BuzzLife

Jeff Ooi Screenshot and Oon Yeoh, and possibly a third blogger (Lim Kit Siang ah??) will be sharing their voices live on Ntv7 tomorrow (1st August 2006) at 8.30 am. Amidst the call to regulate the internet media, bloggers, do call in to lend your ears and share your voices when our "colleagues" go on air. I may have to miss the show, so please keep me updated ya..

Extracted from Bernama:

Internet, Websites Must Be Controlled, Says Zainuddin

KANGAR, July 31 (Bernama) — The Government must control the Internet and websites to curb the spread of rumours and news that can harm racial unity in the country, Information Minister Datuk Zainuddin Maidin said.

He said he agreed with Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Fu Ah Kiow that stern warning must be issued and action taken against rumour-mongers for causing problems to the extent of disturbing public order.

The control was not to muzzle press freedom but to stop the spread of news based on rumours, articles and features with racial undertones, he said.

"In one aspect, the control on media content will boost credibility of a website as the people will know the news published was accurate and no longer based on rumours," he told reporters at the "Seiring Melangkah Bersama" (Together We Move Forward) in conjunction with the 60th anniversary celebrations of the state-level agencies under the Information Ministry here last night.

Zainuddin said so long the mainstream media was not involved in publishing rumours and articles that are seditious in nature, the people would not be influenced or take it seriously what was posted on the Internet.

He slammed the media for often publishing crime stories as important news with sensational reports merely to sell the newspapers or to boost viewers’ rating for a particular television programme.

"If we do so, we are indirectly portraying a picture that our country is not safe, with a high crime rate and this will bring adverse effects to our economy and tarnish the image of our country," he said.

At one time, news on murders and recovery of bodies were rarely published with gruesome pictures, but nowadays some newspapers were boldly printing such photographs without realising it was against journalism ethics, he added.

– BERNAMA

Ceiling Fan is the most popular fan to provide you efficient air delivery. Averagely each Malaysian household installs at least 2 Ceiling Fans in their homes. And almost all open-air restaurants or commercial shops installed ceiling fans. Take a break at any rest area along PLUS highway, you can even see ceiling fan installed in wash rooms. It has become sort of a necessity in Malaysian homes and have been regarded as part of interior design. Compare to neighbouring countries like Thailand, I hardly see any ceiling fan in their homes, much less in commercial shops. To the Thais, ceiling fan is for industrial usage, for eg. in Factory, schools etc.

Ceiling fan is either operated by a regulator, a remote control or the pull string type. Regulator controlled type has been with us for a long, long time whereas the remote control and pull string type, which is more deluxe looking and of course more expensive, were only introduced to the Malaysian household in recent years.

Panasonic first introduced the remote control ceiling fan in 1998. It was priced more than double of the price of the conventional regulator operated type, other than more luxury design, the conveniences and easiness to operate, it came with value added features such as timer and sleeping mode. The remote control models have since become quite a favorite and you can even see them in major restaurants although it is much more expensive.

Today, there are more manufacturers competing in the remote ceiling fan categories, boasting luxury design, value added features, better air delivery, easy installation and others. One of the upcoming brands is Alpha who has wide range of models to select. But this brand is not easily available and can be found only in selected electrical shops. And of course, the Fan Specialist, KDK which has good reputation for its good quality products and services has reasonably good range of remote control fans. Check out their website for good tips on good installation practices to ensure that your ceiling fans are safely installed. Installation guide.

As I browse through the availability of different models in the market, I personally find a unique model in KDK range which I can’t find in any other brands so far. If you have a low ceiling or small room, you may like to consider to buy this cute baby fan. Another impressive feature of this model is the plastic blade (ABS) material which is rust free. Excellent for children’s room.

Other remote control ceiling fan by KDK, 4 blades or 5 blades, single tone or 2 tone colors, your choice!

Pictures courtesy of KDK

The much-awaited and long overdued proposal is finally here. I must laud our Women, Family and Community Development Ministry under Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil for its commitment to push to increase the current 60-days paid maternity leave to 84-days for working mums in the civil services and subsequently look into the implementation in the private sectors.

According Datuk Seri Sharizat, the Cabinet committee on Gender Equality, chaired by the Prime Minister, had responded positively to the proposal.  “The Prime Minister has been very forthcoming and we hope to make the announcement within a month,” she said yesterday.

It was reported that 83% of the countries in the world provide 12-weeks paid maternity leave or more. Check out this link for details. Parental leave. If materialized, Malaysia would be one of the first countries in the peripheral region to implement 12-weeks 100% paid maternity leave.

