Graham The Cat Visits Pet Store Every Day

Meet the cheeky cat who must think he’s lost all his nine lives and gone to feline heaven.

A ginger-and-white tom - nicknamed ‘Graham’ – has adopted a giant pet shop stuffed with toys, food and fish, as his second home.

For the past few months he's been visiting the Pets at Home store in Boston, Lincolnshire, every day – even waiting outside for the doors to open at 9am.
Graham sprawled on the ground in front of the shop's automatic doors as he waits to be let in.

Once inside, he wanders over to the till enclosure and opens the staff gate with his paw before jumping on the counter.

Graham can also be seen attempting to claw his way - unsuccessfully - into a rodent enclosure and staring transfixed at a goldfish tank.

Deputy manager Vicky Coker said: ‘Sometimes he sits on the mat and greets customers as they come in.’

As for the pets for sale, staff insist that he doesn’t scare them at all.

George Tarbox, 19, who’s worked at the store for five months, said: 'Curiously enough, the animals here don’t react to him. They’re not scared at all. Anyway, they’re protected by a plastic screen, so he doesn’t cause any harm. That’s why we like him. He likes to sit and watch the rodents, dragons and fish we have in store.

‘Initially we discouraged him from coming in, but he kept coming back.

‘We thought it wouldn't be very good to keep shooing him out as pets are always welcome here - although they're usually on a lead when they come in.’

Graham spends hours at a time at the store and staff feed him the occasional treat to stop him thieving products that are for sale and play with him using toys that won’t be sold.

And so far their tactics are working.

Mr Tarbox added: ‘We have caught him chewing on a packet of cat food before, but he's generally no trouble.

‘He's become a bit of a celebrity too as we often have customers asking where he is.

‘The kids, especially, love him. He’s a big draw for them.'

Mr Tarbox says he’s claimed ownership of Graham because he named him – but believes he does have an owner, as he has a collar.

Staff have no idea who it is, though.

Graham never spends the night at the store because it has a motion-activated alarm that he would set off.

Instead, he's put outside at the end of the day and left to find his way home to his owner, whoever it is.

'We always say to him "see you tomorrow," said Mr Tarbox. "Because we know he'll be back."

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Girl Grow a New Face on her Chest

 A team of Chinese medics have given a teenage girl a new face after growing it on her breast. Xu Jianmei, 17, was left horrifically disfigured by a fire when she was just five-years-old. This week she had surgery in the city of Fuzhou, in Fujian province, in the southeast of the country.

She woke up after the operation to find that she once again had a chin, eyelids and an ear. But she said the best thing is that she can now smile properly for the first time in 12 years. Ms Xu’s parents were unable to afford to pay for her to have plastic surgery but she was given hope when doctors offered to carry out the pioneering operation for free.

It meant the girl from a small fishing village could receive the face transplant which was carried out using tissue from her chest.

The transplant team implanted a blood vessel from her leg into her chest and then used a water-filled balloon to expand her skin to create enough to make her new face.

Video footage from the eight-hour surgery shows Ms Xu lying in a hospital bed, barely conscious and severely swollen, but with smooth flesh now replacing the ridged scars of her old face.

‘With her new face she will be able to express herself in a more precise way. She will even be able to blush when her emotions change, but it will take a long time,’ her surgeon, Jiang Chenhong, claimed.

‘First, we took a piece of blood vessel fascia from her thigh and implanted it in her chest.

‘Then we inserted a skin expander beneath the part of skin where the blood vessel fascia was planted, so that the part could expand and produce enough skin for her new face,’ he added.

Chinese teams are said to have performed several similar transplant surgeries in recent months, including creating a new nose on a car accident survivor's forehead.

China's first donor face transplant recipient, farmer Li Guoxing, received his new face in 2006 - less than a year after the world's first successful face transplant recipient, Isabelle Dinoir, was presented to media in France.

However, Mr Li died less than two years later, after stopping his anti-rejection medication.

Since then 10 surgeries of this kind have been performed in China.

