He may be crazy, and he may be doing it to prevent the “3,000 deaths” that “global warming” causes each week, but Alain Robert is certainly a badass. As is the guy who decided to just go ahead and climb the building too. His next project? “He can climb the walls inside his jail cell at Rikers,” arresting officials said.
Check out the story here.
This Newsweek article offers tips on driving in the worlds most hazardous, pothole infested, predator laden war zones. If you’re planning a little excursion to such a place, it might be worth your while to avail yourself of Andrew Ehrenkranz ’s tips.
Here’s a quick tip from the article: “Throughout Africa professional drivers are advised to drive fast through hostile areas…This makes no sense. If, for example, you are fired upon while driving, it is even harder to control the vehicle traveling at a high speed.”
Check out this video…
The Tarahumara are an indigenous people of Northern Mexico, who are known for running extremely long distances of up to 600 miles (originally barefoot) to reach distant villages. They also used their running skills for badass hunting, where they chased the deer, rabbits and other prey until the animals literally dropped dead from exhaustion. And if that weren’t enough running, the Tarahumara also ran for fun, running races and relays and playing running games, usually involving kicking a ball over long distances or using a hoop and stick while running.
Check out this documentary for more on the Tarahumara
If you think William Wallace, Blackbeard, and Sikhs are badasses, or if you’d like to convert to a Norse religion, check out The Badass of the Weekfor brilliant coverage on those subjects. You might just learn something from the author (Amazing Ben’s) rollicking coverage of historical badasses. (And now you know. And knowing is half the battle.)
If you’re the Men’s Journal reader type, then you can check out what they have to say on how you, too, can become a badass. Such as, mastering the art of brooding.
Apparently, 7-year old Keats Boyd just became the youngest person ever to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa’s loftiest peak. As long as the ankle biter didn’t get too many piggy back rides on the hike up, he gets an official BR Badass Kid Award. He should wait a few years before trying his tiny hand on any more difficult climbs. It is most certainly not badass to become famous by making your kid suffer through the Seven Summits…or worse.
Check out the video here
Follow team INSPI(RED)’s summit attempt on this slick and glossy blog.
Everest’s lost some of its badass luster in my eyes, thanks to idiots and wannabes. I mean, it’s still the world’s highest mountain, which does smack of badass-ness, but it’s been turned into a debacle apparently. The million dollar question-heh- is climbing Mount Everest for the greater glory of AIDS prevention badass or not?
A 101 year old Britsh man, Buster Martin, plans to run the London Marathon on April 13th. He’s doing this to raise money for charity.
Says the spry centenarian, “If I finish, I’ll do what I always do and have a pint and a fag.”
Looks like poor buster didn’t complete his marathon. Oh well. There’s always next year.
POSSIBLE SUCCESS: British press reports that Buster walked the course in a little over 10 hours. His finish time was not recorded since the course was taken down after the time limit. If it is true that he finished (and that he is actually 101 as he claims) he now holds the record as the oldest marathoner, stealing the title from 98 year old Dimitrion Yordanidis. But apparently the Guiness Book of World Records won’t list him, since his age has not been verified.
It was the Indiana Jones trilogy that orignially convinced me, an impressionable kindergartener, to become a professional badass. I’ve been waiting literally my whole life for this next installment. Here’s the trailer!
The badass for today is the brand-spanking-new Academy Award winner Diablo Cody, writer of Juno. It’s badass enough to win an Oscar for a funny, fresh film. But Diablo makes the cut because of her penchant for living the life and breaking the rules. The writer and serial blogger has documented her exploits as a legal secretary and an unlikely stripper in her blogs Blue Secretary and Pussy Ranch. At the age of 24, she went on to publish a memoir about her experiences in the adult industry, Candy Girl: A Year in The Life of an Unlikely Stripper. If you can’t get enough Diablo, you can hold out for her television series The United States of Tara, which will begin filming in the spring.
In the mean time, roll on over to Diablo’s myspace and congratulate her on her new little gold baby.
Ex-SAS soldier and movie stuntman Steve Truglia has announced his intent to break the record for the world’s highest skydive by jumping 120,000 feet (to smash the previous record of 102,000 held by American Joseph Kittinger.) In the fall, he will jump from a hot air ballon 24 miles in the air, at the very edge of the atmosphere. He will freefall for over seven minutes before opening his parachute.
There a few hazards, of course. Steve will have to wear a space suit and oxygen to protect him against the low oxygen density, lack of pressure, and temperatures as low as -100 degrees Celsius that he’ll encounter at the edge of space. It’s quite possible that he’ll fall so fast that he’ll break the 770mph sound barrier, which has never been breached by a human body free falling outside of an air or spacecraft. And since nobody’s ever done it before, we don’t know what’s going to happen to Steve’s fragile little body.
It’s a bit risky to say the least. Steve probably knows better than anyone else that he quite possibly could lose his life in the attempt. But you can’t be a badass if you don’t risk anything can you? The man has coordinated stunts for James Bond Films. You can’t do that without street cred (air cred?), can you?
Good luck to Steve Truglia. We’ll be cheering for you! Let me know where I can send the check so you can jump with a Badass Review sticker affixed to your spacesuit. Of course, the sticker will probably burn when you reach 770mph, but that’s badass in itself.
Read more on Steve’s Site
UPDATE: Jump Scheduled for July 2008.
