News in Brief

It's a crazy world. We know that. Maybe even crazier for an old guy like me who finds some aspects of modern life baffling. I spotted a few weird/mildly interesting things in today's news. Some of them barely need a comment from me but comments from readers are always welcome, occasionally amusing and generally stimulating and thoughtful.

The owner of an American bulldog (that's a breed, not a nationality) accused the government of "dog racism" after Lola, her dog, was seized by police because she "looked like a dangerous dog".

A professor from Yale University claims that construction of Machu Picchu started in 1420 rather than in 1440 as the Spanish had claimed. A spokesperson for the Spanish Government suggested that maybe Professor Burger might have better spent the last 20 years of his life sailing the world and looking for the Loch Ness Monster and the lost continent of Atlantis.

[Comments in italics are editorial]

Dr Zoe Muller of the University of Bristol studied the herd behaviour of giraffes and concluded that their social groups include older animals acting as "grandmothers", helping to bring up the young. Presumably as the parents go out to work. Dr Muller found that female giraffes live for about 10 years after they are no longer capable of giving birth, leading her to suggest "there must be some evolutionary advantage". Otherwise they'd die straight after their last child, Zoe? An old, female giraffe at Bristol Zoo claimed compensation on the basis that it had been "a dig at my age".

A 12 year old Japanese girl won a silver medal for the women's park skateboarding event. Mr Wiki tells us (I'm still giving him my £5 a month) "park skateboarding encompasses a variety of sub-styles adopted by those who ride skateboards in purpose-built skate parks. Most skate parks combine halfpipes and quarterpipes with various other "vert" skateboarding features as well as "street" obstacles such as stairs, ledges, and rails." Whatever all those words mean. Plans for a Junior Olympics have now been put in the same place as for a Senior Olympics: in the bin. Quite right, don't want any ageism.