Well, according to Mrs Mellin:

“We had split up and
been to court. He wanted me to walk away from the farmhouse and the
business and leave me with nothing…so we met in a pub after a court
hearing and he started having a tantrum. As we made our way back to our
cars he opened the boot and said: “There’s my rope, that’s what I’m
going to kill myself with.” I told him to grow up and give me the rope.
But he just laughed.”

Apparently, the court also ruled the
day before his death that Mrs Mellin would be awarded an extra £100
($192.00) a week in maintenance from her husband. Umm, talk about a low
bar to set for suicide, right? [Daily Mail, Daily Star]

“I felt nervous and intense throughout the whole show,” said Zhang Yimou, China’s famous film director and chief director of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony on early dawn Saturday, right after the ceremony lowered its curtain. “Especially before the lighting of the cauldron, my heart was pounding so hard. There was only one chance, and not a single mistake was allowed.”
Luckily the cauldron lighting went on smoothly, thanks to torch bearer Li Ning’s hard and excellent work. Shortly after the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympics, the directing team of three and two other the Beijing Organizing Committee of the 29th Olympic Games officials attended a press briefing with obvious relief on their faces. “We’ve worked hard for nearly three years on this opening ceremony and we are very proud of today’s success.” Zhang added.

Deputy chief director Chen Weiya said: “During the preparation, we had hardships and pains, but we finally tasted joy, because we were producing a fantastic show to the whole world.”

According to Zhang the ceremony put more emphasis on China’s traditional and ancient culture, with a combination of its development in modern era. “The world wants to see Chinese elements so we put our focus on those unique and typical such as the four great inventions, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese painted scroll, Taiji martial arts and others,” he said. The latest high technology was a must to be used at the ceremony as the directing team wanted the show to attract more attention from youngsters. The high technology coated the performance with dazzling shines and colors, making it a modern, cool and glaring show, he added. The team also used the so-called “square art”, flooding thousands of actors and actresses into the stadium. “On such a large field, it’ll be too quite if we just put a few actors/actresses on it, so we need a large crowd to create an atmosphere of passion,” said the eloquent Zhang.

Though the team seemed taking off their burden, Zhang Heping, director of BOCOG’s opening and closing ceremonies department said the burden would only be off their shoulders for a short while. “It’s not the time to celebrate yet,” said the sober-minded Zhang Heping. “We still have the closing ceremony, and the same team is also in charge of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Paralympics after the Olympics, which will surely be successful too.” “The show just begins!” said the cheerful Zhang.

There’s no scientific evidence to prove the morning fat-burning theory. In fact there’s a greater chance you’ll do your aerobic exercise on a consistent basis if the time of the day suits your lifestyle morning, noon or night. There’s also a greater chance you’ll “hit the wall” if you follow this myth: “If you work out on an empty stomach, you will run out of energy a lot quicker and the quality of your workout will decrease”. It is recommended to eat something easily digestible like a piece of fruit before morning workouts so your muscles and body have enough energy for a workout.

2. Muscle weighs more than fat.

Trainers often tell clients who are concerned about what the scale is showing that the reason they’re not losing a lot of weight more than fat. But this is simply not true: A kilogram of muscle weighs the same as a kilogram of fat. So does a kilogram of anything for that matter. The confusion lies not in the weight of the substance but in its density. Muscle is much denser than fat meaning that a kilogram of muscle takes up less room than a kilogram of fat. If your weight remains the same you will look sleeker and smaller. So keep hitting those weights.

3. Exercising at lower intensities burns more fat.

This is true during exercise but not after. Exercise performed at lower intensities does burn a larger percentage of calories from fat than from carbohydrates and carbohydrates are spared for higher-intensity activities. However this is no reason to barely work up a sweat. What’s more important than the type of fuel used during exercise is the total number of calories burned. The higher the intensity, the more calories are burned. A high-intensity workout also increases the metabolic rate so more calories are burned (mostly from fat) after exercise. So ignore those fat-burning zones shown on your elliptical machine and kick it into high gear.

4. You can eat anything you want as long as you exercise.

Wish it were true but sadly this is not reality. But it is ok to reward yourself with treats once in a while. However not all of the fat in our favourite junk foods show on the surface. Some are deposited around bodily organs as visceral fat. This type of fat accumulation is particularly dangerous to your health. Sure, you can exercise for hours on end and stay skinny on a diet of Twinkies and Big Macs but you’ll get much more than exercise - with respect to overall health by fuelling up with good food.

