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The greatest magicians you probably know

Harry Houdini

 Harry Houdini

The man who could unlock any lock, the legendary Houdini was famously sceptical of spiritualists.  He believed that they were con artists preying on the emotions of families who have lost a loved one. However, just to make sure, Houdini left his wife a secret code that would be used by him, to contact her, after his death, should he have been wrong about spiritualists. For ten years after his death, his wife held a séance once a year. Harry Houdini never made contact.

 Siegfried & Roy

This pair were old school magicians who glamorized their stage acts with white tigers & other big cats. However, it was Siegfried whose interest in magic started at an early age. Roy was more interested in animals, often visiting Bremen Zoo, Germany, where he befriended a cheetah named Chico. It was only when they happened to both take jobs on the ocean liner TS Bremen did Siegfried and Roy meet and become a double-act, along with Chico the cheetah. Disastrously, their love for animals came back to bite them as Roy was bitten by one of his tigers in 2003 after stumbling on stage during performance.

David Copperfield

He was so good that he taught the magic at the New York University when he was just 16 years old. Probably the most successful & famous illusionist around, Copperfield is also the richest. According to the Forbes Magazine, his per year income of $57 million in 2003 put him in the list of the top 10 highest paid celebrities in the world. In addition, he has also walked through the Great Wall of China & made the Statue of Liberty disappear in front of a live audience.

David Blaine 

David Blaine

Recently spoofed by Jim Carrey to hilarious results, Blaine remains a revolutionary magician. He made street magic mainstream, filming on the streets of New York, stopping passers-by in the street and performing magic tricks in front of them. Blaine was sharp enough to realise that the show’s success was not in the magic tricks or his straight face, but in the spectator’s reactions. At the peak of his popularity, Blaine bizarrely decided to become an endurance artist, burying himself under a glass coffin, balancing on top of a 90 feet high pillar & encasing himself in a cube of ice for 62 hours.

The magicians you probably don’t know about

Coulew of Lorraine

The phrase “died on stage” was taken to the extreme by Coulew of Lorraine in 1613 when he was clubbed to death by an angry audience member using one of his own props!

 The Maskelynes

Magicians are good inventors. English stage magician John Nevil Maskelyne invented the pay toilet and his grandfather, Jasper Maskelyne invented the typewriter keyboard.

Matthew Buchinger

A popular 18th century magician who was born without arms or legs and was just 29 inches tall, Buchinger was a magician, calligrapher and musician who played the flute, trumpet, and more. He even managed to find the time to father eleven children.

Eldon Wigton

The fastest magician alive is Eldon Wigton who performed 225 tricks in 2 minutes for a World Record attempt in 1991. He says that one day he plans to break his own record.

Prince Charles

The most famous member of the Magic Circle is Prince Charles. He joined the club in 1975 after performing the famous Cups & Balls trick for members.

Source: http://www.illusionist.co.uk/magician-blog/2010/05/10-facts-about-magicians/

http://techblogbiz.blogspot.sg/2006/09/ten-famous-magicians-of-world.html

http://magicofmagicians.com/acatalog/siegfried_and_roy.html

Depends on who you ask?

Seriously, scientists have done studies to find factors that make something or someone (like babies) cute.

Generally, if someone exhibits extreme youth, vulnerability, harmlessness and need, well, they are considered ‘cute’ – human beings, in the Darwinian sense, are wired to attend to these needs to ensure the survival of our species (think of how helpless our babies are).

I’m cute! Now, take care of me!

Visual cues are equally important. Scientists have found that bright forward facing eyes set low on a big round face, a pair of big round ears, floppy limbs and a side-to-side, teeter-totter gait, among many others give the impression of cuteness to others.

When we look at the anatomy of a baby, babies have unusually large heads as humans have unnaturally large brains. This head continues to grow throughout the first months of their lives. To accommodate the development of the head, the skull and bone structure of the head remain flexible. If you observe the eyes and ears, they are located far down the face and skull as they only move upwards once the development of the cheeks and jaws begin.

Another salient feature are their eyes. They are forward-facing. Now, if you look at many Disney characters, characters such as ducks and mice have forward-facing eyes when in actual fact, their eyes are on the sides of their heads.

Baby movements are also clumsy and jerky (read ‘cute’) as they are still learning to coordinate their body.

Contributed by Zulkifli Amin

Source:

Angier, N. (2006, Jan 03). The cute factor. New York Times. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/433272047?accountid=12691

Lookit me! I’m cute and fluffy!

This adorably fluffy creature is the Quokka (Setonix brachyurus), a small, cat-sized marsupial from the macropod family. Read more »

You may have seen one of these cute creatures (though some may consider them less than pretty) in local pet stores. These wrinkly skinny pigs, commonly known as the hairless guinea pig, have a distinct hairless appearance as compared to usual guinea pigs.

Skinny pigs do not belong to the pig family, neither are all of them skinny. Despite their hairless appearance, Skinnies can be much more expensive than a normal guinea pig from local pet stores.

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Women play an important role in our society. There are observances established for women and/or girls throughout the year. A couple of them are fairly well-known internationally but some of them are somewhat unheard of.

Have a look at some of these celebrations of the fairer sex.  Read more »

Last month, we shared the top tourist sights for tourists visiting Singapore in 1890. But if cemeteries, asylums and ponderious government buildings are a little too heavy-going for your taste, why not check out the local food and shopping instead? Read more »

A big Marimo in a glass vessel (left) decorated with small shells. [Image source: Etsy.com]

Mostly found in Lake Akan (Japan) and Lake Mývatn (Iceland), the number of Marimos has been decreasing rapidly. As such, they are declared protected species in Japan and Iceland. Japan has also declared Marimo its national treasure in 1921, and thereafter “special national treasure” in 1952.

Find out more about this ultra-cute ball of moss!  Read more »

Recent research done in the United States shows that among Americans aged 16 and above, 23% read an e-book in the past year, up from 16%. The number of people who have read a print book in the past year though fell from 72% to 67%. (Source)

What about you? Are you reading more and more e-books as well?

The National Library Board offers access to eBooks from our eResources site – from current popular titles to classics and a lot more.

Certainly, there are many other sites that offer e-books for free, where you can legally download them. Here’re some suggested sources:
Read more »

It is no secret that it is important to eat fruits and vegetables every day to be healthy and fresh fruits and vegetables are rich in nutrients and vitamins that are important to our bodies.

Image from Microsoft Office Clip art

However, researchers have found that at the supermarket, the frozen fruits and vegetables that you buy may actually be more nutritious than the fresh ones.

Why is this so? Read more »

The thought of taking photographs of recently departed loved ones as a keepsake may be considered a tad gruesome for many of us.

However, taking photographs of the dead was a common practice in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

Unlike current times, photographic technologies were at its infancy in the 19th century and having one’s photograph taken while alive was considered a luxury because it was a very costly procedure.

Read more »