Record nails broken in car crash
February 14, 2009
Record nails broken in car crash
An American woman listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the world’s longest fingernails has had them broken off in a car crash.
Believe it or not: the sceptics beat God in bestseller battle
July 22, 2008
Struggling authors should keep the faith - literally. Sales of books that explore religion or spirituality have grown by more than 50 per cent in the past three years, according to online retailer Amazon.
The boom surpasses the rise in sales of books in categories such as history, which have grown by 38 per cent, and politics, up by 30 per cent, confirming that religion has become a pivotal topic in the early 21st century.
But the statistics may not make uplifting reading for believers. The most popular ‘religious’ book, says Amazon, is The God Delusion, an anti-faith polemic by Richard Dawkins, the academic who has been dubbed ‘Darwin’s rottweiler’. Second is God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, another broadside at holy citadels, by the journalist Christopher Hitchens.
Amazon said that the third most popular book in the category was Jesus of Nazareth by the Pope, followed by a perennial favourite among readers seeking spiritual fulfilment, Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist: A Fable about Following your Dream and a riposte to Dawkins entitled The Dawkins Delusion? Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine by Alister and Joanna McGrath.
But it is The God Delusion that has driven the growth of the category. Between April and June it was the fourth-bestselling book of all, beaten only by the two editions (children and adult) of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay’s latest offering. However, the publication of The God Delusion last year also prompted a 120 per cent increase in sales of the Bible.
Amy Worth, books manager at Amazon, said: ‘The God Delusion has been one of the bestselling books of the past year. People are interested in the debate it has sparked. There are 524 readers’ comments on our site. The comments are both pro and against and it’s clear that religious people are buying it. The Dawkins Delusion has also been successful, although when we had a customer-vote on The Dawkins Delusion versus The God Delusion, the winner was The God Delusion.’
Other books challenging religion have included Daniel Dennett’s Breaking the Spell and AC Grayling’s Against All Gods. Grayling, professor of philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London, said they had found an audience following the terrorist attacks of 11 September, 2001. ‘I think 9/11 has changed the nature of the debate tremendously,’ he said. ‘A decade ago people wouldn’t say “I’m a Christian” at a dinner party. You would no more speak about your religious belief than you would your sex life.
‘But after 9/11 we no longer think people should be treated differently or given exemption from certain laws because they believe something. Secularists are now saying, “OK, believe in what you like, believe in fairies at the bottom of the garden if you want to, but don’t force your beliefs on us or our children, and don’t expect preferential treatment.” To allow religious organisations more privileges and influence than a political party or trade union, for example, is to distort public debate. People are waking up to the fact it is anomalous.’
CALIFORNIA BMX ATHLETE WINS FREE FLOW TOUR EVENT AT MISSION VALLEY YMCA
July 8, 2008
Dan Norvell took the title in the BMX park contest this weekend at the Free Flow Tour’s San Diego, Calif. stop, edging out some tough competition to become a winner on the 2008 Tour. Following Saturday’s BMX action at the Mission Valley YMCA, Norvell, 16, from Murrieta, Calif., won the park competition. “This is the first contest I’ve ever won!” Norvell exclaimed following his win. “I am so excited for Salt Lake City and the Free Flow Tour finals. I’ve never ridden
outside of California, and I can’t wait to show what I can do.”
With the win, Norvell earns an automatic bid into the Free Flow Tour finals that will take place at the AST Dew Tour’s Toyota Challenge, September 11-14, 2008.
The Free Flow Tour consists of 50 events across the U.S. and features 30 skateboarding (24 park and six vert) and 20 BMX (16 park and four vert) competitions. Encompassing the ‘Flow to Pro’ theme, the two overall skate and BMX park champions and the two overall skate and BMX vert champions win a wild card spot to compete against the pros at the final stop of the AST Dew Tour, the PlayStation Pro®, in Orlando, Fla.
How safe is flying in India?
July 6, 2008
Sometime ago a passenger in the United States was off-loaded when she jokingly asked the cabin crew if the pilots were sober.
But as a frequent flier I wonder if it’s an impertinent question to ask Indian pilots.
Why? Sample this: Around 50 pilots each year in India are grounded because they had consumed alcohol before flying, the country’s civil aviation authorities say.
This year around 20 pilots have already been grounded for a brief period.
As if pilots who love their bottle were not enough, last week we had a gaggle of monitor lizards, jackals and birds saunter on the Delhi airport runway, delaying around 100 flights.
And not to speak of mid-air near-misses that we keep reading about in newspapers because of cramped airspace, lack of runways and increasing air traffic.
Then there is poor maintainence of aircraft that result in frequent flight cancellations.
A pilot friend says he often gets requests from his company to fly at extremely short notice. “I have often refused if I am partying and they ask me to fly out of turn,” he told me.
But wait there is more. Forget flying, earlier this month, a Ukrainian tourist found out how unsafe was walking, when his father died after he was hit from behind by a bus carrying crew members inside New Delhi’s airport.