Buzz
Another week has come to a close, which means it's time to revisit some of the strange and unexpected headlines that recently made waves. If you'd like to catch up on the previous offbeat list, click here.
This week, we have a curious story from Japan and an even stranger one involving a tail from Japan. A grand cheese robbery in Canada, a creepy statue in New Zealand, and a vicious crocodile at a Swedish aquarium also make the cut. A German town presents the challenge of proving it doesn't exist, and a wronged English husband exacts revenge with a massive pile of manure.
10. A Defamation Campaign
In what seems to be an act of revenge, an anonymous individual left a massive pile of manure outside a country inn in Hampshire, England, accompanied by a sign accusing the pub's landlord of having an affair with his wife.
One morning, Simon Emberley, the landlord and chef of the Hawkley Inn, arrived at work to discover a stinky mound of horse manure blocking the entrance to his pub. The pile was so large that it caused a traffic jam in the village, forcing drivers to find alternate routes.
Atop the heap was a sign reading “The landlord is f—ing my wife.” Not surprisingly, Emberley dismissed the allegations as “baseless and false,” calling them part of a smear campaign aimed at him.
Both he and his wife claim they have no idea who is responsible, though the police are investigating the matter. Local gossip points to a nearby farmer as the culprit. In an attempt to make light of the situation, the Emberleys posted a sign offering the horse manure for free, thanks to a “generous supplier.” However, no one took them up on the offer, and workmen eventually came to clean up the mess.
9. Village Of The Apes
Farmers from the village of Kiso in Nagano Prefecture, Japan, have formed a “monkey militia” to combat the primates that frequently raid their crops.
Situated in the Kaida Highlands at the base of Mount Ontake, Kiso offers an ideal environment for farming. Crops flourish, particularly sweet corn, making them an irresistible target for local monkeys.
In the past, locals attempted to scare away the monkeys using loud shouts and bottle rockets, but these methods were unsuccessful. Now, a group of about 30 farmers and workers has banded together to form the “monkey chaser” team, aiming to take a more hands-on approach in defending their fields from the simian invasion.
The town invested 850,000 yen ($80,000) in 30 air guns and pellets. Earlier this month, the “monkey fighters” received training to use their new weapons. From now on, they will regularly patrol their crops. If they spot monkeys eating their corn, they’ll notify the group via a messaging app. The entire squad will assemble and fire warning shots to drive the animals away.
The mayor of Kiso presented the men with matching hats and certificates confirming that they are only permitted to fire into the air, not directly at the monkeys.
8. The Artist's Hand
The people of Wellington now have a new nightmarish sight to admire for the coming years: a massive sculpture named Quasi, which was hoisted by helicopter to the top of the Wellington City Gallery.
Standing 5 meters (16 feet) tall, the statue portrays a giant, anthropomorphic hand with the face of its creator, Melbourne-based artist Ronnie van Hout. As described by the gallery, Quasi represents “the hand of the artist” that has somehow taken on a monstrous life of its own.”
Van Hout created the sculpture in 2011 for his hometown of Christchurch after the devastating 2011 earthquake. Now, it has found a new home in the Civic Square of New Zealand's capital, Wellington, as part of efforts to revitalize an area affected by another earthquake in 2016.
The people of Wellington are certainly divided about the sculpture, with many finding it deeply unsettling. Quasi received a similar reaction in Christchurch, but the residents of Wellington will have to get accustomed to it. The statue is set to remain there for the next three years.
7. The Enigma of Skeleton Lake
A new study published in Nature Communications adds to the mystery of Skeleton Lake in India by ruling out most of the theories that had been proposed to explain its origin.
High in the Himalayas, thousands of meters above sea level, lies a mostly frozen glacial lake known as Roopkund. This eerie site is more famously called Skeleton Lake, as numerous human remains have been uncovered there, with some researchers suggesting that as many as 500 people may be buried at the location.
The first remains were discovered during World War II, and since then, various theories have been put forward to explain the origin of the bones. Some suggested that the remains belonged to a group of people who perished together, while others speculated they were Japanese soldiers, a returning Indian army unit, or even a king and his entourage.
The cold temperatures at Roopkund have preserved DNA within the bones, which has been helpful for researchers. The latest study focuses on the remains of 37 individuals found at the site, revealing that they came from different age groups and diverse ancestries. This immediately rules out the theory that all of them perished in a single event.
About a third of the bodies found were of Mediterranean origin. While most of the remains are about 1,000 years old, some date as recently as the early 1800s.
Researchers remain split on the key question: How did all these bodies end up in Roopkund? Some believe it was a deliberate burial site for locals, while others argue that the bodies were brought together by landslides, not human intervention, which could explain the accumulation of skeletons in the lake.
6. Tails For The Elderly
According to researchers at Tokyo's Keio University, elderly people should have tails. They have developed a robotic tail that mimics the natural movements of a real tail and helps older adults maintain their balance.
