Bid2Win - on Derana TV

Watch Derana at 8.30pm daily - please do. There's a new program called Bid2Win featuring a young chap yelling at the top of his voice calling for bids on items like Nokia mobile phones and computers. So far I have not been tempted to text in my two cents ;) but good luck to anyone who tries their luck!

By the way - Derana's website is quite weird. You need to register to get information on its programs and the registration form includes NIC/Date of birth and Telephone as *required fields*!! Seriously, what the **** is that about?! This is the first time I have ever come across a website of a TV channel that imposes such restrictions on people who want to know about its program schedule!! CW has a nice site - Derana should follow suit!

Soon To Be Launched Airline - Mihin Lanka

"The government is planning to launch a budget airline in the coming months to reduce dependence on the Emirates-managed SriLankan Airlines, according to a Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) source'but the take off might run into a storm.

The airline is to be named Mihin Lanka - or Mihindu Airlines, The Sunday Times learns. "

A State funded airline named either Mihin or Mihindu.....why does that sound so familiar..............

Oh wait...here's a much needed clarification:

"..one of the proposed names Mihin or Mihindu, was the Sanskrit version of Mahinda.."

That certainly clears things up for me....

Read the full story

Borat (Conan O'Brien Show)

I Am Mine - Pearl Jam (David Letterman Show)

Dilbert Creator Regains Voice Thanks to Nursery Rhyme

This is the most unusual yet uplifting story I have read in awhile.

Download the First Three Episodes of LOST - Season 3

I found a wonderful blog which provides MegaUpload/DepositFiles/TryOr/Badongo links for LOST Season 3 episodes:

LOST 3x01 - A Tale of Two Cities

LOST 3x02 - The Glass Ballerina

LOST 3x03 - Further Instructions

What the **** is a Ponzi?

I was wondering the same thing as I read a post at LBO about a pyramid scheme that operated under the guise of a BPO...later on the article offered an explanation:

"A Ponzi is a variation of a pyramid scam where the people who joined first is rewarded with the money taken from those who join later.

They are named after Charles Ponzi an Italian immigrant in the United States who offered high returns for investing in a business which in traded postal coupons.

Sri Lanka's central bank recently disbanded a special investigation unit that was investigating financial scams under controversial circumstances."

The alleged masterminds (two Indian nationals) behind the operation have now fled the country, along with millions of rupees.

Some people never learn, do they?!

UPDATE 10/30 - Police want international help to catch the Ponzi's

Sirasa Super Star - Season 2

Hmmmmm - Sirasa now has a website - finally.


No sign of a message board yet, but once SSS S2 begins, I hope one is set up.

Publishing links and content in Sinhalese is a nice touch.

Flags of Our Fathers - Movie Trailer

Must-see movie No. 2

The Prestige - Movie Trailer

Must-see movie No. 1

Southpark 10x07

SL Cricket Team Crumbles

Yesterday's match against South Africa was unbelievable. Mainly because we lost. And quite badly. The top order seemed to be in a mighty hurry to get back inside the dressing room. The only bright spot for the SL team was Chaminda Vaas - who bowled an outstanding spell (10-3-16-2) and managed to hang on to his bat as well.

UPDATE 10/26 - Mahela gets real but SL is still out the the championship.

New Traffic Plan From Today

Looks like driving around Colombo just got easier. According to the permanent traffic plan, the following roads have been made one way:

1) R A de Mel Mawatha (Duplication Road) ' To enter Colombo from Buller`s Road Junction to Liberty round-about.
2) Thurstan Road ' To enter Colombo from Reid Thurstan Junction to J O C round-about.
3) Cambridge Place ' To enter Colombo from J O C round-about to National Museum on Marcus Fernando Mawatha.
4) Independence Road ' To exit Colombo from Nanda Motors Junction to Public Administrative Junction.
5) Maitland Place ' To enter Colombo from Public Administration Junction to Maitland Crescent.
6) Maitland Crescent ' To exit Colombo from Horton Place to Independence round-about.
7) Reid Avenue ' To exit Colombo from Independence round-about to Reid Thurstan Junction.
8) Rajakeeya Mawatha ' To enter Colombo from Reid Rajakeeya Junction J O C round-about.
9) Gilford Crescent ' To exit Colombo from Cambridge Junction to Reid Avenue.
10) Ananda Kumaraswami Mawatha ' To exit Colombo from Liberty round-about to Library round-about.
11) Dharmapala Mawatha ' To enter Colombo from Red Cross Junction to Liberty round-about.
12) Marks Fernando Mawatha ' To enter Colombo from Glass House Junction Library round-about.

