Best0f

from http://www.oddee.com/item_84547.aspx

The tattoo has changed this living man into a Skull. It’s the face of Frank, at Derm FX Tattoo in Montreal.

This is not make-up, but an actual tattoo

This is not make-up, but an actual tattoo

A $10,000 tattoo

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from http://zuzutop.com/2010/01/10-strangest-trees-on-earth/

Matthew Fox once said – “If you look closely at a tree you’ll notice its knobs and dead branches, just like our bodies. What we learn is that beauty and imperfection go together wonderfully.”

El Arbol de La Sabina

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Trees are important components of the natural landscape and a wonderful living organism which gives shelter, food, warmth and protection to all living things. Though common trees are fascinating immensely but there are some of the more unusual and amazing tree specimens found in the world which is weird and spectacular, yet people are hardly aware of their mysterious properties, strange sizes or unusual shapes. Here are some which top the list of being the strangest trees found on the planet. It’s a treat to the eye!

AXEL ERLANDSON’S CIRCUS TREE

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Axel Erlandson’s passion for sculpting trees, also known as arborsculpture, led him to open a horticulture attraction in 1947 near Santa Cruz, California named The Circus Tree and people flocked in from all over the country to view his strange and striking creations which are nothing short of breathtaking! Using a special set of skills, Erlandson started to sculpt things out of living, growing trees. One such tree is the famous “Basket Tree”. which is actually six Sycamores grafted together in 42 different connections to give it its basket shape.

PIRANGI CASHEW TREE,BRAZIL

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It’s the largest cashew tree in the world and more like a root and bush than a tree covering a span of 8,500 square meters alone! This tree is probably 300 feet by 300 feet in total. It looks like a forest and a bears 8000 fruit in a year .This picture doesn’t do it justice but should give you an idea of the enormity.

TREE OF LIFE, BAHRAIN

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The Tree of Life in Bahrain is one of the mysteries of world which is bound to be in the list of most unusual trees aroung the globe! This four century old mesquite tree survives in the midst of desert without availability of water. The mystery of the survival of the tree has made it a legend and the name “tree of life” is absolutely appropriate for the tree, truly representing the magic of life. A legend is also attached to the site where the tree is located. The local inhabitants believe with heart and soul that this was the actual location of the Garden of Eden.

CHAPEL OAK OF ALLOUVILLE – BELLEFOSSE

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Next is the Chapel Tree one of the most famous trees in France – actually, it’s more than just a tree: it’s a building and a religious monument all in one. In 1669, l’Abbe du Detroit and du Cerceau decided to build a chapel in (at that time) a 500 years old or so oak tree made hollow by a lightning bolt. Now, parts of the tree are dead, the crown keeps becoming smaller and smaller every year, and parts of the tree’s bark, which fell off due to old age, are covered by protective oak shingles. As a symbol, however, it seems that the Chapel-Oak of Allouville-Bellefosse may live on forever.

BAOBAB – MADAGASCAR

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Baobabs, with their distinctive shape, are one of the most charismatic group of trees in the world. This particular specimen, located in Madagascar, is referred to as the ‘Teapot Baobab’. These trees remain leafless for most part of the year, and their thick, bloated, fire-resistant trunks store water during the dry months. One would be surprised to find that some baobab trunks are so large that people actually reside inside them!

GERMAN SHERMAN – (SEQUIA NATIONAL PARK)

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General Sherman is about 2500years old tree with a height of 275 feet (83.8 metres), located in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park in the United States. In January 2006 the largest branch on the tree broke off. The breakage, however, could not  change the General Sherman’s status as the largest tree! This stunning tree has the base of its trunk measuring about 102 feet in circumference. Witnesses to this spectacular creation of nature can only justify its stature!

SILK COTTON TREES OF TA PROHM,CAMBODIA

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Ta Prohm Temple or the Jungle Temple which is located in the Angkor Thom complex has trees growing here in the most astounding way. Words cannot describe it until you set foot there and see it for yourself. Apparently, the place was left as is over the hundreds of years and the outcome is amazing from what you see now in the place which is also called Angkor Archaeological Park. On every side, in fantastic over-scale, the trunks of the silk-cotton trees soar skywards under a shadowy green canopy, their long spreading skirts trailing the ground and their endless roots coiling more like reptiles than plants.

TULE TREE OF OAXACA, MEXICO

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Mexico’s most famous tree, the ginormous Tule Tree (Arbol del Tule) grows near Oaxaca City. It may not be the largest or the oldest tree in the world, but it has no contenders for widest girth award which is abround 164 feet in circumference.It’s best not to look at the tree as a single icon. Indeed there is a family of ancient trees. Rooted in the town of Santa María del Tule, the Tule Tree and its environs comprise a unique natural monument.

DRAGON TREE, CANARY ISLANDS

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The Dragon Tree is found at de los Vinos in Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands, and is said to be between 650 and 1,500 years old. This specimen inherited this name from mythical origins: Hercules had to bring back three golden apples from the garden of the Hespérides, which is guarded by Landon, the hundred-headed dragon. Hercules killed Landon and his blood flowed out over the land, which began to sprout ‘dragon’ trees. The tree exudes ‘dragon’s blood’ – a red sap – when cut.

WOLLEMI PINE, AUSTRALIA

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The unique qualities of the Wollemi Pine lie not in its looks but in its history. It is a “living dinosaur”, and was nearly extinct before it was discovered in Sydney, Australia in 1994. Now called “the crown jewels of the botanical world”, the Wollemi pine had previously been known only from a 120-million-year-old fossil. Very few exist in the wild, but conservation efforts have been made in the recent past.

