Random Citations: June 2007

Saturday, June 30, 2007

Hamas 'Mickey Mouse' 'Martyred'

From BBC:

A Palestinian TV station has killed off a controversial Mickey Mouse lookalike [see the Youtube video below] that critics said was spreading anti-US and anti-Israeli messages to children.
The Hamas-affiliated al-Aqsa channel aired the last episode on Friday, showing the character, Farfur, being beaten to death by an "Israeli agent".
"Farfur was martyred defending his land," said the show's presenter Saraa.
Israeli critics had said the show was outrageous and some Palestinian ministers tried to get it shelved.
In the final broadcast an actor said to be an Israeli agent tries to buy the land of the squeaky-voiced Mickey Mouse lookalike.
Farfur brands the Israeli a "terrorist" and is beaten to death.
He was killed "by the killers of children", Saraa says.
Al-Aqsa television told the Associated Press news agency the show, Tomorrow's Pioneers, was making way for new programmes.

Pictures: The Moment of Fighter Aircraft Collision in Air

The Moment of Fighter Aircraft Collision in Air Source: Xinhua

Buy iPig, the USD299 Piglet With Speakers and iPod

Er..., iPhone has some competition with the iPig:

With all the hype surrounding the new Apple iPhone, the St. Paul Saints[known for its four-legged swine mascot] decided to have their own one-of-a-kind technological wonder: the iPig.

Thursday the team debuted the iPig, a little pot belly pig with speakers and an iPod strapped to the side of it.

The little guy was unveiled at the game in St. Paul.

The iPig only costs half of what the iPhone costs at $299. The iPhone goes on sale Friday at 6 p.m. for $499 to $599.

Source: CBS via Uniquedaily

Mike Smith, The Human Cannonball

At the Royal Norfolk Show in Norwich, the daredevil Mike Smith, performed an originally-thought impossible art of flying by being blasted out of the smoking cannon (Of course, he needed to wear the special jumpsuit and safety helmet)! The whole spectacular trajectory from ascending to landing 50 yards away on a giant safety net was perfectly recorded by the photographer Bill Smith using his high-speed professional Nikon camera.

Scroll down for three more photos. Source: Dailymail

Website Operating System and Server of 2008 Presidential Candidates of United States

Joe Biden (Democrat) - Linux, Zope by Interlix
Hillary Clinton (Democrat) - Windows Server 2003, Microsoft-IIS/6.0 by Paul Holcomb
Christopher Dodd (Democrat) - FreeBSD, Apache by pair Networks
John Edwards (Democrat) - Linux, Apache by Plus Three
Mike Gravel (Democrat) - Linux, Apache by Voxel Dot Net, Inc.
Dennis Kucinich (Democrat) - Linux, Apache by New Age Consulting
Barack Obama (Democrat) - FreeBSD, Apache by pair Networks
Bill Richardson (Democrat) - Linux, Zope by Interlix
Wesley Clark (Democrat) - Linux, Apache by Voxel Dot Net, Inc.
Al Gore (Democrat) - Linux, Apache by Rackspace
Sam Brownback (Republican) - Windows Server 2003, Microsoft-IIS/6.0 by RackForce Hosting, Inc.
Jim Gilmore (Republican) - Linux, Apache by 1&1 Internet, Inc.
Rudy Giuliani (Republican) - Linux, Apache by RackSpace
Mike Huckabee (Republican) - Windows Server 2003, Microsoft-IIS/6.0 by LNH Inc.
Duncun Hunter (Republican) - Windows Server 2003, Microsoft-IIS/6.0 by Individual
John McCain (Republican) - Windows Server 2003, Microsoft-IIS/6.0 by Smartech Corporation
Ron Paul (Republican) - Linux, Apache by Rackspace
Mitt Romney (Republican) - Linux, Apache by Rackspace
Tom Tancredo (Republican) - Windows Server 2003, Microsoft-IIS/6.0 by Interland
Fred Thompson (Republican) - Windows Server 2003, Microsoft-IIS/6.0 by LNH Inc.
Tommy Thompson (Republican) - Windows Server 2003, Microsoft-IIS/6.0 by Time Warner Telecom, Inc.
Chuck Hagel (Republican) - Windows Server 2003, Microsoft-IIS/6.0 by Individual
Newt Gingrich (Republican) - Windows Server 2003, Microsoft-IIS/6.0 by Smartech Corporation

Source: Technobusiness

Video: Chinese Cyclist Was Crushed by Bus But Miraculously Survived

The traffic accident happened in Zhejiang Province June 7. Link

World Youngest Car Racer Stephanie Beane Is Only 10 Years Old

Stephanie Beane, an ten-year-old girl from Eaton Town of Ohio, was officially recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's youngest stock car racer on June 29. That day she drove a stock car on the track of the Sandusky Speedway Motor-Sports Park and roared around the track at speeds of about 60 mph to become the youngest stock car racer ever, beating a previous record set by 12-year-old Amanda Stroud, who competed in North Carolina during the 2001 racing season.

Scroll down for one more photo

World Youngest Stock Car Racer Stephanie Beane

Source: Newhouse

First European Human Tooth Unearthed in Spain

Scientists excavating in the Atapuerca Sierra site in the northern Spanish province of Burgos discovered the oldest European human fossil which turned out to be a million-year-old human tooth. The finding confirmed the mankind's presence in Europe started over more than 1 million years ago.

The fossil, which was the remains of an ancestor of Homo antecessor and gives a new perspective to human history, was found in the entry to Sima del Elefante, a pleistocene deposit that was the last to be systematically excavated in Atapuerca.

Source: Xinhua

Friday, June 29, 2007

Drunken Man Vomits His Head Off

A scary story of driving under influence happened in Beijing, China!

A running truck killed a drunk man by almost beheading him when he was vomiting out of a car window shortly after midnight last Friday in Beijing, the Beijing Times reported today.

The victim, surnamed Liao, and his friend Tan Tuanyuan were returning home after a night's drinking, the report said.

Tan, who was also drunk, drove his car to take Liao to his home in Shijingshan District. When they reached Badachu Road, Liao said he wanted to vomit and, according to Tan, "stretched his head out of the window,'' Tan then began pulling over but the car collided with a truck. Half of Liao's head was smashed by the impact with the truck, the report said.

The truck driver immediately called the police, but when police reached the scene, the car was not there. The police found only some of Liao's body tissue on the truck.
Around 3am, Tan surrendered to the traffic authority, the report said.

"I didn't know what happened at that time. (After the collision,) I was holding his hand, talking to him on the way to hospital," Tan said.

But Tan was so drunk that he drove the car in the wrong direction and did not stop until he rammed his car into a balustrade beside a railway line.

Source: Sh'aidaily

Ten English Guide books for Apple's iPhone on Amazon

iPhone, The Missing Manual, by David Pogue

iPhone For Dummies by Edward C. Baig and Bob LeVitus

The Rough Guide to the iPhone by Rogh Guides

The iPhone Pocket Guide by Christopher Breen

Apple Training Series: iPhone Quick-Reference Guide by Peachpit Press

How to Do Everything with Your iPhone by Jason Chen, Adam Pash

The Pocket Idiot's Guide to the iPhone by Damon Brown

iPhone VISUAL Quick Tips by Kate Shoup

The two below have no image available yet.

iPhone Fully Loaded by Andy Ihnatko

Taking Your iPhone to the Max by Erica Sadun

Compiled by Russell Shaw of ZDNet

Atmosphere of Jupiter Undergoing Dramatic Changes

From the website:

Massive Jupiter is undergoing dramatic atmospheric changes that have never been seen before with the keen "eye" of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Jupiter is changing its stripes, perhaps because its seasons are changing, scientists reported on June 28, 2007. Between March 25 and June 5, 2007, Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 captured entire bands of clouds changing color. The image at left shows a thin band of white clouds above Jupiter's equator. The white color indicates clouds at higher altitudes in Jupiter's atmosphere. In the image at right, the band's white hue has turned brown, showing clouds deep within the planet's atmosphere. The whole band appears to have merged with the one below it.

