Tuesday, December 29, 2009

3D Globe Drawing
























































New Grand Theft Auto for E3 2010?

New Grand Theft Auto for E3 2010?
Grand Theft Auto Movie Trailer #2 (2010) [HD]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vbs4tgiGpqA&feature=player_embedd

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Wash Bin


Tuesday, December 15, 2009

I don't mind people immigrating to USA

AREN'T YOU GLAD OUR CONGRESS IS SO FREE WITH OUR FREEDOM AND TAX REVENUE AND ARE SOOOOOOOO SMART

I DON'T MIND PEOPLE IMMIGRATING TO THE U S , I JUST WANT THEM TO HAVE TO DO IT LEGALLY.


Let me see if I understand all this...
IF YOU CROSS THE NORTH KOREAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET 12 YEARS HARD LABOR......
IF YOU CROSS THE IRANIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU ARE DETAINED INDEFINITELY....
IF YOU CROSS THE CHINESE BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU DISAPPEAR FOREVER…….

BUT, IF YOU CROSS THE U.S. BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET A DRIVERS LICENSE, SOCIAL SECURITY CARD, WELFARE, FOOD STAMPS, AND FREE HEALTH CARE?

I guess I still don’t understand....

Monday, December 14, 2009

FSC brushes off concerns of excessive TDR price hikes

FSC brushes off concerns of excessive TDR price hikes
STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, Dec 09, 2009

The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) dismissed market speculation yesterday of exaggerated price hikes in the recent issuances of Taiwan Depository Receipts (TDRs) by six non-Taiwan-based companies.

“The price discrepancy between the TDRs and their original shares [listed in bourses outside Taiwan] was a result of the discrepancy of supply and demand in each market and different valuation to their future price-to-earning ratio,” commission Vice Chairman Wu Tang-chieh (吳當傑) told a media briefing.FSC statistics showed that, as of the end of last month, these TDRs have averaged a 75 percent increase in their prices, which is lower than the averaged price hike of 93 percent experienced by domestic companies during the first few sessions of their initial public offerings.

The commission, however, will consult with Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp and the Taiwan Securities Association (券商公會) to develop measures to ease the potential price hike of TDRs by moderating their supply, Wu said.Before Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holding Corp (康師傅控股) began its TDR sales yesterday, investors had lodged complains about its price hike, a 19 percent premium on its shares traded in Hong Kong. Wu also shrugged off market concerns that the issuance of TDRs would squeeze domestic companies’ fund-raising plans or lead to an exodus of capital.“No statistics support such concerns,” he said.The commission’s statistics showed that, as of Monday, six firms operated by Taiwanese businesspeople abroad, including Want Want China Holdings Ltd (中國旺旺控股), Ju Teng International Holdings Ltd (巨騰) and New Focus Auto Tech Holdings Ltd (新焦點汽車), had raised a total of NT$10.7 billion (US$331.7 million) through TDR issuances, 63.6 percent of which stayed in Taiwan to fund their local investments.

In the first 10 months of this year, 118 domestic publicly traded companies have raised NT$218 billion, data showed, or a 23.9 percent growth over the previous year.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Beauty Is In The Eye Of The

According to the dating website BeautifulPeople.com, which only lets "beautiful people" join, the British are just about the ugliest people in the world.

You see, when someone applies to become a member, they post a recent photo and fill out a personal profile. Then existing members of the opposite sex vote on whether to accept them or not. Swedish men are at the top with 65% of them being accepted, while 76% of Norwegian women are allowed to join.

Nearly 1.8 million people from 190 countries have been rejected, including seven out of eight British men and four out of five British women. Only Russian and Polish men have done worse. Apparently Photoshop doesn't have a strong market penetration in Britain, Russia and Poland.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Signboards!!
















Microsoft Spam Emails (watch out)

There will always be spam emails everyday, and some of them are pure stupid. Most spam emails I’ve received so far is all about lottery, jackpot and similar stuff saying that I’ve won this and that. I have received a similar spam email today with the subject “Microsoft Promotion Award Team” – see below.



