UNCONVENTIONAL WORLD RECORDS

Last month, the Chinese Crested dog was named the World’s Ugliest Dog, and won USD1,600.

The owner said the prizemoney would be spent to treat Gus’ skin cancer.

Gus has had it worse than most dogs: rescued from a bad home, then had a leg amputated due to the cancer, then lost one eye after fighting with a tomcat.

But honestly speaking, I think he looks rather endearing.

The organisers should take a look at some of the dogs in Sabah – they look truly horrendous, and not in an acne-ridden way…

Source

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In this day and age, bloggers will blog about anything and everything, and the blog post won’t be complete without pictures, taken with photography equipment that would be the envy of any photojournalist.

However, in all my years of bloghopping I did not expect to see this one blog post, complete with damning, stark photographic evidence.

I think it’s the number one sign that one’s a true-blue blogger.

What do you think, should this be THE blog post of the year 2008?

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Once in a blue moon I’d buy one of those cheapskate magic equipments imported from China. Usually the manual (usually made up of just a piece of paper) is written in English and Chinese, and the standard of English acceptable.

However, yesterday I picked up another magic equipment made up of a die and a box with a cover:

Unfortunately, the English-language part of the manual is so horrendously written I can’t make it out at all. If it were Engrish, at least you’d get the drift. But this one I surrender. If anyone can help me decipher it, I thank you very much in advance:

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Spotted this young man at the office a few months ago busy “working”, while displaying what must be the world’s worst working posture.

Everything’s totally against what’s normally considered good ergonomics. Imitate at your own risk!

View from the back:

Does not look too bad?

Well, consider this view from the side:

Click here to see the rest of the post

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Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, and in yours truly’s eyes, in the officially-sanctioned Unduk Ngadau’s almost 50-year history, Sylvia Sandralisa Orow’s the fairest of them all.

She was in her mid-teens when she was crowned the State-level Unduk Ngadau in 1991 (pics courtesy of Sylvia herself):

Interview session

Unduk Ngadau 1991

By 1993 she had won Miss Sabah/World and was top 4 at the Miss Malaysia/World pageant. She could very well be the first Unduk Ngadau who went on to win the Miss Sabah/World pageant.

She moved to New York in 2000 and based herself there ever since, working in Corporate Sales. Ah, the Big Apple, reminds me of the famous New York Moving Company.

Apart from that, she’s active in a Malaysian Dance Troupe, promoting Malaysia and of course Sabah; she’s also a volunteer with UNICEF.

Even with her busy schedule, she still finds time to “balik kampung” to Tuaran once a year.

Here are relatively recent photos of her, all sourced from her friendster account, with her kind permission.

Click here to see more pictures

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If you think you’ve seen one too many boring wedding photographs, this one should make you sit up and take note.

On 12th May 2008, a wedding was taking place in a 100+ year old church in Sichuan, China.

It started off the usual way, around 2pm, photographs being taken, like this one on the church steps:

Suddenly, at 2:28pm local time, the great 2008 Sichuan earthquake hit, the deadliest and strongest earthquake to hit China since the 1976 Tangshan earthquake. The earthquake was felt as far away as Beijing (1,500 km away) and Shanghai (1,700 km away), where office buildings swayed with the tremor. As of 13th June 2008, nearly 70,000 were confirmed dead and more than 17,000 missing.

The earth shook for 3 minutes and the church came crashing down. Luckily the 33 attendees were not inside the church at that time.

The photographer, camera already in hand, kept taking photos, and these are among what he captured.

The church building crashing down:

The groom was barely visible in the choking dust:

The bride, with the church building in ruins in the background:

The wedding party in the immediate aftermath:

After the dust settled, everybody’s shell-shocked expressions are all too apparent:

After regaining their composure, they left the immediate vicinity on foot. But they had to stay in the village for one night first – all roads had become impassable:

What was left of the church building (compare to what the church building looked like before its destruction as shown on the left):

Source
Leland Wong
sohu.com

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Cao Lu, 46 and partner Yang Chunxia, 46 are operators of the “China Restaurant”, the only Chinese restaurant in Baghdad, the city which global consultancy firm Mercer rated in a report as the world’s most dangerous out of 215 surveyed.

