World's Most Interesting Phobias - Unless You Fear Them

1.  Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia - Fear of long words
  
2.  Xanthophobia – fear of the color yellow

3.  Turophobia- fear of cheese 

4.  Somniphobia- fear of falling asleep 

A persistent, abnormal, and unwarranted fear of sleep", and this condition causes thousands of people major distress every year.

There are many reasons why people may suffer from somniphobia, as with any fear: they may have had repeated bad experiences with nightmares/night terrors as a child. Known by many names—somniphobia and fear of sleep being the most common—the problem often significantly impacts quality of life. It can cause panic attacks, and symptoms include shortness of breath, nausea, sweating, irregular heartbeat and a sense of impending doom/dread

5.  Coulrophobia – fear of clowns 

6.  Hylophobia- fear of trees 

7.  Omphalophobia- fear of the navel

Refers to one being afraid of having one's bellybutton touched or tugged on by oneself or by other people. It is also the fear of seeing other people touch their own bellybutton. Most of the afflicted are able to look upon an untouched bellybutton but become extremely uncomfortable, nauseated, and anxious when one is being touched, especially their own.

Television personality and actress Khloe Kardashian admitted that she had fear about her belly button. She is quoted as saying,"Whales are disgusting and belly buttons are disgusting. I get chills every time I touch my belly"

8.  Nomophobia- fear of being without mobile phone coverage 

 The name for the phobia of being without mobile phone coverage was coined five years ago after researchers discovered the phenomenon. According to recent surveys, more than half of people in the UK suffer from it. The phobia is brought on by the fear of losing signal, running out of battery or even losing sight of a mobile phone.

9.  Ombrophobia- fear of rain 

10. Uranophobia- fear of heaven 

11.  Pogonophobia- fear of beards 

The admiration or promotion of people, usually males, who wear a facial beard. From pogon, Greek for beard.

Used also as a term of disapproval for those who enjoy trials and tribulations and make a drama out of a crisis, from pogo stick.

A man who gives unqualified credibility to another who wears a beard is an act of pogonophilia.

 12.  Trypophobia- fear of holes 

13.  Triskaidekaphobia- fear of the number 13

14.  Aulophobia - Suffering from this weird phobia means you have a fear of flutes.

A persistent, abnormal, and unwarranted worry of flutes”, every year this surprisingly frequent phobia causes countless people useless distress.

Known by quite a few names – Aulophobia and Fear of Flutes being the most common – the issue often considerably impacts the quality of life. It may cause panic attacks and keep individuals apart from family members and business associates.

Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, fast breathing, irregular heartbeat, sweating, nausea, and overall emotions of dread, although everybody experiences aulophobia in their very own way and should have completely different symptoms. The precise phobia manifests itself in numerous ways. Some victims experience it virtually all the time, others simply in response to direct stimuli.

15.  Arachibutyrophobia - the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of one's mouth.

16.  Geliophobia - If you've got it, you have a deep fear of laughter.

17.  Genuphobia - Genuphobics have a fear of knees.

18.  Linonophobia - Linonophobics have a fear of string. 
 
We use strings to tie our stuff in place, secure things so that they don’t fall off and are very useful in our everyday lives. But there are some people who fear strings and they are called linonophobes.

People with this fear might have experienced being tied up in the past, whether they were tied up because of a punishment. Some might have developed this fear because of watching TV or in the movies people being tied up while their houses were being robbed, or being tied up when they were captured or kidnapped.

This fear of strings could be associated with their fear of being restrained or restricted. For some, being tied with a rope is like being forced to do something that they do not like or is something that they could not escape.

19. Ostraconophobia - Ostraconophobics suffer from their fear of shellfish.

20. Phobophobia - Phobophobics? They have the fear of, yes, fear.

L'Wren Scott, designer and Jagger's girlfriend, found dead

Fashion designer L'Wren Scott and longtime girlfriend of Mick Jagger has been found dead of an apparent suicide, reports the AP, ABC News and the New York Daily News.

