“A man driving a Porsche in San Francisco was frozen in an embarrassing situation when he got stuck in a patch of fresh cement. The unidentified driver was attempting to sidestep some stopped traffic when he landed himself in the thick of ongoing construction on Thursday morning. Construction workers quickly snapped into action as they tried to shovel the wet cement away from the car before it set. The driver stayed inside the car the entire time, saying that he wanted to avoid the cement flowing into the interior. Another reason to stay inside was to avoid the ensuing embarrassment that he rightly deserved.” w/ photos

“Australian chef Andy Wrobel battered his way into the world record books on Shrove Tuesday, after claiming the title for the world’s tallest stack of pancakes. Culinary expert Andy beat a 2008 record set in Croatia after building a 29-inches-tall stack of 60 delicious treats at the Pancake Parlour in Melbourne. The leaning tower of pancakes eventually toppled over, but only after the record was confirmed by Guinness officials. The chef flips over 100,000 pancakes every year at the popular restaurant where he has been working for over 25 years. Andy admitted a lot of hard work has gone into beating last year’s effort, revealing to local broadcaster ABC: ‘We tried last year and we got to 24-inches and did pretty well. ‘We thought we’d give it another go and this year we actually did it.” w/ photo

“They are usually native to north America but this whiffy albino skunk was found wandering near Bridgnorth. And he had a nasty surprise in store for his rescuers – a squirt of foul-smelling spray. But since he was found in a Pattingham road the adult skunk has behaved far more sweetly and the hunt is now on to find its rightful owners. He is currently residing at Taylor and Marshall vets in Shifnal High Street. The skunk was taken there by members of the public. Julianne Berry, from the practice which handles exotic animals, said: ‘He’s definitely a pet, he’s very, very friendly and easy to handle.” w/ photo

“The project is being spearheaded by Mark Post, a physiologist at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands, and funded anonymously by an investor who thinks lab-grown meat could fundamentally alter the way food is manufactured. The raising of livestock and production of meat have garnered attention in recent years for how much energy they use and pollution they create. But the new beef Post and his team hope to have an experimental chef grill up in October involves no pasturing, corn feed, methane or butchers. Instead, scientists grow stem cells in a vat, turn them into thin layers of beef muscle cells and then mince them together with similarly lab-grown pieces of beef fat cells — the way a traditional hamburger is made, minus the stem cells.” w/ photos

“A Chinese daredevil has broken a Guinness World Record after balancing a staggering 23 wooden benches on just his teeth in Chongqing, China. Thirty-year-old Li Hongxiao has been balancing objects in his mouth since he was a child. But the stuntman surpassed all his previous achievements by successfully balancing the unusual load for 11 seconds, as audiences in the Dazu district of southwest China looked on in disbelief.” w/ photos

“Researchers from Yunnan Agricultural University in China claim they have created ten special piglets that have trotters which glow green in the dark. Scientists at the university said the pigs were transgenic and were created by adding genetic material from jellyfish into a normal pig embryo. On top of the jellyfish genes, the experts also mixed in the Leptin gene, which is a 16 kDa protein hormone that helps to regulate energy intake and energy expenditure. The tiny hogs appear normal in the light but when they are put in the dark and a UV light is shone on their trotters their feet start to glow green.” w/ photo

“When you have command over an animal that stands 6ft tall and weighs 1,000lb, you’ve really earned the title of The Moose Whisperer. Vanessa Gibson has nurtured Jack since he was three days old so the Alaskan moose is now fiercely protective of his ‘mum’. The 23-year-old and her three-year-old friend play tag and take walks around the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Portage. ‘Many people do not understand my relationship with him. I want everyone to know that my relationship with Jack is very special and unique,’ said Vanessa, who befriended Jack when he was given a 20 per cent chance of survival in 2008.” w/ photo

“Most sci-fi fans thought Steven Spielberg’s ET phoned home back in 1982, but now the alien has been discovered in a tree in Essex. Shoe repairer Matt Smith was walking in Danbury Country Park when he spotted the extra-terrestrial’s round face marked in one of the tree’s strangely formed knots. Matt’s girlfriend, Beverley Moyse, 31, spotted the ‘E Tree’ over 25 years ago as a child and had always remembered its remarkable resemblance to the character. ‘I first saw it last year whilst on a charity “welly walk” with my partner for Macmillan Cancer Support and she showed me,’ Matt told metro.co.uk. ‘She saw it years ago when she about five and has always remembered it.” w/ photos

“Two years training in a cellar followed by hanging upside down hundreds of feet above a rocky gully may not be everyone’s idea of fun. But that is what daredevil British climbers Tom Randall, 32, and Pete Whittaker, 20, put themselves through to become the first to complete one of the toughest rock climbing challenges in the world. The duo traveled to the Canyonlands National Park in Utah to take on a geological feature known as Century Crack – a 160ft-long gap between two huge rock formations. To scale the crack, Tom and Pete first had to take on a 120ft horizontal stretch which meant they dangled perilously, often upside-down, above a rocky gully. And they did so without pre-placed equipment.” w/ photos

“Marlene Little travels the world collecting artificial grass that she plans to use to decorate the inside of her home. A degree course director in textile design, her bizarre hobby started while on a trip to Australia five years ago. Ms Little said: ‘I was on a trip to Melbourne when I spotted some artificial grass in a bargain store and I found it intriguing – the way it was engineered, how it was put together. ‘There was a drought at the time in Australia and, there I was, picking up artificial grass which had been made in China, to take back to Britain where there was plenty of grass.’ The mother of three adult children has 35 squares of grass from around the world and pays up to $9 a square. She hopes to soon have enough squares to turf a wall in her home in Harborne, Birmingham.” w/ photos