Sunday, January 21, 2007
Birthday Parties
How does a kid celebrates his/her birthday that is being organised by their parents?
For the rich adults, they could hire superstars to entertain their guests as the main artist for the night. The star's presence may not even be there for more than 2 hours.
1) George Michael performed before a few hundred of guests of Vladimir Potanin, owner of Interros Holding Company with interest in mining and lumber, for 75 minutes only and he got paid for US$3 million.
2) Christina Aguilera, Robin Williams and Bette Midler performed at Joe Hardy's birthday party at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort at approximately US$1 million each.
3) Robin Williams together with the Rolling Stones and John Mellencamp performed at David Bonderman, co-founder of Texas Pacific Group, at a price of US$10 million.
4) A group that comprise 50 Cent, Aerosmith, Don Henley, Tom Petty, Stevie Nicks and Ciara was at David H. Brooks' (of DHB Industries) daugther's birthday part at New York's Rainbow Room for a staggering price of US$10 million too. Guess what? The daugther was only 13 years old. (source: Post Gazette)
For little children, cost is not spared too by the rich and famous:-
a) A 90 minute party held at the Dylan's Candy Bar in New York will cost US$1,200 for only 20 pre-schoolers.
b) FAO Schwarz's toy store will organise a sleepover party at their store at a starting price of US$25,000.
c) A 1 year old’s party in a Minnesota community has 60 guests. The gift opening takes two hours; the party infant sleeps through most of it.
d) A 3 year old’s parents in the same community rent a fire station for party #1 and a private club with a pool for party #2.
e) 7 year olds in rural Minnesota get picked up by stretch limos to transport them to a friend’s party. (source: Birthdays Without Pressure)
How much did you spend last year for your own birthday party or your kids' parties?
Tags: Birthday Party, Rock Star, George Michael, Christina Aguilera, Robin Williams, Bette Midler, Rolling Stones, John Mellencamp, 50 Cent, Aerosmith, Don Henley, Tom Petty, Stevie Nicks, Ciara, Vladimir Potanin, Interros Holding Company, Joe Hardy, Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, David Bonderman, Texas Pacific Group, David H. Brooks, DHB Industries, Rainbow Room, Dylan's Candy Bar, FAO Schwarz, Post Gazette, Birthdays Without Pressure
"Storm Worm" Virus
Originally propagated on the heels of a killer European storm, the worm has been seen in the wild with the following subject lines: "230 dead as storm batters Europe," "A killer at 11, he's free at 21 and...", "British Muslims Genocide," "Naked teens attack home director," and "U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has kicked German Chancellor Angela Merkel".
When one of four attachments is opened -- Full Clip.exe, Full Story.exe, Read More.exe, or Video.exe -- the worm installs the "wincom32" service, and injects a payload, passing on packets to destinations encoded within the worm itself. (source: PC Magazine and Symantec)
FYI, I did receive the email entitled "U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has kicked German Chancellor Angela Merkel" yesterday night. Be careful even though the email is from your close friend. Why did I labelled this under Technology.....well, it's indeed a technology created by someone and most of the time, people do say that it's created by anti-virus software companies to generate buyers for latest software programmes to counter the new virus which the software companies have came out with a new virus 'cleanser'.
Tags: Storm Virus, Computer Virus, PC Magazine, Symantec, Anti-Virus Software
Back To Civilisation
While putting our bags into the pick-up truck (yeah, no 4WD for us today as it was arranged last minute), the driver tried toput our bags as closed or on top of other luggages. My M'sian colleague heard that the driver wanted to bring 1 lamb back to Khartoum. Goodness me!
I'm not going to let that happen. Anyway, the driver was shocked to see 3 guys having so many stuff to be brought back. Sorry, no space for your lamb (in my mind only). Left the project site at 11.30am. The local Sudanese driver stopped for a moment at a nearby town along the way to have his breakfast. Sudanese people have their breakfast around 11am, their lunch around 3-4pm and dinner at 9pm. We stuck to our usual time of course. We had our breakfast earlier.
On our way, our car has to stop on the road to allow the cows, donkeys, lambs and a camel to cross the road. No pictures as my camera was behind in my luggage, what a waste! And, I almost didn't have the chance to write this blog tonight if not for our driver's fast reaction. When we were travelling at the speed of 100km/h, a stupid no sense kind of a local driver on the opposite lane, who saw us coming, made a u-turn when we were about 50metres away.
