UNCONVENTIONAL WORLD RECORDS

The world’s most famous lefthanders / southpaws include the following. If you have any more to add to the list, please add them. Thanks!

Marilyn Monroe, although this is disputed.

Paul McCartney

Jimi Hendrix

Click here to see more famous lefthanders

As followup to my post yesterday, here is a list of the most famous smokers ever (other than sporstmen).

Qualification:
- for those still alive, they must be currently active (not occasional) smokers.
- For those already died, they must have been active smokers for the majority of their active life / career.
- Smokers include those who smoke / smoked tobacco: cigarettes, cigars, pipes

Barack Obama, US presidential candidate
Albert Einstein, probably the world’s greatest ever scientist
Thomas Edison, inventor of the lightbulb, phonograph etc
Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone
Robert Oppenheimer (1904 - 1967)
Edwin Hubble (1889 - 1953)
Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister during WW2
Franklin D Roosevelt, American president during WW2
Bill Clinton
Helmut Schmidt: (West) German chancellor from 1974 to 1982.
Gerhard Schröder: former German Chancellor
Queen Margrethe II: queen of Denmark
Princess Stephanie of Monaco
King Hussein of Jordan
Camilla Parker Bowles
John F Kennedy, former US president
Gerald Ford, former US president
George Orwell
Oscar Wilde
Jean-Paul Sartre
JR Tolkien (1892 - 1973), writer of “The Lord of the Rings”, one of the top selling novels of all time
J.K. Rowling wrote many of her Harry Potter books as a smoker. After she quit smoking she became a Nicorette chewing gum addict.
CS Lewis, Irish writer
Monica Bellucci
Christopher Lee (b. 1922), famous for playing Dracula
Whoopi Goldberg
James Dean, 2 packs of Chesterfields a day
Demi Moore
Keith Richards
Elizabeth Taylor
Robert Palmer, UK rock star
Sophia Loren
Kate Winslet
Raquel Welch
Luciano Pavarotti, cigar smoker, the greatest tenor of his generation
Catherine Deneuve
Geri Halliwell, cigars
John Wayne (1907 - 1979)
Nicole Kidman
Mel Gibson
Britney Spears
Kate Middleton, Prince William’s girlfriend
Joanna Lumley
Shakira
David Carradine
Russell Crowe
Frank Sinatra (1915 - 1998)
Robbie Williams
Avril Lavigne
Pierce Brosnan
Marilyn Monroe
Meg Ryan
John Lennon
Pat Benatar
Al Pacino
Robert De Niro
Eddie Van Halen, chain smoker!
Vincent Van Gogh
Ivana Trump
‘Abuelo del Mundo’ (Grandfather of the World) Joan Riudavets Moll, a lifelong smoker who died aged 114 in 2004
Jeanne Calment, the world’s oldest ever person who died aged 122, only quit smoking aged 117
Claudia Schiffer
Alfred Hitchcock
Maurice Ravel, the composer of Bolero
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Auguste Renoir
Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973), the most famous painter of the 20th century, died aged 92.
Che Guevara
Aaron Spelling (1923-2006): the world’s most succesful TV producer ever.
David Bowie, quit after a heart attack
Johnny Depp
Joaquin Phoenix
Marlene Dietrich, lived to 90
Joseph Stalin
Jennifer Aniston, 2 packs of Merit a day
Brad Pitt
Angelina Jolie
Ben Affleck
Kate Hudson
Goldie Hawn
Colin Farrell, a pack a day
Ashton Kutcher
James Woods, after smoking for 33 years, lit his last cigarette on 29th December 2003
Lucille Ball, most of her life
Drew Barrymore, Red Marlboros
Kurt Cobain
Chris Cornell, quit already, lead singer of Soundgarden & Audioslave
Ian Curtis, before his suicide
Bette Davis
Sammy Davis Jr
Deng Xiaoping, China Paramount Leader smoked Panda Brand until over 90 years of age.
Mao Zedong
Walt Disney of Disney vacations fame, chain-smoker, died aged 65
Layne Staley, lead singer of Alice in Chains
Pete Doherty, lead singer of Babyshambles
Bob Dylan, 80 cigs a day, quit already
Siobhan Fahey, Bananarama and Shakespear’s Sister singer.
Liam Gallagher
Noel Gallagher
George Harrison, chain smoker
Audrey Hepburn, several packs a day
Lyndon B. Johnson, heavy smoker for most of his life. Habit contributed to his death from a heart attack at age 64 in 1973.
Shah Rukh Khan, rarely without cigarettes off screen, though he vowed to reduce smoking on his 40th birthday.
Lindsey Lohan
Dean Martin, smoked on stage and on television. Lung cancer.
Freddie Mercury, heavy smoker, quit after being diagnosed with HIV
Joni Mitchell
Kate Moss, smokes four packs of Marlboro Lights per day, starting at age 12.
Leonard Nimoy
Jimmy Page
Sean Penn, 4 packs of American Spirit cigarettes per day
Richard Pryor
Mike Dirnt, Green Day bassist
W Axl Rose
Angus Young, AC/DC guitarist
Frank Zappa
Fidel Castro, quit cigars at age 59
Joan Collins
Bill Cosby
Bo Derek
Danny De Vito
Linda Evangelista
Sigmund Freud
George Gershwin
Ulysses S. Grant, Civil War general and U.S. President. Twenty cigars a day. Died of throat cancer.
Saddam Hussein
Samuel L Jackson
David Letterman
Pope St. Pius X, smoked on occasion.
Pope John XXIII, who died in 1963, was a cigar smoker in his youth.
Charles Spurgeon, British Baptist preacher, who reportedly said “When I have found intense pain relieved, a weary brain soothed, and calm, refreshing sleep obtained by a cigar, I have felt grateful to God, and have blessed His name.”
Sylvester Stallone
Kevin Costner
Christina Aguilera

