Jingjing, depicted as a male cartoon officer, and Chacha, a female, went to work on four locally based Websites on Wednesday, a Guangdong newspaper said yesterday.Previously: Blogger Registration Act
By mid-July, they will cover the city's major Website homepages and interactive pages, such as blogs and chatrooms.
The city's cyber cops will issue and implement Internet information security, check distribution of malicious information and online illegal activities, and investigate online crimes.
Along with the two virtual officers, an icon of a police station with flashing red light will also appear on Web pages. Netizens can click any of them, linking to the cyber police Website, to report online crimes or submit questions.
Chinese soccer fans looking to customise their phones with their favourite pastime can now download Huang Jianxiang's reaction to Italy's victory over Australia as a ringback tone -- the sound a caller hears while waiting for someone to answer.Previously: Biased Chinese football commentator
"Goooooal! Game over! Italy win!. Beat the Australians! ... Italy the great! ... Happy birthday to Maldini! Forza Italia!" Huang screamed as Francesco Totti converted a last-minute penalty to send Italy into the quarter-finals.
"The victory belongs to Italy, to Grosso, to Cannavaro, to Zambrotta, to Buffon, to Maldini, to everyone who loves Italian soccer!... (Australia) should go home. They don't need to go as far away as Australia as most of them are living in Europe. Farewell!"
Li Jie, who describes himself as chief executive of the Lunar Embassy to China, is selling his "World Cup air" for 50 yuan ($6.25) a bag.Ah the Chinese. They are ever so entrepreneurial.
"The air was packed at the World Cup venues while the workers were cutting the grass before matches," Li told the Beijing Daily Messenger. "You can still smell the grass."
Li suggests soccer enthusiasts who are not able to make the trip to Germany hang the green plastic bag around their necks and breathe in the air while watching World Cup matches on television.
"Whichever stadium you like, I can give you its air," he added.
One of the hottest web cams on the internet has gained tremendous popularity thanks in part to the soap opera antics of its unlikely stars—two nesting bald eagles and their eaglet children.Click here to view the webcam by the National Wildlife Federation.
The short nesting season has already been rife with drama for the family. Although three chicks hatched, regular viewers noticed one day that a chick was missing and never returned.
Scientists with the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) and the Biodiversity Research Institute in Maine, which run the web cam, suspect foul play.
It is not uncommon for bald eagle chicks to peck their weakest sibling to death in a gruesome display of "survival of the fittest." U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials have not said conclusively what happened, but all signs point to murder. Based on their notes, the likely suspect is the biggest and most aggressive of the eaglets, although there are no plans at this time to press charges.
The folks behind Polanoid are building the biggest Polaroid picture collection to celebrate the magic of (what else) Polaroid! Currently they have more than 27,000 Polaroids uploaded by Polaroid addicts all over the planet. Now who says Polaroid is so passe?
Suppose, a particular criminal offence triggered by a blogger's insuination to violence is distilled into the real world, the government has decided to take control after letting things run its natural course. They decide that all the bloggers are required to register themselves under a Blogger Registration Act. In this act, the blogger is required to register his real name and his background with the Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts (MICA). If you have been blogging under an anonymous identity, will you register under such an act?The Students' Notebook thinks that such an act is a bad idea. From The Students' Notebook:
There are two schools of thought: the first belongs to the group who thinks that they should have the right to be anonymous and say whatever they like and the second who decide that they should reveal their identities to MICA. Both cases are equally justified in deciding whether to register for the bloggers registration act. What follows, is that the government decides to enact the law and force the opposition to register. If the opposition refuses, they will take them by "force" and deny them their rights. I would really love to ask for a vote among all the bloggers in the Singapore blogosphere which side they would be on. It would show their diversity of opinions on the issue.
The negative implications from any invoking of a Blogger Registration Act in the forseeable future far outweights any benefits it brings (if there is any). Furthermore, most bloggers aren't anonymous. The Singapore blogosphere has the ability to be self-regulating, and to upset its ecology by introducing regulation is not only a bad idea to the blogospehere, but harmful to the country as well.
Using this data, the researchers estimated the annual incidence of Fusarium keratitis in Singapore rose to 2.35 cases for every 10,000 contact lens wearers.Previously: Beware of Bausch & Lomb ReNu
Among the patients, 98.5 percent wore soft, disposable contact lenses, and close to 94 percent said they used ReNu brand cleaning solution. This included 42 patients (63.6 percent) who used ReNu with MoistureLoc. Six patients said they used another Bausch & Lomb brand, Renu MultiPlus, while 11 said they used some type of (unspecified) ReNu multipurpose cleaning solution.
