Top 10 Magazines in The World

NO it’s not the bulky comic book, neither it’s the children’s bedtime catalogue; it’s an honest, knowledgeable, acid free twenty page magazine. We all read it almost every day, its colorful and filled with rich business men, celebrities and models etc. pasted on glossy pages thin as silk to keep us entertained. So why are they so popular? May be because they help decorate a superstore or lure senior citizens into the market or whatever. Read on and find out why are they so popular.

10. Newsweek

As the name suggests this weekly, high quality slick American paper stack contains articles, discussions and opinions of scored, all time wining writers and journalists. So then you might think, why it’s so popular, in fact it should be “boringly” very popular, but be alarmed that this magazine is not intended for fashion geeks and entertainment junkies, it’s not your page flipping entertainment; it’s a serious attempt at news and the world today. This magazine picks out the most negotiable issues and discusses it and stretches opinions, in other words it’s a special news bulletin on paper. It also provides a touch of latest news from the showbiz world. Average net circulation = 3183000

9. Playboy

Since 1953, this American magazine has stirred and shaped men in every way, it has bought sex fresh from the shelves of gorgeous ladies into the pockets of ordinary men and teenagers. This periodical features photos of nude women in the most pleasing and erotic takes, of course you need to control yourself, but the newer issues every month packs a meaty punch and you find yourself hard to resist. The magic is in how this magazine tackles the deep desires of men; it publishes content such as interviews of artists, actors and other famous figures that is suited to the public while keeping an eye on changing trends and fashion. Playboy certainly plays its game and enjoys its revenue. Average net circulation = 3215000

8. People

“People” the magazine wholly responsible for human interests or should I say the magazine that spies on people when they do something interesting? It’s an American weekly magazine that has made its name throughout the world by coming up with interesting rankings such as “the best dressed”, “the best chefs around the world” and “the sexiest man alive”. It focuses on the key interest areas and has done a good job because its average net circulation is 3625000.

7. BusinessWeek

Every library, every academic shelf, and every well-equipped office will have this magazine somewhere around. It’s surprising to note that so much research goes into writing this critical magazine because each boring event in the business world is studied in-depth, analyzed and then printed. This magazine is very bold and straightforward; it always tries to express its opinion just the way it is not sugar-coating it. Many companies rely on its research and credibility and most importantly its topic of a four page analytical review of how political pressures impact the business world. Publishes 57 issues per year! It’s not to be missed

6. Ladies’ Home Journal

My mother has a stack of kitchen magazines, “How to Cook the Microwave Way” and other detailed cooking periodicals all around the house and the last thing on the menu was this Home Journal. I mean I got bored just by looking at them let alone flipping the pages, what on earth is in it that is fooling young moms into buying them. Ladies’ Home Journal is a leading women’s magazine which contains everything from beauty, fashion, health, relationships, food, pets and games mothers love to play. Average net circulation = 4101000

5. Time

  The magazine of time, a periodical not to be missed, a compilation giving you exactly what you want for the news and what you want filtered out. This magazine is genius creation, because it has become a platform for the most talked about news in the world. Very few personalities and some serious debaters qualify to discuss in the magazine, so in short this magazine contains a high quality of opinionated matter. What more do you want from a flashy magazine that gives you a world summary in a bunch and provide shocking stories behind certain events. This is an American weekly magazine with an average net circulation of 4112000; after all it is an abbreviation of “The International Magazine of Events”

4. Woman’s Day

If your wife is giving you a hard time when you return from a hectic day at the office, just stop by the superstore and get one of these Women’s Day magazines for her and you will be rewarded with utter silence. This magazine contains home decor ideas, relationship advice, lifestyle tips and lots more. This is an experienced women magazine with every curiosity for the ladies covered in detail and style. It’s an Australian weekly magazine with an average net circulation of 4205000 copies

3. Family Circle

This is an American answer to the Australians, “if you can come up with a woman’s magazine we will bring in the whole family!”

