"The ball hit my hand, I will be honest. It was a handball, you can clearly see it. (Sebastien) Squillaci went to jump with two Irish players, I was behind him and the next thing I know the ball hit my hand. It was a handball, but I'm not the ref. I told (the referee) but he said to me the same. "You are not the ref'." Thierry Henry (it's unclear whether this was said just after the goal or at the end of the match.)
THE NEW PAPER page 72 Friday 20 November 2009 When Florent Malouda floats a free-kick into Ireland's penalty box, Sebastien Squillaci appears to be in an offside position. The assistant referee, however, fails to raise his flag. Squillaci misses his header, and the ball bounces towards Thierry Henry, who uses his hand to touch the ball twice to prevent it from going out of play. Both the referee and his assistant failed to spot it. Then, henry pushes the ball for William Gallas to head in from close range.
"After the goal, [Henry] should have had the decency not to celebrate. Perhaps he would have done better to stay calm." Fabio Cannavaro
"That is the worst France team I have seen in a long time. Over the two legs Ireland were the best by a mile. There has to be fair play but there was a lot at stake. What can you do? Fine them? There is a place at the World Cup Finals at stake." Burney goalkeeper Brian Jenssen
"I am sad because the referee could have asked his linesman and Henry also. I'm sure he could have asked Henry to confirm, but it was not done. I'm sure if he would have asked Henry, he would admit it. I don't mean it was Henry's fault. It was not about him, it was about fate." Rep of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni
"He's said it hit his hand accidentally but if you look at it you can clearly see it hit his hand twice. I'm not sure (his reputation) has been tarnished - it doesn't look great but he's got his team to the World Cup Finals. If it had been one of our team we'd have probably done the same. The blame doesn't necessarily fall on him but he's handled it, everyone can see it around the world." Sean St Ledger
"I asked Thierry Henry after the game and he said 'I handled it but I didn't mean it'. When you look at the film I think he kept the ball in play and he meant it. I wouldn't go down the road of (calling it) cheating, the players seek every advantage they can." Ireland's assistant manager Liam Brady
"We feel cheated. We were the better team over the two legs. It's cost a lot of our dreams. As a boy I used to dream of playing in the World Cup, and now I'm not. I don't understand why we haven't got replays in this day and age. You can get replays within 10, 30 seconds and it would have helped today." Sean St Ledger
"Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini are all probably clapping hands, Platini sitting up there on the phone to Sepp Blatter, probably texting each other, delighted with the result." Robbie Keane
He criticized the late decision to seed the play-off ties when it emerged that established football powers such as France, Portugal and at one stage Germany could be involved.
"Germany had a chance of being in the play-offs as well. With two massive countries there's no way in a million years is there going to be fair draw." Robbie Keane
"The time has now come to start using video technology to make sure we get the right decision. For a sport that is so high profile, with so much money and so much prestige at stake, it has to be used. You can bring in as many assistant referees behind the goals as you like but until there is technology, there will continue to be debatable decisions." PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor
"They said cheats never prosper - on Wednesday night they did!" Former FIFA referee Graham Poll
"Henry is saying he is an honest guy but to get away with murder like that you can't justify it. I'm not going to hold back. He didn't do it on purpose...blah blah blah- he put it down to his right foot. He didn't do it on purpose? My 'beep'. I won't say the word cheats - but I said it (on this occasion)." Burnley goalkeeper Brian Jensen
Iain Macintosh argued that Henry has been like this lately (these three years) and he is not surprised. He said it started after Arsenal lost to Barcelona in the Champions League final.
"Next time I'll learn to dive maybe" he raged after the game, "but I'm not a woman."
Then it started: Weeks after the Champions League final, he was nudged in the chest by Carlos Puyol in France's World Cup second-round clash with Spain. Henry collapsed to the ground clutching his face as if his nose was about to fall off. France scored from the resulting free-kick and Spain were eliminated.
The following season, Wigan visited the Emirates Stadium. Henry ran past Emerson Boyce, cut into the touchline and then crashed to the ground. Boyce hadn't touch him. No one had touch him. His head was facing towards the referee before he hit the ground.
We were going to the best Italian restaurant in JB. We parked our car outside, which is about 10 metres away from the front entrance. Once we walked towards it, I saw two men standing outside scanning us. I know something was not right. I scanned my surroundings and I saw a vintage Cadillac parking in front of it with the three most famous initials in JB on the car plate. Now, I understand the situation. Is the restaurant still opened for us?
