A Short Article on Bintang Megablaze

Picture of Bintang Megablaze

Picture of Bintang Megablaze grand main entrance.

Megablaze has everything from :

Major BBQ events, CHECK!



Major water features, CHECK!

Ghostly mysterious suicides, CHECK! Link

Haunted funhouse that is linked to ghostly mysterious suicides, CHECK! Link

 

....because the site it was built was on a sacred mass-grave! CHECK!  Link

We interrupt your regular programming to bring you George Takei commenting on the above discoveries..

If that isn't enough, there are booby-trapped explosive floors!! CHECK!

 Crammed full with events such as the above......

...that threatens to make the place go like the above....

And there's more! Adventure is in there! 

Took the term "Spot Welding" literally

You wonder when it will just fail with all those people pressing on
the rails overlooking the floor below especially during events....

- Poorly welded railings on the higher floors overlooking over the the ground floor! Whenever there's an event on the lowest floor, crowds of people hang over those railings! Hey you down there, look out above for falling railings/humans! Isn't that exciting??

- Genius parking design! Where the cars going up and cars going down all fuse into one lane? So now they have to have a security guard to act as a full time traffic director. What a genius design!

- The hotel (which is the one that supposedly sits on the mass grave, by the way) lobby that has decor of a Red Light District club? And one with an entrance to the mall that goes straight to the shoe department, genius!

- A fountain that, when the wind is right sprays water all over the front entrance car park and people walking by.

- Closes and redirects public roads whenever they feel like it. Not that it matters because the location itself already causes jams and disruption. To be fair, some of these are drivers' faults, who for whatever unfathomable reason, likes visiting poorly-designed, poor-constructed, rickety, haunted, safety-certification-failed malls.


Disclaimer: I have no problem with the business and retailers within Bintang Megablaze. They are great and if it weren't for the place they make great shopping experiences. It just sucks that these retailers happen to be located in Bintang Megablaze.  I feel sorry for all of you. I really do.

Deliberate Oil Dumping in Senadin Will Start a Zombie Apocalypse

 

Photos from Malaysian Nature Society Miri Facebook Page

  Some miscreant dumped a barrel of what seemed to be oil or tar near the Golden Royal Villa housing area in Senadin. After the discovery on 17th November 2013, a report was made to the Department of Environment (DOE) or Jabatan Alam Sekitar (JAS).

Photos from Malaysian Nature Society Miri Facebook Page

  The DOE (JAS) responded quickly to the situation by cordoning off the area by the next day (November 18th), sternly warning the dumped oil not to move around and to stay confined within the taped area.

   It is not known who is the culprit that is unhappy with the grass being green in colour and wanted to change it to black. Because oil on to the ground would seep deep into the ground, this is Bad. Why is that Bad? Well, we spent so much money and time trying to get crude oil from under ground to the surface by the use of oil well, only to send it back underground again - well that's just plain stupid.

  Also, more importantly would be that thing about how that oil will contaminate with underground water. As we all know life needs water, specifically, PLANTS:

Here is a picture of a plant. We're certain because it says "Plants" at the bottom.

 By polluting the underground water the plants will die or grow awry.. When that happens......

NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM

No plants are going to push back a zombie invasion. We will all die in a Zombie Apocalypse.

Similar discoveries such as pollution or deliberate toxic waste dumping should be made to aduan_k@doe.gov.my .  If we don't do it for green coloured grass, do it for zombie apocalypse prevention.

Malaysian Nature Society Miri Facebook Page  - https://www.facebook.com/MiriMNS

Hornbill Caught by Poachers, Poaching Caught on Camera, Poachers Caught by Police, News Caught the Public's Heart

Photo of the 3 idiots posing for the camera, loafing about when they should be working, what more using that time to catch birds. Guy on the far left airing his belly. As that's how he gets nutrients, moisture, and air. By osmosis.

These three persons were seen poaching a hornbill from Piasau Camp on 23rd September, 2013 Monday. A photo was uploaded onto a Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) Miri Branch FaceBook page with the following description:

"This three guys happen to have a field day this afternoon. They caught the hornbill by the head and tied it legs. I requested to release and afraid to come close to them. They went away after that."

Hornbills, being wild birds, were not meant to be kept. They can't be kept in captivity. It would be impossible otherwise action would be taken to breed them and increase the population.

