For the week ending May 30, the U.S. music industry sold a total of 4,984,000 albums, according to Nielsen Soundscan. This figure, which includes new and catalog releases, represents the fewest number of albums sold in one week since Soundscan began compiling this data in 1994.
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$ingapore is showing a miserly four matches on free-to air TV. Across the Causeway in Malaysia, free-to-air RTM is showing 25 live matches and 10 delayed matches. The schedule for the first round matches - all RTM1 unless indicated:
June 11: South Africa vs Mexico (9 pm)
June 12: Argentina vs Nigeria (9.30 pm)
June 13: England vs USA (2.00 am)
June 14: Germany vs Australia (2.00 am)
June 16: Brazil vs North Korea (4.30 am) - delayed
June 16: Honduras vs Chile (7.00 pm) - RTM2
June 18: France vs Mexico (4.30 am) - delayed
June 18: Argentina vs South Korea (2.00 am)
June 19: England vs Algeria (3.00 am)
June 19: Ghana vs Australia (9.30 pm)
June 20: Holland vs Japan (12.01 am)
June 20: Slovakia vs Paraguay (7.00 pm) - RTM2
June 20: Italy vs New Zealand (9.30 pm)
June 21: Brazil vs Ivory Coast (2.00 am)
June 21: Portugal vs North Korea (7.00 pm) - RTM2
June 23: Nigeria vs South Korea (2.00 am)
June 23: USA vs Algeria (9.30 pm)
June 24: Ghana vs Germany (4.30 am) - delayed
June 25: Cameroon vs Holland (2.00 am)
June 26: Chile vs Spain (2.00 am)
Note: RTM listings and schedules are subject to change.
$ingaporeans can tune in to RTM1 and 2 unless the signals get scrambled as they were for the previous World Cup.
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The Israeli government has been forced to apologise for circulating a spoof video mocking activists aboard the Gaza flotilla, nine of who were shot dead by Israeli forces last week. The YouTube clip, set to the tune of the 1985 charity single We Are the World, features Israelis dressed as Arabs and activists, waving weapons while singing: "We con the world, we con the people. We'll make them all believe the IDF (Israel Defence Force) is Jack the Ripper." It continues: "There's no people dying, so the best that we can do is create the biggest bluff of all."
Government spokesman Mark Regev said the video reflected how Israelis felt about the incident. "I called my kids in to watch it because I thought it was funny," he said. "It is what Israelis feel. But the government has nothing to do with it."
The clip features a group led by the Jerusalem Post's deputy managing editor Caroline Glick, wearing keffiyehs and calling themselves the Flotilla Choir. The footage is interspersed with clips from the recent Israeli raid on the Gaza-bound aid ship, the Mavi Marmara.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/06/israel-youtube-gaza-flotilla
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A global shift towards a vegan diet is vital to save the world from hunger, fuel poverty and the worst impacts of climate change, a UN report said June 2. As the global population surges towards a predicted 9.1 billion people by 2050, western tastes for diets rich in meat and dairy products are unsustainable, says the report from United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) international panel of sustainable resource management.
Professor Edgar Hertwich, the lead author of the report, said: "Animal products cause more damage than [producing] construction minerals such as sand or cement, plastics or metals. Biomass and crops for animals are as damaging as [burning] fossil fuels."
Ernst von Weizsaecker, an environmental scientist who co-chaired the panel, said: "Rising affluence is triggering a shift in diets towards meat and dairy products - livestock now consumes much of the world's crops and by inference a great deal of freshwater, fertilisers and pesticides."
In other words, it takes a lot more resources to raise livestock.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/02/un-report-meat-free-diet
[PS: i wunt be alive at 2050 rite ? so would i be bothered]
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What's good for $ingapore must be good for Malaysia too. Legalising sports betting in Malaysia will generate over RM3 billion a year for government coffers, the magnate leading the controversial project said in remarks published June 6. The government in May granted a sports betting licence to Ascot Sports, a company controlled by influential Malaysian tycoon Vincent Tan, in a bid to boost tax revenue, but the move has run into stiff opposition. "By legalising sports betting... the government could earn annual revenue of up to RM3 billion ringgit through taxes," Tan was quoted as saying by the New Sunday Times newspaper.
"Why are some politicians so against this?" he asked. Speaking out against the criticism for the first time, Tan said punters in Malaysia would be able to place their bets from September in time for the hugely popular English Premier League football season. Tan's group Berjaya says the illegal sports betting market in Malaysia was worth as much as 20 billion ringgit a year, the paper reported.
Actually, to be accurate, gambling is only good for the "winners". In all cases it is the "house".
NOTE: The prime minister of Malaysia has backtracked and said no licence was granted to Vincent Tan in May.
http://www.malaysia-today.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=32302:najib-denies-awarding-betting-licence-to-vincent-tan-&catid=19:newscommentaries&Itemid=100131
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"At Miles Davis' official website, there's a link to preorder September's 'The Genius of Miles Davis' box. Inside a reproduction of Miles' trumpet case, you get seven already available Miles Davis 'Complete Sessions' box sets(6 of the 7 are still in print in the U.S.A. and the 7th 'The Complete On The Corner Sessions' can still be obtained as a Japanese import, or as a download in the U.S.A.), plus you get a reproduction of the trumpet mouthpiece used by Miles, a T-shirt and a lithograph reproduction of a Miles Davis drawing, and the box is a limited edition of 1,955 (to match with the year 1955, when Miles made his first Columbia album). The price for this mail order-only set which has no previously unreleased material? US$2,000 (and NO, I am NOT joking)" - Phil Cohen at the www.imwan.com site
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