Somewhere in that photo above is Jean-Guy Laquerre, who holds the Guinness World Records for having the world’s largest collection of Santa Claus memorabilia.

Laquerre, a 74-year-old retired geography teacher from outside Montreal, has devoted all his time to his Santa collection, which he proudly displays between Dec. 15 and Jan. 15 as an invitation-only exhibit in his house.

"I’ve been collecting since 1988," he said. "Various people give me these items as gifts. I purchase them here and there, and then friends will give them to me."

If you want to beat Jean-Guy, you’ve got your work cut out for you: he’s got 25,189 items! Lee Speigel of Aol News has the story: Link

The Shredder Cheese Grater - $9.95

Got a rocker in your Christmas list this year? Then this Gift Guide for Rockers over at the NeatoShop will be music to your ears:

Rock Out with Your Blocks Out Snapsuit - $8.95	Hot Hits Pot Holder - $7.95	Guitar of the Gods Magnet Set - $10.95

Binary Solo - $9.95. By Chris Murphy, for all you FOTC fans

Link: Gift Guide for Rockers

Mac vs PC, VHS vs. Betamax, and Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD are famous format wars, but they’ve got nothing against those fought by Thomas Edison. Here’s one that lasted 20 years:

The most famous audio format war was between Thomas Edison and Emile Berliner, both of whom invented competing types of records for the phonograph. Edison first pioneered the wax cylinder in the 1880s. He originally intended it as a means of recording telephone conversations, but the cylinders soon became a popular format for musical recordings. Berliner, meanwhile, released the disk record as a competing format in 1894. Disks had originally been used solely in children’s toys, and in the beginning their sound quality was poor. But after several technical modifications, they were able to rival Edison’s cylinders in sound quality, sparking a format war that would last nearly 20 years.

Who Won?

There’s a reason they call them record stores and not cylinder stores. Despite the cylinder’s initial dominance, disk records won out in the end, and by the late 1920s, even Edison had started marketing his own version of Berliner’s product. This is not to say that there weren’t drawbacks to the disk format. The sound quality tended to be a bit tinnier than a cylinder, and disk records could easily get damaged after being played enough times. Unfortunately for Edison, the battle ultimately came down to ease of production. Disk records were much cheaper and easier to make, since they could simply be stamped out on a press. This helped make the disks a cheaper alternative, and once they started being recorded on both sides, people were able to get twice the music for the same price. Not only that, but disk records were easier to ship, and consumers liked the fact that they could easily be stacked and stored on a shelf like books.

Read about more format wars at Top Tenz: Link

“In the great shopping districts in the Thirties, the pavements became so soft in late afternoon that the crosswalks were dotted with rubber heels that were caught in the asphalt and tar as women passed by. …In Syracuse, on one of the main streets, a housewife fried an egg on the pavement; at Perry, N.Y., an absent-minded man who left his false teeth on the window sill returned within an hour to find them melted away.

Melted dentures? That’s hot! Link

Photo: Katie Paterson

This is popping up everywhere, and it’s pretty neat.  Katie Paterson is an artist who recorded natural sounds from Iceland’s glaciers, then collected natural ice melt from the glaciers.  She then pressed three records made of the refrozen ice with the audio transferred.  It took each record two hours of continuous play to melt, but you can hear a sample of what it sounded like here.  via todayandtomorrow

]]> http://www.neatorama.com/2009/12/06/glacier-audio-records-made-from-glacier-ice/feed/ 4 http://www.neatorama.com/2009/01/30/complete-the-album-cover/ http://www.neatorama.com/2009/01/30/complete-the-album-cover/#comments Fri, 30 Jan 2009 23:48:30 +0000 Stacy http://www.neatorama.com/?p=22437

Link

Well, however long you can hold your breath, I betcha it’s nothing when compared to what Gianluca Genoni just did: he set a new world record for breath-holding, handily beating what David Blaine did (7 minutes) and the previous world record:

Gianluca Genoni held his breath for 18 minutes 3.69 seconds while lying underwater in a Mantua swimming pool, beating German diver Tom Sietas, who managed 17 minutes 19 seconds in September – also on live TV – to unseat Blaine from the Guinness world record book.

Link – via Underwater Times

Three months ago 90-year-old Penny Cooper made a leap-year proposal to 89-year-old John Dawkins, who she met at a charity event.

The couple, who have a combined aged of 179, tied the knot at a register office in Devon on Tuesday.

Link

This 6,500 pound heavy and 15 feet tall motorcycle, built by Greg Dunham, is the world’s tallest rideable motorcycle according to the Guinness World Records. It took Greg over three years to build it and he spent aorund $300,000 on parts.

Here’s a video clip of the amazing monster cycle:

Link – via GadgetVenue