World's most expensive car

All of a sudden, I was curious to know which is the most expensive road car in the world so I did some research on the Internet and all sources point to the same answer.

The undisputed Bugatti Veyron

 

I am not really a fan this car brand so I thought I will just post a couple of pictures of cars that I like to make this post look pleasant to me.

Lamborghini Reventon and Koenigsegg CCX!

Oh yeah, Scottish midfielder Charlie Adam looks set to join Liverpool after passing a medical. He will be the second person to join the playing staff at Anfield after Jordan Henderson was bought from Sunderland. With two new central midfielders becoming Liverpool players, those like Christian Poulsen and Alberto Aquilani are expected to leave to make way for the newbies.

There are rumours that Raul Meireles, who was voted PFA Fan's Player of the Year last season, will be sold in attempt by the Reds to cash in on his increased valuation after a successful debut season. Honestly, I would prefer Meireles to be the one to go and Aquilani to stay.

Liverpool can easily sell Meireles for at least 20 million euros compared to the 13 million which they paid to purchased him a year ago. Aquilani will retain his No. 4 shirt once again and definitely still has the spark to make it big at Anfield.

Personally, I think Liverpool should take advantage of Korean striker Park Chu-yong's situation and made him another signing of theirs during this transfer window. Park's current club AS Monaco has just been relegated to the second divison of French football and the player has made no secret of his desire to look for another employer.

He has publicly claimed that he would welcome a move to the Reds and the latter's director of football, Damien Comolli, is thought to be interested in landing the South Korean captain. Manchester United and park Ji-sung are the perfect reasons why Liverpool should not hesitate in signing an Asian player.

Manchester United have not only knocked Liverpool off domestically but have since overtaken their rivals in terms of popularity in the East. Countries in the East are more nationalistic where if a Thai player were to play in the Premier League, chances are 90% of the citizens will be watching that match.

So I say, Liverpool should be bold for once and venture out further. If the Park Chu-yong deal cannot be concluded, there is always a guy full of potential from Singapore by the name of Raymond. Well, he likes to sprout nonsense on his blog but do no underestimate him.

Collar Pin

Earlier in the day, I had been surfing websites of companies which manufacture corporate gifts. Do not be mistaken, I am not making a bulk order T-shirts or umbrellas. I am searching for sources where I can place orders for customized collar pins without any minimum order quantity.

Yes, without minimum order quantity which can mean only one item for one customized design. Ok, I admit I am planning to buy for myself, not for some committee or organization. The choices of collar pins I possess at home are quite limited which explains why I am looking for more.

I called quite a few companies but only a couple of them do not have the minimum order quantity policy. One of them gave a quotation of one hundred dollars for a single custom-made badge. My reaction was to immediately say thank you before ending the call.

I guess I shall just have to buy it at pasar malam, cheap, wide variety and most importantly can purchase any amount I like. But there is no pasar malam near my house at the moment!

Thailand elections

 Taken from straitstimes.com

Ok, it's quite obvious as to who will emerge victorious in the 2011 Thailand general elections. Puea Thai Party, whose leader Yingluck Shinawatra is the sister of the country's ousted former premier Thaksin, have secured 249 out of the 500 seats up for grabs.

Thaksin had earlier mentioned that his party will not seek to have a one-party-rules-it-all system. Instead, the Pheu Thai Party will invite other political parties to join and form a coalition if it wins enough seats to form the government.

This would indeed be a very magnanimous move by the Pro-Thaksin party and further signifies that it is keen to uphold democracy and restore peace within the country.

I hope all parties in Thailand can work together to serve the people and make the country the land of a thousand smiles once again.

S R Nathan to retire

If you have yet to hear about it, news has it that Sellapan Ramanathan aka the man whose potrait photo and his wife's are hung in school halls for the past decade or so has decided to retire as president of Singapore.

It has been quite clear that S R Nathan will not seek re-election again as there is bound to be competition in the upcoming presidential elections. With Dr. Tony Tan, who has indirectly been given the approval stamp by the PAP, being the hot favourite to win at the polls, it is inevitable that S R Nathan needs to "give way".

However, unlike the late Ong Teng Cheong whom Mr Nathan succeeded in 1999, the latter will not be missed by many citizens of Singapore. Judging from the responses I got from people that I chatted with, it seems that this second Indian president of the nation will be remembered in history books as "the sixth and just another president of Singapore".

So what is my take on the supposedly three-cornered fight between the tiTANs? Well, I have no comment on it at the moment but do expect to see me mentioning about it when polling day is around the corner.

As for now, let's move up north to Thailand where the land of a thousand smiles (and red shirt protesters) will hold its general elections this Sunday. Yingluck Shinawatra and Pheu Thai Party go go go! Abhisit Vejjajiva out out out! Thailand hardly changed under your governance.

Home-cooked food

When people mention the phrase "home-cooked food", what do they really mean? Food which is cooked by your mother? Or a meal that was prepared inside the kitchen of your own house?

