k3nn3Th’s Neighborhood

Now I see the Skype iPhone app in the App Store, but it wasn't there last night HKT

Now I see the Skype iPhone app in the App Store, but it wasn't there last night HKT

This is their HKD168.00 Sasimi platter

This is their HKD168.00 Sasimi platter

Pretty good Kobe Beef rice bowl

Pretty good Kobe Beef rice bowl

I was just made aware that my post that announces my blog has moved is no longer available.

Perhaps it’s near end of the year, every building beside me is hurrying for a new face-lift. Looking out of my windows, I saw myself totally surrounded by these breath-taking ”green” craft of arts.

To me, bamboo scaffolder has always been one of the most venerable and challenging professions. Imagine climbing up these poles with bare hands, one really needs great determination and courage. By using light bamboo, a small team of 5 to 6 scaffolders is able to sheathe entire building in a matter of weeks. Looking at these workers who spend their lives dangling outside buildings of 30, 40 stories high, securing each bamboo pole into place by twisting and pulling the cord around, I truly admire their perseverance. They suddenly remind me of Yamakasi and Spiderman.

Scaffolding

Scaffolders

I was listening to the latest MacCast podcast, and normally I would skin the Podcast Safe music that Adam plays at the end, but this time I was busy with something else.

To my surprise, the song that Adam chose, "Overboard" by Shannon Hurley, from her new album "Ready to Wake Up" (to be released November 5, 2007) was amazing.

Ready to Wake Up

I began my search for the song on iTunes USA Store, but could not find it. So I contacted the artist on her MySpace page.

To my amazement Shannon answered me right away and told me that currently the only place to find the song is on AmieStreet.

Of course I quickly purchased it while it was still at a low price. For those who do not know about AmieStreet, it is a great place to find DRM free music at as low as USD0.00 up to USD0.98 per song.

The Cologne Cathedral

It was 9am on a Tuesday morning. The weather was wet and chilly. As soon as I stepped out of Cologne's Hauptbahnhof, one of the country's busiest rail stations, I was astonished by the magnificent Kolner Dom. I couldn't wait to explore the city. After a quick check-in and freshen-up at the Excelsior Hotel Ernst, I rushed into the vast and intricately built Gothic architecture.

Excelsior Hotel Ernst:

Building of the Cologne Cathedral began in the mid-13th century, but it wasn't completed until 1880. By that time, it was the tallest structure in the world. Restoration work is still going on now. After a long gaze at the breathtaking exterior, I set off to the entrance. Once inside, like other hundreds of visitors, I simply couldn't stop staring at the medieval sculptures and stained glass windows in speechless amazement.

The Dom has a new pixelated glass window, which is designed by the contemporary German artist, Gerhard Richter. This newly installed mosaic window has been a controversial piece of art. Most Kolners are amazed by the aesthetic effect of the modern application, while others think that the modern design is a mismatch as much of the cathedral's stained glass is of medieval date.

After taking hundreds of pictures in the interior, I climbed a total of 509 steps up to the roof. (The tower is 475 feet tall !) I was almost out of breath. But the astonishing view up there was worth to see.

Museum Ludwig and Wallraf Richartz Museum

Besides being one of Germany's great historical city, Cologne is also a centre of arts. I definitely wouldn't miss the chance of visiting the 2 most renowned art museums, which are just walking distance from the Dom.

Museum Ludwig is a good place to get acquainted with German art of the 20th century. The big names, Kandinsky, Beckmann, Klee, Beuys are all here. You could also find collections of Picasso, Rothko, Warhol and Segal.

The Wallraf Richartz Museum has abundant collections of Renaissance and Baroque paintings, French Impressionism, as well as German medieval art. Useful tips for visiting the museum: you could take as many pictures as you like by simply getting a permission paper at the museum's information centre. No flash of course.

The famous Cologne artist, Stefan Lochner's vision of "The Madonna in the Rose Garden" and "The Last Judgement":

German medieval art:

French Impressionism:

The River Rhine and the Hohenzollern Bridge

The Cologne Hauptbahnhof, a signature historic site with its 250 metre long hall of iron and glass, is a good place to begin and end a tour. My journey to Cologne was surely an experience never to be forgotten.

In recent months many of the products manufactured or grown in China had found to contain poisonous materials or chemicals. This problem was reported in many countries: United States, United Kingdom, France, Australia, etc. With most of the cases reported in the United States.

China's responds to these accusations have been a mix of spontaneous defense of China's manufacturing and accusations of American companies not conducting proper quality control and the media for exaggerating the serious of the problem. At one point the Chinese government released the statement, "... over 7 billion units of product was manufactured and exported by China, and only a small amount of these units has problems...". Doesn't the Chinese government realize that a small amount of 7 billion is still a very large number?

Either due to desperation to overcome the bad press, Yesterday China reported that a shipment of medicine "CMO - Cetyl Myristoleate" contains dangerous substance that is harmful to people taking the medicine.

Today the US Customs again refused entry of another shipment of toys from China, claiming that paint on the toys contains too much lead. This is the forth time in a week that US Customs has refused entry of large toy shipments from China. China now responded to this latest US Customs' action blaming these safety violation is the direct result of US government raising the safety standards without consulting Chinese manufactures.

As a by-stander, I am starting to wonder are all these accusation valid? Are they simply political gesturing for ulterior motive?

EQO

As many of you may have heard of VoIP (Voice over IP). There are some very popular service like: Skype and Gizmo Project.

Last year EQO Communications launched the EQO service, which extends these VoIP service back to the mobile phone, and in addition to offering free IM (instant messaging) service to popular services like: ICQ, MSN Messenger, Google Talk and Jabber.

You may ask, why do you want to have VoIP on a mobile phone? Why does one just use the mobile phone itself to make the call required. The answer is cost. In most cases, there is a discount of about 95%. Like other VoIP providers, EQO offer free calls to other registered EQO users.

Although it offers this service to 29 countries it does not yet offer its service to Asia and more specifically Hong Kong. I am calling everyone in Asia to help convince EQO to begin offering their service in Hong Kong and rest of Asia. Please go to EQO's country suggestion page to add your respective countries to their list of desired countries.

Big Ben, London, UK

The British government is planning a celebration for the 150th anniversary of "Big Ben" in 2008, so they have just began (today) a scheduled 5 - 6 weeks maintenance project.

Therefore, if you are planning a visit to London and specifically "Big Ben", you may want to rethink your plans.

Fortunately, there are many other great tourist spots in London. Take a look at my Flickr photo album for London.