Entertainment Of The Day ™

Singapore School Girl Sleeping In Lingerie

2009-06-20T11:53:00.000+08:00

Stumbled upon a local website and was astonished when I saw this arousing picture.

And it came with some details!
Guess what?
Singapore School Girl In Lingerie For Auction!
The person who posted this,added on with : she is horned after school. who wants to horn with her?

I bet the girl in the picture does not even know that her picture was taken as she was indulged in her sleep.
Her face was exposed too and I will not grant any request to post the picture of her face here as to protect her privacy.

And,if her peers were to see this,she will be dismayed and who knows if this picture was taken by her boyfriend or whoever that hypnotized her.

iPHONE 3GS REVIEW - COMPILED VERSION

2009-06-20T11:50:00.000+08:00

If you're already in love with your iPhone and you have a few hundred bucks to spend, the Apple iPhone 3GS is a no-brainer. The performance gains are huge, especially in complicated apps like games and the Web browser. The iPhone was already a leader in multimedia features and Web browsing, and the library of apps was the most diverse and impressive among all the major smartphone systems, so it's nice that the new performance boost only made all of this good stuff even better. If you were on the fence before, though, the new features might not be enough to push you over the edge. Only a user who had been suffering with the iPhone will appreciate the video recording and voice dialing apps, as these are present on most other smartphones, and many other simpler devices. With the Apple iPhone 3GS, Apple seems to be shoring up its borders, and not branching out into new spaces. Popular business features like e-mail and productivity apps have been left behind, or left to third parties, while there seems to be no relief in sight for users who want more buttons or, gasp, an actual keyboard. Still, there's no denying the appeal of the iPhone, and if you thought the older model was the best, with the Apple iPhone 3GS, the best just got even better. Release: June 2009. Price: $200.
Pros: A faster, more responsive iPhone, now with many features we'd been asking for, like voice dialing, MMS and video recording.
Cons: Same old iPhone design, inside and out. Needs more buttons. Messaging apps not powerful enough to take on the leaders in the field, like RIM's BlackBerry.

RATING : 86%
VERY GOOD

Full Apple iPhone 3GS Review:
Hardware design – Very Good

From the outside, the Apple iPhone 3GS looks completely unchanged from the Apple iPhone 3G. We wouldn't want to see too much changed about the exterior design, but we still think Apple could have updated the look just a bit, if only to bring it closer to the 2nd generation iPod touch, which is a thinner and more sleek device. Basically, the phone is a simple tablet, with only a single button on its face, the home button.

That simple home button has gotten more complicated, though, as Apple enables plenty of shortcuts using various taps and presses. Hold the home button for voice dialing, or you can set the home button to jump right into the camera when you press it twice. That's nice, but think its time for the iPhone 3GS to earn some more buttons. The phone desperately needs a camera shutter button, especially since it now uses auto focus. Also, would it kill anyone to add Send and Back keys, which would cut down on menu drilling and silly shortcuts, like the voice dialing, which could be mapped to Send, or the new shake-to-undo feature, which could be mapped to Back. Just a couple more buttons could seriously cut down on clicks and swipes, making the phone faster and more efficient to use.

Display & Interface – Very Good

The Apple iPhone OS 3.0 interface looks the same as it did 2 years ago when it was released, and it's still an impressive interface design for touch input. Application icons are colorful and large enough for finger tapping. We've seen newer phones with cooler tricks and more flashy designs, especially the latest HTC TouchFLO 3D devices, and of course the Palm Pre. Still, Apple's interface is solid. Our biggest complaint is that managing the loads of apps we've downloaded from the App Store over the last year is a real pain. Creating the perfect set of menu pages from the app icons is a frustrating experience, and the iPhone stupidly rearranges apps as they are added or updated. The iTunes software experience is so tight, we wish we could manage our menu pages in iTunes, instead of on the phone itself.

The iPhone's 3.5-inch, glass display is still the most responsive in the smartphone field, but we wish Apple had upgraded the screen hardware. We're seeing phones with bright, low-power OLED displays, reaching resolutions in excess of 640 by 480 pixels (VGA), so we'd like to see Apple catch up, especially considering the phone's impressive video and gaming prowess. The new Apple iPhone 3GS gets a special coating on the glass that is supposed to cut down on fingerprints. In our tests, it worked, but it was only noticeable in comparison to an older iPhone. Apple also insists on keeping the proprietary dock connector. We would love to see them adopt microUSB, which would be a boon to accessory makers and consumers alike.

Calling / Talk time – Good

Though call quality has not improved since the last generation of iPhone, the entire calling experience has gotten better thanks to the addition of some key features. Calls didn't sound bad, but the iPhone sits near the middle of the pack in terms of sound quality. We heard a general fuzziness in our calls on both ends, but it was never distracting. Reception strength on our Apple iPhone 3GS review unit seemed exactly the same as on the iPhone 3G, a full complement of bars wherever we checked, but in our experience the iPhone has always been a bit optimistic when it comes to reception. Even when we saw a full 5 bars, we still experienced the drop calls and connection problems that have become an infamous part of the iPhone story. Battery life was somewhat better on the Apple iPhone 3GS, though less in terms of talk time than other functions. We had more time for watching videos and surfing the Web over Wi-Fi, but in terms of talk time, we got the same 5+ hours of talk time as we did on the original. This is still a phone that needs to be charged during the day if you're going to use it as extensively as we did.

The address book has been improved somewhat. We synchronized the iPhone 3GS with our Microsoft Exchange account and our MobileMe accounts, all with no trouble. The address book is even faster now on the new hardware, and very easy to search. In fact, you can search from within the contacts list itself, or from the new Spotlight search page, where contacts will pop up alongside songs, notes, e-mails and more. The iPhone 3GS also does a nice job with call logging, keeping track of recent calls on a contact's info page so you can see when you last spoke to a friend or colleague.

For calling features, Apple has finally endowed the iPhone with voice dialing. The Apple iPhone 3GS gets a great looking voice dialing app with some clever tricks. It was about 90% accurate when we tried dialing contacts, or speaking phone numbers directly. The voice commands app can also control your music library, though it wasn't quite as effective there. Call management on the iPhone 3GS is top notch, with easy conference calling and call controls. The speaker doesn't seem to be improved over the older iPhone 3G, and we wish it had gotten a serious volume boost.

Messaging – Very Good

The Apple iPhone 3GS is a solid messaging device, but it still lags behind the competition in terms of features convenience. Setting up e-mail was a breeze, whether it was our business Exchange account or our personal Gmail account. The phone can also handle Push E-mail on Exchange, MobileMe, and Yahoo, for instant delivery. The Mail app has gotten some slight improvements so it's a bit easier to deal with messages in bulk, but it still lags far behind a BlackBerry or Windows Mobile device, and serious e-mail users may be disappointed with the experience.

Text messaging was always a strong suit for the iPhone, and now with the Apple iPhone OS 3.0 software, multimedia messaging finally comes to the iPhone 3GS. Not our iPhone 3GS, of course, since we're on AT&T and still waiting for the carrier to support the feature later this summer. But we've seen demonstrations, and we like how pictures and other multimedia content and delivered right to the threaded messaging conversation.

The Apple iPhone 3GS still lacks any built-in IM support, but there are literally dozens of options available. Intsant Messaging apps can't run in the background on the Apple iPhone, one of the serious shortcomings of the platform, but with the iPhone OS 3.0, the iPhone 3GS supports Push notifications. So, even if the AIM client is closed, when you get a new IM, you'll get an onscreen message and a number bubble indicating a message attached to the AIM icon.

The new iPhone OS also supports a landscape orientation for the keyboard in a wider number of apps. We didn't realize how much we had missed the wide keyboard layout until we finally used it for messaging and note taking. Our typing speed increased geometrically with the wider layout, and the iPhone still does a fantastic job auto-correcting our numerous errors. With just a little practice, and some trust in the iPhone's corrective ability, we found ourselves typing as quickly on the iPhone's onscreen keyboard as we do on a hardware QWERTY.

Music - Excellent

In just about every way, the Apple iPhone 3GS a great music experience. The music player looks great and was easy to control by touch. In landscape mode, the iPhone 3GS offers the so-called Cover Flow feature that presents albums in a 3D row for you to lazily browse through with a flick of the finger. We enjoyed creating new playlists, especially Apple's cool new Genius playlists, with little effort. We could even create Genius playlists from the voice commands app. With a song playing, hold down the home key to activate voice commands and say "Play more songs like this." The phone will automatically create a genius playlist based on the current track. Even the music store experience has been dramatically improved. With over-the-air downloads and competitive pricing on premium quality, DRM-free music tracks, Apple is ahead of almost all competitors, though the Amazon MP3 store on the T-Mobile G1 and the Palm Pre comes very close.

The new Apple iPhone 3GS ships with an improved set of earbuds. Sound quality was about the same, not terrible for a tiny pair of free earbuds, but audiophiles will want to keep their own cans. The new earbuds use an improved remote button on the cord which now lets us control the volume, as well as skipping through tracks. The headphone remote also comes with a microphone for phone calls and it works for the voice commands app. For music storage, the iPhone 3GS is now available in 16GB or 32GB capacities. This would be quite impressive, if the Nokia N97 hadn't trumped Apple by including 32GB plus a microSD slot that can handle another 16 gigs.

The new iPhone OS 3.0 finally brings stereo Bluetooth listening to the iPhone family, so we were able to listen to music from our Apple iPhone 3GS without wires. Unfortunately, it's easy to see why Apple was shy about adding this tech to their phones. Even on the iPhone 3GS, we had some connectivity issues with our Bluetooth headphones, and music dropped out whenever we moved the phone around too much or buried it deep in our pockets. The feature works much better on a dedicated set of Bluetooth stereo speakers, where we usually had no such trouble.

Video – Excellent

If the music experience on the Apple iPhone 3GS is great, then the video experience is superlative. This is the only phone we'd consider using for serious movie and video watching. Thanks to the large, crisp, 3.5-inch screen, the great movie playback controls and features, like the ability to hold our place in a movie or resize with a quick tap. But it's really the video management experience that makes the iPhone 3GS / iTunes combo so great for video. It is shocking fast and easy to get videos onto this phone with iTunes in control of the sync procedure. Now, with iPhone OS 3.0, we don't even need iTunes, as the iPhone 3GS is capable of downloading new television shows and movies directly to the phone over a Wi-Fi connection. Then, the next time we plugged the phone into our computer, our videos synchronized and were available to watch on our laptop as well. If we had any complaints, we'd wish for a few more codecs, like better DivX support, and perhaps a volume boost so we can amplify videos with soft audio tracks. But even without these, we'd never used another phone as a serious video playback device until we used the iPhone.

Camera – Very Good

More than any other feature on the phone, the hobbled camera on the older iPhone models received the most complaints. With the new Apple iPhone 3GS, the device is finally capable of recording video, at VGA resolution no less at an impressive 30fps. Videos looked pretty good. Not great, as poor light management still hurt some exposures. Also, the camera focuses when you start to record a video, then keeps the same focal distance, so if you start at a macro level, you better stick with close-ups or your video will be blurry. We like the simple video editing feature on the iPhone 3GS. Basically, the phone gives you a timeline with screengrabs from the video you just recorded, and you can move the start and stop times to trim the video down to just the right moment. There are cameras and phones that can do more, but none that offer a simple editor that is so easy to use.

The camera has also seen some significant improvements. The Apple iPhone 3GS now sports a 3-megapixel shooter with auto focus, a feature we've been asking for. The iPhone 3GS even uses the touch focus feature we've been enjoying on other advanced smartphones, like the HTC Touch Diamond 2. In practice, this worked very nicely. The touchscreen adjusts not only the focus, but also automatically adjusts exposure and white balance depending on where you tap. This helped fix some photos that might have otherwise been washed out by harsh backlight. The iPhone's camera does a nice job with most of the automated settings. We found images to be very rich and saturated in color, we imagine this is getting a boost in post-processing. Blur was still an issue, especially under low-light situations, or up close, where the phone switches to macro mode. Under the best circumstances, our iPhone 3GS review unit produced some stunning images, but in most cases, images were just average.

Still, for both the camcorder and camera features, Apple includes no settings whatsoever, and this is frustrating. We'd like more control over white balance, sensitivity and other imaging settings. We'd also like more camera features, like a panorama mode and some scene specific modes. We'd also like to see a flash, especially a nice, bright Xenon bulb, to help in dark settings. Most of all, though, we want a shutter button; a real, two-stage shutter so we can autofocus easily. Pressing the onscreen button while holding the camera steady for a macro was a feat. Trying the same for a self-portrait seemed more like plain old luck. Check out our image samples below for the best shots we took in our test period.

Web browsing – Very Good

Even with stiff competition from Palm and Google's Android (not to mention Nokia's solid Web browser), the Apple Safari browser is still the best on a mobile device. Pages look perfectly accurate rendered on our iPhone 3GS review unit, and even large pages that usually resist a mobile browser, like CNN or the New York Times, render very nicely in Safari. We're still waiting for Flash support. We've seen Flash on recent smartphones, like the Nokia N97, and it was useful but not impressive on that device, which makes us even more curious as to how it would perform on Apple's iPhone 3GS, which is built for speed. The iPhone 3GS does get a nice speed boost in Web browsing over its predecessor. Though our local AT&T networks aren't taking advantage of the faster 7.2Mbps HSDPA radio built into the iPhone 3GS, at least not yet, we still saw a marked improvement over the last generation Apple iPhone 3G, especially on the most complicated pages. CNN loaded up to 15 seconds faster on the iPhone 3GS, and our own homepage loaded similarly fast.

Connectivity & Memory – Very Good

As we've mentioned, the new Apple iPhone 3GS is actually too fast for American networks. We've heard that AT&T is currently testing their 7.2Mbps HSDPA networks in Chicago now, but the rollout will occur nationwide over the next year and a half. Until then, we're still fairly pleased with the 3.6Mbps speeds we saw, which resulted in quick Web page loading and speedy downloads. The phone also uses Wi-Fi in 802.11 b/g flavors, which helped for long downloads like movies and TV shows. For memory, the new iPhone 3GS is available with up to 32GB of storage, which is impressive for a phone, and finally brings the device in line with the iPod touch. We wish that Apple, like Nokia with their N97, had included a microSD slot along with the 32GB. Not that we needed more storage, but microSD helps us share files and swap out libraries in a hurry, so it's a nice, compatible option.

Scheduling and Productivity – Very Good

The Apple iPhone already had some impressive scheduling features, with the ability to synchronize with iCal, MobileMe and Outlook or Exchange calendars. The calendar on the iPhone also looks great, second in style only to the Palm Pre. With the latest iPhone OS 3.0 update, the Apple iPhone 3GS gets a couple additional tricks that finally push it over the edge. First, you can now synchronize with CalDAV calendars, which opens up plenty of doors on the Internet. Of note, Google's Calendar uses the CalDAV protocol, along with other, smaller offerings on the Web. Second, you can now invite attendees to an event on your calendar, a feature we use all the time with our Microsoft Exchange work calendar. Previously, you could only accept or decline an invitation.

For productivity, the best features you'll find for the Apple iPhone will come from third party developers with apps such as Documents to Go or QuickOffice offering Microsoft Office document editing tools for a fee. But even without those additional apps, the Mail app is able to view document attachments that come from Office apps. We had no trouble viewing some medium-sized Excel spreadsheets and browsing through multiple pages, though the interface lacked the features and polish of a real Office viewer.

With the recent Apple iPhone OS 3.0 update, Apple finally brought tethering to the iPhone, though this is another service that AT&T isn't supporting at launch. We miss tethering our laptop to our phone for Internet, but we've grown accustomed to, and even fond of some of the accessory options we've been forced to use as an alternative. If AT&T offers tethering later this year at the expensive prices that are currently rumored, we'll be happy to stick with our MiFi 2200. Of course, as faster networks come online, the iPhone will be a more enticing device for tethered modem support, and we're happy to see that Apple has made this a seamless experience, with no extra software required. Hopefully they'll keep the price way down, as well.

GPS – Very Good

Though the Apple iPhone 3GS currently lacks a good turn-by-turn navigation option, we should start to see such apps appearing soon in the App Store, as the iPhone OS 3.0 update makes turn-by-turn mapping possible. Still, turn-by-turn navigation is only part of the story on the Apple iPhone. For directions, the phone comes with a nice version of Google Maps equipped with Google Street View. The new iPhone 3GS also gets a digital compass, and Google Maps can use this to tell you which direction you're facing before you start your trip. Still, Google has saved the best for its own Android phone, as the T-Mobile G1 uses its accelerometer and compass to create a sort of virtual, moving world within the Google Street View. Too bad the iPhone didn't get this feature as well.

The best GPS features on the iPhone are still the third party apps. A variety of apps are making great use of the GPS features, from simple movie listing apps to more complicated tracking and social networking apps. The Apple iPhone 3G sparked something of a revolution in location-based services, but we still think the killer app for these phones will be turn-by-turn navigation, when it finally arrives.

Gaming – Very Good

We're wondering if even Apple was surprised at how the iPhone and iPod touch has taken off as a gaming platform. We've tried all the newest gaming handhelds, and though we might not take the iPhone over a Nintendo DS, we've already given up our Sony PSP for Apple's device. Best of all, developer support has increased dramatically, and now there are a range of options from small house developers through the largest game makers, like Electronic Arts. The Apple iPhone 3GS offers some of its most impressive improvements in the gaming arena. Games that were barely playable before, such as our favorite "I Love Katamari," are now silky smooth on the iPhone 3GS. Newer shooting and driving games perform very well, and load times are cut dramatically. Forget about the 2X performance that Apple is claiming, for games, this is an entirely new device.

Price and availability

The Apple iPhone 3GS is available now from AT&T for as little as $200 for the 16GB version, or $300 for the 32GB version, with a new contract agreement.

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iPhone 3G S review
If it ain't broke, don't fix it -- right? We know countless reviews of the iPhone 3G S may begin with that cliché, but there's little chance you'd find a better way to describe the strategy that Apple has just put into play with its latest smartphone. In many ways, the 3G S is a mirror image of the iPhone 3G; externally there's no difference. It's inside where all the changes have happened, with Apple issuing a beefed-up CPU, new internal compass, larger capacities for storage, and improved optics for its camera. More to the point, the release of the 3G S coincides with the launch of iPhone OS 3.0, a major jump from previous versions of the system software featuring highly sought after features like cut, copy, and paste, stereo Bluetooth, MMS, tethering, video recording, landscape keyboard options for more applications, and an iPhone version of Spotlight. At a glance, what Apple seems to be doing is less a reinvention of the wheel and more like retreading the wheel it's already got (and what a wheel, right?). So, do the iPhone 3G S and OS 3.0 tweak the details in just the right places, or has Apple gone and gotten lazy on us? Read on to find out.

Hardware-

As we said in the intro, there is nothing visually different about the iPhone 3G S versus the iPhone 3G, save for the lettering on the back, which is now mirrored like the Apple logo. While we had seen leaked images of a matte finish, bezel-free version of the device, when push came to shove, what we got was essentially a carbon copy of the iPhone 3G. In terms of the general elements of the phone -- the plastic casing, mute switch, home and power buttons, etc. -- there is no change at all. In fact, if you were to lay this phone and its predecessor next to one another face up, the new model would be indistinguishable. Of course, the 3G S is not just a clone of the previous device, and Apple has made most of its significant changes inside the phone.

Internal -

First off, the company has supercharged the CPU of the 3G S (remember, the S is for speed), jacking up the processor numbers from 412MHz to a rumored 600MHz. Additionally, the RAM is said to have doubled from 128MB to 256MB, the phone is offered with 16GB or 32GB of storage, and Apple has swapped out the previous graphics chip for a new version -- dubbed the PowerVR SGX -- which adds support for more robust visuals via OpenGL ES 2.0. All this should mean that end users will see a noticeable difference in app speeds and loading times (Apple claims an average of 2x faster loads, though since the company has been cagey about upgrade details, it's hard to know what the real differences are).

So, do the revamped insides equal an improved experience on the phone? Kinda.

For our oft-used phone actions -- flicking through homescreens, calling up search terms in Spotlight, scrolling through long lists -- we definitely felt like the 3G S was snappier than its predecessor. It wasn't like the doors were flying off, but there was a noticeable bump in speed, particularly when it came to initial data loads (how quickly you see content pop up within an application). When it came to opening apps which pull lots of that kind of content, like Contacts, Calendar, or Messaging, we saw an even more noticeable improvement. Comparing the 3G and 3G S side-by-side yielded small but absolutely palpable differences -- the 3G S does seem to eliminate quite a few of the hangs we find maddening as we go through our day. It's not the perfect salve, but it's a start.

