UNCONVENTIONAL WORLD RECORDS

More than 12 million copies sold worldwide.

For those old enough to have seen her in the original Charlie’s Angels, you’d surely remember this poster sporting THAT hair. That hairstyle was copied by millions of young women. She was an international sex symbol in the 1970s and 1980s:

Heck, I can even remember this poster being displayed in my house in the village!

The photo shoot for the original poster was held in 1976 by Pro Arts Inc., and first published in Life magazine the same year.

Her husband at that time was another hugely popular star, Lee “The Six Million Dollar Man” Majors.

RIP, Ferrah Leni Fawcett.

The BBC reported on 18th June 2009 that South Africa’s Medical Research Council conducted a survey on 1,738 men in 2 provinces, and found that:

- 1 in 4 men in South Africa *may* have raped someone.
- Even more shockingly, almost half of that have attacked more than one person.
- 73% who admitted rape have attacked for the first time while still in their teens.
- 1 in 20 men said they had raped a woman or girl in the past year.
- Perhaps most shockingly, 1 in 10 men said they had been raped by other men.
- About 3% said they had raped another man or boy.

Practices like gang rape were common because they were considered “a form of male bonding.”

South Africa has a total population of about 48 million, hence there could easily be millions of rapists there.

According to a survey for the period 1998–2000 compiled by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, South Africa was ranked first in the world for rapes per capita. The rate has shown no signs of abating, resulting in country being referred to as the “rape capital of the world”.

Source
The BBC, 18 June 2009

Jacqueline Fleming, 38 of Scotland is the first person to die of the virus outside the Americas.

The mother of 2, who had only given birth to her second son, a premature baby on 1st June while having been critically ill for weeks, died in intensive care on 14th June 2009.

She had “underlying health problems.”

If it was any consolation, the baby does not have the virus.

The death rate is now 1 in 200 infections.

There have been almost 500 people in Scotland infected, mostly in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, 9 now being hospitalised.

As for England, 752 have been infected, mostly around Birmingham.

As for the whole of Great Britain, more than 1,000 have been infected.

As for the rest of Europe, 680.

Worldwide, there have been 145 confirmed deaths, mostly in Mexico and the US.

Now this is getting scary, you could get infected even while shopping for home lighting in your local supermarket!

Source
The Guardian (UK), 15 June 2009

Did David Carradine, 72 die of erotic asphyxiation (EA), or more accurately auto-erotic asphyxiation (AEA)? We might never know, but if he did, he could be the most famous person ever to have done so.

He was found dead 4th June 2009 in his hotel room in Bangkok, hanging by a rope in the closet. Apparently no other persons were involved. A highly controversial photograph published by Thai Rath, a local tabloid, showed his hands apparently bound together above the head. Then not one but two of his ex-wives, Gail Jensen and Marina Anderson revealed that he liked self-bondage.

According to Go Ask Alice!, it’s estimated that between 500 and 1,000 deaths due to EA/AEA occur annually in the United States alone, and exactly how many people engage in AEA is unknown, because the practice almost always remains a secret until someone dies accidentally.

The first recorded case of death from EA is of the Czech composer Frantisek Kotzwara who died in 1791, when he tied a ligature around the doorknob of the room in a prostitute he visited, while the other end was fastened around his neck, then had sex with her. When it was over, he was well… dead.

Arguably even more controversial is AEA, which is basically committing suicide… almost.

Sometimes, it goes wrong, and you’re dead, and if you’re a public figure, it’s explosive.

Possibly the most lurid AEA case involving a politician was that of Stephen Milligan, then 45, who was a British Conservative Member of Parliament. His corpse was reportedly found draped across a kitchen table at his London home in 1994 by his secretary Vera Taggart, who let herself in when she became worried he had missed his appointments.

He was found almost naked, save for suspenders and women’s stockings which he wore, with an electrical cord tied from around his neck to his ankles, a plastic trash bag over the head and a segment of orange in his mouth.

Three days later, it was determined that he died due to suffocation by that cord.

Then of course there’s the case of Michael Hutchence, then 37, lead singer of INXS, who *might* have died from autoerotic asphyxiation in 1997, although officially, suicide was cited as the cause of death.

INXS was in the final leg of a world tour and was in Australia. On the morning of 22nd November 1997, Hutchence, was found dead and in the nude in his hotel room in Sydney. There was a belt found at the scene suggesting that he had died by hanging.

