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

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Mexican festival's taco serving breaks three world records

A festival in a Mexican city served 13,215 tacos in one hour, and in the process also broke the Guinness World Records for the largest stir-fry and the largest frying pan.

The La Discada 2025 festival in Guadalupe, Nuevo León, involved a team of 100 culinary students using a 23-foot diameter frying pan to prepare a stir-fry dish called la discada, which contains sausage, beef, pork, bacon, tomatoes, peppers, onions and beer.

The stir-fry cooked for three hours and 40 minutes over a wood fire and the 5,331 pounds of cooked food were then turned into tacos served to the festival's 10,000 attendees.

The event earned three Guinness World Record titles: the most tacos served in one hour, the largest stir-fry and the largest frying pan.

The leftover tacos from the event were donated to local food banks.

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Dog who fought bull wins 2025 Hambone Award

Nationwide Pet Insurance announced a California dog who faced off with a bull to protect his family is the winner of this year's Hambone Award.

The Hambone Award, given annually for "the unexpected, the unusual and downright outrageous" ways pets find themselves in need of medical attention, was named in honor of a dog who ate an entire holiday ham while trapped in a refrigerator.

This year's winner is Ziya, a Belgian malinois who stepped between his owner, Tim, and a rampaging bull during a walk in northern California.

"While his owners escaped to safety, the bull struck Ziya in the jaw, dislodging a tooth and sending him to the emergency vet," Nationwide said in a news release. "Thanks to expert veterinary care, Ziya made a full recovery and now hopes that future walks will not involve horned adversaries."

Ziya was chosen as the winner in an online vote, besting a field of nine other finalists.

"Tim's bond with Ziya enabled them to take turns caring for each other when a bull unexpectedly joined their morning walk," said Emily Tincher, chief veterinary officer at Nationwide. "Thanks to the care provided by Ziya's veterinary team and the protection provided by Nationwide pet insurance, this story of unexpected trauma has a happy ending!"

The runners-up were Duke, an Ohio lab mix who swallowed an entire spatula head while licking peanut butter, and Foxtrot, a Texas Great Dane who stole a turkey leg and swallowed it whole.

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Man buys 162 tickets for one lottery drawing, wins $811,000

A South Carolina man took a big gamble by buying 162 identical tickets for a single Pick 4 lottery drawing, and ended up winning a record-breaking $811,000 prize.

The Lowcountry man told South Carolina Education Lottery officials he had a good feeling about the numbers 1-7-3-1, so he spent $339 to buy 162 tickets bearing those numbers for the Aug. 7 Pick 4 drawing at Towne Centre Market on North Highway 17 in Mount Pleasant.

The man ended up winning $811,000, the largest amount ever paid out to a single player in a Pick 4 drawing.

"I was excited, of course," the man said.

Another player who was at the store at the same store overheard the man talking about his lucky feeling and decided to play the same numbers — winning $25,400, lottery officials said.

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Turtle with unique peanut-shaped shell turns 41 in Missouri

The Missouri Department of Conservation celebrated the 41st birthday of Peanut, a red-eared slider turtle with a unique figure eight-shaped shell.

The department celebrated Peanut's 41st birthday at the Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center with a public event Saturday from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.

The celebration featured card making, litter awareness lessons, coloring sheets and an Eat Like a Turtle activity. The nature center also honored Peanut by serving turtle-style birthday food: worms and crickets.

Officials said Peanut's shell, which bears a shape reflected in her name, made her an anti-littering icon.

"Her figure-eight shell was the result of crawling into that six-pack ring when she was very young," MDC officials explained in a news release. "As Peanut's shell grew around it, her one-of-a-kind shape became her superpower. She's not a teenager anymore, but her mighty message continues to remind people to put litter in its place."

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Japanese city weighs limiting smartphone use to 2 hours per day

A Japanese city is considering a proposed ordinance that would limit residents to two hours of screen time outside of work or school.

Masafumi Koki, mayor of Toyoake in Aichi Prefecture, announced the city's assembly will soon vote on a draft ordinance that would limit residents to two hours of time on smartphones, tablets and computers outside of work and school obligations.

The non-binding ordinance would also urge elementary school-age children to cut off screen time at 9 p.m., with a 10 p.m. suggestion for middle school and older children.

Koki said the ordinance would not impose any monetary or criminal penalties for violations.

"Limiting daily smartphone use at two hours is just a guide," Masafumi Koki said at a plenary meeting of the city assembly Friday. "The bill is aimed at promoting measures to prevent residents from suffering adverse effects on their bodies and daily lives from excessive smartphone use."

A survey published in March by Japan's Children and Families Agency found young people in the country spend an average five hours on their phones, tablets and computers per day during the week.

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Long-lost postcard returned to sender 72 years after being mailed

A postcard lost in the mail for 72 years arrived at an Illinois post office, where officials were able to track down and contact the now-88-year-old sender.

