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The pocket camcorder market has enjoyed successes over the past year, more recently taking the step up to high definition and offering better overall quality and performance than many mobile phones would offer. Medion have now joined the race with the Life S47000, an all-weather pocketable which appears to be a reskinned DXG model.
To differentiate itself from the likes of the popular Flip Ultra HD models or Creative's Vado HD, the S47000 pitches itself as a sports camcorder, offering a degree of protection against the ingress of moisture. Despite this, the dimensions are still relatively compact measuring 65 x 105 x 23mm.
The overall design makes it comfortable in the hand and it looks good too, with sporty touches like the top attachment point a practical consideration. Grip seemed secure enough too thanks to the profile of the black trim edging the camera, although we'd have perhaps chosen to make the main recording button a touch larger to make it more appealing to those using gloves. The bottom of the camcorder has a standard tripod mount.
The S47000 offers a usable internal memory of 85MB, which equates to less than a minute of video capture. Your main memory option is provided by the SD card slot hiding under the flap on the side, sharing the same bay as the rechargeable li-ion battery. A memory card is not provided, so you'll have to consider one at the point of purchase.
In terms of accessories in the box, the S47000 really does Medion credit, expect for the lack of SD card of course. You get the camcorder itself and the battery, the battery charger and a case. On top of this you get an HDMI cable, AV cable, USB cable and a set of headphones, which rounds out the package nicely.
The camcorder therefore offers connection points for all these cables, with the mini variety of HDMI lurking under a flap along with the AV/USB connection. You don't get an onboard USB plug proper like the flip offered but the trade-off is a more compact overall package.
A 3.5mm headphone jack will let you check the quality of the recorded audio, or playback your movies without disturbing others, but it doesn't let you do live monitoring of the audio – it's a playback feature only. And before you get excited, no, it doesn't double as an external mic input.
The screen on the back is 2-inches, so you have plenty of space to see what you are doing and watch back your movies. It will playback MOV files from other cameras as well as view JPGs from the SD card, but we found the folder interpretation was rather random. Dumping MP3 files in a Music folder will mean you can playback tracks as well, so if you need something to keep you entertained whilst sitting on the chairlift, this should sort you out.
On the back you get a central four-way controller, with the main record button in the centre. A Mode button lets you switch between playback and recording, with a power and delete button for erasing files. Menu entry is toggled through a simultaneous press of the Mode and Del buttons.
Menu choices are kept to a minimum, which keeps things simple. You get regional options so you can switch between NTSC and PAL and 50 or 60Hz, set the date or format the memory, but chances are you'll not touch these options once the camera is set-up.
Video capture is fixed at 1280 x 720 pixels, so qualifies as HD, if not earning the Full HD tag. You don't get the option to turn down the resolution, but its unlikely to deter anyone and does save you from accidentally recording at settings lower than optimum. The output is 16:9, so it will fit nicely on your HDTV at home via the HDMI.
It is a fixed focus camera, which does limit your creative options, but suits recording on the fly. There is no option for macro focus like on the Kodak Zi8, so you won't be able to get too close, but for everyday shooting that might not be a problem. A digital zoom gives you 2x zoom, but as with most digital zooms, you probably want to leave it alone.
Startup is relatively fast, so you'll be recording in about 2 seconds. The S47000 copes with changing light conditions fairly well, but as with most camcorders of this ilk, there is a slight delay as it adjusts from dark to light. It is a F/2.8 max aperture lens, so low light performance is pretty standard for this class of camcorder. Shadow noise is prominent and noise shows all over as the light drops.
The S47000 records at a fairly solid 30fps, so the results are generally fairly smooth and free from judder. Purple fringing and highlight blowout seem to be the biggest problems that the camera faces in normal shooting conditions, with high contrast scenes presenting the biggest problem, but that's no different to rival devices.
Quality is good overall, giving you a noticeable boost over the VGA offering of most mobile phones give you. Colours are reasonable, perhaps lacking the punch that the Flip HD offered, but supplying vibrancy and definition.
Audio capture is generally good, with some noise coming in from manipulation of the S47000 in the hand. The range on the mic is limited, meaning that audio capture drops off over distance but works fairly well for close subjects. The mic is exposed, however, so wind noise will soon blight things.
We managed to get a couple of hours from the battery, which is average for this class of camcorder.
Overall we were impressed with the performance of the S47000. If offers a slightly different proposition to some rivals, giving a touch of environmental proofing and a complete package in the box that comes in at an affordable price, offering better value for money than rivals.
Music and JPG support means that you can do a little more than on some other devices. The move away from the convenience of the type of device that comes with an integral USB connector is perhaps less of an issue because of the use of an SD card.
Sure, better quality HD or Full HD video is offered by some of the more expensive rivals, but at under £100, the Medion Life S47000 looks like a winner.


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Diving & Marine Conservation Volunteering in Thailand - Monthly Updates
- Project Overview
- Additional Project Info
- Divemaster Course Add-on
- Monthly Updates
- Management Plan, Data & Reports
Conservation in Thailand - Monthly Update February 2008
I ended January's update by mentioning 2008 was International Year of the Reef (IYOR), which is a worldwide drive to raise environmental awareness about coral reefs and the threats they face, and to encourage conservation activities from all sectors of society to help preserve the reef ecosystems. We have adopted Mu Sang Nua as our reef to protect over the year, so in the middle of February we made our first trip there to search for any fishing nets or salvage. We came across two nets very near the surface which made them quite difficult to remove due to strong surface waves and currents, and the need for extra good buoyancy control. However, the volunteers did manage to remove 20kg of net, which along with the glass bottles, cans and a fish trap that we collected from other reefs gives a monthly total of 27kg.
In addition to keeping the reef clean, we have decided to carry out a detailed coral and fish diversity study, with an aim of compiling an end of year report to try to persuade the authorities to offer more protection for this beautiful reef. Consequently, whilst the volunteers were cutting away the net, I swam over the reef taking as many photos as possible to identify later with the help of the fish and coral books on board the boat. Of particular note was an unidentified seahorse that I found attached to a sea fan. We have looked through the books and also on websites such as ReefBase but could not find a matching description; we will continue our search.
Another plan we have for Mu Sang Nua, as well as some other reefs that we visit regularly, is to lay down permanent transects so we can return to the same spot each time to carry out repeated fish censuses and build up time lapse photography records of the reef along the line. The method we intend to use is to drive two metal stakes into the seabed, 50 metres apart which we will leave there permanently and attach a rope each time we return to swim along, carrying out surveys. To lay the transect for the first time we need good sea conditions, so we aim to return to Mu Sang Nua again on a day of neap tides during March to do this, and of course, to also remove anymore nets if we find them. In February, we did manage to put stakes into two reefs, Maya Bay and Ao Nui, which is a good start to this development in our reef monitoring activities. Over the coming months we hope to lay transects on four or five local reefs, and the same number around Phi Phi.
At the end of January we were approached by the Krabi Fisheries Department, based in Ao Nam Mao, who asked us to help them release some of the fish they have been breeding. They have in the region of 20,000 damsel fish and a few hundred anemonefish ready for release, so on three days during February we collected bags with juvenile damsel fish inside, and released them on to four local reefs and at two reefs on Phi Phi. Each bag held fifty fish and we released an average of four hundred on each reef. The three species released were the Bengal sergeant (Abudefduf bengalensis), Lemon damsel (Pomacentrus moluccensis) and the Similar damsel (Pomacentrus similis). We knew it was important to open the bags as close to the reef as possible rather than high up in the water column, as this gave the fish better chance to quickly hide amongst the corals rather than being preyed upon immediately. We also discovered that the branching staghorn corals (Acropora sp) were the most suitable as the spreading branches offered the most protection for the young fish. Although damsels are numerous on the reefs already, they form part of the food chain so breeding and releasing them has benefit for the local reef ecosystem.
Another subsea activity that we have learnt about and participated in this month is the monitoring of coral disease. An American marine scientist based at Phuket Marine Biological Centre, Carly Kenkel, is carrying out baseline surveys of disease affecting corals in Thailand, since to date there has been very little research in this field. Last week, she came to Ao Nang and gave us an interesting presentation on the rise of coral diseases since the first case was observed in the Caribbean during the 1970's, the state of Thailand's corals and the results of her research so far. The following day we all went to two reefs on Phi Phi Don where she had observed a presence of both White Syndrome and Porites Pinking, the two main diseases she had noted. She showed us the types of corals that these diseases were commonly found in and then pointed out examples of each when she encountered them. The White Syndrome was quite hard to distinguish from coral bleaching and predation, but the Porites Pinking was glaringly obvious when pointed out since it looked like the coral had been sprayed with a can of pink paint. The next day we went to two reefs that Carly had not surveyed, Mushroom Rock and Ao Nui, where we carried out 30 minute timed swim surveys noting down any disease we observed. However, both reefs turned out to be pretty healthy in terms of disease with only two cases spotted on each reef. In comparison to the two reefs we visited the previous day for the training which had numerous infected corals, this was a positive sign. The surveys on the second day were useful for Carly as they were new sites for her, and it was good for us to put into practice what we had learnt. It was also exciting to be involved in an area of research that is very new in Thailand, and we hope to help her investigations in the future by informing her whenever we see instances of disease.
