Star Trek

13 Nov 2010 - Last Sunday we had the comeback Star Trek movie on HBO, and it was great fun. Star Trek has a huge fan base, and I believe the fans were not disappointed by the re-make of the classic late 1960s TV series. The 2010 story about the crew of starship Enterprise was entertaining and full of good action. Director J.J. Abrams, known from hit series Lost and Alias, reinvented Star Trek and brought it into the 21st century. He chose a younger cast for his reboot, with sexy Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto taking on the roles of Captain Kirk and Spock respectively. He also added less known villains, the Romulans, into the picture. The result is a fast-paced reintroduction into the Star Trek universe, and it is much edgier than all previous incarnations. It is a big compliment that both die-hards and newcomers appreciated the movie. So did I.

Meet Patty

12 Nov 2010 - A typical hamburger patty is packed with the meat and fat of 50 to 100 cattle from two or four countries. Eat two hamburgers a week - as the average American does - and in a year's time you have wolfed down 5,200 to 10, 440 cattle. High quality hamburger patties are made entirely of minced beef and seasonings. The patty needs to be cooked at an internal temperature of 80 degrees Celsius as food-borne bacteria such as E-coli may enter due to improper preparation of the meat. In Japan, restaurants regularly serve the hamburger meat without the bun, and call it a hamburger steak. They are served with brown sauce or occasionally in Japanese curries. Mind you, I am talking about the perfect patty here, and I am not sure if you will get the same quality in MacDonalds or the Burger King.

The First Asian Games

12 Nov 2010 - The Guangzhou Asian Games will soon be underway. It all started for the Asian Games at 1948 Summer Olympics in London. Sportsmen from China and the Philippines were reminiscing about having an event where Asian athletes could call their own. This led to the formation of the Asian Athletic Federation, and the announcement of the start of the Asian Games. On March 1951, 489 athletes from 11 countries came to New Delhi, India to show their support and compete. The first ever gold medalist was a Singaporean - N.C. Kok, who won the 1500 meters swimming freestyle gold. The Games were also notable for Japan's first-place performance, a showing made more noticeable because they were barred from the London Games for initiating the Pacific war. However, their misdeeds in warfare did not prevent them from flexing their sporting muscles.

Supermarket Selling

10 Nov 2010 - Every day we go to the supermarket, we buy something and we leave. It may sound as suimple as that, but there is a whole system at work to motivate us to buy more more more. The supermarkets prefer us to shop using a trolley as it looks rather empty with only one or two items and the impulse may be to buy more. The milk is placed at the back, so we have to pass many temptations to get there and walk to the cashier. We find some small items like chocolates and chewing at the cashier, as we may buy them on an impulse. And make no mistake: the most expensive items are placed at eye level, so we notice them easily and may not search the shelves for cheaper varieties. The free sampling and specific events are of course also only designed with the only purpose in mind to let us buy more. There is nothing wrong with all these marketing tricks, but I am sure many people are not aware of them. Is that manipulation?

Saturday Night Fever

9 Nov 2010 - Believe it or not, but John Travolta turns 60. For those of us growing up in the 1970s the movie Saturday Night fever, starring John Travolta, defined a generation. After the Beatles and the Stones in the 1960 the disco-era started around 1977 when Travolta strut his funky stuff on the dance floor. The impact of the iconic movie was tremendous, because soon after its release all men were all wearing high heal and got their leisure suits on, while polyester shirts were THE fashion item. Interesting enough, John Travolta's character Tony looked ubercool in this outfit, but some of us looked right out ridiculous in the outfit. The high heels also meant a health hazard for many, as many ankles were twisted while clomping around. However, the white suit and black polyester shirt became iconic after Travolta appeared on the poster wearing the signature suit. 

Man in Disguise

8 Nov 2010 - A young Chinese man, who boarded an Air Canada flight in Hong Kong elaborately disguised as an elderly white male, is seeking refugee status in Canada. Border officials were stunned and called it an "unbelievable case of concealment". The man boarded the flight in Hong Kong wearing a remarkable silicone mask to make him look like an elderly man, which obviously worked. The man boarded the flight as an elderly Caucasian who appeared to have youthful looking hands. During the flight he went to the washroom and re-appeared as a young Asian male in his early 20s. Reports said the man had a bag with him with the silicon head, a brown leather cap, glasses and a think brown cardigan. Some passengers and cabin crew thought the man had swapped seats during the flight. The reports did not say if his Passport name revealed the name Bond or Houdini (the cartoon is from the SCMP).

Fatwa on Women Cashiers

7 Nov 2010 - Women cashiers were at work in several supermarkets in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia as their employer ignored a fatwa by the country's highest religious authority forbidding female checkout clerks. The popular Marhaba chain kept the women on the job despite the week old ruling, which contradicted a key government policy to create jobs for women. A Marhaba official said the women would keep working until they received an order from the Labor-ministry to stop the practice, which only began in the past three months after the Ministry said it was permitted. Marhaba has more than 25 women working in its branches. The official fatwa-issuing body under the Council of Senior Scholars ruled that the cashier jobs were not permissible, because they resulted in the women mixing with unrelated men.

Durian buffet

7 Nov. 2010 - First of all: I really do not like durian fruit. But I am now in the part of the world where people grave for the smelly fruit. The best way to enjoy durian is - they say fresh from the market. And that is not the supermarket, but the wet market. The latest trend is the durian buffet, which can be found at the roadside in KL and other parts of Malaysia. At jalan SS2 at least four durian stalls are vying for the customers' attention, but most of them offer the same deal: RM10 for all you can eat (fresh kampaung durians only). It sounds like the perfect treat for durian-lovers (and there are many), but ther is also a downside. One has to finish a durian before ordering again, and the stall holder picks the durian for the customer. Effectively, that means one is bound to get some watery or rotten ones sometimes. Not for me!