...you could pass the time composing new and wonderful ballads on these two themes, yet more evidence of the quirky neurotic streak that makes life on this remote planet so very quaint and amusing, eh?

LONDON (Reuters) - Viagra, the blockbuster anti-impotence drug, could help men scale ever
greater heights.

Scientists at Hammersmith Hospital in London have shown that the drug that gives a lift to flagging sex lives can also help people breathe more easily at high altitudes and on mountaineering expeditions where oxygen levels are low.

When Professor Martin Wilkins and scientists at the National Center for Cardiology in Kyrgyzstan tested Viagra on people breathing low levels of oxygen, they found that the same enzyme that constricts blood flow to the penis and prevents erections also produced breathlessness at high altitudes by constricting arteries in the lungs.  Viagra blocks the action of this enzyme.  Wilkins said it was an exciting discovery and could help people suffering from high blood pressure in the lungs. But he added a word of caution.  "It is important to stress that whilst this is an exciting discovery, there is still a need for clinical trials," Wilkins said.

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LONDON (Reuters) - Some
                                        people will do anything to get
                                        into the record books -- eat
                                        cockroaches, catapult coins or
                                        just sit around and navel-gaze.

                                        Australian Graham Barker has
                                        extracted his own belly button
                                        fluff every day since 1984,
                                        collecting a world record 0.54
                                        ounces.

                                        His collection, perfectly
                                        preserved and cataloged, is just
                                        one of the weird and wonderful
                                        feats recorded in the 2002
                                        edition of Guinness World
                                        Records, published on Friday.

              "Some people gaze into their navel for inspiration. I look into mine and see navel
              fluff," said Barker, whose ambition is to collect enough navel pickings to stuff a
              pillow.

              Briton Ken Edwards, a former rat-catcher and part-time entertainer, made it into the
              record book after eating 36 medium-sized cockroaches in one minute on March 5,
              2001.

              As part of his stage act he also stuffs 47 rats down a pair of pantyhose -- while
              wearing them.

              Then there is Monte Pierce, who can catapult a coin just under 12 feet with his ear --
              the world record for the furthest coin propulsion by an earlobe.

              Pierce, who started yanking his ears as a child, can also cover his eyes with his lobes
              and pull them down under his chin.

              Other bizarre record-breaking feats include the loudest burp, by Briton Paul Hunn,
              which registered 118.1 decibels -- comparable to a plane taking off, according to the
              record book.

              Sooty was crowned the most romantic guinea pig after fathering 43 babies during a
              single night of passion with 24 partners in December 2000.

              British actor Vic Gallucci holds the record for most appearances as a television extra.
              Since 1989 he has appeared 819 times as Detective Constable Tom Baker in police
              TV drama The Bill.

              He has yet to speak a line.

              Now in its 48th edition, Guinness World Records 2002 includes chapters on extreme
              sports, computer games, medical marvels and robots, as well as the classic fastest,
              slowest, tallest and smallest categories.