North Korea’s Ryugyong Hotel: Ugliest Building on Earth?

It’s a rather dubious honor to be considered the ugliest of just about anything at all, but according to many, the 105-story Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea appears to be the winner of the ugly building contest.


The Ryugyong Hotel with its 3,000 rooms has been described as a hideous and distorted version of a fairy-tale castle that dominates the city’s skyline and is so ugly that it is frequently air-brushed out of publicity shots of the city.

Construction began in 1987 (although no one knows why) but stopped in 1992. It is unlikely that it will ever be finished due to the fact that North Korea ran out of money and there is no tourist industry in the region.

Pygmy Marmoset, World's Smallest Monkey

With body length ranging from 14-to-16-centimeters, the Pygmy Marmoset is the world's smallest monkey. This tiniest of all monkeys is a native of the rainforest canopies of western Brazil, southeastern Colombia, eastern Ecuador, and eastern Peru. The males of the specie weigh around 140 grams, and females only 120 grams.


The Pygmy Marmoset has a tawny coat, and a ringed tail that can be as long as its body. In common with other Callitrichinids, it has claws instead of nails on all its digits except the big toe. They are omnivorous, feeding on fruit, leaves, insects, and sometimes even small reptiles. Their small weight allows them to reach the very highest leaves of a tree, and to exploit the otherwise little- used food sources there.

Jesse Sullivan, World's First Bionic Man

Being the first recipient of a bionic arm, Jesse Sullivan is the world's first bionic man. He lost his arm when an accident happen while working as a high-power electrical lineman. The accident caused his two arms. With a bionic arm from the innovative "Bionic" research at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Jesse, is able to do things he couldn't do after the accident.


Developed within the Neural Engineering Center for Artificial Limbs (NECAL) at RIC, Todd Kuiken, MD, PhD, pioneered the muscle reinnervation procedure which takes an amputee's own nerves and connects them to a healthy muscle. In this case, four of Mr. Sullivan's nerves were dissected from the shoulder and transferred to the muscles of his chest. Doing so allows the user to move his or her prosthetic arm as if it were a real limb – by simply thinking about what they want the arm to do. The "Bionic Arm," or myoelectric arm, is driven using electrical signals from the muscles of the chest, now activated by the user's own thought-generated nerve impulses. These impulses are sensed, via surface electrodes, from the pectoral muscle and carried through to the mechanical arm, causing the arm to move.

Taiwan University Offers X Rated Courses

Appreciating and analyzing pornographic movies hardly seems like fodder for a university course, and yet Taiwan’s Mass Communication Department of Providence University is the first institute of higher learning to initiate just such a course.


In order to sign up for this course, students sign a paper agreeing that if the scenes are too explicit, they can opt to leave the classroom. The teacher, assistant professor Miss Chen Mingmei, said no students have ever left her class, but some would briefly cover their eyes during the stronger scenes.

A 15-minute presentation in which each student analyzes an audience’s psychological reaction to a porn clip from an academic perspective, is required in order to achieve a passing grade.

“If I get a very good score in this course, I don’t know how I’ll explain it to my parents.” said one worried student who wished to remain anonymous.

The course attracted more than 50 students, and most confessed that they had watched porn videos before. They listed curiosity as the main incentive for wanting to take the course and most admitted that their parents were unaware of their choice of course material.

“I am really worried my parents will see the score report when it is mailed home. I won’t know what to say if I get a high score. However if I fail the course, I can speak to my parents and suggest that maybe I should watch more porn,” said another student

Behind those ivy walls, “x” really does mark the spot!

Man Wakes Wife From Coma By Biting Her Toes

A Chinese man has successfully broken the 10-year comatose state of his wife by biting her toes.

She had suffered a head injury from an industrial accident and had not shown any signs of movement until one day she suddenly squeezed his wrist.


Zhang Kui, of Shenyang, China, claimed that he had tried everything he could think of to wake his wife and nothing seemed to work.

“I played the radio, sang and talked to her and even tickled her, but nothing worked. I then recalled someone saying that the feet are the home for many nerves. I wondered if I could wake her up by biting her feet,” he told the press.

Zhang would not give up and he bit her toes gently and faithfully every day for 10 years until one day, well, one day, it worked!

His wife of 27 years, Lv Fengshuang, is still unable to speak, but she can move her arms and smile.

“I got goose bumps. It was like a dead person suddenly gripping your hand,” Zhang said.

Zhang hopes that some day soon he will once again hear the voice of the woman he has loved so well and so long.