Interesting & funny news from around the world, Интересные и забавные новости со всего мира

A Japanese man borrowed some of the luck of the Irish and broke a Guinness World Record by growing a 63-leaf clover.

Yoshiharu Watanabe, 45, started cross-pollinating clovers at his Nasushiobara home in 2012 with an aim toward breaking the world record.

"Since the number of leaves has increased year by year, I have been aiming for the Guinness World Records title ever since," he told Guinness World Records.

Watanabe said he used a combination of letting his clover patches pollinate naturally and hand-pollinating those with the most leaves. He said his methods weren't always successful.

"Sometimes the number of leaves can go down, or sometimes you end up with the normal three-leaf clover," he said. "We know that genetics are involved in a higher number of leaves, yet we don't exactly know how it works."

Watanabe's prize clover has 63 leaves, beating the previous record of 56 leaves, set by fellow Japan resident Shigeo Obara in 2009. He said he was overjoyed to discover his clover had taken the record.

"People say that a four-leaved clover brings you happiness, so it would be great if this 63-leaved clover would bring surprise and pleasure to people," he said.

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The only privately-owned first edition of Mary Shelley's pioneering horror novel Frankenstein was auctioned for a hair-raising sum of $843,750.

The 1818 first edition of Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus, published anonymously in three pink-boarded volumes, was sold by Heritage Auctions alongside other prized tomes from The William A. Strutz Library.

"This was a single-owner sale 60 years in the making, and the results are a true testament to a great collector and a market that recognized the treasures assembled by William Strutz," Francis Wahlgren, Heritage Auctions' international director of Rare Books & Manuscripts, said in a news release.

The copy of Frankenstein is one of only three pink boarded first editions known to still exist, and the only one in private hands. The other two reside in the Pforzheimer and Berg Collections at the New York Public Library.

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A British Columbia chicken earned a Guinness World Record by identifying different numbers, colors and letters.

Gabriola Island veterinarian Emily Carrington said she bought five hyline chickens last year to produce eggs, and she soon started training the hens to identify magnetic letters and numbers.
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"Their job was to only peck the number or letter that I taught them to peck and ignore the other ones. Even if I add a whole bunch of other letters that aren't the letter they are supposed to peck, they will just peck the letter that I trained them to peck," Carrington told the Nanaimo News Bulletin.

Carrington decided to have all of her chickens attempt the Guinness World Records title for the most tricks by a chicken in one minute.

One of the chickens, Lacy, emerged as the clear winner of the flock, correctly identifying 6 letters, numbers and colors in one minute.

The focused nature of the tricks led Guinness World Records to create a new category for Lacy: the most identifications by a chicken in one minute.

Carrington, who chronicles the training of her chickens on her YouTube channel, The Thinking Chicken, said she is glad the category highlights Lacy's intelligence.

Men pass giant beach ball 7,827 times to reclaim world record

A pair of Idaho men spent 1 hour, 8 minutes and 52 seconds passing a giant inflatable ball back and forth a total 7,827 times to reclaim a Guinness World Records title.

David Rush, a serial Guinness World Record-breaker on a mission to hold the most records concurrently, teamed up with Seth Lemmons to recapture the record they originally set with 4,169 passes in 2021.

Rush said he and his partner fought through the pain in their necks, arms and shoulders to pass the giant inflatable ball a total 7,827 times in 1 hour, 8 minutes and 52 seconds, enough to retake the title.

The reclaimed record brings Rush's current total of concurrently-held records to 179. He needs to hold 181 titles concurrently to take the top spot in the world.

Suspected meteor over the Carolinas was a SpaceX rocket

An object in the early morning sky over North and South Carolina was initially suspected to be a meteor, but was later identified as something more terrestrial in origin.

The object, which many witnesses compared to a large comet, was spotted over the Carolinas and parts of Georgia at about 5 a.m. Wednesday and was caught on camera by multiple witnesses.

Some witnesses suspected the object to be a meteor or a UFO, but it was later identified as a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The rocket was launched at 4:55 a.m. from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida and is carrying 20 Starlink satellites into low earth orbit.

Theodore Roosevelt’s pocket watch was stolen in 1987. It’s finally back at his New York home

The silver pocket watch was a prized possession of Theodore Roosevelt, a keepsake given to him by his sister and her husband in 1898 before he became president that would travel with him around the world and end up at Sagamore Hill — his home on Long Island, New York, and now a national historic site.

But in 1987, it went from museum piece to pilfered prize when someone stole it from an unlocked case at the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site in Buffalo, New York, where it was on loan.

It was mystery that endured 36 years until it turned up at a Florida auction house last year and was seized by federal agents. On Thursday, it was returned to public display at Sagamore Hill as the National Park Service and the FBI triumphantly announced it was back home during a ceremony featuring Roosevelt’s great-grandson, Tweed Roosevelt.

