The most expensive commercially available car is the Bugatti Veyron with the hefty price tag of $1.25 million USD. With all-wheel drive, a W-16 engine with 4 turbochargers, the Veyron clocks in at 1001 hp, hits 60 mph in 2.5 seconds and tops out at 253 mph in just 55 seconds. As such it’s not only the most expensive car in the world, but the fastest and most powerful too. Since it’s also 100% street legal you can also use it to go pick up your groceries. Though, due to the Veyrons excessive consumption of fuel, you’ll probably spend more on getting there than you will on anything else.

2. The Most Expensive Pen

It looks like something you’d buy your aunt Jemima for Christmas, from the “Everything Else” category of e-Bay. Despite its strange appearance, the “Limited Edition Mystery Masterpiece” is actually worth a staggering $730,000 USD.

It was a joint creation between the Montblanc and Van Cleef & Arpels companies to celebrate their credentials in 2006, designed to show their expertise and three version exist; one set with Rubies, one set with Sapphires and one set with Emeralds. Each pen contains 20 carats of the gemstone of choice as well as no less than 840 diamonds!

3. The Most Expensive Watch

The Swiss watchmaker Vacheron Constantin marked its 250th anniversary in 2005 with the “Tour de l’Ile, Vacheron Constantin” which weighs in with a price tag of $1.5 mil USD.

A limited edition, only 7 were ever made, it’s complicated double face shows horological complications and astronomical indications composing a list of sixteen different points including a minute repeater, sunset time, perpetual calendar, second time zone, a tourbillon device, the equation of time and the representation of the night sky.

4. The Most Expensive Chess Board

The Royal Diamond Chess is an exsquisite chess board designed by Charles Hollander made in 14 carat white gold and set with an astounding 9900 black and white diamonds. It was crafted by 30 artisans who spent more than 4500 hours completing it.

Several more astounding pictures are available on the website (www.charleshollandercollection.com) and are worth checking out.

5. The Most Expensive Domain Name

Business.com was resold in 1999 for $7.5 million USD and had a place in the Guinness Book of World Records until it was dethroned on January 19, 2006. At that point the three letter domain Sex.com took its place when it sold to Boston based company Escom LLC for $12 million USD (other sources report it was as much as $16 million). The former owner stated that he wanted out of the adult entertainment business and as such decided to sell it.

Electric Light Orchestra singer and songwriter Jeff Lynne responded to allegations by calling this accusation (and the related charge of being “devil-worshippers”) “skcollob”.

Serial killer Richard Ramirez, on trial in 1988, stated that AC/DC’s music, and specifically the song “Night Prowler” on Highway to Hell, inspired him to commit murder. Reverse speech advocate David John Oates claimed that Highway to Hell, on the same album, contains backmasked messages including “I’m the law”, “my name is Lucifer”, and “she belongs in hell”. AC/DC’s Angus Young responded that “you didn’t need to play [the album] backwards, because we never hid [the messages]. We’d call an album Highway To Hell, there it was right in front of them.”

While the majority of famous backmasks have been imagined (a phenomena caused by the human brains need to explain everything, similar to how ink blot pictures work), there are several which have been acknowledged and confirmed by the artists who created them. Here are 20 of such backmasked messages.

Evil Eye by Ash
Message: “She’s giving me the evil eye, suck Satan’s c*ck.”

Said at the beginning of the song. Lead singer Tim Wheeler remarked that “Yeah, we did hide a secret message in ‘Evil Eye’, but it’s not that bad…”

Detour Through your Mind by The B-52’s
Message: “I buried my parakeet in the backyard. Oh no, you’re playing the record backwards. Watch out, you might ruin your needle.”

Rain by The Beatles
Message: “…the sun shines. Raaain. When the rain comes, they run and hide their heads”

Lennon stated that, while under the influence of marijuana, he accidentally played the tapes for “Rain” in reverse, and enjoyed the sound. The following day he shared the results with the other Beatles, and the effect was used first in the guitar solo for “Tomorrow Never Knows”, and later in the coda of “Rain”. Note that the last line is the reversed first verse of the song.

Lift Your Head Up High (and blow your brains out) by The Bloodhound Gang
Message: “Devil child will wake up and eat Chef Boyardee Beefaroni”

Said in a deep, odd-sounding voice. Preceded by “I hope you take this the wrong way / And misinterpret what I say / Rewind and let me reverse it / Backwards like Judas Priest first did”

Hate Yer State byChoking Victim
Message: “You think you’re alive motherf*cker? You’re just the walking f*cking dead, you’re a f*cking sheep, stepping on my back to stay alive. West coast, East coast, you’re all just a bunch of f*cking fools, you and the rest of this greedy f*cking world. Kill yourself! So remember, stay in school, say no to drugs, oh yeah! Hail Satan! Good night boys and girls, pleasant dreams.”

