All heavy metal fans and especially Iron Maiden fans, will love this one! This site has a picture gallery of every Iron Maiden album and singles. I'm not a fan of Iron Maiden (I grew up with Guns N Roses!) but oh boy, I love the artwork for their albums.
There are over 350 process steps required to make a microchip, one of the most important tools that is shaping our modern society. Applied Materials, a semiconductor maker, has an informative flash video showing the basics of how to make a microchip.
Here's another reason why the Japanese are the most creative and innovative (and craziest) inventors: The Japanese Wank Machine. I'm not buying it but I'm sure there are some who would, especially those who are tired of doing it with your own hands. Link not safe for work.Half of Internet users in Singapore rate blogs to be as trustworthy as traditional media such as print, radio and television, according to a survey. Microsoft Asia-Pacific reported Tuesday that Internet users in several Asian countries found blogs to be a "relatively trusted source of information".The same survey also reveals that almost half of those online in Asia have a blog, and 40 percent of these bloggers are blogging for more than three hours a week. From iTWire:
The caveat - it was an online survey, among Internet users about blogs.
But the trust level in more established blogospheres such as Singapore and Korea is slightly higher...
Across Asia, around half of the respondents trust blogs as much as they did the traditional media, too. Microsoft's Southeast Asia sales director Richard Huggins described the finding as "very encouraging" and a symptom of a more mature blogosphere.
Perhaps not surprisingly blogging is primarily a pastime of the young: only nine percent of those surveyed were over 34 and 56 percent were under 25. However, perhaps surprisingly, blogging is not predominantly a male pastime: overall 55 percent of respondent bloggers were female, but in India blogging is overwhelmingly a male domain.This is interesting news. Half of internet users in Singapore trust blogs as much as traditional media. It could be just a small survey (only 1000 respondents in Singapore) but I'm positive that more and more people who use the internet will look to blogs as a reliable source of news and information. Expect this percentage to increase pretty rapidly.
According to Microsoft's MSN and Windows Live Online Services Business, which conducted the survey. "The research showed that blogging is a social phenomenon with Asians primarily blogging as a means to maintain and build their social connections and to express themselves. [However] blogging as a corporate or business tool still appears to be nascent in most markets, with little interest from consumers in blogs from business or political leaders.
"The exceptions are online powerhouse Korea where blogging has permeated all aspects of life and India where a culture of self-improvement is seeing business related blogs become very popular."
“It’s a 3-D/CG Smurfs”, said Kerner. “You just can’t make those guys live – it’d be a little weird, but a 3D Shrek world of them - that’s fantastic....”Interesting. John Lithgow as the voice of Gargamel. I like that. What's more interesting is who will voice the other popular characters like Papa Smurf and the lovely Smurfette? Hmmmmm...
The “Smurfs” trilogy will be “the animated Lord of the Rings – through the world of these idiots. Because they’re sweet characters but they’re goofs. It’s a comic version, but still very heartfelt, version of Lord of the Rings – though not literally Lord of the Rings, but an epic story like that.”
The fan favourite to voice the character of Gargamel seems to be John Lithgow. “Very interesting”, smiles Kerner. “I love John Lithgow”.
Gargamel’s back-story is going to be fully examined in the film trilogy. We’ll learn “[more] about Gargamel and Smurf Soup and how all that began and what really goes on in that castle. What his backstory really was. There’s an all-powerful wizard… there’s all sorts of things that get revealed as we go along”.
We're trying something a little different this year. Instead of reviewing millions of searches in the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary to find our most frequently looked-up words, we're asking you to submit your choice for the one single word that sums up 2006. Which one of the hundreds of words you've encountered this year do you think best represents the year now quickly drawing to a close? Maybe it's one you've seen again and again in the headlines of newspapers and magazines, or one that seems to be a particular favorite in the blogosphere, or maybe it's a word you've heard bandied about ad nauseam by various TV and radio pundits. No matter where you've seen or heard it, every word is eligible to take the top honors for 2006.Another dictionary, the New Oxford American Dictionary has found its word of the year (well, two words): Carbon Neutral. From PR Newswire:
What do Al Gore, Rupert Murdoch, and the Rolling Stones have in common? They are all advocates of being "carbon neutral," the New Oxford American Dictionary's Word of the Year for 2006. Being carbon neutral involves calculating your total climate-damaging carbon emissions (your "carbon footprint"), reducing them where possible, and then balancing your remaining emissions, often by purchasing a carbon offset: paying to plant new trees or investing in "green" technologies such as solar and wind power.
The rise of carbon neutral reflects the growing importance of the green movement in the United States. It's more than a trend, it's a movement, which is why the editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary have declared carbon neutral the word of the year for 2006. It will be added to the next update of the dictionary, due in early 2007.
