Lowyat.NET: Latest topics by Parrot

Negeri Sembilan royalty sued

Parrot — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:47:45 +0800

QUOTE(Bloomberg)

Bruce Willis sues Tunku Imran over rubber venture

LOS ANGELES Actor Bruce Willis sued Malaysia’s Petra Group and its chairman, Tunku Imran Ibni Tuanku Ja'afar, alleging that US$900,000 of the US$2 million he invested in a ``green rubber'' venture wasn't returned to him.

A Bloomberg report said that Petra's chief executive officer, Datuk Vinod B. Sekhar, and Tunku Imram had allegedly induced Willis in 2007 to invest in a company that was developing a non-toxic and recyclable rubber, the actor said in a complaint filed on Thursday in federal court in Los Angeles.

Willis, the star of the 1988 action-film ``Die-Hard,'' accuses Petra and the executives of breach of contract and unjust enrichment.

Willis was told that former US Vice President Al Gore and actor Mel Gibson also had invested in the company, Elastomer Technologies Ltd., according to the complaint. Willis had a put option, whereby for a specified period time he could get a full refund of his investment, according to the complaint.

He exercised the option on March 17, Willis said.

``Despite defendants' obligation to immediately refund Willis' investment, in April 2008, defendants continued to provide different specious excuses for the retaining of Willis' funds,'' the actor said in the complaint.

Andrew Murray-Watson, a spokesman for Kuala Lumpur-based Petra, said Willis is due to be repaid the remaining $900,000 in the next couple of weeks.

``We're very surprised Mr. Willis is taking this action,'' Murray-Watson said in a phone interview.

Willis's lawyer, Martin Singer, didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.

The case is Bruce Willis v. Elastomer Technologies, 08-7670, U.S. District Court, Central District of California.

I've seen a fair share of lolzy international news pertaining M'sia, but this has to take the cake.

So, well renowned actor vs. son of not-so-well-renowned royalty and his not-so-well-renowned company. Who will be teh winrar?

Cicakman threeed

Parrot — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:30:34 +0800

In conjunction with the premier of the second Cicakman movie (Planet Hitam) in (um) South Korea, I feel it's (in)appropiate to dig up a very old gem from the rag sheet Berita Harian, in which an unnamed reviewer criticised Yusri's setting for the movie. It's worth a chuckle, considering the things he brought up:

QUOTE

22 December 2006 : Berita Harian
NEGARA CICAK MAN TAK SESUAI DENGAN BANGSA

PADA hujung minggu lalu, saya menonton filem Cicak Man di pawagam selepas berhari-hari menonton iklan mengenai filem ini di televisyen. Ternyata filem ini boleh dibanggakan kerana ada pembaharuan dalam industri filem Malaysia.

Selama ini rakyat Malaysia hanya disajikan dengan filem Melayu yang sama tema iaitu cinta. Tetapi dengan kehadiran filem Cicak Man sedikit sebanyak mengajak beratus ribu penonton menonton satu filem yang menyerlah sekali.

Walaupun bangga dengan hasil kerja Yusri KRU ini, timbul satu kekesalan di dalam filem itu. Di dalam filem ini ada sebuah negara ciptaan Yusri yang bercuaca sejuk seperti di negara Barat dan rakyatnya memakai pakaian panas yang tebal, bertopi dan bersarung tangan.

Di negara itu juga terdapat banyak bangunan tinggi yang menyerupai `Gotham City' seperti dalam filem Batman, bukannya bangunan di negara kita. Terdapat satu babak menunjukkan negara itu dituruni salji.

Saya faham Yusri ingin mencipta sesuatu yang baru dan filem ini hanya satu filem fiksyen tetapi mengapa perlu mencipta sebuah negara yang bercuaca sejuk tetapi rakyatnya berbahasa Melayu?

Walau apapun, usaha Yusri harus dibanggakan kerana kerja kerasnya untuk menghasilkan sebuah filem fiksyen yang baik walaupun terdapat unsur yang diciplak daripada filem Batman, Superman dan Spiderman.

Bagi saya, Yusri sdalah seorang yang kreatif kerana boleh mencipta watak fiksyen yang kita sendiri tidak pernah terlintas di fikrian kita.

