Unusual sale items at eBay

eBay Inc. is an American Internet company that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide. A majority of the sales take place through a set-time auction format, but subsequent methods include a substantial segment of listings in the "Buy It Now" category. In addition to its original U.S. website, eBay has established localized websites in thirty other countries. eBay Inc. also owns PayPal, Skype, StubHub, Kijiji, and other businesses.

Unusual sale items at eBay :

• In May 2006, the remains of U.S. Fort Montgomery, a stone fortification in upstate New York built in 1844, were put up for auction on eBay. The first auction ended on June 5, 2006, with a winning bid of $5,000,310. However, the sale was not completed, and the fort and lands surrounding it remain for sale and have been relisted on the site several times since.
• In February 2004, a scrapped F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet was listed on eBay by Mike Landa, of Landa and Associates, with a starting bid of $1,000,000. He was the legal owner of the plane after purchasing it from a scrap yard and also offered to have the plane restored for flying condition for a Buy It Now price of $9,000,000. Landa also told potential buyers that maintenance of the plane would cost roughly $40,000 a month for just 2 to 3 hours of flying time. The FBI told Landa that he could only sell the plane to an American citizen residing in the United States, and that the plane must not leave US airspace. The auction ended without a sale.
• In December 2005, a brussels sprout cooked on Christmas Day was listed by "crazypavingpreacher" (Andrew Henderson of Darlington, England). It sold for £99.50 on 4 January 2006. The sprout had been frozen and was sent by first class post in insulated packaging to the buyer, "5077phil". The listing was reported in the Daily Star, making the front page (and was followed by a series of "copycat" listings of various vegetables). The proceeds of the sale were donated to Tearfund, a major Christian relief and development agency working in the third world. This sprout was the first cooked brussels sprout to be sold on ebay.
• In January 2006, a British man named Leigh Knight sold an unwanted brussels sprout left over from his Christmas dinner for £1550 in aid of cancer research.
• In May 2006, a Chinese businessman named Zhang Cheng bought a former Czech Air Force MIG-21 fighter jet from a seller in the United States for $24,730. The seller, "inkgirle", refused to ship it. It is not known whether he was refunded.
• In June 2005, the wife of Tim Shaw, a British radio DJ on Kerrang! 105.2, sold Tim's Lotus Esprit sports car with a Buy It Now price of 50 pence after she heard him flirting with model Jodie Marsh on air. The car was sold within 5 minutes, and it was requested that the buyer pick it up the same day.
• In May 2005, a Volkswagen Golf that had previously been registered to Joseph Ratzinger (then a cardinal, who had since been elected pope and chose the regnal name Benedict XVI on April 19, 2005) was sold on eBay's German site for €188,938.88 ($277,171.12 USD). The winning bid was made by the GoldenPalace.com online casino, known for their outrageous eBay purchases.
• A seaworthy 16,000-ton aircraft carrier, formerly the British HMS Vengeance, was listed early in 2004. The auction was removed when eBay determined that the vessel qualified as ordnance, even though all weapons systems had been removed.
• Water that was said to have been left in a cup Elvis Presley once drank from was sold for $455. The few tablespoons came from a plastic cup Presley sipped at a concert in North Carolina in 1977.
• A Coventry University student got £1.20 for a single cornflake.
• A man from Brisbane, Australia, attempted to sell New Zealand at a starting price of $0.01AUD. The price had risen to $3,000 before eBay closed the auction.
• An Australian newspaper reported in December 2004 that a single piece of the Kellogg's breakfast cereal Nutri-Grain sold on eBay for AUD$1,035 because it happened to bear a slight resemblance to the character E.T. from the Steven Spielberg movie. Apparently the seller went on to make even more money in relation to the sale for his appearance on a nationally televised current affairs program.
• One of the tunnel boring machines involved in the construction of the Channel Tunnel was auctioned on eBay in 2004.
• A group of four men from Australia auctioned themselves to spend the weekend with the promise of "beers, snacks, good conversation and a hell of a lot of laughs" for AU$1,300
• Disney sold a retired Monorail Red (Mark IV Monorail) for $20,000
• The German Language Association sold the German language to call attention to the growing influence of Pidgin English in modern German.
• In late November 2005, the original Hollywood Sign was sold on eBay for $450,400.
• In February 2007, after Britney Spears shaved all of her hair off in a Los Angeles salon, it was listed on eBay for $1million USD before it was taken down.
• In September 2004, the Indiana Firebirds arena football team was auctioned off, first in a regular auction that failed to reach the reserve price, and again as a "Buy it Now" item for $3.9 million.
• Bridgeville, California (pop. 25) was the first town to be sold on eBay in 2002, and has been up for sale 3 times since.
• In April 2005, American entrepreneur Matt Rouse sold the right to choose a new middle name for him. After receiving an $8,000 "Buy It Now" bid, the Utah courts refused to allow the name change. He currently still has his original middle name "Jean".
• In 2004, a partially eaten, 10-year-old grilled cheese sandwich said to bear the image of the Virgin Mary sold on eBay for $28,000.
• In January 2008, four golf balls were auctioned on eBay after being surgically removed from the carpet python which had inadvertently swallowed them whilst raiding eggs in a chicken enclosure. The story attracted considerable international attention and the balls eventually sold for more AUD$1,400. The python recovered and was released.
• In May 2008, Paul Osborn of the UK listed his wife Sharon for sale on eBay, alleging that she had an affair with a coworker.
• In June 2008, Ian Usher put up his "entire life" on auction. The auction included his house in Perth, belongings, introduction to his friends, and a trial at his job.^[105] When bidding closed, his "life" sold for $384,000.
• In August 2008, Dr Richard Harrington, Vice President of the UK Royal Entomological Society, announced that a fossilized aphid he bought for £20 from a seller in Lithuania, was a previously unknown species. It has been named Mindarus harringtoni after Dr Harrington. He had wanted to name it Mindarus ebayi, but this name was disallowed as being too flippant. The 45-million-year-old aphid, preserved in a piece of Baltic amber, is now housed in the Natural History Museum in London.
• In October 2008, amidst the 2008–2009 Icelandic financial crisis one seller had put up Iceland for sale. Auction started with 99 pence but had reached 10 million pounds (US $17.28 million). However, singer Björk was "not included" in the sale. The notice read Located in the mid-Atlantic ridge in the North Atlantic Ocean, Iceland will provide the winning bidder with — a habitable environment, Icelandic Horses and admittedly a somewhat sketchy financial situation. Bidders' questions included: "Do you offer volcano/earthquake insurance?"
• In November 2008, a Swedish man put a digitally hand-drawn picture of a 7-legged spider onto eBay. The picture stemmed from the email of an Adelaide man, David Thorne, who owed a utility company $233.95. Instead of paying the money back, he drew them a picture of a 7-legged spider, which he valued at $233.95. On eBay, the bidding price started at $233.95, and it was finally sold at US$10,000. Both the e-mail exchange and the picture have become internet hits.

