MFS - Strange But True - People 17 - Bridgette Jordan

Updated on MFS - Strange But True - People 17

The world's shortest living woman - Bridgette Jordan

Bridgette Jordan has been declared the world's shortest woman by Guinness Book of World Records. Her record-setting height of 2 feet, 3 inches allowed her to beat out the previous record holder, Elif Kocaman of Kadirli, Turkey, who measured 2 feet, 4.5 inches. Jordan is a 22-year-old student at Kaskasia College in Centralia, Ill.

In addition to this title, Bridgette also holds the record for the ‘Shortest Living Siblings’ alongside her brother, 20-year-old Brad Jordan, who measures 3 ft 2 in (98 cm) tall.In the past we did a post on "Primordal Dwarfisme" Read the full story on MFS, With 1 videoclip.

MFS - Strange But True - Places 18 - The Skull tower of Niš

Updated on MFS - Strange But True - Places 18

The Skull tower of Niš

Nišis the second largest city in Serbia and one of the oldest in the Balkans. Situated right between the East and the West it’s had a turbulent history involving numerous occupations and battles. For example in 1385 the Turks seized it after a siege lasting nearly a month.

Though the Turks suffered very heavy losses they nevertheless defeated the Serbs. The brutal Turkish commander at Niš, Hursid Pasha, then set about decapitating hundreds of those killed, whereupon he took about a thousand Serbian skulls and had them mounted on a tower with the skull of Stevan Sinđelić placed on top. The scalps from the skulls were stuffed with cotton and sent to Constantinople (modern Istanbul) as proof for Sultan Mahmud II.

Hursid Pasha’s uniquely gruesome edifice is still standing. Though only 58 skulls remain, much of the Skull Tower has still been preserved thanks to a chapel built to enclose it. Today, however, it serves not as a threat, but as a monument commemorating the battle, a sort of shrine to the value of independence and the real price that some have had to pay.

"My eyes and my heart greeted the remains of those brave men whose cut-off heads made the cornerstone of the independence of their homeland. May the Serbs keep this monument! It will always teach their children the value of the independence of a people, showing them the real price their fathers had to pay for it." - Alphonse de Lamartine, Journey to the East, 1833

Read and see more on MFS, with 1 videoclip.

MFS - Strange But True - People 17

Updated on MFS - Strange But True - People 17

The Magnetic Boy - Ivan Stoiljkovic

The 6-year-old Croatian boy named Ivan Stoiljkovic is attracting media attention for his apparent ability to attract other things: Silverware, remote controls, cell phones and even a large frying pan seem to miraculously stick to the boy's skin. Ivan's family claims he's magnetic.

There are also claims from his family in Koprivnica, in Northern Croatia, of unusual levels of strength and even healing powers.

But one thing is for certain - when Ivan takes off his shirt, he is able to stick metallic objects such as spoons, mobile phones and even frying pans to his body.In total, his family says, he can carry up to 25kg of metal stuck to his torsoSo are is he and similar others really 'Magnetic'?Read the full story on MFS - Strange But True - People 17"MFS, with 3 videoclips.

MFS - Strange But True - People 17

Updated on MFS - Strange But True - People 17

The Magnetic Boy - Paulo David Amorim



An 11-year-old boy has been attracting worldwide attention... and a load of metal implements.
Knives, forks, spoons, scissors and even large saucepans all seem to stick to Paulo David Amorim, a Brazilian boy who claims to have magnet-type qualities.
His friends have nicknamed him 'Magnet Boy,' while his astonished doctor says he has never seen anything like it in 30 years as a physician
The boy’s father told local TV station Globo that he decided to test his son after learning of a boy in Croatia with a similar ability.
Junior Amorim says he was surprised to find 'a fork and knife stuck to his body.'
Paulo seems to take his bizarre ability in his stride, letting his father load his up his front and back with metal, rather like a game of Buckaroo.'In school, everyone asks me to put things on my body, they think it is a trick,' Paulo said.Thankfully his magnetism is not deemed a health risk.
'We can see that there is a certain adhesiveness, that he does manage to make several objects stick to his body, some of which are pretty heavy, but it is not completely out of the ordinary,' his doctor Dix-Sept Rosado Sobrinho told TV Globo.
So is he really 'Magnetic'?Read and see the full story on MFS , with videoclip.

MFS - Strange But True - People 16

Is happiness a matter of seize? I don't think so !

