12 Farm-Fresh Trivia Tidbits for Friday, May 9, 2025
It sounds stupid on its face, but actually, if we’re ever the victim of a road-rage incident, please do let us haunt our attacker via A.I.
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A Dead Man Testified in Court via A.I.
The sister of a man killed in a road-rage incident fought to get an A.I. video mimicking the victim in front of a court, and a judge accepted it. The A.I. avatar addressed his alleged killer: “It is a shame we encountered each other that day in those circumstances. In another life we probably could have been friends. I believe in forgiveness and a God who forgives.”
God is probably pretty psyched about this whole thing.
More Trees in Cities Could Be Saving Millions of Lives
A study found that increasing the amount of trees in urban areas by 30 percent would reduce the average heat in the summer by one-third of a degree. That doesn’t sound like much, but they estimate that slight decrease would prevent 37 percent of heat-related deaths.
An Virtual, Interactive, Crowdsourced Road Trip
This website simulates a car on a road trip via Google Street View, with dozens or hundreds of viewers voting every few seconds on the next move: forward, turn or beep the horn. Its progress is marked on a map so you can see the meandering trip it’s taken from Boston to, at present, somewhere outside of Providence.
The Deadliest Flu Season in 15 Years
The 2024-2025 flu season saw 216 pediatric deaths, the most since 2009-2010’s H1N1 pandemic.
Pope Francis Packed the Conclave
Of the 135 cardinals that are young enough to vote, Francis picked 108 of them. He elevated a bunch of members from Asia, South America and Africa, carving the previous European majority down to 39 percent.
The First American Pope
Chicago man Robert Francis Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, is the first pope from the United States (or anywhere in North America, for that matter). The implications are unclear: On one hand, he’s relatively woke, in the style of Pope Francis, but on the other, it’s not great that the rising tide of American Christian nationalism can now claim a homegrown Zaddy.
Two Hikers Found a $340,000 Stash of Gold
Two people walking around a Czech mountain spotted a tin box at the edge of a field and found 15 pounds of hidden or forgotten coins and jewelry from some time in the 19th century. They handed it over to the Museum of Eastern Bohemia.
Factories Are Recruiting High School Kids Like Top-Tier Athletes
Kids in shop class are saying they’re being offered near-$70,000 jobs as juniors in high school, by manufacturers who need skilled laborers to work their complicated machines.
A Tryst Between Kohl’s and Bed Bath & Beyond Proved Bad for Business
Less than five months after becoming Kohl’s new CEO, Ashley Buchanan was fired for a brazen conflict of interest: He scored a multi-million dollar consulting deal for the woman he’s hooking up with — former Bed Bath & Beyond CEO Chandra Holt.
The Death Throes of Chef Boyardee
Chef Boyardee is about to be sold to private equity for an underwhelming $600 million. It’s a casualty of the current American obsession with protein, as its parent company is selling it to focus on Slim Jims and other protein-heavy snacks. Its last attempt at fad diet relevance was adding a “GLP-1 friendly” tag on its packaging to cater to customers on weight loss drugs.
This Snail Lays Eggs From Its Neck
The rare, carnivorous Powelliphanta augusta snail was filmed for the first time laying its egg, which it bloops out of its own neck.
Self-Medicating With the Country Bear Musical Jamboree and a ‘Bulky Wallet of Cocaine’
A guest at Disney’s Magic Kingdom was caught trying to smuggle in a “bulky wallet of cocaine,” and said he’d been using it for a month to deal with work stress.