Forty-four of the Singapore patients suffered sight-threatening lesions severe enough for them to be hospitalized for an average of 6.5 days. In addition, five patients had to undergo corneal transplantation...
"This may occur under conditions, for example, where the solution is allowed to evaporate, the solution is not regularly replaced in the lens case, or when the case is not cleaned properly. This may lead to the contact lens becoming contaminated with Fusarium and could create an environment for potential infection," Panzarella said .
Bausch & Lomb spokeswoman Meg Graham told HealthDay that no other reasons for the outbreaks have been found.
The Singapore team agreed that poor contact lens care may have played a role in the infections.
Who says you can't drink and drive? Introducing Drive Beer from Italy. Reader cisco says, "You can drink this beer and keep your driving license too." Here are two reviews.The phrase "flying saucer," so familiar to Americans and UFO buffs, is the result of a reporter’s error. After interviewing Arnold about his sighting, a reporter from the Eastern Oregonian newspaper reported that Arnold saw round, aerial objects (in fact he said they were "crescent shaped"). Arnold stated that the objects "flew erratic, like a saucer if you skip it across the water"—not that what he saw resembled an actual saucer. Yet that "saucer" interpretation stuck, prompting many eyewitnesses to repeat (and hoaxers to duplicate) Arnold’s nonexistent description. This strongly shows the role of suggestion in UFO sightings; as skeptic Marty Kottmeyer asks, "Why would extraterrestrials redesign their craft to conform to [the reporter’s] mistake?"
Huang lost his cool as Francesco Totti scored a penalty in the last minute to give 10-man Italy a 1-0 win over Australia.Don't think he will ever be welcomed to Australia anytime soon or host any football match again.
The 38-year-old Huang screamed "Penalty! Penalty! Penalty!" as Italian defender Fabio Grosso tumbled over Lucas Neill's challenge in the Australian box.
"Grosso made it! He made it! Don't give Australia any chance! Great Italian left back. Grosso alone represents the long history and traditions of Italian soccer. He is not fighting alone," he shouted.
"Totti! He is about to take the shot. He shoulders the expectations of the whole world.
"It's a goal! Game over! ... Italy didn't fall to (Guus) Hiddink's team this time (Hiddink had led South Korea to oust Italy in the 2002 World Cup). Happy birthday to Paolo Maldini (born on July 26)! Long Live Italy!"
Huang then turned to the Socceroos: "Go home! But they don't need to fly back as far as to Australia because most of them live in Europe. Bye-bye."
The guys over at My Pet Fat think that the best way for one to lose weight is to own a Pet Fat, an anatomically correct replica of body fat. You are supposed to keep your Pet Fat close to you everyday while it visually motivates and reminds you to stay on any dieting, exercise or wellness program.
Singaporeans in some parts of the island have been receiving free signals from neighbouring countries. Earlier this month, upon the instructions of the World Cup's media rights distributor, Infront Sports & Media AG, Malaysia's RTM 1 channel encrypted its signals such that only Malaysian viewers could watch the channel.And the last time I checked, the RTM signal was back to acceptable viewing standards.
But the SCTV coverage can still be enjoyed by those with an antenna living in the east, central and south-east areas of Singapore.
While StarHub is aware of the "loophole", there is nothing much it can do about it.
"It's not something that can be mandated. There aren't any agency around that controls or regulates such spillover signals. Neither is there any technology available to block these signals. Besides, blocking signals from other countries can be a sensitive issue," said StarHub spokesperson Huang Shu-Yin.
Korean newspaper Joong-Ang Daily reported that 4.2 million Koreans bombarded fifa.com after one particularly disgruntled fan organized a petition suggesting FIFA would have to replay the Switzerland-South Korea match if 5 million people complained.(Thanks Edward)
The newspaper noted that FIFA president Sepp Blatter came from Switzerland.
FIFA's new media department "detected this organized attack coming from Korea and, basically, had to block the messages from Korea to fifa.com to protect the Web site," FIFA spokesman Pekka Odriozola said Sunday. "It was the FIFA site involved -- the World Cup Web site was OK.
Now you can look like your favourite football star when you are out watching the World Cup games with these set of World Cup masks. You can be Peter Crouch, Ronaldino, Wayne Rooney, David Beckham, Thierry Henry, Ruud Van Nistelrooy or even Sven himself.
