Vegetables break records in UK National Giant Vegetable Championships

With record breaking rainfall and devastating floods, you might have thought our dismal summer would have pretty much scuppered this year's harvest.
But judging from the whopping vegetables on display at the National Amateur Gardening show, the weather has not entirely put a dampener on the year's crop.

One pumpkin entered in the UK's National Giant Vegetable Championships in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, weighed in at 200kg. Three-year-old Alexandra Busby is dwarfed by a giant pumpkin

Three-year-old Alexandra Busby from Watford is dwarfed by the mammoth vegetable as she poses for a picture.
Green-fingered Joe Atherton, meanwhile, stands proudly to show off his own record-breaking offering: a 15ft carrot.
The Championships are one of the highlights of the annual, three-day National Amateur Gardening show, which is held at the Bath and West Showground.
Vegetable enthusiasts spend months cultivating their marrows, squash, pumpkins, carrots, beetroot and parsnips in a bid to break the previous records.
There are 27 classes to enter in the giant vegetable section alone, as well as 66 classes in the flower, fruit and standard vegetables competitions.
And it is not only the accolade of having grown a mammoth vegetable they take home, there is also more than £5,000 in cash prizes to win.

A proud Joe Atherton poses with his record-breaking 15 foot carrot

Last year, 90-year-old Alf Cobb, from Holme, near Newark broke the world record with his cucumber which measured a staggering 35 1/8 inches.
This year is the show's 12th anniversary and thousands of visitors are set to flock there before it ends this Sunday.
They might be faced with some surprises in terms of what plants and vegetables are on show because the summer weather has led to some confusion.
High temperatures in April are thought to have sparked plants into flowering early.
And now, after the wettest summer in recent history and cooler weather, they think winter is not far around the corner.
Berries, apples and conkers have already been spotted on trees, while mushrooms are popping up in the fields and countryside.

Braball record maded by Emily Duffy

The BraBall, by Emily Duffy: "The BraBall is dedicated to my best friend Jessica, who is, among many things, a breast-cancer survivor".




This remarkable, collaborative sculpture can be seen at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. It's on display in the James Rouse Visionary Center at AVAM.
Some facts:
As of November 9, 2003 (finishing day):
Total Bras on BraBall = 18,085
Height = 60 Inches (5 feet)
Estimated Weight = Over 1,800 Pounds.

Source:-Algebraoflife

Wedding In The Air

Two high-rise Chinese window cleaners got married dangling in the air on their work platforms.

Jiang Dezhang, 27, and 26-year-old Tie Guangju both sat on wooden boards supported by ropes and pulleys.

"Our wedding was both romantic and like our daily work", said husband Jiang.

Also suspended with the couple were the best man and the bridesmaid who were work colleagues.

The couple exchanged rings in the air and hugged and kissed each other as the wedding guests and passers-by cheered below, reports Yunnan Daily.

As the couple were exchanging rings a scroll came down from the top of the building with the words "High Altitude Love" written on it.

Eight Year old Girl Completes 3,500km Run

The father of an eight-year-old Chinese girl who ran 3,560 km (2,212 miles) to Beijing to celebrate the 2008 Olympics on Tuesday denied accusations of child abuse.

Zhang Huimin arrived in Beijing on Sunday after she started her extraordinary odyssey on July 3 from Sanya, at the southern tip of the island province of Hainan, with her father following on a motorized bicycle.

Huimin got up at 2.30 a.m. every day to train for the run and would have had to have run about 65 km a day for 55 days -- the equivalent of about one and a half marathons a day.

Domestic media and some experts accused the father, Zhang Jianmin, a businessman, of abuse, saying the Beijing run would damage the girl's body and affect her growth.

Zhang told Reuters he was not concerned.

"I don't care about what the experts say. Although they accuse me of being cruel or abusive, I think I'm right," he said.

