Factoids that may interest only me:

(from Gizmodo)

1,000,000,000 worldwide television audience
130,000,000 US viewers
70,000 fans at Ford Field in Detroit
720p HD standard of the broadcast
500 monitors in control trucks
400 crew people for production, technical, administrative and support
100x optical zoom of the longest Canon lens to be used
180 frames per second of Sony’s new experimental super slo-mo camera
90 inputs on the video switcher
90 miles of cable for cameras and microphones
60 microphones, including 12 on-field parabolic mics
54 cameras used by FOX at last year’s Super Bowl, but not all were HD as they are this year
40 digital video instant replay units
36 TV cameras
36 seasons of ABC NFL coverage, of which this is the last season and last game
29 mobile vehicles
25 degrees, forecast temperature outside the domed stadium at kickoff, a concern of ABC technicians
20 “hard” cameras (stationary as opposed to hand-held)
10 television production trucks (not including the infamous horse trailer)
10 commercials bought by the game’s biggest advertiser, Anheuser-Busch
7 handheld cameras
6 robotic cameras
6 super slo-mo cameras
5 million dollars per minute to buy a commercial
4 announcers: Al Michaels, John Madden, Michelle Tafoya and Suzy Kolber
3 60-second advertisements (the rest are :30), bought by General Motors, Burger King and ESPN
2 operators for SkyCam: one cameraman, one “pilot”
1 director, Drew Esocoff, his second Super Bowl as a director

In case you haven’t received them yet, here are this year’s Darwin Awards — the annual honor given to the people who improved the “gene pool” the most by killing themselves in the most extraordinarily stupid way.
As always, competition this year has been keen. And the candidates this year are…………      

- In Detroit, a 41-year-old man got stuck and drowned in 2 feet of water after squeezing head first through an 18-inch-wide sewer grate to retrieve his car keys.

- A 49-year-old San Francisco stockbroker, who “totally zoned  when he ran,” accidentally jogged off a 100-foot-high cliff on his daily run.

- Buxton, NC: A man died on a beach when an 8-foot-deep hole he  had dug into the sand caved in as he sat inside it. Beach-goers said  Daniel Jones, 21, dug the hole for fun, or protection from the wind, and had been sitting in a beach chair at the bottom, Thursday afternoon, when it collapsed, burying him beneath 5 feet of sand.  People on the beach on the outer banks, used their hands and shovels, trying to claw their way to Jones, a resident of Woodbridge, VA, but could not reach him.  It took rescue workers, using heavy equipment, almost an hour to free him, while about 200 people looked on. Jones was pronounced dead at hospital.

- Santiago Alvarado, 24, was killed in Lompoc, CA, as he fell through the ceiling of a bicycle shop he was burglarizing.  Death was caused when the long flashlight he had placed in his mouth (to keep his hands free) rammed into the base of his skull as he hit the floor.

- Sylvester Briddell Jr., 26, was killed in Selbyville, Del, as he won a bet with friends, who said he put a revolver loaded with four bullets into his mouth and pulled the trigger.

HONORABLE MENTION:

Paul Stiller, 47, was hospitalized in Andover township, NJ, and his wife Bonnie was also injured, when a quarter-stick of dynamite blew up in their car. While driving around 2 AM, the bored couple lit the dynamite and tried to toss it out the window to see what would happen, but apparently failed to notice the window was closed.

RUNNER UP:

TACOMA, WA,  Kerry Bingham had been drinking with several friends when one of them said he knew a person who had bungee-jumped from the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in the middle of traffic. The conversation grew more heated and at least 10 men trooped along the walkway of the bridge at 4:30AM.

Upon arrival at the midpoint of the bridge they discovered that no one had brought a bungee rope. Bingham, who had continued drinking, volunteered and pointed out that a coil of lineman’s cable lay nearby. One end of the cable was secured around Bingham’s leg and the other end was tied to the bridge. His fall lasted 40 feet before the cable tightened and tore his foot off at the ankle. He miraculously survived his fall into the icy river water and was rescued by two nearby fishermen. “All I can say” said Bingham, “is that God was watching out for me on that night. There’s just no other explanation for it.” Bingham’s foot was never located.

AND THE WINNER:

Overzealous zookeeper Friedrich Riesfeldt (Paderbo RN, Germany) fed his constipated elephant, Stefan, 22 doses of animal laxative and more than a bushel of berries, figs and prunes before the plugged-up pachyderm finally let it fly, and suffocated the keeper under 200 pounds of poop!  Investigators say ill-fated Friedrich, 46, was attempting to give the ailing elephant an olive oil enema when the relieved beast unloaded  on him.

“The sheer force of the elephant’s unexpected defecation knocked Mr.Riesfeldt to the ground, where he struck his head on a rock and lay unconscious as the elephant continued to evacuate his bowels on  top of him” said flabbergasted Paderborn police detective, Erik Dern.

“With  no one there to help him, he lay under all that dung for at least an hour before a watchman came along, and during that time he suffocated.”

It seems to be just one of those freak accidents that proves that ‘Shit happens’. Don’t take life too seriously, no one gets out alive.

http://www.darwinawards.com

tis is durian. viewed from my bedroom window.

tis is the durian that fell from the tree at the backyard which is now in my tummy. *burrpp* hey, the kukaki theme matches the durian!

ok, so now kukaki.net is a blog.  yipeedoo.  blog me.  me company’s inhouse doc said i shld not drink alcohol for the next 2 weeks cos some fine blood vessels at the inner corner of my right eye ruptured.  i could’ve swear it wasnt due to drinking as i was drinking much less than my regular standard during the past few days.  wonder what would 50 cups of coffee do to me?  year of the dog hasn’t been fruitful to me of late.  but then again, it has only been 4 days into the doggy year.  i shall persist on n doggy meself silly.

We have things to say … and you will listen! or at least pretend to be interested.