Kent Couch (L) and John Freis (R) race over the plains of Oregon between their 70-mile journey from Bend to Paulina. Famed cluster balloonist Kent Couch is awaiting confirmation of a Guinness World Record hat trick. Fifty-year old Kent believes that he and his colleague John Freis, 59, may be the first men to compete in a cluster balloon race, as well as the first men to launch their cluster balloons simultaneously from the ground. In addition and most importantly, Kent believes that he may have broken the world altitude record of 18, 235 ft set by Englishman Mike Howard in 2001
Behemoth wine barrel to be tapped after 400 years
29 Jul 10
thelocal.de/travel/20100729-28835.html
The world’s oldest giant wine barrel, held in a Saxony-Anhalt hunting mansion, has been refilled for the first time in its 400-year history and will be filling glasses at a festival beginning on Friday.
The oak barrel in the town of Halberstadt measures five metres in diameter and holds about 144,000 litres of wine. Even empty, it weighs about 63 tonnes. Guiness World Records calls it the oldest giant wine cask in the world. On Friday local restaurateur Chris Schöne will crack the seal and serve red wine to a massive gathering including the Danish ambassador and a descendant of Lord Ludwig von Spiegel, who rescued the cask from decay in the 18th century.
Craftsmen in the nearby town of Gröningen took two years to build the cask, finishing in 1594. It was filled the same year in time for the wedding of the Duke of Brunswick, Heinrich Julius, to Princess Elisabeth of Denmark. It took them 12 years to drink the cask dry, after which it fell into neglect. In a letter to Fredrick the Great, the Halberstadt Lord Ludwig von Spiegel asked if he might shift the barrel to his hunting lodge – a request that was granted. In 1781, it was placed into a specially built cellar in the nobleman's hunting lodge.
This time, however, it won’t be filled to bursting – only topped up with 4,000 litres of Dornfelder red wine from the Rhineland-Palatinate. Restaurateur Schöne, 28, said a lack of sponsors had until now meant the cask had sat empty for more than 400 years. “I had the idea long time ago, it just kept lacking a spark to get the thing lit,” he said. He finally found a winemaker. Tourism authorities in Halberstadt also saw an opportunity. “The wine barrel may get many more visitors interested,” said Doris Rünzel, who is in charge of organising a three-day festival in the town to mark the re-opening of the cask.
Despite the massive quantity of booze, she promised a peaceful celebration. “The artists chosen are for a contemplative and harmonious approach, for which the town justly known,” she said.
From bare knuckle to bare everything 102 thrillseekers strip off to break the naked rollercoaster world record
8th August 2010
From bare nipples to white knuckles - more than 100 thrill-seekers rode a rollercoaster naked today. The 102 enthusiasts bared all to take their seats on the Green Scream rollercoaster at Southend-on-Sea, Essex. Organisers were hoping they had broken a new record after 32 attempted the same feat in 2004 at Alton Towers, in Staffordshire. Organiser Tracy Jones said: 'We wanted to raise as much money as possible for this brilliant charity and give everybody who was brave enough, the chance to be part of the world record. Consequently, we had to run the Naked Rollercoaster three times.'
The ride took place at Adventure Island, raising money for Southend Hospital Charitable Foundation's Bosom Pals Appeal. Adventure Island boss Philip Miller said: 'People have travelled from all over the UK to take part and we've heard some amazing stories from so many who have been directly, or indirectly, affected by cancer and wanted to give something back.'
Barbara Warner, of Bosom Pals, said it 'takes of lot of nerve to take off all your clothes' in front of so many people and the world's media. She added the appeal 'would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who was brave enough to bare all and raise such a huge amount of cash - more than £22,000 - for our vitally important cause'.
Serendipity 3's £15,730 Frrrozen Haute Chocolate is world's most expensive dessert New York restaurant Serendipity 3 has unveiled the £15,730 Frrrozen Haute Chocolate dessert, which has been crowned the world's most expensive pud.
The famous Manhattan restaurant has created not one, but two amazing desserts, each featuring 24 carat edible Swiss gold. The £630 Grand Opulence Sundae sounds cheap in comparison to the record-breaking £15,730 Frrrozen Haute Chocolate, which requires customers to give at least two weeks notice before they are able to actually sit down and tuck in.
'We produced the Grand Opulence to celebrate our 50th anniversary in 2005,' said Joe Calderone, 48, a spokesperson for Serendipity. We wanted something to match out golden anniversary, so based our sundae around that precious metal. Each one is made with three scoops of the richest Tahitian vanilla ice cream, which we infuse with Madagascar vanilla pods.
