How perceptive children can be!

This is from an actual science quiz for children. Look at the answers. I think they are just great, don't you agree? Giggle for all you want. No charge!

Q: Name the four seasons.
A: Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar.

Q: Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to drink.
A: Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it removes
large pollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists..

Q: How is dew formed?
A: The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire.

Q: How can you delay milk turning sour?(Brilliant, love this!)
A: Keep it in the cow.

Q: What causes the tides in the oceans?
A: The tides are a fight between the Earth and the Moon.
All water tends to flow towards the moon, because there is no water on the moon,
and nature hates a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins in this fight.

Q: What are steroids?
A: Things for keeping carpets still on the stairs.

Q: What happens to your body as you age?
A: When you get old, so do your bowels and you get intercontinental

Q: What happens to a boy when he reaches puberty?
A: He says good-bye to his boyhood and looks forward to his adultery.
(The kid gets an A+ for this answer!)

Q: Name a major disease associated with cigarettes.
A: Premature death.

Q: How are the main parts of the body categorized? (e.g., abdomen)
A: The body is consisted into three parts -- the brainium, the borax and the abdominal cavity.
The brainium contains the brain; the borax contains the heart and lungs,
and the abdominal cavity contains the five bowels A, E, I, O, and U.

Q: What is the fibula?
A: A small lie.

Q: What does 'varicose' mean? (I do love this one...)
A: Nearby.

Q: Give the meaning of the term 'Caesarian Section.'
A: The Caesarian Section is a district in Rome.

Q: What does the word 'benign' mean?'
A: Benign is what you will be after you be eight.

Fun with Food Rights

So let us have some fun with the food rights just suggested by the incredulous Malaysian Tourism Minister.

I copy the Vox Populi Column of Malaysiakini here for all of us to dig into the delicacies of Malaysian food fun emanating from the Minister's 'no-brainer' suggestion.

Let's begin....

'Hainan chicken rice will be called Ng Yen Yen chicken rice from now on? Will there be royalty payments when we eat chicken rice?'

Nasi lemak, laksa to get gov't patent?

Lau Yin Leong: Bravo. Keep up the good work. There are a lot of signature dishes Malaysia has and it is better to register the intellectual property rights to these dishes lest the Indonesians will make another claim.

Teh: Hainan chicken rice will now be called Ng Yen Yen chicken rice from now on? Will there be royalty payments when we eat chicken rice?

Malay Curry Mee

Bah Kut Teh

Char Keoy Tiau

Curry Mee

Grilled Steak

Zainon Ahmad: Can you imagine Umno and PAS agreeing to have the bak kut teh as a national heritage dish. This will lead to demonstrations with p.. heads! I wonder what action we will take against those countries who do not label these dishes as Malaysian.

SRR: What? Now we want to fight for food rights too? Will we ever learn? This is so embarrassing. If Thailand and other countries do the same, there goes all of our options. We will have to travel to Thailand for tom yam, the US for western food and other countries to get other varieties.

Mok Lay Yong: Great, so now I can't cook nasi lemak, laksa and the like without the approval of the patent holder? Which crony gets to hold the patent in trust now? Bright idea, (Tourism Minister) Ng Yen Yen, bright idea!

Malaysian for Malaysia: Doesn't matter about the patent, when people know the best nasi lemak is in Malaysia, they will only eat Malaysian nasi lemak. Ng Yen Yen, go do something more productive like making sure our tourism advertising highlight Malaysia and Malaysian culture only.

Indrani Kopal: What about roti canai and nasi kandar? Why aren't they in the list? They are ours too.

John Smith: Hainanese chicken rice is Malaysian? That will be news for the people of Hainan, where it remains a local speciality even today. Even the origin of chilli crab is not documented and could well be Singapore.

Why doesn't the government try dealing with the many serious problems facing the country like snatch thieves praying on inbound tourists,instead of wasting time with this kind of nonsense?

Myop101: Don't forget Penang prawn mee, char kuey teow and rojak.

Charley: This is one of the silliest things I have come across. Is it possible to patent a cooking recipe? Has the minister done her homework? I wonder how to patent a "culture".

After making claims, how to enforce it? For what purpose? To prevent other nationals from cooking it? Isn't culture something that is universal?

What happens if the Thais start patenting tom yam? Do we have to remove all tom yam from our menus? What about satay? Can't the Chinese in Sinkiang make "kebab" so similar to satay once we patent it?

It appears that the minister wants to do this just because she wants to "retaliate" against the Indonesian ministers, or copy them.

So,now that you seen the barrage of ridicule,who is going to bell the cat?

The Beginning of a Food Fight?

Are we in Malaysia starting a food fight with the world at large?

Laksa, nasi lemak, Hainanese chicken rice, chilli crab and bak kut teh are all Malaysian dishes, Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen declared unabashedly!

On Wednesday (September 16,2009), Dr Ng accused other countries of “hijacking” local dishes such as laksa and nasi lemak, and said it was high time that Malaysia claimed them as Malaysian. (This must be the laugh of the century!)

“We cannot continue to let other countries hijack our food,” she said, without naming the countries.(Are we going after the Somalians,here?)

Hainanese Chicken Rice

Hokkien Mee

Roti Canai

Satay

Tom yam

“Chilli crab is Malaysian. Hainanese chicken rice is Malaysian. We have to lay claim to our food,” the minister said after she launched the Malaysia International Gourmet Festival.(I am still giggling!!)

