David Blaine breaks world record!

David Blaine broke the world record for holding breath underwater. He did it on the latest Oprah Winfrey Show. Check out this vid:



Newscaster Wen Ching, 2008.

Of playing catch and packing sardines...

Surfing the Net can net you some interesting videos, such as these:






Zookeeper Wen Ching, 2008.

Kobe = MVP :-)

Check this vid out. Call it fake or real, it is still a pretty cool stunt.




Super Wen Ching, 2008.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

Snow n wind starting to brew n mingle.

Icey snowy ground.


A blurry Beemer covered with snow.

My glove coated with snowflakes.

View from bus stop. *MORE SNOW!*

Newscaster Wen Ching, 2008.

The Court Jester...

Latest breaking news... Heath Ledger is dead.
Just saw this link on Yahoo! front page: Heath Ledger dies
and my react was: What da...??!
He, dead at age 28, had starred in well-received movies such as The Patriot, Monster's Ball and the infamous Brokeback Mountain. The next big project that he had completed was as the role of The Joker in the forthcoming The Dark Knight!
Let us remember him as a patriot, a homosexual cowboy and a court jester gone wrong.

Heath Ledger as The Joker.

Newscaster Wen Ching, 2008.

Gates, Guitars and Buckethead.

This week is a time for technology and discovery!

Held this week was Apple's Macworld Conference & Expo. There's something in the Air. Let's see the best thing to come out from Macworld:

Steve Jobs with a suspicious-looking envelope.
What is inside?

Whoa! It's none other than...
The Macbook Air.

Let the pictures do the talking for
the world's thinnest notebook:

Wow... simply, wow... Look at the specifications while I pick my jaw up from the floor.

Component	Early 2008
Display	13.3" glossy LED-backlit LCD widescreen 6-bit display, 1280x800 pixel resolution
Graphics	Intel GMA X3100 graphics processor with 144 MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory
Storage	80-GB PATA hard drive 64-GB SSD optional
Processor	1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Merom, with 800 MHz FSB 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo optional
Memory	2GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM Soldered to the logicboard
Wireless Networking	Integrated AirPort Extreme supports 802.11a/b/g/draft n
Wired Ethernet	Optional USB Ethernet Adapter
Optical storage	Optional External USB SuperDrive
Camera	Built-in iSight
Battery	37 W-Hr Lithium-polymer battery 5 hours estimated run-time.
Physical Dimensions	22.7 cm D x 32.4 cm  W x 0.4~1.94 cm H 8.9 in. D x 12.74 in. W x 0.16~0.76 in. H 1.36 kg (3.0 lbs.)
Bluetooth	2.1+EDR built-in
Port connections	1x USB 2.0 1x Micro-DVI video port (adapters are included for VGA or DVI monitors up to 1920x1200 pixels) 1x Audio Out (3.5 mm stereo jack)
Audio	1x microphone 1x mono loudspeaker External speakers must be plugged in for stereo.
Keyboard	Backlit full-size keyboard with ambient light sensor
Trackpad	Supports multi-touch gestures
Base price	USD$1,799

Not too bad a price for such an astounding notebook.

While searching for the Steve Job's keynote at Macworld 2008, I chanced upon the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) which was just held the week before. The highlight was watched Bill Gate's last keynote (retire from being full-time Microsoft employee). At the end of his keynote, he was challenged to a Guitar Hero game. His opponent brought on Kelly "TipperQueen" Law-Yone, a pro Guitar Hero gamer, while Mr. Gates brought on Slash from Velvet Revolver.

Searched around for how good is TipperQueen at Guitar Hero. She 5-starred Jordan on Expert Difficulty. Jordan, a special version of the song by Buckethead, is considered one of the most difficult songs ever in the Guitar Hero series. When I searched on YouTube for Jordan, found out that a player nicknamed HellAshes 100% FC'ed (FC = Full Combo) it twice, 2nd time with score more than 500K. Check out his video of it.





Now watch the creator of the song, Buckethead perform the original version live. He's got insane skillz.


Enjoy the pix, the vids and the song.


Gadgetmeister Wen Ching, 2008.

King of the Mountain, R.I.P.

Thus a sad moment in history... Sir Edmund P. Hillary, who was the first to scale Mount Everest, has died. He was 88.
Let us remember him for being atop of the world on the world's tallest peak and living to a ripe old age to tell the tale of being there 1st. *Besides probably the Nepalese of course.*

Sir Edmund P. Hillary of New Zealand (left) and Sardar Tenzing Norgay of Nepal (right), show the kit they wore when conquering the world's highest peak.

Newscaster Wen Ching, 2008.

Plant a Tree 2day!

