Congratulations Prime Minister

Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi married Datin Seri Jeanne Abdullah at a simple and private ceremony at his official residence, Seri Perdana, in Putrajaya today.

The akad nikah (solemnisation of marriage vows) was solemnised by Putra Mosque acting Imam, Abd Manaf Mat.

Jeanne (pronounced zhahn in the French accent) became the Prime Minister’s wife at around 2.50pm.

Selamat Pengantin Baru


Read the Star report here.

Updated (11 June, 2007): The photographs are finally out. Check them out here.

Giant WiFi hotspot in London

An outdoor WiFi network has been switched across the entire City of London – known as the Square Mile. The Cloud is the operating company in charge of what is called as the Europe’s most advanced outdoor WiFi network. London has literally become one giant WiFi hotspot.

The city wide network currently comprises of 127 nodes and has been built onto existing street features such as lamp posts and street signs. The supported service providers include O2, BT Openzone, iPass, Truphone and Skype.

Internet access will be Free during this launch month only. They say "provided in association with Nokia" meaning Nokia sponsored it.

More cities in the UK are are expected to follow suit.

Tags: Cloud London Square Mile WiFi

Google acquires Tonic Systems

Google recently announced that they have acquired Tonic Systems, which is based in based in San Francisco, US and Melbourne, Australia. They bring technology related to presentation creation and document conversion.

Google already has online Documents and Spreadsheets. I really find it convenient to open attached documents from my Gmail account and most of all the fact that I can share and collaborate with others online. The ability to make and collaborate on presentation slides would be a welcome addition. It is expected to come out this summer. Yet another addition to the Google family.

Read the whole news on the official Google blog here.

Tags: Google Presentations Tonic Systems

Kryptonite discovered in Siberia

Kryptonite is an fictional substance and is the remains of Krypton, Superman's native planet that blew up. It is glowing green in colour and is one of Superman's weakness - it robs him of his superhuman strength.

The chemical composition of Kyrptonite is supposed to be "sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide with fluorine." (from the 2006 movie "Superman Returns").

Well they have discovered a new mineral with the exact chemical composition in Siberia. However, it is white in colour, not radioactive and does not contain fluorine. They have named it Jadarite and not Kyrptonite. I am not joking.

Read the article on the Discovery site here.

Google is #1 brand

Google has been named as the most powerful global brand of 2007 beating others such as Microsoft and Coca-Cola.

The ranking called 2007 brandz, Top 100 most powerful brands, was carried out by market researcher Millward Brown Optimor.

Is it that surprising?

Related link: Google beats Microsoft, Coke in brand stakes

The Virginia Tech shootings

I was really shocked when I heard about the Virginia Tech shootings on the radio while driving back from the clinic on Tuesday evening.

Going through various blogs which posted about the tragedy, everybody seems to be asking "what drove the gunmen, Cho Seung-hui do it?"

Of course some are also asking why these shootings at educational institutions are so common in the US? It does not happen in any other country.

A lot of people are pointing their fingers at the lax gun control laws in the US and it's various states.

I am sure a lot of Americans who believe in the right to bear arms will disagree and say that " It's not guns that kill; its people who kill". This blog says that, "Once guns are banned, crime will explode". I totally disagree. You just need to look at the violent crime rate in countries that control guns and ones that don't. Just guess, which ones have lower rates.

The fact is that the US has the most heavily armed people and also the highest gun related deaths in the World. According to a Reuter's report, "there's an estimated 250 million privately owned guns in the United States, which has a population of about 300 million". In fact someone was telling me that a lot of Americans have automatic assault rifles in their homes. If that's for self-defense, that's really crazy.

To me, guns should be restricted to the armed forces, security forces and for certain purposes, namely hunting or for sports.

My sincere condolences to those who lost their lives in the tragedy.

Tags: Cho Seung-hui Guns Gun control Virginia Tech

Malaysia as South East Asian oil hub

Artist's impression of the new hub

Malaysia is set to become the oil hub for the entire South-East Asian region with the setting up of a RM1.4 billion (approx. $405.6 million) storage facility in Pulau Tanjung Bin near Tanjung Pelepas, Johor (just off the Port of Tanjung Pelepas). The Malaysian Government has given the green signal for the project.

This is a significant development and the facility would be the World's largest Petroleum hub when it is completed. The 1.0 million cubic-meter storage terminal would be located on a 40 ha island and will be able to handle over 60 million tonnes of petroleum products annually.

The proposed project will be handled by KIC Group of Companies subsidiary, Asia Petroleum Hub Sdn Bhd, which is a joint venture between KIC Group of companies (90%) and Trek Perintis Sdn Bhd (10%).

According to Asia Petroleum Hub's executive chairman Abdul Rashid Mohd Isa, the hub would enable the government to reduce its subsidies for petroleum products through the elimination of double handling charges. (Source: The Edge).

The facility is expected to start operations by early 2008.

