And Finally...

Electrocuted, flaming bird carcasses are falling off of power lines and causing wildfires across the U.S. This surprisingly common phenomenon has been responsible for at least three Colorado wildfires so far this summer.

These events are not isolated. A 2022 study found that electrocuted birds caused 44 wildfires in the contiguous United States between 2014 and 2018. That study was led by Taylor Barnes, a biologist who now works for electric utility company EDM International. In the paper, Barnes wrote that “avian-caused ignitions” happen when a bird sits on an overhead power line. For reasons that can vary from case to case, sometimes the bird receives a powerful electrical shock, setting its feathers on fire. The dead or dying bird then falls, and, on occasion, lands in some brush or other flammable material.

“Sometimes they burst into flames,” Barnes told 9News, an NBC affiliate in Colorado. “Sometimes they just fall dead. Not every bird that is electrocuted will fall to the ground and start a fire.”

Odds are, you’ve seen birds perched on electrical wires countless times without witnessing spontaneous sparrow combustion. Barnes said birds just going for a sit pose no threat. Because the birds are not touching the ground, the electricity in the power line has no way to the ground and is not dangerous to them. It’s only when the birds get into a part of the power infrastructure where a circuit can be completed that they end up crispy.

Law enforcement descended on a Monmouth County recycling facility after employees reported seeing a dead body on a conveyor belt Wednesday afternoon.

State Police Sgt. Charles Marchan said workers at the Republic Services recycling facility were sorting materials on a conveyor belt around 2:40 p.m. when they saw the body.

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The body of a man was found by troopers but has not yet been identified.

Doritos are a revered snack for many. Now, scientists have found one of the ingredients in the triangle-shaped tasty tortilla chips has a superpower – it can make the skin of mice transparent.

Researchers at Stanford University detail, in the Sept. 6 issue of the journal Science, how they were able to see through the skin of live mice by applying a mixture of water and tartrazine, a bright yellow-orange food coloring used in Doritos and other foods, drugs, and cosmetics.

The experiments arose from the quest for better methods to see tissue and organs within the body. The researchers chose tartrazine because the dye's molecules absorb blue and ultraviolet light, which makes it easier for light to pass through the mouse skin.

“For those who understand the fundamental physics behind this, it makes sense; but if you aren’t familiar with it, it looks like a magic trick,” said Zihao Ou, the lead author of the study who is now an assistant professor of physics at The University of Texas at Dallas, in a description of the research on the university's website.

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Before you start slathering yourself in Doritos – the coloring is used in several Doritos flavors including Nacho Cheese, Cool Ranch and Flaming Hot Nacho – tartrazine won't necessarily give humans a cloak of invisibility á la Harry Potter.

That's because human skin is about 10 times thicker than a mouse and it's not sure how much of the dye – or how it would be administered – is needed to work in humans, Ou said.

Bolton Wanderers striker Victor Adeboyejo missed their EFL Trophy victory at Barrow on Tuesday having injured himself after a "hefty sneeze".

The 26-year-old suffered a back injury on Monday which was set off by the sneeze, manager Ian Evatt said.

Bolton won the fixture 3-2 to get their EFL Trophy campaign off to the perfect start despite Adeboyejo's absence.

"He had a pretty hefty sneeze – now Victor is a powerful boy and even his sneezes are powerful," Evatt told the Bolton News.

“He felt a bit of a crack in between his ribs and we are hopeful it is just a cartilage or muscular issue, but until we had a good look at the scan we won’t know.”

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“I have to start having a long look at myself when players start getting injured sneezing,” Evatt added.

AffordableOn August 27, Patricia Sierra, 47, broke into the Cremation & Burial funeral home at 2127 W. Charleston Boulevard and stole a coffin containing a human body.

Surveillance footage showed the woman breaking through a window and unlocking the front door before proceeding to enter the property’s viewing room and wheel a coffin outside. Sierra apparently dumped the body outside the funeral home. After that, she left the coffin as well and fled the crime scene.

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A citizen contacted the police two days after the incident. The caller had recognized the woman while she was shopping at a local convenience store. The authorities arrived promptly, arresting Sierra.

Sierra admitted that the woman on the surveillance footage was her but said that she had no memories of the accident. She told the police that she had drank six beers before the accident and added that alcohol often makes her black out.