Read the complete article at Lanka Newspapers

UPDATE 10/26 : New Traffic Plan Postponed Indefinitely

The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins is quite convinced there is no God:

"Not only is the god hypothesis unnecessary. It is spectacularly unparsimonious. Not only do we need no God to explain the universe and life. God stands out in the universe as the most glaring of all superfluous sore thumbs. We cannot, of course, disprove God, just as we can't disprove Thor, fairies, leprechauns and the Flying Spaghetti Monster. But, like those other fantasies that we can't disprove, we can say that God is very very improbable."

Also read: Boing Boing

Creative Commercials

Neil Patel has compiled a list of outstanding commercials, including my personal favorite Folgers. (iPod is a close second!)

Firefox 2

Firefox 2 is finally out - officially. It has a few improvements (I used version 1.5.0.7 last) including inline spell checking, live titles and improved tabbed browsing.

Borat

Would you watch a movie with a title like "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan"? How can I possibly resist?!

Starring Sacha Baron Cohen aka AliG as a politically incorrect TV presenter travelling to the US, it includes many interviews with unsuspecting Americans.

"Borat is an equal opportunity offender that doesn't insult your intelligence." - BOXFOFFICE Magazine

Watch the first few minutes of the movie:



Added on 11/03:

Import of Non-Essential Items Restricted

The import of the following goods (44 items in total) have been restricted in order to control excessive credit growth:

Palm Oil
Chocolates
Bread, pastry, cakes, biscuits and other bakers' wares
Beer
Wine, vermouth and other fermented beverages

Spirits, liqueurs and other spirituous beverages
Perfumes and toilet waters
Beauty or make up preparations (lip, eye, manicure, pedicure etc)
Preparations for use on hair
Pre-shave, shaving or after-shave preparations, personal deodorants and anti-perspirants,

Perfumed bath salts and other bath preparations,

Preparations for perfuming or deodorising rooms

Soap and organic surface-active products
Tableware, kitchenware, other household articles and toilet articles of plastics
Articles of apparel of knitted or crocheted
Footwear
Artificial flowers

Walltiles, floortiles and the like
Tableware, kitchenware, other household articles and toilet articles of ceramic, porcelain or china
Statuettes and other ornamental ceramic articles
Glassware of a kind used for table, kitchen, toilet, office, indoor decoration or similar purposes
Imitation jewellery

Tableware, kitchenware, other household articles of stainless steel
Locks and padlocks
Fans
Air conditioners
Refrigerators, freezers and other refrigerating and freezing equipment

Dish washing machines
Household and laundry type washing machines
Electro-mechanical domestic appliances, with self-contained electric motor (eg: vacuum cleaners, floor polishers, food grinders, mixers, blenders etc)
Shavers, hair clippers and hair-removing appliances with self contained electric motor
Electric instantaneous or storage water heaters and immersion heaters

Hair dryers and other hair-dressing apparatus
Electric smoothing irons
Microwave ovens
Other ovens and cookers
Coffee or tea makers

Toasters
Video recording or reproducing apparatus, whether or not incorporating a video tuner
Television
Antennas
Filament bulbs and energy efficient compact fluorescent lamps and other lamps
Wrist watches and clocks
Lamps and light fittings
Toys

(Source: Central Bank of Sri Lanka)

There's going to be a reduction in the availability of deodorant and after-shave??!! WHAT??!! I don't get these people - the above items are taboo but importing twenty vehicles with V8 engines is fine??

Read more at LBO

UPDATE 10/24 - Excellent post by Rohan Samarajiva on the import restrictions at LBO

Scientists Create Cloak of Invisibility

In this first successful experiment, researchers from the United States and England were able to cloak a copper cylinder.

It's like a mirage, where heat causes the bending of light rays and cloaks the road ahead behind an image of the sky.

"We have built an artificial mirage that can hide something from would-be observers in any direction," said cloak designer David Schurig, a research associate in Duke University's electrical and computer engineering department.

For their first attempt, the researchers designed a cloak that prevents microwaves from detecting objects. Like light and radar waves, microwaves usually bounce off objects, making them visible to instruments and creating a shadow that can be detected.

(Photo: Reuters)

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

This is one hell of a long list - and I'm quite bummed to note I have read only around 10% of what's on it. But I am still young and have an early retirement planned, so I'm looking forward to reading the rest (at least 50%). The list doesn't include many Asian, Australian, European and South American authors though, and neither Mystic River nor L.A.Confidential made it on the list. Hmmmm....

