Keeping up with all the news in the world can be a difficult task for anyone. That’s why we are here to help with a few weekly lists that look at some of the most notable events that occurred recently. Click here to find out about the crucial stories that made the headlines, or read on to find out about some bizarre and unique tales.

We have a few architectural stories this week about the world’s largest 3-D-printed bridge and an ancient stone circle that wasn’t so ancient. Two World War mysteries get answers, and we explore a budding rivalry between Canada and Norway over which country has the largest moose. In the world of cosmology, we have two new ideas to explore—one is about an alternative to the elusive Planet Nine and the other about the origins of black holes.

10 Enter The Moose Wars

A war is brewing between Canada and Norway over which country has the world’s tallest moose statue.

The city of Moose Jaw in Saskatchewan is home to Mac the Moose, a 9.8-meter-tall (32 ft) sculpture which was the largest moose in the world for over 30 years. It lost that title in 2015 when Norwegians from Stor-Elvdal built Storelgen (“The Big Elk”)—a shiny, stainless steel bull built 30 centimeters (12 in) higher with the express purpose of becoming the new tallest moose in the world.

It seems that the Canadians have had enough. Two comedians, Justin Reves and Greg Moore, have pleaded with the people of Moose Jaw to fight back and reclaim the record. They have set up an online fundraiser in the hopes of raising $50,000 to hire an engineer to increase the size of Mac. They have the support of the city’s mayor, Fraser Tolmie, who revealed that the fight is personal for him as the moose was named after his wife’s great-uncle.^[1]

The Scandinavians say there is no chance that they will let this one go. Stor-Elvdal’s deputy mayor, Linda Henriksen, said that they will do whatever they can to ensure that Storelgen keeps the title. They are prepared to double the size of their moose, if need be, but are waiting on the Canadians to act first.

9 The Not-So-Ancient Stone Circle

Scottish archaeologists were shocked to find out that an “ancient” stone circle they had been studying was actually built in the 1990s.

The “recumbent stone circle” in Leochel-Cushnie, Aberdeenshire, was hailed as a unique landmark because it was smaller in size than other similar monuments. Archaeologists discovered it on a farm last year and initially believed it to be 3,500–4,500 years old because that is the time period in which most stone circles were built throughout the northeast of Scotland.

Earlier this month, researchers from Historic Environment Scotland received a disheartening call from the former owner of the farm. He told them that the “ancient” monument was just a replica that he built in the mid-1990s.

Aberdeenshire council spokesman Neil Ackerman described the revelation as “disappointing” but still considers the circle a great addition to the local landscape. The modern replica will be included in official records going forward to prevent any future misidentifications.^[2]

8 The Shepherding Disk Hypothesis

A new study published in The Astronomical Journal proposes an alternative to the mysterious Planet Nine which would account for the bizarre observations made in the Kuiper Belt.

The idea of an undiscovered planet hiding somewhere in the outer solar system appeared when Caltech astronomers discovered icy bodies which were moving together in a doughnut shape as if they were gravitationally tethered to a large object. Later, other researchers found more trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) with eccentric orbits which showed that there was something interfering with their rotation. Scientists speculated that Planet Nine was responsible.

A team from the University of Cambridge and the American University of Beirut opined that, instead of one giant object, the culprit was a massive ice disk comprised of numerous small bodies spread out over a large area. They call this the “shepherding disk hypothesis” and claim that the collective attractions of all those objects would be enough to interfere with the orbits of other TNOs.^[3]

While this is more feasible than an undetected planet, there is yet no observational evidence to support the claim.

7 Like A Prayer

Pope Francis has launched an app which allows Catholics around the world to join him in prayer.

The application is called “Click to Pray” and was launched ahead of World Youth Day 2019. It is currently available in six languages. With the app, users will know exactly when the pope is praying and what he is praying for.^[4]

During a demo from an upstairs window of the Apostolic Palace, the pontiff prayed for Colombia and the Mediterranean Sea, referring to a car bomb that claimed the lives of 20 police cadets and shipwrecks that killed hundreds of migrants in the Mediterranean, respectively.

Catholics can check the pope’s profile on “Click to Pray” to find out his intentions and even click on an icon to indicate that they joined him in prayer.

6 Who Was Spandau #7?

A recent DNA study put to bed an old World War II conspiracy theory which claimed that inmate Spandau #7 was not the real Rudolf Hess but a doppelganger.

One of the leading members of the Nazi Party, Rudolf Hess went to Scotland alone in May 1941. He was arrested, put on trial, and sent to Spandau Prison in 1947. He spent the rest of his life as inmate Spandau #7 until he was found hanged in his cell in 1987.

Some people believe that the prisoner was not the real Hess. They have claimed that there were some physical discrepancies such as the lack of chest scars consistent with his World War I injuries or the lack of a gap in his front teeth.^[5]

Spandau #7 also refused to see relatives until 1969 and, at one point, claimed to have amnesia. There were prominent people who believed Hess had been replaced with a look-alike, including his doctor at Spandau and US President Franklin Roosevelt.

This conspiracy seemed destined to remain a mystery. There were no physical remains to analyze. Hess’s body was cremated and his grave site destroyed when it became a pilgrimage for neo-Nazis.

However, scientists found a blood sample taken from the inmate in 1982. It had been placed on a microscope slide and hermetically sealed for decades. They tracked down a male relative of Hess and compared their DNA. There was a 99.99 percent chance that they were related. Spandau #7 was Rudolf Hess.

5 For Whom The Bell Tolls

From a solved World War II mystery, we travel further back to World War I. Two historians believe that they have identified the Italian soldier who bore the brunt of a mortar attack and inadvertently saved the life of a young Ernest Hemingway.

An 18-year-old Hemingway was serving as a Red Cross volunteer on the battleground along the Piave River on the Austro-Italian front. He was hit by a mortar shell which gravely wounded the young American. Nevertheless, he survived because most of the impact was taken by an Italian soldier who was standing next to him.

American author James McGrath Morris and Italian historian Marino Perissinotto think they have identified the infantryman through the process of elimination. Eighteen Italian soldiers died that night. Fifteen of them were deployed in different parts of the front. Two of the remaining three were with the 152nd regiment a few kilometers behind the front line. That only left a 26-year-old private from Montalcino named Fedele Temperini.^[6]

As further evidence, the two researchers found a military report from an officer at a Red Cross station in the Republic of San Marino. It said that Hemingway was treated alongside an Italian soldier who succumbed to his wounds. The Italian was from the 69th infantry regiment which was Temperini’s unit. The historians are currently lobbying to have Temperini’s name included on a memorial along the Piave River where Hemingway was injured.

4 Monty Strikes Again

Melbourne’s infamous Montague Street Bridge has claimed its first victim of 2019 after 224 days of peace.

The bridge colorfully referred to as “Monty” has a low clearance of just 3 meters (10 ft). Ever since its construction over 100 years ago, it has been the bane of unaware truck drivers who plow into it and get their vehicles stuck under the bridge.

It is hard to say exactly how many collisions have taken place. A website keeps track of how many days have passed since the last crash, but it only goes back to 2016. Even so, it still has 20 entries. That does not count the most recent hit which took place this Tuesday.^[7]

In an effort to put an end to these collisions, Victorian traffic authority VicRoads installed height detection gantries on the main approaches to the bridge with black and yellow paddles. If the top of the truck hits the paddles, that means it will also hit Monty.

In total, 26 different warning signs advise drivers of the bridge’s low clearance. Even so, 14 crashes still occurred since the gantries have been installed. But a VicRoads spokesman feels that “stacks of accidents” have been prevented.

Some accidents are more serious than others. Last month, a bus driver received a five-year sentence after crashing a bus into the bridge and severely injuring six passengers.

3 Toilet Snake

Australia is currently experiencing blistering hot weather, and animals are taking refuge wherever they can. One snake sneaked into the toilet of a home in Brisbane and then bit a woman when she sat on the toilet.

Helen Richards was visiting relatives. In the night, she went to the bathroom without turning on the lights and did not see the 1.5-meter (5 ft) carpet python cooling off in the toilet.

As soon as she sat down, Helen felt a “sharp tap” which made her jump off the seat with her pants around her ankles. When she turned around, she saw something which resembled a “longneck turtle receding back into the bowl.”^[8]

Fortunately for Helen, the snake was nonvenomous and the bites were relatively harmless. She was fine after being treated with an antiseptic, and the snake was removed by a reptile handler.

2 Bridge Over The Small Canal

The longest 3-D-printed bridge in the world is now open to the people of Shanghai.

The concrete bridge is 26 meters (86 ft) long and was constructed by a team from the Tsinghua University School of Architecture in Beijing entirely using 3-D-printing technology. It is located in Shanghai’s Baoshan District and was modeled on the ancient Zhaozhou (Anji) Bridge, which is the oldest standing bridge in China.

The crossing consists of 112 separate concrete units—44 for the body and 68 for the two flowing sides. It also contains monitoring systems which keep track of the internal stress placed on the bridge in real time. According to designer Professor Xu Weiguo, they were all produced in just 450 hours and cost only a third of what a regular bridge of similar size would cost.^[9]

1 Dark Matter Halos Create Black Holes

Given how elusive and mysterious black holes are supposed to be, scientists seem to be discovering new things about these celestial objects every week. This recent finding, however, has the potential to completely rewrite our understanding of the cosmic phenomenon as it suggests that the first massive black holes of the primordial universe were made in halos of dark matter.

The study was published in Nature with backing from NASA, the EU, and the National Science Foundation and is the result of an international effort from researchers from the United States and Ireland. It shows that when galaxies formed very rapidly and very violently, they disrupted the normal formation of stars and triggered the creation of black holes.

This newly discovered mechanism would have been particularly prevalent in halos of dark matter due to their rapid growth. According to one of the paper’s authors, Georgia Tech astrophysics professor John Wise, forming massive black holes requires “being in a rare region with an intense convergence of matter.”^[10]

If this new model is correct, then it shifts away from the previously accepted thinking that massive black holes could only appear when exposed to huge levels of radiation powerful enough to inhibit star formation. It also suggests that they are far more common than we previously thought.

Another week is in the history books, which means we have another week’s worth of bizarre and unique stories to go through. Be sure to also check out the mind-blowing list to get fully up-to-date regarding the important happenings of the last few days.

We cover a few enigmas this week. There is something really strange happening in a tiny Canadian town, while Spanish authorities are trying to determine the mystery owner of a plane sitting in the Madrid airport. A third conundrum is put to rest as archaeologists rediscover the burial ground of an English explorer lost 150 years ago.

In science news, researchers planned one of the most ambitious experiments in history, developed a laser that whispers in your ear, and saw if Spock is wiser than Yoda.

10 Fortunate Folk Find Flinders, Finally

Archaeologists excavating for England’s new High Speed 2 (HS2) railway uncovered the final resting place of Captain Matthew Flinders, an explorer whose burial location was lost to history roughly 150 years ago.

At the start of the 19th century, Flinders led the first European circumnavigation of Australia. In total, he made three trips to the continent and recorded his adventures in a popular book called A Voyage to Terra Australis. He died in 1814 and was buried at St James’s Church in the center of London. Over the following decades, the cemetery saw extensive alterations and was finally turned into St James’s Gardens in 1878. Later, parts of the gardens were built over for the Euston railway station.

By then, people had long forgotten where Flinders was buried, although there was always a myth that the captain was interred below platform 15. That didn’t turn out to be the case, though, as his remains were found while digging for a new high-speed railway. Fortunately, Flinders was buried with a lead breastplate which had not corroded and still had his named engraved on it.^[10]

The remains will, most likely, be reburied at a new location yet to be determined. This spot was just one of 60 archaeological sites along the route of the future HS2 which will be explored before construction can begin.

9 The Ghost Plane Of Madrid

Officials from the Madrid-Barajas Airport in Spain are trying to find out who parked and abandoned a jetliner on their tarmac.

The Madrid airport might be among the largest in Europe, but even for a place of this size, it is unusual to leave an airplane untouched for years. And the aircraft is a McDonnell Douglas MD-87, a jetliner that seats over 100 passengers, so it isn’t exactly tiny.^[2] And yet it has been parked in the same place so long that airport authorities don’t know who owns it anymore.

Airport director Elena Mayoral placed a notice in the official Spanish bulletin regarding the abandoned plane. In accordance with Spanish law, officials must publish these notices for three straight months and then wait a year for the owner to come forward before being able to auction off the plane. So it looks like the aircraft will stay right where it is for the foreseeable future.

8 Vanilla Inebriation

A woman from Connecticut was arrested for driving under the influence of vanilla extract.

