Jeans are in, but for the future it's...

A good many decades ago, jeans were synonymous with labour but the comfortable trousers soon become fashion until today. Who would have predicted this? And who would have predicted that leaders around the world are wearing jeans for official meetings? What is next after jeans?

Lets do some analysis here:

1. Men have been exposing their moustaches for centuries and are labeled sexy.
   
2. Some even have beards.
3. There is the issue of global warming.

Concluding here, exposing facial hair is good, so why not expose hair from the legs, too? And wear shorts? Yes! I predict that up next, people will meet in shorts, exposing their (hairy) legs (some men do not have hairy legs and some women do, so this goes for both sexes) in official functions.

Discover The Other Side

Have a look at the other part of this world where we normal people would almost never have known existed. From a praying mantis eating out of a hummingbird to a hawk against a whole army of bats, from the nasty river full of humanity's work to a dead bird's stomach full of our creations, and, not the least, our genetic experimentation on mice versus nature's mutation on a pig, you most definitely would like to skip your lunch. Enjoy the strange, the odd, and the gross.
via treehugger.

The Ingenious Dynamic Duo

I'm totally embarrassed to admit that I was too lazy to come out with this latest ingenious post about our top two representatives of this country's Chinese community. From what I recalled (stand to be corrected), the two guys sort of made a pact to act professionally after they won their seats in the party (fyi, their dislike for each other is common knowledge). They promised to bring back the confidence that the community had lost in the party.

So, we thought all went well until some months ago, the number two got fired for being an ex-porn star. Then, the top guy became the fall guy when conspiracy after conspiracy dragged him to a no confidence vote during an urgent extraordinary meeting. A week later, these two released press statements that they will now work together for the greater good of the party. I was like... huuuuuuuuh? That is ingenuity I could not comprehend because their action rendered the voting committee in the party useless. Tsk, tsk, tsk...

On the bright side, I suppose they should be happy that they do not have a carnivorous dude in their party.

Women in World War II

Here is something we seldom hear or read about but well worth the mention: the contributions of women in WWII:

You Do It Myyyyy Wayyyyyy...

What is the secret to serenity? Your way is the wrong way because you really should do it my way which is not your way and you are sure to be confused your way because my way is not your way but THE way.
via Non Sequitur GoComics.

The Smart Bump

USA Today thought that speed bumps are common in Mexico - wait till they come check out suburban Malaysia. A challenger has emerged! Anyway, as a general consensus, speed bumps are meant to reduce vehicle speeds and occasionally amuse us when a vehicle would fly over one (and with us as the driver or passenger). The article seemed to raise a similarity, too, about residents in Mexico and Malaysia that got fed up and built their own speed bumps.

Because of the terrible wear and tear of braking upon deceleration and the greenhouse gases that cars emit after passing the bump, a company in Mexico developed smart speed bumps. These intelligent ones will flatten itself if the approaching car is within speed limits but will not hesitate to rear its evil hump if the car is over the limit.
via Fast Company via USA Today.

Ultraman Movie!

I suppose those that I grew up with would know the Japanese Ultramen. The huge superheroes that fight against equally huge monsters would crash into hills and buildings that appeared to be kinda real during my childhood. I was totally surprised at how fake they were when I occasionally revisited the series.

I am glad that the franchise still exists, though I do not know what incarnation it had gone through. It was interesting to find out from dannychoo.com that an ex-Japanese prime minister voiced Ultraman King in the latest Ultraman movie called Ginga Densetsu.
It was also a pleasant surprise to see that the movie is graphically superior to what I always thought Ultraman to be:

Do you like chatting with people wearing dark sunglasses?

Just had this idea to blog about after a Twitter chat with someone I followed. It all began when all the people that I was following in Twitter do not have their profile pictures showing. I somehow managed to use "talking to people who are wearing sunglasses" as an analogy.

Over my lifetime, I've talked to many people who are wearing sunglasses at that time. Sometimes, it is ok, but sometimes, I felt awkward. I never knew if they were looking at me or were looking some where else or were sleeping and I had this image in my mind of them without their sunglasses, talking to me but looking elsewhere at all times. Do you get the drift? However, I don't seem to mind if we were talking under bright sunlight (probably because I could see their eyes in that condition) but if we were talking in a shaded area or in a room... even Horatio doesn't do that!

What do you think? Got a little poll on the sidebar of this blog for you to click.

IonBuck and His One Minor Success at Subang Airshow

After so many fail photos of heads, exhausts and mighty camera phones, here's one that I have to like (to console myself that at least I got a keeper of sorts):

@%#$@%!!! I blame it on the crowd, I blame it on the slow focus speed of my camera, I blame it on the slow electronic viewfinder. Aaaah... after complaining, I am feeling better now. Time to dig a hole and hide. Ta!

The Mutha of all Heels?

I'm totally attracted to women with heels... normal heels (remember, wearing heels can be bad for your legs) but not weird heels like the one above (via Yahoo!) nor the ones below and under the below:

Saturn's Supersized Ring - A New Discovery

Check out how super this SUPERSIZE ring is!
The reason why it was not discovered till now was the ring can only be detected with infra-red devices and no one had looked for it until recently. The ice and dust that form the ring are very diffused for normal equipment to detect. This ring starts about 3.7 million miles from Saturn and extends outward about another 7.4 million miles.

via guardian.co.uk.

Men's Underwear Index - A Measure of the Economy

I am no finance nor economy expert so when I came across this term, I was highly amused. According to Investopedia, Men's Underwear Index is a measure of how well or bad the economy is based on sales of (you guessed it!) men's underwear. It is on the basis that men will hold off from buying new underwear if the economy is bad and vice versa.