Some more details about the project:
- Financial adviser and financier: CIMB Group
- Managed by: Kadriah Integrated Facilities Sdn Bhd
- Project management: QI-pmc Sdn Bhd
- Engineering and design consultant: Mott MacDonald Ltd, a British-based engineering firm
- Contractors: Muhibbah Engineering (M) Bhd and Nam Fatt Construction Sdn Bhd, with ZAQ Construction Sdn Bhd as the managing contractor.

Tags: Asia Petroleum Hub KIC Abdul Rashid Mohd Isa

Manipur, a forgotten hotspot

Read this interesting article in the Economist online, titled "A safe house for dangerous men", about Manipur, a small state in the North-East corner of India.

This article is part of a "Correspondent’s Diary", but I am not sure who the correspondent is.

Wracked by insurgency and a AIDS hot spot, Manipur certainly doesn't sound like it is the "Jewel of India".

Tags: Manipur Insurgency India

Kids forced into marriages

Children as young as 10 are being forced into arranged marriages. I guess this is nothing new in several developing countries. However, I was shocked to learn that this is occurring here in the UK and more precisely in Coventry.

The Coventry Times reports that many Asian families (read Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi) are taking their children out of their schools, shipping them abroad and forcing them into arranged marriages.

The report says that the authorities keep quiet for fear of upsetting the Asian communities involved. I agree when the newspaper adds that this is a case of "..political correctness gone mad".

Just proves that even though these people are living in a developed country, their mentality is still way behind.

AT&T to Cingular and back again

When I first heard about it, it was really confusing case of branding. First of all, AT&T became Cingular. Now Cingular is becoming AT&T again. Unless you are someone from the industry, I guess you are scratching your head in utter confusion.

OK, let me start from the beginning. Cingular Wireless was founded in 2001 as a joint venture of SBC Communications (now AT&T) and BellSouth (which AT&T acquired in 2006). Cingular, later purchased AT&T Wireless Services on October 26, 2004, making Cingular the largest wireless provider in the United States.

Cutting short the story and back to the present - a few later after SBC and AT&T merged, plans to to market Cingular's service under the AT&T brand were released in 2005. Finally, as part of the transition from the Cingular brand to AT&T, a new multi-media campaign was launched early in January this year.

I guess the re-branding may be a smart move on the part of AT&T, as the Cingular name as suffered from some bad publicity in the press in recent years. It should be pointed out that AT&T is the top carrier in the United States, based on customer totals. However, it may take some time before consumers accept that Cingular is the new AT&T.

It is expected that the first cell phone under the new AT&T brand will probably by the Apple iPhone, which many consider as a Cingular exclusive model - "the AT&T iPhone".

Some feel that the company should have waited until they had launched the phone to go for the rebranding.

Take a look at this gadget and you will definitely agree when I say that it more than a gadget but is simply a work of art.

You can check out the other Cingular phones available on the Wirefly.com website. Wirefly.com is an authorized dealer of Cingular phones.

The new FuelMyblog

Check out the all new FuelMyBlog.com site.

Definitely looks more professional. The walls are gone and instead they have several categories. Getting on the top 10 in each category depends on your visitor's votes. So grab the widgit code and add to your blogs.

Nobody can accuse them of being a Milliondollarhomepage clone any more.

Related posts:
- Fuelmyblog on radio
- Free blog advertising

Tags: FuelMyBlog

James Cameroon challenges Christianity

Now for some highly controversial news.

James Cameroon, director of the movie "Titanic" has claimed that he has found the tomb of Jesus Christ and his family in a documentary that he says will "rock the foundation of Christianity".

Cameron and filmmaker archeologist Simcha Jacobovici sets to to prove that the Talpiot Tomb uncovered 27 years ago, once held the remains of Jesus of Nazareth and his family.

The really shocking part is where he claims that Jesus fathered a a son named Judah with Mary Magdalene.

The documentary, "The Lost Tomb of Jesus" will be on the Discovery Channel on March 4th on the Discovery Channel at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

Related links:
- Discovery Channel To Roll Out Freemason Cameron On Jesus Tomb Claim
- Academy Winner of "Titanic" James Cameron Navigates "The Lost Tomb of Jesus"
- James Cameron finds grave of Jesus & Son

Tags: Discovery
Documentary James Cameroon Jesus Mary Magdalene Simcha Jacobovici

Something up at Payperpost

There has been several rumours regarding a big news in the next few weeks at Payperpost. As a postie with this market leader in online customer generated advertising, I am keeping my fingers crossed. Though PayPerPost, I get paid for voicing my opinion on my blogs.

Having racked my brains, thinking "what are they going to announce?", I have come up with not one but a few possibilities. They are as listed below:

1. They are going to take over another advertising competitor and grow even bigger.
2. They have decided to sell to Google or Yahoo.
3. They have come up with the "Postie of the Year" award and the winner is ME.
But seriously No!
and finally....
4. They have decided to go public.
Come to think of it, the last option is a definite possibility. They WILL have to go public in the near future if they want to grow and expand.