Link

Video: First Look at Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

The video provided by The Insider includes the first look at the occlumency scene between Harry and Snape, in addition to other clips and interviews with Daniel Radcliffe. Source: Youtube

Tattooed Parrot Fish

Those tattooed parrot fish were spotted in an aquarium shop in Suzhou, China. The flowers were tattooed on the squamas of those fish using lasers instead of chemical agents. The "make-over" is said to pose no harm to the fish and the tattoo will not vanish as long as the squamas are on the fish. Even though the price of those parrot fish with the beautiful appearance have increased times, they have attracted many consumers to the store. Source: CRI

Video: Delta Flight 6499, Delayed SEVEN HOURS on the Tarmac

Lobstertexas uploaded the video to Youtube and introduced:

Delta Flight 6499 JFK to DFW on June 25 2007 experienced more than just a routine delay.. for seven hours, four children screamed, and we were told by crew that they couldn't feed us because Delta simply wouldn't allow it.

Have to admit, it's really a terrible experience, whoever on the plane.

Piglet's Dog Mother

From Website:

A dog feeds a piglet in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning province June 29, 2007. The piglet has been fed by the dog for some 40 days since its mother died soon after giving birth. The dog started feeding the piglet after encouragement by the farmer who placed the piglet with the dog in the doghouse, local media reported.

Link

Noelia's Stepfather Topy Mamery Leaked Her Sex Video

Shocked!

Poor Noelia. It’s bad enough her explicit sex tape got out, but then it turns out it was her very own stepfather who leaked it! The singer, and daughter of Yolandita Monge, accused her stepfather Topy Mamery addressing him specifically:

“Topy Mamery: Sólo tú, mi mamá [Yolandita Monge] y Dios, saben que digo la verdad y la justicia tiene que llegar. Haber robado trozos de mi intimidad para tratar de callarme y aniquilarme, es algo despreciable y bajo. A mi madre sólo le deseo que busque a Dios.”

“Topy Mamery: Only you, my mother [Yolandita Monge], and God know that I say the truth and justice must be served. To have robbed pieces of my privacy to try and silent and annihilate me, is something despicable and low. I only wish that my mother searches for God.”

Source: Lossip

Prince Charles Buys Dumfries House--a Scottish palace for £45M

The palace was bought by Prince Charles for the U.K. people, not as what I think he would buy it for his wife Camila, the Duchess of Cornwall.

Scroll down for those possible finest collections of furniture of Dumfries House in the world.

Link

No Matter Zonkey or Deerba, It's Offspring of Zebra Mother and Donkey Father

Another interesting story after we had an atypical zebra-horse hybrid--Eclyse. From MSNBC

ST. THOMAS, Barbados - It's male. But what is it? A zonkey? A deebra? That's the debate in Barbados since a zebra gave birth to a foal sired by a donkey.
Alex was born April 21, a milk-chocolate brown creature with the black stripes of a zebra on his ears and legs. His face looks more like a horse, with a distinctive black "V" patch on the forehead.
While zebra hybrids are not uncommon, most Barbadians have never seen anything like [Zedonk] Alex.
His mother, Allison, is one of two zebras brought to the Caribbean island from Botswana, in southern Africa, in the early 1990s. The other is George and both live at Highland, a six-acre ranch where goats, sheep, ducks and donkeys roam free.
George, however, suffered a long illness, and Allison became friendly with a donkey....

via Neatorama

MP3 Dining Table Sold at 148,000 Yuan

A MP3 dining table with a price tag of 149,000 Yuan (~US$19500) was seen at the 5th Guangzhou International Hospitality Equipments & Supplies Fair (HOSFAIR) China. With a capacity of accommodate 25 people to dine at a time, the table was usually sold to the luxurious hotels. From Sharing News

A sky-high priced dining table displayed by a company from Foshan was the most uniquely design product in the exhibition. The total surface area of the two layered table is 25 square meters. The lower layer is a classically luxurious hardwood carving of dragon and phoenix intervals. The upper layer is equipped with an auto-rotator where automated thermal sensitive electric steamboat spaced out in short distances so that dishes can be placed around the steamboats. There is a mini garden at the center of the table with a few tiny musical fountains. The fountains are able to dance rhythmatically along with a built-in MP3 player inside the table.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Wedding Photos of World Tallest Man Bao Xi-shun

The photos were taken in the middle of this month. Wanna know a bit about Bao Xi-shun and his wife Xia Shu-juan? Ok, you can visit the post featuring Xi-shun's wedding gown.

Video: John Stamos Talking Bar Story in Australia TV Interview

Ou, just because of this video surfaced on Youtube, I only got to know who is John (Philip) Stamos:

John Stamos [a Greek-Ireland descent] is an Emmy-nominated American actor. He is best known for his role as the character of Jesse Katsopolis on the TV show Full House, and currently the role of Tony Gates on the TV series ER.

Link

Video: Apple Teaches How to Use the iPhone Qwerty Touch Keyboard

A lot of nice stuffs about iPhone were posted here, but no one was about iPhone's QWERTY Touch Keyboard, now it comes.

Link

New World Heritage Sites

On the 31st World Heritage Committee meeting, UNESCO adds numerous new sites of cultural significance to its World Heritage list. Among them, China's Diaolou villages in Kaiping were enlisted. The villages feature 1,800 fortified tower houses. They were built as a response to banditry in the late 19th and early 20th Century. As a patriotic Chinese, I am proud of it.

Scroll down for more photos of Diaolou

Link

Antic of Swiss tennis star Emmanuelle Gagliardi's in Wimbledon 2007

The picture above shows Swiss tennis star Emmanuelle Gagliardi attempted to retrieve a ball from her knickers which she'd put there earlier resulted in her flashing a bare and perfectly-formed buttock at the watching crowd and cameramen during her first around match in Wimbledon 2007. Gagliardi left a lasting impression on the crowd with a cheeky display! Link via SN

Man Recovered Thousands of Cash from Septic tank

From Sh'aidaily

A husband in Nanjing salvaged his cache of cash from a septic tank after his unwitting wife mistook his secret money hoard as rubbish and flushed it down the toilet, the Nanjing Morning Post reported today.

The husband, surnamed Huang, wrapped 2,000 yuan (US$262.47) of ``secret'' income in a black plastic bag and hid it in the water tank of the toilet in his apartment last month.

"My wife controls the incomes and expenses of our decoration material shop," Huang said. "I didn't want her to know this money."

Time passed and the husband was always too busy to deposit the money into the bank. But yesterday, his wife found a problem with the flushing of the toilet.

According to the wife, she opened the water tank to check what was wrong and found a black parcel.

"I thought it must be something useless, so I got it out of the water and flushed it down the toilet without a second thought," the wife said.

With the help of the police, Huang quickly got his money back.

He cut open the plastic coverage carefully and found the paper cash inside undamaged.

So any male reader of RC, if you really want to save the secret money from your wife, please do immediately in case that you encounter the situation alike with this Mr. Huang.

Golden Terracotta Warriors

June 25 in Shanghai, two performance artists painted themselves gold and put on Chinese-style armor, making themselves look like golden Terracotta Warriors. link

Video: Coffee With Chou: First Paris Hilton Interview After Jail!

Funny!

Chou Chou gets and exclusive with Paris Hilton before Larry King does!

Link

Residential Building Dangles after Landslide

That's why I am always reluctant to live in a building constructed on a hillside.

A landslide in northeast China's Dalian city caused a massive collapse to a residential building's foundation on Thursday and left the property dangling over rubble, Xinhua reports.

Local authorities soon evacuated the residents, blocked access to the scene and began a rescue operation which remains in progress.

In a previous post, we feature the world's largest labyrinth also in Dalian.

Scroll down for two more photos.

Dalian Residential Building Dangles after Landslide

Update: The building were demolished.
Link

Shanghai Pub Serves Tube Beer

An outdoor pub in the Pedestrian Street of Nanjing Road (East) of Shanghai serves beer in tubes, which has attracted many curious customers. In contrast, I prefer to the beer in the bag in Tsingdao. Link

World’s Largest Corn Labyrinth, aka Travel of The Brave

A local company invested RMB 5M to built the world’s largest corn maze, namely “Travel of The Brave” in Dalian, Northeastern China's Liaoning Province. The labyrinth with an area of 340 Mu (1mu = 667 M2, around 0.165 acre) was located at Shadenghe, beside the Dandong-Dalian Highway, in the city's Jinzhou District. The visitors need take at least an hour to finish its shortest route (3800 meters long). It is expected to open for the public in the middle of July, setting to be a brand new spot for the summer vacation goers in Dalian.

