Strange stories from around the world, some of which might be true...
- Scientists in Mpumalanga, South Africa, have found the chemical traces of life in rocks more than 3.3 billion years old, just 2.2 billion years after the Earth formed. ● Police officers
driving down the A47 near Lowestoft, Suffolk on Sunday night were brought to a stop by a tawny owl walking across the road. They went to help but, according to a later statement "while the
team were swooping in to help, our wise friend decided it was time to take flight - clearly didn't fancy a ride in the back of a police car." ● The South West Wildcat Project is hoping
to reintroduce fifty European wildcats to the mid-Devon countryside, amid warnings that they could have a negative impact on barn owls as both species prey on voles and that arguments relying on the
sucessful reintroduction of wildcats in the Scottish highlands are not valid as Devon is more densely populated. ● A wolf in British Columbia has been filmed swimming out to a fishing float,
pulling it to shore and then pulling in the rope under it to recover a crab trap, which she tore open to eat the crab within. ● The Sigaus robustos, one of New Zealand's largest
grasshoppers is found in shades of grey or brown across the country but researchers recently photographed a pink specimen. The exceptionally rare colouring is thought to be caused by a genetic
mutation called erythrism which causes an imbalance in pigments. ● Scientists tracking the migration of Monarch butterflies between areas as far north as Ontario to their overwintering sites
in central Mexico have deployed new tiny solar-powered radio tags which weigh just 2/1000ths of an ounce (60mg), small and light enough to be fitted to two individual butterflies. The
resulting tracks showed the butterflies flying southwest through Ohio, southern Indiana, western Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Louisiana and Texas before turning south into Mexico.
- Astronomers are studying NGC 6789, a dwarf galaxy 12 million light years away in the constellation Draco. Like other galaxies NGC 6789 has been forging new stars, in its case for an estimated
600 million years, but star creation needs gas and NGC 6789 sits in the Local Void, an area of space devoid of anything detectable. Imaging of the galaxy shows no evidence of a recent merger, tidal
stream or any other disturbance that might have introduced gases into the galaxy. ● New analysis of terrestrial and lunar rock samples has suggested that Theia, the planet which is thought to
have collided with the young Earth, its ejecta going on to coalesce and form the Moon, was a rocky planet with a metallic core, between five and ten percent of the mass of the Earth, and formed in
the inner Solar System, closer to the Sun than the Earth.
- Archaeologists working in Westminster on a three-year programme of investigations for the Houses of Parliament Restoration and Renewal Delivery Authority have found more than sixty struck flint
flakes and a worked tool thought to date to the late Mesolithic or early Neolithic period, some 6,000 years ago. Previous discoveries on the Parliamentary estate have included an 800-year-old leather
boot, C19th clay tobacco pipes and a fragment of a Roman altar that had been incorporated into a later structure. ● Archaeologists in Guatamala have discovered a stone board for the
ancient Mayan board game patolli embedded in the floor of a C5th residential compound. ● A basalt tablet discovered in the Bashplemi Lake region of Georgia has been found to be
inscribed with sixty character across seven rows, in an unknown language. ● Underwater archaeologists excavating the bottom of Lake Lednica in Poland have discovered a 1,000-year-old carved
wooden face. It is thought that it might have served as a totem to ward off evil spirits from the settlement where it was found. ● Christie's auction house has withdrawn a rare machine from
sale. It was an example of La Pascaline, designed by mathematician Blaise Pascal in 1642 when he was just 19, and the first functioning calculating machine. It had been expected to sell for more
than €2m (£1.8m; $2.37m) but an appeal by scientists and researchers, concerned that it might be taken out of France, led the Paris administrative court to provisionally suspend its
authorisation for export and the auction to be withdrawn pending a definitive ruling. ● Frida Kahlo's 1940 self portrait El sueño (La cama) (The dream (the bed)) has sold at auction for
$54.7m (£41.8m), a record price for an artwork by a woman. ● A gold pocket watch carried on the Titanic has sold at auction for £1.78m ($2.34m). It had belonged to Isidor Straus, a
co-owner of Macy's department store in New York City. His body was recovered in the days after the liner sank, and the watch returned to his family. ● A pristine copy of Superman #1,
the debut solo appearance of the superhero in a comic book, published in 1939 and discovered in a California attic last year, has become the world's most expensive comic book, auctioning for a record $9.12m
(£6.96m).
- If you are going to drive above the speed limit at night it might be an idea not to draw attention to yourself, unlike the driver whose pickup police in Norfolk County, Ontario, recently impounded.
It was covered in strings of twinkling festive lights... ● The family of a Thai grandmother had gathered at a temple for her cremation service last Sunday when a worker, about to remove the
coffin from the back of a pickup truck on which it had made the four-hour journey to the temple, heard knocking and a voice from within. An ambulance was called to take Chonthirot, 65, to hospital.
