Briton, New Zealander shot dead in Libya, says security source |
- Briton, New Zealander shot dead in Libya, says security source
- The good books advocate
- Study links marriage with weight gain
- Qatar ready to host World Cup ‘whatever the date’, says organiser
- Turun a bunch of spoilsport — Zahrin Abd Rahman
- ‘The Hobbit’ tops list of 2013’s most pirated movies
| Briton, New Zealander shot dead in Libya, says security source Posted: 02 Jan 2014 04:52 PM PST
"The bodies of a British man and a New Zealand woman who had been killed by bullets were found on the beach in Mellitah yesterday afternoon," the source said. The bodies had been moved to Tripoli, the source added, without giving any details on the circumstances of the deaths. Britain and New Zealand said they were seeking to confirm the report. The British Foreign Office said it was "urgently seeking" further information following the announcement of the discovery. New Zealand's foreign ministry said it was aware of the report and was "working with the relevant authorities to confirm this". It added that "the bodies have not yet been formally identified and the next of kin have not yet been informed". The Mellitah area houses a major gas complex run by Mellitah Oil and Gas, a joint enterprise of Italy's ENI and Libya's state-owned National Oil Company, which exports natural gas to Italy through the Greenstream pipeline. — AFP  |
| Posted: 02 Jan 2014 04:52 PM PST
Eric Forbes, senior editor at MPH Publishing, has seen it all -– the good, the bad and the ugly -– and the years haven't dimmed his love for good books and stories. In addition to his day job, Forbes blogs at Eric Forbes's Book Addict's Guide to Good Books (http://goodbooksguide.blogspot.com) and continues to introduce readers to a new generation of interesting writers and books. How do you go about choosing the right books for publication? Sourcing for manuscripts is always a challenge. You never know whether a book will be successful. We can't exactly wait for manuscripts to land on our laps. Very often the manuscripts that land on our desks are unpublishable. Our strategy is to be proactive in developing new manuscripts through the commissioning of work and contract publishing. We tend to reject more books than we publish for obvious reasons. Out of over a hundred manuscripts we receive annually, perhaps around 30 to 40 end up being published. The rest is made up of commissioned work and contract publishing. Describe the editor's role. Writing well will always be a challenge. Getting an editor to like your manuscript enough to publish it is another. Writers need to write better and editors need to edit better. Writers tend to write without perfecting their work before submitting their manuscripts to publishers while local publishing is often done in a hurried manner without rigorous editing. Editing a manuscript is no piece of cake. Those were the days when editors line-edit text, check facts and figures, weed out inconsistencies and clichés, etc. Sad to say, such days are long gone. We are also short of good editors, especially those who excel in fiction and children's books. The task of editing a typescript is nerve-wracking. Most of the typescripts are not only badly written but lack content or substance; there's not much in the way of depth or breadth or width in the writing. Writers must learn to write the best books of their lives, ones that editors can sink their teeth into. It is essential that editors not only have a flair for writing but write well. Excellence in language is a definite must. You cannot edit without understanding the mechanics of writing. Editors must be well read in as many genres as possible, both fiction and non-fiction, and be excellent in grammar and syntax, the twist and turns of language. Most editors are especially weak in grammar and make no effort in checking out grammar texts for reference. You must develop a perfect ear for tone when it comes to constructing or rewriting sentences. Editors who are weak in grammar tend to introduce more errors to the text they are editing rather than minimising or fixing them. Editing must add clarity and layers to the text. Editors very often fail in this regard because they are resistant to change and thus do not grow intellectually. Always consult the dictionary when you are in doubt. Most of the editors working in publishing today seem to have an aversion to using the dictionary. What is the state of the English-language publishing industry in Malaysia today? One challenge we face is foreign competition. We are spoilt for choice when it comes to good books by international writers. Local books will always end up the poor cousins of foreign books. Quality and quantity must improve; otherwise nothing much will change in the long term. There is also this unseemly haste to get books to market before they are ready. The editorial process is not taking as long as it should. There are so many books out there. Some of them are worthy of the reader's time, but most aren't. However, we need more publishers who appreciate the value of good editing, especially those who attempt to grapple with the conflict between perfectionism and commercialism and at the same time try to find ways to improve public taste. How about local writers and readers? There's not much range in contemporary Malaysian writing. Malaysian writers tend to write the same stuff again and again: how to