Everything from Everywhere

2011-02-25T04:00:00.000-08:00

iPHONE VS ANDROID - WHICH PHONE IS BEST FOR POWER USERS?

The newest iPhone comes out in two weeks; the Android OS continues to deploy on better and better hardware; and both operating systems roll out exciting new features and innovations with each release. So which deserves your hard-earned cash?

A Starting Point

You can evaluate iPhone and Android devices from countless angles,^[1] so rather than pretend that we've got the One True Comparison, it only seems appropriate to highlight that we're not necessarily your average user. For more specifics on how we judge these devices, read this footnote.

For our purposes, we're measuring each phone OS against 20 features we care about most, declaring a winner (or a tie) for each category, and adding it all up. The extent to which our measurements match up with what you most care about may vary, but we suspect that many of you share similar values when it comes to your smartphone.

Note: The table below indicates the device we think "wins" each category. A happy Android means we think Android is better in that category; an Apple means iPhone outperforms Android; categories with both an Android and Apple are ties.

Below, we've broken down the categories above and explained whey we chose the winners as we did.

Ease of Use; Winner: iPhone

Android has come a long way in a short time, but from an ease-of-use perspective, the iPhone wins out. You can pick up any iPhone and quickly, easily understand what's going on. It's got one main button on the front of the device, and everything you do consists of tapping app icons from the home screen. Android devices have several buttons on the front of the device that perform a variety of functions, and once you unlock the screen (and depending on which Android device you have), you're confronted with many different possible home screens and ways of doing things from those home screens.

Openness; Winner: Android

We really like that the Android operating system is open source, but what's more important to most end users is openness in terms of what you can run on these devices. The operating systems themselves are clearly important, but one thing's abundantly clear: the applications make the phone. And while Google has yet to get in hot water for rejecting apps based on anti-competitive fear or censorship, Apple has. A lot.

Battery Life; Winner: iPhone

Apple has taken battery life extremely seriously in their careful development of the iPhone, and it's shown. While Android devices get a kitchen-sink's worth of features that you may consider to be a fair tradeoff for battery life, there's little question that the iPhone's battery life outlasts that of most Android devices. Battery performance definitely varies from Android handset to Android handset (the recently released EVO is taking big hits for its poor battery performance), but the iPhone's battery performance—particularly the new iPhone's performance—generally outlasts Android's.

Multitasking; Tie

It's a big deal that the iPhone is finally getting some multitasking support in iOS4, and while it's still not as true of multitasking as Android users enjoy, the tradeoff in terms off battery life improvements is important enough that, overall, we'd consider multitasking to be a wash.

Software Keyboard; Winner: iPhone

If you talk to anyone who's used both the iPhone and Android with some frequency, the general consensus is that the iPhone's software keyboard is a good deal better than Android's default keyboard. That's unfortunate for Android users, but the consolation is that you can install any custom keyboard as your default keyboard on Android, and we've seen some solid keyboard alternatives. Still, the advantage, if only by virtue of being better out of the box, goes to the iPhone.

System-Wide Search; Tie

Apple's implementation of Spotlight on the iPhone searches contacts, media, email, applications, notes, and calendar. Android searches most of that (but notably not email), but also integrates with auto-suggest web searches; it also lets other applications plug into it, so the more supported apps you install, the more robust the universal search becomes.

Notification system; Winner: Android

This may seem like a silly thing to care too much about, but the iPhone's modal notification system is particularly user un-friendly, especially for a device as friendly as the iPhone. You have to act on a notification, and you can only see one notification at a time before the next one dismisses the previous one entirely. Android's brilliant pull-down window shade notification tray, on the other hand, is a beautiful thing that could make any iPhone owner jealous.

Voice-to-Text; Winner: Android

Nearly every text field on an Android device can be filled with a few words from your mouth, and it works surprisingly well. You can respond to emails by voice, send long text messages by voice while you're walking around Target, respond to your editor's IMs while you're at a graduation ceremony, and so on, as long as you're comfortable talking to your phone (it is a phone, so you should be). Apart from voice-to-text in third party apps, iOS doesn't support voice-to-text at all.

