Baram Blockade: 500th Day

After 500 days, the tribespeople from Long Kesseh are still defiant. The Malaysia Insider pic, March 07, 2015

 

Baram locals from thirty villages who are waging a protest to thwart the Sarawak government from building a 1,200 megawatt hydroelectric dam on a tributary of the Baram River, quietly mark the 500th day of their effort to foil preliminary work on the proposed dam. The majority of these protestors are Kayans and Kenyahs and they had taken turns to stand guard at the two barricades – one at Long Lama, about 142 km from Miri city, and another at Long Keseh, about 50 km further inland.

 

The Baram dam is one of 12 proposed by the state government to generate power needed to fire its ambitious plan to propel the state into an industrialized and developed state by the year 2030.

 

But the locals are dead set against the mega project, claiming that it will flood 400 square kilometers of pristine rainforest inundating their centuries-old longhouses, the graves of their ancestors, their paddy fields, forest orchards and displace some 20,000 of them into resettlement areas. They are hoping to push the government and state utility company, Sarawak Energy Berhad to instead consider building a smaller dam or focus on other power sources with a lesser footprint on the environment.

 

I salute these brave Sarawakians for standing their ground.

 

On Thursday, I was the General Evaluator as well as Speech Evaluator at the Pesona Toastmasters meeting at the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur City Center.

 

It is always nice to be there – but club members must learn discipline and be on time. We started the meeting twenty-one minutes late. This did not give a good impression to the guests who came. Certainly, I wasn’t impressed at all. This is a corporate club and members are professionals – therefore, we should champion punctuality.

 

I could not help but notice that there were a couple of persons who left the meeting before it ended. Non-Toastmasters would not be able to see the real value of Toastmasters because they didn’t stay on during the evaluation sessions. That means they are likely to see a Toastmasters meeting as just a place to make speeches. What is so special about that?

 

We must remember that a Toastmasters meeting is incomplete without feedback – because it is the heart of the Toastmasters educational program. You observe the speeches and leadership roles of your fellow club members and offer evaluations of their efforts, and they do the same for you. If you truly want to improve your speaking and leadership skills, you must learn how to give and receive helpful evaluations.

 

Anyway, this particular lunchtime meeting deserved only a 3 over 10 score.

 

Malaysians in Beheading Video

Image credit: http://www.thestar.com.my/~/media/Images/TSOL/Photos-Gallery/Nation/2015/03/05/faris%20noor%20new.ashx/?w=380&h=285&crop=1&

Two Malaysians – identified as Mohd Faris Anuar, 20 and Muhamad Wanndy Muhamad, 25 – serving the Islamic State in Syria cast off their shyness to appear in a 30-second IS video posted on Facebook that shows footage of a headless body in a pool of blood.

 

Federal police Special Branch Counter-Terrorism unit assistant director SAC Ayub Khan Mydin Pitchay said on Wednesday the recording posted by a Facebook user under the name of Abu Hamzah Al Fateh showed an IS militant accusing the victim of being a Syrian government spy before beheading the man. He added that it was the first time a Malaysian had appeared in such a footage and police believe that Muhamad Wanndy was behind the video filming.

 

Ayub Khan said sixty-one Malaysians, comprising 51 men and 10 women have joined the IS. Another seventy-one, aged between 14 and 59, were detained before they could leave for Syria.

 

Malaysia is also not immune to this IS contagion and I expect the number to swell further.  According to FMT today, police have identified more than 500 Facebook accounts which are being used to recruit Malaysians to fight for the Islamic State.

 

Radical Islam has now become the primary threat in today’s world. And IS-inspired lone wolves shall rise up in even greater numbers and wage jihad on our cities. I wonder, is KL safe?

 

On Wednesday, St Johnstone ended Celtic’s 11-game unbeaten domestic run in the Scottish Premiership when Danny Swanson’s volley in the fifty-fourth minute won the game for the Perth-based team.

