Officers in the southern Netherlands have found a garden gnome weighing nearly 2kg (4lb) and made of the drug MDMA.

"Drugs appear in many shapes and sizes, but every now and then we come across special things," Dongemond Police said in a translated social media post.

The gnome was found among suspected narcotics during a large drug search.

"In itself a strange place to keep your garden gnome," the force said. "That's why we decided to test [it] for narcotics".

"The gnome himself was visibly startled," police said, referring to the gnome having its hands covering its mouth.

Contemporary artist Maurizio Cattelan’s “Comedian” – a banana duct-taped to the wall, exactly 160 centimeters from the floor – sold for $6.2 million at a Sotheby’s auction this week, in the latest iteration of a saga that first captured the art world in 2019.

Cattelan, an Italian, is known for his satirical and tongue-in-cheek art work. Among his most famous pieces are a solid gold, fully functional toilet entitled “America” and “La Nona Ora,” a sculpture of a pope laying on the ground after getting hit by a meteorite.

Chinese crypto guru Justin Sun announced that he purchased “Comedian” in a Wednesday evening post to X. Sun will reportedly pay the $6.2 million to Sotheby’s using crypto-currency.

“This is not just an artwork; it represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community. I believe this piece will inspire more thought and discussion in the future and will become a part of history,” Sun wrote on X.

“In the coming days, I will personally eat the banana as part of this unique artistic experience, honoring its place in both art history and popular culture. Stay tuned!”

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/20300930

A farm in East Ayrshire has launched the UK’s most expensive coffee to help fund a zero-waste dairy facility.

Mossgiel Farm announced the £272 flat white, which includes 34 shares in their business, will turn customers into investors in sustainable dairy farming.

The drink consists of espresso and steamed milk from Mossgiel Farm in Mauchline. It will be available at 13 Scottish cafes on November 23.

Mossgiel’s coffee is the most expensive in the UK, a title previously held by a flat white at Shot London in Mayfair, which cost £265 and was made with Japanese Typica beans.

It comes as part of Mossgiel Farm owner Bryce Cunningham’s drive to raise funds for a state-of-the-art, zero-waste dairy facility, which will give them the backing needed to “revolutionise” milk consumption.

Police in Lincolnshire have urged motorists to stop chasing an on-the-run emu in off-road vehicles.

Officers in Boston said there had been sightings for a "couple of weeks" in the Spilsby area but the bird is at risk of being injured and people should not approach it.

It's currently unclear where the emu escaped from.

Posting on Facebook, police said: "Experts have been trying to gain her trust by feeding her in the same spot for a while, however, efforts are being scuppered and staff and volunteers are concerned because members of the public have been chasing her in 4x4s.

...

The National Exotics Animal Rescue Service is on the scene and has called in a specialist team to coordinate the emu's capture, police said.

A Philadelphia man sustained third-degree burns “and has been left with disfiguring scars on his penis, testicles and thighs” following a hot tea spill while flying home aboard Frontier Airlines, according to a federal lawsuit obtained by The Independent.

Sean Miller’s injuries include “highly unsightly and embarrassing discoloration on his penis, scrotum/testicles,” along with “significantly decreased sensation in his penis,” “post-traumatic stress disorder,” and “lack of self-esteem,” plus at least one herniated disc he suffered while writhing in distress, the lawsuit states.

Miller, 56, was rushed to the hospital immediately upon landing, after which he was transferred to an area burn center for specialized treatment “due to the severity” of his wounds.

“Due to the tightly-situated plane seat configuration, Mr. Miller was unable to get up from his seat after the spill and, instead, was trapped in agonizing pain while his body was being burnt,” his attorney, Adam S. Barrist, told The Independent.

Miller, a warehouse worker, has been left with “permanent scarring” on and around his genitalia, and “has been encountering sexual dysfunction since this incident,” Barrist said.

"We received a report from the security staff at the Jorge Chaves International Airport," said Pilar Ayala, a biologist with SERFOR (Peru's National Forestry and Wildlife Service). "In the report they indicated that they found a Korean citizen in possession of wildlife specimens."

Security staff at the airport became suspicious when they noticed that a 28-year-old South Korean passenger had an "unusually swollen" stomach, according to local reporting referenced by Reuters.

"It was observed that the citizen had placed these specimens in small ziploc bags with filter paper," Ayala continued. "They were placed around his body, contained by two girdles."

Authorities reported the suspect was attempting to smuggle 320 tarantulas (35 of which were the size of a human hand), 110 centipedes, and nine bullet ants on his body.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/15226006

Finnaly I have something to offer my country!

