Power cable diverted to avoid ‘Dobby’s grave’

As explained by The Guardian:

Harry Potter fans have forced a new multimillion-pound power cable between the UK and Ireland to be relocated after complaining it would desecrate the “grave” of Dobby, a fictional elf.

The character was laid to rest on Freshwater West beach in Pembrokeshire, Wales, in the film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Fans of the wizard series come to leave stones reading “Here Lies Dobby” despite being asked not to by the land owner, the National Trust, because the beach is an ecologically sensitive site.

The £430m Greenlink interconnector, which links the National Grid to Ireland, was initially going to pass through the site of the “grave”, the project manager Simon Ludlam told the Energy Revolution podcast.

Ludlam said he did not know who Dobby was, and became confused by the calls the company received, saying a colleague told him: “Apparently we’re going to go straight through Dobby’s grave”.

“I said: ‘Dobby, who’s Dobby? I don’t know Dobby?’ I said: ‘He’s a fictitious character in a fictitious book, the whole thing is fictitious, what are you talking about?’”

He said the colleague told him: “No it’s very, very serious.”

The firm then enlisted planners to find a new route that avoided the supposed grave. “A lot of people were very happy about that, and the project is now going [ahead] and Dobby’s happy.”

Butt-spanking apology for ghost-spanking delay

Sort of.  As reported on one games review website:

The solo Japanese developer behind the delayed Steam horror-comedy title Spanking Exorcist has released a free “apology game” that lets players spank his digital backside as compensation for missing the game’s original launch window. The developer, credited only as Actor, confirmed the stunt after Spanking Exorcist failed to clear Steam’s content review in time for its planned July 24 release, with Valve reportedly still weighing whether parts of the game are too sexual for the platform.

Cop dresses as shrub to catch distracted drivers

To quote from a post by Dunellen Borough Police Department in New Jersey:

Did you spot our "shrub" today? If you had your head buried in your phone, probably not!

Today, the Dunellen Police Department conducted a Distracted Driving Enforcement Detail on the 100 block of North Washington Ave. We specifically chose this highly-trafficked, pedestrian-heavy downtown area to enforce New Jersey's Handheld Cell Phone Law and protect our community.

The results? Our "shrub" was busy. We issued 74 citations to drivers distracted by their devices in a six-hour window.

Let this be a reminder: That text or notification can wait. Keep your eyes on the road, not your screen!

Restaurant owner faces jail over ant dessert

It isn’t because he sprinkled the dessert with ants—it’s because he didn’t seek approval for that.

As reported by The Guardian:

Prosecutors in South Korea have asked a court to sentence the owner of a Michelin-starred restaurant to one year in prison for serving a dessert topped with ants, an insect not approved for consumption under local food safety law.

The restaurant, which holds two Michelin stars and is located in Seoul’s upmarket district of Gangnam, is reported to have served a sorbet dessert sprinkled with ants for customers who wanted the flavour.

Under South Korean law, only 10 insect species, including grasshoppers, mealworms and silkworm pupae, are approved for use as food ingredients. Ants are not among them.

Businesses wishing to use an unapproved insect must first obtain temporary approval, a process the restaurant did not follow, the ministry said. Violating the law carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison or a 50m won fine.

Missing underscore led to being jailed

As reported by Ars Technica:

One missing underscore in a Skyrim-themed username put an innocent Nova Scotia man in prison for 18 months.

A 2018 child-luring investigation, which began in Madison, Wisconsin, and eventually extended to Halifax, Canada, was based on a false premise.

Police were looking for a man using the Kik messaging service under the name “fus__ro_dah” (two underscores after “fus”), but they accidentally requested records for the username “fus_ro_dah” (one underscore after “fus”). This one-character difference led them not to the perpetrator but to a Canadian man named Brandon Klayme.

Despite finding no evidence of the crime on his digital devices, Canadian police arrested Klayme in 2020 on child sex abuse charges. He was convicted after a trial in 2023 and sentenced in 2024 to 18 months in prison. He served the full term.

