Entries Tagged 'Current events' ↓

Picture a kid’s playground with a bunch of kids playing in it. On the fringe of the 8 kids in the playground stands a small little boy, eager to be noticed and to be let in on the game. After a long while, someone notices his little face and decides to let him in to play with the big kids.

For weeks, they play together, a band of 9. All is well.
Suddenly, one day someone notices that this little boy is not a little boy at all, but a dwarf. Immediately, he is tossed out of the exalted group of 9 and banned from playing with the big boys for ever.

Worse still, they start calling him names.

Now, take this scenario to an inter-planetary level and you have the story of Pluto - The little planet that could.

First, there was the shock discovery that outside of the known solar system was a little cold dark planet called Pluto after the mythical god of the underworld. For years we hung onto the notion that the solar system has 9 planets of which the furthest and the darkest and coldest planet is called Pluto.

2 years ago, came the shock demotion of Pluto as a planet. This cold lump of rock is no longer to be classified as a Planet because it just isn’t big enough. For 2 years, we reeled at the shocking information. Do we un-teach what we taught our children? Do we un-learn what we learnt at school? How many planets does the solar system have now? Are there going to be any other shocking discoveries? Is Earth the only planet left in the solar system?

Why do I feel so strongly about this demotion? I’m a Scorpio and my ruling planet (or used to be) is Pluto. Astrologically, its still Pluto but for how much longer?

But that’s not the biggest insult (to me anyway). The biggest insult is that Pluto is now a Plutoid! PLUTOID?! Its been given its own class of planetary body which is, as the name suggests a Plutoid. Here’s the official speil:-

“Plutoids are celestial bodies in orbit around the sun at a distance greater than that of Neptune that have sufficient mass for their self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that they assume a hydrostatic equilibrium (near-spherical) shape, and that have not cleared the neighborhood around their orbit.”

In short: small round things beyond Neptune that orbit the sun and have lots of rocky neighbors.

The two known and named plutoids are Pluto and Eris, the IAU stated. The organization expects more plutoids will be found.

Its like, if the Earth was suddenly demoted from planet status, we’d be put in a special category called Earthoid - celestial bodies in orbit around the sun between Mars and Venus.

I like having a cold distant dark planet in the solar system. It adds mystery and romance. Bring Pluto back please. The solar system just isn’t the same without it. What am I going to do with the ping pong ball that used to depict Pluto in diagramatic representations of the solar system?

Late yesterday evening, the announcement was made after much speculation, that petrol prices in Malaysia were being increased by a hefty 78 sen. That takes us up from RM1.92 to RM2.70 per litre. RM2.70! I remember when a plate of wantan mee was RM2.70.
That’s a very substantial increase and the biggest ever price hike in the country’s history. You know you are (a) old and (b) bitter when you can recall petrol prices of RM1.10 as a kid. This price increase comes hot on the heels of the denial and statement by the Minister of Domestic Trade just 2 days ago that fuel prices will only be increased in August 2008.

This is also a typical case of “Esok Tak Ada” which were the immortal words of the Prime Minister just a day before Parliament was dissolved to pave way for the General Elections.  If there was a compilation of the most oxymoronic phrases uttered by our leaders, this “Esok Tak Ada” would go down in history right on top at No. 1. (Note to all government agents reading this: Please look up the word oxymoron in the dictionary before arresting me for sedition yes? )

So, with only this amount of petrol left in my car fuel tank

I grudgingly hauled my butt over to the nearest petrol station to fill ‘er up at the never to be seen again price of RM1.92 per litre of petrol.

All in all, it took me an hour to get to the pump, fill up to full tank and drive back home. Was it worth it? I think so. At an increase of 41%  I saved RM23 last night as opposed to pumping my car today.

The man in the car before me was drastic enough to tilt up and lift up the hose of the pump to make sure that every single drop of petrol flowed from the pump into his car tank. Some people looked like they had been sitting in a jam for hours as the first thing they did when they reached the pump was to run for the toilets. Others stood around griping and sharing their misery with other like minded consumers. Interesting how it is in times of adversity such as this that the people will bond.

