Evra on Ronaldo

"Nobody can stop him. Probably the only way to do it is to kill him. When he runs at you, you try to grab his shirt or do whatever you can. But he just goes past you, makes fun out of you and leaves you kicking the air. Even when he is sitting on a bike, Cristiano is doing tricks. He eats with the ball, he watches TV with the ball. He probably even sleeps with the ball."

Unbelievable

...and downright stupid. That's all I can say about the Americans after the slaying of 32 students by a student psychopath.

It's not the first time that campuses around the United States are hit by these mindless shooting sprees but every time it happens, all that the American people do is to grieve and pray at memorials to the victims.

But have they ever thought of the root cause of all these murders? Why they happen every now and then?

It's because the Americans are too self-righteous about their right to bear arms. It's a right that's enshrined in their Constitution: self-defence in the face of menace. That a lot of bull. What about the right not to bear arms? Who suffers when the right to bear arms clashes with the right not to bear arms?

There's just no political will in the United States to take away that right from their people. The law makers in Congress and the Senate are unsurprisingly quiet in the wake of the Virginia Tech University slayings. Ooh ... the elections are looming. Let's not commit political suicide. But the fact is, even when there are no elections, they will remain ambivalent over the whole matter.

I've been following some of the news reports that were written in the aftermath. One of the university students claimed that if one of the victims had armed himself, maybe he would still be alive today.

Another said: "I wish I had a gun that day. I wish some of the professors had had guns on them. They could have taken the shooter down."

Stupid, isn't it? Such a simpleton. That's not the solution to the problem. How can you ever control guns by acquiring more guns?! This is no longer the wild, wild west. This is supposed to be Civilisation and civilised people don't go around with guns around their hips any more.

The solution isn't more guns, the solution isn't more stringent background checks before guns are sold; the solution is to abolish the right to arms. Leave it to the law enforcers to carry arms, not you, not me, not the ordinary man-in-the-street.

It's real downright, damn stupidity. And the American law makers and the American people just can't understand it or they won't face up to this problem. How sad for their nation...

Pale blue dot

For more than 10 years, I've always wanted to use this fantastic picture of the Pale Blue Dot, a photograph of our Earth as seen from Voyager 1 on 14 Feb 1990. The spacecraft was more than 4.0 billion miles from home as it turned its camera to look back at us for one last time. From this distance Earth was just a tiny speck of light showing up in a scattered ray of light. You would've missed it if you didn't know where to look.

I watched Carl Sagan's television programme, Cosmos, in the 1980s and I was visibly moved by this American astronomer who brought the heavens into my home. He died in 1996 but not before he wrote these words in a commencement address, Reflections on a Mote of Dust:

"We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.


"The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.


"Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

Bullet-proof heart

This man lived with a bullet in his heart for almost 40 years.

Le Dinh Hung, now 60 years old, was shot at by American troops in 1968 during the Vietnam War (the Vietnamese would call that the American War) and the bullet lodged itself at the back of his heart after entering his body through his stomach.

Vietnamese doctors were at first unsuccessful in removing the inch-long slug in 1969 and Le had been living with constant chest pains. However, he entered the Hanoi Heart Hospital last week and underwent a successful three-hour surgery. Doctors also replaced his heart valve.

"I was very lucky to survive," he said from his hospital bed. "People believe in their fate and I do too."

Who will?

They were among the six players nominated for this year's Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) Player of the Year award. Their footballing peers have already cast their votes. Who do you think will take the award? One of them? Results on 22 April 2007.

Big Stage

"The fringe players are very important. Just look at Darren Fletcher — he was magnificent against Roma in central midfield. Then he was asked to play at right-back against Watford and looked as though he had been there all his life. He is a fantastic all-round footballer who is now starting to get the credit his talent deserves. The manager has said all along the players who weren't necessarily playing at the start of the season are the ones who have to come to the fore — and they have done exactly that."

Fucking

See the map here? It's about a small section of Austria, just north of Salzburg and near the German border. You should know Salzburg. That's where we had the Sound Of Music. The Do-Re-Mi stuff.


But do you see that tiny hamlet, with a population of around 90 people, called Fucking? Yes, there's such a place in Austria.

The village is known to have existed as Fucking since 1070 - that's already almost 1,000 years, if I count correctly - and is named after a sixth century Bavarian noble with the name of Focko. “Ing” is an old Germanic suffix meaning “people” and thus, Fucking means “place of Focko’s people”. In 2003, the residents were given a chance to change the village's name but they voted against it. Mmm .... I wonder what they call themselves. Fuckers?

There's this news item that says that the English-speaking people are awfully obsessed with stealing its name signs. I would too, if I were there but I'm not. So, I've got to be contented with stealing this picture instead.


