, but the Piss Bandit simply removed it and continued his antics.

"It’s been a tug-o-war between the neighborhood and this guy," said Grant Yansura, who, along with filmmaker Derek Milton, launched an investigation into the mysterious figure.

Their TikTok videos about the case have garnered over 600,000 views.

While Yansura and Milton see the bandit as a vigilante artist akin to Robin Hood, many neighbours view him as a nuisance.

One local expressed disgust, stating he never considered the act an art form. Another neighbour threatened the bandit, saying, “If I catch you leaving your piss here, I will make you drink every last drop!”

Despite the attention, the bandit remains elusive. He ignored the duo's attempts to communicate, even stealing their cameras. Ultimately, Yansura concluded, “Sometimes you just have to let an artist pee.”

The squirrels jumped on the Great Western Railway (GWR) 8.54am train from Reading to Gatwick on Monday, forcing passengers to flee to other carriages.

The passengers alerted staff, who tried to lure the squirrels off the train at Redhill with snacks, before trying to force them off with brooms - but to no avail.

They subsequently called the journey off entirely.

Family members of Krishna Kumar said they took him to Ganpati Hospital in Saran after he vomited several times. "We admitted him and the vomiting stopped soon after. But the doctor Ajit Kumar Puri said he needs to be operated upon. He conducted the operation by watching videos on YouTube. My son died later," Chandan Shaw.

The family members said they do not know if the 'doctor' had proper qualifications. "We think he was self-styled and fake," they said.

The teenager's grandfather said the boy was feeling better after the vomiting stopped. "But the doctor sent the father away on an errand and started operating on the boy without the family's consent. The boy was in pain. When we asked the doctor why he was in pain, he snapped at us and asked if we were doctors. Later in the evening, the boy stopped breathing. He was revived (with CPR) and then rushed to Patna. He died on the way. They left the boy's body on the stairs of the hospital and fled," said Krishna Kumar's grandfather Prahlad Prasad Shaw.

Nobody knows what sleeping mushrooms dream of when their vast mycelial networks flicker and pulse with electrochemical responses akin to those of our own brain cells.

But given a chance, what might this web of impulses do if granted a moment of freedom?

An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Cornell University in the US and the University of Florence in Italy took steps to find out, putting a culture of the edible mushroom species Pleurotus eryngii (also known as the king oyster mushroom) in control of a pair of vehicles, which can twitch and roll across a flat surface.

Through a series of experiments, the researchers showed it was possible to use the mushroom's electrophysiological activity as a means of translating environmental cues into directives, which could, in turn, be used to drive a mechanical device's movements.

"By growing mycelium into the electronics of a robot, we were able to allow the biohybrid machine to sense and respond to the environment," says senior researcher Rob Shepherd, a materials scientist at Cornell.

A car park built for £51 million in Oxfordshire is lying empty because a council cannot connect it to the main road.

Planning problems are preventing motorists from using the 19-acre park and ride scheme in Eynsham until funding is secured to link it to the A40.

Aerial photographs show the 850-space site devoid of vehicles, despite its finished glossy tarmac, bus stops and green spaces. All major construction work was finished in January, followed by landscaping last month.

Although the car park could be cut off from the main road until 2027, local authorities have contracts to maintain it every week, cutting the grass and topsoiling and seeding when necessary.

Archive

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/16834953

Legendary TV wrestling villain Kendo Nagasaki is planning to sell off his £1.5million, 50-room mansion to fund new LGBTQ+ Zen Buddhism classes - as he also plots a return to the ring aged 82.

The World of Sport superstar - whose real name is Peter Thornley, from Stoke - was famous for his signature 'Kamikaze Crash' slam, and appeared in the ring under the guise of a masked 'Japanese samurai' and mystical sensei.

But decades after his heyday on the nation's screens, he now wants to downsize from his huge Stoke-on-Trent home to Blackpool - where he owns a men-only hotel.

He hopes to teach the Lancashire LGBTQ+ community the art of Zen Buddhism at the seaside town, famed for its illuminations.

