Goodfellas, also known as Goodfellows, which was originally called Wiseguys before being brought to the silver screen is a gangster film directed by Martin Scorsese. Released in 1990, this mob film remains to be a favorite gangster movie for many who likes this films of this genre. In many mob movie lover’s eyes, Goodfellas is even better than The Godfather, another very famous movie.

With a cast full of famous “mobsters” stars like Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci and many others, Goodfellas potrayed the reality of life within the mob to the hilt. In a page page dedicated to the film at the Internet Movie Database, or IMDb, some fun facts about the movie which I doubt anyone would have taken noticed is revealed. For example, the four letter “F” word was uttered “296 times, for an average of 2.04 f##ks per minute”, more than half by Tommy (Joe Pesci) alone.

Though splattered with obsenities, vulgarities, violence and gore, the file received rave reviews upon release thanks to the solid acting by the casts, first class cinematography, and a killer soundtrack. It is an “ageless” film by all standards and one can watch re-runs of Goodfellas time and over again and never get bored with it.

As in most mobster movies, Goodfellas with all it’s profanities is a “man’s” movie. It will not go down well with God loving people as the Lord’s name was inappropriately and repeatedly used. Some who actually counted reported at least 15 instances. Women with a “respectable” upbringing will quiver while watching the movie and of course, parents will never be watching Goodfellas during a cozy family get together.

Nevertheless, Goodfellas went on to an array of film awards which includes an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role to Joe Pesci , It was also nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Lorraine Bracco), Best Director (Martin Scorsese), Best Film Editing (Thelma Schoonmaker), Best Picture (Irwin Winkler) and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Nicholas Pileggi, Martin Scorsese).

Other notable winnings includes awards from the Venice Film Festival (1990) and many others in and around USA.

For those who missed Goodfellas on the big screen, it is still available in DVD in major stores around the world. Most if not all online shopping portals still carries the title. Should be under the Classic category. Just make sure you watch this movie when your underage children are in bed.

Prefab homes, prefab houses, prefabricated homes or prefabricated houses, which ever you prefer to call it, are simply homes or houses that are mass produced. Like the cars that we drive, these prefab homes comes in various sizes and models to suit your living needs. Choices are of course limited and since they are mass produced, you do not have the privilege of having your own unique design. Nevertheless, popularity of prefab houses are slowly but surely gaining popularity.

One obvious reason is due to the cost and time of building such houses. Since all sections of a prefab house is fabricated in the factory, the need of construction workers for this traditionally labor intensive industry has been drastically cut. For one, the need for bricklayers has been brought down to the minimum if not done away with totally. For housing estate developers who builds on a large scale, this can mean considerable cost savings. Houses thus can be sold at a lower price and at a faster pace.

Many countries, especially those which are faced with housing shortages have adopted this method of building. Time of construction can be reduced to half and prices are affordable for even low income earners. Even the building of high rise apartments using the prefabricated method is getting popular. Since every unit is identical, prefabrication these homes are also made a lot easier.

Of course there will be some disadvantages of buying such a home. For one, owners will have a tougher time putting in additional electrical or plumbing outlets as all this has been pre-done at the factory. To add more points and outlets will mean a lot of hacking and mending. However, some developers do give the chance for buyers to have additional socket or light points, but this has to be done and planned out before the actual fabrication starts. Suffice to say, it will cost twice as much as a normal installation.

You can of course order your own prefabricated homes according to your own design and fancy. However, that would mean a whole new set of plans and moulds for the manufacturer. By the time everything is finalized, it might well cost more that building it the traditional way.

Materials used to fabricate these houses differs from country to country. Some countries needs heat retaining materials due to harsh winter conditions while some in tropical countries will need something that is heat repelling, yet strong enough to withstand years of torrential downpours. The more common material uses is of course concrete and steel. Prefabricated homes built with these will last for generations, earthquakes and tornadoes notwithstanding.

Due to the ever escalating cost of building materials and workmanship, the demand for prefabricated homes can only go upwards. There will come the day when every home owned by a normal wage earner will be a prefab home. Only the rich will be able to afford custom designed homes. The trend is already there.

Mars, the new frontier. The blue planet. The only planet in the whole universe known to man which has the potential to sustain some kind of life-form. It is planet that has an atmosphere that remotely resembles planet Earth. Scientist have long dreamed to capitalise on this remote resemblance and exploit it enough to make it self sustainable to humans. They envisioned a day when humans will populate the entire planet without any artificial life supporting system, thriving on their own on Mars, just like they are thriving healthily here.