Scott's body was found hanging from a scarf on a doorknob by her assistant at her New York apartment around 10 a.m. Monday, reports the Daily News. The AP reports an official as saying no note was found and there was no sign of foul play. The medical examiner's office will determine the cause of death.

Fran Curtis, a spokesperson for Jagger, tells USA TODAY that the singer is "completely shocked and devastated by the news." Scott had been in a relationship with the Rolling Stones frontman for more than a decade. Jagger is currently on tour with his band and recently arrived in Australia.

Scott, who began her career as a model, was an established designer whose designs were worn by A-listers including Nicole Kidman, Sarah Jessica Parker, Angelina Jolie, Penelope Cruz, Amy Adams, Madonna and Michelle Obama. In 2012, Jagger visited the White House where he was delighted to see the first lady wearing his girlfriend's designs. "It was so great to see the first lady wearing L'Wren Scott clothes when we were at the White House the other day," he proudly pointed out during an interview at the time with USA TODAY. "So that was really good. And I didn't see much of Fashion Week because I only came up for the last day. I'm not really that much of a Fashion Week groupie, but I went to L'Wren's show and that was great."

In December, a special limited edition collection of L'Wren Scott designs for Banana Republic made her style more attainable for the masses and quickly sold out. The company has tweeted that they are "stunned and saddened to learn of the loss of L'Wren Scott. Our hearts and prayers go out to her friends and family."
Other retailers and notables throughout the fashion world, as well as celebrities, took to Twitter to express their condolences.

Marc Jacobs: "Rest in peace, L'Wren Scott. You'll forever be missed."
Cushnie et Ochs: "RIP L'wren Scott, so sad to lose a beautiful strong female designer."
Bette Midler: "Just got news of the beautiful L'wren Scott's death perhaps by her own hand. I am devastated. A rare, wonderful, talented soul. Goodbye."
Olivia Munn: "Shocked and saddened by the passing of @lwrenscott ... she was an amazing soul, talented artist and an unbelievably giving friend. RIP."
Jaimie Alexander: "This is extremely sad news. RIP L'Wren Scott. You were most certainly one of a kind."
Nina Garcia: "Saddened over the loss of the very talented, generous and always gracious L'Wren Scott. You will be missed"
Neiman Marcus: "It is with great sadness that we've learned about the tragic loss of designer L'Wren Scott. #RIP"
Gilt.com: "Deeply saddened to hear about the passing of L'Wren Scott—a brilliant fashion mind and a beautiful woman. Our thoughts are with Mick."

Cindy Clark USA

 

 

Candy Crush Saga Continues and May Be Worth Almost $8 Billion

By Aman Shah

(Reuters) - King Digital Entertainment Plc, maker of hit mobile phone game "Candy Crush Saga", expects to be worth up to $7.6 billion when it goes public this month in the United States, amid concerns about its over reliance on the game.

King will hope to benefit from its focus on the estimated $17 billion market for mobile game apps and avoid the fate of rivals such as Zynga Inc, which has struggled to make its games as popular on phones as they are online.

"Candy Crush," which involves moving candies to make a line of three in the same color, was the most downloaded free app and top revenue-grossing app in 2013. The game accounts for nearly three-quarters of King's revenue.

"I think the bankers have priced the deal in a way so that initial investors can realize a first-day pop in the stock," said Josef Schuster, founder of IPOX Schuster, a Chicago-based IPO research and investment house.



Twitter Inc's successful IPO in November and a surge in Facebook Inc's shares have fueled speculation that other tech firms could go public, including music-streaming service Spotify, lodging website AirBnB and mobile payments company Square.

However, Schuster and other analysts questioned if King could maintain its breakneck growth rate.
"I think the valuation of a P/E ratio of 13 for a high-growth company is indeed reflecting a skepticism about the ability to continue growing at such a rapid pace," said Jay Ritter, a professor and IPO expert at the University of Florida.

"The ability to come up with future games and get people to pay for the game is a big question mark."
Riccardo Zacconi, who has led King since co-founding the company in Sweden in 2003, will hold a 9.5 percent stake in King after the IPO. Zacconi, 47, worked with online dating site uDate.com Ltd till it was bought by InterActive Corp in 2002.

