40 camels disqualified from contest over enhancements

Organisers of a beauty contest for camels at the King Abdulaziz Camel Festival, in Saudi Arabia, said 43 animals have been disqualified for receiving Botox treatments, face lifts and other cosmetic procedures.

The contest, which carries a price of $66 million for the winning animal’s breeder, features judges rating the camels based on the shapes of their heads, necks and humps, as well as the camels’ dress and postures.

Advanced technology was used to screen the camels for artificial enhancements, and 43 of the camels were disqualified as a result. It was the highest number of disqualifications in the contest’s history.

Acorn-ucopia of food fattens squirrels

Humans aren’t the only species packing on extra pounds during the pandemic. Some squirrels are letting themselves go, too.

One portly squirrel in New England is so big that it earned the nickname, ‘Fatty McFatterson.’ Most squirrels sprint or scoot, but this one lumbers and waddles.

Many pint-sized rodents aren’t so pint-sized as they gorge on abundant beach nuts, hazelnuts, acorns and a bumper crop of mushrooms this fall, Shevenell Webb, furbearer biologist with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, told.

“Many species of wildlife can pack on some extra pounds, but their thick, fluffy fur coat may also make them appear larger in winter,” she said.

Strongman pulls double-decker bus 169 feet in Iraq

A bodybuilder in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq pulled a double-decker bus a distance of nearly 170 feet in a bid to land a Guinness World Record.

Majeed Yehya, 51, a powerlifter and gym owner, pulled the red bus, which was occupied by 15 passengers, a distance of 169 feet through the main market in Erbil. Video and other evidence from the record attempt has been submitted to Guinness World Records for official recognition.

Yehya said he hopes to have Guinness adjudicators travel to Erbil to witness his next record attempt: lifting an airplane at Erbil International Airport.

A life-sized gingerbread house

A Utah home is drawing the attention after being decorated to resemble a life-sized gingerbread house.

Virginia Hoffman’s red brick home in Yalecrest, Salt Lake City, bears a striking resemblance to the Christmas season treats. So she started thinking of ways to decorate the home as a gigantic gingerbread house. Hoffman, an interior designer, and her husband, a professional artist, added vanilla wafers into the mix for this year’s decoration.

“We made that out of foam, insulation, and then my husband melted out the squares with a soldering iron, and I painted them and got the exact right colours to look like the cookies,” Hoffman said.

The yearly décor went viral online after Hoffman’s daughter shared photos on Reddit.

Published in Dawn, Young World, December 25th, 2021