Other Stories - 13th April 2018

Another busy week has passed – in case you missed them, here are some of the stories that caught Thrings' eye, including cars buried in gardens, the sugar tax, ‘zombie’ racoons and hotels in space.

The entire contents of Heathrow’s Terminal 1 are being sold off. Lucky bidders are set to have the opportunity to purchase a range of curios from the terminal, which was closed down in 2015. Everything from baggage carousels and escalators to check-in desks and security cameras are up for auction, as well as artwork and signs that once lined the walls. Terminal 1’s closure was intended to enable expansion of Terminal 2. Its final departure was a British Airways flight to Hanover. BBC News

A man has been pardoned after seagulls trashed his hotel room two decades ago. Nick Burchill was banned from a luxury hotel in Victoria, British Columbia in 2001 when he brought some pepperoni with him, which he had intended to share with his friends in the navy. Having left the meat to cool on the windowsill, he went for a walk, only to return to a flock of seagulls causing a ruckus in his room. Hotel staff have confirmed that the ban has since been lifted, with many long-time staff still finding the event a source of amusement. Evening Standard

A woman found a classic car buried in her garden in Guernsey. When Tracy Ward set about to do a spot of landscaping with her father, the last thing she had expected to stumble across was the chassis belonging to a Daimler. Experts have suggested that the vehicle is likely to have been from the 1940s or 1950s based on its number plate and gear box. The reasons for its burial are unknown although it’s possible that a previous owner of Tracy’s house may have started renovating the vehicle before giving up and burying it, as you do. BBC News

The soft drink sugar tax has begun. Manufacturers of soft drinks now have to pay a levy on high-sugar drinks, which has led to leading brands such as Fanta, Ribena and Lucozade cutting the sugar content of their products. Drinks containing more than 8g per 100ml face a tax rate equivalent to 24p per litre, while those containing 5-8g of sugar per 100ml face a rate of 18p per litre. Pure fruit juices are unaffected, so long as they do not carry added sugar. The Independent

‘Zombie’ racoons are plaguing Ohio. That’s the news that officers in the city of Youngstown are investigating in light of reports from concerned residents who have noticed the animals acting strangely. Though typically nocturnal creatures, they have reportedly been seen standing on their hind legs and baring teeth before falling over backwards. It is thought that the animals could be suffering from distemper – a viral condition that causes coughing and seizures and leads raccoons to lose their fear of humans. Sky News

Fancy holidaying in space? That dream may very well be a reality soon. The Aurora Station project will enable up to six people – including two crew members – the chance to sample the pleasure of first-class accommodation above the Earth’s atmosphere. Visitors will also be able to take part in research experiments, such as growing food in orbit. If you’re interested, you’d better start saving. Visits will set you back £6.7m per person for a 12-day stay and will require a three-month training regime, which includes a stint at a training facility in Houston, Texas. The Guardian

Would you eat the world’s hottest chilli? Think again. News emerged this week about a man who found himself hospitalised in 2016 after eating a Carolina reaper chilli at an eating contest in New York. The 34-year-old endured excruciating ‘thunderclap’ headaches that lasted for several seconds, alongside intense neck pain. The medical journal BMJ suggests that the man’s subsequent diagnosis of a temporary brain condition – reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome – marked the first time the condition had been diagnosed due to consuming chilli. Sky News

Social media advertising spends are set to overtake TV. That’s the news according to forecasts of the next two years, which suggest that platforms such as Facebook and Snapchat will become the UK’s biggest advertising formats. The figures from eMarketer suggest that over a fifth of all spending on advertising will be on social networks in 2020, with spending on the likes of Instagram hitting percentages as high as 20.2% versus the 16.1% reported this year. The Telegraph

The Milky Way is still growing – by 500 meters per second. Despite already being approximately 100,000 light years in diameter, new research has suggested that our solar system is expanding at a much faster rate than scientists had originally thought. The Milky Way will eventually expand in to our neighbouring system, Andromeda, but that’s a little way off. Scientists don’t anticipate that it will happen for at least another four billion years. Tech Times

Fact of the week

66 million jobs could be at risk due to robots. That’s the warning from Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, who have suggested that workers in manufacturing industries aren’t being prepared for the rise of automation. A new report suggests that the jobs of at least one in seven employees could be affected. Up to 14% of jobs in developed countries are thought to be automatable, while a further 32% of jobs could experience significant changes to the way they are carried out due to the introduction of intelligent machines. The Guardian