[prokroustis]

ROMAN ARMY CAMPS IDENTIFIED IN NORTHERN ARABIA USING GOOGLE EARTH



Researchers from the University of Oxford’s School of Archaeology have identified three Roman fortified camps in northern Arabia using satellite images from Google Earth.
The discovery is part of a remote sensing survey published in the journal Antiquity, providing new evidence to suggest an undocumented military campaign across southeast Jordan into Saudi Arabia during Rome’s takeover of the Nabataean Kingdom in AD 106.

The distance between the camps varies from 37 to 44 kilometres from each other, suggesting that they were part of a transit route for cavalry units that may have used camels to cross the harsh terrain.

On the basis of the distance between the camps, there is also a suggestion that another camp may have been located further west at the later Umayyad fort and well station at Bayir.

Dr Michael Fradley from the University of Oxford said: “We are almost certain they were built by the Roman army, given the typical playing card shape of the enclosures with opposing entrances along each side. The only notable difference between them is that the westernmost camp is significantly larger than the two camps to the east.”

According to the researchers, the camps would have been built as temporary defended stations when marching on campaigns. Roman forts and fortresses show how Rome held a province, but temporary camps reveal how they acquired it in the first place.

“The level of preservation of the camps is really remarkable, particularly as they may have only been used for a matter of days or weeks…They went along a peripheral caravan route linking Bayir and Dûmat al-Jandal. This suggests a strategy to bypass the more used route down the Wadi Sirhan, adding an element of surprise to the attack. It is amazing that we can see this moment in time played out at a landscape scale,” added Dr Fradley.

[Misstee]

Guide spots rare pink pachyderm in South Africa


By Mohammed Kathrada, LatestSightings.com






A rare pink elephant was spotted with its mother at MalaMala Game Reserve in South Africa. Photo courtesy of LatestSightings.com


Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter

A pink elephant goes for an afternoon swim with its mother and herd, and despite its unique color, the herd passionately cares for it.

Jaco Joubert, a guide at Mala Mala Game Reserve in South Africa, captured the cute scene and shared it with LatestSightings.com.

"It was late afternoon when we headed down to the river to see what we could find. Expecting to find regulars at the water's edge, cooling down from the day's heat, we were pleasantly surprised to find a rather unique little creature. A pink elephant!"

Before we delve into why this elephant calf has pink skin, let's talk about elephants and their skin. Elephants have very thick skin, which can be up to 2.5 centimeters thick in some areas. Their skin is also very tough and rough, which helps protect them from predators and the harsh African sun.

The reason for the calf's pink skin is due to a condition called leucism. Leucism is a genetic mutation that causes a loss of pigmentation in an animal's skin, hair, or feathers. This loss of pigmentation can result in white, pale, or patchy skin, hair, or feathers, as well as other abnormalities.

Leucism has caused its skin to have a pinkish hue. This is because without the pigmentation, the calf's skin is more translucent, and the blood vessels and capillaries underneath the skin are more visible, giving it a pinkish tint.

"The little calf, despite its strange appearance, seemed to have been fitting in with the rest of the herd very well. This particular afternoon, the entire herd entered the river to play and cool down. The little elephant, in spite of its tiny size, joined in on the fun."

While this condition is quite rare, it's not harmful to the elephant calf. In fact, it's believed that the pink skin may even provide some protection from the harsh African sun. Because the skin is more translucent, it allows more light to pass through, which can help regulate the calf's body temperature.

[lush]

School principal unlocks dumpster, finds bear inside
May 1, 2023 / 5:39 PM*



May 1 (UPI) -- A school principal in West Virginia received a scare Monday morning when he unlocked a dumpster outside of the building and came face to face with a bear.

A video posted to Facebook by the Nicholas County Board of Education shows Zela Elementary School Principal James Marsh removing the latch from a dumpster outside the school Monday morning.

The footage shows Marsh removing the latch when the lid to the trash receptacle abruptly swings open and a bear appears from inside.

Marsh, and another employee exiting a door just as the bear appears, are seen running for safety as the bear emerges and runs in the opposite direction.

"Who says principals don't deserve hazard pay?" the Facebook post said.

