Zubeida Manifest

Comic Icon Hannah Montana Concert

In a rare incident, mother sent an essay claiming that the father is dying in Iraq. Was it a desperate attempt to help her child? Many are of the view that the mother might be trying to help her daughter win the tickets to the show.
It all happened for the show of Hannah Montana which will be on Jan 9; all the tickets are already sold out, although video footage can still be enjoyed at home.

Many were dreaming to get the tickets so it is not difficult to believe that an essay like that can be used to win free passes to the concert. According to Ceballos, the mother of 6-year old Alexis Menjivar, She never said the essay was a true story, her daughter as usual writes essays.

Effect of the essay was so much that the Club Libby Lu decided to surprise the child by visiting her and gifting her famous wig of Montana, four air tickets to the concert. There were nearly 1000 girls vying for this grand prize but she seemingly won with an essay. Hannah Montana, who is famous for her comedy show on TV, has always been in news for her style.

Carlos who got killed on Christmas day by a tiger

Nobody would have thought a day at zoo can be so distressing and harmful as it happened with three friends at San Francisco Zoo.

Carlos Sousa Jr. and his friends Paul Dhaliwal & Kulbir Dhaliwal visited the zoo on the Christmas day. They reached the zoo quite late nearly closing time and were not aware of the tiger who went loose, although it is not clear how many tigers escaped into the public area of the zoo. Carlos was first attacked by the tiger and got seriously injured.

Later he was declared dead, his friends who try to scare the tiger were also bitten by the animal that was in some kind of revenge mood as reported by some officials. On Jan 8, 2008, funeral is scheduled for Carlos  by his father who recently visited his mother house where nearly 150 people gathered to share the pain of the Carlos family, holding candles in cups silently praying to the lord for mercy.

On this occasion, Carlos Sr. while controlling his emotions speaks to the crowd. “I would like to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for coming here and honoring my son Carlos. My son Carlos was a very good boy and I can see that he had a lot of friends here. I want you all to remember the good things that he did and carry this with you in your hearts for as long as you can.”

Some reports suggest that initially the attack by tiger was not taken seriously by the zoo officials thinking that the two guys are playing some kind of prank “I guess they watch too many prank videos on the net, sorry just kidding.” Later on when one of official confirmed that they had seen a tiger on the loose, then only medics were called but the drama did not ended here.

Medics were not willing to risk their life until they know tiger is in the grasp. Finally they decided to enter and help the injured nearly 15 minutes after the incident. Carlos died on the spot but his friends suffered several injuries and are in the safe location. Zoo officials have decided to keep it closed till Thursday. Now it is getting more clear that tiger might have crossed its boundary which is around 12 ½ feet. Ideally it should have been 16 feet or above so that even highly acrobatic tiger can not cross the boundaries.

It is being learnt authorities have decided to raise the boundaries after this horrifying incident. What happened to Carlos can happen to anyone. Just to lighten up the mood I would say it is vital to be on time, these guys were late in the zoo probably that is why they got hurt. Although it is the responsibility of the zoo officials to ensure these things don’t happen again, otherwise they are going to hurt their revenue.

Record year for The Eagles in football championship

What might be construed as a luck factor, The Eagles has managed to win 11 games in a season. They have not been so consistent since 1940; this must be dream come true for them. They are now ranked 14th in the bowl championship series. Boston College also won their 8th straight game by winning 11-3 in Orlando, Florida.

This feat was possible because of brilliant efforts by Rich Gunnell who had 2 scores and 6 catches for 138 yards. Boston College also beat Michigan State 24-21 in the college football’s Champs Sports Bowl as Matt Ryan had 3 touchdowns & 3 for 249 yards. This victory of Boston occurred due to a series of brilliant efforts. When Brian Hoyer within a minute and 37 seconds, had Michigan State a 7-0 lead. But just then Ryan had scoring tosses of one yard and 29 yards to Jon Loyte and Gunnell respectively to gain lead.

Then Brett Senson got into picture by getting two field goals, thankfully for Eagles Steve Aponavicius had 10 straight points and touchdown pass of 68 yards by Ryan to Gunnell. Only 6 minutes left and then Deon Curry got a pass from Hoyer and he tossed to 2 point conversion to close the scoring. Two more times Michigan State got the ball but failed to score. Maryland in the Emerald Bowl was beaten by Oregon State 21-14. Oregon had a great game as they won their 3rd consecutive bowl game. One can be said about the game that Bernard at his best in the game and also James Rodgers did a great job in the tough times for Oregon State.

