In case you missed it, April 5 was National Caramel Day. To mark the holiday, which honors the soft sugary confection, August Storck KG, manufacturer of the popular caramel-flavored Werther’s Original candy, teamed up with toymaker Hasbro to create a life-size version of Candy Land. Open only for the day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., the massive game board, located on the Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, California, was completely free for fans of all ages to enjoy....

While April Fools’ Day is always fun, this year promises to be even more so. That’s because, for the first time in 62 years, the fun holiday coincides with Easter. This means your chocolate egg may turn out to be a real one, or the plastic ones you worked so hard to find could be filled with frozen peas or, even worse, broccoli!...

With Easter fast approaching on Sunday, April 1, chances are you are looking forward to meeting the Easter Bunny, feasting on delicious food, enjoying springtime parades and, best of all, participating in your neighborhood egg hunt. To get you into the spirit, here are some egg-cellent Easter egg hunts from around the globe....

While gorillas are perfectly capable of walking on two legs, most take just a step or two before dropping on all fours. However, Louis, a 16-year-old male gorilla at the Philadelphia Zoo is often seen taking longer strolls, especially when the ground is wet or he is holding a delicious snack or two....

The modern-day version of the hula hoop, introduced by the Wham-O toy company in 1958, has inspired fans to set numerous world records. These include the longest hula hooping marathon (74 hours and 54 minutes), the most number of hoops spun simultaneously (200), and the most number of rotations completed in a minute (243). Those unable to outdo serious hula hoopers in technical skills have turned to setting records using novelty hoops. The most recent feat, which involved spinning a massive ring, falls in that category....

Ireland is known for many things — its rich history, lush green landscapes, and of course, St. Patrick’s Day. Celebrated annually on March 17, the holiday gained prominence in the early-20th century as a religious feast day. However, it is now widely recognized as a celebration of Irish and Irish-American culture with fun traditions that include hunting for leprechauns, feasting on corned beef, and donning bright green clothing....

You don’t have to be a fan of math to get excited about Pi (“π”) Day. While the event, which is also Albert Einstein’s birthday (139 th this year ), may start with some calculations, it is more than likely to conclude with a slice or two of delicious pie. The holiday, which celebrates the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, is held every March 14, because the infinite number is widely recognized as 3.14....

In mid-January, while exploring the white sands of the beach-side dunes just north of Western Australia’s Wedge Island, Tonya Illman came across an “interesting” bottle. Little did she know that inside the glass container lay an invaluable treasure — a 131-year-old note, the oldest message in a bottle discovered to date!...

Though it may not feel like it to the US East Coast residents getting pummeled by snow, sleet, and rain from the back-to-back nor’easter storms, spring is almost here. In anticipation of the season’s official start on March 19, Americans will “spring forward” on Sunday, March 11, by moving their clocks an hour ahead. While the start of Daylight Saving Time (DST) means losing sixty minutes of precious sleep or play, it does allow for longer days during the spring and summer months....

Experts believe that the optimal time to teach kids language skills is when they are infants. Most times the task is easily accomplished with parents reading or talking to their babies. However, in some cases that is not possible due to busy work schedules or when kids are born deaf. In the latter case, parents either have to quickly become adept at sign language or risk the child facing potential learning delays in the future. Now, an adorable blue-eyed robot, a human avatar, and some high-tech neuroscience may be able to assist parents and guardians with this crucial developmental task....

Ghost, a pit bull mix with honey brown eyes and gorgeous white fur, is making headlines for becoming the first deaf dog to join the K-9 team in Washington state’s and, possibly, even the country’s history. What makes the achievement even more remarkable is that, just a few years ago, the narcotics detection dog, was deemed “unadoptable” and scheduled to be euthanized....

On January 8, 2018, as Amazon Inc.’s stock soared to an all-time high of $1250 a share, its founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, who owns 17% of the company, dethroned Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates to become the world’s richest person. Since then, the company’s stock has risen an additional 20 percent, increasing the entrepreneur’s net worth from $105 billion to $125 billion! To put it in perspective, that is more than the GDP of over 125 of the world’s 195 nations....

