Phobaeticus chani, World's Longest Insect Is One of Top 10 New Species Found in 2008

Phobaeticus chani, aka Chan’s Megastick named after amateur Malaysian naturalist Chan Chew Lun, is the longest insect in the world. Phobaeticus chani, which can only be found in Malaysian State of Sabah on the island of Borneo so far, just has been tapped as one of top ten new species found in 2008 by the International Institute for Species Exploration, Arizona State University. It ranks No. 2.

The one specimen (out of only six currently known) collected in the Natural History Museum in London is the first and also the largest Phobaeticus chani. It measures a horrifying 56.7 cm (22.3 in) when front legs was fully extended. Mr. Chan Chew Lun obtained the animal from a local collector and later donated to the Museum in 2008.

The remaining top species are:

No.1: A Palm that Flowers Itself to Death, Tahina spectabilis, aka Tahina Palm

No.3: Pea-sized Pony, Hippocampus satomiae , Satomi's Pygmy Seahorse

No.4: A Mere Thread of a Snake, Leptotyphlops carlae, Barbados Threadsnake

No.5: Welsh Rare Bit, Selenochlamys ysbryda, Ghost Slug

No.6: A Snail that's Whorls Apart, Opisthostoma vermiculum

No.7: Finding Nemo's True Blue Cousin, Chromis abyssus, Deep Blue Chromis

No.8: Devonian Delivery, Materpiscis attenboroughi, Mother Fish

No.9: No Jump in this Bean, Coffea charrieriana, Charrier Coffee

No. 10:  Spray-on New Species, Microbacterium hatanonis, extremophile bacteria discovered in hairspray. 

Source:  Top 10 New Species – 2009, Phobaeticus chani Photos (NHM, Nature)

Sakhan Dosova (Picture) Is World’s Oldest Living person (130 Years Old) from Kazakhstan?

Thanks to a recent census, Kazakh demographers found a great grandmother who is probably the world’s oldest living person.

She is Sakhan Dosova, photo above, from Karaganda in northern Kazakhstan, Dailymail reported.

Sakhan Dosova is said to be 27 March 1879, two weeks after Nobel-winning German-American genius/physicist Albert Einstein was born on March 14 the same year.

Dosova’s birth date translates her age to be 130 years old on March 27, 2009. However, Kazakh officials are a bit more cautious, they are now making more checks to be ascertain the accuracy of Sakhan Dosova’s age.

'We can see that this is turning into a big story and for the sake of our country, we need to be sure her claim is correct,' said one official.

According to one version of her life, she must have given birth to several children over the age of 60, he said.

'There is no doubt she is very old. But is she really 130? Or was there a white lie long ago which was never corrected? We need to find out.'

In January, also in a census, Uzbekistan found Tuti Yusupowa, a super centenarian who reportedly was born on July 1, 1880, and claimed she was the world’s oldest person.

Tuti Yusupowa, Uzbekistan said January she is the oldest people in the world

Yet, the current world’s living oldest person recognized by Guiness World Records is Gertrude Baines, born on April 6, 1894. The 115-year-old African American lives lives at the Western Convalescent Home in Jefferson Park, Los Angeles. In 2008 General Election, grandma Baines voted for President Barack Obama.

Grandma Gertrude Baines, Guiness World Records recognized world oldest living person (Picture via Elderly Space)

Video: Saudi Arabian Man Majed Al-Maliki Eats 22 Live Scorpions

Yikes! Saudi Arabian man Majed Al-Maliki ate 22 live scorpions in Riyadh on January 22. He beat the previous record of eating 21 by USA's Dean Sheldon (MP3 interview). Manjed Al-Maliki now is the Guinness World Record holder of a man eating most live scorpions.

Picture: Nadya Suleman, Suleman Octuplets's Mom

Picture! Nadya Suleman was seen in the picture above captured from the video of her first post-delivery interview on NBC Ann Curry's Today Show after she left from the Kaiser Permanente's hospital in Bellflower, California. On January 26, Nadya Suleman (also known as Natalie Suleman, Nadya or Natalie Suleman Gutierrez,Nadya Doud), gave birth via C-section to eight babies who are now known as the Suleman Octuplets [Wikipedia].

