Declan Galbraith's Tell Me Why

Declan John Galbraith (born 19 December 1991, Hoo St Werburgh, Kent) is an English singer of Irish and Scottish origin. He and his family live in Hoo, a village near Rochester, Kent. His grandfather was in a band, played several instruments, and took Galbraith to Fleadhs (concerts) he was participating in, and the mix of Scottish and Irish musical traditions inspired Galbraith and became his early musical influence.

This song Tell Me Why is his single released in 2002. Very powerful song.

SONG : TELL ME WHY

In my dream children sing a song of love for every boy and girl
The sky is blue and fields are green and laughter is the language of the world
Then I wake and all I see is a world full of people in need

Tell me why (why) does it have to be like this?
Tell me why (why) is there something I have missed?
Tell me why (why) cos I don't understand.
When so many need somebody we don't give a helping hand.
Tell me why?

Everyday I ask myself what will I have to do to be a man?
Do I have to stand and fight to prove to everybody who I am?
Is that what my life is for to waste in a world full of war?

Tell me why (why) does it have to be like this?
Tell me why (why) is there something I have missed?
Tell me why (why) cos I don't understand.
When so many need somebody we don't give a helping hand.
Tell me why?

(children) tell me why? (declan) tell me why?
(children) tell me why? (declan) tell me why?
(together) just tell me why, why, why?

Tell me why (why) does it have to be like this?
Tell me why (why) is there something I have missed?
Tell me why (why) cos I don't understand.
When so many need somebody we don't give a helping hand.

Tell me why (why,why,does the tiger run)
Tell me why (why why do we shoot the gun)
Tell me why (why,why do we never learn)
Can someone tell us why we let the forest burn?

(why,why do we say we care)
Tell me why (why,why do we stand and stare)
Tell me why (why,why do the dolphins cry)
Can some one tell us why we let the ocean die ?

(why,why if we're all the same)
tell me why (why,why do we pass the blame)
tell me why (why,why does it never end)
can some one tell us why we cannot just be friends?

More info on Declan Galbraith

The Ultimate Harry Potter Tour

King's Cross station provided the film's magical Platform 9 3/4 and has starred in most of the Harry Potter films.

13 Potter places

- Harry Potter fever is about to strike the Muggle world once again with the release of 6th film in the series – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Travel search site Skyscanner presents the ultimate Harry Potter tour, where fans of wizards, witches and wands can explore the Potter universe and visit all the places associated with the Potter films and books.

So if you’re a real Harry Potter fan, jump on your broomstick, start your flying car or just grab your floo powder and visit these famous Potter landmarks. Or if your wand is broken and your wizarding skills just aren’t up to par, you can always find a cheap flight on Skyscanner with the rest of us Muggles.

1. London Kings Cross Station

Potter World: the famed Platform 9 ¾ is where Harry and his wizarding pals hop aboard the steaming Hogwarts Express at the start of each term on their way to their magical school.

Muggle World: the actual platform used for the filming was Platform 4, but Network Rail have erected a Platform 9 ¾ sign and a luggage trolley magically disappearing into the wall to honour the story, which has made Kings Cross station a must see for fans on the Potter circuit.

2. Goathland, North Yorkshire

Potter World: Hogsmeade Station is the place where Harry and friends disembark the Hogwarts Express before making the onward journey to Hogwarts School.

Muggle World: Goathland station is a real station in North Yorkshire that was used as the film set for Hogsmeade and Potter fans still flock to get their pictures taken at this now famous landmark. Unfortunately you won’t see Hogwarts in the distance like in the films – it was created using special effects.

3. Alnwick Castle, England

Potter World: the grounds outside Hogwarts where Harry and his classmates have their first ever broomstick flying lesson.

Muggle World: the second largest inhabited castle in England after Windsor Castle, it was used in the filming of the exterior of Hogwarts for the flying lesson scene as well as when Harry crash lands the flying car. Several other locations were also used to film parts of Hogwarts including: Christ Church, Oxford, Durham Cathedral, Gloucester Cathedral and Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire.

