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OSLO, NORWAY — Norway will spend $315 million building the world’s first ship tunnel in a bid to improve maritime safety and cut journey times.The 1,700-meter-long Stad Ship Tunnel will carve through the solid rock of the Stad peninsula in western Norway, allowing ships weighing up to 16,000 tons to pass between two fjords.The tunnel will allow cargo vessels and passenger ships to navigate more safely through the notoriously stormy Stadhavet Sea, according to a press release from the Norwegian Coastal Administration.The team behind the tunnel expects that five ships per hour will be able to pass through it. A traffic light system will be used to show when it’s safe to pass. Construction on the project will begin by 2019 at the earliest, with completion expected by 2023.

CHENGDU, CHINA — A man in Chengdu, China decided to take matters into his own hands when a cockroach got stuck in his ear.The 60-year-old man, surnamed Lee, was enjoying a good night’s sleep when his slumber was disrupted by a sudden pain in his head, the Chengdu News website reported. Suspecting a bug might be in his ear, Lee tried removing the critter with a toothpick, then tweezers, before shaking his head violently from side to side. None of which worked. Lee then sprayed pesticide into his ear, which killed the roach, but caused his ear canal to swell up. What’s more, the roach remained stuck in his ear. After putting up with the pain for three days, Lee finally went to the hospital, where a doctor removed the 1 cm-long cockroach from his ear canal. The doctor later advised that anyone facing the same problem as Mr Lee should try pouring mineral oil into their ear to flush out the bug.

COLUMBUS, OHIO — More than 30 children are sent to U.S. hospital emergency rooms every day after putting cotton swabs in their ears, according to a new study. The study, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, found that between 1990 and 2010, 263,000 children in the U.S. were treated for injuries resulting from the misuse of cotton swabs. Pushing a cotton swab into the ear canal can perforate the eardrum, injure soft tissue, or damage hearing bones. Using cotton swabs can also push wax further into the ear canal and cause it to impact. Ear injuries like this can cause dizziness, infection, or result in irreversible loss of hearing. The study’s senior author said it highlighted the “misconception that adults and children need to clean the ear canal in the home setting,” according to Reuters. Dr. Kris Jatana, a pediatric ear, nose and throat surgeon at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio said: “While cotton-tipped applicators may seem harmless, there are certainly a lot of potential risks to using them to clean the ears.

OTTAWA, CANADA— Model Catt Gallinger, 24, was recently convinced by a tattoo artist to get her eyeball tattooed, but the procedure went very, very wrong.

EMORY, TEXAS — A cuckolded man in Emory, Texas is receiving mad props from the internet for handling a moment of heartbreak with great poise, and an amazing sense of humor. Earlier this week, Duston Holloway, 23, was expecting to come home to his loving girlfriend asleep and ready to cuddle. Instead, what he found was another dude sleeping next to her, in his bed! Duston said he did try to wake his cheating girlfriend up, but she was so drunk she barely moved. So, rather than wake the homie up with fists, he instead opted to bust out his phone and snap some pics of the two, which included a couple selfies with them passed out in the background. After uploading the pics to Facebook, the internet went wild with laughs and respect for Duston, so much so that his friend list got maxed out. Duston soon took down the photos, probably having decided the act of public shaming had met with its desired outcome. He did, however, post a return shout-out message to everyone who reached out, expressing his appreciation for the support through a rough time, and that he’ll keep on smiling.

China launched a freight train service running between China and Spain in mid-November, which will significantly lower freight costs for Chinese manufacturers. Consisting of 82 wagons, the new Yixinou train connects Yiwu, an important wholesale base near Shanghai, and Madrid. Yixinou will pass through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany and France on its way to Spain on a journey that will take 21 days. The new rail route covers about 13,000 kilometres. Moscow-Vladivostok Rossinya 002, the world’s second-longest route, has a span of about 9,200 kilometres. Yixinou’s route is about five times longer than that of the Orient Express. Due to incompatible track gauges, Yixinou has to stop at three points to be shifted onto different wagons.

