Driven to succeed

Three times every week, Cha Sa-soon of South Korea signs up to take a driving test in the hopes of finally getting her license. Since she began taking the test in 2005, the 68-year-old has failed an astounding 775 times.

Even more amazing, Sa-soon hasn’t even made it to the actual driving portion of the test—she can’t get past the written exam.

The North Jeolla province requires applicants to score at least 60% on the written test before they can advance to the driving test. Officials say that after 775 tries, Sa-soon has yet to score higher than 50%.

Still, you can’t accuse Sa-soon of not having drive. She’s trying to get her license so that she can one day buy a truck and start her own business. “I believe you can achieve your goal if you persistently pursue it,” she told Reuters. “So don’t give up your dream, like me. Be strong and do your best.”

Officials estimate that Sa-soon’s best has cost her 10 million won ($6,800) in application fees so far.

Breaking a record

For most women being thrown from a vehicle during a car crash, breaking a nail would be the least of their concerns. But for Lee Redmond of Salt Lake City, the Guinness World Record holder for the world’s longest fingernails, it was kind of a big deal.

While Redmond suffered no life-threatening injuries in the crash, her 3-ft-long fingernails were damaged beyond repair.

The editor in chief of the Guinness Book of World Records said: “Lee is a fantastic ambassador for the company, appearing on our TV shows around the world and promoting to school children that it’s OK to be different. Losing her nails in such a terrible accident has shocked everyone here at Guinness World Records—they were such a fundamental part of her life and unique character.”

I guess that’s a compliment. Redmond said the last time her nails were cut was 1979.

Pimp my Death Van

China, the worldwide leader in prisoner executions, is taking the show on the road.

To offset the cost of traditional firing squads, China has developed a fleet of mobile execution chambers, dubbed “Death Vans.”

From the outside, the vans look like a cross between a transit bus and a police squad car. Inside, however, they contain the tools necessary to administer on-the-spot American-style lethal injections.

Besides being an awesome name for a rock band, the Death Vans are being phased in as an alternative for small cities that can’t afford to build their own execution facilities. Instead, they can book a Death Van to handle both the execution and transportation of the remains to the crematory.

The van’s designer also points out that the switch from bullets to injections shows that China “promotes human rights now.”

Critics argue that the real reason for the Death Vans is to make it easier for the government to secretly harvest organs to sell to the West. China has explicitly banned the sale of organs and tightened approval standards for transplants, but Amnesty International believes that China still makes huge profits from the sale of prisoners’ organs.

It’s not too difficult to earn your own ride in a Death Van. China’s 68 capital offenses include relatively minor crimes by North American standards, including tax evasion, panda killing and probably questioning the use of Death Vans.