Did he, or did he not, cause the crash?

by Iva Skoch on

Pilots in Jakarta have been protesting over the arrest of Marwoto Komar, the Garuda national airline pilot accused of causing the 2007 plane crash, which killed 21 people. There are, of course, two sides of the story.

The pilot has been under police supervision since the crash, BBC reports. The chairman of the Indonesian Pilots Federation, Manotar Napitupulu, said that the “criminalization of pilots will put pilots under pressure in carrying out their job”. The federation has been receiving support from pilots’ groups around the globe.

On the other hand, the Indonesia’s National Transport Safety Committee said that the pilot ignored 15 warnings against landing and approached the runway too fast. He has been charged with five offenses, including negligence causing deaths and the destruction of an aircraft and could face more than five years in jail.

This is a tough one. I don’t envy the responsibility pilots have over human lives. Yet, not even pilots are immune from making bad judgments…

Prostitution in Monkeyland?

by Abha Malpani on

If anyone says that they don’t stop in their tracks when they see animals mating (out of sheer curiosity, of course), they are probably lying.

When I was in India on a school trek, I remember seeing a chameleon getting it on with another and it changed colors in the process! It’s not something you see often, and I personally think it’s fascinating.

But, who would have thought that paying for sex extends to the animal kingdom?

According to the Discovery Channel, evidence has been found that male monkeys “pay” for sex by untangling and cleaning dirt and parasites from the fur of the females. The higher the ratio of male to female monkeys, the more grooming the male monkeys need to do to get their sex-life going. This process can last from a few seconds up to half-an-hour and turns the monkeys on. Scientists are guessing that this is how foreplay in humans developed. Also, it seems that materialism is part of primate social life as well: the higher status monkeys don’t have to work as hard as lower status monkeys have to for sex.

The research was conducted in Indonesia from 2003-2005 where the 243 grooming sessions of long-tailed macaques were analyzed.

Although we evolved from these animals, you hardly imagine that the prostitution and materialism of humans also have roots in our animal ancestors.

An exotic island trip

by Jerry Guo on

Sure, there’s plenty of little known and undoubtedly exotic islands to visit. But I don’t think you can get much better than this. Krakatau is an island near Indonesia that’s actually just a few decades old.

A massive volcanic eruption destroyed its “mother” in 1883. Around the early part of the 20th century, it was reborn in another eruption. In the last few months, it’s become active again, so there’s been some warnings to stay off the island.

Anyways, there’s a travel agency specializing in volcano tours that promises to take you there, and lets you camp. What’s amazing about the island is that life is popping back up–it’s like watching the Galapagos in its early days. Here’s more info about the 3-day tour.

Indonesia’s tourism slogan no grammatical

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Indonesia’s new campaign to attract tourism has generated a slogan with a grammatical mistake, Indonesian officials acknowledged recently. “‘Visit Indonesia 2008. Celebrating 100 Years of Nation’s Awakening’ has been printed on billboards, government Web sites and emblazoned on the sides of aircraft belonging to the national carrier, Garuda” according to an AP story. Officials from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said that the word “Nation’s” would be replaced with “National” in the new slogan.

The campaign, which cost the government roughly US$96,000, has drawn criticism for other reasons as well. Critics say that tourists are unlikely to be lured by an ad campaign touting an anniversary that even many Indonesians don’t know about– the 1908 formation of Boedi Oetomo, or “Noble Endeavor,” Indonesia’s first nationalist group.

I thought that was common knowledge– apparently not.

More bad tourism campaigns here and here.

Photo of the Day (12-11-07)

by Martha Edwards on


My favourite time of the day, no matter where I am, is dusk — when the hurried craziness of the city is winding down into stillness and calm. This photo from Lady Expat illustrates this so well. She doesn’t specify where this is taken but from her other photos, I assume it’s Bali. But it’s one of those photos that could be from anywhere, you know?

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