2009 Top Table Tennis Player

2009 Top Table Tennis Player
[Ranking from International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) as of Feb 2009]

Female Players

Rank	Player	Style	Born	Nationality
1st	Zhang Yining 张怡宁	Right-handed shakehand grip	05 Oct 1981 Beijing, China	China
2nd	Guo Yue 郭跃	Left-handed shakehand grip	17 Jul 1988 Anshan, Liaoning, China	China
3rd	Li Xiaoxia 李曉霞	Right-handed shakehand grip	16 Jan 1988 Liaoning, China	China
4th	Guo Yan 郭焱	Right-handed	24 Jun 1983 Beijing, China	China
5th	Wang Nan 王楠	Left-handed shakehand grip	23 Oct 1978 Fushun, Liaoning, China	China
6th	Feng Tianwei 冯天薇	Right-handed shakehand grip (Use Stiga Kelvar blade)	31 Aug 1986 Harbin, Heilongjiang, China	Singapore
7th	Li Jiawei 李佳薇	Right-handed shakehand grip (Use Stiga blade)	09 Aug 1981 Beijing, China	Singapore
8th	Wang Yuegu 王越古	Right-handed shakehand grip (Use Nittaku blade)	10 Jun 1980 Anshan, Liaoning, China	Singapore
9th	Kim Kyung-Ah 金璟娥 김경아	Right-handed	25 May 1977 South Korea	South Korea
10th	Tie Yana 帖雅娜	Right-handed	13 May 1979 Henan, China	Hong Kong China

Male Players

Rank	Player	Style	Born	Nationality
1st	Wang Hao 王皓	Right-handed pen holder grip	15 Dec 1983 Changchun, Jilin, China	China
2nd	Ma Lin 马琳	Right-handed pen holder grip	19 Feb 1980 Shenyang, China	China
3rd	Ma Long 马龙	Right-handed	20 Oct 1988 Anshan, Liaoning, China	China
4th	Timo Boll	Left-handed	08 Mar 1981 Erbach im Odenwald, Germany	Germany
5th	Wang Liqin 王励勤	Right-handed shakehand grip	18 Jun 1978 Shanghai, China	China
6th	Vladimir Samsonov	Right-handed	17 Apr 1976 Minsk, Belarus	Belarus
7th	Chen Qi 陈杞	Left-handed, All round player	15 Apr 1984 Nantong, China	China
8th	Hao Shuai 郝帅	Left-handed	01 Oct 1983 Tianjin, China	China
9th	Chuang Chih-Yuan 庄智渊	Right-handed	02 Apr 1981 Taipei, Taiwan	Taiwan China
10th	Joo Se Hyuk 朱世赫	Right-handed	20 Jan 1980 Cheonan, South Korea	South Korea

Extreme Mammals

Largest Mammal (in Sea, in the World, Current, Ever)


An adult Blue Whale

Scientific name: Balaenoptera musculus
Name: Blue Whale
Size: Up to 32.9 metres in length and weighs 172 metric tonnes
Habitat: North Atlantic and North Pacific (other subspecies live in Southern Ocean, Indian Ocean and South Pacific Ocean)
Remark: Endangered


Largest Mammal (on Land)


An African Bush Elephant

Scientific name: Loxodonta africana
Name: African Bush Elephant
Size: Up to 7.3 meters in length and 3.5 meters in height. Weighs up to 9,000 kg
Habitat: Eastern, Southern Africa (Forest and glasslands)
Remark: Near Threatened


Largest Mammal (on Land Ever)


Paraceratherium drawn by Charles R. Knight

Scientific name: Paraceratherium
Name: Paraceratherium
Size: Over 8m in length and up to 5.5 m tall at shoulder. Weighs over 10 metric tons to up to 20 metric tons.
Habitat: Many parts of Asia (Kazakhstan, Pakistan, India, Mongolia, and China) (Subtropical forests and woodlands)
Remark: Extinct. Exist during middle Oligocene to early Miocene, around 20 to 30 million years ago.


