I bet they got the hump about it.

The jumpers help protect penguins on an Australian island should they come into contact with oil.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/43737535

cross-posted from: https://quokk.au/post/5652540

Should have just force-choked them.

Something new every day!

Dogs, tortoises, chickens and 150 people have been photographed on Lydbrook's dumped sofa

The 8-pound dog went missing on the rugged Kangaroo Island in Australia in November 2023 while on vacation with her owners. After a 529-day search, the pup is finally safe and back in human care.

"After weeks of tireless efforts by Kangala Wildlife Rescue volunteers and partner organizations, Valerie has been safely rescued and is fit and well. We are absolutely thrilled and deeply relieved that Valerie is finally safe and able to begin her transition back to her loving parents, Josh and Georgia."

You can read more HERE.

cross-posted from: https://metawire.eu/post/51940

James, Andrew and Will Emerton from Cheshire took it in turns to drive the miniature petrol-powered bus.

Fuck, there goes the charabanc.

Oh wait, it's not far away, it's just really, really small.

A United Airlines plane was forced into an emergency landing after it caught fire after a rabbit was reportedly sucked into its engine.

The flight in the US issued an alert following a “giant fireball” after the reportedly got stuck in the plane’s engine before take off.

...

The plane was turned around after around 75 minutes in the air and landed safely. There were no reports of injuries.

An unusual startup announced the world's first sperm race -- a race involving actual sperm -- will be held April 25 at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles.

Sperm Racing, a startup founded by a team of young millionaires, announced representatives from two competing schools -- the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles -- will provide the microscopic swimmers for the inaugural Sperm Race.

The race will take place under a microscopic camera that will track the progress of the sperms as they attempt to cross to the finish line.

The startup said there will be three races held to determine the overall winner, and play-by-play commentary will be provided during each heat. There will also be instant replays, leaderboards and betting through approved partners.

Actually a pretty sad story when you read past the headline. Poor git.

Edward Smith, who lives with his current "girlfriend" – a white Volkswagen Beetle named Vanilla, insisted that he was not "sick" and had no desire to change his ways.

https://archive.ph/6Psr7

Albert Saniger, the founder and former CEO of Nate, an AI shopping app that promised a “universal” checkout experience, was charged with defrauding investors on Wednesday, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Founded in 2018, Nate raised over $50 million from investors like Coatue and Forerunner Ventures, most recently raising a $38 million Series A in 2021 led by Renegade Partners.

Nate said its app’s users could buy from any e-commerce site with a single click, thanks to AI. In reality, however, Nate relied heavily on hundreds of human contractors in a call center in the Philippines to manually complete those purchases, the DOJ’s Southern District of New York alleges.

Saniger raised millions in venture funding by claiming that Nate was able to transact online “without human intervention,” except for edge cases where the AI failed to complete a transaction. But despite Nate acquiring some AI technology and hiring data scientists, its app’s actual automation rate was effectively 0%, the DOJ claims.

...

Nate isn’t the only startup that has allegedly exaggerated its AI capabilities. For example, an “AI” drive-through software startup was also powered largely by humans in the Philippines, The Verge reported in 2023.

More recently, Business Insider reported that an AI legal tech unicorn, EvenUp, used humans to do much of its work.

The marshmallow treats were reportedly put on a no-fly list after erupting in a cockpit in 1965.

‘Hairy” medieval book covers previously thought to be made from deer or boar skin are in fact made of sealskin, researchers have found.

The covers of the 12th- and 13th-century books from French monasteries were made using seals believed to be from Scandinavia, Scotland and potentially Iceland or Greenland, hinting at extensive medieval trade networks.

Researchers analysed volumes from a Cistercian monastery, Clairvaux Abbey, and its daughter monasteries, identifying 43 sealskin books.

“Contrary to the prevailing assumption that books were crafted from locally sourced materials, it appears that the Cistercians were deeply embedded in a global trading network,” reads the research article, published today in Royal Society Open Science.

Graeme Bowman went viral after posting a framed picture of the receipt on Reddit.

An Alaska woman had her massive mouth measured by a dentist and broke a Guinness World Record with her 2.98-inch gape.

Ketchikan resident Marie Pearl Zellmer Robinson said she always knew she had a large mouth, but hadn't considered it might be a world record until she saw a video of the previous record-holder, Samantha Ramsdell, whose mouth gape was measured at 2.56 inches in 2021.

"I just watched the videos a few times. I'm like, 'Huh, that's funny. I could fit that kind of stuff in my mouth too! Hey, I wonder if I can beat her,'" Robinson told Guinness World Records.

