The Kyoto Protocol (tag) will expire in 2012 and there is a need to continue to fight climate change even after 2012. The current Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) - yeah, it's that mouthful - plans to sustain the fight into post-Kyoto period. That plan has been dubbed as son of Kyoto.

Unfortunately, like the upcoming World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in Hong Kong, this climate change meeting is expected to fail unless a compromise is achieved. The main problem is, as it has always been for the past few years, the United States refusal to commit itself into any treaty that will put a cap on its greenhouse gases emission.

Some has insisted the parties to carry on without the US participation. That might be the most viable solution at the moment. Others on the other hand are calling for a more lenient targets to persuade to US to join in.

I definitely believe that in order to combat climate change effectively, all major emitters need to join in. That includes the US. China is the distant second largest greenhouse emitter. Tony Blair with confidence that I admire goes further by stating "there will be a binding international agreement to succeed Kyoto when the Protocol expires in 2012 that will include all major economies."

I don't share his optimism. In my opinion, the only way that is possible is to see a US president that will agree to Kyoto's underlying principles. A person like John McCain or Hillary Clinton. I truly hope John McCain will make it to the White House in 2008.

Given the gloom prospect of failure, I'd be happy even with the most modest success coming out from the COP. It'd be a tragery to see a COP 10 in Buenos Aires to repeat itself in Montreal.

In the meantime, it seems that China is enjoying the moral high ground. Sometime earlier, China urged the US to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. This urging is important because it may signal that China is willing to commit itself seriously to a post-Kyoto treaty to cap its emissions. That itself is hope.

p/s - happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to the __earthinc, happy birthday to you.

Yup. Four years of the __earthinc and still wanting to marry a tree.

Caught this last Sunday while I was out in the city. The domes belong to Jamek Mosque in Kuala Lumpur (tag).



The mosque is probably the oldest mosque in Kuala Lumpur. In my opinion, it's the most beautiful mosque in the capital.

Fireflies live in our lore,
so do our turtles since they are no more,
turtles fled and stole our corals,
and hail now for rhinos in murals.

End of Johor rhinos? No sign of animal in national park
Sim Bak Heng

JOHOR BARU, Sun.

Where have the Sumatran rhinoceros in Johor gone? The five animals recorded in the Endau-Rompin National Park 10 years ago are believed to have become victims of poachers...

...A United Nations Development Programme/Global Environment Facility study in the late 1990s was abandoned after some time because they were unable to detect the animals.

p/s - thecicak.com has a new look. Do check them out.

Alright. I'll admit this. Most of the times, I post photos because I can't think of anything to write about. Or I have trouble putting my thoughts into words. So, here it is. Another lame picture for you to suffer.



It's a kind of evergreen plant my mom planted in my family little yard.

And bah. I wanted to meet some people from Bank Negara today but they weren't where they were supposed to be. All that walking in the rain with a splitting headache was for nothing.

I've been in love with Jan Matejko's Stanczyk for several months now. I first came across it on Wikipedia possibly last year and I can't seem to shake it out of my head at the moment.



The painting doesn't look too special at first glance. Indeed, if wasn't for the story behind the painting, I wouldn't chance a second look.

The person on sitting the chair is Stanczyk, a Polish court jester. He, according to Wikipedia, "is the only person at a royal ball to become worried after the news that the city of Smolensk was captured by the Russians reaches the court."

I don't know about you but that's the wow factor for me - it definately captures human's foolishness and life's irony.

Any parallel to Malaysia? I hope not.

Both UMNO and PAS have confirmed their candidates for the upcoming December 6 Pengkalan Pasir by-election. UMNO is going with Hanafi while PAS has Hanifa.

With UMNO is trying to be more Islamic than PAS and PAS forcing itself to become a little bit more moderate, this Hanafi vs. Hanifa thing is going to be hilarious. I mean, cmon, Hanafi and Hanifa. It's as if this symbolizes the apparent merging of UMNO and PAS on a point somewhere to the right of Malaysian political spectrum.

Too bad the independent candidate won't be a person named Hinafa.

I wonder if they're related. Long lost twin brothers? Hey, you'll never know these days.

And I already can't remember who's whom!