These strange trees have been molded by Mother Nature into species of their own. Shocking, downright weird or seemingly beautiful, the trees amassed in this collection will leave you to ponder on wondrous creation the Almighty!

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from http://www.thelmagazine.com/TheMeasure/archives/2008/07/17/the-10-greatest-misspelled-tattoos

Up first: misspelled tattoos. The “CHITONW” tattoo got a bunch of press a few months ago—it was so outrageously bad that afterward a bunch of people got it on purpose in ironic solidarity. What else has been misspelled, permanently, on someone’s body? Unfortunately, I bet a lot of people don’t come forth. STET. Here are my favorites:

10. Good job.

9. “Hello, nice to meet you.”

8. Wait, there’s real text for this that I’m not making up—it’s from someone in Beijing:

“Mine simply says FRUNK. The letters are so beautiful and
flow so smoothly into each other. The word actually means old soul with
young spirit in English. How cool is that? ”

7. “Pretty much it’s my favorite song. It’s like, when you feel pain it’s because you’re doing something that you’re doing on purpose, and you’re like, this is it.”

6. “Fuck! Mother fucker.”

5. “Siiiiiiiiiiick.”

4. Aaaand this one isn’t a misspelling, but

3. In the same vein…

2. “Hey you guys, look what I got. Check it out. Dave, you guys, John. Look at this shit!”

1. My favorite! OK clearly this one is written in Sharpie (right? please let it be
Sharpie/not be Sharpie), but it’s amazing. The kid is like four years
old, also. Look at that Grim Reaper. This is the best tattoo in the
world. The end!

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from http://listverse.com/2010/02/07/top-10-oldest-people-ever/

We would all love to live longer, so long as we can do it functionally and with all our faculties in place. There is much argument and many conflicting ideas on what allows people to live a long and healthy life. Despite this there is evidence of people living to an extraordinary age while smoking all their life, eating chocolate, drinking alcohol and all sorts of other contraindicated behaviors.

This is a list not of centenarians (people who have reached the age of 100 years), but of supercentenarians, who are those that have reached the ripe old age of 110 years or more. supercentenarians represent only a small portion of those living over 100 years. Only 1 in 1000 centenarians reach the age of 110. Further, only 2 percent of supercentenarians live to see age 115. Currently there are a documented 76 female and 2 male supercentenarians.

This list includes only verified supercentenarians, leaving out claims like Shirali Muslim (although he is a bonus item). However there are a few disputed claims that do have some proof.

So here they are in order from youngest to oldest.

Kamato Hongo, a Japanese supercentenarian, who was apparently the oldest living person from March 2002 until her death in 2003. She lived in Kagoshima and celebrated her 116th birthday a month before her death from pneumonia.

Hongo was born on the small island of Tokunoshima, she later moved to Kagoshima where she lived with her daughter. She became a minor celebrity and was a focus of some merchandise including wash-cloths, key-rings, phone cards and more (imagine how stylish a shirt with a wrinkled great grandmother on it would look). Hongo was 58 years old when World War II ended.

Kyushu, where Kagoshima is located is home to several other age record holders, making it an island of longevity, much like Okinawa.

Carrie C. White was recognized by Guinness world records as the oldest person in the world at around the time of her 114th birthday in 1988. Carrie was a resident of Palatka, Florida nursing home. She was in a nursing home not because of age, but due to a nervous breakdown in 1909, which left her institutionalized. Carrie is another case of dispute, however her documentation seems to be in order enough to give her the title of world’s oldest person between January 11th 1988 and February 14th 1991.

Elizabeth is a case that is not disputed, with documents in perfect order. And yes, she is another one from the United States. In fact, the US has more supercentenarians than any country in the world. They are not considered a land of longevity though due to the number per capita.

Elizabeth Bolden was one of only seven people worldwide that lived until age 116. Her birth was the last remaining documented birth of 1890. Elizabeth Jones (later Bolden) was born in Somerville Tennessee, the daughter of freed slaves. Lizzie married Lewis Bolden circa 1908 and their first child, a son named Ezell, was born on September 21st 1909. She had seven children in total, only two of whom were still alive at the time of her death in 2006.

In addition to Lizzie’s seven children she had 40 grand-children, 75 great grand-children, 150 great-great grand-children, 220 great-great-great grand-children and 75 great-great-great-great grand-children. Geez, imagine Christmas at granny’s house.

During my research I couldn’t find any documentation on her lifestyle habits. However a few lower down on this list reveal some of their secrets.

Tane Ikain is Japan’s oldest female on record ever. She is also the oldest undisputed person since the Koseki system in 1879.

Tane Ikai outlived her daughter and her three sons. Ikai moved to a retirement home in 1972 at age 93 where she enjoyed sewing and pottery until she had a stroke at age 99. She also suffered a stroke at age 113 and was bed-ridden ever since. She survived on three meals of rice gruel a day (mmm yummy, I promise there are better supercentenarian diets lower on this list). She died at age 116 and 175 days of kidney failure.

Her body was the first of a supercentenarian known to be autopsied.

Maria was a supercentenarian born in Ecuador and, until the time of her death, was recognized as the world’s oldest living person. She was the oldest documented person to have lived in three centuries.

Maria was the daughter of a colonel and lived a life in the upper-class elite. She attended social functions and art classes. She never smoked or drank hard liquor, unlike others on this list. At age 100 Capovilla nearly died and was given last rites, but has been reasonably free of health problems since then until her death. At age 116 she was said to be in good health and was able to watch TV, read newspapers and walk without the aid of a cane.

By March 2006 Capovilla’s health had declined somewhat and she was no longer able to read the newspaper. She had also stopped talking and was only able to walk with the help of two people. Still she was able to sit upright in a chair and was said to be doing fine. She died of Pneumonia just 18 days before her 117th birthday.

