Most Bloggers Are Women

This is from The Star, dated 30 Nov 2006. I’ve given up linking directly, ‘cos the articles often get removed after a while. The last line is what I strive for. But do you agree with the 2nd-last line?

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KUALA LUMPUR: If you are a Malaysian and you have your own blog, the odds are that you’re a woman, aged 25 or under.

Sixty-four per cent of local bloggers are female and 74% of them are in that age group.

This is a finding of an international online survey involving  more than 25,000 Microsoft MSN web portal visitors in August and September. 

The survey, Blogging Asia: A Windows Live Report, was conducted in Hong Kong, India, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

It found that 41% of Malaysians who went online also blogged. 

Malaysia’s bloggers primarily do it for entertainment and to share their lives with family and friends. 

“Blogging has moved into the mainstream in Asia and Malaysia, and has become a popular way to stay in touch with family and friends,” said Grant Watts, Microsoft South-East Asia general manager for online services group. 

The survey found that 56% of Malaysians blogged to express passionately held views, while 49% blogged to keep friends and family updated. 

Some 34% just like having a little corner of cyberspace to call their own.

Only a small number, about 3%, said they were practising “citizen journalism.”

As for blog-reading habits, 63% of respondents said they read blogs for entertainment, while technology, travel and music were the three most widely read blog topics across Asia and in Malaysia.

The majority of blog readers, 81%, are most interested in blogs written by friends or family. 

Far behind in popularity are blogs by celebrities, pop stars and workmates. 

Blogs by business leaders and politicians garner the least interest.

Blog readers said they looked for good writing and plenty of pictures.

8-Bit Theater: Cheetos Nutrinal Value

Health food at its best! (Note: does not provide optimal health benefits for the blind and visually-challenged.) Click on the link for the full comic.

Tom & Jerry: Solid Serenade (Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby)

Solid Serenade. This is a real classic! Tom woos the girl cat with a popular old jazz song, ‘Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby’.

Listen to the whole serenade (just 275kb) at http://www.tomandjerryonline.com/sounds/isyouis2.wav (right-click and choose Save As to save it to your PC). You can download othersound files and lots of Tom & Jerry stuff at http://www.tomandjerryonline.com/

And if you’re willing to download 7 minutes of YouTube video, watch the whole episode at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdGpn8ZhPVg

The lyrics in Tom’s own style (the weird words are him scatting, and he pronounces ‘baby’ more like ‘bebby’):

I got a gal, always late
Every time we have a date
But I love her
I’m gonna ask her
Is you is or is you ain’t my baby?
The way you’re actin’ lately makes me doubt
You is still my baby-baby
Seems my flame in your heart done gone out
A woman is a creature that’salways been strange
Just when you’re sure of one
You find she’s gone and made a change
Is you is or is you ain’t my baby
Maybe baby’s found somebody new (Baduledey-dondeedee)
Or is my baby still my baby true?

Is you is or is you ain’t my baby
Maybe baby’s found somebody new(Badulu-daludu-deydulu-doda)
Or is my baby still my baby true?

Top Ten For ‘Datuk Azhar Mansor’ Searches on Google, Answers.com

Finally! I’m back to JB after the HORRORS of Bangi connections! 75% of the time I wouldn’t even be able to access my blog after a few minutes. Hurray for smooth Streamyx!

I found something surprising recently. Searching for ‘Datuk Azhar Mansor’, ‘Azhar Mansor’ and ‘Datuk Mansor’ on Google and Answers.com will turn up my blog as one of the top hits! Even higher than Noorulla Online and newspapers, and sometimes even the very top hit! Searching for ‘Azhar Mansor’ doesn’t turn up my blog, though. Drat! 🙂

Is my blog really the best source for information on this matter? I don’t even keep proper updates here! Go to The 10 Commandments’ blog for a copy of Dauk Azhar Mansor’s pres conference (from The Sun newpaper’s website).

Well anyway. Click on the images to see the full pix of the pages I saved. Dated 26 November 2006.

GOOGLE:

ANSWERS.COM

PS. Sorry to everyone who doesn’t care for these ‘bragging’ posts. It’s just that I’m pretty amazed when my still fresh blog gets attention.

Was the Bible Changed? (Reasons Why It Could Not Have Been)

This post grew out of a reply I made to comments by a certain marea to one of my posts – he/she claims that the Bible was changed to. It is also meant as a partial rebuttal to yet other comments made by menj to the previous post.

Some parts of these explanations will be applicable from a neutral, scientific approach. Others are deliberately meant as arguments from a specific faith viewpoint. Accept what parts you will… I just hope to do my best to satisfy any objections.