"We are not all doomed. An awful lot of people will die, but I don't see the species dying out," he told a news conference. "A hot earth couldn't support much over 500 million."The same scientist also says that Britain is the place to be when that happens . From Times:
"Almost all of the systems that have been looked at are in positive feedback ... and soon those effects will be larger than any of the effects of carbon dioxide emissions from industry and so on around the world," he added...
"In the change from the last Ice Age to now we lost land equivalent to the continent of Africa beneath the sea," he said. "We are facing things just as bad or worse than that during this century."
"There are refuges, plenty of them. 55 million years ago ... life moved up to the Arctic, stayed there during the course of it and then moved back again as things improved. I fear that this is what we may have to do," he added.
Equatorial regions will become so hot that they can no longer sustain agriculture and will turn into deserts. Much of Europe will dry out so extensively that millions of people will be forced to make a new life closer to the Arctic.
The British Isles, small and surrounded by water, will remain cool enough to sustain a modern, technologically advanced nation, despite being 8C (14F) hotter on average. “The British Isles may be a very desirable bit of real estate because we are surrounded by the sea,” he said. “The summer of 2003 will be typical of conditions by 2100.”
Displaced millions will settle in Britain and Ireland and will have to be accommodated in skyscrapers that will make cities resemble the Hong Kong of today — which by 2100 will be uninhabitable, he said.
For US$80, you can get master illustrator Rob Sacchetto to make a Zombie Portrait of yourself. Just send him your headshot photo and within 2 weeks, you will receive your own Zombie Portrait, a 8x10 hand illustration, great for freaking out yourself or your loved ones.
Read The Little Prince online in English, German and French, all three languages side-by-side. The Little Prince is one of my favourite books. It tells the story of a prince who lives on a small asteroid. Then one day, he decides to leave his asteroid to see the rest of the universe. The book has been translated into many languages and it has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide.
Streamick.com allows you to watch live news coverage, sport channels, movies, video clips, film trailers, documentaries, business channels, local televisions and much more. I've tried it out briefly awhile ago, flipping through the Cartoon Network, BBC, ABC, AXN and ESPN Star channels. My verdict: Damn it! I think I'm going to be addicted to the site.
Movie spaceships are legion, but which is the most awesome in the universe? We ranked the 10 best, completely subjectively. Some rules: We only drew from the movies (TV spaceships like the Battlestar Galactica -- which is killer -- and the Draconian Marauder from Buck Rogers don't count), and we only included legitimate spacecraft. Flying cars and unmanned rockets don't count. Turns out there are almost too many awesome spaceships to count, so we offer apologies in advance to the Borg cube, the Imperial Star Destroyer, the X-Wing Fighter, various other Star Trek and Star Wars tertiary ships, many many other cool movie cruisers, and umpteen flying saucers that just didn't make the cut.And the number one on the list is Millennium Falcon from Star Wars!
Now you can have your own Monopoly board game with your name printed on it! And that's not all. With My Monopoly, you can also name all the spaces on the board, choose the utilities and personalise the rules and title deed cards. All customised My Monopoly sets are printed at Hasbro's Monopoly factory.
Dude has been keeping sketchbooks since the year 2000. These aren't ordinary sketches. In fact, I think they are a work of art! Here are the links to his sets: Sketchbook Fall 2000, Sketchbook Summer 2001, Sketchbook Spring 2002, Sketchbook Winter 2002, Sketchbook Summer 2003, Sketchbook Winter 2004 and Sketchbook Summer 2005. It's hard not to be impressed when you browse through his sketchbooks aye.
Some of the best album covers battle it out in this brilliantly done video. Watch it on YouTube. I love the part when it shows the Michael Jackson Thriller album cover. Boys' Life! LOL.There has been no reports of children in Singapore being hospitalised for swallowing Polly Pocket toy magnets but toymaker Mattel is not taking any chances.Here's more information on the product recall.
It is pulling off the popular girls' dolls from the shelves as part of a worldwide exercise to recall 4.4 million playsets.
In Singapore, the items affected are the Polly Pocket Quik Clik Boutique (Lot number G8605) and accessory assortment (Lot number G8606) playsets.
Those with defective sets can call Mattel at 6471 7113 for a replacement.
So, you're now in that limbo period between the parade and Thanksgiving dinner where there isn't really much to do (well, except watch football. Blech!). So, you need something to occupy your time before you dig into that turkey with all of the trimmings. Boy, do I have that something for you!So here's a warm welcome to readers and friends from TV Squad and Happy Thanksgiving!