And in case you are still wondering, here's what was mentioned in the news item about the English speakers ... and Fucking.


My thanks to my old school mate, Frusco, for sending me this little piece of Fucking news!

What's next?

I know it is already quite a long while after Cheng Beng but I copuldn't help laughing that in China, during the last Cheng Beng - or Tombsweeping Festival as it's known over there - people were burning paper replicas of Viagra pills at cemeteries.

A stiff needing Viagra? Whatever for??

March of the discontented

Former world chess champion Gary Kasparov has accused Russian authorities of illegally crushing an anti-Kremlin march on Saturday and called the protest a victory for opponents of President Vladimir Putin.

Kasparov, who was among at least 170 people detained during a march organized by opposition coalition Other Russia, appeared briefly outside a central Moscow court after being charged with public order offences during the banned protest.

"Russia is no longer a country ... where the government tries to pretend it is playing by the letter and spirit of the law. This court rejected the very presumption of my innocence. I was the one who had to prove that I was innocent, although there were no concrete allegations against me. Nevertheless, we consider today a victory. Today is an important demonstration of the degeneration of Putin's regime. The outrageous behaviour of the authorities only demonstrates that we live in a police state. But we are not going to stop here. We will continue to struggle. Although the Russian constitution clearly stipulates that every citizen has the right to speak freely, the current regime doesn't respect that right. The opinion of the average man simply doesn't count. This regime has shown its true colours and its true face. We now stand somewhere between Belarus and Zimbabwe.

"We were arrested when we were doing nothing. There was no action. We were just walking along. There was simply a criminal attack by people in riot-police uniforms on Russian citizens who were just walking along. Every possible (procedural) violation has been committed, from the moment we were grabbed up to this court .... I have to go back (into the court) now, because if I'm late they'll charge me with another violation."

Want to see pictures of the march? Then visit Kasparov's own website at kasparov.ru

No pork

Here's Singapore at its worst. An example of two young adults trying - successfully - to upset the equilibrium of an unfortunate restaurant owner. Should you laugh at its hilarity or take offence at it? I leave it to you.

Delighted

"At 22, he has the same skill factor as Maradona and Pele. He is one of the best signings I have ever made. The measurement of his improvement this year is astronomical. In terms of top-flight football, where do you find a winger who has scored 20 goals. It is incredible. Without question, Cristiano is getting to the level of best player in the world. Thereafter, it is up to others to decide whether he is as good as Maradona and Pele. That is the challenge in front of him now.

"Why should he move? He's seen his career rise here, he plays in front of 76,000, he is well liked and there is a great atmosphere within the dressing room. There was no reason for him to leave, other than the fact people perceive Real Madrid as a club for galacticos, or whatever they call them. They have this pretty conceited notion about themselves but we never discussed that club with him. It was down to a simple equation of does the boy want to stay and how much is it going to cost us? Barcelona are a fantastic club, too, but I can't say they are miles in front of us. Most people recognise we are one of the biggest clubs in the world and we believe Cristiano is in the right place."

Get real

"I don't know what it is with Madrid but it seems to happen time and time again. They seem to have no regard for anyone but themselves. The way they kept talking in Spain and trying to unsettle clubs the way they do. We know it is a game they like to play when their elections are coming. You could report them to Uefa, but I don't think it matters to them. If you fined them, it wouldn't bother their backsides, would it?"

Five more years!!

Cristiano Ronaldo has signed a new deal that will keep him at Manchester United until 2012.

"I am delighted. I spoke with Sir Alex and David Gill about my future and everyone knew that I wanted to stay. I am at the right club and this is why I signed. Everything is good with the club, the president, the boss, the staff and the supporters have helped me so much, and the big reason is I want to win trophies and hopefully we will do that this season."

Ferguson: "It is fantastic news, it emphasises the point that Cristiano is happy here and that he is at the right club. He has a great relationship with the team, staff and the fans and he will go on to be one of Manchester United's great players."

Giggs: "I don't believe there is anyone who could rival him as being the best player in the world. For someone in his position, and of his age, to be as consistent as he has been, is remarkable. To secure his future for the next five years is great news for everyone."

Hey! Who moved my cheese?

Yes, who indeed?

Last Mar 29, when I was writing about THE MOST EXCITING event in cheese history, I never realised that the screenshots I was making of cheddarvision.tv would turn out to be this significant. Or mysterious. Or both.

At 2.40pm, I took this screenshot:


And at 5.32pm, I took another screenshot:


Much, much later at night, at 8.04pm, I took this third screenshot:


I never gave these screenshots another glance ... until today. I was thinking to myself: what am I doing with three images of the same mouldy block of cheese? Until I realised that there were slight differences in the pictures!