On 11th June 2009, Dr Margaret Chan, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic.

It was done after holding an emergency meeting.

The virus first appeared in Mexico in April.

It has since spread to 74 countries.

Particulary worrying is the rising number of cases in the UK, Australia, Japan and Chile.

There has been nearly 30,000 cases worldwide, with 141 deaths and the numbers are rising every day.

Points to take note:

- keep calm

- the current pandemic seems to be moderate i.e. only causes mild illness in most people. We don’t know if there’ll be a more severe second wave.

- most of the infected are young working age adults

- By declaring a pandemic, it does not imply that we will see increased in deaths or serious cases.

- Symptoms usually similar to seasonal flu - but deaths have been recorded

- The virus is a new version of the H1N1 strain which caused the 1918 flu pandemic

Current treatments do work, but as yet there is no vaccine

Good personal hygiene, such as washing hands, covering nose when sneezing advised.

Dr Chan’s full press statement

On 11th June 2009, it was reported that given the current situation with the H1N1 virus, the World Health Organisation (WHO) is set to declare the first pandemic in 40 years.

There was a spike in the number of cases in Australia, while a few days earlier Hong Kong closed all its nurseries and primary schools for 2 weeks following the case of 12 students being tested positive for the virus.

The last global pandemic was the Hong Kong Flu of 1968-1969.

It killed 1 million people globally.

It infected half a million in Hong Kong alone, 15% of the population, mercifully with a low mortality rate.

In the United States, about 34,000 died.

The virus was a “strain of H3N2 descended from H2N2 by antigenic shift, in which genes from multiple subtypes reassorted to form a new virus.”

The first recorded outbreak was somewhere in Hong Kong on 13th July 1968. It reached maximum intensity in 2 weeks and lasted 6 weeks in all.

In a few days, extensive outbreaks were reported in Vietnam and Singapore. By September the same year, it had reached India, Philippines, northern Australia, Europe and the USA - from returning Vietnam War troops. By 1969, it would reach Japan, Africa and South America.

Source
Wikipedia

This is a list of songs that will get everybody, no matter what their age is (10 to 100), as long as they love good music, to hit the dance floor, anywhere, anytime.

Perhaps the older generation won’t get that excited by Lady Ga Ga’s Just Dance or the younger generation won’t start swaying their bodies to the Hollies’ Stay, but the following surely could change that:

Kenny Loggins - Footloose (1984)
Los Lobos - La Bamba (1987)
John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John - You’re the one that I want (1978)
Bee Gees - Stayin’ Alive
Bee Gees - Night Fever
Bee Gees - You should be dancing
Bee Gees - Jive talkin’
Village People - YMCA
Billy Idol - Mony Mony (live)
Wild Cherry - Play That Funky Music
Kool and The Gang - Celebration
Aretha Franklin - Respect
Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby (1990)
Beatles - Twist and Shout
AC/DC - You shook me all night long (1980)
B-52s - Love shack
The Chicken Dance
Macarena
I Will Survive
Mambo #5
Bon Jovi - Livin’ On A Prayer
Def Leppard - Pour some sugar on me
Whitney Houston - i want to dance with somebody (who loves me) Whitney Houston - how will i know
Madonna - Holiday
Donna Summer - I Feel Love
Bananarama - Venus
Eurythmics - sweet dreams (are made of this)
Sister Sledge - we are family
Queen - we will rock you
Aerosmith & Run DMC - walk this way
MC Hammer - you can’t touch this

If you have any additions/deletions etc, please do so in the comments section. Thanks!

These are not foods that would make you balloon up so quickly you’d need to get a move on on reading those diet pill reviews, however these yummies are definitely not recommended for a romantic date:

Spaghetti , because for one, very few people could actually wrap the strands around a fork, the proper way of bringing the stuff to your mouth. Then there’s that unromantic slurping sound that invariably goes together with spaghetti-eating. Better alternatives are bite-size varities of similar stuff like penne, rigatoni, or tortellini.

Raw Onions , because the strong smell goes around the room quickly everytime you let out a breath. The thing is, they are present in many types of salad and so finely done you won’t even see them, and they won’t even be declared to be part of the menu. So ask before ordering, otherwise that kiss might be repelled mightily!

