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What is seborrhea?
Seborrhea or seborrheic dermatitis is a skin disorder in which the sebaceous glands of the skin produce an excessive amount of sebum. Seborrhea typically affects the back, face and flanks causing scaly, flaky, itchy, red skin. There are two types of seborrhea, called seborrhea sicca meaning dry seborrhea, and seborrhea oleosa (oily seborrhea). Most dogs with seborrheic dermatitis have a combination of dry and oily seborrhea.
What are the clinical signs of seborrhea?
In dogs, seborrhea usually affects skin areas that are rich in sebaceous glands, especially the skin along the back. The affected areas of skin often flake off in whitish scales (dandruff) that can be seen on the dog's bedding and other places where the dog lies. Some skin areas may be red and inflamed, with either a dry or an oily feel to the lesions. The dermatitis may be worse in areas with skin folds such as the feet, neck, lips, armpits, thighs, and underside.
" Many dogs will have an odor associated with seborrhea."
Many dogs will have an odor associated with seborrhea. This odor is usually worsened if the seborrhea is complicated by a secondary bacterial or yeast skin infection.
What causes seborrhea?
In some cases, the exact cause of seborrhea cannot be determined (called idiopathic seborrhea). Seborrhea is often related to an underlying medical problem, such as:
- Hormonal imbalances - thyroid disease, Cushing's disease, etc.
- Allergies
- Parasites (internal and external) - fleas, ticks, mange mites
- Fungal infections - especially yeast skin infections (Malassezia)
- Dietary abnormalities - poor diets containing low levels of omega-3 fatty acids
- Environmental factors (temperature, humidity changes)
- Obesity
- Musculoskeletal disease or pain - the dog is unable to groom itself properly
How is seborrhea diagnosed?
Tests that can aid your veterinarian in diagnosing your dog's seborrhea include:
- Complete blood cell count (CBC), serum chemistries and electrolytes - looking for subclinical or hidden underlying conditions or imbalances
- Skin cytology and/or skin scrapings
- Skin culture - for bacterial and fungal infections, including ringworm
- Skin biopsy
- Hormone tests - including thyroid disease and Cushing's disease testing
How is seborrhea treated?
Treatment is aimed at the underlying cause. If no underlying cause can be found, then a diagnosis of primary or idiopathic seborrhea is made. Unfortunately, there is no specific treatment for primary seborrhea. In general, treatments that help manage seborrhea include:
- Omega-3 fatty acid supplements
- Antiseborrheic shampoos
- Moisturizers
- Retinoids
- Oral cyclosporine
- Antibiotics - to treat secondary bacterial infections
What is the prognosis for seborrhea?
The prognosis for seborrhea is based on your dog's specific condition and severity. The prognosis is better if an underlying cause has been identified and treated. Your veterinarian will discuss a diagnostic and treatment plan for your dog to help you manage this common and often frustrating condition.


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You can buy a catapult like this in pasar malam or Tamu Muhibbah of Miri.
Some advertisement for catapults.
Another advert
This is a great modern high tech sling shot or catapult used by hunters and for the strong housewife who may need protection from burglars. Available in better sports equipment shops in Sarawak and Brunei!!
Last year I read an article about a 9 year old Chinese boy who used a catapult to taunt a crocodile. The croc turned around and ate him!!
The human rights groups in China was in an uproar!!(Source : http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/china/article1690634.ece)
This brought me to think about how we as children used the catapult or "lastic" as we lovingly called it,for many purposes. We were innocent kids then. Below are examples of what we did with our catapults:
The boys in my neighbourhood would collect beautiful Y shaped guava tree wood to make their catapults and they did sell them for a good sum. We girls helped them collect the best rubber bands available. We never did buy the rubber bands. We went around picking them up from the streets and from any purchases our parents bought.
My neighbours used the catapults to chase away dogs which disturbed their rubbish bins. Late into the night I used to hear the stones hitting the rubbish bins and the yelping of dogs. I knew then someone was doing his job to keep the dogs at bay.
Kids used the catapults to shoot the swallows which sat like music notes on the overhead electric wires. After a heavy down pour especially in the evenings it was great to hear the beautiful bird song in the air. And then these swallows would sit on the wires for a restive moment. And all of a sudden a stone or two would shoot through the air and the birds would fly away leaving behind a few feathers which floated slowly and then landed on the pavements. The boys were not very good shots but they did hit a few birds.
I remember once a very angry neighour used his son's catapult to hit a motor bike which sped along our road. Years later this was not necessary as the traffic got heavier.
My father and brother used the catapult to chase away squirrels which tried to eat our yellow skinned and very "kopek" rambutans (the flesh could leave the seed easily when we bit into the crunchy fruit) and sweet juicy mangoes.
And finally the little boys liked to practise their sharp shooting by hitting tins at a distance.
This innocent home made and humble catapult may no longer be a toy which is good enough for present day boys. The creativity of making such a slingshot is disappearing.
And in the movie "The Kite Runner" the catapult was used by Hassan's son Sohrab to damage Assef's eye. Assef was the man (the bad guy) who was instrumental in causing all the hurts and sufferings to their families(the good guys) in Afghanistan. I thought it was brilliant. It reminded me of the story of David and Goliath.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Catapults and Kids' targets of dogs,tins,birds and others
Memoir by I Am Sarawakiana at 7:31 PM 0 memories
Labels: catapults and targets
Friday, September 26, 2008
Safes through the ages in Sibu
The first safe I remember seeing was the one in Hua Hong Ice Factory and my father had the key to it and so did the accountant. It was very old and worn out as it was probably first bought in the 1910's. The next safe I saw was the one in Hock Hua Bank when it was first started. It was newer and prettier. There might have been another vault but it must have been very well hidden.
Ever since I was a child I learned well that money was very important and that the Foochow men would work very hard for their money. They loved their money. I saw a lot of money changed hands in Chop Ching Cheong and the shop had two safes. But what was even more important was who held the key to the safe.
Another safe that was quite obvious to the public was the one in the Dentist Tiong Teck King's clinic. It is still there today. This safe must have seen tons of cash at the prime of its life.
I suppose during those days it was okay to have the safe seen by customers and relatives. After all it was a strong box and no one could break into it.
The Google Images supply me with these images:
This is a safe you can find in most hotels and perhaps even in some homes.
This is a fairly old safe but still in used by many.
Chubb is a famous name for safe. And at the present moment they make some of the biggest safes in the world.
This is the safe in Dentist Tiong Teck King's Clinic in Sibu in Channel Road. I took the photo a few months ago. It is old but still very sturdy and most probably it can still be used.
I remember my grandfather having a very old safe and he would gently open the safe to check his cash and other personal items. He would carefully keep his many keys on his body. I suppose he never left them around . I have never seen him being careless with his own personal things. He was a very meticulous man. All certificates land titles and gold items of course were kept in the safe by most of the men who owned safes. It was their filing system in the olden days.
After he passed away and my grandmother moved to her new house we do not know what happened to that safe. Perhaps it was kept by grandmother at the back of one of her rooms. She was also a person who kept things well as she was a very neat and tidy person.
Do we still need a personal safe today?
Memoir by I Am Sarawakiana at 5:22 PM 0 memories
Labels: chubb safes Hua Hong key
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Ireland Tobacco Company and Wedding Feasts
I came across this on E-Bay and my memories brought me back to the Foochow wedding feasts of the 60's. Yes indeed my cousin and I tried to pinch one of these. And the banquet steward gave us a wink. (I am wondering if he still has it). Much later I obtained one from Ban Chuang Coffee Shop when I asked for one from the "Coffee Hand" ,the man who made the coffee. But I have lost mine.
F and N was a favourite label for us as it conjured up imported stuff which was better than Ta Fong Aerated Water. (F and N drinks were made in Singapore!!)
All these hard liquor were placed on the tables for guests to enjoy. This was to show how generous and happy the host was.
The Ireland Tobacco Company was owned by a family who used to live in Brooke Drive (beginning of the Oya Road). The house is still there and is used as a car show room today. Next door to it is the property belong to the Yew family. Ms. Yew Jen Kie's father owned the first and most famous Tien Pian Hoo Shop in Sibu.
The towkay neo was a big lady who drove an equally big car,probably one of the biggest cars in Sibu in the 1960's . Their house was huge too with a big garden and many fruit trees. Whenever we passed by their house on our way to school via Hose Lane we would look at the fruit trees which were heavy with fruits.
The cigarettes produced by this company were sold in the smaller towns like Mukah,Bintangor and Sarikei,Kapit and Kanowit. They were appealing enough to the financially challenged communities. Each small packet of 10 was 25 cents!!! The bigger packet of 20 were sold at 50 cents. As the price was not that prohibitive the number of smokers must have multiplied.
I remember attending a few Foochow wedding banquets fondly. On each table would be an unopened bottle of XO or Black Label,a packet of Ireland Tobacco Cigarette,a box of matches,three or four bottles of fizzy drinks made by Ta Fong, and a few bottles of bear.
When guests filled up a table they would take the cigarettes and opened the fizzy drinks for the children. A few ladies would try their very best to force the host to take the XO away from the table,saying that it was a waste to open such an expensive bottle of liquor and they did not drink any way. There would be a lot of pushing and pulling and of course adding to the merriment. We would wait to see who ended up with the bottle of XO. I would sometimes pray that the bottle would stay with our table and then we could have a few sips and redden our faces. It was popular to pour a peck or two of brandy into fizzy drinks,the Foochow way. Very few would drink brandy or whiskey on the rocks.