Syncing; Winner: Android

iPhones can be incredible standalone devices, but they're surprisingly old-fashioned when it comes to syncing, requiring users to plug into their computers and connect to iTunes to do all sorts of syncing and activating that could be more conveniently done wirelessly. Android phones support pretty great over-the-air syncing with your Google account, so much so that if you were to lose your previous Android phone, simply entering your Google account into a new one can get you up and running with a usable phone in a jiffy.

Non-Google Sync; Winner: iPhone

Android's great at syncing seamlessly with Google's servers, but it's not so keen on syncing with other popular sources of data—like, say, Outlook, Address Book, or iTunes. If you're a heavy user of any of those applications, the iPhone is the easiest option.

Tethering; Winner: Android

The cost of tethering on Android devices varies depending on the provider, but so far the Android tethering situation is better off than what AT&T is offering on the iPhone. In the States, AT&T will charge you $20/month just for the privilege of tethering your iPhone's data connection to a computer—despite the fact that you're already paying for a metered data plan. The situation isn't necessarily much better across the Android-sphere (Sprint is also planning to charge for tethering on the EVO, for example), but currently most Android carriers are sticking with "unlimited" plans, versus AT&T/iPhone's 2GB limit. It's still a close race on this point, but Android edges ahead with the ability to turn your handset into a Wi-Fi hotspot that can deliver wireless to you and seven of your closest friends.

Release and Update Consistency; Winner: iPhone

These days, your mobile OS is just as important (if not more) than mobile hardware, and Apple has set the consumer expectation to expect that their device will receive new feature updates even if it isn't the latest phone. To that end, it's extremely easy to keep track of what's going on in the iPhone ecosystem. Apple releases one new phone a year, and one major update each year. When an update rolls out, every phone receives the update at the same time (unless it's particularly old; the original iPhone won't upgrade to iOS4, for example). In contrast, Android runs on a lot of different devices, and when Google pushes out a new update, there's no telling when or if it's going to make its way to your phone. In the future Google is planning to change to yearly Android updates similar to iPhone OS updates, which will likely help this situation, but in the meantime, it's a source of frustration for Android users.

Apps; Tie

A lot of people may disagree on this assessment, given that Apple's App Store has around four times the number of applications the Android Market does, but there's also a lot of crap in the App Store, and at this point, most popular, mission-critical applications have been developed for both the iPhone and Android. What's more, some potentially very popular applications end up locked out of the App Store for, if we're being generous, arbitrary reasons. At the end of the day, it may be a big deal that your must-have application X is missing from the Android Market/App Store, and those may end up to be dealbreakers for you, but overall we'd call them pretty even.

Web browsing; Tie

The iPhone's Mobile Safari browser, while not without its faults, is a very nice, very usable mobile browser. Android's browser, while not as smooth an operator as Safari, supports (orcan support) Flash. The extent to which that matters to you may vary, but it's big enough that we're considering it a tie.

Gaming; Winner: iPhone

We're frugal productivity nerds at Lifehacker, so we don't really care all that much about gaming. And while the number of solid gaming options available in the Android Market continue to grow, it's still not on par with what's available for the iPhone.

Music Player; Winner: iPhone

Android may do a lot of things well, but one arena where its users regularly voice complaint is with its default media player. Where the iPhone comes with a very solid iPod app, most Android users quickly go looking for alternative players. Google is hyping over-the-internet streaming of all your music from your desktop computer eventually, but until we see something great there, the iPhone still wins out.

Free Turn-by-Turn Navigation; Winner: Android

After the Google Voice debacle from last year, it's looking less and less likely that Google will ever develop another new app for the iPhone. Unfortunately, that means that extremely cool applications like Google Maps Navigation, Google's free turn-by-turn GPS application, will never make it to the iPhone, and so far there isn't anything as good for the iPhone that's also free. The iPhone does have its share of solid for-a-price GPS utilities in the App Store (and some decent inexpensive-to-free options), but Maps Navigation is built into Android and outshines the iPhone's free alternatives.

Integration with Google Apps; Winner: Android

If you rely on Google tools like Gmail, Google Contacts, Google Calendar, and the like, Android just does it better. The iPhone's still no slouch, and can sync over-the-air with Contacts, Calendar, and even does Gmail push for instant new message notifications, but if you're a serious Google or even just Gmail user, the iPhone doesn't stack up to Android.

