Start with a record

How did you welcome the New Year this time? G. Navakumar of Vellore, India ushered in 2008 by painting the flags of 102 countries on two rows of paper -- each 185 feet long. He then inserted a new year greeting between the parallel rows. The Indian flag had a picture of a white dove, indicating peace. He plans to add flags of another 90 countries for a place in the Limca Book of Records. » Continue reading

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Size doesn't matter

Getting close to sparring canines can be dangerous. Even the elephants know the rule. Recently, in Madurai, India, an 11-year-old elephant ran away seeing two dogs fighting, and barged into a nearby hotel. No amount of persuasion from the mahout worked as the scared elephant refused to come out. It did, eventually, after the fear subsided. » Continue reading

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Daughter speak

One person who was seen in Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign trail is her daughter Chelsea. Though she mixes with the crowd after Hillary's speech, she is out of bounds for the press. In Iowa recently, a kid reporter of Scholastic News, nine-year-old Sydney Rieckhoff, asked her, "Do you think your dad would be a good 'first man'?" Chelsea brushed her question aside, saying, "I'm sorry, I don't talk to the press. Even though I think you're cute." Though initially crestfallen, Sydney was happy; she got to speak to Bill and Hillary.
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Conman in uniform

Conmen love playing the role of a policeman, with whom they interact the most. Loorthanathan from Bangalore, India is no different. He specializes in duping the gullible wearing police uniform. When he was arrested recently, the license plate of his bike had the letter 'G', which suggests that it belongs to the government. Loorthanathan, who the police claim cheated over 70 people, even had a helmet similar to the one used by the police. » Continue reading

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Go slow, baby!

According to health officials in Satara district of Maharashtra (India), the family way should not be treated as expressway. The officials are reportedly offering prizes to couples who take their feet off the libido accelerator. If a couple delays their first baby by two years, the prize is INR 5,000; a three-year gap will give them INR 7,500. Does infertility merit a jackpot? » Continue reading

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What a bummer!

Pull up your pants or be pulled up by cops. Youth who walk with their pants half-down in Atlanta had better watch out. On August 30, a ban was imposed on low-slung pants, or any clothing that exposes underwear in public. Very low-slung trousers are already banned in Delcambre in Louisiana, where cheeky offenders can be fined US$500 or up to six months in jail. » Continue reading

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Duchess of dregs

Next time you drink coffee, don't drain it to the dregs. Leave some behind for Nawal Gani of Bangalore (India) to tell you something about what lies ahead.

44-year-old Gani reads the future from the left overs in a coffee cup, and claims she gets it at least 60 per cent right. "I don't predict. I guide people to know themselves better," she says. The patterns formed on the interior of the cup are mainly Arabic writings or forms of animals, which could be deciphered to suggest future happenings.

"The key is the yawn. If I burp then there is negative energy within the client. I cleanse it by asking my clients to drink water and by chanting prayers," the former policewoman says.

Gani has read the coffee cups of Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Bollywood actors and actresses. But she will not reveal what she saw in them. For, official secrets are meant to be kept! Her common clients approach her with queries on financial and health-related matters -- they say she is 80 per cent right.

She charges 1,000 rupees (22 dollars) for a reading. And for those who want their cup read over the telephone, the amount is doubled as the procedure is more difficult.

"I ask for his or her name and their mother's name. Then I drink the cup keeping their names in my mind and on their behalf.

It comes out pretty accurately," she says.

Coffee cup reading has its origins in China where ancient monks predicted the future by reading patterns left by tea leaves in bell-shaped cups, a process known as tasseography.

Later, Arabs took up the practice but used coffee as a medium.

So, there is more to upmarket coffee than meets the eye -- there's some-thing for the inner eye too.

According to an unofficial source Nawal Gani stays in a house called Egyptian Block on Haines Road, Bangalore. The phone number is 55300310. » Continue reading

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Testing times

Can extra-curricular test mean chastity test, too? The West Java province's plan to carry out virginity tests on female high school students was dropped after a public outcry. The test was planned after a video of two high school students having sex was circulated via mobile phones. » Continue reading

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Sacred fig weds Neem!

