UNCONVENTIONAL WORLD RECORDS

…or scariest runway.

Paro Airport is the only international airport in Bhutan, located 6 km away from Paro town, in a deep valley on the bank of the Paro river at an elevation of 2,200 m.

It is surrounded by Himalayan peaks as high as 5,500m.

It is probably the world’s most difficult airport to land on – as of October 2009, only 8 pilots in the world are certified to land there. Flights are only allowed using visual cues, not automatically; and only during daytime.

As can be seen from the following video of a landing there, the plane has to make some hard banks through a narrow path of tree-covered hillsides before even seeing the runway. Add to that mix the propensity of strong winds going through the valleys, often causing severe turbulence:

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Skylab was a NASA space station and orbited the Earth from 1973 to 1979. In 1979, it reentered Earth’s atmosphere and was destroyed.

Skylab 4 (also known asSL-4 and SLM-3), the 4th Skylab mission placed the 3rd and last crew onboard the space station. The mission started on 16th November 1973 and lasted 84 days.

The crewmembers were Commander Gerald P. Carr, Pilot William R. Pogue and Science Pilot Edward G. Gibson.

Therefore, after Apollo 8 in 1968, they were the second group of a humans to spend Christmas in space.

The crew made a Christmas tree using food cans.

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We’ve seen many of them: Baby On Board, Mum-to-be On Board, Pit Bull On Board, Ultraman On Board and what not.

The best I’ve ever seen is this one:

A close second:

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According to Jim Murray’s 2012 Whisky Bible, the World Whisky of the Year is Old Pulteney, a 21-year-old single malt distilled in Scotland.

Jim Murray is a leading whisky expert.

The whisky scored 97.5%, a record-equalling score.

It’s matured in American oak casks and bottled at Pulteney distillery, Wick, Caithness, Scotland.

Murray tried more than 1,200 varieties before he came to his conclusion.

In his own words:

The 21-year-old Old Pulteney absolutely exploded from the glass with vitality, charisma and class. Pulteney doesn’t have the financial muscle of the major whisky barons to market its malts on the global stage. I hope that this award helps one of Scotland’s great unsung distilleries to become discovered around the world.

At 2nd and 3rd place are 2 American bourbons: George T Stagg & Parker’s Heritage Collection Wheated Mash Bill.

Source
The BBC, 23 Oct 2011

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…or “the world’s most mysterious manuscript”.

The Voynich manuscript could very well be the most unreadable book in the world. Created in the early 15th century in possibly northern Italy, it was discovered in 1912 inside a library in Rome.

It is named after the book dealer Wilfrid M. Voynich, who purchased it in 1912.

It has 240 vellum pages of illustrations and written in a language nobody knows. The illustrations seem to be present information about plants and how they might be used for medical reasons, but strangely, most of the plants don’t even exist.

A sample page

No one, even the best cryptographers in the world, has yet managed to decipher the text. These included American and British codebreakers from both World War I and World War II.

In other words, it’s easier to master motorhome repair than understanding the contents of this book.

A sample page

At this point many of us would have dismissed it as a hoax, yet statistical analysis of the writing has shown that the manuscript does seem to follow the basic structure and laws of a real language.

Since 1969, it is owned by the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University, and is formally referred to as “Beinecke MS 408″.

A sample page

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US-based ArKay looks and tastes like real whisky, but is alcohol-free, reputedly the world’s first. And just like the real tipple, it can be consumed straight, on the rocks or with mixers.

Aimed squarely at the non-alcoholic drinks market, it goes on sale worldwide on 1st December 2011.

That means it’s just in time for the holiday season – then it’s really possible to not “drink and drunk”.

In the UK, it’s sold at GBP4 per can and GBP10 per bottle.

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The Chicago Tribune reported on 28th August 2011 that back in 2009, Kimberly Garrity was sued for USD50,000 by her own children, Steven II, then 23 & Kathryn, then 20 for “being a bad mother”. Specifically, the “serious crimes” were:

- refusing to buy them toys;
- giving them the wrong kinds of birthday card i.e. it didn’t have money attached, and had a picture of tomatoes with “googly eyes”, with the message: “son I got you this Birthday card because it’s just like you … different from all the rest!”;
- failing to bring Kathryn to a car show;
- threatening Steven II to inform the police if he did not buckle up that seatbelt;
- haggling over dress prices;
- calling Kathryn at midnight to ask her to come home from a party;
- perhaps, for failing to provide them with equestrian riding apparel too…

Heck, other kids would just simply kick up a fuss.

Steven II & Kathryn were represented by 3 lawyers that included their father, Steven A. Miner. Now, it’s here we can understand the situation a little better: Miner & Garrity were married for 10 ten years before divorcing 16 years ago.

After battling it out for 2 years, an appeals court has dismissed the case, ruling that Garrity was “not being extreme / outrageous.”

Source
Daily Mail (UK)

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Caius Veiovis, 31 was arrested along with 2 others for the deaths of 3 men whose bodies were discovered on 10th September 2011 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, USA.

The following is his devilish-looking mugshot, his forehead covered with bulges/horns, “666″ tattooed at the centre and several spiky piercings through his nose.

He looks like the devil himself, no?

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The usual way of dealing with a dead body is either burial or cremation.

But there are at least 2 methods that claims to be more “ecologically favourable”:

(i) Alkaline hydrolysis

- Put body in silk bag
- Put silk bag in metal cage
- Put metal cage into Resomator
- Fill machine with a water + lye mix
- Heat to about 160°C at high pressure (to prevent boiling) for up to 3 hours. This will break down the body into its chemical components, resulting in a liquid that is green-brown in colour and white bone ash.
- Give ash to next of kin.
- Liquid can be simply poured into sewerage system, or use in a garden.

Sounds intense, like something that needs to be done in steel buildings.

(ii) Freeze drying (Promession)

- put coffin into Promession machine
- once inside, remove body from coffin
- treat body with liquid nitrogen
- vibrate body until it fragments
- dry and refine remains further
- pass body through filters to remove metals (can include dental amalgam)
- pour remains into square biodegradable coffin, for shallow burial (like composting)

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The Birkin bag, a handmade purse by Hermès was named after actress & vocalist Jane Birkin.

An Hermès black crocodile Birkin bag

It was created in 1984 by Hermès chief executive Jean-Louis Dumas, based on an 1892 design.

Since then, it has since become an icon.

Specs:
- handmade in France: process includes hand-sewing, buffing, painting & polishing, on average taking 2 days to complete
- signature saddle stitching developed in the 19th century
- leathers obtained from different French tanners
- no logos

It’s probably the most coveted of all ladies handbags due to its status as a wealth symbol, with a reputed waiting list of as long as 6 years.

