Experts have been surveying insects and plants at the ancient Uffington White Horse as part of a long-running project to assess wildlife at National Trust properties in the UK.
The team has been recording species on the wildlife-rich White Horse Hill site in Oxfordshire, renowned for its chalk figure and archaeological remains, to examine its condition 15 years after they last surveyed it.
It is part of the work of the National Trust’s specialist “biosurvey” team, which has been surveying its properties for 35 years. In that time, experts have visited more than 1,000 sites, mapping 234,000 hectares (578,000 acres) of land and recording more than 16,000 different species of plants and animals.
Cyclist arrested using motorway
A cyclist has been arrested after being found riding on the M25, British police said. The 44-year-old, from Ghana, was stopped in Surrey and found to have overstayed his immigration visitor’s visa. He had cycled along the hard shoulder of the M25 from junction 11 to junction 13 before he was stopped by officers from Surrey Police’s roads unit.
One wag tweeted the force: “Oh dear, not his day. Should have used his extra time in the UK to read the Highway Code.”
BBC apologises for news nonsense
The BBC has apologised after users of its news app for mobile phones were sent nonsensical messages.
It left many people bewildered and prompted some to send out messages on Twitter pondering whether the BBC’s system had been hacked. However the corporation said the alert, prepared for internal testing, had been sent out by mistake.
The message read: “NYPD Twitter campaign ‘backfires’ after hashtag hijacked. Push sucks! Pull blows! BREAKING NEWS No nudity in latest episode of Game of Thrones!!! MORE BREAKING NEWS IIIIIII like testing.” The BBC reassured people on Twitter that its security had not been breached.
Joyriders steal and ditch 1930 Ford
A man took his 1930 Ford Model A coupe with him to church to show it off – only to have it stolen and then found crashed in a river.
The 79-year-old Oregon man stopped for lunch after the church service and when he returned to his prized car, he discovered it was missing. It was later found crashed in the Crooked River south of Prineville.
Photos are said to show the mangled vehicle in the river, and it is not yet known how much the repairs will cost. A 34-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of drink-driving and unauthorised use of a vehicle.
Prized puzzle goes in record books
All the pieces have fallen into place for the designer of a giant Tetris game as it entered the record books.
Drexel University professor Frank Lee and two colleagues created a computer programme to play the classic shape-fitting puzzle on two sides of a 29-storey skyscraper in Philadelphia.
They used hundreds of lights embedded in the glass facades of the Cira Centre, with the area stretching over 120,000 square feet.
Dozens of Tetris enthusiasts played the supersized version in April using a joystick from about a mile away. It has now earned a Guinness World Record for the largest architectural video game display, beating the previous record – which was also set by Prof Lee with a giant game of Atari classic Pong.
Pit bull puppy gets stuck in wheel
Firefighters were called in to rescue a dog from a tight spot.
Pit bull puppy Junior had got his head stuck in the wheel of a car while curiously investigating his surroundings in Bakersfield, California.
Fire Department spokesman Brandon Hill said two firefighters used vegetable oil to ease the dog’s head out of the hole, and it then returned home to its relieved owners and seven siblings.