Extravagant:The £600 Grand Opulence Sundae Extravagant
'The sundae is held within a baccarat Harcourt crystal goblet and lined with 23 carat edible gold leaf. We drizzle in the world's rarest and most expensive chocolate Amedei Porceleana, which is harvested from Venezuela and covered in chunks of Chuao chocolate. We add candied fruits from Paris and the sundae is topped with Grand Passion Caviar, which is salt free American caviar infused with passion fruit, orange and Armagnac. The dessert is eaten with an 18 carat golden spoon and topped with a specially designed sugar flower.'
Serendipity claims that since unveiling the £600 pudding in 2005, they have sold 200 Grand Opulence Sundaes. 'It is something that boyfriends show off to the girlfriends with and even though it looks calorific, at Serendipity, we never count the calories,' said Joe. However, the Grand Opulence Sundae has since been topped by the Frrrozen Haute Chocolate, which has been ranked as the world's most expensive dessert by Guinness World Records.
'We take a baccarat Harcourt crystal goblet for the Haute Chocolate, but in this case there is a 18 carat gold and white diamond bracelet attached to the neck ,' said Joe. 'Like the Opulence, the goblet is laced with 23 carat edible gold and we add our famous Serendipity frozen hot chocolate mix that contains 14 rare and secret cocoas. In addition to that we add 14 of the world rarest and most expensive cocoas that come from Africa and South America. We then add milk to the mix, add ice cubes and place the 28 different cocoas in the blender for 30 seconds. We then add whipped cream and shavings from the world's most expensive truffle, the La Madeline au Truffle, which costs £1,573 ($2,500) a pound. On top of that goes five grams of 24 carat edible gold and the dessert is served with a £8,800 ($14,000) jewel-encrusted spoon, that the customer can take home along with their diamond encrusted bracelet.'
Serendipity is yet to sell a single Frrozen Haute Chocolate, despite pledging to give all of the profits to charity. 'All profits from this dessert would go to children's charities in New York, so we are definitely looking for someone to come in, be generous and to enjoy the Haute Chocolate,' said Joe.
Speeding Swede Faces World Record Fine
August 12, 2010
Tim Hewage,
Sky News Online
A motorist is facing the world's largest speeding fine after allegedly being clocked doing 180mph on a Swiss motorway. The 37-year-old Swedish man was caught by a camera on the A12 highway between Bern and Lausanne on Friday. He was travelling so fast he needed over half a kilometre of road to come to a halt, according to one arresting officer.
The Swede may have to pay up to £650,000 under a formula used in Switzerland that takes into account the driver's salary and how much over the speed limit he or she was. Other older speed cameras had failed to capture the Swede in his £160,000 Mercedes-Benz because the technology was unable to detect speeds over 125mph (200kph).
A police spokesman added: "We have no record of anyone being caught travelling faster in the country." In 2001, the 44-year-old Finnish boss of Nokia was issued with what was believed to be the world's heftiest speeding fine. Anssi Vanjoki had to pay 116,000 euros (£95,400) after he was caught doing 47mph in a 30mph zone in Helsinki while on his Harley Davidson motorbike. Traffic fines in Finland are determined in a similar way to that in Switzerland, so Mr Vanjoki's large salary at the telecommunications company was taken into account.
Hyde Park penthouse sells for record-breaking £140m A penthouse in one of London’s most opulent developments has sold for a record-breaking £140 million, as the market for “trophy homes” bucks the wider property slump.
Matthew Moore
10 Aug 2010
The six-bedrooom apartment at One Hyde Park, Knightsbridge, stretches across two floors and boasts bullet-proof windows, a panic room and views across the Serpentine. The new owners – who have already exchanged contracts – will also have access to 24-hour room service from the neighbouring Mandarin Oriental hotel, and protection from SAS-trained security guards.
The £140 million price tag makes the penthouse the most expensive property in Britain, passing the £115 million paid for a flat at the exclusive 8 St James's Square development in Westminster in 2008. While the identity of the buyers remains a closely-guarded secret, estate agents specialising in high-end London properties have reported a recent wave of inquiries from the Middle East and Nigeria, on the back of rising oil prices.
One Hyde Park, which boasts 86 properties starting at around £20 million, is the brainchild of luxury property developers Christian and Nick Candy, whose bid to redevelop the Chelsea Barracks collapsed after the Prince of Wales raised architectural objections with their Qatari partners. With the final touches to the four hexagonal tower blocks that comprise One Hyde Park due to be completed by December, The Daily Telegraph understands that 65 per cent of the flats and penthouses have now been purchased.
