UNCONVENTIONAL WORLD RECORDS

Apparently, as of 1st July 2009, 12 fans of Michael Jackson have committed suicide.

Compare that to:

When John Lennon died, at least one fan, Colleen Costello, committed suicide.

When Elvis Presley died, “some” fans killed themselves. Does anyone know how many?

When Kurt Cobain, the Nirvana frontman died in 1994, at least one fan killed himself.

When Hide of top Japanese band X-Japan committed suicide on 2nd May 1998, 3 fans died in copycat suicides.

When Arsenal lost the 2009 Champions League tie to Manchester United on 6th May, Gunners fan Seuleiman Alphonso Omondi of Kenya killed himself while wearing an Arsenal shirt.

At least one fan of Japan’s national football team killed himself over its failure to qualify for the 2006 World Cup.

Paula Abdul’s fan, Paula Goodspeed, 30 killed herself in 2008.

So much has changed since the Stonewall Uprising 40 years ago.

Some milestones:

Robert Duncan (1919-1988), poet, the first important American to come out, in 1944.

Sam Adams, first openly gay mayor of a major city (Portland, Oregon, USA), who was elected in May 2008. He came out in 1993.

Jane Addams (1860 – 1935), a founder of the U.S. Settlement House movement, awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 1931, probably the first openly gay person to win a Nobel Prize.

Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir (b. 1942), Iceland Prime Minister since 1 Feb 2009, the world’s first openly gay head of government of the modern era.

Waheed Alli, Baron Alli (b 1964), British multimillionaire media entrepreneur and politician, the youngest and first openly gay peer in the British Parliament in 1998, aged 34. One of world’s very few out gay Muslim politicians.

Justin Fashanu (1961 – 1998), the first English professional footballer to come out (1990) & Britain’s first GBP1 million black footballer. Hanged himself in May 1998.

Sir Elton John (b. 1947), British musician, probably the world’s most famous living gay person. One of the most successful artists of all time, has sold over 200 million records, 5 Grammys & an Oscar. Came out as bisexual in 1976 and a homosexual about a decade later.

Greg Louganis (b. 1960), American diver who won back-to-back Olympic titles in both the 3m and 10m diving events (1984 & 1988), probably the most famous gay athlete of all time.

Axel Axgil (b. 1915) and Eigil Axgil (1922 – 1995), Danish gay activist, the world’s first gay couple to enter into a civil union on 1st October 1989. They had been an item for 40 years.

Gene Robinson (b. 1947), the first openly gay, non-celibate priest to be ordained a bishop (in 2003) in a major Christian denomination believing in the historic episcopate.

Rembert Weakland (b. 1927), the former Roman Catholic Archbishop of Milwaukee (1977 to 2002), who, in May 2009, in the process of writing a memoir, came out as gay.

Edward II (1284 – 1327?), probably the first gay English king?

Rob Halford (b. 1951), lead vocalist for the heavy metal band Judas Priest, probably the most famous gay classic hard rock / heavy metal frontman. He came out in 1998.

Last week, Putin humiliated Oleg Deripaska, 41 one of Russia’s richest men on live television, by forcing the businessman to reopen an aluminium plant after protests by apparently 30,000 laid-off workers.

The cameras clearly showed Putin throwing his pen on the table and ordering Deripaska to sign the paperwork.

The sidenote of the video on youtube says:

Prime Ministers personal handling of the business conflict in the town of Pikalevo has set a precedent in the public dressing-down of the countrys top businessmen for neglecting their social responsibility. More interesting is the fact that one of the people receiving the dressing-down was one of Russias most famous businessmen, Oleg Deripaska, who used to be the richest man in the country until the global financial crisis left him heavily in debt. The high-point of the show was Putin virtually arm-twisting him into signing a contract, which was needed for the factory to start working again. During the meeting, chaired by Putin, Deripaska was obviously unnerved, with cameras catching his every move and facial expression. Never before has a person of his caliber been publicly humiliated this way in modern Russia.

The BBC said: “it was a brilliant piece of political theatre, which went down extremely well with Russia’s public who were delighted to see Mr Putin bringing the hated oligarch to heel.”

Christina “Tina” Watson, 26, a beginner diver, drowned while scuba diving with her husband, David “Gabe” Gabriel Watson, an experienced diver, a mere 11 days after their wedding in 2003.

In fact, the American couple were on their honeymoon at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia when it happened.

In June 2009, he was sentenced to 4 and a half years in prison, having previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Lawyers contended that he failed as a dive buddy: either giving her oxygen, inflating her buoyancy vest or removing weights from her belt to enable her to surface. They also said he most likely Gabe killed his wife by holding her underwater and turning off her air supply.

He never admitted to murder.

The following photograph was taken by another diver of his diving buddy. In the same photo, one can see a diving instructor racing to Tina Watson, who can be seen lying on the sea floor:

Tina and Gabe during happier times:

Source
The BBC, 5th June 2009

Gulbai Freedoon Murzan, born 1901, the mother of Daulat “Dot” Irani, 83 died more than 20 years ago (some say 29). Instead of a funeral, Ms Irani, a lifelong spinster, decided to keep the corpse in a freezer in her garage in Sidcup because, it is thought, she was “afraid of getting in trouble for having her mother in the UK illegally.”

