The World's First four-seater Hypercar - Koenigsegg Gemera

Koenigsegg Gemera was revealed on Tuesday outside of the 2020 Geneva International Motor Show. It is the company's first four-seater and also the world's first Hypercar with four-seater.

It has 1,700 bhp (1,268 kilowatts), 2,581 pound-feet of torque, and goes from 0-100 km/hr in 1.9 seconds. 3 electric motors provide 1,100 hp and the 2 liter twin turbo charged 3 cylinder engine provides the other 600 hp. 

It can run in all electric mode up to 300 km/hr with 800-volt battery. It can travel up to 31 miles (50 kilometers) in purely electric mode. More impressively, it can reach speeds of up to 186 mph (300 kph) while running on electric energy.

Koenigsegg also add interesting interior features, including four heated and cooled cup holders, front and rear seat large digital infotainment touchscreens to control entertainment and climate (a three-zone climate system), front and rear wireless phone chargers, Apple CarPlay, electric seats, a premium audio system with 11 speakers, titanium exo-system at the back, Wi-Fi connection and more. 

Room for the luggage is the biggest for a hypercar, storage for four pieces of luggage, three in the rear and one up front.. The front seats are made from hollow carbon-fiber monocoques and weigh only 37.5 pounds. The slim design of the seats is to maximize space.

Chassis, body, and wheels are made from carbon fiber. Koenigsegg is limiting Gemera production to 300 vehicles.

Christian von Koenigsegg, founder, CEO, and ideologist of Koenigsegg, explains. "The Gemera is a completely new category of car where extreme megacar meets spacious interior and ultimate environmental consciousness. We call it a Mega-GT."

He also said, "It's something i've been dreaming about in many many years, since i've got kids, i was like how can we share the megacar / the supercar experience with more people, without diluting what mega car is."

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World's largest medicated gumball

Heavy smokers may sympathize with Barry Chappell, who chewed through piece after piece of Nicorette gum while on a long flight in 2006.

Chappell rolled his first piece of nicotine-infused comfort into a little ball. As the plane made its way from Los Angeles, Calif., to France, he added another layer, then another layer, and another.

By the time he arrived at his destination, Chappell joked that he had the makings of the world's largest gumball.

Six years and 95,200 pieces of gum later, it turns out his ball really is in a league of its own, as Ripley's Believe It Or Not! prepares to hand him the record for the World's Largest Chewed Gumball. He's also received the record for world's largest ball of medicated gum.

"What started out as kind of a joke between my daughter and me has turned into a really fun project over the last few years," said Chappell, who really does have something to show for his painstaking efforts to quit smoking.

The outlandish sculpture weighs roughly 79 kilograms and measures about 157 centimeters in circumference. A warning to anyone hoping to beat the record: There's more to it than meets the eye.

Chappell said challengers would need five things to outchew him: a "complete and utter" addiction to nicotine, around $30,000 US to spend on Nicorette Gum over a six-year period, a sauna, a spray water bottle and a hairdryer.

The confident record holder even shared his method step-by-step:

1. Warm up the smaller chewed pieces of gum in a sauna.

2. Liberally spray with water to keep it malleable.

3. Pick up the goop and play with it.

4. Take the semi-melted gum and carry it to the kitchen.

5. Just like Play-Doh ... start blending with the rest of the mass.

6. Keep it warm and pliable with a hairdryer.

7. Enjoy the fruits of your labours?

[CBC News]

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Baby girl with breasts and periods starts puberty at 3 MONTHS old

This is the first case in the world and almost unreal. 

Doctors in Russia have been baffled after treating a baby girl who started showing signs of puberty at just three months old.

Milana, now seven-months-old, has regular periods, her breasts have started forming and she has developed pubic hair.

A source at the Russian Children's Clinical Hospital: "It is the first case in our experience of a baby going into puberty."

"So far, the world's earliest registered case was for a five years old girl."