Even after release, Klayme continued to fight his conviction. In the process of preparing his appeal, the username mistake that led to all these years of disruption was finally discovered. On Thursday, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal overturned Klayme’s conviction, writing: “Mr. Klayme is factually innocent of the offences. He should never have been charged, let alone convicted.”

Israel clears way for crocodiles to stop prison breaks

To quote from a DW news report:

Israel’s environment minister has reclassified crocodiles so that they can now be used for security purposes. Far-right Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir reportedly wants them to surround a jail holding Hamas militants.

The new classification puts the crocodiles in the category of “cultivated wild animal” instead of wild animals. It could allow an approved security organization to keep Nile crocodiles for security purposes, subject to government approval and conditions set by environmental authorities.

One such body is the Israel Prison Service, which answers to Ben-Gvir.

Israeli media reported that Ben-Gvir intends to use crocodiles to guard Ketziot prison in southern Israel, which primarily holds Palestinian security prisoners.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, Ben-Gvir wrote: “Are you thinking of attempting to escape? Think again.” He accompanied the post with an AI-generated image of himself with a crocodile on a leash.

Prison agency receives enquiry about room booking

To quote from a news report out of the Philippines:

A local tourist planning a weekend stay here mistakenly inquired about room availability at the female dormitory of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP).

Sharing the exchange in a social media post on Friday, the BJMP said it received a message from a female netizen asking if it had “available units” for rent for her upcoming trip to the country’s summer capital.

The administrator of the jail’s official Facebook page had to explain to the tourist that “Ma’am, this is a jail for women,” punctuating the reply with a smiley.

“Ay, sori po,” came the room seeker’s apology, with a crying emoji for stress.

The BJMP did not name the tourist who made the inquiry but said it obtained permission to post a screenshot of the exchange.

It capped the post with a reminder to all that “BJMP’s jail facilities are not hotels.”

Man arrested for ‘rubbing genitals’ on a car

Well, that’s probably the most striking among the list of reasons for which the arrest was made.  To quote from a post by the Rochelle Park Police Department in New Jersey:

Tyler Lee, 27, was arrested & now faces numerous criminal charges. Lee had jumped behind the counter of our local Wingstop, stole food, rubbed his genitals on a vehicle parked outside & attempted to get into another occupied vehicle before attempting to flee from our officers. After a brief foot pursuit, he was taken into custody & taken to the hospital for his injuries prior to processing. He also attempted to bite our officers & EMT personnel.

Court affirms prisoner’s right to send sperm-stained letters

From the coverage by The Sun, of a news story out of Germany:

A prisoner has won the right to send letters to his fiancée from jail splattered with his semen, a German court has ruled.

The prison administration punished the inmate over the correspondence, after the jailhouse letters were found to be a health hazard.

But the drug felon serving a multi-year sentence challenged the decision to punish him by filing a lawsuit.

He reportedly claimed the ban suppressed his sexual fantasies and violated his fundamental right to free development of his personality, German legal journal Beck Aktuell said.

The prisoner also argued in the lawsuit that if prison staff felt disgusted when searching the letters, they could wear gloves during the search.

He also countered that it was not a criminal offence to send the fluids in the mail.

The Hagen Regional Court ruled in favour of the prisoner and found there was “no legal basis” for the disciplinary measure to have been taken against him.

The court found the man had not breached his duty to support health and hygiene measures inside the jail, because this requirement was intended to ensure the health and safety of prisoners not staff.

The prisoner was found to have committed one violation; by including the semen, the mail was found to be a package rather than a letter, the legal journal said.

Inmates are required to obtain permission before sending packages under German law.

Man arrested for train surfing… naked

To quote from a tongue-in-cheek post by the Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office in Colorado:

Greetings Sedgwick County,

For those of you who had the unfortunate experience of seeing this gentleman surfing naked on top of a moving locomotive yesterday, I want you to know that he was arrested on felony and misdemeanor charges.

Daniel Ray Ballance of Quartzsite, AZ decided to visit our County yesterday via the Union Pacific Railroad after he broke a window on a locomotive and entered it. To some he blew the horn, to others he showed a little too much.