And he is even training to return to the sport as a pensioner on the 60th anniversary of his first showing - which would make him the oldest professional wrestler.

Archive (as the original is on the Daily Fail)

I am also legally obliged to include this: "Everything's AOR" by Half Man Half Biscuit.

A Sheffield man has been banned from touching unattended vehicles after he tried to steal a van.

Ricky Roberts, 36, was arrested on July 24 after South Yorkshire Police responded to reports of a man trying to break into a Ford Transit van on Brompton Road, Sheffield. He was discovered in the process of forcing his way into a van and fled after he saw police officers.

He got on a pedal bike but was arrested less than 20 minutes after the initial call reporting the attempted theft. A bag Roberts dropped was found to contain several power tools which had been stolen from vehicles in Sheffield the night before.

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Roberts, of Richmond Hall Road, Sheffield, was handed a two-year Criminal Behaviour Order which bans him from touching or entering any unattended motor vehicle, motorcycle, or pedal cycle without the permission of the owner. He has also been instructed to take part in a drug rehabilitation course.

A team of biomedical and medicinal specialists from the University of Milan, working with a colleague from Foundation IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico di Milano, has found evidence of cocaine use by at least two people as far back as the 17th century in Europe.

In their study, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, the group analyzed the preserved brains of two people found in a crypt in Milan used as a burial site for people who died in the nearby Ospedale Maggiore—a well-known hospital of the time.

Prior research has found that for thousands of years, people living in western parts of South America chewed on the leaves of the coca plant to experience its chemical effects. After it was found that the leaves could be processed to make cocaine hydrochloride salts in the 19th century, the mind-altering effects of the drug became more widely known and it became a popular recreational drug in many parts of Europe.

In this new study, the research team found evidence that people were chewing the leaves of the plant to get high in at least one part of Europe nearly 200 years earlier.

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The research team also studied the pharmacological records of the Ospedale Maggiore and found no records of cocaine or coca plants being used for medicinal purposes. This suggested that the two people had been chewing the leaves for other reasons. The team noted that the two mummified individuals were buried in a place and in such a way as to suggest that they were poor, further suggesting that the coca leaves were cheap and likely plentiful and that they were chewed recreationally.

Citation: Gaia Giordano et al (2024) Forensic toxicology backdates the use of coca plant (Erythroxylum spp.) in Europe to the early 1600s. Journal of Archaeological Science 170. DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2024.106040

Ssekamwa was arrested on August 2 outside a lodge in Masvingo, a city located 292 kilometres south of Harare, along with Czech tourist Lucas Slavik.

The arrests occurred during a government crackdown on dissent ahead of a regional summit, leading to over 200 opposition and civil society activists being detained.

Ssekamwa faced charges of criminal nuisance and violating the Censorship Act after police found a rubber male organ in his bag. However, magistrate Isaac Chikura acquitted him, ruling that the possession of the sex toy did not compromise public order or cause any nuisance. The magistrate noted that the sex toy was in Ssekamwa’s personal bag and there was no intention to display it in public.

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The Zimbabwean government claimed the detentions were necessary, citing intelligence reports suggesting planned protests to disrupt the summit. Christopher Mutsvangwa, spokesperson for the ruling Zanu PF party, stated that those detained were “deviants” who were dealt with appropriately, expressing satisfaction that no protests took place.

Critics of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who took power following a military coup in 2017, accuse him of being more authoritarian than his predecessor, Robert Mugabe.

Nudes are a major feature of the newest exhibition at Marseille’s Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations – and not only on the walls.

The museum, Mucem, is allowing visitors to discover their relationship to naturism by viewing the works of art naked, except for their shoes.

Eric Stefanut, of France’s FFN naturist organisation, said there was no objection to bare feet but insisting on footwear was a precaution against the museum’s parquet flooring. “It’s to avoid getting splinters,” he said.

