UNCONVENTIONAL WORLD RECORDS

IMHO, the honour belongs to “eunoia”.

Why?

At least 2 reasons:

1. It’s the shortest word in English containing all five vowels
2. Even the meaning is beautiful: “beautiful thinking”

It originated from the Greek word εύνοια, meaning “well mind” and of course “beautiful thinking.”

It’s also an infrequently used medical term which refers to “a state of normal mental health.”

No less a figure than Aristotle, one of the greatest founding figures in Western philosophy and the teacher of Alexander the Great used this term to refer to “the kind and benevolent feelings of goodwill a spouse has which form the basis for the ethical foundation of human life” in the seminal Nicomachean Ethics.

Ref:
The BBC, 30th Oct 2008

More lists of beautiful English words
@ listology.com
@ alphadictionary.com

…or the world’s most tasteless album / group.

There’s a 2-member “sick-brutal-death-metal” music group in existence somewhere in Europe called The Joseph Fritzls who is releasing an album apparently revering the worst father who ever lived, the Austrian sex monster Joseph Fritzl.

Album title: Who’s Ya Daddy?

There are 11 tracks, with incredibly sick titles like:

- Who’s Ya Daddy?
- 24 years
- Where’s my daughter?
- I’ll Hide You in My Cellar
- Incest Is Not That Bad
- KIDnapped (if ever there’s such a thing as a paedophile anthem, this would be it)

CD cover art:

I don’t know if they planned it or not, but the album’s supposed to be released in time for Fritzl’s trial.

It would be interesting to see what Fritzl thinks about that, but as for those on the other side, the disgusted reaction was understandable:

It’s nothing short of disgusting. To profit from their suffering like this is just plain sick. They must be as twisted as the real Josef Fritzl is.

Band members Mmit Woodmaster and Mojtra Ages say their songs are “aimed at fighting politics and racism”.

Understandably, reaction from music fans are mixed, but probably the best comment is:

What the f**k somebody must have taken a dump in your brain!

Source
The Sun UK, 16th October 2008

…or, the worst miming attempt ever.

Perhaps it’s for being shirtless. Perhaps it’s the broom. Perhaps it’s the shades.

Or perhaps it’s for having the audacity for actually taking the time to record and then upload this to youtube.

What does he expect? Heaps of praises? A call from another washed-out Western rock band looking for a frontman?

Click here to see the video

UPDATE 12th October 2008

According to The Star today:

(i) Shah Rukh Khan is the first actor from India to be awarded a Datukship.
(ii) It was Tun Daim Zainuddin who suggested that SRK be given a Datukship to Melaka’s Yang di-Pertua Negri Tun Mohd Khalil Yaakob. Why? Because he shot a movie scene in Melaka a few years ago ["One 2 ka 4" was shot at A Famosa resort in 2001], and that is considered promoting Melaka as it resulted in an increase in the number of visitors to the state.

Apparently, they also shot the movie in Kuala Lumpur, check out this “3 acre” song with some of KL’s landmarks (yes, even the infamous red-white KL taxi!) in the background:

Click here to see the video

Christine Chubbuck, 29 was a TV news reporter for Channel 40, WXLT-TV station.

She had been depressed for some time, the main source of which was apparently “her focus on her lack of relationships.” Her mother later said that it was due to “her personal life was not enough”. She complained to colleagues that she was going to be 30, yet she was still a virgin who never went on more than 2 dates with men. Her colleagues noted that she could be “brusque and defensive” and that she was “self-deprecating, criticizing herself constantly and rejecting any compliments she was given.”

On 15th July 1974, she turned up for work with a .38 revolver and put it below her desk.

The first 8 minutes of her program started normally enough. She covered a few national news stories. Then the story turned to one about a local restaurant shooting the day before. There was a technical problem with the videoclip about the restaurant, and Christine shrugged it off, before saying:

In keeping with Channel 40’s policy of bringing you the latest in blood and guts, and in living color, you are going to see another first: an attempted suicide.

Then, unbelieveably, she took out the pistol and shot herself behind her right ear. As a result, she violently fell forward. The technical director faded slowly to black.

Jean Reed was handling the videocameras that morning and she thought it was a prank until she saw Chubbuck’s twitching body.

To cover, the TV station immediately filled in with a standard Public Service tape, followed by a movie.