Google Voice; Winner: Android

It may seem absurd to make this a separate point of comparison from Google Apps, but Voice is a very phone-centric app with potentially huge influence over how you use your phone. Apple had the option to approve a Google Voice app for the iPhone and completely blew it. And since we really love Google Voice, it only makes Android look that much more attractive.

Customizable; Winner: Android

You may be able to add a wallpaper to your iPhone desktop when iOS4 rolls out, but beyond that, there's not much you can do to tweak your iPhone to exactly how you like it—without jailbreaking, that is. In comparison, Android devices are Mr. Potato Heads of customizability.

Overall Score: Android: 13; iPhone: 11

Clearly our scorecard is extremely subjective, so take this evaluation with a grain of salt, and consider how important the features we listed (and maybe those we didn't list) are to you and come up with your own assessment. If your priorities are similar to ours, you're likely looking at an Android for your next purchase. Frankly, it feels a little like a draw overall. (My ideal would be Android running on the iPhone 4, which is actually possible, eventually.)

In fact, in our recent poll on the subject, 66 percent of Lifehacker readers said they prefer Android; 30 percent prefer the iPhone, and 4 percent preferred neither. Whichever end of the spectrum you fall on, we'd love to hear more about what's driving your decision in the comments.

Why just Android and iPhone?

The iPhone and Android operating systems are not the only mobile OSes on the block, but they're what we're focusing on in this post. It's cool if you're really into Windows Mobile/Phone 7 or webOS. For the purpose of this post, we're focusing on what we consider to be the most popular options among our readers. iPhone?

How we judge:

We consider ourselves power users who care about things like openness, user control, and customizability; we also care about ease of use, high quality design, and quality hardware. For better or worse (usually worse), these qualities often end up at odds with one another in the current smartphone market, but they make up the measuring stick against which we're evaluating these devices.

It's also probably worth noting that, Android OS and hardware aside, we're big fans of several of Google's services, and so some of those play an important role in some of the categories above. It may not seem fair to Apple and the iPhone to do so, but in most instances (like Google Voice), Apple had the opportunity to accept Google-focused applications to the App Store.

Finally, the state of Android devices can be somewhat confusing because they're released by different carriers and on lots of different hardware. We tried to strike a balance between acknowledging faults on some of the worst incarnations of Android hardware while also keeping in mind the best. To the extent that older iPhones aren't up to snuff compared to the new iPhone, we've done the same thing in discussing the iPhone.

2011-02-25T03:50:00.001-08:00

Inside Job - Movie Review

It was literally the greatest heist of all times, the type that erstwhile conquerors of the world would wonder how someone could do it without killing millions in the process. And it is a heist that has largely gone unpunished.

On Sep 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, beginning the collapse of the financial system globally. Many more companies underwent the same fate causing literally millions to lose their life savings and millions more, their jobs. The answer to the question as to who caused it, and how, has largely remained fragmentary... Until now.

"Inside Job" gives the much-needed and extensive full picture.

"Inside Job" is eerie, and surreal in its reality. Narrated by Matt Damon, it seems like the story of the wild wild west, and how a few greedy cowboys managed to do what was once the purview of marauding conquerors - loot, plunder and ravage through the financial world triggering a kind of collapse the world has not seen since the depression of the 1930s.

That great depression was largely limited to the US. In a globalised world, this one threatened to collapse the entire law and order and democracy of the world, had it not been stemmed.

The film weaves together the story of the collapse by interviewing the key people who warned against this impending doom beforehand and thus suffered for it from a world keen on growth and development, but not the truth. Obviously, the ones most responsible refused to be interviewed. But the recordings at a congressional hearing throw some startling light about the quality of people on whom the fate of the financial system rests.

The film beautifully refuses to be just confined to numbers, as it throws in a psychiatrist and a prostitute, both of whom have 'serviced' the wall-street gangs and thus gives a mental evaluation of the men who handle our money, and also what they do with it.

Yet the film does get a little complex in its financial jargon, but this is limited.

From the Indian perspective, this is perhaps the most important American film in decades because the Indian economy, since liberalization in the early 1990s, has begun following the American model, often blindly. India's new generation of businessmen pride themselves as being like their American counterparts.

And just like in the US, the Indian business and financial world is also pressing for lesser regulations in the name of growth. The film clearly shows the ill-effects of such blind deregulation.

