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

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Ice skater breaks Guinness World Record for jumping rope

A champion ice skater from Hungary took her jump rope out on the ice and broke a Guinness World Record with her skates on.

Eszter Szombathelyi, who earned titles as both the Junior and Senior National Champion in Hungary, went out on the ice in Sun Valley, Idaho, and performed 136 rope skips in a single minute.

The feat earned her the record for the most rope skips on ice skates in one minute, handily defeating the goal of 45 set by Guinness World Records.

"I want to inspire other ice skaters and performers to dream big, and show them that everything is possible if we are brave enough to do it," she told Guinness World Records. "I would like to expand the world of figure skating shows with a new, spectacular acrobatic element."

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Non-native gecko travels from Portugal to Guernsey in suitcase

A small gecko from the Mediterranean region found its way onto the Channel Island of Guernsey after stowing away in a traveler's suitcase, a local animal rescue said.

The Guernsey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals believes the reptile is a tarentola mauritanica, or common wall gecko, from the western Mediterranean.

The BBC reported that a traveler found the gecko in their suitcase while unpacking after arriving from a Portuguese island.

The GSPCA said it took in the lizard and has it in quarantine since it's not native to Guernsey. Also, because it would be difficult to return the gecko back to its native lands, the society has decided to find a home for it closer to home.

"We really do not know what we are going to have to help or arrive in Guernsey, GSPCA manager Steve Byrne said.

The society has named the gecko Rosey.

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Zoo announces hatching of eight iguanas with no father

A British zoo announced the hatching of eight iguana babies with an unusual parentage — they have no father.

The Exotic Zoo in Telford, England, said the female casque-headed iguana laid a clutch of fertilized eggs, despite having never shared an enclosure with a male of her species.

The eggs hatched in late August and the zoo is now caring for eight babies, which are all genetic clones of their mother.

"These little lizards have no dad at all — they're being born through parthenogenesis," the zoo said on social media. "This means the babies are genetic clones of their mum — an amazing rare natural phenomenon that occurs in some reptiles, invertebrates and other animals."

Scott Adams, the zoo's director, hailed the hatchings as "one of the rarest events in the animal kingdom" in a statement provided to CBS News.

"When we confirmed the eggs were fertile without any contact with a male, our jaws hit the floor. These babies are essentially mini-mum clones, and seeing them thrive is incredible."

The hatchlings are currently being cared for in the zoo's reptile nursery and are expected to make their public debut in the coming weeks.

"For us, it's a powerful reminder that life finds a way in the most unexpected circumstances," Adams told the BBC.

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Columbus Zoo announces birth of baby bonobo

The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Ohio announced the birth of a baby bonobo, an event hailed as a milestone for the conservation of the endangered species.

The zoo said on social media that the male bonobo was born Aug. 11 to first-time mother Kibibi and is now the 18th member of the facility's troop.

Kabibi's mother, Kimia, was born at the zoo in 1997, and the new mom's grandparents, Susie and Jimmy, are still living at the zoo.

"Both Kibibi and her baby are healthy and doing well," the zoo said. "While it took Kibibi a little time to adjust to motherhood, she's showing wonderful care and attentiveness to her son. In bonobo society, male offspring often remain with their mothers for life, forming strong lifelong bonds."

Officials wrote that a paternity test will eventually be performed to determine the identity of the new baby's father.

"Every bonobo birth is a vital step toward protecting and preserving this incredible endangered species," the post said. "These births not only support global conservation efforts but also help maintain a strong assurance population for bonobos in their native ranges."

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Peru wins viral "World Cup of Breakfasts" with pan con chicharrón

Peru claimed victory in the "World Cup of Breakfasts," a viral online contest organized by Spanish streamer Ibai Llanos, with its signature pan con chicharrón narrowly defeating Venezuela's reina pepiada arepa.

The final vote, cast by fans across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube Shorts, gave Peru roughly 12.8 million likes to Venezuela's 12.6 million, according to Infobae. Sixteen countries competed in the tournament, including the United States, Spain, Mexico, Ecuador and Japan.

