UNCONVENTIONAL WORLD RECORDS

In Wikipedia’s list of best-selling single-volume books of all time, only a few days after its launch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is already no.12 on the all-time list, having sold 72 million copies 2 days after its launch on 21st July 2007. It is not yet the best-selling book in the series (that title belongs to the first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (known as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the USA), released 1997 and has sold 107 million copies, and at no.9 on the all-time list), but judging from the rate at which it is selling, looks destined to do so. Goodness knows what number it will eventually reach.

In comparison, the best selling book of all time is The Holy Bible, which has sold in the region of 5 to 6 billion copies. However, it should be noted that The Holy Bible has had a few hundred (or even thousands) of years head start, and is still selling now.

The rest of the all-time top 10 list is primarily made up of religious or political-type books, as listed below:

Click here to see the list

The Star reported on 25 July 2007 that in an interesting twist, a Nigerian is the one who is scammed, instead of him doing the scamming. Not to discriminate against Nigerians in general, but unfortunately the very term “Nigerian scam” has entered the general psyche.

S. Arikrishnan, 38 of Klang achieved the rare feat of allegedly scamming Nigerian Muhammed Momodou Njie of RM234,000 (about USD68,000) on 12 October 2005, by leading the Nigerian into believing that he could supply cooking oil worth the said amount. He got so far as getting Mr Njie to agree to a Letter of Credit for payment of that amount.

29th August has been fixed as the date for mention of the case at a magistrate’s court.

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What is the world’s greatest 100m sprint race? Of course any occasion where a world record is broken is special, but IMHO it has to offer more than that. To me, there are a few contenders.

It could be the 2004 Olympics, where for the first time, 4 men dipped below 9.90 seconds. This is reputedly the race with the fastest ever average time for the finishers: 9.93s. Check out the final score:
1. Justin Gatlin (USA) 9.85 s (Personal Best, World Record at that time is Maurice Greene’s 9.79s set in 1999)
2. Francis Obikwelu (Portugal) 9.86 s (African record?)
3. Maurice Greene (USA) 9.87 s (Season Best)
4. Shawn Crawford (USA) 9.89 s
5. Asafa Powell (Jamaica) 9.94 s
6. Kim Collins (Saint Kitt’s & Nevis) 10.00 S (Season Best)
7. Obadele Thompson (Barbados) 10.10 s
* Ghana Aziz Zakari (Ghana) (Did Not Finish)

Watch the video

Rambo: First Blood (1982): Bring in the chopper (helicopter)! -> Bawa kapak!

Goodnight, cutie pie. -> Selamat malam, kuih manis

Serial killer -> pembunuh bijirin (cereal killer)

Star Wars (?): We are approaching light speed (?) -> kami tengah menuju halaju ringan

A war movie: Duck! -> Itik!

Another war movie: Fire! -> Api!

Romancing the Stone -> Berasmara Dengan Batu

Saving Private Ryan -> Simpanan Peribadi Ryan

Hi Babe -> Hi Bayi

I mean business -> saya bermaksud perniagaan

On comedy sitcom How i Met Your Mother, a character says “Cheap Trick” (the name of the US band playing on the jukebox) is translated as “Helah Murahan”

…and did you hear the one about how Sly Stallone spoke Bahasa Malaysia in Judge Dredd: I am the law -> Ayam Telor

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It’s not North Korea in 1966. It’s not Korea Republic in 1954. The answer might surprise you. Before the Second World War started, for the 1938 World Cup, Indonesia qualified, under the name Dutch East Indies. Of course you could argue that since they have not achieved independence, most of the players could’ve been of Dutch descent.

But surprisingly, that is not the case, at least judging from the name of the players in the starting eleven. There are at least 5 Asian-sounding names in the first XI: Tan Mo Heng (Goalkeeper), Achmad Nawir, Tan Hong Djien, Suvarte Soedermadji, Anwar Sutan. Added to that, there are at least 2 Asian-sounding names in the reserves list: Bing Mo Heng and Tan Se Han. The coach was Johannes Van Mastenbroek.

Unfortunately, they only played in one match (no round robin matches then), and that against the mightly Magyars. The match took place at 5pm, 5th June 1938 at Reims, France in front of about 9,000 spectators.

Indonesia lost that match 0-6, and Hungary went on to reach the finals where they lost to Italy.

The above is not a photograph! It’s a painting by Dru Blair, probably the world’s best photorealistic artist. It was completed in February 2005 in “around 65-75 hours.”

Detail of nose/mouth area:

In his own words:

Subtle nuances created by an xacto knife, an eraser, and some colored pencil can build convincing skin texture. The etcetera technique also helps the believability of the skin and hair texture. Fine hair is created using my shield-reveal technique, and my split frisket technique. Application via airbrush constitutes about 99% of the image.