Other no-nos include:

Steak tartar
Chili
Stinky Cheese
Ribs
Truffles
Tacos
Spinach salad
Heavy garlic

Reasons why explained in detail.

On the 13th of February 1994, Bruce Handy wrote in the venerable newspaper that:

One Wisconsin man who lost his [penis] in a 1989 lawn-mower accident had it grafted onto his forearm as a kind of stopgap measure until it could be returned to its rightful place.

Whoa, what do you think of that?

I can’t find any other reference to that man anywhere else; could this be real?

The sense of disbelief is succintly put into words by Mocking Words when he wrote recently:

Holycrapholycrapholycrap!!! WHAT?!?!

Grafted to his forearm?? Lawnmower accident?! How in the hell does one have a lawnmower accident that involves one’s penis? That is not an approved ‘manscaping’ method, I’m fairly certain of that! And the guy had it grafted (which, until it’s un-grafted is rather permanent) to his forearm?! Not his upper-arm, where it would be easy to conceal! Oh, no! No, they had to stick it directly on the forearm so it would be incredibly hard to miss! Might as just as well have put it on his forehead! What year was this 1687? What?! 1989?? Clearly a bad year to have your schlong shlopped off. I’ve heard of scientists growing things like ears on the backs of mice, which is also quite strange, I’m not trying to imply that it isn’t! But having your groin-age on your forearm is just beyond my ability to comprehend. That’s mainly because a) I don’t even have one and b) even if I did, I couldn’t imagine having it attached to my arm. And since guys love the thing so much, that would be the epitome of wearing one’s heart on one’s sleeve, wouldn’t it? I think it would.

Source
The New York Times, 13 Feb 1994

… what if the word mesothelioma appeared in that sentence?

Major Steven Hutchison, 60 survived the Vietnam War, but not the war in Iraq. Joining the army in 1966, he served two one-year tours in Vietnam from 1968 to 1970 as a member of the famed 101st Airborne Division and won a Bronze Star and a Meritorious Service Medal.

After being in the army for 22 years, he retired in 1988. Along the way, he earned a PhD in psychology. After retirement, he became a college professor and became a researcher for a health care company.

He was killed by a roadside bomb on the 10th of May 2009, which exploded near his vehicle in Basra.

He is the oldest member of any branch of the US military to die in the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The previous oldest soldier to die in Iraq was Staff Sgt. William Chaney, who died of a post-surgical blood clot in 2004 when he was 59.

Major Hutchison signed up in July 2007 through a military Retiree Recall program that lets experienced soldiers return to action, but only after his wife died the year before. He originally wanted to re-enlist right after 9/11 at the age of 51, but his wife did not agree to it.

He served in Afghanistan for a year before being deployed to Iraq in October 2008.

The US military can reinstate retirees up to the age of 64 for general officers, 62 for warrant officers and 60 for all others. For new soldiers, the age limit is 42. About 700 officers are currently on active duty through the Retiree Recall program. They must pass fitness tests every six months, doing push-ups, sit-ups and a two-mile run.

Source
Yahoo! News, 14th May 2009

… definitely, Iraq is no Outer Banks rentals …

Calling all real men!

So you think you’re tough, brave, strong, or similar adjective?

Demonstrate that you are able to hang by your testicles first, then we can talk.

Gross? No, someone explains why this is a work of art:

A slender well formed male body looks rather graceful when hanging by the balls. The back and head stretch backward and downward with arms trailing, and the legs likewise in a parabolic arch that emphasizes the flaring of the male torso, mounted by the nips, into the shoulders, and the strong legs, growing from the slender pelvis and ending in the feet, all hanging languidly. The picture conveys grace and freedom, not pain, and distinctly male beauty.

Still, many people would find that disgusting, and that if one really wanted to do some “elongation”, other techniques to stretch one’s scrotum are available.

… if you’re overweight, it’s not recommended to do it, you might want to consider taking weight loss pills first …

For ladies who don’t believe in wearing a bra, read on.

A 57-year old woman in Detroit was shot at by one of 3 burglars, but the bullet bounced off the metal underwire in her bra.

She was looking out her window as they were entering a neighbour’s house. They noticed, and shot at her.

The bullet went through her window and hit her, but instead of causing serious injury, or worse, death, it ricocheted off.