If there is one thing to learn from history, it’s that humans have always enjoyed getting wasted. No matter how unusual or unpleasant a substance might be, if it gets you blotto, then there will be someone somewhere willing to try it.

Our latest example is Stefanie Warner-Grise, a 50-year-old woman from New Canaan, Connecticut. Officers investigated a report that she had stopped her car in an intersection and was sitting in the driver’s seat with her eyes closed. A quick chat revealed that she was clearly inebriated, and after a failed sobriety test, she was taken into custody.

As it turned out, Warner-Grise had gotten drunk off vanilla extract.^[3] Officers found several bottles in her car and could smell the scent of vanilla on her breath. Vanilla extract is surprisingly potent. Per US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations, the solution must be 35-percent alcohol by volume, at least. The alcohol typically evaporates during cooking, but if you drink it straight up, it is slightly less intoxicating than whiskey.

7 The Whisper Laser

Researchers from MIT have created lasers that can whisper sounds directly into a person’s ear.

The system works based on a phenomenon called the photoacoustic effect, which causes sound waves to form when a material absorbs light. In this case, the material is the water vapor naturally found in air. A 1.9-micrometer thulium laser is pointed at someone’s ear, excites the moisture surrounding it, and is able to quietly transmit a message to that person.

The MIT team experimented with different wavelengths and found the ones which are best absorbed by water. They also developed two techniques of transmitting the signal. One is through traditional modulation, while the other one sweeps the beam back and forth by bouncing it off a mirror. The former method provides higher audio fidelity, while the latter creates a louder message.^[4]

The scientists behind the technology claim the laser is perfectly safe and believe it will have numerous commercial applications in the future. At the moment, the “whisper” beams work at a distance of 2.5 meters (8 ft), so the next goal will be to move up to longer distances.

6 Yoda vs. Spock

Star Wars vs. Star Trek is a decades-old rivalry. Fans of the two iconic sci-fi franchises are always butting heads, but Canadian researchers from the University of Waterloo have stepped in to settle one debate: Who is wiser? Spock or Yoda?

The tiny ancient Jedi and the Vulcan second-in-command are generally considered to be the smartest characters in their respective franchises and have become archetypes of sage wisdom, but is there a way to determine if one is superior to the other?

There is one trait which distinguishes the two—emotion. Spock dismisses anything he considers illogical and refrains from showing almost any emotion, while Yoda teaches his pupils to embrace their feelings and does so himself. Researchers ascertain that a rich emotional life would be beneficial to wisdom, which is why the Jedi master is the wiser of the two.

Psychologist Igor Grossman and his team ran various experiments over four years involving almost 3,700 participants to see how emotional states impacted the reasoning process. They concluded that experiencing a diverse and balanced range of emotions leads to wise reasoning—a state defined by intellectual humility, recognition of different perspectives, and willingness to integrate and compromise.^[5]

5 Enter The Hellevator

A group of Welsh shoppers experienced an ordeal out of a horror movie as they were trapped for 40 minutes in an elevator which repeatedly climbed to the top and then plunged back down again.

Last Saturday, over a dozen people became stuck in a lift at the St David’s Shopping Center in Cardiff. Being trapped in an elevator is nerve-wracking on its own, but this machine kept going to the top of the mall and then forcefully going back down as it jolted all of its occupants. It did this for 40 minutes before a fire brigade was able to get everyone out.^[6] To make matters worse, the helpline was not working for the first ten minutes, so the people stuck inside had no idea what was going on.

Physically, everybody was fine, although they did all receive the fright of their life, and one young girl suffered a panic attack. A spokeswoman for the shopping center didn’t give any reason for the malfunction, simply stating that there were no previous reports of faults with the elevator. For their ordeal, the shoppers were given free parking passes.

4 The 500-Year Experiment

Scientists from the University of Edinburgh have published the initial results from an experiment which is designed to run for the next 495 years.

Back in 2014, a group of researchers from Scotland, Germany, and the United States banded together to study the longevity of bacteria. Charles Cockell, one of the collaborators, once forgot about a petri dish with Chroococcidiopsis, only to find that the cells were still viable ten years later. Other scientists were able to revive bacteria much older than that. So how long do bacteria last for, anyway? And is there a predictable way to calculate the rate of loss of viability?

These are the questions that the research team wants to answer, but even if the experiment succeeds, none of them will be around to enjoy it. That is because the test is scheduled to end in 2514.^[7] They have only just published the initial results following the first two years of waiting.

The experiment consists of 800 glass vials hermetically sealed and filled with Chroococcidiopsis or Bacillus subtilis. Half of them are shielded from radiation using lead. Performing the evaluation is easy. All the tester has to do is take a few vials periodically, open them, add water, and check the number of bacteria colonies. The tricky part is finding people to keep the experiment running hundreds of years from now.

3 Burglars Burrow Beneath Bank

Police officers from Florida investigated a sinkhole and discovered that it was actually an unfinished tunnel leading underneath a bank.

Wednesday morning, Pembroke Pines PD got a call about a possible sinkhole near a shopping center. Upon closer inspection, officers realized that the hole was a narrow tunnel that someone had dug from a nearby wooded area to reach the Chase Bank inside the plaza. In the tunnel, police recovered a small generator and a power cord. They also found a winch, a ladder, a stool, a pair of muddy boots, and a small wagon outside the entrance, which was covered with a wooden pallet.

FBI special agent Michael D. Leverock described the situation as “truly a unique case.” He said the tunnel was “very claustrophobic” and was 45 meters (150 ft) long and around 90 centimeters (3 ft) in diameter.^[8] Scent dogs have determined that there aren’t any bodies inside the tunnel. Authorities aren’t sure yet if the tunnel was abandoned or if the recent rainfall caused it to collapse. They have posted photos of the wagon and the generator, hoping that someone might be able to identify the would-be bank robbers.

2 The Carstairs Conundrum

Something strange is happening in a small town in Alberta, Canada, and nobody is able to figure out why. Cars are acting bizarrely when they are parked outside the Westview Co-op grocery store in Carstairs.

The most common issue seems to be key fobs that stop working, but there have also been alarms that go off for no reason and cars that simply won’t start.^[9] The problems seem to have been going on for weeks and are concentrated in the parking lot of the co-op. The store managers have called in electricians, but they have not been able to solve the mystery. At the very least, they shut down the power source from the co-op to confirm that it isn’t the cause of the interference.

The RCMP confirmed that they have received multiple reports regarding the parking lot and, ultimately, plan to look into it, but they admit that it is not a high priority.

With no official answer, people have begun to speculate regarding the cause of the interference. They think it could be anything from LED bulbs or a radio antenna to train tracks and nearby security systems. And, of course, aliens.

Update: The mystery has since been solved. A remote car starter in the vicinity was stuck in transmit mode, causing the interference. Neither the co-op nor aliens were to blame.

1 Burger And Coke

A new fast food restaurant in Melbourne, Australia, called Pablo’s Escoburgers has garnered a lot of attention recently because it is themed around infamous Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar.

The centerpiece of the controversy seems to be the restaurant’s signature “Patron Burger,” which is served with a line of white powder and a rolled-up American $100 bill.^[10] Of course, the money is fake, and the powder is actually white garlic, but people still found it in poor taste.

Critics are saying that the restaurant is profiting off the misery of the drug trade by glorifying one of the world’s most ruthless criminals and making light of drug use. The backlash to the burger joint prompted one of the co-owners to release a statement saying that they have no intention to offend and are simply “taking the piss” out of Escobar while enjoying a good play on words. At the moment, the restaurant has no plans to change the name or the menu.

Let’s start the weekend with a look at some of the strangest things that have occurred over the last few days. We can also help you catch up on the important goings-on in the world by clicking here.

This week is a blast from the past as we explore several mysteries that were considered dead and buried. They include the infamous Dyatlov Pass incident and the suspicious circumstances surrounding James Brown’s death. We also appreciate the efforts of the British Library to bring historical erotica to the masses.

There are also a few criminal capers to talk about: a successful diamond heist in Belgium and a not-so-successful robbery attempt in Canada which was foiled by bananas.

10 Beware Of Dragon

North Wales Police are warning motorists traveling on the A5 motorway near Tregarth, Gwynedd, to pay attention to the road and not the dragon sitting beside it.

Okay, so the dragon is not real but rather a 7.6-meter-long (25 ft) carving called Y Ddraig Derw (“the Oak Dragon”). Using a chainsaw, Simon O’Rourke sculpted the dragon from a fallen oak tree. The carving sits on private property facing the road.

As you might expect, the impressive dragon is something of an eye-grabber which isn’t ideal for road safety. Drivers keep slowing down suddenly to look at it. The sculpture has been in place for about a month and has led to one accident and numerous near misses.^[1]

Although Welsh police say they “love the oak dragon,” they urge drivers to keep their full concentration on the road and to park somewhere safely if they want to take a good look at it. So far, the owner of the carving hasn’t announced any plans to move it somewhere out of view.

9 Super Bowl Scandal

Super Bowl LIII is in the history books. There was one juicy bit of controversy to come out of it, but it had nothing to do with the actual game. Gamblers are arguing over the exact duration of Gladys Knight’s rendition of the national anthem.

Americans wagered around $6 billion on the match. However, not all the bets were placed on the outcome or the score. So-called “prop bets” are getting increasingly popular, and they can be placed on all kinds of things—from the half-time show to the color of the Gatorade that will be poured on the winning coach.

One prop bet concerned the duration of the anthem. This year, the “Empress of Soul” Gladys Knight did the honors and most betting sites had the over/under line at 1 minute and 50 seconds.

This meant that people could bet on the song lasting for more or less than 1:50. It sounded like Knight finished singing “home of the brave” at 1:49, meaning that under won. However, she then repeated the words “the brave,” thus clocking in at around two minutes and giving the bet to over.

This is the controversy: Does the anthem end when the official lyrics end or when the performer stops singing altogether? There was a lot of debate given that the decision determined who gets paid and who does not. One sportsbook avoided unhappy customers by paying out on both sides of the line, while most others concluded that the clock stops after the original “brave.”^[2]

8 Banana Attack Makes Robber Split

A 69-year-old store owner was able to fend off a would-be robber by hitting him repeatedly with a bunch of bananas.

Seungae Kim operates a convenience store with her husband in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. On Saturday night, she was at the till eating a banana when a masked man walked inside and demanded that she open the cash register. When she refused, the robber tried to jump over the counter.^[3]

That’s when Seungae started to fight back. She grabbed the first thing she could get her hands on and started hitting the thief in the face. Her weapon of choice was a bunch of bananas, but it did the trick. After a few smacks, the masked criminal turned around and walked toward the exit. As the security footage showed, Seungae wasn’t finished and threw the bananas after him.

In a later interview, the store owner said that she was more concerned with protecting her husband than she was with the money in the till.

7 It’s Not Smutty If It’s Historical

If you’ve ever had an interest in historical erotica, your day is about to get a lot better. The British Library has digitized and will soon publish online its “Private Case”—a collection of 2,500 erotic and pornographic volumes from the 17th century onward.

Included in the collection is the Merryland series. First published in the mid-18th century, it is a group of erotic books which metaphorically refer to the study of the female body as new land that needs to be explored and “ploughed.” They have been written by multiple authors, many anonymous, and feature a narrator named Roger Pheuquewell.

Also in the collection are the works of the Marquis de Sade and dozens of copies of Fanny Hill or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure. Written in 1748 by John Cleland, it is considered to be the first original pornographic novel in the English language. The oldest volume in the “Private Case” is a book called Rare Verities: the Cabinet of Venus Unlocked and Her Secrets Laid Open from 1658.

Some volumes are more practical than others. For example, Harris’s Lists of Covent-Garden Ladies is an 18th-century directory of female prostitutes in London. Entries contain names, addresses, and small descriptions. Miss Spencer from No. 35, Newman Street, for example, “is never so good a companion as when a little enlivened with the juice of the grape.”^[4]

6 USB Drive Sealed Away

Scientists from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in New Zealand have been studying seal poop to monitor the health and diet of seal populations. They made an interesting discovery inside one scat sample—a USB stick full of holiday photos.

The sample in question had been collected from a leopard seal on Oreti Beach, Invercargill, by a vet and sent to the research facility over a year ago. It had been frozen and stored for most of that time before being thawed out to be analyzed.

Researchers let the USB stick dry out for a few weeks but then discovered that it was still in pretty good condition “considering where it had come from.”^[5] On it they found pictures of seals, sea lions, and a video of a mother playing with her baby.

Scientists are very keen to know the movements of these animals in New Zealand waters and even have a dedicated hotline where people can call to report sightings. Some volunteers even patrol the beaches on the lookout for more seal poop.

