The authors sold a total of 210 titles just this month alone, consisting of 100 TDIYS and 110 TPOYS.
Ahmad Fakhri and Victor Ong remain deeply aware of, and thankful for, the privileges of their experience!
And it's music to my ears when I read that Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei declared on Tuesday that Israel, described as a "cancerous tumor" and an "unstable Zionist regime", is approaching the "final stages" of its cursed existence!
In fact, his father, the former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had previously predicted that Israel would not survive beyond 2040.
I sure hope so. I pray that Iran can deliver the final blow to Israel. And only then will there be everlasting peace in the Middle East.
Of course, the above can only happen if war restarts.
At this point, nobody can really tell because the two countries are locked in a frozen conflict, trapped by a ceasefire that is merely a long pause and certainly not going anywhere.
The club announced the news of the 47-year-old’s departure on Saturday afternoon, less than a week after the final day of the Premier League season and Slot’s assertion that he was part of the plans to come.
The decision came after an end-of-season review that saw the club suffer 19 defeats across all competitions and fall from 84 to 60 points. And Champions League qualification secured only on the final day.
Slot is just not good enough for Liverpool!
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The 700-kilogram (1,543-pound) rare albino buffalo, which, unsurprisingly, was nicknamed "Donald Trump", was sold for ritual slaughter for the Eid al-Adha festival but found itself spared. That was because the government, citing security and animal welfare concerns, intervened to cancel the sacrifice, refund the buyer, and relocate the animal to the Dhaka National Zoo.
It's a happy ending! The viral buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) has become the Dhaka zoo's Eid attraction!
In a video address to the International Security Forum in Moscow, Russia (May 26-29, 2026), he said the three countries are working more closely across military, economic, and diplomatic fronts to push back against US influence and challenge what he described as American hegemony.
I share this perspective. I do believe that working together, the three countries can genuinely help foster world peace!
Predictably, Washington dismissed the comments as propaganda – but the message from Moscow was clear: Russia, China, and Iran want to present themselves as a united counterweight to US power.
The days of Western hegemony are over!
Happy Pesta Kaamatan & Hari Gawai!
FYI, Pesta Kaamatan (Sabah) and Hari Gawai (Sarawak) are both indigenous harvest festivals that mark the end of the rice harvesting season. And both share deep roots in agricultural thanksgiving, communal unity, and the preservation of rich cultural heritage of Sabah and Sarawak.
[Note: Pesta Kaamatan falls on May 30th and 31st annually, while Hari Gawai takes place on June 1st and 2nd every year].
The robot's presence on the streets attracted significant public interest. The deployment serves as a real-world showcase for how embodied AI and humanoid robotics may soon be integrated into public safety and high-traffic area operations.
The 1.73-meter-tall, 75-kilogram robot and featuring a magnesium-aluminum alloy frame, previously made public appearances – such as at the "Window of the World" theme park in December 2025 – but the April 30 event marked its deployment on actual public streets alongside armed law enforcement.
Equipped with precision sensors and onboard AI, it is capable of performing autonomous assessments, walking, running, and complex maneuvers like spinning kicks. The CEO of the company put on pads and let it spar with him – and got knocked over on the second try!
And here's the kicker – the Chinese version costs just $25,000 and you can pre-order it on JD-dot-com. Like, right now. From your couch.
Troops of Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) living on Gibraltar – the only free-ranging monkey population in Europe – have been scientifically observed for the first time regularly engaging in "geophagy", the practice of intentionally ingesting soil to settle their stomachs from all the junk food they consume.
The soil also provides bacteria and minerals missing from junk food. The snacks have negative digestive effects for the macaques and can cause symptoms from nausea to diarrhoea, but the food is "as delicious for them" as it is for humans, according to the Cambridge University study.
Observations between summer 2022 and spring 2024 found that nearly a fifth of all food consumed by the macaques was junk food from tourists. Macaques that lived on the Rock of Gibraltar, which is particularly popular with tourists, were more than twice as likely to eat junk food than others. They also consumed the most soil.
