And other stories from the stranger side of life
The green man will be displayed longer at crossings because Brits are getting “fatter and older”, said the Daily Star. Guidelines are being tweaked to allow the green man 20% longer at crossings so a slower, fatter, older population can cross the road. Under government guidelines, pedestrians have 6.1 seconds to cross both lanes of a normal road at a walking pace of 1.2 metres per second. However, a new recommendation will allow 7.3 seconds for people to “waddle” at a speed of 1 metre per second, said the tabloid.
Ipswich ‘crocodile’ was a toy
Suffolk Police said they made a “snappy arrival” when they received reports of a baby crocodile in a body of water. The force said it was called to the Mill Stream area, off Foxhall Road, Ipswich, on Saturday morning, “expecting some crocodile wrestling”. However, after a plastic crocodile was removed from the stream, the force tweeted that the “unusual incident... turned out to be a false alarm this time”, noted the East Anglian Daily Times.
Banana decomposition livestreamed
A “BananaCam” has been set up on Mount Snowdon, to discourage visitors dumping their fruit peels, reported The Telegraph. The solar-powered webcam is in a metal cage at an undisclosed location to document how long it takes for a banana skin to rot. The project hopes to show that the skin could take up to two years to decompose. Alec Young, project officer at the national park, said banana skins can change the acidity balance of the soil as they rot, “which could obviously affect biodiversity and wildlife in the future”.
For more odd news stories, sign up to the weekly Tall Tales newsletter
