Odd News // 4 weeks ago
Maryland woman wins second $50,000 lottery prize in three months
Feb. 19 (UPI) — A Maryland woman credited her intuition with earning her a second $50,000 Bonus Match 5 lottery prize in the space of just three months.
Category: Weird
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Stuck puppy rescued from tire rim in California
Odd News // 4 weeks ago
California man wins $50,000 lottery prize during Maryland trip
Feb. 18 (UPI) — A California man took a trip to Maryland to visit his daughter’s family and ended up winning a $50,000 lottery prize during his vacation.
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Gift Shop Surprise: One ‘Toy’ Turns Out To Be Very Real
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — On shelves crammed with cuddly toy native animals in an Australian airport gift shop, one fluffy possum stood out: Its big brown eyes were moving.
A browsing passenger first spotted a living Australian brushtail possum peering out from among the kangaroos on the display shelf at the departure terminal shop at Hobart Airport in Tasmania state on Wednesday, an airport retail manager Liam Bloomfield said on Thursday.
Above the possum were bilbies, marsupials with rabbit-like long ears, and dingoes, Australia’s native dog. Beside the possum in the kangaroo section were Tasmanian devils, a growling carnivore that inspired the feisty Warner Bros. cartoon character Taz.
Alberto Mazza/robertharding via Getty Images
“A passenger reported it to …. one of the staff members on shift who couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing,” Bloomfield said. “She then called the (airport) management and said we’ve got a possum in the store.”
A staff member took a video of the possum with her phone before the animal grew wary of the growing attention and left the shop.
Airport staff were able to remove the possum from the airport unharmed.
Bloomfield didn’t know what attracted the possum to the toy shelf.
“I’m imaging it saw some of the plush animals that were for sale on the shelf and it decided to make its home with those. It wanted to blend in,” Bloomfield joked.
How the possum got into the store and how long it spent there are also unknown.
It was unlikely to have been placed there as a prank. Someone would have had to put the possum through X-ray screening to get it into the secure departure terminal area.
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Kevin Hart ‘demands a redo’ after unveiling of new wax figure
Kevin Hart and his fans are asking “who in the f–k is this” after the unveiling of a new wax figure at a Tennessee wax museum.
The five-time Emmy nominee, 46, on Saturday shared a close-up video of the Hollywood Wax Museum’s “attack,” to the tune of the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” theme song.
“WTTTTFFFFF …. What did I do to these people….. This is an attack….. Who in the f–k is this?????? At this point these museums are just trying to make me cry,” Hart said, followed by a pouting emoji and several crying laughing ones. “This s–t has to stop…. I demand a redo damn it!!!!!!!!”
“You asked for Kevin Hart and got Kevin The Weeknd,” commented Dave Ogleton, also known as FitDad.
“Jersey Shore” star Jenni “JWOWW” Farley predicted that Hart’s frequent collaborator, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson “had something to do with this.”
One user said the figure is “temu af,” referring to the discounted online marketplace.
Another joked Hart should “sue them for defamation of character. Immediately.”
People reports that 53-year-old Johnson found the rendition “perfect” and told Hart: “Don’t change a thing.”
Among the most notorious of wax figure blunders in semi-recent memory was one of Beyoncé, which Madame Tussauds New York had to briefly remove in 2017, amid critiques the figure more resembled Britney Spears and Kaley Cuoco than the Grammy-winning “Cowboy Carter” superstar.
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Wandering horse rescued from Ohio resident’s backyard pool
Odd News // 4 weeks ago
California man wins $50,000 lottery prize during Maryland trip
Feb. 18 (UPI) — A California man took a trip to Maryland to visit his daughter’s family and ended up winning a $50,000 lottery prize during his vacation.
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Portable Pubs On Wheels Bring Ireland To New England
READING, Mass. (AP) — Just before St. Patrick’s Day, an Irish pub appeared one night beneath a basketball hoop in a suburban Massachusetts driveway.
Neighbors packed around the bar as music played and Guinness flowed — inside a tiny pub that had been towed in for the night.
Instead of heading out to celebrate the holiday, the bar had come to them.
“The Wee Irish Pub” was delivered by Tiny Pubs, a small business run by brothers Matt and Craig Taylor, who build miniature Irish pubs on wheels for holidays, weddings and backyard parties across New England.
Decorated with antique signs, church pews, an electric fireplace and a bar crafted from the front panel of an 1864 piano, the pubs recreate the feel of a traditional Irish pub — but are just small enough to fit in a driveway.