Meilleur was a French-Canadian supercentenarian, who upon the death of Jeanne Calment (number one on the list), was the oldest living person. She is still the oldest ever Canadian.

By the time she died of a blood clot at age 117, her son was already in the same nursing home and her oldest living daughter was 90 years old. Now that would make you feel old, a 90 year old daughter. She was said to be a vegetarian and an “Avid Cigarette Smoker” (as opposed to a normal cigarette smoker?).

Lucy Hannah was an American super centenarian, that’s right another American. But I can’t help it, she’s fourth on the list due to age. Hannah is the oldest African American to have ever lived and the oldest American at the time of her death. She is also, strangely, the oldest person to have never held the title of oldest LIVING person because she coincided with Jeanne Calment.

Sarah Knauss, was the oldest person to have ever lived in America. She died 33 hours before the year 2000. Sarah Knauss lived her entire life in Pennsylvania. She was born in a small coal-mining town called Hollywood. That’s right folks, Hollywood, the other Hollywood.

Knauss was a homemaker and insurance office manager. Her daughter, who was 96 at the time of her death and lived to be 101 herself, said she was a very tranquil and peaceful person. She said nothing fazed her mother. “This is why she has lived so long“. In 1995 she was asked if she enjoyed her long life. Her answer was that she enjoyed it because she had her health and could still do many things into old age. Her interests were needlepoint, watching televised golf and eating chocolate turtles, cashews and potato chips. Knauss was an elegant lady, very refined.

Sarah died quietly in her room at the Phoebe-Devitt Home Foundation Facility on December 30th 1999. Doctors said she was in good health with no signs of illness. She just simply ‘expired’. Had she lived three days longer she would have lived in three different centuries.

Izumi is another disputed case like the first couple of list items. However Guinness World Record still maintains that his record is valid. Izumi is unique on a list of supercentenarians because he is male. There is a pattern of longevity that seems to favor women. This may be due to a lot of reasons. One theory is that males live harsher, more stressful lives. Well they did in the first part of this century and before.

Izumi was a Japanese born supercentenarian. His name was recorded in Japan’s first census in 1871. He also holds the world record for the longest working life. He worked a total of 98 years. His wife died at age 90, which is still a pretty good run. He drank brown sugar shochu, an alcoholic beverage distilled from barley or rice. Interestingly he took up smoking at age 70. Lord knows why. Hanging with the cool kids maybe? He started working in 1872, when he was six years old (this is what he says anyway) and continued working until 1970 at age 105. He says his long life is the work of the gods, Buddha and the sun. he lived through a total of 71 Japanese prime ministers.

Izumi died of pneumonia after being in hospital a short time on February 21st 1986, the same day as Jeanne Calment’s 111th birthday (see item one). There is some research to suggest that Izumi was not the oldest person at the time and put his age at a juvenile 105 years. However this is still up for debate. If this is true Christian Mortensen is the oldest man to have ever lived at 115 years, 252 days. Christian’s age has been verified and is undisputed.

Jeanne Calment is my favorite. Super longevity is a fascinating topic for me. Considering that the maximum human lifespan possible is considered to be 123 – 125 years of age, makes Jeanne very special indeed. She definitely overstayed her time here on Earth.

Jeanne Louise Calment was a French supercentenarian from Arles. She outlived her daughter and her grandson. She was very well known at age 113 on the centenary of Vincent Van Gogh’s visit to Arles. She was the last person living to have personally met the artist. Her lifespan has been thoroughly documented, with more proof of her age than for any other case.

Funny Fact: Calment had no living heirs in 1965 at age 90. She made a deal to sell her apartment to lawyer Andrea-Francois Raffray on a contingency contract. This is often referred to as a reverse mortgage. He agreed to pay her 2500 francs every month until her death. Sounds like a smart move on his part considering she was 90 years old. He ended up paying her what equates to $180,000, which is more than double the apartment’s worth. After Raffray’s death in 1995 from cancer at age 77, his wife continued the payments until Calment’s death. How silly would you feel making that deal then having her live over 32 years after age 90?

Calment met Vincent Van Gogh in 1888 when he came to her father’s shop to buy some paint and pencils. She described him as dirty, badly dressed and disagreeable. She remembers this visit clearly along with watching the Eiffel tower being built.

At age 85 Jeanne took up fencing and at age 100 she was still riding a bicycle. She claimed to never have been athletic or fanatical about health and fitness. Calment lived alone until just before her 110th birthday. It was decided that she would be better off in a nursing home after a cooking accident nearly killed her. Jeanne was in great health and was able to walk right up until age 114 and 11 months when she fractured her femur from a fall. after an operation on the broken limb she required a wheelchair. She became ill with the flu just before her 116th birthday. She smoked right up until she was 117. Calment ascribed her longevity and youthful looks to olive oil. She rubbed it on her skin, drank it and used it in cooking. She enjoyed port wine and ate almost one kilogram (2.2lbs) of chocolate per week. Here is another photo of Jeanne aged 22.

Shirali Muslimov is an interesting case. Some say his age is for real, most dispute his extreme longevity. Muslimov was a Talysh shepherd from the village of Barzavu in the Lerik region of Azerbaijan, a mountainous area near the Iranian border.

The only evidence of Muslimov’s age is a passport that states his birth date in 1805. So there could be some truth to it. What is more likely however is that he has been confused with someone else, possibly his father or grandfather. It would be nice to believe though. Imagine a healthy 168 years of life. In the photo above on the right, Muslimov was allegedly over 160 years old.

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from http://www.robinsweb.com/humor/strange_things.html

A rat can last longer without water than a camel.

Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks or it will digest itself.

