the buzz log
Fastest Mammal on Earth
Cheetahs always win.
Usain Bolt may get his share of million-dollar jackpots for being a world champ sprinter, but he's got nothing on 8-year-old Sarah. The Cincinnati Zoo's cheetah ambassador just beat the 2001 land-speed world record for mammals.
A male cheetah in South Africa covered 100 meters in 6.19 seconds. Sarah didn't beat that just once, but twice: She first clocked in at 6.16 seconds and then 6.13 seconds—which, by the way, bested Bolt's August sprint by more than 3 seconds. And that's from a girl who has been in captivity pretty much her whole life.
Sarah's feat helped call attention to the species' endangered numbers. According to the zoo, the spotted felines' population has dropped from 100,000 back in 1900 to about one-tenth that number. Cincinnati has been doing its part to nurture more cubs than anywhere else. Not so coincidentally, the zoo was home to another record holder: Moya, who died this past January, held the title for a year before his brother Nyana (over in South Africa) snagged it. Now Sarah's got bragging rights.
She may not rest easy for long. Zaza, an 8-year-old female in South Africa, will be throwing down the gauntlet over in South Africa when the weather clears up, either later this month or in early October. Meanwhile, here are two videos of Sarah's sprint—a quickie AP version and the Cincinnati Zoo's longer one.
A Big Fish Buzz
It coulda been fishing's 3-minute mile, 110-point night, or 75 home-run season (with no steroids). It coulda been a sports record to stand next to any by Gretzky or DiMaggio or Rice. But the fisherman tossed his colossal catch back and, later, tossed his attempt for the world record too. All he kept was a boatload of buzz.
Last Monday, Mac Weakley, of Carlsbad, California, pulled a 25-pound, 1-ounce largemouth bass into his fishing boat. For those who don't know a fishing rod from a frying pan, the largest bass ever caught was 22 pounds, 4 ounces, and that was in 1932. By all accounts, it's the dream of every angler to haul up a fish like that, and most believed it would never happen. Until they heard about Mac.
By the time the news broke, Buzz was already reeling in the queries: "world record largemouth bass" doubled, "world record bass" soared into our top 200 movers, "25-pound bass" spiked off the chart, and "record bass" rose 132%. They came at us from all sides, too. Mac may have caught the fish in Southern California, but Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and Detroit topped the list of metros seeking more on his big, beautiful catch. Mac was looking at the fisherman's hall of fame.
But a couple days after he returned to shore, he dropped his bid for the record-breaking catch. The fish had been foul-hooked. It wasn't weighed on a certified scale. There was too much controversy. Besides, he could do it again. Well, Mac, we hope so. Just tell us it wasn't only a big fish story.
top movers
| Rank | Subject | 1-Day Move |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ford 400 | Breakout! |
| 2 | Indonesia Ferry | Breakout! |
| 3 | Jordan Chandler | 3481% |
| 4 | Evan Chandler | 2322% |
| 5 | American Music Awards | 1841% |
| 6 | John F. Kennedy | 1529% |
| 7 | Turkey Stuffing Recipes | 1361% |
| 8 | Liam Hemsworth | 1172% |
| 9 | Lou Dobbs | 1142% |
| 10 | Hendrick Motorsports | 888% |
top leaders
| Rank | Subject | Move | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Black Friday | +340 | 1290 |
| 2 | NFL | +489 | 670 |
| 3 | Jennifer Lopez | +451 | 515 |
| 4 | New Moon | -67 | 250 |
| 5 | American Music Awards | +236 | 249 |
| 6 | UFC | -36 | 239 |
| 7 | Miley Cyrus | +66 | 169 |
| 8 | Hulu | -11 | 154 |
what's the buzz?
A subject's buzz score is the percentage of Yahoo! users searching for that subject on a given day, multiplied by a constant to make the number easier to read. Weekly leaders are the subjects with the greatest average buzz score for a given week.
For more detailed information, visit our FAQ.