But some food critics disagreed, saying that it would not be possible for a country to claim ownership over the dishes.

Celebrity chef Rohani Jelani said that food in general is not politically divided.

As people move from one country to another, they also take with them the recipes of their favourite foods.

“I think it is difficult to claim ownership or to say exactly what food originated from where. This is because there are no boundaries when it comes to food,” she told The Straits Times.

Singapore food celebrity K.F. Seetoh agreed that it would be impossible for anyone to claim ownership over food, even if a certain dish is easily available at a certain place.

“It is better to lay claim by association,” he suggested.

“For example, burgers are not from America, but they are associated with America,” said Seetoh, who hosts popular TV show Makansutra on the Asian Food Channel. (This is more on the level!)

Dr Ng said that her ministry was identifying the popular dishes, which are also available in neighbouring countries, and would declare them as Malaysian in the next three months.(Is this her KPI,Datuk Idris Jala?)

“We have identified laksa... all types of laksa, nasi lemak and bak kut teh,” The Star newspaper quoted her as saying.

But she did not say how her ministry would label the dishes as Malaysian.(I want to see this!)

The Tourism Minister's announcement came as Malaysia and Indonesia were working hard to resolve a dispute alleging that Malaysia “stole” Indonesian culture such as batik and claimed it as its own.

Malaysian Economic 101-A Snapshot

MALAYSIA saw US$14.06 billion (US$1 = RM3.47) of investments flow out of the country last year, up 26 per cent from a year ago, according to a United Nations annual investment review.

At the same time, foreign direct investments (FDIs) into Malaysia fell 4 per cent to US$8.053 billion in 2008, said the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad)'s World Investment Report (WIR).

It said the investment outflow from Malaysia is in line with the trend in South, East and Southeast Asia to developed countries, which has been growing as part of efforts by Asian firms to acquire strategic assets abroad. But it expects the outflows to slow this year.

"The sizeable increase in Malaysia's outward investment in 2008, as in previous years, is a reflection of Malaysia's more globalised and integrated position in the world economy," said Datuk Dr Zainal Aznam Yusof, council member of the National Economic Advisory Council, at the launch of WIR 2009 in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
The investment outflows for Malaysia were noticeably less than the 81.9 per cent Unctad recorded last year (US$10.98 billion versus US$6.04 billion in 2007).

The report estimated that FDIs inflows will fall to below US$1.2 trillion this year, from US$1.7 trillion in 2008.

"Recovery is expected to be slow in 2010, reaching no more than US$1.4 trillion, but gathering momentum in 2011 to approach US$1.8 trillion," he said.

Malaysia's FDI inflow and outflow in 2008 have seen relatively little impact from the global economic crisis, despite a significant effect on FDIs worldwide, including certain countries in South, East and Southeast Asia.

Countries sharply affected included Singapore, which saw a massive decline of 61 per cent in FDI inflow from a year ago, with FDI outflow shrinking by 44 per cent in the first quarter of this year versus the same period in 2008.

Despite the slowdown worldwide, regional and global FDI flows are being reshaped by China and India, who account for 50 per cent of regional FDI inflows and for about one tenth of global inflows.

Both countries reported historic FDI inflows in 2008, bringing in US$108 billion and US$42 billion respectively.

With its inflows surging to a historic high (US$108 billion) in 2008, China became the world's third largest FDI recipient country after the US and France.

WIR 2009 also featured a special focus on the impact of the crisis on the world's top 100 non-financial transnational corporations (TNCs), based on foreign assets held in 2007. Developing countries filled a record seven positions on the global list, one of which is Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas), at 84th place.

The ranking of top 100 non-financial TNC's in the developing countries category featured six Malaysian conglomerates, namely Petronas at fifth place, YTL Corp Bhd at number 31, Genting Bhd at 38th placing, Sime Darby Bhd (No. 46), Telekom Malaysia Bhd (No.57), and Tanjong PLC (No. 73).

Buffet Fit for a Durian King!

The banner flagging in the wind reads: "RM10 Eat All You Can Durian @ Donald’s Durian, SS2". It beckons to all durian lovers, young and old.

Located a stone throw’s away from SS2’s police station near the rows of bridal shops are three durian stalls having their very own durian buffets. For RM10 you can Eat Until You Drop practically! (MAKAN SAMPAI KENYANG). Before you get all excited about feasting on Hor Lor and Ang Heh (Red Prawn), keep in mind that only Durian Kampung is served for the buffet at this price.




DurianSS2 offers the cheapest eat all you can around @ RM9 for Durian Kampung only. But because the promotion starts during lunch time around 1pm, the durians are completely sold off by the late afternoon. The only other promotion going on is RM15 for D24 durians.

Donald’s Durian is having the buffet for Durian Kampung @ RM10 and RM20 for D24. It’s slightly more expensive than DurianSS2 but it is also the most crowded one.
Donald’s Durian has more variety. I like the fact that they cater for durian parties.

Since it’s a durian buffet you don’t get to choose the durians yourself. So there are bound to be hits and misses. The workers just bring the durians to your table whether you like it or not.

You might have a better chance of getting the nicer ones if your PR skills work with them. It's all about luck. You may get good ones and you may get bad ones.



So,take the risks and see whether Lady Luck smiles at you at the durian buffet!