The model is Tica, of whom he created a reference by taking a digital photograph of her in his studio, then printed it.

On photorealism, he said:

As a style, Photorealism has a few detractors, who often dismiss it as pointless, or non-art. They fail to realize that many photorealistic paintings are not mere copies of photographs, but interpretations of reality based on the artist’s vision. The act of merely copying a photograph has no artistic merit except to hone one’s artistic skills… This painting of Tica is not just a copy of a photograph, but is a product of many artistic decisions, whereas I deviated from the reference photo for more aesthetic appeal… Photorealism is by far, the most difficult artistic style to master.

Elements of photorealism are proportion, color fidelity, scale, perspective, edge transition, subtlety, non-contrivance (chaos), object relationship, light and shadow, reflection, radiosity, transparency, texture, atmosphere, depth of field, weathering (wear and tear), flaws, detail, and it all has to make visual sense.

If any of these elements are amiss, the painting will fail as a photorealistic image. In truth, these elements are simply descriptions of the visual experience of reality. If an artist ever wanted to put his or her artistic skills to the test, there is no greater master than reality.

A little bit about Dru Blair: (more…)

It must be during U2’s Zoo TV Tour in 1992 in Stockholm when they are joined by Abba’s Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus onstage, while U2 lead singer Bono sings Dancing Queen, then says things like “we’re not worthy” and “this is definitely one of the most surreal moments of my life.”

Watch the video

Prominent football / soccer magazine, Soccer World has recently conducted a global poll of experts to determine the greatest matches of all time. Among them are Liverpool’s come-from-behind win against AC Milan in the 2005 Champions League Final (ranked second), England’s 4-2 win against West Germany in the 1966 World Cup final (ranked seventh) and Brazil’s 4-1 win against Italy in the 1970 World Cup final (ranked eighth).

But the one which towers among them all happened on 17th June 1970 during the 1970 World Cup in a game which surprisingly did not feature the greatest team of all time, the incomparable Brazilian side of 1970.

Instead it was a match between Italy and West Germany, dubbed the Game of the Century.

For sheer drama, even the Liverpool-AC Milan Champions League Final of 2005 cannot compare.

Italy scored at the 8th minute and led until injury time when Karl-Heinz Schnellinger equalised for the Germans. German TV commentator Ernst Huberty could hardly have chosen his words better when he exclaimed “It had to be Schnellinger!” Schnellinger played in the Italian Serie A with AC Milan, for whom he did not score a single goal. It was his first goal in 47 matches.

During extra time, a staggering 5 goals were scored. It is the one and only World Cup game ever to have five goals scored in extra time!

The extra time goals:
- Gerd “Der Bomber” Müller (West Germany): 94th, hence giving the Germans the lead for the first time in the match. Score 1-2.
- Tarcisio Burgnich (Italy): 98th. Score: 2-2.
- Luigi Riva (Italy): 104th. Score: 3-2.
- Gerd Müller (again!): 110th. Score 3-3. Picture:

- As TV cameras were still replaying Müller’s goal, Gianni Rivera, unmarked near the penalty box, put away Boninsenga’s cross. Score: 4-3.

Such is the magnitude of the match that a monument has been erected commemorating the match in front of Aztec Stadium.

Watch highlights (Chinese-language commentator)

I think it was said by Michelle Pfeiffer in 1983. The movie is Scarface (1983) where the F-word is said more than 200 times, mostly by Al Pacino. At one point, Michelle Pfeiffer’s character was so fed up at this that she uttered, in an extremely disgustful tone, one of the greatest lines in movie history:

Can’t you stop saying fuck all the time?

The following clip shows all (or almost all) the F-words said in that movie, and at 1:02 you can see how Michelle Pfeiffer said her infamous line.

Watch the video

Prominent football / soccer magazine, Soccer World has recently conducted a global poll of experts to determine the best goals of all time. While there’s probably no argument that Diego Maradona’s 2nd goal against England in Argentina’s 2-1 quarterfinal victory in the 1986 World Cup should be the greatest goal of all time, it might come as a surprise that a goal scored by an Asian has made it into the list of the 10 greatest goal to have ever been scored in a football match.

To be exact, number 4 (some say 6) on the all-time list.

That person is none other than the great Saeed Al-Owairan (then 27) of Saudi Arabia, in the match against Belgium, World Cup 1994 1st round, on 29th June 1994. In the 5th minute, in front of more than 52,000 spectators, Al-Owairan weaved his way from his own half through 5 Belgian players before slotting the ball past Michel Preud’homme, one of the best goalkeepers of his generation, and the first winner of the Yashin Award as the best goalkeeper of that World Cup.

That earned him the nickname “The Maradona of the Arabs”. He played 50 times for Saudi Arabia, scoring 24 goals. He also played in the 1998 World Cup.

