“Technotronics”from Big Brother 11

"Big Brother" is a popular real people show whose name is based on one sentence from George Orwell’s novel "1984": "Big Brother is watching you."

The basic rules of the show are: six young men and six young women live together in a specially designed house with beautiful garden, swimming pool and luxurious furnitures.However, they have to share only a bedroom, a living room and bathroom and under 24 hours video surveillance of their every single movement.

In 85 days, the players have to select two most unpopular people every Saturday. And the zealots who are watching the show in front of TV have to choose the least favorite between the two and eliminate that one via telephone calls.

"Big Brother" started the first episode on September 16th, 1999 in Netherlands, and there were as mang as 24 million audience. By October 30 that year, about 2/3 of the Dutch have seen the program.

In the latest season 11, houseguests had to find letters that were hidden amongst the mess and create words from the letters. The idea was that the man or woman, who spelt the longest word from the letters, would win Power of Veto.

When it came down to the spelling, a guy named Russell decided to go with the word ‘shotgun,’ while on the other hand, Jeff decided to spell the ‘technotronics.’ Well, not sure what that word actually means, but it was Russell that went on to win the Veto competition.

Watch the clip from Big Brother 11 below!

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Well, if you are still interested in the word “technotronics”, I do find an explanation from Wikipedia as “Technotronic was a studio-based Belgian music project formed by Jo Bogaert (born 1954, Aalst, Belgium) in 1988, who had already made his musical mark in the beginning of the 1980s as a part of a cover band and as a solo artist under various new beat projects, including The Acts of Madmen and Nux Nemo.”

Enjoy, guys!

Bologna-Home to the Oldest University in Western World

Have been to Italy once and my favorite cities are Florence and Vennice.

Florence, one of the top 10 citites that has the best for people living in the world and the hometown of the most famous artist Leonardo da Vinci. This is the city full of culture, story and romance.

Watch the Florence video here!

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Venice, city of water. The whole city is floating on the water and the people there are living a tranquil life. This city is also full of bright colors: blue water, white bridges, black Gondola, gold venician mask, yellow house and green plants…… you can just watch time flying by drinking a cup of coffee along the river bank. What a wonderful day!

Watch the Venice video here!

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However, the topic today is another city in northern Italy named Bologna. It’s the hometown to the oldest university in the Western world, "University of Bologna", founded in 1088, Bologna is one of the most developed cities in Italy. Bologna often ranks as one of the top cities, in terms of quality of life in Italy: it was ranked 5th in 2006, and 12th in 2007, out of 103 Italian cities.This is due to its strong industrial tradition, its wide range of highly-developed social services, and its physical location at the crossing-point of the most important highways and railways in the country.

Bologna is also renowned for its culinary tradition. It has given its name to the well-known Bolognese sauce, a meat based pasta sauce called in Italy.

Bologna is also known as “Basket City”, referring to Bologna’s obsession with basketball, which is somewhat unusual in football-dominated Italy.









I have made Bologna in the list of my next trip, what about you? :)

Eileen Connolly and Her Tarot Cards

Who is Eileen Connolly?

When Eileen Connolly and her son, Peter Paul, created this deck (2.75” X 4.75” cards & 22 page booklet) , they intuitively felt the need to keep the basics and original aspects of the Tarot from its early traditions, yet it needed to be a positive, uplifting source for modern day living.

Eileen Connolly’s book history?

Oct 1st, 1984: Earthdance: A Romance of Reincarnation (Paperback)

Oct, 1st, 1987: Tarot: The Handbook for the Journeyman (Connolly Tarot, Vol 2) (Part 2) (Paperback)

Aug 1st, 1988: The Connolly Book of Numbers: Volume I (Paperback)

Nov 1st, 1988: The Connolly Book of Numbers, Volume II (Paperback)

Oct 1st, 1989: Karma Without Stress: A Guidebook for the Soul's Journey (Connolly Esoteric Guidebooks, Vol 1) (Paperback)

May 21st, 2008: Tarot: A New Hdbk for the Apprentice, Classic Ed (Connolly Tarot) (Paperback)

May 30th, 2005: Feng Shui Tarot: Guide Book To The Feng Shui Tarot Deck (Paperback)

Something about Tarot?



