The 5 Strangest Stories of the Week

We've gathered together some of the very oddest, funniest and most interesting stories of the week from around the web. And it has been a pretty strange week. Enjoy.

1)World's First Burger Grown in a Lab

We really are living in the future. Scientists have taken cells from cows in Holland, grown them into muscle and then combined that to make the world's first man-made beef burger-which was then cooked and eaten live on TV.

However the question everyone was asking, is does it actually taste like a burger? Opinions on the matter ranged from, "It's a very good start", to "there is quite some intense taste; it's close to meat, but it's not that juicy".

To make the story that bit more odd, it turns out that the mystery backer who has invested £215,000 into the project is actually the co-founder of Google. Whether you think it is the solution to world hunger, or a horrible experiment that shouldn't be repeated, it has certainly got people talking.

2) Britain's Biggest Ever ‘Fatberg'

Giant lumps of fat floating around beneath our feet sounds like the stuff of nightmares, but it turns out that is exactly what goes on. ‘Fatbergs' are giant collections of food fat and wet wipes that combine in sewers, and the largest ever found in Britain has just been discovered in Kingston.

The ‘berg' in question was the size of a double decker bus and was discovered when local residents complained that they could no longer flush their toilets. It has since been removed by people who have possibly the worst job in the world.

3) Every Country in the World in 4 minutes

British adventurer Graham Hughes became the first person to visit every country in the world without flying earlier this year. It took him 4 years to visit all 201 world nations, and has now made the entire epic journey into an amazing 4 minute video.

Using just boats, trains, taxis and his own two feet he travelled from country to country, until he finally ended in Russia in February after a 25-hour train journey. However, it wasn't all plain sailing- he was jailed for 6 days in Congo, held at a port in Karachi because it was ‘too dangerous' to go on, and had to canoe for four days across the open ocean.

4) What Happens Every 60 Seconds on the Internet

The internet is a pretty big place. But quite how big is mind-blowing. This pie chart shows exactly what happens online across the world every single minute of the day. There are 1.8 million Facebook likes, 571 new websites created, 204 million emails sent and 72 hours of video uploaded to YouTube. Staggering. (See the full sized image here).

5) Cannabis Found in Town Flower Display

During the summer in most British towns you will see plenty of pretty flower displays with your standard selection of brightly coloured flowers. However, in the Welsh town of Newport, an unexpected plant has been found amongst the pansies- cannabis.

Photos of about 30 of the illegal plants emerged this week, before the plants themselves disappeared before the local council team could even get to them. As to who planted them and where they are now, it is still a mystery.

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