Ogle my Google

Google Talks; Google Battle; Google History; Google even tells you the best time to visit any place.

And here's a neat Google joke. Type "bush's foreign friends" into Google and click on [I'm Feeling Lucky].

Learning from the Greeks

Rick Reilley of CNN/Sports Illustrated finds that Americans can learn a thing or two from the Greeks. From cheese pies that melt in your mouth, to taxi driving Athens-style.

But the best thing we need to bring home is the Greeks' Louvre-quality excuses. The Greeks are much too macho to confess, so they've turned excuse-making into the 38th Olympic sport. It's fun to catch them with their togas down, just to see what beautiful and simple lie they will tell to cover it up.

For instance, when somebody asked why they didn't finish paving all the walking areas near the venues, leaving only dirt, the Athens bigwigs didn't just fess up and go, "Well, we never quite got around to it." No, instead, they declared, "We wanted to recreate the feel of the Ancient Olympic Games." Do you just love it? There were plenty of witnesses on Day One of the doobie-shaped torch going out for a reported 20 minutes. The Melbourne (Australia) Herald Sun even ran a picture of it, colder than a popsicle. Did the Greeks admit it? No, sir. "It was not out," a spokesman with the Athens Organizing Committee said. "We were simply testing the levels." And the level we were testing is zero. It's like the health club at our hotel. It's beautiful, except that there's no ventilation of air of any kind, nor water, nor towels to grab. But when I mentioned it to the man at the front desk, he smiled and says, "But, my friend, isn't the point to sweat?" I can't imagine what their excuse is going to be for still having scaffolding up on the Parthenon. Here we are at what is arguably the biggest undertaking in the history of mankind, and they still don't have it ready. Not to be nitpicky, but if the Olympics isn't a big enough deal to take off the old scaffolding, what is? The big podiatrists' convention coming in October? I can hear their excuse now. "You see," they'll say. "The guy who was supposed to take it down was in this motorcycle accident, and ..."

Operation Olympic

Wikipedia's featured article of the day caught my eye.

Operation Downfall was the overall Allied plan for the invasion of Japan at the end of World War II, but was ultimately never used. It was scheduled to occur in two parts — Operation Olympic, the invasion of Kyushu, set to begin in November, 1945; and later Operation Coronet, the invasion of Honshu near Tokyo, scheduled for the spring of 1946. Kyushu was to be invaded at three points — Miyazaki beach, Ariake beach, and Kushikino beach. Southern Kyushu would become a staging ground for operation Coronet, and would give the Allies a valuable airbase from which to operate. Following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Soviet declaration of war against Japan, the Japanese surrendered and the operation was cancelled.

Snippets to start your day

Obese Florida woman melds with couch after laying on it for six years.

Meanwhile, be careful what you touch at the wedding. Or you might just be the next serving.

Ignorance and Discrimination

Beijing hotels, schools turn away 'AIDS orphans'

Beijing's hotels and schools have turned away a group of 71 "AIDS orphans" who came to the Chinese capital for a five-day summer camp, state media said Tuesday, blasting the move as discriminatory.
Some 40 schools, hotels and rest houses refused to offer lodgings to the children, whose parent or parents died from AIDS after selling blood in unhygienic blood collection stations in central China.

The children are not infected, but the schools and hotels worried that their students or guests would feel uncomfortable knowing that their facilities had been used by AIDS orphans, the official China Daily said.

"These justifications are illogical and heartbreaking," the newspaper said in an editorial. A hotel far from the city center, in the western outskirts of Beijing, later accepted the children, the report said.

This is just so absolutely disgusting. Hotels I can imagine since they are after all profit driven. I mean yeah, the discrimination is nauseating as well, but when push comes to the shove, it’s profits and their guests that matter to them more. But schools?? How can schools discriminate against those children as well? Those Hotels and Schools ought to be named and publicly shamed! =_=

Were you at the biggest Asian Gay party?

Today, 9th of August, the island city of Singapore celebrates its Independence day!! *insert cheers and fireworks*

Unknown to the populace, a different kind of celebration, an unknown known, was held/might still be at full swing, only at the city state.

Asian Gays Party in Singapore Despite Tough Laws
read more at
islandsingapore.com and fridae.com

They are, in a way, celebrating both their freedom of expression and Singapore's freedom.. What with their symbolic colour being a combination of red and white.. how appropriate..

and a comment sums it up well..

"Welcome to Pinkapore!"

Boy crushed by suicide jumper

This would seem to call out for 'creative' captions.. but.. it's a shocking thing.
I suppose the friend will have to undergo intensive treatment... Man,.. shall use the covered walkways from now on.. maybe.

Killer Jumper

Iraq beheading video faked...

Haha! well, conspiracy theorists were right, maybe for one vid, at least..
This S.F. guy basically created his own beheading vid, for a social commentary. Well, have to applaud his audacity in doing so. His reasoning is that such vids are easily faked, and tells exactly how he made it. explaining Nick Berg? oh well... have a read. Though will this be all over the 'mainstream' media? Or will it occupy page 23, or a tiny banner, on a website..

Iraq beheading video faked...

Apple & Singapore

Lately, the feud between Apple and RealNetworks over iPod technology has been drawing a lot of comparison to that of personal computers in the mid-1980s: on the verge of spreading from early adopters to the general population, led by Apple and run by Steve Jobs. This is indeed pretty similar to today's digital music scene; Apple's iTunes service has 70% of the market for legal music downloads and the iPod, 60% of the American market for high capacity, hard-disk-based players.

Critics point out that Mr. Jobs' refusal to share technology that would allow RealNetwork's Rhapsody users to download songs on to iPods displays a reluctance to make Apple's technology — its music format and copyright coding — an open standard. Could he be repeating the same mistake that had allowed Microsoft (which did license their inferior DOS system to other hardware makers) to build their Windows monopoly?

Just last week, RealNetworks announced that they had cracked Apple's technology and that Rhapsody users can use iPods after all. This ought to be good for Apple, which makes its money from iPods, not iTunes (which barely breaks even). RealNetworks denies any “reverse engineering”. Yet Apple may decide to sue Real. What on earth is Mr Jobs up to?

Enough of the Apple story, what has caught the eyes of Singaporeans lately is a technology column on the matter in USA Today by Kevin Maney.

Miller, also an accomplished musician, goes on to call Apple "the Singapore of computing."

You know Singapore: autocratic, insular, elegantly engineered, repressively controlled — and destined to never amount to more than a small but interesting dot on the world map.