Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.”This may be the best four minutes and twenty-eight seconds of your week.”, said the entry at Boing Boing. Well it’s only two days into it, but I’ve a pretty good feeling it will be.It’s basically a goofy dance done by Matt, “a 31-year-old deadbeat from Connecticut” - done in countries all over the world, most times with sporting locals. There’s really something magical about the whole thing.

From Matt’s site:

A few months into his trip, a travel buddy gave Matt an idea. They were standing around taking pictures in Hanoi, and his friend said “Hey, why don’t you stand over there and do that dance. I’ll record it.” He was referring to a particular dance Matt does. It’s actually the only dance Matt does. He does it badly. Anyway, this turned out to be a very good idea.

A couple years later, someone found the video online and passed it to someone else, who passed it to someone else, and so on. Now Matt is quasi-famous as “That guy who dances on the internet. No, not that guy. The other one. No, not him either. I’ll send you the link. It’s funny.”

The response to the first video brought Matt to the attention of the nice people at Stride gum. They asked Matt if he’d be interested in taking another trip around the world to make a new video. Matt asked if they’d be paying for it. They said yes. Matt thought this sounded like another very good idea.

…

Things settled down again, and then in 2007 Matt went back to Stride with another idea. He realized his bad dancing wasn’t actually all that interesting, and that other people were much better at being bad at it. He showed them his inbox, which, as a result of his semi-famousness, was overflowing with emails from all over the planet. He told them he wanted to travel around the world one more time and invite the people who’d written him to come out and dance too.

After you watch this I’m betting your first thought will be “Damn ima quit my job now!”.

And if you wondering, no Malaysia isn’t one of the countries he visited :((. Singapore’s in there somewhere though.

Popularity: 64% [?]

Entertainment

• A new Street Fighter movie is said to be in production. The title: The Legend of Chun Li. The star: Kristin Kreuk
• A MacGyver film is rumoured to be in the works.
• Hilarious Batman vs Iron Man video:
• Russian Communist Party members threaten to beat up Harrison Ford if he ever steps foot there, following the negative portrayal of Russians in the latest Indiana Jones film.

Tech

• Real-life Iron Man technology boosts endurance and strength by up to 20 times.
• SMS-ing is four times more expensive than receiving data from space.

Games

• A US-based monitoring group mistakes concept art for the post-acolyptic game Fallout 3 as al-Qaeda simulations for the aftermath of a terrorist attack.
• The award-winning game Bioshock has been confirmed for a movie adaptation. The director, Gore Verbinski, worked on Pirates of the Carribean.
• A pole-dancing game is being developed for the Wii (no, not Polish artists).
• PC version of the Bioware hit Mass Effect is launched. Complaints abound regarding its strict anti-piracy measures, among them an online check every 10 days.

World, Politics

• Bush claims to have given up golf in 2003, to honour fallen soldiers in Iraq. The claim is promptly debunked with video evidence.
• Barack Obama has finally cut ties with Trinity United Church of Christ, following months of controversy because of its pastor’s beliefs.
• China looks to outsource certain jobs to the US.
• India is hopping mad after the US apparently blames them and other developing nations for food price increases.

Internet

• A Singapore firm claims that they hold a patent on image-linking “technology”, planning to claim millions from Google.

Science

• South Korea puts its cloning research to good use - by cloning seven Labrador retrievers from a highly-trained “original”, to sniff out drugs an explosives. They are all named “Toppy”.
• Girls are becoming just as good as boys in math.
• Teenager isolates a microbe that can break down plastic bags for a science project.
• Six “human” traits (Culture, mind reading, tool use, morality, emotions, and personality ) - have been observed in animals.

Religion

• French citizens and lawmakers discuss marriage laws after a Muslim divorces his wife because she was not a virgin.
• Vatican astronomer says aliens could exist.
• A group based in San Diego calls for a boycott of Starbucks after the company reverted to an adaptation of its old logo, featuring a mermaid. The image apparently “has a naked woman on it with her legs spread like a prostitute.”

Interest

• Homeless Japanese woman lives undetected in a stranger’s closet for a year.
• Teacher faces criminal charges after giving out too much information in a sex-ed class.
• Macbook used to cut a cake
• X-ray image of a python that had just swallowed a cat.
• Woman wakes up after being declared dead following two heart attacks. Interesting thing is rigor mortis had already set in.

Consumer

• There is a serious problem with certain HP notebook models that can cause motherboard damage. BIOS update for all affected notebooks rated “Critical”.

Popularity: 47% [?]

Last week’s TIME had an article about the diary of Rutka Laskier, a Polish Jew whose diary had been found and kept by a friend for 60 years. It outlines four months in 1943, before Rutka and her family were sent to Auschwitz and killed.

If you’ve read the diary of Anne Frank, you’ll find haunting parallels between their lives: the innocence, the despair, the first glimpses of romance.