Marsh said the bear must have managed to squeeze past the dumpster latch to get into the container and then found itself unable to escape once the lid closed behind it.

[johngriffen]

I sometimes get REALLY DEPRESSED reviewing the news these days.
It's always about a global pandemic threatening life as we know it,
protests around the world, stupid politicians, natural disasters,
or some other really bad story.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Welcome to The mobi weekly news magazine
IN OTHER NEWS
TUESDAY MAY 2
What is it?
Here is your chance to become an "ACE REPORTER" for our weekly news magazine.
It is your job to fine weird, funny or "good feel" stories from around the world and share them with our readers in our weekly magazine

How do you play?
Just post a story that you have come across that made you smile, laugh, feel good...
BUT NOTHING DEPRESSING

EXAMPLE POST

​Naked sunbather chases wild boar through park after it steals his laptop bag

A naked sunbather was seen chasing wild boar through a park after it stole his laptop bag.
Amusing photographs from Germany show the man running after the animal to try and claim the plastic bag back.
But the cheeky boar and its two piglets appear to be too quick for the sunbather, who can't keep up with their speedy little trotters.
As the incident unfolds, groups of friends and family sat on the grass watch on and laugh.
Heads are seen turning in surprise and amusement in the hilarious photographs.
The incident happened at Teufelssee Lake - a bathing spot in the Grunwell Forest in Berlin, Germany.

Rules:
Each Edition of IN OTHER NEWS will be open for 7 days...
You can post as many stories as you like, but you will only get paid for One Story in any 24 hour period
So in other words, you can only earn WRZ$ once a day.
Each news day will start when I post announcing it
OR at:
9:00 AM CHICAGO TIME (UTC -6)
3:00 PM GMT (UTC -0)
on those days I space out and forget to post or can't due to Real Life
Stories may be accompanied with images - but No big images, please! 800x800 pixels wide maximum
Videos are allowed, but please keep them short, and post a short summary for those that don't like to click on videos
No Duplicate stories - Where a post has been edited resulting in duplicates, then the last one in time gets disallowed.
And please limit this to reasonably family friendly stories

Reward:
Each news story posted that I feel is acceptable (must be a real story, too few words or simply a headline are not considered acceptable) will earn you 50 WRZ$
If you post multiple stories on any given day, you will only earn 50 WRZ$ for the first story of the Day
All payments will be made at THE END of the weekly news cycle.
Special Bonus - Each week I will award "The Pulitzer Prize" for the best story of the week
The weekly winner of the "The Pulitzer Prize" will receive a 100 WRZ$ bonus
It's just my personal opinion, so my judgement is final

So help bring GOOD news to the members of mobi, and join our reporting team...

IN OTHER NEWS

[ozswede]

Male bald eagle adopts a rock, then an eaglet

Their privacy is a priority, so curtains have been erected to shield them from an adoring public. But select reporters were allowed to open them — just a crack — to take a peek at the hottest couple in America right now.

One of the duo, Murphy, sits motionless on a perch, while a few feet below him a fluffy grey creature lurches clumsily around a square wooden nest that's lined with mulch and astroturf.

The unlikely pair — a 31-year-old bachelor Bald Eagle and an endearing orphan eaglet — have, during the past few weeks, become avian superstars, their every move followed avidly on social media (one tweet got 4.5 million views).

For Murphy, it's been a rollercoaster ride from mockery to soaring acclaim.

Back in the 1990s, he was taken as an injured chick to the World Bird Sanctuary in Valley Park, Missouri, from Oklahoma, some 400 miles away.


Bald eagle Murphy, 31 has become a proud foster father to an injured baby eagle

The Sanctuary treats more than 700 birds, mainly raptors, each year and houses some 200 it is unable to release.

His broken leg soon healed but, while learning to fly, Murphy broke a wing, permanently damaging it, so now he can never be released into the wild.

Nor has he had much luck in love. Housed with two females and despite building a nest — a move sanctuary staff described as an obvious come-on — Murphy never managed to mate with either. But his brooding instinct was so strong he took to treating a small rock as an unhatched egg and trying to incubate it. He and his 'rock baby' inevitably caught the media's attention and they became an internet sensation.


