UNCONVENTIONAL WORLD RECORDS

It was reported on 12th Feb 2009 that the British, whose native language is English (duh!) find the word “accommodation” to be the most difficult to spell.

How did they know this? Well, it was based on the number of requests for the correct spelling internet search engine Ask.com received.

“Accommodation” was the most requested; it was often misspelled as “acommodation”, “accomodation” and even “accomadation”.

Other words that they (and of course the rest of us) find difficult to spell include:
- Restaurant
- Embarrass (usually misspelled as “embarass” or “embarras”)
- February (usually misspelled as “Febuary”)
- Receipt (usually misspelled as “Reciept”)
- Accessory
- Opportunity
- Guarantee

Source
The Daily Telegraph (UK), 12 Feb 2009

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UPDATE 15th February 2010

Apparently there’s Dr. Shit F. Chew, a scientist of the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

If you don’t believe it, have a look at this or google that name.

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You’d be guaranteed a lifetime of being the butt of jokes, making you look for exit signs every time your name is called out loud.

These are actual names, taken from online telephone directories, discovered by researchers from parenting group TheBabyWebsite.com.

Justin Case
Barb Dwyer

Stan Still, who used to be a British Royal Air Force airman, said his name had been “a blooming millstone around my neck my entire life. When I was in the RAF my commanding officer used to shout, ‘Stan Still, get a move on’ and roll about laughing. It got hugely boring after a while.”

Terry Bull
Paige Turner
Mary Christmas
Anna Sasin
Doug Hole
Hazel Nutt
Anna Prentice
Annette Curtain
Bill Board
Tim Burr

Some have very “job-specific” names:
Dr Leslie Doctor
Dr Thoulton Surgeon
Dr Les Plack, a dentist in San Francisco.

Source
The BBC, 25 Feb 2009

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Nujood Ali, 9 of Yemen walked out of her abusive 2-month old marriage in April 2008. She is probably the world’s youngest ever reported divorcee, although there’s a reported case of an 8-year-old girl in Saudi Arabia who won a divorce suit after apparently being inspired by Nujood’s story.

Nujood’s husband was more than triple her age, to whom her father had married her off.

She suffered daily beatings and rape at his hands.

Her autobiography was ghostwritten by French newspaper reporter Delphine Minoui.

She reportedly said that she never ever wants to be married again.

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All fingers point to Larry Bird (b. 1956). Some even say he’s the second greatest basketball player ever, behind only the incomparable Michael Jordan.

His achievements:
- 3-time NBA MVP;
- 3-time NBA champion;
- 2-time NBA Finals MVP;
- Rookie of the Year;
- 12-time all-star.

All that he achieved during a glorious era in the NBA. He was a clutch player, a great scorer, a leader, a great passer and a fierce competitor.

Other great white players:

(i) Jerry West – NBA MVP, 13 time all-star, probably second best white player behind Bird.
(ii) Steve Nash – 2-time NBA MVP but no titles.
(iii) Dirk Nowitzki – 2007 NBA MVP.

A video of Bird in action:

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Presenting the TwoDaLoo.

The makers say:

It brings couples closer together and conserves our water supply all with one flush. The TwoDaLoo features two side-by-side toilet seats with a modest privacy wall in between. An upgraded version includes a seven inch LCD television and iPod docking station.

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Not every actor in Hollywood looks like Tom Cruise or Brad Bitt.

Jesse Heiman, whose first major role was in “American Pie 2″ gives hope for the rest of us.

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Kadour Ziani is originally from Algeria and relatively short (5′ 10″) for a basketball player. Yet he has a vertical leap of 56 inches – that’s almost 5 feet!

That sets up the stage for incredible shows of dunking:

Click here to see the video

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In some parts of Asia (and of course other parts of the world too) the wife is expected to do heavy housework, tending to buffaloes, working in the paddy fields etc etc

Before her car accident on 10th February 2009 in which she lost all her nails, Lee Redmond, 68 of Salt Lake City, Utah wouldn’t have be able to do that since she had the world’s longest fingernails, each almost 3 feet in length.

She last cut her nails in 1979 (30 years ago!).

Despite this she’s able to do things like riding a bike, driving a car, vacuuming, doing the dishes and giving haircuts.

In the accident, she was thrown out of her SUV in a 4-car pile up and now is in serious condition, although her life is not in danger.