The illness usually lasts 4 to 7 days, and most persons recover without treatment. However, in some persons the diarrhea may be so severe that the patient needs to be hospitalized. In these patients, the Salmonella infection may spread from the intestines to the blood stream, and then to other body sites and can cause death unless the person is treated promptly with antibiotics. The elderly, infants, and those with impaired immune systems are more likely to have a severe illness.Cadbury said in its website that the products recall in the UK is a precautionary measure and it has identified the source of the problem and rectified it. Here in Singapore, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority has recalled seven Cadbury's chocolate milk product lines. From Channel NewsAsia:
While Cadbury said the recall was "purely a precautionary measure", Singapore's AVA has issued a recall alert for Cadbury chocolates that come from the UK.Click here to view the Cadbury products that are recalled in UK.
The chocolates are Dairy Milk Turkish, Dairy Milk Caramel, Dairy Milk Mint, Dairy Milk 8 chunk, Dairy Milk 1 kilogram, Dairy Milk Button Easter Egg and Freddo bars.
AVA has advised consumers who have these products that are made in the UK, to return them to the outlets they had purchased them from.
$7,500 worth of lift signage has been stolen from 4 blocks in Marsiling Drive.Who the hell steals lift signs? I say this is a case of lift signage fetish.
A Town Council property officer doing a routine check on the blocks on Thursday morning found 50 signs missing from lift lobbies in blocks 3, 4, 11 and 36.
Each sign is worth $150.
Police are treating this as a case of vandalism.
Over at Flickr, you can view the world's first and biggest World Cup 2006 photo pool. Now with more than 10,000 World Cup related pics. Photo left: Korean gal getting ready for her country's match.The panel of top climate scientists told lawmakers that the Earth is running a fever and that “human activities are responsible for much of the recent warming.” Their 155-page report said average global surface temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere rose about 1 degree F during the 20th century...From the press release:
Many scientists tie warming temperatures to rising emissions of certain gases like carbon dioxide. While essential to survival, carbon dioxide has seen a spike as fossil fuels are burned by cars and factories, leading to concerns that it and other gases are exacerbating the greenhouse effect that keeps Earth inhabitable.
There is sufficient evidence from tree rings, boreholes, retreating glaciers, and other "proxies" of past surface temperatures to say with a high level of confidence that the last few decades of the 20th century were warmer than any comparable period in the last 400 years, according to a new report from the National Research Council. Less confidence can be placed in proxy-based reconstructions of surface temperatures for A.D. 900 to 1600, said the committee that wrote the report, although the available proxy evidence does indicate that many locations were warmer during the past 25 years than during any other 25-year period since 900.(Thanks Fred Turner)
Do catch my lovely friend Xyn and her Fireflys performing Heroes of Lala Land at 8pm tonight and tomorrow night at Bornfire 2006, the first ever fire festival in South East Asia. Bornfire 2006 which will be held at the Esplanade from today till Sunday, brings together fire performers, drummers, musicians and dancers together on a stage in celebration of the diversity and ethnicity of our planet. I've been told by Xyn that it will be the hottest show on Earth. Really. So do not miss her performances and the rest of Bornfire 2006.
Although the democracies of Australia and New Zealand made for “more exciting” politics, the national interest could suffer in a multi-party system, said Mr Lee...Try telling that to the increasing number of Singaporeans immigrating to Australia and New Zealand.
“Endless debates are seldom about achieving a better grasp of the issue but to score political points,” said Mr Lee about the political systems in Australia and New Zealand.
He said John Howard, the Australian prime minister, “spends all his time dealing with this party politics. The result is you don’t have a lot of time to worry about the long-term future.”
Dominant party rule was the best system for a small, multiracial country like Singapore, Mr Lee said, as he prepared to leave New Zealand, whose population of 4m is similar in size and ethnic complexity to that of the city-state.
Women whose sex partners used condoms less than 5% of the time had an HPV infection rate of 89 infections per 100 patient-years. That is, if 100 of these women were sexually active for one year, 89 of them would have HPV infections. Women who used condoms every time they had sex had an HPV infection rate of 38 infections per 100 patient-years.
This means the women whose partners consistently used condoms had 70% fewer HPV infections, after controlling for the women's number of new sex partners and the male partners' number of previous sex partners.
1 pound of penis, ram's or bull'sEeewwwwww. Penis stew, anyone?
3 tbls. oil
1 large chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
1 tsp coriander seeds, crushed
1 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper
Scald the penis, then drain and clean (doesn't say how you clean a penis. Not sure a guy would know since this penis is, well . . . never mind).
Place the penis in a saucepan, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil...
It helps to know a few choice phrases to throw at your opponents, and players sometimes brush up on their expletives for a particular game. Lalas once regaled an official in Ecuador with the Spanish translation of "son of a bitch." The resulting phrase turned out to be far more offensive than the English version, and he got a red card on the spot.
