This week’s collection of stories that prove we live in a truly mad, mad world
1) He’s nailed it! At 909.6-cm long, this man has the longest nails
A man who has not cut his fingernails since 1952 has made it into the Guinness Book of records -- but says he has paid a price for his terrifying talons.
Shridhar Chillal officially has the world’s longest fingernails on one hand ever, with their combined length coming in at a staggering 909.6cm. One of his thumbnails alone is two metres long. Shridhar’s obsession started when he was at school in India after a teacher beat him and his friends for breaking one of his nails.
2) Texas girl sneezes up to 12,000 times every day
Three weeks ago it started -- Katelyn Thornley began to sneeze, and she’s not stopped since. Up to 20 times a minute the 12-year-old erupts, in a continuous burst of high-pitched ‘achoos’ -- that's around 12,000 sneezes every day.
Despite visiting six different doctors -- all have been left baffled, unable to explain what is triggering the strange condition. The only relief the seventh grade student, from Angleton, Texas, gets is when she falls asleep at the end of each tiring day.
3) Burger King’s black bun blamed for customers’ green poop
Burger King customers sampling the new Halloween Whopper said the burger’s black bun carried an unexpected side effect -- it turned their poop green.
The fast food chain unveiled the Halloween Whopper last month, saying the bun’s black colour comes from A1 steak sauce, but some customers posting on social media said another, unknown ingredient is believed to be the cause of their feces turning a bright green.
4) Woman sends robot to queue for iPhone 6s so she doesn't have to
For the geekiest Apple faithful, queuing up for the newest iGadget has become a time-honoured tradition.
But one savvy fan hit upon the ingenious idea of outsourcing the menial task to a robot.
Lucy Kelly from Sydney, Australia borrowed a “telepresence robot” from the media agency she works for to brave the elements in her place. The robot (also called Lucy) arrived at 5 am at the Apple Store in Sydney and took its position of fourth-in-line.
5) Fright Night: Would you sleep in an underground graveyard hotel?
Some lucky souls will get to stay the creepiest night of the year in the spookiest place of all -- the world’s largest grave.
The opportunity to stay 65 feet under the city of Paris in its ghostly Catacombs will thrill those who love things that go bump in the night. The lucky few will also be treated to both dinner on the night and breakfast the next day, as well as a private concert followed by a personal bedtime story.
6) This record breaking cheeseburger weighs 691kg
A US restaurant chain has bagged the Guinness World Record for creating the largest cheese sculpture after carving a 45 inches tall cheeseburger that weighed a whopping 691 kg from a hefty block of cheese.
Professional cheese carver Troy Landwehr created the edible artwork which measured 114.3 cm (45 in) tall by 96.52 cm (38 in) in diameter out of a 907.2 kg block of aged Wisconsin cheddar. Taking over 30 hours to create, the model was shaped entirely from one block of cheese, with no internal support structure.
The final piece weighed a whopping 691.27 kg, breaking the previous record of 419.57 kg that was achieved by Sarah Kaufmann (US) in 2011.
