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Archive for category Environment

Drains around George Town, Penang

May 13

Posted by khensthoth in Environment, Malaysia, Penang, Toot! | No Comments

In this post I shall attempt to enlighten people about the dirtiness of George Town, Penang. Of course, the pictures were all taken long before the new Penang State Government come to power. The former government had been in power for almost 40 years, the former chief minister alone was in power for around 18 years. Let’s see how things will improve, and compare it 4 to 5 years later, come the next general election.


Taken somewhere near the “Sia Boay” market.


Taken somewhere near the Jelutong Expressway and the construction site for new apartments.


Taken somewhere along Pangkalan Weld.


Taken in Amoy Lane, near Hutton Lane. Notice the rubbish dump near the drain, as well as the colour of the drain water.

Well, having seen all that, go and enjoy home-cooked meal more as a lot of this is caused by irresponsible hawker centres and stupid Penangites. Oh wait, where are your vegetables placed before they are sold?

Yup. By the roadside, on top of a dirty drain. Do enjoy your food – all of them.

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Penang KOMTAR

May 11

Posted by khensthoth in Environment, Malaysia, Penang, Toot! | No Comments

Recently there has been some news regarding Penang Komtar:

Penangites hope to see better days for the tower
Putting Komtar together again
Penang to scrap ‘Mini Putrajaya’ project
Komtar Time Line

I would like to draw your attention to the deplorable state of Komtar. This post is originally posted in SkyscraperCity Forum, Penang KOMTAR Thread.

Sorry for the unflattering photographs. It was taken using my camera phone, on 27/12/2007.

Ceiling of one of the toilets in ground floor, near the bus station

Ceiling of one of the toilets in ground floor, near the bus station

Extremely dirty information board, with the previous (failed) bus revamp notice still intact.

Extremely dirty information board, with the previous (failed) bus revamp notice still intact.

The sorry state of the integrated bus station, notice the total emptiness of the stores in the background.

The sorry state of the integrated bus station, notice the total emptiness of the stores in the background.

Lane 1 and 2, dedicated for RapidPenang.

Lane 1 and 2, dedicated for RapidPenang.

On a side note, why would people buy food or eat at the stores (in the background), where carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide fumes are overwhelming?

Well, self-explanatory.

Well, self-explanatory.

The previous state government’s allocation of RM10 million is totally inadequate to bring KOMTAR back to the old days. With Penang Times Square and the new KOMTAR Phase 3 by Lion Mutiara Parade Sdn. Bhd. upcoming, how does one expect Komtar and Prangin Mall to shine again? Please. RM10 million? Don’t kid me.

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Energy Bill Revisited

Sep 4

Posted by khensthoth in Australia, Environment, Toot! | 2 Comments

It looks like my plan to “generate electricity and sell it back to the grid” has gone horribly wrong.

This is the subsequent bill from my electricity provider:
Energy Bill June

Previously the bill showed a huge decrease. It’s so dramatic it drops below zero, which resulted in a electricity bill of -$30.35 for the -434kWhs we used. Yes, negative.

I guess my electricity provider must have found out what I was doing and charge us back. The energy for the subsequent months are 360kWhs and then shot up to 1084kWhs, resulting in a bill of $121.54. All my effort has gone in vain.

In truth, there never was any plan or effort. All those were dramatisation by me. I must stress that the scanned copy of the bills have not been modified in any way.

In Victoria, Australia, the electricity bill comes every three months, and thus there is a meter reading every three months as well. However, the energy provider I use, Victoria Energy probably decided that any amount of cash is more important than no cash for three months, which is why they send me a bill every month.

This means that for the two months that there are no readings, they send bill with estimate amount of energy usage. This estimate is calculated from your previous energy usage. Most of the time they get it pretty close, sometimes they just suck.

The April bill shows how much they suck. Energy usage from January to March are all estimates. When they read the meter at 27 Mar, they saw that the actual electricity usage was lower than estimated, which is why they they deducted money for the month of April.

The sudden spike in this bill is not a overestimation however. Due to the cold weather, and some other reasons, our energy usage was actually that high.

Sorry, Mother Earth, I let you down.

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Australians are stupid

Jun 10

Posted by khensthoth in Australia, Environment, Toot! | 19 Comments

Since it’s the exam period, this is going to be a short one. I have been having all sorts of ideas why Australians, or some Australians in particular, are stupid. This is one of the things that led me to believe so. I hope this will be an ongoing post where I shall post ideas and perspective that led me to believe the same thing.

The Melbourne Italian Festival, or the closing ceremony is held on 9th and 10th June at Piazza Italia, or Argyle Square. This is the examination periods for students of Melbourne, particularly The University of Melbourne and RMIT, which is in the proximity of Piazza Italia.

I have nothing against the festival itself. Rather, I have something against the date it is being held. Organizing and holding this kind of extremely loud events in the proximity of what I would consider to be an area full of university students in their examinations period is stupid and idiotic.

Coincidentally, the Melbourne City Council seem to have some urge to re-landscape Cardigan Street. However, they couldn’t pick a better day to start doing it. According to one of the letters, the work will begin on 8th June and will end around four weeks time, weather permitting. Two days before 8th June, they cut down all the trees on the tree island on Cardigan Street.

It’s as if Australian, particularly Melbournians are out to doom us all in our examination period. I am not sure who approved the event and the work at the dates without asking the opinion of at least some of the residents, but I am pretty sure John So is involved.

Some Australians are stupid, no doubt about it.

P.S.: If you are Australian and you are offended by this post, GREAT!

[UPDATE 18/5/2005 2.51 AM]
Due to the popularity of this post, do read:
Australians are Stupid 3
Australians are Stupid 2

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Solving Australian Water Crisis

May 13

Posted by Hean in Australia, Environment, Toot! | No Comments

A major part of Australian economy depends on its exports to China, which includes various minerals and even uranium.

Recently, due to excessive use of water and lack of rainfall, Australia is facing a shortage of water. I have come up with a good way for Australia to solve its water problem once an for all.

Australia can make a deal with China through its mining export. By exporting minerals to China, Australia can demand China to pay for the minerals in the pee all the Chinese produce everyday. Yes, you heard my right, PEE.

There are 1.3 billion people in China, as oppose to the mere 21 million Australian population. This means there are approximately 62 Chinese for each Australian. Let’s assume that on average, the Chinese pee 6 times a day, 300 ml each time, that will be about 111 Litres of pee for each Australian each day! That’s about the standard of a water efficient person.

Alright, I am not trying to tell Australian to drink, cook and bathe with pee. The pee, of course, would be cleaned by RO (reverse osmosis). Rest assure that after the RO process, the water is of high standard and safe to drink and use. It is probably even cleaner than your tap water.

Hopefully, the Australian government will realise that the answer to water shortage lies not in cutting down the usage, but in opening up a new source, and that source is Chinese Pee.

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