Previously, we had a post about Game for Brave People, the world's highest swing in China

Link via SN

Video: Police Joey Williams Flips on Kids for Skating Downtown in Hot Springs, Arkansas

From the Hunter

... a few kids in Arkansas were out skating for Go Skating Day and had a run-in with an officer [named Joey Williams of Hot Springs Arkansas Police Department]. Unfortunately, the kids fought the law, and the law won.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Zorse Eclyse, An Unusual Zebra-Horse Crossing

Meet Eclyse, an amazing zebra-horse crossing! She is a major attraction at a safari park at Schloss Holte Stukenbrock, near the German border with Holland.

The one-year-old zorse was the accidental product of a holiday romance when her mother, Eclipse, was taken from her German safari park home to a ranch in Italy where she mated with Eclyse's father Ulysses.

For while most zebra-horse crossbreeds sport stripes across their entire body, Eclyse only has two such patches, on its face and rear. So she's walking proof of how a child inherits genes from both parents.

To entertain your curiosity, RC featured a zoo in China painted a white horse to the zebra which they claimed as an original African zebra and charged with visitors for a photography-taking fee. Link

'Electronic Police' to Combat Suicide Attempts

In an effort to curb the number of suicides from Nanhu Bridge in the Chaoyang District of Changchun City, the Jilin authorities are soon to launch two ‘electronic police’ officers in the capital city.

Two "electronic police officers" containing video cameras will be used to patrol the Nanhu bridge where more than 20 people committed suicide each year.

The steel machines, painted to resemble a male and a female police officer, are expected to discourage troubled people from jumping from the bridge.

Each metal officer can spin around 360 degrees and has a special base meant to thwart would-be thieves or vandals. Reflector belts will provide identification at night.

The male machine stands 2 meters tall, the female 1.8 meters. They contain alarms, pinhole cameras and speakers so human police can communicate with people planning to suicide.

Source: CRI

Weird Haircut Celebrates Hong Kong's Return

If I were Donald Tseng, I would have invited him to visit Hong Kong!

A young man from central China's Henan province asked his barber to cut his hair into the shape of eight Chinese characters, which means "Celebrate 10th Anniversary of Hong Kong's Return" in English, June 27, 2007.

The resident of Kaifeng city believes the hairstyle expresses his excitement about the 10th anniversary this Sunday since Hong Kong was returned to China, the China Foto Press reported.

Link

Mummy of Real Queen Hatshepsut

The mummy which Egyptologists have identified as Queen Hatshepsut is displayed at the Egyptian museum in Cairo June 27, 2007. Based on the teeth and DNA clues, Egyptologists think they have identified with certainty the mummy of Hatshepsut, the most famous queen to rule ancient Egypt, found in a humble tomb in the Valley of the Kings, Egypt's chief archaeologist, Zahi Hawasssaid said. Several Egyptologists have speculated over the years that one of the mummies was that of the queen, who ruled from between 1503 and 1482 BC -- at the height of ancient Egypt's power. Link

Video: Youtube on iPhone Parody

Just before going to sleep, I find this funny 30-second long iPhone parody video.

YouTube on an iPhone... how useful. made the music in garageband

iPhone, not Perfect at All

A fantastic review run by NYT journalist Davide Pogue on iPhone (below also has his creative review video for the phone) , I just take its first three paragraphs to let you have a general impression on the Apple's iPhone:

Talk about hype. In the last six months, Apple’s iPhone has been the subject of 11,000 print articles, and it turns up about 69 million hits on Google. Cultists are camping out in front of Apple stores; bloggers call it the “Jesus phone.” All of this before a single consumer has even touched the thing.

So how is it?
As it turns out, much of the hype and some of the criticisms are justified. The iPhone is revolutionary; it’s flawed. It’s substance; it’s style. It does things no phone has ever done before; it lacks features found even on the most basic phones.

Now it's time to watch Pogue's review video on iPhone:

or another with full script from Walt Mossberg of Wall Journal

Oh, yeah, you are yet to finish the full article of Pogure! Or you can go to watch a series of iPhone commercials. If you are strained with your finance, the fake iPhone with 4 GB memory from China may be your consideration.

Great Britain's Smallest House

From Webshots, photo and narration by Annedm1

Situated in a beautiful position on the Quayside at Conwy, this red painted ‘one up – one down’ holds the title of the smallest house in Britain. Measuring only 3.05 metres by 1.8 metres, this tiny house deserves its place in the Guinness Book of Records. Once owned by 6ft fisherman – Robert Jones – the rooms were too small for him to stand up in. So if you fancy a visit to see what life was like without the simplest of luxuries – a bathroom – just remember, what ever you do, mind your head!

via Uniquedaily

Paris Hilton's Self Portrait in Jail

From Dailymail

Talent: This is how Paris Hilton passed time during her stint in jail. She drew a self portrait and handwritten note for Harvey Levin, the owner of website tmz.com

See the video the hotel heiress walking out of the jail.

Video: Playful Pretty Japanese Idol Yumiko Shaku

Yumiko Cheng (鄭希怡), a Hong Kong celebrity, is a current contestant at New Talent Singing Awards Toronto Audition Show. A footage showing her wardrobe malfunction at the show was viewed more than 500,000 times in a day after it was uploaded to Youtube by someone. Recently, Puerto Rican singing sensation Noelia has been a hit on the internet not long after an intimacy video with her ex-boyfriend leaked.

Yumiko Shaku(釈由美子), a pretty Japanese idol, is the most beneficiary of Yumiko Cheng's nipples slip scandal as the Japanese shares the same name as the Hong Kong lady. While most of internet-goers intend to search Yumiko Cheng's wardrobe malfunction video on Youtube, they were served with this video with Japanese Yumiko Shaku in bikinis. The video is pretty safe, just watch it! link

Tony Blair Leaves Downing 10 As Brown Becomes New British Prime Minister

After he received a warm send-off from the legislators of both the opponent and leading Labor Party during his final appearance at the weekly PM's question time session in the House of Commons, Tony Blair left Downing 10 to the Buckingham Palace for a traditionally and quietly closed door power hand-over ceremony.

Blair first called on Queen Elizabeth II to submit his resignation, and Gordon Brown arrived soon after to be confirmed as the 52nd Prime Minister of UK.

Gordon Brown who was joked by bloggers that he already spied on the British People from the sky above charged with healing wounds over Iraq and restoring public faith in a Labour government in order to win a fourth consecutive term.

Update: Blair has been appointed as the Middle East envoy by the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia.

Link to ABC & Blair's Photo at Chinadaily

Legendary Barbie Shrine In Singapore

Each day there are a lot of Singaporean people going to a temple in the city State to pray before the inside Barbie doll which is worshipped as a deity. It is said their prayers for safety and health are answered. Below is an interesting legendary story from e-sinchiew

At the shrine known as "拿督公姑娘廟" (which literally means Lady Na Tuk Kong Shrine", you will find a barbie doll occupying the place on the altar usually reserved for the statue of a deity.

Even some of the offerings left on the shrines altar by worshippers are different from the norm. There are creams, lotions, rouges, powders, small mirrors and combs.

The assortment of cosmetic products makes it seem more like a girl's dressing table than an altar, though given the object of worship at the shrine that may not be inappropriate.

According to Literature and History researcher Han Shanyuan (name transliterated), the story behind the shrine begins with a German couple and their daughter.

The family cleared the land in the area to establish a coffee plantation in Pulau Ubin [click to see the place on Google maps] at the beginning of the last century.

However, when World War One broke out, England was at war with Germany and the British viewed Germans as their enemies. During that time, Germans who lived in British colonies were not only unwelcome but were suspected tobe spies. Their properties were confiscated or frozen.

One day in August 1914, the British army came for the German couple and their daughter. The army caught the couple but the girl managed to escape to the mountain behind her family's plantation. Unfortunately, she fell from a cliff and died.

Locals then built the temple in order to pacify the girl's spirit.

According to the temple's keeper, at first people worshipped a porcelain altar instead of the Barbie doll. The porcelain altar is believed to contain a lock of the girl's blond hair and a crucifix that is said to be the one the girl was wearing when she died.

Three years ago, a local emigrant to Australia had the same weird dream for three nights. In his dream, a western girl led him to a shop. She then asked him to buy a Barbie doll and bring it to the"Lady Na Tuk Gong Shrine".

The man followed the directions given with a grain of salt. To his surprise, he found the shop and also the doll the girl described in his dream.

He bought the doll and brought it back to Pulau Ubin.