Aww. But Google doesn't have a doodle for today. =(

And no turkey. =(

Bah. Who needs turkey when you have nasi lemak and roti canai...

p/s - whoa. Just saw on local TV that Indonesia is planning a military exercise near Ambalat (tag). Reuters has more:

Jakarta plans exercise near sea disputed by Malaysia
24 Nov 2005 04:08:44 GMT
Source: Reuters

JAKARTA, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Indonesia's navy will hold its biggest ever exercise next month, involving landing amphibious tanks near potentially oil-rich waters disputed with Malaysia, a navy spokesman said on Thursday.

This news breaks a day after the US lifts military embargo against the country, as I'd mentioned earlier.

Is Indonesia trying to tell Malaysia something? Hinting too hard maybe?

pp/s - should be interesting to know what the local media has to say tomorrow about this. Right now, Malaysian administration has no moral right to criticize the US on Abu Ghraib incident.

Anyway, a good by-election ammo for PAS. Might even be a silver bullet.

ppp/s - Ha. Ha. Ha! (via)

Early in the season, pundits predicted Group B of the 2005/06 Champions League would see both Arsenal and Ajax (tag) heading to the next stage. Pundits almost got it wrong went Thun overperformed and Sparta was giving Ajax a run on their money. Today however, they are vindicated. Both Arsenal and Ajax are both group champion and runnerup respectively.

I was sleeping when the match started and I dreamt that Ajax was losing 3-1 to Sparta. What a nightmare! I woke up in the middle of the night only to sleep again and dreamt Ajax lost 3-2 instead. Two nightmares in a row and I had to resist temptation to boot up my home computer and check on the score. But my sleep was what I need. Sleep.

Finally, when it was morning and the sun was up and smiling, ESPN greeted me with the sweetest news to start a Wednesday - Nigel de Jong scored two goals and made sure an Ajax win.

So, three cheers for de Jong.

Hup, hup, hooray!
Hup, hup, hooray!
Hup, hup, hooray!

Three cheers for Ajax.

Yip, yip, hooray!
Yip, yip, hooray!
Yip, yip, hooray!

Group D currently has the most interesting scenario - with one game left, anybody could qualify. You guys know which team I hope won't make it.*

*devilish smile

p/s - Not quite sure if this is a good news or a bad news to Malaysia.

U.S. Restores Military Ties With Indonesia

By CHRIS BRUMMITT, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 1 minute ago

JAKARTA, Indonesia - The United States has lifted an arms embargo against Indonesia, ending a six-year ban on military aid to the world's most populous Muslim nation imposed due to human rights concerns.

The Bush administration has long argued that isolating Indonesia, which has been hit by several bombings by al-Qaida linked terrorists in recent years, was not in Washington's strategic interests.

Oh well, there goes Ambalat.

pp/s - now we're talking. A report from The Star on possible changes on Malaysian Wildlife Protection Act:

Under the Wildlife Protection Act 76/72, a poacher faces a maximum fine of RM15,000 or five years’ jail.

Sazmi also said the ministry was in the final stages of revamping the existing law and replacing it with the Wildlife Protection and Conservation Act.

Under the new Act, poachers would face mandatory jail sentences of up to 10 years and fines of up to 30 times the current amount.

Sweet.

A few days ago, I noticed one of sixthseal.com's posts, which is full of extremely disturbing comments. It's awfully hard to maintain my composure after passing through it even at fastest possible speed. What started out as a complaint against the author of the blog ends up with racists people scouring all over for a chance to abuse free speech.

I don't really quite comprehend on how the issue is being turned into racist's capital. Why couldn't people just say fuck you instead of fuck Malay or any other race for that matter. Why must race come into the convoluted and irrational equation in the first place?

Perhaps, it's merely trolls. Or perhaps, there really are people out there that prefer a racist to a liberal society - looking for every chance to undo so much that has been done.

I guess, so much for a Malaysian dream.

p/s - BN Kelantan dug its own grave. After much demand of dissolution, offer of resignation, counter-demand and counter-offer between BN and PAS on Kelantan state assembly, deputy chairman of the Election Commission speaks out in Utusan today that if anybody resigns, such person will be barred from running for office for the next five years, as stated in EC rules. The Prime Minister, from BN himself, echoes the EC deputy chairman's words.

This is sure to embarrass BN and particularly UMNO Kelantan while putting a stop to all these silly demands.

pp/s - does this mean Flying Spaghetti Monster is to be taught as a mythology too?

