Strange stories from around the world, some of which might be true...
- A rare clouded leopard has been tracked by researchers on Borneo for a record six and a half years, using 13 camera traps, as part of a 15-year study of Sundra clouded
leopards. ● Giant otter triplets have been born at Chester Zoo. The species is one of the world's most endangered with fewer than 5,000 thought to exist in the wild
across South America. ● The British government has pledged £1m ($1.36m) to help fund the reintroduction of golden eagles to England following their return to the
Scottish borders. Golden eagles were wiped out in England by hunting in the 19th Century but survived in the Scottish Highlands and Islands. ● Two burrowing
owls who stowed away on a cruise ship sailing from Florida to Spain in February last year have been repatriated. The owls, named Benito and Concho, wowed passengers on the Royal
Caribbean ship Allure of the Sea [Owlure of the Sea? -Ed] but were caught and taken to The Foundation for Research in Ethology and Biodiversity in Toledo after the
ship docked in Cartagena where they were checked over and cared for until they could be returned to Florida. ● A 300-million-year-old fossil long thought to be the world's
oldest octopus has been re-examined and judged to be of another species, related to the modern Nautilus.
- Hydrogen is the most abundant chemical element in the universe, but it is almost impossible to detect as it does not emit light, although it will glow when near ultraviolet-emitting
stars. Astronomers have long thought that there are halos of hydrogen surrounding galaxies but only about 3,000 had been detected until recently. Analysis of almost half a
petabyte of data gathered by the Hobby-Eberly Telescope in Texas has identified more than 33,000 more such clouds of hydrogen, ranging from simple rugby ball-shaped clouds around
a single galaxy to complex-shaped clouds surrounding clusters of galaxies. ● Halley's Comet might be the most famous of the periodic comets, reappearing in the night sky
every 72-80 years (its last appearance being in 1986) but a much rarer periodic comet should now be visible in the early morning skies. Comet C/2025 R3 (aka PANSTARRS)
is nearing its closest approach to the Sun and its maximum brightness. It should be visible using binoculars as a fuzzy ball in the constellation of Pegasus about an hour before
dawn. If you miss it this time, its next visit will be in about 170,000 years... ● The European Space Agency has revealed that data from its JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moons
Explorer), turned while en-route to Jupiter, to look at the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, showed that the comet was emitting the equivalent of 70 swimming pools of water every
day as it passed the Sun.
- Builders working on a new courtyard at a department store in Ripon, North Yorkshire, have discovered a 42'- (12.8m)-deep medieval stone-lined well. Sterne Properties,
the developer, plans to install a reinforced glass cover over the well to make it a feature of the location. ● Archaeologists in Poland studying a 2,000-year-old
mummified Egyptian boy may be closer to finding out his identity. All the documentation about the mummy was lost during World War II, but CT and X-ray scanning of the mummy
inside its decorated casing has revealed a mysterious object lying on its chest, beneath the bandages. It is possible that it is a rolled-up scroll bearing his name. Because
they cannot cut open the casing or the mummy without damaging them it is hoped that high definition scans and AI, such as was used to virtually unroll burned papyrus scrolls
recovered from Pompeii and Herculaeum, could be used to 'read' the scroll without touching it. ● Archaeologists working to recover artefacts from a Hidalgo, Mexico, site
before a train line is built over it have discovered a 3-level 3' (1m) square stone altar dating to around 1,000 years ago. Around the altar they found four human skulls, several
femurs, a black ceramic bowl, fragments of obsidian and several blades. ● Volunteer archaeologist Amanda Craig, using a metal detector on a dig at Culloden in Scotland,
picked up a strong signal so she called over the senior archaeologists to make sure whatever it was was dug up safely. What she had found was a 16lb (7.26kg) unexploded mortar
shell, shot at forces loyal to Bonnie Prince Charlie by government troops at the Battle of Culloden in 1745. Experts found that the shell was still full of gunpowder, but it had
degraded and was no longer capable of exploding. It is theorised that the shell had landed on wet ground which extinguished its since-rotted-away fuse.
- A disgruntled employee has been charged with arson after setting fire to a 1.2-million sq. ft (111,000m2) warehouse full of toilet paper and other paper products
in Ontario, California. The fire needed 175 firefighters and 15 fire engines to put it out. Chamel Abdulkarim, 29, filmed himself setting the fire and complaining that
"All you had to do was pay us enough to live. [..] There goes your inventory", which he allegedly posted to social media. ● When a driver sped off from a traffic
stop in Buffalo, New York, because his car did not have license plates, police gave chase and eventually stopped his car. They noticed a sticker on the 2015 Dodge Charger which
read "Sorry, officer, I thought you wanted to race." The driver was charged with third-degree unlawful fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle, third-degree
aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and several traffic violations. ● Police who stopped a car in Cayuga County, New York, last Friday after they saw
it being driven in the wrong lane, found three people inside. When they asked the man in the back seat to show his hands he instead bent forward and set something on fire.
