WEIRD WORLD

ANCIENT BACON: Austrians were making bacon thousands of years ago, and a researcher says they were probably the first in Europe to do it on an industrial scale. Hans Reschreiter of Vienna’s Museum of Natural History says DNA traces from more than 6,000 pig bones at what was a prehistoric slaughter house near the Upper Austrian town of Hallstatt shows they are more than 3,000 years old. He told the Austria Press Agency that excavations at the site show that the pigs were all castrated, methodically slaughtered and their meat cured in huge wooden barrels before it was hung to dry in nearby caves.

THAT WHALE’S RUBBISH!: Olympic rower James Cracknell has unveiled a giant model whale made out of plastic recovered from oceans, beaches and recycling plants. The 10-metre creation – made out of the same amount of plastic bags, bottles and other litter which pollute the oceans every second – is currently on a tour of England, Wales and Scotland. As part of the Sky Ocean Rescue campaign, the model was unveiled in Cardiff Bay on Sunday by the double gold medallist in a bid to raise awareness of the issue of ocean health.

POOL PROBLEM: A woman in New Hampshire in the US who became stuck in a swimming pool after the ladder broke turned to Facebook to ask for help getting out. Leslie Kahn, 61, was swimming in her pool on August 11 when the ladder broke, leaving her stranded. She said she did not have the strength to pull herself out. Noone else was home and her mobile phone was inside. She used a pool pole to drag the chair her iPad was on and posted in a community Facebook page, asking for help and A woman who lived nearby showed up, followed by police and a neighbour.