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Posts Tagged ‘World’

North Sulawesi is located within the ‘Coral Triangle’, a territory which spreads from western Thailand all the way through eastern Indonesia. This is where many scientists believe life began in the ocean and it is widely thought that it holds the most bio diverse marine habitats on earth.

For this reason diving in Indonesia has been held in high regard amongst the diving community and North Sulawesi is no exception. To the east of Borneo and below the Philippines, Sulawesi is an oddly shaped island in the Celebes Sea. North Sulawesi refers to the most northerly point. Just a few hundred meters offshore the continental shelf plunges towards the deep oceanic trenches which offers nutrient rich waters. The fact that evolution here has been uninterrupted for millions of year means that the marine life in this particular part of the Coral Triangle is extremely diverse

Bunaken Island lies just a few kilometers offshore, a plateau extends from the island before reaching the drop off which descends to hundreds of meters. Coral life on the wall is extremely dense and different species both hard and soft compete for space. These particular walls have gone some way into making diving in Indonesia what it is today and draw traveling divers from all over the world. Large pelagics like Black and White Tip Sharks, Trevally and Napoleon Wrasse work their way up the reef, whilst Green Sea Turtles lodge themselves into the wall to rest. If you’ve got a skillful guide you might be able to see finger nail size Pygmy Seahorses latched onto Gorgonian Fans, not a common site even when you are diving in Indonesia.

The Lembeh Strait is a complete contrast in bottom topography in comparison to the walls Bunaken Island. Located off the eastern coast of North Sulawesi the Strait is a channel of water that lies between the landmass of Sulawesi and Lembeh Island. The shallow black sand slopes have created a truly unique marine habitat for the dwellers that have adapted themselves supremely to this environment. There are some coral reef formations but these are relatively few and far between. This is where life has come to compete against itself in which evolution has created many weird and wonderful creatures divers refer to as ‘critters’. Mimic Octopus have the ability to take the form of up to ten different types of other species including Lionfish, Snake Eels and Flounder in order to confuse predator and prey. Angler Fish dangle a lure just millimeters from their mouth in order to attract potential prey. Carrier Crabs camouflage and defend themselves by placing Sea Urchins on their shell whilst they make their way from one spot to another.

The contrast of Bunaken and Lembeh make diving in Indonesia even more attractive. For the traveling diver willing to go that extra mile for something special North Sulawesi will excite and intrigue for many visits. For more information on diving Bunaken and Lembeh including travel operators visit diving asia.

 

If ever a man was born and raised to be a jumps trainer it was Ian Williams and, in less than two weeks, that grounding could deliver his first Cheltenham Festival success with a chaser who came frighteningly close to a sticky end.

The son of trainer Billy Williams had the equivalent of an Oxbridge education when it came to fulfilling his ambitions to follow into the family business. It included stints at the exclusive academies run by some of the biggest names in the sport Francois Doumen, Martin Pipe and Jenny Pitman.

Williams graduated having experienced what it felt like to be in close proximity to a Gold Cup winner, thanks to Pitman’s Garrison Savannah and Doumen’s The Fellow.

Only Punchestowns, Long Run and Diamond Harry are above the 10-1 shot in the ante-post betting.

That the seven-year-old is short on experience having only raced five times is down to a series niggling problems and a scary experience after winning his first hurdle at Warwick in November 1998, which developed into a life-saving rather than life-changing moment.

Williams recalled: ‘He had an issue with his breathing after the race and could not catch his breath. He went into shock and it took him a long time to recover. He was very uncomfortable.

‘We took him away and gave him a couple of racecourse gallops so that the incident didn’t stick in his mind. I don’t know what a horse’s memory is like but he has not shown signs of worrying about it.’

The signs are he was not mentally scarred and his recuperation has been such a success that the two jockeys to have ridden Weird Al this season, Noel Fehily and Paddy Brennan, who will be on board in the RSA, have both remarked how quickly he recovers his composure having crossed the line.

