Full-time technology blogger Amit Agarwal of labnol.org is surely one of the world’s top bloggers, with more than 50,000 feed subscribers and more than 2,000 fans on Facebook.

Back in 2006, he mentioned that his blog gets 1.25 million hits a month.

He’s has never explicitly revealed his income from blogging, but some people have mentioned USD20,000 a month, and some even said it’s more than USD1 million a year.

So it was an honour to provide a little assistance to him:

It’s probably just a matter of time before this happened, and something that will make a lot of people in this part of the world start scrambling to find out as much as the virus instead of reading colon cleanse reviews.

There was a false alarm in Sabah on 13th May 2009, but just after noon on 15th May 2009, Malaysia confirmed its first case of the A(H1N1) flu: a 21-year-old student who returned from New York in the United States 2 days earlier.

Then, a month later, on 15th June, Sabah confirmed its first case, the 16th case in the country: a 15-year-old (some reports say 14) Sandakan girl who arrived in Kota Kinabalu at 6.10pm on a flight from the United States 2 days earlier.

The girl and her mother departed the US on the 9th and had a stopover in Hong Kong before continuing their journey home.

She is a PR in the US and came back for a holiday.

The thermal cameras installed at the airport detected that her body temperature was above 38 C.

Health ministry staff immediately brought her to the Lingzhi quarantine centre in Kepayan for further tests.

Fortunately, she’s doing well and on the way to a full recovery.

Statistics:

As of 23rd June 2009:
- total of 69 cases in Malaysia
- total of 56,865 cases worldwide, with 272 deaths.
- most cases in US: 22,847
- most deaths in Mexico (115) and the US (113). The country with the 3rd most number of deaths is Canada with 16.

Recommendations from the Health Ministry:
- DO postpone travel to countries with Influenza A (H1N1) outbreaks unless it is really unavoidable, to curb its spread.

- Those exhibiting symptoms of the virus should:
(i) seek treatment immediately
(ii) refrain from social activities and public places

Relevant phone numbers:
The Health Ministry: 03-88810200 / 03-88810300

Source
Daily Express, 16th June 2009

It was a 71-year old tourist from Canada, one of 5 countries in the Malaysian government’s list of non-recommended countries to travel to. The others are the United States, Mexico, Spain and Britain.

Timeline:

5th: he arrived in Sabah
12th / 13th: became ill, suffering from fever and a sore throat. Visited a clinic in Luyang. The doctor there immediately alerted Sabah Health Department officials who then took the man to be quarantined overnight at the Department’s isolation centre in Kepayan.
13th: His blood sample sent to Kuala Lumpur.
14th: blood test result received: negative. The man released.

Just wondering: need to send blood sample to KL? Shouldn’t Sabah have it’s own A(H1N1) blood testing equipment? Or hasn’t telemedicine progressed up to the point where blood can be tested remotely?

Source
The Star, 14th May 2009

… this could very well increase insurance quotes anywhere …

Last time I remember reading that the world record for the most number of children given birth by one woman is sixty nine, by a Russian peasant in the 18th century.

My neighbour has 24 children, but from 2 wives (12 children each). Their house was always a riot.

For a Malaysian woman, the record could very well be 21.

Housewife Chu Seok Len, 49 and her sawmill factory worker husband Lam Ah Ngan of Grik, Perak has had that number of children.

The oldest was born when she was 18, and the youngest when she was 42.

Two were given away, and one died shortly after birth.

Now get this: apparently all her married children and their spouses and 20 grandchildren live in the same house. Wow, that must be one noisy house.

Way to go mama, and a belated Mother’s Day wish to all mothers!

Source
The Star, 11 May 2009

… amazingly, on first impressions anyway, Ms Chu does not seem to have the body of a woman who’ve given too many births, no need to read diet pill reviews there …

The month of July 2008 was quite windy. The Star reported that on the 5th of July 2008 18 houses on the west coast of Sabah had their roofs blown off due to heavy rains and strong winds which peaked at 4am and continued for 30 minutes.

