The XO Directory

Tuna is the news of the moment. This giant bluefin tuna sold for a record 32.49 million yen or $396,000, in Tokyo. As many of us know, Tokyo is world's largest wholesale fish market.

This record breaker weighed 754-pound tuna and beat the previous record set in 2001 by a 445-pound fish that was sold for 20.2 million yen.

The giant tuna was caught off the coast of northern Japan. The record-setting price translates to 95,000 yen per kilogram or $526 per pound.

"It was an exceptionally large fish," said the official, Yutaka Hasegawa. "But we were all surprised by the price."

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Aboard the Vagabond, an 80-foot deluxe sportfisher, Mike Livingston's got his heaviest price to date, a 405-pound Yellowfin Tuna. This one it the heaviest on record caught by an angler and will replace the current record, a 388-pound 12-ounce specimen, which has stood since 1977.

Mike and company had been on a 10-day expedition in search of "super cows," or tuna weighing 300 pounds or more. His catch was from Magdalena Bay on the southern Baja California peninsula.

The tuna weighed 405.2 pounds; it's girth was 61 inches and it measured nearly 86 inches from nose to tail. It took him nearly three hours fight before they were able to pull it aboard.

When the scale hit that number it was like the Super Bowl here," said Livingston, 63, a retired school administrator, in reference to cheers from a crowd of nearly 200, gathered to witness the weigh-in.

Here's a video while he is weighing the fish:



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Ted Williams is a homeless man with a truly God-given golden voice. The video of him done by the Columbus Dispatch, who discovered him along Ohio's I-71, gone viral and has now more than 5 million in views and counting. His story has been in headlines in almost all major news stations.

According to the note he scrawled on a piece of cardboard that he used to solicit change from drivers, Mr. Williams is an ex-radio announcer. When interviewed by the Dispatch, he talked about his struggles. Thankfully, his date with "alcohol and drugs and a few other things" haven't diminished his velvety vocal cords.

This video literally speaks for itself. It has exploded into a life-changing experience for him. Yesterday morning he was a panhandler; today he's the most in-demand voice personality in the world, thanks to offers from countless radio stations, voiceover gigs and even the Cleveland Cavaliers.

A mere 24 hours after the video went viral, Williams says he's already been offered a bunch of employment opportunities, including one that's a Ohio citizen's dream job. "The Cleveland Cavaliers just offered me a full-time job and a house," Williams revealed.

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Have you ever consider going on your regular running routine on barefoot? Well, now you can - sort of - with Vibram FiveFingers shoes. This shoes is designed to make you feel like you are running without shoes and yet protect your feet from dirt and debris. And why would you do that? Studies shows that running without shoes can strengthen your feet, ankles, and lower legs and improve balance.

Vibram started making the five-toed shoes in 2006, but the trend really picked up steam last year, following the publication of Christopher McDougall's book “Born to Run.” The book describes how Mexico’s Tarahumara Indians have become some of the greatest long-distance runners in the world despite running barefoot or in sandals fashioned from tire rubber.

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Ella Rose Riehle is extremely lucky. That's because she won't forget here birthday. All she needs to do is count - 8,9,10 and 11,12. Ella Rose was born on 8/9/10 at 11:12 PM. Her mother Terri Riehle from Cincinatti, USA was happy that she will not get her kid's birthday mixed up.

That day, she was hoping for the 11:12 a.m time slot, but when that time came & went, everyone started guessing when the baby would arrive. By 11 p.m., she started experiencing intense labor pains, and at the one-in-a-million time, baby Ella Rose came into this world. Terri recalls looking at the clock and seeing: 11:12.


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Steven Slater, called it quits and said, 'That's it. I'm Done'. He was referring to his job as a JetBlue flight attendant. It happened yesterday morning in JFK international airport, inside the running Jetblue flight #1052, after he was hit on the forehead by a baggage of a female who was removing the baggage in the overhead compartment and ignoring his instruction to remain seated. After exchanging a heated argument with the female, he cursed her in the public address system, grab a beer and deployed the emergency chute the leave the plane.

He was then arrested in his home in Queens, New York, shortly after the incident and was charged with reckless endangerment and criminal mischief with a bail set at $2,500.

Here's a video of his arrest.



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It's not just during April Fool's day you will get a cubicle like.

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Denny Ingram was a lucky man last week. He caught a yellow lobster - a 1-in-30 million chance. The very rare yellow lobster was caught in Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay. Lobsterman Denny Ingram found the lobster in one of his pots last week. It is golden on the top and bright yellow on both sides.

Another colored lobster was caught off the coast of New Hampshire last year. It was a blue lobster and the change is 1-in-5 million. The rarest of them all is the white lobster caught off Cape Cod in 2004 and change to caught one is 1-in-100 million.

It's also apparently good luck for this lobster, who will not be heading to anyone's dinner table. Ingram says he plans to keep the yellow lobster on display at the fishermen's co-op at the State Pier in Newport.

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Caño Cristales is not only known as the world's most beautiful river, it's called as "the river of five colors" and "the river that ran away from paradise". That's because Caño Cristales is really an amazing sight to behold when it resident algae are in bloom.

It only happens once a year in the period between the wet and dry seasons, when the water level is just right. Many varieties of algae and moss bloom in an amazing display of colors. In that period, the river is coated with different colors, from yellow, blue, green, black, and red and countless shades in between.