LAWRENCE, Kan. - Creationism and intelligent design are going to be studied at the University of Kansas, but not in the way advocated by opponents of the theory of evolution.

A course being offered next semester by the university religious studies department is titled "Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationism and other Religious Mythologies."

Ouch.

Mr. Karam Singh Walia, by all standards, is definitely Malaysia's most well-known environmental journalist. Almost every week, it seems almost everyday to me, a less-than-popular Malay idiom will come out of his mouth with his hands flying in the air relentlessly, comically.

For at least five years now, he has been highlighting all the little local environmental issues on Malaysian air. By little, by no way do I mean insignificant. In fact, he's the one that is doing more to green's cause than anybody else that I could think of at the moment. More importantly, he is perhaps one of the few that are fostering green grassroots in the country.

According to World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) Malaysia, two of his notable works are:

Of particular note, in October 2000, Karam's coverage of Cameron Highlands placed highland forest conservation issues firmly in the public eye. His efforts in Cameron Highlands resulted in the Federal Cabinet's freeze on development in the highlands. Subsequently, a special Cabinet Committee on Co-ordination of Highlands and Islands was formed to help plan and manage developments of highlands and islands in the country.

In 2002, Karam took up the issue on the threats to the Bukit Gasing green belt in Petaling Jaya. There was an immediate response from the government and within 24 hours of the first newscast, Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur had promised to gazette its part of the hill as a protected area.

A net search reveals that he has won several awards. Last year according to WWF-Malaysia further, the Sultan of Perak, which is the organization patron, conferred Mr. Karam Singh Walia with Patron's Award last year.

So, yeah, if there is to be a green party in Malaysia, I'll nominate Karam Singh Walia as the party's president!



Yeah! And the __earthinc welcomes Mr. Annan back from his prolonged vacation over the Pacific. He'll be visiting Pengkalan Pasir soon to investigate current influx of aliens into the area. Rumors have it that these aliens have more than doubled human population there. Worse and to many's horror, these aliens, allegedly, are stealing people's genital in the open!

p/s - damn. should end this entry with a pantun?

pp/s - whoa! Zarqawi, that alleged Al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, might be dead! (via Iraq The Model via Pito's Salas via Technorati).

If the leak is confirmed, what an achievement it is - it hasn't been too long since Southeast Asian bomber was killed in Indonesia. This might demoralize all those terrorists. Osama Bin Laden, the real wanted man, is still somewhere out there, however.

Then again, which GM workers care about Zarqawi and all the hocus-pocus when GM plans to cut 30,000 jobs, eh?

When I was in Ann Arbor, I took pleasure in spotting symbols all around campus. Many of them were political in nature while others were simply pranks. For instance, the math building was scarred with small black hammer and sickle. By the Diag, there was a drawing of a sad primate standing behind bars while one of the more amusing ones is this:



The weirdest however is Gnome Liberation Front (GLF). A mark of GLF's guerrila campaigning could be seen near the C.C. Little building bus stop, if it's still there.

When I first noticed the mark, I thought it was a joke. After all, college is the meeting place of weirder of the weirdest. Controlling for population size, unless you're in Japan, I dare bet that the probability of seeing or hearing something totally out of place is higher in college than anywhere else. Almost nowhere else in the world where one could find a naked person running in the snow in the middle of the night or wearing a complete set of scuba accessories minus the tank while sitting for an exam (while, it was Halloween). Or, a couple students assaulting police officers with snowballs and almost got charged with felony. Or even an open worshipper of Flying Spaghetti Monster. Or, hell, rioting merely because of football, winning or losing, regardless. Know who they are, you do.

GLF craved a smile on my face but I really didn't know what the supposedly-joke was about. At the same time, I'm familiar with Earth Liberation Front, an organization with a cute acronym - ELF. Those that are unfamiliar with ELF might mistaken it as a docile organization. On the contrary, ELF is one of the few known active and elusive ecoterrorist groups (heh, FBI is having a hard time tracing them - it's easier to trace Al-Qaeda than ELF. Hell, ELF members don't even know each other. Ops...). I remember during one May near Ann Arbor, an luxury house was burnt down to the ground and ELF claimed responsibility. A better known arson case is the of burning Hummers in California. So, I thought, GLF was a parody of ELF.

