UNCONVENTIONAL WORLD RECORDS

I truly am flabbergasted at the current state of affairs.

After Joseph Fritzl was exposed in April 2008, another 3 people from different countries with comparable crimes have been exposed in the space of a year.

By comparable crimes I mean a man having kept at least a daughter (whether adopted or not is immaterial) locked up for at least 20 years while raping her repeatedly.

In November 2008, the British Fritzl was sentenced to life in prison.

Then in March 2009, two “new Fritzls” were exposed, one in Italy, another in Colombia.

We compare the monstrous four:

Joseph (Josef) Fritzl (the Austrian Monster)
Age when caught: 73
Duration of sexual abuse: 24 years (1984-2008)
Number of daughters abused: 1
Age of daughter when first raped: 18
Number of pregnancies: apparently 8 (7 lived, 1 stillborn)
Method to avoid detection: built dungeon under house

Mr X / The Gaffer (the British Fritzl) [real name cannot be revealed due to a court order]
Age when caught: 54
Duration of sexual abuse: 25 years (1983-2008)
Number of daughters abused: 2
Age of daughters when first raped: prepubescent
Number of pregnancies: total 19, 9 survived.
Method to avoid detection: moved from house to house in rural areas

Michele Mongelli (the Italian Fritzl) [above]
Age when caught: 63
Duration of sexual abuse: 25 years (1984-2009)
Number of daughters abused: 1
Age of daughter when first raped: 9
Number of pregnancies: apparently none
Method to avoid detection: sheer personality power

Crime scene: Mongelli’s flat in Turin, Italy:

Curiously, Mongelli’s wife Caterina reportedly defended him: “This is all lies. He kept her inside because he was worried about her.”

Arcebio (some reports say Arcedio) Alvarez (the Colombian Fritzl)
Age when caught: 59
Duration of sexual abuse: 20+ years (1980s-2008)
Number of daughters abused: 1
Age of daughter when first raped: 9
Number of pregnancies: allegedly 11 (3 died)
Method to avoid detection: sheer personality power

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I saw the end of an episode of Akademi Fantasia 7 last night and was pleasantly surprised that Anggun performed a song live. At 34, her tone was as excellent as ever, and she looked beautiful too.

That got me looking back at, in my opinion, her best ever song, which is A Rose In The Wind, and its Indonesian version, Kembali, released 1998.

It was written by Erick Benzi (a French producer/songwriter who had previously worked with the likes of Celine Dion) and Nikki Matheson.

What a refrain, and what a voice!

The Indonesian version [which I liked better]:

The song is part of her album Snow On The Sahara (1997). The title track reached number 1 in Italy, Spain and several Asian countries. It is her biggest ever hit single.

Next, A Rose In The Wind was released, which to me is a better song than Snow On The Sahara. Obviously many disagreed, as the best it showed for was a no.17 in Italy. A different story though, for its Indonesian version, Kembali. It was a big hit in Southeast Asia.

The album has sold a total of over a million copies worldwide, and is apparently the highest selling album by an Asian artist outside Asia, ever. No, not even Rain did better.

Then, in 1998 she trained her scope on the notoriously difficult market to break, the US market.

The album was released there in May 1998.

To promote it, she went on an extensive tour for almost a year, including supporting performances for Bruce Hornsby and Natalie Merchant.

She also participated in Sarah McLachlan’s Lilith Fair, and performed on The Rosie O’Donnell Show.

She was given large media coverage on Rolling Stones, Billboard and CNN.

As a result, three of her singles, Snow On The Sahara, A Rose In The Wind and Life On Mars entered the hallowed US charts, the Billboard Hot 100. Apparently, Anggun is the first Asian artist ever to make it there.

The album sold 200,000 copies in the US. By Malaysian standards, that is a lot!

Apparently, it is still the highest selling album by Asian artist in the US.

In 1998, she was the first Asian artist to be nominated in Victoires de la musique, the French Grammy Awards.

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I read that Romans are famous for throwing tantrums in public places if things don’t do their way, but I think the people of Hong Kong have upstaged them.

After that video of the Hong Kong woman who got upset for missing her flight, now it’s another Hong Kong woman who got angry upon being told that she can’t have her shark fin soup.

