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Recordsetter is, its cofounder suggests, “kind of the Wikipedia to Guinness’ Encyclopedia Britannica.”

We believe everyone can be the world’s best at something. Our mission is to raise the bar of human achievement through world records.

• So wait, can anyone set a world record? Heck yes. All you need is a unique skill, a video camera and a bit of imagination. Beyond that, the rules are simple: records you submit must be quantifiable, breakable and include sufficient media evidence. Creativity is highly encouraged.
• What categories are acceptable? We make it our policy to never subjectively judge submissions, as long as our basic guidelines are followed. We strongly encourage feats that push human achievement in a positive direction. See our RecordSetter Principles below.
• How are submissions moderated? We rely on record setters to provide honest, accurate information about the records they’re submitting. Our approval process includes both community moderation and a round of input from our internal RecordSetter Council. We’re currently developing tools that will allow users greater control in editing submissions.

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As we reach for the stars… or the Starburst, we might spare a fanciful thought for Rodman Edward “Rod” Serling; he died on this date in 1975.  An award-winning screenwriter (e.g. the Peabody and Emmy Award-winning Requiem for a Heavyweight) and radio-television producer, he is surely best-remembered for his ground-breaking series The Twilight Zone.

Serling had run afoul of network pressure, even censorship, in his experience with Kraft Television Theater and Playhouse 90; he turned to the speculative fiction format believing that he could more easy fly under the network’s repressive radar– a strategy that allowed him to explore anti-war and anti-racist themes in episodes that won Emmy, Christopher, WGA, Hugo, and Golden Globe awards.

Ironically, it was the extraordinary quality of Serling’s writing that led to the phenomenon of re-runs on television:  His Patterns (for Kraft Television Theater) aired at a time when sponsors believed that creating new shows every week would yield the largest possible audience.  But response– from both viewers and critics– to Serling’s piece was so strong (it inspired New York Times critic Jack Gould to write an essay urging the use of re-plays within the tele-play format) that it was re-produced– the first time a show was recreated exactly, with the same cast and crew, as it had been originally aired.  The re-broadcast was a hit…  and the re-run was born.

“You’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination—next stop, the Twilight Zone!”

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