Well, guess what?

Gnome Liberation Front is a legit political movement aimed at freeing all gnomes from slavery. At first, I thought that this was an elaborate hoax but no - it's a serious movement. As serious as PAS could be.

What GLF Front does is simply this: kidnap stone gnomes from gardens and then break them up in order to release these gnomes (their souls I presume) into gnomes' natural habitat. This still couldn't accept the rationale behind the movement upon learning this. It seemed that this was simply a lame excuse for vandalism.

The final twist however made me gives up and accepts it as it is. Why? According to Wikipedia further, on gnomes, legend has it that "the sun's rays turn them into stone."

Interestingly enough, the largest movement happens to operate in France under the name Mouvement d'Émancipation des Nains de Jardin, or, MENJ. What? Oh. Yeah, I know. A whole new perceptive, isn't it? Those French...

Now, I'm a green yes. There are a lot of not-so-mainstream political beliefs that I hold to but I've my own benchmark of what is ridiculous. GLF is one of those that fall into my I-thought-this-was-a-joke list.

p/s - ladies and gentlemen, the first ever vblog to make it into the __earthinc's blogroll. Presenting to you, MobuzzTV. Karina, I wanna have your babies!!!

The Game starts in less than 30 minutes. Listen to The Game live on www.MGoBlue.com. I trust Yahoo! will be airing The Game live on its online radio too. Screw that. Watch Yahoo! NCAAF for updates. If only they show college football (the biggest f-king rivalry in the whole US but TV channels are showing f-king stupid goddamned national dart tournament!) on TV in Malaysia...

Meanwhile, listen and sing to the Hail to the Victors! (not sure whether this is legal but hell! - picked from www.MGoBlue.com via Campus Information Center)

Now for a cheer they are here, triumphant!

Here they come with banners flying.
In stalwart step they're nighing.
With shouts of vict'ry crying.
We hurrah, hurrah, we greet you now, Hail!

Far we their praises sing
For the glory and fame they've bro't us,
Loud let the bells them ring,
For here they come with banners flying

Far we their praises tell
For the glory and fame they've bro't us,
Loud let the bells them ring
For here they come with banners flying

Here they come, Hurrah!

Hail! To the victors, valiant,
Hail! To the conqu'ring heroes
Hail! Hail! To Michigan the leaders and best

Hail! To the victors, valiant,
Hail! To the conqu'ring heroes
Hail! Hail! To Michigan the champions of the West!

Go Blue! And go Sparties!

And don't forget, Buck the Fuckeyes!

w00t! - LIVE AUDIO THANKS TO MICHIGAN HOCKEY NET! (via)

update - 12 minutes to go, Ohio State missed a field goal and Michigan leads by 6 points.

p/s - WTF? on the radio just now, roughly, Christians, Muslims and Jews uniting against a common foe. Now, that's lame.

update - fourth down and a yard to go. What Lloyd Carr did? Go for it. LOL! Crazy. Thank god for the first down. This guy is a freaking risk taker.

update - w00t! 10-yard penalty on OSU and another first down!

update - it's on Ohio State's 9 yard line! LOL! OSU is crumbling!

update - field goal for Michigan. I still remember how Rivas took a field a few years ago. Michigan 21 - 12 OSU.

update - Blue 21 - 19 Buckies. This is dangerous.

update - DEFENSE! DEFENSE!

update - this is cruel.

update - sob.

Apart from Bucking the Fuckeyes, something odd came across my mind earlier.

If Malaysian nominal interest rate currently hovers around 2.7% according to Bank Negara (Interbank interest rate), as it has been for many months now while inflation for October is around 3.2% according to Business Times, then wouldn't that mean, according to Fisher equation, Malaysia had a negative real interest rate a few weeks ago?

Something is wrong here. Am I taking the right interest rate?

Base lending rate (BLR) however is 6%, according to Maybank while ABN Amro Malaysia offers 5.5%. If BLR is the benchmark, then it's my mistake.

Nonetheless, if indeed Malaysia had a negative real rate just a month ago, then our current capital outflow might not entirely due to the current huge rate differential between the US dollar and the Malaysian ringgit.

p/s - dirty Republicans at work. But nothing less than an ingenious political maneuvering:

House GOP Seeks Quick Veto of Iraq Pullout

By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer 4 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - House Republicans maneuvered for swift rejection Friday of any notion of immediately pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq, sparking a nasty, sometimes personal debate over the war following a Democratic lawmaker's own call for withdrawal.

