Saturday, July 14, 2007
Multiple loyalties
Jean Cavalier (1681-1740), a French baker, as a soldier fought for France, Italy, Holland and Britain - and in 1738 became a Major General in the British Army.
Twenty-three times lucky
Rudolf Slavitz (1810-99) of Vienna, Austria, had 23 children, 23 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren.
Couldn't practice what he preached...
Horatio Alger, who made a fortune writing 119 books inspiring poor boys to labor diligently and save their pennies, died of poverty because he became a spendthrift.
Double standards
Sir Walter Raleigh was executed by King James-I of England for annoying Spain - yet for doing the same thing, Sir Francis Drake was knighted by Queen Elizabeth-I of England.
Overworked!
George Edmund Street, famed English architect, won a contest to design the Royal Courts of Justice in London in 1868, but died of exhaustion after drawing 3,000 successive plans for the structures.
Free bed for the world's tallest man
The world's tallest man will now be able to sleep with his new wife after a furniture company agreed to design and gift him a tailor-made bed.Bao Xishun, 56 years old and 7' 9" tall, of Inner Mongolia, China, is to marry 5' 6" Xia Shujuan, who is 29 years old, later this week.
However, the couple feared they would not be able to live together as they couldn't find furniture big enough for their new apartment.
After an exhaustive search and with the help of friends, they finally located a furniture company which agreed to make the couple a whole set of furniture. The same furniture company is also designing and gifting them a special size bed.
Friday, July 13, 2007
British wedding guest from Canada turns up a year early
Teacher Dave Barclay flew thousands of miles across the Atlantic to Wales to attend his friend's wedding, only to discover he was a year early.
Barclay, 34, was told about the wedding earlier in the year and assumed it was to take place in 2007. It was only when he had flown into Cardiff from Toronto, Canada, and rang the bridegroom seeking details of the venue that he discovered the wedding was in 2008.
The groom, Dave Best, had emailed his friend at the start of the year. He simply mentioned the date – July 6th – and Dave Barclay assumed it was in this year.
Barclay, who has been teaching in Toronto for three years spent 500 pounds ($1,015) on his premature flight.
At least it's assured him a mention in the wedding speeches next year.
Barclay, 34, was told about the wedding earlier in the year and assumed it was to take place in 2007. It was only when he had flown into Cardiff from Toronto, Canada, and rang the bridegroom seeking details of the venue that he discovered the wedding was in 2008.
The groom, Dave Best, had emailed his friend at the start of the year. He simply mentioned the date – July 6th – and Dave Barclay assumed it was in this year.
Barclay, who has been teaching in Toronto for three years spent 500 pounds ($1,015) on his premature flight.
At least it's assured him a mention in the wedding speeches next year.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Indian jackpot winner plans to open a college in Bahrain
An Indian teacher in Bahrain who won a jackpot wants to open a college in the country rather than spend the money on exotic holidays and shopping.
Elamurugu Soupramanien won the Ahli United Bank's 500,000 Bahraini Dinar ($1,329,783) grand prize last week. He will receive BHD 2,000 ($5319) every month for the next 20 years, courtesy the bank's My Hassad savings scheme.
The father of two believes the prize came as an answer to his prayers after his dream to open a college seemed to be collapsing, the Gulf Daily News has reported.
Soupramanien had applied to Bahrain's Education Ministry last month for a licence to start a university college in Bahrain. His application was accepted but he gave up hope when the Ministry, according to its rules, asked him to deposit BHD 100,000 as a guarantee.
Soupramanien had no idea how to raise such a big amount. He says he “prayed to God to show me a way."
When Ahli United Bank broke the news to him last week of his jackpot win – his prayers were answered.
Soupramanien set up the Indian Academy in 2005 jointly with his wife Gunavathy, who is an engineer. The institute offers private coaching to secondary school students and also runs distance education courses affiliated to three Indian Universities.
Soupramanien first arrived in Bahrain in 1995 to work as a French teacher with the Asian School.
Elamurugu Soupramanien won the Ahli United Bank's 500,000 Bahraini Dinar ($1,329,783) grand prize last week. He will receive BHD 2,000 ($5319) every month for the next 20 years, courtesy the bank's My Hassad savings scheme.
The father of two believes the prize came as an answer to his prayers after his dream to open a college seemed to be collapsing, the Gulf Daily News has reported.
Soupramanien had applied to Bahrain's Education Ministry last month for a licence to start a university college in Bahrain. His application was accepted but he gave up hope when the Ministry, according to its rules, asked him to deposit BHD 100,000 as a guarantee.
Soupramanien had no idea how to raise such a big amount. He says he “prayed to God to show me a way."
When Ahli United Bank broke the news to him last week of his jackpot win – his prayers were answered.
Soupramanien set up the Indian Academy in 2005 jointly with his wife Gunavathy, who is an engineer. The institute offers private coaching to secondary school students and also runs distance education courses affiliated to three Indian Universities.
Soupramanien first arrived in Bahrain in 1995 to work as a French teacher with the Asian School.
TECH TALK - Desperate but fearful? Dial R for Restroom
Can’t hold it but dread visiting a public restroom? At the push of a few buttons on your cell-phone (in the United States), you can now get a list of the nearest, cleanest public facilities at your disposal.
