#nowplaying. Just 21 years of age, this talented Singaporean is on the way to the SXSW Music Festival. Inch Chua was on Channel News Asia’s Primetime Morning earlier today. Her albums are available for download from her website at www.inchchua.com.

Inch Chua – Won’t Even Start (Cover):

#nowplaying. Official We Are the World video first aired at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Recorded on February 1st, 2010, in the same studio as the original 25 years earlier (Henson Recording Studios, formerly A&M Recording Studios) “We Are The World 25 For Haiti”, in which Jones and Richie serve as executive producers and producers, was created in collaboration with executive producers Wyclef Jean, Randy Phillips and Peter Tortorici; producers Humberto Gattica and RedOne; and co-producers Rickey Minor, Mervyn Warren and Patti Austin to benefit the Haitian earthquake relief efforts and the rebuilding of Haiti.

Academy Award-winning writer-director Paul Haggis (Crash, Million Dollar Baby), whose own personal efforts as well as those of Artists for Peace and Justice have already saved countless lives in Haiti, filmed the private recording session to create the accompanying video and behind-the-scenes production, and serves as Film Director and as an Executive Producer with Jones, Richie, Jean, Phillips and Tortorici.

The 25th Anniversary recording features over 80 artists and performers. The recording of We Are The World 25 For Haiti embodied the same enthusiasm, sense of purpose and generosity as the original recording 25 years ago. Every one of the artists who participated, regardless of genre or generation, walked into the room with their hearts and souls completely open to coming together to help the people of Haiti.

We Are The World 25 For Haiti – Official Video:

Previously, I posted an entry on Aiza Seguerra, a popular Filipino singer on her latest album True Love. Charice Pempengco is another young Filipino who is set to be a rising star. Having made guest appearance with the likes of Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion, Charice made her second appearance on the Oprah Show in 2009.

Charice - Note to God (Single)

Her latest single, Note to God; written by Grammy Winner, Diane Warren and produced by the lengendary David Foster wowed the audience and was ranked #1 on the first day of release on Amazon. Her other album simply titled Charice is also available on Amazon. If you have not seen her performance on Oprah, the video is available below.

I had loads of people asking me what is it with me and 20 year old German cars. Why not just settle for a new Toyota Vios or maybe even a Honda Jazz / Honda Fit with same power to weight ratio and better fuel economy? True to the point, the BMW E34 and The Mercedes Benz W124 are both hitting 20 years of age for most of these cars in existence. with all things old, there tend to be problems that may come along with it.

Contrary to the common belief, the E30, E34 and W124 are not that all fussy old-timers. Regular oil changes and attention to some details will keep the car going for many years more. The W124 for one had a 30 years anti-rust treatment and was tested to run up to 1,000,000 miles or 1,609,334 kilometres. At that point, the odometer on your dashboard would have tripped and reset itself to start off from zero without an unscrupulous mechanic’s help.

The fact is, which I am sure many folks ot there will agree with me, the E30, E34 and the W124 are still mechanically the best built German automobiles today. They were over-engineered and built to last. Of the Mercs and Bimmers, the W124 was undeniably that better built example. Of the 3, I prefer the E34 for it’s strong lines, performance and ample interior space. you have to agree that the kidney grills and the round headlights that gave the car it’s handsome looks still look intimidating today.

Compared with today’s latest incarnations loaded with all the electronics, the old guards suffer from the normal wear and tear of mechanical moving parts. These replacement parts are readily available. The new models on the other hand were not built to last to be exact. German or Japanese, all you need is a blown fuse to stop your car dead. Maybe it’s a man’s thing or a boy’s dream some 15 years ago but if you know DTM, you know when I say no Japanese cars have ever been put up to the same abuse. Given, these aren’t your normal production cars and were either AMG tuned or M Powered. Still, they were tuned from the exact same based production models. DTM faded off in the late 90′s as Formula 1 grab the attention with all it’s marketing glitz. In 2000, all that changed for DTM, where you find some of the craziest professional race drivers alive. If I had to settle for a new German car today, it would be none other than an Audi or VW at a higher price point compared to any Japanese make available on the local market today. Else, I will get my E34 and you can shut the hell up.

DTM History – The Golden Years

DTM History – First Class

DTM History – Reborn Stars

No, I am not going melodrama and fixing a broken heart. I just completed a redesign of a project site and will be fixing the theme here. I believe it is broken somewhere. Or at least I think it is. I wil need to see how I can clean it up and make the site load faster too. Oh and yes, the color theme needs to change. I am still not sure of what colors though so suggestions will be nice.

Anyways, because my project site is still sitting on my demo blog (where I usually ibstall, break, fix and tweak stuff) I will probably have to do it here. So in case you see weird stuff going on here over the weekend, you know I am working on the site.

For those who thought I was going mellow, this one is for you:

Now go away and enjoy your weekend!

The Late Show with David Letterman on YouTube

If you don’t mind 10-30 seconds advertisements in between episodes and just can’t get enough of David Letterman on cable, check out The Late Show with David Letterman’s YouTube channel. Great part of this, you can play all episodes at once. Once a clip finishes, it plays the next clip for you automatically. Downside, 30 seconds is rather long for an advert thanks to CBS. Then again, we get to watch it free so can’t really gripe about it that much.