4. London Zoo

Potter World: the place where Harry realises he is a Parselmouth – i.e. fluent in snake speak – during Harry Potter & The Philosopher's Stone.

Muggle World: the reptile house in London Zoo was used to film this slithery scene. Why not see if you can discuss the latest in reptilian fashion with a boa constrictor too?

5. Scotland

Potter World: though never specifically mentioned in the books, JK Rowling has remarked in interviews that Scotland was the logical setting for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the place where the vast majority of Harry and co’s adventures take place.

Muggle World: Scotland is well known for its castles, mansions and noble houses, all of which may have provided Rowling with inspiration for Hogwarts. Glen Nevis was used for some of the Quidditch scenes, and the West Highland Railway was used to film the journey of the Hogwarts Express which also takes in the incredible Glenfinnan Viaduct.

6. Bulgaria

Potter World: Bulgaria is home to Durmstrang Institute’s wizarding student and international Quidditch champion, Viktor Krum.

Muggle World: Bulgaria’s White Brotherhood – a group who believe in supernatural beings of great power, collect in the Seven Lakes region of the Rila Mountains to perform a spiritual dance every year. Here, over a thousand people dressed in white robes move slowly around in huge concentric circles. The spectacle is so impressive that Michael Palin visited the area and filmed it for his BBC documentary series, New Europe.

7. Ireland

Potter World: the Emerald Isle is home to many magical creatures in the Potter Universe including Imps, (small mischievous creatures), Porlocks, (horse guardians from southern Ireland) and Kelpies (water demons). Ireland is also well known in the wizarding world for being the proud winners of the 1994 Quidditch World Cup.

Muggle World: catch a hurling match which is about as close as a Muggle can get to the sport of Quidditch. A hugely popular sport in Ireland, most towns have a hurling field and team.

8. Wales

Potter World: home to the “Welsh Green” dragon, this species prefers to nest in high mountain regions. It mainly hunts sheep and small mammals but tends to avoid human contact.

Muggle World: climb Wales’ highest and most famous mountain, Snowdon. A typical climbing party takes around 5-6 hours to reach the summit and come down again, and if you keep your eyes peeled, you may just catch a glance of a Welsh Green. Pembrokeshire in Wales is also the film location for Shell Cottage, home of married couple Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour which will feature in the Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows film.

9. Norway

Potter World: home to the native Norwegian Ridgeback dragon which inhabits the northern mountains, this beast has venomous fangs and feeds on large animals and sometimes aquatic mammals. Hagrid succeeds in hatching a Norwegian Ridgeback egg but eventually gives it to Charlie Weasley who takes the dragon to the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary.

Muggle World: Norway’s mountains and fjords are a paradise for wildlife; we don’t know about dragons, but trolls are a strong part of Norse mythology, said to be devious and fearsome creatures living underground in hills, caves or mountains.

10. Romania

Potter World: this eastern European country is home to the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary, a preservation area created for the protection and study of dragons. The largest dragon sanctuary in the Potter universe, it was the preferred supplier of dragons for the Triwizard Tournament.

Muggle World: Transylvania in Romania is well known for its spooky, reputedly haunted castles. Ever since Bram Stoker used it as the setting for his Dracula novel, the region has been shrouded in supernatural folklore and associated with vampires, who also form part of the wizarding world in the Potter series.

11. Wollongong Australia

Potter World: home to the Woollongong Warriors, one of the strongest Quidditch teams in the Harry Potter Universe and dominators of the Australian Quidditch league, their rivalry with the Thundelarra Thunderers is legendary amongst the Australian magical community as documented in JK’s book: Quidditch Through the Ages.

Muggle World: Woollongong is an obvious reference to very similar sounding Wollongong, a city in New South Wales, Australia, noted for its numerous surfing beaches, scenery and botanic gardens, so no doubt an ideal place for wizards to obtain essential ingredients for their potions.