But, with other physical problems prompted by his immaturity, it still was a year before he could race again, not a welcoming experience for his syndicate of owners, who had ironically moved him from Venetia Williams, frustrated that he had only managed one bumper run in 12 months.

Three unbeaten chase starts this season opened with victory at Cheltenham in November and a second verdict over the useful Knockara Beau in the Grade Two Towton Novices’ Chase at Wetherby last month underlined that he was the kind of no-nonsense novice needed to live with the challenges of the RSA Chase.

Williams said: ‘He is potentially the best we’ve had. We won the equivalent of the French King George with Batman Senora. He was a very good chaser but in a different way. This fella is fast approaching his ability and he will hopefully move on from that.’

Ironically, for a trainer so steeped in jumps heritage, if Weird Al can deliver, Williams acknowledges that his stable’s exploits on the Flat have earned him the right to go for National Hunt glory. From a start 12 years ago with 10 horses, he now has 75 but that did peak at 100.

The investment of Dr Marwan Koukash, for whom he won the 2008 Chester Cup with Bulwark and that year’s Goodwood Stakes at the Glorious meeting with Baddam, helped change his fortunes.

Williams said: ‘The Flat situation evolved through economics and a dwindling number of National Hunt horses. We had some investment from Dr Koukash which regenerated my training career and gave us the opportunities. The Chester Cup was massive.

‘I’ve been fortunate to be at Cheltenham with both Francois Doumen and Jenny Pitman when they won Gold Cups.

‘It was wonderful that we did those things and there was a great anticipation and expectation. You need to win races at Cheltenham and, potentially this year, we have some horses with a decent chance.’

Glorious Goodwood Horseracing Hospitality

Corporate Hospitality Group

Hollywood is the Olympic Mountain on this earth. It is the place where the gods and goddess of show business belong. We always wonder about what’s going on there just like we always curious about what does god do in heaven while we are living in this world. It’s some kind of a mystery that we desperately want to reveal.

Hollywood Gossip is the one we can count on to reveal what the hell is going on up there on the hill. We want to know how those celebrities live their lives. We want to take a sneak peak of celebrities’ homes so we can adopt some part of it for our homes. We try to catch as much as we can about those celebrities to feel more connected to them. What those celebrities wear and do is the new fad that will be spread out easily to all over the world. Yes, they are the trendsetter. They are the center of all the spotlights in this planet. Everyone wants to know about them and it is only Hollywood gossip that is able to serve this need. There are still pros and contras about the existence of yellow journalism. It can’t be called journalism because they don’t tell the fact. It’s only a gossip that is still questionable. But it is the one that is always searched for many people. Yellow journalism is like a drug dealer. It only provides abstract news to provoke people’s curiousness. And you surely can predict what follows.

Yes, because there is no certain fact about the gossip, people seek it out for more. It makes gossip gets its popularity and unstoppable in ruling the media. But we can’t blame the gossip either because it only serves what people need. It’s a two-way correlation that makes gossip news grows stronger day by day.

He realises he should not have asked that question. Firstly, because he doesn’t need anyone’s support to justify what he’s doing; he’s convinced that since everyone will die one day, some must do so in the name of something greater. That’s how it’s been since the beginning of time, when men sacrificed themselves in order to feed their tribe, when virgins were handed over to the priests to placate the wrath of dragons and gods. The second reason is because he has now drawn attention to himself and indicated an interest in the man on the next table.

The waiter’s sure to forget, but there’s no need to take unnecessary risks. He tells himself that at a Festival such as this, it’s only normal that people should want to know about other people, and even more normal that such information should be rewarded. He himself has done the same thing hundreds of times in restaurants all over the world, and others had doubtless done the same with him. Waiters aren’t just accustomed to being given money to supply a name or a better table or to send a discreet message, they almost expect it.