The mission to Mars, still in it’s infancy even though it has been a few decades, has made startling discoveries in recent years. Much due to the improvement of latest space technology, samples of soil sent back by the space probe has indeed revealed that life did existed on Mars before it became barren today. This amazing new discovery has risen the hopes of scientists and space researchers to new heights. Further encouraging finds are signs that water, the basic need of all life-form, is present on Mars, frozen beneath the surface of the planet.

Scientist and space researchers now are faced with a new mission. To unfreeze the water beds beneath the crust of Mars and bring it to the surface. They opined that if there is water, plants will grow, and with green plants growing in abundance, the effect of photosynthesis will take effect, providing the life giving gas called oxygen to oxygen inhaling lifeforms. Like humans, for example.

They might already have that technology and the expertise. What with all the drilling and extracting of petroleum and gasses happening on this planet. There will be two major obstacles though. One is transportation and the other, the setting up of the heavy equipments used for major drilling works.

The perilous journey to Mars took the tiny space probe more than a few good months an it was lucky to survived a few good knocks before landing on Mars. To transport equipments and structures the size of an off shore drilling platform will probably see the need to built a space ship the size of the USS Enterprise. Okay, I may be exaggerating a little bit, one tenth the size of the USS Enterprise will be more than enough. And it don’t need to be able to travel at warp speed even.

I certainly will not live to see the day when someone lands on Mars on a successful mission and proclaims yet another “bigger leap for mankind”, but I am hopeful. I truly believe there will be that day. When it comes, I hope Planet Earth still existed. I hope my off springs will still be around. I hope they get to witness the first successful man-ed mission to Mars. I hope it’s a man and not a monkey though.

The worldwide economic meltdown has begun to take toll on banks worldwide with bank collapsing around the world. The Wall Street Journal in a latest article headlined, “Nigeria Plans $2.6 Billion Bank Bailout, Ousts Top Executives” by Will Connors revealed that Banks in Nigeria, despite being a big petroleum exporter and Sub-Saharan Africa’s second-largest economy has lent heavily during the oil price boom which triggered borrowing and investment bonanza in the country.

That left many banks overexposed when commodities prices turned around, the world sank into its current economic slump and Nigerian shares fell. The Nigerian Stock Market has declined roughly 60% from its highs early last year.

On Friday, Nigeria’s newly installed central-bank governor, Lamido Sanusi, cited high levels of nonperforming loans discovered by audits being conducted at all 24 of Nigeria’s banks. Five other banks have passed audits.

from The Wall Street Journal.

In the United States, Examiner dot com today revealed that this year alone, 72 banks have collapse and according to Bloomberg, Colonial Bank, the biggest, with a asset horde of $25 billion dollars, is being taken over by BB& T, making it the largest bank to collapse.

a federal judge ruled that Colonial Bank cannot transfer any of its assets. The judge stated, “Viewing Colonial’s contractual breach in conjunction with the fact that Colonial is on the brink of collapse and is suspected of criminal accounting irregularities, the potential for immediate substantial injury to Bank of America is clear.”

Colonial Bank was one of the primary lenders in the state of Florida during the recent building boom. With many mortgages and lenders depending upon the bank, the fall out would be huge. Colonial Bank has 355 branches throughout five states, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, and Texas.

from examiner.com

As compared to more developed countries, smaller and lessor developed countries seems to be holding considerably better during this economically troubled times. No reports of bank collapse have been reported but this might be due to the fact that in, smaller and poorer nations, Banks are watched over by the Government, so they are kind of protected from collapsing.

Developed nations have frowned upon this practice of protectionism citing that it is against the basics of a free economy whereby a nation’s wealth is determined by free market forces and not by a protective shield casted by the Government.

These nations have however, argued that if they don’t protect their economy, speculators with cash reserves that exceeds the foreign reserves of many smaller countries, will and can have a filed day with their currency speculation like what happened during the 1997 economy crisis in Asia. During that period, many banks did collapse and it prompted countries to take stringent measures to protect their economy from future attacks.

However this does not mean that these countries are not feeling the intense heat of this current economic meltdown. The world is a borderless one these days. Whatever happens in one country, will inevitably and virally affect another until it goes global. Especially if a super power like the United States is reeling on it’s knees. There used to be a saying that goes, “When the US sneezes, the whole world shakes” Well, this time, she has developed a terrible whopping cough and there don’t seem to be a cure for it.

