Categories
Sports

[1043] Of the Gators ate the Buckeyes alive

Holy shit:

GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Not even close.

Florida — yes, Florida — owned the field it wasn’t supposed to be on, embarrassing Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith and No. 1 Ohio State 41-14 on Monday night to run away with the college football national championship.

I am not sure who is in a more embarrassing situation now — Michigan or Ohio State.

Categories
Conflict & disaster Politics & government

[1042] Of itu banjir…

Today in the New Straits Times:

Fair use. Scanned from NST January 8 2007 by Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams.

Ouch!

The Malay term itu banjir means “that is a flood”.

If the joke is lost on you, see an entry on Eye on Malaysia and another one on what the Prime Minister did during a national disaster for some background.

Heck. Just go and read Bakri Musa’s.

Categories
Economics

[1041] Of Malaysian government spending and private investment in 2007

I was reading the Business Times and I saw this:

In 2007, Malaysia’s GDP is estimated to grow at more than 5.0 per cent. The two key drivers of demand will be higher government spending and an increase in private investments, particularly with the implementation of the 9th Malaysia Plan.

Quiz for students of macroeconomics: with ceteris paribus, what will happen to private investment when the government increases its spending?

Answer: See crowding out at Wikipedia.

Nearly four months ago, the Malaysian Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister announced that his ministry planned to combat shortage with — drum roll please — price ceiling!

Categories
Environment Science & technology

[1040] Of glacial retreat at Puncak Jaya

I am familiar with glacial retreat. To many, the most famous retreat is probably the one occurring at Mount Kilimanjaro of Kenya, Africa. On whether this is a proof of global warming, I will leave you to decide on it.

Kilimanjaro however is perhaps too far away for average Malaysians like me to relate to. Worry not however because there is a closer example of glacial retreat: Puncak Jaya. Puncak Jaya is the highest mountain in Indonesia with the height of 4,884 m. That means it is higher than Mount Kinabalu of Malaysia. It is located in West Papua.

Wikipedia has an animation that illustrates the glacial retreat at Puncak Jaya:

Public domain. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:137.13211E_4.05959S.gif

Nothing less than dramatic, yes?

The entire glacier is expected to melt by 2016, less than 10 years from now.

Where exactly is Puncak Jaya? Thanks to Google, here it is:

Fair use. Copyright by Google.

I hope the familiar features of Borneo and Australia is enough for many to recognize the location of the mountain.

For more similar animations, please visit the provided link to a page at Wikipedia, just before the animation.

If you are wondering what the hell is the hole in the middle of the 2003 picture, it is a copper mine.

Categories
Photography

[1039] Of a morning at a small rubber estate II

As promised.

I had some fun in trying to focus on the object of interest:

Some rights reserved. By Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams.

Here is the focused shot:

Some rights reserved. By Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams.