UNCONVENTIONAL WORLD RECORDS

Here is my list of The Most Beautiful Kadazan / Dusun Women Alive (MBKWA). Currently there are 5 in the list. Obviously there are many more of them, but IMHO these are the most outstanding examples of the Kadus Beauty.

Madelyne “Mandy” Nandu, born 1986, arguably the finest Kadus beauty in the world. She was the 2005 Unduk Ngadau, 2007 Miss Sabah/Malaysia/World, 2009 Miss Malaysia Model of the World and 2009 Miss Earth Malaysia.

[pic source: sorry, can't remember; photo taken 2008/9]

Joanne Kimberly “Kimmy” Majalap, born 1990. She was 3rd at the 2009 Unduk Ngadau, 2nd at the 2008 Miss Sabah/Malaysia/World, and 2nd at the 2008 UPKO Unduk Ngadau.

[pic source: Victor Lokie; photo taken early 2010]

Madona Nandu, born 1990, Mandy’s younger sister. She was the 2009 UPKO Unduk Ngadau.

[pic source: sorry, can't remember; photo taken 2008/9]

Crystel Eve Huminodun Majinbon, born 1988. She was the 2010 Unduk Ngadau and 2nd at the 2009 Miss Sabah/Malaysia/World.

[pic source: Dar Cheng; photo taken July 2009]

Appey Rowenna Januin, born 1991 (?). She was the 2009 Unduk Ngadau, 2010 Miss Earth Malaysia and was 4th at the 2009 Miss Sabah/Malaysia/World.

[pic source: Jackie Manson; photo taken April 2010]

If I remember correctly, among the prizes for an Unduk Ngadau winner is something on education, so something additional like online business degrees could prove to be an added bonus.

Unfortunately, as far I saw, no contestant at the 2011 Unduk Ngadau were deemed worthy to be the sixth MBKWA, online business degrees notwithstanding…

Popularity: 1% [?]

Apparently only 10% of humans are left-handed, but it seems the world is ruled by southpaws. Consider these famous lefties:

Adam, the world’s first human, was reportedly left handed.

Leaders / activists / community figures

Barack Obama, President of the United States, generally regarded as the world’s most powerful man. As of 2009, 4 out of the last 5 presidents have been left-handed. Counting as far back as Truman, the number is 6 out of 12. In the 1992 election, all 3 major candidates – George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Ross Perot – were left-handed.

James Cameron, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, youngest British PM in almost 200 years
Osama bin Laden, formerly the world’s most wanted man
Benjamin Franklin, probably the greatest American who ever lived
Aristotle
Joan of Arc
Alexander The Great
Ramses II, Egyptian pharaoh
Charlemagne, Holy Roman emperor
Julius Caesar, Roman general
Napoleon Bonaparte, French emperor
Queen Victoria of England
Prince Charles of England
Prince William of England
Fidel Castro, Cuban leader
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime-minister
Helen Keller, advocate for the blind

Sports

Rafael Nadal, the world’s no.1 tennis player is a natural right hander but plays tennis with his left
Martina Navratilova, perhaps the greatest tennis player who ever lived
John Cena, WWE Superstar
Pele and Maradona, widely regarded as the two greatest soccer players ever
Mark Spitz, greatest Olympic swimmer ever before being surpassed by Michael Phelps
Manny Pacquiao, generally regarded as the best ever pound for pound boxer
Mike Tyson, naturally left handed

Entertainment

Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr, the only living Beatles, widely considered the greatest music group ever. The other 2 were right handed.
Bob Dylan, generally acknowledged to be one of the greatest musicians alive
David Bowie
Eminem, some say the best rapper alive
Jimi Hendrix, probably the greatest rock guitarist who ever lived.
Lady Gaga, probably the world’s top entertainment celebrity now
David Letterman, host
Jay Leno, host
Kurt Cobain
Phil Collins
Marilyn Monroe, although this is disputed.
Nicole Kidman
Justin Bieber (?!)
Bruce Willis
Angelina Jolie

