Win a free Weekend Stay at Hampton Hotels

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Hampton Hotels. All opinions are 100% mine.



Hi friends! Today I am going to talk about an interesting contest that offers a great way for you to reconnect with your friends. Just visit Hampton Hotel's website and find 'Hampton Chain of Friends Sweepstakes' contest. Click 'Enter Now'. It's as easy as that. The grand prize gives you & your friends a free stay at the entire hotel for a weekend. Believe me they are giving 100 rooms for 2 nights just for you, your family, your friends or whoever you wish to take with you.

I just love traveling more than anything else in this world. Every weekend I will manage to visit at least one of my high school friends in various cities of my country. Spending time with my close pals is the best part of my life. When I am with them, I completely forget my hectic routine weekday life. So this contest will be a great chance to make a get together of 100 of my friends.

If I win this exciting contest, I would take my friends & head to the Hampton Hotels in Bellingham. We all will have a fun filled fantastic weekend visiting theme parks, shopping malls and zoo to name a few.

Hamilton Triumphs at Spa

2008 World Champion Lewis Hamilton gave a life to his race for the formula one world championships with the win at Spa, Belgium.

It was a day of another Red Bull start at Spa on Sunday. Red Bull's Mark Webber took the pole position on Saturday’s qualifying session. McLaren's Lewis Hamilton was 2nd and Renault's Robert Kubica was 3rd. But when the race started Webber faced some problems with clutch and was pushed down to seventh. Hamilton made use of this and lead the race. Jenson Button who started at 5th went past Kubica and once it was looking like a McLaren 1-2 finish. But the 2009 F1 champion was knocked out of the race by Sebastian Vettel crashed into him while trying to overtake.

Hamilton too ran wide on lap 36 but recovered quickly to keep the lead and edged pass Mark Webber who finished second. This victory is Hamilton's 14th career win and the Briton now has 182 points 3 ahead of Webber. Robert Kubica of Renault was third and Felipe Massa of Ferrari was forth. Spa always proved a good track for Force India as Adrian Sutil finished fifth. His teammate Valentino Liuzzi finished tenth and gathered the least point. Barrichello who started the record 300th GP crashed Fernando Alonso on Lap 2 and was forced to retire.

2010 Formula 1 Driver's Championship Standings:
Lewis Hamilton - 182 points
Mark Webber - 179 points
Sebastian Vettel - 151 points
Jenson Button - 147 points

Jimena Navarrete Miss Universe 2010

The much awaited beauty pageant of the year Miss Universe 2010 was held on August 23, 2010. The biggest event which was hosted by Natalie Morales and Bret Michaels at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, Las Vegas (U.S.) saw beauty queens from almost all countries of the world.

In the 59th edition of the pageant, Miss Mexico, Jimena Navarrete was crowned Miss Universe 2010. The 22-year-old model girl was crowned by the outgoing title hoder Miss Universe 2009, Stefanía Fernández of Venezuela. Miss Jamaica, Yendi Phillipps and Miss Australia, Jesinta Campbell was named as 1st Runner-up and 2nd Runner-up respectively. Ukraine's Anna Poslavska and Philippines's Venus Raj ended up 3rd & 4th Runner-up.

Australia's Jesinta Campbell was crowned the Miss Congeniality. Interestingly Fonthip Watcharatrakul from Thailand won both the Miss Photogenic and Best National Costume.

Didier Drogba Scores Hat-Trick

Didier Drogba’s hat-trick gave the perfect start for his team Chelsea winning the opening day match in Premier League against newly promoted West Brom by a huge margin of 6-0.

Reigning Premier League Champions Chelsea, which ended the last season with a 8-0 thrashing win over Wigan, have now won all the opening day match for the last nine Premier League seasons.

This victory margin is the biggest on the opening day match in the history of the Premier League. This has instantly pushed Chelsea to the top of the points table.

Earlier Florent Malouda scored Chelsea’s first goal of this season in the sixth minute. West Brom made a humbling return with Roman Bednar who had the ball in the net in the 18th minute with a 20-yard strike. But his effort was ruled offside. Drogba netted the first of his hat trick goal with a free kick just before half time. Chelsea was leading by 2-0 during half time.