Sierra apologized for the incident, emphasizing that it had not been prompted by malice. Despite that, the woman faces charges of burglary, grand larceny and disturbing human remains. As of the time of this writing, she remains in custody with her bail set at $11,000.

A Persian cat has made history by being the first to conquer the Three Peaks, completing the challenge while walking on a lead with its owner.

Louis the seven-year-old cat made the journey alongside owners Jess Peters and Dan Taylor earlier this week, and spent 29 hours walking up Scafell Pike, Ben Nevis and Mt Snowdon.

Jess, 31, and Dan, 34, made it to the top of each peak with Louis in tow, and said their cat was ‘better prepared than we were’ due to his habit of walking up to six miles each day.

The couple, from Sherfield English, Hants, said Louis ‘loves adventures’ and claimed he was ‘a bit like a dog’. They also said he tried to walk the entire length of the trip and refused to be carried- although they had to scoop him up near the end when he started to get cold near the summit.

‘There are other cats that have climbed mountains, but we have checked and Louis is the first cat to climb the Three Peaks,’ said Dan, who is training to be a truck driver. ‘It feels great to have him immortalised, hopefully he goes down in history.’

Nobody knows what sleeping mushrooms dream of when their vast mycelial networks flicker and pulse with electrochemical responses akin to those of our own brain cells.

But given a chance, what might this web of impulses do if granted a moment of freedom?

An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Cornell University in the US and the University of Florence in Italy took steps to find out, putting a culture of the edible mushroom species Pleurotus eryngii (also known as the king oyster mushroom) in control of a pair of vehicles, which can twitch and roll across a flat surface.

Through a series of experiments, the researchers showed it was possible to use the mushroom's electrophysiological activity as a means of translating environmental cues into directives, which could, in turn, be used to drive a mechanical device's movements.

"By growing mycelium into the electronics of a robot, we were able to allow the biohybrid machine to sense and respond to the environment," says senior researcher Rob Shepherd, a materials scientist at Cornell.

Previous research has shown these rare pooches, known as gifted word learners (GWL), have a unique ability to learn the names of hundreds of different objects.

However, a new study, published in the journal Biology Letters, now suggests they can remember the names of some of these toys for an extended period.

The hope is that the talented dogs could help scientists understand more about how animals other than humans retain their memories.

Dr Claudia Fugazza, the head of the research group at Eotvos Lorand University in Hungary, said: "We know that dogs can remember events for at least 24 hours and odours for up to one year but this is the first study showing that some talented dogs can remember words for at least two years.

"The findings of our current study cannot be generalised to other dogs because we only tested GWL dogs, individuals that show a special talent for acquiring object words."

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The research is part of a project known as the Genius Dog Challenge and the scientists are urging owners who believe their dogs know multiple toy names to contact them via the project's website.

Animal-lover Nicci Knight got the shock of her life when her beloved cat, Ted, arrived home – four days after he’d been cremated.

Nicci was halfway through a family holiday in Turkey when she received a heartbreaking message, revealing poor Ted had been found dead back home in North Yorkshire.

She was relaxing by the pool in the resort of Dalaman when the message came through on her mobile phone – via her video doorbell – in the North Yorkshire village of Newby, near Stokesley.

Nicci burst into tears when her neighbours’ children even held up five-year-old Ted’s distinctive black and white body to the camera as proof of his untimely passing after being found dead in their garden pond.

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However, four days later, Elise, who was also popping in to feed Ted’s sister, Moosh, made a traumatised call to say: “You’re not going to believe this – Ted’s just walked in through the cat-flap!”

“I thought I was seeing a cat-ghost,” exclaimed Elise.

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Nicci immediately called Heavenly Pets to alert them to the mistake but was told the cremation had already taken place.

“It’s not Ted – it’s a lookalike!” Nicci found herself yelling down the phone.

It led to the ashes of the doppelganger moggie being temporarily stored in a container labelled: “Not dead Ted.”

An explosion near the O2 Arena which sparked bomb fears was staged by a convicted child abuser for a bizarre film stunt, it has been claimed.

Dozens of calls to 999 were made after a fireball blast at a construction yard across the river from the East London venue sent smoke billowing into the sky and was heard from miles away on Saturday.

People nearby said it sounded like a ‘bomb going off’ or an ‘earthquake’, and those looking from a distance could see vehicles and a shipping container on fire.