Get well soon Lee.

… discount lingerie anyone?

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The 2009 Victorian bushfires are a series of bushfires that were ignited or were burning across the Australian state of Victoria.

It started on 7th February 2009 and have resulted in more than 200 human deaths, covered almost half a million hectares destroyed about 2,000 homes and left almost 8,000 people homeless.

It is Australia’s worst ever bushfire.

One of the fires, the one at Churchill is strongly believed by investigators to have been started by an arsonist. 5 days after the fires started, at 4pm on 12th February 2009, Brendan Sokaluk, 39 was arrested, suspected of lighting it.

At least 11 people died in that fire.

Sokaluk has become the target of intense anger. Some people have suggested that he be “burned at the stake.”

At last check, his myspace search page still up with photo, but the link www.myspace.com/brendansokaluk is dead, however one could still see what it contained.

He also appears in at least one Facebook group. One of them is titled “Brendan Sokaluk, the Victorian Bushfires Arsonist, must burn in hell”

He is currently under protective custody in solitary confinement at an unnamed location in Melbourne.

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Naturally 7, a 7-piece American vocal group do much more than mere acapella.

They imitate the sound of musical instruments like the drums and guitars with their voices as well as singing.

Truly good stuff, like the following 2 totally live-performed covers of Phil Collins’ In The Air Tonight – remmber, they were performed without any instruments!

Performed on a street in London August 2008

Performed in a subway in Paris sometime 2006

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It was reported on 11th Feb 2009 that The Cow Protection Department of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), India’s biggest and oldest Hindu nationalist group, is “in the final stages” of making a soft drink made of cow urine.

Seriously.

And they intend to make the product compete with Pepsi or Coke.

Right.

It will be called “gau jal” (in Sanskrit), meaning “cow water”.

How appetizing.

The guys in charge said not to worry, it won’t smell like pee. And it will taste good too. Oh, it won’t have any toxins either, unlike those of the evil US.

The drink is made by mixing urine with “a few medicinal and ayurvedic herbs.”

Good luck.

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Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen (1862-1910) was an American doctor who murdered his wife.

As a result, he was hanged in London in November 1910.

He is the first criminal to be captured with the aid of wireless communication.

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At the 2006 World Cup, Argentina met Serbia, which had one of the best qualifying records – undefeated.

The end result was that Argentina gave a masterclass, pounding Serbia 6-0 that prompted the commentator during the match to say: “it’s been a pleasure watching Argentina play at the highest level.”

The standout goal, and probably the greatest ever team goal ever seen at the World Cup was the 2nd, where there were 24 passes among the Argentinians in 1 minute before the goal.

During that time, at no point did the Serbians appear to be anywhere near to claiming the ball.

Players who had posession (in order): Riquelme – Maxi Rodriguez – Sorin – Maxi Rodriguez – Sorin – Mascherano – Riquelme – Heinze – Cambiasso – Mascherano – Maxi Rodriguez – Sorin – Maxi Rodriguez – Cambiasso – Riquelme – Ayala – Sorin – Saviola – Maxi Rodriguez – Saviola – Cambiasso – Crespo – Cambiasso – goal.

Video:

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The Pirate Bay is the world’s most high-profile file-sharing site.

Its founders are now being taken to court in Sweden by top media firms like Sony and Warner Bros because the site has links to unauthorised copies of music, films and TV programs.

The defendants are: Frederik Neij a.k.a TIAMO, 30; Gottfrid Svartholm Warg a.k.a anakata, 24; Peter Sunde Kolmsioppi a.k.a brukep, 30; and Carl Lundstorm.

TIAMO

2 of them were reported to have said:
- their site was 100 percent legal.
- they cannot be prosecuted for copyright theft because none of the content is hosted on any of their servers, and that they merely direct people to “torrent” links, allowing the file-sharing program BitTorrent and its variants to share files among thousands the world over.

anakata

If convicted, they face up to 2 years jailtime and a fine of USD143,500.

Prosecutors say:
- the 4 had made a lot of money from the site despite claiming to only being interested in “spreading culture for free”.

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My take is The Headington Shark, located in Headington (duh!), Oxford, England and “landed in the roof of 2 New High Street” on 9th August 1986.

The house itself was built in 1960.