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Suleman Octuplets's Mama Nadya Suleman Interview Video

The Suleman Octuplets in California are the second set of octuplets who were born alive in the United States and the only set octuplets who survived more than eight days after the birth of Texas's Chukwu Octuplets [Wikipedia] in 1998.

Nadya Suleman, 34,  is a single mother. She has 6 other children aging from 2 to 7 years old. All of fourteen kids were produced using in vitro fertilization technology. Single sperm donor David Solomon is their daddy.

Tuti Yusupowa, 128-year-old Uzbekistan Great Grandma, Is World Oldest's People

Jeanne Calment (Wiki)

World's oldest person ever verified is France's Jeanne Calment [Wikipedia], who was born on 21 February 1875. When she died on Aug. 4, 1997, Calment aged 122 years and 164 days.

Jeanne Calment's record has probably broken by Tuti Yusupowa, a 128-year-old great great grandma from a village in a remote region of Uzbekistan. Though the birth year on her passport issued in 1997 from Uzbekistan's Interior Ministry only shows Tuti Yusupowa was born in 1880, Xinhua is reporting Ms. Yusupowa was born on July 1 of that year.

Safar Hakimov, a state official who is working a field survey to discover people aged over 100 in the central Asian country, claimed Yusupowa is the world's oldest woman.

Asha Mandela Longest Dreadlocks Guinness World Record

Pictured: Asha Mandela's Longest Dreadlocks In The World (via)

Asha Mandela of South Florida has the longest dreadlocks on the world. The hair of 46-year-old woman from Polk County that has grown 20 years measures at 8 feet 9 inches. Asha Mandela currently is applying for a Guinness World Record for her very proud assets. Snippets from Stupid Celebrities are some facts about Asha Mandela's Longest Dreadlocks in the world:

Asha Mandela’s dreadlocks are longer than she is tall. Asha began growing her dreads twenty years ago.

Asha wraps her 8 foot, 9 inch dreads around her neck like a scarf, or lets them hang down her back like a veil. Mandela is originally from Trinidad, and began growing her dreads 20 years ago while she was living in New York.

Mandela’s dreadlocks are very important to her, and she refers to them as her baby. But of course they are quite a bit of work. When she goes in her pool, it takes two hours at least for her dreads to dry. Mandela says, “I try not to have any errands that day”.

Asha Mandela washes her 8 foot dreads once a week, and it takes an entire bottle of shampoo and bottle of conditioner to accomplish the task.

Asha Mandela Longest Dreadlocks Guinness World Record Applying Video

Usain Bolt 9.68s Olympics 100M World Record

World champion Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt broke the world record of men's 100m at Beijing Olympics (video report) in China's National Stadium or Bird's Nest, August 16. His 9.68s is 0.04s faster than the previous 9.72s he set earlier this year! Usain Bolt won an Olympic gold medal for his country Jamaica. (Image credit: PR Photos)

Update: Usain Bolt's new world record was finally calibrated to 9.69s.

Usain Bolt Set Men's 100m World Record at 9.72 Seconds (Video)

Usain Bolt is the fastest man on the planet (see video above). The 21-year-old Jamaican sprinter set a new record of 9.72 seconds for Men's 100 meters at the Reebok Grand Prix athletics meeting at Icahn Stadium in New York on May 31, 2008.

Usain Bolt's 9"72 is 0.02 second faster than that of country fellow Asafa Powell who clocked 9"74 in September, 2007. (Picture: Xinhua)

We sensed that Usain Bolt is determined to compete in Beijing Olympics and win himself at least a gold medal.

``The world record means nothing without gold medals in the World Championships or the Olympics,'' Bolt told the IAAF website. ``If you are the Olympic champion, they have to wait four years to try to beat you.''