5. Women who lift weights become muscular and masculine.

There seem to be too many women who think a few squats and arm curls will transform them into beefy bodybuilders. But before you start comparing yourself to the world-class bodybuilders remember the huge role played by their genetics, gruelling workouts and dietary supplements. You would have to train extremely hard and eat truckloads of calories to put on all that muscular bulk. Strength training is very important for females as it builds up muscle and bone mass which in turn decreases susceptibility to osteoporosis. Muscle is also a great fat burner. Because it’s highly metabolically active it increases the daily caloric burn. So grab that dumbbell and pump away.

6. Spot reducing is possible.

Spot reducing is the relief that you can exercise to death any area on your body to shed the jiggle. Good luck with that. A six-pack has more to do with calories burned and your diet than with how many crunches you do. Then the body burns fat, it takes little bits from every part. Despite all the infomercials touting products that claim to target specific areas of the body such as abs or thighs, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

7. Stretching before exercise is best.

Most people stretch before hitting the weights, trail or court thinking it will reduce their chance of injury and boost their performance. But there’s no evidence that long, pre-exercise “static stretching” holding a stretch for a specific amount of time reduces the likelihood of injury. It may even cause a reduction in muscle power and is best left till after your weight routine. Instead, it is encourage to do “dynamic stretching” which involves actively stretching the muscle through dynamic movement before exercise. This takes the muscle through various ranges of motion and various speeds of movement. Also this sport-specific stretching helps prepare the mind and muscles for the upcoming activity.

8. The more exercise, the better

Many people believe that if some exercise is good then more exercise is even better. However you have to keep in mind that there’s no actual muscle growth in the weight room. With proper diet and rest the body builds up muscle and bone in response to exercise in order to prepare for the next session. So without adequate rest the body never has a change to build on its muscle.

Clocks across China are counting down to 8 in the evening of 08-08-08 the moment when Beijing will launch the games of the XXIX Olympiad. In preparation for its moment at the centre of the world stage, the city has transformed itself from the dowager of old to a dazzling young star decked out in a stunning display of architectural haute couture. Leading Beijing’s glamorous makeover is a quartet of buildings that fuse breakthrough technology and futuristic environmental design with traditional Chinese motifs. Their radical urban style perfectly embodies China’s three-part Olympic theme - each is environmentally “green”, high-tech and welcoming to people.

THE NEST

What do you call 36 km of crisscrossing steel beams wound in the shape of a giant basket? Officially it’s the Beijing National Stadium. Unofficially it’s the Bird’s Nest. What a bird nest!! Seven tiers of seating able to hold 91,000 fans for the Games opening and closing ceremonies and the major track and field events. Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron and Chinese artist Ai Weiwei drew directly upon Chinese symbolism for the stadium’s award winning design. Specifically they looked to the bird’s nest which is regarded in China as an object of harmony in the natural world for inspiration. Mirroring the way a bird stuffs grass and leave between the twigs when building its nest, the architects have placed an inflatable plastic film called ETFE between the steel “twigs” of the stadium to make the Nest one of the most ingeniously designed “green” buildings in the world. As the 45,000-ton steel roof was build, it was held up with 78 temporary support columns. When work was finished, the roof and the outer structure were hoisted up by hydraulic power, the supports were removed and everything was lowered onto its permanent foundation. This magnificent bird’s nest didn’t come cheap. Construction costs were a staggering 3.9 billion yuan which is more than $550 million. Still, Beijingers clearly love this building voting it the city’s top new landmark in a recent poll.

THE EGG

Take a deep breath while entering to the National Centre for the Performing Arts which is an underwater adventure for anyone with tickets for a performance in one of its three theatres. The building is surrounded by a 35,500 square meter moat without a bridge. To get in you will have to travel through an 80 meter long tunnel under the lake on which the huge ovoid structure “floats”. On the other side, they ascend into one of the world’s largest theatre lobbies. It’s the anteroom to an opera house that holds 2079, a concert hall seating 1859 and a theatre for 957 more. Six years in the making, thanks to numerous work stoppages the centre is the most controversial of Beijing’s new buildings. Measuring 212 meters long and 144 meters wide the titanium and glass dome is a pearl to some a duck’s egg to others. Local architects have voiced concerns that its starkly modern forms and finishes do not mesh with its traditional neighbours the Great Hall of the People and the green and red tiled roofs of the Forbidden City. Despite cost overruns government officials take great pride in what the building will mean for China as this is the new landmark of the cultural symbols of Beijing.

