THE OUTSIDER-SOMALI

The Boijmans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam is presenting installations by the famous Belgian artist Carsten Höller. The exhibition is called "Divided Divided" and presents his mostly interactive artworks. Guests staying in the artist's Revolving Hotel Room can even spend the night in the museum.

An employee from Japanese computer giant NEC displays the automatic translation system "Tele Scouter" at the company's high-tech exhibition in Tokyo on November 5. The firm says the device will allow users to communicate with people of different languages by using an imaging device to project almost real-time translations directly onto the user's retina. Photograph by: Yoshikazu Tsuno, AFP TOKYO – Most eyewear improves vision or cuts through solar glare, but a new gadget from Japan may soon

TOKYO (Reuters Life!) - It's the latest in eyewear for the linguistically challenged: Japanese computer-maker NEC has created a pair of glasses that double as a translator.

The Tele Scouter integrates spectacle frames with a personal mini-computer and a head-mounted display unit, allowing two or more people with no language in common to hold a conversation.

Conversations are, with the press of a button, recorded and sent to a remote server where they are analyzed and translated.

The server then sends the translation to the receiving user who can read the words in their own language on the display unit.

While the technology is still in its developmental stages, NEC says a faster unit is on the horizon and that the aim is to break down language barriers.

"With this you don't have to think about having to translate your own words," said NEC manager Kotaro Nagahama.

"All you have to do is speak and you don't have to do any thinking. You just use your own language," he told Reuters.

But Tele Scouter will not be cheap. When it reaches the market it will sell for around $83,000 although the price will come down over time.

If all goes according to plan, NEC says foreign tourists will one day, with great confidence be able to tell their hosts "I see what you're saying."

(Reporting by Chris Meyers; Editing by Miral Fahmy)

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Durian

Popularly known as the "King of Fruits" in Southeast Asia, durian is distinguished not only for its size and thorn-covered husk, but definitely also for its repulsive stench, which is best described as a mixture of feces and vomit. In spite of its odor, it tastes heavenly. As the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace puts it, it flesh is like "a rich custard highly flavored with almonds," while English novelist Anthony Burgess compared his experience of eating durian to "eating sweet raspberry blancmange in the lavatory." Durian is widely used to flavor an assortment of sweet and savory Southeast Asian cuisines as candies, biscuits and ice creams. However, due to its smell, it is banned from establishments as airports and hotels.

Limburger Cheese

Limburger cheese is a high calorie and cholesterol-rich German/Belgium dairy product well-known for its pungent aroma. It is made from pasteurized goat's milk fermented in the bacterium Brevibacterium linens, the very same bacterium found on human skin and partly responsible for body odor. So, if by chance you walked past someone who hasn't taken a bath in a month and thought if only such a scent could be turned into something edible, then, take heart, treat yourself with some Limburger cheese!

Natto

Natto is a popular traditional Japanese food made from fermented soybeans, most usually eaten during breakfast to accompany rice. Commonly used as an ingredient of miso soup, salad and even ice cream, it has a somewhat nutty and salty taste that somehow contradicts its rather strong ammoniac smell. Supported by medical studies, natto contains a chemical enzyme, aptly called nattokinase, which can reduce the likelihood of blood clotting, and thus, can help to prevent heart attack and strokes. It is also rich in vitamin K, which can assist in bone formation, thereby preventing osteoporosis.

Surströmming

Also called as "soured herring", surströmming is a Swedish delicacy consisting of fermented Baltic herring. Freshly caught herring are cleaned, placed in barrels to be fermented for about 2 months, and then canned for another 6 to 12 months of fermentation. Gases accumulate considerably inside the cans, building up an enormous amount of pressure that causes the once cylindrically-shaped cans to swell into rounded ones. Several major airlines have banned the fish citing the possibility of the pressurized cans exploding in-flight. The dish is often eaten outdoors due to its smell, which is a blend of amazing aromas including rancid-butter butyric acid, pungent propionic acid, rotten-egg hydrogen sulfide and sour acetic acid. It is normally eaten with bread topped with butter, chopped onions and boiled potatoes and served a glass of cold milk or beer. Though the Swedes do confess that it may not be the world's best smelling food, it certainly makes up for its taste.