Dr Sylvain Lemoine (left), a biological anthropologist from Cambridge's Department of Archaeology, said the monkeys were fed junk food by locals as well as visiting tourists, who have offered salted peanuts, chocolate bars, crisps, dried pasta, bread, Coca-Cola, orange juice, M&M’s, ice-cream and more. “There’s a lot of ice-cream. They love Magnums and Cornettos. What they don’t like very much is sorbet”.
In total, the researchers recorded 44 monkeys eating dirt on 46 occasions. In three instances, the macaques ate soil shortly after being fed ice-cream, biscuits or bread. When visitor numbers fell in the winter, the monkeys were 40% less likely to eat tourist food and more than 30% less likely to eat soil.
Writing in Scientific Reports, Vol. 16, Article number: 13139 (2026), "Geophagy in Gibraltar Barbary macaques is a primate tradition anthropogenically induced", the researchers describe how the monkeys appear to learn the habit from others, with macaques favouring different types of soil depending on their troop. Most monkeys search out the terra rossa, or red clay, found across Gibraltar, but the Ape’s Den troop, which occupies the lower western slopes, favours tar-clogged soil from potholes in asphalt roads.
Humans around the world eat soil, particularly pregnant women in parts of Africa, Asia and South America, where it is consumed to help with nausea or to provide critical minerals. But the researchers saw no rise in soil-eating among pregnant or lactating monkeys, suggesting the behaviour is not driven by a need to supplement their diets.
And, Lemoine added that the macaques seemed to eat the soil to “buffer their digestive system” against high-energy, low-fibre snacks and junk foods that are known to cause stomach upsets in some primates.
Tourists are told not to touch or feed the monkeys on Gibraltar, but the rule is not well enforced. While the junk food may be harmful to the macaques, so might the soil, as much of it is found close to busy roads on the rock. “There are a lot of vehicles passing every day, and most are not electric yet”, Lemoine said. “We want to analyse the soil. We’re very interested in seeing the levels of pollutants”.
The junk diet was "completely unlike" foods normally eaten by the species, such as herbs, leaves, seeds and the occasional insect – with the behaviour being "driven entirely by proximity to humans".
Lemoine posited: "Humans evolved to seek out and store energy-dense fats and sugars to survive periods of scarcity, leading us to crave high-calorie junk food. Availability of human junk food could trigger this same evolutionary mechanism in macaques".
From viral catchphrases to bizarre inside jokes, internet memes have become an unavoidable part of youth culture, often spilling beyond social media feeds and into classrooms, homes and everyday conversations.
The “six seven” meme, for one, has taken over not only online spaces among the younger generation but also real-life interactions, as the mere mention of these numbers may trigger an overly enthusiastic response from children, teenagers and even young adults who keep up with current online trends.
[Note: If you don't know what this meme is all about, kindly check our my blog post "Six-seven" published October 29, 2025 – and you'll understand it].
The viral Threads post claimed that the punishment involves students writing 200 sentences if they are caught.
“This kind of useless trend is ruining kids’ brains and attitudes”, the post was captioned.
The woman also said in the comments section that the slang had become so overused that she actively avoids saying the two numbers herself.
While some see these trends as harmless fun and a reflection of changing times, others argue that excessive obsession with online slang may be affecting students’ focus and behaviour in school.
With the post garnering widespread attention, netizens were divided over the ban, with some agreeing and others criticising the move, highlighting the growing influence of internet culture on younger generations and the challenges educators face in balancing discipline with self-expression.
“It disrupts the lesson. The moment you say ‘six seven’, students start repeating it, making them less focused”, one user pointed out.
“There are levels to memes, but I don’t know why this current generation of memes is just straight-up nonsense. I genuinely prefer the older memes that were more relevant in many situations”, another netizen said.
“Why are people so uptight about it? I’d rather kids say random brainless but harmless things instead of vulgar ones. Let kids be kids”, commented another.
Netizens also pointed out that similar memes or slangs that were trending during their youth did not deter their focus from learning during school hours.
At the Singapore Open today, Pearly Tan-Thinaah Muralitharan crashed out in the second round.
The Thai sisters, Benyapa Aimsaard-Nuntakarn Aimsaard, who are ranked No. 105 in the world defeated the Malaysian women's doubles pair 21-16, 21-19 in 36 minutes.
Disappointing!!
