Buzz
With the weekend upon us, it’s the perfect time to relax and catch up on the week’s news. Click here to explore all the serious, noteworthy events.
This compilation focuses on the bizarre and intriguing stories that recently made headlines. We’ll dive into viral events, unexpected animal discoveries, and showcase human ingenuity, from criminal exploits to creating the world’s fastest shed.
10. Yanny or Laurel?
In 2015, the internet exploded over a simple image of a dress. Some viewers swore it was blue and black (the true colors), while others insisted it was white and gold. The debate sparked numerous theories from both experts and everyday people, trying to explain this strange optical illusion.
A fresh controversy has erupted online this week, but this time it’s in audio form. It’s a brief clip repeating a single word, and listeners can’t agree on whether it says “Yanny” or “Laurel.”
The clip gained traction after being shared on Reddit and quickly spread from there. Experts have started offering theories, though there’s still no clear consensus on what exactly is responsible for the differing perceptions of the sound.
David Alais, a psychology professor at the University of Sydney, suggests that the confusion stems from the similar timing and energy in the sounds. He also believes age might play a role, as older individuals tend to have less sensitivity to high frequencies. Lars Riecke, Assistant Professor at Maastricht University, concurs, emphasizing that “frequency” holds the key.
Hugh McDermott, a professor at Melbourne’s Bionics Institute, also points to frequency as a factor, but adds that other influences like visual cues or unconscious biases based on personal experience may contribute as well. So, the big question remains—are you hearing Laurel or Yanny?
9. Thanos Arrested in Toronto
Thanos has finally met his match. But not by the Avengers or the Guardians of the Galaxy. No, it was Toronto police sergeant Noel DeGuzman who stopped him.
Okay, so it wasn’t really the infamous villain, but rather 42-year-old Frank Coraci, a local man dressed in a remarkably detailed Thanos costume. And he wasn’t arrested; he was just posing for a picture to impress the sergeant’s daughter. Coraci thought taking a walk down Yonge Street would lift the spirits of Toronto’s citizens after the recent van attack on the same street. Before long, people were lining up for selfies with the Mad Titan.
Soon, this caught the attention of the police. Coraci thought he was in trouble, but the officer turned out to be a Marvel fan. A brief chat between the two led to an arrest-themed photo that quickly went viral online.
8. Dog Turns Out to Be a Bear
Two years ago, Su Yun from Kunming, Yunnan, China, went on vacation and bought a puppy to bring back home. She thought it was a Tibetan Mastiff. However, her family only realized recently that Su Yun had actually brought home an Asian black bear.
Tibetan Mastiffs are one of the largest dog breeds on the planet, with full-grown males weighing over 70 kilograms (155 lb). However, the family started to grow suspicious when their “dog” tipped the scales at 113 kilograms (250 lb) and kept growing. By that point, he was eating a box of fruits and two buckets of noodles every day.
The animal’s tendency to walk on its hind legs raised even more doubts. Once the Yun family figured out what they truly had, they realized keeping an adult bear around the house wasn’t a good idea. They reached out to the authorities, and the bear was relocated to the Yunnan Wildlife Rescue Center.
7. Time Travelers Invited to Stephen Hawking’s Memorial Service
Stephen Hawking passed away on March 14, 2018. His memorial service is scheduled for June 15, after which his ashes will be interred at Westminster Abbey, between the graves of Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. The Stephen Hawking Foundation has recently announced that time travelers are invited to attend the service.
This is clearly a playful reference to the professor’s sense of humor. It specifically alludes to a well-known event when Hawking hosted a party on June 28, 2009, but didn’t send out the invitations until a day later to ensure only time travelers would show up. Unfortunately, no one took him up on the invitation.
Many questioned why the foundation made this announcement ahead of the memorial. The whole point of the stunt seemed to be to invite time travelers after the event had taken place. However, it’s possible that this was the original plan. A travel blogger was the first to notice that while signing up for the online raffle to attend the service, attendees could select a birth year as far ahead as 2038. After some investigation, the foundation confirmed that time travelers are indeed invited, though they clarified that none had applied yet.
6. Marsupial Faces Endangerment Due to Excessive Reproduction
The antechinus, a small marsupial resembling a shrew, is native to Australia. It is notorious for its hyperactive sexual behavior, often marked by semelparity—a single reproductive event that typically leads to death. Now, it seems this frantic mating habit has pushed two species of antechinus onto the endangered species list.
During mating seasons, both male and female antechinuses hop from partner to partner, engaging in marathon mating sessions that can last up to 14 hours. There are no courtship rituals involved; the sole aim is to mate with as many different partners as possible. This intense event spans two weeks, during which the males experience such high testosterone levels that they continuously produce the stress hormone cortisol. Eventually, the cortisol reaches harmful levels, breaking down the immune system, leading to organ failure, internal bleeding, and death.
Both the silver-headed antechinus and the black-tailed dusky antechinus were first documented by mammalogist Andrew Baker in 2013. Since then, their populations have sharply declined. Dr. Baker believes that factors like limited food supplies and invasive predators played a role in driving these species toward endangerment.