We're excited by the cranked up CPU, but in our experience you'll see lowered load times (though obviously not as drastic) if you take a standard 3G and do a full restore, so there is the lingering question of whether or not the jacked-up feel of the 3G S will last, or will begin to bog down after months of use and heaps of data.

A spot where we really saw the fruits of Apple's labors (and one we don't expect to decline as you pile on data) was actually in the more graphically intense apps for the phone. Comparing a CPU-hungry 3D game like Resident Evil: Degeneration on the 3G S with the same title 3G yielded striking results. The load time was drastically reduced, and rendering and frame rates on the game were noticeably smoother than on the older device (though game speeds stay the same) -- a side effect of the more powerful guts we'd hoped to see, but weren't sure would be so stark. If you're an avid gamer looking for the device with more power, the difference will be crystal clear: the 3G S obviously flexes in this department.

Display -

We mentioned that Apple didn't really make any cosmetic changes to the phone, but that's not entirely accurate. While the 480 x 320 display on the iPhone 3G S is technically identical to its predecessor's screen, it adds one small feature which should make some users extremely happy.

The company has changed the treatment on the surface of the touchscreen, utilizing an oleophobic coating -- essentially a protectant that's highly resistant to fingerprint smudging. For those of you constantly wiping burger grease, WD40, and various other toxic materials from your iPhone, this will come as a tremendous little perk. The most surprising thing about the tech is that it actually does what the company says it will: namely, it resists new smudges and wipes almost entirely clean with a single swipe on a pant leg. This wasn't exactly the most pressing issue we had with the phone, but it's nice to know that Apple is innovating in the dirty screen space.

Camera -

A camera tweak is a big deal for iPhone fans -- after all, they've had to suffer through not one, but two iterations of a phone with a paltry 2 megapixel camera, no autofocus, and no flash. Apple has tweaked two out of three here, and as Meat Loaf tells us, that ain't bad. The 3G S upgrades the built-in camera to a 3 megapixel version -- not insanely great, but at least competitive -- and has added an autofocus function with a nifty software tie-in. Instead of having to use a gross physical button to snap your shots, the iPhone continues to rely on its onscreen trigger, but cranks up the use of that big display by allowing you to focus in on subjects based on where you tap. In our experience, the parlor trick actually turned out to be quite useful, accurately zeroing in on what we wanted most of the time. Struggles to focus were minor at best, though you won't be able to do any heavy macro work here, and during video recording you're stuck with a constantly focusing lens -- no tapping allowed.

We do have some complaints about exposure, which seems to be permanently cranked to "blinding," and while the shutter speed is faster than on the 3G, it's still not quite snappy enough for our taste. Hey -- we guess we should just be glad they gave us an extra megapixel, right?

Software -

As we said in the opener, the 3G S launch isn't just about the hardware -- in fact, you could argue that it's hardly about the hardware. The biggest changes with this device really come in the form of software tweaks, and to a point, the software tweaks provided by iPhone OS 3.0. Apple really piled on the fixes and additions in its latest OS iteration (the company boasts of 1,000 new APIs for developers), and there's plenty to plow through that up until now has only been the domain of those lucky / hard working few. What's all the fuss about? See below.

We'd like to preface this section by saying that because we're testing a US device, MMS and tethering options are disabled thanks to AT&T's current policies on the services. Obviously, not being able to properly test two of the most anticipated aspects of the new OS is disheartening, and while we could hack a solution to get both working (see here), it's not a reasonable option for most end users right now, and probably wouldn't be fair to include in this review.

On a "brighter" note, AT&T claims it will be delivering MMS to the iPhone come late Summer as part of its standard SMS packages (no word on tethering), though we think it's patently absurd that the second largest carrier in America -- a carrier which currently has MMS enabled for all of its other devices -- is failing to make this available at launch. Judging from the reaction to this news during the WWDC keynote, it would seem that most others agree. Apple included.

Cut, copy, and paste

Of all the features added to the new 3.0 cocktail, copy / paste is easily the most talked about. Perhaps because it was such an obvious feature to leave out to begin with, or perhaps because Apple made it through multiple updates with no change (till now). Regardless, the iPhone line now has the ability to perform one of the most basic tasks known to computing. So how does it fare? Well, it's actually a pretty smart implementation of the process on a mobile device -- one of the best we've seen. To grab a chunk of text, you simply tap on the section you want to grab and the phone tries to figure out just how much you meant to select. Usually it's pretty smart about what you want (sort of the copy / paste version of Apple's predictive text input), but it also gives you anchors to grab on the top, bottom, left, and right of the selection box, allowing you to pull your copy area out as needed. A contextual menu appears above or below your selection, and changes based on what stage of the process you're in. To paste you just tap on an empty spot in a document, and the menu presents itself again. For undoing actions, you shake the phone (cute, but a little annoying -- we would have preferred a menu item).

iPhone 3G S review

by Joshua Topolsky, posted Jun 17th 2009 at 2:14PM

If it ain't broke, don't fix it -- right? We know countless reviews of the iPhone 3G S may begin with that cliché, but there's little chance you'd find a better way to describe the strategy that Apple has just put into play with its latest smartphone. In many ways, the 3G S is a mirror image of the iPhone 3G; externally there's no difference. It's inside where all the changes have happened, with Apple issuing a beefed-up CPU, new internal compass, larger capacities for storage, and improved optics for its camera. More to the point, the release of the 3G S coincides with the launch of iPhone OS 3.0, a major jump from previous versions of the system software featuring highly sought after features like cut, copy, and paste, stereo Bluetooth, MMS, tethering, video recording, landscape keyboard options for more applications, and an iPhone version of Spotlight. At a glance, what Apple seems to be doing is less a reinvention of the wheel and more like retreading the wheel it's already got (and what a wheel, right?). So, do the iPhone 3G S and OS 3.0 tweak the details in just the right places, or has Apple gone and gotten lazy on us? Read on to find out.
Gallery: iPhone 3G S unboxing and hands-on

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Hardware

As we said in the intro, there is nothing visually different about the iPhone 3G S versus the iPhone 3G, save for the lettering on the back, which is now mirrored like the Apple logo. While we had seen leaked images of a matte finish, bezel-free version of the device, when push came to shove, what we got was essentially a carbon copy of the iPhone 3G. In terms of the general elements of the phone -- the plastic casing, mute switch, home and power buttons, etc. -- there is no change at all. In fact, if you were to lay this phone and its predecessor next to one another face up, the new model would be indistinguishable. Of course, the 3G S is not just a clone of the previous device, and Apple has made most of its significant changes inside the phone.

Internals

First off, the company has supercharged the CPU of the 3G S (remember, the S is for speed), jacking up the processor numbers from 412MHz to a rumored 600MHz. Additionally, the RAM is said to have doubled from 128MB to 256MB, the phone is offered with 16GB or 32GB of storage, and Apple has swapped out the previous graphics chip for a new version -- dubbed the PowerVR SGX -- which adds support for more robust visuals via OpenGL ES 2.0. All this should mean that end users will see a noticeable difference in app speeds and loading times (Apple claims an average of 2x faster loads, though since the company has been cagey about upgrade details, it's hard to know what the real differences are).

So, do the revamped insides equal an improved experience on the phone? Kinda.

For our oft-used phone actions -- flicking through homescreens, calling up search terms in Spotlight, scrolling through long lists -- we definitely felt like the 3G S was snappier than its predecessor. It wasn't like the doors were flying off, but there was a noticeable bump in speed, particularly when it came to initial data loads (how quickly you see content pop up within an application). When it came to opening apps which pull lots of that kind of content, like Contacts, Calendar, or Messaging, we saw an even more noticeable improvement. Comparing the 3G and 3G S side-by-side yielded small but absolutely palpable differences -- the 3G S does seem to eliminate quite a few of the hangs we find maddening as we go through our day. It's not the perfect salve, but it's a start.

We're excited by the cranked up CPU, but in our experience you'll see lowered load times (though obviously not as drastic) if you take a standard 3G and do a full restore, so there is the lingering question of whether or not the jacked-up feel of the 3G S will last, or will begin to bog down after months of use and heaps of data.

A spot where we really saw the fruits of Apple's labors (and one we don't expect to decline as you pile on data) was actually in the more graphically intense apps for the phone. Comparing a CPU-hungry 3D game like Resident Evil: Degeneration on the 3G S with the same title 3G yielded striking results. The load time was drastically reduced, and rendering and frame rates on the game were noticeably smoother than on the older device (though game speeds stay the same) -- a side effect of the more powerful guts we'd hoped to see, but weren't sure would be so stark. If you're an avid gamer looking for the device with more power, the difference will be crystal clear: the 3G S obviously flexes in this department.

Display

We mentioned that Apple didn't really make any cosmetic changes to the phone, but that's not entirely accurate. While the 480 x 320 display on the iPhone 3G S is technically identical to its predecessor's screen, it adds one small feature which should make some users extremely happy.

The company has changed the treatment on the surface of the touchscreen, utilizing an oleophobic coating -- essentially a protectant that's highly resistant to fingerprint smudging. For those of you constantly wiping burger grease, WD40, and various other toxic materials from your iPhone, this will come as a tremendous little perk. The most surprising thing about the tech is that it actually does what the company says it will: namely, it resists new smudges and wipes almost entirely clean with a single swipe on a pant leg. This wasn't exactly the most pressing issue we had with the phone, but it's nice to know that Apple is innovating in the dirty screen space.

Camera

A camera tweak is a big deal for iPhone fans -- after all, they've had to suffer through not one, but two iterations of a phone with a paltry 2 megapixel camera, no autofocus, and no flash. Apple has tweaked two out of three here, and as Meat Loaf tells us, that ain't bad. The 3G S upgrades the built-in camera to a 3 megapixel version -- not insanely great, but at least competitive -- and has added an autofocus function with a nifty software tie-in. Instead of having to use a gross physical button to snap your shots, the iPhone continues to rely on its onscreen trigger, but cranks up the use of that big display by allowing you to focus in on subjects based on where you tap. In our experience, the parlor trick actually turned out to be quite useful, accurately zeroing in on what we wanted most of the time. Struggles to focus were minor at best, though you won't be able to do any heavy macro work here, and during video recording you're stuck with a constantly focusing lens -- no tapping allowed.

We do have some complaints about exposure, which seems to be permanently cranked to "blinding," and while the shutter speed is faster than on the 3G, it's still not quite snappy enough for our taste. Hey -- we guess we should just be glad they gave us an extra megapixel, right?
Gallery: iPhone 3G S camera shots

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Software

As we said in the opener, the 3G S launch isn't just about the hardware -- in fact, you could argue that it's hardly about the hardware. The biggest changes with this device really come in the form of software tweaks, and to a point, the software tweaks provided by iPhone OS 3.0. Apple really piled on the fixes and additions in its latest OS iteration (the company boasts of 1,000 new APIs for developers), and there's plenty to plow through that up until now has only been the domain of those lucky / hard working few. What's all the fuss about? See below.

We'd like to preface this section by saying that because we're testing a US device, MMS and tethering options are disabled thanks to AT&T's current policies on the services. Obviously, not being able to properly test two of the most anticipated aspects of the new OS is disheartening, and while we could hack a solution to get both working (see here), it's not a reasonable option for most end users right now, and probably wouldn't be fair to include in this review.

On a "brighter" note, AT&T claims it will be delivering MMS to the iPhone come late Summer as part of its standard SMS packages (no word on tethering), though we think it's patently absurd that the second largest carrier in America -- a carrier which currently has MMS enabled for all of its other devices -- is failing to make this available at launch. Judging from the reaction to this news during the WWDC keynote, it would seem that most others agree. Apple included.

Cut, copy, and paste

Of all the features added to the new 3.0 cocktail, copy / paste is easily the most talked about. Perhaps because it was such an obvious feature to leave out to begin with, or perhaps because Apple made it through multiple updates with no change (till now). Regardless, the iPhone line now has the ability to perform one of the most basic tasks known to computing. So how does it fare? Well, it's actually a pretty smart implementation of the process on a mobile device -- one of the best we've seen. To grab a chunk of text, you simply tap on the section you want to grab and the phone tries to figure out just how much you meant to select. Usually it's pretty smart about what you want (sort of the copy / paste version of Apple's predictive text input), but it also gives you anchors to grab on the top, bottom, left, and right of the selection box, allowing you to pull your copy area out as needed. A contextual menu appears above or below your selection, and changes based on what stage of the process you're in. To paste you just tap on an empty spot in a document, and the menu presents itself again. For undoing actions, you shake the phone (cute, but a little annoying -- we would have preferred a menu item).

The beauty here is that unlike competitors such as the Pre or Android, iPhone copy and paste doesn't just let you grab text -- you can grab whole chunks of mixed media, like text and images, and it will copy the content with proper formatting and elements. If you want to pull out a section of a webpage, for instance, the function elegantly allows you to zero in on the area you want to copy and easily transfer it into an email or document without losing any components (unless you're pasting into a text only area, like Notes, which strips out formatting and images).

While we don't think the wait was necessarily justified for a feature so simple (and so necessary), we do think Apple has pulled off a tremendously useful implementation of the process. It's the kind of thing you'll miss once you go to another device without such broad and universal functionality.

Push notifications -

Way back in June of 2008, Apple promised that we'd see push notifications -- instantaneous alerts for emails, messages, and other app-related notices -- due in an OS update come that September. Needless to say, the fall came and went without so much as a mention of the software addition. Earlier this year, Apple showed off the functionality again at the iPhone OS 3.0 preview, combatting arguments for true multitasking within the iPhone operating system by saying push would not only work as a surrogate for most background tasks, but would allow the devices to retain sufficient battery life. Background tasks, Apple warned us, create a drain on power that would have users running for their chargers far too often.

So -- do push notifications take the place of background tasks? Do they give the end-user the feeling of constant connectedness the way Apple seems to intend them to? In our experience, not quite. At the time of this writing, there are only a few apps actually employing the service, though we're sure more will come. Overall, where push is really useful is in receiving updates or messages -- individual pings which direct your attention towards a particular application -- but they don't keep you in the stream of information the way an AIM session running in the background does. Yes, you get alerted to new messages (or in the case of something like Tap Tap Revenge, challenges), but those appear as either one of the iPhone's annoying pop-ups, or as a background audio notification coupled with a growing message counter for a particular app (AIM for instance). The service is extremely useful, and we're happy that Apple is endeavoring to make it available for all of its developers, but from a practical perspective, it doesn't feel that different than an email notification or a calendar event. In short, it will help you stay connected, but it won't take the place of true multitasking, and unless Apple finds a less obtrusive notification solution, it could actually create quite a mess. Besides those obvious issues, we're still not seeing push for the things we really want, namely, Gmail. We don't know when (or if) a rollout of said feature is planned, but we're guessing it can't be too far off for a device which now has central functionality orbiting around this feature.

Ultimately, we still feel strongly that true multitasking can't be replaced by these notifications, and if there's anything we learned from using the Pre, it's that background tasks can be handled elegantly without a mind-blowing hit to battery life. For a company which prides itself on advanced battery tech, you'd think instead of shying away from the challenge, Apple would be looking for ways to innovate in this space.

Spotlight -

We've got to hand it to Apple -- the company has really answered the call when it comes to search functionality on the iPhone. The addition of Spotlight to the iPhone OS is quite notable for two reasons: first, it gives you homescreen access to a full search of all your content on the device, including notes, email, contacts, calendar events, and applications. Secondly, it provides new search functionality within mail that not only lets your get at downloaded messages, but extends the hooks into server-side content. That's a bit of a stunner, as we can't count the number of times we've needed to fish some info from an email that had long moved outside of our 200 message limit (and what's up with that anyway Apple?). Spotlight searching works flawlessly in email, but we have a few gripes about the phone-facing implementation.

To start with, in order to navigate to your Spotlight screen, you have to either assign the home button double-tap shortcut to take you to the search window, swipe back when you're in homescreen view, or single tap once to get to your first page, then again to get into Spotlight. It all seems a bit complicated to us -- what would have made more sense was some kind of universal gesture... like maybe that long home button press reserved for Voice Control (more on that in a bit). Another problem is that you still have to jump through multiple hoops to get to the content you're looking for, particularly with contacts. Once you bring up a name, you have to actually jump into the contact card to call or send a text message -- why isn't this info accessible from the search window? As with a lot of processes on the phone, you still feel like you're clicking through way, way too many screens to get where you need to be.

Video recording / editing -

Okay -- you got us. Video recording on the iPhone 3G S is really quite impressive, and there are two reasons why. For starters, the phone handles pretty fantastic looking VGA video at 30 FPS, which makes for not just passable mobile video, but usable mobile video. The size, clarity, and smoothness of the sequences we shot looked tremendous to our eyes -- certainly on par if not outclassing many of the contenders in this space. In our opinion, the 3G S video quality is high enough that we'd consider this a viable stand-in for lower end camcorders or flip cams -- if you want to capture your kids at the park but don't want to come packing a ton of gear, this produces totally reasonable results.

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iPhone 3G S review

by Joshua Topolsky, posted Jun 17th 2009 at 2:14PM

If it ain't broke, don't fix it -- right? We know countless reviews of the iPhone 3G S may begin with that cliché, but there's little chance you'd find a better way to describe the strategy that Apple has just put into play with its latest smartphone. In many ways, the 3G S is a mirror image of the iPhone 3G; externally there's no difference. It's inside where all the changes have happened, with Apple issuing a beefed-up CPU, new internal compass, larger capacities for storage, and improved optics for its camera. More to the point, the release of the 3G S coincides with the launch of iPhone OS 3.0, a major jump from previous versions of the system software featuring highly sought after features like cut, copy, and paste, stereo Bluetooth, MMS, tethering, video recording, landscape keyboard options for more applications, and an iPhone version of Spotlight. At a glance, what Apple seems to be doing is less a reinvention of the wheel and more like retreading the wheel it's already got (and what a wheel, right?). So, do the iPhone 3G S and OS 3.0 tweak the details in just the right places, or has Apple gone and gotten lazy on us? Read on to find out.
Gallery: iPhone 3G S unboxing and hands-on

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Hardware

As we said in the intro, there is nothing visually different about the iPhone 3G S versus the iPhone 3G, save for the lettering on the back, which is now mirrored like the Apple logo. While we had seen leaked images of a matte finish, bezel-free version of the device, when push came to shove, what we got was essentially a carbon copy of the iPhone 3G. In terms of the general elements of the phone -- the plastic casing, mute switch, home and power buttons, etc. -- there is no change at all. In fact, if you were to lay this phone and its predecessor next to one another face up, the new model would be indistinguishable. Of course, the 3G S is not just a clone of the previous device, and Apple has made most of its significant changes inside the phone.

Internals

First off, the company has supercharged the CPU of the 3G S (remember, the S is for speed), jacking up the processor numbers from 412MHz to a rumored 600MHz. Additionally, the RAM is said to have doubled from 128MB to 256MB, the phone is offered with 16GB or 32GB of storage, and Apple has swapped out the previous graphics chip for a new version -- dubbed the PowerVR SGX -- which adds support for more robust visuals via OpenGL ES 2.0. All this should mean that end users will see a noticeable difference in app speeds and loading times (Apple claims an average of 2x faster loads, though since the company has been cagey about upgrade details, it's hard to know what the real differences are).

So, do the revamped insides equal an improved experience on the phone? Kinda.

For our oft-used phone actions -- flicking through homescreens, calling up search terms in Spotlight, scrolling through long lists -- we definitely felt like the 3G S was snappier than its predecessor. It wasn't like the doors were flying off, but there was a noticeable bump in speed, particularly when it came to initial data loads (how quickly you see content pop up within an application). When it came to opening apps which pull lots of that kind of content, like Contacts, Calendar, or Messaging, we saw an even more noticeable improvement. Comparing the 3G and 3G S side-by-side yielded small but absolutely palpable differences -- the 3G S does seem to eliminate quite a few of the hangs we find maddening as we go through our day. It's not the perfect salve, but it's a start.

We're excited by the cranked up CPU, but in our experience you'll see lowered load times (though obviously not as drastic) if you take a standard 3G and do a full restore, so there is the lingering question of whether or not the jacked-up feel of the 3G S will last, or will begin to bog down after months of use and heaps of data.

A spot where we really saw the fruits of Apple's labors (and one we don't expect to decline as you pile on data) was actually in the more graphically intense apps for the phone. Comparing a CPU-hungry 3D game like Resident Evil: Degeneration on the 3G S with the same title 3G yielded striking results. The load time was drastically reduced, and rendering and frame rates on the game were noticeably smoother than on the older device (though game speeds stay the same) -- a side effect of the more powerful guts we'd hoped to see, but weren't sure would be so stark. If you're an avid gamer looking for the device with more power, the difference will be crystal clear: the 3G S obviously flexes in this department.