My previous encounter with a VVVIP was in HMV Singapore. His bodyguards in suits and sunglasses with earpieces were surrounding him in the NSEW axis. Basically, four of them moving together once he was browsing through the CDs. I was standing there, too focused on the contents of the CD I am browsing when I saw one of the bodyguards standing emotionlessly in front of me. I know something was not right since he just stand there idle like a solid stone. Once I turned and looked behind him, I realized there is this VVVIP with the other 3 stones surrounding him.
Wah, I thought, who is this VVVIP that requires so many bodyguards gluing around him? My second encounter with a VVVIP representative is in the Chinese library of the campus. Apparently this VVVIP is the most powerful man in Singapore. His representative just cut my queue when I was there to borrow the Chinese almanac to choose the most auspicious day for my Chinese wedding ceremony. Yeah, now you know why I was in the Chinese library for goodness sake. My first time borrowing a book and I met this guy. What are the chances.
This guy in suit just cut my queue. I was about to yell at him before I saw the slip of paper he handed to the librarian with the title of the book. It is from the most powerful office in Singapore. I decided to keep myself silent. I didn't want to create a problem. Then, it comes to the borrowing process and this VVVIP also has a library card. The coolest thing is the book is dued on an infinity date. His office still needs to renew the loan but it will be his as long as he wants to read it until he returns it fully.
Now, back to the Italian restaurant. This is the most powerful VVVIP in Johor. We entered the restaurant since the two men outside did not tell me this place was booked fully. There was another table with at least 6 men who scanned us very thoroughly and carefully with their stares. The owner of the restaurant told us that there is a specific zone of the restaurant which is closed for this VVVIP so we had to sit at the smoking zone. Shortly the VVVIP arrived with many people around him. The VVVIP in Singapore is nothing, he had 4 bodyguards. This had at least 10. However, all in plainclothes.
I looked out the restaurant and there were more people standing outside. I told Lee Ling that this was it, we needed to wait forever for our food. You know who will get priority in the food order sequence. Still, by all means, the restaurant owner did not disappoint. Despite having us normal citizens at the restaurant, they still managed to serve us at least a plate each to savour the flavour when the VVVIP's dishes were cooked and served. Yes, we waited much longer than usual but we knew we couldn't just stand up and complain. You don't want to mess with the Zohan, I mean the elephant when you are an ant. I guess the owner must be smiling because the tip they are gonna get must be enough for them to operate for the entire half year.
Your head must be wet and as hairless as possible to give a better contact reading. Now, you have the reason to go bald! It's for science!
The brain reader beside the HTC Hero. HTC Hero sucks man, I gave up purchasing it when I tried it. The buttons are designed for ants since they are super small. The camera sucks and the open-source software is not really stable. You might as well get the HTC Magic since both of them are different by the camera specifications only. Since both cameras suck, there is no difference. You just upgrade the software and it will be just as good. The Magic's buttons are much better.
These tentacles are basically contact points to your brain. It has a sponge as a medium. Imagine half of the sponge needs to be wet to contact your head nicely.
You can see that one point on the head is not green, meaning it is having not so good reception of your brainwaves. The blue bar records your delta wave, the orange bar records your theta wave, the green bar reads your alpha wave, the red bar reads your beta wave and the pink bar reads whether you are gay or lesbian or balanced. Haha, just kidding! If you are not sure about all these waves, read something about them like this.
The signal patterns can tell whether a person is happy or sad and so on. Therefore, by understanding a certain signal pattern, you will be able to know if a person is lying or not. You don't need to go through what Ben Stiller went through in Meet the Parents. Hahaha! Perhaps someday these brain readers will come handy in the courts of law so we don't have witnesses who have selective memory loss.
You will get readings of how each point on your head will behave. The other cool part is how it has an image of your face so when you produce some emotions like smile, angry, tired and other facial expressions, it will be able to update the illustration live. Cool stuff!
This is an exercise where you try to push this cube away from you using your brain. The idea is we are going to replace mouse and keyboard with just brainwaves to control your computer. Imagine playing Quake Arena and Street Fighter with your brains only! Type a document with your brain.
The bad part is you need to train your profile to learn this thing well. It seems extremely difficult and tiring for a start. Now you know Professor Charles Francis Xavier has a really good brainwave control. Therefore, you need really good concentration. We are expecting future martial arts senseis will ask you to train your concentration using these brain readers than the normal balancing with candles all around your body during your kungfu stand.
A 25GB write once BluRay disc costs S$16. A 50GB rewritable BluRay disc costs S$46. I believe it will be not pretty soon for me to burn the BluRay disc on my machine. It's too ridiculous.
