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I usually pride myself on keeping up with what's going on in the world. Just a moment ago, for the first time ever, I scored a resounding zero out of seven in the BBC's weekly news quiz. Obviously I'm losing my touch. You try ...

The Catholic dioxese in Hong Kong has won a legal battle which will enable it to challenge the constitutionality of the government's education reforms in court. The Chirch objects to a government policy requiring aided schools to set up management committees, 40% of whose members will be drawn from parents, alumni, teachers and government representatives. The Church argues that this contravenes...

Memo to ATV News: if Luton is "on the outskirts of London", then Sheung Shui is "on the outskirts of Kowloon". No skirts are that far out.And while you're paying attention, can you tell one of your reporters that Chan is not pronounced "Charn"? As the most common surname in Hong Kong, it shouldn't require a pronunciation gui...

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What is this obsession that Hong Kong shops have with giving you a free tripod every time you buy a camera? I just treated myself to a new Nikon D7000 (I still love film, but my all-time favourite film, Kodachrome 200, is no longer made, and my old film photographic gear is getting worn out), so Fortress threw in a tripod with it. When we bought a movie camera, free tripod. Compact digital camera,...

Sexy Hot Swedish Women - Malin Akerman ToplessMalin Akerman is an extremely sexy Swedish model and actress. Although she was born in Stockholm, she is also considered Canadian since her family emigrated there when she was very young. Malin’s mother, Pia was also a model which is where she gets her drop dead gorgeous looks. Malin started modeling at a young age and, at the age of 17, won the Ford...

I never used to take too seriously Aussie jokes about Kiwis being, so to say, a few sheep short of a flock, but seeing New Zealand's apparent failure to grasp the concept of emergency rescue, I'm beginning to wonder if there may be something to them after all.In the recent mine disaster there, rescuers were kept waiting on standby for severasl days on the basis that the mine was still full of dangerous...

In case you haven't already picked up on it from every music blog around, Paul Simon has released a free MP3 download of a new Christmas song as a foretaste of his coming album. Iit's all over the Web, but if you pick it up here you can read the lyrics as well.But what, I wondered, is Simon, a Jew, doing writing about Christmas? Well, it turns out he's part of a long tradition. About half the most...

Suddenly it's ChristmasRight after Halloween--Loudon Wainwright IIIIn Watson's Star House branch in Tsimshatsui today, two sections of shelves labelled "Oral Care" were stacked full with ... chocolate bars. Must be some new dental treatment I'm not familiar with.Or perhaps there just wasn't rrom for them in the "Snacks" section, which was filled with obviously inedible plush teddy bears in Santa...

Another ATV news boo-boo - tonight they described Chelsea Football Club's victory over "cross-town rivals" Fulham. Not cross-town rivals - that would be Spurs, Arsenal or West Ham. Look at the map and you'll see that Chelsea and Fulham are practically next=door neighbou...

China's government has become much more adept at public relations over the past two decades, but once in a while they do something so stupid you have to wonder where their brains have gone. Such a misstep is the jailing of consumer protection activist Zhao Lianhai, who fought for compensation for victims of the so-called tainted milk scandal. What the hell were they thinking of? The clear message...

Has anyone else noticed that every time a mobile phone rings in a TVB drama series, the ring tone is always the same? Can the TVB props department really only afford one pho...

President Barack Obama has, unfortunately, not done a very good job of cleaning up the mess left by his predecessor. America is still deeply embroiled in two distant wars that look increasingly unlikely (if they ever did) to achieve anything of benefit. And unemployment remains high following the financial crisis which resulted from the previous government's letting big bankers run wild. Even the...

I added the Hong Kong Observatory to my RSS feeds a while back, then forgot all about it because it never actually fed me anything. Suddenly yesterday it's woken up and started actually feeding me local weather forecasts.Perhaps this is a sign that there is hope for the Hong Kong government yet. Now I am waiting eagerly for other government departments to similarly stir from their slumbers and get...

In its latest objection to the Nobel Peace Prize, China complained that awarding the prize to a convicted criminal "shows disrespect for China's judicial system".Well, yes. Maybe they should ask themselves w...

ATV's weather report tonight reported that the relative humidity today "hovered between 76 and 94 percent". I wonder if they know what "hover" means - if we see a helicopter hovering, we expect it to stay at approximately the same height above the ground. If its height varied between 75 and 96 feet above the ground, perhaps "yoyoing" would be a more appropriate term - or even "oscillating" if the...

Beijing, 8 October 2010 - Foreign Office spokeswoman Jiang Yu, her characteristic beaming smile even broader than usual, today expressed the Chinese government's pleasure at the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo. "The entire nation shares in congratulating Liu on the award of this great honour, whose tireless work for human rights and democracy in China has benefited and endeared him to...

