SOPA/PIPA blackout

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Here's how the internet looks today, in protest of SOPA/PIPA:

[Reddit]

[Google]

RIP Steve Jobs

:'( A sad, sad day indeed. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has passed away after a long battle with cancer. He was only 56 years old.

[Apple.com home page]

He's touched our lives in many ways; and his brilliance will be among us for generations to come. A true visionary and genius. RIP, Mr. Jobs! Thanks for all the iThings. They have certainly changed the world, especially mine. Thanks for Apple, thanks for Pixar, and thanks for being just awesome!

[Tribute on apple.com]

Steve Jobs steps down as Apple's Chief Executive

This is definitely not the most surprising news, but it still saddens me. The man had a vision and a belief, and he built something around it. Something big. Something great. And people followed. ;]

I still remember my first Apple product: an iPod Mini back in 2004. Followed by a MacBook in 2006, and then an iPhone in 2007. I am a fan because, as Steve would say, "it just works." All their products are very simple to use yet amazing. They're easy to use and to maintain. My almost-5-year-old MacBook still works perfectly fine (even though I am looking for an upgrade to a 27" iMac some time in the next month). All of the Apple products that I've owned have helped me to a different level of appreciation towards gadgets.

He's still a director at Apple but he surely will be missed. Whoever it is appointed as Jobs' successor has huge shoes to fill.

Most of all, I'll miss Steve's presentations at WWDC.

This piece about Mr. Jobs at TechCrunch is simply beautiful.

Good job, New York!

They've finally legalized gay marriage! Pretty historic event. Happened yesterday, just a couple hours after I've left the city. So I'm assuming the voting process was happening when I was walking around Manhattan.

This is just sad...

Robbed: Thieves take nearly every trophy Sampras won in career
By Chris Chase


During his legendary tennis career, Pete Sampras earned dozens of trophies, medals and plaques for his on-court achievements and acquired the treasure trove of memorabilia you'd expect from one of the most famous athletes in America.

Most of it is now gone, stolen from a storage unit in which Sampras had been keeping the objects. The 14-time Grand Slam champion told Bill Dwyre of the Los Angeles Times that he discovered the theft three weeks ago.

Disasters in Indonesia

I have been feeling so distant from what's happening in Indo. I saw Indonesia and #prayforindonesia trending on Twitter, which is the only reason why I knew about the disasters. I haven't read much about it so I don't know the extent of the disasters, but I know that there has been a volcano eruption, an earthquake and a 10-foot tsunami.


According to CNN, the earthquake has killed 272 people with 412 still missing.


More report on what happened.


Pray for Indonesia indeed. Hoping for the best for everyone involved.

Another death :(

First, there was the 13 year old kid, now a 19 year old.

Japanese rider Tomizawa dies in San Marino Moto2 GP

(AFP) – 5 hours ago

MISANO, Italy — Japanese rider Shoya Tomizawa died from injuries sustained in a crash in the San Marino Moto2 Grand Prix on Sunday.

The 19-year-old Technomag-CIP rider came off his Suter bike when under pressure from the fast charging Italian Alex de Angelis.

Neither de Angelis nor British rider Scott Redding were able to avoid hitting Tomizawa, who was propelled over 40 metres and off the track into the gravel.

Teen motorcyclist dies; how young is too young to race?

By Jay Busbee

How young is too young to race?
During a motorcycle race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, 13-year-old Peter Lenz fell off his bike during a warmup lap and was run over by a trailing motorcycle. A few hours later, Lenz was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital; the cause of death, according to the Marion County coroner's office, was blunt force trauma.

Epic traffic jam in China leaves drivers stuck for 9 days

(CNN) -- Think you had a hellish commute this morning? Just be thankful you're not in China, where a traffic jam stretching more than 100 km (62 miles) has forced drivers to keep their feet planted on brake pedals for nine days.

The gridlock, which started August 14, involves thousands of trucks between the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and the Chinese capital of Beijing, according to state media.

Eyjafjallajokull

Yup! That's the name of the volcano (pronounced ay-yah-FYAH-lah-yer-kuhl) in Iceland that is causing all sorts of problems right now. I saw the word on Yahoo!'s "Now Trending" list and I just couldn't figure out if it was a glitch or, like on Twitter, just some BS thing that trends because us human beings are just easily entertained morons.

[Lightning from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano]

The ash cloud from the volcano eruption was so great and spread over other countries that it grounded all flights to/from European countries for days, leaving thousands of people stranded and airline companies in huge debt.