Wait for the end, it’s priceless!

Don’t worry, the video comes with English subtitles

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UPDATE 6th January 2010

He’s reported to have died from stomach cancer, aged 93.

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He could very well be both the unluckiest and luckiest man who ever lived on this earth.

Unlucky because he was in both cities, dangerously close to ground zero, when they were destroyed with the first and second ever use of the nuclear bomb in history.

Lucky because he lived to tell the story, and is still alive as of the time of writing this!

Even more amazingly, his only apparently health problem is a “little deafness in one ear.”

Yamaguchi, 93 was in Hiroshima on a business trip on that fateful day of 6th August 1945, when Little Boy was dropped on the city by Enola Gay.

The following photo of the mushroom cloud towering over Hiroshima was taken by Seizo Yamada at ground level, 7km from ground zero:

Yamaguchi was 29 years old.

He suffered serious burns and spent a night there in an air raid shelter.

The next day, on the 7th of August 1945, he returned to his home city of… you guessed it, Nagasaki, presumably to recuperate.

Then, as we’ve all learnt from history books, Nagasaki itself was bombed 2 days later, on 9th August 1945.

Aerial image of Nagasaki before (top) and after (bottom) the bombing:

At that time, he must’ve wondered what grave sin he’s committed that karma fought back so ferociously.

More than 210,000 persons were killed as a result of the 2 bombings.

He reportedly told reporters after the Japanese government officially certified him as the only survivor of the double dose of atomic bombings recently:

My double radiation exposure is now an official government record. It can tell the younger generation the horrifying history of the atomic bombings even after I die. I hope my experience will hold a lesson of peace for future generations.

Source
The BBC, 25 Mar 2009
Photos: wikipedia.

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Anybody with at least a little interest in music would knows this number, perhaps even remember it by heart!

“Always on My Mind” was written by Johnny Christopher, Mark James and Wayne Carson Thompson and first published in 1972.

It was originally recorded by Brenda Lee, unfortunately the single only made it as far as no. 45 on the country charts in 1972.

After her, there has been more than 300 covers.

Willie Nelson’s version released 1982 must’ve been the most prominent, because in 1983, the songwriters finally won Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Best Country Song; additionally Nelson’s recording won Best Male Country Vocal Performance. It also reached the top of the country charts and number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Then there was that version by the King himself, Elvis Presley in 1972, which also became a big hit, selling more than half a million copies in the US.

And that unforgettable Pet Shop Boys version in 1987 which I remembered buying the single. It was the UK’s Christmas number one that year. It also did even better than Willie Nelson’s version in the US, reaching number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. In November 2004, The Daily Telegraph (a UK newspaper) put this version at no 2 in their list of the 50 greatest cover versions of all time.

Others who covered this song include Michael Buble, Fantasia Barrino and BB King.

So with many big names there, it would be a daunting task for anybody to even attempt a new recording.

Until 17th March 2009, when Anoop Desai, 22 covered it on American Idol Season 8, then produced the following studio version:

So, do you think Anoop Desai bettered the earlier versions?

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The “Wall of Sound”, that music production technique for pop and rock music recordings was developed by producer Phil Spector in the 1960s.

Working with audio engineers, Spector created a “dense, layered and reverberant sound” by having “a number of electric and acoustic guitarists perform the same parts in unison, adding musical arrangements for large groups and/or orchestral musicians, and then recording the sound using an echo chamber.”

“Be My Baby”, the 1963 hit song for The Ronettes, written by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich and produced by Spector, is by general consensus considered THE definitive “Wall of Sound” song.

It was a huge hit, reaching no.2 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and no.2 on the UK charts.

It is also critically acclaimed, listed at no.22 on Rolling Stone’s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

In 1999 it was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame.

In 2006, it achieved what is probably the ultimate honour for any pop song recording: being added into the United States National Recording Registry.

It is arguably the most influential pop song of all time.

The song has been covered many times, and the drum into has been replicated on many a pop song.

Here it is:

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Jerry Jalava, a Finnish computer programmer lost half of his left ring finger after he crashed into a deer while riding his motorcycle last year.

A doctor treating him joked that he should have a USB “finger drive”.

