Jeers: to the end of one chapter. But then again — think of the opportunity. A tugboat built to resemble children’s television character Theodore Tugboat, for years a fixture on the Halifax waterfront, is now up for sale. A tour company has owned the vessel for almost 20 years. But fans of the show — which ran on CBC from 1993 to 2001 — are now in their 30s, so some of the tugboat lustre has rubbed off. The price tag? A mere $495,000. The current owners suggest the vessel could be purchased to become a unique Airbnb rental. We disagree. That would technically be a Waterbnb, wouldn’t it?
Cheers: to science. Now, the Trump White House apparently may not like science very much, but who can argue with such careful wonders as the scientific paper “Modelling the maximal active consumption rate and its plasticity in humans — perspectives from hot dog eating competitions” in the journal Biology Letters? Author James Smoliga writes, “Gut capacity and plasticity have been examined across multiple species, but are not typically explored in the context of extreme human performance. Here, I estimate the theoretical maximal active consumption rate (ACR) in humans, using 39 years of historical data from the annual Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest.” In other words, let’s create a mathematical model to determine the maximum number of hot dogs and buns a person could cram into themselves. The answer? 84-ish. But beware: “The large boluses of food ingested by competitive eaters remain in the digestive tract for days before excretion, and severe, self-resolving gastric distension has been reported in a competitive eater.”
Jeers: to one being born every minute. Last week, there was a huge amount of attention focused on a hack of social media platform Twitter, where 130 high-profile accounts were hijacked in a crude scam. All posted similar Tweets offering quick and easy money. They looked like this, on Apple’s Twitter account: “We are giving back to our community. We support Bitcoin and we believe you should too! All Bitcoin sent to our address below will be sent back to you doubled! Only going on for the next 30 minutes.” As many have pointed out, the security breach is a serious one, especially given the fact that political leaders often now speak first through social media. But what few are asking is just who would fall for such a ham-handed scheme? “We want to give you money, so first, send us some money.” Seriously? And it managed to take in US$120,000 during the short time before it was stopped? If you’re one of the credulous who fell for it, please contact us about our great deals on Florida swampland purchases. (And before we explain just how great the offer truly is, please send us the special and required non-refundable Bitcoin finder’s fee…)