December 13, 2011
The Idiotarod is a shopping cart race in which teams of five ‘idiots’ tie themselves to a (sometimes modified) shopping cart and run through the streets of a major metropolitan area. The race usually features people in costumes and themed floats. The races are fun competitions where sabotage, costume, and presentation are rewarded. Sabotage such as tripping competitors, throwing marbles or large obstacles in their paths, and the spreading of misinformation such as false route information are common.
The Idiotarod is named after the Iditarod, a 1,000 mile dog-sledding race in Alaska. Idiotarods take place in Austin, Boston, Chicago, Denver, New York City, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, Seattle, St. Louis, Toronto, Los Angeles, Vancouver and Washington, D.C. though the original race was founded in San Francisco in 1994 as the ‘Urban Iditarod.’
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November 22, 2011
Beer pong, also known as Beirut [bey-root], is a drinking game in which players throw a ping pong ball across a table with the intent of landing the ball in a cup of beer on the other end. The game typically consists of two two-to-four-player teams and multiple cups set up, in triangle formation, on each side. There are no official rules, and rules may vary widely, though usually there are six or ten plastic cups on each side. Each side then takes turns attempting to shoot ping pong balls into the opponent’s cups. If a ball lands in a cup, then the contents of that cup are consumed, and the cup is either placed aside or reinserted into the triangle. If the cup is reinserted and the other team knocks the cup over, it is removed. If the opposing team throws the ball into an empty cup, they must consume the contents of one of their cups. The first side to eliminate all of the opponent’s cups is the winner.
The order of play varies—both players on one team shoot followed by both players on the other team, or players on opposite teams can alternate back and forth. Beer pong is played at parties, North American colleges and universities, bars, and elsewhere, such as tailgating or other sporting events.
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October 28, 2011
A child beauty pageant is a beauty contest featuring contestants including and younger than 18 years of age. Divisions include talent, interview, sportswear, casual wear, swim wear, western wear, theme wear, outfit of choice, decade wear, and evening wear, typically wearing makeup as well as elaborate hairstyles. The contestants wear custom fitted and designed outfits to present their routines on stage.
Some pageants do their best to make every child feel like a winner. There is a queen for every age division and there are Ultimate Grand Supreme awards, Mini supreme queens for certain blocks of age divisions (0-5, 6-11, 12-16, 17 and up). There are also side awards and overall side awards. Pageants may cater to the ‘natural’ contestant (who typically wears minimal makeup, only her own hair, no false teeth, no spray tan, and unmanicured nails) and/or the ‘high glitz’ contestant (who typically uses any and all of the above listed techniques to enhance her appearances).
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October 23, 2011
A pub quiz is a quiz held in a public house (or pub for short). Origins of the pub quiz are unclear but there is little evidence of them existing before 1970 in the United Kingdom. Pub quizzes (also known as live trivia, or table quizzes) are often weekly events and will have an advertised start time, most often in the evening. While specific formats vary, most pub quizzes depend on answers being written in response to questions which may themselves be written or announced by a quizmaster.
Generally someone (either one of the bar staff or the person running the quiz) will come around with pens and quiz papers, which may contain questions or may just be blank sheets for writing the answers on. A mixture of both is common, in which case often only the blank sheet is to be handed in. Traditionally a member of the team hands the answers in for adjudication to the quiz master or to the next team along for marking when the answers are called.
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September 11, 2011
Figure 8 racing is a form of automobile racing that combines elements of oval racing, demolition derby, and road racing. Racing is done on a track shaped like an 8. The cars cross paths at the center of the 8, which is known as the ‘crossover.’ Because of this layout, crashes are inevitable. Figure 8 racing is a unique sport that requires strict attention to detail and timing to successfully navigate the crossover. The oldest operating figure 8 track in the United States is Indianapolis Speedrome in Indianapolis, Indiana. The track has been in operation since the 1940s. It hosts the annual World Figure 8 race, which is considered the world championship event. The first 3 hour long endurance race was held in 1977.
Figure 8 track racing began right after World War II in the late 1940s. The track may have had an overpass so that the cars did not cross each other’s paths. Most historians believe that the first track where drivers crossed each other’s paths was the 1/5 mile long Indianapolis Speedrome. The sport received nationwide publicity when it was frequently televised on ABC’s ‘Wide World of Sports’ in the 1960s, usually from the Islip Speedway in New York. The cars used are often standard cars, but are usually modified for lightness and safety. A wing much like a sprint car may be placed on the roof to increase downforce. The cars’ bodies are typically made out of sheet metal.
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July 19, 2011
A Sound clash is a musical competition where crew members from opposing reggae sound systems pit their skills against each other. Sound clashes take place in a variety of venues, both indoors and outdoors. Primarily featuring reggae (or dancehall) music, the object is to beat or ‘kill’ their competitors. In the early days of sound clashes, in Jamaican dancehall culture, sound systems would bring their own sound equipment–heavy bass sounds (that can be heard miles away) are especially important. A strong selection of contemporary, popular dubs is necessary also; sometimes sound systems paid artists for the exclusive use of dubs. Usually the Sound systems in the sound clash will play for a set time, perhaps 30 minutes before switching. This time interval gets shorter and shorter, so when playing returns to one sound again, they may only play a shorter time. Near the end of the clash they go song on song or ‘Dub fi dub.’