Reversal of undecipherable gibberish at beginning of song.

Rocket by Def Leppard
Message: “We are fighting with the gods of war”

A preview of another song, “Gods of War”, on the album Hysteria.

Fire On High by Electric Light Orchestra
Message: “The music is reversible, but time… (violin note) is not. Turn back! Turn back! Turn back! Turn back!”

Electric Light Orchestra were taken to court over an alleged backmasking message on their 1974 album Eldorado. This was during the time when media hysteria surrounded backmasking and many bands were taken to court, often for nonsensicle reasons. In response Electric Light Orchestra included 2 backmasked messages in their next album Face The Music, the more coherent of which is above.

Hot Poop by Frank Zappa
Message: “Better look around before you say you don’t care. Shut your f[censored]ing mouth about the length of my hair. How would you survive, If you were alive, Shitty little person?”

This profanity-laced verse, originally from the song “Mother People”, was censored by Verve Records, so Zappa edited the verse out, reversed it, and inserted it elsewhere in the album as “Hot Poop”.

Michael by Franz Ferdinand
Message: “She’s worried about you, call your mother.”

Right before the second verse. A reference to bassist Bob Hardy’s homesickness during the recording of the album. The band “wanted to do the exact opposite [of Satanic backmasking], put the most positive thing we could think of as a backwards message.”

Echo Side by Insane Clown Posse
Message: “Fuck the Devil! Fuck that shit! We believe in life legit. If you diggin’ what we say, why you throw your soul away?”

Everybody Rise by Insane Clown Posse
Message: “Yeah, if you flip this message cuz you think there’s some secret message, there ain’t shit!”
Reversal of gibberish at the end of the track. Said by Violent J.

Boys in Black by L7
Message: “All beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun. Two all beef patties.”

The formula for a Big Mac.

Nightmare/The Dreamtime by Motorhead
Message: “Now tell me, about your miserable little lives. I do not subscribe to your superstitious, narrow minded flights[incoherent] of paranoia. I and people like me, will always prevail! You will never stifle our free speech in any country in the world, ‘coz we will fight forever[incoherent].” “In a single stroke, you poor, stupid, running dogs. Why is it…”

Throughout various sections of the song. Reputedly a message to the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). The PMRC claimed that popular music, and especially rock and heavy metal music, was partially responsible for the contemporary increase in rape, teenage pregnancy, and teen suicide. The PMRC also advocated against supposed subliminal backmasking in records, and accused bands including Led Zeppelin, Rush, Pink Floyd and Queen of backmasking to promote Satanism and drug use.

Bloodbath In Paradise by Ozzy Osbourne
Message: “Your mother sells whelks in Hull”

A parody of the most famous line from The Exorcist, in which the possessed child screams “Your mother sucks c*cks in hell.”

Empty Spaces by Pink Floyd
Message: “Dear Punter. Congratulations. You’ve just discovered the secret message. Please send your answer to Old Pink, care of the funny farm, Chalfont.” (voice in background) “Roger! Carolyne is on the phone!”

Coup d’Etat by Plasmatics
Message: “The brainwashed do not know they are being brainwashed”

After the Song “The Damned” (at the end of the album).

Perfect Sense by Roger Waters
Message: “Julia, however, in the light and visions of the issues of Stanley, we changed our mind. We have decided to include a backward message. Stanley, for you, and for all the other book partners.”

Waters deliberately recorded a backward message critical of film director Stanley Kubrick, who had refused to let Waters sample breathing sounds from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

665 by Soundgarden
Message: “Hail Santa. Santa, I love you baby. My Christmas king. Santa, you’re my king. I love you, Santa baby. Got what I need.”

Throughout the song. Obviously parodies the claimed Satanic messages.

Which Describes How You’re Feeling (Demo ) – They Might Be Giants
Message: “They Might Be Giants wanted to include a verse about the suffering people of the world, but we couldn’t figure out where to put it into this song.”

Towards Destiny by Tiger Army
Message: “Tiger Army Never Die, Tiger Army Never Die, Tiger Army Never Die. As the last tiger dies, the Ghost Tigers rise. Heed the call of the werecat Transylvania. We fight on the side of fate. Toward destiny, we ascend to it forever. Hail Satan.”

