Saturday 8 March 2014

A Look-back On Malaysian Airlines Crash and Emergencies History





  In occasion with the mind-disturbing news that has shocked the whole of Malaysia and of course the world as well, it is indeed that one of our Malaysian flights MH370 has gone missing earlier today, at about 2:40am, 8th March, 2014. It really is nerve-wrecking waiting for the latest updates, with so many rumors around keeping us on our toes. In fact, we united as a nation, praying for their safety and well-being regardless race or creed. Well, here are some other incidents that might bring your attention to:



December 4, 1977 


  The worst plane crash to have ever happened in Malaysia, when 100 passengers and crew died when flight MH653 crashed into a swamp in Tanjong Kupang in Johor. The Boeing 737-200 was reported to have been hijacked while descending towards Subang airport, at around 7.54pm, when the captain informed the control tower of an unidentified hijacker.

  He later informed the tower that they were en-route to Singapore, before all communications were lost at around 8.15pm. The fatalities included the-then Agriculture Minister Datuk Ali Ahmad and Cuban Ambassador to Japan Mario Garcia. The reasons behind the hijacking are not known to this day. 




A haunting memory...




December 18, 1983 

  Flight MH 684 from Singapore crashed two kilometres short of the runway at Subang airport at 7.20pm. The captain attempted to land the Airbus 300-B4 in heavy rain, clipping some trees on its descent before and the right landing gear struck the ground. There were no fatalities, but the plane was damaged beyond repair.



September 15, 1995

  Thirty-four people died when flight MH2133 overshot the runway at Tawau airport, crashing into a shantytown when it attempted to carry out a go-around. Investigations found that the Fokker 50 crash was due to pilot error.



March 15, 2000 

  An Airbus A330-300 servicing the MH085 route between Beijing and Kuala Lumpur was damaged during unloading of cargo at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. The plane was damaged by a chemical called oxalyl chloride, which leaked out of a canister during unloading and caused five ground staff to fall ill. The plane was written-off. A Chinese company, which falsely declared the corrosive chemicals, was ordered to pay USD65 million (RM211.9 million) plus interest over the incident.








August 1, 2005 

  Flight MH124 was forced to perform an emergency landing at Perth Airport after the crew reported a software malfunction when the Boeing 777-2H6ER plane had attempted to gain altitude after takeoff. The plane, which was en route to Kuala Lumpur, encountered problems with its instrumentation, forcing the pilot to take manual control of the plane. The plane landed without incident.



December 17, 2013


  Flight MH170, flying in from Jakarta, experienced severe turbulence as it prepared to land at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, due to an air vortex caused by an earlier landing by an Airbus A380 super jumbo. The vortex caused the Boeing 737-800 to pitch down and to the sides during its descent, but was quickly brought under control by the pilot and landed safely.


Source and credits to: Aviation Safety Network, The Star








March 8, 2014


  A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200, registration 9M-MRO performing flight MH-370 from Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) to Beijing (China) with 227 passengers and 12 crew, was enroute at FL350 over the Gulf of Thailand in contact with Subang Center (Malaysia) when radar and radio contact was reported lost with the aircraft at around 02:40L (18:40Z Mar 7th). The aircraft would have run out of fuel by now, there have been no reports of the aircraft turning up on any airport in the region.

  The airline confirmed the aircraft is missing, a search and rescue operation has been initiated. Subang Air Traffic Control reported at 02:40 local Malaysian time, that radar and radio contact with the aircraft had been lost.








  In a press conference the airline stated, the last contact with the aircraft had been about 160nm northeast of Kota Bharu (Malaysia), over the Gulf of Thailand. The aircraft was piloted by an experienced captain (53, 18,365 hours total) and a first officer (27, 2,763 hours total). The aircraft carried 153 Chinese citizens, 38 Malaysians, 12 Indonesians, 7 Australians, 3 French, 4 citizens of USA, 2 New Zealanders, 2 Ukrainians, 2 Canadians, 1 Russian, 1 Italian, 1 Taiwanese, 1 Dutch and 1 Austrian.








  Search missions have been launched along the estimated flight track of the aircraft from Gulf of Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos to China (South China Sea).

