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As mentioned in the drone thread but felt this thread is probably best to highlight the post.

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Gatwick Airport: Drones ground flights

About 10,000 passengers were affected overnight on Wednesday as flights were unable to take off or land Tens of thousands of passengers have been disrupted by drones flying over one of the UK's busiest airports.

Gatwick's runway has been shut since Wednesday night, when two devices were seen flying over the perimeter fence. The airport said a drone had been spotted "in the last hour" and the runway would not open "until it was safe to do so".

About 110,000 passengers on 760 flights were due to fly on Thursday. Disruption could last "several days". Those due to travel have been told to check the status of their flight, while Easyjet told its passengers not to go to Gatwick if their flights have been cancelled.

Gatwick Police said it was not terror-related but a "deliberate act" of disruption. Dr Alan McKenna, from the University of Kent, said the drones appeared to be "of an industrial size" not "one you can buy from the shops".

What happened? The shutdown started just after 21:00 GMT on Wednesday, when two drones were spotted flying "over the perimeter fence and into where the runway operates from". The runway briefly reopened at 03:01 but was closed again about 45 minutes later amid "a further sighting of drones".

Gatwick chief operating officer Chris Woodroofe said: "The police are looking for the operator and that is the way to disable the drone." He said police had not wanted to shoot the devices down because of the risk from stray bullets. He said it remained unsafe to reopen the airport after the drone had been spotted to close to the runway. Mr Woodroofe said: "If we were to reopen today we will first repatriate passengers who are in the wrong place which could take several days."

How have passengers been affected? About 10,000 passengers were affected overnight on Wednesday and Gatwick said 110,000 people were due to either take off or land at the airport on Thursday. Incoming planes were diverted to other airports including London Heathrow, Luton, Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff, Glasgow, Paris and Amsterdam. Crowds of travellers have spent the morning waiting inside Gatwick's terminal for updates, while others reported being stuck on grounded planes for hours.

A Gatwick spokeswoman said extra staff had been brought in and the airport was "trying their best" to provide food and water to those who needed it. About 11,000 people are struck at the airport, Mr Woodroofe said. A number of flights bound for Gatwick were diverted to other airports overnight, including seven to Luton, 11 to Stansted and five to Manchester. Other flights have landed at Cardiff, Birmingham and Southend.

Flights were diverted to other airports, including Paris and Amsterdam, following the runway closure Kasia Jaworska told the BBC she was travelling from Glasgow to Gatwick with her boyfriend when her flight was diverted to Luton. She said she thought it was "strange" that two drones had led to the closure of the airport. "You would imagine there would be better security in place and emergency action for something like that," she said.

Passengers say many people have been forced to sleep on the floor overnight at the airport Christopher Lister, who had been returning from Kiev, posted a picture of people sleeping "on every seat and across the floors" on board his flight. 'Absolute shambles' at drone-hit airport.

How can a drone cause so much chaos?

A fool and his drone

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Denmark approves controversial plan to send foreign criminals to prison island

The Danish parliament has approved funding for a plan to hold foreign criminals on a tiny island, despite criticism from the United Nations and local opposition.

With Denmark taking an increasingly tough stance on immigration, the government wants to send up to 100 people who have completed jail sentences but cannot be deported because they are at risk of torture or execution in their home countries, to the island of Lindholm.

Funding for the scheme was included in the 2019 Danish budget, which lawmakers voted through on Thursday. A center for the people, who have been convicted of crimes ranging from murder and rape to less serious offences, is set to be established in 2021 and will cost 759 million crowns ($115 million).

Lindholm is used as a laboratory and crematorium by scientists researching swine flu, rabies and other contagious diseases. One ferry serving the three hectare island southwest of Copenhagen is named “Virus”.

The plan has aroused opposition in the municipality of Vordingborg, of which Lindholm is part. “People think this is not the solution to the real problems,” Vordingborg mayor Mikael Smed said before the vote.

UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet expressed serious concerns about the idea on Wednesday.

A majority of foreign criminals whose deportation sentences cannot be carried out are now detained at a center in Jutland, in western Denmark. Residents there say they feel unsafe, although police report that crime has not risen in the area in recent years.