At the end of the wedding feast any left over cigarettes would be pocketed by the smokers after they say loudly,"Don't waste,don't waste." This statement was the prelude of taking something they like. Sometimes they would offer one or two sticks to the little boys who would laughingly shake their heads. The invariably the adult would rub their heads and say"Good boy!!"
I must confess that I once took half a packet of the cigarettes when no one was looking and gave it to the trishaw driver. Another time when attending a wedding banquet of a close relative I managed to wrap up more than 6 siew mai or meat dumpling for the deaf mute . My mother would also ask for a bag to take away the extra sweet and sour pork chops for our next door neighbour,the height challenged Ah Moo. If I could get a packet of cigarettes (unopened)our Ah Moo would also have that. (I found it very difficult to stomach the fact that she would save her cents and then buy only one stick of cigarette from the corner little shop.) Even at that time we were very conscious of the benefits of getting freebies.
The men who loved a drink would gather at a table where XO bottles were opened. They would be the ones who make the banquet more merry and very loud indeed. In those days we did not say Yam Seng the way we do it now. There were lots of real laughter,slapping of backs, pushing each other and pouring of drinks into glasses. The host would go around picking up food to offer to his guests with chopsticks to ensure that they had a lot of food. A wedding would then be considered well celebrated. there was no karaoke of course!
This was the way Foochow men and women behave at a feast in the 60's.
I cannot remember when the Ireland Tobacco closed down. But I will have all these memories to savour and share with others.
Memoir by I Am Sarawakiana at 7:03 AM 0 memories
Labels: cigarettes XO wedding feasts
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
The First Foochow Baby Boy Born in Sibu
This is James Wong and his family making them the fourth and fifth generation from the couple who became the proud parents of the First Foochow Baby Boy Born in Sibu. James' great grand father is Wong Kah Yu and like any family, one can gather a lot of oral history from them. But there is a lot more from this particular family of Sibu.
I am honoured to be able to do a some research and write this little posting. I only wish that there are more old photos to share with you.
Unfortunately I also do not have a photo of Mr. and Mrs. Wong Kah Yu. But what I have here is an old photo from 1950. The second Mrs. Wong Kah Yu is third from left. She was respectfully called Ting Hook Moo (Mother of Ting Hook). (Back Row from left Mr. Luk Sung Seng,Mr.Cheng Wan Ju,Rev Ho Siew Liong,Mr. Ling Siew Tieh. Front : Rev Ling Chii Tzu,Miss Ling Yu Kwong,Mrs Wong,Mr. Lau Kah Tii)
This is an early photo of the children in Mrs. Mary Hoover's kindergarten circa
1913. I assume that the three brothers must be amongst them.
The Foochow Pioneers came in three batches to Sibu . The first batch came in 20th Feb1901 with 72 pioneers. They recognised Rev Ting Kwong Tou and Wong Ching Choon as leaders.
The second batch with 5 leaders (Ting Hing Choon,Lau Kah Tii,Wong King Huo,Lau Tieu Foo,and Ling Woon Choon) and 30 others. They arrived on 16th March 1901. I often wonder why this is the date the Foochows of Sibu recognise as The Date of Arrival of the Foochows. Amongst them was Mr. Wong Kah Yu and his wife.
The third batch was made up of the largest group of 511 including several women with good leadership skills. They arrived on 7th June 1902. Amongst them was my grandfather.
Each pioneer was allocated 5 acres of land for personal development and cultivation. Life was terribly hard then. And they were supposed to pay the Foochow leader a small sum of money every year in the agreement they had with him. Unfortunately according to the records the climate was against them and their hardwork did not pay off. Mr. Wong Nai Siong was very frustrated and left Sibu soon,and never came back. It was a divine act of God which brought Rev James Hoover and his wife Mary to Sibu during this time too. And the over 1000 souls started to prosper. And as they say the rest is history.
Mr. Wong Kah Yu was one of the pioneer agriculturalists. He had become a Christian when foreign missionaries had gone to Fuzhou to spread the faith. When Wong Nai Siong came to Fuzhou to recruit another batch of pioneers for Sibu he and his pregnant wife agree to join him. When they arrived they were alloted Hostel No.6 which was one of the first kajang or attap buildings constructed by the Foochow pioneers in Sungei Merah.
A few months later Mrs.Wong Kah Yu became the first Foochow woman to give birth to the First Foochow Baby Boy. The parents called the baby boy Wong Ting Sing. (Sing is New in Foochow)
Later they had two other boys called Wong Ting Hook(Hook in Foochow means Blessing ) and Wong Ting Chew ( Chew in Foochow means State or country).
Thus the three boys' names together mean New Foochow State or Sing Hook Chew.
Actually they already had a daughter whom they left behind in China. Her name was Lu Tei, which is Ruth in Chinese. They had named her after Ruth in the Bible because of their recent conversion to Christianity. They later had a second daughter called Liang.
Life for the women ,and the first Mrs. Wong in particular, must have been even tougher as they had to nurse their babies and farm at the same time. They had to fight against diseases and the hot climatic conditions. In the first few years they were living in fear as the mortality rate was high. In fact according to records in the first year the Foochows were dying like "flies" falling down at the rate of at least 3 or 4 people every day!!How they managed to contain this was indeed a miracle. Many younger men went back to China too and never came back.
Tragically Mrs. Wong's life was cut short. And eventually Wong Kah Yu took a second wife. They did not have any children. It was legendary that the second Mrs. Wong was a very good step mother,,capable,hardworking and God fearing. She was very active in church work in the Methodist Church . The photo (albeit blurry) is a very old photo taken in 1950. The second Mrs. Wong is the third from the left. She was one of the two ladies in the Central Committee of the Methodist Church in Sibu.
Wong Kah Yu and his children and grandchildren built a lovely mansion in Sungei Merah situated fairly near the river and the point where the pioneers first stepped on. I once visited this mansion,as a child, to pay respects to Mrs. Wong Kah Yu with my grandmother as she wanted to see how orchids were grown. And another memory I have of the house was the lovely sitting room they had. Today you can visit the memorial to Wong Nai Siong and the First Pioneers. I think this might be part of Wong Kah Yu's land.
When we got connected through email ,Ruth Wong (therefore the second Ruth in the Wong Family) was happy to share some extra information and a funny anecdote regarding her great grandfather.
There is a lovely anecdote about her great-grandfather's name, Kah Yu, which sounds the same as "kayu" (wood) in the Malay language. Apparently, one day, when her great-grandfather was taking a walk in the jungles, he overheard someone asking a local Malay carrying an axe where he was going.
The local Malay man replied, "Potong kayu."
Thus her great grandfather, with his limited Malay at that time, and in a new country reputed to be the "land of the headhunters", ran for his life because he thought the Malay man was out to kill him!
I totally agree with her that many old people in Sibu can still recall this incident.
Actually I am very impressed by the naming of the three boys. They had so much hope in them at such a time of tribulation and hardship...New ...Hope..prosperity, blessing,and land....Remarkable. Remarkable.
The Wong family continues to be a very prominent part of the Sibu society today. Johnny Wong Sie Lee, the owner of the Sarawak Hotel,Sibu ,is one of the grandsons of Wong Kah Yu. Ruth and James' father is the late Wong Sie Kong,owner of the Far East Supermarket, who was another grandson.
My other famous friend's father is also one of the grandsons of Wong Kah Yu and therefore he is cousin to James and Ruth .
In retrospect as I write this article I remember the lovely and friendly sisters of Johnny Wong who went to the Methodist School with me in the early days. Recently I met up with one of them. And James' brother Wong Diong Sing was my classmate from Primary one until Form Three!!
It is well known that almost all the descendants of this particular family are very fair,good looking and highly intelligent. Good gene pool!! Look at the coloured photo of James and family again!
More interest should be paid to our Oral History which will not only give more meaning to our culture and social development but also help to consolidate our Foochow community.
For more details you can ask me personally if you wish .
I would like to thank Ruth for being so forthcoming in the sharing of her precious documentation and historical records. And of course I also like to thank James and family for not only providing academic help but also spiritual strength and good food always. He and his wife Roselind are ever ready to spend time with a sister in need.
Other sources:
1) The Sibu Chinese Historical and Pictorial Collection by Sarawak Chinese Cultural Association,1992.
2) Wong Nai Siong and the New Foochow,, Lau Tze Cheng.
Memoir by I Am Sarawakiana at 6:37 AM 12 memories
Labels: Ruth and James Wong, Sing Hook Chiew, Wong Kah Yu
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Tribute to Road Construction Workers of Yesteryears
(Source : 1962 Sarawak Report)
In the early days of road construction in Sibu and especially the building of the Oya Road which took more than ten years,the people of Sibu were very excited with expectations. They considered it as the most important development of the town and even Sarawak. The folks would be aware of what was happening and how it was being constructed from the frequent news reports in the local papers and even radio news.
However life of the road construction workers was tough.
They lived in the makeshift wooden houses and suffered from shortage of water and even food.
However it was good that a few Iban workers had guns and they were able to go hunting for wild boar and other animals.
I remember an uncle , employed by the Public Works Department, who depended sometimes on his wife to send him some food supplies to make his working days better. His loving wife who had to take the motor launch from downriver,had cooked some angchow duck and prepared some salted pork for him. In those days they could only meet in Sibu once a month. But provisions could be sent through the PWD trucks if they made enquiries.
A fortnight later when he managed to come out of the jungle fully sun burnt and teary in the eyes. He was suffering from an eye infection and had to see a private doctor for immediate treatment. He told another one of my aunts that he did receive the goodies but because of the heat and the lack of refrigeration the angchow duck was spoilt the next day! He was very disappointed that he could not enjoy he duck which his loving wife had cooked. How bad was his fate!! Pitiful times. And in Foochow terms,"he had eaten too much of the dust." It was dust dust dust every where.