A French manufacturer of aircraft passenger seats has filed a patent for a new seating design that would increase cabin capacity by having passengers face each other.Zodiac Seats France’s latest design, called ‘economy class cabin hexagon’, alternates the cabin seats between facing forward and facing backwards in order to increase cabin density, the Globe and Mail reported.The company claims the the new design can increase space for the shoulder and arm areas as well as give each passenger four more inches of legroom, according to NBC News.The company said it has no plans to put the new design into production at the moment, the Globe and Mail reported.

French aircraft maker Airbus has come up with a new way to shave off turnaround time between flights — detachable cargo compartments. The U.S. patent designs released detail removable cabins, which could be swapped in and out of an aircraft to increase efficiency for boarding passengers. The concept would also allow planes to fly more frequently, with less time sitting and waiting on the ground.The plans preview how passengers could board a detached cabin from a docking station in advance of a plane’s arrival. Passengers would then be able to seat themselves while ground crews store their luggage, reducing processing time all around. Once the empty aircraft arrives in the terminal, the fully-loaded cabin container would be lowered into the plane, firmly locking into place before the plane takes flight.Once the flight lands at its destination, it pulls into a new gate at the airport, where the removable cabin would detach and be lifted up into a docking station.The plane would quickly be prepared by ground crews to take on a new cabin of passengers.

CEDAR HILL, TEXAS — A military veteran taking advantage of a complimentary meal at a Chili’s in North Texas had his food taken away after his service was called into question by a fellow customer. Ernest Walker proudly served in 25th Infantry of the U.S. Army, Division Tropic Lightning. On November 11, the army vet was waiting for his food with his service dog, Barack. The restaurant offers all active service members and veterans a free meal on Veterans Day as a thank you. The meal took half an hour to be served, and as Walker had to go, he asked the waitress to put it in a to-go box for him. As he was waiting for his doggy bag, he says an elderly man wearing a Trump t-shirt walked over and questioned him about his time in the military. The man, who himself claimed to be a World War 2 vet serving in Germany, didn’t believe Walker was actually a veteran. A few minutes later, the manager came over and told Walker another guest said he wasn’t a veteran because he was wearing his hat indoors. After providing his discharge papers and his military ID, the manager then told him the guest also said his dog was not a service dog. That’s when Walker started recording the incident on his smartphone. After arguing for the duration of the video, the manager took Walker’s to-go box away and told him to “have a great day.” Following the unfortunate exchange, Walker posted the video to Facebook, and the story has since gotten back to Chili’s, who have responded saying the situation has been escalated to the highes.

Rashid Polo, of Rochester, Minnesota, is an overnight internet celebrity whose recent Vine videos are shedding light on a sensitive topic … shopping while black. While shopping at a convenience store back in February, Polo noticed a pattern developing. No matter where he went in the store, a suspicious attendant always seemed to follow. As she busied herself with random tasks, she cast vilifying stares at Polo, who eventually had enough. He whipped out his cell phone and began recording. If you’re saying to yourself right now that racial shopping discrimination doesn’t exist, chances are, you’re a white person. Barney’s New York, to give just one example, has repeatedly been accused of mistreating black shoppers. In the case of 19-year-old Trayon Christian, undercover police officers arrested him when he walked out of Barneys with a $350 belt, despite having shown them proof of purchase. Even Oprah can’t avoid racial profiling. Last year, a Swiss clerk refused to show the media mogul a handbag, saying it would “cost to much.” Polo’s second “shopping while black” Vine video has garnered 14 million loops in a little over a week and attracted more than 15,000 followers so far.

