This is super weird. A 2006 incident just surfaced recently in the newspapers that a British student, in 2006, turned in an English exam paper with only the words “fuck off”. The examiner awarded him two points out of a maximum of 27 points.

The examiner explained that the two points are for the message that “fuck off” was able to convey, and the words were spelt correctly. He also said that he would have awarded a higher mark if the student had punctuated the words, as in “fuck off!”

That’s why, we in Asia have known all along that education is not taken as seriously over there in the West than here. What else can you say when you get two credits for turning in a paper with just “fuck off” and the examiner even justified that by saying that it’s better than not writing anything at all!

A British high school student received credit for writing nothing but a two-word obscenity on an exam paper because the phrase expressed meaning and was spelled correctly.

The Times newspaper on Monday quoted examiner Peter Buckroyd as saying he gave the student — who wrote an expletive starting with f, followed by the word “off” — two points out of a possible 27 for the English paper.

“It would be wicked to give it zero because it does show some very basic skills we are looking for, like conveying some meaning and some spelling,” Buckroyd was quoted as saying.

“It’s better than someone that doesn’t write anything at all.”

Buckroyd said the student would have received a higher mark if the phrase had been punctuated.

Buckroyd is a senior examiner for the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance, one of several bodies that grade British high school exams.

He said the expletive was used in 2006 by a student in response to the question: “Describe the room you are sitting in.”

The alliance confirmed the newspaper’s story was accurate, but said Buckroyd’s decision to award the student marks was not official policy.

“The example cited was unique in the experience of the senior examiner concerned and was used in a pre-training session to emphasize the importance of adhering to the mark scheme: i.e. if a candidate makes any sort of response to a question then it must be at least given consideration to be awarded a mark,” the company said in a statement.

It said obscenities on exam papers “should either be disregarded, or action will be taken against the candidate, depending on the seriousness of the case.”

Source: Here

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When I read this account by Gisele Bundchen that a girl pulled her hair to check if it was all real, I felt so amused Yes, we see this all the time in movies, especially in comdeies. There are some people who have facial features like a man, and sometimes you just feel like checking and the best way is to tug at the hair. LOL

In Gisele’s case, this girl was in Gisele’s plane and Gisele must have looked to perfect to be for real. Heck, anyone would want to tug at Gisele just to “check”. However, if I were to check, it definitely will not be her hair!

Gisele Bundchen in a water dress

Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen is the face of over 20 products and has graced the covers of more magazines than any other model. So when the model who raked in US$33 million ($45m) last year was told that her looks are not natural, she was understandably cut up.

Venting her frustration to GQ magazine, she said: ‘The other day, a girl on my plane was pulling my hair. She was like, ‘I just want to check…’

‘This is all my hair, by the way. I did not have extensions.’

She said she is tired of sceptics who think her looks have been altered to achieve such perfection.

Earlier this week, the supermodel injected some much needed glamour into the Sao Paulo’s beleagured fashion week. She made a return to the event after a six-year absence when she walked for Brazilian label Colcci.

Bundchen modelled a range of looks, including purple tie-dye pants teamed with an embellished bustier and an orange print midriff top and tight white jeans, in an event that predominantly showcases designers from Latin America.

Source: Here

I read this piece of weird lawsuit with seriously deep interest mainly because of the work I do. I am deeply concerned that there would be someone like this woman, who got hurt wearing her Victoria’s Secret thong and got hurt in her cornea when the metal clip flew off and hit her in the eye.

I think that are many more pieces of clothing that has a metal something or other. If someone could get an eye injury from wearing her thong, I think this is a cue to wear goggles when we get dressed! Who else would like to see how this thong is like?

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A woman who says she was hurt by her thong panties when a metal clip flew off and hit her in the eye has sued Victoria’s Secret, saying in a TV interview on Thursday that the injury caused her “excruciating pain.”

Macrida Patterson, a 52-year-old Los Angeles traffic officer, told NBC’s “Today” show that she suffered cuts to her cornea from the small piece of metal that had been used to secure a rhinestone heart onto the blue thong.

“I was putting on my underwear from Victoria’s Secret and the metal popped in my eye. It happened really quickly. I was in excruciating pain. I screamed. That’s what happened,” Patterson told NBC.

Patterson’s lawyer Jason Buccat, who also appeared on the “Today” show, said the metal staple causes “severe damage” to her cornea that required a topical steroid.

The product liability lawsuit, which was filed on June 9 in Los Angeles Superior Court and first reported on the Smoking Gun Web site, seeks unspecified damages.

A spokeswoman for Victoria’s Secret, which is operated by Limited Brands Inc, could not immediately be reached for comment.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb)

Source: Here

This isn’t a weird news story but I thought I would still highlight it because it’s pretty dumb of the sales person to allow a potential customer to load himself with jewelry.