Display

We mentioned that Apple didn't really make any cosmetic changes to the phone, but that's not entirely accurate. While the 480 x 320 display on the iPhone 3G S is technically identical to its predecessor's screen, it adds one small feature which should make some users extremely happy.

The company has changed the treatment on the surface of the touchscreen, utilizing an oleophobic coating -- essentially a protectant that's highly resistant to fingerprint smudging. For those of you constantly wiping burger grease, WD40, and various other toxic materials from your iPhone, this will come as a tremendous little perk. The most surprising thing about the tech is that it actually does what the company says it will: namely, it resists new smudges and wipes almost entirely clean with a single swipe on a pant leg. This wasn't exactly the most pressing issue we had with the phone, but it's nice to know that Apple is innovating in the dirty screen space.

Camera

A camera tweak is a big deal for iPhone fans -- after all, they've had to suffer through not one, but two iterations of a phone with a paltry 2 megapixel camera, no autofocus, and no flash. Apple has tweaked two out of three here, and as Meat Loaf tells us, that ain't bad. The 3G S upgrades the built-in camera to a 3 megapixel version -- not insanely great, but at least competitive -- and has added an autofocus function with a nifty software tie-in. Instead of having to use a gross physical button to snap your shots, the iPhone continues to rely on its onscreen trigger, but cranks up the use of that big display by allowing you to focus in on subjects based on where you tap. In our experience, the parlor trick actually turned out to be quite useful, accurately zeroing in on what we wanted most of the time. Struggles to focus were minor at best, though you won't be able to do any heavy macro work here, and during video recording you're stuck with a constantly focusing lens -- no tapping allowed.

We do have some complaints about exposure, which seems to be permanently cranked to "blinding," and while the shutter speed is faster than on the 3G, it's still not quite snappy enough for our taste. Hey -- we guess we should just be glad they gave us an extra megapixel, right?
Gallery: iPhone 3G S camera shots

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Software

As we said in the opener, the 3G S launch isn't just about the hardware -- in fact, you could argue that it's hardly about the hardware. The biggest changes with this device really come in the form of software tweaks, and to a point, the software tweaks provided by iPhone OS 3.0. Apple really piled on the fixes and additions in its latest OS iteration (the company boasts of 1,000 new APIs for developers), and there's plenty to plow through that up until now has only been the domain of those lucky / hard working few. What's all the fuss about? See below.

We'd like to preface this section by saying that because we're testing a US device, MMS and tethering options are disabled thanks to AT&T's current policies on the services. Obviously, not being able to properly test two of the most anticipated aspects of the new OS is disheartening, and while we could hack a solution to get both working (see here), it's not a reasonable option for most end users right now, and probably wouldn't be fair to include in this review.

On a "brighter" note, AT&T claims it will be delivering MMS to the iPhone come late Summer as part of its standard SMS packages (no word on tethering), though we think it's patently absurd that the second largest carrier in America -- a carrier which currently has MMS enabled for all of its other devices -- is failing to make this available at launch. Judging from the reaction to this news during the WWDC keynote, it would seem that most others agree. Apple included.

Cut, copy, and paste

Of all the features added to the new 3.0 cocktail, copy / paste is easily the most talked about. Perhaps because it was such an obvious feature to leave out to begin with, or perhaps because Apple made it through multiple updates with no change (till now). Regardless, the iPhone line now has the ability to perform one of the most basic tasks known to computing. So how does it fare? Well, it's actually a pretty smart implementation of the process on a mobile device -- one of the best we've seen. To grab a chunk of text, you simply tap on the section you want to grab and the phone tries to figure out just how much you meant to select. Usually it's pretty smart about what you want (sort of the copy / paste version of Apple's predictive text input), but it also gives you anchors to grab on the top, bottom, left, and right of the selection box, allowing you to pull your copy area out as needed. A contextual menu appears above or below your selection, and changes based on what stage of the process you're in. To paste you just tap on an empty spot in a document, and the menu presents itself again. For undoing actions, you shake the phone (cute, but a little annoying -- we would have preferred a menu item).

The beauty here is that unlike competitors such as the Pre or Android, iPhone copy and paste doesn't just let you grab text -- you can grab whole chunks of mixed media, like text and images, and it will copy the content with proper formatting and elements. If you want to pull out a section of a webpage, for instance, the function elegantly allows you to zero in on the area you want to copy and easily transfer it into an email or document without losing any components (unless you're pasting into a text only area, like Notes, which strips out formatting and images).

While we don't think the wait was necessarily justified for a feature so simple (and so necessary), we do think Apple has pulled off a tremendously useful implementation of the process. It's the kind of thing you'll miss once you go to another device without such broad and universal functionality.

Push notifications

Way back in June of 2008, Apple promised that we'd see push notifications -- instantaneous alerts for emails, messages, and other app-related notices -- due in an OS update come that September. Needless to say, the fall came and went without so much as a mention of the software addition. Earlier this year, Apple showed off the functionality again at the iPhone OS 3.0 preview, combatting arguments for true multitasking within the iPhone operating system by saying push would not only work as a surrogate for most background tasks, but would allow the devices to retain sufficient battery life. Background tasks, Apple warned us, create a drain on power that would have users running for their chargers far too often.

So -- do push notifications take the place of background tasks? Do they give the end-user the feeling of constant connectedness the way Apple seems to intend them to? In our experience, not quite. At the time of this writing, there are only a few apps actually employing the service, though we're sure more will come. Overall, where push is really useful is in receiving updates or messages -- individual pings which direct your attention towards a particular application -- but they don't keep you in the stream of information the way an AIM session running in the background does. Yes, you get alerted to new messages (or in the case of something like Tap Tap Revenge, challenges), but those appear as either one of the iPhone's annoying pop-ups, or as a background audio notification coupled with a growing message counter for a particular app (AIM for instance). The service is extremely useful, and we're happy that Apple is endeavoring to make it available for all of its developers, but from a practical perspective, it doesn't feel that different than an email notification or a calendar event. In short, it will help you stay connected, but it won't take the place of true multitasking, and unless Apple finds a less obtrusive notification solution, it could actually create quite a mess. Besides those obvious issues, we're still not seeing push for the things we really want, namely, Gmail. We don't know when (or if) a rollout of said feature is planned, but we're guessing it can't be too far off for a device which now has central functionality orbiting around this feature.

Ultimately, we still feel strongly that true multitasking can't be replaced by these notifications, and if there's anything we learned from using the Pre, it's that background tasks can be handled elegantly without a mind-blowing hit to battery life. For a company which prides itself on advanced battery tech, you'd think instead of shying away from the challenge, Apple would be looking for ways to innovate in this space.

Spotlight

We've got to hand it to Apple -- the company has really answered the call when it comes to search functionality on the iPhone. The addition of Spotlight to the iPhone OS is quite notable for two reasons: first, it gives you homescreen access to a full search of all your content on the device, including notes, email, contacts, calendar events, and applications. Secondly, it provides new search functionality within mail that not only lets your get at downloaded messages, but extends the hooks into server-side content. That's a bit of a stunner, as we can't count the number of times we've needed to fish some info from an email that had long moved outside of our 200 message limit (and what's up with that anyway Apple?). Spotlight searching works flawlessly in email, but we have a few gripes about the phone-facing implementation.

To start with, in order to navigate to your Spotlight screen, you have to either assign the home button double-tap shortcut to take you to the search window, swipe back when you're in homescreen view, or single tap once to get to your first page, then again to get into Spotlight. It all seems a bit complicated to us -- what would have made more sense was some kind of universal gesture... like maybe that long home button press reserved for Voice Control (more on that in a bit). Another problem is that you still have to jump through multiple hoops to get to the content you're looking for, particularly with contacts. Once you bring up a name, you have to actually jump into the contact card to call or send a text message -- why isn't this info accessible from the search window? As with a lot of processes on the phone, you still feel like you're clicking through way, way too many screens to get where you need to be.

Video recording / editing

(Here's a link to the raw video file shot with the 3G S)

Okay -- you got us. Video recording on the iPhone 3G S is really quite impressive, and there are two reasons why. For starters, the phone handles pretty fantastic looking VGA video at 30 FPS, which makes for not just passable mobile video, but usable mobile video. The size, clarity, and smoothness of the sequences we shot looked tremendous to our eyes -- certainly on par if not outclassing many of the contenders in this space. In our opinion, the 3G S video quality is high enough that we'd consider this a viable stand-in for lower end camcorders or flip cams -- if you want to capture your kids at the park but don't want to come packing a ton of gear, this produces totally reasonable results.

The second reason we're a fan of the 3G S video functionality is simple: editing. After you snap some video, you can easily pull out just the section you want to use in a kind of dumbed down iMovie edit window, which gives you a timeline of your clip, replete with a preview of the action. You can long-press on the section you're editing to see a more detailed view, and you can pull either the start or end points to snag just the section you want. We love the fact that you can grab and cut video in-phone without having to offload anywhere else, but we'd love it even more if OS 3.0 allowed for non-destructive editing of the clips. As it is now, once you cut something down, you're done -- there's no way to retrieve the full length version of the video. We're hoping in future version Apple gives users either the option to retain the deleted sections, or at least the option to copy the clip over to a new file. We wouldn't scoff at an option to splice or merge multiple clips together either, but we don't want to break the bank with our lofty requests.

One other nice feature that's been tacked on the video tool is the ability to auto-compress and upload to YouTube, MobileMe (a 45 second video took about three minutes to up over WiFi), or send a .MOV in an email. If we had a device that could actually utilize MMS, there's an option for that as well.

Voice Control -

Voice Control is a bit like an answer to a question that no one asked. The basic premise is that Apple has given 3G S owners the ability to control their phone via simple voice commands, relayed through a glitzy Voice Control homescreen (which is accessed by holding down the home button for a few seconds). As you issue commands, the screen provides fly-bys of possible actions, ostensibly to make the process a bit easier on those with a blown short term memory. In practice, the application performed admirably when we made specific requests, whether it was dialing contacts, or playing a particular band -- though it wasn't without its hang-ups. The first problem we encountered is that it would sometimes just mishear us altogether, for instance, we asked it to "play M83" and it thought we wanted to listen to a playlist called "Pre" (oh the irony). Another irksome behavior is that you can ask Voice Control things like what song is currently playing, but after telling you, the app closes itself, forcing you to reopen if you want to change the track or perform another action. This seems like weird UI design to us -- why wouldn't Voice Control stay open until we were ready to close it? We also discovered that the range of options for voice activated functions are quite limited -- if you want to do anything beyond controlling music playback or making calls, you're pretty much out of luck.

There's clearly a lot of use for something like this when driving or working on something which keeps your hands away from your phone, though you still have to engage the app physically, so we're not sure how much you'd get out of it in those situations. The whole concept seems something very much in the vein of Cover Flow -- a really impressive component for the phone that just doesn't have a ton of practical use. Yes, your friends will think it's pretty cool, but as a pragmatic group of gadget nerds, we don't see a tremendous need for this functionality. Perhaps Apple will give it a little more undercarriage work in future versions of the OS, because we see lots of interesting places they could take it.

Compass / Google Maps

It may seem like an odd choice, but Apple decided to stick a proper compass inside the 3G S. At first we were a little perplexed by the addition, since we've gotten in this weird habit of expecting bolder moves from the company. Still, in practice the inclusion of a hardware compass is actually really helpful when it comes to doing things like navigating a new city. As far as the hardware is concerned, the compass seems to do what's promised with pretty impressive accuracy.

The Compass app itself, viewed as a standalone product, doesn't really do much for us. We rarely have a need to know which direction we're facing or where north is in relation to where we're standing -- it's just not a piece of data we typically use. The combination of Google Maps and the compass, however, is a powerful marriage that could put an end to many of your navigation woes. Within Maps, you now have the option to not only locate your position via GPS, but orient the map to the direction you're facing. Once the compass picks up your bearing, it rotates the map to reflect. This may not sound like much, but if you've ever tried to walk a new city using just maps and geolocation, you'll understand quickly. Being able to not only see your surrounding landmarks, but how they relate to you from a directional standpoint is incredibly useful, and we found ourselves reaching for the help often with the 3G S. One sour note was that you're not treated to the same reality-bending feat of using the compass while in street view (as Android does -- always great at parties), though it's a minor complaint. We can't say what extended functionality the compass will hold, but the pairing with GMaps here is enough to make it a worthy addition in our opinion.

Landscape keyboard, Nike+, A2DP, further thoughts on iPhone OS 3.0 -

There are lots of little odds and ends, improvements both small and large, in the iPhone OS 3.0. At the time of this writing, anyone with an iPhone or iPhone 3G should be able to download and test most of them, but we wanted to give a brief overview / opinion on the ones that stood out to us.

The first big one that stands out is the extension of a landscape keyboard to all of the main applications in Apple's arsenal. That means you now have access to the more spacious layout in Mail, Notes, Messages, etc. There are a lot of users out there who were hoping this day would come, and we'll admit, our typing accuracy definitely goes up when we bust out the broader keyboard. Like copy and paste, this is probably an addition that should have been part of the package right out of the gate, but better late than never guys.

Another addition is the inclusion of Nike+ for the 3G S. The app itself is identical to the version which we've already seen for the iPod touch, but it's now in convenient iPhone form. We don't know about you, but carrying around the iPhone for a jog doesn't seem like the best option to us (then again, we don't know if carrying around a touch is preferable). Still, we won't knock Apple for trying to cram as much functionality into this thing as possible -- this is a welcome addition.

And for those wondering about A2DP -- it's here, and it works flawlessly. Testing things out with the Motorola ROKR S9-HD yielded a simple pairing right out of the gate, and the sound quality was excellent. We thought we'd never see the day where Apple came around to a stereo Bluetooth profile, but it's here, and it's fantastic.

It's clear that Apple has taken great pains to listen to users and go over the OS with a fine tooth comb -- you see the company's careful work in places like the call log (which now shows much more detailed info on callers), upgrades to standard apps like Stocks, and the thoughtfulness of adding oft-requested features like voice memo recording. We're not saying Apple has gotten kind and gentle, but the company does seem more kind and more gentle as it insinuates itself into the mainstream.

Battery life, pricing, wrap-up -

Battery life

Apple claimed that the battery life on the 3G S is somehow better than what we've previously seen on the 3G, but in our tests, we could barely tell the difference between the two handsets. First off, in terms of talktime and data over a 3G network, the count is exactly the same (five hours) -- though the battery gains two hours (up from 10 to 12) using 2G. Where the differences really show according to Apple are during strictly WiFi, video, or audio use. The claim is that you'll see roughly three to four more hours of life out of the device in those scenarios, but honestly, if you're just using this thing to play audio, why did you bother getting an iPhone? In our tests -- real world, admittedly non-scientific tests -- we hardly noticed a difference in battery life between the new and old model. The point is, you're still very much in the same boat when it comes to general use -- but on the plus side, there's no noticeable deficit in power with the new version (though we have yet to see what heavy video capture does to a full charge).

Pricing

As with any phone, the big, highlighted number you see advertised left and right for the iPhone 3G S -- $199 for the 16GB version and $299 for the 32GB -- is the new contract price, which means there are plenty of thick, barbed strings attached. If you're still using a RAZR from 2006 and you haven't touched your service or bought a new phone directly from the carrier since then, you're almost certainly in business with these maximum subsidies; AT&T's made its money off of you several times over and it's willing to put a little dough back in your pocket once again in order to get a whole lot more out of you over the course of a contract. On the flipside, customers who have been upgrading religiously from iPhone to 3G to 3G S will not necessarily be eligible for those most lucrative prices unless they paid the off-contract price for their 3G (to avoid re-upping the contract they were already on) and are now out of contract altogether -- unless AT&T says otherwise, of course. More on that next.

If you're what AT&T calls "ineligible," you have a a few options. The company has taken the very unusual step of letting iPhone 3G customers who are becoming upgrade eligible in the next three months through the end of September (note that this can be, and usually is, different from the date that your contract is up) can take advantage of the fully subsidized pricing. The way your upgrade eligibility date is an inexact science, involving Magic 8-Balls, mainframes from the 1960s, and faerie dust, but the bottom line is that you need to check with the carrier to find out when that date is (you can see it using online account management -- no need to call in).

You can always add a line, assuming you clear the usual battery of credit checks, which would also get you back in the game for $199 / $299 -- the tradeoff being that you're stuck with another line of service, of course, which ends up significantly outweighing any subsidy advantage upfront by the time your new contract has run its course. If you want to upgrade your existing line early, you can do so for $399 or $499 for the 16GB or 32GB model, respectively, and for contract breakage newbies, that can definitely be an unwelcome shock to the wallet. Even folks who upgraded from the original iPhone to the 3G and don't become eligible in the next few months won't much appreciate what's going on here, since they'd essentially paid "full price" for the first model which allowed AT&T to offer the 3G at maximum subsidy provided customers re-upped their contracts. At any rate, keep in mind that buying in at these $399 / $499 price points will extend your contract back to two years, because -- believe it or not -- they're still slightly discounted. If you want to buy a 3G S outright without the moral and financial dilemma of signing your name to a very pricey piece of paper, get ready for the big bucks: $599 or $699, depending on the model you choose.

It can all be a little confusing, yes -- and if you aren't upgrade eligible or have questions about your individual situation, your best bet is to go into a store; representatives can typically work magic on your account that you can't work yourself through AT&T's website.

Wrap-up

There are probably two very large groups of people thinking about buying an iPhone right now. One set is current users, either those with the 3G, or those still using the original model. The other set is a group of new users -- people who've never owned an iPhone and are now faced with not one, but two different options when it comes to getting in the door. For both groups, there are huge questions to answer about whether or not getting the 3G S makes sense, and very few of them have to do with the quality of the phone.

For current users, we have this to say: the iPhone 3G S is a solid spec bump to a phone you already own... but it is, at its core, a phone you already own. Your real deciding factors will be two-fold, first, are you able to purchase the 3G S at a price which is reasonable or sensible to you? For a lot of current users -- particularly more recent customers -- the pricing will be exorbitant, and it's hard to think of dropping $399 or $499 when you've just shelled out for a very, very similar phone (remember, you're paying for a speed bump, a compass, and video recording). On the other hand, if you're within contract renewal range and you don't plan on jumping platforms anytime soon, $199 nabs you an unquestionably excellent smartphone.

That conclusion speaks to new users who are undecided about the iPhone (or exactly which iPhone to buy). At this stage, we wouldn't recommend anything but the 3G S for newcomers planning on getting into Apple's game. For another $100, you're nabbing a much more robust device with a handful of great additions. It's a small price to pay for something you plan to keep long term -- or until Apple pops the next iteration on us. The other big questions here aren't about the 3G or 3G S -- they're about Apple's platform and AT&T's network. While the smartphone market has cracked wide open lately, the iPhone is arguably the market leader (at least in mindshare), and really does showcase a superb platform -- lack of physical keyboard and multitasking aside. AT&T, on the other hand, isn't exactly acting like the top-tier carrier it's supposed to be, and its service can sometimes be maddeningly poor.

So while it's tough to argue with the package Apple has put together (a stellar device with just enough new to make it nearly perfect), we couldn't help feeling a bit let down by the 3G S. Maybe we've been spoiled by devices like the Pre and Ion (and it's possible we're a little numb to OS 3.0 since we've played with the beta for a while now), but the additions of video recording, a compass, and a speed bump just don't seem that compelling to us. The mix of new features and a ever-growing App Store will still be potent to new buyers -- but pricing schemes which amount to hundreds more for current owners might give previous early adopters and eager upgraders reason for pause. Ultimately we're not saying it's time to jump ship, but we've come to expect a bit more pedal to the floor from Apple -- you've raised the bar guys, now it's time to jump over it.

Tags : 3g s, 3gS, apple, att, engadget review, EngadgetReview, features, iphone, iphone 3g s, iphone 3g s review, iphone review, Iphone3gS, Iphone3gSReview, IphoneReview, review , iphone 3gs launch, iphone 3gs availability, iphone 3gs lines, new iphone reviews, iphone 3gs review

Japanese star found drunk and naked in park

2009-04-24T13:39:00.002+08:00

Tsuyoshi Kusanagi is one of the member of the group SMAP.
A complaint of noise from the park lead the police to found him.
He was all alone and was uttering a shrill cry.
When the police question him , he replied , '' what is wrong with being naked?''
No one in Japan would believe that he actually behaves that way.
And there goes his career...
Well,I think he might be in some sort of trouble that lead him to be so drunk and do this kind of silly thing or maybe he isn't conscious of what he is doing.

