Ghanaian personality Afua Asantewaa Owusu Aduonum recently attempted to get her name into the Guinness Book of Records by attempting to sing continuously for 126 hours and 52 minutes.

Last month, women’s rights advocate, journalist, and event organizer Afua Asantewaa Owusu Aduonum tried to beat a world record that had been standing for over a decade. In 2012, Indian singer Sunil Waghmare sang non-stop for 105 hours, an incredible feat that required resilience, concentration, and mountains of energy. However, the Ghanaian woman claims to have beaten the old record by over 20 hours and is now waiting for confirmation from Guinness Records that her attempt was valid. She told journalists that she was hopeful of a favorable response in the coming days.

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A UK man has set a new world record for the most tattoos of the same name on the body after having his daughter’s name tattooed a whopping 667 times.

Mark Owen Evans originally got his name mentioned in the Guinness Book of Records in 2017, when he was featured for having his daughter’s name tattooed on his back 267 times. However, in 2020, he was dethroned by Diedra Vigil, a 27-year-old woman who had her own name tattooed on her body 300 times. Even though there wasn’t much space left on his back, Evans was determined to get his world record back, so he kept having his daughter’s name, ‘Lucy’, on his thighs. After going under the needle for five and a half hours for all 400 tattoos – 200 on each leg – Mark once again holds the Guinness record for the most tattoos of the same name on the body – 667.

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Tish, the oldest goldfish in recorded history, lived to the ripe old age of 43. In his later years, his scales actually started changing from gold to silver.

The average lifespan of a common goldfish (Carassius auratus), is 10-15 years, but the current Guinness Record for the oldest goldfish ever was set by a male goldfish named Tish that remarkably reached the age of 43. He spent his life in a fish bowl in North Yorkshire, UK, under the care of Hilda Hand and her son Peter. The latter won Tish as a prize at a fairground roll-a-penny stall in 1956, when he was only 7 years old, and after he left the family home, his mother continued looking after the aging goldfish. No one really expected Tish to reach his 40s, considering that most goldfish barely make it past a decade, but somehow he did, and, 24 years after his death, he still holds the record for the oldest goldfish ever.

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The embarrassing performance of a Somali athlete during the women’s 100-meter race at the World University Games in Chengdu, China prompted a public apology from the African country’s sports minister.

It takes an abysmal athletic performance to warrant accusations of “defaming the name of a nation in the international arena,” but then again, the run of Nasra Abukar Ali during the women’s 100-meter race last week has been dubbed as the slowest in an official tournament. In a video that has gone viral on social media, the Somali athlete can be seen starting sluggishly out of the blocks, as the other competitors burst forward, and she quickly gets behind so fast that she doesn’t even show up on the camera following the race. Abukar Ali crossed the finish line in 21.81 seconds, more than 8 seconds slower than the second-last runner, and more than 10 seconds behind the winner of the race.

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The Greek Island of Ikaria in the Aegean Sea is home to numerous camouflaged houses built under giant rocks to make them harder to spot by pirates.

Nowadays, Ikaria is a popular tourist destination famous for its sandy beaches, picturesque villages and pristine natural landscape. But it wasn’t always the slice of paradise it is today. Hundreds of years ago, Ikaria was a prime target for the pirates who called the Aegean their home, so to protect themselves from their raids, the locals started building ‘anti-pirate’ homes deep into the mountains, to make their island look uninhabited from the sea. At one point, the entire population of Ikaria concealed itself in rock houses that didn’t attract attention unless you literally walked past them.

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Float festivals take place all around the world, but you’ll have a hard time finding intricate, illuminated works of art quite like the ones paraded in Japan.

When it comes to designing and creating colorful, eye-catching floats that illuminate the night sky, no one does it better than the Japanese. The sheer size of these mesmerizing floats is impressive enough, but most times they also feature intricate designs inspired by Japanese history, mythology and culture. From the record-setting giant floats of the Tenkū no Fuyajō festival in the city of Noshiro, to the impressive works paraded during the world-famous Tachineputa Festival of Goshogawara, there are plenty of reasons why Japan is probably the best place to visit for giant illuminated floats.

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Muhamed Kahrimanovic, a martial arts master from Germany, has been dubbed ‘Hammer Hands” for his ability to smash anything from coconuts to baseball bats with his bare hands.

Bosnian-born Kahrimanovic was a teenager when he moved to Germany with his family. He had been studying taekwondo since early childhood and continued his training in his adoptive country, eventually becoming an instructor himself. But Kahrimanovic would end up attracting international attention and setting several Guinness records thanks to this incredibly strong hands, which earned him the reputation of a real-life superhuman and the nickname “Hammer Hands”.

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Japanese housing developer Ichijo Komuten recently unveiled a “flood-resistant house” that can not only remain waterproof during floods, but also float off the ground.

