And Finally...

cross-posted from: https://real.lemmy.fan/post/2732128

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/14098514

Bruges court heard how defendant had condition called auto-brewery syndrome sometimes brought on by intestinal problems

A North Lincolnshire man will be allowed to keep the unique sculptures in his front garden despite neighbours complaining it looks like a "gift shop".

Lee Morris, 52, who lives in Woods Meadow, Hibaldstow, installed four military aeroplane statues and a dragon statue in his garden. In one particularly strongly-worded comment on the retrospective planning application, someone wrote: "Game of Thrones want their dragon back."

Another person said: "It is like they have ram raided Duxford Imperial War Museum gift shop." Lee told Grimsby Live he was disappointed people had referred to his garden as a "theme park" and said the plane sculptures were a nod to the village's military history, with RAF Hibaldstow opening in 1941.

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Lee has also had a fair amount of support from other history enthusiasts. He added: "I've had the other side too, older men come and ask if they can come and have a look in my garden because I've got an old Lancaster and other stuff."

In the planning meeting, Valerie Moore, a neighbour, demanded the immediate removal of the statues. She claimed that one of the planes hangs over the boundary hedge.

She told councillors: "Since the last meeting, nothing has changed. This development is still totally inappropriate for the neighbourhood.

"If North Lincolnshire planning committee allow the precedent of this type of theme park installation in a residential area, surely they'd be failing the residents."

Fortunately for Lee, her plea for an immediate removal order at North Lincolnshire Council's planning committee was unsuccessful. Councillors previously visited the sculptures in person and had mixed views on them visually.

Trevor Foster, councillor for Ridge Ward, said: "It's certainly got a wow factor." Bottesford councillor John Davison said: "I suppose to a certain degree, beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

Max Bell, the councillor for Ashby Lakeside, was surprised by how imposing the three-metre high statues were. He was the only councillor to oppose the approval of the retrospective planning application.

SunExpress’s German-American boss Max Kownatzki told trade publication TTG that one special flight operated by the Turkish airline for a group of Brits on a golfing break was drunk dry in the space of 25-minutes.

He said Brit travellers are “more high-spend, more hedonistic.”

Joe Biden claims his uncle was possibly eaten by cannibals during the Second World War, conflicting with military records of the event.

The U.S. president suggested twice on Wednesday that Ambrose Finnegan’s death was at the hands of a flesh-eating tribe in New Guinea after his plane crashed during the war 80 years ago.

“He got shot down in an area where there were a lot of cannibals at the time,” Biden, 81, told reporters after visiting a war memorial in Scranton, Pa.

“They never recovered his body, but the government went back when I went down there and they checked and found some parts of the plane.”

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However, according to Pentagon records for missing military members, 2nd Lt. Ambrose J. Finnegan died in a plane crash in the Pacific Ocean near New Guinea.

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Biden brought up his uncle’s war death in response to Donald Trump not visiting a military cemetery near Paris in 2018 after calling the dead servicemen “suckers” and “losers.”

“Suckers and losers? The man doesn’t deserve to have been the commander in chief of my son,” Biden told the Pittsburgh audience.

A special counsel’s report in February described the current president as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” and “diminished faculties in advancing age.”

cross-posted from: https://real.lemmy.fan/post/2651238

Fields now smell of grass and middle school aged boys.

Scientists at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Seti) in the US claim to have conversed with a humpback whale in Alaska as a proxy for communicating with aliens.

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They found that while most of the whales ignored the recorded calls, one of them – a female named Twain – circled the scientists’ boat, mimicking the noises for about 20 minutes.

Researchers are not entirely sure what the recorded call meant, but suspect it is a kind of “contact call” that whales use to call each other.

“It might have just been us saying hello, and her responding hello, and us saying hello again,” Dr Walker explained.

“We believe this is the first such communicative exchange between humans and humpback whales in the humpback ‘language,’” study lead author Brenda McCowan said in a statement.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14402207

When Érika de Souza Vieira wheeled her lethargic-looking uncle into a Brazilian bank, clerks quickly sensed something was amiss.