A Bill Heine, an American owns the house and commissioned the shark. He explains why the shark is there thus:

The shark was to express someone feeling totally impotent and ripping a hole in their roof out of a sense of impotence and anger and desperation…. It is saying something about CND, nuclear power, Chernobyl and Nagasaki.

Click here to see the shark

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Watch the guy in white dodging a train, in the nick of time, at a level-crossing in Essex, on 17th December 2008.

If he’d been half a second slower, that’s be the end of it.

As it turned out, he got lucky: he only lost a shoe!!!

Click here to see the video

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Apparently this is the only example of male-male co-operation among animals.

Rather than tearing each other apart to get their girl, male long-tailed manakins (a tropical bird) co-operate with their friends. They pair up to perform a courtship song and dance, but the alpha male gets the girl every time. Meanwhile his “wingman” spends up to five years playing second fiddle.

During that time, the beta male does not copulate.

However, he eventually inherits the mating site when the alpha male dies – he doesn’t kick him out.

This following video shows this in action. Two males, the dominant “alpha” and subordinate “beta” doing a “backwards leapfrog” courtship display for a female. The female is the olive-green bird perched on the right:

Click here to see the video

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If there’s a Grand Slam for the arts, this would be it.

Of course there’s that Holy Grail: add a Nobel Prize to the end of the list but apparently nobody has ever done that yet.

If there’s a membership card for this level of achievement, there would’ve been only 2 ever issued, for Richard Rodgers (1902 – 1979) and Marvin Hamlisch (b. 1944).

Richard Rodgers

Rodgers of course was part of the famed Rodgers – Hammerstein songwriting partnership, who was responsible for the world-famous and much-loved The Sound of Music musical which started in 1959 and later turned into that legendary movie.

Rodgers & Hammerstein

Rodgers wrote more than 900 songs and 40 Broadway musicals and also created music for films and TV. His other famous collaborator was with lyricist Lorenz Hart.

Academy Award

1. 1945 : Best Song – “It Might As Well Be Spring” from State Fair

Emmy Award

1. 1962 : Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composed – Winston Churchill-The Valiant Years

Grammy Award

1. 1960 : Best Show Album (Original Cast) – The Sound of Music
2. 1962 : Best Original Cast Show Album – No Strings

Tony Award

1. 1950 : Best Musical – South Pacific
2. 1950 : Best Producers, Musical – South Pacific
3. 1950 : Best Score – South Pacific
4. 1952 : Best Musical – The King and I
5. 1960 : Best Musical – The Sound of Music
6. 1962 : Best Composer – No Strings

Special Award

1. 1962 : Special Tony Award “for all he has done for young people in the theatre and for taking the men of the orchestra out of the pit and putting them onstage in No Strings”
2. 1972 : Special Tony Award
3. 1979 : Special Tony Award, Lawrence Langner Memorial Award for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement in the American Theatre

Pulitzer Prize

1. Special Award and Citation in Letters for Oklahoma! in 1944
2. Pulitzer Prize for Drama for South Pacific in 1950

Marvin Hamlisch

Academy Award

1. 1973: Best Music, Original Dramatic Score – The Way We Were
2. 1973: Best Music, Original Song – The Way We Were
3. 1973: Best Music, Scoring Original Song Score and/or Adaptation – The Sting

Emmy Award

1. 1995 : Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Direction – Barbra Streisand: The Concert
2. 1995 : Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music and Lyrics – Barbra Streisand: The Concert
3. 1999 : Outstanding Music and Lyrics – AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movies
4. 2001 : Outstanding Music Direction – Timeless: Live in Concert

Grammy Award

1. 1974: Song Of The Year – The Way We Were
2. 1974: Best New Artist Of The Year
3. 1974: Best Pop Instrumental Performance – The Entertainer
4. 1974: Album Of Best Original Score Written For A Motion Picture Or A Television Special – The Way We Were

Tony Award

1. 1976 : Best Musical Score – A Chorus Line

Pulitzer Prize

1. Drama for A Chorus Line in 1976.

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Movies that were apparently banned in Malaysia at some point of time are listed at the Internet Movie Database. Some are still banned as of 2008.

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I mentioned some time ago that Kashmir is probably the world’s worst place to celebrate Valentine’s Day.

Of all countries in the world, India is probably the worst country to celebrate Valentine’s. It is explicitly discouraged by Hindu fundamentalists.