Dengan kejayaan filem ini, diharapkan Yusri dapat pula membuat filem bertemakan peperangan dan keIslaman yang menggunakan teknologi moden dan digital.

Saya juga berharap penerbit filem tempatan dan pengarah filem lain dapat mengikuti jejak Yusri untuk memberi nafas baru dalam filem mereka demi maruah industri perfileman Malaysia.

Flood water in mah house

Parrot — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:47:24 +0800

Believe it or not, I live in a house on the ground. Earlier today, it rained for a mere 1 1/2 hours in the evening between 6:30 to 7:30, so I was obligated to inspect the drains for the water level. Upon inspection,

Water has filled it to the brim!

I panicked, rushed to toss everything up on the second floor, just in time to watch the foul, foul mix of drain water, mud, poo poo, and God's piss invade my domain. Unfortunately, the water stopped short of drowning me, stagnating at about 8.30 pm, and beginning to recede VERY SLOWLY shortly after. As of right now, the floor of mah home is still coated with smelly water.

Btw, it's the 4th flood in mah home in 6 years.

Font/Typeface of Msian license plates

Parrot — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:32:42 +0800

I've been seeing them all over the place, but none of those useless websites mentions the font used on most Msian license plates. Even Kiasuland's Wikifagia entry on its license plates mentions Charles Wright and FE-Schrift as fonts its uses.

So, any clues?

Have you submitted your opinion...

Parrot — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:29:45 +0800

If you are a KLite or some sod living in KL, you better start submitting opinions on their draft city plan, because teh closing date is the 30 August.

Don't go crying if KL stays shitty.

OH SHIT I BROKE MAH BACK

Parrot — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:15:19 +0800

I WAS SITTING IN FRONT OF MY COMPUTER WHEN ALL OF THE SUDDEN I FELT A SHARP PAIN ON MY BACK AND SLUMPED ON THE TABLE. I JUST FOUND OUT MY SPINE HAS COLLAPSED. WILL GO TO THE BONE DOCTOR IN A WHILE.

History of LYN

Parrot — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:29:22 +0800

A few months ago, a bunch of LYN members created a WikiFagia's article on Lowyat.NET. While the article was later redone to partially comply to WikiFagia guidelines, there is still room for improvement.

I'm currently revising the article again and need some additional info on this site's history, mainly how the site started out, who was responsible for the site's early development, services initially available and added subsequently, and notable instances when the site was recognised by third parties (in both good or bad light).

A summary of the site's history may be helpful. Thanks.

United States bashing thread

Parrot — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:57:19 +0800

Thanks to M'sian logic, most of us are very likely to hate anything related to the United States of America (especially George W Bush) because other countries are doing it too.

So I have created a thread specifically for you American haters to insult anything American, not limited to: McDonalds, Wal-Mart, The Gap, Baseball, NFL, Rock and roll, The Internet, Slavery, Starbucks, Disney World, Porno, Valium, Reeboks, Fake Tits, Sushi, Taco Bell, Rodeos, Bed Bath & Beyond, Liberty, White Slips, The Alamo, Band-aids, Las Vegas, Christmas, Immigrants, Popeye, Democrats, Republicans...

F**K YEAH!!!

What IF

Parrot — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:58:53 +0800

Lamily_named is in fact Lamely_named?

Are we being pranked? Are we part of her misanthropic plans?

Britian Language Englishing skool thred

Parrot — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:06:42 +0800

Since me early Britian thred are success, I make new thred for improve of England so we better over job markets all over Earth. It all us educate systim fault bcos they make us speaking with Bahasa M'sia only, this thred are to helping fix problem.

Post good grammar reply onli, pls.

A few Singaporeans' takes on our lil' fuel problem

Parrot — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:19:17 +0800

While the vast majority of us threaten to send Pak Lah to the gallows for his administration's dropping of fuel subsidies, a handful of Singaporeans at hardwarezone.com.sg see fit to talk about it (due mostly to their own petrol needs), ~~but see it from a wider perspective~~.

Ketchup

QUOTE

Very risky political move to totally remove fuel subsidies within a year I think from where it is going. But an excellent smart economic decision. Moves them up to countries like Japan, those in EU and even Singapore where fuel is taxed, not subsidised. So when petrol prices go up, the government earns instead of loses.

