Strange stories from around the world, some of which might be true...
- A border collie called Saul is being praised as a "real-life Lassie" after leading a search and rescue team to his owner who had fallen 70' (21.3m) into a remote gulley while hiking in California. ●
Cheetahs are to be reintroduced into India's forests 70 years after they became extinct there due to hunting, food scarcity and habitat loss. An initial group of eight will be transferred from Namibia in August. ●
Twin giraffes have been born in the Nairobi National Park in Kenya. Twins are extremely rare in giraffes. ● More than 3,000 birds on the Farne Islands off Northumberland have
been killed by the latest outbreak of avian flu. About 200,000 birds live on the islands, which were closed to the public earlier this month. ● The Entomological Society of America and the Entomological Society
of Canada have agreed to adopt a new name for the Asian giant hornet, commonly referred to as the "murder hornet" to prevent its name from bolstering anti-Asian sentiment. The hornet will now officially be
known as the northern giant hornet. ● A man who claimed to be a marine wildlife expert uploaded a video to TikTok of a fish "I accidentally stepped on [..] with reef shoes" on the beach of Stradbroke Island, east
of Brisbane, Australia. In the video he was moving the (unharmed) fish's mouth to make it appear to be singing, and he asked "anyone know what this is?" As rather a lot of people pointed out, it was a
stonefish, often described as the most venomous known fish thanks to the spines on its back. Without prompt treatment its venom can cause long-lasting pain, paralysis, breathing difficulties and heart failure. ●
Researchers in the Natural History Museum's Deep Sea Research Group have revealed that of 55 specimens recently recovered from the abyssal plains of the Clarion-Clipper zone in the Central Pacific, up to 16,730' (5,100m)
below sea level, 48 were of different species and only nine were known to science. ● Scientists studying the Hawaiian cave systems created by volcanic processes have discovered complex colonies of microbes in the
cold, dark and toxic environment, giving hope that evidence of similar life might one day be found on Mars. ● Last week it was bison, now the National Trust, Devon Wildlife Trust and the Woodland Trust have
announced that they hope to reintroduce pine martens in Exmoor or Dartmoor as early as autumn 2024, 150 years after hunting and loss of habitat wiped them out. ● A team of Australian scientists have announced the
discovery of a gene in barley which controls the angle at which its roots grow. Modifying the gene could lead to crops whose roots grow longer and straight down, allowing them to absorb more nutrients and water,
and helping them survive periods of climate change induced drought.
- Tertiary star systems, in which three stars orbit each other, are not unknown, but astronomers have announced the discovery of a "one of a kind" tertiary system, containing a central star 16 times the
mass of the Sun, orbited by two binary stars, together 12 times the mass of the Sun. The binary stars are so close to the central one that they orbit it in less than 24 Earth hours. The system, TIC 470710327 is visually
close to the Cassiopeia constellation. ● Astronomers have long thought that the heliosphere, the area of space affected by the Sun's solar winds to block cosmic rays was shaped like a tear, or a long-tailed
comet, but new evidence suggests that it is more of a crescent or a "deflated croissant". ● A team at the University of Edinburgh have found what they think could be the most distant galaxy ever
observed, using the new James Webb Space Telescope. The data still needs to be confirmed, but appears to show a galaxy 35 billion light-years away, in other words as it was just 245 million years after the Big Bang. ●
The Pentagon has authorised the creation of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) to "detect, identify and attribute objects of interest... and, as necessary, to mitigate any associate threats to safety
of operations and national security". Spanning all the branches of Department of Defense the AARO will collect, investigate and manage reports of unidentifed aerial phenomena (UAPs), more commonly known as UFOs.
● NASA, meanwhile, has announced plans to repurpose unused satellites already in space to give an extra perspective on reported UAPs.