With the response from the public, Innocent Drinks have planted a whopping 164,020 trees!

This is my contribution:

Newscaster Wen Ching, 2008.

MIFC = jam nightmare.

Heard from my sis today who went there to try to join in the crowd at the Malaysia International Fireworks Competition in Putrajaya. As predicted by me, it will be jammed like ppl love to get stuck in jams. My sis was stuck in a 3 hour jam and could only watch the fireworks in the car. 2nd sad thing is the fireworks display only lasted for 20mins... max. Pity those who paid good money for tix and all they had were jams and premature displays of fireworks. Hopefully other teams put on a better show.


BlogMaster Wen Ching, 2007.

Barry Bonds does it!

Barry Bonds passed Hank Aaron and became the all-time home run king!
He hit his 756th career home run today against Washington Nationals's pitcher Mike Bacsik.
Congrats.
Also give a round of applause to:
Álex Rodríguez for hitting his 500th career home run,
Tom Glavine for winning his 300th game and
Edwin van der Sar for 3 spectacular saves during the Community Shield match's penalty shoot-out, Manchester United vs Chelsea.


Newscaster Wen Ching, 2007.

Welcome to the Odditorium.

A couple days ago Ripley's Believe It Or Not! opened its Odditorium in Times Square, New York City.
So what is this Odditorium you ask? Check out this article, quotes and pictures below to find out!

Ripley's Believe It or Not! Odditorium Opens in Times Square

Quote:

" ... will house the ultimate in the odd and bizarre including 24 shrunken heads, a section of the Berlin Wall and a 3,197 lb. meteorite, as well as items that are genuine New York including Babe Ruth's "Believe It or Not's" New York team baseball uniform."

"The Odditorium will feature the world's
largest display of shrunken heads -- 24!
Personally collected and brought back to
New York City by Ripley, the heads were
the spoils of war for the Jivaro Indians
of Ecuador.
Believe it or not, Ripley's Times Square
will boast more shrunken heads on
display than the American Museum of
Natural History."

"Found in Guangxi, Nantan County, China in 1958, ... a giant 3,197-lb. meteorite that fell to earth during the Ming Dynasty on June 11, 1529. Composed of 92% iron, the meteorite will be the third largest Nantan meteorite on display anywhere in the world."


Pictures from the opening ceremony:

Dennis Avner, also known as the Cat Man.


Jalisa 'The Eyepopper' Thompson.


Lee Redmond shows her nails.
* holds the record for the woman
with the longest fingernails*


'Wolfboy' Ramos Gomez, of Mexico.

Unbelievable? Believe It...


Newscaster Wen Ching, 2007.

D'oh! Homer Simpson stolen!

I read this news from The New Straits Times today actually. (Click Here)
What's this case all about?
The cinema standee promoting The Simpsons Movie had it's Homer Simpson fibreglass statue component stolen!
Now it seems that the case has been solved.
(Source: International Herald Tribune)

D'oh! Malaysian students forced to return stolen Homer Simpson statue

Quote:
"Two Malaysian college students
believed to be over-exuberant fans
... stole a life-sized figurine of
Homer Simpson from a cinema."

" ... two men carried the statue out at
about 3 a.m. and ... they put Homer
in the boot of their car ... The theft
took only three minutes."

"The figurine costs 3,000 ringgit
(US$860; €640)
and was flown in from the United States ... "

Funny as it seems, the pictures tell it all.

One big happy... wait a minute, where's Homer?!!!

Homer Simpson has left the building.

MovieBuff Wen Ching, 2007.

What's in a gnome?

Snakes and reptiles apparently!

Reptiles smuggled in garden gnomes

Quote:

"During ... check of international mail ...
officer discovered two snakes and
three lizards stuffed inside three of
the diminutive garden figurines in
a shipment from Britain."

Ssssnakey insidesss...

"A day later, officials at the same facility
X-rayed another package from Britain
and found five snakes and five lizards
stuffed inside pottery figures ..."

"Both packages ... declared as gifts."


My.. my.. what exotic gifts!
Now this beats having snakes on a plane, now it should be snakes in a gnome.


Newscaster Wen Ching, 2007.

Good, Bad & Bizarre! [1]

Today in the odd world that is news...

GOOD

Dog helps save foal from abandoned well

Quote:
"It could have been a scene straight out of "Lassie".
Kurt Smith was working in the yard ... when
Molly, his border collie, came running and barking,
signaling that something was amiss."

"Smith ... discovered that the 2-month-old foal Mati
— short for Matinicus Rock —
had fallen into a 12-foot-deep abandoned well."

"... Molly baby-sits the baby horse
and looks right after her," Smith said."

