Melamine Scare Side Effect?

Ever since the Chinese melamine scandal exploded out of proportion, we are becoming wary of the food they eat and recently, also the containers or packaging that the food comes in. Associated with melamine would be plastic containers and bags, as well as plastic utensils. A positive side effect to this might just be we will be more environmental conscious - bringing our own containers to store takeaway food, for example.

To be honest, I am not about to, but would one day hope to. *SHY*

INSANE: Price of Goods to go DOWN!

Sounds like good news: Prices of sundry goods to drop next month in tandem with fuel price cut. Was beginning to wonder if this will ever happen and here is Federation of Sundry Goods Merchants Associations of Malaysia chairman Lean Hing Chuan saying that it will. But lets do a simple analysis over a statement from him: Merchants cannot immediately reduce the price of their goods as the items were bought when the petrol price was high.

Oh boy. This doesn't sound right. I remember that merchants (I'm not saying all, but the majority. I'm sure there are honest traders around.) couldn't wait to increase their price the last time (even with their old stocks) but when it comes to price reduction... Nothing happened when the Ringgit appreciated above the previous pegged RM3.80 to a US$1 but when there is a reason to increase price of goods... That's life.

BLESS the Convenience

I was getting tired lately with all those political talks about how and when the opposition will gain enough support to form a new government and how the current government continue to try not to be funny but a headline like "Malaysia hoping to get into top 10 of World Bank ranking" is certainly refreshing for a change. The initiative Business Licensing Electronic Support System or BLESS is meant to speed things up by providing information and other facilities for license applications. According to the article, it was launched by the Prime Minister on 5 September and had since received 9 applications. And since its soft launch in May, it had some 32,000 hits.

So, out of curiosity, I went to the website and found this (as of 2153 hours):
I hope this is not an indication of any efficiency issues but instead it is down for further improvement. ;)

Despicable Humans: Melamine Tainted Dairy Products

Update 23 September 2008: Here is a list of safe milk products from our Health Ministry brought to my attention by buddy andrewk. An official list that we can trust rather than those unverified ones we receive via e-mails.

Over the past couple of weeks, there were widespread news about melamine tinted milk powder from giant Chinese milk producer Sanlu which caused kidney stones and complications in infants and children, killing at least 3. Over the days, with pressure from various quarters and some reports claimed, from the New Zealand government, Chinese officials and chairwoman of Sanlu were sacked. There were also reports that the Chinese government and Sanlu were slow to react to this crisis. Consumers, primarily parents, queued for refunds and countries such as Singapore issued bans and demand official explanations. Hong Kong also found yogurt from Yili tinted with melamine.

The fact was greedy humans used melamine (a chemical used to make plastics and tanning in leather) to disguise low levels of proteins in milk so that they can sell the it at face value. It some how also 'escaped' detection in lab tests. You can find here further definitions on Google on what melamine is and its uses, including:

1. Melamine is an organic base with the chemical formula C3H6N6, with the IUPAC name 1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triamine. It is only slightly soluble in water.
   
2. Solid-colored laminate material that is both durable and easy to clean. It is stain and mark-resistant and also heat-tolerant.
3. A slick plastic-like material used to cover a substrate of particleboard or MDF.
4. A strong aromatic heterocyclic base, tri-amino-triazine, used, in combination with formaldehyde to manufacture melamine resins such as Formica.
   

Some of the online articles that covered this: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Disabled Tortoise Fitted With Wheels Find Romance

Arava is a female tortoise whose hind legs were paralysed due to unexplained circumstances. The 55 pounds tortoise was not able to move with her front legs alone. However, staffs at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo, where Arava is, built a set of wheels and strapped them to her body. A National Geographic News Video showed that Arava is able to move around now but would still need human intervention whenever she overturns. A male tortoise has been trying to court her ever since. :)

There is also a short article and a couple of photos (including the one below) over at LiveScience.

I Caught a Fly...

... with my FZ30. :P

Sunset @ Pangkor

Took this photo about 2 months ago during a weekend at Pangkor Island. My first real sunset photo. Edited with Gimp by changing the levels to enhance and bring out the fiery sunset colours while darkening other areas:
Do check out the original unedited photo in my flickr page here.

