New Shanghai Disneyland Resort Breaks Ground in China

The New Shanghai Disney Resort is on the works! Walt Disney Company broke ground on Friday at Shanghai Disneyland. The Chinese central government in Beijing approved of the resort and is expected to be finished and operational in five years. It will have two themed hotels, large retail, dining and entertainment venues and recreational facilities. There will also be a lake in the middle of the resort. The total estimate costs of the construction is more than four billion dollars, which will be shouldered by Walt Disney Company and its China partners.

Robert A. Iger, president and CEO of The Walt Disney Company said that they are "Working with our Chinese partners, the Shanghai Disney Resort will be both authentically Disney and distinctly Chinese."

The groundbreaking ceremony was like any other traditional ceremonies. There was lots of performances including a children's choir with Mickey Mouse dressed in a traditional Chinese attire.

Source: edition.cnn.com ; www.dailymail.co.uk

Chinese Owner Destroys His Lamborghini Gallardo

A man in Qingdao, Eastern China hired people to use sledgehammers and destroy his newly bought $200,000 Lamborghini Gallardo. The Chinese owner was so angry after his Lamborghini broke down. He made it into a public protest for World Consumer Rights Day and destroyed it publicly with lots of onlooking crowd.

The Lamborghini Gallardo was bought six months ago and encountered
mechanical problems on Nov 29, 2010. He then sent the car to a Lamborghini dealer's maintenance service in Qingdao. But the problem was not solved and that made him furious.

This is a Youtube video from Carbuzz and explanation why the chinese businessman destroyed his Lamborghini.

    The engine problem wasn't solved, but instead the bumper and chassis were damaged by the transport. The owner complained by the dealer but they refused to take responsibility in this matter, so the angry owner contacted Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann, the brand's China headquarters, its after-sales service manager for Asia-Pacific region, and the brand's owner Volkswagen Group, but the problem was not solved.

    Angry about the service, the owner felt his consumer rights were ignored. So he decided that the best way to gain attention was to destroy his car on the 15th of March, which is also World Consumer Rights Day. Apparently, he hired people to publicly destroy his car with hammers and make his statement. This protest was made to provoke public support and goad the manufacturer to respect his consumer rights.

Source: www.topgear.com ; www.usatoday.com

Subway Beats McDonald's as the World's Largest Restaurant Chain

We all know that McDonald's is the largest food chain in the world right? NOT ANY MORE!  Subway just passed McDonald's as the world's largest restaurant chain. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, the sandwich food chain beats McDonald's as the largest food chain in terms of number of locations. Subway had 33,749 restaurants open worldwide at the end of 2010, while McDonald's had 32,737 locations opened.

I'm sure McDonald's will be on top again. The question is that if they could do it this year?

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Wordpress Cyber Attack Caused Massive DDoS

Wordpress went though a massive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack last Thursday. Wordpress' founding developer Matt Mullenweg called the attack "the largest and most sustained attack we've seen in our six year history." They suspected it to be politically motivated because of its non-English blogs but still has no evidence to support the claims.

Wordpress is one of the largest blog hosting sites and hosts 18 million sites and has an average of 600 million pageviews. Distributed denial of service or DDoS attacks are simple but

very hard to defend. Basically the attacks works by directing giant traffic to its target website and overwhelming the site's servers resulting to legitimate users not being able to access the website.

Source: money.cnn.com

Starbucks New Logo

The Seattle-based coffee chain, Starbucks Corp. just debuted a new logo last Wednesday that remove the words "Starbucks Coffee." The change is said to be for its 40th anniversary this year. They have only changed their logo 4 times since they started.

Just few hours after the debut, there were backlashes against the change on Starbucks' website and other social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

"Throughout the last four decades, the Siren has been there through it all, Now, we've given her a small but meaningful update to ensure that the Starbucks brand continues to embrace our heritage and also ensure we remain relevant and poised for future growth," Howard Shultz, Starbucks' president and CEO, said on the company's website.