The distorted nature of our society also becomes evident from the fact that the country that houses the maximum number of people in its prisons have not found the need to incarcerate those who caused this financial meltdown. They are not only left free, but are in a position of power where they can do greater and wider damage. Sounds familiar?

It's like Thomas Jefferson who after drafting the American constitution was asked by an old woman about the kind of government they have given her. Jefferson said: "A republic, if you can keep it."

The financial world is the backbone of a republic. Hence the lesson from this depression, and the film, is clear - the financial world needs its checks and balances

2011-02-25T03:49:00.000-08:00

Gnomeo & Juliet - Movie Review

It is one of the most famous stories of all times, having been told in different forms and shapes through different times and cultures but with the same message of love over war.

The William Shakespeare version of star-crossed lovers destined for doom gets a modern, animated, 3D avatar and despite a well-known story, some cliches and a happy ending unlike the original, does manage to hold the fun quotient.

The Reds and Blues are two groups of gnomes living in neighbouring houses. For their owners, they are merely decorative pieces, but away from their eyes, they not only come to life, but are at war with each other. Much to their own chagrin Gnomeo, a blue and Juliet, a red, fall in love and aided by a plastic crane, secretly court each other. But can their love survive the hatred of their clans?

The two best things about this film are its immaculate animation and wit. To give garden gnomes the detailed expression would definitely have taken a lot of hard work. The wit and play on garden and gnomes is obvious from the name of the film but also delight in other places. Consider these: 'weapon of grass destruction' and 'terrafirminator'.

The script of the film went through multiple hands, nine to be exact. And the result shows. Yet, there is something that seems to be missing in the film that could have lifted it from being just good to absolute greatness.

In terms of metaphor though, it's spot on. Would you let the hatred of others destroy your love? The little warring gnome world becomes an analogy for the world, where people find different ways and means to fight and destroy each other. Amidst this, the hope can be a simple love between two people. Unlike Shakespeare's original, this fragile love does win in the end and unite the clans.

The film will obviously delight kids, and with a little stretch of their imagination, adults are likely to enjoy it equally. The pun on cultural kitch and Elton John's music, lends additional charm to this 'gnonderful' film.

2011-02-25T03:47:00.000-08:00

I'm Number Four - Movie Review

After the tremendous cinematic success of "Twilight", there was an opening for something similar in the science fiction space. Hence when a book was being written that brought the broody, angst-ridden teen who has to perennially keep running to the realm of science, the rights for the film were bought even before the book was out.

The result is "I Am Number Four" - a "Superman" meets "Twilight" meets "Jumper" meets "X Men" meets "Transformers" meets "Spiderman" kind of film - that strangely works.

Number 4, played by Alex Pettyfer, is one of the nine living infants from the planet Lorien with special powers that are hunted by the Mogadorians, an evil specie that invade and absorb the resources of new worlds. He lives in hiding with his protector Henri (Timothy Olyphant) and keeps moving from one place to another to avoid detection, till in one place he falls in love with Sarah (Dianna Agron) and wants to stay and fight back practicing, and growing confident of, his telekinetic powers.

The film produced by Michael Bay and directed by D.J. Caruso has stamps of the Steven Speilberg school of filmmaking, where in the beginning everything is underplayed, and the mystery and the powers of the protagonist slowly unfold to a grand, violent finale full of special effects that blows the audience.

There is really nothing original in the film as it merely rearranges known situations and resolutions. Yet, linear, simple and cliched as it may be, it is done without being too in the face. Hence, there's a comfort of the familiar in the film for mass audiences. The discerning audiences can give it a convenient miss.

Though attempt has been made to make Number 4 silent and broody like Robert Pattinson from "Twilight", he is too hulky to be so. Also, in the rush to drive the chase story, there's little time to develop the love angle, something that we will obviously see in the next instalments.

For Indians, this is a special film as it is the first fully produced film by Reliance Big Entertainment in association with Spielberg's studio and thus marks Reliance's true global debut.

"I Am Number Four" represents the hurried rush for formulae that will work at the global stage, obvious from the fact that the rights to the book were brought by Dreamworks a year before the book was released and both the book and the film come barely six months of each other.

The result is the beginning of a new film franchisee. However, to retain audiences' attention, the filmmakers will have to do much better in every department of the film.

2011-02-25T03:40:00.000-08:00

Diamond Studded Mercedes - Prince Waleed 38th car!