He then made it himself, a prosthetic replacement for the missing finger.

It’s a 2GB memory stick, accessed by peeling back the “nail”.

It can removed off the stub of his amputated his finger so that it can be left plugged into a PC.

Future plans: include more storage and wireless technology.

Source
The BBC, 17th Mar 2009

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On 30 November 2005, a court acquitted Jan Luedecke, 33 from Toronto, Canada of sexual assault (i.e. rape) after he was diagnosed with sleep sex disorder (sexsomania). Meaning, the judge ruled that he was asleep during the attack, hence was not responsible for the deed.

The case was appealed at least once, and acquittal upheld, however on 20th October 2008 it was reported that an appeals court ordered a new trial for Luedecke.

Luedecke met the woman at a party in July 2005. Both drank, then fell asleep on a couch. Later, the woman woke up to find the man having sex with her and pushed him off. Hitting the floor, he then woke up, but later told the court that he had no memory of having sex with anybody, and only suspected they had had sex after going to the bathroom and finding he was still wearing a condom.

Dr. Colin Shapiro, a sleep expert testified at his trial that he suffered from parasomnia – a condition in which people do strange things in their sleep. One of its symptoms is sexomnia: having sex while sleeping.

Of course, disorder or not, some women’s groups are angry. As Chris Leonard of Toronto Rape Crisis Center said:

This person had non-consensual sex with her, and whether it’s a disorder or not there has to be some level of accountability.

According to the University of Toronto Center for Sleep Studies, 2.5% percent of adults suffer from parasomnia, although the number of people who exhibit sexsomnia is unknown: but this surely means that cases like has been going on for as long as man has been on this earth, only that this was the first time it was reported in the media.

In fact, other strange things people have been known to do in their sleep includes:
(i) preparing meals
(ii) drive long distances;
(iii) go next door to their neighbour to borrow a cup of sugar

Source
Globelife, 31 May 2007

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UPDATE:

Apparently there are other pink dolphins elsewhere in the world, it’s just that they’re quite rare.

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An albino dolphin was spotted in Lake Calcasieu, an inland saltwater estuary, north of the Gulf of Mexico in southwestern USA.

Its colour: stunning pink throughout its body.

It also has reddish eyes.

Apparently it’s the only member of its family like that.

It appears to be healthy and normal other than obviously its colour.

Regina Asmutis-Silvia, a senior biologist with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, was quoted to have said she has never seen a dolphin which looks like that in all her career.

Source
The Telegraph (UK), 9 Mar 2009

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Other casanovas might have bedded more women, but when it comes to being a gigolo i.e. bedding, then milking money off wealthy women, perhaps nobody was better at the art than Helg Sgarbi, 44 the Swiss gigolo.

See, gigolos don’t need to look like latin lovers. In fact, he could be any anonymous lounge lizard at any hotel.

He was recently sentenced to jail for 6 years for cheating BMW heiress Susanne Klatten, 46, Germany’s richest woman out of USD8.8 million.

Ms Klatten is married with 3 children and reportedly worth USD8.5 billion.

He also scammed 3 other women in a similar way.

He later attempted to blackmail Ms Klatten by claiming to have a videotape of them lovemaking when she refused to hand over even more money: 290 million euros, that he said would enable them to “start a new life together.”

The trial was one of the most sensational in Germany’s history.

Sgarbi met Ms Klatten, who is married, at an Austrian spa resort in July 2007.

In a lesson to would-be gigolos, Ms Klatten said:

He was charming, attentive and at the same time he seemed very sad. That stirred a feeling in me that we had something in common.

Thus an affair began. 2 months after they met, the smooth operator managed to persuade Ms Klatten to give him 7 million euros by lying that he “needed to pay off the family of a girl he had injured in car accident in Florida.”

Source
The BBC, 9 March 2009

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It was reported on 10th March 2009 that in a survey done by “Access Hollywood’s TV One Access”, Halle Berry, 32 was voted the Sexiest Black Woman Alive, edging out Tyra Banks, Alicia Keys, Jada Pinkett Smith and Beyonce Knowles.