Someone recorded a TV3 newscast of someone describing what it was like [the man speaks in Sabahan Malay]:

Click here to see the video

The Sabah State Honours Enactment, 1963, para 4(1) says that, amongst others:

There shall be four Grades of the Order namely:
First Grade - Sri Panglima Darjah Kinabalu (SPDK)
Second Grade - Panglima Gemilang Darjah Kinabalu (PGDK)

Then, para 4(2) says, amongst others:

The maximum number of persons appointed to the First Grade shall be one hundred and fifty, to the Second Grade nine hundred and fifty …

Sometime later the number was increased, then on 22nd April 2009, the enactment was amended to increase the number of PGDK recipients from 1,050 to 1,200, because “there was an increase in the number of people eligible.”

Does Sabah really have the most number of Datuks in the country, which spawned the joke about hitting a Datuk in the head if one threw a stone at random at a congregation of people here?

We look at other states first.

Probably the biggest numbers ever seen happened in 2004, when Melaka, with a population of around 700,000 awarded 84 Datukships. In the same year, Pahang bestowed 92 Datukships (some reports say 109). The Opposition Leader then claimed that Malaysia would have 3,000 new Datuks from state honours alone for that year.

In 2007, Negeri Sembilan bestowed 53 Datukships.

In 2006, Penang made 66 Datuks.

As for Sabah:

2004: 28.

2005: 33.

2006: 39.

2007: 51

2008: 51

Someone estimated that based on these numbers, probably 2,300 persons have been awarded a Datukship by the state of Sabah since 1963.

In contrast, for the state of Sarawak:

In 2008, quite a few.

In 2007, only 11 were awarded the Datukship.

In 2006, only 5.

So it seems Sabah isn’t too generous, nor too stingy compared to the other states.

I read that after Malaya’s independence in 1957, only 5 of the 15 cabinet ministers were made Datuks. Even the finance minister then Tan Siew Sin, only had a Justice of Peace. Of course he was later made a Tun. The Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman himself was never bestowed any award.

My kampung is surrounded by trees and other greenery; it offers a spectacular view of Mount Kinabalu, and mist-filled evenings.

However, if you have romantic notions of the quiet, uneventful village life, you are wrong, for you will never be left alone: there are many creepy crawlies lurking outside, and more often than you think, INSIDE.

It’s only quite recently that I resolved to take photos of them as they make their presence known.

Recently, this multi-legged creature was spotted on the floor downstairs around 10.45pm:

There have been at least two occasions where red-green coloured centipedes suddenly dropped from the ceiling onto the floor upstairs, right next to where we were sitting.

I have seen baby scorpions inside the cracks of the concrete floor downstairs.

As far as I can remember, I have been stung by bees while inside the house on a few occasions.

If not shooed away, birds like to set up home right in the middle of the house. In fact, various types of insects have set up home at various parts of the house.

Many years ago I saw what I thought was a goliath spider - reddish, with very long legs, under the kitchen sink.

I was once attacked by a larger than average spider whose spouse I killed earlier for suddenly appearing beside me as I was studying.

Skinny spiders with long black arms, we call them “sindawang” has a penchant for setting up their web on the house balcony; we used to feed them insects and watch intently while it grabs the prey and spins it round and round with its web until all you could see was a white blob.

In the early evening a few days ago, just outside the house, there were some fire ants:

You do not want to accidentally walk in there!

Whenever we walk upriver to check on the water pipe supplying water to the house, we occasionally get entangled in giant spider webs with the spider itself hanging startling close to our faces.

Snakes are a common occurence - the biggest one I remember was a python caught trying to get away with some chicken.

Early last year around noon, I almost stepped on this beauty as I was walking out the door:

Welcome to village life!

… So keep in mind that these things can appear at any time, for example while one is doing things in the house, like affixing an LCD mount …

Datuk Seri Shafie Afdal has made history by being the first ever Sabahan to be elected one of the three UMNO vice presidents, edging out his closest challenger Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin 1,445 votes to 1,397. 5th placed Datuk Dr Rais Yatim garnered a distant 491.