The child is from the south of Russia, where local doctors said the baby was entirely normal at birth.

Read more at DailyMail

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French spiderman to climb world's tallest tower

After scaling the Eiffel Tower in Paris and Sydney Opera House, the "French Spiderman" now has his sights set on the world's tallest tower, Burj Khalifa in the cosmopolitan Gulf emirate of Dubai.

Alain Robert, 48, is due Monday to climb the exterior of the skyscraper which stands 828-metres (2,717-feet) tall, as part of an "Education Without Borders" conference for which it is being used as a venue, organisers said.

The climber, whose nickname comes from wearing the outfit of the fictional superhero while scaling the tallest of the tall around the globe, usually works without a safety harness, relying on bare hands and sturdy footing.

In Dubai, however, he will resort to a rope and harness, organisers said.

"The problem in Dubai is the hot weather (of) up to 40 degrees (Celsius, 104 Fahrenheit)," he said back in January 2010 when he announced his ambition to step up to the challenge.

"My biggest fear is to waste my time on earth. For me, climbing is as important as eating and breathing. Climbing skyscrapers is my lifetime love and passion," he said.

Robert has climbed more than 100 of the world's tallest buildings, including the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Sears Tower in the US city of Chicago and the 88-storey Jin Mao Building in Shanghai, China.

A Malaysian court fined Robert after he scrambled up the Petronas Twin Towers, which also has 88 floors, in September 2009 with his bare hands in less than two hours.

Source - AFP

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A new world record baby girl with 12 fingers and 14 toes

Lei Yadi Min, over 1 year-old baby girl, possesses 12 fingers, six each hand, and 14 toes, 7 each foot - setting the new Guinness World Record for having the Most fingers and toes.

Lei Yadi Min is now living with her mother and sister in South Okkalarpa township in Yangon. Competing with Lei Yadi Min for the world record is also an Indian rival, who owns eight toes each foot.

At present, two Indian children, one over 5 years old and the other over 15 years old with 12 fingers and 13 toes, are registered in Guinness World Records.

Source - World Records Academy

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29-year-old man to become the youngest grandpa

A 29-year-old jobless man is set to become Britain's youngest grandfather when his 14-year-old daughter gives birth was criticised for trying to 'cash in' on the pregnancy. Earlier he said that his teenage daughter was 11 weeks pregnant because she was due to start her school exam courses.

But neighbours said he was in fact celebrating because more state benefits would be given to his family - and said he had bragged about "making a fortune" on selling his story.

The man (whose identity is being kept anonymous to protect his young daughter) is now said to be in negotiations to sell his family's story to a Sunday newspaper.

But before talks with the tabloid had begun, the man said: "It’s like history repeating itself".

"I quite like the idea of being the youngest grandad in Britain, but at the same time I’m fuming that she is pregnant."

"I don't feel like a grandad. I've not got grey hair and my hearing is top notch," said the man, speaking from his home in South Wales.

The man admitted he became a father back in 1996 when he was just 14. His own mother, who is now 47, is excited about the prospect of being a great-grandmother.

"She was 18 when she had me. She was shocked when I told her the news, but she is happy now," he said.

"Her own mum is alive, and so too is her grandmother, who will become a great-great-great grandmother. There can't be too many families with six generations alive at the same time."

His daughter became pregnant by her 15-year-old boyfriend and is expected to give birth in August. The pair are both pupils at the same school and have been seeing each other for several months.

The girl’s father will be 30 at the time of the birth, slightly older than the youngest ever British grandfather, a digger driver from Warwickshire who was 29 when his son, 14, had a child in 1997.

In 2006, Tressa Middleton, from West Lothian, became Britain's youngest mother after becoming pregnant aged 11.

Previous record - Steve Smith, left, with son Dale in 1997. Mr Smith was also 29 when his son Dale became a father at age 14

Via - News.com.au , DailyMail

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Two Chinese men break record for standing in ice

Chen Kecai, 52, and Jin Songhao, 54, on January 2nd competed in a "frozen alive" competition at Tianmenshan in Zhangjiajie city, Hunan Province.