February has been another great month for marine organism sightings, with volunteers observing one Green and one Hawksbill turtle, two Leopard sharks, two Banded seasnakes, a well camouflaged Leopard flounder flat in the sand, a Peacock mantis shrimp, the biggest nudibranch I have ever seen here, and three pipefish that look very similar to the Messmate pipefish. However, its geographical distribution does not correspond with this region, normally being found within the Pacific reaching as far as Indonesia. It is probable that our id books are not fully comprehensive for the seahorses and pipefishes found in the Andaman Sea, and that it is just a close relation to the Messmate pipefish. Even more exciting has been the sighting of two species of fish that are very rare on the reefs around here, to the extent that I had not seen either until now and had thought that they had been fished to extinction in Krabi. The first was a Bumphead parrotfish (Bulbometopon muricatum) at Bida Nai and the other a Napoleon or Humphead wrasse (Cheilinus undulates) at Koh Ya Wa Sam. Both are large fish and would be quite a catch for any fisherman. Fishing is a particular threat for the Napoleon wrasse as it takes many years for it to reach maturity so may be caught before it can breed, and is consequently globally endangered; let's hope it can defy the fishermen's nets for years to come.
On to the land based side of the project where there have been three beach cleans and four days in the mangroves. The beaches were Ao Thung, Ao Nam Mao and Lam Pho Village beach, from which we removed a total on 789kg. At Ao Thung we dug four tyres out of the sand, one of which must have been from a monster truck as it was almost bigger than any of us. Although we had cleaned the beach at Lam Pho Village a month before, we found it was just as dirty as the previous visit, which we were initially shocked by. However, on looking at the map and seeing the orientation of the beach, I realised a lot of the rubbish washed down the Krabi River must have been blown on to this beach by the easterly monsoon winds, so we will no doubt have to return to clean again before the start of the rainy season and the change in wind direction.
The days in the mangroves have been mostly taken up by land clearance this month, both clearing an area at Baan Thung Prasan for future replanting with the local community, and also extending the range of our research nursery in preparation for continuing our experiments. In March, we hope to transplant the Bruguiera sexangula saplings using the same methods as the Ceriops tagal trees that we moved in January. On another day we returned to Wat Pakasai, the temple where volunteers had planted 1,300 saplings in November last year. After doing a little clearance of weeds in order to find the planted trees, we estimated the overall survival rate to be between 60-70%, which we were very happy to observe.
So, despite February being the shortest month of the year, it has been an interesting month where we have made progress in all areas of the project. In March, we will continue with the aims of IYOR, with plans to develop educational posters to spread around the tour agencies and hotels in Ao Nang, trying to raise the environmental awareness of the tourists that visit this area. The rise in tourism, and the consequent increase in coastal development and tourist activities that put pressure on the fragile reef ecosystems, is undoubtedly having a negative impact on the coral reefs, so we really hope that the posters and fliers that we develop helps to enlighten the tourists on how they can look after the reefs.
Click here and see our graphs of the amount of rubbish the volunteers have collected from the reefs and beaches here in Ao Nang in February 2008 - impressive work.
Click here and see our graphs of the amount of rubbish the volunteers have collected from the reefs and beaches here in Ao Nang over 2007 - impressive work.
Marten Meynell
4th March 2008
Director for Thailand Conservation
Projects Abroad

subset: commoncrawl


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Salted caramel brownies - They're not lighter and they're not local. That's kind of a lie. It's a recipe from Cooking Light, so some of the fat has been stripped of these decadent bars. They're local because they were made from scratch, in my kitchen.
But let's be honest, shall we?
Even though they don't fit the title of this blog, would you blame me for sharing them? Would you stop reading this blog, angry that they don't quite fit the mold?
I doubt it. If so, I am sorry to offend you with these very lovely brownies.
I started this blog years ago. It had a different name, with a different purpose. I simply wanted to share my recipes and my writing with friends and family. I then used it to log a weight loss battle. Finally, in the end, I fell in love with sourcing local and regional food and this little slice of web heaven was born.
Times, they do change, right?
It's very easy to get caught up in the "food blog hamster wheel". You churn out posts, you tweet, you Facebook, you suddenly worry about how many people are coming to your site. You ponder if the food blogging community at-large likes you, are you part of the club? You start thinking about quantity, and not quality.
You forget it's about having a voice, starting a conversation, sharing something you love. You forget it's about community.
It's the community that surrounded fellow blogger, Jennie Perillo, after her husband suddenly passed away. It's a community that came together to help someone, that many have never met, but someone whose story and experience touched at our very hearts. More about the work to help out Jennie's family in just a moment.
If you've gotten this far, great job, I appreciate it. The point of this little speech from my soapbox is that I've been fairly silent the last couple of weeks. I've had a schedule change at work, an increase of responsibilities, and I've been trying to balance that with my family life. In short, I haven't had a lot of time to blog. In the beginning, I felt guilty I wasn't feeding the beast. What would people think?
Then, it changed. I cared less about the guilt, and realize how much I miss the community, how much I miss sharing with those who read this blog (and I thank every single one of you). I missed it being my outlet from my stressful day job.
The break from the blog reminded me why I love it so much. I think it's an excellent lesson for bloggers to learn. Sometimes you have to let go, let the guilt subside, remind yourself why you do this. I can say this because this isn't my full time job, I understand it's much different for those who use this as a way to make a living.
For the rest of us, however, sometimes I truly believe we could all use the permission to cut ourselves a little slack. Even if you don't blog, cut yourself some slack. So what if you missed a playgroup/email/sewing class. So if you need someone to say it, I will. Give yourself a break. You might find yourself much better when you return.
Salted Caramel Brownies
Source: Cooking Light
Yield: 16 small brownies, 12 larger ones (CL says the yield is 20, but frankly, that's too small of a brownie for me.)
I actually doubled this recipe for a 9x13 baking pan and it worked out perfectly. They were a little thicker, but honestly, I like it better that way. Be careful, these things are addicting.
- 3.38 ounces all-purpose flour (about 3/4 cup)
- 1 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon backing powder
- 6 tablespoons butter, melted
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- cooking spray
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 3 1/2 tablespoons evaporated fat-free milk, divided
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 ounce bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
- 1/8 teaspoon coarse sea salt
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Start preparing your brownies. Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, brown sugar, and baking powder in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk until well mixed.
- Combine your 6 tablespoons of melted butter, eggs, and the vanilla extract.
- Add the butter mixture to the flour mixture and stir until well combined.
- Pour batter into a 9x9 square metal baking pan lightly coated in cooking spray.
- Bake brownies for 19 minutes or until a toothpick comes out from the center cleanly.
- Cool in the pan on a wire rack.
- Once brownies are cooled, begin making your topping. Melt 1/4 cup butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add 1/4 cup brown sugar, and 1 1/2 tablespoons of the evaporated milk. Cook the mixture for at least two minutes.
- Take the mixture off the heat, add you vanilla, powdered sugar, and stir with a whisk until everything comes together and becomes smooth.
- You're now going to pour the mixture over the brownies, and then use an offset spatula or just a regular one to make sure the brownies are well covered.
- Allow to set for 20 minutes to set. (I found putting it in the fridge really helped with this step.
- Finally, take a microwave-safe bowl, combine your chocolate and 2 tablespoons of the evaporated milk. Microwave for 45 seconds or until melted... make sure you stir it halfway through the cooking time.
- Drizzle over the caramel topping on the brownies, sprinkle with your 1/8th of a teaspoon of sea salt.
- Allow the chocolate to set, then cut into squares.
If you read a good amount of food blogs, you've seen the community reaching out to support Jennie, who lost her husband suddenly several weeks ago. Some people are doing auctions with proceeds going towards the family to help with things like health insurance and day-to-day expenses. There is a very simple way you can help out, by just making a donation. Click on the image below, and it will take you to Bloggers Without Borders. It's an amazing organization that brings food bloggers together to help those who need it. Jennie needs it right now, and I'm only too happy to pass along the link. So please, if you can spare just a few dollars, every single one counts. Thank you!


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California politics is currently dominated by a debate over taxes.
How much should we pay? Should income taxes be raised temporarily? What about sales taxes? And what should the money go for -- schools or the budget or something else?
Californians, for their reputation as some of America's most liberally minded citizens, don't much like taxes. They do like to complain about them too. And it isn't hard to find people here who claim that state taxes are too high.
U.S. & World
The next time you hear that complaint, try asking the complainer a question:
How much exactly did you pay in state taxes?
Indeed, try asking that question now, at the end of the April tax season. If you think state income taxes are too high, do you know how much you paid?
The answer for most people is: I don't know.
Indeed, your blogger, who knew he was going to write this blog, can't remember what he paid in state taxes.
And that answer speaks volumes about how serious complaints about high income taxes are.
Federal taxes are so much bigger that most filers notice those before they look at the relatively meager state taxes. (I do know to the dollar what my federal taxes were). Heck, sales taxes are a bigger deal to us, because we see those numbers on so many bills.
