Cocoa

Coastguards in Dover and France say a large crocodile sighted in the English Channel was actually a piece of wood.

Officials have said that the wood probably did look like a crocodile from a distance.

Bathing in the sea in and around Boulogne-sur-Mer in France was suspended on Friday as a precaution while a search was conducted.

The claim of a crocodile sighting was made in a message which had been sent to a local newspaper, La Voix du Nord.

According to the newspaper, an animal rescue charity which had not been told directly of any sightings asked for the water to be cleared while a search took place.

A spokesman for Boulogne-sur-Mer town hall had previously said it was thought that the claim was “a joke”.

~ BBC News

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A German student created a major traffic jam in Bavaria after making a rude gesture at a group of Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang members, hurling a puppy at them and then escaping on a stolen bulldozer.

German police said on Monday that after making his getaway from the Hell’s Angels club, the 26-year-old dumped the bulldozer, causing a 5 km (3 miles) traffic jam near the southern town of Allershausen, local police said. He then fled to his home nearby where he was apprehended by the police.

“What motivated him to throw a puppy at the Hell’s Angels is currently unclear,” said a spokesman for local police, adding that the student had lately been suffering from depression.

The puppy was now in safe hands, the spokesman added.

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1. Shenmue
2. Halo
3. Rez
4. Zelda: Ocarina of Time
5. Soul Calibur

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1. Sega Dreamcast
2. Microsoft XBox 360
3. Sony PlayStation 3
4. Nintendo GameCube
5. Sony PSOne

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1. Marathon
2. Halo
3. Perfect Dark
4. Doom
5. Goldeneye

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1. Microsoft XBox 360
2. Nintendo Gamecube
3. Sega Dreamcast
4. Nintendo 64
5. Sony PS2 “Dual Shock”

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1. Sega Dreamcast
2. Nintendo Gamecube
3. Nintendo 64
4. Microsoft XBox 360
5. Sony PSOne

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One in 10 children thinks the Queen invented the telephone, a survey of children’s science knowledge suggests.

Others gave credit for the invention to Charles Darwin and Noel Edmonds.

A fifth of the 1,000 primary and secondary pupils polled thought Star Wars character Luke Skywalker or Richard Branson was first on the moon.

Some 60% of nine and 10-year-olds thought Sir Isaac Newton discovered fire, the survey for science campaign Birmingham Science City found.

Despite these misconceptions, more children want to win a Nobel prize for science than the X Factor.

The survey of primary and secondary school children in the UK suggests there is some confusion about key scientific achievements.

Just under a half of boys (49%) correctly pinned down gravity as Newton’s ground-breaking discovery, compared with 76% of girls.

Just over a third of boys said Newton discovered fire, while the remaining 16% either said he invented the internet, or discovered the solar system or America.

Eight out of 10 boys correctly identified Alexander Graham Bell as the inventor of the telephone, compared with 69% of girls.

Dr Pam Waddell from Birmingham Science City said: “While some of these findings will raise a smile, it suggests that school children aren’t tuned into our scientific heroes in the same way that they might be to sporting or music legends.”

She suggested it was clear that primary school children had a real interest in science.

“In fact, nearly 70% of nine and 10-year-olds would like to be famous for winning a Nobel Prize in science, yet this drops to only 33% among 11 to 15-year-olds.

“It appears children are losing an interest in science at secondary school, so more needs to be done to excite teenagers about the subject and rekindle some of their early childhood aspirations,” she added.

The poll was carried out online with a panel of 1,000 UK children in early March by OnePoll.

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A McDonald’s outlet in the Netherlands was wrong to sack an employee for giving a colleague a piece of cheese on a hamburger, a court has ruled.

The waitress was fired last March after she sold a hamburger to a co-worker who then asked for cheese, which she added.

The fast-food chain argued this turned the hamburger into a cheeseburger, and so she should have charged more.

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Australian scientists have said they are hoping to breed sheep that burp less as part of efforts to tackle climate change.

The scientists have been trying to identify a genetic link that causes some sheep to belch less than others.

Burping is a far greater cause of emissions in sheep than flatulence, they say.

About 16% of Australia’s greenhouse emissions come from agriculture, says the department of climate change.

Australia’s Sheep Cooperative Research Council says 66% of agricultural emissions are released as methane from the gut of livestock.

“Ninety per cent of the methane that sheep and cattle and goats produce comes from the rumen, and that’s burped out,” John Goopy from the New South Wales Department of Industry and Investment told ABC.

“Not much goes behind – that’s horses.”

~ BBC News

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