Records

Paul Hunn of north London holds the world record for the loudest burp: he can burp at a volume of over 118 decibels. John Evans of Sheffield can balance 62 books on his head. And Peter Dowedswell of Northampton can eat an entire three course meal consisting of soup, sausages, beans, mashed potatoes and prunes in only 45 seconds.

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When the world-famous Guinness Book of Records was first published in 1955, its intended purpose was to solve arguments about sporting statistics. Sports still figure highly in the modern version of the book, but each year more and more surreal achievements edge their way in. The farthest distance a strand of spaghetti can be fired out of a man’s nose? 19 centimetres. The largest number of venomous cobras kissed consecutively by one man? 11.

We are all familiar with inspiring stories about a young athlete who discovers a sport that he or she loves, trains hard, and rises through the ranks of professional competition to become a world-class sports star. Anything can trigger off an interest. British Olympic cyclist Jason Queally had never even considered competing professionally until a leisurely afternoon’s cycling with his girlfriend’s brother-in-law changed his mind. Five years and a lot of training later, he won gold and silver medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Are the holders of the more bizarre records motivated in the same way? Most record-holders seem to thinks so. Ken Blackburn, who holds the world record for keeping a paper aeroplane in the air, describes his early interest in the field:

“I have always liked airplanes. At about 10 years old I discovered some paper airplane books with good flying planes. I began trying to design my own paper airplanes based on the aerodynamic principles in books about real airplanes. At 15 my parents bought me a Guinness book. The time aloft record was 15.0 seconds. My planes were close, so I had a goal.”

As a college student Ken finally achieved his goal, recognition as the world’s most successful paper plane-maker. Since then he has broken his own world record several times. Gordon Cates, whose record-breaking achievement is having kissed the heads of 11 deadly cobras in a row, is a professional snake-handler whose ability to read snakes’ body language gave him the courage to attempt this dangerous feat. Kevin Cole, the world’s most talented man in the field of firing spaghetti out of his own nose, started with an interest in firing noodles out of his nose for fun, and slowly worked his way up to full-sized spaghetti!

Some might argue that a lot of these records are pointless. But is there really any difference between being the most successful athlete and being the most successful paper plane-builder? Some records, especially sporting records, are widely viewed as being of great importance, even though they don’t necessarily add anything to humanity’s lot other than providing us with entertainment. More people are interested in, say, athletics than in cobra-kissing, but does that make an athletic record-breaker more important?

Everyone likes to have their achievements recognised, and there is no greater recognition than being named as the best in the world in your chosen field. Perhaps you’re reading this and thinking about a special talent of your own that you’d like to be well-known for. Or perhaps you’re thinking that you could fire a strand of spaghetti out of your nose for a much longer distance than 19 centimetres! Whatever your talent, there’s a high chance that someone holds the world record for it. With the right amounts of skill and practice, perhaps the next world record-holder could be you? Personally, I hope to beat the record currently held by Hendrikje Van Andel-Schipper– at 114 years old, she’s the oldest person alive!

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Your turn
Do you think that the records mentioned in this article are pointless? Do you think that there is any difference between being the most successful athlete and being the most successful paper plane-builder?Why/why not?. Send us your opinions.

Your texts

Nipakace writes “I remembered, after reading this article, the funny activity done by my cousins, including myself, when I was an adolescent. We, family members, speak in our mother tongue, Telugu, while communicating with each other. We, only the young of the group, were talking among ourselves in such a way that words were spelt in their reverse order. For example, the word ‘sambar’ spelt as ‘rabmas’.
The motive behind practicing such an activity was to keep our parents unaware of our intentions, ideas, thoughts, and activities to be performed etc. by us; of course, all activities were related to playing. As we made it compulsory for all the younger ones in our family, it became a language and puzzled the elderly. In a short while, we were experts and the elders were suspicious about the motive behind language used by us. Unfortunately, common to this age group, one of my cousins received fatal injuries while we were playing near our agricultural fields, forcing our elders to give us a beating and finally we were bound to leave that practice as we grew up and left to different places for further educations.
I do not say such activities as burping, kissing deadly snakes etc, are highly point oriented but they definitely bring out talents that are not ignorable and leave viewers amused and free from all their burdens. We should not always look at the prospect of breaking a record as it is a proven fact in history that what is more important is getting more viewers.
Cricket has its prominent place in India, Pakistan and is losing charisma in England, the West Indies - once acclaimed places whereas American and European countries have fervor towards running and football playing. For that reason, we cannot point at each other for playing pointless games. Obviously most crowd pulling games and activities inflict an impact on the progress of people.
An athlete performs an event cheered by viewers and inspired by an upcoming athlete whereas paper-plane conception is related to innovation leading to a technology that enriches the lives of people for generations.”

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Marco Antonio Fabeni writes “I really liked that article about records, but there is one I think is very filthy: to fire spaghetti out of you nose. It is really disgusting, isn't it? It is totally pointless.”

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Ojong Egbe writes “For a joke I asked some friends if they wouldn’t mind reciting the English language alphabets in reverse order; that is, starting with the letter “Z” right up to “A”. Their gawping attributes nonetheless proved that it was a worthwhile puzzle, though a thought-provoking one. I also tried to give a vivid recount, but I couldn’t go beyond Z, Y, X – to arrive at A.
Actually as I try to match these record fantasies with the one above, they all stem out from variant initiatives and provide clear-cut ambitions. In fact, being the most successful athlete and being the most successful paper planebuilder entails nurtured pursuits – so, they’ll certainly be top variants, with distinct endpoints.
Anyway, I intend to make a record of the shortest time reciting offhand the letters of the English alphabet in their chronologically reverse order.”

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Links
Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records Kids Zone
IOC: current world records
IOC: world records progression

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