Victor “Larry” Gomez, Gabriel “Danny” Ramos Gomez, Luisa Lilia De Lira Aceves and Jesus Manuel Fajardo Aceves (all Mexico) are four of a family of 19 that span five generations all suffering from the rare condition called Congenital Generalized Hypertrichosis, characterized by excessive facial and torso hair. The women are covered with a light-to-medium coat of hair while the men of the family have thick hair on approximately 98% of their body apart from their hands and feet. Larry and Danny currently perform in the
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Both Marcos Garcia de Paz and Santiago Villalba Arranz (Spain) travelled 21 m (68.89 ft) across rings hung 1 m (3.28 ft) apart while dangling from just two fingers of each hand on the set of El Show de los Récords, Madrid, Spain on 27 November 2001.
The most consecutive loops performed with a hang glider is 95 by Chad Elchin at the Highland Aerosports flight park at Ridgely, Maryland, USA on 16 July 2001. Elchin was towed to 15,900 feet (4,846 m) and looped his Aeros Stealth Combat non-stop down to 700 feet (213 m), with speeds ranging from 18 – 80 mph (28 – 128 kph).
The hairiest teenager is Supatra “Nat” Sasuphan (Thailand) according to the Ferriman Gallwey method of evaluation of Hirsutism. She was measured on the set of Lo Show dei Record in Rome, Italy, on 4 March 2010. Meeting Nat was one of the many highlights of the show for on-screen adjudicator, Marco Frigatti. “She’s a remarkable little girl,” says Marco. “She’s proud of who she is and wants to be treated just like everyone else. She’s not the one with the problem – it’s only those
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The animals that are the greatest survivors in outer space are microscopic eight-limbed creatures known as tardigrades or water bears. In 2007, scientists sent two species of tardigrade into orbit, where they were exposed not only to the vacuum of space in which no human can breathe unaided but also to sufficient radiation to incinerate a human. When they were brought back to earth, a third of the total number of tardigrades that had been sent up were still alive, thus becoming the only animals
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During the Second World War, a combination of Navajo – the Native American language – along with fairly simply encryptions and a number of word substitutions provided the US Marine Corps with a fast and unbreakable code that could be used to communicate within 20 seconds what would otherwise take around 30 minutes using traditional coding machines. The code substituted Navajo words for common military terms – so “tank” became the Navajo word for “turtle” – and spelled out letters using Navajo words based on
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The most massive single issue of a newspaper was the 14 September 1987 edition of the Sunday New York Times, which weighed more than 5.4kg (12lb) and contained 1,612 pages.
The most people performing a headstand simultaneously is 265 at a gym festival in Menzingen, Switzerland, on 22 June 2008.
The heaviest bell still in use is the Mingun bell, weighing 92 tonnes with a diameter of 5.09 m (16 ft 8 in) at the lip, in Mandalay, Myanmar (Burma). The bell is struck by a teak boom from the outside. It was cast at Mingun late in the reign of King Bodawpaya (1782-1819). The heaviest bell hung in Great Britain is `Great Paul’ in the south-west tower of St Paul’s Cathedral, London. Cast in 1881, it weighs 17 tonnes, has a diameter of 2.9
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The heaviest mango weighed 3.435 kg (7.57 lb) and was presented by Sergio and Maria Socorro Bodiongan (Philippines) at the Sundayag Celebration’s Pinaka Contest in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines, on 27 August 2009. The mango, of the Florida Keitt variety, measured 30.48 cm (12 in) in length, 49.53 cm (19.5 in) in circumference and 17.78 cm (7 in) in width, was harvested from a tree in Mr. and Mrs. Bodiongan’s front yard that yields an average of 100 larger-than-average mangos every season.