Lebanese chefs gathered in Beirut, Lebannon, to set a new Guinness record for the world’s biggest tabbouleh salad.
In an attempt to declare proprietorship over the popular Middle-Eastern salad, Lebanese cooks prepared the largest Tabbouleh salad in history, on Sunday, October 25. The three tons dish contained massive amounts of chopped tomatoes and parsley, but the hungry audience made short work of it. The previous Guinness record for the biggest Tabbouleh was held by Israel.
Members of the Unification Church, all around the world, took part in the world’s largest mass wedding officiated by reverend Sun Myung Moon, founder of the controversial church.
Over 20,000 people filled up the Sun Moon University campus, in Seoul, South Korea, to celebrate Sun Myung Moon’s 90th birthday and his 50th wedding anniversary with wife Han Hak-ja. Some of the couples had just met a few months before, while others came to renew their vows. Korean couples were joined by 20,000 other followers from all around the world, who tuned in via an internet link.
Sun Myung Moon took this opportunity to pass down leadership of the Unification Church to his children. Moon started the much contested cult in 1954, following a vision he had when he was just 15, where Jesus allegedly appeared to him and asked him to finish His work. The Korean leader performed his first mass wedding in the early 1960s and throughout the years officiated ceremonies between people who had never met each other before their wedding.
Critics stated this latest mass wedding proves followers of the Unification Church are brainwashed. Sun Myung Moon denied the accusation saying these days couples spend months getting to know one another, before they tie the knot.
Photos via csmonitor
Forced by the downfall of the American housing market, Fred Milani had to put his backyard replica of the White House up for sale, for just $10 million.
American Iranian property developer, Fred Milani, says he doesn’t really want to sell his beloved replica of the iconic White House, but he has to. The mini-house is built in the backyard of his Atlanta residence and comes complete with its very own Oval Office and Lincoln Bedroom, as well as a backdoor pool.
If you’re expecting an interesting story about how Mr. Milani decided to have the White House replica built in his backyard, you’re in for a big disappointment. He just wanted a house and the architect just asked him “How about I build you the White House?”, he agreed and the rest is history.
The 16,500 square meter building was built seven years ago and has managed to split the neighborhood. There are those who feel lucky to be living next to such an impressive edifice, but most find it excessive and are annoyed by the high number of tourists flocking to their peaceful neighborhood to take pictures of the White House replica.
via Daily Mail
It was bound to happen sooner or later, right? With plastic surgery becoming more and more popular, enhanced babes yearned for a chance to show off their improvements. And so, Miss Plastic Beauty Contest was born.
Miss Plastic, the world’s first “plastic” beauty contest, takes place in Hungary and any woman aged between 19 and 38 can participate. As long as she is a resident of Hungary and, more importantly, has at least one cosmetic surgery in her medical history. A boob job or facelift will do just fine.
Instead of focusing on looks, the judges pay a lot more attention to the sugeons’ work on the contestants. Both the contestants and the doctors who operated on them will be rewarded with valuable prizes.
The final of this very first edition of Miss Plastic takes place on October 9th. Below, I’ve posted photos of all 18 finalists that will be battling for the grand prize, a brand new apartment. Which one do you think deserves to win?
Two weeks after the Tokyo Gundam statue was dismantled, a new robot statue was unveiled in Kobe, Japan. This time it’s the Tetsujin 28-go aka Gigantor.
This mean looking machine was set up in Wakamatsu Park, Kobe and unlike the RX78 Gundam statue it will remain here permanently. The funds for the construction of Gigantor were not supplied by big-time corporations either. The approximately 1.5 million dollars were raised by local shop owners, in hope that it will bring commerce and people to Kobe.
The city of Kobe was seriously damaged by an earthquake, in 1995, and its population has decreased to around 80% of what it was before the cataclysm. Mitsuteru Yokoyama, a legendary manga artists, was born in Kobe and helped design Tetsujin 28-go.
via Mainichi
An impressive replica of the original Batmobile has been turning heads on the streets of Sweden, recently.
Batman undoubtedly one of the most comic-book hero of all times and fans are always trying to find or build the coolest memorabilia. Not long ago we featured some photos of a home-built Batman Tumbler built from scratch and of a Tumbler built from a Go Kart. Now a Swedish dude apparently spent around one million dollars over 3-5 years to convert a 1973 Lincoln Continental into an awesome replica of the original Batmobile.
A result of over 20,000 hours of work, the Batmobile replica comes with voice recognition, DVD players, height adjustment, reversing cameras and other gadgets. It’s definitely one of the coolest Batmobile replicas I’ve seen.
via Like Cool
The world’s largest flag was unfurled over Teddy Football Stadium, Jerusalem, during an event attended by officials from the Guinness Book of Records.
The creation of the flag was initiated by Grace Galindez Gupana, a 48-year-old Filipino business woman and founder of Halleluyah Kingdom of Jerusalem Foundation. Mrs Gupana holds nine other Guinness records, including the largest stone tablets with the ten commandments and says her projects are ways of emphasizing her love for the God of Israel.
The flag presented on September 17, in the capital of Israel, features the largest emblem of lion, ever soon and measures 44,404 square meters (that’s over 4.3 hectares) and weighs 9.5 tons. A team of six people produced the world’s largest flag over a period of 120 days. It cost $120,000 to make.
Photos by Xinhua/Yin Bogu
via Xinhua
Milan Karki, an 18-year-old from Nepal, may have solved the world’s increasing energy problems, by inventing a solar panel that uses human hair instead of expensive wiring.