Just a day after Rep. John Murtha (news, bio, voting record), D-Pa., stoked a surging political fire over President Bush's Iraq policies by proposing that troops return home now, Republicans brought a measure to the House floor urging that a pullout begin immediately.

The symbolic vote was intended to fail, and furious Democrats accused the GOP of orchestrating a political stunt.

Republicans' call for vote for an immediate withdrawal of US troop from Iraq forces Democrats into a corner with no safe way to go.

I did housekeeping for this site yesterday and I stumbled across this. A great recycling stuff.

Buck the Fuckeyes______________________________
 OOOO SSSS U  U    SSSS  U  U CCCC K  K SSSS 
 O  O S    U  U    S     U  U C    K K  S    
 O  O SSSS U  U    SSSS  U  U C    KK   SSSS 
 O  O    S U  U       S  U  U C    K K     S 
 OOOO SSSS UUUU    SSSS  UUUU CCCC K  K SSSS 
_______________________________Ohio State Sucks

Go Blue! Not to forget, go Sparties!

While doing some overdue proofreading and reading some oldies, unfortunately, I found some discrepancy in my numbering system. You see, I enter all these numbers manually and sometimes, I messed it up. In this instance, post number 467 currently comes up immediately after post 446. So, I need to do some minor correction and hence, the weird numbering for this post. This unusually system will continue until the problem is rectified. That means, 20 more posts and then we'll go back to usual programming. Hooray!

Why wouldn't I simply realign the numbers? Like I said, I did it all manually and making such correction is a pain in the neck. Or ass.

I blame all this on Ohio State. And Bush. Senior and junior. And on climate change too.

Heh, let's see what happens if I tag Buck the Fuckeyes (tag) into Technorati.

Another photo from Malacca. This one was taken at my grandma's place. It's an old Malacca-style Malay house. After so many years, it's a pity that I only began to appreciate the Malay architecture only after I returned to Malaysia from Michigan.



The orange columns used to be less fiery and they were coated with light green. In similar way, the original photo is less striking. Reason is, I did some manipulation in Photoshop; I contrasted the colors a bit. Too much manipulation to my own "purist" liking.

And see the two huge black spaces? They aren't the result of cropping. The lower space is a wooden beam while the upper one is actually the house ceiling. Not quite a ceiling but I can't find the right vocab for it. In fact, if you observe closely the upper black space, you'll see how wooden beams have been laid out to support the house.

The opening is not a hole either.

Still, the whole thing looks a bit too dark. Oh well. Buck the Fuckeyes.

p/s - went through my folder and found a sharper image for yesterday's subject.



I like yesterday's orientation better though.

I love flowers but I don't quite go ga-ga (and wah piang! Boy, that exclamation left a deep impression on me) like girls do. Why do I like them? It's just they're part of green behavior kind of stuff. By they, I mean, the flowers, of course. Live flowers, not dead fresh flowers to be precise - I have a slight irritation with people that love to pick flowers. Hey, I'm a mad treehugger. What do you expect?

I paid Malacca a visit yesterday. While I was there, I noticed a few species of wildflowers which I can't name. They grow near some bushes by some road near the town of Tampin.

I also learned that the Malaysian Prime Minister is due to visit that part of Malacca today (Alor Gajah if you're wondering) while the Durbar is set to be held in the state later this year. There's a better article about the Durbar at Malay Wikipedia. Maybe I'll transwiki it later.

Back to the topic:



The focus is off by noticeable degree. In fact, I had no choice since my camera is unable to focus properly while the object is too close to the lense - yet, another reason why should get a new cam. The reason that I had wanted to get the object as close as possible to camera is, I wanted to fill the photo with the four clusters.

Much to my surprise, it was quite hard to manage. So, I settled with what I think the next best thing - focusing on the second nearest cluster of flowers and then fill available space with the nearest cluster.

Finally, could somebody identify the flower? Each cluster is as large as one's thumb. My thumb anyway.

