Latest Transformers 3 Trailer (28th April 2011)

Just found out about the new Transformers 3 trailer! Check it out.

How Great thou Art – Carrie Underwood with Vince Gill

It’s no surprise that country music fans were anticipating the TV special Girls Night Out: Superstar Women of Country, which was taped at the 2011 Academy of Country Music Awards weekend earlier this month and aired Friday night on CBS. However, it was a gospel song performed at the show that unexpectedly crossed all boundary lines and created a viral sensation over the weekend.

Carrie Underwood was just one of many huge names in the allstar lineup, but her duet with Vince Gill of the classic standard “How Great Thou Art” managed to bring down the entire house–and internet, at that. According to Yahoo! data, searches for Underwood’s rendition of the tune spiked a whopping 362% on Saturday.

Source : Yahoo! Music Blogs

AirAsia plane skids at Kuching airport

Just got news that an AirAsia aircraft skidded in Kuching International Airport in Sarawak, Malaysia. Thankfully everyone is alright in this incident. It happens during heavy downpour and it could be the aircraft aquaplaned off the runway on landing.

Here is an excerpt of the story from New Straits Times

KUALA LUMPUR: An AirAsia aircraft from here skidded off the runway as it landed in Kuching during heavy rain last night, slightly injuring four passengers and forcing the closure of the Kuching International Airport.

Malaysia Airports Berhad (MAB) said the airport remained closed as at 11am today, and that 24 incoming and outgoing flights had been affected by then.

MAB said the aircraft skidded and veered off the runway upon landing at 10.02pm.

Flight AK5218 of the budget airline had originated from the Low-Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) in Kuala Lumpur.
Read more: Kuching airport closed after plane mishap http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/Kuchingairportclosedafterplanemishap/Article/#ixzz1Ai7ISrKN

 

Photos from Mohd Ramzan’s cousin – MalaysianWings.net

A quick look, there are no major damage on the wing & fuselage. Not sure about the engine though.

 

Other links on AirAsia incident;

http://www.avherald.com/h?article=4360264d&opt=2560

http://www.theborneopost.com/?p=86109

http://www.malaysianwings.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=15369

 

How do you backup all your personal stuff in FACEBOOK?

How do you backup all your FACEBOOK messages, photos, walls, friends, events, notes… since there is a hoax that FB will be shutting down on 15th Mar 2011?

1) Go to Account

2) Account Settings

3) Download Your Information – Learn more

4) Facebook will then send a download link to your email

5) Check your email link and click it (will need to wait for several hours before they send to you)

6) Key in your password and download the zip file!

Happy BACKUPing…

How to add snow fall in WordPress blog

Merry Christmas everyone!

“Oh the weather outside is frightful,
But the fire is so delightful,
And since we’ve no place to go,
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!’

Yes, for a limited time only, WordPress.com allow blogger to add snow flake in our webbie.

How to create snow flakes?

1) Go to dashboard

2) Select Appearance (on the left screen)

3) Select Extras and tick Show falling snow on my blog

4) Select Update Extras

5) Tadaa…. finish.

Let it snow….let it snow….let it snow

What happens if the U.S. Auto Industry collapse?

Financial Post recently said that if Detroit’s automakers shrink further – even fail – the U.S. economy would suffer a crushing blow, losing at least 2.46 million jobs in the first year alone. If Detroit cut output and employment by 50% to meet ever-shrinking market share, which would mean contraction by two of the automakers, 2.46 million jobs would be lost initially. Governments would lose US$108-billion in revenue over three years.

GM on Sunday has posted a You Tube video that shows what can happen if the U.S. auto industry would fall. The video indicates the industry is faced with an “imminent collapse” that could lead to the loss of 3 million jobs in 2009.

Will the US government going to bail out GM, Ford and Chrysler like they do in investment bank?

Lehman minibond investor risk of loosing everything

A friend of mine has recently lost about 45% of it’s value in unit trust due to credit crunch crisis. What will happen to her investment if the the bank were to collapse? Are we protected by government, authority or any law that will ensure us in getting back our investment or even part of it? It remind me of the minibond saga. It baffles many investors that the once low risk and guaranteed paper investment with annual returns is now no longer safe. The Lehman Brothers saga has cause many investor trying to salvage whatever left for them. You can read some of it here. According to the CNA report, Lehman brothers minibond investors will know their options at the end of the month: one, whether restructuring of their investments is still a viable route or two, if they will be liquidated.

