A homeless man has undergone surgery and is in serious condition after a city cleanup truck in Dublin grabbed and lifted the man's tent with a mechanical claw in the middle of the day – while he was sleeping inside of it.

Apparently, the city wanted to "tidy up" the canal, and decided to clear the homeless tents alongside it. They supposedly checked inside the tents before snagging them, but even if that's true, they obviously missed this one.

According to CNN:

The unnamed man was injured when workers from Waterways Ireland, the body responsible for maintaining Ireland's rivers and canals, cleared a walkway along a canal in the Irish capital.

"A man (age unknown) was sleeping in his tent when it was being removed in an attempt to tidy the canal walk way," local police said in a statement. "The man received injuries during this incident and was removed to St. Vincent's Hospital where he remains in serious condition but stable."

According to Dublin City Council, the incident happened on Tuesday afternoon, when workers "were removing tents that were placed in a precarious and dangerous location."

A spokesman for Waterways Ireland said the body is "cooperating fully" with police investigating the incident, adding that "our thoughts are very much with the individual who was involved."

This isn't the first time something like this has happened. In December 2017 a homeless person was nearly killed after being picked up and tossed into a San Diego trash truck, as told by The San Diego Union-Tribune. Read the rest

If you're looking for a fun (but dangerous - wear gloves and eye protection!!) science experiment to do at home, here's a good one. Simply stir drain cleaner (98% sulfuric acid) into some sugar, and watch as it turns into a black monstrous blob that pushes its way out of the glass.

The science behind it? From ThoughtCo:

The sulfuric acid removes water from the sugar in a highly exothermic reaction, releasing heat, steam, and sulfur oxide fumes. Aside from the sulfurous odor, the reaction smells a lot like caramel. The white sugar turns into a black carbonized tube that pushes itself out of the beaker.

Sugar is a carbohydrate, so when you remove the water from the molecule, you're basically left with elemental carbon. The dehydration reaction is a type of elimination reaction.

C12H22O11 (sugar) + H2SO4 (sulfuric acid) → 12 C (carbon) + 11 H2O (water) + mixture water and acid

Although the sugar is dehydrated, the water isn't 'lost' in the reaction. Some of it remains as a liquid in the acid. Since the reaction is exothermic, much of the water is boiled off as steam.

An explosive fight erupted at a UK Turkish cafe called Ken's Kebabs, with kicks and objects being thrown around. But that didn't stop this 52-year-old man from eating his meal while calmly taking in the scenery. Must be some damn good kebabs. Read the rest

A Kansas gentleman has asked a court in Iowa for a legal sword fight – or trial by combat – with his ex-wife. According to the Des Moines Register, 40-year-old David Ostrom claims that she has legally destroyed him, and after hearing that duels have never actually been banned in the United States, thought it would be a good way to settle things once and for all.

"To this day, trial by combat has never been explicitly banned or restricted as a right in these United States," he told the court. But he made it clear he would need 12 weeks "lead time" to get the Japanese katanas he has in mind. He also kindly invited his wife's attorney Matthew Hudson to the duel, who could either be a spectator or stand in for the lady.

According the Des Moines Register, "Hudson argued that because a duel could end in death, such ramifications likely outweigh those of property tax and custody issues."

Image: CC0 – pxfuel Read the rest

As people were boarding a bus in Xining, China, a large sinkhole opened up, causing the bus to nosedive into the deep pit. Tragically, six people died and at least 16 others were injured.

According to BBC:

The incident occurred on Monday evening outside a hospital in Xining, the capital of Qinghai province.

CCTV footage showed an explosion inside the sinkhole shortly after the bus and bystanders fell inside on Monday evening...

The footage from the latest incident shows the moment people waiting at a bus stop are forced to flee as the ground underneath the bus starts to cave in.

A number of people gather to try to rescue the bus passengers, but are engulfed by the sinkhole as it suddenly widens.

The sinkhole was 32 feet in diameter. Read the rest

A water main went haywire in New York around 5am this morning, creating this wet scene in the Upper West Side.

According to CNN:

It caused significant delays on the 1, 2 and 3 subway lines and street closures on Broadway from 72nd Street to 61st Street. Emergency crews are on the scene working to repair the problem, officials said, and the water was shut off around 8 a.m.

It likely will take days to complete work and restore streets, said Vincent Sapienza, Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection.

Way before Steve Carell was a 40-Year-Old Virgin or a huge star as Michael Scott on The Office, he was a working actor just like everyone else, doing children's theater as well as this Brown's Chicken TV commercial. More surprising than how young he looked at age 27 is how olive and brown this commercial was – colors expected from 1970s television but not so much in 1989. Read the rest

A batch of internal emails and other communications by Boeing employees were released to Congress on Thursday as part of a 100-plus page document, according to CNN, and what these employees said about Boeing’s 737 Max back in 2017 and 2018 is terrifying. (It wasn’t even a year after these communications that two new 737 Max planes crashed within five months of each other, killing 346 people total.)

For example, in April 2017, one employee said the Max was “designed by clowns, who in turn are supervised by monkeys,” and referred to the plane as having a “piss poor design.”

And in February 2018, from one employee to another: "Honesty is the only way in this job — integrity when lives are on the line on the aircraft and training programs shouldn't be taken with a pinch of salt. Would you put your family on a Max simulator trained aircraft? I wouldn't."

To which the other employee said, “No.”

Three months later, an employee wrote about some other mishap Boeing was dealing with: "I really would struggle to defend the [simulator] in front of the FAA next week,” while another employee wrote: “I still haven't been forgiven by god for the covering up I did last year."

From CNN:

The new jet was intended to be similar enough to require only the tablet-based training to bring pilots up to speed on the differences between the old model and the new one. One email included in Thursday's collection of documents from Boeing's chief technical pilot made it clear how crucial it was to the company that the simulator not be required.

