Real Life Spider-man

I don’t know where I’ve been all these years to have not heard about a real-life, rebellious, epileptic, and most interestingly, French Spider-man that suffers from permanent vertigo. After having checked over Yahoo’s Week in Photos, I came across the picture and caption you see above detailed in this article. Upon further investigation, this urban arachnid does this thing all the time and not only has an official site but he’s got a wiki, too. Well there go my dreams of becoming the world’s first non-mutant Spider-man. Shucks. Then again, if you’re a traditionalist that’s into the old-school Spider-man, kick back and relax while listening to this website.

posted by Brian Giera on 11 December 2007
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Synæsthesia: How to Taste Thoughts Without LSD

So I was reading an article about synæsthesia the other day and couldn’t believe my nostrils. Synæsthesia is the non-debilatating condition where your senses are switched, i.e. you can hear colors, smell sounds, and even sense emotions in numbers. As weird as it tastes, it is thought to be fairly common. It goes underdiagnosed because synæsthetes are able function normally while seeing music and feeling colors and are typcially surprised to find out that this is unique to them. Preview this free test to take after registering to see if you’re one. Also, check out this excerpt from and the site for a book written from a synæsthetes’ sensorial perception of the world.

posted by Brian Giera on 5 May 2007
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All done, Amazon swimmer reaches the sea

Martin Strel, the man crazy enough to actually attempt swimming the length of the Amazon has done it. Swimming all the way from inland Peru to the Amazon delta in Brazil, he swam a total length of 3,374 miles (5,430 km). Averaging 52 miles a day in 66 days, the native Slovenian actually finished the epic swim 4 days ahead of schedule. He has also swum the lengths of the Mississippi, Yangtse, and Danube rivers. Here are links to his personal website and the Amazon swim site, also a BBC news article on the end of his journey.

posted by Alex Herder on 7 April 2007
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X-Ray of sword swallower in action

This clip from a short video of a sword being swallowed through an x-ray machine is only one of many throat-tightening moments on offer from the Sword Swallowers Association International. You can find them all at their aptly-named url: swordswallow.com

posted by Alex Herder on 19 February 2007
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