If state income taxes were such a big deal, we'd know how much we paid. But we don't.
It's a question that Gov. Brown, civil rights attorney Molly Munger, and the backers of other tax initiatives of the November ballot should think about asking, the next time someone challenges them on taxes.
Send us your thoughts via Twitter @PropZero or add your comment to our Facebook page.


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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Both the United States and United Kingdom have developed viable approaches to seizing and unwinding failing global financial institutions, but more work is needed on the UK side to ensure that losses can be adequately absorbed, American and UK regulators said on Sunday.
The Bank of England and the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said in a joint paper that each country's plans for dealing with the types of cataclysmic financial failures that marked the 2007-2009 financial crisis would reduce risks to financial stability.
"The FDIC and the Bank of England have developed resolution strategies that take control of the failed company at the top of the group, impose losses on shareholders and unsecured creditors - not on taxpayers — and remove top management and hold them accountable for their action," they said in the paper.
The new authorities to seize and resolve so-called global systemically important financial institutions came in the United States from the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law, and in Britain from the anticipated approval by early 2013 of the European Union Recovery and Resolution Directive.
Both the U.S. and UK approaches ensure continuity of all critical services of the failing firms and minimize cross-border contagion, the regulators said.
In both approaches, equity holders would likely be wiped out, and unsecured debt holders would face writedowns and conversion of at least part of their holdings to new equity to recapitalize the institutions as part of the restructuring.
In the United States, this is a relatively straightforward process, because in most large financial institutions, the capital structure is largely made up of equity and unsecured debt issued at the holding company level. There is often limited debt issued directly by operating subsidiaries that may be the source of the financial distress that brings down the company.
In the UK, however, financial holding companies at the top of the group do not typically issue much debt - more tends to be issued at the subsidiary level.
"For a top-down approach to work, there must be sufficient loss-absorbing capacity available at the top of the group to absorb losses sustained within operational subsidiaries," the regulators said.
UK companies could restructure to issue more debt at the holding company level, they said. UK authorities also need to find better ways of assigning subsidiary losses to unsecured creditors throughout the group.
A statutory tool to "bail in" such losses proposed under the EU directive would need to prevent counterparties from terminating dealings with the failing firm as it is seized.
In the 2008 crisis, the sudden pullout by Wall Street counterparties from some large firms helped accelerate their failure and magnified losses later borne by taxpayers.
Valuing a failed financial firm's assets is also critical to writing down losses and determining which classes of creditors will face conversion to new equity. Both the United States and United Kingdom are working on ways to develop a credible valuation process that can be applied quickly and flexibly.
Reporting By David Lawder; editing by Todd Eastham


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Burke preaching patience with Flamesby Aaron Vickers
By his own admission, Brian Burke isn't the most patient of individuals.
With his Calgary Flames working on the ground floor of a complete renovation, the newly minted president of hockey operations has no option but to find some.
"We get paid to stay patient," said Burke, who joined the organization in early September. "It's not fun, but that's what we're paid to do. As long as you believe the blueprint is going to work and the plan is a sound one. I'm not saying it's my long suit. It certainly isn't. Patience really isn't in the first or second part of my vocabulary, but that's what we get paid to do."
After failing to qualify for a playoff appearance in each of the past four seasons, Flames general manager Jay Feaster began selling off assets to kick-start a rebuild.
It started when Calgary traded longtime captain Jarome Iginla and defenseman Jay Bouwmeester in advance of last season's trade deadline. It continued when Miikka Kiprusoff announced his anticipated retirement in September.
With a noticeably younger roster, Burke suggested it's time to exercise that patience and see what can grow in Calgary.
"It's a lot like farming," he said. "Sometimes you've got to plant the field and you've just got to sit and wait. You can weed if you want. You can do some other things, but basically you've got to wait and you've got to see what that crop is, you've got to see if the weather cooperates and sometimes you've got to wait and see.
"What do we have? What are we going to have? What are some of these young guys going to turn into? I think it's a fair question, but we get paid to be patient. That's sometimes what you have to do. If you think it's not fun for a fan when the team is struggling, it's no fun for anyone that works for the team. We're not prepared to concede we're going to struggle yet. We'll see. These guys have worked their tails off."
Calgary's 2013 NHL Draft crop has already started to yield some results. Sean Monahan, the Flames' top selection last June has stuck, for now, in Calgary.
But at just 18 years old, Burke uttered the p-word again in tempering expectations for the No. 6 pick.
"I'm very impressed with our first round pick," he said. "I had nothing to do with Mr. Monahan being selected so when I say that, I'm obviously not taking any ownership of that, but I'm very impressed with him.
"I've been a guy who's always sent guys back to junior after their draft year. If you look at my record on it, it's pretty clear: Bobby Ryan, Nazem Kadri, those guys go back. I think this kid's going to make it a real difficult decision for Jay as far as whether he goes back or not.
"The reason that why I send players back is the coach would never guarantee me he'd give them enough minutes or enough situational ice time to get better," Burke explained. "Morgan Rielly last year, it was a lockout year, poor example. He goes back and he plays 28, 30, 31 minutes some nights, all first power play, first PK. He's getting an incubator to learn in in all different man-power situations on every inch of the ice surface that he's not going to get if he stays with the Toronto Maple Leafs and plays seven or eight minutes.
"The challenge to (coach) Bob (Hartley) is going to be if you guarantee Jay that this kid is going to play so many minutes and he can stay and in these situations, power play time and so on. If not, going back to the CHL, it's almost never hurt a player to go back."
"I think they're two good outcomes and I think Sean is going to dictate which one with his play early, and whether he can justify the minutes and situational ice time that we would need to keep him here."
Burke would have liked to see another former first-round pick better dictate his destination.
Though he remains in Calgary on the Flames' opening-night roster, Sven Baertschi -- taken at No. 13 in the 2011 NHL Draft -- has underwhelmed through training camp to the point that Burke isn't sure what he has yet in the 20-year-old with 25 games of NHL experience under his belt.
"All I've seen so far is flashes of brilliance," he said of Baertschi, who remains on Calgary's opening-night roster. "Flashes of brilliance are fine if you're working in the university, but they're not much good to people in an NHL building.
"He's got to learn to play. There's three zones on the ice surface in this League. I don't see that he's learned to play and compete in two of them. He's got to learn there's a clock in this League and that there's so many minutes in the game, and you've got to compete through all of them. I see this is a guy right now that is focusing on one area, and even then sporadically.
"I don't know what we have. I'm not ready to quit on a young kid and I'm not ready to throw him under the bus here today and rip him, but I think you can tell from my comments that I see big holes and a lack of commitment that is not going to get him anywhere in my books. I've seen kids that age with those holes that turn into players."
The patience required with Baertschi is the same that could be required with Calgary's on-ice product.
A young contingent without a marquee name or a spectacular puck-stopper to band-aid the team through the initial stages of a rebuild, few, if any, are expecting the Flames to challenge for a playoff spot in the Western Conference.
But Burke wasn't willing to join in on the prognosticating; instead preaching patience over results in what has been the club's mantra through camp.
"Predictions for the season, I don't make those. We're going to do the best we can and see where it goes. From my perspective, this is a transition that had to take place and it's well underway."


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From the time the Foochows landed in Sibu, each family would have a stone grinder. It could be operated by hand or pulled with the help of a long wrought iron lever fixed into the handle.
This particular domestic tool has indeed served the families very well right into these days. Most of us could still work on one if we have it. Many people though in recent years, have redesignated the role of this grinder to the garden, to spout water to bring in good luck!!
The stone grinder mill or " Siok Moh" has been in my family for a long time. According to my mother, this particular one is from our Great Grandmother, or Tui Mah. She had left it in the house in Hua Hong Ice Factory and my mother had brought it to the wooden house in Kung Ping Road, now known as Brooke Drive. My Grandfather, when he moved to his mansion in Sg. Merah, somehow acquired a new one for the new house.
In those days, we children saw our elders making every cake from scratch.
This stone mill, an invention of ancient China was a kitchen item or home appliance to help womenfolk grind grains by hand into fine flour. Almost all the women in the early days of Sibu right up to 1960's (before the arrival of the electrical appliances) used it to make dessert pastes of rice (glutinous and plain), beans, sesame or peanut flour. Usually the mill is some kind of granite and is very heavy. So it is usually put on a three legged or four legged belian stand. The stand would be ergonomically made so that it would suit the height of the lady of the house. (Any thing that was too tall would make grinding difficult. ) It has a grey-green stone cylinder and a base with grooved grinding surface, wooden hand-crank( or a long wrought iron pulling rod) and spout.
As kids we would happily take turns to pull the long wrought iron rod to move the mill round and round and my grandmother would patiently pour in the rice with a little bit of water into the spout. Soon we would see the nice white rice mixture flowing into the groove.
There would be a bucket lined with a white muslin bag to collect the milkish solution . When all the rice had been ground, grandmother would pick up the muslin bag and drain out the water by putting the top portion of mill on the bag. This pressure would squeeze out the water and eventually we will have a paste only. In Foochow this process is called "da" or press. It took some time, some times it was even an overnight process. And we could hear the comforting sound of tik,tik,tik...throughout the night, when the water dropped into the bucket below.