Specifically, in Mumbai and its surrounding areas, every year there are sure to be violent altercations between shopowners selling Valentine related gifts and members of either:
(i) the Shiv Sena, a far-right political party in India founded and headed by Bal Keshav Thackeray, a Hindu nationalist.
(ii) the Bajrang Dal, the youth wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a Hindu organization.

Bal Thackeray, Shiv Sena supremo is the last person you’d send a Valentine’s Day greeting card to

Before 14th February every year, the Shiv Sena would warn people not to have anything to do with V Day. Those who dare ignore this warning would typically be beaten up by baton-toting brigands who patrol public places, especially parks: chasing young couples doing so much as holding hands and basically anybody suspected of being lovers.

Meanwhile, the “Social Police” of Bajrang Dal have on several occasions caught unmarried couples on Valentine’s day and forced them to apply sindoor or tie rakhis against their wishes. They have also often indulged in violence, invading and smashing up gift shops and restaurants, threatening couples & burning effigies of St Valentine, all on 14th February.

Bajrang Dal activistsw smear black paint on the faces of a young man and his companion caught celebrating Valentine’s Day in Bhopal

Demonstrations while burning Valentine’s greeting cards are common

… I doubt if these ladies would even consider wearing sexy panties …

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Vogue, arguably the world’s top fashion magazine has photographed almost every First Lady since 1929, but only two has ever made the cover.

The very first was Hillary Clinton in 1998.

Then, perhaps, inevitably, it was President Barack Obama’s wife, Michelle who’s the cover girl for the March 2009 issue.

For the cover, renowned celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz photographed Mrs Obama wearing a magenta silk dress designed by Jason Wu.

The First Lady also wore another Wu creation, the long white gown for the inauguration balls back on 20th January.

Her influence is not just simply fashion, it’s business: as a result of her dressing her family with clothees from J Crew on inauguration day, the company’s shares climbed 10%.

For the record, here’s Mrs Clinton in the 1998 cover:

Click here to see the photo

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Who do you think is the unlikeliest self-professed virgin in the world?

How about a woman who has given birth to 14 children???

It was reported on 10th February 2009 that in an interview with Good Morning America, Nadya Suleman, who only last month gave birth to octuplets, bringing the total of her brood to 14, said she’s never had sex and never will:

Most mothers have had sex. But not me. My entire life, I’ve wanted children, but I’ve never wanted to deal with a husband, or boyfriend, or any one who would make sexual demands of me. When you love children the way I do, there’s no time for the distractions of domestic partnership. A man would only get in the way and I’ve got babies to hold. No man has ever sullied my life-oven with his flesh sword, and no man ever will.

A Mr Brewster Wilefacto, who reportedly dated Suleman in high school, said he believed her and added that she just might be a little bit cuckoo:

We went out about a half a dozen times. She told me that she would never have sex. I told her I thought girls who wanted to wait for marriage were hot. She told me that marriage wasn’t an option for her, because it would get in the way of motherhood. Crazy.

But perhaps the most shocking thing Suleman have said so far is that she’s wants to have more kids, even up to 12 at one time!

Source

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For SGD15,000 (around RM37,000 or USD10,000) on 14th February 2009 you and partner will have the most extravagant Valentine’s Dinner ever, never mind the recession.

Limited to 20 couples.

What you get:
- privilege of dining on the helipad of Swissotel at the Stamford, the tallest hotel in Singapore at 73-storeys
- 9 course French dinner with Dom Perignon champagne (cost SGD6,000)
- a SGD9,000 diamond studded Valentino watch

This is a video of what the place looks like:

Click here to see the video

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Teen idol Miley Cyrus, 16 was photographed with a few friends, including boyfriend Justin Gaston all making apparently a racist gesture directed at Asians.

One of the persons in the group photo is an Asian, who was the only one not making “the gesture”.

She denied the charges, saying she’ simply “making a goofy face.”

The full explanation, as posted in her blog/website:

I’ve also been told there are some people upset about some pictures taken of me with friends making goofy faces! Well, I’m sorry if those people looked at those pics and took them wrong and out of context!” she writes on her official fansite.

In NO way was I making fun of any ethnicity! I was simply making a goofy face. When did that become newsworthy?” she adds. “It seems someone is trying to make something out of nothing to me. If that would of [sic] been anyone else, it would of been overlooked! I definitely feel like the press is trying to make me out as the new ‘BAD GIRL’!”