Robinson's dentist measured her mouth gape at 2.98 inches, earning her the title for the largest mouth gape (female).

"I've always kind of known I had a big mouth," she told the Ketchikan Daily News. "I talk a lot, and apparently I do have a physically big mouth, but we never really did anything about it. It was always just kind of a joke that I could fit two, you know, three and a half Jenga blocks in my mouth, type of concept, when you're kids."

Robinson said she doesn't show her mouth off as much now that she's an adult.

"When I do, it kind of creeps people out," she said. "That's a creepy jaw!"

Boris Johnson got a shock when an ostrich attacked him on a day out with his family. Hilarious video shows the former prime minister and one of his children admiring the large, flightless bird from the apparent safety of a car.

The feathered giant can be seen striding up to the vehicle as Mr Johnson and the youngster look on with the driver's side window wide open. Mr Johnson appears to describe the ostrich as being "very naughty" as the creature gets closer and closer. Then as it peers into the car, the bird lashes out with a sharp peck at the ex-PM, to which a shocked Mr Johnson cries out in front of his giggling child: "Christ! F****** hell!"

The street gained mass attention and even became a landmark after The Beatles named their 1969 album 'Abbey Road', with the album cover featuring the four members crossing the road.

Now, every day, dozens of eager and excited tourists head to the location to recreate the iconic album cover.

However, it seems some of those tourists expect a bit more than just a road when they make the trip to St John's Wood and often end up disappointed.

Many of those tourists have taken to the online review site Tripadvisor to share their upset.

One visitor titled their review "disappointed doesn't cover it..." explaining: "On reflection, I think I may have been expecting too much. My disappointment in not finding street sellers, either side of the road, selling cheap t-shirts and merchandise was a surprise."

They added: "It's just a zebra crossing and you'd save yourself some money by just standing on any of the millions in the UK and just photoshopping the background in."

Another upset Beatles fan shared that there's 'nothing to see': "I am a massive Beatles fan, but there really is nothing to see here.

"It's just an ordinary zebra crossing. It's busy - crowded with fellow tourists trying to work out if they are even at the right place, and with annoyed drivers trying to drive down a busy main road."

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/27032543

Sitting around a wrestling ring, churchgoers roared as local hero Billy O’Keeffe body-slammed a fighter named Disciple. Beneath stained-glass windows, they whooped and cheered as burly, tattooed wresters tumbled into the aisle during a six-man tag-team battle.

This is Wrestling Church, which brings blood, sweat and tears — mostly sweat — to St. Peter’s Anglican church in the northern England town of Shipley. It’s the creation of Gareth Thompson, a charismatic 37-year-old who says he was saved by pro wrestling and Jesus — and wants others to have the same experience.

Thompson says the outsized characters and scripted morality battles of pro wrestling fit naturally with a Christian message.

“Boil it down to the basics, it’s good versus evil,” he said. “When I became Christian, I started seeing the wrestling world through a Christian lens. I started seeing David and Goliath. I started seeing Cain and Abel. I started seeing Esau having his heritage stolen from him. And I’m like, ‘We could tell these stories.’”

...

At a recent Wrestling Church evening, almost 200 people — older couples, teenagers, pierced and tattooed wrestling fans, parents with excited young children — packed into chairs around a ring erected under the vaulted ceiling of the century-old church.

After a short homily and prayer from Thomas, it was time for two hours of smackdowns, body slams and flying headbutts. The atmosphere grew cheerfully raucous, as fans waved giant foam fingers and hollered “knock him out!” at participants.

Some longtime churchgoers have welcomed the infusion of energy.

“I think it’s absolutely wonderful,” said Chris Moss, who married her husband Mike in St. Peter’s almost 50 years ago.

“You can look at some of the wrestlers and think” — she scrunched her face in distaste. But talking to them made her realize “you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.”

...

Only a handful of people have gone from watching the wrestling to attending Sunday-morning services at St. Peter’s, but Wrestling Church baptized 30 people in its first year. Thompson, whose brand of born-again Christianity is more muscular than many traditional Anglicans’, plans to expand to other British cities. One day, he says, he may start his own church.

Crossposted from https://lemmy.world/post/27813470

In short:

Indian police have arrested an American man who visited a restricted island and left offerings to a tribe not contacted by the modern world.

Mykhailo Polyakov had previously made two unsuccessful attempts to reach North Sentinel Island, home of the Sentinelese people.

What's next?

Local authorities say he has been released on a three-day remand "for further interrogation".