The World’s Smallest Cell Phone Looks Like A Toy

When it comes down to it, we all love to marvel at the world’s smallest blanks, but they’re generally not that practical. That’s why we doubt we’ll ever find ourselves snapping pics with the world’s smallest camera, keeping fish in the world’s smallest aquarium, or shooting targets with the world’s smallest revolver. But the world’s smallest cell phone might make sense… assuming you don’t need to play Angry Birds, browse the internet, or do anything other than make phone calls. Actually, okay this is probably just as useless as those other things. Still, Japanese company Wilcom thinks the tiny new Strap 2 phone will be a big hit… presumably among people who like working gadgets that look like doll toys from the early 2000’s. Available in white, black and pink, the phone features a one-inch display and an antenna. It will be available in Japan for $380.

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8 Most Extreme Cultural Body Modifications

It is impossible to say who the first people were with stretched ears, or why they did it. Today, many cultures (including our own!) practice the art of ear stretching for many different reasons. Religion, coming of age ceremonies, warding off evil, sexual enhancement and physical beauty are common motivations. However, that just barely scratches the surface as there are many other reasons, as well. People all over the world still practice ear stretching. From the Masai tribes in Kenya to the Huaorani tribe in the Amazon Basin, stretched ears are still a common sight. It is a fascinating testament of human culture that a Western youth can walk into a piercing shop to select stretched ear jewelry while a Hmong youth in Thailand selects from an array of silver tubes.

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The Apatani tribe lives in the Ziro valley in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in India's northeast. Apanti women were considered the most beautiful among the Arunachal tribes; so beautiful, in fact, that they had to make themselves look unattractive as protection from invaders from other tribes. Hence, Apanti women wore large wooden plugs in their noses, a tradition not carried forward by the younger members of the 26,000 people-strong tribe today.

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Most Dinka boys and girls don't cry when the local sorcerer takes a red-hot knife to their dark faces. If they wince or cry or react to the pain they will lose face in the community, so it's best to sit through the process in peace. Facial scarification is practiced throughout Sudan, and various marks across the faces of tribesmen give identity to the tribe and beauty to its women.

Men of the Dinka tribe in South Sudan scar their faces with three parallel lines across the forehead in a rugged display of courage to the tribe. Dinka boys receive their scars around adolescence to mark the transition to manhood, when they take the responsibilities of the other men in the nomadic tribe.

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For some people, this would be totally extreme, but for local Thais, this is completely normal. They ignore the pain because this ritual is a rite of passage to adulthood. This is an annual ritual performed in public to announce to the whole world that they have become adults.

The vegetarian festival in Phuket sees a great deal of devotional activities in the Chinese communities. Trance and heavy piercing are part of the tradition. This festival is held on the Southern Thai island of Phuket every year in October. Most impressive are the processions that are held almost every morning during the ten days of the festival. The processions feature devotees of the different city shrines which act as "mediums" for the Chinese Gods. Some of the mediums put sharp objects (mostly metal objects) through their cheeks as an act of devotion for themselves and for the whole community. Other rituals that are performed include walking barefoot over hot coals and ascending ladders with bladed rungs.

All the mediums act involuntarily while in a trance, which allows them to endure the long piercing sessions. Although the wounds are said to be healed completely after the service, scars accumulate on their faces year after year.

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Human tooth sharpening is the practice of manually sharpening the teeth, usually the front incisors. Historically, many cultures have practiced this form of body modification. In Bali, teeth were filed down because it was thought that the teeth represented anger, jealousy, and other similarly negative emotions. The teeth were also sharpened as a rite of passage for adolescents. Teeth filing was also used by Aborigines for spiritual reasons, similar to assorted Vietnamese and Sudanese tribes. In Mayan culture, the teeth were sharpened, and sometimes had designs carved into them, to distinguish those in the upper-classes. Many cultures would sharpen their teeth to imitate animals, such as the Wapare of inter-tropical Africa, who sharpened their teeth to imitate sharks, as well as kicking out some mandibular teeth during puberty.

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Though scarification is done by people all over the world, it is practiced heavily by Sepik River tribes in Papua, New Guinea as part of an initiation ceremony for men. This is only a small part of a ceremony that lasts for weeks and includes public humiliation, but it's ridiculously painful. The elders of the tribe use razor blades to cut the young men all over their bodies in a pattern that closely imitates the rough skin of an alligator. They believe that the alligator will then consume any semblance of a boy left in their bodies, and they will become men.