Stereo, or 3D, vision is what enables humans to gauge the depth and distance of surrounding objects. The right and left eye capture slightly different images and send them to the brain, which merges them and then calculates the proximity of everything in the vicinity. The ability, which requires an intricate network of neurons and lots of processing power, can also be found in a select group of animals like cats, horses, owls and sheep, as well as one insect — the praying mantis....

After mesmerizing sports fans worldwide for 16 days, the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics drew to a close on February 25 with a spectacular light show, featuring 300 Intel drones and K-Pop music. While Team USA, which had the fourth highest medal count with 23 in total, saw virtuosic performances from all its 241 athletes, it was female competitors like 17-year-old snowboarder Chloe Kim that shone the brightest. For the first time in 20 years, American women, who won five of the nine gold medals and thirteen overall, secured more medals than their male counterparts....

With over 3,500 exoplanets confirmed as of January 2018 and more being observed on a regular basis, the discoveries have become almost routine. However, all the planets found thus far have been within the Milky Way, the galaxy that contains our solar system. Now, scientists from the University of Oklahoma believe they may have found evidence of trillions of planets beyond our galaxy....

A 14-year-old with a vocabulary comprising four or five rudimentary words may not sound impressive. However, it sure is when the speaker happens to be an orca, or killer, whale! The amazing discovery along with the recording of the vocalization was unveiled in a January 31 study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B....

The joyous and colorful 2018 Chinese New Year celebrations will commence on Friday, February 16. Also known as Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, the fifteen-day event, which will end with the Lantern Festival on March 2, is the longest and most anticipated of all of China’s festivals. Associated with customs meant to ensure auspicious beginnings, it is also observed in Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Vietnam....

If you were among the millions of people that watched NBC’s replay of the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea on Friday, February 9, you might have seen an airborne snowboarder, a bird flapping its wings, and the iconic Olympic Rings, light up the skies. While they may have appeared to be digital fireworks, the mesmerizing show was the result of thousands of tiny drones preprogrammed to follow complicated flight paths to form the shape-shifting images....

On Wednesday, February 14, many of us will shower our loved ones with cards, chocolates, flowers, and even expensive jewelry. The celebration of love as we know it, developed in 1861 when candy maker Richard Cadbury came up with the brilliant idea of selling chocolates in heart-shaped packages.Valentine’s Day has since evolved into one of the biggest consumer spending days of the year....

Those familiar with Roman mythology may remember Janus, the god for whom the month of January is named. The deity, believed to have the power to look into the past and future, is always depicted with two faces — one facing forward and one facing backward. Though the namesake Janus Zundapp microcar does not have any psychic abilities, it does have doors on both ends providing passengers with perfect front and rear views....

Though pigs may never fly, a two-year-old hog in Franschhoek, South Africa is proving they sure can paint! Meet Pigcasso, the world’s first known pig artist whose masterpieces are selling for thousands of dollars to benefit Farm Sanctuary S.A., Africa’s only registered shelter for rescued farm animals....

On Sunday, February 4, millions of people will tune in for the year’s biggest game. No, we are not talking about the Super Bowl 52 match-up between the Patriots and Eagles, but Animal Planet’s adorable Puppy Bowl where two canine teams will go nose-to-nose for the coveted “Lombarky Trophy.”...

Northern Hemisphere residents hoping for some respite from this year’s bitterly cold winter may have to keep their warm coats on a little longer. For if legendary groundhog Punxsutawney Phil is right, the chilly weather will continue for at least six more weeks....

The American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) is known to be a crafty and fierce predator that devours anything it can snare. However, given that the reptile lacks salt glands, scientists had always believed that its diet was restricted to the fish and crustaceans that dwell in its freshwater habitat. Now, a new study suggests that the opportunistic beasts also gobble down saltwater inhabitants like crabs, sea turtles, stingrays, and even sharks....