Today is the 57th anniversary of the first patent on the bar code. Inventors Norman Woodland and Bernard Silver filed the patent in October 1949 in the US, and it was granted on October 7, 1952. The original patent was for a system that would encode data in circles (a bulls eye pattern), so that it could be scanned in any direction.

Woman survives being run over by a train

Shocking CCTV images stunned Israel earlier this year, when a 56-year old woman ended up in hospital after attempting to commit suicide by throwing herself in front of a high-speed passenger train, and miraculously survived.

Security camera’s caught the whole incident. You can see on the video that the woman walks onto the train tracks in the Israeli city of Beit Yehoshua as a bystander and possibly a railroad worker watch her lie down. Seconds later, a train passes by and presumably running her over. Howver, after the train passed, the woman got up, brushed herself off, walked back to her car and drove away.

The woman was tracked down by local authorities and brought to a local hospital for treatment. As a miracle, she only suffered minor injuries to her head. She later said to local media she wanted to end her life after losing her job as a travel agent. Watch the video here yourself:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUrZ6gcnGn8

A small town in the world's biggest nation

A Chinese group of small people (‘dwarfs’) got so sick and tired of the bullying and teasing they decided to set up their own village.

To escape discrimination from ‘normal sized’ people, the dwarfs in the Kunming area of Southern China decided to move away from their towns and villages to a place where they will all be treated equally. They found themselves a mountain area and turned it into a tourist attraction by building mushroom houses and living and dressing like fairy tale characters. There are now approximately 120 residents and they have banned anyone who is taller than 4’ft 3’’. They set up their own police and fire service. The only question which remains is why would people move away from society for being cruel to them and then ultimately invite them up to view them as a tourist attraction?

Assumed rapist files charges against victim for not disclosing her HIV infection

The Helsingborgs Dagblad, a local Swedish daily, reported recently that a man who is accused of sexually assaulting a young woman has pressed charges against the woman, for not disclosing she had HIV while he attacked her.

In August 2009 the man and woman took a taxi together in the Swedish town of Helsingborg. He told her she should come up to his flat so he could give her money for the taxi fare. When she arrived upstairs, the man forced her to have intercourse and participate in several sexual activities. She told police she begged him to use a condom, but without success. When she creamed at him she had young children waiting at home, he let her go, according to police records.

The man claimed he believed she was a prostitute and had paid her 3500 Swedish krona (around £315 or $480). He told police the reason she pressed charges against him was that she wanted to save herself. From what is not very clear. Perhaps the fear of being labelled a prostitute? It is not confirmed whether the man has been infected.

Early Christmas for residents of Rochdale

Do not be surprised if you see Santa Claus sometime this month in Rochdale, a suburb just outside Manchester. The local council has begun decorating the city centre for a series of activities, and this year it was decided, in order to save money, the town is also erecting Christmas decorations earlier than normal.

A giant Noel (Christmas) sign, a skiing penguin, images of Santa and holly leaves are among the decorations. Some residents thought the decision was ridiculous; Autumn has not even started properly and the town turns into one big Christmas ornament.

The local newspaper, The Rochdale Observer, spoke to a few residents. "Seeing the lights makes me feel depressed," said one. Another commented, "Absurd. It's the end of summer and they're putting up Christmas lights!" A spokeswoman for the Rochdale borough council responded: "We are merely putting them up and not switching them on. By putting them up now, we will be saving around £10,000".

Richmond police remove valuables from unlocked cars

The police in the London borough of Richmond have started removing valuable items from unlocked cars and leaving notes letting the owners know where they can collect their items.

Items like handbags and laptops will be removed and brought to the police station in Twickenham, also in south-west London, where owners can claim their possessions. By doing this the local police wants to encourage people to lock their vehicles and more importantly, to remove valuable items out of sight.

Last year, 1300 in-car thefts or ‘smash and grab’ attacks were reported in Richmond. 1/5 of these cases involved satellite navigation systems. Since July the figures have gone up by nearly 40% so the police decided it was time for swift action. If there are no items on display but the vehicle is unlocked the owner will receive a letter telling them to be more careful.

