Most pointless advice revealed

And other stories from the stranger side of life

Two boys talking
(Image credit: William Gottlieb/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

“Just stop worrying” has been voted the most frustrating and futile advice in a survey of 2,000 British adults. Some 42% of those polled said it was the worst or most pointless suggestion they had been given. Other annoying pieces of advice cited in the poll included “revenge is sweet”, “forgive and forget” and “marry for security, not for love”. However, 95% of respondents were fully confident that they give great guidance themselves, noted The Times.

Ancient whale may be heaviest ever animal

Scientists in Peru have announced a new candidate for the heaviest animal in Earth’s history. Researchers unearthed fossils of an early whale that lived about 38-40 million years ago during the Eocene epoch. It was “built somewhat like a manatee” and was probably about 20 metres (66ft) long, said Al Jazeera. It weighed up to 340 metric tonnes, a mass that would exceed any other known animal including today’s blue whale and the largest dinosaurs, added the outlet.

Boars rampage on Spanish beach

Tourists on a Spanish beach received “a bit of a shock” when wild boars started rifling through their belongings, reported Metro. Around half a dozen boars were filmed rummaging through bags on the hunt for food and water, just east of Marbella on the Costa del Sol. The boars were filmed “clambering over sun beds” and “shoving their snouts into bags to sniff out food”, said the paper. A rural security guard organisation said that “wild boars don’t hide at day or at night”.

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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.