Sergey Karjakin is youngest grandmaster in history, achieving the title at the age of twelve years and seven months

meet Sergey Karjakin (Ukrainian: Сергій Карякін; Russian: Сергей Карякин; born January 12, 1990 in Simferopol) is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster. He was a chess prodigy and holds the record for the youngest Chess Grandmaster in history, achieving the title at the age of twelve years and seven months. In the April 2009 FIDE rating list he is ranked 23rd in the world, third in Ukraine, and the second junior (under 20) in the world.

More about him:
Karjakin learned to play chess when he was five years old and became an IM at age eleven. In 2001, he won the World Chess U12 championship. He first attracted attention in January 2002, when he was the official second of fellow Ukrainian Ruslan Ponomariov during the final of the 2002 FIDE World championship, though Karjakin had only just turned twelve at the time. By scoring GM norms at the Aeroflot tournament in Moscow later that month, the Alushta tournament in May 2002 and the international tournament in Sudak in August 2002, he surpassed Bu Xiangzhi to become the youngest grandmaster in the history of chess at the age of twelve years and exactly seven months—a record that still stands. At age fourteen he defeated the reigning world champion, Vladimir Kramnik, during the 2004 Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting, in a blitz game (ten minutes for the entire game, plus five seconds per move). Also in 2004, Karjakin was the only human to win against a computer in the Man vs Machine World Team Championship in Bilbao, Spain, where he was the youngest and lowest rated player. He won against the computer program Deep Junior. Later that year Karjakin finished second to Boris Gelfand at the Pamplona, Navarra tournament, held from December 20 to December 29.
Karjakin entered the world's top 100 in the April 2005 FIDE list, where he was number 64 in the world with an Elo rating of 2635. He scored 8.5 (7-3-1) to win the Young Stars of the World 2005 tournament held in Kirishi, Russia from May 14 to May 26. Practicing before the tournament with Nigel Short in Greece, Karjakin was involved in a car accident on the way to the Athens airport and suffered minor injuries. Afterwards, Short remarked that he had "almost changed the path of chess history by allowing the future World Champion to be killed while in my care". During the Chess World Cup 2007, which served as a qualification tournament for the World Chess Championship 2009, Karjakin reached the semi-finals, in which he lost to Alexei Shirov. On the January 2008 FIDE rating list, published just before Karjakin's eighteenth birthday, he passed for the first time the 2700 mark, often seen as the line that separates "elite" players from other grandmasters, with a new rating of 2732 and a world rank of 13. In July 2008 Karjakin played a ten game rapid chess match against GM Nigel Short and won convincingly with a score of 7.5-2.5. In February 2009 he won the A group of the Corus chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee (category XIX) with a score of 8/13.

how was the Google Chrome logo built ??

Courtesy: http://ow.ly/gtqg

analysing Unilever company masterpiece logo

Unilever is a multi-national corporation, formed of British and Dutch parentage, that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products.

unilever logo - composed of many parts - each explained & analyzed below :



parts of the unilever logo explained & analyzed

Pink Chaddi Campaign (Pink Underwear Campaign) by Nisha Susan against Shri RAMA Sena violence against Valentine Day couples

The Pink Chaddi Campaign (Pink Underwear Campaign) is a nonviolent protest movement launched in India in February 2009 in response to notable incidences of violent conservative and right-wing activism against perceived violations of Indian culture, when a group of women were attacked in a pub in Mangalore.