However, critics (and myself, the layman) disagree because, lets be honest, we men don't know how to buy underwear and need to count on our moms or spouses. Besides that, we men like to wear old underwear until it is full of holes (maybe it is evolution in our thinking to make sure that sperm production is maintained) regardless of the economy.

The Burger Worth Dying For?

It's a cheeseburger with bacon, and buttered, grilled and glazed doughnut instead of buns. I love donuts and I love cheesy burgers. Could this be the ultimate burger? Well, no chance of trying it here as the Craz-E burger was only available at some major fair in Massachusetts.

via Telegraph.

The Digital Kalkitos Called PhotoSketch?

Ever had a vision in your head that you would like to produce as a photo/picture? Looks like five Chinese Computer Science and Technology students at Tsinghua University and the National University of Singapore are making that possible. You sketch out the skeletons of your image's main characters/objects and then PhotoSketch will search through the web, I suppose, and select the closest ones and combine them into a finished picture for you! Sounds like a miracle? You may become a believer after you watch this video!

PhotoSketch: Internet Image Montage from tao chen on Vimeo.

Errr... for some reason, all these reminded me of this thing that I used to play with during my childhood. Anyone remember Kalkitos?

via Mashable.

IonBuck Is VERY *Wear Sunglasses* Into the Horatio Thing. YEAHHHHHH!!!

How many of you *wear sunglasses* have not watched CSI: Miami before? YEAHHHHHHHH!!!

Today, is going to be *wear sunglasses* a great morning full of YEAHHHHHHHH!!!

Catch Cracked.com's super compilation of *wear sunglasses* Horatio Caine's one-liners in the series here on IonBuck's Blog. YEAHHHHHHHH!!!

Jim Carrey is going to get his ass *wear sunglasses* kicked by Horatio. YEAHHHHHHHH!!!

Have a nice *wear sunglasses* kickass day! YEAHHHHHHHH!!!

Panda Poo Will Break Your Garbage Down

Professor Fumiaki Taguchi, Song Guofu and Zhang Guanglei (both from the Kitasato University Graduate School of Medical Sciences received the Ig Nobel Biology Prize (the funny Nobel Prize) for discovering that bacteria in giant panda poo could breakdown garbage.

These cool guys mixed the poo bacteria with 70 to 100 kg of raw garbage (such as vegetable stems, potatoes and fish remains). Seventeen weeks later, (you wouldn't believe this) only 3 kg of the stuff remained while the rest turned to water and carbon dioxide.

So people, pandas are not just cute and lazy. They represent Chinese supremacy and their excrement now could almost vaporise kitchen waste. Yeah!

Source Pink Tentacle via Global Voices.

IonBuck and His Fail at the Subang Airshow

Was at the Subang Airshow (at the Royal Malaysian Air Force base) yesterday with my buds where the USAF Thunderbirds showed some of their flying skills. Got sun burnt and roasted and had to hang around the RMAF base while waiting for the traffic of a billion cars to clear. That took about over 3 hours. During that time, one of my buds and I managed to test drive the Proton Exora... around the field where we parked because we just couldn't get out of there!

Anyway, the super fast aircrafts were way too fast for my photography skills... and I would like to blame it on the camera and those people that climbed really high in front of us, too, but like what WoonCC said, it all goes back to the user. HMPH! I've compiled a collage of 16 images of my fail during the show, ranging from people getting in the way to photographs of the trails of smoke left behind by the planes (I missed the planes, got it?) to handphones more powerful than my camera. I particularly like the kung fu kid (top right corner):

Click on the image for a larger view.

AndrewK managed to get some videos of the show and you can find them here and here.

Green Green Electronics

Nokia is getting really green, almost Mother Nature-like status while Samsung and Sony Ericsson are right on its heels. Meanwhile, Nintendo continues to be the leader in world pollution with help from Lenovo, Microsoft and Fujitsu. Check out the very first version and how these companies progressed or declined (in green green terms, that is) by clicking on the numbers 1 to 13 or whatever as time moves on:

Awww shucks! Looks like the Flash is not working out here. You would have to go to Greenpeace to see it. Hah... tried with Internet Explorer 32-bit and it worked but not Internet Explorer 64-bit nor Firefox. :(

Source Greenpeace via TreeHugger.

Not Wanting to Grow Up

When I was a kid, I used to think why would anyone want to grow up and act serious like adults. I will NEVER do that, I thought at that time. A million years later, now that I am very adult, I can't help feeling I've failed that thought. I don't play with my Transformers toys anymore. I don't chase after cartoons anymore. I (physically - am too fat now :P) couldn't hop around anymore. I don't think science fiction and superpowers anymore. :(HAHAHAHAHA!!! Maybe NOT!

Comics from Heart of the City by Mark Tatulli.

Hello October, Hello Last Quarter 2009!

The year is coming to an end... in 3 months and what have we accomplished so far? Hmmm... nothing much so I better look at what's for the future instead. :P For sure, I'll be eating more burgers from this quarter onwards. I plan to get a smartphone, hopefully within this quarter, too, but maybe not (!!!). Ultimately, I want to retire rich and early but I don't think that's gonna happen this quarter or the next or the next or the next... What I can say is, I will be waking up a wee bit later this quarter. Wow, I'm quite a fortune teller myself.

Oh yes, besides my forever lust for new handphones but never getting them, I would want to get a dSLR (AA batteries powered Pentax K-x is looking good but there's that worrying JPEG engine) or a micro Four Thirds (Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1) digital camera but besides that, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 is still looking very attractive. Canon will be selling the S90 pretty soon, too.

So many things to buy. The only limit is money and money is what's limiting me. Hmph! Welcome October!