  At about noon local time Vietnamese search personnel reported they have detected an ELT signal about 20nm south of the coast of Ca Mau. Vietnam officials subsequently stated that they have not yet detected flight MH-370.

  China reported that the aircraft did not enter Chinese airspace (editorial note: which effectively discounts rumours and false reports by a Malaysian outlet of the aircraft having landed in Nanning (China)). Nanning Airport stated the aircraft did not arrive at the airport.

  According to The Aviation Herald's radar data the aircraft was last regularly seen at 17:22Z (01:22L) about half way between Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) at FL350 over the Gulf of Thailand about 260nm northnortheast of Kuala Lumpur and 160nm northeast of Kota Bharu 40 minutes into the flight, followed by anomalies in the radar data of the aircraft over the next minute (the anomalies may be related to the aircraft but could also be caused by the aircraft leaving the range of the receiver).







  Aviation sources in China report that radar data suggest a steep and sudden descent of the aircraft, during which the track of the aircraft changed from 024 degrees to 333 degrees. The aircraft was estimated to contact Ho Chi Minh Control Center (Vietnam) at 01:20L, but contact was never established.



Source: The Aviation Herald by Simon Hradecky created Saturday, Mar 8th 2014 01:10Z

**To be updated soon~






Let's all pray hard for them. My thoughts and feelings with the ones on board and their families. Amithaba.





Signing off:

Nickel Low CJ

Friday 7 March 2014

Ultraman, Haram?!






  Well, Malaysia has certainly come through leaps and bounds in all these years, bringing us to where we are today. However some leaps have certainly turned heads of disgust and bewilderment of the society, and with the latest issue of an edition of an Ultraman manga being banned in this country, it has certainly invited much attention with many ridiculing at the idea posed, causing yet another social backlash on the acts of the Malaysian Home Ministry.








  Ultraman, a Japanese superhero, in fact a childhood hero of ours; taking on huge giant monsters (kaiju in Japanese) and saving the Earth from their wrath. With their ability to transform between colours (applies to the more modern types of Ultraman) and their ever changing designs; Ultraman has never failed to grasp onto the heart of many, be it children or even adults all these years. Ultraman is seen as a savior, a protector to mankind, carrying out his duties with his bravery, wits and certainly magical powers of his own.








  Then came the news 'According to a report by national news agency Bernama today, the ministry issued a ban on the publication of the Bahasa Malaysia edition of the comic book, “Ultraman the Ultra Power”, for allegedly containing elements detrimental to public order'. I mean, what the hell and how does a Japanese manga hero pose a threat to the public? With so many movies on war and destruction playing on the screens of cinemas every single day in Malaysia, why does it have to be Ultraman? Seriously, its preposterous and many do not see the logic behind this.




Could it be this incident that caused the ban??




  This news is trending as we speak, and might prove to be a match beater for the 'Listen, listen, listen' and the more recent 'Kangkung' agonies. Many have been taken aback by the released statement and has caused social media lampoon towards the seemingly unpredictable acts from yet another governmental body. It would seem that Ultraman issues have been given a huge stride in priority instead of the more important matters of the country that the government has to attend to.




The more recent 'Kangkung' trend has found it match?




  The Ministry has yet to explain of what aspect of the comic prompted this ban of a worldwide popular Japanese superhero, and with the media swarming around, it would be interesting to find out the reason behind such preposterousy. Such is the trend these days in Malaysia. After all these years, with monsters of all shapes and sizes, powers and all, it just took one ban statement from the Malaysian Home Ministry to defeat the almighty Ultraman!









Signing off,


Nickel Low CJ







Tuesday 4 March 2014

All Of Me (John Legend) ~ Guitar Tabs





  Well, I'm sure by now many have gotten a tune in to this wonderful song, and although it excels best on pianos and violins, I guess it doesn't sound too bad either on guitar! Here's my tabs on the song, hope it suits well though. Anyway, happy jamming! :)