She’s also a very talented actress, receiving an Oscar in 2001 for her performance in Monster’s Ball, becoming the first and, as of 2009, only black woman to receive a Best Actress Oscar.

She was runner-up in the Miss USA 1986 pageant.

Divorced from baseball player David Justice and musician Eric Benét, she’s dating Gabriel Aubry since 2005. They have a child.

… as for the rest of us mere mortals, time to shower her with online greeting cards?

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If there’s a supermodel among satellites, the GOCE would be it. It’s even been called “sexy.”

It’s supposed to be launched 16 March 2009.

GOCE = Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer

It’s mission is to measure the Earth’s gravity field and “modelling the geoid with extremely high accuracy and spatial resolution.”

Most satellites launched into space do not look very pretty at all.

However, this satellite, made by The European Space Agency (Esa) is very different, and for practical reasons too:

It is a requirement of the extremely testing environment in which it will have to operate. The arrow shape and fins are necessary to keep the spacecraft stable as it flies through the wisps of air still present at an altitude just under 270km.

The GOCE’s mission is supposed to last 20 months from the date of launch.

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Happened on 10th March 2009 in Akuressa, a town in southern Sri Lanka, during a celebration of Mawlid, the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed.

The LTTE (Tamil Tigers) were the perpetrators.

Before:

It appeared to target the 6 government ministers attending the event.

At least 10 people were killed, including 3 local politicians and 3 students.

A split second later, BOOM!

At least 40 were wounded, including several of the ministers.

Minister of Posts and Telecommunications Mahinda Wijesekara was the most seriously injured of the ministers.

The suicide bomber approached the crowd on a bicycle before setting off the bomb.

The video:

Source
The Telegraph (UK), 11 Mar 2009

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Actually not real teeth, but bone.

The “Dracula fish” is relatively tiny: only 17mm (0.7 inches) long.

Currently it has only been found at one place in the world: a Burmese stream.

Researchers believe the fish originally had teeth, lost it over millenia, then evolved those twin fangs.

Its scientific name is the very apt Danionella Dracula.

The fish when looked at from a distance:

When looked at in more detail:

Source
The BBC, 11 Mar 2009

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Or perhaps a more apt description is a presentation that evokes the highest levels of drama or involves the highest level of personal participation.

Event: Annual Symposium of the Urodynamics Society of the American Urological Association
Year: 1983
Place: Las Vegas

In brief, a Professor Dr Giles Brindley, a British physiologist showed his erect penis to a roomful of fellow doctors, even coming down off the stage, walked along the aisle, and inviting the audience to inspect it!

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Of all the ways your bartender could possible choose to open a bottle of your favourite beer, what could be the most outlandish?

A helicopter could be it, and in Japan, as I think only the Japanese could ever think up such a stunt.

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It’s the Cobra Whiskey of Vietnam.

I’ve even seen one advertised with a cobra AND a scorpion in the same bottle.

Perhaps the most amazing thing is the cheap price: apparently costing a mere 250K VND (less than USD 20) at Ben Thanh Market.

I saw someone post a video of them drinking it and then EATING the cobra inside.

Would you dare even to drink it?

Source

… if you want to finish one whole bottle on your own you better go for one of those beach vacation rentals so that you have all day or two to recover …

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This is without question the greatest of them all. Someone commented that even President Obama would benefit from this!

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Being 82 years old, you’d expect Owen Brown of Weobley, Herefordshire, UK to have a more sedate musical taste.

Classical music, maybe.

But no, the oldest rocker in town likes the heavy stuff.

He’s got a respectable collection of headbanging music, in vinyl no less: real heavy metal / hard rock stuff like Iron Maiden, Van Halen, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Kiss, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Saxon.

So what is it that he likes so much about “the Devil’s music”? He said it’s the rhythm, good drumming and guitars.

What does his wife of 60 years think of his hobby? She’s not a fan of Bruce Dickinson, Eddie Van Halen, Rob Halford, Dave Mustaine or any of the rock stars, but Owen said, “she don’t mind some of it.”

I think I can connect to this guy if I ever meet him.

Rock on grandpa!!!

