British comedy actor Sacha Baron Cohen, who played Borat and Ali G., crashed a Milan Fashion show by jumping onto the stage and strutting along the catwalk in character for his new movie "Brüno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-Shirt."
Times are tough in today's banking sector and a lot of people are losing their jobs. Take, for instance, Washington Mutual or WaMu, which collapsed a few days ago.
But don't cry for WaMu CEO Alan Fishman, who was on the job just 17 days before the what is now called largest bank failure in the history of the United States:
As Congress argues over limits on executive pay, the New York Times reports that the chief executive of Washington Mutual, who was on the job just 17 days, is eligible for $19.1 million in compensation.
For short-time CEO Alan H. Fishman -- named to run the failing bank less than three weeks ago -- that would work out to $1.12 million per day (assuming he worked weekends). If he worked eight-hour days, it works out to $140,000 per hour.
Even before the Gulf War and the Iraq War, the Middle East has seen a lot of tension and conflicts. Here are three of battles that took place there well before the start of the Middle Ages:
1. The Battle for Mecca
Unlike Jesus or the Buddha, Muhammad founded a religion and a political party. As the leader of the early Islamic community in Mecca, Muhammad found himself at odds with his clan's pagan leaders. Facing annihilation, Muhammad and his followers fled Mecca for Medina in 622 CE.
Over the next eight years, the Muslims periodically engaged in bloody battles over Mecca (in one, the Prophet's uncle was partially eaten by the wife of a Meccan tribal leader).
However grand a general he was, Muhammad was an even better negotiator: In 630, the Muslims finally overtook Mecca via a treaty with tribal leaders. After almost a decade of casualties, nary a drop of blood was shed in the final battle for Islam's holiest city.
2. The Battle of Karbala (Which Has Nothing to do with Madonna)
Although the fighting lasted only a couple hours and the result was never really in question, the Battle of Karbala has come to symbolize the divide between Shia and Sunni Muslims - and, for many Muslims, represents the last stand of Islam's golden age.
After the Prophet Muhammad's death, the Islamic community was led by a succession of four "Rightly Guided" caliphs. By 680 CE, however, a ruthless and distinctly Wrongly Guided caliph named Yazid held court, and the Prophet's grandson Husayn set out to defeat him.
Husayn and just 72 followers (many of them young boys) met Yazid's massive army at Karbala, in present-day Iraq. And though Husayn and his supporters were slaughtered, the martyrdom is still remembered by Shia Muslims today with passion plays and public mourning.
3. The Crusades
Not content to let Muslims fight among themselves, Christian Europe decided to get into the act in 1095 CE. For the following two centuries, European Christians undertook eight major expeditions hoping to conquer Jerusalem and control Christ's tomb, the Holy Sepulcher (which seems like a lot of trouble - waging eight wars over a cave where Jesus spent three measly days). Armed with plenty of manpower, the Crusaders took Jerusalem in 1099, but Saladin then reconquered it in 1187.
Long story made short, the back-and-forth kept on until everyone got tired and decided to postpone fighting over Jerusalem until the mid-20th century. Of course, the Crusades had a lasting effect on the therefore fairly peaceful relationship between the Islamic world and the Christian one, but they also deepened the divide between the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, particularly when the Catholics decided to sack Constantinople during the fourth Crusade.
A short while ago, Neatorama had its first ever Mystery Sale - it was a big hit, which also meant that we spent the last week packing orders! A really big thanks to everyone who bought a Mystery Box.
Waves of shipments have gone out - the last of which was yesterday. If you ordered one, then you should be receiving it shortly. Those of you who live outside the US may have to wait a little while longer, since customs usually take their sweet time clearing shipments.
Though this sale was over, you can still get great t-shirts on Neatorama's Online Store. Thanks everyone!
Women: Forget sharing your feelings or getting your husband to share his. The secret to a great marriage is ... being quiet and having sex instead! (Okay, the last part is sort of a dodge but keep on reading ...)
Forget everything you've heard about frankness, sharing your feelings, getting him to express his. New research into the male mind makes it clear that discussion may be the fastest way to shut down communication. (Oh, you noticed that, have you?) [...]
"The number one myth about relationships is that talking helps. The truth is, more often than not, it makes things worse," says Love, a tall, lean redhead with a down-home Texas twang and a generous smile. She is co-founder of the Austin Family Institute and leads workshops around the country when she isn't making television appearances or co-writing books, including the best-selling "Hot Monogamy."
