I didn't know that..

It's something that you don't need to know, but it's an interesting tidbit to amuse your mind.

The four Goldberg brothers

The four Goldberg brothers, Lowell, Norman, Hiram, and Max, invented and developed the first automobile air-conditioner. On July 17, 1946, the temperature in Detroit was 97 degrees.

The four brothers walked into old man Henry Ford's office and sweet-talked his secretary into telling him that four gentlemen were there with the most exciting innovation in the auto industry since the electric starter.

Henry was curious and invited them into his office. They refused and instead asked that he come out to the parking lot to their car.

They persuaded him to get into the car, which was about 130 degrees, turned on the air conditioner, and cooled the car off immediately.

The old man got very excited and invited them back to the office, where he offered them $3 million for the patent.

The brothers refused, saying they would settle for $2 million, but they wanted the recognition by having a label, 'The Goldberg Air-Conditioner,' on the dashboard of each car in which it was installed.

Now old man Ford was more than just a little anti-Semitic, and there was no way he was going to put the Goldberg's name on two million Fords.

They haggled back and forth for about two hours and finally agreed on $4 million and that just their first names would be shown.

And so to this day, all Ford air conditioners show -- Low, Norm, Hi, and Max -- on the controls. And, that's the truth....

and the link : http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_are_the_Lowell_Norman_Hiram_and_Max_Goldberg

Stop talking nonsense please!!

So the past two days we saw the news about spelling errors in the Malaysia's Expo promotion brochure for World Expo, Shanghai. There are more than 12 spelling errors spotted and today the Minister and PIC of Malaysia World Expo had responded.

Now, I am not very sure what kind of printer that Ministry of Tourism engaged, as far as my little knowledge is concern, for brochure printing all we need is a master copy in Acrobat format and the printing can be done directly from the printer linked to computer or if the quantity is huge, a film will be produced from the Acrobat master. Either way, it did not need the printer to "retype" the whole content as it has been explained by our beloved Minister and PIC. From the personal dealing with China printer, they are quite professional and normally they will produce a digital proof to do last round of checking before actual printing.

To blame Shanghai printer for the error in Malaysia's Expo brochure is a real disgrace and truly embarrassing. The PIC even goes as far as saying "we all know how is the English standard of Chinese in China." Come on, I am pretty sure there are more Chinese in China who speak and write better English than you, dude!!!! So please stop talking nonsense and find out how on earth this sort of errors can happen while we had spend millions of dollar in this expo.

Perhaps we can spend some money to educate and to improve our language skills rather than building that 100-storeys Mega Tower, PM!!!!!

What can we do with 50Billion instead of building 100-storeys Mega Tower? Part 1

So our beloved PM said the reason we want to build that 100-storeys Mega Tower is to proof that Malaysia is a developed and modern nation. Which is super crap, by that standard Malaysia should be the most developed and modern country in the world only behind Dubai. And we can't even compare with our neighbor who has no human resources, zero natural resources and even without drinking water for that matter.

So, we want the world to know us and popularized the name of "Malaysia", what a better way to do it by ... owning the biggest and most powerful brand in the world of sport; Manchester United.

It only cost us 5Billion (10% of the budget) to own this football club and we can have Malaysia printed on every single seats at Old Trafford, in front of the jersey, all the billboards, and we can have Alex Ferguson and the team to come to Malaysia and play for free. Isn't it brilliant?

PS: if we are going to waste money on useless thing, might as well make the most of it.

Climbing Mount Kinabalu the second time around

Climbing Mount Kinabalu for the second time proved much easier than the first time around - mainly because I was more careful about preparing for altitude sickness.

It also meant that I was more interested in taking photographs, and since the clouds were more prominent during this trip (15th-16th Oct 2010), the photographs were a lot better. I borrowed Julian's Lumix for this trip as it was a light camera.

Stayed here at Kinabalu Park.

Accommodation was luxurious this time thanks to a generous benefactor.

along the trail

the vegetation has changed, and there are clouds below by now

kept on bumping into this guy's group - at Laban Rata & the summit

I think that this is the best photo in my 2 climbs of Mt. Kinabalu

The canteen at Laban Rata. Great food, considering that it's on a mountain.

the balcony at Laban Rata

This time around, I ended up in a 3-bed room at Laban Rata with (blessings!!) a hot shower. It felt great !

The hot shower was followed by sleep. This didn't work out well as I woke up shivering at night. Got all the gear on in an attempt to keep warm - sweater, jacket, gloves, winter socks, beanie.

