World’s smallest roadworthy car zooms to Guinness record
Washington: The world’s smallest car – just 25 inches high and 4 feet long – which can be safely driven on the road has entered the Guinness World Records.
Custom car maker Austin Coulson in the US set the record as the owner of the smallest roadworthy car, which he can legally drive on the road. “I’ve always wanted to have a Guinness World Records (title) for something and automotive was always my favourite,” said Coulson.
“So I went home and looked up this current world record and thought, ‘I could do that,'” he said. Coulson’s car measures 25 inches high; 2 feet, 1.75 inches wide; and 4 feet, 1.75 inches long, and can be spotted by its Texas vanity license plates reading “IM BIG.”
To qualify as a roadworthy vehicle, Coulson needed to get the car registered and inspected and had to install a number of required safety features, according to Guinness website.
These included federally approved safety glass for the windshield, functioning windshield wipers and department of transportation-approved signal lights, a seat belt, and working horn.
“When I told my family I was going to try and get the world record for the smallest roadworthy car, they were a little sceptical at first,” Coulson said.
“All along, the whole process, they kept questioning it. They knew I could build the car, they just didn’t think I could get it legal,” said Coulson. (PTI)
Giant 10-feet cat sets Guinness World Record
London: Herculean cat! A giant 10-feet-long liger – hybrid of a tigress and a lion – has been named the world’s biggest cat by Guinness World Records.
The liger appropriately named Hercules weighs 418kg and lives at Myrtle Beach Safari Wildlife preserve in South Carolina. Ligers are known to be bigger than their parents, however, Hercules’ size is huge enough to have won him a spot in the Guinness.
“We just knew that the largest living cat probably was the liger. We have not measured a liger before, we are aware of other ligers,” Sara Wilcox, public relations and marketing executive for Guinness World Records said.
The 131-inch long cat lives in the preserve’s area called TIGER, which stands for The Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species, ‘Closer’ magazine reported.
The feline appears in the Guinness Book of Records 2014 as the “world’s largest feline, weighing in at 922 pounds (418kg) and measuring 131-inches long and 49-inches tall at his shoulder.”
Ligers are not found in the wild and they can achieve double the size of their parents and weigh 100 times more than the average pet cat. (PTI)
Titanic bandmaster’s violin goes on display
London: The violin played by the bandmaster of the Titanic as the liner sank beneath the waves is to go on display at a museum marking the tragedy in Northern Ireland, officials said on Monday.
The instrument belonging to Wallace Hartley was found strapped to his body after he drowned with some 1,500 others on board the supposedly unsinkable ship in 1912. It has an inscription on the back from the 34-year-old’s fiancee to mark their engagement.
For decades the rosewood violin was believed lost but it was found in the attic of a house in northwest England in 2006. It will now be displayed at the Titanic Belfast exhibition from September 18 until October 13 before it goes to auction in Wiltshire, southwest England on October 19.
“We are honored and excited that Titanic Belfast has been chosen to display Wallace Hartley’s violin which he played on RMS Titanic,” said the museum’s chief executive Tim Husbands.
“This could very well be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for visitors to see one of the world’s most famous and most valuable Titanic artifacts before it goes to auction.”
The band played the hymn “Nearer, My God, To Thee” to calm passengers while they climbed into lifeboats as the Titanic sank beneath the icy waves in the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg. Hartley and his seven fellow band members all died. Hartley was given the violin by his fiancee Maria Robinson to mark their engagement in 1910. (AFP)
Prince George flies to meet great-grandfather
London: Prince William and Kate Middleton’s baby boy, Prince George, finally got to meet his great-grandfather, Prince Philip, over the weekend. Queen Elizabeth II’s 92-year-old husband was recovering from abdominal surgery in Scotland when Britain’s future king was born here in July.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge flew with their seven-week-old baby to Aberdeen yesterday, from where they were then taken by car to Balmoral Castle where the Duke of Edinburgh is resting.
“This was an incredible moment for Philip. He has been desperate to meet his great grandson and having the family together is really special for him,” a royal source told the Daily Mirror.
The trip marked the new parents’ first holiday since their son was born on July 22. William and Kate, both 31, have spent most of their spare time with the Middleton family in Berkshire since the birth.
The report also revealed plans of clicking an unique four-generation royal family photo. For the first time in more than a century, three direct heirs to the throne will be in the same photo with the ruler – the 87-year-old Queen with son Prince Charles, 64, grandson Prince William and great-grandson Prince George. The last such picture was of Queen Victoria in 1894 with her son Edward VII, grandson George V and great-grandson Edward VIII. Prince Charles and his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, are currently thought to be staying at Birkhall, their home next to Balmoral. Prince George is Queen and Prince Philip’s third great grandchild and is Prince Charles’ first grandchild. (PTI)
China opens world’s highest civilian airport
BEIJING: China has begun flight operations at the world’s highest civilian airport in a bid to boost tourism and tighten political control over the country’s restive west.
At an elevation of 4,411 meters (14,472 feet) above sea level, Daocheng Yading Airport replaces the previous champion, Bangda Airport in the Tibet Autonomous Region, which sits at 4,334 meters (14,219 feet).
Aircraft engines produce less thrust at such elevations because of the much thinner air, calling for longer runways. The one at Daocheng Yading is 4,200 meters (13,780 feet) long, just 242 meters (794 feet) shorter than the longest runway at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. Passengers are also warned of light-headedness and other symptoms of altitude sickness on arrival.
State media Tuesday said flights from the new airport that began Monday will slash travel time from scenic Daocheng Yading to Sichuan’s provincial capital of Chengdu from two days by bus to just 65 minutes. Other routes are to begin by the end of the month, the reports said.
The region is a gateway to Tibet, one that Beijing has sought to promote for tourism as way of tamping down dissent among the native Tibetan population and stabilizing the area through economic development.
Beijing has peppered the region with airports that see little business and spent $3.68 billion building the world’s highest rail line over permafrost to Tibet’s capital, Lhasa. (AP)