Harry Potter fan makes record

Harry Potter super fan Eli Chmelik, 11, of Essex, England, earned the Guinness World Record for most Harry Potter characters identified from film quotes in one minute. He decided to do it after hearing about a similar record for the Star Wars franchise.

Chmelik became a Harry Potter fan at age six, and has read each book in the series multiple times. His mother compiled 50 quotes from the films and used a computer programme to randomise them. The quotes were then read aloud for Chmelik to identify.

He correctly identified 19 characters from the quotes in the 60-second time period, earning the record.

Scuba diving pizza boy

Thane Milhoan, 59, the habitat operations manager at Florida’s Jules’ Undersea Lodge, believes he and his colleague just might be the world’s only ‘underwater pizza delivery boys.

The former diving instructor was a high school sports reporter in Hawaii before the Covid-19 crisis hit. Now he’s swapped that for the unlikeliest of roles in Key Largo, part of which includes swimming to guests and delivering their food.

But in winter it can get very chilly. However, the most challenging part of the job is keeping the pizzas dry and hot during the short dive. And to keep the toppings from falling off, they use weights and some strategically placed clips to keep the box level in the water.” The lodge has been open for roughly 35 years, and was originally a research laboratory used to explore the continental shelf off the coast of Puerto Rico.

The oldest living aquarium fish

Methuselah likes to eat fresh figs, get belly rubs and is believed to be the oldest living aquarium fish in the world.

According to the biologists at the California Academy of Sciences, Methuselah is about 90 years old, with no known living peers. Methuselah is a four-foot, 40-pound Australian lungfish brought to the San Francisco museum in 1938 from Australia.

A primitive species with lungs and gills, Australian lungfish are believed to be the evolutionary link between fish and amphibians. It is now a threatened species and can no longer be exported from Australian waters, so it’s unlikely there will be a replacement once Methuselah passes away.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, January 5th, 2022