Century Egg

Also known as hundred-year egg and thousand-year egg, century egg is a Chinese delicacy made from duck, quail or chicken eggs preserved in a mixture of clay, ash, lime, salt and rice straw. After the process is completed for several months, the yolk becomes a dark soft, greenish substance that exudes an odor similar to ammonia and sulfur, while the white becomes a dark brownish transparent jelly with little flavor. It can be eaten without extra preparation as a dim sum or side dish; and is popularly used to garnish rice congee or porridge.

Kimchee

A staple of the Korean diet, kimchee is made of vegetables, principally cabbages and radishes, fermented in brine and a mixture of seasonings as garlic, scallions, onions, chili pepper and ginger. Kimchee smells much like sweaty feet. And the bad news is: eating it also makes one smell pretty much the same as the pungent spices such as chili and garlic makes the odor ooze out of your pores even long after you have consumed it. Having a variety of vegetables as its main ingredients, it is reputable for being a healthy food as it contains very high concentration of dietary fiber that can aid digestion, and is rich in various vitamins and minerals that may possibly reduce the risk of some types of cancer.

Hákarl

Hákarl, a traditional Icelandic delicacy, is made from Greenland or basking shark, which is very poisonous in its unprocessed state due to its high uric acid content. The shark is fermented for about 6 to 12 weeks under the ground covered with gravel and topped with stones until all fluids are squeezed out of the body; and then hung to dry for several months. It has a particularly formidable ammoniac smell, much akin to many cleaning products; and a taste that will get your gag reflexes going in no time. Hákarl is generally served in small cubes on toothpicks with a shot of the local brandy brennivin that can somehow ease the eating process. Renowned chef Anthony Bourdain from the Travel Channel hit show "No Reservations" described the dish as "the single worst, most disgusting and terrible tasting thing."

Vesna Vulovic 1, Mountain 0

Who was she?
Vesna Vulovic was a stewardess back in the '70s working on a Serbian airline.

How She Stared Down Death:
Except for surviving countless ass gropings during her time as a stewardess there was really nothing special about this lady. Oh yeah, except for the fact that she fell 33,000 fucking feet and lived to tell the tale.

On January 26, 1972 our gal was working an extra shift due to a clerical error. She took the shift anyway to earn a little extra scratch, probably to supplement her bear-wrestling hobby or something. Anyway, some terrorists decided to blow up her plane and succeeded in doing so at the worst possible time, when the plane was really high up in the air.

Not only did she survive the explosion that blew the plane into pieces, but she was the only person to live after hitting the side of the mountain. Normally this would totally suck by itself, but it was winter so the mountain was also frozen which probably made it feel like she hit it after falling 33,000 and 10 feet.

Now because we're talking about reality and not a cartoon, she did in fact break a bunch of bones and fell into a coma, but when she woke up she looked around and asked for a cigarette. Apparently flipping Death the bird really gives you cravings.

Not convinced? Did we tell you she was left paralyzed ... but then regained her ability to walk through sheer force of will and balls-out effort? She also didn't suffer any of those New Age, sissy boy "psychological effects" either and continued to fly like nothing happened. As a bonus she collected a Guinness World Record for her troubles.

Want to see if you're as tough? No problem all you have to do is jump off the equivalent of 26 Empire State Buildings.

In case you're wondering, a fall like that takes about three minutes, which should be plenty of time to contemplate death (and every single bad decision you've made in your life) and after that, don't forget to live, break your back, fall into a coma, become paralyzed and then recover, which we figure is the hard part.

Aron Ralston Hacks Off His Own Fucking Arm

Who was he?
A mechanical engineer at Intel. You know those engineers are renowned for being tough guys.

How He Stared Down Death:
No biggie, all he did was take a hike in the woods and came out five days later, missing an arm, which he had to cut off himself.