Quite an assessment. And one I haven't read a lot about in neither RWI or Kopitiam.

QUOTE

Despite all the negative publicity about Abdullah and the recent trouncing in GE, he looks like a Malay leader who actually puts nation above more than personal interests of staying in office. Maybe his fault is that he is not aggresive enough in pacing his reforms, but this is one of few indicators that suggest he could be right person to lead Malaysia balancing between push forward reforms and keeping entrenched power centres happy enough not to sink the reform sampan. Razaleigh has some good records too during his tenure as Finance Minister (plus some controversies too, of course this is Malaysia and patronage system). Anwar, I haven't quite been dispelled of my doubts of his pre-Umno days.

QUOTE

Yes, and that attitude of his is a bugbear to others, who put their own interests above the country. Abdullah reminds me of the smiling kung-fu master, waiting for his opponents to open up and show their weaknesses, before he makes his moves swiftly and effectively. Let's hope he does.

HOLY SHIT, DO MY EYES DECEIVE ME!? DID THEY JUST SAY PAK LAH IS DA MAN FOR DA JOB!?

QUOTE

although this policy is positive for the nation moving forward, the people are not going to buy the idea as it hits them very hard in their pockets. seems like the sweetener (road tax rebates) is not going to work

QUOTE

although [Pak Lah] is doing the right thing for the country, public opinion is going to turn against him. he may well have to step aside and let his deputy take over before the next election.

QUOTE

I respect [Pak Lah] for having to courage to make unpopular decisions. It's only so easy to make popular ones that lead to disaster. However, the rational ones are too few to give him adequate support.

QUOTE

Aye, that's one of the few (thank goodness) downside of democracy. People generally do not like bitter medicine although it is supposed to be good for them. It becomes tragic when they punish the wrong person in return. Instead populists and demogogues profit, which in turn, deepens the problem and requiring another to-be-punished hero to give the next bitter medicine.

Oh look, the mention of emotional M'sians. LYN alone is not in short supply of these people.

Either the people of Kiasuland are ignorant of our current situation, or they seem to see something that we don't. You guys, on the other hand, are only embarrassing me pretty well.

Don't be a Tom

Parrot — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:36:40 +0800

Writing to your local town council

Parrot — Thu, 22 May 2008 08:46:48 +0800

I have a major inquiry for my local town council regarding some crap developer who went ahead filling part of a river not far from my home for another terraced housing project. Now it's simply hard to tell if the filling is temporary or permanent, since they only started about a week ago.

Anyway, I have a few questions before I get started writing the letter:

1) Developers. Are they permitted to alter the river in favour of their development?

2) Photos. Will they come in handy in my first letter?

3) Language in the letter. English or Bahasa Orang Melayu?

Thanks.

Dear lamely_named

Parrot — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 22:20:29 +0800

Will you be my girlfriend?

How matured are we?

Parrot — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:41:08 +0800

Exactly how matured are we when debating the state of the automotive market in M'sia? Frequent visits to Paultan.org seem to indicate a substantial amount of visitors who are not particularly bright, and only a handful of level-headed people do publish constructive comments.

For examples:
* "Motorcycles banned on KL-Putrajaya Highway" - Car/motorcycle bashing aplenty, including generalisations regarding motorcyclists being nothing more than Mat Rempits.

* "Proton Saga: 23,000 bookings, 5 month wait!" - Substantial lack of judgement on why the car is popularly booked, since the new Saga, while sensible with good performance, is far cheaper than other subcompacts (the Vios, City and Latio) due to uncompetitive taxation by our dear government.

* "Tata Nano: The name of the Tata 1-Lakh Car" and other articles pertaining the car - Immediate thoughts about the prospect of the car faring in M'sia, which is obviously normal, but also contains bashing of the car regardless for its stripped-down nature (commonly pertaining the lack of air-conditioning on its baseline models). Also contains a bit of comments in favour of the car over the use of motorcycles.

These incidences imply such commentors:
* Are overly defensive;
* are sheep;
* fail to apply logic;
* are ignorant; and
* are reactionary.