Jin and Chen were put in transparent boxes packed with ice wearing nothing but swim suits in the hope of breaking the world record.

Mr Chen lasted for 118 minutes, after which medics pulled him out of the box because of a precipitous fall in his body temperature. While Jin lasted for 120 minutes and became a winner. He even taking the time to write some Chinese calligraphy during the ordeal, penning a sign in praise of the Communist party.

Jin Songhao

Both beating the previous Guinness World Record of 115 minutes set earlier this week by Wim Hof, 51, a Dutch man, in Hong Kong.

Doctors were on hand during the competition in case things began to go the way of the 2010 World Sauna Championship in Finland where a man died.

However, Mr Hof retains the record for the fastest-ever half marathon run barefoot on snow.

Chen Kecai

The champ

Via - ChinaSmack

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Amateur gardener grows world's biggest potato

The prize potato, grown by Peter Glazebrook, tips the scales at a whopping 8lbs 4oz (3.76kg), smashing the previous world record by 9oz.

The vegetable, Peter's Kondor variety, was put on show on Friday at the National Gardening Show in Shepton Mallet, Somerset.

It is not the first time Mr Glazebrook, 66, from Northampton, has hit the headlines.

The retired chartered surveyor has previously held the world record for the longest carrot, after producing a 17-foot long specimen.

He has also been the double Guinness World Record holder for the heaviest parsnip, at 13lb, and the longest beetroot at 21ft.

Speaking before his latest triumph, he said: ''The secret to success is starting with the right seed.

''It's learning how to grow them and putting a lot of effort in and picking up tips from other growers and reading what you can about it.''

The potato was weighed at the show's Giant Vegetable Competition and Mr Glazebrook is now awaiting verification from Guinness World Records.

Source - Telegraph.co.uk

In year 2008, a Lebanese farmer, Mr Khalil Semhat (56) grew what may be the world's largest potato - weighing in at an impressive 11.3 kilos (24.9 pounds). And it is ugly!

More on BBC News

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The world's thinnest buildings

A three-storey building in Haikou, Hainan Island, China could possibly be the world’s thinnest. At one end it measures only 0.4 metres wide, while it is three metres wide at the other.  It was built three years ago.

Source - Rex features


Another thinnest buildings in the world

Haussmann, France

Tokyo, Japan

Cheongju, South Korea

London, Britain

New York, America

Tarragona, Spain

Omaha, America

Source - People's Daily Online

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Man using his eyelids to pull an aeroplane

A Chinese martial arts expert pulled a 560 kilograms (about 1,234.8 pounds) amphibian aeroplane for five metres (about 16.4 feet) - by a rope hooked to his eyelids.

48 year old, Dong Changsheng, performed the stunt at the Changchun International Exhibition Centre in Jilin province, reports the City Daily newspaper.

It took him less than a minute to pull the half-a-tonne aircraft for five metres.

Dong has been practicing kung fu (Qi Gong) for nearly 40 years, and has collected numerous awards for his skills.

"I have pulled a car with my eyelids before but this was the first time with an aeroplane," he said.

"To be honest, I didn't use my full strength and I think I could probably pull it three times the distance.

"I have built up the body strength to do this but it would be very dangerous for ordinary people so I don't want anyone to copy me."

Via - Orange News

Photos from Getty Images

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The rubber man from India set world record

Vijay Sharma can wrap his legs over his head, wriggle through a tennis racket and wind his arms around his back.

His flexibility has earned him the title of 'Rubber Man' in the Limca book of Records, India's version of the Guinness book of World Records, and he hopes to one-day achieve global fame.

'It was when I was training for martial arts I realised my body was so bendable I might be capable of setting a world record in flexibility,' the 27-year-old said.

Shop assistant Vijay claims his bendy obsession stems from watching Jackie Chan movies when he was a youngster.