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The BMW Z4 Dragon Car

Many BMW fans will likely be horrified by the customised 'paint job' that this Z4 has endured. But a rare few may actually love it. At the very least it's difficult not to appreciate the amount of work that has gone into this dragon auto-job.

The scaly vehicle is made from yak bone, each scale decorated or painted gold

But effort is no guarantee of achievement, and its questionable whether anyone would genuinely be seen in this vehicle. Or whether it could still get anywhere near the Z4's usual top speed of 156mph.

A fiery tail sashays from the Z4's boot

The dragon's claws clasp around the car's wheels

It might be eye-catching, but whether or not the vehicle performs well is another question, given the excess weight from the bone, and resistance from the design.

The unique design was on display last week at the China Import and Export Fair, in the southern Guangdong province.

It's not known if this model was for sale - and if so, if it sold - but it certainly stood out from the crowd.

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Pumpkins are transformed into glowing masterpieces by professional sculptors

Carving a pumpkin at Halloween can be tricky. But these masterpieces created by professional sculptors are enough to give anyone a fright. Ray Villafane and his team meticulously shaped the terrifying characters using spoons and scalpelsgh

Each one takes on average two hours to complete - with the horrifying results netting Villafane, plus colleagues Andy Bergholtz and Chris Vierra, numerous TV appearances each Halloween.

This year the team has gone global travelling to Germany, Switzerland and Hong Kong.

Mr Villafane, 44, based in Bellaire, Michigan, U.S., said: 'You need to pick the meatiest pumpkin. Not all of them will look good. The most important aspect is the weight.

'I also like a pumpkin with character. one with nobly ridges is good, so that I can utilise that in the carving procedure, like sculpting noses.

'Sculpting has always been a passion of mine.'

Mr Villafane, who taught art at a school in his hometown, says he discovered his unique talents by chance.

He added: 'I was asked to do some pumpkin carvings at the school.l

'I thought why don't I try and carve a pumpkin like it is a piece of clay as opposed to a large vegetable.

'It came out alright but the most important result was that the kids at the school absolutely loved it.

'For days after that there would be a dozen pumpkins sitting on my desk waiting for me to carve them.'l

Having become a minor celebrity in the U.S. through his passion, Mr Villafane has now expanded his team.

They are exploring ways to pickle their creations in a bid to preserve them for more people to see.

Mr Villafane, who once worked for D.C. Comics, said: 'Now that everything has grown in popularity I am definitely feeling the pressure to deliver on the pumpkin front.'

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World's Tallest Man Finds Love with Woman 2ft 7in Shorter Than Him

There may be two and a half feet between him and his future wife, but world's tallest man Sultan Kosen is on cloud nine after meeting the woman of his dreams.

The Turkish farmer - who at 8ft three ins, dwarfs his 5ft 8 ins fiancee - is set to marry Merve Dibo in a ceremony today.

Kosen has long been searching for a woman to share his life with, and had reportedly given up hope - until he met Ms Dibo.

He told an AA reporter: 'Now I will have my own family and private life.

'How unfortunate I could not find a suitable girl of my own size. My fiancee is over 1.75 meters tall, but I believe I've found the person for me.'

Kosen also holds the Guinness World Record for the size of his 27.5cm hands and feet, which are recorded 36.5 centimetres - a massive size 28.

His gigantic wedding suit and shoes will be custom made, and the giant, who has achieved near celebrity status, has invited a host of politicians to his nuptials in the southern Turkish city of Mardin.dfafa

Kosen said all he wants now is a car big enough for his size in which he can travel with his bride.

He is one of only ten people ever to top 8 feet and the first in a decade.

He became the world’s tallest man in August 2009, when he shot past China’s Bao Xishun at 7ft 9ins.

Sultan suffers from a rare disorder called pituitary gigantism, which causes his body to continually produce the growth hormone.

His condition is believed to have been caused by a tumour in the pituitary gland.

Doctors thought they had cured him in 2008 when they removed the tumour but he continued to grow by half and inch a year.

Now medics say he has finally stopped growing.

Sultan grew normally until he was ten but the tumour then caused him to develop the medical condition.