A DIAMOND BRACELET

Hours before dawn on Dec 8, 2007 in the chill air 234 meters above the sleeping city, engineers and high steel workers slipped the last clasps tight on Beijing’s architectural wonder - the CCTV Headquarters. This crucial piece of construction had to be done at the coldest moment on one of the coldest days of the year to ensure that the two massive towers, each leaning inward at 6 degrees and the cantilevered section that joins them were at equal temperatures. Making the link at this stage of greatest “relaxation” ensured that both vertical sections each roughly four times as tall as Pisa’s tilting belfry would be absolutely tight. Beijing lies in a seismic zone and with wiggle room an earthquake could shake the joints loose. Nicknames and word play abound for the looping 54 storey building. To the guy in the street it’s the Twisted Doughnut or it is geometrically folded tube in space. The angled lines and diamond patterns of the towers’ glass facade suggest a glittering bracelet hung against the sky. Formally the three-tower complex is headquarters to government controlled China Centre Television, the country’s largest TV network. The structure is also the second largest office building after the Pentagon. Positioned on a 10 hectare lot the CCTV campus encloses 550,000 square meters of news offices, broadcasting studios and programme production facilities for the fast expanding operations of one of the world’s largest media organisations. The buildings’ radical design offers literal transparency in the news making process - a built-in pathway allows visitors to see CCTV’s news writers, broadcasters, technicians and producers in action. Public accessibility governs the building’s design. The lowest level of the transept is a viewing deck with a glassed in floor; pedestrians can look 160 meters down into a media park for outdoor filming and entertainment. Gazing out they get a rare eagle-eye view of the Forbidden City with the Olympic Park on the horizon. Next to the CCTV’s headquarters is its Cultural Centre, a 38 storey sky scraper that will contain a five star hotel, a visitors’ centre, restaurants, lounges, ballrooms, exhibition spaces, conference rooms and digital cameras for the media-loving public.

BIG BLUE BUBBLE

Each night, an lead lighting system with 16.7 million tones will make the translucent walls of Beijing’s National Aquatics Center glow inside and out with all the colours of a moving sea. Exactly right for an Olympic venue dedicated to water sports. Beijing’s aquamarine-coloured nautical arena where swimming, diving and synchronized swimming competitions will be held is made of inflatable pockets of the plastic material EFTE. Think blue bubble wrap and you get the idea. Don’t look for steel girders, cables or glass in the building Beijingers have nicknamed the Water Cube. The walls and ceiling are made of 4000 inflated blue polymer pillows with a skin only eight one-thousandth of an inch thick. But make no mistake these bubbles are stronger than concrete or steel and easily hold up roof and walls with the help of a web of thin pipes and 12,000 load-bearing nodes. The bubbles also have a greenhouse effect. 99% of the solar energy falling on the building is trapped inside to heat its pools and keep the 17,000 Olympic spectators comfortably cool at the height of the sweltering Beijing summer. The EFTE makes this remarkable building self cleaning as well. Its transparent skin discourages birds from leaving their droppings and allows city soot or dust that blows in from the Gobi Desert to be washed off in a rain. But before you bubble wrap your swimming pool consider the cost of Beijing’s big blue jewel; 1 billion yuan or more than $140 million. There are auspicious moments in the history when a country is spotlighted on the international stage and its image is changed. The Beijing Olympics is such a time for China. To the Western world the iconic structures of China - the Forbidden City, the Great Wall - have suggested exclusion keeping people out. Beijing’s new architectural marvels will change that impression. Although built to showcase China’s mastery of technological innovation and ecological engineering it may be their inclusiveness their people friendliness that will last well beyond the Games. Elegant, beautiful, welcoming - citizens of Beijing will enjoy them for decades to come and share them proudly with visitors from all over the world.

Gary McKinnon

Using his own computer at home in London, McKinnon hacked into 97 computers belonging to and used by the U.S. government between February 2001 and March 2002.

