Dutch Family 'Waiting For End of Time' Discovered In Basement (bbc.com) 154
A family who spent nine years in a basement "waiting for the end of time" have been discovered by police in the Netherlands after one of them turned up at a local pub, reports say. The BBC reports: A man of 58 and a family with young adults aged 18 to 25 were living at a farm in the province of Drenthe. They were found after the eldest of the children ordered beer at a bar in the nearby village of Ruinerwold. He then told staff he needed help, broadcaster RTV Drenthe reported. The older man, who has been arrested, was initially assumed to be the father, but local mayor Roger de Groot later told reporters that was not the case. Nor was the man the owner of the farmhouse, Mr de Groot said, adding: "I've never seen anything like it."
The public broadcaster said that the family had been living in isolation waiting for the end of time. Unconfirmed reports said the children's father was among those found. Bar owner Chris Westerbeek described how a man had come in, ordered five beers and drunk them. "Then I had a chat with him and he revealed he had run away and needed help... then we called the police," he said. He added: "He had long hair, a dirty beard, wore old clothes and looked confused. He said he'd never been to school and hadn't been to the barber for nine years." "He said he had brothers and sisters who lived at the farm. He said he was the oldest and wanted to end the way they were living." Officers visited the remote farmhouse and carried out a search. They discovered a hidden staircase behind a cupboard in the living room that led down to a basement room where the family were housed.
The public broadcaster said that the family had been living in isolation waiting for the end of time. Unconfirmed reports said the children's father was among those found. Bar owner Chris Westerbeek described how a man had come in, ordered five beers and drunk them. "Then I had a chat with him and he revealed he had run away and needed help... then we called the police," he said. He added: "He had long hair, a dirty beard, wore old clothes and looked confused. He said he'd never been to school and hadn't been to the barber for nine years." "He said he had brothers and sisters who lived at the farm. He said he was the oldest and wanted to end the way they were living." Officers visited the remote farmhouse and carried out a search. They discovered a hidden staircase behind a cupboard in the living room that led down to a basement room where the family were housed.
Basement? (Score:5, Funny)
I thought it was supposed to be a restaurant where you could watch the end of the universe repeatedly while sipping overpriced drinks!?
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The more puzzling part is why, if they're hopping back and forth across the span of time at the end of the universe, they can't see all the other instances of the restaurant that are watching the same event. Presumably, either they're watching from different angles every time or it's all fake. :-)
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The more puzzling part is why, if they're hopping back and forth across the span of time at the end of the universe, they can't see all the other instances of the restaurant that are watching the same event. Presumably, either they're watching from different angles every time or it's all fake. :-)
The entire scenario is, of course, impossible. Thus the slogan, "If you've done six impossible things this morning, why not round it off with breakfast at Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe."
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Each time a group of customers returns to their native times, it alters their future so that a different group of customers arrived (have'll ariven) to watch the next show.
This is, of course, impossible.
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Presumably, like everyone else, the universe just does it's best to not think about it when impossible things happen.
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If that kid's been in there for nine years he was probably singing Surf's Up and so am I!
News (Score:3)
It is weird all the news outlets picked this story up. There are lots of crazy people out there that do these kinds of things with their families.
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It is weird all the news outlets picked this story up. There are lots of crazy people out there that do these kinds of things with their families.
RTFA - the dude isn't their dad.
I'm your dad now 110010001000 , now get in the basement, don't come out for 10 years, or the end of the world , whichever comes first.
They picked it up because it's an obscure look into in oft untold world...
No not a maniac holding kids hostage in abasement for a decade
- the Netherlands
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Re:News (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, but these people didn't live in Florida.
Re:News (Score:4, Funny)
Re: News (Score:5, Insightful)
> To be fair, it's hard to dig a basement in Florida
You're right, but not for the reason everyone thinks.
For the most part, it's NOT due to the water table. Nearly every big city on earth has a "high water table" that causes basement issues, including (if not ESPECIALLY) New York, Chicago, Washington (DC), and London.
Beneath its concrete shell, Lower Manhattan is one of the wettest, soggiest swamps on earth... yet nearly every single building has a basement. London has literal underground CREEKS flowing around buildings, yet it's ground-zero for "iceberg homes".
