And Finally...

Jeff Woodward isn't a meteorologist, but he has prepared a forecast for the rest of winter and spring that has some flavour.

Woodward uses pig spleens to determine temperature and precipitation trends for six-month periods. He spreads their fat onto a large piece of cardboard on his dining room table and traces them with a marker.

He said the patterns they form tell the weather story for the next half year.

"Each one of these veins of fat, they actually show where there's a rainfall or snowfall event going to happen," Woodward remarked as he split the traced fat into six even sections, representing the months from January to June.

The tradition dates back hundreds of years to rural Sweden, where Woodward's ancestors believed pigs could predict what kind of winter their farm could expect.

A pig would be butchered, and its spleen read by family and friends — with a shot of alcohol sometimes involved.

The ritual continued when the family immigrated to Canada more than 100 years ago.

Woodward learned the practice from his uncle, Gus Wickstrom, who was well-known in Saskatchewan, and even internationally, for his pig spleen weather prognostications.

A fare-dodging passenger on a German high-speed train ended up clinging to the outside when it pulled out of the station before he was ready to get on, police say.

The 40-year-old man had boarded the ICE train in Munich without a valid ticket and wanted to take a smoking break at the station in Ingolstadt.

But he lingered too long over his cigarette and the train doors closed, leaving him with the prospect of being stranded.

He then jumped on to a bracket between two carriages and held on to cables while the train powered on towards Nuremberg at up to 282 km/h (175mph), until federal police brought it to a halt about 30km away.

Witnesses alerted officials and they contacted the train driver, who made an unscheduled stop at Kinding in Upper Bavaria. The intercity express was on a six-hour journey to the northern city of Lübeck.

The man, a Hungarian national, told police he had left his luggage on the train during his cigarette break and did not want to be parted from it.

He was "amazingly" unharmed after his daredevil ride, said a police spokesman.

Scientists have discovered a never-before-seen giant sea bug after studying samples purchased from fishers in Vietnam.

Bathynomus vaderi belongs to the genus Bathynomus — giant isopods that are abundant in cold, deep waters. It is a "supergiant," weighing over 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) and growing up to 12.8 inches (32.5 centimeters) long, making it one of the largest known isopods.

The species is named "vaderi" because its head resembles Darth Vader's iconic helmet from "Star Wars."

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The researchers noted that Bathynomus species have recently become a delicacy in Vietnam, often compared to lobster. The local demand has turned these sea bugs into an expensive staple of the live-seafood market, leading to increased fishing pressures in the region.

Reference:

• A new species of supergiant Bathynomus A. Milne-Edwards, 1879 (Crustacea, Isopoda, Cirolanidae) from Vietnam, with notes on the taxonomy of Bathynomus jamesi Kou, Chen & Li, 2017

Progresso is celebrating National Soup Month by reimagining a classic comfort food — as a hard candy called Soup Drops.

The company this week launched its first-ever "soup you can suck on," a savory lozenge that captures the taste of Progresso Traditional Chicken Noodle Soup.

Designed as a portable alternative to the classic meal, the drops come packaged in a can modeled after Progresso’s soup cans and contain 20 individually wrapped candies. Each drop has flavors of broth, chicken, vegetables, soft egg noodles, and a hint of parsley.

A people smuggler from Middlesbrough is among several facing jail time after being found guilty of assisting unlawful immigration, following an investigation that was launched following the discovery of a woman crammed inside a car glove box, the Home Office said.

On Monday, January 13, officials at the Cantacuzino Hospital in Bucharest alerted police that a man stole three amputated legs from the storage area. While two were later found, the third is still missing.

The incident took place three days prior, on January 10, and was captured by surveillance cameras. Images published by Euronews Romania show a man whose face is hidden, wearing a jacket and sports pants, entering the storage area designated for medical waste and then exiting with a yellow bag, in addition to the black bag he was already carrying. The individual later abandoned one of the bags.

Investigators have opened a criminal case for qualified theft and are searching for the suspect. They are also trying to determine the whereabouts of the third leg. Two have already been found: one within the hospital premises near the medical waste area and another on a street near the medical facility.

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The hospital, which was fined RON 4,400 (EUR 885) by the authorities for mishandling the legs, has started its own investigation alongside that of the police.

Prof Stephen Wallace from the University of Edinburgh is among those turning the fatbergs into perfumes. "It's a crazy idea," he admits to me, "but it works."