Why does a low risk investment scheme causes investor to loose everything? Listen to some of the upset investors have to say;

It’s really disheartening when I listen to their grievances. Many of them lost their savings overnight. Will the credit crisis worsen? Take a look at US, under the Bush administration, the US national debt has risen from $5.7 trillion, to over $10 trillion currently. The terms of the recently-passed bailout legislation increased the statutory debt ceiling to over $11.3 trillion. I wonder where does the government going to get their money from? Steve Keen, the Australian economist said if the debt pyramid come crashing down via a violent and uncontrollable chain of defaults, even the safest risk-free rate of return government bond market will be drag down with it.

Many investors are now turning to precious metals such as gold that would rapidly regain monetary status in such a scenario. If you diversify your portfolio, invest some physical gold as a form of financial insurance. It is a universal finite currency, held by every central bank of note in the world. For more information about gold investment, contact me at albe_chong [@] yahoo.com

Financial Meltdown & Investment Risk

The recent financial meltdown got many investor burned their pocket. Some of the blue chip investment companies where transaction are in billions like Lehman, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, AIG have been wiped out almost of their capital due to crisis.

Below here are some of the capital loses as compare to their peak a year ago.

* A I G -Then: $178.8 billion… Now: $5.46 billion. Down 96.95%
* Bank of America -Then: $236.5 billion… Now: $123.4 billion. Down: 47.82%
* Citigroup -Then: $236.7 billion… Now: $76.34 billion. Down 67.75%
* Merrill Lynch – Then: $63.9 billion… Now: $30.2 billion. Down 52.74%
* Fannie Mae – Then: $64.8 billion… Now: $0.45 billion. Down 99.3%
* Morgan Stanley – Then: $73.1 billion… Now: $41.1 billion. Down 43.78%
* Wachovia – Then: $98.3 billion… Now: $19.44 billion. Down 80.22%
* JP Morgan Chase – Then: $161 billion… Now: $130.2 billion. Down 19.13%
* Capital One Financial – Then: $29.9 billion… Now: $16.9 billion. Down 43.48%
* Washington Mutual – Then: $31.1 billion… Now: $3.64 billion. Down 88.3%
* Lehman Bros. – Then: $34.4 billion… Now: $0.80 billion. Down 97.6%
* Goldman Sachs – Then: 97.7 billion… Now: $40.6 billion. Down 58.7%
* Wells Fargo – Then: $124.1 billion… Now: $111.25 billion. Down 10.35%
* National City – Then: $16.4 billion… Now: $2.8 billion. Down 83%
* Fifth Third Bancorp – Then: $18.8 billion… Now: $7.9 billion. Down 57.6%
* American Express – Then: $74.8 billion… Now: $37.5 billion. Down 49.87%
* Freddie Mac – Then: $41.5 billion… Now: $0.16 billion. Down 58.7%
* Suntrust Banks – Then: $27 billion… Now: $16.07 billion. Down 58.7%
* BB&T – Then: $23.2 billion… Now: $18.4 billion. Down 20.69%
* Marshall & Ilsley – Then: $11.6 billion… Now: $4.48 billion. Down 61.3%
* Keycorp – Then: $13.2 billion… Now: $5.68 billion. Down 56.97%
* Legg Mason- Then: $11.4 billion…Now: $4.96 billion. Down 56.49%
* Comerica- Then: $8.3 billion…Now: $4.74 billion. Down 42.89%
* Countrywide Financial: Then: $11.1 billion…Now: $0.00 billion. Down 100%
* Bear Stearns- Then: $14.8 billion…Now: $ 0.00 billion. Down 100%

How does it affect consumer or investor like us? According to Channel News Asia, some 10,000 people in Singapore with a paid out half a billion Sing dollars for structured financial products is linked to bankrupt Lehman Brothers. A 75 year old retiree lost S$400,000 of her retirement savings. It happens when she was introduced to Lehman Brothers Minibonds, promising low risks. Minibonds in short is credit linked note.

Most of the $360 million of structured notes linked to Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. sold in Hong Kong and Singapore – including DBS High Notes 5 in Singapore and the Constellation series in Hong Kong – has been given a value of zero by DBS Group Holdings Ltd.

How did the investors which have no knowledge or experience with capital markets, end up buying a risky and complex structured products?

According to Chinastakes report, the banks have been mis-selling over the past few years. The investors disclosed that the intermediaries had not mentioned that the products were related to Lehman Brothers and potential risks, or explained or showed the prospectus of the products.

One thing we can learn from the crisis is to equip and upgrade our knowledge on investment and to have a diversified investment portfolio such as stocks, mutual funds, bonds, real estate, gold bullion and not putting our whole savings into one basket. If you are planning to invest, take a look at the investment risk pyramid.

Upgrade Girlfriend 5.0 to Wife 1.0

Jokes

Dear Tech Support Team:

Last year I upgraded from Girlfriend 5.0 to Wife 1.0.

