QUIRKY WORLD ... Real-life castaways saved after spelling out ‘help’

MICRONESIA: The men rescued in this tale of three castaways were not named Tom Hanks, or Gilligan, or Robinson Crusoe. Though they might as well have been.

In a scene straight from Hollywood, or a New Yorker cartoon, a US Navy plane spotted the word “help” spelled out in palm fronds on a beach on a deserted island in the remote Pacific.

The three men, missing for three days after a wave overtook the skiff they were travelling in, were found waving their orange life jackets on the tiny Micronesian island of Fanadik, hundreds of kilometres north of Papua New Guinea.

The men’s families reported them missing on Tuesday after they failed to show up at the Micronesian island of Weno, where they were travelling from their home island, Pulap.

“Fortunately for them, they were all wearing life jackets and were able to swim to the deserted island,” said US Coast Guard spokeswoman Melissa McKenzie.

A local boat picked the men up and took them to a hospital.

Two bulk carriers searched a combined 17 hours for the men as part of AMVER, a US voluntary search and rescue programme. Rescue co-ordinators identify participating ships in the area of distress and ask them to help.

In the last two weeks, 15 people have been rescued in the Pacific with the help of 10 AMVER vessels and six aircrews.

To see or not to see

Britain: Renowned artist Willard Wigan has created a microscopic sculpture of William Shakespeare, which is smaller than a full stop, to mark the 400th anniversary of his death.

The artwork has been placed in the eye of a needle and depicts the playwright striking a celebratory pose dressed in a teal tunic and purple stockings, with an Elizabethan-style frame underneath and the words “To see or not to see”.

Sculpted out of Kevlar and fragments of cable tie, Wigan used 24-carat gold for the frame around the quote.

It was painted using a floating fibre plucked from the air as a paintbrush, and polished to a shine using microscopic fragments of diamonds.

The tiny Shakespeare, which took four weeks to create, is part of an exhibition of Wigan’s work at the Light House Media Centre in Wolverhampton.

Shakespeare is believed to have died on his birthday, April 23, in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1616.

Right royal prank

USA: A prank caller tricked workers at a Minnesota Burger King into smashing the windows of the restaurant to keep it from exploding, mirroring similar deceptions at Burger Kings and other fast-food outlets in recent months.

Police said employees at the restaurant in the Minneapolis suburb of Coon Rapids got the call from someone claiming to be with the fire department. The caller said the restaurant could explode, so they needed to relieve the pressure. The manager and other employees believed the caller and smashed all the windows on the ground floor.

“Officers arrived and found that the manager and employees of the Burger King were smashing out the windows,” said Sgt Rick Boone. “The manager explained they’d received a call from a male who identified himself as a fireman who said there were dangerous levels of gas in the building and they had to break out all the windows to keep the building from blowing up.”

Someone placed a similar call to a Burger King in Oklahoma days before, claiming there were high levels of carbon monoxide in the building.

Uphill battle

Scotland: A homegrown athlete beat 200 competitors to win a unique open-water uphill swimming race involving scaling canal lock gates.

The Red Bull Neptune Steps race is the only competition of its kind in the world.

Participants swim uphill through 420 metres of cold water and climb 18 metres over eight canal lock gates in Glasgow, helped by rope climbs, wooden ladders, cargo nets and climbing walls. Scottish open water champion Mark Deans secured the top place in the men’s race.