Smallest Public Transportation System

The world’s smallest Public Transportation Network is in the Leisure compound lived in by reclusive Albanian Pop-star Miklik. Converted from a mine shaft on an Island in the middle of a lake near his hometown, Miklik’s estate covers some 35 square meters, but extends 17 stories underground.

One of the buses that services Miklik's estate. The minute size of the estate means that the buses cannot actually turn, but come to rest on a series of strategically-placed revolving platforms. Photo provided by So gesehen.

©2008 James Mathurin

Least Effective Charity Event

The least effective charity event ever organised was the “Mugging for Charity Fortnight” organised by the mayor of Llanllewy, Wales in 1998. Over the two weeks there was an amnesty on all street crime, as long as 50% of all money taken was given to a charity set up to raise money for a new gift shop in the town’s hospital. Unfortunately, the steep rise in crime was too much for the town’s 9 police officers to deal with, and by Wednesday on the second week, the entire hospital had been burned down. Gwynnford Powys, the mayor of Llanllewy's only comment was, “I still believe it was a basically sound idea, and you can’t deny that it got a lot of people very excited.”


























Reg Dennis, one of the 'Mugging For Charity' organisers, in his role of 'Donation-encourager'. Picture courtesy of Swamibu

©2008 James Mathurin

Worst job promotion

The worst ever job promotion was when Alistair Jones, a worker at Melbourne Zoo, was made Vice-Executive Olfactory Presentation Technician in 1996. His duties consisted mainly of disposing of dung from the zoo’s ‘Waste Intensive Mammals’, chiefly Elephants and Rhinoceroses, and cleaning their pens. Although these duties were identical to those of his previous position (‘Dunny Scraper’), the management of the zoo awarded Jones the promotion, at an identical wage, but with a 3 minute longer lunch break, after he “improved the efficiency of the zoo’s wastage recycling/disposal techniques.” Jones explained, “Well, there’s only so much crud you can shovel into the Polar Bear enclosure before folks start asking if they’re looking at Grizzlies, so I realised ‘hey, the chimps love to chuck their own around so much, why not line their cages with it?’”

Alistair Jones at work with one of the 'Waste Intensive Mammals' (photo by Muzina Shanghai)

©2008 James Mathurin,

The Shortest-lived religion on record

The shortest-lived religion on record was the Pondeastic sect of Lithuania, formed and dissolved on July 17th 1956 by Marzo Passakre, 24. Passakre believed that he had been contacted by God, who told him to run back home to prepare for the rapture. Within 4 hours he had recruited some 257 followers in his home town of Bursnabruk, and had written a draft for the first book of his ‘revised bible’. The religion ended when his younger brother Uri told him that the voice he had heard had actually been him passing on a message from their mother to come home to feed their goat. A friend of the family told reporters, “Marzo has always been a natural leader, and not the most thoughtful of people. Really, we should have seen this coming.”

©Copyright 2008 James Mathurin

Most Cheese Sculptures in one week

The most cheese sculptures made in one week was 97, by Kurdish artist Yitzhak Khrambrooluy between March 10^th to 16^th 2002. He said, “For many people June 1972 was the Golden Age of cheese sculpture, but times are changing. I’m just trying to bring it back into the public eye. Eventually they will melt, but their legacy will live on.”

©2008 James Mathurin

Poorest-selling musical compilation

The poorest-selling musical compilation ever was Now, That’s What I Call Animals Getting Slaughtered 3. Belgian producer Marcus Bellepain, was actually surprised at the poor sales. “We only produced the first NTWICAGS for a joke, but were surprised when it got to 32 in the Belgian album charts, and 27 in the Swiss,” he said in an interview on May 7^th 2002. ”The second album didn’t do quite so well, but we really didn’t expect number 3 to sell only 6 copies, and half of them were returned within a fortnight.”

©2008 James Mathurin

Most severe case of sleep-walking

The most severe case of sleepwalking occurred in 1999. Rachel Fordless of Swansea, Wales, awoke at around 11:30pm on the 21^st July. In her sleep she dressed herself, took her purse, made her way to a 24-hour Internet Café and booked a ticket for herself to Glasgow, under the name Pietra Flambeau. She awoke in a Glasgow police station at 9:45 the next morning, having been arrested for assaulting two bouncers, leaving one in hospital.

©2008 James Mathurin