Over 1,000 students from Yanbian University, Northeastern China, have set a new world record for juggling a football, with their feet, of course.

The record breaking event, called “Joy of football, top of the world”, took place on the football stadium of Yanbian University. A total of 1,209 people, all dressed in red t-shirts, managed to juggle a football on their feet, for 10 seconds, at the same time, thus setting a new Guinness record. The previous ball-juggling record was set on July 13, 2009, by 792 participants.

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Wang Huaping, a Chinese artist and huge fan of football, has found a unique to celebrate the World Cup 2010. Using a fine chisel, he managed to carve the faces of famous football players on eggs.

Wang Huaping has so far carved hundreds of eggs, and is an established artist in his home city of Tianjin. Now he has extended his collection of artworks with the portraits of famous football players like Lionel Messi, David Beckham, or David Villa. He has also carved the logos and mascots of the 2010 Football World Cup.

No info about the actual carving, but this man must have a real gentle touch, if he can keep from cracking the eggs with that chisel.

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Antisa Khvichava, from a village called Sachino, 370 km west of Tbilisi, Georgia, has just turned 130, making her the oldest woman on Earth, by 16 years.

I don’t know about you guys, but I just can’t wrap my head around the fact that this woman has been around since 1880. Although her birth certificate has been lost, Antisa has Soviet-era documents that clearly state she was born in the second half of the 19th century. She has a son, ten grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren and six great-great-grandchildren. Her 70-year-old son was apparently born when she was already 60 years old.

Antisa Khvichava, born on July 8, 1880, says she has been healthy all her life, and she worked as a corn picker until the age of 85. The Gerontology Research Group currently recognizes 114-old Eugenie Blanchard, from France, as the oldest woman on Earth.

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Remember that 60-foot RX78 Gundam mech that showed up in Tokyo’s Shiokaze Park? Well, the guys at Bandai pieced it together once more, this time in Shizuoka.

The truth is I missed the awesome-looking RX78, and I couldn’t understand why they had to take it down in the first place. But that’s not important anymore, because the Gundam statue is back, and this time it’s brought a cool saber that shines at night. The newly assembled Gundam will be officially inaugurated on July 24 and it will remain in Shizuoka until January 10 2011.

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Shi Liliang, a monk from the Southern Shaolin Temple in Quanzhou, has performed the popular kung-fu walk on water.

If you’re a fan of old Chinese kung-fu movies (I know I am), than you must have seen the kung-fu flight on water at least once. A kung-fu master would cross vast stretches of water by making long leaps and barely touching the surface of the water with the tip of their feet. It seemed impossible, and it actually is, but that didn’t stop a Shaolin monk from trying it in real life.

Shi Liliang has been practicing his flight on water for years, and last year he even set a record for the longest walk on water. Using a number of thin planks, loosely tied together, Shi Liliang beat his own record and moved 28.7 meters by quickly running on his toes. Unlike what you see in the movies, he eventually ended up in the water.

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China’ may not have been present at the World Cup 2010, in South Africa, but its team of football playing roosters would probably win any competition.

Zhang Lijun has always been a big fan of football, but he decided to take his passion for the sport to a whole new level three years, when he started training his roosters to handle a ball. Now, chickens aren’t exactly famous for their intelligence and ability to learn new things, but Zhang’s roosters have developed mad football skills.

The unusual football team is made up of only two players, and they recently had to go head to head in a mock World Cup match, on the city streets, in Liaoling Province China. Zhang Lijun played the role of the referee, while the two roosters used their feet and wings to handle the ball. Passers-by gathered to watch the bizarre spectacle and were surprised by the bird’s dribbling skills.

Maybe Zhang’s roosters should play in the national football team, or may be he could be the new coach. Either way, China would have a higher chance of qualifying next time.

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Ramygala, a Lithuanian village 150 kilometers from the capital Vilnius, hosted a weird beauty contest to crown the most beautiful goat.

On July 5th, the inhabitants of Ramygala gathered on the outskirts of the village to watch the traditional goat beauty contest held to commemorate the 640th anniversary of the village, which is this year’s capital of Lithuanian culture.