12. Orlando Florida

The Harry Potter Wizarding World Theme Park will offer possibly the most Harry Potter-esque experience possible in the Muggle world. Due to open in 2010, the park promises to ‘immerse fans in the adventures of the world’s most popular wizard’.

13. Edinburgh

No Harry Potter fan can omit Edinburgh as part of their tour. It was in this fine city (which is also home of Skyscanner) that JK Rowling completed the first book in her series – Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone – reputedly doing much of the writing in cafes around the city. To the dismay of Potter fans, one of her favourite spots, Nicolson’s Café, has since turned into an all-you-can eat Chinese restaurant. However, another one of JK’s haunts, The Elephant House, still stands and a coffee with a bagel here is a must for any Potter Fan.

Other Venues in the Potter Universe

Numerous other buildings were used for film locations including: Bodleian Library, Oxford (Hogwarts interiors), Australia House, The Strand London (Gringott's Bank), Martins Heron, Berkshire (Privet Drive) and Leadenhall Market, London (Diagon Alley).


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The iPhone 3G S is available for booking now in Malaysia

The iPhone 3G S is available for booking now

We are delighted to announce that the new iPhone 3G S, complete with new Rate Plans are now available for booking. And since you were one of the early few to register for this update, we are giving you the privilege of viewing these affordable Rate Plans first

Visit www.maxis.com.my/iphone3gs for more info on the Maxis iPhone 3GS Package.

See more related posts on iPhone : http://blogarist.blogspot.com/search/label/iphone

Microsoft's Office 2010 moves online

Microsoft is finally putting versions of its Office applications suite online, as part of its move to Office 2010. The new Office Web Applications, demonstrated on video, don't have all the capabilities of desktop versions, but do feature the ribbon-based user interface. They seem to be far more powerful than Google's three-year-old online applications, and should offer much better compatibility with Microsoft Office files.

The suite of Office Web Applications - Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote - will be available to consumers, free of charge, as part of Microsoft's Windows Live service, which has more than 400 million users, thanks mainly to the popularity of Hotmail. However, they are not limited to Windows users: Microsoft demonstrated them running in Firefox and Apple's Safari browser.

Small businesses will also be able to use the online versions as part of Microsoft's cloud-based subscription service Business Productivity Online Suite, while large companies will be able to host them on in-house servers, as well as running desktop versions of Office. Chris Adams, an Office product manager at Microsoft UK, says it offers "the ultimate choice". Customers can decide how much they want to do on the desktop and how much online, and they can either control the service or have it managed for them.

Office Web Applications can also be used with any mobile phone that has a compatible microbrowser.

When it comes to the desktop, Office 2010 is completing the migration to the Fluent user interface introduced with Office 2007. The new versions of Outlook, OneNote, Publisher and SharePoint Server now have ribbon-based interfaces, which can be customised.

As with Windows 7, Microsoft is reducing the number of different packages. When it appears next year, Office 2010 will be offered in five versions, but only three will be available to consumers. The Office Home and Student edition comprises Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote, while the Home and Business edition has Outlook as well. The Professional version also includes Access and Publisher.

Anti-piracy price point

Adams says the Home and Student version of Office 2007 has done well, with amazon.com selling a copy every 20 seconds. Amazon sells a three-user package for $90; it's currently £66.69 in the UK, which should be cheap enough to limit piracy.

Microsoft's Business Division, which includes Office, generated $19bn in sales in fiscal 2008, and $12bn in operating profits. There are fears that Microsoft's cash cow could lose sales to the online versions, which could account for the company's tardiness in adding a web-based Office.

But the industry analyst Tom Austin, chief of research (software) at Gartner, reckons that by introducing cloud services, Microsoft "will generate more revenue than licences alone did. Albeit, the new revenue will come at a lower profit level, but it will be incremental to the bottom line." He says "the 'free stuff' on the web is a spoiler to slow down Google's market penetration ... and a teaser" that will attract paying customers to the cloud-based offerings.

With the launch of Azure, supported by huge new data centres, Microsoft is investing massively in a move to cloud computing.