If you want to see Caño Cristale in it's dazzling display of color, you have to be there at the right time because for most of the year, it is indistinguishable from any other river, with a bed of rocks covered in dull green mosses and a cool dark blue current.

Often referred as the "river of five colors", "the river that ran away from paradise," and "the most beautiful river in the world." A unique biological wonder Caño Cristales is one of those places you have to see to believe.

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It really is dangerous to drive in a frozen lake especially if you're driving a bulldozer. Poor driver didn't know that the heavy equipment is already sinking and so he goes down with it. His co-worker couldn't help but watch.

This one is scarier than paddling from Australia to New Zealand. And you might think that this picture is photoshopped, it's not. This amazing picture of a shark staking a man on a 3.8-meter sea kayak is a real photograph. It was taken by Thomas P. Peschak in south-western South Africa. This picture of an article about great white sharks posted at White Shark Trust’s website.

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The secret romance between a donkey and a zebra has finally resulted to a Zedonk, a Zebra/Donkey hybrid. The unique-looking female zedonk was born at the Chestatee Wildlife Preserve in Georgia, USA. It has stripes in her legs and face, which she inherited from her fathers and a narrow head of a donkey which she got from her mother - a perfect hybrid.

Aside from the stripes, she also inherited the wild instincts her father. Usually, a foal will lay over on its side, sunning itself. But she sits up at all time - like she's on alert looking out for predators.

Officials at the Chestatee Wildlife Preserve, where the cute little crossbred was born, are as surprised as anyone by the very rare coupling. It turns out, the zebra/donkey romance has been many years in the making, but somehow the duo managed to keep it a secret. "The animals have been running (in the fields) together for more than 40 years, but this is the first time that this has happened here," says the preserve's founder. "We never suspected that they (had mated), so it was quite a surprise when the zedonk was born."

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No bearjacking today and hikers can let their guards down - it's bear day-off.

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Bear + unattended car equals bearJacked car. One thing to learn from this video is bear don't make a good driver.

20-year-old actor Nick Afanasiev, aka the Tongue Boy, became a YouTube sensation when he posted videos of his unusually long tongue. It turned out, he has the longest tongue in United States. At 3.5 inches in length from the middle of his closed top lip to the tip of his tongue, Nick's tongue is 0.36 shorter than that of the world record holder for the world's longest tongue, Stephen Taylor.

"I knew it was long; I just didn't know it was one of the longest." Afanasiev told the news station.

Check out one of his YouTube videos.



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Talking about overcoming disability, Dustin Carter has been there and done it. When he was five-years old, he contracted a rare blood disease that claimed all four of his limbs. Losing both his legs, and half of each arm was no less challenging for Dustin, who grew up depressed and a straight "F" student.

However it all changed when he discover wrestling. With the help of a coach, Dustin overcame his disability and eventually made it all the way to the Division II state final. While in high school, Dustin won over forty matches in his senior year of high and a match at the Ohio State Tournament.

"I don't look at myself as different," Dustin said. "I wrestle like anybody else. I go to school like anybody else. I can live on my own like anybody else. I can do anything anybody else can do.

"I don't like people feeling sorry for me."

Video of him working out in a gym.



Here's a video of him while competing.



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Steven Ortiz is just your average 17-year-old. But when it comes to bartering online, this Glendora, CA teen rocks. He manages to trade an old cellphone into a 2000 Porsche convertible in Craigslist in two years using his bartering skills, patience and common sense.

Along the way, he traded the old cellphone with an iPod, then a MacBook Pro laptop, then electronics to dirt bikes, then cars and trucks, and an SUV. The latest is a Porsche. Who knows he might trade it again for something.

Ortiz’s skill at identifying a good deal started years ago when he would buy cell phones off of his friends. At $30 each, he would turn around and sell the used cell phones online for three times the amount he paid. He also picked up a knack for repairing electronics, which enabled him to take something that was almost worthless and get it functioning again.

Here's a video of him and his Porsche featured in a local TV news.



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[Warning: This video is very graphic.]

In case you're wondering what Rhinoplasty is, it's a surgical procedure which is usually performed by either an otolaryngologist-head and neck surgeon, maxillofacial surgeon, or plastic surgeon in order to improve the function or the appearance of a human nose. It is more commonly known as "nose reshaping" or "nose job".



Here's an example before and after pictures:

Man's best friends will surely rejoice with this news. The world’s very first ice cream truck for dogs rolled out in London. The ice-cream van will serve canine-friendly flavors such as "Dog Eat Hog World" — a chicken and gammon sorbet. This vehicle was created to celebrate the Boomerang Pets Party.

And also, though their ice cream flavor tastes different than what we're used to, they are safe for human consumption.

"The weather has been so hot, we thought dogs deserved a cooling treat as much as anyone else," said Sally Bezant of event organizer Boomerang Pets Party. She said a team of pet nutritionists had been through a complicated scientific process to determine the tastiest and safest flavors for the dogs' dessert. And although the unusual flavors were tested on a panel of dogs, they can be eaten by humans.

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Madhuri, an Indian elephant, certainly knows how to pass time. When she gets bored her favorite "playmate" is an unlucky lizard. The park where she lives has a good population of lizards and she is known to be an expert in catching these reptiles. She would caught the lizard alive and carried it all the time for few days, tossing it up and even dropping it.

These extraordinary shots were taken by Jagdeep Rajput, 49, from Delhi. He said: ‘She’s known to be quite aggressive so when I did eventually find her I approached carefully.

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