A to Z Of The Smallest Weirdest Stuff (A-M)

E) Smallest Escalator

For this record breaker we head to Tokyo, Japan. Of course. This has to go down in history as one of the most pointless ways to spend additional cash on a building project. Guinness recognised it as the shortest escalator in the world back in 1989 and it’s a complete joke. I mean, it’s important that people who are disabled have access to places, but this escalator only goes one way and is immediately followed by stairs. Ridiculous. It only ascends 83cm. Here it is in action:

‘http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk-eeBluFqM#t=28’]

F) Smallest Flightless Bird

Birds can be quite small as you may have noticed. They avoid predators and other dangers by flying away, as you also may have noticed. But this poor tiny little Inaccessible Island rail has got no chance if there’s a cat around. It’s the smallest extant flightless bird on the planet. There was a smaller one, Stephens Island Wren, but they died out unsurprisingly.

This little scamp is only found on Inaccessible Island in the Tristan Archipelago in the south Atlantic Ocean. Look how crap his wings are in the picture.

G) Smallest Galaxy

Segue 2 has only 1000 stars huddled together, that sort of sounds like a lot, but our galaxy (the Milky Way) has between 100 and 400 billion stars. And our galaxy isn’t even a particularly big one. Segue 2 was first seen by human eyes in 2009 and is now giving scientists new insights into dark matter apparently.

â˜› More: The Sick Chirpse Half Arsed Guide To Dark Matter