Woman is addicted to eating sofas

Mother-of-five Adele Edwards, from Florida, is addicted to another kind of snack - the suite kind, which most people normally just sit on to eat their dinner.

Ms Edwards apparently loves chomping on household items - such as elastic bands and rubbers.

However, her biggest weakness is snacking on the polyester stuffing in her sofa.

Shockingly, during the course of her lifetime, Ms Edwards believes she has eaten her way through eight settees and five chairs, consuming almost 16 stone of cushion in the process.

Doctors have warned the 30-year-old mum that her addiction could kill her, but she just can't stop herself.

They said Ms Edwards has a disorder called Pica, where sufferers often eat inedible items.

She even had to have emergency treatment recently, so chunks of foam could be taken out of her intestines.

Ms Edwards said: 'I was ten years old when I was first introduced to cushion.

'At first, I thought it was strange but, after sucking it for a while, I came to like the texture.'

The mum said from that point on, she began eating cushions quite regularly and would frequently swallow chunks 'as though it was candy floss'.

'It sounds strange but, to me, foam tasted like sweets.'

While Ms Edwards' craving sounds fairly extreme, the condition could actually affect her in worse ways.

According to the Challenging Behaviour Foundation website, some people with the disorder consume cigarette butts and even faeces.

Story and source: Metro

Was there a nuclear blast on Mars?

According to Brandenburg, the natural explosion, the equivalent of 1 million one-megaton hydrogen bombs, occurred in the northern Mare Acidalium region of Mars where there is a heavy concentration of radioactivity.

This explosion filled the Martian atmosphere with radio-isotopes as well, which are seen in recent gamma ray spectrometry data taken by NASA, he said.

The radioactivity also explains why the planet looks red.

Brandenburg said gamma ray spectrometry taken over the past few years shows spiking radiation from Xenon 129 -- an increase also seen on Earth after a nuclear reaction or a nuclear meltdown, including the one at Chernobyl in 1986 and the disaster in Japan earlier this month.

Dr. David Beaty, Mars program science manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told FoxNews.com that he finds the idea intriguing and fascinating. But to prove the science, the agency would need to plan a mission to explore Mare Acidalium on Mars.

And there are more pressing issues, including missions to find extraterrestrial life. “You have to assess the importance of the question relative to the cost of answering the question,” he said.

Still, Beaty expressed doubts, saying the geological conditions on this planet and Mars have existed for millennia -- what exists has existed for a long time, and there are few sudden changes. “Rocks are what they are. [A natural nuclear reaction] could happen in another billion years, but it is not something to make you want to go home to your family and move to the mountains right away,” he said.

Dr. Lars Borg, a scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Lab, called Brandenburg’s conclusions unsurprising -- and part of known geological processes, not a nuclear reaction.

"We've looked at Martian meteorites for 15 years, and looked in detail at the isotopic measurements .. and not a single person out of hundreds worrying about this have thought there could have been a nuclear explosion on Mars," he told FoxNews.com.

Brandenburg -- who once worked at Livermore himself -- defended his research, arguing that defense experts he talked to off the record said they agreed there are signs of a nuclear reaction.

Besides, there's a precedence for a natural nuclear reaction on our own planet, he noted.

The Oklo, Gabon, region of Africa has uranium-coated sediments from a nuclear reaction that occurred 2 billion years ago.

Sheep "gives birth to a puppy"

Vets say it’s impossible - but to Chinese farmer Liu Naiying his birth is a miracle.

For Mr Liu insists one of his sheep has given birth to a dog

The 'puppy' has wool like a lamb but its mouth, nose, eyes, paws and tail look more like a dog's

His 'sheep dog' even plays like a hound.

The birth has prompted thousands to flock to his farm in Shaanxi Province to see for themselves.

Mr Liu told how he found the unusual baby animal shortly after it was born in one of his fields.

‘I was herding the sheep, and saw a sheep licking her newborn lamb on the grassland. The lamb was still wet,’ he said.

‘When I went up close to check on the lamb I was shocked because it looked so weird, like a cross between a sheep and a dog.

‘I was a bit frightened, as I've been raising sheep for 20 years and had never seen such a creature.’

Yue Guozhang, a researcher at Xi'an City Animal Husbandry Technology Centre, said sheep and dogs were different species.

‘It's not possible that a sheep could become pregnant with a puppy,’ he said. ‘It's likely that this is just an abnormal lamb.’

Story and source: Daily Mail

Monkey Mayhem at Longleat

The meddling macaques haven’t had any cars to abuse for the past two years because their Monkey Jungle enclosure has been closed to the public while it was redeveloped.

So staff thought they’d give the park’s notoriously cheeky residents a treat before the grand re-opening this weekend.

Needless to say, the 100-strong furry gang had a ball. The wing mirrors and wheel trims were quickly swiped and the suitcases on the roof ransacked.

The animals delighted in running around with various items of clothing they found in them – one even did several forward rolls while holding a blue top.

A cuddly lion toy also provided much fascination, with one monkey at first jumping back in fright as if he thought for a second that it was real.

Staff also packed a football for the beasts to play with. However, one monkey commits a handball straightaway, then runs off with it in his mouth. A definite yellow card.

There are 22 species of macaque monkeys and they are the most widespread primates in the world. They can be found from Japan to Afghanistan, as well as North Africa.

Longleat, the country seat of the Marquesses of Bath, was the first stately home open to the public. Its safari park opened in 1966 and claims to be the first such attraction outside Africa.