A dead blue whale washed into the Trout River in Newfoundland, Canada, more than a week ago. It has since doubled in size, and the town residents fear it’s about to burst.Whales can explode due to a build-up of methane and hydrogen sulphide and other gases within the rotting carcass. Especially if it’s been sitting in the sun for a few weeks. Preventative measures such as making cuts in the animal can help the gas to escape and are common.The 81-foot-long, 60-ton dead whale is bloating on the waterfront with methane gas trapped inside, which may explode at some point in time. The decaying whale also causes a stinky problem as tourist season nears.The authority doesn't want the whale become an attraction, and wants people stay away from the carcass, which would be carrying viruses or bacteria that can make people sick.Emily Butler, the town clerk in Trout River, has sought help from the province's Environment and Government Services departments, and the federal Fisheries Department to remove the carcass. She said the town council considered having fishermen tow the whale carcass out to sea.

SWANSEA, UNITED KINGDOM — A high school student in Wales took part in the internet craze known as the “salt and ice challenge,” and a photograph of his damaged hand is making the rounds on social media.The salt and ice challenge involves placing salt somewhere on the body, and then using an ice cube to press down on the area for as long as possible. Doing this creates a burning sensation in the area, as the salt and the ice combined become significantly colder than the ice on its own, at -18°F (-28°C). Once the participant finally gives up, initially they may feel an immediate numbing sensation in the affected area, meaning they’ve likely experienced nerve damage resulting from second- or third-degree burns, similar to frostbite. The teen’s mother published the photograph of the skin burn to warn other parents of the dangers of this salt and ice challenge.

SAN FRANCISCO — Scientists are concerned by a massive shark die-off in San Francisco bay, but are unable to get state funding to research the exact cause.NBC Bay Area reports that two thousand leopard sharks and hundreds of bat rays, smoothhound sharks, striped bass, and halibut have turned up dead on San Francisco Bay between February and July this year.The culprit is suspected to be a parasite known as Miamiensis avidus, which enters the shark’s nose and eats away at its brain. When the animal eventually succumbs to the parasite, it either swims aimlessly in circles or beaches itself. But scientists say only a small fraction end up on shore. Sharks aren’t naturally buoyant, so the infected ones sink to the bottom of the ocean once they stop swimming. Leopard sharks are the most commonly spotted victims of the parasite, but it’s a lesser concern for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, since the species is not endangered. Scientists fear, however, that other species are also becoming infected and dying, but just aren’t washing up on shore. They also worry that the parasite could spread farther along the California coast.

ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA — Russia has unveiled a new nuclear-powered icebreaker that is designed to keep the Northern Sea Route open all year round. Russia’s new nuclear-powered icebreaker, known as Leader, will exceed 200 meters in length and will be about 50 meters wide. It would be capable of plowing through 2-meter-thick ice at a speed of 29 kph and capable of cutting through ice up to 4.5 meters thick. It is expected that the new icebreaker would lead tankers carrying liquefied natural gas weighing up to 300,000 tonnes to pass through the Northern Sea Route in any season. Russia launched the world’s biggest icebreaker, the Arktika, in June. The icebreaker is powered by two nuclear reactors and can break through 4-meter-deep ice.

A JR train met its match this past week when a herd of caterpillars decided to cross the tracks. The mass of caterpillars covered several meters of track and the train passed over 2 kilometers worth of caterpillars before it suddenly began to slow. An investigation revealed that the caterpillar juices, which spewed out as the train crushed the little buggers, acted like lubrication. As the wheels lost traction with the tracks the JR was unable to move forward. In the end the train conductor was forced to reverse the train back to the previous station while workers were sent out to remove the caterpillars. This is the first time the JR has been stopped because of caterpillars and may be the first incident ever.

Scientists have located the magma source of an Italian supervolcano that’s considered one of the most dangerous in the world. Campi Flegrei is a volcanic caldera to the west of Naples which last erupted in 1538, but was responsible for a series of small earthquakes in the 1980s, according to a new study published in Scientific Reports. Researchers have long puzzled about where the caldera’s magma was coming from, and have now pinpointed the location of a hot zone about 4 kilometers under the nearby city of Pozzuoli. From 1982 and 1984, rising gas and magma caused ground in the crater to swell, but was prevented from rising to the surface by a deep rock formation. The magma instead spread out laterally, causing minor earthquakes. The caldera has grown hotter since, and with pressure building, scientists fear it could soon erupt and put the entire region at risk. Volcanologists cannot say for sure what the scale of any future eruption could be, and are closely monitoring Campi Flegrei.

