Feb 10, 2010

World’s Largest Snow Sculpture - Romantic Feelings

Rising out of the snow, this magnificent sculpture is the centrepiece of the Ice And Snow Festival, held annually in the northeastern city of Harbin, China.

Called Romantic Feelings, it is a staggering 115ft high and 656ft long - the largest snow sculpture ever created.

It was made by joining together 15ft square blocks of natural ice and snow, taken from the nearby Songhua River, which have been compressed to withstand blows from hatchets, saws and shovels.

600 sculptors from 40 countries have used 120,000 cubic feet of snow and ice to create the Olympic themed landscape - a vista of Russian churches, French cathedrals, Chinese palaces and, of course, an ice Acropolis.

There is even a version of Stonehenge to celebrate the London Olympics in 2012.

At night they are dazzlingly lit by coloured lasers and lanterns, creating a multicoloured translucent display.

Since the festival's launch in 1985, it has been the city's biggest individual means of income.

Harbin, which is in Heilongjiang Province on the edge of Siberia, is one of China's coldest places and winter temperatures can drop to -35C.



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Feb 8, 2010

Dodger Stadium - Largest Ballpark By Seating Capacity

Dodger Stadium is a stadium in Los Angeles, California, United States. Located adjacent to Downtown Los Angeles, Dodger Stadium has been the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers team since 1962. Dodger Stadium was constructed from 1959 to 1962 at a cost of $23 million paid for through private financing. Dodger Stadium is currently the third oldest ballpark in Major League Baseball (behind Fenway Park in Boston and Wrigley Field in Chicago,) and is the largest ballpark by seating capacity.

The stadium hosted the 1980 MLB All-Star Game, as well as games of the 1963, 1965, 1966, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1981, and 1988 World Series. It also hosted the semifinals and finals of the 2009 World Baseball Classic as well as exhibition baseball during the 1984 Summer Olympics.

Design

Dodger Stadium was one of the last baseball-only facilities built before the dawn of the multi-purpose stadium. It was built near a large cross-section of freeways converging near downtown Los Angeles with an expansive parking lot surrounding the stadium. With the construction of many new MLB ballparks in recent years, it is now the third-oldest park still in use, and the oldest on the West Coast. One of the park's distinctive features is the wavy roof atop each outfield pavilion.

A unique terraced-earthworks parking lot was built behind the main stands, allowing ticketholders to park at roughly the level that their seats are, minimizing their climbing and descending of ramps once they get inside the stadium. It was also designed to be earthquake-resistant, an important consideration in California, and has stood the test of several serious earthquakes.

Strobe lights were added in 1999; they flash when the Dodgers take the field, after a Dodger home run and after a Dodger win.

In addition to those of Drysdale, Koufax, and Sutton, the retired numbers of Pee Wee Reese, Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, Tommy Lasorda, Walter Alston, Roy Campanella and Jim Gilliam are mounted below the pavilion roofs behind the outfield fence.

The Dodgers devote significant resources to the park's maintenance. For example, it is repainted every year, and a full-time crew of gardeners maintain the site. No plans are in the works to replace it. Renovations were made beginning in 2004 that initially added additional field level seats, particularly behind the plate where previously the only person seen there was scout Mike Brito in his trademark Panama hat tracking pitch speed. After some criticism of the sightlines with these new seats, they were replaced with box seats.


Seating

Dodger Stadium is the only current MLB park (excluding the most recently-built parks) that has never changed its capacity. It has always held 56,000 fans, due to a conditional-use permit limiting its capacity. Every time the Dodgers add seats, they always remove an equal number of seats in the upper deck or in the pavilion to keep the capacity the same. Through the sale of standing room only tickets, though, the Dodgers' 2009 home opener managed to draw 57,099 fans, the largest crowd in stadium history. Following a number of indcidents in the early 1970s in which fans showered the Cincinnati Reds left fielder Pete Rose with beer, bottles, cups, and trash, the sale of beer was discontinued in the left field pavillion. Beer sales were reinstated in the left field pavilion in 2008. A new addition to Dodger Stadium in 2009 is the Bleacher Beach. Bleacher Beach is in the upper deck in left field and the fans sitting there have access to free food.

With the retirement of Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium in 2009, the park claimed the title of being the largest capacity stadium in the Majors.


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Feb 7, 2010

World's Longest Sausage: 6647-feet (2026-meter)

Kobasicijada is an international sausage festival organized annually in the village of Turija, near Srbobran, Serbia. 26 festivals had been held as of 5 - 7 February, 2010; it is one of the biggest and most popular village festivals in Serbia. The festival is attended by tens of thousands of people every year.

ORGANISERS of an annual sausage festival in the Serbian village of Turija today said they had made the world's longest sausage.

Twelve butchers used the meat of 30 pigs, 40 kilos of paprika, 50 kilos of salt, two kilos of pepper and five kilos of garlic to make a sausage 2026 metres long, the Tanjug news agency reported.

They had been preparing the sausage for four days, but "unfortunately, the representatives of the Guinness Book of World Records did not come to register the new world record for the longest sausage", the agency said.

If you are a fan of sausage this is the opportunity to try, on one place, sausages prepared in various ways (fresh, smoked, baked, boiled) and to attend to create the world's longest sausage.