"She is always healthy around me and never said her legs hurt or that she was tired after running 30 kilometers," Zhang told Reuters in Tiananmen Square.

"I am suffering huge media pressure. But I have never worried about her future health. As she was able to endure the long distance running and has grown up healthily from the year three to eight, which are the weakest ages, there's no reason she could not endure this in the next years."

Huimin started running 3 km a day when she was three and was hitting 23 km a day by the time she was seven, the China Daily said.

Liu Hong, director of the China School Sports Federation, was quoted by the newspaper as saying the exercise regime was extremely hard, even for an adult.

"The running will certainly harm her," he said.

As for her future, Dad had one eye on the Olympics.

"If she is interested in running then we will keep working on it. She'll be 18 in 10 years time and it will be possible to take part in the Olympics... Whatever she is interested in, I'll do my utmost to support her."

On the Beijing trip, she only rode twice on her father's motorized bicycle, the China Daily said -- when she was chased by four wild dogs and when it was too steep to run down a steep mountain road.

Huimin herself appeared unfazed by the whole marathon event and the attention it had brought.
"I've liked running since I was very young," she said. "Running makes me happy."
Source:- Reuters

Record Broken, Teeth Intact

A MALAYSIAN nicknamed King Tooth pulled a seven-coach train using a steel rope clenched in his teeth yesteray.

Organisers said the feat set a new world record for the heaviest weight pulled with a set of pearly whites.

Grunting and gasping, Rathakrishnan Velu's neck muscles strained and his face contorted as he hauled the train weighing 297.1 tonnes over 2.8m along tracks.

The feat is expected to be recognised by Guinness World Records within three weeks, said Mr Rathakrishnan's manager, Anna Chidambar.

"I don't know what toothpaste he uses but I am sure a lot of companies will be looking to endorse their products from Rathakrishnan," said Cabinet minister Maximus Ongkili, who witnessed the effort at a Kuala Lumpur railway station.

Mr Rathakrishnan beat his own world record, for which he pulled 260.8 tonnes.

Source:- Spluch Via News

2 Dead in Canada Hot Air Balloon Fire

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - A hot air balloon burst into flames over western Canada, burning a woman and her adult daughter to death while their families looked on, officials said Saturday. Other passengers leaped to the ground, some with their clothes in flames, witnesses said.Eleven passengers were seriously injured when the balloon crashed Friday evening in a recreational vehicle park near the U.S border in Surrey, British Columbia, a suburb of Vancouver. There were 12 passengers and a pilot on board, police and witnesses said.
John Kageorge, who works for Fantasy Balloon Charters, said the fire started as the ballon was about to launch. Kageorge said three passangers did not get out of the basket before it became airborne.
"One person jumped from an unsafe distance, two stories in the air or more," said Kageorge. The mother and daughter did not jump, he said, although two of their family members made it out of the basket.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Roger Morrow confirmed the deaths and said relatives of the two passengers killed witnessed the fire."It's just tragic. They watched it unfold before their eyes," Morrow said of the family. "The fatalities suffered from burns."
The balloon caught fire as it prepared to launch, said Bill Yearwood, an investigator with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.
"The crew loaded 12 passengers and was preparing to launch when a fire erupted. The pilot asked the passengers to get out of the basket," he said. "The balloon was tethered at the time, but then broke and came loose," he added.
"They were all trying to get out."
After most of the passengers escaped, the balloon exploded in a fireball and shot up into the air. Shortly after, the burning balloon plunged to ground in the RV park, leaving a tail of thick black smoke in its wake.
"I can't tell you what exactly happened when the balloon was loosened from the tether," Yearwood said. "We will be talking to attending crew members and the pilot to find out."
He said the pilot was in stable condition.
"The thing went up about 400 feet in the air at which point it melted enough of the balloon — it collapsed," said Don Randall, a resident of the trailer park who took pictures of the scene. "The basket was basically a fireball. It just dropped like a stone," he added.
"I'm just thinking, 'Oh geez, I hope there's nobody in that thing. It's basically a burning death up there,'" he said.
Smoke could be seen billowing from the crash site from miles away.
Another resident, Karen Ashby, held back tears while she explained how she watched the coroner sift through the blackened wreckage.
"They found the bodies in here," Ashby said. "I watched them take them out."
The cause of the accident was not immediately known. Weather conditions were clear at the time of the sunset flight.
"People were screaming and trying to get out," Frank Hersey said Friday night near a grassy field where several of the injured were being attended to by ambulance crews.

