Spider seeks ‘hot date’, gets one

To quote from a post on the subreddit r/Denver:

My beloved boy Asmodeus has reached adulthood. For those of you unfamiliar with tarantula biology, this means he will essentially stop eating/drinking & will devote all his energy to finding a lady tarantula to mate with. He will die in ~6-12 months. It’s breaking my heart to watch him ceaselessly wander, looking for love in a terrarium that definitely doesn’t have any sexy single lady spiders for him to woo.

 

The update:

I connected with a breeder at Wild West Inverts and will be taking Asmo to them this Thursday! He will get to know the lady tarantula & will hopefully return to me in a few weeks!! Local news (Denverite) has picked up the story & are doing an article that I’ll post once it’s out!

I’m absolutely blown away by all the kindness & support I’ve received for my little spider friend. They’re really misunderstood creatures & it’s really nice to see Denver being so lovely towards Asmo ❤️

Aldi has a wearable bag

Aldi UK is giving away a limited-edition jacket that can be quickly switched into a shopping bag. To quote from the offer webpage:

Ever wish your bag for life could do a little more? Hate the feeling of starting your weekly shop only to realise you’ve forgotten your shopping bag?

Aldi is putting a stylish spin on this everyday essential. Meet the limited-edition Swag For Life Jacket, and here’s your chance to win one!

Designed to be worn as a jacket and transformed into a reusable shopping bag, this clever creation is made for shoppers who like their fashion practical, their outfits unexpected and their weekly shop with a little added Aldi flair.

Whether you’re heading to the middle aisle or popping in for everyday essentials, the limited-edition Swag For Life Jacket is ready to go from outerwear to carry-all in seconds.

A sound system ‘to puncture your calloused soul’

That’s from a new spot for audio equipment firm Sonos.

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Dyson’s $499 AI toothbrush with a camera

As summarised in the news release:

Dyson CameraJet™ technology

• Dyson CameraJet™uses imaging, machine learning and precision fluid dynamics to identify gaps between teeth and deliver a targeted precision jet.
• The 100k pixel micro camera works with light and camera strobing at 257Hz, just out of sequence with the brush head movement.
• The brush head moves nearly 1,000 times per second, supported by variable sonic, non-stall brushing technology.
• The dual brush head combines different bristle types to support surface cleaning and gentle gumline cleaning.
• Each brush head contains an RFID tag, enabling the product to recognise when a brush head is connected and alert users when it needs replacing.
• Dyson CameraJet™ is Wi-Fi connected at 2.4GHz, enabling users to watch as they brush through the MyDyson™ app.

Design and engineering

• Six years in development
• 661 Dyson engineers worked on Dyson CameraJet™.
• Dyson has filed 38 patents for Dyson CameraJet™.
• Dyson developed and validated proxy plaque in collaboration with the National University of Singapore.
• Dyson worked with 30 dental professionals globally during development
• Dyson CameraJet™ runs on 16 million lines of code.
• Over 470,000 dental images were collected in the development of the machine learning system.

 

Link to video

Finland’s ‘overcrowded’ prison system

Excerpts from a report that Finland is considering sending prisoners abroad to ease overcrowding:

Justice Minister Leena Meri said the option requires further examination because transferring prisoners abroad raises constitutional questions over Finland’s responsibility for enforcing sentences imposed by its courts.

“I consider it important that, because of overcrowding in our prisons, we examine what such a model would require in practice from the perspective of our legislation,” Meri said at a press conference in Helsinki.

Finland has about 3,900 prisoners, according to figures from the Prison and Probation Service cited by the ministry. Around 950 are foreign nationals.

The number of foreign prisoners has risen by 76 per cent over the past decade. Their increase accounted for about four-fifths of the overall rise in Finland’s prison population during the same period.

Meet Asstra

A new spot for flushable wet wipes brand, Goodwipes, finds inspiration in the launch spot for OpenAI’s Astra, and laces it with irreverent humour.

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Le Nugguette

For fans of its chicken nuggets, Burger King has an offer: a limited-edition nugget sized bag inspired by its nuggets.

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FBI chief’s Senate hearing gets into bestiality

As explained in a NBC News report:

FBI Director Kash Patel on Tuesday found himself defending a new policy at the bureau that does not immediately disqualify potential hires who have engaged in bestiality.

At a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing, some senators grilled Patel about the new standards, which he said were established so as not to discriminate against potential victims of sex trafficking who were forced to perform acts of bestiality.

His explanation elicited curious responses, one from Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., who asked Patel why he would “even get into bestiality.”

Patel quickly emphasized that “we’re not into bestiality,” to which Kennedy said, “I know you’re not,” prompting a chuckle from Patel, who said he was trying to explain the policy.

Kennedy asked, “If Joe participated in bestiality, not as animal but as the human, don’t you think he ought to be disqualified?”

“If he voluntarily did it, sure. But if he was trafficked into it ...,” Patel responded.

Kennedy went on to ask how a person would “involuntarily do it.” Patel said human traffickers forced people into types of conduct like bestiality and “degrading acts of all kinds” in “a lot of cases.”

He said people at the bureau who suggested the policy change “explained to me and showed me cases in which people were forced into it and had applied to the FBI, and so I thought they should be considered. It’s not an automatic disqualification.”

Patel said that the previous policy addressed prostitution, trafficking and bestiality and that for bestiality, the rules “automatically disqualified any individual who participated on either side of it.”

“Either side of what? The bestiality?” Kennedy asked. “So you disqualified the animal?”

“Well, I don’t think — we have great canines, but we’re not going to disqualify them,” Patel said.

Bad Luck or Black Luck?

From France: a new spot for Axa subsidiary Direct Assurance stars a black cat as a suspect behind a streak of bad luck.