A recent photo of Ms Irani

Ms Irani has lived in the UK since 1976.

However, recently she “felt she had to let it all out” and confided to a horrified friend, who then alerted the police, who came knocking on her door on 20th May 2009.

Apparently, the corpse was “well preserved”.

The house, with the garage on the right

Ms Irani said that it was a “great relief knowing it’s all out in the open”.

If she were to be prosecuted for preventing the burial of a corpse, she could be jailed for life. For the time being, the police said “they are treating the death as unexplained rather than suspicious.”

Source
Mail Online, 28th May 2009

After the British, Italian, Colombian and Malaysian Fritzls, the Argentine Fritzl has been uncovered in the shape of unemployed Armando “Monster of Mendoza” Lucero, 65 (some reports say 67) of Mendoza, Argentina.

On 27th May 2009 it was reported that DNA testing has confirmed that he fathered SEVEN children with one of his daughters, now 35.

The children are now between the ages of 2 and 19. That means when she first gave birth, she was merely 16.

He is also accused of raping 2 other daughters, one of whom, aged 40 said she was raped since the age of 8: 32 years of rape.

All 3 cases went on over 20 years.

Newsreport (in Spanish)

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

Lucero has been imprisoned since 11th May 2009.

The daughter who bore him 7 children finally fled from home because her father threatened to rape one of her daughters, who is, in effect, his granddaughter.

Amazingly, unlike the other Fritzl-like cases, she was not imprisoned at home, in fact she lived in the same house as his second wife and his stepmother.

Lucero already had 7 children by his (first wife) and another 8 from a previous marriage. Therefore, he has fathered a total of 7+8+7 = 22 children.

Source
The Telegraph (UK), 27 May 2009

… would there be any insurance company willing to approve for him a disability insurance policy now?

After the British Fritzl, Italian Fritzl and Colombian Fritzl, the Malaysian Fritzl has reportedly been uncovered in the state of Penang.

It was reported on 24th April 2009 that police in Penang have arrested a father, 42 (another report said 47) and his two sons, 15 and 17 after the father’s 13-year-old daughter claimed that she had been a sex slave to them for the last four years, since she was 9 years old.

She claimed she had been raped by her odd-job labourer father at home and in a forest near her house, while her brothers had repeatedly molested her at home.

Another newsreport said that she was even sodomised by her father and a brother.

She claimed to have been paid between RM1 and RM2 by her father each time he abused her.

All this time she was too afrain to tell her housewife mother, until the 22nd of April 2009 when she decided to reveal all to her teacher, as she was afraid that her younger sisters, aged 7 and 9, would also end up being abused. She has seven siblings.

Source
The Star, 24th April 2009
New Straits Times, 24 Apr 2009

… it’s probably just a matter of time before every country’s Fritzl get exposed; then one would need a brain memory upgrade just to keep track of their names …

I truly am flabbergasted at the current state of affairs.

After Joseph Fritzl was exposed in April 2008, another 3 people from different countries with comparable crimes have been exposed in the space of a year.

By comparable crimes I mean a man having kept at least a daughter (whether adopted or not is immaterial) locked up for at least 20 years while raping her repeatedly.

In November 2008, the British Fritzl was sentenced to life in prison.

Then in March 2009, two “new Fritzls” were exposed, one in Italy, another in Colombia.

We compare the monstrous four:

Joseph (Josef) Fritzl (the Austrian Monster)
Age when caught: 73
Duration of sexual abuse: 24 years (1984-2008)
Number of daughters abused: 1
Age of daughter when first raped: 18
Number of pregnancies: apparently 8 (7 lived, 1 stillborn)
Method to avoid detection: built dungeon under house

Mr X / The Gaffer (the British Fritzl) [real name cannot be revealed due to a court order]
Age when caught: 54
Duration of sexual abuse: 25 years (1983-2008)
Number of daughters abused: 2
Age of daughters when first raped: prepubescent
Number of pregnancies: total 19, 9 survived.
Method to avoid detection: moved from house to house in rural areas

Michele Mongelli (the Italian Fritzl) [above]
Age when caught: 63
Duration of sexual abuse: 25 years (1984-2009)
Number of daughters abused: 1
Age of daughter when first raped: 9
Number of pregnancies: apparently none
Method to avoid detection: sheer personality power

Crime scene: Mongelli’s flat in Turin, Italy:

Curiously, Mongelli’s wife Caterina reportedly defended him: “This is all lies. He kept her inside because he was worried about her.”

Arcebio (some reports say Arcedio) Alvarez (the Colombian Fritzl)
Age when caught: 59
Duration of sexual abuse: 20+ years (1980s-2008)
Number of daughters abused: 1
Age of daughter when first raped: 9
Number of pregnancies: allegedly 11 (3 died)
Method to avoid detection: sheer personality power

I read that Romans are famous for throwing tantrums in public places if things don’t do their way, but I think the people of Hong Kong have upstaged them.