The Arts

Leonardo da Vinci, probably the world’s greatest ever polymath, painter of the incomparable Mona Lisa
Michelangelo, da Vinci’s closest contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man
Pablo Picasso
Mozart & Beethoven, probably the greatest composers who ever lived

Business

Henry Ford, automobile manufacturer
David Rockefeller, banker

Others

Leo Tolstoy, author of the greatest novel ever written
Lady Diana
Dr. Albert Schweitzer, physician/missionary
August Piccard, inventor of stratosphere, bathosphere
Edwin Buzz Aldrin, astronaut
Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts
Uri Geller, psychokinetic performer
Jack the Ripper, serial killer

If you have any additions / corrections / comments, please do so in the comments section. Thanks!

Source
Daily Mail UK
Indiana.Edu

Popularity: 1% [?]

UPDATE 16 May 2011

Most number of likes on Facebook pages:

Texas Hold’em Poker: 42 million
Eminem: 35 million
Lady Gaga: 34 million
Barack Obama: 20 million

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26 March 2009

In 2005, Charlie Rosenbury, then an undergraduate majoring in computer science, wrote a computer program “in 5 hours” that sent messages to 250,000 Facebook users across the USA asking them to add him as a friend.

According to him, within 3 weeks, he got around 75,000 friends.

It did not endear him to many people or even Facebook’s creators though.

More recently, Justine Ezarik (above), 25 of Pittsburgh has 5,000 Facebook friends, which is apparently the system limit. She also reportedly has 50,000 MySpace friends, and more than 253,000 Twitter followers as of March 2009.

Popularity: 7% [?]

UPDATE 16th May 2011

MOST FOLLOWERS (WORLD):

Lady Gaga has broken the 10 million barrier. I think her nearest contender is President Barack Obama, who has 8 million.

That’s immense power – one tweet promoting something and surely it’ll be inundated. Example: she mentions the website www.trustedquote.com and surely it’ll be swamped, and might even crash!

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UPDATE 20 January 2010

QUICKEST TO ACCUMULATE FOLLOWERS

(i) Bill Gates joined Twitter on 19th January 2010; in less than 8 hours he’s had more than 100,000 followers.
(ii) Oprah Winfrey joined Twitter in April 2009; she quickly gained 100,000 followers.

MOST FOLLOWERS (WORLD)

As of now the following has more than 4 million followers:

Ashton Kuchter, Ellen DeGeneres and Britney Spears.

Another 2 has more than 3 million followers:

Barack Obama
Oprah Winfrey

213 users has 1 million or more followers.

MOST FOLLOWERS (MALAYSIA)

Aaron Lee is the undisputed champion, with more than 100,000 followers, leaving 2nd placed Kenneth Yu, with 50K+ followers, far behind. 14 Malaysia-based Twitter users have more than 10,000 followers.

MOST PROLIFIC (MALAYSIA)

Mellysssa Karina joined Twitter in April 2009 and already has racked up more than 40,000 updates.

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Twitter is the world’s:
- most popular microblogging site
- 3rd most popular social networking site
- one of the 50 most popular websites worldwide
- fastest growing site as of March 2009: 1,382% compared to Facebook’s mere 228%
- most prominent Ruby On Rails-developed web application

Other stats:
- It has 6 million unique monthly visitors (that’s about 200,000 per day).
- 5% of users accounted for 75% of all activity

MOST FOLLOWERS

As of now there are 3 twitter (tweeter?) users with more than 3 million followers: Ashton Kuchter, Ellen DeGeneres and Britney Spears.

Then there are 7 twitter users with between 2 and 3 million followers: CNN, Kim Kardashian, Ryan Seacrest, Shaquille O’Neal, John Mayer, Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama.

MOST TWEETS

Note: I read that only the last 3,200 tweets are searchable.

Probably the top tweeter is Foxnews with more than 126,000 tweets. In contrast, Ashton Kuchter has 3,000+ tweets.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Go the F**k to Sleep by Adam Mansbach is probably the most rock and roll children’s bedtime storybook ever.

The first paragraph goes:

The cats nestle close to their kittens now.
The lambs have laid down with the sheep.
You’re cozy and warm in your bed, my dear.
Please go the f**k to sleep.