Now residents of Kalvehave, from where the ferry to Lindholm departs, fear for the future of their town which depends on tourism. “This won’t benefit the area and it won’t attract more tourists. Quite the opposite,” said Klaus, 47, owner of a hotdog stand in the town which is home to 632 people.

Under the plan, the criminals can leave the island during the day but will have to report their whereabouts to authorities and return at night.

Denmark has struggled for decades with how to integrate immigrants, the overwhelming majority of whom are law abiding, into its welfare state. Public debate intensified in 2015 with the arrival of large groups of asylum seekers from conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/denmark-approves-controversial-plan-to-send-foreign-criminals-to-prison-island

So I assume the Danish lawmakers has not watched Escape from New York?

Snake Plissken is getting on a bit so he might not be able to help out should something go wrong, even if you get him a new Gullfire.

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  • 4 weeks later...

So this is weird, right?

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Man, 33, injected his SEMEN into his own arm for 18 months 'to treat back pain', bizarre medical case report reveals

  • The unnamed man, from Dublin, Ireland, described his actions as 'innovative'
  • He had been suffering from chronic back pain and went to the doctor for help 
  • The medic spotted his right forearm was red and swollen with infection
  • He admitted he had been injecting himself with ejaculate for over a year 

A man has baffled doctors by injecting himself with his own semen in a bizarre attempt to try and cure his back pain.

The 33-year-old, who was admitted to a hospital in Dublin, had been injecting himself with his own ejaculate for a year-and-a-half before medics found out.

When he visited the doctor complaining of severe pain in his lower back, they noticed a red rash and swelling in his forearm. 

His right arm had become infected with cellulitis as a result of the bizarre habit, which the medical report described as 'dangerous'.

The man, who was treated at a hospital in Dublin, had swelling in his right forearm, which was infected with cellulitis because he had been injecting semen into it for 18 months

The man, who was treated at a hospital in Dublin, had swelling in his right forearm, which was infected with cellulitis because he had been injecting semen into it for 18 months

Doctors did an X-ray to rule out there being an object in the man's arm and it revealed a 'local collection' where he had been injecting himself 

Doctors did an X-ray to rule out there being an object in the man's arm and it revealed a 'local collection' where he had been injecting himself 

'He had devised this "cure" independent of any medical advice,' Dr Lisa Dunne wrote in a case report in the Irish Medical Journal.

'He revealed he had injected one monthly "dose" of semen for 18 consecutive months using a hypodermic needle which had been purchased online.'

Needless to say, the semen injections did not cure his back pain – which worsened after he lifted a heavy steel object – but his condition improved after a short hospital stay.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-6598457/Man-33-injected-SEMEN-treat-pain.html

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31 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Spoilsport!

(also, I'm not arguing, but I'm confused how you know whether this bloke has a bank account?)

As much as I never believe a word in it, the local paper.

I also know none of the people on the site (working for that company) had been paid because our building manager used to work with them and he gave one of his mates a ring to get the gossip.

The other aspect is, the bloke apparently has been having mental health issues (also from local rag)

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Place i used to work is in the local news today. Boat sunk into the river tonight for some reason.

The thing is, I know little back story around this and what has happened is a bit too perfect for me to believe, so.

Tin foil hat on :D 

Here' what happened tonight according to the papers.

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Restaurant The boat curved in the Klarälven

image.php?uuid=05185a85-e784-531f-8487-e8d1032e035b&function=hardcrop&type=preview&source=false&q=75&width=700&height=394

Restaurant The boat, which is moored in the Klarälven by Älvgatan in Karlstad, overturned and took in water during the night until Thursday

- It has canted and is on the side of the river, says Magnus Lundqvist, rescue officer in readiness at the emergency services Karlstadsregionen.

The alarm about the event came shortly after midnight on Thursday. The emergency services went to the site, but made no effort on the spot.

- There was nothing we could do about it, so we were there and looked and returned to the station, says Lundqvist.

Police were also there and have contacted the owner. Initially, it is unclear why the boat curved.

Karlstad Municipality has been informed of the incident.

- Then you see how to proceed, says Magnus Lundqvist.

The activity on the boat is abandoned and there should not have been any people on board, according to him.

 

https://www.vf.se/2019/01/24/restaurang-baten-kantrade-i-klaralven/

 

And now for some back story:

The municipal in Karlstad have been trying to get rid of the boat for years because they think it's an eyesore, or at least the people living in the very pricey apartments looking over the river thought so, and they have some influence.