Junichi Nabeshima, one of the researchers, explains that the 1-meter (3.3 ft) gray tail is attached to the waist with a harness and works like a pendulum. When the body tilts in one direction, the tail moves in the opposite direction. This is achieved through four artificial muscles and a supply of compressed air, which allows the tail to move in eight different directions.
The team believes their robotic tail could be extremely beneficial for elderly individuals but is also exploring its potential use for other people who could benefit from improved balance, such as warehouse workers carrying heavy loads.
5. Flight Of The Mattresses
An unusual scene unfolded in Denver, Colorado, last weekend. Known as the “great mattress migration of 2019,” a viral video captured dozens of air mattresses making a run for it across the park, driven by a powerful gust of wind.
Earlier that day, the mattresses had been laid out for an outdoor film screening event dubbed Bed Cinema. Unfortunately, the event organizers didn't foresee the arrival of a strong gale that blew their seating arrangements away.
Luckily for us, Robb Manes was in the right place at the right time and filmed the bizarre event, sharing it online. The footage captures a truly strange moment where between 50 and 100 air mattresses tumble through the park, with a few people unsuccessfully trying to stop them. The mattresses reportedly drifted for as long as 30 minutes before the wind finally died down.
4. The City That Wasn’t There
The German city of Bielefeld is offering a reward of €1 million ($1.1 million) to anyone in Germany who can definitively prove that the city does not actually exist.
The idea that Bielefeld is a fictional place first emerged on Internet forums in the early 1990s. Initially designed to poke fun at conspiracy theories, it gained so much traction that it has now become a joke of its own. The city’s tourism board often plays along with the prank, and even Chancellor Angela Merkel mentioned it humorously after attending an event in Bielefeld in 2012.
Now, city officials are aiming to put this issue to rest once and for all, offering a hefty prize to anyone who can prove the conspiracy theory that Bielefeld doesn’t exist. The contest will be open until September 5.
According to the contest organizers, they are 99.99% confident that they can disprove any evidence submitted. However, if someone manages to present that elusive 0.01% of proof, they could win €1 million — and presumably, the 340,000 residents of Bielefeld would vanish into thin air.
3. World’s Slowest Police Chase
On Wednesday, the quiet town of Timaru, located on New Zealand’s South Island, became the setting for a police chase reminiscent of those in action films. The twist? The officers were in pursuit of an elderly man riding a mobility scooter.
Charlie Durham, a 60-year-old double amputee, was spotted by the police driving his vehicle on the sidewalk of a suburban area at a high speed. The officers told him to slow down, but he ignored their commands. Eventually, the police decided to put a stop to his joyride by cutting across traffic and positioning their car in front of him.
However, this did little to slow Durham. Instead, he swerved across traffic in the opposite direction, ending up on the sidewalk across from where he started. The police vehicle attempted multiple times to block his path, but each time, he skillfully maneuvered his mobility scooter around it and continued on. A motorist behind them captured the world’s slowest car chase on video, though they missed the climax when the police finally managed to get the speedy senior to stop.
Durham was fined NZ$250 for failing to stop for an officer and operating his mobility scooter “inconsiderately.” As his excuse, the elderly man claimed that he mistook the police car for an ice cream truck being overly aggressive about selling him ice cream. He also explained that he needed to rush home to prepare dinner, or else his entire evening would be “ruined.”
2. Cuban Croc Attack In Sweden
A man was hospitalized after being attacked by Fidel Castro’s crocodile while attending a crayfish party in Sweden.
It might sound like something from a game of Mad Libs, but this bizarre event actually took place on a Tuesday. A man in his seventies was attending a crayfish party, a traditional Nordic celebration, at the Skansen Aquarium in Stockholm. While delivering a speech near the enclosure of two Cuban crocodiles, he waved his arm over the wrong side of the partition. Seizing the opportunity, one of the crocodiles lunged at him and bit his hand. Other partygoers quickly used napkins and bandages to stop the bleeding until the ambulance arrived.
The crocodiles had been residents of the aquarium for nearly forty years, and this was the first incident of its kind. These reptiles were originally gifted to Russian cosmonaut Vladimir Shatalov by Fidel Castro in 1978. After outgrowing their domestic space, Shatalov donated them to the Moscow Zoo, which later relocated them to Sweden where the aquarium had the facilities to care for them. In 2015, ten of their offspring were sent back to Cuba to assist in replenishing the local crocodile population.
1. The Cheese Heist Of The Century
Earlier this month, an unknown thief managed to make off with nearly $190,000 worth of cheese from a dairy plant in Tavistock, Oxford County, Ontario.
According to Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), on the morning of August 9, the thief showed up at the office of Saputo Dairy Products and presented paperwork for a large cheese shipment that was supposed to go to New Brunswick. The workers, unaware of the heist, helped the crook load his blue transport truck with cheese valued at $187,000.
Everything appeared to be fine at first. The company didn’t realize it had been robbed until the following week, when it discovered that the shipment never reached its intended destination.
The OPP issued a warning to local businesses, advising them to be on the lookout for anyone attempting to sell large quantities of cheese. They urged businesses to contact authorities immediately if such an incident occurs.