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“France is the world’s leading tourist destination for naturists: its temperate climate and the presence of three seas have facilitated the establishment of communities, which – with the exception of Switzerland – have few real equivalents elsewhere in Europe, where naturism is practised more freely, outside established communities,” the museum said.

“Today, there is a new craze for nudity in nature, a craze that goes hand in hand with the quest for healthy, vegetarian diets and the use of natural therapies, meditation and yoga in the open air. These lifestyles, along with the rejection of the diktats that weigh down our bodies, are all keys to understanding the issues at stake in the naturism of yesterday and today.”

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Kieren Parker-Hall and Alex Parry were among 80 stripped-down visitors to Mucem’s August naturist slot and said seeing the exhibition in the nude was a “once in a lifetime” opportunity.

“There’s not a lot of naturist stuff in England,” Parker-Hall, 28, a web developer from Bath, told AFP. “It’s cold.”

Parry, 30, a stained glass artist from Bristol, agreed. “Being naked in England is seen as something a bit bizarre, shameful,” he said.

Sir Anthony Seldon is set to release his latest political biography, ‘Truss at 10: How Not to be a Prime Minister’ on 29th August, covering the turbulent 49 days that Truss was in the top seat.

The book is expected to contain some bombshell revelations about her time in charge, including insight into how she proposed to deal with the fallout from her disastrous mini-budget, which sent financial markets into a death spiral.

It also claims that Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg tried to persuade Truss to make him chancellor instead of Kwasi Kwarteng, and that he urged her to abolish inheritance tax, replace all tax rates with a 20p flat rate, and organise a stunt to promote nuclear power.

Seldon writes that the then cabinet minister told Truss: “We should get a nuclear submarine to dock at Liverpool and plug it into the grid. That would show it is safe.”

Sir Anthony says cabinet secretary Simon Case dismissed the idea as a “non-starter”, adding that “the subs are needed in operations”.

If you’ve visited Disney California Adventure or, more likely, had your TikTok algorithm churn out some Marvel Cinematic Universe videos, chances are you’ve come across its fourth-wall-breaking attraction, “Story Time With Deadpool.” Now, the attraction is making headlines because its Deadpool & Wolverine-inspired performers joke made a tongue-in-cheek reference to a recent wrongful death lawsuit filed against their parent company while quipping about Disney+’s terms and conditions.

In a TikTok video from user gothgirl_doesdisney, the attraction’s Deadpool actor regaled the audience on the tale of “Cinderpool.” During the dramatic story, Deadpool joked about Cinderpool being late because “he had to read every single page in the terms and conditions when he signed up for Disney+.” Wolverine’s actor chimed in after a mix of nervous laughter from onlookers, saying he didn’t get the reference. Which in turn, laid up Deadpool’s Abbott and Costello-esque response, saying, “They do.”

For those unaware, Disney recently tried to get a “wrongful death” lawsuit filed against it thrown out. According to CNN, the plaintiff, Jeffrey Piccolo, filed the lawsuit after his wife died at Disney Springs; she’d gone into anaphylactic shock after dining at one of the resort’s restaurants in 2019. Deadpool’s quip about reading Disney+’s terms and conditions comes into play when you consider that Disney claimed Piccolo couldn’t sue because he signed up for a free Disney+ trial that same year. Within the Disney+ trial’s terms and conditions was a clause that said all legal action against the company must be forced through arbitration. In layman’s terms, it had fine print that prevents the company from facing litigation.

Context: Disney Seeking Dismissal of Raglan Road Death Lawsuit Because Victim Was Disney+ Subscriber

An Instagram user shared a video of making sourdough bread on her way to Spain. She wanted to surprise her sister with a fresh loaf of bread, so the process was done thousands of feet above the ground.

Her video, viewed over 1.2 million times, did not please many social media users. A couple of them claimed to be flight attendants, who were far from impressed by the passenger’s efforts.

“I’m a flight attendant and I hate people like you," posted one user on Instagram.

