The XO Directory

Here's a video of Sanju Bhagat's Operation to Remove his Parasitic Twin. Sanju carried his twin in his stomach for nearly four decades without even knowing it. It was only during the surgery that the doctors discover what's inside his stomach. I have to warn you that the video contains graphic images.



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Hercules, is the world's biggest dog ever according to Guinness World Records, weighing 282 pounds with a 38 inch neck. In this picture, this massive pet is almost as big as his owner's horse. This makes the daily task of walking the dog like walking the donkey.

The name Hercules has always been synonymous with big. Earlier this year, we posted Hercules, the world's largest Lion-Tiger breed.

With "paws the size of softballs" (reports the Boston Herald), the three-year-old monster is far larger and heavier than his breed's standard 200lb. limit. Hercules owner Mr. Flynn says that Hercules weight is natural and not induced by a bizarre diet: "I fed him normal food and he just grew".... and grew. and grew. and grew.

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Dede aka the Tree Man had a successful surgery to remove almost 90% of his tree-like growths. Here's his after surgery video after spending more than 9 months in a Indonesian hospital.



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Here's a satellite image of the Earth showing the sunlight and clouds. This image was taken today, Dec. 28, 2008 at 21:00 UTC. The picture on the left is dawn, while the right is dusk.

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In the early 21th century, the world was shocked by parasitic twins we heard from the news. Like the Chinese girl, Sanju Bhagat and recently Lakshmi. The 19th and 20th centuries had it's shares also. Here are some of them.

Myrtlye Corbin, born in Lincoln County, Tennessee in 1868.

Jean Libbera, born in 1884 in Rome, Italy.

Francesco A. Lentini, born in 1889 in Siracusa, Sicily.


Ernie Defort, born in Manitoba, Canada on July 7, 1931.

Betty Lou Williams, born on January 10, 1932 in Albany, Georgia.

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If you ever tired of the comfort of your car from the car manufacturing giants, why not make your own, out of wood. Here's some of the bravest who took the challenge.





And the winner is...


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Dede, aka "The Tree Man" who had some of his tree-like warts removed in a surgery this year, said those tree-like warts are growing again.

After under going surgery early this year, Dede were able to eat, use cellphone and go fishing on his own. But now as the warts are growing again, he needs some assistance again.

As his tree-like growths are growing, doctors said that he needs at least two operation a year for him to use his hands.

Seen here is Dede after his operation early this year.

"Those (warts) that were removed are growing again and started to reappear after I returned home," he said, adding that for a time he could go fishing and use a cell phone but now needed assistance again for such activity.

"We have told him that his disease could not be 100 per cent cured. In the previous operation, we only tried to increase his quality of life," said Rachmat Dinata, one of a team of doctors treating him at the Hasan Sadikin hospital in Bandung, a city near his village.

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The Kitti's Hog-nosed bat is considered as the world's smallest mammal as of today. It's length is about 29–33 millimetres and weight approximately 2 grams. It is also know as the the bumblebee bat due to it's size. This bat specie is a native of western Thailand and southeast Burma. They live in limestone caves along the rivers.

Kitti's Hog-nosed Bat is the smallest species of bat and one of the world's smallest mammals. It has a reddish-brown or grey coat, with a distinctive pig-like snout. Colonies range greatly in size, with an average of 100 individuals per cave. The bat feeds during short activity periods in the evening and dawn, foraging around nearby forest areas for insects. Females give birth annually to a single offspring.

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At 3.05 x 1.8, the Quay House is the smallest house in Great Britain. It is found on the Quay, hence the name, in Conwy, Wales and is listed in the Guinness Book of Records of it's small dimensions.

It has been lived in since the Sixteenth Century. It was even inhabited by a family at one point. It was lived in until 1900, when the owner was a 6ft 3 inch fisherman named Robert Jones. The rooms were too small for him to stand up in fully and he was eventually forced to move out when the council declared the house unfit for human habitation. The house is still owned by his descendants.

