On March 9th 2013, a freak storm hit Ipoh and uprooted a few old trees at Padang Ipoh and Masjid Negeri.

Yesterday, on April 9th 2013, another freak storm hit Ipoh and left trails of considerable damages to the great city. The news was all over the mainstream media yesterday.

Election banners strewn everywhere

The team of Ipoh Happenings was there at the scene to see the aftermath of the strange freak storm that hit Ipoh yesterday.

In some parts of the city, we saw political banners strewn everywhere. Barisan Nasional with their infamous love for huge buntings and banners was worst hit by yesterday's freak storm.

Uprooted tree at Pejabat Pos Besar Ipoh

The sight was utterly shocking. The uprooted tree had damaged the windows of Pejabat Pos Besar Ipoh and a car owned by one of their staffs.

We also noticed that the freak storm had either damaged or brought down some of the barriers erected by the contractors working on a minor development project at the public park of Stesen Keretapi Ipoh, located just in front of Pejabat Pos Besar Ipoh.

After talking to fellow Ipohites that we met at the scene, we were told that nobody got hurt in the incident. We learned that yesterday's freak storm hit the area somewhere between 4:00 PM to 4:30 PM.

We were also informed that Tun Dr Mahathir was there at Stesen Keretapi Ipoh around 3:00 PM. Luckily, the freak storm hit the area an hour later! What if the freak storm had hit the area an hour earlier!?

Once again, the team of Ipoh Happenings couldn't help wondering about the two strange freak storms. The March 9th 2013 freak storm hit Ipoh during the opening day of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament. Yesterday's strange freak storm hit Ipoh when Tun Dr Mahathir and Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Bin Tun Hj Abd Razak, two of our well-known statesmen were here in Ipoh.

What does it all mean?

The team of Ipoh Happenings is not playing a cat and mouse game with anybody.

We are just very concerned with environmental issues, something that is strangely taken lightly by many Malaysians not only in the great City of Ipoh but also anywhere else in the whole country.

In the last few posts regarding the subject of solar UV (Ultraviolet) radiation, we had revealed some disturbing indications of extreme levels of solar UV radiation bombarding Ipoh and the matter had already been highlighted to our Malaysian Meteorological Department.

To those thinking that our concerns are baseless, we would like to make it known here that both UV Awareness and TEMIS or Tropospheric Emission Monitoring Internet Service (hosted by Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute) are UV Index Reporting sites that are endorsed and acknowledged by the World Health Organization. The World Health Organization is of course the official authority for health matters, for all members of the United Nations. By endorsing and acknowledging the UV Index Reporting services provided by UV Awareness and TEMIS, the World Health Organization ultimately shows that UV Awareness and TEMIS are authorities in their own right.

In another word, indications of extreme levels of solar UV radiation bombarding the City of Ipoh as put forward by UV Awareness and TEMIS are not something to be taken lightly nor dismissed entirely.

The team of Ipoh Happenings will have more in the near future. Stay tuned!

Last Saturday afternoon, March 9th 2013, strong winds hit the great City of Ipoh and uprooted a few old trees believed to be hundreds of years old at Padang Ipoh. The team of Ipoh Happenings was there at the location last Sunday morning and what we saw that morning was simply shocking.

We were told that a few other trees had also been uprooted by strong winds at Masjid Negeri (Masjid Sultan Idris II) and Gunung Lang. When we were at Padang Ipoh, workers from Majlis Bandaraya Ipoh were seen busy clearing out the fallen old trees that had seen much and served Ipohites well throughout their living years.

The team of Ipoh Happenings couldn't help wondering about this strange incident. After all, Ipoh had seen many strong winds in the past but none had any huge effect on the mighty old trees at Padang Ipoh. All of a sudden, one strong, divine wind was all it took to bring down those mighty old trees.

What does it all mean? Is this some kind of a divine message indicating the beginning of the end for something here in Ipoh and the whole country?

Only time will tell.

In the last few days, Ipohites had been treated to a world-class hockey experience. Yes, we are referring to the ongoing 2013 6-Nation Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament.

The team of Ipoh Happenings are delighted with the way our hockey boys had been performing so far. Two straight wins against Korea and New Zealand and later today our boys will go against Australia, currently ranked number 2 in the world.

Do you think we have a chance against the world champions?

However, we are not here to talk about our chances against the mighty Aussies. We are here today to express our concerns and displeasures with the Vuvuzela plastic trumpets that were brought into the Sultan Azlan Shah Stadium by our own home fans.

Vuvuzela trumpets create deafening, annoying noises that steal the pleasure of watching great hockey. As matter of fact, we had observed in a number of occasions that the players themselves could not hear the umpires' whistles because of the noises created by those mighty annoying Vuvuzela trumpets. You may ask the Korean and New Zealand coaches if you do not believe in us.

In many other parts of the world, Vuvuzela trumpets had been banned in many stadiums. The team of Ipoh Happenings feels it is high time that a similar ban should be imposed on Vuvuzela trumpets in future editions of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournaments.

Hockey fans want to watch great hockey, not hearing annoying noises in the background.

Finally!

After waiting patiently for 15 days, the team of Ipoh Happenings finally received the information that we had been waiting for from the Environmental Studies Division of our Malaysian Meteorological Department.

