Offbeat

Folks, we have some revolutionary sociological research to share with you today.

After making a guy dressed as Batman stand around in a subway car, a team of researchers found that the behavior of people around him suddenly improved the moment he showed up. No longer was everyone completely self-involved; with the presence of a superhero, commuters started helping each other more than they would’ve without him around.

Behold: the “Batman effect.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/39429319

At least he didn't try to roll her mummified body in. That's a win, right?

Mauricio Hoyos still remembers the pressure that the jaws of a female Galapagos shark, over 3m (10ft) in length, exerted on his skull.

The animal had lunged at him with astonishing speed, giving him barely enough time to duck his head in a last ditch effort to protect his jugular vein.

"When it closed its jaw, I felt the pressure of the bite, and then, after what I think was a second, it opened it again and it let me go," Hoyos told BBC Mundo from his home in Baja California, Mexico, a little over month after surviving the incident.

Hoyos, a marine biologist with over 30 years of experience studying sharks in their natural habitat, was on a research trip in Costa Rica when he was attacked by the shark in September.

Less than two months on, and still bearing the scars from the attack on his face, he describes his recovery as "incredible" - and says he even hopes to encounter his assailant again.

36-year-old of no fixed address let passengers on and off at bus stops

Beats warm Gatorade any day.

The spy who shagged me?

Mail-order spies: Tech companies employ some of the most robust network security to protect against IP theft. However, no amount of network security protects against theft from within. While corporate espionage is largely digital these days, good old-fashioned infiltration is still in use. China and Russia increasingly use sexual honeypots to compromise employees and gain access to sensitive technology.

According to sources speaking with UK newspaper The Times, foreign operatives from China and Russia are increasingly using "sex warfare" to target American tech professionals. The tactic involves sending attractive women to seduce employees, gain access to trade secrets, and sometimes even marry and have children with their targets. [...]

Spanish police have busted a criminal group dedicated to stealing your seat. Literally.

Spain’s National Police said Wednesday that they had arrested seven people suspected of stealing more than 1,100 chairs from outdoor seating areas at restaurants and bars in Madrid and another nearby municipality in just two months. [...]

Archive/mirror: https://archive.ph/acsZq

A professional tennis player who said a kiss caused a positive methamphetamine drug test was suspended for four years by the International Tennis Integrity Agency on Friday.

Goncalo Oliveira, who represents Venezuela, was provisionally suspended in January following a positive test in November 2024 while competing at the ATP Challenger event in Manzanillo, Mexico. Both his A and B samples contained the banned substance.

The Portuguese-born player denied taking the drug and made his argument at a hearing with an independent tribunal, which decided Oliveira couldn’t prove the drug’s presence was unintentional. [...]

Archive/mirror: https://archive.ph/JEJbf

Archive/mirror: https://archive.ph/sghbn

"What if it shows up in court to fight the ticket, Darryl? What then?"

"Oh geez, I don't know. Don't even think about it."

The 32-year-old Lewis worked as a teacher's assistant at the West Florence High School in Florence County, South Carolina. His duties did not, of course, include spraying anything "designed to imitate fecal odor" into the air. But according to police, Lewis was responsible for "creating a foul smell" at the school—not once, but for weeks. It was so dire that multiple students needed medical attention.

The school's administration suspected a gas leak at first. According to local news reports, in mid-August, the school sent an email to parents letting them know that "gas is only used in our school for heating, in the kitchen for food preparation, and in a few of the science labs. Excluding the kitchen, we have turned off all gas to the building as a precaution. This has allowed us to rule out a gas leak as the source of the odor."

The district brought in plumbers to inspect "all lines above the ceilings as well as the propane tank lines for potential gas leaks." It brought in the local gas utility to test for leaks in "hallways, classrooms, rooftops, science labs, propane tanks, natural gas meters, and floor drains in bathrooms." It hired an environmental consultant to do air quality testing. None of these inspections turned up anything untoward.

Over the next weeks, parents and students began to complain vociferously about getting sick at school. One student told local station WPDE that "every time I go to my second block class, I walk up the stairwell and immediately, teachers are covering their noses and their mouths, coughing because of the smell." Another said, "I got physically sick the other day because of the smell. I feel like I'm going to pass out because I get so lightheaded and so dizzy."

Parents said that they were taking their children for doctors' visits, worried about possible carbon monoxide exposure or about asthma-related difficulties. One parent wrote in a Facebook comment about the whole saga, "My daughter passed out and [was] rushed to the ER."

An angry mom showed up to a September school board meeting and ripped into the district for its lack of responsiveness. "There has been an ongoing smell for the past two, three weeks now," she said. "My son has asthma. This is triggering his asthma... I had to take him to the doctor twice... He's had to use his inhaler multiple times a day."

The school continued to search for answers. According to WMBF News, the district ultimately had "five different entities test for gas, opening several walls, and checking sewer lines."

In the end, though, it may come down to some guy wielding a truly noxious amount of "fart spray."

On September 20, police arrested Lewis for using the spray "on multiple occasions and over time resulting in a disruption of the school," which spent $55,000 trying to track down the problem.

Pretty brazen. She has undoubtedly done this to much less famous people.