REF NO: M154S/WL06.
MICRO (LOTTERY) CHIP NO: 9465206
MICROSOFT PROMOTION AWARD TEAM
The prestigious Microsoft and MSN have set out and successfully
organised a Sweepstakes marking the beginning of the year anniversary, The Management rolled out over 100,000.000.00 (One Hundred Million Great Britain Pounds) Begining of the year lucky email selected draws. Participants for the draws were randomly selected and drawn from a wide range of web hosts which will be given the opportunity to benefit from year our patronage.Your email address as indicated was drawn and attached to ticket number 008795727498 Chip Number: 8977742 and drew the in cash credited to file MSW/9080118308/02/LA.u have therefore won the entire winning sum of £1,000,000.00 (One Million Great Britain Pounds). The draws registered as Draw number one was conducted in Brockley, London United Kingdom on the 30th of January 2007. These Draws are commemorative and as such special.Please be informed by this winning notification,to file your claims,you are to make contact with your designated agent who shall by duty guide you through theprocess to facilitate the release of your prize.To file for your claim,
Please Contact your fiduciary agent quickly via:
Microsoft Promotion Award Team
Contact Person: Barrister Teddy Williams
E-mail:williamsesq_chambers@yahoo.co.uk
Tell.: +44-704-570-2035
Tell.: +44-701-1121-410
Tell: +44-701-1129-206
Fax.:+448704783718
Mrs. Edlyn Albert
Secretary
Microsoft Mega Jackpot Lottery


Most people will know that it’s fake, but what’s makes me laugh out loud is that their so-called “Secretary” is using Yahoo! mail. A Microsoft staff using Yahoo mail? Guess those spammers aren’t having enough wisdom, this makes their spam/scam fails badly.
Note: According to my research, this is a SCAM. If you reply to the email they sent to you, they will request for your bank information. For your safety, NEVER give out any of your information to the so-called “Agent” to avoid any loses. Just bear in mind, Microsoft staff will never use Yahoo mail, and there is no free lunch in this world.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Giving Saudi women a public presence


Giving Saudi women a public presence
FARAH FAROUQUE
December 5, 2009

''DON'T stereotype me,'' says Hana Bubshait, who has the rare honour of being a Saudi Arabian woman who occupies the public space.

Yesterday this quietly spoken woman, who under Saudi law had to get her father's permission to travel alone, went to the podium at the Parliament of World Religions at the Melbourne Convention Centre and appealed to her audience to better understand her struggles.

She is not an activist in the traditional sense, but she is part of a movement in Saudi Arabia that is restless for change. It is not change as her Western audience would understand it, however.

Saudi women's quest for better legal rights, Ms Bubshait says in her frank way, comes down to taking ''baby steps''.

''Right now, I am able to work and am able to get whatever education I want. But I can't buy a house with my money unless I take a father, a brother or a husband with me to court. The court won't acknowledge me as a person alone.''

Ms Bubshait is troubled by the unfairness of it all but says this has nothing to do with her Islamic faith. ''This is not religious, this is cultural.''

Indeed, she says the Saudi dilemma is in part that many of her female compatriots don't espouse parity with men. ''Some women were raised this traditional way, and this is what they believe is right. This is what the mentality has been for 100, 200 years.''

One of the issues - for overseas media, at least - has been Saudi women not being allowed to drive a vehicle. But Ms Bubshait, who works as a policy analyst for the Aramcopetroleum company, notes that when a rumour went around that the women would be encouraged to drive, there was a societal backlash.

''Women themselves were saying, 'We don't want to drive, stop talking about it'.''

But there are bigger issues than driving that face Saudi women, Ms Bubshait says. She is certain there will be change, but only at its own tempo. ''It's going to change; it just takes patience and consistent work.''

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Dubai World rejected sale of top assets months before appealing for debt deferment

Dubai World rejected sale of top assets months before appealing for debt deferment

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Dubai World "totally rejected" the possibility of selling off some of its top performing assets in the months before the heavily indebted conglomerate turned to creditors with a plea to defer payments on some of the $60 billion it owes, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The company, whose holdings range from ports to real estate, shocked world markets on Wednesday with an announcement that it would seek, until at least May, a deferment on its debts and those of its real estate arm, Nakheel PJSC. That subsidiary has a $3.5 billion bond coming due next month.

