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Category Archives: General

USJ 8 Balai Polis

This is the story of the USJ8 balai polis as told by anthropologist John Postill. The land earmarked for its construction was almost hijacked by some unscrupulous politicians to be turned into a food court in 2004.
Construction of the new balai began only in January 2008. It is now completed and operational. Credit should be given to everyone who [...]

Reduce the prices of books!

Malaysians are not reading enough? Ask me why, Mr. Minister. That’s because books are so bloody expensive in Malaysia. When I was in Manila two months back, I bought a copy of Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Sanction for only RM23. The same book retails at RM35 in Malaysia. Now that you know the reason, please [...]

Double parking

One salute for this driver.

And a double salute for this one!

BTS 10-90 explained

House buyers, be forewarned.
The Star, 8 April 2009
Leteers to the Editor - House buyers, take note of differences in systems
WE at the HBA view with interest some housing project advertisements in the newspapers recently. They prominently state 10-90 as the mode of payment and went on to say, “Pay 10% and no payment until vacant [...]

The Crimewatcher

John Postill is an anthropologist specialising in the study of media. Currently he is a Senior Lecturer in Media at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. He recently completed his second ethnography, Grounding the Internet, based on recent fieldwork among Internet activists in Peninsular Malaysia. This was how I got to know him, sometime in 2003.
The following is the tenth in a series [...]

PayPal

That’s a pal. : )
PayPal has granted my claim of unauthorized use of my account for payment of USD100 to the account of one marketfxathotmaildotcom.
In an email to me this evening, Paypal confirmed this and explained that any portion of the payment that was made with my credit card will be refunded directly to my credit card. The refund will [...]

Monitor your PayPal account

I consider myself a very security conscious person, online and offline too. My two boys use a separate desktop. They are not allowed to use my notebook. Both computers are installed with the latest firewall and anti-virus softwares, updated daily and they are scanned on start-up. You could say that my computers are much better protected than many [...]

Ng Boo Bee

Ng Boon Bee, I know who he is. So does most Malaysians. He was a former Malaysian badminton great.
What about Ng Boo Bee? Err .. Ng who?
This was the guy who physically constructed half of Taiping town and co-founded the first local Chinese school while being Perak’s first de facto Finance Minister. During his funeral procession [...]

Who is the funder?

You know you should no longer listen to their ‘expert opinions’ once you know they have benefited financially from the pharmaceutical industries. Just who are they? Some journalists, talk-show hosts, doctors and even researchers.
An influential psychiatrist who was the host of the popular public radio program “The Infinite Mind,” produced by Lichtenstein Creative Media, earned at least $1.3 [...]

What in the world have you done?

Chris Widener says that for the most part, people’s lives generally go something like this:
You’re born
You eat and sleep
You play with toys
You go to school
You play little league
You go to school
You learn to drive
You go to school
You leave high school
You go to more school, but you pay for it now
You get a job
You get married
You [...]