 

On that day too, Jordan Henderson (29) and Daniel Sturridge (51) scored for Liverpool in a 2-0 win over Burnley that kept the Reds in the hunt for Champions League qualification. Liverpool took their unbeaten run in the league to 12 games.

Spocking Fives

Actor Leonard Nimoy's death last Friday set off a craze of marking-up banknotes in Canada. It is meant to be a touching tribute to Nimoy – where Trekkies are "Spocking Fives", i.e. putting images of Nimoy’s famous Star Trek character on the country's currency bill.

 

Canada's $5 note features a large image of Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, and the banknote is a shade of blue that's incredibly close to that of the uniform worn by Spock in "Star Trek."

 

On that Friday itself, Canadian Design Resource, a site for Canadian designers, sent out a tweet urging Canadians to "Spock" their $5 bills by taking a pen and turning Laurier’s portrait into a picture of Mr. Spock.

Image credit: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-31717210

The idea of "Spocking Fives" isn't entirely new, and can be traced back to at least 2008 when the "Spock Your Fives" Facebook group was founded to encourage people to add the Vulcan's face to the $5 banknote. Canada switched from paper to plastic currency at the end of 2013, and the new material made it more difficult to "Spock" the $5 bill, but not impossible.

 

The practice isn't illegal, but the Bank of Canada strongly objects to the mutilation or defacement of bank notes. "Writing on a bank note may interfere with the security features and reduces its lifespan," the Bank of Canada said. "Markings on a note may also prevent it from being accepted in a transaction."

 

Given how beloved Nimoy was, I hope this Spock-ified currency will take a note from the man himself and live long and prosper.

 

World No.1 Nicol David had swept into the final of the Windy City Open after seeing off the challenge of Egypt’s Nour El Tayeb. – she won 11-9, 13-11, 12-10 on Tuesday.

 

A day later, David renewed her rivalry with world No. 2 Raneem El Welily of Egypt in the final. The latter recovered from dropping a marathon first game to register a 14-16, 12-10, 11-7, 11-7 win in 58 minutes.

 

Nicol David may have lost but I am sure she will bounce back!

The Full Body Project

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All photographs by Leonard Nimoy/courtesy of R Michelson Galleries

 

Leonard Nimoy (Mr Spock of ‘Star Trek fame) had a high respect for plus-sized women.

 

In 2007, Nimoy published a collection of photographs which he titled The Full Body Project. The idea was to challenge entrenched concepts of beauty. They echoed the work of artists from Botticelli to Matisse and Helmut Newton. The models were from a burlesque group in San Francisco, USA, called the Fat Bottom Revue.

 

The photos were in black and white, and they featured a group of ‘fat’ women laughing, smiling, embracing and gazing fearlessly into the camera.

 

What was really special was the fact that Nimoy’s photographs of bulging bodies were presented with dignity instead of ridicule, displayed as objects of beauty instead of as punchlines and honoured instead of lampooned.

 

On Tuesday, I was at the Speecom Toastmasters meeting in KL’s Bandar Sri Damansara. I was the General Evaluator and I found that, overall, it was a well-organized and well-conducted meeting. And better still, punctuality was keenly observed. A 7 over 10 score.

Edible Growth

I just came across this intriguing piece today. It seems that a 2014 experimental design project Edible Growth, had created a 3D-printed edible morsel using a combination of technical and natural processes.

Image credit: http://laughingsquid.com/designer-produces-a-3d-printed-edible-morsel-using-both-technical-and-natural-processes/

The chunk is grown inside a 3D-printed edible structure, with plants and fungi sprouting out after about five days. The rapid-manufactured nature of the food limits environmental impact by shortening the food chain and limiting land and energy use.

 

The food is nutritious because it is grown from natural ingredients using natural processes including photosynthesis and fermentation. And since it is intended for immediate consumption, no preservatives are needed.

 

According to designer Chloé Rutzerveld, it will take 8 to 10 years of additional technological development before a 3D-printed food product like hers will be on the market.

