UNCONVENTIONAL WORLD RECORDS

Claire Tully, now 24 of Ireland got a first-class honours degree in Biochemistry at the prestigious Trinity College in Dublin.

She then won a place on a PhD course at Oxford University, researching HIV.

But instead of putting on her lab coats and heading south, she took up topless modelling instead, thus becoming Ireland’s first page three girl!

She explains why:

I have long blonde hair, green eyes and a natural 30E bust – why shouldn’t I make good use of these qualities as well as my brain? Besides, I love it. Right from the start, I loved working the camera. I don’t feel exploited, I feel empowered. My family and friends are worried I’m throwing a brilliant career away to earn a quick buck, but the truth is I’m happier than I’ve ever been.

As expected, her Catholic family was “disappointed and refused to look at the photos.” Apparently her father was “in a state of shock – but he’s coming round now.”

Still, she said “I’m not going to throw my education away – there’ll come a time when I have to put my bra back on and return to the lab.”

But for now she’s having fun.

Source
fabulousmag.co.uk

I am not sure if this has ever happened in any other country. Since 2007, there had been 5 deaths of well-known actors, actresses or singers in South Korea.

South Korea has Asia’s highest suicide rate, higher than even Japan. It has more than doubled in the past decade, from 11.8 per 100,000 people in 1995 to 26.1 per 100,000 in 2005.

On average 38 people a day in South Korea take their own lives.

South Korea’s National Statistics Office attributes the high suicide rate to economic hardship in the aftermath of the 1997 financial crisis.

2nd October 2008

Choi Jin-sil, 40 aka “the Nation’s Actress”, one of South Korea’s most popular actresses, is believed to have hanged herself in the bathroom of her apartment with an elastic band wrapped around her neck and shower rail. No suicide note, but she texted her make-up assistant asking “take care of (my) children no matter what happens”. It is believed she had been suffering from depression since 2004, after the end of her marriage to baseball star Cho Sung-min. She left behind 2 children.

Click here to read about and see photos about the other 4 suicides

Or as Avi Avram said, the most alien-looking place on earth, the perfect place to play an “out of this world” prank.

Welcome to Socotra Island, a small 4-island archipelago in the Indian Ocean, with a total area of 3,796 sq km, located around 190 miles south of the Arabian peninsula. It belongs to the Republic of Yemen.

As you can see from the following map, it’s the blob off the Horn of Africa.

It has been geographically isolated from mainland Africa for the last 6 (or perhaps 7) million years.

This island hosts a few hundred species of plants and animals which cannot be found anywhere else on Earth.

Like the following Dragon’s Blood Tree, probably the world’s most alien-looking plant. One can’t help noticing that they look like UFOs:

Then there’s the Desert Rose, which probably is better off being named Elephant Leg Tree:

Click here to see the rest of the post

Update 5th October 2008

The Star reported that:
- a 15-year-old girl, sister of “A”, who also took part in the “ritual cleansing” and was knocked unconscious, underwent surgery yesterday then put in ICU, plus police monitoring. She had suffered multiple head, facial and bodily injuries.
- both families are followers of the banned deviant group Al-Arqam;
- A claimed that he had received wahyu (divine revelation) that he could cure people and was recently sacked by Kuala Lumpur City Hall for indiscipline.

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I think of all happenings during the first few days of Hari Raya in the history of Malaysia, nothing was, or will ever be as crazy as this.

It was reported in The Star on 2nd October 2008 that in the morning of the first day of Hari Raya, a family of five, Mohd Ibrahim Kader Mydin, 47, his wife Rosina S.M. Mydin Pillay, 41 and their 3 children, 2 boys aged 19 & 14 and a 21-year old daughter did what everybody would do on Hari Raya: visit relatives.

They went to Ibrahim’s brother’s flat in Kuala Lumpur, where his brother, wife and 4 children aged 8 to 23 were waiting.

Everything was hunky dory until the conversation turned to a dream.

From the newspaper report, I have reconstructed the possible things that could’ve been said:

One of Ibrahim’s nephews, age 23 (let’s call him A): You know, I had a dream recently, where I was told that I have the power to heal other people’s illnesses and problems.

Police: Arrest these 8 people, including these 4 family members.

Aftermath:

- The postmortem results showed that the couple had died from serious head injuries.
- Both families were believed to have recently joined a cult.
- It is claimed that A is mentally ill.

Source
The Star, 2nd October 2008
New Straits Times, 2nd October 2008

If there’s ever a world championship for peeping toms, surely Thomas Daley (some reports say “Daly”), 45 would be one of the favourites to win.

Daley is the landlord of 16 apartments in Norristown, located in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, a few miles north of Philadelphia, USA.

On 19th September 2008, he was arrested for spying on his female tenants.

And if you thought this was a normal male preoccupation, something like what Ahmad Bakhtiar Abdul Kayoom did to model Nasha Aziz several years ago, this is something on a much bigger scale.

He was only found out when a female tenant’s boyfriend, while changing a lightbulb in her apartment’s bathroom noticed a camera hidden behind the mirror.

The police, after being alerted, found 4 other “micro pinhole-style video cameras” in the apartment whose wires appeared to go down a wall into the basement which only Daley had access to.

Further checks revealed that there were hidden cameras and audio equipment in a further 2 of 4 apartments Daley owned, all occupied by female tenants. They were located in the bedrooms, bathrooms and living rooms.