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Snake Venom - World's Strongest Beer

Move over, Armageddon. You are no longer the world's strongest beer, at a mere 65 percent ABV. That title now belongs to Snake Venom, which has an ABV of 67.5 percent.

For comparisons sake, most whiskeys are between 40 and 50 percent ABV.

Both of these potent brews are crafted by Brewmeister, a Scottish brewery. The brewery created Snake Venom after fans deemed Armageddon "too weak" when it debuted in 2012. Snake Venom gets its bite thanks to smoked peat malt and both beer yeast and Champagne yeast.

The beer comes with a warning label warning prospective drinkers not to over-imbibe.

The 275 mL beer is currently retailing for £50 ($81) online.

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Candice Armstrong - Steroids turned me into a man

For many, Hollywood actors and bodybuilders among them, anabolic steroids have become a regular part of life. 

But with side-effects that range from excess body hair to liver damage, using them can result in serious health issues as well as bigger muscles - as the stars of a new documentary fronted by former reality TV star Jodie Marsh prove.

Among the performance-enhancing drug users to feature on Jodie Marsh On...Steroids, is former barmaid Candice Armstrong, 28, from Walthamstow in London, whose steroid abuse has effectively turned her into a man.

Once a slender, pretty blonde, Candice is now a hulking brunette with muscles that wouldn't look out of place on Arnold Schwarzenegger and body hair that sprouts from her back, chest and upper lip.

Candice had no intention of becoming so masculine when she began taking the drug, but says that it's too late for her to stop.

'No, it wasn't my plan,' she tells Marsh in a scene from the documentary. 'You could argue that when I wanted big arms and broad shoulders, a bigger back and small hips, that that was a masculine look but I didn't consciously decide I want to change from a woman into a man.'

The side effects have been severe. Along with excess body hair and acne, her clitoris has swelled so much, it has become a mini penis.

'That has gone significantly bigger, yes,' she reveals. 'About an inch [long] and it's shaped like a little penis. It looks like a little penis, you can roll back the foreskin...'

Her breasts have also suffered and now hang lifeless from her hugely overdeveloped pectoral muscles.

Shocking though Candice's appearance is, she's by no means alone in her abuse of anabolic steroids.

According to veteran personal trainer Happy Hill, who helped Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Philippe bulk up for roles, up to 20 percent of Tinsel-town's leading men are using performance-enhancing drugs to get a buff body.

Another elite trainer, Mark Twight who trains Man of Steel star Henry Cavill, has spoken out against the use of steroids.

'The guy who uses steroids and admits to it earns more respect from me than the guy who uses but insists he doesn't and wants his fans to believe he did things the hard way,' says Twight.

While lying to fans isn't particularly edifying, worse are the dangerous effects steroid use can have on the star's body.

One man who knows this all too well is former stuntman and bodybuilder, Ed 'Spyk' Gheur, who lives with his wife in East Sussex.

'The thing with steroids is that it messes with your mind more than anything,' says the softly-spoken muscleman.

'It makes you feel invincible and you think the more you take, the bigger you're going to be, the faster you're going to be - and that's what's so dangerous about them.'

But for Gheur, the consequences would prove to be more terrifying still. 'One day, I felt like I had a pain stabbing through my heart and I shouted to my wife to call an ambulance,' he remembers.

'She found me on the kitchen floor. I was ice cold, had no pulse and I was clinically dead. She called the police and said my husband's dead on the floor and they arrived with an ambulance like they always do.

'The paramedics put an adrenaline needle through my heart to get it pumping long enough to get me to the operating theatre, and when I got there, they opened me up and my entire aorta [main artery] had exploded.'

The reason for his terrifying collapse: steroid use. 'I went into a coma for six weeks and I thought my life was over,' he adds. 'I had thought I was invincible.'

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Stig Severinsen Stays Under Water For 22 Minutes

There might just be a real person who displays superhuman abilities under water.

That man, 39-year-old Stig Severinsen, just set a world record for holding his breath under water for a lung-burning 22 minutes.