Every day from 8am to 5pm, sale of fresh, dried and roasted sausages and other meat products.

Feb 6, 2010

Bigfoot 5 - World's Biggest & Heaviest Monster Truck

MAKE: 1996 FORD F250 Pickup Truck

OWNER/DRIVER: Bob Chandler

TOWN/CITY: St Louis, MO

ENGINE SIZE: 460 cubic inch Ford

INFORMATION: BIGFOOT 5 is the worlds biggest & heaviest monster truck, weighing in at over 28,000 lbs, & stands at 15'6" tall.
It was built in the summer of 1986, and made it's first apperance at the Fall Jamboree in Indianapolis.
BIGFOOT 5's tires where first spotted in the backyard of monster truck driver Mike Walsh (Monster Mash) in Seattle.
They where from an Alakian Land Train, used by the US Army in the late 1950's. Mike wanted $30,000 for them, but Bob declined.
A year later, while at the show in Seattle, Bob returned, but Mike still wanted the same price. Then the next year Jim Kramer(Vice President) was attending the show in Seattle, & while on the phone to Bob, Bob told Jim to offer Mike $1,000 a tire. Mike accepted & they bought 4 tires from him. Six months later they bought the remaining 4 tires for $700. a tire.
BIGFOOT 5 is kept outside the home of BIGFOOT.
To move BIGFOOT 5 to a show,it takes a crew of three people, with the aid of a fork lift truck, 3 hours to change the tires. It is transported in a special transport trailer, which also accommodates the fork lift truck. It used to sometimes appear with dual tires (8 tires in total. These 4 spare tires are now on BIGFOOT 7, which is identical to BIGFOOT 5, apart from the paint scheme. That lives at the Race Rock Cafe in Florida.

BIGFOOT 5 with dual 10 foot tall tires.
 
Bigfoot 5 in action!
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Feb 5, 2010

Tiger Woods - The Greatest Golfer of all Time

Eldrick (Tiger) Woods, now 34 years of age, has had an unprecedented career since becoming a professional golfer in the late summer of 1996. He has won 95 tournaments, 71 of those on the PGA Tour, including the 1997, 2001, 2002 and 2005 Masters Tournaments, 1999, 2000, 2006 and 2007 PGA Championships, 2000, 2002, and 2008 U.S. Open Championships, and 2000, 2005 and 2006 Open Championships. With his second Masters victory in 2001, Tiger became the first ever to hold all four professional major championships at the same time. He is the career victories leader among active players on the PGA Tour, and is the career money list leader.

In winning the 2000 British Open, Woods became the youngest to complete the career Grand Slam of professional major championships and only the fifth ever to do so, following Ben Hogan, Gene Sarazen, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus. Tiger also was the youngest Masters champion ever, at the age of 21 years, three months and 14 days, and was the first major championship winner of African or Asian heritage.


Woods holds or shares the record for the low score in relation to par in each of the four major championships. His records are 270 (18-under par) in the 1997 Masters, 272 (12-under par) in the 2000 U.S. Open, 269 (19-under par) in the 2000 Open Championship, and he shares the record of 270 (18-under par) with Bob May in the 2000 PGA Championship, which Tiger won by one stroke in a three-hole playoff.

The U.S. Open and Masters victories came by record margins, 15 strokes and 12 strokes, respectively, and the U.S. Open triumph swept aside the 13-stroke major championship standard which had stood for 138 years, established by Old Tom Morris in the 1862 British Open. The record margin for the U.S. Open had been 11 strokes by Willie Smith in 1899. In The Masters, Woods broke the record margin of nine strokes set by Nicklaus in 1965. Tiger won the Open Championship by eight strokes, the largest margin since J. H. Taylor in 1913.

He is the career victories leader among active players on the PGA Tour and is the career money list leader. He is third in PGA Tour career victories, trailing only Sam Snead (82) and Jack Nicklaus (73).

Tiger increased his record total on the PGA Tour career money list to $92,862,539, through 2009, and had won $111,433,044 worldwide.

In addition to his playing exploits, Woods is busy off the course, too.

Did You Know?

Wake-up time
Did you know that Tiger's alarm clock is set at 5:00 a.m. sharp?

Average clubhead speed
Did you know that Tiger's average clubhead speed is 125 mph while the average person's speed is 84 mph?

Inspiration
Did you know that Tiger's inspirations are his parents and Nelson Mandela?

Perfect day
Did you know Tiger's perfect day is to surf, ski, play golf and go spear-fishing in the same day?

Favorite movie
Did you know that Tiger's favorite movie is Caddyshack?

Biggest challenge
Did you know that Tiger's biggest challenge is to become a better person tomorrow?

Proudest moment
Did you know that Tiger's proudest moment was winning the Masters?

Retreat
Did you know that Tiger's retreat is to go underwater shooting fish?

Favorite soundtrack
Did you know that Tiger's favorite soundtrack is anything from '80s and early '90s?

Fondest memory
Did you know that Tiger's fondest memory was riding his bike and skateboard all the time?

First job
Did you know that Tiger's first job was as a cart boy?

Indulgence
Did you know that Tiger's indulgence is to spend his time on his boat?


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