If you have any more to add to the list, please inform me. Thanks!

Source
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Some of the names in the list might surprise you, as it contains some of the biggest names, even legends of their chosen sport.

My requirement is: they are known to be smokers while active in their chosen sport.

Zinedine Zidane is probably the most famous recent example. One of the world’s greatest ever football players, he was the EU’s choice to front a campaign against smoking in 2002. However, during the World Cup in 2006, a long-lens photograph captured him sneaking a crafty fag before the World Cup semi-final against Portugal. Eyes closed, cheeks squeezed in tight, index finger stroking his upper lip, he seemed to be in heaven. Did it do him any harm? Well, it may have knocked two minutes off his life, it certainly did not help the campaign, but it did not stop him dominating the midfield to see France through to the final.

Diego Maradona

Michael Jordan, the greatest ever basketball player often smoked in the locker room during championship celebrations.
Michael Schumacher, one of the greatest ever Formula 1 drivers
Johan Cruyff
Paul Gascoigne
Ian Botham
Shane Warne, reputedly 2 packs a day
Tiger Woods
Tim Henman
Preben Elkjaer
Hristo Stoichkov
Fabien Barthez
Gianluca Vialli
Dino Zoff
Socrates
Gerson
Jack Charlton, reputedly 2 packs a day
Frank Leboeuf
Jimmy Greaves
David Ginola
Osvaldo Ardiles
Malcolm Macdonald
Bobby Charlton
Robert Prosinecki
Stan Bowles, reputedly 4 packs a day
Fred Flintoff
Fred Perry
Joe DiMaggio
Darren Clarke
Jesper Parnevik
Vlade Divac, NBA star
Patrik Sjöberg, Swedish high jumper
Wayne Gretzky (cigars)
James Hunt, English Formula One race driver. He usually lit a cigarette on the victory podium. Later he quit.

Do you have any more to add to the list?

…all these people would make good candidates to purchase one of those smokers life insurance policies…

source
The Guardian UK

James Brown (1933-2006) and Luciano Pavarotti (1935-2007) teamed up onstage during Pavarotti & Friends for Angola live concert in Modena, Italy, 28th May 2002, singing “it’s a man’s world.”

