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

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Duck triggers speed camera exactly 7 years after identical incident

A traffic monitoring camera in a Swiss town was triggered by a fast-flying duck breaking the speed limit — seven years to the day after the same thing happened in the same spot at the same speed.

The Municipality of Koeniz said on social media that the speed camera was triggered April 13 and captured an image of a male duck traveling at 32 mph in a 12 mph zone.

A similar-looking duck triggered the same camera on April 13, 2018, by flying at the same speed. Officials speculated the two photos could be the same bird returning to the scene of his original traffic crime for a repeat offense.

The town stressed the incident was not a "late April Fools'" prank, as the computers that control the camera are inspected and calibrated annually and the stored photos are sealed and impossible to manipulate.

"We hope you enjoy pondering curious coincidences, criminal activities of animals and the maximum flight speed of ducks," the municipality's post said.

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Robot sets record by solving Rubik's cube in .103 seconds

A team of Purdue University students built a robot that can solve a Rubik's cube in a record-breaking .103 seconds.

Matthew Patrohay, Junpei Ota, Aden Hurd and Alex Berta, students at Purdue's Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering in West Lafayette, Ind., met through a co-op program at the school and teamed up to design their puzzle-solving bot, which they dubbed "Purdubik's Cube."

"We solve in 103 milliseconds," Patrohay said in an article on Purdue's website. "A human blink takes about 200 to 300 milliseconds. So, before you even realize it's moving, we've solved it."

The previous record was set at .305 seconds — or 305 milliseconds — in 2024 by a robot built by the Mitsubishi Electric Corporation's Component Production Engineering Center.

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Registration open for clothing-optional 5k race in South Carolina

A South Carolina resort says it already has a record 161 people signed up to run an annual 5k race with an unusual twist: it's clothing-optional.

The Carolina Foothills Resort, a nudist resort in Spartanburg County, said this year's Buck Creek Streak 5k already has a record high number of people registered for the June 14 race.

"You can go anywhere and do a 5k, but you can't go anywhere and run a 5k naked," Tom Crowder, who sits on the resort's board of directors, told The Post and Courier newspaper. "If you go to the turkey trot and drop your drawers, you're probably gonna be arrested."

This year's race offers an option to "go the extra mile" and run 7.3k in honor of race founder Mike Ward, who died at the age of 73 in 2017. People who register for the 7.3k will also be eligible to win the 5k, organizers said.

"A lot of people will come here for the first time during the 5k, which to me is pretty bold to come here for the first time and have that many people around," Crowder said. "But a lot of people will come back after that first visit because they'll have such a great time."

Organizers said first-time visitors to the resort must pass a background check before being allowed onto resort grounds. Registration for newcomers is open until June 13, while returning visitors to the resort can register on the day of the 5k.

Registration includes a free lunch and a day pass to explore the clothing-optional resort.

"It's a great time," Crowder said. "If it wasn't fun, we wouldn't have a record number of people signed up. It's an all-day event. It's just a good time."

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Cat escapes Florida vet, takes nearly 3-mile journey home

A cat, still with anesthesia in his system following surgery, escaped from a vet in Florida and made the nearly 3-mile trek home to his favorite chair.

Bob Beasock said his cat, George, was at SPCA Florida in Lakeland to get neutered, and right after the surgery the feline managed to break out of a cage, climb a fence and flee into the wilderness — all while still feeling the effects of anesthesia.

"He still had silly drugs in his system," the SPCA said in a news release.

Beasock and shelter staff searched nearly a week for George, but it turned out the cat had made his own way home Loma Verde, where Beasock found the feline curled up in his favorite chair in the carport.

"There was George — stretched out in his chair in our carport, looking like he had just returned from a grand adventure," Beasock said. "He was a bit thinner, clearly hungry, but otherwise no worse for the wear."

He said George had to take a 2.7-mile journey home.

"He had to go through two or three subdivisions, around a couple of lakes, and cross five or six roads," Beasock told WTVT-TV. "If I had been stuck there, I would've called an Uber. But George didn't have that option."

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Manatee strikes up friendship with Florida paddleboarder

A Florida woman's unusual friendship with a manatee that repeatedly approached her paddleboard has gone viral after she posted videos of the encounters to TikTok.

Kendra Kay, 31, said she goes paddleboarding among the manatees at E.G. Simmons Regional Park every week.

Kay posted multiple videos to TikTok showing one manatee, which she named Paddle, visiting her on the water.

One video shows Paddle clinging to Kay's board and poking its face out of the water for a look at the human.

Kay said it seems like Paddle recognizes her whenever she's on the water.

"Or perhaps it's just the intimate connection we share through our frequent meetings. Her gentle gaze convinces me she remembers our bond," Kay told WTVT-TV.

