Weird Headlines

[bill_g]

Alabama station in disbelief after 200-foot radio tower stolen

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/al ... rcna137877

This story is looking like fraud on the pro forums I haunt. The station has AM and FM that carry the same program audio. Common enough practice. Apparently well over five years ago their old AM transmitter died, and they had difficulty getting parts. The FCC required they repair the machine or lose their license. They filed for an extension a couple times, and then around 2018 just kinda forgot to keep renewing their extension. The FCC didn't follow up either. The whole thing disappeared down a memory hole.

And then it popped back up for some reason, landed on the Guardian, and now the FCC is cracking down. Their FM license was dependent upon the AM license. If the AM station is off the air, like has been for quite a while, the FM will be shut down until such time as the AM service is restored. The station manager has started a GoFundMe to raise funds towards that goal.

In the meantime, it's been determined the tower and transmitter are/were on leased land. Speculation is the station failed to pay rent, and the eventually the landowner removed everything at his cost. Years and years ago. This is not new, unknown, or unexpected according to locals off the record. TBD.

[pipistrelle]

The station manager has started a GoFundMe to raise funds towards that goal.

In the meantime, it's been determined the tower and transmitter are/were on leased land. Speculation is the station failed to pay rent, and the eventually the landowner removed everything at his cost. Years and years ago. This is not new, unknown, or unexpected according to locals off the record. TBD.

The GoFundMe is currently at $3,467 of $60,000.

They say it vanished without a trace. You'd think there'd be truck tire tracks, footprints, maybe some metal shavings.

[bill_g]

The station manager has started a GoFundMe to raise funds towards that goal.

In the meantime, it's been determined the tower and transmitter are/were on leased land. Speculation is the station failed to pay rent, and the eventually the landowner removed everything at his cost. Years and years ago. This is not new, unknown, or unexpected according to locals off the record. TBD.

The GoFundMe is currently at $3,467 of $60,000.

They say it vanished without a trace. You'd think there'd be truck tire tracks, footprints, maybe some metal shavings.

Yep. The gate lock wasn't cut. The building wasn't forcibly entered. And the area is so overgrown you can't see where the tower fell. We'll let the smarter minds in AL and the FCC Perry Mason this one. It's not theft, or at least not in the sense they want us to believe.

[Suranis]

Ex-Boyzone star claims Taylor Swift performs Satanic rituals in front of fans

https://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entert ... 9jvmbse76g

Having performed in Boyzone, he was unfamiliar with these Chothnian Rites. In general conversation, however, these rites are called "Singing."

[Volkonski]

This Lynch person seems to know, somehow, a lot about Satanic rituals.

Perhaps the Cheshire Constabulary needs to keep him under surveillance.

[Uninformed]

“Hyson Green: Man tries to rob Post Office with spoon”


“CCTV footage showing the moment a man tried to steal from a Post Office using a spoon has been released by police.
Jelanie Scott used the long metal spoon to reach through the letter port of a security screen at the Hyson Green Post Office in Nottingham.
Police said he tried to steal a large amount of cash but was spotted by staff, who activated a panic alarm, triggering the security smoke system.
Scott, 36, of Leslie Road, Forest Fields, pleaded guilty to attempted burglary and was sentenced at Nottingham Magistrates' Court on 21 February.
He received a community order, including a six-month drug rehabilitation programme, and was fined £50.”

[Suranis]

dean.jpg (62.77 KiB) Viewed 397 times

[RTH10260]

dean.jpg

tsk tsk tsk - took me some time to figure out that the now deceased dean was having that event in 2014. I guess it was a step daughter.

I know of a case of a then senior citizen who adopted his secretary at the time shortly before his death, so that his estate would not fall to the state (he was without children).

[Suranis]

It was actually kind of a joke headline based on an ambiguous word. He was performing the marriage ceremony for his daughter, not actually getting married to her.

