Weird News: Space Invasion
Snow Way!
Visitors to the Chengdu Snow Village in the Sichuan province of China were left with a “bad impression” of the tourist attraction in early February, Reuters reported. Because of unseasonably warm weather, project coordinators had to improvise the “snowy” atmosphere, stapling cotton sheets to the rooftops and scattering white sand, cotton batting and soapy water to simulate snow throughout the property. Snow Village organizers said entry fees would be refunded, and the village has closed.
Building History
Clem Reinkemeyer, 87, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, has an unusual collection -- and now he has a Guinness World Record. United Press International reported on Feb. 17 that Reinkemeyer’s collection of 8,882 bricks includes a Roman brick from 100 A.D. and a sidewalk brick made in a facility where the Pentagon now stands. “What appealed to me about bricks is they have names and you can trace them back historically to places,” he said. Some of the most valuable ones are those with misspellings. “I think Oklahoma has a history for the most misspelled bricks,” he said. “I don’t know why.”
Space Invasion
Officials at Poland’s space agency POLSA are examining debris that fell onto the premises of a business in Komorniki on Feb. 19, Reuters reported, to determine whether it originated from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Later that day, a second “identical” container was found about 19 miles away in a forest. POLSA said it has been monitoring the flight of the Falcon 9, which launched on Feb. 1 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, and “will verify the object with SpaceX.” News outlets in Poland reported that flashes were seen in the sky on the morning of Feb. 19.