Fatbergs are accumulated lumps of fat from cooking oils, toilet and other food waste that people put down their drains. Prof Wallace gets his from a company that specialises in fishing them out of sewers and turning them into biofuels. They arrive at the lab in a tube.

The first step is to sterilise the material in a steamer. Prof Wallace then adds the specially modified bacteria to the remnants of the fatberg. The bacteria have a short section of DNA inserted, to give the bacteria their particular properties.

The fatberg gradually disappears, as the bacteria eat it, producing the chemical with the pine-like smell - this can be used as an ingredient in perfumes.

Prof Wallace says that while the UK has taken a lead role in establishing the technology, it now needs to show it can go to the next step. "We are at this nervous point where the core technology that enables a huge range of sustainable industrial technologies is established and we are now progressing to the stage of scaling up to manufacturing.

"But there is a challenge in the UK to create infrastructure... and progress to commercialisation at a rate that is comparable to investment in Europe and the US."

Lazio fired the far-right sympathiser who handles their eagle mascot on Monday after he posted a series of videos and pictures of his erect penis online.

Falconer Juan Bernabe, who has been present at Lazio home matches with Olympia the eagle since the 2010-11 season, posted the footage on social media after having surgery on Saturday to implant a penile prosthesis to improve his sexual performance.

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Bernabe defended the decision to publish the images by saying in an interview with radio station Radio24 that “nudity is normal, I grew up in an open-minded, naturist family”.

The 56-year-old Spaniard has previously been in hot water over his openly hard-right politics, and was suspended by Lazio in 2021 for performing a fascist salute at the end of a match with Inter. He was filmed by fans at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico making the gesture and chanting “Duce, Duce” while holding Olympia and dressed in full Lazio kit.

Bernabe then told Italian newspaper Il Messaggero that he was “proud” to be a supporter of far-right Spanish political party Vox “like many footballer friends of mine”. He confirmed that he had performed the chants in favour of Benito Mussolini, who founded the National Fascist Party and ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943 before being killed near Lake Como by Italian partisans in 1945. “I did it and I don’t regret it because I admire Mussolini, he did great things for Italy as Franco did for Spain,” he said in the same interview. “I admire both of them and I’m proud of it.”

The lure of remote-controlled intimacy gadgets isn’t hard to understand. Whether you’re in a long-distance relationship or just like the convenience, these devices have taken the market by storm.

According to a 2023 study commissioned by the U.K.’s Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT), these toys are some of the most vulnerable consumer IoT products.

And while a vibrating smart egg or a remotely controlled chastity belt might sound futuristic, the risks involved are decidedly dystopian.

Forbes’ Davey Winder flagged the issue four years ago when hackers locked users into a chastity device, demanding a ransom to unlock it.

Fast forward to now, and the warnings are louder than ever. Researchers led by Dr. Mark Cote found multiple vulnerabilities in these devices, primarily those relying on Bluetooth connectivity.

Alarmingly, many of these connections lack encryption, leaving the door wide open for malicious third parties.

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A TechCrunch exposé revealed that a security researcher breached a chastity device’s database containing over 10,000 users’ information. That was back in June, and the manufacturer still hasn’t addressed the issue.

In another incident, users of the CellMate connected chastity belt reported hackers demanding $750 in bitcoin to unlock devices. Fortunately, one man who spoke to Vice hadn’t been wearing his when the attack happened. Small mercies, right?

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And let’s not forget: IoT toys are multiplying faster than anyone can track, with websites like Internet of Dongs monitoring the surge.

The official statement does not elaborate on the reasons of the dismissal, but local media linked it to the disappearance of the anti-tank mines in June 2024, which Kępczyński allegedly concealed from his superiors.

According to the reports, soldiers failed to unload part of the train carrying over 1,000 tons of explosives in total, and the anti-tank mines continued to circulate around the country before they went missing. On paper, false information about the number of mines was provided, media reports.

Officials apparently became aware of the problem when the weapons were found sitting in the IKEA warehouse, at which point someone called the military to ask “when they would collect their mines.”

It’s the sort of injury that will make you suspicious of sex toys for a long time. The internet has caught wind of a resurfaced story involving a young woman who was sent to the hospital after she underwent a MRI scan while having an apparently metallic butt plug inside herself.

An anonymous medical provider reported the strange incident to the Food and Drug Administration in April 2023, though it’s received renewed media attention this week. The 22-year-old woman reportedly screamed out in pain as she was pulled out of the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine following a scan, which then prompted her delayed admission of having had a “butt plug” inserted. Though an ambulance did take her to a hospital afterward, the patient’s ultimate fate is unknown.