Estate Agent Annina Ulrich Fired for Her Silicone-filled Giant Boobs

German estate agent Annina Ulrich [NSFW] addicted to breast enlargement so much and wants her silicone-filled breasts to be the biggest in Europe. Unfortunately, her boss doesn't like her 42H Cup sized boobs and fired her. No way, now she has nothing to do but set up a porn movie business. Link via SN

Tags: annina ulrich, celebrity odds, biggest, boob, breast, cosmetic surgery

World's Longest Trans-sea Bridge

The world's longest sea-crossing structure Hangzhou Bay Trans-sea Bridge (click the link to see detailed information) was formally linked-up after a final section was welded (above) on June 26 one year ahead of the original schedule. The bridge is located south of the business hub of Shanghai.

The bridge links Shanghai to the industrial city of Ningbo across Hangzhou Bay, cutting the distance between them from about 250 miles to just 50 miles.

Costing 11.8 billion yuan (£0.77 billion), the structure will open to traffic 2008 following completion of the six-lane roadway that will permit vehicles to travel at speeds of up to 62 miles (100 km) per hour.

Earlier this month builders connected the final link in the 20.13-mile-long Sutong Bridge, the longest cable-stayed structure of its kind, across the Yangtze River, north of Shanghai.

Scroll down for more pictures.

world's longest trans-sea bridge Sources: Dailymail & Zjnews

Light Fair in Nanjing

2007 Zigong Lamp Fair Nanjing was on trial on the evening of June 26, 2007 at the beach of the Xuanwu Lake in the eastern China's Jiangsu Province. The lantern fair will be formally kicked off on July 1, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the return of Hong Kong to the mainland of China.

Scroll down for more pictures.

Light Fair in Nanjing

link

Japanese Robot Maker Invented Artificial Hand with "Air Muscles"

Kyoto-based robot and factory automation manufacturer Squse unveiled what it called the world's first prototype of an artificial hand with "air muscles"

The 400-gram hand with five human-sized fingers with artificial fibers that can be controlled by air pressure can do even delicate work like picking up a raw egg.

The picture in the left shows the company's President Mikio Shimizu displays the portable robot hand and its artificial muscle, made of fiber and rubber, in Tokyo. link

Day Suddenly Turns into Night in Beijing

Beijing cloaked in noonday darkness after a rainstorm descended in the Chinese capital city around the local time around 1:30pm June 27.

From the website:

The rare weather phenomenon began at about 1:15 p.m. and lasted about 10 minutes. Lights came on in office buildings and workers crowded at windows, amazed to see that the daylight had disappeared.
People indoors without lights were lost in darkness.
Rain and gusting winds began to hit the city at about 1:30 p.m. when the pitch-dark sky lightened a couple of shades.
Local meteorological authorities forecast thundershower and storms in some areas of the capital in the afternoon and evening.

Link

Angry Father Punished Disobedient Son by Stripping of His Cloth and Exposing Him in Public

An angry father was seen driving his bicycle around the People's Road in Suzhou while his naked son was sitting on its back June 26, 2007. The man wanted to punish his son for being disobedient and neglecting his study. Link to SN for one more photo.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Egyptologists Discovered Ancient Queen Hatshepsut's Mummy?

From the website:

Egyptologists think they have identified with certainty the mummy of Hatshepsut, the most famous queen to rule ancient Egypt, found in a humble tomb in the Valley of the Kings, an archaeologist said on Monday.

Egypt's chief archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, will hold a news conference in Cairo on Wednesday. The Discovery Channel said he would announce what it called the most important find in the Valley of the Kings since the discovery of King Tutankhamun.
The archaeologist, who asked not to be named, said the candidate for identification as the mummy of Hatshepsut was one of two females found in 1903 in a small tomb believed to be that of Hatshepsut's wet-nurse, Sitre In.
Several Egyptologists have speculated over the years that one of the mummies was that of the queen, who ruled from between 1503 and 1482 BC - at the height of ancient Egypt's power.
"It's based on teeth and body parts ... It's an interesting piece of scientific deduction which might point to the truth," the archaeologist said.
Egyptologist Elizabeth Thomas speculated many years ago that one of the mummies was Hatshepsut's because the positioning of the right arm over the woman's chest suggested royalty.

Link Picutre

Shanghai Sweden Absolut Vodka and Icehotel

Shanghai Sweden Absolut Vodka and Icehotel is opened since this June 22 and is the second icebar outside Euprope. The bar was made of 50 tonnes ice blocks shipped from Sweden's Torne River. The temperature inside the bar must maintain at minus five degrees celsius.

Any customer entering to the venue will be handed Eskimo coats, mittens and hats. To prevent frostbite, they are only allowed to stay for 45 minutes.

The icebar aims to "provide a total experience of Scandinavian fine dining and culture to be found nowhere else in Shanghai."

Scroll down for more pictures.

Shanghai Sweden's Absolut Vodka and Icehotel

links to ChinaGate & Kooky

Diamonds Studded SL-Class 550 Mercedes Benz

This diamond covered car is Saudi Prince Waleed's 38th car! The price of the car is US$4,800,000. Though the majority of people can't afford it, if you are a fanatic car fan, you can touch this royal car by paying a premium of US$1000. Link

Germany Bans Tom Cruise to Film At the Country's Military Sites Because of His Scientology Belief

From NYT

United Artists, the mini-studio now controlled by Tom Cruise and his producing partner, Paula Wagner, ran into a snag over Mr. Cruise’s religion Monday in Germany. Officials banned the company from shooting a film at German military sites because of Mr. Cruise’s adherence to Scientology.

A spokesman for the German Defense Ministry told Reuters that the film, “Valkyrie,” about a 1944 plot to kill Hitler, would not be allowed access to sites, including part of the Defense Ministry in Berlin, where the plot was hatched. The spokesman objected to the casting of Mr. Cruise as Col. Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, a leader in the failed assassination attempt.
The German government has long been at odds with Scientology, which it does not regard as a religion but as a dangerous sect. Citing Mr. Cruise’s affiliation with the Church of Scientology on Monday, the spokesman described the church as a cult.

While Tom Cruise vowed Scientology will have no impact on his portrayal of a legendary German assassin. We are waiting to see if the Defense Ministry of Germany will finally lift the ban.

Video: Ollie, a Giant Octopus Who Can Play Legos

C_B C_B says Lego games is not only for kids, but for Octopus too. Link

Migaloo, World's Only Completely White Humpback Whale

Migaloo, whose name means "white fella", is believed to be the only completely white humpback whale in the world. The 14-metre albino whale was spotted off Heron Island, on Queensland's central coast.

Link via SN

World's Oldest 107-year-old Herdsman Still Herds Live Livestocks in China

Li Xi-cai(李喜财), from mountainous Kuangshi village, Ankang city in sha'an Xi Province, has been herding animals all his life.

The centenarian was born in 1900, and started herding for landlords, then for the village after the revolution, and now still still herds bulls his family.

Scroll down for three more photos.

world's oldest herdsman Li Xi-cai

Links to Ananova & Pchome

Sam Alexis Woods, Tiger Woods's Daugher (Photos)

Meet Sam Alexis Woods, golfer Tiger Woods's first child with his Swedish model wife Elin Nordegren. Sam Alexis was born in the morning of June 18. The tiny toddler made her debut appearance on June 25 in a series of handout photos from Woods'.

Photo: Sam Alexis Woods, Elin Nordegren Tiger Woods's daughter

Tiger Woods, Elin nordegren and daugher Sam Alexis Woods Photos

Link

Video: Paris Hilton Walks Free from Jail

The hotel heiress, who shot the fame for her notorious sex video with ex-boyfriend, is a free woman but still has a probation for her DUI until 2009.

Paris Hilton was released from jail shortly after midnight on Monday [June 25].
She walked out alone, with her head held high and with a huge smile on her face.
She strutted to her car like she was on a catwalk and the first thing she did was give her mom a big hug.

Source: Perezhilton

Before you leave RC, here is Paris Hilton Parody - Jail Song or you want to know a bit about the sex tape scandal of Noelia who was likened to Hilton by abundant bloggers.

Expensive! Japanese Square-shaped Watermelons Sold for $200 Per Each

From Chinadaily:

An employee of an agricultural cooperative prepares square-shaped watermelons for shipment in Zentsuji, western Japan June 25, 2007. The cooperative will ship about 800 of the watermelons through mid-July with each priced from 17,000 yen ($137) to 25,000 yen ($202), local media reported.

