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Much more than the buzz-word of the day...Insightful commentary and amazing links
By Tarek Atia
The interesting antics of youth
This edition of shrinking globe takes you on a quick tour of what young people around the world are doing these days... Find out about the hacker who sent Bill Gates Viagra, the homeless teen who got the perfect score, and China's new hip hop superstars.
Homeless student scores 1600
A California TV channel recently reported on a young man who scored a perfect 1600 on his SATs -- the standardized test that determines US college admissions.
That in and of itself is certainly admirable -- but what makes Trevor Loflin's achievement even more interesting is that he has been, for the most part, homeless, for the past few years. His parents basically drift around, occasionally residing in an apartment for a while, but for the most part without a permanent residence.
To top it off, the teenager is also home-schooled (meaning his parents were responsible for his education rather than any public or private school) ... Or, in his case, should we say, homeless schooled?
In any case, if you want to congratulate Trevor and find out what he's up to now, e-mail him at omnilynx@phayze.com
Hip hop China, a la Korea
Korea is helping pump up Chinese hip-hop, according to the New York Times.
The consulting being done by Korea to help the Chinese music industry develop popular hip hop bands that will appeal to Chinese teenagers already enamored by that kind of music is somewhat reminiscent of the way a Libyan -- Hameed El-She'iri -- has managed to fashion much of modern "shababi jeel" music here in Egypt over the past ten or more years. She'iri is one of the main architects responsible for the overall look and sound that Egyptian -- and Arab -- teens have been listening to, from Anoushka to Hakim to Hisham Abbas.
In China's case, hip hop sounds are a big emerging market, and Korean professionals have been brought in to boot camp and image consult to ensure that the rising singing stars reach the top. Korea already has a thriving hip hop scene including a very popular band called HOT that Chinese teenagers really love.
"Our goal is to develop hip-hop and R&B with Chinese characteristics," said Chen Xu, 19, the charismatic chief rapper of the new boy band TNT.
In fact, the new band basically sounds a lot like its Korean role model, HOT.
Sending Bill Viagra
According to a story in the New York Post online, Bill Gates got an unexpected gift recently. 19-year-old Raphael Gray, a British hacker, decided to send Gates "a lot of Viagra."
Why?
Because Microsoft had ignored his warnings that their credit card system was insecure. He decided to prove it to them by swiping their big boss's credit card number via the net -- and using it to ship him a whole bunch of little blue pills.
But that's not all. Young Gray also "posted the credit card number of Gates and 23,000 other people on his own Web site," the article says.
A multi-national police force eventually caught up with Gray -- who lives in the Welsh town of Clynderwen -- and he is currently in the midst of serious legal troubles.
"I wanted to prove a point," The Sun of London quoted the young man as saying.
No word on whether Bill Gates and Microsoft got the message.
Did you like this article? Send your comments to comments@cairolive.com
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