“This was feel-good news,” Tweed Roosevelt, 82, said Friday in a phone interview. “For me, it kind of felt like almost as if a piece of TR’s spirit being returned to Sagamore Hill, like a little bit of him was coming back. And so I felt that was really cool.”

Kangaroo captured after half a year on the loose in Germany

A kangaroo that escaped from its owner's property in Germany on New Year's Eve has been captured more than six months later, about 50 miles from home.

The kangaroo, named Skippy, escaped from his owner's property in the Ludwigslust-Parchim district on the night of New Year's Eve and managed to evade capture for months, despite numerous sightings.


Police said Skippy was finally captured late last week by a resident of Lüdersdorf, in the Nordwestmecklenburg district, about 50 miles from his owner's home.

The kangaroo is being temporary housed in his rescuer's horse pen until his owner, Jens Kohlhaus, can bring him home, police said.

Chaser Darragh Ennis' 'elite' level Harry Potter quiz so tough 'no one can get all' correct

Recently, the 43-year-old challenged fans to a Harry Potter quiz, and said it was "so tough" no one would get all five answers correctly. However, it turns out the quiz was too easy for some people, including his own sister - so he's now made an "elite level" quiz - which he says no one will be able to beat.

"My Harry Potter quiz was apparently too easy for the mega nerds, and yes I'm including you in that, sister dearest. So this timke, it's going to start tricky and just get tougher. I don't think anybody's getting all five of these," he explained.

Below you can see all the questions. Give yourself some time to answer, before scrolling further down to see all the answers.

1. Accio is the summoning charm but what is the incantation for its opposite, the banishing charm?

2. What was the first password for Gryffindor Tower used by Harry in the first book?

3. Which Wizard features in the tapestry opposite the room of requirement?

4. What is Ron Weasley's middle name?

5. In what position and what club did Gwenog Jones play Quidditch?

Answers:

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1. The Banishing charm is depulso

2. The First password used is Caput Draconis

3. Barnabus the Barmy teaching trolls ballet is what's on the tapestry opposite the Room of Requirement

4. Ron's middle name is Bilius

5. Gwenog Jones plays a beater for the Holyhead Harpies

While it seems the quiz definitely challenged some of the Harry Potter superfans - others claim they managed to get them all right. "Somehow I got 5/5!! Possibly the fact that I've listened to the audiobooks every night for over 20 years…," claimed one person.

However, someone else said: "4/5 had no idea about the tapestry," and another added: "I only knew the password one. I thought Ron's middle name was Arthur, but it must be one of the others."

How many did you get correctly?

Mysterious monolith discovered in desert near Las Vegas

A mysterious monolith has baffled police officers in Las Vegas after it was spotted glimmering in a remote mountain range near the neon-lit city.

Las Vegas police said members of a volunteer search and rescue unit encountered the mirrored object near Gass Peak in the Desert National Wildlife Refuge in Nevada.

Officers have no idea where the monolith came from and have said they expect social media users will try to solve the mystery.

Sharing an image of the discovery on the X social media platform, Las Vegas police said: "We see a lot of weird things when people go hiking like not being prepared for the weather, not bringing enough water... but check this out! Over the weekend, (LV Search and Rescue) spotted this mysterious monolith near Gass Peak north of the valley.

The sighting follows a series of instances of mysterious shiny columns popping up around the world since at least 2020.

In November of that year, a roughly 12ft metal monolith similar to the one seen in Las Vegas was discovered deep in the desert in Utah.

It was in an area so remote that officials didn't immediately reveal its location for fear of people getting lost or stranded while trying to find it.

It was followed by sightings in Romania, central California and on the famed Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas.

In March this year, a 10ft monolith appeared on a hillside in southeast Wales.

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205-foot bonfire pyre in Northern Ireland unofficially breaks world record

A Northern Ireland town constructed a bonfire pyre measuring more than 205 feet tall, a possible new Guinness World Record.

The Craigyhill Bonfire Committee in Larne said the bonfire pyre was measured at 205 feet, 6 inches by land survey firm LSS, and at 205 feet and .269 inches by a second firm, Clifford and Gregg.

Either figure would be enough to take the Guinness World Record from a 198-foot, 11-inch bonfire built in 2019 in Austria.

The committee said data from the surveyors is being submitted to the record-keeping organization for official recognition.

The massive bonfire pyre made headlines earlier this week when daredevil Stephen Maginnis parachuted from the top of the structure. The stunt was hailed as the world's first base jump from a bonfire pyre.

The pyre, along with several others throughout the country, was built to be ignited Thursday night to celebrate Eleventh Night. The holiday is the night before the Glorious Twelfth, a traditional celebration marking the victory of Protestants over Catholics at the 1690 Battle of the Boyne in Ireland.