Everybody’s Talking

Finding Koalas: Forest fires are very dangerous for wild animals, but in  Australia, a border collie came to the rescue. The dog, named Bear, was trained by Detection Dogs for Conservation to find koalas that are hiding in the trees. Bear was chosen for the task because he is able to find the small mammals by their scent. When he locates a koala, he settles himself under the tree and waits for one of his human bosses to arrive. Then the humans figure out how to get the little animal down from its high perch.

Painter’s Message: A house painter in Bolsover, Derbyshire, England, hadn’t been paid for the work he’d done on a building, so he took matters into his own hands. On the front of the freshly painted, cream-coloured, two-story structure, Dean Reeves painted a message in black: “Want your house painting? Don’t be like Terry. Pay the bill! Now you will!” According to Reeves,  building owner Terry Turner had continually refused to pay all of the agreed-upon amount until the painter completed extra tasks. When Reeves understood what the owner was doing, he decided to paint the message.

Up a pole: Vernon Kruger must love heights and small places. Hailing from the town of Dullstroom, South Africa, he has lived in a 500-litre (132-US liquid gallon) barrel on top of a 25-metre (82-ft.) pole for many days at a time. And he’s done it twice. The first time was in 1997 when he broke the previous record by staying in the barrel for 67 days. Recently, he broke his own record when he stayed there for 78 days. His stay wasn’t easy. He had to sleep curled up and had to rely on others to send food and water up to him in a wicker basket. He used the stunt to raise money for charity.

Award winner: Hibino Sekkei, an architectural firm in Japan, decided to bring nursery school children closer to nature through building design.  Taku Hibino is the lead architect. His firm has gained a reputation for designing facilities for early childhood education.  The renovation of YM Nursery, a school in Tottori prefecture, is a prime example.  The design called for opening the school up to the sea and the forest through open spaces and sliding doors,  which helps bring the outdoors inside.  The firm won best in its category at the  World Architecture Festival.

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Savoury cakes: When people eat cake, it’s usually a sweet treat that incorporates such flavours as chocolate and vanilla. That’s not the case with the creations at Tot Aw, a bakery in Jakarta, Indonesia. Short for “totally awesome,” Tot Aw’s bakers make cakes out of instant noodles. They press the cooked noodles into round forms and stack them into tiers. Each tier then gets  “iced” with savoury, rather than sweet, toppings, such as meatballs or curry chicken stew. These noodle cakes have become very popular, with people ordering them for birthdays and weddings.

Returned to owner: When Kim Fauth-Newberry donated her late grandfather’s footstool to charity, she had no idea she was also giving away over $43,000 (USD). From Owosso, Michigan (U.S.), Fauth-Newberry wanted to give away her grandfather’s furniture to people who might need it. Luckily for her, an honest man named Howard Kirby became the owner of the stool.  When a family member unzipped the stool’s cushion and found money inside,  Kirby knew just what to do. He took it back to the second-hand store. The store found Fauth-Newberry, and he gave the money back to her.

Stretchy outfit: Clothing makers use a variety of materials to make fashionable outfits, such as wool, cotton, rayon, linen, and silk, but rubber bands? Those weren’t a very common clothing material until Rie Sakamoto of  Tokyo, Japan, tried them. An art student at Tama Art University, the creative clothing designer decided to see what she could make by knitting rubber bands together. Her endeavour was successful; she made dresses, jackets,  and scarves. Intrigued by its qualities, including flexibility and texture, her goal was to find new uses for this ubiquitous office staple.

Fake kidnapping: A man from a town called Pitalito, in southwestern  Colombia, didn’t really want to get married. A few days before the nuptials, he confessed to his close friends that he wished he could get out of the commitment. They suggested a fake kidnapping. The groom went into hiding,  and his friends called police saying they had seen him being abducted by a group of men. The police took the news very seriously and brought in the army. The groom’s friends realized their error and confessed what they had done. They are likely to be charged and given jail time for their prank.

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Wrong-way: Does the map application on cell phones always work? Salvatore  Corrias, the mayor of the mountain village of Baunei on the island of Sardinia,  Italy, does not think so. He has good reason for this opinion. In his area, dozens of emergency calls are made to the fire service and rescue teams by lost tourists who use an app to try to find a destination. The app’s directions send the tourists down dirt roads and trails, where they get lost or stuck. The dilemma has put a strain on the region’s budget. In response, the town is putting up warning signs that dissuade people from using the apps.

