F1 - European GP @ Valencia

Round 9 of the 2010 F1 calender and so far, the analysis sounds interesting from what seems to be rated as a 'not-so-interesting race circuit' and practice runs until the qualifying yesterday.

Some facts about the race for 2010 FORMULA 1 TELEFÓNICA GRAND PRIX OF EUROPE

Race Date: 27 Jun 2010
Circuit Name: Valencia Street Circuit
Number of Laps: 57
Circuit Length: 5.419 km
Race Distance: 308.883 km
Lap Record: 1:38.683 - T Glock (2009)

Top 10 starting grid for the race at Valencia:
1. Vettel - 1m 37.587s
2. Webber - 1m 37.662s
3. Hamilton - 1m 37.969s
4. Alonso - 1m 38.075s
5. Massa - 1m 38.127s
6. Kubica - 1m 38.137s
7. Button - 1m 38.210s
8. Hulkenberg - 1m 38.428s
9. Barrichello - 1m 38.428s
10. Petrov - 1m 38.523s

What is interesting about this qualifying is that we have both the Williams and Renault cars in the top 10 to compete with McLaren Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari. What happened to Mercedes despite the upgrades to their cars?

clipped from www.f1fanatic.co.uk Wondering whether we might see our first decent race in Valencia this year I wrote this in the European Grand Prix preview: The best we can hope for is a similar situation to what happened in Turkey, with the faster McLarens and probably Ferraris starting behind the Red Bulls and a battle for the lead developing on-track that way. Well, we’re halfway there. Red Bull have locked out the front row of the grid. But can McLaren and Ferrari take the fight to them in the race? With the clean, inside line Sebastian Vettel will have to do something silly to be anywhere other than first at the end of lap one. Mark Webber is more vulnerable in second place, on the dustier side of the grid and with Lewis Hamilton poised to dive up the inside on the run to the first corner.

Police Gangsterism of the Penan Bumiputra

I read with sadness that the Penan in Sarawak are being abused by the police and the timber tycoons. Isn't the Penan bumiputera of the land in Sarawak? And guess what, the Malaysian police are now playing the judge and the jury by way of gangsterism.

Whatever it is, this is their ancestral land and the Penans have their rights to the way of life they have been told for generations before there is any government.

Please, do highlight their plight in your blog, Facebook pages and twitter to mount an international outcry on the abuse of power aimed at the helpless. Shameful, really shameful.

clipped from sarawakreport.org Police Gangsters The once proud, well-trained Sarawak police force are now mere lackeys of the timber companies, as events yesterday make only too obvious. The Penan, who have been erecting peaceful jungle blockades in protest at the savage destruction of their hereditory lands,  were yesterday confronted in Long Sebayang,  Limbang by gun-waving policemen.  They were acting on behalf of Lee Ling Timber, the other party to the dispute. According to the respected Swiss Charity the Bruno Manser Foundation, the unprofessional, threatening and downright illegal episode came in the wake of an attack the previous day by a logging company employee on one of the Penan.  The tribesman (and rightful owner of the land, according to Native Customary Rights recently upheld in the Federal Malay Court) had been viciously hit in the face.

Brand Owners Beware

BP is an international brand and when the brand owners think that they are big and ignore the warning signs and did nothing, disaster will strike. And when it did, it came gushing just like the oil spill at Deepwater Horizon.

How would the PR agency for BP counter the bad press and manage this crisis at hand? What will be their next move to engage the swelling anti-movement? What policies will be adopted and who will be responsible? What will be the communications strategy of the brand after this? Or, will the brand recover from this major disaster?

No sir, definitely not a walk in the park. What will you do?

clipped from mootee.typepad.com This BP mess is definitely an ecological disaster as well as a brand disaster of the century and it will take us decades to see the real impact. BP has lost half of its market value and there are even considerations for shareholder lawsuits on behalf of BP investors who have lost money because of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Evidence is mounting that BP's directors, officers and executives missed or ignored numerous 'red flags', which had they been addressed, may have prevented the disaster. These actions also exposed BP to criminal and tort liability, and subjected the company to adverse publicity. Years of investment in the brand equity is pretty much gone overnight.

Amnesty International

The visual in this ad says it all without having to try too hard to get the point across. Strong visuals, nice photography and excellent execution.

clipped from www.ibelieveinadv.com “In Sudan, Nigeria, Uganda, Myanmar, Iran and Saudi Arabia children are still being executed. Join the fight at amnesty.org.tr” Advertising Agency: TBWA\Istanbul, Turkey Executive Creative Director: Ilkay Gurpinar Creative Director: Volkan Karakasoglu Art Director: Burak Kunduracioglu Copywriter: Volkan Karakasoglu Photographer: Serhat Bayram Account Manager: Ozlem Hanoglu

What's on the NEM?

