They say truth is stranger than fiction, and there’s no dearth of amazing stuff going on in the world, and out of it. Here’s a sampling of things that are sure to make you do a double take.
1. There was an ‘Emu War’ in 1932. The Australian army against a thousand emu birds – this military encounter is part of Australian history. The operation was the result of the birds attacking crops. Unfortunately, no men got bravery awards, because the emus, whom a major described as resembling ‘Zulus‘, managed to evade the machine-gun rounds and make a swift escape.
2. Saudi Arabia imports camels from Australia. The BBC reported that since there was a huge rise in demand for camel meat during the Hajj season, which cannot be met with the indigenous supply of animals, the Kingdom imports camels from Australia to keep up.
3. You cross only one country if you walk from Finland to North Korea. The only territory you’ll be travelling across will be Russian. Getting a North Korean visa may pose a problem though, if the Great Leader does not approve!
4. ‘Planet’ Pluto has never completed an orbit around the sun. Because it didn’t remain a planet long enough. An orbit would have taken 284 years to complete; Pluto was ‘discovered’ in 1930, and discredited as a planet in 2006.
5. Charlie Chaplin once lost a ‘Charlie Chaplin Lookalike Contest’. In fact, he came in a miserable third. In 1975, without revealing his true identity, the actor entered the contest in France for a laugh. But it seems the joke was on him. Trust the French not to see a gag staring them in the face.