Our friend iZ Reloaded (not his real name, I'm pretty sure) has compiled an extensive list of 1980's cartoon introductions that you can find on YouTube. There are seventy-five listed and they run the gamut, from Saturday morning fare like Pac-Man, Smurfs, and Dungeons and Dragons to syndicated classics like G.I. Joe, Transformers, He-Man and My Little Pony. Also included are intros to cartoons that I barely remember or never even saw, such as Potato Head Kids, Starcom and The Raccoons.
Would you drink from this glass? I know I would because I think it is so darn cool. It's designed by Agata Bogacka, an artist from Poland.
"The best thing about flying in a small airplane is the view. The worst thing is the noise. What I want is to be able to enjoy the view without having to put up with the noise," says Dan Nachbar. So he decided to build the Personal Blimp, a hot air balloon that uses virtually silent electric motors for propulsion. You can view the pictures here.
Cat.................. (=^. .^=)...... =^.^=The squid looks cute!
Dog.................. U・ェ・U
Doraemon......... ((＝＾♀＾＝））
Miffy................ (・ｘ・)
Squid................くコ:彡
Fish...................<*)) >=<
Charlie Cornwallis at the University of Oxford, UK, demonstrated that looks matter to male chickens by running a series of tests in which he presented each of them with pairs of hens.I wonder if this applies to the rest of the animal kingdom too or even humans. Girls with large hairdos... hmmm.... Nah, I'll pass.
In the first part of the experiment, he and his colleagues covered the eye-catching red crests, known as “combs”, on the females’ heads with small hoods. This made it impossible for the male birds to size up the hens’ combs. As a result, in this part of the study, the males apparently picked their mate at random.
Next, the researchers removed the hoods from the hens and repeated the tests. The team found that 80% of the time males went after the hen with a larger comb.
The hens also wore a harness that held a plastic sack in place to collect the sperm males favoured them with. An analysis of collected samples revealed that large-combed hens received 50% more sperm from dominant males than their counterparts with relatively small combs.
The No-Contact Jacket is something that ladies can wear to prevent guys from getting too close to them. When activated, the jacket sends out 80,000 volts of low amperage electric current pulses just below the surface shell of the entire jacket. This is enough to cause disorientation, loss of balance and pain to whoever that attacks the wearer.
Reader Giselle Loh insisted that I try out this quiz earlier today: What Tarot Card are You? I did and guess what! I'm the Devil. What the hell?!
If normal alarm clocks can't get you out of the bed early in the morning then maybe you'll need the flying alarm clock. Why? Because when the flying alarm clock goes off, it will take off and fly around the room, making a really annoying noise like a mosquito. Perfect for me!
I love these Lego figurines that are made to look like famous bands and musicians. You can find U2 (pictured here), Bob Dylan, Nirvana, Keane, Weazer and Beatles to name a few.
Rockstar Supernova's self titled debut album is out today... November 21! I have to applaud them for making all the tracks available for listening online. You can listen to them on MSN Sympatico or on the Rockstar Supernova website (click on the little player at the top left hand corner). I'm a fan of guitarist Gilby Clarke ever since his Guns N Roses days and I've been a supporter of singer Lukas Rossi when he was on the Rockstar Supernova TV show. It's really great to finally hear this album and I have to say, I'm impressed. It really blew me away. Lukas voice is amazing. My favourite tracks include Headspin, Can't Bring Myself To Light This Fuse and It's On. I'm going to grab it today!
Up for sale is my beloved laptop, which I unfortunately must sell as I’m in need of some desperate cash. The reason for this is that I am approaching my 21st birthday and last year I made a resolution, which was to get laid before my 21st but that didn’t work out. Therefore, I must sell my laptop so I can get enough cash to barricade an escort in my room for tense and sweaty love making experience that’s been over 2 decades over-due.His auction ends in 10 hours time. Not bad. He has already received 15 bids. Hope he gets enough for that escort and gets laid before his 21st! Best of luck dude.
Dude has an almost complete collection of How and Why Wonder Books published in the 60s. These books covered many subjects in science, technology, nature and history. You can view covers of the books here. I love reading such books when I was a kid. Too bad I've thrown away my own small collection many years ago.
If you thought the Da Vinci Code is blasphemous, then wait till you read this. There's a small group of people who claim that Jesus did not die on the cross but he lived till his early 100s in Shingo, Japan and some say, in Kashmir, India. They even have his tomb to prove it. Crikey!Indians are the happiest overall and Japanese the most miserable.It's a pity they did not do the survey in Singapore. It would be interesting to see if young people here are unhappy with their lives too.
According to an MTV Networks International (MTVNI) global survey that covered more than 5,400 young people in 14 countries, only 43 percent of the world's 16- to 34-year-olds say they are happy with their lives.
