The Biggest Rabbit - Amy

According to the UK’s Daily Mail, the world’s largest rabbit is a Continental Giant called Amy.

Amy, from Worcester in the UK, is more than 120 cm (4 feet) long and weighs as much as a medium sized dog.

Her weight? Well that depends on which report you choose to believe. In February this year, the Daily Mail reported that Amy weighs two and a half stone (15 kg). But then in March, it reported that the giant rabbit weighs three and a half stone (22 kg).

Perhaps she put on 7 kilograms within a month!

In any case, whichever weight it is, this could make Amy the heaviest rabbit in the world too.

 
Big Appetite

Amy’s owner, Annette Edwards, says that each day, Amy goes through enough rabbit food to fill a dog’s bowl, as well as two apples, a handful of carrots, half a cabbage and fresh hay.

But Mrs Edwards insists that Amy is quite healthy and not overweight.

“She is enormous but not because she over eats on junk but because she gets plenty of exercise and eats very healthily.”

“Amy is a fussy eater, the carrots must have their green tops still on, and the hay has to be fresh and green or she won’t go near it” she continues.


Other Large Rabbits & Previous Record Holders

Herman, a German Giant, weighing 7.7 kg

There are a lot of large rabbits out there.

Here are some examples:

• Herman, a German Giant reportedly weighing 7.7 kg (although he looks much heavier than that)
• Rudi, also a German Giant, weighing 8.7 kg
• Roberto, weighing in at 16 kilograms (possibly the world’s heaviest rabbit?)
• Humphrey, weighing over 12 kg and still growing

Largest Rabbit Breed

The largest species of rabbit is the Flemish Giant. The largest Flemish Giant can grow to around 9.5 kg. The smallest weigh in at around 5 kg.
Flemish Giants are usually steel grey in colour. They are long with a large full head and the ears are long and erect.
The Flemish Giant’s diet should include plenty of fresh hay, fresh fruit and vegetables, a well-balanced dry rabbit mix and plenty of clean water.


Guinness Book of World Records

Amy or Roberto may be the largest and heaviest rabbits in the world, but they won’t be making it into the Guinness Book of World Records any time soon (at least, not for their size or weight).

Unfortunately, some rabbit owners cruelly over feed their rabbits in an attempt to get them into the record books. As a result, the Guinness World Records no longer lists the world’s largest (or heaviest) rabbit.


Source: natural-environment.com

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The Biggest Snow Fort - SnowCastle of Kemi

The SnowCastle of Kemi is the biggest snow fort in the world. It is rebuilt every winter with a different architecture in Kemi, Finland. In 1996 the first snow castle drew 300,000 visitors.

The area covered by the castle has varied from 13,000 to over 20,000 square meters. The highest towers have been over 20 meters high and longest walls over 1,000 meters long, and the castle has had up to three stories. Despite its varying configurations, the snow castle has a few recurring elements: a chapel, a restaurant and a hotel.

• The SnowRestaurant has ice tables and seats covered with reindeer fur, as well as ice sculptures.
   
• The ecumenical SnowChapel with 50–100 seats has seen numerous weddings of couples from as far away as Japan and Hong Kong.

• The SnowHotel offers a choice of double rooms and a honeymoon suite, all of which are decorated by local artists using local materials.

The SnowCastle of Kemi also hosts such things as an adventure land for children, a theatre and ice art exhibitions with lights and sound effects. Many opera singers and dancers have performed in the SnowCastle of Kemi.


Opening Hours 2010


Opening ceremony of the SnowCastle the 30th of January 2010 at 6 pm

The SnowCastle-season begins the 31st of January 2010 and ends the 12th of April 2010, weather permitting. The SnowCastle is open during the season daily from 10 am – 7 pm. Every year the SnowCastle is different and full of exciting experiences, as the SnowCastle is built anew at the beginning of each winter-season. Therefore its contents and architecture varies yearly.

SnowRestaurant
Open 10 am – 7 pm
Lunch is served at 12 noon and at 2 pm
Dinner is served at 7 pm

Outside opening hours the SnowRestaurant can be reserved privately

Source: wikipedia.org, snowcastle.net

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The Largest Stadium - Rŭngrado May First Stadium

The Rŭngrado May First Stadium, or May Day Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea, completed on May 1, 1989.

