As though it contained a diamond figurine, the sleek iPhone comes in a jet-black rectangular box with the familiar Apple logo and “iPhone” text embedded in a light-reflective shiny silver color. Maybe ~3 inches tall, ~3 inches wide and ~5 inches tall, I half-expected to see a gigantic pair of gem-encrusted cuff links or something similar. At the same time, I was no where near disappointment, discovering that there lied an iPhone instead.

4.8 ounces for an 8 gigabyte phone? Not too bad! The dimensions of the phone fit nicely in my hand, but anyone with smaller than average sized hands will have a bit of trouble. Apparently, the phone scratch-resistant, but I wouldn’t risk walking on the street with this slippery phone in my hand. After all, it’s scratch-resistant, not immune…

Camera capabilities, mp3 player, accompanied by a dozen other functions… it all manages to fit nicely on the 3.5 inch diagonal screen. The iPhone takes advantage of the touch screen with all the sliding necessary to move the buttons side to side and the screen up and down. Most phones have their keypad unlocked with pressing a combination of buttons; the iPhone has a button to slide across the screen. I tried touching the screen through the the barrier of my shirt, and did not react. So rest your thoughts, the phone won’t drain battery while in your pocket.

The interface is very simple to figure out. After playing around with the buttons and icons for a little bit, the user-friendly rating of the phone is so far so good. The iPhone is a very ‘cool’ gadget to carry around. I still have yet to figure out a way to quickly remove the finger smudges on the touch-face, as my shirt did not yield any success.

Can’t wait until they come in different colors :).

Technorati Tags: Apple, iPhone, new phone, touch screen

This year, on the 7th day of July (the date-stamp would look like this –> 07/07/07), 7 man-made monuments were selected to replace the ancient 7 wonders of the world. What defines a ‘wonder of a world’? The conventional definition is a man-made structure, representing the human will to build awe-inspiring monuments to celebrate religion, mythology, art, power, and science. Wonders are the final product of human knowledge of architecture, engineering and unity.

Current World Wonders
As of now, the following structures will replace the original 7, and claim the title as a “wonder of the world”:
- Chichén Itzá (Mexico)

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- Christ Redeemer (Brazil)

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- Great Wall (China)

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- Machu Picchu (Peru)

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- Petra (Jordan)

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- Roman Colosseum (Italy)

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- Taj Mahal (India)

This is the world’s first ever global election.

As massive and beautiful as the ancient wonders are, only one wonder (Great Pyramid of Giza) was able to withstand the devastating wear-and-tear of time.

Previous World Wonders
Here’s the list of the original 7 wonder of the world:
- The Lighthouse of Alexandria
- The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
- The Statue of Zeus at Olympia
- The Colossus of Rhodes
- The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
- The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus
- The Great Pyramid of Giza

Suffice to say, there were (and still are) certainly more magnificent structures around the world. However, the original list was compiled by ancient Greeks, and they did not know the existence of absolutely everything on Earth.

In my opinion, I don’t particularly enjoy the idea of replacing the original 7 wonders of the world. Sure, most of them either don’t even exist anymore or aren’t even recognizable. I would have preferred that whatever organization conducted this operation would have added to the list rather than delete and rewrite. Hopefully the world won’t forget the original 7, or even the other ‘forgotten’ wonders of the world that were excluded, simply because 7 is a limiting number.

Have you ever heard the term, “Bad news is always good news…?” Basically what that says is, the public doesn’t care how happy that man was when he won the jackpot in that casino. Instead, the public rather hear a story of how a man cheated in a casino, shot the dealer, stole a car, and drove off while triggering several bombs planted in the building. Terrible, I know, but it’s true. Well in my opinion, I don’t necessarily enjoy bathing in the sorrows and conflicts around the world so in a less catchy and ironic sentence, I think, “Interesting news is good news.”

Here’s one of my favorite sites to find the best news out there. All the links listed on the front page of Fark is submitted and hand-picked by other internet surfers. They could be links ranging from the biggest News giants such as CNN, to the most esoteric or unknown blogs. At the same time, I’d like to experiment with some RSS feeding on this blog, which is explained further in-depth by ysiu and his blog.

What I still need to figure out is how to put it on the right side, on that side bar!

Nobody shouldn’t miss out on The Corporation. Teachers should watch it, parents should watch it, workers, students all alike should watch this documentary-styled movie.

The Corporation uncovers and investigates the biggest irony found in the human population today. Somewhat depressing, Mark Achbar’s documentary describes us how our society is digging our own grave. As biased as it may be towards large corporations and companies, Achbar provides strong, solid evidence, showing the ‘evil’ side of things.

The Corporation was incredibly easy to follow. The first thing it did was cover the definition of a corporation. Corporate lawyers have convinced the world that corporations are just like people. One corporation is equivalent to one person. Under this category, a corporation attains the rights that a person would have as well. In the United States, this includes the 14th Amendment, which states that you can’t deprive any corporation (or person) from life, liberty or property. This bestows all corporations with enormous amounts of power.

The following ‘chapters’ of the documentary cover a wide range of issues and fields that even today are still under heated debate. What Achbar has done, is taken the typical ‘check-list’ from the WHO (World Health Organization) for what is required for someone to be considered a psychopath. Achbar’s arguement is that if corporations are considered persons, corporations should also be subject to these check-lists designed for diagnosis in people.

What exactly is the definition of a psychopath in terms of the psychologist’s perspective? “It is self-interested, inherently amoral, callous and deceitful; it breaches social and legal standards to get its way, it does not suffer from guilt, yet it can mimic the human qualities of empathy, caring and altruism.” Having this list, Achbar constructed the documentary, portraying corporations to have each and every one of these characteristics.

His conclusion is corporations around the world are psychopaths and something needs to change. The metaphor is an image of a man jumping off a building. The man doesn’t see the ground, and believes he is flying, while he in reality is falling to his death.

What do you think? Think about the social, humanitarian, ecological, and economic issues that are involved with the big businesses around the world.

Technorati Tags: corporation, movie, sweatshop, corruption, globalization, economy, business, psychopath, humanity

We also discovered the other day that games could be embedded onto Sanrio Blogs. Here comes another one.

Here’s one of my favorite pastimes.