[RTH10260]

dang - I didn't catch that word play

[Sam the Centipede]

dang - I didn't catch that word play

Ah! You have probably never watched the BBC tv comedy The Vicar Of Dibley! The penultimate episode (Christmas 2006*) has the eponymous vicar (played by Dawn French) opening her door to the recently arrived in the village local phwoar! hunk Harry. The vicar believes Hunky Harry has his svelte blonde girlfriend staying with him at his cottage (spoiler: it's his sister Rosie visiting). Hunky Harry comes to the vicarage door one evening and asks the vicar "I wonder whether or not you'd consider marrying me?" and hilarity ensues as the downcast vicar miserably opens the appointments book to find a date for Harry's supposed hitching to Rosie, only realizing that she herself is the object of Harry's desire when he stumblingly answers her question about the bride's full name.

If you like gentle but crazy comedy with weird characters, The Vicar Of Dibley has some gorgeous scripts, excellent performances and memorable moments.
_________
* No, I'm not obsessed, facts are from the web.

[northland10]

dang - I didn't catch that word play

Ah! You have probably never watched the BBC tv comedy The Vicar Of Dibley! The penultimate episode (Christmas 2006*) has the eponymous vicar (played by Dawn French) opening her door to the recently arrived in the village local phwoar! hunk Harry. The vicar believes Hunky Harry has his svelte blonde girlfriend staying with him at his cottage (spoiler: it's his sister Rosie visiting). Hunky Harry comes to the vicarage door one evening and asks the vicar "I wonder whether or not you'd consider marrying me?" and hilarity ensues as the downcast vicar miserably opens the appointments book to find a date for Harry's supposed hitching to Rosie, only realizing that she herself is the object of Harry's desire when he stumblingly answers her question about the bride's full name.

If you like gentle but crazy comedy with weird characters, The Vicar Of Dibley has some gorgeous scripts, excellent performances and memorable moments.
_________
* No, I'm not obsessed, facts are from the web.

From M*A*S*H, Margaret's Marriage:

Margaret: Father, will you join us in a wedlock?
Hawkeye: Don't do it Father, three's a crowd.

[RTH10260]

[Suranis]

Dorset Knob Throwing Games will return but without eating race

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-dorset-68740250

[Whatever4]

Cicadas Fall Prey to a Psychedelic-Producing Fungus That Makes Their Butts Fall Off
This ‘zombie’ fungus isn’t going after the bugs’ brains—it’s after their genitals

Cicadas are a sex-crazed species. Males sing the song of summer at the same volume as a lawnmower to attract mates, as residents of the mid-Atlantic and midwestern United States will experience this year with the emergence of Brood X.

But a fungus called Massospora can take it up a notch, Karen Zamora reports for NPR. This white, chalky fungus infects about five percent of cicadas. It takes over their bodies and produces cathinone, an amphetamine, that makes the bugs mate even more. Massospora sticks out of the bug's back instead of genitals, so every time the infected bug attempts to mate is an opportunity for the fungus to spread.

"This is stranger than fiction," says West Virginia University mycologist Matt Kasson to NPR. "To have something that's being manipulated by a fungus, to be hypersexual and to have prolonged stamina and just mate like crazy."

Massospora fungus lurks in the soil until the cicadas emerge from the ground, Kasson tells Coral Murphy Marcos at the Guardian. When the cicada nymphs emerge from underground, some ingest the fungus, and the fungus is activated by a hormone from the cicada. Once inside, the Massospora consumes the inside of the cicada and grows until it cracks through the bug’s exoskeleton. Their genitals fall off and get replaced by a big white ball of spores.

The fungus has a special effect on male cicadas. Massospora-filled males continue to sing to attract female mates, but they also perform the same wing-flicking that females do to males to signal they’re ready to mate. Without genitals, none of their attempts to pair up will result in offspring.

“It’s this gender-bending, death-zombie fungus,” says John Lill, who studies cicadas at George Washington University, to Jon Webb at the Evansville Courier & Press. “Really what they’re doing is spreading these spores all over the place.”

More at the link:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-ne ... sh1_8LM21g

[raison de arizona]

NC town rejects solar farm, fearing it would suck up all the energy from the sun

Another resident reportedly questioned the high number of cancer deaths in the area, saying no one could tell her that solar panels didn't cause cancer.

https://abc11.com/sun-solar-panels-energy/1122081/