Definitely expensive and difficult to get one, even if you had the money. It’s distributed to Hermès boutiques at unspecified timetables and possibly intended small quantities.

Price range: USD9,000 to USD150,000, depending on the material used. Price justified by “the meticulous craftsmanship and scarcity.”

If only we could get red envelope codes for hefty discounts on these babies.

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A two-seater Wolseley 6 built in 1904 still runs and has never broken down. It’s one of the first cars produced by the Frederick Wolseley company in Birmingham, which went defunct in 1975.

Owner Brian Caseley, 65, regularly takes the car for a spin around his home in Dorset, Great Britain.

It’s top speed is 29 mph (46 kmh) and nobody knows its mileage as it doesn’t have a mileometers / odometer.

Caseley bought it in 2004 from a vintage car collector friend.

Specs:
- runs on petrol
- 30 to 40 miles to the gallon (i.e. more efficient than most modern cars)
- 1-cylinder motor

The car in 1906 – when it was 2 years old

Source
Daily Mail (UK), 29 Aug 2011

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The Nika riots / Nika revolt, which happened over a week in Constantinople (Istanbul) in January 532 is the worst riot that ever happened.

Yes, it happened about 1,500 years ago, way before funny shirts were invented, like those worn by the 2011 England rioters.

It started at the Hippodrome and a few days later, almost half the city had been destroyed by rioters, which made the Hippodrome their “centre of operations.”

Then the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I (483–565) [Justinian the Great] decided that enough was enough, and commanded General Belisarius to take control.

The general pushed the rioters all the way back into the Hippodrome, shut the doors, then the army went in and killed everybody inside: all 30,000 of them.

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Top Malaysian car blogger Paul Tan wrote in May 2011 that the Range Rover Evoque is scheduled to arrive in Malaysia in the fourth quarter.

It will be priced between RM300,000 and RM400,000; everybody will be hoping that it’s closer to the former. I think it’s safe to say that the cost is way beyond most people’s reach anyway; those actually seriously checking it out is less into getting in shape the hard way than simply reading through diet pill reviews.

It was launched at the Paris Motor Show in October 2010.

There will be:

- 2 variants: the 3-door coupe and the 5-door version.
- 2 engine choices:
(i) 240 bhp 2.0L Si4 turbocharged petrol engine with direct fuel injection and twin VVT;
(ii) SD4 2.2L diesel engine with 190 PS and 420 Nm.

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Sometime in 2008, the British department store Debenhams conducted a survey among 3,000 women to ask them: what is your favourite iconic dress, the quintessential red carpet gown?

Top of the list is the plunging, daring black Versace outfit worn by Elizabeth Hurley in 1994, as she walked hand-in-hand with then boyfriend Hugh Grant to the premiere of his movie Four Weddings And A Funeral in Los Angeles.

Made from silk and lycra, it was held together by several oversized safety pins in gold placed at strategic areas. The front was audaciously wide open until half way across the breasts.

As expected, she went from obscure to very famous, as instant worldwide media attention was lavished upon her, as the photos made newspapers and magazines around the globe.

Hurley was quoted to have said:

That dress was a favour from Versace because I couldn’t afford to buy one. His [Grant's] people told me they didn’t have any evening wear, but there was one item left in their press office. So I tried it on and that was it.

Other iconic dresses:

Audrey Hepburn’s white flower patterned Givenchy dress, which she wore to the 1954 Oscars

Julia Roberts’ black and white vintage Valentino dress, which she wore to the 2001 Oscars:

Source
The Telegraph (UK), 9th Oct 2008

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Then US President George W Bush being informed that a second passenger jet had just hit the World Trade Center, 11th September 2001. At that time, he was in a Florida classroom, facing schoolchildren.

It was reported by Reuters on 29th July 2011 that in a May 2011 National Geographic Channel interview, former US president George W Bush commented that at the precise moment above:

My first reaction was anger. Who the hell would do that to America? Then I immediately focused on the children, and the contrast between the attack and the innocence of children. I could see the news media at the back of the classroom getting the news on their own cellphones and it was like watching a silent movie. I quickly realized that a lot of people beyond the classroom would be watching for my reaction. So I made the decision not to jump up immediately and leave the classroom. I didn’t want to rattle the kids. I wanted to project a sense of calm. I had been in enough crises to know that the first thing a leader has to do is to project calm.

Source

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CNN International did a food survey recently to find out the most delicious food in the world, and published the results in the CNNgo website on 21st July 2011.

As far as I know, they did not explain their methodology in detail, but that aside, enjoy the list:

The most delicious food in the world is the Massaman curry of Thailand. The spicy, coconutty, sweet and savoury concoction has been called the king of curries, or even the king of ALL food. Ingredients include coconut milk, roasted peanuts or cashews, potatoes, bay leaves, cardamom pods, cinnamon, star anise, palm sugar, fish sauce, and tamarind sauce.

It originated from the southern part of the country, and is Muslim in origin.

Most commonly made with beef, it can also be enjoyed with duck, tofu, chicken, or even pork. A must-have side dish is rice and sometimes pickled ginger (achat).

Best of all, it can be found in almost every street corner in Siam.

The rest of the top 10:

2. Neapolitan pizza, Italy; definitely not your typical Pizza Hut variety, it does not even have cheese, and must be cooked in a wood-fired oven.
3. Chocolate, Mexico.
4. Sushi, Japan
5. Peking duck, China
6. Hamburger, Germany
7. Penang assam laksa, Malaysia
8. Tom yum goong, Thailand
9. Ice cream, United States
10. Chicken muamba, Gabon

Source
CNNgo: World’s 50 most delicious foods

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Updated 18th August 2011

- Breivik reportedly had prepared a second bomb that, at 3,300lbs, was even bigger than the one he exploded, which weighed 2,095lbs.

- Breivik requested to wear a formal tailcoat for his next court appearance so that he can “show respect to the judicial process.” It was denied.

More details of what happened during his rampage on the island has emerged:

- he was hit on the head by boys who ambushed him. He shot one dead, and the others escaped.
- when he’d killed 49 people on the island, at 5.58pm, he called police to say “mission accomplished and I will surrender to the Delta force”, then went on to kill 20 more.
- At 6.26pm he called the police again, and he was arrested shortly.
- he claimed that he tried to call the police at least 10 times.

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Updated 29th July 2011

The moment Breivik was arrested on Utoya island, police found him waiting for them in a clearing, his hands on his head in a gesture of surrender, telling his captors “I am finished now“. His loaded weapons were 30m away.

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Updated 27th July 2011

More details:

- Breivik regards himself as a warrior who started a “sixty year war” and will be considered a saviour of Western Europe in future.

