The Ron Howard/George Lucas (both USA) movie Willow (USA, 1988) was the first to make credible use of “morphing”, in which one image is metamorphosed seamlessly into another. The software used for the effect – in which a sorceress morphs into animals – was written for Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) by Doug Smyth (USA).
The earliest video arcade game was Computer Space, designed by Nolan Bushnell of Nutting Associates. The first of 1,500 machines was completed in the autumn of 1971. The game was a simple space battle simulation based on Spacewar! and, although Computer Space itself was not very successful, Bushnell went on to found Atari and produced the first commercially successful video game, Pong.
Danica Patrick (USA) made history by becoming the first woman to lead the Indianapolis 500, leading three times for 19 laps, in May 2005. Patrick, the fourth woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500, started the race fourth and finished fourth – the highest start and finish of any woman in the history of the event.
The first woman to fly an airplane with her feet is Jessica Cox (b. 2 February 1983, USA), who was able to gain her pilot’s licence on 10 October 2008 in spite of being born without arms. Jessica holds a Sport Pilot certificate, which qualifies her to fly a light-sport aircraft to altitudes of 10,000 feet. Flying a Ercoupoe, a plane manufactured in the mid-1940s compatible with her abilities, Jessica mans the controls with one foot and delicately guides the steering column with the other.
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Lynette Woodard (USA) joined the Harlem Globetrotters (USA) in 1985, becoming the first woman to play as a member of the world famous team of basketball entertainers. Woodard, a standout at Kansas University (USA), was captain of the 1984 U.S. Olympic gold-medal winning team and a member of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. She played professionally in Italy and Japan before finishing her career in the Women’s National Basketball Association with the Cleveland Rockers (USA) and Detroit Shock (USA).
As of October 2005, the fish with the largest repertoire of tricks is Albert Einstein, a 3 year old calico fantail goldfish who can perform 6 tricks such as playing football or performing limbo. He was trained by his owner Dean Pomerleau at the ‘Fish School’ in Gibsonia, United States. Albert’s tricks are: 1) Eat from Hand – self explanatory 2) Swim through hoop – Albert will wiggle through a hoop sideways that isn’t much bigger in diameter than his body. 3) Swim through a
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Ashrita Furman performed one mile of gymnastically correct forward rolls in 19 min. 11 sec. around Victory Field Track in Forest Park, Queens, New York, USA on November 25, 2000.
The furthest distance survived in a tornado is 398 m (1,307 ft) achieved by Matt Suter (USA) in Missouri, USA on, 12 March 2006. On 12 March 2006 19 year old Matt Suter (USA) was engulfed by a tornado while inside a mobile home near Fordland, Missouri, USA. Suter was knocked unconscious and awoke 398 m (1,307 ft) away in a nearby field with only minor injuries.
The longest control of a golf ball with one club is 1 hour 20 minutes 42 seconds and was achieved by Ashrita Furman (USA) at the Panorama Café in New York City, New York, USA, on 7 January 2010. A Wilson Sandy Andy sand wedge club was used for the attempt.
The longest distance for a grape thrown and self caught in the mouth is 21.18 m (69 ft 6 in) and was achieved by AJ Henderson (USA) on the set of ‘Guinness World Records Unleashed’ in San Pedro, California, USA, on 11 July 2013.