To Photograph During National Anthem or Not?

Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim expressed the need to make a rule so that no one photographs anything when our national anthem is played. Meanwhile, Information Minister Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin kindly suggested that this should not be it and that a special space should be made available for photographers to do their thing (because there is the need to capture touching moments, etc.) so as not to distract others during the national anthem.

What do you think the outcome will be? Let's see if we will hear anymore of this as the two ministers discuss these.

News from Star Online here.

Team Italy Fireworks

Here is a shot (click on it for a larger view) of Italy's opening sequence last Saturday at the same venue as the rest of the competition... @ Putrajaya International Convention Center (PICC, pictured right):

In my personal opinion, Australia's seem to create more crash, boom, bang compared to Italy's. However, I was nearer to the Australian fireworks display compared to Italy's. The louder and bigger fireworks from a nearer view probably affected my judgement.

Still, the Italian fireworks display was some of the best compared to the typical ones we were exposed to during National Day and New Year countdowns.

The sad part was after the fireworks. The jam was horrible. I went with a friend and we were stuck in a jam for over an hour JUST to get out of Putrajaya. These few nights would probably be THE time where our administration capital receive the most visitors. Something that the tourism ministry would brag about later with some statistics...

The Italian fireworks display would be my last live view as I would not be around for Japan's (tomorrow night, 30 August 2007 @ 10pm) and the grand closing finale (Sunday night, 2 September 2007 @ 10pm). Blessing that I would not be stuck in any more of these jams but then I won't be able to witness some of the greatest fireworks. Hope this will be a yearly event considering the success we see from afar. Not sure if the paying guests in PICC will have the same opinion, though.

Other related posts in this blog are here, here, here and here.

Update 11:09pm:
Some advice about TRAFFIC JAM in Putrajaya for the upcoming fireworks and National Day celebrations here: "Putrajaya to experience its first massive jam"

CEO to Staff Pay Ratio - 364:1!!!

Could you believe it? The average comparison of large American company CEOs to their staff's salary is 364 to 1! Which means these CEOs earn an average of USD$10,800,000 a year! However, these figures are not even near compared to the year 2000 where the ratio was 525 to 1!

What eye opening information to us average people!

Read more from CNNMoney.com's story here.

Tainted Vegetables Alert!

NST Online "Beware these greens: Tainted vegetables at Selayang wholesale market" highlighted that a very high percentage of the vegetables sold in the wholesale market is tainted with carcinogenic pesticides. This wholesale market supplies to three-quarters of the hypermarkets, wet markets, night markets and grocery stores in Selangor.

The article also advised that:

Vegetables must be soaked with salt to remove worms, larvae, eggs and pesticides.

"Choose vegetables with holes. The nice-looking vegetables are not always the best.

"Consumers must change their perception.

"When there’s no demand for nice-looking vegetables, farmers will reduce the use of pesticides.

"Eat more tubers and fruit vegetables like brinjal, cucumber and kacang, which contain less pesticide residues."

No to Dunkin' Donuts?

NOOOOOooooo!!! Dunkin' Donuts are cutting all the trans fats in their donuts according to this very sad article from CNNMoney.com: Dunkin' Donuts dumping most trans fats! Holy mad cows! Will donuts ever taste the same again? When will this come to Malaysia?

Healthy, healthy, healthy? Maybe the future, all of us will live longer but our taste buds would all be dead. :(

Team Australia Fireworks (cont'd)

Ok, here is a shot of the Australian team's fireworks display. Damn nice stuff:Will talk about my experience at the Team Italy's fireworks display yesterday in a bit. Meanwhile, someone posted the Australian fireworks on Youtube in two parts (kinda hilarious if you listen to the background exclamations and comments :P):

yogurt flavor soft ice cream

yogurt flavor soft ice cream
Originally uploaded by perago89.

Yum yum! Have this for your dessert after lunch on a hot hot hot day!