Finally after three years of hard work and hardship and days of eating dust and very little savings,he decided to return to his village to plant pepper. He prospered because he and his wife worked very hard. But he did not managed to live a long and full life. Today his wife continues to mourn his early passing.
I met up with one of the early Tanjong Lobang students William P (1950-1966) when I first came to Miri. He and his wife were associated with the construction of the Oya Road. They too told me of the hardship he suffered as a PWD employee. Life as a construction worker in the rural areas of Sarawak was lonely and lacking in the basic amenities. Their salaries were only $180.00 at that time. The daily paid workers received even less. Literally some of them had to eat grass if they did not get supplies from home. They survived on tinned food because there was so much dust around.
When we drive along the good roads today we have to remember that many early Sarawakians contributed to this development.
The photo I am showing looks comfortable though. But there are lots of stories behind it like deaths from accidents and heat stroke and even murders, mysterious deaths in the jungle when looking for food,etc. But definitely they suffered days of hardship and tribulations like any pioneers of the olden days.
Memoir by I Am Sarawakiana at 6:58 AM 0 memories
Labels: Dust, Lack of Amenities, Road Construction
Monday, September 22, 2008
Three Legs Brand or San Kar Bew
The Three Legs Brand has been around for a long long time. It can be taken without prescription and is sold over the counter in Sibu since the beginning of the Foochow settlement. It is also a popular medicine in Malaysia.
Three groups of people generally like to take them. Firstly the older men and women seem to be very fond of this brand whenever they suffer from mild pains or tooth aches or headaches. An uncle of mine once pour two packets of the medicine into his gaping wound on his leg when he was cutting trees in his farm. He almost fainted from the bleeding but it worked for him and he limped home. It was only the next day that he was able to take the motor launch to go to Sibu to see a doctor. This was before the days of aloe vera and over the counter iodine.
Iban men and women of longhouses buy this brand by the dozens as they live far away from doctors and hospitals. I was told by a lady once that this "ubat" really worked for her when she worked on her padi fields. It was too far away for her and also too expensive to visit a "doktor bayar" (Private practitioner). I thought that she was quite addicted to this medication when I saw her pouring out the medicine into her drinks every now and then. She looked quite normal and healthy to me. Perhaps she was just very fond of the powder.
Another group of people who are fond of this medicine are those who work in the sun. They would always have them ready whenever they feel hot and tired. They would just pour the white powder from the paper packet into their drinking water and in a little while they would feel better.
A sign board for Cap Kaki Tiga in Kota Bahru attracting the public to buy the brand.
(sourced from bus_wrecker at Flickr)
This Chap Tiga Kaki or Three Legs Brand is therefore a boon to the rural hardworking folks. And if you ask any of the Chinese drugs store proprietors you would be informed that the rural population do indeed buy this particular brand. They like this as much as Panadol, a convenient cure for headaches and mild ailments.
But I think it is not so advisable to add this white powder to one's tea or coffee every day for a long period of time.
What is your experience with Chap Tiga Kaki?
If you take a closer look at the packet you can see three men . One man is covering his ears,the second man is covering his head with his hands and the last man covering his chin . Looks like the proverbial three wise monkeys of Japanese folk lore who "say no evil,see no evil and hear no evil" or "mizaru,kiazaru,iwazaru" (literally don't see,don't hear and don't speak".
there is also a Chinese phrase in the analects of Confucius: "Look not at what is contrary to propriety;listen not to what is contrary to propriety;speak not what is contrary to propreity;make no movement which is contrary to propriety." There is a lot to chew in this idealistic philosophical phrase.
I am wondering if the man who designed the package was thinking of the three monkeys. Just a thought. And what's the story behind this brand?
Memoir by I Am Sarawakiana at 7:54 AM 4 memories
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Hui Bah (bundles of fire) and Papa Hemingway
The biscuits or fried dough or even plait pastry in the photo are called Hui Bah in Foochow (Fuzhou dialect) and according to my grandmother it is called so by the Foochows because it looks like a bundle of fire starter. Whenever the Foochows ,during the pioneering days and even until the 1950's ,needed to light a wood fire they had to twist some twigs or dried grass together to make a fire starter.
To me this biscuit does look like a bundle of twisted twines or twigs.
It is made from a very simple flour and egg dough. The baker would roll out two long pieces of dough and then cut them into smaller pieces. He would then twist two small pieces together and deep fry them . Finally he would roll them in icing sugar or crystalised sugar syrup. The shop made ones last a long time actually because they are fried until very brittle. Home made ones are less hard or brittle especially if butter and more eggs are added to the dough. Today they are packed in small plastic bags and sold at a fairly good price of RM2.00. In olden days our parents would buy them from the shops in big quantities and then keep them in biscuit tins so that they did not become soft.
We bought quite a lot in the olden days and we usually had them when we did our homework at night. Perhaps this was because chewing the hard biscuits helped us to keep awake. On the other hand the sugar coating was sweet and in the days when chocolates and good sweets were not so readily available,these hui bah were the closest to sweets and desserts. It was also a very good exercise in chewing and biting.
Recently I chewed a few bundles of fire when I re-read Hemingway and like in the olden days, I did not fall asleep while reading. Brought back the good old days when we enjoyed doing our homework.
I* was sure on fire for good literature.
A Recipe for Hui Bah or something similar called Plait biscuits (this you can make at home)
Source : http://auntyyochana.blogspot.com
Ingredients for the plaits:
300 gm. plain flour
2 Tbsp. rice flour
50 gm. cornoil
140 gm. water
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. Instant yeast
1/2 tsp. baking powder
20 gm. sesame seeds
Sugar syrup:
120 gm. coarse sugar
85 gm. water
20 gm. plain flour
(1) Mix all the ingredients for the plaits together and rest for 20 mins.
(2) Roll into long rope and then twist it into plaits.
(3) Fry the twisted plaits in oil until golden brown. Dish out and set aside.
(4) Cook the sugar and water till thick and then pour in the fried plaits.
(5) Fry till sugar almost crystalise and then sieve plain flour onto the plaits and fry till sugar crystalised.
(6) Dish up, leave to cool and keep in air tight containers.
Please tell me if it works for you!!
or you can just go down to the nearest supermarket and buy a packet.
Memoir by I Am Sarawakiana at 7:52 PM 3 memories
Labels: Foochow biscuits and Hemingway.
Moi Soung Cafe
Photo by Wong Meng Lei - home made Foochow meatballs served as soup to accompany the Kam Pua in Moi Soong Coffee Shop.
(Photo by Sarawakiana) The old shop sign board and an old clock. Need to read from right to left.
(Photo by Sarawakiana) The sign board at the front of the shop along Channel Road.
Three things I would associate with Moi Soung Cafe.
It was the earliest Coffee Shop of Sibu and has been there since the 1900's. It belonged to a Wong family which prospered over the years. The family has contributed towards the social development of Sibu.
The propretor of the coffee shop was indeed very kind to several five foot way vendors - the tangerine seller who came with two baskets on a bian dan (bamboo pole) over his shoulders and then plied his fruits and daching (hand scale) right at the fet corner of the coffee shop. In other places in the world this would not have been tolerated for even a single day. But the tangerine seller was soon recognised even a part of the shop. I used to buy fruits from him and asked "Are the tangerines sweet?""Where do they come from?" He must have been fed up with me. I have always been a nosey customer,asking too many perhaps obvious questions! He would shoo me off when he wrapped his fruits in the paper bags. (These paper bags were special then,during the era before plastic bags - You will read a posting on this soon)
At another corner there was a lady who sold her chickens and eggs. Many people would buy from her because she would ply her product with the comforting announcement : "These chickens are fed by me - very fleshy and still young and untainted. These eggs are from my own hens. Look at them they are the biggest you can find in Sibu." This lady was the forerunner of an organic chicken farmer and Grade A egg sellers. At that time I could see that she was a very honest trader and breeder.
At the rear end of the coffee shop was the vendor who sold soya bean milk and two or three different kuihs. He was a quiet man and operated alone like the other two. He sat on his wooden stool and waited for his customers who would pass by. Life was slow but I am sure he enjoyed watching life passing by him.
In the evenings Moi Soung Cafe had a night life. The Sibu Traditional foochow Orchestra would come alive. Five or six men who gather together with the proprietor to play their musical instruments like er hu,drums,etc. I often think that it is a pity that no one had made a CD or a video of their performance. Perhaps I am wrong there and I have not asked the right person.
This corner coffee shop has been meaningful to many travellers who went up and down the Rejang River. And visiting it recently I could still feel that any moment my grandmother would step on to the pontoon from the wooden motor launch called "Sing Hai Huong" which would arrive right on the dot at eight. I miss the sirens from the launches as they arrived. They would also blare the loud sirens to tell travellers that they were leaving for the afternoon trip home,downriver. I miss the Foochow cries " Kay mang Li Loh! Sung ai kian loh!" (Quick, hurry up,the boat is leaving!)
The sounds and sights are slowly disappearing from Old Sibu. Even the archaic Foochow (e.g. kay mang or kay kay li) is disappearing as the younger generation speak more Mandarin and other languages.
I can already see that the old coffee shop lifestyle is being phased out slowly and new fish and chips,KFC and Sugar Bun outlets are taking over like aliens intruding into a provincial town. Rural Italy or France would rise up in arms if an alien outlet would jar the milieu of the landscape. But perhaps I am too irrelevant or unrealistic here.People's tastes have changed over the last ten years or so. So that's it I suppose. No reason for nostalgia.