Capo 1 Standard D tuning



Verse 


Em                        C                       G

What would I do without your smart mouth

D                   Em

Drawing me in, and kicking me out

C               G                  D                     Em

Got my head spinning, no kidding, I can’t pin you down

C                      G

What’s going on in that beautiful mind

D              Em

I’m on your magical mystery ride

C               G                      D          Am

And I’m so dizzy, don’t know what hit me, but I’ll be alright





Bridge


Am               Em

My heads under water

D              Am

But I’m breathing fine

Em              D

You’re crazy and I’m out of my mind





Chorus


G

Cause all of me

Em

Loves all of you

C

Love your curves and all your edges

D

All your perfect imperfections

G

Give your all to me

Em

I’ll give my all to you

C

You’re my end and my beginning

D

Even when I lose I’m winning

                         Em     C           G

Cause I give you all, all of me

Em             C        G              D

And you give me all, all of you, oh








Verse

Em               C                  G

How many times do I have to tell you

D                      Em

Even when you’re crying you’re beautiful too

C            G          D                   Em

The world is beating you down, I’m around through every move

C                 G

You’re my downfall, you’re my muse

D                         Em

My worst distraction, my rhythm and blues

C             G         D             Am

I can’t stop singing, its ringing, in my head for you



Back to Chorus



Bridge Change


Am             Em

Cards on the table

D              Am

Were both showing hearts

Am           Em                D

Risking it all, though it’s hard








Chorus

                 Em        C          G

Cause I give you all, all of me

Em            C       G            D

And you give me all, all of you, oh





And here's the song itself, this version featuring Lindsey Striling which, IMO one of the best to ever play those strings! 








Signing off:


Nickel Low CJ

Sunday 2 March 2014

Eden: A sex slave’s story (Edited and re-blogged)






Wearing just their underwear, the girls line up with their backs to the wall, arms by their side, heads down, frozen to the spot. They dare not move.

Their captors walk up and down the line – picking them seemingly at random and tapping them on the shoulder – ‘You, you, you and you… come with me’.

In the back of a warehouse truck, they are driven for miles across the scorching Nevada desert until they reach a hotel. There, they are forced to have sex with up to 25 men one after the other.

This was life for Korean-born American Chong Kim who, at 19 years old, was sold as a domestic sex slave in 1994 to Russian gangsters and held captive for more than two years.

“The clients never came to the warehouse,” she recalled “That was just where we slept. There was nothing there but bed mats on the floor and we would just lay there.

“They would give us colouring books with fat crayons and we would colour. But then we would hear the knock outside the storage unit doors and have to all line up.

“If you were chosen, we would get in the truck and there would be a gallon of water between us. You could tell it was hot outside because it was made out of metal aluminium and it was too hot to touch.

“We were sweating when we got to the room and we’d get a make up bag and toiletries and they’d say ‘you have ten minutes to take a shower’. They would have lingerie laying on the bed.

“I remember sitting in the shower because it felt so good to be in water that I just cried. When I was done I had to basically lay in bed naked waiting for the customer to come in.”

About half of her clients were American and others were Russian but some had accents she wasn’t familiar with – they could have been British, Australian or European, she couldn’t tell.

“They all had one hour to spend time with us but most of the time they didn’t spend the whole hour, they just came in, raped us and then they would leave. And then we had to shower for the next client. That was pretty much our day.”

The traffickers would take up to 15 girls to ‘service’ hundreds of men in one day.

“One time, I could hear the screaming on the other side of the hotel room and I could tell another girl was being raped and she was screaming and it was really, really hard for me to concentrate.

“And when we got done throughout the day we would get so sore that I remember asking for a bag of ice and had to put it between my legs because it hurt so much.”

Sometimes the girls were returned to the warehouse, sometimes they didn’t. Any attempts at fighting back or escaping were met with brutal beatings and torture.

“I tried to escape numerous times,” says Chong, now 38. “I remember one time the warehouse truck stopped somewhere and we had to get out to get changed and use the bathroom and that’s when I started running.

“We were in the middle of the desert and I didn’t know where I was. The next thing I knew, I had what I think was a crowbar hit me in the back of the head. When I woke up, I was tortured. I was on a meat hook and beaten like a piñata. Other times they would bust both my knee caps or they would put me in a tub of ice naked.”

As time went on, she would witness as much cruelty as she was subjected to and she would regularly be transported with up to 50 other girls from warehouse to warehouse, state to state.

