Care to stay in a Toilet-Home?

Care to stay in a Toilet-Home?

Notice any resemblance to any of your household item? No?

Now a better look from the top, manage to notice it by now? Yes, you're right! It's a toilet-shaped home, the world's one and only toilet house. The house design was brainchild by Sim Jae-duck, chairman of the organising committee of the Inaugural General Assembly of the World Toilet Association to mark the association's first general assembly in November.

Worth US$1.6 million, the 4,508-sq-foot two-storey concrete and glass structure features a couple of bedrooms, four deluxe toilets, and even a small garden in the front of the house. The toilets have features that range from elegant fittings to the latest in water conservation devices. The house located in Suweon, South Korea is named Haewoojae, which signifies in Korean "a place of sanctuary where one can solve one's worries". He hopes his toilet house will highlight the global need for better sanitation. Before he moves in, anyone who is flush with funds can rent it for US$50,000 a day, with proceeds going to his campaign to provide poor countries with proper sanitary facilities.

Served as a Mayor in Suweon from 1995-2002, His drive to transform toilets into "clean and beautiful resting places imbued with culture" earned him the nickname "Mayor Toilet". His achievements motivates him to launch the Korea Toilet Association in 1999. The proposed World Toilet Association might be seen to rival squeaky-clean Singapore, where the World Toilet Organisation is based, but Sim has said the work of the two bodies will not overlap. They are dedicated to provide and promote clean sanitation to the more than 2 billion people around the world who live without toilets.

Epidemics caused by poor sanitation worldwide cost two million lives a year. Worldwide, 2.6 billion people live without toilets. Elsewhere, poorly designed flush toilets waste vast amounts of potential drinking water. "Toilets were once regarded as stinking and dirty places. Not any more. They must be treated as the sanctuary that protects human health," Sim said. Ironically, Sim was born in a restroom which is intentional by her mother because traditional beliefs that people born in restrooms will enjoy longer life!

Source : koreatimes.co.kr

Riding a Horse in a Plastic Ball

Riding a Horse in a Plastic Ball

In 2006 at the Stockholm International Horseshow, Oliver Garcia rides a horse inside a huge plastic ball.

Good horsey, don't panic or else I have nowhere to run.

World Record nobody wishes to attempt

World Record nobody wishes to attempt

This is one world record that nobody wishes to neither attempt nor break. That's because this record is about "Greatest Distance Thrown in a Car Accident" and is currently held by Matthew McKnight. The 29-year-old record-holder lived to tell about being thrown 118 feet by a car that hit him while traveling about 70 mph. He was struck on Oct. 26, 2001, while trying to help accident victims along Interstate 376 in Monroeville, about 15 miles east of Pittsburgh.

He suffered two dislocated shoulders plus a broken shoulder, pelvis, leg and tailbone. He spent two weeks in the hospital and 80 days in rehab before returning to work in April 2002. McKnight is a volunteer firefighter and paramedic, though he was not on duty when he stopped to help the accident victims. He works full-time as a communications specialist at Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh.

McKnight's emergency room physician, Dr. Eric Brader, submitted paperwork for the record, which Guinness recognized in 2003. It was not listed in the book until the 2008 edition, however. "I thought it was a big joke. Dr. Brader is known for joking around a lot," McKnight told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "But when he brought (the paperwork) to me, I saw how serious he was." Mcknight hopes that nobody will ever break his record for a good reason.

Source : MSNBC News

M. Schumacher the Fastest Taxi Driver

M. Shumacher the Fastest Taxi Driver

When one cabbie in southern Germany apparently was not driving fast enough, his customer, former Formula One champion Michael Schumacher, took the wheel himself. The seven-times world champion shocked a cab driver by taking over the wheel in order to be on time for a flight.

Schumacher, 38, flew into the aerodrome at the Bavarian town of Coburg on Saturday and took a taxi to the village of Gehuelz, 30 kilometres away, to pick up a new puppy - an Australian Shepherd dog called "Ed". But when the former Formula One ace, plus his wife and two children, caught a taxi back to the airport they were short on time and, afer a polite request, cab driver Tuncer Yilmaz watched in wonder as Schumacher took the wheel.

"I found myself in the passenger seat, which was strange enough, but to have "Schumi" behind the wheel of my cab was incredible, he drove at full throttle around the corners and over-took in some unbelievable places." Mr Yilmaz was well rewarded for the unusual journey - on top of the 60 euros (88 US dollars) fare, he was also given a 100 euros (146 US dollars) tip.

Schumacher’s spokeswoman, Sabine Kehm, confirmed the story. She said Schumacher had flown in from Switzerland on Saturday on his private jet to buy a puppy from a breeder in the town of Gesuelz. The German track ace, who now lives in Switzerland, retired from Formula One in 2006 after a glittering career and, despite test drives for his old team Ferarri, has insisted there is no chance of a return to racing.

Source : BBC News