As the video poster said, “this incredible performance is one of the most electrifying collaborations ever assembled. Sheer perfection!”

Other selected youtube comments:

This is what I call music. Puts the manufactured tripe currently in the charts to shame. What a wonderful collaberation, two leaders of their genres supported by fine sting musicians coming together in perfect unison. May you both rest in peace, thank you.

This is wonderful, absolutely astonishing. The energetic stamina of James Brown, may he rest in peace, is simply unsurpassed. Together with a legend like Pavarotti you have a timeless masterpiece.

This featured lots of other performers. But these 2 up onstage together is almost surreal.

This is truly amazing. There will never be another performance like this.

In all honesty. It’s hot and it gives me chills watching it. Two great talents from opposite sides of the spectrum and they come together on one common ground. I wish that there were more collaborations like this from other artist.

The best man of FUNK and the best man of OPERA…dynamite combination!

Seeing these two men together I’m almost ashamed of not having realized how incredible they were. This has got to be one of the most magical nights in show biz.

Oh My God !! What a night that had to be! We must all consider ourselves lucky to see this. Because things like this don’t happen very often. It was thrilling, and brought tears to my eyes. I have been a Pavarotti fanatic for years, and I “used” to be amused by James Brown. But wow what a performance. I’m so impressed by this clip, that I’m going out and buy a cd of Brown. Both men were the epitomy of class. I would love to see more of this type of thing. Just AWESOME !!

Enjoy.

Click to see video

To answer this question, I have selected Luciano Pavarotti (1935-2007) to represent his generation since it’s almost unanimously agreed that he’s the greatest of them all.

But is he the greatest who ever lived?

There are several other contenders to this title:

Enrico Caruso (1873-1921), who was an Italian opera singer and one of the most famous tenors in history. He was the most popular singer in any genre in the first 20 years of the 20th century. His extraordinary voice, known for its range, power, and beauty, made him one of the best-known stars of his time.

Beniamino Gigli (1890-1957), was an Italian singer, widely regarded as one of the greatest operatic tenors of his time. He had probably the most beautiful lyric tenor voice of his time. He had a large voice, which — with Gigli’s extraordinary technique and vocal understanding — allowed him to make frequent forays into repertoire normally reserved for spinto and dramatic tenors.

Jussi Björling (1911-1960), was a Swedish operatic tenor and one of the most highly regarded singers of his time. Björling was one of the few non-Latin tenors to rival the Italian dominance of the opera world at that time.

Mario Lanza (1921-1959), was an American tenor. His voice was considered by many to rival that of the great Enrico Caruso. While his highly emotional style was not always universally praised by critics, he was immensely popular and his many recordings are still prized today.

Franco Corelli (1921-2003), was an Italian tenor active in opera from the 1950s to 1976. He was noted for his charismatic stage presence and physical attractiveness as well as his powerful voice. He became famous for his ability to sing at many dynamic levels, unusual in a so large a voice; for example, he performed the climactic high note that ends “Celeste Aida” with a diminuendo, an amazingly difficult effect for a tenore robusto. With his unusually dark vocal color and baritonal lower range he infused even the warhorses of Neapolitan songs like ‘O Sole Mio’ with freshness and authenticity, while his huge and electrifying top notes moved audiences to roaring delirium. He was a galvanic stage animal, and a very handsome man. In Italy, he was called “Golden Thighs.”

[Warhorses? Reminds me of breeches... ]

Some points of view I noted in my trawlings:

Jussi Bjorling without a doubt. Caruso was certainly the first ‘great’ but wasn’t that good — often had to have music transposed down so that he could get the top notes! Pavarotti of course was magnificent but had not the finesse of Bjorling, whereas Jussi could match him in power and in singing full top Cs and even higher.

Caruso, hands down!!! I almost always cry when I listens to my father’s Caruso records.

Excellent All but Pavarotti’s stage presence was in a class of his own…this wonderful Opera master will be missed very much.

