WEIRD STUFF

Dog with the world's longest tongue

Guinness World Records has named the dog with the world's longest tongue.

Ozzy, a four-year-old French mastiff and Bullmastiff mix from Oklahoma, has a tongue that measures 7.83 inches (19.89 cm).

His owner, Angela Pick, told Guinness World Records: "It's funny, for his tongue to be the way that it is, he doesn't really lick a whole lot. He doesn't give kisses - he gets in your face and kind of loves and rubs noses, but he doesn't really lick on a lot of stuff!

"[It's] super-duper exciting."

She added that Ozzy's long tongue puts an "automatic smile on people's faces".

Angela and her family picked Ozzy - who has had a long tongue since he was born, only getting longer over time - from the bitter because of his personality.

Angela said: "You could tell with his great nature that he'd be a really good fit for our family!"

The pooch adores going for car rides and doesn't like to miss out on what the family is doing.

Ozzy eats half a pitcher of dog food daily. He eats a high-activity dog food which they've found is the best thing for his diet - both for gaining a healthy amount of weight, but it's a soft food that's easy for him to eat with his tongue.

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Astronauts to explore the icy moon

An "ambitious" mission to Saturn's sixth-largest moon has been announced.

The European Space Agency said Enceladus - which has the requirements for life - will be explored.

The icy moon measures 500 km, and it is known for its south polar geysers that blast out water plumes from an underground ocean.

And studies for the trip have started.

A spokesman for the European Space Agency said: "No space agency has ever landed on Enceladus. And yet this moon has enormous potential for new science, particularly in the realm of habitability.

"It checks all the boxes when it comes to conditions for a 'habitable environment' to potentially support life as we know it."

They added: "The impact of such a mission could be enormous for Europe and beyond. The mission would boost European competences in many scientific and technological fields, including in-orbit assembly.

"Studies for this ambitious mission have already begun."

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(AP): Ken Johnson, 63, just got a new roommate last week -- a black bear living in the crawl space under his home in Southern California.

The bear was seen on video footage clambering out from beneath his house. He had installed a camera near the space back in June when he saw what looked like damage caused by an animal. Nothing showed up on the camera until last week. Now he's trying to figure out how to make it leave.

"It's a huge bear," Johnson said, describing it as tall as a table and bigger than the trash bins in front of his house. "It's really unnerving because I don't know if he's going to tear everything up under there, I don't know how to get him out."

Johnson lives in Altadena, an unincorporated community northeast of Los Angeles that was devastated by the Eaton Fire in January. The fire killed at least 19 people and scorched thousands of structures, but it also tore through the Angeles National Forest, displacing wildlife from their natural habitats and destroying their food supply.

Shortly after the fire, at least two bears were found taking refuge in people's evacuated homes in Altadena. State officials removed a massive, 525-pound (240-kilogram) adult male bear from a crawl space under a man's home in January because utility crews could not get in to restore his power.