After the first verse, at around 0:36. Never Die was a song on the band’s first LP, and “Tiger Army Never Die” has since become the band’s motto. The title of Tiger Army’s third release, III: Ghost Tigers Rise was taken from this message as well.

Other instances of backmasking

In the computer game Doom II, a garbled message played at the start of Map 30, spoken by the “Icon of Sin”, can be played backwards to hear “To win the game, you must kill me, John Romero.” Romero was a programmer for the game; he put the backwards message (with distortions) in to get back at the artists who put the image of his head on the final level.

Blizzard Entertainment has released two games with known hidden audio messages. In Diablo, the message “Eat your vegetables and brush after every meal” is heard as the player enters the 16th level. In Warcraft III, clicking on the Demon Hunter hero a number of times produces the backwards message “I love green trees”, which sounds (forwards) like “siege niege avalya.”

In once scene of Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, Beavis and Butt-Head hallucinate, and voices are heard in the background. The voices are the two characters speaking phrases such as “Everybody go to college, study hard, study hard.”

The Red Dwarf episode “Backwards” includes various backwards messages, including “Oi! Hey! Oi, you robbing bastards, that’s our tandem!” and “I’m addressing the one prat in the country who’s bothered to get hold of this recording, turn it round, and actually work out the rubbish that I’m saying. What a poor, sad life he’s got!” The episode revolves around a return to an Earth where time is running backwards, so most of the dialogue in the show is backward. Most of the backward messages in this episode agree with the subtitled captions explaining them, with a few exceptions.

At one point of the Spongebob Squarepants episode “Opposite Day”, Spongebob and Patrick were talking backwards. When played normally it is gibberish but when it is played in reverse it has a hidden message. The conversation played normally:

Spongebob: Kcirtap yeh.
Patrick: Pu evig I.
Spongebob: Edis etisoppo eht ot teg ot.

The conversation played in reverse:

Spongebob: To get to the opposite side.
Patrick: I give up.
Spongebob: Hey Patrick.

The one that started it all. While it may seem pixelated and dated now, it was undoubtedly the most violent video game of its time. Spawning a huge fanbase, a movie, and a plethora of sequels, most of us have probably played Mortal Kombat in at least one form of another.

Who can forget pulling in a victim with Scorpions snapping beak; “Get over here!” while following it up with a gruesome uppercut. The game used real life actors and mapped their faces onto sprites, creating a pretty strange yet realistic effect which made it all the more awesome when Sub Zero ripped someones head off, leaving their spine dangling below. Fatality!

Originally released in 1997, this is an oldie but goldie. It’s still a thoroughly enjoyable game and was a breakthrough in its time with video scenes from inside the car and real world physics.
Think Mad Max on steroids and you’ll start to get a feel for Carmageddon which is set in a post apocalyptic world where the car rules. The idea is to race against a handful of other modified death cars through various levels, including deserts, industrial areas and populated cities, all to the tune of Fear Factories Demanufacture album (hell yes!). However, if you don’t feel like racing you can hunt down and destroy your enemies one by one until you’re the only survivor. Amongst all this, not only can you run over pedestrians, but you’re actively encouraged to do so, gaining extra time and credits for combo bonuses and “artist impressions” (which you get by utterly mangling bodies).

Carmageddon caused media scandal when it first launched and in most countries a “safe” version was released with zombies, robots or aliens instead of people. In some countries the game was banned completely. None of this stops it from being an absolute classic and the first go-anywhere 3D driving game which spawned 2 successful sequels.

3. Thrill Kill

Originally called S & M for Slaughter and Mutilation, Thrill Kill for PlayStation was never released, it was axed 2 weeks before it was due to go out. EA said that they didn’t want to “publish such a senselessly violent game” and stated it was so offensive that they wouldn’t sell the game to another publisher either. Fortunately for us former employees of EA released it onto the internet which are still available. The pirated version was the one and only reason I bought a PlayStation.

Incredibly simple, Thrill Kill consisted of only a single room where up to 4 opponents fight to the death. The usual life bar is replaced with a kill meter, which grows as you do more damage to your opponent, eventually you’re able to activate Thrill Kills which were always awesomely brutal, sometimes sexual, moves like dismemberment, mutilation, cattle prods down the throat or crushing skulls with stilts. Oh yes. One of Cleetus’ lethal finishing moves was to tear the head off his opponent and drink the blood that leaked out of his victim’s severed neck.The story goes that the 8 characters all led devious lives and died in various ways, have gone to hell. A modern day hell which reflects todays real life. Marukka, the God of Secrets has pitted them against each other, promising to give rebirth to the one survivor. Each character is battling for self-preservation and the hope to be born again.