Another worry is that the online services will cut out the middleman and lead to conflict with Microsoft's partners - and Microsoft makes more than 95% of its revenues via more than 640,000 partners. While the most obvious ones are PC manufacturers, many more are employed in building applications for Microsoft products, and selling, installing, customising, managing and supporting them.

It's not a coincidence that Microsoft made its Office 2010 announcements at its Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Monday - it needs to keep these partners happy.

Catering for customers

The long-time Microsoft watcher Joe Wilcox says his first reaction to the videos of Office Web Applications was "So what? Everything's about preserving Microsoft's application stack" - the end-to-end connection of Windows and Office, back-office servers such as Exchange and SharePoint, and online services based on Azure - "and that's going to be replaced by the mobile phone going straight to the server," he says. He thinks Microsoft is "catering for old-style customers, and helping them to move forward".

To keep its "application stack" in sync, Microsoft also likes to sell new versions of Office with new versions of Windows for desktops and servers. Can Office 2010 help drive Windows 7 upgrades?

"They're not going to be released together, but that doesn't matter," says Wilcox. "Businesses are going to take a long time to test before they deploy them anyway. But I'm surprised there's not more synergy between the two, and there's no sign of it around things like the touch interface [in Windows 7]. But just because we've not heard about it, doesn't mean it's not going to happen."

If businesses started a new "refresh cycle" by installing new PCs running Windows 7 and Office 2010, a depressed computer industry would be grateful. It didn't happen with Vista and Office 2007, so many business PCs must be getting old and expensive to maintain. However, most companies are probably more concerned with reducing costs and holding on to cash, so make-do-and-mend seems more likely.

Whether the economic scene will have changed next year, when Office 2010 finally ships, remains to be seen. But Microsoft isn't the only company that hopes so.

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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Movie rings in $22.2 milliion in Midnight Sales

They didn't just show up to see a movie, they wanted to live it -- and wear it.

Some of the muggles came in maroon-striped scarves and school-uniform neckties; others donned capes and stuffed pillows under their shirts to give them the girth of a plump wizard. Many sported wigs, gray sweaters (despite the stifling heat), tube socks and, oh yes, wire-rimmed glasses. Lots and lots of wire-rimmed glasses.

The witching-hour spectacle played out at theaters across the Southland as thousands of "Harry Potter" fans stayed up late on Tuesday night so they could be among the first to see the sixth installment in the most magical of Hollywood franchises. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" sold out more than 4,500 midnight showings and was poised to break the box-office record for a Wednesday opening.

I've been waiting for this day for months," said Naomi Gonzales, 21, of Sylmar, who purchased tickets for the 12:55 a.m. showing at Universal CityWalk with her cousin. "There was no way I was going to wait. Midnight was the only option. Who needs sleep? Harry Potter is my caffeine."

At the AMC CityWalk Stadium, all six showings of the film were sold out. The two midnight showings at Mann Theatres in Hollywood? Sold out. That was the story far and wide; at one point, Fandango was selling eight tickets per second, according to the website.

The generally well-reviewed film seems to have left fans spellbound. It brought in $22.2 million in midnight ticket sales at 3,003 locations -- shattering last year's record $18.5-million midnight earnings of another Warner Bros.' blockbuster, "The Dark Knight." According to several people with access to box office data, matinees were extremely strong but evening shows slowed a bit, putting the new "Potter" movie on track to likely gross just under $60 million on its opening day. That means it will likely just miss out on beating the Wednesday record of $62 million set by "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" on its opening day last month.

Several Hollywood executives who closely track box office returns said the latest "Harry Potter" film will likely earn around $200 million in the U.S. and Canada and as much or more from international markets by Sunday.

It's certain to make more than its predecessor "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," which two years ago sold a total of $292 million in tickets domestically and $938 million worldwide.

Camille Soroudi, 18, and her friends London Venturelli, 19, and Gaby Witte, 18, arrived for the 12:15 a.m. show at CityWalk dressed as Gryffindor and Slytherin students. Soroudi was anxious for what she was about to see on screen.