The village boy from Rajashtan's Jhunjhunu district started taking martial arts lessons in 1999 in a bid to learn Chan's acrobatic fighting style.

It was during these lessons he discovered the extent of his flexibility and started experimenting.

He squeezed into tiny spaces, curled his body into boxes and attempted to drink from bottles held between his toes.

Read more - The Daily Mail

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Cowboy swallowed eighteen swords busts world record

An Australian street performer Chayne Hultgren, has set a new Guinness World Record by swallowing 18 swords at the same time.

The man with the nickname 'The Space Cowboy' swallowed the blades, each of which was 72 centimetres long, in Sydney this morning.

The 31-year-old from Byron Bay said he was thrilled to have made history.

"It's amazing," he said. "I've been preparing for this since I was 16."

Hultgren beat his own previous record of 17 swords - also a Guinness World Record - which he set in 2008.

Via - ABC News

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2 days under water, a new world record for British diver

Imagine if you stay under water alone about 5 hours, almost boring right? But what about 24 hours? Or 48 hours like this new world record?

A British diver has set a new world record by spending more than 2 days under water.

Will Goodman, 33, spent an astonishing 48 hours, 9 minutes and 17 seconds under water during a dive in Indonesia.

This beat the previous record by more than six minutes and landed him the record for the longest open saltwater scuba dive.

Mr Goodman, a professional diver originally from Hertfordshire, performed the dive off the island of Lombok.

He stayed in a metal frame to make sure he stayed at the right depth and was fed rations through a tube.

His support team, keeping a close eye from above, kept replenishing his air supply as he needed it.

Mr Goodman managed to stay awake by watching films on an underwater iPod but says it was a physical ordeal.

He has already made two unofficial world records. In 2005, he spent 24 hours under water and then 33 hours in 2008.

The previous record of 48 hours and 3 minutes was set by Robert Silva in Belize, September 2009.

Via - Daily Mail

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Boy, 9, youngest IT engineer certificated by Microsoft

Marco Calasan, a brilliant kid from Macedonia has become the world’s youngest IT whiz certified by computer giant Microsoft. The media have already dubbed the youngster the “Mozart of Computers”.

At the age of six, Marco successfully passed exams with Microsoft and became the world’s youngest IT system administrator. Then, aged eight, he earned the Microsoft Certified Professional certificate. A month ago, at the age of nine, he again successfully passed seven qualifying tests and became a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE).

The MCSE is one of the best-known Microsoft certifications. A qualified individual is able to plan and analyze the business requirements for information systems solutions and implement the infrastructure required, usually dealing with middle-to-large organizations.

So far Marco has been able to prove himself as an IT administrator of a computer network of one non-commercial organization in his native Macedonia. Besides that, he gives lessons in his school where he teaches younger schoolmates aged 8 to 11 the basics of IT.

As one of Marco’s latest projects, the young IT whiz has developed effective transmission of high-frequency TV signal via weak connection channels for a local telecom-operator. The company provided the schoolboy with access to its whole network infrastructure.

In Macedonia, Marco has already become a celebrity but this is not what the Mozart of Computers dreams of. The boy’s aspiration is to move to the United States where he will able to learn more about modern IT technologies and establish closer contacts with the Microsoft Corporation.

Via - Russia Today

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Man collected more than 120,000 car tax discs

Neil Jones' 25-year hobby, which began when his father gave him old discs from his vintage Austin, spans 90 years of motoring. He's now collected more than 120,000 of them.

‘I found a few scrapyards when I was a young boy and I’ve been visiting them ever since,’ said the 36-year-old.

‘Most people tend to slip the new disc on top of the old one, so I often find a whole stash of discs from the same car at once.’ And sending polite letters to classic car clubs yields up to 1,000 discs through the post each month.

Mr Jones has now branched out to gather permits for everything from a steam threshing machine (inset) to a mobile crane, from a lifeboat to a 2009 disc for the Koenigsegg supercar.