MTVNI said this figure was dragged down by young people in the developed world, including those in Britain and the United States where fewer than 30 percent of young people said they were happy with the way things were.
Only eight percent in Japan said they were happy.
Reasons for unhappiness across the developed world included a lack of optimism, concern over jobs and pressure to succeed.
I love the idea of the ShoeParking stickers. Just stick them on the floor near the entrance of your house to give your shoes a place to park. Also check out the SpongeCoasters, BinFrame and PlugLight, all the works of Felix de Pass Design.
Dude took a photo of his baby, then decided to photoshop him into various famous characters. I like the Shrek one the best.Earth's encounter with the comet dust is going to be brief—"possibly no more than a few hours long," says Cooke. Forecasters differ on when the outburst will occur. Estimates range from 0445 UT to 0630 UT on Nov. 19th (11:45 p.m. on Nov. 18th to 1:30 am EST on Nov. 19th). The timing favors western Europe, Africa, Brazil and eastern parts of North America.Although the timing of the peak is not favourable for those in Singapore and the surrounding region (its daylight morning for us on Nov 19), from my experience, it is still possible that we may get to see a good shower if we start observing just after midnight tonight. I think we may see more Leonids as we approach sunrise. So here's to clear skies tonight.
Cooke urges observers to find the darkest possible skies. "These Leonids are going to be faint." Why? "The stream contains very small grains of comet dust. Small grains make faint meteors--it's as simple as that."
The mid-November region of Earth's orbit is littered with debris from Comet Tempel-Tuttle. Every time the comet visits the inner solar system (once every 33 years), it lays down a new stream of dust, pebbles and rock. This creates a sort of "minefield" for Earth to navigate every November.
I'm feeling very nostalgic again today so I decided to browse through YouTube for some of my favourite cartoons of the 80s. I then compiled a list of the cartoons' intro (opening credits) clips. You can watch them below. See if you can recall any of them.
Animator vs Animation Part 2: the battle between the animator and his animation (stick figure) rages on! It's in Flash and it's better than the first one.
Did this cat breed with a dog? I hope not. It's hard for me to imagine a dog mating with a cat or the cat's offsprings barking! It's just so wrong. Btw, what do you call the offspring of a cat who mate with a dog? I think Kippies (Kittens + Puppies) sounds good aye.Flat-panel TVs. They are a magnet for extended warranty sales, says Arnum, of Warranty Week. "Whenever you have product that has cutting-edge newness to it, there's a perception of fragility," he says. "There's something spooky to it, and consumers say, 'I've got to insure this.' That's the solution to the uncertainty."(Thanks Shy)
Flat-panel TVs are so new that their long-term repair record isn't known. But our latest reliability survey shows that those bought in the past two years have been quite reliable--just as reliable as conventional, direct-view TVs. Even if your LCD or plasma set does need to be repaired, it will probably cost you less than you're likely to pay for an extended warranty. Of the small percentage of survey respondents whose LCD TV needed a repair, only 8 percent reported it costing more than $500, the cost at which an extended warranty might make sense. For plasma owners whose set needed a repair, only 14 percent paid more than $500.
Computers. Most desktop PCs come with a year of tech support. An extended warranty typically costs about the same as the average PC repair. Instead of buying a warranty that you're unlikely to use, you'd be better off paying to fix your computer if it breaks. As noted above, because Apple computers offer only 90 days of tech support (a $49 call otherwise), you might consider an extended warranty if you buy one.
Laptops. Laptops have among the higher repair rates of the products we track. Forty-three percent of three- to four-year-old laptops have needed to be fixed, our subscribers indicate; typical repairs cost between $100 and $400. But many of these problems occurred outside the coverage period of a typical computer extended warranty. Also be aware that extended warranties usually don't cover problems if you drop the laptop or spill something on it. If you're worried about that, you should get accident-damage protection. Typically, though, you must buy an extended warranty first.
Digital cameras. Our survey of subscribers has shown that fewer than 10 percent of those who bought a digital camera in the past three years have had to get it repaired or had a serious problem. So the odds that you're going to need an extended warranty are pretty low.
The Challenge was simple: Lose my virginity. More specifically, my Star Wars virginity. This was something I had held for so long that I had developed a sort of pride about it. It made me unique in this vast world of passionate and eccentric fans. Was now the time? Would I even be ready?
Late last week I was challenged by EW.com to watch Cinamax's complete Star Wars Marathon — George Lucas' complete saga in the order in which he originally intended (Episodes I-VI). I would have to watch 14 straight hours of Star Wars all night Friday into early Saturday. With my social calendar predictably empty, I decided now would be the time to give up what so many people already have over the last 30 years. However, with my roommate not being up for the challenge, I would be being doing it alone.
