Welcome to another entry in our column, The Week's Weirdest World News. The world, you might have noticed, is a very strange place — so every seven days, we'll be rounding up the most bizarre things that have happened across the globe, purely for your enjoyment.

From very bad AI advice to some truly moronic behavior in the sea, these stories are sure to inspire wonder — or, at the very least, befuddlement — at the weird ol' world around us.

Google AI search tool tells people to put glue in pizza

Google's new AI search tool has come under fire for offering some very questionable advice to users — like putting glue in pizza and eating rocks.

The search engine's "AI Overviews" feature suggested using "non-toxic glue" to make cheese stick to pizza better, and claimed that geologists recommend humans eat one rock per day.

A spokesperson for Google told the BBC the AI-generated responses were "isolated examples." According to the news outlet, the answers appear to have been formed from extracts of Reddit comments and satirical articles by The Onion.

Though AI Overview's bizarre answers have been subject to mockery online, Google insisted in a statement that "the examples we've seen are generally very uncommon queries, and aren't representative of most people's experiences."

Vermont university gives cat honorary 'doctor of litter-ature' degree

A Vermont university has bestowed the honorary degree of “doctor of litter-ature” on Max the cat, a beloved member of its community. pic.twitter.com/FO0C4ZVJJc

— The Associated Press (@AP) May 20, 2024

A university in Vermont has bestowed its beloved campus cat with the honorary degree of "doctor of litter-ature."

Vermont State University's Castleton campus is honoring Max the cat, who they said "has been an affectionate member of the Castleton family for years."

The friendly feline lives in a house near the campus, and has been hanging out with students there for around four years. He's even been known to join prospective students on their tour of the university.

"I don't even know how he knows to go, but he does," Max's owner said. "And then he'll follow them on their tour."

'Drunk' monkey goes on rampage in Russian town

A pet monkey got drunk last weekend and went on a biting spree around the Russian village he lives in, the country's media has reported.

Garik, who lives in Myliki, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, escaped after his owner's husband let him out of his cage, Newsweek reported Russia's Knife Media as saying.

The animal reportedly drank from a bottle of whiskey before fleeing the house and attacking a number of people.

According to local Telegram channel Mash, Garik bit five people, including a pregnant woman and a journalist. Another Russian news outlet, Fontanka, said the monkey was so strong that it took three men to restrain him after he was "lured in with sugar cookies."

The captured Garik will not be returning to his owners, and will instead live at the city's Python Zoo Center.

New Zealand man fined for trying to 'body slam' orca

New Zealand's Department of Conservation has described the actions of a man who seemingly tried to "body slam" an orca as "shocking" and "absolutely idiotic."

In a video shared on Instagram earlier this year, a man can be seen jumping from a boat into the sea in what looks like a deliberate effort to touch or "body slam" a killer whale, the department said.

The 50-year-old Auckland man, who has not been named, landed in close proximity to the male orca, as well as a calf that was also swimming nearby. Other people in the video be heard laughing and cheering in the video, and the man says "I touched it" and "did you get that?"

Official were alerted to the video by concerned members of the public who had seen it on social media. Hayden Loper, a principal investigator at the department, told the Guardian: "The video speaks for itself, it is shocking and absolutely idiotic behavior."

"For him to jump into the water deliberately and swim up to the orca [and] to make sure that it was filmed ... it defies belief."

The man has since been fined 600 New Zealand dollars (roughly $365).

Not had your fill of weird news just yet? Check out last week's roundup.

[Image credit: YouTube]