After that video of the Hong Kong woman who got upset for missing her flight, now it’s another Hong Kong woman who got angry upon being told that she can’t have her shark fin soup.

Wait for the end, it’s priceless!

Don’t worry, the video comes with English subtitles

He could very well be both the unluckiest and luckiest man who ever lived on this earth.

Unlucky because he was in both cities, dangerously close to ground zero, when they were destroyed with the first and second ever use of the nuclear bomb in history.

Lucky because he lived to tell the story, and is still alive as of the time of writing this!

Even more amazingly, his only apparently health problem is a “little deafness in one ear.”

Yamaguchi, 93 was in Hiroshima on a business trip on that fateful day of 6th August 1945, when Little Boy was dropped on the city by Enola Gay.

The following photo of the mushroom cloud towering over Hiroshima was taken by Seizo Yamada at ground level, 7km from ground zero:

Yamaguchi was 29 years old.

He suffered serious burns and spent a night there in an air raid shelter.

The next day, on the 7th of August 1945, he returned to his home city of… you guessed it, Nagasaki, presumably to recuperate.

Then, as we’ve all learnt from history books, Nagasaki itself was bombed 2 days later, on 9th August 1945.

Aerial image of Nagasaki before (top) and after (bottom) the bombing:

At that time, he must’ve wondered what grave sin he’s committed that karma fought back so ferociously.

More than 210,000 persons were killed as a result of the 2 bombings.

He reportedly told reporters after the Japanese government officially certified him as the only survivor of the double dose of atomic bombings recently:

My double radiation exposure is now an official government record. It can tell the younger generation the horrifying history of the atomic bombings even after I die. I hope my experience will hold a lesson of peace for future generations.

Source
The BBC, 25 Mar 2009
Photos: wikipedia.

In 2005, Charlie Rosenbury, then an undergraduate majoring in computer science, wrote a computer program “in 5 hours” that sent messages to 250,000 Facebook users across the USA asking them to add him as a friend.

According to him, within 3 weeks, he got around 75,000 friends.

It did not endear him to many people or even Facebook’s creators though.

More recently, Justine Ezarik (above), 25 of Pittsburgh has 5,000 Facebook friends, which is apparently the system limit. She also reportedly has 50,000 MySpace friends, and more than 253,000 Twitter followers as of March 2009.

Other casanovas might have bedded more women, but when it comes to being a gigolo i.e. bedding, then milking money off wealthy women, perhaps nobody was better at the art than Helg Sgarbi, 44 the Swiss gigolo.

See, gigolos don’t need to look like latin lovers. In fact, he could be any anonymous lounge lizard at any hotel.

He was recently sentenced to jail for 6 years for cheating BMW heiress Susanne Klatten, 46, Germany’s richest woman out of USD8.8 million.

Ms Klatten is married with 3 children and reportedly worth USD8.5 billion.

He also scammed 3 other women in a similar way.

He later attempted to blackmail Ms Klatten by claiming to have a videotape of them lovemaking when she refused to hand over even more money: 290 million euros, that he said would enable them to “start a new life together.”

The trial was one of the most sensational in Germany’s history.

Sgarbi met Ms Klatten, who is married, at an Austrian spa resort in July 2007.

In a lesson to would-be gigolos, Ms Klatten said:

He was charming, attentive and at the same time he seemed very sad. That stirred a feeling in me that we had something in common.

Thus an affair began. 2 months after they met, the smooth operator managed to persuade Ms Klatten to give him 7 million euros by lying that he “needed to pay off the family of a girl he had injured in car accident in Florida.”

Source
The BBC, 9 March 2009

It was reported on 10th March 2009 that in a survey done by “Access Hollywood’s TV One Access”, Halle Berry, 32 was voted the Sexiest Black Woman Alive, edging out Tyra Banks, Alicia Keys, Jada Pinkett Smith and Beyonce Knowles.

She’s also a very talented actress, receiving an Oscar in 2001 for her performance in Monster’s Ball, becoming the first and, as of 2009, only black woman to receive a Best Actress Oscar.

She was runner-up in the Miss USA 1986 pageant.

Divorced from baseball player David Justice and musician Eric Benét, she’s dating Gabriel Aubry since 2005. They have a child.

… as for the rest of us mere mortals, time to shower her with online greeting cards?

Happened on 10th March 2009 in Akuressa, a town in southern Sri Lanka, during a celebration of Mawlid, the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed.

The LTTE (Tamil Tigers) were the perpetrators.

Before:

It appeared to target the 6 government ministers attending the event.

At least 10 people were killed, including 3 local politicians and 3 students.

A split second later, BOOM!

At least 40 were wounded, including several of the ministers.

Minister of Posts and Telecommunications Mahinda Wijesekara was the most seriously injured of the ministers.

The suicide bomber approached the crowd on a bicycle before setting off the bomb.

The video:

Source
The Telegraph (UK), 11 Mar 2009

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

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.

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.

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.

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 …

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

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

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

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?

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

This is a most heartbreaking story.

