A castaway cocker spaniel and his companion, a macaw parrot, were rescued by Norwegian Cruise Line workers from a tiny atoll about 1,000 miles south of Hawaii. Snickers, an 8-month-old dog, survived 95 days adrift on a 48-foot boat then four months of being stranded on Fanning Island, one of 33 scattered coral atolls that make up the remote island nation of Kiribati.

hat could be one of the world's oldest trees may have been found in the northern Swedish province of Dalecarlia. According to scientists, who sent samples of the tree to a laboratory in Miami, Florida, the Norwegian spruce dates back to nearly 8,000 years. It grows at a height of 950 meters above sea level, is more than two meters (6. 5 feet) tall and about 20 centimeters (8 inches) in width.

Trying to duplicate a scene from the movie, "A Christmas Story," two fourth-grade boys ended up with their tongues stuck to a frozen flagpole. According to reports, Gavin Dempsey and James Alexander were on flag duty at Jackson Elementary School Friday morning, when the pair decided to test whether their tongues really would really stick to the freezing metal as what they've seen in the movie.

According to a renowned psychologist, today, Monday is the gloomiest day of the year. According to Cliff Arnall, an expert in depression, he used a mathematical formula in determining today as Blue Monday.

Botanists are baffled with the discovery of a new species of giant self-destructing palm tree in Madagascar which is said to flower only once in its 100 year life. According to botanist from the Kew Gardens in London, the 60-foot palm which has 16-foot leaves, because the moment it does, it spends so much energy that it dies.