 

Rutzerveld developed the project in collaboration with Eindhoven University of Technology and TNO. Isn’t this cool?

 

Malaysian squash queen, Nicol David, continued her blistering form on Monday by moving into the last four of the 2015 Windy City Open. David overcame England's Alison Water in straight sets 12-10, 12-10, 11-6 in 39 minutes.

 

Another Malaysian entry in the quarter-finals, Low Wee Wern, suffered a 11-9, 6-11, 3-11, 9-11 defeat to world No.2, Egypt’s Raneem El Welily.

R.I.P. Mr Spock (1931-2015)

Leonard Simon Nimoy (left) who was the versatile actor, director and photographer – whose career was defined by his role as Star Trek’s Mr Spock – died Friday at age 83.

 

Few actors outside soap opera become defined by a single role to the exclusion of all else in their career. But that was the case for Nimoy – as the first officer of the USS Enterprise in Star Trek, he became synonymous with his character, a half-human, half-Vulcan.

Nimoy himself considered his role challenging and he said: "As an actor, my training had been in how to use my emotions, and here was a character who had them all locked up."

 

Image credit:

http://chezminette87.centerblog.net/rub-Serie-tele-ancienne-STAR-TREK-.html

 

Star Trek began life on television, running 79 episodes across three series between 1966 and 1969.

In front of the camera, Nimoy captured with delicious wit the tensions in the character. Spock’s logical, detached perspective could be infuriating to his more demonstrative colleagues; it also caused him to be amused or bewildered by the workings of humans. This could play out humorously or poignantly. He was uniquely placed, for example, to analyse coolly our emotional shortcomings: “It is curious how often you humans manage to obtain that which you do not want,” he mused in the first series. His dry rapport with the more passionate, full-blooded Captain James T Kirk (William Shatner) was a pleasure that endured long after the Star Trek brand itself showed signs of having been around the galaxy a few too many times.

 

Once seen, Spock (left) was never forgotten. The hair, boot-polish black, was snipped short with a severe, straight fringe; it looked more like headgear than a haircut, more painted on than grown. An inch of forehead separated that fringe from a pair of sabre-like eyebrows that arched extravagantly upwards. These came in handy for conveying what the reserved Spock could not always express verbally. “The first thing I learned was that a raised eyebrow can be very effective,” said Nimoy.

 

Spock’s defining physical feature, though, was his pointed ears. The actor’s first reaction upon seeing them was: “If this doesn’t work, it could be a bad joke.” Sharply tapered but in no way pixie-ish, the ears somehow never undermined his gravitas. Or rather, Nimoy’s sober disposition precluded laughter. Besides, in a show suffused with messages of inclusivity and tolerance, it would never do for audiences to laugh at someone just because he came from Vulcan.

 

Nimoy contributed key details to the character, including the traditional Vulcan greeting: a hand held up and the four fingers parted to create a V. This was inspired by prayer gestures witnessed by the young Nimoy at a synagogue.

 

When Star Trek was cancelled, he moved on to new challenges. There were other movies he acted in and he even established himself as a film director. He wrote poetry and indulged in photography.

 

In 1979, he returned to play Spock in the rather leaden Star Trek: The Motion Picture. He would do so in a further seven Star Trek films. Among them were Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). He was the only original cast member to appear in JJ Abrams’s instalments of the ‘rebooted’ franchise, Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). His appearance in the first of those Abrams films, as the older Spock coming face to face with his younger self (Zachary Quinto), was deeply affecting and played with characteristic restraint. He also revived Spock in two 1991 episodes (“Unification I” and “Unification II”) of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, and in animated and computer-game incarnations of Star Trek.

 

Leonard Nimoy is Mr. Spock and he will always be!

New Disease Discovered in Malaysia

Breaking news! Malaysia’s world class education system has detected a new disease!