How sad that he is gone now, i loved Pavarotti who was “bigger” than life….in many ways. I also remember the remarkable voice of Mario Lanza who’s left a huge impression on me as a child…even on that scratchy old 45 record player. What special gifts these men received from God to share with the world..talent like that doesn’t come along often. All of the above are wonderful but these two were my absolute favorites in Opera.

After listening to several of the “critically-acclaimed” tenors of the last century, when considering emotion, technique, power, etc, overall IMHO Bjorling is right there with Corelli and Lanza - they are obviously in a class by themselves. I will say however, that it would have been very interesting to hear Caruso’s voice with the later recording technology.

One unique thing about jussi is his efertless singing on the hight combined with efertless singing in the lower parts, this is one thing that sets him apart from Pavarotti - whose lower parts are really weak.

I have a well trained ear, and I can tell you that yes, Bjorling has a more powerful voice than Pavarotti and maybe he could also keep notes longer. Pavarotti, though, had an incredible voice full of harmonics, and he could use it so well, that could easily reach the last row in a theatre even with a big orchestra playing loud. I was lucky enough to hear him singing in a concert, and it was wonderful.

Caruso was number 1, the best ever, Not far behind was Bjorling and Gigli. Sorry but Pav doesn’t come in the first 15. He is not true Belcanto!

I don’t believe you’ll find many who agree that Caruso “exagerates (sic) the sob-trills (sic) much more than Gigli.” The sobbing Gigli does that I’m speaking about is musically pointless and artificial and is inserted by Gigli generally at the end of a line of verse where he must have thought a few extra notes of his special warble would make a difference. Other than that he was a brilliant performer with possibly the second or third greatest tenor voice singing… anything.

I hate to say it, but on Nessun Dorma Lanza outdid Pavaroti.

I totally agree that Lanza struggled in the lower registers of Nessun Dorma. I’ve heard much better from him on other pieces. But you cannot deny the top of his range–solid, effortless, passionate, glorious. NOBODY can do that. He is the quintessential cross-over artist which in my book puts him heads and tails above any other opera or pop artist.

Everybody’s entitled to their opinion of course, and we can only judge those who had their voice recorded, preferably singing the same song, so that we can compare their performances.

Here’s 3 separate videos of Caruso, Gigli and Pavarotti singing O Sole Mio (which Elvis Presley redid as It’s Now or Never) followed by 4 separate videos of Bjorling, Lanza, Pavarotti and Corelli singing Nessun Dorma. All videos are either live or recorded.

Click here to see videos

Marcel Marceau, 84, the world’s greatest, most famous and most celebrated mime artist has truly gone silent.

For decades he has epitomised the silent art around the world. As a style pantomime, he was peerless. His silent exercises, which all of us must have seen copied at one stage includes The Cage and Walking Against the Wind, were described as works of genius.

He once said: “Mime, like music, knows neither borders nor nationalities. If laughter and tears are the characteristics of humanity, all cultures are steeped in our discipline.”

He was a living legend because I’ve seen his name even many years ago as I was reading through my second encyclopedia.

He was said to be “single-handedly responsible for reviving the art of mime after World War II.”

In 1947, he created “Bip”, his alter ago: the clown [pic at top], with his signature striped pullover and battered silk opera hat with flower attached (apparently this is a symbol of the fragility of life).

He was elected member of the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin, the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, the Académie des Beaux-Arts France and the Institut de France. He held honorary doctorates from 4 institutions: Ohio State University, Linfield College, Princeton University, and the University of Michigan - America’s way of honoring Marceau’s creation of a new art form, inherited from an old tradition. In 1999, the city of New York declared March 18 Marcel Marceau Day. He accepted the honor and responsibilities of serving as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Second World Assembly on Aging, which took place in Madrid, Spain, in April 2002.

Now this guy truly deserves getting his Legion of Honour (Officer grade), not like some people…

Source

Paul Potts, 37 of South Wales won the first series of ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent earlier this year, singing operatic arias and impressing the judges in all of his performances. When he won he was signed by the show’s judge Simon Cowell to record an album, One Chance.