Cleetus is a redneck cannibal. The only victim that he didn’t eat escaped minus a leg, which Cleetus carries around for good luck (and occasionally uses as a weapon).

Dr. Faustus, a master surgeon, died from an infection after installing his stainless steel jaws, made from a bear trap.

Oddball was a top FBI agent who hunted down serial killers. He began to admire them and slowly slipped into insanity. Oddball is extremely intelligent, cunning, and without remorse. Pity, sympathy, and compassion have no meaning to him. Although his arms are bound in his cozy little straight jacket, he has learned to adapt, as any good predator should.

2. Postal 2

One feature in Postal 2 is the ability to pick up cats as an inventory item. When used, the player shoves the barrel of the currently equipped firearm into the cat’s anus, as a ’silencer’. Every time a shot is fired, the cat meows in apparent agony, and the gunshot is muffled. After several shots the cat will be killed and will fly from the end of the weapon.

Any game where you can use a cat as a silencer has to be worth a mention. Highly violent, both Postal and Postal 2 met with much protest from various activist groups. However, the Running With Scissors software company who created the series responded by saying that the amount of violence in the game is entirely dependent upon the player. In fact, it’s actually possible (though very difficult) to complete the entire game without harming anyone.

The game is split from Monday to Friday and the tasks are simple things on a to-do list like ‘Cash Paycheck’, ‘Confess sins’, ‘Get milk’, etc. To accomplish these seemingly simple tasks, the player can chose to be peaceful or utterly, all out violent with unique gameplay changes for each choice.Some violent features include the ability to decapitate people with shovels, and then kick their heads around or play fetch with a dog, cops who beat innocent NPCs to death with batons, even if the NPC surrenders and begs for mercy and setting fire to people with gasoline, matches, napalm and moltov cocktails.Not content with just being violent, Postal 2 is also pretty disgusting. You have the ability to urinate on people, causing them to vomit in disgust. You can also urinate on food items which are then eaten and regurgitated by cops. Using an Antrhax-filled cow’s head as a weapon causes victims to vomit blood. Oh and you can also stun gun people til they cower in fear and urinate themselves..Featuring ATF, SWAT, the National Guard, psycho butchers, religious cults, the Taliban and Gary Coleman, Postal 2 has earned itself a violent and revolting reputation and is illegal in at least 3 countries.

1. Manhunt

Quite possibly the most violent game in the list, Manhunt revolves around James Earl Cash who has been sentenced to death by lethal injection. His injection is replaced with a sedative and Cash is abducted by a wealthy Hollywood director. The director has a thing for Snuff flicks and sets up Cash as his latest star, butchering local gangs on film in the most violent and horrific ways possible.

The director communicates with Cash via an earpiece and security cameras record his murders. For extra points the player must carry out more gruesome kills. These range from suffocation by plastic bag, decapitation, jamming a crowbar in the enemys skull, etc.

Manhunt was banned outright in several countries when it was launched and later in the UK the game was linked to an actual murder case of a 14 year old, Stefan Pakeerah by a 17 year old, Warren Leblanc. Stefans mother claimed that Leblanc had been obsessed with Manhunt after he pleaded guilty in court and as such most vendors in the UK removed Manhunt from their stocks. This led to a significant increased demand from other retailers and internet auction sites. Police denied any link, but it still strikes a chilling cord. Especially when you consider that Leblanc murdered his friend by stabbing him with a claw hammer, identical to an execution shown in Manhunt.

1. African Elephant

Record: Heaviest living land animal.
10.6 metres (35 ft) and 12 tonnes.

The African Bush Elephant (Loxodonta africana), of the order Proboscidea, is the largest living land animal. At birth it is common for an elephant calf to weigh 100 kg (225 pounds). The largest elephant ever recorded was a male, shot in Angola in 1974. He weighed 12,272 kg or 13.5 tons (27,000 lb), with an overall length (trunk to tail) of 10.6 m (35 ft) and a shoulder height of 4.2 m (13.7 ft).

2. The Blue Whale

Record: Heaviest living animal.
33 metres (110 ft) and 181 tonnes.

The Blue Whale is currently the largest living animal by length and weight. It has been recorded to be as long as 33 metres (110 ft) and weigh as much as 181 tonnes. Hunting has made the Blue Whale almost extinct and in 2002 there were estimated to be between 5,000 and 12,000 left.

3. Amphicoelias

Record: Tallest, Longest and Heaviest animal to have lived.
40-60 metres (131-196 ft) and 122 tonnes.