Don’t tell me the shop does not have an armed security guard at the door! Even Malaysia also have mah! Although most of the security guards here are past their retirement age, still, they make a good prop at the door of jewelry stores with their rusty rifles.

So Canada, it’s time to learn something from Malaysia. Or perhaps you should send your sales people to common sense courses!

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Memo to jewelry store clerks: it is best to let a customer try on just one item at a time.

A Canadian sales attendant learned the lesson the hard way this week when a man strolled into an Edmonton, Alberta, jeweler and asked to see several rings and necklaces, one after another.

Once he had loaded himself up with thousands of dollars worth of trinkets, he made for the door.

Police said the man was last spotted by store and mall security staff grabbing a taxi.

Allowing customers to weigh themselves down with jewelry is “certainly not something that we would recommend as it didn’t turn out so well for this store,” Edmonton police spokesman Jeff Wuite said on Tuesday.

The suspect is described as 6 feet, 5 inches tall, weighing about 250 pounds (113 kg) with a Chinese symbol tattooed on his neck. The stolen goods are worth about C$10,000 ($9,800).

(Reporting by Jeffrey Jones; editing by Rob Wilson)

Source: Here

This is bound to happen with the popularity of camera phones. And some phones even have no noise or alert when a photo is shot. I heard that it’s illegal in Korea.

Not only are camera phones now so common, they are darn cheap too. Even teenagers can afford them but that’s why there are so many people abusing their camera phones. Remember Tammy?

So this young man so cleverly sneaked into the ladies’ toilet in Changi Airport to take photos of women peeing or pooing. LOL He thinks it’s that easy? Women are ultra alert when using public toilets!!!

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A Singapore man has been banned from owning a camera phone for a year after he was found guilty of secretly filming a woman in an airport toilet, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

Samuel Ong, 19, sneaked into a female toilet at Singapore’s Changi Airport earlier this year and used his camera phone to snap shots of a woman from under the cubicle door. The woman caught him and reported him to the police.

Ong, who pleaded guilty, has to do 60 hours of community service, observe a curfew as part of his sentence and continue psychiatric treatment, the Straits Times reported.

His parents also had to sign a S$5,000 ($3,663) bond ensuring his good behavior.

Ong’s lawyer pleaded for leniency saying that Ong was a good student and that he regretted bringing shame to his family.

(Reporting by Melanie Lee; Editing by Jennifer Tan and David Fogarty)

Source: Here

Goodness… if you have read the newspaper enough, I am sure you would have come across various oddball news where couples were caught having sex here and there, especially in recreational parks.

Now, get this… this Italian couple, we all have read how hot-blooded they are, haven’t we, were caught having sex in the confessional box of a church! Say what?? If that is not shocking enough, they were doing it DURING morning Mass!

Gosh… I cannot imagine the sort of noise they were making inside the confessional box, and everyone wondering what was happening inside!

Read about this weird, yet interesting news here!

ROME (Reuters) - An Italian couple who were caught having sex in a church confessional box while morning Mass was being said have repented and made peace with the local bishop.

The couple, in their early 30s, were detained by police earlier this month after they had made love in the confessional box in the cathedral in northern Cesena. They were cautioned for obscene acts in public and disturbing a religious function.

Their lawyer said they had been drinking all night and realized they had gone too far.

The lawyer told the area’s local newspaper on Wednesday the couple met with the local bishop on Tuesday night, asked for his forgiveness and that he had given it.

Last week the bishop celebrated a “Mass of reparation” in the cathedral where the confessional box incident took place to make up for the sacrilege.

Source: Here

Although I have written this weird and interesting blog for quite a while already, I am still amazed at the oddball stuffs that happen around the world.

The other day, while going through my old posts, it seems as though there are more oddball news from Japan than any other country, besides America, of course.

Today, I stumbled upon the latest oddball story, which is also from Japan. I am still stumped how this could possibly happen but this Japanese man has been living with a surgical towel in him for twenty five years. Amazing!

TOKYO (AFP) - Doctors who carried out surgery on a Japanese man to remove a “tumour” had good news and bad news for him. He did not have cancer — but the “growth” that had been causing him pain was in fact a 25-year-old surgical towel.

The patient had been carrying the cloth since 1983, when surgeons at the Asahi General Hospital in Chiba prefecture near Tokyo left it in him after an operation to treat an ulcer, a spokesman for the hospital said.

The man, now 49, went in to another hospital in late May after suffering abdominal pain.

When examinations found what was believed to be an eight-centimetre (3.2-inch) tumour, he underwent the operation to remove it. It was only then that surgeons realised it was a towel.

“The towel was greenish blue although we are not sure about its original colour,” the Asahi General Hospital spokesman said, adding it had been crumpled to the size of a softball.

Asahi hospital officials visited the man and apologised, he said.

The former patient has no plans to sue the hospital, which is in talks with him over compensation or other measures, the official said.

Japanese media reports said the man, who was not identified, still had his spleen removed.