- Prior to his attacks, he consumed a cocktail of drugs known as an “ECA stack” so that he would be “strong and efficient” and increase his “aggressiveness, physical performance and mental focus”. Ingredients of the cocktail include ephedrine, caffeine and aspirin.

- During the shootings, he listened to Clint Mansell’s Lux Aeterna on his iPod at maximum volume to “suppress fear”

- He’d coated the tips of the “dum-dum” bullets he used with 99% pure nicotine ordered online from China, so that they’d become chemical weapons.

- He hadn’t expected to survive the attacks.

Breivik’s class photo at Smestad Primary School, Oslo

Probably I shouldn’t say this, but I hope those killed had life insurance policies from www.cometobarter.com / elsewhere.

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26th July 2011

On 22nd July 2011, Anders Behring Breivik, 32 of Oslo, Norway carried out 2 acts of terrorism:

- at 3:22pm exploded a car bomb outside the office of Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, killing 8 people.

- less than 2 hours later, dressed as a police officer, he shot and killed 68 people at a Norwegian Labour Party youth camp on Utøya island. There were about 600 people on the island at that time. It was reported that he may have used “dum-dum” bullets for maximum damage: they don’t explode inside body but fragment into pieces quicker than others.

It’s the deadliest mass shooting by a single gunman in history. The previous worst happened on 27th April 1982 when Woo Bum-kon, 27, a South Korean police officer shot dead 57 people (including himself) in Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea using two M2 carbines and hand grenades in 8 hours.

Breivik thus became peacetime Europe’s worst mass killer.

It’s the worst attack on the country since World War II, hence the incident was dubbed “Norway’s 9/11″.

The following is a haunting photo of man waist-deep in waters of Utoya, hands aloft, pleading for his life to Breivik (circled red)

Breivik (in red) arrives in court to face charges of mass murder on 25th July 2011

This is the video Breivik uploaded to YouTube 6 hours before going on his killing spree:

He outlined his ideology in a 1,518-page manifesto entitled “2083 – A European Declaration of Independence“, which was published on the day of the attacks under the name Andrew Berwick.

Interestingly, he wrote that he hated Adolf Hitler but thought that Vlad the Impaler was a genius.

Source: various online news sites

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The following is an actual question from a recent Primary 6 Science paper at a school somewhere in Sabah:

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On 15th May 2011, Acton Beale, 20 of Brisbane, Australia, was attempting to plank on a 5cm wide balcony railing outside his home located on a 7th-floor balcony when he slipped and plunged to his death.

He reportedly did it at 4.30am, while drunk

The case thus became the first known fatality of planking.

This was where he fell from

Subsequently, his pals accused the self-declared inventor of planking Paul Carran of being responsible for Beale’s death.

Still, I think ultimately the blame lies on Beale himself – he could’ve simply not done it. That is not good news for any family – with father’s day approaching, he could’ve been looking for the best gift baskets for Dad now instead.

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Updated: 5th July 2011

There’s still some controversy over the purported sale of For The Love Of God. Hirst insisted that it’s been sold, but apparently many others disputed this.

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Updated 2nd September 2007

The English artist Damien Hirst, 42 has done it again. Back in June 2007 his artwork entitled Lullaby Springs fetched USD19 million (about RM60 million) at Sotheby’s.

2 months later, he outdid himself 5 times over when For The Love Of God was purchased for 50 million pounds (equivalent to USD100 million or RM340 million) by “an unknown investment group.”

It is a sculpture of a human skull, completed this year. Definitely a good year for Damien indeed.

Some trivia:
- The skull was bought in a shop in Islington, and supposed to belong to a 35 year old European who lived in the 18th or 19th century. It still has the original teeth.
- Why is it not called the “The Skull”? Because apparently when Damien’s mother saw it, she gasped “for the love of God, what are you going to do next?”
- The skull is cast in platinum
- Encrusted with 8,601 flawless diamonds (more than 1,100 carats), including a pear-shaped pink diamond located in the forehead of the skull.
- The diamonds cover all surfaces of the skull except for the teeth
- Cost USD28 million to produce. Simple calculation would say that profit made is USD72 million!
- George Michael was reported to have expressed interest to purchase it some months back.

So what is the meaning of it? In an interview reported by Bloomberg, he was reported to have said the work is about 2 things: “wealth against death” and “decoration against death.”

This is an update on one of the oldest themes in art: the “vanitas,” or “memento mori” — a reminder of death. On the one hand, the skull is one of the world’s most showy status symbols. On the other hand, it is also a sermon on the theme of you-can’t-take-it-with-you. Or, as Hirst puts it, “There are no pockets in a shroud.”

Source
Wikipedia: For The Love Of God
Geekologie
Bloomberg

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29th June 2007

On 21st June 2007, yahoo.com reported that Damien Hirst, 42, a British artist, is now the world’s most expensive living artist, upstaging a title held for years by American Jasper Johns. Hirst’s work, Spring Lullaby was sold on 21st June at Sotheby’s for USD19 million (that’s almost RM60 million).

Spring Lullaby is not a painting, nor a sculpture. It’s a pill cabinet. A what? Exactly: that’s what first struck me. Would you pay that much for this?

Can’t make it out? Well, it’s a stainless steel and glass cabinet with painted cast pills, created in 2002. It’s dimensions are about 182cm x 274cm x 10cm. In other words, it’s shaped like a plasma screen.

Truly avant garde stuff. What would he think of next? I think something to do with photos of weird creatures in the deepest oceans taken with waterproof cameras couldn’t be too far off.

Looking closer, this is what you see:

Sources
Artnet.com
Yahoo.com

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The BBC reported on 27th May 2011 that there are only 3 countries in the world where divorce is outlawed: Malta, the Philippines and of course Vatican City.

Ed: That’s pretty few: perhaps as few as the number of companies peddling converters of vga to hdmi cables.

As expected, Roman Catholics make up the majority of the people there.

Still, in some other Catholic-majority countries, one could already get legally divorced, like in East Timor, Honduras, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Martinique, Spain, Argentina, Colombia and Italy. At least 90% of the people of those countries are Catholics. Compare that to the Philippines’ 80%.

In Malta, if you really want to divorce, you have to either live abroad (if both partners are Maltese), or if one partner is not Maltese, apply to divorce on the other partner’s home country.

Otherwise, you can legally only go for separation, or the more complicated annulment.

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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…

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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

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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.

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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

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I’d like to think most people like a fairy tale – when an ordinary girl becomes a princess, and future Queen Catherine. That happened during the wedding of Prince William and Catherine “Kate” Middleton (henceforth, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge) on 29th April 2011. After that they were off on honeymoon, the location of which was initially not revealed, but later named as The Seychelles. Anyway, that would be a good time for the couple to have their back acne treatment, before heading back and getting on with endless royal duties.