The young Nepalese, together with 4 classmates, has been trying to come up with a way of producing cheap, renewable energy for his home village ever since he went to school in Kathmandu, but now he dreams of powering up the whole world with his invention.
Milan has discovered hair not only makes us look good, but is also light sensitive and a great energy conductor, because of the melanin it contains. So he replaced the silicon in normal solar panels with human hair and thus invented a new type of solar panel, four times cheaper than the ones on the market today.
The inventor says he has already sent out a couple of his prototypes to districts in Nepal, to be tested for feasibility, but is confident he has found an answer to his country’s energy issues. He says buying half a kilo of human hair is not only cheaper than a set of batteries, but also produces energy for much longer period of time. And anyone can replace the hair, so the solar panel doesn’t require a lot of servicing.
Photos by Tom van Cakenberge/BARCROFT MEDIA
via Daily Mail
Zhang Tingting, a popular kung-fu artist from China, managed to tow eight cars using only the incredible power of her hair. This was her last performance before becoming a Buddhist nun.
52-year-old Zhang Tingting has been touring China for decades, mesmerizing people with her unique kung-fu talents. Using the power of her braided hair, Zhang is able to pull cars and even cut paper. She has been practicing the ancient art of kung-fu ever since she was 17 years old, but has now decided to quit and become a Buddhist nun.
The talented artist has been living the life of a nun for the last two years, but decided to give one last performance, for the people in her native town of Kaifeng, before shaving her precious hair. On August 25, Zhang Tingting pulled off one of the most amazing stunts ever, towing eight cars for a length of 20 meters.
She has shaved her unusually strong hair, but it has not been lost. Authorities chose to preserve it and are considering sending it on a pilgrimage to Buddhist temples in Tibet, or displaying it in a museum.
Photos by ImagineChina
Tao Xiangli, a 34-year-old amateur inventor from China, spent two years building a fully-functional homemade submarine.
Tao is not the first person to build a homemade submarine, but that doesn’t make his achievement any less impressive. Especially since he did it using oil barrels and tools purchased from a second-hand market.
After two years of hard work and testing, on September 3, young Tao Xiangli presented his invention to the world and took it for a test dive in a lake just outside Beijing. His homemade submarine features a periscope, electric motors, a manometer, two propellers, depth-control tanks and it only cost $4,385 to make.
Photos by Reuters
via Drugoi
Over 200,000 blue rubber-ducks took part in the 2009 Great British Duck Race, on September 6, on the Thames, in London.
Last year the tradition of the blue ducks began and this year they returned in even greater numbers, literally covering up Molesey Lock, on the River Thames. As we’ve mentioned in our coverage of the 2008 Great British Duck Race, the duckies are blue because, in 2007, when they were yellow, people threw their own ducks in the water, without paying the entrance fee.
The Great British Duck Race is a contest between rubber ducks, to determine which is the fastest floating one. People have to pay 2 pounds to “adopt” a blue rubber duck and enter it in the competition. The winner’s prize is 10,000 pounds and the rest of the earnings go to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC).
Last year’s record of 200,000 blue rubber ducks on the Thames was beaten this year, with over 205,000 “contestants” registered for the race.
Photos by Xinhua/Reuters
via Xinhua
More than one hundred belly surfers from all over the world gathered in Cornwall, Britain, for the annual World Belly Board Championships.
You might be surprised to know surfing wasn’t always about standing up on the board and riding the waves. British surfers practiced the sport on their bellies, using short wooden planks, over one century ago. On September 6, 2009 belly surfers from as far as Australia and America gathered in Cornwall for the annual charity event for the National Trust and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). The World Belly Board Championships began back in 2002 as a way to commemorate the beginnings of British surfing.
Cornwall has been the main surfing area in Britain and it’s recognized as the first place where a British surfer actually stood up on a surf board. The first photographic evidence of this dates back to 1929.
Photos by Matt Cardy/Getty Images Europe
via Zimbio
Raising awareness on the issue of global warming is not easy this days, but artists come up with all sorts of original ways to make the news.
Take Brazilian artists Nele Azevedo, who created 2,000 ice-sculptures and placed them on the steps of the Berlin Opera Hall, to melt. That’s a lot of work to watch melt away in one hot afternoon, but at least her message made the newspapers. And if one more person knows about the melting Arctic ice, than her effort was not in vain.
As a black mother, having three albino children out of five can’t seem normal.
But it can happen, and Rosmere Fernandes de Andrade and her partner Joao, two black Brazilian parents are proof. Esthefany Caroline, Ruth Caroline and Kauan are as white as snow while their two other siblings have dark skin, just like their parents.
Scientists say this is very unusual, especially since both the parents and some of the children are black. But it’s all just a game of luck, since if both the parents carry the albinism gene, there is a 1 in four chance their offspring will be an albino.
You can imagine it’s not easy for them to adjust in a society where they look completely different from everyone else and they say they constantly get taunted by kids, at school. Their parents are also faced with the task of buying expensive sunblock and extra clothes, to prevent them from getting skin cancer.
Photos by REUTERS
via Daily Mail
PETA activists finds original way to promote vegetarianism in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Ashley Fruno, an old PETA activist from Canada, who in the past even went nude to promote vegetarianism, now found an even more ingenious way to attract attention. On September 2, 2009, miss Fruno showed up in front of a mall in Malaysia’s capital of Kuala Lumpur, dressed in a beautiful green dress, made only out of vegetables leaves.
She was holding up a sign that said “Let Vegetarianism Grow on You“. Well, she did and it looks amazing on her.
Photos by Xinhua/Chong Voon Chung
via Xinhua
