Life's Great Expectations!

LONDON (AFP) - - A European consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland on Wednesday declared victory in the takeover battle for Dutch group ABN Amro, sealing the biggest takeover in banking history and prompting the resignation of ABN's chairman. Rijkman Groenink stepped down after opposing the consortium's mostly cash bid worth 100 billion dollars (71 billion euros), which prevailed over an offer from British bank Barclays. The consortium, also comprising Belgian-Dutch group Fortis and Spain's Banco Santander, will now break up ABN Amro -- a move criticised by Groenink. The takeover is also expected to involve the loss of up to 19,000 jobs at ABN Amro . RBS chief executive Fred Goodwin rejoiced in the victory but acknowledged that much work lay ahead. "It is good to get to the end of what has been a very long road," Goodwin told reporters on a conference call. "There is still a huge amount of work out there to do," he added. Axel Pierron, an analyst at fi...

August 11, 2007 Financial markets were roiled again yesterday, with the Federal Reserve and other central banks stepping in to bolster liquidity in the wake of the subprime credit seizure. Serving as lender of last resort in these conditions is the proper function of central banks. But going further -- with an emergency rate cut, as some in the market seem to be anticipating or hoping for -- carries the risk of introducing even greater moral hazard into the financial system. It's worth recalling in this connection that the root cause of this credit correction was the Federal Reserve's willingness to keep money too easy for too long. The federal funds rate was probably negative in real terms for close to two years between 2003 and 2005. This led to a misallocation of capital into real estate and certain mortgage instruments that is currently being worked off. For the Fed to take its eye off the price-stability ball now in response to short-term market gyrations would only compou...

Greenspan sees dramatic drop in Chinese stocks ... Worried Shanghai Will Burst ...China Syndrome? U.S. stocks sold off Wednesday afternoon after former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said he was concerned Chinese stocks may undergo a " dramatic contraction " but said the global economy may be able to shrug off a drop in asset prices. Addressing a meeting in Madrid via teleconference, Greenspan said the recent boom in Chinese stocks could not last . " It is clearly unsustainable ," he said " There's going to be a dramatic contraction at some point ." The main Shanghai index has nearly tripled in past year and is up 56 percent so far in 2007. Greenspan also said a correction could cause problems for Chinese personal wealth. Some analysts have speculated that the Chinese government could be tempted to dip into its reserves to bail out any stung investors and avoid social unrest. Greenspan, who stood down as Fed governor last year, said cheap...

SINGAPORE: A water spout has been spotted from the eastern parts of Singapore. Water spout sighted off Singapore's east coast By Gamar Abdul Aziz, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 25 May 2007 1646 hrs Most callers to the MediaCorp News Hotline reported seeing what looked like a tornado or a twister over the sea. Most said they saw the phenomenon at about 2.30pm and that the phenomenon lasted about 15 minutes. Witnesses said it was moving in a circular motion. The water spout could be seen in several areas including Chai Chee, East Coast Park, Suntec City and Potong Pasir. Last August, a water-spout was also spotted off the coast of Sentosa Island. The National Environment Agency (NEA) said intense thunderstorms were the cause of the phenomenon. The water spout is a narrow column of water that is sucked to the base of a cloud, making it look like a funnel. An average diameter of a waterspout is 50 metres and it has average wind speeds of up to 150 kilometres per hour. The NEA added tha...

PROMISES TO PUT A SMILE IN YOUR HEART. READ ON... Why the sun lightens our hair, but darkens our skin? Why women can't put on mascara with their mouth closed? Why don't you ever see the headline "Psychic Wins Lottery"? Why is "abbreviated" such a long word? Why is it that doctors call what they do "practice"? Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons? Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker? Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour? Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food? Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes? Why do they sterilize the needle for lethal injections? You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes? Why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff?! Why don't sheep shrink when it rains? Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together? If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the oppo...

PROMISES TO PUT A SMILE IN YOUR HEART Only in America ...do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front. Only in America ......do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries,and a diet coke. Only in America .....do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters. Only in America ......do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage. Only in America ......do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight. Only in America ......do we use the word 'politics' to describe the process so well: 'Poli' in Latin meaning 'many' and 'tics' meaning 'bloodsucking creatures'. Only in America ......do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering. Now that you've smiled at least once, it's your turn to spread the stupidity and send this to someone you w...

