What if Indonesia’s proposed Nuclear plants go..BOOM!!

Over the last several years, Indonesia has announced plans to build nuclear plants to meet it’s high energy demands. Various sources give different timelines and different number of total plants to be build. According to whom you believe, either the project is in full swing or in the prelimnary stages.

Check out the story here and here.

 Was wondering if something were happen to Indonesia’s proposed nuclear plants, that is, do  a Chernobyl. Since even the haze affects the whole of S.E.A to such a bad extent, how bad would a nuclear fall-out be..

This bad..

The yellow cloud refers to the fallout. You can find the all images of the fallout from day 1 to day 360 here. And this is the study that came along with it.

Scary stuff heh.. Basically whole of S.E.A is a goner, with the fallout and radiation fields reaching up to cover parts of India, China and Australia. And since the Straits of Malacca is the world’s second busiest shipping lane(topped only by Dover Straits) you can expect the world economy to suffer a beating.

 Scary Stuff..

Freedom of Speech and Press? At what extent?

This gruesome picture greeted me when I read yesterday’s edition of New Paper.

The story behind this photo can be found here.

Basically, the 2 Russian were shot by an unknown gunman in Pattaya, a prominent and well known tourist attraction in Thailand. As for why, investigations are still going on, with theories ranging from robbery to mafia related killings to prostitution.

But that’s not the reason why i am blogging about this. This is my question, should these pictures be published on a newspaper that is accessed by many and whose main target is teenagers and young adults? Sure, I agree freedom of Speech and Press is indeed important, but at what price and what extent, do tell..

Any newspapers role and job is to bring news to the masses, but i feel that some discretion needs to be taken. Look at the photo again. Two females dead, surrounded by police officers (i presume), not even fully covered up, faces not blurred, body and clothes still bloody.

From what i see, that is like giving them another kick even though they dead. Firstly, should media journalists be allowed so near the scene of crime in the first place? Why didn’t the authorities bother to at-least cover up the face and body of deceased? And finally it seems to me that the officers in the photo are like posing for the camera.

Would the family members of the deceased appreciate this? Would they want this image to be the last image they remember? This image is very much like meat hanging upside down in a butcher’s shop, a parade of flesh. Just digusting.

Just had a thought, if i am so against these images, then why am i publishing it on my blog. Well, there in is the difference. One is print media meant for the masses, which is able to influence and affect the hundreds of thousands of readers. And the other is an online media. This arguement about print vs online has been argued many times and i don’t wish to go in there.

Only in Singapore…

 One of the reasons why I started this blog was to comment on the quirks of life in Singapore and the many reasons why I love Singapore so much. (I said Singapore, didn’t mention anything about the government though)

So here is my own list of facts and observations which never fails to bring a smile to my face everytime i think of it. And also makes me think twice.

 1) Only in Singapore do you see a lion dance troupe entirely made of non-Chinese performing in front of shops and hawker centres to receive ‘ang pows’.  Seems like Singaporeans of all races have embraced each other religions and traditions. Or could the fact that the Straits Times reported that up to $760,000 worth of ‘ang pow’ is up for grabs in this CNY period for lion dance troupes.. Hmm..

2) Only in Singapore do people reserve seats at food courts using tissue papers. I never believed this, and took this to be a myth, until I saw it myself and was shocked. And the interesting thing is, I’ve only seen this habit in the slightly more ‘posh’ food courts frequented by working professionals and never in the noisy,smelly but wonderful mega-hawker centres.

3) Only in Singapore do people pay so much attention to their palette that even though they work at Pasir Panjang, they go to Ghim Moh to try out the famous char kway teow for lunch on Mondays,  to Changi to try out the famous Nasi Lemak on Tuesdays, to Holland Village for the famous ‘Ipoh Hor Fun’ on Wednesdays, to Toa Payoh for the famous duck rice on Thursdays and finally to the local cafeteria on Friday because of too much work piled during the weekday while hunting for food.

4) Building on from point 3, Only in Singapore do people queue at a certain kway teow,nasi lemak,horfun,duck rice stall just because Makansutra,Food places Lost and Found,The Straits Times or their well informed security guard uncle said it was good. Even though there are about 3  other stalls nearby selling the same food. And even though the queue is about 10 people long while the other 3 stalls are empty, because Singaporeans simply must eat the food from the original source.

5) Only in Singapore do people join a queue just because there are others in the queue. Think of HDB allocation of flats, Toto, the famous shop selling the original (insert food name), and Hello Kitty. Think we have a over-ride program in our heads, “If x number of people queue at a certain place, whatever they are queueing for must be good and hence I have to join in and if not, I risk losing out on something which I don’t even know what it is about in the first place”.

6) Only in Singapore do you have ‘void decks’, which is quite a oxymoron because these’decks’ are hardly ‘void’. Because one week have Chinese funeral, the next having a Malay wedding, the next having a party and a get to know the ‘residents who do not know you or vote for you, but have no choice because there was no contest at the latest General Elections’ session for the MP of an un-named political party.

7) And finally, (for the time being), Only in Singapore do children play soccer in these ‘void decks’ even though there is a  ’No playing football’ sign. All the dribbling around the pillars, avoiding hitting people walking past, running helter-skelter once someone spots a police car and getting a earful from a concerned citzen certainly does wonders for the Singapore national team. Last time i played, whoever hit the above mentioned sign got a point extra.

Yet another way to spend your time at work.