Some trivia:

William is left handed.

2 billion (a third of the world’s population) watched on TV, at least a million people lined the procession route, with half of them watching the balcony kisses.

It’s the biggest royal celebration for three decades.

Kate did her own makeup.

Dress designed by Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen, looks similar to what another commoner-turned-princess, Grace Kelly wore during her 1956 wedding to Prince Rainier III of Monaco.

The train is 9 feet long, compared to Diana’s 25.

As @alphaque wrote, the kiss that congested a thousand routers and servers, and surely will be plastered on front pages of newspapers all over the world tomorrow:

In fact, not one, but two kisses. Evokes memories of Charles-Diana’s [dubbed The Wedding Of The Century] own Balcony Kiss 30 years earlier:

Everything seems to have gone according to plan except for that incident of the the loose horse running behind the landau and overtaking it. Someone mentioned that a few people then jumped on it to grab its neck, while at the back, there’s the rider lying on the ground.

Everybody sings God Save The Queen, except the Queen herself [starts 1:06 in the following video]:

Worst hat of the day probably belongs to Princess Beatrice of York:

David Beckham wore his OBE medal on the wrong side (he corrected it inside the Abbey):

Samantha Cameron, the British Prime Minister’s wife is the only VIP not wearing a hat:

Befitting a 21st century event, we get saturation coverage. Apart from the usual multi-channel High Definition TV viewing and live web coverage, you can:

- sign the wedding book by sending a video of your message to the couple at the Royal Channel on Youtube.

- see the Official Wedding Programme. I don’t think I have ever seen the specs of a wedding programme described in such detail viz “…printed on Novatech Matt paper (the cover is 250gsm and the inner pages are 150gsm). The paper is FSC stock produced with 100% Elemental Chlorine Free pulp.”

Popularity: 1% [?]

In the wake of her recent world and US exclusive interviews with embattled world leaders during the Middle East revolutions, Christiane Amanpour reaffirmed her reputation as probably the world’s greatest reporter alive. First she landed an unplanned, half-hour world exclusive with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on 3rd February 2011 smack in the middle of the turmoil: 9 days after the demonstrations began and 8 days before Mubarak resigned. Too bad it was not captured on video camera though.

Digital Journal records that:

In what could only be called a media coup de grace, ABC reporter Christiane Amanpour managed to land a world exclusive interview with Hosni Mubarak, the embattled Egyptian president, beating out CNN’s Anderson Cooper and others to the finish line. The news team had apparently only been granted an interview with the newly appointed Vice-President Omar Suleiman at the presidential palace, some eight miles from Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the protests. On the ABC News website, Amanpour writes that, to get the presidential palace, her team had to take “a route that ran through a neighborhood where there were pro-Mubarak supporters in the streets”. She describes being surrounded by an angry mob and after an hour / so of negotiating and presenting the official invitation to the interview. They were eventually let through and upon arriving at the palace and waiting for the opportunity to meet the vice-president, Amanpour, as gutsy as ever, inquired into the possibility of speaking to Mubarak. Within minutes, she claims, she was whisked into a reception room and had her chance with the man at the center of the storm, whose every move and word is being monitored by the eyes of the world. Mubarak had not appeared in public / spoken with foreign correspondents since the outbreak of the crisis.

Even Amanpour, with her years of experience, described the meeting as an “extraordinary experience”. She managed to get the monumental Mubarak interview while her previous employer, the arguably more established news channel CNN failed to speak to the Egyptian president.

Then, on 28th February 2011, she managed a US exclusive interview with Muammar Gaddafi and his sons Saif al-Islam and Al-Saadi al-Gaddafi, 11 days after the revolt started. She participated in the face to face Gaddafi interview with the BBC (represented by its Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen) and the Sunday Times of London which lasted more than an hour.

I just love how she introduced herself to the Libyan dictator. And to Mr Bowen: should I ever meet Gaddafi in person, I now know how to greet him.

A text excerpt of that interview.

An insight into what makes her tick was provided in her comment to her peers at a national convention of the Radio and Television News Directors Association:

Yes, you are running businesses, and yes, we understand and accept that, but surely there must be a level beyond which profit from news is simply indecent.

Newsroom Magazine, in June 2009, listed her among the greatest broadcast journalist who ever lived, and even hinted that she’s the best of them all:

Men like John Chancellor, Roger Mudd, Bernard Shaw — and pioneering women including Nancy Dickerson, Pauline Frederick and Marya McLaughlin. But Amanpour brings something more to her employers and her profession for she is not cowed by power and money, nor fearful, nor driven by self-interest.

And I’m sure she’s a classy lady who’s into the finer things in life like interior plantation shutters for her house…

A bit about the people mentioned above:

John Chancellor (1927 – 1996), American, anchor of NBC Nightly News 1970 – 1982.

Roger Mudd (b. 1928), American, primary anchor for The History Channel. During a CBS interview with Senator Edward M Kennedy on 4th November 1979, which was broadcast 3 days before he officially announced that he was challenging President Jimmy Carter for the 1980 Democratic Presidential nomination, Mudd asked a question which left the senator gobsmacked: “Senator, why do you want to be president?” Kennedy stammered in a way that has been described as “incoherent, repetitive, vague and unprepared,” so much so that it cast huge doubts on his real reasons in wanting to run for US presidency, and subsequently a sharp decline in his initially promising poll figures. In the end, Carter won 50-38. The term “Roger Mudd moment” has been used by some to mean “a self-inflicted disastrous encounter with the press by a presidential candidate.”

Bernard Shaw (born 1940), American, anchor of CNN 1980 – 2001. During the 1988 US Presidential election debate, which he was moderating, knowing that Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis opposed the death penalty, Shaw bluntly asked Dukakis if he would “support an irrevocable death penalty for a man who hypothetically raped and murdered Dukakis’s wife”. Then, while reporting on the 1991 Gulf War from the Al-Rashid Hotel in Baghdad, he reported cruise missiles flying past his window while sheltering under a desk. He also unforgettably remarked about what it was like in Baghdad: “clearly I’ve never been there, but this feels like we’re in the center of hell.”

Pauline Frederick (1906-90), American, first woman journalist to moderate a presidential candidates’ debate 1976.

Nancy Dickerson (1927 – 1997), American, the first CBS female correspondent (in 1960). She was the first woman on the floor of a political convention.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Belgian artist Thierry de Cordier did a painting named Asperges Me (Dry Sin) which was displayed in the winter of 2003 at Outlook, Greece’s biggest ever contemporary art exhibition.

Reportedly it wasn’t until 45 days later that far-right politician Giorgos Karatzaferis saw it and went ballistic:

It was the most obscene, immoral, shameless painting I had ever seen.

