Another person who doesn't check their facts

http://blogs.forbes.com/sportsmoneyblog/2009/07/lance-armstrong-no-role-model.html

Michael K. Ozanian's blogpost on Lance Armstrong. Now I know blogs are supposed to be casual, but when you are clearly reporting the wrong facts, that is just pushing it.

Lance Armstrong No Role Model

I am sick of the media playing Lance Armstrong as some sort of God. I get the wonderful story: The guy made a phenomenal recovery from cancer. He has won the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times. With Lance currently in third place half way through this year’s Tour, the Versus Network, which televises the race, is running around telling everyone how the great Lance has given it huge ratings. But there is another part of this story: In an age where most athletes (especially those in the NFL and NBA) are demonized for any misstep, it is amazing how it is never spoken that Lance dumped his wife and kids (who stuck with him during his battle with cancer) for Sheryl Crow and races for the UCI ProTeam Astana, which is based in Kazakhstan, a country ruled by a political tyrant. I’d like to see Versus mention that.

Amazing........ Just read the comments

Project 365: Day 17 Of stupidness of banks

What an unproductive day this has been. Got to the gym early only to find out that body conditioning class is filled with housewives (didn't join them in the end). Cycled to burn some calories but felt kinda low on energy. Did some weights but don't have the strength. Seriously something is wrong today.

I went over to my bank after gym trying to get some stamped printed statements and a reference letter to be sent to the home office. There I was, queuing up obediently before it was my turn at the counter. I put on my biggest smile and said in my politest tone, "can I have a printed statement from XXX to XXX, stamped in every page please?"

"NO we can't do that" she said. "We could print it out but we're not allowed to stamp it." I mean dude, then where the heck should I go to get a stamp for those statements? The market?

Ok so maybe it might still be alright if it wasn't stamped as long as there was the bank's logo on it. I then asked her if I could get a reference letter. "NO, we don't do that," she said. Crap, now what do banks do then? Imbeciles!!! Bastards!

Feeling crappy, I went for a walk at the nearby whiteleys and finally got a chance to see the newly opened cha cha moon here. At least that made up for the rest of my day. Bad news is, the menu (and prices) are exactly the same as the one in soho. Didn't eat there today but will be back.

Stupid banks......

Best regards,
Jing Qi Quah

More Namewee

Here's RPK's take on Meng Chee's Negarakuku incident. What I find most interesting are the comments, here are some.

1.Zakaria mat derus built his mansion eventhough he knows he dnt hv the proper approval or documents yet he dnt care about our malaysian law and carry on building it.
Action: false apology and some crying drama for sympathy.
Verdict: Forgiven and case close.

2.Bung mokhtar and Said insult women with nasty remark "bocor" in parlimen.
Action: False apology
Verdict: Forgiven and case close.

3.Said ask the customs enforcer officer tp "close one eye" on some timber shipment.
Action:Continue to haunt customes dept accusing them not selling him a mecerdes benz of his choice.
Verdict: still a monkey in parlimen and forgiven.

4.Baddrudin MP Jerai calls indian "keling" in parlimen.
Action:False apology
Verdict:forgiven and case close.

5.Meng chee, singing "Negara Ku" in rap.
Action: Apologize and seek forgiveness.
Verdict: Will be procecute or strip of citizenship.

Yea....... quite true.

Please explain why people like Nordin Mat Top,Hambali and few more well known terrorist figures still have a Malaysian citizenship ha?

Yes again..... quite true....

Wow - RPK,

True to form, when you are out of form.

Under the weather, and you kick up a storm.

You used 24 paragraphs, 2,176 words and 11,928 characters for the article and you summed it all up with a crisp last sentence:"Come to think of it, some of what Meng Chee said in that video is not too far from the truth."

LOL.....

What kind of person are you?

You need to get sick to "whack" others?

Please look at most of your commentators. I do not think they need to get sick before "whacking" the others!

What an excuse, huh?

When the Ministers in the Government of Malaysia tried to correct a wrong, you still "whack" them with your reasoning like red herring, diverting attention etc.