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A video shared on social media suggests sex offender Jacky Jhaj, 38, was heavily involved in the shoot.

He was jailed for four years for sexual activity with two 15-year-old girls he groomed while posing as a film producer.

The footage appears to show him completely naked walking in front of a lorry trailer bearing BBC branding and a prop police van, which suddenly explodes.

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It’s thought the fire got out of control, forcing the crew to call emergency services.

Jhaj had hired the crew under the name ‘Toby’, wearing a prosthetic ‘villain mask’ on set which concealed his identity, according to a MailOnline report.

One of the cast was said to have recognised him when he removed his mask, prompting the crew to pull out.

In addition to being pictured in media reports of his conviction, Jhaj has repeatedly made headlines since his release for staging bizarre scenes which put him in close contact with children.

In November last year, some 200 children and young women were reportedly hired to play fans at a fake film premiere in London’s Leicester Square where Jhaj appeared on a red carpet to greet them.

In April it emerged he was behind a £10,000 fake funeral at a west London church and used a well-known casting website to hire child actors to play some of the mourners.

Although the funeral was staged, it was held in the name of a real drowning victim and the presiding priest was led to believe it was real – only halting proceedings after realising it was being filmed mid-way through.

On the final day of the Hungry Ghost month, three friends ventured into an abandoned logistics centre in Kenting, Taiwan at night to live-stream a ghost-hunting adventure.

To their horror, they stumbled upon the corpses of a couple who had been missing for more than six months.

Shell-shocked, the trio rushed home and were rendered speechless for an hour before they finally found the courage to report the grim discovery to the police.

Over the past few months, the Bahraich region has been plagued by a series of attacks by man-eating wolves targeting the children and villagers.

The forest department now has initiated an innovative effort by using brightly coloured "teddy dolls" as a false bait to capture these predators.

These dolls have been strategically placed near the riverbanks, close to the wolves' resting places and dens, and are being soaked in children's urine to simulate the natural human scent.

A car park built for £51 million in Oxfordshire is lying empty because a council cannot connect it to the main road.

Planning problems are preventing motorists from using the 19-acre park and ride scheme in Eynsham until funding is secured to link it to the A40.

Aerial photographs show the 850-space site devoid of vehicles, despite its finished glossy tarmac, bus stops and green spaces. All major construction work was finished in January, followed by landscaping last month.

Although the car park could be cut off from the main road until 2027, local authorities have contracts to maintain it every week, cutting the grass and topsoiling and seeding when necessary.

Archive

“Devices like this are like walking down routes you usually drive. You discover new things along the way that you had never seen before. Even though it gets you to the same place, orgasm, even though it works off of each person’s rhythms and mood, even though that’s all the same, the beauty of the device is that you notice new and wonderful things.” The speaker of these words is Jaime Martínez, a man from Madrid who is trying out a male sex toy for the first time. He took the latest advancement in sexual satisfaction out for a drive: an artificial intelligence-equipped masturbator. Gadgets like the Lelo F1S V3, to name one example, incorporate AI and augmented reality into their stroke. They’re not very different, in principle, from other, more established mechanisms: the penis is inserted into a silicone-lined cylindrical device, grooved for one’s pleasure and to simulate penetration. It is accompanied (and this is where the novelty comes in) by different vibrations. The F1S V3 can be used in analogue mode — unconnected to a smart phone — and has eight settings with eight different speeds. Call it a Formula 1 car in the race to orgasm. “You’re still jacking off, but this is no normal jack-off,” says Martínez.

Thatcher's Techbase is a much-loved mod for Doom 2, having amassed a strong following since its launch in 2021. Now, with the latest ports of the first two Doom games, the creator was able to share the creation on the official mod page, letting a wider audience experience the simple pleasure of sending Margaret Thatcher back to the deepest pits of hell.

However, someone had to spoil the fun for everyone and reported the mod to Bethesda. In response, the moderation team removed it from the mod page, citing a breach of its rule against "real-world politics".

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You may have heard about Thatcher's teachbase a couple of years back. It made headlines after former Labour leader and current independent MP Jeremy Corbyn played the mod himself. He was said to have enjoyed his time with the game and even posed for a picture with the arcade cabinet running it. So, even if Bethesda doesn't want the game on its mod page, at least it has that seal of approval.