Oh yeah and that’s what it’s all about, this periodical talks about food, holidays, teens, home decor, health, style, beauty, fashion, prom, pets, charity and so on. The magazine is endless, and it is read by young mothers and newlywed women. This magazine even launched another website called Momster.com for mothers and teenagers. Average net circulation = 4634000

2. Better Homes and Gardens

If you have dirty chaotic home and the swimming pool needs cleaning, then you don’t need to call the cleaning and the vacuuming swat team to do the job, because now YOU CAN, all you need is a fresh copy of Better Homes and Gardens and that’s it. This magazine is the fourth bestselling magazine in US and it features content under recipes and cooking, decorating and home ideas, gardening, entertaining, holidays, health and family, pets and so on. They have got the best editors around America to produce such a worthy content. Average net circulation = 7605000

1. Reader’s Digest

At last the winner on our list, this is a true companion, a must have around your table and it’s a common interest magazine. It’s so popular that according to one survey this magazine is bought by almost everybody than any other magazine of any nature. That’s because it’s an all in one magazine, it contains areas such as heath, vocabulary, cooking, general advice, true stories, jokes, word games and so on. This magazine also publishes a series of books as supplements under the name “Reader’s Digest Select Editions”. A magazine for the elderly and the educated with average net circulation of stunning 12078000 copies around the globe

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Top 5 Largest Robberies in History

5. Knightsbridge Security Deposit

12th July 1987-UK: £60 million

 Valerio Viccei migrated to the UK from Italy in 1986, where he was wanted for over 50 armed robberies. He decided to continue his successful trade in his new homeland, where he and an accomplice entered the Knightsbridge Safe Deposit Centre and asked to rent a Safe Deposit Box. After being led into the vault, they subdued the manager and the guards. Valerio hung a sign outside stating that the Deposit was temporarily closed to deter more customers, and then went about letting in more accomplices. The gang then plundered the safe deposit boxes at will and netted an estimated £60 million, which translates approximately into a whopping $174 million in today’s money. The police were not alerted until an hour after the robbery, giving the team plenty of time to flee the scene. Valerio fled to Latin America whilst his accomplices were arrested, then foolishly returned to England sometime later to retrieve his beloved Ferrari, where he was subsequently caught. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison. One would think that with the better part of $174 million, you would just buy another Ferrari. Or two. He was killed in 2000 while on day release in Italy, as a result of a gunfight with police.

4. Baghdad Bank Robbery

12th July 2007- Baghdad, Iraq: $282 million

 Employees of the Dar Es Salaam bank showed up to work one morning to find that the doors were unlocked, the vault open, and all the money was gone. It is believed that 3 guards at the bank made off with a staggering $282 million in this whopping haul. Yes, more than a quarter of a billion dollars! That’s more money than the entire economies of some small countries. It is unclear why the bank had such a large amount of cash on hand, but it was all in US currency. It is suspected that the guards had the assistance of militias, to avoid detection at security checkpoints around Baghdad, as having a lazy $282 million in the boot of your car might raise suspicions. No one has been brought to justice for this brazen crime and none of the money has been recovered. The robbery received surprisingly little media coverage.

3. Boston Museum

18th March 1990- Boston, USA: $300 million

Number 3 on our list is also considered the biggest art heist in history. Two men dressed as police officers convinced 2 inexperienced security guards at the Gardner Museum that they were responding to a disturbance. Contrary to museum policy, the 2 guards let the “officers” into the premises, where they quickly learned that they had been duped after being handcuffed by the men in the basement. Amazingly, the 2 men managed to do this despite having no visible weapons whatsoever. The men spent the next 81 minutes calmly selecting 12 pieces of art with a combined value of over $300 million, and this was 20 years ago. Among the paintings stolen were 3 Rembrandt’s and a Vermeer. The two then took the surveillance tapes and departed, never to be heard from again, though in 1994 an offer was made to return the paintings for $2.6 million and immunity from prosecution, but the writer was never heard from again. The men appear to possibly be amateurs, as they made no effort to avoid damaging the paintings and left even more valuable works behind. The case has never been solved and there is a $5 million reward for any information pertaining to the return of the artworks. Also, authorities have announced that they will not prosecute anyone who has the paintings and offers to return them. More on the details of this interesting robbery can be read here.

2. City Bonds Robbery

2nd May 1990- London, UK: £292 million

John Goddard was a 58 year old messenger working for broker Sheppards, who was mugged whilst carrying a briefcase on a quiet London side street. However, the contents of that briefcase contained £292 million in bearer bonds. Goddard was delivering Bank of England Treasury bills from banks and building societies. Due to the nature of bearer bonds, whoever is carrying them is deemed the owner. They are as good as cash. He was held at knifepoint, whilst his assailant made off with 301 Treasury bills, most valued at £1 million each. Keith Cheeseman was arrested in connection to the crime and received a 6 and a half year sentence. Police believe that the mugging was carried out by Patrick Thomas, but he was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head before he could be charged. All but 2 of the bonds were recovered after police and the FBI infiltrated the gang responsible. It’s amazing that the second largest robbery in history was carried out by a low level thief brandishing only a knife on an insignificant back street.

