In a story so Canadian it ought to come with a side of poutine and a pair of hockey tickets, the actions of a solitary beaver knocked out internet and cellular service in British Columbia. Officials have now identified a beaver as the cause of a June 7 outage which left many resi … | Continue reading
I’m not sure what someone might do with a celebrity’s purloined DNA, but I’m sure they’ll think of something awful.Link: https://theconversation.com/genetic-paparazzi-are-right-around-the-corner-and-courts-arent-ready-to-confront-the-legal-quagmire-of-dna-theft-178866 | Continue reading
If I came across a zebra while mountain biking in California, I would likely be very surprised. In the aftermath, I would perhaps even be willing to break my “National news or no news” rule to tell local news about it, as cyclist Marcos Chavez did. But I know for certain that I’d … | Continue reading
I have so very many questions about this story of two people falling into a tank of chocolate, and I fear I will never get any answers. “Fire crews have eliminated pulling them straight out of a tank,” Brad Wolfe, communications supervisor for Lancaster County 911 dispatch, told … | Continue reading
One planet over, on Mars, NASA has deployed five different rovers over the years. To our knowledge, however, only one of them has a pet. Stowaway Yes, the Perseverance rover has acquired a pet rock, and that’s adorable.Link: https://phys.org/news/2022-06-perseverance-pet.html | Continue reading
As readers may know, I have fun with checks. However, though I have utterly ridiculous checks which amuse me greatly, I do not have much occasion to use said checks. As such, I was surprised to receive an email with the subject line “This is a friendly reminder to reorder checks. … | Continue reading
Trained dogs can detect COVID as well or better than other tests. Maybe one day in the future, instead of having a swab jabbed up my nose to get tested, I’ll just be able to pet a cool dog.Link: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/covid-dog-detection-pcr-test-screening-coronaviru … | Continue reading
Long time readers know that if you want your Instagram feed to look fresh as hell, you should get yourself to Iceland. But what about all that work you need to do back at the office? Fortunately, Iceland’s tourism bureau has created a helpful new service to assist you: Outhorse Y … | Continue reading
Have you adopted a pescatarian diet, but find yourself missing the delectable crunch of a hearty bowlful of bees? Well now you can satisfy your apiary appetites, at least in the state of California, because bees are fish.Link: https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/bees-are-fis … | Continue reading
Sure, you could just clean up after your dog right after they poop in the yard. But why do that, when you could instead use an extremely over-engineered laser-guided poop patrol system?Link: https://gizmodo.com/dog-tech-smart-robot-laser-arm-poop-maker-security-came-1848974458 | Continue reading
For over two decades, it was incredibly difficult to conduct research on gun violence in America, as a result of the Dickey Amendment pushed by the NRA. Despite the dearth of knowledge this caused, we do know some things. The editors of Scientific American have published a powerf … | Continue reading
Last week, 19 children and 2 adults were murdered in a school shooting at Robb Elementary School, in Uvalde, Texas. It is the latest in a seemingly never-ending series of tragedies resulting from our horrible American obsession with firearms. In this particular case, there also … | Continue reading
I don’t know if Waze has an option to report “spilled meat on roadway”, but if not, they should add one.Link: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/05/24/pa-truck-crash-hot-dog-highway/9914778002/ | Continue reading
As Zander Moricz was preparing a speech for his high school graduation, he was instructed on things he couldn’t say. Moricz is currently the youngest plaintiff in a suit against Florida’s new law restricting what teachers can say about sexual orientation and gender, commonly know … | Continue reading
If you don’t know what NFTs and “Bored Apes” are, gosh, I don’t know, consider yourself lucky. It’s all a pretty vapid rabbit hole of cryptocurrency and mediocre-at-best artwork, and ignoring it is mostly for the best. Still, for today’s post, a brief primer is in order. An NFT ( … | Continue reading
Earlier this year, a human patient in Maryland successfully received a heart transplant from a pig. That’s pretty remarkable! He survived two months after that, before unfortunately passing away. The 57-year-old patient who survived two months after undergoing a landmark pig hear … | Continue reading
