In particular, the allegations cast a shadow on the prediction in the last World Economic Outlook, believed to be repeated again this year, that oil production can be raised from its present level of 83 million barrels a day to 105 million.
External critics have frequently said this cannot be substantiated by firm evidence and that the world has already passed its peak in oil production. Now the ''peak oil'' theory is gaining support at the heart of the global energy establishment.
''The IEA in 2005 was predicting oil supplies could rise as high as 120 million barrels a day by 2030, although it was forced to reduce this gradually to 116 million and then 105 million last year,'' said the IEA source, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals inside the industry.
''The 120 million figure always was nonsense but even today's number is much higher than can be justified and the IEA knows this.
Malaysia's oil reserves will last for just another 20 years. Worldwide reserves... well, it looks like we can't trust the official figures anymore, if the whistleblower turns out to be right. Solar tech is advancing rapidly, but even then it'll be another 50 years till it gets to the point where it can start to replace our oil dependence, if not longer.
I've started to revise my previous anti-nuclear stance. It looks like we'llneed nuclear tech after all, if only in the short to medium term, until alternatives prove more viable. The problem with nuclear power plants is that they're too big, too damn expensive and too dangerous. Hundreds of millions to build, an additional hundreds of millions a year to maintain... plus Malaysia doesn't exactly have a good record with maintaining standards. Present nuclear plants are just too heavily entrenched in the Cold War model, and not what we need now. We need a new kind of nuclear power plant, one that's relatively cheaper, causes less havoc on the environment, and less easily weaponised. As hard science fiction writer Charles Stross points out, nuclear technology had the bad luck of being discovered right around the time a major war was brewing.
The remains of a mighty Persian army said to have drowned in the sands of the western Egyptian desert 2,500 years ago might have been finally located, solving one of archaeology's biggest outstanding mysteries, according to Italian researchers.
Bronze weapons, a silver bracelet, an earring and hundreds of human bones found in the vast desolate wilderness of the Sahara desert have raised hopes of finally finding the lost army of Persian King Cambyses II. The 50,000 warriors were said to be buried by a cataclysmic sandstorm in 525 B.C.
"We have found the first archaeological evidence of a story reported by the Greek historian Herodotus," Dario Del Bufalo, a member of the expedition from the University of Lecce, told Discovery News.
Okay, so Malaysia's brain drain problem is starting to bite us in the ass. Actually, it's already been bit many, many times over the years, but this might be the first tangible case that'd make people sit up and take notice.
Of annoyance is Gerakan's Wan Sun Keong, who keeps harping on about how Penang produces "6,000 engineering graduates" a year. I don't know if those figures are true, but even if they are, that's not the point. The point is that we're producing 6,000 engineering grads a year, and an MNC took a look at them and said, "Not good enough" and walked away.
Fact: we're losing Malaysians every year. 40 percent of overseas Malaysians are in Singapore, including a couple of MPs. Opportunities to grow are extremely hard to come by, and there's way too much red tape that gets in the way. Sheena can regale you guys numerous horror stories about trying to make it as a doctor in Malaysia. (But only when you buy her a drink.)
Plus that engineering thing? Malaysia has one of the, if not the lowest number of patents produced in the region. You know why? We don't have people to do the R&D work, but even when we do, the patents go overseas. Why? Red tape. Do you know how long it takes for a patent to get approved in Singapore? One year. Do you know how long it takes for a patent to get approved in Malaysia?
Three years.
The tax structure thing the article floats at the end isn't going to cut it, not on its own. There are much deeper, more fundamental issues involved, most of which involves the fact that Malaysia is a crappy place to grow talent.
I usually don't bother addressing comments made on old posts, never mind posts from almost two years ago, since they're usually critical and insulting at a time when no one else would be reading them and be ready to call on their bullshit. But this is just too precious to pass up. If you didn't click on the link, the post in question was referring to a case in Saudi Arabia where a woman who was gang-raped was sentenced to be lashed repeatedly.
Two years after I made that post, I got this comment from Anonymous:
ok lesson i dont know whats your problem with saudi arabia but lesson have you ever wonderd why saudi womens wear that black and we call it (abbaya) we wear it to protect our selves cause our women is like i dimond not a segret we are protected we are not a segret any one can smoke and when he finesh he throw her and thats ok for you selling womens having money for sex we have a degnty and if i give you two kind of choclaits one of them is clean and covered and the other is open and dirty tell me wich one you will gonna choose iam pretty shore you will choose the clean and covered one and stop talking about freedom cause this is our freedom we choose it and thats what we want cause we feel save and btw iam from saudi arabia and iam proud to be saudi
I like that he goes on a bizarre rant that is only tangentially related to the topic in question. I love how he inexplicably compares women to cigarettes and chocolates. I love that he talks about how much he's proud to be a Saudi, but after spending all that time writing this comment, never actually talks about the woman who was sentenced to be punished for being raped.