He drove her to cemeteries to abuse and have sex with her

2009-04-22T16:16:00.000+08:00

When this couple started quarreling.
The guy will drove the girl to a cemetery in the night hours.
He would then starts to bash him and even compelled her to have sex with him.
Knowing that no one would be here to save her even if she yell and the guy know that she is afraid of the dark.Therefore,she would just give in to him,without fail.
This process has been going on and on for 3years.
And this lady did not even make a police report!
The guy even asked her to become a prostitute.
And knowing that the girl earns more than he does.
He exclaimed that she must support him.
She has probably went to all of the cemeteries.
She tried telling him that he will end his life but he told her that he will still come after her if she died.
And he once ripped off her underwear.
This kind of boyfriend would you want?
Making you living in fear and darkness.
Hopefully,the ghost in the cemeteries would haunt him for disturbing them.

Source : http://howcomeyouarehere.blogspot.com/2009/04/he-drove-her-to-cemeteries-to-abuse-her.html

North Korea to quit nuke talks

2009-04-14T16:03:00.001+08:00

SEOUL - NORTH Korea announced on Tuesday it would quit six-nation disarmament talks and restart its nuclear weapons programme in protest at the UN's condemnation of its rocket launch this month.

The communist state said the Security Council's discussion of a peaceful satellite launch was 'an unbearable insult' to its people.

It said it 'sternly rejects' the Council's action and would strengthen its nuclear deterrent in response.

'There is no need for the six-party (nuclear disarmament) talks any more,' said a foreign ministry statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

'We will never again take part in such talks and will not be bound by any agreement reached at the talks.' The North 'will strengthen its nuclear deterrent for its defence by all means,' it said.

'We will take steps to restore disabled nuclear facilities... and reprocess used fuel rods that came from experimental nuclear reactors.' The statement, which analysts described as unusually strong, came just hours after the Security Council unanimously approved its statement.

Pyongyang had been disabling plants at Yongbyon that produced weapons-grade plutonium as part of a February 2007 six-nation deal.

It previously threatened to quit the talks, which began in 2003, should the Security Council criticise its April 5 rocket launch.

Pyongyang's regime has been trumpeting its success in launching what it termed a peaceful communications satellite.

The United States and its allies say no satellite has been detected in orbit and the North's purpose in any case was to test a long-range missile. -- AFP

Source : http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Asia/Story/STIStory_363420.html

Hundred of homes destroyed by grass fires in Oklahoma

2009-04-10T11:12:00.001+08:00

HOUSTON, April 9 (Xinhua) -- About 100 homes have been destroyed or severely damaged in Midwest City, in the south-central U.S. state of Oklahoma, media reports said Thursday.

Firefighters have stopped battling individual house fires and are concentrating on grass fires, hoping to contain the grassfires before they catch any more homes on fire, fire department spokesman Jerry Lojka told local TV.

"This is probably the worst disaster in Midwest City's history, even worse than the May 3rd, 1999 tornadoes," police chief Brandon Clabes said.

"I don't think we're going to have these fires out anytime soon. They're out of control," Clabes said, adding the fires are rekindling as quickly as they can be put out because of the high winds.

Source : http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-04/10/content_11162479.htm

Fire Damage "Worse Than May 3rd"

KSBI News

Story Created: Apr 9, 2009 at 6:24 PM CDT

Story Updated: Apr 9, 2009 at 9:45 PM CDT

Updated: Wednesday, April 9, 2009, 9:45 p.m.

Authorities in Lindsay say at least 11 homes have been destroyed in a fire burning along State Highway 76.

Purcell Emergency Management officials say 12 to 15 square miles were burned.

OHP reports several roads are still closed in southern Oklahoma including State Highway 76 from Ratliff City to Healdton in Carter County, I-35 from Exit 51 to Exit 55 and State Highway 7 from I-35 to Hennepin in Murray County and State Highway 74 from State Highway 7 to State Highway 29 in Garvin County.

Residents in Velma are now being allowed to return to their homes.

Updated: Wednesday, April 9, 2009, 8:54 p.m.

Fires continue to burn in Choctaw. Parents searching for their children should go to shelters set up at 2nd and Main St., the downtown library or the Junior High auditorium at 3rd and Main.

A shelter has been set up at Eastland Hills Baptist Church at SE 29th and Hiwassee Road. The New Community Church at I-40 and Anderson road is also taking evacuees.

Purcell officials have set up a shelter at the fire department at 1505 N. Green Ave.

Updated: Wednesday, April 9, 2009, 7:55 p.m.

Midwest City fire crews say about 100 homes have been destroyed or severely damaged in Midwest City. Firefighters have reportedly stopped fighting individual house fires to concentrate on getting grass fires contained. Midwest City Police officials say this is probably the worst disaster in the city's history, even worse than the May 3, 1999 tornadoes. So far, no serious injuries have been reported.

Updated: Wednesday, April 9, 2009, 6:50 p.m.

Fires have burned across the state forcing numerous evacuations.

Oklahoma City residents between SE 120th and SE 149th from Anderson Road to Henney Road are being evacuated to the north and west of that area.

Midwest City Residents from SE 15th to NE 10th have been asked to evacuate to the Midwest Community Center at 100 N. Midwest Blvd. Residents can also go to the Choctaw Library.

Residents in Grady County between Bradley and Lindsay are being asked to go to Alex School.

Residents between the Grady County/Garvin County line and Lindsay are being asked to evacuate east to Lindsay.

Several homes in Meridian in Stephens County, along with a nursing home and animal hospital have been evacuated.

Homes have burned near Wellston and the town of Sparks was evacuated late Thursday afternoon.

A large grass fire shut down parts of Interstate 35 near Highway 51. At last check, that fire was burning about 25 miles wide.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol has advice for those driving near the fires that are sparking across the state.

Captain Chris West with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol is advising drivers to stay away from those areas. He says if you see smoke, head the other direction.

OHP officers are also doing what they can to help. They are located at numerous sites throughout Oklahoma.

Source : http://www.ksbitv.com/news/42773217.html

Wild Fires Across South Central Oklahoma

Multiple fires going on during KTEN News at 5 Thursday.

In Love County, evacuations started early Thursday afternoon on the western side of Oswalt Road... Near Wade and Pike Roads.

No structures burned yet, but there are some in danger. Another fire, two miles north of Marietta.

And two along Interstate 35, as well.

The situation in western Carter County is very serious, with an explosion at the Champion Chemical plant, and another at a propane distributor, also on fire.

We've also confirmed a fire in the Fox/Graham area... The Graham Fire Department itself caught on fire.

The First Baptist Church in Fox also burned.

KTEN's Meredith Saldana reported live on KTEN News at 5 on a big blaze in the Healdton area.

Source : http://www.kten.com/Global/story.asp?S=10160449

10 of the Hottest Girls @Twitter

2009-04-10T11:09:00.001+08:00

Veronica Belmont
Marina Orlova
Natalie Gulbis
iJustine
Felicia Day
Sarah Austin
Brea Grant
Gina Mom
Julia Roy
Alana Taylor

Pictures of them are available @ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/neal-rodriguez/10-of-the-hottest-girls-t_b_184378.html

Singapore man caught watching porn film on bus!

2009-04-04T00:46:00.000+08:00

Man caught watching porn film on bus

If this man's actions speak for anyone, it seems that people are now no longer obliged to confine themselves in a darkened room when watching porn.

According to evening daily Lianhe Wanbao, a reader of the Chinese paper called to complain that she spotted a man watching pornographic clips on board a bus.

Miss Liang, 23, boarded SMRT service 913 on 31 March at about 9.20am. The bus was travelling towards Admiralty.

As it was the morning rush hour, the bus was crowded and it took Miss Liang some time before she found a seat. It was not long after she took a seat that she saw the man in front of her watching porn videos.

The administrator told Lianhe Wanbao, "In the beginning, I thought that he was just texting or playing games on his mobile phone. It was only a while later when I saw the video clip on the phone's screen and realized he was watching porn in public.

"I never expected anyone to watch such videos in public and I was very stunned by what I saw."
Miss Liang also told Lianhe Wanbao that there were several students in school uniform on board the bus, and anyone could have seen what the man was watching.

"He was wearing a cap, but otherwise showed no shame or embarrassment with regards to what he was doing."
However, as Miss Liang was unsure if the man's actions were against the law, she did not report the matter to the authorities.

Miss Liang said that the man alighted several stops afterward.

In a reply to Lianhe Wanbao's queries, a police spokesman said that anyone found to be in possession of pornographic material can face a fine of up to $20,000. Those who distribute or screen such videos can face a fine of up to $40,000, a jail term of up to 6 months, or both.

Members of the public should alert the police when they come across such incidents. The police will investigate the complaints and appropriate action will be taken against violators.

Source : http://www.asiaone.com/Digital/News/...02-132691.html

Daughter exposed her father for keeping porn DVDs!

2009-04-04T00:45:00.000+08:00

Fri, Apr 03, 2009
The Star/Asia News Network

MALAYSIA - DISGUSTED with her father's "dirty" habit, a daughter told police about his pornographic DVD collection.

A police team raided their house in Kuantan and found 85 DVDs hidden behind the back seat in the man's car.

According to Harian Metro, the 15-year-old schoolgirl lodged the report at around 3pm on Wednesday after she found the cache of DVDs in her father's car. The girl said she was "disgusted" with her father's habit.

It is understood that the father, a security guard in his 40s, would watch the DVDs when the girl's mother was not at home.

The man could not explain to the police why there were so many DVDs in his car. Police are investigating if the man is part of a syndicate distributing pornographic DVDs.

Source : http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Crime/Story/A1Story20090403-132894.html

Man swallowed scissors ?!?!

2009-04-01T19:00:00.003+08:00

A Chinese man accidentally swallowed a pair of scissors when he burst out laughing while using them as a toothpick.

Lin's X-rays and the scissors he swallowed /Quirky China News

Mr Lin, 27, from Putian, had to be taken to hospital to have them removed, reports Straits News.

His wife said her husband was chatting with friends after breakfast while using a small pair of scissors as a toothpick.

"He gave a big laugh on hearing a joke from a friend, and unexpectedly the scissors slipped inside his throat," she said.

The man tried to cough the scissors back up again but that only made the situation worse.

Dr Chen Wei said: "When he came in, his face was twisted, pale, and sweating. The patient was having difficulty swallowing, and blood was mixed with his saliva."

X-rays showed the 9cm long and 4cm wide scissors had fully entered Lin's oesophagus.

Doctors feared a general anaesthetic would relax the throat muscles and allow the scissors to travel down even further so they used a local anaesthetic and carefully removed the scissors with forceps.

"The whole operation took around 30 minutes. Luckily Lin does not have much of a wound inside his throat," added Dr Chen.

Source : http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_3261779.html

M'sia boy, 9, dies after caning

2009-04-01T18:59:00.002+08:00

SEREMBAN: A nine-year-old Malaysian pupil who was caned in the hands by a woman teacher at the school on Tuesday, died on Wednesday.

According to Negri Sembilan police chief Osman Salleh, the boy had complained about feeling dizzy after the caning session. On seeing that his condition had taken a turn for the worse, the school authorities contacted his parents before sending him to the Segamat Hospital for treatment.

'The parents, however, had him transferred to the Sultanah Aminah Hospital in Johor Baru but later brought him back home the same day after being told by hospital authorities that chances of their son recovering were slim,' he told reporters after attending a blood donation campaign at the Negri Sembilan police headquarters here on Wednesday.

He said it was understood the boy had 'central nervous system problems' and dismissed allegations that the caning had caused his death.

He added that the boy died at home at 3.30am on Wednesday.

Mr Osman said that on a personal note, in future, he advised parents to inform school authorities if their children were suffering any ailment.

'This way the schools will have proper records on the health condition of their charges ... teachers will be extra cautious when taking any disciplinary action against them,' he said. -- BERNAMA

Source : http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/SE%2BAsia/Story/STIStory_357288.html

Man foils bank robbery after assuming it was an April Fool

2009-04-01T18:59:00.001+08:00

Man foils bank robbery after assuming it was an April Fool

A man inadvertently foiled an attempted bank robbery after assuming it was an April Fool prank, a court has heard.

By Richard Edwards, Crime Correspondent
Last Updated: 4:53PM BST 31 Mar 2009

Customer Andrew Stewart was sitting down reading a newspaper in an Exeter branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland on March 31 last year when a raider burst in and demanded money.

Brian Davison, 32, put his hand inside his back pack then told cashiers: "I've got a gun. Seriously I've got a gun – hand over the ******* money".

But as terrified cashiers prepared to hand over a bundle of notes, Mr Stewart calmly walked up to the robber and said: "It's April the 1st isn't it mate? It's April Fool's Day".

When Davidson said to him "I've got a gun I will shoot you", Andrew replied "go on then shoot me" and grabbed the bag from his hands.

He opened it in front of staff and after seeing it was empty sat down and carried on reading his paper, Exeter Crown Court heard.

Davison fled the scene but was later arrested and has now pleaded guilty to affray.

Richard Crabb, prosecuting, said: "Prior to Mr Stewart's intervention terrified staff believed Davison was an armed robber. They were going to hand over a pre-packed bundle of marked notes."

The court heard Davison, of Torquay, Devon, attempted to raid the bank just hours after appearing at a local court on a charge of criminal damage.

He spent 403 days in custody on remand, which was the equivalent of a 30-month sentence, so he avoided a further jail term and made the subject of a two year community order.

Source : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5077153/Man-foils-bank-robbery-after-assuming-it-was-an-April-Fool.html

A FLEET of UFOs in formation has been photographed — on Google.

2009-03-31T17:38:00.000+08:00

The nine silver spheres hover above a row of shops, including a Coral bookies, on the internet giant’s new Street View service.

Sun reader Faye Sharpe, 18, discovered them while viewing her neighbourhood of Wolverley Street in Bethnal Green, East London.

Faye said: “I was checking out the road to see if I could spot my mates. I thought it looked very strange and zoomed in.

“I thought it was some planes but they look pretty close together for that. Maybe they are UFOs.”

Yesterday baffled ufologist Nick Pope said he was “very excited” by the image, which he labelled “truly fascinating”.

He added: “It appears to show nine objects flying in near perfect formation. About the only thing I know that can do this is the Red Arrows — and it’s not them.”

Mr Pope, who used to investigate sightings for the Ministry of Defence, said: “I’ve run through the list of possibilities that normally explain these things, but I can’t find an answer.”

Yesterday The Sun visited the street to talk to locals about the mysterious find. Holly Riding, 19, said: “It’s definitely weird.”

Advertisement

Karishma Daswani, 22, added: “The fact that they are flying in formation is very strange.”

Oriele Calvert, 44, said: “This is definitely the strangest thing I’ve ever seen in Bethnal Green.”

Street View, on Google Maps and Google Earth, shows 360-degree views of 25 cities throughout the country.

Source & Credits : http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2348570.ece

Father Kept Daughter as Incest Sex Slave for 25 Years

2009-03-29T14:53:00.001+08:00

Listening devices had been placed in the handset of 64-year-old Michele Mongelli's telephone as part of the probe against him and his son Giuseppe, 41.

Officers heard the scrap metal dealer carry out the attack on his daughter, 34, after the handset had been misplaced. One investigator involved in the case said: "It was horrific."

Meanwhile specially trained psychologists were questioning the woman and her four nieces as they pieced together a shocking case of child sex abuse said to have been carried out by a father on his own daughter for 25 years.

Mr Mongelli is said to have raped his daughter and "groomed" his son Giuseppe to abuse not only his sister but also his own four children, aged between six and 20.

The two men were arrested last week in what has already been dubbed Italy's version of the Josef Fritzl case - the Austrian who was jailed for life earlier this month for enslaving and raping his daughter for 24 years and fathering her seven children.

There was shock in Turin that such a horrific case had gone unnoticed for so long - especially as the eldest victim, named as "Laura", had escaped from the room where she was being held in 1994 and told police she was being abused.

But officials dismissed her claims after psychologists concluded she was "disturbed" and Mr Mongelli, who is from Turin, also managed to persuade them that his daughters' claims were fiction.

The woman has given two detailed statements to police and new details of her horrific ordeal in a "darkened room with no electricity" have emerged.

In one statement she said: "From when I was nine years old my father sexually abused me, he touched my intimate parts and he would kiss me on the mouth.

"Then from when I was 16 he forced me to have full sex with him. I would sleep i the same room as him because he wanted to have me near him all the time, next to his bed."

In one chilling transcript released by police the eight year old girl was heard saying: "Dad - get your hands off me. You are a bastard, stop it."

As part of the probe officers were also investigating claims that Mongelli had also sexually abused his brother's daughter during the 1960s.

Pietro Forno, the prosecutor leading the case, said: "The victims were not only subjected to sexual abuse but also psychological abuse.

"I have dealt with many incest cases but this is the worst that I have seen because it lasted for 25 years and also because the main victim is 34 years old.

"I don't want to blame the psychologists who were relied on in 1994. but it's clear that the signs were there and not acted upon at the time when clearly they should have been. However when acted upon again the interceptions and secret recordings proved vital in this case and they make for shocking listening as the abuse can quite clearly be heard."

In a bizarre move Mr Mongelli's family invited the media into their home as they defended him. His other daughter said: "My father never laid a finger on any of us. I kiss the ground my father walks on."

Two of his sons interviewed on Italian television also dismissed the allegations. One said: "Everything that is being said about our father is a lie."

Another showed reporters a tattoo of his father and said: "I have always kept my father in my heart and here on my arm."

Mr Mongelli's wife, Caterina, said:"None of this is true. It's all lies. He is a good man. My husband in in jail for something he didn't do. He kept her inside because he was worried something might happen. He was only looking after his children - what father would not do the same?"

Antonio Genovese, the man's lawyer, said:"My client is incredulous and is trying to find some sort of explanation for these allegations which he denies completely.

"He is ill and a diabetic - after he was arrested he had to be taken to the Molinette Hospital in Turin for checks. I will be appealing immediately for his release from custody."

Lead prosecutor Pietro Forno, 64, is one of Italy's top child sex investigators and worked in Milan for more than 20 years before moving to Turin. He has one of the highest conviction rates of Italian prosecutors and secured the country's first computer child sex pornography case conviction.

Last night Giuseppe Mongelli's lawyer Antonio Foti, said: ''My client denies these allegations completely.

''These accusations come from a woman who is unbalanced, confused and disturbed.

''With regard to his own children he has not laid a finger on them and the eldest one who has provided the details is doing this as part of an act of rebellion against her father.

''These transcripts that have been released or not evidence of sexual abuse they are merely evidence of a cultural and social degradation that existed within the family.

''I have already applied for bail and I have also requested an independent psychiatric reports on the man's daughter and the four children.''

Source ; http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/joseffritzl/5066402/Italian-Fritzl-Police-listened-in-as-suspect-raped-his-daughter.html

Girl, 15, collapses in school and dies

2009-03-29T13:09:00.000+08:00

Claudia Chua collapsed while preparing the sound system for the flag-raising ceremony. -- PHOTO: LIANHE WANBAO

A 15-YEAR-OLD girl collapsed and died in school on Thursday.
Xinmin Secondary School student Claudia Chua, a member of the school's Media Club, was preparing the sound system for the flag-raising ceremony when she collapsed, the Chinese-language evening daily Lianhe Wanbao reported.
Staff at the school in Hougang who were trained in cardio-pulmonary resuscitation tried to revive her.
An ambulance arrived within five minutes and paramedics attended to her in the school's general office.
She was taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Principal Liew Wei Li told Wanbao that the teenager was well-liked by her friends, schoolmates and teachers.
She added that the school community was saddened by news of Claudia's death, and that counselling would be provided for the teachers and students affected by the loss.
GRACE CHUA

Source : Straitstime

Ashley Biden's Cocaine Video Scandal

2009-03-29T12:58:00.000+08:00

Ashley Biden Tape: VP's Daughter Allegedly Doing Cocaine In Videotape Hawked By Friend, Reports NY Post

A "friend" of Vice President Joseph Biden's daughter, Ashley, is attempting to hawk a videotape that he claims shows her snorting cocaine at a house party this month in Delaware.

The anonymous male acquaintance of Ashley took the video, said Thomas Dunlap, a lawyer representing the seller.

Dunlap and a man claiming to be a lawyer showed The Post about 90 seconds of 43-minute tape, saying it was legally obtained and that Ashley was aware she was being filmed. The Post refused to pay for the video.

The video, which the shooter initially hoped to sell for $2 million before scaling back his price to $400,000, shows a 20-something woman with light skin and long brown hair taking a red straw from her mouth, bending over a desk, inserting the straw into her nostril and snorting lines of white powder.

She then stands up and begins talking with other people in the room. A young man looks on from behind her, facing the camera. The lawyers said he was Ashley's boyfriend of a few years.

The camera follows the woman from a few feet away, focusing on her as she moves around the room. It appears not to be concealed. At one point she shouts, "Shut the f--- up!"

The woman appears to resemble Ashley Biden, 27, a social worker for a Delaware child-welfare agency and a visible presence during her father's campaign for the White House.

