Moose fight

The town of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, seems to be facing an existential crisis. For 31 years, the Canadian town’s Mac the Moose statue has been the tallest moose statue in the world, measuring 32 feet tall. But officials in Stor-Elvdal, Norway, unveiled their 33-foot polished steel moose in 2015. On Jan. 16, Moose Jaw Mayor Fraser Tolmie announced it was time to put Mac the Moose back on top. “It’s personal for me,” Tolmie explained in a Facebook video. Two Saskatchewan YouTubers, Justin Reves and Greg Moore, launched an online fundraising campaign to explore the possibility of making Mac’s antlers larger. “How can we live in, or live next to a town that’s called Moose Jaw, who has the second largest moose in the world?” Reves told CBC Radio.

Song in the sand

Somewhere in the Namib Desert, Toto’s song “Africa” is blaring from a set of speakers. Namibian-German artist Max Siedentopf spent December constructing a new art installation on the rugged desert landscape of his home country. His goal: that the sounds of Toto’s rock anthem “Africa” be heard in perpetuity. To that end, Siedentopf connected six speakers to an MP3 player loaded with the song set to play on a loop and placed it in an undisclosed location in the Namib Desert. According to the plan, the solar batteries hooked into the speakers and player will ensure perpetual power and allow “Africa” to play—at least until it rains.

Big mac and cheese

Costco has a new offering for preppers. The big-box giant has begun selling a 27-pound bucket of macaroni and cheese. According to Costco, the bucket of food has a shelf life of 20 years. The bucket, which was listed in the emergency foods section at $89.99 before it sold out, offered 180 servings at 220 calories each. According to USDA guidelines, a 45-year-old sedentary male could live on the mac and cheese bucket alone for 18 days and fulfill his calorie requirements.

Name dropper

Some criminals may consider breaking out of a police station. Yvelande Jean-Pierre of West Palm Beach, Fla., allegedly broke into one. Police say security footage showed Jean-Pierre, 29, break a window and come inside a police substation in Boynton Beach, Fla., at 1:25 a.m. on Jan. 3. Police say she then took two meals from the refrigerator, heated and ate one of them, and then departed the building at 2:12 a.m. It wasn’t hard for police to find the suspect. They say she left a bag outside the station that contained a Florida identification card and a State of Florida Security Officer card belonging to her.

Building restrictions

Police in Boracay, Philippines, have begun kicking over sandcastles on local beaches after local officials put a new ordinance into effect. According to the law, beachgoers cannot create sandcastles as photogenic backdrops for tourist photography unless they first purchase a license from the local government. Officials say the sandcastles are disrupting the natural habitat of Boracay’s beaches. Critics, however, allege the license, which comes to nearly 18 cents per square foot of sandcastle, is simply a revenue-raising tool.

The cat’s meow

When Troy Good’s daughter left for college, he and his wife inherited her cats. The problem: His San Jose, Calif., apartment complex wouldn’t allow the animals. So rather than abandon the felines, Good and his wife found a studio apartment and hired the landlord to tend to the animals. The studio costs the Goods $1,500 per month. Good told the San Jose Mercury News the cats were comfortable with the arrangement: “They definitely have the nicest cat apartment in Silicon Valley.”

Dating games

Be careful when you brag to strangers. That’s the lesson one Oklahoma woman learned after accidentally confessing to poaching to a state game warden through an online dating app. Cannon Harrison, a 24-year-old game warden from McIntosh County, Okla., met the woman on Bumble, a dating app. According to Harrison, the woman bragged about killing a large deer. Knowing that deer season for rifle hunters had ended, Harrison asked the woman if she bagged the buck with a bow, which would have been legal. “Well we don’t need to talk about that,” the woman replied. Harrison also persuaded her to confess to spotlighting the deer, which is also illegal. Harrison tracked down the woman, and state authorities issued her a $2,400 fine.

Getting carried away

Authorities in the United Kingdom are searching for a band of thieves with good backs. Police in Kent say someone stole a bronze hippopotamus statue that weighed 1,500 pounds on Jan. 11. The 6.5-foot statue had been housed on the property of a masonry workshop in Royal Tunbridge Wells southeast of London. Previous efforts to move the mammoth statue required five men. Kent Police Constable Nick Lingham took to social media to ask locals to keep a lookout for an out-of-place hippo and said he was hopeful the statue would be returned.

Remains of the day

The mayor of a Russian city didn’t send the message he meant to send when he took a public bus to work in Saratov, Russia, on Jan. 9. Mayor Mikhail Isayev's goal was to boost public transportation ridership in Saratov, but he was two hours late to work. The delay was reportedly due to snow that city officials had not yet cleared from roadways. After missing a morning meeting, Isayev gave city workers a 10-day deadline to finish plowing the snow from the roads.