Any ladies fancy a chastity belt? Lucio Valentini, a craftsman in the central Italian town of Gubbi, makes chastity belts to be used by film makers, museums, and individuals. You can view some pictures here.
Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) has become the first brand to be visible from space. This photo was taken by an orbiting satellite showing KFC's brand new logo in which Colonel Sanders can be seen wearing an apron.The team found the blood of those who were having a regular nibble of chocolate typically took an average of 130 seconds to clot when placed in a special hair-thin tube.
By contrast those who stayed away from chocolate had blood that clotted within 123 seconds.
In a second test, they analysed the participants' urine for chemical by-products of platelet activity.
It emerged levels were 60 per cent higher in the group that abstained from chocolate, Dr Becker told the American Heart Association's annual conference in Chicago.
She said the group of 'chocolate offenders' had revealed how chemicals in cocoa beans have a similar effect to aspirin, by helping reduce the risk of blood clotting.
She said she would not advise people to eat lots of chocolate, since it can often contain high levels of sugar, butter and cream.
But the equivalent of two tablespoons a day of dark chocolate may be just what the doctor ordered.
'Eating a little bit of chocolate or having a drink of hot cocoa as part of a regular diet is probably good for personal health, so long as people don't eat too much of it and too much of the kind with lots of butter and sugar,' she advised.
1. Wear anything. Wear a Budweiser bathing suit, discarded underwear cut into a halter top, or sheer gowns without panties. To be glamourous, you have to risk looking hideous. Others will think you’re gorgeous if they see you in something they could never imagine wearing themselves. Conviction assures success.From How to be a Boy (for Girls):
2. Don’t tuck. If someone snears at your lumpy hootchie, clarify your intentions with any one of the following reasons: The most obvious, a good package is never an embarrassment. You are doing the world far greater good in dismantling the gender binary than embracing it. No man should have to spend a night unable to pee, or fuck, at will. You are part of an ever-growing movement of transgressive queens proud of their dicks, from Jane to Vaginal Cream Davis, Keith Cole, Heklina, and the ever-popular me.
3. If you really must wear tits, use any number of roundish objects. Old nylons filled with rice. NERF balls cut in half (football or softball, depending on your preference for shape). With the right colour combination, they are particularly hot as exposed cleavage. My current favourite is trail mix. It’s great to have a snack on hand when you’re hungry. To avoid confusion, be sure to eat equal amounts from each breast. Important note: plastic baggies against your skin will make you sweat.
1. Never allow lack of knowledge, experience, insight, directions or a map stop you from approaching a task with confidence and vigour. Scars and purple thumbnails are a status symbol. When attempting to operate, maintain or repair anything mechanical, always remember the words of my grandmother: “One must always keep in mind that the vast majority of machines are still designed, built, driven and fixed by men. Therefore, they cannot be that complicated.” Men are not born with superior technical abilities, they are just taught from a very early age to pretend they understand things they don’t. Girls are taught to watch carefully and ask questions, or better yet, to get someone else to do it for them. Abolish this behaviour from your repertoire. Build something from a plan in your head. Take your blender apart and put it back together. Buy yourself a cordless drill. Learn the names of the parts of an internal combustion engine, and use them in casual conversation. It’s easier than they want you to think.(Thanks Gaylord)
2. Eat like you mean it. Repeat in public.
3. Carry a pocket knife, a lighter and a handkerchief on your person at all times. Pull them out whenever you see someone who needs a light, something to cry in, or something to cut their apple up with. Learn flashy lighter tricks, and practice them while waiting for the bus.
The emergency began after a magnitude-8.1 earthquake struck in the Kuril Islands some 110 miles northeast of Hokkaido. The area where the earthquake occurred has seen temblors over a magnitude of 8.0 occurring in 1994 and 2003...Countries like Russia, Alaska, Hawaii were given Tsunami warnings while Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia and several Pacific islands were on Tsunami watch. Hawaii did encounter small tsunami with waves of several meters high, 6 hours after the earthquake struck. From MSN:
Still, Japan is perhaps the best-prepared country in the world for these events. It boasts an extensive system of more than 300 round-the-clock earthquake sensors distributed in the waters surrounding the island nation that relay real-time information to six regional centers. The system has a reputation for being able to predict within five minutes of a quake's occurrence whether a tsunami will strike.
The JMA issued the alert some 14 minutes after the temblor, much slower than is typical for the many minor tsunami warnings that periodically occur in the country. Still, that was enough time for most of the small towns along the bleak Sea of Okhotsk coast to usher people to safety.
