Singapore reclaimed its pride as the land with the fastest thumbs in the world this week. Student Ang Chuang Yang, 16, set a new speed record of 41.52 seconds as he thumbed in this phrase "The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human" in record time at the recent SingTel SMS Shooutout 2006.

He sets a new world record and takes back the crown once worn by Kimberley Yeo in 2004, who clocked 43.24 seconds then. She herself had beaten the previous record held by Utah teenager Ben Cook, who subsequently beat her time in July this year with 42.22 seconds. I suspect Cook must be practising his thumbs out now, doing 1,000 thumb-ups a day and 1,000 thumb rotations, too.