Description of the painting:

On the right of the canvas was a cross, propped against a wall; on the left a fully erect penis that looked to have been circumcised. Upon closer observation, one could see that semen was dripping from the crucifix.

An image of the painting.

Or it could be the one in 2007 by Chandramohan Srilamantula of a:

… huge cross with Jesus Christ, his hands and feet limp. Christ was shown with his penis hanging out, and semen dripping from the penis into a commode placed beneath the cross. The commode had fish in it.

An image of the cross.

What do you think? I think these guys are severly risking karma striking back with Mesothelioma or worse…

Popularity: 1% [?]

It was reported in The Star on 16th May 2007 that a 70-year-old man in Kuantan was arrested at a house for earning his living off prostitution.

Also arrested in the raid was a 60-year-old client and a 40-year-old woman from China who’s believed to be a hooker. Seven condoms and a bottle of lubricant were found in the house.

So you can say the oldest pimp benefited from the world’s oldest profession.

The only thing is that he now might have to wear Kangol Hats to prevent his face from being snapped by photographers outside court.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Here’s a list of some Malaysians most people would rather be gotten rid of.

Mohamed Abbas Danus Baksan, then 47, who raped, sodomised, then killed 10-year old Nurul Huda Gani on 17th January 2004 at a TNB guardhouse in Tanjung Kupang, Johor. Nurul Huda had gone out on an errand that morning but failed to return home. Her family looked for her, including the guardhouse, but Abbas denied ever seeing her. They sought his permission to conduct a search of the vicinity of the guardhouse but was told by him that according to police instructions, only their officers could be allowed entry. Police permission was later granted but they were still denied entry by a parang-wielding Abbas, prompting the police personnel to climb over the gate. A scuffle ensued but they later found Nurul Huda in the toilet of the guardhouse, naked and unconscious. She was rushed to a clinic but was pronounced dead on arrival. Prior to the incident, Abbas had had 8 previous police convictions, including armed robbery, which raised the question of how such a person could have been hired as a security guard. Abbas, who was unrepresented, did not show any emotion throughout the proceedings.

Hanafi Mat Hassan, then 32, who raped and strangled Noor Suzaily Mokhtar to death inside the bus he’d been driving in Klang, Selangor on 7th October 2000. He was sentenced to hang; then outside the courtroom, he kicked at journalists’ cameras.

Ahmad Najib Aris, then 27, who abducted IT analyst Canny Ong from Bangsar Shopping Centre on 14th June 2003, then raped, killed and burned her body. Her remains were found 3 days later in a manhole near a highway construction site in Jalan Kelang Lama. He was sent to the gallows.

These guys were employed, and 2 were actually on the job when they committed their crimes, so it’s not like they were jobless and had too much time on their hands. Some people would argue that this is more reason for them to be handed additional punishment, like being forced to clean toilets with their tongues!

Popularity: 1% [?]

Update 10th Dec 2010

Apparently a guapamongaplex is not even the biggest named number anymore.

Rather, it’s a Meameamealokkapoowa Oompa, which is a:

{LLL….a…..LLL,10}10,10 a = Meameamealokkapoowa array of L’s

I know, I give up too…

———————–
2004

What is the biggest number?

A named number, that is.

We might’ve heard of googool (1 followed by 100 zeroes) or googoolplex (1 followed by a googol zeroes).

But these are rather small when compared to “infinity scrapers”.

There isn’t a googool of anything, cos there are ONLY around 10 to the power of 77 atoms in the known universe, which should be big enough a number to overwhelm anybody, but a crazy guy by the name of Jonathan Bowers thinks this is not big enough. So off he goes exploring even bigger numbers.

I say he’s crazy cos he even claims to be able to describe what heaven is like and what a space with 4 dimensions look like.

Still, I think he’s truly in love with numbers, definitely much more than lipofuze reviews.

He says, “I’ll start with the “smaller” numbers, such as a googol and a googolplex, then start going into larger and larger numbers like a gongulus and a golapulus.”

Then he goes on to describe numbers with names such as tetratri, pentadecal, xappol, goppatoth, great big boowa and wompogulus.

His numbers are so big that they require array notations to represent.

The biggest named number in his list is called, hold you breath, a “Guapamongaplex”, which is “10^100 array of B’s within guapamonga-level “# #”, where B is a 10^10 array of 10′s”, whatever that means. I can’t even tell how many zeros after 1 this number contains.

So now you can go around and say, “give me a guapamongaplex of that, won’t you?” even though you surely will get weird looks

Popularity: 1% [?]

Jordan Romero (born 12th July 1996) of the USA became the youngest person ever to successfully scale Mount Everest on 22nd May 2010. He was 13 years 10 months old then. The previous record was held by Temba Tsheri of Nepal who was 16 years old when he did it in 2001.

Laura Dekker (born 20th September 1995) of the Netherlands is bidding to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world. After initial opposition from the Dutch government when she announced her plans in 2009, she was finally given the go-ahead in July 2010.

These two are too young to drive, yet they did something even more exciting than merely driving a car; still, their hobbies might cause them to realise that finding cheap auto insurance quotes are adventures in themselves!

Popularity: 1% [?]

The Miss World and Miss Universe beauty pageants are generally acknowledged to be the world’s top two showcases of female beauty.

We often hear about Indians and Venezuelans winning them.

So how about Malaysia?

The first Malaysian lass to crack the top ten at a Miss World is Arianna Teoh Lai Poh who was a semifinalist i.e. top 10 in 1997.

Arianna (right) and Sarita Carreon

[photo credit - Sarita Carreon]

A year later, Lina Teoh (Angelina Teoh Pick Lim) created history by finishing third at the 1998 Miss World – the best ever achievement by a Malaysian in an international beauty pageant. For the record, the title that year was won by Israel’s Linor Abargil, while the runner up was France’s Veronique Caloc.

[photo credit - The Talent Factory]

Does that mean Lina is the most beautiful Malaysian who ever lived? Anyway, the best Malaysian achievement since then was Deborah Priya Henry’s top 16 finish at Miss World 2007.

As for Miss Universe, it proved to be an even tougher nut to crack.

Malaysia’s best ever showing there was way back in 1970 when Josephine Lena Wong Jaw Leng (now known as Datin Josephine Fonseka) managed a top 15 finish. For the record, Miss Universe 1970 was Puerto Rico’s Marisol Malaret and Japan’s Jun Shimada placed 4th.

That means, as far as Miss Universe achievements go, we’re still behind countries like Belize, Angola and Guam, and level with Vietnam. Doesn’t sound so good huh?

Incidentally, Datin Fonseka is the mother of Andrea Fonseka, Miss Malaysia/Universe 2004.