No, the waiter wouldn’t remember anything. Igor knows that his next victim is there before him. If he succeeds, and if the waiter is questioned, he’ll say that the only odd thing to happen that day was a man asking him if he thought it was acceptable to destroy a universe in the name of a greater love. He might not even remember that much. The police will ask: ‘What did he look like?’ and the waiter will reply: ‘I didn’t pay much attention, to be honest, but I know he said he wasn’t gay.’ The police – accustomed to the kind of French intellectual who sits in bars and comes up with weird theories and complicated analyses of, for example, the sociology of film festivals – would quietly let the matter drop.

Something else was bothering Igor though.

The name or names.

He had killed before – with weapons and the blessing of his country. He didn’t know how many people he had killed, but he had rarely seen their faces and certainly never asked their names. Knowing someone’s name meant knowing that the other person was a human being and not ‘the enemy’. Knowing someone’s name transformed them into a unique and special individual, with a past and a future, with ancestors and possibly descendants, a person who has known triumphs and failures. People are their names; they’re proud of them; they repeat them thousands of times in their lifetime and identify with them. It’s the first word they learn after ‘Daddy’ and ‘Mummy’.

Olivia. Javits. Igor. Ewa.

Someone’s spirit, however, has no name, it is pure truth and inhabits a particular body for a certain period of time, and will, one day, leave it, and God won’t bother asking ‘What’s your name?’ when the soul arrives at the final judgement. God will ask only: ‘Did you love while you were alive?’ For that is the essence of life: the ability to love, not the name we carry around on our passport, business card and identity card. The great mystics changed their names, and sometimes abandoned them altogether. When John the Baptist was asked who he was, he said only: ‘I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.’ When Jesus found the man on whom he would build his church, he ignored the fact that the man in question had spent his entire life answering to the name of Simon and called him Peter. When Moses asked God his name, back came the reply: ‘I am who I am.’

Perhaps he should look for another victim, one named victim was enough: Olivia. At this precise moment, however, he feels that he cannot turn back, but he decides that he will not ask the name of the next world he destroys. He can’t turn back because he wants to do justice to the poor, vulnerable girl on the bench by the beach – such a sweet, easy victim. This new challenge – this sweaty, pseudo-athletic, henna-haired man with the bored expression and who is clearly someone very powerful – is much more difficult. The two men in suits are not just assistants; he notices that every now and then, they look around the tent, watching everything that’s going on nearby. If he is to be worthy of Ewa and fair to Olivia, he must be brave.

He leaves the straw in the pineapple juice. People are beginning to arrive. He has to wait for the place to fill up, but not too long. He hadn’t planned to destroy a world in broad daylight, in the middle of the Boulevard in Cannes, and he doesn’t know exactly how to carry out this next project. Something tells him, though, that he has chosen the perfect place.

His thoughts are no longer with the poor young woman at the beach; adrenaline is filling his blood, his heart is beating faster, he’s excited and happy.

Javits Wild wouldn’t be wasting his time here just to get a free meal at one of the thousands of parties to which he must be invited every year. He must be here for some specific reason or to meet a particular person. That reason or person would doubtless be Igor’s best alibi.

12.26 p.m.

Javits watches the other guests arriving. The place is getting crowded, and he thinks what he always thinks:

‘What am I doing here? I don’t need this. In fact, I need very little from anyone – I have all I want. I’m a big name in the movie world, I can have any woman I desire, even though I dress badly. In fact, I make a point of being badly dressed. Long gone are the days when I had only one suit, and, on the rare occasions when I received an invitation from the Superclass (after much crawling, begging and making promises), I would prepare myself for a lunch like this as if it were the most important occasion of my life. Now I know that the only thing that changes are the cities these lunches are held in; otherwise, it’s all utterly boring and predictable.

‘People will come up to me and tell me they adore my work. Others will call me a hero and thank me for giving movie mavericks a chance. Pretty, intelligent women, who are not taken in by appearances, will notice the people gathering round my table and ask the waiter who I am and immediately find some way of approaching me, certain that the only thing I’m interested in is sex. Every single one of them has some favour to ask of me. That’s why they praise and flatter me and offer me what they think I need. But all I want is to be left alone.