"It better live up to the book," said Soroudi of Tarzana, who with her friends started a Harry Potter club at Brentwood High School when they were students there. "I don't want it to be like 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.' If you're going to bring the book to the big screen, do it right. They should have brought [director] Chris Columbus back."

The darker sixth installment in the Potter franchise, which finds the Death Eaters, mobilized by the return of Harry's antagonist Lord Voldemort, threatening Hogwarts and the wizarding world, is directed by David Yates, who did the previous film and is at work on the final two installments.

There was fan outrage last year when Warner Bros. abruptly postponed the release of "Half-Blood Prince" for eight months to maximize its marketplace position, and many wondered if the delay would adversely affect box office returns.

But Potter-mania via cyberspace didn't end with online ticket purchasing. Fans of the boy wizard and his sidekicks have made "Harry Potter" a top 10 "trending topic" on Twitter since July 13. As midnight neared Tuesday, many tweets buzzed with anticipation.

Around 6 p.m. PDT, "Erickaholic" wrote: "Waiting in line for the harry potter premierrr :)"

"Bamberella" wrote: "Harry Potter tonight . . . not an avid book reader but fan enough to go to the midnight showing. Boo ya!"

Others, like "PhantomWho," planned to tweet their thoughts of the movie as they watched it.

And many expressed their plans to watch Harry, his sidekick Ron and brainy gal pal Hermione more than once.

"Are you kidding?" said Lauren Poissant, 19, of Long Beach, who came dressed as Rubeus Hagrid and lugged along an egg (made of papier-mâché) housing the baby dragon Norbert. "I'm definitely going to see it more than once. It's just that kind of movie."

For some, once the 2 1/2-hour film came to an end, the spell wore off and reality set in again.

Kristine Espinoza, 19, of Carson left the screening feeling "really incomplete" for two reasons: she had an 8 a.m. physics class in a few hours, and the end of the film meant the waiting process for the next cinematic chapter had just begun.

"I'm eager for the next one to come out," said Espinoza, who didn't make it home until 4 a.m. "I don't know when it will come out . . . but I can only hope they don't push back the release of that one."

Others were still caught up in the magic.

"I thought it was really, really, really, really good," Poissant said, listing her favorite scenes. "Stuff was altered. Some scenes were added . . . but, overall, it was excellent. I liked it more than the last film, for sure . . . I could have watched it for another hour."


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Michael Jackson memorial drew 31.1 million on TV, millions more online

Just as Michael Jackson set records during his lifetime, so he continues after death. Tuesday’s memorial service was one of the most-watched and most-discussed live news events in recent history, with some analysts even calling it a milestone for media integration as fans gathered around TV sets, computers and smartphones and traded information on Facebook and other social-media services.

An average of 31.1 million TV viewers watched the memorial service, according to the Nielsen Company. The ceremony, which featured performances and tributes from Stevie Wonder, Brooke Shields and other celebrities, was carried live from approximately 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on 19 networks, including the major broadcast and cable-news outlets.

While nothing close to the 100 million or so that annually tune in to the Super Bowl, these figures make Jackson’s one of the most-watched live televised farewells for any major public figure in recent times. The 1997 funeral for Princess Diana, which started airing before 6 a.m. in much of the U.S., drew a slightly higher total (33.2 million). Former President Ronald Reagan’s 2004 burial, which aired during prime time, was seen by 35.1 million, yet his funeral earlier that day was watched by a more modest 20.8 million.

In Jackson’s case, however, the TV numbers reveal only part of the picture. The pop star’s memorial spiked huge waves of online traffic as many viewers turned to their computers to watch the ceremony. MSNBC.com set a new record Tuesday for total online video streams (19 million), while the results for CNN (10.5 million) and Fox News (3.4 million) were exceeded only on Inauguration Day last January. At its peak, CNN.com logged 781,000 concurrent live streams; FoxNews.com peaked during the memorial with 677,000.

Nielsen said that Jackson’s death and its aftermath had drawn the most online buzz in Internet history. The reports of his death June 25 accounted for 8% of all online conversation, breaking daily records, the company said. On Twitter, Jackson-related search terms, even misspelled ones (“Micheal Jackson”), dominated the top trends Tuesday.

