Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Britain's biggest burger at 13,000-calorie giant is equivalent to 26 McDonald's quarter pounders

Every now and again, we all like to treat ourselves to a nice juicy burger with fries and a milkshake.

But this lunchtime snack might take you until supper time to finish.

The Over De Flames burger, which could be the whopper to end all whoppers, contains more than 13,000 calories - almost the amount an average man should consume in a week.

Standing at around 30cm in diameter and containing a staggering 40 slices of cheese, the burger poses a gut-busting challenge for even the hungriest of customers.


Equivalent to more than 26 quarter-pounders, the monolithic meat feast contains three kilos of beef (6.5lb), dwarfing its competitors in the race to be named Britain's biggest - and most calorific - burger.

The brainchild of restaurateur Sudeep De, the burger is only available at the Over De Flames restaurant within Norwich venue The Basement.

The burger, which is served with fries and a milkshake, boasts lashings of relish, ketchup and mayonnaise, plus two whole onions, three tomatoes and an entire head of lettuce.  

Mr De is offering £200 to anyone who manages to finish the lot within two hours.
And if they don't, they must pay the menu price of £30.

So far, out of the 26 people who have stepped up to the plate, no one has managed to clean it up.


Father-of-two Mr De, who took over the restaurant in September last year, was inspired to create the monster meal after watching US television show Man v Food.

Mr De, 32, said: 'When I was developing the burger, I tried it out on my family and between me, my wife, our two kids and my in-laws, we were still unable to finish one.

'I first got the idea for the burger from watching Man v Food and when I took over the restaurant I wanted to give it something that would make it stand out.

'All the ones I had seen in the past were just normal-sized burgers stacked on top of each other and anyone can do that.


'I wanted to make one which would be to scale. So I convinced a local bakery to make me the bun, which took about six or seven attempts to get the shape right, and then I set about making the patties.

'Each of the patties is 1.5 kilos of beef and there's two of them. So altogether that's three kilos of beef in a single burger.'

A previous contender for the title of Britain's Biggest Burger was rather aptly named the Titanic burger.

Tipping the scales at 2.5lb, the eye-watering megaburger contains two 1lb beef patties (equivalent to 1kg), six rashers of bacon, two chicken breasts, two potato waffles, four onion rings, cheese and - it’s not all bad - a tomato.

The mighty mouthful was prepared by Oscar’s Diner, an American-themed burger bar in Telford, Shropshire.

Hungry customers must eat the entire burger, a large portion of chips, a pot of coleslaw, washing it all down with the ice cream milkshake, within 45 minutes.

And the prize? A free meal, a celebratory photograph and a commemorative T-shirt, presumably in extra large.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Teenager set to be crowned world's shortest man at just 22 INCHES high

He might only be slightly taller than a glass bottle, but Junrey Balawing is set to break big world records.

The tiny teenager will soon be crowned the world's smallest man, standing at a mere 22 inches.

The minuscule man from Zamboanga del Norte, in the Philippines, is already 17 years old but is just the same size as a one-year-old.


And when he celebrates his 18th birthday in June he is excepted to shave five inches of the current Guinness World Record.

He struggles to walk and can't stand for long, but he looks forward to wearing the crown with pride.

'If I were the smallest man in the world, it would be very cool,' he said.


His mother, Concepcion, 35, says she noticed something was wrong as Junrey approached the age of two but no doctor was able to help.

'He was always sick and we noticed he wasn't growing so we took him to see a doctor but they were baffled,' she says.

When Junrey was 12 the family took him back to the doctor but their only advice was to take more vitamins, which the family couldn't afford.

The family live in a very remote part of the Philippines, the nearest town is an hour away and they're 570 miles from Manila.

Junrey's father Reynaldo, 37, works as a blacksmith in the town centre and is only home at weekends because of travel difficulties.


And while Junrey's younger but taller siblings, Jaycel, 13, Jay-art, 11 and Jeanritch, six, go to school, he stays at home all day with his mother.

Concepcion said: 'I would love to be able to work while my other children are at school but I can't leave Junrey. He needs my care every minute of every day.

'Junrey can only walk with some help and he can't stand for too long because he's in too much pain. But he loves it when I tell him he's the smallest man in the world, he just smiles with pride.'

Based on the Guinness Book of Records, the current smallest man in the world is 24-year-old Niqo Hernandez of Colombia, standing at 27 inches.


Saturday, March 19, 2011

Archaeologists unearth 1,100-year-old canoe from Florida

A 1,100-year-old canoe has been excavated from mud on a Florida island 10 years after it was first discovered by an amateur archaeologist.

