and the pictures......

Here are the pictures of the event we held at Alvi Dental Hospital to launch the 1st Dental Microscope in Pakistan - the event was well covered in the press, News reports appeared in PTV Khabarnama, ARY News, City News and Indus News, articles appeared in The News, Daily Times, Pictures were seen in many other newspapers including Jang. So overall we were quite pleased with our efforts and ofcourse the Lunch was great ;)

Dr. Awab Alvi addressing the event

Dr. Arif Alvi adressing the event

The press gathered for the ribbon cutting

One of my banners on display

The stage with the Hospital as the backdrop

Freehand designs

It was for the very first time I played with Freehand Mx together with Photoshop to come up with these designs - In the process I got to learn a lot and now can attest to the fact that these two programs are indeed the BEST publishing softwares to date.

These 2'x5' vertical banners which elaborate the various different technologies that have been implemeted in our hospital, the designs were printed on Pan-Flex and mounted on stands to display in our hospital during the Dental Microscope Launching ceremony they looked impressive if I must say so myself.

1st Dental Microscope Launched

I'm back ......

Today afternoon we had a very impressive ceremony at the Alvi Dental Hospital to launch the first dental Microscope was offically launched, the ceremony was attended by more then 250 influential poeple of Karachi with the Chief Guest as Justice (Retd) Saeeduzaman Siddiqui and also Mr. S H Hashmi the director of Orient McCann-Erikson. A short adress by Dr. Arif Alvi, Justice SaeeduzZaman, SH Hasmi and myself was followed by a one-to-one demonstration of the microscope, this allowed the people to actually appreciate how important tool it is to a dentist in doing treatment.

I will soon update this post to enclose a few pictures, and also a few Freehand designs I made - novice work as it was the first time i used the software but they looked good anyway.

Thank you G3 and Shirazi for all your kind supporting words.

Second driver seat belts

The National Highway Safety Council has done extensive testing on a newly designed seat belt. Results show that accidents can be reduced by as much as 45% when the belt is properly installed. Correct installation is illustrated below:

Found on Journal Entry Blog : Permanent Link

On Leave

To all my frequent readers,

I apologize for my absence, I am a bit preoccupied with a project and hopefully will get done this Saturday. It is a major event being organised by us (Alvi Dental Hospital) to launch the 1st Dental Microscope in Pakistan to the public, for that reason on Saturday 26th Feb we are having a huge press conference in an attempt to get some press coverage.

See you in a few days.........

15 Things Not to do in a Public Restroom

.... In a public Restroom.

1. Walk out of the stall and say, "Huh, I've never seen that color before..."
2. Stand on top of the toilet, grunt reeeeally loud, then drop a heavy object in the toilet. Sigh Relaxingly.
3. While in the stall, say loudly, "Awwww, isn't it sooo cuuuute?!"
4. Poke amirror underneath your neighbor's stall and say "Peek-a-boo!"
5. Say when you walk out, "Huh, I don't remember eating that..."
6. Whenever someon tries ot get in the restroom, dart in front of them to block them, bark at them, whack 'em in the head, or scream "MINE!!"
7. Get a bottle of Mountain dew with squirty lids, run around the room with it between your pants, squeezing it, and shouting "WOAH NELLY!!"
8. Walk out and say "Maaaajor clean up in stall #3.."
9. Get 73 bottles of water with squirty lids and squirt them non stop in the toilet. Sigh Relaxingly
10. Bang on an occupied stall and scream "AAHH!! THE POTATOS ARE COMMING TO GET MEEEEE!!"
11. Grunt really loudly for 10 minutes, like you're in labor
12. Some how, get into and occupied stall, tell them you're not potty trained and ask for help.
13. Start singing the 'I'm too Sexy' song, start stripping, and throw your clothes into other people's stalls.
14. Reach underneath other peoples' stalls, complaining of a lost contact.
15. Go into the opposing gender's restrooom, pointing, saying " WOAH! What the heck are those?!", "Oooh, where can I get one?", or stare like you're very interested, perhaps pretending ot take notes.

