Chronicles: bengodomon.com » Uncategorized

For the first time ever, Mount Kinabalu shown in a Hollywood blockbuster?

bengodomon — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:35:14 +0000

This was first mentioned by the sharp eyes of Bebek on the 16th of February 2009.

He said he saw Mount Kinabalu in the DVD of Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo IV (released 25th January 2008), the top rated Rambo film ever, 7.4/10 at IMDB, as decided by more than 64,000 voters.

It was made with a budget of USD50 million and so far the total gross revenue (US, worldwide and DVD sales) is more than USD154 million. Filming was between 23 February 2007 and 4 May 2007, in reportedly Thailand, Mexico and the USA.

At first I didn’t believe that it was really our Kinabalu even after viewing the video footage on youtube [at 4:53], but after viewing the DVD, I was flabbergasted.

The primary reason is the angle of the footage matched exactly my view of the mountain from my home in Tamparuli. I have gazed at the mountain and its surrounding areas for many many years, so I was very sure what it looks like.

I was at the village during the weekend but could not take any photo due to thick clouds obscuring my view.

But consider this photo taken by arguably Sabah’s top photographer, Louis Pang on 3rd May 2006 while onboard a yacht enroute to Mantanani Island. Yes it’s taken from sea, but consider the silhouette of the mountain:

Compare that to the following still from the movie, around 34:38 into the DVD:

Zooming in:

It looks exactly like this at dawn if you’re at my house, facing east. Even the position of the rising sun is correct!

However, this wasn’t acknowledged by the producers of the movie.

The highest mountain in Thailand is Mount Inthanon (Doi Inthanon) at 2,565m. Its peak is covered by a thick forest, in stark contrast to Kinabalu’s exposed granites – exactly what we see in the movie.

Bebek said he’s going to ask the experts – we wait with bated breath.

The mountain was only displayed for about 1 second though; oh well, at least it was seen by many eyes around the world; consider this:
(i) The DVD is currently at 19th place of the top selling DVDs of 2008 with 1.7 million units sold.
(ii) The movie opened in 2,751 theaters and grossed more than USD6 million on its opening day, and more than USD18 million over its opening weekend. It was the second highest grossing movie for the weekend behind Meet the Spartans.

… I heard someone comment that no industrial equipment was used to take the footage, it was merely copied off stock footage somewhere …

Carlsberg’s web-TV focusing on football

bengodomon — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:17:56 +0000

Football fans have one more reason to cheer: Carlsberg web-tv is now online, www.partofthegame.tv, which focuses on football (soccer) and its fans.

It has 5 channels with everything one expects to see, including classic football games, funny moments during matches and what’s it like to be a hardcore fan.

You can even be part of the whole web tv show by uploading your very own football videos.

Pictures of Water World, Bukit Padang, Kota Kinabalu

bengodomon — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 12:13:55 +0000

It is located at Taman Tun Fuad Stephens, Bukit Padang. The tagline is “Sabah’s Premier Water Theme Park.” Don’t expect anything like Sunway Lagoon though.

Recommended to go on weekdays – costs only RM5 per person, as opposed to RM15 per person on weekends. Those below 3 feet tall are entitled to free admission.

Err… I thought all the items listed there, with the exception of the 3rd item is also strictly forbidden anywhere else?

But Sunway Lagoon standard or not, kids don’t really mind do they, as long as there’s plenty of water:

What I really liked is the fact that it’s so close to nature. There’s a 2 km long jogging track encircling the park. There’s also jungle trekking and hill climbing. They are so close to each other that you can do all these things in one afternoon.

They should’ve put Dr Sheikh Muszaphar on the right of camera on the ISS

bengodomon — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 00:43:52 +0000

If you look at the live telecast of the Soyuz carrying Malaysia’s first person in space docking with the ISS on 12th October, there are a few things I observed:

- there’s no video of the docking in progress; but looking at the videos of docking to ISS of the Soyuz crafts carrying previous space tourists Anousheh Ansari (September 2006) and Charles Simonyi (April 2007), there should be

- the same female interpreter is on duty (translating Russian to English)

- Simonyi and Dr Mus had their first videoconference in the same room. Simonyi stood to the right of the camera – there was a pole which he could hold on to: hence looked very comfortable while talking. Dr Mus, in contrast, apparently did not have anything to hold on to, and looked awkward bobbing up and down, struggling to keep still, while talking.

- Ansari’s first videoconference was apparently in a different room than Simonyi and Dr Mus’s. She stood in the middle, and had something to hold on to.

Video of Dr Mus’s first videoconference:

Video of Simonyi’s first videoconference:

Video of Ansari’s first videoconference:

Mourinho’s abrupt farewell leaves Chelsea FC fans shell-shocked

bengodomon — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 00:30:27 +0000

The new manager

First official statement on Chelsea FC’s official website

As of a few hours ago, the forum thread at Chelsea FC’s official website entitled “Official: Chelsea and Jose Mourinho Have Parted Company” had had more than 30,000 views and more than 500 replies in 23 pages, the most popular thread in the entire website.

The first few pages had fans fans expressing shock and disbelief, even one lashing out at Roman Abramovich himself! Some selected forum entries:

Please tell me this is all crap! Please!

I actually feel sick! I’m in total shock! I don’t know what to say.

Avram Grant is gonna ****ing be in charge when we face Utd. stupid

If we lose him we are in trouble. Its not when we lose him that makes a difference, its the fact that we have lost him if its all true, we won’t be the same team. Without him our team is already 50% weaker again if its true.

Regardless of who Roman’s main target is – Ramos I suspect – the rumour is Grant will be in charge in the meantime. Nice. Kenyon will have to go now, whether he walks or he’s pushed. If he stays he’s a liar. If he goes it’s because he backed Jose and Roman’s had enough of him.

I will always remember him for bringing two titles to Chelsea but perhaps he ran out of ideas. Without Drogba and Lampard we look mid table quality.

This is a BIGGER LOSS than all the players we lost over the past 3 yrs…

And he’s been forced to leave, after being FORCED to play an alien formation (Mourinho’s formation is 4-3-3/4-5-1, why switch to an open 4-4-2?) and been forced to accept a £30m flop but denied transfer money for other buys that he wanted. Nice one Abramovich, thanks for the money, no thanks for everything else.

224 User(s) are reading this topic. Wow.

Seriously hopes this is wrong, I honestly think I’ll cry.

I think Jose quitting is a combination of both frustration at the board and frustration at certain of his players.. The board meddled too much in his affairs… Why I am pissed off most is that the board should have let him be till the end of the season before letting him go or should have done this over the summer.. SO where do we go from here… A few of those players came because of Jose (together with the money)… This is a sad, sad day.. About to go get drunk…..

me , did not see this one coming , if it is true I am absolutley gutted. Can’t believe the club have allowed this to happen.

We will now be a laughing stock for sure. Other teams fans can have a laugh, Chelsea let Jose Mourinho go, that is just stupid. Bye bye silverware bye bye.

I can’t believe this is happening……………….. I dont know what to say…. I’m in total shock…..
my god…..

If I was Roman I would be fairly fed up. We are a weaker team now than in 2005 by a distance despite bringing in more and more players. The club has gone backwards over the last 12 months and it is difficult to ignore that fact. Roman didn’t become a multi billionaire by waiting for things to happen. It’s a sad day for Chelsea but we’ve been here before.