It is currently used for football matches, a few athletics matches, but most often for the spectacular Arirang performances (also known as the Mass Games). The stadium can seat 150,000, which is the largest non-auto racing stadium capacity in the world.

Its name comes from Rungra Island in the Taedong River, upon which it is situated, and May Day, the international day celebrating labour and particularly celebrated among communists. Its scalloped roof features 16 arches arranged in a ring, and it is said to resemble a parachute or a magnolia blossom. It is not to be confused with the nearby large Kim Il-sung Stadium.

It hosts events on a main pitch sprawling across over 22,500 m² (242,200 ft²). Its total floor space is over 207,000 m² (2.2 million ft²) across eight stories, and the lobes of its roof peak at more than 60 m (197 ft) from the ground.

While the stadium is used for sporting events, it is most famous as the site of massive performances and shows celebrating Kim Il-sung and the North Korean nation. In June-July 2002 it was the site of the colossal and meticulously choreographed "Arirang" gymnastic and artistic performance (often referred to elsewhere as "mass games"). The extravaganza involved for the first time some 100,000+ participants—double the number of spectators— and was open to foreigners, a rare occurrence. Critics of the regime said the spectacle was an attempt to distract from the 2002 World Cup being co-hosted by South Korea and Japan, and an effort to raise scarce hard currency.

These unique performances are now an annual feature in Pyongyang, usually in August and September. The Guinness Book of Records has recognized these events as the largest in the world.


Source: wikipedia.org

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The Tallest Building - Burj Khalifa (Burj Dubai)

Burj Khalifa (Arabic: برج خليفة‎ "Khalifa Tower"), formerly known as Burj Dubai, is a supertall skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and is the tallest man-made structure ever built, at 828 m (2,717 ft).
Construction began on 21 September 2004, with the exterior of the
structure completed on 1 October 2009 and the building officially opened
on 4 January 2010.



The building is part of the 2 km2 (490-acre) flagship development called
Downtown Burj Khalifa at the "First Interchange" along Sheikh Zayed
Road, near Dubai's main business district. The tower's architect and
engineer is Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, LLP (Chicago). Bill Baker, the
Chief Structural Engineer for the project, invented the buttressed core
structural system in order to enable the tower to achieve such heights
economically. Adrian Smith, who worked with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
(SOM) until 2006, was the Design Partner on the project.



The primary builder is a joint venture of South Korean Samsung C&T,
who also built the Taipei 101 and Petronas Twin Towers, Belgian group
Besix and Arabtec from UAE. Turner Construction Company was chosen as
the construction project manager. Under UAE law, the Contractor and the
Engineer of Record are jointly and severally liable for the performance
of Burj Dubai. Therefore, by adoption of SOM's
design and by being appointed as Architect and Engineer of Record, Hyder
Consulting is legally the Design Consultant for the tower.





The total budget for the Burj Khalifa project is about US$1.5 billion;
and for the entire new "Downtown Dubai", US$20 billion. Mohamed Ali
Alabbar, the CEO of Emaar Properties, speaking at the Council on Tall
Buildings and Urban Habitat 8th World Congress, said that the price of
office space at Burj Khalifa had reached US$4,000 per sq ft (over
US$43,000 per m2) and that the Armani Residences, also in Burj Khalifa,
were selling for US$3,500 per sq ft (over US$37,500 per m2).

Current records

• Tallest skyscraper to top of spire: 828 m (2,717 ft) (previously Taipei 101 – 509.2 m (1,671 ft))


• Tallest structure ever built: 828 m (2,717 ft) (previously Warsaw radio mast – 646.38 m (2,121 ft))


• Tallest extant structure: 828 m (2,717 ft) (previously KVLY-TV mast – 628.8 m (2,063 ft))


• Tallest freestanding structure: 828 m (2,717 ft) (previously CN Tower – 553.3 m (1,815 ft))


• Building with most floors: 160 (previously both 1 and 2 World Trade Center – 110)


• World's highest elevator installation


• World's fastest elevators at speed of 64 km/h (40 mph) or 18 m/s (59 ft/s) (previously Taipei 101 – 16.83 m/s)