In contrast, the square-shaped watermelons from Brazil sold in UK, is quite cheap with a price tag of only £5.

The Diamond-adorned Sword of 18th President of US Auctioned for Nearly $1.7 Million

The sword given to Ulysses Grant, the 18th president of United States, by the citizens of Kentucky in 1864, was auctioned for $1,673,000 by Heritage Auction Galleries of Dallas.

The silver and gold sword contains a 28-diamond monogram and is covered with intricate designs, including engraved battle scenes on its 33-inch blade.

Gary Hendershott, Heritage's director of Civil War auctions, described the sword as maybe the finest from the Civil War period.

link: Azcentral

French Spiderman Alain Robert Climbs Kiev's Building

Unlike earlier in Shanghai where he climbed Jinmao Tower without the authentication of the Chinese authorities, extreme climber Alain Robert scaled a 63-metre tall building in Kiev as part of a promotional campaign for a local telecommunications company.

Scroll down for one more picture.

French Spiderman Alain Robert Climbs Kiev's Building

Link

First Underwater Graduation Ceremony Held in Taiwan

The first underwater graduation ceremony of the College of Marine Sciences Graduate Institute of National Dong Hwa University, was held in front of the Oceanic Aquarium in the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium (NMMBA) in the eastern county of Taitung, June 25, 2007. The institute was established under the collaboration between the NMMBA and the University.

The most creative moments of the event appeared when the graduates proudly received their diplomas from Huang Wen-shu, president of Dong Hwa University, in the aquarium while donning on the scubas.

Scroll down for one more photo.

First Underwater Graduation Ceremony in Taiwan

Links: SN & Pictures: QQ

Monkey Drinking Pepsi

A monkey was seen drinking Pepsi to keep itself cool in the Changchun Zoo, China's Jilin Province. See more monkey drinking Pepsi (Not Coca Cola!) photos on CBBS

Shock! WWE Wrester Chris Benoit Killed Wife, Son and Himself

What a tragedy!

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. (AP) -- WWE wrestler Chris Benoit, his wife, and son were found dead Monday and police said they were investigating the deaths as a murder-suicide.
Detective Bo Turner told television station WAGA that the case was being treated as a murder-suicide, but said that couldn't be confirmed until evidence was examined by a crime lab.
The station said that investigators believe the 40-year-old Benoit killed his wife, Nancy, and 7-year-old son, Daniel, over the weekend, then himself on Monday. A neighbor called police, and the bodies were found in three rooms.
Lead investigator Lt. Tommy Pope, of the Fayette County Sheriff's Department, told The Associated Press the deaths were being investigated as homicide, and that the causes of death awaited autopsy results on Tuesday. Pope said the bodies were discovered about 2:30 p.m., but refused to release details.

The video below shows Vince McMahon, WWE chairman, announced the death of the Crippler Benoit (via) .

Links to report on SI & WWE's Condolences

Judge Roy Pearson Lost His $54 Million Missing Trousers Lawsuit

Judge Roy Pearson of District of Columbia who filed a $54 million lawsuit (originally $65M) against his neighborhood South Korean dry cleaner Kim Jin Chung over a pair of missing pants will not get a penny, US Superior Court ruled.

Judge Judith Bartnoff ruled that Pearson failed to prove that Custom Cleaners the shop Kims owned misled consumers with its “satisfaction guaranteed” sign and couldn't convince her that they had lost his pants.

At the same time, Judge Pearson has been ordered to pay the defendant's court costs which could top up to $5,000. Links to NYT & the photo gallery of missing trousers

Video: Como Duele (Barrera de Amor) by Noelia

A nice MTV from the battered Puerto Rican singer who shot to the fame after Noelia sex video was surfaced on the internet.

World's Longest Appendix

World longest appendix measures 23.5 cm or 9.2 in long. Dr. Riaz Ahmed Khokhar removed this Guinness-Records-winning appendix from a then 55-year-old Pakistani man at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad, Pakistan on June 11, 2003.

The appendix was a long, thin, worm-like pouch sticking out of the join between the large and small intestines. Till now, doctors are still not sure of its purpose. Link

Update: The purpose of appendix is believed to produce and protect good bateria for human gut, said the scientists in USA

Monday, June 25, 2007

Gourd-shaped Tortoise

This gourd-shaped tortoise appears at Qugou Township Ornamental Fish Market in Huaibei, east China's Anhui Province, June 24, 2007. Although businessmen there contributed a gene mutation to the aberrance, I rather think it as an abused animal by being banded an iron wire or something alike during its growout. Link to Anhuinews

Acupuncture for Dog to Treat Facial Spasm

A veterinarian performs acupuncture therapy for a dog who suffers the facial spasm at a vet clinic in north China's Tianjin Municipality June 22, 2007.

The service is not expense as a six-day treatment costs only about 50 yuan or $6.50. Link

Moscow Miss Fatty Contest

The annual Miss Fatty contest was part of festivties organised by Moskovsky Komsomolets youth-oriented newspaper at Moscow's Luzhniki sports area. Link

Algae Pollution in Yunnan's Dianchi Lake

Dianchi Lake in Kunming, is one of the best known tourist spots in the country. But this beautiful tourism destination is nowadays plagued by the blue-green algae bloom. The water as-sticky-as-green-paint is emitting a foul odor in the air.

Scroll down for one more picture.

Link

Video: Oops! Classified Job Ads Guaranteed to NOT Find Qualified U.S. Workers

Check out this video which shows Lawrence Lebowitz, the vice president of marketing in Pittsburgh-based law firm Cohen & Grigsby, was explaining to his audience that his firm's goal is clearly not to find a qualified and interested U.S. worker for US companies but to secure green cards for H-1b workers.

The Programmers Guild, a group that opposes current US immigration laws, edited it, added background music to the company's original footage and re-uploaded to Youtube.

Now Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has asked Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to examine the incident that the firm how to circumvent the law to obtain visas for foreign employees.

Link to the Youtube video, & news report on Arizona Daily Star

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Peru's Multi-shaped and Colored Potatoes

Those weird potatoes were grown at 3,950-meter-above-sea-level Andes by farmers in Huancavelica, southern Peru. They also have weird names like "best black woman," "best red woman," "makes the daughter-in-law cry," "like a deer's white tongue," "red shadow" and "like an old bone". Ou, I didn't anticipate that the potato can have so many varieties. Link

Human Olympic Rings to Promote Olympics

From CRI

Two hundred or so outdoor sports enthusiasts form the five Olympic rings in the vast Kumtag desert, in China's northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, on Saturday, June 23, 2007. The performance was part of a series of Olympic-themed activities, organized by the local Shanshan County government and the Xinjiang Mountaineering Association, to promote next year's Beijing Olympic Games. Nearly one thousand outdoor sports fans signed up for the activities.

Prince William & Kate Middleton Resumed Relationship

From Dailymail

Prince William and Kate Middleton have been seeing each other again – and shared a passionate kiss at a decadent Army party before disappearing to the Prince's private quarters.
The party and other secret dates are tentative steps towards a reconciliation, with sources close to both William and Kate saying he wants to give their relationship a second chance.

The pair have not been seen publicly together since their split in April. But The Mail on Sunday can disclose that Kate visited William at his Army barracks in Bovington, Dorset, on June 9.
She joined him at a troop leaders' party to celebrate the end of one of his Army courses. Eyewitnesses have told me the pair, who were happy and relaxed in each other's company, were spotted kissing on the dancefloor at around midnight. They then left the party early to go back to William's barracks.

Video: Cartoon Character Drawn by Using HTML!!!

Some a crazy Japanese guy used HTML tables and background colors to successfully draw a cartoon character. Amazing! Link

The Way That You Can Deal With Lazy Police

Haha, hilarious!

Northern Lights As Seen from Space

Really Beautiful! via Digg

Microsoft Office Bus in China

It seems that those Chinese Microsoft engineers are rather read the books than work on the computers in front of them. Yeah, working all the way from home or office is too boring!

Link via Uniquedaily

'Ass' Handbag

The unusual handbag was displayed on the Las Horas exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Sydney June 19. The silicon and leather artwork by Argentine artist Nicola Constantino is covered with human-shaped anuses.

World's Largest Inflatable House

A giant inflatable house thrills a crowd in Wuyuan, central China's Jiangxi Province, by setting a record as the world’s largest circular inflatable house.

It has a diameter of 24 meters, slightly bigger than the size of a basketball court. consumed nearly 1.3 tonnes of materials.