“I don’t think he’s well. He doesn’t look well at all,” remarked one distrustful employee as Vieira tried to get her elderly relative to sign off on a 17,000 reais ($3,250) loan.

Paulo Roberto Braga was indeed indisposed. In fact, the 68-year-old appears to have been dead.

Shortly after entering the lender in Rio late on Tuesday with her late uncle, Vieira was arrested and charged with violating a corpse and attempted theft through fraud, according to the Rio newspaper O Dia.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14363079

A young boy looks like a real-life werewolf, with hair enveloping his face and body, all due to a one-in-a-billion medical anomaly.

Dubbed potentially as the world’s hairiest baby, his mother’s peculiar theory blames her “cursed” pregnancy craving for her son’s condition, The Sun reports.

Jaren Gamongan from Apayao, the Philippines, was born with a full head of hair, black sideburns, and patches that filled his face, neck, back, and arms.

His superstitious mum, Alma, believed the boy’s appearance was due to a curse wrought upon her when she ate a wild cat while pregnant with the child.

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Her neighbours kept feeding her ideas about a curse, but when she finally took Jaren to qualified doctors this month, they found out he had a medical condition called hypertrichosis.

The incredibly rare syndrome only affects an estimated “one in every billion people”, as only 50 to 100 cases were reported worldwide since the Middle Ages.

cross-posted from: https://real.lemmy.fan/post/2541036

Easy mistake to make

Creative Scotland has clawed back nearly £68,000 of taxpayers’ cash from a controversial "hardcore" performance piece, MSPs have been told.

The funding agency took action against artist Leonie Rae Gasson after a public outcry over her show Rein.

However, the team behind the work, which aimed to show an "erotic journey through a distinctly Scottish landscape,” has denied ever misleading the funding body,

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According to its website, Rein was to be a “45 minute, multi-screen, immersive, moving image installation” performed by a mix of “dancers, sex workers, performers".

Audiences would be invited to “come see the Daddies lurking in the woods” and “bare arsed lovers frolicking in long grass” before the climax of the show, “a secret cave sex party featuring a feast” of explicit sexual practices.

A couple were divorced by mistake after a computer error at a family law firm.

A staff member at Vardag's accidentally opened the file of a couple referred to in court papers as Mr and Mrs Williams, when trying to apply for a final divorce order for a different client.

Vardag's applied three days later to rescind the order but judge Sir Andrew McFarlane dismissed the application.

The firm's head Ayesha Vardag said the judge's decision effectively meant "the computer says no, you're divorced".

Royal Parks Police said it had received “concerning” reports over the weekend of people attempting to pull the deer’s antlers, saying some of the reports had been captured on video.

In a statement, it said: “We have received reports of concerning behaviour in Richmond Park over the weekend, where park users have been observed approaching the deer and attempting to remove their antlers.

“Video footage of these incidents has been obtained. We urge anyone who witnesses such behaviour to contact the police by calling 101.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14263300

Having a cat as a pet could potentially double a person's risk of schizophrenia-related disorders, according to a recent study.

This idea that cat ownership could be linked to schizophrenia risk was proposed in a 1995 study, with exposure to a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii suggested as a cause. But the research so far has put forth mixed conclusions.

A study in the US, which involved 354 psychology students, didn't find a connection between owning a cat and schizotypy scores. However, those who had received a cat bite had higher scores when compared to those who had not.

Another study, which included people with and without mental disorders, discovered a connection between cat bites and higher scores on tests measuring particular psychological experiences. But they suggested other pathogens such as Pasteurella multocida may be responsible instead.

The researchers agree that better and broader research is needed before we can make any firm interpretations.

"In conclusion, our review provides support for an association between cat ownership and schizophrenia-related disorders,"

A 20-year-old Venezuelan national attempted to rob a bank in Sandusky, Ohio, using a translator app on his phone to convey his demands due to his inability to speak English.

