IndoPost.com Breaking News, Opinion, Indonesia and USA

More gold medals, more parties, more condoms, and more sex at the Winter Olympic Village

As the Winter Games in Vancouver about to hit the closing date this Sunday, however the organizer almost runs out of condoms.  Although Canadian health officials have supplied over 100,000 condoms for 7,000 athletes at the Olympic Village, an emergency shipment of condoms is needed before Sunday, as reported by cbc.ca.  According to the report, the Canadian Foundation for AIDS has to express deliver additional 8,500 condoms to the Olympic Village few days ago.

Cigarette smoker and beer drinker chimpanzee sent to a rehabilitation treatment center

Zookeepers in Russia have transferred a smoker and beer drinker chimpanzee to a rehabilitation treatment center, as reported by montrealgazette.com.  The chimpanzee has learned all this bad habits while he acted as a circus performer in Russia. 

He has been stayed at a local zoo near southern Russian city of Rostov after retired from circus, and also fathered several baby chimps during his stay in the zoo.

(photo: reuters.com & montrealgazette.com)

A Los Angeles woman's life was saved by size-D breast implants as a gunman opened firearm

A Los Angeles woman was survived while getting a gunshot to her chest as a gunman opened firearm at a dental office, as reported by a local TV news.  Apparently, Beverly Hills cosmetic surgeon, Dr. Ashkan Ghavami, confirmed that the woman has size-D breast implants.  As reported by LA Times quoted Dr. Ghavami said "I saw the CT scan. The bullet fragments were millimeters from her heart and her vital organs. Had she not had the implant, she might not be alive today."  Medical experts believe that getting breast enhancements may not necessary as a means to wear a bulletproof vest.

Happy American kids will start playing video games on a new Nintendo DSi XL on March 28

Americans kids will enjoy bigger screen Nintendo video games this spring break.  A new Nintendo DSi XL will be on sales on March 28, as reported by venturebeat.com.  Expect the price range at $180 to $200.  The new Nintendo DSi XL is about 93% larger than the current DSi model.  The device will also allow user to read books. 

(photo: venturebeat.com)

Cloud-based mobile applications will hit close to $10 Billion by year 2014

Today's world technology market are booming with a flood of mobile devices and mobile applications made by and for Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android, Nokia's Symbian, RIM's BlackBerry, and soon Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 Series. 

In a latest research study conducted by Juniper Research and published by readwriteweb.com, found that mobile cloud computing will grow 88% from 2009 to 2014.  The meaning of cloud-based mobile applications is an infrastructure or system or software where data for storing and processing located outside of a mobile device.  The "outside" mobile apps are usually hosted on a cloud computing platform where mobile users can access the apps from anywhere and anytime.

As per the research notes, cloud-based mobile applications market was valued at about $400 million in 2009.  However, the market will grow close to $10 billion by 2014.

78 million Americans (Boomers Generation) and the increasing use of marijuana for medical reason

There are about 78 million Americans that were born between 1945 to 1964.  This group of aging population is also known as Boomers Generation.  Many of this generation are now using marijuana for medical reason, as users found the benefit of marijuana to relieve aging issues, such as aches and pains, glaucoma, macular degeneration, as reported by AP News and published by yahoo.com. 

Many observers believe the number of Boomers Generation has increased significantly to use marijuana since the beginning of year 2000.  While as political influencers, Boomers Generation's voters could swing election landscape to legalizing marijuana in America soon.

Home foreclosures and the dilemmas

While facing home foreclosure, a frustrated homeowner in a small town in Ohio had just bulldozed his house.  His act was to prevent a local bank to take over the ownership of a $350,000 home, as reported by a local TV news wlwt.com.  The home is now flat and covered by recent heavy snow.  The bank is still tight lipped on the case and many believe there would be some possible consequences for the frustrated homeowner.

Winter Olympic, condoms, and sex life

There are about 7,000 athletes who live in Olympic Village during this year Winter Olympic in Vancouver.  While the weather is considered very cold outside, however, inside the athlete’s room would be very hot where many are physically attractive to others.  The Olympic organizer has distributed 100,000 condoms to the 7,000 men and women who participate in this world event, as reported by msnbc.com.  Each athlete would receive an average of 14 condoms.  Similarly, during the 2008 Summer Olympic in China, organizer also ordered 100,000 condoms.