It’s January, and while for many Londoners the first month of the year means no drinking, eating healthily and an overly ambitious new exercise regime, for others, it marks the return of a slightly weird annual event – the No Trousers tube ride.

Following last year’s well-attended event – which we at Time Out documented in photos here – the trousers-free tube ride is back in 2025, with hundreds of people expected to take part.

If this is your sort of thing, here’s all the information on how to take part. Let’s hope it’s not a cold day!

When is the no-trousers tube ride?

The pants-free fiesta will take place on Sunday January 12. Participants will be meeting at the Old Pagoda in Chinatown from 2.45pm for a 3pm start. Organisers ask you to still be fully clothed at this point, please, and bring a bag to store your trews in for when the time comes to strip down to your skivvies.

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What’s the point of it all?

Ultimately, the no-trousers tube ride is just a bit of cheeky fun. It’s not attached to any charities or making any kind of political statement – the tradition started in New York in 2002 and persists to this day. The whole point is to remain as nonchalant as possible, despite your trouser-free state.

The patient: A 20-year-old woman in the United Kingdom

The symptoms: The patient had unprotected vaginal sex with her habitual male partner, and shortly afterward, her vulva and vagina began itching and swelling. She developed angioedema — swelling of the tissues below the surface of the skin — and hives appeared across her body. She also felt faint and short of breath.

What happened next: The woman visited a hospital and was given 10 milligrams of cetirizine, an oral antihistamine that's typically used to treat hives and allergies. She was already aware that she was severely allergic to Brazil nuts, a type of tree nut, but it was unclear what triggered her allergic reaction in this instance.

They conducted skin prick tests on the patient using different semen samples from her partner; this involved exposing small regions of skin to each sample. For one test, the doctors used a sample taken when the man had not recently eaten nuts. The other test used a sample collected about 2.5 hours after he ate Brazil nuts. In the latter test, a 0.28-inch-long (7 millimeters) welt appeared on the woman's skin. That suggested that Brazil nut allergens were behind her severe postcoital allergic reaction.

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What makes the case unique: There are other documented cases of individuals with severe allergies developing local allergic reactions after intimate contact. However, the culprit is usually the direct transfer of allergens through touch or kissing. In other words, the allergen is present on a person's hands or mouth and then gets passed over.

"To our knowledge this is the first case of a severe food allergic reaction transferred by normal vaginal intercourse," doctors at the hospital wrote in a report.

The country's Federal Food Agency (FASFC) issued the unusual seasonal health warning on Tuesday after Ghent's local council launched a campaign last week urging people to recycle their Christmas trees in different ways - including eating the conifers.

The council suggested making flavoured butter and soup from the pine needles, which it said was inspired by traditional Scandinavian recipes.

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In response, the FASFC said Christmas trees "are not meant to end up in the food chain" — pointing to the fact that most trees are treated with pesticides and other chemicals.

"What’s more, there is no easy way for consumers to tell if Christmas trees have been treated with flame retardant — and not knowing that could have serious, even fatal consequences," the agency said in a statement.

"There is no way to ensure that eating Christmas trees is safe - either for people or animals".

Pope Francis seemingly put his own spin on telling women to 'smile more,' urging nuns to abandon "vinegar faces," and stop speaking with the devil.

The Pope, 88, emphasized the importance of friendliness and love in embodying the virtues of the Catholic Church as he spoke to a group of Dominican sisters visiting the Vatican Sunday, The Times reported.

"Sometimes in my life, I have met nuns with a vinegar face, and that's not friendly," the Pope remarked. "That's not something that helps to attract people. Vinegar is nasty, and nuns with a vinegar face—let's not even talk about it."

The Pope also urged the nuns to follow Jesus' example of speaking to everyone—except the Devil. "No dialogue with the Devil, understood?" he stressed, warning against allowing jealousy and other human frailties to provide entry points for evil.

Among human frailties, the Pope addressed gossip as a substantial hurdle for women.

"Please, distance yourself from gossip," he urged. "To ask this of a woman is heroic but, come on, let's move forward and no gossip." He called on the sisters to instead be "heralds of affability."

The incident happened on Nov. 24, 2024, around 11:15 a.m.

Troopers said they responded to the area of the Grace Fellowship Evangelical Free Church on Providence New London Turnpike, after Mitchell was reported.

Witnesses told them that Mitchell yelled profanities while on his bike. They said he also wore a helmet with a dildo on it.

