Suzuka Vol 1 trailer

That is slick.

That is all I can say.

What do we pay our taxes for?

More proof that watching Suzumiya Haruhi makes people unable to spell:



And if you think that is bad, wait till you see this:

"Dragged into Haruhi's distorted world"

"sexually exploited by Haruhi"

On NTV7's website to boot! They've taken it down, but the full archive is here. If this doesn't tell you that Haruhiism is a plague, what will?!

I just have a nit to pick:

"Good looking"?! If she's good looking, then I'm Shun Oguri.

Honestly, what do we pay our taxes for?! This is what the Lembaga Penapis Filem is supposed to stop!

Oh, I know where our taxes went to.

Here.

Something doesn't add up between the NST and the Borneo Post

Sunday, 23 September, from the Borneo Post:

Foul, polluted water!
By Rintos Mail

THE tell-tale signs are evident, especially on a dry day. The residents don’t need to be environmentalists or specialists in water quality to know how polluted the river is.

The unpleasant smell and murky surface of the water as well as the presence of polluted drains and tributaries meandering into the river, are sufficient to let the residents in the know.

thesundaypost, after receiving public complaints, took a trip up to Siniawan Bazaar for a first-hand look at the condition of the water that flows into the reservoir there, and later to trace the possible sources of pollution to the river — the main source of raw water for residents along Bau Road.

The smell and turbidity indicate that pollution in the waters of Siniawan River need urgent attention. The contaminated water appears to have been channelled into the drinking water supply system.

Water is undoubtedly the most precious natural resource but though aware of this, it seems that we still constantly pollute our rivers, lakes and oceans.

So we are slowly but surely harming our water sources, which will eventually affect our drinking water.

The major causes of polluted water are sewage, chemicals from factories, fertilisers from farms, and landfills that leak.

Like those in most other states, rivers in Sarawak are less known for their beauty or cleanliness.

The water from many rivers in the State, especially the major ones, is not fit for consumption before treatment.

What are the causes of pollution in rivers? Who are the culprits? How do these sources of pollution come about?

In some areas, the water used by the people is either discharged from treatment plants, reservoirs or comes from nearby rivers and streams.

The Siniawan River appears a good case in point.

One of the major causes of river pollution, which could also have given rise to serious environmental problems in the area, is pollutants discharged from animal farms, slaughter houses and landfills.

These animal farms and slaughterhouses are pouring organic wastes into streams and drains flowing into the Siniawan River through small streams and drains.

Since organic wastes are decomposed by micro-organisms, much of the dissolved oxygen in water is used up and the waste water tends to stink.

During our visit, we saw an abattoir, two poultry farms and a goat-cum-free range chicken farm located near the area. The wastes from these places are believed to be drained into the Siniawan River through streams and the drainage and irrigation system.

Further in, along Jambusan Road, are at least three pig farms discharging wastes directly into Sungai Sibong and villagers in the area claim the soiled water flows into the river.

Animal husbandry and urbanisation with strong trend towards residential development in the area are believed to have aggravated the quality of the river water.

Aside from water pollution, environmental problems that arise from the livestock industry include the generation of foul odours and the release of ammonia and other noxious gases into the atmosphere.

“The polluted water in Sungai Sibong is obvious during a long drought. The water looks black and smelly. When it rains, the smell is washed away but the water remains turbid,” a resident noted.

Before we reached the livestock farms, about 5km from the main Bau Road, we noticed a dumpsite or landfill opposite Kampung Skiat Lama.

Although there is no evidence the landfill contributes to water pollution, many experts believe dumpsites pollute water, and liquid seeping from the waste can contaminate ground water or nearby streams.

It is said that one third of known cases of polluted groundwater (water entering the ground instead of running on the surface) is caused by landfills.

Other causes, found everywhere, are household sewage, and personal care as well as household products.

Since no one wants to live in a polluted area near a dumpsite or landfill, the waste water and untreated sewage usually find their way into different bodies of water which get polluted.

Shampoos, lotions, moisturisers, hair dyes, bleaches, laundry detergents, fabric softeners and many others contribute to water pollution.

Human waste is not the only thing that goes into sewage. It also collects waste water two contaminate streams, rivers and lakes.

Water pollution becomes most obvious and dangerous when it poisons drinking water or causes the death of a large number of fish or other aquatic life.

This could be caused by sewage. Disposal of wastes into large volume of water could reduce the biological oxygen demand to such a great extent that the entire oxygen may be removed, causing many fish species to perish.

As the water in the river was not clear during the visit, it was impossible to tell whether there were fish in the Siniawan River and its tributaries.

