Weird News Thread Part III

Is punching a marathon-running, parking spot stealer really a bad thing?

An unidentified Baldwin relative was holding a parking spot for the actor’s black Cadillac SUV on East 10th Street in Manhattan Friday afternoon when a driver in a black Saab swooped in and took the spot away, cops said.

When the Saab driver hopped out to feed the meter, the hothead actor went ballistic on him, cops and witnesses said.

Yelling escalated to shoving, and finally the tantrum-throwing thespian, 60, allegedly belted Cieszkowski.

https://pagesix.com/2018/11/03/alec...zqf-bA1BSjaJ8lYjNBmWR5aVLgFlOFjlZE742vCbK5ozq

 

That's not news.....

This is news!!

Beebs got a new tatoo.

 

OK

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46133262

Dutch man, 69, brings lawsuit to lower his age 20 years

A Dutch pensioner has started a legal battle to legally change his age and boost his dating prospects.

Emile Ratelband, 69, wants to shift his birthday from 11 March 1949 to 11 March 1969, comparing the change to identifying as being transgender.

"You can change your name. You can change your gender. Why not your age?" he told Dutch paper De Telegraaf.

 

Sounds legit, let agiphobia begin.

 

Pfft...he's never tried dating at a retirement home. They say 78 when I know some of those biddies gotta be like 85.

 

Coming soon to your home on continuous broadcasting: TAINT. Trump AI News and Telecommunications. Seriously, this seems like a really bad idea.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/09/the...5Xj0lguBPR9u6RRZ2w7acWiFmt2EOPHJxeRHobrlnSYy8

 

World Chess Championship underway. Tied at 2 draws. Game three playing as I post.

https://www.chess.com/wcc2018

Carlsen from Norway (the holder) vs. Caruana from the USA.

 

What, no one else following this?

 

I watched a replay of the good part of Game 1 (before the interminable endgame). Carlsen's mistake in snatching the pawn was shockingly obvious. Not that I wouldn't have made such a move, but even I could see why it was an error, after only a brief explanation. Usually when they say a World Champ makes a bad move it takes me a long damn time to figure out why it was bad.

 

Move this shit to BigChess. And watch it with the spoilers.

 

True. My blunders compared to their blunders... oof

 

At least when people make bad decisions w/ their pawns in this version, there's often an excuse...

 

I saw the Bobby Fischer doc a few years ago. It was good.

 

Damn, how I wish Bobby Fischer had had Twitter.

 

There's no good place to put this ... but it's an interesting one.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if a company that had your credit card number faked a charge against you. How you would deny that claim?

Maybe not. I hadn't. But I have that now with Uber, which alleges a fictitious $630 ride (!!). I never met the driver, stepped in the car, or have even been to the destination. Uber, it turns out, doesn't have people who answer phones. Oh so 20th century. So its "customer service" consists of responding by writing in emails "We stand by this charge."

And people complain about the U.S. postal service. Sheesh. They have no idea.

So now I am in position of assumed guilty unless proven innocent. I am scrambling around playing detective, collecting evidence for an alibi that I was somewhere else (which I was) when this ride was alleged to have happened.

 

If you get the charge reversed, the burden falls on Uber to prove to the credit card company that the charge was legitimate.

 

I'm working through VIsa, bjut its first inclination if to believe the vendor, unless I can prove that the ride didn't happen. Uber doesn't have to prove that the ride occurred -- it is I who am supposed to offer the proof.

I'm switching to taxis after this.

 

VISA has made things harder since the last time I had to contest a charge. The funny thing is that in the past, credit cards advertised as an asset the protection they gave you against false charges and other things. Now as they increase their share of total consumer transactions, these protections weaken. Is anyone surprised?

 

American express would reverse the charge.

But thinking about it, my lyft account is with my Master card, maybe I should change that.

But yes, maybe it shows that I am getting old, but having no phone contact with a company is weird to me, like who the fvck do I call if I have a question about Instagram.

Maybe is by design so old people GTFO.

 

Darwin Award. With Oak-Leaf Cluster.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...d-isolated-indian-tribe-north-sentinel-island

Leave his body there. God will care for him until he is resurrected in body. (and filled with arrows by the risen North Sentinalese.)

 

Sheesh. If he was a missionary I wonder if he thought he was going to get a special Not Too Tough to Christianize award from his church.

He said Chau, who some Christian groups have claimed was a missionary, had been trying to find ways to reach North Sentinel Island and finally succeeded on Saturday, taking a dinghy with the fishermen, then completing the rest of the journey by kayak.

“Somehow he made it,” said Giles. He added: “The fishermen who were back in the dinghy saw an arrow hit him. Later they said he was taken deeper [into the island] and buried.”

 

Thoughts and prayers!

 

If more societies had responded like that a few hundred years ago, the world would be much more different.

Yet tomorrow we celebrate one of the natives bigger mistakes.