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

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'Sharply-dressed' cat rescued from Maine roof

Firefighters in Maine came to the rescue of a "sharply dressed tuxedo cat" that made its way to the steep roof of a Lewiston home.

The Lewiston Fire Department said on social media that firefighters teamed up with local animal control to rescue a "sharply dressed tuxedo cat from a rooftop."

The Engine 3 crew arrived to find the cat was about 40 feet over the ground on the steep roof.

Lt. Rob Gayton and Pvt. Dennis Everson set up a ladder to reach the feline.

Gayton said they approached the feline cautiously.

"Sometimes they scratch, sometimes they bite," he told the Sun Journal newspaper. "This one was calm. The cat came up to my hand, sniffed it and I snagged him."

Gayton said the cat meowed nonstop on the way down the ladder, and the look on its face seemed to indicate they were calls of annoyance.

"The cat was less than impressed that his roof-top excursion had come to an end," he said.

The cat was turned over to animal control, which is now attempting to identify the feline's owner.

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Man catches tennis ball behind his back from a distance of 199 feet

Idaho man David Rush caught a tennis ball behind his back from a distance of 199 feet to claim his latest Guinness World Records title.

Rush enlisted the help of Chris Stumph, who he has collaborated with on multiple other Guinness World Record attempts, to throw the ball a distance of 199 feet.

"What made this hard wasn't just catching a ball blind. It's the compound problem: Chris had to hit it just right, and I had to be in the right spot, and my hand had to be in the right position, and the timing had to be perfect. Any one of those variables goes wrong and you're starting over," Rush wrote online.

He managed to catch the ball after multiple attempts, and the distance was confirmed by a surveyor.

The attempt occurred in December 2024, and Rush has now received confirmation from Guinness World Records that he officially has the title for the farthest behind-the-back catch of a tennis ball. The previous record stood at 177 feet.

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World's smallest arcade machine is only .98 inches tall

A 24-year-old electronics enthusiast in India has constructed the world's smallest arcade machine — a .98-inches-tall device that runs Space Invaders.

Kiran Patil said he has been fascinated by electronics since he was a child, and over the years his interest has led him to experiment with multiple microelectronics projects.

"I have built many electronic projects before involving microcontrollers and displays, but this is the first gaming arcade project that I have attempted," Patil told Guinness World Records.

Patil's arcade machine measures .98 inches tall, .6 inches long and .59 inches wide. It features four buttons and can run an emulated version of classic arcade game Space Invaders.

"I built an initial prototype, but it was fairly rudimentary and I also needed to further develop the software side of the project. University and work commitments paused the progress for a while, but in the summer of 2025 I decided to revive the idea and take it forward," he said.

Guinness World Records confirmed the result of Patil's efforts is officially the world's smallest arcade machine.

Patil previously earned a Guinness World Records title in April 2019, when he built the world's smallest working drill, measuring .24 inches tall, .27 inches long and .18 inches wide.

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Squirrel blamed for government Internet outage in Ohio county

A network outage that caused several government offices to lose phone and Internet services in an Ohio county is now being blamed on a meddlesome squirrel.

Medina County officials said the Feb. 20 outage that knocked out phone and Internet services at government facilities including the county prosecutor's office was initially thought to be caused by contractors accidentally slicing through underground fiber.

County Administrator Matt Springer revealed at last week's commissioner's meeting that the true cause has now been found to be a squirrel that built a nest inside the fiber infrastructure and chewed through multiple lines.

"It's hard to make this stuff up," Springer said at the meeting.

He said steps are being taken with Internet providers and the local fiber network to prevent similar incidents in the future.

Squirrels are known menaces to utility companies, having been blamed for numerous power outages across the United States over the years.

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'Butt birth' rhino from 'Ace Ventura' sequel up for auction

An auction house specializing in props from movies and TV series is offering a screen-matched "butt birth" rhinoceros from Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls.

PropstoreAuction said the rhino was used for exterior shots in the 1995 comedy when Ace Ventura, played by Jim Carrey, was using the mechanical animal to spy on a suspect.

An infamous scene features Carrey squeezing out from the rear end of the rhino when his cooling fan breaks down, earning the prop the nickname of the "butt birth" rhino.

"Distinctive patterning on the bolts, as well as the placement of holes drilled into the top of the door hatch on this rhino's side, screen-match to when Ace climbed out of the rhino's butt, though this rhino's neck and legs appear slightly differently today as a result of sympathetic restoration and repainting conducted after filming," the auction house said.

Bidding on the prop, which was previously displayed at Planet Hollywood, had reached $5,500 as of the early afternoon Thursday. The auction house said it is expected to fetch a top price of up to $8,000.

Bidding closes March 25.

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Raccoon burglar making daily visits to Cincinnati apartment

A Cincinnati woman who has lived in her apartment for less than a month said a raccoon has been using a hole in the roof to invade her home every day for over a week.

Alexus Hubbard said she first started hearing unusual noises in her ceiling on Feb. 20, and on March 1 she captured video of an intruding raccoon entering her Westwood apartment through a hole in a kitchen cupboard.

She said the raccoon has since been entering her home every day, often bringing in trash from outside and leaving its bodily waste in the living room. She said the animal is apparently getting into the building through a hole in the roof.