Credit to wolffire @ Deviant Art

Branding the Lie

It is well known fact that major brands openly lie to the public! People more often then not forget to read the 'Astrerix'

Imagine you are the owner of McDonaldʼs.
Question: Whatʼs the truth behind your brand?
If the truth is:

1. Your food is not healthy but tastes good.
2. Your restaurants look and feel outdated.
3. Your brand’s ethics have been questioned in the past.

How does the brand acknowledge this? Interesting dilemma! I have never seen McDonald's acknowledging the fact that their food sux or their restaurants are a stink bomb?

But somehow those Big Mac's sell like crazy, It all has to do with a carefully choreographed marketing campaign - simply do not acknowledge the truth that it even exist, continue to lie and soon the public perception gets numb to the lies and then believes the LIE

Read more of the manifesto from Changethis.com

X-posted on Shirazi

% Growth in Internet use, Dec 2004

Internet use continues to grow, even if the rate of growth is slowing. Figures for December show that countries such as Spain, Switzerland and Brazil saw a decrease in active at-home users. The UK added more than a quarter of a million users to register a 1.2% increase.

• Brazil -5.1
• Spain -1.7
• France -0.3
• Germany 0.1
• US 1.1
• UK 1.2
• Hong Kong 4.3

Courtesy: Nielson//NetRatings

How NOT to cross the road on a Red Light

Be careful when you cross the road even on a redlight. A little graphic but a take it with some light humor, take a close look at the reaction of people around.

How Much Did You Spend On Flowers?

We all know each and every flower shop now knows the importance of "Phool Wala Din" (Flower day) and the prices shoot up - I would like to know how much did you spend on flowers this would be a good barometer on the various prices across town/country

Valentines Day facts

I wish you all a very happy Valentine's Day with your significant other. Here are some intersting facts so - Did You Know?

- 2.2 million marriages take place in the United States annually. That breaks down to about 6,000 a day.

- 138,600 marriages were performed in Nevada during 2003. So many couples "tie the knot" in the Silver State that it ranked fourth nationally in marriages, even though its total population that year was 35th.

- 25.3 and 27.1 are the estimated U.S. median ages at first marriage for women and men, respectively, in 2003. The age for women is up 4.3 years in the last three decades. The age for men is up 3.9 years.

- The proportion of women 20 to 24 years old who had never married more than doubled between 1970 and 2003 — from 36 percent to 75 percent. Changes were also dramatic for men — the corresponding rate for men in this age group increased from 55 percent to 86 percent.

- 54% and 57% are the percentages of American women and men, respectively, who are 15 and over and currently married.

- There were 4.6 million cohabitating couples who maintained households in 2003. These couples comprised 4.2 percent of all households, up from 2.9 percent in 1996.

- There are 118 single men (i.e., never married, widowed or divorced) who are in their 20s for every 100 single women of the same ages.

- There are 33 single men (i.e., never married, widowed or divorced) age 65 and over for every 100 single women of the same ages.

- 24.6 pounds of candy per capita was consumed by Americans in 2003; it is believed a large portion is consumed around Valentine's Day. Candy consumption has actually declined over the last few years; in 1997, each American gobbled more than 27 pounds of candy a year.

- The combined wholesale value of domestically produced cut roses in 2003 was $52 million for all operations in 36 states, with $100,000 or more in sales. Among all types of cut flowers, roses were second in receipts to lilies ($70 million).

- There were 28,914 jewelry stores in the United States in 2002. In February 2004, these stores sold $2.4 billion worth of merchandise — a much higher total than in the preceding month or succeeding months.

Heated discussion on Jew-Muslim Conflict

For the past few days I have not made any post on my blog - the reason being I was involved in composing a well drafted response to an argument which took a strange twist, since a cerain commenter named 'Mark' labelled me as 'borderline Anti-Semetic'. I was surely indeed taken-a-back as my comment had no religious intent but was geared more so politically, read the entire post and discussion on the blog Light Within.

Link to the actual post is - Fox News Buys Al-Jazeera

PS- my response is long many apologies

Patriots - SuperBowl XXXIX Champions

Followers of NFL football must have seen the victorious New England Patriots stomp out the Philadelphia Eagles in a closely contested battle 24-21 to grab the Vince Lombardi Trophy and also a memorable SuperBowl ring.