Pink Chaddi Campaign logo

On February 6 2009 in an incident of moral policing a group of men who claimed to belong to Shri Ram Sena** attacked a group of women in Mangalore, India. Later that month Pramod Muthalik (Pramod is an activist in various right-wing Hindu groups in India, and is the chief of the Rashtriya Hindu Sena, the parent organization of the Sri Ram Sena. He is a former member of the The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or राष्ट्रीय स्वयंसेवक संघ or National Volunteers Organization, the Bajrang Dal and the Shiv Sena) announced an action plan to target couples found dating on February 14, Valentine’s Day. He said "Our activists will go around with a priest, a turmeric stub and a mangalsutra on February 14. If we come across couples being together in public and expressing their love, we will take them to the nearest temple and conduct their marriage.

Pramod Muthalik

In the midst of the tension, a novel protest was started by four young women, self-styled "Pub-going, loose, forward women" called the "Pink Chaddi" campaign, where they urged a peaceful protest (described as Gandhian in the press) to all of India, by sending pink underwear ("Chaddi" in Hindi) to Muthalik’s office on Valentine’s day.

This novel form of protest is initiated by Nisha Susan
Nisha is a Tehelka (news magazine) journalist.

Pink Chaddi Campaign poster 1


Pink Chaddi Campaign poster 2

As the protest grew, underwear started pouring in from locations all over India in solidarity for the "Love Sena". Over 500 pink chaddis will be couriered on Valentine Day to Muthalik's office. Other cities have also collected hundreds of such chaddis and have decided to courier them directly. The Pink Chaddi Campaign received widespread media coverage, and the Facebook group saw numbers of members growing exponentially in the following days. There was also political reaction to the campaign as supporters of RSS objected to use of pictures of RSS members on the campaign blog. RSS had criticized the Mangalore attack and favoured ban on Sri Ram Sena. Shortly after the campaign took off, the campaign's Facebook group began to be attacked by trolls and was eventually broken into. Attackers renamed the group and included racist slurs and death threats in its description. The attacks continued despite appeals to Facebook's support department for help, and eventually Facebook disabled the account of the group's administrator and access to the group. The group has decided to avoid Facebook in future. Amul, the milk products company, also featured the campaign in it's advertisements.

Amul's Pink Chaddi Campaign advertisement 1


Amul's Pink Chaddi Campaign advertisement 1

The **Shri Ram Sena (also spelled as Shri Rama Sena, Sri Ram Sena, Sri Ram Sene and Sriram Sena) is an right-wing Hindu group founded by Pramod Muthalik, a former member of the RSS, the Bajrang Dal and the Shiv Sena.

analyzing Child Prodigies and Wonder Childen

What is Child Prodigy and who is called a Wonder Child ??
These are people who, typically before 13 years old, showed abilities comparable to those of highly skilled adults in specific fields.

here's the list of all of them in different fields:

Mathematics

• Moshe Kai Cavalin enrolled at East Los Angeles College at eight years old, graduated at 11 years old, and now plans to study astrophysics and mathematics.
• Srinivasa Ramanujan was an Indian mathematician, who, with almost no formal training in pure mathematics, made substantial contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions.
• March Tian Boedihardjo, an Indonesian Chinese born in 1988, gained entry into Hong Kong Baptist University in 1997, to study mathematics at nine years old, becoming the youngest-ever university student in Hong Kong.
• William James Sidis set a record in 1909 by becoming the youngest person to enroll at Harvard College, at 11 years old.
• Sufiah Yusof a Malaysian, gained entry into St. Hilda's College, Oxford University, in 1997, to study mathematics at 12 years old.
• Terence Tao
• Magnus LaDue, at nine years old, discovered an error in one of the Laplace transforms in the CRC Standard Mathematical Tables and Formulae. The incorrect result appears in formula 36 on p. 607.
• Sir William Rowan Hamilton, a mathematician, read Hebrew at seven years old, and studied Arabic, Persian, Greek, Latin, Syriac, Sanskrit and four other continental languages at 12 years old.
• Blaise Pascal (June 19, 1623 – August 19, 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher who wrote a treatise on vibrating bodies at nine years old; his first proof, on a wall with a piece of coal, at 11 years old, and a theorem by 16 years old. He is famous for Pascal's theorem and many other contributions in mathematics, philosophy, and physics.
• Michael Viscardi published two papers on the Dirichlet problem by the time he was 17 years old.
• Alia Sabur received an undergraduate degree at 14 years old, and became a college professor at 18 years old.
• Louis Crane entered the University of Chicago in his early teens, and began taking graduate-level mathematics courses at 14 years old. He is currently a professor at Kansas State University and a quantum-gravity researcher.
• Ari Israel enrolled in graduate school at 15 years old without a degree. He earned a master's degree at 18 years old.