V. Letchumy, 52 of Kota Tinggi, Johor must be Malaysia’s, or even the world’s most unfortunate person in living memory.

Five years ago (another report said three) her husband died suddenly of a heart attack. They had 4 children together. In one stroke, she became a single mother.

Then on 25th January 2009, all her children, aged 17, 16, 14 and 10 died when they drowned at sea after being swept away by a big wave.

She and the children were on their way to visit a relative when the kids asked for permission to go for a short swim at a nearby beach. She relented because after all, it was the school holidays and that an older person, nephew S. Veerasamy, 22 swam them in the 11am (other reports said 1pm) incident while she waited on the beach.

Veerasamy survived. At the hospital, he was reported to have said:

I feel sad because there were a few other people on the beach, yet not even one came to our aid. If they did, this tragedy could’ve been averted.

As to how the tragedy happened, he was reported to have said:

Upon reaching the beach, all of us went into the water. Not long after that, I came out because my leg felt painful, hence leaving them alone. Suddenly I heard screams for help and then saw them struggling. I immediately jumped in the water to rescue them. I managed to reach Gopi and Ganeswaran’s hands before my grip was broken by a huge wave. After I myself almost drowned and I couldn’t see them anymore, I limped back to the beach.

Letchumy’s younger brother, taxi driver Rajendran, 47 summed it up: “Everyone is in shock. It all happened so suddenly.”

Let’s assist in any way we can.

Source
The Star, 28 Jan 2009
Utusan Malaysia, 27 Jan 2009

UPDATE 22 Jan 2009

In an “abundance of caution”, on 21st January 2009, President Obama was sworn in for the second time in 2 days, just because of the word “faithfully” which was given out of order in the first ceremony.

The Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, John Roberts, administered the oath again at the White House.

Obama still managed to joke that they decided to do it again because “it was so much fun….” before adding: “[this time] we’re going to do it very slowly.”

———————————–

And for the first time ever, a president was sworn into office by a chief justice he voted against confirming: Obama was one of 22 senators who voted against putting Chief Justice John Roberts on the Supreme Court in 2005.

The oath text is very short:

I [name] do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

What Obama said was a bit different, and does not exactly match what’s stated in the Constitution, prompting some to comment that he should re-swear his oath of office, and some even said he’s not a valid president if he doesn’t do so:

I Barak Hussein Obama do solemnly swear that I will [ . . .] execute the Office of President of the United States faithfully, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. So help me God.

Some said Chief Justice John Roberts botched it (saying that’s because he’s a Bush man for good measure) because he inappropriately paused after saying “I, Barack Hussein Obama” when he should have said, without any inapporpriate pauses, “I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear …”

Some said it was Obama who flubbed, because:

He didn’t wait for Roberts to finish saying “I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear …” and instead repeated the line “I, Barack Hussein Obama” right after Roberts said it. Hence, Roberts got flustered and screwed up the second sentence. Obama stopped when he realised something was wrong, appearing to give Roberts an opportunity to correct the line. Roberts didn’t say anything then they both talked at the same time, Roberts saying the line correctly this time, while Obama repeated what Roberts said the first (incorrect) time.

MachineLending said Roberts did it ON PURPOSE:

Roberts was obviously trying to get back at Obama for voting against him in the Senate confirmation hearing. First he flubs the first normal pause. Then he mis-speaks the line with the word “faithfully” - trying to besmirch Obama’s faithfullness to the office. Finally he finishes with an accusative “you” in the final declaration. A smear job all the way.

Some said BOTH:

Obama didn’t wait for Roberts to finish the first part. Roberts was supposed to say, “I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear …” but Obama cut him off before he could say “do solemnly swear” and instead Obama started repeating prematurely the line, “I, Barack …”. Roberts said, “that I will execute the office of president to the United States faithfully…” when he SHOULD have said, “that I will execute faithfully the office of president to the United States…”

And literally thousands of other comments if you care to look them up.

Video of the oath taking:

Transcript:

Senator Obama: That’s for you [referring to the platform placed for Chief Justice]

[Cheers]

Chief Justice Roberts: Are you prepared to take the oath, Senator?

Obama: I am.

Roberts: I, Barack Hussein Obama…

[he was cut off before he could finish]

Obama: I Barack [eagerly chiming in before Roberts could complete the first sentence]

[Obama then allowed Roberts to continue]

Roberts [flipping some of the words]: I Barack Hussein Obama do solemnly swear that I will execute the office of president to the United States faithfully.

Obama: That I will execute … [then stumbled and stared blankly at Roberts]

Roberts: [repeating what he said earlier] … faithfully the office of president of the United States.

Obama: The office of president of the United States faithfully.

…

And will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help me God.

Chief Justice: So help you God?

Senator Obama: So help me God.

Chief Justice: Congratulations, Mr. President.

President Obama: [inaudible]

Chief Justice: … all best wishes.

Anyway, in the end, the mistake didn’t matter at all:

The oath was taken five minutes late, and Obama was already technically president; the Constitution says the term of the incoming president begins at noon on Jan. 20.

Bye bye Bush:

Source
thinkprogress.org
youtube.com
knowthelies.com

Dr Adolf Merckle, 75 of Germany was one of the richest people in the world, ranked number 94 by Forbes in 2008 at USD9.2 billion.