This car is specially designed by Mercedes Company on the order which was given by Prince Waleed!

2011-02-25T03:32:00.000-08:00

DIAMOND STUDDED iPHONE 4

Stuart Hughes, jeweller/gadget-monger, designed an iPhone 4 with premium quality diamonds and platinum for rich dudes who can spend $20000 on a device. Its studded with 6.5 carats of VVS quality F-colour diamonds, solid platinum back and diamond version of the Apple Logo. Also this iPhone is not tied with AT&T. It’s an unlocked version and you can use it anywhere in the world.

By the way,Found interesting and have loads of bank balance? grab it quickly here as there are only 50 devices available for sale

2011-02-24T21:11:00.000-08:00

Ronaldo meets a Special Fan

2011-02-24T21:09:00.001-08:00

Ronaldo's Skills and Tricks

2011-02-24T20:47:00.000-08:00

What is NEW WORLD ORDER ?

Introduction

The following article is extracted from an excellent analysis of the New World Order by author Ken Adachi which can be found at educate-yourself.org.

The term New World Order (NWO) has been used by numerous politicians through the ages, and is a generic term used to refer to a worldwide conspiracy being orchestrated by an extremely powerful and influential group of genetically-related individuals (at least at the highest echelons) which include many of the world's wealthiest people, top political leaders, and corporate elite, as well as members of the so-called Black Nobility of Europe (dominated by the British Crown) whose goal is to create a One World (fascist) Government, stripped of nationalistic and regional boundaries, that is obedient to their agenda.

Listen to the Zionist* banker, Paul Warburg:

"We will have a world government whether you like it or not. The only question is whether that government will be achieved by conquest or consent." (February 17, 1950, as he testified before the US Senate).

Their intention is to effect complete and total control over every human being on the planet and to dramatically reduce the world's population by two thirds. While the name New World Order is the term most frequently used today to loosely refer to anyone involved in this conspiracy, the study of exactly who makes up this group is a complex and intricate one. For further research sources, please see the side bar on the left.

In 1992, Dr John Coleman published Conspirators Hierarchy: The Story of the Committee of 300. With laudable scholarship and meticulous research, Dr Coleman identifies the players and carefully details the New World Order agenda of worldwide domination and control. On page 161 of the Conspirators Hierarchy, Dr Coleman accurately summarizes the intent and purpose of the Committee of 300 as follows:

"A One World Government and one-unit monetary system, under permanent non-elected hereditary oligarchists who self-select from among their numbers in the form of a feudal system as it was in the Middle Ages. In this One World entity, population will be limited by restrictions on the number of children per family, diseases, wars, famines, until 1 billion people who are useful to the ruling class, in areas which will be strictly and clearly defined, remain as the total world population.
There will be no middle class, only rulers and the servants. All laws will be uniform under a legal system of world courts practicing the same unified code of laws, backed up by a One World Government police force and a One World unified military to enforce laws in all former countries where no national boundaries shall exist. The system will be on the basis of a welfare state; those who are obedient and subservient to the One World Government will be rewarded with the means to live; those who are rebellious will simply be starved to death or be declared outlaws, thus a target for anyone who wishes to kill them. Privately owned firearms or weapons of any kind will be prohibited."

Why the Conspiracy is Unknown

The sheer magnitude and complex web of deceit surrounding the individuals and organizations involved in this conspiracy is mind boggling, even for the most astute among us. Most people react with disbelief and skepticism towards the topic, unaware that they have been conditioned (brainwashed) to react with skepticism by institutional and media influences. Author and de-programmer Fritz Springmeier (The Top 13 Illuminati Bloodlines) says that most people have built in "slides" that short circuit the mind's critical examination process when it comes to certain sensitive topics. "Slides", Springmeier reports, is a CIA term for a conditioned type of response which dead ends a person's thinking and terminates debate or examination of the topic at hand. For example, the mention of the word "conspiracy" often solicits a slide response with many people.

What most people believe to be "Public Opinion" is in reality carefully crafted and scripted propaganda designed to elicit a desired behavioral response from the public. Public opinion polls are really taken with the intent of gauging the public's acceptance of the New World Order's planned programs. A strong showing in the polls tells them that the programming is "taking", while a poor showing tells the NWO manipulators that they have to recast or "tweak" the programming until the desired response is achieved.