Mental Calculators

Note: Several mathematicians were mental calculators when they were still children. This section is for child prodigies largely or primarily known for calculating skills. It should be noted that mental calculators are sometimes more like savants than they are like child prodigies. They have skills that rarely exist in adults and they may not be truly "mature" in mathematical understanding.

• Shakuntala Devi: Her abilities were first recognized at three years old.
• John Von Neumann: A "mental calculator" by six years old, who could tell jokes in classical Greek.
• Alexis Lemaire holds the most famous mental-calculation world record.
• Truman Henry Safford could square 18 digit numbers at ten years old; later in life, he became an astronomer.

Physics

• Moshe Kai Cavalin enrolled at East Los Angeles College at eight years old, graduated at 11 years old, and now plans to study astrophysics and mathematics.
• Mikaela Fudolig finished college at 16 years old with a degree in physics, summa cum laude and class valedictorian (Class of 2007), at the University of the Philippines. She entered the university at 11 years old. Currently, she teaches physics at the same university.
• Denis Krasnov (Russian: Денис Владимирович Краснов is from the former USSR. He was accepted at Moscow Engineering Physics Institute at 13 years old.
• Tathagat Avatar Tulsi received an undergraduate degree at 10 years old.
• Kim Ung-Yong attended university physics courses at four years old, and received a Ph.D in physics before 16 years old.
• Song Yoo-geun entered the university at eight years old.

Mechanical engineering

• Karl Benz started at the scientifically oriented Lyzeum at nine years old, went on to study at the Poly-Technical University under the instruction of Ferdinand Redtenbacher, and, at 15 years old, passed the entrance exam for mechanical engineering at the University of Karlsruhe

Medicine

• Balamurali Ambati graduated from high school at 11 years old, was a college junior by 12 years old, and a doctor at 17 years old.
• Avicenna memorized the Quran at 10 years old and studied medicine at 13 years old.^[16]
• Sho Yano started college at nine years old and graduated summa cum laude at 12 years old from Loyola University Chicago. By 15 years old, he attended the Pritzker School of Medicine

Psychology

• Jean Piaget published a paper on the albino sparrow at 11 years old, and later became a psychologist.

Acting and Directing

Note: This section is mostly limited to child actors or directors who were respected enough to be nominated or to win awards while in competition with adults, or who were declared prodigies. It also includes a few actors, from eras predating film, who were declared theatrical prodigies. This section must be limited this way because being even an award-winning child actor is not prodigious. (For child actors who won juvenile competition, see Academy Juvenile Award. These names do not necessarily equate with being competitive with adults and therefore do not necessarily count as prodigies.)

• William Henry West Betty was a sensation as a boy doing Voltaire and Shakespeare roles.
• Jackie Cooper was the youngest nominee for the Best Actor Oscar at age nine years old.
• Quinn Cummings was an Oscar and Golden Globe Award nominee at 10 years old. She is now a businesswoman and blogger.
• Brandon De Wilde at seven years old, was the first child actor to win the Donaldson Award; his talent was praised by John Gielgud in the following year. He was also a nominee for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar at 11 years old, in Shane.
• Jodelle Ferland receieved a daytime Emmy nomination at four years old and, at 12 years old, was nominated at the 27th Genie Awards for lead actress.
• Justin Henry was the youngest nominee for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar at eight years old, in Kramer vs. Kramer
• Patty McCormack was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar at 11 years old, in an era when child actors could still be nominated for the Juvenile Award.
• Frankie Michaels, at 11 years old, received praise and a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical for his role in Mame.
• Tatum O'Neal won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar at 10 years old, for her 1973 role in Paper Moon, making her the youngest person ever to win a regularly awarded Oscar.
• Haley Joel Osment was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar at 11 years old.
• Anna Paquin won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar at 11 years old.
• Ricky Schroder won a Golden Globe Award at nine years old, youngest winner ever.
• Shirley Temple, at five years old, showed talent as an actress and tap dancer. When she was seven years old, she received a special Academy Award. She was described as a prodigy by Time (magazine) in 1936.
• Ernest Truex did Shakespeare at six years old.

Music

Will be published in my next post as this list is itself very very long.

Literature

• William Cullen Bryant was published at 10 years old; at 13 years old, he published a book of political-satire poems .
• Thomas Chatterton started as a poet at 11 years old. He began writing the poems that would make him famous at 12 years old.
• Lucretia Maria Davidson, by 11 years old, had written some poems of note; before her death at 16 years old, she received praise as a writer.
• Marjorie Fleming was a published poet before her death at eight years old.
• H. P. Lovecraft recited poetry at two years old and wrote long poems at five years old.
• Lope de Vega wrote his first play at 12 years old. He could read Latin at five years old and was translating Latin verse at 10 years old.
• Maulvi Ghulam Rasool published his first book when he was 14 years old.
• Dnyaneshwar, The Dnyaneshwari or Bhavartha deepika Teeka was written down by Sacchidananandbaba from discourses by Dnyaneshwar. By the time the commentary was complete Dnyaneshwar was only 15 years old.

