Voting in Malaysia

Tomorrow is polling day in Malaysia. I just had to post the above photo taken on Jalan Ceylon of some overly-zealous advertising for the current ruling party.

You just have to love the way it forces the pedestrians off the footpath and onto the road. If you look closely, you'll see they've done the same again, further up the road.

I'm not sure if that's really sending the right message, do you?

Malaysian footpaths

~ a state of decay

Here are some pics I took on a 500m stretch on my way to work walking along Jalan Ceylon. This is not some distant, far off backwater suburb, this is central Kuala Lumpur and these cracks and holes have existed for well over 6 months.

This is a busy street in a popular area, there are a couple of quite classy restaurants on this street, why won't the Malaysia Govt get it's act together and protect its citizens by giving them a safe footpath to walk on?

Would you walk on this?

.. Being so close to the road, much of the time you have no choice.

Why do they patch the footpath with wooden boards rather than a proper concrete solution?

The smaller grey tiles seen in the above & below pics are actually non-porous and therefore become slippery in the rain.

Who makes the decision to put slippery tiles nearest the road in a tropical country?

I put this down to perhaps a bad decision perhaps years ago, but in the last month the powers that be have replaced a bus stop near my work, and tiled the base of it with even more slippery tiles, no just non-porous, but actually shiny, and these are slippery even when dry.

This is just an example of completely bizarre, nonsensical decision making.
What are they thinking?
Are they thinking?

Duck Lamp

Made by artist Sebastian Errazuriz, this creepy, creepy desk lamp is a one off art piece.

I want one.

.. found at ohGizmo!

Korean hybrid carp with human faces

Creepy stuff!

The dark art of David Ho

I don't know anything about this, I just found it on a random image site.

Fantastically good.

A different Cuckoo Clock

The traditional Black Forrest Cuckoo Clock is creatively crucified by German artist and product designer, Michael Sans. This clock, simply titled "Cuckoo Clock", with materials consisting of; digital clock, metal housing, chromed nails and chain, cuckoo (died of natural causes in 1958). One of a kind-Not for sale.

Filipino kills 10 in drunken rampage

A man armed with a long knife has killed 10 people, including five children, and wounded 14 more, on a drunken rampage in the Philippines.

The man first attacked and wounded six members of his own family with whom he lived in a remote village outside Calbayog city in central Samar province around 2am (0400 AEST) today, police spokesman Jessie Gianan said by telephone.

The man then barged into two neighbouring homes where he stabbed and hacked at the sleeping occupants, then he returned to a wake where he had been drinking earlier and attacked everyone in his path, Gianan said.

Eight of his victims died on the spot and two died later at a hospital, Gianan said. Another 14 were wounded.

The man then surrendered to another villager who turned him over to the authorities. It was not immediately clear what prompted the rampage.

stolen from smh

.. that be one huuge oinker ..

http://www.monsterpig.com/

June 2nd, update:
The huge hog that became known as "Monster Pig" after being killed by an 11-year-old boy had another name: Fred.

Far from wild, the 450 kilogram pig had been raised on an Alabama farm and was sold to the Lost Creek Plantation just four days before it was shot there in a 60 hectare fenced area, the animal's former owner said.

.. details here

Man 'cuts off own head with chainsaw'

"A MAN in the German city of Cologne fatally stabbed his elderly father before cutting off his own head with an electric chainsaw, police said yesterday.

The headless body of the 24-year-old offender was found when police raced to an the apartment yesterday after an emergency call, apparently from the dying father, had been broken off in mid-sentence, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported.

Alf Willwacher, a senior prosecutor, said an electric chainsaw was next to the son's body.

"We do not believe any third party was involved," he said.

Neighbours said the father and son had been reclusive since the death of the mother, allegedly by suicide, several years ago. "


Hmmm... I'm wondering if this actually happened... I notice that when i do a Google search for the words 'cuts off own head with chainsaw' (without the quotes) I get pretty much the exact same story every time. And I don't even mean to say 'pretty much' in the previous sentence... it IS the same story, word for word.

There doesn't appear to be any further details & no followup. Do I dare call shennangigans on this?

.. still writhing octopus tentacles on a dinner plate in korea ..

Strange Behaviour

Students behaved strangely

SHAH ALAM: "Where’s my child? Who are you? Let me go, I want to go back!"

These were among the chilling words uttered by students hit by mass hysteria at SMK Seksyen 11 here on Tuesday.

Some of the students were said to have behaved in an eerie manner before they screamed and fainted.

K. Mohd Firdaus Mohd Shahid, 16, said several minutes before the incident, some of the students had become quiet, looked angry and stared coldly at other students.

"Suddenly, they started screaming and shouted those words. There were also other words which I could not understand."

He said the situation became worse when more students became hysterical.

"It kind of spread from one person to another," he said at his home yesterday.

The incident happened just before the school assembly.

Firdaus’s sister Nurzuriati, 15, was one of those affected by the hysteria.

She said she did not recall much as it had happened very fast.