This will definitely be a good news for us old posties who already feel some kind of affinity with the company. We will also get the chance to own a part of it.

On the other hand, the number of detractors as well as jealous competitors might increase, as it always does when you become big.

Really looking forward to finding out what they are going to reveal.

Offical opening of Ricoh Arena

Today is the official opening of the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.

Dame Kelly Holmes (Britain’s double gold medallist at the 2004 Athens Olympics) and Minister for Sport Richard Caborn officially opened the Ricoh Arena.

Highlights include:
- UK debut of the Jaguar C-XF concept. More of the car here.
- Soul queen Beverley Knight will end the day with a concert in the Jaguar Exhibition Hall.
- Examples of innovative engineering and design from Coventry University, Jaguar and Modec.

Egyptian blogger jailed

Abdul Kareem Suleiman Amer, an 22 years old Egyptian blogger has been jailed for 4 years after he criticised the al-Azhar university and President Hosni Mubarak in his blog. He will go down in history books as the first Egyptian blogger to be prosecuted in the country.

Abdul Kareem (sometimes Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman) who blogs under the alias Kareem Amer, was a former student of the country's top Islamic University. He was expelled from the University early last year.

The University is very popular with Malaysian students too.

Amnesty International has condemned the jail sentence and called for his immediate and unconditional release.

Related Link: Free Kareem!

Tags: Abdul Kareem al-Azhar Amnesty

Teenage debt

Just read this really worrying news in the money news section of the Lombard Direct website.

According to the report, 50% of teenagers in the UK will be in debt by the time they turn 17. This was the part of the findings of a poll carried out by the Personal Finance Education Group (pfeg). Another finding which really surprised me was that "one in 20 young people in the UK think they do not have to ever pay back money borrowed on a credit card".

Are they really that stupid?

By the way, Lombard Direct is part of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group. It was established in 1995 and is one of the largest and most respected financial institutions in the UK.

Sponsored

Million dollar prize to save the environment

Virgin Group chairman Sir Richard Branson yesterday announced a $25 million (£12.8 million) prize for a way to extract a billion tons or more of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year. Read the report in the Telegraph here.

He was joined by former US Vice President Al Gore and other leading environmentalists, when he announced the launch of the Virgin Earth Challenge prize along with

Branson rejected suggestions that he as an airline owner, was hypocritical.

So what do you think?

Related post: Humans cause Global warming

Tags: Earth Environment Richard Branson Virgin

Crazy mullah

I was watching ITV news a few minutes ago when they showed an interview with Abu Izzadeen, one of Britain's leading Muslim extremist. It was really chilling. First time I heard about him was on CNN's "The War Within" one hour documentary about extremism in the UK by Christiane Amanpour.

It was really chilling when he said that Muslim soldiers in the British army should be beheaded because according to him they were apostates. Previously he had described the 7/7 bombers as "completely praiseworthy".

According to the ITV website, a video of him preaching a message of hate was found on an underground website.

The funny thing is that he living here in the UK, criticising "unbelievers" and freely spreading messages of hate. He would have been quickly put inside bars under the ISA he had done that in Malaysia.

Read more about the guy on Wikipedia.

Humans cause Global warming

Picture of Greenpeace activists scaling the 327 meters high Eiffel Tower in Paris, France to unfurl a giant banner delivering the Climate Change message 'It's not too late to save the climate'.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) adopted the Summary for Policymakers of the first volume of “Climate Change 2007”, also known as the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) yesterday in Paris.

The report, drafted by around 500 of the World's top scientists, supported by hundreds of other contributors, say that humans are most probably causing global warming.

Is that something surprising?

So it's not a question of whether there's Global warming or not but rather who causes it.

According to the report, World temperatures will likely rise 3.2 to 7.1 degrees Fahrenheit, and sea levels will rise 7 to 23 inches, plus another 4 to 8 inches if polar ice sheets keep melting. Means that a lot of place including London will be in danger of coming under the waves.

The responses from various governments were quite interesting.

The EU said it was the starkest warning yet, while the UK said climate change threatened world peace and prosperity.

On the other hand, a White House spokesperson said that this report "will be valuable to policymakers".

Related Links:
- International climate change report rings the alarm bell
- Greenpeace analysis of the IPCC Climate Change confirmed – now take action before it’s too late

Tags: Earth Environment IPCC

Harry Potter news

Orders for the final Harry Potter book "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" (Yes! That's the name of the 7th book. Read here) reached the No 1 spot after customers were allowed to book it on Amazon.co.uk

That's quite amazing considering the fact that author J.K. Rowling has not quite completed writing the book neither has the price been set. The book is priced at £13.99.

On the Amzon.co.uk site:

Availability: Not yet published: you may still order this title. We will dispatch it to you when we receive it from the publisher. Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.

Amazon has not opened pre-orders in the United States as yet.

Related posts:
- Harry Potter Mania
- Goblet of Fire
Related links:
- No pottering about when it's Harry Potter

Tags: Amazon Books Harry Potter Rowling