Most of all, I love that he never uses a full stop, not even once. Please, read that again and bask in its glorious brilliance.
I will likely have more to say about my weekend in Langkawi (short answer: WOOOO!!), but I will say this: whenever people talk about parasailing, no one ever, ever, mentions the fact that it has the curious side effect of crushing your balls.
Its chief Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin said Puteri must prove that it is not merely a cosmetic job and that it is not only good at canvassing for votes during elections.
"Please don't sideline us when it comes to bigger things. We want to be on equal footing with Umno Youth and Wanita Umno.
"We want to fly with wings just like them and become the backbone of a house which stands tall without nails," she said in her maiden policy address at its general assembly today.
Okay, fair enough. You may be UMNO scum, but I'm willing to give you a chance. Go:
The call was contained in one of the motions that were passed without debate at the movement’s general assembly on Wednesday.“In view of widespread screening of movies with ghosts, superstitious and mystical elements, we urge the Government to empower Jakim to ban their production as they do not carry any positive message, but instead may destroy the faith,” it said.The movement also called on the Government to issue a similar ban on all foreign movies of such genres.It said film producers should concentrate on producing films of different genres that could serve as lessons, rather than show horror and superstitious ones which might not even deliver the intended messages.
According to Judeo-Christian tradition, God created the Earth out of nothing.
Prof Van Wolde, who once worked with the Italian academic and novelist Umberto Eco, said her new analysis showed that the beginning of the Bible was not the beginning of time, but the beginning of a narration.
She said: "It meant to say that God did create humans and animals, but not the Earth itself."
She goes on to say that she hopes her findings would spark a "robust debate". If by robust you mean bringing the crazies out, as evidenced in the same webpage's comments section, then Mission Accomplished.
Not going to go into a whole lot about Surrogates; I never read the original comics (shock!) so I can't compare it. The movie, though? Sucked. For a movie with robots in it, it sure is boring. Even the action scenes are just kind of there. And for a movie with Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames and James Cromwell in it, none of the characters are remotely interesting. The strongest scenes are the ones with Bruce Willis's character trying to convince his wife to ditch her surrogate; they felt the most genuine in the entire movie, and even then I thought they didn't take enough advantage of that storyline. And for a movie I went in with little to no expectations (I was only vaguely aware what the plot was), it just wasn't good at all.
I'm as surprised as anyone that Obama's won the Nobel Peace Prize, less than nine months into his first term. He hasn't done anything other than not be George W. Bush -
Actually, you know what? That's a fantastic reason.
But that's just my opinion. Others would no doubt beg to differ. Others like the conservative Washington Post, which just put up an online poll asking readers whether they thought Obama deserved the Prize or not. At the moment, the results read 50/50, but that hasn't stopped editors from saying, "Fuck this shit" and doing a little bit of creative graphic design:
Absolutely shameless. I almost admire them for it.
At first I couldn't believe Australians actually went and did this:
US crooner Harry Connick Jr, who made a guest appearance on the Nine Network show, took offence to the skit and forced an apology during Hey Hey's second reunion special last night.
During the show's Red Faces talent segment, five men were covered in black face paint and black wigs and re-enacted their skit Jackson Jive, which appeared years ago when Hey Hey was originally on air.
The Michael Jackson character this time had his face painted white.
Then I remembered that it's Channel Nine. Duh. Good on Harry Connick Jr., though, for educating viewers on why blackface isn't funny and forcing the show to apologise on air. I like the guy already.
For those of you who don't know what the fuss over blackface is all about, Crikey has a handy guide. Saying you're not racist doesn't alter the fact that the whole damn thing is racist.
“The government will not let the opposition exploit the minds of the people. I believe the prime minister and his 1 Malaysia vision has injected a new spirit of optimism among the people, especially Bagan Pinang voters, to support the government in realising the country’s aspirations,” he said.
Muhyiddin also said that he was confident that the Chinese voters, which form 10 per cent of the total electorates, would vote for the BN.
One book, entitled “Wajah Sebenar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim: Nasib Orang Melayu Selangor” (The Real Face of Tan Sri Ibrahim: The Plight of the Selangor Malays), accused the Selangor mentri besar of sidelining the Malay community in the state.
“They wanted People Supremacy so much after they were fooled by Pakatan Rakyat, and were willing to risk the future of their children,” reads the opening chapter of the 49-page book.
“After ruling the state for 16 months, Pakatan Rakyat led by Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim has done a lot of things that have disadvantaged the Malays and Islam,” it adds citing, among other things, Selangor's proposal to hold elections for local councils.
“If this happens almost all local councils will be controlled by the Chinese because they live in towns while the Malays live in villages,” said the book.
You really have to admire the balls these people have...
Man, that's... something. I mean, "Animals with Lightsabers". That's such a dumb idea. But also... kinda brilliant at the same time, you know? I can't look away.
