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Offbeat Fridays – The thread where offbeat headlines become front page news
Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like the game awards.2025, devices.smart and gift cards. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was out of the loop.
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!
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/thedetail/579420/kakapo-might-not-be-the-bird-of-the-year-but-this-is-the-year-of-the-kakapo
Kākāpō Comeback: Could this be the biggest breeding season on record?
Cant count our flightless parrots before they fledge, but fantastic news nevertheless
Just in case someone's wondering what a kākāpō looks like:
I need to get in an argument so I can tell someone to go get fucked in the neck by a kākāpō.
I'd say "Chuck Tingle vibes" for the YouTube title, but that looked very non-consensual.
The human definitely was worried about hurting the rare parrot if he were to swat it off, but yeah dinosaurs are not gentle. Can you imagine the viral video being titled "heartless man kills rare parrot" instead?
My female geese look so uncomfortable every year, so much pulled out feathers, it's just what happens when an organism has no hands, a wire cutter beak and sharp claws. :/
What a very interesting bird.
So that means even more of us will be able to draw 4 bonus cards and keep 1 at the end of the game?
I have to stop playing Wingspan and only thinking of birds in terms of what their cards do.
We just started playing Wyrmspan (the dragon spinoff) and it's so cute I have difficulty taking my turns properly. Hoping to get some time to paint the little eggs to add sparkling dragon scales on them over winter break.
Ooh, painted mini eggs is a great call! That sounds awesome.
Last year at Easter, I got a bunch of Cadbury mini eggs before we played, and replaced the game eggs with mini eggs. When I first spent an egg to play a bird, I took the egg off, looked my son right in the eyes and (from his point of view) ate a game piece. He thought I was crazy, then couldn't stop laughing when he figured out all the eggs were chocolate.
And he laughs like a cartoon hyena, so it was doubly funny.
Harvard morgue manager who sold body parts like 'baubles' gets 8-year prison term
Ghouls just wanna have fun, and some extra cash.
Beyond odd, damn cruel.
It's really horrifying, especially that he was able to do this without detection for so long. When I recall the long list of "do nots" for respectful treatment of cadavers in med school, the lengths we went to ensure any removed tissue was returned with the body for cremation, etc., I blame Harvard's procedures and granting of impunity as much as the perpetrators.
Ontario Provincial Police pulled over a woman in the HOV (high occupancy vehicle / carpool) lane who erroneously thought that having her cat with her made it acceptable. source.
In the aftermath of flooding, authorities in the state of Washington give advice on how to deal with toilet rats
In today's BBC: Woman's shock as goose smashes through front door.
Geese do what geese do!
Goose news!
I see what they did there
That's so kind of them! For anyone reading if this happens to you: geese like deep bowls of water (and will make a big mess) because they can still swallow while being fully submerged. They are pretty strict vegetarians and like grass, or leafy greens as an alternative. This poor fella was probably exhausted before being able to find any grass, especially if the housing blocks are fairly new and it had expected grass fields from previous years.
Camel kicks audience member during performance at Texas church
I have so many questions. Who has budget for this? Who thought this was a good idea?
I recently saw a video of a Christian megachurch Christmas performance with elves flying around above the stage/audience because they have money for aerial acts.
It's... A choice.
Yup. Jesus had a lot to say about entertaining the faithful with flying elf performances. Somewhere alongside the instruction to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit prisoners etc. Sigh.
In addition to questions about budget and program priorities, are none of the people planning this familiar with how animals behave? Camels spit and bite as well as kick. Even a donkey would have been a safety risk in that narrow aisle.
Jesus did talk about camels, important enough for all three synoptic evangelists to include it in their gospels:
"but we paid good money for the well behaved animals!" - them maybe, I don't know, probably honestly believe money buys them everything.
I got dragged to a couple Texan megachurch performances but I put my foot down refusing to go to the Osteen stadium one finally. They're crazy loud, lasers, smoke, everything they can think of to lure money out of the people who throw them at these places willingly because they're impressed by the wealth being displayed. One minister called the "true miracle of Christmas" when people gave to their local churches, because national charities are stealing from god's purse or something. I could be wrong, head was already swimming and I almost had an aneurysm from how angry that garbage made me.
I wouldn't feel nearly as strongly if the camels had been tied up as part of a nativity scene that was set up before the audience arrived. Outside would be preferable from an animal welfare perspective but inside would be possible. Walking them through the aisle, that close to the crowd was asking for trouble. I also feel sorry for the janitor(s) who didn't ask for any of this.
That ceiling looked crazy low for a camel (balcony?) and so many strangers on either side of aisle would make the animals uncomfortable for sure. I hope the costumed human leading was its usual handler, not just one of the actors. Anyway it's all moot because animal welfare wasn't their priority.
edit: from the facebook video it looks like the camels were given treats out of a fanny pack constantly, so those are probably actual handlers in costume. Also, it looks like people around the lady kicked jumped in to help right away, so good job there. The church says lady has been discharged from hospital and is doing fine.
It's possible these are relatively well behaved petting zoo level animals who were just agitated by the crowd or a particular person, or maybe they didn't know the specifics of the situation until the performance because the church mislead them.
But no, the church probably knows jack about camel behavior