Strange stories from around the world, some of which might be true...
- Since June the rural Australian town of Nannup has been host to a swarm of thousands of monarch butterflies. providing an added attraction for the town's annual flower and garden festival, but
experts have warned that their presence also indicates a problem with invasive weeds, especially milkweed and cotton bush, which the butterfly larvae feed on almost exclusively. ● Research
published in Discover Animals appears to show that whales and dolphins play together. Researchers studied 199 interactions between 19 whale and dolphin species at 17 locations around the world
and found that a quarter involved behaviour associated with socialising. ● Trawlermen off Dartmouth, Devon, were stunned to find that their net held an 8'- (2.4m)-long tuna. The fish weighed
32st (201kg), enough for 1,000 portions. They sold it to a wholesaler for £1,800 ($2,430). Overfishing drove the species to the brink of extinction in British waters in the 1960s but it has
been recovering. ● The first eaglet to fledge the nest of a golden eagle brought to Scotland as part of a program to increase their numbers across the British nations has been named Princeling
by naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, who said that the name symbolises hope for the species' restoration. ● A species of 'giant' spider is making a comeback in Britain, but
arachnopobes need not worry too much. The fen raft spider (or great raft spider) grows up to 2.8" (7cm) across and was almost extinct in the UK fifteen years ago but has recovered due to work by the
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. It is harmless to humans, living on damselflies, larvae, other spiders and sometimes small fish and tadpole in its native habitat of marshlands and ditches.
● After receiving reports of a family of swans by the A131 Regiment Way in Chelmsford, Essex, police stopped traffic and escorted the birds across the road to safety. Chief Inspector
Jennifer Bliss told reporters that "I'm pleased we were able to get this young family to safety from the side of a busy road. Fortunately, our officers are trained for a range of incidents so
didn't have to wing it. I'm also grateful for the patience of all the drivers on the road at the time. Incidents like this could have led to someone spitting feathers, but everyone was really
understanding."
- Everyone is familiar with lightning, the white streaks across the sky and down to the ground, but less well known are transient luminous objects (TLEs), including blue jets, red sprites,
ultraviolet rings and violet halos, which flash upwards from lightning storms. NASA has shared images from the European Space Agency's Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor, a device bolted on to the
side of the International Space Station since 2018, designed to record TLEs. The images include blue jets and red sprites, which last for just a few milliseconds. TLEs affect the atmosphere and can
disprupt aircraft flightpaths, so the more they can be researched the better. ● Earlier this week the Moon, Mercury, Venus and Jupiter were all visible in a line across the early morning sky,
with Saturn also visible.
- Archaeologists studying DNA recovered from skeletons in two 7th Century cemetaries, at Updown in Kent and Worth Matravers in Dorset, have reported that some of the individuals had West African
ancestry. It is well documented that there was migration from northern Europe to England at the time, notably the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, but evidence of movement from further afield has long been
lacking. ● Archaeologists in Mexico believe they have located the long-lost city of Sak-Baklán, the last city of the Lacandon people, to which Mayan rebels fled from Spanish conquistadors.
● Sotheby's in New York are to auction one of the late Eddie Van Halen's iconic guitars, a 1982 Kramer modified by Van Halen at Kramer's New Jersey factory to resemble his 1975
"Frankenstrat" design. Van Halen later gave the guitar to technician Robin Leiran, who sold it to Mötley Crüe's Mick Mars, who played it on their 1989 album Dr Feelgood.
According to Sotheby's the guitar, which shows "extensive wear from playing", should sell for $2-3m (£1.5-2.2m). ● Also due to be auctioned, by Bonham's in London, are a number of
props, costumes and other items from the TV series Downton Abbey and subsequent films. The lots include a signed script estimated at £600-800 ($812-1,080), the servants' hall bells, Lady Mary's
wedding dress and the 1925 Sunbeam Saloon family car. Proceeds from the auction will go to Together for Short Lives, a charity supporting children with life-limiting health conditions and their
families.
- A Soutwest Airlines pilot was removed from the cockpit shortly before the plane was due to leave the terminal and given three field sobriety tests, failing two. He was later charged with DUI and
had his pilot certification revoked. ● A 51-year-old man from Scotland was arrested after an evening tour of Pompeii, after being reported by a guide who had seen him "picking up pieces
of pavement". The stones were recovered from his backpack and returned to the historic site. The man faces a fine of over €1,400 (£1,200; $1,600) and up to six years in prison if
taken to court. ● Lancashire Police have appealed for information after receiving reports and doorbell footage of a man walking through Lytham in the dead of night wearing just a 'gimp' mask
and shoes last month.
- Experts are cautioning that the early appearance of berries, the dropping of apples and the yellowing and shedding of tree leaves this early in the year are not so much a sign of early autumn but
of trees and bushes in distress because of above-average temperatures; this summer is likely to have been one of the hottest on average in Britain since records began in 1884. ● Chinese scientists
have created a lithium battery with at least double the energy density of current lithium batteries. ● The hot weather has caused the water level of Burrator Reservoir on Dartmoor, Devon, to drop
by more than a half, revealing the remains of the village that was 'drowned' to create the reservoir in the late 19th Century. ● For the past 130 years geologists have monitored the
size and movement of the Ventina glacier in Italy using stakes pushed into the ground, but rockslides and debris caused by this summer's heat have buried the stakes and made the glacier unsafe for
in-person monitoring, so the Lombardy Glaciological Service has confirmed that it will use drones and remote sensing from now on. ● Parts of Juneau, state capital of Alaska, were flooded last
week by meltwater from the Mendenhall Glacier. A glacial lake in a valley to the north of the city is dammed by an ice wall and officials monitoring it had noticed that water was escaping the dam.