The goat has been the symbol of Ramygala ever since medieval times, and it’s still valued by the locals. A total of 13 goats entered the beauty contest, but only one of them claimed the title of “most beautiful goat in Ramygala”. Grazyolyte, a good-looking white goat, was crowned the winner of the event and made his owner proud.

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That’s right there are people out there who gladly cash out on reenacting the dramatic sinking of the Titanic, in a totally fun way.

An even more surprising is the fact that people actually pay to to go down with the Titanic. I mean COME ON, didn’t you see those tragic scenes from James Cameron’s film where people were hanging on for their lives, while the ship was sinking? Why would you want to go through that, even if it’s in a totally harmless manner?

In the Swiss town of Ibach, the inflatable Titanic slide was pretty popular with the visitors at the local fair, but it ended up being banned, following complaints from Switzerland’s Titanic Club. Spokesman Gunter Babler said “Is it ethical to let kids slide down the decks of a blow up Titanic? Hundreds of people died sliding down those decks.” And a visitor thought “It’s pretty sick. It’s like having a bouncy graveyard. No-one could forget that scene from the Titanic movie with all the people sliding down the decks to their deaths. It’s very insensitive.”

Still, the fair organizer believes “The tragic Titanic accident happened years ago and those emotions have been dealt with long ago. Now people are having fun on the slide and enjoying themselves.” Oh, that makes sense. Hey, I know, how about making an inflatable Auschwitz replica, getting people inside and “gassing” them with laughing gas? That sounds fun, and it’s been so long since the Holocaust there’s no reason why people shouldn’t have fun remembering it…

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With the eyes of the entire world on the Football World Cup, in South Africa, local authorities from Changsha, China had to come up with something better, yet related to current events.

And what’s better than football? Mud football, played by barely dressed gorgeous models, of course. So they set up a small football pitch, filled it with mud, brought in  models from various Chinese cities, and got the Beauty Mud Cup 2010 under way. In the photos below, teams from Hunan and Hubei go head to head, in one of the first matches of the competition. I don’t know the score, and neither do most of the male spectators who resumed to roars and cheers every time any of the girls kicked the ball through the mud.

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It may not look like it, but this weird-looking limousine is actually a Mercedes. Well, make that two Mercedes-Benze 300TD, and it can be yours for the modest price of $950,000.

That’s right folks, this ‘beautiful’ art-car, made of two welded Mercedez-Benz,containing parts from over 40 different cars is on sale for under $1 million. It’s even more unbelievable considering this limo has won the title of best art-car, at the Houston Art Car event, twice (2007 and 2009).

This alien-looking vehicle is the work of Antti Rahko, an art-car enthusiast who spent 10 years of his life welding two Cars into a 10-seater limousine, and decorated it with 86 lights and 36 mirrors. With that much visibility, you practically can’t crash this car.

I can understand Mr. Rahko worked hard on this art-car, but placing a $950,000 price tag on it seems just a bit ridiculous. Right now the bid on eBay is at $10,000, and he’ll probably need inflation to move a bit faster, if he wants to get the asking price in his lifetime.

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The World’s first International Humanoid Robots Olympic Games kicked off on June 21, in China’s Harbin’s Institute of Technology.

Two years after hosting a memorable edition of the human Olympic Games, China becomes the first country to host an Olympics dedicated to humanoid robots. Nineteen teams, from China, United States, Japan, South Korea or Germany have brought their best robots to compete in this historic three-day event.

To enter the competition, robots had to be less than 60 cm long, and have a human shape, with a head, two arms and two legs. Just like in the real Olympic Games, the sporty robots had to compete in multiple challenges, 24 to be exact, ranging from boxing, to weight-lifting, dancing, or sprint. But there are also some unusual domestic events, like cleaning or medical care.

The sprinting contest took place on the first day, with the winner running a distance of five meters in 20 seconds flat. Not bad for a small robot, I think. Check out the video at the bottom, to see these little guys sweating silicone at the Robot Olympic Games.

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Around 1,500 people showed up at the Bottle Inn pub, in Marshwood, Dorset, to see 61 contestants compete in the 2010 edition of the annual Nettle Eating World Championships.