The suspects then drove away after the shooting.

She did sustain injuries but they were minor.

Thank goodness for metal-wired bras!

Source
The BBC, 23 Apr 2009

On 30 November 2005, a court acquitted Jan Luedecke, 33 from Toronto, Canada of sexual assault (i.e. rape) after he was diagnosed with sleep sex disorder (sexsomania). Meaning, the judge ruled that he was asleep during the attack, hence was not responsible for the deed.

The case was appealed at least once, and acquittal upheld, however on 20th October 2008 it was reported that an appeals court ordered a new trial for Luedecke.

Luedecke met the woman at a party in July 2005. Both drank, then fell asleep on a couch. Later, the woman woke up to find the man having sex with her and pushed him off. Hitting the floor, he then woke up, but later told the court that he had no memory of having sex with anybody, and only suspected they had had sex after going to the bathroom and finding he was still wearing a condom.

Dr. Colin Shapiro, a sleep expert testified at his trial that he suffered from parasomnia - a condition in which people do strange things in their sleep. One of its symptoms is sexomnia: having sex while sleeping.

Of course, disorder or not, some women’s groups are angry. As Chris Leonard of Toronto Rape Crisis Center said:

This person had non-consensual sex with her, and whether it’s a disorder or not there has to be some level of accountability.

According to the University of Toronto Center for Sleep Studies, 2.5% percent of adults suffer from parasomnia, although the number of people who exhibit sexsomnia is unknown: but this surely means that cases like has been going on for as long as man has been on this earth, only that this was the first time it was reported in the media.

In fact, other strange things people have been known to do in their sleep includes:
(i) preparing meals
(ii) drive long distances;
(iii) go next door to their neighbour to borrow a cup of sugar

Source
Globelife, 31 May 2007

There’s no other motorbike quite like it.

The Honda CBR600RR, a 599cc, water cooled four cylinder motorcycle is the world’s first bike with a computer-controlled anti lock braking system (ABS).

Prices start at 1.1 million yen (USD12,200).

A 999cc version, the CBR1000RR will also be available shortly.

A video of the braking system demonstrated:

Source
weikhang.com

… If ABS on cars caused car insurance premiums to fall, this case sure would do it for motorbikes …

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

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

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

Update 9th Feb 2009

Apparently her mother’s not too pleased with her.

—————

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.

Outgoing US president George W Bush hosted an extraordinary event at the White House on Wednesday 7th January 2009: a lunch for only all living US presidents to attend and no one else.

Meaning only the members of the world’s most exclusive club were allowed in for the reunion of sorts: a mere five of them:

(i) Democrat Jimmy Carter (1977-81)
(ii) Republican George HW Bush (1989-93)
(iii) Democrat Bill Clinton (1993-2001)
(iv) Republican George W Bush (2001-2009)
(v) Democrat Barack Obama (2009- )

I think many people would be willing to pay big money to be included in this group photo at the Oval Office, taken before they had lunch:

Video:

Click here to see the video

UPDATE 1 Feb 2009

People have not learnt. The BBC reported that at least 15 people have died in a fire at a bar in China, believed caused by fireworks started by a group of people celebrating a birthday.

At least 20 people others injured, 3 seriously.

UPDATE 4th January 2009

Main shareholder of the club, Thai-Chinese Wisuth Setsawat cried as he apologised to the families of victims.

Death toll: 62
Injured: about 250, 30 critical
Number of people inside during incident: up to 1,000
Operator of club: White & Brothers Co.
Club owner: Suriya Ritrabue

When fire broke out, the club plunged into darkness (no emergency lights) & the burning ceiling collapsed.

Club did not have police permit to operate. An application sent 5 years ago was not approved because “the building wasn’t ready”, but still it opened because of a court appeal and even now, the courts has not issued a ruling.

———————–

This is possibly the worst disaster related to new year revelry ever recorded since 1956’s 124 deaths at Yahiko Shrine, Niigata, Japan.

More than 60 clubbers, mostly Thais with some foreigners have been confirmed dead at Santika, an upscale Bangkok nightspot when fire reportedly started around 12.30am, 1st January 2009 when the band set off fireworks / pyrotechnics which set ablaze a curtain located on the ceiling which then rapidly spread. Still others said it was caused by an electrical fault.

