Poodle-grooming

If animals could speak, I wonder what would these poodles say to their humans.

These poodles are all competing in the annual 'creative grooming' top dog title across the U.S. Something of a canine fancy dress contest, it takes just two hours for owners to transform their pets, which are sheared and coloured to achieve each look.

Read article..Poodle doodles: Dogs are transformed into pandas, horses and even snails in a barking mad grooming craze

The Story of Apples and Wine

Today is Sept 9. Does it ring a bell? 090909? Now it does. Let me commemorate this numerically-important date with something funny.

Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while now would probably recall that I have a sexist male colleague who enjoys forwarding me sexist jokes just to humour (read annoy) me. This one below made me laugh so hard. Enjoy..

Click image to enlarge

Winning The Debit Card Game

Banks in Malaysia have recently switched ATM cards to debit cards.

For those without credit cards, this could be a good move as one need not be lugging around wads of cash shopping for big-ticket items.

I am not sure if banks here allow for overdraft if there is insufficient fund, but in the US, banks extend the overdraft facility, though not without a penalty, of course. Here is a scenario:

When Peter Means returned to graduate school after a career as a civil servant, he turned to a debit card to help him spend his money more carefully.

So he was stunned when his bank charged him seven $34 fees to cover seven purchases when there was not enough cash in his account, notifying him only afterward. He paid $4.14 for a coffee at Starbucks — and a $34 fee. He got the $6.50 student discount at the movie theater — but no discount on the $34 fee. He paid $6.76 at Lowe’s for screws — and yet another $34 fee. All told, he owed $238 in extra charges for just a day’s worth of activity.

So, debit cards are swell if you spend within what you have but could be disastrous if otherwise. Like overspending on credit cards, overspending on debit cards will only be a Boon for Banks.

NY Times offers some tips on how to win at the Debit Card game. Click on image below to activate video.

The World's Biggest Meatball

If Guinness World Records ever creates a category for the country most obsessed with being in the Guinness book of world records, Mexico will surely be in the running.

In late August, 12,937 official participants danced to Michael Jackson's Thriller in Mexico City commemorating the passing of the King of Pop. The event attracted 30,000 onlookers.



Among others, Mexico also holds the record for the largest meatball in the world weighing in at 109 pounds, prepared by the chefs at the Ritz Carlton. After Mexico’s record was confirmed, besting a modest 72-pound, 9-ounce meatball, the giant mass of beef was served to onlookers.

















Mexico is also the record-holder for baking the world's largest cheesecake. 55 chefs in Mexico City created this giant cheesecake using almost a ton of cream cheese and yogurt, 551 pounds of sugar and 331 pounds of butter. It took 60 hours to create the two-ton monstrosity, which was chopped up into 20,000 servings.

Should there be a Minimum Wage for Maids?

Malaysian homes are highly dependent on foreign maids especially for homes with both partners working and no family member to help out with small children. It is estimated that 294,115 Indonesian maids are working throughout the country currently.

We have heard more scary tales than pleasant ones with regard to maids.

Recently, Indonesian ambassador to Malaysia Da’i Bachtiar has been quoted in press reports as saying that the republic is pressing for the minimum wage following cases of maid abuse by Malaysian employers.

Do you have a maid at home? Do you think the minimum wage of RM800 as demanded is justified or realistic?


Related article:

Demand for RM800 maid salary not feasible, say groups

Satellite Images - Eye in the Sky

The other day, I watched a documentary about US pilots going to war without having to be physically at the battleground. Not possible? Oh yes, what's not possible these days? United States is doing it. Is it any wonder that terrorist hideouts and such structures can be accurately destroyed by air missiles?

Indeed, the human mind is the ultimate computer. The satellite is a wonderful product of human ingenuity. North Korea is one country that most of us know next to nothing about. However, thanks to satellite imagery and the internet, we are now able to see North Korea's hidden world that rarely get seen by outsiders.

This image below (courtesy of BBC) shows an elite residential compound to the north of the capital Pyongyang. North Korea's founder, Kim Il-sung, lived there and it is believed that his son, Kim Jong-il - the country's current leader - has a residency there. As well as the large houses and well-tended gardens, there is a swimming pool in the upper left hand corner, complete with water slide.



The following image is of an ostrich farm. North Korea got into ostrich farming during the famine in the 1990s when between 500,000 and two million North Koreans are thought to have died from starvation.




Check out more of North Korea on bbc.com

Fried Dates or Date Fritters

Dates are popular this time of the year, during the fasting month. There are different types in the market, some are rather hard and dry, others big and moist. Dates have a high source of iron.

Before the war, Iraq used to be the world's biggest producer of dates but these days, they don't even have enough for themselves let alone export them. Shortage of water is partly to be blamed for the low production as their rivers are drying up making the land unproductive.

I have eaten fried bananas, yams, sweet potatoes, tempura, even fried ice cream but reading about fried dates took me by surprise. Dates that are hard and dry taste better in fried form as they become softer and moist. Have you eaten fried dates? Here is a recipe from The Star if you'd like to try it.



Ingredients:

10 dates, seeded
Half cup flour
1 egg
A pinch of salt
Half cup water
Oil for shallow frying

Method

Make a batter with the flour, egg, salt and water, ensuring the consistency is not too thick.

Heat up the oil.

Dip the dates into the batter and fry.

Drain and serve.


Source: The Star

Michael Jackson's Funeral Service - Sep 4

More than two months after he died, and following a steady trickle of gossip over how and where he would be laid to rest, Michael Jackson was entombed Thursday night at a highly guarded mausoleum in a Los Angeles suburb.

About 200 people, including Elizabeth Taylor, Lisa Marie Presley, Macaulay Culkin, Quincy Jones and many other celebrities, attended the nearly 90-minute ceremony behind the gates of the heavily guarded Forest Lawn cemetery here, several miles north of downtown Los Angeles. NY Times has more..



Michael Jackson's gold casket topped with a bejewelled crown rests during the funeral service held at Glendale Forest Lawn Memorial Park on Sept. 3, 2009 in Glendale, Calif.. Jackson, 50, died at UCLA Medical Center after going into cardiac arrest at his rented home on June 25, 2009 in Los Angeles, Calif. - AP - 4 September, 2009


Scene at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, Calif., on Thursday Sept. 3, 2009. Michael Jackson is scheduled to be interred in the Great Mausoleum, where he will be joining Hollywood legends such as Clark Gable, Jean Harlow and W.C. Fields. - AP - 4 September, 2009


Elizabeth Taylor was at the funeral service


Michael's father and mother


Janet Jackson, Randy Jackson, Jackie Jackson, Tito Jackson, Jermaine Jackson and Marlon Jackson attend Michael Jackson's funeral service held at Glendale Forest Lawn Memorial Park on Sept. 3, 2009 in Glendale, Calif. - AP - 4 September, 2009


Janet Jackson, second from right


More pictures can be viewed on The Star Gallery..


Source: The Star, NY Times