“If his mission is successful, the daredevil will break the records for free-falling from the highest altitude with his plan to jump from the dizzying height of 120,000ft, or 36,000m. What’s more, Felix will also become the first person to smash through the sound barrier without the aid – or protection – of a machine, traveling at approximately 690mph. As well as being the highest ever jump, it will also be the longest – and on his way down the stuntman will collect new scientific data about the human body in certain conditions. Unsurprisingly, this superhuman feat needs a bit of preparation, and Baumgartner and his team have spent the past five years creating and testing the suit needed to withstand the tough conditions.” w/ photos

“Not an inch of sand was wasted in Rio De Janeiro yesterday. Thousands of sun-worshippers flocked to Ipanema Beach to make the most of a heatwave that saw temperatures reach as high as 34C (93F). The average maximum temperature for February is 84F. Packed like sardines along the sweeping seafront – made famous by the 1964 song The Girl From Ipanema Beach – you would be forgiven for feeling slightly claustrophobic. Sun umbrellas covered the sands while hundreds of people swarmed around the sea, fighting for enough space to swim.” w/ photos

“An enormous multi-storey marijuana farm, that used enough electricity to power an entire city block, has been discovered on a busy New York street. Cops entering a nondescript building in the Bronx were astonished to discover all five floors packed with nearly 800 pot plants many of which were over seven-foot tall. Three people were arrested and and officers seized plants weighing over 1,500 pounds plus another 75 pounds of the drug already packaged and ready for sale. The mind-bending crop was estimated to have a street value of around $5,000 to $8,000 a pound.” w/ photos

“7-year-old Giuliano Stroe, know as the world’s strongest kid, does push ups while balancing on glass bottles. He already holds a few Guinness World Records!”

“A skinny model with a very tight corset shows her thin wasp waist.”

“An astonishing photograph taken from outer-space illustrates how an iceberg the size of New York is close to breaking off from Antarctica. A 19-mile crack in Pine Island Glacier’s ice is clearly visible, leading some scientists to speculate that the world’s biggest berg could soon be on the move. The picture, taken by NASA’s Terra spacecraft in November 2011 but only released today, shows how the crack is quickly growing. Just a month before it was only 18 miles long.” w/ photos

“Students cling to a collapsed bridge as they cross a river to get to school in the Indonesian village of Sanghiang, Tanjung.” — telegraphtv

“Deffy and Sarinya had been together for 10 years, before they finally decided to settle down. They had postponed the wedding several times, due to busy schedules and the fact that Deffy wanted to complete his education before he got married. However, after Sarinya’s untimely death, he couldn’t let her go without fulfilling her deepest desire. So, he decided to marry her anyway. On the 4th of January, in Buddhist ceremony, Deffy married the corpse of his girlfriend. The event took place in Surin, a city in northern Thailand. During the ceremony, he expressed his devotion and deep love for Sarinya. Several friends and relatives attended the wedding, and it was even aired on national television in Thailand. The story, along with pictures from the wedding have now become an internet sensation, sparking several debates.” w/ photos + video

“More than 1,100 dogs destined for a slaughterhouse were rescued this week by an animal-loving blogger in Chongqing, China. The 1,137 dogs that had been cramped into cages stacked on top of each other onto the back of a flatbed truck were intercepted with the help of a blogger, who goes by the surname Peng, as they were on their way to be made into food.” w/ photos

“Karam Chand was born in a small rural village in the Punjab in northern India in 1905. His family worked in farming and, in keeping with the custom of the time, he married at a young age. His bride Kartari was born in the same district in 1912. According to their passports, that currently makes Mr Chand 106 and his wife 99 years old. They wed in a typical Sikh ceremony in December 1925 and have just celebrated their 86th year together as a married couple, which they think may qualify them as the UK’s longest married husband and wife.” w/ photos

“A stray cat that survived two trips to a Utah animal shelter’s gas chamber now has a new home. Officials at West Valley City’s animal shelter in Utah say the cat named Andrea hadn’t been adopted for 30 days when shelter officials tried to put her to death in October. She survived, so they gassed her again. Shelter officials detected no vital signs and presumed she was dead after the second try, so they put her in a plastic bag in a cooler. But when they checked the bag, they saw she had vomited on herself and had hypothermia but was alive. The shelter then decided to stop trying to kill her.” w/ photo