SOUTHEND ON SEA, UK — An ordinary day at a museum in the UK went horribly wrong when a family's failed photo op damaged an 800-year-old coffin. According to the BBC, on August 4, a family was visiting Prittlewell Priory[e] Museum in Southend-on-Sea. Hoping to snap a morbid photo, the parents reportedly reached over an exhibit barrier to put their child inside an 800-year-old ancient sandstone coffin. In the process of picture-taking, the offending family managed to knock off a chunk of the sarcophagus[f]. The family did not say a word and fled the scene, but were caught on the museum's surveillance cameras. According to the conservator, the coffin was found on the grounds of the monk's residence in 1921 and has been displayed in the Prittlewell Priory Museum ever since. It used to contain a skeleton that the museum says could have belonged to a senior monk, so arguably, it is a valuable artifact. In response to the photo-op incident, Prittlewell Priory[g] Museum's conservator Claire Reed said the staff was "shocked and upset", but added that the damage was repairable. The museum said they did not expect people to actually get into the artifacts, and they plan to completely enclose the stone coffin in the future.

PASADENA, CALIFORNIA — NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has picked up an image that some think could be a crab-like martian alien. The rock feature has also been likened to the facehugger creature from the Alien movies. Scientists say the reason so many people recognize something familiar in the image is because of psychological response called pareidolia. This isn't the first time an image from Mars has stirred up us Earthlings. Back in 1976, NASA's Viking 1 orbiter snapped a picture of what appeared to be a face staring back from the Martian surface. It turned out that was just a rock, too. Senior astronomer at the Center for SETI Research, Seth Shostak, told the Mirror he gets images every week that people claim to see animals or objects in. "Recognizing a crab in a landscape filled with wind-weathered rocks is no more surprising — nor more significant — than seeing a winking face in a semicolon followed by a parenthesis," Shostak said. "Those that send them to me are generally quite excited, as they claim that these frequently resemble something you wouldn't expect to find on the rusty, dusty surface of the Red Planet," he added. "It's usually some sort of animal, but occasionally even weirder objects such as automobile parts. Maybe they think there are cars on Mars."

SPACE — Scientists have long believed that stars are born with at least one companion. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been much evidence to support this theory, until now. Science Alert reports that a new study on star systems from the University of California at Berkeley and Harvard’s Smithsonian Astrophysical Observer has found that sunlike stars initially form as wide binaries. Some systems, like the Alpha Centauri, even form as triplets. Over the next million years, these stars either come together to form a tight binary, or break apart. Our sun would have been separated by a distance of 500 or more astronomical units from its twin star, before it was believed to have moved farther away. The twin has been dubbed ‘Nemesis’, after scientists hypothesized that it had knocked an asteroid out of orbit and sent it hurtling toward Earth. They say that asteroid eventually collided with our planet and killed off the dinosaurs. Still, Nemesis has never actually been found, and the idea that it may be responsible for catastrophic events on Earth has yet to be proved.

GUANGDONG, CHINA — Shocking video of an infant falling from a moving vehicle and narrowly avoiding a terrible end was captured on April 23 in Jieyang, southern China and has since gone viral in China and beyond.The mother, baby and a female relative were riding a tricycle vehicle passing the busy road. When the driver pulled a gentle left turn,The child somehow fell from the vehicle, landing face-down in the middle of a multi-lane road, with traffic bearing down.Inches from certain death, infant survives one near hit as the driver of a silver sedan stops just in time.But the child didn’t come out of this completely unscathed. Look closely and you’ll notice the child’s left arm and head are struck.The women in the trike taxi turn in horror as they realize what’s just happened. One wonders, was Mom even holding onto her child?China’s People’s Daily reports that the poor kid was rushed to the nearest hospital and treated for various injures, the one to the child’s left arm, thankfully not too severe.