A neighborhood pub that brings people together
“It’s really just a time to forget about whatever’s going on in the world,” said Mark Cote, who hosted the pub in his Andover driveway last Friday. “That’s what pubs are supposed to be — for people coming together and having fun.”
Around 20 people from five families — whose children grew up together — squeezed into the roughly 20-foot-long (6-meter) space for Cote’s annual holiday party, creating what he said felt like a real neighborhood bar.
The idea began during the COVID-19 lockdown, when the Taylor brothers — retired from careers in corporate finance — found themselves missing their favorite Irish pubs.
The first version went up in Matt Taylor’s driveway in Reading, 12 miles (19 kilometers) north of Boston.
“When we were building the pub in this neighborhood, neighbors thought a pub was going to be living here full time,” he said. “We had to kind of settle them down a little bit.”
They worked until about 1 a.m. the night before their first rental. Matt said he worried the windows might crack when they first towed it down the highway, but it went smoothly.
What began as a pandemic project has since grown into a small business with four bars, including two Irish pubs, booked most weekends throughout the year.
Building an authentic Irish pub
The brothers wanted the tiny bars to feel like real Irish pubs — not themed party props.
“We have Irish friends who told us, ‘You better not have leprechauns and stuff in there,’” Craig Taylor said. “So we said, ‘No — it’s going to be authentic.’”
They visited Irish pubs around New England while designing the interior, settling on classic colors like jasper green and Irish cream.
Nearly every detail inside has a story, including the bar built from the front panel of an 1864 piano and church pews salvaged from a local church for seating.
A pair of horseshoes from a farm in Ipswich hang above the door for luck: pointed down when guests enter and up when they leave.
A hymn rack holds a book of Irish surnames where visitors mark their family names, sometimes with a dollar bill on the page, sparking conversations about ancestry.
There are packages of Scampi Fries — a popular pub snack imported from Ireland — and a corkboard with patches from police and fire departments, a tradition common in pubs where first responders gather.
Craig Taylor said one sign they got it right is when guests begin pointing things out inside — the Scampi Fries, a family name, a familiar song — moments when the experience shifts from something novel to something personal.
For weddings, bachelor parties — and even celebrations of life
Guinness has rented the Taylors’ pubs for weeks at a time. They’ve also been used by a state senator during South Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day parade. The pubs have even been rented for celebrations of life after funeral services.
Jarred Guthrie of Swampscott said his family has rented the original version for years now as part of a longtime annual St. Patrick’s celebration.
The party draws about 125 people, Guthrie said, with an Irish band playing inside the house while guests move between rooms, the pub and the waterfront yard overlooking the ocean.
Guests crowd inside to take turns playing bartender, telling stories and breaking into songs — sometimes traditional Irish tunes or Gaelic lyrics that Guthrie said you rarely hear outside family gatherings.
“People feel emboldened,” he said. “There’s a lot of singing that happens in that pub. It’s a place where people naturally come together.”
Like Christmas morning
Before each event, the brothers personalize the space with custom posters often designed with a family crest naming the host as the pub’s temporary “proprietor.”
“It’s a special thing for a lot of people to be able to come into an authentic Irish pub,” Matt Taylor said. “Maybe they’re not able to get back to the old country, so it’s meaningful to them.”
The parties go on, despite rain, heat or snow. Each pub is equipped with both heat and air conditioning for all seasons.
The Taylors wait until everything is ready — lights low, music on, taps flowing — before letting guests into a mini pub.
Craig Taylor said when people step inside for the first time, “it’s like Christmas morning.”
He said that moment often feels like stepping into another place, one tied to memories of family, tradition and Ireland itself.
“People say you’re like Santa Claus,” Craig Taylor said. “You’re delivering joy every day.”
And when the night winds down, they aren’t in a hurry to take the pub away.
“We never want to kick anybody out of an Irish pub,” Matt Taylor said.
So instead of picking it up late at night, they return the next morning.
Craig Taylor said when he asks hosts how long the party lasted, the answer is often the same: “Like, three in the morning.”
When he and his brother show up to take the pub away, “there’s sometimes people sleeping on the pew,” he joked.
Loose dog crosses the finish line at Olympic skiing event
Odd News // 4 weeks ago
Logan Paul’s rare Pokémon card auctioned for record-breaking $16M
Feb. 16 (UPI) — A rare Pokémon card famously owned by online celebrity-turned WWE wrestler Logan Paul was auctioned for a record-breaking $16,492,000.
Rescue group attempting to catch toucan on the loose in Las Vegas
Odd News // 4 weeks ago
Logan Paul’s rare Pokémon card auctioned for record-breaking $16M
Feb. 16 (UPI) — A rare Pokémon card famously owned by online celebrity-turned WWE wrestler Logan Paul was auctioned for a record-breaking $16,492,000.