“It’s certainly been a case of Randy by name, randy by nature, for this young ram. The horny little fellow managed to father at least 33 lambs after jumping a 5ft fence to go on his own personal ram raid. Randy – an 11-month-old texel ram – was only loose for 24 hours. But in that short space of time, the woolly lothario managed to breed with almost a third of a nearby flock. So far, 13 of his offspring have been born at West Lodge Rural Centre in Desborough, Northamptonshire. Twenty more ewes – a mix of Southdowns, Suffolks and Soays crosses – are expecting babies any day. Ryan Thompson, manager of the farm, called the whole situation ‘comical’. He said: ‘We got a vet out to do a animal equivalent of an ultra-sound on a few that we thought were pregnant but he came back and told us that at least 30 were due.” w/ photos

“Whilst the season of giving might be over for yet another year, it seems one computer gamer has marked the end of the festivities by treating himself to one final Christmas gift. The avid gamer spent a staggering $16,000 on a virtual sword – the only one of its kind, which he will use when he eventually begins playing a martial arts game that has not yet gone on sale in the Far East. The man who won the auction will now be able to slay characters using his sabre when the highly-anticipated martial-arts game Age of Wulin is released in Mainland China.” w/ photos

“There may not quite be 101 of them but these playful dalmatian pups are already proving quite a handful. In fact the surprise litter of 15 – double the average number – left mother Pebbles so exhausted that her human family had to be called in as puppysitters. Owner Kay Sullivan said: ‘We had to care for them for two days because Pebbles was not very well. She was very weak because they had taken all the energy out of her… She also admitted the new arrivals were stretching the family finances – so would have to be sold. Mrs Sullivan said: ‘We’re not breeders. They’re already costing us an arm and a leg to be honest.” w/ photos

“When Stephen Goodman heard his grandfather never received a single card during his military service in Vietnam, it left him deeply saddened. Never wanting another serviceman or woman to feel unappreciated, the 11-year-old decided to write every single one a thank-you card. Now, 18 months later, the schoolboy from Surprise, Arizona has completed a staggering 181,612 cards for U.S. troops serving overseas.” w/ photos + video

“Reason number 1,535,923 on why you shouldn’t live in NYC.”

“Xin entertained the crowds when he balanced on his head on the end on a spike. Putting his hands out to the side, he balanced all his 66kg (10st 7lb) body weight, putting intense pressure on his skull. The 47-year-old has practiced the stunt for more than 20 years. He can hold the pose on top of the spike for more than ten seconds – impressive, seeing as most people would struggle to keep their balance doing a floor head-stand. After the stunt, Li Xin leaned forward to show off a small but definite indent on the top of his head.” w/ photos

“She has endured over 100 silicone injections on her lips, spending around $6,200 on them. Kristina claims that her goal is to look like the cartoon character Jessica Rabbit, whom she claims, is her idea of a perfect woman. She had been unhappy with her thin lips since the age of four, and envied her sisters big, pouty lips. Incidentally, Kristina was bullied and teased by her school mates as ‘ugly’. This led her to believe that she could look more beautiful if her lips were bigger. Kristina opted for her first lip enhancement when she was just 17-years-old. When the results made her happy, she just couldn’t stop herself from getting more injections. She realizes that she might be addicted, but even then has no plans to stop.” w/ photos

“A man ravaged by a shocking skin disease has revealed himself in public in a bid to save his children from the same fate. Chandra Wisnu, 57, suffers from a rare disease that has left him covered in tumors resembling pink bubble wrap. The father of four – known as ‘The Bubble Man’ in his home village in Indonesia – rarely leaves his house. When he does, he wears three jackets, a balaclava and sunglasses so he doesn’t frighten children. “People are afraid, they are frightened of my horrible face and worried they might catch the disease,” he said. “So instead I avoid people, I rarely go out except to pick up my daughter from school. “And when I do I cover my head and my face because I don’t want my daughter’s friends to bully her for having ‘the dad with the horrible face’.” Mr Wisnu said the lumps first appeared when he was 19. By the time he was 24, they had spread to his back. At 32, his entire body was covered.” w/ photos

“A large rainstorm in San Pedro caused an enormous stretch of coastal road to collapse into the Pacific Ocean Sunday, and left a gaping hole where the road once was. The thoroughfare, located along an 800-foot section of Paseo del Mar in San Pedro, had been closed to traffic for several months as the road sunk and shifted. Signs also served as a warning to residents to stay away from the unstable section. Peter Sanders, spokesman for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, says the road is likely irreparable, and that plans for a new roadway must now be considered. Though no one was injured, Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich told The Daily Breeze that was ‘just luck.’ ‘It’s bad. We’re lucky no one got hurt,’ Mr Trutanich said. No homes were directly in the path of the San Pedro landslide.” w/ photos + video

