Old Fashioned Bakery

Nowadays everything or nearly everything are automated.   This allows for mass production and lowers down the costs and hence the prices allowing for more competitive approach to an industry.   But is automated really a necessity?   Well some do exactly the opposite, and thrive despite using traditional methods that had been used since 1921.   We are talking about the amazing bakery still using traditional methods and ingredients founded by Mr Tan Ek Tjoan from Bogor, West Java.   Below is how the process works in modern bakery:

No worries, this is not the way the Jakarta bakery does its bread.   Tan Ek Tjoan bakery does about 30 kinds of bread but the oldest kind are still the most popular.   That is their famous 'gambang' bread.   What is so special of the bread that you may want to ask?   They used 'arenga' palm sugar which is rare now.   Another popular kind of bread is known as the 'bim bam' bread.   Despite the old fashion of production, their factory in Cikini produces around 10,000 loaves and cakes every day.  Not bad for a bakery started since 1921 and still using 1921 techniques!   Do not think that traditional means less money, their revenues are a whooping US$100,000 a month!

Accountant refused to collect Dead Mum

This is crazy!   An accountant in Singapore who send her mum to a nursing home and only visited her for a few times and each time claiming that she was only a relative or neighbor, refusing to acknowledge that she was the daughter.   When the mum passed away, knowing that she had to pay $2000 for the last rites, she refused to come to the nursing home to collect her mum's body and pay her the last respects.   Thankfully a kind hearted undertaker donated a casket for the mum and paid for the last rites.   I can't imagine someone so hard hearted.  This is a disgrace to her profession and to herself.

Cured of Aids

Timothy Ray Brown, 47, an American from Seattle, Washington is the only person known to be cured from this deadly disease, Aids.  He had a bone marrow transplant from an HIV resistant person in a landmark process which cured him of his aids.   Being the living proof that such a deadly disease can be cured, he is looking to forming a foundation to research a cure for Aids.  Congrats to Timothy and Best Wishes, may his foundation succeed and give hope to the millions of sufferers.

Japanese Lover Killed By Samurai

There was a British man Mr Charles Richardson who went to Japan and had great admiration for the Japanese.  That was in 1862, he even penned on his letter "I doubt not but that it will become a country of large commerce.".   But on the fateful day when he failed to dismount when the Satsuma clan was passing by, he was killed by a samurai.

Mayor the Cat

Imagine your cat being Mayor of your Town?!  This does not seem possible, but it is true in the Alaska town of Talkeetna.   The cat isn't a Flash in the pan too, it had just celebrated its 15 years as the Mayor.   Why was it so?  15 years ago, the town had problem choosing a Mayor out of the candidates that were contesting.   Finally someone put Mayor Stubbs the Cat on the ballot papers and he won!  It seemed that he has no competitor for the last 15 years as the residents were generally satisfied with his performance.

China Submarine Sets New Record

A China Submarine sets a new record of going down to the sea beds at more than 7000m below the sea level just recently and China made an announcement that it will attempt to dive in the South China Sea next year.   Now, this is a politically and militarily sensitive move as there are a lot of territorial disputes in that area.   "The China Daily said the "Jiaolong", China's most technologically advanced manned submersible, would conduct the mission next April and May, after it reached depths of over 7,000 metres in the Pacific Ocean last month."   The feat gave China access to 99% of the world's ocean and an ability to tap into the crude oil reserves in the South China Sea which is estimated to be 80% that of Saudi Arabia.

Digg Sold for $500 000

Digg, one of the first social media web site was sold for $500 000.  What was amazing was that this company was valued at $160 million at one time until Twitter and Facebook caught up with it.   Digging web sites were once very popular and frequent but now the users reduced from 14 million to 7 million.   The buyer was New York technology development firm Betaworks.   Well, really hope that the new owner can turn Digg around and regain its previous prominence!

Disabled Gamers can Finally Play

European scientists have invented a device that allow the eyes to control the movement of the video game allowing the disabled a chance to finally play a game of their choice.   What is greater was that the cost of the device is only about $30 making it affordable to a lot of disabled personnel.   With such a success the scientists are looking for a funding partner so as to mass produce it and make it available on the market.

I personally feel that the device is amazing and should not be just limited to playing games but maybe modified to make life of a disabled person as normal as possible.  Really hope that the device will be out in the market helping our disabled friends.

Moonrat in Malaysia

A moonrat that was dead at the road side of a street in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia caused quite a bit of a stir.   It looks like a rat but is not actually a rodent, and is found in Malaysia as well as in Thailand.   Moonrats, whose scientific name is echinosorex gymurus, are considered the only species in the echinosorex family.  It does not really look frightening, I think the newspapers are more of a curious on the species of this strange looking animal.   Anyway, those with sensitive nose may not actually like this fella as it is famous for being smelly :)

Couple Rescues Lobsters

One kind hearted couple was walking by an Italian seafood restaurants which was displaying live lobsters and crayfishes in the aquarium right at the window.   They were there to enjoy a romantic dinner together.   But upon seeing the lobsters, they felt pity for the lobsters and wanted to rescue them and put them back into the sea.   Despite the protestations from owner of the restaurant who felt that the lobsters would not survive the journey back to the sea, the couple insisted.   In the end the kind hearted couple made 500 euros to buy the lobsters and free them back into the sea.   I guess a lot of people are laughing at them but I salute their determination and kind heartedness.   It is glad that we still have such kind people on earth.