NIWA posted a video from the USB stick in an effort to identify its owner. She was later identified as Amanda Nally, a local who already volunteered with the New Zealand Sea Lion Trust.

5 Was James Brown Murdered?

A new CNN investigation has brought into question the circumstances surrounding the death of James Brown over 12 years ago. Although the official cause of death was natural causes, this inquiry suggests that he could have been murdered. It calls for a criminal investigation and an autopsy.

Brown died on Christmas Day 2006 following a short illness. One of the people most surprised by his passing was Marvin Crawford, the doctor who signed his death certificate. The singer’s condition was initially improving before taking a sudden turn for the worse. Crawford always found this deterioration suspicious. Later, he said that a nurse had told him that she found drug residue inside the tube which was helping Brown breathe.^[6]

Over a dozen people have called for a new look into Brown’s death, including relatives, his former manager Frank Copsidas, and Reverend Al Sharpton. The bulk of the evidence from the CNN report was gathered by Jacqueline Hollander, a former friend of Brown’s third wife, Adrienne Rodriguez. Hollander had once accused Brown of raping her.

Besides investigating the singer’s death, Hollander also alleges that Adrienne was murdered by a doctor. Officially, Adrienne Rodriguez died of an accidental overdose of painkillers following plastic surgery. But the police officer who handled her case did have an informant who also claimed that she was murdered. It remains to be seen if authorities will launch an inquiry into the numerous sordid accusations that surrounded the “godfather of soul.”

4 Toilet Trouble In Space

The International Space Station suffered a toilet leak after astronauts tried to install a new double stall which caused almost 10 liters (2.6 gal) of water to pour out.

The previous toilet had been aboard the ISS since 2008, so it was due for an upgrade. The new Universal Waste Management System (UWMS) comes with a host of improvements. Crucially, it includes a double stall which will separate the toilet from the rest of the hygiene department.^[7]

Astronauts experienced a leak while de-mating a Quick Disconnect for the potable water bus. Around 9.5 liters (2.5 gal) of water discharged before the ISS crew was able to isolate and fix the drip. They had to use towels to soak up all the excess liquid, but no serious damage was reported. The UWMS has been installed in anticipation of brand-new toilets which will be arriving in 2020.

3 Diamond Heist In Belgium

Last week, we talked about an attempted Hollywood-style heist when an unidentified person or persons dug a tunnel leading underneath a Chase Bank in Florida. The sequel comes this week except that the thieves were actually successful.

The caper took place last Sunday in Antwerp, the Belgian city famed for its diamond sector. The robbers set up shop in a house 400 meters (1,310 ft) away from the BNP Paribas Fortis branch.

They dug a tunnel several meters long to connect to the sewer system, and then they crawled through the sewers. When they were underneath the bank, they dug another few meters and were inside the vault. When bank employees checked the vault on Monday, they discovered that the thieves had cracked open 30 or so safes and absconded with their contents.

At the moment, both the bank and the police are keeping quiet about the stolen goods or their estimated value. Considering that the branch’s clientele consists of many diamond traders, it is fair to say that the criminals made off with an impressive haul.^[8]

A 27-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the heist, but details are still scarce regarding his role in the caper or possible accomplices.

2 Beer Or Wine First?

“Beer before wine, and you’ll feel fine. Wine before beer, and you’ll feel queer.”

That’s the old saying which implies that the order in which you consume your beverages will have an effect on the hangover you experience after a night of heavy drinking. British and German researchers decided to put the aphorism to the test to see if there is any validity to it.

Ninety volunteers between 19 and 40 made the ultimate sacrifice of getting sloshed for science. They were given a standardized meal and then split into three groups.

The first drank 1.2 liters (2.5 pints) of lager followed by four large glasses of white wine. The second group had the same drinks but in reverse order. The third only drank beer or wine of equivalent alcohol concentration. Everyone stopped drinking when they had a 0.11 percent alcohol level.^[9]

All the participants were quizzed throughout the night and were given a glass of water before bed. But the real testing started the next morning. They had to rate their hangovers on a scale which included factors such as nausea, dizziness, headache, thirst, fatigue, and loss of appetite.

The test subjects returned the next week and repeated the experiment but switched places. Their hangovers the next day showed negligible differences compared to the first ones. The study, which was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, concluded that drink order had no impact on the intensity of the hangover.

1 A New Look At Dyatlov Pass

Russian authorities have launched a new investigation into the notorious Dyatlov Pass incident which mysteriously claimed the lives of nine hikers 60 years ago.

On January 23, 1959, seven men and two women led by Igor Dyatlov set out to cross the northern Ural Mountains. One night, the hikers fled their tent dressed only in their underwear. Predictably, they froze to death.

A rescue team found their tent sliced open and gradually located the bodies, which featured broken bones and some head wounds. The Soviets blamed their deaths on the “spontaneous power of nature.” But this didn’t really explain what had driven nine experienced adventurers to leave their tent without clothes. Surely, they had realized that this would kill them.

Over the years, dozens of hypotheses were put forward. They include a secret KGB plot, escaped convicts, violence from the local Mansi tribe, a Yeti, and, of course, aliens.

Russian prosecutors have dismissed any idea which is criminal in nature. Instead, they announced plans to investigate three scenarios which they consider most likely. All involve natural phenomena. They are an avalanche, a snow slab, or a hurricane. Authorities are hopeful that modern technology will yield new clues. Investigators are due to fly to the remote site next month.^[10]

It is Saturday, which means it is time to do a quick review of the most notable stories that occurred over the last few days. Click here to check out some recent urgent matters while we focus on tales that come out of left field.

This week was Valentine’s Day, so naturally, we needed to have a few strange stories regarding the holiday. There is also controversy from the pizza world and the discovery of a tiger by two stoners. We introduce you to the Assman and a nun who liked to party. Finally, we say a bittersweet farewell to the Opportunity rover.

10 Tiger In The Garage

Two people from Texas snuck into a derelict home to smoke a little weed and found a tiger inside the garage.

Last week, an unidentified man and woman entered an abandoned home in Southeast Houston to relax with a joint. While the human tenants might have been gone, there was still one notable occupant inside the home. The smokers found a male tiger locked inside a “rinky-dink” cage in the garage.^[1]

After making sure that the large feline was not the result of a weed-induced hallucination, the woman called the authorities. A vet ensured that the tiger was in good health, and animal control officers were able to tranquilize him and move him safely to a temporary home at the local shelter.

The tiger has been named “Tyson” in reference to The Hangover and was relocated to the Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch, southeast of Dallas.

9 Ultima Thule Gets Weirder

New images of Ultima Thule have come in, and puzzled scientists say they have “never seen something like this orbiting the sun.”

At the start of the year, the New Horizons probe sent back our first images of Ultima Thule, which became the most distant object ever explored by humans. Back then, it looked like Ultima Thule was a contact binary made from the collision of two round shapes, which made it resemble a snowman.

Of course, New Horizons took more pictures of the cosmic object, but it took them a while to get here. New images from the side suggest that the two lobes are flatter than previously thought and resemble a walnut smashed into a pancake.^[2] More importantly, though, this bizarre shape is not something we have encountered before. Scientists now have a new conundrum before them as they try to work out how such an object could have formed.

It should be mentioned that the recent shots show Ultima Thule brightly lit only on one edge. While this has given us a better idea of its true form, the final shape might be altered yet again as New Horizons beams more images back to Earth.

8 Who Was The Patriarch Of Pizza?

There is controversy in the world of pizza. One researcher has suggested that the man who brought pizza to America might not have been, in fact, the man who brought pizza to America.

An Italian immigrant named Gennaro Lombardi is the one typically credited with the accolade. According to legend, he applied for a restaurant license to sell pizza in 1905 and opened Lombardi’s on Spring Street in Manhattan. However, food historian Peter Regas has scoured through old newspapers and uncovered articles which suggest that the true patriarch of American pizza is one Filippo Milone.^[3]

Curiously, Regas still believes that Lombardi’s was the country’s first pizzeria. He merely asserts that it already existed before Gennaro Lombardi obtained ownership. The researcher claims that Milone opened Lombardi’s under a different name in 1898. He then sold it to Giovanni Santillo, who owned it until Lombardi came along.

Independently, food historian Scott Wiener was researching the origins of New York pizza around the same time, and he discovered that Gennaro Lombardi didn’t own the pizza joint until 1908. This lends some validity to Regas’s story, but it remains to be seen if it is accepted by the industry.

7 Knowing Your Mark

A telephone scammer picked the wrong target after trying to con the only person in US history to serve as director of both the FBI and the CIA.

William Webster might be 94 years old now, but he can still tell when something smells fishy. Therefore, when someone called him up and told him he’d won $15.5 million and a brand-new Mercedes-Benz in the Mega Millions Lottery, he knew it was a scam. When the caller told Webster he had to pay $50,000 to cover the taxes on the prize, he notified the FBI.^[4]

When the Websters refused to pay, the calls turned into harassment and then threats. On one occasion, the scammer talked to Webster’s wife, Lynda, and described in gory detail what would happen if he were to shoot a sniper’s bullet through her head.

The scammer was 29-year-old Keniel Thomas from Jamaica. He had no idea that the FBI had already identified him and that there was a warrant out for his arrest. In late 2017, he flew into New York and was promptly detained. He was sentenced last week to 71 months in prison for extortion using interstate communications.

6 Mother Knows Best

The Towson University Police Department advised students of a woman in her fifties who was walking around campus looking for a date for her son.

Valentine’s Day is here, and some people might be willing to go to great lengths in order to share the holiday with a special someone. In the case of one Maryland mom, she was more interested in playing matchmaker for her offspring. Campus authorities received complaints from several female students who said that the woman approached them, showed them a picture of her son on her phone, and asked if they would be interested in dating him.^[5]

Towson police sent out an advisory to the student body and also released two images of the woman in an attempt to identify her. They made it clear that there were no criminal charges against her, but that they did want her to stop playing cupid on campus.

5 No More Giri Choco

Speaking of Valentine’s Day, women in Japan are pushing against a tradition which involves them buying chocolates for male coworkers during the holiday.

The practice is called giri choco—literally meaning “obligation chocolates.”^[6] They are intended not just for romantic interests or friends but all colleagues of the opposite sex. In turn, men are supposed to reciprocate on White Day on March 14.

Women say they are tired of having to spend thousands of yen on chocolates just to avoid awkward situations in the workplace. According to a survey, almost two thirds of women intended to buy the treat just for themselves on February 14. Around 56 percent planned to buy some for their family members, while 36 percent were going to give chocolate to their partners or romantic interests. Less than 35 percent planned to buy some for their coworkers.

Some companies have banned giri choco entirely in recent years. And while the holiday accounts for a huge chunk of sales for confectioners, some of them have seen the writing on the wall and are acting accordingly. Last year, Godiva Chocolatier caused a bit of commotion when it ran a marketing campaign against giri choco. They argued, “Valentine’s Day is a day when people convey their true feelings, not coordinate relationships at work.”

4 The Assman Cometh

Back in 1995, a Canadian gas station employee got his 15 minutes of fame because he had the humorous name of Dick Assman. Now, a new Assman is in the news, thanks to his battle with Saskatchewan authorities to use his name for a vanity plate.

Dave Assman (pronounced “Oss-men”) wanted to immortalize his last name on a license plate. However, the Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI), which deals with vehicle registration in the province, denied his request. They considered it offensive out of context. They subsequently denied an appeal filed by Assman.

Not one to give up easily, Dave came up with an alternative solution. SGI might be able to tell him what license plate he can and cannot have, but they have no authority over decals. Therefore, he adorned the back of his truck with a giant green “ASSMAN” decal.^[7] It appears that SGI are satisfied with Dave’s workaround, simply saying that “all’s well that ends well.”

3 Toilet Scare At Home Depot

A man’s warning of a vigorous bowel movement in a public bathroom was mistaken for a bomb threat which brought in the Wichita Police Department.

If you ever find yourself in a public restroom, and your stomach is telling you that you are about to do something particularly heinous in the stall, it’s common courtesy to give those around you a quick notice. That’s what happened at the Wichita Home Depot. A man entered the bathroom and told the other two customers inside that they “need to get out of here because [he is] fixin’ to blow it up.”^[8] Of course, they all understood his meaning and had a quick laugh. The man entered the stall, did his business, and went on with his day.

When one of the other two customers was leaving his stall, a Home Depot employee entered the bathroom. The customer thought he would continue the joke and told the staff member that he should leave because someone told him there’s a bomb in there.

The employee didn’t quite get his meaning so the man repeated it . . . twice. The employee then proceeded to go to store security and report a potential bomb threat.