The use of the stone mill would be activated before Chinese New Year, and the four festivals. However, because my grandmother Tiong Lian Tie was a good kuih or cake maker, she could use it almost any time of the year. So with that appliance, she actually made a lot of things for us to eat . From her we had yam cake,the Chinese New year sticky cake, soya bean drink,mee tuiing kui, nine layer kuih,sii yang (or tong yuan) and even rice cakes (bah kuih).
Whenever I see a picture of the stone mill I would yearn for those days when we as a family would gather around grandmother, waiting expectantly for something good to come out of the mill. It would mean, the soonest, that we would have some dumplings for dinner that evening.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Stone Grinder Mill
From the time the Foochows landed in Sibu, each family would have a stone grinder. It could be operated by hand or pulled with the help of a long wrought iron lever fixed into the handle.
Memoir by I Am Sarawakiana at 3:41 PM 1 memories
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Tian Pian Hu
One of the best food in the world is the superdelicious Tian Pian Hu of Foochow Cuisine.
This is really a genuine part of Foochow Cuisine, out of this world. And indeed, it is "have wok and you will be in heaven" .
Simply this dish calls for a good wok and rice flour batter and a bit of pepper and salt and a simple but wonderful soup. This was the Fast Food of the fifties and sixties.
The one and only shop selling "Tian Pian Hu" in Sibu then was Tie Yang's shop,at the back lot of Chop Heng Ang which was an engineering firm selling spare parts , belonging to the richest Heng Hua Goh family of Sibu. All the Gohs were Methodists because Grandmother Goh was a leading deacon at that time. The Goh family later sold up their property and emigrated to Australia. Mssrs.Tie Yang's family stayed on to do their business.
Mssrs.Tie Yang had the original authentic Tian Pian Hu outside of China! (If you want to compare you will have to take the next Air Asia flight to China, and then proceed to Fuzhou City to verify my statement). His family has been keeping the business going from success to greater success in the last 40 years!! Every Chinese in Sibu since the beginning of their outlet must have eaten at least once there. Today, folks not only eat there, they take away too. The chief cook today was probably a teenager assistant when the outlet first started.
I believe that this kind of business and patronage is the very essence of Sibu Foochow business, without which no one can grow wealthy. There is trust by the customer, the service is simple and respectable, the raw materials fresh , and the product is exceptionally cheap but excellent. Foochow customers believe in low pricing,excellent service, quality goods and fast delivery. And if you wish to have a hot bowl of Tian Pian Hu, you can have it in less than ten minutes. Now I am talking about 1950....somewhere in the world quality service came about in 1990's! 40 years behind Mssrs.Tie Yang.
All students who had extra classes then would pop by the shop (it is still in the same location at Blacksmith Road) to have a bowl between the morning and afternoon sessions. And what I liked was the students' fare of that time. The adults had their big bowl with normal ingredients.
A student's bowl of tian pian hu would be just the rice cakes and the "empty" soup with NO dried squid, NO fish balls, NO slices of pork. To add flavour to this plain soupy tian pian hu, we would happily add a lot of the pepper and salt from the bottles which were placed on the table. This delicious bowl would set us back by only 30 cents. But it was the getting together, the socialising and the "being seen" at the Tian Pian Hu shop that was important to us girls at that time. By today's standard, it would be like appearing in Tatlers'.
In those days, parents did not take their kids out for snacks, unlike today's KFC generation. I think because my father worked out of town then and my mother was a very good homemaker, we did not eat out or have take away. But the few occasions I went with my classmates remain in my mind, and it was such a nice warm feeling, remembering having Tian Pian Hu even though we had the "empty" or plain ones.
Children are so lucky today. Their parents would call for "special"+ for them all the time .
Recently I went back to Sibu and the first thing my dear dear ex-graduate teacher's trainee Serena Chou did was to bring me to have a bowl of "Special" tian pian hu in Tie Yang's Shop....I could hardly keep back my tears. I just cannot remember the last time I was in the shop!! The quality is still the same..superdelicious, original,fast service,and equal treatment to all the customers.....and most of the old chairs and the tables are still there. (Quality carpenters!)
Tears of gratitude, tears of memories. Blest be the ties that binds......
+" Special" in Sibu or any eatery in Malaysia would mean one can get extra goodies in the noodles or whatever when we order. It would definitely, as a result cost more. (Special = extra pieces of pork,fish balls, meat balls, prawns, fish,etc)
Memoir by I Am Sarawakiana at 7:25 PM 0 memories
Fish Ball Soup and Lok Tian Yuan
There was a special meaning in having fish ball soup in Lok Tian Yuan when I was young.
I will let you into this social norm in the 50's and 60's Sibu.
Lok Tian Yuan was a well known food eating outlet in those days.Most foochow villagers from the riverine and coastal areas would take their early morning slow boat ride at dawn or even before then to reach Sibu to do any business (sell rubber sheets or domesticated animals) or do some shopping and catch a Lin Dai movie. All the riverine boats would be in Sibu by 9 o'clock.
The last boat to leave Siby was at 4 oclock in the afternoon if I remember correctly. So all movie fans must watch their films in the morning at 10 o'clock, have lunch and do whatever they had to do and leave by the 2 o'clock motor launch.
Upon arrival in Sibu, they would go straight to their shop which offered them their choice of breakfast. Mui Soon Coffee Shop, just next to the jetty served the best coffee and cruellers (Yiw Tiau or Yiw Char Kui) and sweet soya bean milk. Every coffee shop would serve kampua mien (Foochow Dry Noodles served with a clear soup sprrinkled with spring onions). By the five foot way oranges, bananas,limes, mangosteens would be sold by enterprising Foochow women.
My grandmother Tiong Lian Tie favoured Lok Tian Yuan which had a restaurant upstairs for feasts, weddings and birthdays.
I loved Lok Tian Yuan too. Because I could watch exciting moments created by match makers (who were very obviously dressed with a red handkerchief sneaking out of their side blouse pockets and an obvious tell tale fan). Match makers also had another character trait : they could talk non stop like a runaway train.
Match making during those days was a very lucrative business. A match well made would bring a very big angpow from the two happy families, sometimes even from the happy bridegroom.
After all the matching, wheeling and dealing, plying between the two families who may live far apart, the match maker would bring the two families together with their prospective bride and bride groom tagging very shyly along to Lok Tian Yuan for their first "look". Without actually telling the young man and the young woman, the match maker and the parents would make this special "Eating the Fish Ball Soup at Lok Tian Yuan " appointment . When both parties had arrived, the match maker would let the young man know which table to look at and which girl to view too. And in the same way, the young lady could have a good look of her prospective "husband". All these were done with great finesse and no communication would pass between the two tables.
The fish ball soup would have been ordered by the match maker for all. If the boy liked the girl, he would finish all the fish ball soup. And likewise, the girl would do the same. However if the girl did not like the boy, she would not attempt to eat. That was the first indication. After "Eating Fish Ball Soup at Lok Tian Yuan", the families would go home and have further discussion on the advantages of the marriage or the good traits of the prospects. And if the parents like the match, they would try their best to coerce their children to marry even though they were not so willing.
Once I heard my grandmother telling me that there was indeed a young man who told his father,"If you like the girl so much, why don't you marry her instead?" This created a family fight for the son had gone beyond his limits. I believe the father did not back down for a long time. So many families referred to this story whenever their sons were not agreeable, " Do not be like so and so....."
Sometimes the more stubborn men would reject the match. They could. And the girls could too. But usually by the time they came to eat the fish ball soup, it was almost the point of no return.
Girls with little education were often more agreeable to match making because they would not have any other channels or means of meeting young men , from any where. In those days, they hardly any opportunity to further their education and their occupation was mainly rubber tapping, pig rearing, orange picking and even rice planting. And the only way to get out of the system was to marry someone with property, with a town job, or a government job. A store clerk was very much favoured. A teacher was not such a catch because he could still be teaching in a village school and the salary was then 60 dollars. The best catch was a man who owned a shop!
Thus whether marriages were made in heaven or not, many young ladies were married off to total strangers and let fate reveal itself what they were in for.
Strangely there were few incidents of bad marriages, divorce was rare, and suicides even rarer. But I suppose behind all the seemingly good marriages there were a lot of hidden dissatisfaction and unpleasantries. Domestic violence though uncommon did occur but it was not blown up.Any way the media was not much around then. Only the usual whispered gossips behind closed doors and children did not get to hear them.
Of course there were stories of indiscretions but they were hidden by the rubber trees and perhaps a small hut here and there. I am not inclined to tell. Shall I????
Memoir by I Am Sarawakiana at 9:59 AM 0 memories
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
A Day in My Life with Grand Aunt in Sibu 1960
1960 was a remarkable year. I was in Primary Five and we had started having extra afternoon English classes in our preparation for our Primary Six Entrance Examination.
We had to pass our Entrance Examination in order to enter Secondary School. Failing that a girl would have to attend Ling Chu Ming Secondary School, or attend Night School or prepare to get married!