I think you have seen so many wrongs until you cannot figure what is corrections.

Yeah, like you said, just forgive. What the Ministers, be it from UMNO or MCA, are doing should be considered a "start" to better governance.

You agreed it is blasphemous of the rapper. To me, he is kind of "raping" the Country's National Anthem! Supposing someone is caught raping, we cannot just beat him, right? Forgive him? I think we still have to charge him in court. This is the civilise method.

Therefore, was that not the Law Minister suggested? I do not see anything wrong for a Minister in the Country trying to correct a wrong. Besides, the rapper has even admited he is in the wrong. Even a juvenile who did something wrong WILL be punished accordingly. So, he who sings has to face the music!

SEMUA tak jadi sama lu!

The above commentator clearly missed the hippies era, but well said as well. Raping the national anthem...... nice phrase...... now lets all go hump the national anthem. Here's RPK's response

Raja Petra wrote:

Dear Sajida, sebab you cakap macam budak belum sunat. Sebab tu I tahu. Allah tak marah kalau hina National Anthem. Tapi Allah marah kalau membunuh, rasuah dan menzalimi rakyat. Siapa lebih penting dan Siapa yang you lebih takut? Orang Melayu suka bergaduh sebab isu sunat macam pakai kopiah puteh semasa sembahyang lebih afdal atau tidak. Tapi makan duit rasuah takde siapa nak bincang. Lepas tu dengan duit rasuah tiap-tiap tahun buat umrah. Yang sunat tu ketepikan dulu. Selesai yang wajib dulu baru cerita pasal yang sunat. Fardu tinggal. Yang sunat dikejar. Itulah Melayu.

17/08 17:12:52

Lots more go see for yourself. This is funny hehehe.

Namewee

First came the song on youtube......



Then radio broadcasted it.....



Then came the response...... all the furore of the garmen



Then taiwanese news interviewed him....



Then the garmen said they wanna investigate him if he's taking a loan from the garmen or a garmen-sponsored student.......

HELLO GARMEN!!! HOW CAN YOU LOSE HIS FILE?? YOU TELL ME YOU HAVE TO MAKE AN ANNOUNCMENT THAT YOU WANNA CHECK IF HE'S A "SPONSORED" STUDENT?



Damn dumb...

Then malaysian news made a big splash out of it and demanded his apology..... which he did.....





Look at his dad's plea, and the cabinet rejected his apology.....



Then a day after that, the cabinet "accepted" his apology......

Ladies and gentlemen...... this is your (our) government....... how about just let it go, do your fucking job running the country (into the ground).

Hypocrisy it is.

Absurd v Absurd

small talk: Exam on Monday, Thursday, Friday. Stress sia.




How do you counter absurdity with absurdity? Sounds crazy? It's not if you're living in a little country where westerners still think you live up in the trees. I'm not crazy, ask any UK graduates and they will confirm my statement. A classical case of "absurd v absurd" surfaced yesterday on Malaysiakini.


Sarawak CM Abdul Taib Mahmud was threatening to sue Malaysiakini for the reasons stated by Jeff in his blog here. Apologies I don't subscribe to Malaysiakini and therefore couldn't view the full report. His request was to demand that 8 articles concerning accusations of corruption, involving RM32 million of logging kickbacks from Japan allegedly linked to him and his family, removed. The latest update is that he threatens to sue Sarawak PKR leaders too, and the story continues.

If I'm not mistaken, this is the same person who owns the majority in RHB until the recent EPF fiasco where EPF bought up a major chunk of the bank. Call me stupid if this isn't an obvious case of bailout by the CM. It's his right to sell his stake, I won't deny, the question should be where did he get the money to buy the bank in the first place. Fishy?

When one is accused to be corrupted, why counter by threatening lawsuit? That is just plain dumb and bring more spotlight to yourself. The sensible move is to shun all spotlights and hope people forget about it or do what our PM loves doing, play dumb. But fight back by threatening lawsuit? I quote Steven Gan saying

When we go to court, we have a long list of witnesses whom we plan to call - starting with the ACA and Japan’s tax authorities.