The tarot (first known as tarocchi, also tarock and similar names) is a pack of seventy-eight cards, used from the mid fifteenth century in various parts of Europe to play card games such as Italian Tarocchini and French Tarot. It has four suits corresponding to the four suits of the modern 52-card pack, though the suit symbols and the number of court cards differ. It is distinguished also by a separate 21-card trump suit and a card known in English as the Fool which may act as the top trump or may be played to avoid following suit, depending on the game. Rabelais gives tarau as the name of one of the games played by Gargantua in his Gargantua and Pantagruel; this is likely the earliest attestation of the French form of the name. In English-speaking countries, where these games are largely unknown, Tarot cards are now used primarily for divinatory purposes. Occultists call the trump cards and the Fool "the major arcana" while the ten pip and four court cards in each suit are called minor arcana. The cards are traced by some occult writers to ancient Egypt or the Kabbalah but there is no documented evidence of such origins or of the usage of tarot for divination before the eighteenth century.

Is Reverend Al Sharpton a Racist?

Who is Reverend Al Sharpton?

Reverend Al Sharpton was born on October 3rd, 1954, a prominent African American Baptist minister, civil rights activist, and radio talk show host.



What did other people say about Reverend Al Sharpton?

His critics describe him as "a political radical who is to blame, in part, for the deterioration of race relations."

Sociologist Orlando Patterson has referred to him as a racial arsonist.

Liberal columnist Derrick Z. Jackson has called him the black equivalent of Richard Nixon and Pat Robertson.

What did Reverend Al Sharpton say about other people?

In 1994, Reverend Al Sharpton said this to one of the audiences at Kean College, “White folks was in caves while we was building empires.... We taught philosophy and astrology and mathematics before Socrates and them Greek homos ever got around to it.”

In 2007, Reverend Al Sharpton was accused of bigotry for comments he made concerning presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his religion, Mormonism. He said "As for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyways, so don't worry about that; that's a temporary situation."
…

His latest comment was on July, 07th, 2009, during the Michael Jackson’s memorial service, which included telling Jackson's children from the stage, "There wasn't nothing strange about your Daddy. What was strange was what your Daddy had to deal with. But he dealt with it anyway."

However, the controversy begins when he was quoted as saying the following about Michael Jackson’s death:

"I am here because of the disgraceful and the despicable way some elements of the media have tried to destroy the legacy and image of Michael Jackson," he told the congregation, charging the media with using different standards for black and white performers. You have had other entertainers that have had issues in their life," he said. "But you [the media] did not degrade and them... Show the same respect for Michael and Michael's family that you showed Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley."

Wow, that’s a little bit too much for me thougth I’m not sure whether Reverend Al Sharpton is really a racist or whether he is aware of this when he gave the comments. For me, if having both white and black performers embrace Michael Jackson is an act of racism accodring to Reverend Al Sharpton, then that’s racism. Michael Jackson is always loved by the world and this memorial exactly shows the fact that how far the America has come in bridging the racial gap.

Trey Lorenz-The "I'll be There" Singing Partner of Mariah Carey

Who is Trey Lorenz?

The memorial service for Michael Jackson on Tuesday at Staples Center in Los Angeles brought out a galaxy of stars who paid tribute to the King of Pop. Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, Magic Johnson, Mariah Carey and Justin Timberlake are included.

But some people are asking “ Who is that guy singing ‘I’ll be There’ with Mariah Carey?”

His name is Trey Lorenz (born Lloyd Lorenz Smith, January 19, 1969), an African American singer and songwriter. He was born in Florence, South Carolina. He is a graduate of Wilson High School.

Lorenz began his career supporting singer Mariah Carey on her first promotional tour in 1990, and the following year he provided background vocals on her album Emotions. Lorenz again served as Carey's backing singer on her 1992 appearance on the television show MTV Unplugged, where he and Carey sang a cover of the Jackson 5's "I'll Be There" - a duet the two reprised at Michael Jackson's memorial at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California on July 7, 2009.

Trey Lorenz released some singles and two albums named Trey Lorenz in 1993 and Mr. Mista in 2006 respectively.