Thousands of people have signed a counter-petition to keep a pub’s “offensive” name after a rebrand was announced.

The Midget, a Greene King pub in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, was first subject of a petition signed by more than 1,300 people calling on the brewery franchise to “recognise the offence of the term and its implications” of the pub’s name.

The name comes from the iconic MG car which was built in the car company’s former factory in Abingdon.

Last week, Greene King said it would rename the pub The Roaring Raindrop in tribute to the last ever land speed record-breaking car produced by MG.

But some locals have objected with more than 2,800 people signing a counter-petition calling on the brewery to reverse the plans to rebrand.

A bank robber put a pillow case over his head to hide his identity - then had to take it off as he could not see.

Matthew Davies failed to create eye holes in the cover ahead of the armed raid at a bank in Dunfermline, Fife last September.

The 47-year-old, who threatened staff with a meat cleaver, left the branch with nearly £2,000 but was later arrested.

...

A hearing at the High Court in Glasgow heard how Davies entered the Bank of Scotland branch and pulled the meat cleaver from the pillow case before putting the bedding item on to cover his face.

But the failure to create eye holes meant he had to take it off.

...

The court heard how a witness then followed Davies from the branch to his Dunfermline home.

Police later found the cash and a pillow case "consistent with what he put over his head" at his house.

In short:

The satirical news website The Onion, which claims to have 4.3 trillion daily readers, will partner with a gun violence prevention organisation to relaunch the conspiracy website, Infowars.

Infowars' founder Alex Jones claimed the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax conducted by crisis actors.

What's next?

Jones has vowed to file legal challenges to stop The Onion taking his site.

A brutal series of attacks at a rural monastery in Spain over the weekend has left several people injured, after an assailant reportedly broke in and declared "I am Jesus Christ and I am going to kill the monks." Following a lengthy search of the countryside around Valencia, police have arrested a man on suspicion of carrying out the vicious attack, which left a 76-year-old man fighting for his life.

Initial reports on Saturday indicated that a Catholic Bishop had been killed during the violent rampage, during which the assailant is alleged to have used a historical artefact, as well as a glass bottle, to attack monks at the monastery. However, emergency services have since confirmed that no one died, but one individual remains in a critical condition in hospital following the assault

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/17027060

Businesses, community groups, arts organisations and residents in a thriving town on the Croydon-Surrey border are in uproar because the automatic systems employed to police social media have silenced them on one of the world’s biggest digital platforms – all because Coulsdon has the letters L, S and D in its name.

Residents’ associations and businesses with “Coulsdon” in their titles have found themselves “cancelled”, with posts being removed from Facebook and warnings issued as to their future conduct under a set of rules so vague that any post, however innocent, might fall foul of them.

Los Angeles police said they spent hours trying to get the man out from a crawl space under the El Sereno home, after the woman's family reported hearing noises for weeks.

The man - identified as 27-year-old Isaac Betancourt - "refused to leave" even as police used dogs and two rounds of gas, according to the resident's son-in-law Ricardo Silva.

"He wasn't scared of the dogs, and the first two attempts at gas didn't fish him out," he said.

...

Mr Silva said they had been hearing noises for weeks, usually late at night, but they "just chucked it off to animals being under the house".

"The noises were kind of like knocking," he added.

"It was kind of like, as my wife was walking, they were kind of knocking back from under the house so she says, 'you know something's wrong'."

While it's not clear how long the man had been under the home, the family suspects he may have been staying for up to six months.

The space under the home is roughly 2ft high and has three entries, which the family believes he used to come and go.

"It's a bizarre thing, but it's not probably uncommon, you know," Mr Silva said.

"In this day and age, people are looking for shelter."

It started as a social media quest for breakfast dumplings, but ended with thousands of cyclists bringing traffic gridlock between two cities in central China.

What should have been a boost to the ancient city of Kaifeng’s economy backfired when the trend went viral - tens of thousands on rented bikes cycled through the night from nearby Zhenghou.

A six-lane expressway between the two cities quickly filled with cyclists as police took to loudspeakers urging them to leave. Bike rental firms warned they would remotely lock bikes taken out of Zhengzhou.

The event is part of a trend where young Chinese are travelling cheaply at a time when the economy is faltering and job prospects are scarce.

It began with four university students who cycled for 50km (30 miles) from Zhengzhou to Kaifeng in June to try guantangbao, a type of soup dumpling.

"You don't get a second chance at youth, so you must go for a spontaneous trip with friends," one of the four had told local media.