Yes, between 2.40pm and 5.32pm on 29 Mar 2007, who touched the cheese?? And again between 5.32pm and 8.04pm, did the label adjust by itself or did someone move it? Hmmm...

Dreams

"Old Trafford is the Theatre of Dreams. When you have 76,000 people behind you, you are determined to give your best."

Carrick on Ronaldo

"What more can you say about Cristiano? He is the best player in the world just now. The bigger the challenge, the bigger the performance. He is going to have an awful lot to say in terms of how we finish the season. At the moment we just have to give him the ball and let him get on with it. Put it this way, I am glad he is in my team and not anyone else's."

Bum note

Okay .... eeeasy does it. Let's be careful unloading this grand piano. After all, it's a Bosendorfer. You know what's a Bosendorfer, don't you? Well, it's like a Stradivarius, only much, much bigger.

So we gotta be careful, lads. After all, these folks have paid a lot of money for the piano. They've been saving and scrimping these past two years to raise £26,000 to buy this rare Bosendorfer and they want to play it this weekend at the Two Moors British music festival.

Altogether now, heave.....

Oops!

Instead of imparting joy to music lovers at the festival, the 9-foot piano turned in a brief and off-key tune as it crashed to the ground. The memorable performance was caught on camera by the festival's organiser as she stood by to welcome the Old Lady.

As its wooden casing broke open, the piano gave up the ghost with "a deafening noise like 10 honky-tonk pianos being hit by mallets".

Added the same organiser: "The piano is enormous - much longer than most grands - and its tail must have caught on the lorry as the movers were trying to manoeuvre it off. They were swinging it round and were dropping the tail lift when it caught on the side and bounced off the trolley. It landed on the drive and its momentum made it slid along, tipped over and landed on its lid. The drop was at least 14 feet and it made an incredible racket - like something from a cartoon."

Three staff jumped clear, one holding his head in his hands in one of the camera shots which are now part of the festival's unwanted souvenir.


In a final act of ignominy, a farmer was called in to scoop up the piano in a mechanical digger. It was loaded back into the lorry and returned to London for the damage to be assessed. It cost £26,000 secondhand but could cost about £45,000 to replace.

Hmm .... need any original spare parts for your private Bosendorfer, anyone? There are about 10,000 pieces in London. All going cheap.

Rewarded

"Everyone is pleased for Alan. His enthusiasm spreads throughout the team. His great quality in the last year has been his patience and the perseverance to keep going. He’s deserved it more than anyone. He’s been patient. He’s trained like a beast. He got his reward tonight."

Ganging up

Living in a multi-cultural society like Malaysia, we all know that Muslims are permitted under the Syari'ah law to marry up to four wives at the same time.

The secret, if I remember it correctly from a colleague in my previous employment, is to treat all the wives equally. Woe betide the Muslim man who favours one wife over another either materially, emotionally or sexually.

This former colleague of mine was simply amazing. He worked as a bank messenger at one of the branches but he had the ability to support his four wives. How he did this was a mystery not only to me but to others who knew about this. Unfortunately, I'd lost touch with him a long time ago so there is no updated news from him.

Anyway, I saw on the Internet today a story about a Saudi man losing a bit of his nose when he was assaulted jointly by his two enraged wives after he jokingly threatened to marry a third woman.

This man, Judaie Ibn Salem, had thought that the threat of bringing a third woman into his household would help resolve an argument over dividing up his house. Silly bugger. Serves him right.

“I swore that I would do it because they were impolite (to me). I never thought they would get so worked up," he said, adding "and that’s when I came under an even bigger attack.”

His reward was seven stitches on his nose at the local hospital. But has it really changed his mind about marrying a third time? No. The unrepentant man insists that the only way he could restore his dignity now is really to carry out his threat.

But he is well aware of the repercussions. “I don’t know what I’m going to lose next if I do that," he acknowledged. Silly guy. Go ahead. You'll find out soon enough.

100 millionth iPod

Apple yesterday announced that the company had sold 100 million iPods worldwide since its launch in Nov 2001. That's a lot of iPods, if you ask me. It seems that there's an iPod for every occasion and it comes in all shades of the rainbow.

Well, the only Apple product that I have is the MacBook and I'm very pleased with it. Running both Mac OS X and Windows XP Home on it has been a breeze. Why do I need XP? It's because there are some proprietary programs that just won't run on OS X. Sony's Sonicstage for one, and I'm stuck with it because I have a very trusty HiMD Minidisc recorder that plays the most fabulous sound.

So, although I do not have anything against the iPod, it's still the Minidisc for me ... at least, for the moment!