I loved going to the afternoon classes and being taught by Mr. Wong Kie Mee. He was a plump man, extremely strict and he had about 6 different rattan canes of different thicknesses to beat us if we made mistakes in English. He also had very heavy footsteps which were very distinctive.
That particular day, that particular morning I remember very clearly. It was Thursday. And the bell rang for the first lesson which was Hygiene, taught by Mr. Tiong, also a very strict teacher. It was then followed by Maths, taught by Mr. Huang Teck Nai. After that lesson was General Knowledge and we were told to memorise lots of facts, which I also enjoyed very much. Then we had recess and I flew up the staircase to be with Goo Poh, Grand Aunt, the half sister of my Grandfather.
Being the kindergarten teacher of the Methodist Kindergarten, my grandaunt or Goo Poh was given lodging in the Methodist Memorial Building which had flats for lady missionaries on the first floor. this building also had a small hall on the ground floor for women's meetings, craft work, choir practice and other activities. It was a square, functional white washed building with two staircases, one in the front and one at the back. To us it was a huge monument, steadfast and welcoming, like our Grand Aunt.
Every day Grand Aunt would have our snacks ready during our recess and hers as well: milk in a bowl and soda biscuits or marie biscuits. I always wondered how she managed to feed me and my siblings (Sing and Hsiung). There was never any talk of payment. Perhaps it was true Foochow manners of reciprocal love. (Yin Ching li yin ching kuo ). But nevertheless as a child I had a lot of comfort having a break there and felt very privileged to rub shoulders with a teacher, and my own relative at that. Then if we had bought something with our money which was all of twenty cents, we would take out our buns, or kuihs. Sometimes we would have a packet of fried noodles at twenty cents. And it was all a good meal together. Goo Poh would wait on us.
I never realised the significance of waiting at tables until very much later in life when I studied about how Chinese women waited at the tables of their families, to run for the bean sauce, the little bit of cut chilies, a little more of salt in a saucer and another glass of drinking water or beer without a "please"or a" dear". Then when I grew into quite a feminist I resented waiting at tables for our menfolks. Now whenever I remember how Goo Poh waited on us, my heart would just burst and tears well up.
On that particular recess time, I told Goo Poh that I would have afternoon class with Mr. Wong and that we would have a test. It was going to be Present Continuous Tense I remember as Mr. Wong had told us to revise. I was quite sure that I knew everything. So Goo Poh warned me to be careful. Mr. Wong would mark very carefully.
Soon the bell rang for the morning session to be over and we went home. In the morning, my father would send us with his Land Rover and we would walk home in the afternoon as he worked in Sg.Aup and would only be back in the evening. Our house was not very far you see from our school. By two I was back in school.
I sat for the test and soon Mr. Wong had the test papers all marked as we did our exercises.
He lined the papers very properly, those who failed at the bottom. More than half failed the test.
Those who passed got their paper first. And I did not get mine in that pile! I had failed! But how badly? I could not believe it. I had been so careful.
He called the first boy to collect his paper. They counted the mistakes together and he was beaten six times across the palm of his left hand.
Then it was my turn. I was red in the face and my palms started to sweat and then went cold. I could not have made so many mistakes!! I went up and faced the class and then faced him. He asked me very sternly and slowly as if I was hard of hearing, "Count, how many mistakes have you made?"
He had underlined FOUR words in red. I had forgotten to write ING after the verbs!
So he said, "Now I am going to beat you! GO-ING to beat you FOUR times!"
He said again,"Say after me,I am GOING to beat you"
So I said, "I am going to beat you."
After the beating, my hand was extremely painful, but my face was red as a tomato. I could not concentrate on the lesson any more. I could not remember any thing.
When the bell rang, I ran up to Goo Poh and cried .... I never seemed to be able to reach her, the stair case was like a stair case going up to heaven. It was so high! And I believe I was only about four cats tall at that time.
All she said was "Never mind, mo yu kin, mo yu kin, you will do well next time. It is just a small thing...."
She gave me some of her beautiful tissue paper to wipe my tears and the pain away. But my heart heavy bearing the pain of embarrassment. How could a Tiong girl fail her English? All her aunts were educated! All her uncles were well established business men! And all were English speaking!
She then walked me to the main road, and squeezed the hand that did not bear the brunt of the rattan cane.
Softly she continued to say, "Never mind, it is just only an ant's bite. All students get beaten."
Because of my Grand aunt and the comfort she gave me, I never failed my English again. Grand Aunt was like tissue paper - soft and gentle and loving.
Everyone has a grandaunt, but mine is a special one.
Memoir by I Am Sarawakiana at 8:02 AM 0 memories
My Great Grandmother, the Only Bound Feet Lady I know
When I was young I loved to visit Grandfather and Great Grand Mother who provided the love and warmth of a large extended family of four generations.
Great Grandmother lived in a huge house built by Grandfather on a hill in Sg. Merah,Sibu. Grandfather loved bouganvilleas ,alamandas and hibiscus. I remember the ever blooming purple bouganvillea at the top of the road just before it turned into the house. I can never get that colour right whenever I buy a new bouganvillea for my own garden. Somehow the beauty of that colour sticks in my mind. Grandfather also kept an emaculate garden. I always remember he was one of the earliest man in Sibu to buy a lawn mower and he would be the one to keep it spotlessly clean after our Ah Yong Koo (Aunt Yong) cut the grass.
Whenever I visited my grandfather it was the lovely aroma of cooking that welcomed me, as Grandmother Siew was an excellent cook. I also loved the nice fragrance of ylang ylang (bai yu lang) that floated in the house. Grandfather planted a huge ylang ylang in front of the house. And what fresh air we had at that time in the 50's and 60's.
One of my regrets in life is that when Great grandmother was alive I was too young to ask her very good questions about her life in China and what it was like to be brought out to Sarawak.
However later, I did manage to do a bit of research on bound feet culture of Chinese women.
Great Grandmother,Wong Nee Mui, was very soft spoken and she did things very , very slowly. I believe now that it was not because she was old, but because it was her style and because of her bound feet. This was also confirmed by Fifth Uncle who said that anyone who took their bath for a long time was like GGM!!
She ate very slowly and carefully, using her chopsticks very skillfully. Even though her eyes were not very good she loved to sew. She handsewed all her nice white cotton samfoo and black brocade trousers.
She loved her beautiful grand daughters, especially Aunty Pick and Aunty Chiew. Goo Poh Yuk Ging was her only daughter. Goo Poh was very close to her and absolutely filial and obedient to her and her elder brother.
Grandfather was a good son because he saw to it that he educated Goo Poh well (she was the first batch of Yuk Ing School, taught by Mrs. Hoover) and later on, he went on to educate all his daughters (e.g. If I am not mistaken Fifth Aunt was the first Sibu Foochow girl to be a graduate. She went to Kansas University in the US.)
I still remember her last days. She would sit by the window on the first floor and look out to watch the road to Grandfather's house. And she could see people riding their bicycles from the main road to our road. These folks would be going to Au Sang (hill behind). Two families lived below us. They were Mr. Huang Cheng Ang (who later disappeared as a Communist Leader), and a Ling Family (whose grand daughter was my trainee recently).
Mr. Huang operated a toucheo (bean sauce) factory and I used to dislike the smell of the fermenting beans. I swore I would never use touyew (kicap) but later I forgot about the factory and the urns.
Great Grandmother would spin a lot of tales, many of which I have forgotten (because I was too young then) and I remember our Grandmother Siew Nguk Lan was very patient with her and told her not to "spin so many tales". I enjoyed watching her comb her long hair ever so slowly. And she would look into her mirror in the room above the stairs on the left. She kept her room very very tidy. She also used a little bit of powder and if I am not mistaken, she used Florida water (hua look chui) to smell nice. She also used one kind of hair oil which kept her hair very tidy. After she had tied up her hair up in a bun, she would stick one or two blossoms of ylang ylang in the bun. And as she walked slowly, the beautiful scent of the flowers would follow her.
And of course we all remember that she made her own cloth shoes, with the shoe stand that she had. Her cloth shoes were just the size of my palm and sometimes we children would put them on our hand as if to measure how big they were. At that time we were too naive to know how much pain a woman must suffer to break the bones of their feet in order to be a beautiful woman of the upper class.
GGM was a frail lady but God bless her because she was not bed ridden at the end of her days and did not cause a lot of trouble to any body. We have to thank Ah Yong Koo in particular for looking after her so well in her last days. Ah Yong Koo Koo is one of the adopted daughters of Grandmother Siew Nguk Lan.
My grandmother Siew Nguk Lan was another exceptional lady of the Tiong Family. She was a marvellous cook and dress maker,very proactive and creative. She was also the first woman driver in Sibu in the fifties. She was a good manager in every respect of the word as she kept Grandfather's large family together peacefully. This included her great respect for Great Grandmother and Goo Poh. It is still every important today that this kind of respect for elders is practised. It generates a lot of love and good memories.
Memories are often said to be our second chance for happiness.