“As a flight attendant I’m gonna say: Ewwwww. On the last flight, some unhygienic passenger clipped his toe nails on that table and another one puked on it. Needless to say that the armrest you’re touching, is where some dudes’ unwashed hands from the lavatory were as well. Another woman changed the baby’s diaper, since the bathroom wasn’t “sanitary" enough in her opinion. I’ve seen it all - believe me. Now there’s you, kneading and folding sourdough. Enjoy your germ-bread. That’s an airplane - not a bakery. Learn some manners, people.., Please," wrote another.

“Looks really cute but please don't do it in planes, it's a really closed place and a celiac could suffer an intoxication, the flour can easily "fly" and spread. I know there is HEPA in the plane but is not instantaneous, so please avoid to do it in closed public places if you can not want to ruin some days of someone’s holidays," posted another.

Reflect Orbital, a California startup, has opened applications for anyone who wants to use a satellite with a mirror on it to reflect sunlight to a specific location on Earth after dark. You might be wondering: What?

A few years ago, VICE spoke with Reflect Orbital’s founder and CEO, Ben Nowack, about his plans to generate solar power at night.

“I had an interesting way to solve the real issue with solar power. It’s this unstoppable force,” Nowack said in the interview. “Everybody’s installing so many solar panels everywhere. It’s really a great candidate to power humanity. But sunlight turns off. It’s called nighttime. If you solve that fundamental problem, you fix solar everywhere.”

The company’s orbital mirror is set to launch in 2025, and you can “apply for sunlight” for the next few months. There’s “limited availability,” and already supposedly over 30,000 applications. It really just sounds like a one-time test, though: you only get four minutes for a diameter of 5km. No price is listed.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/16691148

Downing Street officials are reportedly planning how to announce the eventual passing of Larry, the No 10 chief mouser.

The 17-year-old tabby, while currently healthy, is in his twilight years.

Larry has become a fixture of Downing Street, known for his patrols of the grounds and occasional confrontations with local wildlife. His encounters with Palmerston, the Foreign Office cat, have often made headlines.

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He has also outlasted five prime ministers and famously refused Liz Truss the chance to stroke him.

But although Larry can count himself among the more popular residents of the street in recent years his demise will happen at some point and officials are now preparing.

In a similar manner to how insiders had a code for when the Queen passed away, there is set to be an official way that the cat’s death will be broken to the nation.

According to The Times, officials will say “Larry bridges” when the cat passes - a reference to ‘London Bridge is falling down’, the code for when Elizabeth II died.

Following a forestry accident in January, a 33-year-old man was flown by air ambulance to Graz University Hospital, Styria, southeastern Austria, with serious head injuries, according to Kronen Zeitung, an Austrian newspaper.

He needed emergency surgery, but the doctor allegedly let his 13-year-old daughter take part in operating on him.

The newspaper reported that she even drilled a hole in the patient's skull.

While the operation was said to have gone off without issue, the patient is still unable to work and investigations by the Graz public prosecutor's officer against the entire surgical team are continuing.

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The alleged victim initially learned about the case in the media before later being told by authorities he was a witness in an investigation.

A Florida school board paused a plan for a chaplain program after receiving First Amendment concerns — and interest from The Satanic Temple.

In a move that school officials present said was rare, the Osceola County School Board pulled the plan from consideration during its Tuesday meeting. It highlights the complexities and complications school districts face in implementing a new law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis this year that allows volunteer chaplains to provide support services for public K-12 students.

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Fast-forward nearly four months, and the school board voted 3-2 to take the policy out of a bundle it was voting on for the new academic year. The school board members in the majority said concerns brought to them shortly before the meeting warranted more discussion.

"I need more time to make a decision," said Heather Kahoun, the board chair. "I haven't had an opportunity to think about these things, to think about the implications regarding the First Amendment, regarding federal litigation that we could receive if we were to approve this as it is today."

The Satanic Temple, for example, sent the board an email on Tuesday saying they were "enthusiastic about the opportunity this policy presents for our Ministers of Satan."

I guess Bixby really isn’t dead after all.

A woman who "married" the River Avon said the event had changed her life.