It been an ongoing thing for years and years.

The Boat was recently taken over by new owners (in September) and they are not the sharpest knives in the drawer (or perhaps they are?) 

The Boat needed major renovations to the tune of £200.000-300.000 and also had a non renewable permit running out in the middle of summer this year. 

The new owner bought it for a pittance (£13.000) and initially claimed they were sure to be able to get a whole new 5 year permit and contract. since then nothing has happened. and renovations had not begun

The papers got hold of the owner this morning after this had happened and he said he was yet to start working on getting that new permit even though since they were planning to open in April you would think they fix that before spunkin a lot of money on renovating the place.

The owner also claimed he didn't know if he had the place insured, and referred to his son for more info..

It's all sketchy as f**k :D 

Everyone get's what the want. Guy will get his money back and more from the Insurance (of course he has one) . And their new business plan would have never worked, and I think even they knew it and got cold feet.

The municipal (is that even the right word?) will get to tow the boat away.

It will now also fit under the bridges on it's way out of town, something it would not have done before. Meaning it saves the a lot of work and grief because that would have been really difficult without tearing the boat apart.

It could have taken years before it happened either way.

Sadly there are no CCTV cameras in the area because I would have loved to have had a look at them.

 

The moorings came off, my ass they did. :D 

 

Edited by sne
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One of the most prominent "gay conversion therapists" in the US has divorced his wife and wants to start dating men.

David Matheson, from Utah, was the creator of widely maligned and discredited courses that claimed to be capable of changing the sexuality of those who studied them.

Now he has acknowledged that his work was hurtful to people, and blamed his previous views on the "shame-based, homophobic-based system" of the Mormon church in which he was raised.

In a Facebook post published after LGBTQ charity Truth Wins Out revealed that he had quit the practice, Mr Matheson said had realised he "had to make substantial changes in my life".

He wrote: "I enjoyed a happy and fulfilling marriage with my wife for many years. Overall, it was a beautiful relationship and being straight became a core part of my identity.

"But I also experienced attractions to men. Much of the time these were in the background. But sometimes they were very intense and led to pain and struggle in my marriage."

Mr Matheson said his desire to be in "an intimate relationship with a man" had become a "non-negotiable need" towards the end of his marriage, but admitted that he still found "too much homophobia in myself".

Sky News

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1 hour ago, bickster said:

Saw that myself earlier and might have posted it later. I think many of his ilk are in the same boat.

I'd say that boat has seen things.

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A MUM dubbed "the sheath queen" makes a living cleaning horse willies - and charges £25 a pop.

Mercedes Hoblin, 27, has raked in £5,000 by picking clumps of dried semen - known as 'beans' - from behind the horses' foreskins.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8282072/mum-makes-living-cleaning-horse-penises/

 

Never too late for a career change....

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  • 2 weeks later...

At least he didn't get punched in the face by Mike Tyson the following day...

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Pot-smoking tipster finds overweight female tiger in abandoned Houston home

The anonymous tipster who told cops about a 1,000-pound tiger inside a Houston home had broken into the abandoned building to smoke marijuana and initially thought he was hallucinating when he saw the caged big cat, officials said.

Authorities went to the residential home Monday and found the overweight female tiger in deplorable conditions inside a “rinky-dink” cage in the garage, Click 2 Houston reported.

“A pretty small cage inside basically a garage in a house that didn’t look like it was in the best shape,” Lara Cottingham, with the city of Houston told reporters of the scene. “So it was important that we get it out of the situation.”

Police said the garage was secured with a screwdriver and a nylon strap.

The tiger was tranquilized and taken to BARC Houston, a city organization dedicated to humane animal care, FOX26 Houston reported. They will then try to find a permanent home for the animal.

“There's an incredible network all across the United States and here in Houston and here in Texas. It's just finding the right combination and then transporting," Cottingham said.

Houston police are investigating who may have owned the animal.

Meanwhile, the Houston Zoo released a statement Monday saying that it was aware of the tiger but that it was not involved and would not be receiving the animal.

