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

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Overdue library book returned after 36 years of world travel

An overdue library book was returned to the Chantilly Regional Library after 36 years and a trip to Greece.

The Fairfax County Library system posted about the book's return on Facebook Thursday.

Harry the Dirty Dog was initially checked out by Nov. 6, 1989 by diplomats living in D.C., their son, Dimitris, said in a note.

"They are now retired in Greece and I found this book on their shelves," he said. "It traveled the world and was well taken care of as you can see. And now it can find its way home."

"Thank you to Dimitris' parents for taking such good care of our book and to Dimitris for helping the book find its way back to our shelves," the Fairfax County Library system wrote.

Other books have been returned to libraries after decades away in recent months, including one arriving at the San Antonio Public Library after 82 years.

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Wild koala rides the city bus in Brisbane, Australia

A bus driver in Brisbane, Australia, spotted a koala darting through traffic on a busy road and brought the animal aboard the vehicle to wait for rescuers.

Koala Rescue Brisbane South said on social media that the Brisbane CityGlider bus driver spotted the koala on Wiles Street at Camp Hill and got out to rescue the animal.

The koala attempted to climb a metal light pole on a median and the driver, fearing the marsupial would fall, covered its head with a jacket and brought it onto the bus.

"We don't recommend handling koalas unless you're trained. They have incredibly dangerous claws, can bite — and gripping them around their ribs can cause serious damage," the rescue's post said.

"If you find an injured koala, and it's safe to contain it without touching it until help arrives, please do so; anywhere dark is good for wildlife. Usually we recommend a laundry basket covered with a towel, but if needs be, a bus will do!"

Video and photos shared by the rescue show the koala, dubbed Peri by rescuers, holding onto a pole inside the bus while waiting for wildlife experts to arrive.

Rescuers took Peri to an RSPCA wildlife hospital, where he was given a clean bill of health.

Peri was relocated to the Seven Hills Bushland Reserve and returned to the wild.

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Mystery boat washed up on England beach identified as missing lifeboat

A mysterious orange-red boat that washed up on an England beach was determined to be a lifeboat reported missing from a cargo ship.

The unusual vessel was spotted on the beach in Sidmouth, Devon, on Sunday, and the Beer Coastguard Rescue Team was summoned to investigate.

The aquatic vehicle was determined to be a lifeboat that had become detached from a cargo ship that departed Morocco Dec. 16 and lost the smaller boat en route to Belgium.

"It was confirmed no persons were involved," the BCRT said on social media.

The rescue team safely disposed of the boat's flares and stored the rest of the vessel's contents until it can be retrieved by the cargo ship's owners.

The rescue team used a tractor to pull the boat further from the water line to keep it safe until it can be removed from the beach.

"Special thanks to the lady who supplied drinks and sandwiches," the coastguard team said.

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Buffalo breaks chicken wing eating contest world record

The city of Buffalo, N.Y., celebrated its most famous food and broke a Guinness World Record when 499 people participated in a chicken wing eating contest.

The Revelas Family Foundation's annual A Not So Silent Night event at the Buffalo Convention Center featured an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the largest chicken wing eating competition.

The Saturday contest featured 499 participants, beating the previous record of 397, which was set by Amazon Web Services in 2018. A Guinness World Records adjudicator was on hand to confirm the record.

The attempt served as a fundraiser for Horizon Health Services' Teen Mental Health Program.

"Breaking the stigma around mental health starts with education and community engagement. This event combines Buffalo's love for wings with a mission that changes lives," Nick Revelas, president of the Revelas Family Foundation, said in a statement provided to WKBW-TV.

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StubHub mistakenly lists Christian show as Lamb of God metal concert

Ticket reseller StubHub has apologized to customers after a listing for a Christian spiritual in South Carolina was mistakenly advertised as a concert from heavy metal band Lamb of God.

Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium hosted an event called Andrew Peterson's Behold the Lamb of God, a Christian spiritual about the birth of Jesus Christ, on Dec. 20.

StubHub mistakenly advertised the event as a concert by Virginia-based heavy metal band Lamb of God, with the listing featuring a photo of the band's lead singer.

"We acknowledge the listing for the December 20 event at Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium was misleading and apologize for the confusion this caused," a StubHub representative said in a statement provided to WSPA-TV.

"Ahead of the show we updated the event page and reached out to customers to clarify the event details. Anyone who purchased tickets under the impression this was a different performance is encouraged to contact us — we'll honor a full refund under our FanProtect Guarantee," the statement said.

Lamb of God is not scheduled to perform live until March 2026, and no shows in South Carolina have yet been announced.

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Illinois teen builds 17.32-foot Eiffel Tower out of toothpicks

An Illinois teenager broke a Guinness World Record by building a 17.32-foot-tall replica of the Eiffel Tower from about 20,000 toothpicks.

