It has been described as the world’s most modern and humane prison. In other words, a prison that doesn’t feel or look like one.

Guiding principle:

Repressive prisons do not work and that treating prisoners humanely boosts their chances of reintegrating into society.

Well, judging from the appearance of the front, it does seem so right?

Features:
- Area: 75 acres (30 hectares)
- cells look like college dorm rooms, with flat-screen TVs & mini fridges
- cells have long vertical windows to let in natural light
- no bars on windows or doors
- every 10 – 12 cells share a living room and kitchen.
- living room look like Ikea showrooms: stainless-steel countertops, wraparound sofas & birch-coloured coffee tables
- sound studio
- jogging trails
- freestanding two-bedroom house where inmates can host their families during overnight visits. Wow, I suppose they can even call for a baby eczema treatment cream in the middle of the night, courtesy of the Norwegian government of course?
- “kitchen laboratory” where inmates are offered cooking courses.

But probably the best feature of all:
- Guards do not carry guns, and they routinely eat meals and play sports with prisoners, to create a sense of family

The prison received it’s first inmates March 1, 2010 but was officially opened on April 8 by the Norwegian King Harald V.

Source
Time, 10th May 2010

The Guolizhuang Restaurant, based in Beijing does so.

Apparently there are 4 franchises in that city itself, and it’s expanding even to the US, to the city of Atlanta, Georgia.

The menu explains why it’s good to eat the private parts of donkeys, dogs and other four-legged mammals, totalling more than 30.

The ox wee-wee cut into star shapes. How cute. Apparently good for male virility.

The following tube used to be attached to a yak, served with a dragon, no less.

Sheep schlangs on a stick.

Donkey wang ready to be devoured.

Apparently the schlongs are usually dipped in soy or hot sauce before being consumed.

For women especially, eating these things is supposed to be good for the skin, the best acne treatment I heard!

Bon apetit!

He spent 3 months in Dubai and wrote:

I no longer think of the seven star Burj Al Arab hotel when I think of Dubai, but of emaciated, wretched men, lining up for buses before the sun has risen, resigned to the fact that their hard day’s work wouldn’t earn them enough to buy a round of coffee here. It works out incredibly well for the developers – they can charge first world fortunes for the dream villas and apartments, but pay third world salaries to the men actually building them.

Dubai: From riches to rags.

… Looks like one better head to Westgate instead …

The house itself was built in 1960.

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

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

The headless sculpture, labelled “Untitled 1986″, was erected on the 41st anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki.

It was created by the sculptor John Buckley, made of fibreglass, weighs slightly more than 200kg with a length of slightly less than 10m.

More strange statues

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 view the embedded video.

Source
Today Online, 7 Feb 2009

Many people have been coming here for years to collect the so-called healing or miracle water, which originates from a natural spring and flows freely from six PVC pipes on the side of the road.

It’s so popular that traffic jams are not uncommon on the stretch of the road near it.

People of various races and faiths say that the water can cure sickness and restore health, with testimonials spreading around like wildfire. Sicknesses being cured include diabetes, backaches, high blood pressure, arthrities and gout.

Someone having a field day:

Photo credit

And apparently it tastes good too, proponents claim that it tastes cooler, fresher and looks crystal clearl; definitely better than normal piped water.

“A person from a laboratory” reportedly did a test and found that the water “contains a lot of minerals”.

Now that it’s been mentioned by the media, the free ride’s days are surely numbered.

Source
The Star, 29 Jan 2009

The Job went to Ben Southall, 34 of Great Britain. The man from Hampshire defeated 34,000 other hopefuls.

Asked why he thought he won, he said:

I have, over the last six to 10 years, done quite a lot of different things. I haven’t stuck at a single career. I’ve been an event manager. I’ve gone out there and organised my own expedition. I’ve raised lots of money for charity. I do a heck of a lot of things involving fitness, in swimming, in running and I think I’ve just got a broad spectrum of things that appealed to the panel of judges.

I really put myself out as the individual that I am. I’ve been honest as much as I can and I think they like the person they came across. I’m extremely happy. I’m extremely thankful they’ve chosen me because I now get a chance to lap up what Queensland and the [Great] Barrier Reef have got to offer over the next six months.