The postcard, which was sent by Alan Ball to his parents, Frederic and Elizabeth Ball, in 1953, arrived recently at the Ottawa Post Office, where Postmaster Mark Thompson took an interest in the mystery.

Thompson said the card, which depicts the U.N. building in New York, was likely mishandled at the post office inside the United Nations and ended up lost in a crevice or other unseen location for decades before finding itself back in circulation.

The postmaster enlisted the help of local genealogists to locate Alan Ball, who now lives in Sandpoint, Idaho.

Ball, who was shown a digital image of the card, said he recognized his own handwriting, but he doesn't remember mailing the card. He does, however, remember spending a short time in New York on his way to a summer trip to Puerto Rico in 1953.

The postcard's 72-year journey pales in comparison to a similar incident that occurred last year when a postcard arrived at its intended address in Swansea, Wales, 121 years after the date on its postmark. A Royal Mail spokeswoman speculated the postcard had somehow re-entered the system, as opposed to being lost in transit for over a century.

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Pig found loose in Pennsylvania park for a second time

A pot-bellied pig was found running loose in a Pennsylvania state park for the second time this summer, prompting an investigation from animal authorities.

The Bucks County SPCA said a 2-year-old pig estimated to weigh about 88 pounds was found wandering loose near the fishing pier at Nockamixon State Park last week.

The pig, dubbed Lewis by the SPCA, was lured with food and taken to the organization's shelter in Quakertown.

The SPCA said Lewis was the second pot-bellied pig found in the park this summer.

"They called us. We had caught a pig there in July. So they were able to catch this one," Cindy Kelly of the Bucks County SPCA told WPVI-TV.

The SPCA is now trying to determine how both pigs ended up loose in the park. She said a wire dog crate was found abandoned in the park, indicating the animals may have been intentionally abandoned.

"We're asking if anyone recognizes these particular pigs or has any knowledge of how they got to the park, we would love to know about it," Kelly said.

The SPCA said pot-bellied pigs are not suited to life in the wild.

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Connecticut man collects more than 3,800 pairs of Crocs

A Connecticut man known as the "Croc King" earned a Guinness World Record when his collection of Crocs was tallied at 3,569 pairs — but he said that number is already out of date.

Doogie Sandtiger said his fondness for the footwear began at the age of 16, due to his childhood in foster care leaving him without the knowledge of how to tie his shoes.

"Part of the foster care system that people don't realize is, there's a lot of things that kids don't get taught or miss along the way," Sandtiger told WTNH-TV.

Sandtiger said he made a list of goals in his journal when he was a teenager, and that's how he started collecting.

"I called it my goals list, and for whatever reason, I put 366 pairs of Crocs — that was the original goal," Sandtiger said.

He started to seek a Guinness World Record for his collection in 2023, when his collection surpassed 2,000 pairs.

He was finally awarded the title for the largest collection of Crocs when his collection was tallied at 3,569 pairs — but the number has continued to grow since that count was performed in November 2024.

Sandtiger said his collection surpassed 3,800 this month.

The footwear aficionado said he hopes to eventually show off his collection by opening a "Crocseum."

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Angler reels in first documented orange shark off Costa Rica

A man fishing in waters off the coast of Costa Rica reeled in an unusual catch — the first documented orange shark.

Garvin Watson reeled in the 6-foot, 6-inch nurse shark while casting his line near Tortuguero National Park in August 2024.

"[It was] incredible," Watson told USA Today. "We couldn't believe what we had in front of us, an orange shark that looked like an alien."

Watson, owner of the Parismina Domus Dei Hotel, shared photos of his catch on the business' Facebook page.

Researchers said the shark's bright orange coloring is caused by a condition called xanthism, which causes yellow or gold pigmentation in an animal's skin, scales or fur.

Scientists Marioxis Macías-Cuyare, Gilberto Rafael Borges Guzmán and Daniel Arauz-Naranjo wrote in a report published this month in the journal Marine Biodiversity that Watson's nurse shark represents "the first scientifically documented case of total xanthism in the species and the first record from the Caribbean Sea."

The researchers said the shark's white eyes indicate it also has a form of albinism, which involves a complete lack of pigment.

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Colorado county offering free corn after highway crash

A Colorado county is distributing free ears of corn to local residents after a semi truck loaded up with the vegetables overturned on the highway and spilled its load.

The Custer County Sheriff's Office said emergency crews were summoned to Highway 69's Mile Marker 69, just south of Hillside and north of Reed Road, just after 2 a.m. Thursday on a report of an overturned truck.

The truck had spilled its load of sweet corn, and many of the ears ended up littering the side of the roadway.

Any undamaged corn from the crash was transported to the Wet Mountain Fire Protection District, where members of the public were invited to drop by and take some corn for free. Corn-seeking residents were asked to make sure not to block the fire station's driveway.

The sheriff's office said the roadway was completely cleared by 7 p.m. Thursday, but drivers were still urged to use caution in the area, as corn remnants were likely to attract a higher-than-usual number of hungry deer to the highway.

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