[Thanks to Dorothy, who has written this wonderful Dive Report!] {> Photos {> Underwater Photos Mabuhay! Yeah you got it. It's my dive report again! (warning, this is a very long one) The trip to Malapascua was a 3-hr flight + 3-hr bumpy road trip + 1/2 hr scenic boat ride = very tired travellers. This hasn't taken into account the lack of sleep, the transfer to the mid-sized outrigger (Arbert) on a small pole-rowed boat, the dylan-carrying-his-suitcase-on-his-head episode, and the waiting for batches of supplies to be transferred onto the outrigger on those same row boats. Our original plan was to do 2 dives on the first day after breakfast, but fatigue took a hold of us after dive 1 and we decided to just rest for the day and pump up the no. of dives on days 2 and 3. Our DM Renelo (we call him "Rey") was accomodating, nice and went out of his way to help us during our surface intervals....and he's really good at pointing out the macro stuff. The Scubapro ...

The Glass Bridge Construction of the Skywalk began March of 2004 and will open March 28, 2007. Upon completion, the Glass Bridge will be suspended 4,000 feet above the Colorado River on the very edge of the Grand Canyon. On May 2005, the final test was conducted and the stucture passed engineering requirements by 400 percent, enabling it to withstand the weight of 71 fully loaded Boeing 747 airplanes (more than 71 million pounds). The bridge will be able to sustain winds in excess of 100 miles per hour from 8 different directions, as well as an 8.0 magnitude earthquake within 50 miles. More than one million pounds of steel will go into the construction of the Grand Canyon Skywalk. HUALAPAI INDIAN RESERVATION (Arizona) - A gleaming glass-bottomed walkway that juts out over the edge of the Grand Canyon welcomed its first visitors on Tuesday, with Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin taking one small step for man and one almighty leap for sufferers of vertigo. The Skywalk, a horseshoe-shaped o...

Viewpoint: Truths behind the market rout Bloomberg News Wednesday, March 7, 2007 VIEWPOINT By William Pesek Henry Paulson's visit to Asia couldn't be more timely. The U.S. Treasury secretary is in the region after global equity markets plummeted last week. While purely coincidental — Paulson's trip was planned well before China's stock plunge on Feb. 27 — he is getting a first-hand look at some of the world's most vibrant and, supposedly, risky economies. Unfortunately, Paulson will probably leave China, Japan and South Korea concluding two things that many investors already claim: This global market decline is merely a repeat of May 2006, and it has Asian fingerprints all over it. Paulson should dig deeper and learn the truth on both counts. The growing reassessment of risk from Shanghai to New York suggests this rout will be far more painful than May 2006, when emerging markets swooned only to recover soon after. The continued proli...

人生就是为了找寻爱的过程，每个人的人生都要找到四个人。 第一个是自己 (yourself), 第二个是你最爱的人 (someone u love)，第三个是最爱你的人 (some who loves you) ，第四个是共度一生的人 (someone u would live together for life). 首先会遇到你最爱的人，然後体会到爱的感觉； 因为了解被爱的感觉，所以才能发现最爱你的人；当你经历过爱人与被 爱，学会了爱，才会知道什么是你需要的，也才会找到最适合你 ，能够相处一辈子的人。但很悲哀的，在现实生活中 ，这三个人通常不是同一个人；你最爱的，往往没有选择你 ；最爱你的，往往不是你最爱的；而最长久的，偏偏不是你最爱也不是 最爱你的，只是在最适合的时间出现的那个人。 你，会是别人生命中的第几个人呢？ 没有人是故意要变心的，他爱你的时候是真的爱你，可是他不爱你的时 候也是真的不爱你了，他爱你的时候没有办法假装不爱你；同样的 ，他不爱你的时候也没有办法假装爱你 。当一个人不爱你要离开你，你要问自己还爱不爱他 ，如果你也不爱他了，千万别为了可怜的自尊而不肯离开； 如果你还爱他，你应该会希望他过得幸福快乐，希望他跟真正爱的人在 一起，绝不会阻止，你要是阻止他得到真正的幸福，就表示你已经不爱 他了，而如果你不爱他，你又有什么资格指责他变心呢？ 爱不是占有，你喜欢月亮，不可能把月亮拿下来放在脸盆里 ，但月亮的光芒仍可照进你的房间。换句话说，你爱一个人 ，也可以用另一种方式拥有，让爱人成为生命里的永恒回忆 ，如果你真爱一个人，就要爱他原来的样子─爱他的好，也爱他的坏 ：爱他的优点，也爱他的缺点，绝不能因为爱他，就希望他变成自己所 希望的样子，万一变不成就不爱他了。 真正爱一个人是无法说出原因的，你只知道无论何时何地、心情好坏 ，你都希望这个人陪著你；真正的感情是两人能在最艰苦中相守 ，也就是没有丝毫要求。毕竟，感情必须付出，而不是只想获得 ；分开是一种必然的考验，如果你们感情不够稳固，只好认输 ，真爱是不会变成怨恨的。 两人在谈情说爱的时候，最喜欢叫对方发誓，许下承诺我们为什么要对 方发誓，就是因为我们不相信对方，我们根本不相信情人 ，而这些山盟海誓又很不切实际：海枯石烂、地老天荒 ，都不能改变我对你的爱!明知道海不会枯、石不会烂、地不会老 、天不会荒； ...