Starbucks' logo change is similar to the move made last year by Gap Inc, the number 1 clothing chain. It changed its iconic blue-box logo encasing the word "GAP." Many fans rejected the new logo and Gap quickly reverted back to its old logo a week later. 

Its too early to see if the Starbucks facelift will have the same results. The new logo will rollout beginning in March. What do you think of the new Starbucks Logo?

Source: money.cnn.com

Philippine Peso Bill's New Design with Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas New Logo

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) or Philippine Central Bank has unveiled the new designs of the peso bill from P20 to P1,000. BSP says that they would be releasing the new designed bills tomorrow. We can still use the old currency / bills / money for the next 3 years. After that, the notes will become useless. The BSP said the new bills have improved security features, which will make them harder to counterfeit.

Here are the changes for the Philippine Money / Currency / Bill

20 Pesos: A younger Manuel Quezon is seen in the new P20 bill, with the Banaue rice terraces seen at the back instead of the Malacañang.

50 Pesos: Sergio Osmeña as is on the P50 bill, with the Taal Lake and the Maliputo fish at the back instead of the National Museum.

100 Pesos: Manual Roxas  as is on the P100 bill, with the Mayon Volcano and the Butinding of Sorsogon at the back instead of the Central Bank Building. 

200 Pesos: Diosdado Macapagal, the father of former President Gloria Arroyo, is on the P200 bill, with the Chocolate Hills and tarsier at the back.

500 Pesos: The new P500 bill shows both former Senator Ninoy and former President Corazon Aquino. It is the first time a bill showed both parents of a sitting president, whose signature is also on the bill. At the back of the P500 bill is the underground river in Palawan and the blue-naped parrot.

1,000 Pesos: Josefa Llanes Escoda, Jose Abad Santos and Vicente Lim are still on the P1,000 bill, but at the back are the Tubbataha Reef and the South Sea Pearl.

The new banknotes will have the new BSP Logo unveiled last June. The following description for the logo comes from the bank’s website:

The new BSP logo is a perfect round shape in blue that features three gold stars and a stylized Philippine eagle rendered in white strokes. These main elements are framed on the left side with the text inscription “Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas” underscored by a gold line drawn in half circle. The right side remains open, signifying freedom, openness, and readiness of the BSP, as represented by the Philippine eagle, to soar and fly toward its goal. Putting all these elements together is a solid blue background to signify stability.

Principal Elements:

1. The Philippine Eagle, our national bird, is the world’s largest eagle and is a symbol of strength, clear vision and freedom, the qualities we aspire for as a central bank.

2. The three stars represent the three pillars of central banking: price stability, stable banking system, and a safe and reliable payments system. It may also be interpreted as a geographical representation of BSP’s equal concern for the impact of its policies and programs on all Filipinos, whether they are in Luzon, Visayas or Mindanao.

Colors
1. The blue background signifies stability.
2. The stars are rendered in gold to symbolize wisdom, wealth, idealism, and high quality.
3. The white color of the eagle and the text for BSP represents purity, neutrality, and mental clarity.

Font or Type Face
Non-serif, bold for “BANGKO SENTRAL NG PILIPINAS” to suggest solidity, strength, and stability. The use of non-serif fonts characterized by clean lines portrays the no-nonsense professional manner of doing business at the BSP.

Shape
Round shape to symbolize the continuing and unending quest to become an excellent monetary authority committed to improve the quality of life of Filipinos. This round shape is also evocative of our coins, the basic units of our currency.


Source: www.abs-cbnnews.com ; www.bsp.gov.ph

Millions of Twitter Accounts Compromised

A website called Gawker was hacked last Sunday and 1.3 million user account passwords compromised that enabled spammers to break into thousands of Twitter accounts where users had used the same passwords.

A file containing those details was then published on a file-sharing site "Bittorrent" by a group "Gnosis". The 500MB file contains data taken from Gawker.

Gawker published a statement on its homepage regarding this matter. They say that although the stored passwords were encrypted, simple passwords are very much vulnerable.

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Facebook Profile's New Look

Facebook gives a new design for members' profile pages. They say it would make your profile pages more organize, integrating in one place information currently scattered throughout the Wall, photo albums and other sections of the site.