It took 10 days for more than thirty skilled workers from a local factory producing consumer products to finish building this giant house. It costs 160,000 yuan (~US$22,000) and can withstand the strong typhoon.

To inflate it up, the circular house needs 12 air blowers to work simultaneously for more than 20 minutes. Once inflated, it is as high as a 3-storey building and can accommodate up to 600 people. The house can be used as a temporary exhibition hall. Link via SN

Video: Melody from Theremin--An Electronic Musical Instrument Invented in 1919

Gnarls Barkley's hit tune Crazy was amazingly rendered by the theremin!

This video is an experiment to see how rapidly the theremin can be injected into the world's collective consciousness. It's amazing that not everyone knows what a theremin is. It was the first electronic musical instrument and it was invented in 1919.
[In the video,] the main theremin was passed through iZotope Trash, an awesome software guitar effects plugin. The video was edited entirely in Adobe After Effects. The hand on the carpet was to simulate wind noise, definitely cause for confusion. This also means all the parts of the song were performed with hands only.

Mounted Policewomen in Ningxia

From People's Daily

Mounted policewomen are seen training horses at a racecourse in Shi Zuishan City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region June 23, 2007. A team of 15 young mounted policewomen has been set up there to serve in patrol, military parade and equestrian events.

Stupid Thieves Stolen Homer Simpson in Malaysia

From Kooky

D'oh! Thieves drove off with a life-size statue of television cartoon star Homer Simpson poking out of their getaway car, the Motion Picture Association said on June 21st.

The theft, committed under cover of darkness early on June 18th, took place outside a cinema in a suburban Kuala Lumpur shopping centre, said Nor Hayati Yahaya, Malaysia's director of the association.

Hayati expressed surprise at the brazen act, which was captured on several closed-circuit TV monitors. Pictures show two men lugging away the bulky Homer, who then protruded from the boot of the getaway car.

"There is CCTV everywhere in the shopping centre and the worst part is they couldn't close the bonnet because Homer is too big," Hayati told AFP.

She said cameras also captured the not-too-smart thieves' car licence plate number.

F1 Ferrari's 60-year-old Birthday Celebration

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of its entering the Formula One Grand Prix since 1948, Ferrari held a grand parade on the company's track in the Italian town of Fiorano June 23. Scroll down for the pictures taken by Reuters on the event.

Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen (L) of Finland and team mate Felipe Massa of Brazil drove a Ferrari 125 of the year 1947 during a relay for the celebration. Ferrari cars are parked on the company's track .The new Ferrari 612 Scaglietti, produced in a limited edition, is seen here. Ferrari chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo thumps up as he arrives on the company's track during the relay for the celebration Two pretty Ferrari Girls

Aussie Sailing Beer Can Boat To Raise Charity Fund

The trio Brad Gillam, Rob Meharg and Chris Taylor from Queensland completed a three-day sailing trip down the Brisbane River in a boat made from 8000 beer cans with a fair share silicon and plywood. Their movement intends to raise funds for the fight against Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS, of which Mr Gillam's 10-week-old daughter died.

Link via SN

Go-kart Crashed by Lewis Hamilton After Being Sold for £42,000

So the kart will now have to be repaired for the damage before it reaches the new owner.

The [F1] World Championship leader sold the go-cart on eBay [for £42,000] to raise money for charity, reports The Sun.
Lewis Hamilton, 22, took the McLaren Mercedes kart for a 40mph spin after the auction ended - and crashed.
He damaged a rear axle when he crashed on a corner of the specially-built track in Central London.

Link

British Airline Pilot Spotted 'Mile-wide UFO'

Captain Ray Bowyer recently spotted a cigar-shaped brilliant white light while piloting his aircraft of Aurigny Airlines over the Channel Islands. The mile-wide 'UFO' he described is similar to the image above supplied by Dennis Plunket of the British Flying Saucer bureau. It's Gordon Browns` new method of spying on British people from above, oh don't take it seriously, just kidding! :-) Link

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Cheap! $14 Black iPod Shuffle

In China, maybe the only thing that could not be copied is USA's space shuttle! A friend of Anh of Le Journal du Geek brought her a black made-in-China iPod Shuffle! Below is the translation (by Google Translate) from the original French post.

You will have understood it, it is not an official product from Apple but a counterfeit that a friend brought back from China. I observed the fake iPod carefully and it is rather impressive, which goes from the packaging to the code bars with same spelling mistakes It is clear that the completion is not at all the same one as those of Apple, the 'metal' case was made from plastics, but the plastics fall apart on another side. It costs only 14$…

via Tracing Gadget

HIV Infection Theory Wrong?

Studies done by scientists from Imperial College London say that the longstanding theory of how HIV slowly depletes the body's capacity to fight infection is not correct! Excerpts from BBC

HIV attacks human immune cells, called T helper cells. Loss of these cells is gradual, often taking many years.
It was thought infected cells produced more HIV particles and that this caused the body to activate more T cells which in turn were infected and died.
Imperial College London modelling suggests that, if that was true, cells would die out in months not years.
The imperial team used a mathematical model of the processes by which T cells are produced and eliminated.
Using this they showed that the current theory of an uncontrolled cycle of T cell activation, infection, HIV production and cell destruction - dubbed the "runaway" hypothesis - was flawed.
They concluded that it could not explain the very slow pace of depletion that occurs in HIV infection.
They showed that if the theory was correct, then T helper cell numbers would fall to very low levels over a number of months, not years.

Aids Logo from Bioblog.IT

Scientists Photographed Maclaud's Horseshoe Bat for First Time

When surveying the highland forests of Guinean in West Africa earlier this year, German biologist Natalie Weber took the first picture for a bizarre twisted-faced bat called Maclaud's horseshoe bat [it is so rare, you can't even find a piece of entry about this species on Wikipedia] after finding altogether 16 of this creature in numerous remote caves.

The bat had never been photographed before and had not been seen in the wild in nearly 40 years.

The Maclaud's bat is one of about 70 known species of horseshoe bats, so named for their distinctive—some might say grotesque—facial features called noseleafs.

Source: National Geographic

Interior of EADS's Space-traveling Plane

From People's Daily

A model showing the interior of a latest type of space-traveling plane was displayed on the 47th Paris Air Show on June 20, 2007. The European Aeronautic Defence & Space Company (EADS) is planned to unveil the plane in 2012. It will provide a 90-minute space travel for four passengers each time, including a three-minute weightless flight more than 100 kilometers over the ground. The charge for each tourist will be between 150,000 and 200,000 euros.

Scroll down for more pictures

Thierry Henry to Sign Barcelona at 24M Euros?

Thiery Henry

Heartbroken news for those Arsenal fans like myself!! From Sky Sports News:

Cadena Ser radio, the station that broke the news of David Beckham and Zinedine Zidane's moves to Real Madrid, have stated that Barcelona will pay €24million (£16million) for the Arsenal forward.
The station, which quotes Barcelona officials, says Henry has already put pen-to-paper on a contract spanning until 2011.
Spanish newspapers have also reported the story, but a spokesman from Barcelona has told Sky Sports News that the deal is not yet finalised.
The spokesman claims Thiery Henry's move is 'not totally done and dusted' and has insisted that discussions are still ongoing between Arsene Wenger and his Barcelona counterparts.

Picture from Seanleonardart.

Lee Redmond, the Woman with World's Longest Fingernails

Lee Redmond ”Fingernails Woman"

Salt Lake City resident Lee Redmond, pictured above, holds the record for the woman in the Guinness World Records for longest fingernails on both hands.

Mrs. Redmond, who hasn't cut her nails since 1979, has grown and carefully manicured them to reach a total length of 7 m 51.3 cm (24 ft 7.8 in) as of August, 2006.

She was recently seen on Ripley's Believe It Or Not! Odditorium grand opening ceremony （see video below) in Times Square in New York.

Incredible! Her extreme long nails, don’t hamper her doing everyday tasks such as cooking, cleaning and looking after her husband, who has Alzheimer’s disease.

