Orlando, Florida’s Rory Helzer will be racing head and shoulders above the field Sunday as he attempts to break six world records while he competes in a marathon on a pair of 44-inch aluminum stilts. Helzer is hoping to earn the nod as the fastest person to cover one mile, 5K, 8K, 10K, half-marathon and marathon on a pair of conventional (nonspring-loaded) stilts. To trounce current world records, he’ll need to hit the first mile in less than 12 minutes and 23 seconds and then beat a 19:15 minute per mile for the marathon. Helzer, who took up stilt-walking as a Halloween bar gag about 30 years ago, filed his intent with Guinness World Records and will be accompanied along the route by a videographer to document his stilted feat.

A website that posts documents that are “classified, censored or otherwise opaque to the public record” has published 573,000 lines of messages sent to pagers on September 11, 2001. The messages were sent to private-sector and unclassified military pagers. The site, WikiLeaks, says: “From 3AM on Wednesday November 25, 2009, until 3AM the following day (US east coast time), WikiLeaks will release over half a million US national text pager intercepts. The intercepts cover a 24 hour period surrounding the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington. To foster a deeper understanding, the messages will be released to the global community “live”. That is, the first message, corresponding to 3AM September 11, 2001, five hours before the first attack, will be released at 3AM November 25, 2009 and the last, corresponding to 3AM September 12, 2001 at 3AM November 26, 2009. … The archive is a completely objective record of the defining moment of our time. We hope that its revelation will lead to a more nuanced understanding of the event and its tragic consequences.”

… The messages were were posted anonymously, but they appear to be authentic, according to a report by CBS News.

… Conspiracy theorists are “hoping that the messages will reveal a ’smoking gun’ showing that US intelligence agencies had advanced knowledge of the attacks.”

Toe Wrestling - It apparently started when a group of men at a pub decided to find or invent a game that “the British could actually win,” and after a few beverages, they came up with just the thing. Ironically, the first-ever World Toe Wrestling Championships ended with a Canadian victor.

Cheese Rolling - You’ve likely heard of this one, but it’s too weird to leave out of the article. Every year at Cooper’s Hill in England’s Cotswolds, a large wheel of cheese is sent tumbling from the top of the hill…and a bunch of Cheese Rollers come tumbling after. The first person to reach the bottom of the hill wins the cheese. Injuries have included concussions, broken bones and sprained ankles.

Extreme Ironing - It started out as just a fun, quirky hobby, but for the past several years an actual competition has taken place. Extreme Ironers send in a photo of themselves ironing in strange and extreme places and points are given for place and style.

Buzkashi – It sounds like something made up for Borat, but it’s a real sport in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, among others. It’s kind of like polo, except the focus of the game revolves around a decapitated goat or calf instead of a ball.

Cell Phone Throwing - Since 2001, the Mobile Phone Throwing World Championships have been held in Finland. Categories include the traditional toss, freestyle (points for creativity), team, and junior.

International Regatta of Bathtubs - This event was created to boost tourism in Dinant, Belgium. As you can imagine, bathtubs don’t float very well, so it’s a pretty entertaining “race.” In fact, speed really doesn’t matter at all when it comes to winning this thing. It’s more about the creativity of your tub and whether your tub actually makes it across the finish line or not.

Chess Boxing - The game started out as kind of a joke in a graphic novel, but people eventually picked up on it and thought it had merit in reality. The first world championship was held in 2003 and regulated by the World Chess Boxing Organization. Boxing rounds are alternated with chess-playing rounds; the winner can be determined by knockout, checkmate, or a decision made by the referee.

Unicycle Hockey - It would seem to me that unicycling and hockey each have enough opportunity for injury all on their own, but combine them and you’re almost guaranteed to get a cool scar at some point.

With the economy still struggling to recover and unemployment rates at their highest level in decades, overall holiday sales are expected to be down but that won’t stop that throng of dedicated deal finders from loading up their carts. If you’re one of those people, here’s what you can expect to find at some of the country’s largest retailers.

Target
Opening: 5:00AM

Deals: Target has been getting some press for offering a Westinghouse 32-inch LCD TV for $246 as well as select toasters and coffeemakers for $3. Additional deals on electronics such as HDTVs, DVD players, GPS units and cameras can net savings of up to 50%.

Extras: The store is offering a $10 gift card when you spend $100 or more from 5AM to noon on Friday.

Best Buy
Opening: 5:00AM

Deals: Many TVs will be 30% off. GPS units are 50% off. You can get up to 50% off major appliances and both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 are priced at $299.99.

Extras: How about your own safety? Learning from the recent disasters at stores like Wal-Mart, Best Buy will be handing out tickets for doorbuster deals guaranteeing the holder of that ticket the product ahead of time so there is no stampeding through the front door.

Kohl’s
Opening: 4:00AM

Deals: Up to 50-60% off jewelry, clothing and appliances and up to 70% off on housewares. Discounts of 50% can be had on some of their specially priced electronics.

Extras: “Early Bird” specials will run from 4AM to 1PM providing extra incentives on already discounted merchandise. Additionally, Kohl’s will offer $10 in “Kohl’s Cash” for every $50 spent.