In a startling discovery, no less than astronomical, Astronomers from Britain’s Keele University has reportedly discovered a brand new planet 1000 light years away from Earth which is twice the size of Jupiter. What made this discovery so special is due to the fact that this planet, unlike all other planets in the Universe, orbit backwards. Scientist has named this planet WASP-17, reasons unknown.

The discovery has been widely reported and has stirred up considerable interest for Astronomers around the world. Trying to reason out why this planet goes against nature in it’s orbiting habits, experts are banking on the theory that this unusual phenomena might be due to a

“A near collision during the early, violent stage of this planetary system could well have caused a gravitational slingshot, flinging WASP-17 into its backwards orbit.” As quoted, Astronomer David Anderson of Britain’s Keele University during a press release, announcing the discovery.

Astrophysicist Sara Seager from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology agrees that this is indeed “one of the strangest planets we know about” reports the New York Daily News.

The National Post gave a more detailed explanation of WASP-17 but it would take a learned astronomy enthusiast to understand what they are trying to say. Try to understand this if you can.

Giant planet WASP-17b, the least-dense planet currently known. It is 1.6 Saturn masses but 1.5-2 Jupiter radii, giving a density of 6-14 per cent that of Jupiter. WASP-17b is in a 3.7-day orbit around a sub-solar metallicity, V = 11.6, F6 star.

In a related report, The Planetary Society gave a better prospective in plainer English, though it might still be alien to most of us. Describing the technique used to discover WASP-17 in this article by Amir Alexander, it states,

WASP-17 was first detected through the transit photometry technique by the Wide Area Search for Planets (WASP) consortium of British universities, using the WASP-South camera array in South Africa. But in order to detect its retrograde motion the WASP team needed an assist from planet hunters at the Geneva Observatory, who specialize in radial velocity measurements.

In further elaboration,

According to Darin Ragozzine of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics astronomers can identify the direction of a planet’s orbit because of slight discrepancies in the radial velocity data when a planet transits a star. Because a star is rotating, one side of it is moving towards (or away) from Earth faster than the other side. During a transit, the planet covers first one side of the star and then the other, causing a slight but measurable shift in the radial velocity readings. If during the transit the star first appears to be moving relatively slowly towards the Earth, but then faster as the transit progresses, then the planet is orbiting in the same direction as the star’s rotation. But if the reverse is the case – as it is for WASP-17 – then the planet is in a retrograde orbit.

The full report of this discovery can be found at http://arxiv.org/abs/0908.1553

2 moons on 27th August! Have you received your annual reminder yet? Every year, I never fail to be reminded by email that on the 27th of August, 2 moons will be seen in the sky above me. Each year, I waited in vain for this phenomena to happen. I have waited for 3 consecutive August 27 and not once, did I manage to see the second moon.

This year is no different. Right on spot, somewhere in the middle of June, I received that email again. This year, it was a little bit more elaborate. Attached with the email is a Powerpoint presentation on how and why this astronomical miracle can and will happen. Let me share with you the full text of the email I received this year.

Check it out, guess no one will get much sleep in August.

Mars

The Red Planet is about to be spectacular!

This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history.

The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287.

Due to the way Jupiter’s gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the Last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as 60,000 years before it happens again. The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide.

At a modest 75-power magnification Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye.

Share this with your children and grandchildren.

NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN

Now if this was the first time anyone received this email they are going to be thoroughly fooled just like yours truly here. What with all those precise scientific explanation and accompanied with powerpoint slides at that. I bet these emails will get better next year.

No one knows exactly who started this hoax and where it originated from. It first surfaced in or around 2003 and has never stopped till today. Every year a newer version makes it’s round and I bet every year there will be someone new who gets fooled. How the originator benefited from this hoax is something beyond me. I doubt he, she or they even got their last laugh.

Woodstock. It was my era. An era of of nations at war. It was era of a hippies. An era when the infamous two finger “Peace” symbol was born and an era where the slogan “Make Peace Not War” was emblazoned around the globe. It was also an era or Rock music and The Rollong Stones, an era where drugs and free sex was openly preached.

For those who were borned in the 60’s Woodstock will not mean much to them. They might remember Woodstock of later years, but the one and only Woodstock for me was the mother of all Woodstocks, the first one that was The Woodstock Festival held at Max Yasgur’s 600 acre dairy farm in the rural town of Bethel, New York from August 15 to August 18, 1969. Then, I was only 12.