The town of Sarufutsu, for example, was able to get its entire population of 2,904 people to higher ground within one hour.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre cancelled a tsunami watch initially issued for Hawaii when it became clear the waves would not be large enough to inflict serious damage.
But local civil defence authorities still warned people to stay out of the water and to exercise caution near harbours given the possibility the earthquake would generate unusual currents around Hawaii.
A woman swimming at Waikiki suffered cuts when she was sucked through an opening in a seawall as the water receded just before the swells arrived.
On Kauai, a swell of almost one metre flooded a parking lot at Nawiliwili Harbour.
yH says...I'm saying NO too. I think it is unnecessary to increase the GST especially with all the rising costs in Singapore. If the government is really sincere in helping the lower income group, it should make more of the reserves available for financing the enhanced social safety nets and any offset package. And how about the ministers taking a pay cut then? That's sincerity! You can read more about this on Tomorow.sg.
imho, an increase in tax on undesirable goods such as liquor/cigarettes will be a better way to reduce the income gap. and the increase in tax revenue can go about helping the lower income group. that's should be the way.
Weiqiang says...
I don't think it should be increased. since the pay structure of sgreans has not been increased for quite some times and that now increasing GST or taxes would rather increase the burden of the poor. The reason given just ain't sufficient as the govt have funds from other sources like COE,Taxes etc rather than GST I do hope the govt would be able to clarify with detailed plans and reasons for using GST increment than other sources rather than just saying " we will be able to help the poor."
Rizal says...
As a Singaporean, I hope the government has taken into consideration of the effects of the GST hike on poor, middle-lower class like my family. By increasing GST means our provision food and groceries get more expensive. How can this hike possibly help us? Please put yourself in our shoes. We do not earn as much as you do. We know a mere 2% percent increase does not affect you much but it does to us. Have a heart on all of us. Thank you.
Pazu says...
How is a regressive tax like GST going to help the poor? How is it that SG with its famously huge reserve needs to resort to such measures to 'help the poor'? Japan with its comprehensive pension/welfare structure still has 5% GST. MPs need to revise their own pay and reform gov sector to cut cost and give back more to the citizens. We are tired of this 'candy giving and raping us twice as much back' attitude...
Lim Eu Jin says...
I hope the govt will not go ahead with the GST hike because the reasoning behind it is not sound: the poor is hurt more than the rich by the hike, a hike is permanent, offsets and subsidies are one-off. The country has more than enough reserves for the "rainy day" that may or may never come. Why choose the definite present-day suffering to stave off an indefinite future-suffering that may never come?
Charlene Zhang says...
An Increase in GST? LoL you must be joking. Is the Service I'm getting any better? My Glass is still half filled.. even at a black tie event at the raffles hotel. The Cold Storage Auntie is Still giving me attitude when I'm asking her for "300g of breakfast ham please?" "HAR?". The Taxi Uncle on my way home still grumbles when I give him a $50 note although I've apologised profusely.. I'll pay for Service when I see it...
We all know Google the search engine but not many know about The Google Book. It is written in 1913 by V.C Vickers and it is about a monster named Google, his far away land and the amazing birds that try to avoid him. "The sun is setting – Can't you hear.. A something in the distance. Howl!! I wonder if it's – Yes!! it is.. That horrid Google. On the prowl!!!" He is horrible looking alright.
It's hard not to like these vintage fruit and vegetable crate labels. They are so cute! Wooden crates were used before the 1960s by farmers and distributors to ship their goods to the market. Colourful labels were glued on the ends of wooden crates to identify the contents, place or origin, and the packer's name. Now we only have boring cardboard boxes. Bah!
Bond fans will love this! Watch all the James Bond movie trailers here - from the very first James Bond film, Dr No to the latest, Casino Royale. Interesting to see how the trailers evolved over the years.
Locals believed that it foretold the end of the world, though the official explanation was that it was desert dust that had blown over from Arabia.
But one scientist in the area, Dr Godfrey Louis, was convinced there was something much more unusual going on.
Not only did Dr Louis discover that there were tiny biological cells present, but because they did not appear to contain DNA, the essential component of all life on Earth, he reasoned they must be alien lifeforms.
"This staggering claim is that this is possibly extraterrestrial. That is a big claim I know, but all the experiments are supporting this claim," said Dr Louis...
Last summer, Horizon had exclusive access to a trip taken by Professor Wickramasinghe to India to investigate at first hand the red rain phenomenon.
He met Dr Louis and together they visited the people who had witnessed the red rain.
He was able to see the recent work of Dr Louis which shows that the red rain can replicate at 300C, an essential attribute of a space micro-organism that might have to endure extreme temperatures.