This year we saw great efforts being put into good use by these teams especially the efforts of Rich Gunnell must be appreciated. Some experts are of the opinion that the way he approached the game, it is his positive thinking that helped Boston gain the lead in the championship. Although other’s efforts can not be discredited, still Gunnell is seen as Genius by some experts. Other games by Oregon state and Texas Christain saw a new leader emerging. They were brilliant on the field and performed meticulously. We are hoping to see even tougher competition next year, as it will make the game more interesting and fulfilling for visitors who spend their hard earned money and no doubt deserve to see a good match.

Health food carries the risk of extinct of animals

Often overlooked fact of healthier foods is the amount of testing involved in achieving the right formula. Although Testing on animals is not new to us but some experts are of the view that experiments done on them is often unwarranted or you can say uncalled for. Health products like any other product needs to undergo quality test. So some food additives, sweeteners & health supplements which have seen tremendous growth are causing an alarming increase in the testing on animals.

According to Home Office, experiments conducted between 2005-06 have rose from 863 to 4038. Some are of the view that these tests can be performed on humans as ultimately they are the ones who are going to use them. What is guarantee that something working on animal will also work on humans? Often scientist argues this by complaining of little support by community at large for these experiments. It is being observed by some that very few are willing to risk their life (although it is not always true) for these experiments. In a test conducted at Glasgow University, rodents were given raspberry juice and then mercilessly cut into pieces to observe where it travels in the body.

Although it is easier for us to complain, but since there is no law to stop this or at least control it to a proportion. It is difficult to believe that scientists are really taking these issues seriously. Rats are being tested with lightly cooked cabbage for two weeks at Glasgow University and further killed to see the impact of diet on their liver and colon. Most of the times it is rabbits, dogs, rodents, guinea pigs that are at target during the experiments or I should say purposely controlled for safety and growth of mankind. In rather shocking experiment purified green tea extract, was rubbed onto the fully shaved backs of guinea pigs and rabbits. Rabbits were also subjected to insertion of these extract forcefully into their eyes.

According to the manufacturers, these measures are important and can be done on animals especially dogs as they are quite similar to rats. Many scientists would argue experiments are vital according to stringent quality guidelines especially for these health products. But someone needs to draw the line. We need animals especially when this fact is brought into notice by scientist themselves, now they seem to be forgetting it. Although it is not fully known, what implication these experiments will have on us in the future. We would like to believe something will be done about it by those in authorities. If they don’t take action quickly who knows it might be too late. Health foods are good for us but how many animals are we willing to sacrifice for them?

Film Festival in Baghdad had emotional twist

One of most respected by Baghdad population, Baghdad International film festival recently ended on Saturday. From many foreign short films, French director Domenica Hervieu’s documentary “La Danse, l’art de la rencontre” which means Dance and the art of Encounters, won the first prize.

Festival is among the few which showcase the foreign talent in the country, covering many films in a total of four days. Some of them are like “Abu Ghraib and Kilo 160”, directed by an Iraqi, M. Nafs. This film came second after Domenica documentary and it is about a taekwondo team of 14-members who were coming back to home from Jordan, got kidnapped and later brutally slaughtered. The film is based on real life incident in the western Anbar Province in 2006. After this carefully crafted film is “Palm Whisper” by Shireen Shaith, Egyptian director. Nearly 63 films were showcased during the festival of four days. Film by M. Nafs, particularly captured the interest of security man, as many of them were present to avoid any misadventure. People in Baghdad never had any drought for films as it is now, most of cinema halls are empty and they have little to choose from.

In Iraq film industry was born in 1940 and has seen surge in between 1970-80, people used to enjoy going to cinema halls as they are going for a picnic. But after 1991, many believe war in the gulf caused a dip in the earning of cinema halls and also some economic policies were responsible of their downfall. After 2003, many cinema halls were burnt by the invaders. It is rather sad to know that most of people do not have access to good cinema, they are now left with these film festival which are often only for a selected audience. What war has bring to most gulf countries is beyond belief as some of the Asian countries also faced war but came out strongly. And some of them are leading the race of humankind. One might suggest that this is only a short phase which will ease out sooner than later.

A good cinema will always find it difficult to breath in a war zone, most change their fields to survive as at the end of the day economics leads the decision making process. Only a few would try to fight the change though justifiable but for how long they will fight the battle all alone. We love cinema and want it to be there with us in good or bad times.

If politics can become a lifeline in our society, then why not cinema? This will help us unravel the secrets in a rather simpler way.