No joke, you're just asking for trouble.

If he's a UK politician, he would be instantly stripped of his job and he's already lucky if he doesn't end up in jail. Take David Blunkett's case here as an example.


I quote something interesting which I would love to share with all of you here:

Mr Blunkett admits he had been wrong to give a rail warrant intended for MPs' spouses to his married lover.

The home secretary's spokesman said he would repay the £180 cost of the train ticket to Doncaster, adding: "Having examined the detailed rules today he realises he has made a genuine mistake and will be repaying the cost of the ticket to the Parliamentary authorities and apologise for his mistake."

Hilarious isn't it, he has to repay £180 for giving his lover a ticket intended for MP's spouse. It's £180, compared to the sum allegedly taken in by Taib. Would really love to see kennysia write something about this(probably in a satirical manner too).

Allow me to drive home my point. People in the UK still think we live in trees, not quite so, but our mentality hasn't change much from out living-in-tree days.

Absurd v absurd, something that will only happen in a little country in the middle of nowhere which we call home.
Read Freethinker's take on this here.

Rinoa, you got a comment on this issue? Two lions or a wolf?

References:

1. Timeline: Blunkett Resignation, BBC News, 21 December 2004.
   

Candidate for networking?

Earlier yesterday I was talking to my cousin on msn. Some really juicy topics came up from our little chat, most of which I'm not going to disclose, fearing that it might be confidential. Anyway, my cousin alerted me on the latest happenings in the Malaysian business world. Forgive me for being a katak bawah tempurung but when it comes to business dealings, somehow or another I don't have my source. (Poor networking I would say)

Introducing Malaysia business's upcoming star, Carmen Chua. I'm not sure if you are aware but she's on the front page of Bizweek last weekend, talk about high profile. They say wit and charm comes in a package, I couldn't agree more.


Currently she's the MD of the OneKL project, if I'm not mistaken. Tagline is "94 apartments, 95 swimming pools". She's also on the board of several of Datuk Chua Ma Yu's company, understandably she's Datuk Chua's eldest daughter.

But looking at the article on The Star, it's not like she doesn't deserve it. Doing several stints at firms like Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and UBS, mind you these are investment banks and I do know how hard it is to earn an internship with them. It is a phenomenon in the UK that almost all of the graduates want to work with an investment bank and she had worked for 3 of them? That's astounding. I can't even manage to get into a firm which is less competitive, talk about comparison.

Now don't give me all those shit about she's here because of her father. I've known of people who I call the luckiest bastards in the world and all they do is go out, have fun and draw from their parents' deep pockets. If she can be at this position, I would say it's all because of her hardwork and brilliant networking.

There's always an ongoing debate whether it's easier for children from rich families can maintain the wealth of the family or for children from poor families to make it big. Afterall, there's a chinese saying that goes by "Fortune in the family can't last for more than 3 generations". I don't have an answer for those, it really does depend on the individual. My only comment on this is that children from the rich has the connections and a headstart, while children from the poor has the drive and determination.

So what happens to people clamped in between like you and me? Well, I'd like to draw from an old joke the phrase "sometimes matador wins, sometimes bull wins". That's my perception of how the business world will be like.

I was telling my girlfriend about what I've read about Carmen when she popped the question:

Do you think you are a candidate suitable for networking?

My first answer was.........

I haven't really try but..........

That's when she interrupted me

A person good at networking doesn't need to try, take Timothy as an example.

Oh my god, she's right, at least she makes sense. I've known Tiam for almost 6 years now and there's always this aura around him that makes people feel close with him. And that is the single biggest factor that would push Nuffnang further. It did for Carmen and OneKL, where she played a significant role in the government's move to abolish the real property gains tax(RPGT).

It suddenly daw tned on me that I'm really a loser when it comes to networking. Save for the fact that I'm stuck in this small town/village/university, I just haven't been able to manage my network correctly. Suddenly I feel all so sad, how am I going to improve?