“The Houston Zoo is home to two Malayan tigers, Berani and Satu, and does not have the capacity to receive additional tigers,” the zoo said. “Fewer than 3,500 tigers of all tiger subspecies remain in the wild today, according to the Tiger Conservation Campaign. Malayan tigers surviving on the Malay Peninsula are critically endangered with an estimated population of 300 remaining in the wild.”

https://www.foxnews.com/us/tiger-found-overweight-abandoned-in-houston-home

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well this can't be good.

2 bonkers countries with nuclear weapons and a terrible history between them escalating the conflict even more.

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MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan’s air force shot down two Indian warplanes after they crossed the boundary between the two nuclear-armed rivals in the disputed territory of Kashmir on Wednesday and captured one Indian pilot, a military spokesman said.

The dramatic escalation came hours after Pakistan said mortar shells fired by Indian troops from across the frontier dividing the two sectors of Kashmir killed six civilians and wounded several others.

Pakistan’s army spokesman Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor said Pakistani troops on ground captured the Indian pilot. One of the downed planes crashed in Pakistan’s part of Kashmir while the other went down in Indian-controlled section of the Himalayan region, he said.

Indian air force spokesman Anupam Banerjee in New Delhi said he had no information on Pakistan’s statement. Earlier, senior Indian police officer Munir Ahmed Khan said an Indian Air Force plane crashed in Indian-controlled sector of Kashmir and that it wasn’t immediately known if there were casualties.

Another police officer, S.P. Pani, said firefighters were at the site in Budgam area where the Indian warplane crashed. Eyewitnesses said soldiers fired in air to keep residents away from the crash site.

According to local Pakistani police official Mohammad Altaf, the six fatalities in Wednesday’s shelling included children. The shells hit the village of Kotli in Pakistan’s section of Kashmir.

Kashmir is split between Pakistan and India and claimed by both in its entirety. Though Pakistani and Indian troops in Kashmir often trade fire, the latest civilian casualties on the Pakistani side came a day after tensions escalated sharply following a pre-dawn airstrike and incursion by India on Tuesday that New Delhi said targeted a terrorist training camp in northwestern Pakistan. 

Residents on both sides of the de-factor frontier, the so called Line of Control, said there were exchanges of fire between the two sides through the night. In Pakistan’s part of Kashmir, hundreds of villagers have fled border towns.

The situation was no different in villages along the Line of Control in Indian-controlled Kashmir, where residents were moving to safer places following the intense exchange of fire, which began Tuesday and continued Wednesday. In New Delhi, Indian officials said Wednesday at least five of their soldiers were wounded in firing by Pakistani troops along the volatile frontier.

Lt. Col. Devender Anand, an Indian army spokesman, said Pakistani soldiers targeted dozens of Indian military positions across the Line of Control throughout the night. An Indian military statement said that “out of anger and frustration,” Pakistan “initiated unprovoked ceasefire violation.”

The statement said Indian troops “retaliated for effect” and claimed to have destroyed five Pakistani posts. It accused Pakistani soldiers of firing mortars and missiles “from civilian houses, using villagers as human shields.”

In Tuesday’s pre-dawn strike by India, Pakistan said Indian warplanes dropped bombs near the Pakistani town of Balakot but there were no casualties.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was expected to convene the National Command Authority on Wednesday to discuss Islamabad’s response to the incursions by Indian warplanes.

On Wednesday, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told state-run Pakistan Television he was in touch with his counterparts across the world about the “Indian aggression,” adding that New Delhi had endangered peace in the region by launching an airstrike on Pakistan.

In New Delhi, India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said Wednesday her country does not wished to see further escalation of the situation with Pakistan and that it will continue to act with responsibility and restraint.

She said the limited objective of India’s pre-emptive strike inside Pakistan on a terrorist training camp Tuesday was to act decisively against the terrorist infrastructure of Jaish-e-Mohammad group, to pre-empt another terror attack in India.

Tension have increased between Pakistan and India since Jaish-e-Mohammad claimed responsibility for the Feb. 14 suicide bombing of a convoy of India’s paramilitary forces in the Indian portion of Kashmir that killed 40 soldiers.

Pakistan has said it was not involved in the attack and was ready to help New Delhi in the investigations.

6

https://www.apnews.com/75b2e4053b994e159dd5a9af6b77ad72

Hopefully this isn't something that will warrant it's own thread anytime soon, or ever.

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