Having said that, the general consensus was that the blame fell squarely on the nightclub’s management, because:
- there were none, or at least insufficient fire exits
- there was no sprinkler system

The deaths were caused by either fire, smoke inhalation or being trampled upon.

Witnesses described shocking scenes of people with their hairs and clothes on fire desperately trying to escape.

Santika before fire:

Santika after fire:

Click here to read the rest of the post

Arnold Romine, 61 must be one of the world’s luckiest ever persons, if not the luckiest ever. Some might say people who win millions gambling are luckier, but when it comes to life and death situations, this surely must rank higher than merely winning money.

On 13th November 2008, he was reportedly hit by not one but EIGHT train cars and not only survived, but suffered no major injuries.

The train conductor saw him, sounded the warning horn, tried to stop the train, but couldn’t do so in time.

In any case, Romine did not budge. Whether he was hell bent on committing suicide, it was not immediately clear.

He was found lying next to the tracks and managed to crawl out from under the train when it finally stopped.

…perhaps he should be banned from ever setting foot on the las vegas strip…

Source
The Huntsville Times, 14th Nov 2008

UPDATE 27th Nov 2008

- The boy allegedly committed the crime as he had been smacked more than 1,000 times by his mother and stepmother, of which he kept a record on the number of beatings. He had promised himself that “1,000 would be the limit.”
- He shot the duo as they were coming home from work at a local power plant.

———————————

Around 5pm on the 5th of November 2008, an 8-year old boy shot dead his own father, Vincent Romero, 29 and Timothy Romans, 39 in St Johns, Arizona, USA.

One of them was found just outside the front door and the other in a room upstairs.

The boy had used a .22 calibre rifle which his father had taught him to use for hunting.

After the shootings, he went to a neighbour’s house and told them that his father’s dead.

The late Vincent Romero

According to police, he has confessed to the crime, and has been charged with murder.

He was well-behaved at school but is believed to have been abused at home.

The house where the shootings took place

Source
The BBC, 8th November 2008
AP

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

Dennis Reggie

Denis Reggie is a 25-year veteran in this arena. Based in Atlanta, he became famous for a new style of wedding photography called “wedding photojournalism.” He’s shot hundreds of celebrity weddings, and probably took the most famous wedding photograph of all time - that of John Kennedy Jr. to Carolyn Bessette - the groom kissing the bride’s hand as they step out of the one-room church where the ceremony was held:

Reggie described it in his own words:

They asked me to release just one picture of the wedding that I thought told the story, only one and it was to be my choice. There was a special energy about the moment. It’s one that I actually had to take in silhouette because it was a very dark island, no electricity for miles and there were candlelight’s only. I am focusing on her silhouette and I noticed that John had reached for her hand to bring her hand to his lips and I thought: ” gosh what a wonderful moment”. And I’m thinking in slow motion, although they were moving pretty quickly and I was able to get that one picture off with my Hasselblad and it was a moment for me that said it all. It’s one that that was later to be used on over a thousand covers of magazines and newspapers and it was a great honor. Of course it was a bittersweet as well because of their tragic demise three years later and that moment will always be a happy moment.

Hundreds of celebrity weddings. A thousand magazine covers. Hasselblad camera.

Top that!

Joe Buissink

Joe Buissink of Beverly Hills. Question: What’s so special about him? Answer: None other than Annie Leibovitz has hired him, not once but twice: to shoot her sister’s wedding, then to shoot her cousin’s. If you didn’t know, Leibovitz is the USA’s most famous photographer, who took many famous photos, amongst them Demi Moore’s pregnant and naked photos in Vanity Fair, Cyndi Lauper’s “She’s So Unusual” and “True Colors” album covers, Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” album cover, Gisele Bündchen and LeBron James on the April 2008 cover of Vogue America and Miley Cyrus’ controversial Vanity Fair photo in which she appeared to be semi-nude.

Having said that, in the past more than 10 years Buissink himself has shot weddings almost the same number of celebrities as Leibovitz, including for Jessica Simpson and Jennifer Lopez.

Jerry Ghionis

Jerry Ghionis, based in Australia has won two “Album of the Year” awards at the prestigious annual Wedding & Portrait Photographers International convention, where he’s been the winningest photographer of the last four years. Although based in Australia, he draws huge crowds in the U.S. as a speaker.