Memoir by I Am Sarawakiana at 7:53 AM 0 memories
Labels: Moi Soung Cafe, soya beans
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Lau Boon Leong Soap and Sauce Factory and washing clothes and swimming in Rejang River
This is the nearest I can get to remind myself and relatives of how a pontoon looks like all those years ago on the Rejang River. A soon to be gone scene from Bekenu, Sibuti. Photo by Sarawakiana 2008.
Not many people can remember that Sibu and in fact Sungei Merah had a soap factory called Lau Boon Leong Soap and Sauce Factory established in 1937 . Three brands of soaps were produced by them : Lion Brand, Tiger Brand and Bicycle Brand.
I often wonder where this family is today.
This was before the Lever Brothers infiltrated our shops with OMO and other detergents when affluence gathered force towards the end of the twentieth century. And of course it was before the arrival of the washing machines in Sibu.
Women all over Asia at that time (or may be the whole world) used block soaps to wash their clothes and especially those living along the river banks of Sarawak. The pontoon jetties or floating jetties or tou tau along the Rejang teemed with women who brought their buckets of clothes to wash. In fact in some places some more important ladies had their special areas to wash. The floating platform would have special washing boards specially carved out and small square openings were cut to enable them to reach the river water more easily. These spots were the first class spots earmarked for them as they were the daughters-in-laws of the owners of the jetties. And no one else could use them first customarily.
I remember that some ladies from further in land had to wait for them to finish washing before they could take their turn to wash. this was the social pecking order of the day.
It was indeed quite remarkable to watch these women do their laundry - using the soap and getting their unmentionables,their smalls and the indescribables washed. Some of them from big families might even washed up to three huge buckets of clothes every evening.
I enjoyed watching them applying the solid bar on the clothes, punching and beating out the clothes and then flipping and flopping them in the water. It was some special kind of kung fu. Their arms were strong and the clothes soon became fragrant and clean.
My mother from this kind of background still thinks that washing clothes by hand is still much cleaner than using the washing machine.
My Foochow women relatives of that era were strong and patient. And they could indeed squat for a long long time until they completed their washing. A lot of women today would be able to do yoga really well but they cannot squat and do their washing by the river for hours. A difficult feat indeed.
And of course at the same time I enjoyed listening to their chat. It was warm and entertaining.
As the women washed their clothes we children would be swimming and jumping off the pontoon. I took my first swimming lesson in a rather dramatic way. My third uncle,bless his soul, simply threw me into the flowing river. I gave probably only three kicks and I was swimming away like a fish after gulping in three or four mouthfuls of water.
Most of my cousins learned to swim in that way. May be we were just born "into the river". From that day onwards we were not afraid of a river ,even if it was as big as the Rejang.
(P/s - the huge bars of soap came in wooden crates of 24 and they were cheaper too. Remember we used to say cheaper by the dozen? most of the women would cut up the soap bars into smaller pieces and dry them above the huge Foochow stove. We believed than that harder soaps go further and therefore more economical. Probably most families buy one crate of soap per year but I cannot remember correctly. )
Memoir by I Am Sarawakiana at 5:50 AM 10 memories
Labels: laundry, Soap, washing clothes by the Rejang River
Monday, September 15, 2008
The First Boys' Hostel of Methodist Secondary School Sibu
This school hostel was a boon to many boys of the Rejang Basin. From its beginning in the 1950's until its demolition in the 1960's this was home to many leading young men of Sibu. Early boys' students of the Methodist School would include, to name a few,without their titles, Leonard Linggi Jugah (Kapit),James Jemut,Billy Abit Joo,Deng Lung Chii (Bintangor),Tiong Yi King,and many others.
One of the Hostel Masters to remember is Mr. Ling How Kwong who taught many students to play good table tennis, a game that was played on the ground floor of the Boys' Hostel. He was a remarkably severe man who created a certain discipline amongst the players. Punctuality was revered and boys and girls played with very stern faces. This game continued to be very important to all students until today.
The building itself was wooden and I remember that it was rather dark and foreboding. It was absolutely out of bounds for girls and Mr. Ling saw to that. When I was a student I had the feeling that he thought all females were enemies number one of his boys.
Later when the tennis courts were constructed those who were trained to play tennis were often worried that they made too much noise as the boys were hard at work. Discipline was very much a part of the hostel boys' life that most day scholars did not understand. The boys' sole aim in life at that time was to pass the Senior Middle Three Examination or the Cambridge O Level Examination.
They played volley ball,basketball and football seriously. One or two boys would play the guitar. Some singing could be heard. Perhaps one of their few pastimes was to stroll to the edge of the football field and hope that durians would drop from the trees. May be some of them never went to the cinema!! There were absolutely no disciplinary problems.
Perhaps it was the inspiring school and the spartan boys' hostel which catapulted many of the young men towards their success of today.
Memoir by I Am Sarawakiana at 3:40 AM 0 memories
Labels: Methodist Boys' Hostel, Ping Pong.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
1871 -Fuzhou Church by Thomson
Lately,I seem to have taken on a liking for photographs of ancient days and ancient buildings.
And incidentally I met up with a 75 year old cousin and a second aunt (on my father's side ) for brunch. We got to tell tales and swap gossips. One of the topics covered was my Goo Poh's experiences in Fuzhou City during the Second World War.
Aunt Ling told us about an old European church in Fuzhou City which my grandfather and his brother must have seen. My grandaunt or Goo Poh Yuk Ging had gone to China to seek medical treatment for her ailing husband. Unfortunately he died in China leaving her a widow with three young children. The youngest was just born and she was brought up in China (under the care of another family) until the 60's when my Goo Poh was financially better off and it was politically safe to "redeem this daughter and bring her out to Sibu". That was just before Malaysia was formed.
My own maternal grandmother, Tiong Lien Tie, was stranded there too during the war. As a result she was fondly remembered by all the Sibu Foochow "overseas" students who were also stranded in Fuzhou City at that time.
When they came back to Sibu, they remembered themselves "coming back by the first boat,or the second boat or the third boat" from Fuzhou City . My Goo Poh (sister of my grandfather) came back to Sibu by the First Boat. She had always been grateful to people who visited her in China (she lived in a very remote village).
My mother's second brother brought back his Fuzhou City-born bride after the war. Both of them were teachers of Chinese language and they taught in bukit Lan for the greater part of their lives. They went on to become the illustrious in-laws of timber tycoons. This aunt of ours up to this day speaks Foochow with a very strong Fuzhou City accent.
Here is the photo of the church taken by Thomson and its related history.
'Foochow Church', about 1871
Picture Number:1992-5063_0017
Credit:National Museum of Photography, Film & Television/Science & Society Picture Library
A photograph of a European Church in Fuzhou, China, taken by John Thomson [1837-1921] in about 1871, published in 1873 in the book 'Foochow and the River Min'. As part of the unequal treaties following the Opium War of 1839 to 1842 China was forced to accept Christian missionaries. As early as 1847 three American Methodists built the first Protestant church in Fuzhou. They were soon followed by other missionary groups from Britain. Thomson travelled extensively in Fujian province, formerly Fukien, south east China, from late 1870 to early 1871. The book, 'Foochow and the River Min', records his journey up the River Min by boat from Fuzhou to Nanping, a distance of about 160 miles. Thomson was one of the most significant travel photographer-explorers of the nineteenth century. Born in Scotland, he studied chemistry at the University of Edinburgh, before taking up photography in the 1860s. Thomson travelled extensively throughout Asia, documenting the antiquities, landscapes and people of Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Macao and China. In the early 1870s he returned to England where he worked with the journalist Adolphe Smith on a project documenting the life of the urban poor. The resulting book, 'Street Life in London' was published in twelve parts between 1877 and 1878.
In Collection of: National Museum of Photography Film & Television
Memoir by I Am Sarawakiana at 6:06 AM 2 memories
Labels: coming back to Sibu, Fuzhou Church in China, Thompson
Transient Languages and Cultures
I would like to share with you a page from a very interesting blog which touches on Foochow as as dialect.
View the source when you are free : http://blogs.usyd.ed.au
Transient Languages & Cultures
Congratulations to Taiwan on saving languages big and small
by Hilario de Sousa
6 February, 2007I was thinking about tone-vowel and consonant sandhis in Fuzhou and I stumbled across this spectacular website from Matsu where they put up their primary school Fuzhou language textbooks with recordings of all the texts (and cutesy background music). There are also audio demonstrations of all the consonants, rhymes and tones. Apparently they are also working on putting up traditional kids stories on their website. All the Chinese characters are glossed with IPA and Zhuyin. (Sorry, no English.)
Fuzhou (Foochow/ Fuchow/ Hokchiew) is an Eastern Min language spoken primarily in Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province. Overseas, the Fuzhou language is alive and kicking in places like Sibu in Sarawak. In Mainland China, Fuzhou has got to be the most endangered metropolitan Southern Sinitic language (despite there being at least 6 million people in greater Fuzhou; languages with even millions of speakers can be endangered: e.g. this post cut-and-pasted from China News Service mentions that few youngsters in Fuzhou can converse in Fuzhou:
and this post laments the non-transmission of traditional Fuzhou lullabies:
Schools are taught in Mandarin (like most other places in Mainland China), and it seems that most Fuzhou people have rather low esteem for the Fuzhou language. I have read reports of non-immigrants born as early as 1970s who cannot speak Fuzhou, and primary school kids scolding their parents for not speaking Mandarin at home. The Fujian Government has promised to do something about the decline in use of the Fuzhou language, but so far the promises remain just promises.
