World Records News & Most Amazing Videos

Rewriting the Olympic Record Book

2009-12-25T10:10:00.000-08:00

Michael Phelps paddled his size 14 feet in the water and towed all of America in his wake. In the summer of 2008, gas prices were soaring, the stock market was stalling and the nation was cleaving along political lines. And yet, for a few days everything seemed more than O.K. because Phelps was stirring patriot pride with his perfection.

Phelps entered eight races at the Beijing Games and won them all, surpassing Mark Spitz’s seven gold medals in a single Olympics, a 36-year-old record many believed was beyond any mortal’s grasp. What Phelps did may have been tantamount to surpassing Joe DiMaggio’s hitting streak or winning golf’s Grand Slam.

Since Spitz’s magical run in Munich in 1972, the world had caught up to the United States. But on his way to immortality, Phelps debunked many impressions, among them that network television had gone the way of amateurs in the Olympics. Phelps became the glue that bonded a United States audience that had splintered into a hundred niches. NBC’s ratings were resplendent, with a record number of viewers tuning in nightly.

Phelps, 23 at the time, was in some ways an unlikely leading man. He did not have Spitz’s smoldering matinee-idol looks. Growing up, his gangly frame and big ears made him a target of bullies whose cruelties he said were not easily brushed off. Years later, when everybody wanted to be Phelps’s Facebook friend, he refused to approve those who had been mean to him.

The teasing did not stop even after he started breaking world records. At a United States training camp before the 2008 Olympics, Phelps was the butt of many practical jokes. His teammates left a dead fish in his room, short-sheeted his bed and set up a bucket of water above his door so he was drenched when he stepped through the frame.

Whether they were acting out of jest or jealousy, Phelps did not know or care. “He kind of blows that stuff off,” his longtime coach, Bob Bowman, said.

Phelps rewrote not just the record books but also the culture of the sport, stemming the tide toward specialization with his old-school versatility. His Olympic program included the 100-meter butterfly, which is populated by sprinters, and the 400-meter individual medley, an endurance event. Phelps swam 17 races in 9 days, which was tiring even to think about.

He captured his countrymen’s hearts because his victories showcased the characteristics — teamwork, ingenuity, perseverance and might — that America considers part of its DNA.

He won the 400 individual medley by a Secretariat-like margin of 2.34 seconds.

He secured his second gold medal, in the 4x100 freestyle relay, when his teammate Jason Lezak produced the fastest finishing leg in history to overtake the trash-talking favorites from France.

He gave the United States its first Olympic gold medal in the 200 freestyle since 1976 and won the 200 butterfly by counting his strokes to the wall after his goggles filled with water.

He won his seventh gold, in the 100 butterfly, by charging from seventh place at 50 meters to out-touch the American-born Serb Milorad Cavic by one-hundredth of a second, less than the whites of a fingernail. After that unfathomable finish, Phelps’s eighth gold, in the 4x100 medley relay, was but a formality.

Americans were not the only ones buoyed by Phelps’s performance. The Australian Liesl Jones, who won two gold medals and a silver, said: “I just feel very privileged that I got to watch Michael Phelps win eight gold medals. That’s been the highlight of my Olympics.”

A few months after the Beijing Games, Phelps’s star came crashing to earth when pictures surfaced of him with a marijuana pipe. But for nine days in August, he left many in a state of euphoria.

Bekele Targets 3, 000 Meters World Indoor Record

2009-12-25T10:04:00.000-08:00

LONDON (Reuters) - Twice Olympic 10,000 meters champion Kenenisa Bekele has his sights set on setting a fourth world indoor record in Birmingham, England next year.

The Ethiopian will race over 3,000 meters, the distance at which he won his only world indoor title in 2006, at the February 20 Grand Prix at the National Indoor Arena (NIA) where he has run three of his five personal best times on the indoor circuit.

"Five years ago I broke the world record in the 5,000 at the NIA and I also broke the 2,000 and two-mile records at the same arena so it's definitely a track I enjoy running on," Bekele said in a statement from the organisers.

The three indoor world records he set in Birmingham all still stand and the Ethiopian's familiarity with the track gives him good reason to believe he can claim another mark.