The NWO Modus Operandi

The NWO global conspirators manifest their agenda through the skilful manipulation of human emotions, especially fear. In the past centuries, they have repeatedly utilized a contrivance that NWO researcher and author David Ickehas characterized in his latest book, The Biggest Secret, as Problem, Reaction, and Solution.

The technique is as follows: NWO strategists create the Problem - by funding , assembling, and training an "opposition" group to stimulate turmoil in an established political power (sovereign country, region, continent, etc.) that they wish to impinge upon and thus create opposing factions in a conflict that the NWO themselves maneuvered into existence. In recent decades, so called opposition groups are usually identified in the media as 'freedom fighters' or 'liberators'.

At the same time, the leader of the established political power where the conflict is being orchestrated is demonized and, on cue, referred to as 'another Hitler' (take your pick: Saddam Hussein, Milosevic, Kadaffi, etc.). The 'freedom fighters' are not infrequently assembled from a local criminal element (i.e. KLA, drug traffickers). In the spirit of true Machiavellian deceit, the same NWO strategists are equally involved in covertly arming and advising the leader of the established power as well (the NWO always profits from any armed conflict by loaning money, arming, and supplying all parties involved in a war).

The conflict is drawn to the world stage by the controlled media outlets with a barrage of photos and video tape reports of horrific and bloody atrocities suffered by innocent civilians. The cry goes up "Something has to be done!" And that is the desired Reaction.

The NWO puppeteers then provide the Solution by sending in UN 'Peace Keepers' (Bosnia) or a UN 'Coalition Force' (Gulf War) or NATO Bombers and then ground troops (Kosovo), or the military to 'search for Weapons of Mass Destruction', which of course are never found. Once installed, the 'peace keepers' never leave. The idea is to have NWO controlled ground troops in all major countries or strategic areas where significant resistance to the New World Order takeover is likely to be encountered.

Who is the NWO?

The corporate portion of the NWO is dominated by international bankers, oil barons and pharmaceutical cartels, as well as other major multinational corporations. The Royal Family of England, namely Queen Elizabeth II and the House of Windsor, (who are, in fact, descendants of the German arm of European Royalty - the Saxe-Coburg-Gothafamily - changed the name to Windsor in 1914), are high level players in the oligarchy which controls the upper strata of the NWO. The decision making nerve centers of this effort are in London (especially the City of London), Basel Switzerland, and Brussels (NATO headquarters).

The United Nations, along with all the agencies working under the UN umbrella, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), are full time players in this scheme. Similarly, NATO is a military tool of the NWO.

The leaders of all major industrial countries like the United States, England, Germany, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, etc. (members of the "G7/G8" ) are active and fully cooperative participants in this conspiracy. In this century, the degree of control exerted by the NWO has advanced to the point that only certain hand-picked individuals, who are groomed and selected are even eligible to become the prime minister or president of countries like England, Germany, or The United States. It didn't matter whether Bill Clinton or Bob Dole won the Presidency in 1996, the results would have been the same. Both men are playing on the same team for the same ball club. Anyone who isn't a team player is taken out: i.e. President Kennedy, Ali Bhutto (Pakistan) and Aldo Moro (Italy). More recently, Admiral Borda and William Colby were also killed because they were either unwilling to go along with the conspiracy to destroy America, weren't cooperating in some capacity, or were attempting to expose/ thwart the takeover agenda.

The NWO's Role in Shaping History

Most of the major wars, political upheavals, and economic depression/recessions of the past 100 years (and earlier) were carefully planned and instigated by the machinations of these elites. They include The Spanish-American War (1898), World War I and World War II; The Great Depression; the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917; the Rise of Nazi Germany; the Korean War; the Vietnam War; the 1989-91 "fall" of Soviet Communism; the 1991 Gulf War; the War in Kosovo; and the two Iraq wars. Even the French Revolution was orchestrated into existence by elements of the NWO.

The instigation of a trumped-up war as a cover for amassing fortunes which can be dated back to at least the 12th Century when only a core group of nine members of the Knights Templar, kicked off the The Crusades that lasted for over a century and a half.

