From Pixdaus: Bye Bye April

It's time to turn away from April...

... and welcome May!

Former PM Pak Lah's Foresight

Not too long ago, we have Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as our prime minister. As far as I can remember, he verbally pushed for many things, and one of them is biotechnology. This article from The Malaysian Insider seems to proof that the former prime minister does have foresight! Biotechnology is still expanding at a time when almost everything else is shrinking.

Now we will wait and see if the successor is much better. We don't need to wait too long as the successor will be announcing more liberalisation, this time in the financial sector, tomorrow (Monday, 27 April 2009).

Charlie Chaplin

Interesting to look at some of Charlie Chaplin's movie screenshots. I vaguely remembered watching him during my childhood days on an old black and white television. The image that still lingers is the one with him hanging from a clock tower which is not in the gallery.

From Pixdaus: Ice Coolness

We definitely need some cool here in warm Malaysia right now! Wonder how am I going to sleep tonight. HOT!

Feds Removes 30% Bumiputera Rule While Opposition Led Selangor Goes In Favour of Orang Asli

Update 23 April 2009: Tony Pua's more intelligent and comprehensive analysis of the liberalisation of the 30% bumiputera equity in his blog here.

Malaysia's federal government lifts the ancient rule that requires 30% bumiputera equity in 27 services sub-sectors which includes health and social services, tourism services, transport services, business services and computer and related services. The new prime minister also said that he will spring some surprises on the liberalisation of the financial sector next week.

These apparent good news might have overshadowed the opposition led Selangor government's decision to withdraw its appeal which involves the acquisition of 16.5ha of the Temuan tribe’s customary lands at Bukit Tampoi, Dengkil in 1995. The menteri besar said "We believe in protecting the rights of indigenous peoples and will continue to treat the orang asli community with the respect they deserve and that should have been accorded to them from the very beginning."

Source: Star Online "Govt lifts 30% bumi rule for 27 services sub-sectors" and "S’gor withdraws appeal, wants to work with orang asli"

Cassini's continued mission - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Check out Cassini's journey around Saturn!
Cassini's continued mission - The Big Picture - Boston.com

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The Amazing Susan Boyle

I was totally mesmerised by Susan Boyle when I first saw her singing in Youtube. I got the link from a friend's e-mail. Actually, my other buds have shared the link but I sort of skipped through all of them. I had not intended to blog about her but after reading this article, I had to. She gave new meaning to life! I wanted to embed the Youtube video here, but it was disabled by request, so I respect that. :D Excerpts from the article Why Sysan Boyle?

... Susan struck a chord because in this troubled world, she represents the perseverance of the human spirit. We got to watch as the most unlikely individual rose to become a celebrated 21st century muse. No matter how fickle fame is–or who Ms. Boyle turns out to be–we share in her moment of triumph.

So why this woman? Because for a few minutes in 2009–perhaps more so than Obama himself–Susan Boyle personified hope.

Plastic Bags

Do we still want to use plastic bags?

via Blogfish.

Malaysia was supposed to have banned it. The new Selangor state government wanted to do it. But I guess both have been too busy with their politics, though. However, China have already banned plastic bags of certain thickness.

We Love Fashion!

Don't we all love fashion. Especially we people - dudes with cameras. Was at Mid Valley trying to blend in with all the other DSLR, compact and camera phone wielding people to shoot some models parading PDI and Padini fashion. Check out the schedule here for the list of dates and time of other fashion shows.

You will find nice, pretty looking ladies and handsome, muscular men strutting their stuff. You will also find a lot of people crowding around the stage, so if you want to be at the front, arrive early. What amuses me the most are the DSLR dudes that brought their own short ladders (I don't know if you call them ladders but I call them ladders... they are those platforms with a couple of steps) so that they stand tall above all. ;)

Return of Elizabeth Wong; Hannah Yeoh's Plight

I'm delighted that Elizabeth Wong is returning as assemblywoman and Selangor state executive councillor after two months of leave. Two months ago, terribly low quality of photos of her in compromised positions while sleeping went public. Her ex-boyfriend is the prime suspect and doesn't seem to have the balls to come out in the open to claim nor deny his handy work.

Meanwhile, Tony Pua's blog highlighted the plight of his fellow assemblywoman, Hannah Yeoh, whose heart was shatterred by members of the public that regretted voting for change because of the political instability now and would prefer returning to their old style of voting. I do not know any of these politicians but anyone striving hard for the rakyat do not deserve to listen to this. I'd say, be strong and go kick some ungrateful and unappreciative ass! We need people like you! There's no looking back now.

From Pixdaus: a sun trap

And what better way than to start a Monday with ladybirds. :D

From Pixdaus: Cute and Cuddly

Brilliant way to end a Sunday.

Exciting New Lean Cabinet!

Woah! Almost forgot to blog about the new cabinet line up that was just announced by our new prime minister a few hours ago. How can it be possible for me to forget on such exciting news! The prime minister effectively crushed those crazy rumours about having many deputy prime ministers. One will do. What were the rakyat thinking? HMPH!

