55 Mexican cooks worked hard to create the world’s largest cheesecake.

The giant cheesake was presented to the world on january 25, in Mexico City. It took the 55 cooks 60 hours to make, using almost a whole ton of cream cheese, nearly a ton of yogurt, 350 kg of pastry, 250 kg of sugar and 50 kg of butter. The final result was a 2 ton calorie bomb.

This was the first cheesecake record aknowledged by the Guinness Book of Records, so there wasn’t any competition. The  world’s largest cheesecake was sliced into pieces and given to over 20,000 people throughout Mexico City.

Photo credits: Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images

For the first time ever, a polar bear has been spotted floating on a small iceberg, in London.

It’s not ever day you see a polar bear floating on the river Thames, let alone one that is 100% recyclable. To celebrate the opening of Eden, a new natural history television channel, a sculpture of a stranded polar bear and his cub was comissioned and set afloat in Greenwich, southeast London.

The whole point of Eden‘s 16-foot-sculpture was to attract attention on a burning environemental issue, the melting of the polar bear‘s habitat. If extreme measures are not taken, the largest land predator on Earth could become extinct.

The recyclable polar bear was launched on the Thames on January 26, at 6:30 in the morning, and traveled for 7.5 miles before stopping beside Tower Bridge for a photo shoot.

via Planetsave.com

More like a beach full of timber but there are some planks in the sea as well.

Two weekends ago, the Sussex shoreline was covered by nothing but wet timber from the sunken Greek vessel, Ice Prince. The ship sunk  26 milles off Portland Bill, but most of the 2,000 tons of timber it was carrying was washed on Sussex coast-line.

Authorities warned locals not to remove any of the planks from the beaches, as they risked a fine of up to 2,500 pounds. Despite the warning many British came with whatever vehicles they had, to load-up some waterlogged wooden planks. One thief was caught as he was loading his hatchback Mazda.

To celebrate the Orthodox holiday of the Epiphany, on January 19, Russians plunge into ice-cold water to purify their bodies.

In a ritual imitating the baptism of Jesus Christ in the River Jordan, wholes are cut into the ice covering rivers and ponds across Russia and priests bless their waters. People actually stand in line, late into the night, wearing only their swim-suits or underwear, to jump into the ice-cold water.

The cold water is said to have a cleansing effect on those brave enough to jump into it, but some of the brave swimmers just do it for fun and thrills. Not recommended for the faint-hearted, the ritual of the Epihany helps harden the body and make it more resisliant to illness.

Surely some good Russian vodka helps the swimmers get through the ritual a lot easier.

Ilham Anas is a 34-year-old photographer who has become famous for looking like Barack Obama, the new president of the United States of America.

Ilham Anas has become quite a celebrity in his home country of Indonesia and he now makes most of his money from appearing on various TV shows and posing as Barack Obama. His success story began when the original Obama won the elections last year, and his colleagues started making jokes about their striking resemblence.

His co-workers even dressed him up in a suit and tie, and took pictures that quickly found their ay on the internet. Since then his popularity has grown constantly and Indonesian can’t get enough of Obama’s look-alike. As you may know, Barack Obama lived in Indonesia fo 4 years, so his popularity is pretty high there.

via Prikola

I always thought celebrating New Year’s was all about fun. How can bathing in ice-cold water be considered and enjoyable experience…unless you’re a seal or a penguin?

About 6,500 Dutch gathered on Scheveningen Beach, in The Hague, for a quick splash in the waves, to celebrate the coming of a new year. Both young and old, most of the crazy swimmers said they do this kind of thing for kicks, because being normal is simply too boring. I agree with that, but swimming in water with a temperature of just 6 degrees Celsius? No thanks, I think I’d rather jump out of an airplane.

via Prikola

If you couldn’t watch Obama’s inauguration in person, you can do it at Legoland California.

Over 1,000 figurines and hundredes of thousands of bricks were used to recreate Barack Obama’s hystorical inauguration on the steps of the capitol. Barack Obama, his wife Michelle and their two daughters, Sasha and Malia, are depicted as he takes the oath.

The figurines used in the LEGO recreation of the inauguration were all faceless, but one could recognize famous personalities like, ex-president George W. Bush and his wife Barbara, the next Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her husband, former president of the US, Bill Clinton, Aretha Franklin and Oprah Winfrey.

