DAVID ADAMS reports on the odder side of life…
Screenshot from an expo match played between Italy and Australia in Florence. PICTURE: Via YouTube.
• While much of the world’s attention has been focused on the FIFA World Cup being played in Russia during these past few weeks, more than 800 players from across the globe have been taking part in another World Cup in Florence, Italy. They’ve been playing Quidditch, a sport based on the game played in the Harry Potter books which involves mixed gender teams of seven dashing around the field with a broomstick between their legs. While defending champs Australia didn’t quite get there this time, the US and Belgium both made the final of what’s formally known as the IQA (International Quidditch Association) World Cup, with the US eventually winning 120 to 70 (apparently after a quick grab of the ‘snitch’).
• It was a big bill thanks to someone with a big bill. A Polish-based environmental charity, EcoLogic, reportedly received a phone bill of about $US2,700 after it attached a GPS tracker to the back of stork to track its migratory movements but then lost contact. The tracker was apparently found by someone in Sudan who then put the SIM card in their own phone, making 20 hours of phone calls. EcoLogic will now have to pay up.
• Daifuku the Jack Russell and handler Hiroaki Uchida have been creditd with new Guinness World Record for a dog jumping over a human leg in 30 seconds. At an event marking Chinese New Year in Hong Kong in February, Daifuku reportedly jumped over Uchida’s leg some 37 times during the 30 second period – three more than the previous record. Both, like the previous record holders, are part of the Super Wan Wan Circus based in Japan. Members of the circus troupe also hold records for the most dogs skipping on one rope to the most rotations around a human neck by a dog in 30 seconds.