While reading about Italy’s seizure of a billion dollar yacht rumored to belong to Vladimir Putin, this line caught my eye (emphasis added): …the 459-foot vessel – which comes equipped with six decks, two helipads, a judo gym, a five-metre aquarium, a swimming pool which turns in … | Continue reading
In the 13+ years One Foot Tsunami has been around, I’ve written about a plethora of different topics. I’ve also been fortune to be receive links from some larger websites, resulting in traffic from all over the world. As a result of these two facts, I get a lot of spammy emails f … | Continue reading
In recent years, the small town of Kingsland, Arkansas has built a brand around being the birthplace of country music legend Johnny Cash. As part of that effort, a large depiction of Cash was painted on the town’s water tower. Last week, with a well-placed shot, a vandal turned t … | Continue reading
Cheese fraud! That's just funny. | Continue reading
Last night, before the Red Sox game against the Houston Astros, heir to the Benihana fortune (and also some sort of musician, apparently) Steve Aoki threw out a ceremonial first pitch. It was…not great. In fact, it was so airmailed that If not for the netting above the stands beh … | Continue reading
My grandfather was a candy maker1, and I recently uncovered some fascinating papers while going through his things.2 One particularly interesting document focused on the value of persistence. It included a list showing an assortment of very bad name ideas for various confections. … | Continue reading
Right up front, I’m going to say that I’m sorry. Please note that for your benefit, I did not include any photographs of the following story. Nevertheless, if I have to know that Malcolm MacDonald’s penis fell off as a result of a blood infection, and then he had a new one grown … | Continue reading
Last fall, after privately battling leukemia for almost a decade, comedian Norm MacDonald passed away unexpectedly. Now, Netflix has revealed that before he passed, he shot a comedy special. The result was a stand-up special shot in Macdonald’s living room. The actor filmed the e … | Continue reading
Dolly Parton seems pretty great. She’s done a whole lot of philanthropic work, from helping fund COVID vaccine research, to giving away tens of millions of books to children via her “Imagination Library”. On the other hand, she’s now going to star in a TikTok music about Taco Bel … | Continue reading
If F1 had just waited a few years until Miami is more under water, this nonsense wouldn’t have been necessary.Link: https://motorsports.nbcsports.com/2022/05/08/f1-miami-yachts-fake-marina-water-grand-prix/ | Continue reading
As a well-read and intelligent consumer of internet content, you probably know all about Wordle, the simple one-puzzle-per-day word puzzle that took the internet by storm at the end of last year. After rapidly gaining millions of fans, the game was swiftly purchased by the New Yo … | Continue reading
Don’t you just hate it when you buy a marble portrait bust for $34.99 at Goodwill and it turns out to be a 2,000 year old relic that was probably looted from Germany as a trophy at the end of World War II and then you’re stuck with it because of an inability to find any original … | Continue reading
Recently, Florida decided to start banning books from use in their school curricula. Activist Chaz Stevens was bothered by this, so he’s using the system to advocate for the banning of a book loaded with offensive content: the Bible. Stevens said he is particularly interested in … | Continue reading
Add “giant humanoid robot operator” to the list of jobs I’d like to have for at least a day. Over in Japan, a cool-ass bot is being controlled by a human using virtual reality goggles, and it’s pretty amazing to see. [Photo credit: JR West] The full video of this thing in action … | Continue reading
Plenty has been written about the biggest story in the United States today, the leaked draft of a Supreme Court decision which indicates the court will overturn Roe v. Wade. At the moment, I don’t have anything to add to the discussion. If you’re worried, however, perhaps this ch … | Continue reading
While “DRM” generally stands for “digital rights management”, the term covers more than just technologies that limit access to digital content like movies and music. In recent years, DRM has been creeping into more and more physical products, like printers and tractors. Generally … | Continue reading