In a pinch, a player can resort to sign language. Hands together means "dive"—as in, "I didn't tackle him. He took a dive." A finger pointed at the eye tells the ref to "keep your eyes open." Opposing players might earn the international "choke" sign, or the just-as-easily interpreted "I'm a crying baby, boo hoo hoo."
So far, we have archived 2 buildings of great heritage value - Tong Xian Tng at Devonshire Road and Ying Fo Fui Kun at Telok Ayer Street. As this is a non-profit initiative, our progress has been rather slow due to our involvement of the project only during weekends. We are calling for photographers equipped with 10 megapixel or more digital SLR cameras to participate in this SOCH initiative.(Thanks Shy)
Southeast Asian lawmakers have called for Myanmar to be hauled in front of the UN Security Council, saying its neighbours were "lost" on how to deal with the country's military rulers.Finally ASEAN realises that the only solution to the Myanmar problem is to get the United Nations Security Council to take action. They should have realised this sooner. In an earlier post, I wrote that it is time for the United Nations to act on Myanmar and stop its military rulers from terrorizing thousands of families living in the eastern part of the country with cruel and barbaric acts. I also said in a comment:
In a sign of growing frustration across the region, the bloc's main committee on Myanmar said there had been no sign of change despite calls for democracy and the release of political prisoners like Aung San Suu Kyi.
"We urge the United Nations to take the issue to the Security Council," said the chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Inter-parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC), Malaysia's Zaid Ibrahim.
"There is no democratic progress in Myanmar and ASEAN is lost on what to do," he said Tuesday in a telephone interview from the Indonesian capital Jakarta where some 20 council members gathered to decide on future action plans.
Ok so what are the actions the world can take? Let's start off with the UN condemning the actions of the Burmese military government. The US should take the lead in coming up with a resolution. The world needs to make their displeasure known to Burma and warn them of consequences. ASEAN member countries must also do their part. We can remove them (Burma) from ASEAN. This will put further pressure on them. Trade sanctions should then take place. Foreign investments in the country must stop. The world must also force the Burmese military government to bring democracy back in the country. The UN can also send a few inspectors and a small peacekeeping force to ensure that the Burmese are adhering to the international community. And the most important thing is to allow the NGOs and other aid organisations to provide help to the victims of the atrocities.
Think you can bend it like Beckham? Try the Subbuteo Flick-About Challenge and see if you an score a free kick or two. Good game to play while waiting for the 2nd half of a World Cup match to begin.
To participate in the 20.06 Project on Flickr, just take a pic at 20.06 hrs (8.06pm) at your local time on the 20th June 2006. Try to get your camera's EXIF data to read 20.06 20.06.2006! Then post it to the photo pool on Flickr. Here's my contribution: Blogging away on this historic time/date/year combi.
Singapore's famous Orang Utan has just turned 46 yesterday! Happy Birthday Ah Meng!!! It isn't too late to send your birthday greetings to her.Pro-whaling nations have won their first vote towards the resumption of commercial whaling for 20 years.The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society which has been running an anti whaling campaign against the Japanese government, says that this is a major blow for the conservationg of the world's whales. From their website:
The meeting of the International Whaling Commission backed the declaration by a majority of just one.
Anti-whaling countries say they will challenge the outcome, which Japan has described as "historic"...
Tokyo believes whale numbers have risen sufficiently to allow the hunting of certain species.
However, Japan's Deputy Whaling Commissioner, Joji Morishita, said any future commercial whaling would be on a much smaller scale than in the past.
Not only is whaling incurably inhumane, it has proven impossible to regulate. The IWC’s previous attempts to control commercial whaling under a pro-whaling majority were so disastrous that some populations have still not recovered from the slaughter. Whales need the continued protection of the IWC. If whaling nations remain in the driving seat, the IWC will be pushed rapidly towards a resumption of commercial whaling that will spell disaster for the whales. This is a wake up call for the world to take back the IWC, and wake up to the call of the whales, before it is too late. It also needs to be a wake up call for the people of Denmark that their government is not representing their views in this forum. Denmark’s vote tipped the majority in favour of the whalers.
As a human race, we face a crisis when that which protects us also condemns us. Has media and art, in bringing awareness of various needs to the global village, ironically make us immune to the numerous tragedies we face every day?
In this context, what then is the efficacy of art when confronted with the theme of disability? Does it enable or disable?
The M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2007 throws the spotlight on Art and Disability as the theme is contemporary and urgent. We hope that you will join us in addressing the complex issues of disability and make this festival a site where different views contest and spar dynamically.
Singapore is the only country where Yakult is available in flavors (orange, grape, and apple) other than the original. And here I thought the original flavor was pretty much orange.