People were thirsty, and there was not a single drop of water around … Then … it started pouring. The rain didn’t stop. At 3 o’clock Kuczynsky arrived and the selection started. “1″ meant returning home, “1a” meant going to labor, which was even worse than deportation, “2″ meant going for further inspection, and “3″ meant deportation, in other words, death.

Then I saw what disaster meant. We reported for selection at 4 o’clock. Mom, Dad and my little brother were sent to group 1, and I was sent to 1a. I walked as if I were stunned … The weirdest thing was that we didn’t cry at all, AT ALL … Later on, I saw many more disasters. I can’t put it in words. Little children were lying on the wet grass, the storm raging above our heads. The policemen beat them ferociously and also shot them.

I sat there until 1 o’clock at night. Then I ran away. My heart pounded. I jumped out of a window from the first floor of a small building, and nothing happened to me. Only my lips were bitten so bad that they bled … When I was already on the street, I ran into someone “in uniform,” and I felt that I couldn’t take it anymore. My head was spinning. I was pretty sure he was going to beat me … but apparently he was drunk and didn’t see the “yellow star,” and he let me go.

Around me it was dark like in a closed cabin. From time to time flashes of lightning lightened the sky … and it thundered. The journey that normally takes me half an hour I did in 10 minutes. Everybody was at home except Grandma, whom Dad released and brought home the next day …

Oh, I forgot the most important thing. I saw how a soldier tore a baby, who was only a few months old, out of its mother’s hands and bashed his head against an electric pylon. The baby’s brain splashed on the wood. The mother went crazy.

I am writing this as if nothing has happened. As if I were in an army experienced in cruelty. But I’m young, I’m 14, and I haven’t seen much in my life, and I’m already so indifferent. Now I am terrified when I see “uniforms.” I’m turning into an animal waiting to die …

Now to everyday matters: Janek came by this afternoon. We had to sit in the kitchen … I told him that I had given away all my photographs. He got very upset. We were joking around; we spoke about “Nica and the gang.” While we were talking he suddenly blurted out he’d like it very much if he could kiss me. I said “maybe” and continued the conversation. He was a bit confused; he thought I was Tusia or Hala Zelinger. I would have allowed [myself] to be kissed only by the person I loved, and I feel indifferent towards him.

Then Dad sent me to deal with something. I had to leave. Janek accompanied me. While going downstairs I asked him, is kissing such a pleasant thing? And then I told him that I had already kissed before, what a taste it has (that’s completely true). He burst out laughing. (He has a nice laugh, I must admit.) He said he was curious too. Maybe, but I won’t let him kiss me. I’m afraid it would destroy something beautiful, pure … I’m also afraid that I’ll be very disappointed.

Ahmadinejad should get a copy of her diary.

Six million Jews died in the Holocaust, a testament to how much ideology can shape humans. How could there have been soldiers willing enough to carry out those orders? It might be a bit twisted, but I’m glad to see the human race has come far enough that the thousands who have died in Iraq have a much louder voice. I hope that there will never again come a day where we lose sight of our conscience or take lightly a human life.

Popularity: 65% [?]

Apologies for missing this last week, was busying watching HIMYM :P

Malaysia

• Dr. Mahathir joins the ranks of the unemployed lying females in Malaysia.
• MCA newsletter editor Wong Chun Wai follows suit.
• The Sun aggressively calls for reform of press freedom laws.
• Newly appointed CM of Penang Lim Guan Eng is spotted flying economy class. Meanwhile, in a written reply to a question in Parliament, PM Abdullah Badawi says that the government spent RM792,325 for the use of executive jets for himself and DPM Najib in the two weeks before the polls.
  (Yes, somehow it’s hard to believe that we don’t have money for projects in Penang).
• Anwar is in TIME’s list of 100 most influential people in the world.
• Jakim has rejected the PM’s proposal to compel Muslim converts to inform their families about their conversion.
  (Apparently the PM is not in their list of influential people).
• Hishammudin Hussein finally “apologizes” over his usage of the keris. The Star calls him a “big man” for this.
  (WTF - it bore all the hallmarks of a non-apology apology, was much belated, and he was practically forced to do it. “Big Man” my ass. )
• The much-ballyhooed sports complex to be built in England is scrapped. Citizen Nades of The Sun reports.
• Malaysia ranks 2nd-highest in the world… for malicious web activity.

Science

• According to Nature, 20% of scientists who participated in an informal survey said they used “cognitive enchancing” drugs.
• Australian researches find that there is a very effective way of preventing prostate cancer by 40%.
• A genetic study suggests that humans came close to extinction 70,000 years ago.
• Keyboards may carry more bacteria than toilet seats, a UK study finds.
• South Korea has cloned seven dogs from an active drug-sniffer in active service. All of them will be named Toppy.