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It's hard to believe that this 29-year-old, innocent-looking woman named Sarah Pender is the most wanted woman in America right now. She is serving a 110-year sentence before she escaped in August from the Rockville Correctional Facility in Indiana. Pender was convicted in 2002 on two counts of murder of her two roommates.

While serving her sentence, prison authorities believe Pender befriended a correctional officer, who allegedly helped her escape. Prison security footage on the day she escaped shows Pender walking toward a prison exit at the same time the guard drove into the facility to get gasoline. Authorities believe the guard hid her in the vehicle and drove her off the prison grounds where she met up with her get-away driver.

“Sarah Pender is a dangerous fugitive and poses a threat to anyone she comes in contact with,” said Director John F. Clark of the United States Marshals Service. “Pender’s addition as a 15 Most Wanted fugitive underscores our commitment to use all of our available resources to bring her to justice.”

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Here at The XO Directory, we seldom encounter Google ads with typo error, not like ads with eye-catching header. So when we do encounter one, it's worth sharing here. Here's one in the red box. Does he mean "to" or "tp"? Or it's just us being sleepy.

In advertising, eye-catching header text is the key to success. But sometimes advertisers push it to the limit that it becomes irrelevant to the product. See for example this "Man Eating Snake" Ad from Shopping.com that can be seen in Google ads.

Gaston Aguirre, an Argentinean Soccer player accidentally kills a pigeon with the soccer ball during their game in Buenos Aires. The birds were in the fields when the players scrambling for the ball came. And when Aguirre kicked the ball for the goal, one pigeon were not lucky enough.

"I kicked the ball and, poor pigeon," the San Lorenzo defender said. "Now I will be remembered as the pigeon killer."

Aguirre hit the bird in the 2-1 victory against Tigre in a three-team round-robin for the Argentine league title. Surrounded by opponents, he kicked the ball toward the goal and in the direction of a group of pigeons on the grass near the corner.

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Year 2008 has not yet ended so you could name your baby with one of the most famous names of the year. Here's a list to choose from the top ten baby girl and boy names of 2008.

Top 10 Girl Names of 2008

1. Isabella
2. Ava
3. Emily
4. Elizabeth
5. Abigail
6. Madison
7. Emma
8. Addison
9. Madeline
10. Olivia

Top 10 Boy Names of 2008

1. Aidan
2. Jayden
3. Jacob
4. Michael
5. Ethan
6. Caden
7. James
8. Caleb
9. Andrew
10. Matthew

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This 66-years-old woman from West Virginia has the world's heaviest neck tumor. At the time of surgery the tumor weighed 8 kg. Below is the picture of her before and after the surgery.

Sixty-six year old woman from West Virginia suffered neck tumor from twenty-two years. Due to her tumor, she could not move out of house. Tampa plastic surgeon C. N. Guerriere removed tumor weighing 8kgs from her neck and gave her a new life to move out of home. The tumor was so large that it stymied even MRI scans.

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US President George Bush certainly knows how to dodge shoes (not bullets). He was in a state visit last week in Iraq and during press conference, an Iraqi reporter tossed his shoes to the president. Watch this video to see the action.





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Chinese farmers came up with this "brilliant" idea to make eagles afraid of chickens. Now the predator becomes the prey. :)

A hen pecks an eagle. Chinese farmers are trapping eagles and other birds of prey and throwing them trussed up into chicken pens to make them so scared of poultry that they never return

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This is another heroic act by a dog. This time, instead a dog rescuing an injured dog from oncoming highway traffic, it's dog rescuing a rodeo man from being killed or fatally injured by by a raging bull.



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For the love of coffe, astronaut invented a drinking cup in space. This cup's design works in space's weightless environment.



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A dog from Chile who is now considered a hero, rescued an injured dog from oncoming highway traffic. The scene was caught by a traffic camera. After thousands viewed the heroic act in video websites, some viewers offered to adopt the hero dog but the dog was nowhere to be found after running away from the scene when authorities arrived.



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Warning to burglar, this could also happen to you. A burglar in Malaysia was caught by authorities after being stucked in a haunted house for three days. He claimed a ghost kept him from leaving the house.