With the price of fuel going up, so too are the electricity tarrifs effective July 1. Expect your chicken rice to similar rise in price as well as every other consumer good out there. Inflation will soon hit an all time high, I predict, looking into my foggy crystal ball.

It looks like hard times ahead.

Here’s a screen capture of a news article taken from The Star online about MAS offering free air tickets within Malaysia.

Lets not get me started on why I don’t think MAS should descend to the level of a budget carrier like Air Asia and just buck up and start acting like a proper commercial airline. Free tickets are gimmicks budget airlines use but not everyone likes rushing for unassigned seats and hanging out in a low cost terminal which is essentially a large hangar. And that whole everyone can fly thing can really get to you when you are lining up like school kids waiting to be let through the gate so you can sprint the 100m to your plane and then “chup” all the seats for your friends. Bah!

So, don’t get me started Just look at the screen capture and tell me if The Star doesn’t love a little irony as much as I do?!

Did you catch it the first time?!

This might be old news to some but RTM1 (National TV station = propaganda channel) runs a 15 minute segment on bloggers on Sundays at about 8.40pm or so. You’d never catch me watching RTM1 at any time. I even forbid anyone in the house from switching over to it because I don’t want to be recorded as a statistic. Yes, I detest it that much.
I made an exception for RPK last Sunday but immediately after the segment was over, I switched the channel

But I digress.

I was going to put up the links to the RPK segment which was on last Sunday, for those who missed it. Its in Malay but absolutely hilarious (to me) watching the interviewer fall far out of his depth and failing to control the tide of the interview.

Here is the Youtube video in 3 parts

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

But no, this isn’t some political government RTM-bashing post despite how it looks. I was in fact thinking of what the Information Minister said:-

On the selection of bloggers to be interviewed, he said this would be determined by the RTM selection panel from time to time, depending on the issue to be discussed.

“We look at the issue, not the personality. Besides the well-known bloggers, we will also feature new ones. We leave it to RTM, this is not for the ministry to decide.”

When you watch the Youtube videos, take a look at the blog names on the backdrop. Notice that they are all political or politically inclined blogs. Based on that and on the choice of bloggers thus far, I’d say they are going for so-po bloggers (social-political) and you my dear friends, and I surely do not fall into that category or you won’t be reading my fluff yes?!

So, unless RTM’s selection panel decide that the issue of the day is “What masacara comes recommended?” or “Where do I get good Char Kuey Teow?” I don’t expect to see beauty bloggers or food bloggers anywhere on their list… LOL…

But can you imagine the flak you’d get for dissing a popular mascara? What if the company decides to sue you for falling sales? What if you get death threats because some psycho fan of the mascara has been using it for the past 20 years with excellent results? What if you have to keep upgrading your bandwidth to keep up with visitors?!

Actually, I’m not too fussed about the latter.

LOL… the mind boggles.

Yours fluffily

Go on then, tell me what went through your head when you saw the title of the post

No me hearties, nothing to do with matters of the heart. Today my musing is on the Olympic torch which is now passing through Malaysia on its way to China in time for the Opening of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing on 8 August 2008. Don’t you “love” the Chinese fascination with the number 8?

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about this issue once every 4 years - how do they keep the Olympic torch burning throughout its journey all over the world? We know that its started on the sacred Mount Olympus in Greece and the torch must be kept burning throughout the journey to the site of the Games.

But how is the sacred olympic flame kept burning on flights etc? You cannot have a naked flame on an airplane right? And you can’t transport the fire by boat because it takes too long. And, you can’t extinguish the sacred flame lit by the light of the sun and then relight it upon arrival at the new destination with a zippo lighter, yes?

It bugged me unusually more today than usual, so I did the next best thing. I googled it!

Here is my answer. They use a private plane and a miner’s lamp! And they even have backup flames!

Zeus would be so proud of them keeping the fire burning! Have a happy weekend all!

Yours fluffily