Nuclear power in Malaysia

With the incoming energy crisis, many countries like Malaysia are planning to tap into alternative energy in order to hedge against the high oil prices that may hit up to $100++ in the coming years. However, I have a little skeptic about the proposal to tap into nuclear power to generate the require energy to replace fossil fuel in Malaysia.

First of all, the cost of building a Nuclear plant is definitely not cheap. It can cost up to a couple of billions of dollars to build up the plant and a commitment on maintenance should always be kept in order to avoid a radioactive leakage like the one that happened in the states in the early 90s.

Secondly, in order to produce Nuclear power, the country will have to seek out nuclear power source such as Uranium. However, with the popularity of Nuclear power in first world countries, the price of Uranium has sky-rocketed in the recent years. In addition, Uranium is definitely not a renewable power resource. It is hard to imagine the feasibility of the plan to establish a Nuclear Power Plant if the source of Uranium is not secured.

Thirdly, although hydroelectricity may not be as efficient as Nuclear power, I think the Malaysian people should really consider evaluating the many ways to use their available energy resources efficiently. Well, with the Bakun Dam, I believe that cheaper electricity should be made available to the people and the Malaysians should really look at what they have before jumping ahead and commit to a huge project like building a Nuclear plant.

Lastly, like many third world countries in the world, Malaysia may not receive any positive remarks for building a new Nuclear Power plant in this world. With Iran as a good example, I am sure Malaysia may receive the same negative treatment that Iran is receiving today. Of course, I am not saying that by establishing a Nuclear Plant, a country will go on and develop their own weapons of mass destruction. However, Malaysians should really consider the potential of new trade barriers to first world countries and the pull out of multi national corporations in order to protest against the construction of the power plant in Malaysia. The effects should not be undermined since it will not only damage Malaysia's image but it will also seriously affect Malaysia's economy which is heavily dependent on the export of their industrial products.

In my opinion, other energy resources should be chosen ahead of Nuclear power. With Malaysia's geographical location on the equator, I believe that solar energy and maybe potential energy from rain should be harvested in order to supply the growing energy demand for the Malaysian economy. Although solar panels have not reached the level of efficiency to produce a massive appeal to the public, I am sure, with a healthy allocation of r & D resources and the expertise of the world scientific experts, Malaysia may become a pioneer and the world's leader in developing solar energy.

"Theodore Rex", a book about the adulthood and the prime of a Great Man

After getting this book on Monday, I can't stop reading it. Mainly because I was eagerly waiting it to arrive after I have read the first book like a week ago. Anyways, I was able to finish it today and I must say that this book actually paints a good picture about a man who has done many great things as the leader of the New World.

Well, first off, he was able to kick start the navy built up for the US Navy.

Next, T.R has started the construction of the Panama Canal despite the many obstructions like the resentment of the Colombians to honor their pre-agreement with the Roosevelt administration that the U.S has received .

Then, T.R has started his plans to accept the African Americans who are qualified to work in the administration as a Federal worker for the US. government. Although many southerners cannot accept the "love" that the president showed to one of their colored friends, T.R was willing to take a chance on his political capital to maintain his stand on his policies.

Another thing that T.R did was he started to pull the public attention the many Trusts like the Beef Trusts, Railroad Trusts that was dominating the US economy at the time. The Trusts were actually a combination of the many major and smaller similar companies to formed up a corporation that will allocate a number of shares that will entitled the dividend of profits based on the size of the companies. In other words, the trusts were controlled by the major corporations like Standard Oil and others. As long as the big corporations were able to control the major entities like oil supply and railroads in America, the people were at times held at ransom when the trusts were free to charge at their will. During his administration, T.R fought hard to establish the anti-rebate bill and many other departments to administer the activities of the Trusts.

Lastly, T.R has started his natural resources conservation program in the US right before the end of his presidency. In his opinion, the conservation and the correct utilization of the rich natural resources of the American soil is vital for the future generations of Americans which I find quite resounding to the lack of such a program in many countries today.

"Fast Food Nation" and "The Jungle"

While I was reading Theodore Rex, I started to recall this book "The Jungle" that talks about the unsanitary conditions of the meat packing plants in America in the early 20th century. Although some people say that the novel is a political driven novel, I seemed to see some similarity in "The Jungle" and "Fast Food Nation". In "Fast Food Nation", it talks about the fast food industries in America and it also talks about the many inhumane treatment of the fast food industry on their employees. I believe that "Fast Food Nation" is similar to "The Jungle" in a way to raise the publics consciousness on the "wage slavery" phenomenon in a market economy. Personally, I feel that "wage slavery" has been an issue that not many people is willing to discuss and to talk about in an open air debate. Many people today are forced to follow their employees' order in order to make their end's meet.