5. World’s Fastest Shed Sets a New Record
This past weekend, beachgoers at Pendine Sands in Carmarthenshire, Wales, witnessed the setting of a new record for the fastest shed in the world.
The motorized shed reached an impressive 160 kilometers per hour (101 mph), smashing the previous record of 129 kilometers per hour (80 mph), a record it also held. This feat was made possible by a powerful 400-horsepower engine from an Audi RS4. Owner Kevin Nicks invested over $17,500 to transform a basic garden shed into a speed demon.
The journey began in 2015 when Nicks's Volkswagen Passat broke down. Seeking something different, he embarked on a project to create a shed on wheels. After a year of work and spending £5,000, his creation was roadworthy. At first, the 53-year-old gardener had no intentions of setting records. His goal was simply to have a unique vehicle to take his daughter to school and run errands. However, when the chance to race his shed presented itself, Nicks not only set the then-current Guinness world record but also blew up his engine.
After two years of repairs and upgrades, the racer was finally ready to enter the land speed event at Pendine Sands.
4. UPS Experiences Unplanned Change of Address
A man from Chicago was charged with fraud and mail theft last week after orchestrating a bold scheme that involved redirecting thousands of pieces of mail meant for shipping giant UPS by simply altering the company’s address at the post office.
This marks the latest in a series of “I can’t believe that worked” scams, which make for entertaining stories as long as you’re not one of the victims. Dushaun Henderson-Spruce, 24, submitted a routine change-of-address form with the US Postal Service (USPS) for UPS, rerouting the company’s headquarters to his own apartment on Chicago’s North Side.
The scheme took place in October, but it wasn’t until late January that postal officials discovered what had been going on. A mail carrier reported delivering a “large volume” of UPS mail for months, which he had to leave in a special USPS tub outside Henderson-Spruce’s apartment. Later, postal inspectors recovered 3,000 pieces of mail and found that ten UPS checks totaling $58,000 had been deposited into Henderson-Spruce’s account.
In an interview with the media, the defendant claimed that the mail mix-up was due to his identity being stolen.
3. Scientists Find the Oldest-Known Oxygen in the Universe
Billions of light-years away, in a galaxy beyond our reach, astronomers have uncovered traces of what is believed to be the oldest oxygen ever detected in the universe.
These groundbreaking observations were made with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile’s Atacama Desert, a radio telescope that provides clearer images than even the Hubble Space Telescope, and from greater distances. An international team of researchers used ALMA to focus on the remote galaxy MACS1149-JD1, where they identified signals from ionized oxygen that were emitted 13.28 billion years ago.
Lead author Takuya Hashimoto, a researcher at Osaka Sangyo University and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, commented, “This detection extends the boundaries of the observable universe.” However, it is the significance of the oxygen’s existence that has excited astronomers even more.
This oxygen emerged about 500 million years after the Big Bang. Since the gas can only be created within stars, it points directly to the presence of early celestial objects. By analyzing the galaxy's color, scientists estimate that the first stars in MACS1149-JD1 formed 250 million years following the Big Bang.
This discovery brings us closer to understanding the cosmic dawn—the pivotal moment when the universe evolved from a hot, dense, uniform state into one populated by stars, planets, black holes, and various other celestial entities. As study coauthor Richard Ellis put it, this is the “Holy Grail of cosmology and galaxy formation.”
2. Mother Renames Son After Misspelled Tattoo
Thirty-year-old Johanna Giselhall Sandstrom, a mother of two from Kyrkhult, Sweden, wanted to express her love for her two children, Nova and Kevin, by having their names tattooed on her body. Everything seemed perfect until she got home, only to realize she had proudly displayed “Kelvin” instead of Kevin.
A quick search for “tattoo fails” reveals that misspellings are more common than one might think in the tattoo industry. Johanna returned to the tattoo parlor, but there was little the artist could do other than offer a refund. The designs had been shown to her beforehand, and she had approved them without much scrutiny.
At that point, the only alternative appeared to be visiting a tattoo removal clinic. However, upon learning that the procedure would involve multiple costly treatments, the family decided to take a different route—they officially changed the boy’s name to “Kelvin.” Now, the Sandstroms say they actually prefer the new name because it feels more unique.
1. Chimps Keep Their Beds Cleaner Than Humans
A study from North Carolina State University reveals that chimpanzees, our closest evolutionary relatives, maintain cleaner sleeping areas than humans, with considerably less fecal, oral, and skin bacteria.
Unlike humans, who often sleep in the same bed night after night, chimps build fresh nests each evening in the treetops. This seems to be the key difference, as up to 35 percent of bacteria found in human beds comes from our own bodies.
The researchers swabbed 41 chimpanzee nests in Tanzania and vacuumed 15 of them for arthropods. They found almost no traces of fecal, oral, or skin bacteria and discovered significantly fewer parasites than expected. In total, only four ectoparasite specimens were found across all the nests examined.
