April - July 2006
Mount Merapi volcano spews ash, lava; 15,000 villagers evacuated

May 2006
Mud volcano erupts, 15 people killed, 13,000 flee
Quake in region leaves 6,000 dead; 1.5 million homeless

June 2006
Flooding leaves 350 dead or missing; 13,000 homeless

July 2006
Tsunami kills 650 people; more than 100,000 left homeless

December 2006
Floods, landslides kill more than 100; around 350,000 homeless
Ferry sinks carrying 600 people; 350 died or remain missing

January 2007
Plane disappears, 102 people missing

February 2007
Massive floods leave 80 dead, 500,000 affected
Ferry catches fire, killing 53, dozens remain missing

March 6, 2007
Quake leaves at least 71 dead

March 7, 2007
Plane bursts into flames, killing dozens


Ok, we surrender. What's next for Indonesia?
If you notice, I just created a new post yesterday specially for the Earthquake happening on March 6,2007 which kills more than 80 people in Sumatra. Haven't settle with this disaster, here comes another in the next day March 7, 2007.



"23 DIE IN INDONESIAN PLANE"

JAKARTA (March 7, 2007): Survivors from the Indonesian jet that burst into flames and overshot the runway on Java Island yesterday said many people had been trapped in the inferno. Officials said 140 people were on board the Garuda flight from Jakarta to Yogyakarta. 23 people including two Australians, died in the crash.

I can imagine how dreadful life is during the moment for survival. Everyone will do whatever they can do to survive. This is the moment when the ugly side of human reveals... many will fight selfishly, pushing each other, stepping on each other, trying their best to flee... some will just sit there crying .. some speechless, appreciating their last breathe.. children crying, passengers start screaming, a complete chaos!


How scary! I could not stop imagining.. Sigh.. let us pray for those who are unlucky, may you rest in peace. Stop punishing Indonesia! No more disasters.. they had enough of these...



I I I

March 6, 2007 - It was a sunny morning. What a great start for a day. I was having sleepless night trying my best to memorize and revise for my morning test around 11.00am. I would never expect this will be the end for 80 people in Sumatra.

I was in the midst of the test, 4th floor in faculty when suddenly I felt my body shaking. Am I shivering? I can feel myself vibrating. Or anyone shaking my chair? I started looking around. To the left, right and behind.. No one near to my chair, everyone is sitting very still, focusing seriously on their papers, making sure they answer every single question correctly.

Am I the only one who felt it? I started to get dizzy. Most probably I was too tired. It might be the consequence of waking up early 3am to revise. "Time is up!" lecturer shouted. We completed our test around 12pm. Everyone rushed out from class. We started discussing about the test. That little incident struck my mind again. "Do you guys feel the quake just now?" I asked. "Nope.." one of my friend answered. Then, out of nowhere, the other friend answered, "I felt it too. I thought it was just my imagination. I can see the OHP desk shaking." Everyone started to become very curious. "Gosh! An earthquake in UTM (our university)" one of my course mate shouted.

It must be happening somewhere. I headed to my car and out for lunch. As usual, I'll tune in to 938 live radio station. I was driving when the headline news started. "30minutes ago, an earthquake measuring 6.3 magnitude triggers in Sumatra. Buildings around Singapore such as in Clementi, Ngee Ann Polytechnic were affected by the quake too. People in the building were evacuated although no alarm was triggered"

"We are working in our office when suddenly we felt the quake. Our computers are shaking. One of my colleague cried due to the previous experience she had gone through. Everyone of us ran out of the office. "

I was stunned. So, this is really happening. This is true. Almost speechless for a few seconds. I started calling my family and friends informing them about the quake. I wonder how serious is it? Another disaster for Indonesians...




Well, as expected, it came out in the Headline News today. "Earthquake Kills More Than 80 In Sumatra". A 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck west Sumatra area yesterday, two hours after a 6.3 quake hit the same area which was felt in Singapore and Malaysia.



The Real Condition in Sumatra

Buildings flattened, scores buried in rubble, hundreds injured. Panic in Malaysia and Singapore...

Communication was cut off from much of the area close to the epicentre of the 6.3-magnitude quake, so there was no immediate way of knowing the extent of the damage there, they said.

