World / Offbeat Aug 4, 2019
French inventor Franky Zapata crosses English Channel on a jet-powered hoverboard
French inventor Franky Zapata on Sunday succeeded in crossing the English Channel on a jet-powered hoverboard he designed, after a previous ended with him falling into the sea. Standing on a platform powered by five small jet engines and carrying kerosene in a backpack, Zapata ...
Lifestyle May 13, 2019
Taking the fall: The hard-knock life of a stunt performer in Japan
by Andrew McKirdy
Trainer Chuck Johnson explains what it takes to get a piece of the action in this rough-and-tumble world of stunt performers.
World Dec 27, 2018
American completes first unassisted solo trek across Antarctica
An American adventurer has become the first person to complete a solo trek across Antarctica without assistance of any kind. Colin O'Brady, 33, took 54 days to complete the nearly 1,000-mile (1,600-km) crossing of the frozen continent from north to south. O'Brady's voyage was tracked by ...
World / Offbeat Nov 8, 2018
Wheelchair ramp jump tops list of new Guinness World Records for 2018
Guinness World Records celebrates its annual records day on Thursday, honoring a long list of people who have done highly improbable things better than anyone else. The World Records Day often includes a Rubik's cube solved in unlikely circumstances against the clock, and this year ...
World / Offbeat Jul 22, 2018
Tightrope walker stuns Parisians with netless Montmartre performance
PARIS Reuters French tightrope artist Tatiana-Mosio Bongonga impressed hundreds of Parisians on Saturday with a performance that featured a walk on a rope suspended 35 meters (115 feet) above the ground in the city's hilly northern district of Montmartre. Bongonga, 34, walked on a rope suspended by ...
Asia Pacific / Social Issues Aug 11, 2017
A Melbourne cafe went viral on social media this week after introducing an 18 percent "man tax" to raise awareness of Australia's gender pay gap. The gender surcharge at the Handsome Her cafe is optional and the proceeds are donated to a women's charity, cafe ...
World May 27, 2017
The British inventor of an "Iron Man"-style jet suit has lofty hopes that his project, which started out as fun experiment, could become a practical tool for industries ranging from entertainment to the military. Richard Browning, a 38-year-old former commodities trader with little experience of ...
World / Offbeat Mar 12, 2017
Every March the cryogenically frozen corpse of a Norwegian man breathes fresh life into sleepy Nederland, Colorado, where throngs of fun-lovers fill the streets for Frozen Dead Guy Days, a festival in honor of the town's most famous resident. The annual three-day festival is the ...
World / Offbeat Nov 27, 2016
Haute cuisine? Santa serves up sleigh-borne dinner in the sky
Not waiting at home for Santa Claus, gourmets in Brussels are flying off aboard his sleigh to dine with him above the city's rooftops and twinkling Christmas lights. Santa in the Sky is a novel twist on the Belgian capital's Dinner in the Sky venture, ...