The dot over the letter “i” is called a tittle.

A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and
down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.

A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.

Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.

A 2 X 4 is really 1-1/2″ by 3-1/2″.

During the chariot scene in “Ben Hur,” a small red car can be seen
in the distance (and Heston’s wearing a watch).

On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily!
(That explains a few mysteries….)

Sherlock Holmes NEVER said, “Elementary, my dear Watson.”

Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.

The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per
side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.

There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with orange,
purple and silver.

Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space
because passing wind in a spacesuit damages them.

The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin in World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.

Weatherman Willard Scott was the first Ronald McDonald.

If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will
instantly go mad and sting itself to death. (Who was the sadist who
discovered this??)

Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to s-l-o-w film down
so you could see his moves. That’s the opposite of the norm.

The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in
the USA.”

The original name for butterfly was flutterby.

The phrase “rule of thumb” is derived from an old English law which
stated that you couldn’t beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player
for automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.

Roses may be red, but violets are indeed violet.

By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you cannot
sink into quicksand.

Celery has negative calories. It takes more calories to eat a
piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.

Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin
look-alike contest.

An old law in Bellingham, Washington, made it illegal for a woman
to take more than three steps backwards while dancing!

The Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book
most often stolen from public libraries.

The glue on Israeli postage is certified kosher.

Bats always turn left when exiting a cave!

Thanks to Deborah for submitting this!!

And  another via email –this comes by Suzie T….

In the 1400′s a law was set forth that a man was not allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence we have “the rule of thumb”

The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV were Fred and Wilma Flintstone.

Men can read smaller print then women can; women can hear better.

It is impossible to lick your elbow.

The State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska

The average number of people airborne over the US any given hour: 61,000

Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.

The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history:

Spades – King David
Hearts – Charlemagne
Clubs -Alexander, the Great
Diamonds – Julius Caesar

If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

Q. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what?

A. Their birthplace.

Q. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter “A”?

A. One thousand

Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers all have in common?
A. All invented by women.

Q. What is the only food that doesn’t spoil?
A. Honey

In Shakespeare’s time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase……… “goodnight, sleep tight.”

It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride’s father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the “honeymoon”.

In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts… So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them, “Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down.”

It’s where we get the phrase “mind your P’s and Q’s”

Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. “Wet your whistle” is the phrase inspired by this practice.

~~~~AND FINALLY~~~~~~~~~~~~

At least 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow.

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from http://www.11points.com/Dating-Sex/11_Sexy_Photos_Totally_Ruined_By_People_in_the_Background
There’s some part of human nature that really makes us laugh when attempted sexiness crashes and burns.

This photo collection is a celebration of that horrible, yet undeniable, instinct that we all have.

I’ve been collecting funny photos off the Internet for years and these are the 11 best photos I’ve ever found where someone (read: a woman) was trying to be sexy… but someone or something crept into the background of the photo and ruined it. Of course, what makes it better is that they didn’t notice the interloper and posted the photo online anyways… which brings us to today.

This is the first list in a two-part series… today I have 11 sexy photos totally ruined by people in the background, tomorrow I’ll have 11 photos of people totally ruined by sex in the background.

1. The old man sleeps. Playboy bunny necklace… sexy underwear… curvaceous pose… oh, and grandpa sleeping on the bed while it all goes down.
   
2. The model and the ginger. If you ever wonder why people get so creeped out by ginger kids, this modeling photo says more than words (or Cartman) ever could…
   
3. The floater. A toilet really shouldn’t be incorporated into a sexy photo. An unflushed toilet ESPECIALLY shouldn’t.
   
4. High quality parenting, take one. It’s hard to find her sexy when her kid is passed out, shirtless, in the fetal position, mere feet away.
   
5. High quality parenting, take two. Again, if you have to exile your infant outside so you can take sex photos, maybe it’s time to close those things right on up.
   
6. Biggest boobs in the photo. Do not go to any of the girls.
   
7. Well, he did pay for all the ballet classes. I feel like old Russian men have a patent on the all white tank top-briefs look.
   
8. Bikini shoot on the beach. I think he just wanted to be a part of the photo shoot. After all, his bathing suit is just as revealing as any other one pictured here.
   
9. Under the pier. The kid doesn’t seem to know how he got there… he isn’t doing a very good job of concealing himself against that post… yet you feel like this is still one of the greatest days of his young life.
   
10. Call a babysitter. I just can’t believe this is real.
    
11. And she would’ve gotten away with this, too. If it wasn’t for that meddling TV.
    

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from http://www.11points.com/Dating-Sex/11_Photos_of_people_totally_ruined_by_sex_in_the_Background

Here are the greatest 11 images I’ve found where people were just trying to take a nice photo… and someone had to get naked, whip something out or get it on in the background. Enjoy.

1. Latin heat. I can’t get over how similar the passionate gay Latino men look. Other than the height difference, these two really were made for each other — even if it comes at the expense of the older couple’s photo.
   
2. Bowling alley. The kid in the foreground doesn’t look like he’s having a particularly good time bowling. And frankly, the groping couple in the background have facial expressions that also indicate they’re just going through the motions.
   
3. Really? You HAVE to do that here? Forget the girls whose photo got ruined… I feel bad for Pink Jacket, who’s directly in the line of fire.
   
4. Patriotic dogs. Everyone celebrates the Fourth in their own way. These dogs chose to set off their own red rockets. (HI-YO!)
   
5. An all-time classic. This photo may be as old as the Internet itself. And yet, it’s still a crowd pleaser every single time it graces a monitor.
   
6. The ladies and their sex aids. I put together these three photos, each complimented by its own sex toy. Counter-clockwise from top, it’s a large black phallic toy, a bottle of lube and a mysterious blow-up doll.
   
7. Way, way too public. I’ve been in many clubs and seen many shenanigans go down. But rarely is it ever this blatant with this much exposure. Or this ginger.
   
8. See, this is much more subtle. Well, not really.(Note: I know this photo wasn’t necessary “ruined” and was, in fact, taken because of the sexual congress in the background, but still, I felt like it belonged on this list.)
9. Why is that on the TV at a family party? The woman’s showing off the baby. The balloon in the background indicates it’s a party. So, really, why is there hardcore porn on the TV?
   
10. Not a shadow. Of all the people on this list, I have a feeling that the girl in this photo is the most embarrassed that her mishap is in circulation.
    
11. We’ve all been there, sport. And really, it’s not a bad look.
    

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from http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/secret_histories_those_ing_computer_symbols

They are road signs for your daily rituals-the instantly recognized symbols and icons you press, click, and ogle countless times a day when you interact with your computer. But how much do you know about their origins?

Power

It’s plastered on T-shirts; it tells you which button will start your Prius; it’s even been used on NYC condom wrappers. As far back back as WWII engineers used the binary system to label individual power buttons, toggles and rotary switches: a 1 meant “on,” and a 0 meant off. In 1973, the International Electrotechnical Commission vaguely codified a broken circle with a line inside it as “standby power state,” and sticks to that story even now. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, however, decided that was too vague, and altered the definition to simply mean power. Hell yeah, IEEE. Way to take a stand.

Command

What do Swedish campgrounds  and overuse of the Apple logo have in common? A lot, according to Andy Hertzfeld of the original Mac development team. While working with other team members to translate menu commands directly to the keyboard, Hertzfeld and his team decided to add a special function key. The idea was simple: When pressed in combination with other keys, this “Apple key” would select the corresponding menu command. Jobs hated it-or more precisely the symbol used to represent the button-which was yet another picture of the Apple logo. Hertzfeld recalls his reaction: “There are too many Apples on the screen! It’s ridiculous! We’re taking the Apple logo in vain!” A hasty redesign followed, in which bitmap artist Susan Kare poured through in international symbol dictionary and settled on one floral symbol that in Sweden, indicated a noteworthy attraction in a campground. Alternately known as the Gorgon loop, the splat, the infinite loop, and, in the Unicode standard, a “place of interest sign,” the command symbol has remained a mainstay on Apple keyboards to this day.

Bluetooth

You’ve probably heard the story of 10th Century Danish King, Harald Blåtand, as it relates to Bluetooth, right? He was renowned connoisseur of blueberries; at least one of this teeth was permanently stained blue; yadda yadda yadda. What you might not know is that the Bluetooth symbol is actually a combination of the two runes that represent Harald’s initials. It just so happens the first Bluetooth receptor also had a “teeth-like” shape, and was-you guessed it-blue. But the symbolic interplay doesn’t end there. As the Bluetooth SIG notes, Blåtand “was instrumental in uniting warring factions in parts of what are now Norway, Sweden, and Denmark – just as Bluetooth technology is designed to allow collaboration between differing industries such as the computing, mobile phone, and automotive markets.”

USB

