… is located in Canada, and is a mere 1 square mile (or 640 acres). The Carcross Desert, as it is known, is not a true desert – the area is “too humid” by technical standards – but rather a jarring series of sand dunes in the Yukon left over from long-dried lakes. 

This shocking tidbit brought to you by Time Magazine. Think about that: ten percent of all photos ever taken in the history of the world… were shot last year. Humanity is producing media and content at an astounding rate! 

An anonymous tipster has drawn our attention to this fast-breaking news in the Pacific:

Here’s the latest plan scientists have come up with to kill some of the estimated 2 million brown tree snakes that have wiped out many other animals on Guam:

In April or May they’re going to lace dead mice with painkillers, attach them to little parachutes, drop them from helicopters and hope that they get snagged in the jungle foliage. Then, if all goes well, the snakes — which as their name implies hang out in trees — will eat the mice and die from ingesting the painkillers’ active ingredients.

Let’s hope that the snakes do eat the mice and not some other poor, unsuspecting native species. Unforeseen consequences are always a risk when you drop dead mice out of choppers!
(Article here.)

Some time ago we wrote about the greatest “order pizza to a stranger’s house” prank ever played; today, we bring you the tale of one of the greatest April Fool’s Day hoaxes of all time. 

The prank succeeded beyond Porky’s wildest dreams. News of it got picked up by the Associated Press and ran in papers around the world.

The reaction of people in Sitka, once they realized the volcano wasn’t really erupting, was almost uniformly positive. Even the Coast Guard wasn’t too mad about the stunt. Porky met the Admiral years later at a Fourth of July party. As the Admiral walked over to meet him, Porky was afraid he was going to be chewed out, but instead the Admiral told Porky he thought the prank was classic.

You can read more about Porky’s classic prank here.

As a resident of Geauga County, the maple syrup capital of Ohio, and the nephew of a maple syrup producer, this article hits close to home:

UNION COUNTY, IL (KFVS) –

A Union County family got the scare of their lives on Wednesday morning as drug agents swarmed onto their property.

“I heard the dogs barking. And I knew that meant somebody was outside the house,” said Laura Benson.”They had a report of a meth lab going on on our property. And they wanted to investigate it.”

So the Bensons gladly showed the officers what they really were doing, which was making their own maple syrup.

The Bensons want to thank their neighbors for being so alert and notifying the police.

“I think my neighbors on their way to church see the buckets and stuff and think we’ve got a meth lab operation going on here. I just want to put their minds at ease, and let them know it’s maple syrup. And that they’re all welcome for pancakes if they want to come on over.”

I can see how a misunderstanding like this might occur, honestly: lots of metal buckets and plastic tubing, strange contraptions, fires burning late into the night, and so on. For those uninitiated in the art of maple syrup production, it might very well resemble a meth lab. My own uncle has had the fire department called on him: his sugar house, lit up at night and spewing steam and smoke, does look like it’s ablaze. And honestly, I would prefer concerned neighbors who care enough to make a call. 

This may be the greatest headline ever written. It’s almost too good to be true. But it is. 

Cookie Monster (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The thief sent a ransom note to a Hanover-area newspaper demanding bakery Bahlsen donate boxes of cookies to a children’s hospital in exchange for its iconic treat. The gargantuan cookie has since been discovered.

The iconic snack, belonging to famed German cookie company Bahlsen, has finally reappeared after a thief dressed as Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster swiped it in early January.

Police in Hanover spotted the valuable treat hanging on a statue of a horse in front of a university Tuesday morning and are now working to determine whether it’s the company’s original trademark treat.

There, the expectation is that women are to give men chocolates. According to Wikipedia, this practice “appears to have originated from the translation error of a chocolate-company executive during the initial campaigns.” The Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia explains:

Sometime in the 1950s, a Japanese chocolate manufacturer took inspiration from the western tradition of Valentine’s Day and began producing heart-shaped chocolates, declaring February 14th as a day women confess their love with a gift of chocolate. The incentive was seen as an opportunity to boost the post-war economy and was a great success during a time in which Japan was eager to adopt western customs and ideas. The main difference – that only women are to bear the burden of gift-giving – is supposedly the result of a translation error made by a chocolate company executive. About a decade or so later, candy companies capitalized on the chance to balance things out urged men to give back a month later with gifts of marshmallows. This practice developed into what is now known as the March 14th holiday “White Day,” on which men reciprocate with white chocolates or other small gifts to women.

I wonder how many other traditions around the world originated with misunderstandings. 

Are the bright colors a safety hazard for the overly-sensitive eyes of children? Nope. They’ve simply offended the ridiculously-delicate sensibilities of a handful of neighboring homeowners:

One homeowner, who did not want to be named, said: “It was supposed to be less than half the size than it is now. It’s a complete eyesore from the Burford Road – it looks like a fairground.”

Cotswold District Council has said the play area would remain off-limits for now because of the complaints.

Talk about uptight. (Full article here.)

What’s that? You’re worried about a little snow falling on your head? How adorable.

Meanwhile, in Brazil, it’s raining spiders.

Footage posted online yesterday shows thousands of spiders “falling from the sky” in the southern Brazilian town of Santo Antônio da Platina.

“Still do not know what causes such behavior,” writes the video’s uploader. “We are researching and will post the answer to the question here.”

I know exactly what causes such behavior. A little something called the end of the world.

Ever wonder what the 43rd president of the United States is up to these days? Apparently, he’s been teaching himself to paint with oils. A hacker named Guccifer recently gained access to the Bush family email accounts and unearthed two of ol’ GW’s self portraits, among other things. 

English: President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It sounds absurd, and it is: this is the result of the authoritarian madness of Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko (pictured right). Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, imposed the anti-clapping measure in 2011:   

[…] [W]hen public protests broke out in 2011 over the collapsing economy, [Lukashenko] responded by having thousands arrested for whatever reason or no reason at all. Most of them, according to the Christian Science Monitor, “were fined heavily or jailed for up to 15 days on police court testimony that they were expressing a political opinion by clapping their hands.” Activists and protesters there had adopted applause as a symbol of protest, which is brilliant because now that clapping has been associated with dissent, the regime reportedly has had to forbid it at its own events, such as traditional military parades, which must parade along silently. Authoritarian regimes rely heavily on forcing people to play along, and now forced applause is not an option.