By the time police arrived on the scene, the customer had left Home Depot, but a clerk identified him as a “regular.” Fortunately, police decided not to act hastily and simply called the man to inquire about his bomb comment. He apologized for causing alarm and said he didn’t expect his bathroom humor to be taken so seriously.

2 Nun On The Run Looking For Some Fun

British historians from the University of York went through medieval business records that once belonged to the archbishops of York. So far, so dull, you might think. However, they also stumbled upon the tale of a 14th-century nun who faked her death using a dummy in order to escape her convent and pursue “the way of carnal lust.”^[9]

It all started with a marginal note written in Latin by Archbishop William Melton in 1318. It said simply to warn Joan of Leeds, who used to be a nun at St Clement by York, to return home. The notes continued as the archbishop wrote to the Dean of Beverley to inform him of the scandalous rumor that Joan had fled the convent, casting aside both “the propriety of religion and the modesty of her sex.”

She did this by faking an illness and then pretending to die. Joan had unnamed “evildoers” as her accomplices, who helped her fashion a dummy in her likeness which got buried instead of her. After that, she “perverted her path of life” and wandered at large “to the notorious peril to her soul.”

Chief researcher Professor Sarah Rees Jones likened the tale to a Monty Python sketch. Unfortunately, the notes appear to end there, so we will never know what the outcome was for Joan the runaway nun.

1 A Farewell To Mars

After almost 15 years of service, NASA has declared the Opportunity rover dead and officially ended its exploration mission on Mars.

Back in July, the Red Planet was engulfed in a massive dust storm. As a precautionary measure, scientists powered down the Opportunity rover in hopes of preserving its solar battery. They knew that it would be weeks, even months, until the vehicle would be able to resume communications, but they also had a lurking fear that it might never become operational again.

The storm ended in early October, but Opportunity didn’t respond. It was possible that the violent weather either caused a catastrophic malfunction or covered the solar panels in a thick layer of dust. Even so, NASA scientists were still hopeful that strong winds might clear the dust, so they kept waiting.

Those winds came in late January. Over the following days, mission control sent over 800 commands to the rover in the hopes that one of them might generate a response, but none succeeded. A final attempt to make contact took place on February 12, and NASA declared the mission over the next day.

Launched in 2004, Opportunity ‘s initial goal was to last for 90 Martian days and travel 1,000 meters (3,300 ft).^[10] Instead, it endured 60 times longer than expected, traveled over 45 kilometers (28 mi), and ended its journey, fittingly, in Perseverance Valley. Two new rovers are scheduled to launch in 2020, both with the goal of searching the Red Planet for past signs of life.

With another week in the history books, it’s time to sit back and review some of the stories that made the news over the last few days. Click here if you want to learn all about the major headlines. Otherwise, read on for unexpected and outlandish stories.

This week’s list is a collection of international affairs. There is the Canadian iceberg heist, the German Smurf party, and the French lightsaber duel. We find glow-in-the-dark spider fossils in Korea and striped horses in England. The Japanese get naked to uphold a 500-year-old tradition while an Australian woman dresses up as a gorilla to catch a flasher.

10 Smurf-tastic

Thousands assembled in the German village of Lauchringen to set the new world record for the largest gathering of Smurfs.

The event was organized by a group called Da Traditionsverein. According to the group’s Facebook page, the occasion drew 2,762 people who donned pointy hats, white pants, and blue paint to resemble the characters from the beloved comic book.

The Record Institute for Germany was there to officially confirm the number of the crowd, although it is still waiting for approval from Guinness World Records. To be eligible for the record, each participant had to have their skin either painted blue or covered by clothing. The white cap was also mandatory, although red was allowed for people dressed up as Papa Smurf.

This was actually the second time that organizers attempted to break the record. They first tried it in 2016 but managed to assemble only 2,149 people. This time, their efforts overshadowed the previous record of 2,510 Smurfs set in 2009 at Swansea University in Wales.^[1]

9 Spider Glow

Scientists found fossils of spiders whose eyes still glowed in the dark even though they died 110 million years ago.

Researchers from the Korea Polar Research Institute and the University of Kansas were exploring a Mesozoic shale deposit in South Korea called the Jinju Formation. They uncovered 10 spider fossils.

This was noteworthy enough on its own. These kinds of finds are exceedingly rare because soft, squishy spiders don’t make very good fossils and are typically found only in amber. However, two of them were even more exciting because their eyes still shone in the dark even after all this time.

Most likely, the source of the glow was the tapetum. This is a reflective layer of tissue in the eye that many animals have. It helps with their night vision but also causes the eyes to shine in the dark. Researchers believe that this could be the first preservation of a spider’s tapetum in the entire fossil record.^[2]

Scientists are also curious about the circumstances that led to the arachnids being preserved in shale. Other creatures such as fish and crustaceans were also present in the rocks, so they could have all fallen victim to a disastrous event like an algal bloom.

8 A Cool Heist

One of the most bizarre heists in recent memory occurred in Newfoundland, Canada, as thieves made off with 30,000 liters (7,925 gal) of iceberg water from a vodka distillery.

The criminals targeted a warehouse in the historic community of Port Union. The victim was Iceberg Vodka. As its name suggests, the company uses real iceberg water in the manufacturing of its product.

CEO David Meyers says the stolen liquid could have been used to make 150,000 bottles of vodka. However, he does not expect the company to suffer too much after its loss. The water was insured, and it was only valued at C$9,000 to C$12,000. That being said, the biggest problem is that the giant ice blocks can only be harvested once a year when the icebergs move closer to the Newfoundland coast.^[3]

Meyers does not believe that the crime was one of simple opportunity. The thieves went through “a bit of work” to bypass the locked gate and door and brought along some kind of tanker to load and transport tens of thousands of liters of iceberg water. The original tank which contained the liquid had been drained and left behind.

7 Wickedness In Creswell Crags

There was a time when people were really, really afraid of something in Creswell Crags, a limestone gorge on the border between Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, England. That’s the conclusion of heritage experts after they found inside what could be Britain’s largest assemblage of apotropaic signs—which are intended to ward off evil.

The markings include hundreds of symbols, letters, and patterns which were likely carved from the 16th century onward when fear of witchcraft became widespread.

It is truly remarkable how long it took for people to realize the markings were there. This is especially surprising given that ice age art was found inside the cave in 2003 and attracted a lot of attention.

However, it wasn’t until last year that two keen-eyed cavers spotted a couple of symbols and alerted members of the Creswell Heritage Trust as to their meaning. The director of the trust embarrassingly confessed that they had been telling people the markings were Victorian graffiti.

This prompted a closer inspection of the cave. Researchers were shocked to discover that the walls were covered in symbols. So far, they have found a thousand and counting.^[4] Most of them are generic, such as PM for Pace Maria or a double V meaning Virgin of Virgins. It might be hard to tell exactly what it was about Creswell Crags that terrified people so much.

6 The Luckiest Men In Japan

Thousands of Japanese men in Okayama stripped down to their loincloths and crowded together to search for two sticks believed to bring them good luck in the year to come.

The tradition is called Saidaiji Eyo, and it dates back over 500 years to the Muromachi period. Last Saturday, an estimated 10,000 men gathered at the Kinryozan Saidaiji Buddhist temple in Okayama to participate.

First, they took off their clothes and put on white loincloths. Then they all bathed in the cold waters of the Yoshii River as part of a purification ritual.

At around 10:00 PM came the main event. The mass of naked men watched as the temple’s chief priest stood on a balcony. The lights were turned off, and he threw two sticks into the crowd. A mad scramble ensued to find them.^[5]

The sticks are called shingi. It is believed that the two participants who located them will be the luckiest men of the year.

5 Cop Kong Gets Her Man

A determined citizen donned a gorilla cop disguise to stake out a pervert who had been flashing women in a park in Perth, Western Australia.

According to the anonymous woman, she had fallen victim to the sex pest several times. She talked with other women in the park and discovered that they had all suffered similar experiences. Typically, the man rode his bicycle with his shorts pulled up high around his waist so that his genitals were hanging out. On occasion, he had stopped and approached women on foot.

Determined to do something about it, the crime fighter took matters into her own hands. First, she put up posters around public areas warning people of a flasher. Then she began staking out the park he liked to frequent. Fearing he might recognize her, the woman wore a costume of a gorilla dressed up as a cop.

The bizarre gambit paid off. The concealed crusader spotted the offender and was able to follow him to his home without being spotted. She then relayed the information to the police, who charged him with four counts of indecent acts in public.^[6]

4 Radiation At Grand Canyon

For almost two decades, people who visited the Grand Canyon National Park museum could have been exposed to radiation thanks to uranium ore being stored in the vicinity.

Earlier this month, park staff members received a distressing email which said, “If you were in the Museum Collections Building (bldg 2C) between the year 2000 and June 18, 2018, you were ‘exposed’ to uranium by OSHA’s (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) definition.”^[7]

It came from safety manager Elston Stephenson. He discovered that three 19-liter (5 gal) buckets of uranium ore had been stored near the taxidermy exhibit for nearly 20 years.

Things weren’t as serious as they sounded, though. The ore contained only low amounts of radiation. Levels were below those needed for concern about public safety, although they were higher than “background radiation.” Legally, this is why employees had to be notified. OSHA inspectors don’t expect any health problems and currently label the area as “no risk.”

That being said, employees could have done a better job of disposing of the uranium. They finally decided to get rid of it last June. They moved the buckets using gardening gloves and mop handles. They took the ore to the Lost Orphan uranium mine from which it had come.

3 A Joker On Mars

Most of us have a preconceived notion of what astronauts should be like. They need to be tough (both physically and mentally), smart, determined, and cool as a cucumber. In the words of Tom Wolfe, they need to have “the right stuff.” However, research suggests that, if colonization missions to Mars are to be successful, at least one of those astronauts should be more of a class clown than a class president.

It all has to do with boosting morale and diffusing tense situations. Anthropologist Jeffrey Johnson from the University of Florida has been studying overwintering crews in Antarctica for four years to identify the importance of informal roles in helping teams work smoothly together. He pinpointed multiple vital characters such as the leader, the peacemaker, the counselor, and the clown (whose role is essential in creating group cohesion).

Johnson puts it simply: Groups who have the right combination of characters do well, and those who do not do badly. He uses the famed Amundsen polar expedition as an example. Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen understood the importance of a friendly face and selected the rotund and jolly chef Adolf Lindstrom to be on his team. He later wrote that Lindstrom “rendered greater and more valuable services to the . . . expedition than any other man.”^[8]

Johnson has begun working with NASA to monitor groups of astronauts placed inside a mock space habitat in Houston, Texas. They want to see if the same informal dynamics are maintained in space environments.

2 May The Foil Be With You

In a galaxy far, far away, the French Fencing Federation has officially recognized lightsaber dueling as a competitive sport.

Fencing clubs all over the country have been equipped with lightsabers and even offer training for those looking to live out their Star Wars fantasies. According to the federation’s Secretary General Serge Aubailly, this move was an effort to get young people to exercise more. He believes that they lead sedentary lifestyles that involve sitting on the couch and only exercising their thumbs.

In the past, cape-and-sword movies have had a big impact on fencing as a sport. Popular characters like Zorro and Robin Hood helped bring in a lot of new people interested in giving it a shot. Aubailly simply sees the Star Wars franchise as the next step.^[9]

The rules are similar to regular fencing, but they have been modified slightly to give the sport more visual appeal as one would expect in the movies. The rooms are darkened so that the glowing lightsabers are easier to see.

In order for a blow to count, the tip of the saber must first have been pointed behind the fighter’s head. This is to encourage more brazen, over-the-head blows as seen in Star Wars duels instead of the lightning-quick, tip-first strikes common in fencing.

1 Why The Zebra Got Its Stripes

In a new study published in the scientific journal PLOS One, researchers from the University of Bristol concluded that the striped pattern on zebras appeared to confuse and deter flies.

According to coauthor Dr. Martin How, the stripes affect the insects’ landing. Close-up footage showed that the flies zoomed quite fast into the zebras. Some turned away completely, while others crashed into the animals instead of doing controlled landings.^[10]

The stripes only appear to work as a deterrent from close range. Researchers believe that the low-resolution vision of flies will cause the zebras to look like regular gray horses from a distance of a few meters. The sudden reveal of the stripes might surprise the insects enough to make them veer away, or it might interfere with their ability to gauge correctly how fast the object is coming at them.

To be thorough, scientists needed to be sure that it was the stripes turning away the flies and not something else, such as a scent. Therefore, they dressed up horses in zebra coats to see if they would get the same results.

They also put plain white and plain black coats on other horses to act as a control. Indeed, the flies landed noticeably fewer times on the horses wearing stripes as compared to the ones clad in the other garments.