That message struck a chord with other young people in the city of 12.6 million - China's young have increasingly been complaining of burnout from an overly-competitive and grinding job market.

Thus was born the social media trend “Night Ride to Kaifeng".

State media initially praised it as a demonstration of young people's "passion". And local government saw it as an opportunity to recreate the instant fame that the town of Zibo enjoyed last year as millions arrived to sample its barbecues.

...

But the happy mood turned as the roads in Zhengzhou began to be overwhelmed by the thousands of bikes.

Pictures circulating online showed serious congestion on the main roads from Zhengzhou to Kaifeng. One witness told the local outlet Jimu News that his drive on that route, which usually took one hour, took three.

Some riders shared on social media that they were forced to get off their bikes and push their way through the crowd.

There was no official estimate of the number of bicycles on the road on Friday night. But reports on social media suggest the number ranged from 100,000 to 200,000.

And many of those who made it to Kaifeng didn't seem to have enjoyed the experience.

...

Traffic police in both Zhengzhou and Kaifeng closed off some of the main cycling lanes between the two cities on Saturday and Sunday.

It is not surprising to see officials in both cities pushing back because Chinese authorities have always cracked down on large gatherings, which they fear can lead to protests or any form of political expression.

Last month, police in Shanghai silenced celebrations for Halloween over fears the revelries might be used to express dissent.

President Javier Milei’s drastic austerity measures aimed at improving Argentina’s flailing economy have shown better results in recent months.

The libertarian president’s ambition to eliminate bureaucracy and red tape have become one of the main focuses of his cabinet, including cutting public works budgets, and slashing education spending.

...

After passing a major reform package, the Ley Bases (Bases Law) in July, Sturzenegger is now preparing another project, called Ley Hojarasca (Fallen Leaves Law). The project, presented to Congress on October 10, aims to void legislation created by previous governments that no longer serve a purpose, or were replaced by other laws.

One peculiar law at risk of the chopping block is an Argentine tradition that allows the president to become the godparent of the seventh consecutive son or daughter of Argentine couples, in order to prevent them from becoming werewolves.

Indeed, Law 20.843 was passed in 1974 during the presidency of María Estela Martínez de Perón, but the tradition is actually over a century old.

The law allows a couple with seven sons or seven daughters to request that the president become the godfather/godmother to the seventh same-gender sibling. According to the law, the president then can send a representative to the child’s baptism, usually with a commemorative gold medal, and concede a scholarship towards his or her education, a token fee ranging from $150 to $300 dollars a year.

Where does this tradition come from? “The myth arrived in Argentina through Brazil, with the Portuguese werewolf or lobis-homen, which later evolved into the lobizón. Thus, most cases of alleged werewolves are reported in northeastern Argentina,” historian and journalist Alejandro Galliano explained to Argentina Reports.

The myth, which has deep roots in Argentina’s countryside, is that the seventh son becomes a werewolf during nights when a full moon takes place.

The idea to make the president the godfather of a family’s seventh son was introduced by German immigrants from the Volga region, who came to Argentina in the early 19th century and established rural communities in the northeastern Mesopotamia region, comprised of the provinces Misiones, Entre Ríos, and Corrientes.

“The tradition comes from Catherine the Great,” added Galliano, referring to the Russian leader of the 18th century who believed in becoming the godmother to the seventh son to prevent him from becoming a werewolf. “Both traditions ended up mixing here.”

The first case occurred in October 1907 in Coronel Pringles, a city in the south of the Buenos Aires province. Russian farmer Enrique Brest and his wife, Apolonia Holmann, requested then President José Figueroa Alcorta to become godfather to their seventh son. The president agreed and birthed a tradition that lasted for over a century and became a law in 1974, when benefit was extended to include daughters. That year, the scholarship was established to finance the child’s education.

“It was a way to compensate for the discrimination reportedly suffered by the seventh sibling, because of the legend of the lobizón,” commented Galliano.

More than 12,000 children are estimated to have become godsons or goddaughters to an Argentine president in the past 117 years. Former President Alberto Fernández, who left office in 2023, became a godfather to 66 children, while his predecessor, Mauricio Macri, godfathered 159. Before them, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, a strong Peronist, granted the benefit to 1,152 children during her term.

...

Noah Portillo, born September 10 in Río Gallegos, could become the first seventh son recognized by the current president.

However, his fate as a future werewolf may be at stake if Sturzenegger’s bill is passed. “It is a medieval figure that has no place in a modern democracy,” argued the minister in an X post, upon announcing the Fallen Leaves Bill.