Seems Aron was big on mountain climbing, which by itself is pretty manly, but not enough to get him on this list. Except during this particular hike a boulder fell on him, pinning his arm. For five days he worked to push the rock off and finally realized he would die unless he took drastic action.

Because the prospect of cutting off your arm may not impress some of you hardcore readers, we need to point out that he first had to break his arm by snapping it against the same rock pinning him down. Then came the hard part, cutting through the flesh.

Lucky for Aron he had a multi-use tool. Unluckily for Aron it was a piece of crap knock-off that he probably got from an aunt at Christmas. Plus saying that he was lucky to have the tool to cut through his arm is kind of like saying you're lucky to have Chapstick on your lips while your head is on fire.

Death wasn't about to give up easily though, and after cutting through the flesh, Aron had to use the pliers to cut through the tendons that the knife couldn't cut. If you feel like the details presented thus far aren't quite gruesome enough, here's a nice interview where Ralston describes how the flesh on his arm already started to rot into mush by the time he got free:

Finally he freed himself, gave Death one last manly smile and found some help. He ended up losing the arm but had it replaced by a bitching climbing ax, accomplishing in one step what we hope evolution does for the rest of us over the next few million years.

Jim Thompson POW and Legendary Badass

Who was he?
Jim was just a store clerk, until he decided he could probably impress more girls by telling them he was a Green Beret, which he became.

How He Stared Down Death:
During the Vietnam War, Jim was captured and held as a prisoner of war, at which time he was beaten and tortured. The time we're speaking of by the way was a period of nine years, giving him a pretty bittersweet record for being held as a POW.

His plane was shot down in 1964, with Jim taking a bullet and breaking his back in the process. Surviving that part would have been enough of a harrowing story for most people to tell for the rest of their lives. But it was a long way from over for Jim.

After being captured, Jim was held in a jungle camp and jammed into a wooden cage too small for him to sit up or fully stretch out. For months his captors wanted him to sign papers saying that he was treated well. Jim told them to fuck off and in return was beaten and tortured some more. At some point, probably because his voice was sore from telling them to fuck themselves, he finally signed.

As a reward, he was moved into solitary confinement for four years. He was finally moved into a prison with other prisoners which was great, except that the beatings and torture continued, which pretty much blew. At one point during his captivity, he became so weak that he suffered a heart seizure. Realizing he needed his heart to live, Jim survived that scare and even managed to escape five times.

The time took its toll on Jim though and it looked like Death would win this one. Another prisoner who saw Jim reported that he thought the enemy had placed a corpse in the cell next door. However, Death forgot the fact the Jim was a Green Beret and he held on until he was finally released in 1973. He weighed 90 pounds.

Thompson unfortunately succumbed to death shortly after his release. And by "shortly" we mean 30 years later, of natural causes, in Florida.

Poon Lim, Cast Away

Who was he?
He was steward on a British ship during World War II, with an unfortunate first name, at least by Western standards.

How He Stared Down Death:
The ship he was working on was blown up by the Germans. Being total assholes, the Germans did this while the ship was far away from land. Surviving the explosion was no biggie for Poon, but it forced him to climb into a life raft and hang out until he was rescued ... 133 fucking days later.

At first there was water in the raft and a few boxes of biscuits. But these ran out quickly and Poon had to get all MacGyver and make himself some fish hooks out of nails and tin cans to catch fish to survive.

Between doing awesome stuff like catching sharks and drinking the blood of birds he caught, he also had to deal with sunburn, seasickness and storms that wrecked his food and water supplies. Eventually he figured he needed to catch more food. For us that would mean more fish. For Poon it meant catching a fucking shark. For Death it meant Poon was not going down easy.

He could have been rescued sooner but another German U-boat that spotted him offered no help. It was at this point that Poon began to suspect that the Nazis were dicks.

He finally sailed near Brazil and was rescued by some fishermen, and these days the US Navy teaches his survival techniques to its sailors.