Created as part of the USB 1.0 spec, the USB icon was drawn to resemble Neptune’s Trident, the mighty Dreizack. (But that doesn’t mean you should go around stabbing people or trying to domesticate dolphins with your flash drive.) In lieu of the pointed triangles at the tip of the three-pronged spear, the USB Promoters decided to alter the shapes to a triangle, square and circle. This was done to signify all the different peripherals that could be attached using the standard.

Play

While the Play/Pause symbols aren’t native to computers, they’ve made their way onto keyboards, media players (real and virtual), and every other device capable of playing audio or video. Unfortunately, neither the right-pointing triangle nor the double pause bars seem to have a definitive origin. They first appeared as tape transport symbols on reel-to-reel tape decks during the mid-1960s. In some cases, they were accompanied by the (double triangle) rewind and fast forward symbols. The direction of the play arrow indicated the direction the tape would move. Easy.

Pause

As far as the pause symbol goes, many have noted it resembles an the notation for an open connection on an electrical schematic. Some say it is simply a stop symbol with a chunk carved out of its center. We’d put our money on a more classical origin: In musical notation, the caesura indicates a-wait for it-pause.

Sleep

People were confused by “the standby state.” It seemed counter-intuitive for an electronic device to be neither on nor off. So, after the IEEE nicked the ICE’s standby button (remember?), it decided some rechristening was in order. The governing body re-named standby mode “sleep,” to invoke the state where humans are neither on nor off. Today, a crescent moon is the de facto sleep state symbol on devices in the US and Europe. Its metaphorical power is undeniable! Travel to Japan, though, and you’ll probably see the occasional Zzzz button.

At

Ah @, the only symbol on the list to earn a spot in the MoMa’s architecture and design collection. How has this fetishized symbol become so potent over the years? It probably has something to do with the net-ruling rune’s deep and mysterious origins. It has been known by many names: the snail (France and Italy), the little mouse (China), the monkey’s tail (Germany). In 1971, a Bolt, Beranek & Newman  programmer Raymond Tomlinson decided to insert the symbol between computer network addresses to separate the user from the terminal. Prior to Tomlinson’s use, the @ also graced the keyboard of the American Underwood in 1885 as an accounting shorthand symbol meaning “at the rate of.” Go back even further and things start to get hazy. Some suggest that @ has its origins in the sixth century, when monks adopted it as a better way of wirting the word ad-Latin for “at” or “toward”-that was not so easily confused with AD, the designation for Anno Domini, or the the years after the death of Christ.

Firewire

Back in 1995, a small group at Apple-the main developer of FireWire-set about designing a symbol that could accurately reflect the new technology they were working on. Originally intended as serial alternative to SCSI, FireWire’s main allure was that it promised high-speed connectivity for digital audio and video equipment. So designers opted for a symbol with three prongs, representing video, audio and data. Initially, the symbol was red, but was later altered to yellow for unknown reasons.

SBBOD

This terror is known by many names: the hypnowheel of doom, the spinning pizza, the pinwheel of death, the SBBOD (spinning beach ball of death). Apple officially calls it “spinning wait cursor,” but most Mac users hail it with a simple expletive. It first appeared in Apple’s OSX and continues to indicate that an application is not responding to system events. As many have noted, the SBBOD is actually an evolution of the wristwatch “wait” cursor that the company first used in early versions of the Mac OS. While its design origins remain mysterious, Apple likely dropped the watch as it reminded users of the time passing as the program remained perpetually hung up. Despite this, the modern iteration has proved only one thing though: it’s entirely possible to despise a pretty, hypnotic spinning wheel.

Update: Thanks to everyone who’s written in about the SBBOD’s link to NeXTstep, the descendant of OS X. As Giz reader Alex Martin notes, “[the SBBOD] was meant to represent the spinning magneto-optical disk from which NeXTstep OS and applications (very slowly) loaded.”

Ethernet

Despite being “invented” many years prior, the thing we now recognize as the Ethernet port symbol was actually designed by IBM’s David Hill. According to Hill, the symbol was part of a set of symbols that were all meant to depict the various local area network connections available at the time. The array of blocks, which are purposefully non-hierarchical, each represent computers/terminals. While Hill makes no specific mention of Bob Metcalfe’s earliest Ethernet sketches, it’s easy to see how the modern symbol uses them for inspiration.

Original art by guest artist Chuck Anderson and contributing artist Sam Spratt.

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There is no doubt that throughout the history of chess there have been many superb players who have reshaped and redefined the way the game is played. This list is an attempt to examine and categorize the greatest of those. No doubt there are many worthy names that could be added, but here is the Top 10 who I believe have rightly earned their places as the greats. The criterion used is based upon a number of factors including dominance over contemporaries, length of career at the top, contributions to chess and individual flair and brilliance. Please note this is not a head to head of who would beat who, as most modern professional players would dominate the forefathers of yesteryear due to developments in Chess Theory, but a historical look at the greats.

It may seem odd to have a computer among the greatest chess players, but that’s exactly what this machine was designed to do, play chess. The rivalry between Kasparov and IBM began in 1989 but it wasn’t until May 11, 1997, that Deep Blue finally succeeded in defeating the then World Champion Garry Kasparov in a 6 game match. It won 2, lost 1 and had 3 draws after being defeated by Kasparov the previous year, though 1996 was the first year a computer actually won a game against a reigning World Champion. The win shocked the world, as it dawned upon us that we had succeeded in creating machines that could outthink us. Kasparov accused IBM of cheating, claiming IBM had chess players intervene during the match. IBM denied the allegations. Kasparov challenged them to a rematch, but IBM refused and dismantled Deep Blue. Nowadays, computers are regularly used by professional chess players as training partners and there are even World Championships for Chess Programs. It is that contribution that leads me to put Deep Blue on this list.

Many have claimed that Paul Morphy was the greatest chess player in history, and those claims could have been proven true had he actually pursued a career in chess. After teaching himself the game as a child by watching family members play, he was considered one of the best players in New Orleans by age 9. He famously played General Winfield Scott in 1846, who thought he was being made fun of when Morphy was introduced as his opponent. Morphy went on to easily defeat him in two games, the second of which was effectively over after only 6 moves. At age 12, he defeated the visiting Hungarian Master Johann Lowenthal in 3 matches, who initially viewed the match as a waste of time. In 1857, Morphy participated in the First American Chess Congress, which he won comfortably and was considered the champion of the United States. Too young to pursue his career in Law, Morphy travelled to Europe. By 1858, he had defeated all the English masters, except Staunton, who declined after seeing the young prodigy play. Next he travelled to France where he easily defeated the leading European player, Adolf Andersson, despite being very ill with intestinal influenza. He won 7, lost 2 and drew 2 and was by then considered the strongest player in the world, despite being only 21. Morphy returned home and retired from chess, only playing very occasional games. Had he pursued his career further, there is no doubt that Paul Morphy would be a contender for the number one spot. He was arguably the most gifted chess player to have ever lived, years ahead of his time in play and theory.

