The above findings are taken from BBC News clippings here.
I guess somehow rather I'm kinda not surprised to see Canada on that list. Having been educated in one myself, I guess the education system there is quite unique any mind-stimulating enough for any students.
While there I was exposed to various fields of interest - music instruments, woodwork, cooking, and french. Other than that, there were the usual academic subjects. Of all the subjects that were taught there though - I miss playing my baritone the most.
It wasn't the most subtle of instrument. Being quite big and brute, with loud bass-like sound emanating from it's metal horn - one can only wonder how in the world can one actually miss playing the damn contrapment. But miss it I do.
I remember that in each week, I would have to bring the baritone back home after school and practice it for about a half an hour everyday. And I did brought it home, and I did practice playing it - however bad it sounded to mom.
I remember having to wipe my saliva off of the mouthpiece every now and then. Yucks..yep thats how I felt at first. It takes awhile to get use to it, but eventually I did.
The best part of playing a baritone is when you're actually playing it with other instruments alongside you - like an orchestra of sorts. The combination of a baritone's boom and the strike of a piano alongside the high pitch sound a clarinet is really quite fun to hear to - if played accordingly and harmoniously. It was really fun I have to say. I really miss being a part of it, being a part of the orchestra.
That's Canada to you.
I heard that in Finland, you could find so many professors there that should you divide the number of professors to the square feet area of Finland - you could get approximately one professor per school in Finland. That's the level of education that they have.
What do we have? Owh we have plenty I'd bet. We have have so many professors around here that we can simply change the education system here right after every election. Leave it to the majority. Follow the majority. It's fun isn't it to side with majority. You can never be wrong when you side with the majority. How can you be? You are after all, with the majority. It's popular, it's the "in" thing. What a load of bullocks.
In any case, forgive my rambling on the sad excuse of what I would call our political and everyday scenery here in Malaysia.
Let's have a brief chat about education.
Then again let's not. Guess I'm not in the mood anymore. :)
From the depth of the Arabian desert - comes forward the 99!!
It's interesting to see that Muslims now also have their very own "halal" superheroes (albeit some of the gals aren't wearing any veils).
I guess the name "99" comes from the 99 names of God - I've browsed through some of the characters in their website http://www.the99.org
Check this
The Guardian reports today that Teshkeel Media's halal superheroes The 99 will be appearing in a crossover mini-series (to hit shops within a year) with the classic American heroes of DC Comics, including Superman and Wonder Woman. The 99 is the first superhero comic published in the Arab world, and its heroes and storylines fall within Islamic parameters (magic isn't allowed, for example). It has a heavyweight art team -- comic book stalwarts Fabian Nicieza, Stuart Moore, June Brigman, Dan Panosian, and John McCrea, who have all worked at DC Comics and Marvel -- and you can see some of their art in this gallery or at Teshkeel's site, where you can buy issues (in English) as downloadable PDFs. Current headline: "The Justice League of America to Stand Cape to Shoulder with The 99." Kapow!
And 99 creator Dr. Naif al-Mutawa appears on BBC Radio 4's It's My Story tonight at 2000 BST, talking to DJ Bobby Friction about why the opening of The 99's first theme park, and his quest to become known as 'the Walt Disney of the Arabic world'.
An Islamic theme-park huh. "Sounds" neat, but not sure about how that goes with the ultra-conservatives though.
Waiting and watching..
An interesting piece of reading! Taking a break from the Obama-fever (congrats to him btw), this piece about conspiracy theories in general really gives you a refreshing take on the subject matter. Ripped off from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4319574.stm
By Harold Evans
In his weekly opinion column, Harold Evans takes issue with Michael Crichton's latest thriller, in which global warming is the work of mad eco-scientists.
Do you ever read that line on an early page of a novel: "Any connection between the characters and events herein portrayed, and real people, is purely coincidental."
In Michael Crichton's State of Fear, I'd say the connection was purely intentional. It's about the kind of hurricanes, floods, tsunamis and tornadoes we've been experiencing. Crichton's trade is to bring pleasurable terror to millions by spinning tales of science gone amok - as in Jurassic Park and the Andromeda Strain.
In this new bestseller those hurricanes etc aren't natural disasters at all. They are the creations of global warming activists - eco-maniacs desperate to publicise the case for controlling emissions of carbon dioxide. To make sure you get his point, Crichton adds a 32-page footnote documenting his own conviction that global warming is an unscientific scare.
What about the contrary worldwide consensus of scientists that global warming is a man-made disaster in the making? Crichton's answer: "If it's consensus, it isn't science. If it's science, it isn't consensus." As I suppose in the old consensus that the earth is flat.
Crichton's is not actually a thesis that the displaced folks in Louisiana and Texas can concentrate on at the moment in the wake of Katrina and Rita. Yet for his polemic on global warming, Crichton has become something of a hero to the groups fighting hard to stop anything like the Kyoto treaty.
