Weird Shorts – 4

Talk about a mammoth appetite, when most of the world’s large mammals went extinct roughly 10,000 years ago, the vast majority of the vanished species were herbivores. This of course meant that they were no longer around to eat the plants they otherwise would have, and - according to Christophers Doughty and Field from Oxford and Stanford Universities respectively – this freed up an extra 1.4 trillion kilos of food, roughly 2.5% of the net product of all Earth’s dry land. However, the researchers add, this excess had been ‘used up’ by burgeoning human numbers by around 1700 and today we consume six times as much as the Pleistocene critters ever did while simultaneously driving down land productivity by 10% (Nature)(PDF).

That’s not to say that our massive consumption doesn’t have it’s upside, As Vangelis Kapatos of Manhattan discovered when he attempted suicide by jumping from his ninth floor flat, only to survive when his fall was broken by a pile of uncollected garbage. Mr. Kapatos’ timing, from his perspective, couldn’t have been worse, the unusually large garbage pile was due to collections being suspended because of snow. They were due to resume the day after his impromptu dumpster dive (Today Online).

Mind you, we’re not the only animals prone to excess. After finding the bodies of dozens of starlings near the city of Constanta in Romania, locals were concerned that the cause might be bird flu, instead post-mortems of the birds have revealed that they in fact died of alcohol poisoning, having ‘drunk’ themselves to death on the discarded leftovers of the local winemaking industry. A least they died happy (BBC News).

Better than dying happy, though, is living happy, and the secret of that, says the UK’s Office for National Statistics, is having a job. But it’s not the pay but the job security that counts, say the government statisticians, which ironically are facing staff cuts themselves due to the economic downturn. Other key happiness factors, according to the preliminary report, are good personal health and a decent family life. What will we do without these people (Telegraph)?



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Posted By: Dumbfounded - Thu Jan 13, 2011 - Comments (4)
Category: Animals, Dinosaurs and Other Extinct Creatures, Armageddon and Apocalypses, Babies, Crime, Death, Human Marvels, Inebriation and Intoxicants, Religion, Sexuality, Weird Names, Body Fluids, Perfume and Cologne and Other Scents

Carts of Darkness

"In the picture-postcard community of North Vancouver, local bottle pickers have created a thriving subculture of shopping-cart racing. Murray Siple, a former snowboarder and sport film director injured in a serious car accident ten years ago, captures the thrill of a high-speed race of one of the men and compares it to extreme sports."

Posted By: Paul - Mon Feb 01, 2010 - Comments (2)
Category: Bums, Hobos, Tramps, Beggars, Panhandlers and Other Streetpeople, Daredevils, Stuntpeople and Thrillseekers, Human Marvels, Movies, Documentaries, Bohemians, Beatniks, Hippies and Slackers

Coney Island

Please note the pinheads on display.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Jan 26, 2010 - Comments (1)
Category: Holidays, Human Marvels, Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, Pop Culture, Public Humiliation, Recreation, 1940s

What’s The Chances? - 2

Earlier this year we heard of the national lottery that drew the same numbers two weeks running. Now meet the man who has just won a lottery jackpot for the second time!

The unnamed 34 year-old from the Limpopo province of South Africa beat 24 million to one odds to take the country's "PowerBall" draw for 30 million rand ($4 million), just seven years after winning 11 million rand ($1.5 million) from an earlier state lottery system with odds of 14 million to one. His feat is all the more remarkable given he claims to spend only 100 rand ($13) a month on tickets (Telegraph).

Posted By: Dumbfounded - Tue Nov 10, 2009 - Comments (5)
Category: Games, Human Marvels, Money, Synchronicity and Coincidence

Worst Laugh in the World?

Posted By: Paul - Sat Sep 12, 2009 - Comments (5)
Category: Human Marvels, Europe

Big Man Japan

Found by the inimitable Nick Jainschigg.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Aug 01, 2009 - Comments (5)
Category: Human Marvels, Movies, Reader Recommendation, Parody, Asia, Natural Wonders

Swallowing 11 swords

Some people just have more interesting lives than others. I get the impression from the video there are trophies for sword swallowing, and it would be great to watch the competition.



The last few seconds of the clip he swallows fire.

Posted By: gdanea - Fri Jul 31, 2009 - Comments (1)
Category: Human Marvels

Naim Süleymanoğlu: The Pocket Hercules

This weightlifter from Turkey stands only 4 feet 10 inches tall, but can lift more than 3 times his bodyweight over his head.

Posted By: fyshstyxx - Sat Jul 04, 2009 - Comments (1)
Category: Exercise and Fitness, Human Marvels

Alligator Wrestling

Eddie Snyder wrestles gators from jim on Vimeo.

Posted By: Paul - Thu Jun 25, 2009 - Comments (1)
Category: Animals, Death, Human Marvels, Regionalism, Stupidity

Thomas Inch and the Inch Dumbbell

Thomas Inch (1881-1963) was a famous weightlifter from England. He is most famous for having a 172 pound dumbbell that nobody else could lift off the floor with one hand. He would offer large sums of money to anyone that could lift it. It is possible, however, that his act was a scam, as he had 4 dumbells that looked the same but were different weights (bait and switch?) and he never challenged a handful of lifters that were considered stronger than him. He was also very careful in how he phrased his own lifting of the weight as he never really mentioned putting it overhead with just one hand.


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Posted By: fyshstyxx - Thu Jun 25, 2009 - Comments (0)
Category: Exercise and Fitness, Frauds, Cons and Scams, Human Marvels