ODDITIES GALORE

From disgusting to amazing: the 10 most incredible Guinness Records

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From the strangely amusing to the downright absurd, the Guinness World Records are home to some of the most peculiar er… achievements known to humankind. Going through this list, you might find yourself wondering, why would anyone bother to make a world record out of this?

Well, we don’t know either, but we are thankful someone has taken the time to document all these 10 wonderfully weird instances of human creativity.

Image: Annie Spratt

Donald Gorske, a man from Wisconsin, has consumed over 30,000 Big Macs in his lifetime, earning him the record for the most Big Macs consumed. His daily habit of eating two Big Macs has become a legendary feat, and he still claims to look forward to eating them every day.

Image: Andrew Wulf

Charlotte Lee, a woman from Seattle, has amassed an extraordinary collection of over 9,000 rubber ducks. Her fascination with the cheerfully yellow bath toys has led her to scour the globe in search of unique and rare additions to her impressive collection, being eventually inducted into the Guinness World Records for her ever-growing collection.

Image: Jason Yoder

Ever stared at your own navel for too long? For Graham Barker, an Australian librarian, this habit became a riveting hobby, as he has meticulously collected his belly button lint since 1984. Today, he has amassed what is recognized as the largest collection of belly button lint, and his unwavering dedication to belly button fluff has earned him a place in the annals of record-breaking oddities.

Image: Yara

While it might seem that any teenager can break this record with ease if given free reign, it would actually take some serious dedication - and a lot of stamina! - to beat Carrie Swidecki, a California teacher that set the Guinness World Record for Longest videogame marathon while playing Just Dance for an impressive 138 hours.

Image: Anita Jankovic

Yes, you heard right. There is a World Record for the Farthest Distance Squirting Milk From The Eye. Insane as it sounds, Ilker Yilmaz from Turkey holds the record for the farthest milk squirting distance from the eye. In 2004, he squirted milk to an impressive (to be fair, everything about this is quite shocking) distance of 9 feet 2 inches.

Image: Alan Hardman

Paul Slosar of Summerville, South Carolina, is the proud record holder for the longest mustache ever. Despite having fierce competition, he broke the world record with an impressive 2 feet 1 inches long whiskers. His meticulously groomed "English" styled facial hair is measured from the top of the lip, so that it cannot be confused with nearby beard hair.

Image: Yazid N

Shridhar Chillal from India holds the record for the longest fingernails on a single hand, with a combined fingernail length of an astounding 358.1 inches as of 2014. His dedication to growing his nails over decades is as impressive as their lenght, even if the end result might be a little unsettling.

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Again, you might justifiably ask: what have I just read? Well, apparently a man named Kevin Shelley, also fittingly known as "The Iron Head," has shattered 46 toilet seats with his head in just one minute in 2007, securing the world record for the most toilet seats broken by the head in a minute. Even though he probably doesn’t have much competition, it is still an impressive feat - and his pain tolerance has left audiences astonished.

Image: Damien TUPINIER

Gao Bingguo, a beekeeper from China, covered himself in a staggering 1.1 million bees, setting the record for the most bees on a human body. The "mantle" of bees weighed almost 240 pounds, and he was stung over 2,000 times during the whole ordeal, but he survived the attempt thanks to his calm demeanor and affinity with the insects.

Image: Daniel Watson

David Rush, a renowned record-breaker, balanced a lawn mower (fortunately not powered) on his chin for an incredible 30 minutes and 33 seconds, setting the record for the longest time balancing a lawn mower on the chin. He already has over 200 Guinness World Records titles, so who knows what he might come up with next?

Skol!

Bring out the Viking in you: 12 English words derived from Old Norse

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The English language has adopted words from multiple other languages into its daily lexicon, and Norse is not an exception. Many terms that we use every day come from very similar-sounding counterparts from our Scandinavian friends. The following 12 examples range from the obvious to the surprising ones. Which ones did you already know about?

Image: Kelly Sikkema

Once you see this one, it becomes almost impossible to unsee it: the word used to define the fourth day of the work week, Thursday, has a Norse origin, meaning "Thor’s day."

Image: REGINE THOLEN

In today's world, we usually associate the word "club" with more civilized instruments, like a golf club. But in its origin, the word was associated with heavy things used as beating weapons, a Viking specialty. The word club came from the Old Norse word of the same meaning, "klubba".

Image: Allef Vinicius

Unsurprisingly, another word that the Vikings gave us is the one used to describe the action of going through a place, stealing things, and causing damage: ransack. This word originates from the Old Norse term "rannsaka".

Image: Luke Jones

A common geographical landscape in England and Scandinavian countries is that shallow water bog with vegetation on its shores. The English word for mire comes from the Old Norse word "myrr".

Image: Knut Troim

The action of throwing an object into the distance is as old as mankind, but the word that the English language uses to describe it stems from the Old Norse word "kasta".

Image: Markus Winkler

The word used to describe the action of clipping something, usually with scissors, also has a Norse origin in the word "klippa".

Image: Pierre Bamin

Violent words are not the only word legacy from the Vikings: the word glitter, used to describe those shiny particles ubiquitous at parties everywhere, comes from the old Norse word "glitra".

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Bags have been around for quite a long time now, but still, the word that the English language has settled on comes from the Old Norse word "baggin".

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While the cakes from centuries past were probably not as decadent and spectacular as their modern equivalents, they still existed. The English word cake originated from the Old Norse word of the same meaning, "kaka".

Image: Duy Pham

A fellow is a person in the same position, involved in the same activity, or otherwise associated with another individual. This household word comes from the Old Norse word "felagi".

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Whether it is justified or not, anger is a feeling that is easy to associate with Vikings, especially because of their cultural depictions and stereotypes. The word anger itself can be traced to the Old Norse word "angr".

Image: Thomas Curryer

The last entry on our list is the one that describes a married man considered in relation to his spouse. This word originated in a very similar-sounding Norse word: "husbondi".