Strange stories from around the world, some of which might be true...
- A crate containing 3,000 Lesser Bermudan land snails - 1,000 adults and 2,000 juveniles - was flown from England to Bermuda last month to repopulate the species in its original habitat where it is now critically
endangered. ● A pick-your-own cherries festival at the National Trust's Cotehele medieval house in Cornwall had had to be cancelled days before it was due to take place because blackbirds have eaten all of the
cherries from the 80-tree orchard thanks in part to the Spring weather resulting in a smaller crop than usual. ● Two komodo dragons, endangered in the wild, have hatched at Chester Zoo, the first to do so. ●
The Donkey Sanctuary in Sidmouth, Devon, have name a foal Kai after Premier League soccer player Kai Havertz, who spent time with rescue donkeys at a sanctuary in Aachen, Germany, when he was a child and has publicly
championed the animals. Havertz told reporters that he was "delighted" at the news. ● A bar in Glasgow city centre was forced to close after a massive swarm of bees nested on railings outside. The bees them moved to the side of a large
wheelie bin which staff were able to carefully move away from the doors. ● Police in Lancaster Township, Pennsylvania, were given the runaround by a speedy 200lb (90.7kg) potbellied pig which evaded all attempts
to catch it and was nearly hit by a car before falling asleep under a garden trampoline, from where they managed to herd it into a large dog crate before taking it to an animal sanctuary. ●
Scientists have discovered how some dinosaurs managed to grow to enormous size. Their fossilised bones have been found to contain cavities which acted as air sacs, similar to modern birds' bones, which allowed them
to capture more oxygen and keep cool. ● Lepidopterists studying monarch butterflies, which migrate thousands of miles, have come up with a theory that their wing spots could help them fly for longer. The theory
says that light and dark areas of the wings heat up differently as the butterflies fly, creating small eddies which reduce drag. ● Firefighters in The Woodlands, Texas, had to demolish part of a bathroom wall to
rescue a small dog which had got stuck behind a toilet, probably while looking for a cool spot in the recent heatwave. ● In Pasco County, Florida, firefighters had to use a harness to winch a horse from a
swimming pool in which it had become stuck. ● In Carlisle firefighters who used small tools to rescue a puppy which had got its head stuck through a hole in a wall were rewarded with "lots of cuddles and
licks". ● Police in Boulder, Colorado, successfully rescued a family of raccoons which were trapped in an underpass by floodwater after storms swept through the city.
- Virgin Galactic's first commercial spaceflight is due to take off on this issue's cover date, carrying four passengers and two pilots, from Spaceport America in New Mexico. ● The MOXIE (Mars OXygen In situ
Resource utilization Experiment) experiment aboard the Perseverence rover on Mars has set a new record for making oxygen from the thin 95.97% carbon dioxide atmosphere. The toaster-sized device is planned to be scaled
up for manned missions, where it is hoped it will provide oxygen not just for breathing but also for rocket fuel. ● Perseverence has also photographed a doughnut-shaped rock on the surface of Mars. The rock,
with a hole in its centre, is thought to be a meteorite which crashed into the surface of the planet and partly broke up. ● NASA has announced that astronauts aboard the International Space Station have
successfully recovered 98% of the water lost in urine and sweat, something which will be essential for long-duration manned missions to the Moon and beyond.
