Brazilian teen sets Guinness world record for fastest text
Washington: A teen from Brazil has broken the previous world record for the fastest text, after he typed a 25-word pre-selected paragraph into his touch screen phone in just 18.19 seconds.
According to Marcel Fernandes, his skill started developing in 2009, after the then-13-year-old grew frustrated with his desktop computer’s monitor, CNN reported.
He said in an e-mail that after getting stressed one day, he literally took a hammer and broke his monitor. Fernandes said that with no money to buy a new one, he relied on using exclusively his iPhone 3Gs, which he had at the time, to do everything that he needed to do. The previous record of 18.44 seconds was set in January and the phrase that Fernandes had to type was, “The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human.” (ANI)
Dog bites in US reaching ‘epidemic proportions’
Washington: Dog bites are reaching “epidemic proportions,” a well-known TV dog trainer said on Friday, as video of a cat fearlessly chasing off a dog that bit a small boy in California went viral.
Every year more than 4.5 million Americans, more than half of them children are bitten by dogs, said the American Humane Association ahead of National Dog Bite Prevention Week, which begins Sunday. Insurers paid more than 483 million USD in dog bite claims in 2013.
Plastic surgeons performed 26,935 operations to repair injuries caused by dog bites. And the US Postal Service said 5,581 of its employees were attacked last year.
“The dog bite situation in America is at epidemic proportions, in Europe less so, but still a huge issue,” British-born dog trainer and television presenter Victoria Stilwell, host of the reality series ‘It’s Me or the Dog’ said. (AFP)
Oldest-known human skeleton reveals Native American roots
Washington: Researchers have accurately determined the age of the oldest-known, well-preserved human skeleton.
Her ancestors’ origins were in Beringia, an area once above water between Siberia and North America. The D1 haplotype likely developed after early humans moved into the area from elsewhere in Asia. The physical differences between Paleoamericans and Native Americans, likely resulted from in situ evolution rather than having a separate ancestry.
The skeleton of this young woman, Naia, was buried underwater in an elaborate cave system in the Yucatan Peninsula after she had apparently fallen into what was then a dry deep pit.
The refined sea-level curve showed that the site, now 42 meters under water, would have become submerged during sea level rise between 9,700 and 10,200 years ago, long after Naia and the other extinct animals likely fell into it. (ANI)
Woman sues mag for erroneously identifying her as Google boss’ mistress in pic
New York: Nathalie De Clercq has lodged a complaint against People magazine for quoting her picture, where she is seen wearing Google Glass on a bike, as Google co-founder Sergey Brin”s girlfriend.
The 30-year-old said that she neither knew Google chief Brin nor his supposed girlfriend Amanda Rosenberg.
Both Rosenberg and De Clercq are Eurasian and have long dark hair so the magazine used De Clercq’s picture instead of Rosenberg.
Jeffrey Eilender, De Clercq’s lawyer said that after the incidence it’s been hard for her to live normally because it has turned her into a laughingstock. (ANI)
Toddler survives 11 Storey building fall
London: A 15-month-old boy has survived after falling from the Minneapolis high rise apartment’s balcony.
The child after slipping from between the railings of his family”s balcony landed on a thin patch of mulch at the base of the building which was just few feet away from the pavement, Sky news reported.
However, the miracle baby boy did suffer several bone fractures but the doctors assured that there are no serious head injuries. (ANI)
Serbian man gets rejected by 5,000 women on Facebook
London: A man who played the numbers game when trying to find women on Facebook failed dramatically, as he apparently got rejected 5,000 times. Serbian Predrag Jovanovic had employed the strategy in the hopes of meeting a partner but was disappointed when most of the people he contacted didn’t reply.
The 34-year-old said that he got only 15 responses and all of them politely refused to be his girlfriend, while the rest of them simply ignored him, a website reports.
Jovanovic vowed to continue his quest to find a woman online because he said he had little choice as women in his town near Belgrade were either married or grandmothers. (ANI)
Japanese sports drink to become first advert on Moon
Tokyo: A Japanese beverage company is planning to send the first advert on the Moon next year in the form of a soft drink and letters by children from across Asia.
A one-kilogramme titanium container will be carried to the lunar surface aboard the first planned private Moon landing mission in October 2015.
The canister will be filled with the Otsuka’s powdered sports drink called Pocari Sweat, and letters sent by children from across Asia etched onto silver disks.
The specially designed canister will mark the first commercial product delivered to another world for marketing purposes, ‘The Verge’ reported. Otsuka said it hopes that the stunt will inspire young people to become astronauts, so they can travel the 380,000 kilometres to our closest celestial neighbour, crack open the can, and consume the powder inside.
The capsule will be delivered to the Moon by the Falcon 9 rocket designed by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX. Google’s Lunar X prize worth USD 20 million will go to the first company to land a device on the Moon that can both travel 500 meters on the surface and transmit high-definition photos back to Earth, the report said. (PTI)
Pet cat saves 4-year-old boy from dog attack in US
Washington: A pet cat in the US is being hailed a hero after it saved its four-year-old owner from a vicious dog attack by launching itself at the canine and chasing it away.
The cat’s heroic feat was captured by home security cameras which show the boy riding his bicycle in front of his home in Bakersfield, California.
While the boy, Jeremy, was riding his bicycle, the neighbour’s dog, an 8-month-old labrador/chow mix, sneaked up behind him and bit his leg.
The family’s cat, named Tara, rushed to Jeremy’s rescue and chased the dog away. Erica Triantafilo, Jeremy’s mother, was nearby watering a tree when she heard his screams.
“I didn’t really even realise what had happened until after when my husband showed me the surveillance video,” Erica was quoted as saying by TV Station ABC23.
Jeremy needed a few stitches after Tuesday’s incident but he is doing fine, Erica said. The dog is under observation at Bakersfield Animal Care Center and will be euthanized. (PTI)
Meet the man who eats iron nails, ceramics and glass
London: Yunsheng Long nicknamed as ‘Incredible Human Munching Machine’ has been swallowing sharp metal nails for more than three decades now. The 49-year-old man said that his favorite diet was iron nails fresh from the factory, with a little trace of oil on them like a salad dressing with just a glass of water and there is nothing that he cannot eat and digest because his stomach is as strong as concrete and throat like iron, it was reported. (ANI)