Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Cutting Your Nails

When I was in primary school. Our class monitor would check on our nails during the school assembly every Monday morning to ensure everyone in our class had cut our nails. Those who did not cut their nails would be reported to the discipline master. Not sure if such stuff still goes on in primary schools today. The reasoning is simple enough. If your nails were long, they would be more likely to trap dirt. If they trapped dirt, you would be more likely to get diarrhoea or fall sick from eating stuff from your hands.

What punishment did we get for forgetting to cut our nails? Our discipline master told us to go wash our hands.

During school fights, nails, especially long ones, can be used for scratching people until they bleed.

We have to cut our nails so that we can play the guitar,

the piano

and type away at the computer keyboard.

It's hard to do all the above stuff with long nails like these.

New routine: Cut nails every Sunday night. Can't type fast properly with long nails. Hindrance.

Monday, August 28, 2006

Static Electricity Sparks Petrol Fumes

A Chrysler Voyager burned by petrol inflammed by static electricity.

As a continuation of the video

about static electricity in which a girl had a fire accident on getting out of her car and directly touching the nosepiece, we come across a similar case:

With the generalisation of self-service facilities in petrol stations people should be warned about the outbreak of fires resulting from static electricity while they are pouring in petrol.

150 cases of this type of fire have been investigated and the results were very surprising.

1. Of the 150 cases, more happened to women than men, due to their habit of getting in and out of the vehicle while the petrol is being poured in.

2. In the majority of cases the people had re-entered their cars when the hose was still pouring petrol out (the danger of the triggers on the nosepieces). When they finished refueling and got out to remove the hose pistol the fire began, as a result of the static electricity.

3. The majority of those affected used rubber-soled footwear and clothes of synthetic fibers.

4. Never use mobile phones when filling up with fuel.

5. It is well known that it is the vapor that comes from the petrol that burns and causes the fire when it makes contact with static charges.

6. In twenty-nine of the cases analysed, the people re-entered their vehicles and later touched the pistols during the petrol fuelling process. This happened in cars of different varieties of makes and models.

7. Seventeen fires occurred before, during or immediately after the cap of the petrol tank was removed and before starting to fill up with petrol.

8. The static charge often results from when a passenger rubs their clothes against the upholstery of the seats on getting in or out of the vehicle. To avoid this, it is recommendable that NOBODY gets in or out of the vehicle while the petrol is being poured in. Movement in or out should only be done BEFORE starting, or when the fuelling is finished and the petrol cap placed.

9. MAXIMISE THE PRECAUTIONS if the petrol has spilt or splashed onto the ground. Highly inflammable vapors are immediately produced which can be ignited by sparks of static electricity from the turning on of electronic equipment (mobile phones, remote controls, etc.) or by the ignition of the vehicle itself. BEFORE starting up the engine again, the spilt petrol must be gathered or neutralised by the petrol station staff.

LOADING PETROL

IN YOUR VEHICLE: Stop, put the handbrake on and turn off the engine, radio and lights.

NEVER: Return to your vehicle while you are pouring in fuel.

AS A PRECAUTION: Get used to closing the car door on getting out or into the vehicle and in this way the static electricity will be discharged on touching something metallic.

After closing the door TOUCH THE METAL PART OF THE BODYWORK before touching the petrol pump pistol. By doing this the static electricity in your body will be discharged on the metal and not on the pistol.

RESPECT THE SAFETY REGULATIONS

As mentioned, we undertake this as a daily task, both inside and outside the company. This bulletin aims to raise public awareness of this danger.

I urge you to send this information to ALL your friends and family, especially those carrying children in the cars when pouring in petrol. Thank you for passing on this information.