Amphicoelias was a herbivorous dinosaur which is thought to have grown up to 40-60 metres (131-196 ft) in length, and weigh up to 122 tonnes. As such it would have been both longer and heavier than the blue whale as well as being the biggest dinosaur to have lived. Controversy surrounds this creature however, since only one fossil was ever found, and it was lost shortly after its discovery in the 1870’s. The field notes and drawings still exist. Other large dinosaurs include the estimated 45m long Seismosaurus, the 44m long Bruhathkayosaurus and the incredibly tall 18m high Sauroposeidon who would’ve easily been able to poke its head into the 4th or 5th story window of a building.

4. Bootlace worm

Record: Longest living animal.
55 metres (180 ft).

The bootlace worm currently holds the record as the longest living animal and is found along the coasts of Britain. A specimen washed ashore in the aftermath of a severe storm near St Andrews, Scotland in 1864, and had a length of more than 55 metres (180 ft).

5. Great Barrier Reef

Record: Largest superorganism (an organism made up of micro-organisms).
Covers 2,600 km.

The Great Barrier Reef in Australia is the world’s largest coral reef system, composed of roughly 3,000 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for 2,600 kilometres (1,616 mi) over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres (132,974 sq mi). The CRC Reef Research Centre estimates the age of the present, living reef structure at 6,000 to 8,000 years old. The reefs cannot be considered a living organism, since it is built by billions of tiny organisms known as coral polyps.

6. Armillaria ostoyae

Record: Largest living thing by area.
Covers 8.9 sq. km.

Armillaria ostoyae is a fungus commonly known as a Honey mushroom, and sometimes called Shoestring Rot. It attacks trees and is able to travel great distances under the bark or between trees in the form of black “shoestrings”.

One specimen, discovered in the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon, U.S. was found to be the largest fungal colony in the world, spanning 8.9 km² (2200 acres) of area. This organism is estimated to be 2400 years old.

While an accurate estimate has not been made, the total mass of the colony may be as much as 605 tons. If this colony is considered a single organism, then it is the largest known organism in the world by area.

7. Pando, The Aspen Colony

Record: Heaviest & Oldest living organism.
Covers 4.3 sq km and weighs approx 6,000 tonnes.

The Aspen is a part of the willow family and may not seem very impressive at only 15-25 metres tall, but when you consider that all species of Aspens grow in large colonies derived from a single seedling they start to get a whole lot more interesting. They spread by means of root suckers and new stems (the Aspen itself) grows around 40 metres from the first, or parent tree. This enables the Aspen colony to survive forest fires, since the root system is buried underground below the heat source.

While each tree lives around 40 to 150 years above ground, the root system of the colony sends up new stems as older ones die out, as such the Aspen colony is extremely long lived, often thousands of years. One colony in Utah, nicknamed Pando the Trembling Giant, is claimed to be 80,000 years old. This amazing fact makes it the oldest known living organism.

Pando was discovered in 1992 and is estimated to be 6,000 tonnes which would also make it the heaviest known living organism. Pando encompasses 43 hectares (that’s 107 acres or 430,000 square metres) and has roughly 47,000 stems. Pando is latin for “I spread”.

1. Echolocation and Ultrasound

Echolocation is very similar to SONAR (SOund Navigation And Ranging) where a sound is produced, usually an ultrasound (very high frequency) and the time measured for the sound to bounce back or echo is used to calculate how far away objects are from the source. Several animals have this ability, most notably the bat which uses it to navigate in the almost pitch black caves where it lives and to catch insects into the night. Typically bats call out at a frequency of 14,000 Hz to well beyond 100,000 Hz and can be identified by their frequency. Bat detecting machines are used to record the ultrasounds, since they are virutally all outside human hearing range, and databases or libraries of typical calls have been collected so that specialists can identify specific bat species for whatever reasons.

Whales, dolphins, porpoises and orcas use a similar method, emitting a focused beam of high-frequency clicks. The only known mammals (other than below) to use echolocation are shrews and tenrecs (very similar to the shrew) which emit a series of ultrasonic squeaks. Although unlike bats they use it to investigate their habitat rather than finding food.

Human echolocation has also been known to occur in humans, though only ever in blind people. One remarkable case is of Daniel Kish who clicks his tongue and listens to the echo. Although completely blind, he is able to ride a bike and hike in unknown wilderness. He teaches his echolocation method to other blind people.