In Jamaica, sound clashes with their ‘violently martial ethos’ date back at least to the 1950s, when sound systems like Tom the Great Sebastian and Duke Reid’s the Trojan clashed in the old Back-O-Wall neighborhood of Kingston (now Tivoli Gardens). Sometimes these clashes were violent, with one system destroying the other system’s equipment. Sound clashes are an integral part of black culture in London as portrayed in the cult movie Babylon, at the same time that real-life sound systems such as Jah Shaka and Ital Lion were competing for supremacy in Deptford which is in The London Borough of Lewisham a traditional West-Indian area of South London.
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June 30, 2011
RoboCup is an international robotics competition founded in 1997. The aim is to develop autonomous soccer robots with the intention of promoting research and education in the field of artificial intelligence.
The name RoboCup is a contraction of the competition’s full name, “‘Robot Soccer World Cup,’ but there are many other stages of the competition such as ‘Search and Rescue’ and ‘Robot Dancing.’ The official goal of the project: ‘By mid-21st century, a team of fully autonomous humanoid robot soccer players shall win the soccer game, complying with the official rule of the FIFA, against the winner of the most recent World Cup.’
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June 11, 2011
A Googlewhack is a type of a contest for finding a Google search query consisting of exactly two words without quotation marks, that returns exactly one hit. A Googlewhack must consist of two actual words found in a dictionary. A Googlewhack is considered legitimate if both of the searched-for words appear in the result page.
Published googlewhacks are short-lived, since when published to a web site, the new number of hits will become at least two, one to the original hit found, and one to the publishing site. The term Googlewhack first appeared on the web at UnBlinking in 2002; the term was coined by Gary Stock. Subsequently, Stock created The Whack Stack, at googlewhack.com, to allow the verification and collection of user-submitted Googlewhacks.
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April 26, 2011
The Cardboard Tube Fighting League (CTFL) is a global organization that hosts cardboard tube based events in Seattle, Washington; San Francisco, California; and Sydney, Australia. The CTFL hosts tournaments and battles where cardboard tube fighters go head-to-head in an attempt to break their opponents tube without breaking their own.
The events also focus on cardboard costumes and theatrics. These events are often held at public parks throughout the summer, are open to everyone ages 5 and up, and emphasize fun over competition. Cardboard tubes are provided and all events are free for participants.
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April 26, 2011
Ringolevio [ring-uh-lee-vee-oh] is a children’s game which may be played anywhere but which originates in the streets of Depression era New York City. In some quarters this game is known as Manhunt which is really another game with different rules. Both are among the many variations of tag. Ringolevio requires close team work and near-military strategy.
There are two teams, each has its own ‘jail,’ perhaps a park bench or other defensible turf. Anyone on the pursuing side can catch anyone on the pursued side by grabbing hold of them and chanting ‘Chain chain double chain, no break away’ or (‘Ringolevio, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3’) If the person pursued breaks free at any point during this brief recitation, the person is not caught. If caught, the pursuer takes the prisoner to jail. The game ends when one team catches all the members of the opposing team.
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April 20, 2011
The High Times Cannabis Cup is the world’s preeminent Cannabis festival. Founded in 1987 by Steven Hager, the contest takes place each November in Amsterdam. The event allows judges from around the world to sample and vote for their favorite marijuana strains. These judges-at-large decide the Cannabis Cup (overall winner in the cannabis strain competition), best new product, best booth, best glass, best hash and best Nederhash (a slate-like hash variety). A team of VIP judges decide which seed company has grown the best marijuana.
Recently, High Times created the Medical Cannabis Cup – an event that celebrates the medical marijuana movement in America. The first High Times Medical Cannabis Cup took place in San Francisco in June of 2010. To be a judge one must pay an extra fee, which allows the attendee to vote upon the many different strains. The judge’s pass sells for $199 USD prior to June 1 after which the price increases to $250 USD. A judge’s pass costs 250 euros if purchased at the event. The highest recorded participation was in 2008 with 2,300 judges.
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April 14, 2011
Downhill biking (DH) is a gravity-assisted time trial mountain biking event. Riders race against the clock, usually starting at intervals of 30 seconds (seeded from slowest to fastest), on courses which typically take two to five minutes to complete. Riders are timed with equipment similar to that used in Downhill skiing. The placing is determined by the fastest times to complete the course; races are often won by margins of under a second.
As the name of this discipline implies, downhill races are held on steep, downhill terrain with no extended climbing sections, resulting in high speed descents with extended air time off jumps and other obstacles. Portugal is the host country of a Unique variety of down hill races, the Urban Down Hill, known as the ‘Lisbon Down Town,’ held annually in May. The ‘Cerro Abajo’ race in Valparaiso, Chile is another annual urban downhill event.
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