Odd News
Firefighter punished for YouTube side hustle
A Japanese firefighter moonlighting as a gaming YouTuber had cold water poured on his career by public officials, who uncovered the secret side hustle by identifying his voice in the lucrative videos.
An anonymous tip-off prompted Wakayama City in western Japan to launch an investigation into the 33-year-old’s channel, which had around 15,000 subscribers.
But because the firefighter never appeared on screen, a local official had to painstakingly comb through the clips for vocal clues to his identity, the city said.
The man’s salary was cut as punishment for contravening a law limiting public workers’ engagement in commercial activities.
Over a 10-month period he had uploaded more than 300 videos, typically showing him playing multi-player strategy games – racking up around 1.15 million yen ($9,970) in advertising revenue.
“We don’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing that he was a YouTuber,” city official Hidetaka Amano told AFP on Wednesday.
“But it’s the fact he was profiting from advertisement, some of which could be inappropriate in nature.”
His actions, Amano said, had “betrayed the trust of residents in Wakayama”. -gulfnews.com
Odd News
Message in bottle floats from Canada to Ireland in 13 years
A message in a bottle launched by visitors to Newfoundland’s Bell Island was found washed up on an Irish beach nearly 13 years later, after apparently crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
Kate Gay said she was walking a Dingle Peninsula beach this week when she spotted the wine bottle with a sheet of paper inside.
Gay showed the bottle to members of Creative Ireland NeartnaMacharaí during a meeting at her house that evening, and they broke the bottle open.
The note, written by a couple named Brad and Anita, was dated Sept. 12, 2012. The letter described the couple’s day trip to Bell Island.
There was a phone number on the letter, but there was no answer when group members tried to call.
The Maharees Heritage and Conservation group posted photos of the bottleto social media on Monday, and within an hour group members were messaging with Anita.
Group member Martha Farrell said Anita reported that she and Brad had married in 2016 and are still together to this day. -upi.com
Odd News
Woman earns world record for collection of 15,485 egg cups
A Spanish woman who has been collecting egg cups for over 50 years earned a Guinness World Record when her collection was tallied at 15,485 items.
María José Fuster recruited two witnesses to help her tally her collection at a community center in her hometown of Campo, Spain.
Fuster’s collection includes multiple patterns, colors, designs and even novelty cups bearing the images of characters including Superman, Betty Boop and Garfield.
Fuster maintains two blogs related to her hobby — one to catalog each piece, and one to list the names of the people who have donated egg cups to her collection.
Some of her most prized egg cups, about 1,143 of them, are currently on display at a local museum.
-upi.com
