Oddities spotted in the news

[robkelk]

Abstinence is as bad for your brain as getting drunk is.

Paper in the British Medical Journal
Layman's story in The Register

The risk of dementia was increased in people who abstained from alcohol in midlife or consumed >14 units/week. In several countries, guidelines define thresholds for harmful alcohol consumption much higher than 14 units/week. The present findings encourage the downward revision of such guidelines to promote cognitive health at older ages.

I find it interesting that the survey sample was made up of civil servants.

[robkelk]

There's a professional Dungeon Master in Toronto

[Bob Schroeck]

I was going to say, well of course, there's probably at least a few in every major city, but then I read the link...

[Dartz]

School bus driver reports child protection issue to school

School pressures company into firing driver by threatening to remove bus contract.

[robkelk]

One wonders whether it's worth having a contract with a school that would act that way. After all, people are known by the company they keep.

---

Shifting moods significantly:
"New" Hemingway story published this month. And the article mentions three more that haven't been published ... yet.

[robkelk]

Uptight robots that suddenly beg to stay alive are less likely to be switched off by humans

The sample size is a little small, though.

---

From musician to physician: Why medical schools are recruiting for musical ability

Most of his patients are cancer patients who have had tumours removed. The manual dexterity he developed playing piano is the most obvious skill he brought to his surgical practice.

But the correlations go well beyond that.

[robkelk]

Ashland University (in Ohio) is offering scolarships to Fortnite players.
(A rerun from last May, but I'm just hearing about it now.)

[robkelk]

Animal Crackers to go free-range

Nabisco is getting rid of the cages on the package.

[robkelk]

I wonder what the emergency response time was?

Fire station catches fire

[robkelk]

In 1973, Canadian novelist Pierre Berton famously said, "A Canadian is somebody who knows how to make love in a canoe."

Now, thanks to The New York Times Magazine, everybody can be Canadian.

[robkelk]

Ride like a Mountie! As long as you don't mind a horse of a different colour.

[robkelk]

He got the Nobel. She got nothing. Now she's won a huge prize and she's giving it all away

"She" being Jocelyn Bell Burnell, the Irish then-student at Cambridge who during her post-grad work was the first to discover a pulsar.

I'm going to donate it — bar any tax I have to pay — to the Institute of Physics, the professional body for physicists in the U.K. and Ireland, for them to establish research studentships for minority people in physics.

And — physics being physics — minority people includes women.

I recommend listening to the audio; the webpage only prints part of the interview.

[robkelk]

Sometimes there are better names than 'Examiner' for a newspaper

AP: Missouri town gets new newspaper, The Uranus Examiner

The editor has already been asked whether she's worried this will make her home town the butt of jokes.

[DHBirr]

This one's over six weeks old, but still....

Cow-tizens' arrest.

The headline:

A woman fled from the scene of a crash into a field. Then the cows sprang into action.

The puns in the last paragraph are mooo-velously groan-worthy. So are the readers' comments, especially the person who righteously proclaimed that he/she wouldn't be "milking this for puns."

[robkelk]

LEGO Bugatti Chiron - top speed 20 km/h, but it does move under its own power


"Can you tell which one is the real Bugatti?"

[Bob Schroeck]

...how can you sit in it without breaking the seat? (I was wondering if it was actually driveable until I read the article; it is, amazingly, but I think my idea of having it remotely controlled by Mindstorms is just as cool.)

[robkelk]

Next week is Fire Prevention Week in the USA and Canada.

The entire town of Hudson, Quebec will be taking part in a fire drill at the same time.

[robkelk]

The birthplace of the McIntosh is for sale

Note that that's the McIntosh apple, not the Apple Macintosh.

[robkelk]

Gender parity has been reached in the guitar world.

50 percent of new guitarists are women: new Fender study

[robkelk]

A guillotine? In Brooklyn? At this hour?

[Dartz]

You think your education system is collapsing....


....One particular school, had an 80% chance of falling over in Storm Force winds. Given that we had a Hurrican last year - it's probably well past that.

[ECSNorway]

School bus driver reports child protection issue to school

School pressures company into firing driver by threatening to remove bus contract.

This is not an oddity, this is a crime being blatantly covered up.

[robkelk]

If you've ever wondered about the importance of having a designated driver, wonder no more.

Police pull same car over twice, nab two different men for impaired driving

[Dartz]

Dressing up for Hallowwen as the KKK?

This is your brain on Loyalism

[Labster]

Japan's cyber-security minister has 'never used a computer'.  If you know anything about Japanese work culture this makes 100% sense.  Like how Japanese ATMs close overnight.

An 1861 Japanese history of the American Revolution, complete with John Adams fighting a youkai, Ben Franklin firing a cannon, George Washington sword fighting Asura to protect a princess, and other 100% legit things.  The same author went on to write a biography of U.S. Grant, complete with this beautiful picture of American flag kimonos.