Month: December 2008

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10 Least Popular US Presidents


Identical or better ratings recorded on other occasions during presidency. Notice both Bush made it to the list.

Rank President Survey Date Lowest
Approval
Rating (%)
1. Gorge W. Bush 15 – 19 Feb.
2008		 19
2. Harry S. Truman 9 – 14 Sep.
1952		 22
3. Richard Nixon 12 – 15 Jul.
1974		 24
4. Jimmy Carter 29 Jun. – 2 Jul.
1979		 28
5. George H. W. Bush 31 Jul. – 2 Aug.
1992		 29
6. Ronald W. Reagan
Lyndon B. Johnson 		 1 Jan. 1983
7 Aug. 1968		 35
8. Gerald Ford
Bill Clinton		 31 Mar. 1975
27 May 1994 		 37
10. Dwight D. Eisenhower July
1960		 49

Will the upcoming 35th Barack Hussein Obama II get into this list after a couple years in office?

Source: The Gallup Organization

Posted on

10 Least Popular US Presidents

Identical or better ratings recorded on other occasions during presidency. Notice both Bush made it to the list.

Rank President Survey Date Lowest
Approval
Rating (%)
1. Gorge W. Bush 15 – 19 Feb.
2008		 19
2. Harry S. Truman 9 – 14 Sep.
1952		 22
3. Richard Nixon 12 – 15 Jul.
1974		 24
4. Jimmy Carter 29 Jun. – 2 Jul.
1979		 28
5. George H. W. Bush 31 Jul. – 2 Aug.
1992		 29
6. Ronald W. Reagan
Lyndon B. Johnson 		 1 Jan. 1983
7 Aug. 1968		 35
8. Gerald Ford
Bill Clinton		 31 Mar. 1975
27 May 1994 		 37
10. Dwight D. Eisenhower July
1960		 49

Will the upcoming 35th Barack Hussein Obama II get into this list after a couple years in office?

Source: The Gallup Organization

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10 Richest Countries in the World


Here is a list to help you decide where to immigrate to.

Rank Country GDP (USD)
1. Luxembourg 110,032
2. Norway 83,720
3. Qatar 80,211
4. Iceland 63,875
5. Ireland 62,482
6. Denmark 59,728
7. Switzerland 58,412
8. Sweden 49,091
9. Netherlands 48,169
10. UK 48,072

Gross Domestic Product per capita, 2008.

Source: International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database

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10 Top Carbon Dioxide Emitting Countries


Here are some of the places you may want to avoid on your next vacation.

Rank Country Tonnes of CO2
1. USA 1,650,020,000
2. China 1,366,554,000
3. Russia 415,951,000
4. India 366,301,000
5. Japan 343,117,000
6. Germany 220,596,000
7. Canada 174,401,000
8. UK 160,179,000
9. South Korea 127,007,000
10. Italy 122,726,000
  Top 10 Total 4,946,852,000
  Global Total 7,497,252,000

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emission in 2004.

As you can see 66% of the world’s CO2 emissions are from the top 10 industrial countries, we really should pay more attention to these figures before it is too late.

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Movie Review: The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)

Poster

My Rating: 3Stars

This evening I saw the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still at Grand Cineplex, West Kowloon, Hong Kong. Another one of the movies from my Must See Movies list.

I never watched the 1951 original version of this movie and wasn’t that familiar with the main character, Klaatu, this time played by Keanu Reeves. But I do know about the famous phrase “Klaatu barada nikto”.

I do like Jennifer Connelly in Hulk and Blood Diamond, this time she also plays a scientist, Helen Benson, but with a much weaker performance. On the other hand Will Smith‘s son, Jaden Smith was almost perfect as he was in his motion picture debut, The Pursuit of Happyness. Although, through out the movie I felt Reeves was just doing his Matrix impression, which was a let down for such an experience actor.

In this remake the writer (screenplay), David Scarpa, updated the story to make it more relevant to issues that concerns us today. For example, the issue of world’s carbon dioxide emissions. Of course the specially effects were modernized to the level expected by today’s audiences.