Our driver braked excessively, I braked too. My hands were grabbing anything, my colleagues behind too.
40m ....... 30m ........ 20m ........ 10m ........ ?????? (our legs were also braking on the tar road like the Flinstones cartoon). I'm not joking. I really meant it.
Thank God! The side road was not steep and the driver has to drive off the road. The car went straight down to the real small bushes and onto the desert, about 50m off. If this happened few kilometres earlier, the side road would have been steeper and our driver would have to choose, overturn at the side or crash head-on.
Our driver went down to scold the driver who just smiled and they spoke in arabic. 3 of us were just telling each other how close it was and if it did hit, we believed our pick-up truck would have spun off the road too. As I have told you previously in my earlier posting, the local drivers have a bad attitude towards driving. Lots of accidents caused were due to this following thinking "that car will stop". And we were very sure that was in that guy's mind when he did that u-turn even though he saw us coming real fast.
After that, I was awake throughout. We arrived at our house cum office in Khartoum about 5pm. Long journey. Went out for our dinner around 8pm and relaxing in front of the tv which is showing Negotiator now.
Tags: Car Accident, Desert, Khartoum, Pick-Up Truck, Civilisation, Negotiator
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Statement By Bloggers United
BLOGGERS UNITED CONDEMN ACTION AGAINST ROCKY & JEFF
& DEMAND LEVEL PLAYING FIELD in ALL ACTION AGAINST BLOGGERS
We, Malaysian bloggers, who believe in justice and right to free speech, we, who endorse the Bloggers United movement, unanimously condemn the action taken by media conglomerate NST against bloggers Rocky Bru and Jeff Ooi. The action by the newspaper against the duo is an action against all bloggers who believe in their right to free speech, freedom of expression and justice.
The recent event may seem like a grave development in the path of bloggers, but it can never and must never impede or stop us from defending our right to speak, to express, to write and to tell the truth, to be the watchdog, eyes and ears of the people, or simply to share our view, and give fair comment on any subject which involves and affects us as humans, as rightful citizens of this country.
The recent event may very well give the government owned media the opportunity to dictate the so-called 'truth" but such actions only prove that bloggers must unite, continue to uphold the right to free speech and freedom of expression, fight for justice, even if it is not our own, be more alert, committed to the cause of free speech, relentless and persistence in the face of such persecution like the one which had befallen on the two of us.
What YOU do to any of US, is what YOU do to ALL.
As responsible bloggers, we demand and claim our space on the blogosphere for free and fair comment, where important national issues and prominent personalities are discussed.
Although it may seem as if the NSTP defamation suits will have a chilling effect on freedom of bloggers, as litigation can be expensive and may jeorpadise a blogger's economic position, we will not be cowed or silenced by those who have no regard for free speech.
If you find our post offensive, you may refute us with correct facts and figures and fair comment, in the spirit of free speech.
The first two cases will have grave impact not only on the internet, but country as a whole as the country celebrates VMY2007. The healthy, mature and democratic growth for free speech and expression in our midst is at stake. The reputation of the nation as it strives to promote our multimedia supercorridor and love for IT will be a national joke for all the world to feast on.
We demand for a level playing field in all action meted out to bloggers and in particular in the defamation proceedings particularly in terms of financial resources and capabilities, and secondly, that the legal rights of bloggers et al are properly protected in keeping with the imperatives of an information society and knowledge economy which Malaysia aspires to become.
For further information, please contact blogger susan loone at susanloone@gmail.com and sheih at kickdefella@yahoo.com
Tags: Bloggers United, Malaysian Bloggers, Freedom of Speech, Defamation, Jeff Ooi, Screenshots, Ahirudin Attan, RockyBru, NST
The Teacher Movie
Tags: Movie, Teacher, Inspiration, Uplifting, Motivation, Hope, Impact
Friday, January 19, 2007
LG Prada Phone
LG Electronics has launched their latest LG Prada phone and will be available in the market for around 600 euros.
Tags: LG, LG Electronics, Prada, Fashion, Mobile Phone, Telecommunication
Pattaya International Fireworks Festival
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