Border collie pups. ^_^

BAD

Angry squirrel finished off by crutch

Quote:
"An unusually aggressive squirrel attacked
three people in a German town ..."

"... jumped through a living-room window
in Passau ... bit its first victim."

"With the squirrel hanging on by its teeth,
the woman ran out into the street ..."

"The squirrel then bit a builder before fleeing
into a nearby garden, where it bit a 72-year-old man
who eventually killed it with his crutch ... "

FEAR ME!
*random crazy squirrel pic. :p*

BIZARRE!
Speak of the...
Just a couple days ago I said I "would like to see a green-coloured Coke drink some time." This is not Coke but instead their rival, Pepsi!
Take a look for yourself:

Cucumber-flavored soda sold in Japan

Quote:
"Japanese are staying cool ...
with "Pepsi Ice Cucumber" ...
new soda based on the crisp green gourd."

"doesn't actually have any cucumber in it
— but has been artificially flavored to resemble
"the refreshing taste of a fresh cucumber ... "

"The mint-colored soda is on sale
just for the summer and only
in Japan ... "

Hmmm... wonder how an artificially flavoured taste of fresh cucumber would be like. Hehe..
We have our Slurpee, they have their Pepsi Ice Cucumber. ;p

Till next time... Be good, be bad, be down-right B1Z4Rr3! (I mean Bizarre. :-D)


Newscaster Wen Ching, 2007.

Messed up but it's Hollywood.

Try hard not to taint my blog with the fiasco about Paris Hilton. But this latest news seems to be the straw that broke the camel's back.

(Digression: Hmmm... something mighty interesting I found at that site, different language equivalents to that proverb. Check them out:

• French equivalent : la goutte d'eau qui fait déborder le vase, meaning the drop of water that makes the glass overflow.
• German equivalent : Der Tropfen, der das Fass zum Überlaufen bringt, meaning the drop that makes the barrel overflow.
• Dutch equivalaent : De druppel die de emmer doet overlopen, meaning the drop that makes the bucket overflow.
• Spanish equivalent : La gota que colmó el vaso, meaning the drop that spills over the glass.
• Italian equivalent : La goccia che fa traboccare il vaso, meaning the drop of water that makes the glass overflow.
• Romanian equivalent : Picătura care a umplut paharul, meaning the drop that filled the glass.

Those are just some of the proverb equivalents provided by Wikipedia. Something to consider in the future.. Digression end.)

So what is this news you ask?
It is this:

Paris Hilton released from LA jail early

Now where is the justice in that? I know that celebrities get off easy all the time and you're wondering why I chose to highlight it now. Well it's because this Paris Hilton thing is publicized enough till that almost everyone knows about it.
So the reason cited for the early release is: "an unspecified medical problem". Gone are the good ol' days of good behaviour?? Guess that doesn't make good Hollywood scripts anymore. :p
Anywayz, the messed up part is that she finishes off her sentence in, get this, "home confinement". If her house is equivalent to her social status, most people won't mind being confined in her house. *But... too much of a good thing can be dangerous too.*

Quote from article:
"The 26-year-old hotel heiress was sent home shortly after 2 a.m. wearing an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet..." a.k.a. her new bling.

So what's your opinion on this?

Another injustice article:

Jail for reckless driver

Quote from article:
"A screen and media graduate whose car veered from a main road and ploughed into several diners outside a restaurant here four years ago, killing a sales promoter and paralysing another woman, has been sentenced to two years’ jail and fined RM8,000."
*Such a light-weight sentence.*

Now what do you think about that news?


Newscaster Wen Ching, 2007.

Hot potatoes: Malaysia PM to get hitched.

Current hot potatoes, get them while it's hot!

For the uninformed, our PM, Pak Lah, is getting married this Saturday to a certain Jeanne Abdullah. (Wah, so fast already got a Wikipedia entry for Jeanne Abdullah. :p)

Source: PM to get married on Saturday

Update: Press release straight from our PM's office (Click here)

Update:

Jeanne Abdullah.

Pic courtesy of Prime Minister's Department.


Newscaster Wen Ching, 2007.

Once in a Blue Moon.

Saw this interesting piece of news featured on Yahoo! yesterday:

The Truth Behind This Month's Blue Moon

Fancy seeing 2 full Moons in 1 month? Now you can. :)

Quotes from the article:

"In fact, it occurs, on average, about every 32 months. And in the year 1999, it occurred twice in a span of just three months!"

"This time around, the Moon will turn full on May 31 at 9:04 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (6:04 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time)."

"But for those living in Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia, that same full Moon occurs after midnight, on the calendar date of June 1."

Will this be what we see on that night?

Cool eh?

Astronaut Wen Ching, 2007.