The dialogue is difficult to discern, but the woman makes repeated references to the drugs, said the lawyers, who said they viewed the tape about 15 times.

"At one point she pretty much complains that the line isn't big enough," said the second lawyer, who declined to identify himself. "And she talks about her dad."

Biden has been an outspoken crusader against drugs, coining the term "drug czar" in 1982 while campaigning for a more forceful "war on drugs."

The lawyers declined to name the person who shot the video, but said he knew Ashley well and had attended other parties with her at which there were illegal drugs.

The lawyers said the shooter used a camera with a hard-disc drive that he later destroyed, drilling into the device and tossing it into a lake.

The woman in the video acknowledges the camera in a way that makes it clear she knows she's being recorded, the lawyers said, waving at it during a part of the video not shown to The Post.

No one else in the video is seen using the drugs. The portion of the tape shown to The Post ends shortly after the woman's alleged ingestion.

The shooter claims that he previously tape-recorded Ashley at a party in August, but was unsuccessful in his attempts to sell that video, they said.

An American media company offered $250,000 for the footage and access to the person who shot the tape, according to the lawyers.

Another company, based overseas, offered $225,000, they said.

The unnamed lawyer hinted that his client had additional information that could embarrass the vice president's daughter.

"The higher the price, the more he'll reveal," said the lawyer.

The lawyers said the video shooter was afraid of being identified and prosecuted for his role in the alleged drug use.

"He's got a criminal-defense attorney," said Dunlap, who has offices in Virginia and the District of Columbia.

The other lawyer said Ashley didn't have Secret Service protection at the time of the party because she complained about agents blocking her driveway.

"She complained to her dad about it and he got rid of them," he said.

This isn't the first brush with scandal for Ashley, who was arrested in 2002 when she yelled at a cop trying to arrest her disorderly friend outside a Chicago club, according to published report.

She was charged with obstructing, but the rap was later dropped after she apologized.

Ashley is the youngest of three siblings, and the only one born to the vice president and his second wife, Jill. Joe Biden's first wife, Neilia, and 13-month-old daughter, Naomi, died in a 1972 car crash. Her two half-brothers are Beau, 40, and Hunter, 39.

Phone messages left at the offices of Vice President Biden and Jill Biden, who were in Chile last night for meetings with South American leaders on economic issues, were not immediately returned.

Ashley also did not respond to messages left at her Delaware home.

Source : http://www.nypost.com/seven/03282009/news/nationalnews/friend_of_bidens_daughter_shopping_tape__161772.htm

Some Friend! Ashley Biden's Cocaine Video Scandal

By Keith Girard
Vice President Joe Biden, Ashley Biden

Better pick your friends carefully. Ashley Biden, the daughter of Vice President Joe Biden is reportedly the latest celebrity to be betrayed by a “friend” who is trying to hawk a video that purportedly shows the comely 27-year-old snorting cocaine and acting raucously at a party.

The incident follows closely on the heels of a photo that recently blazed across the Internet showing Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps taking hit from a marijuana bong. UK singer Amy Winehouse and Twilight actress Kristen Stewart have also been captured on film or video using drugs.

The episode involving Biden is particularly ironic because of the relatively high profile role she played in her father’s campaign as running-mate to President Barack Obama. Biden has been a particularly strident opponent of drug use and particularly cocaine use. In this case, The New York Post reports that a lawyer representing the owner of the video approached the newspaper seeking $2 million for the file, which is reported to be more than 40 minutes long.

The Post reported that it was shown about 90 seconds of the video, but in the end declined to purchase it, even after the price had been reduced to $400,000.

High-five Post owner Rupert Murdoch for passing on the tape. It’s an odds on bet that he was consulted about it, before the post declined the offer. The Post, like most other newspapers, must been cash poor because of the intense media recession, or Murdoch has finally developed at least some measure of a conscience.

As a younger man, Murdoch bought and published diaries that were claimed to have been written by Adolph Hitler. But the writings later proved to be a faked, and Murdoch became an international laughing stock.

This is where reports diverge. In a breathless dispatch, Radaronline reported in a “worldwide exclusive” that it, too, was aware of the Ashley Biden tape.. But The Post had a far more details and the two reports conflicted on key points.

For example, The Post said the woman in the video, who is not conclusively identified as Biden, used a red straw to short the cocaine; the online magazine said it was a dollar bill. Details, details!

The drug user was described by the tabloid as a “20-something woman with light skin and long brown hair.” She took “ a red straw from her mouth, bending over a desk, inserting the straw into her nostril and snorting lines of white powder.”

Radar, its print publication already a victim of the recession, reports that a man in the video hands the woman a rolled-up dollar bill. “She proceeds to walk a few steps to a table where the cocaine is cut. She pulls her hair back, bends down and snorts a line,” it says.

Like the Post, the online magazine stops short of positively indentifying the woman. It says the tape was made without her knowledge, and is being shopped for $250,000. The Post about said it was told that the tape was legally obtained, and that the woman was aware she was being filmed.

There is also some question as to when the video tape was made. Radar reported that the tape was shot this year, but other reports say Biden was 21 when it was made, which would make it six years old. If true, that would certainly lessen the impact of the “scandal.” The technology used to make the video as described by the Post sounds more 2003 than 2009.

If the tape is indeed of Ashley Biden, there is also some question as to whether this “scandal” rises to the same level as, say, the infamous Michael Phelps bong hit. Phelps is internationally known for his historic gold medal performance at the Olympics. H is undeniably a public role model and was being paid handsomely to pitch a number of high-profile products, including Wheaties.

Biden is a social worker in Delaware, where the scene was allegedly filmed, and would seem to have a much stronger claim to privacy. A high public official with wayward children is hardly a new story. The Bush twins had their own embarrassing moments with drunkenness in public, although no allegations of drug use was ever made.

Even ex-President Bush admitted to heavy drinking and drug use in college and continued drinking heavily up until his 40s. And, don’t even ask about the Kennedys.

Meanwhile, celebrities too numerous to mention have been caught on camera or video using drugs or in public displays of drunkenness. UK singer Winehouse was videotaped last year openly snorting drugs in a London night club. And Twilight star Stewart was photographed sitting on the steps of a building, taking a hit on a marijuana pipe, shortly after the cult vampire film vaulted her to notoriety.

If the tape does make it to light – reportedly overseas publications have offered as much as $250,000 for it – it is unlikely, in the end, to affect the White House or the Vice President. His position on drugs is abundantly clear.

Ashley was arrested for possessing pot marijuana while she was a college student in 1999. And in 2002, about the time some reports say the video was shot, she was arrested for obstructing a Chicago police officer outside a Chicago bar.

So, she definitely has wild-child credentials. But what the Vice President’s adult daughter does with her time, even if it is stupid, embarrassing and ultimately regrettable, is her own business.

Source : http://www.theimproper.com/Template_Article.aspx?IssueId=12&ArticleId=3368

Michael Jackson will live near haunted caves during London concerts

2009-03-29T12:53:00.001+08:00

Michael Jackson will live near haunted caves during London concerts
By Alastair Jamieson

The eccentric singer is reported to have paid £1 million to rent a large country house near the edge of an ancient 22-mile maze of haunted passageways.

The undisclosed home is thought to be close to the Chislehurst Caves in Bromley, in the south-east suburbs of London.

Ghost sightings have been reported at the caves, which were dug in chalk by the Saxons, Druids and Romans.

A property source told The Sun: "His team signed up this week to stay there. We're not sure if he knows about the caves but they're all around."

The 50-year-old star sent aides to find the perfect country retreat before his first gig in London on July 8.

The three-storey pile – built in the 1800s – has quarters for 20 staff as well as an underground cinema, music room, indoor swimming pool, lake and private wood.

Closed circuit television cameras and state-of-the-art alarm systems will prevent fans getting anywhere near the star during his series of 50 concerts.

It was revealed earlier that Jackson has stumped organisers of his concerts by asking to ride an elephant onto the stage as part of a jungle theme.

He was reported to have asked for a panther, snakes, tropical birds and three monkeys for a set that will have a jungle, circus and weather theme during the shows.

Source : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/5065271/Michael-Jackson-will-live-near-haunted-caves-during-London-concerts.html

Loansharks hire beautiful women!

2009-03-28T13:03:00.000+08:00

Malaysian loansharks hire women

'When there's a shortage of supply, people will look at other avenues,' Nazir Razak, chief executive officer of Bumiputra-Commerce Holdings Bhd., Malaysia's second-biggest bank, told Bloomberg. -- PHOTO: BLOOMBERG

MALAYSIAN loan sharks have a new weapon in their growing struggle to get borrowers to repay debts: beautiful women.

'They go to your office or house and sit there' to shame you into paying, said Michael Chong, 60, who has worked for two decades as a mediator between the illegal lenders and their debtors. 'If it's your house, they will wait outside and make lots of noise, and you cannot wallop the girl.'

That's in addition to the traditional incentives such as putting debtors in a cage, splashing their houses in red paint or breaking their limbs, said Mr Chong, head of the Public Services and Complaints Department of the Malaysian Chinese Association, the second-biggest political party in the ruling coalition.

The shortage of bank credit is pushing more people to loan sharks and causing a growing number to default, said Chong, who negotiated a record RM56.6 million (S$23 million) of debts last year and expects this year's total to be higher. That's forcing the lenders to look for new ways to recover the debts, he said.

Bloomberg news reported that Malaysia's job losses jumped 67 per cent in the final quarter of last year to 24,033 as the global recession pushed bankruptcies to a three-year high. The government this month announced a RM60 billion stimulus plan, predicting that the economy may contract this year for the first time in a decade.

Loan approvals by banks slid for a fifth month in January.

'When there's a shortage of supply, people will look at other avenues,' Nazir Razak, chief executive officer of Bumiputra-Commerce Holdings Bhd., Malaysia's second-biggest bank, told Bloomberg.

Mr Chong said gamblers traditionally made up about 80 per cent of clients for loan sharks, known in Malaysia as Ah Long, from the Cantonese phrase 'daai ji lung,' meaning 'big earhole.' Now, the economic slump is driving more businesses, such as building subcontractors, to seek illegal loans, said Chong, whose arm was dislocated in 1990 by a loan shark that resented his interference.

More than 10,000 civil servants are 'trapped' by the loan sharks, state news agency Bernama reported last month, citing Ahmad Shah Mohd Zin, the secretary-general of the Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services, a national trade union.

Mr Chong has built a career dealing with public complaints over trafficking, missing persons, land scams and loan-sharking. In 1987, the party created a department for him with five assistants to ease a backlog. He has dealt with 30,000 cases since then, he said.

In 2004, he had a 20-episode television series called 'Michael Chong's File' to warn the public of crimes.

Source : http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/SE%2BAsia/Story/STIStory_355331.html

ShamWow Guy Beats Up Cannibal Hooker

2009-03-28T12:50:00.000+08:00

Vince Shlomi, best known as television's ShamWow! guy, was arrested in Miami last month. For beating up a prostitute. Who allegedly tried to bite his tongue out. Did you know that? Now you do.

The Smoking Gun got hold of the police report and Mr. Shlomi's mug shot, and as you can see, he didn't escape unscathed. But neither did she. The facts of the case, briefly, according to the police report:

* Shlomi meets Sasha Harris in a Miami club. They go back to his hotel.
* She propositions him for "straight sex." He pays her a thousand bucks in cash.
* He kisses her.
* She "bit his tongue and would not let go."
* He punches her in her face repeatedly until she lets go.
* He runs down to the hotel lobby.
* They both get arrested.

Sham. Wow.

Source : http://gawker.com/5187540/shamwow-guy-beats-up-cannibal-hooker

Make Me A Supermodel:

2009-03-26T15:23:00.000+08:00

With the photos done, it's time for Indira to decide the two winners and who will be going to Montreal's Fashion Week. The best photo of the week goes to Amanda's angry dance photo, this is back to back photo challenge wins for Amanda and the first back-to-back win all season. Branden had the second best photo of the week, making him the first guy to win a go-see. Both Amanda and Branden get to bring a friend to the go-see: Amanda chooses Mountaha and Branden chooses Colin. Shawn says that he thinks Branden wasted a spot on Colin, but I think that's just a jealous old man talking smack. Amanda, Branden, Colin and Mountaha are picked up by a tour bus and they are ecstatic about it, like a Lear jet pulled up and picked them up. Branden is screaming about how "this is how supermodels role, baby." Which cracks me up, I doubt many supermodels travel in tour buses. Still, it's an incredibly cute moment.

When the models get to Montreal the girls go to a go-see for Christen Chenall and the guys are seeing designer Dien Bah. Bah wants a more relaxed walk for his 80's inspired runway show and Branden's natural walk is perfect, the designer loves him. While Colin struggles with his first pass, after the designer asks Colin to be more masculine and sexy, he really improves his walk. Dien Bah says he loves both the guys and they both book the gig. The girls are doing just as well at their go-sees. Both girls both gave a serious strut, and were asked to walk in the runway show. Wow, everyone got booked, after no one had been booked at the previous go-sees. At the fashion show Colin is pleasantly surprised how beautiful the women are and how willing they are to talk and flirt with him. His excitement lessens when the object of his affection tells him she is 16. Ha! Be sure your first conquest is legal Colin. Everyone does really well during their runway shows, all of them look like professional models and aren't out of place at all. These four a seriously stepping up their game, so everyone better watch out.

Back at the house, Gabriel is missing Amanda, which is kind of the sweetest thing he's ever said or done. Salome asks if Gabe has a plan of attack, because she thinks Amanda would make out with him. Gabe feigns shock, but I just love that this swaggering jack-ass is getting love advice from Miss Almost Amish herself. With Kerryn hotly pursuing Colin and Amanda and Gabe's blossoming romance, there could definitely be some loving in the Supermodel house this season. That is, if the guys don't get kicked off the show before their relationships are consummated.

For this week's runway challenge the models will be donning heavy make-up and avant garde pieces. Nicole tells the models "fashion shows are all about beauty, but it can also be performance art." Today's runway show will be more of the later. This week the models will be styled as "freaks" and their walks should juxtapose the elegance of their outfit and their shocking make up. Colin, who has just gotten his regular runway walk down, is freaked out about doing a more advanced runway strut. Jordan walks the runway first and while she looks good, it's nothing extraordinary. Jonathan is up next and his performance is really over the top. I can't decide if it was too over the top, or just what the judges were looking for. Colin looks like a drunk renaissance nerd and that is definitely not what the judges were looking for. CJ takes the freak routine really far, which impresses me since she's so afraid of doing something "stupid."

Kerry, who has immunity, takes her walk totally over the top. She acts like she is pulling herself down the runway on a rope, it's kind of fabulous and definitely very strange. Oh no, here comes Shawn, and um, his runway walk is laughable. Instead of looking like a freak, he looks like he's a dancing disco ball at a gay dance club. It is hands down, the weakest runway walk of the entire season. Amanda takes too long on the runway and decides to add a little sex appeal to the freak show, by blowing the judges a kiss. Strange. Gabriel looks amazing with his make up, but does nothing of interest on the runway. This guy is gorgeous, but so dull. Laury's runway walk is pose after pose and is pretty darn amazing. Salome's poses are good, but overall her runway walk is awkward. Branden hits the runway with crazy confidence and the judges are eating it up. Despite wearing one of the most over the top costumes, Mountaha seems to struggle with connecting to her inner freak. Last but not least is Sandhurst. Sandhurst's walk is perfection. It's exactly what the judges asked for, he was like a gorgeous 12-packed Marilyn Manson freak, but so much better.

The judges tally up their scores and I am shocked that Gabe is called in the first safe group, despite his poor walk. The models with the highest and lowest scores remain on the runway: Amanda, Branden, Colin, Laury, Jonathan, Sandhurst and Shawn. The judges hated Shawn's walk and I agree--it was awful. Just like his photo shoot, Shawn is just way too intensely over the top. Amanda's walk confused the judges, especially her little kiss during the runway. Perou says she turned it into a porno theme and thinks her photo shoot was also too overtly sexual. This makes Amanda bawl on the runway and leads Maggie Rizer to quote Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own, "There's no crying in modeling." The judges say Colin's walk was terrible, but he struck a strong pose at the end. Maggie Rizer wants to set Branden up with her 18 year-old sister, which has to be a good thing, right? The judges loved that Sandhurst and Laury took a chance on the runway, but neither of their photos impressed. Everyone is impressed with Jonathan on both the runway and in his photos, can Jonathan finally win please?

It's time for elimination and I am positive that Shawn's disco runway walk will be the end of him. Sandhurst and Laury are both safe, which is not surprising. Branden and Jonathan are the top performers of the week, which is the first time the guy's have taken the top two spots. The judges tell Branden that he's once again impressed the judges with his talent and that his photo could be part of an ad campaign. When the judges turn to Jonathan they tell him "a good model can rely on his good looks, but a supermodel needs to bring more to the table. This week you showed us you could do that." Hooray! Or as Jonathan said in his adorable British accent, "finally, finally, finally!" Jonathan has immunity next week. The judges tell Amanda that she needs to learn when and when not to emote, but that she is safe. Of course, this makes Amanda cry. So, just like the top two, the bottom two this week is made up of the guys: Colin and Shawn. While Colin was awkward, at least he wasn't ridiculous. The judges tell Colin he needs to stop saying he has no experience as a model, because he does now, but that he is safe. Phew! Shawn is told that he "has an intense passion for modeling, unfortunately it is way over the top," which we think was a very nice way for the judges to put it.

Source ; http://www.buddytv.com/articles/make-me-a-supermodel/more/make-me-a-supermodel-episode-4-27270.aspx

Marg Helgenberger (CSI) files for divorce against Alan Rosenberg (SAG)

2009-03-26T15:21:00.000+08:00

CSI actress files for divorce

Married to the president of the Screen Actors Guild, Alan Rosenberg, CSI actress Marg Helgenberger has decided to call it quits anyway. She filed for divorce in LA citing “irreconcilable differences.” The couple have one son and there is no word yet if we are going to have a Kramer v Kramer situation.

Source : http://www.divorcesaloon.com/marg-helgenberger-csi-files-for-divorce-against-alan-rosenberg

Marg Helgenberger has filed for divorce from Alan Rosenberg. Alan Rosenberg is the SAG president, Marg the CSI star.

Helgenberger cited irreconcilable differences. The divorce was filed yesterday, reveals press late today. The couple have been married since 1989 and have one son. She’s 50, he’s 58. Rosenberg is still battling over a new SAG labor contract for actors with Hollywood producers.

Source : http://news.lalate.com/2009/03/26/marg-helgenberger-alan-rosenberg-divorce/

White House Moves Easter Egg Roll Tickets Online

2009-03-26T15:18:00.000+08:00

DCist notes that the White House has decided to pass out tickets to its Easter Egg Roll online. Why is this news? Oh yeah, people give a shit and used to wait in line like all night for the chance to celebrate Easter on the White House lawn. DCist writes:

“A press release from the White House cited a desire for “more children and families from across the United States (to) have the opportunity to experience this event” as a reason for the ticketing change.”

Does the White House honestly think people will travel from all over the country just to “experience this event?” Who the hell has the money? It looks like those novelty eggs don’t fetch too much on eBay. A George and Laura collectible from 2003 is currently bidding at $16.50. That’s like less than a dinner for two at Applebee’s.

Then again this egg rolling thing has been around a long time. I’m sure half the tickets will end up on Craigslist.

Source : http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2009/03/23/white-house-moves-easter-egg-roll-tickets-online/

Get your tickets for the White House Easter Egg Roll online

President Jimmy Carter with grandson Jason, 2, on his shoulders daughter Amy and Mrs. Rosalyn Carter arrive for the annual Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House on Monday, April 11, 1977. (AP PHOTO)

Want to join Michelle and Barack and the kids on the South Lawn of the White House for the annual White House Easter Egg Roll on April 13?

This year, for the first time, you can get free tickets online -- starting Thursday morning.

In previous years, you had to go to Washington, D.C., the weekend before the event. Now, all you have to do is go to www.whitehouse.gov/eastereggroll and sign up.

No word on how many tickets will be available.

Source : http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-egg-roll-tickets-032509-cn,0,2580191.story

Adam Lambert - Tracks Of My Tears

2009-03-26T15:15:00.000+08:00

Our boy Adam Lambert finally won over even Simon Cowell tonight, who called Lambert's Tracks Of My Tears "the best performance of the night." And a standing ovation from the song's writer, Smokey Robinson, sure doesn't hurt. Ridiculously amazing.

Movie Trailer: Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock

2009-03-26T15:11:00.000+08:00

Wednesday, March 25, 2009
"Taking Woodstock" trailer

A man working at his parents' motel in the Catskills inadvertently sets in motion the generation-defining concert in the summer of 1969. From 'Important Things with Demetri that aired on 3/25/09.

