The first thing that comes to mind is the case of Larry Johnson, the Kansas City Chiefs football player who was fined USD213,000, then lost his job when he wrote homophobic entries on Twitter.
Potential employers should always be assumed to be constantly googling jobseekers’ names. If they see something about you that puts you in a bad light, it could cost you your present job, or the job you’re after.
Debt collectors is now using social media to track down debtors, if they can’t get you through the usual channels. Example: they can use social media to say: hey, you said you can’t afford to pay back USD100 monthly, then how come that 50″ LCD TV is in your living room?
Scammers would scour social media sites for personal information lying around that they can use to take advantage of unsuspecting victims.
It was reported by The Star on 6th December 2009 that the son of the Sultan of Selangor (Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah), Raja Muda of Selangor Tengku Amir Shah, 19 said that he receives a monthly allowance of RM13,000.
Probably very few teenagers get that much allowance per month, surely will buy a lot of rack mounts.
Further, in the newsreport, he reportedly donated RM10K towards the Raja Muda of Selangor Foundation, leaving him with RM3K for the month.
Saffron is a type of spice used in seasoning, perfumes, textile dye and medicine. It is the world’s most expensive spice.
It is usually made by plucking stigmas from the saffron crocus and then drying them into red-coloured threads.
It tastes bitter, smells like hay and has “metallic notes.”
Half of the world’s saffron production comes from Iran. The rest mainly comes from Spain, India and Greece.
It is used for both food and drink, in baked foods, curries, even liquor.
In medicine, saffron has been shown to have potential anti-cancer and anti-aging properties.
It is pricey because of the difficulty in extracting big amounts of the small stigmas, and that large amounts of flowers are needed for this purpose. A mere 0.45kg of dry saffron requires the harvesting of a whopping 50,000 flowers (some say 75,000) – that’s a football field’s area of planting! That works out to be 40 hours of intense manual labour to produce a mere kilogram of the stuff. After harvesting, there are many other processes that need to be completed before the final product is arrived at.
Even the price of bulk low-grade saffron can reach USD500 per pound.
In Western countries the average retail price is around USD1,000 per pound!
That’s even more expensive than gold? I wonder if smuggling of saffron is rampant since probably several hundred dollars’ worth of it can easily fit in a hollowed-out Logo flash drive.
The spice is used sparingly: only a few grams for medicinal use and a few strands in cooking: a pound of saffron has between 70,000 and 200,000 strands.
The Malaysian program of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® Malaysia was launched in 2002.
The country award recipients were
Y Bhg Tan Sri Dato’ Dr Francis Yeoh, YTL Corporation Berhad (2002)
Y Bhg Dato’ Mohd. Nadzmi Mohd. Salleh, Nadicorp Holdings Sdn Bhd (2003)
Y Bhg Dato’ Sri Dr Lim Wee-Chai, Top Glove Corporation Berhad (2004)
Y Bhg Tan Sri Dato’ Professor Dr Lim Kok Wing, Limkokwing Univeristy College of Creative Technology (2005)
Y Bhg Dato’ Tony Fernandes, AirAsia Berhad (2006)
Y Bhg Dato’ Edmund Santhara, Masterskill Education Group Berhad (2007)
Y Bhg Dato’ AK Nathan, Eversendai Corporation Sdn Bhd (2008)
Whoa, all big names there.
At least 2 of the names there are from the education field – even people dabbling in obscure-sounding areas such as medical coding training courses have a chance!
The award recipient will represent Malaysia and will join other country recipients at the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur Event in Monte Carlo.
Felipe Massa suffered an accident during the Hungarian GP in July 2009, when part of the rear suspension of Rubens Barrichello’s car came loose on the track, bounced, and hit Massa’s helmet.
At first glance, the piece of metal measuring 5 cm in length and weighs less than a kilogram would seem harmless, but when one hits you as you are traveling at 230 km/h, it becomes deadly.