They turned the plot around so that Klaatu” was shot right at the beginning and the phrase “Klaatu barada nikto” was spoken by Klaatu to Gort rather than Helen.

The best part of the movie was Smith which barely justify the 3 penguins I gave.

Rating Legend:
5Stars Not to be missed
4Stars Wait for the DVD
3Stars Buy from iTunes Store
2Stars Rent it on iTunes
1Stars Waste your time elsewhere
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影評: 地球停轉日

Poster

My Rating: 3Stars

剛剛睇完《地球停轉日》， 故事內容非常簡單，但故事背後卻帶出深深的教訓，有警醒的作用，希望每個人睇完戲後除了讚賞其特技效果外，能夠自我反省。若愛我們的下一代，愛身邊的人，愛我們住緊的地球，請不要再自私！

Rating Legend:
5Stars Not to be missed
4Stars Wait for the DVD
3Stars Buy from iTunes Store
2Stars Rent it on iTunes
1Stars Waste your time elsewhere
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10 Top Global Retailers

Rank Retailer Name, Country Retail Sales (USD)
1. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., USA 344.992B
2. Carrefour, France 97.861B
3. Home Depot, Inc., USA 90.937B
4. Tesco Plc, UK 79.976B
5. METRO AG., Germany 74.857B
6. Kroger Co., USA 66.111B
7. Target Corp., USA 59.490B
8. Costco Wholesale 58.963B
9. Sears Holdings, USA 53.012B
10. Schwarz Unternehmens
Treuhand KG, Germany		 52.422B

2006 Financial year.

You may want to use this list to decide which to avoid.

Source: Stores magazine, 2008 Global Powers of Retailing

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10 Top Vacation Travel Destinations

Rank Country International Visitors
1. France 79,100,000
2. Spain 58,500,000
3. USA 51,100,000
4. China 49,600,000
5. Italy 41,100,000
6. UK 30,700,000
7. Germany 23,600,000
8. Mexico 21,400,000
9. Austria 20,300,000
10. Russia 20,200,000
  World Total 846,000,000

Number of visitors as of 2006.

You may want to use this list to decide where not to go if you want to avoid crowds.

Source: World Tourism Organization

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10 Busiest Airports

Rank Airport Location Passengers
1. Atlanta Hartsfield International Atlanta, GA, USA 84,846,639
2. Chicago O’Hare Chicago, IL, USA 72,028,134
3. London Heathrow London, UK 67,530,197
4. Tokyo International Tokyo, Japan 65,810,672
5. Los Angeles International Los Angeles, CA, USA 61,041,066
6. DFW International Dallas/Fort Worth, TX, USA 60,226,138
7. Charles de Gaulle Paris, France 56,849,567
8. Frankfurt Frankfurt, Germany 52,810,683
9. Beijing Beijing, China 48,654,770
10. Dever International Denver, CO, USA 47,325,016

Number of passengers as of 2007.

This holiday season you may want to take the above into account when you decide on the number of hours ahead of your flight departure to arrive at your airport.

Source: Airports Council International

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7 Things You Love to Ask About iPhone Unlocking

Pwnage Tool logoOver the past year and a half I had assisted many people with the unlocking of their iPhones. Many more people ask me about unlocking.

So instead of answering each of these people over and over again, I thought I post an article in my blog, which I can refer them to for more details.

  1. What Does iPhone Unlock mean?
    Many carriers around the world will “carrier lock” a cell phone that they had subsidized for their customers. To ensure the purchaser of the cell phone stays as a customer of the carrier after the purchase, the carrier will normally do two things:

    • Make the purchaser commit to a contract that bounds them to the carrier for a number of years (2 years is common). Of course the purchaser can break the contract, but there is usually a penalty to compensate the carrier for the subsidizing the cell phone.
    • Carrier Lock the cell phone to the carrier’s network, meaning the cell phone cannot be used on any other cellular network in the world.

      • Continue reading “7 Things You Love to Ask About iPhone Unlocking”