The Thing about Miri City ...

I'm a local born fella and I feel proud of the city for its past and present achievements which have obviously been accomplished in leaps and bounds ... There are many positive stuff to be said -- without going into details -- about a once sleepy hollow that used to be famous just for its oil and bars and Monica Lodging ...

There are apparently not so nice stuff I want to share here, one of which is the unfriendly nature of the city towards visitors and I mean specifically those who drive into the city from other countries and towns.

Without comparing too much with great tourism destinations like Kota Kinabalu, New Zealand, the States and Canada we can see how the narrow roads and road signs are so poorly planned and limited in information. Friendly road signs should be treated as beacons of hope and guide to drivers and every distance to locations should be indicated; general directions to all locations should be provided and all facilities such as rest areas, petrol, food and lodging clearly indicated . The signs should also indicate the distances of these areas so that first-time visitors/drivers will know roughly where the places are. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to read and calculate that 5 km away would be the nearest rest area or loo!

Miri today is just a city like many small towns with the slight difference of the basic requirements of infrastructure that must be available to obtain city status. There is so little around us to remind us of its golden glorious history and the bad past when ambitious egomaniac Japs ruled the Asian region and the many past heroes and founding fathers of the ex-town seem to be conveniently forgotten and unrecognised. Case in point: just take a walk to the oldest Mission school in the city and you will soon realise not a single street is named after its Asian founder or the many pioneers who established the first oldest educational institution. What we have is the name of an unknown dead fella who did nothing for the school or the area on the street sign.

What the city should be doing is put a seasoned traveler in charge of turning this city into a great tourism destination. Mirians have to think like a tourist to attract tourists. A little imagination helps too.

Seconds to War

I was watching the newly released Pentagon video of the Hormitz Straits Incident (Click the title above to watch the video yourself) at Breitbart and here were the thoughts that ran through my head:
1. The Iranians appeared to be moving rather recklessly close to the US warships.

2. All it would take is a trigger-happy Iranian hot head to shoot at a US warship and the next dangerous upgrade in the phase of the current WW3 is on.

3. One can imagine the anxious warship crew who are experiencing the whole hair-raising, sweaty episode, probably on several occasions of a lesser provocative kind. If one of the crew members had lost his or her nerve, a single shot at the boats could very well trigger an emotional outburst of outrage by Iranian mobs and their sympathisers around the world!

4. It takes steadfast courage to be in a tense situation in a volatile part of the world where terrorism and lawlessness thrives. The American naval crew deserves praise for showing restraint at present. Would this last?

Sign of the Times

Sudden Tsunami right after December 24th X'mas drowning thousands... unexpected flooding in Louisiana, United States and England...heavy snowfall in New York, USA, Beijing, China and Tokyo, Japan and other parts of these countries and others...and now this news...

Remnant of Yellowstone volcano rising, study finds

REUTERS

8:41 a.m. November 9, 2007

WASHINGTON – A big blob of molten rock appears to pushing up remnants of an ancient volcano in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, scientists reported Friday.

They say no volcanic explosion is imminent – that already happened 642,000 years ago, creating the volcanic crater known as a caldera where part of Yellowstone Lake sits.



But satellite readings show just how volcanically active the area remains, the researchers reported in the journal Science.

From the middle of 2004 through 2006, the floor of the caldera rose 7 inches at a rate of 2.8 inches a year – the biggest rise ever measured, they reported.

“There is no evidence of an imminent volcanic eruption or hydrothermal explosion. That's the bottom line,” University of Utah seismologist Robert Smith said in a statement.

“A lot of calderas worldwide go up and down over decades without erupting.”

Yellowstone is North America's largest volcanic field, produced by what is known as a hotspot, a plume of hot and molten rock squirting up from 400 miles beneath the planet's surface.

Monstrous eruptions took place there starting 2 million years ago but activity bubbles along much more calmly now – akin to similar volcanic fields such as the Campi Flegrei just outside Naples in Italy.

Beneath the field lies what is known as a magma chamber, which is actually similar to a wet sponge in structure.

“Our best evidence is that the crustal magma chamber is filling with molten rock,” Smith said. “But we have no idea how long this process goes on before there either is an eruption or the inflow of molten rock stops and the caldera deflates again.”

Heat from the chamber warms the park's hundreds of hot springs and geysers, including “Old Faithful,” perhaps the world's best-known geyser.