Visual arts

• Gian Lorenzo Bernini, at seven years old, attracted the attention of Pope Paul V with his sketches. He also sculpted Martyrdom of St. Lawrence at 16 years old.
• Albrecht Durer
• Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian polymath, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer.
• Jan Lievens was a painter who was apprenticed at eight years old and an independent artist at 12 years old.
• John Everett Millais was a painter who entered the Royal Academy at 11 years old.
• Alexandra Nechita is a painter who had a solo exhibit at eight years old.
• Pablo Picasso painted Picador at eight years old. See List of Picasso artworks 1889-1900.
• Wang Yani had her paintings appear on postage stamps at six years old and in worldwide museum exhibits at 12 years old.
• Zhu Da became a poet by seven years old. He later became a painter.

Academics

• Michael Kearney earned the first of several degrees at 10 years old. He became a college professor by 17 years old."
• Gregory R. Smith entered college at 10 years old and was first nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize at 12 years old.
• Colin Maclaurin went to study divinity in University of Glasgow at the age of 11 and remained until he was 19 years, 7 months in the year 1717 when he was elected professor of mathematics holding the record as world's youngest professor until the record was broken by 18 year old Alia Sabur in March 2008 at the time, making her the new world's youngest professor.

Humane Letters: Leadership, Teaching, Evangelism

• Adora Svitak, born in 1997, became a noted author by 10 years old, and as a humanitarian, teacher, and childrens'-literature and literacy evangelist. She published her first book seven years old. She presents writing workshops to hundreds of children at a time, holding them in thrall with microphone, computer, and overhead projector.
• Aman Rehman made more than 1000 animated movies, beginning at three years old., and, at 8, he became the youngest college-lecturer in the world
• Abdul Aleem Siddiqi memorized the whole Qur'an at four years old, and made his first speech (in a mosque) at eight years old.
• Mohammad Hossein Tabatabai, born in 1991, could recite the Qur'an at two years old and had memorized it completely at five years old. Coventry University awarded him a PhD in 1997.

Law and Philosophy

• Jeremy Bentham studied Latin at three years old and entered The Queen's College, Oxford, at 12 years old.
• Saul Kripke was invited to apply for a teaching post at Harvard while still in high school.
• John Stuart Mill knew several dead languages by eight years old and studied scholastic philosophy at 12 years old.
• Kathleen Holtz began university studies at 10 years old, entered UCLA law school at 15 years old, and passed the California bar exam at 18 years old.
• Stephen A. Baccus began studying law at 14 years old, graduated University of Miami law school at 16 years old, and passed Miami bar exam at 17 years old. He fought minimum-age requirements for bar-exam applicants in both New York and Miami.

Linguistics and Translation

• Asad Ullah Qayyum, by seven years old, was able to deliver speeches in 12 languages.
• John Barratier knew six languages by 11 years old.
• Jean-François Champollion knew several dead languages at 10 years old and read an important paper at the Grenoble Academy at 16 years old.
• William James Sidis reportedly taught eight languages by eight years old.
• Thomas Young, more notable as a physicist, was a polyglot at a young age, who worked on translating Demotic Egyptian
• Wendy Vo speaks fluently eleven languages by eight years old. She also composed 44 songs and is the youngest member of American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers(ASCAP)

Sports & Games

• Bobby Fischer won the United States Chess Championship at 14 years old and achieved the title of Grandmaster, during the World-Championship-qualifications cycle, at 15 years old. Held title of World Chess Champion from 1972-1975.
• Fabiano Caruana, a chess prodigy discovered at five years old, became the youngest-ever American and Italian Grandmaster (Dual citizenship), in 2007, at 14 years old.
• José Raúl Capablanca was one of the best chess players of all time.^{[citation needed]}
• Cho Hunhyun was a professional go player at nine years old.
• Fu Mingxia is a diver and was an Olympic gold medalist at 13 years old.
• Willie Mosconi, nicknamed "Mr. Pocket Billiards," played against professionals at six years old.
• Ronnie O'Sullivan, a snooker player, scored his first century break a 10 years old, his first maximum at 15 years old, and was the youngest-ever winner of a ranking event at 17 years old.
• Michelle Wie qualified for the USGA Women's Amateur Public Links at 10 years old and won the same event at 13 years old, making her the youngest person both to qualify for and win a USGA adult national championship.
• Tiger Woods won his first Optimist International Junior tournament at eight years old, playing in the nine-to-10-year-old age group since there was no group for eight-year-olds at the time.
• Wayne Gretzky was skating with 10-year-olds at six years old. By 10 years old, he scored 378 goals and 139 assists, in just 85 games, with the Nadrofsky Steelers.
• Dominique Moceanu, a gymnast, reached the elite level of the sport at nine years old, and was performing beyond-Olympic-level skills even earlier. She won the Senior US National Championships at 13 years old, the youngest to ever do so, and will forever hold that record, as the age limit for senior competitors has now been raised. She also won an Olympic gold medal, at 14 years old, with the team.
• Judith, Zsuzsa, and Zsófia Polgár are chessplayers of Hungarian-Jewish origin. Born between 1969 and 1976, the sisters reached a high level of chess skill each before 13 years old, as a result of an experiment by their psychologist father László Polgár. Judit Polar has been the highest rated woman for over 10 years.
• Nicholas Nip was the youngest-ever USCF Chess Master with a rating of 2207 at nine years, 11 months old.
• Ricky Rubio became a professional basketball player at 13 years old and became the youngest player to win an Olympic Medal (silver at the 2008 Olympics).
• Joshua Waitzkin was a chess prodigy at six years old, and a current Tai Chi master. He was made popular by the movie, Searching for Bobby Fischer.
• Victor De Leon III (aka Lil Poison became the youngest professional video gamer in the world at six years old. He is enlisted in the 2008 and 2009 Guinness Book of World Record. At nine years old, Lil Poison was seated in 1st place, in a 1 vs 1 video game challenge, out of 3500+ competitors.

