https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodical_cicadas

Insect that lives underground for 13 or 17 years (which you might recognize as prime numbers, possibly to mess with predators but the scientific consensus seems to be "who the **** knows") after which they emerge for a 2 month mating frenzy, after which they die.

This might snap my brain if I ever saw it IRL.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London...e_Havasu_City)

I've heard about the story about that London bridge but never thought it was real, but I guess so... wow.

I've seen the bridge! It's a little out of place.

What? trying to make that a tourist attraaction... No wonder Americans seem to love London.

List of bridges in London

Interesting article

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanilla_Ice

Vanilla Ice... yes, the rapper. Someone and I were talking about the guy and he told me that Vanilla Ice is some big shot jet ski dealer. I looked this up to confirm / deny.

Some interesting highlights:
Championship motocross racer. Broke his ankle and started working on dancing and rapping.

Got his first regular gig at City Lights after doing an Open Mic. Ended up opening for a who's who for the time: N.W.A, Public Enemy, The D.O.C., Tone Lōc, 2 Live Crew, Paula Abdul, Sinbad and MC Hammer

Got stabbed 5 times and then signed a record deal. Ended up

To the Extreme became the fastest selling hiphop album of all time...

Suge Night wanted him really bad:
Following the success of "Ice Ice Baby", record producer Suge Knight and two bodyguards arrived at The Palm in West Hollywood, where Ice was eating. After shoving Ice's bodyguards aside, Knight and his own bodyguards sat down in front of Ice, staring at him before finally asking "How you doin'?"[28] Similar incidents were repeated on several occasions. Eventually, Knight showed up at Ice's hotel suite on the fifteenth floor of the Bel Age Hotel, accompanied by a member of the Oakland Raiders.[28] According to Ice, Knight took him out on the balcony by himself, and implied that he would throw him off the balcony unless he signed the publishing rights to the song over to Knight; Knight used Ice's money to help fund Death Row Records

you know, he fell off the charts...

Ended up becoming the 6th best jet ski racer in the world.

Regrets the Vanilla Ice image, but doesn't regret the music he made.

Nothing about the Under Pressure controversy, though I guess it was remixed later on.

some gems in there

Later in 1999, MTV asked Vanilla Ice to join their cast to "retire" the music video for "Ice Ice Baby" on the MTV special 25 Lame, in which Ice himself was asked to destroy the video's master tape. When Ice was given a baseball bat, he ended up destroying not only the film but the show's entire set as well


On September 15, 2013, Vanilla Ice performed at the halftime show of a Houston Texans game. Houston went on to lose the remaining fourteen games of the season, leading some players to blame Vanilla Ice for the losing streak.

In February 2015, Ice was arrested and charged with burglary residence and grand theft after he allegedly stole furniture, a pool heater, bicycles and other items from a Florida home he believed to be vacant.[114] He later accepted a plea deal which would result in the charges being dropped following his completion of 100 hours of community service and payment of restitution to the estate of the homeowner.

Good to see the Devil at the Tour de France today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didi_Senft

I can vividly remember during the summer of 2004 not being able to work from my home because the sound of cicadas in my backyard was indeed defeaningly loud.

Mr Big

No, not the American hard rock supergroup

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Bi...29?wprov=sfla1

Sounds like a load of effort. Maybe the RCMP have a bit of extra time on their hands, and are just into amateur dramatics.

That sounds like double jeopardy. Couldn't get the perp for the original case, but now able to charge him for all the stuff they did in the gang, right?

I think it's entrapment if they charge him for other stuff.

E.g. They give him supposedly fake passprts to sell to another cop. It's illegal, but he's not doing it if they aren't helping him.

(going through my head on people who might be in my life now and are nice to me for no reason that are really cops)

This isn't quite the same, but a bit similar:


Autistic teen becomes friends with an undercover cop then purchases weed to "sell" to the cop (cop literally forced him to take money) despite having never sold drugs before. He isn't so much disturbed by the charges as he is by the fact that his best friend betrayed him:


Couldn't find the article, but recently there was a kid who was forced to go undercover for possession of drugs (cops lied and said he would be get a much longer sentence than he actually faced) and he ended up getting killed after the people he was selling to find a wire on him.

Biggest case is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Rachel_Hoffman

cliffs: she gets arrested for having ecstacy and pot. Police tell her to take
$13,000 to purchase a gun and drugs from some drug dealers. Drug dealers change the location (presumably they didn't actually plan to sell her anything, just rob her) and police lose track of her. She is found shot after the drug dealers found her wire.

Yeah, probably, but it is strange. If the perp is found innocent, he blatantly showed the capacity and drive to break any number of laws. This is something they do for a year or so, right? Entrapment or not, there is something on the record.

Can always look to Florida for strange stories. Gosh, that's insane.

What's the story behind the grand theft?! Like...why?

Double jeopardy is something a little different. It refers to a second shot of liability for the same set of facts. What you're talking about is a different set of facts.

yeah but surely just because new facts come to light, doesn't mean you get to be re-tried?

like if they found the OJ murder weapon, I don't think the juice could be re-tried right?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Le_Roux

He created E4M, an open-source free Windows disk encryption software program, in 1999, and is a suspected creator of the open-source TrueCrypt, which is based on E4M's code.[5] Le Roux is currently in US custody for ordering the assassinations of six people, selling United States technology to Iran, and sales of illegal goods, including drugs.

correct

Whoa. Never heard of him. Crazy.

Could he be retried on lesser charges?

Amazing read. I'd say it could be a book, but that article covers it all.