Watch the performance of “I’ll be There” by Trey Lorenz& Mariah Carey on MJ’s memorial service.

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Michael Jackson Memorial Service

8750 people watched the Michael Jackson Memorial Service show in in Los Angeles’s Staples Center on Jul, 07th, 2009. about 1000 gathered to watch the memorial service on a giant screen live outside Staples Center. However, the vast majority of fans will be saying goodbye to Mr. Jackson via television and the many Web outlets hosting live video.

Celebrities including include Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, Magic Johnson, Mariah Carey and Justin Timberlake attedned the show, but MJ’s tearful daughter impressed the whole audience most when she said MJ is the best father in the world and she loves him very much!

Check the following video to see that touching moment!

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Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

If you are still regreting that you have missed one of the 3-D movies which being shown a couple of weeks ago called Aliens Vs Monsters, I have a good news to tell: another 3-D movie is coming soon on July, 09th, 2009 and It is the third installment of the Ice Age series, you are right, here comes the Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

It’s so cool to watch 3-D computer animated movie cause you feel you are also a part of the movie and that’s we what we call interaction. Thanks to the high-tech of movie making and gorgeous movie house, a pair of glass can bring you to another world created by Ice Age 3.

Newly-released Trailer of Ice Age3:

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Want to download it from youtube.com and watch it on your iPod? No problem, use Leawo Youtube Download and Leawo FLV Converter to pave the way.

Some Cute Wallpapers of Ica Age3:

Ice Age 3 Wallpaper 1:



Ice Age 3 Wallpaper 2: Ellie



Ice Age 3 Wallpaper 3: Sid



Ice Age 3 Wallpaper 4: Diego



Ice Age 3 Wallpaper 5: Manny



Ice Age 3 Wallpaper 6: Scrat



Ice Age 3 Wallpaper 7: Scratte

Saleh Kazemi and Her Boyfriend Steve McNair Shot Dead

Saleh Kazemi, sometimes spelled as Sahel Kazemi, were found dead in Tennessee on Jul, 04th, 2009 along with his boyfriend Steve McNair, the famed NFL(National Football League) and a hometown hero who did extensive charity work in Nashville.

Both of them suffered fatal gunshot wounds. Saleh Kazemi had a fatal gunshot wound to the head, and Steve McNair had four bullet wounds- two in the head and two in his body. Their deaths pointed to a murder suicide, but officials haven’t released any comment yet.

The investigation is currently ongoing through their deaths.

Something about Steve LaTreal McNair (February 14, 1973 – July 4, 2009): nicknamed Air McNair, was an American football quarterback, best known for his years with the Tennessee Titans.

Left: Steve LaTreal McNair
Right: Saleh Kazemi

How to Extract SWF Flash from MicroSoft Excel

I just received a wonderful email from one of my canadian friends last night and I was so impressed by the Flash about Canada Day that he put in Excel.

It suddenly occurred to me that if I can extract that beatiful flash from Excel and share with my friends or upload it to Youtube, then it would be great!

And surprisingly, it’s not difficult at all. The step-by-step tutorial below reveals how, let’s have a look:

Step 1: Open an Excel with flash, click “View”, choose “Toolbars” from drop-down menu, and then choose “Control Toolbox”.



Step 2: Click “Design Mode” on the control toolbox to enter design mode and right click flash to choose “Copy”, then paste it in any folder in your computer and you will see a file named “Segment”.





Step 3: Open Winhex(which you can easily find and download from Google) and then open the file named “Segment”.



Step 4: Click “Search”, choose “Find Hex Values”, type “465753” to search.



After searching, it will stop at number “4”, right click the number and choose “Beginning of block”.



Step 5: Click “Search” again, choose “Find Hex Values”, type “3A5C” to search. While pressing “F3”.



A window says “3A5C was not found” will pop up, click “OK” to confirm.

Then it will stop at number “3”, right click the number and choose “End of block”.



Step 6: Right click anywhere inside the block, choose “Edit”, then “Copy Block”, and then “Into New File”. Put a new name(xxx.swf) and save it.




So far, the SWF flash is successfully extracted from Excel. If you want to convert this flash to other video or audio format, or if you want to upload it to youtube.com, use Moyea SWF to Video Converter, just one click can complete the task.