Daniel expressed his love of vodka, beer, and playing the Banjo. Unfortunately, we had to separate him from those loves and the train ride. Instead Daniel is spending some time at an all expenses paid stay in jail, where he is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Woman caught smuggling python… in her bra

To quote from a news report out of Amsterdam:

You truly never know what headline you’ll read next. A Canadian woman has been caught at Schiphol trying to smuggle a ball python onto a plane.

Thankfully, before Schiphol passengers could experience a real life version of “Snakes on a plane”, the woman was caught.

According to the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA), the snake was discovered during a safety check, RTL Nieuws reports.

How did she attempt to hide the animal? By stuffing it into her bra… Unfortunately for her, it seems that the cupsize wasn’t enough to disguise a living snake.

Man tries to rob bank… with a stolen kitten

To quote from a report out of Maryland:

A man grabbed a kitten from the adoption area of a Maryland pet store, then allegedly tried to use her to rob a nearby bank.

But it was far from the purr-fect crime — police were on the scene in minutes, and the kitten, named Magnolia, came through it all unharmed.

Security camera video shows a man wearing a light-colored t-shirt and black beanie walking into Pet Supplies Plus on Baltimore Avenue in Beltsville, Maryland. Seconds later, he ran out clutching a black and white kitten.

Witnesses said he kept running straight for the PNC Bank in the same shopping center.

Stephanie Stullich of Beltsville Community Cats rescue was nearby when she got a call from a very alarmed store employee around 10:30 a.m. They said someone used the key hanging nearby to open the cat adoption area and take 3-month-old Magnolia..

Stullich drove over immediately.

“Immediately saw all of these police cars, and I thought, ‘Wow, that's a heck of a response for a stolen cat,’ but then I realized they all were going down to the bank,” she said. “[…] They came back out a few minutes later and said, ‘Yes, there is a cat inside the bank.’ Apparently he went into the bank with the cat in his arms, and he walked up to a bank employee and said, ‘Can you hold this?’ And then he wrote a note and handed it to a bank teller and it said, essentially, give me all your cash.”

Instructor-pilot commits suicide… midair

As reported by CNN:

A pilot jumped out of the door of a moving plane to his death, leaving the student he was teaching to fly to land the aircraft by herself.

Flight instructor Leandro Andrés Bertazzo, 42, was found dead following the incident, which took place in Toledo, central Argentina, on Saturday, according to a statement from the country’s public prosecutor, published Tuesday.

Bertazzo was on board the Cessna 150 aircraft with a 22-year-old student named Rosario, CNN affiliate TN reported.

The student said Bertazzo told her, “You know what you have to do, carry on,” before taking off his headset and seatbelt, opening the door and jumping out of the plane, TN reported.

Eduardo Álvarez, director of the Flying Parrot Córdoba flying school where Bertazzo worked, told TN that there were no signs that the pilot was planning to throw himself from the plane.

A nutritional take on cannibalism

As reported by Reuters, quoting from a statement released about a study by scientists from Poland and the Czech Republic:

From a caloric perspective, a person turns out ​to be ‌an average meal ... The key problem, ‌however, lies elsewhere: the risk of infection. Pathogens have an easier task because they end up in ⁠an organism with almost identical physiology.

Man charged over ‘using seagull as a weapon’

That’s according to a news report out of Oban, Scotland.  To quote:

Oban police investigate after report of man using seagull as a weapon

Police in Oban have charged a man who is alleged to have assaulted someone with a seagull.

Officers were called to Queens Park Place near Station Square on Saturday June 27 after members of the public raised the alarm when a man allegedly grabbed two seagulls from the street and used one to attack a member of the public.

There was no evidence of the birds being injured in the incident.

Woman pleads ignorance about drugs found in her butt

Well, there’s more.  She suggested that the drugs were planted in an “intimate encounter”.  As reported by the Brevard County Sheriff's Office, Florida:

You really just can’t make this stuff up…butt you sure can try as this one puts the ole… “those are not my pants” excuse to shame!!

