Khaled Hosseni’s bestselling novel a thousand splendid suns is about two boys who grow up together in Afghanistan in the 1970s hit readers that they had to bring a film which could capture the story. The film itself is sometimes rushed and skimpy on the details but it has truly captured the main essence of the book. In San Franciso in 2000, Amir an author returns to Kabul, which is controlled by the Taliban, back then, Amir and his servant Hassan were friends and both the kids used to enter kite-flying contests to please their father. Amir starts to get jealous of Hassan because of how his father always encouraged Hassan. What breaks the friends' bond is Amir's cowardice when he does nothing to stop the rape of Hassan by a Pushtan thug, who figures later in the movie.
The movie is directed by Marc Foster, working from a short script by David Benioff and covering all the main scenes, the movie as a whole as a sensational job by the director. Both the actors Amir and Hassan give such heart-rending performances due to the horrific scenes that had to be shot the film release had to be postponed. The movie itself was truly a masterpiece.
Another similar movie came out later Slum Dog Millionaire which was about how children from the slums are abused and then used as a source of income. It was mainly about portraying the harsh realities of third world countries. Slum Dog Millionaire was later nominated in the Oscars but no credit was given to Kite Runners may be because of the reason that Kite runner focused on two boys who belonged to Afghanistan and not India? We don’t know, but this movie truly deserved an award for depicting such horrific realities with actors which gave brilliant performances. It must be said that these kind of tear-stained climaxes are much more earned here than in that previous ornament of a film. But for the stunningly captured and severe beauty of the landscape by the end one feels tired and more than a little manipulated, like one of those kites viciously jerking through the thin, cold air over Kabul.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Shoaib Malik and Sania Mirza Controversy
Shoaib Malik has been under the lime light for quite some time now. His engagement to Sania Mirza has raised more questions than answers. GEO being one of our leading national news channels which claims to be the best among all the channels has not left a drop of respect or dignity for the nation by not only humiliating our own cricket player but making it evident to the world that Pakistanis are basically attention seekers and this nation jus CANNOT stop getting the maximum attention, regardless of if its terrorism or anything else. We have all the Hot Topics of the news ALWAYS!! Thanks to our media.
Shoaib Malik’s Controversy as being one of the headlines of every news channel, Shoaib Malik and Indian tennis player Sania Mirza has been a little too hard to digest for Pakistanis and Indians. Pak-Indo relationship haven’t been so smooth ever since partition. We had our first war in 1947. “the news of me marrying to sania is true” shoaib malik said on his twitter page according to the newspaper dawn, “inshallah will get married in April”. According to Sania Mirza she wants to plan her wedding privately without media intruding, she says she has been in the media glare for a very long time and would like to plan this occasion privately and would appreciate if people could just mind their business for a little while. Her father Imran Mirza confirmed by saying that they plan on getting married in Dubai. On the other side of the story, Ayesha Siddique who claims to be Shoaib Malik’s wife has been coming on national television and threatening Shoaib Malik. According to her Shoaib Malik and Ayesha Siddique had reportedly developed friendship on the internet and Siddiqui’s father had even threatened to take Malik to court. Malik has denied any serious relationship with Siddique. The dashing cricketer was also linked with Indian actress Siali Bhagat, and there were reports of the two meeting confidentially in 2008. This isn’t the first time that Pakistani cricketer has married a high profile Indian celebrity, former cricketer Mohsin Khan married Reena Roy, which later led to a separation.
I personally think in order for Pakistan to make progress as a nation it needs to have a low profile, a low key. The media needs to play its role as being a source of knowledge which is sensible and justified not exploiting people’s personal life on national television. We don’t know what the real story is, but at the end of the day what matters is we should respect our cricketers or any celebrity figure for that matter, because these people are an asset to the nation they represent our country, and by humiliating them we are not only humiliating ourselves but the entire nation.
Shoaib Malik’s Controversy as being one of the headlines of every news channel, Shoaib Malik and Indian tennis player Sania Mirza has been a little too hard to digest for Pakistanis and Indians. Pak-Indo relationship haven’t been so smooth ever since partition. We had our first war in 1947. “the news of me marrying to sania is true” shoaib malik said on his twitter page according to the newspaper dawn, “inshallah will get married in April”. According to Sania Mirza she wants to plan her wedding privately without media intruding, she says she has been in the media glare for a very long time and would like to plan this occasion privately and would appreciate if people could just mind their business for a little while. Her father Imran Mirza confirmed by saying that they plan on getting married in Dubai. On the other side of the story, Ayesha Siddique who claims to be Shoaib Malik’s wife has been coming on national television and threatening Shoaib Malik. According to her Shoaib Malik and Ayesha Siddique had reportedly developed friendship on the internet and Siddiqui’s father had even threatened to take Malik to court. Malik has denied any serious relationship with Siddique. The dashing cricketer was also linked with Indian actress Siali Bhagat, and there were reports of the two meeting confidentially in 2008. This isn’t the first time that Pakistani cricketer has married a high profile Indian celebrity, former cricketer Mohsin Khan married Reena Roy, which later led to a separation.
I personally think in order for Pakistan to make progress as a nation it needs to have a low profile, a low key. The media needs to play its role as being a source of knowledge which is sensible and justified not exploiting people’s personal life on national television. We don’t know what the real story is, but at the end of the day what matters is we should respect our cricketers or any celebrity figure for that matter, because these people are an asset to the nation they represent our country, and by humiliating them we are not only humiliating ourselves but the entire nation.
Death by Exercise
by Zubair Ahmed
Hundreds of guys -- including some of the world's fittest men -- have taken their final breaths while wearing running shoes. Here's how to outsmart the reaper
Guy goes out for a run. It's just a 4-miler--nothing, really, to a seasoned marathoner who usually runs 10 miles a day, 7 days a week. Nobody knows why he stops 40 or 50 yards short of his front door--maybe he's checking his pulse, maybe he's tying a shoe--but everybody knows what happens next to Jim Fixx, the 52-year-old patron saint of running: He dies.
You've heard that story. But you may not know about Edmund Burke, Ph.D., who was to serious endurance cycling what Fixx was to running. He died on a training ride last fall, at age 53.
And you almost certainly haven't heard of Frederick Montz, David Nagey, or Jeffrey Williams, three brilliant physicians at Johns Hopkins University who died while running. The oldest of the three was 51.
You'd think that exercise icons should live to be 100. And yet, every year, a few of them go permanently offline at half that age.
Two questions arise. The first is obvious: Why do the hearts of such highly conditioned men fail during exercise designed to make their hearts stronger? The second is so radical it borders on treason against the health and fitness cause: Is there something wrong with the entire notion of endurance exercise as a healthy, life-extending activity?
I've been skeptical about the benefits of aerobic exercise for years. But the answers surprised even me. Pull up a chair--you'll want to be sitting down when you read this.
The Road to Nowhere
The idea that a well-trained endurance athlete could just drop dead was unfathomable a generation ago. Thomas Bassler, M.D., went so far as to say that anyone who could finish a marathon in less than 4 hours could not have serious heart problems. He conducted a study on 14 marathoners who had died of cardiovascular disease, and concluded that all were malnourished. Unfortunately, he reported this conclusion in the July 27, 1984, edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Fixx had died 7 days earlier.
Nobody today believes that endurance training confers immunity to anything, whether it's sudden death from heart disease or the heartbreak of psoriasis. Every time you lace up your running shoes, there's a chance your final kick will involve a bucket, and every expert knows this.
"I think the risk is inescapable, and it's bigger than we're letting on," says Paul Thompson, M.D., director of preventive cardiology at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut and a researcher who studies sudden death and exercise. One of Dr. Thompson's studies showed that 10 percent of the heart attacks treated at his hospital were exercise related. "Those heart attacks tend to be in people who aren't fit," he says. "But that doesn't mean that's the only group that gets it, unfortunately. There are these very fit guys who go out for a run and drop dead."
Dr. Thompson's studies and others show that the chances of sudden death are about one in every 15,000 to 18,000 exercisers per year. That comes to one death for every 1.5 million exercise bouts. Curiously, the most serious endurance athletes seem to be at the greatest risk. Here's how it breaks down, according to an often-cited 1982 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine: <* />
• One death per 17,000 men who exercise vigorously 1 to 19 minutes a week
• One death per 23,000 men who exercise vigorously 20 to 139 minutes a week
• One death per 13,000 men who exercise vigorously 140 or more minutes a week
I had to look at the chart twice to see its startling conclusion: The highest death rate is among the men who exercise long and hard, and is much higher than that of the men who exercise short and hard. Worse, the guys who do hardly any vigorous exercise had a lower death rate than the guys who do the most.
About a zillion studies -- I lost count in the millions -- have shown that aerobic exercise leads to a healthier heart and a longer life.
Exercise Caution
Stay Alive
You're young and you're extremely fit. Almost always, that's a good thing. But in rare cases, a high fitness level hides--and may even help cause--a heart disorder known as ARVD. It's a genetic condition in which the muscle of the right ventricle turns into fatty or fibrous tissue.
Signs of ARVD (arrhythmogenic right-ventricular dysplasia) and other stealthy cardiac disorders include the following:
• Passing out, especially during exercise
• Heart palpitations, especially during exercise
• Sudden death of a family member, particularly a sibling or parent, before age 60. A heart attack "out of the blue" might be an indication of a hidden genetic condition
In ARVD, as the right ventricular muscle changes, abnormal heart rhythms occur, leading to the symptoms. If you're worried, go to a doctor--a series of noninvasive tests can determine whether you have the disorder. The Web site arvd.com can give you more information.
Ironically, patients with ARVD can be very fit athletes; extreme exercise may trigger the condition in those with the inherited susceptibility, says Hugh Calkins, M.D., director of electrophysiology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Moreover, young, athletic men often shrug off the warning signs
ARVD affects about one in 5,000 people but may be the cause of up to 20 percent of sudden cardiac deaths in people under the age of 35.
Coronary artery disease and heart attacks account for about 80 percent of the sudden cardiac deaths in America each year. ARVD and other inherited conditions cause the rest, Dr. Calkins says. These disorders, which affect men more than women, include long QT syndrome and Brugada syndrome (problems with electrical impulses in the heart), and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (thickening of the heart muscle
Hundreds of guys -- including some of the world's fittest men -- have taken their final breaths while wearing running shoes. Here's how to outsmart the reaper
Guy goes out for a run. It's just a 4-miler--nothing, really, to a seasoned marathoner who usually runs 10 miles a day, 7 days a week. Nobody knows why he stops 40 or 50 yards short of his front door--maybe he's checking his pulse, maybe he's tying a shoe--but everybody knows what happens next to Jim Fixx, the 52-year-old patron saint of running: He dies.
You've heard that story. But you may not know about Edmund Burke, Ph.D., who was to serious endurance cycling what Fixx was to running. He died on a training ride last fall, at age 53.
And you almost certainly haven't heard of Frederick Montz, David Nagey, or Jeffrey Williams, three brilliant physicians at Johns Hopkins University who died while running. The oldest of the three was 51.