He sang Nessun Dorma in the final, and his performance was such that people have been comparing his performance with Pavarotti’s.

But some are not impressed. Herbert Breslin, 82, Pavarotti’s former manager for one. He claimed Potts’ lack of experience makes him less of a singer than other successful individuals in the opera field. He told the NY Times, “Nobody can sing Nessun Dorma and really do it justice unless with it, they have five to 10 years of experience. If they want to have a totally inexperienced, untrained voice sing Nessun Dorma and the audience is going to fall off its feet, it’s ridiculous. But that’s the way things are in the modern age.”

What do you think? Can he measure up?

Click to see videos

Update 8th April 2008: The BBC reported that Pavarotti was actually miming during this performance. Conductor Leone Magiera revealed this in his new book Pavarotti Visto Da Vicino (Pavarotti Seen From Close Up) published last month. He added that Pav’s performance of Nessun Dorma was “pre-recorded, as a live performance would have been too dangerous. The orchestra pretended to play, I pretended to conduct and Luciano pretended to sing. It came off beautifully, no one was aware of the technical tricks.”

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Luciano Pavarotti’s final live performance was on 10th February 2006, where he sang “Nessun Dorma” at the 2006 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony in Turin, Italy. His performance was the final act of the opening ceremony, and it received the longest and loudest ovation of the night from the international crowd.

Selected youtube comments:

Near the end I cried, because you could see in his face how much it seemed like he wanted to continue singing for so much longer, but how it looked like he knew it’d be his last performance, and it bought him pain.

This is amazing… 1:40-1:44 is good but i believe that 0.50 - 1.00 is so so emotional. The ending is also so emotional an obvisiouly proves that it meant so much to him to sing here. Pavarotti’s performance caused NBC Olympic commentator Brian Williams to proclaim “And the master brings the house down.” What a statement!!

Hi Guys - Pavarotti is cheating! The score has been transposed - It’s not in its original key (It’s like two steps lower). However, it looks like he’s not in his best physical condition.
gettherum.

Yeah they took it [the key] down for Pavarotti on account of his age. Credit where it’s due though, the man is 71 and his voice is still incredible, whatever key he sings in!

[another person replied]
well thats obvious because in 2005 he underwent neck surgery to repair two vertebrae. In June of the same year he had Laryngitis. In early 2006, he had back surgery and contracted an infection while in the hospital, forcing cancellation of concerts in the US, Canada and the UK. Pavarotti was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in July 2006 and required emergency surgery to remove the tumor. So No Wonder he has to drop a key down. Still The best Vocally even with all the bad health!!!!

Click to see the video

The picture below was taken by yours truly a few weeks ago. If you have seen a worse one than this, I’d like to know about it. Thanks.

Chris Crocker, 19 released “LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!” on YouTube on 11th September. There, he lambasted those who criticised Britney Spears’ performance at the recent MTV Video Music Awards. In the first 24 hours, the video was viewed 2 million times. A week later it had over 7 million views and currently the 6th most discussed YouTube videos of all time with over 100,000 comments.

He became famous worldwide literally overnight and got him interviews on the likes of CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and the Today show.

Unavoidably, it has become a prime target for satire, with reportedly over 750 video responses.

The following playlist contains some TV appearances and best parodies:

1. The original “LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!”
2. Crocker featured on ABC: Jimmy Kimell’s show
3. Crocker featured on Fox News
4. Crocker responds to Fox News
5. Crocker interviewed on Jimmy Kimmell’s show
6. Seth Green’s version: one of the very best parodies
7. Perez Hilton’s version
8. Crocker featured on ROVE (Australia)
9. Optimus Prime version
10. Remix version: hilarious
11. Slow version: the original played in slow motion
12. Strange version
13. Chewbacca version: very funny
14. Robot version
15. Trance Remix
16. Another Remix
17. Old Man with Tampon version
18. Stephen Hawking version
19. With sad music playing in background (warning: ending could be NSFW)
20. Texas Chainsaw Massacre version
21. Prez Bush: “Leave General Petraeus Alone”
22. Greek version
23. Hannibal Lecter version
24. Watermelon version
25. “Leave OJ Alone”
26. “Leave Bill Belichick Alone”
27. Belichick version
28. Britney version
29. Asian version
30. Barbara Bush: “Leave George Alone”
31. Crocker Reedited version: hilarious
32. DARD version
33. Sock Puppet version

Click here to see the videos in a playlist

The general consensus seems to point to this match: Barbarians vs New Zealand (1973). The Barbarians were made up of the best players in England, Ireland and Wales. Gareth Edwards (Wales) scored what is now simply known as The Try.