And yeah, Buck the Fuckeyes!

p/s - added a fellow Malaysian Wolverine into my blogroll. Poke her!

pp/s - Roni, one of the guys that I used to play hockey with at Michigan, writes songs!

ppp/s - Australia made it to the 2006 World Cup. What's next? Penn State winning the Big Ten title? Wait a minute...

p4/s - Malaysia and Singapore might squabble like kids, but Mexico and Venezuela have refined the benchmark.

As mentioned before, I'm placing my money on UMNO to win the December 6 Pengkalan Pasir by-election. However, here's a list of 10 ways to force odd to favor PAS. In the list:

#10. Bribe UMNO candidate. Doubt it will work? Hey, Isa Samad hasn't been dragged to court of law yet despite his proven corruption. Instead, he's been merely admonished by UMNO disciplinary board and suspended for a few years. Proof that most people in UMNO, even those in the high up, doesn't mind corruption. What about Badawi's anti-corruption drive you say? Hell, we have - given the situation, had - a tak nak rokok campaign but the Dewan Rakyat mocks it by promising players in the cigarette industry greater reward. What? Bribery is sinful you PAS people say? I somehow remember a logging concession in Kelantan. Or was it Terengganu?

#9. Send in thugs to convince voters to pick PAS. Tell all those people, tick the moon or we'll break your bones. Of course, no bone will break and snap. It's all merely intimidation. Macam tak biasa pulak.

#8. Declare, or rather re-declare a fatwa that implores that a vote for PAS is a ticket to heaven and a vote for UMNO is a ticket to somewhere too hot to handle. I still sometimes wonder how the hell does this work but hey, you'll never know what makes a rightist nut ticks.

#7. Assert that Nik Aziz is more religious than Badawi and assert that Islam PAS is Islam while Islam Hadhari is bs. (caveat emptor - if the word u-turn sounds familiar, don't attempt this. I repeat, do not attempt this.)

#6. Invite Ibrahim Ali into PAS and let him run as PAS candidate. Ibrahim Ali dreams of a chance to screw UMNO. So, given that PAS hardcores will be voting for whoever that sucks up on PAS, Ibrahim Ali's vote will at least bring in extra precious numbers, particularly some of former UMNO's votes. UMNO would be furious if this happen, I tell you.

#5. Or better yet, invite Mawi into PAS and let him run as PAS candidate. With Mawi, I'm sure PAS will secure all female voters' vote. People has been talking about the Mawi factor as an asset. Hell, a good political entity would internalize that asset. Add that with PAS wackos, UMNO will be caught with defeat and disbelief.

#4. Say Buck the Fuckeyes! Well, they might not get enough votes but if I could vote in Pengkalan Pasir, I'd goddamn vote for them if they say out loud Buck the Fuckeyes. Anybody that wanna kick Buckeyes' nut is my friend.

#3. Actually do something with the state economy and maybe even clean up that state capital of trash a bit. Declaring the state capital as an Islamic city won't do a jack. Given how Kota Bahru looks (I haven't been to KB for perhaps 11 years but doubt there is any change, except the name for Pantai Cinta Berahi...), it makes people smirk at the hilarity and indirectly insult Islam.

#2. Pray to god and do nothing.

And number one is, drumroll please....

#1. Pack up and leave for Pattani. PAS won't get Pengkalan Pasir but at least they'll win in Pattani.

Frankly however, my skepticism for PAS and my previous statement of I-don't-care-who-will-win notwithstanding, I hope PAS will win. A PAS win may indicate that there's some hope for a stronger opposition in the next general election. Malaysia desperately needs more dissenting voices in the Dewan Rakyat to undo the rubberstamping trend in the Parliament.

p/s - Wow. I didn't know a Malaysian was nominated for Nobel Prize for literature. (via)

Yesterday, Michigan beat Indiana 41-14 (nice symmetrical score btw). But the better news is Iowa's 20-10 victory over Wisconsin. Thanks to the Hawkeyes, Michigan now has a chance to become a joint champion in the Big Ten conference.

For that to happen however, Michigan needs to win against Ohio State while Michigan State must beat Penn State - if chance favors Michigan, the joint champions will be Penn State, Ohio State and Michigan. Both matches see teams from Michigan facing tough odds. But things look bright though - Michigan plays in Ann Arbor and State plays in East Lansing!

All Wolverines needs to do next week is not to mess up and pray that MSU somehow has the will to beat the Littany Lions.