The girls were all ages and ethnicities, some having being trafficked through Europe or Russia before ending up in the USA.

“I witnessed murders, tortures, sodomy, rape,” she says quietly. “The youngest girl I saw there was just seven years old. They tied me down and made me watch her get raped by 12 adult men. It made me so sick to my stomach. I still see her face in my dreams.”

Forcefully injected with heroin, meth and cocaine and held in a dark, windowless warehouse, time ceased to exist.

“I never knew what time it was because we never had a window to look out. There were times when it would feel like forever,” she said.

“I turned into a puppet, I got tired of fighting back. There were moments where I asked for help and nobody helped me. The traffickers would say, ‘see you are nothing, that is why nobody is helping you’.

“We had no military guys or swat teams to come in and break down the doors and rescue us, that was a dream.”

Her only option was to gain the trust of her traffickers and rise up the ranks to find a way to escape.








“I felt that I would never get out and the other part of me was getting angry,” she says. “I kept looking at my situation, all the times I tried to escape I was unsuccessful. And so I wanted to know where were these people coming from, where were the parents? Why wasn’t anyone looking for them? And so the only way I thought at that time was to act like I was going to be a part of them so I could find out all of their secrets.

“I approached the head trafficker and I said ‘I could be the Madam, I am a woman, I can use my feminine charms and to manipulate and to get more girls. And I can help you make more money’.”

After gaining their trust, she soon found herself in the terrible position of recruiting young girls into sex slavery, just two years after the very same thing happened to her.

She was recruited into sex slavery in 1994 by the person she believed to be her boyfriend.

While studying Law at a technical college in Dallas, Chong met a man claiming to be a soldier in a bar who she knew as Keith, only later discovering that was not his real name.

She described him as chivalrous, adding: “He would say to me ‘you should smile more often you know’, he was very, very sleek. That’s what makes him poisonous.”

Estranged from her family, Chong was vulnerable and looking for her ‘Prince Charming’ and he manipulated this to recruit her, she says.

“It’s like a hunting game, they know how to hunt, they look for them, they watch, they observe. They’ll do a round of tests,: says Chong. “A man will go to the bar and he will say ‘who wants to get me a drink?’ and the first woman who says ‘I will’ without knowing him gives him the signal that she will do anything for him.”

After just two months of dating, he drove her to an abandoned house in Oklahoma telling her that he needed to help a homeless friend.

“I said I’d wait in the car and that’s when he grabbed me by the neck and said ‘you’re going to do as I say’. And my first thought was ‘what did I do wrong?’”

He chained her up in the basement and burned her passport and documents. There, she was raped and tortured before she was transported to the warehouse somewhere in an Indian reservation in Nevada.

“When I was taken to the storage unit and I saw the other girls, I was just shocked.” She says. “It was like a giant factory of children. And I literally thought I was in a different country because I was so Americanised that I thought it can’t be here.”

But when she became a Madam she learned about the scale of the operation and the so-called respectable people who were her customers.

“I learned about the corruption – there were politicians, judges, police officers that would buy a girl and pay the agency to keep quiet,” she says. “It scared me so much that I decided I need to run away.”

Her opportunity to escape came in 1997 when she was staying in a wealthy client’s hotel in a casino in Vegas.

“I remembered watching a James Bond movie with my father and he’d crawled out through the vent to escape,” she says. “I remember the vent being big enough and I thought ‘you know, it’s worth a try!’”

Making her way outside the building, a man pulled up in his car and spotted her escaping still wearing her lingerie.

“My heart was beating so fast,” she says, “I got in the car and took off my Stiletto shoes and beat him over the head. He was unconscious, I didn’t kill him. And I moved his body out and I stole his vehicle.”

For many years after her escape, she “lived like a hobo” fearful that her kidnappers would trace her if she used her social security number. After seeking help from a women’s shelter and with intense therapy, she slowly started to rebuild her life.








And today, mum-of-one Chong shares her story to educate law enforcement personnel and attorneys all over the USA.

Her advocacy work for victims has been commended by campaigners including Academy Award winning actress Emma Thompson.

But despite helping scores of victims, Chong feels emotionally conflicted about her time as a Madam working for the very people that abused, raped and tortured her.

