All the best to the Malaysian national team. You guys did good the last time. Make it better this time.
I would have gone to Singapore today but the Cameron Highlands trip was a little bit too exhausting for me. Worry not though for my heart and mind are there with you.
Go get ’em Tigers.
I am testing two new plugins. So, let us begin!
In light of current development, if a general election is held in 2008, how many seats in term of percentage would Barisan Nasional control as the result of the election?
Total Voters: 31
Loading ...This survey is not as nearly as scientific at all. So, if there is any statistician wannabe out there, spare me the lecture.
p/s — The Background is probably Third Eye Blind’s most underrated song.
pp/s — this is a sticky post. I intend to keep the poll open until next Friday. And please vote only once. I have taken the necessary basic steps to ensure one vote per unique visitor but it is not too hard to circumvent the rules I (or rather, the author of the plugin) have set in place.
ppp/s — I changed my mind. Until Thursday instead of Friday. I need to make Metblog KL as a sticky post.
I just got back from Cameron Highlands and I can say with confidence, environmental stewardship is meaningless there.
I saw many hills completely striped off of precious trees to make way for agricultural and other developmental purposes. Trash is unmanaged with the river so full of it. Dust as well as the crude sound of heavy vehicles fill the air. Nature has simply been overwhelmed; the rape is merciless.
This is somewhere near the entrance to Bertam Valley, a couple of kilometers away from Ringlet:
Somewhere in between Simpang Pulai and Kampung Raja, a great hill, much prouder than the one in the photo has one of its sides completely trimmed, raped of vegetation for a new highway; from the top all the way down.
Sometimes, I am amazed at the power humanity wields. We shape the world as if we were the gods themselves.
Peace at last?
In the NYT today:
ISRAEL’S newspapers are rife with reports of a peace agreement secretly forged between Israeli and Syrian negotiators. Though both the Syrian and Israeli governments have denied any involvement in the talks, past experience shows that such disavowals are often the first indication of truth behind the rumors.
Certainly, there is nothing new about the details of the purported plan, which involves a staged Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, occupied since 1967, and the full normalization of relations between Damascus and Jerusalem. Nor is there a precedent in the willingness of Israeli and Arab leaders to enter into direct discussions without the participation or knowledge of the United States.
Though an editorial piece, I cannot help but notice that the author mentions Jerusalem instead of Tel Aviv.
Have you ever wondered how Malaysian economic growth correlates with Malaysian carbon emission? Or economic performance against income per capita? Or internet proliferation against telephone proliferation?
Head over to The Gapminder World; another great tool by Google. Kudos to Prof. Mankiw for the discovery!
Just a friendly reminder — be mindful of the golden rule that is correlation is not causation.