Thread art: An artist in Hong Kong uses a wooden frame, one long piece of thread and 300 nails as his medium. If the thread breaks, he has to start over.  This is the work of Alfred Chen, who makes very realistic portraits of such personalities as Johnny Depp and Harry Potter. Chen starts with a digital image, which he changes to black and white to enhance the shadows and light areas. He makes a map of what his thread portrait will look like. Then he loops the 5,000-metre (16,400-ft.) long thread around the nails, crisscrossing it in the exact fashion required to create his work of art. 

Hard pillow: Putting your head on a pillow at night is comforting, as you nestle into bed for sleep. However, what if that pillow was made of marble? The sculptures of Norwegian artist Håkon Anton Fagerås might fool people. His marble pillows look so real, with their creases and folds, that they seem like a  sleeper’s head would sink right into them. Fagerås, of Oslo, is a renowned sculptor who creates life-size images of men, women, children, babies, and dogs.

Traffic jam? When people use a map app to pick a route to a destination, the map shows a red line on a road where a traffic jam is occurring. Simon Weckert, a German artist from Berlin, tried to outsmart the app by creating a fake traffic jam. He loaded a small wagon with 99 smartphones, all outfitted with SIM cards, and pulled it down the street.  His slow movement replicated 99 phones stuck in one place, and the app responded by marking the street in red. Weckert’s point was that he could influence people’s actions in the real world because those who were using the app at the time were encouraged to take another route.

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Rare Street Artist: Finding artists in public places who will draw caricatures of visitors is relatively common. However, discovering a sculptor who will mold a  likeness into clay is harder to come across. In Changsha, in China’s Hunan province, a sculptor named Yan Junhai does exactly that. Having learned to sculpt at a young age, he uses his hands and a sculpting knife to create realistic busts of people he sees. As it is so rare to find someone like him on the street, visitors to Changsha might want to try to find him so he can make a  souvenir for them to take home to show friends.

No Rolling Over Paul Lavery and Jen Scott, his partner, didn’t think their loveable dachshund, Harlso, would ever learn any doggie tricks. They’d tried for years, with no luck, to teach him to sit or rollover. Then one day Lavery,  from Belfast, Northern Ireland, put a toy on Harlso’s head. Lo and behold, the little critter carefully balanced it, keeping it there for quite some time. The couple gave their pet many more opportunities to balance things on his head,  such as full glasses of water, doughnuts, and gingerbread men, and they posted photos on social media. Now, Harlso has an impressive following of admirers. 

Fake Mayor: Pichuclaco, a town in Chiapas, Mexico, has become known for its cutout mayor. Mayor Moisés Aguilar Torres must be quite a busy man. Rather than attending an event at a health service organization, he sent a large cardboard cutout of himself instead. As Torres was once a nurse, it was disappointing to the health service staff because they wanted to meet him.  Instead, they had to suffice with a photo of themselves standing with the cutout figure. Photos of the event have been circulated on social media. Some are critical about it, others find it humorous but, if anything, it’s peculiar!

Crazy Crows: A man named Mohanan rescued two baby crows, but the mother didn’t like him touching her hatchlings. Mohanan, a tractor driver in  Ambalavayal, Wayanad, India, found the hatchings under his vehicle and gently placed them on the side of the road. Now, a murder of crows, who must be part of the mother’s group, cackle loudly and fly at Mohanan every time he comes by the area. They don’t bother anyone else. The driver has tried disguising himself, but to no avail – somehow the crows can identify him.  He has to carry a stick to ward them off, but he manages to laugh about this curious avian behaviour.

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Sign on a wishing well: Wish Carefully, NO Refunds.

Fisherman: “Where can I find the most fish?”
Guide: “Between the head and the tail.”

How many 16-year-olds does it take to change a lightbulb? Whatever.

Why isn’t “phonetic” spelled the way it sounds?

Patron: “How many reference librarians does it take to screw in a lightbulb?”
Librarian: “I don’t know. I’ll have to check on that and get back to you.”

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