StrangeSights

• Insects already form part of the diet of an estimated two billion people but they may well be on even more menus in the future as experts look to alternative means of feeding people. The Food and Agriculture Organisation says that insects (and there are about a million known species) could provide a “readily available source of nutritious and protein-rich food”. To whet your appetite, the most consumed insects at present include beetles, caterpillars, bees, wasps and ants, and grasshoppers, locusts and crickets. But there are many issues that need to be dealt with first - including legal hurdles against eating insects in many countries. For more, see www.fao.org.

• A Canadian astronaut has created the first music video recorded in space, singing the David Bowie song, Space Oddity, while free floating inside the International Space Station. Chris Hadfield made the video, which has gone viral, a few days before he returned to earth after his six month stint in space. The astronaut did alter some of Bowie’s lyrics to better suit his circumstances.

• A Zimbabwean man surprised mourners when he reportedly came back to life. One of those at his funeral noticed one of the man’s legs twitching and called an ambulance. The man, who had suffered from long illness before his funeral, has no recollection of the event.

• A four-year-old boy has reportedly been elected mayor of a town in Minnesota in the US. Dorset’s mayor is apparently chosen through the process of drawing a name out of a hat and this year it was Mayor Robert ‘Bobbie’ Tufts turn. The good news is that Mayor Tufts apparently does like talking to the townspeople.

In case you didn’t know, Easter Monday this year co-incided with April Fool’s Day and it seemed everyone had a gag or two up their sleeve. Here is just a small sample of some of the pranks we came across:

• YouTube announced that its entire catalogue of films would be deleted - turns out the whole site was just a competition launched to find the best video clip and the search has come to an end;

• Google launched its new scent search app, Google Nose, which comes with the ability for you to search by smell, as well as its new extension of Google Maps - a feature to find treasure;

• In Australia, Google Streetview launched a new service - Schmick - which enables you to transform your home into the house you’d like it to be with a few simple clicks of the mouse;

• Sony launched Animalia Tech - technology aimed at your pets - think headphones for your cat, a laptop for your dog; and,

• Skype, meanwhile, launched a new service allowing you to speak to you loved ones in…space;

• Virgin boss Richard Branson announced his airline had plans to launch a glass-floored plane - the world’s first - a story which was apparently picked up and run on Chinese television.

Let us know of any you found particularly good!

• Ride on mowers might seem to have an obvious purpose - mowing lawns. But to a growing group of ride-on mower enthusiasts, they represent an emerging motorsport. There’s associations in numerous countries - including Australia - which oversee competitions including the annual British Grand Prix for Lawnmower Racing held earlier this month. Competitors are split into a range of categories including those for large tractors, sit-on buggies and machines with a grass-cutter on the front. Racers gather points as they race around the course and mud is seen as a good thing. Organisations in Australia include The Queensland Ride-On Mower Racing Association Inc.

• And you reckoned your last phone bill was high. A French woman recently received a phone bill for €11,721,000,000,000,000 - reportedly the equivalent of almost $15 thousand trillion dollars and almost 6,000 times France’s entire annual economic output. Needless to say, the bill was eventually corrected - back to the €117.21.

• An America man has paid someone to slap him in the face everytime he went on Facebook in an attempt to increase his productivity. Maneesh Sethi, a San Franciscan blogger, reportedly felt he was spending too much time on social media so, turning to Craigslist, he hired a woman to slap him whenever his attention wandered. He has since repeated the experiment a couple of times and reports that it has apparently helped increase his productivity.

• It’s official - mermaids don’t exist. That’s according to the US Government’s National Ocean Service who issued a statement earlier this month saying exactly that: “No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found.” Noting that belief in mermaids may have arisen at the “very dawn of our species” the statement adds: “Why, then, do they occupy the collective unconscious of nearly all seafaring peoples? That’s a question best left to historians, philosophers, and anthropologists.” The statement follows one from the US Government last year saying there was no evidence any life exists outside our planet. But that debate will continue following recent revelations by an ex-CIA agent that the famous Roswell incident really did involve “a craft that did not come from this planet”. A recent poll showed more than a third of Americans believe UFOs exist.

• Batman could fly using his specially-designed bat wing-like cape but the landing would probably kill him. That’s reportedly the conclusion of four students at the University of Leicester in the UK who, taking Christian Bale’s rigid wings in the film Batman Begins as a starting point, have worked out that the landing impact would likely be around 80 kph, similar to being hit by a car. Best stick to the Batmobile, Batman!

• They make regular appearances on Funniest Home Videos and have had more than one viral hit on the internet. Now comes the film festival dedicated to funny videos of…cats. The Internet Cat Video Film Festival will take place in the US city of Minneapolis on 30th August. Nominations for what you think are the funniest videos are now open.

• Questions are apparently being asked about the citizenship of iconic cat cutie Hello Kitty following the publication of a new book, Hello Kitty’s Guide to Japan in English and Japanese. According to the official biography published by Sanrio, the company that owns the rights to her, Hello Kitty (real name Kitty White) was born in London. But, according to some, Kitty is so knowledgable about Japan in the new guide, which was reportedly authorised by Sanrio, that “the reader can only surmise she is either Japanese or an amazingly bilingual Japanese studies scholar”. The catfight has raised the ire of many in Japan and elsewhere and sparked countless internet debates but so far there’s been no official clarification forthcoming. Stay tuned.

• The voice of former German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck has been heard for the first time in 100 years in a series of remarkable recordings digitally restored by the Thomas Edison National Park museum in the US. The recordings, in which Bismarck can be heard reciting parts of songs and poetry in English, Latin, French, and German - including France’s national anthem, La Marseillaise - and advising his son Herbert to “live life in moderation”, was made in 1889 using a wax cylinder phonograph. Discovered in 1957, research on the recordings did not reportedly start until 2005.

• Being able to say words backwards is quite a remarkable feat yet Alyssa, a girl from Oklahoma in the US seems to be able to do so with little effort. In a video clip posted on YouTube which has, yes, gone viral around the globe, Alyssa is seen repeating backwards any word that’s thrown at her. You can see the video here.