• Highest vertical concrete pumping (for a building): 606 m (1,988 ft) (previously Taipei 101 – 449.2 m (1,474 ft))


• Highest vertical concrete pumping (for any construction): 606 m
  (1,988 ft) (previously Riva del Garda Hydroelectric Power Plant – 532 m
  (1,745 ft))


• The first world's tallest structure in history to include residential space


• Highest outdoor observation deck in the world


• Elevator with the longest travel distance in the world


• Tallest service elevator in the world


• World's highest installation of an aluminium and glass façade, at a height of 512 m (1,680 ft)

Source: wikipedia.org

 

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The Largest Snake - Titanoboa

Titanoboa was 13m (42ft) long - about the length of a bus - and lived in the rainforest of north-east Colombia 58-60 million years ago.

The snake was so wide it would have reached up to a person's hips, say researchers, who have estimated that it weighed more than a tonne.

Green anacondas - the world's heaviest snakes - reach a mere 250kg (550lbs).

Reticulated pythons - the world's longest snakes - can reach up to 10m (32ft).

The team of researchers led by Jason Head, from the University of Toronto at Mississauga, Canada, used a known mathematical relationship between the size of vertebrae and the length of the body in living snakes to estimate the size of the ancient animal.


Named Titanoboa cerrejonensis by its discoverers, the beast's 13m-long body and 1,140kg (2,500lb) weight make it the largest snake on record.

"At its greatest width, the snake would have come up to about your hips. The size is pretty amazing," said co-author P David Polly, from Indiana University in Bloomington, US.

Researchers discovered fossilised bones belonging to the super-sized slitherers and their possible prey at Cerrejon, one of the world's largest open-pit coal mines. The animal is a relative of modern boa constrictors.


Warming world

"Probably like an anaconda, it spent a lot of time in the water," said Professor Polly.

Palaeontologist Dr Jonathan Bloch looks through fossils of giant snake

"It would have needed to eat a lot.

"What its prey was exactly, we don't know. But it probably included alligators, big fish or crocodiles."

The researchers also used the reptile's size to make an estimate of Earth's temperature 58 to 60 million years ago in tropical South America.

Palaeontologists have long known that as temperatures go up and down over geological time, generally speaking, so does the upper size limit of cold-blooded creatures - or poikilotherms.

This is because the metabolism of a poikilotherm is more or less controlled by the average temperature of its environment.

Assuming the Earth today was not particularly unusual, the researchers calculated that a snake of Titanoboa's size would have required an average annual temperature of 30C to 34C (86F to 93F) to survive.

By comparison, the average yearly temperature of today's Cartagena, a Colombian coastal city, is about 28C.


Opportunity knocks 

"A snake living in the tropics would have been operating at a much higher metabolic rate," said Professor Polly.

"So snakes had the opportunity to evolve and grow as big as this one did in a way that they probably wouldn't today."

He added that as the Earth warmed up in future, cold-blooded animals could be expected to evolve larger bodies.

Dr Head adds that the find "challenges our understanding of past climates and environments, as well as the biological limitations on the evolution of giant snakes."

However, Dr Matthew Huber, a climatologist from Purdue University in Indiana, who was not connected with the study, questioned whether the link between size and temperature was "generalisable and accurate".

He commented: "Head and colleagues' findings are the result of probably the first study in 'snake palaeothermometry', and as such must be viewed with caution."

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

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The Largest Dam - Three Gorges Dam

The Three Gorges Dam (traditional Chinese: 長江三峽大壩; pinyin: Chángjiāng Sānxiá Dàbà) is a hydroelectric river dam that spans the Yangtze River in Sandouping, Yiling District,Yichang, Hubei, China. It is the world's largest electricity-generating plant of any kind.

The dam body was finished in 2006 and all of the originally planned dam components of the project were completed on October 30, 2008, when the 26th generator was brought into commercial operation. Currently, it contains 32 main generators, each with a capacity of 700 MW. An item from the original design yet to be finished is a planned ship lift. Six additional generators in the underground power plant are being installed and are not expected to become fully operational until around 2011. With 2 small generators (50 MW each) to power the plant itself, the total electric generating capacity of the dam will eventually reach 22,500 MW.