The REAL reason Florida homes lack basements is due to limestone bedrock just inches below the surface. If you wanted to build a basement under a new single-family home in Fort Lauderdale, you'd LITERALLY have to jackhammer it out one cubic foot at a time (at *staggering* expense).
If you did that, waterproofing it would be no harder than doing it in Chicago or DC. Ground water is problematic EVERYWHERE.
The only particularly hard area to do it is Coconut Grove (in Miami), because it's adjacent to Biscayne Bay AND full of holes... so you'd have to build it "Big Dig" style... trench out the perimeter, fill it with concrete, break & scoop out the interior (while full of water) a few extra feet deep, dump a layer of concrete along the bottom, wait for it to cure, pump out the water, then coat it with chemically-waterproofed shotcrete. Voila, basement. A very expensive one, but it can totally be done.
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I don't know what part of Florida you are familiar with, but having been all over that state, just inches below the surface is sand. Nothing but sand.
Honest News for Nerds (Score:4, Insightful)
This is golden.
TFA is about some kind of cult leader/follower situation in Netherlands, and here we are arguing the technical reasons why Florida homes lack basements.
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I was under the impression that it wouldn't be that hard to dig a basement in Florida.
Provided you plan to have a swimming pool there anyway, that is.
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But this is in a well organised country where people are supposed to be registered with the municipality.
I'm living not that far away and the news is still very scarce but we know the guy who paid the rent and that's arrested is an Austrian national, he seems to have been the intermediate between the hidden family and the outside world.
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Yeah, here we call it homeschooling and it's a God given right!
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There are lots of crazy people out there that do these kinds of things with their families.
Holy fuck did you read a different story than the rest of us did.
Easier escape (Score:4, Funny)
Stop the clock: "That's it, we made it!". Then everybody comes out.
Logical Problem? (Score:5, Funny)
Somehow "waiting for the end of time" seems like an inherently self-defeating activity.
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Missed it by *that* much... (Score:2)
He added: "He had long hair, a dirty beard, wore old clothes and looked confused. He said he'd never been to school and hadn't been to the barber for nine years."
I was going to guess Richard Stallman but remembered that he went to Harvard and MIT. :-)
Unbelievable (Score:4, Funny)
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The bible said the end times were coming immediately [skepticsan...dbible.com].
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--Thomas 113
It did come "immediately". That you can't see or experience it, it irrelevant. Maybe check some of the writings of the (actual) Gnostics, or Eastern Orthodox, for clarification.
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Re: Unbelievable (Score:2)
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Nor does your Wikipedia link have any reference to the LDS faith.
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I'm truly amazed that these weirdos would live in any other country than the U.S.
Welcome to Earth! Humanity actually lives all over this little ball in space.
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Welcome to reality then.
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You clearly aren't familiar with the Florida or Germany game (popularized by Adam Carolla). Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/flori... [reddit.com]
if they stuck it out... (Score:3)
...just a few weeks more, they could have reached their goal.
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I know, right? By the way, my bunker is at ruffling.vented.details, the door code is 7341.
Why wait somewhere dumb? (Score:4, Insightful)
No reason at all you can't wait wait for the end of times in say, Barbados, Aspen, or at least Disney world?
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News For nerds Studd that Matters (Score:5, Insightful)
I am not new here.... I still remember when that motto mattered.
Now get off my lawn!
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Hey, don't be evil...
Re:News For nerds Studd that Matters (Score:5, Insightful)
How is "living in someone else's basement. never leaving" not relevant to the Slashdot audience?
Re:News For nerds Studd that Matters (Score:4, Insightful)
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Spelling also matters.
Me encantaria ver tu ortografia en Espa#ol
J'aimerais voir votre orthographe en Francais
Poor kids (Score:2)
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but how do kids that age just go missing without the authorities checking up on them?
They'd have to know where to look. When a person moves house in the NL, one is expected (required? probably) to inform authorities in the municipality where one moves to, of their new address. Then the people @ city hall enter this into a national database, and any government entity knows where to send their papers or people to.
But if (for whatever reason) someone doesn't, then -from authorities' pov- you have effectively disappeared into thin air. Staying so at least until something else happens: a traf
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yes, but that too is tied to the compulsory registration in the municipality.
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The problem would be that the children can't be found.
The most amazing thing in this story (Score:2)
A basement in the Netherlands?
Wouldn't it flood?