I soon noticed that the new program began unexpected child-processes that took up a lot of space and valuable resources.

In addition, Wife 1.0 installed itself into all other programs and now monitors all other system activities.

Applications such as BachelorNights 10.3, Cricket 5.0, BeerWithBuddies7.5, and Outings 3.6 no longer runs, crashing the system whenever selected. I can’t seem to keep Wife 1.0 in the background while attempting to run my favorite applications.

I’m thinking about going back to Girlfriend 5.0 , but the ‘uninstall’ doesn’t work on Wife 1.0.

Please help!

Thanks,
“A Troubled User”

_________________________________________________________________

REPLY:

Dear Troubled User:

This is a very common problem that people complain about.

Many people upgrade from Girlfriend 5.0 to Wife 1.0, thinking that it is just a Utility and Entertainment program. Wife 1.0 is an OPERATING SYSTEM and is designed by its Creator to run EVERYTHING!! It is also impossible to delete Wife 1.0 and to return to Girlfriend 5.0. It is impossible to uninstall, or purge the program files from the system once installed.

You cannot go back to Girlfriend 5.0 because Wife 1.0 is designed not to allow this. (Look in your Wife 1.0 Manual under Warnings-Alimony-Child Support) .

I recommend that you keep Wife1.0 and work on improving the environment.

I suggest installing the background application “Yes Dear” to alleviate software augmentation.

The best course of action is to enter the command C:\APOLOGIZE! Because ultimately you will have to give the APOLOGIZE command before the system will return to normal anyway.

Wife 1.0 is a great program, but it tends to be very high maintenance. Wife 1.0 comes with several support programs, such as Clean 2.5, Sweep 3.0, Cook 1.5 and Do Laundry 4.2. However, be very careful how you use these programs. Improper use will cause the system to launch the program Nag Nag 9.5 .

Once this happens, the only way to improve the performance of Wife 1.0 is to purchase additional software. I recommend Flower 2.1 and Jewellery 5.0

STATUTORY WARNING : DO NOT, under any circumstances, install Secretary 3.3. This application is not supported by Wife 1.0 and will cause irreversible damage to the operating system.

Regards,
Tech Support

source : from internet.

Also see Upgrade boyfriend 5.0 to husband 1.0 pentium

Akaline & Acidic drinking water, unhealthy?

Many people have asked this question, pure water is acidic and it is not good for the body. On the other hand, Alkaline water is good, as it helps to maintain proper body pH and preventing acidosis. Any water filter product that claims to change the body’s acid/alkaline balance in any substantial way is not based on sound science. The blood plasma pH is 7.4 and anything more than about ±0.1 can be very serious. The pH is tightly control and significant changing of pH balance in your body is virtually impossible as the deviation is only ±0.1. A normal pH, the measure of acidity vs. alkalinity, is carefully monitored by various body systems to stay between 7.35 and 7.45. This is slightly on the alkaline side.

Removing CO2 from the blood helps increase the pH. Removing HCO3- from the blood helps lower the pH.

The kidneys and the lungs work together to help maintain a blood pH of 7.4 by affecting the components of the buffers in the blood. The buffer for maintaining acid-base balance in the blood is the carbonic-acid-bicarbonate buffer. If we have a strenuous exercise, it may be too great for the buffer alone to effectively control the pH of the blood. When this happens, other organs must help to control the amount of CO₂ and HCO₃^- in the blood. The lungs remove excess CO₂ from the blood (helping to raise the pH), and the kidneys remove excess HCO₃^- from the body (helping to lower the pH). In short, the lungs and kidneys respond to pH changes by removing CO₂, HCO₃^-, and H⁺ from the blood.

What about stomach? The pH of Alkaline / Acidic drinking water will have little effect on the pH of the stomach contents because gastric fluid has an overwhelmingly low between 1~2, one million times more acidic than pure water. The pH of the “resting” or empty stomach is 1.~2. If the food / water (alkaline or acidic) we consume raises the pH of the liquid to over 5.0, then it triggers the production of HCl (hydrocloric acid / gastric juice). Enzyme Pepsin is not active above pH 5, so HCl is needed to lower the pH to below 5 for optimal breaking of proteins. All the food that leaves the stomach are acidic. When it enter the intestines, secretions from pancreas will neutralize the stomach acids. Looking at bio-chemistry point of view, the tightly controlled pH in the body is a biological process.

References

Is pure water healthy?

The department of chemistry in Washington University, St. Louis

Department of Energy – Stomach Acid

Parietal cells in the stomach

Colorado State University – The mechanism of Acid Secretion

Hydrogen Chloride

University of Cincinnati – Atoms, molecules, water & body pH