Even more oddities spotted in the news

[robkelk]

Missing Thunderbirds footage found in British garden shed

They contain a lot of old material, but also some extended scenes and a previously-unseen new ending to one episode.

[robkelk]

Newsworthy because it happens so rarely. If you're running Firefox, update it now.

The Register: Mozilla patches critical Firefox vuln that attackers are already exploiting

Fixed in Firefox 131.0.2

---

Hands up, everybody who thinks that all cryptocurrencies can't be tracked.

You can put your hands down now. Especially if you have any NexFundAI.

The Register: FBI created a cryptocurrency so it could watch it being abused

[robkelk]

The Register: Ford CEO admits he drives a Chinese electric vehicle and doesn't want to give it up

Ford does have its finger in the electric car pie, with Farley pointing out it's the number two in the US marketplace. But when it comes to EVs, China is way ahead of Western manufacturers, he warned. Ten years ago, the Chinese government declared a policy on developing electric vehicles and batteries, and that's paying off, he opined.

[robkelk]

Billboard: Universal Music Group uses AI to have a translated song in its catalogue sound like the original singer

Considering US court decisions about AI works, one wonders whether "Noche Buena y Navidad" is in the public domain...

[classicdrogn]

Depends on who provides the most impressive bribes to buy off the Disgraces, I suppose.

[robkelk]

The Register: US Copyright Office OKs McDonald's fixing ice cream makers

Without going through the machines' manufacturer.

However, it's still a DMCA violation to tell somebody how to do this.

[robkelk]

Things happened, and people got dysentery.

Insert your own Oregon Trail joke here.

Oregon Trail 'action comedy' film in the works from Apple

To be directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon (Blades of Glory, Office Christmas Party)... if it happens. They haven't cast stars yet, let alone extras.

[Dartz]

Man Killed by Wasps

Very late in the year for wasps to be active.

There's been some sort of alteration in the general average tendancy of the way the weather does be.

[Bob Schroeck]

The "Most Mysterious Song on the Internet" has been identified, after 17 years' search.

[robkelk]

Whoops.

Mattel’s Wicked doll misprint results in 12-year traffic high for porn website

tl;dr: Mattel printed the URL for Wicked Pictures instead of Wicked (2024 film) on the boxes of their Wicked dolls. Granted, Wicked Pictures does make porn parody movies... but it's that whole "porn" bit that's causing the problems.

Oh, yes: the URL that Mattel should have printed is https://www.wickedmovie.com

[classicdrogn]

Glinda and Elpheba are very good friends! Something something rainbows, don't need no wizard, etc.. Some horizons are gonna get expanded, I woot.

[MilkmanConspiracy]

According to The New York Times, The Onion has purchased Infowars.

[Bob Schroeck]

<applause>

Furious posts from right-wing nut jobs who can't tell parody from reality in 3, 2, 1...

[robkelk]

According to The New York Times, The Onion has purchased Infowars.

Also being reported (independently) at Forbes, so yeah.

[robkelk]

The Roaring Lion is back home

[robkelk]

Why am I thinking of WKRP when I read this?

AP: ‘It’s a bird! It’s a plane!’ In Alaska, it’s both, with a pilot tossing turkeys to rural homes

In the remotest reaches of Alaska, there’s no relying on DoorDash to have Thanksgiving dinner — or any dinner — delivered. But some residents living well off the grid nevertheless have turkeys this holiday, thanks to the Alaska Turkey Bomb.

[Dartz]

Turkeys are not flightless.

[robkelk]

They are when they've been frozen...

[robkelk]

Right to Repair is now guaranteed by Canadian law.

Heard this on the radio, so instead of a link to a story, here's a link to the new law.

[robkelk]

Belgian sex workers now required by law to get maternity leave

And other benefits. And the right to formal employment contracts.

While countries such as Germany and the Netherlands have legalized sex work, none have implemented labor protections as comprehensive as Belgium’s.

[robkelk]

Ottawa ringette team loses club support after new name raises eyebrows

Who could possibly have foreseen that a team of 17- and 18-year-old girls would get in trouble for trying to raise breast cancer awareness by naming themselves after a particular bird? </sarcasm>

[Bob Schroeck]

Okay... someone explain to me why Fanfiction.net is now showing up in my Google News feed?

   

[hazard]

At a guess?

The algorithm has learned fanfiction is regularly visited.

[Bob Schroeck]

I would think that the algorithm should be able to distinguish between fanfic and actual news.

Apparently not.

[NifT]

On the assumption that Google is using an AI LLM to generate the feed, no, it absolutely cannot.