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An eight-day-old white lion cub plays with a plush toy donkey at Belgrade’s Good Hope Garden zoo.MARKO DJURICA/Reuters

HELLO, COCOA FROG

The animal kingdom just keeps growing – especially in Suriname. CBC reports that 60 new species "potentially new to science" were recently found in the South American country's rain forest. An international team of including the Royal Ontario Museum's Burton Lim mounted an expedition last year to explore Suriname's rugged southeastern region. They discovered 11 new species of fish, one new snake, dozens of heretofore-unseen insects and six new frogs, including the cocoa frog. Named for its brown colouring, it lives in trees and uses round discs on its limbs to climb. Another notable find was a ruby-coloured Lilliputian beetle, measuring less than three millimetres in length. All told, the researchers logged a staggering 1,378 species of plants and animals.

REAL VALUE MEALS

Looking to reduce your grocery bill? Get thee to the dollar store. As reported by CTV News, a man who spent three years eating meals made of foodstuffs from the dollar store has penned a cookbook from his experience. Montreal native Jonathan Lemieux was living a starving student's existence three years ago when he realized his local dollar store sold edibles as well as cheap pens. Working off a budget of $100 a month, Lemieux put his own frugal spin on such recipes as shepherd's pie (tinned beef, canned corn, powdered mash potatoes) and seafood paella (canned mussels, oysters and beef jerky plus rice). "It was probably much more fattening, but it was still good," he said. In Survivre avec une poignée de change, Lemieux swears he suffered no ill health during his three-year regimen.

THE RIGHT STUFF

A new TV series will boldly go where no show has gone before with a grand prize that will launch its winner into space. The Washington Post reports NBC has partnered with Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic and TV producer Mark Burnett for the new reality-competition series Space Race, in which the overall winner will book passage on the space liner expected to begin commercial flights next year. Virgin is currently testing its rocket-powered vehicle, which reached a height of 69,000 feet last month. The airline has collected $80-million in deposits from people who want to take the trip into space and Branson says he and his family will be passengers on the inaugural flight.

THOUGHT DU JOUR

The Swiss had brotherly love. They had 500 years of democracy and peace. And what did they produce? The cuckoo clock.

Orson Welles, Actor, writer and director (1915-1985)

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