The core group mentioned above have been reported as being the military arm of a secret society known as the Priory of Sion, but this has been proven to be a hoax,

In 1307, the king of France, Philippe the Fair, coveted the wealth and was jealous of the Templars' power. The French king set out to arrest all the Templars in France on October 13. While many Templars were seized and tortured, including their Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, many other Templars (who had been tipped off) escaped. They eventually resurfaced in Portugal, in Malta (as the Knights of Malta) and later in Scotland as The Scottish Rites of Freemasonry, with Albert Pike playing a key role in defining a plan for establishing a world government.

The acquisition and consolidation of ever greater wealth, natural resources, total political power, and control over others are the motivating forces which drive the decisions of the NWO leaders. The toll in human suffering and the loss of innocent lives are non issues for these individuals.

2011-02-24T20:39:00.000-08:00

JUSTIN'S BIEBER LATEST SONG

2011-02-24T20:35:00.000-08:00

Nikon D5000 12.3 MP DX Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR Lens and 2.7-inch Vari-angle LCD

Features

12.9 megapixel DX-format CMOS sensor (effective pixels: 12.3 million)

2.7" tilt and swivel LCD monitor (230,000 dots)

Movie capture at up to 1280 x 720 (720p) 24 fps with mono sound

Live View with contrast-detect AF, face detection and subject tracking

Image sensor cleaning (sensor shake)

11 AF points (with 3D tracking)

IS0 200-3200 range (100-6400 expanded)

4 frames per second continuous shooting (buffer: 7 RAW, 25 JPEG fine, 100 JPEG Normal)

Expeed image processing engine

Extensive in-camera retouching including raw development and straightening

Connector for optional GPS unit (fits on hot shoe)

New battery with increased capacity

72 thumbnail and calendar view in playback

2011-02-24T19:37:00.000-08:00

New Justin Bieber Doll - Sans Haircut - Debuts at Toy Fair 2011

Days later, Justin Bieber's now-infamous haircut is still grabbing headlines and dividing fans. (You know you've arrived when your new 'do overshadows Jennifer Aniston's...) But if you're still pining for the Biebs' signature sweep of yore, you're in luck. A new Justin Bieber doll debuted at Toy Fair 2011, and it features a head of luscious, lovely locks.

"Brand new for 2011 is the Justin Bieber doll with hair," explained George Vorkas of Bridge Direct. "It's exciting for us because, last year, we had the plastic hair doll. This year we have Justin with hair. Every girl at home can play with it and style it how they want." Meaning, if you really, REALLY like Justin's new haircut, you can take a pair of scissors to the life-like tresses (though we don't recommend it).

Besides a rockin' mop top, the new Justin doll boasts a few choice accessories, including an MP3-enabled tour bus and new outfits!

"We'll be shipping two accessory sets," George continued. "Justin comes with accessories from his stage set—the drums, the keyboard, the guitar. It comes also with the heart-shaped cage he flew around in during some of his concerts. It's Justin at his best."

2011-02-24T19:28:00.000-08:00

127 Hours - Movie Review

Director Danny Boyle's much-hyped movie 127 Hours, which was released on November 12, 2010 in US, has hit the screens in India yesterday ( January 26). The Hollywood thriller has got positive review from 93% critics in US. James Franco's performance has received lots of appreciation from them. Moreover, the movie has snatched several nominations in Oscar, Bafta and Golden Globe awards in the categories like best story, best screenplay, best actor and best music. It is a bravura piece of film-making that captures the resilience of the human spirit. Truly! It deserves all these awards.

The film 127 Hours is an action movie with a guy, who cannot move. It is movie made on real-life incident of Aron Ralston and is an adaptation of Ralston's book 'Between a Rock and a Hard Place' James Franco's acting is the main attraction of the movie. AR Rahman music score, breath-taking cinematography and excellent storyline are its other highlights.

When most of the Hollywood deals with imaginary science fiction, Danny Boyle can not stop himself from making movies on real incidents. In his previous, the director has heavily focused on physical pain, mental paranoia and personal treachery faced by the hero. Now, he has returned with a same subject in 127 Hours too.

The movie is all about mountain climber Aron Ralston, whose remarkable adventure to save himself after a fallen boulder crushes his arm and traps him in an isolated canyon in Canyonlands National Park of Utah. Director Danny Boyle re-creates this true story of survival with incredible brio. By using flashbacks, hallucinations and kinetic editing, Boyle transforms a necessarily static situation into a collage in which we get to see a man pondering his imminent demise and discovering whether he has what it takes to save himself.

