Odd News
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South Carolina aquarium preps its animals for solar eclipse
Animals in the path of the first total solar eclipse to travel across the United States in 99 years have a big surprise awaiting them tomorrow afternoon, biologists say. Zoos, aquariums and other wildlife parks see the celestial phenomenon as a...
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Cars left dangling as car park facade collapses in Nottingham
Three parked vehicles were left dangling several metres above the ground after a car park partially collapsed in the UK last night. The front facia of NCP Nottingham City car park came crashing down at around 4am, leaving two cars and a van...
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Alcohol pulled off the shelves in Turkmenistan's capital
Alcohol stores have been closed down and alcoholic products taken off the shelves of shops in the capital of Turkmenistan ahead of a major international athletic completion next month. Merchants at several stores said authorities had ordered...
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Webcams improve early bonding between parents, premature babies - study
Webcams can help improve early bonding between parents and premature babies, researchers from Glasgow Caledonian University have found. The majority of parents quizzed in the study, published in BMC Pediatrics, benefited from seeing their baby 24...
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Azure Window used to promote conference about sea conservation
The Azure Window appeared in anything from perfume adverts to episodes of hit TV series Game of Thrones. Now, almost six months since its sudden collapse and disappearance, the European Union's maritime and fisheries department has found a...
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Solar eclipse will cost US employers nearly $700m
Add next week's total eclipse of the sun to the list of worker distractions that cost UScompanies hundreds of millions of dollars in lost productivity. American employers will see at least $694 million in missing output for the roughly 20 minutes...
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Russian 3D-printed satellite deployed in space for first time
Expedition 52 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy, of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, have performed a spacewalk outside the International Space Station. One of their tasks was to deploy several nanosatellites...
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Police believe thieves steal Venezuela zoo animals to eat them
Venezuela authorities are investigating the theft of animals from a zoo in western state of Zulia that were likely snatched to be eaten, a further sign of hunger in a country struggling with chronic food shortages. A police official said two...
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Musical comedy finds the fun in Brexit
Boris in Union Jack underpants? A retelling of Britain's vote to leave the European Union and its dramatic political consequences might perhaps be framed as high drama or extreme farce. But audiences at the Edinburgh Festival are lapping up a...
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Amazon adds 'Instant Pickup' in US
Amazon.com Inc is rolling out US pickup points where shoppers can retrieve items immediately after ordering them, shortening delivery times from hours to minutes in its latest move into brick-and-mortar retail. The world's largest online retailer...
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Trump retweets, then deletes cartoon of train smashing CNN
US President Donald Trump shared a Twitter cartoon of a train running over a person with a CNN logo covering the person's head, before deleting it minutes later. The US president shared the tweet just three days after a right-winger ploughed his...
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'Bonkers' to silence Big Ben's bongs for four years, MP says
It is "entirely bonkers" and "ridiculous" that Big Ben's famous bongs will be silenced for four years next week as major conservation work is carried out, a Tory MP has said. A shadow minister added that the bells had not stopped during the Blitz...
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Elephants to the rescue in Nepal
Hundreds of tourists were rescued with the help of elephants from a flooded jungle safari park in Nepal. See the video above.
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Thousands of sea turtles lay eggs on protected Mexican beach
Mexico's beautiful Playa La Escobilla was crawling with nesting marine turtles this weekend as they emerge from the sea to lay their eggs on the sandy beaches in their annual migration during the months of August and September. Members of the...
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Clarks in sexism row over girls' shoes
Footwear firm Clarks has sparked a sexism row after naming a girls' shoe range Dolly Babe and a boys' line Leader. Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was among those to criticise the well-known company, which has apologised for any offence...
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Man sets house on fire while trying to burn wasp nest
A man in Canada who tried to get rid of a wasp nest inside his house by pouring gasoline over it ended up setting his house on fire instead. The Ontario resident's plan went up in flames when embers from the fire he ignited fell into the wall...
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Watch: Dramatic video shows car plunging seven floors from parking garage
A video released by Texas police shows a car crashing down to the ground from the seventh floor of a garage. Christi Bowmer was parking her BMW 328i convertible when the vehicle mistakenly accelerated, going through retention wires and into a...
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Century-old fruitcake found perfectly preserved in Antarctica
A 100-year-old fruitcake has been found perfectly preserved in ice in Antarctica. The Antarctic Heritage Trust said that while the fruitcake's tin was rusted, the cake still looked and smelled edible. It was found in a hut built by Norwegian...
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Australia cafe adopts "man tax" to highlight gender pay gap
A Melbourne cafe went viral on social media this week after introducing an 18% "man tax" to raise awareness of Australia's gender pay gap. The gender surcharge at the Handsome Her cafe is optional and the proceeds are donated to a women's charity,...
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Sick of congested roads, German man swims to work
Fed-up with the grind of taking a bus or bike to work every day on congested streets in Munich, Benjamin David started swimming there instead. The burly beer garden worker now packs his laptop and clothes into a waterproof bag which he puts on his...