The stone Murphy mistook for an egg in March

At the time, his behaviour was so bizarre that staff put up a sign to reassure visitors. Normally mild-mannered, Murphy became so aggressively protective of the rock — he would charge screeching when any other eagles approached, forcing them to flee and huddle in a corner — that earlier this month he was moved to his own enclosure.

And so it was that Murphy seemed destined to be remembered as America's most tragic bird: an eagle who couldn't fly or mate, yet who was desperate for offspring of his own to nurture.

But now tragedy has turned to joy with the arrival of a chick — known as Eaglet 23-126 — badly in need of a parental figure. And Murphy has risen spectacularly to the challenge. Images and videos of him tending to the chick have gone viral. As one fan enthused: 'He's not the stepdad, he's the dad that stepped up.'

Murphy has amazed sanctuary staff and ornithologists by not only taking on the role of a mother eagle but doing so to a chick that isn't even his.

Dawn Griffard, chief executive of the Sanctuary, says Murphy may well believe the rock he so devotedly kept warm has now hatched into the chick he's raising.


The arrival of a chick — known as Eaglet 23-126 — badly in need of a parental figure gave Murphy the chance to become a father

Ms Griffard says the team felt strongly that any adult male eagle willing to incubate a rock might prove at least as diligent when it came to fostering a real baby bird.

The chick was only a week or two old when it was brought to the sanctuary last month after high winds ripped its nest out of a tree.

Its nest mate was killed but, bruised and battered, 23-126 —whose gender is so far indiscernible — was found helpless on the ground. When it joined Murphy in his enclosure four weeks ago, keepers initially placed it in a cage until they were sure he wouldn't treat it as a threat and attack.

Now released, it's more of a galumphing adolescent than a cute little baby, having gone from 10.5 ounces to 60 ounces in less than a month.

Murphy took an immediate interest. And one morning when keepers checked to make sure both had eaten (they get one meal a day at 9.30am), they noticed that while Murphy's fish had been torn apart, the chick's food was untouched. At the same time, the chick's crop — an area under its chin where food is stored — was full, indicating that Murphy had fed him.

Baby eagles learn by watching adults — and Murphy's charge has since copied him not only feeding, but also preening his feathers.

Murphy has also been defending the chick. On the rare occasions staff have had to enter the enclosure, he quickly moved to put himself between the keepers and the baby bird.

Fans urged the sanctuary to call the chick 'Rocky', but it's considered bad luck to name an animal when the hope is to release it — which is the plan for 23-126 — into the wild at some point.

But making the chick wilderness-ready is a tricky business. It's crucial in these first weeks that the chick 'imprints' on an adult eagle rather than a human, hence the white curtains around the pairs' enclosure so that the chick doesn't see staff providing food, which is delivered by chute straight into the enclosure.

The odd couple are not on public display — the sanctuary is keeping fans updated with regular images and videos on its Facebook page — so it is a rare honour to be allowed to watch them together in their 34ft by 8ft birdhouse.


Fans urged the sanctuary to call the chick 'Rocky', but it's considered bad luck to name an animal when the hope is to release it

Murphy's caring instincts have been a huge and heartening surprise, says the sanctuary, his embarrassing days incubating his 'rock baby' now largely forgotten. The sanctuary has described the bond between the two birds as 'too much for the heart to handle'. But, of course, there will come a time when this pair must part.

Kira says that moment will arrive in some five to seven weeks when the chick is starting to fly. By then, Murphy may be tired of his needy companion anyway. Parent eagles start ignoring chicks when they feel it's time they left the nest.

Murphy’s parenting has gone viral on Twitter, with thousands of likes and nearly 250,000 views as of Friday.

You can also see a video of the couple here.

(See... ozswede can do the warm, fuzzy stories)

Woman has 'loud and full body orgasm' during packed classical music concert
Concertgoers who turned out to the LA Philharmonic's performance of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony claim to have heard a woman climax at the sound of the orchestra playing



Listening to music triggers the pleasure centre in the brain to make you feel happy - but one woman allegedly experienced this on another level. Concertgoers at the LA Philharmonic's performance of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony claim a woman experienced a "loud and full body orgasm" during the show.

