KEY POINTS:
An honest offer.
* * *
The 20 most spoken languages in the world:
Mandarin 873 million, Hindi 450 million, English 341 million, Spanish 320 million, Arabic 250 million, Portuguese 177.5 million, Bengali 171 million, Russian 170 million, Japanese 122 million, German 100 million, Punjabi 88 million, French 79,572,000, Wu 77.2 million, Javanese 75. 5 million, Korean 74 million, Vietnamese 67.4 million, Marathi 68 million, Telugu 69.7 million, Tamil 66 million, Italian 61.5 million.
(Via Wikipedia's List of languages by number of native speakers)
* * *
Further to the discussion to find a universal All Blacks chant, Denny writes: "I have just returned from a summer holiday in Croatia where I attended a soccer match between two domestic teams. Of the 15,000 local supporters who attended the game, a section of about 3000 chanted, clapped, celebrated and sang songs in unison for the entire 90 minutes, during which they would point at certain parts of the stadium and chant, then that part of the stadium stood, pointed back and chanted their response, all in unison. I asked my cousin how everybody knew the responses and the songs. He replied that you do your 'apprenticeship' in that part of the stadium from the age of 16 to 26 and then move to the main grandstand. The atmosphere for the full 90 minutes was unbelievable."
* * *
Tom Kleven thought he would prepare for a triathlon by swimming across Minnesota's Lake Nokomis. But a lifeguard ordered him back when he was about halfway across. And when he got back to shore, Minneapolis Park police cited him for swimming too far. He faces a US$1000 fine and 90 days in jail if convicted, and since Kleven is a doctor, he'll have to report the incident each time he applies to have his medical licence renewed. (Source: Reason.com)
* * *
Today's Webpick: Sydney 2000, Eric Moussambani from Equatorial Guinea the only participant in his 100m freestyle heat, after the two other competitors were disqualified. And this was his first time in an Olympic sized pool.
Watch it here. Scroll down.
These are the very best online videos from Ana's online magazine Spare Room.