So, here the reasons/arguments why the Bible today is the same as the original, and not a changed forgery. (Perhaps not 100% th same word for word, dot for dot, line for line. But the meaning and truths in God’s word definitely cannot be nullified or removed.)

1. Historical documents

There are a great number of ancient documents that you can actually look at and compare to the modern Bible. Doing so will reveal that what’s in the modern Bible is by no means recent fiction. There may be some differences in chapters and verses, but NOT ONE important message or doctrine is affected by any such discrepencies.

For the Old Testament, there’s the Masoretic texts (between 300 to 900 AD), the Septuagint (between 200 to zero BC), and the Dead Sea Scrolls (up to 700 BC). The Codex Amiatinus (700 AD) has the entire Bible.

For the New Testament, there’s the Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus (both around 300 AD), and over 24,000 New Testament manuscripts! The New Testament is found to be an amazing 99.95% textually pure.

As a Science graduate, natural skeptic, former debator and truth seeker, the above personally-checkable proofs are a very important reason why I believe the Bible to be the same as what God inspired His prophets and apostles to write. How about you?

2. The ancients didn’t change the texts

The books of the modern Bible is the result of careful selection, comtemplation and study of the various contenders. Athanasius already had a list of NT books identical to our modern NT in 367 AD.

Jesus Himself attests to the Old Testament canon in Matthew 23:25 – “And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.” Abel is from Genesis, the first book of the Bible. Zechariah is the last book in the ancient Jewish arrangement of the Old Testament.

Contrary to what Dan Brown may write, the church leaders didn’t simply pick what they felt like keeping and threw out the rest. Rather, they agreed on what were the already commonly accepted books of the New Testament.

Could they have removed all the parts they didn’t agree with and covered it up? Such as, perhaps, to remove all references to a certain prophet? They wouldn’t have had reason to do so for the 6 centuries before said person appeared, so it must have been after.

But look at the whole picture: There were already hundreds or thousands of copies of the Scriptures, spread across three continents, in dozens of languages, hidden away in caves and buildings. And Holy Rome, Byzantine and the Jews were not exactly the best of friends to agree on changing things simultaneously.

In fact, the accuracy and similarity of the modern Scripture to ancient documents readily attests to the church’s fine job in preserving God’s word for so many ages.

3. The moderns didn’t change the texts

Marea said that the Bible was changed recently, back in the fifties. Quite frankly, this is extremely impossible to pull off. I’m including this so you can see how incredulous a charge it is.

The Bible is by far the best selling book in all of history. Literally BILLIONS of Bibles have been printed and sold! Let’s use a modest estimate of 6 billion.

That’s not counting free Bibles for gifts and evangelism; books about the Bible; references to the Bible (such as Daily Bread); handwritten Bibles over the centuries; Bibles hidden away in cupboards and drawers… And in more languages than any other text. Even some parts in Klingon, heh!

You tell me, how any organization in the world could change every single one of these countless Bibles.

4. The Bible as God’s eternal word

The Bible is considered to be God’s infallible, un-nullifiable and unchangeable Holy Word by Christians. In fact, one argument against the early Christians changing the Scriptures to suit their whims is that they considered these writings to be holy and not to be tampered with.

Jesus said Himself that “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” (Luke 21:33)

In fact, even the Quran attests that the Bible is God’s very word: “He sent down the Law (of Moses) and the Gospel (of Jesus) before this, as a guide to mankind…” – part of Al E Imran 3, as taken from this site.

This ought to stop the believers among you from off-handedly making accusations. God is all powerful, fully capable and willing to ensure that His message is not blatantly distorted or lost from His Holy Word.

Skeptics pick apart and mock the Scriptures. The communists destroyed countless Bibles. Many nations ban the Bible even today. Naturalists control the science and education systems, labelling anything to do with God as fantasy and non-science.

But God’s Word marches on, never ceasing…

PS. For more on the Canon of the Bible, you can listen to Joshua Hooi’s words on the Old Testament Canon and the New Testament Canon.

When Were the Gospels Written? – Internal Evidence From Acts

A very easy to follow explanation of when the Gospels were written.

Introduction

The New Testament begins with the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. These accounts detail the life of Jesus Christ and are known as the Gospels (meaning ‘good news’). They are the most important source of our knowledge about Jesus’ actual teachings, actions, sacrifice on the cross and resurrection.

But when were the Gospels written? Some say that they were written decades or even centuries after Christ’s life on earth. Therefore, the accounts within the Gospels must be flawed an inaccurate, as they were compiled long after the deaths of everyone who actually saw and heard Jesus.

On the other hand, there are many arguments and proofs for an early writing of the Gospels. If the Gospels were written close to the time that Jesus ascended to heaven, then they would be much more likely to be true and accurate. People’s memories of Jesus would be still fresh and clear. By ancient standards, the release of the Gospels would be like a newsflash!
 

