Maybe you have already seen it in the news, a couple (husband being an accountant) had claimed to have cracked a formula for lottery picks, allowing them to claim a total jackpot of 270 million!!
Do you believe that there really have found a formula?
There are millions of possible combination, and it is seriously a tough math puzzle to solve.
Even if they have really cracked it, one would have thought, for security reasons, the authorities would reset/ re-program the powerball generator, and change it to a new algorithm….then maybe I’m wrong…they have won so many times!
If you have not seen it, here’s a video of them from MSNBC’s Today Show:
They have won so much money..why are they looking so sad?!
Anyway, can someone send me the formula…please??
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Forget about subscribing to online paid task-manager services. Sometimes the better things in life are free. One of these is certainly Google’s Gmail.
I have both Yahoo email and Gmail accounts. I am kind of challenged in my patience these days as Yahoo mail loads very slowly and sometimes just hangs. But my Gmail works perfectly and fast. The simplicity of the interface and the tagging feature are just great.
Now, there is one other reason for me to add another star to their service…
I have just came across this post on LifeHacker, and it shows how to go about transforming your Gmail into a cool, to-do list manager. This article has also gotten quite a number of diggs, so do check it out.
LifeHacker, by the way, is an excellent reading resource for helpful tips (tech-wise mostly). I’m not related to them in any way, but I find their content helpful.
And hope you’ll find a little value of helpfulness reading this post as well. 
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Firefox 3 has just been officially released and the idea is to have it set a Guinness World Record as the No.1 Most Downloaded Software within 24 hours!
The cut-off time for download is 11:16 a.m. PDT on June 18, in order to be counted.
Not sure what that means for your local time? Head over to do a time zone convertion.
Or straight to the download page to find out more.
You can also download and flaunt your Download Day Certificate to tell people you were part of that record setting process!
So BE part of that process, go download now!
I love Firefox! =)
Discover More Guinness Records!
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What is the benchmark of being successful? Or how do you know if your project “has arrived”? Well..I guess you can judge that by the no. of copycats you have.
Digg for one is hugely copied around the world in various languages. No surprise..it is actually quite easy to re-create the Digg-like model in php or ruby. There are probably thousands of them out there. But quite predictably none of them come close to anywhere near the original Digg’s traffic. Digg also has a loyal group of followers (including myself!).
Very similarly, if not on a bigger scale, the incredible success of Facebook, has made many dreamed of owning a “Facebook” themselves. Who wouldn’t want to be the next Mark Zuckerberg? You can pretty much create another Facebook-like site for about a thousand US dollars. But isn’t people developing a fatigue for social networking already? Or maybe I’m getting older..
As much as we think copycats will never succeed, there are actually a handful of “Facebook-clones” that are doing very well. For instance in Russia, VKontakte, a university-based networking site, claims to be not only the most popular social networking site but the top site in the country with 4.5 million unique visitors a day and 13.3 million registered users. In Germany, there is StudiVerzeichnis, who has already owned a database of around 6 million registered users. Over in China, there is XiaoNei (校内, also known as 校内网), claiming to have a traffic of around 15 million unique visitors just in April alone and even received venture capital funding of $430 million from Softbank. Wow…that’s seriously impressive!
At the end of the day, I guess it’s really not so much about the business idea, but rather the execution of it that really matters.
Cannot Get Enough of Facebook?
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I always have this problem. I find it hard to get off from my computer. Needless to say it is bad for one’s health (lack of blood circulation after continuous hours of sitting), bad for the posture, bad for the hand-wraist (the mouse-clicking one) and indirectly, insomia.
It is especially “dangerous” to “ON” the computer before your sleep or in the late evening. It arouses your “hunger”/ curiosity for knowledge and new information, and continues to keep your brain engine working at least for an hour or two after you have switched off your computer. It is certainly not uncommon to stay up to 4 in the morning or even 6 in the morning, searching and surfing the net.
While that part of the experience may be satisfying, but the next day is usually not.
Suppose you stayed up late hoping to equip yourself to be more productive the next day, you may end up being less productive. Whatever is on your to-do list actually gets harder to “tick off”, as you find yourself still stuck with the first on the list. To make things worse, you feel lousy because your skin looks a shade darker, and you think you look a little more tired and maybe even older. In other words, you feel less attractive and “battery level” is really only half-charged.