27-nation European Union and America’s Justice Department approved the merger of Microsoft’s Bing and Yahoo search

Regulators from two continents, Europe and America, agreed and approved the deal between Microsoft’s Bing decision engine and Yahoo search engine.  Bing and Yahoo merger will increase its chance to compete with giant search Google.  A recent comScore data show Bing captured about 11.3% of search market share in America, while Google maintains its share at 65%.  The combo of Bing and Yahoo market share is at about 30%.

A happy heart comes from a happy person

A study conducted by a team of researchers at Columbia University Medical Center shows a strong relationship between human happiness and heart disease.  The observational study was based on analyzing 1,739 men and women in Canada for over 10 years period.  According to the report written by Karina Davidson of Columbia University, people who are happy, enthusiastic and positive emotions tend to survive heart disease.

Americans are not ready for cyber war

A cyber war game which was sponsored by a nonprofit group found that Americans are not ready to deal with Internet massive cyber attack.  As many Internet infrastructures and networks are currently controlled by private sector, it would be very difficult for America’s government to overcome the situation, as government has to order phone and Internet companies to cooperate in such massive attack, as reported by washingtonpost.com.  Privacy issues and lack of authority were cited as the two major concerns, during this four hours cyber war game that was held at Washington DC Mandarin Oriental Hotel. 

Hawaii receives the highest score for Well-Being Index in America

Using interviews data of 350,000 adults aged 18 older in America’s 50 states during the year of 2009, Gallup and Healthways found Hawaii received the highest score as the top state for Well-Being Index, followed by Utah and Montana.  According to gallup.com, Well-Being Index uses six categories for measurement, including “examine life evaluation, emotional health, work environment, physical health, healthy behaviors, and access to basic necessities.”

Most of the Southern America states (incl. Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana) were at lower range, while the three most populous states, California, Texas, and New York, were at mid-range of the Well-Being Index during the year of 2009.

 
(Map: Gallup and Healthways)

Happy Chinese New Year, Year of the Tiger

Today (Feb 14) is the starting day for a new lunar calendar year for Chinese people around the world. About 2 billion people celebrate the new lunar year, including people who live in mainland China, Taiwan, South East Asian Countries (Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand), America, and Canada. 

Using the twelve animal signs (zodiac), this is the year of tiger.  Many people believe tiger is a very aggressive animal, strong leadership, and powerful.  Based on the year of tiger, many Chinese fortune tellers have predicted a prosperous year for people who were born in the year of Tiger (1962, 1974, 1986, 1998), Horse (1966, 1978, 1990, 2002), and Dog (1970, 1982, 1994, 2006).

As a tradition for centuries, for good luck and more prosperity in year to come, married couples usually give away a red envelope ("hong pao") containing money to kids and young adult, mostly to own kids, relatives, and inner family.  Each red envelope must have at least two piece of paper money, such as two pieces of $10 bills, or a piece of $10 bill and a piece of $1 bill. 

Windows Mobile 7 (WinMo 7), or a.k.a. Windows Phone 7 Series

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is currently flying across the America continent, across the Atlantic Ocean, and heading to Europe continent, as per the company press release.  Mr. Ballmer will be the keynote speaker at Mobile World Conference in Barcelona on Monday (Feb 15).  Other than as a keynote speaker, Mr. Ballmer has a great news for mobile users around the world.

According to wsj.com, the giant software company will unveil new software for powering smartphones.  This Monday’s announcement of Windows Mobile 7 will be a very critical for the company futures, as Microsoft is losing mobile OS share to Apple iPhone and Google Android.  Many analysts believe that the new Windows Mobile 7 (a.k.a. Windows Phone 7 Series) will integrate with Zune music player and Xbox game console.

Cheap PlayStation 3 console, as Sony is losing about $18 per unit it sells in America

During the past holiday season, Sony PlayStation 3 was one of the favorite gift for video gamers.  The latest financial report showing the booming sales of Sony PlayStation 3 has helped the company to recover from several quarters of loss.  However, using data from The Wall Street Journal, cnet.com has estimated that Sony is losing about $18 per PS3 hardware sales in America.  Tech analysts believe Sony's console will make profit in a long run as the device is more affordable today and the cost of production will gradually decrease.