Memoir by I Am Sarawakiana at 7:29 AM 0 memories
Thursday, August 16, 2007
1972 March 25 RASCOM
On March 25 1972 the whole of the Third Division of Sarawak was declared a special security area administered by Rajang Security Command (RASCOM) with its CEO or Director of Operations who is the Chief Minister of Sarawak.
What was not known to the people at that time was that Third Division was no longer just an administrative division adminstered by a Divisional Resident who has "normal" powers. Sibu or
Third Division was under special powers.
The main reason was because the Communist threat was still there and the government feared the brutal acts of terrorism on innocent citizens.
Growing up in such a political environment with a lot of fear and threats was not easy at all.
Most of my relatives who had been living innocently along the riverine villages of the Rejang were very affected: education of the children was interrupted, suddenly some of the adults were arrested by the police, and so many were accused of betraying their friends. Fear spread amongst us and my relatives started to abandon their farms, their rubber estates, and even their lovely homes. The older people were at first quite reluctant to move but the younger ones had to move for the sake of their own life and their own future. Hence, many of the housing estates in Sibu were greatly in demand. Some who could not afford buying their new homes, had to become almost squatters on some more derelict housing.
Thus Sibu saw a spate of in migration of rural folks and schools were bursting at their seams. This was not planned at all by the government as it was a decision made to address an immediate need or it could even be called an emergency. In my youthful mind at that time, it was so convenient for any leader to call an emergency and suddenly civilians were put into a new mode of modern house arrest and curbed movements. This was all in the good name of public security. Some appreciated it, while many found the new measures inconvenient.
Perhaps this also catapulted the youth and the older ones into a new political attitude. New opportunities have arisen, new positions had to be filled and if man was to think for himself, the whole community would be affected. How many of us thought of the common good? How many apart from true missionaries would sacrifice their lives for their belief in God,for a common political aspiration,etc?
Jobs were suddenly scarce as well as food and there was a lot of control for fear that the ordinary citizens might be supplying the Communists with food supplies. Perhaps this was also the beginning of the cold storage business in Sibu too.
In later years we discovered that the self made millionaire Datuk Tiong Su Kuok actually became rich because he decided not only to sell fresh fish but also frozen fish. He also made in roads into school supplies as the 70's saw a large increase in government secondary schools in the Third Division and a huge demand for good fish like Ikan Duai from Singapore and Hong Kong.
I often wonder what my grandfather Tiong kung Ping would think about this if he were alive today. He was the earlest Foochow immigrant to help Rev Hoover assemble the first refrigeration unit with the help of my Grandmother Chong who had sat down with him and read the manual in English and translated into Foochow for Grandfather to slowly assemble the unit which arrived by sea from America in the early 30's!! The first ice factory then was the Hua Hong Ice Factory built on the small island opposite Sibu. My great grandmother lived there with her family (my grandfather, grandmother, children and children in law) all four generations until we , the great grandchildren were born and then later moved to Sibu, thus ending our connection with ice making. Sometimes we mused about it would be like if we had carried on with refrigeration.
Road blocks were every where and curfew was imposed. The Field Forces were commonly seen in public, keeping the peace. Young girls were terrified of men in uniforms, espeically army camouflage. I remember I went out only for the Methodist Youth Fellowship ona Friday night and teachers made sure that all of us went home by 9.
Whispers, rumours, and small talks in undertones were the order of the day. Suspicion was rife.
But we Chinese being resilient wherever we were continued to maintain our demeanour and carried on educating those who needed to be educated.
Life went on. My sisters played cards when the curfew was on and my mother went shopping with the little money we had. We were lucky to have an education. In those years then we became closer as a family.
Memoir by I Am Sarawakiana at 2:55 PM 7 memories
Saturday, August 04, 2007
Rev James Hoover
The Rev. James Hoover (1872 – 1935), the first missionary serving the Methodist Church in Sarawak was a very exceptional man. Hoo Sing Nang, or Teacher Hoo was revered by all the Foochows during the days he spent in Sibu as a Methodist Missionary. In fact he was more than a missionary to all the early Foochows .
He was a true pioneer and for that my family led by Tiong King Kee and Tiong Kung Ping also owed him a great deal.
Today, Sibu remembers him through a memorial park which occupies a two-acre land. which was officially dedicated on 27th July, 2007 by YB Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh, the Finance Minister(ll) and Minister of Urban Development And Tourism Sarawak and Rev. Dr. Su Chii Ann, the President of the Sarawak Chinese Annual Conference, the Methodist Church in Malaysia.
How did Rev. Hoover come into the history of New Foochow or Sibu? In 1901, Wong Nai Siong led a group of Foochow Chinese leaving China for Sibu to open up the swampland after negotiating with the then Rajah Charles Vyner Brooke for an agricultural project to be set up. The two first met in Singapore.
Wong Nai Siong was a Chinese businessman and a middleman and I believe that he never wanted to settle down in Sibu as his heart was in China. So he was quite happy to find a very dedicated replacement in the person of Rev. Hoover.
It was through Rev Hoover that Sibu benefitted from the stringent project management of an American man who had the foresight to be innovative,financially sound,proactive and sensitive to the needs of proper development. His basic instincts also called for the building of schools and churches which provided the basic impetus for proper human and social development. Thus Rev Hoover hit the nail onthe head when he started the settlement in such a manner. Being a Foochow speaking church minister he was truly highly regarded by all. that he was able to stay for so long in the settlement was also because he was an honest man.
A leader who was honest and sincere could provide the kind of leadership that the Foochows needed then. And it was the only way to go.
Rev. Hoover lived as a Foochow leader for thirty-two years along the Rejang River and died in Sibu. In his rich and endearing life time, he helped build 41 churches and 40 schools, all along the Rejang River. His heart was that of a true disciple.
His work was recognised by the then government and the third Rajah of Sarawak Vyner Brooke erected a copper tablet (monument) in remembrance of him:"The Rev J.M.Hoover arrived at Sibu in March, 1903 and was responsible for settling the first Foochow colony in the Rejang River. In 1904, His Highness Sir Charles Anthony Brooke G.C.M.G. Second Rajah of Sarawak, officially appointed him the head of all the Sarawak Foochows, entrusted him with their welfare and made him their official represantative in all their dealings with Government. From then until the day of his death on 11 Feb 1935 Mr Hoover loyally fulfilled this trust."
The Rev. James Hoover was a pioneer in many fields:he brought to Sibu the first batch of rubber seeds;he imported the first steamboat;he set up the first rice mill;he organized the first girl's school;he installed the first electricity generator;he set up the first agricultural school;he imported the first ice maker;he was the first to use the chain-saw;he introduced the use of wireless telegraph machine.
It is timely and only honorable that Sibu commemorates his contribution with a memorial park. This park is located at the estuary of Sungai Merah(which is now commissioned by the local government as a historical and cultural river.)where Rev. Hoover first set his feet on when he first arrived in Sarawak
A black marble wall recorded Rev. James Matthew Hoover's life history in Chinese, English and Bahasa Malaysia.
Throughout the 50's,60's and 70's the people of Sibu were blessed by the education initiated by Rev Hoover through the Methodist Primary School which was erected with the help of finance from Americans who sponsored the project. The Hoover Building, The Masland Methodist Church and the Hoover House, now all gone physically, will forever remain in our minds.
Memoir by I Am Sarawakiana at 9:12 AM 0 memories


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On March 12, 2014, Apache Lucene announced that Lucene 4.8 and Solr 4.8 will require Java 7, citing better file handling (from which Lucene will greatly benefit) and better comparators. This is, in itself, interesting and worthwhile news, but the impact and implication for downstream projects is far more relevant than Lucene itself.
Hibernate Search 5, for example, uses Lucene, but is based on Java 6. With Lucene requiring Java 7, Hibernate Search is faced with a choice: stay with the older (end-of-lifed) API (and the older version of Lucene as well), or update to Java 7.
Moving to Java 7 has many benefits; the update from the older language specifications will clean up quite a bit of modern code.
But there are two thought processes here.
One thought is that updating might affect downstream projects for Hibernate Search (since they will be forced to update to Java 7 themselves, if Hibernate Search does). This may or may not be a desirable effect for a core library, so such a step needs to be taken carefully, no matter what the final decision might be.
The other thought is based around the recent release of Java 8, which represents a significant update even from Java 7, with lambdas and the streaming APIs being massive changes for processing data. Should upstream libraries consider leveraging their considerable functionality to encourage downstream applications to migrate to Java 8, which will benefit everyone as soon as the burdens of migration are met?
It's possible; after all, Scala (which offers some similar paradigms) has been able to gain traction through a number of projects, with Play and GridGain being two examples that occur easily to this writer.
If there's a measurable benefit to moving to Java 8 - and there will be, beyond the APIs, as the heap management has changed as well - then why not consider moving to a language that represents what Java could have, and maybe should have, been for the last five years?
(Note: All opinions expressed are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of Red Hat.)


