For all movie fans, here are some of 2005 nominees for the OSCARS, if you seen any of the mentioned movies, share your comments about it with us lets see why it was nominated and whether it deserves to win or not.

ACTOR — LEADING
• Philip Seymour Hoffman - CAPOTE
• Terrence Howard - HUSTLE & FLOW
• Heath Ledger - BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
• Joaquin Phoenix - WALK THE LINE
• David Strathairn - GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK.

ACTOR – SUPPORTING
• George Clooney - SYRIANA
• Matt Dillon - CRASH
• Paul Giamatti - CINDERELLA MAN
• Jake Gyllenhaal - BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
• William Hurt - A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

ACTRESS — LEADING
• Judi Dench - MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS
• Felicity Huffman - TRANSAMERICA
• Keira Knightley - PRIDE & PREJUDICE
• Charlize Theron - NORTH COUNTRY
• Reese Witherspoon - WALK THE LINE

ACTRESS — SUPPORTING
• Amy Adams - JUNEBUG
• Catherine Keener - CAPOTE
• Frances McDormand - NORTH COUNTRY
• Rachel Weisz -THE CONSTANT GARDENER
• Michelle Williams -BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

BEST PICTURE
• BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
• CAPOTE
• CRASH
• GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK.
• MUNICH

VISUAL EFFECTS
• THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE
• KING KONG
• WAR OF THE WORLDS

Creation of the Oscar Statuette
From its creation in 1927, one of the first goals of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) was the development of a way to honor achievements in the motion picture industry. The Academy Awards, now in its 78th year, were the result of this work.
Vital to the success of the Awards was the creation of trophy that could be distributed at the Awards. MGM art director Cedric Gibbons was assigned the task of designing the statuette. The product of Gibbons’ work was the statuette that we all recognize today: a simple, stylized golden knight standing on a reel of film and gripping a sword. The award was actually created by sculptor George Stanley.

How did the Oscar Get Its Name?
Although officially named the Academy Award of Merit, the statuette is almost universally known as the Oscar. But where did this name come from? A number of stories have arisen over the years.
The most popular story about the name’s origin involves then Academy librarian and future executive director, Margaret Herrick. The story goes that Herrick, upon seeing the statuette sitting on a table exclaimed “it looks just like my Uncle Oscar!” The name stuck and it has been called by that name ever since.
Another common story involves actress and two-time Academy Award winner Bette Davis, who reportedly named it after her ex-husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson, Jr. Columnist Sidney Skolsky, perhaps the first to use the name in print, claimed that the name came from an old music hall joke, “Will you have a cigar, Oscar?”
Although we don’t know the name’s true origin, we do know that it quickly gained popularity. In 1934 Hollywood reporter Sidney Skolsky used the name in reference to Katherine Hepburn’s win that year. Walt Disney is also reported to have called it by that name in the same year at the Awards ceremony. By 1939 the Academy itself was using the name officially.

Evolution of the Oscar Statuette
In its 78 years, the Oscar has undergone relatively few changes. Looking at a statue from 1929 and one today, they are almost exactly the same. It is 13 ½ inches tall and weighs 8 ½ pounds.

I have passed an article today on NY-Times highlighting a new secret gadget to be released on 2nd March 2006. Its really puzzling? The porject name is called Origami Project . I have searched and found that Origami means making creatures & design shapes using the paper. So what can that new Microsoft gadget be? They mention its something mobile!

Click to read NY Times Article Link

Everyday we hear the word ‘Bird Flu’ around 100 times. You cannot observe any media source without hearing the scary news about this virus. The worse part here is that everyday a new worse story is revealed & a new country is infected. Everybody fear that this virus reach the stage of transmission from human to human and I believe that is the tragedy, which Insha’allah wont happen. I even heard that the same virus hit italy early in the 20th century & killed more than 100,000 people and the reason was that the virus were spreading from human to human at that time.

In the other hand, whatever the killing effect of the virus to human being while dealing physically with poultry, Scientist has approved for sure that cooking the chicken wll make it safe 100% .

Please share with us your opinion & lets see if your meals diet daily program has been changed & the chicken meal is lost from your table, specially Jordan main meals are meat & chicken, while not a big chunk of people eat fish frequently.

30 September 2005: Jyllands-Posten publishes drawings of the prophet Mohammed.

9 October 2005: Spokesmen for Denmark’s Islamic Faith Community demands an apology from Jyllands-Posten.

14 October 2005: Demonstrations in Copenhagen.

19 October 2005: Eleven ambassadors from Muslim countries request a meeting with the Danish prime minister to discuss government action against Jyllands-Posten.

November-December 2005: A delegation of Danish Muslims travels to the Middle East to conduct meetings with religious leaders. They bring with them highly offensive drawings that have not been printed in Jyllands-Posten and which have nothing to do with the newspaper.

29 December 2005: Foreign ministers of the League of Arab States criticize the Danish prime minister for his handling of the situation.

1 January 2006: In his New Year’s address to the nation, the Danish prime minister emphasizes the importance of freedom of expression, religious freedom, and mutual respect.

10 January: Norwegian newspaper `Magazinet’ publishes the drawings.

21 January: The International Union of Muslim Scholars announces its support for a consumer boycott of Denmark.

26 January: Trade boycott begins in Saudi-Arabia.

29 January: Libya closes its embassy in Denmark. In an interview with al-Jazeera, Jyllands-Posten’s culture editor expresses regret that the drawings printed in the newspaper unwittingly offended practising Muslims. This expression is not translated into Arabic.

30 January: Jyllands-Posten’s editor-in-chief publishes a statement on the internet in Danish, English, and Arabic and apologises for the offence the drawings have caused, but not the publishing of the drawing themselves, as this is not in conflict with either Danish law or the ethics of the Danish press.

I am linking this video for all BMW lovers & ‘Mashateeb’ and specially the bride M5.
I know I am one of them as well may be 90% of Jordanians
In arab countries, the popularity of BMW is highest in Kuwait, Lebanon & Jordan. This stats doesnt reflect the number of sales but the preference itself.
In 2005, BMW Group has sold around 1.1 million cars while Mercedes has sold only 900 Thousand; that was the first year ever that BMW sales exceeds the Benz.
This video is a demonstration done in a semi-Formula1 track in germany. This RingTaxi is driven by a lady driver:) who make a demostration track with people who love to enjoy the 510 horse power M5.
(Isn’t a good idea to have such a track with a M5 taxi in Helaleye-Madaba ? :))

I will leave the sound of the Jazzy V10 engine speaks.

This video requires “High Speed” Internet

I have been digging in the internet for new sites and ideas, as this is one of my best hobbies since 1995 and passed with this video blog that looks like MetaCafe. This site VIDEO-BOMB is very new and I know alot will like exploring it. It has some cool video clips by the way. For me, I dont have a strong mood for such kind of videos but from time to time I feel I need a smiley or an action rest :); for that I love to watch some BMW videos on Google Video and AutoSpies, my favourite autos website.

Working in my room at 6am in the morning, I look outside and it’s all white without I even feel it. Unfortunately, a few hours later the sun came up and it all melted. See pictures below:

I’ll let the pictures do the talking..