Directed by Ang Lee.

Release Date is August 14, 2009.

The movie trailer for Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock premiered tonight on Important Things with Demetri Martin. Based on Elliot Tiber’s memior, Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life, the comedy tells the story of Mr. Tiber, who played an unexpected but pivotal role in making the 1969 Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the famed happening it was. Watch the trailer after the jump, and leave your thoughts in the comments below.

“Working as an interior designer in Greenwich Village during culturally and politically exciting times, Mr. Tiber felt empowered by the gay-rights movement. But he was also still staked to the family business – a Catskills motel. As its part-time manager, he had become the local town’s issuer of event permits, granting himself one annually for a small music festival. When he heard that the planned Woodstock concert had had its own permit denied by a neighboring town, he called to offer his own. Soon half a million people were on their way to Mr. Tiber’s neighbor’s farm in White Lake, New York, and Mr. Tiber found himself swept up in a generation-defining experience that would change his life, and American culture, forever.”

The film stars Demetri Martin, Emile Hirsch, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Liev Schreiber, Paul Dano, Eugene Levy, and Dan Fogler. The film is set to hit theaters on August 14th 2009. Thanks to /Film reader Ian W for the heads up.

Source : http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/03/25/movie-trailer-ang-lees-taking-woodstock/

Top 10: Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson are the masters

2009-03-26T15:10:00.001+08:00

How does Smokey Robinson do it?
Top 10 coaches

Seriously, the man seems to never age!

It’s great to see him and Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown Records, acting as mentors to a new generation of singers, since as Berry pointed out his label was the sound of young America.

It is a testament to their musical genius that their songs are still just as great today as they were decades ago.

Do you agree with Smokey’s assessment that this season is a special one?

–Lisa Respers France, CNN.com Writer

Source : http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2009/03/25/top-10-barry-gordy-and-smokey-robinson-are-the-masters/

THE MIRACLES GET A HOLLYWOOD STAR: Smokey Robinson says it's about time.

2009-03-26T15:08:00.001+08:00

*Smokey Robinson now has two stars representing him on the Hollywood Walk of Fame – one for his career as a solo artist, and a brand new star for his run as lead singer of the famed Motown group, The Miracles.

The crooner was on hand Friday as his former back up group was honored in a ceremony that included one-time labelmates Stevie Wonder and Mary Wilson of the original Supremes, as well as Motown founder Berry Gordy.

"I've had a star for the last 20 years or so, and it is way, way, way, way overdue" for The Miracles, Robinson told the crowd, according to the Associated Press.

According to Ron Brewington, National Vice President, Motown Alumni Association (MAA), his organization was the sponsor for the Miracles getting their star.

A number of events this year mark the 50th anniversary of the legendary Motown record label. Last week in Detroit, Gordy and Robinson joined the "American Idol" finalists to tape a segment set to air on Wednesday.

"Idol's" Motown Week will culminate with a duet between Robinson and the show's season 2 winner Ruben Studdard. The pair will perform on the results show, which moves from Wednesday to Thursday this week to accommodate President Obama's Tuesday press conference. "Idol's" performance show moves from Tuesday to Wednesday night

Source : http://eurweb.com/story/eur51907.cfm

Adam Lambert gets a standing ovation--from Smokey Robinson!

2009-03-26T15:06:00.000+08:00

Adam Lambert tells Smokey Robinson he's really nervous, singing "Tracks of My Tears." Smokey tells him he's never heard anyone sing it tender and soft like that, very proud of the interpretation. Adam smartly asks him what inspired him to write it; says his goal "is to do it justice."

Elvis-like hair, gray suit. Man, from the get-go, this is great; so smooth, so in control, so heartfelt, such pitch-perfect vocals. Audience is hushed; Adam totally gets this song. It's him at his best; no weirdness for the sake of weirdness, just exercising his creativity and making us hear a song totally differently. He's got us all in the palm of his hand--and Smokey Robinson and the audience gives him a standing ovation.

Kara stands, calls it awesome. Paula loves how he's completely in his own league, surprises us every week; loves the clean, classy look. Simon calls it the best performance of the night, which is like a no-duh moment. "You tonight really have emerged as a star."

Randy says from day one he knew he had the range, loved the falsetto, "unbelievably hot."

Source : http://weblogs.newsday.com/entertainment/music/idol/blog/2009/03/adam_lambert_gets_a_standing_o.html

Picture : Mary Tyler Moore ! Bid Now at EBAY !

2009-03-25T19:43:00.001+08:00

Mary Tyler Moore

Vintage '68 Mary Tyler Moore Glamour Publicity Photos !

Andy Lau’s M’sian girlfriend shopping for wedding

2009-03-25T19:37:00.000+08:00

SINGER-ACTOR Andy Lau’s Malaysian girlfriend Carol Chu was spotted shopping in Hong Kong for their wedding scheduled for the end of next month.

Nanyang Siang Pau, in its front page, reported that the wedding would be held for three days in Kuala Lumpur after Lau’s China concert tour on April 27.

The couple are said to have been together for 24 years.

Lau, who wanted to show his sincerity to his long-time girlfriend, was reported as saying that he would be in Kuala Lumpur to personally deliver the wedding invitation cards on April 6.

The daily reported that Lau planned to hold a party for Chu, a former beauty queen, whose birthday falls on April 6.

Earlier, Lau was said to have come to Malaysia to discuss wedding preparations with Chu’s family.

New intake not affected by New Era College controversy

China Press reported that the New Era College controversy did not affect the new intake this year.

College vice-principal Mok Soon Chong said 170 students had applied between January and this month.

“The number of new applicants this year is almost the same as last year. We believe that more students will apply for the courses in the next two weeks,” he said.

Last year, the college was in the limelight due to the row between Dong Zong (the United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia) president Dr Yap Sin Tian and the college’s former principal Dr Kua Kia Soong. Dr Yap is also senate chairman of the college.

Source : http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/3/25/nation/3546894&sec=nation

Wedding bells for Andy and Malaysian girlfriend?

HONG Kong heartthrob Andy Lau is reportedly tying the knot with his Malaysian girlfriend Carol Chu on April 6, major Chinese newspapers said.

However, Lau neither confirmed nor denied the news, Sin Chew Daily reported.

Lau is said to have been together with Chu, a former Malaysian beauty queen, for over 20 years.

Asked whether he would be in Malaysia on April 6, Lau said:

“I do not know. I will not say yes or no because I also do not know. I will not know where I will be on that day. I have nothing to say at this moment.”

Lau also did not want to confirm whether he had come to Malaysia to discuss with Chu’s family members on preparations for their wedding day.

According to Lau’s official website, the superstar has concert dates in China on April 5 and April 10.

Fish importers protest against use of insulated boxes

The paper also reported that fish importers would not land their catch as a show of protest against the Fisheries Department’s requirement for them to use insulated fish containers effective last Sunday.

According to the daily, the department had ordered the importers to replace 10% of their old containers with the insulated boxes. Those who do not follow the rule would not be allowed to land their catch.

One importer in Lumut, Cham Wing Kee, said he had been informed that the Selayang seafood wholesale market would be closed for three days starting yesterday.

He said the importers did not want to use the insulated boxes because they were more expensive than boxes of the same quality available in the market.

“It will be a huge burden for the importers in the long run, so the cost would have to be passed on to the consumers,” he said.

Source : http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/3/4/nation/3393682&sec=nation

VIDEO : Obama punch drunk in 60 minutes interview with Steve Kroft !

2009-03-24T17:07:00.000+08:00

Watch CBS Videos Online

Is Obama "punch drunk"? It's one of those little phrases that help to define a presidency. Me, no I don't think that Obama is punch drunk, nor drunk on anything else. It's just a phrase he used in an interview:
Obama is confronting a massive economic crisis, an outbreak of populist rage, and an inside-the-Beltway revolt against his budget plan. As far as the Washington media is concerned, he's very much on the ropes. But he was so calm -- even jolly -- in his "60 Minutes" interview broadcast last night that anchor Steve Kroft asked him about it straight out: "You're sitting here. And you are laughing. You are laughing about some of these problems. Are people gonna look at this and say, 'I mean, he's sitting there just making jokes about money.' How do you deal with, I mean, explain the...mood and your laughter?...Are you punch drunk?"

This becomes, this use by Obama of "punch drunk", the story itself:

The stark comments came during an interview on US network CBS's 60 Minutes in which the President was also intermittingly flashing his trademark smile and occasionally chuckling, prompting the interviewer to ask if he was "punch drunk".

"No, no," Mr Obama said. "There's got to be a little gallows humour to get you through the day."

Then again, there were those who didn't make that punch drunk the centerpiece of their report.

But you can see that others have been making hay with this story.

Source : http://timworstall.typepad.com/timworstall/2009/03/obama-punch-drunk.html

Was Obama "punch drunk" in 60 Minutes interview with Steve Kroft?

from Politico

President Barack Obama said he believes the global financial system remains at risk of implosion with the failure of Citigroup or AIG, which could touch off “an even more destructive recession and potentially depression.”

His remarks came in a“60 Minutes” interview in which he was pressed by Steve Kroft for laughing and chuckling several times while discussing the perilous state of the world’s economy.

“You're sitting here. And you're— you are laughing. You are laughing about some of these problems. Are people going to look at this and say, ‘I mean, he's sitting there just making jokes about money—’ How do you deal with— I mean: explain. . .” Kroft asked at one point.

“Are you punch-drunk?” Kroft said.

“No, no. There's gotta be a little gallows humor to get you through the day,” Obama said, with a laugh.

Obama tried to inject some optimistic notes into the interview, saying he sees “flickers of hope” that the economy is beginning to turn the corner.

And he seemed intent on cooling the populist anger rising in the country, particularly over AIG’s $165 million in bonuses. He signaled that he would like to see changes in a House resolution that would tax the bonuses at 90 percent, saying “we can’t govern out of anger.”

“Main Street has to understand, unless we get these banks moving again, then we can’t get this economy to recover. And we don’t want to cut off our nose to spite our face,” he said.

The interview captured the balancing act that Obama must strike on the economy. He gave a nod to public anger at Wall Street while saying it could not dictate his response.

He got in a few whacks of his own at Wall Street executives who contributed to the meltdown—referring to them ironically at one point as “the best and the brightest”—while being ever-mindful that he still needs their help to dig out of the crisis.

His talk of depression could be viewed as alarmist—but it also seemed aimed at bracing Congress and the public for the unpopular prospect of spending even more taxpayer dollars to prop up Wall Street. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is set to roll out a plan Monday aimed at restoring the flow of credit that would back up private investments with government funds.

Even his awkward laughter highlighted an issue Obama has faced dating back to the campaign, a sense that he sometimes is too “cool” and detached to fully grasp the public anxiety over mounting job losses and economic worries.

Still, Obama made clear that he’s afraid the nation hasn’t seen the worst of the economic crisis. He said the recession deepened faster than he expected, particularly in terms of job losses.

“If we did nothing, you could still have some big problems. There are certain institutions that are so big that if they fail, they bring a lot of other financial institutions down with them. And if all those financial institutions fail all at the same time, then you could see an even more destructive recession and potentially depression,” Obama said.
Submitted by Bill Dalton on March 23, 2009 - 5:16pm.

Source : http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/?q=node/17778

by Mark Silva

When President Barack Obama chuckled at his own acknowledgement of how unpopular the federal government's bailout of the automobile industry is, his interviewer asked the president if he is "punch drunk.''

"I just wanna say that the only thing less popular than putting money into banks is putting money into the auto industry," Obama conceded. As CBS News' Steve Kroft noted in a 60 Minutes talk with Obama last night that just 18 percent of those surveyed support it, Obama said with a laugh: "It's not a high number.''

"You're sitting here. And you are laughing,'' Kroft said. "You are laughing about some of these problems. Are people gonna look at this and say, 'I mean, he's sitting there just making jokes about money.' How do you deal with, I mean, explain the...mood and your laughter... Are you punch drunk?"

"No, no. There's gotta be a little gallows humor to get you through the day," the president explained. "You know, sometimes my team talks about the fact that if you had said to us a year ago that the least of my problems would be Iraq, which is still a pretty serious problem, I don't think anybody would have believed it. But we've got a lot on our plate. And a lot of difficult decisions that we're gonna have to make."

Obama allowed that he was surprised by the depth of recession underway when he took office in January.

"I don't think that we anticipated how steep the decline would be, particularly in employment,'' the president said in the interview aired by 60 Minutes. "I mean if you look at just, you know, hundreds of thousands - now millions - of jobs being shed over the course of two months or three months, that slope is a lot steeper than anything that we've said we've seen before.

"Now, there's a potential silver lining, which may be that things are so accelerated now, the modern economy is so intertwined and wired, that things happen really fast for ill, but things may recover faster than they have in the past," he said.

His administration predicts a turnaround by year's end, with his lead economic adviser saying over the weekend that the economy should "bottom out'' sometime this year.

"We're already starting to see flickers of hope out there,''Obama said. "Refinancings have significantly increased. Interest rates have never been lower. That promises the possibility at least of the housing market bottoming out and stabilizing. It's not going to happen equally in every part of the country.''

The president was asked if he was surprised by the intensity of the hostility over the nearly $200 million in bonuses paid by the bailed-out American International Group to executives after collecting nearly $200 billion in federal assistance.

"I wasn't surprised by it,'' Obama said. "Our team wasn't surprised by it. The one thing that I've tried to emphasize, though, throughout this week, and will continue to try to emphasize during the course of the next several months as we dig ourselves out of this economic hole that we're in, we can't govern outta anger.

"We've got to try to make good decisions based on the facts in order to put people back to work, to get credit flowing again,'' he said. "And I'm not gonna be distracted by what's happening day to day. I've gotta stay focused on making sure that we're getting this economy moving again.''

However, the president distanced himself from the 90 percent tax on those bonuses that the House has approved in retribution - with the Senate slated to address its own approach this week.

"I think that as a general proposition, you don't wanna be passing laws that are just targeting a handful of individuals,'' said Obama, whose credentials as a constitutional law professor in Chicago were noted in the question by CBS News' Steve Kroft.

"You wanna pass laws that have some broad applicability,'' the president said. "And as a general proposition, I think you certainly don't wanna use the tax code to punish people.

"I think that you've got a pretty egregious situation here that people are understandably upset about,'' he said. "And so let's see if there are ways of doing this that are both legal, that are constitutional, that upholds our basic principles of fairness, but don't hamper us from getting the banking system back on track...

"We're gonna have to take a look at this legislation carefully,'' he said,. "Clearly, the AIG folks gettin' those bonuses didn't make sense. And one of the things that I have to do is to communicate to Wall Street that, given the current crisis that we're in, they can't expect help from taxpayers but they enjoy all the benefits that they enjoyed before the crisis happened.

"You get a sense that, in some institutions, that has not sunk in; that you can't go back to the old way of doing business, certainly not on the taxpayers' dime," Obama said. "Now the flip side is that Main Street has to understand, unless we get these banks moving again, then we can't get this economy to recover. And we don't wanna cut off our nose to spite our face.''

The president defended Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, and maintained that there has been no discussion within the White House about replacing him in the midst of growing criticism.

"No, and shouldn't (resign),'' Obama said. "And if he were to come to me, I'd say, 'Sorry, Buddy. You've still got the job.' But look, he's got a lot of stuff on his plate. And he is doing a terrific job. And I take responsibility for not, I think, having given him as much help as he needs."

The critics include Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor who has supported Obama but questions his Treasury strategy.

"And Warren still does support me,'' Obama said. "But I think that understand Warren's also a big player in the financial markets who's a major owner of Wells Fargo. And so he's got a perspective from the perspective of somebody who is part-owner of a bank. You've got members of Congress who've got a different perspective. Which is, 'We don't wanna spend any more taxpayer money.' You've got a whole host of players, all of whom may have a completely different solution. Right?"

"And you know, one of the challenges that Tim Geithner has had is the same challenge that anybody would have in this situation. People want a lot of contradictory things. You know, the banks would love a lot of taxpayer money with no strings attached. Folks in Congress, as well as the American people, would love to fix the banks without spending any money. And so at a certain point, you know, you've got just a very difficult line to walk...

"Part of my job is to communicate to (the financial community). "Look, I believe in the market. I believe in financial innovation. And I believe in success. I want them to do well. But what I also know is that the financial sector was out of balance. You look at how finance used to operate just 20 years ago, or 25 years ago. People, if you went into investment banking, you were making 20 times what a teacher made. You weren't making 200 times what a teacher made...

"I've told them directly, 'cause I've heard some of this,'' the president said. "They need to spend a little time outside of New York. Because you know, if you go to North Dakota, or you go to Iowa, or you go to Arkansas, where folks would be thrilled to be making $75,000 a year without a bonus, then I think they'd get a sense of why people are frustrated.

""I think we have to understand the severity of the crisis that we're in right now. The fact is that, because of bad bets made on Wall Street, there have been enormous losses. I mean there were a whole bunch of folks who, on paper, if you looked at quarterly reports, were wildly successful, selling derivatives that turned out to be...completely worthless.... And they were insuring them.

""Now you know, gosh, I don't think it's me being anti-Wall Street just to point out that the best and the brightest didn't do too well on that front, and that you know, maybe the incentive structures that have been set up have not produced the kinds of long term growth that I think everybody's looking for...

"If we don't get a handle on this, and also start looking at our long-term deficit projections, at a certain point people will stop buying those Treasury Bills," Obama said.

Source : http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2009/03/obama_punch_drunk_gallows_humo.html

Woman hit by MRT train

2009-03-24T17:06:00.000+08:00

AN elderly woman was killed after she was hit by a train at the Clementi MRT station on Tuesday morning, disrupting westbound train service between Queenstown and Jurong East stations for about 50 minutes

The woman, believed to be a 71-year-old Chinese, was hit by an oncoming train at 6.15 am, said SMRT in a statement.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force said it received a call about the incident at 6.18am. SCDF officers found the body lying under the third carriage of the train and had to manually extricate it.

The woman was pronounced dead by paramedics at about 6.57am.

To maintain service on the unaffected stretch of the East-West line, westbound trains were turned around at Queenstown MRT Station. Train service between Jurong East and Joo Koon stations were not affected by the incident.

SMRT said it activated a bus bridging service from Queenstown to Jurong East stations to ferry affected commuters.

The first bus arrived at Queenstown MRT Station at about 6.50am. About 6,250 passengers were affected during the incident.

Westbound train service resumed at 7.03am.

Passengers were informed of the service disruption and the free bus services through announcements, notices and the rail travel information system at affected stations.

Passengers who were unable to complete their journeys due to the disruption can claim a full fare refund from any of the 53 SMRT stations within the next three working days.

SMRT is assisting Police in its investigations.

Source : http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_353909.html

PICTURE : David Letterman Marries Regina Lasko

2009-03-24T16:59:00.000+08:00

David Letterman, just said "I Do" to his longtime girlfriend, Regina Lasko.

Letterman, 61, announced the happy news at the taping of tonight’s “Late Show.” The couple, who tied the knot Thursday evening, began dating 10 years ago when Regina worked for him on his show. They have a 5-year-old son, Harry, who was present at the ceremony.

According to transcript released, from tonight’s Late Show, Letterman said: "On Thursday, at 3 p.m., March 19, 2009, at the Teton County Courthouse in Choteau, Montana, I was married to Regina Lasko.”

"Regina and I began dating in February of 1986, and I said, 'Well, things are going pretty good, let's just see what happens in about ten years...'"

"…I had avoided getting married pretty good for, like, 23 years, and I -- honestly, whether this happened or not -- I secretly felt that men who were married admired me…like I was the last of the real gunslingers, you know what I'm saying?'" he joked.

Letterman was previously married for seven years to his college sweetheart Michelle Cook. They divorced in 1977.

Source : http://celebglitz.com/36530/Celebrity-Gossip/david-letterman-marries-regina-lasko.aspx

PHOTO! Here is a reported picture of Regina Lasko, David Letterman’s wife. Regina Lasko and David Letterman have married, confirms Letterman during Monday’s show taped earlier today.

Lasko and Letterman have dated for two decades and have one son. The two got married last Thursday but tonight on the Late Show Letterman reportedly made the revelation on national tv.

“I had avoided getting married pretty good for, like, 23 years. I secretly felt that men who were married admired me - like I was the last of the real gunslingers.”

Letterman says he headed to court to get married and then the three (Letterman, Lasko and son Harry) got stuck in the mud!

“So now we think, ‘Well, somebody’ll come. No, nobody comes along. Nobody comes along - it’s Thursday afternoon, who’s coming along, Zorro?

