‘Surprisingly’ the US Texting Champ is a 15-year-old girl.

Kate Moore, a young girl from Des Moines, Iowa, took home the title of 2009 US Texting Champion and a prize of $50,000. But she had to work hard for every cent. LG, the contest organizer, made this year’s competition a very difficult one.

Contestants had to type tough messages while blindfolded, text acronyms, run an obstacle-course and text at the same time, and even text tongue-twisters while being taunted by actors dressed as emoticons. Moore made it to the final tie-breaker with runner up Dynda Morgan, and won the championship by typing “Zippity Dooo Dahh Zippity Ayy…MY oh MY, what a wonderful day! Plenty of sunshine Comin’ my way….Zippitty Do Dah Zippity Aay! WondeRful Feeling Wonderful day!” faster than her opponent.

15-year-old Kate Moore stated she texts between 400-500 times a day and an average of 12,041 times a month.

CNN via Switched

Why journey to Vulcan in a spaceship when you can just drive there?

The Canadian town of Vulcan, Alberta has become a true pilgrimage site for Star-Trek fans because of its coincidental link to the sci-fi series. Vulcan received its name in 1915, from a surveyor of the Canadian Pacific Railway who named it after the Roman God of Fire. It has no connection to Mister Spock’s home planet, but do trekkies care?

Of course not, anything that relates to the Star-Trek universe, accidentally or not, is worth a visit. So the people of Vulcan decided to capitalize on this great tourism opportunity and built a 5-ton replica of the USS Enterprise. And it paid out. This year trekkies gathered in Vulcan, Alberta for a celebration called Spock Days.

Photos show Klingons, Romulans, Tholians, Vulcans and even good old Captain Kirk had a great time in Vulcan this year.

via Telegraph.co.uk

Some of the most adorable characters in cartoon history, the Smurfs have an incredibly large fan-base.

2,510 students from Swansea University, UK, got together on June 8th to stage the largest Smurf meeting ever, and set a new world record. Participants painted themselves blue and wore pointy white hats, just like their beloved characters.

The 2,510 Smurf fans managed to pulverize the old record for largest Smurf gathering, which was 1,253 Smurfs in one place, set in July 2008, in Castleblayney, Northern Ireland. Judging by the photos, the real-life Smurfs had a great time setting this record.

Photos by CFP

via China.org.cn

Chinese discover deadly combination: soccer and Kung Fu martial arts.

The first thing that came into my mind, when I first saw these photos, was the movie Shaolin Soccer. Ok, so it wasn’t the best film ever made, but it had a pretty cool idea, mixing a popular sport like soccer with martial arts. Now the Chinese bring fantasy into real life with the women’s kung fu soccer team.

The kung fu soccer team was founded in Tanggu, and the girls showcased their abilities for the first time on May 31, in Tianjin. From What I can see, these girls got game!

via China.org.cn

Everybody loves a good food fight. But there’s no food fight like a pie fight.

251 children gathered at the Kidz Stuff Festival, in Horsham, southern England, to stage the biggest custard pie fight ever. The event took place on May 31 2009 with the clear goal of setting a new record for the largest custard pie fight. The current record stands at 120, but it will surely fall once the Guinness Book of Records finishes its verification.

Photos by Xinhua/Reuters

via Xinhuanet.com

Seemed like a catchy title, but there’s really nothing hilarious about it, just tragic and bizarre.

These photos were taken at the Fairview Cemetery, in Springfield, where 79-year-old Norman Thompson, member of the Antioch Shrine Funster Clown Unit, was buried, on May 29. His clown-friends dressed up for the occasion and honored Norman, for the last time.

It looks bizarre, I know, but I was reading about this on the web, and found out that this is a tradition for clowns and magicians. Apparently this is the way they show their respect to their fallen colleagues.

via Springfield News Sun

I have a few Russian friends and i know for a fact they are party animals.

In this case we’re talking about Russian border guards, who celebrated Russisan Border Guards Day on May 28. Both active and retired members of the guard partyed in Gorky Park, Moscow, with food, music and, of, course, plenty of vodka. They seem to have had a memorable time, being a Russian Border Guard must be fun.

Photos by EPA

via Telegraph.co.uk

The largest city of the Istrian Peninsula and an ancient Roman port, Croatia’s Pula takes tourists back to the days when Romans ruled the lands.