It actually does happen in real life

I know it's wrong and it sounds morbid, but every time I go to SeaWorld and watch the Shamu show, I always wonder if these killer whales have ever killed anyone, trainers or somehow visitors, during a show. Being watched by dozens of families, bringing their young children to educate them about the world of the sea. And for some reason, I've always wanted to see it happen right in front of me. I don't actually want anybody to die or get injured. But they are killer whales. Even if they've been trained since they were born, their natural instincts are still in them. I know it can happen, and it actually did!

[Tillikum, photographed performing in September 2009, caused the death of an orca trainer in front of an audience]

Study: CT Scans Overused, Increase Cancer Risk

Found this here.

CT scans are one of the most popular tests in medicine, but two new studies raise concerns the tests are being overused and could increase the risk of cancer, Dr. Dave Hnida reports.

Now everything increases the risk of cancer, even one of the tests to see if you are sick... Am I just stupid for not worrying too much about these stuff? I mean, basically they say anything we have in today's world increases the risk of cancer. It just adds to our worries, as if this world isn't crazy enough already. I just don't think too much about these stuff. I do spend less time calling people on my cellphone, and I try to not eat microwaveable food too often (which is VERY hard when you're in college) but it's not like I'm gonna stay away from those things. Just in moderation...

"Unfriend" named Word of 2009

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - "Unfriend" has been named the word of the year by the New Oxford American Dictionary, chosen from a list of finalists with a tech-savvy bent.

Unfriend was defined as a verb that means to remove someone as a "friend" on a social networking site such as Facebook.

Ten most troubled states in the U.S.

The same economic pressures that pushed California to the brink of insolvency are wreaking havoc on other states, a new report has found.

And how state officials deal with their fiscal problems could reverberate across the United States, according to the Pew Center on the States' analysis released Wednesday.

The 10 most troubled states are: Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.

Other states -- including Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, New York and Hawaii -- were not far behind.

I was reading an article on Yahoo!...

...about the earthquake in Indonesia. Look at how they describe us:

Indonesia, a poor, sprawling nation with limited resources

=s

not...happy...

Stupid idiotic assholes

I'm currently watching the news about the bombings in Jakarta. The first one was at JW Mariott hotel, and about five minutes later another bomb blew up at Ritz Carlton hotel. Both blasts reportedly killed 8 people so far (plus tens of people injured). The Ritz Carlton is the hotel where the Manchester United players were supposed to be staying. Guess they wouldn't come anywhere near this place now....

A third bomb, a car bomb, killed another 2 people. I heard that there are actually eight bombs scattered around the city today. One person was caught with a bomb strapped to his body trying to get inside one of the new malls.

I still don't get the reason behind these bombings. I don't know what the terrorists get by bombing random places. They say they're against tourists from Western countries but most of the time they kill more of their own countrymen than tourists. The economy was said to be getting slightly better in the last 2-3 days and they do this now? How stupid us human beings can get is beyond my intelligence...

If United are still coming I know I'd go watch them (even if my parents wouldn't let me). But I know God won't let that happen. If it's either watch United and be so freaking happy or get upset but safe, I'm sure God wants me to be safe...right? Old Trafford, I'm coming!!...sooner or later...

A couple news bits

4 year old flushed his puppy down the toilet in an attempt to wash it. Plumber to the rescue.

Taken from ATA, summarizing last night's AC360.

Nokia is building a phone that recharges wirelessly. The phone takes radio waves from the air and converts them to usable energy to power itself. Imagine all these gadgets that we use all the time, without the wires to power them!

Taken from Yahoo! Click here for full story.
It's kinda cool what they're trying to do. Hopefully it comes to realization soon and I'd get to try it! LOL

These people with talent!! (part 2)

Milan Simon Tuttle. Remember the name. She's 5, she's tiny, but she knows what she's doing! [watch the vid...]



I mean, how literally, the basketballs look huge next to her but how she handles them is just amazing. She might actually dribble better than pros...at age 5!!! This is what prodigy means.

300mill for creating a game...

I know Rock Band is like the hottest game around right now (and yeah, I haven't tried that) but I didn't know it makes that much money!

An article at yahoo.com says that the makers of the game will receive a total of $300 million for the game. Half of it received this year, the other half next year. Man these people are rich!

Bloomberg reports that Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy, co-founders of Rock Band developer Harmonix, are set to receive a whopping $300 million in bonuses from parent company Viacom.

Rigopolus and Egozy have already received $150 million for "exceeding targets" last quarter, and will see the remaining $150 million in 2009.