Monday, December 15, 2008

Top 10 Bizarre World Records !

Before the Guinness Book of World records took on the format of a coffee table book, I used to read it cover to cover every year. Back then the categories seemed to be pretty straight forward. Tallest, shortest, heaviest, fastest etc. Now it seems many categories are a little contrived just to keep the book fresh and different. However I do have to admit some are quite interesting to watch. So here is a list of 10 world records that are different and entertaining.

10
Lying With Live Cockroaches

I’m putting this at the number 10 spot just to get it out of the way. This guy lays down in a glass coffin while people pour a record amount of cockroaches on him. It is simply astonishing what people will do to get mentioned in a book.

9
French Kissing

I know this is a terrible transition - going from cockroaches to French kissing - but I couldn’t rate this any better than 9 because it really didn’t take a lot of talent to accomplish, just good organization skills as well as being fearless to the possibility of getting mono or worse. Talk about swapping spit.

8
Head Spins

This guy does 124 head spins with no hands break dance style. Tylenol anyone?

7
Slam dunk off a trampoline

These guys take their slam dunks off of a trampoline distance records very seriously.

6
Motorcycle Jump to a Moving Truck

I think this might be a case of taking a neat stunt and trying to turn it into a world record of some kind. Nevertheless it’s fun to watch plus it is replayed from every angle known to man.


5
Consecutive Three Pointers

Ok, I admit this is not the most exciting clip in the world to watch but I think it is the most incredible feat on the list. This guy’s name is Fred Newman, he is 60 years old, and in this clip he sinks 209 three pointers in a row! Apparently he’s also made 1,000 free throws in a row and he’s made 88 in a row blindfolded. VIEWING TIP: The first basket looks pretty much like the other 208. So I would suggest after watching the first few baskets fast forward it to the end of the clip so you can see him miss on the 210th shot. He seems dumbfounded.

4
House Speed Building

I thought this was pretty incredible especially when you consider the fact that it takes me two days just to repair some shingles on my roof. In this world record, Habitat for Humanity builds a house including landscaping in just over 3 hours.

3
Highest Vocal Note by a Male

In this clip we see Adam Lopez - an Australian. He sings a note higher than D7 (the highest note on a piano). The host of the show actually asks this guy if he still has his testicles.

2
Freeflying

I was going to avoid your typical skydiving world records on this list where a bunch of people jump out of a plane and fly in some kind of formation. This however is quite different. This is called “Freeflying.” Instead of falling belly to earth as an average skydiver would do these people fall vertically. It really has an eerie look to it. In some of the camera angles it looks like you are walking in on a ghostly party gathering. When falling this way it increases the freefall speed so since most parachutes are not designed to be opened at these speeds freeflyers must transition back to the belly to earth position and slow down their descent for several seconds before deploying their parachute. This was a world record for largest Vertical Formation and was set on August 3, 2007 over Chicago.

1
Rolling an Orange with your Nose

Terminal 4 at JFK International Airport was the unlikely location for 21-time Guinness record holder Ashrita Furman’s latest attempt to make history. Furman was attempting to break the Guinness record of 29 minutes for rolling an orange with his nose for one mile. Although rolling an orange with ones nose may look amusing, getting in record-setting form is serious business, said Furman. “It’s down to 29 minutes for the mile and it’s actually very fast, it’s a very intense record and so it’s a challenge to me even though it’s silly so hopefully it’ll work out.” After 24 minutes and 34 seconds, the orange and then Furman entered the record books, squashing the old record by over 3 minutes. It was the first for the orange, but Furman’s 87th time in the Guinness book.

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