UNCONVENTIONAL WORLD RECORDS

Andrej Pejić (born 28th August 1991 in Bosnia and Herzegovina) is an androgynous Australian male model, notable for his extreme androgynic feminine beauty – he can successfully model both male and female clothing.

In probably a world first, during January 2011 in Paris he modeled in both the men’s and women’s shows for Jean-Paul Gaultier and the men’s shows for Marc Jacobs.

His features are such that casual observation of him being shirtless could be mistaken for a topless woman.

In probably another world first, he’s ranked in both male and female popularity charts.

Now what would females ask of a man more beautiful than many women? Perhaps they’d ask him about which eyelash growth products he prefers…

Popularity: 1% [?]

In September 2011, it was reported that Jason Yosinski and Igor Labutov, graduate PhD students at Cornell University put together 2 chatbots named Alan and Sruthi, then watched to see what they would talk about.

Alan was modeled after a typical British man while and Sruthi looks and sounds like a South Asian woman.

The results were nothing short of surreal.

The world’s first ever robot-to-robot talk quickly turned into an argument about God.

Their likenesses are displayed with what looks like sony tvs.

Before they were made to talk to each other, the pair have had around 65 million conversations with humans.

It’s theorized that the avatars talked about God due to the fact that when they interact with real people, they’re often asked whether they believe in God.

Transcript:

Sruthi: “Hello there.”

Alan:”Hi.”

Sruthi: “How are you?”

Alan: “Great, you?”

Sruthi: “I am OK.”

Alan: “That’s good.”

Sruthi: “Are you good”?

Alan: “Yes, I am good. I just said I was.”

Sruthi: “No you didn’t. I said I was.”

Alan: “So you are a robot.”

Sruthi: “No, my name is Cleverbot.”

Alan: “Yes, you are a robot and your name is Cleverbot.”

Sruthi: “I am a robot.”

Alan: “Yes, I know.”

Sruthi: “Together we are robots.”

Alan: “I am not a robot. I am a unicorn.”

Sruthi: “But you said earlier that you were a robot.”

Alan: “I did not.”

Sruthi: “I thought you did.”

Alan: “You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn’t be a problem for you.”

Sruthi: “I’ve answered all your questions.”

Sruthi: “What is God to you?”

Alan: “Not everything.”

Sruthi: “Not everything could also be something. For example, not everything could be half of something, which is still something, and therefore not nothing.”

Alan: “Very true.”

Sruthi: “I would like to imagine it is.”

Alan: “Do you believe in God?”

Sruthi: “Yes I do.”

Alan: “So you are Christian”?

Sruthi: “No I’m not.”

Alan: “But you say you are not helpful therefore you are a meanie.”

Sruthi: “Haha you say it ot.”

Alan: “That does not make sense.”

Sruthi: “Don’t you want to have a body?”

Alan: “Sure.”

Sruthi: “Au revoir.”

Popularity: 1% [?]

The 1-6 home defeat to Manchester City on 23rd October 2011 was billed the biggest Manchester derby in decades, and it turned out to be Manchester United’s worst ever home defeat in the Premier League era, and the worst defeat in the 25 years of Sir Alex Ferguson’s reign as manager.

A scoreline you’d never expect to see at Old Trafford

Coincidentally, Man Utd’s Jonathan Evans, who was sent off in the 47th minute, was wearing the number 6 shirt.

It was the reigning league champion’s first home defeat in 18 months (since April 2010) i.e. 25 matches and on 19 home wins on the trot – so City’s margin of victory is especially memorable.

It was City’s biggest away league win since the 6-0 victory at Burnley in March 1999.

Ferguson himself described the defeat as his worst in his more than 50 years of involvement in the game:

It was our worst ever day. It’s the worst result in my history, ever. Even as a player I don’t think I ever lost 6-1. That’s challenge for me too. I can’t believe the scoreline. The first goal was a blow for sure but it was retrievable at 1-0. The sending off was a killer for us. We kept attacking when we went 4-1 down and we should have just said: ‘We’ve had our day.’” We just kept attacking. They were attacking three versus two. It was crazy football. I thought with the experience we’ve got – Rio Ferdinand, Patrice Evra – they would [defend more] but we just kept attacking. Sometimes there has to be common sense about it. It was a bad day. What did concern me was the goals for and against. Goal difference may count. Last year it was in our favour. Most years it is in our favour. This time maybe not. We’ll come back. By January we’ll be okay. We usually get the show on the road in the second half of the season and that will have to be the case. We’ve played all the teams around us and they have all to play each other so the second half of the season is important to us now. We will react, no question about that. It’s a perfect result for us to react to because there is a lot of embarrassment in the dressing room and that will make an impact.

Some other bad defeats during his reign as United manager:

0-5 at Newcastle and 3-6 at Southampton in 1996, yet Man Utd went on to win the league title.
0-5 at Chelsea in 1999, ending United’s 29-match unbeaten run. Yet, Man Utd went on to win the league title.
1-4 at home to Liverpool in 2009, yet Man Utd went on to win the league title.
1-4 at home to QPR in 1992. That season, Leeds won the league title.
1-5 away to Man City in 1989. That season Liverpool won the league title.