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The lip plate, also known as a lip plug or lip disc, is a form of body modification. Increasingly larger discs (usually circular, made from clay or wood) are inserted into a pierced hole in either the upper or lower lip, or both, thereby stretching it. Archaeological evidence indicates that labrets have been independently invented no fewer than six times, in Sudan and Ethiopia (8700 BC), Mesoamerica (1500 BC), and Coastal Ecuador (500 BC). Today, the custom is maintained by a few groups in Africa and Amazonia.

In Africa, a lower lip plate is usually combined with the excision of the two lower front teeth, and sometimes all four. Among the Sara people and Lobi a plate is also inserted into the upper lip. Other tribes, such as the Makonde, used to wear a plate in the upper lip only. In many older sources it is reported that the plate's size is a sign of social or economical importance in some tribes. However, because of natural mechanical attributes of human skin, it seems that the plate's size often just depends on the stage of stretching the lip and the wishes of the wearer.

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The Kayan women of Northern Thailand are known for the exquisite and incredible brass coils they wear around their necks. They are often called the "long necks" or the "giraffe women" by outsiders and can wear up to 25 coils, which many never take off.

Myth has it that the women will break their necks or be unable to support them if the coils are removed but this is simply not true. Maeneng, above, is the matriarch of her village, and while she is the only one to wear 25 coils, she often helps adjust and repair the coils of other women.

Children are often given their first set of coils at age 5. This consists of a set weighing about 4 1/2 pounds, then new rings are slowly added. In actuality, the Kayan women do not have their necks elongated; instead, it works in the other direction. As the weight of the coils press down, the clavicle is lowered, and with each addition to the neck rings it falls further, compressing the rib cage as well. The shoulders finally fall away to give the appearance of an elongated neck.

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CELEBRITY TMI BEACH MOMENTS

NICOLE RICHIE CHECKS HERSELF OUT

Many Hollywood stars manage to rock a beach-ready body all year round, and it looks like Nicole Richie got caught looking not-so secretly at her toned (and tanned) derriere.

 

SERENA WILLIAMS SERVES UP A WARDROBE MALFUNCTION

She may be known for her killer tennis serve, but here, Serena gets spotted digging for an ace in the hole, so to speak. Game, set, match!

 

MISCHA BARTON STRETCHES

The actress took some time out of her beach-side fun to stretch out the bottom part of her bathing suit. Please note: this can all be avoided if you buy more material in the first place.

 

 

 

 

JOSH DUHAMEL AND FERGIE: NOT SO G.L.A.M.O.R.O.U.S.

 Though it's normally cute that Josh and Fergie are always up in each other's business, they now seem to be taking that sentence a little too literally. Picking wedgies is just too much of a TMI, even for a husband and wife.

JESSICA ALBA'S WEDGIE

The actress certainly knows how to rock a bikini, but it seems she's in need of a little tutorial on how to take care of a wedgie. You pull down, Alba, not up!

 

RIHANNA'S SPRAY TAN EXPERIENCE

Many dedicated beach-goers will do just about anything for an even tan and Rihanna is no exception. She even allows close friends to spray her with lotion in the very… um… most interesting of places.

 

 

 

HULK HOGAN'S LIME GREEN SPEEDO

For once, this wrestler's bulging biceps are the least of our concern as he walks around in a lime green speedo.

 

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER'S BIKINI-BOTTOM BODY

 

The former governor of California seems deTERMINEd to try and pull off the speedo look for as long as possible. And judging by this photo, his expiration deadline is just about up.

 

SACHA BARON COHEN'S SLING BIKINI

Is Sacha trying to show up Hulk? He needs to work on his muscle structure if that's what he's going for.

 

 

 

 

 

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moodInq Shows How Programmable Tattoos That Change with Your Mood Would Work

Sure, we may be years away from developing the technology required to create programmable tattoos, but that hasn't stopped moodInq from showing us how they might work. Simply put as possible, "the moodInq system is a breakthrough in tattoo technology, using a skin-safe proprietary E-ink encapsulated pigment system that lasts a lifetime but can be configured to display any design (or none!) to suit your mood." Continue reading for more pictures.

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Budget 2013 Impact: Pizza Hut, KFC, Nirula’s to increase prices by 5-10%

NEW DELHI: Come April and you will have to pay Rs 20-50 more for that sizzling zinger burger or a country feast pizza. A day after the finance minister announced a service tax of 12.36 per cent on all air-conditioned restaurants in the country, leading restaurant and cafe chains such as KFC, Pizza Hut, Nirula's, Moti Mahal,Zambar and Costa Coffee said they have no choice but to increases prices by 5-10 per cent, even though it would impact consumption.