Entertainment

• JK Rowling is suing a (former?) fan who planned to publish his own Harry Potter lexicon, an encyclopedia to the series. He reportedly cried on the witness stand.
• A million WoW players were online at the same time over the weekend, reports the company that hosts WoW servers in China.

Interest

• A New Yorker survived being trapped in an elevator for 41 hours. The ordeal was captured on CCTV.
• Six Masai warriors were invited to run in the Flora London Marathon. “The marathon was easy, there were no lions!”

World/Politics

• A Russian newspaper reported plans by President Putin to wed a former Olympic gymnast half his age. He denied the rumour, and the paper was promptly shut down.
• 60% of the world’s paintings apparently are churned out from a single village in China.
• An Italian performance artist who planned to hitchhike from Italy to the Middle East in a wedding dress to “send a message or peace” is found brutally murdered in Turkey.

Tech

• A writer from MacWorld builds and successfully runs Mac OS X on a “clone” computer.
• The latest beta of Opera 9.5 blows competitors out of the water - yes, including FF b3!

Popularity: 74% [?]

Note: I was planning Snippets to be just a mishmash of everything interesting I find on the Web but would never have the time to blog about. I thought making it a fortnightly thing would be fine, but it appears a lot happens in two weeks :/. Oh well.

Malaysia

• Hamilahton, mother of maths prodigy Sufiah Yusof who was recently revealed to be working as an escort girl in UK, starts a blog to tell her side of the story.
• GSC’s website is hit by a trojan that can potentially exploit IE to steal user passwords.
• Malaysia Airlines is hit with an RM900k loss after a ticket price typo.
• Faizal Tahir, who was recently censured for baring his chest onstage during an 8TV concert, receives the most AIM (Anugerah Industri Musik) nominations this year.
• A Samad Said hits out at the Education Ministry for omitting his works from the national curriculum because they are too “difficult”, also blames DBP for the decline of Malay literature.
• Dr. Chua Soi Lek starts his own blog.
• Tengku Faris, Crown Prince of Kelantan, says that non-Malays should not seek equal treatment, and that their citizenship is owed to the Malays.

Tech

• A class action lawsuit is being brought against Apple for fitting newer iMacs with inferior TN displays. (For those who don’t know, the widely-used TN panels cost roughly half of a higher quality S-IPS/PVM panel, and have much worse viewing angles and colour reproduction.
• Sony BMG is found to be using pirated software after one its employees called tech support with an invalid key.
• It seems that buying an upgrade edition of Vista without actually “upgrading” allows you to nearly halve the price.
• President Bush is apparently caught with pirated songs after talking about his iPod in an interview.
• Universal claims that promotional CDs sent out en masse still belong to them.
• A power grid in San Franciso is hacked in less than a day by a team of penetration testers.
• A Microsoft exec talks about Vista’s UAC at a conference and informs participants that it was “meant to annoy”.

Science

• A study shows men are much less able to tell when a woman is interested (or rather, disinterested ) in them, and vice versa.
• The youngest planet ever discovered could be less than 2,000 years old.
• New data from spacecraft orbiting Venus suggests that the evolution of the planet was “too fast”, ultimately rendering it inhabitable.

Teh Internets

• Two bloggers die “on the job”, sparking reflections on the frenzied pace of news today. (One of the victim’s final emails said: “Have come down with something. Resting now posts to resume later today or tomorrow.”).
• TIME begins compiling its annual index of the top 100 most influential people in the world. The online version again sees Korean pop-star Rain at the top, followed closely by Stephen Colbert and Shigeru Miyamoto.

  Context:

  There are also a number of spinoff lists, including the top 25 blogs and a list of top lists.

Religion/Culture/Issues

• A young Saudi woman is murdered by her father for using Facebook. [related] Also, a Saudi court increases a gang rape victim’s sentence because she “used the media to influence them“.
• In a case of legality over morality, two public defense attorneys disclose that their client had boasted of committing a murder he was on trial for 20 years ago. They felt it would breach the lawyer-client privilege.
• The family of a baby born with two faces in India refuse medical care, claiming that she is the incarnation of the goddess Shakti.
• A raid on a polygamist cult in Texas frees 400+ children [related]

World/Politics

• China eases its restrictions on Wikipedia ahead of the Olympics.
• Zimbabwe’s elections sees its dictator of 28 years, Robert Mugabe, losing his grip on power. (Go tsunami!)

Entertainment

• Mass Effect for the PC is delayed a month from its initial launch date of May 2008.
• More juicies about Fallout 3
• A comprehensive list of games to look forward to in 2008-2009

Interest

• An 80-year old man has been phoning his wife’s voicemail every day to hear her voice. She passed away in 2005. In a network upgrade, the voicemail was lost, but after hearing of the story, the telco restores the voicemail from their archives.
• Rustylime has a photoessay comparing family food expenditures around the world.

Popularity: 96% [?]

How many passes does the team in white make?

Popularity: 48% [?]