Smallest Mammal (by size or skull size)


Bumblebee Bat held by hand

Scientific name: Craseonycteris thonglongyai
Name: Kitti's Hog-nosed Bat or Bumblebee Bat
Size: 29–33 mm in length and 2 grams in mass
Habitat: Limestone caves along rivers, within dry evergreen or deciduous forests in Thailand and Burma
Remark: Group size in cave ranges from 10 to 15 individuals to up to 500. Average around 100.


Smallest Mammal (by weight)


Etruscan Shrew on hand

Scientific name: Suncus etruscus
Name: Etruscan Shrew
Size: 36 mm in length and 1.2–2.7 grams in mass
Habitat: Forests and brush areas between Southern Asia and Southern Europe
Remark: A forager with lifespan of 15 months


Smallest Mammal (in Sea)


A Sea Otter in Morro Bay

Scientific name: Enhydra lutris
Name: Sea Otter
Size: 1.0 to 1.4m in length and weighs 14 to 45 kg
Habitat: Western Pacific Ocean, Alaska and California region
Remark: Endangered


Fastest Mammal (on Land)


A Cheetah

Scientific name: Acinonyx jubatus
Name: Cheetah
Speed: 112-120 km/h for short distance of 460m
Size: 115 to 135 cm in length and weighing 40 to 65 kg
Habitat: Forests and brush areas between Southern Asia and Southern Europe
Remark: Accelerate from 0 to 110 km/h in 3 seconds


Fastest Mammal (in Sea)


Dall's Porpoise

Scientific name: Phocoenoides dalli
Name: Dall's Porpoise
Speed: Up to 55 km/h
Size: 2.3m in length and weighing between 130 and 200 kg.
Habitat: North Pacific Ocean from southern California to southern Japan
Remark: Live for up to 15 years


Slowest Mammal


Brown-throated Sloth (Bradypus variegatus) (a species of three-toed sloth)

Scientific name: Bradypodidae
Name: Three-toed Sloth
Speed: Max speed is 0.54 meters per second, but most time sleeping or little movement
Size: 50 and 60 cm long
Habitat: Tropical rainforests of South and Central America
Remark: Omnivores. They could eat insects, small lizards and carrion, but their diet consists mostly of buds, tender shoots, and leaves, mainly of Cecropia trees

When is Chinese New Year?

A simplified version on the date of Chinese New Year is given as followed

1. Chinese New Year must fall on a new moon. It means the beginning of things.


2. It celebrates the beginning of spring so it must be a new moon close to solar terms Li Chun (立春). Since Li Chun (立春) fall around 4 Feb on Gregorian calendar. Chinese New Year will be the new moon near 4 Feb. Therefore, it ranges half a lunar month before and after 4 Feb. Data shows that it always fall between 21 Jan and 21 Feb.


3. The determination of the date is based on time zone of 120 degree East (China's time zone).

There are other rules but I will not elaborate. More detail explanations can be found at here


Some further notes:

• Chinese calendar is a lunisolar calendar (considering both Sun and Moon's movement)


• A lunar month is around 29.53 days (therefore sometimes 30 days sometimes 29 days)


• A lunar year consisting of 12 lunar months is around 354.37 days which is around 11 days short of Gregorian calendar. Therefore, there is a leap month around every 3 years.


• Therefore, Chinese New Year is observed to fall around 11 days earlier each year for 2 years and then forward by 19 days on the third year. For example, this year Chinese New Year is on 26 Jan 2009. Taking 11 days away will fall out of 21 Jan 2009 range, so next year it will be around 19 days forward, that is around 14 Feb (which is in fact correct. 14 Feb 2010). So the year after next will be 11 days before, therefore around 3 Feb (which is correct again. 3 Feb 2011). In 2012, it will be 11 days before, therefore around 23 Jan (which is correct again. 23 Jan 2012). It may not always exact, allow 1 day difference as both Chinese calendar and Gregorian calendar require correction (Chinese - Leap month, Gregorian - Leap day).