From the Desk 06.12

Xpat Magazine December, 2006

The fastest elevators in the world : Taipei 101's high speed lifts, which travel at 17m per second

The world's tallest building : Taipei 101 at 509m tall

The world's largest proposed building : Burj Dubai in Dubai, UAE, expected to be completed in 2008, will be 800m tall

Price of a new Triumph Rocket III motorcycle in Taiwan : NT$1,220,000

The size of the engine on this mad machine : 2294cc

The largest engine size for a motorcycle in Taiwan that can be legally driven without a special driver's license : 150cc

Rolling Stone magazine's opinion about Canadian 80's rock band Triumph according to one review : They were "mutant hoseheads"

The only homosexual comic book character with the ability to kill Superman : Triumph

His method : Draining all of the "solar energy" from Superman's cells

The reason Triumph's sexual orientation was never revealed in the comic : The writers "didn't have an appropriate storyline to deal sensitively with that issue"

The population of Triumph, Idaho, USA : approximately 350

The tourism slogan of Idaho, USA : "Great potatoes, tasty destinations"

Record recently attained by Claudio Paulo Pinto : best 'eye popper' in Brazil with a 7mm 'pop'.

Distance Pinto claims he can bulge his eyeballs out of their sockets : approximately 11.5mm

Current 'eyeball popping' world record : 11mm, held by Kim Goodman of Chicago, U.S.A.

The amount of money that Mark Giorgio chased over the edge of a bridge (he dropped it) in Palmetto, U.S.A. : $20

The distance he fell : 50ft into the Manatee River

Distance he swam to recover the bill : approximately 100 yards

His comment to the local newspaper about the incident : "I got my money back, hell yeah!"

World record for most kicks to one's own head in one minute : 42, held by Michael Lloyd of Midland, Texas, USA

World record for highest fall survived without a parachute : 10,160 meters, held by Vesna Vulovic

Name of a new energy drink manufactured by Redux Beverages : Cocaine

Amount of cocaine in the beverage : None

Amount of caffeine : 280 milligrams

Reaction of Dr. Charles O'Brien to the drink : "Just a bad idea and...a very bad name"

World Record for fastest time to drink one liter of beer : 1.3 seconds by Peter Dowdesell in Carlise, PA, USA

World Record for Farthest Spaghetti Nasal Ejection : 19cm held by Kevin Cole of Carlsbad, New Mexico, USA

Fastest text message ever : 160 character text in 43.24 seconds held by Kimberly Yeo of Singapore

The 160 character phrase used in most speed text messaging contests : "The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human."

Number of arithmetic world records broken by three Taiwanese siblings aged 8 to 13 years old in Kaohsiung in December, 2000 : 4

Length of time it took 13-year-old Wang Chia-lu to multiply two 8-digit figures correctly : 25.08 seconds

Length of time it took him to multiply two 13-digit figures correctly : 26.51 seconds

Length of time it took 12-year-old Wang Yi-hui to add two 100 single-digit numbers : 18.98 seconds

Length of time it took 8-year-old Wang Hui-yin to calculate the square root of a six-digit number : 10.48 seconds (more than 50 seconds faster than the previous record of 63.8 seconds)