Buzz
This week brought a flood of major events. With so many noteworthy moments, it's understandable that some may have slipped under the radar.
That said, we believe some of these stories should not be overlooked. While they may not shake up industries or change the world, their oddity and charm make them worth your time.
10. Runaway Cow Never Turning Back
A cow destined for slaughter pulled off an incredible escape and made her way to a small island on Nyskie Lake, a reservoir in southwestern Poland. The dramatic chain of events began last week when the cow was being escorted to a truck bound for the abattoir.
Her owner, Mr. Lukasz, instructed his workers to sedate the cow, but they didn’t carry out his orders. Seeing her chance, the cow broke free from the men and shattered a metal fence to make her escape. One farmhand ended up with a broken arm and several bruised ribs.
For the past few days, the cow has been living alone on the island, resisting any human attempts to approach her. When firefighters attempted to cross the reservoir by boat to reach the island, the cow simply swam to a nearby peninsula. Eventually, her owner abandoned efforts to recapture her and began leaving food for the cow instead.
9. Chinese Government Cracks Down on Funeral Strippers
China’s Ministry of Culture has announced renewed efforts to tackle a controversial practice mostly found in rural areas—funeral strippers.
Many in China believe that a large turnout at a funeral is the most fitting way to honor the deceased. As a result, hiring strippers has become a relatively inexpensive way to ensure a big crowd. However, state media condemn the practice, calling it 'obscene and uncivilized.'
The government’s first attempt to curb this tradition took place in 2006 when five strippers were arrested in Jiangsu. In 2015, Beijing officially banned the practice. Now, the Ministry of Culture is targeting 19 cities across four provinces. To assist in enforcement, a new hotline has been launched, offering monetary rewards for those who report 'funeral misdeeds.'
According to the state-run newspaper Global Times, some Chinese families go so far as to spend more than their yearly income to hire not only strippers but also singers, dancers, actors, and comedians to boost attendance at a funeral.
Not everyone agrees with the Ministry of Culture’s view, as some see the practice as a form of fertility worship. University professor Huang Jianxing explains that erotic dancing in certain local cultures is believed to fulfill the deceased's wish of being blessed with many children.
8. Farts On A Plane
A Transavia Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing at Vienna Airport after a disagreement broke out among passengers, triggered by one traveler who wouldn't stop farting.
The flight, en route from Dubai to Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, was interrupted when a passenger alerted the crew that the man sitting next to him was continuously breaking wind and refused to stop, despite protests from several people nearby.
Flight attendants were unable to stop the man’s ongoing flatulence, and the situation quickly escalated into a confrontation between him and another male passenger. After warning them to cease, the pilot had no choice but to make an emergency landing and notify local authorities of 'passengers on the rampage.' Amateur footage emerged showing Austrian police boarding the plane and detaining two men and two women.
The two women, Dutch and Moroccan sisters, later sued Transavia Airlines for racial profiling. They argued they had no involvement in the altercation, merely the misfortune of sitting in the same row. They also accused the flight crew of adopting a provocative attitude and unfairly grouping them with the brawlers simply because they were Moroccan.
Transavia Airlines issued a statement defending its crew's actions and accusing the sisters of being complicit in the altercation. Meanwhile, the flatulent man was allowed to continue his journey to Amsterdam. To our knowledge, no one else caused a fuss about it.
7. The Darkest Building In The World
Visitors to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang will have the chance to witness an extraordinary feat of architecture—the darkest building ever created.
Crafted by British architect Asif Khan, the structure is a temporary pavilion for Hyundai, and its long-term use remains uncertain. Its surface has been coated with Vantablack Vbx2, an ultra-black substance that absorbs 99 percent of incoming light.
Ben Jensen, the chief technical officer at Surrey Nanosystems responsible for the substance's development, likens it to a nanoscale coral reef, where each optical cavity is 1,000 times thinner than a human hair.
Initially developed by the company for space applications, Vantablack S-VIS was designed to minimize distortion in telescope lenses. The material quickly captivated both the architectural and artistic communities and, in a controversial move, was exclusively licensed to sculptor Anish Kapoor. Due to widespread demand, Surrey Nanosystems produced the Vbx2 successor, which will be available to all once it launches next month.
The pavilion in Pyeongchang not only boasts a coating of the super-black material but also features thousands of rods with tiny lights at their tips. These lights represent stars, creating the illusion of floating through the infinite expanse of space.
6. No KFC For UK
People across the United Kingdom were left without KFC for several days as the fast-food chain was forced to close many of its outlets due to a shortage of chicken.
Of the approximately 900 KFC locations in the UK that rely on DHL for delivery, 575 were shut down on Monday. By the following day, 450 remained closed, with concerns that some could stay closed for the remainder of the week. This widespread disruption stemmed from KFC switching its delivery contract to DHL, which faced ‘operational issues.’
The GMB trade union had warned KFC about this outcome. While the previous contractor, Bidvest Logistics, was specialized in food distribution, DHL, though cheaper, was ill-prepared. By the time KFC realized it couldn’t meet demand, it was already too late. To make matters worse, much of the chicken that didn’t reach the restaurants was discarded.
The problem seemed to stem from DHL’s new KFC-exclusive depot in Rugby. Built hurriedly and understaffed, the facility was poorly equipped to handle the numerous shipments that needed processing. Several truckloads of chicken were left to spoil because there were not enough staff to unload and store them.
Many people in the UK were not happy with the situation and took to social media to voice their complaints. The authorities received so many calls about the 'chicken crisis' that the Metropolitan Police Service issued a statement clarifying that the issue was not one for the police to handle.
