Art, Writing, and Learning: The Clerisy Quarter > Discussion and Debate - The Philosopher's Plaza

And Another Thing (Silly/Quirky News Thread)

(1/2) > >>

Jubal:
Thought we should have a rolling thread for more light hearted or curious news.

This week, Belarus created a fictional enemy nation for a military exercise and it's kind of caught on:


--- Quote ---A country invented as part of military exercises in Belarus has caught the imagination of locals, who have created a foreign ministry, flag, history and even its own Wikipedia page for the fictional nation.

Veyshnoria is one of three states made up for the Zapad 2017 military drills, which - according to the scenario - seek to invade Belarus and sow discord between Minsk and Moscow.

The map of the exercise, made public during the General Staff briefing on 29 August, shows Veyshnoria in the north-western regions of today's Belarus, with Vesbaria and Lubenia lying in Lithuania and Poland, the Nasha Niva website reports.

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-41107540

--- End quote ---

Of course, the next step is for someone to actually declare Veyshnorian independence, at which point we have a full blown Paranoia-style scenario on our hands...

Jubal:
We should use this thread more to lighten things up. So here's one about a fox with a penchant for shoe collecting:


--- Quote ---A fox in a leafy suburb of Berlin has been getting into the spirit of summer - by collecting flip flops.

For weeks residents of Zehlendorf were baffled that a thief was stealing their flip flops and sports shoes from their gardens at night.

Finally a man spotted the culprit on a patch of wasteland, "in flagrante, carrying two blue flip flops in its mouth", the daily Tagesspiegel reports.

The fox had a hoard of over 100 shoes, but not the man's missing running shoe.
--- End quote ---

Rest of piece:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53612856

Jubal:
And another thing: a penguin has been being shown pingu clips so it doesn't get too lonely:


--- Quote ---

A penguin watching Pingu on an iPad to stop him feeling lonely should be the ultimate evidence we really can expect anything in 2020.

And it's actually, legitimately happening at Perth Zoo in Australia.

The penguin, who's been called Pierre - because at this point why not - was found washed up on a beach in the south west of the country. He's an endangered Northern Rockhopper penguin, and the only one in care anywhere in the whole of Australasia.

Pierre's keepers - who we assume are the ones taking care of the Netflix subscription - were worried he'd not get enough socialising while he gets healthy enough to return to the wild. So they're showing him the cartoon, along with live streams of other rockhoppers around the world - including the ones at Edinburgh Zoo.
--- End quote ---

Rest of piece:
https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-53945912

Jubal:
This is MASSIVELY worth reading: a long post, but really eye-opening, about sloppy data handling and how someone found the former Australian PM's passport number via an instagram post:

https://mango.pdf.zone/finding-former-australian-prime-minister-tony-abbotts-passport-number-on-instagram

DeepCandle Games:
You can call him TODAY, just call 1-800 ONION

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page