World's Largest Cricket Tournament - Himachal's T-20 set Guinness Record

The second edition of the Jaypee Twenty20 ‘Mahasangram', a local version of Twenty20 league and billed as the world's largest cricket tournament, began in Himachal Pradesh Monday, an organiser said here.

"The knock-out tournament that would see 1,342 teams playing, mainly from rural areas across the state, began this (Monday) morning. The inaugural matches were played at Kalpa (in Kinnaur district), Dharamsala (in Kangra district), Nadaun (in Hamirpur district), Kullu and Bilaspur," Mohit Sood, Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) press secretary, told IANS.

Absence of stars hits attendance in Guwahati

He said 150 matches would be played daily at 75 grounds that have been improved and developed by the HPCA.

"Nearly 19,000 players would showcase their cricketing skills in the tournament that would see 2,000 matches. Around 500 officials of various cricket bodies are on duty to supervise the matches," Sood added.

Last year, 14,300 players from 1,017 teams participated in the tournament and matches were played at 60 places. Cash prizes of about Rs.30 lakh were distributed among the teams and the players.

The HPCA is spending around Rs.70 lakh on the tournament. Of this, Rs.30 lakh would be given as cash prizes to the winners, Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee chief Anurag Thakur said.

Teams even from the remotest parts like Pangi, Bharmour, Holi and Tissa in Chamba district, Leo, Spillo, Sangla and Kalpa in Kinnaur district, Sissu and Udaipur in Lahaul and Spiti district and Shillai in Sirmaur district are participating.

"We have got the maximum number of 226 teams from Chamba district, one of the remotest and most backward regions in the country," Sood said.

India vs New Zealand

The event, he said, would enter the Guinness Book of World Records.

"Officials of the Guinness Book of World Records have decided in principle to include this tournament as the biggest cricket show on earth," he added.

The semi-finals and the final would be played under lights at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala. The picturesque stadium, situated nearly 4,000 feet above the sea level, has already hosted two Indian Premier League (IPL) matches earlier this year.

Pando, the Single Largest Living Organism on Earth

Pando or The Trembling Giant is an enormous grove of Quaking Aspen that is an entire forest out of a single organism. This colony of a single male Quaking Aspen is located in the Fishlake National Forest in Utah, in the US. Each of 47,000 or so trees in the grove are genetically identical and has been determined to be part of a single living organism all sharing a single massive underground root system. Pando is truly massive – it covers an area of 43 hectares, weighs 6,000 tonnes and is more than 80,000 years old.

Quaking aspen reproduces via a process called suckering. An individual stem can send out lateral roots that, under the right conditions, send up other erect stems which look just like individual trees but rather clones of single tree.

Pando’s age is often debated. Some experts speculate that less well-studied Quaking Aspens elsewhere in the world could extend more than 80 hectares and be one million years old. Others estimates puts Pando's age closer to 1 million years.

Pando was discovered by Burton V. Barnes of the University of Michigan in the 1970s. Barnes had described Pando as a single organism. In 1992 the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development called Pando the world's most massive organism.

World's Largest Wine Glass (Record set by Lebanon)

The Largest Wine Glass Guinness World Record has been smashed by Lebanon. This Largest Wine Glass can hold an incredible one hundred bottles.

Elizabeth Smith, An adjudicator of the Guinness Book of World Records confirmed that the plexiglass vessel measured 94.48 inches (2.40 metres) in height and 65 inches (1.65 metres) in diameter.

"I'm here from London and I'm very proud to announce that Vinifest and Eventions, and Lebanon have created a new Guinness world record for the largest wine glass", said Elizabeth.

Previous Guinness world record for Largest Wine Glass was set by Portugal, 12 years back that measured 59.44 inches (1.51 metres) in height and 57.48 (1.46 metres) at its widest point.

Organisers celebrated the event by filling the glass with a mixture of local red, white and rose.

Producers from whole the country had donated their produce as part of a bid to promote Lebanese wine.

Take a Look at Lebanon World's Largest Wine Glass Guinness World Record 2011 Video.

Most Number of Kidney Stone Removal from Single Patient World Record set by Indian Doctor

In what can only be termed as a medical marvel, Dr Ashish Rawandale-Patil, a urologist from Dhule, Maharashtra, gained a place in 'Guinness Book of World Records' on Oct 20 for removing a record number of 172,155 kidney stones from a single kidney.

The world record feat was carried out on 8 December last year at the Institute of Urology at Dhule, when Dr. Ashish performed the Herculean task of removing over a lakh stones from a single kidney of his patient, Dhanraj Wadile.

Dr Patil stated, “The Guinness team took time to verify world-wide records. The earlier record holder, a doctor
from Nashik, had removed 14,098 kidney stones.”


He added, "The certificate from the Guinness Records officials only came 10 days ago so we waited this long to make the announcement. We are very excited.”

Wadile suffering from rare birth defect
Wadile, 45, had been enduring acute pain for over six months and had stopped eating and going to work. He had consulted numerous doctors and was also taking medicines
for the pain before he approached Dr. Ashish.

A thorough examination revealed that Wadile was suffering from the rare birth defect called Pelvi-Ureteric Junction obstruction where his kidney was abnormally positioned in the pelvic and had an obstruction.

In addition, the clinical investigations revealed the patient
had a large number renal stones.

After the patient was cleared as medically fit, the doctors worked out the details of the surgical procedure to be performed.

A 4-hour complex operation
The doctors used both open surgery and flexible endoscopy in the complex four-hour operation. The team of medical experts working on Wadile was amazed at the number of stones that were removed from the patient.

Wadile felt relieved immediately after surgery. The stones removed comprised of calcium oxalate and calcium phosphate and varied in size from one millimetre to 2.5 cms.

Dr Patil stated, “The surgery was complicated due to the number of kidney stones. It was difficult to remove so many stones from his kidney. These stones were anywhere between the size of 1mm to 2.5cm.

“The possibility of leaving some stones behind was one of the risks as it could have jeopardized the surgery. Bigger stones had to be tackled individually. We also did a plastic surgery to widen the opening of the kidney.”

Counting the stones another mammoth task
Following the surgery, the doctors faced another mammoth task of counting the stones. For this purpose they employed a diamond worker who counts and verifies diamonds on a regular basis to team up with one of the doctors.

The counting process of the stones took nearly three daily for well over a month to be completed.

Dr Patil stated, "I then wrote to the Guinness Book of World Records and they asked me to send the stones and related documents. They verified it and wrote back to me in October telling me that I have made a record".

He added "This is an important milestone for me and my institute. It is the combined effort of my team that could take this small town to an international level.”

Indian doctor removes 172,155 kidney stones from single patient Guinness World Record Video

One Of The World’s Largest Opencast Mines

Sibaysk opencast mine is a Russian copper-zinc pyrite field. It was opened in 1913, and is the second most deep in the world. Its depth is about 500 metres with the diameter of 2 kilometers.

View from the observation point.

A thin stripe on the left is actually a rather wide road.

One can hardly discern the bottom of the open pit.

Observation booth.

Kilometres-long waste rock drops.

Pay attention to the hole in the wall, it is a tunnel a 60-ton truck can go along.

According to the legend the open pit was founded more than 100 years ago by a hunter from a little village Old Sibay while digging out polecat’s hole.