For the benefit of everyone, we have decided to share the following email in its entirety;

First of all, I would like to apologize on behalf of my director for the late response and I must admit that we have overlooked in responding to your email much earlier. Very sorry for that matter. Regarding to your request on the UV monitoring instrument which currently being run operationally in Petaling Jaya, the instrument that we are using is Brewer MKII Spectrophotometer. This instrument is a fully automatic instrument used to monitor the amount of ozone in the atmospheric column and the amount of UV-B irradiance from the sun. It measures the relative intensity of light in the ultraviolet spectrum between 290nm to 325nm wavelength. If you need more details/ documentation on this instrument, you can refer to the manufacturer (Kipp & Zonen) website at http://www.kippzonen.com/. You are also most welcome to visit us at our head office in Petaling Jaya for a technical tour on the UV monitoring.

We would like to express our thanks to the Environmental Studies Division of our Malaysian Meteorological Department for inviting us to take a look at the equipments currently utilized by their UV Monitoring Station at Petaling Jaya.

The invitation is very enticing and we look forward to visit them one day. :)

In the meantime, the team of Ipoh Happenings will study the new given information and we will come up with our responses in the near future. We would strive to seek the answers behind the indications of extreme levels of Solar UV radiation bombarding the City of Ipoh as indicated by UV Awareness and TEMIS.

Stay tuned!

We have another strange monument located at Taman Dr Seenivasagam and this one is also often overlooked by the park visitors.

Unlike the Lions Millennium Time Capsule Monument that is located more or less 157 meters to the south-west of this particular monument, this one doesn't have much information left anywhere on the monument to help curious park visitors.

View International Peace Park 1993 Monument in a larger map

All it has is a piece of plaque cemented on the monument and after checking it with our compass, we found that plaque is facing more or less the magnetic south. On the plaque is etched the words; “ International Peace Park 1993” and “Rotary Club of Ipoh-Kinta”. The emblem of Rotary International is also etched right in the middle of the plaque and it does look pretty amazing.

After making a quick search on the internet, the team of Ipoh Happenings believe that the monument was built to promote world peace. If you do some research on your own, you will find that Rotarians have the habit of building monuments in many parts of the world. We don't know when exactly they built the monument at Taman Dr Seenivasagam but we can all make an educated guess that it is probably built in 1993 by Rotary Club of Ipoh-Kinta.

Sacred latitude and longitude?

We have come to the part that intrigue us the most.

In our last post, we had revealed that the Lions Millennium Time Capsule Monument is located precisely at N 4.60263 and E 101.08419 (results may vary across GPS devices).

Check this out.

After taking multiple GPS readings at the site, we found that the International Peace Park 1993 Monument is more or less located at N 4.60382 and E 101.08495 (results may vary across GPS devices).

In another word, both monuments are located more or less on the same latitude (N 4.60) and longitude (E 101.08).

Is it just a plain coincidence or a feat of ingenuity?

Over at Taman Dr Seenivasagam here in the great City of Ipoh, there is a strange monument that often goes unnoticed by the park visitors.

It is located at the south of Taman Dr Seenivasagam, just a few meters away from the Coronation Park primary school. The monument has a strange irregular octagonal shape and probably around 8-10 meters high. At the top of the monument, there is a statue of a majestic lion resting on a pedestal and based from a compass reading taken at the site, we found that the lion is facing more or less the magnetic north.

View Lions Millennium Time Capsule Monument in a larger map

Nothing much is known about the monument but one can get a few clues by reading the descriptions etched on the plaques that are cemented on the walls of the monument. We learned that the monument has a name; Lions Millennium Time Capsule Monument, launched by a former Menteri Besar on May 21st 2000. We also learned that the monument was initiated by the Lions Club International District 308-B2. We also discovered that a time capsule is embedded somewhere within the eastern wall of the monument and its content would be revealed to the world in the year 2100 by the head of the local government council and the Chairman of the Lions Club.

We could not help wondering about the content of the time capsule. Do you have any idea what it is?

Apart from taking on-site compass readings, the team of Ipoh Happenings had also taken a few GPS readings of the site and discovered that the monument is located precisely at N 4.60263 and E 101.08419 (results may vary across GPS devices). Now here is something interesting. Just a few meters to the north of this particular monument, there is another monument erected by the Rotary Club of Ipoh-Kinta probably back in 1993 and both of them are more or less aligned with each other, sharing the same longitude and latitude!

Sometimes we could not help wondering about the strange coincidence. We will blog about the other monument in our next post.

Stay tuned!

The team of Ipoh Happenings dropped by Stadium Indera Mulia to see Perak IT Fair yesterday morning. The last Perak IT Fair that we had visited was held last year in December. We were pretty much disappointed with the last event and didn't expect much yesterday.

As we had anticipated, we saw the usual, boring stuffs at Perak IT Fair. Year after year, Perak IT Fair has always been about products such as laptops, cameras, smartphones, printers, headphones and we are getting pretty much sick and tired of seeing the same products over and over again.

As far as we are concerned, the whole thing is just a simple capitalistic economy at work. They sell stuffs and impulsive herd of buyers buy whatever they are selling. To make it even worse, we saw a few booths located outside Stadium Indera Mulia that were offering credit cards and we have to say that their sales people were very aggressive.

Technology fairs are supposed to be educational, fun and stimulating. What we saw at the last two editions of Perak IT Fair were far from it all. The organizers might as well change the name of their event to Perak Mad IT Sale if sales and revenues are the only things that matter to them. We don't like the path that the organizers of Perak IT Fair had taken. We don't like it at all. :(

The team of Ipoh Happenings believe that Ipohites deserve something better from the organizers of Perak IT Fair and we also believe that the organizers are capable of offering so much more. Take a look at technology fairs held in other parts of the world. Emulate their fine examples please.