Misleading Airlines Website

When I was reading an article entitled EU warns airlines over misleading website deals, the sale of air tickets locally are about the same too. It was stated that the European Union's Executive Commission has launched an investigation on a number of European airlines' websites on the following basis:-

* The ticket price is first shown without airport taxes and additional fees;
* Offers promising tickets for free or at a low price, but such tickets are unavailable to the consumer who wants to buy;
* Tick boxes for insurance or additional services are set to 'yes' by default, trapping the consumer into buying unwanted items; and
* General terms and conditions are not provided in the language version used by the consumer during booking procedure - or not available at all in any language.

Airlines that were implicated includes Ryanair, Vueling, Iberia and Spainair. Well, to such profit making entities, their earnings are more important than news of consumers being misled. With the rise of low cost carriers throughout the world, I guess this won't be the end of it, just the beginning.

I did highlight about a similar issue under Misleading Air Tickets Pricing but relating to Malaysia scenario.
Tags: Airlines Website, European Union, Ryanair, Vueling, Iberia, Spainair, Air Ticket, European Airlines

Malaysian Revival Song Competition 2007

The Malaysian Revival Song Competition 2007 ("MRSC 2007") is just round the corner. The finals will be held on 2 December 2007 at the Matrade Hall, Menara Matrade, Jalan Duta (street map available here). Be there to witness songwriters displaying their proficiencies in music.
Activities for that day at Matrade Hall will start from 3pm onwards. Star Maker, the organiser, has lined up the following programmes:-

3PM
- an open mic session, for stand up bands, comedians, singers or performances (15 mins each group). If you are interested, please be there early to book your slot, plug in and play. Simple!
- Food available at Traders Cafeteria.
- Buy your reflective items, claim free gifts and free passes.

5.30PM
- Workshops on "HOW TO RECORD A SONG DEMO" (recommending the most workable and affordable computer software and gadgets to produce a song demo as a finished product in CD)

- Workshop on "LYRIC & MUSIC" (helps to answer questions how to submit song entries for MRSC 2008)

- Health Talk - "What Should I Know To Avoid Kidney Failure" (conducted in Mandarin) by the National Kidney Foundation of Malaysia.

- Health Talk - "What Leads to Confused Sexual Orientation?" is a session for parents, youth counsellors or anyone who wants to be informed of this topic.

6PM
- FREE food at the Traders Cafeteria at the Ground Floor.

6.30PM
You should be making your way into the Matrade Hall (3rd floor) because the Sibuk Sibuk Quiz will start on time (not joking) and this reality show has the easiest to win questions only if you dare to be interactive with the hosts. Prizes like iPOD, mini cooker, vouchers and Motorola mobile phone (rumor has it that it's a L6i worth RM600) are waited to be won. It's so easy that a 10 years old walked away with a hand phone last year.

6.45PM
The celebs and bands, judges will make their way from VIP holding room into the hall. Guess who are the celebs. William Lee and Yasmin Haran will be the emcees for the night.

7.30PM-10PM
Competition begins, get ready to shoot sms to vote.
* Erra Fazira, Vince Chong and Danny One (all songwriter singers) and BLISTER band from Bangkok (winner of MRSC 2006) will be there to sing their songs too.

Call now to 012 335 3511 for FREE passes (conditional and limited) or simply make a donation (anything above RM10) for admission tickets. Walk-in on that day is possible but get your tickets earlier is better. Email us, sms us, call us and we will arrange to give you instruction concerning payment and sending of tickets to you.

Transport wise, please click here for more info.
Tags: Malaysian Revival Song Competition 2007, MRSC 2007, MRSC 2008, Matrade Hall, Menara Matrade, Jalan Duta, Star Maker, Song Demo, National Kidney Foundation of Malaysia, Sibuk Sibuk Quiz, Yasmin Haran, Erra Fazira, Vince Chong, Danny One, Blister

Play to Meet the Needs

Any told you before that while playing you could contribute to the needful. Free Rice, a website that was set-up on 7 October 2007 has this idea of getting website visitors to play a game and if the visitors succeed, donations in the form of grains of rice will be made.

You will asked to provide the meaning of an english word. Four options were given for you to choose. And if you get it correct, 20 grains of rice will be donated to United Nations World Food Program (it was increased to 20 grains per correct answer w.e.f. 28 Nov 2007 compared to 10 grains earlier).

On the first day, 830 grains of rice were "donated". As the website community caught on with this game, people continued to play the game and by 8 November 2007, 77 million grains of rice were gained.