Naperville resident Eric Klabel said his father's career as a civil engineer inspired him to get interested in building from a young age.

"When I was younger, I just got really, really interested in building things out of popsicle sticks," Klabel told WGN-TV.

He ended up building a 20.2-foot tower from popsicle sticks in 2021, when he was only 12 years old, and set his first Guinness World Record.

That record has since been broken, but Klabel captured his second Guinness World Record in October when he took on a project using a new medium: toothpicks.

"The annoying thing about toothpicks-- compared to popsicle sticks, they're just so incredibly tiny," Klabel said.

He managed to use nothing but toothpicks and glue to build a model of the Eiffel Tower that stands at 17.32 feet tall, capturing the record for the world's tallest toothpick sculpture.

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Badminton-playing robot breaks Guinness World Record in China

A badminton-playing robot developed by a Chinese company broke a Guinness World Record by completing 1,452 rallies with the help of some of the country's top human players.

The robot, developed by the Zhejiang Shenchen Kaidong Technology Company, faced off against some of China's top badminton players in Shaoxing, Zhejiang.

The robot managed to successfully return 1,452 consecutive hits, setting the Guinness World Record for the most consecutive badminton counter hits with a mobile robot.

The athletic robot was designed with vision and motion controls that are timed down to the millisecond.

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Aussie angler captures video of unusual pink platypus

An Australian angler spotted what he initially thought to be a massive trout and ended up capturing video of something even stranger: a pink platypus.

Victoria resident Cody Stylianou said he was casting his line in Gippsland when he came across the unusually-colored mammal, which he dubbed Pinky.

"The bill and feet are super obviously pink," Stylianou told The Guardian. "When he did go a bit further into sunlit areas, he was easy to follow underwater, which is how I got so many videos of him surfacing."

He said the platypus stood out from the others of its species that he's spotted in the area.

"I've seen other platypus in the same river system, just regular colored ones," he said. "Probably about five to eight of them over the years, from memory. Normally, they just pop up at the top of the water and then disappear once they see me."

The videos sparked speculation that the playpus could have a pigmentation mutation like albinism or leucism, but researchers said that does not appear to be the case.

"Platypus do vary a lot in color," Jeff Williams, director of the Australian Platypus Conservancy, said. "And this one's at the extreme end of the light ones. It's not one that we consider should be added to the list of albino and leucistic ones."

EnviroDNA wildlife ecologist Josh Griffiths said the platypus' unusual coloration most likely doesn't have much affect on its lifestyle.

"Because platypuses are in rivers, they're usually the apex predator in these rivers [and] there's nothing really that eats them. So they're generally pretty safe in that regard," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

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Wildlife officials capture wrong bear in California

California wildlife officials attempted to lure a bear out from underneath an Altadena man's home — but ended up catching the wrong bruin.

Ken Johnson discovered in November that the animal that had been frequenting his property since at least April was a bear that had moved into the crawlspace under his house, so he turned to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for help.

CDFW officials said the state's bears like to find a comfortable place to create their dens around this time of year.

"Unfortunately, it sounds like this is what that bear has potentially found under the homeowner's house in the crawlspace," CDFW representative Cort Klopping told CBS Los Angeles. "It's unfortunate. We want to see the bears in the woods, not in people's homes."

CDFW biologists set a metal crate trap on Johnson's property and baited it with the scents of caramel and cherry. Officials were initially elated when a bear was snared in the trap Dec. 16, but they soon discovered they had the wrong bear.

Instead of the animal living in Johnson's crawlspace, the trap had ensnared a bear that had simply wandered onto the property, while the crawlspace squatter remained in its den.

The captured bear was relocated to a more suitable habitat.

The trespassing bruin, known as Yellow 2120, remains underneath Johnson's home, officials said.

Johnson said he has been playing loud sounds — including recordings of barking dogs — in the hopes of drawing the bear out from its hiding spot, but so far nothing has worked.

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New York firefighters rescue squirrel stuck in dumpster

Firefighters in New York conducted a unique rescue when a squirrel was found trapped in a dumpster, with its head stuck through a drain hole.

The Binghamton Fire Department said on social media that its Quint 2, Group B crew "was dispatched to a rather unique rescue" on Christmas Eve when a squirrel was reported "in distress with its head stuck in a small drain hole on the side of a dumpster."

They arrived to find the squirrel's head poking out from the hole.

"Using patience, care, and a very gentle touch, our firefighters were able to safely free the squirrel," the post said.

The squirrel, dubbed Holly, was turned over to All Creatures Great and Small Wildlife Rehab to be treated for a cut on its head and a paw injury.

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