Wednesday 25 April 2012

Just let it go...

(Bernama) - Malaysian Airline System Bhd (MAS) recorded a net loss of RM2.52 billion, on the back of RM13.9 billion in revenue, for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2011.

For the fourth quarter, the national carrier recorded RM1.28 billion in net loss, on a turnover of RM3.68 billion, said group chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya.
He said the bottom-line group losses for 2011 underscored the imperative need for the airline to immediately adopt strong measures to stop the “bleeding".

“This includes staff redeployment, increasing productivity and efficiency, relentless cost control and making further reviews.

“We are also implementing an aggressive sales and marketing strategy,” he told a press conference here today.

Ahmad Jauhari said the group’s full year performance was severely impacted by a 21% increase in expenditure of RM16.2 billion, from RM13.41 billion in 2010, previously.

He said the higher expenditure was due to a 33% increase in fuel cost of RM5.85 billion and a 15% increase in non-fuel expense of RM10.43 billion.

The rise in non-fuel expense was mainly due to provisions totalling RM1.09 billion made in the fourth quarter for stock obsolescence, redelivery of aircraft and impairment of freighter aircraft.

Ahmad Jauhari said the accounts for the year under review recognised provisions and escalating operational costs which, although painful, provided a holistic snapshot of the organisation and full knowledge of the company’s actual position.

For the full year, Malaysia Airlines saw capacity (available seat per kilometre) increase seven percent, passenger traffic up five percent but lower seat factor reducing to 75%.

He said revenue and average fares across all classes showed improvement throughout the year, particularly in the front-end cabins.
However, there was an overall drop in seat factor as the airline strived for better yields.

On a regional performance basis, the domestic and short-haul, intra-Asean services continued to be key markets for the company, with these segments reporting positive growth on a quarterly, as well as, on a year to-date basis, he added.

Meanwhile, the cargo division suffered in line with an overall slowdown of the industry, globally.
Revenue dropped 14%, capacity decreased nine percent while yield increased two percent.

Ahmad Jauhari also said MASkargo recorded a loss before tax of RM19 million in 2011 compared with a profit of RM141 million in the previous year due to higher fuel costs and impairment of its A330 freighter fleet.



**********************************************************


I cannot remember when was the last time reading about MAS making any profits at all.
Honestly, this national carrier making such a big loss is no more news...it's expected.
MAS making it back in black IS news and would be an event to celebrate by the shareholders.

Idris Jala after being picked and appointed thought he can help solved the company's problems and sold some assets to help the company breath, but nope. It didn't help.


This outfits is unsaveable...that is what I feel.
When such big outfits had been on such a big loss for three years straight, it definitely need a decade to overcome the situation and crawl to the recovery line.


Or perhaps not at all due to all factors and ever increasing expenditures, which is unavoidable.

Let face the fact.


There are huge multinationals that had been controlling the market shares crashed and can't keep up. Which I think MAS should just be dissolved and if Malaysia want to have their own national carrier, make sure it is run by smart and honest people.
Charging very high ticket prices will not promise you good line of passengers.
And blaming it on high fuel prices were just lame.


When passengers are being charged for the fuel prices increment worldwide, you MAS, are not bearing it all 100 percent yourself. The surcharge is not little for paying customers.


To me that excuse was like blaming it on the rain when one can't find anything concrete to put the blame on and refuses to blame the management per se.
And Ahmad Jauhari Yahya -- you are right on one thing.
It's bleeding. And it's bleeding profusely hard.
Internal bleeding was the initial reason, and now it has created major parts crash and bleed out which certainly spell dying...sooner or later.


Bailing out by the government...again? Until when?

Implementing aggressive sales and marketing strategy would not help you much MAS.
Maybe a mere 15% if there is luck and hard persistence sell because you know well that other neighbouring carrier can offer much cheaper rates to same sector, and people rather flew down to neighbouring country to catch a flight to EU.
On the local front, your nemesis is controlling it, and they are doing it well. The airport in Sepang during festive holidays is worst than bus stations packed with people of all kinds.
No doubt you created your own brand of local flight to counter attack , but when the prices of your baby is 15% lesser than what you offer, and much expensive than your nemesis, for people like me, we'd rather pay that 15% and get a better and bigger plane.
Furthermore, your baby is not fiery enough and it didn't cover many small airports in the country.


So why have one?
And why not swallow the fact that MAS can't be saved, and aiding it would only make another hole on another accounts bigger....












Saturday 14 April 2012

4 year old genius joins Mensa with IQ of 159.

A four-year-old girl has stunned academicians with an IQ of 159, just one point below Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein.

