Congratulations! U.S. President-elect Barack Obama

What an election! and the result has been mind-blowing in its implications not only for the U.S.A. but the whole world as well.  Sen. Barack Obama has become the President-elect of the United States of America.  

With almost all news outlets covering this epoch-making feat of the next 44th American President, focus has been also seen on those inspired by the sheer determination, courage under fire, and eloquence of this relatively young U.S. presidential candidate to become the first African-American President of the U.S.A. The youth vote definitely helped in his victory, for as pundits have it, his speeches, demeanor, and programs have inspired a largely apathetic 18-35 year-old demographic to come out and vote. 

Alas, vote they did: 336 electoral votes for Barack Obama against John McCain’s 163. In the popular votes, that’s 59,380,437 for Obama against 53,443,728 for McCain. (source:CNN); Record-breaking numbers definitely for this 2008 U.S. Election.

His victory is definitely inspiring for us who just don’t dream of change, who don’t just give in to apathy to our world’s and our respective country’s myriad problems, who do their little bit to contribute to the common good.

Yes, We Can Barack…Yes, We Can!

Scene from a campaign clip released just before the election.

Georgia Chrome is Way Hotter than Felicity Fox…

Ok, the title of this post is downright cheesy; bordering on those DVD box covers you might see on AFDB.

Sorry about that…

Now, on to my two cents’ of what Google Chrome (aka Georgia Chrome) and how it compares to the browser-on-my-desktop-at-the-moment FireFox 2 (aka Felicity Fox) with add-ons galore .

Yesterday morning, I had a newsletter in my inbox and rss entry on GReader (that’s Google Reader)  from CNET.com (by the way, gives no BS reviews) about Google Chrome Beta. Well, I trust them, so I headed to the download page of Google Chrome Beta where I was impressed by the get-to-know videos and the comic illustrations on why Google had to come up with their own browser as an idea whose time has come.

Well, needless to say, I downloaded the newest browser AND boy, was I impressed. Just as the introductory videos described it, it was clean, simple, and had a few tricks up its sleeve and ‘under the hood’. The local “techie”, whom I owe my arse countless of times, seconded my opinion about it.

Benchmarking testing on Google Chrome Beta

I had the whole morning tooling around its features. And what really got me hooked with this innovative browser is the incognito window (awesome for security freaks like me; once bitten and twice shy, may I add). I get to keep on browsing without ever being afraid of tracking ‘cookies’ and other malware from getting to my PC/workstation (I run Chrome Beta on Windows XP SP2 on an Intel Dual Core 2.0 Ghz unit with 1 GB of RAM). 

I happen to have a bad habit of opening multiple tabs or windows on my FireFox browser. With Google Chrome, I am assured that if a tab or window on it happens to ‘crash’, it won’t affect the whole system. That’s another great feature about this new browser from Google, which they brag as “being built from the ground-up”.

Well, there are more great features on this browser I have yet to discover and I do still use my FireFox ver. 2 with my essential add-ons as a back-up browser just in case. Chrome is still on beta (as of this writing) and there are still some issues to be resolved such as Mozilla Firefox add-on compatibility (yeah, how soon can they be had on Chrome?) and much more to be found out by third-party testers/reviewers in the coming days and weeks.

My own two cents’ here is I like it. It’s fast, it has a clean and simple interface, the keyboard shortcuts on it are familiar (Mozilla had a hand in its development, some pundits say) and how it appears on my 15-in. LCD screen (fabulous!). 

I really can’t wait ’til it is out of beta.

Great job, Google, GREAT job!

Video reviews about Google Chrome Beta from:

Associated Press Tech Video Review about Google Chrome 
CNET.com Video Review about Google Chrome

Google Chrome Beta and Firefox 3 side-by-side:

Lingerie on The Street

We don't see THIS everyday...

I was working through my tasks for the day and I was searching for good blogs that had ‘great marketing’ written all over it.

I was definitely surprised (pleasantly so) about this ‘newly discovered’ blog/site. It had of all names, www.bastardly.com. And yeah, it had humor, gossip, latest pics of the great-looking lady celebs and not-bad-looking-either dude celebs.

I really had to repost this pic from that site/blog for it was a ‘great marketing idea’: lingerie on the street. We don’t see this everyday.

Whoever thought of this publicity stunt huh? It’s GREAT!

The company who did this by the way is a British chain of ‘lifestyle’ stores called Ann Summers, quite known for its line of adult accessories and apparel. As the post relates, they have been targeting female consumers recently with new lines in their stores such as Passion8, Stringfellows, and Playboy among others.

