Blizzards hit China

A woman prays at a village in Pingshi, China's northern Guangdong province, more than 300 km (186 miles) north of Guangzhou, China, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008. Workers rushed to restore power Tuesday to regions of China hard-hit by snow and ice storms, in a struggle that state media said has already cost the lives of 11 electricians.

A general view of a village near Pingshi, 320 km (199 miles) north of China's southern city of Guangzhou in Guangdong province, two days before the Lunar New Year of the Rat February 5, 2008. Emergency crews struggled to restore power to parts of southern China blacked out for more than 10 days by heavy snow as forecasters warned of no quick end to the worst winter weather in 50 years.

More pictures available at Yahoo! News Photos.

Amazing Japanese camera films at 2,000 fps (frames per second)

See how a water-filled ballon burst in slow motion

Kung Hei Fat Choy

Dear 6AB1 students,

Wish you a prosperous and fruitful Year of the Rat!

Regards,

Mr. Fu

Movie review: CJ7

Starring: Stephen Chow Sing-chi, Xu Jiao, Kitty Zhang Yuqi
Director: Stephen Chow Sing-chi
Category: IIA (Cantonese)

There's something vaguely Chaplinesque about Stephen Chow Sing-chi. Hong Kong's premier comic superstar has always been more than just laughs, possessing an agility and poignancy that elevates his screwball act into another realm.

Like Chaplin, Chow was extremely prolific in his earlier years, with nearly one feature released each month in the early 1990s. Now that he has more control as producer-director-writer-star, shooting schedules have extended to multiple years. This century has so far seen three completed Chow works, one brilliant (Shaolin Soccer), one admirably ambitious if imperfectly realised (Kung Fu Hustle), and his latest, a maudlin miscalculation.

The story of a father and son, CJ7 is a spiritual descendent of Chaplin's The Kid (1921). The plots are totally different but the essentials are the same, mixing laughter and tears to relate the travails of a down-and-out social outcast struggling to be a single parent to a loveable tyke. Unfortunately, CJ7 's laughs are few and far between, and the emotional situations are not developed affectingly enough to fill the gaps.

Part of the problem is, like in Kung Fu Hustle, there's not enough Chow on screen. As Ti, a poverty-stricken construction worker in a mainland metropolis, Chow's character comes in third place.

Of primary importance are Dicky Chow (Xu Jiao), Ti's eight-year-old son, and CJ7, an extraterrestrial creature and Dicky's best friend. The kid and the ET are genuinely engaging but fall short of taking a viewer's mind off the weak scenario (credited to Chow and five co-writers).

Most of the action takes place in three locales: the family's appealingly ramshackle hovel, the vaguely surreal construction site where Ti toils, and Dicky's posh academy. The school is an exclusive institution that Ti has somehow scraped up enough funds for his son to attend, and where the scruffy child is constantly bullied by richer classmates and snobby teachers. An exception is the beauteous Miss Yuen (Kitty Zhang Yuqi).

The overall mood veers between broad, cartoon-like strokes and finer revelatory detailing, the picture never quite integrating the divergent motifs.

CJ7, though, is adorable, with an astonishing range of facial expressions and body language clearly modelled after Chow himself. Equally eloquent is Xu (above, with Chow), who under the director's guidance turns in a performance that is cute without being cloying. So effective, in fact, that if not for the publicity materials, one would not realise the boy is played by a girl.

The dialogue expounds the merit of leading a virtuous life, yet the narrative doesn't display the courage of its ostensible convictions. All the supposed heavies, from the overbearing foreman (Lam Tze-chung) to the gangster-like academy brats, turn out to have hearts of marshmallow when exposed to the innate goodness of Ti and Dicky. And in the end, all problems are solved, not through hard work as repeatedly advocated by Ti, but by the discovery of a magical critter from outer space.

CJ7 may solve the movie-going dilemma of the whole family during the Lunar New Year holidays, but it brings scant cheer to the prospects of Hong Kong cinema in the Year of the Rat.

SCMP Jan, 31 2008

The easiest way to keep yourself fit!!

The original TV ad.



How this TV program made fun of the chair.