It is heartening to see our beauties still maintaining their figures after all these years; one wonders what they use to do that – a p90x perhaps?

Popularity: 1% [?]

What can be worse than being involved in a plane crash? Probably only one thing: a door suddenly opens and you are sucked out of a plane in mid-flight, thousands of feet above.

It was reported that on 8th May 2003 a 20-year old Ilyushin 76 (IL-76), a Russian-made 4-engined cargo plane was flying from Kinshasha to Lubumbashi (both in Congo) when the rear loading ramp suddenly burst open around 8 pm local time, 45 minutes after takeoff.

A view of the rear loading ramp – measuring about 10ft by 10ft

One newsreport said it was at an altitude of 8,000 ft, another said 10,000 ft, but yet another said 33,000 feet!!

The weather was clear at that time.

Result: up to 140 were apparently sucked out, including women and children, out of about 400 (some say 200) passengers and crew.

Can you imagine that happening? For those on Lipovox, probably that would be the only time in your life that you regretted taking it – for your weight would make it more difficult to be blown away.

Other passengers immediately ran to the plane’s front and the plane successfully turned back to Kinshasha.

But why did the door open?

The pilot was quoted to have said that:

A passenger could have been touching the button for special opening device; this is a very realistic option. But there could also be the possibility of an electronic problem with software.

Source
CNN, May 2003

Popularity: 1% [?]

The Pritzker Architecture Prize, founded 1979 is widely considered to be the world’s top architecture prize, and is often dubbed “the Nobel Prize of architecture.”

It is awarded annually by the Hyatt Foundation and any living architects all over the world are eligible. The stated criteria is “…demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture”.

The award recipient gets, among other things, USD100,000 and a bronze medallion:

It would seem that amongst Asians, the Japanese are the best architects: they have won it 4 times, including the 2010 award which went to Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa:

They designed the unassuming-looking 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa in Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan in 2004:

Interesting, and having a career in architecture is one way to answer the perennial question of how to lose weight fast, with all the moving about, studying buildings and stuff.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Hannah Ocuish (1774-1786), an American Indian, is the youngest person ever executed in America, and probably the world, when she was hanged at the age of 12 years and 9 months on 20th December 1786 in Connecticut.

12 years! She didn’t even have the opportunity to have a credit score done!

She was accused of choking Eunice Bolles, 6, a white girl, to death after they quarreled over strawberries in the summer. The body was found on 21st July 1786.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Lionel Tate (b. 1987) is the youngest American, and possibly the world, to ever be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He was convicted of first-degree murder in 2001, for beating up Tiffany Eunick, 6 to death. He was just 11 at that time, yet weighed 166 pounds.

At the time of the crime, Tate’s mother was Eunick’s babysitter. Tate’s mother was having a nap upstairs, so Tate was left alone with the girl. For some reason, he then stomped on the little 46-pound girl so violently that her liver tore apart, her skull and rib fractured, and her brain swollen, which the prosecution described as like falling from a 3-story building.

According to him, he was merely imitating moves of pro wrestlers.

In sentencing, the judge said:

The acts of Lionel Tate were not the playful acts of a child [...] The acts of Lionel Tate were cold, callous and indescribably cruel.

Later in life, he was in and out of trouble many times, including armed robbery. It would seem he’s destined to remain behind bars for the rest of his life. Blame it on his upbringing perhaps, but surprisingly I didn’t find any reference to drugs in his case. If that were the case, a rapid opiate detox could’ve done the trick. But if his living environment did not support a complete personal overhaul, not much could be ultimately hoped for.

Popularity: 2% [?]

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In recent times, William Henry Gates III, better known as Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft has topped the list of the world’s wealthiest individuals countless times, with an all-time high hitting USD101 billion in 1999. A distant second is Carlos Slim Helú at a mere USD69.8 billion in 2007.

But is Bill Gates the richest man who ever lived?

Not even close.

The following people were wealthier than Gates by a very long shot; that yes, they could afford to pay for the best hemorrhoid treatment!

The Rothschild family (The House of Rothschild), that German-Jewish European business dynasty that established banking and finance companies, during the 19th century, owned the world’s largest fortune in private hands, and surely in modern history. In today’s USD dollars, the total wealth they owned would’ve easily been in “the many hundreds of USD dollar billions, if not in the US dollar trillions.” In their prime, the family had at least 41 palaces, “of a scale and luxury perhaps unparalleled even by the richest Royal families.” The very name “Rothschild” has become synonymous with extravagance and seemingly unlimited wealth: the family was famous for its art collection and its philanthropy.

Pictured above is Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744 – 1812), the man who started it all, one of the most influential businessmen of all time and a “founding father of international finance”.

Marcus Licinius Crassus (115 BC – 53 BC), Roman general, politician, part of the First Triumvirate, and has a legendary greed for amassing riches. At the height of his powers, some historians put his wealth at more than 200 million sestertii. That’s equal to the total annual budget of the Roman treasury! He is surely the richest individual of that time and probably of all time. He’s noted for assisting the then young and poor Julius Ceaser. Apparently molten gold was poured into his mouth shortly after his death to quench his thirst for worldly possessions.

John D. Rockefeller (1839 – 1937) revolutionized the petroleum industry and in 1916 became America’s, and possibly the world’s nominal first US dollar billionaire. Often regarded as the richest person in all of history. Adjusted to today’s dollars, his wealth has been placed between USD392 billion and USD663.4 billion!

Andrew Carnegie (1835 – 1919), founder of the Carnegie Steel Company was one of the most famous industry leaders of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, his life was a true “rags to riches” story. A business rival of Rockefeller, some has estimated his wealth to be USD297.8 billion in today’s US dollars.

Tsar Nicholas II (1868 – 1918), the last Emperor of Russia, who, with his family were killed by the Bolsheviks reputedy had a net worth of USD290.7 billion in today’s US dollars. That would make him the wealthiest monarch / head of state of all time.

Asaf Jah VII (1886 – 1967), was the last ruler of the State of Hyderabad and Berar, before it became part of India. During that time, he was reputedly the world’s richest man, at USD2 billion in the early 1940s. Inflation adjusted, that may be equivalent to USD225 billion in 2008 U.S. dollars.

How about King Solomon? Any guy who had 700 wives and 300 concubines must’ve been damn rich!

Source
Wikipedia

Popularity: 4% [?]

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Here’s a list of the world’s most treacherous peaks – you’d need more than the usual physical training to even consider going up any of these; you’d need to consume colon and body cleansers too.