“So I get out of the truck and I walk two miles back to the house into a 50-mile-an-hour wind. It’s not Beverly Hills, it’s Montana, for God’s sakes. And the whole way, I’m thinking, ‘See, smart ass, see, see, you try to get married, this is what happens. See, well, you’ve got nobody to blame but yourself…

“So then we get in the car and Harry says, ‘Are we still going into town?’ and I said, ‘Yes, we are,’ and he gets very upset because mom had told him if I wasn’t back in an hour, the deal was off.”

Source & Picture : http://news.lalate.com/2009/03/23/regina-lasko-photos/

Talk show host David Letterman finally married his longtime girlfriend Regina Lasko! Read more on David Letterman’s and Regina Lasko’s wedding and see photos of the couple below.

David Letterman, 61, told his audience Monday that he married his longtime girlfriend Regina Lasko, 48, on March 19 in Choteau, Montana. The couple’s son named Harry, 5, was also at the ceremony.

Letterman stated how he didn’t think he would ever marry. “I had avoided getting married pretty good for, like, 23 years,” he said during the Late Show taping, “and I … secretly felt that men who were married admired me, like I was the last of the real gunslingers.”

After Dave finally made the decision to go through with the marriage, fate didn’t seem to be on his side. On the way to the courthouse, their truck got stuck in the mud.

“So now we think: Well, somebody’ll come,” he said. “No, nobody … comes along. Nobody comes along. It’s Thursday afternoon, who’s coming along, Zorro? No, nobody – so I get out of the truck and I walk two miles back to the house into a 50 mile per hour. It’s not Beverly Hills, it’s Montana, for God’s sakes. And the whole way, I’m thinking: See, smart ass, see, see, you try to get married, this is what happens.”

When he arrived back with the other car to pick up Lasko and Harry, his son asked if they were still going into the town. “And I said, ‘Yes, we are,’ ” recounted Letterman, “and he gets very upset because mom had told him if I wasn’t back in an hour, the deal was off.”

For picture goes to source link.
Source : http://stupidcelebrities.net/2009/03/23/david-letterman-marries-regina-lasko-pictures/

How I Met Your Mother: Old King Clancy

2009-03-24T16:55:00.000+08:00

by Alan Sepinwall/The Star-Ledger
Monday March 23, 2009, 9:32 PM

Spoilers for tonight's "How I Met Your Mother" coming up just as soon as I renounce my Canadian half-citizenship...

"Canada, you did it again. You even found a way to ruin this. Why? Why do we let you be a country?" -Barney

Today was not a good day at The Star-Ledger. We're certainly not alone in taking a beating in this economy, but the events of today had me really, really, really hoping for some big laughs from tonight's "HIMYM," particularly after the last two episodes had been so strong. Instead, unfortunately, we got a fairly iffy outing saved by some always-reliable Canadian comedy.

Now, admittedly, today's news at the paper may well have made it impossible for me to enjoy a storyline about fake jobs, Ted being on the verge of getting fired, a room designed for firing people, etc., but I don't think so. The biggest laugh I had at the episode was the security cam montage of Barney firing people -- specifically, the shot of him having sex under the table and then firing the woman he had sex with, which is completely despicable and yet completely Barney. (This is how good the writers and Neil Patrick Harris have been at creating this character: I love it when he's doing horrible things even when he's appearing in grainy footage with the sound off so I can't even see or hear anything from NPH.)

No, I just think it was a lame story, as sitcom plots about elaborate lies tend to be. Other than "HIMYM"-y touches like the aforementioned video montage, or the '70s-style caper movie title cards for each member of the conspiracy (including the chipmunk!), it was forgettable and not all that funny.

Lily playing a guessing game with Robin about Canadian sex acts -- with help from yet another classic fake website from the "HIMYM" folks (this time with appearances from an actual Canadian celebrity) -- was an amusing B-plot, and a reminder that clever euphemisms (invented or not) are often funnier than more sexually explicit punchlines, and it had a nice payoff at the end when we found out what really happened with The Frozen Snowshoe. I just wish it was in service to a better A-story.

What did everybody else think?

Source : http://www.nj.com/entertainment/tv/index.ssf/2009/03/himym_old_king_clancy_northwes.html

Preview of Episode 4.18 "Old King Clancy"

From CBS' official press release:

After Goliath National Bank cancels plans to build their headquarters, Ted was hired to design, Marshall and Barney come up with a lie to protect Ted from finding out that he is out of a job, on How I Met Your Mother, at a special time, Monday, March 23, 8:00-8:30 pm, ET/PT.

"Old King Clancy" - When Goliath National Bank cancels plans to build their new headquarters that Ted was hired to design, Barney and Marshall concoct an elaborate lie to keep Ted from knowing he is out of a job, on How I Met Your Mother, Monday, March 23 (8:00-8:30 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

“Old King Clancy” will air from 8:00-8:30pmFollowed up by a rebroadcast of:03/23/09 - “The Bracket”

How I Met Your Mother stars Josh Radnor as Ted, Jason Segel as Marshall, Neil Patrick Harris as Barney, Alyson Hannigan as Lily, and Cobie Smulders as Robin.

Source : http://www.buddytv.com/articles/how-i-met-your-mother/how-i-met-your-mother-preview-27151.aspx

WHEN she was 14, she was sexually harassed by a male student while taking the bus.

2009-03-23T18:49:00.001+08:00

Singaporeans nowadays are so bolder!
You see like the case which happened at East Coast Park.
About a couple.
Kissing and doing those kind of dirty stuff!
Polluting our environment!

When Miss Nicole Oh told her teacher about it then, the reply was: 'What do you want me to do about it?'

Miss Oh, now 20 and a first-year law student at the Singapore Management University (SMU), said her teacher's response left a deep impression on her.

She said: 'It's bad enough that school girls don't know what to do. It's worse that adults also don't know what to do in such situations.'

So when she had to do a community service project as part of her university course, she decided to come up with a campaign against sexual harassment on public transport.

Miss Oh said she was not the only one on her six-member team who had experienced sexual harassment on public transport.

Miss Lane Tan, 20, a first-year business student, said it happened to her when she was taking the train, while Miss Lau Pei En, 19, an information systems undergraduate, was prevented from getting off the bus by a male passenger.

Straw poll

Miss Lau said that when the group did a straw poll among 135 female friends, they found that four out of 10 had experienced sexual harassment while taking public transport.

But four out of five did not take any immediate action, while a mere 5 per cent of the victims reported the incidents either to the police or to their schools, she added.

Referring to the 'appalling numbers', Miss Tan said: 'We often become silent victims. Through this campaign, we want to encourage women to do something about it, and not to keep quiet.'

Her group is working with the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware) to target schoolgirls aged 13 to 25. They have printed pocket-sized cards with information on identifying sexual harassment and what victims can do. (See tables on right.)

They have been distributing the cards within SMU and in selected schools here.

The group also launched an educational video through YouTube and Facebook, and organised an open forum session entitled emPOWER!HOUSE.

The forum, which was held in SMU last Wednesday, was aimed at raising awareness of the problem.

Aware representatives made up the panel for the forum and about 60 people attended.

Said Miss Oh: 'We hope that through this campaign, more attention will be paid to this matter by everyone - the authorities, schools, parents or the schoolgirls themselves.

'Most importantly, we hope that the schoolgirls we reached out to will be empowered to deal with sexual harassment while taking public transport, and to stop being easy victims.'

Ms Claire Nazar, who chairs the Workplace Sexual Harassment Sub-Committee of Aware said: 'Sexual harassment is not something to be tolerated in any culture or society, whether it occurs in the workplace or school or on public transport.

Ms Nazar said that based on the survey, a significant number of schoolgirls had experienced sexual harassment but the incidents were seldom reported.

She said: 'Schoolgirls taking public transport could be easy targets for sexual harassment and if such incidents of sexual harassment exist, it is important that public awareness is created on what action can be taken by victims.

'For this reason, Aware is supportive of this project in raising awareness on what we can do to empower ourselves in such situations and how we can create a sexual harassment-free culture in Singapore.'

She said Aware intends to approach various tertiary institutions to build on the research that has been done by the group.

They are also looking into the possibility of partnering public transport operators to raise awareness.

A letter to Dr Lee Wei Ling

2009-03-23T18:31:00.000+08:00

By The Patriot

1. I refer to the article ‘My house is shabby, but it is comfortable’ in the Straits Times dated 4 Jan 2009 which was written by Ms Lee Wei Ling. I believe Ms Lee is the daughter of Lee Kuan Yew.

2. In Ms Lee’s article, she had stated:

a. Quote:”Decades of the good life have made us soft” unquote.

I would think that it is rather the decades of suppressed and incarcerated life by the ruling party have made S’poreans soft. If every dissenting view, voice and non-violent action against the ruling party by the citizens is reciprocated by govt’s intimidation of imprisonment and bankruptcy, how do you expect S’poreans to be tough, courageous and independent-minded.

This global economic meltdown has proven that the smartest and the brightest may not be that smart and bright after all. The worst thing is that the smartest and the brightest are not only unable to see the economic problems coming and solve them but in fact they are the ones who cause them, resulting in worldwide suffering.

Therefore, listening and accepting different views may not be a bad thing. After all, even Lee Kuan Yew had been wrong many times. Just recently, he proclaimed that Singapore was having a golden period and immediately thereafter we have one of the worst recessions in all times. He said Barack Obama was just ‘a flash in the pan’ but he is now elected as the 44th President of the US and the whole world endorses him.

b. Ms Lee said that “I am reminded of what my mother once told me: Suffering and deprivation is good for the soul” unquote.

Her mother was borne with a silver spoon. She is the daughter of a banker. She was already living in a big house and chauffeured around in those early days when only the colonial masters can afford to. So, who is she kidding? What moral authority does your mother have to talk about suffering and deprivation. Her sense of suffering and deprivation, to others may just be utopia and materialism.

c. She said her house is big and shabby.

Her father, MM Lee Kuan Yew is a political animal. He knows that every Singaporean knows that he is the most powerful man in S’pore. I believe most people would also believe the Lee family is very wealthy. So, is it necessary for him to flaunt his power and wealth by having a big mountain-top palace and a collection of Ferrari, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, etc in the garage. As a calculative politician, this is a conscious and certainly NOT CONSCIENTIOUS effort by Lee Kuan Yew to have a simple house and a simple car. Of course he yearns for opulence. I remembered he once said that he would rather be a business tycoon or CEO of a big company than a politician if he had to live his life all over again after visiting the opulent office of a CEO of a oil major in Texas.

Eg, President George Bush restrained himself from playing golf because he did not want the Americans to think that he was enjoying his life while his American soldiers were fighting and dying in Iraq. He did not stop playing golf out of genuine concern for his American soldiers but it was more of a conscious effort by him to make himself looks good and compassionate.

These are just political acts.

d. Ms Lee continued to state “if one is blinded by materialism, there would be no end to wanting and hankering. After the Ferrari, what next? An Aston Martin? After the Hermes Birkin handbag, what can one upgrade to?. Unquote.

I think Ms Lee just have to ask his father, Lee Kuan Yew to understand why one’s wanting and hankering of whether wealth, materialism, power, etc is no end. After being a PM for decades, then SM, then MM, what next? After placing himself as the Chairman of GIC, his son Lee Hsien Loong as the Deputy Chairman and his daughter-in-law Ho Ching as the CEO of Temasek Holding, what next?

e. Ms Lee concluded by saying “When the end approaches and we look back on our lives, will we regret the lastest mobile phone or luxury car that we did not acquire? Or would we prefer to die at peace with ourselves, knowing that we have lived lives filled with love, friendship and goodwill.” Unquote.

With all due respects, a person like Ms Lee who does not particularly believe in spiritual things and does not think she has a soul that will survive her death; and who has seen first hand how his father treated his political opponents will certainly not care how her end approaches

Source : http://wayangparty.com/?p=6181

Written by Lee Wei Ling, for the Sunday Times, 04 Jan 2009
ST link

In 2007, in an end-of-year message to the staff of the National Neuroscience Institute, I wrote: ‘Whilst boom time in the public sector is never as booming as in the private sector, let us not forget that boom time is eventually followed by slump time. Slump time in the public sector is always less painful compared to the private sector.’

Slump time has arrived with a bang.

While I worry about the poorer Singaporeans who will be hit hard, perhaps this recession has come at an opportune time for many of us. It will give us an incentive to reconsider our priorities in life.

Decades of the good life have made us soft. The wealthy especially, but also the middle class in Singapore, have had it so good for so long, what they once considered luxuries, they now think of as necessities.

A mobile phone, for instance, is now a statement about who you are, not just a piece of equipment for communication. Hence many people buy the latest model though their existing mobile phones are still in perfect working order.

A Mercedes-Benz is no longer adequate as a status symbol. For millionaires who wish to show the world they have taste, a Ferrari or a Porsche is deemed more appropriate.

The same attitude influences the choice of attire and accessories. I still find it hard to believe that there are people carrying handbags that cost more than thrice the monthly income of a bus driver, and many more times that of the foreign worker labouring in the hot sun, risking his life to construct luxury condominiums he will never have a chance to live in.

The media encourages and amplifies this ostentatious consumption. Perhaps it is good to encourage people to spend more because this will prevent the recession from getting worse. I am not an economist, but wasn’t that the root cause of the current crisis - Americans spending more than they could afford to?

I am not a particularly spiritual person. I don’t believe in the supernatural and I don’t think I have a soul that will survive my death. But as I view the crass materialism around me, I am reminded of what my mother once told me: ‘Suffering and deprivation is good for the soul.’

My family is not poor, but we have been brought up to be frugal. My parents and I live in the same house that my paternal grandparents and their children moved into after World War II in 1945. It is a big house by today’s standards, but it is simple - in fact, almost to the point of being shabby.

Those who see it for the first time are astonished that Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew’s home is so humble. But it is a comfortable house, a home we have got used to. Though it does look shabby compared to the new mansions on our street, we are not bothered by the comparison.

Most of the world and much of Singapore will lament the economic downturn. We have been told to tighten our belts. There will undoubtedly be suffering, which we must try our best to ameliorate.

But I personally think the hard times will hold a timely lesson for many Singaporeans, especially those born after 1970 who have never lived through difficult times.

No matter how poor you are in Singapore, the authorities and social groups do try to ensure you have shelter and food. Nobody starves in Singapore.

Many of those who are currently living in mansions and enjoying a luxurious lifestyle will probably still be able to do so, even if they might have to downgrade from wines costing $20,000 a bottle to $10,000 a bottle. They would hardly notice the difference.

Being wealthy is not a sin. It cannot be in a capitalist market economy. Enjoying the fruits of one’s own labour is one’s prerogative and I have no right to chastise those who choose to live luxuriously.

But if one is blinded by materialism, there would be no end to wanting and hankering. After the Ferrari, what next? An Aston Martin? After the Hermes Birkin handbag, what can one upgrade to?

Neither an Aston Martin nor an Hermes Birkin can make us truly happy or contented. They are like dust, a fog obscuring the true meaning of life, and can be blown away in the twinkling of an eye.

When the end approaches and we look back on our lives, will we regret the latest mobile phone or luxury car that we did not acquire? Or would we prefer to die at peace with ourselves, knowing that we have lived lives filled with love, friendship and goodwill, that we have helped some of our fellow voyagers along the way and that we have tried our best to leave this world a slightly better place than how we found it?

We know which is the correct choice - and it is within our power to make that choice.

In this new year, burdened as it is with the problems of the year that has just ended, let us again try to choose wisely.

To a considerable degree, our happiness is within our own control, and we should not follow the herd blindly.

The writer is director of the National Neuroscience Institute.

Source : http://chemgen.wordpress.com/2009/01/05/who-is-lee-wei-ling/

Pilatus PC 12 PHOTOS!

2009-03-23T17:20:00.000+08:00

PHOTOS. Here are pictures of a Pilatus PC-12 similar to that which crashed in Butte, Montana. The Pilatus PC 12 crash broke earlier by LALATE has left 17 dead.

The Pilatus was en route from Orville, California headed for Bozeman crashed in Butte at 11 a.m. PST today.

The Pilatus PC-12 is a single-engine turboprop passenger and cargo aircraft. Its manufacturer Pilatus Aircraft produced the aircraft out of Switzerland. Today the plane is used for regional flights predominately.

The plane was rerouted mid flight for Butte, crashing only 500 feet from the Bert Mooney Airport runway.

For picture , direct yourself to http://news.lalate.com/2009/03/22/pilatus-pc-12-photos/

Source : http://news.lalate.com/2009/03/22/pilatus-pc-12-photos/

Glenn Cadrez Brande Roderick Husband!

2009-03-23T17:17:00.000+08:00

Glenn Cadrez Brande Roderick Husband!

PHOTOS! Here are pictures of Brande Roderick and her husband Glenn Cadrez. Brande Roderick stars in Celebrity Apprentice.

Glenn Cadrez, the former NFL linebacker, married Brande in June of 2007.

Cadrez played 11 seasons as a linebacker for the Jets, Broncos and Chiefs. Glenn came into the league as a 6th round draft pick by the Jets from the University of Houston. Cadrez was with the Broncos for 6 seasons earning two Super Bowls during that time.

Cadrez currently does movie production and event planning and lives with Brande now in San Diego.

Source : http://news.lalate.com/2009/03/23/glenn-cadrez-brande-roderick-husband/

Bain retrial adjourned due to juror illness

David Bain's retrial has been adjourned for the day due to the illness of a juror.

The Crown says David Bain, 36, killed his parents Robin and Margaret and siblings Arawa, Laniet and Stephen at the family's house in Dunedin on 20 June 1994.

The defence says Robin Bain killed the family present in the house before shooting himself.

Evidence has already been given by police and ambulance staff who first attended the scene, and the jury has heard a tape of the 111 call made by David Bain.

Complex evidence about the family computer, which could be crucial in establishing the identity of the killer, was also heard last week.

The retrial, which is due to resume on Tuesday, is expected to take at least three months.

Source : http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/stories/2009/03/23/1245a491b39c

Coldplay - The Viva La Vida Tour 2009

2009-03-23T17:11:00.000+08:00

Coldplay - The Viva La Vida Tour
Location: Singapore Indoor Stadium
Date: 23nd March 2009
Ticket Price: S$88, S$158, S$188, S$248
Nearest MRT: Kallang

Coldplay, the multi Grammy Awards band performs live in Singapore for the third time on Sunday, 22nd March, 2009 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

See the band perform their hits including the 51st Grammy Award winner Song of the Year, Viva La Vida.

A warm welcome for Coldplay's concert

Three times a charm. And that charm has ensured Coldplay will receive a very warm welcome for their third performance in Singapore on Monday.

Back in 2001, Coldplay, then an up-and-coming alternative rock group, paired up with Scottish quartet Travis for their first Singapore gig to promote their debut album Parachute. Playing to a modestly sized audience, the young band - Chris Martin on vocals, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman and drummer Will Champion - gave a memorable performance.

Five years later, the band's "Twisted Logic" tour swung by our neighbor's shore for the second time. Having by then recorded three albums including A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002) and X&Y (2005), the band's concert featured much more snazzy elements including laser shows, a sleek stage set with fancy visual designs projected on a digital screen stretched across the stage background, and a shower of big yellow balls bouncing above the sea of fans. Quite a number of Indonesian A-list musicians and celebrities were spotted in the audience.

It is hoped that on their third visit, Coldplay will raise the bar. While their first "bundled" gig carried a price of S$100 for the most expensive entry, tickets were priced at S$248, S$188, S$158 and S$88 this time around - and sold out in less than two weeks. The additional seats that the organizer released were snatched up in no time. And you can see people updating their Facebook status to "I can't wait for 23rd March".

Just like other high profile gigs in Singapore, fans are flying in from Jakarta. Lusi, a 20-something lifestyle reporter bought herself a S$188 ticket on the first day they went on sale. She'll be flying in on her own without a confirmed place to spend the night, yet.

"I'm a huge fan of their Viva La Vida album, so I'm really gung ho to go to this concert". A Singapore-based Indonesian student, Rama, was also lucky to get hold of pair of the additional tickets for S$88. "Even though my friend and I will only be able to see the sides of their faces, I can live with that."

One week before ticket sales opened in Singapore, Coldplay's popularity was boosted by their prestigious wins at the Grammy Awards, which included clinching the awards for Song of the Year and Best Rock Album, named for the song, "Viva La Vida". BBC called it "one of the fastest-selling records in UK history" when the album topped the UK chart three days after it was released.

The band's other "cult" singles include "Yellow" from Parachute, "In My Place" and "The Scientist" from A Rush of Blood to the Head and a ballad from X&Y, "Fix You".

More than a decade after the band was formed during their student years at University College London, all four members are now dads. The 32-year-old Chris Martin is a proud father of two with Oscar-winner actress Gwyneth Paltrow, 31-year-old Jonny Buckland has a daughter with his long-time jewelry-maker girlfriend, 30-year-old Will Champion, who was the first to get married, has daughter and twin boys, and 30-year-old Guy Berryman has a daughter from an earlier marriage.