Another week has passed, which means that it is time, once again, to look at some of the bizarre stories that made the headlines recently. If you want to read up on the more serious stuff, click here.

This week’s list has a party vibe to it as we talk about beer, cannabis, and the world’s largest glory hole. Meanwhile, a snake sneaks into Scotland, a crusader gets beheaded, and sumo wrestlers shave their beards.

10 A Tale Of Two Truths

The reputation of novelist Charles Dickens took a serious hit recently as newly surfaced letters detail the cruelty showed to his wife, Catherine.

Dickens is hailed as a literary genius and, arguably, the greatest writer of the Victorian era. However, he had a strained relationship with his spouse. He wed Catherine Hogarth in 1836, and they had ten children together. After nearly two decades of marriage, Dickens almost certainly started having an affair with a young actress named Ellen Ternan. This led to the couple separating in 1858, which was scandalous for the time.

Publicly, Dickens furiously denied rumors of an affair. He also wrote a private letter in which he claimed that the separation was Catherine’s idea because she suffered from mental illness. Although this was personal information, it eventually made its way to the public and helped shape the narrative of the disunion. Some Victorian scholars argue this was Dickens’s intention all along.

Now, previously unseen letters suggest that the novelist went a great deal further and tried to have his wife committed to an insane asylum. The documents were found and analyzed by Professor John Bowen from the University of York. They were written by Edward Dutton Cook, a friend and neighbor of the Dickens household. He says that Catherine told him, shortly before dying, that her husband unsuccessfully tried to coax a doctor to declare her mentally unstable.^[1]

Bowen believes he has identified the doctor in question. Thomas Harrington Tuke was an asylum director and a friend of Dickens, but the two had a falling out a few years after the separation.

9 Snake On A Plane

A Scottish woman brought back an unexpected souvenir from her holiday in Australia. A spotted python somehow snuck into her luggage and made the nearly 15,000-kilometer (9,300 mi) trip back to her home in Glasgow.

Moira Boxall traveled to Queensland to see her daughter. She was apprehensive about the snakes in Australia. Her son-in-law, Paul Airlie, had to reassure her that they are not really as common as people think. And yet one sneaky reptile curled up into one of Moira’s slip-on shoes and rested peacefully the whole journey back from Australia to Scotland. It even shed its skin during the trip.^[2]

Understandably, Moira was a bit spooked when she unpacked her luggage and found the snake. At first, she thought it was a toy that someone put in there as a prank. When she realized it was real, she took it outside in the garden, still in the shoe, and covered it with a box. Fortunately, it was docile and nonvenomous. The Scottish RSCPA came and collected it, and the snake is currently under quarantine.

The grandmother later revealed that the reptile may have been in her shoe for weeks. She first set eyes on a snake one morning at her daughter’s home in Queensland. By the time a snake catcher arrived, the serpent had disappeared, and they were unable to find it again.

8 Beer Is Magically Ridiculous

A brewery from Norfolk, Virginia, will be releasing a limited-edition IPA beer which will taste like a bowl of Lucky Charms cereal.

Described as “magically ridiculous,” the upcoming beverage is the creation of the Smartmouth Brewing Company and will be named Saturday Morning IPA.^[3] A spokesperson from the brewery said that they achieved the unique flavor by tossing in “pounds of marshmallows, some of which we toasted” during the brewing process, alongside Calypso hops, which are naturally fruity. The end result is supposed to be a sweet beer which will remind people of a beloved childhood cereal.

The IPA will have a 6.6-percent alcohol by volume (ABV) content and will be released on March 2. Unfortunately, it will only be available throughout the state of Virginia, so beer connoisseurs might have to make a trip.

7 Florida Man Steals Coins

A bizarre crime occurred in Florida as a thief stole rare coins worth tens of thousands of dollars and then ran most of them through change machines that replaced them with ordinary coins worth face value.

Forty-year-old Shane Anthony Mele from Riviera Beach absconded with commemorative presidential dollar coins and other valuable coinage worth an estimated $33,000.^[4] At first, he did what you might expect a criminal in his position to do. He pawned some of his loot for thousands of dollars. However, he then took the rest of the money and visited grocery stores with change machines. He passed the rare coins through the machines and got back ordinary coins, which were worth only a small fraction of the stolen goods.

Mele was eventually arrested, although it is still unclear at this time why he did what he did. Perhaps he simply wanted to get rid of the coins because he couldn’t find a buyer. On a possibly related note, he was also charged with multiple drug-related offenses when he was arrested.

6 Alacritous Evolution

As detailed in a new study published in Scientific Reports, researchers were able to observe single-celled organisms evolve into multicellular life in less than a year.

The leap from primitive single cells to more complex creatures is one of the main stages in the evolution of life on Earth. Scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Montana were able to see and record this leap occurring over a period of 50 weeks, or approximately 750 generations.

The organism in question was green alga named Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. It began evolving with one simple change to its environment—the introduction of a predator.^[5]Paramecium tetraurelia is a single-cell filter-feeder which was added to the mix to see what would happen. Two out of five experimental populations of the single-celled algae evolved into multicellular life-forms as a response to this new threat. The test not only provided a unique glimpse into early life on Earth but also lent credence to the notion that predation played a key role in the evolution of primitive organisms.

5 Live In The House of Tomorrow . . . Today

The “House of Tomorrow,” presented at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, is available to lease to anyone willing to spend a few million dollars in renovations.

Back in 1933, Chicago hosted the World’s Fair under the theme of “Century of Progress.” It was intended to celebrate the city’s centennial but also to show the way of the future to a nation still suffering from the Great Depression. Part of this strategy included many futuristic exhibits, including one visionary marvel dubbed the House of Tomorrow.

It was the brainchild of George Fred Keck and was a three-story, twelve-sided polygon. As its name implied, it was meant to showcase an avant-garde design full of features that would become common years or decades down the line. It got many things right. It had floor-to-ceiling glass walls, central air conditioning, a push-button garage door opener, and the first dishwasher designed by General Electric. There were also a few missteps, such as a personal airplane hangar.

After the fair finished, the House of Tomorrow and a few other exhibits were relocated to Indiana. In the 1970s, they became properties of the Indiana Dunes National Park. As they began falling into disrepair, Indiana Landmarks leased the exhibits from the National Park Service and then subleased them to private residents who could live in them, provided that they paid for renovations.

The House of Tomorrow is the last property to become available for a lease. The National Trust for Historic Preservation estimates that it could cost between $2.5 and 3 million to refurbish the home.^[6] However, the new tenant will receive a 50-year lease in exchange for their efforts.

4 Crusader Lost His Head

An 800-year-old crusader got beheaded, and his head was stolen from a crypt in Dublin, Ireland.^[7]

On Monday afternoon, a guide was preparing to give a tour of St. Michan Church when they made the grisly discovery. The criminals removed a solid steel gate which was meant to secure the vaults, entered the crypt, and desecrated several mummies. The remains of the crusader got the worst of it, as his head was completely removed. The site has been closed to tourists for the foreseeable future.

While church officials are concerned with recovering the head and fixing the damage done to the other bodies, the worst might still be yet to come. They are worried that the remains might begin disintegrating now that they have been exposed to open air.

In response to the desecration, Archdeacon David Pierpoint called it a “sad day for humanity.” The crypt was previously vandalized in 1996, when teenagers stole several mummies and played football with the heads.

3 Largest Glory Hole In The World

The Glory Hole at Lake Berryessa reservoir in Northern California was used for the second time in two years, even though initially, people anticipated needing it only a couple of times per century.

Its official name is the Morning Glory Spillway, although locals simply call it the Glory Hole. With a 22-meter-wide (72 ft) opening channeling water into a 75-meter (246 ft) pipe, the spillway is the largest of its kind in the world. The US Bureau of Reclamation built it over 60 years ago to take in water following powerful storms. However, they only expected the Glory Hole to be used once every 50 years or so, but this is the second time it was activated in just as many years following weeks of heavy precipitation. The Glory Hole has previously spilled over in 2006 and 1997.^[8]

The visual of the Glory Hole in action suggests a giant flushing toilet, although some with a more upbeat outlook suggested an inverted fountain. The Glory Hole flushed without incident, although that has not always been the case. As the largest body of water in Napa County, Lake Berryessa is a popular spot for all kinds of water activities. During the 1997 overspill, a 41-year-old swimmer named Emily Schwalek died after being sucked into the spillway.

2 Beardy Sumo Ban

Sumo wrestlers will have to clean up their act following a ban on beards in an effort to improve the image of the sport.

Officials with the Japan Sumo Association (JSA) said that the sumo ring (dohyo) is sacred and that spectators must be prevented from seeing anything unsightly while watching the sport. Therefore, the organization has instituted a ban on things they deem indecent, which include beards, tattoos, and long nails.^[9]

The whisker embargo is the one most likely to irk fighters. Sumo is an ancient sport steeped in tradition, and many superstitious wrestlers believe that it is bad luck to shave during competition. However, current yokozuna Kakuryu Rikisaburo has expressed his support for the new bans, saying that looking good is an important aspect and that all fighters “must absolutely adhere to it.”

This is the latest in a string of moves intended to improve a sport with a tarnished image following multiple scandals over the past few years. There have been accusations of match-fixing, and in late 2017, Yokozuna Harumafuji Kohei had to resign after admitting to assaulting another wrestler. In 2018, an official suffered a stroke in the middle of the ring. Despite a life-threatening situation, the referee was more concerned with evacuating the female medics attending to him, as women were not allowed inside the dohyo.

1 The Cannabis Brew

Scientists from the University of California Berkeley took a yeast typically used for beer and modified it so that they could brew cannabis with it.

The yeast in question is called Saccharomyces cerevisiae. According to lead author Jay Keasling, the process is “just like brewing beer.” However, they modified the yeast’s DNA with dozens of genes from the marijuana plant. Now, when you add a sugar called galactose to the mix, the yeast starts producing cannabigerolic acid instead of ethanol. In turn, this solution could be used to derive a wide range of cannabinoids.^[10]

Among the compounds obtained using this method is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis. Another noteworthy result is cannabidiol (CBD), a cannabinoid which is currently of interest to researchers for its potential therapeutic applications.

The yeast also produced compounds that are usually only found in minute amounts in marijuana. The hope is that, from now on, it will be much easier to obtain these cannabinoids for research. Using yeast could also become a cheaper, greener, and more effective method of cultivating cannabis in the future.

It’s Saturday, which means, as always, that it’s time to catch up on the weird side of the news. Just in case you weren’t able to stay up-to-date with the important recent world events, we’ve got you covered. This is a look at a few uncanny stories that made the headlines recently.

We have quite a few controversies this week that span the worlds of fashion, art, sports, and law. There is also a tale of survival and Taco Bell, the discovery of an elixir of immortality, and the strange observation of a creature with a temporary anus.

10 A Different Kind Of Bridge Suspension

Another doping scandal has rocked the sporting world as Norwegian player Geir Helgemo tested positive for testosterone. What’s most bizarre about this situation is that Helgemo plays bridge.

The testing occurred in September at an event in Orlando. The bridge player tested positive not only for synthetic testosterone but also for a female fertility drug called clomifene.^[1] As a result of this, the World Bridge Federation (WBF) suspended Helgemo until November 20 and stripped him of all the titles and points won during the 2018 World Bridge Series. Before this happened, he was ranked No. 1 in the world.

The WBF said that Helgemo told an investigative panel how the drugs got in his system, although they didn’t make the explanation public. Unsurprisingly, the president of the Norwegian Bridge Federation, Kari-Anne Opsal, confirmed that the drugs were not performance-enhancing. In case you are wondering why they even test for them, then, it’s because the WBF is recognized by the International Olympic Committee and, therefore, abides by World Anti-Doping Agency guidelines.

9 Armageddon’t

The 1998 disaster movie Armageddon gets plenty of criticism for the implausibility of its plot, but a new study published in the journal Icarus might have put a final nail in its coffin. Scientists have run computer simulations, and they believe that even if humans were able to blow up an asteroid heading for our planet, gravity would simply cause it to reform in space.

The threat of an asteroid impact is a genuine concern. After all, it has happened before, with devastating consequences. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University put together a computer model which simulated collisions to see how the space rock breaks apart. They discovered that the fragments which would be blown away in an Armageddon-like scenario are likely to reform with the asteroid due to gravity.^[2]

Dr. Charles El Mir believes that the simulations show that a much more energetic force would be needed to completely shatter an asteroid than previously thought. Scientists used to contend that larger objects would be easier to break because they had more flaws. However, new research suggests that bigger asteroids also come with bigger cores, whose gravitational pull would be powerful enough to attract the fragments that get blasted away.

8 A Pricy Set Of Wheels

The Geneva Motor Show is currently underway in Switzerland. There are plenty of stories to excite gearheads, including the unveiling of the world’s most expensive new car.