Kay includes a disclaimer on each of her videos explaining she does not intentionally approach or touch the manatees, as it is illegal to do so in Florida.

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3,076 'Smurfs' come together to break world record in France

A small town in France succeeded in its third Guinness World Record attempt by hosting a gathering of 3,076 people dressed as Smurfs.

The town of Landerneau, in France's Brittany region, had attempted the world record for the most people dressed as Smurfs twice before, but fell short of the record of 2,762 people, which was set in Germany in 2019.

The town made its third attempt Sunday with official backing from Paramount Pictures ahead of the release of the film Smurfs on July 18.

The Smurfs were created by Belgian cartoonist Pierre Culliford, aka Peyo, in 1958. They are called "Schtroumpfs" in French.

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Young boys in Poland find message in a bottle from 1959

A pair of 10-year-old boys walking near a beach in Poland found a message in a bottle that turned out to be a handwritten love letter from 1959.

The young boys, named Eryk and Kuba, said they found the bottle with a note inside while hiking along the World War II fortifications near Stogi Beach in Gdańsk.

The faded, handwritten note inside was written in 1959 by a girl identified only as Rysia. She addressed the letter to "Bunny," and spoke of feeling lonely at school in Tarnów and thinking fondly of her memories of the intended recipient.

"I assure you that I am quiet and modest, I do not make friends with anyone, I simply avoid men," Rysia wrote. "My dear, I am a terrible egoist, I only write about myself, but I only think about you, I see you at every moment."

The boys who found the bottle said they have been in contact with a museum in Tarnów in the hopes that the letter's author can be found.

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Man balances 96 spoons on his body to break his own world record

An Iranian man balanced 96 spoons on his body to break a Guinness World Record for the third time.

Abolfazl Saber Mokhtari, 54, originally set the record for most spoons balanced on the body at 85 in 2021, and he broke his own record with 88 spoons in 2023.

Mokhtari has now broken the record a third time, with a total 96 spoons.

The three-time record-breaker said he has been sticking objects to his skin since he was a child.

"But after multiple years of practice and effort, I was able to strengthen my talent and develop it to where it is now," he told Guinness World Records. "Anything, I mean it, any object. Anything that has a surface I can stick to my body, such as plastic, glass, fruit, stone, wood and even a fully grown human."

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Pigeon Fest to celebrate New York's most controversial birds

A New York park is celebrating one of the city's most iconic animals next month with Pigeon Fest, a day-long event featuring art exhibitions, science demonstrations and the city's first Pigeon Impersonation Pageant.

The High Line, an elevated park on the West Side of Manhattan, announced Pigeon Fest will be held from noon to 8 p.m. June 14, coinciding with National Pigeon Appreciation Day.

The park's website said the event is partially inspired by Dinosaur, artist Iván Argote's 17-foot-tall aluminum pigeon sculpture that resides at the park.

Alan van Capelle, the park's executive director, told The New York Times that the festival will include "a pigeon impersonation pageant and a panel on urban ecology and bird conservation."

The events also include a Zumba-style Pigeon Dance Party and a puppet show put on by Tina Piña Trachtenberg, aka Mother Pigeon, who is famous in New York for feeding the birds while dressed in a giant pigeon costume.

"Love them or hate them, people are fascinated by our feathered friends," van Capelle told TimeOut New York. "This festival felt like a fitting way to celebrate New Yorkers' dynamic relationship with art, nature and, most specifically, pigeons."

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Norwegian man wakes to find cargo ship in his yard

A Norwegian man was roused by a neighbor in the early morning and alerted to an unusual situation: a cargo ship was in his front yard.

Johan Helberg said he was asleep inside his home in Byneset, on the Trondheim Fjord, when neighbor Jostein Jørgensen rang his doorbell and called his phone to alert him to the fact that a cargo ship had run aground in his back yard.

"If the ship had hit the rocky outcrop right next to it, it would have lifted up and hit the house hard. It only missed by a few meters," Helberg told TV2.

Jørgensen said he woke up just a few minutes earlier to the sound of the boat approaching. He ran outside and attempted to sound the alarm.

Jørgensen said he was surprised to learn Helberg had slept through the incident.

"I was sure that he was already outside, but no, there was no sign of life. I rang the doorbell many times and nothing," Jorgensen said. "And it was only when I called him on the phone that I managed to contact him."

Bente Hetland, managing director of the shipping company NCL, said officials are investigating what caused the ship to run aground.

"At present time, we do not know what caused the incident and are awaiting the conclusion of the ongoing investigation by the relevant authorities," Hetland said in a statement. "We are currently assessing the damage to the ship."

Hetland said there were no injuries resulting from the incident.

Local police said an initial investigation indicates the officer who was responsible for steering the ship may have fallen asleep at his post.

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