Perry Kendall said he saw what looked like something out of a movie.
"It was horrifying," said a shaken Kendall. "Just looking at people screaming and jumping out of there. Some of them, I think, had fire on their clothes. It was just awful."

Witnesses also said propane tanks from the balloon shot off and landed on the Hazelmere RV park below, setting fire to three trailers and several vehicles. No one was reported hurt in those blazes.
"We're exceptionally lucky that nobody in any of these three trailers or in the vehicles that were destroyed were caught in them," Morrow said.
The hot-air balloon, operated by Fantasy Balloons Charters based in Langley, British Columbia, was one of several balloons in flight at the time. The balloon that burned, Kageorge said, was about nine stories high.
There was a similar accident earlier this month in the central Canadian province of Manitoba, Manitoba, where 12 people were injured.

Source:- Yahoo News

Terrifying scenes as zombies storm London

Anyone waking up in London this morning would be forgiven for thinking they were in a terrifying horror movie.
Hundreds of fearsome 'zombies' descended on the capital as part a horror festival to mark the DVD release of the film, Zombie Diaries.
Their mission was to break the world record for having the highest number of the freaky characters in a 'zombie walk'.
The current record is 894 zombies in Pittsburgh last year.

The huge mass, who were recruited via a website, descended on Leicester Square this morning.
Zombies storm Leicester Square

Terrifying: The world record attempt in London

Gruesome: A terrifying sight to see

Carnage: The zombies are in town

Japan Warns of 4,000 meters of millions of people living Juda

Core Presentation : Japan in Tokyo idea is the construction of the "X-Seed4000" Juda skyscraper-a 4,000-meter-high, with 800 floors, one million will be living in the building super. Juda this skyscraper construction modeled on the shape of Mount Fuji, but also higher than Mount Fuji 213 meters.Designed primarily to the residents living in 2,000 meters below the floor, and the higher air temperatures likely will be built ski resort facilities.

Ferris Juda simulation map

Internal envisaged map

Ferris Juda chart

Chongqing Morning News on August 27, according to American media reports on the 26th, Japan Da construction company in Tokyo idea is the construction of the "X-Seed4000" Juda skyscraper-a 4,000-meter-high, with 800 floors, one million will be living in the building super. Juda this skyscraper construction modeled on the shape of Mount Fuji, but also higher than Mount Fuji 213 meters.

The Empire State Building will be nine times higher

It was reported that according Da construction company's design blueprint, "X-Seed4000" will become Tokyo's city within a city, once completed, "X-Seed4000" Ferris Juda will be the height of the Empire State Building in New York at least nine times, the base will have an area of six square kilometers, is the most major construction -- Boeing Aircraft Company in Washington State's Everett plant six times.

"X-Seed4000" Ferris Juda will have 800 floors, they can live one million residents. However, Juda penetrated the clouds, the designer must consider the bottom and the top between the temperature and pressure are poor thorny issues. Fortunately, the pyramid-like structure, and can help resist the tallest height of Juda strong winds.

Large elevators can sit 200 people

　　 Under the blueprint, "X-Seed4000" Ferris Juda will be a self-supporting eco-city AI, it will hustle and perfect combination of the natural environment, the main structure is steel, and the outside wall using solar panels, using solar energy to provide the main energy Juda. Juda house as natural lighting and weather changes under external lighting automatically adjust brightness, the building also has artificial parks and other "natural scenery," Ferris Juda water will be used 100% of the circulating water.