The 6.3 magnitude quake struck at 10.49am, the US Geological Survey said, 49km northeast of Padang. An almost equally strong aftershock hit later. Tanah Dtar, Solok and Padang were among the worst-hit areas in Sumatra. Cars and bikes fill nearby roads as people rushed for higher ground, fearing a tsunami, not realising the quake was underground.

The quake also shook skyscrapers in nearby Singapore, sending people fleeing to the streets.



Why Indonesia again?

Indonesia was the nation worst hit by the earthquake-triggered Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004, which killed some 168,000 people in Aceh province on the northern tip of Sumatra. Some 5,800 people were killed and 33,000 others injured in a massive quake that rocked Java island in May last year. Two months later, another quake on Java killed more than 600.


Why is this happening to Indonesia? This is because Indonesia is an archipelago nation of some 17,000 islands which sits on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, where continental plates meet- and where earthquakes are regular and often deadly occurrence.



Quakes in Malaysia and Singapore
Several areas in Selangor, Malacca and Johor experienced tremors after the earthquake. It led to panicked workers and residents of high-rise apartments fleeing their offices and homes. The Meteorological Service Department said the 11.49am moderate earthquake, which happened 65km southwest of Padang and 372km southwest of Malacca, did not pose any tsunami threat.

"Many rushed down, some even with their luggage."
"I thought I was just feeling giddy. But when it occured again at 2pm, I knew something was wrong. My mother also felt the tremor"
"I suspected it was an earthquake after my table started shaking and a vase on top of it moved"
"It did not last long... only six seconds"


Johor Baru: Among affected buildings were Johor Bahru City Square, Plaza Pelangi, Landmark Mall, Wisma Tabung Haji, Wisma Persekutuan and Public Bank Tower.

Singapore: Tall buildings in Singapore's business district swayed slightly, occupants said, and the tremor was also felt in other parts of the island.



I I I

It is a film that will shock the viewers. Well, I'm not promoting it .. but to share the incoming danger we will be facing in years to come. I believe you must have watched "The Day After Tomorrow". If we still in the unknown state, doing nothing for the world, then there might NOT be a Tomorrow. Seriously, I'm not exaggerating.


Recently, I came across an article in News Straits Times newspaper. It said:

The stark warning comes from scientists who are working on the final draft of a new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Thousands of scientists from around the world who have been studying changes in the world's climate and predicting how they might accelerate, have came out with a report. They conclude that unless mankind rapidly stabilises greenhouse gas emissions and start reducing them, it will have little chance of keeping global warming within manageable limits.


What is Global Warming ?

From this ... to... this


























In Europe, the summers could become unbearably hot, especially in southern countries such as Greece, Spain and Italy, while Britain and northern Europe would face summer droughts and wet, stormy winters.





The next 10 years are crucial! We have to achieve serious reductions in carbon emissions. After that time, the task becomes very much harder. Among the scientists' biggest fears is that rising temperatures and levels of greenhouse gases could soon overwhelm the natural systems that normally keep their levels in check.

About half the 24 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) generated by human activities each year are absorbed by forests and oceans - a process without which the world might already be several degrees warmer. 2005 is the warmest!


But as CO2 levels rise and soils dry, microbes can start breaking down accumulated organic matter, so forests become net producers of greenhouse gases. The sea's power to absorb CO2 also falls sharply as it warms.

The latest research suggests the threshold for such disastrous changes will come when CO2 levels reach 550 parts per million (ppm), roughly double their natural levels. This predicted to happen around 2040-50.


What is our situation right now?


The Current Condition & Action


At the moment, the real impact of emissions is buffered because CO2 is absorbed by natural systems. However, if we reach this threshold they could be magnified instead. Gosh...




It means we must start the action needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the next few years. Dr Malte Meinshausen, a researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany has used computer modelling to workout what might happen if greenhouse gas emissions were cut immediately, in 10 years time or later. The results showed that immediate action might allow mankind to hold CO2 levels at 450ppm - below the danger level.

However, Meinshausen and his colleagues recognise that this is unrealistic because the world's governments are in such disarray over global warming. They think it is impossible to achieve that level within 10 years with such disarray. The best hope, they say, is that a global plan will emerge in the next few years.

