‘One in 30 million’ Calico lobster catch!

Lobsters are typically grey-green, but some bizarre and occasionally very rare exceptions are there.

Freckles, is a calico lobster, characterised by a body that’s covered in dark blue and bright orange spots. He was discovered among a delivery of lobster from Maine received by a local restaurant in Manassas, Virginia. Recognising they had some unusual catch on their hands, the restaurant contacted the Virginia Living Museum where Freckles will go on display as one of the museum’s many living exhibits.

Calico is a word used to describe animals, which are multi-coloured. For Freckles and other calico lobsters, this is typically a blend of bright yet/orange and dark blue-green specks.

In terms of lobster royalty, calicos sit alongside yellow lobsters as a one in 30 million find.

Mental maths world record by 11-year-old

Sanaa Hiremath, an 11-year-old Florida girl earned the Guinness World Record for solving the largest mental arithmetic multiplication when she solved a 12-digit multiplication problem without a calculator, pen or paper.

Sanaa Hiremath was diagnosed with autism at age two and doesn’t easily express herself. Her parents said she failed maths in the second grade because of her disability as she couldn’t write.

But she showed an unusual aptitude for mental maths. At 11 years old, she’s solving problems an engineering student would solve at MIT.

Sanaa’s paediatrician advised her parents to research whether their daughter’s gift could be a Guinness World Record. So she was tested and given a 12-digit number to multiply, which she completed in under 10 minutes.

Mystery blob washes up on beach

The Cape Lookout National Seashore, in North Carolina, posted a photo on Facebook, asking the public to help identify a gelatinous unidentified blob that washed up on a beach. Experts said the ‘mysterious mass’ might be egg sacs from a squid.

Commenters pointed out the mass is similar to objects that have been spotted on West Coast beaches. A squid expert, Louis Zeidberg, identified the objects in those cases were found to be a species of Pacific Ocean squid known as the California market squid.

Published in Dawn, Young World, June 5th, 2021