“While events like the Jackson memorial or the Obama inauguration are unique, the way consumers are multitasking between media is quickly becoming the norm,” Charles Buchwalter, a senior vice president at Nielsen Online, said in a company report. “Even as recently as five years ago, the only choice for community was to gather around the TV screen with co-workers or friends for major events. Now there are three screens to choose from and, as our research shows, online activity actually reinforces TV viewing.”

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Can Jennifer Hudson's duet with Michael Jackson win a Grammy?





Of all the musical highlights at the memorial service to Michael Jackson, none was more bone-chilling than Jennifer Hudson's rendition of "Will You Be There." She belted it out with that same sky-shattering bravado that earned her an Oscar for crooning "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going" in "Dreamgirls," and the performance was magically enhanced by the addition of Michael Jackson's whispered words, "In my darkest hour, in my deepest despair, will you still care? Will you be there?"
Not only was it expert song craftsmanship, but it was a cry to heaven freighted with extra poignancy knowing that the tragic loss of the King of Pop was being acknowledged artistically by a major new star who recently suffered the tragic loss of her family members.
Twice in recent years, the voices of living and dead artists were merged into recordings that won record of the year at the Grammys: "Unforgettable" with Natalie and Nat King Cole (1991) and "Here We Go Again" with Norah Jones and Ray Charles (2004).
Even if Jennifer Hudson's duet with Michael Jackson isn't issued as a single, it will still be Grammy eligible as an electronic recording available via download if released by iTunes and other sources.

Photos of Michael Jackson Memorial

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Hundreds see Philippine Prison Inmates perform Jackson tribute - Thriller (Video)

More than 1,500 Philippine inmates at a maximum security prison on Saturday performed a Michael Jackson tribute for the public with a dance routine that has become a global Internet hit.

Hundreds of spectators arrived at the jail to see the convicts, including murderers and drug-traffickers, put on the show two days after the music icon collapsed and died.

One by one the performers, wearing their prison-issue saffron uniforms, filed into the fenced-off exercise yard at Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, where officials had hung a picture of the star.

The event began with a prayer for Jackson before singing and dancing to his hit "We Are the World", which he co-wrote with Lionel Richie to raise funds for famine victims in Ethiopia.

They then went on to perform to two other Jackson ballads, "Ben" and "I'll Be There", before taking positions for their popular dance routine based on the singer's megahit video "Thriller".

The inmates' four-minute synchronised performance first aired on the video sharing website YouTube two years ago, and has since gained a cult following, generating more than 23 million hits so far.

Officials at the prison also said they had been told Jackson himself had even seen it.

Choreographer Byron Garcia, a prison consultant and the brains behind the dance exercise, said he was shocked by Jackson's death at the age of 50 and that many of his wards were grief-stricken.

"Without MJ, the inmates would never have become world-renowned. That is why Michael Jackson is a God to them," Garcia told AFP. "Inmates had hoped that one day, he'll come to dance with them."

He said the prisoners had performed the routine for visiting tourism officials on Thursday afternoon, just hours before Jackson died.

Jackson's music served to help the facility in rehabilitating the inmates, Garcia said.

"Music is the language of the soul, and dancing is a form of positive expression," he said as press photographers jostled for positions. "I am sad. Forty years ago, I learned singing his songs."

Inmate Michael Carunngay, 31, a former drug trafficker, said: "We are sad that Michael Jackson passed away because he was our inspiration and the reason why we have found fame."

Millions of fans around the world have held tributes to the "King of Pop" who died on Thursday at his home in Los Angeles.

Tourists had flocked to the prison hours before the performance started at 3.00pm (0700 GMT) Saturday, with one official saying an unusual number of people had been signing in.

The video has become such a big hit that the inmates have themselves become tourist attractions, with visitors having their pictures taken with them after each performance.

They have also performed the dance for government officials and the Archbishop of the Catholic church in Cebu.

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