Since the performance, an audio clip claiming to capture the woman's climatic moment has been circulating on social media. When listening to the seven-second clip, a woman is heard groaning as the music comes to a natural pause before promptly restarting.

Molly Grant, who was sitting near the woman, told The Los Angeles Times: "Everyone kind of turned to see what was happening. I saw the girl after it had happened, and I assume that she had an orgasm because she was heavily breathing.

"Her partner was smiling and looking at her - like in an effort to not shame her. It was quite beautiful."

Adding to this, one user said on Twitter: "[I] went to see LA Philharmonic play Thomasades and Tchaikovsky fifth last night...

"A woman in the audience had loud and full body orgasm during the fifth second movement.

"[The] band politely carried on. Props to LA Philharmonic (and Pytor Ilyich) for bringing it on."

However, not everybody was convinced the woman climaxed during the show, instead putting it down to a possible medical emergency.

In response, another user said: "I was there. This is not what happened. The poor woman had a breakdown of some sort.

"Speaking to Elim after the concert (we are friends since our time together at U of M) and we were all worried it was a medical emergency. Please have more respect."

However, the user argued back: "I ran all possible scenarios, Tourette's even.

"I was in close proximity and had no less than eight other friends coincidentally attending - all had reached a similar conclusion.

"She remained for the rest of the show. Her demeanour was in evidence. My corroborated take is merely an observation. Respect maintained."

Further backing this claim, another social media user said: "[My] friends who went to the LA Philharmonic.

"[They] are reporting that in the middle of the show some lady had a screaming orgasm to the point where the whole orchestra stopped playing.

"Some people really know how to live..."

One more user added: "I checked with someone who works at the LA Philharmonic are they confirmed this happened, the orchestra did not stop playing, and it was during Tchaikovsky's fifth."

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/woman-loud-full-body-orgasm-29859874

[Fatima99]

Man spends 12 years hiding almost 1,000 sex toys around country in elaborate prank



A man dedicated 12 years of his life to hiding sex toys around America and Canada to make people laugh. He explained how he came to own 957 sex toys after working in an import warehouse for a summer before starting his graduate job.

The warehouse was used as a stop off point for imported goods, dealing with huge shipments from across the world every day. Taking to Reddit, the man said: "I had just graduated college and was working at an import warehouse during the summer before my real job started in the fall.

"My job was to make sure the pallets of goods that came in were loaded onto the right trucks. One day we got a delivery that had been held up in customs [for two years]. The company that ordered the shipment was no longer in business. We held onto the goods all summer but no one claimed them."



On his last day, he opened up the box to see what was inside after spending the entire summer wondering what it could be.

"I open up the pallet and there are boxes and boxes of sex toys from China - in total, 960 sex toys," he added.

"Everyone on the floor was dying of laughter.

"My boss wanted them out of there and I thought I could make some money selling them on eBay so I offered to take them."

After loading them all into his 1994 Mustang, he started listing them online hoping to cash in on the free goods.



However, this didn't work out quite to his plan.

He said: "I'm not sure if it was because of the financial crisis but the demand just wasn’t there. After months, I only sold like three and made $30 (£24) after shipping."

Not sure what to do with them, he planned to throw them away until his friend came up with a 'better' idea.

"He suggested we place them on neighbours' lawns instead," he said. "So after one night of drinking, we walked through the neighbourhood and put them on 12 or so lawns.

"I saw one guy's reaction the next day and it was awesome - so genuinely confused.

"I decided to hold on to them. I put a few in my trunk and anytime I saw a cool place to put one I would plop it down.

New Mexico woman's foot rotates 171.4 degrees



A New Mexico woman was awarded a Guinness World Records title when she demonstrated her ability to turn her foot to an angle of 171.4 degrees.

Kelsey Grubb, 32, of Albuquerque, said her figure skating experience led to her becoming curious about her own flexibility after learning of a previous record.

"I work at a library and the newest world record book had just come out. A coworker was flipping through and randomly opened to the page with the largest foot rotation and said 'Ew! That's so gross,'" Grubb recalled. "Naturally I looked over her shoulder and said, 'I think I can do that.'"

Grubb is now the official record holder for the largest foot rotation (female), after proving she can easily turn her foot 171.4 degrees.