ANOTHER ZYNGA?

"Candy Crush" launched on Facebook in April 2012. The game was released on Apple devices in November that year, followed by an app for Android devices a month later.
 
The game has been downloaded more than 500 million times since its launch. The basic games are free, but players must pay for add-ons or extra "lives".

Such stellar popularity has helped King's revenue grow to $602 million in the fourth quarter of 2013 from $22 million in the first quarter of 2012.

But most of that growth was fueled by "Candy Crush" rather than any of the 180 games King provides through mobile phones, Facebook and its own website.

King, which had 665 employees at December 31, has focused on launching more games on mobile platforms, a market that analysts expect will grow to $17 billion this year from just $6 billion in 2010.

Zynga's stock price has halved since its IPO in 2011 as the popularity of "Farmville" waned, while Finland's Rovio has struggled to replicate the success of "Angry Birds".

Zynga acquired mobile game developer NaturalMotion for $527 million and cut over 300 jobs this year, in an effort to narrow its focus to mobile gaming.

To be sure, King's revenue for the quarter ended December 31 declined 3 percent from the preceding quarter, which the company said was due to a fall in "Candy Crush" gross bookings.

However, bookings rose for its other games such as "Pet Rescue Saga" and "Farm Heroes Saga". About 73 percent of total bookings in the quarter came from mobile users.




King's five games for mobiles have drawn a "substantial fan base" Zacconi said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (r.reuters.com/bar57v).

"The opportunity in front of us is exciting: mobile usage is exploding and games are commanding the lion's share of time spent."

NYSE DEBUT

King's IPO is scheduled to be priced on March 25, two underwriters told Reuters. The stock will start trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "KING" on March 26.

Of the 22.2 million shares on sale in the offering, the company will sell 15.5 million, while stockholders, including Apax Ventures, will sell 6.7 million shares, King said.

Unlike most other tech companies that have gone public recently, King is profitable, has no debt and generated positive cash flow from operations for each of the last nine years. It posted profit before tax of $714.3 million in 2013.

In February, an average of 144 million daily active users played the company's games more than 1.4 billion times per day.

At the top-end of the planned range, the IPO will raise as much as $532.8 million, slightly more than the $500 million placeholder figure it disclosed in its first public filing in February.
Entities related to Apax will own 44.2 percent of the company following the offering, according to the IPO filing.

JP Morgan, Credit Suisse and BofA Merrill Lynch are lead underwriters for the offering.

(Additional reporting by Neha Dimri in Bangalore; Editing by Maju Samuel and Savio D'Souza)

Scarlett Johansson pregnant: Actress, fiancé Romain Dauriac expecting first child

Marc Piasecki/Getty Images

Scarlett Johansson and Romain Dauriac announced their engagement in September. They have been dating publicly since November 2012. 

 

E! News first reported.the "Her" actress, 29, has one on the way. Johnasson is roughly five months along, according to sources for TMZ.

Johnasson announced plans to wed her French journalist boyfriend in September. The two went public with their romance in November 2012. But Johansson isn't rushing down the aisle.

By Margaret Eby / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Hennessey Venom GT Top Speed Record for USA at 270 mph

The Hennessey Performance Venom GT has claimed the title of “World’s Fastest Production Car” for the United States, but not without some controversy.

This past Valentine’s Day, racing driver/test engineer Brian Smith piloted the 1,244 hp supercar down the Kennedy Space Center’s 3.2-mile Space Shuttle landing runway to a maximum velocity of 270.49 mph, and was still accelerating when he ran out of room and had to hit the brakes.

The touch-down speed of the Shuttle? Only around 225 mph.

The Venom’s speed bested the previous mark of 267.86 mph set by the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport in 2010, although not everyone agrees it was a record-setting feat.

Bugatti’s run was sanctioned by Guinness, which requires that cars be clocked over a flying kilometer in opposite directions then takes an average of the two speeds. There simply isn’t enough pavement at Kennedy to do that sort of thing, and NASA wasn’t able to authorize a second run, anyway.