A lifelong Communist, Mikhail Botvinnik held the World Championship on and off for 15 years, from 1948 to 1963 when he was eventually defeated. Not only a great player, he made significant contributions to developing the World Chess Championship after WW2. He also coached some of the greats, including Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik. He learned chess at the age of 12 and within a year had won his school championships. In 1925, he defeated the great Capablanca in an exhibition game, though the Cuban was playing simultaneous matches. In 1931, at only 20, he became the Soviet Champion, scoring 13.5/20, no mean feat considering the enormous chess talent to come out of the nation. He then went on to tie a match with Flohr, considered the number one challenger for Alekhine’s World Championship crown. By the mid 1930’s, Botvinnik was holding his own against the greatest players in the world, finishing strongly in many tournaments. The outbreak of WW2 prevented him challenging Alekhine for World Champion in 1939. In the early 1940’s, he won the right to challenge Alekhine by defeating a strong Soviet field for the title of “Absolute Champion of USSR,” however it never eventuated with Alekhine’s death in 1946. He won the newly formatted title in 1948, with a score of 14/20 against 4 of the world’s best players. Botvinnik defended it in 1951 with a draw against David Bronstein, then again in 1954 with another draw against Smyslov, until his defeat in 1957 against the same opponent. He won a rematch in 1958, before losing the title again to Mikhail Tal in 1960, then winning the rematch in 1961. Finally he lost it for the final time in 1963 to Tigran Petrosian. He retired from competitive play in 1970, where he devoted himself to the development of computer chess programs and training young Soviet players.

Alexander Alekhine won his first World Championship by defeating the legendary Jose Capablanca in 1927. At the age of 16, he was already one of Russia’s strongest players and by age 22 was considered one of the strongest players in the world, winning most tournaments he played in throughout the 1920’s and was dominating tournament play by the early 1930’s. In 1921, he was granted permission to leave Russia for a visit to the West. He never returned. Alekhine’s biggest objective was winning the World Championship from Capablanca, though his largest challenge was raising the $10,000 stakes required for a successful challenge under the London rules. He gave exhibitions of simultaneous blindfold games to try and raise the stakes, but was eventually backed by Argentinean businessmen who financed his challenge in 1927. He defeated Capablanca with 6 wins, 3 losses and 25 draws, the longest ever World Championship match until 1984. The victory shocked the chess world (including Alekhine himself), considering he had never previously won a game against Capablanca. Negotiations for a rematch dragged out for years, and never eventuated. The two became bitter rivals. Alekhine dominated international chess for the next decade, until alcoholism resulted in a noticeable decline of his abilities. Alekhine successfully defended his title against Bogoljubov in 1929 and 1934, but lost the title to Euwe in 1935. He regained it in 1937 in a rematch and held it until his death in 1946, largely due to WW2 making international chess matches virtually impossible to organise. After WW2, he was not invited to tournaments due to his alleged Nazi affiliation, though evidence suggests this was largely pragmatic.

Another player who has claims to the greatest of all time, Bobby Fischer’s worst opponent was usually himself. Beginning at age 14, Fischer won 8 US Championships, including the 1963-64 Tournament 11-0, the only perfect score in its history. By 15, he was the youngest ever Grandmaster (GM) and the youngest ever candidate for the World Championship. By the early 1970’s, he was dominating his peers on the chess board, winning 20 consecutive matches in the 1970 Interzonal. By 1972, he had won the World Championship from Boris Spassky (his biggest rival) of the Soviet Union. Many viewed this match as an extension of the Cold War. In 1975, Fischer did not defend his title due to an inability to agree on conditions with FIDE, the International Chess Federation responsible for professional chess worldwide. He became a recluse and retired from international chess, with one exception in 1992, where he played Spassky again for a reported $5,000,000 purse. This event ultimately led to an arrest warrant being issued for Fischer and he never returned to the United States. In later years, Fischer came into further conflict with his own government, often publicly making anti-American and anti-Jewish statements. When his passport was eventually revoked and he was held in Japan for 9 months under threat of extradition, Iceland granted him citizenship, where he lived until his death 3 years later. No player before or since has had such a large margin between themselves and their rivals as Fischer did in the early 1970’s and had it not been for his constant demands over playing conditions and money in World Championship matches, and his relatively brief career, he too could have been a contender for the number one spot.

Jose Capablanca was World Champion from 1921-1927, and is often considered a candidate for the greatest player in history. He was also the undisputed master of Blitz Chess (5 minutes per side). He learned the rules by age 4, and at age 13 he narrowly defeated the Cuban champion. In 1906, aged 18, he crushed US champion Frank Marshall 15-8. In the San Sebastian 1911 tournament, he stunned the chess world by defeating an extremely strong field with 6 wins, 1 loss and 7 draws. He was now recognised as a serious contender for the World Title, held by Emanuel Lasker. He challenged Lasker, but refused to agree to 17 conditions placed on the match by the Champion, many of which favoured Lasker. Finally, in 1921, they agreed on terms and Capablanca won the Championship relatively easily without losing a game. He then set about formalizing the World Championship rules (known as the London rules) to which all the leading players agreed to. In 1922, he gave a simultaneous performance against 103 opponents, winning 102 and drawing 1. From 1916-1924, he lost only 34 serious games including a run of 63 games undefeated, an incredible feat. By 1927, Alexander Alekhine had finally come up with the $10,000 needed to challenge for the World Title. Capablanca was confident of victory, as he had never lost to Alekhine, however he was defeated and lost his title, never to regain it. They did not appear together in another tournament until 1936. After losing the title, Capablanca played in more tournaments, hoping to gain a rematch but he was past his peak form, which he claimed was 1919. Errors began to creep into his game, and he slowed down considerably. He retired from serious chess in 1931, however he returned in 1934, determined to regain the title. While he had some good successes and showed he was still a world class player, he never managed to secure another chance at the title.

