With a recorded history of at least 2,200 years, the Chianina is among the oldest known cattle breeds. But what it is most famous for is being by far the largest cattle breed on Earth.

Remember Nickers, the giant Australian steer that shocked the world a few years back? You should, photos of this bovine giant towering over normal-sized cattle were everywhere online late in 2018, causing many to wonder if it was some kind of bio-engineered mutant. The only ones that didn’t seem impressed were Italy’s Chianina breeders. They had been producing impressive specimens much larger than Nickers for many generations, so this was nothing special. At the time, they even put out a statement that read “ours is a giant breed, while the Australian steer is an anomaly”.

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An Australian man managed to break a decade-old Guinness record, after letting out a belch louder than the average electrical drill.

Neville Sharp, from Humpty Doo, Northern Territory, has been belching ever since his sister, Sandy, taught him how to do it when he was only six years old. He has been honing his “skill” ever since, but it was when his wife encouraged him to put his unusual talent to good use by going for a world record that he really started improving his belching. Neville has been practicing hard for the last five years, and in August of this year, the 51-year-old managed to break a record that had been standing for nearly 12 years, after letting out a 112.4-decibel burp.

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Some people spend most of their lives putting together a collection worthy of being recognized by the Guinness Book of Records, but one girl managed to achieve this feat at the tender age of six.

Scarlett Ashley Cheng is crazy about lip balm, and together with her sister, Kaylyn (8), owns the world’s largest collection of lip balms, numbering 3,388 different items. Their amazing collection features lip balms of different types, colors, textures and shapes, from known brands like Burt’s Bees, Eos, Humble or Nivea, as well as some obscure ones. Like most kids, Scarlett and her sister discovered lip balms when they started getting dry lips. Their grandmother introduced them to balms, and they just kind of went down the rabbit hole after that.

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The Slovenian city of Maribor is home to the world’s oldest grapevine still producing fruit, a resilient plant that dates back to the year 1570, when the city was facing an Ottoman invasion.

The Old Vine is the only plant in the world with its own dedicated museum, the Old Vine House, once part of the city wall. It grows on the side of this historic building and still produces an annual harvest of around 35 to 55 kg of grapes, enough to produce 15 to 35 liters of wine, which is bottled in special 2.5 dl bottles designed by famous artist Oskar Kogoj. Only about 100 bottles are produced every year, most of which are used as a special protocol gift. The Old Vine bears grapes of the “Žametovka” or “Modra kavčina” variety, one of the oldest domesticated noble vines in Slovenia.

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Priced at an eye-watering $214, Quintessential Grilled Cheese has held the the record for the world’s most expensive commercially-available sandwich for over seven years.

You could say that New York-based restaurant Serendipity 3 is specialized in setting food-related Guinness records. It currently holds world records, most expensive desert, most expensive hamburger, most expensive hot dog, largest wedding cake and largest cup of hot chocolate. But the one we’re interested in today is the records for world’s most expensive sandwich, which happens to be a humble grilled cheese treat. Named Quintessential Grilled Cheese, the sandwich is deceptively simple, as it features some of the world’s most exclusive ingredients.

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Budimir Buda Šobat, a 54-year-old man from Croatia, managed to set a new world record for the longest time breath held underwater, after spending 24 minutes and 33 seconds underwater without coming up for air.

The incredible feat was achieved in a swimming pool, in the town of Sisak, under the supervision of doctors, reporters and supporters, and saw the 54-year-old diver push his body to the limit. After spending a few minutes hyperventilating on pure oxygen, to increase body oxygenation, Šobat spent close to half an hour face down in the pool, without coming up for air. It sounds like an impossible achievement for a mere mortal, but for the Croatian daredevil it’s the crowning achievement of years of training and conditioning.

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American singer Tim Storms holds the Guinness Records for the “world’s lowest note produced by a human”, as well as for the “widest vocal range”.

Tim Storms has always had a pretty deep voice. He was eight-year-old when he heard this Christian acapella group and found that he could sing the bass notes right along with it. But he never imagined that his voice would ever become the deepest ever measured, allowing him to hit notes lower than the frequency a human ear can detect. Storms himself says that he can’t hear the  G-7 notes he is able to hit, but claims that he sort of feels it, and the special equipment used to test his deep voice have confirmed that he can indeed reach inaudible frequencies.

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The D’Cruz siblings, whose ages range from 75 to 97 years, recently set a new Guinness World Record for the highest combined age, 1042 years and 315 days.

The idea of setting a Guinness record was first mentioned among the D’Cruz family members during a reunion in 2018. 75-year-old Genia, the youngest of the 12 siblings, recalls one of her nephews going “This is amazing. I’m going to write Guinness,” after seeing the family together. They all laughed it off as a joke, but two years later, on December 15, Guinness actually called to let them know that they had been recognized as having the highest combined age of any siblings in the world, 1042 years and 315 days.

