50 Awesome Facts about the Most Extreme Things on Earth

The world's hottest vodka named Naga Chilli Vodka at 250,000 Scoville is so hot the manufacturers put a lead seal on the bottle that has to be cut with a wire cutter; and they insist on their website you don't buy it.

27. Shizo Kanakuri has the record for the slowest time in the men's Olympic marathon: 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 5 hours, 32 minutes, and 20.3 seconds. He disappeared in the middle of the race in 1912 and was given a chance to finish his marathon in 1967. He said, “Along the way, I got married, had 6 children and 10 grandchildren.”

28. The driest polar place on earth is McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica where it hasn't rained for 2 million years. Only anaerobic bacteria are able to survive in this extreme condition. Scientists also consider the area terrestrially closest to Mars on earth.

29. The biggest cashew tree (Cashew of Pirangi) in the world covers an area of about 80,000 square feet and produces over 60,000 fruits each year. The tree gets its size from two genetic issues, which allow branches to grow outwards instead of upwards, taking new roots when touching the ground.

30. Mount Chimborazo of Ecuador is the highest point on Earth, 1.5 miles/2.4 kilometers above Mount Everest. The Earth is an 'oblate spheroid' shape, so the equator bulges out. The mountain sits on top of this bulge so it is the closest point to the moon and outer space.

Sea Otters have the densest hair in the world, with up to 140,000/cm² hairs. Humans have about 300/cm² on their head.

32. The longest photographic exposure in history went for 3 years straight. That means the shutter was open and capturing light for 3 years straight without the photo becoming overexposed.

33. The world's narrowest street, Spreuerhofstraße in Germany, ranges from 12 inches at its narrowest to 20 inches at its widest.

34. The longest mathematical proof is 15000 pages long, involved more than 100 mathematicians, and took 30 years just to complete it.

35. Mawsynram in India is the wettest place on Earth. It receives an average yearly rainfall of 467 inches. Another village located near Mawsynram currently holds 2 Guinness records, one for most rain in a 12 month period at 1,041.75 inches and the most rain in one month at 366 inches.

The oldest known piece of music is a drinking song called the Epitaph of Seikilos. It was found written on a 4,000-year-old Sumerian clay tablet. Its lyrics include the line “Life exists only for a short while, and time demands its toll.”

37. The biggest cave in the world is the Son Doong Cave in Vietnam. It’s over 5.5 miles long, has a jungle and river, and could fit a 40-story skyscraper within its walls.

38. The world's shiniest living thing is a fruit named pollia condensata that grows in the central African forests.

39. The longest prison sentence ever requested in the world was 384,912 years of jailtime, against a 22-years-old man who was simply accused of failing to deliver 42,768 letters as a postman.

40. The saltiest lake on the planet is Lake Don Juan in Antarctica. Although the temperature can be as low as -50°C, it never freezes because of its high salinity.

The Hercules Moth is the largest moth in the world which has a wingspan up to 36 cm (14 inches). It spends up to two years in its cocoon but only lives two to eight days as it has no mouth and ultimately dies of starvation.

42. The underbelly membrane of lobsters is the toughest material of all-natural hydrogels, including collagen, animal skins, and natural rubber. The membrane is about as strong as industrial rubber composites, such as those used to make car tires, garden hoses, and conveyor belts.

43. Jon Brower Minnoch was the heaviest person ever recorded, weighing 1,400lb at his heaviest (635kg) in 1978. He later lost 924 lbs, the largest human weight loss ever documented, before then re-gaining 322 lbs and dying at the age of 41 in 1983.

44. The sharpest object known to man is a tungsten needle that tapers down to the thickness of one atom.

45. The rarest element on Earth is the halogen Astatine. It's so rare that only 30 grams of it can be found at any point in time on Earth, and only 0.05 micrograms of it have been produced to date. Most of its properties are unknown and no one has ever seen it in its natural form.

The shortest commercial flight can take as little as 47 seconds and costs £21. It's between two islands named Westray and Papa Westray islands in the UK.

47. Mawlynnong, a village of about 500 people in the state of Meghalaya, India is one of the cleanest places in all of Asia, with a total ban on polythene bags and smoking. It also has a functioning Matrilineal Society.

48. The world’s largest farm is the Mudanjiang City Dairy Farm located in China. It covers an area of 22.5 million acres. This is the same size as Portugal.

49. The longest Cricket Test match was played over 12 days between England and South Africa in Durban in 1939. It was eventually abandoned, otherwise, the England team would have missed the boat back home.

50. The longest poem in the world is the Mahābhārata, a Hindu text. It's literally 5 times the length of the bible and the Iliad and the Odyssey combined. It has 220000 verses and about 1.8 million words.