World's Ugliest Dolphin on Video!

The video of the world's ugliest dolphin

A dolphin described as the ugliest in the world has been shown off on television after a breakthrough discovery.

The snub fin dolphin with an eye-catching bulbous head is the first new species of the creature to be found for 50 years.

After being identified three years ago off Western Australia's Kimberley coast, key details about the dolphin have only now been captured.

Wildlife experts had struggled to track down the dolphin, since snub fins are easily scared by rare human contact.

Researchers used the dart gun to get a DNA sample from the dolphins - allowing new insights into the animal.

Tammie Matson, from the World Wildlife Fund, said: "It may be the world's ugliest dolphin - some people have said that.

-- The Metro

Chinese Earthquake Victims Suing Sharon Stone for $1 Billion!

Actress Sharon Stone suggested that the earthquake in Sichuan Province that killed 70,000 people was due to “karma” for China’s mistreatment of Tibet. Now, 1,000 Chinese from the region have filed a lawsuit against Stone for “emotional distress”

She said the following in an interview with a reporter during the Cannes Film Festival:

"At first, I'm not happy with the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans ...And then all this earthquake and stuff happened and I thought, 'Is that Karma, when you're not nice that the bad things happen to you?''

Immediately after the comments, the Chinese bloggers and newspapers were very upset with her and demanded an apology. Last month, Stone issued a public apology and said that she misspoke and regretted that she made those statements.

But the Chinese are not satisfied with the apology: about 1,000 Chinese earthquake victims have banded together with a New York lawyer Ming Hai, demanding a $1 billion in damages.

Ming said in a statement:

"For the families who have lost their loved ones or lost limbs or suffered severe injuries, your statement and act has caused extreme emotional distress."

In April, two Chinese women also sued CNN for $1 billion -- a dollar for every Chinese person after CNN anchor Jack Cafferty said on live television that China is led by a bunch of goons and thugs.

I doubt either of the lawsuits will get the Chinese any money, but their future businesses and appearances with China will be affected in a large scale.

-- Digital Journal

To blog or not to blog? That is the question.

I'm having a down time today. I didn't feel like blogging (even, micro-blogging) today, but I did, as you can see. Don't you have such days? You just don't feel like saying anything or nothing good comes out. You're sitting here, thinking of the many topics that you want to talk about, but as soon as you begin writing, you lose your path midway or you then realise that this post isn't good enough.

Very often, we are our own biggest critics, we criticise ourselves more than anyone else. Doesn't it drive you mad sometimes? Have you written articles that are still in the "Draft" mode, because you thought that they weren't good enough?

Spicy sambal stingrays, anyone?

Dinner was really good.

Move away Batman, here's God to the rescue!

A little faith goes a long way when it comes to petrol prices....

Prayer services are being held at petrol stations in America a bid to get fuel prices to drop. Two prayer services will be held at St. Louis gas stations to thank God for lower fuel prices and to ask that they continue to drop.

Darrell Alexander, Midwest co-chair of the Pray at the Pump movement, says prayer gatherings will be held Monday afternoon and evening at a Mobil station west of downtown St. Louis.

Participants say they plan to buy gas, pray and then sing "We Shall Overcome" with a new verse, "We'll have lower gas prices."

An activist from the Washington D.C. area, Rocky Twyman, started the effort, saying if politicians couldn't lower gas prices, it was time to ask God to intervene.

The group thinks the prayer is helping, saying prices are starting to fall below $4 a gallon.

-- The Metro

Plurk your life away!

I confess, I am addicted to Plurk. I've never been addicted to anything online! Second Life, Maple Story, any online games/applications, you name it, I've never been attracted to them. However, I can't seem to escape Plurk's powerful grasp over me.

I believe you've all have heard of Plurk. If you haven't, where have you been?! You cannot afford to be left behind in this tech savvy era!

Need.To.Constantly.Update.Self

In any case, I'm going to give you a run-down on Plurk. Plurk is a micro-blogging platform that allows you to network with people around the world. Or rather "a social journal of your life" as the people at Plurk like to call it.

Its something like Twitter, just better and more addictive. Again, if you've never heard of Twitter, there is NO hope for you.

I want and I need to increase my Karma (some point system that Plurk has). Although, I know that its the real Karma that counts. But still, argh, I NEED more Karma points!

I love keeping up with my Plurk friends and love talking crap with them. In fact, I am meeting a couple of them this weekend. I am sure we will have a ball of a time!

Plurk has to develop a 12-step-programme for addicted Plurkers like me. I'm getting sucked in deeper and deeper into Plurkville's black hole. This is a point of no return for me.

Frodo: I wish Plurk had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.
Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

-- Starwish

First ever eel energy drink on sale!