Johanna's final destination was not on board Air France flight 447

It could be the script of the first ‘Final Destination’ movie, but this time there were no cameras running. Austrian Johanna Ganthaler was on holiday in Brazil when she and her husband Kurt missed their Air France flight in June, the plane that was supposed to take them back to Europe.

Frustrated and angry with Air France staff when the plane took off without them, they were forced to extend their stay in Brazil and wait for the next flight. Their frustration, however, turned to grateful amazement, when their initial flight was Air France Flight 447, which crashed in the middle of the Atlantic, killing all 228 people on board, including a British schoolboy and a large number of Brazilian and French families.

Johanna and Kurt took another flight and arrived safely back on European soil, but they were not home yet. Was it fate, what happened next?

They were driving home in Austria when their car veered off the road into an oncoming truck. While Kurt was seriously injured, Johanna was killed instantly in the collision. It is not clear why they lost control of their vehicle.

Meanwhile, despite having disappeared from the headlines, the search for the black boxes on board of flight 447 continues. A nuclear submarine has been sent to detect the boxes on the bottom of the Atlantic. Time is of the essence, since the pings from the data recorders will stop sending out signals next month.
39 bodies have been recovered so far from the crash site. Authorities hope to use DNA and dental records to identify the corpses.

Johanna’s body was not hard to identify, but her fate was not less doomed. Less than 24 hours after she had missed the ill-fated flight and undoubtedly breathed more than just a sigh of relief, she died. It's the kind of story that makes you wonder about the nature of fate.

Cycling through 35 countries on just $2? It is possible

This week Keiichi Iwasaki finished a tour around the world, on his bike. The 36-year-old Japanese tourist has spent 8 years on his bike, cycling more than 45,000 km across 35 countries. And all with just the equivalent of $2 in his wallet.

Iwasaki headed out for a short cycle tour in 2001, in his home country Japan. He enjoyed it so much he decided to postpone his return home and took a ride on a ferry to South Korea.
His journey was not without problems. In Tibet he was attacked by a rabid dog, he escaped marriage in Nepal, got arrested in India and he was robbed by pirates.

Some of the countries he crossed during his trip around the world include China, Cambodia, Singapore, Pakistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Greece, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Slovakia, Austria, Germany, Netherlands, France, England, Spain, Portugal and Switzerland.

the burqa in the UK

My latest radio 1 show about the burqa, in Dutch. Scroll to 1:23 (1 hour and 23 minutes)

http://player.omroep.nl/?aflID=10066903

Live from London

'Manchester school massacre'.

My latest radio 1 show in Holland, September 3. Scroll to 1:16 (1 hour and 16 minutes) for my item
http://player.omroep.nl/?aflID=10047457

Latest radio 1 show

My latest radio 1 show in Holland, September 1. Scroll to 1:21 (1 hour and 21 minutes) for my item.

http://player.omroep.nl/?aflID=10047415

British teenager sails into history

A British teenager has become the youngest person ever to sail round the world after reaching the coast of Cornwall yesterday.

17 year old Mike Perham arrived at the finish in Cornwall, southern England, after completing 45.000 kilometers on seas and oceans. His fifty foot yacht took him via Portugal, the Canaries, South-Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Panama back to England.

Perham, originally from Hertfordshire, already holds the record for being the youngest person to sail across the Atlantic at just 14, when his father sailed next to him in a seperate boat. He needed to be home by the end of October to beat American rival Zac Sunderland's round-the-world record. The teenager has tackled 50 foot waves and gale force winds during his 45.000 km voyage. Earlier this year on March 16, he celebrated his 17th birthday in the South Indian Ocean.

He told Sky News: "There have been scary moments. You do ask yourself why on Earth you're doing it because you get put in these dangerous situations. But when you get out of them you think 'wow, incredible'. "I'm at one with nature and it's just me thousands of miles away from any help."