Updated on MFS - Strange But True - People 16


Junrey Balawing the next smallest man in the World?


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.

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.Read more about this amazing boy on MFS , with one videoclip about him.

MFS - Strange But True - Things / Other 21

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The Cursed Delhi Purple Sapphire


Some 34 years ago Peter Tandy, a young curator at the Natural History Museum, happened upon a jewel while working among the great lines of mineral cabinets. From a scientific perspective, the stone was nothing special, though its setting was rather bizarre, bound by a silver ring decorated with astrological symbols and mystical words with two scarab-carved gems attached. It was a typewritten note that accompanied the jewel, an amethyst known as the Delhi Purple Sapphire, that caught Tandy’s eye.

The Delhi Purple Sapphire was "trebly accursed and is stained with the blood, and the dishonor of everyone who has ever owned it," according to Edward Heron-Allen, a scientist, friend of Oscar Wilde and the last owner of the jewel.

The Delhi Purple Sapphire, actually an amethyst, was willed to the London Natural History Museum in 1943 by Heron-Allen. Supposedly he was so concerned about the curse of bad luck and tragedy surrounding the gem that he sealed it with protective charms in seven boxes.

Heron-Allen’s last words on the jewel: "Whoever shall then open it, shall first read out this warning, and then do as he pleases with the jewel. My advice to him or her is to cast it into the sea." The sapphire was only discovered again more than three decades ago though the discovery was kept quiet due to the supposed curse. Supposedly Heron-Allen, a scholar in his own right, knew what he was talking about. His descendants would never touch the jewel and knew well the story of the cursed amethyst.Read more on this "Cursed' Charm on MFS.

MFS - Strange But True - People

Updated on MFS - Strange But True - People 16

Blind woman catches record Albino Catfish.



A fisherman who introduced his blind wife Sheila Penfold, 59 to fishing has been upstaged twice - as he watched her break two world records for catching giant catfish.Retired gardener Alan Penfold, 63, decided to start bringing wife Sheila along on his fishing trips four years ago but wouldn't have expected to be upstaged by his partially-sighted partner.She has broken the record for the biggest catfish ever caught by a woman and then hooked the largest albino catfish ever caught in two fishing holidays.The 59-year-old housewife, who has three children, three grandchildren and one great grandchild, said her second record-breaker came on October 4 this year when she reeled in a rare albino catfish.She was rowed out into the middle of the river to place her bait before heading back to the shore - and within minutes she felt a tug on her line which she said 'felt like a car', she told the Angler's Mail.After nearly an hour of reeling the fish to the surface, she almost dropped her rod in amazement when she heard people shouting around her that it was a very rare catfish.Four fellow fishermen and the tour guide helped Sheila, from Wandsworth, south London, get the huge fish onto dry land.The previous world record for an albino catfish- caught by either a man or a woman - was just 179lb, almost a stone lighter than Sheila's catch.Picture and copyright by Stian Alexander.Read and see more on this catch at MFS,with 1 videoclip on Catfish angling.

MFS - Strange But True - People 16

Updated on MFS - Strange But True - People 16

The Tarahumara a.k.a. The super Athletes of the Sierra Madre.


The Rarámuri or Tarahumara are an indigenous people of northern Mexico who are renowned for their long-distance running ability.In their language, the term rarámuri refers specifically to the males, females are referred as muki (individually) or igomele (collectively).Originally inhabitants of much of the state of Chihuahua, the Rarámuri retreated to the Copper Canyon in the Sierra Madre Occidental on the arrival of Spanish explorers in the sixteenth century. The area of the Sierra Madre Occidental which they now inhabit is often called the Sierra Tarahumara because of their presence.Current estimates put the population of the Rarámuri in 2006 at between 50,000 and 70,000 people. Most still practice a traditional lifestyle, inhabiting natural shelters such as caves or cliff overhangs, as well as small cabins of wood or stone. Staple crops are corn and beans; however, many of the Rarámuri still practice transhumance, raising cattle, sheep, and goats. Almost all Rarámuri migrate in some form or another in the course of the year.The Tarahumara language belongs to the Uto-Aztecan family. Although it is in decline under pressure from Spanish, it is still widely spoken.The word for themselves, Rarámuri means "foot-runner" or "he who walks well,"in their native tongue.And they've been known to irritate American ultramarathoners by beating them while wearing huarache sandals and stopping now and then for a smoke.Read and see more about these amazing people on MFS,with 2 videoclips.