And the pattern is repeated in similar fashion throughout.

As Cowboy Caleb mentioned, this book is dedicated to “parents with difficult kids everywhere.”

The whole book can be ready in softcopy.

Popularity: 1% [?]

The BBC reported on 18th June 2009 that South Africa’s Medical Research Council conducted a survey on 1,738 men in 2 provinces, and found that:

- 1 in 4 men in South Africa *may* have raped someone.
- Even more shockingly, almost half of that have attacked more than one person.
- 73% who admitted rape have attacked for the first time while still in their teens.
- 1 in 20 men said they had raped a woman or girl in the past year.
- Perhaps most shockingly, 1 in 10 men said they had been raped by other men.
- About 3% said they had raped another man or boy.

Practices like gang rape were common because they were considered “a form of male bonding.”

South Africa has a total population of about 48 million, hence there could easily be millions of rapists there.

According to a survey for the period 1998 to 2000 compiled by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, South Africa was ranked first in the world for rapes per capita. The rate has shown no signs of abating, resulting in country being referred to as the “rape capital of the world”.

Does this mean that South African men are the world’s most lascivious, where even the mere sight of nurses uniforms could unleash an uncontrollable carnal urge?

Source
The BBC, 18 June 2009

Popularity: 1% [?]

UPDATE 11th May 2011

The world’s oldest celebrity blogger is apparently Kirk Douglas, the father of Michael Douglas.

At 94, he blogs at myspace. His last entry was in January 2011.

Hope he reaches 100 and could still blog about his centenary birthday invitations.

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UPDATE 22nd May 2009

It was reported today that Spanish “blogging granny” Maria Amelia Lopez has died at age 97.

She began blogging at the age of 95 when he grandson set up a blog for her as a birthday present.

Her postings on international affairs, Spanish politics and a deeply personal insight into the aging process tinged with humour quickly turned her into a celebrity, with many followers around the world. Later on she used video rather than text for her posts.

In one of her final posts in February, she said:

When I’m on the internet, I forget about my illness. The distraction is good for you – being able to communicate with people. It wakes up the brain, and gives you great strength.

The blog had others raving from as far as Alaska, China and Nigeria, and a prestigious international media award to boot.

Heck, because of her blog, she even met the Prime Minister!

She also set up a Facebook account and a group called “the elderly in action”.

There have been at least 2 other reputed bloggers who were at least 100 years old when they died:

Olive Riley, who died aged 108 in July 2008. She’d been blogging for a year. Her final post.

Ruth Hamilton, who died aged 109 in January 2009.

Then there’s 100-year-old Frank Pelatowski, “the World’s Oldest Newspaper Columnist.”

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12 March 2007

As followup from mrbadak’s post in November 2006, in which he wrote that Donald Crowdis of Toronto, Canada is probably the world’s oldest blogger at 93 years by Christmas 2006. I checked just now, his latest entry posted 8th March is interestingly entitled "I’m not dead" and continues to say that family concerns are preventing him from blogging.

Now seems there’s another blogger of the same age as Crowdis, tomato grower Ray White, whose blog is called Dad’s Tomato Garden Journal.

Last but not least, the title for the world’s oldest blogger should now belong to Allan Loof (pic below, courtesy of mojix.org) of Norrkoping, Sweden who is older than Crowdis and White by 2 years. The blog is in Swedish, of course.

On 2nd December 2006, Swedish daily Norrkopings Tidningar displayed his photo and a story about him by author/photographer Hakan Pettersson on its front page.

[pic source: Norrkopings Tidningar]

According to the article, he has been blogging for a year and has had his own site http://allanloof.com for a couple of years.

Tags: blog, blogs, blogging

Popularity: 3% [?]

When the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group (NSWDG) a.k.a DEVGRU a.k.a SEAL Team Six a.k.a ST6 successfully carried out Operation Geronimo against Osama bin Laden – the world’s top terrorist – in early May 2011, the secretive unit was suddenly catapulted to international superstardom.

Yep, these are the kind of guys who exit signs on any barrier.