Link to video

‘Nonces’ in glasses

UK-based anti-billionaire activist group Everyone Hates Elon has a new campaign that puts Meta’s smart glasses in its sights.

Cops search for trespasser ‘infatuated’ with rubber duck

To quote from a report by Chatham County Police Department in the state of Georgia in the USA:

He trespassed onto their property, used their hot tub, became obsessed with their rubber duck, then stole their pool towels. It's obviously not the biggest crime we've dealt with this month, but it has a lot of ick-factor. So, we'd like to find this guy so he doesn't do this to someone else.

Here's what happened:

Surveillance video from the home in the 9-thousand block of Whitefield Avenue shows the unidentified man trespassing between 2:15 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. on September 1, 2026.

While at the home, video shows the suspect taking a dip in the pool and then using the hot tub.

While in the hot tub, the man is caught on video becoming infatuated with a rubber duck. The video shows the man spending more than 10 minutes intensely interacting with the duck. When the suspect finally left the home, he took numerous luxury beach towels valued at a total of $1,200 with him.

The man escaped by bicycle.

Morale boosting bones

To quote from a news report out of Russia:

Bone fragments from the sword hand of a medieval Russian prince who won a famous victory over the Mongols have been sent to the front in Ukraine to raise army morale in the Russian Orthodox Church's latest show of support for the war.

The sarcophagus of Grand Prince Dmitry Donskoy, who died in 1389 and is revered by Russian nationalists for defeating the Mongol Golden Horde at the 1380 Battle of Kulikovo, was uncovered this summer during restoration work at Moscow's Cathedral of the Archangel inside the Kremlin.

Putin personally inspected what experts said were the prince's well-preserved remains in August, hailing them as "an absolutely unique and marvellous discovery" that reinforced the foundations of Russian history.

The Russian Orthodox Church, which has backed Putin throughout the conflict, said it had dispatched a fragment of Donskoy's right hand to Donetsk, one of four Ukrainian regions Russia claims to have annexed in 2022.

Pakistan cricket team mistaken for asylum seekers

As reported by The Guardian:

A group of masked agitators gathered outside a four-star hotel in Portsmouth after reports a group of asylum seekers had been taken there, when it was in fact Pakistan’s under-19 cricket team on a tour.

George Madgwick, a Reform councillor called to the hotel to mediate between staff and the assembled crowd, said it was a “massively unfortunate incident”.

Madgwick said he was at home on Tuesday evening when he was called and told that about 40 people had gathered outside the Marriott hotel, many wearing balaclavas or other face coverings, after reports that asylum seekers were staying there.

He went there and spoke to the hotel manager, who “explained the situation” – the hotel was hosting members of an under-21 cricket team from Pakistan, who are touring the south coast and using the Marriott as their base.

Madgwick said the group massed outside after reports that about 40 men who did not seem to be English had arrived at the hotel, and that the coach which took them was from the same company who moved the asylum seekers who came by boat.

Stanley Tucci — brand ambassador ‘at large’

Italian beer brand Birra Moretti announced the actor and food lover as its newest brand ambassador with a spot in which he is ‘missing’.

To quote from the press release:

A spokesperson for Stanley Tucci said: “Stanley is unable to provide a quote as he’s out and about enjoying life’s simple pleasures.”

 

Link to video

Alice drives into Wonderland

The Lewis Carroll tale gets a makeover in this spot for the Toyota Yaris Cross.

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Meditation in Motion

From India: Puma has released a photo series in which it has Buddhist monks wear its running shoes.  I’m not sure what made the monks agree but this is how the brand explained it:

Meditation and running look like opposites. Yet both demand focus, discipline and resolve.

The Ladakh Marathon brought us to Thiksey Monastery, where that shared devotion came to life as the monks stepped into the Deviate PURE NITRO™️, a shoe built for ease and control, worn by those who master both daily.

Above it all, Meditation in Motion is a celebration of Ladakh, its people and the spirit that runs through it.

  

2026 Ig Nobels

A few of the winner citations:

Economics Prize
“for amassing evidence that upper-class people are more likely to snatch from a children’s supply of candy, and engage in other kinds of unethical behavior.”

Medicine Prize
“for the study called “How to Blow the Nose—An Aerodynamic Study of the Nose Blowing.”

Physics Prize
“for theoretical and experimental attempts to design a splash-free urinal.”

Peace Prize
“for documenting that we value friends who are vicious to people we dislike.

 

Link to full report

Why hasn’t ‘serial butt sniffer’ been stopped?

From California: a legal expert’s reported opinion on why Calese Cowder — dubbed as “the serial butt sniffer” —  keeps getting released, only to be caught allegedly doing the same thing again:

Attorney and legal expert Dmitry Gorin said that’s because many of the charges connected to Crowder are misdemeanors.

“If there’s an actual touching, that’s a felony,” Gorin said. “But just sniffing somebody, it really doesn’t rise to a felony. As the law stands now, it is very hard to file a felony offense based on this conduct.”

Since Crowder’s most recent arrest is for a felony parole violation connected to a prior burglary case, Gorin said he may stay in custody longer, but it’s also unclear what new charges the district attorney might file.

Gorin said, ultimately, Crowder likely needs mental health treatment in addition to jail time.

“Yes, you can lock him up, but eventually he’s going to be out. And until he gets treatment, it’s just reoffending and reoffending and reoffending,” Gorin said.

Smart Flying

Norwegian Air makes its case with subtle humour and simplicity.

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A Warehouse for Everyone

From New Zealand: a series of slice-of-life spots for retail chain The Warehouse that highlight the special place it enjoys in the hearts and minds of customers.

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