Baghdad has 6 million people.

It opened for business about 6 months ago, and small: it’s the size of a bathroom and only has 2 tables. Still it never fails to fill with Iraqi customers every lunchtime. The restaurant is decorated with red Chinese lanterns hanging from the ceiling and posters of kung fu film stars Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee on the walls.

Cao Lu

If you think you’d be spoilt for choice when it comes to Chinese delicacies at his eatery, think again. Cao had to cut back on his Chinese menu because “they couldn’t get the materials and now make quite a lot of Iraqi dishes.”

They currently make USD40 to USD50 per day. This is good enough for Cao to consider expansion.

Definitely not for the faint hearted, this is what they have encountered so far:
- a bomb blast rattled windows and a panicking co-worker went back home to China
- there are explosions almost daily in the city in the last 5 years
- electricity is very unreliable, routinely shutting off, leaving one to swelter in Baghdad’s scorching heat. In fact, the building the restaurant is operating out of receives only 2 hours of electricity daily. However, the restaurant is open morning to night.

Click here to read more

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Penang-based band Paku is the first Malaysian band ever to tour the United Kingdom.

According to their record label, Deathstar Productions, they are:

- the 1st Malaysian Band to Ever do a UK Tour (February – March 2007)
- the 1st Malaysian Band to be on and do a LIVE Set on British National Radio (BBC Radio Wales)
- the 1st Malaysian Band to Ever do a show in Wales and Northern Ireland.
- the 1st Band ever to be allowed to be introduced on a Premiership football pitch and have one of their songs played at the same time. That song, Insomniac, has apparently been played at every league and European game at Newcastle United FC since February 2007.

Paku and Deathstar were promoted to over 5 million listeners on BBC Radio Wales and Northern Ireland’s City Beat.

According to their record label, the reception they got was very good, and that other bands should consider doing the same thing.

They were supposed to go on a European Tour in September 2007: I haven’t checked that one out.

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An unnamed Italian couple in their early thirties were arrested by police early this month after they made love in the confessional box in a cathedral while morning Mass was being held!!!

The Roman Catholic cathedral is located in northern Cesena.

They were not jailed, only cautioned for performing obscenity in public and disturbing a religious function.

They have since repented and made peace with the local bishop, saying they had drunk too much. Last week the bishop celebrated a “Mass of reparation” in the same cathedral to make up for the sacrilege.

Source
Yahoo News

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UPDATE 1st June 2009

She got 3rd place, behind Appey Rowena Januin, the Miss Sabah/Malaysia/World 2009 4th placer and Pearl Dianne Petrus who also participated in the said pageant, and won a subsidiary title.

I heard that if she had only handled the question-answer session better, she could’ve very well be the winner.

The top 3 (photo by Roy Ajin):

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UPDATE 19th May 2009

Yes, she did decide to participate this year, and as expected won the notoriously difficult Penampang Unduk Ngadau, defeating 24 other hopefuls.

Come 31st May 2009, she could very well be the 2009 Unduk Ngadau.

Go Kimmy!!!

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12th June 2008

Conditions:
- based on looks alone
- if she’s allowed to participate by the Unduk Ngadau rules
- if she decides to participate

Joanne Kimberly Majalap, 18 was 1st runner up at Miss Sabah / Malaysia / World 2008 held in April, and I must say she’s as, if not more, stunningly beautiful as the winner, who’s none other than the 2006 Unduk Ngadau, Devenna Jaikob, 20.

Some photos taken during the said pageant. All courtesy of bennyliew.com.

The moment the winner was announced – and it was Devenna (left), but it could’ve been very easily Joanne right?

The hair’s not quite right for an Unduk Ngadau pageant, but she looked every inch a future Unduk Ngadau:

And she looks stunning in batik:

Click here for more pictures

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Yves Saint Laurent (1st August 1936 – 1st June 2008) was considered by many as the greatest fashion designer of the 20th Century.