Why would you want to catch a hornbill? What's the matter, Angry Birds not entertaining enough??

Members of the public have informed the police that day, and recent news has it that the suspects have been caught yesterday evening. The suspected thieves confessed that the hornbill, affectionately known as "Faridah" had died on the day they caught it, and they led the police to recover the carcass of the bird from the rubbish bin at Jalan Datuk Edward Jeli in Piasau.

Hornbills have lifelong mates. Because Faridah has a mate known - as "Jimmy", Jimmy has since been missing since she was captured. Apparently the pair of hornbills played a big role in maintaining the population of the birds in the park - those two having produced about 56 offspring.

Hornbills are totally protected under Ordinance and the penalties for keeping one as a pet, killing, hunting, capturing, selling, trading or disturbing them, or possessing any recognisable parts of these birds are severe – a RM25,000 fine and three years’ imprisonment.

If there is one good out of this, is that this tragic news had had stirred up quite the interest on the hornbills and birds in Piasau Garden - raising the much needed awareness to the need to protect the state’s wildlife.

Malaysian Nature Society Miri : https://www.facebook.com/MiriMNS

News: http://www.theborneopost.com/2013/09/27/hornbill-poachers-arrested/

Fish Nuking a Favorite Past Time for Under-Bridge Dwelling Foreigners

What we don't want to happen.
(Hey Comic Sans is totally appropriate in here for anyone who thinks nuking fish is a good idea)

 Suluk and Bajau fisherman that were squatting at under various bridges and several villages in Miri were said to be bombing fishies to net their catch in Miri recently. Fish nuking is a popular past time for these guys, because it involves things that blow up and fishes. These fish-nukers are believed to have come from Sabah, and residing under various bridges in Miri. The bombs are usually DIY devices made with petrol, fertilizer filled in glass bottles.

Our own local fisherman - who do things the proper way and are not prone to taking shortcuts - which in fishing I imagine to be just sitting at a pier staring into emptiness and falling asleep biting on a piece of straw with a fishing rod - are frustrated because they claimed these people used fish-nuking strategies that kills fish instantly and nets instant catch, and the appropriate government agencies or departments for these matters are seemingly not doing diddly squat.
 
The locals have urged the government agencies to act on these activities as fish nuking destroys marine life and more importantly, they rob the local fisherman of their catch because all the fish would be deaf when they caught them.

Accordig to Kambr, a local fisherman, “We are frustrated because these foreigners are catching fish here openly and yet agencies such as the Maritime Agency are not doing anything. In fact, sometimes the agency stopped local fishing boats and check their licences, but they seemed to keep their eyes closed on foreign fishing boats.”
 
Well the Maritime Agency better do something. Mostly because this is the first time I've ever heard of them, but also fish nuking is bad. Because it makes fish deaf. We don't want to eat deaf fish now, do we? How awful a thought. Oh yes, there's also that minor detail about glass shards left in the flesh of fish, since the bombs are usually stuffed into glass bottles.

Also, what the heck are foreigners doing here and why are they here?

Local environmentalist Susan Foster, said it best: Anyone found in possession of a bullet would face a death penalty (editor's note: WHAT? What kind of a stupid law is that?) but nothing is being done to these foreign fishermen doing fish bombing, because bombs are definitely more deadly than a bullet, and all it takes is just one stray thought like, "hmmm I can use these bombs to blow up things other than fishies" and we will all have entered a whole new era of neighborhood safety awareness program. You know, the ones that involve lots of bomb detection dogs, lots of patting down body searching, patrolling, x-ray security clearance for just entering any building.

Deaf fishies are not funny matter. Say no to deaf fishies. Say no to Fish Nuking/ Fish Blasting/Fish Bombing/whatever. Say no to glass-shard-filled seafood in your dinner. Unless of course, these guys are totally incompetent and they blow themselves up, erasing themselves from existence, in which case it would be appropriate, and we shall give them the Darwin's Award.

What we want to happen - they blow themselves up, we win.

Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blast_fishing

Karma : http://www.afma.gov.au/2012/10/illegal-blast-fishers-convicted-and-boats-destroyed

Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2013/07/15/foreigners-using-bombs-to-fish-in-miri-claim-locals