Evacuation orders and barriers were put in place, preventing hundreds of homes from being damaged. ● The iconic moai statues of Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, are the latest cultural site to be
placed at risk of destruction by rising sea levels after new modelling showed that seasonal waves could reach them as soon as 2080. ● A three-year study by scientists at the University of
California, using data from Mexico, Jamaica, Panama, Ecuador, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Kenya has found that two thirds of the rubbish found in rivers around the world is plastic or microplastic.
IN BRIEF: AOL is ending its dial-up Internet service after more than 30 years. The service, only still available in the US and Canada, had more than 30 million users at its peak but now has
fewer than 300,000 in the US. It will be withdrawn at the end of September. ● South Korea's Supreme Court has ruled that Pinkfong did not plagiarise the work of US composer Jonathan Wright
when they created the "Baby Shark" song, as both are based on a public domain folk song and Wright's version was not substantially different from the original to be considered a separate
piece of work under copyright law. [We apologise if you now have that earworm; if you do not, whatever you do, do not view the YouTube
video... -Ed] ● Faced with subsidence from mining a 113-year-old church building in Kiruna, Sweden, 90 miles (145km) north of the Arctic Circle, is being moved 3 miles (5km) to a new site.
The historic red-timbered 672 tonne structure has been raised onto wheeled transportation units and moved at a top speed of 1,640' (500m) per hour. The operation is expected to take two days. ●
Scientists at Stanford University are claiming that brain-computer interface (BCI) systems, used to help people operate prosthetic hands and other devices by interpreting brain impulses that would
activate muscles could be adapted to read signals sent to paralysed muscles used to control mouth movements for speech, effectively translating thoughts into words to enable people with severe speech
and motor impairments to communicate more naturally. ● The Bullseye Racing team has won this year's Le Mow 12-hour lawnmower race held in Wisborough Green, West Sussex. Whoever completes the
most laps on the ride-on mowers between 19:00 BST and 07:00 BST, with pit stops every 45 minutes to refuel and take care of any damage to the mowers - or drivers - wins. Teams comprise three drivers taking
turns. The first mower races were held in the town in 1973, and today's mowers can reach speeds of 55mph (889km/h). ● A copy of parenting guide Your Child, His Family, and Friends,
checked out from the San Antonio Public Library in July 1943, has been returned along with a note explaining that it was found in a box of books left behind by the sender's father after he died, and
must have been borrowed by their grandmother, adding that "I hope there is no late fee for it because Grandma won't be able to pay for it anymore." The library eliminated overdue fines in
2021. ● Bodhana Sivanandan, 10, from Harrow in London, has become the youngest female chess player to beat a grandmaster, at the 2025 British Chess Championship earlier this month, and the
youngest to receive the title of woman international master, the second-highest ranking title given to female chess players. ● Marius Anderson is travelling around the coast of Britain on a
red Massey Ferguson 35x tractor to raise money for five charities. ● If you are choosing a company name or rebranding you should always check if the Internet domain name is available, as cable
news channel MSNBC has discovered. As part of being spun off from Comcast's NBCUniversal MSNBC is to drop the 'NBC' and become My Source News Opinion World, or MS NOW. Unfortunately the domain
msnow.com already exists. It is a South Korean site promoting snow mobiles. ● Road workers in the Norfolk village of Old Hunstanton have caused amusement after single and double yellow lines,
intended to stop tourists parking on narrow roads instead of in a nearby pay-and-display car park, were painted decidedly wonkily... ● Grace Chambers, 97, has become Europe's oldest Parkrunner to
complete 250 runs. She ran her 250th run four weeks after undergoing heart surgery. ● If you thought the Scottish invention of deep-fried Mars Bars was unhealthy, a chip shop in
Telford has come up with something probably worse - a deep-fried Aldi Colin the Caterpillar cake... ● The Cambridge Dictionary has added more than 6,000 new words, almost all from Internet
culture. They include 'skibidi' (either 'cool' or 'bad' depending on context), 'delulu' (delusional), 'mouse jiggler' (software to move a mouse pointer to make it look as if someone working from
home is at their computer), 'tradwife' (a married woman who cooks, cleans, looks after her children and posts on social media) and 'broligarchy' (a group of extremely rich and powerful men who work
in technology and want political influence). ● A Ukranian sniper unit is claiming a new world record after shooting two Russian soldiers through a window from 2.5 miles (4km) away. ●
A lifesized 17th-Century effigy of the Virgin Mary in a Spanish Church, considered a national treasure, recently underwent routine restoration work which appalled churchgoers so much that
an emergency reworking was performed. The original restoration had left her looking as if she had false eyelashes, drastically lightened skin and changes to her dress and jewellery, but the reworking
has been described as even worse with her facial expression drastically altered.
