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Relatives remember Leonid Stadnyk as the smallest boy in his class at school. Then he began to shoot up, and 20 years later he has not stopped growing. Standing 2.54 metres tall in his bare feet, Mr Stadnyk, 33, is believed to be, by a considerable distance, the world's tallest living man. The softly spoken giant, who lives in a remote village in Ukraine, is a clear 17.8 centimetres taller than the man now recognised as the Guinness world record holder. But while the 2.36-metre Radhouane Charbib, from Tunisia, revels in his international celebrity, Mr Stadnyk makes a reluctant record-holder....

Expedition hunts giant meteor 07.02.2004 By SIMON COLLINS, science reporter An international scientific expedition will fly to Stewart Island next week on a quest to track down a meteor that may have sparked a tsunami that possibly wiped out a legendary Chinese fleet 500 years ago.Expedition leader New York oceanographer Dallas Abbott has found survey evidence of a huge undersea crater caused by a meteor impact 20km wide and more than 153m deep just south of the Snares Islands, 120km southwest of Stewart Island. The expedition is going to remote Mason Bay on the west coast of Stewart Island to...

<p>There's an old saying in the water world: "In the East, people take water for granted. In the West, people take it from each other."</p> <p>On Friday, leaders of four Southern California agencies signed a Colorado River water pact that, depending on your point of view, either represents a break from that legacy or a new chapter in hardball politics.</p>

A giant star has been caught in the act of swallowing three planets, one after the other, with each "meal" accompanied by a massive eruption. "It has been suggested in the past that stars might engulf planets in this way, but we believe we have actually caught this action for the first time," says Alon Retter of the University of Sydney, Australia. The star, known as V838 Monocerotis, is about 20,000 light years from Earth. In January 2002, it temporarily became the brightest star in the Milky Way, 600,000 times more luminous than the Sun. At the time, astronomers struggled...

Bones of giant birds pose mating mystery By Steve Connor 11 September 2003 A study of the fossilised bones of a giant bird which died out about 800 years ago has revealed that the female was three times the size of the male. Scientists discovered that the largest giant moa birds were not a separate species, as originally thought, but an extreme example of sexual dimorphism. A study of the DNA extracted from the bones of large and small moas revealed that the females were huge, weighing up to 250kg and standing up to three metres tall. The males were...

SINGAPORE (AP) -- An 8-foot-long Komodo dragon lizard in Singapore's zoo has been receiving traditional Chinese acupuncture treatment for a nerve disorder. "Tirto is now more relaxed and is beginning to enjoy his treatments," a spokesman for the Singapore Zoological Gardens, Vincent Tan, said Tuesday. He said the 8-year-old, 94-pound male lizard, has been receiving twice-weekly treatments for a neurological disorder from veterinarian Oh Soon Hock for the past three weeks. Komodo dragons, the world's largest lizards, are prehistoric-looking reptiles that can grow up to 10 feet long and weigh more than 200 pounds. They have long claws and serrated...

LONDON (AP) - History has seen many superpowers, from the empires of Rome and ancient China to the vast colonial conquests of Britain and France. But never has a single nation so dominated the planet as America at the start of the 21st century. This, in the eyes of many around the world, is far from a good thing. They worry that America is a superpower out of control, "unrestrained by any laws or any conventions other than its national interest,'' said James Rubin, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state who lives in London. In the wake of the...

Hewitt stunned by giant 6-10 Croatian, playing first Wimbledon, topples No. 1 seed 06/24/2003 By JULIET MACUR / The Dallas Morning News WIMBLEDON, England – The giant who must duck through doorways stood on Wimbledon's hallowed Centre Court on Monday, wide-eyed and casting a long shadow. In front of nearly 14,000 fans, with the tournament's defending champion glaring at him from the other side of the net, Ivo Karlovic of Croatia, who is 6-10, was terrified. He hadn't played in a Grand Slam tournament before – in fact, he had played only 10 tour-level matches in his career – and...

1950DA asteroid will fly near Earth in 2880. What will happen, if it collides with planet Earth? American scientists have already simulated the situation. The asteroid was first discovered 53 years ago. It is the only space rock of the many thousands discovered so far, which is considered to be a potential threat to Earth. According to recent calculations, the giant asteroid might collide with planet Earth on Saturday, March 16th, 2880. Dr Steven Ward and Dr Erik Asphaug of the University of California at Santa Cruz conducted a detailed computer simulation of the collision with 1950DA. The results of...

Elusive African Apes: Giant Chimps or New Species? John Roach for National Geographic News April 14, 2003 A mysterious group of apes found in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa has scientists and conservationist scratching their heads. The apes nest on the ground like gorillas but have a diet and features characteristic of chimpanzees. The apes are most likely a group of giant chimpanzees that display gorilla-like behavior. A far more remote possibility is that they represent a new subspecies of great ape. Researchers plan to return to the region later this month to collect more clues...