"We expect that restaurants across the spectrum may see a fall in transactions in the short term owing to poor consumer sentiment," said Virag Joshi, CEO & president at RJ Corp-promoted Devyani International, which operates Yum Restaurants' KFC and Pizza Hut, and Costa Coffee. These three chains will increase prices by about 5 per cent starting April 1.

Top burger and fries chain McDonald's, which bases its strategy on pricing, said it was still evaluating the quantum of price hike. "Discretionary spends which are already tight are expected to come under further pressure. We would have to study the fine print to understand it completely, but it would surely impact the consumer as he would bear the burden," Vikram Bakshi, McDonald's India (North & East) managing director and joint venture partner, said.

The service tax of 12.36 per cent will be applicable on 40 per cent of the bill (because 60 per cent of the bill is considered the cost of food) in all air-conditioned restaurants. This would lead to an effective increase of 4.95 per cent on the total bill. Till now, this service tax was levied only on AC restaurants serving liquor.

The 'Indian Restaurant Report 2012' released by Franchise India last month estimated the current market of Indian restaurant industry at Rs 75,000 crore and forecasted it to reach Rs 1,37,000 crore in 2015, growing 17 per cent a year. But the last two quarters have seen growth slowing down on account of cautious consumer sentiment, with brands such as Jubilant FoodWorks' Domino's Pizza and McDonald's reporting lower same-store sales than last year.

Samir Kuckreja, president of National Restaurants Association of India (NRAI), which represents leading restaurant chains, said the association would take up this issue with the government and seek rollback of the move. "This (the new tax) would be a serious dampener on consumption," he said. Along with the existing VAT and service tax, consumers will have to shell out an extra 17-25 per cent of the bill value on taxes, Kuckreja added.

Amit Burman, promoter of Lite Bite Foods that runs restaurant chains Zambar and Pollo Campero, too said his restaurants will raise prices by 5-10 per cent within the next fortnight. "We are seeking clarity on whether the service tax would be levied on restaurants located in malls, because these restaurants don't run independent air-conditioning. But in other cases, we have no choice but to pass on the service tax to consumers," he said.

Sub-One Hospitality Services, which holds franchisees for multiple restaurant chains including homegrown ones like Nirula's, Moti Mahal and Rajdhani, and global ones such as Muffin Break, too, will hike prices by anywhere between 5 per cent and 10 per cent. "Consumers will feel the pinch and prices will naturally go up," said Pradeep Sehgal, CEO of Sub-One Hospitality said.

Zorawar Kalra, son of chef Jiggs Kalra, who operates the Punjab Grill restaurant chain, too, said the service tax would put brakes on the growth of the restaurant sector.

ratna.bhushan@timesgroup.com

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After rape and murder of three young girls, signs of lapses in investigation

Bhandara, Maharashtra: It has been nearly two weeks since three sisters aged 11, nine, and six were raped and murdered  in the  Bhandara district of Maharashtra, but in the tiny village where they lived, nobody has been arrested yet.  The police admits it has suspects but has not been able to zero in on them due to the lack of eyewitnesses.

Shockingly, sources have confirmed that the autopsy in the case seems to have been conducted in a rather unprofessional manner, which could impact the case at the trial stage itself, if the culprits are caught.

Sources say an autopsy was performed by a panel of doctors from the district headquarters in Bhandara  who were not forensic experts.

Fingernail clippings and hair samples of the girls were not collected, which is a requirement for cases of sexual abuse. The post-mortem was reportedly not correctly filmed, which could hurt the case in court.

The day that her daughters were found dead, their mother told NDTV,   "I want the culprits to be caught and hanged in public."

The girls went missing after school on February 14. Their bodies were spotted by a local farmer two days later in a well when he came to water his fields. He then informed the police. The bodies were recovered from the well located just off the major road in the area, the Nagpur-Raipur Highway.

Members of the autopsy team say the police pressured them to hurry with the autopsy.  Speaking to NDTV, Bhandara Superintendent of Police Dr Aarti Singh said, "The police cannot decide who would conduct the post-mortem. If the autopsy team did not have forensic experts to conduct the autopsy, they should have informed us. They are the authority and they should have suggested alternatives."

These details emerged on a day when a team from the National Commission for Women visited the area. Nirmala Samant Prabhavalkar, who heads the team, told NDTV, "It is true that the police were slow to start with the investigation, but now they are exploring all possible options and angles." She added, "There seem to be contradictions in the post-mortem report itself and that is probably the reason why they have not been zero in on anyone even though they have suspects."

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