The vehicle is called La Voiture Noire (“The Black Car”) by French manufacturer Bugatti. It’s one-of-a-kind and was built to celebrate the company’s 110th anniversary. Many media outlets have reported the hypercar as being the most expensive new car in the world, overtaking the previous record-holder, the Rolls-Royce Sweptail. However, it is hard to say with certainty since the actual price for either automobile has not been revealed. Estimates for the Bugatti range between $11 and 12.5 million for the vehicle, plus another $6 million in local and luxury taxes.

La Voiture Noire is a jet-black car with a carbon fiber body. It has a 16-cylinder engine which puts out 1,500 horsepower. Again, the company is keeping mum on its top speed, although the specs are thought to be similar to the Bugatti Chiron. A spokesperson said that La Voiture Noire was designed as a tribute to the Bugatti Type 57 SC Atlantic, of which only four were made in the 1930s.

The buyer of La Voiture Noire is another mystery. Bugatti has simply described them as “an enthusiast of the brand.”^[3] People have speculated that the exclusive owner is Ferdinand Piech. He is the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche and a former chief executive at Volkswagen.

7 The Mystery Of The Transient Anus

A marine biologist believes he may have discovered a certain species of comb jelly with a feature unique among animals: a transient anus.

There are simple species of creatures such as jellyfish that only have one opening which they use to swallow food and to expel waste. Then, more complex animals have a through-gut with a mouth at one end and an anus at the other. It was thought that comb jellies were part of the latter, but the warty comb jelly was a strange exception. It did not appear to have an anus.

However, Sidney Tamm of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, discovered that the creature does have an anus . . . sometimes. According to his observations, the opening appears only when the animal needs to defecate and disappears afterward.^[4] As waste accumulates in the comb jelly’s body, the gut starts to balloon out. Eventually, it stretches out so much that it touches the epidermis. When this happens, the two fuse together and create a hole for excretion. After the process is done, there is no more trace of the opening, not even under the microscope.

Tamm believes the discovery is more significant than simply finding an animal with a weird quirk. He thinks it is possible that the temporary anus is an intermediate stage in the evolution of the anatomical structure.

6 Is Lake Erie A Person?

Voters from Toledo, Ohio, approved an unusual measure which gives Lake Erie the same rights as people. This marks the first time that a natural resource has been granted legal status in the United States.

This move was done primarily to protect the Great Lake from pollution. Back in 2014, all the agricultural runoff that ends up in the lake from tributaries caused a toxic alga to bloom so much that it led to a state of emergency. About half a million people were left without drinking water, and since then, the residents of Toledo looked for new ways to protect the lake.

That led to a recent referendum which passed with 61 percent of votes. The Lake Erie Bill of Rights grants the body of water legal standing. Specifically, Lake Erie can now “stand” to sue polluters.

As expected, the measure has already been challenged by a group of farmers for being unconstitutional and unlawful. They argue that it is too vague to be enforceable and a violation of their rights.^[5] It remains to be seen if the move will be accepted in US courts. Legal experts don’t like its chances, primarily because Lake Erie extends far beyond the jurisdiction of Toledo.

5 The Elixir Of Life

Back in October of last year, Chinese archaeologists were exploring the tomb of a noble family in the Henan Province. They found many interesting artifacts at the site, including clay pots, jade materials, and a lamp. They also recovered a pot with a yellowish liquid inside. At first, they thought it was wine, but now they have concluded that it was an elixir of immortality.

The wine conclusion made sense initially. Besides the color, the 2,000-year-old liquid smelled like alcohol. It was also consistent with other discoveries, as wine was used in various ceremonies of the time. However, lab analysis of the substance revealed that it contained alunite and potassium nitrate.^[6] According to ancient Taoist texts, both of these chemical compounds are main ingredients used in elixirs intended to grant long-lasting life.

Considering that archaeologists found the liquid next to a dead nobleman, it is pretty safe to say that the elixir does not work. Even so, Chinese researchers are still excited with the discovery. According to Shi Jiazhen, head of the Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology in Luoyang, this is the first time that they actually found an elixir of immortality from ancient China.

4 Taco Bell Saves Lives

A man stranded in the snowy wilderness of Central Oregon survived for five days just on Taco Bell sauce packets.

Jeremy Taylor is an avid outdoorsman who went out in Deschutes National Forest accompanied by his dog, Ally. Heavy snow caused his car to get stuck on a forest service road. He slept in the vehicle overnight, hoping that the weather might clear by morning. Unfortunately, the opposite happened, as the snowing continued through the night.

The next day, Taylor and Ally tried to hike out of there, but the snow was too deep. They returned to the car. The two spent five days in the wilderness before finally being rescued after being spotted by a passing snowmobiler. During that time, the only sustenance Taylor had was a few packets of Taco Bell hot sauce.^[7]

The man and his best friend were healthy and happy, although very hungry. Following his ordeal, Taylor joked online that, “Taco Bell fire sauce saves lives!” The strange story made its way to the fast food restaurant, which rewarded Taylor with a year’s supply of free Taco Bell, complete with all the sauce packets he could eat.

3 Tiny Handbag Makes Big Splash

Paris fashion week ended on Tuesday. All the cool, stylish people were there to see the new couture trends. One accessory grabbed everyone’s attention. It made them wonder if the recent craze of downsizing things has finally gone too far. It is a micro-handbag which measures only 5.2 centimeters (2 in) long.^[8]

The bag is called the Mini Le Chiquito and is the creation of French designer Simon Porte Jacquemus. It is actually a miniaturized version of the already diminutive Le Chiquito handbag, which was launched last year. Despite a price tag of over $500, that accessory proved popular enough that it sold out at many retailers. Measuring a whopping 12 centimeters (4 in) by 6 centimeters (2.5 in), it was probably too bulky for some people, so a tinier version was in order. There is no word yet on how much the Mini Le Chiquito will cost.

2 Do Hipsters All Look The Same?

A man was angry with a technology magazine that published an article about how all hipsters look the same. He threatened to sue them for using an image of him without permission and implying he was a hipster, only to discover it showed a different man who looked the same as him.

The MIT Technology Review ran a story about the hipster effect. It is a counterintuitive phenomenon where people perceived to be hipsters, even though they are meant to be anti-conformists who oppose mainstream culture, somehow “all end up looking the same.” For the article, the magazine used a stock photo (shown above) licensed from Getty Images. It showed a man who fit the stereotypical look of the hipster: white, thirties, with a beard, wearing a flannel shirt and a knit cap.

This prompted a very angry letter from a person who claimed to be the man in the photo. He called the article “nonsense” and “slanderous” and said he will be pursuing legal action for using his picture without permission.^[9]

The editor-in-chief knew that implying that someone is a hipster isn’t exactly a prosecutable offense. He also knew they had the right license and had used the image properly. Just to be sure, the magazine contacted Getty to check that the man in the photo signed a model release. The company wrote back, saying the name of the model was not the same as their grievant. When presented with this information, the accuser realized the man in the photo wasn’t him but probably looked very similar.

1 Mona Lisa, The Early Years

Art experts believe that Leonardo da Vinci might be the author of a charcoal drawing known as the Nude Mona Lisa, perhaps even done in preparation for his iconic painting.

The Nude Mona Lisa is also called the Monna Vanna and sits at the Conde Museum in Chantilly, Oise, France. We already knew that it came from the school of Leonardo da Vinci, but art historians believed the drawing belonged to one of the master’s pupils. Now, however, they have reconsidered following extensive testing performed by investigators from the Center for Research and Restoration of the Museums of France (C2RMF).

The idea emerged in 2017, when Bruno Mottin, a restoration expert from the Louvre, dated the drawing to da Vinci’s lifetime. However, he dismissed Leonardo as the author because he believed it was done by a right-handed person.

Now, investigators think that Mottin was thrown off by some shading at the top of the drawing which was done by a right hand. The rest of the artwork, however, was definitely the work of a left-handed person. They say that they found “left-handed charcoal marks pretty much everywhere.”^[10] Furthermore, the drawing features a technique called “sfumato” used to blur color transitions. Leonardo liked this method and even used it on the Mona Lisa.

Conde Museum curator Mathieu Deldicque believes that the drawing was “almost certainly a preparatory work for an oil painting.” However, he acknowledges that they can never be completely certain about its origins.

Yet again, it is time to look at some of the more unusual or unique stories that made their way through the news cycle over the last several days.

Animals take center stage this week as we cover killer chickens and the efforts of scientists to bring the woolly mammoth back from the dead. We serve cheese made with hip-hop music and pair it with some Chinese wine. There is also talk of priceless artifacts, whether they sit at the bottom of the ocean or in a tiny Italian church.

10 The Milky Weigh

According to a study published in Astrophysical Journal, scientists have used new data to come up with the most accurate measurement of the Milky Way. They say that our galaxy clocks in at around 1.54 trillion solar masses.

The updated information comes to us courtesy of calculations made by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and the ESA’s Gaia satellite. Previous estimates ranged anywhere from 500 billion to three trillion solar masses.

Surprisingly, only a small amount of the Milky Way’s mass comes from its roughly 200 billion stars, the planets that orbit those stars, and the 4-million-solar-mass black hole that sits in the middle of the galaxy. Most of the mass comes from the mysterious dark matter.

Researchers have been able to estimate the mass of distant galaxies with much less difficulty than our own because we can see their velocity. To come up with this new measurement, they have observed dozens of globular clusters (groups of densely packed stars) orbit the Milky Way’s center. With access to a decade of data, they were able to approximate how fast our galaxy spins, which was used to calculate its mass.^[1]

9 Treasure In Davy Jones’s Locker

A recent discovery by an English fishing crew has spurred talks of sunken treasure. They may have stumbled upon an anchor which once belonged to a vessel that went down while carrying a giant fortune in gold and silver.

The ship in question is the Merchant Royal. Launched in 1627, it was lost at sea in 1641 somewhere off the coast of Land’s End in Cornwall after hitting bad weather. At the time, it was carrying around 45,000 kilograms (100,000 lb) of gold plus 400 bars of Mexican silver. In today’s money, that would be over $1.5 billion.

Experts have identified the anchor as belonging to the Merchant Royal. However, given that they based the identification only on size and age, it is not something definitive.

As the vessel might be the most valuable shipwreck in the world, it is sure to attract plenty of treasure hunters. Should an explorer find the “El Dorado of the seas,” they would have to report it to the British government and go about securing a salvage license because it will most likely be located in British waters.^[2]

8 Murder Most Fowl

There is an old saying that advises us not to let a fox guard a henhouse. As we all know, whenever this cunning intruder makes its way into a chicken coop, it leaves behind bloodbath and slaughter. However, that’s not what happened at one poultry farm in northwest France. The fox entered the henhouse, but the chickens ganged up on it and killed the intruder.

Students from Le Gros Chene agricultural school in Brittany were surprised one morning to find the body of a fox in one of their coops. It had numerous marks which suggested that it had been hit by beaks repeatedly.^[3]

The chickens are free-range, so they spend most of the day outside. When it is time to turn in, the coop has a hatch door which closes automatically and cannot be opened from the inside.

Farmers believe that the fox became trapped and the hens’ herd instinct kicked in. The inexperience of the predator also played a role as the dead fox appeared to have been a juvenile. The farm had another fox intrusion about a year ago, and that one was far more lethal for the birds.

7 A Volatile Feature

Toyota has applied for a new patent for a “vehicle fragrance dispenser.” At first, this does not seem like anything out of the ordinary. Other automakers have features which dispense perfumes or other pleasant scents when people get in their cars. However, no one else has thought to weaponize this system. Unlike the others, Toyota’s dispenser can be configured to deploy tear gas.

According to the patent, Toyota’s fragrance dispenser goes above and beyond what other systems can do “by adding a personal twist.” Whereas current dispensers can only hold one fragrance at a time, their innovation can contain several. Using mobile devices, the car can determine if a specific occupant has entered the vehicle and dispense their preferred scent.

The fragrance generator can also be configured to release tear gas in the event of an “illegitimate engine start.” The idea behind this feature is to prevent a thief from stealing the car.^[4]

At the moment, Toyota’s “vehicle fragrance dispenser” is just a patent. There is no word yet from the company if they plan to include the feature with its “tear gas” option in any of the future lineups.

6 Back From The Dead

The woolly mammoth might one day walk the Earth again thanks to the efforts of Japanese scientists who managed to produce “biological activity” in mammoth cells frozen for tens of thousands of years.

According to Scientific Reports, researchers from Kindai University in Osaka first got their hands on some mammoth bone marrow and muscle tissue. The donation came courtesy of Yuka, a female who spent the last 28,000 years in Siberian permafrost. They then sequenced the genome to ensure that the samples they were using were authentic.