It was also not possible — without lab tests — to tell whether the river water or that from the treatment plant in Siniawan contained health-threatening substances.

There is a standard process to purify water. For example, at Batu Kitang, raw water is pumped from the river to the treatment plant where it undergoes the conventional treatment process of coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, filtration, disinfection, flouridation, stabilisation, pH adjustment, and storage and distribution.

Coagulation is done by the alum-lime process and disinfection by chloramines. Flouridation has been practised since 1966, and the fully treated water is pumped to the various reservoirs and service tanks in Kuching for distribution (Kuching Water Board website).

Water purification is the process of removing contaminants from a raw water source. The goal is to produce water for a specific purpose with a treatment profile designed to limit the inclusion of specific materials. Most water is purified for human consumption.

Disinfection is normally the last step in purifying drinking water. Water is disinfected to kill any pathogens which pass through the filters. Possible pathogens include viruses and bacteria.

The most common disinfection method is some form of chlorine or its compounds such as chloramine or chlorine dioxide. Chlorine is a strong oxidant that kills many micro-organisms. Although chlorine is effective in killing bacteria, it has limited effectiveness against protozoans that form cysts in water, and because chlorine is a toxic gas, there is a danger of a release associated with its use.

Chloramines are another chlorine-based disinfectant. Although chloramines are not as strong as an oxidant or are a reliable residual as compared to chlorine gas or sodium hypochlorite, they are less prone to form trihalomethanes or haloacetic acids.

Water distribution systems disinfected with chloramines may experience nitrification wherein ammonia is used as a nitrogen source for bacterial growth with nitrates being generated as a by-product (en.wikipedia.org).

Governments usually dictate the standards for drinking water quality, and there are standards and rules in Malaysia and Sarawak on the supply of water to consumers.

The more relevant ones are the National Guidelines For Drinking Quality 1983 issued by the Health Ministry.

The criteria and standards are generally based on the World Health Organisation (WHO) Drinking Water Quality Guidelines, 1982.

Among other requirements, the guidelines state: “Drinking water must be clear, colourless and odourless.

It must be pleasant to drink and free from all harmful micro-organisms, chemical substances and radio-nucleides in amounts which could constitute a hazard to the health of the consumers.”

However, although the water channelled from rivers to our water supply does go through all the standard processes, there are limits to what can be done to purify the water.

thesundaypost made several attempts to contact the authority which operates the Siniawan water supply but all to no avail.

The problem is the water in the drains and tributaries that flow into the Siniawan River, and pumped to the treatment plant, smells. And smell indicates that pollution in the water is at a “serious level.”

Consumers there, therefore, could not help but wonder if their water supply is really safe for consumption.

And 4 days later, spotted in the New Straits times:

Have will, can get clean rivers

28 September, 2007

KUCHING: Sungai Siniawan and Sungai Sarawak Kanan in Bau district have an image to protect - they are considered among the cleanest rivers in Sarawak. Their water is now crystal clear. The pig farms that polluted the rivers in the past have toed the line drawn by the Natural Resources and Environmental Board (NREB).

There are between 20,000 and 30,000 pigs in Siniawan.

Sungai Siniawan, which flows into Sungai Sarawak Kanan, is an example how a river can be rehabilitated. It used to be heavily polluted.

NREB officials took samples of water discharged from Yin Yan Pig Farm into Sungai Siniawan on Monday, and found the Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) over five days was recorded at 51.2mg per litre of water. This is well below the maximum 250mg/l under the water quality standard for the country.

The Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) of the samples taken from the river on Monday indicated that it was 299.8mg/l as against the maximum of 1,000mg/l under the Malaysian standard.

The Total Suspended Solid (TSS) was recorded at 141.7mg/l, which was below the 300mg/l permitted by the Malaysian standard.

“Talk that Sungai Siniawan is heavily polluted is untrue,” state government environmental adviser Datuk Dr James Dawos Mamit said yesterday.

Samples taken from Sungai Sarawak Kanan also showed that its water was free from pollution.

Results of analyses from samples taken on June 28 at five different points in Sungai Sarawak Kanan showed that the BOD, COD and TSS were below the permitted quality levels.

Dawos, who is the Mambong MP, and some NREB officials had gone to the Yin Yan Pig Farm on Monday to take samples of its discharge.

He said the farm had followed the guidelines issued by the NREB, such as construction of four lagoons and other facilities to keep its premises clean and tidy.

The lagoons are used to separate waste from the water.