Over the weekend, Deputies arrested Reagan Cox for resisting an officer without violence during a traffic stop. Of course she was transported to Ivey’s Iron Bar Lodge and folks this is where things get interesting…

As Cox was being processed through the scanner, an abnormality was seen in the “lower region” of her person or “Jail Purse” area if you will. Our Corrections Deputies moved Cox to a change out room where she was observed trying to cover her buttocks area with her hand. After moving her hand, a baggie dropped to the floor containing approximately 3.8 grams of cocaine!!

Now here’s why we say you just can’t make this stuff up as when the baggie dropped to the floor, Cox spontaneously uttered that she knew nothing about the drugs and that someone must have put it in there during an “intimate encounter!!”

There’s just not much else to say about this one folks, other than Cox received an additional charge for Introduction of Contraband into a Detention Facility for bringing cocaine into the jail facility!!

Folks, if not realizing that someone left cocaine in your “Jail Purse,” is not a good enough reminder to not do drugs, then I don’t know what is!!

Heat forces yodelers to sing in fountains

As explained in an AP News report out of Basel, Switzerland:

Switzerland’s national yodelling festival does not stop for a heatwave. It just moves closer to the fountains. Singers need to keep hydrated, and these yodellers have found their own solution to 38-degree heat. And why not practice while you’re bathing? It’s a familiar story all over the city. Its 45 fountains are full of yodellers, which is not something you can say every day.

Physicists confirm accuracy of poop emoji

To quote from one report:

The poop emoji has long been the butt of countless jokes, but it turns out the little swirl isn’t a load of crap. According to physicists, the smiling pile is surprisingly faithful to the way gravity shapes the real thing.

A new study published in Nature Communications has found that the iconic soft-serve shape of the emoji closely matches how feces naturally coil when expelled under gravity. Researchers from the University of Amsterdam, Wageningen University & Research, and CNRS concluded that the familiar tapered mound is governed not by biology alone, but by a physical principle known as elastic rope-coiling theory.

A giraffe is missing… in Texas

That, too, for two weeks now.  Adding to the strangeness, a local animal rescue shelter was particular about pointing out that the giraffe has “rounded ears.”  Also, the local sheriff was quoted saying this:

I’ve had wildebeests, I’ve had water buffalo, I’ve had monkeys, I’ve had zebras, all go missing. Sometimes we recover them, and sometimes we don’t.

Last but not the least, there have been isolated sparks of humour in the reporting.  To quote from the lead of an NBC News report:

She has a neck the size of an adult human, legs that are just as long and an unforgettable coat.

And she’s missing.

Elephant surprise at Texas GOP convention

Excerpts from the reporting on the Chron website:

All day, visitors to the Texas Republican Party’s 2026 convention in Houston were teased of a big surprise. But it wasn’t a guest appearance from, say, President Donald Trump or another Republican luminary. It was bigger and messier than that, somehow.

At the Texas Republican Party’s 2026 convention at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston, Gov. Greg Abbott spoke to a room full of the party faithful. After urging that the state Republican Party come together to defeat the Democrats in this fall’s midterm elections, Abbott did a little bit of Trumpian showmanship by bringing out a live elephant named Page.

The elephant, one of God’s biggest and most majestic creations, is ripe for metaphor; the phrase “elephant in the room” felt apt after party chair Abraham George was ousted Friday by D’rinda Randall, his former running mate, over intra-party squabbles. But Page, perhaps incredibly aware of where she was, decided to take it another step further by, well, you know what? There’s not a family-friendly way to say it. Page the elephant took a big ole’ piss all over that convention center floor as soon as she walked past the press area.

No matter what political persuasion you belong to, this is incredible content. If you’re a Republican who thinks every member of the press is the devil incarnate, well isn’t that just great timing that Page peed by the journalists’ area? If you’re a Democrat looking at President Donald Trump and the national Republican Party’s bleak midterm prospects, what’s funnier than the literal, in-the-flesh symbol of the Grand Ole Party relieving itself on public infrastructure out of fear of being around hundreds of old white people? God truly does work in mysterious ways.