Chinese create a giant flag of China made from thousands of red hot peppers and corn cobs.

These days, there is a nationwide celebration going on in China, with just a few hours left until the country’s 60th anniversary and its people are going out of their way to prove how much it means to them.

In the village of Daxinzhuang, a giant Chinese flag is spread all over the road side. Nothing odd about that, only it’s made from hot peppers and corn cobs. If Israel has the world’s biggest flag, I think it’s safe to say China now has the world’s spiciest.

via ImagineChina

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I’m not a big fan of canned foods, but I can be talked into eating some canned tuna fish from time to time. Hell, if need be, I would even eat whole canned chicken, or pork brains in milk gravy.  But there are some strange foods out there I would rather starve to death that try and the Daily Mail made a list of them. Check it out:

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Also known as “The Queen of Beads”, Liza Lou is considered one of the most original artists of our time. She has created unique artworks by covering common surfaces with thousands, even millions of glass beads.

Liza Lou first shocked the world in 1996, when she presented her first major work, “Kitchen”. It took the artist five years to cover every inch of a normal kitchen with glass beads, including the water in the sink and the dirty dishes. In 1999 she went even further, creating “Backyard”, a masterpiece for which she used over thirty million beads. Most of  them have been used to create the 250,000 blades of grass making up the lawn.

She has often been criticized, called “obsessive”, “second-hand jeweler” and some went as far as to say her beading work isn’t real art. But the genius grant she received from The MacArthur Foundation, in 2002, silenced most of her critics.

Liza Lou‘s art may look amazing, but it came with a high price for the artist. She was diagnosed with acute tendinitis while she was working on “Kitchen”, because she applied every glass bead individually, using tweezers. She uses only beads brought in from the Czech Republic and considers them the most beautiful beads in the world.

Photos via Pamrubert

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The world’s largest flag was unfurled over Teddy Football Stadium, Jerusalem, during an event attended by officials from the Guinness Book of Records.

The creation of the flag was initiated by Grace Galindez Gupana, a 48-year-old Filipino business woman and founder of Halleluyah Kingdom of Jerusalem Foundation. Mrs Gupana holds nine other Guinness records, including the largest stone tablets with the ten commandments and says her projects are ways of emphasizing her love for the God of Israel.

The flag presented on September 17, in the capital of Israel, features the largest emblem of lion, ever soon and measures 44,404 square meters (that’s over 4.3 hectares)  and weighs 9.5 tons. A team of six people produced the world’s largest flag over a period of 120 days. It cost $120,000 to make.

Photos by Xinhua/Yin Bogu

via Xinhua

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The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is a theme park based on JK Rowling’s best selling series, Harry Potter, due to open in the spring of 2010, at Universal Studios’ Islands of Adventure resort, in Orlando.

Artists have drawn artworks to show the world a small preview of the magical theme park. Let’s have a look at what we’ll be able to experience in the world of Harry Potter:

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Sultan Kosen, a former basketball player from Turkey, has been acknowledged as the world’s tallest man, by the Guinness Book of Records.

26-year-old Kosen is 2 meters 46.5 cm tall and he also holds the record for the world’s biggest hands (27.5 cm) and the world’s biggest feet (36.5 cm). He grew as a normal child until he turned 10, then, due to a dysfunctional pituitary gland, his body developed at an accelerated rate.

During the presentation of the 2010 Guinness Book of Records, in London, Sultan Kosen declared he hopes this new found fame will make him more successful with the ladies. Because of his unusual stature, women have always been afraid of him, but now he hopes he will finally find his soul-mate and get married.

The former world’s tallest man, Ukrainian Leonid Stadnyk, allegedly measures 2.57 meters, but refused to have his height officially measured, saying fame brought him nothing but problems and he needs peace and quiet.

via Zimbio

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Stan Munro has spent the last six years of his life recreating some of the world’s most important landmarks out of nothing else but toothpicks.

Most people use them to get rid of food scraps from between their teeth, but 38-year-old Stan Munro, a former television host, uses them to create wooden works of art. Stan takes between one day and six months to glue together 1:164 scale models of some of the most impressive structures on Earth.

In order to create his amazing Toothpick City, Stan Munro has so far used six million toothpicks and 172 liters of glue, but his work is far from over. Right now he is working on a toothpick replica of Angkor Wat, the most complex structure he has ever had to build. All his models are on display at the Museum of Science and Technology, in Syracuse, New York.

Photos by SOLENT NEWS & PHOTO AGENCY

via Telegraph.co.uk

Here are some of his most incredible-looking toothpick creations:

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It might also be the biggest, but Cho Woong’s Star-Wars collection is by far the coolest one I’ve ever seen.

Cho Woong is a Korean dude who managed to put together what might actually be the ultimate Star-Wars collection and actually made it a part of his home. Everything in Cho’s apartment, including his entertainment system, coffee table and even the bathroom is somehow connected to the Star-Wars universe.

Some people collect coins, stamps or even cigarette packs, but this is on a whole other level. And unlike the crazy Pokemon collection, his Star-Wars collection actually looks neat and well-organized, managing to complement his apartment.

Photos by Cho Woong

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More than one hundred belly surfers from all over the world gathered in Cornwall, Britain, for the annual World Belly Board Championships.

