27-year-old llama certified as oldest in the world

Whitetop the llama, who has lived since 2006 at the Victory Junction camp for children with serious illnesses and chronic medical conditions in North Carolina, was officially named the oldest living llama in captivity and oldest llama in captivity ever, by Guinness World Records.

“He is so good with our campers that as soon as our camp days’ start, he just lays down and he doesn’t get up until lunch. He’ll just lay there and he lets kids run up to him and love on him,” said Billie Jo Davis, the barn director at Victory Junction. “He treats it like a job — it is his job!”

Whitetop spends his days surrounded by children at the year-round camp, as well as nine horses, two goats, two rabbits, two miniature donkeys and a miniature highland cow.

Gamer breaks Super Mario Bros speed run record

A dedicated gamer broke a Guinness World Record by beating 1985’s classic Super Mario Bros with a time of 4 minutes and 54.565 seconds.

Known for multiple speed running records, he credited years of practice and refining techniques to shave off milliseconds.

“I spend 90% of my time practicing and 10% speedrunning,” he told Guinness. Using an emulator and keyboard, he remains unsatisfied and aims to lower the record to 4:54.3, just 0.3 seconds from perfection.

Pokémon-shaped Cheeto sells for $87,840

A single Flamin’ Hot Cheeto said to be shaped like a Charizard from the Pokémon anime and gaming franchise was auctioned for $87,840.

The Goldin auction house said the oddly-sculpted snack, dubbed “Cheetozard,” opened bidding at $250 in February and was sold to an unnamed bidder for $72,000 plus a buyer’s premium — a total $87,840.

The 3-inch-long Cheeto is affixed to a custom “Cheetozard” Pokémon card and encased in a transparent box.

Goldin said the Cheeto was discovered and preserved by sports memorabilia company 1st & Goal Collectibles sometime between 2018 and 2022. Images of the snack went viral on social media in 2024.

Lego sculpture, the size of a blood cell

An artist from England broke a Guinness World Record when he created a sculpture of a Lego brick roughly the same size as a human white blood cell.

Bournemouth resident David A. Lindon’s Lego brick sculpture measures just .02517 millimetres (.00099 inches) by .02184 millimetres (.00086 inches), about four times smaller than the previous record-holder for the smallest handmade sculpture.

The sculpture — along with two slightly larger Lego bricks he made at the same time — had to be officially measured by a light microscope by a team at Evident Scientific.

Lindon told Guinness World Records, “I have trained myself to slow my breathing and work between the beats of my heart. Even the pulse of my heart beating through my fingers creates too much movement.”

He said he does all of his work at night so the vibrations from daytime traffic don’t interfere with his work.

Published in Dawn, Young World, April 12th, 2025