Malaysians Rejoice!

After being on the map for mostly the wrong reasons lately, we have something to be proud of. Siew Shan Lyn (left) and Chew Shee Ghee became the second and fifth in the global Associate Chartered Accountant (ACA) professional examinations.

Source: Star Online Nation "Two women do us proud"

A Bit About Langkawi

Came across an interesting article on Langkawi today via Star Online (where else?!) Nation "Langkawi could become only geopark ringed by 99 isles". The article states that the island is on the list of becoming a geopark in the Unesco (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Global Network. If successful, it will be the first geopark in the world to be surrounded by 99 isles (wow, never knew there are so many islands around it!).

"A geopark is an area with significant geological heritage."

Besides that, the island will host Malaysia's biggest water festival, according to Star Online Nation "Langkawi to host water fest" from 6th to 8th April 2007.

Of Sarcasm and Forgetting a Bra

I am posting this here not so much of Victoria Beckham, not so much of bras and not so much of nipples. It is about a letter that American magazine US Weekly specially crafted for Victoria when she moves with husband to Los Angeles:

There is nothing Posh about forgetting to wear a bra when gallivanting about in thin T-shirts, as you've unfortunately been known to do. It is obvious to us that the bra may be a foreign concept to you - much like American football, or the good sense to avoid Tom Cruise - so allow us to explain: You're a 32-year-old woman with perky breasts that apparently like to breathe. Keep shunning that bra and in five years you'll end up with pendulums hanging off your clavicle that hubby David Beckham might mistake for soccer ball bags.

Source: IMDb.com "Magazine Editors Urge Beckham To Get a Bra"

The Time Is Right To Write On Poop, Panda Poop

Researchers from China plan to recycle some 2 tonnes of panda droppings from a center's 40 pandas everyday into paper. A zoo in Thailand is already doing that with two pandas on rent from China. Their process goes like this: a daylong process of cleaning the feces, boiling it in a soda solution, bleaching it with chlorine and drying it under the sun.

Source: LiveScience.com "Chinese to Turn Panda Poop into Paper"

Selangor Broadband to Be Very Slow In The Next 3 Years

That is what I had in mind when I first read the title of Star Online Nation's "Selangor aims for 90% broadband coverage within 3 years". Currently, the penetration rate is 14%. Every time when TM has an increase in customers, my Streamyx connection will go blink, blink, indicating that I am not connected to the net. It gets really irritating when after 1 hour, it still goes blink, blink. And the worse would be after that, I finally notice there is a connection established so I go about logging into my e-mails, google accounts, etc. when it starts to blink, blink once more...

Cervical Cancer Vaccine

Clipped from Star Online Nation:

A vaccine to prevent cervical cancer and vulvar and vaginal pre-cancers in women, called Gardasil, was launched in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

It is the first vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, a disease caused almost exclusively by a highly common sexually transmitted virus called the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) that includes over 100 different strains.

In Malaysia, cervical cancer is the second most common cancer after breast cancer.

“The vaccine has been shown to be effective in studies done on women between 16 and 26. The majority of women who are diagnosed with cervical cancer are between the ages of 40 and 50.

“We hope that the vaccine will protect the generation of females now. It will not make a major impact on those in their 50s because many are already infected.”

“Some 1,500 Malaysian women are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year.

“Pap smear tests, which start at the cost of RM5 or RM10 from government clinics to below RM100 in private hospitals, are readily available. Yet most women just don’t take it. “

NCSM is offering the vaccine at a subsidised price of RM999 at its Women’s Cancer Detection & Breast Clinic.

For more information call 03-2698 7351.

Water Retention

The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said a new by-law will be formulated by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government to mandate that certain large buildings, such as factories and institutions of higher learning, will have to install "rainwater harvesting" systems to collect rainwater. This water will be used for things like washing the car, watering plants, flush toilets, etc. as long the water is not used for consumption or bathing.

He also mentioned that low cost houses and other smaller buildings will not be required to do so, leaving a big question mark... what about larger houses? Shop lots? That's right, keep guessing (and don't forget to save money to pay for the system) and see how many you have got right when the ruling is finalised.

Source: Star Online Nation "Harvesting rainwater on roofs"

Another Reason Not To Beef

STARTLING REVELATION! Pregnant women that eat too much beef will cause their sons to have low sperm count (up to 24.3% lower)! Yes! If you are pregnant and you have been taking beef the whole week, it is time to panic! You may not have grand children. GASP!