All this has convinced Professor Wickramasinghe that the red rain is a form of alien life.
"I think religion has always tried to turn hatred towards gay people," he said. "Religion promotes the hatred and spite against gays.
"But there are so many people I know who are gay and love their religion."
According to the singer-songwriter, 59, his solution would be to "ban religion completely, even though there are some wonderful things about it".
He added: "I love the idea of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the beautiful stories about it, which I loved in Sunday school and I collected all the little stickers and put them in my book.
"But the reality is that organised religion doesn't seem to work. It turns people into hateful lemmings and it's not really compassionate."
There are a lot of beautiful little cards that artists make to trade with other artists in the Artist Trading Cards Flickr pool. So many to admire like this one, "Destiny".
I love this bed linen from Miss Geschick & Lady Lapsus: "There are no arguments whatsoever between Andi and Candy. In their overly harmonious relationship simply everything is shared between them. So remember: There is no room for aggression as long as one is properly equipped." Rifle not included (I think)."They don't know how to mate so we need to show the male how, through videos," Prasertsak told Reuters.I hope they are not showing human porn flicks to the pandas. I'm sure they do not want the pandas to pick up the '69' and other love making positions from humans.
He said Chuang Chuang, the six-year-old male, would be shown the videos on a large screen when he might be feeling amorous.
"We'll play the video at the most comfortable and intimate time for him, perhaps after dinner," Prasertsak said, hoping Chuang Chuang would then use the techniques on Lin Hui, a five-year-old female.
Love My Seat is a website for insider information on airline seats. It has reviewed more than 50,000 seats on 300 aircrafts from 80 U.S and international airlines including Singapore Airlines, British Airways and Japan airlines . The interactive, color-coded airplane seat maps come with ratings & detailed seat reviews. Great for finding the best seats in the plane.A Singapore teenager has been charged with tapping into someone else's wireless Internet connection, a crime that carries a penalty of up to three years in jail, a newspaper reported Saturday.The word "piggybacking" means when someone finds an open network and logs into it without permission. I think many people including myself would be serial offenders if piggybacking is a crime! The question some of you may ask, is it REALLY a crime? Is it stealing?
Garyl Tan Jia Luo, 17, is the first person to be charged with this crime under the Computer Misuse Act, the Straits Times reported.
The report said Tan is accused of using a laptop computer to gain unauthorized access to a home wireless network on May 13.
The newspaper said a neighbor had apparently lodged a complaint against Luo.
According to techweb.com an Illinois man was fined for piggybacking on a Wi-Fi System after being warned repeatedly by the owner of the system. David M. Kauchak, 32, pleaded guilty in Winnebago County to remotely accessing someone else's computer system without permission, the Rockford Register Star newspaper reported. A Winnebago County judge fined Kauchak $250 and sentenced him to one year of court supervision. Kauchak has the dubious distinction of being the first person to face the charge in Winnebago County, and prosecutors say they're taking the crime seriously. "We just want to get the word out that it is a crime. We are prosecuting it, and people need to take precautions," Assistant State's Attorney Tom Wartowski told the newspaper. A police officer arrested Kauchak in January after spotting him sitting in a parked car with a computer. A chat with the suspect led to the arrest, Wartowski said.So now we know that we can get caught by the police if we piggyback. But three years jail for piggybacking? This is absurd. I don't think we need any more legislation regarding this matter. And the punishment doesn't fit the crime committed.
In Toronto, Canada, a man was arrested with a WiFi-enabled laptop in his car - and his pants down. He was tapping into unprotected wireless networks. Ultimately, however, he was charged not for that, but for the child pornography he was in the process of downloading.
Now with this guide to laundry care symbols, there's no more excuse if you destroy your favourite shirt when you do the laundry or the ironing. I was tempted to see if this guide really works so I took off the Ajax football jersey I'm wearing to check out its laundry care label. Thanks to the guide, now I know what the symbols mean: 'Do not bleach', 'Iron, steam or dry with low heat', 'Do not dry clean'. Awesome!
To understand how Cresta and Yorra broke the record, let's take a closer look at the game. (For the full play-by-play, click here.) Yorra opened with JOUSTED, a "bingo"—Scrabble lingo for using all seven tiles, which earns you an extra 50 points—worth 96 points. Cresta then traded in all seven of his tiles in the hope of getting more-playable letters, not an unusual move. Yorra bingoed again, very nicely, with LADYLIKE for 73 points and a 169-0 lead. The first L in LADYLIKE landed between two triple-word-score squares, giving Cresta a shot at Scrabble's holy grail—a "triple-triple," covering two triple-word scores with one word. That's worth nine times the value of the word, plus the 50-point bonus for using all seven letters.I think I should go learn more F words.