Jyoti Amge, an 58-cm-long Achondroplasia Dwarfism Girl in India, Is World's Smallest Teen Girl (Pictures)

 

Jyoti Amge, 15, just about 59.69 cm in height and 5.25 kg in weight, is the world's smallest girl recognized by the Indian Book of Records. Jyoti Amge from Nagpur of central India, has a form of dwarfism called achondroplasia [wiki]. According to mum Ranjana,there seemed nothing wrong at Jyoti's birth, but they came to know about her disorder when she was five. Now fully grown, Amge who won't grow any taller than her current height, enjoys her life with full confidence for the future.

She said: 'I am proud of being small. I love all the attention I get. I'm not scared of being small and I don't regret it.

'I'm just the same as other people. I eat like you, dream like you. I don't feel any different.'

Jyoti is treated like a mini-celebrity in her home town, where people flock to meet her and some even treat her like a goddess.

She will even be releasing an album with her favourite Indian pop star, the bhangra/rap star Mika Singh.

Jyoti is ambitious and hopes to work as a Bollywood actress one day.

She said: 'I would love to work in a big city like Mumbai, act in films and travel to London and America.

In 2006, Nepal's 14-year-old 50-centimeter-tall Khagendra Thapa Magar's apply to Guinness World Records to be the world's shortest man but was dismissed. Thapa Magar was promised to review his application once he grows to 18 years old. It's not clear now if Jyoti Amge will make the similar application to be the world's shortest woman.

Jyoti Amge‘s classmates treat her like any other student. They posed with her for a photo shot.

Jyoti has specially made miniature desk and chair at school

Jyoti Amge chats to her friends on her cellphone

Jyoti Amge is dwarfed by her neighbour's 13-month old baby.

Family photo:  Jyoti Amge with father Kishanji, mother Ranjana Amge and siblings

Riding on her brother's motorcycle, Jyoti might be deemed as his daughter

Source: Dailymail & Xinhua

Zimbabwe Issued 50 Million Dollar Notes

Shameless man Robert Mugabe has caused the catastrophic damages to the economy of Zimbabwe which was once one of the richest African counties. Yet the 84-year-old man has no any intention to step down as the State head. Nearly one week after Zimbabwe's last Saturday general election, there is still no official Presidential election results announced. Nobody believes Robert Mugabe isn't rigging the votes! One more day Robert Mugabe remains as Zimbabwean President, One more day Zimbabwean people suffer! By issuing the world's largest denomination 50 Million dollar notes on April 4, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe can't suppress the country's 100000% inflation rate!

The new note is worth one American dollar at the widely-used black market trading and can buy just three loaves of bread.

Link

World's Most Expensive Champagne

The world's most expensive champagne, breaking records at $6,485 per bottle, goes on sale on March 20.

The limited edition 12-bottle box sets of Perrier-Jouet champagne that valued at $78,780, will be limited to a "community of super-rich" consumers (100 people) in the United States, Britain, Japan, China, Russia, Switzerland and France.  Link

The Longest YouTube Video

Simply want to make the longest video on YouTube, Charles Trippy managed to film more than 10 hours of continuous footage.  And he did make it! Sure you can't finish watching this tedious video, still I bet you can check out this shortest ever video on Youtube, which was also made by Trippy and only lasts 0.01 second. #Tags: youtube, video, charles trippy

Robbie Maddison's Record-break Las Vegas Motorcycle Jump

Meet, Robbie Madison, the Australian daredevil! At the New Year Eve of 2008, he set a new record for the world's longest motorcycle jumping! He jumped almost 100 meters - 98.34m (322 feet, 7.5 inches) at the Rio All-Suite Casino and Hotel, Las Vegas, smashing an old record of 84.6m (277.6 feet) by by his national fellow Trigger Gumm in 2005. Link video via With Malice

Update (January 2009): Robbie Maddison perform a motor jump stunt again for 2009's New Year Eve. The daredevil launched off a ramp at 90kmh and flew 37 metres (120 feet) into the air to land the top of the Arc de Triomphe at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel and then perfectly freefell to on to another landing ramp.

