Friday Snippets and Soundbites

Hey, ec readers! We hope you had a wonderful July 4 holiday and a beautiful week so far. We'd like to welcome you to the second weekend in July. . . and get it started right with some "Snippets and Soundbites." Ready for a few of the stranger stories we found when we scoured the news this week?

Let's go!

This is no laughing matter.
The Dublin Zoo (that's the Dublin in Ireland) was overjoyed yesterday when Kelli the penguin returned home to the zoo and her penguin partner, Mick. Kelli was abducted from the zoo around 8 a.m. on Tuesday and found wandering around on a sidewalk some hours later. A taxi driver reported that three men who had a bag with a live animal in it did hail his cab on Tuesday morning, but when he asked, they told him the animal was only a rabbit. Apparently, the zoo used a microchip implanted in Kelli, a 10-year-old Humboldt penguin, to locate her after the abduction, which they believe to have been an attempt at a prank. The problem? The zoo officials aren't laughing, since this prank put on of their animals in a dangerous situation in which she could have been hurt or killed. Kelli was returned to the zoo in an agitated state after her ordeal and being checked out by a vet. She calmed down when returned to her partner, Mick, and appears to be doing fine. The Dublin Zoo is used to pranks; in 2008, its switchboard was overwhelmed by callers asking to speak to Rory Lyon, G. Raffe and Ana Conda. To learn more about this story, go here.

Back in the old days.
Antisa Khvichava has lived a long life. So long, in fact, that the officials of the country of Georgia (where she lives; it's a former Soviet republic) claimed she is the oldest person on Earth this week. Yesterday was her birthday, and officials claimed she was born in 1880, making her 130. She lives with her 40-year-old grandson in the mountains in the western part of Georgia and spoke to reporters through an interpreter, mostly because she never learned Georgian and only speaks a local language. Records to show that she retired from her job as a tea and corn picker in 1965, when she was 85. Her birth certificate has been lost, though, one of many documents misplaced or destroyed in the years following the collapse of the Russian Empire and various revolutions. The Gerontology Research Group currently recognizes 114-year-old Eugenie Blanchard of Saint Barthelemy, France, as the world's oldest person. They haven't actually examined Khvichava's claim yet. To read more, go here.

Um, what?
In Egypt, a farmer is celebrating the birth of a two-headed calf on his farm as a miracle. Yes, you read that correctly. A two-headed calf. The calf was delivered on Saturday, and the farmer said it took tow hours and a lot of pulling to do so. A veterinarian has examined the calf and expects it to survive. The calf still can't stand up because of its heavy heads and weak legs, and is being fed her mother's milk with a baby bottle. To see a picture and learn more, go here.

(If you need more news of the weird, check out page 38 in this month—and every month's—issue of ec.)