For your information, I can't find any Taiyo Yuden discs anymore, not even OEM discs of theirs under other brands. I even called Taiyo Yuden Singapore and they verified it since the focus of their factory in Singapore is not in disc production. However, I can find the Verbatim Made In Japan 50 discs of DVD+R for S$28. Good enough.
I saw Sony Rolly and it is seriously GAY! I will not buy that stuff even if Sony goes nuts and sells it off with 99% discount.
These two weeks are probably the most toughest period of my entire life thus far. Three exams in two separate cities and one huge major conference paper deadline due by midnight tonight. It seems like a coincidence that all the tough things must fall together one after another through these two weeks.
I am just getting a breather here by posting something on my blog. These two weeks seem to pass by for a very long time, it seems like ages for a day to go by. The good news is I need to endure until midnight tonight for the torrid fortnight to end.
Alright, let me grab lunch before continuing my final push till midnight tonight. I hope I can finish earlier. I am still stuck in my research centre right now trying to get results and finish the paper.
I am looking forward to a much needed rest with good sleep!
I hope they don't hide at road junctions, road sides as well as create road blocks everywhere like what normal cops do.
‘Ninja’ cops patrol Johor streets
JOHOR BARU, Nov 8 — Johor police have formed a special squad, dubbed the Ninja Squad by the public, to curb roadside robberies such as snatch thefts in the city.
The unit, equipped with nine Kawasaki KLX250 scrambler motorcycles, patrol the streets wearing full-faced helmets, jeans and boots.
Chief Inspector Mohd Saufi Mohd Kassim, who leads the team, said “many members of the public started calling the team ‘ninja’ probably because of their full-faced helmets and appearance”, adding that the name has since stuck.
The squad was formed three months ago. Chief Insp Mohd Saufi said squad members dress casually in order to move about easily.
He said the 16-man team from the Johor Baru (South) district police headquarters is usually deployed at crime hot spots around Larkin, Pelangi and the city area.
“The squad was created to combat street crime within the crime-prone areas in the city,” he said.
“The idea of the squad was mooted by Johor Baru (South) Officer in Charge of Police District, Assistant Commissioner Zainuddin Yaakob.
“He takes the team deep into the jungle once a week for training exercises with their machines.”
The training is important because squad members must be able to adapt well to their high-powered motorcycles.
Assistant Commissioner Zainuddin said the motorcycles cost around RM23,000 each and can be ridden on different terrain.
“Our team has been very successful in tackling crime as we have apprehended snatch thieves and other criminals,” he said.
His team is also the pioneer in the country in using scrambler bikes to tackle crime.
He added that the success of the team has prompted state police chief Mohd Mokhtar Mohd Shariff to look into setting up similar teams in other districts. — Straits Times
I tried last night to purchase tickets. I used my credit card and tried Lee Ling's but both had problem getting through. The system just wouldn't allow you to purchase and gave an error message. It left a phone number to contact. I called like more than 10 minutes before giving up. I thought perhaps this was after office hours so I will try this morning.
What do you know, the problem persists. I got a bit fed up since I am trying it on my office computer through a much secured and faster connection than our lousy Malaysian Streamyx. I called and waited 10 minutes. This time there was finally someone answering the call. She keeps on telling me to clear my cache. Well, I told her I have never purchased anything from Malaysia Airlines' website before so there should not be any cache memory left inside. Furthermore, I tried it on both computers which I never use to purchase any Malaysia Airlines tickets online.
Finally, she told me the system has been down since last night. I asked her what I should do then? Forget about buying tickets? She said I just have to keep on trying until I can get through. Right.....stupid solution! She also can't tell me when the system is up. I don't even know whether she is telling the truth. If I can see her right there right then, I will show her my MIDDLE FINGER! I give up arguing with her since I know there will be no outcome. I have been purchasing many tickets via AirAsia online ticketing system and it is so much faster and I have never encounter such problems.
Malaysia Airlines feel like a low cost carrier instead. What a big shame for a national carrier. Really lousy service and quality of maintenance of their online ticketing system. 10 minutes during office hours to pick up the phone? If I have a choice for other airlines for that domestic route, I will choose it. I have no other choice but to rely on the stupid airline ticketing system online. There is a Chinese idiom or saying which is "Don't wear a big hat if you don't have a big head". If you are not able to do it, don't do it. Over 12 hours of system down is an unacceptable excuse or probably there is discrimination of using foreign bank credit cards.