Video of his BBC interview:

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Ugly Bat Boy, 8 lives at Exeter Veterinary Hospital in New Hampshire. The owner, vet Dr Stephen Bassett says the only thing abnormal about him is that he’s, well, uglier than most cats: bald, except for a lion-like “mane” on his chest. It seems like all his fur decided to migrate to his neck and surrounding areas.

UBB was part of a litter of 4. 2 of them looked like other cats, but UBB had a sister that looked exactly like him. Unfortunately, she died after a few weeks.

Needless to say, UBB is a local celebrity.

He looks really weird:

… Ugly is definitely ugly:

I think I’d scream if Ugly looked at me in the morning:

Video of the cat in action:

Source
Photos courtesy of WMUR9

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This is debatable on many fronts, but if you count the number of trophies won in a calendar year, it would be Liverpool, who won 5 trophies in 2001.

Strictly speaking it was 5 trophies in a 6 month spell; but in 2 different seasons between February and August 2001: 3 trophies in the 2000/2001 season and 2 trophies in the 2001/2002 season.

Season 2000/2001:
(i) won UEFA CUp (beat Alaves 5-4 in extra time)
(ii) won FA Cup (beat Arsenal 2-1)
(iii) won Worthington Cup (League Cup) [1-1 (p) v Birmingham]

Season 2001/2002:
(iv) won Charity Shield (beat Man Utd 2-1)
(v) won UEFA Super Cup (European Super Cup) [beat Bayern Munich 3-2]

Manchester Utd is well on the way to bettering that in the 2008/2009 season.

At the time of writing, they have won the Club World Cup and the Carling Cup, and are still in the running for the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup.

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“Careless Whisper”, that 1984 classic by Wham! (of course fronted by George Michael) is one of the most successful singles of the 1980s, reaching the top of the charts in more than 20 countries, selling about 6 million copies worldwide, and has been countlessly covered.

It has been played so many times that I got sick of it, until I heard this version by Seether, a South African-American rock band a few days ago.

I think this could even be better than the original!

It was released 3rd February 2009 and made available as digital download.

Tell me what you think.

Click here to hear the song

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Update 22 April 2009

Mary Ellen Hause went to jail because of Facebook.

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Be careful what you write on Facebook.

It can be very bad for you.

Ask Kimberley Swann and Edward Richardson.

On 23 February, Swann, 16 of Clacton, Essex was fired from her job after she updated her Facebook status to:

Kimberley Swann thinks her job is boring.

She also apparently added:

It’s s***. All I do is shred, holepunch and scan paper.

Ms Swann

On the day of reckoning she was summoned by the manager and given a letter which said:

Following your comments on Facebook about the company we feel it is better that, as you are not happy, we end your employment.

She’d been working at Ivell Marketing & Logistics for all of 3 weeks.

Her boss, Steve Ivell defended his decision:

Her display of disrespect and dissatisfaction undermined the relationship and made it untenable. Ivell Marketing is a small, close-knit family company and it is very important that all the staff work together in harmony. Had Miss Swann put up a poster on the staff notice board making the same comments and invited other staff to read it there would have been the same result.

She retorted by saying:

You shouldn’t really be hassled outside work. It was only a throw-away comment. I was not given a chance to explain.

She wrote the remark after coming home from work. Somebody then told her employer about it.

Still, what she endured is nothing compared to what Edward Richardson did on 12th May 2008.

Mr Richardson

In what could be the world’s first Facebook murder, Richardson, 41 of Mayfield Road, Biddulph, became enraged when his estranged wife Sarah, 26 changed her marital status on Facebook to “single”. He went to see her at her parents’ home as she was ignoring his messages. He broke the front door window, found Sarah in her bedroom and stabbed her to death with a knife.

The late Sarah Richardson

He then tried to commit suicide.

He was later convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 17 years in jail.

So folks, think carefully before you update your status next time.

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There’s no other motorbike quite like it.

The Honda CBR600RR, a 599cc, water cooled four cylinder motorcycle is the world’s first bike with a computer-controlled anti lock braking system (ABS).

Prices start at 1.1 million yen (USD12,200).

A 999cc version, the CBR1000RR will also be available shortly.

A video of the braking system demonstrated:

Source
weikhang.com

… If ABS on cars caused car insurance premiums to fall, this case sure would do it for motorbikes …

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