Ben Underwood, a young, blind boy, discovered echolocation at the age of five. He is able to detect the position, size and composition of objects near him, and sometimes their shape, also by clicking his tongue. As such he is able to run, play basketball, skateboard and rollerblade.

2. Infrared Cameras or Thermo-Receptors

The Pit Viper is so called because of a deep pit on either side of its head, just between its eyes and nostrils. These pits are sensitive to infrared radiation to help it find and catch smaller prey. Having two pits allows stereo vision, enabling the snake to determine distance and direction, similar to how infrared cameras work. Experiments have shown that in pitch black, and without the sense of smell, the pit viper can strike accurately at moving objects that are less than 0.2°C warmer than the background temperature.

Other animals with this ability, though not as good as the Pit Viper, are rattlesnakes, boas, vampire bats and some butterflies.

3. Magnetic Fields

The loggerhead turtle has a 10 year migration period in which it circles round the Atlantic Ocean. A study took 79 newly born loggerheads and put them in a circular tank. The tank was surrounded by a big electrical coil and the scientists messed around with it, generating magnetic fields to match those of northern Florida, Portugal and other places on the turtles 10 year circuit. The turtles responded and turned in the direction that they would had they been in migration out in the real world. Nobody is quite sure how the turtles do it, but they detect the magnetic field which surrounds the Earth and grows weaker or stronger depending on where you are.

4. Electrical Fields

Various sharks have small black dots along their head, face and jaw, which looks like they forgot to shave. In fact these black dots are small pores which lead to little jelly filled canals. The jelly is ultra conductive and the voltage at the pore is measured against the voltage within the jelly. This voltage difference gives the shark an extremely sensitive detection to electrical fields in water, more so than any other animal. The bonnethead shark can detect sensitivities as low as 1 nV/cm (1/1,000,000,000 of a volt measured in a centimeter-long ampulla). For comparison that’s similar to the electrical field generated by an AA battery connected to electrodes about 10,000 miles, roughly 5 million times more sensitive than anything a human could detect. Since living creatures produce electrical fields via muscle contractions and movement, the shark can easily find prey with this method, even flounder and other fish who bury themselves under sand. Additionally, wounded prey thrash more and bleed into the water releasing charged electrolytes which creates an electrical field which can be as much as 3 times stronger than uninjured prey, therefor in bloody or dark waters the shark has a clear advantage.

5. Ultraviolet World

Most insects, some birds and a few reptiles can see into the near Ultraviolet which is a shorter wavelength than the light visible to humans. Bees are reputed to be able to see ultraviolet light very well which helps them find and chose which flowers to collect pollen from. Recently scientists were amazed to discover a whole new world, hidden in plain sight, when they took special ultraviolet photographs of common plants and flowers. This revealed beautiful patterns which are undetectable to the human eye. Likewise many birds and butterflies have patterns on their plumage or wings only observable by ultraviolet.

Korfball is a mixed team sport consisting of four men and four women on a team, with the game loosely resembling a mix in between basketball and netball. The team is split into two divisions, an attack division and a defense division, with each division having 2 of each sex in.

The object of the game is to score a korfball (a football sized ball) into a basket which is 11.5ft tall. One of the major differences inbetween korfball and its sister sports of basketball and netball is that you can only shoot if no opposition of the same sex is inbetween you and the post, and is not within arms reach. Men can only mark men, and women can only mark women, so this adds a large element of strategy by working off players of the opposite sex to gain an advantage over defenders.

You are not allowed to run with the ball, nor are you allowed to bounce it. Play is formulated by passing the korfball around the pitch within your division to gain a tactical advantage in attack so you can shoot and (hopefully) score. The divisions are swapped round after every two goals that are scored, meaning that players have to be both good in attack and defense.

2. Chess Boxing

Do you have brains and brawn? Can you push a pawn and take a punch? If so, you may want to check out the World Chess Boxing Organization, which is planning events for this year in Los Angeles; Paris; Prague, Czech Republic; Berlin; Zurich, Switzerland; and Moscow.

The rules of the game are pretty straightforward: A bout starts with a four-minute round of chess, with each competitor having 12 minutes on his chess clock for the game. When the bell rings, the chessboard is rolled off and the opponents come out punching for a two-minute round of boxing. Between rounds, there’s a one-minute pause, during which competitors change their gear. After that, the chessboard comes back in, the pieces in the same position as they were at the end of the previous round. The rotation continues for 11 rounds unless a checkmate or a knockout decides the contest first.

