Strange but true

A red vest is the perfect
addition to a penguin suit
Chile is home to the largest concentration in the world of Humboldt penguins, a vulnerable species of mid-sized penguin. El Niño, which brings unusually warm waters to parts of the Pacific Ocean, is making the cold-water fish that they rely on harder to find, and commercial fishing is adding to the pressure. The penguins are being forced to travel farther. This has the effect of forcing the little aquatic birds to travel much greater distances for food, exposing them to more injuries in their extended journeys. Wildlife clinics across Chile are regularly receiving distressed penguins stranded along Chile’s coast, says Tomás Piño, a veterinarian who runs Conservación Humboldt, a nonprofit that rehabilitates injured marine animals in the country’s north. Treating those injuries can be tricky. Penguins often twist their long necks to peck at gashes and pull out their own stitches, Piño said. The red vests prevent them from doing that during their recovery. Copper and zinc are also woven into the fabric. The copper inhibits the growth of bacteria and fungi while the zinc also stimulates the formation of new blood vessels, helping damaged tissue heal more quickly. Fashion and function in one!
People must really love Mozart
Earlier this year, Salzburg, the birth place of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the famous classical composer, celebrated the 270th anniversary of his birth. The Mozarteum Foundation commissioned the conceptual artist Ottmar Hörl, well known for installations made up of large numbers of identical figures depicting famous personalities. He installed 320 small 50cm-tall, gold coloured statuettes of the composer with his dog Pimperl in the city’s Mirabell Garden and several other Mozart-related sites around the city in a whimsical homage to the composer. Unfortunately, the figures were so appealing that people started to take them home. Indeed, 210 of them were purloined before the displays finally had to be shut down. Perhaps the artist should have seen it coming: a previous display of his in Bayreuth suffered a similar fate when 100 figures of composer Richard Wagner disappeared.
One for the Guiness Book of Records?
Two trailer truckloads of the famous Guiness stout, valued at £115,000 ($215,000) were stolen from a depot near Liverpool in northwest England, the Cheshire Constabulary said recently. The brew was snatched overnight by two drivers who pulled up to an industrial park in Runcorn and brazenly hauled away the trailers containing about 800 barrels (about 70,000 pints) of stout.
Bons mots
“A pint of stout and a piece of bread and cheese is a luxury which no prince can command.” – William Makepeace Thackeray, novelist, UK


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