The new profile design shows a quick summary of you are in a sentence and your tagged photos below your name. Which is one of the first things people look for when they visit your profile. The tabs are now below your profile picture. So basically you can easily navigate one's profile from one central place, which is in the upper left beside your name and profile picture.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on an interview that
"you can see all the things that you have in common with that person," ; "It gives you this amazing connection with that person in a way that the current version of the profile that we have today just doesn't do."

The new profile design will gradually reach all users by early next year. Those who want to upgrade immediately can do so at http://www.facebook.com/about/profile/. I already upgraded mine. And it's fantastic.

Source: money.cnn.com

Segway Owner Jimi Heselden Dies in Scooter Cliff Fall

Segway owner and millionaire Jimi Heselden, has been discovered dead after falling from cliffs while riding one of his company's motorised scooters.

Mr. Heselden crashed into the River Wharfe while riding the vehicle round his estate in Thorp Arch, Boston Spa, West Yorkshire, on Sunday. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The scooter was found in the water. He is reported to be worth £166m, making him one of the top 400 richest people in the UK.

Mr Heselden, 62 years old, who founded Leeds-based company Hesco Bastion, acquired the United States-based Segway firm in December 2009. Segway scooters are electric, two-wheeled, self-balancing machines. They were invented by Dean Kamen and unveiled in 2001and first produced the following year

The tycoon was well known for his donations to charity, giving more than £20m to good causes.

Source and Image via http://www.bbc.co.uk/

Ford to Close Mercury Division by End of 2010

Most American automakers recovered but was not able to save  Ford Motor Co.'s Mercury brand. Ford announced that it will shut down the struggling Mercury division by end of the year, which accounts for about 5% of Ford sales.

Mercury's demise follows some other famous American nameplates that was sold, discontinued or closed. Like General Motors Co.'s Pontiac, Saturn and Hummer.


"We have made tremendous progress on profitably growing the Ford brand during the past few years. Now it is time to do the same for Lincoln," said Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas.

Some say closing Mercury will help Lincoln, which trails to its German and Japanese counterparts.  "Lincoln needs to be more youthful, and it needs to be a luxury brand with sex appeal, and it doesn't have those characteristics right now," said Rebecca Lindland, an auto industry analyst at IHS Global Insight.

Ford stated on its website: "Ford will continue to provide existing and future Mercury owners with parts and service support at Ford and Lincoln dealers, and honor current warranties and Ford’s Extended Service Plans."

Click here for Information if you own a Mercury

Click here for some famous Mercury Vehicles

Source: Los Angeles Times

Internet Porn Sites Now Accessible in China

Word leaked out slowly, spread by Web-savvy folks on Twitter: Internet porn that once was blocked by Chinese government censors was now openly available.

Chinese are long accustomed to the authorities' Internet blockades. And I doubt this would change any time soon. Yet porn seems to be more accessible now. But still unanswered are questions about whether it's an official change in policy, a technical glitch or some sort of test by the usually disapproving Chinese Internet police. Websites about human rights and dissidents are also routinely banne and that I think would not change at all.

"Maybe they are thinking that if Internet users have some porn to look at, then they won't pay so much attention to political matters," said Beijing-based Internet analyst Zhao Jing, who goes by the English name Michael Anti. The government has not said why the porn sites were unblocked.

Few Chinese will admit to surfing for porn because it is illegal. Many sites are still inaccessible, and of those, sites that somehow evade control are usually blocked within hours. But the demand is there. Chinese society's conservative attitudes about sex are rapidly changing, especially among the young, who make up the majority of Internet users. Many Chinese have learned to get around "the Great Firewall," or GFW, as the system is known. Sites that suddenly became available around late May include the English-language YouPorn and PornHub, along with numerous Chinese sites offering downloads."The Great Firewall is not that serious toward blocking porn sites. It never was," he said. The true targets, he said, include political information, current affairs, negative reports about leaders, and anything that may trigger a protest.

"That kind of information is where the censorship focus is really," Xiao said. "Porn, they're just halfheartedly doing it."

Source: Yahoo News