Wal-Mart
Opening: 6:00AM on Thursday – In an effort to manage the crowds, many Wal-Mart retailers will open early on Thanksgiving and remain open 24 hours leading up to the deals starting at 5AM on Friday. Instead of waiting in the parking lot, shoppers will be able to enter the store and line up at in-store displays for the items they want.

Deals: Wal-Mart has been pretty tight lipped thus far about their Black Friday plans but it appears they’ll be offering deals on several smart phones with a two-year agreement including the AT&T Curve 8310 for free and the Bold 9000 for $78.88. HP notebooks for $298 also look to be on the list.

Extras: Like Best Buy, Wal-Mart has taken steps to manage the potential madness by opening Thursday instead of Friday. Given the negative publicity that came with a worker death last year, this should be a welcome change.

Home Depot
Opening: 6:00AM

Deals: Select power drills, nail guns and tool sets will be on sale for 50% off or more. Appliances like refrigerator/freezers and washer/dryer combos will be available for 30-50% off. Christmas trees and all the accessories will be on hand at deep discounts as well.

Extras: Don’t want to fight the crowds at the store? Try shopping Home Depot online and get free shipping on most orders over $49.

Toys ‘R Us
Opening: 12:00AM

Deals: You name it and it’ll probably be on sale. Bikes, video games and accessories, and electronics are all being marked down. You’ll find 50% off Razor scooters in addition to 50% or more off of selected VTECH, Little Tikes, Leapfrog, and Playskool merchandise.

Extras: You can get a $10 gift card with any purchase over $75. Plus, check out their “Biggest Big Book” for loads of deals that you can get before Black Friday.

Amazon.com
Opened: Monday, November 23rd – Amazon is replacing the Black Friday day with Black Friday WEEK. Starting Monday, you’ll find discounts on items like TVs, DVDs, Blu-Ray players and computers with deals continuing to be added throughout the week.

Deals: Amazon has been relatively silent about this year’s offerings but expect markdowns on everything from electronics to clothes to their trademark book selection. In fact, Amazon has already engaged Wal-Mart and Target in a price war by offering several new release titles for just $9.

Extras: Keep an eye out for the Gold Box where you’ll find discounts of up to 75% on specially marked items.

Sears
Opening: 4:00AM

Deals: In addition to digital cameras and GPS units, hot doorbuster deals this year consist of several specials on HDTVs including a Samsung 22-inch LCD TV for $249.99 and a Panasonic 42-inch plasma TV for $649.99.

Extras: Go online and enter the promo code “SEARS5OFF50? to receive an additional $5 off a $50 purchase.

In a new interview for Good Morning America, Octomom Nadya Suleman doesn’t dismiss the possibility of having more children. “If I wanted to do it the traditional way and get married, that’s like another chapter,” Suleman tells Good Morning America of getting pregnant again — but the prospect of more mouths to feed at the moment makes her laugh. The mother, interviewed in her home in La Habra, California, says that she typically sleeps two to three hours a night. She shares some staggering numbers: $1000 in food and 700 diapers per week, 4.5 gallons of milk and eight loads of laundry per day, and a team of five nannies costing $10,000 per month. Which is why, Suleman says, she agreed to allow a film documentary crew to follow her around for a series of specials (not a reality TV show), including one that’s already aired in the United Kingdom. Her payment: approximately $250,000 in the first year.

Just days after Nicole Johnson was crowned Miss California USA 2010, she’s already found a way to get her name in the news: uncovering a secret relationship with Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps. Johnson said, “Now that it is after the fact, I will admit that we were together. We agreed to keep this private because it was the only thing that he could keep private … we remain close friends.” Johnson claims the two dated for just over a year between 2007 and 2008.

Miley Cyrus holds nothing back when talking about her negative feelings about The Twilight Saga. “I think it’s like [a] cult… I think it’s a cult. I think it’s bad. I think it’s like, just people get too into it.” The huge box office success of New Moon does not phase the pop princess one bit. She even goes as far as comparing the Twi-hard craze to the public fascination with models. “For me, I think it’s like when guys look at supermodels and they’re like, ‘That’s the perfect girl,’ … That’s what those kind of movies do to us. They’re like thinking that’s what girls should be like and not everyone is going to be Edward, hate to say it.” Miley is definitely not anti-vamp, but she seems to be pro-pirate. “Johnny Depp is way hotter than Robert Pattinson, for sure.”

Lady Gaga spent $1,000 on pizza for fans waiting for her autograph. The singer ordered 80 cheese pizzas for people who were waiting for her autograph outside a Los Angeles store where she was scheduled to do a record signing.

Director and comic actor Tyler Perry has given $1 million to the NAACP in the largest gift ever by a single person to that civil rights group. The gift will be paid over the next four years and was made to commemorate the organization’s centennial anniversary.

A man was arrested after police said he left his 5-year-old son in a tractor-trailer while he ducked into an Indianapolis strip club to drink. The 39-year-old was arrested at 1:15am yesterday (Tuesday) on child neglect and public intoxication charges after calling police to report his truck stolen and his child missing. Police said the man was too drunk to remember where he had parked. They found the boy inside watching cartoons on a television inside the cab. The keys were in the ignition, and the doors were unlocked.