Sales had been suspended for 12 months because of the global downturn. Trevor Abrahamson of Glentree Estates, one of the subagents for One Hyde Park, said that super-rich buyers had returned to the London market in droves over the past six months, sending “trophy” home prices to new highs.
Meanwhile, the overall housing market has begun to fall again after months of recovery, according to figures released yesterday by the Royal Institute of Chartered Sureveyors. Mr Abrahamson said: “London is the capital of capitals. Even international businessmen with no interests in London want to have a home here.”
The Candy brothers and Savills, the lead selling agent for One Hyde Park, both declined to comment.
'Robin Hood' schoolboy breaks world archery record after firing arrow 500 metres
Jo Riley
20th August 2010
A schoolboy who dreamed of being Robin Hood has smashed a world long distance record in Flight Archery after firing an arrow the length of five football pitches. Zak Crawford, who is just 14, shot an arrow nearly 500 metres - an incredible 150 metres further than the previous record. The teenager was competing in the senior under-35lb class using a recurve bow at the Northern Counties Flight Championships. He also broke world records in the junior recurve and junior compound categories at the competition at RAF Church Fenton in Yorkshire.
Zak, who started the sport when he was just six, said he was 'over the moon' at winning the hat trick of world records. 'I have been practising really hard but I certainly didn't expect to come away from the competition with three world records, I'm over the moon,' he said. 'I managed to get the technique right on the day and I couldn't believe it when the arrows went so far.'
Zak, who enjoyed watching Robin Hood films as a child, took up archery at the age of six after trying it at a fair. He became the youngest member of his local club and got into the county team at the age of seven and the East Midlands team two years later when he was just nine. He initially started with target shooting but was later introduced to Flight Archery, which is based on the distance an arrow travels.
'When I first began I was the youngest in my club and I found it very difficult as I was quite small and the bow was heavy,' said Zak, from Corby, Northants. 'But I really enjoyed archery and began training a lot so I soon got used to it.' Zak now trains at Welland Valley Archery Club every night for three hours, firing 1,000 arrows each session. One of my Grandad's friends does Flight Archery and he took me to a competition. I tried it and quite liked it,' he added. 'It involves a lot of hand and eye co-ordination and you need strength to draw the bow back. You also need to be committed to train, but unfortunately you can't practise the long distances as you can only shoot that far on airfields.'
His grandfather Charles Wilson, who lives nearby in Corby and also does Flight Archery said he was very proud. 'He did brilliantly well. He totally destroyed the record,' he said.
Though Flight Archery is not an Olympic sport, Zak hopes to try for the 2016 games in Rio De Janeiro in target shooting and is looking for sponsorship. 'I'm still quite small for my age so my height is the biggest obstacle at the moment,' he added. 'I hope I will be ready for the 2016 Games.'
Flight Archery is the oldest type of archery and the only sort which does not involve a target. It is sometimes referred to as the Formula 1 of the sport. Competitors have to shoot the arrows as far as they can and use a particular size and weight of bow and arrows that are specifically designed to fly for long periods in the air. They fire 24 arrows, then have an hour to find them. If they are broken they do not count. It costs around £300 for a set of 12 arrows, with each one taking 40 hours to make. The recurve bow is the only form of bow permitted in the Olympics.
Zak is already keen to break his new record. 'I want to try and get past 600 metres - that will be a really hard target to break and will take a lot of work but I'll go for it,' he added.
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I liked the way this Jo Riley shoe-horned in a Robin Hood reference - such journalistic skill must be praised!
Is this the world's biggest pumpkin? British twins are aiming to make world history by growing the biggest pumpkin on the planet. They have 40 days left to make it.
27 Aug 2010
telegraph.co.uk
The mammoth squash, which has a circumference of nearly 16 feet, has been hand reared by 49-year-old horticulturist twins, Ian and Stuart Paton. In October the brothers, who run Pine Tops Nursery in Pennington Hants, will travel to a weigh-in where they will compete with other world contenders at other locations across the globe as far away as America, New Zealand and Australia.
Two years ago they set the British record for the heaviest pumpkin weighing a 1,457 pounds – around the same weight as eight grown men – only to lose the title to American couple from Ohio, the following year. This year, the brothers hope to reclaim the record, which now stands at 1,725 pounds, with their behemoth pumpkin which still has over 40 days left to grow. They have been growing giant pumpkins since they were 13-years-old.
Ian said: "We've been doing this since we were young kids and became fascinated with growing things as big as possible. Now over 30 years later we are not going to stop until we have the world record and things are looking promising with this one."