Megan Ruth-Trump and her friends gathered for the ceremony in Bristol in 2023.

Her aim was to raise awareness about untreated sewage being pumped into the waterways, but she said the event had now grown into something "bigger".

"We put together a wedding event that would celebrate love for the river. It would bring people together - it started as a joke but quickly got attention," she said.

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Speaking about the wedding, she said: "It felt bigger than the event itself. It felt a bit sacrificial - people's reaction was strong, they thought it was weird and funny and powerful.

"Marriage is a human tradition meaning union, promising care. It was very moving. People were moved to act."

She added that the event "changed her life", saying: "I was brought together with a lot of strong women in film, science, and journalism.

"I was now connected to other river campaigns - all the rivers are connected.

"It's a huge inspiration for my poetry. I'll attempt to be a river bride poet in Bristol."

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Artist Kim Kaos has also been backing the campaign. He created a puppet representing a river goddess to draw attention to the issue and help people relate to the river as "a being".

Mr Kaos describes himself as an arts activist - he uses his art to "amplify campaigns".

"The river is a big thing for people to conceive - the puppet can embody the spiritual side of the river," he said.

The world's oldest living man has celebrated his 112th birthday at a care home in Southport today. John Tinniswood was born in Liverpool on August 26, 1912, the same year the Titanic sank.

He became the oldest man in the world in April this year and has said his long life is down to "luck". When John was asked how it felt to be turning the ripe old age of 112, he said: "In all honesty, no different.

"I don’t feel that age, I don’t get excited over it. That’s probably why I’ve reached it.

"I just take it in my stride like anything else, why I’ve lived that long I have no idea at all.

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John was questioned as to what he thought the biggest difference in the world was from when he was born to now, more than a century apart. He said: “It’s no better in my opinion, or hardly any better, than it was then. Probably in some places it is, but in other places it’s worse.”

On the secret of his longevity, he told Guinness World Records it’s “just luck.” He added: "You either live long or you live short, and you can’t do much about it."

According to the Times Reporter, the documentary “Vampires in Gem City” was set to expose Dayton as having the second largest vampire coven in the United States and featured the missing person’s case of 26-year-old George Phillip Gall.

It is reported that Gall went missing on October 13, 1994 after getting off a bus near the goth-themed Asylum nightclub.

The bus driver told investigators that Gall walked toward the Asylum nightclub and was never seen again. He was declared dead by the state of Ohio in 2002.

According to Times Reporter, it wasn’t until 2008 that rumors of vampires started after a retired Dayton police officer told The Dayton Daily News that a bartender at the nightclub told him Gall was killed and beheaded for an occult ritual.

It is reported that after Gall’s disappearance in 1994, Williams went to the nightclub undercover and noticed it attracted a large “gothic, vampire-like” crowd. It was while he was undercover that a bartender confided in Williams that Gall’s head was sold inside the club.

Williams told the Dayton Daily News that the bartender gave enough intricate details to make the story believable. Williams also says that Gall’s body was placed in a storm sewer tunnel accessible inside the nightclub. Officers searched for the body but did not find any evidence of the crime, but they did find “occult markings.”

According to Times Reporter, the mystery behind Gall’s disappearance has led to the birth of an urban legend, with many Dayton residents claiming to have seen a headless man approaching them in tunnels to ask where his head was.

If they want to stop people parking in the gap, it should probably be a hatched area, with the double yellows just on the road?

People are theorizing why a utility box in San Francisco fell over. Some said it was due in part to dog urine.

Ken Khoury, the owner of Castro Coffee Company, said the AT&T-owned telephone junction box has been a popular destination for dogs to urinate on. The box's base is now corroded.

"Now, over time, it's deteriorated as you can see, probably dog pee most of the time, the elements," Khoury said.

Khoury, whose business is in front of the box, said he's noticed pets taking a potty break at the box for 15 years. Now, it has corroded enough that it has separated from the concrete foundation.

It wasn't until last week that a wood and rope structure resembling a gallows was erected to help keep the utility box upright.