Playing in their third match of their first World Cup, Saudi Arabia scored a stunning 1-0 upset, finished 2nd in their group behind perennial World Cup giants Holland and went through to the next round. Unfortunately, they then lost 1-3 to in-form Sweden who went on to finish 3rd in the tournament. Still, surely that’s the best ever showing by the Saudis in a World Cup finals, as they failed to go through the first round in the next three world cups, including that humiliating 8-0 defeat by Germany in 2002.

Watch the goal

It’s from an episode entitled Arena of Star Trek: The Original Series where Captain Kirk fights a Gorn. It was first broadcast in January 1967.

In Star Trek universe, the Gorn are “intelligent reptilian humanoids from the Gorn Hegemony.”

According to wikipedia:

Despite limitations in make-up technology which made it obvious the Gorn Captain (Agave) in “Arena” was simply an actor (Bobby Clark was the actual actor in the suit) in a lizard suit (see picture), the Gorn has nonetheless become one of the most popular aliens to ever appear on Star Trek due to the striking design of Wah Chang and the Gorn’s memorable personality: a hissing, slow-moving beast, the Gorn is nonetheless quite devious, chuckling wickedly to himself as he sets a trap for Kirk and promising that if the captain gives himself up, the Gorn will make his death “merciful and quick.” “Arena” is also considered one of the series’ classic episodes and was the template for a similar, critically acclaimed episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation entitled “Darmok”.

The following clip shows the duel, and if anything, this has got to be the slowest fight scene ever.

Watch the clip

Yahoo! News reported on 10th July 2007 that Oscar Pistorius, 20 of South Africa is a double amputee who races against the best able-bodied athletes in the world. And not just any able-bodied athlete. In March, he placed 2nd at the 400m at the South African Championships. On Sunday, he’ll be racing competitively, amongst other top runners, against Olympic champion Jeremy Wariner and Commonwealth Games champion John Steffensen!

Pistorius had both legs amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old because he was born without fibulas (the long and thin outer bone between knee and ankle).

He only began running when he was 16, i.e. 4 yrs ago.

9 months later he won the 200m sprint at the Athens Paralympics.

He’s the undisputed fastest Paralympic 100, 200 and 400. Obviously he’s not content with that: he wants to be the world’s first disabled person to hold a world sprint record.

He now races using carbon fiber blades attached to his knees.

Pistorius said:
- He’s the first paralympic sprinter who bridged the gap between able-bodied and disabled sport.
- The best single amputee will finish almost 50 metres behind him in a 400m race.
- The best double amputee will finish more than 100 metres behind him in a 400m race.

Sounds cocky? Well, he’s got the results to show for it.

His personal best for the 400m is (more…)

I have 2 scenes in this category. The first is apparently from Telugu movie Alluda Majaka released 1995 where a horse manages to slide under a truck. Unsurprisingly, it was a major flop at the box office.

Then there’s the scene from an Indian movie (if anybody knows the title please tell me) where Superman and Spiderwoman sing a “3 acre song” Bollywood style.

Watch the clips

From the movie Heat (1995): the greatest actors alive in the world today in a movie scene for the first time ever: Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in the cafe scene. This scene is truly for serious movie fans only - others might find it boring / slow. They were both in the classic movie Godfather II (1974) but never in the same scene.

Watch the video

According to wikipedia, at the time of writing, there are 123 movies in which the word “fuck” is said more than 100 times, and where the champ is the appropriately titled F**k - A Documentary (2005) in which the word is said 857 times. It runs for 93 minutes, hence on average the word is said once every 8.6 minutes.

The documentary revolves around the history of the word and why it is deeply offensive to some people. It also includes some of the most famous (and infamous) film and TV clips in which the word has been said.

The rest of the top 10:
2nd: Nil by Mouth (1997), a British movie directed by Gary Oldman, at 428. It’s about the life of a family in a working-class London district.
3rd: Casino (Widescreen 10th Anniversary Edition) (1995), a mafia movie, with 398. This film is a favourite of mine.
4th: Alpha Dog (2006), 367. It’s a film based on the life of a drug dealer who became one of the youngest men ever to be on the FBI’s most wanted list.
5th: Jarhead (2005), 335. This film is based on former marine Anthony Swofford’s best-selling 2003 book about his pre-Desert Storm experiences in Saudi Arabia and about his experiences fighting in Kuwait.
6th: Twin Town (1997), 318.
7th: Summer of Sam (1999), 315.
8th: Martin Lawrence Live - Runteldat (2002), 311.
9th: GoodFellas (1990), 300. Another favourite film of mine.
10th: Narc (2002), 297.

Looking at the full list, it can be concluded that the censors are becoming more liberal when it comes to foul language. The oldest film in the list is Apocalypse Now (1979), at no.91 and 126 uses of the word. Most of the films in the list are from the 90s or later. All the top 10 are films produced in 1995 or later.