I suppose it could be the education system. How does this LYN subforum fare?

Question regarding SRJK (C) Jalan Davidson

Parrot — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:38:05 +0800

This is a question targeted towards those who have studied at SRJK © Jalan Davidson or know the school in the past 10 years.

Wikimapia indicated in a 2004 picture that something was under construction within the school's compound. And as I found out this morning, there is a new but kitsch school building over that construction site, overdoing the bit on classical architecture.

So the question is this. Was there something older on that site that was demolished and replaced with the new building mentioned? Or was the site just a school field?

Are cars on M'sian roads boring

Parrot — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 17:15:26 +0800

Here's a thought.

Since Proton and Perodua literary own the vast majority of the M'sian car market, does this mean the variety of cars on the road are generally boring in comparison to Singapore or Thailand? It's apparent cars in urban areas are more varied, but areas outside major cities and towns are dominated by Wiras, Kancils, Kelisas, Kenaris, old cars and foreign MPVs and vans.

I ask because it's so much more difficult to document foreign cars in M'sia these days, even the new ones.

How well is M'sia catching up with console gaming?

Parrot — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:45:38 +0800

Obviously there is all this hype about console gaming rivaling computer gaming these days (at least in the Western world), but how well does M'sia fare?

It seems the M'sian console market is stuck in some sort of time warp outside major cities. It's all PS2s. And if you want one of those current gen consoles, you have to order, which is a bit of an inconvenience. The only things in stock are PS2s.

Even the PS3, which is supposed to be a successor to the PS2, is nowhere to be seen in you local mom-and-pop video game store. It's all PS2s. Back in 2000, it only took less than half a year for the PS2 to appear on store shelves, when the PS1 was still king. It's been a year since the PS3 was launched.

Neither have I seen any GameCubes, Xboxes, Wiis or Xbox 360s in said places. It's all PS2s.

Rented consoles? It's all PS2s. All the kids and teens play are WWE, Naruto, Digimon, and football, football, football games. I have never seen anything besides a PS1 or PS2 for rent in backwaters.

It's all PS2s. We should be switching to next-gens by now. WTF.

For the record, I live some 20km from Kuala Lumpur.

How well is M'sia catching up with console gaming?

Parrot — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:42:11 +0800

Obviously there is all this hype about console gaming rivaling computer gaming these days (at least in the Western world), but how well does M'sia fare?

It seems the M'sian console market is stuck in some sort of time warp outside major cities. It's all PS2s. And if you want one of those current gen consoles, you have to order, which is a bit of an inconvenience. The only things in stock are PS2s.

Even the PS3, which is supposed to be a successor to the PS2, is nowhere to be seen in you local mom-and-pop video game store. It's all PS2s. Back in 2000, it only took less than half a year for the PS2 to appear on store shelves, when the PS1 was still king. It's been a year since the PS3 was launched.

Neither have I seen any GameCubes, Xboxes, Wiis or Xbox 360s in said places. It's all PS2s.

Rented consoles? It's all PS2s. All the kids and teens play are WWE, Naruto, Digimon, and football, football, football games. I have never seen anything besides a PS1 or PS2 for rent in backwaters.

It's all PS2s. We should be switching to next-gens by now. WTF.

[addedon]November 15, 2007, 6:43 pm[/addedon]Wrong forum.

Locked.

Unethical treatment of an owl

Parrot — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 00:57:14 +0800

Right. So I have this neighbour with a 20-something son who enjoys owning pets, albeit of the unconventional types. Reptiles, frogs, crickets, huge fishes, and formerly, an owl.

That owl, in particular, was huge and brown, having been around for almost a year or two. Recently, word got around that the owl was ill, but the son simply laid the owl on a container outside and left it to die. Now six chickens have replace this one owl. This wasn't the first time some dead or half-dead animal was treated like that. Corpses of other animals like fishes and snakes were simply tossed into the monsoon drain, which directly flows under the front of my house. It doesn't just stink up the place, it also backs up the drain, occasionally flooding the frontal driveway during heavy downpours.

These incidences are enough to have him reported to the relevant authorities. Not just are these habits health hazards, it's also causing trouble for me. Are there any other suggestions on how to deal with this?