Established in 1872 as the first U.S. national park, Yellowstone also stretches to parts of Montana and Idaho.

(Reporting by Maggie Fox, editing by John Ruwitch)

Reader comments


By Frank Brady on 11/09/2007 at 3:54 p.m.

You wrote, "They [scientists] say no volcanic explosion is imminent - that already happened 642,000 years ago, creating the volcanic crater known as a caldera where part of Yellowstone Lake sits."

This is very misleading. Yellowstone has erupted multiple times with about 600,000 years between events. The caldera is past due, apparently, for another eruption.

Century X-67

In the year that Saturn and Mars are equally fiery, the air is very dry, a long meteor. From hidden fires a great place burns with heat, little rain, a hot wind, wars and raids. -Century X-67.

I AM NOT A CROOK

"What do you do when you're feeling blue-a major war is looming in the horizon thus possibly driving inflation up further than it already is in the country; the nation is going to the dogs with scandal after scandal with apparent abuses but little commitment to resolve them; common people are suffering immensely with spiralling prices of commodities and necessities...?" I was asked.

I replied, "I pray; sing; watch a movie; have great sex or enjoy my past-time activities like going for a long walk by the seaside, do gardening or play either outdoor and sometimes indoor games or even have a good read."

When one is disappointed and disgusted with the current social, economical and political situation in one's beloved country, it is all too easy to want to scream and shout, be they obscenities or curses....Indeed, my psychological reaction which would be great self-therapy to my mind and body and at the same time be in some easy form of comic relief would be not just "Go, fly a kite" but "Go, read a funny book"!

Here's a hilarious excerpt from one of my favorites by the late satirist, Art Buchwald which is in my private library entitled 'I am not a Crook' (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1973). The book came out shortly after the highly popular 37th president of the United States resigned rather than face a humiliating congressional impeachment from its nation's highest office, the presidency. There had been months of pain, suffering and soul-searching for Americans following revelations of political shenanigans in the infamous scandal called "Watergate" with damaging leaks from a mysterious source known as "Deep Throat" and hours and hours of recordings on audio-tapes and tons of documents.

But before I go further with that, I wish to assure my American buddies out there that I'm not anti-American even though I do share a laugh at the expense of a rare disgraced favorite son of the Republican Party, I'm an admirer of "the grand old elephant" and its ideals, purely because I am convinced I am born a patriot in a foreign land who is convinced it is honorable to serve and even die in defense of a nation's constitution and for king and country (I make it clear absolutely- not in defense of an Islamic state nor a corrupted regime/government). Yeah, if I were an American I would enlist to fight for the just cause of freedom in Afghanistan and Iraq.

If I may add, in my opinion, Watergate, to the credit of the Americans and their belief in democratic ideals, did not result in untimely deaths by suicide or murder, as far as I know.

In Malaysia, I hope no one (PRESENTLY) faces any unforeseen unfortunate consequences in talking about a conspiracy... Say, what's the name of that 'X-Files'-kind of movie again starring Mel Gibson as a seemingly nutty taxi-driver who believes in conspiracies?

To Tell the Truth

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to To Tell the Truth.

"Number one, what is your name, please?"

"My name is Richard Milhous Nixon."

"Number two, what is your name, please?"

"My name is Richard Milhous Nixon."

"Number three, what is your name, please?"

"My name is Richard Milhous Nixon."

"All right, panel. Now I will read the story. "I, Richard Milhous NIxon, am the thirty-seventh President of the United States. I was reelected with one of the largest mandates in American history
After my reelection it was revealed that some of my closest aides were involved in dirty tricks, election fraud, breaking and entering and perjury. Congress is now discussing my impeachment." (Applause)

"Now, panel, only one of these contestants is the real Richard Milhous Nixon.

"Let's start the questioning with Kitty."

"Number one, if someone came to you and told you that they wanted to pay hush money to defendants caught in a Watergate break-in, what would you do?

"I would tell them it was wrong."

"All right, Orson, you're next."

""Number three, it is revealed that on your income tax return, you claimed a deduction of five hundred and fifty thousand dollars for donating your your Vice Presidential papers to the National Archives. But it turns out the donation was made after the law was changed. What would you say to the charges?

"I would say (former U.S. President) Lydon B. Johnson made me do it."