“I worry about being judged,” she says. “Even when I was a Madam I was still being held as a slave. I never kept any money, I was being monitored all the time.

“There’s not a moment I don’t think about the girls, their faces, their tears I only hope that they were able to be rescued or escaped.”

Chong is working with private investigators and members of the FBI to give as much information as possible to help bring her traffickers to justice.

But the organised criminals, who were also involved in drugs, arms and money laundering, were clever enough to use false names and move the girls from site to site to avoid being traced.

But by telling her story, Chong is speaking up for all survivors of sex trafficking, she says.

“I have people who say ‘I’m sorry this happened to you’ and I say don’t tell me you’re sorry, tell me that you’re angry and you want to do something.

“There are so many of these men who come to different countries whether it is in the UK, South East Asia or America and their intention is for paid rape. And the woman’s voices will always remain silent as long as the law enables these predators. So we need to find a way to say ‘No more.’









Edited and re-blogged, courtesy from and hugely credits to Investik8 Wordpress.com. Human trafficking awareness, stop slavery!!!







Signing off:

Nickel Low CJ



Saturday 1 March 2014

Let It Go ~ Guitar Tabs






  Hi readers! I'm sure many of you have heard many versions of 'Let It Go' from Disney's yet another masterpiece 'Frozen'! And yeah, this song has really touched the hearts of many from all over the world, certainly one to go down into record books after soundtracks from Disney's Tarzan and Lion King. 



  Well, it would seem late to post this now, but still better late than never. I've done the chords on guitar for all of you music lovers so that you could get it on guitar, and yeah it's kinda amateur chord-ing but still, I hope you guys could enjoy it! I've set it to capo 2 on standard tuning but utterly it's still up to you guys. Have fun!!!! :)









Standard Tuning

Capo on 2 




Intro:


G                    D

Let it go, let it go 


Em                        C

Can't hold you back anymore 


G                         D

Let it go, let it go 


Em                                   C

Turn my back and slam the door





Verse:


Em                                                      C

The snow glows white on the mountain tonight


D                              Am

Not a footprint to be seen


Em                          C

A kingdom of isolation


D                                       A

And it looks like I'm the queen


Em                  C                   D                       Am

The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside


Em                           D                                       A

Couldn't keep it in, heaven knows I've tried





Bridge:


D

Don't let them in, don't let them see


C

Be the good girl you always have to be


D                                                              C

Conceal, don't feel, don't let them know


Csus2

Well, now they know





Chorus:


G                        D

Let it go, let it go 


Em                                 C

Can't hold you back anymore 


G                             D

Let it go, let it go, 


Em                                      C

Turn my back and slam the door



G               D

And here I stand 


Em                  C

And here I'll stay 


G                  D

Let it go, let it go 


Em                                     C

The cold never bothered me anyway





Verse 2:


G                            D                    Em                   C

It's funny how some distance makes everything seem small 


G                      D                             Em                 C

And the fears that once controlled me can't get to me at all 


G                      D               Em                      C

Up here in the cold thin air I finally can breath


G                D                      Em                             C

I know left a life behind but I'm to relieved to grieve





Chorus:


G                       D

Let it go, let it go 


Em                                    C

Can't hold you back anymore 


G                        D

Let it go, let it go, 


Em                                  C

Turn my back and slam the door



G                    D

And here I stand 


Em                       C

And here I'll stay 


G                       D

Let it go, let it go 


Em                                             C

The cold never bothered me anyway





Bridge:


G                   D                 Em               C

Standing frozen in the life I've chosen 


G                        D               Em                  C

You won't find me, the past is so behind me 


G          D          Em              C

Buried in the snow





Break:


G                       D

Let it go, let it go

Em                                C

Can't hold you back anymore~~~~~





Chorus: 

G                         D

Let it go, let it go, 


Em                                      C

Turn my back and slam the door 


G                  D

And here I stand 


Em                     C

And here I'll stay 


G                        D

Let it go, let it go 


Em                                         C

The cold never bothered me anyway 




They called this giant snow monster 'Marshmallow'! Sounds cuter than it looks though! 




  Finally, the music video itself to compliment! :)








Signing off:

Nickel Low CJ