However, do remember to breathe. Here is something that might comfort you: This is only a study based on 387 women across 5 American cities. And the study was conducted from 2000 to 2005 on adult males' mothers. What do all these mean?

That this is a retrospective study where questionnaires were handed out and the elder women filled in the blanks from memory. Hence, the accuracy is questionable. Phew! Nonetheless, less beef just to be safe.

Source: Star Online World "Eat a lot of beef? It may affect your son's sperm"

ps. forgot to mention the suspected causes: Hormones or contaminants from the cattles' food intake.

New Climate Zone Next Century

Reuters "New, unknown climate zones seen by 2100: study" indicated that there will be a huge climate shift if the earth continues to warm at the current rate - up to a total increase of 8 degrees Celcius by 2100. The biggest changes will be the North and South poles where ice will disappear (something scientific: when ice and snow melt, the ability to reflect sunlight back to space reduces, causing the warming to accelerate even faster). Habitats will be destroyed, species such as the polar bears may be extinct.

The tropics will also face changes, though the article did not say in what way. A new earth is on the way, folks, but we need not worry as most of us reading this wouldn't be around for the experience.

Goodbye Magazines

Not so much as a gasp, but I was rather surprised to learn that PC Magazine Malaysia is into its last issue this April. Got to know of this via Jeff Ooi's blog which pointed to the article he wrote in CNet Asia's Lemak Lemang. Seems like it was due to poor readership and the fact that more readers are sourcing news from the net. PC Magazine Malaysia is published by Catcha Corp.

Coincidentally, I bumped into this news from Reuters that Time Inc. (Time Magazine, yeah) is discontinuing its weekly newspaper insert magazine called Life. The reason cited was similar - readers moving from print media to online news and photos. However, it will make Life's 10 million or so photos viewable online, with "the most important collection of imagery covering the events and people of the 20th century available for free for personal use."

Another magazine that I know of was Digital Camera & Photography which I never had a chance to read until someone passed its last issue (Dec-Jan 2007) to me. This magazine was less than one year old! Quite a comprehensive magazine, so a pity on its demise. However, I was not told what the reason was.

Any other publications that are reaching the end of its life? Do drop a line here.

Meet The Yellow Digi People Session

Have you seen the Digi advertisements on TV lately? Notice the yellow round and chubby guys running around? It seems they are called "Yellow Coverage Fellows" and Digi's promotions attracted more than just customers. According to Star Online Nation "Little Rachel Chan gets to meet DiGi’s ‘yellow men’ ", little Rachel Chan was so mesmerised by these guys that she wrote a letter to Digi asking the YCF to follow her to school (the YCFs are portrayed to follow people around in the ads).

Guess what? Digi responded and got two YCFs to go to school with her! They took her in an MPV and while at the school why not entertain the other kids as well? They handed out goodies to the others and also did what Rachel called the "boing-boing" dance.

Now that is cool marketing! And coming today marks another interesting launch: Digi's new Prepaid Fu-Yoh! Possibly another word that will be uttered as often as "wah lau eh!"

Digi's website: http://www.digi.com.my/

ps. I have friends and colleagues that laugh out loud whenever we mention theDigi advertisment about feng shui. :D

Start Your Petitions Online Today!

Just stumbled upon a website called www.PetitionOnline.com while reading an article about a petition by PS3 owners to boycott Capcom for not keeping their promise on an exclusive game for the machine.

At the time of blogging, the total number of signatures collected from all the petitions on the website were a little over 50 million.

For all of you interested in petitioning something, head on over to there. According to the website: "PetitionOnline.com provides free online hosting of public petitions for responsible public advocacy." I have not tried it myself because at the moment I have got nothing to protest about. Maybe you, the one reading this, got some ideas?

When You Are Bored, Start Counting Dots

A rather amazing website link via Digg. For every second, a dot is highlighted in black. Hard to explain here, you just got to go check it out from this link. For some, it might be a nice programming technique and for others like me, an interesting fresh new take about time. :P

Delicate Sunset

Delicate Sunset
Originally uploaded by James Neeley.

James Neeley did a great job with nature's arch from Arches National Park, Utah. Look at the colour of the sky and the magnificent arch standing there.

mer de tranquilite

mer de tranquilite
Originally uploaded by in touch.

Check out that very nice tower and its reflection by in_touch.