The world’s most dangerous mountain could very well be Annapurna I, at 8,091m the world’s 10th highest mountain. It has the world’s highest climber fatality rate: an incredible 40%. That means out of every 5 climbers attempting to conquer it, 2 would die. Still, it has been conquered even in winter (unlike K2), and it was the first “eight thousander” (at least 8,000m high peak) to be conquered. That honour went to Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal, of a French expedition on 3rd June 1950. That’s 3 years earlier than the Edmund Hillary/Tenzing Norgay conquest of Everest. As of 2005, only 103 summit attempts have been successful, with 56 fatalities, most of them due to avalanches. Those killed include famed Russian climber Anatoli Boukreev in 1997, Christian Kuntner in 2005 and Iñaki Ochoa in 2008. The great Slovienian climber, the late Tomaž Humar climbed it solo in 2007.

The second could be K2, which, at 8,611m, is the second-highest mountain in the world after Mount Everest. Dubbed “The Savage Mountain”, it is extremely difficult to conquer and has the second highest climber fatality rate among the “eight thousanders”: 25% i.e. for every four people who have reached the top, one has died trying. It has never been attempted during winter.

In terms of intimidating factor, nothing comes close to Nanga Parbat, the world’s 9th highest mountain. Dubbed “The Man Eater” and “Killer Mountain”, it boasts the largest mountain face in the world, the Rupal Face – a 4,600m vertical drop – that’s higher than Mount Kinabalu! Apparently only two climbers have ever succeeded ascending up this face all the way to the summit. In August 2005, renowned Slovenian mountaineer Tomaž Humar, was rescued on the Face at 5,900m after being stuck there for 6 days. He’s circled in the following photo – surely the loneliest place in the world:

Compare what I mentioned above to Everest’s stats: as of 2008, there had been 4,102 successful ascents by around 2,700 people, with 210 deaths.

Popularity: 2% [?]

What is THE greatest fiction book that has ever been published?

J. Peder Zane, a book editor attempted to answer that question by asking 125 top British and American writers to name, in ranked in order, their 10 favourite books, hence the theory here was “the greatest writers would know best what are the greatest books”. Each book would get 10 points when it’s ranked number 1, 9 points when ranked number 2 and so on.

He then collated the results in a, what else, book called “The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books”, published 2007.

He asked luminaries like Andrea Barrett, Edwidge Danticat, Ha Jin, Reynolds Price, Tom Wolfet, Norman Mailer, Annie Proulx, Stephen King, Jonathan Franzen, Claire Messud, Margaret Drabble, Michael Chabon and Peter Carey.

The 125 produced a list of 544 books, but the resulting top ten is as follows… but wait! Don’t blame me if you end up sitting down so long without doing any exercise to read them that you forget all about your top 10 fat burners.

1. Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy (1878), which “tells parallel stories of an adulterous woman trapped by the conventions and falsities of society and of a philosophical landowner, who works alongside the peasants in the fields and seeks to reform their lives.” Published in several parts, over a 4-year period starting 1873 in a periodical. The front page of the first edition of the novel, published 1878:

Full text in English.

2. Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert (1857), the French writer, his first novel and masterpiece. It focuses on the adulterous doctor’s wife, Emma Bovary, who lives beyond her means to run away from “the banalities and emptiness of provincial life.” It is considered a seminal work of Realism.

Full text in English.

3. War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy (1869), an epic which describes in detail happenings that led up to Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion of Russia and its impact on society from the point of view of five Russian aristocratic families.

Full text in English.

4. Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov (1955), the top-ranked English novel and the top-ranked, and probably most controversial novel published in the 20th century. The very word “Lolita” has entered general consciousness to describe “a sexually precocious young girl.”

The rest of the top 10:

5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
6. Hamlet, by William Shakespeare
7. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. In Search of Lost Time, by Marcel Proust
9. The stories of Anton Chekhov
10. Middlemarch, by George Eliot

Looking at the list, it can be concluded that Russian Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) is the greatest novelist who ever lived, with 2 of his masterpieces in the top three.

The only known colour photograph of the man himself in 1908 aged 80, 2 years before his death:

The top 3 novels were not written in English.

Shakespeare is the most-represented author; his best, Hamlet, placed 6th on the all-time list.

2nd ranked Madame Bovary made more lists (26) than top-ranked Anna Karenina (25) but 3rd ranked War and Peace ranked higher on its lists 11 more points than Madame Bovary.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Impatiens psittacina, or more commonly known as “parrot flower” is a very rare species of balsam that was first discovered in upper Myanmar (then Burma) by A.H. Hildebrand in the late 1890s, and first described by botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker in 1901.

Note that “very rare” phrase, a total opposite of “daily deals.”

It is known to exist naturally in a small region in northern Thailand (near Chiang Mai), Myanmar and in the north-eastern Indian state of Manipur.

Its most striking feature is unquestionably its flowers that looks like a parrot or a cockatoo in flight when looked at from the side.

Source
Snopes.com

Popularity: 1% [?]

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Facebook
Funny Facebook Status Updates and More.
Most Funny, Wittiest and Cool Facebook Status!

ONE

In the 2008 Democratic primary election, Rob Andrews, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives unsuccessfully challenged the incumbent U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg. During that campaign, Jay Lassiter, a member of his campaign staff sent a bawdy come-on Facebook message to supporters, resulting in him being reprimanded.

TWO

Apparently, in earlier versions of Facebook it is possible to set incestuous relationships.

THREE

If you’re a parent and your child is a friend on Facebook, be careful what quizzes you take.

FOUR

You don’t need to post incriminating photos of yourself on Facebook, sometimes words will be enough to get you fired.

FIVE

This lady “slipped off” his man during intimate moments, resulting in 13 stitches to her womanhood, and now the whole world knows about it.

SIX

Tracy’s message to Michael is definitely meant for him, and for him alone.

But there’s a twist to the story.

SEVEN

A certain Adam Devine demonstrates how to quickly clean out one’s friends list.

If you have any more good ones, I’d love to know about them. Thanks in advance!

Popularity: 21% [?]

UPDATE 6th Sept 2009

Well, perhaps I did not get my prediction quite right; it’s like predicting that a manufactured home would be the first choice for young couples in the next few years.

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Dr Conrad Murray, 51, the doctor at the centre of the investigation into Michael Jackson’s death has spoken publicly for the first time since the megastar died on 25th June 2009. Dr Murray was with Jackson when he suffered a cardiac arrest.

He posted a video on YouTube thanking his supporters and saying “I told the truth and I have faith the truth will prevail.”

It was recorded last week in Houston, Texas.

Although he has not been named as an official suspect in the investigation, court records have identified him as the subject of a manslaughter enquiry and has been interviewed twice by police.

In no time it has been spoofed many times, and could well be on the way to be the most spoofed youtube video of all time.

The video:

Some spoofs:

Source
The BBC, 19 Aug 2009

Popularity: 1% [?]