“You’d be praying for intermission if you attended even just a fraction of the world’s longest concert. Now in it’s 10th year, ‘Organ²/ASLSP (As SLow aS Possible),’ by avant-garde composer John Cage, is just getting started. The concert began in 2001 at the former St. Burchard church in Halberstadt, Germany, and is scheduled to conclude in 2640, for a duration of 639 years. Though Cage did not specify a duration for his piece, the length was chosen because the start date for the performance is 639 years after Nicolaus Faber built the first church organ. Other performances of the piece have lasted between 29 and 70 minutes.” w/ photo

“Storms on Saturn make the ones we moan about on Earth seem positively puny – and this year’s northern storm is a record-breaker, even by the standards of the gas giant’s legendarily foul weather. The storm – shown here in a mosaic of images collected by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft – has been raging for 200 days. It encircles the planet, and breaks a record set by a 1903 storm which battered Saturn for five months. The large disturbance imaged 21 years ago by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope – and comparable in size to the current storm – lasted for only 55 days.” photos

“This toad has what looks like some kind of parasite in [its] eye.” — francotzul

“Wow… And I thought the pimple on my ass had a lot of puss.” — MrJuggalo94

“A 1999 photograph of the Rhine river by German artist Andreas Gursky has sold for $4.3 million in New York City, setting a record for any photograph sold at auction. Titled ‘Rhein II,’ the chromogenic color print face-mounted to acrylic glass, had a pre-sale estimate of $2.5 million to $3.5 million. It sold Tuesday at Christie’s. The buyer was not disclosed. The previous record for any photography sold at auction was Cindy Sherman’s “Untitled,” which fetched $3.8 million at Christie’s in May.” w/ photo

“Garrett McNamara breaks the world record for the largest wave ever surfed.” — ESPN

“Over two years since the public was roused up by the story about Le Van, 57, in the central province of Quang Nam, who slept with his dead wife for more than seven years, the man still confirms that he has been sleeping with his wife’s corpse. Le Van said he and his son have slept with his wife’s body for nearly nine years. Visiting the man’s house, Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper’s reporter saw the corpse on Le Van’s bed. He told Nguoi Lao Dong that he sleeps with his dead wife to ‘train’ to return to his previous incarnation.” w/ photos

“Joe LoCicero’s 1990 Honda Accord slipped into a parking spot in front of City Hall with its engine purring, much as it did two decades ago after it rolled off the assembly line in Marysville, Ohio. LoCicero, a resident of the town of Norway, was honored with a surprise parade and given a 2012 Accord after racking up more than 1 million miles on his trusted older model, nicknamed ‘True Blue’ for its light-blue exterior. LoCicero, 53, is the first person documented by the car manufacturer to have driven a Honda to the million-mile mark, according to a company spokeswoman. “If you listen carefully, she’s getting old,” LoCicero said, ‘but it’s been an amazing ride.’ Known as ‘Million Mile Joe’ through a recent advertising and Web campaign, LoCicero is a master auto technician who travels throughout Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont inspecting vehicles for warranty claims and lease terms. Honda and Darling Auto Group sponsored the parade down Main Street, which featured marching bands and varsity cheerleaders. ‘Joe is a testament to what you can do if you maintain your car,” said Ron Russell, Darling’s director of operations in Bangor. ‘Thankfully, not many people do it, or we’d be out of business.” w/ photo

“Teetering along a crumbling walkway more than 330ft high, a group of intrepid climbers carefully inch their way across what has been dubbed the most dangerous path in the world. And they’re not alone. Adrenaline-junkies have been flocking to southern Spain to experience the 110-year-old El Caminito Del Rey before work begins to refurbish it next year. Companies have now begun offering unofficial tours after a video of a walker tackling the hair-raising trail went viral on YouTube. And you don’t need to be an experienced climber either, the only requirements are that walkers should be at least twelve years old and have a good head for heights. The trail, also known as the King’s Pathway, was originally built in 1905 for workers to travel between two hydroelectric power plants but was closed-off in 2000 after two walkers fell to their deaths.” w/ photos

“Looks like she squeezed his brain out.” — lovealexox