Others

This is for historic children, who have become representatives of the "prodigy" phenomenon, inspiring literature, but whose actual accomplishments have not been firmly established due to the poor sourcing or records of their eras.

• Gaon of Vilna was an historically significant rabbi who was called a prodigy in youth and who is said to have had a variety of skills by 11 years old.
• Okita Sōji (1842 or 1844-1868) was kenjutsu-(swordsmanship) prodigy, who defeated a kenjutsu master by 12 years old, became a master of kenjutsu and a school head (Jukutou) by 18 years old. He died from tuberculosis in his mid-twenties.

Mental Caculators & Mental Calculation World Cup

Why are Mental Calculators so SPECIAL ??
Mental Caculators are people having exceptional mathematical calculation ability like such as multiplying large numbers or factoring large numbers.

Where can I meet one ??
The world's best mental calculators are invited every two years to compete for the Mental Calculation World Cup. On July 2nd, 2008, Alberto Coto Garcia of Spain succeeded Robert Fountain of Great Britain as world champion.

How did they become one ??
Some rare mental calculators are autistic savants, with a narrow area of great skill and poor mental development in other directions, but many are people of normal mental development who have simply developed advanced calculating ability. A good many are also experienced scientists, linguists, writers, and so on. Michael O'Boyle, an American psychologist previously working in Australia and now at Texas Tech University, has recently used MRI scanning of blood flow during mental operation in mathematical prodigies to display startling results. These math prodigies achieve blood flow to parts of the brain responsible for mathematical operations at six to seven times the typical flow (see Cognitive Brain Research, October, 2005). Mental calculators were in great demand in research centers such as CERN before the advent of modern electronic calculators and computers. See, for instance, the 1983 book The Great Mental Calculators, whose introduction was written by Hans Eberstark.

Name a few.....

* Aitken, Alexander Craig
* Bidder, George Parker
* Shakuntala Devi
* Buxton, Jedediah
* Colburn, Zerah
* Dase, Johann Zacharias
* Deshong, Peter M.
* Diamandi, Pericles
* Eberstark, Hans
* Euler, Leonhard
* Finkelstein, Salo
* Fuller, Thomas
* Gauss, Carl Frederich
* Gamm, Rüdiger
* Griffith, Arthur F.
* Inaudi, Jacques
* Klein, Wim (a.k.a. Willem Klein)
* Willis Dysart (a.k.a. Willie the Wizard)
* van Koningsveld, Jan
* Lemaire, Alexis
* McCartney, Daniel
* von Neumann, John
* Ruckle, Gottfried
* Safford, Truman Henry
* Tammet, Daniel
* Sidis, William James

What is Mental Calculation World Cup??
Mental Calculation World Cup is an international competition of mental calculators.

Details of Mental Calculation World Cup 2004 :

The first Mental Calculation World Cup was held in Annaberg-Buchholz, Germany on 30 October, 2004. There were 17 participants from 10 countries. The World Cup involved the following contests (and two surprise tasks):
* Adding ten 10-digit numbers, ten tasks in 10 minutes
Winner: Alberto Coto (Spain) ; 10 correct results; 5:50 minutes, world record
* Multiplying two 8-digit numbers, 10 tasks in 15 minutes
Winner:Alberto Coto (Spain), 8 correct results
* Calendar Calculations, two series one minute each, dates from the years 1600-2100
Winner: Matthias Kesselschläger (Germany), 33 correct results, world record
* Square Root from 6-digit numbers, 10 tasks in 15 minutes
Winner: Jan van Koningsveld (Netherlands)

In the overall ranking the first place is taken by Robert Fountain (Great Britain), the runner-up was Jan van Koningsveld (Netherlands).

Details of Mental Calculation World Cup 2006 :

The second Mental Calculation World Cup was held on 4 November 2006 in Gießen, Germany. 26 Calculators from 11 countries took part. The World Cup involved the following contests (and two surprise tasks):

* Adding ten 10-digit numbers, ten tasks in 10 minutes
Winner: Jorge Arturo Mendoza Huertas (Peru) ; 10 correct results
* Multiplying two 8-digit numbers, 10 tasks in 15 minutes
Winner:Alberto Coto (Spain)
* Calendar Calculations, two series one minute each, dates from the years 1600-2100
Winner: Matthias Kesselschläger (Germany)
* Square Root from 6-digit numbers, 10 tasks in 15 minutes
Winner: Robert Fountain (Great Britain)

Robert Fountain (Great Britain) defended his title in the overall competition, the places 2 to 4 have been won by Jan van Koningsveld (Netherlands), Gert Mittring (Germany) and Yusnier Viera Romero (Cuba).