What if your dad is a chef and the restaurant is closed for the day so he whipped up some dishes in the kitchen he works at for a family dinner? Is that considered a home-cooked meal?

Clearly, the meaning of home-cooked is unclear. It is a poor adjective to vaguely describe something edible which was informally prepared by the use of heat in a place that is habituated by human beings.

I have studied and realized that certain methods of cooking are not really associated to home-cooked in the opinions are other people. Let's us assume "out-of-home cooking" to be known commercial cooking.

For example, baking, which utilizes dry heat from convection to cook, is one type that is from the first generation of commercial cooking. Most people would buy a cake at a bakery instead of baking one on their own whatever the occasion is.

Think about it, if somebody were to bake a cake or bread at home and place it in front of you on the dining table, would you think that it was in a home?

Allow me to quote another example, let's say if someone were to deep-fry thirty chicken wings in their house's kitchen and place them on a large plate, would you really perceive the food as 'home-cooked"?

Most people would think that something which is done (cooked) repetitively should not be listed as home-cooked. Home-cooked, in most people's minds, is exclusive, comfortable and prepared whole-heartedly.

In commercial cooking, food is usually prepared in quantities, hence it is inevitable that quality will decrease in such a scenario. This might explain why some human beings prefer having a meal that is home-cooked instead of dining out.

On the surface, it looks as if home-cooking has an edge over commercial cooking in terms of taste and the "warmth" it gives when eating it as it was prepared by a human using his heart.

However, we can easily counter the above statement. Commercially produced food like canned luncheon meat, sardines or a carton of barley water can be considered as "home-cooked" so long as they are eaten in a place dwelled by people.

To add on to the irony, some of these commercially produced food are being marketed and labelled as "home-cooked". Unless the person's house is also the factory, I really don't understand why would we classify such food as home-cooked.

In a nutshell, the term "home-cooked" has been blurred after numerous ways of cookings and dinings by people. Just like an overcooked pot of stew.

Firefox 5

 Do you know if this is version 4 or 5?

Fans of the alternative web browser Mozilla Firefox like me should know that a new version has been released on 21 June. Surprisingly, it was made available for download just three months after its preceedor, Firefox 4, was out.

The general user interface has not been altered but some of the new features of it are good enough to be reasons for you to upgrade.

They include more and better support for CSS animations and devices running on Android platforms, increased speed and stability and the ease of locating the "Do Not Track" button which was drowned deep inside the settings panel in version 4.

The only negative part about it is that not of your add-ons will work straight away after upgrading but just be patient and let the developer solve it for you.

Anyway, allow me go off-topic for a while and talk about Firefox 4. I am currently using it on both my office and home desktop as well as that lousy Acer laptop of mine and I always encounter the same problem no matter which computer I use it on.

It starts quicker than Firefox 3 but the real issue is after it starts. The first thing which you do, whether it's typing a url or clicking the settings panel, will make the whole browser hang for about twenty seconds.

That can be pretty frustrating if you are in a hurry. Luckily, Firefox 5 does not have such a problem and you can swiftly perform any task upon starting it up.

My advice, as a Firefox user, is that if you have not tried Firefox 4 before, forget about it, just go for version 5, it's exactly the same (I swear) on the outside but more powerful internally.

Railway station craze

We are aware that the Tanjong Pagar railway station will go into history come 1st July. Don't worry, I am not going to be an overnight fan and post some last-minute pictures about it here.

Instead, I would like to take this opportunity to hit out at those people who flocked the railways and station at the eleventh hour to take pictures of it and do other dumb things like standing on the tracks as if the trains have ceased operations.

It is just a lame trend that trendsetters start and followers join in the fun blindly. The over-hyped and ubiquitous product from Apple known as the iPhone is a very good example of blind followers.

Michael Jackson leaving the world two years ago was also another instance of what it means to have hypocrites cherishing you only after you're gone. Just look at the number of overnight supporters he got singing and dancing his songs after his death.

So I say, this railway tracks and railway station craze out of nowhere is a feeble attempt by hypothetical people to portray and showcase their love of this historical icon although we know that not much of it is mentioned anyway if the closure of it did not occur.

09/09

09/09

Anybody wanna guess what date is that?

Nokia N9

Introducing the all new Nokia N9!

Liverpool blue jersey

Oh man! Liverpool kits never fail to be one of the ugliest football jerseys in my opinion and the latest away kit for the upcoming season is no exception.

Just like Barcelona will never wear white and LA Lakers will definitely not choose green for obvious reasons, it is understood that the Reds will refrain from picking blue, the colour of their local rivals, Everton.

The whole attire is mainly in white but the conspicuous blue stripes contrasting with the background is more than enough to make some Liverpool supporters see red.

Let's see how many dumb fans of the Kop will fork out money to purchase a piece of trash associated with the lousy Everton team from the same city.