Strange. True. Today.
The unusual, unexpected, bizarre, funny, fascinating, and occasionally inexplicable stories happening around the world.
Worth a Look
Stories getting attention now
A California judge has rejected an effort to halt a plan to eliminate nearly all of Catalina Island’s estimated 2,000 non-native mule deer. The island conservancy says the animals are damaging native shrubs linked to wildfire risk, while opponents argue the cull should not proceed.
Researchers have linked zircon crystals from boreholes beneath Norfolk and Lincolnshire to a vast Ordovician ash deposit spread across Scandinavia. The evidence points to an enormous eruption roughly 454 million years ago, although volcanologists say the surviving geological record is too incomplete to confidently label it a supervolcano.
Researchers have observed how water changes from a liquid into a glass-like state without forming ordinary crystalline ice. The experiment used nanoscale layers of a lipid-like material to keep water from freezing, offering new insight into low-temperature water behavior.
Fresh From the Feed
A genetically modified kidney from a Yucatan miniature pig kept 66-year-old Tim Andrews off dialysis for 271 days, the longest documented survival after a pig-kidney transplant in a living person. The organ served as a temporary bridge before Andrews received a kidney from a deceased human donor.
San Francisco firefighters manually removed trash from a Recology garbage truck after bystanders heard screams coming from inside. The unidentified man was taken to a trauma center for possible crush injuries, while one firefighter was treated for a laceration.
Archaeologists excavating a fourth-century imperial residence in eastern Serbia have uncovered an unusually designed private Roman bath. The circular complex featured heated floors, three bathing pools, a steam room and a domed ceiling with six windows.
Physicists have measured a subtle quantum effect predicted in 1927: the phase of an atom’s wave changes when one part falls under gravity while another remains suspended. The result supports Einstein’s equivalence principle at quantum scales, though it does not eliminate every theory that could modify the principle.
Fossils from Inner Mongolia have allowed scientists to simulate the calls of nine Jurassic insect species related to modern crickets and katydids. One species may have produced ultrasonic sounds, suggesting bats were not the only possible influence on the evolution of high-frequency insect communication.
Three college students relied on Google Gemini while preparing to climb Mount Shasta, according to Boing Boing. Sixteen hours later, search-and-rescue crews were dispatched after the group continued upward despite inadequate supplies and warnings to turn back.
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A forested mass carrying trees, birds and other animals appeared on British Columbia’s Williston Lake, disappeared weeks later and was found nearly 20 miles away. B.C. Hydro says it had drifted roughly 30 kilometers in 15 days, while experts remain divided about how it formed.
A newborn kitten was found inside a vehicle’s engine compartment after apparently traveling about 76 miles from Rocksprings to Kerrville, Texas. Animal control officers and a rescue group helped remove the kitten, which was reported safe and being cared for.
The brick-lined remains of Liverpool’s first enclosed dock are preserved beneath the Liverpool ONE shopping centre. Opened in 1715, the dock helped transform a struggling port by allowing ships to load and unload in a single day rather than waiting weeks.
A male pig that had been visiting residents on Hendricks Street in Detroit was captured after animal control officers chased it for more than an hour. A second pig, a female that residents briefly caught and released, remains missing.
The Share Foundation says at least 14 people from Serbian civil society, including student protesters, were targeted by advanced spyware earlier this year. Forensic researchers confirmed that at least one person was targeted with Pegasus, while Serbia’s government denied spying on students.
A broken rib from Scotty, described as the largest T. rex skeleton discovered, has yielded three-dimensional images of preserved soft tissue. Researchers used neutron imaging at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to examine a healing injury and a mineralized network believed to represent blood vessels without altering the fossil.