As of today, I have partly contributed 340 grains of rice. Phew! Some of those english words were alien to me. And I can't recall the meaning for some words as we seldom use such words. It was a good way to refresh my english vocabulary. On the point of publishing this blog posting, total grains of rice donated = 4,550,033,230. Find out where the grains of rice will be sent to here.

This genius idea was the brainchild of American online fundraising pioneer John Breen. There is also a sister website under the name of www.poverty.com.
Tags: Free Rice, United Nations World Food Program, World Food Program, Grains of Rice, English Vocabulary, John Breen

Shopping During Big Sales

How often do you go shopping? Be it window shopping or actual buying of stuff you like. Do you go during Big Sales period or you rather shop with peace knowing not many people will patronise those shopping centres during non-peak period.

In Malaysia, during those Mega Sales during mid-year or end of the year holidays, you could sense how big is the crowd just by entering the basement car parks. Normally, I'll drop by Mid Valley for my stuff. But this megamall's car park is definitely not enough for the crowd that it could draw. My worst experience was 30 minutes going round and round.

During those Mega Sales time, you could every shops reducing their prices/giving discounts to clear their stocks in anticipation of the arrival of new stocks. You could see people thronging those lowly priced items but you would still be able to have a look or touch/feel that item to see if it suits you.

Well, in China, Carrefour in Chongqing city had a tremendous shock of their life. As known, Carrefour is famous for buying their goods in bulk which enabled them to sell it to their customers at a lower price. Carrefour displayed a notice staying that vegetable oil would be sold at 39.9 yuan instead of 51.4 yuan for a limited time, a savings of 11.5 yuan (only about US$1.50).

When the news leaked out, huge crowd started to gather for the opening of that particular Carrefour. Not knowing what to expect when the door was opened, the crowd pushed their way in and a stampede occurred. People were pushing their way through and started hunting down the vegetable oil.

End result:-
* 3 customers died
* 31 customers injured
* China government has banned sales promotion with time limitation

Bear in mind, even in a city like Chongqing their population could number a few millions. So, such tragedy if it happens could result in terrible stampede. Stay faraway from those Big Sales if China if you are there. You have no experience in handling such crowd......hehe

Reading: How to avoid another Carrehour stampede - Danwei
Tags: Carrefour, Chongqing, China, Mega Sales, Big Sale

Rioting in France

BERSIH and HINDRAF's demonstration are so far peaceful and with proper objectives.

Really just hope that whatever rally or demonstration being called won't erupted to a free for all situation like what is happening in France now. Riots that begun at Paris has overflowed to Toulouse, a city at Southern France.

It has caused injuries to 80 police officer due to bullet wounds and the streams of flying objects such as stones, fireworks and petrol bombs. Wow, this is really crazy. Malaysia doesn't need this type of riots in order to deliver a message across to the gahmen.

Hopefully the gahmen listens well after the BERSIH and HINDRAF incidents. Act if need to but not to brush off their claims/requests. By quoting "Act", I was not referring to ISA detention or impose legal actions on participants but ask what was the root of it. Will the gahmen see this point?
Tags: BERSIH, HINDRAF, Riot, ISA

Conman Preying on Church

This is a notice from National Evangelical Christian Fellowship Malaysia in view of All Saints' Church ("ASC") case where ASC has been duped into parting with 200 tickets meant for a luncheon supposedly to be held at Janbo Restaurant (Pudu) on 25 Dec 2007.

If you have been approached to purchase the above ticket, by a Chong Kim Kooi (mobile no. 012-6957499), in the name of God, please report to the police (a police report has been lodged on 16 Nov 2007 - police report no. PUDU/006715/07).

Tags: All Saints' Church, Naitonal Evangelical Christian Fellowship Malaysia, NECF, Janbo Restaurant, Pudu, Conman, Chong Kim Kooi

Maintaining Fitness

Though I was tired from the weekend bliss owing to the dramas' preparations, I made an effort to pay a visit to my gym. Haven't been there for the last 2 weeks due to my left's arm situation.

When the gym owner asked why I was missing for so long, I told him about my left arm. When he took a look at it, he asked when did it happen. "Three Sundays ago" I replied.

He said "You better go and check your elbow with the doctor again. If it was still swollen after 3 weeks, I suspect that it is dislocated now."

Ouch! Yeah, if you were to press on one particular spot, I would still feel the pain and I can't rest that part of my elbow on my office desk.

One question, how do you recover from a dislocated elbow?
Tags: Gym, Dislocated Elbow