Being a working mum who have always supported breastfeeding for at least the first 6 months of our babies’ life, I am 100% supportive of this proposal. However, I am afraid that it may be a hindrant for the female employees to climb the corporate ladders. Some irresponsible employers in the private sectors may not want to take in married female employees with the believe that they may be less productive in their work. I have known of some employers who posted questions like "do you plan to have any babies in near future?" during interviews with married female interviewees.

Before I got married, I attended an interview with a giant multinational company and was asked this question, "do you have a boyfriend?" The HR guy who interviewed me explained that they need to know my future marital plans! What a discrimination to females!! There are even employers who set the maternity leave as one of the key performance indicators in the job performance assessment!

Regardless of how the employers may have reacted to this new act, if at all materialized, all working mums will definitely appreciate the 84-days leave. Let us pray that Datuk Seri Sharizat will deliver her promise to make us, full time working mums’ dream comes true…Keep our fingers crossed.

Today is the last working day for Encik Zahari, my colleague who will turn 55 on Sunday. He retires after working in our company for 30 years and has worked through more than 10 MDs. Zahari, a Product Designer by profession, may be 55 but he still has the state of mind of a youth, and his design has much surpassed the work of those much younger designers in terms of creativity and design uniqueness. In fact, his work has earned the company many Malaysia Good Design Mark and MITI Industrial Excellence Design Awards! 

While most of his peers don’t even know how to write an email, Zahari-san is one IT savvy who loves the computers and digital cameras. I remember his master piece was a re-creation of me from the look of an old aunty to a super model Amber Chia image! And his love for travelling has taken him to almost all the continents in the world, be it the most modern city in the world, the adventurous jungle trekking, mountain climbing and scuba-diving, you name them.. and he never fails to bring us a souvenir from these places!

A humble, hardworking and dedicated co-worker, Zahari-san bears the typical fatherly image. Having worked with him for more than 12 years, I just can’t find any weak points in him, or I should say, his weak point is he is too nice to everyone!

Zahari-san, I will always treasure and cherish those memorable days of laughters and joy that we share in our little office. May your golden years be filled with lots of good health, happiness and prosperity. Keep in touch always and take care..

The 1st thing I do when I switch on my computer every morning would be to check on my email boxes. I have 4 of them and without fail, every morning I will be greeted with spams emails, the worst being the inbox of the company I work for, followed by my gmail. The ISD guys claimed that it happened because of some websites I may have visited. Now, I swear that I have never visited any porn sites or any chat room or any website where you can find virtual chat mates. Anyway, company firewall policy prohibits that. Hmm… how do they hack into my inbox, I wonder..

Inspired by an article in a woman’s magazine and out of curiousity, I decided to explore further the cyberspace. Hubby said I have nothing better to do when I told him my idea. Without his blessings, I secretly and cheekily created and started a new sexy pseudonym for instant messaging, visit the chat room and ends up being stalked by some perverts, weidos and even psychos with raging hormones!! However, instead of finding them offensive, I find them rather amusing.

There is this Hong Kie who never fails to send me an offline message every day even though I hardly logged in now, saying that he is willing to start a blind date with me. (Too bad I am no longer available, otherwise I may consider him, hahaha). And there is this kiasu weido aged 20 something from Singapore who treats me like his boss, saying that he is willing to do anything for me. Err.. he is jobless, probably that’s why he desperately virtualized me as his "boss". And another Aussie black guy who would swarm my email and send me tons of love messages!! I wonder how these people can trust someone they met online, someone they have never even seen before. There are really funny and weird people out there for all we know!

There are of course genuine nice folks out there who are honestly looking for chat mates with whom they can talk anything under the sun. Err.. when minds meet in cyberspace, physical distances can close up over time. So, before I lead them further on, I backed out!! They must be swearing and cursing "me" now that they never see "me" online any more…

It was a great experience and an eye opener for me. Once a while, I do log in my pseudonym ID, hoping to find some inspiring messages. Ha! Well, folks, inspired by my write-up? Hehehe.. don’t forget to use a different ID though. Otherwise your curiousity may turn into nightmares!

I did my annual medical check up at Assunta Hospital yesterday and it took me total 5 hrs to see 2 specialists! It didn’t help much in the queue though there was a special arrangement between the hospital & the company who sent me for my check up. And this is private hospital I am talking about. I can’t imagine the queue in public hospitals!

Ever wonder why do we have to wait so long in hospitals? And then why is the time we get to spend with the doctor so short? I really have phobia to see specialist, not because of the worries that I may be diagnosed with any degenerative disease, but the agony of waiting for 3 hours just to get a 5-minutes consultation. Ok ok, I may have exaggerated, but consultation time never exceeds 15 minutes! How could a thorough investigation be done if doctors can’t spend enough time with the patients. Simple reason.. we have shortage of doctors and more Malaysians are getting sick!