Across the Taiwan Strait from Fuzhou is Taiwan; Taiwanese Aborigines speak various Austronesian languages, and the 'native' Chinese population traditionally speak Southern Min ('Taiwanese') or Hakka. The language policy of Taiwan in the 1950s was ultra-repressive. The Chinese Nationalist Government lost Mainland China to the Communists in 1949; they 'retreated' to Taiwan, and was determined to re-conquer Mainland China. For this reason the Nationalist Government was eager to supplant a 'Chinese' identity to the Taiwanese people, and this involves everyone speaking Mandarin. (Similar to how a 'French' or 'Japanese' identity involve everyone speaking the same language.) The first thing the Nationalist government did when they 'retreated' to Taiwan was to wipe languages other than Mandarin out of the public domain. The use of native languages — and the selling of Taiwanese Cuisine, amongst other local things — were suppressed. Teachers used 'dialect tags' to humiliate students who spoke non-Mandarin languages at school (similar to how the Japanese government used hougen-fuda 'dialect tags' to wipe-out the Ryukyuan languages). The use of languages other than Mandarin at schools was banned until the 1990s in Taiwan.
The Taiwanese Government gradually realised that there is no hope of re-conquering Mainland China. Since the 1990s, the government has become more and more interested in building an identity distinct from that of Mainland China. The language policy in Taiwan has become more and more 'localised', so localised that it is now compulsory (?) to learn a 'native' Sinitic or Austronesian language at school (all the other subjects, including 'Chinese', are taught in Mandarin). After the Nationalist Government 'retreated' to Taiwan in 1949, the Nationalist Government managed to keep three groups of islands just off the coast of Mainland China, and one of these is the Matsu Islands, just east of Fuzhou. Because local languages have to be taught in schools, (theoretically) the Taiwanese Government has to create a complete curriculum even for the smallest local language, and this includes the Fuzhou language, spoken by less than 10,000 people on Matsu which is less than 20 km from Mainland China but more than 260 km away from Taiwan. (A language with less than 10,000 speakers is a very small language by Chinese standards; there are curricula for the larger Austronesian languages, but I don't know whether there are curricula for the moribund ones.)
What pleasantly surprised me when I looked at the Taiwanese Fuzhou language textbooks was that it is actually Spoken-Fuzhou which is being taught to kids. In the Cantonese world, 'Chinese' classes are most usually taught in Cantonese, but what they teach is actually Modern Written Chinese (i.e. written Mandarin) pronounced in Cantonese, rather than spoken Cantonese. The writing of spoken Cantonese is the biggest no-no in schools, and written Cantonese is still stigmatised in the Cantonese world. (For example, to get an office job in Hong Kong you have to have competence in written English and written Mandarin; if you fill in your job application form using written Cantonese, you are unlikely to get the job.) In comparison, the Taiwanese Government is so determined at 'localising' the education language policy that they teach kids that Chinese characters can be used to write Sinitic languages other than Mandarin, and non-Mandarin Sinitic languages are not subordinate and not inferior to Mandarin. For this I congratulate the Taiwanese Government.
Compulsory teaching of an Austronesian or native Sinitic language?
If only the Australian government had as much respect for indigenous culture.
Posted by: Jangari | February 6, 2007 02:49 PM
I am a Foochow (Fuzhou aka North or Eastern Min language). I was born in Malaysia and fortunately because I was born in a community where spoken Foochow was alive (funnily enough much more alive than it is in Fuzhou, Fujian province in China). However Fuzhou/ Foochow is always regarded as inferior to Mandarin even by its native speakers. This is more evident amongst the younger generation who underwent Chinese (Mandarin) School Systems.
The Matsu initiative in Taiwan is commendable and I had been to the Foochow language website. Although the accent is somewhat different to the one I am used to, I could immediately recognise the similarity and the many features it shares with the Foochow I know. There are so many Foochow idioms that are not satisfactorily represented by contemporary Chinese writing based on Mandarin-grammar of the North.
If drastic actions are not taken, I fear Foochow language heritage will disappear eventually although it will be a very gradual process.
Foochow kids in Malaysia and Taiwan should not be made to feel their language is inferior to that of Mandarin and Mandarinization policy of China and Singapore should be carried out with care and thoughtfulness. I believe every so-called Chinese Regional Dialect has a right to exist and to be preserved for posterity apart from Mandarin.
It saddens me a lot that Foochow-speaking individuals make the conscious efforts of not wanting to converse in Foochow. This attitude should change!
Posted by: Oliver Loi | January 28, 2008 09:14 AM
The Authors
Amanda Harris
Aidan Wilson
Hilario de Sousa
Ian Smith
Joe Blythe
Jane Simpson (This is a multi-authored blog, and the views expressed are those of the authors, not of PARADISEC or the University of Sydney. If you'd like to contribute, please let us know!)
James McElvenny
Linda Barwick (PARADISEC)
Tom Honeyman
Vi King Lim (PARADISEC)
Bill Foley
About the Blog
The Transient Building, symbolising the impermanence of language, houses both the Linguistics Department at Sydney University and PARADISEC, a digital archive for endangered Pacific languages and music.
Indigenous Language SPEAK A forum for linguists, language speakers, educators and any other interested people to discuss any issues regarding language loss, language research, and fieldwork methodology within indigenous communities.
PARADISEC The Pacific And Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures
© 2008 The University of Sydney, NSW 2006 Australia. Phone +61 2 9351 2222.
ABN: 15 211 513 464 CRICOS Number: 00026A
Authorised by: Project Co-ordinator, PARADISEC.
The views expressed on this blog are those of the respective authors and not those of the University of Sydney.
Memoir by I Am Sarawakiana at 5:52 AM 2 memories
Labels: Foochow as a dialectr, Taiwan, transient languages and Cultures
Sunday, September 07, 2008
Reliving the First Foochow Pioneers' Planting of Rice in Sibu
Sept 7th 2008. I had the opportunity to start planting organic hill rice with my friends (Chemical Engineer husband and Accountant wife) in Sg. Rait. The two have acquired this wonderful piece of land a few years ago and would like to start planting rice this year before going into oil palm in the future. They thought that I should be part of their rice planting team. I have been over the moon by the invitation.
I have been acquiring the Iban traditional terminology regarding the ancient ways of padi or rice planting from them and other friends. This morning I was introduced to NUGAL and several other terms.
Early in the morning,when the skies were still dark by an impending storm we moved towards the farm land which has been already cleared a month ago. We saw the burnt logs and the soggy ground ready to receive the seeds. The rain came down in a small drizzle. But the awakening earth was giving out its warm moist air to create a misty humid though refreshing little world.
A small ikan keli was caught in one of the streams by T and we thought that it was a good omen which augured a pleasant and hopeful planting. A boy was sent back to the base to prepare the fresh fish to be cooked in banana leaves and aluminium foil over the fire which had already been started.
Two ladies had started cooking lunch at the base. A pig had already been slaughtered as a token of gratitude to those who have come to nugal. This is an age old practice - the pig is so symbolic in the Iban culture.
The small offering is called BERDERA which would consist of anything actually but this one consisted of feathers (taken from the chicken already slaughtered for its blood) and which would be later eat for lunch,rice leaves of vegetables as a "gift" for the "spiritual owner" of the land on which the rice would be grown.
Nugal is an ancient Iban practice to start the padi planting season off. T and another man paid tribute to the spirits of nature asking for protection and forgiveness that he was making an indent into the environment. It was also an opportunity for the farmers to say a prayer for a peaceful season and a bountiful harvest. The peace offering was made and we started to dig holes and put seeds into the holes.
No machinery was used for the seeding. Just plenty of helpful hands and the bending of backs.
Grandmother of Jemut (Enek Jemut) is slight in size with the body a Caucasian model would envy (she is by nature extremely slim and a size 6) and has been a farmer for all her life. Planting rice is very much a part of her every day chores. She goes in her natural and as a- matter- of- fact way of putting or rather shooting the seeds accurately in the holes already prepared for her. Very close to nature she does not ever say that life is a burden. It is a life to be celebrated with joy and one must be close to mother earth. She enveloped me into her space even though I am from another culture. I like her philosophy of life.
When fellow villagers or friends gather together to put the seeds into the soil it is called BERBENIH in the Iban language. The women are particularly skilled in holding the seeds between the fingers and shooting the seeds into the holes already poked by the men. So in a way the men would walk ahead of the women and the planting goes on, at times ever so silently.
The seeds are traditional species which have been carefully selected by T and his wife. Such a selection is important to ensure a good crop and harvest next year. We prayed that all factors ,including God the Almighty ,will be in favour of our planting.
This gathering of friends and fellow villagers to help would with the seeding is called BERDUROK- and the work is done in rotation. A group would start with friend A's farm and the following week Friend A would go with the group to Friend B's farm until every member's farm is seeded. No one would attempt to refuse to help another. The social shame of unwillingness to help will be carried for generations. This is BERDUROK, a communal affair from ages ago. One for all and all for one. And in this way the Iban farming culture has been sustained healthily for ages.
As I stood watching the fire smouldering in the light rain I was reminded of the tough life that my grandfather had when he first came to Sarawak. Did all the Foochow pioneers help each other in this way when they first landed in Sibu or did they work in small family units or did the man and wife work on the land as a pair or was it just the man only? I know for a fact that 40 years later most of the women worked on the land themselves with help from their children which was the case of my aunts and cousins.
By mid day I was already wet from the rain and my feet had been caked by the soggy mud. I had fallen into a puddle as the ground was slippery being an urban woman not used to farming from scratch. Farming has never been easy. I could feel that my mud caked hair was in need of shampooing and sweat was flowing furiously down my back. It was a good thing that the sun was not its usual strength by mid day. Hunger pangs were long forgotten as we breathed in the smoke and the misty air.
We just needed water!!
