The largest truffle found in Italy this year was sold for USD200,000 at a charity auction that was held simultaneously in Abu Dhabi, Macau, London and Rome on November 29.
Stanley Ho and his winning piece
(Image via Xinhuanet)
Macau casino mogul Stanley Ho was the highest bidder for the 1.08-kg white truffle. The tycoon was also the highest bidder for last year’s largest truffle, a 1.5-kg piece that fetched a record $330,000.
Truffle is a precious ingredient in Italian and French gourmet for its pungent aroma and taste. White truffle is considered the best truffle; a kilogram of normal size white truffle could cost over $5000.
A total of $284k were raised from this auction event, with a few smaller truffle being sold as well. The money will be donated to selected charities in the cities that held the synchronised auction.
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).
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 (6th) 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 7th.
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!…
UK’s Newcastle University has expelled 49 students from China and one from Taiwan after the certificates they used to gain entry were found to be forged.
Most of the students had enrolled on business studies courses which started in September, but the university became suspicious when the students were unable to keep up with work. Their applications were rechecked and forged English language and degree certificates were discovered.
Newcastle University said many of the students appeared to be victims of bogus agents based either in China or the UK; but it was necessary to exclude them to protect the interests of other properly qualified students [more on BBC]
Personally I find it hard to believe that the students were not aware of the forgery or at least suspicious of what the ‘bogus’ agents were doing to get them enrolled… wonder what kind of documents they might forge when they get into the job market.
342 video game fans joined forces in London last Saturday (Oct 25) to set a new world record for the largest gathering of people dressed as video games characters.
Cos-players celebrating the new record (Image from BBC)
The Japanese must have no idea about the existent of the world record yet… they could easily smash the record by in one of their gamers/comics/anime festivals.
Back in my school days I was taught that a person could live for 3-4 weeks without food but with water; the teaching is still applicable… but there are other factors that dictates the surviving period.
Mental strength, health condition, body weight, climates and some other factors play their part in determining the survival length; under optimal circumstances a person could live without food for 6-8 weeks or even longer in extreme cases.
I am not sure if there’s any official record for the longest survival without food; the longest record that I managed to find is 73 days during the 1981 Irish hunger strike. A total of 10 prisoners had died after 46 to 73 days of starvation in the strike.
Laurence McKeown survived the strike for 70 days, which could be the record for the longest period for a person to live without food and still surviving.
I don’t have a Wii, I don’t have an iPod and my cellphone can’t take pictures… these top 5 gadgets seem a bit futuristic to me… I think I am getting old lol.
Harper’s Bazaar magazine (Chinese edition) held their sixth annual charity gala in Beijing last Friday (Aug 22) with the attendance of some 300 celebrities, including A-list stars like Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi and former UK’s Prime Minister Tony Blair etc.
The 2008 gala managed to raise 10.35 million Yuan (~USD1.5 million) which will be channelled to the relief work in quake-hit areas in Sichuan province.
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.
