P.G.LIM Passes Away

I only met Wonder Woman P.G.Lim twice, I was then working as a Manager for her brother; Lim Kean Siew, in Penang.

I read and heard about what she has achieved, but alas I am only a photographer; not knowing how to put her achievements in words!

Thanks to my friend and ex-colleague Stephen Tan Ban Cheng for this tribute.

 

Bomb Detector Conman Jailed For 10 Years!

James McCormick arrives for sentencing at the Old Bailey in London.

Photograph © Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA

According to The Guardian today...

"A fraudster who made an estimated £55m selling fake bomb detectors to Iraq and other security hotspots has been jailed for 10 years.

Jim McCormick, 57, was found guilty of three counts of fraud over the sale of bogus explosive and drug detection devices for as much as £10,000 each when they were based on £15 novelty golf ball finders.

At the Old Bailey on Thursday Mr Justice Hone handed down the maximum sentence for a crime he described as "a callous confidence trick".

Bought Any BOMB DETECTOR Lately??

This is such an incredible story that you might think it is an April Fool joke, but I assure you it is not; many innocent people have DIED because of this MOTHER OF ALL FIASCO!

The Story...

In a land far far away, businessman James McCormick found out that you can make millions in defense technology without any skill, scientific knowledge, all you need is the GIFT OF THE GAP ;)

© http://tech.yolobazinga.co

They Doctored Gory News Pictures Too!

Gory... Covered or stained with gore; bloody.

The media zoos of the world are still transfix over the Boston Marathon Explosion, Google that phrase and you are returned with TWO point SIX Billion hits!

After the horrific event, every newspapers in the world tried their best to display the BEST news pictures depicting the horror on their front page; virtually all the front pages selection were gory, bloody.

The front page of the New York Daily News featured a gory decisive moment shot of the bloody aftermath, captured by Boston Globe photographer John Tlumacki.

 

I was a stunning and horrific news picture, except with the leg of the woman lying on the pavement, top left; WAS DOCTORED! Photoshopped!

They Doctored News Pictures In Malaysia Don't They?

Do they or they do not?

Of course they do, not forgetting photographers have been manipulating pictures since the medium was invented!

Fast rewind to September 9, I read with interest an news item in the Malaysia paper; The New Straits Times which was posted in Face Book...
 

WORK ETHIC: Bernama man denies senator's claim he had doctored photo of PM's Hari Raya open house

PUTRAJAYA: THE photographer who covered the Hari Raya Aidilfitri open house of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and ministers on Aug 19 regrets that his picture has become a subject of dispute by an opposition party senator who alleged it had been doctored.

"Doctoring pictures is not part of my work ethic. In fact, it is not the work ethic of any Bernama staff. The allegation is an insult," said Harry Salzman Abu Bakar, a Bernama photograher.

1st Man On the Moon Dies

Saturday - Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, dies aged 82.

On that historical day, July 20th 1969; Armstrong, the commander of the Apollo 11 mission,became the first human to set foot on the moon. As he stepped on the dusty lunar surface, Armstrong said: "“That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." 

Those words endured as one of the best known quote in the English language. 

Portrait of Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, commander of the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing mission in his space suit, with his helmet on the table in front of him. Behind him is a large photograph of the lunar surface.  Image Credit: NASA

Photojournalist Attacked @ KL Rally!

It is NOT SAFE being a photojournalist and it is getting worst!  I Google "photojournalist attacked" and got 2,840,000 results!

Photo © Guang Ming Daily

The appalling picture above showed the photographer from Guang Ming Daily in Kuala Lumpur being knocked to the ground by Malaysian police!

WWW On A Plate!

Two years ago I found out the most expensive Malaysian registration number plate, MCA 1 was sold for RM300,000 (NZ$119,168) in 2010!

For those who don't know, in Malaysia the license plate format consists of one or more letters (the first letter(s) serving as a vehicle or location prefix) followed by up to four numerical digits with no leading zeros.

The location prefix start with a letter of the alphabet defining one of its states where the vehicles are registered, for example; cars in Penang island carried plates with prefix "P" and "M" are cars registered in Malacca.

Rolex Sky-Dweller, Sky The Limit!