"Most people are grossed out and fascinated at the same time," she said. "The most common phrase I've heard about it is not that the movement itself is gross, just the ease at which I turn it."

[PennySerenade]

How far would you go to proclaim your devotion to the Toronto Maple Leafs?

If you're willing to permanently mark your support for the team no matter the outcome of this tense playoff series, one tattoo shop in the city is awarding you the opportunity to do so.

Colibri Tattoo and Piercing has locations across the city and is offering a deal to die-hard Leafs fans to permanently ink the team's logo on their skin for just $100.

"The curse has ended and we want to celebrate," a post announcing the promotion reads.



If you're ready to boast the logo loud and proud, keep in mind that the promotion only covers tattoos that are a maximum of two inches by two inches in size.

There are plenty of variations of the logo you can choose from, which span decades and come in a variety of colours. You can even pay tribute to the Maple Leafs' roots with an OG Toronto St. Pats tat.


The tattoo's placement cannot be on the hands, and the promotion can't be combined with the shop's existing Wednesday special.

If you're serious about solidifying your support for the Leafs as the second round of the playoffs heats up, you can DM the tattoo parlour for bookings and inquiries.

You can find Colibri Tattoo and Piercing shops at 1721 A Bloor St W, 519 Queen St W, 837 Danforth Ave, and 4852A Yonge St.

[prokroustis]

TABLEMAN GAMING PIECE DISCOVERED IN MEDIEVAL BUILDING



Archaeologists have discovered a tableman gaming piece during excavations of a medieval building in Bedfordshire, England.
Excavations were conducted by Cotswold Archaeology in preparation for a housing development by Taylor Wimpey at Bidwell West, located next to Houghton Regis and Dunstable.

The team found a medieval timber-framed building and a series of medieval enclosure ditches, in addition to the tableman which was made from a cattle mandible.

Tablemen were used to play various board games, where two players would typically roll dice and move their pieces across rows of markings. The word ‘tables’ is derived from the Latin tabula which primarily meant “board” or “plank” and was first introduced to Britain during the Roman period.

One of the more popular table games played by the Romans was the Ludus duodecim scriptorium, which translates as “game of twelve markings”, a game played using three cubic dice and each player having 15 pieces.

It is likely that the game ‘tabula’ was refined from Ludus duodecim scripta and continued to be played into the medieval period. Tabula is much more similar to backgammon and uses two rows of twenty-four points.

The tableman from Bidwell West has a diameter of nearly 6cm and is decorated on the face with concentric circles and a ring-and-dot design. Similar examples in both size and decoration style have been found at sites across England which became common during the 11th to 13th centuries.

According to the excavation team: “It is not always possible to identify which game the gaming pieces recovered from archaeological excavations would have belonged to, because there is often no surviving board. It is however likely, due to the association with the medieval site, the style of decoration, and the size, that our gaming piece would have been used to play tabula during the medieval period.”

[goldie0608]

105-Year-old WWII Veteran With No Surviving Relatives Receives 3,000 Birthday Cards



A World War II veteran with no surviving relatives celebrated his 105th birthday with more than 3,000 cards from kind-hearted strangers.

Ernest Horsfall, who has seen 27 Prime Ministers and five British monarchs in his lifetime, said he was ‘surprised and amazed’ at how many people wrote to him.

He was showered with cards from generous well-wishers after the Royal British Legion called for the brave ex-servicemen to be honored for his landmark birthday.

After opening all his cards, he said he was looking forward to spending time with his girlfriend Margaret, 63, who flew in from Iceland to be with him on his special day.

“I’m utterly surprised and amazed at the number of greeting cards that came my way,” he said from a seat in his home in Preston.

Ernest was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in 1918, three weeks after the Royal Air Force was formed.

He was married for 57 years and had a son and a sister, but they have both now passed away.

Ernest served in London during the Blitz before joining the Allied campaign in North Africa, then went to Italy to maintain Allied tanks, directing 23 Italian civilian mechanics.

Ernest says he still has vivid memories of serving with the Army Ordnance Corps in London in 1940 and feels lucky to have survived the terrible conflict.

“There would be swarms of Nazi bombers flying overhead all night and I knew many people that were injured or worse,” he said. “On one occasion, our guard room was hit and six of my pals were killed, I was just lucky it wasn’t my duty that night.”

