Conversational lulls won’t be a part of your weekend. Any one of these discussion-worthy gems from this week’s news cycle will get people gabbing…
- Beamer, Benz, or Bentley? Turkish police won’t have to choose. Authorities cruised into the new year with a $3.5m fleet of 23 luxury cars — including a Ferrari 458 and a Porsche Taycan — seized from international drug trafficker Hakan Ayik. The 44-year-old outlaw and Australia’s most-wanted man was arrested, along with 36 associates, in Istanbul in November. Now, the cars will be employed by Istanbul’s traffic police.
- Did New Year’s Eve mark Las Vegas’ busiest wedding day yet? Industry experts think so. While the holiday usually sees 450-550 marriages, this NYE’s 1-2-3-1-2-3 date pattern represents what the $2B Las Vegas wedding industry calls a “specialty date,” which tends to draw flocks of lovebirds looking to get hitched. The city’s previous records for most single-day marriages have fallen on such dates, with an all-time high of 4,492 set on July 7, 2007, followed by 3,125 on Nov. 11, 2011. (Click here for our explainer video on how Vegas became the quickie wedding capital.)
- Elephants, reindeer, and bison at a Berlin zoo are feasting on this odd holiday leftover: Christmas trees. Nutrient-rich for the animals and an adorable spectacle for us, the holiday feed has become an annual tradition at zoos throughout Germany. While most Christmas trees are ultimately converted into mulch or wood chips, their use as animal feed isn’t uncommon. But if you’re looking to toss out your old Tannebaum, don’t look to the zoo — it only accepts fresh, unsold trees from certain vendors to avoid potential contaminants.
- An Alabama woman gave birth to two babies… from two uteruses… over two days. It was a one-in-a-million occurrence, according to the National Library of Medicine; double uteruses, AKA uterus didelphys, occur in just 0.3% of women. Still, the question remains: Are they twins? Yes and no — technically, twin pregnancies are defined as two babies sharing one uterus.