Strange stories from around the world, some of which might be true...
- What colour are blackbirds? Well, black, unless, like the one recently photographed in a garden in Dorset, they are leucistic, lacking pigment in their feathers. It is
thought that such genetic mutation affects one in 30,000 birds, but what made this blackbird even more notable was that it was completely white; leucistic blackbirds usually
just have a few white or mottled feathers. ● Professor Robin Allaby of Warwick University has claimed that gathered genetic evidence from killed farm animals suggests
that there are around a hundred big cats such lions, tigers, jaguars or snow leopards, on the loose across Britain. ● A humpback whale seen off the coast of Colombia
in 2017 was seen five years later off Zanzibar, at least 8,100 miles (13,000km) away. Thought to be the longest distance travelled by a whale, scientists speculate that krill
populations, on which the whales feed, are moving due to climate change, or that whales are finding new breeding grounds as their population rebounds following conservation
efforts. ● A Laysan albatross called Wisdom has become the oldest known bird to lay an egg, at the age of 74. Her last egg hatched in 2021. Wisdom lives in a wildlife
refuge on Midway Atoll, an unincorporated territory of the United States in the Hawaiian archipelago.
- NASA has again delayed its second Artemis mission, which would have sent astronauts around the Moon. The mission was originally scheduled for last month, then put
back to September 2025; it will hopefully now launch in April 2026. The reason for the delay is an unresolved problem with the capsule's heat shield which was left charred,
cracked and eroded on the last unmanned test flight's re-entry. ● NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has confirmed findings from the Hubble Space Telescope that the
expansion of the universe is apparently accelerating, and astronomers are at a loss to explain why.
- Archaeologists are suggesting that a white marble statue of a woman wearing a royal crown, discovered under the walls of the Tapuziris Magna temple in western Alexandria,
Egypt, may be of the legendary queen Cleopatra VII; it was found alongside funerary artifacts and around 350 coins, many of which bear Cleopatra's image. ● Diver Rob
Spray has taken the first known footage of the wreck of a World War II Handley-Page Hampden bomber that was ditched at sea off Salthouse, Norfolk, when it ran out of fuel
returning from a mission over Berlin on September 1st 1940. All the crew bailed out and survived. ● A parliamentary session in the Bahamas was dramatically
cut short and suspended last week after Shanendon Cartwright, deputy leader of the opposition, threw the ceremonial mace out of a window in protest at not being given time
to address allegations of federal police involvement in drug trafficking. There is a precendent; in 1965 the leader of the opposition threw the mace out of a window
during a debate on electoral change. ● Researchers think that the wreck of a ship discovered off the coast of Kenya could be the Sao Jorge, part of Vasco
da Gama's fleet on his final voyage to India, where he died in 1524. If confirmed it would be one of the earliest European shipwrecks found in the Indian Ocean. ● A
pair of ruby red slippers, one of four pairs worn by Judy Garland in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, has sold at auction for $28m (£22m), over nine times their
original estimated price of $3m (£2.35m).
- Florida police chasing a motorist driving at over 70mph (113km/h) in a 45mph (72km/h) zone, narrowly dodging other vehicles, were left stunned when he stopped his car
on the Seven Mile Bridge between Knight's Key and Little Duck Key in Monroe County, got out and jumped over the side of the bridge into the water below. Deputies in a boat
retrieved and arrested him. He was later filmed wet and handcuffed talking to an officer in a police car. "Listen," he said, "I know I did some stupid
stuff just now, but it wasn't that stupid." The officer replied "It was that stupid." The man faces multiple charges including fleeing and eluding law
enforcement at high speed, resisting an officer and driving with a suspended license as an habitual offender. ● An American woman, unnamed in reports, has been
sentenced to a year in prison by an Australian court for trying to enter the country with an unregistered gold-plated pistol in her luggage. She had claimed that she had
forgotten it was there before it was found by customs officers at Sydney Airport, but prosecutors showed that she had searched online about concealing a gun in luggage
and had a calendar reminder to "put gun in suitcase". She had been on her way to attend clown school...
- Scientists at the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service have reported that 2024 is certain to be the hottest year on record and the first for which average
global temperatures exceed 1.5oC (2.7oF) above 1850-1900 pre-industrial levels. Temperatures next year could be briefly cooler if a predicted La
Niña Pacific Ocean cooling event happens, but the underlying warming will still occur, with likely heatwaves, droughts and other extreme weather events. ● Thousands
of people have been evacuated, and thousands more are on evacuation alert as a wildfire has threatened Malibu in southern California. The Franklin fire has burned more than
3,000 acres (1,200 hectares) and more than 1,500 firefighters are struggling to contain it.