Already, artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the workplace. In just the last months, we’ve seen the speed of the shift, the size of layoffs and the re-organizing of the workforce. Tasks that once required years of training – data analysis, content generation, even elements of decision-making – can now be completed in seconds.
For leaders, this raises an urgent question: What, exactly, should we be preparing people to master?
This Rolling Stones piece "The Skills AI Can't Replace – And Why We Need to Start Teaching Them in Schools" by Elan Gepner and published May 11, 2026 shares with us the new direction educators must urgently take note of.
For decades, the answer has been straightforward: build knowledge, develop technical skills and increase efficiency. But as AI begins to outperform humans in many of these areas, that equation is changing.
Big Tech leaders already know this and they are pivoting to these skills that are becoming extremely essential: communication, knowing how to work effectively with others, adaptability — the ability to pivot and find solutions — and self-regulation, resilience and stability under pressure.
When they unpacked it, it made sense. We’re entering a world where nobody knows exactly what they need to know or what’s coming next. The elite skills of yesterday can be obsolete in a flash tomorrow. Technical skills can be replaced quickly. What’s necessary are workers who can collaborate through transformation, take initiative to find new solutions, master new tools without feeling threatened and sustain themselves through uncertainty.
One unidentified senior manager overseeing more than 2,500 engineers said he pretty much no longer cares what someone knows, only whether they can keep reinventing themselves without being crushed by the pace of change.
We are entering a moment where the most valuable skills are not the ones we’ve traditionally prioritized.
In fact, much of the current conversation around AI and the workforce centers on reskilling: learning to code, understanding data, staying technically adaptable. These are important, but increasingly automatable.
What AI cannot replicate, at least not in any meaningful way, are the core human capacities that shape how we think, interact and respond under pressure: the ability to stay calm in uncertainty, listen deeply, collaborate with empathy and remain focused in a distracted world.
I wouldn't label them as soft skills; rather they are foundational performance skills, which have been long under-appreciated, and now becoming the differentiators of the modern workforce.
In an AI-powered world, the competitive edge is no longer what you know. It’s how you show up.
To be sure, four capacities stand out: emotional intelligence and regulation; attention and presence; human connection; and self-awareness.
These enable teams to function effectively and cannot be replaced by AI. Yet we still treat them as afterthoughts. Schools often treat them as secondary or expect them to develop on their own as a byproduct of “real learning”.
Organizations are increasingly aware of the need for these capabilities. Leadership programs, wellness initiatives and communication training are on the rise, yet many struggle to create lasting change.
These capacities are not easily installed in adulthood. They are developed over time, through repeated practice. By the time someone enters the workforce, patterns of stress response, attention and emotional regulation are deeply ingrained.
Changing them is possible – but likely, to be very challenging. In many ways, the workplace is trying to retrofit skills that were never systematically built.
For business leaders, this shift has important implications. Workforce development must expand beyond technical readiness to include human readiness.
We must also rethink how we evaluate talent. In an AI-driven world, the most valuable employees may not be those who process the most information, but those who remain grounded, focused and effective in complexity.
AI may be less a threat, and more of a mirror, revealing the skills we’ve neglected to prioritize.
As machines take on more, the question is not just what humans can produce, but how we lead, connect and collaborate. Organizations that thrive will not simply adopt new technologies, but invest in deeply human capabilities, early and intentionally.
In a world where AI can do more, the most valuable employees will be those who can remain human under pressure. And that is a skill we cannot afford to begin teaching too late.
The post on Truth Social on Saturday represented another potentially incendiary message from Trump amid supposedly ongoing negotiations for a more lasting ceasefire in the US-Israeli war with Iran.
That's not all! The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed they executed targeted "self-defence" military strikes in southern Iran on Monday. The operations primarily targeted the port city of Bandar Abbas and areas near Larak Island, hitting missile launch sites as well as IRGC mine-laying boats.
Iran retaliated – but it was very much a restrained response. As far as I am aware, the IRGC downed an MQ-9 Reaper drone and repelled an F-35 fighter jet (as per IRGC on Tuesday).
Mohammad Akbarzadeh, the deputy political chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, was even quoted by the Tasnim news agency as saying that the possibility of renewed war is low!