The well-endowed think tank, the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy, honoured Crichton with an invitation to Washington to address its members - not on the novel, but on science policy in the 21st Century. The point of that was to embrace Crichton's attack on what he calls the pseudo-science of global warming. It's not easy to embrace Crichton himself; he is an intimidating 6ft 9 inches.
Michael Crichton: 'Something of a hero'
The sceptics on global warming needed this kind of reinforcement. They have mostly been keeping quiet after the ferocity of Katrina and Rita, widely blamed in the press on the unusually hot waters of the Gulf. Al Gore, in a rousing "action now" speech that impressed business leaders at the Clinton summit in New York recently, pointed out that since the 1970s, hurricanes both in the Atlantic and Pacific have increased in intensity by about 50%.
'Great hoax'?
It is quite significant that while President Bush has been active on hurricane relief, he has not reiterated his well-aired doubts about whether global warming is a real threat or a scare. Nor have we heard much from the Republican chairman of the Senate Environment Committee.
Senator James Inhofe's previous best effort was this: "With all of the hysteria, all of the fear, all of the phoney science, could it be that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people? It sure sounds like it."
The senator did not explain quite how 2,000 top scientists in 100 countries could have been persuaded in 2004 to produce a rare consensus that gas emissions left unchecked will produce a series of catastrophes. Nor is he likely to try and explain in the post-Katrina atmosphere.
Hurricanes are now more intenseThe conspiracy Crichton outlined in his novel might seem tailor-made for Hollywood - scientists manipulating weather systems to suit their own leftie agenda. But it is very much in the paranoid political style identified by the renowned historian Richard Hofstadter. There are still people who just know that FDR conspired with Winston Churchill to have the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. There are millions who just know that JFK's assassin, the shooter on the grassy hill in Dallas, was hired by Lyndon Johnson.
As a historian, I have never been much impressed by conspiracy theories left or right. Too often, they are exalted by non-evidence - "proved" by records that have disappeared, "witnesses" whose stories have been suppressed. But if you happen to be in the market for a conspiracy theory today, there's a rather more credible one documented by the pressure group Greenpeace. Just bend an ear for a moment for the names of a few organizations very much concerned with global warming.
You wouldn't guess it but all these highfalutin bodies are dedicated to undermining the science of global warming and preventing America signing something like the Kyoto Treaty. And again, you wouldn't guess it, but they take thousands of dollars from Exxon Mobil. It's the world's largest oil company and a high profile opponent of Kyoto for imposing too many costs on the developed world.
- Advancement of Sound Science Centre Inc
- Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow
- Heartland Institute
- Competitive Enterprise Institute
- Annapolis Center for Science-based Public Policy
The five groups I mentioned are not the only ones with deceptive titles. Greenpeace has identified 40 such mouths at the Exxon nipple. So what's wrong about this? For one thing I'd guess you'd be a bit more sceptical of their pronouncements on global warming if they made it clear that they are not - shall we say - unrelated to the interests of their Exxon sponsors.
Grazing on drought-stricken landI asked Exxon about supporting so many of these propaganda groups. They point out that pro-Kyoto foundations give out much more money than they do, and that's true. What's disturbing to me is that the groups Exxon supports are much less forthcoming about their connections; they are often treated in the media as if they were wholly independent scientific bodies.
In addition Exxon has done something positive in committing $100m to Stanford University for research into new energy technology. So where's the rub? Well, funding long-term research like this is all well and good. The trouble is - as the economist Keynes famously said in another context - in the long-term we are all dead. The damage is being done here and now every day. It is accelerating - and it is damage that could be irreversible.
Smear tactics
All the delaying tactics, denials and obfuscations bring to mind what happened in 1974 to two American scientists, Professor Sherwood Roland and Dr Mario Molina. They coolly set out the evidence that the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) used in refrigeration, aerosols and air conditioning were eating at the ozone layer which protects mankind and plants from dangerous ultraviolet radiation.
They were at once smeared as scaremongers. The manufacturers ran an all too successful campaign to fog the issue. A lazy media bought into it. The public got bored and bamboozled. And as they did so, millions more tons of the pollutant were added to the atmosphere.
The era of procrastination is coming to a close; in its place we are entering a period of consequences
Winston ChurchillThirteen years later when the world finally woke up to an ozone hole bigger than anyone had predicted, there was a swift international agreement - led by the US - to find alternatives to the CFCs. In the meantime, great damage had been done.
Winston Churchill back in the 1930s had this to say about another government that didn't believe a threat was real. As the Chamberlain Cabinet dithered about Hitler, Churchill warned: "They go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent."
And he concluded: "The era of procrastination, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to a close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences."
We are entering that period now with global warming. And if quoting Churchill in this context puts me in Michael Crichton's class of conspirators, I will bear it with fortitude.
