The Off Topic Topic

[Josquius]

Worky business. Do any of our Brits know folk around London with some time to spare and who are currently stuck in the "rental trap? ". Basically decent income folk but who are spending so much on rent they can't save to buy.
I'm doing some research for work on our current swing at tackling the housing crisis and need to try to speak to some southroners. £20 love2shop or amazon voucher for 45 mins or so.

I can save plenty but still can't afford to buy anything half decent.

I'm now saving a lot and same. I'm not really sure how it is doable unless you adjust your perceptions of what is 'decent' or move far from the city.

Most of the people my company deals with are towards the minimum wage end of the scale, so any kind of mid level professional job counts as decent in my book :p

Seriously if any southern based people have time for a zoom chat in a week or two it'd be good.

[Sheilbh]

This is like Harambe all over again

Threat to kill wild boar that stole nude bather's laptop prompts outcry
Berlin officials say Elsa and her piglets pose a danger and may have to be 'withdrawn'
Kate Connolly in Berlin
Mon 17 Aug 2020 14.55 BST
Last modified on Mon 17 Aug 2020 17.34 BST


The boar family have become celebrities after they were photographed being chased by a naked sunbather at Teufelssee lake in Berlin. Photograph: Adele Landauer/@adelelandauer_lifecoach/AFP/Getty Images

A wild boar that has become a frequent visitor at a lakeside bathing resort in Berlin is attracting a growing band of supporters following authorities' suggestion that it could have to be killed.

The animal, nicknamed Elsa, has earned something akin to celebrity status after a series of photos of it and its piglets stealing a nude bather's laptop at Teufelssee lake in west Berlin went viral this month.

The owner of the laptop was captured in bare-bottomed pursuit of the boar, which later abandoned its booty, presumably having discovered it was not edible.

Subsequent sightings of the creatures rifling through bathers' picnic baskets and rucksacks and apparently showing no timidity have prompted Berlin foresters to label them a danger to humans.

"This wild sow and her two young is a frequent visitor at Teufelssee," Katja Kammer, the head of the forestry office in the district of Grunewald told the broadcaster RBB. "They phlegmatically forage in broad daylight over the grass looking for food wherever there are bathers. They have lost all sense of shyness."

As a result, she said, they would have to be "withdrawn as a matter of priority" – a bureaucratic euphemism for killing them.

Kammer's remarks prompted the campaign group Action Fair Play to call a demonstration to save the beast. Around a dozen protesters gathered at the forestry office on Sunday.

"A few days ago pictures appeared in the media of a man in the nudist section of Teufelssee chasing a female wild boar which had run off with his laptop in a bag," the organisers said in a statement. "These pictures delighted people around the world. Only the forestry office appeared to get no pleasure from them, deciding instead to shoot the sow and her young."

The group said the animals had done no harm "and the owner even got his laptop back". It said there was no need to kill the wild boar.

A petition on Change.org calling for the rescue of the "cheeky but peaceful sow from Teufelssee" had collected more than 5,300 signatures by Monday afternoon.

Its organisers said that in contrast to other wild boar, which can pose considerable danger to humans and dogs, this female had built a reputation "over years" of being friendly towards bathers.

"There has been absolutely no account taken for the fact that this sow has peacefully shared her living space with bathers for years," they said, adding that the creature's very friendliness was in danger of leading to its downfall. "This wild boar has earned the right to live," they said.

Marc Franusch, a spokesman for Berlin's forestry commission, said it remained uncertain whether and when the wild boar would be shot. "It is the wrong time of year," he told local media. "Due to the age of young, it is forbidden to shoot them right now."

[crazy canuck]

Turns out that grapes are really bad for a dog - which we found out after our dog ate a couple that dropped to the ground.  All is well after a couple of days of vomiting and diarrhea.

[DGuller]

"This wild sow and her two young is a frequent visitor at Teufelssee," Katja Kammer, the head of the forestry office in the district of Grunewald told the broadcaster RBB. "They phlegmatically forage in broad daylight over the grass looking for food wherever there are bathers. They have lost all sense of shyness."

If anyone in that picture has lost all sense of shyness, I would think it would be the sunbather.

[Sheilbh]

I mean "phlegmatically foraging in broad daylight over the grass looking for food" is just me on a picnic  

[MadBurgerMaker]

An emergency helicopter was sent to a park in Vienna to save the life of a 55 year old who had suffered a heart attack. While the man was dying, passersby took selfies with the helicopter.

Maybe we should re-think not having door gunners on these.

[merithyn]

Turns out that grapes are really bad for a dog - which we found out after our dog ate a couple that dropped to the ground.  All is well after a couple of days of vomiting and diarrhea.

Oh no! Glad she's okay, but that does not sound like a fun couple of days.

[celedhring]

The head of the opposition's Popular Party has sacked their speaker, Spanish-Argentinian aristocrat, conservative firebrand and overall pantomime villain Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo y Peralta-Ramos, XIVth marchioness of Casa Fuerte. She will be missed. 

My favorite stunt of hers was showing up at people camped in favor of Catalan independence and shouting "ABANDON ALL HOPE" to them.

And yes, she is related to *that* Álvarez de Toledo.

[The Larch]

She will be missed. 

Except by her own party, I guess. 

[Josquius]

This has to be one of the oddest missing person stories for a while

https://soranews24.com/2020/08/17/japanese-woman-finds-skeleton-possibly-of-her-missing-brother-while-cleaning-her-house/

[Tonitrus]

Usually the smell a corpse creates is a big tip off.

[Valmy]

The head of the opposition's Popular Party has sacked their speaker, Spanish-Argentinian aristocrat, conservative firebrand and overall pantomime villain Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo y Peralta-Ramos, XIVth marchioness of Casa Fuerte. She will be missed. 

My favorite stunt of hers was showing up at people camped in favor of Catalan independence and shouting "ABANDON ALL HOPE" to them.

And yes, she is related to *that* Álvarez de Toledo.

Ironically what her ancestors used to yell at people camping in favor of Dutch independence.

[Malthus]

This has to be one of the oddest missing person stories for a while

https://soranews24.com/2020/08/17/japanese-woman-finds-skeleton-possibly-of-her-missing-brother-while-cleaning-her-house/

Well, he certainly won that round of hide and seek.

[DGuller]

I suspect that mental illness or dementia was a key factor, probably for all actors involved.

EDIT:  Alternatively, the source could just be a Japanese version of The Onion or Daily Mail.

[Caliga]

Something's not right.  Do neither of them have a functioning sense of smell?

When I was a kid a squirrel got into the ducting of my grandparents' house and died.  It STUNK and I could hardly stand to be there till they got it taken care of.  In a small house like that one how could you not smell a decomposing human?