Source: Here

I find this oddball story totally unbelievable! How can a woman live in this man’s house for a year without him even suspecting anything amiss? I know that men can be dense sometimes but not till this degree!

You know what? There are times when you get a new haircut and the men in your life will never even notice it, even if you ask him, “What do you think of my NEW haircut?” And there was a guy who came home and not even noticed that the huge tree in front of his house had been chopped off! And to think that when he was at home, he was adamant that it must not be felled!

Read and judge for yourself how this man could be so blur!

By MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press Writer Fri May 30, 8:34 PM ET

TOKYO - A homeless woman who sneaked into a man’s house and lived undetected in his closet for a year was arrested in Japan after he became suspicious when food mysteriously began disappearing.

Police found the 58-year-old woman Thursday hiding in the top compartment of the man’s closet and arrested her for trespassing, police spokesman Hiroki Itakura from southern Kasuya town said Friday.

The resident of the home installed security cameras that transmitted images to his mobile phone after becoming puzzled by food disappearing from his kitchen over the past several months.

The closet
Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images/File/Carlo Allegri

One of the cameras captured someone moving inside his home Thursday after he had left, and he called police believing it was a burglar. However, when they arrived they found the door locked and all windows closed.

“We searched the house … checking everywhere someone could possibly hide,” Itakura said. “When we slid open the shelf closet, there she was, nervously curled up on her side.”

The woman told police she had no place to live and first sneaked into the man’s house about a year ago when he left it unlocked.

She had moved a mattress into the small closet space and even took showers, Itakura said, calling the woman “neat and clean.”

Source: Here

Wow, this kind of father, everybody also wants lah! He promised his daughter a brand new car if she clocked full attendance in school and he saw it through by giving her a spanking new Pontiac G6 with a personalized number plate, all worth US$17,000.

Let’s say we go to school 250 days a year and from Standard One right up to Form Five, that’s eleven years of school, our parents saved US$6.20 per school day, they would have saved US$17,000. In this case, it was about US$5 per day only.

Gosh, this girl, Andria Baker, from Constantine, Michigan, must have been an only child!

CONSTANTINE, Mich. - Andria Baker has pretty much always been present. From the first day of kindergarten through her last day of high school, Baker somehow made it to school for every day of classes, despite colds and sports injuries. Why? If she kept it up, her father promised her a car.

Baker kept up her end of the bargain, willing herself to go to school on those days when she felt under the weather. She notched her 13th year of uninterrupted classroom attendance with her final day at Constantine High School on Friday.

At a party Sunday, her father, Tim, presented the young woman with the keys to a new, $17,000 Pontiac G6, complete with a “0 DAYS” personalized license plate.

“Without a doubt, it was worth every penny I spent,” he said. The look on his daughter’s face when she saw the car was priceless, Tim Baker said.

“When she turned around after seeing the car, she did not know what to do,” he said. “We got her into the car and she just sat there. Then she ran into the house to get her driver’s license, and she and her best friend got in the car and tooled down the road.”

Andria Baker, 19, said she probably would have gone ahead with her quest for perfect attendance even if a new car had not been promised. “A lot of my friends thought I was crazy, but I just kept going,” she said.

Source: here.

If you have always wanted your name in the Guinness Book of World Records, here is a record that you could probably break. Get a friend and just shake hands for as long as possible. Well, as long as your hands are held and moved up and down in a handshaking motion, you’re set.

Also, remember, you’d probably have to go to the toilet together. In this oddball news report, Kevin Whittaker and Cory Jens did nothing but shake hands for a record breaking 9.5 hours. Hey, I probably could top that. Who wants to shake hands with me now?

SAN FRANCISCO - Kevin Whittaker and Cory Jens deserved a hand after their record-setting attempt, but they probably didn’t want to shake it. The pair sought to set a new world record Monday by shaking hands with one another for 9 1/2 hours, apparently beating the previous record set by two Germans by a half-hour.

The Guinness Book of World Records still must confirm the feat, one that Whittaker, 31, and Jens, 30, felt pretty confident in achieving. “I looked up what some of the weakest records were,” Whittaker said. “I’m not going to break the 100-meter dash record, but I thought I could break this record.” The rules from Guinness appeared easy enough: Handshakers are not required to look each other in the eye or exchange pleasantries; they simply must grip palms and continuously move their hands up and down.

The historic day began at 2:07 p.m. outside the Ferry Building, where the duo endured the discomfort of such issues as sweaty palms, arm cramps and, of course, bathroom breaks. By nightfall, the two decided to continue their quest for greatness at a hotel bar, where they found warmth, comfortable seats and alcoholic beverages.

The effort culminated at 11:38 p.m. with a bottle of bubbly — and some much-needed space. “It’s not that fun, believe me,” Whittaker said. “I’m a little tired. My shoulder is tired. In fact, it’s extremely painful.”

Source: Here