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Titanic life jacket sells in New York for $68,500
An unused life jacket from the doomed Titanic ship sold for $68,500 in New York at Christie’s auction house. The cork-filled life preserver — still largely intact, but stained and torn in parts — was thought to have been found by farmer John James Dunbar on the Halifax shoreline after the passenger ship sank off Newfoundland in April, 1912. The liner sank during its maiden voyage from the British port of Southampton to New York when it hit an iceberg, causing some 1,500 people to die.
Christie’s, which estimated that the life preserver would sell for $60,000 to $80,000, sold another Titanic life jacket last year in London for $119,000. Maritime specialist Gregg Dietrich said the jacket — believed to be one of six remaining — appeared to have been unused because the shoulder straps were still intact. Titanic passengers tended to have had their life preservers cut off to ease removal from their damaged skin.
Dietrich said that the cork filling the jackets was so heavy that many of the survivors and victims of Titanic were found to have broken their jaws on them when they hit the water after jumping from the ship.
Goa gets its own Madame Tussauds
Awax museum is all set to woo visitors to Goa along the lines of the world famous Madame Tussauds of London. The museum is an initiative of Shreeji Bhaskaran, a 44-year-old engineer.
It is the second such initiative by him in the country. Bhaskaran’s first wax museum ‘Wax World’ is located at Ooty in Tamil Nadu in a 142-year-old bungalow, which houses 21 statues of various public figures. The museum in Goa, houses wax statues of various prominent personalities ranging from spiritual leaders to Hindu deities. There is also a wax model of the famous ‘The Last Supper’ made from 500 kilograms of wax and measuring 22 feet in length. Bhaskaran, who owns a candle-manufacturing unit, got interested in wax modeling, as he wanted to do something creative. “I have a candle company in Bangalore that makes different types of decorative candles and I wanted to have something on the creative side. So it started off with wax statues. And that’s how I started into modeling of wax and creating wax statues,” said Bhaskaran. Wax statue making involves computerized digital imaging techniques, traditional and conventional sculpting and molding methods. The process is quite time consuming, usually taking anywhere from four to 16 weeks to complete a single statue.
Man flies on helium balloon-rigged lawn chair
Using his trusty BB gun to help him return to Earth, a 48-year-old gas station owner flew a lawn chair rigged with helium-filled balloons more then 200 miles across the Oregon desert Saturday, landing in a field in Idaho.
Kent Couch created a sensation in the tiny farming community of Cambridge, Idaho, where he touched down safely in a pasture and was soon greeted by dozens of people who gave him drinks of water, local plumber Mark Hetz said. Couch covered about 235 miles in about nine hours after lifting off at dawn from his gas station riding in a green lawn chair rigged with an array of more then 150 giant party balloons. Couch, clutching a big gum of coffee, kissed his kids goodbye, then patted their shivering Chihuahua, Isabella, on the head. After spilling off some cherry-flavored Cold drink that served as ballast, Couch got a push from the ground crew so he could clear light poles and soared over a coffee cart and across US Highway 20 into a bright blue sky.
This was Couch’s third balloons flight. He realized it would be possible after watching a TV show about the 1982 lawn chair flight over Los Angeles of truck driver Larry Walters, who gained folk hero fame but was fined $1,500 for violating air traffic rules.
In 2006, Couch had to parachute out after popping too many balloons. And last year he flew 193 miles to the sagebrush of northeastern Oregon, short of his goal.
For that job he carried a Red Ryder BB gun and a blow gun equipped with steel darts. He also had a pole with a hook for pulling in balloons, a parachute in case anything went wrong, a handheld Global Positioning System device with altimeter, a satellite phone, and two GPS tracking devices. One was one for him, the other for the chair, which got away in the wind as he landed last year.
For food he carried some boiled eggs, and chocolate.
Beckham; football’s highest earner
David Beckham earned £24.4 million last year, overtaking Ronaldinho as football’s highest earner, it has been revealed.
Football fans forum: Beckham topped the pay league table, despite having forsaken the glamour of Manchester United and Real Madrid for the relative footballing backwater of LA Galaxy. The former England captain may no longer be playing against elite opposition on a regular basis, but his fame endures giving him lucrative advertising deal in addition to the money he receives from the team with whom he signed a five-year deal worth £128 million last year.
Ronaldinho, Barcelona’s ace earned a total of £16.3 million beating his club mate Thierry Henry, the former Arsenal striker, into third place with £12.5 million.
The leading English-based player was Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo, who took fifth spot with £9.2 million, one place behind his namesake Ronaldo of AC Milan who claimed fourth position with £10.6 million.
Kaka of AC Milan was sixth with £8.8 million followed by Fabio Cannavaro of Real Madrid with £8.7 million. The second highest English-based player was Andrily Shevchenko of Chelsea, who was paid £8.7 million to take eighth.
The league table was drawn up by Forbes, the US business magazine. Steven Gerrard of Liverpool came ninth with £8.5 million, closely followed by his compatriots John Terry of Chelsea (£8.5 million) and Wayne Rooney, Manchester United, on £8.1 million.
Paul Maidstone, one of the authors of the list, said: “More TV money, more matches, more shirts shifted and more endorsements have translated into rising incomes for the world’s top soccer stars. Of the top 20 players, nine played for English clubs including five for Chelsea. The other Chelsea players were: Michael Ballack in 13th place with £8 million, Frank Lampard, who took 14th place with £7.4 million and Didier Drogba in 16th place with £6.7 million.
Seagulls steal sandwiches
Shoppers in a seaside town are being terrorized by a flock of greedy seagulls, who swoop on the unwary to steal their food. Descending from the skies in a flurry of feathers, one bird seized its chance and made off with this woman’s sandwich in King Street, South Shields. Shopper Maisie Harrison, 68, from Whiteleas, said: “These seagulls are so desperate for food it seems they’ll approach people to take food rather than fight for scraps on the floor.” Seagulls are opportunistic birds that at this time of the year have the additional responsibility of feeding their young. While the council has in the past spent money on proofing some of the buildings in King Street to prevent birds from nesting and has also placed signage within this area advising members of the public not to feed birds, “we can not guarantee that this sort of incident will not occur occasionally.”