I found this research from an undated paper by Universiti Sains Malaysia rather interesting:

1. The doctor-patient ratio is 1:1465 and it is more serious in government hospitals.

2. Number of private hospitals is 219 compare to 123 under Ministry of Health.

3. There are 35,981 beds in public hospitals as compared to 8,963 in private hospitals.

4. 55% of doctors work in private hospitals and 45% work in government hospitals.

And more interesting facts:

1. The government targets to have 43,797 doctors by 2020.

2. Assuming our population is 30 million then, the doctor-patient ratio will be 1:730..which is so much better than advanced countries with ratio of 650.

Err… does that mean we need more places for medical school students intake? The next question will be who can and will take that path? If my brain cells work correctly, a CGPA of 4.0 can no longer guarantee a place for local medical schools when the Higher Education Ministry set the co-curicular involvement as one of the criterion for varsity intake. Err..YB.. don’t that criterion only takes us further from our dream of achieving doctor-patient ratio of 1:730? Sounds like bad news, eh?

On the brighter sides, if all of us take great care of our own health, so that we may all live until we die, then we don’t need more doctors at all.

Some interesting facts I stumbled upon in Personal Money Magazine.

Malaysian perfers money to leisure time. According to a nationwide poll, out of the 600 people polled, 1 in 5 take on additional work to supplement family income. 1 in 10 considers his income inadequate and 1 in 3 says his wages are not enough to make ends meet. Those above 55 also prefer money to leisure time but those between 50 and 55 prefer leisure time. 64% of workers in the production, transport and labour sectors want more money than time. Only teachers and lecturers value time over money, polling 51%.

Errr.. have the majority of the Malaysian been plugged into the wrong system? I am wondering why most of us would trade our time for money by living from paycheck to paycheck. And if we can’t do the work due to retrenchment, illness, injuries or retirement, than what happens? The paycheck stops! What we actually need is a career that will create ongoing residual income. Meaning, we do the work once and get paid over and over again. Check out this eye-opening 10 minutes movie that may change the way you earn income forever. The Parable of the Pipeline by Burke Hedges. Enjoy.

NOT again. The dreadful HAZE!! I hate it. It aggravates Big J’s asthma, irritates my eyes and causing a comeback for my migraine. And it forces me to ban outdoor activities for my 2 beloved Js. Air pollution is a major cause of oxidative stress in our lungs and bodies, according to Dr. Ray Strand. When we are exposed to this toxins day in and day out, they will have a major effect on our health. It has been implicated in the causes of asthma, chronic bronchitis, heart attacts and even cancer!

The funny thing is that they (you know who I mean) are not sensationalizing it in major newspapers. Ohh..that bit about Datuk K and Siti is more profiteering to the editors, even the unfortunate tsunami in Indonesia which happened on the day the celebrity couple announced their nuptial knot were not given prominent coverage. Can’t blame the editors, after all, gossips sell better. Or maybe once API reaches hazardous level, then this piece of news will earn a space on the front page.

In today’s news, published on a tiny-weeny column says that the Haze has been cleared. But my eyes and my nose is telling me a different story, I can even taste it!!. Blame it on Indonesia forest fires, but local authorities or the DOE have to do their part to curb open burning. My family and the whole of Kota Kemuning folks and the adjacent communities have been enduring these lungs-damaging air for years. And I swear that it is from local source, the open burning by some irresponsible son of b****. And each time the authorities would say, the air quality is still under healthy level! We can choose the food we want to eat, we can choose the beverages we want to drink, but we just can’t choose the air we want to breathe in.

And can you believe it? If you do a google search on Haze, Wikipedia defined haze by giving our "beautiful" KL scenery as an example. That is how infamous KL is for Haze! Unbelieveable! or should I say, what a shame!!

The Slimmest Sensation. No, not handphone, not plasma TV. but water heater. Simple and yet slim design, claimed to be the slimmest in the industry at 68mm in height, 230mm in width and 380mm in length. Alpha is launching new series of water heater with value added features and silver nano technology. I have seen the dummy set design in HomeDec Exhibition and was informed that you can buy them at any of Alpha authorized dealers from August onwards. Product Design is great but I personally do not like the flowery graphic on the body lacking in luxury feeling. 5 choices of soft, pastel colors to suit to your bathroom tiles and color. For a premium price of RM50, you can opt for metallic silver color with no flowery graphics which give a much higher and luxury image.

Added features (for another premium price of RM50) including a shower diverter where you would have a tap to give you warm water from the heater, for washing hands, feet when you are not showering. Quite a redundant and not practical if you have a small bathroom. Another set back is this series does not come with a pump. So for those who have low water pressure, you have to opt for different models which is more bulky. Price starts from RM410, with only basic features, 3.6 kw and electronic water temperature control. Check them out next month when they hit the street!

