Bees learn from mentors

And other stories from the stranger side of life

Bees
(Image credit: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

Scientists have observed bees learning from one another, said The Times. The experiments on the Buff-tailed bumblebee showed that an insect could pick up a new skill by watching a more experienced mentor. “When you actually look at what a culture is, when you strip it down to its bare bones, it consists of behaviours that are learned socially,” said Dr Alice Bridges of Queen Mary University of London, who led the study.

‘Shoemageddon’ on Cumbria high street

Hundreds of trainers were dumped on a high street in Cumbria, prompting a local councillor to describe the situation as “Shoemageddon”. Locals began to gather to look for free shoes after the footwear was left in a skip outside a New Balance shop in Shap, near Penrith, noted The Telegraph. Jonathan Davies, a Penrith town councillor, said: “There were shoes everywhere... it was Shoemageddon.”

Beer recalled due to too much booze

A popular Aussie beer is being recalled by regulators because it contains “excess alcohol”. Food Standards Australia New Zealand said Watermelon Sour Beer contains too much booze as a result of a secondary fermentation and could pose a risk of illness due to its alcohol content. “We’ve only seen this occur in a handful of unrefrigerated cans so far, but we take the safety of our mates and quality of our beer very seriously,” said the manufacturer, in an Instagram post.

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Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.