Elections in Kenya resulting in a fierce battle over a conspiracy

Elections in Kenya for the top most post in the country resulted in violent waves across the country on Saturday. Raila Odinga who is popular contestant for president was leading by a huge margin but within 12 hours his victory margin dipped to a low of just 38,000, although he is still leading but many supporter of Odinga are of the view that government is using it’s power to get an unfair advantage. This power struggle is causing their supporters to create havoc across the breath of the Kenya.

Demonstrators are hurting the police officers in a fierce rage, in one incident they tore apart the metal shanties carried by the police officers with their hands alone. It is a show of strength by the loyalist of Odinga and is causing much damage to country. There are reports that in Kibaki there are only 70,000 registered voters and it was believed that counting of votes in this area was reported as 105,000 votes i.e. a difference of 35,000 votes, this is unbelievable.

In another instance voter’s turnout was suggested at 98 percent and also once votes tally was changed to show strength of 60,000 extra votes to the current president. People are definitely feeling cheated over the issue and this is helping the supporters to create panic in the city. Many towns like Kisumu, Kajiado and Eldoret are facing near riot conditions with many already dead. It is being learnt that election commission officer in Kenya said “we have powers to refuse results if they have obvious defects.” Results have been delayed until Sunday. Although Ruling party denied any conspiracy and instead suggested President is gaining votes as he is hugely popular in some districts, which has resulted sudden change in poll equation.

Though it is difficult to manage the suspicion caused by the reports as many close associates of the president in the assembly of Kenya have lost including current vice-president, foreign minister, military minister and many other cabinet ministers. Voting in Kenya is getting more religious as Odinga and Kibaki are both from different tribe and have been fighting this battle of supremacy for many years. People at large are very distressed and feel betrayed by their own fellow leaders, as elections are supposed to bring stability and tranquility in the country but instead all this is bring corruption and violence. Will we ever see an end to this? No doubt some are good among them but how can one identify.

In one instance a woman was helped by stranger in Kenya while fires were spreading beside them. According to a resident Lionel Joseph Ochieng, “Unless they announce the winner soon, this will only get worse.” Elections in kenya saw a record turnout of nearly 70 % which is making thing difficult for the election officials. Obviously in this intense situation both parties are suggesting a win but according to some foreign observers, Kibaki who has been ruling from independence is highly unpopular for his unfair policies and was supposed to loose this time. It is widely believed that scenario in Kenya election does indicate a conspiracy, but only after Sunday it will be clear who actually was culprit.

Final Journey of JK Rowling with Harry Potter Series

JK Rowling, a name which is synonymous to the top most authors of the world today. She has made many a heart smile with her publication of Harry Potter series of books. Often considered as a loveable and admirable by youngsters, her work has even impressed notably elder audience. July will see seventh and final issue of Harry Potter series.

No surprise her masterpiece “Harry potter and The Deathly Hallows” sold for more than 21/2 million copies on the first day and is the fastest-selling book of all time, surpassing her own record. The book has been printed in 65 languages. People are so madly in love with her creations that they approached the malls way before time, dressing like wizards and witches. Based in Edinburgh, JK Rowling will end the journey of Harry Potter which started 10 years ago.

It will be with Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone. Reportedly according to an estimate her current asset worth breathtakingly ₤545m and she has sold till date 400 million copies of the series worldwide. Her efforts are acknowledged by not just the masses but people who are expert in the field of literary are also a fan of her. She has really set very high standards for herself and she has lived up to those. Last month her work was also acknowledged by Entertainment Weekly, they have awarded her as Entertainer of the Year. She has managed to gather the attention of media savvy, high-tech audience who has the power of internet on one hand and technological advanced television and film industry products on the other. It is paparazzi again, few months back she tried to sue press for the broadcasting the photo of her son taken on November 2004 but failed as she could not justify her rightfulness on the issue.

This might be success of the press but definitely left many heart sour over the issue. Although it is not clear what Rowling might be doing after Potter, some suggest she will take up the work of writing a detective novel for adults. Still there is some more work to done with Harry Potter as there is two more movies in the lineup already and A theme park in Orlando Florida is supposed to open in 2009. After so much good work she has done with Harry Potter, we will be honored to suggest her to stick with Potter as long as she can. Some might be wondering from where she got such huge amount of talent as many would just not be able to come an inch closer to her work.

She has reached a place in the world where most only dream to be. May be some are born to achieve big in life or there is more to it then what one can comprehend. Anyway I would like to end it here, with best wishes for her forthcoming projects and in the end Happy Reading.

Top 25 Films to be kept for the future

US Library of congress will be picking 25 films for the National Film Registry, so that they can be preserved for the future generation. All the selected films are picked from the ones nominated by peoples, currently there are 475 films in the library.