The oldest disc that the warehouse manager owns comes from a 1922 Tricycle De Dion-Bouton, a three-wheeled French motorbike.

‘This selection represents a slice of motoring history,’ said Mr Jones, a widower of Beccles, Suffolk. ‘Many of the older discs are from makes and models that no longer exist.’

The first road tax discs appeared in 1921, with the first perforated versions appearing in 1938. Coloured discs to prevent counterfeiting hit the roads in the early 1960s.

Via - Metro

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Pokemon collector breaks world record

Her love of Pokemon commenced the first time she saw a picture of Pikachu, she couldn’t have known that 12 years later she would be a record breaker.

But 21-year-old Lisa Courtney, a Pokemon fan from Hertfordshire – who claims the toys helped her cope with years of taunts about her disabled arm at school – officially has the world’s largest collection.

She celebrated the Guinness World Record award and her 21st birthday in Japan, the birthplace of Pokémon. ‘I fell in love with them straight away and my collection started growing,’ said Ms Courtney, from Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire.

‘I was severely bullied at senior school, both verbally and physically. The bullying was quite bad and I was tearful most days. Coming home from school, the Pokémon really helped me through the hard times.’

She has collected more than 13,400 toys and pieces of Pokémon merchandise – including her favourite character, a plush toy of the Pokemon Absol. Ms Courtney said she was delighted to enter the Gamers Edition of the Guinness Book of World Records.

‘It has just made everything I’ve done so worthwhile – I was so proud and I’m so thrilled,’ she added.

Her name will now appear in the newest version of the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition. She said: "To be in the new Gamer's Edition and to hold a world record for something you feel so passionate about is just an indescribable feeling."

Via - Metro

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Two South Korean teenagers crowned world's fastest texters

Need for Speed, two South Korean teenagers have been crowned fastest texters in the world.

The team of 17-year-old Bae Yeong Ho and 18-year-old Ha Mok Min went thumb-to-thumb against competitors from a dozen countries to win the title in a competition yesterday in New York City.

The drill of the third annual LG Mobile World Cup was simple: Copying words and phrases in one's native language off a monitor correctly.

That meant with no typos or abbreviations - that is, no 'textspeak' - and as fast as possible with the required capitalization and punctuation.

Some words were intentionally misspelled to test alertness. The World Cup challenged nimble-fingered youths on both speed and accuracy. The winning team took home a $100,000 prize.

Second place and $20,000 went to the US contestants - 16-year-old Kate Moore of Des Moines, Iowa, who is the 2009 US National Texting -champion, and 14-year-old Morgan Dynda of Pooler, Georgia, the 2009 runner-up.

An Argentinian team came in third and the Brazilians took fourth. Britain did not participate in the competition.

Miss Moore of the American team averages 12,000 texts per month, entering up to 3.5 characters per second. The Koreans, however, were even faster.

With many languages at play, English was the texting language of the U.S. competitors and those from Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

Other nations represented were Indonesia, Portugal, Russia, Mexico and Spain. Interpreters were hired for non-texting communication.

The 26 finalists who made it to the World Cup were chosen from more than 200,000 wannabes in a global text-off that began in May. Before they even got to New York, female texters had the advantage - hands down, Moore said.

Via - Daily Mail , Telegraph

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Skydivers jump off world's tallest building

Two skydivers have set a new record for one of the world’s highest Base jumps, leaping some 672 metres (2,205 feet) off the world's tallest building - the newly opened Burj Khalifa in Dubai. It was the world's highest jump from a man-made structure.

Omar Al Hegelan and Nasser Al Neyadi are expert skydivers and obtained permission from the Dubai authorities to jump from the tower.

Al Hegelan began BASE jumping in 1997 and has made over 15,000 sky dives. He told Sky News: "It was amazing, one of the most beautiful sensations I've ever experienced. "We did it legally, we did it safely and we set a new world record.