The winning dish, a classic Peruvian Sunday street breakfast, consists of fried pork, sweet potato, onion salsa and French bread. Llanos, one of the world's most influential streamers, promised to travel to Lima to hand-deliver a "golden frying pan" trophy.

The result triggered a wave of celebration across Peru. President Dina Boluarte congratulated the nation, while the Ministry of Transport and Communications declared on social media that Peru had "the best breakfast in the world." Other government agencies and politicians also joined in.

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Hilda Baci cooks up nearly 20,000-pound serving of jollof rice

Nigerian celebrity chef Hilda Baci earned a Guinness World Record by cooking up a serving of Nigerian-style jollof rice weighing in at nearly 20,000 pounds.

Baci, who rocketed to international fame when she broke the record for the longest cooking marathon at 93 hours and 11 minutes in May 2023, teamed up with food manufacturer Gino Nigeria to whip up 19,356 pounds and 9 ounces of jollof rice in Lagos.

Baci said it took about nine hours to prepare the dish, which included about 8,818 pounds of washed basmati rice, 362 pounds of fresh goat meat, 485 pounds of Gino Asun and peppered chicken cubes and 1,322 pounds of her own jollof mix.

"I didn't realize it would be this hard and it has been a challenge. It's a lot of hard work but really satisfying to achieve the record," Baci told Guinness World Records. "This achievement also belongs to the people of Nigeria as they all contributed to the achievement."

The jollof rice was dished out onto 16,600 plates and served to the thousands of spectators in attendance.

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Stunt performer pulls a car while on fire to break world record

An Austrian daredevil lit his body on fire and pulled a car a distance of 328 feet in 56.42 seconds to earn a Guinness World Records title.

Josef Tödtling became the first person to hold the record for fastest 100 meter car pull in full body burn when he completed the stunt in Vienna on June 24.

A video of the record attempt shows Tödtling pulling the car while a member of his support team keeps pace with a fire extinguisher, ready to put out the flames if anything went wrong.

His support team used three fire extinguishers to keep his body from burning at the end of the attempt.

Tödtling already held multiple records that involved setting himself on fire, including the longest duration full body burn without oxygen, 5 minutes and 41 seconds; farthest distance pulled by a vehicle (full body burn), 1,909 feet and 5 inches; fastest 200 meter cycle during a full body burn, 49.55 seconds; and farthest distance full body burn on a zip wire, 201.60 feet.

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Study: Chimps consume the equivalent of two alcoholic drinks per day

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, found chimpanzees eating fermented fruit in their native habitats consume the equivalent of nearly two alcoholic drinks per day.

The research team, who published their findings Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, analyzed 21 species of fruit regularly eaten by chimps in Uganda and the Ivory Coast to measure the alcohol content.

"Across all sites, male and female chimpanzees are consuming about 14 grams [about half an ounce] of pure ethanol per day in their diet, which is the equivalent to one standard American drink," Aleksey Maro, a graduate student at the university's Department of Integrative Biology, said in a news release. "When you adjust for body mass, because chimps weigh about 40 kilos [88 pounds] versus a typical human at 70 kilos [154 pounds], it goes up to nearly two drinks."

The team drew on research by primatologists who found chimps each each about 10 pounds of fruit every day, making up about 75% of their diet. The Berkely researchers approximated the proportions of each fruit in an average chimp's diet to reach their conclusions.

"The chimps are eating 5 to 10% of their body weight a day in ripe fruit, so even low concentrations yield a high daily total — a substantial dosage of alcohol," Robert Dudley, UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology, said in the release.

Researchers said it is not yet clear whether chimpanzees are actively seeking out fruit with higher ethanol levels, but if that is the case, it is likely their alcohol consumption is even higher than expected.

Dudley authored a book called The Drunken Monkey: Why We Drink and Abuse Alcohol in 2014. His so-called "drunken monkey hypothesis" posits that common ancestors to humans and apes likely ate similar, alcohol-rich diets.

"Chimpanzees consume a similar amount of alcohol to what we might if we ate fermented food daily," Maro said. "Human attraction to alcohol probably arose from this dietary heritage of our common ancestor with chimpanzees."

