My Apartment Manager is not a News Thread, #2

[robkelk]

Pre-retcon thread is here

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Remember the school festival in K-On!! where one club was selling mammoth meat?

Cloned mammoth meat is now a thing.

The meatball, which has the aroma of crocodile meat, is currently not for consumption.

[Bob Schroeck]

<snrk> I can just see Yui inveigling Ui to make something with it, because of that festival.

[robkelk]

Google Earth? Pah, now we've got a 3D version for Mars

Assembled by a team from Caltech.

"The scale of this is really unprecedented," said Jay Dickson, lab manager at Caltech's Bruce Murray Laboratory for Planetary Visualization. Dickson was the architect of the new map and kicked the project off in 2016 when Caltech tapped him to establish the Lab he now heads.

And unprecedented scale it has: if printed out at 300 dpi, Caltech said, the whole 5.7 trillion pixel image would be large enough to use as a sunshade for California's Rose Bowl Stadium, and part of the parking lot as well.

So, too big to keep in a gondola.

[Labster]

Belgian customs have destroyed more than 2,000 cans of Miller High Life, advertised as the ″Champagne of Beers,” at the request of houses and growers of the bubbly beverage

The boys are thirsty in gay Paris, and we’ve got beer here on the quay. The Bandit has one more job to do.

[robkelk]

Swedish researchers have built what they claim is the world's first wooden transistor.

Today, proof of concept. Tomorrow, Juraiian tree ships?

[Labster]

77 tons less trash made it into the ocean thanks to this experimental L.A. County device

A certain group of MIT grads finally puts their inktelligence to good use. The real name of this is "Ballona Creek Trash Interceptor 007"; this is the creek on the south side of Venice Beach. And the device is already at the stage of "this is cheaper than paying people to pick up trash on the beach".

[Bob Schroeck]

Yesterday was Ferris Bueller Day in Chicago. People celebrated.

[robkelk]

Age is just a number.

12-year-old graduates from the University of Ottawa

Her B.Sc. is in biomedical sciences.

Her honour’s research project used open-source fMRI data to examine differences in how right-handed, left-handed and ambidextrous individuals formed functional connections in their cerebellums, the part of the brain controlling motor functions.

So, Chiyo-chan doesn't get to set a record. Neither does Ami-san.

[Bob Schroeck]

Well actually, since that young lady is five at the time the story is set, they can, and just have to yield it come 2023.

[robkelk]

This one's a retrospective rather than a news item, but we don't have a thread for those.

Smithsonian Magazine: The Little-Known Legend of Jesus in Japan.

According to local legend, Jesus is buried in Shingō, a small town in Aomori Prefecture. Yes, the same prefecture where Hane helped a particular traveler and received what might be the (or a) Holy Grail during episode 4 of Bakuon!!.

EDIT: So, yeah, ATT's page for Bakuon!! now lists this under "Genius Bonus".

[Bob Schroeck]

Huh. And a tie-in to the "Japanese Jews" legend/tradition/thing that I'm planning on using in DW6, too. Interesting. Not likely, but interesting.

[Labster]

I feel like you maybe buried the lede here:

In the mountain hamlet of Shingo, he’s remembered by the name Daitenku Taro Jurai. The rest of the world knows him as Jesus Christ.

Jurai. Of course.

[robkelk]

Bears on a trampoline. Only in Coquitlam. Washuu-chan probably not involved.

The important part, as far as we're concerned:

Galashan says bear encounters are so frequent in the area she lives that she's no longer afraid of the animals when they are simply passing through, and has taught her kids about bear safety.

[robkelk]

Auroras – the solar system's universal light show (except Neptune... sorry, Neptune)

"Why not Neptune?"

"Auroras aren't elegant."

[Inquisitive Raven]

Auroras – the solar system's universal light show (except Neptune... sorry, Neptune)

"Why not Neptune?"

"Auroras aren't elegant."

 I don't understand the processes well enough to be sure, but I'm guessing that it has something to do with how far the planet's axis of rotation is tilted relative to its orbital plane.

[Labster]

From Jezebel: Everything is horrible, but fear not, we're flying the girlies to the moon in head-to-boot Prada now

[Labster]

I had a few headlines saved on my phone, mostly from last year, which seem appropriate to our story.

Mysterious underground city in Turkey found in man’s basement

'Almost unbelievable': Rare void from the sun briefly blew up Mars' atmosphere last year, and it could happen to Earth too (the single most atrocious headline of 2023)

NERV Disaster Prevention App will tell Japanese people when and where to evacuate (this is 100% real folks)

Archaeologists may have found ruins of fabled entrance to Zapotec underworld -- Spanish missionaries deemed Lyobaa to be a "back door to hell" and sealed all entrances

A woman bought a Victorian dress at an antique store. It had a secret pocket with a coded message.

Crossing the Darién Gap: Migrants Risk Death on the Journey to the U.S. (this may be somewhat more dangerous in our setting, but still reasonably lethal in real life)

[Labster]

The First Amateur Radio Station on the Moon, JS1YMG, is Now Transmitting

[robkelk]

Why the residence in Nova Scotia needs a week-long emergency food supply.

That part of the world gets a storm like this once a year or so, but this year's is the worst on record.

One weekend's snowfall:

[Bob Schroeck]

Nah, Ranma will just come up with Anything-Goes Snow Removal (AKA tunneling with a Moko Takabisha) as soon as Genma bitches and moans about his lazy son not clearing the walks.

EDIT: Still, writing the culture(?) shock experienced by the residents of the Cafe after whatever equivalent to this happened in the winter of 2016-17 might be fun.

Hm. Checking Google... there was 22.0 inches (55.9 cm) on February 13, 2017. There was another Dec. 28-30, 2016, which dropped 29 inches in Maine (can't find a figure for Nova Scotia, though).

[robkelk]

It's come to my attention that the man in that photo is (a) 5'9" tall, and (b) standing on the roof of a two-storey building.

So, yeah, plenty of snow. Even SI!Rob with his power (essentially waterbending) would have trouble helping here.

[Labster]

How Venus Ended Up with a Mini-Moon Named Zoozve

Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Zoozve, anyone?

(Also its not a moon, it's a quasi-moon)