In one corner we have Internet Explorer 7 . After 18 months of development and a shiny new set of tabs, he's in top shape and looking better than his predecessor ever did. That is, before he entered the ring with Firefox 2.0 . Now he's just a cripple with fancy RSS reading. Interface "Unlike IE 7, which has reorganized its toolbar, Firefox 2 changes only the look and feel of its buttons." "The new shiny-glass look [firefox] is much more sophisticated, as are the rounded tabs and the hairline borders around the address bar and the search engine box." "IE 7's new streamlined look resembles Vista's." Tabbed Browsing "New in Firefox 2 is session restore; if Windows crashes and you have several tabs open in Firefox at the time, you can now relaunch Firefox with all the tabs intact..." "Firefox 2's tab updates are generally a step ahead of IE's. For example, you can configure Firefox to always save your last session for f...

Terok was travelling in a crowded bus. He was carrying the passport size photograph of his son for college admission. Accidentally, the photograph drop down from his pocket. He started searching for it frantically & found it on the floor below the ends of a woman's saree. He asked her, "Can you lift your saree? I wanna take photograph".... THE REST IS HISTORY He was beaten so badly that he had to be admitted to hospital. He was suprised to see Butol on the next bed to him in a worse condition. Butol explained what happened to him. He had gone to a remote village to work. He finished late & missed the last bus. He couldn't find any hotel nearby. So he approached a nearby house & asked the Owner whether he can stay there for a night. The Owner replied "I have 2 grown up daughters. Sorry, you can't stay here". Then he approached the next house & asked the Owner whether he can stay there for a night. The Owner replied "I have 3 grown u...

Sun Nov 5, 6:43 PM ET In this undated photo released by the New Zealand Defense Force, an iceberg is observed from a New Zealand Air Force P3 Orion maritime surveillance airplane on routine fisheries patrol in the southern ocean. A maritime warning has been issued after approximately 100 icebergs were discovered near Auckland Islands, 260 kilometers (160 miles) south of the South Island of New Zealand Friday, Nov. 3, 2006. The largest iceberg about 2 kilometers by 1.5 kilometers (1.2 by 0.9 miles) and more than 130 meters (425 feet) high were found floating in a major ocean shipping lane. (AP Photo/New Zealand Defense Force,HO) Icebergs near NZ after drifting from Atlantic Wed Nov 8, 5:53 AM ET Scores of icebergs have floated to within about 300 km (186 miles) of New Zealand, with the largest measuring about 1.8 km (1.1 miles) in length and standing some 120 meters (360 feet) above w...

Kelly Martin 2006-11-05 Another new zero-day exploit for Microsoft systems has appeared, capable of compromising fully patched IE 6/7 systems when a user visits a malicious website. Microsoft has issued an advisory on the ActiveX vulnerability and exploit, first discovered by Secunia and labeled as "extremely critical." All Microsoft systems except Windows Server 2003 are vulnerable. Users may fall victim just by visiting a maliciously crafted website. Deflecting responsibility for the situation, Microsoft advises users affected by the zero-day exploit to, "contact their local FBI office or post their complaint on the Internet Fraud Complaint Center Web site. Customers outside the U.S. should contact the national law enforcement agency in their country." The vulnerability affects hundreds of millions of computer systems, however. Of those vulnerable, it is not known how many users will visit malicious websites that contain the exploit before an official patc...