The match was 2 minutes old. Internet sources quoted:

Brian Williams gets the ball from Ian Kirkpatrick and kicks it deep inside the Barbarian 22. Phil Bennett picks up the ball around his own 10 yard line, makes three successive steps to elude Alister Scown, J. Hurst and Ian Kirkpatrick. Bennett passes it on to JPR Williams. JPR gets tackled high, but still manages to pass to John Pullin. Confused English hooker John Pullin gives the ball to John Dawes who sells a dummy, covers ground and passes inside to the uncapped Welshman Tom David. Tom David is now inside the All Black half and being chased by a bunch of All Blacks. He makes a one handed throw inside to Derrik Quinnell (father of current Welsh international Scott Quinnell). Quinnell throws another one handed pass inside (I am not sure who it’s intended for). Gareth Edwards from nowhere runs in the middle to pick the pass. Edwards runs the last 30 or so yards beating a bunch of All Blacks and dives in to the left hand corner of the river Tafft end to score what is now known as the Try.

Edwards commenting on this try said he was scared to death at the beginning of the game. He was worried about not being able to keep up with the ball. He never wanted to be caught for not being around the ball. So he just kept running behind ball. He also said, once he got the ball in his hand from Derrick Quinnell, he felt that nobody would be able to catch him.

Even the match commentator’s comments are unforgettable: “If the greatest writer of the written word would have written that story…no one would have believed it.”

The Barbarians went on to win 23-11.

Click here to see the video

I think this is the ultimate bragging right: holding the abovementioned 4 titles at the same time. You truly are the best in the world, undisputed. Of course it is not possible for all sports to have such titles. Also, some became legends in their respective sports when an official world championships have not yet come into being, for example the first World Championships in Athletics was held in 1983, hence people like Paavo “The Flying Finn” Nurmi could not be added to the list. I also excluded relay events - this is strictly individual achievements.

But such minor grouses aside, I’ve compiled a partial list. If you have any additions or corrections, please inform. Thank you!

Michael Phelps, 200m butterfly, 200m IM, 400m IM: that’s 3 events! Has anybody else achieved something similar?

Liu Xiang, 110m hurdles

Carl Lewis, 100m & long jump

Michael Johnson, 200m and 400m

Maurice Greene, 100m

Florence-Griffith Joyner, 100m & 200m

Jackie Joyner-Kersee, long jump & heptathlon

Daley Thompson, decathlon

Roman Šebrle, decathlon [first person in history to break 9,000 points]

Jan Zelezny, javelin

Ed Moses, 400m hurdles

Sergey Bubka, pole vault [first person in history to jump over 6m]

Ian Thorpe, 400m freestyle swimming

Grant Hackett, 1,500m freestyle swimming

Said Aouita, 5000m (1980s)

Catriona Le May Doan, 500m speed skating

Jonathan Edwards, triple jump [first person in history to jump 18m]

Nourredine Morceli, 1,500m
World Champion in 1995, Olympic Champion in 1996, set world record in 1995 which was only broken in 1998. He was narrowly the top ranked 1,500m runner prior to his Olympics, beating Hicham El Guerrouj by a mere 0.01 seconds.

Javier Sotomayor, high jump
1992 Olympic champion, 1993 World Champion, set world record of 2.45m in 1993 which still stands.