On the verge of breaking into adolescence, starting to form opinions of my own rather than listening to those of my parents, Woodstock to me then was something that fitted perfectly. I tie dyed all my white T-shirts that I was suppose to wear for my schools sports activities. I drew a big peace sign on the bathroom door, much to the displeasure of my parents. I had pictures and portraits of Santana, of Jimi Hendrix, of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, of Blood, Sweat & Tears and almost all who performed at the Woodstock Festival pasted to the roof of my small and cramped room. I did not want my hair cropped, but was forced to due to strict school regulations. Given any chance, I will scream sing,
“Someone told me long ago, There’s a calm before the storm..I knoWWWWWWWW!!!………”. That’s the song, “Have You Ever Seen The Rain” by Creedence Clearwater Revival, in case you are wondering.

My parent’s faces wore a worried look, thinking their number one son had truly turned mad.

But I kept my sanity, even though I never really grew over Woodstock till today. When I dropped out of school and walked into the reality of the harsh cruel world, I dreamed of the day when I will just pack my clothes into a backpack and hike my way to the next Woodstock. It was a dream that was never realized even after 40 years. Nevertheless, I did get the chance to keep my hair flowing down my shoulders and did save enough to buy a coarse steel necklace with a big Peace symbol locket to wear around my neck. That was the closest I could get to my dream.

Today, that locket still hangs in my room, along side my wedding picture and pictures of my daughters wearing their mortar caps. Whenever I look at it, it brings back fond memories of years gone by. It gives me an uncontrollable urge to want to scream sing, “Have You Ever Seen The Rain” again. But I am wiser now. And very much older. If I do that, my wife and daughters will come rushing in, thinking their old man must have seen a ghost. Instead, I just turn my eye back to the computer screen, pondering about the next article to write, humming softly to myself.. “got a black magic woman…got a black magic woman…”

Happy 40th Anniversary, Woodstock my friend.

Make Peace, Not War.

Jade Goody and her what? Poppadom? No, I am going to write about Jade Goody here. She has passed on and I shall let her rest in peace. However, I will want to talk about that thing called “poppodam” though. Now what on earth has this thing called poppadom got to do with Jade Goody? What was it that got more than half of the population of Ireland and United Kingdom slamming their computers for information about the poppodom?

Apparently, not long after Jaded Goody died, The Spoof (thespoof dot com) ran a spoof that was titled, “I want a poppadom, Jade Goody’s last wish.” That spoof by The Spoof was where the curiosity was aroused about this thing called poppadom. Let he tell you here, what this thing called the poppadom is all about.

Poppadom is an Indian delicacy, if you can call it that. Now Indian here is Indian as in people from India or whose ancestors originated from India and not Indian as in those you see in John Wayne movies. Those are called Red Indians, though I will never know why and as far as I know, Red Indian do not eat poppadom. Indians from India loves poppadom, and so do I.

I come from a country where more than 10 percent of the population are Indians. I have close Indian friends whom I love knocking pitchers with. I love Indian food, thus I love poppadom. It makes great tidbits when you are enjoying your mug of the golden brew and it is a super appetiser when you are eat it with your traditional Indian Banana Leave Rice, which again not to be misunderstood. Banana Leaf Rice does not mean you take your rice and chow down with banana leaves. It is rice served ON a banana leaf that has been cleaned. To enjoy it to the fullest, you have to eat it with your hands. Banana leaves do not exactly stand well against a fork and a spoon.

I have to remind you that when eating with your hands, it is good table manners and “hand eating” ethics that you use your right hand. Why is that so? Well, you see, the left hand is traditionally used for washing.. how should I put it.. your butt? your err.. arsehole? Whatever. You use your left hand to wash away your shit, if you want to put it that way. So it will be really repelling to eat grab your food and stick it into your mouth with that hand.

Okay back to the poppadom. This crispy, prawn cracker-like thingy is a compulsory item in a traditional Indian meal. Walk into any restaurant that serves banana leaf rice, you will be served with unlimited portion of rice mixed with gravy and 3 different type vegetables, beans and the 3 pieces of poppadom . There will be no extra charge should you request for more.

Now what you do is, you mix the gravy and the rice thoroughly, with your right hand of course. Take a little bit of the vegetable with your rice, hold it nimbly on the tip your 4 fingers, with your thumb folded in behind the lump of rice. Place your fingers with the rice carefully in front of your opened mouth and with your thumb, push the rice inside. Mmmm… yummy. While chewing, use your curry stained right hand fingers, pick up the poppadom and take a bite. Ahhh… heaven..that crackling sound. I am starting to believe that Jade Goody really wished for a pappodom with her last breath.