Strange stories from around the world, some of which might be true...
- After an online appeal staff at the Fairfield Area Humane Society (FAHS) in Lancaster, Ohio, have found a forever home for a unique cat. Eggbert loves having his chin scratched, headbutts and following his
humans around, but has only one eye and one nostril. He will now live with Ohio resident Holly Starr, who already has another one-eyed cat adopted from FAHS. ● Hank the Tank, a 500lb (227kg) black bear
blamed for a number of house break-ins in the South Lake Tahoe area of California has been partialy acquitted after DNA evidence revealed that at least three bears were responsible for breaking into houses in
search of food over the last few months. ● Video has emerged of the recent flooding in Australia showing a frog, two mice and a beetle riding on the back of a snake as it swam inside a rainwater tank. All
five were rescued unharmed. ● A professor of biological science at Binghampton University in New York has revealed that a female tick has survived for 27 years in his laboratory including 8 years without food, and
layed a batch of eggs four years after the last of four male ticks in the group had died. ● Researchers studying gray wolves in Yellowstone National Park have found that they are adapting to climate change by
scavenging more, killing smaller prey and sharing food among the pack rather than the previously-observed hierarchical structure of food consumption. Last month the wolves were put back in the protection of the
Endangered Species Act having been removed from it under the former US administration despite a lack of evidence that they would survive without legal protection.
- In 2020 a team at the European Southern Observatory reported that the HR 6819 system contained the closest black hole to Earth, a mere 1,000 light years away. They claimed that the black hole was orbited by
two stars, the closer one of which was being stripped of its material by the black hole. New research is suggesting that there is not a black hole in the system after all, and the two stars orbit each other, with
one stripping material from the other, a phenomenon called "stellar vampirism". ● Shetland Islands Council has approved plans for the construction of the Saxavord Spaceport on Unst, pending a decision
by the Scottish government on whether to call it in. It is hoped that the first launch - likely to be a weather satellite - will be made by the end of year, although next year is more likely. ● A bean-sized
fragment of the Winchcombe meteorite that fell on a family's driveway last year has sold at auction for £9,256 ($12,600), more than 120 times its weight in gold.
- When an amateur paleontologist was looking for trilobyte fossils in the grounds of a church in York, Pennsylvania, he found something much rarer - the fossil of a golf-ball-sized ancestor of starfish and sea urchins.
Until the discovery the only evidence for the creature was parts of fossilised arms. Living 510 million years ago, when most major animal groups were beginning to appear, it has been named Yorkicystis haefneri after
Chris Haefner, who found it. ● The leather flying cap worn by Amelia Earhart when she became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic (as a passenger) in 1928 is to be auctioned this weekend, with an estimated
value of $80,000 (£60,013). ● Archaeologists at Abusir, near Cairo in Egypt, have unearthed the largest collection of mummification tools and equipment yet found, comprising 370 storage jars, some holding
residues of materials used, smaller vessels and tools. ● A rare 18th Century dolls' house, called the Evans Baby House, has been sold at auction in Edinburgh for £47,500 ($63,320), more than
twice its estimated top value of £20,000 ($26,660). ● Just over a century after Tyrannosaurus rex was first identified from fossils a group of researchers have suggested that, based on about 36 fossils
examined, the Tyrannosaurus should be split into three separate species, adding T. imperator ("tyrant lizard emperor") and T. regina ("tyrant lizard queen"). ● Isle of Wight resident Alan
Cartwright believes he has identified the inspiration for Miss Havisham, the tragic wealthy spinster from Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, who lives in a ruined mansion and wears her wedding dress every
day, decades after being jilted. Cartwright has suggested that Margaret Dick, who lived on the Isle of Wight and became a recluse after being jilted in 1860, living in an attic with food brought to her through a
trap door, was the inspiration for the character. Dickens had dined with her in the years before her marriage day, and Great Expectations was published the year after. Margaret Dick's neighbour was a Miss
Haviland; Dickens was known to play around with names. Dicken's great-great grandson, who is president of the Dickens fellowship, has given Cartwright's theory his backing.
- A gang of copper thieves who disguised themselves as AT&T workers, complete with hardhats and logo-bearing flurescent vests, carrying out night-time work in Hempstead, Florida, so they could pull $30,000
(£22,500) of copper wire from a manhole and load it onto a trailer were caught as they drove away because a policeman, aware of a similar theft some time before, had seen them at work and contacted AT&T
to check whether work was being carried out. ● A man who broke into a house in Southampton, took a Nintendo Switch, a laptop and letters from a bank then, for reasons unknown, smeared the surfaces of the kitchen
worktops with cheese from the fridge, has been jailed. He was caught because he left his fingerprints on the window he got in through and a brick used to smash a door. [We wonder what the police photographer said to
him... -Ed] ● Four bronze tortoises stolen from the National Trust's Kingston Lacy mansion in Dorset almost 30 years ago have been returned after being spotted in an auction catalogue.
