We have to evacuate. That’s 27 flights of stairs. F-ck.

This year’s Miss Universe finals, held in Mexico City, saw the 22 to 1 outsider Miss Japan take the title and earn the right to wear the $250,000 crown. Miss Japan, 20-year-old ballet dancer Riyo Mori, fought off stiff competition from Miss Brazil and Miss Venezuela in an event riddled with controversy.

Before the pageant, a group of protesters had held a fake ceremony with entrants such as Miss Marijuana and Miss Human Rights. The group was protesting about the apparent objectifying of women by competitions such as Miss Universe.

I watched a bit of Miss Universe 2007 before work this morning while I was waiting in a hospital waiting room; there was nothing remarkable about the competition, and the programme had the feel of the Eurovision Song Contest about it. I’m always perplexed about the popularity of Miss Universe. 600 million people from 180 countries are expected to see this year’s competition. What do they watch it for? And what does a competition like this teach anyone who watches it? It’s trash TV at it’s most vulgar.

“I learned how to always be happy, be patient and to be positive, and this is what I want to teach to the next generation,” said Miss Japan.

I’d much rather the winner was honest and said something along the lines of:

“I’m the most beautiful woman in the world. Who wouldn’t get a kick out of that? I’m going to be famous and earn a good sum of money through endorsements, and I’m very happy to be in this position.”

Despite being co-owned by Donald Trump, the pageant’s “special” guest judges consisted of a model, a figure skater, an American football player, and a celebrity hairstylist, amongst others. For whatever reason, Dave Navarro (Jane’s Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers) was also one of the judges.

The drama of the night came as Miss USA Rachel Smith took a tumble during the evening gown segment, much to the delight of all the Mexicans in attendance. Despite not being able to walk without falling over, Miss USA managed to cling onto fifth place; an achievement that shocked the audience and the millions of views around the world.

Wow! What a rollercoaster competition.

Techno’ tags: Miss Japan Riyo Mori, Miss Universe 2007, Rachel Smith

From today’s Nation:

A 13,000-strong combined force of police and soldiers will be deployed to maintain order and prevent violence, Council for National Security chairman General Sonthi Boonyaratglin said. He was speaking after a meeting of officials in preparation for judgement day.

Looks like they really aren’t messing around with this one. 13,000 people? Tomorrow’s Judgment Day will be a decisive landmark for Thailand.

Embassies issue warnings: Australia, Canada, France and Japan all advised their citizens to show a high degree of personal security awareness as tomorrow’s verdict could trigger violent demonstrations in the Thai capital. (AFP)

Techno’ tags: Bangkok, Thai politics

.Gif image taken from The Nation homepage.

You may have noticed that Korean pop sensation Rain is coming to Bangkok. The posters, videos and billboards are everywhere (concerts are scheduled for June 2 and 3). It’s like the coming of Christ, albeit in the form of a handsome 24-year-old. Rain is something of a phenomenon in Asia. Readers of Time Magazine voted him as the most influential person on earth in an online poll. Take that for what it’s worth, but something tells me the Asian contingent may have been out in force for that one.

If you haven’t seen Rain then you will have missed his boyish looks, his slick Michael Jackson mimicking dance routines, and his Justin Timberlake influenced vocal range. Throw in a bit of Usher’s style for good measure and you’ve got a well-packaged pop star. His songs, from what I’ve heard, are mediocre at best, relying on Western clichés and unoriginal themes.

Korean Rain began life in the boyband Fanclub. After a series of rejections from the pop world for having small eyes, he eventually made it onto the solo stage with his self-titled debut album. His second album, How to Avoid The Sun, was released in 2003, while the third album, imaginatively titled It’s Raining, went on to sell more than a million copies in Asia, solidifying Rain’s status as the Prince of Pop (in Asia). Rain has won a string of accolades, including “Most Popular Asian Artist Award” from Channel [V] Thailand.

In 2006 Rain starred in the lackluster movie I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK, playing a mental patient who believes himself to be a robot. Rain has also been attempting to break into the US market, with two sold out concerts in Las Vegas at the end of 2006.

The fourth album, and the one Rain is currently promoting, is titled Rain’s World and features tracks such as ‘I’m coming’, ‘In My Bed’ and ‘Oh Yeah’. The artwork for the album shows the Korean singer standing topless with a pair of what I can only imagine are angel’s wings; how contrived.

Rain doesn’t seem to have done much to make himself seem like the exceptional human being he is made out to be. At Saturday’s reopening of the Kongju Korean restaurant at the Pathumwan Princess hotel, Rain was the supposed guest of honour. What this equated to was as follows: all the other celebs showed up on time, spoke to reporters, had their pictures taken, smiled and drank cocktails; Rain Juniors performed what to me was a sickening display of pop culture madness (small children performing choreographed moves and miming); the press waited for the imminent arrival of Rain; Rain Juniors performed again during the delay; more waiting; then Rain showed up escorted to the press area by a number of bodyguards; he accepted a bouquet of flowers from Tata Young, smiled and left after 30 seconds.

All that fuss for a 30 second appearance. I was not impressed. Even Tata Young seemed a little bemused at Rain’s prompt fleeing of the scene. The press all looked at each other as if to say “Is that it?” Much ado about nothing. After that everybody went to eat dinner.

On a positive note, the restaurant was excellent with some great Korean barbeque. I ate with some Thai journalists who admitted that they too were not particularly keen on Rain. The hot topic of the night was how “fat” Tata Young had got, although I thought she looked pretty darn good. Tata, ever gracious, even stopped outside the hotel to wave to fans before driving off with her friends. She had two plain clothes bodyguards with her, both who stood out in their near identical T-shirts.

Techno’ tags: Korean singer rain, Tata Young

Last week Google launched a cool little feature called “Hot Trends”, which is a component of Google Trends.

Google Hot Trends provides a real time snapshop of what people are searching for on the internet. You can see the top 100 searches immediately as they are happening. It’s interesting to see how the range of topics changes based on what’s on TV, what people are hearing on the radio, and other global events.

The top 10 searches on Google right now are:

• charles nelson reilly
• charles eastman
• wounded knee
• ice princess
• bury my heart at wounded knee
• sitting bull
• bolder boulder
• dario franchitti
• casey mears
• ashley judd

Google Hot Trends does not work by showing the top 100 searches as such; rather, it displays the top 100 queries that are deviating from regular searches, showing trends, rather than absolute popularity.

If you’re a topical blogger or a webmaster looking to tap into what’s hot on Google, then regular viewings of Google Hot Trends could help give you ideas for topics that people want to read. You can view trends by country, region and city, and there is the option to view past trends. Hot Trends is a great tool for reaching out to the millions of people who sue Google every day. Obviously, you should pick and choose about which topics are valuable to you and your website, but with a bit of thought you can see what people are watching on TV, what they want to see at the movies, what they are listening too, and who they are curious about.

Techno’ tags: Google Hot Trends