Millions of animals have been hurt or killed in Australia's devastating months-long fire season, but firefighter Sam Mcglone is able to save at least one of them – a baby kangaroo hiding under a log. Read the rest

If emojis had sounds, David Lap nails them with his guitar. He "impersonates" all kinds of emojis, including a UFO, cruise ship, monkey, ping pong game, T-Rex, red heart, and many others.

Here's another one of his videos where he imitates musical instruments (e.g., flute, harmonica, bagpipes) with his violin. Amazing stuff!

Read the rest

When a woman heard someone at her neighbor's house repeatedly screaming "Let me out!" she did what every good samaritan would do and promptly called 9-1-1. Read the rest

On Thursday, lucky Walmart shoppers in Edinboro, Pennsylvania were treated to live bedbugs, which were checking out their new home in the men's changing room. Some were roaming around freely while others were living in a pill bottle that someone had placed in a boy's jacket offered by the store.

According to CNN:

On Friday, health safety company Ecolab confirmed that the insects were bedbugs. An Ecolab employee also reported seeing bedbugs crawling around the men's changing rooms the same day, according to police.

A Walmart employee later found a second closed pill bottle containing dead bedbugs in the men's department, police said.

"A third-party pest management service has visited the store and we are working with them to assess next steps," the Walmart spokesperson said. "In the meantime, we have blocked off the impacted area.

State Police are investigating the matter and looking for the person or people responsible, they said."

Bedbugs are tenacious little critters, and don't always clear out after one fumigation (I know this because I had friends who had to move out of their apartment after two failed attempts to get rid of the blood suckers). So it might a while before Walmart sees the last of them.

Image: By CDC/ Harvard University, Dr. Gary Alpert; Dr. Harold Harlan; Richard Pollack. Photo Credit: Piotr Naskrecki - http://phil.cdc.gov/phil, Public Domain, Link Read the rest

Jordan Peele fans (Get Out, Us) rejoice – he has just produced a new Amazon series, Hunters, which comes out sometime in 2020. As an added bonus, it stars Al Pacino. Read the rest

This Coke can disappearing act is a fun experiment that reveals the hidden layer inside the soda's packaging.

According to MEL Science, who posted their own version of this experiment in May, Coke is packaged in two layers of protective material, and only one of them can withstand drain cleaner.

This or­di­nary alu­minum can is con­ceal­ing a de­vi­ous se­cret – it is cov­ered with a pro­tec­tive lay­er not only on the out­side, but on the in­side as well! When we re­move its paint coat­ing, we ex­pose the alu­minum, which eas­i­ly re­acts with a drain clean­er that con­tains an al­ka­line com­po­nent. But even when the alu­minum has dis­solved com­plete­ly, the drink will not leak out. There is a sec­ond ma­te­ri­al in­side the can – a lay­er of plas­tic that keeps the drink it­self from in­ter­act­ing with the alu­minum.

If you try it yourself, MEL Science adds a safety precaution: "Wear pro­tec­tive gloves, glass­es, and a mask. Work in a well-ven­ti­lat­ed area. Per­form this ex­per­i­ment un­der adult su­per­vi­sion only!"

MEL Science's version of the experiment:

Read the rest

Crazed Indiana officer Daryl Jones was fired after bullying two black men for "acting suspicious" after they bought a bunch of goods from Nordstrom Rack.

The unhinged officer came up to the men, who were sitting in their car in front of the department store, and asked for their ID. When the Nordstrom customers repeatedly asked why, the officer's only response was that they were acting suspicious. When they asked for the officer's name, he wouldn't give it to them. When they questioned his behavior, he said, "I got my rights to do anything I want to do, I’m a police officer."

Finally the now ex-officer called for backup, who realized what a jerk the officer was and let the guys go. Good thing the guys videotaped the incident (things get going at 1:15). Two hours after the chief constable watched it, Jones was fired. A refreshing ending to a common horror story.

According to NBC:

In the video posted to YouTube on Nov. 13, the description says the two men first noticed the officer watching them while they were at a Nordstrom Rack store in the Castleton neighborhood of Indianapolis...

According to the description of the 17-minute video posted a day after the incident, which has been viewed more than 300,000 times as of Tuesday morning, the men started filming when they began to exit the parking lot and the officer screamed he was going to run their plates.

"He watched us buy everything, and then followed us to the car," the YouTube video description says...The

Trump Junior retweeted an article from the Federalist this morning called “Let’s Stop Pretending Every Impeachment Witness Is A Selfless Hero" about National Security Council Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who received a purple heart medal in 2004. Yep, from the boy (and son of Bone Spurs) who fled from his own book signing at UCLA on Sunday because he was afraid that his own fans were mad at him.

Of course it didn't take long for the Twitterverse to set things straight...

This coming from a person who had to run out of a book signing because people were being mean.

— Steve Timmons (@SteveTimmons15) November 19, 2019

The boy whose family NEVER wore the uniform is attacking a guy with a Purple Heart.

— CHIDI®️ (@ChidiNwatu) November 19, 2019

How long did you serve in the armed forces?

— WarMonitor (@TheWarMonitor) November 19, 2019

From the family that thinks war criminals are heroes..

— Merrill⭐️ (@MerrillLynched) November 19, 2019

Vindeman only has a purple heart. If he were a real patriot, he'd have bone spurs. Right?

— Jesse Ferguson (@JesseFFerguson) November 19, 2019

Daddy will never truly love you

— Æch253 (@Aech253) November 19, 2019

Via HuffPost and Raw Story

Image: by DonkeyHotey - Donald Trump Jr. - Caricature, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link Read the rest

Nandi Bushell channels drummer David Grohl as she drums to Nirvana's "In Bloom." Read the rest