If things like wars and elections have made you less inclined to read the news, we’ve done the hard yards and dug around the back pages of all the newspapers to find some of the stranger stories you might have missed from around the world over the past 12 months. Here’s what else happened in 2024!
JANUARY
A tough piece of tech
A good luck story kicked off the year: when an Alaska Airlines plane lost a panel at an altitude of 16,000 feet, one passenger’s iPhone was sucked out of the hole. It would later be found by a stranger, lying under a bush on a roadside in the US state of Washington, with no scratches on the screen, and 44 percent of its battery life remaining.
FEBRUARY
Blaspheming birds
Lincolnshire Wildlife Park in the UK was forced to move eight parrots into isolation because of their penchant for swearing loudly. The worry was that dozens of other parrots in the park would copy the behaviour, making for one big potty-mouthed aviary. Zoo officials aren’t certain if their efforts will work, so they’re not planning on taking down the signs that warn visitors of the potential for foul language. Fowl language, even.
MARCH
Medieval mishap
A 33-year-old university academic who lives in an old medieval tower at the University of Cambridge – once the home of 16th-century philosopher Erasmus – found herself stuck in the tower’s bathroom for seven hours when the lock failed. Nobody could hear her cries for help because of the thick stone walls. She was finally able to escape by using an eyeliner and a cotton swab to move the locking mechanism away from the door frame.
APRIL
Cold and gold
Mount Erebus on Ross Island in Antarctica is on record as the southernmost active volcano on the planet. It regularly emits plumes of gas and steam along with partially molten boulders. In a potentially lucrative twist, however, scientists have also discovered that the volcanic sprays include elements of metallic gold — around 80 grams per day, in fact, worth about US$6,000. The gold dust has been found a thousand kilometres away from the volcano!
MAY
Cheap bling
Speaking of gold, when a Mexican online shopper stumbled upon a pair of 18k gold diamond earrings being advertised by famous jeweller Cartier for just US$13, he quickly ordered two pairs. Within a week, a company representative got in touch to say the items were incorrectly priced: they should have been listed as US$13,000. Cartier offered a bottle of champagne and a leather item as compensation, but the shopper complained to Mexican consumer protection authorities. A hearing was scheduled, but Cartier intervened and delivered the earrings for the listed price.
JUNE
Opening soon, closing sooner
A real estate developer in Osaka, Japan, was just weeks away from putting the finishing touches on a brand new condominium building in Kunitachi, when it promptly announced that the structure would be demolished, and the residents who’d purchased apartments would be compensated financially. Turns out that the building was blocking the neighbours’ view of Mount Fuji, and the developers had “failed to consider this fact adequately”.
JULY
Foot phone
Samsung channelled the 1960s TV series Get Smart last year when it released the Shortcut Sneaker, which allows users to make phone calls, play music and carry out other actions by using specific foot movements to activate motion sensors in the shoes. Don’t get too excited though – the company only made half a dozen pairs of Shortcuts to give away as competition prizes in the Netherlands.
AUGUST
Art: viewed while nude
Still on the topic of shoes, they are the only thing that visitors were required to wear to the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations’ “Naturist Paradises” exhibition in Marseille last year. Nudes were a major feature of the exhibition, and for one evening a month, at a time when the museum was normally closed, art enthusiasts were allowed to view the displays while stark naked. Oh, except for the shoes, which organisers insisted had to be worn because of the risk of getting splinters from the wooden flooring.
SEPTEMBER
Time capsule unearthed
An interesting find was made at an archaeological dig in Eu, France, when a student volunteer discovered a small glass bottle inside an earthenware pot. The bottle contained a message written two centuries ago, in January 1825, by one PJ Feret, a native of the French fishing port of Dieppe and a well-known archaeologist of that period. He explains in the note that he was working on the same site and had left the message for a future archaeologist to find. Head of the local archaeology service described the find as an “absolutely magic moment”.
OCTOBER
Scent of spuds
Perfumer Michal Gilbert Lach says he was inspired by visiting produce markets in his hometown in the 1980s when he decided to launch a potato-focused scent in October. Known as Polish Potatoes, the perfume is said to have earthy notes of wheat, beetroot, pine and leather. And potato. “The unique accord of potato will stay with you forever,” says the website. A 1.7 ounce bottle of the Eau de Spud will set you back a couple of hundred dollars.
NOVEMBER
Gone bananas
A cryptocurrency entrepreneur at a Sotheby’s auction in New York paid S$8.3 million for an artwork called Comedian, which consisted of a single banana attached to a white wall with duct tape. Think that’s weird? The businessman also announced that he would later destroy the artwork by enjoying it as a snack at some point. True to his word, he subsequently had a munch on the banana at a hotel in Hong Kong, describing it as being “much better than other bananas”.
DECEMBER
Monkey business at Changi
Another fan of bananas is the macaque monkey, and in December a group of these cheeky beasts was spotted strolling around the departure hall of Terminal 2 of Singapore’s Changi Airport. A video of one of the monkeys being shown out the door by a uniformed woman has gone viral, with viewers praising her stern but fearless actions. Tourists in the terminal may have been amazed at the monkeys’ airport antics, but Singapore residents who were looking on just shrugged their shoulders. Seen one macaque, seen them all!
Enjoyed this article on what happened in 2024? It first appeared in the January 2025 edition of Expat Living. You can purchase the latest issue or subscribe, so you never miss a copy!
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