Man sets record for fastest letter-counting

Mohammad Sayaheen, a 51-year-old man from Irbid, Jordan, has clinched a Guinness World Record for the swiftest mental counting of letters in ten sentences. Sayaheen, who discovered his rapid calculation abilities in secondary school, showcased his talent on Arabs Got Talent.

The record-setting feat took him just 35.5 seconds, with each sentence requiring only one or two seconds of mental calculation. Despite Guinness World Records’ requirement for him to vocalise each sentence before presenting the total, Sayaheen demonstrated his instant calculating prowess.

Extinct lizard found after 42 years

Researchers from Queensland Museum and James Cook University, Australia, tracked down the Lyon’s grassland striped skink (also known as Austroablepharus barrylyoni).

The elusive lizard, which resemblances a snake with legs, was last seen in 1981 and considered extinct. But it turns out the skink is just good at hide and seek. They set up traps on farmland near Mount Surprise to see if they could find the lizard —- as well as two other rare types of reptile.

Dr Andrew Amey, from Queensland Museum Network, said of the creatures: “These lizards are all hard to find and seldom seen. Two are part of a large group of skinks in the genus Lerista, which are only found in Australia and have adapted to sandy soils by reducing their limbs to essentially swim through the soil.”

The skinks are largely active during the day, but their grasslands habitat makes it difficult to locate them.

Street cleaner becomes professional ballet dancer

A 63-year-old Chinese man started learning ballet a decade ago and has gone viral on social media as a living example that you are never too old to follow your dreams.

Liu Ziqing fell in love with ballet as a little boy, after watching The Red Detachment of Women ballet show in the early 1960s, more than 10 times, but was too poor to follow his passion. Growing up in a poor family in a village near Baotou, the largest city in Northern China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region, he became a farmer and also a street cleaner to make ends meet. At age 53, he decided to become a ballet dancer.

It wasn’t the easiest thing in the world, but with the help of his supportive family, he went through the arduous training.

Staying in good enough shape to dance alongside performers less than half his age is tough, but Liu Ziqing is convinced that it has done wonders for his health as well.

Published in Dawn, Young World, December 2nd, 2023