It is reported that the "X-Seed4000" Ferris Juda will be used to accommodate 200 people while the large magnetic ride elevators, the passengers sit at the top floor from the ground floor, will need to spend 35 minutes. Although it was designed primarily to the residents living in 2,000 meters below the floor, and the higher air temperatures likely will be built ski resort facilities.

Cost up to 900 billion US dollars

"X-Seed4000" Ferris Juda cost of about 300 billion US dollars to 900 billion US dollars between its cost than is contained human landing on Mars mission is even higher. 据专家称，建造"X-Seed4000"According to experts, the construction of the "X-Seed4000" Ferris Juda creativity back in the 1980s alone, and construction technology already exists, only the astronomical figure of Cost is the main barrier.

Currently, the construction blueprint has been the subject of lively discussion. Some experts said that such a massive construction, if the frequency of earthquakes in Japan built a stable, preferably on the sea, and not on land."X-Seed4000" Ferris Juda building project can be achieved, it has also attracted many people's doubts.

Artist sets sail in life-size paper boat

Artist Frank Boelter set sails in his lifesize paper boat as he leaves a shipyard in Lauenburg, Germany.
He constructed the 9-metre vessel from 'Tetrapack' and fearlessly sailed it up the Elbe, despite the fact the light material is more commonly used for packaging milk.The 37-year-old artist came up with the idea one breakfast time, while he was sitting at his kitchen table fiddling with an empty milk carton, which he cut up and made into a scaled-down model.

The £110 boat is 30 feet long, weighs 55 pounds, uses a 170-square-metre piece of Tetrapack paper, and took only two hours to construct.

Boelter waves to fans

Boelter said it will survive forty days before it disintegrates into a wet, sinking mass.
It is part of the artist's exhibition named 'Bis ans Ende der Welt' (Until the end of the world).
It's aqua-origami, all right, but is it art?

Boating Under the Bridge

The boat is the MV Cahaba owned by Warrior and Gulf Navigation of Mobile, AL. The pictures were taken by an amateur photgrapher named Barger. This happened in April, 1979 at Demopolis, AL on the Warrior River. Nobody was seriously injured and the boat continued to it's destination with the barges. To my knowledge, the boat is still in service. The bridge has since been replaced.

TUGBOAT

Do not try this at home. Remember, this is a professional captain.

The towboat is approaching the bridge with barges loaded with coal.

This frame gives you an idea of how fast the river is running. Obviously at or near flood stage

Oh CRAP!!! The bridge didn't open and the boat can't stop. Notice that the tug has released the barges.
He is backing as hard as possible to try and avoid a collision with the bridge.

Can't back down enough against the current.

Uh Oh! The current has swung the boat around sideways.

The cook thinks maybe something isn't quite right.

The boss is going to be REAL mad!

Uh... Boss? Do we have flood insurance on this boat?

Uh.... Boss? You ain't gonna believe what we just did!

She's low, but the flag is still flying.

The wheelhouse door and the door in the second deck are now open.
Look close at the bottom righthand side of the picture and you will see that the bridge guardrail is underwater.

Look at the water pouring out of the second deck doorway.

Look at the water pouring out of the second deck doorway.

The working deck is still underwater, but rising.

Notice anything unusual? Look at the smoke coming from the exhausts. This thing is running!!!

Notice the propwash at the rear of the tug. The boat is upright and back under power.

Ho Hum. Just another day on the river.