His family business controlled a number of German companies, including pharmaceutical company Ratiopharm and cement maker Heidelberg Cement.

He had 100,000 employees and boasted an annual sale“>sale of USD41 billion.

He was awarded his country’s highest award, the Bundesverdienstkreuz, in 2005.

He was said to enjoy skiing and mountain climbing.

So it seems he had achieved everything a man could ever hope for in life.

But no, life then threw him a curve ball which even a seasoned businessman of his stature could not handle.

He became severely depressed when his business empire ran into trouble in the ongoing global economic crisis: losing more than half a billion US dollars in 2008 due to “wrong-way bets on Volkswagen shares.”

He killed himself on 5th January 2009 when he apparently allowed himself to be run over by a train. His body was found on the tracks about 7.30 pm, only 300 meters from his house. A suicide note was found, its contents not revealed.

His family issued the following statement:

Adolf Merckle lived and worked for his family and his firms. The distress to his firms caused by the financial crisis and the related uncertainties of recent weeks, along with the helplessness of no longer being able to act, broke the passionate family businessman, and he ended his life.

He left behind his wife and 4 children.

Source
The BBC, 6th Jan 2009

There were many strange stories in the year 2008, but quite possibly the strangest one has to be the one about Pamela “Pam” Babcock, 35 of Kansas, USA who sat on a toilet bowl for 2 YEARS before being discovered on 27th February 2008.

Now how would one celebrate New Year like that???

That might not be so peculiarly strange in a year full of strange stories and weird people, but consider these:

(i) she sat there for so long that the part of her body touching the seat had developed open sores, causing it to become stuck to the seat. Police had to remove the seat from the toilet with a crow bar so that doctors could surgically remove it from her bottom (no mention of the use of air tools).
(ii) She was found fully dressed, with her tracksuit bottoms pulled down to mid-thigh, suggesting that she was in the middle of “doing her business.”
(iii) her legs seemed to have “atrophied.”
(iv) there was an overpoweringly terrible smell emanating from where she was seated.
(v) the toilet was located at her boyfriend, Kory McFarren’s, 36 mobile home, he was around all the time and she was not confined in any way. So why did he not do anything? He said:

She refused to come out due to her fear about leaving the bathroom because of beatings she received in her childhood. I didn’t do this to her. It was her choice. She is an adult, she made her own decision. It was my fault I should have gotten help for her sooner - I admit that. But after a while, you kind of get used to it.

Kory McFarren

(vi) McFarren claimed that he tried to “coax” her out of the bathroom every day, but her reply would always be:

Maybe tomorrow.

(vii) apparently she’d slept on the toilet bowl and never bathed or cleaned herself, even though her boyfriend claimed that Babcock did move around the bathroom, including bathing and changing into fresh clothes.
(viii) McFarren only called the police when his girlfriend apparently became “groggy.”

The mobile home where it happened

In fact, it could be MORE than 2 years, since he later added he was not sure, and that:

Time just went by so quick I can’t pinpoint how long. It just kind of happened one day; she went in and had been in there a little while, the next time it was a little longer. Then she got it in her head she was going to stay - like it was a safe place for her.

The sheriff summed up the whole thing:

This truly is a case of two people, in my opinion, with diminished mental capacity.

On that note, I’d like to wish my readers a happy and prosperous new year!

Source
The Telegraph (UK), 16th March 2008

User “theycallhimart” uploaded a video to youtube on 31st December 2007 with the following description:

My mom decides to buy my brother an Xbox 360 for Christmas. We leave that night and return the next morning to find he has sneaked a look, just as my mom thought he would, this is the result, and yes he did get the game i will try to post the second video.

Whether the brother (Jonathan) did eventually get the game or not, this is clearly not the way to entertain oneself at the expense of one’s young son, humiliating him in the process.

The boy’s disappointed expression was evident, and by the end of the video, he was in tears.

So to all parents out there, this is clearly not the way to celebrate Christmas.

Click here to see the video

Some transvestites (mak nyah) working as prostitutes in the city of Alor Star, Kedah, Malaysia have reportedly been taking “reggae coffee” (kopi reggae) to boost their energy levels to such an extent that:

(i) they could stay awake all night, even until dawn if necessary, and hence
(ii) they could entertain more than 10 customers in a single evening.

However, it is unclear why the name “reggae” was chosen. Nor could I find any mention of a recommendation for chilling out with Bob Marley’s “I Shot The Sheriff” while sipping from a glass.

Anyway, one of them who only wanted to be known as Syazliyana, in “her” 20s, said:

(i) the effects of the coffee could be felt within 5 minutes of drinking it: one would feel refreshed, energized and high.
(ii) it has a peculiar taste, unlike any other coffee

More information:

To boost its power even more, the coffee is laced with drugs like methamphetamine hydrocloride (syabu) or marijuana (ganja). This is the high end concoction. For a cheaper alternative, kratom leaves in powder form (daun ketum / daun biak) are added instead. Kratom leaves could be bought for RM30 per kg.

