Going for an early morning swim isn’t usually this popular, especially when the invitation states the dress code is strictly nude.

But for these 1,000 Israelis it wasn’t the choppy water which drew them to the coast, but the chance to take part in artist Spencer Tunick’s first mass nude shoot in the Dead Sea.

The group, from 18 to 77-years-old, were specially selected by the artist but the location was kept strictly under wraps to stop any religious officials from disturbing the shoot.

The group were gathered on the beach from 1am but told not to dip their toes until the sun rose, to get the perfect shot.

When the sun finally came up, Tunick instructed a 1,000 Israelis to enter the salty water, as he photographed them floating in the Dead Sea.

A second photograph was taken as participants were told to stand along the edge of one lagoon, while the third and final photo displayed the group covered in mud.

But it wasn’t all plain sailing as curious spectators, who were able to discover the secret location, started to disrupt the photo shoot by flying over the swimmers.

It was feared religious officials could try to protest over the nude shoot but the artist had no interruptions apart from peeping members of the public.

For Tunick, a Jewish American who has arranged naked human bodies over prominent landscapes, a nude shoot is an indicator of a host country’s openness.

Journalists from all over the world were stationed a considerable distance away from the naked group of Israelis as the photo shoot began.

Tunick said he believes Israel is the only country in the Middle East with the religious freedom for one of his trademark mass shoots of nude volunteers.

The famous visual artist claimed his is not a pioneer, but only following the footsteps of superb Israeli artists.

Tunick insisted that the Dead Sea shoot was not about challenging the region’s delicate religious sensitivities or the turmoil and conflict associated with the Middle East.

He said his aim is to deliver an environmental message highlighting the plight of the world’s lowest and saltiest body of water, which is rapidly drying up.

‘Hopefully my work with this will be associated with the human-made natural disaster at hand, and not with war,’ he said.

Tunick’s has shot nude installations in Australia, the U.S., Brazil, France, England, Spain, Switzerland, Holland and Austria.

The artist has been documenting the nude figure in public through photography and video since 1992.

His largest work to date involved 18,000 people posing in Mexico City in 2007.

He has said the title of the work refers to the sameness of individuals, regardless of their sexual preferences.

Mr Tunick maintains his work is not about exhibitionism or eroticism but instead he reveals the vulnerability of life in a rough city landscape.
However sometimes authorities have disagreed, particularly in the U.S., where Tunick has been arrested seven times. (Daily Mail)

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They’re wet and just wild about breaking the world record for the largest number of people ever to shower together.

Temperatures soared as 152 people – many girls in bikinis – washed their way into the record books on Bournemouth beach. They lathered up under a giant six-metre shower structure.

The bid organised by Lynx beat the previous record set in America two years ago when 145 people showered together in Illinois.

Anna Orford, the official adjudicator for Guinness World Records, said: ‘The people of Bournemouth have to be applauded for getting into the spirit of the day and taking a shower together.

‘Their reward is a new record for the most people showering simultaneously at the same venue. Congratulations to everyone involved.’

Festival goers will also be given the chance to enjoy the the ultimate shower experience – including music from top DJs – when it goes on tour to V Festival at Hylands Park next weekend. (Daily Mail)

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A bold group of mothers gave a new meaning to the term ‘flashmob’ when they bared their breasts at a major shopping centre today to raise awareness of breastfeeding.

More than a hundred mothers of all ages – some accompanied by their partners – descended on the Trafford Centre in Manchester to feed their babies in front of stunned shoppers to promote the start of NHS-backed National Breastfeeding Awareness Week.

The proud women bore all in full view of customers sitting in the shopping centre cafes to highlight the health benefits of breastfeeding.

A stunned onlooker said: ‘It’s not every day you see that many breasts while out doing your shopping. I suppose it’s a good way of getting people to listen to the message. I fully support them.’

The Trafford Centre is backing National Breastfeeding Awareness Week 2011 – which runs from Sunday 19th to Saturday 25th June, backed by the NHS Infant Breastfeeding Services – and has recently refurbished its breastfeeding facilities for shoppers.

One mother, Jade Fitzmartin, 18, from Atherton, Greater Manchester, said: ‘It’s great to get together for such a good cause as we all know how important breastfeeding is. The flashmob was a really exciting thing to be part of, although in normal circumstances I would probably prefer to use the breastfeeding facilities here.

‘All new mums should take it seriously as an option when midwives and health visitors discuss it with them.’

Organiser of the flash mob event, Alison Healey, Breastfeeding Coordinator at NHS Ashton, Leigh and Wigan, said there were a number of advantages linked to choosing to breastfeed.