So I'm not a candidate for networking, all books and no play makes Boss Lepton a sad sad person. Is this graveyard before I've even started my career? If there's one thing that I have it's not giving up. So here I'm asking for your opinions, any pointers on how to improve my networking skills?
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Oh and anybody close to Carmen, could you pass her a message?

Please start a website for OneKL, learn from Guinness's mistake on the Adam King campaign the last time.

Reference:

1. Finding her place, Anita Gabriel and Hari Raj, The Star Bizweek, 7 April 2007.
   

Spray Gelak

There has been some concerning issues raised over the past few years about what teenagers in Malaysia do to get high. Make no mistake, when I say high, I mean serious substance/drug abuse.

First it was drinking cough syrups, then came glue-sniffing, then the increase attention on ecstasy pills. The latest trend in this is apparently sniffing "Spray Gelak". Check this video.



Apparently the substance responsible this time is called Ethylchloride, or in its more appropriate scientific name Chloroethane or monochloroethane.

According to wikipedia,

Ethyl chloride is a narcotic inhalant drug, sometimes referred to as "Duster". Similar to poppers, ethyl chloride is used as an inhalant (huffed) during sexual activity for an intense several-minute-long high that results in a prolonged orgasm. In Brazil, it is a traditional (though illegal) drug taken during Carnaval parades, known as "lança-perfume".

Ethyl chloride is the least toxic of the chloroethanes. Like other chlorinated hydrocarbons, it is a central nervous system depressant, albeit a less potent one than many similar compounds. People breathing its vapors at less than 1% concentration in air usually experience no symptoms. At higher concentrations, victims usually exhibit symptoms similar to those of alcohol intoxication. Breathing its vapors at 15% or higher is often fatal.

That's th few rotten apple in the basket of Malaysian teens for you. Why oh why do you guys do that?

His fiance?

To me, The Star Online has been my source of news from Malaysia. Being the country's premier newspaper, I find it unacceptable to have grammar errors in news reports. This is so because when I was in secondary school, my teacher taught me that newspaper reports are all grammatically correct.

To The Star editors: please proof-read your articles before they are published, even the ones online. The younger generation might learn the wrong thing in the end.
Ignore the fact that this is not the last time we are going to see such reports in the newspaper.

His fiance? The last time I check, his refers to a man, and fiance means "A man who is engaged to be married". Ok, so it was more of a vocabulary error, still quite serious right? By the looks of the report, if I were ignorant, I would take it that this is the first time Islam allowed same-sex marriage.

Weird I would say.

Reference:

1. Storekeeper jailed for raping fiance's close friend, The Star, 9 April 2007.
2. Fiance, Wikipedia.
   

Blog Registration?

Whoever said this must be freaking kidding. Go over to MarinaM's blog to look at the picture of the person who told us to register blogs hosted locally.

Indeed, according to a report on The Star sometime yesterday, Deputy Minister of Energy, Water and Communication (KTAK), Dato' Shaziman Abu Mansor, said that

Bloggers using locally hosted websites may be asked to register with the authorities [Source: The Star]

This is just a freaking stupid move towards development, a good move by the leaders of Bolehland though. There has been a lot of attention about blogs bashing of minister, bashing about actions by government, and even a lot of opposition movements online. Where else can we voice our opinions if we can't voice them through the main stream media?

Think this is bad? In the UK, minister and government actions bashing is done by the mainstream medias themselves, discount all the tabloids. Just check out the daily news at FT.com, BBC and the Guardian to spot a few.

Again, rethink about this silly move. Worst scenario, every blogger just move out of locally hosted domains(I've never seen a blog which ends with .my), and move into foreign hosted domains.

Some relating posts from other bloggers:

• 77 years ago to the date, Jeff Ooi
• The Frog and the Blog, MarinaM
  

For those using blogspot, like me, it should be safe, as long as Google doesn't compromise.

Once again, I shall just reiterate the stance of bloggers, "No smoke without fire". And as Gandhi said, (copied from Screenshots)

First they ignore you,
then they laugh at you,
then they fight you,
then you win.
Mahatma Gandhi

p.s. KTAK - Kementerian Tenaga, Air dan Komunikasi a.k.a. KATAK - frog

Reference:

1. Bloggers may have to register, The Star, 5 April 2007.
   

RM20 Million or RM 250 Million?