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Final Round of Abstract Submission : December 07, 2019 | Welcome Message
Science Access would like to welcome all delegates and participants to the International Conference on Food Science and Technology on December 09-11 2019 at Tokyo, Japan. This event will be a great place to expand your knowledge on the latest innovative approaches in Food science and technology; research initiatives that impact global health and wellness; and share experiences in food science and technology that demonstrate best practice with colleagues. Thank you for joining us and taking the time to investment in learning how the latest research and advancements will impact public health today and in the future. Taking the initiative to attend and learn from others is an essential aspect professional development. I hope each of you will take away ways in which we can impact care on a global scale, be innovative in our approaches to care and look differently about research so we can all be a consumer of the evidence that will inform advances in food science technologies globally.
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|Return to live-block-ops.txt CVS log
|Up to [Qemu by Fabrice Bellard] / qemu / docs
qemu 1.1.1
LIVE BLOCK OPERATIONS ===================== High level description of live block operations. Note these are not supported for use with the raw format at the moment. Snapshot live merge =================== Given a snapshot chain, described in this document in the following format: [A] -> [B] -> [C] -> [D] Where the rightmost object ([D] in the example) described is the current image which the guest OS has write access to. To the left of it is its base image, and so on accordingly until the leftmost image, which has no base. The snapshot live merge operation transforms such a chain into a smaller one with fewer elements, such as this transformation relative to the first example: [A] -> [D] Currently only forward merge with target being the active image is supported, that is, data copy is performed in the right direction with destination being the rightmost image. The operation is implemented in QEMU through image streaming facilities. The basic idea is to execute 'block_stream virtio0' while the guest is running. Progress can be monitored using 'info block-jobs'. When the streaming operation completes it raises a QMP event. 'block_stream' copies data from the backing file(s) into the active image. When finished, it adjusts the backing file pointer. The 'base' parameter specifies an image which data need not be streamed from. This image will be used as the backing file for the active image when the operation is finished. In the example above, the command would be: (qemu) block_stream virtio0 A Live block copy =============== To copy an in use image to another destination in the filesystem, one should create a live snapshot in the desired destination, then stream into that image. Example: (qemu) snapshot_blkdev ide0-hd0 /new-path/disk.img qcow2 (qemu) block_stream ide0-hd0


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Thai chicken and sweet potato soup
A smooth and and spicy chicken soup with a vibrant colour that's packed full of Asian aromatics
Nutrition and extra info
- Freezable
Nutrition: per serving (4)
- kcal360
- fat18.1g
- saturates12.4g
- carbs30g
- sugars10.8g
- fibre3.2g
- protein19.2g
- salt2.1g
- 1 tsp olive or rapeseed oil
Rapeseed oil
If you want a light alternative to other cooking oils, rapeseed is a great choice and has…
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 red chilli, deseeded and chopped
- 2cm chunk root ginger, chopped
- 1 stalk lemongrass, bashed
- 1 x 25g pack coriander, leaves and stalks chopped separately
- 2 tbsp red Thai curry paste
Thai curry paste
Many Thai and Thai-inspired dishes start with a highly flavoured paste. These are made from a…
- 750ml chicken stock (made with 2 stock cubes)
- 1 small can (160ml) coconut cream
- 500g sweet potato, peeled and roughly chopped
Sweet potatosweet po-tate-toe
Sweet potatoes have a creamy texture and a sweet-spicy flavour that makes them ideal for savoury…
- 2 skinless chicken breasts, sliced
- 1 lime, juice only
The same shape, but smaller than…
- 1 tsp sugar
Honey and syrups made from concentrated fruit juice were the earliest known sweeteners. Today,…
- ½ tsp fish sauce
Fish sauce
A seasoning often used in Vietnamese and Thai cooking. In Vietnam it is usually made from shrimp…
- crusty bread, to serve (optional)
Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the garlic, chilli, ginger, lemongrass, coriander stalks and curry paste and cook for 2 - 3 minutes until the aromas are released.
Add the chicken stock, coconut cream and sweet potatoes and cook for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are soft. Remove the lemongrass and discard. Carefully transfer to a blender and blitz until smooth. If freezing, for best results freeze at this point, otherwise as an easier option freeze complete recipe.
Return to the saucepan, add the chicken and cook gently for 5 - 10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Stir through the lime juice, sugar and fish sauce, scatter with the coriander leaves and serve.


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Animal rights advocates are urging Gov. Jerry Brown not to eliminate a law that sets restrictions on euthanizing animals, and they're getting help from the law's author.
PROP ZERO: Advocates Unleash California's First Dog in Shelter Fight
Hayden's Law, passed in 1999, requires local shelters to wait at least four to six days before euthanizing a dog or cat, and requires operating hours that allow working people to visit shelters during the weekend and evenings.
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
Tom Hayden, author of the law and former California legislator, said the law, in danger of being eliminated, protected at-risk animals.
About 65,000 dogs and cats were put to death every year in Los Angeles County at the time of its writing, he said.
"Most of them could be adopted out; most of them were healthy enough to be given a second chance," Hayden said. "They weren't guilty of anything."
Brown's administration claimed the provision is costly and ineffective because it didn't increase the number of families who want to adopt, just the supply from which they can choose – leading to crowding living conditions and decreased quality of life at shelters.
The non-partisan Legal Analyst's Office also found inconsistencies in the law, citing that it rewarded shelters with poor adoption rates. But Hayden said that's no reason to repeal the law.
But as a dog-owner himself, Brown should be more sympathetic to the cause, Hayden said.
Proponents of the law are attempting to pull at the governor's heart strings to shift his political stance, even going so far as creating a Facebook page for the first-dog, Sutter.
The governor's office has proposed changes to the law that would provide budget incentives to shelters based on how many animals they euthanize, and none for how many they adopt out.
Let us know what you think. Comment below, send us your thoughts via Twitter @PropZero or add your comment to our Facebook page.


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Depot Contraception With and Without Lopinavir/Ritonavir
|The safety and scientific validity of this study is the responsibility of the study sponsor and investigators. Listing a study does not mean it has been evaluated by the U.S. Federal Government. Read our disclaimer for details.
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01231451
Recruitment Status : Withdrawn (Ethics board said the study could not be fully justified.)
First Posted : November 1, 2010
Last Update Posted : November 29, 2010
- Study Details
- Tabular View
- No Results Posted
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
DMPA (depot medroxyprogesterone acetate or the 'depot' injection) is a widely used contraception. It is popular in woman with HIV as it probably still works when you take HIV drugs. HIV drugs can increase or decrease the level of other drugs (e.g. contraceptives) in your bloodstream which may make them work less well or increase side effects. It is assumed that DMPA can be given with HIV drugs there are no studies proving this.
The purpose of the study is to investigate whether an HIV drug combination containing lopinavir/ritonavir affects DMPA when they are taken at the same time.
|Condition or disease
|HIV Infection
|Drug: DMPA
|Phase 1
Lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r) is licensed for use in combination with other antiretrovirals for the treatment of HIV infection. Like other agents from the protease inhibitor class, LPV/r inhibits the 3A isoenzyme of the hepatic cytochrome P450 system and may increase the levels of drugs metabolised via this route. However, LPV/r has also been shown in vivo to induce its own metabolism and to increase the biotransformation of some drugs metabolized by P450 enzymes and by glucuronidation.
Women account for an increasing proportion of the HIV epidemic in the UK. The huge reductions in HIV-related mortality and morbidity associated with the use of effective combination antiretroviral therapy have led to a shift in focus to longer term issues, including reproductive health and contraception. The impact of a variety of antiretrovirals on the plasma pharmacokinetics of oral oestrogen and progesterone preparations have been investigated and in general NNRTIs and boosted PIs cause a reduction in levels of both, particularly oral oestrogen preparations. Most package inserts for combined (oestrogen and progestogen) and progestogen-only oral contraceptives recommend that additional contraceptive methods be employed with concomitant use of enzyme-inducing agents.
Injectable contraception provides highly effective contraception without the need for daily pill taking, an important factor to consider for individuals already taking regular medication. Depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) is the most frequently prescribed injectable method. DMPA, like other progestogens, is metabolised by the cytochrome P450 system but interaction studies in women on antiretrovirals are limited. A study of 59 women on DMPA contraception plus an unboosted PI (nelfinavir) or an NNRTI (efavirenz or nevirapine) measured DMPA levels and compared them with 16 women on either no therapy or NRTIs only (no potential for drug interaction). DMPA levels were similar in all groups and suppression of ovulation over a 12 week period was also similar in all groups.