You'd think that exercise icons should live to be 100. And yet, every year, a few of them go permanently offline at half that age.
Two questions arise. The first is obvious: Why do the hearts of such highly conditioned men fail during exercise designed to make their hearts stronger? The second is so radical it borders on treason against the health and fitness cause: Is there something wrong with the entire notion of endurance exercise as a healthy, life-extending activity?
I've been skeptical about the benefits of aerobic exercise for years. But the answers surprised even me. Pull up a chair--you'll want to be sitting down when you read this.
The Road to Nowhere
The idea that a well-trained endurance athlete could just drop dead was unfathomable a generation ago. Thomas Bassler, M.D., went so far as to say that anyone who could finish a marathon in less than 4 hours could not have serious heart problems. He conducted a study on 14 marathoners who had died of cardiovascular disease, and concluded that all were malnourished. Unfortunately, he reported this conclusion in the July 27, 1984, edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Fixx had died 7 days earlier.
Nobody today believes that endurance training confers immunity to anything, whether it's sudden death from heart disease or the heartbreak of psoriasis. Every time you lace up your running shoes, there's a chance your final kick will involve a bucket, and every expert knows this.
"I think the risk is inescapable, and it's bigger than we're letting on," says Paul Thompson, M.D., director of preventive cardiology at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut and a researcher who studies sudden death and exercise. One of Dr. Thompson's studies showed that 10 percent of the heart attacks treated at his hospital were exercise related. "Those heart attacks tend to be in people who aren't fit," he says. "But that doesn't mean that's the only group that gets it, unfortunately. There are these very fit guys who go out for a run and drop dead."
Dr. Thompson's studies and others show that the chances of sudden death are about one in every 15,000 to 18,000 exercisers per year. That comes to one death for every 1.5 million exercise bouts. Curiously, the most serious endurance athletes seem to be at the greatest risk. Here's how it breaks down, according to an often-cited 1982 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine: <* />
• One death per 17,000 men who exercise vigorously 1 to 19 minutes a week
• One death per 23,000 men who exercise vigorously 20 to 139 minutes a week
• One death per 13,000 men who exercise vigorously 140 or more minutes a week
I had to look at the chart twice to see its startling conclusion: The highest death rate is among the men who exercise long and hard, and is much higher than that of the men who exercise short and hard. Worse, the guys who do hardly any vigorous exercise had a lower death rate than the guys who do the most.
About a zillion studies -- I lost count in the millions -- have shown that aerobic exercise leads to a healthier heart and a longer life.
Exercise Caution
Stay Alive
You're young and you're extremely fit. Almost always, that's a good thing. But in rare cases, a high fitness level hides--and may even help cause--a heart disorder known as ARVD. It's a genetic condition in which the muscle of the right ventricle turns into fatty or fibrous tissue.
Signs of ARVD (arrhythmogenic right-ventricular dysplasia) and other stealthy cardiac disorders include the following:
• Passing out, especially during exercise
• Heart palpitations, especially during exercise
• Sudden death of a family member, particularly a sibling or parent, before age 60. A heart attack "out of the blue" might be an indication of a hidden genetic condition
In ARVD, as the right ventricular muscle changes, abnormal heart rhythms occur, leading to the symptoms. If you're worried, go to a doctor--a series of noninvasive tests can determine whether you have the disorder. The Web site arvd.com can give you more information.
Ironically, patients with ARVD can be very fit athletes; extreme exercise may trigger the condition in those with the inherited susceptibility, says Hugh Calkins, M.D., director of electrophysiology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Moreover, young, athletic men often shrug off the warning signs
ARVD affects about one in 5,000 people but may be the cause of up to 20 percent of sudden cardiac deaths in people under the age of 35.
Coronary artery disease and heart attacks account for about 80 percent of the sudden cardiac deaths in America each year. ARVD and other inherited conditions cause the rest, Dr. Calkins says. These disorders, which affect men more than women, include long QT syndrome and Brugada syndrome (problems with electrical impulses in the heart), and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (thickening of the heart muscle
Ways to protect your heart
by Zubair Ahmed
Did you know that open-heart surgery has a stink all its own? It's a burning-blood fragrance -- a whiff of baking roadkill you'd swerve to avoid during a bike ride. Only deeper, richer -- tinged with death, and sweetness. I know because I inhaled a lifetime's worth of open-heart fumes recently, standing at the elbow of Toby Cosgrove, M.D., chairman of cardiovascular surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. He was performing a valve repair and coronary bypass on an old high-school pal of his, and he had invited me, a heart patient at his clinic, to watch. And, surprisingly, sniff. Let me remind you: Mortality stinks.
Every channel flipper has done it: You're happily sampling the emptiness, click by click, when you flash into a gory moment on the Learning Channel. That was my life last summer: from Wild On! to a close-up of bloody surgical gloves in an instant -- only for real, with my own heart in the spotlight and no remote to press. And I have to watch this program to its conclusion.
Here's the deal: I'm 5'10'', 150 pounds, 46 years old. I've been wearing 32-inch-waist jeans since college. I've had blood work done every year for the past 7, just for the sheer pleasure of acing an exam: My LDL (bad) cholesterol numbers averaged in the low 140s, my triglycerides below 160. And, until recently, those were considered Get Out of Heart Disease Free scores.
The R.N. who evaluated my last blood test wrote, "Your chemistry results look great. CAD [coronary-artery-disease] risk is under the normal range. No recommendations at this time." She confirmed what I saw in the mirror: a guy who was doing everything right. I work out at least four times a week, lifting weights, running, playing flat-out full-court basketball for an hour at a time. I've completed two marathons in the past 5 years, and pulled myself to the top of Grand Teton. I'm also an editor at the magazine you hold in your hands, so I've learned and lived as much health advice as anybody. But none of that prevented a 99 percent blockage in my heart's left anterior descending artery. And if that can happen to me, friends, it most assuredly can happen to you. Who, you?
Well, only if you're an adult American male. (Men over 45 are the most likely to be incubating the clot that will kill them.) Fifty-one percent of you guys--and that makes 60 million of you strolling around, averting your eyes from articles like this one--will discover your heart problem by having what the cardiologists chillingly call an "event." That is, a heart attack.
For an estimated 80,000 of these men, the first symptom is one not even I would miss: death. It's pure luck that I wasn't one of those surprise stiffs, with a starring role in our feature "Death by Exercise," which you'll find later in this issue. If you consider my sorry case an indictment of everything this magazine preaches, you can stop reading here. To me, it says something else: If a guy with all the right numbers, the right exercise habits, and a live-forever diet--or so I thought--is at grave risk of sudden death, then a lot of us are. It also tells me that the long line of nurses and doctors who told me I was fine, just fine, had no clue. And that should make you wonder what might be happening in your arteries right now, as well. Here's something men are good at: dropping dead of heart disease. Every year, cardiovascular problems cause nearly half of U.S. male deaths--a third of them by complete surprise.
Don't follow that pack. Every year scientists discover new ways men can protect their hearts--from steps you can take to avoid problems, to drugs and gadgets that can help if you already have heart disease. We asked heart researchers to boil it down to 10 simple rules men can follow.
Get the Latest, Greatest Test
That's the highly sensitive C-reactive protein test, or HSCRP. A study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine found that this blood test is twice as effective as a standard cholesterol test in predicting heart attacks and strokes. It measures the levels of a specific blood protein that indicates that you have inflamed heart arteries--the kind that rupture and cause heart failure.
When researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston monitored 30,000 women for 3 years, they found that those with the highest levels of CRP suffered a much higher rate of heart attacks and strokes. And this result is perfectly applicable to men, says Paul Ridker, M.D., the lead study author.
"Since half of all heart-attack victims have normal cholesterol levels, the HSCRP test is a much better way to figure your true risk," he explains. Ask your doctor to perform the $15 HSCRP test (not the standard CRP test; that's important) along with your regular cholesterol test. "That gives you plenty of time to make some serious lifestyle changes to reduce the risk," concludes Dr. Ridker.
Keep up With Your Exercise
Over the past 4 decades, dozens of studies have shown that exercise is good for your heart. But here's the catch, according to a recent survey: You're only as strong as your last workout.
Doctors from the Framingham Heart Study in Massachusetts compared people who'd only recently started exercising with those who used to exercise regularly but stopped. Their finding: The cardiovascular mortality rate was 40 percent lower among the current exercisers.
"The benefits of exercise wear off quickly," says Scott Sherman, MD, of the UCLA school of medicine. Fortunately, the benefits of exercise also show up quickly, so if the only physical activity you ever have is moving pawn to knight six, you're not dead--yet. "The study shows that for sedentary patients, it's never too late to start being active," says Dr. Sherman.
Are you at risk for sudden death
Heart attacks aren't just for older, overweight men with high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Doctors are seeing patients in their 40s come in with heart disease due to self-inflicted risk factors, according to Ilan Wittstein, M.D., an assistant professor at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and its Heart Institute. Middle-aged men need to be on guard. Even if you work out and eat healthy, you could still be at risk.
Beware of Risk Factors
"In half of the cases of heart attacks, the heart attack is the first time the patient finds out about heart disease," says Richard A. Stein, director of preventive cardiology at Beth Israel Medical Center and spokesperson for the American Heart Association. More than 60 percent of heart attacks have to do with simple lifestyle issues, such as diet, exercise and cigarette smoking, and easy to detect and treat medical issues such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol. "Men need to know about the risk factors that predict the majority of heart disease cases," Stein says.
Stress Less
Research shows that not only do you have to watch your diet, exercise, and avoid smoking and excessive alcohol to prevent a heart attack, it's imperative to be aware of your family history and to manage your stress level. According to the 2004 INTERHEART study in the Lancet, stress is one of three main risk factors for coronary artery disease, and is responsible for a fifth of heart attacks worldwide.
Stress played a very important role in what may have caused the heart attack of Ken Lay, the founder of Enron Corp, says Wittstein. Convicted of conspiracy and fraud, Lay faced 25 to 40 years in prison before his untimely death. "If we look at medical literature over time, we find many good examples of how stress can have a profound affect on the heart," says Wittstein, who co-authored last year's study on "broken heart syndrome" in The New England Journal of Medicine. "We can't prove that heart attacks can be caused by stress, but we know that people who are under higher stress, have a greater risk of developing heart disease," Whittstein adds.
Release the Pressure
But it's possible to lessen your risk of heart disease by using calming stress management techniques, say these experts. Duke University Medical researchers conducted a study with 107 patients who had a history of heart problems. To lower the risk of future heart attacks, researchers divided the patients into three treatment groups; a third of the group exercised, another third received standard care, and the last third learned stress management techniques through 4 months of therapy and training. The stress management group fared the best with a 74% reduction in cardiac events over the 5-year analysis.
Stress management techniques can include getting therapy, or be as simple as taking up yoga, practicing tai chi or using meditation techniques for five minutes every day. "It's proven that relaxation techniques lower blood pressure and improve bloodflow," Dr. Wittsetin says.