Police official Abdul Marlik Hakim Johar told The Star newspaper the house's owners found the 36-year-old man fatigued and dehydrated when they returned from vacation Thursday.

The man told police that every time he tried to escape, a "supernatural figure" shoved him to the ground.

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In case you haven't noticed it, the full moon last Friday, Dec 12 is the year 2008's biggest full moon. This is because the moon is nearest to the Earth on that day (and night) as a result, it will be 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than the other full moons this year.

Fullmoon in the dark night (Source)

Earth, the moon and the sun are all bound together by gravity, which keeps us going around the sun and keeps the moon going around us as it goes through phases. The moon makes a trip around Earth every 29.5 days. But the orbit is not a perfect circle.

The moon's average distance from us is about 238,855 miles (384,400 km). Friday night it will be just 221,560 miles (356,567 km) away. It will be 14 percent bigger in our sky and 30 percent brighter than some other full moons during the year, according to NASA.

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Now 48 years old, Hang Mioku is said to be a cosmetic surgery addict and has severely disfigured her faced after injecting it with cooking oil. She had her first surgery at 28, mostly to her face. Despite her face so enlarged and disfigured she thinks she's beautiful and still want more but doctors refuse to do so suggesting that her obsession could be a sign of a psychological disorder.

Amazingly, she found a doctor who was willing to give her silicone injects and, what's more, he then gave her a syringe and silicone of her own so she could self-inject.

When her supply of silicone ran out Hang resorted to injecting cooking oil into her face.

Her face became so grotesquely large that she was called "standing fan" by children in her neighbourhood - due to her large face and small body.

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Considering his age, this little guy got serious talent about yoyo. See his amazing tricks in this video.



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Save your porn or else, you might end up like this man. :)

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At 6,650 kilometer the Nile River is the world's longest river. So long that it covers ten countries, Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea and Kenya. Since ancient times, this magnificent river supports the civilization surrounding it.

Satellite image of the northern portion of the Nile River (Source)

The Nile River in Cairo, Egypt (Source)

The Nile River is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world.

The Nile has two major tributaries, the White Nile and Blue Nile, the latter being the source of most of the Nile's water and fertile soil, but the former being the longer of the two. The White Nile rises in the Great Lakes region of central Africa, with the most distant source in southern Rwanda [show location on an interactive map] 2°16′55.92″S 29°19′52.32″E / -2.2822, 29.3312, and flows north from there through Tanzania, Lake Victoria, Uganda and southern Sudan, while the Blue Nile starts at Lake Tana in Ethiopia 12°2′8.8″N 37°15′53.11″E / 12.035778, 37.2647528, flowing into Sudan from the southeast. The two rivers meet near the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

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This really is one unique beer bucket. We're sure beer drinkers will crave to have a mug of drink from it's unique faucet.

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Yahoo Movies listed the most watched movie trailer of 2008. For movie fanatics like us who miss those movies, it's time to get a glimpse of this year's box office hits by watching it's trailer.

For one thing, I never thought The Dark Knight is on the top list. It's maybe because of Heath Ledger's passing away this year. Now we know one of the recipe of a successful movie. :)

1) The Dark Knight (Batman)

2) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull


3) Twilight


4) Incredible Hulk


5) Iron Man


6) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince


7) Wanted


8) Hancock


9) Sex and the City


10) Kung-fu Panda

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Ever wonder how your favorite cartoon character's skeleton looked like?Here's some of them and more at the link below.

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You wanna control your dream? Try the Lucid Dream Machine. As this video is claiming, with under 6 dollars you can create a Lucid dream machine and be able to remember and/or control your dreams. Pretty cool, but I would rather have a nice and sound sleep wearing one of this.



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How would you like to see yourself in one of this stunning nature pictures. Truly, the world is a beautiful place to live in.









- From Email

If you are wondering where the world's largest river, the Amazon River, originates, it's right here at the Nevado Mismi. It is located about 700 km southeast of Lima, Peru and is one of the highest points of Colca Canyon. It's amazing that despite it's historic significance, this site is just marked with a wooden cross.