Pictures courtesy of Alpha

How long would most of us want to live? Or I should re-phrase, how long would we want to live healthily? I have never believe in true preventive medicine until I read the book, "What Your Doctor Doesn’t Know About Nutritional Medicine May Be Killling You," by Dr. Ray D. Strand. His simple message says, "Let’s protect and care for our body, and may we all live until we die."

In simple terms, good health is very important in later years. It is sad that most people take their health for granted until an ailment or disease happens to them. As such, according to Dr. Strand, we should practice true preventive medicine rather than post-problem medicine. True preventive medicine involve encouraging to take a threefold approach which is the ingredients of a healthy lifestyle : eating healthily, practicing a consistent exercise program and consuming a high-quality nutritional supplements. Eating healthily simply means a healthy diet with low-fat diet, which includes at least 7 servings of fruits and vegetables daily and participate in a modest exercise program.

As for high quality nutritional supplements, here are some tips which I extracted from a Health Magazine on how to select the right supplements:

o Look for optimum rather than RDA levels of essential nutrients.

o Choose a combination of vitamin and plant antioxidants.

o With minerals, choose chelated minerals as these are minerals combined with organic molecules that are absorbed via active transport mechanisms in the small intestine.

o Select a quality supplement developed on the basis of current research that guarantees potency, uniformity and disintegration.

o Avoid taking single vitamins

o Choose a properly formulated balance of essential antioxidants and chelated minerals and consider the brand’s background level of experiences, credibility and science.

Folks, wake up, change your lifestyle today for a betterment health tomorrow. Address your health issues in your younger days instead, otherwise you may live to regret for the rest of your life.

Most of you would have argued that taste of rice depends on the grade of the rice and not the rice cooker. But do you know that actually different type of rice cooker would produce different quality of cooked-rice? There are generally 3 types of Rice Cookers in the market.

1. The Conventional type and also the cheapest type which has basic rice cooking function only. It has an unattached lid cover for easy cleaning. Design is very conventional though. Some lids may come with transparent glass for you to "watch" the cooking process.

2. The Mechanical Jar Rice Cooker, depending on brands and models, this type may come with porridge cooking function which can also be used as slow cooking for soup.

3. The Micon Rice Cooker, which is the most expensive type. It has lots of features depends on models. This premium rice cooker is also nicknamed "fuzzy logic cooker" or in layman’s terms, SMART cooker. It is programed to read different kinds of rice and adjust the setting automatically. Hence you get perfect rice at al times. Most models other than having rice and porridge cooking function are also programmed to bake cake, sushi, brown rice and even nasi lemak. It has other features such as pre-set timer.

The next question will be which type should you choose. I have used all the 3 types of rice cookers and presently I am using the Micon type. The Micon type, other than more choices of features, it can produce the tastiest rice. The most attractive point will be the keep warm function. If you keep the rice warm for more than 5 hours, there will not be any browning at the base of the rice in comparison to the conventional and mechanical jar type. The moisture is still well-maintained, texture of the rice is still soft and you still get the aroma of the rice. And if you always have varieties of rice to cook, don’t think twice. Get a Micon model. The set back of course is the pricier tag. But then, I would say go for the value, not the price!

Different brands, different models can have varieties of features to suit your rice-cooking needs. Be sure to check them all out before you buy the next rice cooker.

Pictures courtesy of Panasonic

Extracted from Bernama:

MUMBAI, July 13 (Bernama) — As Mumbai, India’s financial hub struggled to come to terms with the enormous tragedy that struck on Tuesday, it was the online community, through a group of conscientious bloggers, who pitched in, providing information on victims, giving constant updates of the situation and calming thousands of overseas Indians who were frantic for news of loved ones back home.

The Press Trust of India (PTI) reported that blogging, a sort of a online diary proved an effective means of getting information across at a time when all communications lines were down, hours after a series of seven blasts struck the busy western suburban line last evening.

"Most Indians living abroad had no way of getting through to their loved ones, no way of knowing if they were safe and sound. I think our blog helped because we called up relatives in Mumbai and got the message across to frantic kin abroad," said Amit Varma, of mumbaihelp.blogspot.com, which was used extensively.

Another blogger, Gaurav Sabnis, who posted a minute by minute update on his personal blog, said he tried to filter in the avalanche of the news coming in and give out relevant information for those who needed it.

Blogging, a relatively new online activity wherein one can write an online diary, and invite comments from readers, has picked up fast in India.

Varma said while it was "difficult to quantify the actual number of people who benefited from our blog, but from the number of comments that we have got do make a point that blogs are something people look at in times of crisis. That is the reason we started this blog and we hope it will come in use later on as well."

The blog has a section where people can access important numbers, as well as leave their own phone numbers if they need someone to be contacted in Mumbai.

– BERNAMA