5 Year Old Snorkeling with Sharks

Mr David Barnes and his wife Elana allowed their 5 year old daughter to snorkel with sharks which caused an outrage as accusations flown in regarding the responsibility of such an action.   The Barnes claimed that they had researched upon the risks and decided to proceed with letting their daughter snorkel with the sharks.  IMHO I feel that it is kinda of dangerous even though the attacks are rare.   But this is purely my own personal opinion.

Life Guard Sacked for Saving Drowning Man

The case happened in Florida.   A young life guard named Mr Tomas Lopez was manning the beach at Miami, Hallandale Beach.   Someone alerted the life guard of a drowning man who happened to be in the unprotected area.   Tomas ran all the way and rescued the man.   He had to file an incident report and when he was doing so, he was told he was being sacked as he had rescued someone that is not within his area and there are liability issues.   Even though rules are rules but I really feel that this is crazy.   Instead of being rewarded or praised for saving a life, he was being fired!

Fake Rice from China

Honestly it is quite hard to believe that those manufacturers have zero human compassion and just thinking of making extra money.  Fake Rice!  Anyone believe that anyone in the world will manufacture fake rice?   Eating one bowl of such rice is like eating one plastic bag, goodness!

Great Wall of China Twice as Long

The Great Wall of China was the legacy of the First Emperor of China.  Its name 万里长城 means the wall of ten thousand miles.   Earlier studies determined the wall to be 8850 km long, but in a recent investigation using the latest equipment available, it was found to be 21,196.18 km long!

Men becoming Kids

This is really a very very sad story about a disease known as Benjamin Button disease.   Such a disease caused the patient to slowly have their thoughts turn back into children again.   Two middle aged men having happy families suddenly found their lives turned upside down because of the disease.   Matthew and Michael Clark are now at the mental stage of a young kid that needs constant attention.   It seemed that such diseases can be caused by gene mutation or by genetic disorder.  Whatever it is, I really hoped that there is a cure for both brothers so that they and their loved ones will not suffer so much.

Haiti Earthquake Miracle

The 2010 Haiti Earthquake had a Richter Scale of 7 and killed 300 000, with 300 000 missing and more than 1000 000 homeless.   To this poorest nation on Earth, it was a catastrophe.   Yet in such a catastrophe we found miracles and hope for mankind.

Relief Efforts by US Army

A Haitian man survived the ordeal trapped for 27 days!  Buried for 27 days, he was thought to be the longest surviving victim.   Though severely undernournish and traumatized, Mr Evans Monsignac survived the ordeal.  This is totally beyond medical logic and was really a miracle.  He had believed it was a Grace of God and he would not explain it either.   Whatever it is, it is an amazing miracle!

Kanagawa river yields three piranhas

They caught 3 piranhas there and have declared the stream to be off limits.   Piranhas aren't native to Japan.   What could have happened is that someone smuggled the fish in as pets, and maybe the pet owners decided that they do not want the fish and throw them into the rivers.

The few piranhas by itself aren't dangerous.   The great danger is when they adapt to the river conditions and start to multiple and proliferate to other water ways, that can make the entire nation's water ways dangerous.   I would appeal to anyone, if you have piranhas, surrender them to the authorities or if you do not want your piranhas, surrender them.  The huge dangers of throwing such fishes into the local streams cannot be overstated.

Some pictures of Piranhas taken from public domain pictures of Wikimedia.  They don't look as tame as these when they smell blood!   There are horror movies as well as real life horror attacks by piranhas.  Such fishes aren't suppose to be in your home aquarium at all.

Berkeley Ridiculously Automated Dorm (BRAD)

I feel that this guy is quite cool!  For most of us, we will be buried in books, but he still finds time to be so innovative.   It is definitely fun putting in those automation and a great way to learn!   On the other hand, for us, most of the university students, I don't think the landlord or the school allows for such additions, but it will be fun if they do.

Singapore Textbook Error

A Singapore History textbook has an error for seven years and no one noticed it except now.  Instead of Feudal Lords, the spelling was Feudal Shi and the error was repeated 24 times in the book.   It was thought that those who read it may think that it was referring to 士 which can have some similarity to the word Lord.

Internet Forum Suicide

We had quite a scare in one of the forums where a forumer was talking about suicide, basically a lot of members were trying to dissuade him from that, but of course some of the members were taking it as a joke

Some of the forumers supposedly in the same country and region as the suicidal forumer was trying to report to the local police and asking the moderators of the forum for more information on how to reach that person.   The police was monitoring the forum thread though the moderators had no luck in tracking where he was exactly.   For me I am praying that nothing will happen to him and that we manage to dissuade him from any suicidal thoughts.

Cooking in Liquid Nitrogen

Umea University students recently did an amazing thing, cooking beef in liquid nitrogen.   Umeå University School of Restaurant and Culinary Arts basically used liquid nitrogen to cook the beef to prepare a Beef Burger.  I have read about this before, it was said that liquid nitrogen may be a standard thing in the kitchen soon given that it is cheap at about $1 per gallon and there are already cutting edge chefs using it.   However there are dangers, liquid nitrogen can burn you as badly as boiling oil.   Therefore it is not for you until the consumer appliance giants produce conventional fryers using liquid nitrogen.   Watch it, it is cool! :)