People of a village near Sirumuga in Coimbatore district (India) performed an unsual wedding -- they got a 'neem' tree married to a 'pipal' (Sacred fig) tree. The knot was tied in south Indian style in the presence of a priest and amid chanting of hymns and nadaswaram recital in early August, 2007. The ceremony was to protect forests and maintain world peace. » Continue reading

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Glass mates

Heard of proposals during safaris, on airplanes and during candle-lit dinners. Rebecca Savoy was surprised when a huge W popped up on the screen during her vision-test. Then came ILL and the rest followed (in pic). Her boyfriend Joseph Wachtel had roped in the optometrist to help him pop the question. » Continue reading

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Bid Daddy

Daad Mohammed Murad Abdul Rahman, 60, has already married 15 times and has two more brides lined up. He divorced 12 of them to stay within the legal norm of four wives.

The father of 78 is in a bid to reach his target of 100 children by 2015. His eldest child is 36 years old and the youngest, 20 days. The 'extended family' stays in about 15 houses in Ajman (United Arab Emirates).
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Serving her majesty

A 552-year tradition was broken in September last year when Moira Cameron, 42, became the first female Beefeater, taking up her post as a guardian of the Tower of London.

She beat five men to secure the coveted position and has undergone two months of intensive training to learn the 21 separate duties that the Beefeaters perform each day, including guarding the crown jewels, participating in the Ceremony of the Keys and taking visitors on guided tours.

Beefeaters are blieved to have earned their nickname from their daily ration of meat, dating from 1485. Over two million people visit the Tower each year. » Continue reading

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Astronomical off-season rates

Russia may be known for its bitter, long winters but what many people don't know is that its summer can be scorching. That's something wealthy Muscovites don't want to deal with. To cater to their whims is the availability of summer snow, the latest luxury fad. The really lucky ones, however, are the snow-making machine producers who are making hay, sorry snow, while the sun shines. So far, at least half a dozen people have spent over US$250,000 on the latest must-have: a private snow room. » Continue reading

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Well-watered

Those who drink like a fish might be stopped from sailing. Madrid is considering breathalyser tests for inebriated yacht owners. The police found revellers sailing home to avoid being arrested for drunken driving. Spain's drunken driving rate is almost double that of Netherlands and Britain.

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Women on stage? Nothing big

But Guinness book of records says it's a feat, especially when 1,200 of them are on stage together. The performance was at Kochi (Cochin) on November 28, 2006 at Art of Living Foundation's silver jubilee celebrations. The women, all Mohiniyattam dancers, enchanted not just the over 1,00,000 crowd with the Dance of the Enchantress that Kerala's own art-form is, but the Guinness team, too. » Continue reading

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Poetic pill

Prisoners in Kerala can cheer. They will soon get a 'release' -- into the world of poems, music and literature. Bringing it all to them will be poets, playwrights, novelists and musicians, who will present reading sessions and live concerts in prisons across the state. The first of these 'reform pills' will be 'administered' in the next few months. Poetic justice, indeed! » Continue reading

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Stealthy death

Russian roulette is passé; it is the Rangoon version that is becoming shocking. Thieves here are taking advantage of power-cuts, often lasting more than 20 hours a day, to steal the copper power cables. Sometimes they get unlucky as it is impossible to know exactly when the power is going to be restored. And the end is, predictably, macabre. » Continue reading

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Tears of stone

Photos fade, but memories in granite do not vanish. For the sculptors of Barre, Vermont, immortality is a perk of their job.

The 85-acre Hope Cemetery, opened in 1895, is an example of their classic art. Every one of the 10,000 plus monuments here is made of Barre Gray granite.

One carving has a couple sitting up in bed wearing pajamas and holding hands. A stone race-car celebrate local driver Joey Laguerre. Ace sculptor Brusa's grave has his statue of 'The Dying Man,' slipping away, held by his wife.

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Hitching a ride

When a ship carrier aircraft, you call it an aircraft carrier; and when an aircraft carries space shuttles? Yes, a shuttle carrier aircraft (SCA). In picture is the Atlantis riding piggyback on the NASA 911. The NASA's SCAs are two modified Boeing 747 jets. The SCAs are used to ferry shuttles back to the Kennedy Space Center from landing sites too distant for ground transport. The SCA-shuttle combo burns 100 litres of fuel per kilometre and can fly non-stop for 1,900 km. Each transcontinental trip costs about $1.7 million and its ground handling crew alone is 170-strong! » Continue reading

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Sacred odours

Father Henryk Jankowski, popular for his support to the solidarity movement, announced that he planned to launch perfumes, clothing and cafes branded with his image.

Jankowski already has a wine branded after him under the name 'Monsignore'. While many Catholics admire him for his role in ousting the communists, many do not approve of him being on the panel for selecting the waitresses for the 16 cafes he plans to open. » Continue reading

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