- Finger markings found on walls inside the La Roche-Cotard caves in northern France have been described as "organised and intentional" and the oldest known marks made by Neanderthals, dating to more
than 57,000 years ago. ● Archaeologists following up on airborne LIDAR scanning over Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula have discovered the remains of a Mayan city deep in the jungle. Several pyramid-like
structures more than 50' (15m) high have been identified and pottery remains suggest that the site was occupied betweed 600 and 800 CE. ● A newly-discovered fresco on a wall in Pompeii depicts a food remarkably
similar to modern-day pizza, though without the tomato and mozarella. More shockingly though - to some at least - is that it appears to depict pineapple as a topping, although it more likely to be something else as the first
recorded European to encounter pineapples was Christopher Columbus in 1493. ● Doodles made by King Henry VIII of England have been discovered in the margins of a prayer book. The shapes and styles resemble
marginalia previously attributed to Henry in other books. ● Archaeologists in the Netherlands have discovered a 4,000 year old sanctuary consisting of ditches and burial mounds, the size of three soccer
pitches, which might have served in a function similar to Stonehenge (though built of wood) as it is aligned with solstice sunrises. ● The white ceremonial gown worn by Carrie Fisher to play Princess Leia at the
end of 1977's Star Wars (later renamed Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope) film is being auctioned with an estimated value of up to $2m (£1.58m).
- Police in Sharon, South Carolina, who arrested a man suspected of holding up a Kwik Stop convenience store at gunpoint found his weapon tucked into his trousers - only it was not a real gun, it was the Nintendo
pistol-like device used for playing the Duck Hunt video game, which he had spraypainted black. ● A man in India is thought to have managed to stay in the five-star Roseate House hotel in Delhi for
almost two years without paying any bills after booking an initial single night. It is thought that a staff member kept extending his stay by altering other guests bills or swapping them over and cancelling
automatic reminders. The man allegedly owes the hotel over 5m rupees (£55,000; $70,000). ● Canadian politeness is known around the world, but a thief in Vancouver took things to a whole new level. CCTV
recorded him breaking into a bakery shop at 3am last Friday by kicking in the glass front door, taking a ten-minute rest in a chair then heading to the bathroom. When he came out he cleaned up the broken glass with a mop and
bucket before taking selfies then leaving with six cupcakes. On Monday he phoned the bakery to apologize, offered to pay for the repairs to the door and to give them his sunglasses as a gift. The bakery owner is not pressing charges.
● Italian police are searching for a man who used a key to carve "Ivan + Hayley 23" into a wall of the Colosseum in Rome, a crime punishable by up to a year in prison or a fine of at least
€2,065 (£1,770; $2,240) - and the outrage of all of Italy...
- Smoke from the wildfires in eastern Canada, which turned New York's sky orange [Prompting a warning that a twice impeached and (so far) twice indicted alleged miscreant former President might be rendered
invisible... -Ed], has spread across the Atlantic to Europe, although at high altitude, so while skies remain the same sunsets and sunrises are likely to be spectacular if the weather is clear. ● Real estate
developer Atrium Ljungberg intends to build the world's largest "wooden city", consisting of 7,000 office spaces and 2,000 homes plus restaurants and shops, in the Sickla suburb of Stockholm, Sweden. Timber
is more environmentally friendly than concrete or steel, and can be engineered to burn at a slow and predictable rate, reducing the risk of fire damage. It is also a carbon sink, storing the carbon dioxide removed from
the atmosphere by trees. Work is scheduled to start in 2025 with the first buildings completed in 2027.