Hubbard said she is especially concerned for her son, who has cerebral palsy.

"He can't walk," Hubbard told WXIX-TV. "His main method of transportation is crawling. He is not able to go around his own house at all because it's unsafe for him. I don't know what kind of biohazards are on the floor."

Hubbard said her landlord, Savin Holdings LLC, placed a trap for the raccoon Thursday night.

Authorities in Virginia recently identified another raccoon as the perpetrator in a string of break-ins at a strip mall in Hanover. The raccoon, which was found passed out drunk on the bathroom floor at ABC Liquors on Black Friday last year, was also blamed for previous break-ins at a neighboring karate studio and a DMV office.

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British library's overdue books turn up at thrift store 50 years later

Workers at a library in England got a "huge surprise" when a pair of books that were 50 years overdue turned up at a thrift store about 60 miles away.

The Leeds City Council said in a news release that the Leeds Central Library was recently contacted by employees at a thrift store in Beverley, East Yorkshire.

The librarians were told two books — Volumes I and II of the Rev. William Buckland's Geology and Mineralogy — turned up among the donations to the store.

Buckland's reference tomes were written in 1836, and were checked out from the library 50 years ago, with a due date in March 1976.

"It was a huge surprise to find out that these beautiful books had somehow turned up in such an unlikely place after all these years, and we're delighted to have them back home at the library, even if they are half a century late," Sally Hughes, librarian at Leeds Central Library, said in the news release.

"We'll never know who it was who borrowed them and why, but it speaks volumes about how interesting and influential Rev. Buckland's observations were that enthusiasts were clearly still keen to read them more than a century after they were written," she said.

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African antelope on the loose in Nashville neighborhood

Residents of a Tennessee neighborhood have been tracking the movements of an unusual visitor — an escaped African antelope.

Lance Carter captured photos of the oryx, an antelope species native to Africa, when it ran into morning traffic earlier this week near Old Marrowbone Road in the Joelton neighborhood of Nashville.

"It was on the right side of the road sticking out of the woods — was the back end of an animal, at the time I thought was a really big goat," Carter told WSMV-TV. "But I didn't know what it was. I've never seen anything like it before."

Joelton resident Gigi de Lugo, who nicknamed the antelope Leonard, said the animal has been spotted all over the neighborhood, turning up in yards, farms and roads.

Leonard's presence in the area evoked memories of Ed the zebra, who spent eight days on the loose in Rutherford County in 2025.

"It just seems that whenever we have a lot going on in the world, some exotic animal is loose around Nashville, and a great distraction and adorable," de Lugo told WKRN-TV. "We're hoping he ... can get caught, so that he doesn't hurt or cause anything as far as a car accident as well."

Leonard's origins remain unclear, although some residents speculated he may have escaped from a local exotic animal farm. Tennessee does not have any laws prohibiting oryx ownership.

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Oddest unclaimed luggage items of 2025 include robot, meteorite

Some of the most unusual items found in lost and unclaimed luggage last year included a robot, a bionic knee, a meteorite and a beekeeping suit, a new report says.

Unclaimed Baggage, the United States' only authorized reseller of lost luggage, released its third annual Found Report, an accounting of the items lost or abandoned by travelers last year.

The most unusual finds from the report include a fully-assembled robotic unit "featuring fully articulated joints, electric motors, wiring and control components."

Another unusual piece of mechanical engineering was a powered prosthetic knee joint with an integrated motor, electronic controls and metal housing.

"When found, the model was still in online trial phases, indicating clinical testing or early-stage use," the report states.

Some of the other bizarre items in the report include a full set of 10-karat diamond grills, a fragment from a meteorite that fell to Earth in 1576, a pair of fire poi used for fire dancing and flow arts, a 1-ounce bar of pure gold from The Perth Mint in Australia, a matching set of samurai swords, a full beekeeping suit, a set of gold-plated golf clubs and a didgeridoo made from teak wood.

Other notable odd finds included taxidermy deer foam, a frog purse, a pre-World War I U.S. Army bayonet, a giant stuffed goose, a long bone specimen, an armadillo purse, a 12-pack case of sardines, a fake skeleton, a suitcase full of rat poison and a feather bow tie.

The report said the most common items found in 2025 included clothing items, jewelry, cellphones, shoes, device accessories, headphones, coats, tablets and books.

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Four male cheetah cubs born at San Diego Zoo

The San Diego Zoo Safari Park announced the births of four male cheetah cubs, the first of their species to be born at the facility since 2020.

The zoo said first-time mother Kelechi gave birth to the cubs on Jan. 24.

"Just as they do in native habitats, Kelechi and her cubs are bonding in a private, behind-the-scenes den at the Carnivore Conservation Center," zoo officials wrote in the announcement. "The cubs are now emerging from their den, giving guests an opportunity to see them as part of an Ultimate Safari."

The zoo said cheetah mothers are very attentive to their babies.

"During these vital early months, Kelechi spends much of her time grooming her cubs and keeping them close. As they continue to grow more curious and active, they play and climb all over her as she keeps a close eye on them, chirping to call them closer when needed," the announcement said.

The brothers are expected to form a lifelong bond.

"Male cheetahs, like these four brothers, form groups called 'coalitions' that will hunt and travel together for life, a unique trait for this primarily solitary species," officials said.

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