Aron Ralston (James Franco), a mountain climber, embarks on a wilderness jaunt in a Utah national park without informing anyone where he was going. After a frenetic couple of hours on a mountain bike, he continues on foot and meets Megan (Amber Tamblyn) and Kristi (Kate Mara), who are lost. But in a freak accident, he is literally stuck between a rock and a hard place trapped by his forearm between a boulder and a cliff-face. Over the five six days, with no sign of rescue and his water having run out, the brutal solution to his ghastly predicament became increasingly clear.

Promising actor James Franco has delivered a hair raising performance that matches Danny Boyle's technical brilliance with a mesmerising depiction of Ralston's strange internal journey. AR Rahman's music has also boosted the strength of Boyle's gory conclusion. The amputation scene is the handiwork of makeup artist Tony Gardner and his team. It is made with medically accurate in every minute detail. Multiple cameras are used to shoot the entire scene. Camerawork is really excellent in this scene.

All in all, 127 Hours has neither a message, nor a metaphorical meaning. It just deals with terrible story of Aron Ralston's magnificent survival. But it is an exciting, touching and visually compelling film.

Producer: Christian Colson, John Smithson, Danny Boyle, Sharan Kapoor
Director: Danny Boyle
Cast: James Franco, Kate Mara, Amber Tamblyn, Clémence Poésy, Lizzy Caplan, Treat Williams, Kate Burton
Music: AR Rahman
Cinematographer: Anthony Dod Mantle and Enrique Chediak

2011-02-24T19:23:00.000-08:00

Justin Bieber's History

Justin Bieber is a 16-year-old singer, who gained notoriety after posting videos of himself singing onYouTube in 2007. Bieber's YouTube clips accumulated millions of hits for the teen, shared across the internet by word of mouth.Because of these YouTube performances and the hits they generated, the young singer was signed to Island Records in 2008.

On November 30, 2010, Justin Beiber was nominated for Favorite Breakout Artist for the People’s Choice Awards. He was also nominated for Favorite Music Video for the video “Baby”. The video also featured the singer Ludacris. The 2011 People’s Choice Awards aired on January 5, 2011.

At the 2011 Grammy Award Nominations Concert on December 1, 2010, Bieber was nominated for two Grammy awards. He was awarded with a nomination as Best New Artist, as well as a nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album, for this latest album, My World 2.0. In addition to receiving the two nominations, Bieber performed an acoustic version of his song "My Favorite Girl". He did the song via satellite as Bieber was in London, England the night of the nominations concert.The Grammy Awards will air on February 13, 2011.

On January 4, 2011, new pictures of Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez came out on the Internet. The two had been dating for a short time and the new pictures showed them as they vacationed in the Caribbean.
Career
In April of 2009, singer Usher invited Bieber to perform at a luncheon in front of a number of music executives in Los Angeles. Usher announced that the 15-year-old was a priority for him at Def Jam Island, and called Bieber a "young phenomenon".

In 2010, Justin Bieber performed at the MTV Video Music Awards. Bieber performed on the outdoor stage, singing a medley of songs including "U Smile," "Baby" and "Somebody to Love". While this was Justin Bieber's second time at the VMAs, it was his first time as a nominee. Bieber won the Best New Artist Award.
Haiti Benefit Concert
Justin Bieber performed in the January 22, 2010 Canada for Haiti benefit concert on television to raise funds for the Haiti Earthquake relief efforts. He performed along with other celebrities like Nelly Furtado, Sarah McLachlan, Barenaked Ladies, Michael J. Fox, Wayne Gretzky, Steve Nash, Chantal Kreviazuk, Sandra Oh, Simple Plan, James Cameron and Pamela Anderson. ¹⁷
Justin Bieber's Albums
- 2009: My World

2011-02-24T19:18:00.000-08:00

Justin Bieber Gets New Haircut and Wax Figure

Justin Bieber's signature swoop haircut is no more: a few hours after writing on Twitter that he was "thinking about getting a haircut" yesterday (Feb. 21), the pop star confirmed that he now has a new 'do.

"Yeah so it's true...i got a lil haircut," Bieber wrote. "I like it...and we are giving all the hair cut to CHARITY to auction. Details coming soon."

2011-02-24T19:14:00.000-08:00

Hollywood New Releases - English Movies

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