Unconventional World Records

The Star, 29th Aug: the strained relationship between Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and the Proton management has taken a fresh twist with the former prime minister returning the seven Proton vehicles given to him.

…used by Dr Mahathir personally and by his staff…

Sources said the vehicles included the VW Touareg, a four-wheel drive, and the VW Phaeton, which the Proton adviser often used for travelling. The other five are apparently all Proton Waja.

pic of the touareg, courtesy of vw.com
price starts at around RM140,000; before add-ons and tax. probably will cost RM400,000 OTR.

pic of the phaeton, courtesy of vw.com
price starts at around RM250,000; before add-ons and tax. probably will cost RM600,000 OTR.

update 3rd Sept:
clearer pics at senandungsemalam.blogdrive.com.

A funny comparison between the correct and incorrect way to wear the national flag here.

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At least, this provided something different for this year’s national day celebrations
pic courtesy of bharian.com.my:

Rather than do the usual thing like planting as many miniflags as possible on your car, Aida Khurniah, 23, air stewardess cum part time model created history by being the first person to do “hot poses” clad only in the Malaysian flag, exposing her thighs and part of her chest.

It’s featured in the local magazine “Sensasi Lelaki.”

The article in which the Kuantan lass was featured even has an appropriate title, in more ways than one: “Nyalakan Api Patriotik - Aida”.

It has incurred the wrath of the funny-sounding Kimma (Malaysian India Muslim Congress). I said funny-sounding because Kimma is short form for an expletive in common use.

Its sec gen, Muhammad Ali Naina Mohamad said the pics are “obscene and erotic.” I dunno about obscene, but at least Naina acknowledges that the pics are indeed hot…the Internal Security Ministry (KKDN) has been urged to outlaw its publication.

Do you know what this means? The publishers of Sensasi Lelaki will enjoy this nice surge in sales for a while and…QUICK! Get that magazine NOW!

Aida proved to be a feisty girl by defending her actions, saying that the move was to create awareness on the importance of showing patriotism, what with National Day around the corner.

pic courtesy of chosun.com

As category 5 Hurricane Katrina approaches, 1.4 million residents ordered to flee New Orleans

only three cat 5 hurricanes have ever struck the US since record-keeping began

Quotes:

“this is a once in a lifetime event”
“i hope i have a home to return to”

those unable to leave is put at shelters, including the superdome, a 72,000 seater american football stadium. at last check, parts of the roof has been blown off, hence rainwater spilling onto the field and flooding lower parts of the structure.

pic courtesy of stadiumsofnfl.com:

pic courtesy of americanantigravity.com:

laser based non-lethal immobiliser.

unfortunately not available to the general public yet. us army recently bought some for use in Iraq.

costs USD1000+

looks like a normal laser pointer

seems perfect for self defense

update 2nd Sep 2005:
even DJ Impian only charges 45 sen per sms, and i think it offers even bigger prizes than Sabah Idol - RM15k cash, a Kancil amongst others for the champ.

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85sen per sms! compared to 65 sen for af3.

no t&c, no info on sms (just top 3 contestants’ percentages), no web, no nothing.

final supposed to be 27 august at kdca.

if not for contestant 0341, i wont even take a 2nd look.

lilypie.com and daisypath.com, as utilised by Lee Cheen Siong’s blog.

namecheap.com: RM34 per year (ad free i suppose) - this is used by project petaling street.
at yahoo.com, i originally got mine for about RM20/yr but with ad at bottom, but when i moved to exabytes, it was gone.
the average price seems to be about RM55/yr

project petaling street is hosted at lunarpages.com (362/3/40 - in comparison exabytes is 199/2/20)

first no: price in RM/yr
2nd no: space in GB
3rd no: bandwidth allocation in GB/mth

of course there are other considerations…like track record, testimonials, awards, no of databases, no of subdomains, easy hosting provider moving, whois guard etc, but keeping it simple

Datuk Azmi Khalid (pic courtesy of bharian.com.my):

Normala Shamsudin (pic courtesy of thestar.com.my):

It’s official: Home Minister Datuk Azmi Khalid (Perlis), 64 and divorcee-with-3-kids Normala Shamsudin, 23 years his junior are to be married 26th August 2005 (ref: The Star, 25th Aug).

Akad nikah (marriage ceremony) to be held in Johor.

trivia: Normala’s father, Shamsudin Md Zin, at 65 is only a year older than the groom.

Normala has been dubbed the most beautiful Malay woman in Malaysia. Yes, even more beautiful than Camelia…

Azmi’s wife, Datin Yasmin Abdullah, died of leukemia aged 62 5 months ago on 24th March at SJMC, after a 2-year battle with the disease.

A Roman Catholic bishop on the Spanish island of Tenerife has ordained a man as a Catholic priest despite the fact that he is married with two children.

The 64-year-old former Anglican pastor, David Gliwitzki, was ordained in La Laguna on the Canary Island.

The Bishop of Tenerife said the move was a unique exception within the Spanish Church.

According to Church rules, priests are supposed to be celibate.

But the ordination was approved by the Pope.

How so? Read more here.

Update 25th Aug:

According to The Star/Utusan Malaysia (24th Aug) and various online sources: it was love at first sight for the Sultan.

Altogether now: “OOOOooohhhhhhhhh…..”

Close friends of Azrinaz told the daily that the Sultan fell in love with her when she went to Brunei two years ago on a news assignment. “During the event, the Sultan of Brunei glanced at Azrinaz and immediately fell in love. After that, he kept watching her read the news on TV3,” said her friend.

Azrinaz won TV3�s most promising journalist award in 2000, was reading the morning and afternoon Buletin news before she resigned last May.

Images courtesy of bharian.com.my and various online sources:

Azrinaz,26 gets hitched to the man himself, formerly the richest man on the planet, the Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah,58 after the latter divorced his 2nd wife in Feb 2003 after almost 24 years of marriage. The Sultan married Mariam, formerly known as Mariam Bell, a Brunei-Japanese-Scottish ex-flight attendant in Oct 1981 and they had 4 children.

Not content with that, his ex-2nd wife, Mariam Abdul Aziz’s royal titles were all withdrawn.

Filepic of Mariam taken in 1999, courtesy of cnn.com:

Azrinaz was never picked by TV3 to read the main primetime news at 8pm, but rather less glamorous slots like Berita Terkini.

Norman KRU and even Khairy Jamaluddin was once romantically linked to her.

According to Utusan Malaysia on 6th Aug, they were introduced when the ex-newscaster was covering the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Brunei last year

What motivates a man to marry a woman 32 years his junior? According to unconfirmed sources she’s already pregnant, hence the rush. If that’s true, then she’s bearing his 11th child.

She resigned from TV3 in May, citing the need to “try other activities.”

But his first wife, married in 1967 is still queen.

more rumours/gossip at cari.com.my forum.

trivia:
at least you know her car number - WMS 71. She won it after tendering for RM2K.