And Finally...

It’s all been blown out of proportion.

Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s Republican State Superintendent of Public Instruction, is under investigation after he was allegedly caught streaming pornography on his office TV during a meeting of the state Board of Education.

Oklahoma’s Senate President Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton (R) confirmed in a July 25 statement that the state’s Office of Management and Enterprise Services is leading an inquiry into the incident, according to The Oklahoman.

The outlet, along with Oklahoma media nonprofit NonDoc, reported Friday that Oklahoma State Board of Education members Becky Carson and Ryan Deatherage said they had seen images of naked women on a television in Walters’ office during the closed-door executive session portion of a July 24 meeting.
[…]
Carson and Deatherage said that Walters, who drew bi-partisan criticism in early 2024 for appointing anti-LGBTQ+ hate influencer Chaya Raichik to Oklahoma’s library advisory committee to remove supposedly “pornographic” books, neither apologized for the incident nor mentioned it further.

He's a one-cat crime wave (apparently).

Renegade tortoise tastes temporary freedom via 16 day bender.

Not a question i'd ever remotely considered...

I detect a rabid dislike of seagulls meets a slow news day

Fugitive sheep on the run?

A couple made their special day even more memorable by having their pet tortoise walk down the aisle as a groomsman.

A Reform UK election candidate standing in the postponed North Northants Council (NNC) election for Higham Ferrers could trigger an immediate by-election if he wins the seat after he moved to China.

Alan Beswick had been on the ballot paper as one of the two Reform UK candidates for the May 1 elections but, due to the death of Liberal Democrat John Ratcliffe just before polling day, the election in the two-seat Higham Ferrers ward was postponed until June 12.

Names of four nominated Reform candidates were submitted to NNC’s election team. A party spokesman says Mr Beswick’s circumstances changed but they were unable to remove his nomination.

A 14th-century Buddhist statue, stolen in October 2012 and taken to South Korea, was returned to a Japanese temple on Monday, ending a dispute that had contributed to bilateral friction, a source close to the matter said.

The jumpers help protect penguins on an Australian island should they come into contact with oil.

Dogs, tortoises, chickens and 150 people have been photographed on Lydbrook's dumped sofa

The 8-pound dog went missing on the rugged Kangaroo Island in Australia in November 2023 while on vacation with her owners. After a 529-day search, the pup is finally safe and back in human care.

"After weeks of tireless efforts by Kangala Wildlife Rescue volunteers and partner organizations, Valerie has been safely rescued and is fit and well. We are absolutely thrilled and deeply relieved that Valerie is finally safe and able to begin her transition back to her loving parents, Josh and Georgia."

You can read more HERE.

cross-posted from: https://metawire.eu/post/51940

James, Andrew and Will Emerton from Cheshire took it in turns to drive the miniature petrol-powered bus.

Fuck, there goes the charabanc.

Oh wait, it's not far away, it's just really, really small.

A United Airlines plane was forced into an emergency landing after it caught fire after a rabbit was reportedly sucked into its engine.

The flight in the US issued an alert following a “giant fireball” after the reportedly got stuck in the plane’s engine before take off.

...

The plane was turned around after around 75 minutes in the air and landed safely. There were no reports of injuries.

An unusual startup announced the world's first sperm race -- a race involving actual sperm -- will be held April 25 at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles.

Sperm Racing, a startup founded by a team of young millionaires, announced representatives from two competing schools -- the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles -- will provide the microscopic swimmers for the inaugural Sperm Race.

The race will take place under a microscopic camera that will track the progress of the sperms as they attempt to cross to the finish line.

The startup said there will be three races held to determine the overall winner, and play-by-play commentary will be provided during each heat. There will also be instant replays, leaderboards and betting through approved partners.

Actually a pretty sad story when you read past the headline. Poor git.

Albert Saniger, the founder and former CEO of Nate, an AI shopping app that promised a “universal” checkout experience, was charged with defrauding investors on Wednesday, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Founded in 2018, Nate raised over $50 million from investors like Coatue and Forerunner Ventures, most recently raising a $38 million Series A in 2021 led by Renegade Partners.

Nate said its app’s users could buy from any e-commerce site with a single click, thanks to AI. In reality, however, Nate relied heavily on hundreds of human contractors in a call center in the Philippines to manually complete those purchases, the DOJ’s Southern District of New York alleges.

Saniger raised millions in venture funding by claiming that Nate was able to transact online “without human intervention,” except for edge cases where the AI failed to complete a transaction. But despite Nate acquiring some AI technology and hiring data scientists, its app’s actual automation rate was effectively 0%, the DOJ claims.

...

Nate isn’t the only startup that has allegedly exaggerated its AI capabilities. For example, an “AI” drive-through software startup was also powered largely by humans in the Philippines, The Verge reported in 2023.

More recently, Business Insider reported that an AI legal tech unicorn, EvenUp, used humans to do much of its work.

‘Hairy” medieval book covers previously thought to be made from deer or boar skin are in fact made of sealskin, researchers have found.

The covers of the 12th- and 13th-century books from French monasteries were made using seals believed to be from Scandinavia, Scotland and potentially Iceland or Greenland, hinting at extensive medieval trade networks.

Researchers analysed volumes from a Cistercian monastery, Clairvaux Abbey, and its daughter monasteries, identifying 43 sealskin books.

“Contrary to the prevailing assumption that books were crafted from locally sourced materials, it appears that the Cistercians were deeply embedded in a global trading network,” reads the research article, published today in Royal Society Open Science.

Boris Johnson got a shock when an ostrich attacked him on a day out with his family. Hilarious video shows the former prime minister and one of his children admiring the large, flightless bird from the apparent safety of a car.

The feathered giant can be seen striding up to the vehicle as Mr Johnson and the youngster look on with the driver's side window wide open. Mr Johnson appears to describe the ostrich as being "very naughty" as the creature gets closer and closer. Then as it peers into the car, the bird lashes out with a sharp peck at the ex-PM, to which a shocked Mr Johnson cries out in front of his giggling child: "Christ! F****** hell!"