In computer lingo, the “half-charged battery syndrome” is equivalent to a computer shutdown momentarily. “It’s as though it is both asleep and awake and they are switching between each other very rapidly,” quoting the very words of David Dinges of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, whose study appeared in the Journal of Neuroscience. You can learn a little more about his experiment with this article.
Looks like getting a good sleep requires discipline as well - a realized lesson…never keep my computer “ON” after 11pm.
Learn more on enhancing your good night sleep
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Image Source: jupitarimages.com Photographer: BananaStock
Do you feel tired everyday, even though you have slept enough? I’ve heard of people who sleep like 2-4 hours everyday and I wonder how they manage it and how do their skin look? Don’t get me wrong, I actually admire these people and I want to be like them to be able to do that. My only worry is…my skin doesn’t look very good without 7-8 hours of sleep…
Perhaps it can be trained…I need to break my current thought patterns and change my idea of “having enough sleep”…
If you are reading this, and you happen to be one who only sleep for 2-4 hours a day…please, please do share your experiences by dropping a comment here. I would like to know if you still function optimally in thinking after having 2-4 hours of sleep…or if it is functioning around 65-70% of your “usual thinking power”? Do you exercise regularly as in everyday and for how long minimum for each session?
Okay, I’ve deviated…back to the title post…I think the main contributor of fatigue for modern day humans is eating too much. Seriously, we don’t really need that much food..but….everything looks so good and tempting…we can always make room for a chocolate or cheese cake…agree?
When we are not able to vocalize or express our emotions adequately, or when we are feeling empty, we turn to food to fill us up. When we feel overwhelmed, insecure or afraid of ourselves or our decisions and choices; or when we feel like escaping, or do not want to make a decision, we turn to food again.
So effectively we are eating all the time, throughout the whole day.
All that food overload, coupled with bad food choices (as in high in fat and carbo plus serious lack of fiber), results in slow, longer digestion, which makes us really, really tired….and sleepy…and thus unmotivated.
Another obvious reason is lack of exercise. We all know we need to exercise more. We need to improve our metabolism and boost our blood circulation to keep us in great shape and optimum mental health. But of course we are too busy to make time for that…because we are already so tired and sleepy…
I guess we need to recruit an ally to help us with these problems..our personal trainer, going by the name called “Discipline”. And we almost forget that there is no need to pay this guy a salary to engage him except that we do need a determined decision to start him off.
There are other medical causes of fatigue as well. Here’s an article that cover those aspects (the writing is addressing mainly to women’s health, but some of it apply generally to men as well). It lists 7 causes of fatigue due to:
- Anemia
- Underactive Thyroid (hypothyroidism)
- Undiagnosed Urinary Tract Infection (UTI)
- Caffeine Overload
- Food Allergies
- Sleep Apnea
- Undiagnosed Heart Disease
If you are feeling fatigue all the time, it is always good to learn something more to identify causes and make relevant changes to our lifestyle to keep ourselves healthy.
Money is everything, but Health is the real deal that allows you to enjoy all the goodness money can bring you.
SO Let’s Stay Healthy Folks!
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We never get to know the real character of celebrities other than the roles that they played in…
How about them documenting their travel journals with you via video? You’ll certainly get a more personal feel of their real life character…..and that certainly is the case after watching “Malaysian Journey with Jason Scott Lee“.
We all know that he has a well-trained body..well, that’s too obvious to mention. But the point is he is a lot more than that in character as a person. Through watching the “Malaysian Journey”, you can sense his tactfulness, appreciation, sincerity, love and respect for people, culture and nature.
You can check out the trailer here (scroll down the “malaysian” trailer”).
Or better still, Check out your local National Geographic Channel’s show times for this 1 hour “journey”. Look out for program titled “Malaysian Journey with Jason Scott Lee” or “Trekking Malaysia with Jason Scott Lee”.
Happy “Traveling”!