3. Sepak Takraw

Sepak is Malaysian for kick and a Takraw is a woven ball and so literally translated, Sepak Takraw is kick ball. Native to South East Asia, played in Thailand, Malaysia, Laos and Indonesia, the rules are similar to volleyball with one significant difference: hands are not allowed.

Two teams of three players play across a net on a court roughly the same size as a badminton court and use their heads, knees and feet to hit the ball back and forth. First team to 15 points wins.
There’re various incredible moves which players utilize to gain advantage, including scissor and bicycle kicks, the sunback spike (which involves standing with your back to the ball then jumping and kicking it past your shoulder) and the almost impossible roll spike (the same but over the opposite shoulder).

The cockroach has a bad reputation as a dirty, annoying bug and most of us would as soon stomp on them as look at them. Spare a thought for the cockroach though, who, in the wild, is sometimes victim to a bizarre and truly macabre ritual.

The Emerald cockroach wasp is a tiny wasp with unusual, horrifying mating habits. The wasp searches out a cockroach and lands on top of it. It then stings its victim twice. The first sting is in the thoracic ganglion region which mildly paralyzes the front legs of the insect. This facilitates the second sting at a carefully chosen spot in the roach’s brain, in the section that controls the escape reflex. As a result of this second sting, the roach will now fail to produce normal escape responses.
This allows the wasp to then lead her hapless victim to the wasp’s burrow, by pulling one of the roach’s antennae in a manner similar to a leash, riding it like a cowboy rides a horse. Once they reach the burrow the real horror begins. The wasp lays an egg on the roach’s abdomen and proceeds to fill in the burrow entrance with pebbles, more to keep other predators out than to keep the roach in.

The stung roach, its escape reflex disabled, will simply rest in the burrow as the wasp’s egg hatches. The newly hatched larva wastes no time and like a scene out of Aliens proceeds directly to the nearby roach, chews its way into the abdomen and ever so slowly, over a period of eight days, the wasp larva consumes the roach’s internal organs in an order which guarantees that the roach will stay alive, at least until the larva enters the pupal stage and forms a cocoon inside the roach’s body.
After about four weeks, the fully-grown wasp will emerge from the roach’s body to begin its adult life.

2. The Spotted Rose Snapper Fish & Cymothoa exigua

The Spotted Rose Snapper Fish, which lives off the coast of California, is oft victim to another freaky parasite. The Cymothoa exigua parasite, a type of crustacean, swims into the fish’s mouth and attaches itself at the base of the poor Snappers tongue. It leeches blood from its victim and as it grows, the tongue withers and dies due to lack of blood supply. Eventually when the tongue dies completely, either diminishing or falling off, the parasite then switches places with the stump and acts as a working replacement for the organ, allowing the fish to use it just like a normal tongue.

The parasite spends the rest of its life living off both the fish’s blood and bits of food that enter the fish’s mouth. The Cymothoa exigua is the only parasite known to effectively replace a body organ.

3. The common crab & Sacculina

Imagine having your body invaded, rendered infertile and then used as a mating playground. That’s exactly what happens with the Sacullina barnacle.

They bear no resemblance to the barnacles that cover ships and piers, in fact they resemble more of a gelatinous blob. The female Sacculina larva finds a crab and walks along it until it finds a joint, a weak spot in the crabs armor. It then molts, injecting its soft body into the crab while its discarding its own shell. The Sacculina slowly grows and branches out in the crab like the roots of a tree, eventually emerging as a sac on the underside of the crab’s rear thorax, where normally the crab’s own eggs would be incubated.

When a female Sacculina is implanted in a male crab it will interfere with the crab’s hormonal balance. This sterilizes it and changes the bodily layout of the crab to resemble that of a female crab by widening and flattening its abdomen, among other things. The female Sacculina has even been known to cause the male crabs to perform mating gestures typical of female crabs.

Later, along comes the male Sacculina and finds its counterpart on the underside of a crab. He then enters and fertilizes her eggs. The crab (male or female) having essentially been rewired then cares for the eggs as if they were its own, having been rendered infertile by the parasite.

4. Zombie Snails & Leucochloridium paradoxum

The Amber Snail, like any common snail, eats all sorts of disgusting things. To set the scene, let’s take a look at the Amber Snail. Watch as it inches its way up the leaves of a plant and finally gets to tuck into its reward: a steaming, nutritious pile of bird droppings. MmmHmm! Unfortunately, unbeknownst to the snail, it’s also consuming hundreds of unborn flatworm eggs. The eggs hatch out in the following days and grow into a somewhat larger parasite which then moves into the snails two antennae, vastly enlarging them in the process. This means that the snail is unable to retract entirely into its shell.