Drogba's second goal in the 55th minute and Frank Lampard’s goal in the 63rd minute made it 4-0. Drogba completed his hat-trick in the 68th minute. Malouda ended the match with a last minute goal before full time.

The newly promoted West Brom too played some decent passing and caught the eye with some attractive football in the second half.

Lauren Froderman wins 'So You Think You Can Dance'

'So You Think You Can Dance' is an American dance competition. Aired on Fox in the United States since July 20, 2005, this reality show has similar shades of American Idol. The seventh season started on March 10, 2010. The winner will be decided based on the viewer’s votes across the nation. The grand finale was held on Thursday and millions of viewers voted for choosing their next big star.

Based on the number of votes, 18-year-old high school graduate from Phoenix, Lauren Froderman won the title 'America's Favorite Dancer'. She was also gifted with $250,000 grand prize. Froderman had a tough challenge from 18-year-old runner-up Kent Boyd of Wapakoneta, Ohio, and 19-year-old Robert Roldan of Thousand Oaks, California who finished third.

The bubbly jazz dancer was well known for her ability to pick up hip-hop, ballroom and Bollywood routines effortlessly throughout the 7th season. She also tackled a wardrobe malfunction during the 4rd week of the competition.

The grand finale also featured performances from Quest Crew dance troop and 7-year-old tap dancer Luke Spring. But the highlight was a duet from freestyle dancer Stephen 'tWitch' Boss (season 4 finalists) and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, former 'American Idol' judge.

The 7th season was plagued with injuries that forced a number of dancers to quit the competition. There were also several changes in the format including narrowing the finalist from 20 to 11 dancers, adding last season contestants as partners and cool choreographer Mia Michaels replaced ballroom maestro Mary Murphy on the judging panel.

Green Countries of the world - Iceland

Iceland stands tall in the list of Green Countries of the world. Yes! With 93.5 points in the stoballnoy scale, Iceland is virtually the most unpolluted environment on earth. Europe's second largest island, Iceland is gifted with abundant natural geothermal power which eliminates the need to burn something to get warm.

The oldest known geyser in the world,'The Great Geyser' is in Haukadalur valley, Iceland. Not only the Icelandic Government, but also the residents themselves of this small country are using "green" technology in all possible ways. Iceland which was once largely depended on coal (nearly 70%) has now reduced its dependency to a mere 18%.

The country is planning to get rid of its dependence on coal and oil by 2050. With widespread availability of natural geothermal power, many rivers and waterfalls for hydroelectricity, residents in Iceland neither pay a huge sum for hot water nor to heat the home.

Manchester United beats Chelsea

The most successful football coach in world, Alex Ferguson continued his winning streak with Manchester United as his team defeated defending Premier League and FA Cup champions Chelsea 3 – 1 in Community Shield match here on Sunday.
Both the teams used the match as a good chance to introduce new youngsters into the starting lines ups. But it worked out well only for Manchester United as their newly signed Mexican Javier ‘Chicarito’ Hernandez made a big impact on his dream debut.

Manchester United made the lead in the 41st minute of the game through Luis Antonio Valencia. Man U were leading by 1 – 0 during half time. Javier Hernandez who came in the second half scored a goal on the 76th minute and showed that he will be the key player this season for Manchester United.

Dimitar Berbatov scored in the very last minute of the game and confirmed Man U’s victory over the strong Chelsea side. Salomon Kalou produced the lone goal for Chelsea on the 83rd minute. With this impressive performance, they are clearly the serious contenders for the Premier League title this season.

Chelsea playing XI: Anelka, Cole, Essien, Hilario, Ivanovic, Kalou, Lampard, Malouda, Mikel, Paulo Ferreira, Terry.
Substitutes: Benayoun, Bruma, Drogba, Sturridge, Turnbull, Van Aanholt, Zhirkov.

Manchester United playing XI: Carrick, Fabio Da Silva, Jonathan Evans, O’Shea, Owen, Park, Scholes, Valencia, Van der Sar, Vidic, Wayne Rooney.
Substitutes: Berbatov, Fletcher, Giggs, Hernandez, Kuszczak, Nani, Smalling.

Green Countries of the world - Switzerland

Switzerland stands 2nd in the list of Green countries of the world with 89.1 points. The country which was the leader in the list of cleanest countries in 2008 has been pushed to second place in 2010. Swiss, which always prefers to stay as a ‘clean’ and a ‘green’ country is gradually reducing emissions of carbon dioxide. The government is gradually creating new national parks, where nature comes in its original form.