Some trivia:

The US Army’s Special Operations Force has 2 tiers. Tier 2 (lower classification) include groups like the Green Berets, Rangers and SEALs.

Tier 1, the highest level, includes the 1 SFOD-D (Delta Force) and the DEVGRU. Tier 1 are black elements – chain of command for them is not through the usual military bureaucracy, but rather directly under the President, Joint Chiefs & Defense Secretary. Most information about these units are at the highest level of classification and details of their activities are not made public. To prepare for the possibility that they are caught by the enemy, in order to enable official denial of US government involvement, records of black operations are almost never kept.

To be a DEVGRU team member, one has to be a SEAL first. The training regime to become a SEAL is one of the world’s most brutal:
- 2 years of gruelling training, physically and mentally
- Training begins with many weeks of intense physical conditioning
- One of those weeks is the infamous Hell Week, where candidates have to go through 132 hours of continuous physical labor with little sleep: 60-70% would drop out here.
- Those that make it through that week go on to train with explosives, mountain climbing, rappelling, guerrilla warfare tactics, close-quarter combat, seamanship, scuba diving, parachuting and cold weather training.

DEVGRU headhunts the best and brightest members from other SEAL units. That’s right, no applications. They would then be trained even more intensely than before: 6-7 months of Operators Training Course, which includes free-climbing, advanced unarmed combat techniques, defensive and offensive driving, advanced diving & Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) training. All candidates are expected to perform at the top level during selection, hence the drop out rate here is extremely high, even among these proven SEALs – at least half the class will fail the course! Therefore, it can be surmised that the assessment process at this stage is different from what a SEAL operator experienced in his previous career; a lot of the training tests the candidate’s mental capacity rather than his physical condition.

Officially, the team’s name is classified, technically it doesn’t exist.

Apparently, in one year SEAL Team Six would fire more ammunition rounds than the entire U.S. Marine Corps. Emphasis: shooting skills, range firing, close-quarters battle (CQB), stress shooting in a variety of conditions.

Obviously, those considered are in peak physical condition, has an excellent reputation as an operator within the Naval Special Warfare community & and have operational experience with a SEAL Team.

The candidate will usually be in his 30s.

Once selected, team members are often gone 300 days a year.

Most members only last around 3 years before burning out.

Current number of members: a few hundred.

Training is done around the clock.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Update 6 May 2011

- Al-Qaeda confirms Osama’s death.

- Osama had been living in the house for 5 years.

- The house was large, but rather spartan: has electricity, modest furnishings, cheap foam mattresses, central heating, old TVs, basic food.

- The house does not have air conditioning, internet, telephones.

- The children were home-schooled

- Around the house: some rabbits, 100 chickens and 1 cow reared. Large, well-kept vegetable patch – a farmer neighbour asked to plant veges twice a year.

- the Pakistani army had failed to detect the raiding US party

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4 May 2011

Osama bin Laden, 54, founder and leader of al-Qaeda, the world’s top terrorist organisation.

On the FBI’s 10 most wanted fugitives and most wanted terrorists list. Tops Time magazine’s list of 10 most “notorious fugitives”.

USD25 million (+ another USD2 million) bountry on his head

1st May 2011: Operation Geronimo, lasted 38 minutes, from entry to exit

- 20-25 SEAL Team Six members in 2 helicopters involved, fast-roped out, landed outside compound, made hole in compound wall with explosives for entry

- 20+ people in compound, including women and children

- was in 3rd floor bedroom with wife

- wife “rushed” the first US SEAL who entered room, shot in leg, not killed

- Osama was wearing a “local loose-fitting tunic and pants” (shalwar kameez)

- episode with Osama himself lasted a few seconds, during last 5-10 minutes of operation

- asked to surrender, he refused

- was unarmed when killed

- was shot above left eye – blew away a part of his skull

- was also shot in chest

- none of SEALs injured

- Upon pronouncement of “Geronimo EKIA”, President Obama’s first reaction: “We got him.”

Others:

Pakistan received USD1.3 billion in US military and humanitarian aid in 2010

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