The most Olympic golds for rowing won by a woman is five by Elisabeta Lipã (Romania) who won in 1984, 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004, and Georgeta Damian (Romania) in 2000, 2004 and 2008.

As of 2009, Jupiter has 63 natural satellites that have been discovered to date. Saturn has the second greatest number of moons, with 61. Most of the Jovian and Saturnian moons are small irregularly-shaped bodies of ice and rock, and many are almost certainly captured asteroids.

The world’s most popular pen, is Bic’s disposible ball-point pen, the 100 billionth of which was sold in September 2006. Bic Launched the Bic Cristal pen in 1950 and has gone on to sell 57 per second, that is enough pens to fill the Arc de Triomphe 23 times over!

In March 2008 scientists announced they had detected and identified single photons of light bounced off an orbiting satellite some 1,485 km above the Earth. This achievement is a critical step to establishing a space-based quantum communications channel – the holy grail of absolutely secure and uninterceptable digital communications

Satellite with the longest life The International Ultraviolet Explorer was shut down after 18 years 8 months 4 days 1 hour and 6 minutes of elapsed mission time, at 18:42 GMT on 30 Sept 1996.  

Native to the foothills of the eastern Himalayas, the world´s rarest species of heron is the white-bellied heron (Ardea insignis). Critically endangered, this large grey-and-white heron has a total population size estimated at between 50 and 249 individuals.

The world’s rarest species of boxwood is Vahl’s boxwood (Buxus vahlii). Threatened by habitat loss, and ranked as Critically Endangered by the IUCN, it was once found in Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. Today, however, it is known only from two small populations in Puerto Rico, collectively numbering fewer than 50 specimens.

The world´s rarest big cat is the Amur or Manchurian leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis), the most northerly subspecies of leopard, of which fewer than 35 individuals are believed to exist. Native to the mountainous forests on the border of north-eastern China and the Russian Far East, it is currently classed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN.

Puzzle game Pocket Reversi is the most sought-after release for the NeoGeo Pocket Color handheld console. Released by publisher SNK in 2000, it is estimated that only 1,000 copies of the game were manufactured for the European market and, of these, fewer than 100 copies were actually sold. As such, a complete copy of the game with packaging and instructions is a highly desirable collector’s item and is likely to fetch in excess of £100 ($162) in today’s market. Featured in Guinness World Records Gamer”s Continue reading →

Rarest stamp Unique examples include a British Guiana 1 cent black on magenta of 1856 (last on the market in 1980) and the Swedish 3 skilling-banco yellow colour error of 1855.