Desert Race in Jordan

A horse rider from the Middle East competes in a 120 km (75 miles) International Endurance Race in the desert of Wadi Rum in southern Jordan on 14 November 2006.
Tags: Sports, Race, Middle East, Wadi Rum, Jordan

World Carrom Championships

Beginning today till 22 Nov 2006, World Cup Carrom Championships will be held in New Delhi, India.

16 member countries would be fielding four men and four women players for the event. He also said that the doubles would be a knockout affair while singles will be on league-cum-knockout basis. To play carrom, you need to know The Laws of Carrom.
Tags: Sports, Carrom, New Delhi, India

Catholic School Maths

A ten year old boy was failing math. His parents tried everything from tutors to hypnosis, but to no avail. Finally, at the insistence of a family friend, they decided to enroll their son in a private Catholic school. After the first day, the boy's parents were surprised when he walked in after school with a stern, focused and very determined expression on his face, and went right past them straight to his room, where he quietly closed the door. For nearly two hours he toiled away in his room - with math books strewn about his desk and the surrounding floor. He emerged long enough to eat, and after quickly cleaning his plate, went straight back to his room, closed the door, and worked feverishly at his studies until bedtime. This pattern continued ceaselessly until it was time for the first quarter report card.

The boy walked in with his report card - unopened - laid it on the dinner table and went straight to his room. Cautiously, his mother opened it, and to her amazement, she saw a bright red "A" under the subject of MATH. Overjoyed, she and her husband rushed into their son's room, thrilled at his remarkable progress. "Was it the nuns that did it?", the father asked. The boy only shook his head and said, "No." "Was it the one-on-one tutoring? The peer-mentoring?" "No." "The textbooks? The teachers? The curriculum?" "Nope," said the son. "On that first day, when I walked in the front door and saw that guy they nailed to the 'plus sign,' I just knew they meant business!"
Tags: Jokes, Humour, Funny, Catholic, Maths

Freedom of the City of London

Jimmy Choo has been granted the title of ‘Freedom of the City of London’. Malaysia's first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj received a Honorary award in 1968, followed by Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah of Selangor (a Malaysian sultanate royalty) in 2003 who received the same title as Jimmy Choo.

Honorary Freemen include Florence Nightingale, Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela. Prominent figures that have been awarded the title ‘Freedom of the City of London’ include British Prime Minister’s wife, Cherie Blair (due to receive the title on 27 Nov) and opera singer Luciano Pavarotti.

The ancient custom of ‘privileged’ and ‘free status’ can be traced back to 1237 and the perks include the right to herd sheep over London Bridge, to go about the city with a sword and to be drunk and disorderly without fear of arrest. In contemporary society, the award tends to be ceremonial, given to those who have served the city in some exceptional capacity, or upon any whom the city wishes to bestow an honour.

Steeped in tradition, the Freedom ceremony took place in the Chamberlain’s Court at the historic Corporation of London’s Guildhall. Jimmy Choo is scheduled to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Malaysian International Fashion Awards at the end of the month.
If you think you are qualified for this Award, click here for the procedure wise.
Tags: Jimmy Choo, Fashion, London, London's Guildhall

The In-Laws - movie review

The In-Laws - Michael Douglas, Albert Brooks & Candice Bergen. This is indeed one of those better movies but was surprised that I missed this movie. It started when 2 future father-in-laws for their son/daugther came involved in a government investigation. The FBI were hot on their tails. Michael was an undercover CIA agent and Albert was your ordinary medical doctor majoring in foot/ankle (podiatrist). As Albert somehow bumped into Michael's secret stuff, Michael got no choice but to force Albert to go along with his plans. They "took" a jet to France to meet an international arm smuggler on the day of their children's wedding party.

Albert tried to expose Michael to the US authorities. FBI agents were given a run around going after 2 of them. Towards the end, Albert realised that Michael was truly macho in his fight against arm smugglers on his own. This is a hilarious movie which is not to be missed at all. I was sleepy watching an earlier show on TV until this came on. Even though it was a 2003 show but the storyline was not out of date at all.

Tags: Movie, In-Laws, Michael Douglas

Malaysia glocal

Glocal means... you get into a global space to play local games. According to Bernama, the Parliament was told that the two Malaysian pioneer astronauts will spin top (gasing) and toss "batu seremban' (five-stone game) as part of an experiment during his space travel.

The astronauts will also paint a batik motif and make 'teh tarik' ('pulled' tea) which would be shared with fellow astronauts from other country.

Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry parliamentary secretary Rohani Abdul Karim. Rohani, who was representing the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry at the parliament, said the outcome of the experiments -- gasing, batu seremban, batik, teh tarik et al -- would be studied on earth "with the hope that it would unravel the mysteries in science, education and medicine".

Thanks to Najib Razak, as it was revealed that the Malaysian Astronaut programme was not borne by the Treasury, but derived by offsetting the purchase of Sukhoi jet fighters from Russia by the Defence Ministry. Would anyone mind passing this blog entry to Michael Backman of The Age, Australia? (source: Screenshots)

The best part of this blog in Screenshots was the comments made. Some of them, I do really pass it off as jokes of the year.
Tags: Screenshots, Bernama, Astronaut, Space, Science, Technology

11 Rules from Bill Gates

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically- correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it.

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3. You will not make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping - they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parent's fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they now are. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites your parent's generation created, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This does not bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Tags: Bill Gates, Life