The 40ft dugout canoe - which predates Christopher Columbus's 'discovery' of America by at least 600 years - was carefully extracted from the shore at Weedon Island, by staff from Pinellas County's archeology team.


It is the oldest canoe ever found in Florida and to prevent the lengthy fragile artefact from snapping during its removal, the team used hacksaws to cut it into sections.

Once it had been transported back to the mainland the sections were cleaned and then lowered into a tank of fresh water and chemical solutions which will preserve the 1,100-year-old wood.

The two-year excavation, cleaning and preservation will be paid for by a private group, Friends of Weedon Island, who raised $30,000 (£18,000) for the cause.


'The find is exciting,' Phyllis Kolianos of Pinellas County preserve education centers told WTSP.com.

'It's the largest canoe ever found in Florida in a salt water environment and it helps tell the story of the Manasota culture.


The canoe had initially been found by enthusiast Harry Koran a decade ago when he was scanning the shoreline for artefacts.

'I noticed a piece of wood in the ground, which was so perfectly in line, it looked more than just a tree branch,' said Mr Koran, who was delighted to be present during the excavation.

At the end of the process the canoe will be displayed at Weedon Island Preserve Cultural and Natural History Center.


Friday, March 11, 2011

Face of incredibly preserved 700-year-old mummy found by chance by Chinese road workers

These incredible pictures show a 700-year-old mummy, which was discovered by chance - by road workers - in excellent condition in eastern China.

The corpse of the high-ranking woman believed to be from the Ming Dynasty - the ruling power in China between 1368 and 1644 - was stumbled across by a team who were looking to expand a street.


And the mummy, which was found in the city of Taizhou, in the Jiangsu Province, along with two other wooden tombs, offers a fascinating insight into life as it was back then.

Discovered two metres below the road surface, the woman's features - from her head to her shoes - have retained their original condition, and have hardly deteriorated.

When the discovery was made by the road workers, late last month, Chinese archaeologists, from the nearby Museum of Taizhou, were called into excavate the area, the state agency Xinhua News reported.


They were surprised by the remarkably good condition of the woman's skin, hair, eyelashes and face. It was as though she had only recently died.

Her body, which measures 1.5 metres high, was found at the construction site immersed in a brown liquid inside the coffin.


And the coffin was opened earlier this week, on March 1, much to the excitement of the local city - and further afield. And the right hand of the 700-year-old mummy showed her preserved skin, and a ring.

The mummy was wearing traditional Ming dynasty costume, and also in the coffin were bones, ceramics, ancient writings and other relics.

This is the latest discovery after a lull of three years in the area. Indeed, between 1979 and 2008 five mummies were found, all in very good condition.


Those findings raising the interest in learning the techniques of preservation funeral of this dynasty and customs in time to bury the dead.

Director of the Museum of Taizhou, Wang Weiyin, told Xinhua that the mummy's clothes are made mostly of silk, with a little cotton.

He said usually silk and cotton are very hard to preserve and excavations found that this mummifying technology was used only at very high-profile funerals.
The first finding of the Ming Dynasty in Taizhou dates from May 1979 and led the opening of the museum.


At that time the bodies were also found intact, but due to lack of experience of archaeologists only clothing, belts and clamps could be preserved.

The Ming Dynasty, who built the Forbidden City and restored the Great Wall, was the last in China and marked an era of economic growth and cultural splendour which produced the first commercial contacts with the West.



Saturday, March 5, 2011

World's most boring leader: Kim Jong Il - the man who looks at things

Any increased openness from the famously paranoid communists of North Korea is to be welcomed.

For years, the only glimpse inside the closed country has been the colourful annual parade involving literally millions of their dutiful subjects and soldiers.




Since the Dear Leader realised he would one day have to pass over the reins, however, he has come out of his shell rather.

In fact Kim Jong Il has been photographed hundreds of times in almost identical poses in almost identical clothes.


Mainly he looks at things.


Hilariously, there’s even a website now dedicated to the leader, called kimjongillooksatthings.com

But after the emergence today of him looking at a particularly tasty bunch of tomatoes, MailOnline felt it necessary to get involved in the action.


So here are some of the very best pictures of Kim Jong Il looking at things that we have found.

Judging by these, it’ll be some time before he is seen planting flowers at a graveside or supping a pint backstage at party conference.



So for the moment, we must make do with the best the political paparazzi of North Korea have to offer.

His successor, son Kim Jong Un, waiting in the wings can presumably only look on in admiration.


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