We have to make sure carbon emissions peak no later than 2015 and then fall at three percent a year.

If we let them keep rising after that date, it becomes much harder to bring them under control!

Are you ready to change the way you live?
Each of us is the cause of global warming, but we can make choices to change that. With the things we buy, the electricity we use, cars we drive, we can bring the Co2 to ZERO. The solution are in our hands. The climate crisis can be solved.

Here is how to start:

1) Reduce carbon emissions
2) Buy energy save appliances (lightbulbs)
3) Change your themorstat (and use clock thermostats) to reduce enery for heating and cooling
4) Weatherize your house, increase insulation, get an energy audit
5) Recycle
6) If you can, buy a hybrid car
7) When you can, walk or ride a bicycle
8) Where you can, use light rail and mass transit
9) Tell your parents not to ruin the world that you will live in
10) If you are a parent, join with your children to save the world they live in
11) Switch to renewable sources of energy
12) Call your power company to see if they offer green energy, if they don't, ask them why not
13) Plant trees, lots of trees
14) Speak up in your community
15) Call radio shows and write newspapers
16) Raise fuel economy standards; require lower emissions from automobiles
17) If you believe in prayer, pray that people will find the strength to change


18) Encourage everyone you know to see this movie and post
19) Learn as much as you can about the climate crisis
20) Then put your knowledge into action




My Opinion:
If you love the planet, if you love your child... then do something about it. Do not take this lightly. It is an inconvenient truth and we really got to accept it.

Watch the video below. You see that pale blue dot. That's us! Everything that has ever happened in all of human history has happened on that pixel. All the triumph, all the tragedies, all the wars, all the major advances... it's our only hope. And that is what is at stake! Our ability to live on planet earth.. to have a future of civilization.....

You heard about the current earthquake disaster in Taiwan? Two people were killed and 42 injured on Tuesday when three buildings collapsed in earthquakes that shook southern Taiwan. The disaster worries neighbouring countries.

Beijing: China has come up with an earthquake prediction system which relies on the behavior of snakes, after two quakes struck off neighbouring Taiwan.

The earthquake bureau in Nanning, capital of the Guangxi, autonomous region in southern China, had developed its system using a combination of natural instinct and modern technology. Experts at the bureau monitor snakes at local snake farms via video cameras linked to a broadband Internet connection. The video feed runs 24 hours per day.

“Of all creatures on Earth, snakes are perhaps the most sensitive to earthquakes,” bureau director Jiang Weisong said. A snake could sense an earthquake from 120km away, three to five days before it happens. They respond by behaving strangely.

When an earthquake is about to occur, snakes will move out of their nests, even in the cold of winter. If the earthquake is a big one, the snakes will even smash into walls while trying to escape.

China is struck by frequent earthquakes, with most hitting remote rural areas.

Floods, traffic jams, falling trees, collapsed old shophouse, stranded cars! This is the situation right now in Johor Bahru (southern part of Malaysia) and Singapore.

Shopping for christmas gift? Probably the worst suggestion. It seems impossible to travel around now. Numerous cars stalled in the flood waters and tow trucks struggled to reach them to assist. The usually packed lunch time crowd had thinned to barely a dozen patrons. Water level rose in canals. Roads became fast flowing rivers! Closed roads, terrible traffic. Why? It's the heavy rain.


Rain, rain, keeps raining and still raining right now. Rain stops and come again. I'm now in my faculty sitting near to the corridor. The rain keeps pouring like it will never end forever. It has been raining for 3 days starting Sunday continously. It has never happened for years!


News Headlines on 1th Dec 2006

SINGAPORE: Heavy rain has caused chaos across many places in Singapore. A part of Singapore was swamped by more than the average monthly rainfall for the whole island in less than a day. 313 millilitres drenched a northern part of the country in 16 hours. The floods were the worst we have ever seen.

And it wasn't just trees which felt the impact – over in southern part of the island, part of an empty old shophouse collapsed with debris spilling onto the street.

One of the shop owner said what shocked them the most was the speed of the flood. "But one thing I'm curious is I don't know why it happened so fast, because around 8am, we were here, it's still ok, until say about 8.30am the thing suddenly come out within half an hour it can flood until this condition it's unbelievable, now I'm afraid this thing happened, what about next round, don't know when will happen again."


