UNCONVENTIONAL WORLD RECORDS

It is one of the most successful duets in Christmas music history, and definitely the most bizarre.

Then, Big Crosby, 73 is Mr White Christmas himself, the most straight-as-a-ruler, mainstream, 1940s whitebread crooning musician of his generation, while David Bowie, 30, the avant-garde “androgynous Ziggy Stardust” & glam rocker is the total opposite: the most offbeat musician of his generation.

The idea to pair the unlikeliest duet ever belongs to Bing Crosby’s Christmas TV Special producers, Gary Smith and Dwight Hemion.

But when the producers asked Bowie to sing “The Little Drummer Boy” on 11th September 1977, a few hours before shooting was sopposed to start, he refused, because he hated the song.

So what did they do? A team of songwriters worked frantically for 75 minutes to create an original melody and lyrics that could be sung together with “The Little Drummer Boy.” They called it “Peace on Earth.” Fortunately, Bowie liked it, and actually SANG it.

With less than an hour of rehearsals, Bowie and Crosby nailed it.

In the following years, from being a cult classic, it became a holiday staple.

It was first released as a single in 1982, and still sells today.

Poignantly, a month after the video shoot, Crosby died of a heart attack. The program was then first on CBS a month later.

Folks, Unconventional World Records wishes you A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Click here to see the video

A Christmas card, poststamped 23rd December 1914 was posted for a Ms Ethel Martin of Oberlin, Kansas.

It was from her cousins in Alma, Nebraska.

After 93 years, it finally arrived at its destination, in perfect shape. Too bad Ms Martin is already dead.

The card in postcard format shows a colour drawing of Santa Claus and a young girl.

The front: [pic source]

The back: [pic source]

As to where it spent the most of the 20th century is still a mystery. Indeed, it’s surprising that it never got thrown away and somehow someone found it and placed it inside another envelope with modern postage for the trip to Oberlin.

The original 1-cent postage stamp, the original cost of postage when it was first sent would not have been enough.

The card is now with Bernice Martin, Ethel’s sister-in-law. After it was featured in the media, she said she’d received calls from as far away as Japan and Iraq, even offers to purchase the card.

Source
CNN, 14th Dec 2007

Update: Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor is the 9th Muslim in space, not the 3rd as I mentioned earlier.

The full list:
1. Prince Sultan bin Salman AbdulAziz Al-Saud, Saudi Arabia, 1985
2. Muhammed Faris, Syria, July 1987
3. Musa Manarov, Azerbaijan, December 1987
4. Abdul Ahad Mohmand, Afghanistan, August 1988
5. Tokhtar Aubakirov, Kazakhstan, 1991
6. Talgat Musabayev, Kazakhstan, 1994
7. Salihzan Shakirovich Sharipov, Uzbekistan, January 1998
8. Anousheh Ansari, Iran, September 2006
9. Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, Malaysia, October 2007

Source
1
2
3

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Anousheh Ansari, is second, when on 18th September 2006, a few days shy of her 40th birthday, she became the first female Muslim, the first Iranian, the first female space tourist and fourth overall space tourist.

The first Muslim, the first Arab, and first member of royalty in space is Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, then 29, who went up for 7 days in June 1985 as a Payload Specialist on STS-51-G Discovery. He was a member of a 7 person international crew. He represented the Arab Satellite Communications Organization (ARABSAT) in deploying their satellite.

He is now an officer in the Royal Saudi Air Force.

Source

A 2001 article published by US Department of Defense stated that there are between 5 and 7 million muslims in the United States, and that they make up between 10,000 and 20,000 members of the American military, although some other estimate put that number lower, at 4,000. There are estimated to be 1.4 million active members of the US military.

The first ever Muslim chaplain (imam) in US military history is Army Chaplain (Major) Abdul-Rasheed Muhammad, 54 who joined the military in 1982 and was appointed chaplain in 1993.

Meanwhile, The BBC reported on 20th June 2007 that the first Muslim chaplain of the elite US Marines, and only the second in the whole US Navy is Navy Lieutenant Commander Abuhena Saifulislam (Chaplain Saif), 45.

Arriving from Bangladesh in 1989, he enlisted in the Navy as a payroll specialist in 1992, became a US citizen in 1995, and 3 years later signed up for a chaplain’s candidate program.

Sources
defenselink.mil
The American Muslim - Muslims and Arabs in the US military
The BBC
usmilitary.com
defendamerica.mil

The BBC reported in June 2007 that Prince Philip (The Duke of Edinburgh) the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, is regarded as a god by the Yaohnanen tribe who live on the island of Tanna, Vanuatu in the South Pacific. They believe that he is divine and son of a mountain spirit.

Exactly how he became to be regarded as a god is unclear, but ancient tales told of the story of the son traveling to a faraway land, married a lady of power and would later return. Back in the 1950s or 60s, the Yaohnanen saw that Queen Elizabeth II was treated with respect by British colonial officers. Somehow they concluded that her husband is none other than the son of their mountain spirit. Hence the birth of the cult.

As fate would have it, the Royal Couple visited Vanuatu in 1974 and villagers had the opportunity to see the prince for themselves.

Prince Philip initially did not know that he’s regarded as a god until John Champion, the British Resident Commissioner in Vanuatu between 1975 and 1978 told him. Perhaps mischievously, Champion suggested that Prince Philip give them a portrait. He discreetly did, but not before autographing it.

Chief Jack Naiva, 80 holding the first picture given by the Prince: (more…)

According to the Asia-Europe Foundation website, Dr Patricia Martinez is an Associate Professor, Senior Research Fellow for Religion & Culture, and Head of Intercultural Studies at the Asia-Europe Institute, University of Malaya.

She is also the Head of the Intercultural Studies Research Hub.

She is the first non-Muslim Malaysian with a Ph.D specialising in Islam.

Her current research project is as the Malaysian collaborator of a multi-nation study on Ethnic and Religious Conflict and Peace-building Capacities in Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Nigeria.

She is on the International Board of Directors of the Islam and Pluralism Project, Indonesia, as well as a member of the International Advisory Council of the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research, Japan. Dr. Martinez has served as a consultant to UNICEF Indonesia in 2000-2 for a pilot education project to revise curricula to enable schoolchildren to deal with ethnic and religious difference.

She has been awarded a number of fellowships including at the East-West Center in Hawaii and a Fulbright Award at Stanford Univeristy, USA.

source

Matthieu Ricard (pic below), 60 is the world’s happiest man, according to MRI scans. More on the validity of the MRI scan findings later.

(more…)

Apparently its located in Ontario, Canada and that the houseowner’s been doing it for years.

The only grouse is that the music with which the lights are being synched to is not at all Christmas-related.

Video after the jump. (more…)

Beach volleyball’s penchant for bikinis meets the conservative Muslim city of Doha in Qatar, host of the 2006 Asian Games. (more…)

As reported by angolapress.com on 10th October:

Nairobi: A Kenyan court Monday sentenced a couple to 18 months in prison each for having sexual relations inside a Mosque at Gilgil, about 100-km northwest of Nairobi. (more…)