Amid the predictable furore over actress Emma Thompson's attack on sloppy language (good for her, I say), there seems to have been little comment on her statement in the same interview that she would not consider having cosmetic surrgery, something she described as "psychologically dysfunctional".This may be a good career move on her part. With the passing of Gloria Stuart at age 100, there is hardly...

Rima Fakih is an amazingly beautiful and extremely sexy Arab woman. She is so beautiful that she won the title of Miss USA 2010 representing the state of Michigan. I know what you’re thinking: Michigan? There aren’t that many Arab women in Michigan. Well, that may be so, but this is one of them and probably the most beautiful among them. As a Muslim and an Arab, it is rumored that she is the...

The BBC reports today that Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler are to become judges on American Idol. No big surprise, but the picture they used on their front page amused me - it looks like one of those "mother and daughter" shots - add 30 years to Lopez's age and see what she could look like. Yu...

Yesterday was supposedly No Car Day (not a smart time to choose, on a Chinese festival evening when everyone in Hong Kong leaves work early and rushes home to celebrate with their family). So of course senior members of the government were all seen making their token once-a-year trip on public transport. But you just know that they'll be back in their chauffeur-driven Beemers and Benzes today. ...

Ulaca has already commented on the speech by 1967-rioter-turned-Home Affairs Secretary Tsang Tak Sing announcing Hong Kong's exciting plans to bid for the 2023 Asian Games. However, it simply cries out for another of our Orwellian deconstructions of politicians' utterances. Let us quote it first:"It will put Hong Kong on the map and reinforce Hong Kong’s position as Asia’s World City, which will...

In the latest spat over the disputed Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands, Chinese demonstrators have been calling for a boycott of Japanese goods. This is an excellent way to punish Japan - if no one buys their products, it will force Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba, Sanyo, Canon, Konica Minolta, Nikon, Olympus, NEC, Toyota, etc., etc. to shut down their factories in China, throwing millions of Chinese employees out...

So George Michael has (again) joined the long list of celebrities found driving under the influence of various substances, legal or otherwise - a list that in the last few years has included Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie and Mel Gibson.What puzzles me is why? These people have truckloads of money - Michael's estimated fortune is US$90 million; Hilton inherited less of her father's fortune...

For some reason, the Hong Kong media have recently started to refer to Ocean Park CEO Allen Zeman as "Dr Zeman". However, I have been unable to discover what he is supposedly a doctor of.The other nystery about Zeman is why the media constantly refer to him to as "the Father of Lan Kwai Fong". Those old enough to remember how the area got started on its development into an entertainment district...

Bloglines, the RSS aggregator I've been using for the past couple of years, is closing down. Any recommendations on what to use instead? It must be a) free and b) simple.All suggestions gratefully receiv...

... you walk along Lockhart Road in Wanchai and the bargirls hanging around in front of the nightclubs, who used to be half your age, are now one third of it.But I had another reminder the other day that I'm not getting any younger. Receiving HK Magazine's latest email, I saw that they were offering valuable prizes for those completing their annual "Readers' Choice Awards" survey. OK, I thought,...

I;m sure I'm not the only shopper who's irritated by the stamp vultures - those people who hang around the exits from Wellcome supermarkets - particularly the one in Great George Street in Causeway Bay - pestering departing shoppers for their gift stamps.What's with these people? When the giveaways were something with some intrinsic value, like cooking pots or luggage, I could understand it. But...

A fundamentalist Christian church in the US is planning to mark the anniversary of the September 11 World Trade Centre attacks by burning copies of the Koran - thereby ensuring that more Muslim fundamentalists will be enraged into carrying out further acts of terrorism.This is pretty much the kind of intolerance and mutual lack of understanding one expects from religious fundamentalists on both sides...

ATV News a minute ago brought the welcome news that a large pod of the rare Chinese White Dolphin has been spotted off Shantou - the largest group of the endangered creatures seen for some years. However, according to ATV, the dolphins can grow up to 350 metres in length - more than a third of a kilometre.memo to ATV - try moving the decimal point two places to the left. Otherwise I shall start...

Actress Catherine Zeta-Jones has recently declared in interviews that she is furious with her husband Michael Douglas's doctors for not detecting his throat cancer earlier. And well she may be, but perhaps she should be turning her fury in a different direction. Zeta-Jones has often been quoted as a vocal advocate of the so-called right to smoke - and has even been reported to travel by private...