"Now I hope to break my fourth world record there, this time in the 3,000," added the 27-year-old. "However, it will be a tough record as it's a very quick time to beat."

Bekele's personal best is almost six seconds slower than the world record set 11 years ago by Kenya's Daniel Komen in 7:24.90.

World's Tallest High Heels

2009-12-08T12:41:00.000-08:00

Apparently, the world's highest heels is 16 inches tall with an 11 inch platform – that's a 5 inch difference. Can you imagine wearing something like that? Your demure, average height 5′4″ lady will end up looking like one of those Amazonian warriors, or worse, circus clown who's 6′8″ tall and struggling not to fall over.

World's Tallest Horse

2009-12-08T12:39:00.000-08:00

Poe the Clydesdale is an impressive 6′ 8″ tall and his owner, Shereen Thomspon, is seeking to have him admitted into the Guinness Book of World Records. Poe weighs over 3,000 pounds and stands at 80.8 inches high. The current record holder is shorter by a mere .8 inches. The giant horse eats 10 pounds of grain and drinks 75 gallons of water per day.

World's Tallest Model

2009-12-08T12:35:00.000-08:00

A US model measuring 205cm (about 6'9") is the cover of Australian men's magazine Zoo Weekly. The model — Eve — appears on the cover of the magazine's November 2009 issue alongside a 162cm-tall Australian model. "No other magazine has put a woman who's nearly 7ft tall on the cover,"

Funny Wedding Cake Toppers

2009-11-24T12:39:00.000-08:00

10 Amazing Staircases Around the Globe

2009-11-24T12:05:00.000-08:00

Spiral Stair (Australia)

Fascinating spiral stairs at Garvan Institute in Sydney, Australia. 6.5 revs and five stories from top to bottom.

Spiral Staircase at the Vatican Museum (Italy)

The Vatican Museums spiral staircase is one of the most photographed in the world, and certainly one of the most beautiful. Designed by Giuseppe Momo in 1932, the broad steps are somewhere between a ramp and a staircase. The stairs are actually two separate helixes, one leading up and the other leading down, that twist together in a double helix formation. Little did the Vatican Museum know in 1932 that this formation would come to represent life itself, with the discovery of the double helical DNA strand.

Loretto Chapel Staircase (USA)

Tulip Staircase at the Queen's House (England)

The elegant Tulip Stairs in the Queen's House are the first geometric self-supporting spiral stairs in Britain. Although called the 'Tulip Stairs,' it is thought that the stylized flowers in the wrought-iron balustrade are actually fleurs-de-lis, as this was the emblem of the Bourbon family of which Queen Henrietta Maria (wife of Charles I) was a member. The Tulip Stairs are also the location of the Rev R. W. Hardy's famous 'ghost' photograph taken on 19 June 1966, which when developed revealed what appear to be two or three shrouded figures onthe staircase.

Staircase at Lello Bookshop (Portugal)

This interesting grand staircase in Lello Bookshop in Portugal stands ominous and heavy. The steps are like two channels pouring and swirling to a single point. The side view gives you a closer idea of the immense curves and giddy sinking feeling to each step.

San Francisco's Tiled Steps - World's Longest Mosaic Stair (USA)

The 16th Avenue Tiled Steps, perhaps the world's longest mosaic staircase (163 steps, 82' high), was conceived and fabricated by Irish ceramicist Aileen Barr and San Francisco mosaic artist Colette Crutcher. Over a two and a half year period, a tireless group of neighbors raised funds and lobbied city government to make the project, unveiled in August 2005, a reality. Over 2000 handmade tiles and 75,000 fragments of tile, mirror and stained glass went into the finished piece, located at 16th Ave. and Moraga, in San Francisco.

"Umschreibung" at KPMG Building Munich (Germany)

This artistic staircase designed by Olafur Eliasson is called Umschreibung (Rewriting), and was completed in 2004. It's in the courtyard of the global accounting firm KPMG in Munich.

Stairs at the Longchamp Store (New York)

Constructed in 1¼” hot-rolled steel and taking six months to be built, the stair landscape weighs 55 tons and is an installation of ribbon-like forms that divide and converge to form a topography of walkways, landings andsteps.

