Thursday, August 14, 2008
Calculators from the past
Top 10 :: Weird Beards
Not everyone can pull them off but those who can do hold a special place in this world....... .....
There are the ones who can grow mighty beards...... ....
And still others who instead use their powers to just be simply weird......
These are the TOP 10 Weird Beards…......
10. Mountain Man Beard

9. Irish Pride Beard

8. Crazy yet Happy Beard

7. Twirly Beard

6. Giant Mustache Beard

5. Super Foreign Beard

4. Ice Beard

3. Poppy Seed Beard (with matching eyebrows)

2. Mrs. Beard

Sunday, August 10, 2008
A Glimpse At the Tech Behind the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremonies

So for those of you who caught the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony last night—Holy crap, right? The synchronization, the music, the timed fireworks; it was a spectacle so awesome that for entire stretches of it, I couldn't really think of anything to say but “woah.” The show owes a lot of its splendor to the absolutely amazing amount of technology that went into it and Chinese news sources now have a breakdown of what was employed to create something that'd make a billion nationals proud. Some crazy stats:
• The LED screen at the center of the ground, which unrolled to represent a huge scroll detailing China's 5,000-year civilization, measured 482 feet by 72 feet wide and contained a whopping 44,000 LED beads with a distance of 600 millimeters between each two.
• Technical monitoring systems were employed to keep track of over 18,000 performers through identification codes, a first for any Olympics.
• The fireworks used a digital ignition control system that coordinated blasts in over 30 locations across Beijing. According to Cai Guoqiang, the explosions maestro behind that part of the show, not a single of the 40,000 cannon shots faltered.
• The material used for the paper on the painting scroll was produced by the country's aerospace sector. Similarly, most of the core technologies used in the ceremony had been developed by domestic companies.
As was stated by broadcasters over and over again, China's a country of tremendous challenges—environmental, economic and human rights-wise—and as a journalist heading into that mess some time in the near future, I'm all too aware of the problems that await me. But after last night's performance, I walked away with a small overflow of pride for my heritage and a lot of hope for a brighter future. I guess that's what the Olympics are all about. [Xinhua]
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Charlie Chaplin Facts : Bet you dint knew these
Charlie Chaplin Facts : Bet you dint knew these.

Entertainer Charlie Chaplin was probably the most well-known actor of the early 20th century. After adopting his trademark Little Tramp costume, consisting of baggy pants, bamboo cane, bowler hat, and over-sized shoes, Chaplin became a Hollywood icon. He was the most popular draw in the early days of silent film and, even to this day, when a list of early movie comedians is given, Chaplin is often the first name mentioned.
Chaplin lived a complex life. He could act in a lovable and unassuming manner in his slapstick sketches, or he could be politically defiant, as witnessed in his railing against the rise and rule of Germany’s Adolf Hitler in The Great Dictator. He frequently found himself at odds with American political and social mores of the time, which ultimately led to his self-imposed exile to Switzerland, where he died in 1977.
Most Hollywood scholars know the basics of his life, yet there are many interesting facts about Charles Spencer Chaplin that the general public does not know.
- He was the first actor to appear on Time magazine. Chaplin appeared on the July 6, 1925 issue of Time magazine, a U.S.-based news magazine. He was the first actor ever to appear on the magazine known for its influential cover photo.
- He won only one non-honorary Oscar, and it was 21 years “late”. Chaplin won an honorary Academy Award (”Oscar”) in 1929, during the first presentation of awards. Originally nominated in a couple of categories, his name was withdrawn and he was presented instead with a special award. He also received an honorary award in 1972. The next year, however, he won a Best Music Oscar for Limelight, a film he had made 21 years earlier, yet had not been shown in Los Angeles until 1972, thus enabling his nomination and subsequent award.
- He purposely avoided dialogue in two “talkies”. Chaplin wrote, produced, and acted in two movies in the 1930s, well after conversations were prevalent in the “talkies” (motion pictures in which sound was added). Surprisingly, the actors did not talk in these two movies, relying instead on the musical score to set the tone for the movies, and the few spoken words coming from objects such as a radio.
- He had a fondness for young wives. Chaplin was married for 4 times. He was 29 and his first wife was 16 when they married. His second marriage was to 16-year-old Lita Grey, when he was 35. His third and possibly fictional marriage to Paulette Goddard, was rumored to have occurred when he was 47 and she was 28. He married his last wife, Oona O’Neill, daughter of playwright Eugene O’Neill, occurred when Oona had just turned 18. Chaplin was 54.
- He was ordered to pay child support for a child that was not his own. In the 1940s, Charlie had a brief relationship with actress Joan Barry. Several months after their breakup, she claimed that Chaplin was the father of the child to which she had just given birth. When blood tests proved that Chaplin was not the father of the child, Barry’s attorney moved to have the tests ruled inadmissible as evidence. Because there was little historical precedent to admit the test results into the trial, the judge did not allow them to be used as evidence of Chaplin’s non-paternity. After a mistrial and a retrial, Chaplin was ordered to pay Barry $75 per week for child support, a respectable amount in those days.
- His corpse was stolen. Three months after Chaplin died on Christmas, 1977, his body was stolen in an effort to extort money from his family. Chaplin’s body was recovered 11 weeks later after the grave-robbers were captured. He is now buried under 6 feet of concrete to prevent further theft attempts.
- He has an asteroid named after him. Four years after his death, Ukrainian astronomer, Lyudmila Karachkina, named an asteroid after him. Ms. Karachkina, discoverer of 131 asteroids, named one of them 3623 Chaplin. It resides in the asteroid “belt” between Mars and Jupiter and appears as a magnitude 12.1 object, making it visible in a moderately strong telescope.

Bonus Trivia:
- His daughter portrayed his mother in the movie Chaplin. The accomplished actress, Geraldine Chaplin, is Charlie’s daughter with his last wife Oona. In the 1992 Hollywood movie adaptation of Charlie Chaplin’s life, Chaplin, she portrayed Hannah Chaplin, Charlie’s mother.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' Trailer
Well, here's the trailer to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, complete with child version of Voldemort. I'm normally pretty unimpressed by the whole typically-creepy, Damien-esque kid thing, but here it sort of works. Knowing this kid will grow up to be a powerful wizard with the head of Bat Boy, you kind of want him to be pretty weird--otherwise, any of our children could be next!
http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/harry-potter-and-half-blood-prince/trailer






