Although the high levels of DMPA achieved over the dosing interval make any pharmacokinetic interaction unlikely to be clinically significant, some clinicians advise a reduction in the interval between DMPA injections from 12 to 10 weeks in patients on an NNRTI or boosted PI; there is no clear evidence to support this approach. Although the described study supports normal dosing intervals for women on an NNRTI, the unboosted PI nelfinavir is not recommended as standard of care and the impact of ritonavir-boosted PIs is unclear. The summary of product characteristics for DMPA advises a normal dosing interval even when using a potent enzyme inducers, suggesting no additional intervention is required when prescribing a boosted PI. Formal pharmacokinetic data is crucial to clarify this important area.
|Study Type :
|Interventional (Clinical Trial)
|Estimated Enrollment :
|10 participants
|Intervention Model:
|Single Group Assignment
|None (Open Label)
|Primary Purpose:
|Official Title:
|The Pharmacokinetics of Depot Medroxyprogesterone Acetate (DMPA) in the Absence and Presence of Lopinavir/Ritonavir in HIV-1 Infected Women
|Study Start Date :
|December 2010
|Estimated Primary Completion Date :
|June 2011
|Estimated Study Completion Date :
|June 2011
Experimental: All Subjects
All Subjects will receive the same intervention
Drug: DMPA
All subjects will take DMPA
- pharmacokinetics of depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) [ Time Frame: week 1 - week 24 ]
To investigate the pharmacokinetics of depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) in the absence and presence of lopinavir/ritonavir in HIV-
1 infected women
- Impact of co-administration of DMPA and lopinavir/ritonavir [ Time Frame: Week 1 - week 24 ]To investigate the impact of co-administration of DMPA and lopinavir/ritonavir on surrogate markers of contraceptive efficacy (LH, FSH, oestradiol)
- Safety of DMPA [ Time Frame: Week 1 - week 24 ]To investigate the safety of DMPA in HIV infected women on lopinavir/ritonavir
- Impact of DMPA on lopinavir/ritonavir plasma concentrations [ Time Frame: week 1 - week 24 ]To investigate the impact of DMPA on lopinavir/ritonavir plasma concentrations compared with historical controls
Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study. To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contacts provided below. For general information, Learn About Clinical Studies.
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|18 Years to 45 Years (Adult)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
Inclusion Criteria:
- The ability to understand and sign a written informed consent form, prior to participation in any screening procedure and must be willing to comply with all study requirements.
- Non-pregnant, non-lactating premenopausal females.
- No current hormonal contraception (short acting methods eg oral contraceptive pills and patches can be removed at screening)
- Regular menstrual periods such that DMPA can be administered between days 1-5 of menstrual cycle
- Between 18 and 45 years, inclusive.
- Documented HIV-1 infection
- Must be willing to use a barrier method of contraception to avoid pregnancy throughout the study, and for at least 56 days following completion of the study.
- CD4 count > 200 at screening (Note: retesting of screening CD4 count allowed).
- Clinician and patient happy to delay HAART until week 12 of study
- Not currently on HAART and eligible to receive LPV/r and Truvada as determined by their primary HIV care provider in accordance with treatment guidelines
- If history of HAART exposure, no virological failure (prior drug switches allowed if for tolerability/toxicity/convenience of dosing).
- Agrees not to change regimen, outside the study recommendations, from baseline until end of the treatment period unless this is medically indicated as decided by the treating physician
Exclusion Criteria:
- Any serious or active medical or psychiatric illness which, in the opinion of the investigator, would interfere with subject treatment, assessment, or compliance with the protocol. This would include any active clinically significant renal, cardiac, hepatic, pulmonary, vascular, metabolic disorders or malignancy.
- Have a body mass index (BMI) >35
- Personal history of venous thromboembolism (VTE) or pulmonary embolism (PE)
- Presence of any current active AIDS defining illness (Category C conditions in the CDC Classification System for HIV 1993) except stable cutaneous Kaposi's Sarcoma
- Osteoporosis or significant risk factors for osteoporosis (alcohol abuse, long-term anticonvulsants/corticosteroids, BMI less than 18, eating disorder, previous low trauma fracture, significant family history osteoporosis)
Conditions for which DMPA is contra-indicated or risks outweigh benefits:
- Significant multiple risk factors for arterial cardiovascular disease
- Vascular disease
- Previous or current venous thromboembolism (VTE) or pulmonary embolism (PE)
- Ischaemic heart disease
- Stroke (history of cerebrovascular accident)
- Headaches migraine with aura, at any age
- Unexplained vaginal bleeding
- Gestational trophoblastic neoplasia (GTN) (includes hydatidiform mole, invasive mole, placental site trophoblastic tumour) hCG abnormal
- Breast cancer (past or current) or strong family history
- Diabetes nephropathy/retinopathy/neuropathy
- Other vascular disease or diabetes of >20 years' duration
- Viral hepatitis (active)
- Presence or history of any sever hepatic disease where liver function tests have not returned to normal
- Cirrhosis (decompensated)
- Clinically relevant alcohol or drug use (positive urine drug screen, excluding cannabinoids) or history of alcohol or drug use considered by the Investigator to be sufficient to hinder compliance, follow-up procedures or evaluation of adverse events. Smoking is permitted, but tobacco intake should remain consistent throughout the study.
- The use of disallowed concomitant therapy (See section 5.2).
- Previous allergy to any of the constituents of the study pharmaceuticals.
- Exposure to any investigational drug or placebo within 4 weeks of baseline.
- Any HAART exposure within 6 months of screening for this study (ie participants need to be treatment-naïve or on a treatment interruption for 6 months or more).
To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT01231451
|United Kingdom
|St Stephen's Centre
|London, United Kingdom, SW10 9NH
|Responsible Party:
|Dr Laura Waters, St Stephen's AIDS Trust
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|Other Study ID Numbers:
|First Posted:
|November 1, 2010 Key Record Dates
|Last Update Posted:
|November 29, 2010
|Last Verified:
|November 2010
HIV Infection
HIV Infections
Lentivirus Infections
Retroviridae Infections
RNA Virus Infections
Virus Diseases
Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Viral
Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes
Immune System Diseases


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We shuffled through the labyrinthine Ohio State Fair schedule and picked several things that piqued our curiosity. Spinning Barf Wheel of Science? We're there!
We shuffled through the labyrinthine Ohio State Fair schedule and picked several things that piqued our curiosity. Spinning Barf Wheel of Science? We're there!
The Band Perry
7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 2 at Celeste Center
The Band Perry stands tall among the wave of artists approaching country music with pop-star charisma and theater-kid pizzazz (see also: Taylor Swift, Sugarland). It's the sort of music that dominates the charts and award ceremonies without pandering to the lowest common denominator. -Chris DeVille
The-Dream & Miguel
7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 3 at Celeste Center
Two of R&B's most artful voices combine for an intriguing double bill. The-Dream, a.k.a. Terius Nash, penned hits like Rihanna's "Umbrella" and is responsible for the most adventurous backlog of bedroom funk since Prince's heyday. And while Miguel isn't a lyrical wizard ("You can be the cash/ I'll be the rubber band"), he's a master of breezy, subtly unconventional urban hits. -Chris DeVille
Jason Aldean
7:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 5 at Crew Stadium
People love Jason Aldean with a passion usually reserved for religious icons and sports teams. Dude sold out every show on this year's My Kinda Party Tour, including this, his stadium debut. He represents a new wave of country fans, the kind that defiantly tout their residence in flyover states while still welcoming duets with Ludacris. -Chris DeVille
Pig races
I've always been an avid horse-racing fan, so my favorite attraction at the fair is the pig races. No, these little oinkers don't have the majesty of thoroughbreds, but they're a hell of a lot of fun. With four races during the week and five on the weekends, you have to catch at least one. And no, gambling is not permitted. -Jesse Tigges
Chocolate Farm
Indeed, my friends. Hit the DiSalle Center to see how artists sculpted 500 pounds of American-made chocolate into a sprawling scene of a farming community. Temptation to play with your food - or find the nearest chocolate indulgence - inevitably will follow. -Jackie Mantey
Red Cup Showdown
11 a.m.-1 p.m. Friday, July 27, Rhodes Center, East Auditorium
Jeff Mauro, winner of the seventh season of "Food Network Star" and host of "Sandwich King" on the network, is the star power at this coffee-beverage showdown for aspiring baristas. Contestants will be under the time gun to deliver a coffee drink that will impress the judges. -Kristen Schmidt
Great Lakes Timber Lumberjack Show
With axe-wielding lumberjacks conquering feats of log rolling, woodcarving and chopping, just watching this hour-long show will put hair on your chest. The flannel festivity takes the stage three times a day (usually 12, 2 and 6 p.m.) at the Natural Resources Amphitheater. -Jackie Mantey
Ohio State Fair Food Finder app
Use this free mobile app to match your raging hunger for [insert fair food here] with the vendor serving it. Type in the food, choose a vendor serving it and find the vendor on the map. Then make a beeline for whatever you're craving, even if it's buffalo jerky and pickled eggs. -Kristen Schmidt
OSU Phun with Physics
Bring the Spinning Barf Wheel of Science, bring the party. Phun guys from the physics department at OSU run this exhibit for kids (of all ages, right?) that also includes liquid nitrogen experiments, a levitating superconductor and the collision of Diet Coke and Mentos. -Kristen Schmidt
Celebrate Local booths
Shop for Ohio-made food, crafts and body products at this new series of booths by the Heritage Handmade Crafts Building. Presented by the store Celebrate Local, Ohio Proud and the Ohio Department of Agriculture, expect nothing but the Buckeye State's best. -Jackie Mantey


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Chris Got It Bad: The Real Chris Brown! "Is There Such Thing As Loving 2 People" ( Rihanna & Karrueche Tran)
"You think you know Chris Brown? You don't know Chris Brown." - David Alan
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