A woman was attacked by a polar bear at Berlin Zoo on Saturday after jumping into the enclosure area; she was rescued and survived with a few (probably really huge) bite marks. Video below, view at your own discretion…

It’s unsure why she jumped (certainly not accidental); it’s beyond stupidity. She’s lucky though, that the bears have lost some predator instinct after years in enclosure.

The world’s largest model railway and train set, located in the Miniatur Wunderland, a private museum in Hamburg, Germany…

There are 1 million industrial robots around the world (as of Dec 2008), and Japan has the highest density with 295 robots for every 10,000 manufacturing workers.

Top 10 countries by robot density

Singapore and Korea are second and third respectively on the chart, but significantly behind Japan in numbers [illustration by Mike Vella; more on IEEE]

[Updated Dec 17] E! Entertainment recently released its “25 Sexiest Men of the World” 2008 list, in which Canadian-Chinese star Edison Chen somehow ranked higher (15th) than Chinese-Japanese actor Takeshi Kaneshiro (20th).

Picture of Philippines actor Dingdong Dantes
Dingdong Dantes

Well, Edison might be sexier than Takeshi in E!’s point of views (I guess the sex pics might help a bit), but the sexiest Asian title goes to Dingdong Dantes (3th) from the Philippines instead.

Bollywood actor John Abraham is the other Asian celebrity that made the list, and he too was ranked higher than the two Chinese stars at 10th.

This E! sexiest men list is a bit unique as the chosen celebs covered a wide range of different nationalities and ethnicity as compared to most other sexiest/hottest lists which are dominated by Hollywood stars. Arguable… but nice try.

Here are the top 25 sexiest men of the world according to E!

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Singapore tops the Asian ranking in The Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009 conducted by the World Economic Forum (and partners) using both publicly available data and the Executive Opinion Survey.

The annual report assesses the ability of countries to provide high levels of prosperity to their citizens, which in turn depends on how productively a country uses available resources. Thus, the index measures the set of institutions, policies, and factors that set the sustainable current and medium-term levels of economic prosperity.

The top 10 overall ranking are USA, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Singapore, Finland, Germany, Japan and Canada.

The top 10 Asian economic entities are Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, China and UAE.

The Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games has officially ended. Set aside a few controversies, it was a job well done by the Chinese organiser in running the event. Kudos for that.

The closing ceremony was ok for me; nothing much different than the opening… visually pleasing but not heart warming. I am a bit worried for London though; their short appearance last night was quite bland.

Beijing Olympics will be remembered as the Olympic with greatness. Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt obviously stole the spotlight… a few other personal favourite winners include Yelena Isinbayeva, Guo Jingjing, Zhang Ning, Roger Federer, Matthias Steiner, Japanese softball team and Argentine men soccer team etc.

It has been a wonderful event, but I am glad it has finally ended. The Olympics had taken away too much of my working (and sleeping) hours for the past two weeks… plenty of catchup needed now.

It’s goodbye to Beijing, and hello to London in 2012.

Some random news about Beijing 2008 Olympics

The power of love

Matthias Steiner of Germany was the men’s +105kg weightlifting champion on Tuesday. When I first saw the picture, I thought of how romantic this guy was… I only knew a day later that the woman in the picture was his wife Susann, who died in a car accident last year, and it sparked plenty of emotions…

Picture of German weightlifter Matthias Steiner with his wife photo at Beijing Olympics 2008
Matthias with his gold medal and a photo of his late wife (Image via Beijing2008)

This will probably be the most memorable Beijing Olympics’ photo for me… it draws love, sadness, romance, pride, commitment and loyalty. If I am a woman I would probably fall in love with this guy.

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A sushi wedding cake, some hot chillies, a few bulls running, a knighted penguin and a crime fighting turtle…

Sushi wedding cake

Sushi wedding cake in Boston
Sushi wedding cake… (Image from Christina, via Xoryst)

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