Latest Oddities News
Gleaming monolith pops up in Nevada desert, the latest in a series of quickly vanishing structures
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The strange monolith looks like it could have come from another world. Jutting out of the rocks in a remote mountain range near Las Vegas, the glimmering rectangular prism's reflective surface imitates the vast desert landscape surrounding the mountain peak where...
Baby moose trapped in a lake is saved by Alaska man and police as its worried mom watches
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An Alaska man and two police officers rescued a baby moose from what police described as “a sure demise” after it fell into a lake and got stuck in a narrow space between a floatplane and a dock. Spencer Warren, who works for the outdoor tourism...
No lie: Perfectly preserved centuries-old cherries unearthed at George Washington's Mount Vernon
MOUNT VERNON, Va. (AP) — George Washington never did cut down the cherry tree, despite the famous story to the contrary, but he did pack away quite a few bottles of the fruit at his Mount Vernon home. Dozens of bottles of cherries and berries — impossibly preserved in storage...
Malfunctioning steam room sets off alarm, prompts evacuation at Rhode Island YMCA
MIDDLETOWN, R.I. (AP) — A malfunctioning steam room at a YMCA in Rhode Island pumped out so much steam that it triggered an a sprinkler system alarm on Saturday morning, prompting an evacuation. In a statement, the Middletown Police Department said officials rushed to the Newport...
How do cicadas make their signature sound, so eerie and amazingly loud?
WHEATON, Ill. (AP) — The most noticeable part of the cicada invasion blanketing the central United States is the sound — an eerie, amazingly loud song that gets in a person's ears and won't let much else in. “It’s beautiful chaos,” said Rebecca Schmidt, a U.S. Department of...
A street in The Hague gets an all-encompassing orange facelift for Euro 2024
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The fluttering of 64 kilometers (40 miles) of orange bunting and a hammer driving a nail into a wall to hold up orange tarps are the sounds of a Dutch summer of soccer in a normally drab suburban street in The Hague. The Marktweg is one of several...
What could make a baby bison white?
WASHINGTON (AP) — Photos of a white bison calf in Yellowstone National Park have generated excitement as well as questions: How does that happen? A park visitor said she took the photographs in the park earlier this month, showing a fuzzy white youngster being nuzzled by its dark...
With a big kick, Bubi the elephant oracle predicts Germany to win Euro 2024 opener
STARKENBERG, Germany (AP) — Move over, Paul the octopus. There’s a new big-hitter in the world of soccer soothsayers. And this one is going for a win for Germany to open the European Championship. Bubi, an African elephant who lives in a reserve in Thuringia in...
Double take: 23 sets of twins graduate from a single Massachusetts middle school
NEEDHAM, Mass. (AP) — Twenty-three sets of twins have graduated from a Massachusetts middle school, making up about 10% of the eighth-grade class. The identical and fraternal twins graduated from Pollard Middle School in Needham, Massachusetts, on Wednesday. Another student, who...
A Chinese military buff inadvertently bought 4 books of military secrets for under $1
BEIJING (AP) — A military history buff in China appears to have made an alarming discovery after picking up four discarded books for less than $1 at a neighborhood recycling station: They were confidential military documents. The country's Ministry of State Security told the story...
