Just some stuff I came across while reading a rag in some burger joint up north.
Love Story: The love story between a black swan named Petra and a wooden boat that looks like a white swan is continuing in Muenster, Germany. Joerg Adler is director of the Muenster Zoo. Adler says Petra has been in love with the wooden paddle boat since 2006, refusing to leave its side. The two spent the winter together at the zoo, and this spring returned to the pond in the park that is their summer home. Petra did have a brief affair with a real white swan recently, but when that swan dumper her, she reunited with the wooden boat.
This story reminds me of some of the stories that my Da would tell me at bedtime. Fairy tales of princesses turned to swans or of swans as divine messengers and the such. Just made me wonder if there might be something special about this boat. Something only the swan can see.
Big tooth: A 16-year-old boy found a three inch long tooth in the bottom of the St. Clair river near Port Huron, Michigan. It turns out that it's from a shark species that became extinct two million years ago. David Wentz was snorkeling when he spotted the tooth. Michael Gottfried, a paleontologist at Michigan State University, confirmed it's from the Carcharodon megalodon, or "megatooth" shark. Gottfried figures early native people in the area may have dropped it in the river. "I can say for sure there are no sharks with three-inch teeth in the river now."
In my line of work, you get so you can smell a cover up. Anyone else thinks this one stinks?
Electrifying Rat: When escalators, elevators and even the trains came a to a standstill at Stockholm's central train station, people wondered what was happening. The answer was simple enough - there had been a power outage. But what was unusual about this particular incident was that a rat caused the shut down. Fortum Power Company spokesperson Jesper Ekenlund says a huge rat scurried into a substation and caused a short circuit. "The rat didn't get out alive - unfortunately, it was electocuted," he said. Meanwhile, the train station and nearby hotels and shops were without power for about three hours.
If there's one thing I can't stand, it's a rat. And a huge one at that... eek.
So yeah, all three of these stories caught my eye but I don't see any profit in them so I'm tossing them out to you goodie-goodies.
Happy hunting!