Why is Iran still trusting the United States?! When will Iran ever learn?!?!
๐ก๐ก๐ก๐ก
…and Greenland breathes a sigh of relief.
On Friday, he had posted this ๐
The evil in this world knows no bounds.
On the night of May 21-22, 2026, three deadly waves of Ukrainian kamikaze drones struck the Starobilsk Professional College of Luhansk Pedagogical University's main building and living quarters in Russia's Lugansk, killing 21 people, who were mostly teenage girls, and injuring 60 others.
And Russian Parliament Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin revealed on Tuesday that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s communication satellite network made it possible for Ukraine to carry out the strikes. Speaking in the State Duma, Volodin condemned the attack as a “crime against humanity”.
“We must do everything we can to hold to account those who gave the orders, and who directed [the drone strike] at the college”, he said.
As Ukraine has continued to suffer setbacks on the battlefield, Kiev chose to ramp up attacks on civilian targets in multiple Russian border regions. Kiev has also been mounting Musk’s Starlink satellite dishes on drones to bypass Russian electronic warfare and facilitate long-range attacks.
Over the past week, Ukrainian strikes have killed 51 civilians and injured nearly 200 across Russia, the highest weekly toll recorded this year, according to Rodion Miroshnik, who leads the Russian Foreign Ministry mission responsible for tracking Ukrainian war crimes.
Putin should know the killings will not stop! Russia should just wipe out this evil from the face of the earth!
Indians online are rallying around the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP; lit. "Cockroach People's Party") – a parody political movement that started as online satire but has rapidly become a vehicle for venting anger over unemployment, corruption and the state of India’s democracy.
The movement, a cheeky riff on the name of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has flooded social media with memes, mock campaign messaging and jokes carrying an edge of public frustration.
“We have to understand that five years ago nobody was ready to speak up against Modi or the government”, said CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke (top right). “The times are changing”.
Launched online on May 16, 2026, the movement’s rise traces back to controversial comments made by Supreme Court Justice Surya Kant, who compared some young people and critics of institutions to “cockroaches” and “parasites”.
“There are youngsters like cockroaches, who don’t get any employment or have any place in the profession”, Kant said. The remarks quickly ricocheted across social media, drawing criticism and meme-making in equal measure.
Kant later said he had not intended to insult young people and that his comments were directed at individuals with fraudulent degrees.
But by then, the Internet had already done what it does best. On Instagram, the movement has amassed about 21 million followers – more than double the number for the BJP, which have approximately 9 million, and Congress, India’s main opposition party, which have about 13.4 million. Meaning, CJP have more followers than real political parties!
“Nothing of this was intentional”, Dipke said. “It is the younger people who were actually very frustrated. They don’t have any outlet. They were really angry at the government”.
Dipke, a political communications strategist said the movement’s popularity reflects a shift in India’s political climate. He previously worked alongside the Aam Aadmi Party, which emerged from India’s anti-corruption movement in 2012.
And he had reported that both his personal and CJP Instagram accounts were hacked or locked out, and Meta temporarily took down the party's backup page as well. The primary CJP X account is also inaccessible, having been officially withheld in India.
A real shame! The world's most populous democracy is afraid of cockroaches! ๐ชณ๐ชณ๐ชณ
“I understand the frustrations of the youth and see why they are resonating with it”, wrote Shashi Tharoor, a member of the Congress party, calling the account’s inaccessibility on X “disastrous” and “deeply unwise”.
“There should be an outlet for the youth to express their feelings and so, let CJP’s account function instead of shutting it down”, he wrote. “Democracies need outlets for dissent, humor, satire, and even frustration”.
Paris, France's Louvre have selected international architecture firms Studios Architecture Paris and Selldorf Architects to design their sweeping $1 billion "Nouvelle Renaissance" expansion.
The centerpiece of this massive overhaul is a custom-built, 33,000-square-foot underground exhibition space – I call it a containment zone – specifically dedicated to the Mona Lisa.
In fact, visitors who came solely for the Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece will buy a separate, dedicated ticket.
It means that those looking to only view the famous Giocanda will not necessarily have to pass through or even visit the rest of the Louvre. They will be spared the extra time waiting in line, and can get in, take their selfies, and get out.
