New York-Dublin Portal Closed Due To ‘Inappropriate’ Behavior, And More Of The Week’s Weirdest World News | Digg

Welcome to another entry in our column, The Week’s Weirdest World News. The world, you might have noticed, is a very strange place — so every seven days, we’ll be rounding up the most bizarre things that have happened across the globe, purely for your enjoyment.

From an arrest over fake restaurant reviews to bad behavior spelling the end of the New York-Dublin portal, these stories are sure to inspire wonder — or, at the very least, befuddlement — at the weird ol’ world around us.

British man arrested after bombarding Thailand restaurant with fake reviews

A British man has been arrested in Thailand for allegedly posting fake one-star reviews about a restaurant that had banned him from walking through their establishment to get home.

The 21-year-old, known only as Alexander, was told he could not use the Italian restaurant in Phuket as a short-cut to his accommodation because he was not a paying customer.

According to Thai media reports, the Brit retaliated by flooding the eatery with a series of “false and distorted statements to maliciously damage” its reputation.

The owner of the establishment said its Google rating fell from 4.9 to 3.1 stars as a result of the poor reviews.

The incident allegedly occurred back in 2022, but Alexander was only arrested last week, having fled to Bangkok. He now faces prosecution in Phuket under Thailand’s strict anti-defamation laws, and denies any wrongdoing.

California man trolls officials with boat mural

A California man was ordered by local government to keep his boat out of view — and he complied, but probably not in the way officials were expecting.

Etienne Constable was told in July that he had to construct a six-foot fence on his property to hide his boat out of the sight of neighbors.

The Seaside, California, officials did not specify how Constable should or should not decorate the fence, so he commissioned local artist Hanif Panni to paint a lifelike mural of the boat that makes it look as though the fence isn’t even there.

The city is yet to contact Constable about his creative approach to their directive.

“I’m not a rule-breaker, but I like to make a political statement as necessary, as well as a humorous statement and a creative statement,” he told NBC affiliate KSBW of Monterey Bay.

Tokyo reckons with destructive North American raccoons

The city of Tokyo is locked in a battle against its fast-growing raccoon population, which has been wreaking havoc on the Japanese capital.

North American raccoons are not native to Japan, but have multiplied rapidly in the wild after those kept as pets escaped, or were abandoned. It is believed they became a common pet in the country following the popularity of a 1970s TV anime called “Rascal the Raccoon.”

According to media reports, the omnivorous animals have caused widespread crop damage in Tokyo and beyond, and have even been caught eating the endangered Tokyo salamander.

Municipalities in the west of the city have set up traps and launched hotlines for people to report destructive behavior by raccoons, but these measures have achieved little so far.

“Our traps are sometimes broken as raccoons are also desperate to live,” one official said. “Only a fraction of them are actually caught, so we are unable to grasp their overall range.”

New York-Dublin portal shut down after ‘inappropriate’ behavior

A portal connecting New York City to Dublin, Ireland, has been shut down less than a week after it opened due to “inappropriate behavior” from the public.

The art installations in the two cities, which connected New Yorkers to the Dubliners via a 24/7 live stream, have been temporarily closed down while organizers work to prevent naughty behavior by members of the public being transmitted from either side.

“Instances of inappropriate behavior have come from a very small minority of Portal visitors and have been amplified on social media,” a Flatiron NoMad Partnership spokesperson told USA TODAY.

The organization did not specify exactly what “inappropriate” behavior had taken place, but a video of a New York woman flashing her breasts at the portal has gone viral, while a passerby in Dublin was seen holding a photo of the Twin Towers on 9/11 up to those watching in NYC.

The Flatiron NoMad Partnership said the portal should be up and running again “by the end of this week.”

[Image credit: @ayeejuju]