The announcement was the clearest indication yet that the conglomerate, which has been a primary engine behind Dubai's meteoric growth over the past decade, was in way over its head in terms of debts. The company's obligations alone account for the overwhelming majority of the at least $80 billion Dubai owes to creditors.
Dubai World "totally rejected the idea of selling some of its good investment and real estate assets at low prices," a company official was quoted as saying by Al-Itihad newspaper on Sunday.

The official said that any asset sale needed to be in a "commercially fair manner in order to achieve (Dubai World's) long-term strategic objectives, away from ... economic pressures."

The statement in the newspaper adds little in the way of explanation as to how company officials, and indeed Dubai's ruling family, planned to tackle a debt crisis that could destroy the reputation of Dubai Inc., as the city-state's government-affiliated businesses are known.

Dubai officials have headed down to neighboring Abu Dhabi, ostensibly to discuss the debt issues, and expectations are that the United Arab Emirates' central bank will issue some sort of statement on Monday.

The company had said last week that it was seeking the delay as it continued its restructuring -- a plan under which it has already laid off 15 percent of its work force in a bid to streamline costs.

The opaque wording of the company's announcement for a payment extension was amplified by its timing -- coming on the eve of a three-day Islamic holiday in which markets in the region would be closed and officials largely unavailable.
The news was a blow to the reputation of Dubai, once seen as the Gulf Arab region's answer to Las Vegas, Wall Street and Los Angeles rolled in one.

With little oil, the emirate -- one of seven semiautonomous city-states making up the UAE -- focused its growth efforts on finance, tourism and real estate. It bankrolled that dream, which included indoor ski-slopes, man-made islands and the world's tallest tower, on cheap credit and borrowed time.

A sale of the company's assets is one possibility being floated by analysts to cover the debts. But the more likely scenario being discussed is that Abu Dhabi will engineer another bailout -- even partial -- in a bid to minimize damage to the country's bank and the economy.

Several UAE banks are on review by international credit agencies for their exposure to Dubai World's debts.

The announcement came in tandem with another from Dubai's government that two banks majority owned by neighboring Abu Dhabi -- the oil-rich home to the United Arab Emirates' federal government -- had fully subscribed a $5 billion bond issuance.

That issuance was part of a broader $20 billion bond program launched earlier this year to help Dubai meet its mounting debts. The UAE's central bank had already bought $10 billion in bonds, but officials were quick to say that the latest issuance was not linked to Dubai World's problems.

Japan Rice Fields

How amazing are these?

Stunning crop art has sprung up across rice fields in Japan .

But this is no alien creation - the designs have been cleverly planted.

Farmers creating the huge displays use no ink or dye. Instead,

different colours of rice plants have been precisely and strategically arranged and grown in the paddy fields.

As summer progresses and the plants shoot up, the detailed artwork begins to emerge.



A Sengoku warrior on horseback has been created from hundreds of thousands of rice plants,

the colours created by using different varieties, in Inakadate in Japan

The largest and finest work is grown in the Aomori village of Inakadate , 600 miles north of Toyko,

where the tradition began in 1993.

The village has now earned a reputation for its agricultural artistry and this year

the enormous pictures of Napoleon and a Sengoku-period warrior,

both on horseback, are visible in a pair of fields adjacent to the town hall.

More than 150,000 vistors come to Inakadate,

where just 8,700 people live, every summer to see the extraordinary murals.

Each year hundreds of volunteers and villagers

plant four different varieties of rice in late May across huge swathes of paddy fields.



Napolean on horseback can be seen from the skies,

created by precision planting and months of planning between villagers and farmers in Inkadate.



Fictional warrior Naoe Kanetsugu and his wife Osen appear in fields in the town of Yonezawa , Japan

And over the past few years, other villages have joined in with the plant designs.

Another famous rice paddy art venue is in the town of Yonezawa in the Yamagata prefecture.