The coolest machine in the factory was not the one that fills the bottles and not the one that puts the foil lids on and not the one that plastic wraps them into neat little rows of five. Nope, it was the one that makes the bottles. Sixteen at a time, every couple of seconds, by plastic injection molding. I could have watched that machine for hours.
Gansus yumenensis was a foot-propelled diver like modern loons or grebes and about 25 centimetres long, says Matt Lamanna of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, US. Although Gansus was not a direct ancestor of modern birds, it was the closest to modern birds yet found from the early Cretaceous.
The discovery offers new insight into the origins of modern birds, which remain a puzzle because fossils of their ancestors are scarce. Although many fossil birds are known from 125-million-year-old deposits in China's Liaoning province, the most common belonged to a now-extinct group called enantiornithines.
Russian dude went to North Korea recently and took stunning and never before seen photos of the country. I'm sure glad I do not live in North Korea. People pissing in public, no lights on the streets at night and worst of all, no internet, how to blog?!!!
Here's a collection of images of media and devices used before the era of the motion picture film industry. This picture on the left is a Lampascope from 1880. It is the ancestor of the modern slide projector.
Over in Israel, there's a cool exhibition showcasing 300 clothes pegs from all over the world. Wow! I didn't know there are so many different kinds of pegs. The artists in charge of the exhibition are also looking for more clothes pegs to add to their collection. You can send your pegs to them at the address given in the link.I was only in Burma for a short time, but I quickly found out how uncomfortable it is to be under surveillance - albeit by a somewhat amateur spy.Here's the link to her second article. Future articles can be found here.
On my first day, a man walked into the lobby of my hotel and pretended to read a newspaper near where I was sitting.
He did not turn the page for 20 minutes, but the real giveaway was that the paper - a week-old copy of The Straits Times - was upside-down.
Despite the obvious personal risks of talking to a foreigner, many Burmese people were still willing to put aside their fears and share their lives with me.
Merv Kwok on yet another pointless Japanese invention, the robotic pussy cat named NeCoRo: Apparently the Japanese company that built this cat thinks everyone is an idiot. Look at how the legs, mouth, and tail are all appropriately labelled. Between me and the lot of you, I would have never guessed that those were legs, a tail, and a mouth. My word how stupid I feel! With this diagram, I feel so much smarter!Out of 4000 students surveyed, almost all said they have experienced bullying.The report by Channel NewsAsia also added that Singapore schools do not have anti bullying programmes like those found in other countries. One good example of such programmes is the Anti-Bullying Network in Scotland. It was established in 1999 so that teachers, parents and young people could share ideas about how bullying should be tackled.
Majority were victims of verbal bullying such as teasing and name calling.
But over 2800 cases of physical bullying such as being kicked, hit or pushed were also reported...
The survey also found that in primary schools, 46 percent of instances of bullying took place in the canteens, and 42 percent in the school field.
But in secondary schools, 38 percent of bullying instances took place in the classroom, 35 percent in the canteen and 23 percent in the school toilets.
I almost forgot to mention one the most stupid scenes in the script. For reasons that I won't get into we see an I-Pod, X-Box 360 and Plasma screens sprout legs and transform just a bit. We also don't need "More Than Meets The Eye" comments through out the film from different characters.Previously: Transformers Movie Official Site
Anyone wants a homemade wrist tv? Dude selling it on eBay: Comes with a free roll of "Adjustable Self-Stick Grey Wrist Strapping". (Which some people say looks surprisingly like cheap duct tape, blasphemous infidels!)"Our policies range from $25 monthly for basic coverage to $250 monthly for full coverage -- which includes financial compensation for any space alien damage to your house, car, possessions, family members, pets and of course -- yourself, including mental and emotional trauma you experience due to medical experimentation, internal probes, that sort of thing," explained Moss. "Plus, if your entire neighborhood is destroyed, you receive a generous relocation allowance."Go grab one today. They are coming.
After six years on the diet, the trans-fat-fed monkeys had gained 7.2% of their body weight, compared to just 1.8% in the unsaturated group. CT scans also revealed that the trans-fat monkeys carried 30% more abdominal fat, which is risk factor for diabetes and heart disease.
“We were shocked. Despite all our enormous efforts to make sure they didn’t gain weight, they still did. And most of that weight ended up on their tummies,” says Kavanagh, who presented her findings at the American Diabetes Association meeting in Washington DC, on Monday. “This is walking them straight down the path to diabetes.”
Guns n' Roses were once proclaimed The World's Most Dangerous Band. On tonight's evidence that danger is still there, which – while at one stage threatening to derail the whole show - has instead focused Axl and the band into delivering one of the all-time great Donington performances.Thanks Axl, Robin, Brain, Ron, Tommy, Richard, Dizzy, Chris and Izzy. You guys made my week.