Twitter surpasses one billion tweets per month

According to a study by pingdom.com, Twitter has surpassed over one billion tweets during the month of December.  The growth rate for Twitter is very significant as it passed 1.2 billion tweets in January.  Twitter has an average of 40 million tweets per day.

Famous Hollywood Sign to get a one day face lift

A conservationist group, Trust For Public Lands, has secured enough fund to purchase 138-acre parcel near the Hollywood Sign.  The land was purchased with an option for about $12 million from Chicago-based Fox River Financial Resources, as reported by local news nbclosangeles.com. 

In order to celebrate the land purchase, the conservationist group will completely cover the famous sign this Thursday (Feb 11) with something reads like "Save the Peak."  While in many unfortunate incidents, the sign had been hacked several times by various groups.  Los Angeles Police Department has sent out a community alert early this week to warn residents near the Hollywood Sign about this one day face lift.

Side effects of drinking sodas and pancreatic cancer

A medical research study conducted at the Cancer Control Program at Georgetown University Medical Center found that consumption of at least two soda drinks per week could increase the risk of getting pancreatic cancer, as reported by webmd.com. 

In 2009, based on American Cancer Society data, there were about 42,000 people in America diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and of those, about 35,240 would die annually due to the disease. 

The study of side effects of drinking sodas was based on evaluating 60,524 men and women since 1993 (over14 years) in Singapore.  Researchers looked into those 60,524 samples; especially on their diet and related to the cancer disease.

Hunger Americans hit a new record high

As America is still finding ways to recover from financial-market crisis of late 2008, a new data from America’s Agriculture Department showing that there are 38.2 million people in America enrolling in food stamp program.  This is a new record high since December 2008.  According to the report, America’s Agriculture Department could spend more than $58 billion on food stamps during the current fiscal year which will end on September 30, 2010.

Facebook celebrates 6th anniversary with 400 million users and has a market value of over $15 billion

Facebook is celebrating its 6th birthday today (Feb 4).  According to Mark Zuckerberg blog, the Facebook’s founder, this popular social networking website has now registered close to 400 million users.  Just about one year ago, it has only about 200 million users.  Some Wall Street analysts have estimated the company is worth over $15 Billion.

University Money Power

As America's economy continued to decline in the past two years, America's top colleges and universities received large amount of endowments from companies, foundations and alumni during the fiscal year of 2009.  According to Council for Aid to Education as reported by businessweek.com, donations to top colleges and universities dropped about 12 percent compared to year 2008.  According to the CAE report (pdf), last year America's colleges and universities saw the largest drop in donations since 1969.

Stanford was at number one with a total of $640 Million, while Harvard dropped to number two with a total of $601 Million.  University of Southern California (USC) remained at top-10.   USC was at number seven in receiving donations during 2009 with a total of $369 Million.

 
Chart: Council for Aid to Education (see full report in pdf)

Big and fat Uncle Sam: 2.15 million workers on federal payroll

Under President Obama administration, there are about 2.15 million workers on federal payroll each month.  According to washingtontimes.com, this was the largest ever federal payroll in the America’s history.  Previous record was at about 2.0 million workers under President Clinton administration (1992-2000). 

Most of the new hires are for the 2010 American Census which occurs every ten years period.

Regarding the current big and fat Uncle Sam, as washingtontimes.com wrote and quoted Paul C. Light, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a professor at New York University and said "I'm shocked that the 'tea party' hasn't focused on it yet, and the Obama administration only has a thin sliver of time to deal more directly with it, I believe."

Selamat Datang Barry

American’s president Mr. Obama will visit his boyhood place in Jakarta Indonesia this coming March, as reported by AFP news and published at yahoo.com.  White House made the announcement on Monday February 1, 2010.  Little Barry aka Barry Soetoro, will visit his old elementary school in Menteng, a very precious residential area in Jakarta.   Mr. Obama was invited by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), who is in his second term as the president of the most populous Muslim nation.  Mr. Obama will also visit Australia during this Southeast Asian trip.  As AFP wrote and quoted White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, "This trip is an important part of the president's continuing effort to broaden and strengthen the partnerships that are necessary to advance our security and prosperity."