couchtripper

Workers walk near a large pair of jeans made in a factory in San Juan de Lurigancho, Peru, in an attempt to snag a place in the Guinness Book of World Records

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A 'large' pair of jeans? How large does something have to be for the reporter to think they might just be fucking massive?!

Denzil Gunner, 30, on a year-long mission to take on strange challenges won £1,000 at the annual competition in Somerset and may now be chosen to represent Britain in extreme eating competitions in America.

However, Mr Gunner, from Notting Hill, in London, was five pies short of the world record of 46, which is held by an 8st American woman. Sonya Thomas, 36, from Virginia, devoured 46 mince pies in 10 minutes in 2006. The annual contest is a popular event on the competitive eating circuit and this year 29 pie-eaters took part.

Mr Gunner said: "I didn't do any eating preparation at all, I just showed up and went for it. My technique was just to cram as many in as possible and drink as much water as I could because they are very dry. I didn't really think about it I just kept on eating until they said stop and then I realised how ill I felt. You can't really taste them but I'm glad its over a month to Christmas when I have to eat another one. I'm worried about the drive home now, I think there will be a lot of stops in lay-bys."

Speed eating is a major phenomenon in America and some of the bigger events are televised with prize funds of thousands of dollars. But extreme eating in the UK has attracted criticism from health campaigners, who have condemned it for glorifying gluttony.

Organiser Daniel Medley said the International Federation of Competitive Eating will be interested in Mr Gunner as his mince pie achievement was impressive. "This is the closest that a Brit has ever got to the record," he said. "If he wants to go to America we will take him and the federation will be quite keen on him going over there and doing the circuit. Americans are quite confused about mince pies because they think they contain meat."

Last year house-husband Clive Pearson, 34, from Chilcompton, in Somerset, stuffed down 26 mince pies in 10 minutes to win.

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His technique "to cram as many in as possible" clearly shows the mind of a genius at work!

I've never heard of a currywurst, but I'd give it a go for sure...

"This giant weighs 11.3 kilos (24.9 pounds)," Khalil Semhat said at his farm in the Tyre area, 85 kilometres (50 miles) south of Beirut.

"I've been working the land since I was a boy, and it's the first time I've seen anything like it."

Semhat, 56, said he had not done anything special to cultivate such a super-sized spud. "I didn't use any chemicals at all," he insisted, adding that he had to ask a friend to help him haul the huge tuber out of the ground.

Now he hopes the find will get a mention in the famous Guinness Book of Records, and said he will send in the details for possible inclusion next year.

He said he was "very proud" to have grown the enormous specimen on his farm, which took a pounding in 2006 during the war between Israel and Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah movement.

Guinness World Records

THIS strongman has the EYE-of-the-tiger. Kung-fu master Luo Deyuan hauls motors for yards with sharp hooks wedged into his eye sockets. But he has been banned from a world record after failing to see EYE-TO-EYE with Guinness World Record bosses. Organisers have refused to even consider the stunt because it is too dangerous.

Now Luo, 21, from Guiyang, China, has his EYE on safer stunts – such as lifting two buckets of water with his eyebrows, stopping electric fans with his tongue, and walking on sharp blades. "I'll keep trying because I really want to do something special in the world. I really want to perform my stunts on a bigger stage," he said.

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Thailand's Scorpion Queen has set a new world record - by holding a poisonous scorpion in her mouth for just over two minutes. And Kanchana Kaetkaew, 39, may be able to hold that title for a while - it's doubtful she will see any challengers any time soon.

Kaetkaew went for the record today in a mall in Pattaya, a city on the Gulf of Thailand known for its nightlife and cabaret. She was handed the arachnid by her husband - who, coincidentally, is known as the Centipede King - and held it in her mouth for 2mins 1.8secs before spitting it out.

Now she has gone on to begin her second world record attempt: entering a glass compound where she hopes to stay for 33 days and nights along with 5,000 scorpions. But again, the field of competition remains thin. The previous world record 32 days was set in 2002 - by Kaetkaew herself.

THIS robot will attempt to break a Rubik’s cube world record. The RuBot 2 can solve the puzzle in less than 35 SECONDS, says his inventor Pete Redmond.