Before this, Southall had worked as a tour guide in South Africa, charity fundrasier. His application video showed images of him riding an ostrich, scuba diving, running a marathon and kissing a giraffe.

There were 16 finalists, who all spent 4 days on the island for the final leg of the selection process, in which they had to:
(i) snorkel
(ii) participate in a barbecue party
(iii) spend time at a spa
(iv) demonstrate their blogging abilities
(v) take swimming tests
(vi) sit through in-person interviews.

He starts work on 1st July 2009, and won’t be alone since he plans to bring his Canadian girlfriend along.

Some scandals to hit the contest since its announcement in January 2009:

(i) many applicants were angry because they could not submit their videos due to the contest website crumbling under the weight of too many visitors.
(ii) The tourism department had to admit that it created a video “application” that showed a woman being tattooed expressing her love of the Great Barrier Reef.
(iii) A finalist was kicked out when it was found out that she had connections to the adult entertainment industry.
(iv) Someone claiming to be Osama bin Laden submitted an application via a video on youtube.

————————————-

This has been described as the best job in the world, and it’s open for applications.

Tourism officials in Australia want somebody to work as “caretaker” on Hamilton Island, a tropical island, the largest inhabited island among the Whitsunday Islands, located just off the Queensland Coast, part of the world-famous Great Barrier Reef.

Why is it the best job in the world?

For starters, it’s a beauty, with good weather all year round: blue skies, crystal water and pure sands.

Then look at these requirements:

Formal qualifications: none, but must be “willing to swim, snorkel, dive and sail.”

Salary: A$150,000 (USD103,000) for 6 months.

Working hours: 12 hours a month.

Duties: fish feeding, being the island’s postman, island exploring and photographing/videoing and running a blog with of course the many photos and videos to attract visitors to the island.

Accomodation: three-bedroom villa, complete with pool, rent-free.

Anthony Hayes, Chief Executive of Tourism Queensland said: “We need a special person. They are going to be pretty busy having a good time.”

Deadline for application: 22nd February 2009. Applications are open to everybody anywhere in the world. The successful candidate will start 1st July.

Interested? Go for it!!!

Source
The BBC, 12 Jan 2009

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

But…. don’t you think that some of our very own buildings here in Malaysia could make the list, or (gasp) even top the list?

According to virtualtourist.com, the world’s ten ugliest buildings and monuments are as follows:

Boston City Hall; Boston, Massachusetts, for its “dreary facade and incongruity with the rest of the city’s more genteel architecture.”

Maine-Montparnasse Tower; Paris, France; a 210m tall office skyscraper completed in 1972, the tallest skyscraper in France. It’s been called a “blight on the landscape of the world’s most stunning city.” 2 years after it was completed, the construction of skyscrapers in Paris city centre was banned. A running joke is that the view from its top is the most beautiful in Paris, since it’s only from there one cannot see the tower.

LuckyShoe Monument; Tuuri, Finland; the OTT, massive golden horseshoe looming over Finland’s second-largest shopping center. It’s there for good luck.

Metropolitan Cathedral; Liverpool, England, consecrated in 1967, which looks more like a space capsule than a church building.

Port Authority Bus Terminal; New York City, an “iron monstrosity” that looks like it has not yet been completed.

Torres de Colon; Madrid, Spain; it looks like “a set of giant salt-and-pepper shakers”, locally known as “El Enchufe” or “The Plug” for that plug-like structure in the middle that holds them together.

Liechtenstein Museum of Fine Arts; Vaduz, Liechtenstein; basically a black cube, its “minimalist box design” is considered by some to be world-class ugly.

Scottish Parliament Building; Edinburgh, Scotland; at first glance, would you ever guess that this is a parliament building?

Birmingham Central Library; Birmingham, England; done in the “brutalist” architectural style.

Peter the Great Statue; Moscow, Russia. Massive, 15 stories high.

Source
Yahoo!

…not even extensive use of Discount Blinds will be able to beautify these…

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

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

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

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

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

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

Introducing dorstenia gigas, probably the only plant that utilises rocks, rather than mere soil to survive:

…you might need a GPS to pinpoint this place…

Source
darkroastedblend.com [all image copyright info available here]