Kevin Kubota

When Kevin Kubota charged USD10,000 per wedding a few years ago, and still people hired him. He even has his own line of Photoshop add-ons, Kubota Image Tools.

That’s it. Hope you’ve enjoyed reading my list of photographers whose creations are worth our picture frames.

Source

After disappearing from the blogosphere for months, the man dubbed “Malaysia’s first and last drug blogger” is back. In fact, he claimed that his blog was “the first totally non-anonymous drug blog in the world with photos and videos of myself using (drugs).”

Poh Huai Bin, 27 of sixthseal.com’s first entry in a long time was dated 28th March 2008 with the title “Hail to the King, Baby!,” complete with an image of him drinking straight from a bottle and a single line:

Contrary to popular belief, I am not dead.

IMHO, he should also be called Malaysia greatest and bravest, or even perhaps most reckless blogger who ever lived, so much so that top local paper The Star ran a feature on him on the 12th of July 2008.

Back then, in a post dated 30th August 2006 he eloquently described his suicide attempt (slit his wrists), which prompted responses such as this:

Let me, someone just a bit older than you and someone who has seen some shit in my time on this planet, break it down for you. In order of least stupid to most stupid, here goes:

1. wanting to kill yourself (can happen to almost anyone)
2. trying to kill yourself (if you succeed, then much respect –you’re a success)
3. trying poorly to kill yourself
4. making goodbye calls or writing notes prior to trying poorly to kill yourself
5. failing in an attempt to kill yourself
6. telling anyone who doesn’t have to know about it that you tried poorly to kill yourself and failed
7. posting about trying poorly to kill yourself and failing on your public blog

I have enjoyed your blog until now. Now I know that you are a sad attention-seeker. What you did is the sort of thing we expect from some spoiled, rich 16 year old girl here in the USA. It’s a terrible disgrace for a man to behave like this. It’s the opposite of going out like James Dean –which is actually pretty stupid too.

I don’t know how long you have been using drugs at a serious level. What I see is someone who may have stunted his psycho-social development at the teenage years.

Kill the blog. Get off the stage. Get some help now. Life is not like a movie. Behave like an adult. In the event you try this shit again, go vertically on the wrists. A warm bath will help stop coagulation. And don’t do it in a hospital. Killing yourself is so damn easy –how could you screw it up?

… and this:

JUST DIE, next time get a saw and saw your hand off… there are so many danterous equipments in ICU JUST grap those things they use to cut bones. CUT both your hands… or better still your legs… OR HEAD! OR STAB YOUR HEART! JUST DIE ALREADY!

If you choose the path of death to escape, do it properly. If you really wanted to die you would have died. You want to live, that is why you did what you did.

WHY? ultimately all of us reject death, we want to live. But for your disrespect for life just DIE!

DO drugs and be proud of it… get a life, quit your job la if you want to die earn money for what?!

haiii… you don’t need GOD you neeed some good time lock up in a padded cell… or a cozy mountain cottage… or monestery. Get away from humanity, be away be quite DON”T even talk while you are away… and just set a date, survive for 3months. Then decide if you want to die. IF you do then make sure you die properly. Buy insurance for parents to make 100’s of thousand form your death… hahahahah [of course after checking life insurance rates]

Of course there were many detailed explanations of drugs use: how he got them, and what he felt, complete with timestamps, but probably the one that stood out was the time he described in vivid detail his experiences (or rather Veritas’ experience) with heroin. It was posted on 25th January 2003. About half an hour after snorting about 25mg of heroin he described the feeling:

this just feels so good. it’s not like other drugs, its not the ecstatic happiness of MDMA (feels like you’re about to go on a really good vacation you’re really looking forward to), it’s not like stimulants where you go “fuck i can take on the world!!!”, this is like a comfortable, very comfortable feeling that you lose as soon as you go into puberty. its an innocent sort of comfortable where the best thing is that you’re feeling comfortable and safe and warm in your house. and that’s all that matters, nothing can hurt you. its the feeling of picnics and reading books and eating cheese cake and nice weather and mom taking care of you when you’re sick and i’ve got it! its the feeling of being a kid, where there are no real problems, only little ones, and you don’t need to do anything, you just hang around and feel comfortable and they’re parents there to take care of you. damn, thats what it feels like. return to childhood. its the feeling of waking up on a saturday morning to the smell of french toast and you just lie around in bed waiting for your mom to call you down to eat breakfast and you’ve had a great nites sleep and the only thing you want to do is read a good book, a safe book where there are no great problems and everything turns out to be okay in the end. jesus, you just don’t get this feeling anymore after you grow up. no wonder people get addicted to this shit. it’s really comfortable.