Did you know that open-heart surgery has a stink all its own? It's a burning-blood fragrance -- a whiff of baking roadkill you'd swerve to avoid during a bike ride. Only deeper, richer -- tinged with death, and sweetness. I know because I inhaled a lifetime's worth of open-heart fumes recently, standing at the elbow of Toby Cosgrove, M.D., chairman of cardiovascular surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. He was performing a valve repair and coronary bypass on an old high-school pal of his, and he had invited me, a heart patient at his clinic, to watch. And, surprisingly, sniff. Let me remind you: Mortality stinks.
Every channel flipper has done it: You're happily sampling the emptiness, click by click, when you flash into a gory moment on the Learning Channel. That was my life last summer: from Wild On! to a close-up of bloody surgical gloves in an instant -- only for real, with my own heart in the spotlight and no remote to press. And I have to watch this program to its conclusion.
Here's the deal: I'm 5'10'', 150 pounds, 46 years old. I've been wearing 32-inch-waist jeans since college. I've had blood work done every year for the past 7, just for the sheer pleasure of acing an exam: My LDL (bad) cholesterol numbers averaged in the low 140s, my triglycerides below 160. And, until recently, those were considered Get Out of Heart Disease Free scores.
The R.N. who evaluated my last blood test wrote, "Your chemistry results look great. CAD [coronary-artery-disease] risk is under the normal range. No recommendations at this time." She confirmed what I saw in the mirror: a guy who was doing everything right. I work out at least four times a week, lifting weights, running, playing flat-out full-court basketball for an hour at a time. I've completed two marathons in the past 5 years, and pulled myself to the top of Grand Teton. I'm also an editor at the magazine you hold in your hands, so I've learned and lived as much health advice as anybody. But none of that prevented a 99 percent blockage in my heart's left anterior descending artery. And if that can happen to me, friends, it most assuredly can happen to you. Who, you?
Well, only if you're an adult American male. (Men over 45 are the most likely to be incubating the clot that will kill them.) Fifty-one percent of you guys--and that makes 60 million of you strolling around, averting your eyes from articles like this one--will discover your heart problem by having what the cardiologists chillingly call an "event." That is, a heart attack.
For an estimated 80,000 of these men, the first symptom is one not even I would miss: death. It's pure luck that I wasn't one of those surprise stiffs, with a starring role in our feature "Death by Exercise," which you'll find later in this issue. If you consider my sorry case an indictment of everything this magazine preaches, you can stop reading here. To me, it says something else: If a guy with all the right numbers, the right exercise habits, and a live-forever diet--or so I thought--is at grave risk of sudden death, then a lot of us are. It also tells me that the long line of nurses and doctors who told me I was fine, just fine, had no clue. And that should make you wonder what might be happening in your arteries right now, as well. Here's something men are good at: dropping dead of heart disease. Every year, cardiovascular problems cause nearly half of U.S. male deaths--a third of them by complete surprise.
Don't follow that pack. Every year scientists discover new ways men can protect their hearts--from steps you can take to avoid problems, to drugs and gadgets that can help if you already have heart disease. We asked heart researchers to boil it down to 10 simple rules men can follow.
Get the Latest, Greatest Test
That's the highly sensitive C-reactive protein test, or HSCRP. A study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine found that this blood test is twice as effective as a standard cholesterol test in predicting heart attacks and strokes. It measures the levels of a specific blood protein that indicates that you have inflamed heart arteries--the kind that rupture and cause heart failure.
When researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston monitored 30,000 women for 3 years, they found that those with the highest levels of CRP suffered a much higher rate of heart attacks and strokes. And this result is perfectly applicable to men, says Paul Ridker, M.D., the lead study author.
"Since half of all heart-attack victims have normal cholesterol levels, the HSCRP test is a much better way to figure your true risk," he explains. Ask your doctor to perform the $15 HSCRP test (not the standard CRP test; that's important) along with your regular cholesterol test. "That gives you plenty of time to make some serious lifestyle changes to reduce the risk," concludes Dr. Ridker.
Keep up With Your Exercise
Over the past 4 decades, dozens of studies have shown that exercise is good for your heart. But here's the catch, according to a recent survey: You're only as strong as your last workout.
Doctors from the Framingham Heart Study in Massachusetts compared people who'd only recently started exercising with those who used to exercise regularly but stopped. Their finding: The cardiovascular mortality rate was 40 percent lower among the current exercisers.
"The benefits of exercise wear off quickly," says Scott Sherman, MD, of the UCLA school of medicine. Fortunately, the benefits of exercise also show up quickly, so if the only physical activity you ever have is moving pawn to knight six, you're not dead--yet. "The study shows that for sedentary patients, it's never too late to start being active," says Dr. Sherman.
Are you at risk for sudden death
Heart attacks aren't just for older, overweight men with high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Doctors are seeing patients in their 40s come in with heart disease due to self-inflicted risk factors, according to Ilan Wittstein, M.D., an assistant professor at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and its Heart Institute. Middle-aged men need to be on guard. Even if you work out and eat healthy, you could still be at risk.
Beware of Risk Factors
"In half of the cases of heart attacks, the heart attack is the first time the patient finds out about heart disease," says Richard A. Stein, director of preventive cardiology at Beth Israel Medical Center and spokesperson for the American Heart Association. More than 60 percent of heart attacks have to do with simple lifestyle issues, such as diet, exercise and cigarette smoking, and easy to detect and treat medical issues such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol. "Men need to know about the risk factors that predict the majority of heart disease cases," Stein says.
Stress Less
Research shows that not only do you have to watch your diet, exercise, and avoid smoking and excessive alcohol to prevent a heart attack, it's imperative to be aware of your family history and to manage your stress level. According to the 2004 INTERHEART study in the Lancet, stress is one of three main risk factors for coronary artery disease, and is responsible for a fifth of heart attacks worldwide.
Stress played a very important role in what may have caused the heart attack of Ken Lay, the founder of Enron Corp, says Wittstein. Convicted of conspiracy and fraud, Lay faced 25 to 40 years in prison before his untimely death. "If we look at medical literature over time, we find many good examples of how stress can have a profound affect on the heart," says Wittstein, who co-authored last year's study on "broken heart syndrome" in The New England Journal of Medicine. "We can't prove that heart attacks can be caused by stress, but we know that people who are under higher stress, have a greater risk of developing heart disease," Whittstein adds.
Release the Pressure
But it's possible to lessen your risk of heart disease by using calming stress management techniques, say these experts. Duke University Medical researchers conducted a study with 107 patients who had a history of heart problems. To lower the risk of future heart attacks, researchers divided the patients into three treatment groups; a third of the group exercised, another third received standard care, and the last third learned stress management techniques through 4 months of therapy and training. The stress management group fared the best with a 74% reduction in cardiac events over the 5-year analysis.
Stress management techniques can include getting therapy, or be as simple as taking up yoga, practicing tai chi or using meditation techniques for five minutes every day. "It's proven that relaxation techniques lower blood pressure and improve bloodflow," Dr. Wittsetin says.
Health and fitness
by Zubair Ahmed
The basic foundation for a healthy individual starts from his foetal stage with proper and healthy nutrition derived from his or her mother. Hence, a pregnant woman's diet stands atop all diets.
Your food shall be your medicine. Ayurveda has postulated the role of food and especially nutritive foods for maintaining health as well as cure of diseases. Nutrients are necessary for the proper functioning of mental, physical, metabolic, chemical and hormonal activities. The body is like a machine that will repair and rebuild itself if proper nutrition is provided by way of food.
Sumptous nutrition is available in fruits and vegetables. Fruits have the capacity to give all that a body needs. How to consume? What to consume? Which fruit helps in which way? The answers to these questions can be found in our Nutrition and Healthy Diet Section
Exercise and Fitness
Simple fitness exercises can help to have a fitter and healthy life. Stretching exercises can help in many ways in mainting a fitter body. Weight loss can be achieved by following simple effortless regular exercises. Medical breakthroughs can happen by regular meditation and exercising. Yoga and other workouts which can be performed easily are available in this website to keep you fit and healthy.
Health and Fitness can make all that difference in one's life. Healthy living is all that one needs, and to achieve that we picked up the best of the articles from reliable sources and have presented here in an organized manner. You might not be able to spend your valuable time on complicated medications and diet controls, but, you can find articles to help you have a better living using simple and easy technics.
Ayurveda, a science in vogue practiced since centuries, uses a wide variety of plants, animal origin substances, mineral and metallic substances to rebalance the diseased condition in the sick. A few tips on simple treatment of life style diseases have been carefully picked for the visitors of this website. These tips can help reduce or control diseases like diabetes, cholesterol, blood pressure, etc.
The basic foundation for a healthy individual starts from his foetal stage with proper and healthy nutrition derived from his or her mother. Hence, a pregnant woman's diet stands atop all diets.
Your food shall be your medicine. Ayurveda has postulated the role of food and especially nutritive foods for maintaining health as well as cure of diseases. Nutrients are necessary for the proper functioning of mental, physical, metabolic, chemical and hormonal activities. The body is like a machine that will repair and rebuild itself if proper nutrition is provided by way of food.
Sumptous nutrition is available in fruits and vegetables. Fruits have the capacity to give all that a body needs. How to consume? What to consume? Which fruit helps in which way? The answers to these questions can be found in our Nutrition and Healthy Diet Section
Exercise and Fitness
Simple fitness exercises can help to have a fitter and healthy life. Stretching exercises can help in many ways in mainting a fitter body. Weight loss can be achieved by following simple effortless regular exercises. Medical breakthroughs can happen by regular meditation and exercising. Yoga and other workouts which can be performed easily are available in this website to keep you fit and healthy.
Health and Fitness can make all that difference in one's life. Healthy living is all that one needs, and to achieve that we picked up the best of the articles from reliable sources and have presented here in an organized manner. You might not be able to spend your valuable time on complicated medications and diet controls, but, you can find articles to help you have a better living using simple and easy technics.
Ayurveda, a science in vogue practiced since centuries, uses a wide variety of plants, animal origin substances, mineral and metallic substances to rebalance the diseased condition in the sick. A few tips on simple treatment of life style diseases have been carefully picked for the visitors of this website. These tips can help reduce or control diseases like diabetes, cholesterol, blood pressure, etc.
The Cultural Enigma
by Kamil Tariq
I don’t know whether I’m suffering from dementia or I am one of the few people that have this type of a mindset, but it really is rather astonishing that people do not observe that what is going around in their surroundings. By the surrounding I mean, not the situation of the country that we live in but more importantly themselves and the people they associate with. It may be vague that what kind of a point I’m trying to make, but in simpler terms I mean to point out the growing trend for the disregard of our culture. There may be several things that define culture, but basically it’s the morals and the norms of the society. Of all the people of the world belonging to different nationalities, we are the people that don’t need to be explained what culture is, or at least it wasn’t the case in the past. What I mean to say is that while most people may disagree with this but we are rapidly parting our ways with our ways. The norms and the standards in our society are changing with such ferocity that it seems that we will be a colony of different cultures and slave to the different trends in the near future.