State police released the arrest warrant. See it below:

It noted that troopers were familiar with Mitchell from similar reports in the past.

Mitchell told troopers that was trying to recreate a German helmet that his grandfather wore during World War II.

They also said that they were called to Mitchell’s home nine times between Sept. 2024 and Nov. 2024 for numerous incidents. Those included him riding his bicycle while naked with a cowboy hat on and retrieving items from his neighbor’s trash while naked.

Troopers said he also altered state signs near his house to include offensive language.

The quiet Welsh village of Cyffylliog in Denbighshire is the last place you’d expect to see a crowd of eager bargain-hunters—especially ones staring perplexedly at an empty field. But thanks to a prank on Google Maps, the tiny community has become an unlikely hotspot for confused tourists and delivery drivers, all searching for a mythical Aldi supermarket. The debacle began when an unknown jokester placed a fake Aldi location in the heart of the village on Google Maps. Ever since, a steady stream of hopeful shoppers has been arriving, guided by their smartphones, only to find themselves standing in the middle of a grassy field, miles away from the nearest checkout lane.

The chaos reached new heights last week when a milk tanker, also misdirected by Google Maps, became stuck on a narrow village lane while attempting to locate the fictitious store. Residents were left with blocked roads for hours as the tanker had to be carefully maneuvered out, leaving locals both frustrated and incredulous.

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Residents, however, are less amused. “We’ve had people knocking on doors asking where the Aldi is, delivery vans with groceries trying to find a nonexistent loading dock, and even a bloke with a pallet of bread who thought he’d been hired to stock shelves!” said Sioned Davies, a local.

Oh well, better luck next time.

The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) has warned that the kaustange and kauknochen chew treats of the Barkoo brand can cause a “werewolf syndrome” as well as lead to the death of dogs.

This so-called “werewolf syndrome” is often illustrated by panic attacks and the dog howling like a wolf. It is a neurological disorder and has been seen in countries around Europe like Germany, Finland, Belgium, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, RTV Noord reported.

Two dogs were affected by the syndrome in Groningen. One had to be put down while the other recovered with the help of medication that was applied in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Utrecht University.

Researchers believe that the chew bones, chew snacks, and chew sticks may have been contaminated with mycotoxins (mold toxins) during the production process. Although the exact cause has not yet been determined, experts rule out infections, vaccinations, and tick repellents as the cause in affected dogs.

And previously...

• Babies diagnosed with werewolf syndrome due to parents' baldness medication

Petrol pumps are no strangers to safety warnings, with clear signs prohibiting the use of phones, lighting matches, or smoking to prevent accidents. These measures are critical, as petrol and diesel are highly flammable substances that can ignite instantly. Yet, some individuals blatantly disregard these warnings, engaging in dangerous behaviours that defy common sense.

A recent video, now making rounds on social media, has left viewers both shocked and angered. The clip captures a group of individuals warming their hands around a bonfire—right at a petrol pump. The exact location and date of the incident remain unknown.

The video was shared on X (formerly Twitter) by the handle '@terakyalenadena,' accompanied by the caption: “Pura Highway samaj Dara hua hai.” Within four days, the post has amassed over 239,000 views, sparking widespread criticism.

In the footage, a group can be seen sitting near a blazing fire they lit at the pump. The act, which blatantly disregards basic safety protocols, has been labelled reckless and dangerous by many netizens.

Watch on Xitter

A peculiar incident in Hadige village, Karnataka, on December 18, 2024, saw twelve chickens mysteriously dying and emitting flames from their mouths when pressure was applied to their bodies. Videos of the phenomenon, which remain unverified, have gone viral, sparking widespread curiosity and concern.

Speculations suggest the chickens may have ingested harmful chemicals, leading to an exothermic reaction. Possible contamination in their feed or environmental hazards are also being considered. Public reactions range from humor, dubbing them “dragon chickens,” to serious calls for investigation.

Father Christmas, driving a sleigh filled with NATO-branded rockets, is shot out of the sky above Moscow in an apparent new piece of Russian propaganda.

"Good, we don't need anything foreign in our skies," says a second Santa in Russian, sitting in what appears to be a control room.

Ukraine Centre for Countering Disinformation shared the video, saying that Russia's "paranoia about the 'NATO threat' has reached new heights".

Ukrainian journalist Illia Ponomarenko reported that it was released after the Azerbaijani Airlines plane crashed in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day - amid speculation it was shot down by Russian air defences.

Watch on Bluesky

And previously...

• Santa Claus branded "foreign agent" in Russia