28 September 2007: Records are good for you
This year's Guinness World Records book is published today, so we'll follow tradition and report a few of the more interesting achievements that it documents.
- The record for smashing watermelons over your head is held by Australian John Allwood, who broke 40 in just one minute;
- The most books typed backwards is 57, by Italian Michele Santana;
- American Jackie Bibby shared his bath with a record number of live western diamondback rattlesnakes - 75 of them, to be precise;
- And Frenchman Michel Lotito has the weirdest diet, having consumed a total of 128 bicycles, 15 supermarket trolleys, six chandeliers, two beds and a pair of skis.
Other records include throwing a washing machine for the longest distance; keeping the most yo-yos going simultaneously; and holding your breath, which you would have to do for more than 14 minutes to have a hope of winning for next year's book.
SaintFM feels that few of the achievements have any practical application, though maybe German Thomas Vogel is an exception: in one minute he managed, with one hand, to unfasten 56 bras.
