Both now and always there were madcaps who lack adrenaline. OUTLOOK came up with the own selection of the most dangerous feats in the past century.
Today Syrets doesn’t seem like the most “extreme” district of Kiev however it was there where in summer of 1913 in the times of Russian patriot games Pyotr Nesterov demonstrated the loop-the-loop to the world. This enormously tough maneuver has become classics of stunt flying. Amazingly but airmanship master himself was so sure of his preliminary calculations that he didn’t even fasten his safety belt when performing the feat.
But not all the brave men count on machines. Frenchman Philippe Petit in order to make it to the history only needed a tightrope, a balance pole and incredible courage of course. In 1974 he without any safety walked the rope tight between New York’s Twin Towers at the height of 450 meters. Sadly, at that time by no means all could have afforded making video therefore only photos remain. The feat wasn’t registered officially because Petit was performing it illegally – right after the “passage” he was taken away by the police for some time. Frenchman’s courage was appreciated only 35 years later – in 2009 Oscar-winning documentary “Man on Wire” where the event is described from the horse’s mouth.
American family of Knievels made it into golden pages of history of stuntman art. In middle 1970s the head of the family, Evel, successfully jumped on a bike over 14 busses. He flew a 35-meter distance then. In 2008 his sun Robbie dedicated to the memory of his father a new record when he covered over 60 meters in the air.
Meanwhile French Spiderman Alen Robert notorious for his skyscraper climbing in early 2013 made it to world news once again. He climbed world’s highest building – Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai as high as 800 meters. It took the daredevil 6 hours to master it.
Balance of Norwegian Eskil Rønningsbakken is perfectly fine. At that it doesn’t matter how much money he has on his account. Most important is that he counterpoises wonderfully. Feats of the Scandinavian are incredible, his every appearance means accuracy to a millimeter because height is usually egregious… Equilibrist says that when a little child he saw a yogi on TV and promised himself to outdo him.
On the outskirts of Bangkok there is a zoo where world’s most valiant animal trainers work. Not only these guys feel themselves as equals to crocodiles, they are physically as strong as the predators. I don’t know what a person thinks when putting a head into the animal’s powerful jaws but the audience is thrilled about that.
Sure enough, there is no forgetting about Felix Baumgartner and his jump from the stratosphere in October 2012. The Austrian flew 39 kilometers in about 3 minutes and broke the sound barrier. The stunt man himself assures that he is “no adrenaline junky but a person who is interested in solving complicated tasks…” Experts say that at such height in case of the tiniest containment failure Felix would have died. Well, and pressure issue is still in force – the Austrian lost consciousness for a couple of seconds but it all came out a success and the parachute opened even a little earlier than scheduled. The jump was broadcasted live in the Internet and riveted attention of about 8 million watchers.
If your fingers already itch to commit something outstanding, we hasten to warn you: don’t try to repeat all of these by yourself because the listed feats are potentially lethal!
Stereotypes are terrible. They form a definite picture of the world in our heads, and it is not so easy to change. Take, for instance, the concept of skyscraper: imagination of 90% people immediately provoke skyline of American cities, familiar from movies and TV. It is quite logical, but nowadays panorama of the best luxury skyscrapers is in other direction – keep moving to the East. For Arab structures may outdo Western ones in all respects.
There’s hardly anything that compares to bright-starred sky and silence. It is the stars that OUTLOOK want to tell you about or more precisely about the places with the best view on them. In Europe it is recommended to go stargazing not to some place but to… Slovenia. Point is, this small country is one of the cleanest in the world and consequently isn’t that polluted with smog.
The first thing every tourist shall learn in a country is a transport system. Very often it seems to be complicated and confusing, and it takes weeks or even months to make head or tail of it. OUTLOOK reader Natalia Usenko visited Japan and is sharing her impressions about the most comfortable and safest transport in the world.
A mini toast, a slice of cheese and a sip of strong coffee. "That is not a buffet!" a waiter will pronounce indignantly, looking at the disgruntled tourist’s face. The generous Ukrainian soul cannot understand how locals manage to eat their full with that. Therefore, before going to a new country, you need to know exactly whether in the evening you should prepare a couple of sandwiches to indulge them in the morning,...
