Happy New Year 2010

Kids Are Quick

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TEACHER: Maria, go to the map and find North America .
MARIA: Here it is.
TEACHER: Correct. Now class, who discovered America?
CLASS: Maria.
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TEACHER: John, why are you doing your math multiplication on the floor?
JOHN: You told me to do it without using tables.
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TEACHER: Glenn, how do you spell 'crocodile?'
GLENN: K-R-O-K-O-D-I-A-L'
TEACHER: No, that's wrong
GLENN: Maybe it is wrong, but you asked me how I spell it.

(I Love this kid)
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TEACHER: Donald, what is the chemical formula for water?
DONALD: H I J K L M N O.
TEACHER: What are you talking about?
DONALD: Yesterday you said it's H to O.
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TEACHER: Winnie, name one important thing we have today that we didn't have ten years ago.
WINNIE: Me!
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TEACHER: Glen, why do you always get so dirty?
GLEN: Well, I'm a lot closer to the ground than you are.
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TEACHER: Millie, give me a sentence starting with ' I. '
MILLIE: I is..
TEACHER: No, Millie..... Always say, 'I am.'
MILLIE: All right... 'I am the ninth letter of the alphabet.'
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TEACHER: George Washington not only chopped down his father's cherry tree, but also admitted it.
Now, Louie, do you know why his father didn't punish him?
LOUIS: Because George still had the axe in his hand....
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TEACHER: Now, Simon, tell me frankly, do you say prayers before eating?
SIMON: No sir, I don't have to, my Mom is a good cook.
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TEACHER: Clyde, your composition on 'My Dog' is exactly the same as your brother's... Did you copy his?
CLYDE : No, sir. It's the same dog.
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TEACHER: Harold, what do you call a person who keeps on talking when people are no longer interested?
HAROLD: A teacher


LAUGHTER IS THE SOUL'S MEDICINE!

Christmas Box Office: Avatar Beats Sherlock and Alvin

Hollywood gave audiences what they wanted, and moviegoers returned the favor by giving the film industry its favorite present: a record-breaking frame at the box office. According to early studio estimates, North Americans spent some $263 million at theaters this Christmas weekend, obliterating the $254 million mark set in July 2008, when The Dark Knight and Mamma Mia! both opened. And what did the multiplex crowds want on the first days of Christmas? Sing along: foreplay from Meryl, three sassy rodents, two blue Pandorans and a sleuth with a killer right hook. (See TIME's 2009 holiday movie preview.)

The mammoth totals are the surest indication of a new Christmas Day ritual: Americans rip open their presents, gulp down the turkey dinner, speed-kiss their relatives goodbye and rush off to the multiplex. Or maybe the whole family goes — the kids to Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel; young males to the action film Sherlock Holmes; older females to see Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin in It's Complicated; and just about everyone sampling James Cameron's enviro-alien epic, Avatar. The record $85 million amassed on Friday accounts for a lot of tickets, even given the $18.50 price that Avatar is getting in some theaters for its 3-D IMAX version. With the annual domestic box office topping $10 billion for the first time, and a solid week of vacation time for kids and adults coming up, business couldn't be more robust for Hollywood. To the rest of the U.S. economy, the moguls say: What recession?

Getting a jump on the Christmas competition, The Squeakquel opened Wednesday, nabbed a quick $18.8 million and knocked the reigning champ, Avatar, out of the No. 1 slot. The Cameron picture came back to the top the next day. Then on Friday Sherlock Holmes, Guy Ritchie's reworking of the Conan Doyle detective as a brainiac with a brawler's fists, hit the theaters and set a $24.8 million Christmas Day record, beating last year's Marley and Me by more than $10 million — and Avatar by about $1 million. On Saturday, Cameron again bounced back to No. 1; his movie will win the weekend comfortably. (See the top 10 movies of 2009.)

The Sunday figures place Avatar's three-day take at $75 million — an increase from the $73 million total announced this time last weekend, but a shade less than the actual $77 million in the final figures released Monday. So things may still change, depending on how many Sunday tickets Avatar sells. When the three-day tally is complete, the movie may have beaten The Dark Knight for the all-time best gross on a second weekend. It has now taken in $212.3 million in the U.S. and Canada, and another $400 million or so abroad. Worldwide, after just 10 days of release, Avatar is already the sixth highest-grossing picture of the year, after Harry Potter 6, Ice Age 3, Transformers 2, 2012 and New Moon. And it's just getting started.