Following his time as a sergeant in the British Army’s Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers between 1940 and 1946, he decided to take flying lessons at age 43 and was a private pilot for the next 50 years.

Ernest, who has met several prime ministers since leaving the armed forces, received a card from current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak congratulating him on reaching his 105th birthday.

Rachel Venables, membership engagement manager for the Royal British Legion, which launched the card appeal, said the sacrifices of servicemen like Ernest would “never be forgotten.”

“The Second World War generation is inevitably diminishing, but occasions like this are an opportunity for the RBL to remind everyone that their service and sacrifice means something and will never be forgotten,” she said.

While they may be diminishing, this 105-year-old has some great advice to share with those who have many years left on the Earth.

“The secret to a long life is to keep living as happy as you can and keep a straight mind,” he said.

Tibet hotel guest blames feet for horrible stench in room— but then discovers dead body under bed



He got stiffed.

A hotel guest in Tibet blamed his feet for an overpowering stench in his room – but discovered hours later that a corpse was under his bed.

The Chinese man — identified only as Mr. Zhang — was staying at the Guzang Shuhua Inn, a hotel in Lhasa popular for offering its guests a colorful backdrop for their social media snaps, the BBC reported.

He said he checked into the hotel on April 21 and took a three-hour nap in the room, where he detected a foul odor he assumed came from his feet.

He then went out and returned to change for dinner when he was hit by a stronger stench so he requested another room, where he hit the sack.

At one point, hotel staff woke him up and asked him to go to his first room, where police told him a body was discovered under the bed.

Investigators took his statement and collected a DNA sample, but told him not to be concerned because they had already arrested someone on a train headed to Lanzhou city.

Zhang told local media that he decided to speak out about the incident because the hotel initially denied the whole thing.

https://nypost.com/2023/05/02/hotel-gue ... under-bed/

[Misstee]

By Ben Hooper




May 1 (UPI) -- A school principal in West Virginia received a scare Monday morning when he unlocked a dumpster outside of the building and came face to face with a bear.

A video posted to Facebook by the Nicholas County Board of Education shows Zela Elementary School Principal James Marsh removing the latch from a dumpster outside the school Monday morning.

The footage shows Marsh removing the latch when the lid to the trash receptacle abruptly swings open and a bear appears from inside.

Marsh, and another employee exiting a door just as the bear appears, are seen running for safety as the bear emerges and runs in the opposite direction.

"Who says principals don't deserve hazard pay?" the Facebook post said.

Marsh said the bear must have managed to squeeze past the dumpster latch to get into the container and then found itself unable to escape once the lid closed behind it.

[HogwartsExpress]

Japanese shop bans adults from buying Pokemon cards


A Japanese card shop has restricted specific Pokemon card packs to only schoolchildren, preventing adults from purchasing them.

On April 19, The Pokemon Company International responded to the theft of hundreds of cards from the Sword & Shield Fusion Strike expansion at a Texas store. The company claimed the robbery had affected the “integrity” of the high-valued cards. However, thieves have not only ravaged card shops in the United States but also in Japan.

In January 2023, Japan experienced a string of robberies that resulted in “tens of millions of yen” in Pokemon cards being stolen. Now, a leading Japanese game shop has prohibited adults from purchasing select Pokemon cards.

Hareruya 2 – located in Tokyo’s Akihabara district – has revealed it would dedicate a store section to junior high school students and younger. On Twitter, the shop announced it would limit 10 packs a day per person of the Snow Hazard and Clay Burst packs. Additionally, it would start checking identification to confirm the buyer’s age.

On the first floor, Hareruya 2 would keep selling the packs until they ran out each day. The new rule would also ban parents and guardians from purchasing Pokemon cards for their children.

Twitter user TheHiddenLettuce believed Hareruya 2’s restriction was justifiable. However, it would not stop adults from paying children to buy Pokemon cards for them.

In an interview with Japanese news site Livedoor, store manager Sho Watanabe explained the decision.

“Many shops exhaust their entire stock [of Pokemon cards] as soon as they go on sale, and people active late at night or early in the morning always seem to buy [the cards],” Watanabe said.