Details of Mental Calculation World Cup 2008 :

The Mental Calculation World Cup 2008 was held at the university of Leipzig, Germany on 1 July 2008. It attracted 28 calculators from 12 countries.

* Adding ten 10-digit numbers, ten tasks in 10 minutes
Winner: Alberto Coto (Spain), 10 correct results in 4:26 minutes (world record)
* Multiplying two 8-digit numbers, 10 tasks in 15 minutes
Winner: Alberto Coto (Spain), 10 correct results in 8:25 minutes (world record)
* Calendar Calculations, dates from the years 1600-2100, one minute
Winner: Jan van Koningsveld (Germany), 40 correct results
* Square Root from 6-digit numbers, 10 tasks in 15 minutes
Winner: Jan van Koningsveld (Germany)

Alberto Coto (Spain) won the overall title. Jan van Koningsveld, starting for Germany this time, became second, and Jorge Arturo Mendoza Huertas (Peru) finished third. Robert Fountain, who won the title in 2004 and 2006, achieved a fourth rank.

Mnemonist, Eidetic Memory, Photographic Memory & Total Recall

Why are Mnemonist so SPECIAL ??
Mnemonist are people having exceptional memory to remember and recall unusually long lists of data, such as unfamiliar names, lists of numbers, entries in books, etc. Such individuals have been described as possessing an eidetic memory, photographic memory or total recall, although whether such abilities are innate behavior or somehow learned appears somewhat contentious. Eidetic memory, photographic memory, or total recall is the ability to recall images, sounds, or objects in memory with extreme accuracy and in abundant volume.

How did they attain this eidetic memory, photographic memory or total recall ??
Eidetic memory; if by birth; as observed in children is typified by the ability of an individual to study an image for approximately 30 seconds, and maintain a nearly perfect photographic memory of that image for a short time once it has been removed—indeed such eidetikers claim to "see" the image on the blank canvas as vividly and in as perfect detail as if it were still there.

Some individuals with autism display extraordinary memory, including those with related conditions such as Asperger's syndrome. Asperger syndrome is an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and people with it therefore show significant difficulties in social interaction, along with stereotypies and other restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests.

Synesthesia has also been credited as an enhancement of auditory memory, but only for information that triggers a synesthetic reaction. Synesthesia is a neurologically based phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. However, some synesthetes have been found to have a more acute than normal "perfect color" sense with which they are able to match color shades nearly perfectly after extended periods of time, without the accompanying synesthetic reaction.

What is the difference between a person having a well capable memory & these Mnemonist ??

People who have a generally capable memory often use mnemonic devices to retain information while those with eidetic memory remember very specific details, such as where a person was standing, what the person was wearing, etc. They may recall an event with great detail while those with a normal memory remember daily routines rather than specific details that may have interrupted a routine.

What is sporadic eidetic memory ??

It's the case where normal people may describe a rather limited number of memories in very close detail. These sporadic occurrences of eidetic memory are not triggered consciously in most cases.

Name a few Mnemonist.....

• Harry Lorayne
• Dominic O'Brien
• Kim Peek
  
• Shass Pollak
• S.V. Shereshevskii
• James Paterson

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Also: People claimed to possess an eidetic memory:

• Swami Vivekananda, famous Indian philosopher and guru. It was recorded in The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda that he had memorized ten volumes of encyclopedia in very few days. He explains his powers as "simply by the observance of strict Brahmacharya (continence) all learning can be mastered in a very short time -- one has an unfailing memory of what one hears or knows but once".
• Sukarno, the father of Indonesian independence and the first president of The Republic of Indonesia, had a photographic memory, which helped him in his languages learning.
• Luke Mason, a British male able to memorize large pieces of texts, such as text books and strings of numbers after reading them once and recalling with perfect accuracy. Luke also has a gift for natural languages and he experiences synaesthesia.
• Napoleon Bird was an English barber in the 19th century. According to The Oxford Companion to Music (6th edition, 1945), he showed a massive feat of memory by "...publicly playing for forty-four hours without repeating a composition; from 11pm to 3am he played dance music for hundreds of couples, and, during the subsequent forty hours, whenever any vocalist or instrumentalist appeared and asked to be accompanied, the mere statement of the piece and the key required were sufficient."
• Hans von Bülow was a 19th century pianist and conductor with what could be described as a perfect musical memory. He could play both Brahms' and Beethoven's entire piano works from memory, and conducted the first performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde without the score, having never heard it before but studying the score pre-emptively, which was enough for him to memorise a work — he did not need to hear it.
• Stephen Wiltshire, MBE, is a prodigious savant, capable of drawing the entire skyline of a city after a helicopter ride.
• Wynne Kulman, able to memorize textbooks, serial numbers, and other documents after reading them just once.
• Erin Freedman, able to memorize long streams of numbers after hearing them just once.
• Kim Peek, prodigious savant
• Tom Morton, a taxi driver, knew over 16,000 telephone numbers in Lancashire and beat the British Olympia Telephone Exchange computer with his recall while being interviewed by Esther Rantzen and Adrian Mills on the popular BBC magazine programme That's Life! in 1993.
• Nikola Tesla
• Said Nursî, a Turkish Islamic scholar who was able to recite many books from memory. For instance "... So then he [Molla Fethullah] decided to test his memory and handed him a copy of the work by Al-Hariri of Basra (1054-1122) — also famous for his intelligence and power of memory — called Maqamat al-Hariri. Molla Said read one page once, memorized it, then repeated it by heart. Molla Fethullah expressed his amazement."
• Abbie Hoffman, leader of the Yippie movement, claims to have eidetic memory in his 1968 book Revolution for the Hell of It.
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart appeared to have a perfect musical memory (whether this is related to eidetic memory remains to be argued). As a young adolescent, he wrote down Allegri's Misere entirely from memory after hearing it only once, making only minor corrections later. Others such as Ludwig van Beethoven have shown similar capacity, personally premiering a piano concerto and performing without the piano part.
• Business tycoon Charles M. Schwab could remember the names of 8,000 employees.
  
