Looking back over the past weeks and to the weeks ahead – to rate the noteworthy, the cringeworthy, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truly amazing.
Cheese and daredevilry – a winning combination
It’s hard to beat a centuries old tradition that combines a steep hill, a 4kg roll of cheese, and competitors game enough to follow it down the incline. Although the cheese rolling race Cooper’s Hill in Gloucestershire, UK was first recorded in 1826, there is no real idea of when the cheesey running race actually began.
Still, competitors from all around the globe travel to Cooper’s Hill in hopes of glory or maybe just not getting too badly injured. The race creates fantastic thrills and spills and the aim is to be the first to cross the finish line and claim the cheese.
“This year’s hill was especially slippery and muddy after recent rain. Members of a local rugby club lined up at the bottom to catch the tumbling competitors. Three men’s downhill races and one women’s downhill race took place between midday and 1:30pm.
“Abby Lampe from North Carolina in the US won the women’s race by rolling down the hill at speed that left the rest of the field far behind. ‘You just have to roll, said Ms Lampe, a graduate of North Carolina State University, who also won in 2022. She added: ‘There’s a little bit of pain, but it’s just going to be temporary.’ (Source: “Cheese rolling: Dairy-loving daredevils descend on Cooper’s Hill in Gloucestershire for annual race,” 27th May, www.news.sky.com).
5 stars – bit hair raising but 4kgs of premium Gloucester cheese? Why not?
Science rescues honey bees from marauding hornets
A little bit of ingenuity and thinking outside of the box has created a solution to stem the chaos caused by hornets on populations of honey bees in Europe.
Since 2004 hornet stowaways from China have wreaked havoc on honey bee aviaries and have been largely resistant to eradication. Until now. Michael Costa lives outside of Bordeaux, France and had tried everything he knew of to protect his bees.
Michael “discovered a new weapon with the potential to change the course of the entire war, he was intrigued. Several companies had begun selling so-called “electric harps,” which they claimed could kill the hornets in droves by electrocuting them as they flew through. When a nearby apiary reported problems with a swarm of them, he leapt at the opportunity to test one, placing it on top of a bin where hornets had gathered. Costa then watched in awe as the harp killed “hundreds” of them, one by one, within minutes. ‘The demonstration of its effectiveness was staggering,” he says.
Although the harps take different forms, each one is made of some sort of large frame, which is then “strung” with conductive metal wires. These are then connected to a source of electricity, often solar panels, so that the wires conduct simultaneously positive and negative charges. When a hornet flies through, its wings touch the wires on either side, completing a circuit, and thereby delivering a fatal current of electricity. Beekeepers then place the harps around their hives in positions along the hornets’ frequent flight paths. (Source: “How Electric Harps Are Protecting Honey Bees,” by Charlie Metcalfe, 23rd May, www.reasonstobecheerful.world).
5 stars – a wonderful solution to an irritating, threatening issue.
Magnet fishers strike paydirt
Stories of finding treasure are always alluring – they appeal to our sense of the adventurous, and perhaps the fascination of getting hold of riches.
A couple in New York, US, had the great fortune to not only bringing up a safe filed with cash from a lake recently, but also to be told they could keep it.
“James Kane and Barbie Agostini tossed a line with a strong magnet attached to the end into a lake in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens on 31 May. The couple managed to open the safe and found the cash, bundles of $100 bills, with an estimated value of $100,000, though the money was damaged by the water.” (Source: “Couple finds safe stuffed with $100,000 cash while magnet fishing in New York,” 2nd June, www.guardian.com).
The couple informed the police of their find and were told, seeing as it was too difficult to find any owner and there was no crime attached, they could hold on to the loot.
5 stars – good day fishing!
