Goat's headbutt frenzy causes thousands of dollars in damage.

---

Grant
Darwin NT

Oh, ________,
It has just been announced that the 2027 Tour de France, Stage 2, is going to come past my front door, as it is to climb the 347m Cote de Waddington Fell.

https://www.letour.fr/en/the-race/grands-departs/grand-depart-2027

Oh, ________,
It has just been announced that the 2027 Tour de France, Stage 2, is going to come past my front door, as it is to climb the 347m Cote de Waddington Fell.

https://www.letour.fr/en/the-race/grands-departs/grand-depart-2027

Sounds like a good time for a holiday, somewhere else...

---

Grant
Darwin NT

It did it's job.

---

Grant
Darwin NT

It did it's job.

It misses some wear indicator for remaining 'brakepad lining'.

Article is from September, 2025 but I just heard about this today...
Dystopian Toilets in China Make Users Watch Ads for Toilet Paper

China’s latest technological advancement in public restrooms has sparked outrage and disbelief across social media platforms. New “smart” toilet paper dispensers installed throughout the country are requiring users to either watch advertisements or pay a small fee before receiving toilet paper, creating what many are calling a deeply unsettling example of commercialized basic necessities.

Viral videos circulating on Chinese social media show the dispensers in action, with users forced to scan QR codes with their smartphones and sit through promotional content before the machines release a single strip of paper. According to reports, people can choose between viewing an advertisement or paying 0.5 yuan – roughly seven cents – per strip of toilet paper.

The public reaction has been swift and overwhelmingly critical. Social media users have expressed their frustration with the system, with one person writing, “I’m walking with my own paper everywhere just in case.”

Well, that's better than having to pay for it. It's common in Mexico to be required to pay for toilet paper. It's usually not much, around 5 pesos, which is around a quarter US. So if traveling in Mexico, always carry some change in your pocket.

A 13-year-old boy has been hailed as a hero after swimming 4 kilometres through rough waters for help after his mother and two siblings were swept out to sea off Western Australia's South West.

The family were holidaying at Quindalup, 250 kilometres south of Perth, when their inflatable paddleboards and kayak were pushed offshore by strong winds on Friday evening.

The 13-year-old tried to paddle back to shore on his kayak before it took on water in rough seas.
He then swam for four more hours to shore and successfully raised the alarm.

Naturaliste Marine Rescue commander Paul Bresland said the 47-year-old mother, her 12-year-old son and eight-year-old daughter were eventually found at 8:30pm, clinging to a paddleboard after drifting about 14km offshore.
Mr Bresland said the efforts of the 13-year-old, who continued to swim to shore through choppy waters, were "superhuman".

I seriously doubt i would have been able to do it.
He's one tough little bugger, an amazing effort.

---

Grant
Darwin NT

Naturaliste Marine Rescue commander Paul Bresland said the 47-year-old mother, her 12-year-old son and eight-year-old daughter were eventually found at 8:30pm, clinging to a paddleboard after drifting about 14km offshore.

I remember the early sunset in Perth due to no daylight savings time in Western Australia and its mid-latitudes:

Quindalup, WA: Feb 03: Sunset: 07:22pm

Unbelievable, It's dark at 8:30pm.

---

I think that is Clark's third law.

The laws are:

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Shermer's Last Law

Any sufficiently advanced extra-terrestrial intelligence is indistinguishable from God.

Any ETI that we might encounter would not be at our level of culture, science, and technology, nor would they be behind us. How far ahead of us would they be? If they were only a little ahead of us on an evolutionary time scale, they would be light years ahead of us technologically, because cultural evolution is much more rapid than biological evolution. God is typically described by Western religions as omniscient and omnipotent. Since we are far from the mark on these traits, how could we possibly distinguish a God who has them absolutely, from an ETI who has them in relatively (to us) copious amounts? Thus, we would be unable to distinguish between absolute and relative omniscience and omnipotence. But if God were only relatively more knowing and powerful than us, then by definition it would be an ETI!

---

If I remember correctly, the Spanish conquistadors in the New World had been perceived as gods by the natives in the beginning, before they resorted to brutal oppression and exploitation as soon as they could assemble enough troops from more ships.

This evening Matt Weston (UK) won the skeleton contest in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo. Matt dominated the contest, achieving a new track record in each of his four runs. He already dominated this year's world cup season.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/articles/cgml91gx27go

He achieved the first gold medal for the UK in a men's contest since the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia and became the first Briton ever, who won the men's skeleton contest since its introduction at the 1928 Winter Olympics in Sankt Moritz, Switzerland.

German skeleton racers from Saxony and Thuringia took silver and bronze medals.

Although... already in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, the Briton Amy Wiliams won the woman's skeleton contest, back then also relegating two female German skeleton racers to 2nd resp. 3rd place.

In the 2014 and 2018 winter Olympics the Briton Lizzy Yarnold won two consecutive gold medals in the woman's skeleton.

There's something special with Britons and skeleton...

Fun fact: It had been British soldiers on vacation in Switzerland who in 1882 constructed the first curved toboggan track and who invented the skeleton sports; back then called "Cresta", a crazy adventure so different from Alpine winter sports, the kind only the British could invent.

Ultimately, skeleton training is tricky, particularly for a British athlete. With no ice tracks in Britain...

Well deserved Matt. Congratulations.

In Olympic ice track competitions usually the Germans win. Unless some Britons are competing...

Weston & Stoecker win GB's second gold of day

They've done it again, this evening. In the mixed team competition in the 2026 Olympic skeleton, Tabitha Stoecker (UK) and Matt Weston (UK) took the Gold medals, with a new track record, of course... ahead of two German teams who achieved Silver and Bronze medals. Britons Freya Tarbit and Marcus Wyatt followed on 4th place.

Why are Team GB so good at skeleton?

No ice track, and yet the most successful nation in Olympic skeleton history.

Make it make sense.

Weston thinks the fact Britain has achieved such success with no track is probably "quite infuriating" for other nations.

Marvelous. Congratulations!

Btw. there are FOUR long ice tracks for olympic athletes all over Germany. Really expensive infrastructure. The first ice track on earth with a cryogenic cooling plant: opened in Königssee, Bavaria, in 1968.

You never know what you might stumble upon when fossil hunting on the beach...
Prosthetic leg returned to owner after months adrift

A woman whose prosthetic leg was swept out to sea 10 months ago has been reunited with the limb after it washed up on a beach in East Yorkshire.

Brenda 69, whose leg was amputated after a car crash, was about to set off for a swim in Bridlington in April when a rogue wave swept it away.

It was spotted by fossil hunter Lizi on the Holderness coast - 12 miles (19km) away from where it was lost - on Monday.

The leg was returned on Saturday by Lizi, with Brenda calling it an "emotional" meeting between the pair. "I think I've got a friend for life there," Lizi, 38, added.

The £2,000 custom-made titanium blade was lost before her first ever open-water swim, with a wave knocking her off her feet as she entered the sea.

Brenda said: "I just thought, where has my leg gone?"

Flamborough Flippers members helped her search the area, but the leg had disappeared.

Sarah Miles, one of the other swimmers, said: "We got in the water and a rogue wave came.

"Brenda fell and as I went to grab the leg a wave came and took it."