The incident occurred on April 4, just before noon, when a man alerted the police that the suspect was inside the bank attempting to steal money. Bank security footage shows the man, later identified as Yeixon Brito-Gonzalez, holding up his phone to the tellers with written demands in English to "get the money" and "put the money in the bag." However, when the tellers ignored his demands, the Venezuelan man left the bank empty-handed, According to Fox8, a local Ohio Fox Affiliate,

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“I have been in law enforcement for over 20 years and this is the first time I encountered something like this, someone using a translator app to try and rob a bank,” Oliver said. “First time our officers have dealt with it too. “

The results of a 2020 study, published in the journal Science, suggest that mammals that have lost the ability to regenerate organs may still contain some regenerative genes.

On top of that, it may be possible to harness the rapid growth of antlers in other ways that could prove vital to researchers.

These so-called 'mini antlers' grow at around 2.75cm per day, making it one of the fastest regenerating tissues in the animal kingdom.

Mammals in general have lost the ability to regenerate organs and most other tissues for that matter, so the antlers could certainly provide a unique insight into how regenerative medicine for bones could work.

Mammals in general have lost the ability to regenerate organs and most other tissues for that matter, so the antlers could certainly provide a unique insight into how regenerative medicine for bones could work.

Reform UK say they are ‘mortified’ after sacking an inactive parliamentary candidate who later turned out to be dead.

The hard-right political party dropped York Central candidate Tommy Cawkwell after he failed to reply to their emails and phone calls.

Reform initially said they had rescinded his candidacy due to inappropriate messages on social media, but later discovered he had died following the selection process.

https://www.today.com/pets/goat-anxiety-only-calms-down-when-duck-costume-t105482

Some frogs scream at an ear-splitting volume for other animals but its frequency is inaudible to humans, scientists have discovered.

While out in the Amazonian jungle studying frogs, researchers in Brazil noticed something strange.

Small leaf litter frogs were arching their backs, throwing back their heads and opening their mouths wide.

They looked like they were screaming but the scientists could hear nothing.

When they recorded the frogs using high-frequency audio recorders, the scientists captured the first documented case of "defensive ultrasound" being used by amphibians.

Police officers were left "confused" by a bird when it convincingly mimicked the sound of the sirens on their cars.

Thames Valley Police said staff initially thought their vehicles had developed a fault after hearing the noise at a roads policing base in Bicester.

A video filmed at the site in Oxfordshire and posted on social media shows the bird chirping in a tree - before then replicating the sound of a two-tone siren.

The force said that the copycat call was "100% real and not a late April Fools joke" and added that officers were left "a little confused".

Commuters at a train station in Australia were left doing a doubletake as an escaped racehorse joined them to wait for a passenger service.

The rogue animal turned up at Warwick Farm station, New South Wales, and trotted down the platform before pausing ahead of the train's arrival - when it even stood behind the yellow line.

cross-posted from: https://real.lemmy.fan/post/2405718

Kinston police on Monday arrested Walter McCray for activity related to mechanophilia. Mechanophilia is defined as sexual attraction to machines or vehicles.

The 82-year-old victim, who lives on Adkin Street, told WITN that she doesn’t know McCray and says her car has also been urinated on.

“I thought something was happening from under the hood of my car because whenever he would come up here he would urinate all over the hood of the car and it would run all down and I thought it was something with the car, I took my car to the shop three times,” Carolyn Taylor said.

Arrest warrants accuse the 52-year-old man of getting on the hood of the car and sexually gratifying himself on multiple occasions. The latest case happened on Sunday.

Opening statements are expected on Wednesday in the trial of an Idaho man charged with killing his wife and his then girlfriend’s two youngest children in an unusual case rooted in extremist religious beliefs.

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Prosecutors say the couple justified the three killings with doomsday beliefs, part of an elaborate scheme to eliminate any obstacles to their relationship and to obtain money from survivor benefits and life insurance. Vallow Daybell referred to her two youngest kids as zombies, one friend testified during her trial.

Chad Daybell was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and self-published fiction loosely based on its teachings.

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Friends later told detectives that Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell believed they had been reincarnated and were tasked with gathering people before a biblical apocalypse.