The Late Show with David Letterman – David Letterman & Madonna (09/30/09):

Haven’t been able to post much till the past few days. There were other stuff that has managed to keep me away for quite awhile. Anyways, thought I share this one here.

It’s a widely known fact, or at least I would think so that I have absolutely no clue what his singing about in this song. Lucky to have heard this when I downloaded it for free on iTunes in mid September. Still, I like his vocals and find myself leaving his album shuffling on my iTunes or iPod. Definitely worth checking out. I’ve got Leon Polar’s entire L.P. album for one.

For those of you who just cant get enough, I’ve uploaded the MP3 version and linked to Leon’s Official site on YouTube below.

Now Playing – Sin Cargo de Conciencia (L.P.) [Leon Polar]

YouTube – leonpolar’s Channel – Sin Cargo de Conciencia

It’s perhaps safe to say that passenger safety has come a long way given the advancement in technologies used in today’s cars. With independent car safety assessment programme like the Euro NCAP, manufacturers are pressured to keep build safer cars. The consumer will obviously pick a 5-star rated car over a 3-star rated car should price not be an issue. I too know of friends who don’t mind shelling out extra just to get a 5-star rated car over a 4-star. So much the better right?

adult-sized crash test dummies

There is however one aspect of car safety that hasn’t seen as much development. Though pedestrian safety is part of NCAP’s rating programme, manufacturers haven’t yet put in that much effort in making cars safer for pedestrians in an event of a collision. That said, when meat meets metal, even a 3 year old knows to say “ouch” or “pain”. Matter of fact is, most car buyers even till today do not seem to care that much about a car’s pedestrian safety rating. If they do, they aren’t showing it. We could all say it’s human nature that we are all selfish. Fact remains that in an event of a traffic collision, we’ll place more emphasis in protecting the occupants in our car over whatever else is going on outside the safety of our cabin.

Fifth Gear – Pedestrian Safety in Car Collisions Pt.1

[See post to watch Flash video]

There are some manufacturers who are making some headway in the advancement of pedestrian safety. Ironically though, these will be considered miniscule efforts by any means. Sadly, they are ‘advancements’ so to speak. Some recent ones include pedestrian friendly bumpers and bonnets. Honda has been making bumpers ‘softer’ on the pedestrian in recent years. Mercedes has made the bonnet of their cars ‘pop’ upwards in an event of a collision hoping to buffer travel distance between the head of a pedestrian to the engine block.

Fifth Gear – Pedestrian Safety in Car Collisions Pt.2

[See post to watch Flash video]

The reality is this. Say we are all in a little city car. Pick any city car made in the last 10 years and chances are it comes standard with an airbag.

• So we are driving along at a snail’s pace of say 30 km/h (~20 mph) along a small lane with cars parked on both sides.
• First thought is how many of us will actually drive that slowly when we are used to doing at least 90-100 km/h (62 mph) on the highway.
• The legal speed limits for local road here are 50 km/h (~30 mph) anyway.

Anyways, let’s assume that we are driving along at 30 km/h here. Out of no where, a child bolts out in between cars parked alongside the road. Like most folks, if your reflexes are sharp, you’ll manage to slam on the brakes in an instant. In the unfortunate event that you aren’t able to stop in time or worst still were distracted and didn’t hit the brakes? Your airbag may not even need to go off to protect you or your passengers. One can pretty much figure out who’s going to be walking away here.

So, airbags for pedestrians? Hell if I knew it will work. A encapsulating bubble that ‘catches’ the pedestrian in a bubble will be great. Ok, too much of bubble boy here but I think you get the picture.

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions ‘Volvo’? I remember growing up as a kid with classmates’ mums coming by after school to pick them up in a Volvo. More often than not, I get a free ride home in the armoured personnel carrier instead of the school bus. That said, Volvos have always been choice for soccer kid mums. I mean they did come out with the SIPS technology otherwise known as Side Impact Protection System which was deemed as a major safety advancement in motoring. Of course ABS, TCS and Airbags followed soon after.

Crumple zones was another safety advancement that followed much later. When the term first surfaced, it was bewildering for me to know someone would rather crumple their car instead of shrugging off an impact in a motoring accident. Safety advancements and innovation has obviously come a long way from the 1980′s.

Renault Modus vs. Volvo 940GLE Estate

The latest car safety testing standards today has to be the Euro NCAP or European New Car Assessment Programme. One question has always intrigued me. With the emphasis on making today’s cars more fuel efficient, manufacturers have spared no expense in using lighter materials to lose weight. The category of City Cars only surfaced some 10-15 years back as manufacturers came out with the concept of small little nippy daily drives for urban traffic. Just how safe are these little buggers on the road against the iconic Volvo from the 80′s?

Fifth Gear: Size Doesn’t Matter (Crash Test)

Size doesn’t matter, or at least in most cases. Though there aren’t that many new major advancements, manufacturers have continously seeked to make their cars safer. The latest focus in car safety today is not just about protecting occupants in an event of accidents. Some manufacturers like Honda for one is researching ways to reduce injuries caused to pedestrains. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who’s going to come out walking with flesh meets metal.

Both are among the largest european automobile manufacturers and if it ever came down to me having to decide on one over the other, I will have a tough time coming to that decision. Watch this video as BMW has a go at Audi.

BMW – Jump for Joy