The twins insist it is not about feeding the plants as much as possible. Early in the growing process, growers select their favourite and terminate any other fruits to make sure one pumpkin gets the all the energy being produced by the plant through photosynthesis and food. The brothers cross breed plants to get the best hybrids. "It's a bit like breeding race horses," said Ian. "You want the best genes to produce the best offspring."
Going Nowhere: Traffic Jam Enters Sixteenth Day
August 30, 2010
Kat Higgins,
Sky News Online
A 100km long traffic jam in China has entered its ninth day and drivers are being warned the bottleneck could continue for a month. Hundreds of trucks heading for Beijing on the Beijing-Tibet Expressway have been at a standstill because of roadworks in the capital. Small traffic accidents or broken-down cars are aggravating the congestion which started on August 14.
But those affected have been taking the disruption in their stride. Drivers have been playing chess or cards, with some joking "concerts should be held at each congested area every weekend, to alleviate drivers' homesickness". And local residents have been benefiting from the queue too by setting up temporary stalls selling food and drink to the car owners. There has been anger that some vendors have been making a small fortune by overcharging drivers for items including noodles and hot water. Around 400 police officers are at the scene 24 hours a day to make sure the situation stays calm.
It is hoped the roadworks will be completed by the end of September but congestion and road safety are a huge concern for Chinese motorists. Traffic jams have been frequent since May due to the rapid increase of trucks to a daily peak of about 17,000. Niu Fengrui, director of the Institute for Urban and Environmental Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences told the Global Times poor road planning was part of the problem: "If there's no traffic jam in the city, that would be news. Our government should pick up the pace of urban infrastructure construction and spend some of its budget."
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I'm not sure if this is a record, but I doubt it's something these drivers will forget in a hurry...
Daredevil Performs Highest UK Wirewalk
August 31, 2010
Lorna Blount,
Sky News Online
A daredevil French circus star has performed the UK's highest wirewalk across Newport's river footbridge. Olivier Roustan's stunt was part of a year-long festival to mark the city's Ryder Cup host status. He walked the high wire more than 250ft above the River Usk, covering a distance of 295ft.
The 45-year-old spent two days in Newport in February assessing the safety issues involved. He was helped into position by three highly-trained industrial climbers, one of whom had flown over from Chamonix in France especially. Roustan has previously scaled the Cathedral of Albi near his home city of Toulouse, which is the largest brick building in the world.
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There was some guy walking between two tower blocks in Glasgow a while back, and I was sure that was the record... and on checking it says that was 100m high, which is more than 300ft. So, bollocks to Sky News with their LIES!!!
The prize potato, grown by Peter Glazebrook, tips the scales at a whopping 8lbs 4oz (3.76kg), smashing the previous world record by 9oz. The vegetable, Peter's Kondor variety, was put on show on Friday at the National Gardening Show in Shepton Mallet, Somerset.
It is not the first time Mr Glazebrook, 66, from Northampton, has hit the headlines. The retired chartered surveyor has previously held the world record for the longest carrot, after producing a 17-foot long specimen. He has also been the double Guinness World Record holder for the heaviest parsnip, at 13lb, and the longest beetroot at 21ft.
Speaking before his latest triumph, he said: ''The secret to success is starting with the right seed. 'It's learning how to grow them and putting a lot of effort in and picking up tips from other growers and reading what you can about it.''
The potato was weighed at the show's Giant Vegetable Competition and Mr Glazebrook is now awaiting verification from Guinness World Records.
Motorised table bids for fastest furniture record A British motoring enthusiast is hoping to break the world record for the fastest piece of furniture - with a motorised table that can achieve speeds over 100mph.
metro.co.uk
Buckinghamshire-based amateur mechanic Perry Watkins created the speedy table from a Reliant Scimitar sports car chassis and a fuel-injected 4 litre Land Rover Discovery engine boosted by nitrous oxide injection - plus six chairs, elegant place settings, and a dummy that bears a striking resemblance to Top Gear's The Stig. In some nice touches, the exhaust fumes come out of two silver teapots, the brake lights are encased in rolled-up napkins, and the road-legal vehicle's tax disc is stuck onto the champagne bucket. The table's driver sits in the centre, with their head sticking out of the table just underneath the roast chicken.
Watkins - whose day job is as a sales director at high street shoe repairer Timpson - says that his table, naturally named Fast Food, has hit speeds of 103mph in test runs. He is now trying to take the fastest furntiure title - set in 2007 by Edd China and his motorised sofa, which reached 92mph - with an official record attempt at Northamptonshire's Santa Pod Raceway today. Watkins has previously created the world's lowest car, named the Flatmobile, and the world's smallest car, christened the Wind Up.
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