Malaysian Ancestry Matters

by Neil Khor 
In an inspiring documentary produced by Discovery Channel tracing the origins of the human ‘Eve’, archeologist Dr Zurainah Majid established that the present-day Negritos are the descendants of the earliest human migrants from coastal Africa. This is based on mitocondrial DNA (which can only be inherited through the female of the species) as well as material history.

Does this mean that the Negritos, being the first inhabitants of a geographic space that is now known as Malaysia, are the real ‘bumiputera’? Historians would have us believe that a second wave of migration from the Asian mainland saw the displacement of the Negritos by another group, also known as the Proto-Malays. Today, we do not distinguish between the two groups and collectively call them all Orang Asli – the original peoples.

Ruling party uses Islam to incite hate

By Adrian Morgan*

Because of the bizarre apartheid of Malaysia, all citizens are given an identity card, called MyKad, at the age of 12. This card states the holder’s race and religious status.

On Wednesday November 15 the ruling party in Malaysia, UMNO ((United Malays National Organization), began its 57th three-day-long annual conference at the Putra Center, Kuala Lumpur. Issues brought up at the conference served to reinforce the racial apartheid which has been a bedrock of Malaysia’s politics since its independence from Britain on August 31, 1957.

Maximal Insensitivity

Islamisation of national schools – a parent’s view

Not that this is unknown or new. However, as a parent, I found it quite disturbing that this has reached an alarming state. Allow me to give you a first-hand insight.

We had enrolled our daughter at a national school in Bandar Sri Damansara for Primary 1. What was supposed to be an eagerly anticipated ‘graduation’ into formal schooling turned out to be a worrying scenario that has caused us to rethink our future in this country as well as our plans for our kids. We had, of course, heard of the instances of the growing Islamic influence in national schools and some horror stories to go along with it. But perhaps we underestimated the level of abuse that was occurring.

Word of the Year 2006

Pluto is finally getting some respect – not from astronomers, but from wordsmiths.”Plutoed” was chosen 2006’s Word of the Year by the American Dialect Society at its annual meeting Friday.

To “pluto” is “to demote or devalue someone or something,” much like what happened to the former planet last year when the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union decided Pluto didn’t meet its definition of a planet.

Download and Save YouTube Videos

• Video Downloader – a firefox extension that allows you to download videos to your computer from YouTube and most video sites.
• YouTubeX – allows you to save and download YouTube videos easily using only your IE or firefox browser.
• TubeSock – grabs YouTube videos from the web and copies them to your video iPod, Mac, or PlayStation Portable.
• VideoDL – is a quick AJAX application that allows you to download online video into your computer. It supports top 3 video sites – YouTube, Google Video, and Break.com.
• Download YouTube via bookmarklets – A collection of Greasemonkey scripts and bookmarklets to do the job.
• Youtube-dl – is a small command-line program to download videos from YouTube.com. It requires the Python interpreter, version 2.4 or later.
• KeepVid – Download videos direct from most video sites like YouTube.
• YouTube Downloader – enter url and download YouTube videos.
• Youtube Grabber – is a free tool that downloads FLV files from youtube.
• GooTube FLV Retriever – enter the video page URL, download the youtube video.
• Capture Youtube and Google videos – save them as AVI files encoded in the MPEG4 format, using only one command.
• YouRipper – a freeware software which enables you to download videos from the YouTube and Google Video
• Save YouTube Videos – paste the youtube video url and download the video.
• Kyootoob – is a youtube downloader and optionally a converter.

This and more at Quick Online Tips

Enhance Your YouTube Experience

A collection of several YouTube third party tools to enhance your YouTube experience

• YouTube Userscripts – a collection of scripts to perform several tasks with YouTube.

• Youtube Video Slideshow – insert a username or a video tag below and it starts a slideshow.

• fTube – a YouTube player that downloads the list of 25 most recent videos featured on the YouTube front page. The user can select a video from the list and hit the play button to play it in-Flash.

• TubeCH – YouTube flash player.

• iTube – grab Youtube videos, then convert and import them into iTunes. Requires .Net framework and works exclusively on Windows.

• PodTube – a Mac OS X program, downloads, encodes, and adds YouTube videos to your iTunes library but requires Safari to fetch the videos.

• TvTube – For Mac users. Allows you to browse YouTube, Google Video and Yahoo Videos, for movie clips that people upload, choose your favorite clips and add them to your shared library.

• YouTube API – XML Feed Ripper – PHP script that taps into the YouTube API to deliver videos by tag, by username or what’s a current favorite.

• YouTube Widget – brings all of YouTubes videos to your Mac Dashboard.

• Search The Tube – A quick way to find videos for your website, blog or profile.

• YoutubeCrazyVideos – A Youtube videos desktop player. Freeware.

• IndexTube – categorized and browsable index of the publicly available Youtube videos.

• YouTube Podcaster – makes Podcast feed from your submitted keyword or url. The feed is made up from embedded youtube video IDs and all videos are converted to the MP4 file format.

• MemoriesOnWeb – freeware photo slideshow software for YouTube.

This and more at Quick Online Tips

“Down with the toll”

KUALA LUMPUR : More than 2,000 Malaysians held an angry protest on Sunday over steep hikes in tolls for highways in and around Kuala Lumpur, demanding the government reverse the increases and reveal agreements with highway operators.

See Pictures at Jeff Ooi

Buckle UP, VMY 2007!

Malaysia celebrates 50 years of independence this year and to mark the occasion it has launched Visit Malaysia Year 2007.

Malaysia is hoping for more than 20 million visitors this year. 

The country’s palm-fringed beaches, affordably priced hotels, sprawling shopping malls, fantastic food and wildlife already make it one of Asia’s premier destinations.

And this year its tourism authorities hope a big push will propel visitor numbers towards an astonishing target of 20 million.

But following an incident late last year, American Wayne Wright is far from convinced by the promise of Malaysian hospitality and the claim of its tourism slogan that it is truly Asia.