“You can see that the water at the fourth lagoon is clear and ready to be discharged into the river.”

Dawos said the state government had realised the need to regulate livestock farms in Sarawak because many of them were found to be discharging waste into the rivers.

As a result, the Veterinary Public Health Ordinance was enacted by the state legislative assembly in 1999.

Dawos said the state government gave the livestock breeders a grace period of five years to meet the requirements and conditions stipulated by the ordinance.

“Although we knew that many pig farms, for example, in Siniawan, were polluting the rivers, we did not take action against them. We gave them time to meet the requirements and, at the same time, we told them what they should do with their farms.”

Nevertheless, he said some farms were fined when they were slow in meeting the requirements.

“Now, however, all of them have toed the line.”

Under Part V of the ordinance pertaining to livestock farming, any farm with 100 head of cattle, pigs or goats and any farm with 1,000 chickens, ducks or geese is required to have a licence issued by the state veterinary authority to operate.

Any person operating a farm without the licence faces a penalty of RM5,000 or two years’ jail or both .

On regulations concerning the environment, the ordinance gives powers to the NREB to act.

Dawos said based on these powers, the NREB required all pig farms to submit a half-yearly report to it pertaining to the pig population, among others.

It's one thing having a lame ass press. Its another thing when the "lame ass press" can't even agree if a river is polluted or not. One says that "[locals] don’t need to be environmentalists or specialists in water quality to know how polluted the [Siniawan] river is", while the other praises it for being "the cleanest rivers in Sarawak".

I'm not pointing fingers yet, in the same way that I don't think Odex got their translations from a third party source, but something is wrong when our papers can't agree on simple issues like if the river is polluted or not.

Brisbane views

We will now (try to) resume normal programming.


Reason #8467843 why you shouldn't use Windows: it can be embarassing



Spotted at the Mater Hill busway station


Spotted at the Garden City Busway station: a visit Malaysia 2007 bus


I'm not sure if it does any good through.


The glorious 4 lane highway heading to Gold Coast. I swear, it looked wider than this picture gives it credit for.


Cloudy sunset, but no rain.


Yes, there is a place called Tanah Merah in Brisbane!


Ikea! Seen en route down to Gold Coast.

School Rumble montage

As per usual, click on the images for the bigger picture.


Ep 5.


I swear, I did not go dumpster diving outside Studio Comet.



Ep 12


What is it with the, um, uniform?

I'd be thankful, but not THAT thankful!


And what is it about 165?!

中,日,英 covers

From the Chinese version


From the original Japanese version


From the Tanoshimi version.

They really did skimp on color.

Stop! Please! Stop!

School Rumble Volume 1, chapter 6

Honestly, I do feel like Harima (at bottom left) now and then.



Scanlations do no justice to it.

Don't worship false Yakumos

Seriously.


School Rumble 二学期 ep 15.


Does anyone here understand Azumanga Daioh?


If you think this was bad, whats with the apple crushing?


Still, 天满超可爱！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！

Yakumo! What's dragging you down the hallway?!

School Rumble volume 2. Click to see the bigger picture.

"Like hell I will do the wave!"

School Rumble volume 1: character profile comparision

天满超可爱！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！


Yes, that is my thumb.


First, came Volume 2.

Then, the Volume 5 trading cards

Now, I present: School Rumble volume 1 character profile comparison!

Read more!

Harima Vision(TM) reloaded

Reality. As seen by 99.99% of the world.


Reality. As seen by Sawachika Eri.


Tenma, viewed through Harima vision (TM)

Harima vision is scary!

Ever wondered what the cover really said?

Volume 1 of School Rumble, the very first page:



Well, if you can read Chinese:



But, being the monolingual anglophile we are, we need something a bit more descriptive. So:


Click on image to see the full thing.

I'm not sure if "Are these feelings that you can't feel?" = "你是否也会感觉到类似的心情呢？” through.

对不起拉。。。我只会写简体。。。

Interesting things about my notebook

Was going through some of the details of my notebook with Cpu-Z, when I saw this:


Normal manufacturing date: December of 2005. Which is about right.


Guess what? The second RAM module is/will be built in 2036! Look mum, I've got a piece of the future!

Review: School Rumble Volume 5 trading cards

Starting from Volume 4 of the School Rumble manga, something called character trading cards were introduced. Despite their name, they are just pages in the manga, to quote Wannabe Wiki:

There are numerous pages in the manga that depict character trading cards. Each "card" shows a set of abilities and a pentagon power grid of the character. This is just some trivia information thought up by the author Kobayashi Jin himself.

So what else? I did another comparison!



