Since the currency peg on the Malaysian ringgit was released, we’ve seen the ringgit rise by around 4.8 percent to its current status of US$1 = MYR3.60. While this is predominantly a good thing given its adherence to the free market principles our Government desperately hopes will propel Malaysia’s future development, it hasn’t really helped Malaysian students aiming to go overseas to study as much as we’ve hoped.

Why? Well, the two traditional tertiary education hotspots overseas, i.e. the United Kingdom and United States, have held their own on the foreign exchange market pretty well - especially in recent weeks. The Pound Sterling has recovered much of its strength in the past month, and is now close to returning to the RM 7.00 = 1 Pound threshold UK-bound students know and fear.

But there is hope for the future, at least analysts think so. Recently, it was announced by the ANZ Bank (plus some other organisations) that it is likely that the Malaysian ringgit will appreciate further over 2006 and 2007 due to strong economic prospects, and of course, a weak US dollar. Expectations of higher interest rates have also assisted the ringgit’s rise, and will help underpin a stronger ringgit.

But if the Pound Sterling continues displaying its remarkable strength… urghh, a British education will continue to be hell to pay for. At least students bound for the US have a better outlook given the strong belief that the US Dollar will continue its fall in the medium to long term.

Wow. That’s a 71-year difference between the guy and the gal. You wouldn’t blink an eye at a difference of 10, 20, or even 30 years, but 71-years? And in Malaysia - an Islamic country, with generally conservative values - too.

If you thought the marriage was all about money, think again. According to news reports, the 104-year-old woman is poor. But I’ve to admit that it was my first line of thought after looking at the age difference and the fact that this is the woman’s 21st marriage. Black magic? Probably not. Sympathy? Probably yes since the guy said that he was initially attracted to her after discovering that she was “…childless, old, and alone.”

But who are we to judge? And should we even judge? With all the talk of producing an open-minded society in Malaysia, unconventional marriages should be accepted instead of looked upon cynically. Of course, I’m not telling you not to look at such issues critically…

If a Malay gets selected as Malaysia’s representative when the Russians set off to the International Space Station in October 2007, not only will he be the first Malaysian astronaut, but also the first Muslim space traveller.

And as most of you would know, devout Muslims are required to pray five times a day, and to face Mecca while doing so. Herein lies the problem, as there is serious difficulty in determining the direction the astronaut would have to pray towards in space.

But it seems a Malaysian professor over at University Kebangsaan Malaysia has already figured the problem out, and has written a computer program to calculate all that needs to be known.

So, why in the world did I blog about this? Well, it was just so… unique, wasn’t it? After all, you’re not going to see a problem like this manifest again any time soon you know.

Wow. I’m sure male high school students all around the world would scream for pornography as “punishment” for not completing homework. So, it’s surprising that the 13-year old students forced to endure this “punishment” informed their parents about it (yes, I’m only joking, sheesh!).

Anyway, enough of the bad jokes and back to the facts. It seems that recently, a government school teacher forced his students to watch a pornographic movie as punishment for not completing their homework. Both his male and female students were herded into an audio-visual room for this “punishment”.

At this point in time, I’m not sure whether the teacher is a sex maniac, or merely imbecilic. Porn as “punishment”? Did he think he wouldn’t be reported? What happened to the rod, the water bucket, or running around the track as punishment? Whatever it is, I really doubt I would even want to know.

Incest and rape come in many forms, some more extreme than others - though all absolutely heinous and unjustifiable. But few would have imagined the recent case of a father - having four wives - raping his 12 to 15-year old daughters.

But, we’ve heard such cases before. So, what makes this man particularly evil is that he used religion to convince his wives that he “owned” his children, thus giving him the right to have sex with them. At this point, I won’t blame his wives that were (for some reason or another) gullible enough to convince their children to have sex with him. According to The Star, the daughters were actually prepped by their mothers, with various reasons given to justify the act of incest.

In any case, I’m sure that those of us out here are relieved that the eldest daughter finally reported their father to the police, and can only hope that this man is given the harshest possible sentence in the book.

P.S.: I rarely throw around highly subjective words like “evil” in my articles or essays. Please tolerate just this instance.

While the final eight astronaut candidates were revealed for the last leg of screenings last month, it seems that we now have only four left to choose from. The only woman candidate among the eight, engineer S. Vanajah, remains among the final four, fueling speculation that the first Malaysian astronaut could very well be a woman.

The final eight candidates underwent a seven-stage screening before four were eliminated, and were initially chosen from a pool of 11,000 applicants since our National Space Agency started the screening campaign in 2003. According to the press release, the final four will undergo “stringent training” in Moscow, Russia, after which the final two candidates will be selected.

One among the two will be eliminated through a further 18-month training stint in Moscow, after which the final candidate will follow the expedition to the International Space Station (ISS) scheduled for October next year.

Although there shouldn’t be any need for West Malaysians to fear the Hand Foot Mouth Disease (HFMD), it is still saddening to see the recent spate of deaths from the disease in Sarawak. So far, the death toll is already at 6 (up from 5 before), and the approximate total number of children infected in Sarawak alone is at 3,984.

488 primary schools and kindergartens have been directed to shut down temporarily to prevent the disease from spreading further, but it seems there are some that refuse to obey the directive.

The primary reason why the death toll is such a small proportion of those infected is that getting HFMD does not necessarily mean death. There are two main variants of HFMD - the usually non-fatal Coxsackie A16 virus and the highly dangerous Enterovirus 71. Catching the Coxsackie A16 is normally a one-week affair (as long as treatment is conducted), while most deaths are caused by the Enterovirus 71.

In my opinion, this makes the current death toll all the more serious as there should only be a relatively small chance of children dying from the disease. Hopefully, both the authorities and administrators of public areas (like kindergartens) will take this to heart and ensure that containment and treatment are successful.