The highlight of the mega-event is ofcourse the game itself but strangely the commercials are also an aspect which is closely followed by the 15 million viewers, a 30-second ad has been priced at a whopping $2.7M, for which there is intense competition between the companies, some make it and some get rejected due to content. One gets to see some real creativity which is interspersed with hilarious comments throughout the commercial, I must advise all visitors to the blog to surely take a look at some creative ads the world has to offer, it can surely put our local industry to shame. My rankings are as follows

Funniest Ad

• Ameriquest: Tazer Scare
• Runner up: Bud Light : Parachuting ad

Sexiest Ad

• The Tabasco bikini Ad
• Runner up: GoDaddy.com Ad

Best Banned Ad

• GoDaddy : Senate hearing Ad
• Runner up: Wynn LasVegas

Watch these ads on ifilm.com : Link
Read reviews on adjab.com : Link

R I P - Pakistan Cricket Team

Passionate cricket fans must have seen the funeral march of the Pakistani Cricket team in Sydney on Sunday. Bowling staff perfomed well again restricting the Aussies to a fragile 239 and mind you without the so-called heart throb Shoaib Akhtar whose presence is not dearly missed. Infact we could do India without him.

The batsmen on the other hand flashed and flashed hard to end up again short of the total. It sure has been a disappointing tour, losses upon losses and to top it off the Shoaib Akhtar controversy. When the team left Pakistan on its tour of Australia we did not expect miracles and almost had anticipated this result, but it gives me hope that our batsmen might have gotten used to the bouncy pitches to be prime ready to meet India surely a more critical tour for all supporters out here. Don't loose hope we are known to be fighters, Are we?

Stock Image Search

I have always been in search of good photgraphs to mainly use on my desktops and sometimes even for designing concepts. A few good free-stock image sites are mentioned below you are more then welcome to add to this list for the benfit to all.

• Deviant Art - link
  
• Stock.xchng - link
  

Shoaib Akhtar in Aussie Bar Party

A couple of revealing pictures of our Pakistani Cricket Heart-throb Shoaib Akhtar, who reportedly went to an Australian nightclub for 'relaxation purposes' as he wanted to rest his injury. The next day he was 'unfit' and later in the week a 'rape case' was lodged against him, though the rape claim turned out to be a fake stunt by a local Aussie newspaper as the witness could not be produced.

These so-called representatives (Ambassadors) of Pakistan need to shape up their act and not set a bad example at the highest level of exposure. My opinion on this Heart-throb is that he has an over inflated ego with a major Psychosocial issue and he needs to be placed in the right 'trash-can' once healed he should be allowed to resume his bowling, and if by that time we already might have found a new crop of fast bowlers. I have no idea why the BCCP is stuck with this player, he does sometimes get wickets but I feel he is more of a liability than an asset he should be sacked.

What do you have to say?

Update: It has been rumored that Shoaib Akhtar accuses these pictures to be fake, I honestly see no evidence of it being tampered. BCCP has also given a show-cause notice to Shoaib to clarify four violations in his contract (which at his whim was upgraded from a 'B' contract to an 'A' category contract). I honestly wish the BCCP can find a good excuse to axe this physiological maniac.

Needle-free Anesthesia

Enough about politics now let the Teeth Maestro shed light on some news related to dentistry - a new invention has been recently approved by the FDA which is a non-injectable anesthetic named Oraqix.

Oraqix is applied directly into gum pockets by means of a special blunt applicator. It provides localized anesthesia for scaling and root planing. Scaling and root planing is a treatment performed to thoroughly clean the tooth above and below the gum line The result is the removal of tartar, and plaque leaving the crown and root of the tooth with a smooth clean surface.

Oraqix is a liquid at room temperature which solidifies at body temperature. In doing so, it becomes an elastic gel which enables it to stay in place. The gel releases local anesthetics which are like those used for injections. After application of Oraqix®, anesthesia of the gum tissue occurs in 30 seconds and lasts for about 20 minutes. It can be reapplied if needed, only treatments involving soft tissue.

There is a ray of hope for those people still scared of the long injection needle, surely a step in the forward to finally achieve thje ultimate goal of Needle-free anesthesia.

Oraqix