By this I mean not only one particular social class in our society is changing but the different social classes are changing at different levels. The often targeted, “Upper Class” is always blamed to have western influences in their lives, which to an extent is correct that yes western influence is present in the society, not even going what our religion permits or forbids; because myself being a naïve and being a less of a pious person I cannot talk about religion; but what is happening around us is not even acceptable in our society or at least it wasn’t in the past. Vice is the order of the day; justice is no longer a word in the dictionary. The more the individual is influenced by western culture the more importance they get. It’s like; it is a simulated world with so many fake people posing to be someone they are not. Not only the targeted “Elite” have their influences, but the “Lower class” in our society is also not the ones that are living a life with their identity but are in fact are more deeply infused by the foreign influences. Just the difference is that their influences come from the nation of which, once we were a part of, India. This has increased to such an extent, that even while they are talking these people are using words that a core part of the Hindi language. The things that are becoming more and more popular in either of the social classes are many, firstly the main thing that gets influenced is the clothes, what Americans are wearing the same thing is being practiced here not just to the conventional clothing but also the exotic formal wear. What is being worn in India, the same thing gets far more popular locally. Apart from that, the weddings are like a place to show off your wealth, it’s ok to celebrate it with all your heart but going overboard is the thing that gets you the respect. These are just small glimpses of what I can recall from, on the top of my head let alone giving the matter serious thoughts.
From reading the text, one would think that it is the thoughts of an old man who’s still living in the past, but I am far from that, it’s just that to me; these things feel like a little piece of a stone when it gets in the shoe, it keeps on giving an uncomfortable feeling. What can be done? Well it’s not like it’s the end of the world and these are the words for a cultural requiem we can still look deep into ourselves and bring out what we really are.
I don’t know whether I’m suffering from dementia or I am one of the few people that have this type of a mindset, but it really is rather astonishing that people do not observe that what is going around in their surroundings. By the surrounding I mean, not the situation of the country that we live in but more importantly themselves and the people they associate with. It may be vague that what kind of a point I’m trying to make, but in simpler terms I mean to point out the growing trend for the disregard of our culture. There may be several things that define culture, but basically it’s the morals and the norms of the society. Of all the people of the world belonging to different nationalities, we are the people that don’t need to be explained what culture is, or at least it wasn’t the case in the past. What I mean to say is that while most people may disagree with this but we are rapidly parting our ways with our ways. The norms and the standards in our society are changing with such ferocity that it seems that we will be a colony of different cultures and slave to the different trends in the near future.
By this I mean not only one particular social class in our society is changing but the different social classes are changing at different levels. The often targeted, “Upper Class” is always blamed to have western influences in their lives, which to an extent is correct that yes western influence is present in the society, not even going what our religion permits or forbids; because myself being a naïve and being a less of a pious person I cannot talk about religion; but what is happening around us is not even acceptable in our society or at least it wasn’t in the past. Vice is the order of the day; justice is no longer a word in the dictionary. The more the individual is influenced by western culture the more importance they get. It’s like; it is a simulated world with so many fake people posing to be someone they are not. Not only the targeted “Elite” have their influences, but the “Lower class” in our society is also not the ones that are living a life with their identity but are in fact are more deeply infused by the foreign influences. Just the difference is that their influences come from the nation of which, once we were a part of, India. This has increased to such an extent, that even while they are talking these people are using words that a core part of the Hindi language. The things that are becoming more and more popular in either of the social classes are many, firstly the main thing that gets influenced is the clothes, what Americans are wearing the same thing is being practiced here not just to the conventional clothing but also the exotic formal wear. What is being worn in India, the same thing gets far more popular locally. Apart from that, the weddings are like a place to show off your wealth, it’s ok to celebrate it with all your heart but going overboard is the thing that gets you the respect. These are just small glimpses of what I can recall from, on the top of my head let alone giving the matter serious thoughts.
From reading the text, one would think that it is the thoughts of an old man who’s still living in the past, but I am far from that, it’s just that to me; these things feel like a little piece of a stone when it gets in the shoe, it keeps on giving an uncomfortable feeling. What can be done? Well it’s not like it’s the end of the world and these are the words for a cultural requiem we can still look deep into ourselves and bring out what we really are.
Remembering Rock.
by Kamil Tariq
Metallica’s new Album:
Thrash pioneers Metallica are still bearing the metal flag at this time, with their latest release “Death Magnetic”. Although the music has changed since their first album “kill‘em all in” in the early 80’s, but the quality and the soul of the music is still pure. All 12 tracks of the album including the second sequel to the legendary track “unforgiven” , are not characterized by the speed and the intensity that was found in the earlier albums, but a true metal fan cannot say no to a Metallica album. Whatever the critics have to say they are …. Not welcome to cause we give respect to the people who defined and still are defending “Thrash Metal”.
The Song remains the same:
Everything that exists today has its roots in some past time. Today we talk about new bands releasing albums and going on world tours, but we should remember where it all began. England was the Place and “led-zeppelin” was the name. I think that about sums it up if it’s the roots of rock n roll that we’re talking about. Led-Zeppelin laid the founding stone and provided inspiration to all artists from different genres of music let alone Rock music. Led-Zeppelin has come up with a DVD that is a compilation of all its greatest tracks and also some new tracks. The 2 DVD pack named “Mother ship” is a complete rock music dictionary, Robert’s versatile and steady vocals, jimmy’s legendary blues cum heavy metal guitars, along with john Bonham’s exceptional drumming. Sadly, as everything has to end, this would be the bands last release but for always we will follow the lyrics “To be a rock and not to roll”.
Going back into time:
In this edition we give our readers a little history of who were the main bands and which were the tours that were instrumental for bringing rock music to the front. Early rock/Heavy metal was heavily influenced by Blues music. Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, Eric Clapton, Eddie van Halen, Jeff Beck etc. were all basically blues musicians but most of the heavy metal musicians and musicians of other extreme genres of metal were influenced by these people. Just a little while ago we were remembering Woodstock which was in 1969, a rock concert the most massive at the time. Similarly later on different concerts helped promote the genre, in the 80’s “The clash of the titans”, “Metal Mania”, “Wacken” named after a place in Germany an event for the true metal fan still is a yearly festival, but probably the most u can say flamboyant or glamorous events of all is “Ozzfest” named after and started by Black Sabbath vocalist Ozzy Osborne in the 70’s and still continuing till date.
Metallica’s new Album:
Thrash pioneers Metallica are still bearing the metal flag at this time, with their latest release “Death Magnetic”. Although the music has changed since their first album “kill‘em all in” in the early 80’s, but the quality and the soul of the music is still pure. All 12 tracks of the album including the second sequel to the legendary track “unforgiven” , are not characterized by the speed and the intensity that was found in the earlier albums, but a true metal fan cannot say no to a Metallica album. Whatever the critics have to say they are …. Not welcome to cause we give respect to the people who defined and still are defending “Thrash Metal”.
The Song remains the same:
Everything that exists today has its roots in some past time. Today we talk about new bands releasing albums and going on world tours, but we should remember where it all began. England was the Place and “led-zeppelin” was the name. I think that about sums it up if it’s the roots of rock n roll that we’re talking about. Led-Zeppelin laid the founding stone and provided inspiration to all artists from different genres of music let alone Rock music. Led-Zeppelin has come up with a DVD that is a compilation of all its greatest tracks and also some new tracks. The 2 DVD pack named “Mother ship” is a complete rock music dictionary, Robert’s versatile and steady vocals, jimmy’s legendary blues cum heavy metal guitars, along with john Bonham’s exceptional drumming. Sadly, as everything has to end, this would be the bands last release but for always we will follow the lyrics “To be a rock and not to roll”.
Going back into time:
In this edition we give our readers a little history of who were the main bands and which were the tours that were instrumental for bringing rock music to the front. Early rock/Heavy metal was heavily influenced by Blues music. Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, Eric Clapton, Eddie van Halen, Jeff Beck etc. were all basically blues musicians but most of the heavy metal musicians and musicians of other extreme genres of metal were influenced by these people. Just a little while ago we were remembering Woodstock which was in 1969, a rock concert the most massive at the time. Similarly later on different concerts helped promote the genre, in the 80’s “The clash of the titans”, “Metal Mania”, “Wacken” named after a place in Germany an event for the true metal fan still is a yearly festival, but probably the most u can say flamboyant or glamorous events of all is “Ozzfest” named after and started by Black Sabbath vocalist Ozzy Osborne in the 70’s and still continuing till date.
Racism in Football.
by M Kamil Tariq
I would start by stating Sir Isaac Newton’s third law of motion “For every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction”. Although this law was proposed and used for a totally different purpose but we can apply this law in football, it fits on to football so nicely it seems that this law was developed for football.
Controversy has always been a part of the game, on more occasions it may be valid regarding the referees, lines men, players but on some rather berserk occasions regarding the grounds or the playing conditions, draws generated in club competitions, match outcomes.etc. Similarly another controversial yet sensitive topic is the existence of racism in football. Discrimination on the basis of skin color, race, nationality etc, still sadly exists in football today. Football is a sport and it’s just like the sky above us it’s the same for all whether he’s black, white or yellow. From what we see, we believe because the reality is not presented to us if it’s a normal person that we’re talking about, but if it’s an enthusiast that we’re talking about who looks into the game deeply then we’ll get to know that racism is still talking its toll.
Although there have been efforts by the ruling body FIFA but still it’s up to the fans to turn over a new leaf. The players put their differences aside when they are on the same field with players belonging to different races. The fans should follow the players in this matter also. Acts of racism are really embarrassing for the game and for the fans. Just to state some previous acts of racism, Michael Essien who plays for English club Chelsea and the Nigerian national team, was chanted as a monkey by some sections of the crowd, the same happened with Gerald Asamoah who’s also black. Similarly Samuel Etoo who plays for Italian club Inter Milan and the Cameroon National team when playing for FC Barcelona in Spain was hit by bananas when coming out of the locker rooms. Also acts of racism are performed by the players themselves, Paolo Di Canio who is an Italian footballer while playing for Italian club SS Lazio and also in his time at English club West ham was banned for a few matches and also fined for carrying out Nazi Salutes after scoring a goal. It’s ironic to see all this negativity in such a beautiful game.
This was the actions that were talking about, now the reaction to this action is the resulting violence that takes place. Acts of violence have been at an increase in recent times, mostly hostile crowds burst into brawls in the stadium stands, other than that fights outside the stadium also take place resulting in injuries and sometimes few deaths. Just recently in match between Manchester united of England and AS Roma of Italy a Roma fan was stabbed to death.
As I mentioned early it is irony that just a game can cause someone so much agony and can take lives away it is our responsibility to keep it a game and nothing more than that.
I would start by stating Sir Isaac Newton’s third law of motion “For every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction”. Although this law was proposed and used for a totally different purpose but we can apply this law in football, it fits on to football so nicely it seems that this law was developed for football.