It's been a while since we had one of our stories where, in the tradition of George Orwell, we translate the language of politics into straightforward English. Appropriately, today's example comes from the just-published memoirs of Tony Blair, never a man to say what he means straight out if he can make it sound better with a little obfuscation. To quote the BBC, speaking of his successor:Blair...

Is there anyone at ATV News who understands tennis? After telling us in tonight's broadcast how Rafael Nadal had an "easy" first round victory at the US Open, they then gave us the score: 7-6, 7-6, 6-3. Need I say more?P.S. TVB's late news talked about Nadal's "smooth path" to the second round, but did at least mention that he was on court for 3 hours - not usually a sign of an easy victo...

As both main parties in Australia struggle to form a viable minority government, another in our series of single sentence explanations that make everything clear. This one came from a friend in Melbourne."Neither major political party deserved to win - and they didn'...

Following yesterday's tragic events in Manila, Hong Kong politicians from Chief Executive Donald Tsang downwards have been quick to express their anger at the handling of the hostage situation by the Philippines police. It is of course easy to sit back in a comfortable room in front of your big screen TV and pass judgement in such cases. Perhaps they should give a thought to whether the right course...

Another of the little ironies that make life interesting: both Australia's two main party leaders, promising to get tough on immigration as part of their campaign for today's election, themselves arrived in Australia as Pommie immigrants.When I hear people complain about asylum seekers, I think of my Huguenot ancestors - French Protestants who fled to England to escape persecution by the Catholic...

Sometimes one sentence is all you need to make sense of a complex situation. Last year in England I happened to ride in a taxi driven by an Afghan refugee. We got chatting, and he told me "All the politicians in my country are bandits, thieves and warlords". Just bear that in mind when watching the ne...

Probably the silliest story of the week comes from Italy, where a mother complained to the police that a young woman on the beach was "troubling" her two sons, aged 12 and 14, by rubbing suntan oil into her "ample" breasts in a sensuous manner.Having been a teenage boy myself, I can assure the mother that the only thing troubling her boys was probably their mother's presence at the sce...

Watching Aljazeera a couple of days ago, I saw a trailer for a coming programme on the experiences of a Liberian immigrant to the USA. What struck me about this is that the state of Liberia was founded as a refuge in their ancestral continent for freed slaves from the harsh treatment and oppression they faced in America. As a keen student of the ironies of history, I find it an interesting comment...

Almost the first thing you learn when studying economics is the basic law of supply and demand. Simply put, lower prices increase demand, higher prices reduce it where substitutes are available.For some reason, the management of the Western Harbour Tinnel seems never to have grasped this elementary rule. Their response to years of losses has always been, not to lower tolls in the hope of attracting...

32 years on, it emerges in a legal case that Belgian singer Plastic Bertrand did not actually sing on his big hit "Ca Plane Pour Moi". Never mind, it's still a fun record.These days, of course, it makes no difference who actually sings on a pop record. Today's over-processed production style makes every song sound computer-generated anyway. Disclaimer - I get a small commission from Amazon UK if...

Did you know that a zebra's stripes form concentric rings around the base of its tail? No? Neither did I until I came face to face - well, face to backside - with this specimen.So much to learn, so little time...

Israel is reported to have destroyed the homes of 300 Bedouin villagers in the Negev Desert which it claims were illegally built.It is good news that Israel has made a start on destroying homes constructed illegally. Now perhaps they will get to work on demolishing the thousands of Jewish settlements erected on stolen Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, in clear violation of international...

Oddest headline of the day: from the BBC News website, Sailor found dead in Afghanistan. Considering Afghanistan is a landlocked country, you'd have great difficulty sailing there!The actual story, when read, turns out to be about the death of a US Navy man serving with the American forces there. Which brings us to the Wikileaks release of numerous documents suggesting that America's war effort...

A few months ago I lost my sunglasses - a rather good pair. I looked everywhere - in every drawer and bag I could possibly have left them in - but to no avail. Reluctantly (and expensively, because I need prescription lenses) I finally gave up and bought a new pair.This morning, in preparation for a coming trip, I took out my video camera to recharge the battery, opened up the camera case, and there...

As the World Cup kicks off in South Africa, it is hard to imagine any participating nation discouraging its citizens from flying the national flag in support of their team. Any nation, that is, except my native land, where my departure has clearly lowered the national average IQ even more than I previously thought.English - as opposed to British - nationalism is rarely as fervent as the Scottish...

Chutzpah: (Yiddish) unbelievable gall; insolence; audacity, effrontery A multinational group of unarmed volunteers on an aid mission are sailing peacefully in international waters when a large gang of heavily armed men board their ships, shoot several of them dead, detain the rest, seize their vessels by force, confiscate their cargo of humanitarian supplies (which is found to contain no weapons),...