"Number one?"

"I would only say I did what (famous economist) John Kenneth Galbraith has been doing for years."

"Bill?"

Number one, the House Judiciary Committee has asked for tapes and documents to help them in their impeachment hearings. How would you handle that?""First I would tell the American people that I am willing to to cooperate in any way to bring the Watergate matter to a resolution. Then I would tell my lawyer not to turn over my tapes, or documents that he considered would in any way hurt the Presidency of the United States.

'Number three?"

"I would say the house is on a fishing expedition, and I am against fishing expeditions of any kind.

"Number two?"

"I would get (prominent business tycoon) Ron Ziegler to call it a cheap shot."

"Peggy?"

"Number three, at one press conference you said, (Nixon's Chief of Staff) John Dean did not tell you about the hush money being paid to the Watergate defendants. At another you admitted he did. How would you square the two statements with the American people?"

"I would say that people will read different things into what I say. But I'm the only one who knows what I meant."

"Number two?"

"I would call in Senator Hugh Scott and show him new evidence that Dean is a liar."

"Number one?'

"I would announce the end of the oil embargo in the Middle East."

"All right, panel, our time is up. Please vote for the person you think is the real Richard Milhous
Nixon.

'Now will the real Richard Mihous Nixon please stand ... I said will the real Richard Milhous
Nixon please stand up? Come on, one of you is the real one. Hurry up, we're running out of time. There seems to be a mix-up, ladies and gentlemen. No one wants to admit he's the real Nixon.

"Number one, who are you?"

"I am Sarah McClendon*, a newspaperwoman."

"Number two, who are you?"

"I am (disgraced former Vice President) Spiro Agnew, a fiction writer."

"Number three, who are you?"

"I am not a crook."


*I'm not too sure of the identity of this lady-I'll try to find out more about her.

Thanking Reagan and the US

Please click to enlarge pics.

He was the United States of America's oldest president. Despite his age and his conservatism, this person, Ronald Reagan was, in my personal opinion, the greatest man in the world in history.

Revisionist historians may declare that the Cold War was not won by this president alone; other larger factors were more significantly involved. They would point to the Holy father, the pope's outspokenness on communist oppression; restless desire for freedom by a young generation in Warsaw Bloc nations; Russian disenchantment with the heavy loss of lives in the Afghan War debacle; Russian nuclear plant disaster; growing resistance to authoritarian regimes in other nations, increasing attraction of a new pop culture and so forth.

I agree but I believe Reagan the supremo led the charge into battle for democracy. He talked the talk and walked the walk. Even if he was play-acting, he displayed what the world wanted to see-in a generation like ours that was fixated with good idealistic perfect heroes, superheroes and celebrities, mostly who are Americans-true John Wayne grit. No Reagan, no bearer of the torch of liberty for humankind.

Yup!

Images, images, images on television of Cowboy Reagan, defending the meek against oppression... shooting from the hip whatever he wanted to say in sincerity...standing up to the icy Soviets and the dreaded KGB..."Gorbechov ...tear down this wall!", firmly prepared for a possible High Noon showdown with an expressed constant threat of a nuclear build-up and Star Wars program... soothing a wounded nation over the Challenger disaster...

Out in the Far East, this great man who symbolised Lady Liberty started something significant. It seemed small at first but it did much for numerous politically oppressed peoples. He increased funding for delivering the message of hope and liberty through various media such as the Voice of America. The message was loud and clear: There is another better alternative to Marxism and autocratic oppression: American democracy!

Listeners like me would be drawn to the States to see how democracy worked there. I was not disappointed. Words can hardly express the experience of breathing in the fresh air of freedom and liberty. Undoubtedly, the cowardly attacks of 9/11 would have an effect on the freedom of individuals there, but the freedom of expression would always be there.

This is why I pray that a courageous apostate like Lina Joy, and all others will choose peace and harmony in the best freedom loving country in the world, the United States of America with its present great humanistic president, if it opens its doors to her and many others in either their love for Christ or other religions other than Islam . No nation is perfect and has its warts and all but the US, unlike Malaysia, has something few nations are God-blessed with, the most important precious gift for all who seek it: LIBERTY FOR ALL.

Here is my proud first copy of the VOA Magazine for listeners. In its opening page, a perfectly clear coloured pic of the handsome President could be seen with his message.