The history of this bizarre eating competition can be traced back to the mid 1980s, when local farmers started the ‘Longest Stinging Nettle’ competition, to see who could grow the longest stem of nettles. Things went along just fine, until 1989, when Alex Williams presented a 15ft 6inches-long nettle, and claimed that if anyone could find a stem longer than his, he would it, As luck would have it, an American actually found a 16ft-long nettle, and Mr. Williams kept his word. From there on in, the competition evolved into the competitive eating challenge we now know as the Nettle Eating World Championships.

On June 19th, competitors were each served two-feet-long stinging nettle stalks, from which they had to pluck and eat the leaves. After an hour of eating, the bare stalks were measured and contestants who ate the most nettles, named winners.

In the men’s competition, first time participant Sam Cunningham managed to eat a whopping 74ft of stinging nettles, and claimed the title of king of the 2010 Nettle Eating World Championships. In the women’s contest, Laura Revell managed to consume 40ft of nettle, and win the title of champion.

Photos by REUTERS/Chris Helgren via Daylife

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The 60 tons of junk that made up the awesome Cathedral of Junk, in Austin, Texas, are probably on their way to the recycling plant right now, leaving us with just photos and memories of the famous roadside attraction.

Vince Hannemann began building the Cathedral of Junk in 1988, just because he thought it would be cool. There’s was no real purpose behind it, just a nice thing to build in an Austin backyard. He was in his mid twenties when he started, and he kept adding do it over the years, until it grew into a 60-ton pile of junk. But it wasn’t really junk, it was just made of it. In reality, the Cathedral of Junk had long become one of the cities most popular attractions. Tourists were coming over just to give Vince something new to add to his masterpiece, but, sadly, that won’t be happening anymore…

After a safety complaint, fro one of his neighbors, real estate inspectors showed up at Vince Hannemann’s door, saying he needed to get a permit, if he wanted to keep his 33-f00t-tall cathedral, made of everything from bicycle wheels to old urinals, computers and lawnmowers. he tried to comply, and together with a team of volunteers, began altering the cathedral to meet required standards. But looking at his beloved creation being reduced to something he didn’t recognize anymore, Vince decided to tear it down. “It already isn’t the Cathedral. It might best be described as Junkhenge,” he told the Wall Street Journal. “I’m not willing to get a permit for the little that is left.”

According to many, this was the work of real estate firms, who did everything they could to bring down the Cathedral of Junk. It’s a sad time for the Austin art world…

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Just because he wasn’t able to travel to South Africa, and support his national team, on the scene, doesn’t mean football fan Mark Thompson can’t experience the vibe of a crowded stadium, right in he comfort of his own living room.

45-year-old Mark Thompson, and his 55-year-old wife Kate decided to pick a theme for this year’s Football World Cup, and after doing some online research, they decided the stadium would do just fine. They covered the side walls of their living room with England emblem wallpaper, designed a six yard line and penalty spot, on their green carpet, and set up a giant poster of the World Cup stadium, complete with drawn supporters.

The English couple were planning to redecorate anyway, and thought this was the perfect way to celebrate the greatest event in football, before giving their house a whole new look. Now they’re ready to invite friends to watch Engalnd’s football games, on a “real” stadium, with a theme for every match. When they played the US, Karen served burgers, with Algeria she will cook curries, and against Slovenia they’ll have goulash.

A big fan of Manchester United, Mark says he’s taken out all the furniture and replaced it with some garden chairs, during the World Cup. Although his wife, Karen, would like things to get back to normal once the football tournament is over, Mark confesses he’d like to keep his makeshift stadium for a lot longer.

via Daily Mail and Oldham Evening Chronicle

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World Cup 2010 Behind Bars is a soccer competition, held in Bangkok’s Klong Prem Central Prison, between 18 seven-player teams, made-up of inmates.

On June 10, the opening match, between Mexico and South Africa, was played on a muddy soccer pitch, inside the Thai prison, under the watchful eyes of dozen guards. It ended in a 1-1 draw, but the prisoners on the sidelines enjoyed every minute of the rare spectacle. They cheered and banged cow bells for the entire match, showing their support for the teams.

The World Cup Behind Bars was also held in 2002 and 2006 and this year it features 18 seven-player teams, from 45 different countries, picked from the prison’s 1,000 inmates population. They can each represent whatever nation they want, even if it’s not their own, and free spots are taken by Thai prisoners.

The winners of the World Cup Behind Bars 2010 will receive a replica of the FIFA World Cup trophy.

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