Robbie Madison's Amazing Record Jump

Snow Globe Boy Ben Eckerson

Not like everyone doing with the hustle-and-bustle of shopping, shoveling, and soirees during this Christmas holiday season, Ben Eckerson, the 24-year-old production coordinator at McKinney advertising agency in Durham, N.C. has been in an inflatable snow globe to seek a world record for time spent in such a spot. He is being shown live, 24/7, via Web cam at http://snowglobeboy.mckinney.com -- so please do go there to have peek what the snowglobe boy Ben Eckerson is doing. Source: CBS the Early Show Tags: snowglobe boy, ben eckerson, live, webcam, christmas, holiday season

Giant Palaia Truffle Bid by Stanley Ho at Record Price US $330,000

Jubilant Cristiano Savini holding his Palaia truffle (picture by AP)

Cristiano Savini, an Italian truffle hunter and trader, and his father Luciano under help of their dog Rocco last week found an usually giant truffle in Palaia, a town about 40 kilometers from Pisa. At the annual International Tuscan Truffle Auction held simultaneously in Macau, London and Florence on December 1, Macau casino mogul Stanley Ho made the winning bid for the 3.3 pound (1.5 kg) at a record price US$330,000, outbidding British artist Damien Hirst and Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed of Abu Dhabi.

The Palaia truffle's price bested the previous record for a truffle of $212,000, and might soon rewrite a Guinness World Records which currently lists a 2.86 pound white truffle found in Croatia in 1999 as the biggest.

Truffle [wiki], dubbed as  "the diamond of the kitchen" is highly valued fungus which has a smell similar to deep-fried sunflower seeds or walnuts and is believed having  aphrodisiacal powers. Source: AP Tags: palaia, truffle, auction, macau, stanley ho, Damien Hirst

World's Most Expensive Perfume - No. 1 Perfume

The pricey perfume 'No. 1 Perfume' - one ounce costs about 26-hundred dollars - is officially the world's most expensive fragrance recorded in Guinness World Records.  link Tags: World Most Expensive Perfume, No. 1 Perfume

World's Largest Flag In Israel

Measuring about 100 meters wide, 200 meters long and 5.2 tons in weight, the national flag of Israel was displayed on Sunday (Nov 25) in Masada, southern Israel, and declared by the Guinness Book of Records as the largest flag in the world.

Source:Xinhua  Tags: World Largest Flag, Israel, National Flag, Masada

Jason Lewis, The First Person Who Completes 46,505-mile Human-powered World Circumnavigation

Meet Jason Lewis, a native Londoner who has just become the first person who finished 46,505-mile human-powered world circumnavigation. Since he left the Meridian at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, on a bicycle, at 1pm on July 12, 1994, Jason Lewis, now 40, has spent 13 years kayaking, rollerblading, bicycling, pedalling, paddling, walking and swimning his way around the world. Source

Boo Boo, World's Smallest Dog

Boo Boo, a Chihuahua stands at just four inches (10.16cm) tall, is the world's smallest dog in height, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

Boo Boo's owner, Lana Elswick, breeds Chihuahuas, and said Boo Boo was the size of her thumb when she was born. It  hasn't got much bigger since being born a year ago, weighing just 42.5 grams (1.5 ounces).

Source: Boo Boo is world's smallest dog @ BBC

Read also: Great Dane -World's tallest Dog, Elwood, World's Ugliest Dog

Video: Russell Byars' 51 Stone-skipping World Record

Russell Byars, a 43-year-old engineer from Pennsylvania, shattered the previous world record of 40 skims, which was set in 2002 at the Pennsylvannia Qualifying Stone Skipping Tournament, was held by Kurt "Mountain Man" Steiner , 42, of Emporium, on July 19 - but it took officials from the prestigious Guinness Book of Records until this weekend to declare him the new record holder.

Mr Byars, known as "Rock Bottom" by his fellow stone-throwing aficionados, smashed the record at French Creek on the Allegheny River, about 70 miles north of Pittsburgh, with a prodigious effort which he estimated travelled 250 feet (76 metres).

Source: American shatters world stone-skipping record @ Telegraph