Quick Takes

Shark fight

Game officials in Florida have fined a man for punching a 9-foot hammerhead shark. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Georgia resident Granger Ray Wooten attacked a large hammerhead shark near Panama City Beach, reportedly “punching it repeatedly in the stomach,” according to one witness. The onlooker reported the man then placed a small child on the shark for a photograph before sliding it back into the water. Wooten, whose case moved to trial on Dec. 7, argued that he was trying to revive the shark. Officers later found the shark dead in the water.

Fire starters

This year, a Swedish town has a plan to prevent arsonists from burning up its Yule goats. Every year the town of Gävle has erected giant straw goats for its Christmas festivities. But in 34 of the past 50 years, the straw goat has met a fiery fate. Last year, the Yule goat made it until Dec. 27 before someone doused the display in gasoline and lit it on fire. This year, Gävle officials have added $100,000 to the budget and plan on using the money to hire security guards to protect the object from arson.

Burger surprise

A new offering from a trendy Moscow restaurant is sure to turn as many stomachs as heads. In November, the Krasnodar Bistro placed nutria burgers, nutria hot dogs, and nutria dumplings on the menu. While the orange-toothed river rat also known as the coypu has been acceptable fare in rural Russia for decades, nutria has yet to catch on in the city. And yet, as Russian hipster website Afisha noted in a review, “Just to reiterate this: it’s 2016 and you can eat a rat burger just a few hundred meters from the Kremlin.”

Crime and punishment

Chinese police have adopted a lex talionis for some Guangdong province drivers who leave their high beam headlights on inappropriately. On Chinese social media, the Shenzhen Traffic Police posted in November videos of Chinese drivers caught using high beams being forced to stare into the headlights of squad cars for 60 seconds at a time. According to authorities, offending drivers also face a $44 fine.

Animal house

This pig won’t fly, but it will greet you at the airport. San Francisco International Airport added LiLou, a Juliana pig, to its stable of therapy animals in December. Called the Wag Brigade, the 300 cats, dogs, and rabbits that LiLou joined are all certified Animal Assisted Therapy animals and trot around the airport with vests that invite stressed passengers to “Pet Me!” Airport officials say LiLou will wear a series of costumes and will have manicured nails when she reports to work.

Banned boss

Twitter employees probably faced an angry boss on Nov. 22. Either because of Twitter’s complaint system or a software bug, CEO Jack Dorsey’s personal Twitter account was suspended by the website. After having his account restored 15 minutes later, the co-founder Dorsey tweeted an update, blaming his suspension on “an internal mistake” at the San Francisco–based tech firm.

Name that pizza

Police in Amherst, Mass., cited a woman who attempted to gain entry into a local bar by using a slice of pizza as a form of identification on Nov. 17. Monkey Bar co-owner Rasif Rafiq corroborated the story to The Boston Globe, saying his bouncer declined the pizza as identification before the woman became belligerent. “When a girl gets [aggressive] like that, we are sort of at their mercy,” Rafiq told the Globe. “All we can do is stand in their way.” When police arrived, officers cited the woman for trespassing.

Frozen solid

When planning a new attraction, Japan’s Space World theme park turned to a fish market for supplies. The venue in Kitakyushu City opened its ice skating rink on Nov. 12 with over 5,000 dead fish and sea creatures embedded in the ice. According to a Space World spokesman, the park received most of the display pieces from fish mongers looking to dispose of specimens unfit for retail sale. The park says the exhibit has been popular with inquisitive children, but other reports indicate some of the dead fish are seeping blood into the surrounding ice.

Scoop king

He wouldn’t have been able to eat them before they melted, but Dimitri Panciera of Italy claimed a Guinness World Record by successfully balancing 121ice cream scoops on a cone for at least 10 seconds. Panciera held the previous record of 109 scoops, and he also holds the record for building the largest ice cream scoop at over 6 feet tall and almost 2 feet wide.