The Internal Evidence: Backwards From Acts  

One example is from the Book of Acts.

Acts details the doings of the Apostles in the time since Jesus left them. Among them are how Paul chose to follow Christ, his travles, and his awaiting trial before Caesar for alleged troublemaking.The book of Acts ends with Paul still awaiting trial (Acts 28: 11-31), so the trial must have not yet taken place when Acts was written.

Acts is the continuation of the Gospel of Luke. Both are believed to be written by Luke and addressed to a certain Theophilus, and Acts opens by mentioning Luke’s ‘former book’. So Luke must have been written before Acts.

Luke is said to have taken material from either the Gospel of Mark, or wherever Mark got his information from. See the Wikipedia article on Q document. That means Mark (or his source) must be dated even earlier than Luke.

And finally, back to the end of Acts: Paul was martyred in the reign of Emperor Nero, around 64 AD. Therefore, however late the Gospel of Mark must have been written, it must still be within 30 years of Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension to heaven (around AD 33).

(Compare with Wikipedia’s article which says that the Gospel of Mark is generally believed to have been written around 60 to 70 A.D.)

People who had seen and heard Jesus in person were still alive to dispute any inaccurate facts; doubtless the Pharisees would have been the first to criticize any false reporting they found. Therefore, the Gospels (or at least Mark) must have been written as an accurate, true account about Jesus Christ.

(Note too that Acts is a very historically accurate book. It correctly names dozens of people, places, titles and events. Many of the ‘facts’ in Acts were very much disputed by secular historians, until new archaeological finds corroborated with the account in Acts.

Therefore, it is highly likely that the writer of Acts wouldn’t suddenly tell an outright lie about details such as whether Paul had been tried yet, or how the Apostles spread the faith, or how Jesus ascended to heaven, or how the Holy Spirit empowered the believers.)

PS. This post is a refinement of a comment I made in this blog. I comment points 44, 52 and 57.

No. 74 and 84 on the Growing Blogs List

My blog made it to Number 84 on the Growing Blogs List, 17 November! The list says: ‘These blogs experienced the greatest gain in traffic in the last 24 hours. Updated every 6 hours.’ Waaaay cool to me!

Click on the below pic to see the whole list on that day.

PS. Alright, alright! I admit, I’m bragging!

Update 22 November: Yeap, I’m the Bragging Blogger alright! On 18th November, I made it onto the Growing Blogs lift at number 74! Muhuha! Click the image! Click it click it!

Datuk Azhar Mansor Update: The Press Conference With Datuk Azhar Mansor at the UMNO General Assembly

UPDATE 26 NOV: It seems that the link to The Sun’s transcript of the press release is defunct. Luckily, there’s a blog with a copy-and-paste of the text! Go to http://the10commandments.blogspot.com/2006/11/updates-on-datuk-azhar-mansor-case.html for your viewing.

BUT! A very reliable source tells me that it was heard loud and clear on TV – Datuk Azhar saying the actual “I am still a…” phrase. Hmm. I trust my ear-witness source.

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Here is The Sun’s transcript of the press conference with Datuk Azhar for yourself. He replies to the questions in a rather interesting manner. Read it for yourself, ponder it and make the final decision for yourself. It’s not anything I am saying. It’s what a news agency reported.

My apologies to all news seekers for my lateness in finding and posting this link. I’ve also added these first two paragraphs to all the related posts.

PS. The reason I’m doing this is NOT to lure in more hits. Really and honestly! I just want to play a role in making information available to those who are seeking it, or at least redirecting them to somewhere they can find that info.

Datuk Azhar Updates: Even More Hits From Removed Content

UPDATE 26 NOV: Azhar Mansor press conference transcript available at here. BUT! A very reliable source tells me that it was heard loud and clear on TV – Datuk Azhar saying the actual “I am still a…” phrase. Hmm. I trust my ear-witness source.

———-

As my previous post mentions, I’ve evacuated much of the potentially ISA-risking content in some of my posts. This includes the posts on Datuk Azhar Mansor. See this excellent blog to know what’s happened or is happening with this case.

Here is The Sun’s transcript of the press conference with Datuk Azhar for yourself. He replies to the questions in a rather interesting manner. Read it for yourself, ponder it and make the final decision for yourself. It’s not anything I am saying. It’s what a news agency reported.

My apologies to all news seekers for my lateness in finding and posting this link. I’ve also added these two paragraphs to all the related posts.

For the record, Datuk Azhar appeared in the UMNO General Assembly recently and announced that: “I have never even planned to submit any application to renounce Islam.” A very roundabout way of denial, it is. For the rest of the happening, do go to the above links.

