[News] strange happenings of 2015

[Mr. Tines]

Nicolas Cage agrees to return stolen dinosaur skull to Mongolia.

[Bagheera]

Nicolas Cage agrees to return stolen dinosaur skull to Mongolia.

It sounds like he bought it without knowing it was stolen (though that takes a fair bit of willful ignorance IMO, since it would be a trivial thing to ask "er, who got it, and from where, and how did it wind up in an auction house?"), so good on him for agreeing to eat the loss and return it to its rightful owners.

[Chuckman]

Nicholas Cage does not ponder his actions. He simply is.

https://www.boston.com/news/local/2015/ ... story.html

What I don't get about these things is why anything tangentially related to Christianity has to be stripped out (and believe me, a fucking Hello Kitty branded Christmas tree is only tangentially related to Christianity) has to be stripped out of public life.

Aren't kids supposed to learn about culture? Can't it be a teachable moment instead? Maybe randomly assign each kid a winter solstice festival from around the world and have them do a little presentation on them and decorate the classroom for all of them and have a party with different foods from around the world before the holiday vacation starts or something.

We're at the point now where Christmas has about as much to do with Christianity as Halloween does with druids anyway.

[Bagheera]

Nicholas Cage does not ponder his actions. He simply is.

https://www.boston.com/news/local/2015/ ... story.html

What I don't get about these things is why anything tangentially related to Christianity has to be stripped out (and believe me, a fucking Hello Kitty branded Christmas tree is only tangentially related to Christianity) has to be stripped out of public life.

Aren't kids supposed to learn about culture? Can't it be a teachable moment instead? Maybe randomly assign each kid a winter solstice festival from around the world and have them do a little presentation on them and decorate the classroom for all of them and have a party with different foods from around the world before the holiday vacation starts or something.

We're at the point now where Christmas has about as much to do with Christianity as Halloween does with druids anyway.

Hey, cool! I was born in Bangor.

Well, the story isn't cool. The story is silly, because Christmas has as much to do with Christianity as Eva does with WWII. But it's still cool to see my birthplace in the news, no matter the reason.

[BobBQ]

Hey, cool! I was born in Bangor.

I'm trying to decide if that's better or worse than growing up in Bar Harbor.

[Bagheera]

I'm trying to decide if that's better or worse than growing up in Bar Harbor.

I was born there, but I grew up in San Diego (by way of Italy, Alabama, and Reno). I don't even remember anything about Maine.

[Mr. Tines]

The source of enigmatic radio bursts observed by radioastronomers has been identified.

[BobBQ]

I don't even remember anything about Maine.

Don't worry, I'm remembering it for you.

[IronEvangelion]

The source of enigmatic radio bursts observed by radioastronomers has been identified.

Intelligent life in the Ramen-843 Galaxy confirmed!

[Gob Hobblin]

What mysterious mysteries are mystifying our boys from down under?!

[Gob Hobblin]

So...eleven confirmed deaths in Dallas so far after we got hit with at least one EF-4 tornado. There was eleven reported touchdowns, and twenty tornadoes across the US confirmed for that evening, so where we fall in that...who knows. I'm hearing 35 deaths from the storms in total, but if certain rumors I hear are correct, that number might get larger.

It's snowing in El Paso right now, and it's dropped from 76 degrees to 43 in a single day here in Dallas (actually, let me amend that: there is a blizzard stretching from New Mexico into central Texas). It's flooding severely in southern England right now.

And 150,000 people in South America are displaced due to severe flooding across 38 cities.

...Merry Christmas!

[Ray]

What is this? A Roland Emmerich movie?

[pwhodges]

It's flooding severely in southern England right now.

Northern, not southern so much:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35184999

In Oxford, I've only had light rain this week, and none today.

North Yorkshire Police said they had run out of "road closed" signs

[Dream]

For the record we often (in Asuncion) have damnificados aproximately every year as their houses are set near enought the shore to be affected by the natural increase/decrease of the river's water level, however the fuckhuge amount of storms we're getting as well as alleged opening of Brazil/Argentina's dams (to not be too flooded themselves) has cause this year's increase to rival and likely surpass the 1987's epic storm/flooding. We're getting mid-to-strong rains almost every day and blackouts happen about every week, and the city's less than stellar planning/pluvial system leads to the rain and water levels being far more intrusive than they should be.

[Ornette]

Woman went on joyride through Walmart after stealing chicken, cops say

[pwhodges]

One little boy will be in trouble, I guess!

[Shamsiel-kun]

The source of enigmatic radio bursts observed by radioastronomers has been identified.

Looks like the Daily Telegraph is presenting old news as new news...read about that at least a year ago.

[Bagheera]

Oh, for Heaven's sake:

http://www.houstonpress.com/news/texas- ... ng-8017247

If you live in the Gulf Coast area of Texas and you happen to be a woman, congratulations! One of your primary sources of HIV and cancer screenings is gone as of December 31st. Way to go, Texas!

And people wonder why we say the right is waging a war on women.

[Gob Hobblin]

This is supreme bullshit.

God fucking damn it. This is the kind of thing that affects my wife, and it's why we're scrambling to get out of Texas. Which sucks, because it's my home, my heritage state (I have ancestors that came here when it was part of Imperial Mexico), and it's just twisting right into the hands of lunatics. Honest-to-God lunatics.

[soul.assassin]

Oh, for Heaven's sake:

http://www.houstonpress.com/news/texas- ... ng-8017247

If you live in the Gulf Coast area of Texas and you happen to be a woman, congratulations! One of your primary sources of HIV and cancer screenings is gone as of December 31st. Way to go, Texas!

And people wonder why we say the right is waging a war on women.

Yeah, there's utter hatred for Planned Parenthood.