Nude pictures copied from HK star’s computer

Photos purportedly showing a Hong Kong actor partially nude with several starlets were copied from his computer when it was serviced last year and later distributed over the Internet, a newspaper reported on Monday.

The photographs, seemingly of actor and singer Edison Chen in bed with singer Gillian Chung Yun-tung , along with suggestive images of actress Cecilia Cheung Pak-chi , were recently posted online, sparking a media frenzy in the celebrity-mad former British colony.

While Chung's company, Emperor Entertainment Group, initially said the photograph of the normally squeaky-clean star was a digital fake, recent media reports have suggested otherwise.

Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper reported that Edison Chen Koon-hei, 27, had the images copied from his faulty personal computer last year, when he took it for servicing.

'A person in the shop found hidden inside [Chen's] computer, confidential nude pictures of naked female stars, which were then secretly copied,' Ming Pao reported, quoting an anonymous source.

The computer shop was subsequently raided by police officers in a widening investigation across the territory, which has led to eight arrests for infringing obscene material laws, and the seizure of hundreds of other explicit images, many unpublished.

In a statement on his blog (www.clotinc.com/blogs/public/edc) over the weekend, Chen criticised some of the recent media coverage.

'I would like for u [sic] to respect the situation that everyone is in and report the truth to the fullest.'

He didn't clarify whether the images had been faked or stolen, but his manager said Chen would co-operate with the police investigation.

Hong Kong's police commissioner, Tang King-shing, said the case was being treated seriously and warned the possession and distribution of such images might be illegal.

But Internet users and activists have since challenged this position, saying the police were being overly harsh.

Meanwhile, the police have also rejected criticism that they might have used too many officers to investigate the case.

There have been reports the police had 100 officers involved in the investigation. Civic Party legislator Ronnie Tong Ka-wah told local radio on Monday he believed police may have over-reacted.

SCMP Feb 4, 2008

Lack of physical activities 'speeds up ageing'

Leading a sedentary lifestyle may make us genetically old before our time, a study suggests.

A study of twins found those who were physically active during their leisure time appeared biologically younger than their sedentary peers.

The researchers found key pieces of DNA called telomeres shortened more quickly in inactive people. It is thought that could signify faster cellular ageing.

The King's College London study appears in Archives of Internal Medicine.

An active lifestyle has been linked to lower rates of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer.

However, the latest research suggests that inactivity not only makes people more vulnerable to disease, but may actually speed up the ageing process itself.

The King's team studied 2,401 white twins, asking them to fill out questionnaires on their level of physical activity, and taking a blood sample from which DNA was extracted.

They particularly focused on telomeres, the repeat sequences of DNA that sit on the ends of chromosomes, protecting them from damage.

As people age, their telomeres become shorter, leaving cells more susceptible to damage and death.

Examining white blood cells from the immune system in particular, the researchers found that, on average, telomeres lost 21 component parts - called nucleotides - every year.

But men and women who were less physically active in their leisure time had shorter leukocyte telomeres compared to those who were more active.

The average telomere length in those who took the least amount of exercise - 16 minutes of physical activity a week - was 200 nucleotides shorter than those who took the most exercise - 199 minutes of physical activity a week, such as running, tennis or aerobics.

The most active people had telomeres of a length comparable to those found in inactive people who were up to 10 years' younger, on average.

Direct comparison of twins who had different levels of physical activity produced similar results.

Impact of stress

The researchers suggest that physically inactive people may be more vulnerable to the damage caused to cells by exposure to oxygen, and to inflammation.

Stress is also thought to have an impact on telomere length, and the researchers suggest people who exercise regularly may help to reduce their stress levels.

Writing in the journal, the researchers said: "Our results show that adults who partake in regular physical activity are biologically younger than sedentary individuals.

"This conclusion provides a powerful message that could be used by clinicians to promote the potential anti-ageing effect of regular exercise."

In an accompanying editorial, Dr Jack Guralnik, of the US National Institute on Aging, said more work was needed to show a direct relationship between ageing and physical activity.

He said: "Persons who exercise are different from sedentary persons in many ways, and although certain variables were adjusted for in this analysis, many additional factors could be responsible for the biological differences between active and sedentary persons.

"Nevertheless, this article serves as one of many pieces of evidence that telomere length might be targeted in studying ageing outcomes."

BBC News