A 'energy boosting' eel drink has gone on sale.The canned drink called "Unagi Nobori," or "Surging Eel," made by Japan Tobacco Inc., hit the nation's stores this month just ahead of Japan's annual eel-eating season, company spokesman Kazunori Hayashi said Monday.

"It's mainly for men who are exhausted by the summer's heat," Hayashi said of the beverage, believed to be the first mass-produced eel drink in Japan.

Many Japanese believe eating eel boosts stamina in hot weather.

The fizzy, yellow-colored drink contains extracts from the head and bones of eel and five vitamins - A, B1, B2, D and E - contained in the fish.

The Japanese particularly like to eat eel on traditional eel days, which fall on July 24 and Aug. 5 this year.

Demand for eel is so high that Japan has been hit by scores of eel fraud cases, including a recent high-profile incident in which a government ministry publicly scolded two companies for mislabeling eel imported from China as being domestically grown.

The eel involved in recent scandals was prepared in a popular "kaba-yaki" style, in which it is broiled and covered with a sweet sauce.

The 140 yen (80p) drink costs about one-tenth as much as broiled eel, but has a similar flavour.

Eel extract is also used in cookies and pies made in Japan's biggest eel producing town, Hamamatsu.

-- The Metro

Personally, I love unagi but, drinking an unagi drink? Lets just say, I'm not so sure about it.

Is China playing cheat? Records suggest Chinese gymnasts might be underage!

Recently, there was an uproar with some parents in Singapore over a seemingly "over-aged" primary school athletics contestant. Whether he is in fact "over-aged"or having a growth spurt, who knows? But the tables are turned in this case.

It is hard to find out a person's age, especially if the documents themselves are fake too. *sigh* we live in a fake, fake world.

China named its Olympic women's gymnastics team Friday, and the inclusion of at least two athletes has further raised questions, widespread in the sport, about whether the host nation for the Beijing Games is using underage athletes.

Chinese officials responded immediately, providing copies of passports indicating that both gymnasts in question - He Kexin, a gold-medal favorite in the uneven parallel bars, and Jiang Yuyuan - are 16, the minimum age for Olympic eligibility.

Officials with the International Gymnastics Federation said that questions about He's age had been raised by Chinese news media, USA Gymnastics and fans of the sport, but that the Chinese authorities presented passport information to show that He is 16.

But online records listing Chinese gymnasts and their ages that were posted on official Web sites in China, along with ages given in the official Chinese news media, seem to contradict the passport information, indicating that He and Jiang may be as young as 14.

In Chinese newspaper profiles this year, He was listed as 14, too young for the Beijing Games.

NYTimes found two online records of official registration lists of Chinese gymnasts that list He's birthday as Jan. 1, 1994, which would make her 14. A 2007 national registry of Chinese gymnasts - now blocked in China but viewable through Google cache - shows He's birthday as "1994.1.1."

Another registration list that is unblocked, dated Jan. 27, 2006, regarding an intercity competition in Chengdu, China, also lists He's birthday as Jan. 1, 1994. That date differs by two years from the birth date of Jan. 1, 1992, listed on He's passport, which was issued Feb. 14, 2008.

The other gymnast, Jiang, is listed on her passport - issued March 2, 2006 - as having been born on Nov. 1, 1991, which would make her 16.

--NYTimes

Carina Lau's Vera Wang Wedding Dress: Thousands, This woman's custom made dress : ONLY £2.50

Picture : Carina Lau and Tony Leung in wedded bliss

Get this, this woman paid only £2.50 which is $6.70 SGD for her custom made wedding dress. Compared to Carina Lau's wedding dress, the amount she paid is peanuts. She bought her dream wedding dress from a Chinese man on eBay.

"Emma Dunn, 23, had been searching for her wedding dress on the internet and eventually found one she liked with a £1,500 price tag. But she decided to research all her options and it paid off when she found an exact copy of the dress while searching on eBay.

With ten minutes remaining to bid, and no reserve price, Emma quickly put in a bid of £2.50. After a nervous wait, she received an e-mail from China confirming she'd won the auction.

She said: "There were no other bids so I thought I had nothing to lose by typing in £2.50. I got an e-mail back from a man in Shanghai, who said he would make my dress for me, and asked for all my measurements."

Emma, from Melton Mowbray, was delighted when her dress arrived in a Parcel Force van six weeks later.

She said: "It was folded up nicely and neatly and it was an absolutely perfect fit. The postage and packing had cost £16.50 but I didn't mind paying that. People just couldn't believe it when I told them I'd bought it for £2.50."

Emma said: "We had a brilliant day. It shows you don't have to spend loads of money to have a great wedding."

--Ananova

For those who have no idea who Carina Lau and Tony Leung are:

Leung's credits include "Infernal Affairs," which Martin Scorsese remade as "The Departed," and John Woo's recently released Chinese historical epic "Red Cliff." He was named best actor at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000 for his performance in "In the Mood for Love."