Fortunately he was wearing a Schuberth RF 1.7 bulletproof helmet, which undoubtedly saved his life.
The helmet reportedy cost USD30,000 (about RM100,000).
However, since the projectile hit part of the visor, arguably the weakest component of the helmet he was still hurt:
A video of the incident:
I wonder, do they also ensure Formula 1 car mats are also bulletproof???
In what could be the costliest defamation suit ever filed in Malaysia, on 24th August 2009 it was reported that MCA president and Malaysia’s Transport Minister Ong Tee Keat filed a RM500 million defamation suit against BN Backbenchers Club chairperson and Bintulu MP Tiong King Sing over the latter’s claim of giving RM10 million to the minister.
RM500 million!!! That would buy countless plasma mounts!
It was filed by a team of 9 lawyers at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.
Apparently Ong will donate the RM500 million to charity and education if he wins.
On Tiong’s part, he said he had a witness to the exchange of cash.
The suit asked Tiong to:
(i) retract his statement
(ii) apologise via all major newspapers in the country.
Lurid reports have been making the rounds that a desperate Michael Jackson was spending GBP30K per month on a “mountain” of prescription drugs to help him counter many disorders, and that he bought them under the name of Omar Adams.
The drug names that have been bandied about include narco pain reliever Vicodin, muscle relaxant Soma and the sedative Xanax.
Throw into the mix the antidepressant Zoloft, the anti-anxiety drug Paxil and the heartburn pill Priolosec.
Of course the one drug that he might never have needed was the diet pill Avesil.
But whew, have you even heard of those strange names?
Looks like Malaysia is going all out to celebrate her 50th anniversary of independence. Of course some would insist it’s the 44th, but that’s another story. After Manchester United, now this.
Pete Sampras vs Roger Federer. The sight of that would make any sports lover, and of course even more so tennis afficionados salivate. Even when the cheapest ticket costs RM83. The most expensive: RM443. The match is supposed to take place at Stadium Melawati, Shah Alam on 22nd November.
You can feel the incredible weight of the hype just by reading
“One of the greatest duels in the history of tennis will take place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as part of the celebrations of Independence (Merdeka) and the 50th Anniversary of the Nation. Billed as the Clash of Times, current World No. 1 Roger Federer will take on his predecessor Pete Sampras in what promises to be an electrifying match-up. Two of the greatest tennis players ever will battle for pride and dominance over the past two decades in the sport’s history.”
What a genius idea:
- Everybody gets to watch a tennis match between the top player now and someone who used to be the top player
- The players get paid well and Federer gets some welcome pocket money: perhaps that explains the crazy ticket price. Federer might not get the 7 figures one normally gets from winning Wimbledon or any of the Slams, but hey, we get to introduce Malaysia to probably the greatest athlete who ever walked the earth. I read that even the great Tiger Woods is in awe of him.
But still, even if I could, I would not go see the match. Why? Because it won’t prove anything. What if Pistol Pete won? That he’s truly the greatest (say it like Muhammad Ali did) and that he should make a comeback like the Smiling Assassin Swiss Miss did before the cocaine thing retired her for good?
What if Federer won? That he’s the greatest ever because he just defeated the man who owns the most Slams, never mind that Pete has quit the highest level for some time already?
I doubt it that Federer would go all out just to win this match. He’s a professional, he’s got years to go, he won’t risk it. If it’s all about pride, any excuses could be given: not his day, carrying old injury, don’t want to aggravate injury sustained in last operation, weather too hot, food poisoning etc etc.
Basically I think it’s going to be like the Brazil vs Malaysia match before World Cup 2002. Brazil won 4-0 playing at half speed. Federer would do the same. There is no way The Pistol could match him anyway. This is a friendly match. It’s played for money. There could be a lot of on-court banter and joking. This is not a Grand Slam. The intensity is just not there. I don’t buy that. Pro wrestling is different.
Of course you can treat it as a pop concert. Just enjoy the spectacle. But music and sports performances are different.