World's First Micro Four Thirds

One of the most anticipated, but kind of expected, news from Panasonic (Olympus should be next since these two are the Four Thirds manufacturers) is the first Micro Four Thirds digital camera, the DMC-G1. Can't call it a DSLR since there is no mirror involved but still this is a inter-changeable lens system. Read about the release from various photography websites but do check out Panasonic's official website here for the official stuff.

Not sure how many of you are interested but I am rather excited to see a smaller body (since there are no more mirror boxes to reflect whatever caught by the lens to the optical viewfinder as in a (D)SLR) with inter-changeable lens system. The features for the G1 are all over the website. However, the red and blue colours are kinda weird for this kind of a more serious camera but maybe Panasonic is trying to target a wider range of audience. DPReview's got an exclusive preview.

Update: One of the first negative thing I noticed is the battery life. By using the LCD and/or what Panasonic calls the LVF (Live View Finder), battery life is limited to 330/350 shots (CIPA Standard).

President Brad Pitt

Brad Pitt staying in a hotel that raised a fire alarm. He was evacuated by his security team and here is what IMDb got:

An eyewitness says, "It was total chaos. His security team immediately decided to evacuate Brad to avoid any possible threat. He was surrounded by eight security men and four policemen - it was crazy. It was as if Brad was the president!"

Despicable Humans

I thought our crazy politicians were bad, but after reading this Star Online article about two f***ed up a**h****s taking advantage of a mentally disabled woman and repeatedly raping her until she is now 7 months pregnant is an act of... of... I couldn't even find the words to express my disgust with these two beyond animal shit. Can't continue anymore with this post.

Interesting Stuff at a Convocation

It's been awhile since I last was involved in a convocation. Something like 10 years ago. Was in one yesterday and found a couple of interesting stuff. There was this young graduate in a robe who was wearing a pair of not so up to the occasion shoes with the laces untied:
There was also this other guy sitting in front of me filming the convocation proceedings with his handycam. What attracted my attention was his cool earrings:

The Very Successful Ahmad Ismail

I must say, this chief of a certain UMNO division is very successful. Ever since he called Malaysian Chinese "pendatang" (immigrants in our Malaysian national language), he has made himself well known. He's got the whole Chinese community totally pissed... I mean very worked up. Previously, I know shit nothing about him but now, at least I know he is chief of some division. I guess he has not done enough, though, to make me want to know what division...

A few days ago, the prime minister couldn't even find him but yesterday he came out and said that he wouldn't apologise for saying that. Well, nevermind that Malaysian Chinese are part of Malaysia and have contributed to the country. He even got the deputy prime minister and the whole UMNO apologise for him but he just won't apologise himself. After very happily declaring that the Malaysian Chinese are immigrants for some time now, today he surfaced again because he wants us to know that he was referring to history: A time when the British ruled this country and brought the Chinese in as labourers. That is why he did not find the need to apologise. He was just giving a history lesson during a recent pre-election speech.

Ahmad Ismail also insisted that a Chinese daily twisted his history lesson. Well, like what my buddy, andrewk, said, let him be. The next election will show how many people believe that it's indeed a history lesson being twisted and turned. Wonder if this will affect his party, too?

Wow, I've managed to say all these quite gently, I must say. I hope the MCMC won't want to block this blog. :)

It Takes Ages for New LRT Trains to Arrive

Before I read this NST Online article, I did not know that there were any plans to have additional Light Rail Transit (LRT) trains for the Kelana Jaya Putra line. Anyway, according to this article, the new 4-car trains were ordered in 2006 and will only be operational September 2009. This will expand the capacity from 160,000 to 350,000 passengers.

The reason for the long period is the need to upgrade power capabilities, safety testing and the supplier has to build the trains from scratch, which is the norm in the industry. Sounds kind of ridiculous but I am no train expert here.

When Will Canon Go Green?

Update: Saw the website. Kind of too much contents and not very structured for me to checkout. Couldn't access the Flash showing what green photos others have uploaded. All I see was 64 more... more of what? 64 more people to upload? 64 more before it is closed? Anyways, bravo for Canon to take the step to go green.

Saw the advertisement in The Sun newspaper this morning. Saw the advertisements on billboards along the road on the way to work but when I went to the website, all I got was a coming soon... later today, I suppose.