In 2018, Boeing signed a deal with then-President Donald Trump’s government to provide new 747-8s to serve as presidential transports. Somehow, this deal was set to pay the corporation an astonishing $4 billion for two Air Force Ones.1. Even more astonishing, Boeing is now projec … | Continue reading
Recently, I received an invitation to an event to be held at Boston’s Museum of Science. It was billed as an “electrifying experience”, due to the presence of the world’s largest air-insulated Van de Graaff generator. With a name like “Sparks After Dark”, it was only natural tha … | Continue reading
A week ago, I posted about the extremely rapid demise of CNN+, a soon-to-be-shuttered streaming news service that lasted for approximately one month. Now, CNBC has posted a very solid breakdown of how it all broke down. A key factor was the Discovery and WarnerMedia merger that w … | Continue reading
Modern science and medicine are frequently amazing. In Germany, a patient recently had a brain-computer interface implanted that enables him to communicate despite suffering from complete paralysis. Among other things, he used it to request a drink. Eventually, he could make spec … | Continue reading
In America, cars that fail to meet minimum fuel efficiency standards are subject to additional taxation. Though inefficient automobiles are still permitted, a Gas Guzzler Tax is levied on them. This surcharge is intended to dampen the demand for these vehicles.1 I’ve always liked … | Continue reading
It’s illegal to openly sell Cheetos in Germany, due to trademark concerns related to a product called “Chitos”, which doesn’t actually exist. Chitos are a color, an emotion, a state of mind. They’re that look in his eyes when you tell him you love him. They are you and me As a re … | Continue reading
Literally ones of people are devastated today, as CNN+ will be shutting down just a month after it launched. If you’ve never even heard of the streaming news service, well, that makes sense. I first heard of it just last week, when it was reported that they had a laughably low nu … | Continue reading
You may recall that last March, a container ship named the “Ever Given” blocked the Suez Canal for almost a week. Recently, a sister ship from the same Evergreen Marine shipping company joined it in infamy. The hilariously named “Ever Forward” ran aground in the Chesapeake, and i … | Continue reading
When I saw the headline “His business was failing — so he stole and sold golf carts for ‘easy cash’”, I thought “Of course!”. Willie Sutton had it wrong. Everyone knows golf carts are where the money is. Unfortunately for Nathan Nelson, he just didn’t know when to quit. FBI agent … | Continue reading
Almost exactly fifteen years ago today, Jerry Remy made his immortal call of “Here Comes the Pizza” during the Red Sox 2007 Patriot’s Day game. Today, ESPN has posted a tremendous deep-dish deep dive into the story. It focuses on Dan Kelly, chucker of the pizza. Because they’ve u … | Continue reading
If you want to enjoy a drink at a real-world version of Moe’s Tavern from The Simpsons, you can visit officially licensed versions at Universal Studios in Florida or California. Alternately, you can duck your head into one of many unlicensed “Tabernas de Moe” in Latin America. So … | Continue reading
Pity poor Stephen Ross, the director of the ape center at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo. In addition to raising human teenagers of his own, Ross is also tasked with the care of teenage gorillas. In a somewhat sickening display of (not-actually-a-)monkey-see, (not-actually-a-)monkey- … | Continue reading
Last month, I read an article about venting which has stuck in my mind. The entire piece is worth a read, but it can be summarized with this excerpt: In the “hydraulic model,” frustration and anger build up inside you and, unless periodically released in small bursts, cause a mas … | Continue reading
I continue to urge you, dear reader, to meat-ax your notifications. It’s a very good bet that you simply don’t need your phone to bother you as often as it does, and that you’ll be happier with most notifications turned off. That said, notifications can occasionally provide a goo … | Continue reading
Baseball is back, and this season, a whole lot has changed. From a universal designated hitter to mic’ed up umpires, it’s a brave new world. Perhaps the most intriguing change is the addition of a new system called PitchCom, which uses wireless transmitters to allow pitchers and … | Continue reading
Right now, the US Supreme Court is a mess. Though public opinion in America has steadily shifted left in recent decades, the Supreme Court tilted rightward under Donald Trump. Following recent rulings, the court has hit record lows in public approval polls, and respect for it has … | Continue reading