If you read my December 2009 rant about my beloved watch.. I mean, chronometer; my Rolex GMT Master; you know I am a bit of a Rolex nut ;)

Thanks to my good friend Huggies I found out that Rolex has launch a new watch. After seeing the picture Huggies post in FB, I told him the Rolex Explorer look better!

Huggies was shocked and pointed out the new features of this new Rolex offering!  Embarrass, I did some reading...

Is Nokia 808 PureView the next Disruptive Innovation?

Way back in 2009 I wrote about my experience in using a Bronica 120 camera, in "A Blast From The Past" I mention Christian Sandström; a young PhD in innovation management from Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden.

After reading "The Rise of Digital Imaging and the Fall of the old Camera Industry" in Luminous-Landscape, I wrote to young Sandström...

"I am absolutely riveted  to my seat reading your recent article in The Luminous Landscape!

Working as a Picture Editors all this years in various newspaper, I was involved in implementing, pushing and selling digital conversions to Editors and bean counters! I also argued with digital people from Kodak and predicted their downfall :)

I will be writing about Bronica in my blog next week and would like your kind permission to quote part of what you say and may be to embed one or two slides show into my blog.  Looking forward to hear from you.  Kind regards  -  CY  "

NOSTALGIA - SPOT (SPORTS) ON!

Nostalgia - a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life, to one's home or homeland, or to one's family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time.

A Redux... larger and sharper pictures :)

My friends asked me if I miss shooting big sports events, I do and I don’t; I do miss all the excitement and the adrenaline rush… I don’t, because physically I cannot handle jobs like this anymore!

I remember fondly that in the 70s and 80s, all you need for covering sporting events were a film based SLR and two lenses, the 35-70 and 80-200 zoom! The relatively “slow speed” of f4 was not a problem because of the classic Kodak Tri-X film which we often “push” processed in D-76 soup and raising the ASA (ISO) film speed to over 3,200!

For football match in dimly lit stadium at night, the standard arsenal was the 180/2.8 and the 105/2.5 lenses.

Those were the good old days when we were forever young, cameras and lenses were compact and light weight and shooting sports were FUN!

10 Most Popular MBL Posts Of 2011

As 2011 came to an end, here’s a look back at 10 of our most popular articles from the past year:

1.    My Leica E-P2

2.   Funny Royal Wedding Pix Not!

3.   Canon G12, Best Of The G?

4.   Panasonic LUMIX G VARIO 7-14 mm F4.0 ASPH

5.   Remembering The Highland Towers Tragedy 

6.   Ultra Wide WC-E75 Canon Power Shot G12!

7.   Brian Me That Brake Was Good!

8.   Nikon E2 DSLR - Redux

9.   Bounce Flash For G12

10. My Lancer VRX Sportback

We started with a 23,000 page views in January 1911, today we are at the verge of breaking the 80,000 mark.

Thank you for all the support and a HAPPY NEW YEAR to all our readers :)

Vienna - Best Quality Living Standard In The World!

Vienna has the best living standard in the world, according to the Mercer 2011 Quality of Living survey.

According to MarketWatch...

"Living conditions are analyzed according to 39 factors, grouped in 10 categories, including politics and social environment, economic environment, health and sanitation, education, transportation, housing and recreation. Mercer’s Quality of Living index covers 221 cities, ranked against New York as the base city."

According to Mercer, Quality of Living Ranking; the Top 5 Cities are:

• Vienna, Austria (1st)
• Zurich, Switzerland (2nd)
• Auckland, New Zealand (3rd)
• Munich, Germany (4th)
• Vancouver, Canada (tied 5th)
• Düsseldorf, Germany (tied 5th)

NOSTALGIA - BIKINIS Pictures NOT Allowed!!

nos·tal·gia, noun - a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life...

Malaysia's leading English diary newspaper The Star was born on 9 September 1971.

From day one; Mr K.S.Choong, the founder decided that a bikini clad "Beach Girl" will grace Page 3. "Page 3 girls always sell paper!" Choong reckoned ;)

New Zealand rank 4th Most Prosperous Country?!

The 2011 Legatum Prosperity Index is out, New Zealand and Australia up one better than last year's rating to become 3rd and 4th!