Meanwhile, those who wish to see the hundreds of thousands of other pieces among the galleries, will be spared the extra waiting time in line from those queuing only for the purpose of seeing the Mona Lisa.
Methinks, it's a superb compromise.
Pearly Tan (right) had to miss both the Uber Cup 2026 as well as the Malaysia Masters, due to a recurring back injury.
A simple takeaway meal from a popular Penang restaurant has triggered debate online after a customer questioned whether RM12 was too much to pay for a packet of rice with a piece of fried chicken.
[I came across this news story in The Sun on Friday].
The post quickly attracted mixed reactions from netizens, drawing more than 250 comments, with some agreeing that the price was steep while others defended the eatery, saying the fried chicken from the restaurant was worth the cost.
One commenter joked: “I dare not comment because someone will tell me to cook it myself”.
Another compared it with prices abroad, saying: “I can get something even cheaper than this in Singapore”.
Some users attempted to break down the estimated cost of the meal.
“The chicken is RM6 and the rice is RM2, so it should only be RM8”, one commenter wrote.
Others pointed out that the cafe’s fried chicken is known to be popular despite the pricing.
“No choice, their fried chicken is really good. But RM12 for one piece of chicken and rice; maybe they calculated it wrongly. You can ask them”, another netizen said.
All I can say is that one of my favourite nasi kandar places that I patronise pretty regularly is Nasi Kandar Pelita – and their prices are very reasonable! At least, the one at Jalan SS15/4C in Subang Jaya.
The May 17 bill I attached has almost the same items, i.e., white rice with "kuah campur banjir" and one piece of chicken. Plus an extra portion of rice and a glass of iced plain water. And it is only RM9.75!
Need I say more? ๐๐๐
Liverpool had their last Premier League match of the season yesterday, and they could only draw 1-1 against Brentford.
The Reds scored first when Mohamed Salah picked out Curtis Jones to tap it home in the 58th minute. The Bees replied six minutes afterward.
Until the final whistle, neither team could find a winning goal. I suppose we should take comfort in knowing that the Reds secured the single point they needed to seal fifth spot – and Champions League qualification.
And so, we can finally say goodbye to this absolutely cursed season. TBH, I'm not looking forward to 2026-27 because we lacked a clear tactical identity and we suffered from poor game management. I don't expect us to do well if Arne Slot remains in charge.
That's because Hangzhou, China-based Unitree have officially unveiled the GD01 on May 12, 2026. It was introduced as the world’s first mass-produced, human-piloted mecha, a futuristic rideable machine capable of switching between two-legged and four-legged movement modes.
Then came another line. "If you are already in the office, we ask that you please gather any personal items at your desk and head home".
The email, obtained by Business Insider, landed in inboxes at 04:00 AM on Wednesday as Meta began cutting nearly 8,000 jobs – roughly 10 percent of their workforce – while simultaneously shifting more than 7,000 employees into AI-focused teams.
The message was formal. Calm. Carefully worded. But beneath the corporate language sat the reality of another sweeping restructuring inside one of the world's biggest tech companies.
Meta called the layoffs part of their "continued effort to run the company more efficiently" and said the cuts would help "offset the other investments" they are making – a reference to the company's massive AI push.
Employees were informed that their badges had been deactivated. Access to internal systems would be removed. Within an hour, they would instead be redirected to Meta's "Alumni Portal" for details on severance, visas, benefits, and job assistance.
The layoffs mark Meta's biggest company-wide cuts since Mark Zuckerberg launched his 2022-23 "Year of Efficiency", a period that erased around 21,000 jobs across the company. This time, the cuts come as Meta sharply increase spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure. The company's forecast of capital expenditure said to be between $125 billion and $145 billion this year – more than double their 2025 spending.
Another detail from the email stood out. Meta had earlier instructed employees to work from home on the day layoffs began. But for those who still showed up to office campuses, the email carried a quiet finality: collect your belongings and leave.
Significantly, the company had around 78,000 employees as of March. Between layoffs and internal reshuffling toward AI initiatives, nearly one in five Meta workers is now being affected by the restructuring in some form.