Sea Frogs

Oct 18, 2006 (AFP) - A seaborne attack by suspected Tamil Tiger rebels on the Sri Lankan port town of Galle on Wednesday has highlighted the guerrillas' lethal "Sea Tiger" arm, whose suicide wing claims to have inspired Al-Qaeda.

Suspected rebel suicide bombers using at least five boats infiltrated Galle's harbour and attacked a key naval base, detonating powerful explosions that killed at least two people and injured 20, officials and the police said.

The Sea Tigers are supposedly restricted from venturing out to sea under a ceasefire agreed in 2002 by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the government.

But the warring parties have fought deadly naval battles in recent months during an upsurge in violence that has left the truce in tatters, cost more than 2,300 lives, and now threatens peace talks planned for later this month.

The attackers who infiltrated Galle were disguised as fishermen, Sri Lanka's defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told AFP, adding, "obviously they have come to Galle on a suicide mission".

Authorities later imposed a curfew on the town, whose idyllic beaches had regained some of their popularity with foreign tourists after Galle was devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

The rebels' secretive and lethal "navy" is a rarity among the world's guerrilla forces, few of which have a seaborne division.

Read more at LBO

Colour Like No Other

"Our latest TV ad - featuring massive paint explosions - took 10 days and 250 people to film. Huge quantities of paint were needed to accomplish this, which had to be delivered in 1 tonne trucks and mixed on-site by 20 people."

Like the world needs yet another colorful ad - but it's pretty high on the *wow* factor, so watch it anyway.

How to Hide Files in JPGs

I don't see myself doing this anytime soon but the way it's done is pretty cool. It also works on .gif and .zip files.

Dove Evolution

A very short clip that shows what a model looks like before and after she appears on a billboard.

Fancy a Cuppa?

"A print of a cup of Folgers coffee was placed on top of manhole covers in New York City, USA. Holes on the print allows the steam to come out.

Wordings around the cup reads 'Hey, City That Never Sleeps. Wake up." from Folgers."

What an amazing advertisement!

(Via Hemmy.net - includes many more examples of creative ads from around the world)

Big Ideas Come Out of Big Pencils

One hell of a cool website - great design and very unique. Just check it out and you'll know what I mean!

Steampunk Laptop

I don't believe this really works but it is certainly a work of art!

(Via Boing Boing)

Unbelievable Europe Offers from Sri Lankan Airlines

I didn't believe it when I first read it - but SLA is offering return tickets (all inclusive) to London and Paris for less than SLR 28,000.

The tickets are valid until December 2006 - apply for leave right now and start planning your holiday!!

Shihan Mihiranga's Album Launch on Sirasa TV

The release of "Dreamz of Shihan" and Ajith Bandara's "Tilaka Thiyanna" will be telecast on Sirasa TV today at 10.30pm.

UPDATE 10/15: So we are going to have a second season of Sirasa Super Star after all. Friday night's program was littered with advertisements about the upcoming auditions of SSS S2 - which means the actual program will start sometime next year.

Sri Lanka Ministers Take Pay Cut....

But are more than willing to claim allowances that are ten times the basic salary.

Foregoing a monthly salary of $300 and then claiming ridiculously high allowances that may very well exceed $3,000 makes so much sense......

From LBO (Snip Snip)

The Blower's Daughter - Damien Rice

This is the song played during the final credits of the movie "Closer". It's an absoulute beauty.

Google Snaps Up YouTube For $1.65B

Google has just purchased YouTube for 1.65 billion dollars. That's not a bad price for a start-up company that's less than two years old!

Read more at Blog Maverick: Some thoughts on Youtube and Google

Teacher of the Year

Can you imagine attending a class with a teacher that looks like Mr. Bruce Potts?

All I remember from my school years here in SL are female teachers clad in sari with their hair up in a bun (yes, all of them) and the male teachers always wore long sleeve shirts with their hair oiled and combed flat (yes, all of them).


(Via Boing Boing)

One - U2

I'm the only one in office today. Well, in my department at least. It gets lonely. I miss the chatter, but I would never admit it to the others.

At least I got U2 and this great song..

That's all I need...until lunch time.

Wicked Game - Chris Isaak

I wanted to listen to this song last night and after I heard it for the zillionth time, I wondered why I never realized it was a sad song. Possibly because the video is so..well...hot...

One of the Many Uses of Activated Carbon

Sri Lanka's Haycarb Ltd, the world's biggest maker of coconut shell based activated carbon, is donating a medical grade version of their products to hospitals around the island, to be used as a cure on victims who attempt to commit suicide.