‘I’ve been to thousands of parties like this, and I’m not here in this marquee for any particular reason, except that I can’t sleep, even though I flew to France in my private jet, a technological marvel capable of flying at an altitude of over 36,000 feet from California all the way to Cannes without having to make a refuelling stop. I changed the original configuration of the cabin. It can comfortably carry eighteen passengers, but I reduced the number of seats to six and kept the cabin separate for the four crew members. Someone’s always sure to ask: “May I come with you?” And now I have the perfect excuse: “Sorry, there’s no room.”‘

Javits had equipped his new toy, which cost around 40 million dollars, with two beds, a conference table, a shower, a Miranda sound system (Bang & Olufsen had an excellent design and a good PR campaign, but they were now a thing of the past), two coffee machines, a microwave oven for the crew and an electric oven for him (because he’s hates re-heated food). Javits only drinks champagne, and whoever wishes to was more than welcome to share a bottle of Moët & Chandon 1961 with him. However, the ‘cellar’ on the plane had every drink any guest might conceivably want. And then there were the two 21-inch LCD screens ready to show the most recent films, even those that hadn’t yet made it into the cinemas.

The jet was one of the most advanced in the world (although the French insisted that the Dassault Falcon was even better), but regardless of how much money he had, he couldn’t change the clocks in Europe. It was now 3:43 a.m. in Los Angeles, and he was just beginning to feel really tired. He had been awake all night, going from one party to the next, answering the same two idiotic questions that began every conversation:

‘How was your flight?’

To which Javits always responded with a question:

‘Why?’

People didn’t know quite what to say and so they smiled awkwardly and moved on to the next question on the list:

‘Are you staying here long?’

And Javits would again ask: ‘Why?’ Then he would pretend he had to answer his mobile phone, make his excuses and move on with his two inseparable besuited friends in tow.

He met no one interesting. But then who would a man who has almost everything money can buy find interesting? He had tried to change his friends and meet people who had nothing to do with the world of cinema: philosophers, writers, jugglers, executives of food-manufacturing companies. At first, it all went swimmingly, until the inevitable question: ‘Would you like to read a script I’ve written?’ Or the second most inevitable question: ‘I have a friend who has always wanted to be an actor/actress. Would you mind meeting him/her?’

Yes, he would. He had other things to do in life apart from work. He used to fly once a month to Alaska, go into the first bar, get drunk, eat pizza, wander about in the wild, and talk to the people who lived in the small towns up there. He worked out for two hours a day at his private gym, but the doctors had warned him he could still end up with heart problems. He didn’t care that much about being physically fit, what he really wanted was to off-load a little of the constant tension that seemed to weigh on him every second of the day, to do some meditation and heal the wounds to his soul. When he was in the country, he always asked the people he chanced to meet what ‘normal life’ was like, because he had forgotten. The answers varied, and he gradually came to realise that, even when he was surrounded by other people, he was absolutely alone in the world.