The record leaves the Denmark native's previous underwater world-record performance of 20 minutes, 10 seconds, in the dust. According to Gadling, though, Stig earned his earlier achievement while submerged in a fish tank full of sharks. Under those conditions, who wouldn't burn through air reserves a little faster?

To be fair, reports The Post Game, the accomplishment required some outside assistance: before holding his breath, he breathed pure oxygen piped into a respirator in the pool.

Unlike the venue for his earlier performance (see "shark tank," above), this record was set in a dive training pool with the temperature dialed down to 30 degrees. Stig has also learned to drop his resting heart rate to "well below" 30 beats per minute while submerged, which slows the rate at which he burns oxygen.

In an interview on Reddit, Stig explained he also uses calming techniques he terms "meditation under water." The method involves recalling childhood memories and focusing on imprinted mental imagery -- in his case, images of dolphins and sharks.

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Chinese woman who is thinking about having her first haircut in 16 years

She spends a whopping two hours every day washing and drying her jet black hair - and normally winds it on top of her head to keep it out of the way.

Ni Linmei, 57, claims she has not had her hair cut for 16 years - and it now measures 9ft 6in (2.9m) long. But she is now considering going for the chop because her locks are so inconvenient.

Hearing this news, neighbours in her home town of Taiyuan in Shanxi province, China, have been clamouring to have their photograph taken with her before it is too late.

She was pictured outside with four women in a line holding her hair - and standing on a table with a measuring tape in an office so the full length of her mane could be displayed and checked.

But although her hair is impressive, Ni Linmei is still no match for fellow Chinese woman Xie Qiuping.

She holds the current Guinness World Record, with her hair measuring 18ft 6in (5.6m) when measured in May 2004. The woman has been growing her hair since 1973 from the age of 13.

In February 2010, it was reported that Tran Van Hay - a man who may have had the longest hair in the world - had died at his home in Vietnam aged 79.

His locks apparently measured 22ft 4in (6.8m), although they had never been officially measured. His hair stretched around him in a thick, matted cord – looking like a huge furry boa constrictor snake.

Mr Hay’s had grown his hair for more than 50 years because he often felt ill after a haircut, his wife Nguyen Thi Hoa said.

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The best acne cover-up ever?

A teenage girl suffering from severe cystic acne has revealed the clever make-up tricks she uses to conceal the pockmarks and pimples scarring her face.

Toronto-based Elaine Mokk, 18, who is of Chinese descent, bravely appears in a YouTube video with her blotchy complexion on show - before a mix of beauty products leave her looking barely recognizable.

She says she uploaded the clip, which has to date attracted over six million views, in a bid to help others deal with the painful and debilitating skin disease.

'I really do want to share my story with everyone because I know acne affects a lot of us and I'm not alone.

'When I'm talking to someone I can see their eyes traveling on my face and then it just makes me feel really sad and I really want to cry sometimes. It makes me so insecure.

'I would love to not put on make-up - but I can't.'

First of all Ms Mokk shows how she applies a thin layer of serum all over her face.

She then applies a BB cream, which in addition to hydrating and evening out skin tone, also treats the skin with antioxidants or other anti-aging ingredients. 

'It has great coverage, oil control and feels great on the skin. I do several dots on each area at a time and blend it in with my fingers,' the teenager says.

'I like to go back to spots that I couldn't cover up with one later. We want to even it out as much as possible first.'

She adds that it's important to be careful when applying make-up because being too heavy-handed can irritate the acne.

Next up is concealer. Ms Mokk applies dabs of the liquid to the redder blemishes on her forehead and cheeks using her fingers.

To set the foundation base in place Ms Mokk then applies a matte powder with a brush.

'If you are acne prone you should avoid buffing your face with a brush,' she warns.

A final shot in the two-minute-28-second-long beauty tutorial shows Ms Mokk complete with eye make-up and lipstick - her acne is no longer visible.

Since uploading the clip on April 7, the teenager says her skin has cleared up considerably thanks to a combination of Accutane and the birth control pill.

Before going on to prescription medication she had tried changing her diet and using natural remedies, but nothing had worked. She continues to document her 'acne journey' via YouTube and her blog, elainemokk.wordpress.com.

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