Source
Harian Metro, 22 Dec 2008 [in Malay]

…rumour has it that this coffee could even replace diet pills …

At a media conference in Iraq on 14th December 2008, Muntazer al-Zaidi, an Iraqi TV journalist, shouted “this is a farewell kiss, you dog!”, then threw a pair of shoes at President Bush, probably the most protected world leader ever, which he deftly avoided. By this time, the world already knows that shoes touching faces are the ultimate insult in Arab culture.

At that time, the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was standing next to Bush and did not even seem to flinch.

It is to Bush’s credit that he laughed it off and wisecracked:

I didn’t know what the guy said, but I saw his sole.

If you want the facts, it was a size 10 shoe that he threw.

A video of that moment:

Click here to see it

More than 1,000 translators around the world have agreed that the toughest word, in any language to translate is a word of the Bantu language of Tshiluba:

“Illunga” which means:

A person ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time.

In second place was the Yiddish word “shlimazl” which means “a chronically unlucky person.”

In third place was the Polish word “radioukacz” which means “a person who worked as a telegraphist for the resistance movements on the Soviet side of the Iron Curtain.”

Others in the list:

Naa: Japanese word used only in Japan’s Kansai area: “to emphasise statements or agree with someone”

Altahmam: Arabic: “a kind of deep sadness” (apparently there are a few types of sadness)

Gezellig: Duth: “cosy” (was that too difficult to translate?)

Saudade: Portugese: “a certain type of longing”

Selathirupavar: Tamil: “a certain type of truancy”

Pochemuchka: Russian: “a person who asks a lot of questions” (I think this applies to inquisitive children too!)

Klloshar: Albanian: loser (but how difficult is it to translate that?!)

Source
The Times, 22nd June 2004

UPDATE 30 Nov 2008

New details:

- The Sheffield Rapist / British Fritzl raped his daughters more than 1,000 times.
- His son was beaten more viciously than even the daughters; he attempted suicide at age 7
- The family moved house 30 times
- Exclusive family photos

——————————————

Joseph Fritzl has a challenger for the title of the world’s worst ever father.

Comparison:

Joseph Fritzl (the Austrian Monster)
Age when caught: 73
Duration of sexual abuse: 24 years (1984-2008)
Number of daughters abused: 1
Age of daughter when first raped: 18
Number of pregnancies: apparently 8 (7 lived, 1 stillborn)
Method to avoid detection: built dungeon under house

Mr X (the British Fritzl)
Age when caught: 56
Duration of sexual abuse: about 30 years (1970s-2008)
Number of daughters abused: 2
Age of daughters when first raped: prepubescent
Number of pregnancies:
- apparently 19 (9 born [2 died on the day of birth], 10 aborted/stillborn)
- eldest sister pregnant 7 times (apparently 2 children survived), younger sister 12 (apparently 5 children survived).
Method to avoid detection: moved from house to house in rural areas

A picture of the British Fritzl, face obscured to protect his victims’ identities

Abraham Biggs, 19 of Florida, USA killed himself in front of a webcam which he specifically set up to live stream a video of him dying in his room on the 19th of November 2008.

He streamed his video to Justin.tv, a “lifecasting” site which enables people to broadcast themselves from their webcams.

Some reports say 185 people in cyberspace watched him die “live”, overdosing on the murderous combination of opiates and benzodiazepines (anti-depressive drugs). No mention of him taking Fenphedra.

Before the act, he had announced his intentions at forum.bodybuilding.com and provided the link to his webcam.

On Justin.tv, he used the handle feels_like_ecstasy while on forum.building.com, he used the handle CandyJunkie (some referred to this as simply “CJ”).

He also posted a suicide note in the same forum (some reports say in a blog) with the subject “Ask a guy who is gonna OD (again) tonight anything” which reportedly said:

To Whom It May Concern,

I am going to leave this for whoever stumbles across my bookmarks later on. I hate myself and I hate living. I think that if someone who knows me reads this they will know who I am. So I will leave this unsigned. I am an a@#hole. I have let everyone down and I feel as though I will never change or never improve. I am in love with a girl and I know that I am not good enough for her. I have come to believe that my life has all been meaningless. I keep trying and I keep failing. I have thought about and attempted suicide many times in the past. I used to think of my failure as some mystical way of telling me that I was really meant for something meaningful. The only thing I dread, besides the pain, is the way my family will suffer. I do not want my mother or father to think that it was anything they did that lead me to kill myself. I never really had any plans of leaving a note. I thought that I would not be able to describe why I want to do this and I am right. There is no way to tell you or anyone else why I dread every new day. My father had such high expectations for me and tried to give me every opportunity to improve upon myself. I let him down. I think that I am a major disappointment to him. I have a job but I’m always broke and I am in college but barely, I show up to class but that’s about it. I want my life to end. I am tired of f@#$ing up everything. I am tired of people always telling me that they do not like me. I am tired of trying to be decent. I hope that someone finds this post and I hope that my parents know that I f@#$ed up not them. It is my fault I screwed up my own life. The hate that rages within me, rages not for those I love so dearly or those who have crossed my path. This hate rages full force towards me and only me. I have long forgiven those who’ve hurt me, but I have not and cannot come to terms to forgive myself for the things I have done to myself, and the things I’ve done to hurt those in my life. You have all touched my life in one way or another, especially those whom I call family. I cannot tell you how sorry I am for ending my life the way I did. I hope that you can all find it in your heart to see it as way for me not
suffering anymore and that I am finally at rest with myself, for being at rest with the guilt that constantly ate at me for so long. Please forgive me all for taking my own life so early. I tried so hard
to fight against this strong battle. I have reached out for help so many times, and yet I believe, I was turned away because of the things I did, that it is a punishment I am willing to take, for I know that being who I am has only brought myself and others pain. I love you all and will forever live within the memories we created.