Jokes were cracked to make the work lighter towards the end of the morning and work was nearly accomplished. Anecdotes were related as the women made sure that all holes were filled with the seeds tenderly. With each throwing of seeds a prayer was sent up to heaven for a blessing that the harvest would be plentiful in a world where food supply was in crisis. We were not allowed to comment unnecessarily on the forthcoming crop. In case the gods are jealous.
These are the first leaves of a pumpkin plant already growing. To me nature has been kind and is already telling us that there is still plenty of hope for those of us who are willing to work the soil. I am looking forward to eating my favourite vegetable,pumpkin, soon.
It must have been tough for my grandfather and his brother to plant their first rice in Sibu with all the other pioneers when the Foochows first arrived .They had to acclimatise themselves to the hot equatorial climes. Besides they had to fight against malaria,other fevers,insects and mosquitoes,and unfathomable secrets of the new land. They could have been terrified of the local natives who luckily were more friendly than not.
It was a not- to- be -missed -opportunity for me to be able to relive this experience,sharing this significant day with my friends. Thank you for this hands-on experience. And I shall be praying for a bountiful harvest.
Stay tuned for the next step of rice growing.
Memoir by I Am Sarawakiana at 7:18 PM 4 memories

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Jerrad necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 38 diseños de 8 diseñadores freelance.
MMX Racing, Inc.
I am an ex-professional motocross/supercross racer. I just opened up a new track in Marysville, CA and I need a logo for my facility MMX Racing, Inc.
MMX is a track where everyone of all ages can have a great time; it has big jumps and is fast, but also safe. Marysville already has 2 motocross tracks, and with mine opening up, it makes 3. I am trying to set myself apart from the other owner/operator of E-Street MX.
I am looking for a logo that will represent not only my facility, MMX, but also cross-promote me. My last name is Fisher, but people call me "Fish" or "Fishbone" and I was hoping to integrate the fish skeleton or fish bones into the design idea.
Here are some things to keep in mind:
1. NO cartoons. I want it to be playful but not childlike
2. I want it to look "sick" and "hard" but still professional
3. I want something that stands out
Be Creative! Please don't use any stock images or clip art in the logo.
I would like lots of color options...just nothing patriotic.
Here are some styles that I like:
Here are some things to try and avoid:
Image files I will require:
Print file format- .ai (CMYK)
Web file format- .jpg and layered .psd (RGB)
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


text:
Religions Wiki:Editing guidelines
Here are some do's and don'ts to get you started on creating articles here on Iron Chariots. The founders are novices wiki editing, but these are some things we've learned.
- DO use Wikipedia as the gold standard. They've been at this a long time. When in doubt about style, try to find an entry similar to the one you're writing, and see how they do it.
- DON'T plagiarize Wikipedia... unless you really want to. In general, we should avoid making duplicate entries with Wikipedia. However, sometimes those pages have good information. So try to reword them if you have to borrow something, but it's not critical. Other good mines to plagiarize things from: dictionary.com; the official site of the subject that you're writing about.
- DO make a link out of the first occurrence of every key word that has an article attached to it, or should in the future.
- DON'T link subsequent occurrences of that word. Example: "I don't hate God. God doesn't even exist." (The second time "God" is used, no link.)
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- DO remember to add a category to new entries. Most subjects probably have a category if you think hard enough, and maybe several. (See the bottom of this article as an example.) Try to remember if there's a category that already fits the entry. If not, make one.
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text: Items relating to the Anglo-Norman Dictionary http://hdl.handle.net/2160/2538 2020-04-01T15:43:30Z Introduction to the Electronic Edition of the On-Line Anglo-Norman Dictionary http://hdl.handle.net/2160/2539 Introduction to the Electronic Edition of the On-Line Anglo-Norman Dictionary Trotter, David The title of this second edition of the Dictionary preserves the old name purely in order to maintain continuity with the first edition, which adopted 'Anglo-Norman' as being the term in current use in academic circles at the time in the later nineteen-forties when the idea of a glossary of the medieval French of Britain was first mooted. In this regard, it is perhaps worth noting that the dictionary of Robert Kelham going back to 1779, too early to be affected by the Neo-Grammarians who influenced the thinking behind the original Anglo-Norman dictionary project, was entitled A Dictionary of the Norman and Old French Language, a form of words indicating an awareness even at that time of a broader geographical base than 'Norman' alone. Although the title of the new Dictionary remains the same as before, its contents are very different from those of the earlier work. In the first edition a significant change in both the depth and the spread of coverage is noticeable from fascicle 5 onwards (P-Z), in effect dividing the Dictionary into two dissimilar halves. This was made possible by the introduction of the important fichier gathered over many years by J.P. Collas, containing material from a wide range of both literary and non-literary texts, and also by the Dictionary of Law French compiled by Elsie Shanks but never published, the first serious attempt to record what is still the basic lexis of present-day English law. These additions transformed especially the non-literary side of the Dictionary, which up to that point was represented by only a small selection of texts outside the literary canon. 2006-01-01T00:00:00Z


text:
Herbert Morris holds a joint appointment with the UCLA Department of Philosophy and recently has taught Criminal Law I, and Law, Philosophy and Literature. He is a nationally recognized philosopher of law.
Professor Morris served as Dean of Humanities of UCLA's College of Letters and Science from 1983 to 1993, and Interim Provost of the College from 1992 to 1993. He chaired the Board of Governors of the University's Humanities Research Institute from 1988 to 1990.
Professor Morris has lectured and written widely on moral and legal philosophy, including On Guilt and Innocence: Essays in Legal Philosophy and Moral Psychology (University of California Press, 1976). He is also the author of several works of literary criticism: The Masked Citadel: The Significance of the Title of Stendhal's La Chartreuse de Parme (University of California Press, 1961), "What Emma Knew: The Outrage Suffered in Jorge Luis Borges's Emma Zunz" (Indiana Journal of Hispanic Literatures, 1997) and Disclosures: Essays on Art, Literature, and Philosophy (self-published, 2017). He is editor of On Guilt and Shame (Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1971) and Freedom and Responsibility: Readings in Philosophy and Law (Stanford University Press, 1961).


text:
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Shameful, disgraceful, sad. Whatever you want to call it, the senators on this list need to be thrown out of office for being the corporate-owned scammers they are, masquerading as representatives of the people.
As Iowans, we are responsible for the way our representatives in congress vote. We elect them and send them to Washington to cast votes for and against policies that have an effect on people's lives. Grassley (and his fellow Republicans– not a single Democrat) voted against the United Nations adopting global guideline recommendations for treatment of people with disabilities.
See Paul Deaton's post yesterday for Grassley's statement.
Click here to contact Senator Grassley
Here are the 7 Republicans who voted Yea
Lugar -IN
Ayotte -NH
Mccain -AZ
Murkowski -AK
Snowe -ME
Collins -ME


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The only evening departure from continental Europe to Mumbai effective May 14,2014
Mumbai, India, 2014-1-22 — /travelprnews.com/ — Jet Airways, India's premier international airline, is proud to announce, a daily direct service from Mumbai to Paris with effect from May 14, 2014*. This new flight from India's financial capital Mumbai, to Paris, the world's most popular tourist destination, will be operated by wide-body Airbus A330 aircraft.
Jet Airways flight 9W 124 will depart from Mumbai's brand new Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, T2 at 1200 hrs and arrive at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport at 1750 hrs*. The return flight 9W 123 will depart Paris at 2110 hrs (LT) and arrive Mumbai at 0945 hrs the following day thus providing a seamless connection to the airline's entire network within India. Moreover, the return Jet Airways flight from Paris to Mumbai will make it the only evening departure from continental Europe to Mumbai.
Paris will be the airline's twenty first international destination, and will provide a key gateway point for travel to several destinations across Europe with Jet Airways' code share and interline partners.
To mark t this important launch, Jet Airways has announced a special return Economy introductory fare of INR 45,291/- (including taxes) and return Première introductory fare of INR 1,53,315 (including taxes) for guests traveling from Mumbai to Paris. The regular fare on this sector would be: Economy Rs. 62,040 and Premiere Rs. 2,02,114 (inclusive of taxes).
These fares available since January 14, 2014, have a travel validity commencing May 14, 2014. However, to avail of the attractive introductory fares, guests will need to book and purchase their tickets on or before February 10, 2014. In addition, JetPrivilege members can earn double miles on flights booked between 14th May to 13th June, 2014.
Jet Airways will deploy an Airbus A330-200 aircraft on this route, with 18 Premiere seats that open up as flatbeds and 236 ergonomic Economy seats offering guests unmatched comfort. Guests traveling to Paris will experience the airline's famed in-flight service, its award-winning In-flight Entertainment (IFE) system, carefully selected menus offering a range of Indian and international options, along with the airline's warm and personalized hospitality.
According to Mr. Gaurang Shetty, Vice President Commercial, Jet Airways, "Jet Airways is delighted to launch its maiden service to Paris, one of the world's top destinations and a key gateway point for airline guests traveling travelling between India and France while they experience Jet Airways' hallmark in-flight service. By offering enhanced connections to several European cities from Paris with our code share partners, we are confident that this new flight would prove immensely popular with our guests. Furthermore, Jet Airways would be able to offer guests seamless travel between Europe and India, and onwards to SAARC destinations including Colombo, Dhaka and Kathmandu and vice versa"
*- Subject to Government approvals.
About Jet Airways
Jet Airways currently operates a fleet of 113 aircraft, which include 10 Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft, 8 Airbus A330-200 aircraft, 4 Airbus A330-300 aircraft, 73 next generations Boeing 737-700/800/900/900 ER aircraft and 15 ATR 72-500 and 3 ATR72-600. With an average fleet age of 5.07 years, the airline has one of the youngest fleet of aircraft in the world. Flights to 75 destinations span the length and breadth of India and beyond, including Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Bangkok, Brussels, Colombo, Dammam, Dhaka, Doha, Dubai, Hong Kong, Jeddah, Kathmandu, Kuwait, London (Heathrow), Muscat, New York (Newark), Riyadh, Sharjah, Singapore and Toronto.