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Don't worry, Thatcher is still dead in real life though.

edit: from over on Hexbear:

Thatcher's Techbase documentary

Screenshots:

A white beluga whale named “Hvaldimir,” first spotted in Norway not far from Russian waters with a harness that ignited rumors he may be a Moscow spy, has been found dead.

The Norwegian public broadcaster NRK reported that the whale carcass was found floating at the Risavika Bay in southern Norway Saturday by a father and son who were fishing.

The beluga, named by combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and Russian President Putin’s first name Vladimir, was lifted out of the water with a crane and taken to a nearby harbor where experts will examine it.

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The 4.2-meter (14-foot) long and 1,225-kilogram (2,700-pound) whale was first spotted by fishermen near the northern island of Ingøya, not far from the Arctic city of Hammerfest, in April 2019 wearing a harness and what appeared to be a mount for a small camera and a buckle marked with text “Equipment St. Petersburg”.

That sparked allegations that the beluga was “a spy whale.” Experts said the Russian navy is known to have trained whales for military purposes.

Over the years, the beluga was seen in several Norwegian coastal towns and it quickly became clear that he was very tame and enjoyed playing with people, NRK said.

NGO Marine Mind said on its site that Hvaldimir was very interested in people and responded to hand signals.

“Based on these observations, it appeared as if Hvaldimir arrived in Norway by crossing over from Russian waters, where it is presumed he was held in captivity,” it said.

Erotic asphyxiation is nothing new. Mention the term to anyone over the age of 30 and they’re likely to bring up Michael Hutchence’s 1997 death (which was ultimately determined to be a suicide) or Tim Winton’s 2008 novel Breath, which depicts a teenage boy getting drawn into sexual asphyxiation with an older friend’s wife. Various types of “breath play”, as it’s often referred to in BDSM communities, have been practised since at least the 1700s – it even appears in the Marquis de Sade’s 1791 novel Justine.

But historically representations of sexual strangulation have typically involved doing it to oneself, and erotic asphyxiation has been an uncommon act even in the BDSM communities with which it’s commonly associated.

In July researchers from Melbourne and Queensland universities published a study on the prevalence of sexual strangulation among 18- to 35-year-olds in Australia and found that over half of the more than 4,700 surveyed had choked or been choked by a sexual partner. Among young people, sexual choking has become mainstream.

Police in Kentucky are looking for a man who has defecated on the same porch multiple times over the past week for no apparent reason.

Louisville Metro Police say they have received three police reports about the alleged “porch pooper,” who’s since gained lots of attention online after doorbell videos of him have been posted on Reddit and Instagram.

The homeowner, who did not want to be identified, being targeted by the so-called porch pooper said he first noticed something was up on Tuesday.

“I went out to my front porch that morning and noticed what I thought was cat poop,” he said.

The homeowner said he cleaned it up and checked his Nest doorbell camera from the night before and that’s when he realized it certainly wasn’t a cat.

“Not only did he defecate, but he also urinated on our welcome mat,” he said.

A pub has been closed after inspectors found multiple food hygiene problems, including a food handler who was observed repeatedly scratching his bottom.

The Bulls Head in Denby, Derbyshire, was told to improve its procedures following the inspection, including an instruction that food handlers "must not repeatedly touch/scratch their backsides".

The pub group which owns the public house said it had since closed the premises and removed the former landlady, who reportedly ordered an inspector to leave the premises.

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The inspection report, addressed to the former landlady, states: "Your food handler [redacted name] scratched his backside through his shorts several times, touched his face and dirty equipment, but failed to wash his hands after touching those items.

"This may lead to contamination of food."

Under a heading stating "action required", the report states: "Food handlers must not repeatedly touch/scratch their backsides then prepare food. Wash hands after such behaviour."

It also says: "If there is an issue that causes repeated bottom scratching, that food handler must not work in the kitchen until the problem is resolved so they do not repeatedly scratch/touch their bottom."

... I mean, the boat's at the bottom of the sea, bit late to be worrying about health and safety now!

A 12-year-old boy cannot be sentenced for his role in August’s rioting because his mother has flown to Ibiza for a holiday.

The child, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded guilty to two counts of violent disorder during a protest held in the wake of the Southport attack. He faces a potential custodial sentence.

