How many people watched Michael Jackson's memorial service?

Q: How many people watched Michael Jackson's funeral?

A: Reports are that 31 million people in the United States watched the Michael Jackson memorial on television. That's one in ten!

Held Tuesday at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, the service was shown on over 19 networks: ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, Telefutura, Telemundo, Univision, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, Headline News, BET, E!, MTV, VH1, VH1 Classic, TV Guide Network, TV ONE...

That's two million fewer viewers than those who tuned in for Princess Diana's funeral in 1997, which was on a Saturday when most people were at home and not at work.

The record for most-watched TV event still belongs to M.A.S.H., whose 1983 finale drew 105 million total viewers.

Joomla Plugin Error on GoDaddy

Q: I have Joomla sites on GoDaddy. They're all updated to the latest 1.5.11 upgrade. I tried enabling an RSS plugin for displaying a feed within an article. Everything worked fine on one site, but on another site I get the following error:

Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_OBJECT_OPERATOR in /home/content/x/y/z/xyzabc/html/plugins/content/rssfeed.php on line 123

Why the problem on one site and not on the other? I use the same template for both websites.


A: Check your PHP version. If one site is old, it could be that it's still running PHP 4, instead of PHP 5.

To Change Your Default PHP Language on GoDaddy Linux Hosting Accounts

1. Log in to your Account Manager.
2. In the My Products section, select Hosting.
3. Next to the hosting account you want to modify, click Manage Account.
4. In the Content section of the Hosting Control Center, click the Languages icon.
5. Select the PHP version you'd like to set as the default.

You'll be seeing a Warning here. Changing to PHP version 5 may make your PHP files run incorrectly.

Before you change your default PHP language version, make sure your PHP files can run correctly with PHP version 5.

It may take a few hours for the change to be processed by the hosting server.

If it was a PHP-related problem, after switching to PHP 5, the the parse error should not appear when you enable the plugin.

What's the roller coaster with the most loops? How many?

Q: What's the world record for the most number of loops in a roller coaster?

A: If by loop, you mean an inversion that turns riders upside-down and then rights them, then the record goes to the Colossus roller coaster at Thorpe Park in England.

The Colossus has 10 inversions or loops, the most of any roller coaster in the world.

How many Obama czars are there? Names list.

Q: How many 'czars' has the United States President Barack Obama appointed to serve in the government? Who are they?

A: The highest number mentioned of such executive appointees referred to as 'czars' is 26.

Here's a developing list of the names of the 'czars' by Obama:

1. Compensation Czar aka Pay Czar: Kenneth Feinberg, Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation.

2. Health-Care Czar: Nancy Ann DeParle, Counselor to the President and Director of the White House Office of Health Reform. Appointed in March 2009.

3. Urban Czar: Aldolfo Carrion, Jr.

4. Great Lakes Czar: Cameron Davis, Chicago-based environmentalist

5. Iran Czar: Dennis Ross (aka Persian Gulf / Southwest Asia Czar)

6. Middle East Czar: George Mitchell

7. Energy Czar / Climate Czar: Carol Browner, former EPA chief

8. Pakistan Czar / Afghanistan Czar: Richard Holbrooke

9. Bank-Bailout Czar aka TARP Czar: Herb Allison

10. Border Czar: Alan Bersin, former DOJ official

11. Drug Czar: Gil Kerlikowske, former Seattle police chief, now head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy

* The term "Drug Czar" was first used by Joe Biden in 1982.

12. Cyber-Security Czar: Melissa Hathaway - resignation effective August 21
- they're having a hard time finding a new cyber czar

13. WMD Non-Proliferation Czar: Gary Samore

14. Faith-Based Czar: Joshua DuBois

15. Regulatory Czar: Cass Sunstein, Harvard Law Professor

16. Car Czar: Dr. Ed Montgomery, head of the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry

*The other "car czar" Steve Rattner was reportedly forced to step down in July 2009 after he became embroiled in a corruption scandal involving a kickback scheme at New York state's pension fund.

17. War Czar: Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute (carryover from President Bush)

18. Stimulus-Accountability Czar aka Stimulus Watchdog Czar: Earl Devaney, former Secret Service agent, RAT board chairman

19. AIDS Czar: Jeffrey Crowley, Head of the Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP)

20. Energy Czar / Climate Czar / Global-Warming Czar: Carol Browner

21. Green-Jobs Czar: Van Jones, Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). Announced his resignation over Labor Day weekend. He had been under fire for calling Republicans "assholes" in a video taped before he was called to head up Obama's green jobs program.

22. Guantanamo Base Closure Czar: Daniel Fried

23. Terrorism Czar: John O. Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism

24. Infotech Czar: Vivek Kundra, Chief Information Officer of the United States

25. FCC Diversity Czar: Mark Lloyd, Associate General Counsel and Chief Diversity Officer at the Federal Communications Commission. Appointed on August 4, 2009.

26. Manufacturing Czar: Ron Bloom, Senior Counselor for Manufacturing Policy. Appointed on September 7, 2009.

More czars to come!

Q: By the way, what is a czar?

A: Czars are presidential appointees who are not required to undergo Senate confirmations hearings.