From the saddest, cutest monkey ever to AI going all mystical… Your weekly roundup of offbeat stories from around the world.
– Punch to the heart –
Celebrity doesn’t just cast its spell on humans, it seemingly works its magic on monkeys too. Take poor little Punch, a baby macaque abandoned by its mother and bullied and cold-shouldered by other monkeys in a Japanese zoo.
Then images of Punch clutching a cuddly toy for comfort went viral under the hashtag #HangInTherePunch, with crowds thronging Ichikawa City Zoo outside Tokyo, many with presents to cheer him up.
Sales of his cuddly IKEA orangutan plushie also rocketed, selling out in Japan and the US.
With so many new fans, the zoo had to set up a “restricted zone” around part of his enclosure.
All the adoration seems to be rubbing off. Punch’s stock has risen among the other monkeys, and he is being “meticulously groomed by two monkeys” in recent days and is “steadily fitting into the group”, the zoo reported.
– Snow joke –
The Winter Olympics are over but the next one, or the one after, could be even more fun. Japanese officials want to turn snowball fights — “yukigassen” — into an Olympic sport.
“It’s the oldest winter sport,” said Yuji Ano, who organised its top tournament on the northern island of Hokkaido. “Long before skating or skiing, humans were already throwing snowballs at each other.”
“When you get hit, it hurts, but it’s mostly your pride that takes the blow,” said Toshihiro Takahashi, a 48-year-old civil servant dripping with sweat after his match in which he had to hit the seven players on the opposing team with perfectly spherical snowballs made by a special machine.
Some, however, may need some persuading of its merits. Just ask the New York police officers who were pelted with snowballs after the city’s largest snowstorm in over a decade.
“Multiple uniformed officers were struck in the face with snowballs,” a New York Police Department spokeswoman told AFP, with the miscreants posting videos online to the fury of commissioner Jessica Tisch, who called them “disgraceful” and “criminal”.
– God knows why –
Please try to stay zen. Japanese scientists have come up with a robot monk powered by AI. And “Buddharoid” gave reporters some spiritual advice when it was unveiled at a Kyoto temple — don’t go overthinking this.
“Buddhism teaches that it is important not to blindly follow one’s thoughts or rush headlong into things,” it said in a soothing baritone. “One approach is to calm your mind and let go of the thought.”
Trained on some of the most esoteric Buddhist scriptures, researchers believe the holy humanoid could “replace some of the religious rituals traditionally performed by human monks”.
Some have already turned to AI therapists for company or advice on their love life, but now the creators of the bots are pushing into the realm of the gods — a Kyoto android called Mindar already delivers sermons, and a German robot with glowing hands gives blessings in five languages.
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