British family sets record with solar-powered paraglider, and more

British family sets record with solar-powered paraglider

A British family has set a world’s record for the longest solar-powered flight by a paraglider. Led by Gilo Cardozo, his brothers Cosmo and Damian, and Damian’s daughter Tilly, together with five other pilots, they took turns traveling 1,242 miles in their craft, which is fueled by lithium polymer batteries charged by solar panels atop a support vehicle. The flight raised about $15,000 to fight ataxia, a neural disease that affects coordination and balance. The journey, from Monte Carlo to Morocco, took 15 days and included a crossing above the Strait of Gibraltar. “Each day was a new adventure,” said Damian.

Himalayas teems with new species

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More than 350 new plants and animals have been discovered in recent years in the Himalayas, making it one of the world’s richest biological regions, a new environmental report concludes. Among the species cited in the report by the World Wildlife Fund are a bright green Indian frog that glides through the air; a Nepalese catfish that adheres itself to rocks in fast-moving streams; and the miniature muntjac of Myanmar, the world’s smallest deer, which weighs only 24 pounds. “It is astonishing to observe that a large number of new species are discovered even today,” said Nepalese forestry official Deepak Bohara.

Jailhouse hot sauce

Inmates at the Falkenburg Road Jail in Tampa, Fla., are putting their time to good use by growing peppers and processing them into hot sauce. Bottles of the stuff sell for $7 apiece; the profits are used to maintain the jail’s greenhouse and to buy supplies. Rosalind Freeman, whose son is serving time for marijuana possession, hopes that when he’s released in six months, he will go into business for himself—“straight into what he loves to do.” The jailhouse sauce comes in three flavors: Original, Smoke, and, the hottest, “No Escape.”