Golden News
Volume 17, Number 25 - Monday 15 December 2003
The official bulletin of the Rotary Club of Kowloon Golden Mile is published
most Mondays and is distributed to all club members, District officials and
other "friends of KGM".

Winner "Best English Language Bulletin" in District 3450, 2001/2002
This Week's Meeting:
 

There's no guest speaker this week because it's our 2003 Annual General Meeting and Election of Officers for the Rotary year commencing 1 July 2004. This is a very important meeting, and members are asked to make every effort to attend.

However please note that the annual KGM Xmas Party will be held next week, at which time KGM members are invited to bring their "better halves", their children, their family pets and their pet rocks.
 
 
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From Under The Kitchen Sink: Our spy in the Holiday Inn kitchen, Vincent "The Galloping Gourmet" Lam, informs us that this week's fare is Austrian food and the menu includes:
 
Barley Soup mit der air dried beef from der grossen kow; und

Gratinated Veal Schnitzel mit der smelly gorgonzola cheese, served mit der Savoy cabbage und der sautéed potatoes
or
Lentil stew mit der vegetable burnoise
 
und Sacher Cake mit der vanilla saucehousenschnellwassefritzeindooberklasse.
 
Wohlschmeckend ............ das is gud, ya?
 
By the way, while the food is being served, Herr Vincent will entertain us by singing his stirring, world famous rendition of "The Sound of Music", while wearing lederhosen and playing cow bells.
 
We just hope the bells aren't still attached to the cows - they tend to get agitated and drop doo-doo everywhere.
 
 
Member News:
 
Speaking of lederhosen and other things Austro-Germanic, our old mate and KGM Rotary Foundation Director Carola "Cha Cha" Chard advises us that her new email address is carola@hkes.net

 
Milestones:


Birthday greetings to:

(There are no KGM members celebrating a birthday this week, but PP Louis "Trailwalker" Thomas is still really old).

 
Induction anniversary greetings this week to:
 
Pico "Lino" Dialdas who was inducted on 20 December 2000 and celebrates his 3rd anniversary.
 
Neerja "Da Beerja" Sujanani who was inducted on 16 December 1998 and celebrates her 5th anniversary.


Next BOD Meeting:
 
KGM BOD Members are reminded that the next BOD meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. TONIGHT, Monday 15 December 2003, at:
 
Regus Business Centre,
18/F, One International Finance Centre,
1 Harbour View Street, Central (above the MTR Airport Express Station)
 
If you can't attend, please call KGM President Patricia "Iron Lady" Blair on 9312 3606 immediately.

Bad news: BOD members who don't attend or call, will be sent to The Tower and shot.

Good news: Our Fearless Leader will be taking the attendees out to dinner after the meeting. Yippee!
 
 
Semi-Annual Dues:
 
Yes folks, it's time once again to pay your dues of $1,500 for the period 1 January to 30 June 2004, and you have three payment options:

1) By cash handed directly to KGM Treasurer Rajiv "Show Me The Money" Makhija;
 
2) By cheque payable to "Rotary Club of Kowloon Golden Mile" mailed to P.O. Box 98129, Tsimshatsui, Kowloon.
 
3) By credit card through "PayPal" (where you can arrange for automatic re-billing every 6 months, if you so choose).

If you elect to pay by cheque, remember to clearly write your name on the back of the cheque, because our overworked and unpaid Treasurer doesn't always know which company name belongs to which member.
 
 
Fellowship News:

We hear a rumour that the next big event will be the long-awaited "President's Night" to be hosted by former Fearless Leader IPP Nanu "Nanu" Lachman, but we're waiting for confirmation. In the meantime, just talk among yourselves.
 
District 3450 Events:
 

Read all about "Why Rotary clubs in Beijing and Shanghai are still provisional?" on the District website.
 
 
In other news:
  • Interact District Conference - Saturday 17 January 2004 - details
Rotary International News:
 
 
Read the latest news about Carl-Wilhelm Stenhammar, the sole nominee to be the next RI President for 2005-2006.
 