Controversy has always been a part of the game, on more occasions it may be valid regarding the referees, lines men, players but on some rather berserk occasions regarding the grounds or the playing conditions, draws generated in club competitions, match outcomes.etc. Similarly another controversial yet sensitive topic is the existence of racism in football. Discrimination on the basis of skin color, race, nationality etc, still sadly exists in football today. Football is a sport and it’s just like the sky above us it’s the same for all whether he’s black, white or yellow. From what we see, we believe because the reality is not presented to us if it’s a normal person that we’re talking about, but if it’s an enthusiast that we’re talking about who looks into the game deeply then we’ll get to know that racism is still talking its toll.
Although there have been efforts by the ruling body FIFA but still it’s up to the fans to turn over a new leaf. The players put their differences aside when they are on the same field with players belonging to different races. The fans should follow the players in this matter also. Acts of racism are really embarrassing for the game and for the fans. Just to state some previous acts of racism, Michael Essien who plays for English club Chelsea and the Nigerian national team, was chanted as a monkey by some sections of the crowd, the same happened with Gerald Asamoah who’s also black. Similarly Samuel Etoo who plays for Italian club Inter Milan and the Cameroon National team when playing for FC Barcelona in Spain was hit by bananas when coming out of the locker rooms. Also acts of racism are performed by the players themselves, Paolo Di Canio who is an Italian footballer while playing for Italian club SS Lazio and also in his time at English club West ham was banned for a few matches and also fined for carrying out Nazi Salutes after scoring a goal. It’s ironic to see all this negativity in such a beautiful game.
This was the actions that were talking about, now the reaction to this action is the resulting violence that takes place. Acts of violence have been at an increase in recent times, mostly hostile crowds burst into brawls in the stadium stands, other than that fights outside the stadium also take place resulting in injuries and sometimes few deaths. Just recently in match between Manchester united of England and AS Roma of Italy a Roma fan was stabbed to death.
As I mentioned early it is irony that just a game can cause someone so much agony and can take lives away it is our responsibility to keep it a game and nothing more than that.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Basant Ban
Basant Ban
By Umar Hafiz
The hue and cry raised by a certain section of the society on the recent banning of Basant by the Lahore High Court compels me to bring forward my point of view.
These people mourn for the loss of a cultural event which attracted thousands of foreigners from all over the world. In the prevailing geopolitical situation, I hardly think that a bunch of colorful kites would be able to lure an already fear stricken foreigner to a death trap. Moreover this cultural loss might be a matter of concern for a handful of socialites and five star hotels but not for the common man.
It saddens me to read and hear people saying that the two basic reasons given for the ban (i.e. the loss of life and monetary loss to WAPDA) are not good enough.
Stronger string or not, if kite-flying has been around for quite sometime then so are the deaths related to this festival. Why do we forget hundreds of innocent lives lost which are not related to the killer string but are still a part and parcel of this event? We can try to get scot-free by saying that if someone is run over by a car or falls from a roof top then it is his own fault but can we blame a poor boy for running after the kites which we so lavishly shower just because he too wants to have his share of fun; or can we blame a child for falling off his roof because his father didn’t have enough money to build proper railing around the roof. Our politicians, so eager to climb up on their roofs might not be so hungry for such an amusement if God forbid it was one of their own who had lost his life to this blood thirsty event.
We would view this entertainment very differently and the ban would not look silly anymore if our own child had to run on the roads to grab a kite!
Coming to the ingenious solutions provided by the advocates of Basant. Yes, you may ban motorbikes and bicycles for two days but have we ever thought that for some people that is the only way of transportation and in case an emergency arises it is their only way out. Secondly you may also ban the deadly string but is it administratively possible to keep a check on such a large scale?
With all due respect to everyone’s viewpoint, I am of the opinion that even if one life is lost due to Basant, it is certainly not worth it.
By Umar Hafiz
The hue and cry raised by a certain section of the society on the recent banning of Basant by the Lahore High Court compels me to bring forward my point of view.
These people mourn for the loss of a cultural event which attracted thousands of foreigners from all over the world. In the prevailing geopolitical situation, I hardly think that a bunch of colorful kites would be able to lure an already fear stricken foreigner to a death trap. Moreover this cultural loss might be a matter of concern for a handful of socialites and five star hotels but not for the common man.
It saddens me to read and hear people saying that the two basic reasons given for the ban (i.e. the loss of life and monetary loss to WAPDA) are not good enough.
Stronger string or not, if kite-flying has been around for quite sometime then so are the deaths related to this festival. Why do we forget hundreds of innocent lives lost which are not related to the killer string but are still a part and parcel of this event? We can try to get scot-free by saying that if someone is run over by a car or falls from a roof top then it is his own fault but can we blame a poor boy for running after the kites which we so lavishly shower just because he too wants to have his share of fun; or can we blame a child for falling off his roof because his father didn’t have enough money to build proper railing around the roof. Our politicians, so eager to climb up on their roofs might not be so hungry for such an amusement if God forbid it was one of their own who had lost his life to this blood thirsty event.
We would view this entertainment very differently and the ban would not look silly anymore if our own child had to run on the roads to grab a kite!
Coming to the ingenious solutions provided by the advocates of Basant. Yes, you may ban motorbikes and bicycles for two days but have we ever thought that for some people that is the only way of transportation and in case an emergency arises it is their only way out. Secondly you may also ban the deadly string but is it administratively possible to keep a check on such a large scale?
With all due respect to everyone’s viewpoint, I am of the opinion that even if one life is lost due to Basant, it is certainly not worth it.
Parliamentarians and thier priorities
Parliamentarians and their Priorities
By Umar Hafiz
As if there wasn't already enough evidence, the parliamentarians of the Punjab assembly proved once again that they are quite incapable of fending for anyone other than themselves and their kin. Far from behaving like the elected representatives of the poor people of this country, our members of parliament have left no stone unturned when it comes to self-glorification and gratification.
The latest incident in their long list of self fulfilling antics is the recent debate in the Punjab Assembly of granting of memberships to all MPAs. The resolution was moved by PML-N member Asad Ashraf. The resolution demanded that PA members be given membership in the club. Ashraf said the club’s membership was only given to “king makers or bureaucrats”, adding that the club had been built on government property and hence it was “owned by the people”. He said the House members represented the public and the club’s membership should also be given to them.
Surprisingly, this suggestion seemed to augur well with both the treasury and opposition benches, with only one dissenting voice being raised in the form of Sheikh Allauddin, who said there was a process to acquire membership in the club, adding that several applicants had been on the waiting list for a decade. He argued that the club’s membership was a private matter and the passing of a resolution on the issue could make them look like a “laughing stock”.
He said the club conducted a mandatory interview before giving membership to any applicant, adding the club had denied membership to a judge because he refused to give the interview. Allauddin said members of the provincial assembly (MPAs) should also give interviews and follow the due process.
Pakistani society in general, and its politics in particular, have reached their lowest ebb ever with their being scant regard for the people, especially the downtrodden majority who can hardly afford two square meals a day and have to tolerate their representative squabbling over privileged memberships into exclusive clubs.
By Umar Hafiz
As if there wasn't already enough evidence, the parliamentarians of the Punjab assembly proved once again that they are quite incapable of fending for anyone other than themselves and their kin. Far from behaving like the elected representatives of the poor people of this country, our members of parliament have left no stone unturned when it comes to self-glorification and gratification.
The latest incident in their long list of self fulfilling antics is the recent debate in the Punjab Assembly of granting of memberships to all MPAs. The resolution was moved by PML-N member Asad Ashraf. The resolution demanded that PA members be given membership in the club. Ashraf said the club’s membership was only given to “king makers or bureaucrats”, adding that the club had been built on government property and hence it was “owned by the people”. He said the House members represented the public and the club’s membership should also be given to them.
Surprisingly, this suggestion seemed to augur well with both the treasury and opposition benches, with only one dissenting voice being raised in the form of Sheikh Allauddin, who said there was a process to acquire membership in the club, adding that several applicants had been on the waiting list for a decade. He argued that the club’s membership was a private matter and the passing of a resolution on the issue could make them look like a “laughing stock”.
He said the club conducted a mandatory interview before giving membership to any applicant, adding the club had denied membership to a judge because he refused to give the interview. Allauddin said members of the provincial assembly (MPAs) should also give interviews and follow the due process.
Pakistani society in general, and its politics in particular, have reached their lowest ebb ever with their being scant regard for the people, especially the downtrodden majority who can hardly afford two square meals a day and have to tolerate their representative squabbling over privileged memberships into exclusive clubs.
VIP movements
VIP Movements
By Umar Hafiz
The VIP culture in Pakistan has no parallel anywhere in the world. Our major cities suffer agony almost daily because of frequent VIP or VVIP movements. As hooting motorcades move around the cities, major roads are blocked and everything comes to a grinding halt, disrupting even emergency services, including ambulance and fire-brigade services. Ambulances are held up with patients in them, who in some cases die because of the delays.
Ninety per cent of the police is used for VIP security. This may boost VIP egos but the government suffers huge losses as a result of expenditure on these VIP-related security measures, including heavy expenditures on unanticipated, ill-planned ad hoc face-lifting of the affected areas for the sake of these visits.
The growing traffic congestion caused by VIP movement and related security measures also have an adverse effect on the overall economy and business activity of the city concerned in terms of billions of rupees lost in traffic contingency planning for each VVIP visit. Common people and businesses suffer financially on account of traffic congestion during these visits. Then, there is also an invisible and incalculable loss of time for every affected person during the long spells of traffic closures on these occasions.
The heaviest cost is, however, borne by the public in terms of frequent chaos on the roads, strain on their vehicles, waste of petrol and diesel during traffic jams, pressure on their minds while their lungs inhale smoke, missed appointments and opportunities and engagements, unattended public security and enhanced crime rate in the absence of the city's police and security personnel diverted to VVIP duty. The people did not elect their rulers to become a nuisance for them and a curse in their lives.
Appeals from the public requesting their leaders to be considerate and to spare them their repeated ordeals have remained unheard. Two years ago, the Lahore High Court Bar Association went to the extent of adopting a unanimous resolution demanding an end to the VVIP traffic and security culture and describing frequent traffic closures and "protective" measures as "unconstitutional and illegal."
Unfortunately, nothing, not even public interest, is above the "security" of the ruling elites who themselves remain above law, customs, public opinion, or moral judgment. No laws seem to be applicable to VIPs, especially when they are travelling in the country on an uncharted political trail. No constitutional bars, no legal rules or no ethical norms are there to rationalise their conduct.
No one denies the importance of security for our leaders and the indispensability of requisite protective measures. But for them, precaution would be the key to prevention of any life-threatening security hazard. The best precaution is to avoid excessive and indiscriminate public exposure. The VIPs will be better off remaining closeted in their residential fortresses and limiting their outings and unnecessary movements.
If there are any inescapable state functions requiring their presence, the events could perhaps be held risk-free at the secure premises of the Convention Centre in Islamabad or within their own respective camp offices. They must not, in any case, be giving a sense of security to themselves at the cost of public safety or by putting people through regular torture. The current practice of blocking roads for hours brings nothing but misery to the people and puts ordinary citizens' lives at risk.