<p>IRAKLIO, Greece (AP) -- Researchers on the southern Greek island of Crete have unearthed the fossilized tusk, teeth and bones of a Deinotherium Gigantisimum, a fearsome elephant-like creature that might have given rise to ancient legends of one-eyed cyclops monsters.</p>

Shell-Shock: Three University Of Arkansas Students Find World's Longest Nautiloid Fossil FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- Three undergraduate students from the University of Arkansas made a world-class discovery this week when they uncovered a 325-million-year-old nautiloid fossil just yards from two of Fayetteville's busiest roads. At exactly eight feet in length, their find represents the longest actinoceratoid nautiloid fossil in the world. On Jan. 20, while the University community observed the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, freshman geology major Sarah Kee and senior Kevin Morgan set out to hunt for fossils. Their excursion led them to a culvert near Interstate 540,...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 January 7 Open Star Cluster M38 Credit & Copyright: NOAO, AURA, NSF Explanation: Open cluster M38 can be seen with binoculars toward the constellation of Auriga. M38 is considered an intermediately rich open cluster of stars, each of which is about 200 million years old. Located in the disk of our Milky Way galaxy, M38 is still young enough to house many bright blue stars, although it's...

Giant planets 'formed in hundreds of years' Giant planets like Jupiter were formed in just a few hundred years, not several million as was previously thought, according to scientists. The research completely contradicts the widely held assumption that it takes at least one million years for gas giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn to evolve. Two years of work by scientists using a greatly refined mathematical model produced results that they say explain just how quickly such planets form. Astrophysicist Thomas Quinn, from the University of Washington, said the disk of matter which spins round a young star begins to...

In the Bible, who were the &quot;giant sons of God&quot;? 20-Nov-2001 Dear Straight Dope: Who or what were the giant sons of God (Nephilim) mentioned in the Bible and what happened to them? Depending on the author, they are refered to as sons of Seth, angels, aliens, monsters, and "weird hybrid offspring" that may have been wiped out in the flood. Were the ancient scribes jealous because they were just the big guys that got the good looking daughters? --Michael K. SDSTAFF Dex replies: Let's quote the text from Genesis 6. This is my own translation, combined from several sources, ...

Global warming creating monster squid say Australian scientists SYDNEY (AFP) Aug 01, 2002 Global warming is causing squid to grow abnormally large and speeding up their breeding cycles, an Australian scientist said Thursday. Researchers at the Institute of Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies found rising water temperatures were also causing squid populations to expand dramatically. Institute scientist George Jackson said a one percent increase in water temperature caused juvenile squid to double in size. He said a 200 kilogramme (440 pound) giant squid that washed up on a beach in Tasmania last month was a striking example of how the...

2,000-year-old 6ft 6ins warrior giant discovered The remains of an enormous warrior who fought more than 2,000 years ago have been found in Kazakhstan. The soldier was heavily armed and stood around 6ft 6ins tall. Archaeologists believe he was well-built and revered by people who buried him with his weapons. The BBC says the warrior lived around the first century BC. Historians say this may lead them to re-examine the origins of the region's people.

2,000-year-old 6ft 6ins warrior giant discovered The remains of an enormous warrior who fought more than 2,000 years ago have been found in Kazakhstan. The soldier was heavily armed and stood around 6ft 6ins tall. Archaeologists believe he was well-built and revered by people who buried him with his weapons. The BBC says the warrior lived around the first century BC. Historians say this may lead them to re-examine the origins of the region's people. Story filed: 10:01 Wednesday 31st July 2002

Giant hailstones kill 15 in central China BEIJING, July 20 (Reuters) - A downpour of giant hailstones, some the size of eggs, killed 15 people and left hospitals overflowing with head-wound victims in central China, state media and local officials said on Saturday. The hailstorm, with winds of up to Force Eight, struck northern parts of Henan province on Friday evening, uprooting trees, smashing car windscreens, cutting off electricity and destroying buildings, they said. Locals described it as the worst hailstorm in at least half a century, state radio said. Television news showed pictures of a gutted petrol station,...

Mysterious giant human remains found in Fiji AFP [ SUNDAY, JULY 14, 2002 10:29:37 AM ] SUVA: Mysterious skeletal remains of what appears to be a 3,000-year-old giant have been unearthed on a South Pacific islands, but the bones' discovery has rattled local archaeologists who say poor treatment of the remains may have lost vital information. Little is known about the highly unusual find, which includes a skull bearing strange holes drilled into its cheekbones, with authorities keen to keep the controversial discovery under wraps. According to sources, the body, found at Lomaiviti, an island to the north of here,...