 

“Chicken chop”  must be 2015's medical discovery of the year – if you refer to the medical certificate below obtained from a clinic (Klinik Perubatan Balqis) in Sg. Buloh, Selangor. I’m not sure how you get this malady and I don’t even know how serious it is – but the patient was given five days’ sick leave. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image credit: https://www.facebook.com/#!/Patrick.Teoh.KY

 

Suddenly, I am hungry. And I fancy Hainanese chicken chop!

 

Menu from West 57th St. Café (affectionately known as the Zang Toi café), Level 4, Parkson Pavilion KL. Image credit: http://zangtoicafe.com/menu/

 

Yesterday, I was in KL Sentral to attend the Service Rocket Toastmasters meeting. I took up two evaluation roles, i.e. Table Topics and CC speech #8. 

A good meeting overall and I even received a ribbon for being voted Best Evaluator.

 

Seeking a Royal Pardon

Last Tuesday, the family of Anwar Ibrahim submitted a petition for a royal pardon – the last day to do so of the 14-day deadline since the court's verdict on February 10, 2015.

 

Anwar’s wife, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail (left) explained that the appeal to the King does not imply her husband’s guilt, but was made because his trial and conviction were unjust.

 

Will the King put to right this miscarriage of justice? I don’t think so but we must still hope!

 

At the Windy City Open (February 24-March 04, 2015) in Chicago, USA, Malaysia's squash queen Nicol David took twenty-seven minutes to dispose Egypt's qualifier Heba El Torky 3-0 (11-5, 11-4, 11-7) on Sunday.

 

On Friday, David’s first round match against wild card and world No. 40 Olivia Blatchford saw the former also winning 3-0 (11-3, 11-6, 12-10) in thirty minutes.

 

Meanwhile, Malaysia's number two player, Low Wee Wern passed a daunting physical challenge from 15-year-old Egyptian Habiba Mohamed to notch a 11-8, 9-11, 12-10, 11-6 first round win on Friday.

 

Then the world number eight who faced Rachel Grinham yesterday prevailed over the latter with a 3-2 win. She took 58 minutes to dispose the Australian 7-11, 11-2, 3-11, 11-9 and 11-6.

 

In the quarterfinals, David will meet England's Alison Waters and Low will challenge Egypt’s Raneem el Weleily! Let’s see the two Malaysians continue to make waves.

Action Figures in Offbeat Situations

Yesterday, I posted a photo of comicbook characters – all in a line – in “peeing” positions. Of course, the Hulk was the center of attention. My fave character.

 

That picture is the work of toy photographer Hrjoe who has taken a wonderful series of photos that capture Marvel superhero action figures in all sorts of offbeat situations:

Image credit: http://laughingsquid.com/toy-photographer-captures-marvel-superhero-action-figures-in-funny-offbeat-situations/

Image credit: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1536971133211864.1073741839.1536853386556972&type=3

Image credit: https://www.facebook.com/hrjoephotography/photos_stream#!/hrjoephotography/photos/pb.1536853386556972.-2207520000.1424940282./1536860523222925/?type=3&theater

On Sunday, Celtic moved a big step closer to the title as they ended Aberdeen's 13-game unbeaten run and opened up a six-point lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership with an emphatic 4-0 win.

 

Second placed Dons were more impressive in the opening half, but fell behind to Jason Denayer's header in the thirty-seventh minute. In the second-half, Aberdeen collapsed and Celtic helped themselves to goals – through Leigh Griffiths (63, penalty), Gary Mackay-Steven (69) and Stefan Johansen (80).

 

In the English Premier League, Liverpool moved up to fifth spot with a 2-1 win over Manchester City – also on Sunday.

Jordan Henderson's curling effort in the eleventh minute put the Reds ahead before Edin Dzeko finished off a slick move fourteen minutes later to equalize. But Liverpool’s Brazil midfielder Philippe Coutinho capped a fine display with the decisive goal when he struck from 25 yards in the seventy-fifth minute.