JOHOR BARU: Continuous heavy rain since Monday evening caused floods in several districts in Johor. About 4,000 people were evacuated and massive traffic jams were reported here during rush hour. The floods also disrupted train services in the southern region.

Thousands of people in Malaysia's southern Johore state were evacuated Tuesday after heavy rain caused floods and triggered minor landslides which disrupted rail services, state media said. Over 2,000 people in districts around three Johor towns and its capital, Johor Bahru, had been told by police from early Tuesday to leave their homes.

Massive traffic jams were reported by Bernama in and around Johor Baru, while the national rail company said south-bound services, including connections to neighbouring Singapore, were disrupted.


Forecast
Singapore National Environment Agency says it is not uncommon to experience heavy monsoon rain from November until January.

According to the weather forecast, we'll still be expecting the rain and wind here (Malaysia) and Singapore to last for the next few days.

The weatherman says it is the Northeast Monsoon which affect intermittent moderate to heavy rain and windy conditions in both places. The Northeast Monsoon brings heavy rainfall. In Malaysia, the Northeast Monsoon comes on November and ends around March. According to the forecast, this monsoon is predicted to last till February. Thus, we'll be expecting wet weather during this period. What is Monsoon? Click here

I will then entertain them, "Ya, more than that!" I'm so used to it. Strangers will always take this matter to start a conversation with me. Come on, I am just 187cm horizontally. For Americans, that's normal, nothing special. But in Asia, that's TALLL, people say.

Now let me show you, my fellow friends, how to describe T-A-L-L!


TALLEST OF THEM ALL

According to Guinness World Records, the tallest man in medical history for whom there is irrefutable evidence is Robert Pershing Wadlow. He was born at Alton, Illinois, USA, on February 22, 1918, and when he was last measured on June 27, 1940, was found to be 2.72 m (8 ft 11.1 in) tall.

Wadlow died as a result of a septic blister on his right ankle caused by a brace, which had been poorly fitted only a week earlier. He was buried in a coffin measuring 3.28 m long, 81 cm wide and 76 cm deep.

Wadlow's greatest recorded weight was 222.71 kg on his 21st birthday. His shoe size was 37AA (47 cm, 18½ in long) and his hands measured 32.4 cm from the wrist to the tip of the middle finger. He wore a size 25 ring. His arm span was 2.88 m and his peak daily food consumption was 8000 calories.

At the age of nine, he was able to carry his father Harold F. Wadlow, later Mayor of Alton, who stood 1.8 m and weighed 77 kg, up the stairs of the family home.


TALLEST MEN TODAY

Hussein Bisad (7′9″) claims to be the world’s tallest man.

Guinness World Records announced Xi Shun the tallest living man. Xi Shun (China, b. 1951), measured 7 ft 8.95 in (2 m 36.1 cm). Beating the previous holder Radhouane Charbib (Tunisia) by just 2 mm (0.07 in), Xi Shun claims that his height was normal for his age until he was 16. As a comparison, his father stood at 5 ft 10.8 in (1.8 m) and his mother was 5 ft 2.8 in (1.6 m) tall.

However USAToday has an article about Leonid Stadnyk (8′4″) and far more likely to hold the title. But why Guinness still claims Xi Shun? The Height Site says he has yet to be confirmed by Guinness.

I've checked out Wikipedia, then, I found out that Leonid Stadnyk refused to be measured by Guinness World Records although claiming to be the tallest man in the world. That's why..

Guinness commented:

Leonid Stadnik refuses to be measured by us. We have been told that it is because he doesn't want to court publicity — yet he continues to claim to be the tallest. Unfortunately we can only conclude due to previous experience, that he refuses to be measured officially by us because he is not the height he claims to be.

So, Who is the tallest then? Me is definitely out of the question.

I believe you definitely had watched "Back to the Future Film".

Even if it is possible, I would always wonder, this issue will definitely concern human right, perhaps the same issue concerning human clone. Ok, let’s say you failed in your exam, you go back to the past and re-sit for that paper. Ha, definitely you had memorized all the perfect answers. Eventually, you pass with flying colors. That’s dirty.

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