the __earthinc – Page 448 – By Hafiz Noor Shams

[782] Of a flower on May Day

Post author By Hafiz Noor Shams
Post date Monday, May 1 2006
No Comments on [782] Of a flower on May Day

There is too much red today and I feel compelled to add two different colors to an already bloody reddish day. And for the past few weeks, I’ve been adding too many photos about architecture. So, I hope that this is breath of fresh air for you because this ain’t another red rose or red brick.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

Earlier in January, I said that an old building’s facade in Kuala Lumpur is my best shot yet so far this year . Well, it was my best shot until I managed this macro shot of a flower (tag). I don’t know about you but I’ll say, this is a goddamned pretty picture. The shot was taken a little over two weeks ago near Jalan Parlimen where Tugu Negara stands.

I have one problem though – I don’t know the name of the flower. Somebody at Wikipedia suggested that the flower might be yellow toreador (Celosia sristata). A search on Google reveals that it isn’t so. The leaves look too different.

If there is any kind soul who knows the name of the flower, please do tell me!

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

p/s – have you heard of NYSE Hostage? The ad first came up in the New York Times last friday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A mysterious advertisement in Friday’s New York Times accusing the New York Stock Exchange of bowing to terrorist threats has again spotlighted the struggle of controversial animal-testing company Life Sciences Research Inc. to get a listing on the Big Board.

Seems like a new war between animal right activists and the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

pp/s – w00t for the Singaporean opposition:

PAP Not Doing Enough To Forge Close Relations With M’sia – SDA

By Jackson Sawatan

SINGAPORE, April 30 (Bernama) — The opposition Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA) has criticised the People’s Action Party (PAP) over the state of relations between the republic and its neighbour Malaysia.

The economic union sounds good but I still prefer an ASEAN-wide version. But an economic union with Singapore might be the first step in that direction.

So, let’s break some Singaporean anti-democratic law (tag). I endorse this particular Singapore Democratic Alliance’s policy. Singaporeans, vote for the opposition!

Yeah, I’m shouting without really knowing what’s going on down south. Still, having PAP in Singapore (and BN in Malaysia) up at the top for too long is bad for both Singaporeans and Malaysians’ health!

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

ppp/s – our own Rajan seems to have taken interest in Singaporean election. Also, Workers’ Party’s rally. Huge. (via)

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

p4/s – about the flower, two persons at Wikipedia, one at the science reference desk and the other at WikiProject Tree of Life suggest that it might be indeed Celosia cristata. However, the two suggest two different common name; one as earlier, yellow toreador and another cockscomb.

Society

[781] Of P. Ramlee and moving forward

Post author By Hafiz Noor Shams
Post date Sunday, April 30 2006
3 Comments on [781] Of P. Ramlee and moving forward

Last week, Fenomena Seni (tag) – a program on Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) that discusses the state of the arts in Malaysia – created a considerable buzz in the Malaysian blogosphere. I missed the excitement but this week, I caught it on TV and it didn’t disappoint me. The program is rich in vigor and probably, along with Debat Perdana, might herald RTM’s renaissance. Anyway, the topic for this week is about P. Ramlee; the program raises the question, are Malaysians giving P. Ramlee too much credit?

The question was raised in Malay and given that I have problem recalling the exact phrase, I might be guilty of mistranslating the question. But within context, I’m confident that it’s accurate.

For the uninitiated, P. Ramlee is considered by many Malaysians as the greatest actor, director and songwriter Malaysia has ever produced. I don’t want to go too much into why P. Ramlee is great. So, I’ll leave you with an article from the trusty ol’ Wikipedia.

The general sentiment of the show was that P. Ramlee is great and nobody should question that. While the show was running, a survey was conducted and the result was announced at the end. The proposition of the survey is similar to the topic and a little over 80% of the survey correspondents answered no. Though the survey wasn’t scientific, if a scientific survey were conducted instead, I doubt the yield would differ by much.

There were three guests on the show. One of them, Member of Parliament from Sri Gading, Mohamed Aziz, repeatedly said that nobody will be able to match P. Ramlee, reinforcing the 80% opinion. I feel that is an unfortunate conclusion that bares dim future for the Malaysian song and film industry.

If this is the case, then nobody would be able to challenge P. Ramlee’s greatness. Nowhere in the future will Malaysia be able to produce an artist better than P. Ramlee because a majority thinks nobody could match P. Ramlee. Because of this, I feel we are looking too much into the past. We grant P. Ramlee the status of god that today, many of us would feel offended by the slightest suggestion that somebody might be better than P. Ramlee. This is no right mindset to move forward.

If P. Ramlee must be left unchallenged, I fear the Malaysian song and film industry will never improve. All of us are too scared to be better than our predecessors, much less a god. After all, challenging a god is an unthinkable blasphemous act, isn’t it?

Such fear is unfounded and an obstacle to a better Malaysia. That god is the creation of our mind. For each that we created, we could uncreate. It’s important for us to take back the godlike status we have conferred to P. Ramlee, if P. Ramlee is preventing us from moving forward.

Economics Politics & government Sports

[780] Of blue is the color of the day

Post author By Hafiz Noor Shams
Post date Saturday, April 29 2006
No Comments on [780] Of blue is the color of the day

What a wonderful day it is day. It could never go wrong one way or the other because earlier today, there was a match between two English clubs that I feel no love for. One, Chelsea (tag) and the other, Manchester United. Win, lose or draw, I would get to celebrate and celebrate I did. Manchester United got creamed at Stamford Bridge. 3 – 0. Three against nil. Tiga kosong kawan!