In terms of wealth, MSN UK named bassist Guy Berryman the fourth richest man under the age of 30 in the UK last year. So you can do the math for the other band members - Coldplay have not been left out in the cold.

For all their worth, fans should be sure to catch them live next time the band stops nearby. Tickets will sell fast so don't let people from other countries beat you to it. Like me.

Source : http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/03/21/a-warm-welcome-coldplay039s-concert.html

Alaska Volcano Observatory Lowers Level to Yellow/Advisory

2009-03-23T16:58:00.000+08:00

At approximately 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, March 18, 2009, the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) lowered their level of concern and alert level to YELLOW/ADVISORY in regard to Mt. Redoubt . As a result, the Municipality of Anchorage Office of Emergency Management (OEM) has correspondingly lowered its operational status to "Normal Operations".

“Municipal agencies are conducting normal daily activities with incidents being handled with existing resources, policies, and procedures. Current conditions are being monitored by appropriate agencies.” (MOA Emergency Operation Plan 2008)

The OEM continues to monitor this situation closely. To learn more about recent developments visit the AVO’s website. http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/Redoubt.php

Source : http://alaskareport.com/news39/x71146_yellow_alert.htm

(CNN) -- Researchers have raised the alert status at Mount Redoubt, a volcano in southern Alaska, after another increase in seismic activity.

"Shallow earthquake activity under the volcano has been as high as 26 events per 10-minute period," officials at the Alaska Volcano Observatory said Sunday in a statement announcing that the alert level was raised to "watch" status.

Although no eruption has occurred, the scientists said the increase in seismic activity "likely represents either the upward movement of magma or pressurization of the system."

"It is possible for unrest at the volcano to change rapidly, and seismic activity or other signs of unrest could escalate culminating in an eruption within days to weeks," the statement concluded.

An increase in seismic activity at the same volcano prompted a "watch" level last Monday.

In the U.S. Geological Survey's color-coded alert levels, the orange "watch" level means the volcano "is exhibiting heightened or escalating unrest with increased potential of eruption" or that "eruption is underway with no or minor volcanic-ash emissions." The next level is red, meaning an eruption is imminent or underway.

Bill Burton, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said since January there have been increases in seismic activity at Mount Redoubt followed by periods of quiet.
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The 10,197-foot peak is about 100 miles southwest of Anchorage, the most populous city in Alaska.

Mount Redoubt last erupted nearly 20 years ago, in December 1989. That eruption lasted until April 1990.

Source ; http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/03/22/alaska.volcano/

Lesbian attacks wife with sperm

2009-03-20T18:29:00.001+08:00

Lesbian attacks wife with sperm!?!?!
Lesbian attacks wife with sperm!?!?!
Lesbian attacks wife with sperm!?!?!

Wah!
Lesbian still yearn for a baby of hers own.
And that is like ...
The baby is her brother and hers lesbian partner ones?
Like duh?

Lesbian attacks wife with sperm
PITTSFIELD (Massachusetts) - ONE HALF of a lesbian married couple has ended up in custody after allegedly attempting to forcibly impregnate her 'wife' with her brother's sperm.

According to a number of website reports on Wednesday, Stephanie Lighten, 26, allegedly threw her wife Jennifer Lighten, 33, on a couch in the couple's home.

She then threatened to impregnate her with "a turkey baster" filled with semen from Stephanie's brother kept in a sealed container, reported letzgetreal.com.

A "turkey baster" is a large syringe with a catheter tip, according to the police who confiscated it.

Police also discovered and confiscated a container of semen donated by Stephanie's brother, Nicholas Lighten, and some aluminium that also apparently had contained the semen said a report on news.com.au.

Jennifer is reported as say she struggled with a "liquored up' Stephanie on the couch who grabbed at Jennifer's clothes.

She said she then ran to the bathroom and locked herself in but allegedly Stephanie broke down the door.

Police then arrived and arrested Stephanie.

Jennifer Lighten has declined to press attempted rape charges because she does not believe Stephanie seriously intended to impregnate her said letzgetreal.com.

Stephanie been charged with domestic assault and will be required to attend the Central Berkshire District Court on April 29 for a pre-trial hearing.

Source : http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/World/Story/STIStory_351676.html

He is only two years old and he smokes and curses!

2009-03-18T22:15:00.000+08:00

Look at this video.
This video is taken at China , Sichuan.
And this video was uploaded at youku.com
I don't think it's his father or mother who teach him this kind of stuff.
More like a trafficker..

If you're having problem viewing the video,direct yourself to
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjcyOTU5NTI=.html

Gary Ng a.k.a GaryNg174 Also Known as 'Singapore's Edison Chen' who posts videos of his sex encounters on blog!

2009-03-17T21:37:00.000+08:00

'Singapore's Edison Chen' - He posts videos of sex encounters on blog

Wow,looks like Singapore has hers own 'Edison Chen' as well.

But this 'Edison Chen' is so much so auto!

Why?

He uploads his own sex encounters videos online on his own accord!!!

This fellow is known as Gary Ng!

I did found some pictures as well.

And the pictures is censored too , so I can share with you guys!

The pictures will be posted after the news article!

'Singapore's Edison Chen' - He posts videos of sex encounters on blog

In yet another online scandal that had Singaporean Netizens riled, a blogger who calls himself Gary Ng posted some 33 sex videos of himself to a blog on an obscene website.According to a post on omy blogger Alvinology's site, Gary claims to work in the banking industry, and is not shy at all about describing his sexual encounters with the various women.Local Chinese evening daily Lianhe Wabao, reported that about 22 women were featured in the 33 videos Gary uploaded. Gary also titled the videos such that they profile the women whom he was having sex with.From the titles include, 'Gary Ng vs. Beer Auntie', 'Gary Ng vs. Ah Lian' and even 'Gary Ng vs. Friend's Niece'. A real estate agent, an NUS student, a bank employee and a neighbour were also among Gary's 'conquests', Lianhe Wanbao reported.The Wanbao report said that Gary first uploaded the sex clips to a blog hosted on an obscene website. He then made a number of posts on several popular Singaporean online forums, describing his sexual experiences in great detail and posting links to the videos.Response to the videos were rife with criticism, with many Netizens condemning Gary's actions and sending 'flames' or angry posts. However, a handful of bloggers were found to have posted links to Gary's sex videos on their own blogs as well.Lianhe Wanbao said that the first clip was uploaded sometime in August 2008, and the videos last from between more than 10 seconds to some 30 seconds.From the angle the video were shot, the camera was likely to have been placed at a high point in the room. The women seem not to be aware of the fact that their actions were being recorded.In a later email reply to Lianhe Wanbao, Gary admitted that "most of the women" were unaware he was taping them.

Source : http://www.asiaone.com/Digital/News/Story/A1Story20090317-129028.html

Here are the some pictures I found.

Before I share with you the pictures.
He claimed to have done a beer promo auntie; a property agent; a banker; a mother and her daughter; his neighbour; his office colleague; a Chinese maid; a NUS student; a poly girl; his own cousin; his friend; his friend’s niece; a waitress; a student nurse; a Chivas promoter; a cosmetic girl; an ah lian, etc

Exchange Your Website Link With Entertainment Of The Day Now!

2009-03-17T18:47:00.000+08:00

It would be a great opportunity to seize this chance to exchange website link with each other right now!
There is one advantage for me and you!
That is ...

Increase of your website traffic and increase of dealingses!

So what are you waiting for!!!
How to exchange link with me?

Very simple!
State your details in this format.

Name:
Website Link:

And how to submit?
Of course,by commenting on this post now!
And after you commented!
Don't forget to link me in your website!

Cheers!

Featuring U R Man By SS501!

2009-03-17T18:28:00.000+08:00

U R MAN is another song that will makes you hyperactive!
Especially for girls because SS501 are a band consisting of five hunks!
Who are Kim Hyun Joong,Heo Young Saeng,Kim Kyu Jong,Park Jung Min and Kim Hyung Jun!

If you do notice , one of the member who is Kim Hyung Jun!
He looks like Wu Chun from Fahrenheit (飛輪海)

And if you are keen to learn the dance steps.
Here's a tutorial video!

Lyrics

jeonhwagildasi naeryeonoko
kkottabal gaseume mudeodugo
bamsaewo sseodunpyeonjido biejeoksyeo naerine

changmuneul tto yeoreobogo
geudae ireumeul bulleodo
daedabeomneun belsoriman gwitgae deulline

akkaakkawo na modeungeosi geuriwo
akkawo na modeungeosi goerowo
akkaakkaakkawo nan neomalgoneun dareunyeoja molla

I'm your man geudaeyeo ttaradatta oneuldo
naneun oneuldo geudaeman saenggakhae

I'm your man geudaeyeo ttaradatta oneuldo
geudaega tteonajianha

I'm your man I'm your man georireul tto hemaejyo
eodinjido mollayo
hoksirado tto geudaega natanalkka

I'm your man kkumerado moreujyo useumyeo bangyeojulkka
dasi chajaolji molla I'm your man

nungamado geudae seonmyeonghaedo gwitgae moksori deullyeowado
geudae hyanggi maemdorado imi geudaen tteonago

deo manhi deo saenggangnago gagonaseoya aratjyo
ige baro sarangilkka tteonagan geudaeyeo

akkaakkawo na modeungeosi geuriwo
akkawo na modeungeosi goerowo
akkaakkaakkawo nan tteonabeorin nisaenggage dora

I'm your man geudaeyeo ttaradatta oneuldo
naneun oneuldo geudaeman saenggakhae

I'm your man geudaeyeo ttaradatta oneuldo
geudaega tteonajianha

I'm your man I'm your man georireul tto hemaejyo
eodinjido mollayo
hoksirado tto geudaega natanalkka

I'm your man kkumerado moreujyo useumyeo bangyeojulkka
dasi chajaolji molla I'm your man

tteonagan niga uldeongeol ara geuraedo ije jiungeol ara

ijen ara namjan ijeungeojanha bichamhajanha

wae nanandoeni naega nisaramijanha

I'm your man geudaeyeo ttaradatta oneuldo
naneun oneuldo geudaeman saenggakhae

I'm your man geudaeyeo ttaradatta oneuldo
geudaega tteonajianha

I'm your man I'm your man georireul tto hemaejyo
eodinjido mollayo
hoksirado tto geudaega natanalkka

I'm your man kkumerado moreujyo useumyeo bangyeojulkka
dasi chajaolji molla I'm your man

Get Addicited With Haru Haru & Lies From Big Bang Now!

2009-03-17T18:11:00.000+08:00

BIGBANG with their rap and vocal styles with their amusing MVs that made me went buzzing all day long!

These two songs by BIGBANG which I'm going to introduce to you people are , '' Haru Haru '' & ''Lies!''
Which induced me to become so much hyper every now and then!
Indeed seductive with these two songs!

And here is ...

HARU HARU!

It's English Subtitled!

Lyrics

Tonaga
Yeah, finally I realise, that I'm nothing without you
I was so wrong, forgive me

Ah~~

Pado-chorom buswejin ne mam
Baram-chorom hundur-rinun ne mam
Yongi-chorom sarajin ne sarang
Munsin-chorom jiwe-jijiga anha
Hansuman tang-i kojira shi-jyo~o~o
Ne gasum-sogen monjiman sah-ijyo~o (Say goodbye)

Nega obsin dan harudo mos sal-goman gata-don na
Sengak-gwanun daruge-do gurok-jorok honjajal sara
Bogo-sipdago bullo-bwado non amu dedab-obsjanha
Ho-dwen gide golo-bwado ijen soyong-obsjanha

Ne yeope inun gu saram-i mwon-ji hokshi nol ul-lijin anunji
Gude nega bo-igin sag da ijo-nunji
Jog-jongdwe daga-gagi-jocha malul-gol su jocha obso ete-ugo
Na holo gin bamul jise-ujyo subeg-bon jiwe-nejyo

Dola-bojiman-go tona-gara to narul chaji-malgo sara-gara
Norul sarang-hetgie hu-he-obgie jo-atdon kiog-man gajyo-gara
Gurok-jorok chama-bulman-he gurok-jorok gyon-dyo-nelman-e
Non gurol-surok hengbok-heya-dwe haru-haru mudjyoga-ne
Oh girl, I cry cry
You're my all (Say goodbye)

Girul goda no-wana uri maju-chinda-hedo
Mot bonchog hagoso gudero gadon-gil ga-jw
Jakuman ye sengak-i to-oru-myon amado
Nado mule gudel chaja-galji-do mula

Non nul gu saram-gwa hengbok-hage non nul nega darun mam an moge
Non nul jagun milyon-do an namke-kum jal jine-jwo na boran-dushi
Non nul jo hanul-gati ha-yage dun gurum-gwado gat-i sapara-ge
Non nul gure-ge uso-jwo amu il obsdus-i

Dola-bojiman-go tona-gara to narul chaji-malgo sara-gara
Norul sarang-hetgie hu-he-obgie jo-atdon kiog-man gajyo-gara
Gurok-jorok chama-bulman-he gurok-jorok gyon-dyo-nelman-e
Non gurol-surok hengbok-heya-dwe haru-haru mudjyoga-ne

Narul tona-so mam pyonhe-jigil (Narul itgo-so sala-gajwo)
Gu nunmul-un da marul-teni, yeah (Haru-haru jina-myon)
Chari manaji anha-dora-myon dol apul-tende, hmm~
Yong-wonhi hamke-haja-don gu yagsog ijen
Chuog-e mudo-dogil bare baby nol we-he gido-he

Dola-bojiman-go tona-gara to narul chaji-malgo sara-gara
Norul sarang-hetgie hu-he-obgie jo-atdon kiog-man gajyo-gara
Gurok-jorok chama-bulman-he gurok-jorok gyon-dyo-nelman-e
Non gurol-surok hengbok-heya-dwe haru-haru mudjyoga-ne

Oh girl, I cry cry, You're my all, say goodbye bye
Oh my love, don't lie lie, You're my heart, say goodbye

And coming up next is ...

LIES!

Lyrics

Yuh-ba-sae-yo...
Yuh-ba-sae-yo?

(yeah) love is pain
Dedicated to all my broken-hearted people
One's old a flame... just scream my name
And i'm so sick of love songs (yeah)
I hate them damn love songs... moment of ours

(geo-jis-mar)
Neuj-eun bam bi-ga nae-ryeo-wa neor de-ryeo-wa
Jeoj-eun gi-eog kkeut-e dwi-cheog-yeo na
Neo eobs-i jar sar su iss-da-go
Da-jim hae-bwa-do eo-jjeor su eobs-da-go
Mos-ha-neun sur-do ma-si-go
Sog-ta-neun mam bam-sae chae-wo-bwa-dosirh-eo neo eobs-neun ha-ru-neun gir-eo bir-eo
Je-bar ij-ge hae-dar-ra-go (-geo-jis-mar-i-ya)

Neo eobs-neun nae-gen us-eum-i bo-i-ji anh-a
Nun-mur-jo-cha go-i-ji anh-a
Deo-neun sar-go sip-ji anh-a

Yeah
Yeos-gat-ae
Yeor-bad-ge
Ni saeng-gag-e
Dor-a-beo-rir-geos gat-ae

Bo-go sip-eun-de
Bor su-ga eobs-de
Mo-du kkeut-nass-de
I'll be right here

I'm so sorry but i love you da geo-jis-mar
I-ya mor-rass-eo i-je-ya ar-ass-eo ne-ga pir-yo-hae
I'm so sorry but i love you nar-ka-ro-un mar
Hwas-gim-e na-do mo-reu-ge neor tteo-na-bo-naess-ji-man
I'm so sorry but i love you da geo-jis-mar
I'm so sorry but i love you
I'm so sorry but i love you
(i love you more and more)
I'm so sorry but i love you na-reur tteo-na
Cheon-cheon-hi ij-eo-jur-rae
Nae-ga a-pa-har su iss-ge

Geu-daer wi-hae-seo bur-reo-wass-deon nae mo-deun geor da ba-chin no-rae
(a-ma sa-ram-deur-eun mo-reu-gess-jyo)
Nan hon-ja,, geu a-mu-do a-mu-do mor-rae
(geu-rae nae-ga haess-deon mar-eun geo-jis-mar)

Hor-ro nam-gyeo-jin oe-tor-i
Geu sog-e he-me-neun nae kkor-i
Ju-meo-ni sog-e kko-gis-kko-gis
Jeob-eo-dun i-byeor-eur hyang-han jjog-ji (hey)
(neon eo-dis-na-yo neor bu-reu-neun seub-gwan-do)
Nan dar-ra-jir-rae
I-jen da us-eo-neom-gir-ge

I'm so sorry but i love you da geo-jis-mar
I-ya mor-rass-eo i-je-ya ar-ass-eo ne-ga pir-yo-hae
I'm so sorry but i love you nar-ka-ro-un mar
Hwas-gim-e na-do mo-reu-ge neor tteo-na-bo-naess-ji-man
I'm so sorry but i love you da geo-jis-mar
I'm so sorry but i love you
(i love you more and more)
I'm so sorry but i love you na-reur tteo-na
Cheon-cheon-hi ij-eo-jur-rae
Nae-ga a-pa-har su iss-ge

Oh oh oh oh oh
Mo-deun-ge kkum-i-gir
Oh oh oh
I-geos-bakk-e an-doe-neun na-ra-seo

Drop that thing...

A-jig-do neo-reur mos ij-eo
A-ni pyeong-saeng-eur ga-do (yeah)

Jug-eo-seo-kka-ji-do
Nae-ga jun sang-cheo a-mur-eoss-neun-ji
Mi-an-hae a-mu-geos-do
Hae-jun-ge eobs-neun na-ra-seo

I'm so sorry but i love you da geo-jis-mar
I-ya mor-rass-eo i-je-ya ar-ass-eo ne-ga pir-yo-hae
I'm so sorry but i love you nar-ka-ro-un mar
Hwas-gim-e na-do mo-reu-ge neor tteo-na-bo-naess-ji-man
I'm so sorry but i love you da geo-jis-mar (but i love you)
I'm so sorry (so sorry) but i love you
(i love you more and more)
I'm so sorry but i love you na-reur tteo-na
Cheon-cheon-hi ij-eo-jur-rae
Nae-ga a-pa-har su iss-ge

Bye bye...

Wonder Baby Versus Wonder Girls!

2009-03-17T17:52:00.000+08:00

See how this 4years old girl take on WonderGirls's with WonderGirls's dance steps!

English Subtitle Included!

Isn't she effing cute and amazing with her astonishing performance.
And she's only 4years old!

After seeing this video,I'm dead mesmerized by her!So do WonderGirls!

Get Addicited With Insomnia By Craig David!

2009-03-17T17:42:00.000+08:00

I just can't get rid of the addiction!
It's just immensely addictive
It just sounds perfect and flawless!
And it's Insomnia By Craig David.
Something you would not want to omit from!

Lyrics

I never thought that I'd fall in love, love, love, love
But it grew from a simple crush, crush, crush, crush
Being without you girl, I was all messed up, up, up, up
When you walked out, said that you'd had enough-nough-nough-nough

Been a fool, girl I know
Didn't expect this is how things would go
Maybe in time, you'll change your mind
Now looking back i wish i could rewind

Because i can't sleep til you're next to me
No i can't live without you no more
Oh i stay up til you're next to me
Til this house feels like it did before
Feels like insomnia ah ah, Feels like insomnia ah ah
Feels like insomnia ah ah, Feels like insomnia ah ah

Remember telling my boys that I'd never fall in love, love, love, love
You used to think I'd never find a girl I could trust, trust, trust, trust
And then you walked into my life and it was all about us, us, us, us
But now I'm sitting here thinking I messed the whole thing up, up, up, up

Been a fool (fool), girl I know (know)
Didn't expect this is how things would go
Maybe in time (time), you'll change your mind (mind)
Now looking back i wish i could rewind

Because i can't sleep til you're next to me
No i can't live without you no more (without you no more)
Oh i stay up til you're next to me (to me)
Til this house feels like it did before (Because it)
Feels like insomnia ah ah, Feels like insomnia ah ah
Feels like insomnia ah ah (Ah), Feels like insomnia ah ah

Ah, i just can't go to sleep
Cause it feels like I've fallen for you
It's getting way too deep
And i know that it's love because

I can't sleep til you're next to me
No i can't live without you no more (without you no more)
Oh i stay up til you're next to me (to me)
Til this house feels like it did before
Feels like insomnia ah ah, Feels like insomnia ah ah
Feels like insomnia ah ah, Feels like insomnia ah ah

Feels like insomnia ah ah, Feels like insomnia ah ah
Feels like insomnia ah ah, Feels like insomnia ah ah