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Fortean Headlines

Waymo robotaxi goes up in flames in Chinatown after crowd attacks vehicle​


/it's unclear if the taxi had asked where Sarah Connor was

https://sfstandard.com/2024/02/10/w...mes-in-chinatown-after-crowd-attacks-vehicle/

"A crowd in San Francisco's Chinatown surrounded a Waymo robotaxi on Saturday night, broke the windows and threw fireworks inside, setting the vehicle ablaze, the company said.
The incident occurred on Jackson Street near Grant around 9 p.m. Waymo said that the autonomous vehicle was not transporting any passengers at the time of the incident and no injuries were reported."
 
kamalktk said:

California rainstorms brought — and kept — a lake at Death Valley​

"The lake at Badwater Basin, usually known for salt flats, formed in August and at one point was 7 miles long and 2 feet deep."
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So a really large puddle :)
 
maximus otter said:

Beware: A cheese crisis looms​

This looming cheese crisis, this Camembert calamity, stems from a much bigger problem: a collapse in microbial diversity.

https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/2024/2/10/24065277/cheese-extinction-camembert-brie-mold

maximus otter
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Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

I don't like this comparison though;

for people who expect their brie to look a certain way, just as they might want their tomatoes to be perfectly round and their apples bright red.

This is much more to do with the actual taste, as opposed to the look of the product.

(Do some people really only want tomatoes to be perfectly round)?
 
Floyd1 said:
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

I don't like this comparison though;

for people who expect their brie to look a certain way, just as they might want their tomatoes to be perfectly round and their apples bright red.

This is much more to do with the actual taste, as opposed to the look of the product.

(Do some people really only want tomatoes to be perfectly round)?
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No, if the Earth is flat I want flat tomatoes.
 
Sharon Hill said:
The last time I was at Death Valley (several years now), it rained a bit and there was a little puddle of mud. It had a human footprint in it. I'll try to find the picture.
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Sounds as though someone had been cooling down their tootsies in the last diminishing remains of the 'puddle?'
 
No wonder he looks unhappy...

1707963939985.jpeg
 

Scientists Invent New Hybrid Food by Growing Beef Inside Grains of Rice​


/Is it called Bice? Reef?

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-invent-new-hybrid-food-by-growing-beef-inside-grains-of-rice

"It's still in its infancy, but lab-cultured meat could be one means of easing the pressure – and Korean scientists have just found an innovative way to make it. They've invented a new hybrid food, consisting of cells of bovine fat and muscle grown inside grains of rice.

The result resembles a strange combination of meat mince and rice, of pink, sticky grains. But according to a team led by biomolecular engineer Sohyeon Park of Yonsei University, the mash-up is rich in nutrition, and although a little labor-intensive to produce now, could one day ease food pressure."
 
SummerLightning said:
No wonder he looks unhappy...
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'Accidently' hmmm haven't read the report but way back in the mists of time I worked in the factory inspectorate offices and one of our regular reports concerned 'accidents' with high pressure air hoses, I was told that it was a known practical joke that the lads liked to play on each other!
 
British police launch first investigation into virtual rape.

A girl, allegedly under the age of 16, is said to have been left traumatised after her avatar – her personalised digital character – was "sexually attacked" by a group of online strangers in a virtual reality computer game.
The victim, wearing a headset, did not experience any physical injuries, police sources say, but she might have endured trauma comparable to that of a real-life rape victim.
Welcome to the future (shudder).

https://www.euronews.com/next/2024/...-investigation-into-virtual-rape-in-metaverse
 
Some people get immersed in the games they play - so emotional damage can be a real thing.
Like watching someone be stabbed in real life might traumatize the observer as if they were stabbed too.
 
I have seen a program (don't remember what or where) that showed how people immersed into VR react.

In one of the experiments, people were in a bare room which they saw before the experiment. With the headset on, the image shown was as if the person was atop of a skyrise apartment. The person was then asked to take a step into the virtual abyss. No one could do it.

The experiment showed that despite your actual surroundings being safe, your brain reads the VR images as real and responds as though what as it visually perceives is real. This was without the addition of audio effects.

So this case will be interesting. Also, this is an extension of the online trolling female gamers have experienced for years.
 
I dread to think how much thievery and killing I've done online in MMOs over the years!
I've no idea what game the young teenager was playing but, if it included the facility for a realistic sexual assault, it was surely utterly inappropriate for such a young person (and indeed for pretty well anyone) to be playing.
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
I dread to think how much thievery and killing I've done online in MMOs over the years!
I've no idea what game the young teenager was playing but, if it included the facility for a realistic sexual assault, it was surely utterly inappropriate for such a young person (and indeed for pretty well anyone) to be playing.
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I still don't understand how they could simulate a rape. I don't play online. And I enjoy the graphics of a good kill. Though, now I'm wondering about how VR will affect people in general who are immersed in seeing the graphics of such around them.
 
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