During the Antiquity festival, at the start of summer’s traveling season, people gather in the Forum and Small Roman theater, demanding “bread and games”. This year, on My 23rd, the members of the Hungarian Collegium Cladiatorium fighting club were only happy to oblige. They entertained the crowds just like the gladiators of old used to…minus the hurting and killing each other, of course.

Photos by Xianhua/Reuters

via big5.cri.cn

Thrill-seekers have a new reason to be happy. Volcano-surfing, a new kind of extreme sport, is growing more and more popular.

Phillip Southan is the young owner of Green Pathways Tour, the company that organizes volcano surfing sessions on Cerro Negro, one of Nicaragua’s most active and dangerous volcanoes.

Dressed in protective gear, adrenalin-junkies climb 726 meters up Cerro Negro and slide down on specially-built plywood boards. Southan admits there is a chance the young volcano could erupt, but says the biggest danger is the volcano surfers might fall off the board and injure themselves.

The volcano surfing tour has only been around for 4 years, but 10, 000 people have already participated.

via Telegraph.co.uk

On April 21 2009 Rome celebrated 2762 years of existence, and its modern-day Romans organized all sorts of events in honor of this occasion.

As most of you know, old Rome loved competitions. Gladiator fights and chariot races were social events that everyone loved. As a tribute to the old times, the current inhabitants of Rome organized an old fashioned chariot race. Well, sort of…

The modern chariots were pulled by bicycles instead of horses and the riders were actually cyclists. The competitors had to race three laps around the old Circus Maximus.

via Etoday

Saudi Arabia was paralyzed by a sandstorm this week. It might look in these photos but it’s a real nuisance if you’re in the middle of it.

30 cars were damaged in the city of Taif and over 35 people were injured. A similar sandstorm occurred in Iraq  around this time in 2008.

Picking pockets is definitely not an admirable “profession”, but I have to admit this guy is very good at what he does.

It’s not every day you get to see a professional thief working one of his victims, but thanks to this photos we got to catch him in the act. This sort of stuff happens every day on the streets of China, and the thief is probably picking somebody else’s pockets right now, without a care in the world. Victims realize they’ve been robbed way too late, and all they can do is just go about their business and try to get over it.

via Fishki

Believe it or not the same Russian Greenpeace activist got busted by the police again, just days after the first incident.

If there’s one think I admire about the poor environmental activist who faced the Russian police a few days back, it’s his persistence. The man actually got released by the police andreturned in front of Moscow’s City Hall, tocontinue his protest to Russia building incineration plants.

Sadly for the Greenpeace guy he wasn’t more successful than the first time. The police came and picked him up again, this time in a smaller car, so they made him take out his trash-can costume to fit. Third time’s a charm maybe?

Known as the toughest competition in the world, the Tough Guy Race asked its question again in 2009, “Are you strong enough?”

More than 5,000 people gathered at the start line of the Tough Guy Race this year, only to face the torture of a 13 km endurance course, designed by a former Grenadier Guardsman named Billy Wilson, in 1986. Competitors had to run and crawl through mud and flames, while dodging smoke bombs, barbed wire and electric charges.

The Tough Guy course is so dangerous the competitors had to sign a disclaimer saying “It’s my own bloody fault for being here”. Accordingto the official site of the Tough Guy Race, there were many broken arms and legs tis year, but luckily no one lost their lives.

This year’s competition looks even worse than Tough Guy Race 2008.

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(Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

(REUTERS/Kieran Doherty)

(AP Photo/Simon Dawson)

(Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

(Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

(Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

The traditional Neuburg Ice Swimming event is considered the biggest swimming event in Europe.

This year over 2,000 brave swimmers from all over Germany gathered in Neuburg an der Donau for the 40th anniversary of the event. Neuburg Ice Swimming 2009 took place on January 31. Europe’s biggest swimming extravaganza featured swimmers desguised as sea-gods, frogs, clowns and other crazy things, and funny messages referring to new US President Barack Obama and the international financial crysis.

As you can see from the photos, Neuburg an der Donau hosted quite a fun event this year.Seems like a breeze compared to the ice swimming in Russia

Photo credits: Johannes Simon (Getty Images)