1. Central Bank of Iraq

18th March 2003- Baghdad, Iraq: $1 billion

Some robberies require careful planning. Others use brute force. But the largest in history was as simple was it was effective. Saddam Hussein treated Iraq as his own personal fiefdom, so it’s no surprise that he would feel that the Central Bank of Iraq was his personal bank account. The day before Coalition forces began bombing Iraq, he sent his son Qusay to make a withdrawal on his behalf with a handwritten note. Qusay oversaw the withdrawal of boxes stuffed with $100 bills in a five-hour operation which netted the dictator about $1 billion in US dollars. It didn’t get him very far, as he was caught sometime later hiding in a hole in the ground whilst his son was killed by US forces. Approximately $650 million was later found by US troops hidden in the walls of one of his palace’s, though the remaining $350 million has never been recovered and is considered lost.

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7 Strange Robots the Pentagon is Developing

With a budget in excess of $600 billion, the pentagon is hard at work researching technology that is sometimes bizarre and out of this world. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or DARPA is busy bringing in robotic creations to the pentagon that are craziest at the least. Here is a list of some of the strange robots the pentagon has in mind.

7. BigDog

BigDog is a dynamically stable quadruped robot created by Boston Dynamics with Foster-Miller, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Harvard University Concord Field Station. It was made in 2005 and can haul, climb, and carry its way over rough terrain. Capable of traversing difficult terrains, running at 4 miles per hour, carrying 340 pounds, and climbing a 35 degree incline, BigDog is intended to one day be able to serve as a robotic pack mule to accompany soldiers in terrain too rough for conventional vehicles.

This strange-looking robot is powered by a two-stroke, one-cylinder and 15-HP go-kart engine operating at over 9,000 RPM.

6. Nano Hummingbird Drone

Developed by AeroVironmen, the Nano hummingbird drone is built to look like a bird for potential use in spy missions. It is capable of flying at speeds of up to 11 miles per hour, hovering and flying sideways, backward and forward, as well as going clockwise and counterclockwise, by remote control for about eight minutes of sustained flight.

5. LittleDog

A quadruped robot designed for research on learning locomotion, the LittleDog’s four legs are each powered by three electric motors and are strong enough for climbing and “dynamic locomotion gaits.”

4. RiSE Climbing Robot

RiSE is a robot capable of climbing vertical terrain such as walls, trees and fences. It has “feet with micro-claws” to climb on textured surfaces. It weighs at 4.4 punds and is able to travel at 0.68 miles per hour.

It has six legs, an on-board computer that manages the coordination of these legs and a variety of sensors.

3. PetMan

This is a bipedal device constructed for testing chemical protection suits. The technology is basically derived from BigDog with advanced features such as sweating; simulating both human movement mechanics and human physiology to a much realistic extent.

PetMan is capable of walking on a treadmill i.e. walking, doing squats and pumping out push-ups. It also has a phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range.

And as Boston Dynamics President Marc Raibert said:

“Places like the Fukushima reactors could be accessed by Petman-like robots (or AlphaDogs), without requiring any human exposure to hazardous materials. Perhaps firefighting inside of buildings or facilities designed for human access, like on board ships designed for human crews.”

2. Crusher

This 13,200-pound monster was developed by researchers at the Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Center for DARPA. Its technical name is Unmanned Ground Combat Vehicle and Perceptor Integration System.

It can travel over walls as much as 4 feet high, wooded slopes and can even turn 180 degrees. It can also lower or raise its suspension by as much as 30 inches. Capable of seeing enemy troops from over 2 miles with its cameras, while carrying a maximum of 8,000 pounds of payload and armor combined, it is capable of moving at 26 miles per hour. The downside being, it can sustain that speed for 7 seconds only.

1. BigDog with Horns

And those horns would act as weapons, right? Of course, how long would a mechanized donkey last in a battlefield without weapons anyway? Then again, I don’t think horns are going to deflect bullets or something.

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