According to experts nearly half of the films before 1950 are already lost due syndrome labeled as Vinegar Syndrome, a chemical reaction which attacks the acetates in old film stocks.

Among the selected this year are Back to the Future released in 1985, Bullitt (1968), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Dance Girl Dance (1940), Dances with wolves (1990), Days of Heaven (1978), Glimpse of the Garden (1957), Grand Hotel (1932), The House I Live In (1945), In a Lonely Place (1950), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Mighty Like a Moose (1926), The Naked City (1948), Now – Voyager (1942), Oklahoma!(1955), Our Day (1938), Peege (1972), The Sex Life of the Polyp (1928), The Strong Man (1926), Three Little Pigs (1933), Tol’able David (1921), Tom – Tom the Piper’s Son (1969-71), 12 Angry Men (1957), The Women (1939), Wuthering Heights (1939).

7 Palestinian militants killed on edges of Gaza

Israeli raids on the Hamas-run territory resulted in killings of six Palestinian militants and their commander in the Gaza on Thursday. At first radical Islamic Jihad group and a wing of Hamas was targeted around southern territory of Khan Yunis killing three men and six wounded.

Later in an air attack in central Gaza Strip two Islamic Jihad militants were killed and two wounded.

Next near south of Gaza City Air raid resulted in killing of Mohammed Abdullah, a senior commander of al-Quds, they operate under the nom de guerre of Abu Morshild and two were wounded.

And lastly by air to surface missile killed Hamas unit member and injured five others.

It is being learnt that west bank raid resulted in killing of a Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei security force member who is nowadays a senior Palestinian peace negotiator with Israel.

Israeli soldiers who tried to arrest Motassem Ash-Sharif, had to kill him as he was trying to run away as reported by the witnesses.

Growth of print media in 2007 and beyond

There had been a number of fiction reference books but most did not cross even. Although this year English language books saw a much greater growth than expected and will continue to grow like this in the next year. 

This growth has been attributed to development in print and communication technologies by some experts, but still some are of the view that the growth has been because of low cost of publication as there has been quite a number of books from Asian market which had been reprinted under license like some Islamic books Secret History of al-Qaeda, War for Muslim Mind and Standing Alone in Mecca.

Many of them are entertainment books which can be used as base for Television and films. Inspirational books have also been dominant in this race of supremacy like The Road Less Traveled, Chicken Soup for the Soul or Autobiography of a Yogi.

Because of globalization books are now being printed worldwide and once such example is India after Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy, this book provides a good understanding of India after Independence. Among others is The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan and The Last 1000 Days of the British Empire, these books are now a routine in most library and not to forget The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynast and Mohan Das.

No Uploading of unauthorized video clips

Nielsen for it’s program Digital Media Manager ( which will roll out next year ), has  associated with Digimarc and will join the ranks of companies offering online copyright policing.

New program will compare every uploaded video clips with videos in database for any similarity in digital fingerprints to automate the process of blocking the unauthorized uploading of video clips.

Huge trove of Tv shows has already been encoded by Nielsen and will soon be online.

Technology to end online piracy has already been used by some other companies like
Audible Magic, Vobile and BayTSP.

Google, is also working towards developing a system to stop uploading of unauthorized video clips.

This will enable video sharing sites to forestall copyright infringement lawsuits.

But this can limit the users as they will not be able to express themselves freely suppose they want to include a copyrighted video to support or critize.

Sure, YouTube might decide to implement it on their sites, but this surely make the site less useful to some of the video uploaders.

Family of six murdered on christmas eve

A family of six were shot on Christmas Evening at a wooden house in Carnation. A girl and her friend has been arrested in this repect.

Girl’s parents, her brother & wife and two little children were among the dead, It is being learnt that killing was done for some money related issue.

Carnation is a small town with population of 2000 and is near to seattle.

According to grandson of Wayne Anderson and Judy Anderson, Ben Anderson who was outside when it occurred “It was just money She had a different way of thinking. My grandparents had a lot of money. She had lived on the property rent-free her whole life and they were just trying to help her out. She felt she wasn’t loved enough and everyone didn’t appreciate her and she was pushed out of everyone’s life.”

Police had received an emergency call at 5:13pm on that day, nothing was uttered by the caller and call was disconnected in less than 10 seconds. Though police did mention they heard some noise in the background but it did not appear any threating.

Killing was only reported when a colleague of Judy came to the house as she did not turn up.

All of the bodies were found in separate rooms and were in really bad conditions.

According to Don Lovett, a nearby resident "It's shocking, It's a real small community out here, even being so close to a metropolitan area. We're really familiar with folks out here."