Products/Films featuring Jason Scott Lee
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An architecture’s blueprint with an inherent bad design - one that’s superficial, lacks research dedication, thoughtfulness, sensitivity and emotions, inevitably produces a physical work that reflects those very qualities, even if it has the world’s best building materials. Dance of the Dragon movie, likens to the analogy, having outstanding actors, Jason Scott Lee & Jang Hyuk, is unable to get away with the intrinsic flaw of a bad story.
The story is about a korean boy’s (Tae) dream (played by korean heartthrob, Jang Hyuk) to become a world-class dancer. In pursuit of his dream, he made his way to Singapore to learn dancing and in that process, he fell in love with his dancing teacher, Emi (played by Fann Wong). The problem is, she’s already in a relationship with martial arts champion, Cheng (played by Jason Scott Lee). Thus, the classic love triangle.
Apparently a protective Cheng overlooked the understanding for Emi’s passion for dancing. Emi, feeling empty, found herself back through her new student, Tae, whose determination and a burning hunger to want to learn dancing, re-ignited her passion for dancing once again. As a result, she also found herself very drawn to Tae.
A very jealous Cheng challenged Tae to a martial arts fight, with the loser giving up the relationship with Emi. Quite expectedly, Cheng won, and Tae had to go back to Korea. That also means the end of his pursuit for his dancing dreams.
But a fatherly encouragement brought Tae back to Singapore in time for a dancing competition which Emi had entered with Tae as her partner. The dancing competition brought the couple back together and also signified the continuation of his dancing dreams. Cheng exited gracefully with a look of heartful blessing to the couple.
End of the story….
Now the critique, I’m not sure if it is the editing or the bad script, but i think it’s both, that made audiences leave the theater with a bland story-taste (not contributed by their popcorns), uninspiring dancing (is that just posing?..oops), and luckily my ticket was free (dollar-satisfaction equation).
The most obvious flaw is…there is a serious anachronism issue. The story is set in what period?? It was initially published as sometime in 1988…but it looked like 1960s-70s Singapore at some point and 2008 Singapore at some point…and some in-betweens. I bet they are confused themselves.
The scenes tell the story in a touch-and-go manner that one does not understand why one thing suddenly leads abruptly to another, without sufficient peripheral build-up. Some parts of it even seems illogical. For instance, Cheng challenged Tae to a martial arts fight in one week’s time. Tae, without any knowledge of martial arts and neither does he have a teacher, picked up the skills through watching a martial arts video and was ready to fight Cheng. In one week??! Even the matrix programming may find that time frame results buggy (kind of like windows vista).
It is also quite unconvincing that Emi was seriously passionate about dancing. The passion fails to translate on film. Also Emi being a professional dancer, did not dance in the movie, but merely did some poses and gentle gestures.
The overall film-effects looked beautiful. But we need more than picture-perfect images. This ain’t MTV. We need a story.
Now for the saving graces of the movie….though the movie is part about dancing, there really isn’t much to see in that area. But in terms of martial arts, there are some authentic stuff here. Jason impressed with his clean, swift movements and strength. Jang Hyuk in real life also practices martial arts (of cuz it’s not learnt in one week..you only see those things “in the movies”..), though his movements did not come across with as much strength as Jason’s.
Jason’s acting is very natural. Audiences believe in the authenticity of his character, and the emotional anger and pain that Cheng was going through.
Jang Hyuk, like Jason, has a very authentic character portrayal. As he speaks with a heavily korean-accented English, he did not have a lot of lines in the movie. Here is the big challenge. He can only depend on his facial expressions and emotions to convey the struggles and feelings in his inner world to the audiences. And this, he had done it impressively. So much so that you almost start to think that not having too many lines actually worked to his advantage.
Jang Hyuk, maybe new to the US audiences. But in Asia, many of us are familiar with korean dramas and Jang Hyuk, is a familiar face.
Overall rating - with 5 being the best score, I would have said 1.5. But with Jason and Jang Hyuk, it’s a 2.5 (*phew* that’s a passing mark!).
The above are purely my subjective opinion. I do admit that I have matched it against very high standards. I hope it has not spoilt your anticipated pleasure. The movie is still worth a watch, purely for Jason’s and Jang Hyuk’s brilliant acting, and also a very moving music accompaniment (ohhh..except for one song..totally out of place…if you have watched the movie, you will know which one )
Visit the official Dance of the Dragon website.