I feel like now that Britney is back on top of her game again, they need someone to pick on! Lucky me! haha Anyway, I just wanted to let you guys know what is on my heart. You guys know me and have been by my side every step of the way!

You guys know my heart and know the most important things to me are my friends, family, fans, and GOD! In NO WAY do I want to disappoint any of you! But, when I have made mistakes in the past, I feel like I’ve owned up to them and apologized,” she adds.

I really wish everyone would stop focusing on my personal life and get back to focusing on what I love! Music and Acting! Hopefully, I will be touring again this fall! Yayy! =] It will be a nice change to be back out on the road again!”

xoxo blessings…Miley =)

Enough about that, here’s the photo, she’s 3rd from left:

What do you think?

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It was reported in early February 2009 that a 68-year old South Korean grandmother has failed her driving test 771 times, but amazingly, she has not given up, and is gearing up for her 772nd test.

She’s only known by her last name Cha. Her full name is not revealed to “protect her from public ridicule.”

More amazing reported facts:
- She’s been trying since 2005
- She took the tests almost every day

It should be noted that she has not arrived at the actual driving itself – she failed at the written part of the exam, averaging 30 to 50%. Passing mark is 60%.

Her motivation for getting the license is to enable her to more easily operate her business.

Police estimate that she has spend almost USD3,600 on the tests.

Source
Daily Mail UK

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The BBC reported on 6th Feb 2009 that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin denied dancing to Abba hits during a private live concert hundreds of kilometres north of Moscow by Abba tribute band Bjorn Again on 22 January.

During the concert, he allegedly:
- danced in his seat during Super Trouper
- clapped vigorously
- raised his hand on cue during Mamma Mia
- shouted “Bravo!”

So what if he likes Abba?

That means he’ll lose his macho man image, exemplified by him being a former KGB spy and a black belt in judo?

Or that he’d be less macho than Russian President Dmitry Medvedev who is a fan of the arguably more macho British rock band Deep Purple.

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I don’t know if this is authentic, a PR ploy or an early April Fool’s prank, but apparently Louise Grant, 25, of Manchester, Britain is a bar manager with a very peculiar habit: using Facebook to hook up with total strangers for sex.

Among her claims:
- she’s been doing this for the last 3 years
- she has slept with 200 men she met online
- she sleeps with a different man every 5 days.
- her record is 3 men in 24 hours.

Why does she do it?

She reportedly explains thus:

I can’t explain the buzz I get from meeting someone for the first time and knowing that in a couple of hours we’ll be ripping each other’s clothes off. It’s addictive. A lot of women may call me a slag, but I’m not. The sex is on my terms — I call the shots.

What a slag lady, is she for real?

… does she look like she’s in need of some Fentraphen?

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UPDATE 20th February 2009

As on 19th February 2009 Bishop Williamson has been ordered by the Argentinian government to leave the country within 10 days or face expulsion.

Earlier this month he was removed from his post as the head of a Roman Catholic seminary in Argentina.

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In November 2008 Bishop Richard Williamson, 48 said to Swedish TV, which was aired on 21 January 2009:

I believe there were no gas chambers. I think that two to three hundred thousand Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps but none of them by gas chambers.

As expected, it outraged Jews leaders the world over.

This is a video of the controversial interview, very gripping indeed:

He was one of the appointees of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1988, who was possibly the most controversial member of senior Roman Catholic clergy ever.

To add insult to injury, Williamson was recently reinstated into the Church by the Pope because he had “affirmed his willingness to accept Church teachings and papal authority.”

The Vatican then said it didn’t know what Williamson had said about the Holocaust by the time of his reinstatement.

Mordechai Lewy, Israel’s envoy to the Vatican said:

We have no intention of interfering in the internal workings of the Catholic Church, however, the eagerness to bring a Holocaust denier back into the Church will cast a shadow on relations between Jews and the Catholic Church.

Tensions esclated on 28th January 2009 when the Chief Rabbinate of Israel terminated “indefinitely” official ties with the Vatican in protest.

In damage control mode, the Vatican has distanced itself from those remarks; its spokesman Rev Federico Lombardi said:

This act regards the lifting of the excommunications, period. It has nothing to do with the personal opinions of a person, which are open to criticism, but are not pertinent to this decree.