About JetKonnect
JetKonnect is a dedicated product designed to meet the needs of the low fare segment. JetKonnect will also offer guests a Premiere service on nearly all domestic routes. With its mixed fleet of Boeings and ATR aircraft with nearly 301 daily flights connecting 49 destinations across India, JetKonnect provides more flexibility and choice to its guests. JetKonnect's convenient schedules, reliable service and low fares, promise to bring greater value and a seamless flying experience to our customers.
Jet Airways and JetKonnect together operate nearly 573 daily flights, both domestic and international.


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Movie Review
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
Rated PG-13 for sexual content, dangerous stunts, a drug-related incident and language. 1 hour, 40 minutes.
Publication date: Mar. 15, 2013
Review by Tyler Hanley
Released: (2013)
Magic serves as an entertaining backdrop for this otherwise mediocre undertaking, with Carell playing the part of applauded Las Vegas magician Burt Wonderstone. The audience meets Burt at his most vulnerable, as a youngster perpetually bullied and left to his own devices by his absentee mother. A birthday gift in the form of a magic kit sets Burt on his future path, a direction further cemented when Burt meets fellow outcast Anton.
As adults, Burt and Anton (Steve Buscemi) have the hottest act in Sin City, but their traditional theatrics are growing stale. Burt's overblown ego has become a liability and edgy newcomer Steve Gray (Carrey, in an obvious caricature of street magician Criss Angel) is starting to transform how Vegas views magic. The lifelong friendship between Burt and Anton is torn asunder as casino mogul Doug Munny (James Gandolfini) seeks new ways to attract an audience.
"Wonderstone" is an enticing concept but lacks the laughs to back up its potential. The film's first half is almost arduous viewing, as Burt is so narcissistic and tactless that he is utterly unlikable, which all but dissolves any empathy built for the character in the film's opening scenes when Burt is a child. Fortunately, the picture picks up quite a bit in the second half, both in the story and humor departments. But there are only a handful of laugh-out-loud moments, such as when Carrey is trying to sleep on hot coals or Carell and Buscemi pass out after inhaling a faint-inducing vapor.
The casting is mostly solid -- especially Olivia Wilde as an aspiring magician and the always reliable Alan Arkin as an aging one. Buscemi and Gandolfini, however, are odd fits (although, to be fair, both seem fully invested in their parts). Director Don Scardino has a resume made up mostly of television gigs, and unfortunately it shows. The movie itself feels almost dated, with a soundtrack that boasts predictable and long-forgotten tunes. ("Magic," anyone?)
Part of the reason "Wonderstone" misses the mark is that magic itself is meant much more for the stage than the big screen. In person, magic can be hypnotic, but on film it is little more than adequate visual effects. And while the reunion of Carell and Carrey is something of a treat, the dynamic duo can't quite pull a rabbit out of this cinematic hat.
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The 34th Annual Palo Alto Weekly Short Story Contest is now accepting entries for Adult, Young Adult and Teen categories. Send us your short story (2,500 words or less) and entry form by April 10, 2020. First, Second and Third Place prizes awarded in each category. Sponsored by Kepler's Books, Linden Tree Books and Bell's Books.


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HealthLink BC is as close as your phone or the web any time of the day or night, every day of the year.
Call 8-1-1 toll-free in B.C., or call 7-1-1 for the deaf and the hard of hearing toll-free in B.C.
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May be a first in controlling a car.
May be a first in controlling a car.
Are you sure it really did all that stuff? >;) POIDH
ROFL, pretty sure you delayed your model S delivery by a good week, the technician will spend all this time figuring out what the hell is wrong with your car
That would make a fantastic ad for Tesla You should get that to Tesla marketing or tweet to Elon
Gotta love it
Already has the car, it's parked at home. No technicians nearby.
typo: kilimats
Don't forget to check the ambient temperature of your garage....
The app won't show you the ambient temperature, but the API protocol does. However, the interior and ambient temperatures aren't available except after you have started auto HVAC, but you can turn it on briefly and back off.
Apologies, I meant ambient cabin temperature. It isn't necessary to turn the HVAC on to read cabin temperature as it is displayed when the climate button is selected.
Sounds like the display doesn't know what "ambient" means..."completely enveloping".
You just know this is going to get hacked some day.
Honestly I'd rather the car not have this. I have lived quite a few years in the abject privation of not being able to control my car from Myanmar, and somehow I've managed to survive.
Slightly o/t
Is there a public API to the Tesla, so 3rd parties can make all kinds of Tesla Apps?
Not yet. Promised.
As long as some bored 13 year old Chinese hacker doesn't turn my seat heater up to 10, I think the risk of catastrophe is low.
How about honking the horn at 4 AM continuously? Of every Model S in the planet? At the same time?
How about hacking the firmware so that the display shows you have more range than you do, and then you suddenly run out of juice?
Infinite possibilities. And you know it will be hacked sooner or later.
I believe Elon Musk has a far greater chance of driving a Tesla on Mars around SpaceX City than he has of preventing a hack. Everybody gets hacked.
Expect the hack to come from the competition. For publicity purposes.
Hey Carmine,
What town in NJ are you from. I am in Manasquan. Just looking up fellow Model S owners in my area. Take care while in Myanmar.
@danielccc - so have you actually looked at what the remote access API can do, or are you just spreading FUD? Whether other cars provide remote access to the user or not (such as cellular modems in navigation systems, wireless tire pressure monitors, etc - see [PDF] https://www.google.com/url?q=http://ftp.cse.sc.edu/reports/drafts/2010-0... ), there is still the capability and if you aren't careful those can be exploited. Much better to have it open and usable and detect and fix any issues rather than just have security by obscurity.
@torst1 - no public API, but a number of people have reverse engineered it (and it is certainly subject to change, so your app may be broken at any time). https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ctuUKgEwi9JlQCjLX40Yx7n1pYKRnRsO6I7R...
Hmph. It's NEVER 4 a.m. simultaneously everywhere on the planet! Impossible. >:p
I got in trouble with this. The app was released the day before we took delivery. I downloded it and was able to watch what I though was my car moving down the road near the DC sales office. However, it turned out NOT to be my car. I was indavertently linked with another car for which I had not taken delivery (long story), but it was still on my profile, and the app function was turned on in the car, so I was able to open the roof, flash lights etc. on the white DEMONSTRATOR car currently in the DC sales office.
I emailed the DS that I was controlling what I thought was my car. She called immediately, was quite unhappy with me (nicely used the word "butthead"), infomed me that what I was seeing was surely NOT my car. The app stopped working almost immediately. By the next day the proper car was linked and I have been happily checking on my real car ever since. But we still chuckle thinking about the poor employees at Tesla DC, with their car flashing and beeping away for no apparent reason!
Some may not yet know this, but besides showing state of charge, the app graphically shows when the doors, roof, charging port, or rear hatch are open. When the car is miving it tells you (or anyone with the app and your login) the current speed, and you can watch its movement on the map part of the app. Very cool stuff. Only a little big-brother scary.
How does one 'nicely' use the word butthead :-)
New handle, "Poltergeist_Dave"? <8-p
I almost choked on my oatmeal reading your post--very funny!
nat, I have been coding for 30 years. If you can get to it from the Internet, it's hackable. The API capability is not relevant. An exploit would break the API to begin with.
This isn't FUD. It applies to all cars with a system like this, not just Tesla. But Tesla is a more interesting target. You may have noticed that there are people who are eager to generate bad publicity for the company.
I am not proposing security by obscurity. I am proposing security by no remote access, period.
Let me give you an example of an exploitable problem right now. The iPhone lock screen has a bug in iOS 6.1.1, the current version. This means somebody steals your iPhone can access it, see the Tesla app, and locate and control your car.
Sure, that's an Apple bug. But that's kind of the point. A service like this introduces vulnerabilities that Tesla does not even control.
I don't think the gain in convenience is worth the extra risk. It's my opinion. You are free to disagree.
I can pre-heat my car every day remotely. It's worth the risk. Will someone want to honk my horn or go for a credit card database? I'm a low value target. Grasp your phone more tightly or hide the app, then it won't appear on the screen. Problem solved.
I am all for remote control, but local. Why would anybody really need to heat their car from Bangladesh or wherever?
Butthead. Be honest now. If you could, would you do it all over again? >;p
You make me LOL every time I visualize the scene, too!


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Thu, myself, Linh, Hanh, Tiffany, Vinh and Trang spent our New Year Eve in Gold Coast - Surfer's Paradise.
Going on theme parks was lots of fun. But I'm annoyed with some people in the group keep insisting we eat Vietnamese food. Next time I'll holiday just the two of just to save the hassle.


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Tagged With: Victoria KS
Kansas- There's No Place Like the Sunflower State
For a long time, Kansas had been the thorn in my side. From what I had been told, Kansas was nothing more than a flat-as-a-pancake, farming no-mans-land, where the high winds blow the smell of manure right up your nose and even driving across makes some people go crazy. I was worried about the monotony, the increasing distances between civilization, and also the complete lack of natural shelter from the elements. I received a warm welcome in Kansas from my own dad, who happened to have a business trip in Kansas City around the same time I would be there. Initially, Kansas surprised me in that it was much more hilly than expected
There are very few trees
The people are much more friendly than some folks in Missouri think they are
The towns got smaller and smaller, and the distance between them got farther and farther.… Read more


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Woman Tells Judge Exotic Animal Law Will Put Business, Animals' Lives In Danger
COLUMBUS, Ohio
An animal owner has told a federal judge that Ohio's new regulations on exotic creatures would wipe out most of her business and put her animals' lives in danger.