Lau, an actress, appeared in "Infernal Affairs II," "Center Stage" and director Wong's "Ashes of Time" and "2046."

I am a big fan of Tony Leung's works and wish them all the best.

Randy Pausch, 47, Dies; His ‘Last Lecture’ Inspired Many to Live With Wonder

Randy Pausch, the professor whose “last lecture” made him a Lou-Gehrig-like symbol of the beauty and briefness of life, died Friday at his home in Chesapeake, Va. He was 47, and had lived five months longer than the six months a doctor gave him as an upside limit last August.

The cause was metastasized pancreatic cancer, Carnegie Mellon University announced.

Professors are sometimes asked to give lectures on what wisdom they would impart if they knew it was their last chance. Soon after Dr. Pausch (pronounced powsh), a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, accepted that challenge, he learned he had months to live.

He hesitated, then went ahead with the lecture, on Sept. 18, 2007. He said he intended to have fun and advised others to do the same. He spoke of the importance of childlike wonder.

But Dr. Pausch did not omit things that would break just about anybody’s heart. He spoke of his love for his wife, Jai, and had a birthday cake for her wheeled on stage. He spoke of their three young children, saying he had made his decision to speak mostly to leave them a video memory — to put himself in a metaphorical bottle that they might someday discover on a beach.

As the video of his lecture spread across the Web and was translated into many languages, Dr. Pausch also became the co-author of a best-selling book and a deeply personal friend, wise, understanding and humorous, to many he never met.

“His fate is ours, sped up,” wrote Jeffrey Zaslow, a Wall Street Journal columnist who covered the lecture on the chance it would be a good story, and helped bring it wider awareness. The book he wrote with Dr. Pausch, “The Last Lecture,” was published this year and became a No. 1 best seller; last week it was still No. 1 on The New York Times list of advice books.

Some of the millions who saw Dr. Pausch on YouTube and elsewhere wrote letters and e-mail to The Journal and many blogs. Some said he inspired them to quit feeling sorry for themselves, or to move on from divorces, or to pay more attention to their families. A woman said the video gave her the strength to escape an abusive relationship; others said they decided not to commit suicide because of it.

-- NYTimes

"Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted." Randy Pausch

New Zealand students offer reward for Rice arrest

New Zealand students protesting the Iraq war offered a reward to anyone who carries out a citizen's arrest of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her visit to the country Friday.

The Auckland University Students' Association is seeking Rice's arrest for her role in ''overseeing the illegal invasion and continued occupation'' of Iraq, Association President David Do said. The group is offering a $3,700 reward.

Rice is making her first trip to New Zealand after attending a Southeast Asian security forum in Singapore. She is scheduled to arrive from Australia late Friday and fly out early Sunday.

U.S. officials traveling with her said that they were aware of the threat but that it won't affect Rice's plans.

But police in Auckland, New Zealand's biggest city, warned that ''anyone who attempts to penetrate the police lines of security around the secretary will not be allowed to follow through with their plan.''

District Commander Superintendent Brett England said ''the consequences of such a security threat could be very serious indeed.''

On Saturday, Rice will hold talks with Prime Minister Helen Clark and Foreign Minister Winston Peters, meet with business leaders and attend an official dinner.

Rice is due to fly to Samoa early Sunday for meetings with South Pacific foreign ministers, seen by observers as an important event for the South Pacific region -- an area where the U.S. has pledged to strengthen its level of engagement.

-- Associated Press

Nude York City!

A naked dining fad is proving popular in New York. About 50 diners - whose motto is "no hot soup" - meet regularly for meals where the dress code is literally non-existent.

Organiser John Ordover, who rents city restaurants for the monthly dinner parties, told the New York Post: "We're not out to shock or put on a public spectacle.

"We want only to do things that other people do in the way that we are most comfortable doing them. That, for us, is without clothes."

Diners are served by regular restaurant staff - forced by city laws to keep their clothes on.

"We've never had a restaurant say no to us, and the waiters think nothing of it," said Ordover, 46, who works as a web marketer when he has his clothes on.

"If you work in a restaurant in New York City, the chances are you've seen a lot more shocking things than a room full of naked diners," he added.

The au naturel look is also catching on at a New York stand-up comedy club and in some of the city's yoga classes.

"I had such a transformative experience on my own when I did yoga naked rather than clothed," said Naked Yoga NYC teacher Isis Phoenix. "I wanted to share that."

The classes have about 10 devotees who have to obey two rules - leave your clothes behind, and bring your own mat.

-- NYPost

Aliens do exist, according to Apollo veteran Edgar Mitchell

Former NASA astronaut and moonwalker Dr Edgar Mitchell - a veteran of the Apollo 14 mission - has stunningly claimed aliens do exist.