Vertigo Staircase at the QVB Building (Australia)

This image shows “The Grand Staircase" of Sydney's Grand Queen Victoria Building. This building, now affectionately known as the QVB, wasdesigned by George McRae and completed in 1898, replacing the original Sydney markets on the site. Built as a monument to the long reigning monarch, construction took place in dire times, as Sydney was in a severe recession. The elaborate Romanesque architecture was specially planned for the grand building so the Government could employ many out-of-work craftsmen – stonemasons, plasterers, and stained window artists – in a worthwhile project.

Bridge-stair at the Traversinertobel (Switzerland)

The bridge over the Traversinertobel, a side valley of the Via Mala, is the latest structure of this kind designed by engineer Jürg Conzett and his associate Rolf Bachofner . They solved the problem of connecting two different elevations over the gorge by creating a staircase.The staircase replaces a rope bridge for hikers that was wiped out by a rock slide. This suspended footbridge spans a distance of 56 metres, with a difference in height of 22 metres between the two ends.

Worlds Most Amazing Hot Air Balloons

2009-11-24T10:44:00.000-08:00

successful human-carrying flight technology. On November 21, 1783, in Paris, France, the first manned flight was made by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d’Arlandes in a hot air balloon created by the Montgolfier brothers.

Festivals and competitions have spawned a wide array of contraptions from inventive forms of advertising to some of the most bizarre and crazy designs in the form of hot dogs, funky animals, weird monsters, ‘fearsome’ dragons, and even space shuttles.

Modern hot air ballons, with an onboard heat source, were pioneered by Ed Yost, beginning in the 1950s; his work resulted in his first successful flight, on October 22, 1960 The first modern-day hot air balloon to be built in the United Kingdom (UK) was the Bristol Belle in 1967. Today, hot air balloons are used primarily for recreation, and there are some 7,500 hot air balloons operating in the United States

Hot air balloons are able to fly to extremely high altitudes. On November 26, 2005, Vijaypat Singhania set the world altitude record for highesthot air balloon flight , reaching 21,027 meters (68,986 feet). He took off from downtown Bombay, India, and landed 240 kilometers (149 miles) south in Panchale

On January 15, 1991, the Virgin Pacific Flyer balloon completed the longest flight in a hot air balloon when Per Lindstrand (born in Sweden, but resident in the UK) and Richard Branson of the UK flew 7,671.91 km (4,767.10 mi) from Japan to Northern Canada. With a volume of 74 thousand cubic meters (2.6 million cubic feet), the balloon envelope was the largest ever built for a hot air craft. Designed to fly in the trans-oceanic jet streams the Pacific Flyer recorded the highest ground speed for a manned balloon at 245 mph (394 km/h).

The first manned free flight with human passengers was made by the physics professor Jean-François Pilatre de Rozier and François Laurent d’Arlandes, a major in the infantry, on November 21 1783, in Paris, France, in ahot air balloon created by the Montgolfier brothers.

King Louis XVI had originally decreed that condemned criminals would be the first pilots, but de Rozier and Marquis Francois d’Arlandes successfully petitioned for the honor.

The longest duration hot air balloon flight ever made is 50 hours and 38 minutes made by Michio Kanda and Hirosuke Tekezawa of Japan on January 2, 1997

Youngest Skateboarder-World Record set by Evan Wasser

2009-11-23T21:31:00.000-08:00

LOS ANGELES, Calif., USA -- Evan Wasser, 10, started skating when he was barely 2 years old, by pulling off amazing stunts on a boardRanked 3.48 / 5 -setting the world record for the Youngest Skateboarder.

While the average 2-year-old spends the day learning to color, playing on swings or just trying get around, little Evan Wasser's day was quite different.

Most kids at 2 are barely running, this kid was pulling off amazing stunts on a boardRanked 3.48 / 5.

After only a year of practice, he never fails to amaze onlookers because this baby skates with the big boys. And he's always working on risky new moves.

Evan's amazing balance and coordination make him the world's youngest skateboarder.

He has just turned 10 and skates better than most teenagers.

Evan Wasser:
" I love soccer. I am working on my red belt in Hapkido. I have been studying martial arts for four years. I love math and vocabulary."

