Crews in Oviedo, Florida, were investigating underground pipes for anomalies when their robotic camera ran into a 5-foot alligator. A city crew in Florida spotted a 5-foot alligator lurking in a stormwater pipe while investigating the pipes with a robotic camera last week, officials said Tuesday. The stormwater crew in the city of Oviedo, located about 20 miles northeast of Orlando, was on Lockwood Boulevard to check on a series of potholes that appeared in the roadway on Friday, the city said in a Facebook post. The crew used a four-wheel robotic camera to go into the pipes below the road and investigate any anomalies such as leaking pipes, cracks or other defects underground, officials said. However, crews instead found a different kind of anomaly while searching the underground pipes.

Mini-robots that can fix pipe leaks and work in dangerous environments could soon make road-works a thing of the past. The government is investing a total of £26.6 million to help fund a variety of projects, including the 1cm-long machines. The cash is being split among four UK universities - Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham and Bristol - to create the innovative pipe-bots which will work in underground pipes and dangerous sites like nuclear decommissioning facilities. It is hoped they will spell the end for many disruptive and expensive roadworks, as robots carry out repairs without the need to dig up the roads. Mini-robots that can fix pipe leaks and work in dangerous environments could soon make road-works a thing of the past.

On Sunday, the Japanese prime minister turned up at the Olympics closing ceremonies to promote the 2020 Tokyo games dressed up as Mario, the eponymous hero of the popular video game series created in 1985. Who is Mario and how did he come by his global appeal? Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appeared as the Nintendo game character Super Mario at the Olympics closing ceremonies to promote the 2020 Tokyo games. Mario Brothers is the best-selling video franchise of all time, with more than 490 million units sold since 1995, according to research firm NPD. There are more than 100 games, for various gaming systems, ranging from Donkey Kong to Super Mario Kart, in which Mario is the primary character, and many more in which he makes appearances.