Nevado Mismi is a 5,597 m (18,363 ft) mountain peak of volcanic origin located in the Andes mountain range of Peru. A glacial stream on the Mismi was firmly identified as the most distant source of the Amazon River in 1996, 2001 and 2007. The waters from Nevado Mismi flow into the Quebradas Carhuasanta and Apacheta, which flow into the Río Apurímac which is a tributary of the Ucayali which later joins the Marañón to form the Amazon proper.

In 1982 Jean-Michel Cousteau led a large scale scientific exploration of the Amazon from its mouth to its origin. The “Cousteau Amazon Expedition”[4] cost eleven million dollars and culminated in a six-hour television documentary titled “Cousteau’s Amazon” released in 1983. It offered study information to last years and gave insights into the biology and geology of the largest river system on earth. This expedition was broken into three separate groups and the upper Amazon section was covered by “The Flying Expedition” tasked with exploring the upper third to Aracipa from the river's origin.

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This is an amazing view from the top of Burj Dubai. Still under construction, Burj Dubai will be the world's tallest building when completed.



In this picture, you can see the turn of the earth (top corners).


- From Email

1. Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.
2. Alfred Hitchcock didn't have a belly button.
3. A pack-a-day smoker will lose approximately 2 teeth every 10 years.
4. People do not get sick from cold weather; it's from being indoors a lot more.
5. When you sneeze, all bodily functions stop, even your heart!
6. Only 7 per cent of the population are lefties.
7. Forty people are sent to the hospital for dog bites every minute.
8. Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until they are 2-6 years old.
9. The average person over 50 will have spent 5 years waiting in lines.
10. The toothbrush was invented in 1498.
11. The average housefly lives for one month.
12. 40,000 Americans are injured by toilets each year.
13. A coat hanger is 44 inches long when straightened.
14. The average computer user blinks 7 times a minute.
15. Your feet are bigger in the afternoon than any other time of day.
16. Most of us have eaten a spider in our sleep.
17. The REAL reason ostriches stick their head in the sand is to search for water.
18. The only two animals that can see behind themselves without turning their heads are the rabbit and the parrot.
19. John Travolta turned down the starring roles in "An Officer and a Gentleman" and "Tootsie."
20. Michael Jackson owns the rights to the South Carolina State anthem.
21. In most television commercials advertising milk, a mixture of white paint and a little thinner is used in place of the milk.
22. Prince Charles and Prince William NEVER travel on the same airplane, just in case there is a crash.
23. The first Harley Davidson motorcycle built in 1903 used a tomato can for a carburetor.
24. Most hospitals make money by selling the umbilical cords cut from women who give birth. They are used in vein transplant surgery.
25. Humphrey Bogart was related to Princess Diana. They were 7th cousins.
26. If coloring weren't added to Coca-Cola, it would be green.

- From Email

This hilarious Japanese marshmallow eating game show gives a very funny meaning to marshmallow eating. You got to watch this video, it's very funny.



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This is a graphic video of dolphin and whale massacre in Faroe Islands, Denmark. I can't believe these people are doing this to these gentle giants of the sea.



Here's another video. Watch how they trap the dolphins to make them go to shallow water where people are waiting to slaughter these mammals.

You know how to play a guitar? This man certainly knows how to play a guitar with both feet



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If you happen to visit, why not eat at MYASS, I mean, at Mcdonalds in Yass

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This Thai Temple named “Wat Lan Kuad” or “Temple of Million Bottles” is literally made from more than one million recycled bottles. It is estimated that the whole structure is made from 1.5 million recycled bottles - most of them are donated.

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This naked panda is not dressed up for the Halloween. He was involved in a fight, broke his leg and the vet needs to shaved off his fur to do the operation. Result? A naked panda/ :)



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Meet Brad Sciullo, a.k.a the Burger King. In 4 hours and 39 minutes, this chef at a western Pennsylvania Italian restaurant ate a 15-pound burger with 5.2 pounds of toppings. He is the first person to successfully eat the huge burger at Denny's Beer Barrel Pub in Clearfield, Pittsburgh.

For completing the challenge in under five hours, Brad won $400, three T-shirts, a certificate and a burger hangover.




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