endroog

Arbeit Macht Frei. Ok, I just watched The Counterfeiter and was a bit taken away by the drama. This is not just any drama with a backdrop of a concentration camp. Just in case you missed the my previous post of the same movie.

Click here for the superb movie trailer.

Synopsis
The true story of Salomon Sorowitsch, counterfeiter extraordinaire and bohemian. After getting arrested in a German concentration camp in 1944, he agrees to help the Nazis in an organized counterfeit operation set up to help finance the war effort.

It was the biggest counterfeit money scam of all times. Over 130 million pound sterling were printed, under conditions that couldn’t have been more tragic or spectacular. During the last years of the war, as the German Reich saw that the end was near, the authorities decided to produce their own banknotes in the currencies of their major war enemies. They hoped to use the duds to flood the enemy economy and fill the empty war coffers. At the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, two barracks were separated from the rest of the camp and the outside world, and transformed into a fully equipped counterfeiters workshop. ‘Operation Bernhard’ was born. Prisoners were brought to Sachsenhausen from other camps to implement the plan: professional printers, fastidious bank officials and simple craftsmen all became members of the top-secret counterfeiter commando. They had the choice: if they cooperated with the enemy, they had a chance to survive, as first-class prisoners in a ‘golden cage’ with enough to eat and a bed to sleep in. If they sabotaged the operation, a sure death awaited them. For THE COUNTERFEITERS, it was not only a question of saving their own lives, but also about saving their conscience as well…

The most touching part of this story is when the Nazis fled and the concentration camp was taken over by the other unfortunate Jew inmates. The counterfeiters professional group lived in luxury and were separated from the rest of the camp. Of course they always heard of killings and cries on the other side of the wall but they felt luckier and rather blast the gramophone. When the wall separating them collapsed and the other jews went amok and saw these counterfeiters in good clean clothes, well fed, and playing ping-pong….. they couldn’t believe they are also imprisoned there and wanted to shoot them because they don’t look like the rest of them (skinny, malnourished, dirty). Thats when the counterfeiters showed them the serial numbers tattooed to their hands and the amok fellas started to believe. Then the counterfeiters showed them their barracks, their working place, their purpose and why are they given special treatment by the SS and I was so touched when the malnourished guys sat on the double-decker beds with soft clean and comfortable mattress and pillows and cried.

Man, you gotta watch this. Just don’t expect battlefield shooting spree.

Ordinary window glass, like you have around the house, is pretty amazing stuff. It’s clear, strong and cheap. But it’s also brittle, shattering into long, dangerous, wickedly sharp shards when overstressed. Plastics would be as strong, but not nearly hard enough to resist scratching and remain clear enough for a car window–just look at any plastic-glazed outdoor bus stop or phone booth, with its patina of fine scratches. For the side windows of cars, automakers have come up with a good compromise: tempered glass. It’s stronger than standard, but more importantly, when it does shatter it breaks up into small granules. These granules are still sharp, but should do less damage than the long shards of untempered glass. However, for a windshield, constantly bombarded by pebbles, tempered glass would have a short life span.

So, many years back, the car manufacturers switched to a laminated glass sandwich for the windshield. It’s a simple process. Two thinner sheets of glass are fused to a rubber inner layer. The tempered-glass outer layers are then independent of each other. The rubbery center sheet provides damping to any shock waves from errant stones, reducing the probability of breakage. And if the glass is hit by an object smartly enough, odds are that only the outer sheet will break, as is the case with most stone chips. If a really big piece of debris hits the glass hard enough to break both inner and outer layers, the tough membrane prevents it from winding up in your lap. Even better, the shards of glass from the inner lamination wind up stuck to the membrane, keeping them from spalling away from the windshield at a high velocity, causing great havoc. You can repair your windshield though.

I often heard people telling me that they have lost their crucial data that was stored in the hard disk after they accidentally deleted the files. Well, I don’t want to experience this but sometime accident just happens. So, how are we gonna recover our important data such as our doctorate thesis for instance which is stored in the computer hard disk. Many people do not have the habit of doing backup hence there’s no contingency plan should a hard disk fail or just accidentally deleted the files or directories.

In order to Recover Deleted Files, it is wise to leave it to the professional such as Flashback Data and NOT to try it at home. Flashback Data has advanced recovery techniques that allow them to repair and recover your critical data from any type of computers, operating systems and filesystems. Whether you need to recover deleted files or have suffered from a computer virus, they just has a solution for you.