Theodore Rex, finally!!

After waiting for 2 weeks, I have received my copy of "Theodore Rex" from Amazon. Theodore Rex is the second volume of the three book Theodore Roosevelt Biography series by Edmund Morris. Anyways, after I was done with the first book last week, I can't wait to read this second book the describes the presidency while T.R was the president. After reading 100 pages, I found out that the chapters for this second book seemed to be shorter and more concise than the first book. The book started where the first book left off when President William McKinley was assassinated by an anarchist at Buffalo. As a result, T.R, the vice president at the time, was sworn in as the leader of the world. Actually, the book title carries a simple description about the main thesis for this book. The word "Rex" actually means "rule" in Latin and hence the book will try to paint a picture on how T.R rule when he was the President. Anyways, I can't wait to finish this book since it is always great to know more about this unique historical personality that most people in the world may or may not know .

Wavebird is good for GC games for now

Backward compatibility has been a key attraction for many products today especially for game consoles. It will not only help push the games and game accessories of the previous consoles, it will also help prolonged the life of the compatible console. Wii, Nintendo's latest console, is able to play gamecube games and the one and only way to play gc games on a wii is with a gamecube controller. In Malaysia, it is so hard to find gc stuff. I guess people are used to playing their ps2 and they are not willing to pay or to try out other game consoles out there. Anyhoo, I got a 3rd party gc controller in the city. However, the controller was not working fine. In many occasions, the controller stick will be set to a random position in a game. I tried to work with the controller until last week and I have decided to get a wavebird for myself.



The wavebird is a wireless gc controller made by Nintendo. I am sure if I am going to make things work right, I might as well buy it from Nintendo. As a result, I ordered the controller thru play-asia and it arrived today. I was able to try it on my gc games today and I am quite satisfied with the experience. Now, I just need to wait until smash brothers brawl is out and it will be a hella a party!!

Incoming Hyperinflation which requires serious attention

As a citizen of this world, I would seriously urge the world governments to pay serious attention to the incoming inflation that maybe caused by the skyrocketing prices of oil. It may feel like $86/barrel today but, in the long run, nothing can stop oil supply to reach $200/barrel. Governments should really encourage their brightest scientists in their country to help develop a new source of energy that is either renewable and sustainable for a long period of time.

Like the Tsunami that hit South East Asia in year 2005, the people were ill prepared with countermeasures that will enable them to avoid the tragedy which have killed many thousands of civilians. But this time, it will not only affect part of the world, it will be a global crisis that we all will have to face.

Not many people seemed to realize that oil supply is a not renewable energy resource and hence it is illogical to think that cheap access to oil will always be there to support the ever enhancing economic growth of our world economy. Although we may have not reach a level which requires the world to put an eye on oil supply control today, but we certainly reaching for that level in a few years from now.

There are a few thoughts that I have but there are some shortcomings that comes along with these alternatives.
a) Improvement and prepare for the massive increase of the use of public transportation
- With the price of gas increasing over the years, households may not be able to drive to work
in order to pay more for gasoline. Workers will have to depend on public transportation to travel to work and the government will have to foot the bill to maintain and to increase the number of routes for the number of travelers that will commute to work on a daily basis.
b) Rely on some renewable energy that is currently available but may not be not feasible in the long run
- Many people were arguing that biodiesel is the alternative energy supply that we can use to replace gasoline. However, I doubt that this is the best alternative that we can rely on in the long run. In order to produce biodiesel, we will have to reserve a number of bio-sources such as palm oil to produce the biodiesel. In order to meet the number of the reserves, we will have to reserve a number of lands that will serve as the plantations for these bio-sources and hence it will slow down the development for these areas. In addition, many of these bio-sources may need to serve more purposes besides the main ingredients that makes bio-diesel. For example, palm oil is normally refined as cooking oil in Asian countries and the
demand for palm oil is growing in a fast pace. If we were to rely on palm oil for the production of our bio diesel, it may be affordable in the short run but we will need to consider other alternative resources for the long run.

Great, I am done with Volume One.

Theodore Roosevelt Jr. , a controversial man in American history. He plays a lot of roles in the course of history. The following describes the course of his life,

From his early days as an Assembly man in New York state Assembly ->Commissioner of the Civil Service Commission-> Police Commissioner of New York->Assistant Secretary of the US Navy->Lieutenant Colonel of the "Rough Riders"-> Governor of New York State-> Vice President of the United States-> President of the United States.