- A fossil of a 560-million-year-old specimen identified as the earliest-known animal predator has been named Auroralumina attenboroughii. The first part refers to the Latin for "dawn lantern" while
the second is a tribute to environmentalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough. It was discovered in Charnwood Forest, Leicestershire. ● After a diner reported "special dents" in the ground of
the outdoor courtyard at a restaurant in China's Sichuan province paleontologists discovered the footprints of two sauropod dinosaurs dating back around 100 million years. The dinosaurs were probably about 26' (8m)
in length. Sauropods are thought to have grown to over 65.6' (20m) in length, making them the largest of the dinosaurs. ● In 1948 the body of a man was discovered on Adelaide's Somerton Park beach. He had no
identification on him, but a scrap of paper torn from a copy of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám reading "is over" or "is finished" was in his trousers' fob pocket. All attempts to identify
the 'Somerton man' failed. Now Professor Derek Abbott, from the University of Adelaide, who has spent decades studying the mystery, has had DNA from a strand of hair trapped in a plaster death mark made by police in
1948 analysed and claims that the man was Carl "Charles" Webb, an electical engineer born in Melbourne in 1905. South Australia Police and Forensic Services have not confirmed Abbott's findings as they have not yet
seen the DNA evidence. ● The recent heatwave across England has revealed the original C17th design of the formal garden at the Chatsworth Estate in Derbyshire. The layout became evident after a drone
was used to film the parched garden from the air. ● British scientists studying the fossils of small plesiosaurs found in Morocco's Sahara Desert are arguing that, as the location was a freshwater river system 100 million
years ago, when the plesiosaurs lived there, they did not require saltwater. Because one of the strongest arguments against the cryptid Loch Ness Monster being an extant plesiosaur was that the species only lived in
saltwater the team claim their discovery strengthens the argument that Nessie could be a plesiosaur, if it exists. ● The FBI, acting on information from interviews with Frank Cappola, who worked at a landfill in
New Jersey as a teenager in the 1970s, have announced that they have not found any evidence of the remains of missing union leader Jimmy Hoffa on land next to the site. Hoffa disappeared in 1975, thought to have been
killed by mobsters to stop the growing influence of his Teamsters union. ● Human bones discovered under a demolished Chinese supermarket in Liverpool have been confirmed by police as 'historic', dating to around
100 years ago. ● The Castletown D-Day Centre museum in Portland, Dorset, had to be evacuated last week after a visitor handed a staff member a WWII hand grenade they had found "as a donation". Police
cordoned off the area and an army bomb disposal squad took the grenade away to destroy it in a controlled explosion. ● A bottle of sherry bottled in around 1858 and once owned by the first Duke of Wellington has
been auctioned for £1,527 ($1,840), more than twice its estimate. It was reported as still being drinkable. ● A signed and inscribed first edition, first print run, copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of
Secrets has sold at auction for £3,750 ($4,517). ● A copy of Shakespeare's first folio from 1623 has been auctioned for £2m ($1.7m). Only 232 of the 750 copies printed are known to exist, of which
212 are held by public libraries and museums.
- A bus driver who blacked out while driving his bus, carrying 38 passengers, near Stratford, Connecticut, has been charged with 38 counts of reckless endangerment. The bus came to a halt at the side of Interstate
95 and police found Jinhuan Chen slumped at the wheel with an open bag of Smokiez Edibles cannabis-infused fruit chews beside him. Chen had worked for the bus company for 10 years with an exemplary record according to
his manager. Chen claimed to have not known that it was anything more than regular candy. ● A woman whose car was stolen from outside a Memphis, Tennessee, hotel was contacted by a friend of a friend on social
media, offering to sell it back to her for $3,000 (£2,490). She agreed a time and place, then informed the police, who chased and arrested the man. ● An 18-year-old Kent man, drunk and in need of a lift
home, dialled 999 four times, telling police his name was 'Mr Bomb', that he was a member of ISIS and had left a nail bomb in the Mercure Great Danes Hotel in Hollingbourne, which was being used as a temporary court at
the time. He also gave them his real name, address and date of birth. Quite how he expected to get a lift home, rather than to a police cell, was not explained... In court recently he pleaded guilty to telling
police false information. ● A man who crashed his truck into a vacant shop in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, then fled the scene was probably relieved to be arrested by police after climbing into a nearby field only to find that
it was occupied by a flock of emus, which attacked him. ● At the end of April somebody cut through bundles of telephone and internet cabling under pavements at sites across Paris and authorities have no idea who
did it, or why.