Boffin Pete said: “The RuBot 2 is not the first Rubik’s Cube solving robot, but it has to be the coolest looking - and I truly believe it to be the fastest robotic Cube solver ever. There are cameras in RuBot 2’s eyes that scan the cube before his pneumatic arms solve it. He uses a very efficient computer algorithm to figure out how to unjumble the mixed up Rubik's Cube and usually comes up with a solution of less than 20 moves.

"After the scan, he can usually do the solve in about 35 seconds, no matter how much it is mixed up. The Guinness World Record attempt includes scanning time, and I am confident that we can do our complete scan and solve in around 60 seconds."

The RuBot 2 will go for the record at Royal Dublin Society, Ballsbridge, in Dublin on January 8.

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Oh those crazy boffins!

A blistering new motorbike can blast from 0 to 60mph in less than a second - using power from the same kind of battery as a cordless drill. The KillaCycle is powered by a series of more than 1,200 special batteries which are the same as those found in De Walt tools. The batteries feed two motors which together churn out a whopping 500bhp and can propel the machine to a top speed of a staggering 168mph. The bike's makers claim that the G-force which the rider has to contend with is three times more than that faced by a skydiver during freefall.

KillaCycle has now been crowned the world's fastest battery powered vehicle after hurtling down a quarter of a mile track in under eight seconds. The silent bike is also totally emission free because its makers use a wind power generator to recharge the batteries. One charge takes four minutes and will provide enough power to propel the bike to seven runs down a quarter of a mile drag track.

The bike was originally designed and built in 1999 since when it has held the world speed record for completing a quarter of a mile track in the shortest time. But the record tumbled again in November, last year, when the KillaCycle, being ridden by Scott Pollacheck, blasted down a track in just 7.8 seconds.

Racing team owner Bill Dube, 55, said the secret of the bike's speed is the battery cells, which are made by American firm A123 Systems. He said: "I used to race my electric Cabriolet car, but I got tired of it breaking on the drag strip. I couldn't afford to build a dragster so I built a bike instead. The secret of the KillaCycle is the batteries. The powerful nano-phosphate battery cells are what makes the the bike go as fast as it does. If you think about it, the KillaCycle is just a giant cordless drill with wheels."

Mr Dube said the team are now working on a version of the KillaCycle which will be capable of producing an incredible 1,000bhp. Mr Dube added: "The KillaCycle is the result of years of effort. It was the first electric vehicle to break the eight seconds barrier in drag racing in November 2007. And it was the first electric powered vehicle of any kind to go over 150 mph in a quarter of a mile in August 2000. Since then it has been the world's fastest electric powered vehicle of any kind."

It has taken most of his life – but, after 26 years, builder Graham Parker has finally solved the puzzle of the Rubik's Cube. When he bought the toy in 1983, Yuri Andropov was leader of the Soviet Union, breakfast TV was a novelty and music CDs were in the shops for the first time.

'I cannot tell you what a relief it was to finally solve it,' the 45-year-old from Portchester, Hampshire, said. 'It has driven me mad over the years – it felt like it had taken over my life. I have missed important events to stay in and solve it and I would lie awake at night thinking about it. I have had wrist and back problems from spending hours on it but it was all worth it. When I clicked that last bit into place and each face was a solid colour, I wept.'

Wife Jean, 47, said it had felt like there had been three people in their marriage. 'When I met Graham, he was already obsessed with the cube – spending hours on it every day,' she said. 'I have often thought about getting rid of it but I knew he would not rest until he had solved it.'

A spokesman for the governing body for competitions involving the puzzle, the World Cube Association, said it was 'definitely the longest it has taken' to finish the cube.

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Now all he has to do is solve the riddle of why he became so obsessed!

The world's fastest electric car that can reach speeds of 208mph has been unveiled. Created by Shelby Supercars it can accelerate to 60mph in just 2.5 seconds. It is powered by a twin motor system, which produces a staggering 1,000 horse power and 800lb-ft of torque. In contrast the current electric sports car flagbearer, the Tesla Roadster which was recently tested by Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear, produces 250 horse power.

