Offbeat: Surfing goatee

A prickly escape

This terrified bobcat scurried 50 feet up a cactus to flee from a hungry lion. And he was so scared he stayed there for six hours, despite his predator vanishing after a few minutes.

The lion clearly thought better of clambering up a huge stalk covered in spikes. But for the bobcat, it proved an escape from certain death, no matter how painful.

He certainly chose a historic plant. The Giant Saguaro Cactus is around 300 years old.

SOURCE: mirror.co.uk

Enter the dragon — on very small legs

Some sculptors work in marble, others in cement or metal. But Taiwan’s Chen Forng-shean uses things like rice, sand and dental floss to create tiny creatures no bigger than a thumbnail.

His latest creation, a dragon made out of gold foil and black resin, is a mere 1.2 centimetres long, not quite half an inch, and stands only 0.9 cm high. Complete with legs and claws, it is barely visible to the naked eye.

“The hardest part about making this dragon is the sculpting for the limbs and the claws. These are the most delicate parts, also its open jaw and its whiskers,” said Chen. He maintains that the dragon is the world’s smallest.

“After the dragon was complete I had to pay attention to its body so it looks like the dragon is above the clouds, that’s the dragon’s spirit.”

A recently retired plate designer for Taiwan’s Central Engraving and Printing Plant, the 56-year-old Chen began creating miniature sculptures as a hobby three decades ago.

The dragon took Chen three months to complete, and he failed several times. It went on display, part of a continuing tradition of sculpting animals from the twelve-animal Chinese zodiac.

Next year is the Lunar Year of the Dragon.

Visitors to the exhibit said they were astonished by the piece, one example of a high-end Chinese art thousands of years old. Reuters

There’s a croc in my bath tub...

A man is facing a year in jail after police discovered a rare crocodile living in his bath.

The three-year-old Cuban crocodile — critically endangered in the wild — will one day reach nine foot long and is said by experts to be the most intelligent and aggressive croc in the world.

Owner Fabio Lazelli was caught out when his neighbours dialed 999 after a bust up at their apartment block in Cremona, Italy.

“They demanded to be let into his flat and were astounded when they found a crocodile swimming around in the bathtub,” said one resident.

Lazelli — also facing a £70,000 (Rs9,520,000) fine — is understood to have smuggled the croc into the country as an egg, hatching it out at home.

Wildlife experts have now moved the two feet long beast to the reptile house at the specialist Bio park in Rome.

One said: “He’s very lucky we got it when we did. These crocodiles are the most intelligent of their kind, fast, and aggressive. As it got older he would have been in real danger.”

SOURCE: web.orange.co.uk

What a charmer!

Liu Fei pulls a snake through his nose and then out of his mouth — and survives to perform another day.

Fei, from east China’s Jiangxi Province, has been performing the death-defying act for the past 30 years — what a charmer.

Sometimes, when he feels like it, the 53-year-old will even use two 3 feet snakes instead of one.

It hasn’t all been smooth sailing for the snake swallower though — Fei has had several close calls with his wriggly friends, the most serious being when he swallowed one accidentally. Luckily for him, the serpent died in his stomach before it could cause any damage. He does live a charmed life it seems.

SOURCE: metro.co.uk

He likes to move it move it!

Potty pensioner Edwin Shackleton has powered, glided and roared into the record books after travelling on over 200 modes of transport — aged 84.

The adrenalin-loving granddad has enjoyed the delights of a microlight, hot air balloon, pony and trap, Segway, hovercraft, punt and rickshaw.

Edwin has spent nearly three years notching up the wacky record that has also seen him ride on a tank, a motorised bicycle, yacht, gyroplane and quad bike. He is now hoping his travel spectacular will get him in the Guinness Book of Records.

Edwin — who was an aircraft structural test engineer until his retirement in 1987 — has already made an appearance in the Guiness Book of Records.

While in his 70s, he broke the record for flying in the greatest variety of aircraft. It was following this challenge that his thoughts turned to what he could do next.

He comments: “I was wondering what I could do instead. Then I saw a TV programme where Charlie Boorman went from Ireland to Australia using 100 different types of transport. So I decided to do the same here”.

SOURCE: web.orange.co.uk

Panda pot-tea

Potty wildlife expert An Yanshi has bagged five tons of panda pooh to create a new type of tea.

Yanshi — seen here collecting a lorry load of the stuff from the Giant Panda breeding centre in Chengdu, Sichuan province, southern China — believes the rich fertilser will give his brew a unique aroma that will make it a connoisseurs’ favourite.

College lecturer Yanshi explained: “Pandas have a very poor digestive system and only absorb about 30 per cent of everything they eat. That means their excrement is rich in fibres and nutrients.”

Yanshi plans to sell his most expensive blend for nearly £50,000 (Rs6,800,000) per kilo and aims to secure the Guinness World Record for the planet’s priciest cuppa.

“It has a mature, nutty taste and a very distinctive aroma while it’s brewing,” he explained.

SOURCE: web.orange.co.uk

Jobs over – used in 2011

“Arab Spring” and “Royal Wedding” were deemed the top phrases of 2011, while late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs is the year’s top name, according to a global survey of the English language.

“Occupy” — be it Iraq or Wall Street — and “deficit” were the two single top words of the year in a list that reflected global turmoil, the Texas-based Global Language Monitor said. Reuters

‘High’ school

It’s the kind of high school where a pass has a very different meaning.

Because at Pili — in China’s rugged northern Xinjiang Uygur region — the pass is 1,500 feet above a sheer drop down a precipice which 42 pupils have to pick their way across on their way to and from school.

Guided by parents and staff, the youngsters scramble over the sloping rock face finding foot and handholds that would make even a goat think twice.

“It’s very steep but we’re mountain people here and used to walking like this. We haven’t lost one yet — there are severe penalties for truancy,” joked one teacher.

SOURCE: web.orange.co.uk

Surfing goatee

Surfing is a very popular past-time in the sunny state of California — so much so that it appears even a local goat has a penchant for riding the waves.

The animal was seen balancing on a surfboard as it caught a wave to the beach earlier this week.

The pet, named Goatee, took to the water with its owner Dayna McGregor, who was celebrating his birthday on Grover Beach.

Dayna said: “She did pretty well, she got up on a couple of waves. I say got up — we put her on a couple of waves.”

“She was pretty successful.”

He originally bought the female goat to eat the weeds in his garden but soon took her in as a pet.

SOURCE: metro.co.uk

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2011.