Yes, Metallica were unstoppable on Saturday night, but they didn’t face the pressure of a world waiting to see them put a foot wrong. What Axl delivered in the face of that expectation was a two-and-a-half-hour masterclass in the light and shade of rock'n'roll.
The new album, Chinese Democracy, is reportedly ready for release. If it lives up to tonight, then Guns n' Roses will once again be the biggest band in the world.
Tim Cahill scored twice in the last six minutes and John Aloisi added a third in injury time as Australia made a winning return to the World Cup finals with a 3-1 victory over Japan.I didn't pick Australia to progress beyond the group stage but after this win, who knows. Australia's next game: Brazil! Now, where did I stuff my Australia national flag?
Everton midfielder Cahill came off the bench to score in the 84th and 89th minutes to overhaul a one-goal deficit after Japan had taken the lead following an error by Mark Schwarzer in the first half at Kaiserslautern's Fritz-Walter Stadium.
Come on, how can Singapore have anything to teach India? The two countries are so different. One is a tiny city state, the other a virtual subcontinent in itself with the world's second largest population. There's no doubt about the foresight and acumen of Singapore's leaders. But could anyone exercise the same authority in India? It is too big to be as well-ordered as Singapore.
We Indians speak different languages, each region has its own problems, there is agitation on one issue or another in some part of the country almost every day. That is inevitable in a big, populous nation. There is agitation and unrest even in communist China, and India is a democracy.
Sausage of Haro Singapore! was at D'J Party in the Park to take pics of overdressed pretty girls. D'J Party is a J-Rock & Japanese Character/Anime costume parade held annually in conjunction with the Singapore Street Festival.
It only has one page for now but dang, I'm excited! Here's the teaser poster.
The Cornell University Library has an impressive collection of images of the Fantastic and the supernatural. This one is a pic showing the side and front views of a mutant mummy in sitting position. If you like freaks, monsters, angels and demons, then this collection is definitely a must see.Consumers using GBuy, which is set for release on June 28, will be taken off the merchant's site to complete the payment. This will enable Google to capture e-commerce transaction data, driving more precise targeting in future searches.For those of you who don't understand Chinese, then most likely you won't get it. Say GBuy out loud and fast and it will sound like... C^%$#@i. Well, go ask your Chinese mates.
"If harnessed, the precision of this targeting could be revolutionary," wrote RBC analyst Jordan Rohan in a report Friday.
On its core search results pages, Google will designate each merchant accepting GBuy as a "trusted GBuy merchant."
Researchers said air quality improvements could bring benefits of more than HK$20 billion a year.Oh man, if Hong Kong is that bad, I'm sure Beijing will be far worse.
In addition, 64,000 hospital "bed days" and 6.8 million family doctor visits could be avoided, findings show.
"If it was an infectious disease, there would be a crisis," professor Anthony Hedley from Hong Kong University's School of Public Health said. "This is a medical emergency."
Unlike infectious diseases, the harm caused by pollution is "unobservable" but this is affecting the health and lung growth of young people, Hedley added.
The study says Hong Kong has poor visibility 45 percent of the time.
Thanks to the Yoda Plush Backpack, we can now carry Yoda everywhere we go on our backs just like what Luke Skywalker did in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. I think this makes an excellent gift for any Star Wars fan. It would be better if Yoda can speak though. Maybe for the next version of the Yoda Plush Backpack, they should put a button on his hand that will activate his voice when pressed. So cool, it is!
Remember Guy Goma? The story goes like this. Guy Goma was at the BBC for a job application and the BBC thought he was Guy Kewney, the person whom they wanted to interview for a live show. The clip (watch it here) has become a classic. In the end, Guy Goma did not get the job at the BBC but he became a superstar. He appeared in various talk shows in the UK. There's a website dedicated to him called The Wrong Guy. He even has his own Wikipedia entry. Now, he is auctioning off his lucky blue shirt that he wore during that BBC interview. Proceeds will go to Oxfam he says. There's even a Youtube video of the BBC interview with a remix of the music from a classic children's television programme 'Round The Twist'. And oh, about his failed job application at the BBC, well, thousands have signed an online petition to give him the job. Guy Goma rocks!
Six Degrees of Smoking is a cool project by British artist James R Ford. Anyone who smokes or know someone who smokes can take part in this global collaboration. The project aims to find out what happpens to a lighter when it is being passed around. To participate, email him with your address. He will then mail you a lighter with a special note pasted on it. Photograph yourself lighting a cigarette with the lighter and then pass it to a friend or a stranger.
