Offbeat: Crocodile becomes orange!

Experts believe red algae combined with the raised pH led to the change in his colour.

Photos at your fingertip

A tiny digital camera enables users to quite literally have photos at their fingertips.

American company Hammacher Schlemmer has introduced the world’s smallest fully functional digital camera, which is no larger than a fingertip.

The mini camera measures just over one inch and weighs only half an ounce.

Though it may look delicate, a human finger can snap a normal full size picture with the simple touch of a shutter button.

Hammacher Schlemmer’s General Manager Fred Berns said, “Although the world’s smallest camera is only slightly larger than a marble, it takes still images and records video just like much larger cameras.”

“It is a remarkable piece of kit, and is expected to prove very popular with the public.”

“It comes with a wrist lanyard that keeps it close to hand and enables ease of portability.”

SOURCE: orange.co.uk

2feet-tall cheerleader becomes world’s shortest woman

A dancing, cheerleading 2feet tall American has been named world’s shortest living woman by Guinness World Records.

Bridgette Jordan, 22, from Sandoval, Illinois, stands 2ft 3inches (69cm) and also holds the record for shortest living siblings with her 20 year-old brother Brad.

Standing at a comparatively lofty 3ft 2inches (96.5cm), Mr Jordan lists his hobbies as basketball, karate and gymnastics.

Music-lover Ms Jordan also likes to stay active and often spends time dancing and cheerleading.

On her record-breaking achievement Ms Jordan said, ‘’It feels awesome. It’s great to be small. I believe that everyone should be confident about themselves.’’

Her brother added: ‘’Hopefully, this will go a little way to helping people realise it’s okay to be different.’’

The siblings, who have Majewski osteodysplastic primordial dwarfism type II, live with their parents in Sandoval and study at Kaskaskia College.

Ms Jordan breaks the record of 22-year-old Elif Kocaman, from Kadirli, Turkey, who measured 2ft 4.58in (72.6 cm).

Jyoti Amge, 17, from Nagpur, India, is currently recognised as the world’s shortest teenager, standing at just 2ft tall (61.95 cm).

Both Jordan siblings feature in the Guinness World Records 2012.

SOURCE: telegraph.co.uk

Crocodile becomes orange!

A crocodile, known as Snappy, who lives in the city of Geelong, near the Australian city of Melbourne, has suddenly and unexpectedly turned orange.

The eight-foot saltwater crocodile began to turn an interesting shade of orange, causing his keeper Tracy Sandstrom, who runs a mobile reptile display called “Roaming Reptiles,” to fear for his health.

“I thought he was really sick. I thought he was dying,” said Ms Sandstrom.

It turned out the crocodile, who sleeps in a heated bath at night, had been chewing on the water pipes, damaging the filter.

This caused the filter to stop working and pH levels in the water to rise.

Experts believe red algae or tannins from fallen leaves which would normally have stayed out of his water due to the filter managed to get in, which combined with the raised pH led to the change in his colour.

In time, he should return to his natural green color.

“There’s no change in his behaviour, his aggression, his territorialism. He’s still a really nasty crocodile,” said Ms Sandstrom.

“It’s a collector’s item now. Everyone will want one. I should have put him on eBay.”

SOURCE: telegraph.co.uk

Boy finds 30-year-old human fingers

A French schoolboy has dug up a glass jar containing severed human fingers preserved in alcohol, which police believe may belong to a local carpenter who lost four digits in an accident 30 years ago.

The boy, aged seven, made the gruesome discovery when he was playing behind the gymnasium of his school in Chilly-Mazarin, just south of Paris. There he noticed a jar poking out of the earth, a police spokeswoman said.

He dug out the liquid-filled jar and saw the partially decomposed fingers inside.

“With time, the jar must have risen to the surface and the fingers were found in well-preserved condition,” the police spokeswoman said

Following local media reports on the story, police received a telephone call from a person whose grandfather, a woodworker, used to live near the gymnasium and lost four of his fingers 30 years ago in a work accident.

Source: reuters.com

Too close for comfort!

A Brazilian woman in her 60s being treated in a hospital for pneumonia was given up for dead by her attending physician, and sent to the morgue too soon.

The doctor felt no vital signs, ran tests and pronounced her dead. She was sent to the morgue and spent at least two hours in a plastic body bag.

“I went to give my mom one last hug, and I could feel that she was breathing. I screamed out — my mom is alive! And they all looked at me like I was crazy,” said Rosangela Celestrino, the patient’s daughter.

“Not only did I have to go collect my mom from a cold storage drawer at the morgue, but when I got there, I find her still breathing,” Celestrino went on.

Hospital officials said the patient, Rosa Celestrino de Assis, had two strokes and had been on assisted breathing. When she did not show vital signs, the doctor confirmed her death and sent her to the morgue.

Hospital director Manoel Moreira Filho said the mistake was identified and the patient was immediately intubated and put back on life support.

Source: Geo.tv

Featherless penguin back with parents

A featherless penguin abandoned by its parents just days after its birth has been accepted back into the family.

The succsessful re-introduction of the little penguin was thanks to the efforts of keepers at LHT Pole Aquarium in China’s Liaoning Province.

The little penguin was born on 17 August and was ill-treated by its parents in the first few days after its birth.

A keeper said, “Its parents kicked it out from time to time, or even left it on the icy ground to let it die.”

Keepers at the aquarium decided that the baby penguin’s lack of feathers and weak condition was due to difficulties digesting food and absorbing nutrition.

Spokeswoman Wang Dan said: “In the beginning we tried to send it back to its parents, hoping they would still take care of it and help it grow stronger, but they neglected it and even kicked it out. We then decided to feed it ourselves.”

SOURCE: orange.co.uk

Just two teaspoons of water!

The miniature wonder, which is made of glass and measures just 30 mm wide by 24 mm high and 14mm deep, can be held in the palm of your hand.

And it is so small there is only room for these tiny zebra fish.

Despite the miniscule proportions, it also comes with miniature plants as well as stones.

When it came to filling up the tank, the 10ml of water had to be applied with a syringe to ensure the arrangement was not disturbed.

And the fish had to be added with a specially made miniature fish net.

The extraordinary creation is the latest by Anatoly Konenko, from Omsk, Russia.

The 57-year-old was the first in Siberia to make what he calls ‘microminiature’ art.

During the past three decades, he has perfected the painstaking skill of writing on tiny grains of rice, poppy seeds and even human hair.

SOURCE: telegraph.co.uk

Silver shipwreck

A British cargo ship sunk during the Second World War has been discovered in the Atlantic with the world’s largest ever haul of precious metal onboard.

The SS Gairsoppa was carrying seven million ounces of silver, worth around £155 million (Rs21.062 billion) at today’s prices.

The 412 foot steel-hulled ship was torpedoed while in the service of the Ministry of War Transport.

Odyssey Marine Exploration said it had confirmed the identity and location of the shipwreck site, nearly 4,700 metres below the surface of the North Atlantic, about 300 miles off the coast of Ireland in international waters.

The company said in a statement: “Contemporary research and official documents indicate that the ship was carrying £600,000 (Rs81 million) (1941 value) or seven million total ounces of silver, including over three million ounces of private silver bullion insured by the UK government, which would make it the largest known precious metal cargo ever recovered from the sea.”

In 2010 the UK Department for Transport awarded the company, through a competitive tender process, the exclusive salvage contract for the cargo of the ship.

Under the agreement, Odyssey will retain 80 per cent of the value of the silver.

The Odyssey team carried out remotely operated vehicle operations from the ship Odyssey Explorer to inspect the site.

Source: telegraph.co.uk

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2011.