Washburn White Lightning. Nice ......

Funky Munky has just released the Dime White Lightning prototype. Very nice. Now I need some cash to get it so don't forget to check out the links in this blog.

Friendster, Facebooks....

I just got an invite to join Facebook from a friend and I've gone to Friendster. I'd like to know how many of these are sites are there? And which are the top ones? I'm still a noobie at this and just wondering out loud.......

My condolences to the Sheikh Mustafa family

I would like to offer my condolences to the Sheikh Mustafa family. To Sheikh Muszapha, be strong.

From the Star article

SEREMBAN: The family laid his brother to rest in the afternoon and it was a heartbreaking homecoming for space hero Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, who arrived several hours after the funeral.

Fighting back tears, the astronaut hugged his father, Datuk Sheikh Mustapha Abdul Shukor, as soon as he arrived at the Negri Sembilan state mosque here from the KL International Airport.

Younger brother Sheikh Mustafa, 32, went into a coma and died at the University Malaya Medical Centre after falling and hitting his head against a pillar at a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday.

The family went ahead with the funeral after receiving news that Sheikh Muszaphar's flight from Moscow, via Bangkok, would be delayed for three hours.

His brother's remains were brought from the family home in Petaling Jaya at 12.55pm and buried at the Tuan Haji Said Muslim burial ground here after zohor prayers at 2.30pm yesterday.

Present were his three other brothers, Sheikh Ahmad, 37, Sheikh Taufiq, 36, and Sheikh Awiz, 29.

Malaysia's first man in space, who was earlier scheduled to arrive at the KLIA at 2.10pm, touched down at the KLIA only at 5.30pm.

Angkasawan waste of money? I don't think so

I need to get this out of my chest cos in the midst of surfing for Dr Sheikh Muszaphar's information on the web, I keep seeing all these negative comments on Space Flight Participant, Space Tourist, waste of money, part time model, we didn't build a spaceship so we don't need to go to space and whatever else. Everyone has their own opinions and I have to respect that but I will need to disagree on this. Please note that I am not aligned to any political directions nor do I want to. I for one am excited that we sent an Angkasawan to space.

Space flight participant, space tourist, angkasawan or whatever, somebody has to foot the bill when you go to outer space. American taxpayers pays for their astronaut, Russian taxpayers pays for their cosmonauts and ,surprise, surprise Malaysian taxpayers for our angkasawan. A regular shuttle launch is about 1/2 a billion dollars ( from what I have been told) not to mention the billions of research since the 1950's and ours is far-far less then that. We didn't build a rocket or help to build the space station yet, and therefore we have no right to send someone to space. What??? Its like saying we didn't create the car so we have no right to drive. We have worked on satellites and big planes( I know some of the engineers there) so we are building skills. This is our first manned space mission so we might as well follow the experts rather then building our own spaceship.

Doctor Sheikh Muszaphar is Medical Doctor ( an achievement in itself) , an orthopaedic surgent, a University lecturer, a volunteer for Mercy Malaysia, a part time businessman, beat out 10000 candidates and survived a year in the Russian training facility. Very impressive but he is a part time model so he is less qualified. Ridiculous. This guy is qualified to go to space and that's it.

I do hope we can continue with space research. Maybe help to build part of a space station, a probe, eventually our own manned vehicle. Another angkasawan would be nice too but we will need to make it worth our money like getting a cure for cancer, AIDS, trying to solve world hunger..... I know we are going to pay more for this but as long as we don't starve doing it, we should be alright.

So, congratulations Dr Sheikh for landing safely and throughout the whole trip, you have represented Malaysia well and to the whole team which made this possible and here's to the future..

Congratulations Dr Sheikh Muzaphar. The first Malaysian Angkasawan ( Astronaut ). Tahniah!!

From a Malaysian, we are proud of you. You are the First Malaysian Angkasawan in outer space. No matter what people say, you are a fully certified Astronaut and Cosmonaut with a year's training and performing all of those scientific experiments for the space agencies all over the world. I have been stuck at channel 588 for most of the time. I can foresee that you will receive a hero's welcome as you should.

Captain Faiz, you are also our trained angkasawan. God Willing, you will be our second man in space. The Prime Minister giving the go ahead, we hope this will happen and as a taxpayer, I would not mind my contribution for the next manned mission. Maybe you will be involved with the continually building of the ISS.

From the space race, we can see that this has made the national superpowers of today what they are and I hope this will happen in Malaysia. Hopefully, we will get excited to improve our scientific knowledge and also our social status. My imagination has run wild like making our own rockets, maybe launching our own satellites, who knows. I know this has been used so much but ...... Malaysia Boleh.