Microsoft causes racism row over Polish photo choice

Microsoft was forced to apologise for the choice to change a black face to that of a white man. The picture shows smiling employees sitting around a desk and appeared with a black man in the middle on the US website of the software giant.

The Polish website, however, shows a picture where the black man's head was replaced with a white face. Web editors apparently forgot his hands, since they were unchanged.

Microsoft removed the picture from its website yesterday and said in a statement "it would be investigating who made the changes". Many bloggers jokingly suggested Microsoft was attempting to please all markets by having a man with both a white face and a black hand. But the more likely reason why the black man's face was replaced should be sought in the marketing department of Microsoft Poland, who probably found a white man more suitable for the ethnic mix of the Polish population. 98% is white and catholic in Poland.

Angela Merkel's revealing neckline promises Germany the CDU 'has more to offer'

German elections are bound to become everything but dull this year. A local candidate in the Berlin district, from Angela Merkel’s CDU party, has spiced up her campaign with an election poster, featuring a picture of the German chancellor in a revealing top. The slogan speaks for itself: “Wir Haben Mehr Zu Bieten” translates as “We have more to offer.”

Europe’s biggest nation will head to the polls in less than two months and fierce campaigning around the country has begun. Vera Lengsfeld, the CDU candidate for the Berlin district of Kreuzberg.
Splashed around the chancellor’s breasts, Vera Lengsfield PR team printed the slogan “We have more to offer”, placing herself next to the German leader. She too is wearing an evening gown with a revealing neckline. The photo of Merkel was taken during the 2008 opening of Oslo’s new opera house, in Norway. It made the rounds in the German media last year (right).

The 57-year old Lengsfled said she “needed to come up with something to even be noticed in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg.” The reason for this is she is running against Hans-Christian Stroebele, who has twice won the only directly mandated seat for the Greens.

She has clearly achieved her goal. Lengsfled has 20.000 clicks in one day on her election blog and she hung 750 posters in her district, although many have been stolen, according to the German channel ZDF, “because constituents want to have a souvenir.”

The reactions were divided. Some described the poster as “witty, cheeky and fun,” while others rejected it and dismissed it as “shameful and embarrassing.”

One person who will not be amused by Lengsfeld’s action will be the chancellor herself. Lengsfeld has not asked for permission nor did she notify the chancellor’s office in advance. That same office has so far declined to comment.

Another sign sex is returning to German politics is the poster of a centre-left socialist democrat. Candidate Halina Wawzyniak’s poster shows her bare back with the tattoo “Socialist,” and a slogan that reads “Mit Arsch in der Hose in den Bundestag”, a colloquialism that literally means “With trousers full of arse in the Bundestag,” a reference to plucky politics.

Unarmed suspect killed by Indian police in broad daylight

SHAME ON YOU, INDIAN POLICE

I received these pictures today from a journalist in New Delhi. It is at a market in the north-eastern India city of Imphal, close to the border with Burma/Myanmar. The police arrested someone (it’s not clear why), they bring him from the market building to a pharmacy (photo 1), follow the arrow. He does not seem to resist, nor to try to escape, nor to be armed or attempting to fight the police (photo 2). He calmly follows a police officers who suddenly seems to pull out a gun (photo 3).

Then he is surrounded by officers (photo 4 and 5) to hide the view for the public and one of the officers shoots him (photo 6). In photo 7 he is being carried away and has clearly died. Photo 8 shows him being laid down on a truck and in photo 9 his death body can be seen.

The police declared later they had to shoot him, because he was armed and on the run. The police declared he 'was extremely dangerous and had shot at officers and civilians'. These pictures clearly show this was not the case. Unlawful killings by the police are uncommon in India, but it rarely happens they are caught on camera.

picture 1

picture 2

picture 3

picture 4

picture 5

picture 6

picture 7

picture 8

picture 9

My friend works for the Indian publication Tehelka Magazine (based in New Delhi) and these pictures are published on their website