This year's design shows the fictional 16th-century samurai warrior Naoe Kanetsugu and his wife,

Osen, whose lives feature in television series Tenchijin.

Various artwork has popped up in other rice-farming areas of Japan this year,

including designs of deer dancers.



Smaller works of crop art can be seen in other rice-farming areas of Japan such as this image of Doraemon and deer dancers

The farmers create the murals by planting little purple and yellow-leafed kodaimai rice

along with their local green-leafed tsugaru roman variety to create the coloured patterns between planting and harvesting in September.

The murals in Inakadate cover 15,000 square metres of paddy fields.

From ground level, the designs are invisible, and viewers have to climb the mock castle tower of the village office to get a glimpse of the work.

Rice-paddy art was started there in 1993 as a local revitalization project, an idea that grew out of meetings of the village committee.




Closer to the image, the careful placement of thousands of rice plants in the paddy fields can be seen.

The different varieties of rice plant grow alongside each other to create the masterpieces

In the first nine years, the village office workers and local farmers grew a simple design of Mount Iwaki every year.

But their ideas grew more complicated and attracted more attention.

In 2005 agreements between landowners allowed the creation of enormous rice paddy art.

A year later, organisers used computers to precisely plot planting of the four differently colored rice varieties that bring the images to life.

World hunger increases despite growth in food production

World hunger increases despite growth in food production

DUSHANBE, 12 November 2009 (IRIN) - Even as world food production grows, hunger is on the rise in many poor countries, according to the Global Crop Prospects and Food Situation report for November, published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on 12 November.

The report highlights a contradiction: world cereal production is at its second-highest level ever, yet food prices remain very high. It identifies 77 countries that are both low-income and food deficit.

In East Africa, cereal prices range from 68 percent to 177 percent over the 2007 numbers. In southern Africa, prices are 58-200 percent higher than in 2007, and in most of Asia prices are up 40-70 percent. Since most low-income food deficit countries are food importers, they lose far more from high prices than they gain from steady crop production.

Hunger, in most cases, is caused by lack of money rather than a shortage of food production, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). In 2008 the number of undernourished people in the world increased by 40 million, despite record harvests.

The new FAO report suggests that 2009 is likely to see a similar increase in hunger.

ash/at/cb

Angkor Car Made In Cambodia By Mr Nhien

Angkor Car Made In Cambodia By Mr Nhien
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvR1j2JzmfU&feature=related

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Homeless Men Kill Their Friend, Eat Him and Sell the Rest to Kebab House

17.11.2009
Homeless Men Kill Their Friend, Eat Him and Sell the Rest to Kebab House
Source: Pravda.Ru


The police of Russia’s Perm region solved the brutal murder of a homeless man, slaughtered by three of his own friends. The criminals ate a part of the corpse and sold the rest to a kebab kiosk.

Forensic experts have taken samples of the suspicious meat to find out if the kiosk was selling kebabs made of human meat.

The homeless men were living in dug-outs in the woods near the city of Perm. Three men attacked and brutally beat their 25-year-old friend, hit him with a hammer several times and stabbed him. The man died of injuries on the spot, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper wrote.

The murderers dismembered the body and then buried the upper part of the corpse near their dugouts. They saved the lower part of the corpse and made a dinner from it for the whole “family.” When the cannibals were stuffed, they sold the rest of the meat to the nearest kebab kiosk.

The detained men said that they had killed the man out of jealousy. One of the detainees said that the victim was trying to steal his girlfriend from him.

Mini-skirt ban

Source : http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090710/155491570.html

10/07/2009
KEMEROVO, July 10 (RIA Novosti) - Local prosecutors have called a mini-skirt ban, introduced at a teacher's college in the southwestern Siberian city of Kemerovo, a violation of students' constitutional rights.

The college had issued internal instructions banning students from wearing mini skirts, jeans and any clothing that exposed the back or belly area. Bright makeup and piercings were also banned.

"Prosecutors qualified the ban as an infringement of equality and human rights...guaranteed by the Russian constitution," the prosecutor's office said in a statement posted on its website.

The college administration admitted the violation and has since lifted the restrictions.