And he says extra-terrestrials have visited Earth on several occasions - but the alien contact has been repeatedly covered up by governments for six decades.

Dr Mitchell, 77, said during a radio interview that sources at the space agency who had had contact with aliens described the beings as 'little people who look strange to us.'

He said supposedly real-life ET's were similar to the traditional image of a small frame, large eyes and head.

Chillingly, he claimed our technology is "not nearly as sophisticated" as theirs and "had they been hostile", he warned "we would be been gone by now".

Dr Mitchell, along with with Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard, holds the record for the longest ever moon walk, at nine hours and 17 minutes following their 1971 mission.

"I happen to have been privileged enough to be in on the fact that we've been visited on this planet and the UFO phenomena is real," Dr Mitchell said.

"It's been well covered up by all our governments for the last 60 years or so, but slowly it's leaked out and some of us have been privileged to have been briefed on some of it.

"I've been in military and intelligence circles, who know that beneath the surface of what has been public knowledge, yes - we have been visited. Reading the papers recently, it's been happening quite a bit."

-- Digital Journal

Do you believe that extra-terrestrials exist? Or is it just some crap that people made up?

Is Straits Times turning into New Paper?

Picture : From The Straits Times, 24th July

The Straits Times ran an article on Xiaxue and Dawn again today! Its under the "Home" section. Is Straits Times turning into New Paper? Whats happening? Are they so desperate to fill up space that they have to resort to this? I've been reading Straits Times since I was 10 years old. Its sad to see them going in this direction. Last week or so, they ran an article on a "celebrity" graduating from University. What is so surprising about it, that it has to be included in the "Home'" section? I'm sure there are more important news that concerns us, the readers, than miniscule stuff like that!

--Starwish (a very dissapointed reader)

Beijing to set up Olympic protest zones in parks

Beijing will set up specially designated zones for protesters during next month's Olympics, a security official said Wednesday, in a sign China's authoritarian government may allow some demonstrations during the games.

Areas are being set aside in three public parks near some of the sporting venues, said Liu Shaowu, director for security for the Beijing Olympic organizing committee.

''We will invite demonstrators to hold their demonstrations in designated places,'' Liu told a news conference.

In a sign that Beijing is eager to minimize disruptions by demonstrations, the three protest areas are in outlying parks, not near the Olympic green where the largest number of sports venues are.

Liu reiterated that Chinese law requires all demonstrations be approved by police in advance, but when asked by reporters he declined to say whether that applied to the protest zones.

Special protest zones have been part of past Olympics, including the 2004 games in Athens.

But Beijing's decision marks the end of months of internal debate over whether allowing public protests might backfire, disrupting China's attempts to use the games to boost its image overseas and the government's popularity at home.

Protests abroad against China's restrictions on human rights and media freedoms and an uprising by Tibetans and alleged terrorist plots by Muslims in western China have prompted the government to ramp up security nationwide.

Visa sweeps against foreigners, efforts to encourage migrant workers to leave Beijing and police checkpoints in and around the city have touched off criticism that heavy-handed security may drain the fun from the Olympics.

Liu, the security official, said police were trying to strike a balance between the need for safety and the desire for festiveness. ''We are confident we can give the Beijing Olympics a good and joyous atmosphere,'' he said.

When it comes to security, Liu said the large numbers of people expected in Beijing during the games made it a ripe target for terrorist infiltration.

Though he declined to specify terrorist threats, police officials have said in recent months that they have foiled plans by Muslim separatists connected to the games.

-- Associated Press

S'pore's population est: 4.5 million.1 in 4 people in S'pore are foreigners, and about 1000 S'poreans give up citizenship every year.

From what I know, there are a quite a number of Singaporeans living in Melbourne and Perth. One of the reasons might be because there are very little university places for local polytechnic graduates. And then, they pursue their degree overseas, and in turn fall in love with the country. Is the government to be blamed? Shouldn't the government have thought about building a 4th university a long time ago? Why only now? Is it a case of too little, too late?

"In the last three years, an average of 1,000 Singaporeans gave up their citizenship each year.

Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng said their reasons for doing so vary, and these range from marriage to foreigners, to yearning for a different environment.

Most of them took up new citizenship in countries in Southeast Asia, the United States and Australia.

Mr Wong gave this update in reply to a written question from Non—Constituency MP Sylvia Lim.

She had asked how many Singapore citizens emigrated from Singapore in the last three years, the countries they emigrated to and their reasons for doing so.

Mr Wong said those who emigrate generally do not declare this to the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority when they leave.

So the only available data which gives an indication of the number of emigrants from Singapore is the number of Singaporeans who have given up their citizenship and left Singapore."

--ChannelNewsAsia