Probably helped by the fact that Sabah had the 2nd highest number of delegates with 325, second only to Johor.

The closest before this was in 2000 when the then CM, Datuk Osu Sukam just missed out when he finished 4th.

Both he and Khaled were supreme council members.

They were among those who received the most nominations - the others being Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Tun Hussein and Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

Other vice presidential candidates who lost out were:
(i) Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar
(ii) Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim
(iii) Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad (incumbent vice-president)
(iv) Tan Sri Rahim Thamby Chik (incumbent supreme council member, got the lowest number of votes: 192)

For the 25-seat supreme council, all 3 Sabahan candidates were elected in: Datuk Seri Panglima Musa Aman, Datuk Seri Panglima Lajim Ukin and Datuk Bung Moktar Radin.

It might not sound that impressive, but consider the fact that many big guns failed to hold on to or clinch a supreme council seat [honorifics omitted]:

(i) Azalina Othman (Tourism Minister)
(ii) Mohamad Hassan (Negeri Sembilan Menteri Besar)
(iii) Abdul Ghani Othman (Johor Menteri Besar)
(iv) Mohd Isa Sabu (Perlis Menteri Besar)
(v) Adnan Yaakob (Pahang Menteri Besar)
(vi) Shahrir Abdul Samad (Domestic Trade and Consumer Minister)
(vi) Noraini Ahmad (Deputy Human Resources Minister and outgoing Puteri Umno chief)
(vii) Johari Baharum (Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department)
(viii) Hasan Malek (Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department)
(ix) Siti Zaharah Sulaiman (former Wanita Umno chief)

Earlier, Datuk Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin, deputy head of Puteri UMNO and two-term Paper MP was elected the first Sabahan Puteri UMNO chief, beating out 5 other candidates: Datin Ismalina Ismail, Ida Rahayu Md Noor, Datuk Hahaniza Shamsuddin, Saarah Ali Bashah and Bibi Sharliza Mohd Khalid.

Victory must be especially sweet for her as she reportedly trailed Shahaniza and Ida Rahayu in the run-up.

In last year’s general and state elections, Sabah Umno helped win 14 of the 24 parliamentary seats won in Sabah and 32 of the 59 state seats.

So, all in all, it has been a good Umno elections for Sabahans.

P.S. I read that there were a total of 14 Sabahan candidates in the party elections - apart from the ones I mentioned above, did the others win too?

Most of the time people curse and swear upon finding out that the ATM they spent so much time and energy reaching turns out to be out of order.

But things happen for a reason, and sometimes events happen that remind us to count our blessings instead.

Like in the case of a young housewife, who on the evening of 18th of March 2009 had just withdrawn RM100 from an ATM in Taman Midah, Cheras and was walking towards her husband who was waiting in the car nearby.

Suddenly, 4 men in a Honda CR-V grabbed hold of her, forced her in, then blindfolded her.

Her husband did not even notice it happening.

They then drove around Cheras in a Honda CR-V on a 5-hour ride of terror, only to find every single ATM there non-operational.

At 2am, they finally gave up and dropped her off somewhere.

Of course the robbers could’ve very well harmed the lady out of anger.

Source
Bernama

… so, next time ATMs in your area act up again, don’t be so fast calling them moving services …

Here’s a modern-day folk hero.

Hamid Jasmin could’ve remained as anonymous as any villager in the hinterlands of Sabah, if not for his deeds being reported in the media.

Rather than waiting around for the authorities to get cracking in supplying electricity to his village, Kampung Libang Laut of Tambunan, he went one better: building a mini hydroelectric power plant (hygen) so that his village can enjoy 24-hour electricity, with enough power to run even fridges.

He did it with several thousand ringgit out of his own pocket, not a small amount.

He made 2 generators: the first one took 4 months to build. The second was completed late 2004.

He used scrap metal for the water wheel and a discarded gear box for the water wheel speed controller. Only the dynamo was bought.

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