"I only remember that some of my friends were behaving weirdly. I did not pay attention to them at first, but then they started screaming.

"Teachers were overwhelmed trying to control the situation and students helped to bring some of those who had fainted to the office.

"I don’t remember anything after that as I, too, fainted. When I woke up, I was in the office with the other students."

Their mother, Bariah Abdul Majid, said she knew about last Friday’s hysteria attack and claimed that the school did not take action to prevent a recurrence.
She claimed that more than 100 boys and girls at the school became hysterical.

from New Straits Times
earlier...

Students behaved strangely

School closed after hysteria attack

School closed after hysteria attack

SHAH ALAM: School authorities were forced to close a secondary school here for three days after it was hit by mass hysteria from last Friday.

The male and female hostels at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Section 11 will also be closed until Friday to enable students to calm down.

Bariah Abdul Majid, who has two children studying at the school, said her daughter in Form Three was among those affected by the hysteria.

"My daughter was among six students in her class afflicted by hysteria."

She said the headmaster of the school, Alias Salleh, had ordered the closure of the school.

Alias refused to comment on the closure and said the state education department had been informed.

Another parent, who was waiting to take her child home, said the hysteria started at the boy’s dormitory last Friday and had continued over the weekend.

"My son told me about the incident and said he was afraid."

Other parents claimed that some of the students had been possessed by spirits and that the teachers were overwhelmed.

Meanwhile, a Berita Harian reporter who visited the school yesterday witnessed a female student in a hysterical state.

The girl’s mother, who was in school to pick her up, could only watch helplessly as the teachers tried to calm her daughter for more than 30 minutes.

According to some parents, this was the first attack of mass hysteria at the school.

State education director Adziz Abas declined to comment.

from the New Straits Times

School closed after hysteria attack

Plants with Eyes!
Plants with Eyes!



Plants with Eyes!

produced by www.1st-ave-machine.com

When cows attack

Cows obstruct Qld motorway, shot dead

Traffic was brought to a standstill on a major Queensland motorway when six cows fell from a livestock truck.

The cattle were headed for a Brisbane abattoir from the Gold Coast when they fell off the truck in the north-bound lanes of the M1 motorway near Oxenford around 10.30am (AEST).

One beast died instantly and another two were recaptured.

But three more cows were seriously injured and began acting erratically and aggressively towards people trying to round them up.

At one stage, the animals tried to cross the motorway, posing a serious threat to cars travelling at the 110km/h speed limit.

After consulting with local councils officers, vets, the RSPCA and stock control personnel, police found the only option was to shoot the beasts.

Both southbound and northbound lanes were reopened at 12.45pm (AEST).

'Tiger' cow chews up chooks

When dozens of chickens went missing from a remote West Bengal village, everyone blamed the neighbourhood dogs.

But Ajit Ghosh, the owner of the missing chickens, eventually solved the puzzle when he caught his cow - a sacred animal for the Hindu family - gobbling up several of them at night.

"We were shocked to see our calf eating chickens alive," Ghosh said.

The family decided to stand guard at night at the cow shed which also served as a hen coop, after 48 chickens went missing in a month.

"Instead of the dogs, we watched in horror as the calf, whom we had fondly named Lal, sneak to the coop and grab the little ones with the precision of a jungle cat," Gour Ghosh, his brother, said.

Local television pictures showed the cow grabbing and eating a chicken in seconds and a vet confirmed the case.

"The local vets said the cow was probably suffering from a disease but others said Lal was a tiger in his previous birth," Ajit added.
cow

---

Rare shark of the deep snapped

A species of shark rarely seen alive because its natural habitat is 600 metres or more under the sea was captured on film by staff at a Japanese marine park this week.

The Awashima Marine Park in Shizuoka, south of Tokyo, was alerted by a fisherman at a nearby port on Sunday that he had spotted an odd-looking eel-like creature with a mouthful of needle-sharp teeth.

Marine park staff caught the 1.6-metre-long creature, which they identified as a female frilled shark, sometimes referred to as a "living fossil" because it is a primitive species that has changed little since prehistoric times.

The shark appeared to be in poor condition when park staff moved it to a seawater pool where they filmed it swimming and opening its jaws.

"We believe moving pictures of a live specimen are extremely rare," said an official at the park. "They live between 600 and 1000 metres under the water, which is deeper than humans can go."

"We think it may have come close to the surface because it was sick, or else it was weakened because it was in shallow waters," the official said.

The shark died a few hours after being caught.

Frilled sharks, which feed on other sharks and sea creatures, are sometimes caught in the nets of trawlers but are rarely seen alive.

Reuters

Some great art I've found this morning...

...by Maura Holden

toddlerpedes!

...by Jon Beinart

visit http://beinart.org/artists/ to discover your own!

Please don't click this link

Fundies!

Do I really need to say any more?

found here

According to research by the Australia Institute, about one in three Sydney fathers in full-time work with children under 15 years spend an average eight hours and 17 minutes a week travelling to work but three hours and 44 minutes with their children.

...read full article