Bernama. Can you make your points clearer please?

I was reading Bernama news “Guan Eng Urges PM To Adopt Six Reform Measures”. I was expecting to see a numbered or bulleted list as mentioned in the title but there was none. Perhaps Bernama just wanted to save their byte and ink (of the “media cetak”) and in the process, making my myopic eye strained harder to list the SIX points. Apology accepted of course. ;) So I’m helping them to make the points clearer. BTW, I’m as APOLITICAL as I can be. ;)

Original Title: Guan Eng Urges PM To Adopt Six Reform Measures. [Click to read.]

My arrangement: Guan Eng urges PM to adopt SIX reforms (with numbered list). ;)

PENANG: DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng is urging Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to adopt six reform measures in order to make the “One Malaysia, People First and Performace Now” concept work.

Lim’s six “urged” reform measures are:

1. Najib must ban racial-based political parties that restrict membership to one race, such as (content omitted).
2. Najib is hoped to walk the talk on human rights and liberties by abolishing and not review the ISA.
3. Abolish the Sedition Act and the Printing Presses and Publications Acts to build an independent press, establish freedom of information and build a democracy responsive to people’s needs.
4. Najib must also renew the commitment to fight corruption, “which means (content omitted).”
5. To reduce electricity tariffs, stop the gas subsidy to the independent power producers and stop toll increase by buying over the highways to help ordinary Malaysians.
6. To institutionalise democracy and return power to people by (content omitted).

“The PM must boldly admit that it was wrong to (content omitted),” he said. – (Modified by KY from) Bernama

No offense is intended to Bernama or anybody elses. Cheers! ;)

Vote for Sipadan: New 7 Wonders of Nature

[UPDATED: 24 April 2009]

Darn! GregChai beat me for the post although I put the ad on my side post first. :) Ah, never mind, I always the later. ;) As long as someone vote for Sipadan, who cares? Right! So, bravo to Greg for besting me. ;)

So, I just want to contribute a little. If you want to put side Ad like mine:

1. Open your page element (yep, the one you use to edit your layout, if you still blur, just click on the customize button above)
2. Add a gadget.
3. Choose HTML/Java Script.
4. Then copy these code below and paste them in the content, don't forget the title (you can put whatever your heart's content).
5. Click save and voila, you have a self made ad. ;)

The code:
<a href="http://www.new7wonders.com/nature/en/index/" target="_blank"> <img style="width: 200px;" alt="Vote Sipadan for New 7 Wonders of Nature" src="http://www.new7wonders.com/file/inline/id/1690/art/360x/" title="Vote Sipadan for New 7 Wonders of Nature" /> </a>

If you want to have EXACTLY like mine with the blinking Breaking News as well, just copy the following code and paste it after the code above. ;)

The code2:
You can do more. Click <a href="http://kychua.blogspot.com/2009/04/vote-for-sipadan-new-7-wonders-of.html"><b>here</b></a> to learn how to put ad like this.
<br/>
<b><u><blink>Breaking news</blink></u> (Apr 20, 2009):</b>
Sipadan is currently no. 14 out of 30 (up from no. 17 last week) in Group B category (Islands). [<a href="http://www.new7wonders.com/nature/en/liveranking/">Source</a>] We need to be at least no. 11 to go to next round. Guys, use all your emails to vote for Sipadan. Let us put Malaysia in New 7 wonders of Nature!
Cheers! ;)

You'll need to update your ad weekly. Sorry, still don't how to automated the position number. Have a nice day, you all. Cheers! ;)

The Mathematics of Love

While this is not a book review of Emma Darwin's novel "The Mathematics of Love", I supposed I should spare few words about it. ED writes about the "adventure" of Anna, a 15-year-old who "travels back" to 161 years back through a "portal" in a wardrobe with false back (Suspiciously sounds like a story from another fantasy series? Not quite!). ;) Ah, you should read it yourself because I have deliberately misled you from the real story. ;)

Where was I? Oh, yes, the math of love, people often say there's NO such thing as Math of Love. Love is subjective, thus it cannot be quantified, or objectified. Does it really? Quite a number of scientists have already venture into mathematics (especially, statistic) to define love, or subjects related to love (marriage, relationships, sex (!), etc.) and some researches even reveal surprising findings. Here are a few of the findings:

Secs' Appeal: 8.2 seconds 'needed to fall in love'

The longer a man's gaze rests on a woman when they meet for the first time, the more interested he is.

If it last just four seconds, he may not be all that impressed. But if it breaks the 8.2 second barrier, he could already be in love they say.

However the same is not true for women. They let their eyes linger on men for the same length of time whether they find them attractive or not.

[Read more...]

Math Formula to Predict Divorce

A mathematician has devised a formula to predict whether loved-up couples are bound to spend their lives together or end their marriages in divorce.

Oxford University professor James Murray said his formula successfully predicted whether a couple would divorce 94 percent of the time, in a study of 700 newly-married couples.

"Some couples might as well get divorced right away," said Murray, who was to present his findings to the Royal Society in London on Thursday, after receiving one of its oldest awards.

As part of the research Murray and his team filmed the newlyweds discussing contentious issues such as money or sex for 15 minutes, and graded each statement made during their respective turns of speech.

"What astonished me was that a discussion, sometimes highly charged and emotional, could so easily and usefully be encapsulated in what is actually a simple mathematical model of a couple's interaction," Murray said.

[Read the full news here.]

It appears that psychologist John Gottman might have contributed to Prof Murray's finding. [Read the story here.]

Post-Script: Math & Sex anyone? And I mean the book by Dr Clio Cresswell one (and yes, she explains about "The calculus of Coitus" in the book), not the Math-prodigy-turn-hooker-story.