Religious and sectarian passions have taken over and are tearing Iraq apart AMMAN - THE future of Iraq may depend little on whether Saddam Hussein hangs. The Sunni insurgency is so deeply entrenched and sectarian bloodlust so strong that the spiralling violence in Iraq seems set to continue - regardless of its former president's fate. Some fear that the Saddam verdict, by angering the Sunni minority, could intensify the violence once a curfew in Baghdad is lifted. Others say they hope the verdict gives Iraqis a chance 'to unite and build a better future', in the words of US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. But in the end, Saddam's fate is not what is driving the violence in Iraq now. Instead, religious, nationalistic and sectarian passions have taken over and are tearing the country apart. Even if it causes a spasm of violenc...

Nov 8, 2006 WHEN the sun sets, the world's two most exciting countries to be in are not the United States or Britain, or even Japan. They are Italy and - surprise, surprise - Singapore, the city that only until recently was known as Dullsville. In any case, Singapore is 'hot', say more than 1,500 frequent travellers and travel experts who ranked it No. 2 for nightlife and dining in a global brand study. The Global Country Brand Index was compiled by brand consultancy FutureBrand and public relations firm Weber Shandwick. Singapore did not even make it to the top 10 last year in this category. The finding stunned nightspot operators. The manager of Clarke Quay pub Crazy Elephant, Ms Anita Lydia, said: 'It's a surprise. I guess one reason is that the Government has loosened up, and a lot of new bars and clubs have injected a lot of colour.' Besides easing restrictions to draw...

On 5 Nov 2006, DOUBLE JACKPOT: The lucky winners who bought the number 2096 won two payouts - for its being both second and third prize numbers. Singapore Pools said this was the first time in 20 years that the same number has won both prizes. -- LIM WUI LIANG Same number wins both 2nd and 3rd 4-D prizes ! IT IS a one-in-a-hundred-million chance that a 4D number appears twice in a row. But it happened on Sunday, and several lucky people who bought the number 2096 won two payouts - for its being both the second and third prize number. Singapore Pools, which conducts the 4D draw, said this was the first time in 20 years that the same number had won the second and third prizes. The actual number of winners and total amount paid out cannot be disclosed, but Singapore Pools confirmed that lucky winners have already come forward to claim their extra-plump windfalls. One such lucky ...

What on earth is happening? Are we running out of research ideas? This is absolutely insane and outrageous! Are we trying to destroy mankind? Is this some kind of ultimatum or armageddon? By approving such experiments, we are acknowledging ourselves as terrorists of our DNA! Is this what stem cells research is all about? What are we trying to achieve? Could we handle the unimaginable outcomes? Perhaps, it's ripe to revisit some ancient medicine, explore deeper into the secrets of accupuncture...or even monitor the strange diets that we have been feeding our animals. The last thing we ever want to see is strange creatures dominating our fragile ecosystem! We should pick up some pointers from sci-fi shows. If humankind could imagine it, it's not gonna be far-fetch! Come on, earthlings! It's time we should stand firm on such controversial issue...before it's too late! We are blessed to have such a beautiful but yet fragile planet to call home. PLS DON'T LET IT BE...

Part cow, part human embryo bid by British scientists LONDON - Scientists in Britain applied for permission to create part cow, part human embryos to be used in research on treating diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. The procedure, which they hope will provide a plentiful supply of stem cells, involves transferring nuclei containing DNA from human cells to cows' eggs. At present, embryonic stem cells have to be obtained from unwanted early-stage human embryos left over from in-vitro fertilisation treatment. But the proposal has been questioned by some ethics campaigners, who claim it could blur the line between animals and humans. The application was submitted on Monday to Britain's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, the body regulating embryo research, by the North-East England Stem Cell Institute, run by the universities of Durham and Newcastle, northern England. Dr Lyle Armstrong, a Newcastle University lecturer leading the team, said the work...

Co-founders of YouTube Steven Chen (left) and Chad Hurley, beat out a vaccine and a shirt that simulates a hug to win top honours. -- REUTERS NEW YORK - YouTube, the video-sharing website recently acquired by Google for US$1.65 billion (S$2.58 billion) has grabbed top honours as Time magazine's 'Invention of the Year for 2006'. It beat out a vaccine that prevents a cancer-causing sexually transmitted disease and a shirt that simulates a hug. Time magazine, owned by media conglomerate Time Warner, wrote in an article that YouTube's scale and sudden popularity have changed the rules about how information - along with fame and embarrassment - gets distributed over the Web. It had 27.6 million unique visitors in September, according to Nielsen NetRatings. YouTube came along at just the right time, according to Time: social-networking websites were hot, camcorders were cheap and do-it-yourself media was expanding beyond text-based blogs. YouTube inherits the tiara from Snupp...