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Simone Williams, a young woman from Brooklyn, New York, recently broke the Guinness record for world’s largest natural afro, with her impressive 4 ft. 10 in (1.48 m) hairdo.

Simone started growing her hair naturally 9 years ago, as a way to save money on hair salon visits, ut never imagined that she would one day break the record for the world’s largest female afro. She had been wearing her hair straight until then, and admits that the transition was pretty tough at first, as she didn’t know how to properly manage her natural hair texture. She eventually got used to it though, and actually started comments and compliments on her “voluminous natural afro”. After reading about the previous record holder, Aevin Dugas, Simone was inspired to attempt breaking the record, but she still couldn’t believe it when she got the news.

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The Eximus IV, a student-built railroad car that has been setting records for fuel efficiency since 2016, has once again proven itself the world’s most efficient vehicle in the annual Delsbo Electric contest.

Every year, teams from all around the world travel to a specially-built track in Sweden to test their ultra energy-efficient vehicles designed to cover the longest possible distance on as little fuel as possible. Contestants are tasked with driving their vehicles on a 3.36 kilometer rail track to keep rolling resistance to a minimum, while carrying a total of six passengers, with an average weight of 50kg per person. Ever since it entered the competition four years ago, the Eximus IV has become somewhat of a legend of the competition, and this year it once again proved why.

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A Scottish fan of rap superstar Eminem has set a new Guinness record for most tattoos of a single musician after getting 28 tattoos inspired by her idol inked on her body.

35-year-old Nikki Patterson got her first tattoo, a smiley face, when she was 18, and she has added dozens of them since then. Three years ago, she got her first portrait of Eminem, whose music she had adored ever since she heard “Stan” for the first time, and she kept adding to them. Today, out of the 52 tattoos on Nikki’s body, 28 of them are inspired by Eminem, and 16 of them are portraits of the musician.

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The Meikleour Beech Hedge, located near the village of Meikleour, in Scotland, measures 30 meters (98 feet) in height, making it the tallest hedge in the world.

Planted in 1745, the Meikleour Beech Hedge now lies alongside the A93 Perth-Blairgowrie Road and can be viewed all year round. It is recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the highest hedge in the world, and is most impressive to behold during Spring, when the young green leaves reflect the light, as well as in Fall, when the trees turn russet and gold.

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Akiko Obata has been fascinated by plastic food ever since she was a child, and 10 years ago she started collecting all sorts of plastic food items, amassing a collection of over 8,000 individual pieces.

“Sampuru”, the fake food displays used by most restaurants to showcase their dishes to potential diners, is an important part of Japanese food culture. They are considered superior to menus, as they give customers a much better idea of what they’ll be getting on their plates, and also help restaurant owners better showcase their dishes. Sampuru makers often go above and beyond to make their products as realistic as possible, and some do really look good enough to eat. Plastic foods are so popular in Japan that some people have actually started collecting them…

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Imagine walking into the most pompously adorned room at Versailles to buy a piece of cheese or some yogurt. That’s probably the feeling you get when you step into the Pfunds Molkerei, officially the most beautiful dairy shop in the world.

Located at Bautzner Straße 79, in Dresden, Germany, Pfunds Molkerei is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the German city, with over 500,000 tourists stopping by every year. That’s fairly unusual for a dairy shop, but then again, this isn’t your average dairy shop; it has more of a palace vibe, although some say it looks much better than most palace interiors. The whole place is decorated with ceramic tiles produced by Villeroy & Boch and hand-painted in the Neo-Renaissance style by local artists. In 1998, Pfunds Molkerei was awarded the title of “World’s Most Beautiful Dairy Shop” by Guinness Records.

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Yartsa Gunbu, a fungus that infects ghost moth caterpillars on the Tibetan Plateau, is considered by far the most expensive parasite in the world, fetching up to $50,000 a pound.

A close relative of the tropical parasite that infects ants and turns them into zombies, Ophiocordyceps sinensis is only found on the Tibetan Plateau, where it infects the larvae of ghost moths while they are buried deep underground and feeding on plant roots. The larvae are most vulnerable in the summer, when they shed their skins, becoming more easily infected. The parasite slowly grows in its hose by consuming it during the fall and winter, and just when the snow starts to melt, it pushes its dying larvae host upward and grows a plant-like, spore-filled stalk that pierces the ground, becoming the way to spot the valuable Yartsa Gunbu. It is then harvested by local villagers and sold modest prices that turn into a fortune as the fungus passes through several middleman, costing the final client more that three times its weight in gold.

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