The noise of gentle waves breaking on a beach has topped a poll for the UK’s favourite coastal sound.
The sound of the waves at Trwyn Llanbedrog, North Wales, saw off competition from recordings of seagulls, children playing, seals calling, birds nesting, Mersey ferries in the fog and the ghost train ride at Brighton pier to scoop 35 per cent of the votes in the poll.
More than 1,600 people voted in the online poll for one of 10 coastal sounds from around the country, conducted as part of the “sounds of our shores” project by the National Trust, British Library and National Trust for Scotland.
Aggressive tarantula in a parcel
A man who opened a parcel addressed to his new home was horrified to discover a large and potentially aggressive tarantula inside.
The householder received the Brazilian Salmon Pink Birdeater – the third largest spider in the world – in a Return To Sender package intended for the previous owner of his property in Bristol.
Dates on the parcel showed it had been unopened for about three weeks and the tissue bedding in the tarantula’s container had gone mouldy.
The man took the spider, which can grow to have a leg span of 28 centimetres, to Highcroft Veterinary Group in Whitchurch, Bristol, where it was found to be “very unwell”. Vets hope it will find a new home.
Shorter name for tallest mountain
North America’s tallest mountain just got a shorter name. Now it has a shorter elevation.
Denali, the Alaska mountain formerly known as Mount McKinley, now measures 20,310 feet at its highest point in a new official elevation, the US Geological Survey announced. That’s 10 feet less than the old measurement of 20,320 feet.
The change comes just days after the Obama administration announced its decision to bestow the mountain’s traditional Alaska Native name on the eve of president’s visit to Alaska this week. USGS spokesman Mark Newell says the old measurement stems from a 1953 survey that used technology of the time.
Journalist sues over toy hamster
An anchor for Fox News is suing Hasbro for more than five million US dollars over a toy hamster that shares her name – and may even resemble her.
Harris Faulkner sued the Rhode Island-based toy company this week, saying it has wrongfully appropriated her name and persona with its plastic Harris Faulkner hamster in the ‘Littlest Pet Shop’ line.
Double celebration for couple
Experts have scored an ace with the discovery of what are thought to be the earliest printed pictures of a game of tennis.
The 16th century images were found by archivists at the University of Glasgow in a newly acquired French printed picture book which has been described as the Instagram of its day.
The scenes, revealed as Scottish tennis star Andy Murray takes on Frenchman Adrian Mannarino in the US Open, feature bearded, well-dressed gentlemen with rudimentary racquets playing on a real tennis court.
They are in a book by Guillaume de La Perriere called Le Theatre De Bons Engins, or the theatre of fine devices, published in Paris in 1540, and recently purchased from a private collection for the Stirling Maxwell Collection at the university library.