Amazing and Strange giant rubber band ball record

Record breaker Joel Waul will find his driveway looks rather empty this morning.

For the giant rubber band ball he spent six years creating is no longer there.
The 28-year-old waved off his 6ft 7in masterpiece yesterday as a crane hauled its 9,032lb bulk from his home in Lauderhill, Florida, to a museum, having sold it for an undisclosed sum.

Mr Waul's creation was declared the world's largest rubber band ball by the Guinness Book of World Records last year.
He got the idea six years ago when he saw a television programme that showed the then-largest rubber band ball being dropped into the desert from an airplane.

'I just thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen,' he said.

The ball has been bought by the Orlando-based Ripley's Believe It of Not museums.

Edward Meyer, vice president of Ripley's said: 'We already have the largest string and barbed-wire balls. This is now my holy trinity, I guess.'
The former record holder was Steven Milton of Eugene, Oregon, who created a 4,600lb ball using over 175,000 rubber bands. It was recorded as the world's largest in November 2006 in Chicago.

Milton broke the previous record set by John Bain in 1999, whose ball weighed 3,120lb.

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The giant jellyfish it so big will make you go wobbly

With its silvery sheen and trailing tentacles, this gelatinous mass looks like a sci-fi creature that has crash-landed to earth from outer space.

But the translucent form, that washed up on a Devon beach today, is a giant example of the rather aptly-named moon jellyfish.

The creature, found by a dog walker this morning, is a massive 4ft (1.2m) long - FOUR TIMES the size of the average moon jellyfish.

It was spotted by a woman at a popular beauty spot on the coast of north Devon.

She then found photographer Peter Stapleton who captured this image. But he is keeping the exact location secret - to avoid spreading panic.
The average moon jellyfish

Average size: Moon jellyfish usually only grow to 12 inches, above

The jellyfish - real name Aurelia aurita - can cause a painful rash on human skin if it comes into contact with tentacles.

Mr Stapleton said: 'A woman came up to me and said there was a huge jellyfish over on the other side of the beach.

'It was the biggest I've seen, about 4ft long with a large body and tentacles.

'As well as people there was other wildlife around it, including herons, but they seemed as puzzled as the rest of us and left it alone.'

The species - also known as common jellyfish or saucer jelly - have no bones or brain, and their colourful bodies are 95 per cent water.

They usually grow to around 12 inches (30cm).

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Giant 400 Years Old Egg For Sale

Its mother has long since departed the scene. As, indeed, has its entire species.

But this giant egg is a great survivor. It was laid around 400 years ago by one of the great elephant birds of Madagascar.

Before becoming extinct in the 17th century, the flightless creature was the world's largest bird, standing 10ft tall and weighing half a ton.

Duncan Phillips holds a Giant Elephant Bird of Madagascar egg, which went on sale in London today.

The egg, which is more than 3ft in circumference, was discovered by Victorian explorers and has since been held in private collections.

Its current owner is antiques dealer John Shepherd, of Ashford in Kent, who bought the egg after seeing David Attenborough discover one while filming in Madagascar.

Mr Shepherd, a trained palaeontologist, has decided to sell the egg, which is on display at the Chelsea Antiques Fair, which runs until Sunday.

The egg is larger than a rugby ball and measures more than 3ft in diameter.

It is expected to fetch at least £5,000. He said: 'The egg is a talking point. It's very eye-catching and it has a wonderful simplicity about it. It stands on its own.

'It has a great social history. The Madagascan elephant bird was the only giant bird to exist with man and man caused its extinction.
'It's nice to be able to show children today about environmental issues that have been going on for hundreds of years.'

Great elephant birds became extinct after being hunted by the natives of Madagascar.

Even though the bird weighed about half a ton, it also suffered at the hands of other predators such as pigs who ate their chicks and destroyed their eggs.

The flightless bird, the largest to have ever lived, resembled a heavily-built ostrich. It had long legs, talons and stood at more than 10ft tall.
But despite its fearsome appearance, it was a herbivore.

The bird as it would have looked 400 years ago, and right its skeleton reveals how much larger it was compared to its giant eggs

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