Friday, August 25, 2006

Paramount Pictures Fires Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise

vs Paramount

or Is Sumner Redstone Behind Pluto's Demotion From Planet to Just a Dwarf Ball?
by Maggie Van Ostrand

What's up with America? In the last few years, we've seen sponsored efforts to tear down all our heroes from Thomas Jefferson (he owned slaves, but so did everyone of wealth back then in our dark ages) to Abe Lincoln (he must be gay because he slept in the same bed as his male friend; besides Gore Vidal said so), the Boy Scouts (shouldn't be limited to boys. Huh? What?), the Catholic Church (molestation, gaiety, and manly nuns), cops (torturing suspects), forest rangers (setting fires), teachers (fooling around with kid students), Mel Gibson (soused and scornful), even God (remove His name from our courts, our money, and our lips). Note how TV censors cut out the word God and leave in the word "damn."

And now, another blow -- Tom Cruise (effusive Scientologist).

Once upon a time in America, a person could freely express his or her religious convictions publicly if he or she chose to. Though that wasn't particularly smart, since politics and religion can be such inflammatory topics, it was certainly a freedom.

Why is Tom Cruise any different?

Why is it perceived as scandalous if he shows monumental enthusiasm by jumping up and down or doing anything else that he feels like doing? Though for the rest of us there's not been too much going on in the world in the last five years to jump up and down about, why pick on Tom Cruise?

Paramount Studios has severed a 14-year highly profitable relationship ($2.5 billion, that's with a "b") with Tom Cruise and business partner Paula Wagner's Cruise/Wagner Productions. Those billions would be in U.S. dollars, the dollars that still say God on them.

The reason given? Sumner Redstone, chairman of Viacom which owns Paramount Studios and everything else in the world that's not in your safe deposit box, said, "As much as we like him personally, we thought it was wrong to renew the deal. His recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount."

Recent conduct? Tom Cruise's ratcheted-up enthusiasm for his religion? This is America?

As if that's not bad enough, nasty tabloid and magazine covers intimate that there's something wrong with Tom and Katie Holmes' baby girl, Suri, because they haven't submitted photos of their baby as have other media-sucking celebrities. The press is practically suggesting the baby must be a throwback to Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man. One writer even suggests Katie was never pregnant, that she had a pillow under her dress. This is America?

So it's okay if a celeb takes his own baby's photo and sells it for a million bucks to the tabloids, but not okay if Tom Cruise just doesn't wish to have photos published. Isn't that his right? Tom's getting it even worse than Michael Jackson, who covers the heads of his children with diaphanous cloth, thereby satisfying public peeping lust while denying the public full satisfaction.

The gay community is angry with Tom Cruise because they say he's gay and he says he's not. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but Tom ought to know, don't you think? Well, maybe not the entire gay community is angry; Rosie O'Donnell has not yet withdrawn her public adoration of Tom. Since when do Americans reward negativity, nastiness, and nattering Nabobs with rapt attention? Have we no lives of our own?

If you enjoy Tom Cruise's leaping all over the place doing movie stunts, what difference does it make if he leaps all over the place on a talk show or atop the Eiffel Tower?

Since I oppose contempt prior to investigation, I went to www.scientology.org in an effort to understand the overwhelming enthusiasm of Tom Cruise and other followers of Scientology. And I wanted to take their personality test, because I saw the South Park video which wasn't very nice but then, it's South Park, that's what they do.

While the online test offers a graph of the results, you can't understand the graph yourself; you have to go to a Scientology Center to have the results interpreted by one of their experts, so I'll have to be satisfied with my personality the way it is.
On the Scientology website, I learned that one of the stages a practitioner aspires to is "exhilaration." Apparently Tom Cruise reached that stage and now he's being criticized for it. His fervor found no favor at Paramount. Hollywood's intolerance is growing. Disney-owned ABC TV dumped Mel Gibson's Icon Productions' miniseries about the holocaust because they were offended by his slurred statements denigrating another religion when he was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving. They didn't exactly put it that way. Disney's spokeswoman said they hadn't seen a draft of the series after waiting for two years. I guess they just realized that the day after Mel got soused.

