(quote)

Cockatoos can not only use tools, they can carry whole toolkits to trickier jobs, study shows
(CNN)The ability to solve problems with multiple tools is a rare talent in the animal kingdom, but according to new research, cockatoos are the first birds on the block to carry and use a tool kit to suit their needs.

Using 10 Goffin’s cockatoos, researchers from read more

(quote)

Elon Musk has completed his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter.
The deal’s closing removes a cloud of uncertainty that has hung over Twitter’s business, employees and shareholders for much of the year. Musk appeared to acknowledge the takeover in a tweet Thursday night saying, “the bird is freed.”

Earlier this week, Musk visited Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters to meet with employees. read more

(quote)

Two surfers filmed whizzing along Venice’s busiest canal have evoked the wrath of the city’s mayor. Videos of the two people foil surfing between boats and water buses on the Grand Canal sparked outrage after being posted online. Surfing – along with sports such as paddle boarding and canoeing – is prohibited on Venice’s Grand Canal. In footage posted online, the two appear to be whizzing read more

(quote)

Vice-chairman of the DB Regio Works Council, Ralf Damde, said around 400 trains were overcrowded on each day.
“Platforms and trains were full all over Germany, and in several cases overcrowded trains had to be cleared – but fortunately – no stations.” He said that passengers had to be turned away from trains, or people were told they couldn’t take read more

(quote)

Italy’s rustic hut Rifugio Guide del Cervino is technically two-thirds Swiss due to glacier movement.
Swiss ski resort Zermatt and Italian resort Cervinia share a border and together form the interconnected ski area Matterhorn Ski Paradise. Year-round skiing happens on the shared Plateau Rosa glacier, currently one of the only European glaciers with lifts still turning this summer read more

(quote)

Iceland has trotted out a service that lets horses reply to work emails when you’re on vacation.
The world-first “OutHorse Your Email” service is designed to encourage travelers to take a break and have an uninterrupted trip to the countryside. Using a large keyboard mat, the gaited horses are able to walk, trot, canter, tölt, read more

(quote)

100 Mind-Blowing Facts
Scotland has more than 400 words for “snow.”
What better way to cope with the cold than by learning all 421 Scottish words for “snow.” This was discovered when academics at the University of Glasgow underwent a project to compile a Scots thesaurus, called the Historical Thesaurus of Scots. Some words include: “snaw” (snow), “sneesl” read more

(quote)

grinning horse photo-bombs his laughing owners’ maternity snaps
…couple were saddled with Buckshot’s toothy grin after he trotted into shot

“We’ve been here for more than 30-years and they’ve been here for over 25-years and until this we’d never had any problems, we’d always get on.
…joked they’re “neighbours from hell” after 25 years: cut tree in half.

(unquote)

Image courtesy SWNS and The Sun

(quote)

A massive container ship’s embarrassing and inconvenient predicament is visible from space.
Tiny Earth-observing Dove satellites operated by San Francisco-based company Planet have spied the giant cargo ship that’s blocking Egypt’s Suez Canal, as well as the traffic jam caused by the huge vessel’s plight. The Airbus-built Pleiades Earth-observing read more

(quote)

“It’s just Bernie being Bernie” – How a photo of Sanders wearing mittens at Inauguration Day went viral

One of the most enduring and endearing photos – an image of independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders – has made waves across the internet, sparking thousands of photoshopped memes on social read more

(quote)

Del Monte $20 bill set to sell for nearly $60,000 – barring banana skins
makes 2004 banknote a collector’s item, auctioneer says

Officially, it is classified as “an obstructed printing error with retained obstruction”. In reality, it appears to be a simple slip-up. A $20 banknote which had a sticker from a bunch of read more