The Meng Brothers Eat Coal For Breakfast

Who were they?
A coal miner working in China, which is basically like poking Death in the face on a regular basis for a living.

How They Stared Down Death:
Meng Xianchen and Meng Xianyou were working hard in a coal mine when the tunnel they were working in collapsed, burying them alive. Generally coal mines anywhere are not safe places to work, but the Mengs were working in an illegal mine, which meant that the safety budget was probably spent on booze and bribes instead of things like oxygen or emergency training.

After the mines collapsed, a rescue team was sent in to try and dig Meng and his brother out, but then quickly gave up. Their fellow miners then gave it a try, and were promptly arrested for illegal mining, presumably on the basis they could accidentally dig up some coal along with the two human beings trapped under it.

So, trapped underground with no food or water and a system too retarded to save them, everyone gave up hope. The Mengs' relatives even conducted burial rites at the mine.

The brothers, however, were still alive. Realizing the rescue effort wasn't coming, the brothers started digging themselves out. Armed with only one pickaxe and their bare hands, they tunneled their way through 66 feet of coal.

In between making jokes about each other's wives and drinking their own urine, they also tried chomping on some coal to take the edge off their hunger. According to Meng, coal tastes great when you're starving to death. Otherwise it tastes like ass.

Once they pulled themselves to the surface, Meng Xianchen and Meng Xianyou gave Death the double bird salute and gave the officials who called off the rescue a hard stare. Then they went to the hospital, where Meng Xianchen said he crapped coal for a few days.

Brent Case Has Bear-Proof Skin

Who was he?
A surveyor working up in Canada, which is like the US, but with better beer and fewer guns.

How He Stared Down Death:
Brent was minding his own business while working in the forests of British Columbia when Death came to visit in the form of a 900-pound adult grizzly bear.

Brent was carrying an ax at the time, but that probably doesn't help a lot against a bear unless it's the kind of ax that shoots shotgun shells. Brent, knowing better, decided to play dead.

Unfortunately the bear wasn't looking for a fair fight and started munching on Brent's skull. At one point he thought the bear was actually eating his brain. While this may not have been true, from the picture below you can't blame him for thinking this.

The bear took a few more chunks out of Brent, threw him into a bog and jumped on him WWE-style a few times before saying "Screw it" and walking off leaving Brent for dead.

It should be noted that playing dead still probably saved his life, as bears typically won't eat an already-dead victim (we're not sure why, but we think it's considered dishonorable according to the code all bears live by). Regardless, with his scalp hanging in huge flaps from his skull and bleeding heavily, Brent managed to get up and go for help. He got back to his car and drove 15 miles, covered in blood and bear bites. Death could only stand on the side of the road and shake its fist.

Alexis Goggins, Invincible Girl

Who was she?
Just an ordinary first grader, attending classes, hanging with her friends.

How She Stared Down Death:
She had to save her mom from some crazy dude. She did this by jumping in front of him and taking six bullets, point blank, including a couple to the head.

It started when some lowlife kidnapped Alexis and her mom (OK, the lowlife was the mom's boyfriend). The mother tried to stall the bad guy and managed to call 911, but the cops said they couldn't send anyone. Apparently they were all busy with more fucked up situations than a man holding a child hostage at gunpoint.

It was at this point that the gunman decided he should stamp his passport into hell and started shooting. Two bullets struck the mother before little Alexis dove between them, begging the shooter to stop. Without hesitation, he shot six times, little Alexis taking the bullets that would have killed her mother. By this time the cops arrived, as they figured things were getting really serious because now someone was actually shooting.

Alexis thought about dying for a second then decided she still had some shit to do. Death could only watch as she grabbed her stuff and headed back to the land of the living, despite some serious injuries that would have killed most of us twice and some of us three times.

This would be jaw-droppingly impressive for a 250-pound Marine combat vet, let alone a seven-year-old girl. And while we would like to cling to our original theory that she's actually an immortal Highlander, the truth is this seven-year-old girl is simply more man than we'll ever be.