"It took months of planning and we had to obtain permission from the UAE government, but we showed that safe, legal Base jumps are possible from the Burj Khalifa."

The word 'Base' refers to the structures jumpers leap from: Building, Span, Antenna, Earth.

The Burj Khalifa cost $1.5bn (£936m) to build and is the tallest man-made structure on earth at 828m (2,717ft), designed by Giorgio Armani also plans to have the world's highest mosque (158th floor) and swimming pool (76th floor).

Via - Sky News

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Height of World's Tallest Building has been revealed

The view from the 124th floor of the Burj Dubai is more like looking out of a plane than a building. That indicate how tall it is. It exceeds by more than 300 metres to its nearest rival, Taiwan's Taipei 101, which rises 509m (1,671ft).

The opening of the world's tallest building has taken place in Dubai as the official height was revealed - 828 metres (2717ft). It is about twice the height of the Empire State Building.

At a ceremony, the Burj Dubai, which means Dubai Tower in Arabic and 162 storeys high, was renamed Burj Khalifa by Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum.

The new name is after Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan - the president of the UAE and the ruler of the neighbouring emirate of Abu Dhabi.

The Burj Dubai symbolises catastrophic excess – of money, confidence, ambition, energy consumption.

The top of the building can be seen from 60 miles away and the exterior is covered in about 26,000 glass panels.

The building boasts the most storeys and highest occupied floor of any building in the world, and ranks as the world's tallest structure, beating a television mast in North Dakota.

Chiefly designed by Adrian Smith, who left SOM in 2006 to start his own firm, and SOM's chief structural engineer Bill Baker, it is beautifully sleek and elegant, rising in a graceful series of silver tubes of different heights.

It looks less like a single tower than a cluster of towers, an organic formation rather than a self-consciously iconic object. This is surely the best-looking tall building since New York's Chrysler and the Empire State in the 1930s.

"We weren't sure how high we could go," said Bill Baker, the building's structural engineer, who is in Dubai for the inauguration. "It was kind of an exploration ... a learning experience"

The Burj's opening comes at a tough time for Dubai's economy with property prices in newer parts of the sheikhdom down by nearly half over the past year.

The city-state turned to its richer neighbour Abu Dhabi for a series of bailouts in 2009 to help cover debts amassed by a network of state-linked companies.

Source

1 - Orange News
2 - Guardian




World's tallest building list

1. Two International Finance Centre (2003)

Two International Finance Centre stands high above the city of Hong Kong at an astonishing height of 1,362 feet (415 m), 88 stories above the ground.

2. Jin Mao Tower (1998)

The Jin Mao high-rise building in Shanghai soars at 1,380 feet (421m), 88 storeys high above the street level, making it the largest and highest observation deck in China.

3. Petronas Towers (1998)

The Petronas Towers stands at 1,483 feet (452m), 88 stories high. The construction of the two towers was completed in 1998

4. Sears Tower (1974)

The Sears Tower in Chicago stands at 1,450 feet (442m) and  527.3m with antenna, 108 stories high. Built in 1974, the Sears Tower surpassed the World Trade Center in New York, making it the tallest building in the United States.

5. Taipei 101 (2004)

The Taipei 101 Building, built in 2004. It stands at 1,671 feet (509 m), and is 101 stories high.

6. Chicago Spire (2010-11)

609.6m (roof) - 150 floors - Set to become North America’s tallest freestanding structure and the world’s tallest all-residential building, each floor will project seven arms from the central axis.

As the tower rises, each floor also rotates approximately two degrees, resulting in a shell-like spiral.

7. Burj Dubai (2009)

818m (spire, prediction) 636m (roof, as of May 2008) - 162 floors - With a spire that will be visible 60 miles away, 17-football-fields-worth of exterior surfacing will cover the approx. 162 floors of what is already the world’s tallest structure. Burj is part of a development that will include 30,000 homes, nine hotels and at least 19 residential towers.

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