The company (which controls around 15 percent of the world's activated carbon market) is distributing 15,000 bottles, each containing 50 grams each of the medical grade activated carbon in powder form, to government hospitals through the State Pharmaceuticals Corp.

Sri Lanka has one of the world's highest suicide rates, where people attempt to take their lives by swallowing Yellow Oleander (Kaneru) seeds or pesticides.

The carbon powder mixed with water to form a suspension is administered orally to the victim of attempted suicide. The carbon then works as an effective, antidote that absorbs the poison in a person's stomach.

It's an inexpensive antidote with a high success rate, Haycarb said Thursday.

"Activated carbon has saved many thousands of lives in Sri Lanka over the years and its efficacy has been confirmed by a study done by Sri Lankan and British specialists over 6 months and published in the authoritative medical journal 'The Lancet'," Haycarb Director Rohan Pieris said.

As an antidote for poisoning by Kaneru and certain types of pesticides, activated carbon replaces the antidote used in hospitals overseas, a single treatment of which costs 265,000 rupees.

Most local hospitals that receive victims of attempted suicide by Kaneru or pesticide poisoning, have to induce patients to vomit, in order to flush out the poison, as the imported antidote is too expensive.

The success rate of this method is comparatively low as opposed to the use of activated carbon, which is much easier to administer and has a very high success rate if administered correctly.

Read more at LBO

Kumar Sangakkara: "I'm a Boring Batsman"

From Lanka Newspapers:

"Sri Lanka`s stylish batsman and wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara says he may not be a treat to watch when compared to the other more swashbuckling batsmen in the world.

`I play a different brand of cricket. I am not very aggressive. I play a more boring kind of cricket. So one-day cricket is a challenge,` the Sri Lankan vice-captain said.

The 28-year-old left-handed batsman said that his team, who were joint winners in the 2002 edition at home, looked positively at having to play in the qualifiers to make it to the main round of the Champions Trophy."

Such modesty, seriously.............

Zune and iPod Photo Comparison

Someone has finally decided on a side-by-side Zune/iPod comparison.

Inspite of it's size, the Zune looks just plain awesome to me........

Native Mobile

October 02 2006 (LBO) – Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone maker, has sold over 5,000 handsets equipped with Sinhala language settings and keypads, since they were launched in Sri Lanka last week.

Over 70 percent of Sri Lankans speak Sinhalese and Nokia’s local agent – Softlogic Communications – says the new handsets are proving to be a hit among the locals.

“We have three Nokia models, the 1110i, 1112 and 1600 for immediate sale and the 2310, 2610 models will be available shortly” Nirasha Croos, Assistant Marketing Manager Branding for Softlogic Communications said.

With a starting price tag of 5,700 rupees, the handsets come factory-fitted with Sinhalese keypads, phone menus and settings.

Read the rest at LBO

GoldQuest Probe - Yet Another Never-ending Saga

A couple of years ago, the whole country was ablaze with GoldQuest - a pyramid scheme which was quickly banned. Information about the scheme was communicated through a series of newspaper ads and tv programs - and you'd think that after two years it would be dead and buried by now.

Hell no, it's still around - alive and kicking, and now the remaining officials in the anti-pyramid unit " have been transferred for better career prospects, and to complete other urgent work"

The article at LBO goes on to say:

"Responding to questions whether the Special Investigation Unit had been closed because of the newly appointed Governor, Nivard Cabraal's alleged links to GoldQuest, Weerasekera said he was not aware of such links.

"We do not know of such things," Weerasekera told mediamen in Sinhalese.

"It is not fair to ask such questions from me."

Weerasekera was chairing the first media conference held at the central bank headquarters premises, since the new governor took office.

Sri Lanka's main opposition called for a parliamentary inquiry after media reports that Cabraal's family financial firm Capital Reach, had been funded by the GoldQuest group, and his appointment may stop the investigations.

Cabraal had denied wrongdoing.

Before Cabraal's appointment, Central Bank's investigations led to the arrest of several GoldQuest activists who were operating in remote and poorer areas of Sri Lanka.

Earlier in the month news broke that the police investigators seconded to the Unit had been recalled.

The Unit had now been disbanded and its chief transferred to the International Operations Department."

Sounds like another soap opera in the making...I feel sorry for the poor folk who parted with their hard earned money without knowing what they were getting themselves into!

Turtle Wedding Cake .....with Marzipan Elephants

This amazing cake was made by a very artistic mother for her daughter's wedding and consists of a giant turtle with four marzipan elephants on its back, supporting a Discworld (made of icing) complete with hand painted landmasses and cities.

(via Boing Boing)