- Seismologists writing in Geology are warning that assumptions about the scale of possible earthquakes along the centre section of the San Andreas fault line in California has been underestimated. It had
been thought that major earthquakes would only happen at the ends of the fault, like the 1906 7.9 magnitude quake that hit San Francisco and the 1994 6.7 magnitude one in Los Angeles. While the central part of the
fault has not had a major shift in the last 2,000 years analysis of the rocks in that area show that it has experienced large scale movements in the distant past and could do so again.
- There is an old showbusiness maxim about not working with children or animals. For one broadcaster that should perhaps be expanded to being watchful for parents. ABC news correspondent Myles Harris was giving a
live report from a roadside in Ohio when he recognised an approaching car. Shrugging his shoulders, raising his arms in despair and looking annoyed he told viewers "This is my mama" as the car pulled up
behind him and the female driver shouted "Hi, baby!" leaving Harris to plead with her, on air, "not to hold up traffic" and drive away... ● Tom Tugendhat MP has become the latest television
interviewee over video call to fall victim to background children after his young daughter walked up behind him and kept tapping him on his shoulder while he was trying to talk about Ukraine on BBC Breakfast. He
apologised and made a shushing gesture to the by-then off camera girl. As one social media viewer put it, "Tom Tugendhat showed nothing but a smile and a loving look to his interrupting daughter who was
blissfully unaware he was on live telly. Can't imagine a Russian politician surviving the same experience. Reminds us all of the freedoms we enjoy."
IN BRIEF: Apple is applying for a patent for what they describe as an "innovative" portable computer with a built-in keyboard that plugs into a monitor; reminiscent, many would say, of exactly how
home computers like the Commodore 64, Sinclair Spectrum, Dragon 32 and, er, the Apple II, were in the 1980s... ● A microflat in Clapton, east London, measuring under seven square meters (75 square ft), including
a single bed above storage cupboards and a microwave, and a shower inches away from the toilet, has been sold at auction for £90,000 ($120,000). ● A trial combining fibres from discarded nappies with
bitumen to bind asphalt road surfaces has found that it almost doubles the time before the roads need resurfacing. ● A man from Nassau County, New York, who won $10m (£7.5m) on a New York Lottery game in
2019 has done it again. Joking that he is "still trying to spend" the first win, he said that he intends to donate the second to charities. ● US Army Major Jon-Marc Thibodeau has complained that many
of today's 18-25-year-olds are too weak from playing video games rather than doing outdoor things. He described them as the "Nintendo Generation" [Although Sony or Microsoft might be more apt as Nintendo
famously produce games and controllers that encourage physical exercise. -Ed] ● Inspired by the convoy of lorries that brought part of Ottowa to a standstill a convoy of anti-vaxxers and other conspiracy
theory supporting drivers aimed to descend on Washington, D.C., in time to protest during President Biden's State of the Union address on Tuesday. The hundreds of National Guard mobilised to deter them were, it
seems, unneeded in the end, as several of the drivers (many of whom were not, unlike in Ottowa, professional truckers but rather unprepared Trump-supporting MAGA followers) spent much of the day complaining about being
stuck in traffic on the Beltway around the city, a road notorious for its congestion.
UKRAINE: Before he became President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky was a comedian and an actor after graduating with a law degree. Amongst other things it has emerged that he voiced Paddington in the Ukranian
dub of the Hollywood film (Hugh Bonneville did the English version). He also won Ukraine's Dancing With the Stars (Stricty Come Dancing in the UK). In comparison, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has been
filmed riding horses and beating people (probably threatened to let him) at judo. ● A comedy club in Blackpool on the northwest coast of England has received a request for a refund on booked tickets because
"what's going on in Russia" made it too dangerous for the couple who had booked them to travel. Do they live in Russia? No. Ukraine? No. Moldova? Poland? Finland, even? No. They live in Hull, on England's
east coast about 110 miles (117km) from Blackpool, although in their defence, they probably would have to travel through Leeds to get there... The club declined to refund.
UPDATES: In the last issue we reported on the two babies born in the US at 2:22am and 2:22pm respectively, on 2/2/22. At Leicester Royal Infirmary in England, expectant mother Laura gave birth to twins on
the day, while a boy was born at 2:02pm in the same hospital.
Little Jennifer and Little Mary had been giggling and messing around all through Sunday School, so the vicar asked them both to stay behind afterwards. When all the other children had
gone home he sat them both down and, deciding to show them that God always knew what they were doing, turned to Little Mary and asked "Where is God?" When she did not reply he turned to Little Jennifer,
raised his voice and asked "WHERE IS GOD?"
Little Jennifer ran from the room, ran all the way home and shut herself in the hall cupboard as her bemused mother looked on. "Little Jennifer," her mother asked, knocking gently
on the door, "what's wrong?"
A small voice came from the cupboard. "Little Mary and me were messing around in Sunday School, Mummy, so we had to stay behind, and now God's disappeared and the Vicar thinks we did it!"
