Do you think you've ever seen lightning like this before? Allow us to save you the effort of thinking about it; unless you've been to a very specific location in Venezuela, you haven't. This unusual sky phenomenon is known as Catatumbo lightning, because the only place in the world it happens is above the Catatumbo River in the South American country.
A perfect storm of contributing factors is responsible for the lightning happening in this way; the area is surrounded on three sides by mountains, meaning air picks up electrical charge as it climbs upwards, and then discharges it over the bogs surrounding Maracaibo Lake. The locals must be used to it; the lightning happens on an average of 150 nights each year, and when it does, it can go on for as long as ten hours, with 250 lightning strikes in each of those hours. Nowhere in the world sees more lightning more regularly than the Catatumbo River.
To insure one’s house, one’s car or to underwrite a life insurance policy, that is common practice. But who would pay an insurance premium for his/her thumb, legs or smile? Stars, of course.
At the top of the ranking are the legs of Mariah Carey, worth 810 million USD: The diva became, in 2006, the Gillette brand muse for the advertising campaign «Legs of a Goddess». She then took out an insurance policy with London Lloyds to protect her legs, a decision that is far from being insignificant. Among its customers, the London insurer then included several icons of music, such as Bob Dylan or Rod Stewart.
David Beckham’s body insured for 195 million USD: European champion with Manchester United in 1999, David Beckham was in 2006 the most renowned footballer of the planet. In relation to his sporting activities, he took out an insurance cover for his legs. The huge amount paid for his insurance would reportedly exceed the 103 million USD disbursed by Real Madrid for the cover of Christiano Ronaldo in 2009. The fashion model would later extend his insurance cover to his entire body.
15 million USD in insurance for Kim Kardashian’s curves: The curves of Kim Kardashian are her number one beauty asset. The reality TV star, who is crazy about plastic surgery, has underwritten an insurance policy worth 15 million USD to protect her famous butt.
The culinary critic Egon Ronay assured his taste buds: The famous Hungarian culinary critic has insured his taste buds since 1957, for the amount of 400 000 USD. An original insurance policy which allows him to cover his sense of taste without which he will no longer be able to practice his job.