A team from Britain's University of Exeter revealed in April that cameras set up at Cantanhez National Park in Guinea-Bissau captured chimps sharing fermented African breadfruit that was later confirmed to contain ethanol.

The researchers said the footage was notable because it could indicate the chimps were sharing alcohol as a social activity, similar to human behavior.

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Ig Nobel Prizes awarded for painted zebra cows, pizza-eating lizards

The Annals of Improbable Science announced this year's slate of Ig Nobel Prize winners, including researchers who painted cows like zebras and a team who analyzed the pizza preferences of lizards.

The 35th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony was held Thursday evening in Boston and featured Nobel laureates handing out awards for scientific research that makes "people laugh, then think."

"The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative — and spur people's interest in science, medicine and technology," the official website states.

This year's Literature Prize was awarded posthumously to William Bean, "for persistently recording and analyzing the rate of growth of one of his fingernails over a period of 35 years."

The Psychology Prize went to Marcin Zajenkowski and Gilles Gignac, who analyzed how receiving high IQ scores relates to "temporary state narcissism."

This year's Nutrition Prize was awarded to Daniele Dendi, Gabriel H. Segniagbeto, Roger Meek and Luca Luiselli, who determined rainbow lizards at a seaside resort in Togo prefer four-cheese to other varieties of pizza.

Julie Mennella and Gary Beauchamp received the Pediatrics Prize for looking into what a nursing infant experiences when their mother eats garlic.

Japanese researchers Tomoki Kojima, Kazato Oishi, Yasushi Matsubara, Yuki Uchiyama, Yoshihiko Fukushima, Naoto Aoki, Say Sato, Tatsuaki Masuda, Junichi Ueda, Hiroyuki Hirooka and Katsutoshi Kino were awarded the Biology Prize for experiments that determined cows painted with zebra-like stripes were 50% less likely to be bitten by flies.

The Chemistry Prize was presented to Rotem Naftalovich, Daniel Naftalovich and Frank Greenway for experiments that analyzed whether eating Teflon, a plastic scientifically known as polytetrafluoroethylene, would be an effective way to increase food volume without extra calories.

The Ig Nobel Peace Prize was presented to Fritz Renner, Inge Kersbergen, Matt Field and Jessica Werthmann, whose study found that "drinking alcohol sometimes improves a person's ability to speak in a foreign language."

Indian researchers Vikash Kumar and Sarthak Mittal received the Engineering Design Prize "for analyzing, from an engineering design perspective, how foul-smelling shoes affect the good experience of using a shoe-rack."

The Aviation Prize went to Francisco Sánchez, Mariana Melcón, Carmi Korine and Berry Pinshow for a study into how alcohol ingestion affects the ability of bats to fly and echolocate.

The Ig Nobel Prize for Physics was given to Giacomo Bartolucci, Daniel Maria Busiello, Matteo Ciarchi, Alberto Corticelli, Ivan Di Terlizzi, Fabrizio Olmeda, Davide Revignas and Vincenzo Maria Schimmenti for analyzing the properties of pasta sauce, "especially the phase transition that can lead to clumping, which can be a cause of unpleasantness."

"Digestion" was the theme of this year's ceremony, which featured guest speakers including Trisha Pasricha, who studied the link between using a smartphone on the toilet and developing hemorrhoids. It also featured the performance of a mini-opera titled The Plight of the Gastroenterologist.

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Virginia orchard's massive peach breaks world record

A Virginia orchard officially captured the Guinness World Records title for the heaviest peach by growing a fruit that weighed in at 1.83 pounds.

The Chiles Peach Orchard in Crozet said peach pickers harvested the massive fruit earlier in September and suspected it could beat the world record, which stood at 1.8 pounds.

"We weren't intentionally trying to grow the biggest peach out there, just so happened that the weather that we had this year turned out good, got growing a ginormous peach," grower Henry Chiles told WVIR-TV.

The peach — a variety known as PF-27A — was submitted to Guinness World Records, which has now confirmed it as the world's heaviest peach.

"It's now official: we hold the record for growing the world's heaviest peach," the orchard said on social media. "Congratulations to Henry Chiles for growing such a massive fruit, and our thanks to Guinness World Records for their verification."

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