Mizpee is a new web service that lets users open a web browser on their phone to Mizpee.com or send a text message to get a list of nearby bathrooms, along with cleanliness ratings ranging from one to five (toilet-paper) rolls and user-generated comments.
Peter Olfe, who set up the advertisement-funded service for fledgling location-based mobile service Yojo Mobile, has said he was inspired to create the site after visiting a public bathroom “that was so dirty I had a splitting headache within two minutes.”
“I realized the demand for such information. Many don’t plan ahead, so it seemed like a natural service to provide,” he has explained.
The service is currently available in a list of US cities including San Francisco, New York, Seattle, Washington DC, Boston, and Chicago, but plans are afoot to ensure that Mizpee is available in every major city in USA within the next year.
Expansion is also planned to London, Paris and Beijing.
Mizpee is a new web service that lets users open a web browser on their phone to Mizpee.com or send a text message to get a list of nearby bathrooms, along with cleanliness ratings ranging from one to five (toilet-paper) rolls and user-generated comments.
Peter Olfe, who set up the advertisement-funded service for fledgling location-based mobile service Yojo Mobile, has said he was inspired to create the site after visiting a public bathroom “that was so dirty I had a splitting headache within two minutes.”
“I realized the demand for such information. Many don’t plan ahead, so it seemed like a natural service to provide,” he has explained.
The service is currently available in a list of US cities including San Francisco, New York, Seattle, Washington DC, Boston, and Chicago, but plans are afoot to ensure that Mizpee is available in every major city in USA within the next year.
Expansion is also planned to London, Paris and Beijing.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
A monk's life...
Monks in the hermit monastery of Ketho in Tibet alternate between 3 years, 3 months and 13 days of outside freedom - and 3 years, 3 months and 13 days of solitary confinement in a meditation cell.
Well built...
The Bridge of Stennaset in Sweden, with 2 arches 20 feet high, was built of stones without the use of mortar - yet it has endured for 179 years.
Dole or death!
Dulu Murad Khan, ruler of Rawalpindi in Pakistan, gave every beggar who accosted him either one hundred thousand rupees (about 2,500 dollars) – or death!
The death sentence was administered when Dulu Khan was short of funds – because he could not bear to say “no”!
The death sentence was administered when Dulu Khan was short of funds – because he could not bear to say “no”!
Monday, July 9, 2007
Baby snatched from mother finds family after 29 years
A baby girl who had been snatched by authorities from the arms of her mother, a political prisoner held by Argentina’s then-military regime, has been identified 29 years later, rights group “The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo” announced last week.
The woman, Belen, is the daughter of Rosa Lujan Taranto and Horacio Antonio Altamiranda, who were kidnapped in May 1977 from their home on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. Rosa Lujan, who was seven months pregnant, was taken to the El Vesubio detention centre with her husband. Survivors say Lujan was taken to the Campo de Mayo Military Hospital in the capital, where she delivered her baby by Cesarean at eight months pregnant. After delivering her baby, Rosa was returned to the detention centre and killed; before she died she told other detainees she had not seen her baby and did not even know the sex of her child.
Rosa’s mother-in-law Irma Rojas brought her case to “The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo” in April 1982.
The case is the 88th the group has helped solve. Investigators were able to establish that Belen was given up for adoption at three months of age by the Christian Family Movement. She had always known she was adopted and in 2005 contacted the Grandmothers, suspecting her identity might have something to do with families torn apart by political violence.
In the beginning of this month, genetic testing proved with a 99.99 percent level of accuracy that Belen was part of the Altamiranda Taranto family.
About 30,000 people – including leftists, leftist sympathizers and those merely suspected of sympathizing – were abducted, or abducted and killed, during Argentina’s last military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983.
A baby girl who had been snatched by authorities from the arms of her mother, a political prisoner held by Argentina’s then-military regime, has been identified 29 years later, rights group “The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo” announced last week.
The woman, Belen, is the daughter of Rosa Lujan Taranto and Horacio Antonio Altamiranda, who were kidnapped in May 1977 from their home on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. Rosa Lujan, who was seven months pregnant, was taken to the El Vesubio detention centre with her husband. Survivors say Lujan was taken to the Campo de Mayo Military Hospital in the capital, where she delivered her baby by Cesarean at eight months pregnant. After delivering her baby, Rosa was returned to the detention centre and killed; before she died she told other detainees she had not seen her baby and did not even know the sex of her child.
Rosa’s mother-in-law Irma Rojas brought her case to “The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo” in April 1982.
The case is the 88th the group has helped solve. Investigators were able to establish that Belen was given up for adoption at three months of age by the Christian Family Movement. She had always known she was adopted and in 2005 contacted the Grandmothers, suspecting her identity might have something to do with families torn apart by political violence.
In the beginning of this month, genetic testing proved with a 99.99 percent level of accuracy that Belen was part of the Altamiranda Taranto family.
About 30,000 people – including leftists, leftist sympathizers and those merely suspected of sympathizing – were abducted, or abducted and killed, during Argentina’s last military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983.
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