Oddities spotted in the news

[Bob Schroeck]

No one has finished Alexandra's Pizza's massive donair after 17 attempts in the last five months

Apparently, nobody.

You would think after all those people taking bites of it, someone would have finished it off by now... <grin>

[robkelk]

No one has finished Alexandra's Pizza's massive donair after 17 attempts in the last five months

Apparently, nobody.

You would think after all those people taking bites of it, someone would have finished it off by now... <grin>

Did you see the photo of it in the article?  

[Bob Schroeck]

Actually, no, I was in a hurry and just typed in the cheap shot without clicking the link. I'll rectify that.

[Dartz]

We had snow

LIDL got looted. As was tradition.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-an...-1.3413492

[robkelk]

Meet Canada's marijuana moguls

(Yes, it is a legal business in Canada.)

[robkelk]

Drivers say confusing signs keeping them from leaving New Brunswick

(No, Bob, the province.)

[robkelk]

Insert your own misleading title here

[robkelk]

Ottawa company that makes Montreal-style bagels looking to expand into Montreal

Craig Buckley, the founder of Kettleman's Bagel Co., says Montreal bagels are the next fast-food concept, and he's looking to expand his shop, which makes Montreal-style bagels in Ottawa, to the Montreal and Toronto markets.

He's even looking to buy one of Montreal's iconic bagel shops.

But not the iconic Montreal bagel shop:

Robert Morena, the co-owner St-Viateur Bagel, said it's "preposterous" that an Ottawa bagel shop which makes Montreal-style bagels should try to set up in Montreal.

"It doesn't sound right: 'We're going to go to Rome and build a Coliseum,'" he said.

[Bob Schroeck]

... just what constitutes a "Montreal" bagel? (Asks the guy who considers New York bagels the platinum-iridium standard.)

[robkelk]

... just what constitutes a "Montreal" bagel?  (Asks the guy who considers New York bagels the platinum-iridium standard.)

As far as I can tell, "still chewy after being toasted" is the criterion.

[robkelk]

Archaeopteryx could probably fly as well as a modern pheasant, peacock, or roadrunner

(Yes, I've already updated the relevant ATT pages.)

[robkelk]

Raccoon delays Air Canada flight

My first thought was of the ending theme of The Raccoons; you can run with them, but you can't fly with them.

[robkelk]

Canada looking for WIMPs

Spoiler

Weakly Interacting Massive Particles, that is - colloquially known as "dark matter".

[DHBirr]

Great White Sharks are congregating at a certain spot in the Pacific Ocean.  Nothing to see here, folks.  Everything's fine....

Yes, great white sharks are typically solitary creatures, so researchers were a bit surprised to realize just how many of them travel to the same spot halfway between Hawaii and Mexico’s Baja California. And yes, it’s true that the strange behavioral patterns the sharks exhibit once they get there—diving 1,000 feet toward the ocean floor and back up again, as often as every 10 minutes, for example—have never been previously recorded in any study of great white shark migration.

But do not worry. Hundreds of great white sharks have been mysteriously drawn to the same New Mexico-sized patch of the Pacific every spring for at least the last 10 years, like it’s some kind of shark Davos. Seriously, you do not need to be concerned.

It should not bother you at all that scientists have been watching this spot for more than a decade and they still don’t know what they’re doing down there.

-----
Little-known fact:  "Australia" is actually an abbreviated form.  The land's full name is "AauuuggghhhhAAUUGGHHHHHstralia <whimper>."

[robkelk]

The same time of year, every year, for a decade? And outsiders don't understand it?

Obviously, it's the Burning Shark festival.

[Norgarth]

They go there to listen to deep tracks from their favorite Undergroundwater indie bands. 8)

[DHBirr]

A follow-on to my last, this time from NPR.  More has been learned — it seems there's some surprisingly good eatin' in that area — but scientists are still puzzled by some of the behavior sharks exhibit at this site....

The scientists will need time to parse all of this new information, including new mysteries like one about why male and female sharks move differently through the water. The males move up and down rapidly — sometimes 120 times a day. Females will go up to the shallow water at night, then down much deeper in the day.

"The male white shark and the female white shark are doing completely different things, and that's not something we've seen so much before," Block said. "We have to spend some time studying these behaviors to try to understand if this is courtship behavior or is this really a feeding or foraging behavior."

[robkelk]

Beware of the beaked aggressors

[DHBirr]

Beware of the beaked aggressors

du Maurier and Hitchcock warned us....

[Ankhani]

Cloudy with a chance of Sushi
-or-
Sharknado was a Nature Documentary.

http://www.newsweek.com/storm-china-seaf...sky-979580

A tornado forming over the ocean sucked up lots of aquatic life, only to have it rain down over china when the tornado dispersed.

[robkelk]

Wait-list for Peace Tower flag now exceeds average Canadian lifespan

And the wait-list for flags flown elsewhere on Parliament Hill isn't much shorter.

[Norgarth]

Mary Queen of Scots is CLEARED of murdering her husband by a panel of experts who re-examined the evidence... just 428 years after she died.

[robkelk]

A graphic novel has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. This has never happened before.

[robkelk]

People of Bob's and my age will remember cigarette vending machines. Some of those machines have been re-purposed to sell original artwork.

EDIT: Official website, complete with a map of where these machines can be found.

[Bob Schroeck]

Restoration experts reveal the REAL face of murdered Renaissance princess beneath layers of paint added by Victorians to make her face conform to their ideal of beauty.