Blog Marco

The Catholic church isn't ruling out alien life forms... The search for extraterrestrial life does not contradict belief in God, the Pope's chief astronomer said, adding that some aliens may even be innocent of the original sin. "As an astronomer I continue to believe that God is the creator of the universe," Jose Gabriel Funes said in an interview with the Vatican mouthpiece, the Osservatore Romano.

Even if "we don't currently have any proof... the hypothesis" of extraterrestrial life cannot be ruled out, said Funes, a Jesuit priest who directs the Vatican's observatory at Castel Gandolfo, near Rome. "Just as there are a plethora of creatures on Earth, there could be others, equally intelligent, created by God," he said.

Original sin, which by Christian tradition occurred in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit of a particular tree, refers to the fallen state from which humans can be saved only by God's grace. Asked about the difficult theological question, Funes said: "If other intelligent beings exist, it's not certain that they need redemption." They could "have remained in full friendship with their creator" without committing the original sin, he said.

A screengrab of Chef Ramsay swearing his face off on Hells Kitchen. (A previous post about Gordon Ramsay.)

[Comedy] Remember: If You Are Rich, Anything is Possible

Bloody Australian TV. Bloody Australian Media. Australian TV is SO behind. Some channels try to keep up to date, but others still force feed old TV shows down our throats. And Australian Media are reporting OLD NEWS. Channel 9 has a hit show on it's hands: "Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares" - they've been rushing through the seasons by showing two episodes a week. They've been marketing the show heavily and creating controversy (#1 marketing tactic) about his bad language. They've featured him on 60 Minutes and A Current Affair. Newspapers and even the government are even in on the marketing scheme by continuing the marketing story about Gordon Ramsay's foul language. Yesterday I stumbled upon a news article from heraldsun.com.au about Gordon Ramsay and his lawsuit. The story was dated: April 23, 2008 12:00am. and the Article said:

"I am not selling sex! I am selling condoms with free demonstration." It's all a matter of perspective. Call it smart marketing.

Image details: A prostitute or an "escort" is being talked to by a policeman - obviously 'street walking' is illegal and the officer is questioning a blonde woman wearing a short pink dress. Her response to his questioning: "I am not selling sex! I am selling condoms with free demonstration."

Did you know that a lot of our news are produced from News Releases? Some are pure news like reports from government and things. Some are commercial. You may be being sold a product without your knowledge. I was reading through the paper and I found probably the most unconvincing story which most probably originated from a press release. I thought they were going to talk about cycling around Vietnam but really they're selling some tech gear. Screw them. (Although for disclosure I do own a FreeAgent drive which does a pretty good job, but I own a JVC HD Camera and not the Sony HD cam as advertised by the article)

In March last year, documentary filmmaker David Smith had no intention of following 30 cyclists from one end of Vietnam to the other perched on the back of a motorbike.

But two weeks later, armed with a digital high definition camera and no script, that's exactly what he and his son Denby were doing.

Found this one while surfing around: "Piracy Stops Global Warming" - Instead of driving to get CDs, buying pre-packaged software from megacorporations and wasting energy; you can help Global Warming by using P2P. Help save resources, fight pollution and save the environment. - It's what Jesus would do.

I was reading a forum discussion when someone mentioned the word "automagically". I thought that was a brilliant typo - but I was wrong. It's actually geek speak:

A computing slang term to mean something that is done by a computer program that cannot necessarily be seen happening, or which intelligently simplifies things of great complexity. For example if you had an application that loaded up a Microsoft Word document and turned it into a PDF file before displaying it on screen, you might say that the application loads a document and automagically turns it into a PDF; or one could say of a garbage-collected program that it automagically handles all issues of memory allocation and de-allocation.

--from an old page at Wikipedia

I don't normally write about cars on this blog, but I think this car deserves a mention. It's the Bentley S3 E - AND its not real. But it seems a team in USA are going to build this bad-ass gangster like car. High resolution photos of the Bentley car design below:

I was watching MAD TV on channel 9 last weekend (they air the episodes at 2am on Sunday or Monday night) and I realised that Australia is some 2 or 3 seasons behind in Mad TV. Stupid Channel 9. Thanks to the producers of Mad TV for allowing people to post Mad TV on YouTube. You've got to watch this random bit that MADTV made: Mad TV 13th Season Premiere: 24 with Bobby Lee, a Gay Arab and a Terrorist.

I don't know what to make of this story... Should I empathise with the trader? Or should I just laugh at him for being there in the first place? (remember that he is MARRIED and he went there ON HIS OWN)

A Wall Street trader is seeking damages after allegedly being hit in the face by a stripper's high heel as she performed a lap dance for him.

Stephen Chang, a securities trader, claims in court papers filed at the Manhattan Supreme Court that he "sustained serious personal injuries" on his visit to the Hot Lap Dance Club near Madison Square Garden in November last year.

His lawsuit against the club states: "During the course of said lap dance, the employee suddenly swung around, striking [Mr Chang] in the eye with the heel of her shoe." Mr Chang, who is married and in his early 30s, had visited the club on his own. The establishment, which describes itself as the "Playboy Mansion of Manhattan party lofts" charges a $50 cover charge and a $10 one-time joining fee. A lap dance typically costs around $40.

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Submitted by Marco on Wed, 19/03/2008 - 8:05pm.

I was reading some news and the article had the "had had" phrase in there... Looked it up this strange little snippet of the English language on Google and it had about 8 million pages which used the phrase. Some examples of "had had" usage are: "Mum had had three drink-driving charges before 10am"; "I've had had blood clots before with my period but this time it was hard not jello feeling?"

Some fellow even wrote a stupid riddle about it:

"Ann while Bob had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher."

This "Had had" puzzle requires correct punctuation (i.e. using commas, full stops and quotation marks) to make any sense. Answer at the end of this blog entry.

Here's what some people had to say about "had had": It is the is pluperfect of "to have". "He had had a bad day." - In that sentence: "He had had a bad day" indicates that the experience occurred (and was completed) prior to another experience under discussion. As compared to: "He had a bad day" which talks about the type of day the person experienced.

Christmas is coming up again - and is heralding another shopping season. And when people are in the mood for a spot of shopping, I'm sure there would be a lot of impulse buying happening too. Impulse buying is great isn't it? We feel like we need the product, it's right there and by buying it we can quench whatever thirst for shopping we had.

Impulse buying makes us feel good. And that's the problem. Impulsive purchases has the potential to be an addictive hobby, to break budgets and to fill homes with plenty of useless junk which you wonder week's later as to why you bought the products in the first place.

Some people may argue that impulse buys aren't all bad. Why would that be? I don't see any reason why impulse buys would be good for you (unless you see shopping as therapeutic, which isn't good either - pick a better hobby!). Before going shopping I always make sure I have a list which I know fits in my budget with the stuff I need (or want, people need some luxuries too). Sometimes I do find a product that I had previously made a mental note to buy which I do end up buying. I don't classify this as impulse buying since you have already made a decision to buy it before you were at the shopping mall.

Here's a post for the bored and lonely... I'm thinking of doing speedlinking posts starting today - some of you may find the links useful and interesting as I have. I've only done speedlinking on this site three times before mid last year: here's my first one, my second one and the final one. I know there are times you just want to surf the web for recreation (excluding those social networking sites)... so here's your chance.

A researcher from Melbourne has found a way to increase the speed of ADSL by 100 times. He's sure to get shitloads of money now.

On a more serious note, Charmaine Dragun, 29, has committed suicide @ The Gap in Sydney. She was a newsreader for Australian Channel 10. If you are suffering depression or if you know anyone that you suspect having this condition, go visit Beyond Blue.