Link

Top Ten Most Hated Internet Words

* Folksonomy
* Blogosphere
* Blog
* Netiquette
* Blook
* Webinar
* Vlog
* Social Networking
* Cookie
* Wiki

The list comes out from a survey done by British pollsters YouGov which questioned 2,091 adults earlier June. Have these words make you band your head on the key board of your computer? Among them only the Folksonomy said to be a term for a web classification system possibly makes me do the crazy thing. The remaining are quite ok for me, especially wiki, the collaborative website edited by its readers, is one of my favorite sites on the Earth. Link

Elwood, World's Ugliest Dog

It seems no way for me to find a dog uglier than this Elwood. The 2.7KG Chinese Crested and Chihuahua hybrid won the dubious honor of being named the world's most hideous canine at the 2007 World's Ugliest Dog Contest in Petaluma, California, June 22, 2007. From Sonoma-marinfair

Elwood, 2nd runner up in 2006 World's Ugliest Dog Contest, is back for another run at the Title. This little dog weighs in at just 6 lbs and was rescued as the result of a NJ SPCA investigation. When we first saw Elwood, we knew he was special, not just because of his unusual appearance (which we find darling), but because of his magical personality and loving ways. Elwood has become a local celebrity throughout New Jersey (his home state) and a Good Will Ambassador for homeless animals and those with special needs. He spends much of his time working with rescue groups spreading the messages to adopt a homeless animal; spay/neuter your pet; and be kind to animals (and each other). But most importantly, this little dog brings smiles and happiness to everyone he meets. Last year lots of people thought Elwood was "ugly", some thought he looked like a "monkey", "Yoda" or "ET". But since being in the contest, people now tell use he's "adorable", "cute", "too cute to win". As you can see, this tiny dog will capture your heart. Cute or ugly...we think he's just PERFECT.

Beyond the regal title of ugliest dog, Elwood also earned a $1,000 reward for his owner Karen Quigley.

Video: iPhone’s Offer of Youtube Videos

It should be the last iPhone commercial before its debut on June 29. Link

Well-preserved Fossil Fish Discovered on Rock

Local villagers on discovered the fossil of an ancient fish in southwestern China's Chongqing City with well preserved features, CRI quoted Xinhua as reported.

The fossil, measuring 250cm long and 40cm wide, was found on the face of a rock during a road building project in Zhonglun village, Shilong town of Chongqing's Banan District.

The discovery is significant for the study of prehistoric life in the area.

One more photo after skip: Link

Video: Funny Japanese Human Tetris Game

The game is somewhat tricky but interesting. Contestants were required to pass through unusual shapes in a moving wall, otherwise they would be knocked into a pool. Link

Atlantis Safely Lands at California Desert after Completing Mission

The shuttle touched down the tarmac at 12:49 p.m. local time at the Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert, north Los Angeles.

The landing came after NASA had passed up altogether four chances to land at Kennedy Space Center in Florida because of rain and low clouds in the area.

Atlantis had taken off on June 8 on what was to be an 11-day mission mainly to install a new structural truss and electricity-generating solar panels on the International Space Station. The mission was extended by two days so that astronaut could do a spacewalk to staple down a thermal blanket that had come loose during launch. It was then extended another day because of the bad weather in Florida.

Before Atlantis was undocked from the ISS, the shuttle's thrusters helped maintain the station's orientation until the computers that control orientation and oxygen production on the Russian side resumed operating.

Welcome Back, Atlantis! Source: NYT

Friday, June 22, 2007

Video: Dramatic Prairie Dog's Look

The five-second-long footage (1, 2, 3)showing a prairie dog which reacted to a dramatic look was ripped from the Japanese educational show below and re-edited by adding a sound from a scary movie. LoL!!

Link

Video: Microsoft Surface Parody

SarcasticGamer.com presents a twisted take on one of Microsoft's latest and greatest announcements. Truth be told, We actually WANT a Surface Computer, but since we can't afford one, we thought it might be fun to make fun of it.

I like it! link

Video: Hillary Clinton Sopranos Spoof for Presidential Campaign

I hope Hillary Clinton will be elected as America's First Female President! Link

Georgia Brown, 2, A Girl Who Scores Genius-rated IQ of 152

Georgia Brown, a 2-year-old toddler from Aldershot, Hampshire in UK, scored 152 points on the IQ test, which put her in the same intellectual league, proportionate to her age, as physicist Stephen Hawking (in the top 0.2 per cent of the population).

She has been invited to join Mensa, the High IQ society whose members have IQs in the top 2 per cent of the population. Georgia now is one of only 30 Mensa members under the age of ten.

Check out the full fabulous story about this gifted girl on Dailymail. (via SN)

Video: Israeli Pilot Flies F-15 With One Wing

It happened more than 20 years ago!

In the year 1983 an F-15 of the Israeli airforce collided with a skyhawk while doing a practice. The skyhawk blew away but the pilot abandoned it peacefully. The F-15 lost his right wind but the pilot Zivi Nedivi couldn't see it because of the vast fuel fumes that covered it. The pilot and the navigator Yehuar Gal didn't not know they are flying on one wing only, a state which is of course "impossible" to fly in, and did not abandon the jet but continued to land a crash landing. Because of the high velocity of the jet (450kmph) while landing, the stopping hook was cut away and the jet stopped a few meters before the end of the runway.

Link

16-Year-Old Student Windy Hager Marries 40-Year-Old Teacher Brenton Wuchae

Windy Hager, a 16-year-old student from South Brunswick High School in Wilmington, N.C. got married to Brenton Wuchae, a 40-year-old high-school science teacher. Their relationship was developed during the time that Mr. Wuchae coached Hager to be the school's top runners. Even though their marriage encountered much strong consents from the relatives and friends, Hager was still more than happier to be the young wife of Wuchae. Link

2007 Hot Air Balloon World Cup

2007 Hot Air Balloon World Cup convened in Tsarskoe Selo outside St Petersburg in Russia June 21, some 45 hot airships from 20 countries took part in the inaugural competition. The picture above shows the awesome double rainbow arches were seen on the opening over a hot air balloon. link

Video: Boeing 737 Landing With Only One Wheel

Scary!

Video: Scientists Simulate Airplane Colliding with World Trade Center

Funded by the US National Science Foundation, researchers at Purdue University have created a simulation that uses scientific principles to study in detail what likely happened when a commercial airliner crashed into the World Trade Center's North Tower on Sept. 11, 2001.

Current findings from the simulation have identified the destruction of 11 columns on the 94th floor, 10 columns on the 95th floor and nine columns on the 96th floor.

Links Youtube & the Full story about this simulation.

Video: Microsoft Showcasing Multi-touch Protype Laptop

Microsoft Research Cambridge's Steve Hodges shows off infrared-based multi-touch technology [that was also applied to Microsoft's Surface Table earlier] for computer laptops.

Responding to the concerned technology, Gizmodo's Adam Frucci wrote:

Will multi-touch displays replace the boring old mouse in the future? I'm highly skeptical, but it looks like enough money is being pumped into the technology.

For detailed information about this Microsoft multi-touch laptop protype, refer to Long Zheng's Microsoft Research demonstrates laptop-compatible multi-touch displays. Can touch this.

Williams Sisters to Use Gold Rackets at Wimbledon

Serena and Venus Williams will debut gold rackets at Grand Slam Tennis -- Wimbledon 2007 starting from June 25.

Serena will play with a black Wilson (K) Factor limited-edition racket and Venus will compete with a white version featuring 22-carat gold leaf laid into the frame.

I haven't seen Williams Sisters crowning any title of Grand Slam for some time already, and wish the Wilson gold rackets may bring them good lucks in Wimbledon.

Link: CBS Photo: Sptimes

Chongqing's Open Toilet

An open toilet, named Sunshine Toilet (阳光厕所) was unveiled at Foreigners' Street (洋人街) in the Chongqing Municipality, Southwest China, June 21, 2007. Visitor's behavior of using this toilet can be clearly visible especially on the hill slope.

The picture above shows some visitors stared curiously at the exposed toilet bowls. Under the sign of the British-style male public WC is a picture of a young lady holding a telescope while 'staring' at whom using the toilet.

Check out the SN's post for more pictures.

Video: Fake Cool iPhone With 4GB Internal Memory From China

The true iPhone will only be available since June 29. You can check or download the official iPhone guide tour from Apple. link

15-Year-Old Indian Boy Performs Caesarean Section Surgery

In an attempt to see his son's name in the Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest surgeon in the world, Dr. Murugesan and his doctor wife Gandhimathi from India's Tamil Nadu State supervised and filmed a Caesarean section birth performed by his 15-year-old son Dhileepan Raj in their own maternity hospital.

However, a spokeswoman from the record book said the organization doesn't monitor or endorse such feats because it would encourage the practice of ``bad medicine.''