Chubbuck was taken to hospital and pronounced dead 14 hours later.

She was cremated. Her family managed to get a court order preventing the release of the videotape of her suicide.

Source
Wikipedia

My last few posts have focused on South Korean suicides. Which brings me to the question: are South Koreans the most suicide-prone people on Earth?

Answer: not even close.

It’s Lithuania.

Now at first glance, Lithuanians seem to be better off than many other countries.

Check out these social indicators:
- As of 2004, Lithuanian life expectancy: 69 years for males and 79 for females.
- As of 2008 The infant mortality rate was 5.9 per 1,000 births.
- Less than 2% of the population live beneath the poverty line
- Unemployment rate is low: only 2.9%
- Adult literacy rate: 99.6%
- Lithuania has one of the fastest growing economies in the European Union.
- Relatively speaking, by UN classification, it has a high average income.
- It has a modern infrastructure of railways, airports and four lane highways.

Despite that, Lithuania has the world’s highest suicide rate, at 40.2 per 100,000 persons, according to WHO statistics as of 2008. Second placed Belarus is a quite distant 35.1.

South Korea is ranked 8th, at 26.1 (2005 statistics).

The most suicidal are middle-aged men in rural areas, where among men aged 45 to 54 years the rate is 154.6. Most common method is hanging.

However, suicidal tendencies seem to permeate Lithuanian society. A study done by Nida Zemaitiene and Apolinaras Zaborskis published in 2005 studied suicidal tendencies among Lithuanian schoolchildren aged 11, 13 and 15 and found that one third of them had suicidal ideation, plans or attempts to commit suicide. That is a big number. Even more worryingly, the study found that “an increasing number of schoolchildren are expressing an agreeable attitude towards suicide.”

Apparently, suicides are so common in Lithuania that more people kill themselves there every day (between 4 and 5 persons) than die in traffic accidents.

It has not always been this way. Before World War II, the rates were far lower.

Factors that could have played a part in the increase include:
- decades of Soviet domination
- a dramatic transition period from Communism to Capitalism, with little psychological support.
- amount of media coverage given to suicides. Apparently between 1991-4, media coverage of suicides, with all the gory details, jumped 20-fold
- a certain perceived helplessness toward all of the above.
- absence of a national suicide prevention strategy
- lack of in-depth research into the problem of suicide.
- radical reforms in society starting a “crisis in values”
- growing economic unease
- increasing psychological and social insecurity
- lax alcohol policies: public displays drunkenness quite common.
- a Gallup International poll showed that Lithuanians were the most pessimistic people among 62 nations polled.

Source
Wikipedia
Suicidal tendencies and attitude towards freedom to choose suicide among Lithuanian schoolchildren: results from three cross-sectional studies in 1994, 1998, and 2002 (2005), Nida Zemaitiene and Apolinaras Zaborskis, Institute for Biomedical Research, Kaunas University of Medicine, 4, Eiveniu str., Kaunas, LT-50009, Lithuania
Suicide in Lithuania

Lee Yoon-hyung appeared to have everything.

She was young and beautiful, only 26 years of age.

She had social status, being daughter of billionaire former Samsung Group chief Lee Kun-hee, and liked fine arts.

She was rich in her own right, estimated to be worth USD191 million, mostly from her Samsung shares, meaning she could buy the world’s best diet pills if she wanted to, only that she obviously didn’t need them.

She was popular: she had her own blog/website that was so popular that it had to be shut down.

She was adventurous: liked racing cars, like her father.

She was intelligent: at the time of her death, she was a first-year postgraduate student of an arts management program at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. She received her first degree at Ewha Woman’s University in Seoul.

She was one of the wealthiest women in South Korea, but she was not happy.

She hanged herself at her luxurious Astor Place apartment in Manhattan, New York on 18th November 2005. She was found by her boyfriend, Soobin Shin and a friend around 3 a.m. hanging by an electrical cord attached to the door to her apartment.

The cause of her unhappiness was reportedly the fact that her father had forbidden her from marrying her Korean boyfriend, whom her parents considered “too lowly.”

Source
Wikipedia

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

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

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

She explains why:

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

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

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

But for now she’s having fun.

Source
fabulousmag.co.uk

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

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

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

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

2nd October 2008

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Click here to see the rest of the post