Notable emissions
Hicham El Guerrouj, the Morrocan legend at 1,500m is still the world record holder since 1998 with 3:26.00. He was World Champion in 2003 and Olympic Champion in 2004. However, when he took gold at the 2004 Olympiad he was only ranked second in the world to Bernard Lagat who had run fastest (3:27.40) that year 2004 defeating El Guerrouj (3.27.64) narrowly. That happened a mere 20 days before the 1,500m final at the 2004 Olympiad.

None of the 3 famed British middle distance runners of the early 80s made the list: Sebastian Coe, Steve Ovett and Steve Cram.

Mark Spitz retired after the 1972 Olympics and did not compete in any Swimming World Championships, the first of which was held in 1973.

MyFitnessPal.com is a free-to-use diet and fitness website.

Its features include a calorie counter, which is a quick and easy tool to educate you on the nutritional contents the food you are eating, with the end result of you knowing which food to eat and which ones to avoid!

You can use the calorie chart to quickly check out the amount of nutrition common types of food carries.

Another feature is a diet journal, where you can keep track of your diet-in-progress, to see how close you are to your goal and make any adjustments where necessary. This should be a great morale booster.

All the above any more are offered. Registration is truly free, they don’t even require credit card registration, unlike many other websites.

Check it out if you’re are into losing weight the healthful way.

… It might even have a Hydroxycut hardcore review…

There is only one representative from Asia (this term does not include Oceania [unlike football]: Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Australia, New Zealand etc) for the Rugby World Cup, and Japan has filled that position every time; ever since the first Rugby World Cup was held 20 years ago.

That means Japan has traditionally been the top Asian nation at rugby union, but as we’d see later, it would seem that Asians are utterly hopeless on the world stage.

In the qualification stages for the 2007 rugby world cup, Japan swept all oppositions aside, with the last 2 matches against strongest opposition in Asia resulted in flyswatting Hong Kong and Korea by at least 49 pts.

That was back in November. Recently, in their first match at the World Cup, Japan brought back the nightmare of 1995. They lost by 89 points to Australia, one of the perennial giants in rugby union. But it has to be said that the result of the next match was better: a narrow 31-35 loss to Fiji.

During the World Cup in 1995, Japan endured a world record 17-145 mauling at the hands of New Zealand.

In all its appearances at the world cup, Japan has only ever recorded one victory, a 52-8 win over relative minnows Zimbabwe in 1991. They lost the other 2 matches, including a 9-47 hiding by Scotland.

How about Malaysia? To see how far back we are, consider this: in the Rugby World Cup 2007 qualifiers, we lost 3-48 to group toppers Kazakhstan.

Then Kazakhstan lost narrowly to Sri Lanka by a 37-45 aggregate.

Then Sri Lanka lost 14-45 to Hong Kong.

Then Hong Kong lost to Japan 3-52 and Korea 5-23.

What would happen if Malaysia vs Japan? Or more interestingly, Malaysia vs Australia?

Sources
Rugby World Cup Official Site

What prank can be bigger than an attempt on the US president who’s at a place where reportedly USD160 million has been spent on security? Best of all, there’s a guy dressed as none other than Dubya’s arch nemesis Osama bin Laden in one of the very authentic-looking 3-car motorcade.

They got thru 2 checkpoints, and parked right outside the hotel where Prez Bush stayed in Sydney for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference. Nobody noticed anything funny until the Osama clone emerged!

Absolutely amazing, considering reportedly half the city has been cordoned off in the tightest security ever seen in the city’s history.

Yes, they could’ve been shot by snipers stationed at rooftops, but still it was an amazing attempt by some Australians.

Donald Thomas, 23 of Bahamas is probably the world’s greatest high jump talent in history, because he became world champion and produced the year’s best performance only a year after taking up the sport.

His first choice sport is basketball. It’s while while playing
basketball that his talent was first spotted: a colleague remarked that he might be able to high jump 2m.

Trying it out, he managed 2.11 metres. 2 days later, he entered in his first competition and managed 2.23, while still wearing basketball shoes. Changing to cross-trainers, he ended his first season as a high jumper at 2.24 metres, including finishing fourth at the 2006 Commonwealth Games with 2.23m: that’s a very respectable mark for a relative newcomer.