Took the monorail to go to class this evening and as usual, it was the rush hour. Time was like about 5.45pm and there’s quite a lot of people squeezing in and out of the monorail train. Ok, BEWARE OF PICKPOCKETS IN THE MONORAIL TRAIN. You’ll see a lot of malay or indonesian guys standing near the train door, and you must beware. They are pickpockets.

Its easy to differentiate a malicious person…. ok… I know if someone is up to no good. I’m very alert when these natakaran or mat rempit-like people come near me as I was a victim of mat rempit snatch thieve sometime ago. They normally wear tshirts and quite smelly. They don’t seem to need to work hence they wear smelly casual outfits- tshirt, jeans etc. They normally operate in a group of 2-3 people so that they can disperse off easily.

There’s this guy standing right behind me and luckily I was holding my book and jacket. My hands were on both side touching my wallet with my one hand and handphone with another hand. Then suddenly a hand wander to my pocket and trying to force into my pocket. Instantly I know it was a pickpocket in operation. I looked at the guy and he pretended to look out of the window. My hand kept pressing my pocket and my book helped a bit to block the probing hand. Then I looked stared at the guy and again he pretended and looked out of the window. At the next station, he quickly left knowing his operation foiled by me.

Now… I regret for not punching him or at least alert all the other commuters. The train was packed and there were many ladies around. Now, maybe i should have a blade or something sharp handy so that I can teach these fellas a lesson.

Advice for guys: Always keep your hands in your pocket and safeguard your valuables in pockets- handphone, wallet etc. The front pockets of your trousers are easy target. Don’t talk on phone and get distracted. Be sensitive on all body contacts.

Advice for ladies: Keep everything precious in your handbag and keep your bag in front of your chest. Again, don’t talk on the phone and be sensitive on all body contacts.

Ever thought of assembling your own PC and save some bucks along the way? It doesn’t matter if you are building a PC for hardcore gaming, serious business or even the most basic computer for the kids, you can be sure of saving a lot from assembling it your own. Do it yourself.

Often people ask me How to Build a Computer and I don’t want to repeat myself everytime so would introduce everyone of you, EasyAsMyPC.com . You can tailor the computer hardwares to suit your requirement and budget and buy it online. They are selling you the kit, I mean the hardwares and you can assemble it yourself. So, you save on labour work to assemble the PC which can be quite pricey. Besides that, you can learn how to do it and should any hardware goes faulty and need replacement, you already know how to fix it.

They include plain English instructions with lots of illustrations. You can also get upgrade kits to increase your ram or replace your CPU. All you need is a screwdriver and they can help you save about $100.00 .

LA Times reports that Germany has barred the makers of “Valkyrie,” about a plot to kill Adolf Hitler, from filming at German military sites because its star Tom Cruise is a Scientologist. Cruise, also one of the film’s producers, is a member of the Church of Scientology which the German government does not recognize as a church. Berlin says it masquerades as a religion to make money, a charge Scientology leaders reject.

The U.S. actor has been cast as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, leader of the unsuccessful attempt to assassinate the Nazi dictator in July 1944 with a bomb hidden in a briefcase. Defence Ministry spokesman Harald Kammerbauer said the film makers “will not be allowed to film at German military sites if Count Stauffenberg is played by Tom Cruise, who has publicly professed to being a member of the Scientology cult.”

“In general, the Bundeswehr (German military) has a special interest in the serious and authentic portrayal of the events of July 20, 1944 and Stauffenberg’s person,” Kammerbauer said.

Stauffenberg had been deeply opposed to the Nazis’ treatment of the Jews and planted a briefcase bomb under a table near Hitler in his “Wolf’s Lair” headquarters on July 20, 1944. The bomb went off but only wounded the Fuehrer.

Plot Summary: The thriller is based on actual events, as German generals hatch a scheme to assassinate Adolf Hitler at the height of WWII.

The film, slated for a 2008 release and to be directed by Bryan Singer and co-starring Kenneth Branagh, is called “Valkyrie” after Operation Valkyrie, the plot’s codename.

The main site of interest would be the “Bendlerblock” memorial inside the Defence Ministry complex in Berlin. This is where Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators hatched the plot and where he and his closest comrades were executed when it failed.

Was at a workshop in Senawang the other day and saw this chinese deity, Ti Kung (latokong or whatever you call it), with an islam name….. Dato Haji Hassan. Yeah…… this is a free country and everyone can embrace any legal religion. By the way, is it wrong or disrespect to take picture of these deities?