Makers Shelby Supercars, who also manufacture the world's fastest production car, say the Ultimate Aero EV is powered by a 'revolutionary All-Electric ScalableB Powertrain'. According to Shelby, it will be possible to fully charge the batteries in just 10 minutes from the mains, thanks to an on-board system it is calling 'Charge on the Run'. Once the Ultimate Aero EV's batteries are charged it will have a range of between 150 and 200 miles. The manufacturer expects to roll out pre-production versions of the vehicle, which has a three-speed automatic gearbox, by June.

A Shelby Supercars spokesman said: 'Having the world's fastest production car we decided the Ultimate Aero to be the perfect high visibility outlet to demonstrate our new green powertrain. The Ultimate Aero EV will prove that electric-powered vehicles will not only match but also provide more overall performance than internal combustion cars.'

The company says it plans to use the electric motor technology in lower power, every day vehicles such as small and family cars, trucks and buses. Although deliveries of the Ultimate Aero EV are expected by the end of the year, the company, based in West Richland, Washington, USA, has not announced a price.

The petrol-engine SSC Ultimate Aero TT is currently the fastest production car in the world, with a fastest recorded speed of 257 mph. This speed was reportedly achieved during tests on September 13, 2007 in West Richland and verified by Guinness World Records on October 9, 2007.

fuk me 200 miles @ 200 mph for 10 mins 'lekkie ..

"it won't do you know, it just won't do. as a shareholder of shell - profits last year - 36 zillion, i say it just won't do gerald... how much did you say they are -?- never mind i'll have one anyway"

The woman with the longest fingernails in the world has broken them in a car crash. American Lee Redmond escaped with her life in the four-car pile-up - but lost her talons in the accident on Tuesday. She has been hospitalised with serious but not life-threatening injuries after she was ejected from the seat of an SUV in the crash.
Scissorhands: Lee Redmond in 2006. Her record-breaking nails were lost in a car accident earlier this week

The Salt Lake City, Utah resident was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records, which claimed her nails measured a total of more than 28 feet long in 2008. The longest nail - on her right thumb - was a sickening 2 feet, 11 inches.

In an interview in 1995, Redmond, 68, said she once turned down $10,000 to trim her nails on Japanese TV. In 2006 she said she was ready to cut her nails so she could care for her husband, who suffers from Alzheimer's. However she changed her mind, insisting that the nails did not interfere with her husband's care - indeed, that they did not impact her daily life much at all. She did have to care for the nails daily, soaking them in olive oil and cleaning them with a toothbrush. And when, in previous interviews, she was asked the inevitable question about how she goes uses the bathroom, she replied: 'Very carefully'.

Salt Lake County Sheriff's Lt. Don Hutson says Redmond was ejected from an SUV in the crash and taken to the hospital in serious condition. Redmond has been featured on TV in episodes of 'Guinness Book of World Records' and 'Ripley's Believe It or Not.'

The winner of a pancake-eating contest has dropped dead while accepting his prize for gorging on 43 of the banana and cream stuffed desserts. Boris Isayev, 48, from west Russia died on stage moments after winning the competition to mark the end of Butter Week.

The contest, which took place in the town of Chernyakhovsk, was part of festivities to celebrate Maslenitsa, the last week before the period of Lent starts. According to local traditions, meat, fish, dairy products and eggs are forbidden during Lent, as well as dancing and parties.

Witnesses described Mr Isayev as "the most active participant in the contest" adding that he "ate all the types of pancakes on offer and won fairly". The witness added: "He had really enjoyed the pancakes but then he started foaming at the mouth and went down like a sack of stones. People have fainted during the contests before."

Medics tried to revive Mr Isayev after he collapsed while collecting his prize on stage. The exact cause of death is not clear but doctors believe he choked after a piece of pancake got lodged in his throat. Celebrations are said to have continued after Mr Isayev's body was taken away in an ambulance.

This is the world's biggest train set which covers 1,150 square metres (12,380 square feet), features almost six miles of track and is still not complete. The set covers six regions including America, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Germany and the Austrian Alps.

More pics HERE