Atlantica - 01.09.2007, Page 12

Champion of Champions
If you could still set a record for having the most Guinness world records, Ashrita
Furman from Brooklyn, New York would surely claim it. He currently holds 65 records
and has set 157—across all seven continents—since 1979.
Furman has traveled the furthest distance—37 kilometers (23 miles)—on a pogo
stick, balanced milk crates weighing 42.5 kilograms (93.7 pounds) on his chin, and
pushed an orange with his nose for a mile in only 24 minutes and 36 seconds. In June
2006, Furman managed to catch 77 grapes with his mouth in one minute, and five
months later he balanced 700 eggs vertically on end simultaneously.
Furman is a devout follower of Sri Chinmoy, the Indian philosopher and religious
teacher, and maintains that meditation is the key to his bizarre feats. When you have
somersaulted 20 kilometers (12.3 miles), as Furman accomplished in 1986, or hula-
hooped underwater for 2 minutes and 20 seconds, like he did in May this year, a
serene yet focused mind must certainly be an asset.
BaBy Boom
Two not-so-little lads born in Latin America earlier this year seem to be anything but
average when it comes to weight. On 28 January a woman in Cancun, Mexico gave
birth to a boy who weighed 6.4 kilograms (14 pounds, 1.4 ounces), exactly twice the
weight of the average newborn. During the first weeks of his life, Antonio Cruz, or
“Super Tonio” as he was immediately dubbed, guzzled 0.14 liters of milk every three
hours and was squeezed into nappies intended for six-month-olds.
However, it turns out Super Tonio was not the real heavyweight. Ademilton dos
Santos, born in Salvador, Brazil on 19 January 2007, is currently the heaviest new-
born according to Guinness World Records. He tipped the scales at a massive 7.57
kilograms (16 pounds, 9.5 ounces) on the date of his birth.
But these fellas are dwarfed by the 10.2-kilogram boy (22 pounds, 8 ounces) born
to Anna Bates in Ohio, USA, in 1879. Sadly, the heaviest newborn ever only lived for
11 hours.
a siCkening ColleCtion
When it comes to collections, quantity matters more than quality to Guinness. Ms.
Petra Engels from Germany boasts a collection of 19,571 erasers, her fellow country-
man, Manfred Klauda, owns 9,400 chamber pots of various sizes and shapes and
Frenchman Michel Pont can choose between 110 jet-fighters if he ever wants to
take to the skies.
Yet it is Niek Vermeulen from Holland who has dedicated himself to perhaps
the most bizarre collection. Since the mid-1970s, he has amassed a whopping
5,006 airsickness bags from about 1,000 different airlines. Some are even artistic;
Finnaviation’s sickbag is decorated with pictures of a vomiting reindeer.
According to Vermeulen, who never gets sick while flying, almost 300 people
around the world collect air sickness bags. You can join the group by checking the
seat pocket in front of you.

sky’s the limit
Bao Xishun from China was more than fifty years old when people realized that he
was the world’s tallest man. In January 2005 he measured 2.361 meters (7 feet, 7
inches) tall.
Since his “discovery”, Bao has rarely been out of the headlines. In December 2006
he saved two dolphins at an aquarium by using his long arms to reach into their
stomachs and pull out dangerous plastic shards they had swallowed. And after a
global search, Bao finally got married in March this year to a saleswoman from his
hometown. She is half his age and two-thirds his size.
The world of records is a fickle one, however. Bao’s reign came to a sudden end in
August when Guinness World Records finally acknowledged the claims of the veteri-
narian Leonid Stadnyk who stands at a staggering 2.57 meters (8 feet, 5 inches). This
gentle giant who lives with his mother on their farm in Ukraine had to quit his job
six years ago after suffering frostbite in his feet because he couldn’t afford to buy the
specially designed size 64 shoes he wears. With all the fame that follows the title of
being the world’s tallest man, cold feet will hopefully be history for Stadnyk.
10 a t l a n t i c a
Fantastic Feats
– on Four Continents
No book contains as many superlatives as Guinness World Records. Prepare
for a jaw-dropping read of some of the oddest feats that anyone
has undertaken, all over the globe.