But even as I stayed up way past my bedtime, in an unfamiliar cybecafe in Bangi, after 14+ hours up for work and Book Fair duty, just to remove the content… My hits shot up. Amazing!

Sunday 18th Nov recorded 265 visits, a huge leap over my blog’s previous best of 102 on 13 Nov! Datuk Azhar Updates got 226 views in the past 7 days, and 254 in the past 30 days.

And do see what people have been searching for on the Net that led to my blog, at the end of this post. It’s not anything that I did or am doing. I’m just stating an observation on what other people are doing.

I apologize to all viewers who went away disappointed… I hope that fellow blogger TheTenCommandments can satisfy your latest controversial news updates cravings.

For now, I shall focus more on apologetics (defense) than on polemics (attack). And let me do so politely and agreeably.

“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…”– 1st Peter 3:15 (the motto of Christian Apologetics)

Search Terms for 7 days ending 2006-11-20
Today
azhar mansor 26
datuk azhar mansor 13
datuk azhar 7
dato azhar mansur 4
azhar mansor pix 4
datuk azahar mansor 3
datuk azhar mansur 3
malaysia today 2
I am a malay, but I want to convert to c 2
DATO AZHAR MANSOR 2
Russell Crowe: Fightin’ Around The World 2
datuk azahar convert to christian 2
“Dato’ Azhar Mansor” 2
happy tree friends theme song 1
transformers 2007 optimus prime 1
datuk azhar conversion 1
azhar mansur 1
azhar mansor christian 1
thongs 1
t 1
“azhar mansor”+christian 1
is Azhar Mansor a Christian 1
datuk azhar mansor baptism 1
“Azhar Mansor” 1
Textamerica Thong 1
Datuk Mansor, the christian? 1
Yesterday
azhar mansor 20
datuk azhar mansor 4
datuk azhar mansur 4
azhar mansur christian 3
dato’ azhar mansor 3
forbidden thong 2
azhar mariner conversion 2
Datuk Azhar Mansor family 2
2006-11-18
azhar mansor 37
Datuk Azhar Mansor 10
thong of the day 6
dato azhar mansor 5
“Datuk Azhar Mansor” 4
datuk azhar mansur 3
mariner azhar christian 3
“Datuk Azhar Mansor “ 3
vgcats 2
azhar mansur convert christian 2
azhar mansor update 2
azhar mansor baptism 2
azhar mansur,australia 2
datuk azhar mansur christian 2
azhar mansor christian 2
datuk azhar mariner 1
t 1
azhar mansor testimony 1
dato mansor christian 1
is azhar really a muslim 1
datuk azhar 1
azhar mansor + muslim 1
Azhar Mansur christian or muslim? 1
thong 1
muslim convert at church in malaysia 1
transformers animation smileys 1
azhar converts to christianity 1
is azhar mansor muslim 1
the truth about dato azhar mansor 1
dato azhar conversion 1
malaysia azhar mansor christian 1
dato azhar 1
datuk azhar christian 1
2006-11-17
AZHAR MANSOR 10
azhar mansur 9
datuk azhar mansur 9
datuk azhar mansor 6
datuk azhar 3
thongs 3
thong 2
TRANSFORMERS 2007 2
dancing cockroach + animated GIF 2
azhar mansor christian 2
azhar mansor christian australia 2
malaysia islam conversion azhar 2
hot korean 2
t 2
“book fair”+”mines” 1
2006-11-16
Datuk Azhar Mansor 2
provocative thongs 2
2006-11-15
thong 3
happy tree friends comic 2
8-bit Theatre RSS 2
google myself 2
2006-11-14
transformers live 2007 5
azhar mansor conversion 4
russell crowe fighting around the world 3
is datuk azhar a christian 2
did azhar mansor converted 2
dato azhar mansor 2
datuk azhar 2
google myself 2
datuk azhar mansur kristian 2
scott thong blog 2
“solid liquid and gas” lyrics 2
azhar mansor 2

Evacuated: Posts Heavily Cut

At my parent’s request, I’ve heavily cut and edited several of my posts. They dealt with things that might be construed as seditious, and thus invoke the ISA or other punitive measures. So I evacuated the originals to myself, then massively edited the posts to become ‘safe.’ The major victims are the Azhar Mansor Update posts and anything to do with named religions.

This is mostly out of respect for my mum and dad’s wishes. I am their son, after all. And even if I threw all care for myself to the wind, it would be greatly selfish to subject them to hurt and humiliation.

So I guess it’s better to play it safe. Oh well, that’s the neck of the woods we live in and have to get along with. At least now, Lim Kit Siang and Malaysiakini will be thrown in the slammer for online bloggy incitement before I am, eh?