Who is not getting the facts right?

Tengku Adnan, of Bloggers are liars fame?
Or RPK, of Malaysia Today fame:
I don't know, you tell me? If you ask me what me opinion is, I would say RM20 million will be enough for you to build 2 medium-size bridges in Malaysia, engineers please correct me if I'm wrong.

Don't argue to me that the budget of 2005 and 2006 will differ to such degree. We're talking tenfold here. All I wanna know here is.......

Who got the facts right?

References:

1. Manifold benefits from Monsoon Cup, The Star, 28 March 2007.
2. The power of witchcraft, Raja Petra Kamarudin, Malaysia Today, 02 January 2006.
   

Explanation, Plead

After bashing up female bloggers. Tengku Adnan tried to respond and suppress all those anger bloggers have against him, saying he was only refering to the Indonesian blogger. Video here.

Then the bloggers retaliate, once again. I think we should stop this people, if he doesn't get it the first time, he won't get it no matter how many times you guys try.

I say "ENOUGH OF THIS!!! We really have much more important things to be concern about here."

----------------------------------------------------

On more important things, Ong Ka Ting had this to say about scholarship applicants.

Students from well-to-do families have been advised to refrain from applying for
public scholarships so that poorer ones are not deprived of the chance to study
abroad. [Source: The Star]

I totally agree with this. Please people, we have students living on RM1 a day, and they're making more effort to gain knowledge than a lot more people I know who takes knowledge for granted.

I say we should have centres for the EXTREMELY motivatived. This means that this school should accept students who showed an EXTREME passion towards a certain area, for example, programming, engineering, science subjects etc. My roommate recently told me of a certain junior of his who shows "Passion" for engineering. How passionate you ask? I'll leave this for some later discussion.

My point here is that these students don't necessarily need to show too much talent, or potential. And who are we to judge people's potential anyway? What we want is students who are keen to learn, and by all means we should provide them with the environment fitting to their cause. Still with me here?

Let me end this post with some questions:

1. Are you a scholarship recipient?
2. Do you know any scholarship recipient who was given the scholarship below merit but just because he/she has the necessary "connections"?
3. Do you think racism has anything to do with this?
   

References:

1. Blog? or War?, Boss Lepton.
2. Adnan: I was only referring to Indon journalist, March 16 2007, The Star.
3. Tengku Adnan is cornered on the blogger issue, 15 March 2007, Malaysiakini.
4. Tengku Adnan - "I love women" (choke), March 16 2007, Elizabeth Wong.
5. Give way to the poor, March 16 2007, The Star.
6. Need motivation? Think you're very unlucky?, Boss Lepton.

Blog? or War?

If any of you bloggers are reading this, then I'm here to inform you that:

Bloggers are liars. They use all sort of ways to cheat others. From what I know, out of 10,000 unemployed bloggers, 8,000 are women.........

You heard me right. Eh Tengku Adnan, I bet if you had a child, he/she will also be blogging, or at least some sort of blogging. Are you calling them liars? I understand that while the internet is borderless and bloggers do speak their mind without restriction of any sorts, we do make it sure to distinguish what are facts and what are rumours.

You don't really see us going around claiming that rumours are facts right? But that doesn't matter anyway, because most rumours in Malaysia turns out to be facts. No fire, no smoke right?

Minister of Tourism, I suggest that you just stick to your job and don't screw up "Visit Malaysia Year 2007". Don't just sit and whack female bloggers. They are not the ones to be blamed for being unemployed and in fact, are your facts correct?

You should in fact be thanking us and a bunch of other bloggers for promoting the country.

Let's just hope this is not a full blown war. We bloggers are not armed with C4, not even guns. It doesn't take a genius to figure out who's at disadvantage here.

Well for the full article, view the full article on Sin Chew here.

p.s. thanx elizabethwong, Mr J and Miss Tuna for the great translation.#

And as a fact, we as Malaysian bloggers, LOVE OUR COUNTRY.