- As the water level in Lake Mead continues to drop a third set of human remains has been uncovered. ● Facing its second heatwave in a month China has declared severe heat warnings for almost 70 cities. A bridge
in Quanzhou has been filmed as it buckled due to the heat. ● The French government is rolling out bans on shops with air conditioning keeping their doors open and the use of neon lighting between 01:00 and
06:00 nationwide to try to cut energy wastage. ● The location of the border between Switzerland and Italy on the Theodul Glacier, south of Zermatt, is determined by the location of the drainage divide on the
glacier, but as the ice melts the divide - and the border - is moving closer to Italy. ● Greenpeace is taking the British government to court over the approval of a North Sea gas project which will emit more
CO2 than the country of Ghana. ● Saudi Arabia has announced plans to build an entire city just 656' (200m) wide along a 100 mile (161km) line in the desert, flanked by 1,640'- (500m)-high mirrored
walls. According to the plans, the city will be car-free and run on 100% renewable energy. The project faces opposition from local tribes who would be relocated.
- In 2018 student Laura Nuttall, from Barrowfield, Lancashire, had a routine eye test which led to a diagnosis of gliobastoma multiforme, an aggressive form of brain cancer. Eight tumours were subsequently identified
and she was given just 12 months to live. After several rounds of radiotherapy and chemotherapy she returned to her studies and earlier this year Laura graduated from the University of Manchester with a degree in
politics, philosophy and economics. As well as studying for her degree Laura has been working through her bucket list. So far she has met Michelle Obama, taken comedian Peter Kay to a pub for drinks, commanded a Royal
Navy ship, been fishing with Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimer, had Johnny Marr dedicate a song to her at a gig and, this week, presented the weather forecast on the BBC's North West Tonight local news. She credits
her success to "a positive mindset".
IN BRIEF: An Alaskan Airlines flight from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco was returned to the terminal and delayed for 2 hours after the captain and first officer got into a fight and one of them stormed
off the plane. ● A bug on a dating website for anti-vaxxers has exposed the data - names, dates-of-birth, email addresses and (if entered) home addresses of 3,500 users. [An anti-vaxxer site not taking basic safety
precautions... who would have thought it... -Ed] ● A chess-playing robot has broken the finger of its seven-year-old opponent as the boy made his move, at an event in Moscow. ● A couple have been reunited
with their wedding photograph in time for their 57th anniversary after accidentally leaving it in a book donated to a charity shop three years ago; the manager was sorting through donations earlier this
year, found it, and posted it on social media in the hope of returning it to its owners - it was recognised within 24 hours. ● The night sky over Mildura, Australia, lit up bright pink recently, due to blackout
blinds at a medicinal cannabis farm not closing properly; the farm uses reddish lights to encourage the plants to grow. ● The International Quidditch Association, which organises a land-based game based on the
game played on broomsticks in the Harry Potter stories with 600 teams in more than 40 countries has announced that it is changing the name of its game to 'Quadball' to distance itself from creator J.K. Rowling's
much-criticised anti-transgender comments. ● Holy Trinity Church in Wingate, County Durham, has had to inform families that their deceased relatives are not buried in the right graves. The issue came to light
after Hilda Bell died, leaving wishes that she be buried alongside her husband, whose grave she and her children had been visiting for 17 years; when the grave was opened in preparation gravediggers discovered that it
contained the coffin of a woman. Six other graves have been opened so far in the search for Thomas Bell's coffin, without success, at least one of which was also found to contain the wrong person.
CORONAVIRUS ROUND-UP: Two peer-reviewed studies have been published this week which both corroborate that the COVID-19 outbreak began in Wuhan's seafood and wildlife market rather than as a leak from the Wuhan
Institute of Virology. One examined the location of reported cases and found that the first reports all came from people who worked or shopped at the market, or lived near it. The other study examined fluid swabs taken
from drains and surfaces in the market and found that positive samples were clustered around the area where animals susceptible to Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, were being sold.
UPDATES: Blake Lemoine, who last month claimed that the Google chatbot AI system he was working on had developed feelings has been fired for persistently violating "clear employment and data security
policies that include the need to safeguard product information". ● A new analysis of Tyrannosaurus rex in the wake of the study that claimed they were actually three separate species has
concluded that there was, as thought before, only one species, and variance between fossils merely reflects that, like other species including humans, differences in shape and size are normal.
At Sunday school the priest was telling the children about saying Grace before eating. "Little Jennifer," he asked, "do you pray to God before dinner?"
Little Jennifer thought for a moment, then smiled as only she could. "Only if Daddy's made it. My Mummy is a much better cook!"