The two runners-up still have bragging rights. Alvin took in more in its first four days than the early December animated feature The Princess and the Frog did in its first 32 days (18 in wide release). The chipmunks should earn back their $70 million budget in a week or two. And Sherlock Holmes handed Ritchie, once known mainly as Mr. Madonna, his first real hit; the director's five previous features have taken in a total of about $40 million at the North American box office. He achieved success both by turning Holmes from a contemplative sort into an action hero, and by filling the role with Robert Downey Jr., who has proved his action-film bona fides as the star of Iron Man. Budgeted at a reasonable $90 million, Sherlock is now a cinch for a sequel. And no question that Alvin will be back for a shriekquel, or a threatquel — anyway, a threequel.

The weekend sent mixed signals to It's Complicated. A romantic comedy about a divorced woman (Streep) who gets chummy with her ex (Baldwin) while entertaining the attentions of another beau (Martin), the movie cost a high-ish $85 million to make; apparently veteran stars are still paid decent salaries, as is a writer-director (Nancy Meyers) with a solid track record (What Women Want, Something's Gotta Give). But a romantic triangle with three stars whose combined age is 175 has trouble appealing to teen daters. To make its money back, It's Complicated will have to lure the Red Hat Society and other women of a certain age. They go to movies, all right, but not necessarily on Christmas weekend — somebody has to cook the meals and do the dishes. A healthy A- CinemaScore from exiting moviegoers suggests that Streep & Co., still have a shot.

So the weekend box-office results were like the prizes a school gives to all sports competitors: everyone's a winner! The one exception was Nine, starring Daniel Day-Lewis as a film director at a crisis in his life and career, and five Oscar-laden actresses dressing up this musical version of Federico Fellini's 8½. The picture earned $5.5 million in 1,412 theaters — a slow start for a film meant to give the ailing Weinstein Company a life-saving box-office boost. Movies about movies are rarely big hits (audiences want to eat the sausage, not see how it's made); a downer musical about a pampered, well-paid man experiencing a failure of imagination is an even tougher sell. The movie will get a boost from exposure on the Jan. 17 Golden Globes show, where it is nominated for five awards. But on Christmas, Nine was the one orphan. It got coal, not gold.

Here are the totals for the weekend's top-grossing pictures in North American theaters, as reported by Box Office Mojo:

1. Avatar, $75 million; $212.3 million, second week
2. Sherlock Holmes, $65.4 million, first weekend
3. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, $50.2 million; $77.1 million, first five days
4. It's Complicated, $22.1 million, first weekend
5. Up in the Air, $11.8 million; $24.5 million, fourth week
6. The Blind Side, $11.7 million; $184.4 million, sixth week
7. The Princess and the Frog, $8.7 million; $63.4 million, fifth week
8. Nine, $5.5 million; $5.9 million, second week
9. Did You Hear About the Morgans?, $5 million; $15.6 million, second week
10. Invictus, $4.4 million; $23.4 million, third week

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Australia to hire thousands of skilled OFWs

Thousands of skilled overseas Filipino workers (OFW) are expected to be employed in Australia next year with the scheduled signing of a labor agreement next month, Labor Secretary Marianito Roque said Sunday.

Roque said he would flying to Australia on January to sign the agreement for the hiring of thousands of Filipino professionals.

He said the agreement that would be inked with Southern Australia would open good quality and high-paying jobs to Filipino workers.

“Those who would qualify for the jobs would get at least $4,000 monthly salary and there would be no placement fee," Roque said.

The government had earlier reported that Australia is expected to hire about 300,000 Filipino workers in the next three to five years.

Besides Australia , Roque said the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is also exploring possible new markets for Filipino professional workers.

He said Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Middle East are expected to hire the most number of skilled Filipino workers, including engineers, construction and hotel workers.

But local recruitment agencies said the expected passage of the amended Migrant Workers Act may lead to downtrend in hiring of OFWs in 2010.

Lito Soriano, a recruitment consultant, said the proposed law approved by the bicameral committee mandates that the country would deploy workers only to countries with existing bilateral agreements with the Philippines. Only 14 out of 194 nations have bilateral relations with the Philippines.

Likewise, recruitment leaders reported that the recent decision of Japan Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to postpone the implementation of the agreement on the establishment of a US military facility in Okinawa may also imperil the hiring of more OFWs in the coming year.

The Philippine government is hoping to capture at least 20,000 jobs for Filipino construction workers in Japan with the start of the construction of the US facility there. - Jerrie Abella/KBK, GMANews.TV

Mayon Volcano, The Phillipines

Tens of thousands of people living within the danger zone of Mayon Volcano in the Philippines were forced to evacuate to emergency shelters in mid-December 2009 as small earthquakes, incandescent lava at the summit and minor ash falls suggested a major eruption was on the way. On the evening of Dec. 14, the local volcano observatory raised the alert level to Level 3, which means "magma is close to the crater and hazardous explosive eruption is imminent."

