GENERAL NEWS

Western Star, 29 November 1935, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS

| GIANT WANTS SCHOOLING I Assen Gheorgliieff, of Vratsa. Bulgaria, although only 15, is over 6ft high, weighs 18.0 and has extraordinary strength. His ordinary food is veg-i, etablos and fruit, and he eats three loaves of bread a day. He can lift weights of 4501 b with ease and in this way earns enough to pnv for his education. He i s an orphan. His friends' have tried to persuade him to become n wrestle or boxer but bis ambition is a. universitv education.

—Sowing By Aeroplane.— Visitors to the Ukraine have been surmised to see aeroplanes swoopimr over the fields and bombing them —with rice. This method of R owing has already been; tried out with some measure of success' in other parts of Russia, and it is now 1 Being carried out on a much larger scale Sowing by aeroplane has one stoat nd- > vantage. It can be done during the. first da vs of spring when the earth is still sodden and ordinary sowing iniple-. ments would be useless. —Sins Of The Children When children misbehave •in Sunder-, land in future their parents ar c also ' liable to be punished'with them. Sunderland magistrates, perturbed by the: continuance of iuvenik, crime, decided to take advantage of the Act of Pavlin-’ ment and in future to punish parents ; as well as the offending children. When a child or young person is placed -on; probation the parent- will enter recognisance for the child’s good behaviour and a, further offence by the child would cause a breach of recognisance leading to serious results for the parents. —Old Castle Too Costly.—Kilkenny Castle, the historic Irish seat of the Marquis of Ormonde, and one of the most ancient buildings in'; the British .Isles, is to be closed thi~ month. The contents will bo sold H costs too much to maintain it as a residence. The castle dates back to preNormpn days. Tt was occupied by Stringbow. first Nomman invader of Tieland, on hi s marriage to Eva, daughter of the King of Leinster, 800 years ago It has beeff in the possession of th Ormonde family since 1391. The presoumarquis, who is 86 years old, gave the castle to his heir, the Earl of Ossory. ten years ago, —Blind Boys Handle Snakes.— Peter, n fiiemllv chimpanzee at the London Zoo was introduced to a number of blind children from one of the I National Institute’s sunshine homes. H. walked with them jn the grounds and held their hands in turn In an enclosure at the hack of the reptile housp the blind children: particularly the boys, astonished grown-ups by their complete absence of fear when handling large; non-poisonous makes. Zoo officials gave: their sightless guests every possible opportunity of toucki:strange beasts and - reptiles.

—The Radio Clock. — A . clock which requires no winding lias been patented at the Prague I’atcuL Office. Known as a radio clock, it ban as “works” a s mall receiving set, which guides the progress of the hands. Timeimpulses are transmitted by an exact chronometer in the Prague Observatory, which has a transmitting station for announcing the time during wireles-, programmes. The radio clock cm he oper. ated from a distance of 500 miles. So winding or regulating is necessary. The exact time is recorded, on the basis of astronomical data. The clock is unaffected by the weather. It is simple and cheap to construct.

—Sea Trip For Whisky.— AVh i sky specially matured by a voyage round Cape Horn will soon be on salei in London. Shippers at Melbourne! have just exported a consignment, of eight casks with the specific instructions! that on sea voyage to England it must be carried round the famous stormbeaten Cape Horn. The severe shaking the spirit will probably receive as the ship punches through winter seas off this notorious piece of coastline is ex-) pected to give it ,a rare flavour. Port, wine is s ometimes taken on similar long voyages. The constant heaving of the ship and th e movement of tTie wine inside the casks imparts to it an extra bouquet, —Life-Saving In Mid-Air An astonishing life-saving demonstration in mid-air is reported in- the; official journal of the Commissariat for War, Kharakhonov, the famou s parachutist, jumped from an aeroplane at, 2500 ft with a passenger who was sup- 1 posed to be unconscious. As lie fell hei pulled the release of the “unconscious” man’s parachpte. Hp then swung clear,) released hi s own parachute, and when he landed rushed to the aid of tlief other man. An 80-year-old womaii jumped from a tower in Moscow in a- parachute recently. When slio landed she declared that if she had been younger she would have become an air pilot—Spider As Jonah. —

A spider, having spent some minutes in the stomach of a trout, regained it,si freedom in a miraculous fashion in a stream near Schenectady, New A r ork. Tho trout a- few minutes after swallowing the spider, snapped at anotlier succulent tit-bit. At once he found himself at tho end of a fisherman’s line.; The fisherman wqs Dr Leonard B. Clark, professor of biology at Union College, Schenectady, and when he had landed the trout lie opened it. The spider, still in good health, emerged and ran off. —Oldest Old Maid Evica Kolar, who claims to be the. oldest old maid in tlie world, has just succeeded tp the title of Zagreb’s oldest inhabitant. Evica, \yho is 103 years old, was found in th© porch of tho Church of St Mark when only a few months old, and was brought up at the expense of the municipality by the foster-mother whoso name she now bears. Her first and last offer of marriage came when she was over 60, and as her suitor was as poor as herself she refused him. Evica used to be a servant in the bouse of Count Kulmcr, and she later worked as a hnspifal nurse. But now in ii,-r 103rd year, she has become a “lady.” For tbe first time in her life she lias a maid to do her housework. .As ho- sight has failed the town provides be,- wifi enough money to pay for her fo-.<| and her servant.