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That's what sump pumps are for.
Re:The most amazing thing in this story (Score:4, Informative)
In th Netherlands, EVERYTHING is a basement. (Score:2)
Half the country is meters below the water table. They literally cut off and drained an entire part of the sea, by creating massive dams, in order to claim new land. It's amazing, and if the water raises a lot, will royally fuck them up. :)
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You'd think, but instead they just became the world's leading engineers in creating land. If anyone, I'd bet on them to develop terraforming first.
Textbook search. (Score:2)
"Officers visited the remote farmhouse and carried out a search. They discovered a hidden staircase behind a cupboard in the living room that led down to a basement room where the family were housed. "
The kind of search they teach at the police academy. Check behind all cupboards.
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That's right. Especially when you have somewhere that escaped and could probably tell them exactly where to look.
I can see the officers now: "Quiet! Don't talk! No spoilers! .... Now we'll close our eyes and count to 100, then we'll start looking. Off you go."
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Since this is the Netherlands, "remote" may not be as remote as people think. The next farmhouse is about 400 meters away. That counts as remote over here.
self sufficient for 9 years? (Score:5, Interesting)
That seems like a fantastic science experiment, 4 (5?) people living for 9 years in self-sufficient manner? Wow! The farm does not look that big, how'd they manage?
Why the basement? (Score:3)
I mean, weâ(TM)re all waiting for the end of time, in some sense, right? Why not do it up here though? Whatâ(TM)s the advantage to waiting in a basement?
The real story here... (Score:3)
The five beers. What kind of beers? Was it five different beers? Did he order them all once? How fast did he drink them? Did he pay for them?
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>"The five beers. What kind of beers? Was it five different beers? Did he order them all once? How fast did he drink them? Did he pay for them?"
As I was reading this non-news-for-nerds summary (wow, something not tech AND not political... they must be getting desperate), I wondered the same thing. How would the kids even know what beer is, where to get it, or even want it, and why or how would he have money?
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How would the kids even know what beer is, where to get it, or even want it
Instinct. That Mother Nature has provided them with in her wisdom.
Re:The real story here... (Score:5, Funny)
The five beers. What kind of beers? Was it five different beers? Did he order them all once? How fast did he drink them? Did he pay for them?
Was he wearing a towel? The last time a dude wearing a towel strode into a pub and ordered and subsequently chugged several beers things did not end well for Earth.
Has anyone checked the filing cabinet in the locked basement disused lavatory with the sign on the door saying "beware of the leopard" or do we need to put paper bags over our heads?
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Shouldn't we lie down? Put paper bags over our heads or something?
They could buy the DVD (Score:3)
Anyway, nice episode, I like the John Simm acting in the episodes.
They belong on Slashdot (Score:5, Funny)
Re:They belong on Slashdot (Score:5, Funny)
I've been waiting in my basement for 28 years for the "Year of the Linux Desktop". Is it time to come out yet?
The desktop was a dumb idea. (Score:2)
Sorry. Turns out the desktop was just a gag for the eternal septemberers. We realized it was stupid. Now they use specialized Linux and BSD on some devices designed for the mentally disabled, while we keep using our scriptable shells like we always did.
Who's their grief councilor going to be? (Score:2)
Kimmy Schmidt?
While I had doubts... (Score:3)
...about 100 people being shoved into a steel can for a year and then dropped on a desolate martian landscape to live the rest of their lives underground safe from radiation, this clearly is Elon's prototype for mars colonization! It would work, too, if nobody opens a bar on mars...
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It would work, too, if nobody opens a bar on mars...
A mars bar? Well, you open it by tearing off the wrapper...
You are all afraid.. (Score:2)
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"Then I had a chat with him and he revealed he had run away and needed help... then we called the police," he said. He added: "He had long hair, a dirty beard, wore old clothes and looked confused. He said he'd never been to school and hadn't been to the barber for nine years." "He said he had brothers and sisters who lived at the farm. He said he was the oldest and wanted to end the way they were living."
He asked for help idiot.
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The police are there to help, it is their job. This is a classic "health and welfare" call, they do it all the time. They check to see that everyone is alive, no one is injured or sick, no one is being held against their will, and respond to what they find.
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Re:How fast the police were called... (Score:5, Funny)
AC: No need for police, my good man! I and my sense of righteous indignation at society's dependence on law enforcement shall save your family - quickly, to the DoucheMobile!