This natural-color image of Mayon was captured on Dec. 15, 2009, by the Advanced Land Imager on NASA's Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite. A small plume of ash and steam is blowing west from the summit. Dark-colored lava or debris flows from previous eruptions streak the flanks of the mountain. A ravine on the southeast slope is occupied by a particularly prominent lava or debris flow.

The Phillipine Star said on Dec. 22 that "ashfall blanketed at least three towns in Albay, raising new health fears for thousands already bracing for an eruption that could come at any time ... Health officials warned the tiny particles could cause respiratory problems or skin diseases, and could affect the thousands of people crammed into evacuation centers.

Also on Dec. 22, CNN reported that "tens of thousands of people have already fled their homes. More than 9,000 families -- a total of 44,394 people -- are being housed in evacuation camps after authorities raised the alert status of the country's most active volcano" as "fountains of red-hot lava shot up from the intensifying Mayon volcano."

Top 10 Christmas Gifts 2009

The festivity of Christmas is around the corner and the shopping malls and other centers are all filled with beautiful gift baskets. The celebration of Christmas takes place with great pomp and show. It is the tradition of Christmas to exchange gifts among the closed ones. There are gift items like cards and chocolates that will never go out of fashion. But, when it comes to gift something special you must look for more and more hi tech products are getting launched. So, it's always better to look out for the more popular gifts to be presented on Christmas. Here are given some popular Christmas gift ideas that will enable you to know about the top 10 Christmas gifts 2009:

2009 Hot Christmas Gifts

Digital Camera
One of the best gifts that you can give to you loved ones this Christmas is a digital camera, preferably one with 10 MP resolutions. Whether they are sitting at home, enjoying on a picnic or having a candlelit dinner, the digital camera will help them capture the precious moments and keep them forever. Can there be a better gift than this!

Nintendo Wii
The latest gaming console of Nintendo, known as Wii, is just the gift for your teenage kids who swear by their video games. Apart from the legendary Nintendo franchises like Mario, Zelda and Metroid, it also offers new classics like Wii Sports and Wii Play. You can also create your own Mii character and even play with your friends, in the Wii games.

Apple iPod Touch
After the sensation created by Apple iPod, it is now the time for the product's latest version to make news. Apple iPod Touch is equipped with the same multi-touch user interface that was introduced in the iPhone. Apart from that, it also features Wi-Fi wireless networking, Safari browser, Google Search or Yahoo! oneSearch, YouTube application and iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store.

Caster Board
Move over skateboards. The year 2009 has brought the caster board into preview. It is basically a two-wheeled, self-propelled vehicle. Unlike a skateboard, while riding it, the feet do not need to leave the board to gain speed. In fact, more than a skateboard, it is a snowboard that riding in caster board reminds one of.

Apple iPhone
Released by Apple in July 2008, iPhone is becoming one of the most-wanted Christmas gifts gradually. An internet-connected multimedia smartphone, it features a flush multi-touch screen and minimal hardware interface. Apart from being a camera phone, it serves as a portable music player and a mini laptop. Apple iPhone is perfect for those who love to own the latest gadgets.

Universal Remote
This Christmas, present your parents or grandparents with a universal remote. It can be programmed to operate a number of electronic devices within the house, such as TV, DVD player, music system, air conditioner, and the like. The remote will comprise of a power button, channel and volume up/down selectors, numeric keypad, set button, etc.

Hannah Montana Toys
Hannah Montana is the name of a television series that debuted on Disney Channel in March 2006. The central character of the series leads a double life: as a school girl - Miley Stewart in the day and a famous pop singer - Hannah Montana in the night. The series became a hit amongst teenagers and now, Hannah Montana toys are amongst the most preferred gift items.

Lamaze Toys
If your child is still an infant, then Lamaze toys present the perfect choice for Christmas gifts. Based on Lamaze Philosophy of Parenting, these toys help parents contribute towards the development of their child. The selection of Lamaze toys differs according to the stage of a baby's development. Go ahead and buy these toys for your baby, helping him grow properly.

Robot Dog
One of the most popular Christmas toys for 2009 is the robot dog. It is nothing, but a robot that is designed to resemble a dog, in appearance as well as in behavior. Many toy companies have come out with robots, covered with synthetic hair, which have been programmed to act like dogs. They give paw, sneeze, become hungry and even need to pee, just like a live mutt.

LCD TV
If you are ready to spend the moolah, then go ahead and gift an LCD TV to your loved ones. It is the latest gadget as far as TVs are concerned and is sure to be liked by the recipient, especially if he/she loves to watch movies at home. If it's someone very close to you and you can afford to spend more, a home theater system is not too far away either!

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