W

Joy Ride

Sports Week - Ice Skating

A Portrait Of A Skator As A Young Man

US Open

The US Open is playing in my backyard now. This is Maria Sharapova just in case you aren't sure.

Maria Sharapova at US Open

US Open

US Open

 

US Open

 

US Open

 

US OPEN

 

It Really Feels Like the 90s All Over Again

picture from wikimedia.org

The Look that Moves Thousand Dollar Merchandise

Kate Moss owns the The New York Times Style Magazine.

I don't know if the world is running out of supermodel or Kate Moss is just that hot, again. When I read the Style magazine, it brought back fond memories of the 90s, when I was young and stupid instead of today's old and stupid. And when Kate Moss was the model.

In the 300-page magazine, Kate Moss appears as model for Dior, Burberry, Louis Vuitton, David Yurman, Versace, Belstaff, and LongChamp, in a grand total of 10 pages, hawking thousand dollars bags and thousand dollars coats. Mainly sex and fashion bullshit actually.

When Tom Cruise jumped on Oprah's couch, he lost his contract with Paramount. When Kate blew rails on a couch, the sponsors love her even more (well maybe not those uptight Swedes H&M, but who gives a fuck about H&M anyway). Allegedly, Kate stands to make 19 million pounds for 2006, more than what she used to make before the cocaine scandal. Looks like the movie industry and the fashion industry have a very different set of standards on what sells and what not sells.

We should all learn from Kate, here is more.

Poincare Conjecture

The face of a genius, in addition to, only a mother can love.

And the shitstorm happening in the mathematics community.

Poincare Conjecture is a very difficult subject. How difficult? it takes more than a hundred years before some Russian or Chinese can solve it. To me, it's just as difficult as say understanding how a dishwasher works.

Did Grigori Perelman complete the proof? Or rather team Xi-Ping Zhu/Hui-dong Cao/Shing-Tung Yau completed what Perelman left unfinished?

When Stephen Hawking visited Beijing, everybody and his dog were paying attention to Hawking. Little did we pay attention to Shing-Tung Yau's talk on Poincare Conjecture until lately I guess. Or except the mathematicians.

Here's what Dr. Perelman say, as reported in the New Yorker's article. And I quote

“It is not people who break ethical standards who are regarded as aliens,” he said. “It is people like me who are isolated.” We asked him whether he had read Cao and Zhu’s paper. “It is not clear to me what new contribution did they make,” he said. “Apparently, Zhu did not quite understand the argument and reworked it.” As for Yau, Perelman said, “I can’t say I’m outraged. Other people do worse. Of course, there are many mathematicians who are more or less honest. But almost all of them are conformists. They are more or less honest, but they tolerate those who are not honest.”

He's not outraged all right, but he is totally bitter no doubt.

Philip Greenspun's weblog
The New Yorker's article
New York Times on Hawking's trip t o China.
New York Times on Perelman and Poincare.

Albert Ho

Agence France-Presse -- Getty Images
(FYI: No, this is not a still picture from A Better Tomorrow, Part IV.)

For a second, I thought Albert Ho was some triad big brother, must be the aviator shades he donned on; I think to cover his scars sustained during a vicious attack in a Central's McDonald's days ago. In terms of sunglasses, we do have similar tastes.

Albert Ho, you really rock.

Beating of Lawyer Threatns Hong Kong's Allure, Keith Bradsher

UPDATES:

In response to Vince's comment, I will let the photos speak for themselves...





Photos' rights belong to their rightful owners.

Pluto 1930 - 2006

Joe Rosenthal 10/9/1911 - 8/20/2006

Mr. Rosenthal was rejected by the army because of "abysmally poor eyesight," he proceeded to work for Associated Press as a photographer. He won the Pulizer Prize for Photography with the iconic picture Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.

The New York Times Obituaries
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Rosenthal

Note: I wouldn't know about it if not because of Sid. Thanks.

Rockaway Beach

 

Rockaway Beach

It's a beautiful day. 

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Rockaway Beach

Summer, beach, icecream and kite. 

Bryant Park

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Originally uploaded by rnj97.

City Opera at Noon

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Originally uploaded by rnj97.

Bryant Park at lunch hours.

Bryant Park in Summer

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Originally uploaded by rnj97.

Bryant Park

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Originally uploaded by rnj97.

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HP is turning around

Just when you thought HP is over and done with, thanks to what's her name ... Carly Fiorina... never mind. And now HP is making a surprising comeback and is enroute to unseat IBM as the biggest whatever, OKAY technology company.

Even my IT friend is recommending me HP against Dell. What's happening?

My experience with Dell has been largely positive. I used to have problem with my home PC's display card. After making a few calls, Dell shipped me a new one, problem solved. And my work Dell PC has been pretty solid for years. I have no experience with HP on a personal level.

Since I am on the subject of computing, my experience with Apple has been a mixed bag. My initial assessment was pretty positive, that's actually from my 800 MHZ G3 iBook. When it worked, it was great. Then I got hit with the logic board failure, then the display 90 degree problem. And now it's just sitting there pretty. I am still intrigued by Apple's design and its UNIX based OS, but I really need reliable hardware. Reading the latest support posts from their own discussion forums regarding their latest MacBook doesn't give me a lot of confidence at all. My not so pretty 3-year old IBM R51 running XP is still rocking, OKAY, maybe not rocking, but at least running the way it's supposed to run. Frankly, I am disappointed with my iBook experience. But I may be ready to give Apple another chance ... it's just unfortunate that once the model is stablized then it got phased out right away. Planned obsolescence perhaps.

Throw Your Tweezers Away

Rachel Alexander, by Greg Kessler, backstage Prada 2006. All rights belong to rightful owners.

Hilary Rhoda, First view. All rights belong to their rightful owners.

More Throw Your Tweezers Away by Natasha Singer, August 17, 2006, The New York Times.

Your Notebook Has Too Much Fire Power

No, it's not a picture from the middle east.

You know your notebook has too much fire power when it can torch your truck like this.

Dell is taking much of the heat from this self-burning notebook phenomenon. According to Dell, the culprit is the lithium-ion batteries made by Sony.

Photo by John Gurzinski for The New York Times. All rights belong to their rightful owners.

Dell Will Recall Batteries in PC's by Damon Darlin - August 15, New York Times. I guess it actually means Notebooks or Laptops. Anyhow, you got the idea.

Maybe my next computer won't be a laptop or notebook until the whole lithium-ion thing got sorted out.

Cell Phone

I didn't get the Cingular 8125, instead I got 2 Nokia 6682 together with 2 years spanking new contract from Cingular. Ordered from Amazon for 2 cents and will have $25 rebate.

Pokemon 10th Anniversary

Wikipedia has some of the best entries for Pokemon.

The event is held in Bryant Park, New York City.

Pokemon 10th Anniversary

Pokemon 10th Anniversary

Canoeing in Kissena Park

Canoeing in Kissena Park

Kissena Park

Match Point, 2005

A Woody Allen movie not being marketed as one. But then again, anyone who reads film review kind of things know it's an Allen movie. Is it reverse marketing?

If you are sick and tired of seeing typical Allen's neurotic stuttering on screen performance, no worry, you won't see it in this flick. He is, to many's relief, totally behind the scene.

Apparently things look pretty good with him behind the camera.

Match Point is about lust and luck. It is a tragedy well told.

Vince, if you have some time to spare, like when you are not studying World History or Arabic, or Persian or making millions on the side, you may perhaps want to check it out. I won't say you are gonna like it but there is a good chance that you won't find it boring, if anything, Scarlett Johansson, should get your attention.

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