"Talking about feelings, which is soothing to women, makes men physically uncomfortable," says Stosny, the Maryland-based author of "You Don't Have to Take It Anymore" and an expert on male aggression. "There's literally more blood flow to their muscles. They get fidgety, and women think they're not listening."
"Squid Suckers: The Little Monster That Feed the Beast," by Jessica D. Schiffman and Caroline L. Schauer / Drexel University/Science, Honorable Mention
Every year the National Science Foundation and the journal Science pick the best images taken with advanced technology (like electron microscopes) to convey images to scientific concepts. These photos are always stunning, and this year's photos are no different.
This one above is a close up of squid suckers:
Little Shop of Horrors fans may see a resemblance to the bloodthirsty plant from the 1986 movie in the above electron micrograph image.
Drexel University doctoral student Jessica Schiffman won an honorable mention in photography in the 2008 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge for capturing what's actually an array of suckers found on the tentacles of a long-finned squid.
Each sucker--about 400 micrometers wide, or a little smaller than the width of a human hair--is surrounded with "fangs" of chitin, a hard organic material.
Squid use their powerful suckers to secure unwitting prey and feed their robust appetites--much like the horror-movie plant that inspired the image's color scheme.
Here are the winners of the Best Science images of 2008 at National Geographic: Link - Thanks Marilyn Terrell!
An immense limestone wall in Cal Orko, Sucre, Bolivia, is home to a fantastic sight: thousands of dinosaur tracks made millions of years ago!
The immense Bolivian site is the rock face of an outcropping on a slant of 73 degrees, 80 meters high and 1.2 km long. There are more than 5,000 tracks of 294 different dinosaurs made during the second half of the Cretaceous period. [...] There is such an impressive amount of tracks that some of the researchers said this place seemed to be a dinosaurs’ dancefloor.
Come on, we've all joked about having to go out and push a broken airplane, but the Chinese actually did it: when a faulty plane was stuck in a Zhengzhou airport, they sent 30 people to push it off the runway!
It took them nearly two hours to push the CRJ7 plane, with 69 passengers and seven-strong crew on board, less than half a mile to a side lane.
"Thank God, it was only a 20 tonne medium-sized airplane. If it had been a big plane, it would have knocked us out," said one man, who said he had never experience anything like it in ten years working at the airport.
Kathleen Threatt was hauled to court for failing to pay child support 12 years past its due date ... it was for 63 cents!
Threatt called the court thinking it was a misunderstanding, because not only are her children no longer children, but she's also a grandmother by both of them.
She even remembers receiving a letter at the conclusion of her child support duties saying she had paid in full. Somehow, some small change slipped through the cracks and resurfaced nearly 12 years past its due date.
"My problem is the waste of resources," she said. "This is crazy."
"It's a waste, but that's part of what we do, unfortunately," said Sumter County Clerk of Court Jamie Campbell. "We don't have the authority to wipe it away."
That's He Pingping, who at 2 feet and 5.37 inches tall is the world's smallest man, underneath Svetlana Pankratova, the world's leggiest woman:
The two met, with He standing at Pankratova's knees, the publicize the release of Guinness World Records 2009. This year's version of the popular book is due out Wednesday.
Pankratova, 36, who is Russian but lives in Spain, has legs that are nearly 52 inches long, or more than 4 feet long. Her upper body has nearly typical proportions, giving her a giraffe-like appearance.
A Russian woman and a Lebanese man were put on trial in Dubai for ... drinking orange juice!
In accordance with the Federal Penal Code of the United Arab Emirates, a public intake of food and beverages during daytime hours of the month of Ramadan is forbidden by Article 313. The article stipulates the punishment in the form of either a monetary penalty – up to 2,000 dirhems ($555) – or even a term of up to one month in prison.
The young people told the court that they were not Muslims and were thus unaware of the fact that their actions could be punishable.
The court took the mitigating circumstances into consideration, but found the defendants guilty, since ignorance did not exclude responsibility. The court ruled that the young people must pay the fine of 1,000 dirhems ($278) each.
WebUrbanist has a really neat post combining two topics close to my heart: cakes and geekiness!
Until we have Smell-O-Vision on the Web, you have to settle with feasting your eyes on the Rubik's Cube cake, the Star Trek Bridge diorama cake, the requisite Star Wars cakes and even my favorite: a Baby Alien Cake!