Next ‘character’ of our cycle about symbolic means of public transport is yellow cab of New York. It is impossible to imagine the Big Apple and especially its centre, Manhattan, without those bright and incredibly handy cars. Seemingly, there are more “checkers” than people.
Do you happen to get hungry? That is great as we go on with our story about the most popular street food from around the world. It’s freshly cooked - fall to, you guys! Let's start with the South Asian countries, namely Singapore - seafood-rich in vitamins and minerals occupy a key place in the diet of residents ...
For better or worse, travelling to distant planets and stars exists only on the pages of science fiction and in Hollywood film industry. Although the possibility of space tourism crept close, yet, Jupiter and Saturn are still way not close. Nevertheless, from long ago there are special objects that seem to shrink the universe making it accessible. We are talking about planetariums and observatories.
Profession of a chimney-sweep has recently entered the list of the most rear occupations in the world. And as far back as some hundred years ago almost every European citizen was able to tell a lot of interesting things about these guys doomed to be covered in smear. We didn’t invent a time machine but we managed to get some facts about representatives of this vanishing trade.
Airports, railway and bus stations are almost always erected at a human whim, while ports and harbours are joint creation of homo sapiens and nature. In this article OUTLOOK presents you the most beautiful port destinations with their own unique character worth exploring.
All of us, one way or another, strive for freedom, personal or national, material or spiritual, which is illusory and unachievable, and at the same time very real in terms of our ideas about it. An alternative village of Christiania in the centre of the Danish capital is another attempt to achieve complete freedom from the laws of the material world.
When sending stuff to trash can or throwing it away to a dumpster we don’t suspect that it doesn’t always mean death for it, now and then even in the contrary – it is a beginning of a new life…
For sailors to round Cape Horn situated in the very South of Argentina is a success that equals to Everest ascent for alpinists. Rush under sails around “sailor’s graveyard” defying gigantesque waves and hurricane wind turned out a success for the first time on January, 29, 1616.
Except for Russian-speaking countries, nowhere else a round metal attraction is called a devil’s wheel. Named after its creator, Ferris wheel first opened panorama of Chicago city from 80-meter height in 1893. Since then rotating upright wheels with multiple passenger cabins began to spring up almost in every big city. OUTLOOK offers you to learn about the most impressive observation wheels.
A few centuries ago sea transport was not just the most popular, but the only way to get from point A to point B. However, as you know, force majeure occur on any roads, even on water routs, and through a long history of mankind many ships did not manage to reach their destination ports and ended underwater. Nevertheless, the relative "reservation" allows wreck vessels to live a second life as a museum.
In already distant year 1920 authorities of the United States adopted a surprising regulation: prohibition to.... send children by mail. Such a decision may seem weird in 21st century however almost a hundred years ago it was treated with understanding which means that there were caring parents who did send their kids in packages... We talk about amusing accidents that occur in work of post services.
It is an open secret that this world is full of paradoxes. OUTLOOK, in its turn, tries to figure them out therefore today we’ll tell about armed forces of the world’s most militarized state that, however, hasn’t been at war with anyone for over two centuries. Our feature is about the army of Switzerland.
OUTLOOK cannot imagine life without travelling. However, tickets, schedules, tardiness – all those things can spoil any trip. Therefore it is great to have either at home or in you garage a kind of transport that can allow you to see and to experience something new and forget all the problems.
When touring this small-sized but very exciting country through the length and breadth, our OUTLOOK team selected unusual facts about it. We bet you did not know that familiar to us "at" sign @ in the Hebrew is called "strudel"? It is. Keep on reading and we'll tell you more interesting things most of which you have never suspected!
In the nooks of Earth we want to talk about people live according to very specific rules of nature. Here rains don’t start out of the blue and frosts don’t come unexpectedly. It’s much more serious. Should a good wind once bring you there, you’ll be prepared and may have a grateful memory of OUTLOOK.
