Worker Ants

A fly met its end while worker ants carry it to their lair for food in this cropped photo taken with a phone.

Will our Malaysian government find reasons to start Internet censorship?

Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek on the state of our Internet freedom:

I see the misuse of the liberty given to users as reaching a critical level. It is about time we act firmly and sternly to restrain it.

I’m sure the press could’ve misquoted him as it was always the case because I’m sure our government will not back out on their word to provide censorship free Internet.

via The Malaysian Insider.

Refresh Mac Mini on the way?

Slowly turning into an Apple fanboy (but still holding on to my Android powered HTC Desire), I always welcome those rare rumours and speculations about the company’s cheapest Mac, the Mac Mini. Despite being the cheapest, I’m still having some issues owning one because it really isn’t THAT cheap! Anyways, hoping to own one one day, I’m following closely: Availability of the Mac Mini is extended in some countries which leads to speculation that a refresh with Intel’s latest processors is coming and to the more optimistic, a possible redesign.

triggered by appletell.

SanDisk Evolves The Thumb Drive

The thumb drive evolves with the current crop of devices such as smartphones and certain tablets so that data can be transferred wirelessly. SanDisk’s upcoming *Connect Wireless Flash Drive" comes in 16 or 32GB flavours with built-in wifi so that Android and iOS devices could connect to it via an app for wireless streaming or file transfers.

via Cult of Mac.

World's Largest Wind Farm

The world’s largest wind farm is being built at Fukushima, the place where a nuclear disaster took place in 2011.

via Inhabitat.

About Minions

Minions, Minions, Minions. It’s been nothing but Minions in the last few weeks and I’m delighted to learn from Wikipedia “Minions film”) that a Minions movie, prequel of sorts to the original Despicable Me movie, is scheduled for release 19 December 2014. Bananaaaaaaaa! 

And click here for 5 interesting things that you would like to know about the Minions, including:

The minions are voiced by Despicable Me 2 directors Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud.

Coffin recalled that when initial vocalizations for Gru’s henchmen weren’t working, he stepped in to make a test. “I told [Illumination founder-CEO and producer] Chris Meledandri, ‘Let me make a test. It won’t be an official one; it’s just to show whoever is going to design the voice a way to go.’ … When I asked Chris to listen to it, he said, ‘Well, you’re going to be the voice of the minions.’”

And…

The minions’ language includes French, Spanish … and food references.

In providing the voice of the Minions, Coffin uses words from languages including French, English, Spanish and Italian. “There are a lot of food references,” Renaud added. “For example, ‘poulet tiki masala’ is French for the Indian chicken dish.”

All the Wolverines

The next Wolverine movie is coming but just before that, Gizmodo's got the whole history of what Wolverine looked like since 1974...

Panasonic Announces Superzoom with... 60X Optical Zoom!?

This is really shocking (for me, at least). How superzoom cameras had evolved since I last followed any after I got my DMC-FZ30. Panasonic just announced the DMC-FZ70, a superzoom bridge camera with a 60X optical zoom lens that goes from 20mm to 1,200mm (35mm equivalent)!!! It's got a 16.1 megapixels sensor and the lens is reasonably bright at this kind of zoom range with apertures f/2.8 - 5.9! Photo quality? That's probably another story...

via DPReview.

Pollution and Global Warming in Cameron Highlands

Lots of pollution and global warming going on at one of my favourite places of visit - Cameron Highlands.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri G. Palanivel said that his ministry had identified four main environmental issues in Cameron Highlands, namely soil erosion from rampant illegal clearing of land, the sedimentation and siltation of rivers, the pollution of rivers due to effluent from agricultural activities, and flash floods and mud flows.

via The Malaysian Insider.

Stop! Please stop!

Advance in Medicinal Tech: Head/Body Transplant a "Possibility"

Shocked and bemused... According to a Dr. Sergio Canavero of the University of Turin humans may one day be able to change bodies... or bodies can change heads...

In his paper, published in the open access journal Surgical Neurology International, Canavero outlines a plan to cool the subjects’ head and spine to 18ºC, use "clean cuts" to sever the two spinal cords, then drain the blood from the transplanted head before fusing the two spinal cords together with an inorganic polymer "glue." He cites supporting research in dogs and guinea pigs showing that the reattachment ought to be possible.

via The Verge.

Minion Rush

Despicable Me 2 is on air and Minion Rush is its accompanying mobile game. I wouldn't have downloaded it were it not for the super cutesy cuddly and irritating Gru's Minions. Despite its attraction, it's just another runner game and I suck in this genre.

Minions aside, I do not think there's anything really special about it except for some of the mini games where the Minion (Dave, in this case) gets attacked from behind and he had to dodge the stuff attacking from behind or sit on a magic unicorn to get bananas. Oh did I mention you have to collect bananas in this game?

And then, there's this thing you can pick up and become a giant Minion for a short time where you can squash your competition (other running Minions) and obstacles that would normally end the game if you hit them.

The above is a compilation of a few expressions of Dave the Minion on the menu screen rather than a screenshot of him running around. That you can get if you Google the game. Touch Dave on the menu screen in a few places and he would react or don't do anything and he would fall asleep.

Originality - it's just another infinite running game! 2/5

Fun factor - 3/5

Lasting appeal - as long as you like Minions 3/5

Graphics 2/5 oh this game is a battery sucker on my iPhone.