At 0230 hours when I was supposed to start the the climb to the summit, I was feeling a little better, but not by much. I was wondering whether I should even make the attempt ..... I decided to step out and up and see how it went. I could always turn back if I had to.

It worked out well. I was feeling warm after going for 50 meters. The ropes were not a surprise this time around, and the narrow ledge felt like a four lane highway. I didn't feel the effects of the thin air as much as the first time, and reaching the summit was a pretty straightforward affair.

the sunrise 2nd time around wasn't much better than the 1st time

solid as a rock

on the descent

stairway to Heaven

the clouds make for an absolutely dramatic backdrop

Got back to Kinabalu Park at around 2000 hours as I was accompanying a team member. Fortunately, I had packed the head lamps as we were walking in the dark for the last one hour. This time around, there was an additional rest day so reaching Kinabalu Park at night didn't disrupt the schedule.

I guess it was fun. It was definitely beautiful.

@ Kinabalu Park, on the rest day

Seoul Palace The 19 USJ Mall

So we went to the Seoul Palace at The 19 USJ Mall after heard some good review from our friend. The place is nicely decorated.

So, we ordered the most popular dish -- marinated beef, a taufu soup and a seafood pancake. At first all look fine, the drink came and the plate got heat up and ready for action.

The side dishes was served and the dinner was started. But the first bike on the kimchi was a huge let down. It doesn't taste nice, kind of like dry and have a funny taste. That is a huge disappointment, is kind of like a Malay stall who doesn't cook nice tomyam. I didn't even ask for any refill. The Korean barley also taste funny.

Overall the beef was ok, so is the taufu and pancake but nothing spectacular. So, it was just a so so Korean cuisine. And we even have a small company during the dinner which was quite annoying.




Final verdict, we won't be going back for more. Han Woo Ri in Taipan served much better food with cheaper price.

It was just a joke lah.....

So Wayne Rooney had decided to stay at Manchester United for another 5 years. Yes, after all the fuss, he decided to stay. So for those Man United fans who already threw away Rooney shirt, quickly pick it up from the dustbin, hopefully it is still there.

Because we care!!!!

Malaysians saying no to the RM5-Billion 100-storey Mega Tower proposed by PM Najib in the 2011 budget. Malaysia needs better education, better health care, better public transportation, safer neighbourhood, cleaner water, but not taller building. We dont need another white elephant!

Join the page @ http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/1M-Malaysians-Reject-100-storey-Mega-Tower/162774653750749 to show that you care too.

Malaysian ??? is top law student at Cambridge University

The most ironic thing about this news is as usual while Malaysia is so proud of a "Malaysian" achievement at international level, the facts remains that there is nothing "Malaysia" about this guy. Yes, he was born in Malaysia and that is about all. He was studied and sponsored by Singapore government to study in UK, and rightfully (as you may put it) had decided to work in Singapore for the future.

He was not in Malaysia, in the past, now and in the future for whatever reason. So, is that really a Malaysian who is top law student at Cambridge University? Or we should just correct it as Singaporean.

Rising from the depths, the kop.

Don’t despair, Liverpool fans. It doesn’t matter how deep in debt your club is,
you’ll never stalk alone and there is always hope. After all the Chilean miners has all successfully rinsing from the depths in this metal capsule after over two months underground.

Hang On Little Tomato !

I admit that I first saw it here, but this is such a great song !

I think of Paris !

Oktoberfest

Cheers !

"Visitors to the Munich Oktoberfest this year drank their way into the history books by downing an unprecedented 7 million liters of beer ... The impressive list of lost items includes ... a set of dentures, a hearing aid, a leather whip, a live rabbit, a tuba, a ship in a bottle, 1,450 items of clothing, 770 identity cards, 420 wallets, 366 keys, 330 bags and 320 pairs of glasses, 90 cameras and 90 items of jewellery and watches. A total of 37 children were also lost."

- from Spiegel Online article

Reality

This strip so captures the path from idealism to pragmatism. So appropriate, and yet so sad.

十全十美

只是想纪念一下这个特别的日子. 百年一见, 十全十美的一天.

Paparazzi shots

I had just taken these photos of Catriona accessorizing when I was struck by their resemblance to photos of celebrities exiting pubs and clubs after a night out.

The sunglasses themselves have their own story to tell.

We were at the PINKS festival in Penang when I picked them up after nearly stepping on them lying on the grass. Since I didn't know who they belonged to, I left the sunglasses on a table. Dream thought that I had got the sunglasses for Catriona and picked the sunglasses off the table to give to Catriona. And the sunglasses are still with her.

Penang International Kids Storytelling (PINKS Festival)