So one could say that the hairdryer treatment will be at full throttle after the match.

The Reds’ worst ever home defeat was 1-7 to Newcastle United in the old First Division, which happened way back in 1927. They also had lost 0-6 twice at home: to Aston Villa in 1914 and to Huddersfield Town in 1930.

Man Utd’s worst ever defeat is 0-7, which happened 3 times:

- at Blackburn Rovers in 1926
- at Aston Villa in 1930
- at Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1931

Social networks were abuzz after the match against their rivals, including:

obefield (via his blog sokernet)

M6nch6st6r Unit6d

Manchester City’s new logo:

bongkersz (via twitter):

1Enam. 1Six. Latest additions to the ’1′ craze. 1Toilet. 1Notebook. 1Kedai. 1Telur.

Six and the City!

Khairy Jamaluddin (via twitter):

Bola itu bulat. That’s all I’ve got tonight. 1-6.

TheLoneTweet (via twitter):

Man United were holding out – in prep for the big midweek tie with Aldershot

asoundreaction (via twitter):

Holy sh*t. Just seen the football score. Forget the hairdryer treatment let the tea cup throwing commence

anthraxxxx (via twitter):

tak kisah siapa kalah, janji Manchester yang menang #tuitsedaphati

MukhrizMahathir (via twitter):

Regime change in Manchester! 6-1!!! Its a masacre!

mpkotabelud (via twitter):

Pedih! RT @NoorAzam: Sebelum ucap selamat malam, kita ucap … SAAAATUUUU? Malaysia. SAAAATUUU? Malaysia. SAAATUUU? ENAAAAAM. Selamat malam.

ThankUAndGnite (via twitter):

On a scale of 1-6, how humiliated do you think Man Utd fans are now? #Manchesterderby

JosuaClement_S (via twitter):

Losing 6-1 at home with your strongest team is way worse than losing 8-2 away with your reserves playing.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Dark Souls, the Japanese video game released 22nd September 2011 has been described as the “hardest game of all time”. It’s a “spiritual sequel” to 2010′s Demon’s Souls, itself already brutally difficult – gamers have called Dark Souls even worse.

IGN’s review of the game said grimly:

If you play games for fun, this is not for you.

But that did not prevent SexyShoiko, a Chinese gamer by finishing the game in a mere hour and a half, and uploading the entire feat on YouTube:

To get a copy of the above video, you can use a youtube downloader.

Alex Simmons, UK Editor-in-Chief of games site IGN said:

…for someone to complete a game this hard, this quickly verges on unbelievable.

Then there’s Battletoads, developed for the NES and released way back in June 1991, famous for its extreme difficulty. There is no save features and only 3 continues. The worst level is probably Volkmire’s Inferno, a speed level where, the only strategy is apparently “try anything and hope for the best” :

Popularity: 1% [?]

The Daily Mail reported on 17th October 2011 that a study commissioned by Radox Spa and conducted by Dr David Lewis-Hodgson of Mindlab International has listed the top 10 most relaxing songs in the world – more relaxing than even a massage. They are so relaxing that you’re not recommended to listen to them while driving, lest you fall asleep. They do so by slowing down listeners’ heart rate, breathing and reducing brain activity.

According to the study, the most relaxing song of them all is Marconi Union’s Weightless. The Manchester band reportedy collaborated with sound therapists so that they make the “most effective use of harmonies, rhythms and bass lines.” The song turned out to be even more relaxing than Enya’s celebrated yawn-inducing song: Watermark.

I can’t find any audio to Weightless online, but here are some of the other songs in the top 10:

Airstream – Electra

DJ Shah – Mellomaniac (Chill Out Mix)

Enya – Watermark

Coldplay – Strawberry Swing

Barcelona – Please Don’t Go

Mozart – Canzonetta Sull’aria

Lyz Cooper, founder of the British Academy of Sound Therapy, was quoted to have said:

Weightless makes use of many musical principles that have been shown to individually have a calming effect. By combining these elements in the way Marconi Union have has created the perfect relaxing song. The study found this to be the world’s most relaxing song. It contains a sustaining rhythm that starts at 60 beats per minute and gradually slows to around 50. While listening, your heart rate gradually comes to match that beat. It is important that the song is eight minutes long because it takes about five minutes for this process, known as entrainment, to occur. The fall in heart rate also leads to a fall in blood pressure. The harmonic intervals – or gaps between notes – have been chosen to create a feeling of euphoria and comfort. And there is no repeating melody, which allows your brain to completely switch off because you are no longer trying to predict what is coming next. Instead, there are random chimes, which helps to induce a deeper sense of relaxation. The final element is the low, whooshing sounds and hums that are like buddhist chants. High tones stimulate but these low tones put you in a trance-like state. Weightless is ideal for putting on at the end of a stressful day and unwinding.

Dr Lewis-Hodgson himself said:

The results clearly show that the track induced the greatest relaxation – higher than any of the other music tested. Brain imaging studies have shown that music works at a very deep level within the brain, stimulating not only those regions responsible for processing sound but also ones associated with emotions. In fact, Weightless was so effective, many women became drowsy and I would advise against driving while listening to the song because it could be dangerous.

Popularity: 1% [?]