Most Polluted Places

The Top 5 of the most polluted places on planet earth:-

• Dzerzhinsk in Russia, a Cold War chemical weapons site.
• Linfen, heart of China's coal industry.
• Kabwe in Zambia, site for mining and smelting of metals including lead.
• Haina in the Dominican Republic, where battery recycling and smelting have left huge concentrations of lead in residents.
• Ranipet in India, where more than three million people are affected by tannery waste.

Source (click city's name for other sources too): A New York-based environmental charity, Blacksmith Institute, has documented what it calls the 5 most polluted places on the planet. It is dedicated to monitor pollution related environmental projects in developing countries.

Tags: Environment, Pollution, Blacksmith Institute, Most Polluted, Dzerzhinsk, Russia, Linfen, China, Kabwe, Zambia, Haina, Dominica Republic, Ranipet, India

Top-notch Swimming Pool - Australia

One of the world's most technologically advanced pools was officially opened yesterday at the renowned Australia Institute of Sport, in a bid to strengthen the country's chances at the 2008 Olympics. It cost US$12.75m to build the AIS Recovery and Swimming Centre in Canberra.

The centre features a 10-lane, 50m pool with in-built performance analysis and monitoring systems for the training, testing and development of Australia's elite swimmers and teams.

Analysis and monitoring systems packed into the pool walls and blocks, touch pads, magnetic timing gates and 24 fixed cameras will allow coaches and sports scientists to analyse all aspects of the AIS swimmer's performance in training.
The centre will also feature state-of-the art hydrotherapy and recovery facilities – three spa baths, a plunge pool, a cold water walk-through and a river for active recovery and stretching.
Tags: Sports, Technology, Australia, Swimming, Canberra, Australia Institute of Sports, AIS Recovery and Swimming Centre, Sports Scientist

Deepavali or Diwali celebration

Today, worldwide, Deepavali or Diwali is a celebration by people embracing the Hindu religion where my country, Malaysia, is having it too. Also known as the Festival of Lights.

There is a video (humorous one!) produced by Petronas just for the Deepavali celebration.

Would like to wish all who celebrate this festival, Happy Diwali.
Tags: Festival, Deepavali, Diwali, Festival of Lights, Hindu, Religion, Celebration

Sexy Education at University of Toronto

An undergraduate program at Canada's University of Toronto offers discussions on flogging, restraint and role-play. But teachers and students insist it's a serious academic program that isn't simply about sex. The Sexual Diversity Studies program, one of the largest of its kind in North America.

The program promises an academic approach to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and heterosexual issues -- from history and law to the performance of sadomasochism. There are plans for Canada's first undergraduate major in sexual diversity studies, and for master's and doctorate programs from 2008.

The program includes a drama course called "Sexual Performance: Case Studies in S/M (sadomasochism)" and the arts and literature course "Queerly Canadian," for which one student wrote an in-depth review of a male strip show.

But it also focuses on traditional academic discussion -- from Plato to same-sex marriage, with courses like "Theories of Sexuality" and "Sexual Diversity Politics." Canadian provinces were the first jurisdictions in North America to legalise gay marriage -- and Toronto, with one of the largest gay and lesbian communities in the world, is a perfect backdrop for such a program, the university commented.

Very open-minded society indeed!!!

Tags: Sexy, Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, Sexual Diversity Studies, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Heterosexual, Sexual Performance, Sadomasochism

The Ant Bully - movie review

Yeah, The Ant Bully, it'an animated cartoon but it's fun to have a change at times. Notwithstanding, the amount of free time I have now. Office is officially closed for 1 week due to the muslim Eid celebration (after a month of Ramadan where all muslims fast from dawn to dusk) which should fall on 23 Oct, Monday. But I'm stucked in Khartoum with 2 other colleagues with nowhere to go. So a cartoon film is just nice.

The Ant Bully - voices of Julia Roberts, Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep & Paul Giamatti (a strong cast of famous actors/actresses here). A story of a 10 year old boy named Lucas. Just moved to a new neighbourhood and was often bullied by the young locals. Lucas tend to take out his frustration on the ants living in his lawn. One night, an ant wizard managed to pour a magic potion into Lucas' ear and he became the size of an ant. With that size, the army ants brought him before the Ant Council to be tried and the queen ant sentenced him to become an ant and a female ant took up the responsibility to teach Lucas. Until Lucas becomes an ant, he can't get the potion to make him human again.

So, he has to earn his stripes. One day, a pest controller came to wipe out pests in Lucas' lawn. A joint-operation of a few species of insects combined to defeat the pest controller. The ants went airborne to strike him. The scene looked like those war films attacking its land based enemies. Something different for a cartoon. Lucas led the field to victory and was given the potion.
Tags: Movie, Cinema, Review, Ant Bully, Julia Roberts, Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep

Austrian removes 'sexist' urinals

An Austrian businessman in Vienna said that he would get rid of urinals shaped like a woman's mouth from a public toilet near Vienna's national opera, after facing pressure from politicians who demanded their removal especially from the Vienna Department of Women's Affairs & Green Party's women's affairs. (source: FoxNews)

Maybe they can re-renovate the toilet as per earlier blog here.

River Nile Cruise

On Wednesday evening, my Khartoum office organised a dinner (breaking fast for the muslims & known as iftar in arabic) in view of the Ramadan month. Invited quite a number of guests. The dinner was to be held on a boat that will cruise the Nile river.
Managed to capture the sunlight beaming through the cloud. This is the boat that we are supposed to board. 2 boats were tied together to create more space. Initially, the 2 boats didn't move in tandem while leaving the so-called jetty. The river we are on is the Blue Nile river. It will join up with the White Nile further downstream that will flow all the through Egypt up in the north into the Mediterranean Sea.
Supposedly to be blue but it's like Brown Nile to me.
I'm the one in black t-shirt on the left. We were there earlier so we took our place under the open spaced section of the boat. For better ventilation purpose.
Not that we are restricting people on our part of the boat. Somehow, the locals do gather amongst themselves first. This picture was taken before the full attendance. And I mean really full.
One of the local delicacy is "foul" pronounced more as fool. No!, you won't become a fool after gulping it down your throat. Not much of taste but the locals do like it. Only took a tiny weeny portion of it.
A local group of singers was employed to render out arabic songs. They were seated together with my colleagues but we didn't know the were the singers until they stood up there. Communication breakdown ...... you see, we no speaking arabic.
A picture taken at night, on up & coming high class hotel. A hotel reputedly to be owned by the Libya's President's son. Still under construction.
Tags: Journal, Life, Diary, Khartoum, Nile River, Cruise, Dinner, Blue Nile, White Nile