The project produces hydroelectricity, increases the river's navigation capacity, and reduces the potential for floods downstream by providing flood storage space. Up to September 2009 the dam has generated 348.4 TWh of electricity, covering more than one third of its project cost. The project management and the Chinese state regard the project as a historic engineering, social and economic success, a breakthrough in the design of large turbines, and a move toward the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. However, the dam has also flooded archaeological and cultural sites and displaced some 1.24 million people, and is causing significant ecological changes, including an increased risk of landslides. The building of the dam has been a controversial topic both in China and abroad.

Source: wikipedia.org, ctgpc.com

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The Largest Memorial Complex - Valley of the Fallen

The Valle de los Caídos (in English: Valley of the Fallen) is a monumental memorial in the municipality of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, erected at Cuelgamuros Valley in the Sierra de Guadarrama, near Madrid, conceived by Spanish dictator Francisco Franco to honor those who fell during the Spanish Civil War. However, only two names are commemorated— those of José Antonio Primo de Rivera and Franco himself. It was also claimed by Franco that the monument was meant to be a "national act of atonement". As a surviving artifact of Franco's rule, the monument and its Catholic basilica remain controversial, especially due to the manner and circumstances of its construction by political prisoners. The complex is owned and operated by the Patrimonio Nacional agency.


Valley of the Fallen

The valley that contains the monument, preserved as a national park, is located 10 km northeast of the royal site of El Escorial, northwest of Madrid. Beneath the valley floor lie the remains of 40,000, whose names are accounted for in the monument's register.

Although the valley contains both Nationalist and Republican graves – several former Republicans' bodies were moved there from temporary graves at the end of the war – the tone of the monument is distinctly Nationalist and anti-Communist, containing the inscription "¡Caídos por Dios y por España!" ("Fallen for God and Spain!"), reflecting the close ties of Franco's Nationalist regime to the Catholic Church.

Additionally, Franco's timing of his announcement of the decision to create the monument left no doubts: on 1 April 1940, the day of the victory parade to celebrate the first anniversary of his triumph over the Republic, Franco announced his personal decision to raise a splendid monument to those who had fallen in his cause.

Today, Spain's Socialist Government has been debating plans to re-designate the Valley of the Fallen a "monument to Democracy" or as a memorial to all Spaniards killed in conflict "for Democracy" (believed to mean only the Republican side). Other political organizations, among them centrist Catholic groups, believe that the monument is already dedicated to all of the dead, civilian and military of both Nationalist and Republican sides.


Franco's tomb

In 1975, after Franco's death, the site was designated by the interim government as the burial place for the Caudillo, who actually did not desire to be buried in the valley, but in Madrid. Unlike the fallen of the Civil War who were laid to rest in the valley exterior to the basilica, Franco was buried inside the church. His grave is marked by a simple tombstone engraved with his name, on the choir side of the main altar (between the altar and the apse of the Church; behind the altar, from the perspective of a person standing at the main door).

Franco was the second person buried in the Santa Cruz basilica. Franco had earlier interred José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange, the Spanish fascist party that aided his ascension to power, under a modest gravestone on the nave side of the altar. Primo de Rivera died November 20, 1936, exactly 39 years before Franco, whose grave is on the exact opposite side of the altar.

Today, the Valle de los Caídos is a popular tourist site and every year, on the closest Saturday following November 20, the site is marked by memorial celebrations by Franco's nostalgic supporters and Falange activists.


Controversy in construction

"The work of construction itself was undertaken by the forced labour of 20,000 Republican prisoners, fourteen of whom were killed and many more injured; it was intended that through such work prisoners would have the opportunity to "redeem themselves". The motto used by the Spanish Nationalist government was "el trabajo enoblece" "work ennobles". Nevertheless, the use of convict labor to build the basilica and cross has been controversial. According to the project records, no more than 2,000 workers participated directly in the construction, some of them highly skilled, as required by the complexity of the work. These convicts at the workplace included those convicted of political crimes. A 1940 Spanish law recognized the possibility of "redeeming" two days of conviction for each working day. This benefit was increased to six days when labour was carried out at the basilica.

Source: wikipedia.org

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