Found another cool site to waste utilize my time at work.  This not considered wasting time or wasting resources. Just letting my creative juices flow so as to increase overall productivity. Right.. I’m sure..

 www.friv.com

Go Knock Yourself Out!!

The Case of Two articles i found in the Straits Times

Recently Mootz-Man has been following the local news quite with quite a bit of interest, especially with all the Singapore bashing going on. And so as i was reading The Straits Times, 22/2/2007 edition, I came across a certain article. It was regarding the recent blanket ban of export of sand from Indonesia to Singapore, and releated stories.

Since I do not subscibe to the online Straits Times, I have to summarize.

‘Top Jakarta lawmaker: Send back S’pore envoy’, Parlimentary Speaker suggests move as protest against Republic’s ‘unfriendly’ acts. 

 So, this guy says Singapore has committed some ‘unfriendly acts’ and government should send back the ambassador as a sign of protest. Also went on to say that Singapore land reclaimation projects could affect Indonesia’s maritime borders. The article went on say that the ban of export of sand was actually an attempt to pressure Singapore on issues related to border talks and extradition treaty.  The article goes on to include the Indonesian Foreign Minister official statement.

So all’s well and swell, except for that the next article to catch my eye was titled, “More Singapore aid for victims of Jakarta floods”, with a photo and corresponding caption that goes, ‘Help from Singapore: Singapore Ambassador for Indonesia so-and-so handing a box of supplies to Indonesian Health Minister so-and-so’

What a irony hey? One article bashing Singapore and asking for the ambassador to be sent back, while another one shows the same ambassador giving out relief supplies. Maybe they were sending army combat rations over, sure that would qualify as an ‘unfriendly act’.

It’s times like this that I am  happy that we have a good team running our country. One that appears united, does not shoot it’s mouth off or shoot itself in it’s own foot. Ignore whatever democratic shortcomings we may have, just glad that the Singaporean government has kept its cool and not responded to what may seem childish tauntings by our neighbours.

*clap,clap*, *clap,clap,clap*, *clap,clap,clap,clap* SINGAPORE!!

The Case of Soccer teams threatening to walk out on matches.

The Adventures  of MootzMan continues,

 In this episode, Mootzman has just learnt that in yesterday’s Champions League match, in which Man U played Lille, Lille almost walked out of the pitch in protest of the only goal of the match. Seems like Ryan Giggs took his 83rd minute free-kick a bit too soon for the Lille keeper to finish organising his wall. And in the choas that followed, the Lille team did a Thailand, i.e walk to their coaches’ booth to the sidelines and wait.

Come on man, what happened to the ‘Beautiful Game’? Since when is walking out a option for coaches?

Imagine this;  Coach: “OK boys, we’ve trained hard, we know where our opponents are weak at, done our homework. So we’ll play the 4-4-2 formation. If we are a goal up, we change to a 4-5-1 formation to bolster up our defence. Alright? Lets go, go,go!! Oh, and if by some random chance we fall back by a goal, just protest and walkout, I’ll think of something in the meanwhile.”

 I’m no soccer pundit, nor do I claim to be an expert. But walking out smacks full of disrespect for your opponents, the people watching the match, the officials, even to yourself and the Game at large. If a penalty is given and you think it’s not fair, sure by all means bring up a protest to the referee. But not to the extend of rough-handling the officials or walking out. Because either way, you still lose. To quote my learned friend from army, ‘Lan, Lan, Suck Thumb lor.. Boh Pian mah..’

So until FIFA decides to use superiors methods such as this weird thing called technology to make critical decisions, mistakes will still be made. After all referees are only human. But I do agree that the flow of the game might be affected as compared to sports such as cricket or tennis where camera technology is a integral part of the game. Hmm.. well that’s FIFA’s problem.

The Chronicles of the Adventures of Mootz-Man, Episode 1, The Case of the New Blog and the Lost Handphone.

A new start, I have been finally hooked on to the blogging bandwagon, although Wikipedia says that the trend is going down. Well better late than never. Actually, i lied.This is my 2nd attempt. The first attempt went down in smokes and i am in the process of abandoning it as it resembles more of a complain and venting-out-frustration-feedbox.

And so i decided to call myself Mootz-Man, a nickname given to me by one of my army buddies, who co-incidentally calls himself Super-Man. See, at-least got some originality mah.. Not say i ripped off other famous names and call myself ‘Mr.Black’, or ‘Popanehru’ or ‘Ziazue’. On a side note, any resemblance to anyone living or dead is purely co-incidentally and just a figment of my imagination. Pls don’t sue me.. whimper..

 Ahh yes, the case of the Lost Handphone..

A note to all hand phone or mobile phones users as they call it in some places, esp those with the ability to take photos or videos.  Please, please do not misplace or lose your phone if 1) You have taken a *ahem* interesting video involving you and your significant other or 2) you have taken more *ahem* interesting photos of you and your partner in various positions and in various states of undress.  The last thing you need is for the phone to fall into the hands of a ‘chee ko pek’, which it did, and him showing the photos to anyone who would entertain him, which he did and the uncle eventually selling of the phone at a higher price because of added ‘features’, which he did as well.  And i thought people would have gotten more wise after the whole Tammy incident. Well, i guess the temptation is too much. Shan’t post the images here out of self-respect and also because it’s too disgusting. Or maybe i should and get 20,000 hits tmr. Hmm..

 Next Episode: More powers of Mootz-Man revealed, and yet another intriguing chapter of Mootz-Man