This year he cleared 2.30 m indoor, then improved to 2.33m in March.

In July he cleared 2.35 metres in Salamanca, a new personal best and the world seasons best. The next month he equalled that performance when he became high jump world champion in Osaka.

Amazing, for all these he was wearing pole vault shoes, not high jump shoes! High jump shoes have spikes on the heel.

Thomas only really started training seriously in January, and he still only does around five hours training a week.

He also still prefers basketball!

Truly fairy tale stuff, if you ask me.

source
wikipedia
iaaf
kksabah.blogspot.com

At the 2007 World Championships in Athletics held in Osaka from 24th August to 2nd September 2007, something strange happened in the 800m event. The winning time of 1:47.07 by Alfred Kirwa Yego (Kenya) is the slowest winning time at such a world-class meet for a very long time. The reigning Olympic champion Yuriy Borzakowski was relegated to third.

It is about 6 seconds outside the world record. In a meet of this standard, this is mighty long time.

His semis time is more than 2 seconds faster, at 1:44.54.

It is the slowest ever winning time for the event in the history of the World Championships, which inaugural meet was held in 1983.

It is even slower than any of the winning times for the event at least since the 1968 Olympiad.

The time was so slow that it would’ve only been good enough to finish 3rd at the 2003 Asian Athetics Championships.

The last time a world record was slower than this was on 20th August 1938, before World War II, when Sydney Wooderson (Great Britain) set 1:48.4 hand timed.

The time set by Yego is slower than the national records of the top 30 nations in this event. The slowest national record in the top 30 belongs to South Korea, when Lee Jin-Il set 1:44.14 in 1994.

It is slower than the Youth World Record which was set by Belal Mansoor Ali, 17 at 1:44.34 in 2005.

In fact, Bathumalai Rajkumar’s Malaysian record of 1:47.37 set in 1985 would’ve been good enough for bronze medal!

The first lap was a very slow 55 seconds, and it was only during the last 100m that the fireworks started - a frentic sprint to the finish in which Kirwa Yego nipped Gary Reed (Canada) at the line.

When we look at Yego’s season, it’s even more amazing. While he did win bronze in the African Championships last year, and ran a personal best of 1:43.89 that same year, his record this season defies belief: in 6 meets, he only managed to finish fifth, or worse. He even finished 10th at a meet in Sweden. He finished 3rd at the Kenyan national championships and world championships trials, to earn his place in Osaka.

Click here to see the video

With the recent sale at USD100 million of the most expensive skull ever (For The Love Of God), Damien Hirst has not only established himself as the most successful living artist, but also within striking distance of being the most successul artist who ever lived.

Damien with his creation

Counting portable works or art and those who have actually been sold, he is seventh, and the only one still alive, on the all time list. Before we go to the list, it must be noted that the world’s most famous works of art, especially those created before 1800, be they paintings or otherwise are very rarely sold. They are generally owned by museums and are priceless. For example, if such a painting of the stature of the Mona Lisa were ever sold, it would almost certainly sell for much more than any of the paintings listed below. Mona Lisa was assessed at having the highest insurance value for a painting in history: USD100 million on December 14, 1962, before the painting toured the U.S. for several months. Taking inflation into account, the 1962 value would be approximately USD670 million in 2006!

Anyway, back down to earth: the top 6, value in adjusted USD.

1st
USD142.7 million for No. 5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock in 1948, sold 2006.

2nd
USD140.2 million for Woman III by Willem de Kooning in 1953, sold 2006.

3rd
USD137.6 million for Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt in 1907, sold 2006.

4th
USD129.7 million for Portrait of Dr. Gachet by Vincent van Gogh in 1890, sold 1990.

5th
USD122.8 million for Bal au moulin de la Galette, Montmartre by Pierre-Auguste Renoir in 1876, sold 1990.

6th
USD113.4 million for Garçon à la pipe by Pablo Picasso in 1905, sold 2004.

source
techchee.com
wikipedia

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source
wikipedia: for the love of god
geekologie
bloomberg