It’s now called the “special flip” because “Special Greg” Powell was the one who accomplished it. This performance of Nitro Circus was recorded in Gosford, Australia. -via reddit

Jen, who must be made of pure steel, walks a slack line at Tasmania’s sea stack known as the Totem Pole. After you marvel at his focus, strength, and balance (not to mention bravery), consider one other thing -how did they get up there in the first place? -via Metafilter

Over time, modern jousters have learned the lessons of their medieval predecessors — plate armor protects better than chain mail, and more armor protects better than less. Even so, there are still plenty of injuries: concussions and dislocated shoulders, broken hands, assorted fractures and gashes. In one much-talked-about incident a few years ago, the Australian jouster Rod Walker suffered a partly severed penis when a lance veered south during a match at a Renaissance fair in Michigan — a targeting failure that might not have happened if both he and his opponent hadn’t been competing with broken hands.

Link via The Agitator | Photo by Flickr user Jeff Kubina used under Creative Commons license | Previously: Would This 16th Century Helmet Terrify a Jousting Opponent

Since 1885, only 46 other so-called “marathon monks” of the Tendai sect have survived the ritual, which dates to the 8th century and is believed to be a path to enlightenment, according to temple officials. The last monk to complete it returned in 1994.

A few have done it twice; many more have not lived to finish. Traditionally, any monk, or gyoja, who can’t continue to the end must take his own live, either by hanging or disembowelment.

A rigorous regimen dictates that in each of the journey’s first three years, the pilgrim must rise at midnight for 100 consecutive days to pray, run along an 18-mile trail around Mount Hiei — stopping 250 times to pray along the way. He can carry only candles, a prayer book and a sack of vegetarian food. [...]

His most difficult trial, however, comes during the fifth year when he must sit and chant mantras for nine days without food, water or sleep, in a trial called “doiri,” or “entering the temple.”

In the sixth year, he walks 37.5 miles every day for 100 days. And in the seventh, he goes 52.5 miles for 100 days and then 18 miles for another 100 days, before returning to the temple, located in Otsu city, about 234 miles southwest of Tokyo.

Link (Photo: Kyodo/AP) – via martialdevelopment

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by neatodev.