A farmer in Aksaray, Turkey who puts virtual reality goggles on his cows when they are inside his barn to fool them into thinking they are outside in a green meadow says the animals are producing more milk as a result.
Izzet Kocak, who also plays the cows music by Beethoven and Mozart, claims they are producing an additional 2.5 litres each.
Turkish animal rights groups have called his experiment “torture”, but Kocak insists the VR sessions last only 20 minutes per day and the cows are free to graze when not indoors.
He says he got the idea after reading that Russia’s agriculture ministry has been testing virtual reality glasses on cows for two years.
A badger has been thanked for unearthing the largest Roman hoard ever found in a Spanish cave.
Archaeologists called to the find at the La Cuesta cave in Asturias discovered the animal had managed to dig up 90 coins dating from 200-400 BC while looking for food. Further excavation has so far found another 169 coins, and experts say there is still “lots more to take out”.
Dig leader Alfonso Fanjul believes the coins were hidden by refugees fleeing barbarian invaders. He said the badger’s find was the kind of “unique moment that you have been dreaming about since you were little. An
extraordinary moment that you never think you will have as an archaeologist.”
A series of social media posts from a Swiss art student called Lorena that went viral when a series of setbacks appeared to leave her homeless have been revealed to be a stunt by art students. Over 1.6million people viewed TikTok videos and Facebook updates showing her arriving in Zurich to move in with her boyfriend but ending up sleeping rough after rent increases and a relationship break-up ended in eviction.
Students from Zurich University of the Arts have now admitted creating the videos as a protest against gentrification. Some social media fans feel cheated, with one commenting: “It is very privileged to pretend to be homeless for fun.”
A fisherman from Savudrija, Croatia, who went out trawling for mussels returned with a 250-kilo unexploded World War II mine caught in his nets.
Danilo Latin picked up the huge bomb accidentally near the Gulf of Trieste and then dragged it for 6km before dropping it at a point away from fishing areas and shipping lanes, where it could be detonated safely by experts.
He said: “I was not afraid because I’ve been fishing for 30 years and have caught a lot of mines in my nets. I didn’t think about the danger at all.”
Critics have attacked a French news show’s interview with rapper Stromae
which featured him bursting into his latest song, with music swelling in the
background, during a discussion about mental health and suicide.
The controversial Belgian-Rwandan star, who has come out of retirement
after six years, appeared behind a desk and wearing a suit and tie for the sit-down chat with interviewer Anne-Claire Coudray. But four minutes in, the music began and Stromae – whose stage name is an anagram of ‘Maestro’ – broke into his song L’Enfer (Hell).
Libération criticised TF1 for crossing a “red line” and allowing themselves to
be used for commercial purposes, while Le Nouvel Observateur magazine said Coudray had vindicated views of the media as “rotten” and “complicit.”
Previous stunts by Stromae include a fake Canal + interview in which he sat across a desk from himself dressed as a woman, and a music video in which he pretended to be drunk on the streets of Brussels while passers-by filmed him on their mobile phones.
A food wholesaler in Hässleholm, Sweden has been criticised for emailing staff a pre-recorded video saying 130 of them were about to be made redundant.
Employees of Bergendahls Food were told to click on a link at 2pm last Thursday. It took them to the 11-minute film, which then ended without any opportunity for questions.
Unions said using a video rather than live conferencing sites like Zoom had “stirred up huge reactions”. But a Bergendahls spokesperson said they had done it because: “We have mixed experiences of video conferencing in very large meetings.”