In the same time, Dr. Murugesan could be stripped of his licenses and may face criminal charges for allowing his son to perform the unlicensed operation.

Source: Guardian

Older-than-dinosaur Freshwater Jellyfish Discovered at Nanchang University

A freshwater jellyfish (not true jellyfish but hydrozoan) older than dinosaurs were discovered when students of life sciences major from Nanchang University were searching for mayfly on the university's Shuangfeng Lake. The lower animal belongs to craspedacusta, which dates back some 650 million years.

Researchers analysed water samples and learned it was free of toxins and clean enough to support the craspedacusta, which prefers a water temperature less than 35 degrees Celsius.

A craspedacusta has a very simple body and is reckoned as a "living fossil", valuable for studying biological evolution.

freshwater jellyfish in Nanchang University

Link

Thursday, June 21, 2007

U.S.A.F. Airborne Laser aircraft Unveiled

Reuters via Chinadaily:

The U.S.A.F. Airborne Laser aircraft sits on the tarmac at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, June 21, 2007. The modified 747 aircraft uses a high-energy Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser to generate an energy beam from the aircraft's nose to intercept and destroy a hostile ballistic missile during the boost phase of its trajectory.

4-year-old Boy Can Carry 50 kg Sand!

Hey, take a look at this four-year-old boy named Jin Linlin! He is nothing special from any boys at his age special except that he can carry an 50-kg load and still can walk around. The picture shows he was carrying two bags filled with such weight during a demonstration at his uncle's house. His father said whenever the 1.2-meter-boy is hungry, he will go to eat and is never picky about the food. According to the pediatrician Zhang Xiulian from The People's First Hospital in Shangqiu of Henan Province, a four-year-old boy normally can only carry 5 kilograms. link

Wang Chuncai, China's Elephant Man Grows World's Largest Tumor on Face

A Reuters video shows that Huang Chuncai (黄春才), a 31-year-old villager from Chenzhou of central China's Hunan Province, suffers from the world's most extreme recorded case of neurofibroma. The 15-kilogram tumour growing on his face which deformed his backbone and stunted his growth has left him in continual pain and forced him to withdraw from the society.

He lost the sight in his right eye aged just ten when the tumour above his right eye grew to cover it completely.

It is now so large that he has almost lost his hearing and finds it difficult to speak.

When then at school, he was bullied so badly that he was forced to leave.

In the past 27 years, he never left his Yulan village in the Yongxing County. Thanks to an kind offer that provides him with free operations from Fuda Hospital which accumulated the experiences from the surgeries on two previous Malaysia patients with the same condition--elephantiasis, he now has left his hometown and hospitalized in the Guangzhou-based hospital.

Doctors in the hospital are preparing to carry out an operation to remove the tumour, but the operation sets to be delicate.

"The tumour is huge and there are many blood vessels inside which makes the operation very difficult. If we cannot stop the bleeding during the operation, Huang will die," the doctor said.

If the operation is successful, his quality of life will definitely be improved much times.

As Mr. Huang's national fellow, I just wish him everything will be the best! My friend C_B in Malaysia is praying hard for him.

Source : Orange & Chenzhou Daily

Wireless Bikini Keypad for iLuv MP3 Player

Models demonstrated wireless keypads built into swimsuits for iLuv MP3 player at the 21st Solution & Contents Exhibition of Korea at COEX convention center in Seoul, South Korea. Heihei, the accessories are not for your guys, -.-!

Source: Chinadaily @ CSIB

We Dies

The eight-year-old oddity of nature was no longer the main serpentine attraction at World Aquarium in St. Louis. The two-headed albino rat snake, or known as We, has died of natural causes during the June 16-17. As most two-headed snakes survive for only a week or two, We has long lived. link

Singer Twins to Adopt Koala Twins

Hong Kong popular girl band Twins will adopt the rare koala twins born in the Chime-Long Xiangjiang Safari Park in south China's Guangzhou on June 23, 2007.

Twins say that they have always dreamed of having a koala. And after learning that the koala mother Murrumbidgee in Guangzhou had given birth to twin cubs--Little Michelle and Little Amanda, which are the only koala twins in the world, they couldn't wait to realize their dream. link

Koala Twins in china

Marilyn Monroe-themed Cakes

The gorgeous cakes were displayed in a recent food and drink exhibition in Beijing and attracted much attention from on-lookers. link

Noelia and Her Ex-boyfriend Sex Video Saga

An vigilance to those ladies who want to record the ultimate intimacy with their boyfriend or fiancè! The recent victim of such footage is Puerto Rican heartthrob Noelia (the undated photo above shows she was attending at the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage opening). The singing sensation (listen to her Como Duele (Barrera de Amor) song, really nice! ) is alleged having sex in an explicit tape which thought to be filmed with her former boyfriend ~~who later sold out the infamous footage for money~~! The video appeared to have been leaked…by a family member (see Latin Gossip)!

Just like what Lossip writes, Let's really hope Noelia doesn’t get as bad as Paris Hilton.

Though we won't provide the link to download the alleged sex video with a size of 6.6M in MP4 format (which can't be played on my computer as the lastest Quicktime 7.1.6 still have bugs that cause it not able to be installed on the Windows Vista), we do have a youtube video showing the singer fell off her shoulders and briefly unintentionally exposed herself to the audience (from Gone Hollywood).

Ooo..., SN has more other pictures.

Syphilis Leads Hitler to Unleash the Genocidal Holocaust?

Seems so! Excerpts from Dailymail:

A brief encounter with a Jewish prostitute may have led to Hitler's genocidal Holocaust, claim psychiatrists.

They believe he may have caught the sexually transmitted disease syphilis which, if untreated, can eventually cause madness.

There is "ample circumstantial evidence" for the theory, according to a team headed by psychiatrist Dr Bassem Habeeb.
Dr Habeeb said that there had been speculation that Hitler had syphilis from diary entries made by his personal doctor, Theo Morrell.
Yet despite significant medical and political clues, the theory has never been rigorously examined, he told the Royal College of Psychiatrists' annual meeting in Edinburgh.
He said: "If Hitler's life is looked at through the lens of a syphilis diagnosis, one clue leads to another until a pattern of infection and progressive infection emerges, a disease that may have defined him from youth as an outsider and that progressively ravaged his body and mind."
The disease would have fueled a "deadly logic and blueprint for the Holocaust" which focused on particular minorities, he said.
Hitler, who reportedly had sex with a Jewish prostitute in Vienna in 1908, put syphilis high on his political agenda, devoting 13 pages to the disease in his book Mein Kampf.
The job of "combating syphilis - the Jewish disease - should be the task of the entire German nation," he wrote.
"The health of the nation will be regained only by eliminating the Jews."
Dr Habeeb，who works at Hollins Park Hospital, Warrington, said: "Hitler's bizarre belief that syphilis was a hereditary disease that was originated and propagated by the Jews and resulted in insanity and mental retardation" could be the reason he attempted to eliminate the mentally retarded.
He said well-documented aspects of Hitler's behaviour and health such as mood swings, paranoid rages, rashes and stomach problems were typical of syphilis.
In his diary, Dr Morrell noted Hitler's severe gastric crises, skin lesions, Parkinson's disease and violent mood swings as evidence that he had syphilis, as well as "sudden criminal behaviour, paranoia, grandiosity and mania", all of which are characteristic of cases of the advanced stage, neuro-syphilis.

Chilean Glacial Lake Mysteriously Disappears

A lake with a surface area of between 4 and 5 hectares has mysteriously disappeared in Chile's southern Andes. The around-10-soccer-pitches-sized glacial lake was located in Bernardo O'Higgins National Park in the Magallanes region in Patagonia, South of Santiago and was fed mainly by melting glaciers water.

"In March we patrolled the area and everything was normal ... we went again in May and to our surprise we found the lake had completely disappeared," said Juan Jose Romero, regional director of Chile's National Forestry Corporation CONAF.
"No one knows what happened," he added, "The only things left were chunks of ice on the dry lake-bed and an enormous fissure."
One theory is the water disappeared through cracks in the lake bottom into underground fissures. But experts do not know why the cracks would have appeared because there have been no earthquakes reported in the area recently, despite Chile having been shaken by thousands of minor earth tremors this year.

Source: Xinhua

Siberian Tiger Operated to Remove Nasal Cyst

From CRI:

Surgeons perform an operation to remove a cyst from the left nasal cavity of an eight-month-old Siber