make a million bucks, feng shui, self-improvement, etc. Our range is limited; though we have lots of cultural, historical, educational, lifestyle and anecdotal stuff, there's somehow a shortfall in these genres. There's not much local fiction and essay collections. There's more money to be made in non-fiction than fiction in Malaysia. Malaysian writers therefore tend to write more non-fiction. Another challenge is readership -- or the lack thereof. If the readership is small, it isn't viable to publish. It is clearly a vicious cycle we have here. I don't think we have much of a reading culture here in Malaysia. We are still a long way from that. What are your thoughts on traditional print books vs. e-books? For better or worse we have to change with the times. It has been a year since we started publishing e-books through the MPH Digital imprint. How far can a book published in Malaysia reach other markets? Online bookstores and e-books will help overcome this hurdle. If we cannot physically export books overseas (due to the non-feasibility or non-viability of transporting books overseas) then Malaysian publishers must focus on e-books and the selling of foreign and translation rights to increase the sales of Malaysian books overseas. As a reader, I hope e-books will never totally replace print books. There's something about turning the pages that adds to the experience of reading. I believe that both e-books and print books in time will have their share of the market. This story was first published in Crave in the print edition of The Malay Mail on January 2, 2014 |
| Study links marriage with weight gain Posted: 02 Jan 2014 04:49 PM PST
Of the 1,000 people polled for the study, a majority admitted to growing heavier since tying the knot. For 40 per cent of respondents, weight gain occurred at a rate of 4lbs a year on average. While 22 per cent of those surveyed reported gaining 2lbs annually since entering marriage, nearly as many respondents said they gained 6lbs a year. Somewhat reassuringly, almost a fifth of those surveyed (18 per cent) indicated that they had not seen a change on the scales. When asked to explain the reasons behind their sudden weight gain, over 50 per cent of respondents who had become heavier said they spent more time snacking together in front of the TV. A majority of respondents also indicated feeling less pressure to maintain a slim figure once they had settled into the commitment of marriage. — AFP/Relaxnews |
| Qatar ready to host World Cup ‘whatever the date’, says organiser Posted: 02 Jan 2014 04:33 PM PST DOHA, Jan 3 — Qatar will be ready to host the 2022 World Cup finals whether the competition is played in summer or winter, Nasser Al-Khater from the organising committee told AFP yesterday. Football's world governing body FIFA have launched a consultation process over whether the tournament should be moved from its habitual June and July dates to the winter to avoid the unbearable heat in the Gulf. Al-Khater says the uncertainty has had no impact on Qatar 2022's work thus far. "Our plans are still to deliver the World Cup in the summer as we have bid and as we have promised," he said. "And I think it's only right that if there will be a change that the international football community agrees amongst themselves and decides. For us we will be ready regardless of the date that they choose." With that in mind, work is underway on the first stadium to be built for the tournament and Al-Khater said that construction would accelerate in 2014. "We will be announcing five more stadiums in 2014 and five stadiums will be in different sorts of levels of work in 2014," he said. "So this is the year where real progress will be showing on the ground."
"You open the horizons for other countries because this (air-cooling) technology is not just for stadiums," he said. "It's for open and public spaces. So a fan zone, a public square can benefit from these kinds of technologies, which means that other countries that haven't hosted events because of the weather or so forth have now an opportunity to engage with us, and for us to engage with them to look at solutions." Al-Khater also insisted that reports in foreign media highlighting the difficult conditions faced by immigrant workers in the tiny country, while creating negative publicity, could turn out to be a positive thing. "It's good that a light has been shown on something like this because it raises the question. "However we also need to recognise that this isn't the status quo and this isn't something that is rampant. "Yes they are perpetrators of the law and, these people, what they are doing is illegal. I think that what it means now is things need to be reviewed on how to make sure that this can be enforced and the government at the highest level is taking this issue and matter very seriously. "We've created workers welfare standards which are going to be mandatory requirements that are going to be placed on all our contracts that will make sure these principles are maintained. "They are going to go into details of how to protect their rights, to make sure their welfare is being upheld, to make sure that things like their salaries are being paid on time." — AFP |
| Turun a bunch of spoilsport — Zahrin Abd Rahman Posted: 02 Jan 2014 04:24 PM PST