The scientists extracted cell nuclei from the mammoth tissue and inserted them into mouse cell eggs. They saw brief signs of biological activities including a type of structural formation which precedes cell division.^[5]

Coauthor Kei Miyamoto believes that cell division is the next stage of their work with the ultimate goal being to bring mammoths “back from the dead.” Even so, he realizes that this was a significant but small step and that there is still a long way to go.

At the same time, the Japanese team is working with Russian scientists who have taken a different approach. They want to use a technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer to clone the woolly mammoth.

5 Wine Party In China

Over 2,000 Chinese people gathered on Sunday in Haidong, Qinghai Province, to set an oddly specific record—the most people to drink wine with their cups crossed.

The participants linked their arms together and formed a human chain. An official adjudicator from Guinness World Records was on hand to count the 2,020 people who took part in the event and confirm that they had broken the previous record of 1,373 people. They presented the organizers of the stunt with an official certificate after verification.^[6]

For added style points, the wine drinkers dressed in the traditional garb of the Tu people (aka the Monguor) and arranged themselves in the shape of a sunflower.

4 Mobile Phone Blocks Arrow Attack

A mobile phone saved an Australian man’s life after it stopped an arrow from piercing his head.

You don’t see these kinds of things too often nowadays, but an argument between two men from the town of Nimbin in New South Wales escalated into an assault with a bow and arrow. The victim was an unidentified 43-year-old man who confronted another person outside the 43-year-old’s house.

The intruder was a 39-year-old man who was armed with a bow and arrow for an unspecified reason. When the resident took out his phone to film the confrontation, the other man fired. The arrow was headed straight for the victim’s face, but it hit the mobile phone, which acted as a shield.^[7]

The impact of the arrow knocked the mobile device into the man’s head. Even though the bolt pierced through the case and the screen, the force was reduced enough that it only caused a small cut. The 39-year-old was arrested and charged with assault and property damage.

3 The Italian Job

On Wednesday, the small Italian town of Castelnuovo Magra in Liguria was the scene of a brazen art heist. Thieves broke into the church of Santa Maria Maddalena, smashed open a display case using a hammer, and stole The Crucifixion by Flemish painter Pieter Brueghel the Younger. There was just one problem—the painting they took was a fake.

In a Hollywood-style plot twist, it was revealed that police were already aware of someone planning to steal the artwork. They replaced the original worth millions of dollars with a copy a month ago. Authorities also installed cameras in the church to catch the culprits in the act.

Only a few people were aware of the sting operation. The town’s mayor, Daniele Montebello, was among them, but he still had to pretend initially that the loss of the artwork was “a hard blow for the community.”^[8]

The real painting was previously stolen in 1981 but was recovered a few months later. No arrests have been announced so far in this latest case. Investigators say that they are closely examining the footage to identify and track down the people responsible.

2 Lincoln In Office

The first mayor of Fair Haven, Vermont, was officially sworn into office this week. That mayor is Lincoln, a three-year-old female goat.

The ceremony was held on Tuesday at the Fair Haven town offices. The new leader came in wearing a snazzy black sash that said “Mayor” on it in white felt. Several officials were in attendance, including town treasurer Suzanne Dechame who administered the oath of office. It proved rather difficult to get the mayor to sign the paper, but Lincoln eventually conceded to having her front right hoof pressed on an ink pad and then stomping on the document.

In a move that may prove controversial with some of her constituents, the mayor’s first action in office involved defecating on the floor and letting the police chief deal with the mess.^[9]

Lincoln the goat is hardly the first animal to hold office. The position is obviously honorary as the small town of 2,500 people does not have an actual mayor. The idea started as a stunt to raise money for a playground and then morphed into a good way of giving kids a civics lesson.

1 Cheese Loves Hip-Hop

Four months ago, we talked about one Swiss cheese-maker’s goal to see which type of music, if any, could improve the development of the dairy product. Now that the cheese has had time to mature, an official tasting has taken place and the results are in: Hip-hop produces the best results.

Back in September, Beat Wampfler placed nine wheels of Emmental cheese weighing 10 kilograms (22 lb) each in wooden crates. One of them was matured normally and acted as a control, but the other eight each had one type of sound broadcasted nonstop through mini transmitters to see if it would impact their flavor, smell, and taste.

Five of them “listened” to various music genres: rock, hip-hop, techno, classical, and ambient. The other three were simply given sound waves at low, medium, and high frequencies.^[10]

After the cheese matured, a culinary jury did a blind test to see which one was the best and the “hip-hop” cheese won. That particular wheel “heard” the track “Jazz (We’ve Got)” by A Tribe Called Quest on a continuous loop for almost eight months.

For added rigor, the jury did the taste test twice and got about the same results the second time around. One jury member said the differences were quite clear in terms of “texture, taste, [and] appearance.”

Now Wampfler wants to redo the experiment. But he will focus solely on hip-hop and use different songs in an effort to find the one that yields the best cheese.

With another week in the history books, it’s time to sit back and review some of the peculiar stories that made the news over the last few days. If you’d rather know about recent good news in the world, you can click here.

There are tales of gators on ketamine and the world’s most expensive pigeon. There are two stories regarding discoveries from shipwrecks, and staying on the subject of history, we pay a quick visit to the town of Bedrock for a yabba-dabba-doo time. Jack the Ripper claimed a few headlines this week, as did an uninvited guest from space.

10 Saucy Jack Is Back

It has been 130 years since Jack the Ripper’s killing spree, but he is still garnering plenty of attention. A new study published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences claims that DNA from a shawl alleged to have belonged to one of the victims has finally revealed the identity of Jack the Ripper.

The authors are Jari Louhelainen of Liverpool John Moores University and David Miller of the University of Leeds. They say that Jack was a Polish barber named Aaron Kosminski. The reveal itself isn’t too shocking. Kosminski has always been considered one of the more likely Ripper suspects. The scientists claim that mitochondrial DNA found on a shawl which is said to have belonged to Catherine Eddowes matches that of Kosminski’s modern descendants.

This proclamation has not been well-received by the scientific community, who have deemed it “unpublishable” and “terrible science and terrible history.”^[1] For starters, geneticist Adam Rutherford pointed out that the testing had been done in 2014 and had already been heavily criticized but, for some reason, has now made its way into a scientific journal. Other geneticists such as Turi King from the University of Leicester voiced concerns over contamination. Even if the shawl belonged to Catherine Eddowes (which is definitely not a certainty), it has been handled with carelessness by many people throughout the decades. It seems probable that Jack the Ripper’s identity still eludes us.

9 A Pigeon Worth His Weight In Gold

A pigeon called Armando set a new record after being sold at auction for €1.25 million ($1.42 million).

The previous record was €376,000 ($426,000). Auction house Pipa, which specializes in selling racing pigeons, knew that Armando would fetch a great price. He had been touted as the “Lewis Hamilton of pigeons.”^[2] However, they expected the bids to top off around half a million euros, maybe €600,000 max. Never in their wildest dreams did they think Armando would be sold for over double that amount. The giant price tag was the result of a bidding war between two Chinese buyers.

So what’s so special about Armando? He is regarded as one of the greatest racing pigeons of all time. His competing days are behind him, though. Armando will turn five this year, and he has retired from racing. However, he is still capable of producing many offspring to carry on his legacy.

8 Shipwreck Ale

Beer aficionados have a new drink to try. It is called Deep Ascent ale, and it is made with yeast from a century-old shipwreck.

The SS Oregon was once the fastest liner traveling the Atlantic. Alas, it sank in 1886 after colliding with a schooner a few miles from New York in an area known today as “Wreck Valley.”

As the name implies, quite a few vessels went down in that region, which has become a popular spot for scuba divers. One of them is Jamie Adams, a former Wall Street trader who now operates the Saint James Brewery in Long Island. He got the idea that if he could find a few intact bottles, he could recreate the beers from over 130 years ago.

Adams first tried his luck in 2015 without success. It wasn’t until 2017 that he got his hands on some pristine beer bottles after shifting sands opened access to the ship’s dining room. It took him another two years and the help of a microbiologist to extract the yeast and then use it in a modern ale.^[3] The finished product is a beer that Adams describes as having a “slightly fruity taste and hoppy finish.”

7 Last Blockbuster On Earth

The city of Bend, Oregon, will soon have a strange claim to fame: It will be the home of the last Blockbuster on the planet.

At the moment, there are two of these video rental shops remaining. One is in Bend, and the other is in Morley, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. However, the latter will close its doors permanently at the end of March, thus leaving the store in Oregon as the last Blockbuster standing.

The American shop was once part of a five-store franchise owned by the same family, but all the other Blockbusters were closed down. General Manager Sandi Harding believes this one survived through “pure stubbornness,” but it also required running on a very tight budget. The computer system uses floppy disks to reboot, while business transactions are stored on reel-to-reel tape. Employees write out membership cards by hand because the dot-matrix printer they once had broke.^[4]

These measures might have been implemented to keep costs down, but now they are actually working in the store’s favor. More and more customers are stopping by looking for a hefty dose of nostalgia.

At its height, Blockbuster had over 9,000 locations across the world. It also had a chance to buy Netflix for a “paltry” $50 million, but it passed on the opportunity. It went bankrupt in 2010, but some stores had been franchised and stayed open.

6 Herodotus Was Right

Almost 2,500 years ago, Herodotus wrote The Histories, one of the most influential works of literature of the ancient world. Included in the texts was an account of his visit to Egypt. One passage puzzled scholars. It described, in detail, a ship called a baris with “long, internal ribs.” Herodotus witnessed it being built, but archaeologists never found any evidence that such a vessel ever existed. But now they’ve actually found one “fabulously preserved” near the sunken city of Heracleion.

Herodotus described the baris as having planks inserted into strong, long tenons and then beams stretched over them. The seams are obstructed from within with papyrus, and there is one rudder which passes through a hole in the keel. The mast is made from acacia and the sails from papyrus.

This form of construction has never been seen until now. The so-called “Ship 17” had acacia planks which were held together with long tenons and fastened with pegs.^[5] This created a hull made out of the “internal ribs” mentioned by Herodotus.

Ship 17 is one of 70 ancient vessels found around the underwater ruins of Thonis-Heracleion which now sit in Abu Qir Bay. Approximately 70 percent of the hull still survives, and it matches the description given by Herodotus almost word-for-word. No telling yet if there is another baris among the other shipwrecks.

5 Gators On Ketamine Provide Insight Into Sound

In a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers drugged alligators with ketamine and played them sounds through headphones in an attempt to better understand the auditory systems of archosaurs.

Catherine Carr from the University of Maryland and Lutz Kettler from the Technical University of Munich performed the experiment so that they could study the “neural maps” that gators use to process the noises around them. They focused on a concept called “interaural time difference” (ITD).^[6] Basically, it is the time gap between ears hearing the same sound. It is mostly imperceptible, as it typically lasts for a few microseconds, but it is crucial in helping animals determine what direction a sound comes from.

To perform the test, scientists had 40 American alligators listen to various noises through headphones while electrodes on their heads recorded their neural responses. Of course, gators aren’t known to be the most cooperative animals in the world, so they had to be sedated with ketamine.

An earlier study did something similar with birds, and this latest experiment showed that the two groups use a similar neural mapping system, but also one that is different from mammals. Crocodilians and birds come from an antediluvian lineage called Archosauria, which also included dinosaurs and pterosaurs. Researchers infer that their extinct cousins would have probably had a similar auditory mechanism, especially since the size of the head does not seem to make a difference.

4 Fight Over Flintstone House

The owner of Flintstone House is being sued by neighbors who consider her abode to be a public nuisance.

Back in the mid-1970s, architect William Nicholson designed several experimental dome dwellings. One of them was built in the town of Hillsborough in San Mateo County, California. He gave it its unique shape by placing a mesh frame over inflated aeronautical balloons. The strange, somewhat primitive appearance earned it the sobriquet of “Flintstone House.”

The latest owner is retired media mogul Florence Fang. She embraced the Flintstone identity wholeheartedly and made a few additions. These include multiple dinosaur statues and a sign that says “Yabba Dabba Doo.”^[7]

The neighbors were not happy with these new changes. Some of them consider the red, orange, and purple building somewhat of an eyesore, and the dinosaurs are certainly not helping matters. Last fall, a panel of code enforcement officials agreed with them that the latest renovations are a public nuisance, and now they are hoping that a judge will do the same. According to the suit, Mrs. Fang did not have the proper permits to make the changes. In a statement, her grandson Sean Fang said that she will fight to keep the Flintstone House as is.