Incidents like the woman who gave birth to a child in a rickshaw in Quetta while stuck in traffic due to VVIP movement are plain disgraceful. No one living in a civilized society should be subjected to such agony and humiliation. What is even more shameful, is the disdain with which the PM made light of the woman's pain and anguish by pronouncing solemnly that "a birth happens when it has to happen" and that VIP protocol was immaterial in the incident.
Finally an impassioned appeal to the rulers themselves: For God's sake, leave us alone!
By Umar Hafiz
The VIP culture in Pakistan has no parallel anywhere in the world. Our major cities suffer agony almost daily because of frequent VIP or VVIP movements. As hooting motorcades move around the cities, major roads are blocked and everything comes to a grinding halt, disrupting even emergency services, including ambulance and fire-brigade services. Ambulances are held up with patients in them, who in some cases die because of the delays.
Ninety per cent of the police is used for VIP security. This may boost VIP egos but the government suffers huge losses as a result of expenditure on these VIP-related security measures, including heavy expenditures on unanticipated, ill-planned ad hoc face-lifting of the affected areas for the sake of these visits.
The growing traffic congestion caused by VIP movement and related security measures also have an adverse effect on the overall economy and business activity of the city concerned in terms of billions of rupees lost in traffic contingency planning for each VVIP visit. Common people and businesses suffer financially on account of traffic congestion during these visits. Then, there is also an invisible and incalculable loss of time for every affected person during the long spells of traffic closures on these occasions.
The heaviest cost is, however, borne by the public in terms of frequent chaos on the roads, strain on their vehicles, waste of petrol and diesel during traffic jams, pressure on their minds while their lungs inhale smoke, missed appointments and opportunities and engagements, unattended public security and enhanced crime rate in the absence of the city's police and security personnel diverted to VVIP duty. The people did not elect their rulers to become a nuisance for them and a curse in their lives.
Appeals from the public requesting their leaders to be considerate and to spare them their repeated ordeals have remained unheard. Two years ago, the Lahore High Court Bar Association went to the extent of adopting a unanimous resolution demanding an end to the VVIP traffic and security culture and describing frequent traffic closures and "protective" measures as "unconstitutional and illegal."
Unfortunately, nothing, not even public interest, is above the "security" of the ruling elites who themselves remain above law, customs, public opinion, or moral judgment. No laws seem to be applicable to VIPs, especially when they are travelling in the country on an uncharted political trail. No constitutional bars, no legal rules or no ethical norms are there to rationalise their conduct.
No one denies the importance of security for our leaders and the indispensability of requisite protective measures. But for them, precaution would be the key to prevention of any life-threatening security hazard. The best precaution is to avoid excessive and indiscriminate public exposure. The VIPs will be better off remaining closeted in their residential fortresses and limiting their outings and unnecessary movements.
If there are any inescapable state functions requiring their presence, the events could perhaps be held risk-free at the secure premises of the Convention Centre in Islamabad or within their own respective camp offices. They must not, in any case, be giving a sense of security to themselves at the cost of public safety or by putting people through regular torture. The current practice of blocking roads for hours brings nothing but misery to the people and puts ordinary citizens' lives at risk.
Incidents like the woman who gave birth to a child in a rickshaw in Quetta while stuck in traffic due to VVIP movement are plain disgraceful. No one living in a civilized society should be subjected to such agony and humiliation. What is even more shameful, is the disdain with which the PM made light of the woman's pain and anguish by pronouncing solemnly that "a birth happens when it has to happen" and that VIP protocol was immaterial in the incident.
Finally an impassioned appeal to the rulers themselves: For God's sake, leave us alone!
Must watch tv series/shows
Must watch TV series/shows:
Prison Break:
On e of the best shows which has been on air for years I know there are a lot shows about doctors or teen age high school etc. An engineer (Wentworth Miller) installs himself in a prison he helped design, in order to help his brother (Dominic Purcell), a death-row inmate who insists he did not commit the crime for which he has been sentenced to die and help him escape.
Lincoln Burrows is on death row for the murder of the vice president's brother. He insists he's innocent and only his brother Michael Scofield believes him. As an engineer who helped design the prison where Lincoln is being held, Michael takes drastic measures to help his brother. He gets himself arrested and sent to the same prison so that with his knowledge of the building the two of them can escape together. However, while inside, Michael discovers a massive conspiracy that is determined to see Lincoln's sentence carried out. Breaking out will be more difficult than he thought, but he's still going to try.
All four seasons are available in DVD
Must watch are Season 1 and 4
Written by:
Umer W.Chheena
Section E
06U793
Family Guy:
One of the best cartoon series after the Simpsons, Family Guy revolves around a less than normal family in a less than normal world. With absurd and often spontaneous events this show will keep you laughing from the it starts up until it ends. The family Consists of six members Peter the father, Lois the mother, Stewie the homicidal baby, Chris the son, meg the daughter and Brian the dog who is often the smartest out of all of them.
Season 1-9 available of DVD
Written by:
Umer W.Chheena
Section E
06U793
Scrubs:
One of the best doctor shows of the decade, the show starts In the unreal world of Sacred Heart Hospital, intern John "J.D" Dorian learns the ways of medicine, friendship and life. Scrubs focuses on the unique view of its main character and narrator, J.D.
J.D. and his best friend Turk in their first year out of medical school as interns at Sacred Heart Hospital, J.D. quickly meets his reluctant mentor, Dr. Perry Cox; an attractive young woman (and fellow intern) named Elliot, on whom J.D. quickly develops a crush; the hospital's janitor, who goes out of his way to make J.D.'s life miserable; the Chief of Medicine, Dr. Bob Kelso, who appears to be more concerned about the budget than the patients; and Carla Espinosa, the head nurse and Turk's girlfriend later becomes his wife in the following season. The characters face romances and relationship issues, family obligations, overwhelming paperwork and a tremendous number of patients.
Season 1-9 Available on DVD
Written by:
Umer W.Chheena
Section E
06U793
Big bang Theory: Smart is the new sexy
At last a comedy about science were they use actual science experiments, it starts when a woman who moves into an apartment next door to two brilliant but socially awkward physicist’s shows them how little they know about life outside of the laboratory. One of my favorite shows with a excellent comedy, nerd are the main character and all the stories revolve around science.
The series has five main characters which will tell their own story:
Johnny Galecki as Leonard Hofstadter PhD:
Leonard is an experimental Physicist with an IQ of 173 who received his PH.D when he was 24 years old. He shares an apartment with colleague and friend Sheldon Cooper; He is the leader of the group in the series. The writers have toyed with a romance between him and neighbor Penny. Leonard and Penny eventually began an intimate relationship.
Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper PhD:
Originally from east Texas, he was a Genius , starting college at the age of 11, right after completing the 5th grade. As a Theoretical physicist he possesses a Masters degre , two Ph.D.s, and an IQ of 187. He exhibits a strict adherence to routine; a lack of understanding of irony, sarcasm and humor; and a complete lack of humility. These characteristics are the main sources of his character's humor and the center of a number of episodes. Sheldon shares an apartment with Leonard Hofstadter.
Kaley Cucoco as Penny:
She is the attractive, blonde neighbor who lives across the hall from Sheldon and Leonard. She has aspirations of a career in show business, and has been to casting calls and auditions but has not been successful thus far. To pay the bills, she works as a waitress at the Cheese cake factory. Initially she and Leonard eventually they began an intimate relationship.
Simon Helberg as Howard Wolowitiz:
He works as an aero space engineer. He is Jew, and live with his mother( not a surprise). Unlike Sheldon, Leonard, and Raj, Howard doesn’t have a Ph.D. He defends this by pointing out that he has a master's degree in Engineering from MIT and the apparatus he designs are actually built and launched into space, unlike the purely abstract work of his friends. He provides outrageous pick up lines and fancies himself a ladies’ man with suitably unimpressed reactions from Penny; however, he has shown limited success with other women.
Kumal Nayyar as Rajesh Koothrappali, Ph.D.
Rajesh, who originally comes from New Delhi, India, works as a particle astrophysicist at Caltech. He is very shy around women and is physically unable to talk to them unless he drinks alcohol. However, he has had much better luck with women as opposed to his overly confident best friend Howard. His parents, introduced as Dr. and Mrs. V.M. Koothrappali, are seen via webcam. In the third season, he works for Sheldon because his research has run into a dead-end and he doesn't want to go back to India.
All three season are available in DVD
Written by:
Umer W.Chheena
Section E
06U793
Prison Break:
On e of the best shows which has been on air for years I know there are a lot shows about doctors or teen age high school etc. An engineer (Wentworth Miller) installs himself in a prison he helped design, in order to help his brother (Dominic Purcell), a death-row inmate who insists he did not commit the crime for which he has been sentenced to die and help him escape.
Lincoln Burrows is on death row for the murder of the vice president's brother. He insists he's innocent and only his brother Michael Scofield believes him. As an engineer who helped design the prison where Lincoln is being held, Michael takes drastic measures to help his brother. He gets himself arrested and sent to the same prison so that with his knowledge of the building the two of them can escape together. However, while inside, Michael discovers a massive conspiracy that is determined to see Lincoln's sentence carried out. Breaking out will be more difficult than he thought, but he's still going to try.
All four seasons are available in DVD
Must watch are Season 1 and 4
Written by:
Umer W.Chheena
Section E
06U793
Family Guy:
One of the best cartoon series after the Simpsons, Family Guy revolves around a less than normal family in a less than normal world. With absurd and often spontaneous events this show will keep you laughing from the it starts up until it ends. The family Consists of six members Peter the father, Lois the mother, Stewie the homicidal baby, Chris the son, meg the daughter and Brian the dog who is often the smartest out of all of them.
Season 1-9 available of DVD
Written by:
Umer W.Chheena
Section E
06U793
Scrubs:
One of the best doctor shows of the decade, the show starts In the unreal world of Sacred Heart Hospital, intern John "J.D" Dorian learns the ways of medicine, friendship and life. Scrubs focuses on the unique view of its main character and narrator, J.D.
J.D. and his best friend Turk in their first year out of medical school as interns at Sacred Heart Hospital, J.D. quickly meets his reluctant mentor, Dr. Perry Cox; an attractive young woman (and fellow intern) named Elliot, on whom J.D. quickly develops a crush; the hospital's janitor, who goes out of his way to make J.D.'s life miserable; the Chief of Medicine, Dr. Bob Kelso, who appears to be more concerned about the budget than the patients; and Carla Espinosa, the head nurse and Turk's girlfriend later becomes his wife in the following season. The characters face romances and relationship issues, family obligations, overwhelming paperwork and a tremendous number of patients.
Season 1-9 Available on DVD
Written by:
Umer W.Chheena
Section E
06U793
Big bang Theory: Smart is the new sexy
At last a comedy about science were they use actual science experiments, it starts when a woman who moves into an apartment next door to two brilliant but socially awkward physicist’s shows them how little they know about life outside of the laboratory. One of my favorite shows with a excellent comedy, nerd are the main character and all the stories revolve around science.
The series has five main characters which will tell their own story:
Johnny Galecki as Leonard Hofstadter PhD:
Leonard is an experimental Physicist with an IQ of 173 who received his PH.D when he was 24 years old. He shares an apartment with colleague and friend Sheldon Cooper; He is the leader of the group in the series. The writers have toyed with a romance between him and neighbor Penny. Leonard and Penny eventually began an intimate relationship.
Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper PhD:
Originally from east Texas, he was a Genius , starting college at the age of 11, right after completing the 5th grade. As a Theoretical physicist he possesses a Masters degre , two Ph.D.s, and an IQ of 187. He exhibits a strict adherence to routine; a lack of understanding of irony, sarcasm and humor; and a complete lack of humility. These characteristics are the main sources of his character's humor and the center of a number of episodes. Sheldon shares an apartment with Leonard Hofstadter.
Kaley Cucoco as Penny:
She is the attractive, blonde neighbor who lives across the hall from Sheldon and Leonard. She has aspirations of a career in show business, and has been to casting calls and auditions but has not been successful thus far. To pay the bills, she works as a waitress at the Cheese cake factory. Initially she and Leonard eventually they began an intimate relationship.
Simon Helberg as Howard Wolowitiz:
He works as an aero space engineer. He is Jew, and live with his mother( not a surprise). Unlike Sheldon, Leonard, and Raj, Howard doesn’t have a Ph.D. He defends this by pointing out that he has a master's degree in Engineering from MIT and the apparatus he designs are actually built and launched into space, unlike the purely abstract work of his friends. He provides outrageous pick up lines and fancies himself a ladies’ man with suitably unimpressed reactions from Penny; however, he has shown limited success with other women.
Kumal Nayyar as Rajesh Koothrappali, Ph.D.
Rajesh, who originally comes from New Delhi, India, works as a particle astrophysicist at Caltech. He is very shy around women and is physically unable to talk to them unless he drinks alcohol. However, he has had much better luck with women as opposed to his overly confident best friend Howard. His parents, introduced as Dr. and Mrs. V.M. Koothrappali, are seen via webcam. In the third season, he works for Sheldon because his research has run into a dead-end and he doesn't want to go back to India.
All three season are available in DVD
Written by:
Umer W.Chheena
Section E
06U793
Five movies to watch out for in the summer of 2010.
Iron man 2:
After the success of First movie paramount has come up with second movie in the iron man series with Robert Downey Junior returns as Tony Stark and Iron man in May of 2010 with Mickey Rourke as Whiplash his Russian nemesis. In "Iron Man 2," the world is aware that billionaire inventor Tony Stark is the armored Super Hero Iron Man. Under pressure from the government, the press and the public to share his technology with the military, Tony is unwilling to divulge the secrets behind the Iron Man armor because he fears the information will slip into the wrong hands. With Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), and James "Rhodey" Rhodes (Don Cheadle) at his side, Tony forges new alliances and confronts powerful new forces.
A lot is resting on this movie due to the fact it will shift the series in The Avengers who are a U.S government backed Super hero team with Captain America, Hulk, Thorn and many more. Comic book fun a counting the days because the rumor that the Hulk will be in this movie because in the last hulk movie the general meets with Tony stark in a bar about a problem which is the Hulk.
Cast include : Robert Downey Jr. Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle and Mickey Rourke
Written by:
Umer W.Chheena
Section E
Predators:
I am a fan of the Predator series even the comics when I heard they were making a remake I was really excited. No it’s not a remake of the original Predator starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and producer Robert Rodriguez (Sin city, Desperado) says it’s a new project to reboot the Predator project. The film stars Adrien Brody (Pianist, King Kong) as Royce, a mercenary who reluctantly leads a group of elite warriors who come to realize they've been brought together on an alien planet... as prey. With the exception of a disgraced physician, they are all cold-blooded killers – mercenaries, Yakuza, convicts, death squad members – human "predators" that are now being systemically hunted and eliminated by a new breed of alien Predators.
Cast includes:Danny Trejo, Watlon Goggins, Adrein Brody , Alice Brody, Alica Braga Oleg Taktarov
Movies to be released in July.
Written by:
Umer W.Chheena
Section E
06U793
The Twilight Saga( Eclipse ):
Based on the third novel of Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight" series, The highly anticipated 3 movie of the Twilight series will be released in the summer. The Last two films were block buster’s because we all love vampire and werewolf story look at underworld, werewolf in Paris and London, interview with the vampire, queen of the damned, Vampires and the list goes on and on. But the movie should live up its exception because the second one was a little long and had irrelevant scene to make up the time. Also the C.G.I was rubbish with the wolfs and their transformation. Let see what have in the third installment
The third movies story goes something like this: Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger as Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob—knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ageless struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella is confronted with the most important decision of her life.I am really waiting for this movie to see the final battle ( the fans who have read the book would understand).
Cast in includes: Kristan stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Xavier Samuel, Nikki Reed
A must watch of the summer.
Release date: June 30th 2010
Written by:
Umer W.Chheena
Section E
06U793
Robin Hood :
The Legend of Nottingham come to life in a new way, Russell Crowe stars as the legendary figure known by generations as “Robin Hood,” whose exploits have endured in popular mythology and ignited the imagination of those who share his spirit of adventure and righteousness. In 13th century England, Robin and his band of marauders confront corruption in a local village and lead an uprising against the crown that will forever alter the balance of world power. Thief or hero, one man from humble beginnings will become an eternal symbol of freedom for his people.
The Robin Hood adventure chronicles the life of an expert archer, previously interested only in self-preservation, from his service in King Richard’s army against the French. Upon Richard’s death, Robin travels to Nottingham, a town suffering from the corruption of a despotic sheriff and crippling taxation, where he falls for the spirited widow Lady Marion (Oscar® winner Cate Blanchett), a woman skeptical of the identity and motivations of this crusader from the forest. Hoping to earn the hand of Maid Marion and salvage the village, Robin assembles a gang whose lethal mercenary skills are matched only by its appetite for life. Together, they begin preying on the indulgent upper class to correct injustices under the sheriff.
With their country weakened from decades of war, embattled from the ineffective rule of the new king and vulnerable to insurgencies from within and threats from afar, Robin and his men heed a call to ever greater adventure. This unlikeliest of heroes and his allies set off to protect their country from slipping into bloody civil war and return glory to England once more.
If you liked King Arthur staring Clive Owen following the original story of Arthur as a general in the Roman army not the sword in the stone myth then you will love this movie with a Oscar winning cast and the Director of Gladiator AND Spider man, Ridley Scott .
Cast include: Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchet, Vanessa Redgrave Eileen Atkin, Danny Houstan.
Release Date May 12th, 2010
Written by:
Umer W.Chheena
Section E
06U793
THE A-Team:
The TV legend comes to life in July a movie which took 20 years in the making due to the fact in was always a risky matter to upset the face like it happened with Miami Vice, so let see what installed in this TV series turned movie, "The A-Team" follows the exciting and daring exploits of Hannibal Smith and his colorful team of former Special Forces soldiers who were set up for a crime they did not commit. Going "rogue," they utilize their unique talents – and eccentricities – to try and clear their names and find the true culprit.
Cast include: Bradley Cooper, Liam Neeson, Quintin Jackson and Jessica Biel
Release Date July 8th, 2010
Written by:
Umer W.Chheena
Section E
06U793
After the success of First movie paramount has come up with second movie in the iron man series with Robert Downey Junior returns as Tony Stark and Iron man in May of 2010 with Mickey Rourke as Whiplash his Russian nemesis. In "Iron Man 2," the world is aware that billionaire inventor Tony Stark is the armored Super Hero Iron Man. Under pressure from the government, the press and the public to share his technology with the military, Tony is unwilling to divulge the secrets behind the Iron Man armor because he fears the information will slip into the wrong hands. With Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), and James "Rhodey" Rhodes (Don Cheadle) at his side, Tony forges new alliances and confronts powerful new forces.
A lot is resting on this movie due to the fact it will shift the series in The Avengers who are a U.S government backed Super hero team with Captain America, Hulk, Thorn and many more. Comic book fun a counting the days because the rumor that the Hulk will be in this movie because in the last hulk movie the general meets with Tony stark in a bar about a problem which is the Hulk.
Cast include : Robert Downey Jr. Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle and Mickey Rourke
Written by:
Umer W.Chheena
Section E
Predators:
I am a fan of the Predator series even the comics when I heard they were making a remake I was really excited. No it’s not a remake of the original Predator starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and producer Robert Rodriguez (Sin city, Desperado) says it’s a new project to reboot the Predator project. The film stars Adrien Brody (Pianist, King Kong) as Royce, a mercenary who reluctantly leads a group of elite warriors who come to realize they've been brought together on an alien planet... as prey. With the exception of a disgraced physician, they are all cold-blooded killers – mercenaries, Yakuza, convicts, death squad members – human "predators" that are now being systemically hunted and eliminated by a new breed of alien Predators.
Cast includes:Danny Trejo, Watlon Goggins, Adrein Brody , Alice Brody, Alica Braga Oleg Taktarov
Movies to be released in July.
Written by:
Umer W.Chheena
Section E
06U793
The Twilight Saga( Eclipse ):
Based on the third novel of Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight" series, The highly anticipated 3 movie of the Twilight series will be released in the summer. The Last two films were block buster’s because we all love vampire and werewolf story look at underworld, werewolf in Paris and London, interview with the vampire, queen of the damned, Vampires and the list goes on and on. But the movie should live up its exception because the second one was a little long and had irrelevant scene to make up the time. Also the C.G.I was rubbish with the wolfs and their transformation. Let see what have in the third installment
The third movies story goes something like this: Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger as Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob—knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ageless struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella is confronted with the most important decision of her life.I am really waiting for this movie to see the final battle ( the fans who have read the book would understand).
Cast in includes: Kristan stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Xavier Samuel, Nikki Reed
A must watch of the summer.
Release date: June 30th 2010
Written by:
Umer W.Chheena
Section E
06U793
Robin Hood :
The Legend of Nottingham come to life in a new way, Russell Crowe stars as the legendary figure known by generations as “Robin Hood,” whose exploits have endured in popular mythology and ignited the imagination of those who share his spirit of adventure and righteousness. In 13th century England, Robin and his band of marauders confront corruption in a local village and lead an uprising against the crown that will forever alter the balance of world power. Thief or hero, one man from humble beginnings will become an eternal symbol of freedom for his people.
The Robin Hood adventure chronicles the life of an expert archer, previously interested only in self-preservation, from his service in King Richard’s army against the French. Upon Richard’s death, Robin travels to Nottingham, a town suffering from the corruption of a despotic sheriff and crippling taxation, where he falls for the spirited widow Lady Marion (Oscar® winner Cate Blanchett), a woman skeptical of the identity and motivations of this crusader from the forest. Hoping to earn the hand of Maid Marion and salvage the village, Robin assembles a gang whose lethal mercenary skills are matched only by its appetite for life. Together, they begin preying on the indulgent upper class to correct injustices under the sheriff.
With their country weakened from decades of war, embattled from the ineffective rule of the new king and vulnerable to insurgencies from within and threats from afar, Robin and his men heed a call to ever greater adventure. This unlikeliest of heroes and his allies set off to protect their country from slipping into bloody civil war and return glory to England once more.