Before the dust has even settled, another member of the clergy from the same Society of St Pius X as Bishop Williamson, Father Floriano Abrahamowicz basically said the same thing.

He was quoted to have said, on 29th January 2009, by Italian newspaper La Tribuna di Treviso:

I know gas chambers existed at least to disinfect, I can’t say if anybody was killed in them or not.

What’s going on? Are all SSPX members Holocaust deniers?

Source
The BBC, 24 Jan 09
The BBC, 30 Jan 09

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The British Royal Navy’s 6 Type 45 Anti Air Warfare Destroyers has been described as the most powerful and advanced in the world.

Destroyers are a class of warship.

Its primary mission is air defence, protecting against missiles.

Its primary weapons platform is the Principal Anti Air Missile System (PAAMS): a 48-cell vertical missile launcher, allowing it to engage targets from all angles.

Missiles used are Aster 15s and Aster 30s and can strike targets up to 100km away.

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Update 9th Feb 2009

Apparently her mother’s not too pleased with her.

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Nadya Suleman, 33 of California who gave birth to octuplets (8 babies in one pregnancy) on 26th January 2009, coinciding with the Chinese New Year, has been overwhelmed with book and TV offers.

Now she even has her own publicist.

She already had 6 children before that, bringing her total to 14 children.

Perhaps even most amazing is the fact that she does not have a life partner (i.e. married). All 14 kids were conceived via in vitro fertilisation (IVF).

She explains:

That was always a dream of mine, to have a large family, a huge family.

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UPDATE 6th Feb 2009

USA Swimming, the sport’s governing body in the US has suspended Phelps from all competitions for 3 months.

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Michael Phelps, 23 is probably the greatest Olympian ever, the only person ever to win 8 gold medals at one Olympiad.

He did that at the Beijing Olympics in August.

Then, weeks later in early November 2008, he was photographed deeply inhaling from a bong (glass pipes commonly utilised to smoke cannabis / marijuana / ganja during 2 days of partying, during which he also:
- got totally drunk
- from his moment of arrival, he was loud, rude and downing beers and double spirits like there’s no tomorrow.
- did not hesitate at all when the bong was offered to him.
- seemed very experienced with the thing: he’d smoked it before.
- later became paranoid and nervous, then ran out. But he was back the next day.

News Of The World produced a world exclusive photo of him doing that, but not before the superstar’s aides apparently offering “extraordinary incentives” not to publish it.

Phelps then admitted that the photos are genuine, apologised and promised it would not happen again.

But his 2012 Olympiad dreams could be as good as dead, as there are 4 year bans for such offences.

The US Olympic Committee said:

Michael is a role model, and he is well aware of the responsibilities and accountability that come with setting a positive example for others, particularly young people. In this instance, regrettably, he failed to fulfil those responsibilities.

USA Swimming said:

We hope Michael can learn from this incident and move forward in a positive way.

Source
News of the World, 1 Feb 2009
The BBC, 1 Feb 2009

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I suppose all of us like to see our sporting heroes get emotional every now and then, if only to witness their humanity being laid bare.

2006

After winning the Australian for the 2nd time against Marcus Baghatis.

It was pure joy.

“I guess it’s all coming out now”

2009

After losing in the final to Rafael Nadal.

It was pure disappointment.

“God, it’s killing me.”

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Johanna Sigurdardottir, 67 became the world’s first openly gay Prime Minister when she became PM of Iceland recently.

She was once married to banker Torvaldur Johannesson and has 2 children, born 1972 and 1977.

In 2002, at the age of 60, she married Jonina Leosdottir, then 48, a writer, in a civil ceremony.

Of course, since she’s a woman, the more specific term is “lesbian”.

The previous coalition headed by Prime Minister Geir Haarde collapsed last month due to strain caused by the current economic crisis.

She was born in Reykjavik in 1942, studied commerce and was formerly a flight attendant for 9 years (1962-1971).

During that time, she also worked as a union organiser.

Later, she worked at a packaging firm.

She was elected Member of Parliament in 1978 and was social affairs minister from 1987 to 1994. In fact, she’s Iceland’s longest serving MP.

In 1994 she left the post, ran for leadership of the Social Democratic Party but failed.

Undeterred, she set up her own party called National Movement, which won 4 parliamentary seats in the next general election.

After a series of manoeuvres, she reached the pinnacle of power.

Source
The BBC, 1 Feb 2009

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