IN BRIEF: Australia has had to pay more than £12m ($15.3m) to Scotland for berthing The Spirit of Tasmania IV, a new ferry built in Finland and
due to operate between its home port of Devonport, Tasmania, and Geelong, Victoria, on the Australian south coast. Unfortunately the 696'- (212m)-long ship is too big for
its dock in Devonport and extending the facility is likely to take up to three years. It had been moved to Scotland to avoid damage due to freezing conditions in Finland.
● A teenage Everton fan from Australia who saved up his money to fly to England for the team's last derby match against Liverpool at Goodison Park before they move
to a new stadium on the Liverpool waterfront was disappointed when Storm Darragh caused the match to be cancelled, but Everton captain Seamus Coleman invited him to join a
training session and presented him with a shirt signed by the team. ● A Thai building contractor has apologised after a mix-up led to their workers pouring concrete
into a recently-refurbished bus stop in Bangkok instead of just covering the ground under it, leaving the seating area unusable. ● Wales and West Utilities has
apologised and correcting a repainted road marking near Paternoster School in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, which initially read "CEEP KLEAR". ● The original
theme music for the long-running British TV series Doctor Who has been added to the National Film and Sound Archive of... Australia. Although realised by the BBC
Radiophonic Workshop's Delia Derbyshire in 1963, it was written by Ron Grainer, who was Australian, but had moved to London in 1952. ● GCHQ, the UK Government
Communications Headquarters, one of three national spy agencies, has released its annual festive brainteaser for children. You can download it as a .PDF file from their
website. ● Amid a claimed crackdown on wasteful spending across the British
government it has emerged that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport bought two leather document folders from Barrow Hepburn and Gale for a total cost of £1,188
($1,514) in October. Similar folders can be bought in the House of Commons shop for £30 ($38) each. ● Late millionnaire Marcelin Arthur Chaix has left his entire
fortune of €2.43m (£2m; $2.55m) to the French commune of Tourrettes, where he lived, on condition that it is used to build a centre to house up to 10 elderly
residents by 2026, and other not-for-profit purposes. ● Researchers at the University of Essex are investigating whether the juice from mistletoe berries could be
used to make high-quality surgical glue. ● The recent Storm Darragh blew down the centre section of the sign above a Morrisons supermarket in Aberystwyth, Wales,
leaving it seemingly called "Morons"... ● Netflix is being mocked for their six-part biodrama about racing driver Ayrton Senna which shows him training
early in his career with mountains in the background. He was supposedly at Snetterton in the rather flat English county of Norfolk, but the series was filmed in Argentina.
● American dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster has chosen 'polarization' as its word of 2024, defining it as "division into two sharply distinct opposites;
especially a state in which the opinions, beliefs, or interests of a group or society no longer range along a continuum but become concentrated at opposing extremes".
'TIS THE SEASON: If you think you are paying more for less these days, TikTok user @welshvalleyslass has visually demonstrated 'shrinkflation' by demonstrating how
many Christmas 2024 tubs of Quality Street chocolates you need to fill a 1980s Quality Street Christmas tin. Four... ...and we are not getting into pricing. ● Just before
Christmas 2002 Richard Newson's parents died within days of each other. While clearing out their house he found a batch of mince pies in the freezer which his mother baked
well before Christmas for her friends and family every year and froze until needed. He has been thawing out and eating one of her pies every Christmas since, and will be
76 by the time he eats the last one in 19 years time. According to the Food Standards Agency frozen food can be "stored indefinitely but the quality and taste may
degrade over time".
UPDATES: Midland Masonry has repaired the prop gravestone of Ebenezer Scrooge left in the graveyard of St Chad's Church, Shrewsbury, after the filming of the
1984 version of A Christmas Carol, which was broken by vandals. They did the work for free. ● The trial of the two men accused of illegally felling the
iconic Sycamore Gap tree in Northumberland last September has been delayed after one of them fell ill. A hearing will be held in January to set a new court date.
Little Jennifer was listening to Little Mary practice her singing. "Little Mary," she said, "I think you should only sing Christmas
carols."
"Why, Little Jennifer? Because it's Christmas?"
Little Jennifer smiled as only she could. "Because I'd only have to hear you singing once a year!"