Wilhelm Steinitz spent 8 years as the reigning World Champion (1886-1894), though some chess historians describe him as Champion from 1866 onwards, when he defeated Adolf Andersson. Steinitz rightly deserves his place on this list not only for his World Championships, but the contribution he made to the development of modern chess. In 1873 he unveiled a new style of positional play that sharply differed from the traditional method of all out attack, and many branded it cowardly. However, by the early 1890’s it was widely considered as superior and was being used by the next generation of players. By his early 20’s, Steinitz was playing chess professionally throughout Europe, and many branded him as the “Austrian Morphy.” He moved to London in 1862 and defeated all the leading players there. His breakthrough came in 1866, where he defeated Adolf Andersson, then considered the strongest active player in the world after the retirement of Morphy. Steinitz spent 30 years at the pinnacle of the chess world, a feat of longevity unmatched by any other player, though from 1873 to 1882 he only played one competitive match, against Blackburne, which he won 7-0. He returned to competitive chess in 1882, where he finished equal first in what was considered the strongest tournament ever held. In 1886, he played his bitter rival Zukertort for the “Championship of the World” After a shaky start where he was trailing 4-1, Steinitz finished brilliantly to take the crown 12.5/7.5. Over the next 8 years, Steinitz successfully defended his crown by defeating Gunsberg and Chigorin before finally losing it to Emanuel Lasker in 1894 and unsuccessfully challenging again in 1897. Not only did Steinitz contribute greatly to the development of modern chess, he also worked hard to standardize World Championship matches. Unfortunately, he died in poverty in 1900. A sad end to a great champion.

Emanuel Lasker dominated the chess world and spent an incredible 27 years as World Champion, the longest ever. He contributed greatly to chess becoming a professional career by demanding high fees for his appearances. He began to make his mark in 1889, winning several tournaments and in 1893 won 13/13 in a New York tournament, one of the few perfect scores amongst a strong field in history. By 1894, he had a chance to win the World Title from Steinitz, which he promptly proceeded to do with 10 wins, 5 losses and 4 draws. This began his 27 year reign as World Champion. His rivals criticized him for beating an old man and denounced his victory. Lasker responded by putting in even stronger tournament performances. He defended his title in 1907 against Marshall without losing a game and then in 1908 defeated his hated rival Tarrasch in another Championship defence with 8 wins, 5 draws and 3 losses. Tarrasch blamed his defeat on the wet weather. In 1910 it was first Schlechter (who narrowly lost) and then Janawski who challenged Lasker for the crown but they both failed and the latter didn’t win a single game. In 1911, Capablanca attempted to challenge Lasker, however the German put such stringent conditions on the game that Capablanca withdrew from negotiations. WW1 put an end to any further World Championship defences. He was finally defeated by Capablanca in 1921. He was 53 at the time, well past his prime and never played another serious match until 1934 when he took up Soviet citizenship. At age 66, he finished 3rd in a very strong field in Moscow. It was hailed as a “biological miracle.” Throughout his career he constantly finished ahead of Capablanca in tournaments, despite his World Championship loss in1921. While he did not contribute a great deal to chess other than his natural brilliance, longevity and bigger purses, many Russian masters cite him as a major influence in their playing style.

Were it not for our number one, Anatoly Karpov would certainly go down as the greatest player in history. He was World Champion from 1975-1985, then from 1993-1999 (disputed) and still plays competitive chess to this day (ranked 98). He has over 160 first place tournament finishes to his name. Karpov learned the game at age 4, and joined Botvinnik’s prestigious chess school aged 12 and by 15 was a Soviet National Master, the youngest ever (tied with Spassky). In 1969, Karpov won the World Junior Chess Championship with a score of 10/11. In 1974 he surprised everyone, including himself by defeating Korchnoi and Spassky for the right to challenge Fischer for the World Title. After negotiations broke down, Fischer resigned his crown and Karpov became Champion by default. He went on to win an incredible 9 consecutive tournament victories. He successfully defended his title against Korchnoi in 1978 with a narrow victory then did so again more convincingly in 1981. In the Chess Olympiads, he lost only 2 games out of 68 throughout his career. Karpov’s last successful title defence was against Garry Kasparov in 1984 in an epic 48 game match (5 wins, 3 losses, 40 draws). The match was terminated for the health of the players (Karpov had lost 10kg in 5 months.) He lost the title the following year to Kasparov. Karpov launched 3 unsuccessful challenges in the next 5 years, narrowly losing all 3 in one of the greatest rivalries the chess world has ever witnessed. Karpov controversially regained the title in 1993 when Kasparov split from FIDE and attempted to start his own chess federation. He went on to win the 1995 Linares tournament, widely considered the strongest tournament in history, with an impressive 11/13 score. His tournament Elo rating of 2985 is the highest of any player in the history of the game. Karpov defended his World Title against Kamsky in 1996 but conceded it in 1999 in protest over FIDE rule changes to the way the Title was decided. Since then, he has played little chess, instead concentrating his life on a political career.

No other player has dominated as long or as strong as Garry Kasparov. His name is synonymous with chess. He became the youngest ever undisputed World Champion in 1985 at only 22, which he held until 1993 when a dispute with FIDE led him to set up his own organisation (PCA) and technically lost him the World Title, though most chess enthusiasts still considered him the unofficial World Champion during this period. It lasted until his loss to Kramnik in 2000. He was ranked number one almost continuously from 1986 until his retirement in 2005, which included the all time highest Elo rating of 2851, as well as a record 15 consecutive tournament victories. Kasparov began training at Mikhail Botvinnik’s chess school at age 10. In 1979, he was accidently entered into a professional tournament despite being unrated, which he duly won and by 1983 was ranked 2 in the world, behind World Champion Karpov. He challenged for the World Title and lost to Karpov in 1984 in an epic 48 game match (see entry on Karpov) but won the following year and successfully defended it 3 times against Karpov in the coming years by very tight margins. In 1993, Kasparov had a falling out with governing body FIDE. In 2007, Kasparov admitted that forming a breakaway organisation was the worst mistake of his career. The Title remained split for 13 years as Kasparov refused to rejoin FIDE. He lost the title to Kramnik in 2000. Even after losing the title, Kasparov continued to outperform his rivals winning a string of major titles and remained ranked number 1. He announced his retirement in 2005 after winning the prestigious Linares tournament for the ninth time, citing a lack of personal goals in chess. He is now pursuing a political career in his native Russia. Garry Kasparov completely dominated his peers for 20 years, and retired on top. He has contributed much to the theory of chess and rightly deserves the number 1 spot of greatest ever.

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Here are 20 solid examples of what it is and what it looks like to be a douchebag and not surprisingly, they are all happen to be guidos.

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