The LEGO inauguration will remain on display at Legoland California until May, so you have plenty of time to stop by.

via Telegraph.co.uk

Jetliner crashes into the Hudson River after impact with a flock of seagulls.

Just 2-3 minutes after taking-off from the La Guardia Airport, in New York City, flight 1549 flew directly into a flock of geese that knocked-out both its engines. The pilot alerted the passengers to hold on, as he attempted to force-land the plane into the frozen waters of the Hudson River. He nailed the difficult landing and because of that there were no deaths and the most serious injury was a woman with two broken legs.

The passengers got out of the plane after the landing and climbed on its wings, waiting for the ferry-boats to come and take them to shore.  78 of the 155 passengers were treated by paramedics for hypothermia, bruises and other small injuries.

For his skillful landing under the given circumstances, the plane’s pilot has already become a local hero.

The world is getting weirder and weirder each year. After hail fell in Africa a few months ago, now it snowed in Las Vegas for the first time ever. We’re talking about the Nevada Desert here, snow isn’t supposed to fall in the desert. But, as you can see from the photos the impossible just became possible. I wonder what’s next, the ice cap will start to melt? Oh…wait…

A floating Christmas Tree has been set up in Rio de Janeiro every Christmas for the last 12 years. This year the Brazilian city held the record for the highest floating Christmas Tree, over 85 meters long and 530 tons heavy. It was built on a metal structure, filled with bright lights and fireworks and set to float on Lake Lagoa. On Christmas people could witness an impressive display of fireworks from the tree.

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“Love Us, Don’t Wear Us!”

This was the message of the two bunny-rabbits  that caught the attention of many people in Moscow’s Theater Square, on Monday. They were members of PETA and by dressing up as sexy bunnies, they tried to convince people to stop wearing natural fur and start dressing up in artificial fur, that is just as beautiful and comfortable.

Lauren and Lisa smiled and faced the cold weather bravely, proving they don’t need fur to keep warm.They only covered their bodies with bunny ears, undies and fur-free signs, both in English and Russian.

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Hunterville is a village in New Zealand, established in 1884 by George Hunter and that according to the 2006 Census has a population of only 440. But that doesn’t stop it from gathering huge crowds from all over the island for the unique Huntaway Festival.

The Huntaway is a fun festival featuring contests like the Dog Braking Contest, pig yarding, speed shearing and the main attraction, The Shemozzle. This a special obstacle race for men or women  and their dogs, across steep hills, slipery slopes and disgusting food-stops that include sheep eyes, worms, bugs and raw meat, just to name a few.The obstacles of the Shemozzle are evealed to the contestants only 3 minutes before the race so no one can say they are really prepared.

British love their minced meat pies so much, they actually invented a contest to see who can eat the most pies in ten minutes time. Kind of like the American hot-dog eating contest, only these minced meat-filled delicacies are a lot harder to gobble-down.

This year The Big Eat took place on November 18, at Wookey Hole and it featured only British contestants. This after in 2007 American Sonya Thomas crossed the ocean to rob the Brits of their pie-eating title. She managed to eat 48 pies with the runner-up managing to swallow 15. This year the organizers wanted to have an English winner so only natives could register.

Denzil Gunner claimed the top prize this year with 41 pies. He got $1000 and a trip to the USA to participate in their various eating contests and, hopefully, humiliate them on their own soil.

Known as Dia de los Muertos in Mexico and the Mexican-populated areas of the US, this holiday dates back to the times of the Aztecs, when they celebrated Mictecacihuatl (The Lady of the Dead).  The celebration of Day of the Dead focuses on remembering and honoring friends and relatives that have died.

Dia de los Muertos is celebrated every year on November 1st and 2nd, during which time it is believed the spirits of the dead return to visit the living. People buy toys and traditional sweets for the dead children and different alcoholic drinks for the deceased adults. They build shrines on the tombs and plce the trets there so the dead can consume the spirit of the foods. Even though they are eventually consumed by the living, the foods are believed to have no nutritional value.

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China hosted the annual Acrobatic Art Festival in Wuhan, this year. The location changes every year but the exhibition is just as breathtaking every time, no matter where it’s held. The event took place in a stationary circus in Wuhan and attracted more than 2,000 spectators that were simply mesmerized by the 30 acrobatic numbers performed by artists from all around the world.

The Acrobatic Art Festival included acrobatics, animal tricks and clownery.

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