Must....Keep....Hair Dry

Must....Keep....Hair Dry
Originally uploaded by RoninRtist.

Wow! I know one person would be interested in this. Hence here it is in my blog! Great shot!

No Fuji Finepix for Me?

A few days ago, I e-mailed Fujifilm Malaysia to enquire about the availability of the F31fd, touted to be the best compact camera of all time due to its low noise in high ISOs and manual functions, but did not receive a reply. I had to call the company for the information, only to be greeted with disappointment. It is no longer available. I was told it is replaced with the F40fd which does not have manual functions and higher noise levels. I asked why Fujifilm still puts the F31fd on their website but errr... did not get any excuse for that. :(

A little bit more about the F31fd: it's able to photograph in low light and produce little noise at higher ISO sensitivities - a function unachievable by any other compacts. It also had manual functions like aperture and shutter priorities. Best compact camera in my humble opinion! Too bad it is not available anymore. :(

feet first !!

feet first !!
Originally uploaded by fungjigirl.

One of the wonderful things you can do with a waterproof camera!

greenious leaves

greenious leaves
Originally uploaded by dik wati.

Aaah! Green! Great way to start Thursday! :D

Team Australia Fireworks

After a disappointing display by "Team Global" on Sunday night, I was entranced by the display by Australia, marking the start of the competition. Best fireworks I've ever seen in my life. Too bad that I was looking at the display near a construction site with two huge cranes on the left and right plus hoarding that blocks out the lower portion of the display.

Took some photos but not sure how they turned up. Hope to be able to upload some of them soon.

Related link: Fireworks!

Team Global Fireworks

Oh my goodness. After being quite impressed with Saturday's display of fireworks (blogged here), I went again yesterday night because the schedule said the display will be by "Team Global' meaning by all the nations participating in this competition. You have got to agree that you will assume the display here will be much better, right?

NOOOOO! It was typical displays (from my point of view, at least) of fireworks and lasted only some 5 minutes or so. The crowd (much, much smaller crowd compared to Saturday night's) were clearly disappointed! I had even invited some friends to tag along but luckily they declined. You lucky buggers!

Next up, Team Australia! The competition begins Wednesday, 22 August 2007.

PM: "I have been fair, I want to be fair and I will always be fair"

Sounds like good news (and also sounds like the rumoured general elections is getting ever closer :P) from our Prime Minister that future government contracts will be in open tender and OPEN for multi-racial companies. He said this in MCA's (Malaysian Chinese Association) 54th General Assembly yesterday:

“If you can form a genuine joint-venture company with other races and not the Ali-Baba type, I promise you that I will give you contracts.”

Links: Star Online here and NST Online here

Fireworks!

The Malaysia International Fireworks Competition or MIFC started last night with Malaysia's own fireworks. The display took about 20 minutes and is much more interesting than those I have seen in the recent Merdeka offerings. The show took place in Putrajaya just outside of the lake overlooked by the Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC for short, right).

I managed to get about 60+ photos but I'm afraid with my skill, only about 5 - 10% are 'acceptable'. Here are a couple of those:
Interested? Click on the MIFC link above. You can choose to pay to go into PICC to have a grand view as shown in Star Online's video clip here or drive around the area and look for a suitable, legal AND safe spot to park and watch (errr... that was what I did last night :P).

The schedule from the official website is as below:
The shows start approximately at 10pm on those dates and last for about 20 minutes! Unfortunately for me, I won't be around the area to watch the grand finale. Sob.

Yes, yes, post this one on the interweb-tubes!

Yes, yes, post this one on the interweb-tubes!
Originally uploaded by Nikographer [Jon].

How is it possible for me to not post this magnificent photo of a cute but surprised looking Tai Shan?

The Con of Men

I would like to relate an incident that happened to a friend's family today (names and location withheld to protect their anonymity):

A Chinese speaking person called asking for the father's mobile number, saying that they have met recently. Then, perhaps the same Chinese speaking person, called the father, saying that the son owe this Chinese speaking person money, asking for the father to pay up!

