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Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Haze, Hotspots, Explosions and Stupidity

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Haze - a politically correct, press-friendly name for the layer of air pollution that blocks out direct sunlight. And Malaysia gets a fair share of it around this time every year. They say the haze is caused by hotspots in Indonesia.

Image hosting by PhotobucketYou probably won't be seeing this anytime soon in Surabaya

Okay, maybe not this particular type of hotspot. What? Wifi to blame for our haze problem? Heh heh, that would be novel. In any case, Surabaya has a reputation for a different type of hotspot, but we won't go there in this post (Walski lets out a mischevious and lascivious snicker as he types this).

No, boys & girls, it's a totally different type of hotspot. The kind you can see from space, and the kind caused by open tract fires - big ass blazes - sometimes caused by man, sometimes by nature.

Image hosting by PhotobucketThe actual type of hotspot to blame

But Walski's a bit wary about another environmental catastrophe that's iminent. And this one is in another of our Asean neighbors - the Philippines. The impending disaster?
(in the full post)

Image hosting by PhotobucketMount Mayon - from a few days ago.
Click on pix to get the latest news.

Mount Mayon is one of the many active volcanoes in the region. Starting from sometime in July this year, it's been spewing lots of volcanic smoke, ash and as of a few days ago, lava. Similar to what Pinatubo did late last century. And the latest news say that the volcano just about to explode at any time.

If Mayon explodes, it could contribute to our haze problem - maybe. Depends on where the high level air currents decide to blow. For us, it may be blue skies, or it may rain ash. Fortunately for the folks living around the area of Mayon (it's pretty close to Legazpi City in the south of Luzon island). Walski remembers that when Pinatubo erupted, there was ash falling from the sky in Singapore, where Walski happened to be then.

And speaking of explosions, Walski came across this little nugget of useless news on Yahoo! News:

Image hosting by PhotobucketWhat the f*ck what this guy thinking of?

Apparently, this dude in Brazil tried to pry open a grenade with a sledgehammer. Needless to say, the moron didn't survive to find out what was inside. This must be one of the most stupid cases of human misadventure Walski's come across in a while.

At least, for the most part, Malaysians are merely gullible...