The four NGOs named by police as organisers of the New Year's eve protests — Gerakan Turun Kos Sara Hidup, Solidariti Mahasiswa Malaysia (SMM), Jingga 13 and Solidariti Anak Muda Malaysia (SAMM) — got what they wanted: 'hijacking' the countdown celebrations. Everyone "turun". City folk had made their regular yearend pilgrimage, "turun" to Dataran Merdeka, to be entertained. But their evening ended with them, the emcees, entertainers and even officials having to scram for their lives, and "turun" the stage. The entertainment, countdown and fireworks display had to be aborted because the protesters decided they were more important than anything else that night. Turun, as expected, declared its rally at Dataran Merdeka a success, estimating that its supporters in attendance had numbered at 50,000. How they came to that figure nobody would know. But then, to them nobody knows anything. They, and only they, know everything. Never mind that apart from the isolated grandma and grandpa, the protesters were mostly youngsters. And as all parents know, youngsters already know everything. Turun also claimed that participants singing the national anthem right before dispersing was a sign that those who joined the protest loved the country and did not intend to topple the government as alleged by the authorities. Sure, all Turun did was to protect the poor folks. Never mind that the revellers at Dataran Merdeka are almost always from among the city's lower-income folk, the very same people Turun claimed to represent. These people do not have much in their lives. The New Year celebration was the one day in the year they could have popular artistes entertain them for free. So they "turun" to Dataran Merdeka every yearend for some free entertainment to spice up their miserable lives. But no, said Turun. We are going to deny you your annual night of entertainment. Turun said we are helping you poor people. So no free performances for you. No fireworks for you. Go home to your wretched flats and stew there. Remember, we are helping you, said Turun. For Turun, SMM, Jingga 13 and SAMM, I have this to ask of you. You have successfully broken up the city's New Year's eve celebrations. Now what? Are you going to continue your protests and marches? How long can you afford to go on doing it? Until you force the government to bring down all prices? To what level? What do you do now? Retreat to your caves (that's "man-caves" to you, just in case you would want to accuse me of calling you stupid), and slap each other on the backs for a job well done? Just what have you achieved? Not much, apart from spoiling the year for the very people you claim to champion. Your claim of having attracted 50,000 protesters rings hollow. Believe me, some quarters can easily draw 10 people for every one you claimed to be your supporters. For your own good, pray that these quarters will be on your side, not against you. Because if they come out against you, there'll be hell to pay. For the good of the country, I am praying that all these quarters keep their wits about them. Nothing good has come from these demonstrations and protests. I dare say these groups and the 50,000 supporters they claimed, would not be able to keep up with this game. Many of them will have to return to their books because they are students, and if they don't study, they will end up among the very people they now claim to champion. That would probably earn them a spanking, or two, from their parents. Many, too, will have to return to their jobs. They should be thankful that they even have jobs to return to. That's the beauty of Malaysia for you, boys. The ranks of professional protesters number but a few. I'm sure the job pays well, as many well-heeled tyrants are ever willing to bankroll rallies and protests. But making up the numbers, however ludicrous, does not pay well. The trickle-down theory is just that — a trickle. So, here's my challenge: If you stop now, you would have achieved nothing, except having made a nuisance of yourselves. To get any real respect, you must continue your protests, and with the numbers that you have claimed. If you do not, or cannot, you will be seen as the fools who stole the poor people's chance to celebrate. The better-off people had celebrated in Putrajaya, and the even-richer ones did so in Bukit Bintang. Why didn't you go there? Because those two celebrations were sponsored by private entities? So, you went to Dataran Merdeka because it was sponsored by the government, and therefore must be disrupted? Is that it? * Zahrin Abd Rahman is a news editor with The Malay Mail and can be reached at [email protected]. ** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malay Mail Online. |
| ‘The Hobbit’ tops list of 2013’s most pirated movies Posted: 02 Jan 2014 04:22 PM PST
"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," released at the end of 2012, was pirated 8.4 million times through BitTorrent networks. In second place was "Django Unchained," also released in late 2012. Quentin Tarantino's western was downloaded 8.1 million times during 2013. The box-office hits "Fast and Furious 6" and "Iron Man 3" came in third and fourth place respectively. Torrentfreak.com's ranking accounts only for peer-to-peer downloads carried out through BitTorrent networks, which are just one of a number of internet file sharing protocols. Top 10 Most Downloaded Movies on BitTorrent in 2013 (source: Torrentfreak.com) 01. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: 8.4 million |
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