You might be surprised to know surfing wasn’t always about standing up on the board and riding the waves. British surfers practiced the sport on their bellies, using short wooden planks, over one century ago. On September 6, 2009 belly surfers from as far as Australia and America gathered in Cornwall for the annual charity event for the National Trust and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). The World Belly Board Championships began back in 2002 as a way to commemorate the beginnings of British surfing.

Cornwall has been the main surfing area in Britain and it’s recognized as the first place where a British surfer actually stood up on a surf board. The first photographic evidence of this dates back to 1929.

Photos by Matt Cardy/Getty Images Europe

via Zimbio

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Yes, believe it or not, there is such a competition as Sauna World Championship.

Held in Heinola, Finland, the Sauna World Championship brings together around 200 competitors from all around the world. These hot heads can withstand sauna temperatures of 100 degrees Celsius.

Inaugurated in 1999, this crazy competition has both a men’s and women’s challenge. The Finish men have proven unbeatable every year since the 1999, while women from Belarus and Russia managed to steal the trophy on a number of occasions.

The rules of the Sauna World Championship are simple. Contestants, dressed in just their bathing suits, go inside a steaming sauna and have to stay there for as long as they can. As water is thrown over the stove, temperatures reach 110 degrees Celsius. The last contestant to leave the sauna, on his own two feet, is declared the winner.

This year the men’s title went to veteran Timo Kaukonen, and the women’s trophy was snatched by Russian Tatyana Arkhipenko.

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Raising awareness on the issue of global warming is not easy this days, but artists come up with all sorts of original ways to make the news.

Take Brazilian artists Nele Azevedo,  who created 2,000 ice-sculptures and placed them on the steps of the Berlin Opera Hall, to melt. That’s a lot of work to watch melt away in one hot afternoon, but at least her message made the newspapers. And if one more person knows about the melting Arctic ice, than her effort was not in vain.

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I can’t understand why someone would go through the trouble of creating the world’s biggest porcelain jar, but they did, so here it is.

Porcelain master Xu Sijin and a team of painters worked for more than a year to complete this giant black and white porcelain. The painting on the jar depicts the three gorges of the Yangtze River. The giant porcelain jar stands 1.36 meters tall, has a diameter of 6.8 meters and weighs over 1,500 kg.

The world’s biggest porcelain jar has been unveiled in Jingdezhen, east China and is waiting for recognition from the Guinness Book of Records.

Photos by Xinhua/Shi Weiming

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At just six years of age, Miko Andres can proudly call himself the youngest gun in the west…although he lives in the Philippines.

Miko handles his Colt 1911 handgun with impressive ease, loading, aiming at shooting it like this is what he was born to do. The six year-old took-up practical shooting at the beginning of 2009 and now he travels the country, participating in competition against 9-17 year-olds.

Miko’s father says he is aware of the dangers his young sun is facing by handling a gun loaded with live ammo, but says the boy’s safety is his primary concern. He also wants to introduce the world to Miko’s talent by bringing him to America to compete in international shooting events.

via Telegraph.co.uk

Just because they’re short doesn’t mean little people shouldn’t have the chance to compete in sporting events, at an international level. That’s why the World Dwarf Games were created.

Similar to the Paralympics, the World Dwarf Games gives athletes suffering from dwarfism the chance to prove themselves. The games are held every four years, in locations all across the world. The 5th edition of the games was held in Belfast, Northern Ireland, from July 24 until August 2nd. Competitors from all around the world tried their best to win and qualify for the 2012 Paralympics.

Photos by Reuters

Anyone would be more then satisfied to be the proud holder of just one Guinness Record. But not Ashrita Furman, `the man who holds more Guinness World Records than anyone else on the planet.

54-year-old Ashrita Furman has spent the last 30 years trying (and succeeding) to break records. At the peak of his record-breaking career, Furman has held 100 records simultaneously and he’s not doing very bad right now, with 98 records under his belt. He has held 236 world records throughout his career and the closest anyone ever came to surpassing him was holding 20 records.

It all started when he was a little boy, reading the Guinness Book of Records and dreaming that one day he will break one himself. He accomplished his dream in 1979, when he set the world record with 27,000 star jumps, in New York City. And from there on, he never stopped.

Some of his record-breaking stunts involved pushing a car for 17 miles in 24 hours, translating and reciting a poem i 111 languages in 24 hours as well as:

walking 80.95 miles with a milk bottle on his head

chopping 27 apples in mid-air with a samurai sword within sixty seconds

deep Knee Bends on a Balance Board

racing against a yak, in a sac,  in Mongolia

Most Grapes Caught in Mouth in One Minute (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

Longest Time Balancing on Swiss Ball (Stonehenge)

Skipping on a Pogo Stick (Cambodia)

Fastest Mile Balancing a Pool Cue (Egypt)

Fastest Hula Hoop Mile (Uluru, Australia)

Balancing Tallest Pole (Aspendos, Turkey)

Fastest Mile on a Space Hopper (Great Wall of China)

Now Ashrita Furman is training to break the record for the fastest mile with flippers on his feet.

Photos by Barcroft Media

via Telegraph.co.uk