Most of the weird laws in US were enacted a century ago and still they have not been amended only to invite troubles in the society. This only shows that, the administration has failed to amend insignificant and immaterial laws which are not sending any good message to the people.In Florida, women can be fined for falling asleep under a hairdryer and so can the salon owner. More childish and stupid laws prevail in Florida such as: it is illegal for a single, divorced or widowed woman to parachute on Sunday afternoons; it is illegal to sing in a public place while attired in a swim suit; it is considered as an offense to shower naked. God only knows, how will they come to know about this if it is done in one’s personal bath room?In Georgia, it is illegal for a barber to advertise his prices and it is illegal to change the cloth on a store storefront mannequin unless the shades are drawn. In Columbus, it is illegal to sit on your porch in an indecent position and in Johnsboro, it is illegal to say “Oh, boy”!In Hawaii Island, the residents are mandated to own boats or else they will be fined. Here, it is also illegal to put pennies in your ear. Are the Dollars excused?There are weird laws in Idaho also; it is illegal to look unhappy. Here, it is illegal for anyone over 88 to ride motor cycle. In Tamarack, it is illegal to purchase onions after dark except with a special permit from the sheriff. Illinois too is not free from such outdated laws. In Chicago, it is illegal to take a French Poodle to the opera. Here, a hat pin is considered as a concealed weapon and you may be arrested for vagrancy if you do not have at least a one dollar bill on your person. In Joliet, it is very illegal to mispronounce the city’s name. So, be very careful while you pronounce Joliet. In Zion, it is illegal to teach pets to smoke cigars. Kentucky which is famous for its chicken legs have some weird laws too and they are:it is illegal to remarry the same man four times and a woman cannot buy a hat without her husband’s permission. This is still valid in Owensburrow, Kentucky.In Louisiana, one may either be fined $5000 or sentenced to one year imprisonment for running an abortion advertisement and it is against the law to gargle in public. Here, it is illegal to wear an alligator costume and catching lizards at night is prohibited. This may be to restrict the Chinese in Louisiana from eating too many lizards!In Michigan, a state law stipulates that a woman’s hair legally belongs to her husband. The men of Michigan are even not allowed to swear in front of women or children. In Minnesota, it is against the law, if you sleep naked and all men riding motorcycles must wear T-shirts. In Mississippi, Cattle rustling is punishable by hanging. Will the Cattle be hanged or? Truro is the worst affected by weird laws as it is legal to kill one’s “servant”.In Missouri, a man must have a permit to shave and in Kansas City, Installation of a four legged bath tub that resembles those of an animal is prohibited. So, such crazy laws are endless in US and they need to be amended as they are extremely outdated.

Weird Laws are dumb laws or crazy laws. These laws are not only stupid and impractical but also very irritating and illogical. Such laws can be seen in all parts of the world especially US. Such weird laws make people laugh. For Example, in Alabama, you can find many such crazy laws such as; it is illegal to play dominoes on Sundays. It is illegal to wear fake mustaches in churches that make people laugh. Apart from these, there are other such weird laws in Alabama such as putting salt on a railroad track may be punishable by death, men may not spit in front of the opposite sex, masks may not be worn in public, solitaire may not be played on Sundays, bear wrestling matches are banned etc.In Alaska also, you can find such laws. For example, huskies are not allowed in school buildings; no child can build a snowman taller than himself on school property; in Fairbanks, it is illegal to feed alcoholic beverages to Moose. Certain laws of Arizona are not only weird but ridiculous also. In Arizona, Women cannot wear pants in Tucson and it is illegal to drive a car in Glendale. Also, it is unlawful to refuse a person, a glass of water. In Arkansas, men are allowed to beat their wives once a month, doesn’t it sound odd? Here, even dogs are not allowed to bark after 6 pm. So, better muzzle up your doggie’s mouth.In California, women are not allowed to drive while wearing a housecoat and in Pacific Grove, ‘molesting’ butterflies can result in a $500 fine. Other dumb laws in California are: it is illegal to eat an orange in bath tub, it is illegal to prevent children from playfully jumping over puddles of water and it is illegal to have bath houses. Thank God! They have not made bathing illegal.Colorado too is notorious for its weird laws. In the city of Denver, it is illegal to mistreat rats and is against the law to loan your next door neighbor your vacuum cleaner. In Logan County, it is illegal for a man to kiss a woman while she is asleep. In Pueblo, it is illegal to let a dandelion grow with in the city limits. In Sterling, Colorado, even a cat is not spared since the law will demand your pet to have a tail light. In Connecticut, it is illegal to dispose of used razorblades. Any one caught biking over 65 mph will be ticketed here. Other crazy laws of Connecticut include: in Devon, it is against the law to walk backwards after sunset, in Hartford, it is illegal to educate a dog and a man cannot kiss his wife on Sundays. In Delaware, “R” rated movies cannot be shown in drive in theaters. In Rehoboth, one cannot whisper in church and changing into or out a swimsuit in a public rest room is prohibited. On Fenwich Island, it is illegal to lie down on a beach at night. In Lewes, it is illegal to wear pants that are form fitting around the waist.