A publicity stunt for sure and mighty effective to grab attention. The models could be mistaken for street walkers in London, U.K. in the afternoon (see the comments on the original post, hilarious exchange!). See the lady in the background taking a pic on her cameraphone? Probably sending this scene to her friends (‘Look, ain’t the knickers cute?’).

Other lingerie marketers should take cue; marketing your wares are more effective if its in the flesh and done on the street c”,

Here is the link to that ‘great marketing’ post:

Ann Summers Lingerie Models Hit Oxford Street | The Bastardly

Sweden’s Great Lake Monster

As we have been bitten by the Chupacabra, Big Foot, Sasquatch, and the Montauk Monster ‘mythvertising’ recently, yet another mythical monster is starting to get ‘camera friendly’.

The Storsjoe or Great Lake Monster allegedly has been captured on video as seen above. This was a result of an effort by a local shopkeepers association to confirm the existence of what has been a local legend of a serpent-like creature living beneath the waters of a lake near the municipality of Berg, Sweden.

There have been sightings that have been first recorded in 1635 and the most recent one was last July of 2008. The said creature has been described as a long, serpent-like beast with humps, with a small cat or dog-like head and ears or fins pressed against the neck.

Since this was funded by a local interest, it is not farfetched that this might be another example ‘mythvertising’ to lure tourists and perhaps global attention to the area.

Tourist councils all over the world, you better have your own mythical creature, ‘confirm’ it on video and upload it on the Web. There’s nothing like a brilliant ‘hoax’ to get the local shopkeepers’ cash registers ringing! c”,

Another recent clip from Swedish TV about the Storsjoe Monster…

Sarah Palin: The Next U.S. Vice-President ?

Sarah Palin - the first female vice-president in U.S. history?

The newly-chosen running mate of Sen. John McCain in the U.S. presidential race is Sarah Palin. She has not been much on the international scene as of late as bloggers all over have recently uploaded slideshows of obviously digitally retouched photos of her.

Going against the Democratic Party juggernaut of Obama-Biden, Sen. John McCain chose a seemingly photogenic running mate, not that she ain’t got good credentials. She has been the first woman governor of the state of Alaska, popular at that, and she has been known to be a Republican with her own mind (does not necessarily ‘toe’ the party line).

The U.S. presidential race just got mighty interesting with an ex-beauty queen, ex-news anchor AND ex-Governor of Alaska as vice-presidential contender in the Republican Party corner.

Let the viral marketing begin…

Some links of interest about Sen. John McCain’s V.P. running mate:

A new anchor in the 80’s

Sarah Palin supporters online video campaign clip

Hot Vice Presidents – Blogosphere Becomes Obsessed With Sarah Palin Photos (GALLERY)

(TREND HUNTER) Sarah Palin Photos? YES! There have already been articles about the Sarah Palin bio and the idea she’d be the first female vice president… People are obsessing about the fact that she might be the first… [More]

Religulous

I had the luxury of browsing around Youtube (part of work, nice ain’t it?) and happened on a really funny documentary from the producers of “Fahrenheit 9/11″.

With Bill Maher, the coolest comic since George Carlin, fronting the whole thing this REALLY got to be funny.

Religiosity as comedic fodder, GENIUS!

Bill Maher talking about his film/documentary on Larry King Live:

Here is the trailer…of Religulous (did I spell that right?)

Nice to hear something really funny from the “atheist agenda” once in a while. c”,

About Face Transplants

This undated two picture combo provided by The Lancet, shows an unidentified 29-year-old man with tumors, left, and the same man, right, after a transplanted new lower face from a donor. AP

A great majority of us wished or are still wishing to be somebody else…right? Well, when I was a kid in highschool, I wished that would to have the look of Slash, the guitarist of Guns N’ Roses of ’90s notoriety (among other rock gods during that era).

I also wished to have the face of George Clooney, as to what he looked during his ‘ER’ series days.

Hmmm, this news clip and pic I saw on my news feed subscription might just be that answer to my fantasies and probably yours.

Scientists and doctors from France have just reported on Friday, August 22 that their yet-unnamed face transplant patient has been able to blink and smile, two years after his operation (See photo).

Imagine that, like in the movie Face-Off, medical science is now capable of transplanting faces. Talk about “truth being stranger than fiction” huh? As was written, it took a series of complicated surgery and anti-tissue rejection drugs were needed for the doctors and scientists to pull off this unprecedented feat. It is a long-way off before this technology would be perfected. But in my opinion, give it another 5 to 10 years, this type of surgery would be commonplace like face lifts and Botox injections.

Hmmm, I could hear a “skin doctor” in not-so-distant future telling a client: “Mam, if you would really want to look younger, I have a list of freshly harvested faces from fresh cadavers for your perusal…” Yikes!

Face transplants anyone? c”,

For more: Face transplant patient can smile, blink again – Yahoo! News