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On 28th June 2007, Bernama reported that Malaysian Deputy Home Affairs Minister Datuk Tan Chai Ho said 2.3 million identity cards including MyKad were lost between 2002 and 2006. Assuming that it’s a full 5 years, that would work out to be around 460,000 lost every year.

According to the CIA World Factbook, Malaysia has around 24.8 million people (July 2007 estimate), and that 67.7% of the population is 15 years old or older.

Now assuming
- 70% of the population is 12 years old or older (rounding the 67% to 70%), that means 17.4 million of the people are 12 years of age or older.
- Everyone 12 and above has identity cards/MyKads, that means there are 17.4 million identity cards/MyKads in existence.

Hence, in the period 2002-2006, 13.2% of the total number of identity cards/MyKads have been lost.

The actual percentage would be higher, since my assumption should make the number of cards bigger than they really are.

That’s a staggering amount - more than one in ten!

Now the next question is, how many of the lost cards are accidentally lost and how many are “lost on purpose”?

Sources
Bernama report, 28th June 2007
CIA World Factbook on Malaysia

Goodfellas (1990), where according to Maxim magazine, Joe Pesci wrote and directed this particular scene at Martin Scorsese’s request. The extremely realistic presence of the brutish and intimidating Tommy De Vito, played by Joe Pesci and the stuttering nervous wreck that is Henry Hill, played by Ray Liotta, is a must-see for any movie lover:

Watch the video

This is possibly the best scene in the entire Indiana Jones trilogy, or at least in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), where according to snopes.com:

One particular scene consistently brings the house down - Indiana Jones, having survived an
elaborate chase through the casbah, is confronted by a swordsman whipping through a flashy routine with a scimitar. With a look of infinite fatigue and disgust, Indy simply pulls out his gun and blows the bad guy away.

That bit flowed not from the pen of a screenwriter but from the desperation of Harrison Ford. His desire to spend less time on this scene and more in a washroom led to an actor-inspired script change that was ultimately worked into the film.

Three months’ of shooting in the blazing heat in Tunisia had resulted in a terrible bout of dysentery for Harrison Ford. The original scene, as called for in the script, would have required approximately three days to shoot. Not looking forward to another lengthy shoot under that
blistering sun, Ford persuaded Spielberg to try the scene this much shorter way.

Watch the video

In this movie, Sly Stallone tries to sing country in Rhinestone(1984), in a “scary” way which resulted in people staring in disbelief, dogs howling and animals scampering off.

Watch the video

The world’s hunkiest man could be walking around right here in Malaysia. So hunky that normally reserved women would fight over a complete stranger in full view of the general public.

On 2nd July 2007, The Star Malaysia reported that in Merega Beris in Kijal, Kemaman, Terengganu on Saturday, a man, who some said looked like a certain Bollywood actor, although exactly which one was not mentioned, casualy went into a food court alone to have his teh tarik.

That was the start of all the trouble. Two smitten young women at two separate stalls instantly tried to get his attention in order to lure him to have his teh tarik at their respective stalls. Then he spoke to one of the women. The other woman, aged 21, took this as a rejection to her advances and in her rage, went to the other woman, tore the T-shirt she was wearing and accused her of being a nymphomaniac and wearing revealing clothes.

The other woman, aged 22, proved to be more than a match, when she quickly took a pan containing scalding hot water with which she poured on the other young lady.

Totally unbecoming behaviour for supposedly demure young ladies.

Then an older lady got into the fray, in the form of the younger lady’s mother, aged 46. In defence of her daughter, she started throwing chairs at the other lady, causing damage to several tables.

Needless to say, they became the centre of attention of customers trying to enjoy their food.

And what happened to the hunk? The Star reported that “the shocked man fled the scene.”

The incident was confirmed by state Deputy CID Chief Supt Khairi Ahrasa yesterday, who went on to say that the scalded woman had been warded at the nearest hospital.

Source

This scene from Austin Powers in Goldmember must surely be on that list. By the end of the scene Austin Powers had given birth to Mini Me!

Watch the video

Looks like it’s a tussle between gaiaonline.com (Gaia Online) and the Japanese forum 2ch.com (2channel).

Big-Boards.com reports that Gaia Online is the largest on the Internet, with over a million posts made daily, over a billion posts total, and over 2.5 million unique users each month, and with almost 8 million members.

In comparison, as far as I know, jiwang.org is the biggest online forum in Malaysia, with possibly more than 50,000 members.

However, Big-Boards.com only lists forums that contain accessible members and posts counts.

According to some other source, 2channel could be the largest web forum in the world. Japan Media Review reported in August 2004 that 2channel is used by almost 8 million people a month.

Sources
wikipedia on 2channel
wikipedia on Gaia Online
big-boards.com
ojr.org