So, Go Blue!

And go Sparties...

And yeah, buck the Fuckeyes!

Yesterday, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister was in Sulawesi, Indonesia while the Prime Minister was in Lesotho. The situation remains the same today. So, one question - who was in control yesterday? How about today? Is it the speaker of the Parliament, the secretary of state or simply nobody?

Haha, PAS missed a chance to form an Islamic Republic of Kelantan. Haha, Anwar Ibrahim missed a chance to stage a coup.

After corresponding with a person inside Malaysian students' association at Michigan, apparently, the issue had arisen due to unfortunate misunderstanding.

The warning from Malaysian Student Department (MSD) was issued way back in January 2005. Somebody re-forwarded it later - what seems to be in conjunction of Anwar Ibrahim's lecture - to the Malaysian students' association at Michigan. Hence, neither MSD nor the Malaysian government had issued a warning directly related to the lecture.

Earlier, I had planned to write several letters of protest to some quarters. With the new development however, the need to write them has evaporated.

Still, the letter that was issued by MSD is an act of hypocrisy and it's good to know that the person that I corresponded with feels that the letter is unjustified in any way. Moreoever, the person assures me that the association hadn't barred nor spied on any Malaysian at Michigan that attended the lecture.

I sent an email to Jeff Ooi about Anwar Ibrahim's lecture (tag). Mr. Ooi has kindly and willingly highlighted the issue.

With that, at least two more mails need to fly. In my list are Michigan Student Assembly and the Office of the President. Maybe, a CC to the Michigan Daily and Michigan Independent will do the trick too.

If you disagree at how Malaysian Student Department (MSD) at Chicago is handling the matter, please send a short letter of protest to the Student Assembly and the University President.

For representatives in the Assembly, their emails can be found at this page. Alternatively, send your protest to msa[dot]reps[at]umich[dot]edu. For the President, her office email is presoff[at]umich[dot]edu. Replace [at] with "@" and [dot] with ".".

Don't forget to give MSD Chicago a visit and give them a piece of your mind.

Be a good citizen. Email these people and assert pressure against MSD Chicago. The time for indifference has come and gone.

For more information, read [672] Of Anwar Ibrahim at Michigan and [670] Of hypocrisy in Malaysian policy.

Suddenly, this letter from Malaysian student department (MSD) makes absolute sense. It's not a "re-emphasization" of a policy. Instead, it's simply done in the light that Anwar Ibrahim is coming to Michigan.

Anwar Ibrahim (tag), as I have found out, will be giving a lecture at the University of Michigan this week. It should be interesting to know what he has to say, notwithstanding that I don't fully trust him.

Most interesting is, a few people inside the Malaysian students' association at Michigan are advicing Malaysians at Michigan of the possible difficulties that may arise if any of Malaysian student attend the lecture. Too bad to see people are being coerced by irresponsible few.

Personally, I don't sympathize with Anwar's political ambition but MSD's coersion is an affront to civil rights. If I were still a student there, I would have reported this infringement of rights to relevant university authority and the Michigan Student Assembly. In fact, I think I'll zap a few mails to several students' rep in the assembly.

It will be hilarious to see how the Malaysian ruling party's political inflexibility will measure up against American Michigander Berkeley of the Midwest People's Republic of Ann Arborite civil consciousness.

And pity, I graduated a few months too early. But I trust Michigan ITD will record the lecture and post it few days later on the web.

One luxury of living on a hill facing Kuala Lumpur (tag) is the chance to witness the city skyline during sunset. This was taken yesterday, around sunset, if it isn't apparent enough.


In the middle is a silhouette of Menara Celcom (I think), a building that stands near the intersection of Jalan Gurney and Jalan Tun Razak. The photo was taken from the northwestern side of the city, looking southeasterly.

Menara Celcom, perhaps, marks the transformation of my area - Titiwangsa and Kampung Datuk Keramat - from a medium density residential area into high density. The composition has also changed - more Arabs now here than there was five or six years ago.

Talking about Jalan Gurney (aka less famous Gurney Road), overzealous nationalists renamed it to Jalan Semarak in the 1990s if my memory serves me.

Digressing, oi Penangnites, Kuala Lumpur had Gurney Road too. Stop thinking of Penang, Penang, Penang whenever you hear Gurney Road. The universe doesn't evolve around the Earth, much less around Penang. Bah!