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If you are a chocolate lover, like I am, I’m sure there will be times when you find that your chocolate has sort of started to melt a little. So you store them in the fridge - only to find that when you feel like having your chocolate bar again, the chocolate turns too hard to bite. Sounds familiar?
Well, here comes a chocolate packaging with a smart design! The credit goes to Japanese sweets manufacturer, Morinaga, for their New DARS Chocolate Packaging.
Here’s what it looks like..
See the color seal on the right? That is a smart seal that detects the temperature of its surroundings. According to the DARS Chocolate people, the best temperature to consume your chocolate is around 22 degree celsius. Why? It’s because at 22 degree celcius, the chocolate melts naturally when placed in your mouth. That’s where you get the best tasting sensation and texture.
Beyond 25 degrees, it is too “hot”. That’s the situation where your chocolate is sort of starting to melt and goes out of its original pretty mold shape.
When placed in the fridge for too long, the chocolate turns really hard like a stone, and definitely not the best way to enjoy it. Ouch! My teeth hurts!
Now with this smart seal packaging, I just need to check the color on the seal to see if this is a good temperature and time to consume my chocolate.
If the surrounding is around 25 degrees and above, and it’s melting my chocolate, the seal turns white like this:
If the temperature is getting “too cold” (around 19 degrees and below), my chocolate is starting to become too hard to bite, the seal turns purple:
When the surrounding temperature is just right (around 22 degrees celsius), the seal turns pink!!
Isn’t smart packaging cool? Love it!
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We have always been told that green tea is good for our health. But what exactly is so cool about green tea?
Well, the key secret of green tea is that it is rich in catechin polyphenols, particularly the EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate), which is a powerful anti-oxident that has the ability to inhibit the growth of cancer cells without harming our healthy tissues. It is also very effective in lowering LDL cholesterol levels preventing the formation of blood clots.
There were also studies that have showed that drinking green tea helps to regulate blood sugar and reduce blood pressure.
That almost qualifies it as a miracle tea.
A note of interest is that green tea, oolong tea and black tea all originate from the leaves of the same plant - camellia sinensis. Then why aren’t the other tea being promoted on the same scale on health benefits?
The difference? The way that they are been processed. Green tea leaves are steamed, which helps to prevent the EGCG compound from oxidation. Black tea and oolong tea, never went through “sauna” of any sort, but are made from fermented leaves. That process changes the EGCG content and thus, it’s not nearly as effective as their green tea counterpart.
There are actually a few types of green tea in the supermarket. They are broken into different varieties according to the part of the leaf used in manufacturing, method of cultivation and plucking time. Now this is starting to sound uncannily like wine. I guess in many ways it is, given that each has its own flavors and characteristics.
Here’s a short introduction to the commonly seen green tea types:
- Sencha: The most popular variety, sencha is produced in the the first crop season from steamed leaves. It has a tangy, sharp flavor, and with its high quality, it is often referred to as “guest tea” to treat your house guests.
- Bancha: This is a lower grade of sencha, made from the coarser leaves and stalks. It is low in caffeine and inexpensive. Taste is slightly “woodsy”, and intensifies with longer brewing.
- Houjicha: Made up of mainly bancha that is roasted at 200 degrees celsius to achieve a nutty flavor. It has the color of golden beer.
- Genmaicha: Another popular variety that is also affordable. It is made up of a combination of bancha and hulled rice kernals. It’s a nice light brown tea with a little bit of “ricey” aroma. A balanced genmaicha would have the right proportion of cleaned popped rice and nicely roasted tea leaves.
- Gyokuro: Deemed as the finest tea in Japan, this tea is rather pricey. Made from sencha, tea leaves are layered for 2 weeks before harvesting, which helps give it a distinctively sweet taste.
- Matcha: The kind of tea used in tea ceremonies, made by grinding the dried leaves into fine powder.
Can’t get enough of green tea? How about trying out some green tea recipes, and incorporate those health benefits into your meals? Check out this Japanese site for some interesting green tea recipes.
See The varieties of Green Tea products out there!
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