When he became the chief designer of the House of Dior at the age of 21 after the death of Christian Dior at age 52, he changed the look of the fashion industry, designing clothes that reflected women’s changing role in society: more confident personally, sexually and in the work-place: he introduced trouser suits, safari jackets and sweaters. He made “ready-to-wear” popular.

He retired in 2002, was ill for quite some time, and died of the effects of brain cancer at this residence in Paris.

He once said:”I found my style through women. That’s where its strength and vitality comes from because I draw on the body of a woman.”

French President Nicolas Sarkozy paid his tributes, saying Laurent was “the first to elevate haute couture to the rank of art and that gave him global influence. Yves Saint Laurent infused his label with his creative genius, elegant and refined personality… because he was convinced that beauty was a necessary luxury for all men and all women.”

Source
The BBC
wikipedia

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Jodie Louisa Marsh was born 23rd December 1978 in Essex, England. She’s a topless model, having appeared in many publications. She’s also infamous for her high profile feuds with other celebrities.

At the 2007 FHM awards, turned up in her now infamous “belt outfit”, where she wore what looked like 3 belts, 2 thin ones arranged in an X-shape to cover her nipples and one thick one used as a skirt, which could not even cover the whole of her buttocks. In other words, she’s practically naked.

That outfit, which could very well redefine the phrase “dressed to kill” and noisy clamour of photojournalists have to be seen to be believed:

Click here to see the video

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IMHO, it’s got to be in Saturday Night Fever (1977) starring none other than John Travolta. Of course some have called him “John Revolta, the dancing Thetan.”

Anyway, his role as hot dancing stud Tony Manero in the film earned him an Academy Award nomination, turned him into a superstar, and definitely chick magnet.

The movie poster:

A cut from the dance scene:

Someone has commented that he’d break his bones if he ever attempted some of the moves. Watch and learn from the master of disco

Click here to watch the dance scene video

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Arguably, the earliest and greatest ever car chase in the movies was made 40 years ago in “Bullitt”, that 1968 police thriller, starring legendary actor Steve McQueen as Lieutenant Frank Bullitt.

It won an Oscar for Best Film Editing.

It’s will always be remembered for THE car chase scene, lasting about 9 minutes, in downtown San Francisco, where Bullitt, in a dark “Highland Green” 1968 Ford Mustang GT-390 CID Fastback chasing 2 bad guys in a “Tuxedo Black” 1968 Dodge Charger R/T 440 Magnum.

Bullitt and his Mustang burning rubber

A little tech info:
- the car that Bullitt drove was a first-generation, modified Mustang.
- 2 V8 Mustangs (325 bhp) were actually used
- the Mustangs’ engines, brakes and suspensions were highly modified for the chase by veteran car racer Max Balchowsky.
- the cars reached speeds of over 110 mph (175 kmph)

The movie poster

Such was the impact of the film that in 2007, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

Finally, I saw the film for the first time a few years ago, and even though I’ve seen many later films with impressive car chases, I think I have yet to see another to surpass this, with the possible exception of the French Connection.

Click here to see a video of the chase scene

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According to its website, MFG.com is a privately held company founded in Atlanta in 2000 and is:

the largest online marketplace serving the global manufacturing community. Billions of dollars worth of discrete manufacturing services and industrial components are sourced online via MFG.com every year.

I wonder if they are aware that their company logo as prominently displayed on their website seems rather open to ridicule:

I think I heard someone say: What, you work for Oh My F**king God dot com???

The company’s website: http://www.mfgquote.com/

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Starbucks Corporation, the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with more than 15,000 stores in more than 40 countries, 172,000 employees and billion-dollar revenues also has probably the world’s most controversial corporate logo.

The present logo which we all know is:

The original logo when Starbucks first started out in 1971: the Starbucks siren topless and had a fully-visible double fish tail:

You might say bygones be bygones, but in early April 2008, Starbucks recalled the original logo, albeit modified: hair covers the nipples of the siren:

Click here to see more

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