McKinnon is accused of causing the entire U.S. Army’s Military District of Washington network of more than 2,000 computers to be shut down for 24 hours.

Using a limited 56-kbps dialup modem and the hacking name “Solo” he found many U.S. security systems used an insecure Microsoft Windows program with no password protection.

He then bought off-the-shelf software and scanned military networks, saying he found expert testimonies from senior figures reporting that technology obtained from extra-terrestrials did exist.

At the time of his indictment, Paul McNulty, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said: “Mr. McKinnon is charged with the biggest military computer hack of all time.”

He’s currently awaiting extradition to the United States where, if convicted, he’ll face up to 70 years in jail and up to $1.75 million in fines. Let us know about that alien technology first, Gary! [Valleywag]

 

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt turned to in vitro fertilization to conceive twins Vivienne and Knox. A source close to the couple mention that “they both desperately wanted more babies soon,” and says that the actress, 33, chose the $12,000 procedure so “she wouldn’t have to deal with the stress of trying to get pregnant. She could just knock it out.” Dr. Arthur Wisot of L.A.’s Reproductive Medical Group, who did not treat the couple, comment that “we live in an era of reproductive freedom, so anybody can do anything they want within legal limits.” Last year, the “Wanted” star told Elle U.K. that “if we’re going to have 10 kids, we’d like to raise them while we’re young.” The chance of having fraternal twins at Angelina’s age naturally is under 1 percent, but with in vitro, the chances rise to 25 percent. Vivienne Marcheline and Knox Leon, born in France on July 12, joined siblings Maddox, 6, Pax, 4, Zahara, 3, and biological daughter Shiloh, 2.

Gillian Chung Yan-tung, of the Canto-pop duo Twins has shared her feelings over the celebrity sex-photo scandal and her “wrong love” for singer-actor Edison Chen, who took the photos. In a new book called “Angels on Earth”,which is on sale now the singer-actress says she nearly lost her mind when images of her intimate moments with Chen were widely circulated on the Internet. “I wanted to leave the city immediately, to get away from everyone, but where could I go? My head exploded, I could only call my mother repeatedly, telling her I needed to rest, and cried day and night.” Chung was the first involved party to talk publicly about the incident but instead of sympathy she received scorn and mockery from the public. “When I said I was silly and naive, I didn’t refer to the pictures I took; I meant I loved the wrong person,” she wrote.

Chung had been criticised for seeming more cheerful after the scandal than she did in 2006 when some photos taken of her in a changing room surfaced. In response she wrote that she had been so shaken that she had to take a sedative before going on stage. “I chose not to cry because I really had taken these pictures so I had to admit it … but they [the stolen shots] were taken [from the computer] against my will; of course I was upset,” she wrote. The fallen idol who has faded from the entertainment scene since the incident said she had no hatred for Chen although she wished he had faced the public sooner. She regretted that the scandal had put pressure upon her Twins partner, Charlene. “Some people said I should no longer perform because I would affect the good name of Charlene. Others said I should do pornography … I don’t want her to shoulder my burdens.” After Chung’s last appearance with Charlen, the performance’s host, TVB received more than 2,000 complaints. Mani Fok (EEG) artist management division director said Chung had agreed to be interviewed about a month ago on the photo scandal after learning proceeds from the resulting book would go to charity. “The book is about how one survives an adverse situationand [the photo scandal] was certainly the worst for Gillian,” Ms Fok said. “Although it has been a while since the incident happened and Gillian has calmed down a lot when she talks about it there still are tears in her eyes.” She said Chung “wasn’t given a proper chance to speak for herself and having this chance to talk about her experience and feelings makes her feel better”.

The popular iPhone Dev Team has come up with the latest version of their all-in-one Pwnage tool for setting your iPhones free via customized firmwares - much like the Windows Mobile community does it. However with the Pwnage Tool you can cook your own firmwares customized to your liking.

For those of you that are new to Pwning here’s a brief and simplified explanation. You take an original iPhone firmware file (freely downloadable), you run it through the Pwnage tool customizing stuff on the way (such as pre-installed applications, setups, even custom graphics) and finally you apply it to the iPhone the regular iTunes way. It’s that simple.