Triple-triples are rare in Scrabble—I've played no more than a dozen in a thousand or more games—because they require a confluence of mathematically improbable events. Cresta's play, FLATFISH, for 239 points, was especially unusual because it contains infrequently occurring letters (two F's and an H) and isn't a common word. Many good players would have missed it. Cresta didn't because he had studied words beginning with F.
This blog has given me more reasons to love babes with boobs... oops, i mean BOOKS. Brainy beauties - you just got to love em aye! Now you know why I hang out at Borders and libraries. LOL.
1. Specify that your drive-thru order is "to go."(Thanks GeekGod)
2. If you have a glass eye, tap on it occasionally with your pen while talking to others.
3. Start each meal by conspicuously licking all your food, and announce that this is so no one will "swipe your grub."
4. Name your dog "Dog."
5. Insist on keeping your car windshield wipers running in all weather conditions "to keep them tuned up."
6. Reply to everything someone says with "that's what you think."
7. Claim that you must always wear a bicycle helmet as part of your "astronaut training."
8. Follow a few paces behind someone, spraying everything they touch with a can of Lysol.
9. Make beeping noises when a large person backs up.
10. Do not add any inflection to the end of your sentences, producing awkward silences with the impression that you'll be saying more any moment.
Sony has made available clips showing memorable scenes from some of its famous movies and TV shows on the video sharing website Grouper. The ScreenBites channel already has clips from films like Jerry Maguire, Spiderman and Men In Black. Sony is also encouraging everyone to share these clips on their websites and blogs. One can also purchase the movie or TV show on DVD or digital download after viewing the clip. Looks like Sony has finally found a way to make some money out of Grouper, a site that it acquired in August.
Last night we crossed over 16,777,216 comments in the database. The wise amongst you might note that this number is 2^24, or in MySQLese an unsigned mediumint. Unfortunately, like 5 years ago we changed our primary keys in the comment table to unsigned int (32 bits, or 4.1 billion) but neglected to change the index that handles parents. We're awesome! Fixing is a simple ALTER TABLE statement... but on a table that is 16 million rows long, our system will take 3+ hours to do it, during which time there can be no posting. So today, we're disabling threading and will enable it again later tonight. Sorry for the inconvenience. We shall flog ourselves appropriately.
Oh boy, I really have to get my hands on this- the Jun Ji Hyun Official Book 2006 Volume 1. It was released in Korea on October 17th to celebrate the Korean actress' birthday on October 30th. The book contains messages for fans, official interviews and articles, personal handwriting and pages of unseen pictures of Jun.
They may look like traditional sushi but they sure don't taste like one. Each of these Suedy's Koo-Ki Sushi is made of chocolate! Take for example the Apricot Row (Ikura - Salmon Roe). It is actually a crispy rice cookie under rows of apricot flavored "gummi eggs" then wrapped in dark chocolate. Looks like the real thing aye. Amazing! Great for anyone who loves both sushi and chocolate.
Noodle dishes are very popular in Singapore. The famous Singapore noodles is a dish that has Chinese, Malay and Indian culinary influences. This video on VideoJug.com shows you how to make one. Easy aye. Yummy.
Dude wanted to take portraits of people that would reveal a hidden part of their character. So he had them play video games! View his work here.
Many festivities took place in Taiji today. The fishermen’s fleet of decorated dolphin drive boats were lined up in the harbor. The whaling boat, too, was part of the celebration, decorated with bamboo greenery and flags. It was an obscene sight: Boats of death and destruction decorated with cheerful colors. It’s like an episode of The X Files.Japanese fishermen kill the largest number of dolphins anywhere in the world. And in Taiji, the dolphin massacres went largely unnoticed. In the 2003-2004 hunting season alone, 1165 dolphins dolphins were killed. How on earth can such disgusting acts still be practiced today? The Japanese government must act immediately to stop these massacres!
Local dolphin hunters took turns having their picture taken in front of the harpoon. More than two hundred people had showed up to take part in all the singing, dancing and drumming. Dolphin meat that had been cooking in a large pot over a fire for two days was served.
All the usual dolphin hunters and the local fishermen were there. They seemed to be very upset that we had attended their party with our ever-present cameras.
We need to be here with our cameras during the entire dolphin killing season. We are having an effect on their operation by bearing witness to and documenting everything that takes place in Taiji.
Only if we expose the slaughter to the world will the Japanese Fisheries Agency be pressured into shutting it down.
Even Angelina Jolie needs her daily fix of online refreshments and she knows where to get it. Good on ya, Mrs Pitt. Picture generated using the Famous People Image Maker.