It does however, ahem, evoles around __earth. I know, that's lame.

I have another version of the pix - well, several others in fact. Though some of them are sharper than this one, the colors somehow ran amok and inaccurate. The navish sky for instance was shown as grey while the reddish cloud was overly bright.

p/s - hey dreamstate, would love to see that ps'd shot. =)

Ah, yes. Malaysian students should not get themselves into opposition activities but it's alright to join the ruling party's Kelab UMNO Minnesota or any other Kelab UMNO Luar Negara.

I received the following letters via Malaysian students' association at my alma mater.


Bah. If you are "Malayly-challenged", here's a rough translation:

President,
Malaysian students' association (MSA),

Students' involvement in activities that go against government policy

The government is seriously concerned with students' involvement in activities sponsored by the Malaysian opposition parties, especially students that are subsidized by the government or any other government agency.

As such, student leaders must remind their respective association members not to attend such activities.

If there are students that are active in any opposition sponsored event, student leaders are requested to inform the Malaysian Student Department (MSD) at Chicago immediately.

Director,
MSD Chicago
[Stamp]

Practice caution - MSA presidents are the newly-instated moles of the ruling party. Now, you people will need to go underground. Heh.

This policy is not new. It's just that the ruling party (aka the government) in the past few years have been rather flexible on it. This development is a signal that the ruling party is re-emphasizing the policy.

p/s - read [672] Of Anwar Ibrahim at Michigan for context.

Sing along kids.

On the first day of Raya,
my not-too-friendly-neighborhood-greenie sent to me,
a picture of a stinking river.


This one is somewhere near to the Zoo Negara - that's the national zoo. And people wonder why I'm almost always grumpy. And who cares whether it rhymes...

I wonder how well our zoos are ranked internationally? Among the top 200, 300, 9000? Hmm, maybe. You'll never know, eh?

Hmm, Selangor negeri maju pun tak leh jaga longkang sendiri.

One thing that I hate about Eid in Malaysia is excessive noise due to firecrackers. Don't get me wrong. I love firecrackers. I really do, especially roman candles. Noise is an inescapable part of enjoying firecrackers. Still, if people want to play it, especially the ones that go kaboom, I strongly suggest those people to exercise their right of having fun somewhere out of any residential area.

I cringe every time an explosion blared during a relatively calm night. Unsuspected explosions always step up my heart tempo. I minor heart attack if you will. And I think Kuala Lumpur this time around has more explosions than Baghdad, albeit less deadly.

And there you go. Another one had just gone off, along with a couple seconds of my life.

Seriously, a lot of people that are playing firecrackers are inconsiderate buggers. Since these people being blithely discourteous, from now on, I promise myself that I am going to treat myself with a bar of chocolate each time a brat loses his or her finger, eye or dick.

Yes, I hope you damned buggers lose your dick with a spectacular show of rainbow and some decibels to match it.

Hear me, if you're in Kuala Lumpur, go to the lake garden or somewhere secluded for your activity. Or better yet, join the Al-Qaeda or American foreign legionnaires in Iraq or Hamas' and Israeli in Israel - I don't care which side, any will get you dead, pronto, almost; that's good enough for me - and make all the booms you want.

And what the hell the police is doing? It's supposed to be illegal to sell firecrackers out in the public, much less playing contrabands in the public.

With Eid coming up, many Muslim Malays are taking the initiative to lighten up their home compound. My family is no exception - they're placing traditional Malay lamps at the edges of our compound. Pretty but I rather not have them. To me, it's a waste of energy and serves no practical purpose.

Not to mention, unnecessary release of carbon dioxide too. And climate change and the sky is falling. Run!

Still, I can only object but its my parents' money and they may choose however they want to spend it.


I like the blurring of the background but I somewhat had hoped that the whole lamp would have been sharper.

p/s - pyramid in Bosnia? (via)

pp/s - Greenpeace fined for reef damage. Oh, the irony.

p3/s - by spaghetti monster in the sky's name, this DDOI's is indescribable. No word can do justice to this picture. Any word uttered to even praise this photo will be an understatement. Even more remarkable, the photo was taken from a moving platform. Impressed? I know I am.

This kind of photo is why DDOI is my favorite - numero uno - right since the beginning of the photoblog.