My Digital Online Diary

Angelina Jolie is among the very few celebrities who don’t use a publicist to handle her image in the media and that’s because, despite being a very high-profile star, she does that herself. Given the amount of the media coverage she and partner Brad Pitt get, this also means filtering out which stories about themselves they read– and that excludes Andrew Morton’s recently released so-called “scandalous” unauthorized biography.

“According to the Los Angeles Times, Morton’s Angelina doesn’t so much tell all as explain all: ‘surprisingly sympathetic,’ spouts the Times, which also reveals Morton relied heavily on a host of shrink types who explain Ms. Misunderstood from a distance, while never having met the woman,” Casablanca says of the biography, which is marketed as a “scandalous tell-all.” “They don’t care,” is how the Brangelina source describes the stars’ reaction to the release of the book, saying they will most certainly not be buying a copy.

“Don’t forget, they have people who show them things, when necessary. That’s when they just call their lawyer. They have two they regularly use, I believe,” the source says. “The Brangie chum’s translated words could be interpreted as: if you want Brad and Angie themselves to be interested, know that what you write will pass through their attorneys first. We don’t think any Brangie legal eyeballs will be popping over Morton’s latest book, just as was the case with his bleh Cruise job,” Casablanca concludes, drawing a comparison with Morton’s previous release, which promised an expose on Cruise and did one on Scientology instead.

Even before, I’m very open about my intention to buy gold coins. But, I could not do it immediately because I don’t have the resources yet. It means I have no wealth to protect. Even if that is the case, I’m still interested to learn more about it and its updates.

Just this morning, I read an article about gold trading yesterday. Well, I’m not so good at it, that’s why it left me confused over the terms used. Basically, gold was receiving special attention from investors since last year and when it hit all-time highs that interest peaked even further. But, even with all the interest in gold we are far from approaching a gold bubble.

Since the turn of the century many investors fled to gold to protect their investments due to the depreciating currency, real estate crash and rising unemployment levels have left the country in a recession.

Mining companies felt the pain when gold prices fell to around $300/oz. Many decided to cut their expenses and abandon all mining projects in order to cut costs and keep revenue. Now that gold has once again soared, mining companies are back in the game and moving at full speed exploring 20-30 year-old deposits with new technology as well as exploring untouched deposits. So, we will be expecting more towards the yellow metal. And there is no doubt that investors will be watching the yellow metal very closely over the coming years and we may see gold break new records.

Year 2010 is for singer Katy Perry as she named Maxim magazine “The First Lady of Hot,” after carefully analyzing and comparing her achievements in music, fashion and, of course, the degree of hotness exposed on public outings and magazine spreads. Last year’s number one, “House” star Olivia Wilde, took a tumble out of top 10, landing on the 20th position.

“Katy Perry might croon about a dude being ‘Hot N Cold,’ but the star herself never strays from the hot spot as the very top of our 2010 Hot 100 List. The perfect Perry first caught our attention in 2008 with her smash hit, ‘I Kissed a Girl’ – and we liked it. Yeah, we were more than okay with Katy’s kiss-and-tell attitude and the bi-curious beauty has been on our radar ever since,” Maxim says in an introductory piece on the highly popular singer, who always turns heads for her stunning looks as well.

“Lately, her engagement to British comedian Russell Brand has bought her quite a bit of face time in the gossip blogs. And now, the west coast cutie is making more waves with her recently released single ‘California Gurls’- sure to be a staple on this summer’s party playlist. With her new album coming out this summer, the number one stunner will no doubt continue to burn up the pop charts and light a fire in our hearts,” Maxim further says of Katy’s lasting power. Read more… »

According to the latest news, the group behind the world’s most popular smartphone operating system – Symbian – is giving away “billions of dollars” worth of code for free. The Symbian Foundation’s announced that it would make its code open source in 2008 and has now completed the move. This means that any organization or individual can now use and modify the platform’s underlying source code “for any purpose”. “This is the largest open source migration effort ever,” Lee Williams of the Symbian Foundation stated.

They believe that the move will attract new developers to work on the system and help speed up the pace of improvements. This might increase rate of evolution and increase the rate of innovation of the platform.

Ian Fogg, principal analyst at Forrester research, said the move was about Symbian “transitioning from one business model to another” as well as trying to gain “momentum and mindshare” for software that had been overshadowed by the release of Apple’s iPhone and Google Android operating system.

According to BBC News, a new search engine and social network provider called Goojje has appeared online in China. This site contains very similar branding to Google, and the final syllable “jje” sounds similar to the Mandarin word for older sister (jiejie).

Goojje’s search results appear to be filtered for sensitive content in accordance with Chinese regulations. Google has recently objected to those restrictions, but the new site appears to be urging it to remain in China. Google said on 12 January that hackers had tried to infiltrate its software coding and the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists, in a “highly sophisticated” attack.

The California-based firm – which launched in China in 2006 – said it would remain in China only if the government relaxed censorship. Goojje has a message on its site which reads: “Sister was very happy when brother gave up the thought of leaving and stayed for sister”.

While Goojje sounds like “sister”, the word Google sounds similar to the Mandarin word gege, which means “big brother”. Google has declined to comment.

The founder of Microsoft Bill Gates and his wife Melinda have said they will donate $10bn over the next 10 years to develop and deliver new vaccines. Mr Gates, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, said the aim was to see 90% of children in developing countries immunized.

Over the past 10 years, the couple’s charity has committed $4.5bn to the development of vaccines. This commitment has been called by the WHO (World Health Organization) as “unprecedented”.

“The increasing immunization coverage in poorer countries to 90% it should be possible to save the lives of 7.6 million children under five between 2010 and 2019. We must make this the decade of vaccines. Vaccines already save and improve millions of lives in developing countries. Innovation will make it possible to save more children than ever before. Money was needed to make the most of new vaccines now becoming available, including ones against severe diarrhea and pneumonia,” Mr. Gates said in a statement.

Melinda Gates added: “Vaccines are a miracle. With just a few doses, they can prevent deadly diseases for a lifetime. We’ve made vaccines our number one priority at the Gates Foundation because we have seen firsthand their incredible impact on children’s lives.”

“This was really an unprecedented contribution and urged governments and private donors to add to the initiative. An additional two million deaths in children under 5 years could be prevented by 2015 through widespread use of new vaccines and a 10% increase in global vaccination coverage,”  Margaret Chan, head of the World Health Organization said.