Nature
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2020 has thrown a lot of strange things our way, from gigantic robots to mysterious monoliths and ancient life "waking up" after 100 million years under the seafloor. So people weren't exactly shocked when a sinkhole emerged in Toronto, Canada with ominous green glowing goo inside.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.The goo appeared to be the origin story of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles playing out in real life, and everyone looked around at 2020 and thought "Yeah OK, seems about right."
In case you're unaware of the origin story of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, according to the comic books they were minding their own business in a fishbowl being carried by their owner when a truck collided with them, smashing the bowl and sending them into the New York sewers. The truck was carrying a radioactive isotope that turned the turtles into wisecracking human-like turtles capable of wielding nunchucks, rather than merely killing them as would likely happen in real life.
Thankfully, there's no need to worry about gigantic weaponized turtles roaming the streets of Toronto, for the ominous goo has a nice and reassuring explanation. The green goo, while still undrinkable, was a harmless dye put there by the City, in what is apparently a common practice.
“Toronto Water staff inspected the sinkhole yesterday evening. Sinkholes can be the result of a damaged or collapsed sewer,” a spokesperson for the City told 680NEWS.
“In order to determine if the sinkhole is connected to the underlying sewer, a dye test was conducted using a green non-toxic dye, which is added to the sinkhole while monitoring the closest manhole downstream to look for traces of the dye in the sewer.”
So if you ever see one of these glowing holes, we'd advise that you don't roll around in there to see if you get superpowers. All you'll do is turn green like the Hulk but without any of the associated super strength.
Similarly, while we're giving out life advice, try not to attempt to gain superpowers by deliberately getting yourself bitten by spiders. Earlier this year, three boys in Bolivia did precisely this and instead of becoming Spider-Men they ended up getting tremors, fevers, and a week-long stay in hospital. Which isn't quite as good.
The boys aged 8, 10, and 12 were herding goats when they spotted a spider with black and red markings that looked sort of like Spider-Man's markings in the comic books, but in real life are more like the markings of a black widow spider, which it was. Thankfully all three survived.