In fact, possibly the only place on earth where it can be pulled off safely is a huge oval test track in Germany owned by Bugatti’s parent company, Volkswagen. So, the fix is kind of in.

Nevertheless, fans of the Venom GT don’t seem to be deterred.

All but four of the planned 29-unit run of $1.2 million cars have now been sold after a rush to buy them in the wake of the top speed run.

And don’t think there are any hard feelings between Hennessey and Guinness.

The organization currently recognizes the Venom GT as the world’s fastest accelerating car from 0-300 km/h – 186.4 mph -- which it can do in just 13.86 seconds.

When it comes to speed, there are still some things everyone can agree on.

Published February 24, 2014

FoxNews.com

Investigator: ‘Midnight Rider’ Crew Wasn’t Supposed to Be on Tracks

February 21, 2014 | 04:55PM PT

27-year-old camera assistant was killed Thursday on set of Gregg Allman feature

Ted Johnson 

 

The crew of Gregg Allman biopic “Midnight Rider” was working on train tracks without permission from the railroad in Wayne County, Ga. when a train crashed into the production team, killing one and injuring seven others, an investigator said Friday.

The tracks, owned by CSX Railroad, cross private land owned by forest-products company Rayonier, which has a nearby paper mill. Joe Gardner, the lead detective on the case, said the crew had Rayonier’s permission to film on its property next to the train tracks.

“CSX has told me they were aware they were out there, but they did not have permission to be on the train tracks,” Gardner told reporters.

An eyewitness told Variety the Open Road Films drama was in its first day of shooting Thursday afternoon and the crew was filming a dream sequence on a railroad trestle when a train unexpectedly crossed the bridge.

The victim, a second camera assistant, was later identified as Sarah Jones, 27, of Atlanta.
A rep for Open Road has declined to comment on how Thursday’s fatal incident could effect the pic’s future.

The crew, including director Randall Miller, had been warned to expect two trains on the local bridge, one in each direction, and waited until after those two trains had passed to set up their shot, which involved placing a bed on the tracks. The railroad had also told the production that if any additional trains came, they’d hear a whistle about a minute before the train would reach the bridge.

A third train did arrive unexpectedly, blowing its whistle while the crew was on the bridge and the bed was on the track. Crew members ran toward their base camp, which was on land at one end of the bridge, using a plank walkway on the side of the trestle bridge. However in doing so they ran toward the bed. That proved disastrous.

Miller, who also directed the 2008 film “Bottle Shock,” and a still photographer rushed to get the bed off the tracks. Miller fell onto the tracks but the still photographer pulled him off, according to the witness, saving his life. The train was unable to stop and crossed the bridge while the crew was still on the walkway and the bed was still on the tracks.

The bed was hit by the train and shattered, sending debris flying. One large piece of debris hit Jones as she was running and knocked her onto the tracks. She was then struck by the train and killed. Debris also hit and injured several other people, including one who was seriously injured and airlifted to Savannah’s Memorial Health University Medical Center.

Another person also suffered injuries during the accident and was admitted to the hospital while at least two other people from the crew, none seriously injured, were treated in the emergency room at Wayne Memorial Hospital in Jesup, Ga. Gardner told reporters on Thursday that seven people were injured.

In addition to the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department in Jesup, Ga., near where the accident occurred, officials from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration are conducting an investigation, according to a spokesman for the agency in Atlanta.

Starring William Hurt, Bradley Whitford, Eliza Dushku, Zoey Deutch and Tyson Ritter, “Midnight Rider” is set to be released by Open Road in the U.S.
Allman is also an executive producer on the film.

Representatives for the production did not immediately return requests for comment.
Update: Nick Gant, creative director and principal of Meddin Studios in Savannah, which is working with the production, said via email:

“This is not gorilla film making or a group of indie film makers trying to grab a shot. It was weeks of communications and scouting multiple places. You had to have access to get onto the site. We have 20-30 year veterans in all the departments, crew is extremely qualified, cast trailers were transporter, location was almost 90 minutes away… No corners were cut.”