• Andriy Slyusarchuk, a Ukrainian professor from Lviv, achieved a world record on February 28, 2006 after having memorized 5,100 numbers in two minutes.^[15][16]
• Sergei Rachmaninov, one of Russia's most famous composers and pianists, is said to have been able to perfectly recall any musical score after sight reading it just twice.
• Desi Arnaz, husband of Lucille Ball and co-star of I Love Lucy was able to memorize his script after reading it through once.

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich arrested for trying to sell senate seat vacanted by now Mr. President Obama

CHICAGO - Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich embarked on a "corruption crime spree" and tried to benefit from his ability to appoint President-elect Barack Obama's replacement in the U.S. Senate, federal officials said.

Rod Blagojevich

At a news conference in Chicago on Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald called it a sad day for the citizens of Illinois and alleged that the governor tried to "auction off" the Senate seat "to the highest bidder."

Blagojevich had been arrested hours earlier and was released later in the day after posting a $4,500 bond.

A 76-page FBI affidavit said the 51-year-old Democrat was intercepted on court-authorized wiretaps over the last month conspiring to sell or trade the vacant Senate seat for personal benefits for himself and his wife, Patti. Fitzgerald said federal investigators bugged Blagojevich's campaign offices and placed a tap on his home phone.

Obama

In Illinois, the governor selects a successor when there is a mid-term Senate vacancy. Obama resigned from the Senate soon after winning the Nov. 4 presidential election. With the governor's arrest, Illinois Senate President Emil Jones, Jr., said he will call the Senate back in session in order to create a special election for the U.S. Senate seat.

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Must read following Ultra SHOCKING article
mindlessly copied from The Smoking Gun:

The criminal complaint filed today against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich contains a remarkable section detailing the Democratic politician's alleged attempt to cash in on his ability to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama. Attached to the U.S. District Court complaint is an FBI affidavit, excerpted below, alleging that Blagojevich was caught on wiretaps noting that the Senate seat "is a fucking valuable thing, you just don't give it away for nothing." He was also recorded saying that unless "I get something real good," he would appoint himself to the vacancy. "I'm going to keep this Senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore I can drive a hard bargain. You hear what I'm saying. And if I don't get what I want and I'm not satisfied with it, then I'll just take the Senate seat myself." According to surreptitiously recorded conversations, Blagojevich spoke with associates about the possibility of trading the Senate post for either an ambassadorship or a Cabinet post. The politician, according to the affidavit sworn by FBI Agent Daniel Cain, "analogized his situation to that of a sports agent shopping a potential free agent to various teams." During a wiretapped November 10 call, a frustrated and financially strapped Blagojevich referred to Obama as a "motherfucker" and said that he would not appoint an ally of the President-elect to the Senate vacancy if "I don't get anything." Referring to Obama, Blagojevich exclaimed, "Fuck him. For nothing? Fuck him." In a November 11 conversation, Blagojevich remarked that he knew Obama wanted Valerie Jarrett, a longtime confidante, to succeed him, "but they're not willing to give me anything except appreciation. Fuck them." Blagojevich, 51, and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested this morning on political corruption charges. While the affidavit does not specifically name the six prospective Senate candidates discussed by Blagojevic, Harris, and the governor's aides, it appears that several are easily identified. "Senate Candidate 1" is Jarrett. "Senate Candidate 2" is Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. Emil Jones, an Illinois state legislator, is "Senate Candidate 5." [The Chicago Tribune and ABC News are reporting that "Senate Candidate 5" is Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.] And "Senate Candidate 6" appears to be J.P. Pritzker, a wealthy Chicago businessman. Additionally, Rahm Emanuel, the incoming White House chief of staff, is referred to in the affidavit as "President-elect Advisor." (21 pages)

Click here to read the full detailed 21 paged article

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Click here to read the Blagojevich criminal complaint (PDF)

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