An unidentified 13-year-old Venezuelan girl is battling for her life after her leg turned black from severe necrosis after she was bitten by a snake.Apparently when the girl was first bitten, she also suffered a broken elbow. The bite cut one of the arteries in her leg and the excess bleeding led to ‘compartment syndrome’. A condition when pressure inside a compartment such as the leg causes a decrease in blood supply to the affected muscles.She was treated using local remedies which probably only included antibiotics. She mostly likely wasn’t treated for the snake venom, which can cause nerve paralysis and blood clots.She was finally taken to Caracas for treatment a month later, but by that time her leg had already turned black from severe necrosis. The necrosis is now spreading up her leg. The rest of her body also showed signs of muscle atrophy from the venom.The necrosis then led to a condition called rhabdomyolysis, where muscle tissue starts to die throughout the body. Rhabdomyolysis can lead to kidney failure and death if untreated.Doctors have said the leg will need to be amputated, but that the girl may still die from the poison.

Scientists in China are producing solar panels that can produce energy from the last source you’d expect — rainwater.In a study published in the journal Angewandte Chemie, researchers in China introduced a new type of solar panel that adds a layer of graphene, or carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb structure, to dye-sensitized solar cells. A flexible layer of indium tin oxide and plastic is included underneath.Graphene has unusual properties that allow electrons to move freely throughout the entire layer. According to the researchers, rainwater contains positively charged ions like ammonium, calcium and sodium. When water binds to the panel’s surface, a double-layer of positive ions and negatively charged electrons is created, which ends up producing a voltage and current.Tests of the new solar panels have been able to produce hundreds of microvolts, which is small even compared to a standard AA battery, reports Quartz. The solar-to-electric energy conversion stood at about 7 percent, which is much lower than the 20 percent energy conversion achieved by the best solar panels on the market. So there’s a long way to go before the new solar panels become more widely used. But more efficient future versions could mean big things for the solar industry.

HUAINAN CITY, CHINA — A new floating solar farm constructed on a lake in Huainan City, China is said to be the largest in the world. According to the South China Morning Post, the farm is made up of 160,000 solar panels. These panels reportedly can produce electricity for up to 15,000 homes. The farm is built over a lake that emerged from a collapsed coal mine, reported Phys.org. The water from the lake helps cool the panels’ electronics, reported the Smithsonian Mag, citing a Telegraph report on Europe’s largest solar farm. The farm was linked to Huainan City’s power grid last month, reported the South China Morning Post.

BAKERSFIELD, CALIFORNIA — A Mississippi man is recovering in hospital this week after having a benign but terrifyingly huge tumor removed from his lower stomach.According to Bakersfield.com, Roger Logan, 57, used to run an antiques store as well as manage his family farm. However, over the past several years, a massive benign tumor developed on his lower belly.That tumor started out as an ingrown hair over a decade ago, and then it just grew like a damn beanstalk. According to reports, it weighed more than 140 lbs.Last week, Logan travelled to Bakersfield Hospital in California for an operation to get it removed.Logan was reportedly in a cheery mood following and before he heads home, he says he’s gonna grab one of those famously delicious Bakersfield tacos.

SYDNEY — Passengers on Qantas Flight QF63 witnessed a curious sight last week when their plane flew to South Africa with not four, but five engines. Business Insider Australia reports that a Boeing 747 Qantas flight from Sydney to Johannesburg on Wednesday was carrying unusually heavy baggage — six tonnes to be exact — in the form of a fifth engine. The rare move was meant to carry the replacement Rolls Royce engine to a plane in Johannesburg to get it back in the air sooner. With the 747 designed to carry additional cargo on its left wing, Qantas explained it merely had to fit the aircraft with anchor points, attach a supporting strut, and hoist the engine up using a winching mechanism to secure it safely. The fifth engine was not powered for the flight, but did add weight and drag, which meant the plane had to fly slower and make a refueling stop in Perth before the 11-hour flight to South Africa. After flight QF63 landed, the engine was removed and fitted onto the other plane, which made the return trip back to Sydney, according to 9News. The replaced engine will be shipped back by boat.