The new Pwnage 2.0 tool now allows you to (h)activate, jailbreak and unlock the first-gen iPhone running the latest 2.0 software. It’s a major upgrade to the iPhone functionality and actually makes the original iPhone software identical to the iPhone 3G.

The Pwnage tool 2.0 also works with iPhone 3G but unlocking is not possible yet. The only available options are (h)activation and jailbreak so you won’t be taking advantage of the 3G or any other phone function unless you are using the legit SIM card provided with the iPhone 3G.

The Pwnage tool is immensely popular and it’s being downloaded feverishly all weekend. Thanks to your feedback an upgraded version of the tool has spawned - it’s ver. 2.0.1.

Unfortunately, for now the Pwnage tool 2.0 is available only to Mac, so to take advantage of it Windows users will need a workaround which requires even more hackery. In case you are interested, you can check the Windows solution here.

The official Dev Team blog is to be found here. A step-by-step guide for jailbreaking the iPhone 3G can be found here.

We should remind you that there are three countries that you can get the iPhone 3G fully unlocked - it’s Italy, Belgium and Hong Kong. In Italy the iPhone 3G 8GB would set you back 399 euro (around 630 US dollars) but you will get the device with a pre-paid SIM and fully operational with other carriers.

In Belgium the same thing will cost you 525 euro (830 US dollars) for the 8GB version.

n Hong Kong the only way to buy the iPhone 3G is with a local ID and local credit card. Ingenious sellers there however have already started an iPhone 3G reselling service, but it’s costly and the price for a single unlocked unit usually goes over 1000 US dollars.

Additionally, several carriers in other first-wave countries offer official unlocking of their iPhone 3G handsets, but it’s usually costly - about 100 euro per device (160 US dollars). For a full list of the iPhone availability and SIM lock status per country, we suggest you visit this list.

now that we found how to solve this problem, in fact if you search for a solution to this, there are many out there giving out ideas and ways but which one to use?

I’ve tried almost all of ‘em but end up frustrated. finally i found one way, as simple as to delete certain command in the admin file.

so, which file to be edited and which line to delete?

firstly, find your main wordpress blog folder, and look for file name “wp-config.php”

open to edit the file, look up for these two lines and delete them;

define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8');
define('DB_COLLATE', '');

and that will be all

we, pretty simple isnt it? trust me it works.

Buried in a New York Times article on "Low-Carbon Chic" (vomit) comes confirmation the Tata Nano, the $2500 (or maybe a bit more) mini-car will offer a MDI compressed air engine as an option. Tata has been backing MDI for a while now, and off-the-cuff we mused at the idea of the compressed air engine option in a Nano months ago. Given the novelty of the engine, it was more a dismissal than speculation. Well, we guess it turns out we were right. Remember after the Tata Nano was unveiled, how all the enviro-dweebs whined incessantly about how the huge swath of new little cars on India’s streets would contribute bajillions of tons of carbon dioxide to the environment? Well, maybe they’ll be eating some crow because $3 worth of electricity will probably fill a tank for a 125 mile trip.

This news comes as something of a game changer for the Nano. Before the car offered bare bones transportation at a cheap price. Certainly a strong selling point, but with skyrocketing fuel prices, the gas has become as much a barrier to market entry as the price of the car. With the incredibly cheap fueling cost on compressed air the car becomes even more accessible to an even wider audience.

Forget all that for a moment though. This kind of makes us wonder what the point is of billions of dollars being invested in lithium-ion batteries, hybridization, low rolling resistance tires, aerodynamics, hydrogen fuel cells and all that other malarkey. The issue with all of the highly touted alternative fuels is capacity or distribution. Hydrogen fuel is expensive to make, has no distribution network and it would be expensive to implement one. Electricity generally comes from coal-fired power plants at the moment (in the US), charging stations don’t exactly litter the landscape, and even it they did, it takes forever to charge the batteries.

However, the air compressor engine can rely on almost any power source. All it has to do is be converted by way of air compressor. You could use a gasoline compressor, windmill, a water wheel, electric compressor, hell, you could pedal your way to a full tank if you rigged up a proper system. And cheap. Air compressors have been around for a couple hundred years now. We kind of have them figured out. And they work fast, a fill up would probably take as long as it does now. Huh, remind us again why we’re supposed to be excited about alternative fuels? [NYTimes]