In other news:
 
1. Read the December issue of "The Rotarian" magazine online.
 
2. Learn about the various Rotary International Programs on the RI website - details.
 
3. Read all about the ongoing plans for the RI Centennial in 2005 - details.

4. Visit the website of Rotary International President Jonathan Majiyagbe - details.
 
5. The 95th Rotary International Convention will be held in Osaka from 23-26 May, 2004 - new website.

 
 
Rotary Information: 
 

Unusual Make-Up Meetings: Which Rotarians have to travel farthest for a make-up meeting? You're right if you guessed the 34 members of the Rotary Club of Papeete, Tahiti, which is located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and is the club that is most remote from any other.
 
The southernmost Rotary meeting is that of the Rotary Club of Base Marambio-Antartida in Antarctica. To visit the northernmost club, you must travel to the Rotary Club of Svalbard on the Svalbard island group, far north of the Norwegian mainland.

It is said that there is a Rotary meeting being held someplace in the world every hour of every day. If you attended one meeting per day, it would take more than 80 years to visit all of the more than 31,000 Rotary clubs in the world, and by that time, no doubt, there would be thousands more new clubs to attend..

 
Geek Speak:
 

Have you noticed how domain names all end in different ways? There are three levels of domain name registration:
 
1st Level: Typically these end in ".com", ".org" or ".net", but there are other less common ones such as ".biz". There are also "specialised" domain names reserved exclusively for Governments (".gov") and educational institutions (".edu").

The KGM domain name www.rckgm.org is a 1st Level domain name, as is www.rotary.org. & www.cnn.com. These domain names are highly prized because they're shorter and easier to remember.
 
2nd Level: These just have a country code at the end of the domain (e.g. ".au" for Australia,  ".de" for Germany and ".se" for Sweden), without the ".com" or other bit in the middle. A typical example is www.beretta.it in Italy.
 
3rd Level: These are a combination of both above, and they add a country code to the end of a 2nd Level domain name (e.g. ".com.hk" or ".org.ph" or ".net.au") and so on.
 
Previously, 2nd Level domain names were unavailable in Hong Kong, so local registrations have all been 3rd Level (e.g. www.mycompany.com.hk), however good news is just around the corner. The HKDNR (the official registrar of local domains names in Hong Kong), will shortly be releasing shorter, 2nd Level domain names for qualified applicants in Hong Kong (i.e. without the ".com" or other bit in the middle).
 
So, if your domain name is currently www.mycompany.com.hk you will be able to register www.mycompany.hk. And don't worry about a "cyber-squatter" registering your domain name before you - if you already own a ".com.hk" domain name, you will be given first refusal for the comparable ".hk" domain name.

The launch date is scheduled for 5 January 2004, and the HKRIC will send a reminder email to the "Administrator" of your website. If you don't receive such an email by, say, 10 January 2004, email the HKDNR.

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Geek Tip: When printing name cards and the like, there's no need to include the "http://" for your website - this is universally understood. Hence you can make your stationary less cluttered by just quoting the "www" onwards.
 
 
Who Am I?
 

What is the more common name of veteran wacky comedian Jerome Levitch?

Clue: The original Professor.
 
The answer appears at the bottom of this issue.
 
 
Golden Smile: 
 

It was October and the Indians on a remote reservation asked their new Chief if the coming winter was going to be severe or mild. Since he was a Chief in a modern society he'd never been taught the old secrets so, when he looked at the sky, he couldn't tell how bad the winter was going to be.
 
Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he told his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be severe and that the members of the village should collect firewood to be prepared.
 
However, being a practical leader, after several days he had an idea. He called the National Weather Service and asked, "Is the coming winter going to be severe or mild?"
 
"It looks like this winter is going to be quite severe," the meteorologist at the weather service responded. On hearing this, the Chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more firewood in order to be prepared.
 
A week later he called the National Weather Service again. "Does it still look like it is going to be a very cold winter?"
 
"Yes," the man at National Weather Service again replied, "it's going to be a very cold winter". The Chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of firewood they could find.
 
Two weeks later the Chief called the National Weather Service again. "Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?"
 
"Absolutely," the man replied. "It's looking more and more like it is going to be one of the coldest winters ever."
 
"How can you be so sure?" the Chief asked.
 
The weatherman replied, "Because the Indians are collecting firewood like crazy!".

 
Quotable Quotes:


"Everything you read in the newspaper is absolutely true, except for the rare story of which you happen to have first-hand knowledge".

Erwin Knoll
 
 
The Phantom
Who Am I answer: Jerry Lewis.

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