8 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 beast studios, steam controller and anonymity. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, for those following along.

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]
    mycketforvirrad
    Link
    Gibraltar’s monkeys eat dirt to purge the junk food tourists give them El País – Miguel Ángel Criado – 26th April 2026

    Gibraltar’s monkeys eat dirt to purge the junk food tourists give them

    In nature, the Barbary macaque has a nearly vegetarian diet based on fruits, tender leaves, roots and an insect here and there. But on the Rock of Gibraltar, they also eat chocolate cookies, ice cream cones, M&M’s and potato chips. The result? A study published in Nature shows that the monkeys are eating dirt to purge the sugars, fats, and dairy products from this junk food tourists give them.

    El País – Miguel Ángel Criado – 26th April 2026

    4 votes
    1. jredd23
      Link Parent
      Interesting stuff. Processed sugars (simple carbohyrates) being processed by dirt really interesting way of managing it. In addition to the fact that it's an adaptive behavior,

      Interesting stuff. Processed sugars (simple carbohyrates) being processed by dirt really interesting way of managing it. In addition to the fact that it's an adaptive behavior,

      behavior that, despite the fact that it may seem strange, is very widespread in the animal kingdom, and is common among mammals, bird, reptiles and invertebrates,"

      3 votes
  2. [5]
    jredd23
    Link
    So hiking season is in full swing with family and I was looking for new adventures. While searching I found this item. Made me rethink my options. Hiker Vanished In Arizona – 2 Years Later Found...

    So hiking season is in full swing with family and I was looking for new adventures. While searching I found this item. Made me rethink my options.
    Hiker Vanished In Arizona – 2 Years Later Found Deep In CAVE
    or video

    3 votes
    1. [4]
      CannibalisticApple
      Link Parent
      ...Serious question: is this real? Because it really doesn't feel like it. I tried looking it up for more details but I couldn't find any sort of articles or other mentions prior to 2025. Heck, my...

      ...Serious question: is this real? Because it really doesn't feel like it. I tried looking it up for more details but I couldn't find any sort of articles or other mentions prior to 2025. Heck, my first attempt at searching "Arthur Graves and Lisa Burns" on Google brought up nothing related to this story. I'd started with DuckDuckGo, but switched to Google to see if it would bring up other sources like local news stories or something.

      So far seems like this isn't real because there's just nothing concrete I can find. I'm curious about the original source.

      6 votes
      1. [3]
        DefinitelyNotAFae
        Link Parent
        You'd think there'd be a real news article somewhere if it's true. All I can find is the above link and a lot of social media shares and YouTube

        You'd think there'd be a real news article somewhere if it's true. All I can find is the above link and a lot of social media shares and YouTube

        3 votes
        1. [2]
          jredd23
          Link Parent
          Candidly I did the same, it was a share sent to me by my family in the area where we are thinking of visiting.

          Candidly I did the same, it was a share sent to me by my family in the area where we are thinking of visiting.

          1 vote