Santa Pictures

Tags: Christmas, Santa Claus, Funny, Humour

Innovation, Research & New Technologies

Six of Univesiti Sains Malaysia's professors did the country proud by winning in their respective categories in the recent 55th World Exhibition of Innovation, Research & New Technologies held in Brussels, Belgium from 25 to 27 Nov 2006.

Following are the winners:-
* School of Biological Sciences lecturer, Prof Darah Ibrahim, beat 350 scientists to win the Jury’s Best Award and a gold medal for her invention called Fermsostat
* Prof Rahmah Noordin (who won the World International Property Organisation Special Award and gold medal)
* Prof Chan Lai Keng (gold)
* Associate Prof R. Sureswaran (gold)
* Azlan Osman (gold)
* Dr Mohd Rizal Arshad (silver)
* Dr Kamal Zuhairi Zamli (silver)

Brussels-Eureka's public exhibition drew more than 500 participants from more than 30 countries which presented about 600 innovations.

I wonder why the Malaysian newspaper only highlighted USM's achievements but not other Malaysians who have obtained top prizes in the same Brussels Eureka. The following Malaysian participants also gained Awards for their efforts:-

* Gold medal with mention given by the Jury to Malaysia
Invention: Compressed Natural Gas Direct Injection Passenger Vehicle
Inventor: Barkawi Sahari, Fakhru'l Razi Ahmadun, Yusoff Ali, Shahrir Abdullah, Ishak Aris (all UKM), Masjuki Hj. Hassan (UM), Muhd. Adlan Abdullah (PRSS), V. Chelliah (Petronas), Mohd. Fauzy Ahmad (Proton), Norman Mariun (UPM), Chuah Teong Guan

* Price of Christian DUPONT, Belgian Minister of the Public Function and Social Integration
Invention: Low Cost Solid Propellant Rocket
Inventor: Wan Mazlina Wan Mohamed, Mohd Izmir Yamin & Mohd Nizar Zainaldin

* Prize of COMINTERN (I wonder why this word was used as this word is related to COMmunist INTERNational. Even by doin a search via Google / Webster / Wikipedia, it's all related to communism)
Invention: Non-Destructive Microwave Technique for Characterization of Transdermal Patch
Inventor: Wong Tin Wui, Mohd Nasir Tai, Nor Khaizan Anuar & Deepak K. Ghodgaonka

* Price of Polish Association of Inventors given by the Vice President Adam Rylski
Invention: Compressed Natural Gas Direct Injection Passenger Vehicle
Inventor: Barkawi Sahari, Fakhru'l Razi Ahmadun, Yusoff Ali, Shahrir Abdullah, Ishak Aris (all UKM), Masjuki Hj. Hassan (UM), Muhd. Adlan Abdullah (PRSS), V. Chelliah (Petronas), Mohd. Fauzy Ahmad (Proton), Norman Mariun (UPM), Chuah Teong Gua
Tags: Innovation, Research, New Technologies, Science, Brussels Eureka, Belgium, Exhibition, Awards, Technology

Trip Down South III

You must be wondering whether this is the longest road above the sea by now..... there should be some rainfall over the last few days here and there's water ponding now. The weird thing is that seepage of water into the land over here takes quite some time. Tough land. One lonely tree.....must be the toughest of all trees
Out of nowhere along the main road down south, this mosque sprang up. Right after this mosque is a major town called Rabak (I think this is how they spelt it).
Can't take a closer picture than this on the Nile River at the far end of the land. Yeah, the Nile River runs paralel to this main road right down to the project site.
Main mode of transport, kids can 'drive' over here.
It's not an army camp, it's a village itself.

To be continued

Tags: Journal, Life, Diary, Travel, Sudan, Desert, Nile River

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Tags: Advertisements, Posters, Pictures

Into The Blue - movie review

Into The Blue - starring Paul Walker & Jessica Alba. Paul with Jessica welcomed Paul's long time pal with his girlfriend tagging along too. Paul brought them for skin diving off the Bahamas Island's coast. Really fantastic underwater movie. Diving is my passion to but due to lack of partners, it's quite impossible to go for frequent dives back home at Malaysia's fantastic islands.

On one of the skin diving trips, the four of them discovered some artefacts that could be traced back to some sunken ships. Co-incidentally, they found an airplane with the pilots still strapped to their seatbelts, dead. On discovering further, they found nicely wrapped boxes of drugs in the plane. Due to greediness, these 2 friends took a boat trying to take those drugs for themselves. Unfortunately, they bumped into 2 groups of drug dealers who were looking for the stuff too.

See, don't be too greedy if it doesn't belong to you. Be contended with your life like Paul and Jessica. Paul was dragged into retrieving the goods as his friends were held captive. Not much of suspense but still a 'watchable' movie. To me it was good enough.
Tags: Movie, Review, Cinema, Into The Blue, Paul Walker, Jessica Alba, Bahamas

DOA: Dear Or Alive - movie review

DOA: Dead Or Alive - starring Natassia Malthe, Jaime Pressly, Devon Aoki, Brian J. White & Holly Valance. The show started with 3 girls, one princess wanting out from her clan of warriors to look for her lost brother, another one was sun bathing but kicked the butts of pirates from hijacking her yacht. Lastly, this pretty lass (Christie is the character's name which I admire her beauty a lot) was an assasin and professional thief. While escaping from their various challenges, a flying DOA metal piece came right before their eyes. Apparently they were invited to a martial arts competition organised by a syndicate.

Around a dozen of them were brought to an island to fight it off and a US$10M winning purse awaits them. It's just like the famous Streetfighter video arcade game where 2 will fight and the loser will leave the competition. The competition came to standstill when the 3 main girls and the princess' protector/bodyguard qualified for the last 4. While the pro thief plots to steal the winning purse, the princess suspectd that her brother was kept as prisoner on the island too.

The whole movie is filled with superb martial arts and kung fu skills. I admire such skills. Without a doubt, Christie's beauty too. The owner of the syndicate was actually planning to master his martial art skills too, not by learning it but through unorthodox way. Plenty of actions throughout the movie. No boring scenes.
Tags: Movie, Review, Cinema, DOA, Dead Or Alive, Martial Art, Kung Fu

Trip Down South II

Desert land strewn across the large portion of Sudanese land. Villages do exist along the main road going down south. Some of those village houses are made of clay bricks only or covered with thick straws/haystack. When I mentioned clay, it's like made from water plus those muddy ground stuffed together into a square container made of wood.At the roads here, not only you have to watch out for the cows but also the donkeys, goats, lambs, camels. This lonely donkey walking taking its own sweet time, strolling on the main road. Twin Peaks??? It's actually the place of worship for the muslim community.
To be continued
Tags: Journal, Life, Diary, Travel, Sudan, Clay Brick, Straw, Haystack