You'd think Mel and Tom committed murder. Two of the top stars in the world, dropped with a colossal thud by their studios because somebody at the top didn't like what they said. This is America? Whether we agree with Tom Cruise or not, he certainly should have the right to express his opinions without getting the sack.

Maybe it's not Tom's "recent behavior" that was the pebble in Sumner Redstone's loafers. I've seen photos of 83-year-old Mr. Redstone and I've seen photos of 44-year-old Mr. Cruise, and I think Tom Cruise was axed because he's so much better looking. Doesn't matter how rich he is or how much media power he wields (Mr. Redstone owns a global programming colossus that includes MTV, Nickelodeon, VH-1, Showtime, the 900 films in Paramount's library, and network-TV programming produced by Paramount, and also such syndicated successes as "Cheers," "Roseanne," and "The Cosby Show," not to mention one of the world's largest publishing enterprises, the New York Knickerbockers and the New York Rangers), he might still suffer from envy. That's just my opinion.

Considering the difference in looks, height, and age, and the similarities in wealth, clout, and philosophy, you'd think these two men could get along for the greater good of their combined occupations, not to mention the well-being of Tom Cruise fans worldwide. Hollywood is abuzz with talk about how studios are now going to get very tough on the major stars because the sweet deals made in the past by their agents are netting people like Tom and Mel more bling than the studios, who have to answer to their stockholders. Not like the old days where studio moguls had to be sucked up to, and studio publicity departments paid reporters to keep morally questionable activities of their stars out of the papers.

If these rumors are true, is it fair to penalize one of the most popular stars in the world because he's smarter than his studio? Tom Cruise's heavyweight agency, Creative Artists, has a roster of stars greater than any other Hollywood agency. What would happen if the agency threatened to withhold their other clients from Paramount movie deals? These days America has a hard time getting along with its global neighbors. Apparently, we can't even get along with each other.

Firing people because they express unpopular opinions about religions is not what America is all about.

Or is it?


#####

Let me know your opinion on this War Against Tom Cruise.

------------------------------
For help with your subscription, write to:
maggie@maggievanostrand.com

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Copied in China

Is there anything which manufacturers in China can't copy?

China-copied Toyota Corolla Altis by BYD(比亚道).

China-copied BMW by Geely(吉利).

China-copied Mercedes-Benz by Geely(吉利).

三菱电器变成四菱电器。

SONY batteries became SQNY batteries.
“新力”电池变成“死去你要”电池。

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Monkey Disturbs Tigers

This monkey kept disturbing the two tigers who were unable to get back at it since they were not as agile and nimble as it.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Jim Carrey in The Lifeguard

The Great Jim Carrey

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

The Ten Most Annoying Alarm Clocks

#10 - Climbing clock.

It hangs above your head and starts climbing while it rings. Don't wake up fast enough, and you won't be able to shut it up without a ladder.

# 9 Wake Up Puzzle.

You have to build the puzzle to make it stop.

# 8 Wake or Curse.

You can ask it what the time is and it will answer. But if you don't wake up quickly enough it will curse you.

# 7 High Tech.

This one has a vibrator, an alarm with 95 decibels and police-style rotating light that you cannot ignore.

# 6 Find The Pin.

You need find the right pin to stop its ringing. Not going to stay sleepy after this mission.

# 5 Chicken and Egg Problem.

The egg-laying alarm clock. It will only quiet down after you put all the eggs back.

# 4 GI Joe.

You will wake to the sound of your commander's wakeup call. Don't mess with it.

# 3 Floating Around.

Will float around the room until you catch it.

# 2 Kaboom.

This acoustic grenade will wake the neighborhood with its ultra loud sound level.

# 1 Hide and Seek

The winner is the hide and seek alarm clock. Once it begins to ring it falls down to the floor and finds a random place to hide. Chase it down or else you're doomed.

D1大整古-滑雪場按摩椅

D1-大整古-流动厕所

Chris Rock's "How To Not Get Your Ass Kicked"