Raphael Biagini cannot believe what he has at the end of his fishing line – he just caught a 30-pound goldfish (orange koi). This is the biggest of it’s kind to be caught by an angler.
The big catch was caught in a lake in the south of France. It took him a grueling ten minutes to reel the ‘gold price’. And he is one lucky man. His fellow anglers told him they had spent six years trying to catch the legendary giant goldfish.
At more than $1000 a 12-liter bottle, the Vieille Bon Secours Ale is the most expensive beer in the world to date. This ale has aged for 10 years and has eight percent alcohol.
According to the lucky few who tasted this wallet-drunking beer, it has a complex taste with citric, caramel and toffee flavours with an undertone of liquorice and aniseed. The beer originates from the country’s Walloon region and is prepared by Belgian firm Caulier since 1995.
Can you see Jean-Guy in the picture? Bet you did not notice him. That’s because he is in the middle of his enormous 25,189-piece Santa Claus collection (and counting) This made him the world record holder collector and earned him a spot in the 2011 Guinness Book of World Records.
A retired geography teacher of Boucherville in Quebec, Canada, Jean-Guy started his Saint Nick collection in 1988 when he inherited a 1910 papier-mache Santa from his wife’s aunt. Since then his Santa collection increased in numbers and assortment, from figurines, cards, postcards, pins, brooches, toys, posters and many more. He admits he is a collector at heart having been started as a stamp collector at age 14.
At 6,650 km (4,130 miles) long, from it’s origin to it’s delta, the Nile river is the longest river in the world.
Nile river is compose of two major tributaries, the White Nile, which is the longer between the two, and the Blue Nile. The White Nile is formed at Lake No in Sudan, while the Blue Nile, which is the source of most of the water and fertile soil, originates from Lake Tana in Ethiopia. These two major rivers meet near the city of Khartoum in Sudan before ending in a large delta that empties into the Mediterranean Sea.
The northern section of the river flows almost entirely through desert, from Sudan into Egypt, a country whose civilization has depended on the river since ancient times. Most of the population and cities of Egypt lie along those parts of the Nile valley north of Aswan, and nearly all the cultural and historical sites of Ancient Egypt are found along riverbanks.
Staffs at SeaWorld Orlando’s Dolphin Cove was amaze by this really amazing dolphin behavior: blowing air bubbles. This dolphins make and play with the air bubbles rings like small children with a new toy.
Watch this video and see it for yourself.
On December 13, 2010 William Trubridge sets the world record for 100 meter unassisted dive on just a single breath. The 100 meter was previously attained by using weighted sleds and airbags.
Trubridger has this to say:
“It was one of the hardest dives I’ve done, in less than perfect conditions, but the hectometer has officially fallen….It has been a long road to this magical depth, and I could not have done it without the support of an incredible team: deep divers Brian, Paul & Jason; safety freedivers Alfredo, Brian and Charlie; photographers Igor and Paolo; paramedic Tom; Nic, who traveled for 2 days from NZ to support me; and my loyal and loving wife and coach Brittany.Thank you also to the event sponsors Suunto and Orca – their support for myself and the sport of freediving has been incredible. (via)
It took him 4 minutes and 10 seconds to reach the 100 meter mark. The 100 meter record was previously attained by Jacques Mayol, a freediver, in 1976 using weighted sleds and airbags.
By accomplishing to world record feat, Trubridge conquered what had long been regarded as an impossible feat: swimming to a depth of 100 meters, or 328 feet, on a single breath and with only hands and feet for propulsion.
See him in action while he freedives THE ARCH at Blue Hole, Dahab (not the actual world record dive)
The most expensive watch in the world is the The Henry Graves Supercomplication. It was sold for $11,002,500 at Sotheby’s in 1999. With two faces and 24 complications or functions, this yellow-gold pocket watch took four years to build and still holds the record for the most expensive watch ever sold.
Experts at Sotheby’s estimated that it will sell for between $3 million and $5 million. When bidding began, competition intensified that the bids soared to more than $11 million.
The Henry Graves Supercomplication was originally owned by American banker and art collector Henry Graves. He ordered the watch in 1933 from watchmaker Patek Philippe for 60,000 SF. The watch took over three years to make using the most advanced horological technique. The pocket watch was held in the Museum of Time near Chicago, IL for years until it was sold at Sotheby’s auction in New York City on December 2, 1999. This watch now resides in the Patek Phillippe Museum in Geneva, Switzerland.
With an area of approximately 0.2 square miles (0.44 km2), Vatican City is smallest country in the world. It was established in 1929 by the Lateran Treaty. It was signed by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Gasparri on behalf of the Holy See and by Prime Minister Benito Mussolini on behalf of the Kingdom of Italy. It has a population of about 800, most of whom are not permanent residents.
Also known as the Holy See, the Vatican surrounds St. Peter’s Basilica and the whole country is surrounded by Rome, Italy. It is the spiritual center of more that 1 billion Roman Catholics all over the world.
The Popes have generally resided in the area that in 1929 became Vatican City since the return from Avignon in 1377, but have also at times resided in the Quirinal Palace in Rome and elsewhere.
Vatican City State is distinct from the Holy See, which dates back to early Christianity and is the main episcopal see of 1.166 billion Latin and Eastern Catholic adherents around the globe. Ordinances of Vatican City are published in Italian; official documents of the Holy See are issued mainly in Latin. The two entities even have distinct passports: the Holy See, not being a country, only issues diplomatic and service passports; Vatican City State issues normal passports. Very few passports are issued by either authority.
As of this writing, there are two biggest cruise ship in the world: the MS Allure of the Seas and MS Oasis of the Seas. Both ship has a gross tonnage of 225,282 and displacement of approximately 100,000 tons. It cost US$1.2 billion and US$1.4 billion to build respectively.
The first of her class, MS Oasis of the Seas is an Oasis-class cruise ship in the fleet of Royal Caribbean International. The vessels cruise the Caribbean from Fort Lauderdale, Florida and set a new record of carrying over 6,000 passengers. The ship surpasses the Freedom-class cruise ships as the world’s largest passenger ship.
MS Oasis of the Seas was ordered in February 2006 and designed under the name “Project Genesis”. Her keel was laid down on 12 November 2007 at STX Europe in Turku, Finland. The company announced that full funding for Oasis of the Seas was secured on 15 April 2009. The name Oasis of the Seas resulted from a competition held in May 2008.
The MS Allure of the Seas is also a cruise ship and is the sister ship of the MS Oasis of the Seas. Like her sister, she was designed under the name “Project Genesis”. She was ordered in February of 2006 and construction officially began at STX Europe in Turku, Finland, in February of 2008. And was named in May of 2008 after a contest was held to name her
Though both ship has the same gross tonnage and displacement, Allure of the Seas is actually longer by two inches than Oasis of the Seas – thanks to the anomaly discovered by design engineers. And because of this, Allure is technically the largest passenger ship ever constructed.
Tuna is the news of the moment. This giant bluefin tuna sold for a record 32.49 million yen or $396,000, in Tokyo. As many of us know, Tokyo is world’s largest wholesale fish market.
This record breaker weighed 754-pound tuna and beat the previous record set in 2001 by a 445-pound fish that was sold for 20.2 million yen.
The giant tuna was caught off the coast of northern Japan. The record-setting price translates to 95,000 yen per kilogram or $526 per pound.
“It was an exceptionally large fish,” said the official, Yutaka Hasegawa. “But we were all surprised by the price.”