Some hot sunglasses

Here are some of my favourite sunglasses, hope you will like one of them!  Mind it I am not selling them, just sharing, if you like please comment. Click on the image for a larger view.

There is something funny about Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

There is something funny about Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story where John C. Reilly plays Dewey. A highly comic character that is determined to prove he can sing in Chicago. He has done tremendous work on his style and ranges which is widely evident.

Walk Hard starts with a rather funny style and then lands into a musical and pop journey. Although there is lot of funny scenes and mostly clean jokes. It has been written and directed by Jake Kasdan and Judd Apatow. Funniest part of film is featured with Dewey and The Beatles (Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Justin Long and Jason Schwartzman).

Legendary actor Vinod Khanna found an ally over a funny joke

Mere Apne fame Sid Makkar who is enacting often outspoken Shankar in the daily soap, found an ally in legendary actor Vinod Khanna during break time over a funny joke. Both are not only together in the Telly but also are neighbors in real life too, living a few blocks away from each other.

This is what Sid has to say about this “Initially I was very formal with Mr. Khanna as he is a senior actor and holds a very commanding position in the industry. The ice broke when one fine day he showed me a funny message on his cell and since then we share a very informal relation. We have started talking a lot more now beams Sid.”

Jim Carrey at the Movie Set of bruce Almighty

First Scene when Jim Carrey brought his dog out to pee and yelled Beau--Ti--FULLLL on the set of bruce Almighty

Humorous side of Elena

A letter to her husband by Elena

Cool, that’s what I think you are for me; However, I have a few questions to ask you. First of all, if husband is hit on the head by a chicken dish by his wife, will it be termed “matrimonial abuse” and how harmful can it be for the wife? It is essential for me to know this as it might happen.

You might now be wondering for the reason for this, it will be known shortly if you keep reading. You know as a journalist, I must have gas? Oops, I mean all journalist must have lot of gas. No, it’s not working.

Ok, I will try again…A journalist needs to provide news and conduct interviews and for that journo often needs to travel to long distances, they cannot travel if gas tank of the car is empty. Finally!

As you might know you used my car last night and traveled a long distance and somehow managed to forget to fill the tank, (Although you never seem to forget filling gas for your truck).

Don’t make me run for the chicken, please!

Funnily temperature dip caused confusion at democratic headquaters

Yesterday, temperature at most parts of America dipped to a very low level, blanketing the most parts with snow and ice hilariously causing a momentary euphoria at Democratic headquarters as USA Today weather guide showed that there are now 49 blue states.

White House Christmas video is said to star Tony Blair, who has calming influence on others especially when he is around.

Ed Rollins is hired by Mike Huckabee (GOP candidate) to author his campaign. He has worked for Ronald Reagan. Rudy Giuliani have to march to Czech Republic to get to the right of this ticket.

Recently “Citizen Kane” movie script was auctioned by Sotheby’s which belonged to Orson Welles and it was sold for $100,000. The script was written way back in 1940. Association of writers informed him through registered letter that he will never work in this town again.

Opinions in this article are of the author alone and are only meant for providing news in an entertaining manner.

Funny, a girl was asked to sit outside as her smell irritated instructor

Recently at a British junior school, head teacher asked a girl student to change the fabric softener as the fumes irritates him as reported by Telegraph.

The girl Hope Nichols, was made to sit outside of the class in the hallway till the end of the class as the instructor had allergic reaction to girl clothing’s fabric softener fragrance.

Girl’s mother, Sarahjane naturally was not amused by Howard teacher, as he sent a letter to mother asking her to change the girl’s softener brand.

Sarahjane Nichols says "It is terrible. All the other children think Hope has been asked to sit outside because she smells funny. She has been in tears before school saying she doesn't want to go."

Sarahjane Nichols told the reporters that she can not change the softener as it is the only brand that did not irritate Hope’s eczema.

Shabana Azmi in her new avtar as a comedian

Often seen in art films, Shabana Azmi, is now becoming constant in comedy films. After a few low budget films, she recently appeared in big budget films “Om Shanti Om” as a comedian. Although comedy is not her forte, but people has now started to accept her in comic roles. She has also featured in the “The Loins of Punjab”, a light hearted comedy film.

In a recent interview, Mrs. Shabana was questioned about her role in OSO, in which she is rather sarcastic about celebs, including herself. She at first was surprised to hear that and later defended herself by labeling “the role being done in good humor”.

She will be also be seen in Sanjay Gupta’s Dus Kahaniyan, which is ready for release.
After many years she is paired with Naseeruddin Shah.

Currently Shabana Azmi is working with reality TV Show Jhoom India. We hope to see more good work from her, may be in funny roles.