Indeed, Galliano explained, the tradition is no longer followed in Russia, where it originated, nor in any other country.

A local politician in northern Germany who posted a picture of a sex doll with a St Pauli T-shirt and a noose around its neck has stepped down following a wave of criticism.

The posting by Bulent Buyukbayram, a member of the Christian Democrats in the city of Delmenhorst, also showed the words "shit St Pauli" written on the doll's head, with the letters 'S' shaped like the logo of the SS, the Nazis' main paramilitary force.

Bundesliga club St Pauli, based in Hamburg, said they would consider legal action and Buyukbayram has apologised and stepped down from his local posts.

"It was a stupidity, a mistake," he told Bild newspaper. "I am getting serious threats. I have apologised to St Pauli."

Ratnik Tactical, the Russian military equipment maker, said on Telegram: “The best warriors of humanity applied scrolls with prayers and promises to their armour before the battle.

“We really liked this image, and we decided that Russian soldiers are rightfully the best warriors of humanity, and can also wear such scrolls into battle. Thousands of seals have already gone to the front, and gave hope to soldiers in the darkest hour.”

The seals, with the words of Psalm 90, are similar in style to Warhammer 40k and cost about £9. The psalm is about the brevity of life.

It replaces the space marine skull with a Christian symbol and is available in normal and “sooty versions”.

The phenomenon was spotted and researched by ChrisO_wiki, a military history author and blogger on the Ukraine war.

He said on X: “The seals have been blessed by priests at the Main Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces in Kubinka near Moscow.”

“Again, this reflects Warhammer 40k lore, which has Space Marine Chaplains blessing purity seals ‘with chanted litanies in honour of the Primarch and the Emperor.”

He added that it reflected the huge popularity of the game in Russia and Ukraine and purity seals have been worn by soldiers on both sides as far back as February last year.

...

The Ukrainians also have their own purity seals. Images shared online showed them being stuck on military vehicles.

Other soldiers sport real-life versions of the game’s battle badges and gruesome skull symbols.

...

The Russian seals have been criticised by some for fusing Orthodox theology with pagan fantasy.

Alexander Soldatov, the religious journalist, said: “Amulets are not typical for the Orthodox tradition at all, they have always been perceived as an element of paganism, magic, in this case, combat magic.

“But in war, all means are good, and the Russian Orthodox Church no longer shies away from using any mechanisms, including purely occult ones.”

Archive

Last week, the Vatican unveiled Luce, a Japanese-style cartoon character that will serve as the Catholic Church’s mascot for its upcoming jubilee year, as well as its Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan.

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the Vatican's chief organizer for the jubilee year who presented Luce to the world, said that the mascot was "created from the desire to enter into the world of pop culture, so beloved by our young people".

I believe his excellency should have considered his desires more carefully, because there is no clearer sign that Luce has indeed entered pop culture and is beloved by young people than the fact that there are now dozens of AI-generated hardcore pornographic images of her on the internet.

On Civitai, a site for sharing custom AI models and generating images, users have created at least a dozen different Luce-themed AI models specifically for generating images of the Vatican’s mascot. These models are not explicitly designed to produce adult content, but as I’ve reported previously Civitai makes it easy to modify AI models and combine them with others that are designed to produce pornographic images, and that is often what users on the site do with any AI models of any character or real person.

Looking at just one model page, Luce - Vatican's Mascot [PONY], in the section where users share images they’ve created with that model, I can see images of Luce nude, covered in semen, and a nude Luce alongside what appears to be a Luce Fleshlight-type sex toy.

“If you came here for what everyone else came here for, then you won't be disappointed,” one user said in a comment on the model’s page. “Lord forgive me for what I am about to do,” another user said.

Archive

Snake handler Drew Godfrey, who works for Hervey Bay Snake Catchers in the Australian territory of Queensland, had the task of removing two coastal carpet pythons, also known as Morelia spilota mcdowelli, from a customer's toilet bowl.

"The homeowner contacted us as he found the snake when he went to use the toilet," Godfrey told Newsweek. "It was a female that was likely in there to soak its skin before shedding.

"Two days later, we were called back to the same house to remove a male from the same toilet. The male most likely entered looking for the female as that was the last place she would have left a scent trail," he continued.

...

"Coastal carpet pythons are nonvenomous and serve as an asset around the home, as they keep down rodent and other pest species," Godfrey told Newsweek.

"They grow to over 3 meters but are placid animals that are friendly toward humans. They only ever bite in self-defense," he continued.