16 votes

Offbeat Fridays – The thread where offbeat headlines become front page news

Posted by mycketforvirrad
Tags: ask.discussion, recurring.weekly, offbeat fridays, offbeat

Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like encyclopedias, lockpicking and wankbattling. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was keeping note.

But one of my favourite tags happens to be offbeat! Taking its original inspiration from Sir Nils Olav III, this thread is looking for any far-fetched offbeat stories lurking in the newspapers. It may not deserve its own post, but it deserves a wider audience!

7 comments

  1. [2]
    arch_mage
    Link
    BBC: 'Bogus' snail farms set up to avoid business rates I first saw this on the BBC but I did some more research because I was intrigued, and the man running this scheme is a lot more interesting...

    BBC: 'Bogus' snail farms set up to avoid business rates

    Under UK tax law, agricultural buildings and fish farms are exempt from paying business rates if they are viable commercial businesses. ...
    To date, the council says it has lost about £370,000 due to this avoidance scheme, which it says building landlords are also "complicit" in.

    I first saw this on the BBC but I did some more research because I was intrigued, and the man running this scheme is a lot more interesting than I initially thought.

    London Centric: The snail farmer of London, his mafia friends, and a £20m vendetta against the taxman
    Terry Ball runs elaborate mollusc-based tax avoidance schemes that are costing London councils millions of pounds.

    I really recommend this article (especially the diagram on how the scheme works). From what I could tell they did the initial reporting.

    I also love that Terry is running this scheme for love of the game, not to make a bunch of money

    Over the ensuing hours, Ball makes confession after confession about his attempts to outwit the taxman with increasingly elaborate plans, his decades-long links to the Naples underworld, and how at this very moment there are buildings across London where he is deploying his unique snail-breeding method in a bid to cheat exasperated local councils out of millions of pounds.

    “I’m turning 80 next month and I haven’t got jack shit in my name. What are they going to do?” Ball tells me with a chuckle, when asked if he’s worried about prosecution. “You can’t take nothing off nothing. They’ve stopped torturing people.”

    The old man is proudly committed to spending his remaining years on this earth finding innovative ways to get revenge on the “bastard” authorities who he feels screwed him over in the past: “I just do it for devilment. I do it just to get away with it.”

    8 votes
    1. skybrian
      Link Parent
      Matt Levine commented on this last week: ...

      Matt Levine commented on this last week:

      We have talked a few times about a guy in London who keeps snails in boxes to avoid taxes. The theory is that if a property is used for agriculture, it can avoid some local property taxes, and "snail farming" is the minimum amount of agriculture you can do to avoid taxes. This is an extremely funny theory that an extremely funny guy put into practice in a bunch of office buildings.

      It does, however, have one flaw, which is that it is not true. Eventually the local property tax authorities will get around to suing you, and when they do, you will go to court and be like "lol snails" and the judge will be like "come on" and you'll have to pay the taxes. A reader pointed out to me a 2021 Queen's Bench case finding oh come on this is a sham:

      ...

      The guy keeps doing snail farming, because (1) come on it's funny and (2) you never know if you might find a local council that won't sue you. But the theory behind it is suspect. Anyway. Nothing here is ever tax advice, is one lesson here. Another is that if you find a tax arbitrage that sounds like it might work, but doesn't work, but that involves breeding snails in office buildings, you might do it anyway for sheer love of the game.

      6 votes
  2. [2]
    stewedrabbit
    Link
    An annual tradition in Kasterlee: a pumpkin regatta! Local farmers grow some large pumpkins, that are then used as boats: Pompoenregatta Kasterlee lokt duizenden toeschouwers (Dutch article)

    An annual tradition in Kasterlee: a pumpkin regatta! Local farmers grow some large pumpkins, that are then used as boats:
    Pompoenregatta Kasterlee lokt duizenden toeschouwers (Dutch article)

    7 votes
    1. tanglisha
      Link Parent
      That was delightful! If anyone else wants to read, use a translator from Dutch.

      That was delightful!

      If anyone else wants to read, use a translator from Dutch.

      4 votes
  4. mycketforvirrad
    Link
    Agatha Christie meets Mr Men in new children's books BBC News – Emma Saunders – 23rd October 2025

    Agatha Christie meets Mr Men in new children's books

    In a first for Agatha Christie, four of the crime novelist's famous mysteries are being adapted for children – with the help of the Mr Men and Little Misses.

    The illustrated books, aimed at pre-school and primary age children, will feature Christie detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple working alongside Roger Hargreaves's much-loved children's characters.

    BBC News – Emma Saunders – 23rd October 2025

    3 votes
  5. cfabbro
    Link
    Dogs in Chornobyl are mysteriously turning blue, but radiation is not to blame

    Dogs in Chornobyl are mysteriously turning blue, but radiation is not to blame

    While it may be easy to sensationalize the blue dogs living within the CEZ – assuming they have some sort of radioactive mutation – the real reason these dogs likely have blue fur is instead more comical.

    While the team working with Dogs of Chernobyl was investigating the blue dogs, they came upon an old portable toilet, or porta-potty.

    “We are suspecting that this substance was from an old portable toilet that was in the same location as the dogs; however, we were unable to positively confirm our suspicions,” says Betz.

    Thanks to the photos of the blue dogs that have a geotag, the team accurately pinpointed the location of the dogs in conjunction with the portable toilet.

    Many portable toilets contain a blue liquid that serves as a deodorizer, and they suggest the dogs may have rolled in it. However, until the team can catch and analyze one of the blue Chornobyl dogs, they won’t know for sure what caused the blue fur.

    2 votes