A supposedly growth plan for the nation that has all the rhetoric but where is the substance?

The 'rent seeking' culture is perhaps too entrenched and within the system and it seems that this has become a 'right' for those who are well connected.

Where to next, Malaysia?

clipped from english.cpiasia.net Where is the NEM in the 10th Plan? The 10th  Malaysia Plan was heavily advertised as the plan that would usher in a new economic era for all Malaysians built on a New Economic Model. The key features of the NEM were: * Merit and excellence criteria for all implementation decisions and processes,     * Transparency, accountability and integrity as part of normal business practice,     * Dismantling of quotas, preferences, APs, closed tenders and other non-competitive processes.   Now that it is out, I search in vain for all these criteria and for signs of the major policy reforms that were supposed to be in the pipeline. Some of the rhetoric remains in the document. There has been a tweaking of strategy here and there. But at the heart of the 10th Plan is still the same model of state-dominated development, and ethnic and crony preference that has driven all the other Malaysia Plans.

iPhone 4 Pre Orders Numbers

When Apple and AT&T open the pre-orders, both their systems were down due to the overwhelming demand with a whopping 600K plus units sold. Now that you've managed to booked the iPhone4, you will have to wait until July 14th for the shipment. Comes launch day, there will be a lot of disappointed die-hard Apple supporters yearning to get their hands on the devise.

While this is all playing out in the USA, what about the fans in Asia? With all the hype surrounding the launch, the brand itself has certainly gain tons of publicity and goodwill. On the other hand, I suppose managing and engaging the disappointed fans will be as hectic as the pre-orders for Apple as well.

clipped from mashable.com New iPhone 4 Pre-Orders Not Shipping Until July 14 More than 600,000 iPhone 4 units have been pre-ordered by customers over the last 24 hours, leaving both AT&T and Apple sold out of initial shipments. While units will be available in retail stores on June 24, users looking to have the latest iPhone shipped to their homes from Apple.com may wind up waiting until July 14 for their devices to arrive.

iPhone 4 - it's HOT

Such a hot item, pre-orders sold out before it even hit the stores. I wonder will it be as hot as the iPad?

clipped from mashable.com iPhone 4 Pre-Orders Sold Out? Yesterday was both a very good and a very bad day for Apple and AT&T. The iPhone 4 became available for pre-order, but Apple and AT&T’s servers were so overwhelmed that many users weren’t able to actually complete the pre-order process. On the other hand, and despite these issues, it seems that the iPhone 4 was selling so well that the first batch of devices available for pre-order is now sold out. In Apple’s online store, the shipping date next to the iPhone 4 has changed to July 2nd, which is a week after the device will become available in stores. Furthermore, Gizmodo has a statement from AT&T, confirming the iPhone 4 has been sold out there as well:

FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX DU CANADA 2010 Results

It's another McLaren 1 and 2 finished. Great drive by Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. Alonso did good too only to lose out a place from the starting grid to finished 3rd after he was held back by a back marker on the 56th lap where Button seize the opportunity to claim the No2 spot.

It was also a celebration for the Force India team with both drivers securing the top 10 points qualifier finishing on the 9th and 10th spots for Liuzzi and Sutil respectively. And the biggest casualty in Montreal is none other than my all time favorite driver, Michael Schumacher who lost 2 places in the very last lap of the 70 laps circuit. What happened to you, Michael? Full results Canada F1 2010 winners.

Definitely worth staying up late to watch the live telecast due to the time difference in Jakarta and Montreal. And not wanting to miss out any of the action, zapping TV channels between Start Sports and Global TV was the order of the night. Keeping me company are some potato chip snacks, water and some very stubborn mosquitoes. This reminded me again to buy a fan so that I can blow them mosquitoes away!

clipped from www.formula1.com Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button in their McLaren MP4-25s turned the world championship fight on its head in Montreal on Sunday afternoon, when they scored the team’s third one-two of the season after a tense race in which nobody was able to relax. It began with second fastest qualifier Mark Webber being moved back five grid places after Red Bull replaced his gearbox, then a collision between Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and Force India’s Vitantonio Liuzzi which split the field up and put some unfancied runners in places you wouldn’t have expected in the midfield. Up front Hamilton grabbed the lead from Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, with Button slipping into fourth as Liuzzi and Massa fell down the order to begin sterling recovery drives after pit stops. Soon it became apparent that those who had gambled on soft rubber in qualifying were in trouble: Button, Hamilton and Alonso all pitted for the harder Bridgestones within seven laps.

Unbeleiveable Sex - Myth or Truth?

It's just so weird, man marrying a cow, when I read this article here in The Jakarta Globe that urges me to share on my blog. This happened in Bali, the island of Gods.