There are some things about me that you are just unaware of, and this
instance is a fitting example. Please send this to all, my explanation.
And as Paul Harvey used to say..." that's the rest of the story..."
It was either late 1978 or early 1979, I have forgotten exactly, but anyway,
I am close on either... The river is the Tombigbee River and this happened
to be the record high water ever for that area. The towboat you see coming
down on the bridge is the Motor Vessel Cahaba owned by Warrior Gulf
Navigation out of Mobile, Alabama. Warrior Gulf is a subsidiary of
Pittsburg Steel. I know you are familiar with Birmingham's coal mines and
steel mills, and this company would haul iron pellets up to Birmingport and
off-load to make steel plate.
On the return the barges were filled with coal for export at the McDuffie
Coal Terminal at the mouth of the Mobile River and at the head of Mobile Bay.
The Bridge was the Old Rooster Bridge (since demolished and removed - I saw
the explosion to tear it down also) located below Demopolis, Alabama. The
land-side highway dead ends at the bluff, and you can still drive to this
site and imagine how high the river had to be to get to the bottom of the
bridge...

The pass or Channel Span of the bridge was located on the far West side of
the river, or on the opposite bank from the photographer's standpoint. In
normal river flow, we would drop down near the rock bluff and steer through
the opening to pass southward with our tows of coal barges. Normal loads
were six barges, each measuring 195' X 35' and loaded to a 10' draft. This
allowed each barge to carry approximately 2,000 tons of coal (times six =
12,000 tons X 2000 pounds = 24 Million pounds of cargo.)

The boat is 1800Horsepower twin engine diesel built in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. It is named
after one of the eight "friendly" Indian tribes. It is the Motor Vessel
Cahaba. At the "sticks" or helm is Captain Jimmie Wilkerson, a long time
river pilot and was my personal friend - since deceased. The river current
was so very treacherous that we were forced to drop down to the bridge in
the slack(er) water on the left descending bank and when we got down to the
bridge, we uncoupled the boat from the barges and let the barges drift down
under the bridge. The bottom of the bridge would "shave" the coal stacked
in the barges off to a level surface. The next step was to back the vessel
upriver and then go over to the far West side and traverse the bridge's
channel span with the boat, and run down and catch the barges. It was just
too dangerous to try to bring the barges through the bridge span in the
current.
Anyway, Jimmie dropped down properly and with the entire rest of the crew
standing on the barges for safety, he began to reverse his engines to back
away. His stern would have to be kept directly pointed into the current or
the boat would travel sideways like a kite without it's tail. Captain Jim
was a fine pilot, but he made a small mistake and his stern was caught in
the current, twisted sideways and the river smashed him into the bridge
sideways. Notice that the boat re-surfaced right side up on the down stream
side. What luck you say? Nope, WGN ballasted all their vessels with three
to four feet of cement in the bottom. The boat was like a little yellow
rubber duckie, and came back up like a duckie oughta do. The boat suffered
major cosmetic damages, but little flooding because of water tight doors,
except in the pilothouse. Notice the picture where the boat is not quite
righted and you can see water pouring out of the wheelhouse door. The chair
washes out, and Jimmie told me he was holding on to the controls with all
his might to keep from going out the drain and into the river. He was very
shook up and you can see him approach the tow of barges downriver. Well he
didn't get it together quite soon enough and he smashed into the barges,
causing further damage.
I next saw Jimmie about a month after this and we had a cup of coffee
together and talked about the incident. He was smoking a Camel Non-filter
but didn't even need an ashtray beacuse his hands were still shaking too
much for the ash to build up to any degree.
How do I know all this? I was on the boat that went through the bridge
immediately before the Cahaba. The Motor Vessel James E. Philpott made the
bridge and was headed south at close to 15 MPH. For all you who don't
understand, that is very fast on a commercial towboat with that much
tonnage.

Source:- Towboat

Pole dancing class popular in America

Shawn Frances Lee, owner of Urban Fertility Dancer, teaches a pole dancing class in Las Vegas, Nevada August 9, 2007. Once confined to strip clubs, thin metal poles are popping up in kitchens, bedrooms and exercise studios across the United States with gym fanatics, moms and even grandmothers using them to get fit. Picture taken August 9, 2007.