Cyndi Huntsman testified Monday that a requirement that animals receive a microchip for identification would put animals at risk because of sedation during surgery.
Huntsman owns Stump Hill Farms near Massillon. She exhibits bears, lions and tigers to schoolchildren and the elderly through educational programs.
She is one of four owners suing the state over the new law claiming it violates their property and First Amendment rights.
The state defends the law as a common sense measure to address the growing public safety problem of private ownership of exotics animals.
©2020 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Current region > Ireland
John Sisk & Son's experience of handling large and complex office projects offers clients confidence based on proven delivery and innovative approaches to each project's unique set of challenges.
The range of buildings delivered for the commercial sector truly reflects the diversity of our expertise and the breadth of our clients' needs. Some schemes demand working in confined space and maintaining access or operation to neighbouring sites, while others represent today's expectation that sustainability is a key part of the design and build process, reflected in higher BREEAM ratings.


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One thing you can say about the New York Times: The company couldn't be nicer about firing people. Today's sorry-and-good-bye memo is a paragon of grace and honor.
One thing you can't say, though, is that the company fully appreciates how far up the creek it is. This happy addendum to the pay-cut section of the memo, for example, is almost certainly wishful thinking:
Although employee pay will be cut by 5% for the remaining three-quarters of the year, you will be entitled to 10 additional personal days off over the nine months. Next year, we plan to return salaries to their current levels.
One can always hope.
For NYT staffers who maintain the sensible life-strategy of preparing for the worst, however, here's a more likely scenario:
Eventually, when the economy recovers, some salaries might once again be raised to 2007 levels. Over the intervening years, however, at least 40%-50% of the newsroom will be fired.
Unlike other newspapers, the New York Times will not disappear. There's just too much value in the franchise and web site for that to happen. But the revenue model that has sustained the paper's hefty cost structure for more a century is gradually disintegrating, and there is just no way the company will be able to replace it.
For now, the New York Times still has a healthy subscription business, and advertising revenue will eventually see a cyclical recovery. Eventually, however, the last generation of folks who were reared to get their news (and ads) in a once-a-day dead-tree package will die off, and the company will be left with a thriving but relatively tiny web business.
What might this business look like?
If the New York Times made the sensible move of charging an online subscription fee, it would likely be able to generate about $200 million a year from its current NYTimes.com web business (ads and subscriptions). The current newsroom, we are told, costs about $200 million a year. Whatever the company spends on editorial, it will need to spend at least as much on the business side (ad sales, technology, management, customer service, etc.). And it will still need some room to make a reasonable profit (say, 20% operating margin).
Put all that together, and the New York Times will, in all likelihood, eventually have to shrink its newsroom by 50% (assuming some growth in revenue). And even doing this would be a feat worthy of applause: The Seattle P-I just shrank its newsroom by 88%. And some papers have just shut down entirely.
So today's costs cuts and layoffs are another small step in the necessary direction. They almost certainly won't be the last, however. And they also aren't a long-term strategy.


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This was published 7 years ago
No end in sight to EU carbon permit glut
European Union emission permits are poised to drop to a record in the first half as member states in the world's largest carbon market fail to diminish the biggest- ever glut.
Allowances will fall below the record 5.93 euros ($7.50) a metric ton reached last month, according to eight analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. That implies a decline of at least 8.3 per cent from yesterday's closing price. The surplus may rise 18 per cent this year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
The EU's regulatory arm last year proposed to delay the sale of some permits in a process known as backloading to boost prices and shrink supply. A failure to tackle the glut may discourage utilities from switching to natural gas and other less-polluting energy sources from coal, the 27-nation bloc said in a November report. That may curb investment needed in non- fossil fuel generation, estimated by New Energy Finance at about 400 billion euros, to meet the EU's 2020 climate targets.
"Given the backloading may not commence earlier than in the fourth quarter, 2013 could, at best, be a year of stagnation," said Matthew Gray, a Jefferies Group Inc. analyst in London who has tracked the market since 2008. "At worst, the proposal will fail and prices will collapse, potentially to 3 euros."
EU carbon for delivery in December fell as much as 3.7 per cent to 6.23 euros a ton on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London today. It was at 6.26 euros as of 4:04 p.m., taking this year's decline to 6.2 per cent after a 16 per cent drop in 2012. By comparison, Brent crude oil has gained 0.2 per cent this year and rose 3.5 per cent last year on ICE.
12,000 installations
The region's emissions trading system, or the EU ETS, imposes pollution caps on about 12,000 installations owned by manufacturers and power plants. The limits on discharges were set before the euro area entered two recessions in four years. The bloc's regulator has little room to prevent a decline in prices because there is no mechanism for cutting supply.
Companies will need to buy almost half the permits in the system starting this month. In previous years they got most of them for free and had to buy extra if needed.
Delays in auctions would amount to market manipulation, Poland's Environment Minister Marcin Korolec said in April. The measure will cut income from sales of permits in Cyprus, Poland, Estonia, Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Romania by about 1.9 billion euros in 2013 to 2020, his ministry said last month.
"There is a great deal of uncertainty whether the backloading proposal will achieve the necessary support from member states," said Kathrin Goretzki, an analyst at UniCredit SpA in Munich who predicts prices will fall to 5 euros by June 30. "Given the large amount of allowances to be auctioned in 2013, we expect that prices will remain depressed."
Clarity needed
The EU plan to sell fewer permits in the three years through 2015 will probably be delayed until next year, according to UniCredit. UBS AG, Switzerland's biggest bank, said EU nations will probably discuss the plan for a year and then abandon it next year. The company forecasts prices from 5 euros to 7 euros in 2013. Barclays Plc, based in London, said there's a 50 per cent chance of it passing.
Connie Hedegaard, the bloc's climate-action commissioner, said in November that the carbon market needed clarity on the backloading plan in 2012. Several member states were undecided at a meeting in December about whether they would back the measure, an EU official, who declined to be identified by name, said at the time. European governments may formally vote on the strategy in March at the earliest, the official said.
"We are very confident that governments understand the positive impacts of backloading and will therefore support it," Isaac Valero-Ladron, a climate spokesman for the commission, said yesterday by e-mail.
'Lost decade'
The commission would like to have the draft measure approved as early as possible to improve the functioning of the market, ensure higher state budget revenue from carbon auctions and provide prices high enough to drive low emissions technology, Valero-Ladron said. Proposals considered in this type of legislative procedure usually need four to five months to enter into force after a vote by member states.
Germany and the U.K. are among nations still undecided on whether to vote in favor of backloading. The two countries together hold almost 17 per cent of total votes in the EU ballot system, meaning their support may be needed to avoid deadlock. A fix may boost the appeal of investing in cleaner sources of energy than coal, such as nuclear and natural gas. EON SE is among utilities considering whether to close gas-fed plants while Electricite de France SA is among companies studying the construction of new reactors.
"It's beginning to feel like we're in a lost decade in terms of mobilizing private investment for emissions-reduction projects," said Trevor Sikorski, an analyst at Barclays in London who expects prices to average 7 euros or less this year. "The price signal shows we've overinvested."
Financial crisis
EU allowances for delivery this year extended their loss to 77 per cent since they started trading in 2008. The excess of permits rose to 1.1 billion tons at the end of last year, or almost 50 per cent of the bloc's annual pollution limit, according to New Energy Finance. The EU market began in 2005.
The 17-nation euro area's economy will contract 0.6 per cent this quarter and 0.2 per cent in the three months through June, according to the median of 25 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
The value of transactions in the global carbon market dropped 36 per cent last year to 61 billion euros, as prices decreased, New Energy said Jan. 3. Australia introduced compulsory carbon pricing on July 1. California's market began this month, boosting 2013 trading.
The EU's estimated surplus may swell to 1.3 billion tons this year without backloading, said Konrad Hanschmidt, an analyst at New Energy Finance in London.
EU ballot
Carbon permits will probably rise above 10 euros a ton if nations agree on the plan, said Matteo Mazzoni, a NE Nomisma Energia Srl analyst in Bologna, Italy.
The EU commission needs 255 out of 345 votes from member states and approval from the region's parliament to tackle the glut. In the EU ballot system, which favors larger countries, the U.K. and Germany each have 29 votes. Poland, which leads the opponents of backloading, has 27.
"Backloading will never be agreed," said Daniel Rossetto, the managing director of Climate Mundial Ltd., a London-based consulting company that works in carbon markets. "Lawmakers and market participants will realize that backloading does not offer the 'once-only' intervention that is desired. If implemented, it would seriously impact confidence levels in the scheme itself."
The commission, which sees auction delays as a short-term measure to fix the market, has already started a debate on long- term options to strengthen the ETS.
'Original sin'
In a report presented to governments in November the regulator set out tighter emission limits and cancellation of carbon permits as well as mechanisms to support prices and restrict imported offset credits as potential scenarios to improve the market.
The best way to fix the market is to tighten emission- reduction targets, Mazzoni said. With climate slipping down the global policy agenda, increased supply of permits at auctions and backloading unlikely to happen "anytime soon," carbon prices may fall as low as 4 euros a ton, he said.
"The original sin lies in the lack of flexibility the system has in terms of supply-demand balance," Mazzoni said.
Offset credits in the United Nation's Clean Development Mechanism have also plunged. Credits for delivery this year settled yesterday at 43 euro cents, down almost 90 per cent in the last six months.