Michael Jackson dies at 50 - United Kingdom, Guinness World Records Blog postGuinness World
Records is saddened to hear of the death of Michael Jackson at the age of 50.Jackson holds numerous Guinness World Records including the most Grammy Awards won in a year, most hit singles in the UK charts in a year, best selling album of all time, longest span of No.1 hits by an R&B artist, best selling music video, highest annual earnings ever for a pop star, and most successful
pop music family.
Speaking in London tonight, Guinness World Records Editor-in-
Chief, Craig Glenday commented "I will always be immensely proud to know that Michael considered me a friend, and I know that everyone at Guinness World Records will be numb from hearing the news that this gentle, kind, shy man is no longer with us. On his last visit to the Guinness World Records office, he devoted a few valuable hours of his time being photograph ed with everyone, and we were all touched by his humility and willingnes s to please everyone present with autographs and photos. I'm honoured to have had the chance to spend some time with such a wonderfull y talented artist - the man we called the Most Famous Living Man on Earth - and to present him with his favourite world record of all, the biggest selling album of all time, for Thriller, of course. He leaves behind an incredible musical legacy and a body of work unrivalled by any other performer. "
26 June 2009
August 30, 2009
Michael Jackson dies at 50 - United Kingdom, Guinness World Records Blog post
México: homenaje a Michael Jackson bate récord Guiness - MDZ Online
México: homenaje a Michael Jackson bate récord Guiness - MDZ OnlineMéxico: homenaje a Michael Jackson bate récord Guiness
EFEHéctor Jackson, uno de los fans mexicanos que participó del tributo.Cerca de 13.000 seguidores, de todas las edades, se reunieron en Distrito Federal ayer, día en el que el Rey del Pop hubiera cumplido 51 años, para rendirle tributo. Caracterizados de zoombies, bailaron "Thriller". Lo mismo hicieron en Barcelona, unos 700 fans. Mirá los videos.
El sábado 29 de agosto, cuando Michael Jackson hubiera cumplido 51 años, cerca 13.000 seguidores, de todas las edades, se reunieron en México para bailar "Thriller", en tributo al fallecido Rey del Pop. Lo mismo hicieron sus pares españoles en Barcelona, en donde unos 700 fans bailaron al ritmo del emblemático tema.
En México, un total de 12.937 mexicanos, de distintas edades, lograron hoy un récord mundial de baile con la coreografía, marca que deberá ser validada por el World Record Guinnes.El tributo en México convocó casi 13.000 seguidores del Rey del Pop.
Los miles de bailarines se reunieron en la explanada del Monumento a la Revolución, en la zona centro de la capital mexicana. La coreografía fue seguida además por unos 50.000 espectadores que soportaron una intermitente lluvia.
La iniciativa mexicana, denominada "Yo sí bailo Thriller" fue orquestada por la red social de Facebook, que en seis semanas organizó este evento.
En Barcelona, en tanto, un total de 697 fans de Michael Jackson, caracterizados como zombis bailaron simultáneamente en Barcelona (Cataluña) la coreografía del video "Thriller".En Barcelona se reunieron unos 700 fans.
Convocados por el grupo de baile aficionado Pocket's y la página web "byebyemichael.com", los zombis se reunieron en un centro comercial de Barcelona ataviados y maquillados como exigía la ocasión, para recrear la coreografía del video con el que Michael Jackson sorprendió al mundo en 1982.
"Thriller" fue uno de los temas emblemáticos del Rey del Pop, que también daba nombre al álbum más vendido de la historia.
Fuentes: AFP - EFE
Tributo a Michael Jackson en México.
Tributo a Michael Jackson en Barcelona.
Improbable research: Going to great lengths for swear words | Education | The Guardian
Improbable research: Going to great lengths for swear words | Education | The GuardianGoing to great lengths for swear words
What is the lengthiest spoken oath commonly required of witnesses in a formal legal trial? The answer seems to be 374 words, in the judicial courts of Burma, until at least the middle of the 19th century.
An English translation appears in Kenneth RH Mackenzie's 1853 book Burmah and the Burmese, published in London. Mackenzie writes: "The oath is written in a small book of palm leaves, and is held over the head of the witness."
Called The Book of Imprecations or The Book of the Oath, the slim volume also expresses the court's sentiments about any witnesses who would fudge facts. The court is fairly thorough in its wishes, touching on the most likely eventualities.
"May false witnesses die of bad diseases, be bitten by crocodiles, be drowned. May they become poor, hated of the king. May they have calumniating enemies, may they be driven away, may they become utterly wretched, may every one ill-treat them, and raise lawsuits against them. May they be killed with swords, lances, and every sort of weapon. May they be precipitated into the eight great hells and the 120 smaller ones. May they be tormented. May they be changed into dogs. And, if finally they become men, may they be slaves a thousand and ten thousand times. May all their undertakings, thoughts and desires ever remain as worthless as a heap of cotton burnt by the fire."
And so on.
The oath itself is all business. The deponent must say: "If I speak not the truth ... when I and my relations are on land, land animals, as tigers, elephants, buffaloes, poisonous serpents, scorpions, &c, shall seize, crush, and bite us, so that we shall certainly die. Let the calamities occasioned by fire, water, rulers, thieves, and enemies oppress and destroy us, till we perish and come to utter destruction. Let us be subject to all the calamities that are within the body, and all that axe without the body. May we be seized with madness, dumbness, blindness, deafness, leprosy and hydrophobia. May we be struck with thunderbolts and lightning, and come to sudden death. In the midst of not speaking truth, may I be taken with vomiting clotted black blood, and suddenly die before the assembled people.
"When I am going by water, may the water nats [spirits] assault me, the boat be upset, and the property lost; and may alligators, porpoises, sharks, or other sea monsters, seize and crush me to death; and when I change worlds, may I not arrive among men or nats, but suffer unmixed punishment and regret, in the utmost wretchedness, among the four states of punishment, Hell, Prita, Beasts and Athurakai."
After that and a lot more, the oath concludes with a few thoughts of hope and cheer. Then the witness, if he is still alive and not seized with madness, dumbness, blindness, deafness, leprosy or hydrophobia, testifies.
• Marc Abrahams is editor of the bimonthly Annals of Improbable Research and organiser of the Ig Nobel prize