In the background, there are sounds like someone being beaten and shouting something like "Dad, please help me!"

The father responded with a cool head, saying he needed time to prepare the money and to let him speak to his son. He was denied the chance to speak to the son, with "the son" shouting in the background for help. He then hung up and tried to call his son but could not get through (during this time, the Chinese speaking person called many times to the father)! Thankfully, another family member managed to call the son's office and found that he was safe... AND someone tried to call him numerous times until to the point of being irritating, so he shut off his mobile - a very intelligent tactic employed so that the father could not contact the son, thus instilling more fear into the father!

It was indeed a scam employed by some cunning person(s) out there. Perhaps these people had already gathered some information about this family.

Take it with a pinch of salt if you like, but this is a close account that happened to a friend's family. The reason I blogged it here is in hope that others will be aware and perhaps help to spread the word that such case did happen.

Beware. Let's all hope we can act with a cool mind when such things befall upon us.

Anyone with such experience before? Please care to share. Show the benefits of blogging and cyberspace in spreading awareness. Thanks!

Hello Sun Beam!

Was driving to Ulu Yam after a friend recommended to visit there. He said one would feel like travelling to a foreign country. I had the impression that the place would have lots of trees, nice lake, etc. Ok, I got the nice lake... man-made lake with a dam. Not the trees.

Unfortunately, that day, it was hazy... probably the beginning of our annual haze "season". Hope to go back there and get some photos of the place on a clear day. While over there, I caught a photo of the sun partially hidden by clouds with its beam (effect enhanced by the haze) shining down:

Need something to keep me grounded- 293

Need something to keep me grounded- 293
Originally uploaded by Glockoma.

Woah! Kung fu?

Tatu and Mum

More mother and child photo!

Gorilla Kijivu looks at her nine-week-old baby gorilla Tatu at a zoo in Prague August 7, 2007.

From Reuters Editor's Choice.

Lego at the Beach

Check out this Lego guy!

Children play near a giant smiling Lego man that was fished out of the sea in the Dutch resort of Zandvoort August 7, 2007.

From Reuters Editor's Choice.

The Meaning of "Chee Cheong Kai"

Wow! New discovery! Or just plain ignorance on my part. *SHY!* Petaling Street in Kuala Lumpur (a.k.a. KL's Chinatown) is "Chee Cheong Kai" in Cantonese and it meant "starch factory street"!

Check out the rest of the article from Star Online here.

Powerful Economist Predicts Malaysian Future Up to 2020

Amazing! Chief economist of Deutsche Bank group Prof Norbert Walter predicted that Malaysia’s young population, investments in human capital development and trade openness will drive its economy to sustain a 5.5% gross domestic product (GDP) growth up to 2020.

More here.

Identity Card Exempted

Below a list of people that are exempted from carrying identity cards in Malaysia (from Star Online Nation "Those exempted from carrying ICs"):

the Yang di-Pertuan Agong;

the Ruler of any state or Yang di-Pertua Negri;

a child under 12;

a genuine traveller who is in possession of a valid passport or other travel documents or official document of identity which has been stamped by an Immigration officer of Malaysia to show he is permitted to remain in Malaysia for 12 months or less, or that he is in transit;

any person to whom a diplomatic identity card, consular identity card or an International Organisation identity card has been issued by the Government;

any serving member of the armed forces of Malaysia;

any police officer, other than a Special Police Officer or Special Constable; and

such persons as the Minister may by order exempt either absolutely or subject to such conditions as may be prescribed therein from the provisions of the National Registration Act and these regulations.

A Very Happy Birthday Panda

From an isolated case of a violent panda, we move on to something cheerful. A Thai zoo celebrates Chuang Chuang's birthday with style - a cake made of bamboo, fruits and ice at the bottom. Here are a couple of screen shots from Reuters' video:

Check out the full video from Reuters here.