“By allocating half our stock for general customers, shops can continue to sell [the cards] to students and young children. Selling [goods] to children not only pleases them, but their parents as well. [We] feel this method of sales enables us to satisfy the greatest number of customers when the items are in such limited supply.”

Would you pay a kid to buy you Pokemon cards? Maybe it depends on the rarity of the TCG pack.

source: https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/p ... t-2121937/

[lush]

Secret Plans for Britain’s New Nuclear Submarine Found in Pub’s Toilet
May 1, 2023*

• Who studies for their submarine qualification exam on a pub toilet?


There have been quite a few weird leaks of military documents lately. People from all over the world keep posting classified data on the War Thunder video game forums. Meanwhile, America’s plans for Ukraine got leaked on Minecraft.

But you don’t need the latest video games to leak military secrets. A recent case from the U.K. shows that all it takes is a pub, a toilet, and a good old-fashioned drunk serviceman.

A pub-goer recently discovered classified Royal Navy diagrams laying on the wet floor of the establishment’s restroom. The papers detailed a critical part of a new $1.6 billion nuclear submarine, HMS Anson.

Anybody walking by could’ve picked up and pocketed the plans. It could’ve been simply a drunken British soccer fan — or a malicious foreign agent.

Fortunately, that didn’t happen. The person who discovered the papers appears to have returned them to the Royal Navy.

Additionally, although the papers were classified, they weren’t all that secret. According to the Royal Navy, they were part of a training manual handed out to every crew member of the new sub.

We’re still fully expecting somebody to get chewed up by their superiors.


HMS Anson docked in Barrow. Photo courtesy of the British Ministry of Defense.


‘Anyone Could Have Found Them’

The papers were found on April 29. It was getting late and the Furness Railway pub in Barrow, Cumbria, was jumping.

“It was quite a lively night,” the documents’ anonymous founder told The Sun. “The pub was full of people from the docks — military and civilian.”

One of the military personnel must have bought something they shouldn’t have with them. When the witness went to take a leak, he noticed a pile of papers on the bathroom floor.

“I went into the toilet and the plans were lying on the floor of the cubicle with the lanyard [from the Royal Navy],” the source said.

The documents detailed the mechanical functioning of HMS Anson’s torpedo loading system. The dossier showed how the hydraulics controlling the torpedo hatch, steering, and buoyancy worked.

We don’t know whether the lanyard had an ID card attached. That would’ve made discovering the absentminded owner of the papers real easy.

But, it was good that the person to find the papers happened to be an honest one.

“Anyone could have found them. It was lucky it wasn’t some deep-cover Russian spy,” the founder mused.


Commendable Enthusiasm

The papers are by now back in the care of the Royal Navy. And according to them, the situation isn’t as bad as it might initially seem.

To being with, the papers are marked only Official Sensitive — the second-highest classification used in Britain. If they’d been classified Secret, the matter would be a lot more serious.

Additionally, it’s not like there’s only one copy of the papers that’s kept behind lock and key. According to Commander Ryan Ramsay, a former Royal Navy submarine captain, the files are part of a training manual handed to every individual intended to come aboard the vessel during missions.

“They are part of a book that covers all the systems on a sub,” said Ramsay. “When [new crew members] do their basic submarine qualification they have to walk around the boat to demonstrate they know all the systems.”

Although the papers were clearly in the wrong place, Ramsay does commend their owner’s enthusiasm.

“It looks like someone has taken the pages off the boat to study. It is good to see their commitment to training, but the pub is probably the wrong place,” Ramsay said.




A Soggy, Secret Pile

This isn’t the first time sensitive Navy documents have been found somewhere where they don’t belong. A similar incident happened in June 2021 — only this one was much more serious.

In that month, the Royal Navy air-defense destroyer HMS Defender was involved in a brief stand-off with a Russian warship. Remember, this was before Russia decided to start trying its luck in Ukraine.

Just a day before the standoff, a 50-page pile of Ministry of Defense documents was found at an unclassified bus stop. The wet paper, degraded into a soggy heap, detailed the expected Russian response to British ships’ entry into the waters surrounding Ukraine.

At least this classified document was found before any waterborne saber rattling.