● A former staffer for Republican congressman Jefferson Van Drew has been accused, along with a co-conspirator, of faking a violent political attack on herself. She had alleged that three men
had attacked them on a nature trail, tied her wrists and feet with zip ties, cut her dozens of times and written "Trump whore" on her stomach and a racist message on her back. She told
police that they had pulled her shirt over her head and threatened to shoot her. Police said that they found that her story and that of her co-conspirator did not match, that the co-conspirator had searched the Internet for
"zip ties near me" and identical zip ties to those used on the "victim" were found in her car. They also found a receipt showing that she had paid a body modification artist to cut her body on the
day of the alleged attack. She faces up to ten years in prison a $500,000 (£380,250) fine. Representative Van Drew is not a suspect. ● A man who told customs officers that the suspiciously
large bulge in the front of his trousers was "all him" was found to be smuggling two rare orange-fronted parakeets in small brown bags... [We do not know if he was wearing budgie smugglers... -Ed] ●
A man arrested in Maple Lake, Minnesota, suspected of driving a school bus while drunk, told police that the smell of alcohol on his breath that students reported was from NyQuil, an over-the-counter
medication for the common cold. Given that NyQuil is also a sleep aid, perhaps he was not thinking clearly... ● An unemployed former nurse in Italy has been charged with impersonating his late
mother, wearing a long skirt, 1970s blouse, earrings, pearl necklace, nail polish and lipstick, to claim on her pension for the last three years, following her death. He was caught when he tried to
renew her identity card. Police searching his house found her mummified body wrapped in sheets and a sleeping bag. Pending the results of a postmortem they think she had died of natural causes.
- Scientists in China have developed a process for making rubber and plastic without fossil fuels, using a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide with an iron-based catalyst. ● In a symbolic
end to the COP30 climate summit in Brazil, which like earlier COPs fell prey to fossil fuel advocates, thousands of attendees had to be evacuated from one of the exhibition pavilions in Belem, after a stand
caught fire. The fire was put out quickly and there were no injuries. ● Research analysing sediment samples from the bottom of lakes has show that current climate patterns in Europe are similar
to those 6,000 years ago, suggesting that the continent could face an additional 42 days of hot summer weather a year by 2100. ● The Hayli Gubbi volcano in Ethiopia has erupted after remaining
dormant for about 10,000 years, spreading a cloud of ash as far away as northern India and disrupting air travel. ● Seismologists have revealed that the earthquake swarm near the Greek island of
Santorini earlier this year was caused by molten rock moving about 12 miles (20km) through an underground channel. ● The British Geological Society has confirmed that two seismic events
equivalent to an "extremely small earthquake" were detected in Glasgow on Tuesday last week. They was caused by Scottish football fans at Hampden Park celebrating their team's victory over
Denmark to secure a place at the World Cup for the first time since 1998.
IN BRIEF: There was considerable amusement online recently after Elon Musk's X (formerly Twitter) introduced a new feature called "About this Account" which allows users to see
in which country accounts are based. Many of the most-followed right-wing, MAGA and pro-Trump accounts have been revealed to be based in countries outside the US, including India, Russia, Nigeria and
Bangladesh. ● A municipality worker mowing a stormwater retention basin in Bannewitz, south of Dresden, Germany, discovered eight 1oz (28.3g) gold bars. Two more were discovered later after he
had reported them. Police are attempting to track their origin and whether they are stolen, using serial numbers engraved on them. The ten bars are worth over £26,500 (€30,000; $34,900).
● A man who decided to dress as the Incredible Hulk for a night out in Benidorm, Spain, decided to use fabric paint rather than body paint because he thought the latter would sweat off and later
found that he had to spend days scrubbing his skin in the shower to get the paint off... ● A team at the Poytechnique Montréal in Canada has developed a better parachute - at least for
cargo packages. The parachute is a thin Mylar disk cut with a looping pattern that forms a cone shape in use. It was found to land within a few feet (~1-2m) of its target when dropped from 54' (16.5m)
even when dropped in wind or at different angles. ● Cambridge Dictionary has named 'parasocial', a relationship felt by someone between themselves and a celebrity they do not know in person,
as its word of the year. The word was first used in academic circles in 1956 America and only recently entered the mainstream. ● A new scientific theory has suggested that time does not exist
as a fundamental aspect of the universe but is an illusion caused by quantum entanglement. ● The International Association for Cryptologic Research is having to hold a second election for new
board members because votes were encrypted and three members of the committee each held a portion of the cryptographic key to decrypt them so they could be counted; one of the key holders lost their
part of the key rendering the results uncountable... ● A while ago magician Zi Teng Wang had an RFID chip implanted in his hand. It was programmed to link to an online meme for anyone who scanned
it. Unfortunately the meme was stored on image-sharing site Imgur, which blocked access from the UK in September in response to the introduction of age verification rules by the government, and Zi has
forgotten the password for the chip so he cannot reprogram it. ● Ripley's Believe It or Not! has been revealed as the purchaser of a second casting of America, a functioning solid gold
toilet by Maurizio Cattelan. The first casting was originally installed in a public bathroom at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City in 2016, then moved to Blenheim Palace in England, from where it
was stolen in 2019, presumed either broken up or melted down; three men were convicted earlier this year. Ripley's paid $12m (£9.13m) for their toilet.
UPDATES: The first saplings grown from seeds rescued from the Sycamore Gap tree after it was illegally felled in September 2023 have been planted in Coventry and Staffordshire, with others
set to be planted in Berkshire, Cambridge, Hexham, Leeds, Sunderland and Strabane, County Tyrone. A total of 49 saplings have been grown at an undisclosed location. The stump of the original tree is
still alive and has sprouted basal shoots. It will take more than 150 years to recover. ● Investigators have said that the collision of the Dali container ship with Baltimore's Francis Scott
Key Bridge last year was caused by a power outage as a result of a loose wire.
Little Jennifer's parents had asked her to read her homework to them. "Miss told us to write about our families," Little Jennifer said, then started reading.
"My Mummy is like the queen of the house. She often tells me what to do, but is fair about it, even if I don't do what she says."
"If Mummy's the queen," her father said, "does that mean I'm the king?"
Little Jennifer read on. "Daddy reminds me of God."
His chest puffed up, her father grinned at his wife. "God, huh, so I'm all powerful?"
Little Jennifer smiled as only she could and read on. "They are both really old and bossy..."