MOD PARENT UP! (Score:3, Insightful)
It's a bizarre notion that the police are somehow the enemies.
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Why do the factually act like the enemy then? (Score:3)
You have to remember that before the mostly-legalization, the *police* were the ones distributing and selling drugs in the Netherlands! (I'm sure one can still find press articles.)
I'm usually nice to people. Yet every single cop I ever encountered, was a total power-tripping asshole.
Hell, we caught a cop *planting* drugs on me! Which was also hilarious, since I didn't even drink alcohol back then. Wrongest guy to pick. But also horrifying, as it showed their privilege to just imprison and destroy everyone
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How is this bizarre? Anyone who has spent a little time reading history knows that police forces have suffered from corruption (including, but not limited to conspiracy, extortion, drug trafficking, prostitution, torture, murder, theft, etc.) for at least the last thousand years. I don't think these apply to most police, but given the history of the job, I don't think it strange that people might be skeptical.
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Police are there to protect the ruling class. Anything they might do to actually help you is a coincidence of interests.
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What bothers me about this story is how fast the police are called. What is it with society that if there is anything that isn't "in ordnung", the police are called. Grass above 6 inches by the width of an atom? 999 or 911. Someone parked a centimeter over a line? Pull up the popo app, make a complaint. Someone looks like a hipster, but without properly scented beard oils? The cops need to know.
Are we such a shitty society that we have to run and tattle 24/7? This is why governments are eating our rights like a fat kid eats Twinkies, because nobody wants to side with the neighbor, even though it would mean better conditions for both people.
Where I live, if someone smelling like ass hit a bar, if they didn't cause trouble and paid their tab, who cares. Lots of homeless where I am, and if someone wants to treat themselves, that's their choice.
Some whackjob is holding their family hostage in the basement. Yeah, sounds like a safe situation for an average citizen to go and investigate...
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There are not predators everywhere. There are a relatively few predators that could be anywhere - it's an important distinction when it comes to accurate risk assessment.
Example: if there were predators everywhere, then every kid walking home alone would be abducted. Reality - any kid walking home alone *might* be abducted - but the millions doing so safely every day prove that actual predators are exceedingly rare.
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Holy shit you are slow to figure the world out. [fbi.gov] There are many kinds of predators. They don't commit their crimes every day. If every kid started getting abducted they would have no place to keep them and get caught quite quickly. Seriously. Just stop trying to argue against known facts. It just amplifies the perception of your stupidity.
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I bet the "founder" is strapped down in the loony bin somewhere, getting plenty of electroshock and force fed psych meds..
That, or he is sleeping in a cardboard box reeking of booze and urine.
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Actually I believe he went to Europe.
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Weird, I heard about a case in the Netherlands where a guy held a family in a basement...
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I bet the "founder" is strapped down in the loony bin somewhere, getting plenty of electroshock and force fed psych meds..
That, or he is sleeping in a cardboard box reeking of booze and urine.
Na, I am sure he just found a new congregation to grift. "Give me all your money, you won't need it, the world is ending next year!"
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Here is how it is different, since you asked. Global climate change is based on science and constitutes an educated guess, while the others are based on a belief in an imaginary friend or other nonsensical faith based beliefs.
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First, it doesn't say the Earth is doomed, just the human race.
There is no way the human race will be "doomed" from human induced global climate change. Even if the all the water at the caps melted, the sea level would only rise 250'. Even if all the permafrost methane got released into the atmosphere, it would merely make the earth a climactically violent, but tropical planet. More would need to be done to make the Earth climate uninhabitable to all advanced life.
No, what can be destroyed by human induced climate change is human civilization. That only means that
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That being said, most people would consider going from a civilized society where most prosper to a hostile one where few do to be doomed. You only don't think so because you are stupid enough to think you'll be one of the few privileged ones and selfish enough to think that would make it OK. I guarantee you won't. Of course, with any luck you will
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It isn't. However this is an obvious attempt of you using dishonesty (properly called lies) to push propaganda.
Re: Been there, done that... (Score:2)
https://www.washingtonexaminer... [washingtonexaminer.com]
Washington Examiner? HAHAHAHAH! (Score:2)
Might as well link The Onion. They at least get some things correct. [splinternews.com]