Whether you believe in climate change or not, the loss of housing due to floods is an undeniable issue all over the world, and while engineers and architects have been trying to find solutions, few have actually proven effective. Now, a record-setting Japanese housing developer claims to have come up with an answer to keep people’s homes from getting flooded as well as swept away by floods. Their new “flood-resistant house” was recently featured on a popular Japanese TV show and it has been getting a lot of attention online ever since.

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The Joanina Library of the University of Coimbra Alta and Sofia is one of two Portuguese libraries to house colonies of bats as natural deterrents for bugs that would otherwise feed on old books and manuscripts.

As unusual as having a colony of Common pipistrelle bats living behind the bookshelves of one of the most beautiful libraries in the world, the curators of this historical marvel swear that the flying rodents provide an indispensable service – they feast on bugs that would otherwise damage or feed on old books. And with some of these ancient manuscripts being virtually priceless, it’s no wonder that the bats are regarded as helpful guardians.

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Shenshayba Bazaar, an Afghan village near the city of Herat, has become known as Afghanistan’s ‘one kidney village’, because of the large number of residents who have sold one of their kidneys in order to make ends meet.

Afghanistan wasn’t doing too well economically before the Taliban came to power last year, but the brutal takeover caused the economy of the Asian country to collapse and left many struggling to put food on the table for their families. In some cases, things got so bad that people decided to sell one of their kidneys in order to pay their debts and buy food. One small village in Herat Province has become known as the ‘one kidney village’, because of the large number of residents who sold one of their kidneys on the black market.

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An 85-year-old man from India’s Bihar state is being investigated after claiming to have received 11 Covid-19 vaccine doses in less than a year.

Brahmdeo Mandal, a retired postman from Bihar’s Madhepura district was stopped from getting what he claimed would have been his 12th Covid-19 shot at the beginning of January. Although it’s unclear how exactly word of Mandal’s vaccination marathon reached authorities, it is believed that he boasted about the positive effects of the repeated jabs on his general health to someone, and they tipped off the police. You see, instead of the terrifying potential side effects touted by anti-vaxers, Brahmdeo Mandal claims that the Covid-19 vaccine has made his ailments, many of them considered normal at his age, disappear.

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Karne Garibaldi, a popular restaurant in Guadalajara, holds the Guinness record for the world’s fastest food service: 13.5 seconds from order time until the food hits the table.

Usually, when visiting a popular award-winning restaurant, you expect waiting times to be on the long side, but that’s definitely not the case at Karne Garibaldi, a restaurant best known for its carne en su jugo dish and for having the world’s fastest order time. After patrons finish giving their orders to the waiters, it takes just over a dozen seconds before the plates hit their tables, which, as those who have eaten there at least once will tell you, is downright impressive. Karne Garibaldi has held the world record for the world’s fastest food service (13.5 seconds) since 1996.

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Mr. Methane is a world-renowned entertainer who, as the name suggests, has a very special talent when it comes to passing wind.

Of all superpowers one could have, farting at will probably sits near the bottom of everyone’s list, and yet one of the few people known to be able to control their flatulence has managed to build a career around this ability. Paul Oldfield, aka ‘Mr. Methane’, discovered his unusual talent for farting in his teenage years, and eventually managed to use it as a way to make living, traveling the world and showcasing his somewhat repulsive ability to the world. The Macclesfield-born Englishman currently holds the record for most farts released in one minute, but is also known for performing popular songs by farting, and various other revolting tricks.

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The Techa River flowing down the eastern flank of the Ural Mountains in Russia is considered the world’s most radioactive river, as a result of having been used as a dumping ground for nearly 80 million tons of radioactive wastewater over several years.

At first glance, the Techa River looks pristine, inviting even, and you’d never guess that it once was – and by some accounts, still is – the dumping ground of a secret nuclear compound responsible for exposing tens of thousands of people to as much as 20 times the radiation suffered by the victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. 23 or the 24 rural communities that the Techa flowed by have been evacuated in the last 13 years, but not before thousands of people developed cancers, or suffered chromosomal abnormalities and birth defects. Even today, when authorities claim the levels of radiation in the Techa River are “acceptable”, Geiger counters still beep ominously when placed near the waterline…

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On Valentine’s Day, a young Ukrainian couple made international news headlines after chaining their hands together for three months, as a last ditch effort to save their relationship. They lasted the three months, but split up as soon as the chain came off.

In February, Alexander Kudlay, a 33-year-old car salesman, and 29-year-old beautician Viktoria Pustovitova shocked the world when they filmed themselves getting chained together with an actual chain. The chain was welded shut under the supervision of a representative of the country’s national register of records, who also added a seal to the chain to make sure they don’t cheat. The plan was to go three months with their hands chained together, which meant sharing bathroom breaks and showers, not to mention planning their day so that both could get stuff done. Few thought they could last three months, but they proved everyone wrong. Well, sort of…

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