Not only the government, but also the small and large scale industries, as well as individual firms, are adopting ‘green’ technology in every possible way. They also encourage their clients and customers to the use of such ‘green’ technology. For example, a number of hotels in this country are giving a considerable discount to those tourists who arrive in hybrid cars. Many houses in Swiss use geothermal sources for heating system. Switzerland is trying to regain the top spot in the list of green countries.

Big B for Airtel Champions League T20 Cricket

Sports Channel giant ESPN has roped in Bollywood Megastar ‘Amitabh Bachchan’ as its "sports ambassador" for its ad campaign ahead of the forthcoming Airtel Champions League T20 Cricket tournament. The financial terms between ESPN and Bachchan were undisclosed.

The 67-year-old actor, Big B will be seen in ad campaign along the cricket greats like South Africa's Hershille Gibbs, Australia's Andrew Symonds and our own Dada Saurav Ganguly.

The Twenty20 cricket festival which starts on September 10 will be held in South Africa. The tournament will feature 10 Twenty20 domestic teams from around the world with three teams from India namely the IPL 3 Champions Chennai Super Kings, runner up Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Bib B has already completed the shooting of promotional films and stills for print. With Big B joining cricketing extravaganza, the excitement has just doubled. Remember he is also getting ready to host 'kaun banega crorepati 4' replacing the badshah of Bollywood 'Shah Rukh Khan'.

Kumble adopts King cobra

Former Indian cricketer Anil Kumble, adopted a King cobra for Rs 2,500 at an animal adoption program organized by the Bannerghatta Biological Park (BBP), Green Matrix and Samhita Academy.

The animal adoption awareness drive which is just two-month-long is raising awareness among the citizens, in particular the slender youth, about how they too can contribute towards wildlife conservation. This program will conclude on Oct 4 with World Wildlife Week festival celebrations.

Kumble who was recently appointed as the vice-chairman of the Karnataka State Board for Wildlife said reporters that he would spread awareness of animal adoption and wildlife conservation. He has asked his friends in Indian Cricket team particularly Rahul Dravid to adopt animals as celebrity adoption can boost awareness. He has also expressed his desire to adopt an elephant which will cost Rs. 2 lakh per year.

The Zoo Authority of Karnataka (ZAK) has also come up with the adoption rates applicable to all the animals in the zoos which come under its authority. The pricing starts from Rs. 750 to Rs. 1.75 lakh for adopting an animal for a year. If you feel you can't adopt an animal for a year, then you can look for adoption programs such as adopting an animal a day or week or even a month.

Tax Benefit:
The interesting fact here is the Income Tax department of India has given a blanket exemption for people taking up animal adoption under section 80(G).

Inspired by this post? Then why don't you adopt an animal and save some tax too?

Please feel free to Contact:
The Executive Director and Conservator of Forests,
Bannerghatta Biological Park,
Bengaluru,
Karnataka,
India — 560083

Call: +91 80 7828540/7828300

E-mail: bannerghattazoo@gmail.com

Official Site: www.bannerghattabiopark.in

FIFA World Cup finalists Spain & Netherlands fined

The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) fined 2010 Football World Cup Champion Spain 10,000 Swiss francs ($9,363) and the runner up Netherlands 15,000 Swiss francs ($14,040) for their poor behavior in World Cup final on 11 July 2010 at Soccer City, Johannesburg.

2010 FIFA World Cup final will be remembered for 14 yellow cards that were handed out by referee Howard Webb. This was indeed a new record, breaking the previous one set by Argentina and West Germany with six cards in 1986 Football World Cup. The match had the most number of fouls (47), especially from the Netherlands. Though there were no red card issued, Netherland's defender John Heitinga who received his second yellow card was sent off on the final stages of the match.

These incidents prompted FIFA president Sepp Blatter to say 'he had been let down by the players' behavior'. He also fined both the teams under article 52 of the FIFA disciplinary code, under which "disciplinary measures may be imposed on associations and clubs where a team fails to conduct itself properly". The first part of the article reads: "a fine may be imposed where the referee sanctions at least five members of the same team during a match (caution or expulsion)."