Oddacity News
Kebab craving goes awry, the tiniest video game, singing D-I-S-R-E-S-P-E-C-T,
Welcome to Oddacity News, your source for the weird, unusual and offbeat news of the world.
Good taste?: Scientists in China have created tomatoes that smell like buttered popcorn, reports the South China Morning Post. By altering two genes in tomatoes, researchers at Xianghu Laboratory in Zhejiang introduced the popcorn flavor, which has previously been done with rice and soybeans. On X.com, one person said, “Finally, a tomato that doesn't taste like sadness.”
Stuck, part I: A young man in England who wanted to order kebab got trapped in an ornamental red Britsh phone booth when the door locked behind him, reports the Manchester Evening News. “His mates were laughing but they couldn’t get him out.,” said a witness. Video shows firefighters prying the door open to free the man. The booth did not have a phone.
Stuck, Part II: A man who had been missing for nine days was found stuck in mud up to his shoulders in a Florida industrial sand pit, reports WCJB.com. Andrew Giddens, 36, had disappeared on February 14, when he told family he was depressed after a recent breakup. On February 23, he was found with his head barely visible above mud near the Vulcan Sand Plant. He said he had been stuck there for two days without food or water amid freezing temperatures. It took rescuers three hours to free him from the muck.
Loco: Callers to a Washington state government agency were surprised when the “Spanish language” option led them not to someone speaking Spanish, but instead to an automated female voice speaking English with a thick Latino accent, reports the Spokesman-Review. “It was so absurd,” said Maya Edwards, who posted a video of the problem. Other foreign language options on the Washington State Department of Licensing phone line also were in English. Edwards had publicized the problem seven months ago, but nothing was done, so she posted again.
Micro-fun: An aerospace engineer has created the world’s smallest arcade game — a machine less than an inch tall that runs Space Invaders. The Guiness Book of World Records reports that Kiran Patil, 24, created the tiny game that stands .98 inches tall, .6 inches long and .59 inches wide. The three tiny buttons can be used to play the game. “The challenge was to keep the dimensions extremely tight while still producing a fully functional unit,” Patil said.
Island music: A 64-year-old woman in the Domnican Republic was arrested for allegedly disrespecting the country’s national anthem by singing it with an unsual up-tempo beat during a karaoke session that went viral online, reports The Independent. Police handcuffed Amarilis Brito Rodríguez under a law that they said “defines acts of outrage against our National Anthem.” Said Rodriguez: “I don’t regret it because I don’t feel I did any harm.” She could face several months in prison and a fine.