These included a lowered likelihood of common health complaints in babies such as diarrhoea, ear and chest infections and eczema and an improved immune system.

‘The likelihood of a healthy life for babies is greatly enhanced by parents choosing to breastfeed instead of feeding their baby with formula milk.

‘When a new mum chooses to breastfeed she is also greatly benefitting her own health as it can also help her to lose the weight she might have gained in pregnancy and lower the risk of some cancers.

‘New mums should feel proud of their decision to breastfeed and know that they can get support from their local Midwives and Health Visitors.’

Gordon McKinnon, Director of Operations at The Trafford Centre, said: ‘We’re a family friendly centre, which means we’re fully supportive of mums who make the decision to breastfeed. If they require a comfortable, private space in which to feed their child we have four sets of dedicated facilities including our new Laura Ashley-designed breastfeeding suite, but we consider most public spaces appropriate and our retailers are equally understanding.’ (Daily Mail)

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They may all be dressed in waterproofs – but they’re plainly happy.

This crowd of up to 768 people grouped together to dress in black and yellow to create the biggest human smiley in the world on Zagreb’s main square.

Their efforts today were said to have broken the Guinness World Record, smashing the previous record, which involved 551 participants and was reached in the Latvian capital of Riga.

The Croatian city has also been the setting for another unusual record – the most socks worn on one foot.

The number of 150 achieved by Krunoslav Budiselic (Croatia) at City Centar One in Zagreb, Croatia, on 13 November 2010.

Budiselic needed 45 minutes to apply the 150 socks on his right foot. (Daily Mail)

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Here are a group of guys who always enjoy a good day at the office.

They are the 58 competitors reaching speeds of up to 22mph racing down a steep hill in a sleepy German town.

It was the third running of the German office chair championships – and each year the entrants get increasingly bizarre.

Pierre Feller, from Luxembourg, took the title in the Bad König-Zell, in Hesse, on Saturday, completing the 600ft downhill run in just 26.95 seconds.

Competition organiser René Karg told www.local.de: ‘His lying-down technique was sensational!’

Strict rules are in place for competitors. They are allowed to fit inline skate wheels and handles to their chairs, but no motorised aids are permitted.

Mr Karg added: ‘We check each chair in advance.’

The participants race in pairs wearing protective padding as they launch themselves from a ramp.

Second and third places were won by Andreas Ripper and Finn-Jan Rucktäschel.

Heiko Winter won the best-designed chair. His effort was fitted with a horse’s head and a saddle and he was dressed as a cowboy. (wrapup)

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A group of keen cooks in China have set a new Guinness World Record for making the longest handmade noodle and it’s over a mile long.

The 1,704-metre-long stretch took 25 minutes to make and was showed off during a noodle-making activity at a square in the county of Dali Bai, in Southwest China’s Yunnan province.

A total of 15 kilograms of flour and 2.5 kilograms of oil were used in the creation of the noodle.

The production took place under the supervision of a chef, surnamed Su, and thousands of participants dressed in traditional outfits, got their hands dirty to beat the record.

The new record managed to beat one set last year by chefs in Melfi in Italy, who created a noodle more than 100 metres long, to celebrate the region’s annual chestnut festival in October.

That noodle required 130 kilograms of chestnut flour.

Head chef Antonio Zazzerini said at the festival last year: ‘It took all day to create but about five minutes to eat.’ (Metro)

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It was a gathering of thousands of kings, queens and bishops… not to mention rooks, knights and pawns.

In an event fit for royalty, 20,480 people descended on cricket stadium in Ahmedabad, India, to break the world record for simultaneous chess games.

The fest of chess – a game thought to have originated in India – surpassed the previous record set four years ago, when a mere 13,446 showed up in Mexico City.

Participants in were put into 64 blocks of tables, forming a massive black-and-white chess board which could be seen high above the GMDC ground.

Among the throng was grand master and current world champion Viswanathan Anand, who delighted fellow Indians at the gathering in the northern city.

‘It is no doubt one of the best days of my life,’ he told the Hindustan Times.

‘I’ve never seen a chess event of this scale. I am sure we will produce many more world masters now.’

The special representative from the Guinness Book of World Records, Tarika Vara, said at the conclusion that it was indeed a record.

‘I am truly amazed with the talent and turnout here. It is a great pleasure to announce that 20,480 played chess at this place simultaneously, and have created a new world record,’ she announced.

Mr Anand later played simultaneous chess against 64 players, including Bollywood film star Paresh Rawal, during the Christmas Eve event.

It is fitting that the record should be broken in India.