Logan Paul’s rare Pokémon card auctioned for record-breaking $16M
Odd News // 3 weeks ago
Logan Paul’s rare Pokémon card auctioned for record-breaking $16M
Feb. 16 (UPI) — A rare Pokémon card famously owned by online celebrity-turned WWE wrestler Logan Paul was auctioned for a record-breaking $16,492,000.
Strict rules to participate in the first-ever Sperm Racing World Cup where winner will take home $100,000
If you’re a lad who reckons that your swimmers are strong enough to compete on the world stage, the 2026 Sperm Racing World Cup might be for you.
Those who are confident that their sperm is speedier than the rest can now apply to compete in the unorthodox event – which its organisers have compared to Formula One, ‘but at the atomic level’.
Getting the gold in this competition might not fill your family with as much pride as winning one at the Olympics, but it could land you in the history books and leave you $100,000 better off.
That’s because this is the first-ever Sperm Racing World Cup, believe it or not.
The bizarre ‘science-based competitive sport’ first burst onto the scene last year, when two US students went head-to-head to see whose was the fastest.
Now, organisers are opening the tournament up to international competitors, so blokes from all corners of the globe will have a chance to show the world how speedy their mini mes are.
Sperm Racing first made its debut last year and hosted a competition championship in Los Angeles (PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
Eric Zhu, Nick Small, Shane Fan and Garret Niconienko say they want to ‘turn health into competition’, although they acknowledge the concept of the Sperm Racing World Cup ‘seems like a meme’ to most.
The foursome want to shine a spotlight on the fact that ‘male fertility has quietly decreased over 60% in the last 50 years’, according to their manifesto.
Explaining their motivations, it states: “Sperm racing isn’t just a joke. It’s not just some viral idea for the internet to laugh at. It’s something much bigger. Male fertility is declining.
“It’s happening quietly, steadily, and nobody’s really talking about it. And sperm motility – how fast your sperm moves – turns out to be a massive factor in fertility.
“It’s measurable, trackable – and just like running a race or lifting a weight, it’s something you can actually improve. But no one’s turned it into something people care about. So we did.” Fair dos, fellas.
So although the idea of the sperm of men from 128 countries racing round a tiny track is comical, those behind the Sperm Racing World Cup say it’s all actually quite serious.
Men from 128 different countries will submit their sperm and hope it’s the speediest (YouTube/Sperm Racing)
A quick look at the rule book will tell you as much too, as there is a strict criteria that ‘athletes’ must meet to get selected to compete for the $100,000 prize pool.
The men who will are chosen to represent their country at the Sperm Racing World Cup have to advance through ‘qualifiers, matchups, and tournament rounds that are broadcast and shared publicly’.
Both selection and advancement for this strange competition is ‘based on eligibility, performance, availability, and competitive structure’, organisers say.
After assessing the applicants, there will be qualifier rounds, followed by head-to-head matchups, tournament eliminations and eventually, a final.
To apply, you have to be 18 or older, free of sexually transmitted diseases, be able to provide biological samples in compliance with competition regulations and available to appear in recorded content and competition coverage.
Those who are involved with Sperm Racing operations in any way, are attempting to manipulate results, selection, or eligibility or provide false or misleading information are forbidden from taking part.
In order to represent a country at the Sperm Racing World Cup, you or your parents have to have been born there. Alternatively, you can fly the flag for a nation at the competition if you hold residency or citizenship there, or ‘have 25 percent ancestry’ from the place.
In a video shared back in December, Eric Zhu explained how the whole sperm racing thing works and detailed how his team ‘take inspiration from real race tracks and reimagine them on a microscopic scale’.
“Each racer provides a biological sample of their sperm which we process through advanced lab techniques such as incubation, sperm washing, pipetting, and through a centrifuge,” he said.
“These steps isolate and prepare the most viable cells for racing. Under the microscope, we pipet the cells into a custom racetrack.
“Inside, a controlled microcurrent flows through the channel, creating resistance, pushing each racer to its limits. But raw microscope data doesn’t look entertaining.
“So, we built our own computer vision system to track every cell, every frame, every overtake, converting it into a 3D render designed for the viewer experience. And that is what you, the audience, get to see.”
Zhu and his team hope to make the ‘world’s smallest sport‘ as entertaining as other sporting spectacles and promise to provide ‘press conferences, weigh ins and thrilling commentary’ for fans.
I guess this must be the only scenario where it’s a triumph for a guy to finish first, eh?