Some of the cameras would be activated when lights to the room it’s installed in was switched on.

The cameras were linked to the internet, which enabled Daley to watch the women in various states of undress online from the comfort of his home located miles away.

Police found hundreds of videotapes and DVDs of naked women which were of all tenants in Daley’s apartments.

Daley was definitely only into women, because apartments occupied by men were not rigged.

Daley obviously panicked because when he was caught, he had with him equipment he had removed from apartments, meaning he tried to cover his tracks.

Daley then told police that:
(i) he had spied on female tenants for 20 years.
(ii) he installed the cameras before the tenants moved in.
(iii) he taught himself how to install the cameras.
(iv) he followed technology trends: starting with VHS equipment, he graduated to digital recorders and remotely controllable and accessible cameras.

Daley is now being charged with more than 1,000 counts of criminal use of a communication facility and invasion of privacy.

Compounding his problem, the DA said the actual number of victims could be in the hundreds and hence more charges are likely.

End result is that Daley could be put behind bars for many many years.

Here’s CBS’ report, complete with videos of the apartment:

Click here to see the video

If you know of any other school that has a worse name than Pansy Kidd Middle School, pls tell me.

This school is apparently located at Poteau, Oklahoma, USA.

This is not to say that the funny name was chosen in bad faith. It was actually the name of an outstanding teacher, Ms Pansy Ingle Kidd (1890-1978) who taught at the school for 42 years. The school’s original name was then changed to its present name in honour of her.

Someone commented that her middle name should’ve been included as part of the school name. Then it would sound more respectable.

A plaque of Ms Kidd hangs in a school hallway:

Click here to see the plaque

IMHO, Paul Anka has the honour, in swing no less. I think this easily defeats Weird Al Yankovic’s spoof or even Kurt Cobain himself’s low-pitched version on Top Of The Pops. I’d bet that the audience never saw this song coming.

Click here to see the video

Mondegren director Buffalax is a comic genius. I haven’t watched a Hindi music video in its entirety for a very long time, until the day I saw this video. Usually I’d just skip, or fast forward the singing part. This has to be seen to be believed, guaranteed to make one laugh uncontrollably.

Buffalax added subtitles of the “written English approximation of the video’s original language sound,” then uploaded it on 18th August 2007. Since then the video has been viewed more than 8 million times and commented more than 25,000 times.

The song’s name is Kalluri Vaanil, a love song, sung by Prabhu Deva Sundaram in the Indian Tamil movie Pennin Manathai Thottu released in 2000.

As a result of Buffalax’s work, I think interest in the movie from outside India skyrocketed, stunning those involved in the making of the movie.

Click here to see the video

This is not your usual Christian Sunday Mass or service. This not even your usual Praise and Worship sessions typical of Evangelical meetings.

This is the Metal Mass, or Metallimessu in Finland’s Lutheran Church, the state religion.

Inside church buildings, worshippers scream out hymns as lead singers headbang onstage to extremely loud live heavy metal music, with the pastor and altar, both in white waiting on the sides.

Probably this kind of church service is only available in that country, the land where heavy metal is more mainstream than in others. In Helsinki, the capital, there are many heavy metal karaoke bars, clubs, live concerts and festivals. The radiowaves are filled with heavy metal songs. The Finnish Eurovision Song Contest and the Finnish Idol competition were won with heavy metal songs.

Good thing too, since this has caused churches there to be packed with young people.

Not to say all churches there are like this or in favour of it. Some are dead against it, while some heavy metal fans outside the church accuse the church of using their music to boost church attendances. But mostly response has been encouraging.

The first Metal Mass in the country was held in 2006 at the “Tuska” (in English, “Pain”) festival in Helsinki.

Here are some videos to showing a Metal Mass in action:

Click here to see the videos

The Expat is a Malaysia-produced magazine catering to obviously… expatriates.

However, that does not stop it, in a recent publication, from condemning Malaysia’s taxi fleet as the worst in the world.

200 foreigners from 30 countries took part in a survey done by the magazine and among 23 countries compared, Malaysia finished last when judged by taxi quality, courtesy, availability and expertise.

Yes, worse than even Thailand and Indonesia. There drivers are apparently far more courteous.

In fact, comments were very strong, including “a source of national shame” and “a serious threat to tourists - rude bullies and extortionists“.

And locals are not spared either.

Having also used taxis in Great Britain, Singapore and Japan, I feel inclined to agree with the survey results.

More often than not, we’d encounter below-par service and unfriendly taxi drivers with their vehicles in sorry conditions.

Most of them would refuse to use the meter (using the term “flat rate”), overcharge and are choosy about destinations.

An example in the magazine is typical: A Norwegian couple in downtown Kuala Lumpur wanting to go back to their hotel located less than 2 km away being charged RM25 “flat rate” instead of the RM2+ if the meter was used.

Why this is so?

Lack of enforcement, due to corruption in the police and bureaucracy.

Why is this important?

First impressions of a visitor to a country is most often a taxi driver, which is his/her first direct contact with a local.

Solutions in sight

New taxi operators like Citicab have entered the market. offering pricier but quality services. The drivers are uniformed, use the meter without asking and would go to any destination.

Source
Yahoo News, 18th Sept 2008