India and Italy: The revenge on smog
People living in New Delhi are so fed up with the pollution in their city they are taking "smog selfies" in front of landmarks obscured by smog, as a form of protest. New Delhi, already considered one of the most polluted cities in the world, logged levels 90 times higher than what the World Health Organisation calls safe, reports the BBC. In addition to car exhaust and the burning of rubbish, fireworks during the recent Diwali festival didn't help, and Nasa images suggest massive crop burning as farmers clear fields also is playing a role. Meanwhile in Italy the town of San Vitaliano is fighting its high smog levels with a pizza ban. The ban covers the use of "agricultural, artisanal, industrial, and commercial producers ... from burning solid biomass such as wood, woodchips, coal, and charcoal," which includes the wood-fired pizza oven. A local pizzeria rep tells Il Mattino: "We make about 34 pizzas a day, how do they think we are responsible for the pollution problems around here?"
Ant hell
Researchers in Poland reported in August the "survival" of a colony of ants that wandered unsuspectingly into an old nuclear weapon bunker and became trapped. When researchers first noticed them in 2013, they assumed the ants would soon die, either freezing or starving to death, but, returning in 2016, they found the population stable. Their only guess: New ants were falling into the bunker, "replacing" the dead ones. Thus, ants condemned to the bunker slowly starve, freezing, in total darkness, until newly condemned ants arrive and freeze and starve in total darkness - and on and on. (Source: News of The Weird)
