Sunday, February 27, 2011

World's biggest family: The man with 39 wives, 94 children and 33 grandchildren

He is head of the world's biggest family - and says he is 'blessed' to have his 39 wives.

Ziona Chana also has 94 children, 14-daughters-in-law and 33 grandchildren.

They live in a 100-room, four storey house set amidst the hills of Baktwang village in the Indian state of Mizoram, where the wives sleep in giant communal dormitories.


Mr Chana told the Sun: 'Today I feel like God's special child. He's given me so many people to look after.

'I consider myself a lucky man to be the husband of 39 women and head of the world's largest family.'

The family is organised with almost military discipline, with the oldest wife Zathiangi organising her fellow partners to perform household chores such as cleaning, washing and preparing meals.

One evening meal can see them pluck 30 chickens, peel 132lb of potatoes and boil up to 220lb of rice.


Coincidentally, Mr Chana is also head of a sect that allows members to take as many wives as he wants.

He even married ten women in one year, when he was at his most prolific, and enjoys his own double bed while his wives have to make do with communal dormitories.

He keeps the youngest women near to his bedroom with the older members of the family sleeping further away - and there is a rotation system for who visits Mr Chana's bedroom.

Rinkmini, one of Mr Chana's wives who is 35 years old, said: 'We stay around him as he is the most important person in the house. He is the most handsome person in the village.


She says Mr Chana noticed her on a morning walk in the village 18 years ago and wrote her a letter asking for her hand in marriage.

Another of his wives, Huntharnghanki, said the entire family gets along well. The family system is reportedly based on 'mutual love and respect'
And Mr Chana, whose religious sect has 4,00 members, says he has not stopped looking for new wives.


'To expand my sect, I am willing to go even to the U.S. to marry,' he said.

One of his sons insisted that Mr Chana, whose grandfather also had many wives, marries the poor women from the village so he can look after them.


Saturday, February 12, 2011

Baby boy born with two perfect front teeth

A baby boy surprised his first-time parents when he was born with two fully-formed FRONT TEETH.

Most babies six months to a year to grow their first teeth but Oliver James had two pearly whites from the start.

His parents Joanne Jones, 31, and Lee, 32, said they have already booked their son's first dentists appointment.

The 7lb 12oz youngster has two front incisors in his lower gums and doctors say the teeth may fall out and be replaced or stay in place as the first of his baby teeth.


Mr and Mrs James, from Haverhill, Cambridgeshire have been inundated with friends and family who are keen to see their firstborn's toothy smile.

Mrs James, a carer, said that they were delighted to have a healthy baby boy and added that his teeth were proving popular with visitors.

She said: 'Oliver is a very, very good baby and it was a complete surprise to see his teeth. They are not little stumps, they are proper teeth.

'It is not unknown for babies to be born with teeth, but it is extremely rare.

'It was quite comical in the hospital because everyone wanted to come and see Oliver's teeth when they heard about them.

'He has to go back so that they can keep an eye on them. These may be his proper teeth, or he could get three sets.

'If they get wobbly he will have to have them out, but they seem quite solid.'

Oliver was born by caesarean section at the Rosie Maternity Hospital in Cambridge at 3am on December 30.

Perhaps wary of receiving a nasty nick, Joanne decided to feed Oliver by bottle.


Husband Lee, a warehouse worker, told of his surprise when medical staff presented him with his son and pointed out his unusual teeth.

He said: 'As soon as he was born you could see his two front teeth quite clearly, I was quite shocked.'

The couple had been trying to conceive for four years when Joanne fell pregnant with Oliver naturally.

But she spent six weeks of the pregnancy in hospital as she suffered with hyperemesis - or severe morning sickness.

She said: 'I had the worst pregnancy ever, I spent quite a lot of time in hospital on a drip because I was so poorly.

'When I saw Oliver's teeth I thought it must have been because he was teething while he was in there.

'He is just perfect, but we are not planning to have any more. My brother has six children, so he will have plenty of cousins to play with.'

Monday, February 7, 2011

The BMW sports car that's made entirely out of bricks

A Chinese artist wants £80,000 for a BMW car that handles like a brick... as it's made out of hundreds of them.

Dai Geng spent more than a year cementing the brick blocks together which he then carved into a model of a sporty BMW Z4, which can exceed speeds of 150mph.


Except for the windows, everything is made from brick, even the hinges that allow the door to open and close just like metal ones.

Mr Dai even managed to make brick hinges so the doors can open and close.
The car has been on display at Shenzheng, in Guangdong province, in southeastern China, and has now has been put up for sale.


Mr Dai said: 'Only the windows are not made of bricks. Everything else including the tyres, the steering wheel, the exhaust pipe and trimmings are made of brick.'

He is hoping the car will be sold for use as a garden ornament and bought by one of the newly rich Chinese who regard BMW as extremely desirable because of the quality and performance.

The brick car, which is 5 metres long, 2.15 metres wide, 1.6 metres high and weighs 6.5 tons, was completed in 2007 and was displayed at different places, such as the 798 Art Zone in Beijing.


World's earliest winery discovered 6,100 years after producing its last vintage

The world's oldest winery has been uncovered in a remote cave in the mountains of Armenia.

A grape press, fermentation jars and even a cup and drinking bowl dating to about 6,100 years ago were discovered by an international team of researchers.

While older evidence of wine drinking has been found, this is the earliest example of complete wine production, according to Gregory Areshian of the University of California, Los Angeles, co-director of the excavation.


'The evidence argues convincingly for a wine-making facility,' said Patrick McGovern, scientific director of the Biomolecular Archaeology Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia, who was not part of the research team.

Such large-scale wine production implies that the Eurasian grape had already been domesticated, said McGovern, author of 'Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer and Other Alcoholic Beverages.'

The same Armenian area was the site of the discovery of the oldest known leather shoe, dated to about 5,500 years ago. That discovery at the area known as Areni-1 was reported last summer.

According to the archeologists, inside the cave was a shallow basin about 3 feet across that was positioned to drain into a deep vat.

The basin could have served as a wine press where people stomped the grapes with their feet, a method Areshian noted was traditional for centuries.


They also found grape seeds, remains of pressed grapes and dozens of dried vines. The seeds were from the same type of grapes - Vitis vinifera vinifera - still used to make wine.

The earliest comparable remains were found in the tomb of the ancient Egyptian king Scorpion I, dating to around 5,100 years ago.

Because the wine-making facility was found surrounded by graves, the researchers suggest the wine may have been intended for ceremonial use.

That made sense to McGovern, who noted that wine was the main beverage at funeral feasts and was later used for tomb offerings.

Indeed, he said, 'Even in lowland regions like ancient Egypt where beer reigned supreme, special wines from the Nile Delta were required as funerary offerings and huge quantities of wine were consumed at major royal and religious festivals.'


McGovern noted that similar vats for treading on grapes and jars for storage have been found around the Mediterranean area.

In his books, McGovern has suggested that a 'wine culture,' including the domestication of the Eurasian grape, was first consolidated in the mountainous regions around Armenia before moving to the south.

The findings are published in the online edition of the Journal of Archaeological Science.


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