UPDATED 2nd October 2009

Mr Blair also visited the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) in Sepilok, Sandakan during his stay in Sabah.

Thanks Hinompuka for the head-up.

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Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister from 1997 to 2007 had visited Malaysia before, but never this part of the country.

So when he turned up for Sunday mass at the Roman Catholic Cathedral in the state capital, Kota Kinabalu on 2nd August 2009 almost nobody noticed, but when he finally made his way out, and people recognised him, he attracted more attention than baby announcements:

He stayed at the Nexus Karambunai resort, which is the same resort preferred by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen everytime he comes here.

What struck me most was what he reportedly said to civil servant Christopher Chiu, who said “he told me that he liked the cathedral and was glad that many people had come for mass.” When I was a student in the UK I remember reading an article that said 94% of Britons do not go to church regularly on Sundays. That’s almost, well, everybody.

Popularity: 1% [?]

On 8th August 1969, photo shooting for the Beatles’ Abbey Road album cover was done on a very ordinary-looking street in the north of London.

It has become one of music’s most famous album covers.

That day, the Fab Four walked out of 3 Abbey Road around 11.30am, after completing some work on their second last album.

A policeman helped to control traffic while the band “walked back and forth a few times,” while being photographed by the late Iain Macmillan standing on a stepladder.

He took 7 or 8 photos, all now in Apple’s archives.

The other photos could’ve include the following:

It was over within 15 minutes: not exactly enough time to demonstrate a “how to lose belly fat by walking” theory …

The zebra crossing today is still a popular destination for Beatles fan; you can see it via a webcam permanently trained on the intersection.

Source
The BBC, 7th Aug 2009

Popularity: 1% [?]

You won’t be able to find bottled water for sale in Bundanoon, New South Wales, Australia.

The rural town with a population of 2,500 has decided to ban the sale of bottled water because of its impact on the environment.

It could be the first community in the world to do so.

In a public meeting in the town hall to vote on it, at least 350 voted for it and only two voted against, one a resident, and another a representative from the bottled water industry.

If New Jersey ever decides to implement this, then less junk for the NJ junk removal company.

Still, locals have promised not to “punish” visitors ignoring the ban, but they will be advised to put used bottles in a reusable container.

Source
The BBC, 8 July 2009

Popularity: 1% [?]

More than 12 million copies sold worldwide.

For those old enough to have seen her in the original Charlie’s Angels, you’d surely remember this poster sporting THAT hair. That hairstyle was copied by millions of young women. She was an international sex symbol in the 1970s and 1980s:

Heck, I can even remember this poster being displayed in my house in the village!

The photo shoot for the original poster was held in 1976 by Pro Arts Inc., and first published in Life magazine the same year.

Her husband at that time was another hugely popular star, Lee “The Six Million Dollar Man” Majors.

RIP, Ferrah Leni Fawcett.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Jacqueline Fleming, 38 of Scotland is the first person to die of the virus outside the Americas.

The mother of 2, who had only given birth to her second son, a premature baby on 1st June while having been critically ill for weeks, died in intensive care on 14th June 2009.

She had “underlying health problems.”

If it was any consolation, the baby does not have the virus.

The death rate is now 1 in 200 infections.

There have been almost 500 people in Scotland infected, mostly in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, 9 now being hospitalised.

As for England, 752 have been infected, mostly around Birmingham.

As for the whole of Great Britain, more than 1,000 have been infected.

As for the rest of Europe, 680.

Worldwide, there have been 145 confirmed deaths, mostly in Mexico and the US.

Now this is getting scary, you could get infected even while shopping for home lighting in your local supermarket!

Source
The Guardian (UK), 15 June 2009

Popularity: 1% [?]

Did David Carradine, 72 die of erotic asphyxiation (EA), or more accurately auto-erotic asphyxiation (AEA)? We might never know, but if he did, he could be the most famous person ever to have done so.

He was found dead 4th June 2009 in his hotel room in Bangkok, hanging by a rope in the closet. Apparently no other persons were involved. A highly controversial photograph published by Thai Rath, a local tabloid, showed his hands apparently bound together above the head. Then not one but two of his ex-wives, Gail Jensen and Marina Anderson revealed that he liked self-bondage.

According to Go Ask Alice!, it’s estimated that between 500 and 1,000 deaths due to EA/AEA occur annually in the United States alone, and exactly how many people engage in AEA is unknown, because the practice almost always remains a secret until someone dies accidentally.

The first recorded case of death from EA is of the Czech composer Frantisek Kotzwara who died in 1791, when he tied a ligature around the doorknob of the room in a prostitute he visited, while the other end was fastened around his neck, then had sex with her. When it was over, he was well… dead.

Arguably even more controversial is AEA, which is basically committing suicide… almost.

Sometimes, it goes wrong, and you’re dead, and if you’re a public figure, it’s explosive.

Possibly the most lurid AEA case involving a politician was that of Stephen Milligan, then 45, who was a British Conservative Member of Parliament. His corpse was reportedly found draped across a kitchen table at his London home in 1994 by his secretary Vera Taggart, who let herself in when she became worried he had missed his appointments.

He was found almost naked, save for suspenders and women’s stockings which he wore, with an electrical cord tied from around his neck to his ankles, a plastic trash bag over the head and a segment of orange in his mouth.

Three days later, it was determined that he died due to suffocation by that cord.

Then of course there’s the case of Michael Hutchence, then 37, lead singer of INXS, who *might* have died from autoerotic asphyxiation in 1997, although officially, suicide was cited as the cause of death.

INXS was in the final leg of a world tour and was in Australia. On the morning of 22nd November 1997, Hutchence, was found dead and in the nude in his hotel room in Sydney. There was a belt found at the scene suggesting that he had died by hanging.

Popularity: 2% [?]

On 11th June 2009, Dr Margaret Chan, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic.

It was done after holding an emergency meeting.

The virus first appeared in Mexico in April.

It has since spread to 74 countries.

Particulary worrying is the rising number of cases in the UK, Australia, Japan and Chile.

There has been nearly 30,000 cases worldwide, with 141 deaths and the numbers are rising every day.

Points to take note:

- keep calm

- the current pandemic seems to be moderate i.e. only causes mild illness in most people. We don’t know if there’ll be a more severe second wave.

- most of the infected are young working age adults

- By declaring a pandemic, it does not imply that we will see increased in deaths or serious cases.

- Symptoms usually similar to seasonal flu – but deaths have been recorded

- The virus is a new version of the H1N1 strain which caused the 1918 flu pandemic

Current treatments do work, but as yet there is no vaccine

Good personal hygiene, such as washing hands, covering nose when sneezing advised.

Dr Chan’s full press statement

Popularity: 1% [?]