Forgive me.

Love always and forever,

As for my signature I will leave you with a quote so that if anyone reads this they will know it’s me, “Can’t feel pain if your dead? Just Saying”

Apparently he had threatened to kill himself before in the same forum, so at first other forumers didn’t believe him.

Then some curious viewers began to taunt him to take his life, saying things like “go ahead and do it, faggot,” while others tried to stop him.

Click here to read the full story

uglypeople.com is a website where anybody can submit pictures of the ugliest people they have a picture (or pictures) of, and everybody else can vote, to see who’s the ugliest of them all.

And according to the site, the ugliest of them all is the person whose picture is at the bottom.

I’ve seen photos of this person in forwarded email before, but can’t vouch for their authenticity; if anyone can confirm whether this is a real person or whether it’s a photoshop job gone bad, please inform.

Thanks.

… Does she look like she needs health insurance?

Paula Goodspeed, then 28, auditioned for American Idol season 5 in 2006. She was an obsessed fan of Paula Abdul, one of the judges on the show, telling the show’s host, Ryan Seacrest, that she was a huge fan of Abdul and had created life-size paintings of the singer.

She also called Abdul “beautiful” after Cowell said he noticed a resemblance between Goodspeed and Abdul.

She then sang “Proud Mary” as follows:

She was visibly humiliated by Simon Cowell’s comments about her braces, where he said: “I don’t think any artist on earth could sing with that much metal in your mouth… that’s like a bridge.”

After she left, he joked, “how did she get through the metal detector? It must have gone crazy!”

Afterwards, Goodspeed wrote on her MySpace profile that “she was finding it difficult to cope with the “haters” who mocked her.”

She was found dead on 12th November 2008 inside a car parked outside the house of Paula Abdul, in a car with plate number ABL LV.

She’s believed to have overdosed on drugs.

She reportedly had a history of mental illness.

Cowell and Fox, the network on which American Idol is aired, declined to comment.

In a statement, Paula Abdul said: “I am deeply shocked and saddened at what transpired yesterday. My heart and prayers go out to her family.”

… Who knows, possibly Ms Goodspeed would’ve even attempted to go inside the house compound if not for the security system in place…

Source
Daily Telegraph, 13th November 2008
The BBC, 13th November 2008

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

If there’s ever a world championship for peeping toms, surely Thomas Daley (some reports say “Daly”), 45 would be one of the favourites to win.

Daley is the landlord of 16 apartments in Norristown, located in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, a few miles north of Philadelphia, USA.

On 19th September 2008, he was arrested for spying on his female tenants.

And if you thought this was a normal male preoccupation, something like what Ahmad Bakhtiar Abdul Kayoom did to model Nasha Aziz several years ago, this is something on a much bigger scale.

He was only found out when a female tenant’s boyfriend, while changing a lightbulb in her apartment’s bathroom noticed a camera hidden behind the mirror.

The police, after being alerted, found 4 other “micro pinhole-style video cameras” in the apartment whose wires appeared to go down a wall into the basement which only Daley had access to.

Further checks revealed that there were hidden cameras and audio equipment in a further 2 of 4 apartments Daley owned, all occupied by female tenants. They were located in the bedrooms, bathrooms and living rooms.

Some of the cameras would be activated when lights to the room it’s installed in was switched on.

The cameras were linked to the internet, which enabled Daley to watch the women in various states of undress online from the comfort of his home located miles away.

Police found hundreds of videotapes and DVDs of naked women which were of all tenants in Daley’s apartments.

Daley was definitely only into women, because apartments occupied by men were not rigged.

Daley obviously panicked because when he was caught, he had with him equipment he had removed from apartments, meaning he tried to cover his tracks.

Daley then told police that:
(i) he had spied on female tenants for 20 years.
(ii) he installed the cameras before the tenants moved in.
(iii) he taught himself how to install the cameras.
(iv) he followed technology trends: starting with VHS equipment, he graduated to digital recorders and remotely controllable and accessible cameras.

Daley is now being charged with more than 1,000 counts of criminal use of a communication facility and invasion of privacy.

Compounding his problem, the DA said the actual number of victims could be in the hundreds and hence more charges are likely.

End result is that Daley could be put behind bars for many many years.

Here’s CBS’ report, complete with videos of the apartment:

Click here to see the video

The Expat is a Malaysia-produced magazine catering to obviously… expatriates.