Heidi Hankins has become the youngest member to get an entry into the elite IQ club 'Mensa'.
She sat for Mensa test, a mixture of problem-solving puzzles and word games, after nursery staff struggled to find activities to challenge her.
By the age of two, she could count to 40, draw pictures of people, recite poems and read books meant for seven-year-olds.
Within a year, she was adding and subtracting.
Her parents Matthew, 47, a University of Southampton lecturer, and Sophy, 43, an artist, are hoping their daughter can skip a school year when she starts in September.
Heidi sat a Wechsler IQ test, which uses puzzles to measure a child's intellectual potential.
"We always thought Heidi was bright because she was reading early. I was curious about her IQ and the results were off the scale," the Daily Mail quoted Dr Hankins as saying.
"I got her the complete set of the Oxford Reading Tree books when she was two and she read through the whole set of 30 in about an hour. It's what you would expect a seven-year-old to do. She was making noises and trying to talk literally since she was born and by age one her vocabulary was quite good. She was using full sentences almost as soon as she started to speak," he revealed.
Dr Hankins said Heidi was drawing princesses and animals aged 14 months - an age when most children can only mark the page.
And at 18 months the family found her using the computer to teach herself to read.
Heidi is a head taller than her classmates, and at 3ft 10in is closer to an average six year old.
The Hankins, from Winchester, Hampshire, also have a nine-year-old son, Isaac, who is a chorister at Winchester Cathedral.
"Heidi has really flourished quicker than other children - academically, artistically and physically, Dr Hankins said.
"We don't push Heidi at all. She has taken up everything herself and teaches herself.
"She is not precocious, she is just a little girl who likes her Barbies and Lego but then you will find her sitting down and reading a book," Dr Hankins said.
The average adult IQ score is 100 while a 'gifted' score is 130.
"Heidi's parents correctly identified that she shows great potential," John Stevenage, chief executive of British Mensa, added. (ANI)

Tuesday 3 April 2012

Eggs + Urine = Chinese

DONGYANG, China (Reuters) - It's the end of a school day in the eastern Chinese city of Dongyang, and eager parents collect their children after a hectic day of primary school.

But that's just the start of busy times for dozens of egg vendors across the city, deep in coastal Zhejiang province, who ready themselves to cook up a unique springtime snack favored by local residents.
Basins and buckets of boys' urine are collected from primary school toilets. It is the key ingredient in "virgin boy eggs", a local tradition of soaking and cooking eggs in the urine of young boys, preferably below the age of 10.

There is no good explanation for why it has to be boys' urine, just that it has been so for centuries.

The scent of these eggs being cooked in pots of urine is unmistakable as people pass the many street vendors in Dongyang who sell it, claiming it has remarkable health properties.

"If you eat this, you will not get heat stroke. These eggs cooked in urine are fragrant," said Ge Yaohua, 51, who owns one of the more popular "virgin boy eggs" stalls.

"They are good for your health. Our family has them for every meal. In Dongyang, every family likes eating them."

It takes nearly an entire day to make these unique eggs, starting off by soaking and then boiling raw eggs in a pot of urine. After that, the shells of the hard-boiled eggs are cracked and they continue to simmer in urine for hours.

Vendors have to keep pouring urine into the pot and controlling the fire to keep the eggs from being overheated and overcooked.

Ge said he has been making the snack, popular due to its fresh and salty taste, for more than 20 years. Each egg goes for 1.50 yuan ($0.24), a little more than twice the price of the regular eggs he also sells.

Many Dongyang residents, young and old, said they believed in the tradition passed on by their ancestors that the eggs decrease body heat, promote better blood circulation and just generally reinvigorate the body.

"By eating these eggs, we will not have any pain in our waists, legs and joints. Also, you will have more energy when you work," said Li Yangzhen, 59, who bought 20 eggs from Ge.

The eggs are not bought only at street stalls. Local residents are also known to personally collect boys' urine from nearby schools to cook the delicacy in their homes.

The popularity of the treat has led the local government to list the "virgin boy eggs" as an intangible cultural heritage.
But not everyone is a fan. Chinese medical experts gave mixed reviews about the health benefits of the practice, with some warning about sanitary issues surrounding the use of urine to cook the eggs.

Some Dongyang residents also said they hated the eggs.

"We have this tradition in Dongyang that these eggs are good for our health and that it would help prevent things like getting a cold," said Wang Junxing, 38. "I don't believe in all this, so I do not eat them."

(Editing by Elaine Lies and Paul Casciato)


***************************************************************************

These Chinese will eat almost everything, no, correction, not almost everything -it's everything- moving on earth and under water, and like not enough of that, they savour human flesh, live monkey brains, drinking blood and urine. It wont be too much to say that Chinese are the most filthiest human race on earth and amazingly they got all the reason behind eating and drinking all the rubbish. It's for health purposes.
All you know they also might be consuming their own stool to stay perpetually young....dduuhhh.

One thing for sure, should there be one time when food are not available to the human race, they will definitely be one race that will survive the earth -- eating everything.