I think it’s 100% confirmed that Kenny Sia will never ever do posts like the two above…

But for those expecting the same old fireworks this time, there’d be disappointment. Although he still uses his existing domain, all his drugs-related posts are gone. He said he was asked to remove them by the Narcotics Division “as part of his appeal for a reduced charge.”

Nowadays, he blogs about anything but drugs. But perhaps that’s a good thing because back then I wondered whether he’d make it alive at all.

At the peak of his powers then, he was up to 13,000 unique visitors a day.

Sometime in 2007 it was gone.

In his recent interview, he was reported to have said:

My problems with drugs and alcohol were spiralling out of control since my early twenties and it started to affect my personal life in visible ways. I was admitted to ICU once for renal (kidney) failure and had an emergency dialysis done through a vein in my throat. I was in the ICU for a week and suffered permanent liver and kidney damage. I have also been hospitalised for overdosing and suicide attempts. I wasn’t in a good frame of mind and it was decided that something needed to be done before I killed myself.

It was then that he went to a drug rehabilitation programme in Kuala Lumpur that was supposed to last a month but it didnt work. He tried again: failed again. Then he tried for a 3rd time:

I was sent to a third drug rehabilitation centre, which was a little bit more restrictive than I imagined. I was stripped naked and forced to wear a sarong in addition to being handcuffed and shackled (even during bowel movements) due to escape attempts. The punishment for escaping was being restrained in a jail cell and I only had The Bible for companionship then. Food was sent in through a tray with plastic utensils and I was in serious withdrawal and bored to death.

Apparently it worked, and how he’s blogging again, albeit about healthier topics.

He claimed that sixthseal.com was not a drug blog but rather “promotion of harm reduction and drug education via self-experimentation and use.” Personally, I doubt the authorities would take kindly to this explanation!

His advice to blogging pretenders:

Don’t get into trouble with the law with photos of yourself with the Big Two – drugs and sex. You can write a controversial article, get in the limelight, and then fade away. No one would even remember you, it’s just a matter of time before someone out there gets you.

Source
The Star, 12th July 2008

I don’t think I have seen a youtube video that brought a lump to my throat. Collectively, judging from the comments section, it’s responsible for many a throat-lump. Even more amazingly, it’s a true story more than 30 years ago.

Before watching the video, some background info: Christian the lion was a 3rd generation London zoo lion that at a young age was separated from his parents and put up for sale at the world-famous Harrods Departmental Store in London sometime in 1969.

Two Australians living in London, Anthony “Ace” Bourke (also known as Ace Berg) and John Rendall saw him there, paid the money and brought him home. Christian was a mere few weeks old then.

The bond between human and beast became very strong, but cute lion cubs grow to become huge in no time. It was then that they decided to release Christian into the African wilderness, to become a wild lion. Within a year, he already was, heading his own pride.

Then Ace and John decided to go to Africa to visit Christian one last time.

A documentary on this was filmed sometime 1970 (some say 1974).

Excerpts of the documentary was uploaded to youtube, including that pivotal moment when Christian is reunited with his owners after about a year in the wilderness.

They actually went into the wilderness without any visible protection and apparently after being specifically informed that the lion would not remember them (read: there’s a possiblity they’d get mauled to death).

This is what happened.

Click here to see the video

Yes, Kaamatan 20008 is done and over with, but surely better late than never right?. Gogds has uploaded surely the highest resolution images of Kaamatan Unduk Ngadau 2008 contestants made freely available on the web.

Each image is 2000×3008 pixels, at over 3MB each.

Add to that a big plus: no visible watermark.

But first a slideshow of the images in the gallery:

Last but not least, view / download the full resolution pics here.

This has been making the rounds for some time, with at least one source saying that this is actually in use at an IT firm in Mumbai, India. unfortunately there’s no proof of it being actually in use.

Well, I think it should! This, and perhaps other pictures showing similar message, should be put up everywhere, not least KLIA’s and KKIA’s smoking room…