What is this index all about?  It is NOT all about how "wealthy" $$$ your country is... or else China will be number one ;)

According to Wikipedia...

The Legatum Prosperity Index is an annual ranking developed by the Legatum Institute of 110 countries, according to a variety of factors including wealth, economic growth, personal well being, and quality of life. Norway topped the list of the 2010 (and 2011) report.

Queen Street, Auckland; New Zealand.

Hotshots - A Tribute To Photographers Of The Star

I step into our office at 9 am this morning and our receptionist told me there is a courier pack on my desk!

What can it be? I don't recall I ordered anything from the net.

My heart missed a beat when I remove the content from the pack!

A spanking new, hot off the press copy of Hotshots, a commemorative coffee table book of "40 years of great news images by The Star photographers"!

40 YEARS LATER, ITS ABOUT BLOODY TIME!! I can't help but muttering to myself  ;)

Soul Of Our Nation - Other Communities

ADDING onto the already multi-cultural, multi-ethnic
population of Malaysia are smaller communities scattered throughout the peninsula and in Sabah and Sarawak.

Officially, these groups are classified as Lain-lain or Others.

Although they are only a small minority on their own, the Lain-lain groups collectively form a sizeable portion of Malaysia's almost 21 million people.

In the peninsula, orang asli, Portuguese, Eurasians and Malaysian Thais are just a few of these small communities.

Orang asli are scattered throughout the peninsula, from the Malaysia/Thai border to Johor. Generally categorised as bumiputras, orang asli are divided into three groups - Negritos, Senois and Proto-Malays.

The present population of orang asli is 92,529, according to statistics compiled by the Department of Orang Asli Affairs (JHEOA). Of this, 2,972 are Negritos, 49,440 Senois and 40,117 Proto-Malays.

Soul Of Our Nation - Indian Community

INDIAN presence in this region can be divided into two distinct stages both of which involve the exchange of people, goods and philosophies albeit in varying proportions.

The Malay peninsula's initial association with Indian culture dates as far back as the fifth century. These ties were predominantly related with commerce. However, the last 160-odd years, and by far the most significant period of migration, was basically tied in with the export of labour.

While earlier Indian contacts with Malaya were motivated by individual needs,the consequent movement of Indians to this country during the 19th century was to serve the interests of their colonial masters.

The most significant wave that influenced the face of Malaysian Indians till this very day commenced with the influx of manpower in the 1830s, when Indian labour, rumoured to have started with convicts, were brought into the country to work firstly in the sugar and coffee plantations and, later, rubber, tea and, eventually, oil palm.

Soul Of Our Nation - Chinese Community

Majority of Malaysian Chinese are descendants of sojourners who risked the unknown to seek better fortunes in Malaya from the last decades of the 19th
century.

Before this, there had already been a sizable community of
Chinese in Malaya in states like Malacca, Penang and Kelantan.

Many Chinese Peranakan families in these states can trace their ancestors in Malaya back through eight generations. When Ming loyalists fled their country after the Manchu invasion of South China in the mid-17th century, many of them sought refuge in Malacca as there was already a Chinese settlement there.

The opening of Penang in 1786 by Francis Light further attracted large numbers of Chinese traders, many of whom eventually became permanent settlers. From then on, Chinese arriving in the Straits Settlements of Penang and Singapore grew steadily.

From this group, a discernible Chinese Peranakan community was formed as intermarriage or cohabitation between Chinese men and local women occurred.

Soul Of Our Nation - Malay Community

  -->WRITING in The Malays - A Cultural History, the British administrator Richard Winstedt observed: "A faculty that has always made for the Malay's progress has been his power to accept the new and adjust it to the old."

The culture of the Malays has been distinguished mainly by its experience of evolution. The various communities that comprise the Malay race have, through the ages, accommodated themselves to the separate historical and cultural influences that have come its way.

Yet, much of the culture of these communities was also defined by its experience of migration. 

This is especially prominent in the Malay peninsula where Malay communities settled in specific areas which beckoned the nature and characteristics of those particular communities. 

Examples would be the Minangkabau of Negeri Sembilan, the Javanese and Bugis in Johor and Selangor, the Achenese in the northern states of Kedah and Penang, and the indigenous Malay communities of the north-eastern states of Kelantan and Terengganu.