Hear A Point of View in the BBC Radio Player
Zimbabweans are billionaire. And they're gonna get to be a-gazillionaire too, if their inflation keeps on going like the way it is now.
I've been following this news for a couple of weeks now on BBC. For the record, Europe's inflation is like on 4% and Malaysia our very own is at 7%.
Zimbabweans rates meanwhile is like 2 million %.
It'll take like a couple of hundred billion just to buy bread over there.
Imagine the zeroes on that.
Britain and Ireland have the highest average incomes in Europe but come bottom in terms of quality of life, while Spain and France are at the top of the index, according to a study published Wednesday.
Britons have to pay sky high prices for fuel, food and other essentials, while having among the shortest holidays, latest retirement age and lowest life expectancy, according to the survey of 10 European countries.
Ireland, which like Britain has seen a huge market-driven economic boom over the last decade, is even worse than its bigger neighbour, coming in last in the European Quality of Life Index by U-Switch, a British service comparison website.
"We may earn substantially more than our European neighbours but when it comes to quality of life we remain the sick man of Europe," said Ann Robinson, director of consumer policy at uSwitch.com.
"Soaring food prices and inflation, not to mention high property costs, are placing the biggest squeeze on disposable incomes in well over a decade," she added, noting also below-average investment in health and education services.
The study assessed 19 factors affecting quality of life, ranging from income and working conditions to healthcare, education and cost of living.
Britons have an average net income of more than 35,000 pounds (70,000 dollars, 44,000 euros) a year, about 10,000 pounds more than the European average, while Ireland comes second on more than 29,000 pounds.
But they pay between six to 18 percent more for fuel and 49 percent more for gas, not to mention spectacularly high housing costs. Ireland's gas bills are more than twice the European average.
At work Ireland comes worst in terms of retirement age, with an average of 64.1 years, followed by Britain on 63.2 years, while life expectancy is 78.1 years and 78.9 years respectively, the lowest barring Italy.
At the other end of the scale, Spaniards have the lowest average income, at some 16,800 pounds, but low taxation and cheaper essential goods prices put them at the top of the overall quality of life indicator.
France comes second, notably benefiting from the longest holidays in Europe at 40 days and the second-lowest retirement age at 58.9 years, just later than Poles who retire at 58.4 years old on average.
The findings come as Britain and Ireland face a sharp economic slowdown fuelled by the global credit crunch, which is also threatening other European countries although they have enjoyed less of a boom in recent years. - BBCNews Online.
Just read the news today. It seems the inflation rate in Euro has risen up to 4% from their previous 3.7%. Read more here.
4% huh? Ain't a little bit more or less the same as Malaysia's rate?
"The grass is always greener on the other side" my ass. Hehehe~ Malaysia Boleh-lah!!
The news today seems to read oil prices is gonna come down pretty soon. Well I hope so. I've just read an article on NGV just now on the NST - apparently a full tank gas price of a 1.6L Chevy is just RM9. Yep, you read right - that's RM9. Geez. And I'm driving a Kelisa and paying like 7 times that amount for a full tank.
Lets do a simple math here.
9 (per week) X 4 (weeks per month) = RM36.
70 (per week) x 4 (weeks per month) = RM 280.
What a difference that is. A conversion to NGV would cost around RM 3500 or so. Savings from the conversion per month would be RM280 - RM 36, which would be around RM 240. Now for me to get back that RM 3500 would take me about 3500/240 which would be 14 months or so. But then my car is not of a 1.6L type, so I think probably within a year or so lah.
Now that's an idea worth considering.
Oil prices are going down, or so says the article I read at Yahoo.com. Oil price have been steadily climbing and at times I think the oil companies are enjoying every minute of it and making sure that it's gonna stay that way. The other day there was a strike at Shell Nigeria - can't remember the details but the plant had to be closed down. So you know la what happen if an oil plant goes down - supply would decline, thus prices would go up. Now I'm not saying that is the sole reason why the oil price worldwide is rising, but probably more or less it's one of the triggers.
Anywho, the strike eventually came to an end. But then a few days after I think, some bugger decide to attack the rigs. Is there a connection? I dunno, but somehow I smell something fishy is going on there, as if Shell is deliberately hiring someone to attack it's rigs. But then again - that's just an unproven theory.
In other news, CERN is gonna conduct the world's biggest particle physics experiment - perhaps conjuring up a mini black-hole along the way. Reports have been given that the new black hole would not - and I repeat WOULD NOT suck our beloved planet Earth into it. You can about it more here. You know at first the news itself is like weird joke..you know..Earth getting sucked into a black hole. But then I'm not much of a particle physicist. So who knows? Is there really any probability of a black hole sucking the planet?? I mean..wow. Talk about science fiction. Maybe I should read up on this..maybe I should.