Read more!

Harima vision is scary

Seriously. School Rumble 二学期 ep 12:


Reality. As seen by 99% of the world.



Tenma as viewed through Harima vision (TM)

I've honestly never felt so sorry for a 不良 in my entire life.

The subs need some more exclaimation marks through.

Coming soon: School Rumble ep 5 in English

It does rock. Seriously.

No prizes for guessing which screenshot came from where.

The great journey: AirAsia X in Gold coast!

Now that the dust has settled from the AirAsia X announcement that they are looking at Gold Coast as their first destination, lets look at the practical bit.

When AirAsia announced their plan to go international, forums were abuzz with "we can go back 3 times a year!" conversations. But can we?

First, a geography lesson: AirAsia is not flying to Brisbane Airport. They are flying to Coolangatta Airport. And its not near.


Brisbane at the top, Coolangatta at the bottom.

Geographically, its about 110km from Brisbane. Or just slightly more than an hours drive. But thats assuming that you have a car or someone to send you in the first place.

One would have thought that Brisbane airport, with their half-hourly airtrain service, would be a logical point for budget travelers, who would prefer public transport. But instead, when they land at OOL, they'd have to get a taxi. Which at A$1.10 flagfall and $2.50/km, is probably going to be almost as expensive as flying here in the first place.


OOL is an interesting airport in that one end is in QLD and the other end in NSW. So in summer, walking from one end of the runway to the other end, you kinda gain or loose an hour, depending on where you start.


Click to see larger picture.

Its probably fitting, as Tweed Heads is where most people go and usher in the new year twice. The town in divided by Main Street; one side is in QLD, the other in NSW. So people call in the new year on the NSW side first, party like mad, then cross the road, and do it all over again on the QLD side. Some one needs to find where QLD, NSW and SA meet; then they would be able to usher in the new year 3 times! :D

Public transportation to OOL is poor as far as I can see. The closest is Robina. Trains depart Central to Robina every half-hour or so, and it takes about an hour and half to get to Robina, one way setting you back $11 (which doesn't sound too bad, as the airtrain is also $11 one way to BNE). From Robina is still a 20km journey to OOL. So if you thought getting to KLIA was far, its going to be worst with OOL. My guess is that people will need at least 2.5 hours just to get from Brisbane to OOL.

Thats even longer than fighting my way down the causeway!

Personally, I hope that AirAsia X fails. Only because the low-cost model doesn't work with long haul. Seriously, just getting to and from the airport is an adventure in itself! Just thinking about makes me want to say "I'm going to need a holiday after that!".

The anti-Haruhiism movement is going places!

Slow and steady wins the race.

What is the world coming to!?!?!?!?!?!?

Disclaimer: the following post may be controversial, insulting and disturbing to some. If you have no or little interest in anime, I strongly suggest you give this post a miss. This is my site, and I will not tolerate any critism that is unjustified and unwarranted by anyone who does not have any facts to back themselfs up.

You have been warned. I Timothy do not claim responsibility for anything that happens if you read beyond this line.



Was reading Otakuzone a few days back, when I came across the usual Top 10 anime in Malaysia ending for the week of 26 Aug. Something caught my eye.


Specifically, item no 8.

Yes, "Otome Ha Oboku Sama Ni Koishi".

That sounded familar. So familar. Too familar in fact, that is set off alarm bells in my head.

A quick search later, and I saw this:

Yes, that is a "tulen" sticker on the bottom right.


ITS A TRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

処女はお姉さまに恋してる!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let me translate that into Chinese= 乙女爱上姐姐。

乙女 = girl, maiden
爱上 = fall in love with
姐姐 = elder sister

。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Essentially, its a story of a boy (yes, someone with a XY chromosome) who is sent to a all girls school thanks to his late grandfathers will. Only problem is, he's, er, male, and when was the last time you saw a male student in St Mary? So he has to dress and er, act like a girl.

Suddently, having a law that says people over 90 should not be allowed to change their will sounds like a good idea fater all.

To make things worst, take a look at what the seller/distributer is saying:


Yes, apperently getting a sticker from the Censorship board is now a selling point.



And believe me, they're not kidding.

Let me this straight: we are not allowed to hold hands with our girlfriends when walking in the KLCC park, but we allow a questionable anime through to be the top 10 best selling anime according to The star.

Its all the fanboys I tell you. As I said, their questionable slogans don't inspire much confidence. Honestly, didn't alarm bells start ringing when they saw the cover?!

Honestly, what is the world coming to?! Am I the last person alive on this earth thats sane?