Favorite Tricks: catching big air, kick flip

Favorite Pro Skater: Tony Hawk, Bucky Lasek and Bob Burnquist

Goals: To be in the Olympics and be a pro skater.

Youngest wing-walker-world record set by Tiger Brewer

2009-11-23T21:23:00.000-08:00

CIRENCESTER, England -- Tiger Brewer, 8, flew at 100mph (160 kilometres) at 1,000 feet over Rendcomb Airfield in Gloucestershire on the wing of his grandfather Vic Norman's biplane-setting the world record for the Youngest wing-walker.

Tiger, from Notting Hill, London, has grown up around wing-walkers as Mr Norman owns the SuperAeroBatics formation wing-walking team.

The previous Guinness world record for the Youngest wing-walker was held by Guy Mason, son of Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason, who first wing-walked in 2001 aged 11.

Two independent witnesses who watched the flight at Rendcomb Airfield, Cirencester, in Gloucestershire. Cirencester Mayor Geoffrey Adams presented Tiger with a certificate to mark his achievement.

Tiger comes from a family of daredevils but had to wait until he was tall enough for his feet to touch the wing. After the feat Tiger tucked into a bag of Wotsits.

"On take-off I was scared. From one to 10 it was probably a nine, but when I was in the air it was probably a five," he said. "It felt amazing, like I was on top of the world. It was cold and windy but it can't be beat. You don't have a parachute, just a pair of goggles."

Tiger's mum Zoe has been wing-walking from a young age and his sisters Star, 14, and five-year-old Flame were there to watch.

Tiger's dad Colin, who has legally changed his name to Happy Birthday, said: "I wasn't scared for him physically, just emotionally. He was nervous and although he acts like a big man he is only eight. But he just kept repeating his mantra 'go away fear' and he did it. We are immensely proud of him. He wanted to do this for years but wasn't tall enough."

Youngest Poker Champion-Joe Cada sets World Record

2009-11-22T12:00:00.001-08:00

LAS VEGAS, USA -- Joe Cada (21) of Shelby Township, Mich., a poker professional who chose cards over college won the World Series of Poker main event winning $8.55 million and setting the new world record for the Youngest poker champion.

Cada's record-breaking win breaks a record for the tournament's youngest winner set last year by 22-year-old Peter Eastgate of Denmark. The previous Guinness world records holder for the title of Youngest poker champion, Phil Hellmuth, held the record for over two decades. He was 24 when he won for the first time in 1984.

He battled 41-year-old logger Darvin Moon and at one point held only one per cent of the chips in play. Cada, who turns 22 next week, took home $8.5 million early Nov. 10 when he outlasted Maryland logger Darvin Moon (and 6,492 other competitors) at No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em to win the sport's biggest prize.

Joe Cada turned over a pair of nines early after 46-year old Darvin Moon called his all-in wager with a suited queen-jack, setting up an about-even race for most of the chips on the table.

"I ran really well and I never really thought this was possible," Cada said. "It was one of those dreams and I'm thankful it came true."

He told reporters: 'Luck always helps. I'll take all the luck I can get.' The player was virtually unknown when he started the competition, but he is now worth approximately £5.1million.

The finale pitted the youthful professional - who makes a living playing poker online - against a self-employed logger who, until this year's World Series of Poker, had never been on an airplane or gambled for high stakes.

World Longest Finger Nails

2009-11-22T05:36:00.001-08:00

The current world recorder holder for the longest fingernails is Lee Redmond of the USA. Lee Redmond, who hasn’t cut her nails since 1979, has grown and carefully manicured them to reach a total length of 7 m 51.3 cm (24 ft 7.8 in).

Left Hand
Thumb	80 cm	31.5 in
Index finger	76.4 cm	30.1 in
Middle finger	76.7 cm	30.2 in
Ring finger	76.2 cm	30 in
Little finger	73.6 cm	29 in

Right hand
Thumb	76.4 cm	30.1 in
Index finger	72.3 cm	28.5 in
Middle finger	74.1 cm	29.2 in
Ring finger	73.6 cm	29 in
Little finger	71.6 cm	28.2 in