However, that does not stop it, in a recent publication, from condemning Malaysia’s taxi fleet as the worst in the world.

200 foreigners from 30 countries took part in a survey done by the magazine and among 23 countries compared, Malaysia finished last when judged by taxi quality, courtesy, availability and expertise.

Yes, worse than even Thailand and Indonesia. There drivers are apparently far more courteous.

In fact, comments were very strong, including “a source of national shame” and “a serious threat to tourists - rude bullies and extortionists“.

And locals are not spared either.

Having also used taxis in Great Britain, Singapore and Japan, I feel inclined to agree with the survey results.

More often than not, we’d encounter below-par service and unfriendly taxi drivers with their vehicles in sorry conditions.

Most of them would refuse to use the meter (using the term “flat rate”), overcharge and are choosy about destinations.

An example in the magazine is typical: A Norwegian couple in downtown Kuala Lumpur wanting to go back to their hotel located less than 2 km away being charged RM25 “flat rate” instead of the RM2+ if the meter was used.

Why this is so?

Lack of enforcement, due to corruption in the police and bureaucracy.

Why is this important?

First impressions of a visitor to a country is most often a taxi driver, which is his/her first direct contact with a local.

Solutions in sight

New taxi operators like Citicab have entered the market. offering pricier but quality services. The drivers are uniformed, use the meter without asking and would go to any destination.

Source
Yahoo News, 18th Sept 2008

Grandfather of two Jim “Chris” Christou, 100 is Great Britain’s, and possibly the world’s oldest bartender.

If you thought he’s so poor that he had to keep on working, actually he said he worked at the Westwood Masonic Centre (WMC) “to keep fit.”

He’s been working at the WMC for more than 20 years, pulling pints twice weekly. Before that he worked as a waiter.

So how does he do it? In his own words:

There’s no secret to how I’m still working. I just do normal things, eat normal food and do the shopping.

Green shopping or not we might never know, but of course clean living surely helps: he’s been a teetotaler for almost 30 years.

Source
The Telegraph (UK), 29th Aug 2008

Dennis Avner, 50 of Nevada, USA is a Native American whose traditonal name is Stalking Cat. Apart from that he has the following nicknames: Catman, Cat, Tiger and Tiger man.

He has spent a lot of money and time (and of course endured the pain) to surgically modify his body to resemble that of a tiger.

Why? He explains in his website:

I am Huron and Lakota and in following a very old Huron Tradition I am transforming myself into my totem, a tiger.

Apparently, it all began through a dream when he was 23 years old. In the dream, an Indian Chief told him to “follow the ways of the tiger”.

This is Catman a long time ago before any surgery was done:

A recent photo of the Catman; can you see any similarity between this picture and the above?

Click here to see the picture

Apparently she sent the following video to the cutest boy in 6th grade with a note asking: “Do you like me?”

She went on to complete the task in less than 1 minute.

What do you think: did the boy say “yes” or did he run for cover, or even perhaps “I can do better than that!”

After viewing the video, someone asked whether we should be impressed or frightened.

Still another commented that the girl would put quite a few soldiers to shame.

Click here to see the video

David Duchovny, 48, regarded as one of the hottest men in Hollywood, apparently has been suffering from this condition for years.

Recently he checked himself into rehab to deal with the problem.

According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms can be any of, or all of:
(i) rampant promiscuity;
(ii) spending hours looking at pornography;
(iii) using sex to escape from problems such as depression or stress.
Often accompanied by secrecy and shame.

He’s been married to Tea Leoni since 1997 and they have 2 kids: Madelaine West, nine and Kyd Miller, six.

Treatment for sex addiction usually includes:
(i) psychotherapy;
(ii) group meetings similar to Alcoholics Anonymous;
(iii) medications like anti-depressants whose common side-effects include a decrease in libido.

Relapse is common. Why? It’s different for alcoholics because they’re not expected to drink again, but don’t tell me sex addicts are not expected to have sex ever again?

Source
Washington Post, 29th Aug 2008

UPDATE 9th Sept 2008

She’s sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. She was only spared the death penalty when the jury failed to reach a consensus.

Judge Mary Wiseman summed it up:

The crime was shocking and utterly abhorrent for a civilised society. No adjectives exist to adequately describe this heinous atrocity.

Still, Arnold has not given up. Her defence lawyers are appealing, saying there’s evidence that “somebody else was responsible for Paris Talley’s death, and that the cellmate had now changed her story.”

———————————————

China Arnold, 28 might not be as bad as Sabine Hilschenz, the German mother who murdered her own 8 newborn, but at least even Ms Hilschenz did not MICROWAVE her child to death.

On 29th August a US court in Ohio convicted Arnold of murdering Paris Talley, her one month old baby daughter for the unspeakable crime. The baby suffered “high-heat internal burns,” after she put her in the oven and switched it on.

When the verdict was announced, she showed no emotion, only lowering her gaze.

She killed Paris Talley in 2005 after fighting with her boyfriend about whether he was the biological father of the baby. Apparently she resorted to the microwave job because she feared he would leave her if he found out that he was not the baby’s father.

Source

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