“CSX will say what they want because they can retract their statement in 6 months and it will have no press around it.

“We are spending too much time trying to place blame on a horrific accident. Sarah’s actions probably saved other peoples lives. The crew, our families and our community are very tight. We are able to hand select who we are going to spend long days and weeks together. Sarah and every crew members were friends, family and professionals at what they did.

“We need to celebrate their accomplishments, their lives and support their families as we move forward.”

The Associated Press contributed to this repot

Charlotte Dawson found dead at her Sydney home

ONE of Australia’s most popular television identities, Charlotte Dawson, has been found dead at the age of 47 after a long history of depression. 

The Kiwi-born former model is understood to have been found by a security guard in the early hours of this morning having failed to show up to a planned lunch date.

Police confirmed they were called to Wooloomooloo wharf at 11.18am and there were no suspicious circumstances to the death.

Charlotte Dawson was found dead in her apartment at Woolloomooloo today. Pictured is a police van entering the private wharf driveway. Source: News Corp Australia

 

Police at the doorstep of the apartment where Dawson died. Source: News Corp Australia

 

The tragic news led to an immediate outpouring of grief on social media networks.

Radio personalities Kyle and Jackie O were among the first to express their shock. “Heartbroken to hear news that Charlotte Dawson has died,” they tweeted.

At least one close friend contacted soon after Dawson was found dead admitted the troubled TV host and former model was in “the worst shape emotionally” they had ever seen her — and on more than one occasion had failed to meet friends at organised times in the three days leading up to her death.

It is understood it was Dawson’s failure to appear at a lunch appointment — as well as the fact her Twitter account had remained dormant for 19 hours — that alerted one friend to contact the building manager at Dawson’s apartment building early Saturday morning.

A security guard then made the discovery in Dawson’s unit, number 104, and raised the alarm, with police arriving soon after to remove the body.

Fellow Woolloomooloo wharf resident Russell Crowe was in tears as he heard the news today. Source: News Corp Australia

 

“She was in very bad shape. Terrible shape,” said a friend, who asked not to be named.
“She had failed to show up to a lunch a couple of days ago and then when I had seen she hadn’t tweeted in almost a day it was clear something was wrong.”

"She was in very bad shape. Terrible shape"

Police are believed to have entered Dawson’s up-market waterfront apartment complex through a back entrance, with diners at Woolloomooloo Wharf restaurants continuing lunch oblivious to the fact Dawson had only hours earlier taken her life in a nearby unit.

One waiter at the nearest eatery to Dawson’s apartment said there had been no visible sign of police entry.

A major anti-online bullying advocate, Dawson had long documented her struggles with depression via her Twitter account.

She had previously had one highly-publicised suicide attempt back in September 2012, after copping a barrage of abuse on social media.

Since then she had been vocal about her battle with mental illness and also wrote at length about it in her tell-all book Air Kiss And Tell.

A long-time judge on the popular cable modelling series Australia’s Next Top Model, it was announced last year that Dawson would not be returning the show after a cast shake-up.

Dawson with Australia's Next Top Model judges Alex Perry, Sarah Murdoch and Jaz Daly. Source: News Limited

 

Despite putting on a brave face at the time, friends admitted Dawson took the axing particularly hard but had recently talked optimistically about new ventures.

As news broke today of Dawson’s death, friends rushed to social media to share their grief — with former international modelling pal and fellow Kiwi Rachel Hunter writing; “I’m devastated, such an amazing & kind soul. Heartbreaking!”

Dawson’s former boss at Foxtel, Brian Walsh, also offered his condolences, releasing a statement that read: “This is tragic news and deeply sad. Everyone at Foxtel is devastated. Our sympathies are with Charlotte’s family and friends.”

For support and information about suicide prevention, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467.

Dawson with good friend Alex Perry and Megan Gale. Source: Supplied

 

Dawson in a favourite holiday photo. Source: News Limited

 

RIP CHARLOTTE DAWSON 1966 - 2014

Leave your tributes below     Amy Harris