3 Fossil Find Stuns Scientists

Paleontologists are hailing a fossil deposit in China as one of the most spectacular on the planet.

The site is called Qingjiang, and it is approximately 518 million years old. What makes it truly remarkable is that it contains fossilized soft parts. These are significantly rarer than hard anatomical structures like shells, which get preserved much more easily. The site is already drawing comparisons to the famed Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rockies. As Harvard paleontologist Joanna Wolfe put it, these deposits are “the best of the best.”

Researchers found the treasure trove by chance on the banks of the Qing River, a tributary of the Yangtze, back in 2007. Since then, they have spent four seasons in the field in order to truly get a sense of what they uncovered. They published their findings earlier this week in the journal Science.

So far, scientists have identified the remains of 101 different animal species. Over half of them are completely new to science.^[8] Qingjiang will greatly expand our knowledge of the early Cambrian period known as the Cambrian explosion, when life diversified in spectacular fashion in just a few tens of millions of years.

2 The Florida Man Challenge

This week’s viral Internet craze comes to us courtesy of that mysterious, misunderstood individual we call Florida Man. The “Florida Man Challenge” involves people searching to see what kind of wacky shenanigans our intrepid hero had been up to on their birthday and then sharing the result on social media.

Taking part in the trend is easy. All you have to do is google the words “Florida Man” followed by your birthday (just the month and day). The first headline is your “Florida Man” story. If your birthday was the day this article was written, for example, you would discover that on your anniversary, Florida Man was “attacked by neighborhood squirrel who has residents on high alert.”

This renewed interest into the odd behavior of the residents of Florida has prompted new discussions into its likely causes. Assistant State Attorney Ryan Butler points to open government laws that make all documents a matter of public record by default, unless directed otherwise. This makes it much easier for journalists to report on crime stories.^[9]

Some opine that it is due to the cyclical nature of the “Florida Man” myth. The popularity of the meme encourages more sharing of strange crimes from Florida than other states, which, in turn, further enhances the myth and so on. Lastly, there are those who simply admit that there is a “general craziness” pervasive in the state.

1 When Meteors Attack

NASA revealed that a giant meteor exploded in Earth’s atmosphere in December. Despite creating a massive fireball, it went largely undetected because it blew up over the Bering Sea.

The space rock approached our planet on December 18, traveling at a speed of 30 kilometers per second (19 mps). It burst into a ball of fire roughly 25.5 kilometers (16 mi) above the cold waters between Russia and Alaska. NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies later calculated the force of the explosion to be 173 kilotons, which is more than eleven times as energetic as the bomb at Hiroshima. Even so, it was only 40 percent as powerful as the blast over Chelyabinsk in 2013.

Unlike the Russian meteor, however, this one did not cause any injuries or property damage. In fact, we almost didn’t notice it. There were various institutions that had instruments which recorded the explosion, but it wasn’t until March 8 that the US Air Force informed NASA of the event so that they could log the fireball into their database.^[10]

The space rock was approximately 10 meters (33 ft) in diameter. It was “nothing very unusual,” according to Rudiger Jehn, head of planetary defense at the European Space Agency (ESA). The event has renewed calls for increased budgets for planetary protection systems.

Another week is in the history books, so it’s time to take a gander at a few bizarre and unconventional news items that you may have overlooked. If you need a little pick-me-up, you can check out last week’s list of happy, uplifting news here.

There have been quite a few interesting discoveries made this week. In Canada, we find the world’s largest T. rex. In Pompeii, we find an ancient fast food joint. In France, we learn why Garfield telephones have been washing up on beaches for decades. In the dusty archives of England’s Durham University, we stumble upon a royal charter from 800 years ago.

10 The Rex Of Rexes

According to a paper published in The Anatomical Record, paleontologists in Canada have found the biggest Tyrannosaurus rex in the world, and they named him Scotty.

The bones were actually discovered on a site in Saskatchewan back in 1991. However, they were encased in solid sandstone, so their careful excavation was an exceedingly slow process. Then came the arduous task of inspecting each fragment and piecing them all back together. When it was all said and done, researchers assembled approximately 65 percent of the skeleton.

Analysis of the thigh bones revealed that Scotty was once a hefty dinosaur. From nose to tail tip, he measured 13 meters (43 ft) and weighed around 8,800 kilograms (19,400 lb).^[1] Paleontologist Scott Persons from the University of Alberta dubbed him “the rex of rexes.”

Scotty wasn’t just big; he was also possibly the oldest T. rex ever discovered. The previous record-holder, Trix, was around 30 years old when it died, but scientists believe Scotty is one or two years older. Not only that, but numerous signs of healed injuries show that the predator got into plenty of scrapes in his time but survived them all.

9 Amazing Savings That Bring Back The Dead

Multiple shoppers at the Market Basket in Wilmington, Massachusetts, have reported seeing a Victorian-era ghost prowling the aisles.

The first one who says she saw the phantom was Christiana Bush, an employee working at the bakery department. Since she mentioned it on social media, other people have come forward to report their own spooky sightings. They described the specter as a young woman with blue eyes, light skin, and dark hair. She is dressed in traditional clothing from the Victorian era.^[2]

A spokesperson for the chain of supermarkets assured their clients that their stores are ghost-free. However, if one of their shops was actually haunted, then the specter was probably attracted to their Victorian-era prices.

8 Van Gogh Painting Is The Real McCoy

After three decades of doubts, a painting believed to be by Vincent van Gogh was identified as belonging to the Dutch master.

The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut, has owned Vase With Poppies by Vincent van Gogh since 1957, thanks to a donation by a private collector. However, for nearly 30 years, the painting has been gathering dust in storage. That’s because there were fears that it might be a fake.

The first issue was that the generous donor, novelist Anne Parrish, didn’t have a well-known reputation as an art collector, so the history of the painting was murky. In 1976, historian Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharov brought up concerns regarding its authenticity. In 1990, art scholar Walter Feilchenfeldt inspected the painting and raised the same issue. Since then, the museum never put Vase With Poppies on display again.

Now, modern technology seems to have confirmed the artwork’s authenticity using “digital x-ray and advanced infrared reflectograms.”^[3] The imaging equipment revealed an earlier self-portrait beneath the current painting. Moreover, experts from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam believe that the paint and material are consistent with the ones the Dutch master used after moving to Paris.

7 The Axe Effect

During a traffic stop, a drunk driver unsuccessfully tried to mask the smell of alcohol by spraying Axe body spray into his mouth.

When it comes to getting rid of alcohol breath, there is a world of solutions out there which will supposedly do the trick. Most people reach for a stick of gum. Others say that eating peanut butter works. Many believe that you should mask one unpleasant odor with a more powerful one by eating garlic or an onion or even smoking a cigarette.

One inebriated man from South Carolina, presumably, did not have access to any of these solutions when he was pulled over by Spartanburg County sheriff’s deputies. Efren Mencia-Ramirez decided to improvise and spritzed his mouth with a healthy helping of Axe body spray.^[4]

The 49-year-old motorist was taken into custody after failing field sobriety tests. Deputies did not specify if the “Axe trick” worked or not. Given that Mencia-Ramirez had ten empty beer containers in the car, an open bottle between his legs, and was slurring his speech, they probably had a hint already that the driver might be drunk.

6 A Resourceful Library

Browsing the archives of Ushaw College Library at Durham University in the northeast of England, a researcher stumbled upon a royal charter issued over 800 years ago and bearing the royal seal of King John.

The document is dated to March 26, 1200, making it 819 years old this week. It is now among the dozen or so charters which have survived from the first year of the reign of King John, a royal figure best known today for his antagonistic role in the legends of Robin Hood.

Dr. Benjamin Pohl was the one who made the chance discovery and recognized the seal. He was also able to tell that the document was written in “court hand” to make it as official as possible. The charter itself details two transactions. Walter of Caen and Robert FitzRoger, Lord of Warkworth and Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk, were granted the hamlets of Cornsay and Hedley Hill.^[5]

Besides the information of the legal acts themselves, Dr. Pohl is interested in what the document can say about the political and social cultures of the time. The signatures of the nine witnesses, for example, indicate the presence of some of the most powerful men in Northern England around that time, most likely because they were all eager to do business with the new king.

5 Can You Bully Someone With Flatulence?

The Court of Appeal in Victoria, Australia, examined an unusual case this week as an engineer sued his former supervisor for bullying in the workplace because he regularly farted on him.

Fifty-six-year-old David Hingst claims he has suffered “severe stress” because a former colleague named Greg Short would “lift his bum and fart” on him up to six times a day.^[6] Hingst was employed at Construction Engineering in Melbourne, where Short served as contract administrator. He worked in a small room with no windows, and the supervisor, whom he dubbed “Mr. Stinky,” would routinely walk into the room, break wind behind Hingst, and leave. This caused him psychiatric injuries, and he sued his former company for A$1.8 million ($1.28 million).

For his part, Short admitted that he may have passed gas in Hingst’s company once or twice but denied that he ever did it with the intent to distress or harass his colleague. The Supreme Court of Victoria sided with him last year and found that there was no bullying. Hingst appealed the decision, claiming that the judge was biased against him.

On Friday, an appeals court dismissed the case, concluding that flatulence does not constitute bullying, even if Hingst’s allegations are true.

4 Fast Dining In Ancient Times

Over the last year or so, excavations have resumed at the ruins of Pompeii, and archaeologists have made dozens of new discoveries. Among the latest is the counter of a thermopolium, complete with well-preserved frescoes.

The thermopolium was a cookshop similar to modern “fast food” restaurants. It sold ready-to-go foods and drinks and was primarily targeted at the city’s poorer residents, who did not have a kitchen at home. The standard menu of a thermopolium included simple dishes such as baked bread, fish, cheese, and spicy wine.^[7]

The 2,000-year-old snack bar is just one of dozens of thermopolia which have been found in Pompeii’s archaeological park. Although the Roman upper classes typically avoided these types of establishments, this particular thermopolium would have been considered to be at the higher end of “fast food” dining. It was adorned with beautiful frescoes which are still in great condition even today.

3 The Garfield Mystery Is Solved

For 35 years, the western coast of Brittany in France had a peculiar problem: Orange pieces of plastic depicting Garfield the cat kept washing up on its beaches. People have finally found the source of this lasagna-loving litter. It was a shipping container which, likely, fell off a vessel and ended up in a sea cave.

The bits of plastic came from a line of novelty Garfield telephones popular in the 1980s. For decades, they have polluted the beaches in the Finistere region, including one area which is a designated marine park. Last year, they even became the symbol of the Ar Vilantsou anti-litter group.

Cleaning crews have suspected for a long time that the Garfield parts were coming from a container lost at sea, but its location was a mystery. However, a new media campaign reached the right people. A local farmer remembered his younger days when the telephones first started appearing on the beaches. He also knew where the container was.^[8]

The area is not easily accessible, as it is a fissure only reachable at low tide. However, a team went inside and found the open container. Even so, it cannot be moved without heavy machinery, so it will remain there for the foreseeable future. In the meantime, cleaners will continue to remove the litter that washes up on the beaches.

2 Get Paid To Lie In Bed

A joint venture between NASA, ESA, and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) might be offering the perfect job. They will pay volunteers $19,000 to sit in bed for two months.

Participants will take part in a study which will test the effects of weightlessness on their bodies. Specifically, it will examine the possible benefits that artificial gravity might have during prolonged space travel.

To simulate weightlessness, volunteers will lie in bed with their feet tilted slightly above their head. This way, blood will pool in the upper body area, and flow will be reduced to the extremities. They will have to do everything in this position: eat, sleep, exercise, watch TV, shower, and even go to the bathroom.^[9]

Half of the participants will sit in a normal area, while the other half will be placed inside a spinning centrifuge that will mimic the effects of an artificial gravity chamber. That way, scientists can see if there is any difference in how the simulated weightlessness affects the bodies of their astronaut stand-ins.

1 A Bizarre Birth

In late February, a young woman from Bangladesh gave birth to a baby boy. Four weeks later, she gave birth again to twins.

Twenty-year-old Arifa Sultana went to the Khulna Medical College Hospital to deliver her first baby. It was premature but otherwise healthy. Almost a month later, the young mother started feeling a pain in her stomach and was rushed to another hospital. Doctors were stunned to discover that she was still pregnant with twins. Gynecologist Dr. Sheila Poddar performed an emergency caesarean. Now, the mother and all her children are in good health.

This happened because Sultana has a condition called uterus didelphys.^[10] She has two uteri. In the fetus, the organ is formed from two tubes that join together. Sometimes, this does not happen, and the person is born with a double uterus. Normally, the condition is obvious from an ultrasound scan. Because Arifa and her husband come from a poor village, they never had one done.