In New Zealand has banned to name the newborns to be named Lucifer. In the similar manner, naming a child Messiah is also not allowed.

New Zealand’s Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages has rejected three different parent’s attempts to register newborns Lucifer. New Zealand

It is told that, in the past two years, the registrar has denied more than a hundred names. Some of the rejected names include names with slashes (\), asterisks (*), full stops (.) and names similar to different titles like – Bishop, Knight, Baron, Judge, General, Justice, King, Duke and Mr were also rejected.

The registrar had to formulate the new rule when there were protests in 2008 after approving the names like Violence and Number 16 Bus Shelter.

It is not only New Zealand that is trying to regulate it’s people to ban some names, the Dominican Republic, a judge proposed a ban on names that were either confusing or gave no indication of gender.

In Sweden, a court approved Google and Lego as baby names, but denied naming kids Superman, Elvis and Metallica.

Continue Reading »
Odd names banned in New Zealand

The government officials in Huili county, Southwest China in Sichuan province, got a huge media attention when the local officials published a photo of three government officials inspecting a road. The photo of three men was photoshoped in such a crude manner that they seem to be floating over the road, rather than stepping on it.

Government of Huili county later apologized for publishing a doctored photo in its official website.

Continue Reading »
Worst-doctored photographs in internet – Huili, China

Today Canadians are celebrating the 144th birthday of Canada. I wish everybody a very happy Canada Day!

Newly married British royal couple, Prince William and Kate Middleton who arrived in Canada yesterday, took part in the Canada Day celebration. Prince William also addressed Canada Day crowd in Ottawa.

Why does Google hate Canada Day?

I don’t know the answer to this question. But, it is now clear that Google has grown the dislike of Canada Day, for some unspecified reasons. I have two good reasons to believe that Google hates the day.

Reason 1 – Google Doodles stopped recognizing the day since 2007

Until 2008, Google used to design it’s Google Doodle (Google Logo) to honor Canada Day. Starting 2001 Google had started displaying the Canada Day logo on every July 1. But, it stopped the practice abruptly in 2008. The Cannucks weren’t happy on the Google decision.

Reason 2 – Today, on July 1 of 2011, when I checked the “Canadian Version” of Google News, there were no news mentioning Canada Day! What a surprise?

Yes, Google doesn’t write news, but it is surprising no newspaper Google syndicate talk about the country’s birthday.

Do you know of any particular reason Google might be upset of the Canada Day? Or, is there no Canada Day in Google calendar?

China has opened the World’s longest sea-bridge, winning ove the United States. The 26.4 miles long bridge spans Jiaozhou Bay on the North-Eastern China.

The Jiaozhou Bay Bridge beats the previous record holder, 23.83 miles long Louisiana’s Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. Guinness Book of World Records, state that the the new bridge is about 2.5 miles longer than the previous record holder.

The six-lane Qingdao-Haiwan road bridge, which spans Jiaozhou Bay in China’s Shangdong Province, is 42.5 km (26.4 miles) long. …. It is 4.07 km (2.53 miles) longer than the former record holder, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana, USA. 

The bridge was built in four years, at a cost of $2.3 billion. Some of the note-worthy features of the bridge are – six-lane, 5,200 pillars, earthquake- and typhoon-proof, and designed to withstand the impact of a 300,000-tonne vessel.

Nice areal-view of the bridge:

I talked about some of the top 10 stupid laws in Britain. I feel, there are more such laws – the following quote from a UK newspaper website might be the result of such a law:

Sorry we are unable to accept comments for legal reasons.

The article was about the 19 year-old hermit ‘hacker’ who was arrested in the UK. The article reveals his mother’s statement about his suicide threats if she took away his computer, his childhood photos and other personal details of Cleary.

If the Daily Mail newspaper can legally publish an article, why can’t the readers comment on it? I am wondering, what legal problem might it arise if one talks about the news?

May be it is another stupid law to curb the freedom of voice!

There is no reason to celebrate this world record. The smelliest man in the world, Kailash Singh, hasn’t washed himself for more than 37 years. The man stopped  bathing or cutting his hair (hair has grown to 6 ft long) since 1974, just after getting married.

Continue Reading »
World’s smelliest man hasn’t bathed for 37 years

The world’s most expensive razor can be yours if you can spend $100,000. The hefty price tag comes from sapphire blades and Iridium handle. Iridium is considered to be the strongest and the rarest metal found in earth.

The solid white sapphire blades in the razor is guaranteed to last a decade. For that 10 years, Zafirro will provide free servicing, professional cleaning and re-sharpening, if required. The blades are extremely sharp, hypoallergenic, and won’t have problem of oxidation and corrosion.

Zafirro, the manufacturer is planning to produce only 99 of those razors as the metal, iridium, is 10 times more rare than platinum. Iridium is primarily used in things like rocket engine, where durability is critical.

The Bank of Canada has decided to stop producing paper money and start issuing high-tech plastic money. The money will feature transparent maple leaf window to help reduce currency counterfeiting.

The first polymer bank notes $100 bills will arrive in November. The $50 notes are scheduled to be released in March.

Remaining notes like $20, $10 and $5 will gradually be introduced by the end of 2013.

New shortest man in the world in a 59.93 cm tall, Junrey Balawing from Philippines. The previous shortest man Khagendra Thapa Magar, from Nepal was 7 cm taller.

Junrey Balawing was born on June 12, 1993 in Sindangan, Zamboanga del Norte, Philippines. Guinness World Records officials declared him the record holder of the world’s shortest living person on Balawing’s 18th birthday celebration on June 12.

Khagendra became shortest man when he turned 18 years-old some 8 month back.

Balawing is the new record holder of shortest living person. But, he missed to break the all-time record made by Gul Mohammed of India, who was 0.571 m tall at the time of his death in in 1997.

Continue Reading »
Junrey Balawing – New shortest person in the world

A girl in Hamburg-Bramfeld, Germany invited her friends to her sixteenth birthday party by posting an event page in Facebook. But, she forget to make it accessible only to her friends.

The invitation was available for everybody to register. It soon went viral and more than 15,000 people confirmed to be present in the birthday party in their home.

When Thessa’s parents found out about it, they were worried and soon canceled the party in a haste, and they also informed the police about the incident. They even hired a private security service to control the crowd.

Despite the cancelation of the birthday party, some 1,500 guests showed up on Friday, June 3, 2011 in Thessa’s home and.  About 100 police officers were also present to control the crowd. Some guests had also brought presents and homemade cakes. Thessa however had fled her home for her safety.

The huge crowd in front of Thessa’s house asked Thessa to be present in the party. They chanted birthday wishes. The police had reported that eleven people were detained temporarily. One of  the police officers was injured and the firefighters had to extinguish two small fires.

Thessa later told that she quietly celebrated her birthday with her grandparents. (Photo source – AP)