It gets worse. The flatworm, not content with taking over the snails body, also takes over its mind. It’s not entirely known how it does so, suffice to say it modifies the snails behavior and the snail, contrary to its nature, now wants to seek out open, exposed areas. So up it goes, inching its way into the canopy above, finally resting in an open area as the perfect target. It’s even complete with enlarged, pulsating antennae. Along comes a hungry bird which plucks off the antennae, usually leaving the snail relatively unharmed (it can regenerate new appendages).

The flatworm slowly matures into its sexual stage and lays its eggs in the birds gut. The bird, flies along and goes about its business, leaving droppings on the leaves of the flora. Along comes a snail to feast on this juicy morsel, and the cycle continues..

The BNP is renowned as a far right-wing, racist (whites-only) and homophobic (against gay rights) political party in the UK and has become slightly more popular in recent years due to its policy on being “committed to stemming and reversing the tide of non-white immigration”. See Wikipedias Entry – British_National_Party – Racial_and_immigration_policies for more information.

The .sql file, which is an import for databases like MySQL, contains the title, full name, full address and phone number of 12,793 activists who support and/or were or are members of the BNP. Most entries also contain email addresses and brief notes left by, I can only assume BNP officials, on the member in question.

The Guardian article is a good report on what happened and includes the comment:

Another wrote: “God help anyone who is in the army, the prison service, health care, police officer or a teacher.”
Since 2004, police officers have faced dismissal if found to be members of the BNP.

And indeed many BNP members found in the list fall into these categories. Here is a brief analysis of BNP .sql file, excluding any details which could identify people:

Army

‘Soldier’
2 results

‘Infantry’
2 results

‘Army’
35 results. Mostly people who previous served or are retired servicement, small number are still active. Results include:
Civil servant. Previously a horticulturalist. Ex-serviceman (Army musician). Hobbies: member of local brass/dance bands (assists in teaching).
Engineer. City & Guilds (motor engineering). Ex-serviceman (Army). Hobbies DIY, dogs
Machinist (printing rewinder). Ex-serviceman (Army Infantryman). City & Guilds (basic teaching). Published article writer. Hobbies: history. Willing to give teaching re. BNP home-schooling

‘Marine’
13 results including:
Proof of entitlement seen
Ex-serviceman (Royal Marine Commandos). HGV driver. Hobbies: stamp collecting, British history

‘Navy’
12 results

‘Royal’
19 results

‘Civil Servant’
13 results
Some retired, some active.

Emergency Services

‘Police’
22 results
Almost all are retired or former policemen and women. A small number were still active including:
Under 16s Comps slip. Discretion required re. employment concerns
Police officer

‘Emergency’
1 result

‘Ambulance’
1 result

‘Fire’
6 results

‘Social’
7 results

Health

‘NHS’
5 results

‘Doctor’
5 results
A further 40 entries had the title Dr.

‘Nurse’
10 results

Education

‘Education’
3 results including:
Retired teacher. Diploma in Education. Commission in Territorial Army (Infantry). Adjutant of regiment’s Old Comrades Association. Member of Yorkshire County Cricket Club. Hobbies: landscape painting, gardening

‘Teacher’
28 results including:
Activist (discretion requested)
Teacher (secondary school)
Teacher (English). Advanced plumber
Teacher (ICT, secondary school)

‘Lecturer’
10 results

‘School’
6 results

‘Professor’
1 result

‘College’
3 results

‘University’
5 results

Other

‘Vet’
13 results
Technology teacher. BA (Hons) with Qualified Teacher status. Ex-serviceman (RAF). Gulf War I veteran. Pet-shop owner. Hobbies: fitness, fantail doves, koi carp, gardening

‘Plumber’
9 results

‘Government’
5 results

‘Prison’
8 results

One result included a note:
Report from Mike Howson 2/8/07: member describes himself as a witch: potential embarrassment if active

Note that the database is a list of members from 2007 and 135 members had notes stating they would not be renewing, such as:
Will not be renewing 07 (elderly)
Will not be renewing 07 (finances)
Will not be renewing 07 (change of circumstances)
Will not be renewing 07 (seriously ill)
Will not be renewing 07 (unhappy with order)

Many more entries in the list are simply former members and so accuracy is not certified. One thing you can count on for sure though, is that next year there are going to be a lot of entries with ‘Will not be renewing 08 (unhappy with having their full details becoming available to the public).

The following links have more information on the background story:

• BNP membership list leaked online – The Guardian
• BNP activists’ details published – BBC News
• BNP membership list leaks online – The Register