He was due to be sentenced at Manchester magistrates’ court on Monday morning, however, District Judge Joanne Hirst said she was “frankly astonished” to be told that the boy was not accompanied in the dock by his mother.

The judge was told that she had instead flown abroad to the Spanish island on Sunday for a five-day break. The court was told she is expected back in the country on Thursday.

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She thanked the boy’s uncle for accompanying his nephew to court in his mother’s absence, but added: “One day before the hearing we find out the mum has gone on holiday and is not with her son who played a greater part in the recent civil disorder than any adult or child I’ve seen coming through these courts.

“I’m frankly astonished.

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The youngster had earlier admitted being part of a mob that attacked a bus outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Manchester on 31 July.

Days later on 3 August, in Manchester city centre, he was part of a group filmed kicking the windows of a vape shop and throwing a missile at a police van.

An Indiana man admitted to putting a poisonous "off-white powdery substance" into his wife's Coca-Cola so he could kill her and marry her daughter, according to state court records.

Alfred Ruf, 71, pleaded guilty to aggravated battery in July for trying to poison his wife. He was sentenced on Monday to four years in prison and five years of probation, Indiana court records show.

Ruf told officers in January 2022 that he had been "spiking" his wife's drinks over the last few months with a substance given to him by his wife's daughter, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by USA TODAY.

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When deputies interviewed a then-69-year-old Ruf at the sheriff's office in January 2022, he told them that he was sexually involved with his wife's 31-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, the affidavit says. He then explained that his wife's daughter gave him the pill bottle with the powdery substance in September 2021 and instructed him to put it in her mother's drink, the court document continued.

Ruf was the only person charged in connection with the crimes.

Ruf told the deputies that the drug cocktail would make his wife go to sleep for "13 hours or so," the affidavit says. He also confessed that he put the drugs in the drink to "eventually kill (her)," according to the document.

The daughter and her female friend would call and tell Ruf to give the drugs to his wife, he told the deputies, per the affidavit.

"Alfred would then sprinkle some of the white powder in (his wife's) Coca-Cola can and then wait for her to fall asleep," the affidavit says. "(The women) would then come to Alfred's residence and put more of an unknown substance in (Ruf's wife's) drink and have her drink it."

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Once Ruf's wife was asleep, her daughter and her daughter's friend would put on a "show" for Ruf, according to the affidavit. The show involved the two women putting on Ruf's wife's negligees and then performing "sex acts on each other," the court document continues.

Ruf also told authorities that while he was having sex with his wife's daughter or her friend, one of the women would steal some of his wife's personal items. He also admitted to paying the women to perform sex acts, the affidavit says.

The victim's daughter told Ruf she wanted to "get mom out of the picture" once she found out they were selling their home, according to the affidavit. The victim's daughter also mentioned a life insurance policy to Ruf that her mother had in place, the court document says.

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Although Ruf acknowledged that he knew the drugs would eventually kill his wife, he also said he gave her the substance just so her daughter and her daughter's friend could come over and have sex with him, according to the affidavit.

Ruf came clean to his wife because he "felt bad," he told deputies, per the affidavit.

A 35-year-old biohacker who “looks like a teenager” has admitted that one of his secrets to staying young is “living like a vampire”.

Brandon Miles May, who has found internet fame on TikTok, told The Independent that he avoids the sun as much as possible because it is the leading cause of skin damage.

As well as wearing a hat and sunglasses on the rare occasions he does go outside, he also uses what he describes as a “sunbrella” to protect his skin.

While most people do not think about the effects of ageing until they are in their 30s or older, Brandon claims he became conscious of his desire to keep his skin youthful when he was just 13 years old.

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The biohacker said that he was first compared to a vampire when he was a teenager by his mother, but the comparison is now made by “everyone”.

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“I also have a UVA meter (UVA is the spectrum of UV that is largely responsible for skin ageing) which I’ve used to measure the amount of UVA coming in through windows in my home,” he said.

“I’ve used that to understand just where I should avoid sitting for longer periods of time, as accumulated light through windows also contribute to skin ageing.

“When I walk around my home, I sometimes think of it to the scene in the 1994 film Interview with the Vampire when Kirsten Dunst’s character Claudia wakes up and tries to stay in the shadows and avoids the light (I think that’s what happened!).

Keir Starmer’s entire senior team forgot to wish him a happy birthday at their morning meeting in Downing Street, his spokesperson has admitted.