"The rise of T.R" is definitely a good book that gives a good description on the late 19th century politics in America. It paints a picture about the working of the many political machines and their influences in the American political system. For example, in order to get nominated, a candidate should secure their nomination by their Party Bosses. If they did get nominated, the candidates were controlled by the Party Bosses like stringed puppets to select the many candidates that the Bosses prefer in the many essential government bureaucratic bodies which essentially supports the "Spoil system" that is heavily rooted after the election of Andrew Jackson as the president of the U.S.A. Of course, by looking at The U.S from the 21st century, we can't deny the fact that this spoil system may still exist in this great nation but I am sure a great control has been put in place to restrict the power of these political machineries.

Other than a good picture of the late 19th century politics, I was able to read about T.R, a man who grew up as one who could imagine may not live past his fourth birthday, to his time before he was called upon as the next President of the United States when his president, William McKinley was assassinated by an Anarchist. The book gives many small details about the interesting characteristics of T.R that the reader like me may grow to love and to hate. Well, it definitely gives a different feel to me since I have yet to read an biography since last year.

However, I do encourage people to read this book since it gives us a thought about this great man who may be the first and the strongest candidate to represent Americanism. Although this book is the first book out of a three book series by Edmund Morris, a Kenyan writer who wrote not only about T.R but Ronald Reagan and Beethoven, this books really gives us a good picture about the early life of T.R as a child until he became the president of the United States.

"Chew, devour the Good , and the spit out the bad"

I have been reading "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" lately and I have been enjoying the book so far. I have a few more pages to go before I finish up this first book before the second book arrive. There is thought that I have in mind and I wish to share it online.

After staying in Malaysia for more than a year, I noticed that Asian people are less interested in studying foreign history other than their Asian history while they were amazed by the many "out of the world" accomplishments of the West today. This is not a diss but I am sure the some Asian know this Chinese proverb, "知己知彼，百战百胜" which stands for "if you know your enemies well, you will never lose a fight".

History is a good source of information to discover the development of a culture and to understand some of the crucial elements that defines a culture's success or a complete failure by looking at the many crucial events that happened in the course of their history. Of course, we can't deny that "His-story" could be made up by the many writes that was hired by rich folks to glorify their own family agendas. However, we can't deny the importance of foreign history if the Asians were to be able to compete with their western counterparts in this new millennium. As we all know, "competition drives innovation", if the Asians could put more effort in studying western history like their western counterpart did, I am sure it will not only make a more knowledgeable global citizens out of the Asians, it will also help to provide more capable competitors like the Japanese that West respects and fear in this new millennium.

In sum, I am just urging Asians(I am an Asian myself) to put some resources to encourage their next generation to study foreign history in depth since it will not only allow our children to learn and to grow in a more different path than their forefathers, I am sure they will be able to recreate themselves by establishing themselves as a more capable competitors of the West.

Theodore Roosevelt, a rough rider

After reading parts of the Wealth of Nation by Adam Smith, I have decided to switch my readings to fictional historical writings about Theodore Roosevelt. Not many people in countries outside of the U.S know about this great person but I am happy that I get to learn a little a bout him while I was taking my history class. To give a picture about this great man, his head sculpture was actually being sculptured along with three more Presidents of the United States on Mountain Rushmore in Mt. Rushmore National Park. Think about it, besides the Egyptians, I can't think of another country that is so bold to carve the face of their leaders on a mountain. The whole sculpturing project was started in the early 1920's and it is now one of the landmarks of America. Like Benjamin Franklin on the 100 dollar bill, this four presidents must have done something significant to the nation in order to get their faces put on a mountain. Now, Theodore happens to be third head sculpture from the left on that great mountain. As of now, I am still reading the first volume of Edmund Morris' book about T.R, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. I will post an afterthought about this book once I am done with it.

I saw "metal slime" today again!!

Well, since my folks are out of town for their vacation, I went to the gym at 2pm to kill my time. However, I got to see a girl aka "metal slim" because she shows up at gym in a very low frequency in my perspective. Well, maybe she did go to the gym when I am taking a break. Who knows!! Anyways, I took the rpm class and body jam class in a roll and it was definitely tiring , by considering that I had a very light lunch. After my work out, I went to Bangsar Village to get my dinner at Mizu. As usual, I got my Oolong tea at the supermarket before I head back home.

Irresponsible Developers with the backing of the city hall

While I was working at home today, the developers has started to dispose off the dried weeds and grasses that they have been clearing for all these weeks. Like many irresponsible developers in third nation countries, they have decided to take the easy way out by burning these pile of dried after-products. It is sad to see Malaysian government, who are often a hard critic on their Indonesian neighbors for burning the forest in Indonesia to make way for more plantation lands, does not take a bold stand against these "developers". I hope the developers should be aware that the residents of the local resident area has the right to pursue legal actions against them since their action may cause potential air pollution that may help contribute to the deterioration of the health problem of the residents in the long run.