If you liked King Arthur staring Clive Owen following the original story of Arthur as a general in the Roman army not the sword in the stone myth then you will love this movie with a Oscar winning cast and the Director of Gladiator AND Spider man, Ridley Scott .
Cast include: Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchet, Vanessa Redgrave Eileen Atkin, Danny Houstan.
Release Date May 12th, 2010
Written by:
Umer W.Chheena
Section E
06U793
THE A-Team:
The TV legend comes to life in July a movie which took 20 years in the making due to the fact in was always a risky matter to upset the face like it happened with Miami Vice, so let see what installed in this TV series turned movie, "The A-Team" follows the exciting and daring exploits of Hannibal Smith and his colorful team of former Special Forces soldiers who were set up for a crime they did not commit. Going "rogue," they utilize their unique talents – and eccentricities – to try and clear their names and find the true culprit.
Cast include: Bradley Cooper, Liam Neeson, Quintin Jackson and Jessica Biel
Release Date July 8th, 2010
Written by:
Umer W.Chheena
Section E
06U793
Must watch movies in Recent days
Wolf man: This Full Moon The Legend Will Come To Life
Inspired by the classic Universal film that launched a legacy of horror, "The Wolfman" brings the myth of a cursed man back to its iconic origins. Oscar winner Benicio Del Toro stars as Lawrence Talbot, a haunted nobleman lured back to his family estate after his brother vanishes. Reunited with his estranged father (Oscar® winner Anthony Hopkins), Talbot sets out to find his brother...and discovers a horrifying destiny for himself.
Lawrence Talbot's childhood ended the night his mother died. After he left the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor, he spent decades recovering and trying to forget. But when his brother's fiancée, Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt), tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns home to join the search. He learns that something with brute strength and insatiable bloodlust has been killing the villagers, and that a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline (Hugo Weaving) has come to investigate.
As he pieces together the gory puzzle, he hears of an ancient curse that turns the afflicted into werewolves when the moon is full. Now, if he has any chance at ending the slaughter and protecting the woman he has grown to love, Talbot must destroy the vicious creature in the woods surrounding Blackmoor. But as he hunts for the nightmarish beast, a simple man with a tortured past will uncover a primal side to himself...one he never imagined existed.
Written by:
Umer W.Chheena
Section E
06U793
Green zone:
Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass re-team for their latest electrifying thriller in "Green Zone", a film set in the chaotic early days of the Iraqi War when no one could be trusted and every decision could detonate unforeseen consequences.
During the U.S.-led occupation of Baghdad in 2003, Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Damon) and his team of Army inspectors were dispatched to find weapons of mass destruction believed to be stockpiled in the Iraqi desert. Rocketing from one booby-trapped and treacherous site to the next, the men search for deadly chemical agents but stumble instead upon an elaborate cover-up that inverts the purpose of their mission.
Spun by operatives with intersecting agendas, Miller must hunt through covert and faulty intelligence hidden on foreign soil for answers that will either clear a rogue regime or escalate a war in an unstable region. And at this blistering time and in this combustible place, he will find the most elusive weapon of all is the truth.
Written by:
Umer W.Chheena
Section E
06U793
Avatar:
In the epic action adventure fantasy "Avatar", James Cameron, the director of "Titanic", takes us to a spectacular new world beyond our imagination. On the distant moon Pandora, a reluctant hero embarks on a journey of redemption, discovery and unexpected love - as he leads a heroic battle to save a civilization.
The story’s protagonist, Jake Sully, is an ex-Marine who was wounded and paralyzed from the waist down in combat on Earth. In order to participate in the Avatar program, which will give him a healthy body, Jake agrees to travel to Pandora, a lush rainforest environment filled with incredible life forms – some beautiful, many terrifying. Pandora is also the home to the Na’vi, a humanoid race that lives at what we consider to be a primate level, but they are actually much more evolved than humans. Ten feet tall and blue skinned, the Na’vi live harmoniously within their unspoiled world. But as humans encroach on Pandora in search of valuable minerals, the Na’vi’s very existence is threatened – and their warrior abilities unleashed.
Jake has unwittingly been recruited to become part of this encroachment. Since humans are unable to breathe the air on Pandora, they have created genetically-bred human-Na’vi hybrids known as Avatars. The Avatars are living, breathing bodies in the real world, controlled by a human driver through a technology that links the driver’s mind to the Avatar body. On Pandora, through his Avatar body, Jake can be whole once again. Moreover, he falls in love with a young Na’vi woman, Neytiri, whose beauty is matched by her ferocity in battle.
As Jake slides deeper into becoming one of her clan, he finds himself caught between the military-industrial forces of Earth, and the Na’vi – forcing him to choose sides in an epic battle that will decide the fate of an entire world Conceived 14 years ago and over four years in the making, "Avatar" breaks new ground in delivering a fully immersive, emotional story and reinvents the movie going experience.
Written by:
Umer W.Chheena
Section E
06U793
Brooklyn’s Finest:
Burned out veteran Eddie Dugan (Golden Globe-winner Richard Gere) is just one week away from his pension and a fishing cabin in Connecticut. Narcotics officer Sal Procida (Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke) has discovered there's no line he won't cross to provide a better life for his long-suffering wife and seven children. And Clarence "Tango" Butler (Oscar nominee Don Cheadle) has been undercover so long his loyalties have started to shift from his fellow police officers to his prison buddy Caz (Wesley Snipes), one of Brooklyn's most infamous drug dealers. With personal and work pressures bearing down on them, each man faces daily tests of judgment and honor in one of the world's most difficult jobs.
When NYPD's operation clean up targets the notoriously drug-ridden BK housing project, all three officers find themselves swept away by the violence and corruption of Brooklyn's gritty 65th Precinct and its most treacherous criminals. During seven fateful days, Eddie, Sal and Tango find themselves hurtling inextricably toward the same fatal crime scene and a shattering collision with destiny.
Written by:
Umer W.Chheena
Section E
06U793
Inspired by the classic Universal film that launched a legacy of horror, "The Wolfman" brings the myth of a cursed man back to its iconic origins. Oscar winner Benicio Del Toro stars as Lawrence Talbot, a haunted nobleman lured back to his family estate after his brother vanishes. Reunited with his estranged father (Oscar® winner Anthony Hopkins), Talbot sets out to find his brother...and discovers a horrifying destiny for himself.
Lawrence Talbot's childhood ended the night his mother died. After he left the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor, he spent decades recovering and trying to forget. But when his brother's fiancée, Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt), tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns home to join the search. He learns that something with brute strength and insatiable bloodlust has been killing the villagers, and that a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline (Hugo Weaving) has come to investigate.
As he pieces together the gory puzzle, he hears of an ancient curse that turns the afflicted into werewolves when the moon is full. Now, if he has any chance at ending the slaughter and protecting the woman he has grown to love, Talbot must destroy the vicious creature in the woods surrounding Blackmoor. But as he hunts for the nightmarish beast, a simple man with a tortured past will uncover a primal side to himself...one he never imagined existed.
Written by:
Umer W.Chheena
Section E
06U793
Green zone:
Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass re-team for their latest electrifying thriller in "Green Zone", a film set in the chaotic early days of the Iraqi War when no one could be trusted and every decision could detonate unforeseen consequences.
During the U.S.-led occupation of Baghdad in 2003, Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Damon) and his team of Army inspectors were dispatched to find weapons of mass destruction believed to be stockpiled in the Iraqi desert. Rocketing from one booby-trapped and treacherous site to the next, the men search for deadly chemical agents but stumble instead upon an elaborate cover-up that inverts the purpose of their mission.
Spun by operatives with intersecting agendas, Miller must hunt through covert and faulty intelligence hidden on foreign soil for answers that will either clear a rogue regime or escalate a war in an unstable region. And at this blistering time and in this combustible place, he will find the most elusive weapon of all is the truth.
Written by:
Umer W.Chheena
Section E
06U793
Avatar:
In the epic action adventure fantasy "Avatar", James Cameron, the director of "Titanic", takes us to a spectacular new world beyond our imagination. On the distant moon Pandora, a reluctant hero embarks on a journey of redemption, discovery and unexpected love - as he leads a heroic battle to save a civilization.
The story’s protagonist, Jake Sully, is an ex-Marine who was wounded and paralyzed from the waist down in combat on Earth. In order to participate in the Avatar program, which will give him a healthy body, Jake agrees to travel to Pandora, a lush rainforest environment filled with incredible life forms – some beautiful, many terrifying. Pandora is also the home to the Na’vi, a humanoid race that lives at what we consider to be a primate level, but they are actually much more evolved than humans. Ten feet tall and blue skinned, the Na’vi live harmoniously within their unspoiled world. But as humans encroach on Pandora in search of valuable minerals, the Na’vi’s very existence is threatened – and their warrior abilities unleashed.
Jake has unwittingly been recruited to become part of this encroachment. Since humans are unable to breathe the air on Pandora, they have created genetically-bred human-Na’vi hybrids known as Avatars. The Avatars are living, breathing bodies in the real world, controlled by a human driver through a technology that links the driver’s mind to the Avatar body. On Pandora, through his Avatar body, Jake can be whole once again. Moreover, he falls in love with a young Na’vi woman, Neytiri, whose beauty is matched by her ferocity in battle.
As Jake slides deeper into becoming one of her clan, he finds himself caught between the military-industrial forces of Earth, and the Na’vi – forcing him to choose sides in an epic battle that will decide the fate of an entire world Conceived 14 years ago and over four years in the making, "Avatar" breaks new ground in delivering a fully immersive, emotional story and reinvents the movie going experience.
Written by:
Umer W.Chheena
Section E
06U793
Brooklyn’s Finest:
Burned out veteran Eddie Dugan (Golden Globe-winner Richard Gere) is just one week away from his pension and a fishing cabin in Connecticut. Narcotics officer Sal Procida (Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke) has discovered there's no line he won't cross to provide a better life for his long-suffering wife and seven children. And Clarence "Tango" Butler (Oscar nominee Don Cheadle) has been undercover so long his loyalties have started to shift from his fellow police officers to his prison buddy Caz (Wesley Snipes), one of Brooklyn's most infamous drug dealers. With personal and work pressures bearing down on them, each man faces daily tests of judgment and honor in one of the world's most difficult jobs.
When NYPD's operation clean up targets the notoriously drug-ridden BK housing project, all three officers find themselves swept away by the violence and corruption of Brooklyn's gritty 65th Precinct and its most treacherous criminals. During seven fateful days, Eddie, Sal and Tango find themselves hurtling inextricably toward the same fatal crime scene and a shattering collision with destiny.
Written by:
Umer W.Chheena
Section E
06U793
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Pandemonium is Lahore.
Friday the 13th Lahore's one of the most secured areas was a target of two suicide attack killing many and injuring much more than that, the phrase "to hit him em where it hurts" was what came to my mind as its' ironic and at the same time worrying that if this type of areas are under siege than where do the rest of the population lie? its an alarming situation and the people are not safe unlike the people that have more number of cars in their protocol than the whole number of cars in a mediocre housing society.
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