Where else to get the list of cabinets than the official news agency BERNAMA. You can definitely find everything good about the government here. Wonderful site, really, but to think there will be a nicely arranged list or table for us bloggers to copy and paste into our blogs is just slightly bordering on the ridiculous.

First off, those that were dropped:

• Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad (Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs) - let him be at the top! He who lost in the UMNO elections and resigned like a gentleman!
  
• Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar (Home)
• Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said (Tourism)
• Senator Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib (Rural and Regional Development)
• Senator Datuk Amirsham A Aziz (Prime Minister's Department)
• Datuk Ong Ka Chuan (Housing and Local Government)
• Datuk Mohd Zin Mohamed (Works)
• Datuk Seri Zulhasnan Rafique (Federal Territories)

And now, the current ones:

• Gerakan president Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon (Minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of Unity and Performance Management)
• Malaysian Armed Forces' Religious Corp Director Maj-Gen Datuk Jamil Khir Baharom (Minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of Islamic Religious Affairs)
• Datuk Ahmad Husni Mohamad Hanadzlah (Second Finance Minister)
• Umno Wanita chief Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil (Women, Family and Community Development)
• Datuk Anifah Aman (Foreign)
• Lembah Pantai Umno division chief Datuk Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin (Federal Territories)
• MCA vice-president Datuk Kong Cho Ha (Housing and Local Government)
• Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz (Prime Minister's Department)
• Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat (Transport)
• Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin (Higher Education)
• Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili (Science, Technology and Innovation)
• Datuk Douglas Unggah Embas (Natural Resources and Environment)
• Datuk Liow Tiong Lai (Health)
• Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam (Human Resources)
• Muhyiddin (Education-cum-deputy prime minister)
• Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop (Prime Minister's Department)
• Tan Sri Bernard Dompok (Plantation Industries and Commodities)
• Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein (Home)
• Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim (Information, Communications, Arts and Culture)
• Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui (Energy, Green Technology and Water).
• Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal (Rural and Regional Development)
• Datuk Mustapa Mohamed (International Trade and Industry)
• Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen (Tourism)
• Datuk Noh Omar (Agriculture and Agro-based Industry)
• Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (Defence)
• Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor (Works)
• Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek (Youth and Sports)
• Datuk Ismail Sabri Yaakob (Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs)
  

Some restructuring of ministries from Information; Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage; and Energy, Water and Communications to Energy, Green Technology and Water; and Information, Communications, Arts and Culture.

Gasp. Information overload. I will leave you to read about the deputies and et cetera from BERNAMA's website here.

Currency Your Currency

This world maybe be really small, even tiny, but it never fails to come up with intriguing stuff like small American towns printing their own money and, beat that, it is actually LEGAL! Town folks will purchase the dollar for the currency and can use them within the town. Typically, a unit of that currency will cost 90 or 95 cents. Hopefully, this will promote spending and keep the money going round and round the community.

Apparently, the US of A is estimated to have about 75 of these independent currencies. Gasp! Bet our new prime minister-cum-finance minister will be itching to try this, too.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk via the intriguing Jeff Ooi's Screenshots.

What Lies Within?

What lies within this car? FYI, this is the rear bumper of a car. It's not really a Pentium 4, is it? AWEK INSIDE!

Translation: Chick Within. :D

The Uneventful Week That Was

For many, Monday is the beginning of the week but I remembered a teacher telling me that a week actually starts on a Sunday. Anyways, I'm starting this working Monday with a summary of a few uneventful things that happened last week (in no particular order):

1. Our Formula One Malaysian Grand Prix had to stop after 32 laps (of the 56 planned) due to bad weather. All drivers get half of the usual points. Jenson Button of Brawn GP won again.
   
2. TM's High Speed Broadband director came out to defend their efficiency, saying something like "they have 1.5 million subscribers; legitimate customer complaints account for less than 0.2% (3,000) of total subscribers annually."
3. Hindraf members were released from ISA detention but, apparently, terms and conditions apply.
4. Malaysia's got a new prime minister since Friday, 3 April 2009.
5. Update 2:50pm: Oh, one more thing. Our opposition leader was supposed to spring a surprise of some sort but that turned out to be some kind of potong steam, too.

IonBuck and His Amazing Phone

After months of putting up with my difficult to read mobile phone screen, I finally went out to buy the most expensive phone of all time. A RM3k+ phone. Phew! "At last" is what all my buds would say. I also finally gave up the top spot for the 67 Oldest Handphone Challenge.

But of course, being the real me, that wouldn't happen. I'm just saying it because it's 1 April. What actually happened was, I went out searching for mobile phone repair shops to repair my phone's screen, which is really dark and hard to read at the center (about 40 - 50% of the screen, actually). I had to tilt the phone in various angles to read my SMSes. :P

Found two shops. Even before I took out my phone, I asked them if they repair old mobiles. The answers were a definitive yes... until I took the phone out and show them, that is. One of them even had this evil grin. Sigh...