MaxRedline

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Take the case of a Shinkansen bullet train driver who left the cockpit to use the bathroom on May 16. This isn't your typical work break -- he did so while the train ran at 150 kilometers per hour (90 mph) with some 160 passengers on board.

That seems a bit...unwise.

Maybe it was something he ate....

 

South Of The Border

Down Mexico way...

MEXICO CITY is sinking at an alarming rate, according to new data.

Scientists think the problem is largely unstoppable because some parts of the city are now too low to save.

They probably shouldn't have built in on a lake, but that's where the Spanish chose to start their ball rolling. Mexicans just kept adding onto their problem.

Mexico City is the densely populated capital of Mexico.

It's built on a lake bed which has been growing increasingly dry due to centuries of water drainage.

Cracks are now forming in the cities foundations, putting infrastructure at risk of collapse.

 

Indian Pyres

Things are pretty bad in India right now; there seem to be funeral pyres all over the place there due to the number of Covid-19 deaths.

This man's trying to get away before the infernos can claim him, as well.  Wish him well.

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/fossilized-dinosaur-found-brooding-on-a-nest-of-preserved-eggs-with-actual-embryos-inside

An international team of scientists has announced the discovery of an extraordinary fossilized nest in China, preserving at least eight separate dinosaurs from 70 million years ago. An international team of scientists has announced the discovery of an extraordinary fossilized nest in China, preserving at least eight separate dinosaurs from 70 million years ago. 

An international team of scientists has announced the discovery of an extraordinary fossilized nest in China, preserving at least eight separate dinosaurs from 70 million years ago. 

The ancient scene is unprecedented, and provides the first hard evidence that dinosaurs were brooding parents, laying their eggs and incubating them for quite a long time.

 

Oopsie!

A group of Taliban jihadists gathered at a mosque in the village of Qultaq on February 13 to receive training on how to assemble bombs and improvised explosive devices (IED). An explosive device accidentally detonated, killing at least “30 Taliban fighters including six foreign nationals who were expert mine makers,” according to the Afghan Army’s 209th Shaheen Corps, which confirmed the deadly blast in a statement released Saturday. The bodies of the six Taliban-affiliated foreign nationals were rendered unidentifiable by the blast, according to the statement.

Well, they're off to a good start!

May others follow their lead.

 

Obviously Not Eskimos

BERLIN -- A 7-year-old boy has died in eastern Switzerland after a homemade igloo collapsed on him and his father, police said Wednesday.

I thought they were all homemade.

 

 

Second-Hand Stonehenge

Mike Parker Pearson, a professor of British later prehistory at University College London, told the Guardian: “I’ve been researching Stonehenge for 20 years now and this really is the most exciting thing we’ve ever found.”

The evidence backs a century-old theory that the nation’s greatest prehistoric monument was built in Wales and venerated for hundreds of years before being dismantled and dragged to Wiltshire, where it was resurrected as a second-hand monument.

It seems like rather a lot of effort, but the evidence appears incontrovertible: the edifice was first constructed in Wales and stood there for centuries - until the Brits decided to take it.

An ancient myth about Stonehenge, first recorded 900 years ago, tells of the wizard Merlin leading men to Ireland to capture a magical stone circle called the Giants’ Dance and rebuilding it in England as a memorial to the dead.

As it happens, that part of Wales was, at the time, Irish territory. Odd times....

 

Digging Mexico

SALVATIERRA, Mexico (AP) — Search teams dug for more remains Thursday at a site in central Mexico where 59 bodies have already been found in clandestine graves over the past week in an area known as a cartel battleground.

It seems odd that people continue to get involved with the cartels down there, given the known health hazards.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Mexico:

JUÁREZ, Mexico — The mayor of Juárez made an urgent plea for help from the Mexican government, asking for medical supplies and to consider banning U.S. citizens from crossing the border.

That's an interesting turn of events, although it's not related to the rampant drug trade - it's due to widespread COVID infections and a resultant high death toll.

 

 

Unfortunately, They Only Winged The Murderer.

The attacker – named by French media as Brahim Aoussaoui – was shot in the shoulder by police and taken to hospital. He had no identity papers on him. He is reported to be a 21 year old Tunisian national who arrived in France via Lampedusa in Italy at the beginning of October.

The mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, said the man had said “Allahu Akbar” several times while he was being arrested and handcuffed by police.

He said one of the female victims had been “decapitated” but he had no details of how the two others were killed.

“We have two people killed inside the church … and a third person who was in a bar facing the church where she had taken refuge,” Estrosi said. “Enough is enough … we have to remove this Islamo-fascism from our territory.”

Two more Islamic stabbers were neutralized by police on Thursday as well. Those individuals have attained ambient temperature.

 

"He behaved in an unattractive manner that night."

A UK man has been charged with assault after allegedly farting in an Uber and attacking the driver for protesting, Bristol Live reported.

The odiferous incident reportedly occurred last year when Kingswood’s James Mallett, 35, let it rip in the back of the ride while on the way to a local nightclub with three other people. This was the “final straw” for the Uber driver, named Aleksander Bonchev, who had allegedly suffered abuse at the hands of other passengers, according to court testimony.

Prosecutor James Scutt said Bonchev told Mallett “to leave the vehicle,” whereupon the flatulent fare offered to fight the driver and struck him in the head. Bonchev reportedly responded in defense by punching the Mallett in the face, knocking him to the ground.

Police encountered the unruly passenger a little while later sporting a “cut on his bottom lip,” according to Scutt, who added that he was “plainly intoxicated.” Fortunately the gass-enger admitted to assault occasioning actual harm on November 30, which landed him a six month-jail term, a $650 fine and 120 hours of community service. His jail sentence has since been suspended for 18 months.

Picking up drunk people can often be problematic, as the driver would doubtless attest if he was still in the country. However, he broke a finger during the altercation, which apparently rendered him unable to drive, so he lost his Uber job along with his apartment and his car, and has since returned home to Bulgaria.