Pigs

u.s. news

education

Exam Season: Now with Piglets!

This spring, Nottingham Trent University is looking to make exam season a little less painful—and a lot more adorable—for its students.

Members of NTU's student union have decided to create a piglet room for their fellow students to use to de-stress. Students are allowed to spend a few minutes interacting with the tiny swine, as well as baby goats, chicks, and even a donkey foal.

This ingenious idea is actually a fundraiser for a local guide dog organization. After the success of a similar puppy event last year, they decided to branch out.

It’s been busy the entire two days, student union president Igor Beaver explained. There’s just a really good buzz around the campus. That buzz is spreading to the Internet as well, with the hashtag #PigletRoom taking over Twitter and Instagram.

Other universities around the United Kingdom have tried this tactic, too. The most popular option seems to be puppies, although Bath Spa University opted for Shetland ponies. Universities in the United States have followed suit, using everything from chickens to therapy cats in order to help students stay calm.

u.s. news

weather

Runaway Port-a-Potty Blows Town

This john clearly had enough of other people’s crap for one day. Residents in Hygiene, Colorado witnessed an unusual sight yesterday when a port-a-potty blew down Main Street during high winds. Strong winds have wreaked havoc all week, bringing down power lines and toppling trees, with gusts over 70mph recorded.

Local resident Dan Pearce captured the AWOL latrine online, with the caption: Ever see a loo skip too? Me neither. Keanu Reeves has already optioned the displaced throne's story for the next sequel of Speed.

Toenail Collection

u.s. news

Fun Guy Saves All His Toenail Clippings Since 1978

File this under curious. 58-year-old oil investor Richard Gibson has a peculiar collection. For the past 36 years, he has been religiously saving all his toenail clippings in a glass jar. At parties, he must be a real fun guy.

Collecting toenails is a strange hobby, but Richard says that he didn’t exactly plan for it – it sort of happened as a result of his compulsion curiosity, and he just never stopped. He happened to be clipping his nails one day in , and instead of throwing them out, he just put them in a manicure box. He then started doing it repeatedly, just to see how long it would take to fill up the box. That didn’t take too long – only two years – and by then he was pretty much hooked. So he moved his collection to a large glass jar, which is what now uses to put the clippings in.

I have no idea how many nails are in the jar, Gibson admitted. It’s well into the thousands. Even so, his current jar is only 99 percent full, and Gibson says he has no idea what he’s going to do when it’s completely filled. I’ll probably put them into something else, he said. I’ve got enough room for several more months worth of nails.

It hasn’t been easy to keep up the collecting – Richard has had to hide the jar from his ex-wife and from visitors for several weeks at a time, but, against all odds, he has kept his menagerie safe and his collection growing.

Why Phone

u.s. news

business

tech

Introducing the WhyPhone 6: An iPhone-Shaped Piece of Plastic for Mobile Online Addicts

If you’re worried about your smartphone addiction, then the new WhyPhone might be just what you need. It’s the perfect mobile placebo – it looks and feels exactly like an iPhone, but it does nothing. It’s just a piece of plastic that you carry around in your hand to fool yourself.

With a thin, light and completely wireless design, the WhyPhone acts as a surrogate to any smart mobile device, enabling you to always have a rectangle of smooth, cold plastic to clutch without forgoing any potential engagement with your direct environment.

Phone addiction is real, says developer Ima Luddite. It’s ruining your dates. It’s distracting you at concerts. It’s enabling your drunk texting. It’s clogging up our sidewalks.

The WhyPhone is 5.5 inches high, 2.6 inches wide and 0.29 inches thick, bringing it quite close to the latest iPhone 6. It is shatterproof and waterproof. It offers infinite battery life. And it comes with a license offering free software upgrades for the life of the phone.

For those interested in WhyPhone, but concerned about no longer being able to take nude selfies, WhyPhone is available with an optional mirror sticker so you can enjoy ‘real-time’ selfies with your friends when they’re standing right behind you.

Scuba Diver in Street

u.s. news

crime

food

Man in Scuba Gear Gets Warning After Causing Restaurant Stir

Police say a belligerent man dressed in scuba gear caused a stir at a Traverse City, Michigan McDonalds restaurant when he waddled up to the drive-thru window and tried to order a filet-o-fish sandwich.

The Traverse City Record-Eagle reports when man, who had been drinking like a marlin, showed up Tuesday morning workers called police. Officers found the 48-year-old man a quarter mile down the pike flipping off passing drivers. Captain Crook of the Traverse City PD says the man was tanked. He was not arrested, but warned not to surface again at the restaurant.

Crook couldn't fathom why the man was wearing scuba gear.

Man Holding Fish

u.s. news

food

weather

Flooded Streams in New Jersey Cause Fish to Swim on Roads

New Jersey officials smell something fishy. There have been some incredible animal rescues from the elements, but the City of Newark's Department of Health and Community Wellness warned New Jerseyans today not to catch or eat fish that may have scavanged after the recent storms.

In Newark, heavy rain and flooding has caused fish to swim out of overflown rivers. Some locals are placing them back to their homes while others see this as an opportunity for dinner.

Department of Health spokeswoman Elle R. Highwater told reporters, Hey. These are New Jersey rivers. Would you drink the water out of these rivers? If not, why would you eat fish that drink that water?

Carhenge

u.s. news

transportation

Explore Nebraska's Carhenge, A Monument To American Ingenuity

Along a lonely stretch of highway in Alliance, Nebraska sits a mysterious monument to America's rich history of putting the pedal to the metal: Carhenge.

Paying homage to Stonehenge, Carhenge has been fascinating people since its installation in the '80s. Dreamed up by Jim Reinders as a memorial to his father, Carhenge consists of a circle of cars with a heel stone, slaughter stone, and two station stones within the circle. In fact, it's a near perfect match to its counterpart across a pond, thanks to Reinder's extensive studies of Stonehenge while living in England.

While it's certainly the centerpiece, the druidic tribute isn't the only strange thing on the property. There's also a "Car Art Preserve" populated with plenty of art projects created with vehicle bits and pieces, and even a little graveyard dedicated to three foreign cars buried on the grounds. A full vehicle serves as their makeshift gravestone, reading: Here lie three bones of foreign cars. They served our purpose while Detroit slept. Now Detroit is awake and America's great!

Stop Pooping Sign

u.s. news

Sign Asks Joggers to "Stop Pooping" Along Trail

To whoever has been pooping on the public bike path in Hampton, Illinois – please stop, officials have asked.

Stop pooping on bike path, read two new signs along the trail. And no, it’s not a message directed towards pets.

Apparently joggers who poop along the path have been an increasing problem for Hampton over the past two years, the city’s Public Works supervisor Scott McKay told NBC station KWQC.

When the individual does it, it does it right in the lane. It’s not on the center line. It’s not off on the grass, he said.

McKay said there's certainty the act is done by a human and not an animal because the culprit adorns it with toilet paper and leaves the same footprints.

So now he's taken matters into his own hands. In case the runners were under the guise that it was okay to use Mother Nature’s open roadways as their personal toilet, they now have a friendly reminder educating them otherwise.