Another interesting news article titled "The Myth, the Math, the Sex" gives statistic (mathematical prove?) that men are generally are promiscuous by nature by admitting to having more sexual partners than women. Click on the link to read more.

She-Who-Cannot-Be-Named

This is meant to be a jest. ;)

Post Harry Potter Era (Book 1): Daughter of Evil.

Arnie Potter sat at her library reading dispatch from Professor Mary Longbottom, daughter of the famous Neville Longbottom. Then she look around her guests. Sighing, she said, "She has returned."

"She-Who-Cannot-Be-Named has returned?" one of the guest, a liberated and rebellious male elf named TAYULANTA, blurted.

"Please, her name is..." Arnie snapped.

"Don't!" screamed a very imposing lady who walked in from through the door. "She is a special case. Unlike Voldemort," several people still hitched at the name, "She has cursed her name with magic we are still not familiar with. Or perhaps, someone else magicked her name so that every person mentioned her name has gone missing. That person must be a very powerful wizard or witch."

"I wish grandfather is still with us now, aunt Lily." lamented Arnie.

"Yes, I wish it is so too..." replied Lily Potter. She knew all the people there was thinking of the long dead Harry Potter, one of the greatest Wizard in the world.

P/S: If you're looking for this book. I am sorry to say there is no such Harry Potter book.

Honourable VS Dishonourable Debate

	Honourable Debate	Dishonourable Debate
Main Objective	To win argument/s.	To win argument/s.
Approach	To create understanding.	To undermine opposition.
Setting	Usually in friendly and cordial environment.	Usually starts with polite conversation but may degenerate into shouting match; or end up insulting or humiliating others.
Intension	Honest.	(1) May be honest at first but pride prevents acknowledgement of defeat. (2) Malicious.
Disagreement	Accept differences in (point of) view even though opposition is clearly in error.	Won't accept differences; or accept but with malicious intend e.g. to be used against opposition; or accept but then forgotten.
Winning	Winning arguments is important but not compulsory.	Winning is a must; at all cause; or by hook or by crook.
Discussion	Logical and rational, usually with compelling and clear arguments. Will concede weakness in own arguments and will allow opposition to re-clarify or re-explain their weak or erroneous arguments.	Logical and rational, usually with compelling and clear arguments. However, once logic and rationale are refuted, will try evasion or manipulation of facts. And usually, if opposition gave weak or erroneous arguments it will be used against them, no quarter.
Defeated by honourable means.	Will acknowledge and admit defeat.	Won't accept defeat; or accept but with excuses; or simply walk away; or claim foul play by opposition.
Conclusion	Both parties will conclude who wins or accept a draw. Usually will part cordially.	Dishonourable party either will always win, or they will not accept defeat even though it stares them at their face. Parting is usually not cordial or even hostile.
Defeated by dishonourable means.	No comment! :D Though I guess they will concede defeat but not acknowledgement.	The bigger jerk will win the "arguments". :D

Deadly Bottle

[18SX] Warning: Contains explicit terms.

A 77-year-old man died of heart failure after his penis became stuck in a soft drink bottle. [Read more...] [More detail story here although it is in Chinese. :D However you can copy & paste to Google translation tool for OK translation.]

The moral of the story:

1. Do not use bottle to entertain yourself.
2. Get professional advice if you wish to have sex (or masturbate) when you have heart problems or other life-threatening medical problems.
3. Have sex with proper person (or object?), I mean with your spouse. ;)
4. Even if you have need to masturbate, use you limb (or other appropriate paraphernalia) not bottle.
5. Do not wait for days (even if embarrassed) if you need help. The poor guy waited for 2 days before he get help.

Cheers! ;)

Superhero to the rescue: An autistic story...

I was drawn upon AP news “Thai fireman dresses as Spiderman to rescue boy” about a rescue of an autistic boy from danger of fall. Any attempt to get the boy was foiled... by autism. Ah, perhaps I’ve not been clear. ;) Please follow the story then.

In the news, it was the first day of school, the change of environment might have shocked the boy, thus ‘forced’ him to hide at the precariously high of school balcony. Any forced rescue might probably damage the child, not physically, but mentally, and it would be a long time before he might be trusting again.

So, when the resourceful fireman knew the boy loved Spiderman, he immediately went back to his fire station, changed into his Spiderman costume, and then went back to the school to rescue his “fan in distress”.

BTW, what is autism? Quoting Wikipedia: “Autism is a brain development disorder characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behaviour.” Meaning, “People with autism have difficulties communicating, forming relationships with others and find it hard to make sense of the world around them.” [AutismSpeaks.com]

It is best to get professional helps such as:

1. Any government clinic or hospital.
2. Lion's Resource and Education for Autistic Children a.k.a. REACh (http://lionsreach.net/index.htm).
3. The National Autism Society of Malaysia (http://nasom.my.diip.net/).
4. Persatuan C.H.I.L.D Sabah (Tel / Fax: 088-237 761 / 016-831 6952 E-mail: childsabah@yahoo.com)
5. AutismMalaysia.com [Provides individualised home-based early intervention treatment programmes for children on the Autism Spectrum Disorder.]

Raising an autistic requires enormous effort, skill, and knowledge not to mention love and the most important, patience. While we might watch in awe and respect of those who raise and live with the autistics, we can only imagine the challenges, economic and emotional impacts on the family...

In the end, I salute the parents and professionals who endure and care for autistic children, even love them, for it is, IMHO, among the hardest job in the world: to raise an autistic child to become a person. So, I salute you all, superheroes to the autistic children. ;)

Related link/reading:
http://www.teleautism.net/
http://www.autism.com/
http://www.myhealth.gov.my