Quirky World... Doggy heaven? Pet remains go to space

Houston firm offers space flights for pet remains

Celestis announced that rockets carrying the cremated remains of dogs and cats will start in the autumn.

Spokeswoman Pazia Schonfeld says the cost will be about the same as for human remains sent into space and returned, starting at about $995 (€745).

Celestis Pets is working with a California company, Into the Sunset Pet Transition Centre of San Diego, for pet cremations.

Celestis for years has offered a rocket service that takes partial human remains into space and brings them back, including ashes of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.

Crop circle in Germany attracts many visitors

GERMANY: Thousands of people are trekking to a Bavarian farmer’s field to check out a mysterious set of crop circles.

The ornate design was discovered by a balloonist last week and news of the find quickly spread online.

Farmer Christoph Huttner, who owns the wheat field near Weilheim, said he did not create the circle himself.

He suggests students on summer holiday may have cut the image with a 75m diameter into his field.

Grandma thanks Idaho trooper for traffic stop

USA: A woman who got a speeding ticket while on a recent holiday to Idaho wrote a note to the state police thanking the trooper for the kindness he showed her grandchildren during the stop.

The woman wrote that officer Mike Nielsen made the stop a good experience for her grandchildren by talking with them calmly and giving them stickers. She says she wasn’t left out and got her “very own sticker shock”.

SCARECROW BID

ENGLAND: A farm is aiming to break the Guinness Book of Records for the world’s largest display of scarecrows.

The record of 3,311 scarecrows is currently held by Cincinnati Horticulture Society but the National Forest Adventure Farm in Staffordshire is bidding to steal their crown.

More than 1,000 scarecrows have already been brought along to the farm in Burton-on-Trent. Visitors can also make one during their visit to the farm and are being urged to take selfies with their creations to post online to publicise the bid further.

MAN FINDS CALICO LOBSTER, GIVES IT TO AQUARIUM

USA: A fisherman has caught a rare lobster that is bright orange with dark blue spots.

Josiah Beringer found the calico lobster in a trap in the mouth of New Hampshire’s Hampton Harbour. He donated the 680g, five-year-old male lobster to the Explore the Ocean World Oceanarium in Hampton.

Beringer told the Portsmouth Herald the lobster was found in an area known as Washerwoman Rock, a place between two rocks that gets its name from its “really rough” and washing machine-like waters.

The aquarium’s Ellen Goethel says calico lobsters are the second rarest in the world, after albino lobsters. She says the spots are the result of a genetic pigmentation mutation occurring in 1 in every 30m-50m lobsters.

Axe crashes through car windshield on highway

USA: It was a scary moment on a highway north of Boston when an axe smashed through the windshield of a car.

Massachusetts State Police say the axe bounced out of a landscaper’s dump truck at about 11am on Wednesday on southbound Interstate 95 in Topsfield. They released a photo showing the axe with a corner of its blade stuck in the passenger side of the car’s dashboard. The handle was sticking through the windshield.

Police say the car’s passenger was “shaken up” but not hurt.

The truck driver, from Peabody, Massachusetts, was cited for failing to secure the axe, which carries a $200 fine.