5. The Fenn Treasure Tragedy
Back in 2010, Forrest Fenn, an octogenarian author and former art dealer, claimed to have hidden a treasure worth over $1 million somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. He also published a 24-line poem with nine clues to its whereabouts. Since then, tens of thousands of people have attempted to find it, and some have tragically lost their lives in the process.
Fenn, a former Vietnam War pilot and confessed adrenaline enthusiast with a love for the outdoors, chose a route through the Rockies to hide his treasure that isn’t for the faint of heart. Since 2016, three men have been reported dead while searching for the treasure, and it appears that a fourth has now joined the tragic list.
Fifty-three-year-old Jeff Murphy lost his life after falling hundreds of feet down a rocky slope while hiking in Yellowstone National Park. This occurred in June, but the details of his death have only now come to light. Interestingly, Murphy focused his search on the Wyoming-Montana border area, despite most treasure hunters believing the clues point to New Mexico.
The most recent death has sparked fresh protests against Fenn, with some even going as far as calling his treasure a deadly hoax. However, Fenn has brushed off these accusations, stating that all outdoor pursuits carry risks. He suggests that future treasure hunters should steer clear of areas inaccessible to an 80-year-old man and avoid taking unnecessary chances.
4. A Green Moon in April?
On April 20, we’re set to witness an extremely rare event that only happens once every 420 years. Thanks to the alignment of several planets, the Moon will briefly shine with a greenish glow for about 90 minutes. Oh, and everything we just said is complete nonsense.
No, the Moon will not turn green. This is yet another hoax circulating on social media for the third consecutive year, but, unfortunately, many people continue to fall for it.
The initial image surfaced in 2016, claiming that the Moon would turn green on May 29 that year because Uranus would “park itself near the Moon.” Obviously, anyone with basic knowledge of astronomy could debunk this, but that didn’t stop tens of thousands from believing it and spreading the image on social media.
This year, the image made a return, but with the date updated to April 20. This change was likely a playful reference to marijuana culture, as the green hue and the date both tie into '420,' a term commonly associated with smoking weed.
Although meant as a joke, many people either missed the humor or saw the image without the context. As a result, the hoax is once again spreading on social media platforms.
3. Amateur Astronomer Captures a 1-in-10-Million Shot
A recent study reveals that sometimes luck trumps skill. Just ask Victor Buso, an Argentine locksmith and amateur astronomer. In 2016, he was eager to try out his new CCD camera when he captured a rare and incredible astronomical event.
He climbed up to his rooftop observatory, attached the new CCD camera to his Newtonian telescope, and aimed it at the galaxy NGC 613, located around 70 million light-years away. There wasn’t a specific reason for selecting this galaxy, other than it being a spiral galaxy near the zenith, perfect for capturing some great shots. What Buso photographed turned out to be something humanity had never seen before.
What he captured was the birth of a supernova—specifically, the shock-breakout phase, where the shock wave from a collapsing star's core reaches the outer layer and bursts through the surface.
For 90 minutes, Buso took 20-second exposures of the galaxy. Around the midpoint of this session, he noticed a pixel at the end of one of the spiral arms growing brighter with each shot. He contacted a few fellow astronomers, and the news began to spread quickly through the scientific community.
Before this discovery, the shock-breakout phase had never been observed, since predicting the start of a supernova is impossible. The best anyone could do was observe it several hours after it had begun. Since Buso’s find, other observatories have monitored the galaxy and determined that the star was originally 20 times more massive than the Sun but lost much of its mass to a companion star before it exploded.
2. The First Artists Were Neanderthals
Geochronologists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology have developed a groundbreaking dating technique that determines the age of cave paintings. Its main advantage is that it requires only minuscule scrapings from the cave walls, meaning it won’t damage valuable rock art.
This new method has already pushed back the age of the oldest-known cave paintings by over 20,000 years. These paintings are so ancient that archaeologists now believe they were created by Neanderthals.
The process involves scraping tiny samples of mineral-rich crust that has formed over the rock art and dating them. However, there’s a limitation—accuracy. Since the scientists are dating the mineral deposits, they cannot determine the exact age of the paintings themselves.
Despite this, they can establish the minimum age of the art, as it cannot be younger than the crust that covers it. To date, three paintings discovered in caves across Spain are at least 65,000 years old.
According to current understanding, modern humans didn’t settle in Europe until around 40,000 to 50,000 years ago. This suggests that the art in question likely originates from our Neanderthal ancestors. This finding further challenges the old belief that these early humans were completely primitive and lacked culture until they encountered our species.
1. Heavy Penalty for Self-Checkout Fraud
Many supermarkets provide a self-checkout lane, where shoppers can scan and pay for their items, bag them, and leave without assistance. While some people responsibly use this service, others take advantage of it as an opportunity to shoplift.
The phenomenon is common enough to warrant studies into its psychological effects. Research conducted in the UK revealed that self-service checkouts can lead people to justify theft, even if they wouldn’t normally steal in other situations.
To begin with, people often find it easier to steal from a machine rather than a person because they are not confronted with an identifiable victim. Additionally, negative feelings toward the supermarket or a belief that they ‘deserve’ it due to long work hours can lead shoppers to take advantage of the system.
No matter how you spin it, shoplifting remains a crime, and one German man learned this the hard way. He attempted to pass off 47 euros worth of veal liver as fruit—a scam commonly referred to as the 'banana trick.' He was caught and handed a hefty fine of $326,000 by Munich’s district court.
The enormous fine was based on his monthly income. The businessman, who earned over $37,000 per month, had been caught doing the same trick three times before and had prior convictions for tax evasion and theft. He chose not to appeal the ruling.
