The WTF? Thread

[ursus arctos]

The WTF? Thread

What Better Way to Celebrate Your People's Emancipation?

While it’s something of a tradition for New Yorkers to decamp for sunnier climes during Passover, no event is quite as extravagant as this one.

Or as expensive — prices start at $11,000 per person for an ocean-view room with butler service for the eight-day festival. That doesn’t include starry add-on amenities such as a recording session with Ariana Grande ($3,800 per person) and a meet-and-greet with Kylie and Kendall Jenner ($2,200) — both available last year.

“This is the who’s who of the world — the world’s richest, most prestigious people — people who meet the president and the pope,” says Jonathan Arbisfeld, head of sales for The Prime Experience, which organizes the event, now in its second year. (The company is an offshoot of the Prime Hospitality Group, which boasts several successful upscale kosher restaurants in NYC.)

One of their restaurants is two blocks from our flat. It's virtually always empty.

[WOM]

The WTF? Thread

Not enough 'prestigious people' within a reasonable walking distance.

[ursus arctos]

The WTF? Thread

Likely also the reason why our neighbours had to significantly cut their asking price for their modest flat.

[caja-dglh]

The WTF? Thread

I have basically tried to ignore my attachment to Indiana this past week. I really hope they fix all this crap before I next have to visit as I am almost certain that one of my family there will think this is all nothing but a good thing.

[caja-dglh]

The WTF? Thread

And that Hearst place is stunning.

[Incandenza]

The WTF? Thread

Meh, don't like the kitchen at all.

[Geoffrey de Ste. Croix]

The WTF? Thread

Holy Shit.

"At the final moment of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, the U.S. nuclear missile men in Okinawa received a launch order which was later found to have been mistakenly issued, according to testimonies by former U.S. veterans given to Kyodo News".

[Geoffrey de Ste. Croix]

The WTF? Thread

This article on the New Zealand economy contains the absolutely extraordinary fact that between 2010-2013, China poured 6.4 gigatonnes of concrete, which was more than was poured by the US in the entire 20th Century.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

The WTF? Thread

Scary fact. On a lighter note, when doing a quick bit of searching on Chinese concrete usage, I found that some of it went on this - as yet underutilised - replica of part of Paris:

http://www.businessinsider.com/tianducheng-a-paris-replica-in-china-2013-8?op=1&IR=T

[Hugh Fatbastard]

The WTF? Thread

Evariste Euler Gauss wrote: Scary fact. On a lighter note, when doing a quick bit of searching on Chinese concrete usage, I found that some of it went on this - as yet underutilised - replica of part of Paris:

http://www.businessinsider.com/tianducheng-a-paris-replica-in-china-2013-8?op=1&IR=T

at the foot of that article there's a link for a Chinese ghost them park.

It looks like a live action set from Spirited Away.

[hobbes]

The WTF? Thread

I'm not sure this is quite what they had in mind in the Bible story of the good samaritan...

[Patrick Thistle]

The WTF? Thread

hobbes wrote: I'm not sure this is quite what they had in mind in the Bible story of the good samaritan...

It's there in the original Aramaic telling of the story.

[Geoffrey de Ste. Croix]

The WTF? Thread

Chimpanzee takes down a drone.

[Toby Gymshorts]

The WTF? Thread

That's brilliant.

[Incandenza]

The WTF? Thread

Even better than the ram.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfLCb4ewDDc

[ursus arctos]

The WTF? Thread

DC NIMBYs try to get Historical Landmark designation for a parking lot.

[ursus arctos]

The WTF? Thread

Gareth Thomas biopic moved to Ireland for US audiences.

A biopic about the life of Gareth Thomas, the top Welsh rugby player who came out as gay, has been in the pipeline for years.

And it appears it is finally happening, but with a few major changes.

First, the lead character played by Mickey Rourke will now be called Mick 'The Blade' Collins. Second, he'll be Irish and not Welsh. Because of this, the film is now called Irish Thunder.

[Ginger Yellow]

The WTF? Thread

Meet Kansas gun-nut state representative and most spectacularly named American ever, Travis Couture-Lovelady.

[Geoffrey de Ste. Croix]

The WTF? Thread

A San Antonio woman who runs a nonprofit mobile food truck that distributes gourmet meals to the homeless, has been ticketed and fined $2000 for helping the hungry.

Spokesman for the San Antonio Police Department, the Reverend Thomas Malthus defended the citation:

"It is an evident truth that, whatever may be the rate of increase in the means of subsistence, the increase of population must be limited by it, at least after the food has once been divided into the smallest shares that will support life. All the children born, beyond what would be required to keep up the population to this level, must necessarily perish, unless room be made for them by the deaths of grown persons.

To act consistently therefore, we should facilitate, instead of foolishly and vainly endeavouring to impede, the operations of nature in producing this mortality; and if we dread the too frequent visitation of the horrid form of famine, we should sedulously encourage the other forms of destruction, which we compel nature to use. Instead of recommending cleanliness to the poor, we should encourage contrary habits. In our towns we should make the streets narrower, crowd more people into the houses, and court the return of the plague. In the country, we should build our villages near stagnant pools, and particularly encourage settlements in all marshy and unwholesome situations."

[Kid A]

The WTF? Thread

'A man who allegedly had sex with a tree, told police officers he was God, shrugged off being tasered twice and tried to stab a cop with his own badge while on powerful drugs has been arrested.

'Kenneth Crowder, of Melbourne, Florida, was tripping on flakka, a worrying new drug that authorities say is sweeping the state, police said.

'According to a Melbourne police report, Crowder, 41, was spotted by witnesses running naked through a Melbourne neighborhood, yelling that he was a god before committing a sexual act on a tree.

'A Melbourne police officer went to the area and confronted Crowder, who was wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt, officials said.

'Crowder walked toward the officer in an aggressive manner and identified himself as God, according to police.

'The officer used a Taser on Crowder, but he pulled the probes out of his body and continued to advance, it was said.

'Crowder was shocked a second time, but he again pulled out the probes and went at the officer with clenched fists, police told TV news station NBC 6.

'The officer punched Crowder in the face and a fight ensued, with Crowder saying that he was Thor (a Norse god, or perhaps the superhero) and trying to stab the officer with the officer's badge, police said' - The Mirror.

[Incandenza]

The WTF? Thread

Someone stole the catalytic converter off of a friend's mom's car. This is apparently something that happens in Los Angeles. Apparently they have some precious metals inside them, so they are sold for scrap.

[WOM]

The WTF? Thread

Indeed. Platinum.

[ursus arctos]

The WTF? Thread

This was a big thing in Italy when we were there.

I thought that they had been reformulated somehow?

[ursus arctos]

The WTF? Thread

Jesus.

The Justice Department and FBI have formally acknowledged that nearly every examiner in an elite FBI forensic unit gave flawed testimony in almost all trials in which they offered evidence against criminal defendants over more than a two-decade period before 2000.

[Incandenza]

The WTF? Thread

Hmm, not sure. If that's the case, maybe they are targeting older models?