The three were safely evacuated as the fire spread through the car and were arrested, before officers extinguished the flames. They found - unburned - about 0.07oz (2g) of
crack cocaine, a lighter and a smoking device containing drug residue inside the car. Douglas H. Wilson, 56, the passenger in the back seat, was charged with fourth-degree arson,
two counts of seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, two counts of second-degree reckless endangerment, tampering with physical evidence and second-degree
obstructing of governmental administration.
- Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in America, is at near record low water levels, having dropped by 6' (1.8m) in a month. The water temperature is higher
than it should be, both problems partly due to a reduced level of snowmelt over the winter. The warmer water could cause problems for the turbines in the Hoover Dam, which are
cooled by the lake water. ● Scientists at Reading University's Atmospheric Observatory have reported that this year has seen the earliest date that temperatures hit
25oC (77oF) in the Berkshire town, on April 8th. The previous record, April 16th, was recorded in 1943, 1945, 1949 and 2003, with
such temperatures not normally reached until after mid-May. ● Flights at Kagoshima airport in Japan were grounded or delayed and roads were closed after the Sakurajima
volcano, some 5 miles (8km) from the city, erupted last Saturday. It was the first major eruption of the volcano this year, but the second in four months. ● Scientists
in China have created a small floating generator that converts the impact of raindrops into low-level electrical charge, enough to run low-power devices rather than homes.
● The Annandale Distillery near Annan, Scotland, is looking to become the first decarbonised whisky producer by harnessing wind power to heat its stills, bottling and
maturing whisky on-site to reduce road usage, switching to electric vehicles and looking for ways to re-use spent grain and carbon dioxide from the distilling process. ●
The World Meteorological Organization, the United Nations' weather agency, has warned that the world's climate is more out of balance that at any recorded time, a situation
likely to be worsened by a possibly more powerful than usual El Niño, the near-cyclical warming of the Pacific Ocean.
IN BRIEF: If you have used Google you have probably seen the AI-generated "summaries" at the top of search results [You can disable them by adding '-ai' to
your search. -Ed]. Analysis conducted for the New York Times has found that the summaries are accurate about 91% of the time, which sounds impressive, but with five
trillion searches made on Google every year, it means that tens of millions of the summaries produced every hour are garbage. ● Gentleman's Relish, the anchovy, butter,
herbs and spices paste condiment beloved by some people, has been discontinued after almost 200 years. ● A power station at the northern end of the Wamesit Canal in
Lowell, Massachusetts, was critically damaged by a fire last weekend, after firefighters found that the nearest hydrant was several hundred feet away. The power station was
hydroelectric... ● The ChatGTP AI system was recently asked to critique a piece of 'music'. It said that there was a clear aesthetic, sounded intentional, with a solid
core idea and could work as a full track. The 'music' was 37 seconds of wet farting noises... ● CNN has had to apologise after broadcasting an obituary video for actor
Michael J. Fox. Fox is very much still alive, aged 64, and campaigning to promote stem cell research into Parkinson's disease. ● Oakwood Proper Burgers, a small
take-away restaurant in Traverse City, Michigan, held a 1,000 Burger Challenge event last Saturday, selling 1,218 burgers and 1,900 gift cards in under nine hours, raising tens
of thousands of dollars, plus another $10,000 (£7,370) from an anonymous donor, for "Chef Tim" Bergstrom, a burger cook facing hefty medical bills as he fights
cancer. Bergstrom does not work at Oakwood Proper Burgers. His Berstrom's Burgers is a competitor restaurant across town. Oakwood was not alone in their heartfelt help for
Bergstrom. Local bakeries donated burger buns and cinnamon rolls, a nearby drinks company donated cases of hand-crafted drinks and the brewery next door opened early to
accomodate the overflowing queue. ● If there is one thing British people are known for it is silent rage at small annoyances. A survey of 2,000 people has found the top
things that annoy us Brits. Top of the list, to absolutely nobody's surprise, is queue jumping. Other annoyances include loud chewing, late public transport, slow walkers,
forgetting to drink your tea before it gets cold, incorrect dishwasher loading, leaving the toilet seat up, opening jars and tins, bin men blocking the road and people putting
their feet up on bus or train seats...
Little Jennifer walked into the kitchen at breakfast time to find her mother holding the biscuit jar and looking annoyed. "Little Jennifer,"
her mother said, "when we all went to bed last night there were three chocolate biscuits in this jar, now there's only one. What do you have to say?"
Little Jennifer thought for a moment then smiled as only she could. "It was dark last night, Mummy. I must have missed the last one!"
^ ...end of line
