Sad, but true: Broadband is the most modern of communication means, while carrier pigeons date back to Roman times. But on Thursday, a race between the two highlighted the low speeds of rural broadband in the UK; the pigeon won. Ten USB key-laden pigeons were released from a Yorkshire farm at the same time a…
Weird Tales
Weird Tales
Bug Eaters Try to Get Some Buzz – WSJ.com
by JOHN ADAMS •
Here’s your chance to get in on what might be the American trend of the 21st Century. Wait too long, and you’ll be just another tag-along, without the cred that genuine trendsetters have and deserve. Link: Bug Eaters Try to Get Some Buzz – WSJ.com Across the country, entomophagy—the eating of insects—has gained a small…
Weird Tales
La Crosse Tribune: Five-Year-Old Boy Wins Alaska Moose-Calling Contest
by JOHN ADAMS •
Weird Tales
Amazing Wakeboarding Dog
by JOHN ADAMS •
Taxes/Taxation, Weird Tales
La Crosse Tribune: Romanian Senators Reject Tax on Witches and Fortune Tellers
by JOHN ADAMS •
The rejected legislation was contradictory: it called for both taxes on income from fortune-telling and liability for wrong predictions. Liability for wrong predictions would put fortune tellers out of business, so there’d soon be no income to tax. (If witches’ predictions were really any good, they’d be using those supposed powers in a field with…
Weird Tales
“Bucky Badger head returned unscathed at UW-Madison” — GazetteXtra
by JOHN ADAMS •
Weird Tales
La Crosse Tribune: Montana Teen Accidentally Texts Sheriff to Buy Pot
by JOHN ADAMS •
Weird Tales
Only in Japan, Real Men Go to a Hotel With Virtual Girlfriends – WSJ.com
by JOHN ADAMS •
Perhaps the consequence of a decade of economic stagnation… In the first month of the city’s [Atami] promotional campaign launched July 10, more than 1,500 male fans of the Japanese dating-simulation game LovePlus+ have flocked to Atami for a romantic date with their videogame character girlfriends. The men are real. The girls are cartoon characters…
Weird Tales
La Crosse Tribune – Police: Would-be Burglar Gets Stuck in Grease Vent
by JOHN ADAMS •
Weird Tales
Via Volokh.com: “Use of [Communist] Party Newspapers and Magazines as Toilet Paper is Strictly Forbidden.”
by JOHN ADAMS •
Economy, Weird Tales
For Sale: T. Rex, Good Condition, Wooly Mammoth, Needs Repair – WSJ.com
by JOHN ADAMS •
This lingering recession has affected many businesses, great and small. Among those small businesses are any number of unusual and eccentric tourist spots. Many were vulnerable even before the recession, and a good number will likely be lost during these difficult times. Prairie Dog Town, near Oakley, Kan., is for sale, with an asking price…
Libertarians, Weird Tales
La Crosse Tribune: Ohio Elections Office Hides Elephant, Donkey After Compliant
by JOHN ADAMS •
In a central Ohio county, a libertarian candidate complained about the presence of an elephant and donkey figurine on the counter of the elections board office. County officials removed the major political parties’ figurines from the counter. Although I understand that bias in favor of major parties, against alternatives, is objectionable, libertarians should focus on…
Weird Tales
Elderly Wisconsin Woman 1, Rattlesnake 0
by JOHN ADAMS •
That’s the stuff: seventy-nine-year-old Margaret Street encountered a prairie rattlesnake, couldn’t find help to handle it, and so dispatched the reptile with an ice chopper. Although some rattlesnakes are endangered in Wisconsin, this was a prairie rattler, a non-native species that’s not endangered. See, Sheboygan Woman, 79, Kills Snake with Ice Chopper.