No one wants their plane to fly into a flock of birds during takeoff, and at one of the Netherlands' busiest hubs, they've come up with a most creative approach to try to prevent such a catastrophe. A six-week project has been launchedthat has put pigs on a five-acre piece of land between two runways at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, in the hopes the animals will devour discarded sugar beet there that attracts local geese and other birds. There are 20 pigs currently chowing down on the crop residue and they could also serve as scarecrows. From November 2018, there were more than 550 bird strikes near Schiphol - extremely dangerous, especially if any of the birds get sucked into a plane's engines. The airport already has 20 bird controllers and devices that emit loud noises and laser beams to frighten them away.
Pretty privilege for beauty contestants
Because of the new coronavirus variant, Omicron, Israel says it is banning all foreigners from entering the country — except, that is, Miss Universe contestants. "This is an event that will be broadcast in 174 countries, a very important event, an event that Eilat, too, is very much in need of," Tourism Minister Yoel Razvozov said. And thus the women contestants of the upcoming Miss Universe — a competition that judges women almost entirely on their looks and which was owned by Donald Trump for almost 20 years until his creepiness finally forced him out in 2015 — are getting waivers, allowing them to remain in Israel to strut their stuff in the beauty pageant starting December 12.
Lockdown preventing you going to the Casino... Build your own at home!
My debt is bigger than yours
Student debt can be hefty the world over, but what's the biggest student loan? In the UK it's a staggering amount. Student Loans Company (SLC) has revealed the largest loan debt acquired by one student is a staggering £189,700 worth of debt (that's $370,000 folks) which they describe as an "exceptional case". Such a massive debt was likely incurred by taking out loans for numerous courses – and then failing them - or if the student had decided to study for a postgraduate degree or had dropped out of different courses.