Throughout the game, especially in the second half, Manchester United was dominated by Chelsea. It was satisfying. It is satisfying. Of course, the downside is the fact that that win makes Chelsea as the season’s champion, yet again. But I think I can suffer Jose Mourinho’s antic as long as Manchester United gets a beating. Hey, you can’t always get too much of a good thing. So, this tradeoff is just fine by me.

The only pity I felt for anybody between the two teams is for Edwin van der Sar. Too bad he’s an Ajacied, being on the wrong side. And for Rooney too. I don’t like his temper but that injury is much too cruel for a punishment, especially when it’s so close to the upcoming World Cup in June in Germany. I hope his injury is not too serious. I hope that injury won’t prevent him from making to the World Cup.

My goal of the match is definitely Joe Cole’s. The goal is a case of brilliant assessment of the situation. It could be just plain luck but it’s brilliant nonetheless. As for the third goal, it describes Manchester United – a sinking boat. Hooray!

You know what would be better? Liverpool pushing Manchester United into third place.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

p/s – have you ever wondered the correlation between Bush’s approval rating and gas price? Well, wonder no more. The Big Picture explains.

Economics

[779] Of Wikipedia to pay for contributions?

Post author By Hafiz Noor Shams
Post date Friday, April 28 2006
1 Comment on [779] Of Wikipedia to pay for contributions?

Experienced internet users are likely to be familiar with Wikipedia. It’s famous for being “the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.” (tag) It was made even more famous when Nature declares Wikipedia “comes close to Britannica in terms of the accuracy of its science entries.” That’s a victory for the Wikipedian model. Now, there’s a proposal to tweak the model.

A new proposal, called the paid editor job board, started by Cookiecaper earlier this week has generated a firestorm of controversy. The proposal, originally named Wikipedia:Now Hiring, operates on a similar principle to Wikipedia:Bounty Board. However, unlike the Bounty Board, the paid editor job board would pay individual editors for specific Wikipedia contributions, instead of giving a donation to the Wikimedia Foundation.

Controversial? You bet.

I’ve been on English Wikipedia for more than two years now, at least on record. I contribute in return for self-satisfaction and there are more than a million of users like me at Wikipedia. The editors receive no monetary reward whatsoever. Some called it altruism. Whatever it is, our rewards most of the times are recognition by other editors.

Since the current setting is working marvelously so far, it’s not surprising at all to observe a sizable group of people to express strong displeasure against the idea. One of the most common objections is that it goes against the spirit of the project. If you are interested, a list of objections and counterpoints could be read at Reward Board’s talk page.

As for me, I support the notion of paid editors. What swayed me to the aye side is this:

Wikipedians contribute for a variety of reasons, ranging from pure altruism to logorrhea to enjoyment of the work itself. What’s ultimately important is the goal-to write a free, open-content enyclopedia-not the private motivations of the contributors.

Heh. I’m currently working on British Malaya. So, if you’d like to see me work faster on it, how about you paying me?

Politics & government Sports

[778] Of ties with Israel

The other day on Bernama, there was a short writeup about Malaysian diplomatic ties with Israel. In it:

No Intention Yet To Establish Ties With Israel

KUALA LUMPUR, April 24 (Bernama) — Malaysia never had diplomatic links with Israel so far and the government has no intention of changing the status quo in the near future, said the Foreign Ministry’s Parliamentary Secretary Ahmad Shabery Cheek.

“This is because Tel Aviv is yet to fulfil certain conditions, therefore there is no reason why Malaysia should review its current stand,” he said in reply to Salahuddin Haji Ayub (PAS-Kubang Kerian) at the Dewan Rakyat here, Monday.

It’s a no and I agree with it.

Despite that, I feel it would be ideal if Malaysia could befriend every country in this world without prejudice; that includes Israel. All else being equal, ties between the two countries would benefit both. I’m sure Malaysia has something to learn from Israel and Israel likewise.

This isolation by Malaysia prevents economic opportunity that could arise from the Malaysian-Israelis ties from developing. At the same time, seven ASEAN members have diplomatic relations with Israel. If an Israeli firm wanted to invest in Southeast Asia, the firm would have to cancel out Malaysia and consider our neighbors instead. That would be opportunity lost; Malaysia’s loss is somebody else’s gain.

My wish to see ties with Israel however doesn’t mean I support many Israeli policies. I disagree with Israel withholding the Palestinian taxmoney and landgrab the resulted from the separation barrier.

Despite possible benefits that might arise from Malaysian-Israeli relations, the world is not an ideal place. If Malaysia were to form ties with Israel, many would not be too happy about it. I’d imagine several Muslim countries would impose punitive measures on us. The simplest would Saudi Arabia to reducing haj quota for Malaysia. A more serious measure would involve economic restriction. Worse, I’d hate to see Osama bin Laden or any Muslim extremist for that matter to even speak of Malaysia, threatening us of an attack.

At the moment, it does seem to me that the cost of forming ties with Israel outweighs its benefits. I don’t think an Israeli embassy here in Kuala Lumpur is worth risking peace that at home and Muslim countries’ friendship that we enjoy currently. Hence, I can only agree with the Foreign Ministry’s Parliamentary Secretary; no ties with Israel. At least for now.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

p/s – Ajax 2 – 0 Groningen. First leg is won. Second leg in the Euroborg. Despite the 100% win so far in the playoff, according to De Telegraaf, Danny Blind is on his way out. Some are skeptical about that report though. As for me, I’m not sure about letting Blind or even retaining him for that matter. This season is a disappointment though some very good signings have been made by Blind for the new season.