The whole village was out in full force to witness the marriage ceremony where a18 year old was caught having a very unnatural sex act with the cow. The cow as a symbol in Hindu Bali is supposed to be a holy animal and is a big no for such act.

As it is, this is based on local customs, traditions and rituals of which I have the faintest idea. But in my many years in Indonesia, I've heard many stories about the 'super natural' in Bali of which to the western world might sound strange. Unbelievable? read on the clipped below and for the link.

clipped from www.thejakartaglobe.com Teenager Passes Out Marrying Cow He Had Sex With A Balinese teenager caught in the act of intercourse with a cow passed out on Friday when he was forced to marry the animal in a ceremony witnessed by hundreds of curious onlookers. As the Jakarta Globe reported earlier in the day, Ngurah Alit, 18, an unemployed youth from the seaside village of Yeh Embang in Jembrana, was caught stark naked positioned behind the cow in a rice paddy field. In his defence, Alit admitted to the act of bestiality but claimed the cow, which he believed was a young and beautiful woman, had wooed him with flattering compliments. As part of a Pecaruan ritual, a ceremony to cleanse the village of the unholy act of a man mating with a cow, Alit was forced to “marry” the animal.

Fifa World Cup Live over the Internet

Good news for football fans all over the world. Clipmark below are the link to watch the World Cup live over the internet just in case your local free to air TV channels cannot afford to pay for the satellite up-link for the telecast live.

clipped from mashable.com 3 Ways to Watch the 2010 World Cup Soccer fanatics all over the world are eagerly anticipating the kick-off to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The Internet has already started to fill up with soccer-themed viral videos, Twitter accounts and epic trailers. This year’s tournament has already been hyped as “the first social media world cup,” but what if you want to actually watch your favorite team compete? ESPN and ABC have teamed up to bring to your television — in some combination — every single soccer match being played. For footy-fans who don’t have a television, need even more coverage, or simply prefer watching sports on a laptop screen, here are some options for you to watch this year’s World Cup.

Finding a job via Facebook

Will this be a real challenge for the head-hunting companies around the world? Firstly, there is http://www.LnkedIn.com and now this http://www.SimplyHired.com.

Facebook being the world's most "populous nation", if ever it is one, then this job finding site will give the head hunters a run for their money.

There are endless opportunities in the world of social media as long as the idea is compelling, innovative, creative and is easily shared on the web and get connected.

clipped from blog.simplyhired.com SimplyHired.com Launches First Personalized Job Search Using Facebook Today, Simply Hired launched the first personalized job search experience by integrating with Facebook. Job seekers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and India can now opt-in to this feature and search for jobs with the help of their Facebook friends.  Using this new capability, users who log-in with Facebook are able to discover jobs based on their friends’ companies on the homepage of SimplyHired.com. On the search results page, users will also be able to search for jobs at their friends’ companies as well as privately message friends about job opportunities to get the inside track on a job.

Tips in landing a job with Social Media

Here's an interesting article on how one could get a job with Social Media. It basically tell you to do some homework to find out more of the company than just read their annual reports and checking out the website.

With social Media these days, there are tons of articles for you to get a good insight on who your prospective employer will be like. Firstly, you can find out who is who of the company using LinkedIn then you move to Blogs, Facebook and Twitter to further your research in finding out what they company and staff are doing or talking about so that you are kept abreast on the company activities. Finally, there is the employee blogs and social networking accounts where you can get great insights on who are the movers and shakers.

Great tips for those in the search for a social media jobs. Yes, I suppose you are aware of this and have been doing so...this means you are already on the right track. Good luck!

clipped from mashable.com 3 Ways to Ace Your Job Interview with Social Media Dan Klamm is the Outreach & Marketing Coordinator at Syracuse University Career Services, where he advises students on using social media for career success. Connect with him on Twitter @DanKlamm. Succeeding at a job interview is all about coming prepared: Doing company research and being able to articulate how your unique skills and experiences are a fit for the job. Social media can help you gain crucial insights about the company you’re applying to, as well as the people you’ll be interviewing with, so that you can gain an edge during the interview process.

World Supercomputing superpowers

Interesting chart to just have a look although it did not make much sense to me. Perhaps it will make better sense for the tech savvy people out there.

When you go to the link, you can also view by speed, by OS, by application, by processor and by manufacturer.

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk In graphics: Supercomputing superpowers The biannual Top 500 supercomputer list has been released. Use this graphic to explore the world's fastest number crunchers or find out more about alternative supercomputer powers . About this data: The data used to generate the interactive treemap visualisation come from a draft of the June 2010 TOP500 Supercomputing list. This ranks most of the world's fastest supercomputers twice a year. There may be minor differences between this list and the final published list.