IN BRIEF: A boy whose dream was to arrive at his Edgebaston, Birmingham, school prom in a Bentley appeared to have had his wish shattered when his grandfather's Bentley broke down on the way to collect him,
but on the way to the prom in his mother's car they saw another Bentley behind them in a traffic queue and cheekily asked for help. The driver, Nav Nasir, was only too happy to oblige. ● British inventor Richard
Browning has been testing his personal jet suit in Norway. As well as offering paid "flight experiences" he hopes it might be helpful for mountain rescues. ● Cambridge University student James Cozens
has set a new world record for the "most objects juggled while riding a unicycle". He wrote performance analysis software to help him train, and juggled seven balls for 16.77 seconds. ● Chinese
millionaire Liang Shi, 56, who went into business after leaving school but has always dreamed of having a university education has failed the notoriously difficult Gaokao entrance exam for the 27th time. ●
Twins Erin and Abby Delaney, born conjoined at the head and given a 2% chance of survival before pioneering surgery to separate them have finished their first year of school. ● Someone has developed a ChatGPT
client for Windows 3.1, the Microsoft operating system for which support ended in December 31, 2001, so anyone still using it can talk to the AI... ● After teammate Anne Zagré was taken ill at the European Athletic
Team Championships in Poland Belgian shot putter Jolien Boumkwo volunteered to run the 100m women's hurdles in her place. She finished well behind everyone else, but was praised for taking part and getting the points
for her team. ● Anyone who was around in the late 1990s will remember Furbys, the ever-so-annoying interactive toys. Hasbro has announced that they are bringing them back... ● Ultra-runner Jamie Aarons
has set a new world record for scaling all of Scotland's Munros - the 282 mountains taller than 3,000' (914m). She completed the task in 31 days, 10 hours and 27 minutes, beating the record by more than 12 hours. She
ran, cycled and kayaked between them, mostly taking micronaps when she felt tired. ● A janitor at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, who heard multiple "annoying alarms" turned off
a freezer, ruining 20 years of research including cell cultures and samples; the college is suing his employer, Daigle Cleaning Systems, for not properly training and supervising him. ● Grinches on the town
council in Leominster, Herefordshire, have cancelled this year's Christmas lights switch-on ceremony despite it being only June, because they have scheduled improvement work to pavements and streets to start in December.
● When the pilot on a Canada Air flight from Toronto to St John's, Newfoundland, was taken ill mid-flight leaving the first officer to fly the plane a passenger stepped in to take over as first officer. He
happened to be another Air Canada pilot who was 'deadheading', or travelling as a passenger in case of just such a situation. ● Matt Spruitenburg, scuba diving in Lake Natoma, California, discovered an
prosthetic leg at the bottom of the lake, and was able to trace its owner, who had lost it a year earlier. ● British police are blaming Google for a surge in accidental 999 emergency calls after an update to
the Android mobile phone operating system caused repeated presses of a side button on the phone to start a countdown ending in an emergency call; if the phone is in a pocket or bag users do not know that the action
has been triggered. Google are recommending that users switch off the feature until the problem is fixed. ● Last Sunday a majority of 999 calls were not connected after a national technical failure at British
Telecom. The outage was repaired within a few hours. ● If you are in the UK and saw or heard anything on the BBC over the last fortnight you will know that the Glastonbury Festival was last weekend, with
blanket TV and radio coverage as around 200,000 people camped out to enjoy live music and other events. One attendee made "five trips from car to campsite. Six miles walked in the blazing sun" to have a
full-sized solid wood-framed double bed in their (large) tent. ● With full weekend tickets costing £335 plus a £5 booking fee ($430) some sneaky attendees tried pitching their tents right next to
the perimeter barrier so they could dig tunnels underneath the fence for friends to sneak in. Other would-be gatecrashers tried using grappling hooks to pull down wall panels and climb over.
UPDATES: Joseph Juma Bukuya, in police custody in Kenya suspected of being part of the Good News International Church cult that caused hundreds of people to starve themselves has died of starvation while
on a hunger strike [TFIr#712, TFIr#713].
● Joshua Hunt, remanded in custody accused of two counts of affray, one count of possession of a bladed article and one count of committing an act of outrageous public decency, after allegedly terrorising villagers
in Somerset while wearing a full-body latex 'gimp' suit, has had those charges dropped and now faces two offences contrary to the Public Order Act 1986. He will appear in North Somerset Magistrates' Court on July
18th [TFIr#715]. ● Dame mit Fächer (Lady with a Fan), Gustav Klimt's final painting, sold for
£85.3m ($108.4m) [TFIr#721].
It was the end of the Spring term and Little Jennifer had brought her school report home. Her parents were studying it carefully. "Little Jennifer," her mother said, "your
English and Maths scores are down on last term."
"So is your History," her father added, "Can you tell us why?"
Little Jennifer looked at her parents and smiled as only she could. "Well," she said, "everybody knows that things get marked down after Christmas!"
