PLANET'S FASTEST CYCLIST

A 23-year-old Dutch cyclist has pedalled his way to a world record, hitting more than 133.78kph as he sped through a US desert, to become the planet's fastest cyclist.

Sebastiaan Bowier reached a rip-roaring 133.78 kph in the high-tech recumbent bike developed by students from Delft University of Technology and VU University Amsterdam.

This set a new world record, making him the world's fastest cyclist travelling 0.6 kph faster than the previous record holder, Canadian Sam Wittingham.

In addition to Sebastiaan's record-breaking speed, another cyclist in the Delft/Amsterdam team, Wil Baselmans secured third place in the world record ranking with a speed of 127.43 kph, just behind Bowier and Wittingham.

WORLD TALLEST SHORTEST PERSONS

An Indian woman from south Dinajpur in West Bengal was declared the world's tallest woman. Siddiqa Parveen received the title from the Guinness World Records. This was announced in the new record book launched in the second week of september 2013 in London. The entry said, the tallest woman living is Siddiqa Parveen, who was measured to be at least 7 feet 3.5 inches. The doctor estimates her standing height to be at 7 ft 8 inches. India already holds the record for being home to the world's shortest woman. Standing at 24.7 inches, Jyoti Amge has held the Guinness world record title for Shortest Living Woman since her 18th birthday on 16 December 2011.

Sultan Kösen born 10 December 1982 in Mardin, Turkey, holds the Guinness World Record for tallest living male at 2.51 m (8 ft 3 in). His growth has resulted from a tumour affecting his pituitary gland

Chandra Bahadur Dangi (born on November 30, 1939), a resident of Purandhara VDC, Dang District, Nepal, is the shortest man in the world, measuring 0.546 m (1 ft 9 in). Dangi is a primordial dwarf. He broke the record of Gul Mohammed (1957-1997), the shortest adult human whose height was 0.5715 m (1 ft 11 in)

 

 Jyoti Amge (born December 16, 1993), a resident of Nagpur, India, is the world's smallest living woman according to the Limca Book of Records and Guinness Book of Records with a height of 62.8 cm (2 ft 0.6 in). Her restricted height is due to a growth anomaly called achondroplasia.

VOYAGER 1 - LEAVES SOLAR SYSTEM

VOYAGER 1 - FIRST MAN-MADE OBJECT TO VENTURE INTO INTERSTELLAR SPACE

The Voyager 1 spacecraft is a 722-kilogram (1,590 lb) space probe launched by the US space agency, NASA, on September 5, 1977 to study the outer Solar System. The Titan IIIE or Titan 3E, also known as Titan III-Centaur was an American expendable launch system, launched voyager 1, voyager 2 on 5^th sep and 20^th Aug 1974 respectively. Operating for 36 years and 10 days as of 15 September 2013, the spacecraft communicates with the Deep Space Network to receive routine commands and return data. At a distance of about 125 AU from the Sun as of August 2013, it is the farthest manmade object from Earth.

The primary mission ended on November 20, 1980, after encounters with the Jovian system in 1979 and the Saturnian system in 1980. It was the first probe to provide detailed images of the two planets and their moons. As part of the Voyager program, and like its sister craft Voyager 2, the spacecraft is in an extended mission, tasked with locating and studying the boundaries of the Solar System, including the Kuiper belt and the outer zones of the heliosphere, and finally to begin exploring the interstellar medium.

 On September 12, 2013, NASA announced that Voyager 1 had crossed the heliopause and entered interstellar space on August 25, 2012, making it the first manmade object to do so. As of 2013, the probe was moving with a relative velocity to the Sun of 17 kilometers per second (11 mi/s). The amount of power available to the probe has decreased over time and will no longer be able to power any single instrument by 2025.

Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, were launched 16 days apart in 1977. Both spacecraft flew by Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 2 also flew by Uranus and Neptune.Voyager 2, launched before Voyager 1, is the longest continuously operated spacecraft. It is about 15 billion km away from our Sun. Scientists are not certain when Voyager 2 is expected to cross into interstellar space, but they believe it's not very far behind.

INDIRA GANDHI PRIZE FOR PEACE

The Indira Gandhi Prize or the Indira Gandhi Peace Prize or the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development is the prestigious award accorded annually by India to individuals or organizations in recognition of creative efforts toward promoting international peace, development and a new international economic order; ensuring that scientific discoveries are used for the larger good of humanity, and enlarging the scope of freedom.

The prize carries a cash award of 25 lakh Indian rupees and a citation. A written work, in order to be eligible for consideration, should have been published. The panel constituted by the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust consists of prominent national and international personalities including previous recipients. The recipients are chosen from a pool of national and international nominees.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be awarded the coveted Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for 2013 choosed by  an international jury headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh .The announcement was made on November 19, 2013 by the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust.

The prize was being given to 59-year-old Merkel, who became the first woman to be elected as Chancellor of Germany for her work in promotion of global economic stability and commitment to universal peace and disarmament and her leadership role in strengthening productive and mutually beneficial relations with India and other developing countries.

Last five Recipients

Year	Recipient	State/Organization	Description
2008	Mohamed ElBaradei	Egypt	4th Director General of the IAEA
2009	Sheikh Hasina	Bangladesh	Prime Minister of Bangladesh
2010	Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva	Brazil	Ex-President of Brazil
2011	Ela Bhatt	India	Founder of SEWA
2012	Ellen Johnson Sirleaf	Liberia	President of Liberia

2012 Reciepient

Liberian President and Nobel laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will be conferred the prestigious Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development by President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday.

74-year-old Sirleaf, the first democratically elected women Head of State of any African nation, will be presented with the award at a function at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

"The Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development was instituted in the name of former Prime Minister Late Indira Gandhi. It celebrates the values that she stood and fought for in the service of our nation and its people," a statement from Rashtrapati Bhavan said.

An economist, Sirleaf, who shared her Nobel prize with Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and Tawakel Karman of Yemen, was named among top 10 leaders by 'Newsweek' magazine in 2010.

The winners of the prize were recognised by Nobel Prize committee for their "non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work".

The Nobel prize committee had said, "She has contributed to securing peace in Liberia, to promoting economic and social development, and to strengthening the position of women."