The game, which has seen a popular resurgence among Indians in recent decades, is thought to have originated in the country in the 6th century.

The game’s present form emerged in Europe during the second half of the 15th century, an evolution of an older Indian game, caturanga.

Its pieces represented the four divisions of the Gupta empire’s military – infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariotry.

These pieces later evolved into the modern pawn, knight, bishop, and rook, respectively.

A chess-like game was also played in 7th century Perisa, where it came to be known under the name chatrang.

Chatrang was taken up by the Muslim world after the Islamic Conquest of Persia (633–644), where it was then named shatranj, from the Persian word for king, shah

Muslim traders from North Africa are then said to have taken the game to Europe in the 10th century.

In Spanish ‘shatranj’ was rendered as ajedrez (from the Arabic’al-shatranj’), while the English term chess is said to be derived from the shah. (Mail Online)

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American daredevil Jonathan Trappe took these stunning images as he flew a cluster of helium balloon 18,000 feet above Mexico, the heights normally reserved for birds and aircraft..

The adventurer, who made history by floating over the English Channel dangling from balloons in May, did his latest stunt to celebrate the Mexican bicentennial.

He took off in the craft made up of the Mexican flag colours while at the Festival International Del Globo 2010 earlier in November.

Trappe, 37, controlled his altitude by releasing air in his durable high performance balloons, reaching speeds of 18-50 mph.

Jonathan and his ten ground support crew travelled an astonishing 100 miles from Leon to Colorado in Mexico.

He captured these stunning images from a balloon-mounted camera as he made the journey.

Dressed in protective sunglasses and a pair of blue jeans, Trappe called the journey ‘outstanding’ and said he was ‘wonderfully inspired’ by his trip. (wrapup)

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Hurtling towards the ground at a speed of up to 200mph, these 41 brave and adventurous ladies have just set the new women’s free-fly world record.

Falling headfirst in a dive-bomb as opposed to a more traditional horizontal descent, the team more than doubled the number of women in the previous world record.

Female skydivers from across the world took off in three propeller aircraft from Sky Dive Arizona airfield in Eloy in the American desert state.

Diving from 16,500ft, the 41 fearless high speed record breakers linked arms for only 50 seconds as they joined together to hold formation and break the limit.

And according to organiser Amy Chmelecki, the experience has been ‘exhilarating’.

The 37-year-old said: ‘We have been planning and training for this record for the past two years and have gathered together our crew using ads on Facebook, MySpace and sky diving magazines.

‘Because the record is so dangerous and skilled we have been holding regular training camps at Sky Dive Arizona.

‘Nothing though is quite like the feeling of the whole event coming together to know that we have smashed the record by a factor of times two.’

Opening their parachutes at 6,500 ft, the ladies of Sky Dive Arizona hit speeds close to 200 mph during their dive.

The team are all experienced skydivers who volunteered to take part in the challenge during the past few months.The breathtaking stunt was captured on film by American aerial photographer Norman Kent.

The 52-year-old – a veteran of taking incredible images while plummeting at several feet every second – was armed with his trusty ‘head cam’ rig, which allows him to take shots mid-fall.

‘This was a very dangerous jump because of the speed and the exactness of the skydivers to get into position,’ said Kent.

‘There is the misconception of terminal velocity out there. You can increase your speed as you fall and you don’t necessarily fall at a constant speed.

‘That is the struggle for the ladies of this record. To all match up and fall at the same rate at the same time during their 50 second to 1 minute fall.’ (Daily Mail)

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Springs were in the air yesterday when the world record for human mattress dominoes was broken.

The attempt was made by Palantine Beds, in Newcastle, and saw 400 mattresses toppled – beating the current world record set by a team in America.

After four months of planning, the team behind the event were last night celebrating in style.

The firm’s sales and marketing manager Andrew Waters, is now awaiting official confirmation from the Guinness Book if World Records that his team are now the current world record holders in human mattress dominoes.

Mr Waters said: ‘We didn’t have the turnout we were hoping for so we had to improvise.

The first two rows that toppled then had to pick their mattresses up and run around and join the end. But it actually made the whole thing more exciting to be honest.

‘It was a great morning. I had a lump in my throat at the end of it.’

Until two weeks ago, the world record as held by a group in China, who toppled 256 mattresses in May this year.

Then a team in New York toppled 380 mattresses, making the record harder to beat.

But yesterday’s attempt saw 400 mattresses fall, after colleagues from Palantine Beds, owned by Newcastle City Council, Your Homes in Newcastle (YHN), and other volunteers, took three minutes and 41 seconds to set a new record. (roundup)

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