Manjit Boparai is not only a Brisbane cab driver but he is also a singer. Manjit has been playing and singing his most popular track "Song Australia" to his cab customers. To date, he has sold over 2000 CDs from his cab! He is also frequently featured on local radio and television. Over at his Song Australia website, you can listen to a sample of his latest song, watch his music video and more. Who says you can't be famous driving a taxi?Giraffes have all-male orgies. So do bottlenose dolphins, killer whales, gray whales, and West Indian manatees. Japanese macaques, on the other hand, are ardent lesbians; the females enthusiastically mount each other. Bonobos, one of our closest primate relatives, are similar, except that their lesbian sexual encounters occur every two hours. Male bonobos engage in "penis fencing," which leads, surprisingly enough, to ejaculation. They also give each other genital massages.
As this list of activities suggests, having homosexual sex is the biological equivalent of apple pie: Everybody likes it. At last count, over 450 different vertebrate species could be beheaded in Saudi Arabia. You name it, there's a vertebrate out there that does it. Nevertheless, most biologists continue to regard homosexuality as a sexual outlier. According to evolutionary theory, being gay is little more than a maladaptive behavior.
Click here for instructions on how to make the Millennium Falcon from paper. The dude who made this also has other equally awesome paper vehicles from the Star Wars movies.
Download and print this World Cup 2006 wallchart courtesy of the BBC. You can use it to chart the progress of your favourite nation as they battle it out in the group stages and beyond. Damn, I'm excited. The World Cup is just two days away. England! England! England!12- The Snake(Thanks saul)
Moving on from the Mediterranean "flick," now allow your tongue to flick, lap, poke, and generally imitate that of a snake. This can take place while French kissing, but can also be used all over your lover's body.
13- The Stretch
When French kissing, stretch your tongue up to rub the roof of your lover's mouth. People rarely focus on this area, yet the sensations your tongue can create here can be quite explosive.
14- The Vacuum Kiss
Allow your lips to relax and encircle your partner's lips with your own. Apply a gentle sucking motion that pulls on the much-neglected outer rim of the lips. Release the vacuum seal and then reapply. You're taking control and your lover's lips will yield to yours. You may also apply the vacuum to a single lip -- upper or lower. Also use the vacuum on your lover's tongue during French kissing, which will feel like heaven. If you apply the vacuum more firmly to your partner's body it'll become a love bite.
Beckham is separated from his team mates, which could show he is one of the few English players to play abroad. His concentration could also show how the England captain has realised the tournament, which starts in Germany this week, could be his last World Cup.(Thanks Sir Thomas)
England coach Sven Goran-Eriksson is shown as Mary Magdalene.
The Da Vinci Code film, inspired by Dan Brown's novel, suggests that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a child and the bloodline survives to this day.
And the England coach is seated next to his successor Steve McClaren, who is rudely blowing a raspberry in the Swede's ear.
Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard appears to be having a row with Manchester United defender Gary Neville, possibly about who should be next to succeed Beckham as captain or just renewing traditional Liverpool - Manchester rivalries.
Meanwhile, Wayne Rooney is making a rude gesture to Beckham, possibly a reference to the argument they had at the Northern Ireland game.
Thirteen may be an unlucky number, but the Book of Revelation claims 666 is the number of the beast.Apparently the number 666 has scared the living daylights out of ordinary people and even corporate America and Presidents. From Boston Herald:
And not since the Y2K computer scare of December 31, 1999 has a date received so much attention.
Jesuit priest Richard Leonard from the Australian Catholics Bishops Conference said the furore was so great, there were reports some Australian women did not want to deliver their babies on this date.
“I’m flying to New York Tuesday and I’m a little freaked out,” said a Boston publicist who declined to give her name. “I don’t like the devil’s day; I don’t like it when my change is $6.66. I always make them keep the penny. Or if my purchase is $6.66, I pay $6.70. I don’t like it when my mileage is 666. I speed until it’s 667.”The fear of 666 even has a name of its own - Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia. From Wikipedia:
Even corporate America and the U.S. government are not immune. According to business legend, when Intel introduced the 666 MHz Pentium III in 1999, the company called it Pentium III 667. U.S. Highway 666, “the Highway of the Beast,” was renumbered in 2003 after controversy over the supposed reference to You Know Who.
Presidents also have been accused of being the Antichrist. Ronald Wilson Reagan has six letters in each name and he lived at 666 St. Cloud Dr. in Los Angeles. He later changed it to No. 668.
Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia is a fear found in the Western Christian world, which originates in the belief that the Biblical verse, Revelation 13:18, indicates that the number 666 is linked to Satan or the Anti-Christ. Outside the Christian faith, the phobia has been further popularized as a leitmotif in various horror films.For those who are really afraid of 666, just take this brilliant advice. From Guardian:
Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobics avoid things related to the number 666, such as a building in which the number is prominently displayed. Rarer is trying to avoid the number as it relates to other numbers. For example, the fraction two-thirds has a repeating decimal of .666. (Note that in base 12, two-thirds is 0.8, and 0.666 is the fraction 6/11.) A severe hexakosioihexekontahexaphobic may avoid this as well as 5/3, 8/3, 11/3, etc. People with this phobia consider it bad luck to get 3 sixes in a hand of poker, even though this is usually quite a good hand.
Jack Horkheimer of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium has a piece of advice: ``If it really spooks you, you can stand on your head and it'll be 999.''
If the women from the NoScruf movement have it their way, all women in the world will have hairy armpits like this. Gross!Parents who are strict disciplinarians are far more likely to wind up with children who are fat by age six, perhaps because the youngsters over-eat as a reaction to stress, a study said on Monday.
The report from Boston University School of Medicine also found that the fewest weight problems occur among children whose parents are "authoritative" -- having high expectations for self control but respectful of a child's opinions and who set clear boundaries.
The study also found that children of parents who are permissive, defined as indulgent and without discipline, also have weight problems but not to the degree of the offspring of strict disciplinarians with low levels of sensitivity, the study said.
Researchers also found that children of neglectful mothers and fathers, those who are emotionally uninvolved with no set rules, fared about the same as kids raised by permissive parents.
It was under Genghis Khan's empire that the Eurasian landmass began to demonstrate the characteristics of global exchanges, according to Hao Shiyuan, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).
Thanks to the expansion of the empire, "economic and cultural exchanges became possible to the maximum extent and previously isolated civilizations became linked," said Hao, director of the academy's Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, at an international symposium on the founding of the Mongol Empire held by the CASS in Beijing yesterday.
"This is what globalization features: shrinking space, shrinking time, and disappearing borders," said Hao.
Pop art portraits are quite popular nowadays. Over at Family Portrait Artists, you can learn how to convert your photo into a pop art portrait like this one on the left. You can also check out other pop art portraits on Flickr.
Anonoblog(Thanks hammamike)
A blog maintained by an anonymous author, often under a pseudonym or pen name. Synonyms include anonyblog, faux blog and ghostblog.
Atom
Atom is a machine-readable XML-based web syndication format which allows users to subscribe to blogs and other web content subject to frequent change. This XML file may be called an Atom feed, webfeed, Atom stream or Atom channel.
Autocasting
Automated form of podcasting that allows bloggers and blog readers to generate audio versions of text-only blogs from RSS feeds.
Audioblog
A blog where the blogger posts recordings of voice, music or other audio content, often with textual annotation to identify the content for indexing.
This has got to be the cutest remote control I have ever seen - the Teddy Bear Remote Control. Now you can control your PC or iPod with a remote that is also very huggable.
Dear Tech Support:(Thanks Lord Kimbo)
Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed that the new program began making unexpected changes to the accounting modules, limiting access to flower and jewelry applications that had operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.
In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.9 but installed undesirable programs such as NFL 5.0 and NBA 3.0. Conversation 8.0 no longer runs and House Cleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system. I've tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail...
The Astronomical Toilet Paper made in Japan takes the popularization of astronomy to a new level - in the toilet! That's right. Now, you can learn more about astronomy before you wipe your ass clean. There are two versions of the Astronomical Toilet Paper. One with pics and info on the life of a star and the other is about the constellations. The makers even posted the printing plate of the Astronomical Toilet Paper in pdf format on their website so that everyone can print their own Astronomical Toilet Paper.
Dr Matsumi Suzuki, who generally uses his skills to help with criminal investigations, measured the face and hands of Leonardo da Vinci's famous 16th century portrait to estimate her height at 168 cm and create a model of her skull.The voices of both Leornardo Da Vinci and Mona Lisa in Italian can be heard at this website by MSN Japan. Oh, I need to add that only Internet Explorer users can listen to the voices. Bloody hell MSN!
"Once we have that, we can create a voice very similar to that of the person concerned," Suzuki told Reuters in an interview at his Tokyo office last week. "We have recreated the voices of a lot of famous people that were very close to the real thing and have been used in film dubbing."
The chart of any individual's voice, known as a voice print, is unique to that person and Suzuki says he believes he has achieved 90 percent accuracy in recreating the quality of the enigmatic woman's speaking tone.
A flying ghost at Changi Hospital, a playful tree spirit at Bedok Reservoir and the ghost of a girl who died at the famous Yellow Tower at...