Panda Attacked Zoo Personel! NOOOOO!!!

How can this be? Is it true? A panda named Lan Zai attacked a Wuquanshan zoo staff in Lanzhou! It was reportedly not eating during its first few days there and attacked the staff when he was preparing bamboo for it.

There were reports that the staff had 100 stitches and doctors took over 2 hours to patch him up.

Source: Star Online World "Panda joins outrage over Chinese food" <<< p.s. I think this title is way too suggestive!

We Have State-of-the-Art Forensic Lab

Everyone's talking CSI and forensic these days with the successful TV series. It is great to know that Malaysia is also on the right track and that our forensic lab is ASCLD-LAB ("American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board") certified. Only the fourth lab out of US to receive this. Wow.

For more about our take on forensics, check out Star Online TechCentral here.

Unacceptable Cruelty

This is unacceptable! An unnamed zoo had a tiger's two canine (are they called that?) teeth removed and a bear chained through its nose so that they can take photos with visitors to the zoo. Cruelty to animals! Zoos are supposed to provide sanctuaries to animals while at the same time educate humans and NOT this way!

Source: Weird Asia News "Zoo Removes Tiger’s Teeth for Better Interaction"

Water Disruption 2

What the f@#%!!! Woke up to find that there was no water supply (and at time of writing this, still NO water supply)! Where is the consistency? Sometimes SYABAS (Selangor's water utilities) would inform local papers but MOST of the times, they will just cut your supply and do whatever work they like! And when I say cut, it is not because of not paying bills, it is because of SYABAS' maintenance work.

There was one incident during the first few days of Chinese New Year when this happened! COME ON! Water supply disruption during CHINESE NEW YEAR? Be real!

Update @ 3:02pm:
Ah, at last water supply returns.

Previous post about water disruption here.

Apie and Mum

It's yet another heartwarming photo of a mum and a child. This time from Reuters Blog here. A particular friend would be interested in this one. :P

Rich, Rich, RICH TV Series Actors and Actresses

Wow. These people are rich. I was shocked to learn that CSI lead William Peterson reportedly earns US$500,000 per episode! Charlie Sheen, Mariska Hargitay and Chris Meloni earn US$350,000 per episode in their respective TV series. Errr... no idea who the last two are. :P

For more news about rich TV series people, check out CSI Files "Top of the Heap".

Guess What Species Do Termites Belong To

Termites are actually...

COCKROACHES!

... that evolved to eat wood. So says an article about cockcroaches from LiveScience. Click here for more.

Mei Lan and Mum

Check out this heartwarming photo of mum Lun Lun with daughter Mei Lan taken from their Atlanta Zoo home. Mei Lan will be 1 year old come 6 September 2007! More photos in About.com's "Mei Lan - Giant Panda Cub at the Atlanta Zoo" here.

A Method to Remind Myself

I know these days everyone's got at least a coloured mobile phone with decent reminders built-in. Some even carry PDA phones. My ancient mobile phone (even Windows XP calls it "Classic Mobile Phone" when the OS detected it) has that, too. Last Saturday, I got a call from a customer and I needed to remind myself to attend to this customer on Monday. So, I went and keyed a reminder into my phone. There were "Meeting", "Birthday", "Memo" and "Call". Naturally, I keyed in as "Memo". To my horror, I can't put it as a reminder to remind me on Monday morning!

I was too lazy to key it in again, so I started to think are there any other ways? Tie a string to my finger? Nope... no strings anywhere. Then it hit me! Maxis has a service where you can send SMS to your e-mail account. I did just that. Sent a reminder to my office e-mail so that when I check it on Monday, the reminder was there. To send a SMS to your e-mail, type "e" followed by space and your e-mail address. Then, space again followed by your message. Example:
"e abc@123.xyz.com Message". Send this SMS to 1503 and you are done!

What about other operators? Maybe other users can share if the other operators provide similar services?