The Petronas Twin Towers

Situated in the Kuala Lumpur the capital of Malaysia sits the Petronas Twin Towers. The Petronas Twin Towers were the tallest buildings in the world until Taipei 101 was completed in 2004. The Petronas Twin Towers remain the tallest twin buildings in the world. Designed by Argentine architects César Pelli and Djay Cerico under the consultancy of Julius Gold, the Petronas Towers were completed in 1998 after a seven year build and became the tallest buildings in the world on the date of completion

The 88-floor towers are constructed largely of reinforced concrete, with a steel and glass facade designed to resemble motifs found in Islamic art, a reflection of Malaysia's Muslim religion. Another Islamic influence on the design is that the cross section of the towers is based on a Rub el Hizb (albeit with circular sectors added to meet office space requirements) Due to a lack of steel and the huge cost of importing steel, the towers were constructed on a cheaper radical design of super high-strength reinforced concrete. High-strength concrete is a material familiar to Asian contractors and twice as effective as steel in sway reduction; however, it makes the building twice as heavy on its foundation than a comparable steel building. The overall cost of this building was 1.6 billion dollars

The towers feature a skybridge between the two towers on 41st and 42nd floors, which is the highest 2-story bridge in the world. It is not attached to the main structure, but is instead designed to slide in and out of the towers to prevent it from breaking during high winds. The bridge is 170 meters above the ground and 58 meters long, weighing 750 tons. The same floor is also known as the podium, since visitors desiring to go to higher levels have to change elevators here. The skybridge is open to all visitors, but free passes (limited to 1700 people per day) must be obtained on a first-come, first-served basis. Visitors are only allowed on the 41st floor as the 42nd floor can only be used by the tenants of the building. The skybridge also acts as a safety device, so that in the event of a fire or other emergency in one tower, tenants can evacuate by crossing the skybridge to the other tower

Next to the Petronas Twin Towers is the premier shopping mall of Kuala Lumpur City Center - Suria KLCC. The design of the mall utilizes maximum skylight form the spacious center court for natural lighting, to befit the name Suria KLCC (Suria means sunshine). Its huge 6-level crescent shaped shopping mall contains over 200 shops of specialty stores, 3 departmental stores, fashion boutiques, cinemas, a 1200-seat food court on the second floor and a 300-seat local food court and theme restaurants on the fourth floor. At the ground floor of Suria KLCC there are several cafes facing the beautiful KLCC Park

Outside Suria KLCC is the 20-hectare KLCC Park. The KLCC Park includes a Symphony Lake with its 2 playful musical fountains at the esplanade just outside Suria KLCC. A 2-acre kiddie playground with colourful child-safe play equipment, a public wadding pool, patterned footpaths and a soft and well design jogging track. Close to 2000 indigenous trees from 74 species are planted in the KLCC park.

Wireless Electricity: The Wave of The Future.

I'm sure many of you have heard of the latest PowerMat which is a product that charges your cellphones and electronics without plugging it in but just placing it on the mat but the technology has actually found a wider range and more significant place in the future of our lives. I actually stumbled upon it when i was looking for possible things to invest in should the chance come up.

Wireless electricity or WiTricity as christened by the MIT developers is a new method of delivering electricity. It works like your wireless internet router. The router/wireless unit sends out the signal/electricity to the receiver/appliance. Marin Soljačić an assistant professor at MIT actually developed the idea when one night he couldn't sleep because his wife's cellphone wouldn't stop beeping because it was low on battery. He thought to himself wouldn't it be wonderful if the phone could charge itself? So he set out to find out ways he could make his idea come to life.

But the idea isn't something new, in the early 20th century inventor Nikola Tesla experimented with wireless electricity with success by transmitting energy over a 20 mile radius to various light bulbs along the way. The idea was shot down as at the time people didn't know the effects of the transmission on the health of people. Tesla is known as the father of electricity and is credited with the AC power that we use today. He had also invented the first radio but a court awarded the patent rights to Marconi. Tesla had worked on a wide range of invention that we use today but died a broke man.

Coming back to WiTiricity, it's concept is not based on long distance transmission but as of now works in the confines of our homes. The inventors are working on hiding the transmitters in the ceilings and walls of our houses and it will charge our electric cars, appliances and more. They have already successfully done it and it will only be a matter of time before it is available for mass consumers. Watch the video for a demonstration.

Here's what you missed at Matthew Boo Live

Well the gig was awesome and i'm happy that everyone there had a good time. I saw some really good acts so many talented people out there then i also saw some really bad acts. Some people need to know when to give up.

How'd i feel after taking the sage after a long time? I didn't get nervous because i thought i would but i remained calm and made sure i knew my stuff. Kinda miss those butterflies in my stomach. It's like the first time you rob someone. The first time always gets the adrenaline rushing it's almost like a high. Then after a few more robberies and a few arrests later you don't feel the adrenaline anymore thats when you know you have to move up to armed robbery so to speak.

All in it was a great experience and i had a good time. One funny thing did happen though. One of my friends said she heard someone "boo" me but i had to explain that it was another one of my friends that was actually calling out my last name. LOL.
I hope you enjoy the video.

Honolulu AIDS Walk

Recently the 19th Annual AIDS Walk was held by the Kapiolani Park in Waikiki. The event was organized by the Life Foundation and was actually headed by a student from HPU. Liaanne Devi Choo who is a AD/PR major was involved with the foundation as she was interning for the Life Foundation. The event raised the most it has had in 19 years with funds well over $165,000 and that number is still rising as they still have donations coming in.

The event was joined by more than 4000 participants and had more than 200 volunteers which a lot of came proudly from HPU. The walk was a 3 mile walk around the park and was participated by teams and individual walkers. People came dressed up in drag, tie-dye tshirts and many other interesting outifts in order to make their teams stand out.

It is estimated that 3,000 people in Hawaii are living with HIV or AIDS. Approximately 40,000 new HIV infections occur each year in the United States - half of these among individuals under the age of 25

Top prizes at the Honolulu AIDS Walk were awarded to:

1st Place Fundraisers: Harry Byerly and Dwayne Takeno

2nd Place Fundraiser: Elijah Jacobson

3rd Place Fundraiser: Dean Calistro

Best Team Costume: Gaga for a Cure

Top Online Fundraiser: Robin Pacson

Top Fundraising Team: Just Do It

Top Fundraising High School Team: Mid-Pac

Matt Boo Live

Well it's been awhile since i took the stage and i decided to showcase some of the music i have written. I will be performing on an open mic set in Snappers Sports bar lounge 1778 ala moana blvd.unit LL12 honolulu, hi 96815. It's below the Buffola Wild Wings in the Discovery Bay centre. It will be sort of a comedy musical so for those of you who haev the time feel free to drop by. Maybe you can blog about it.

Prison Monologues

I recently attended the Prison Monologues as a part of my internship. The Prison Monologues is part of a creative writing class in the Women's Community Correction Center that allows inmates to showcase their writings to students at high schools.

The program is a highly emotional performance where the inmates get to talk about their lives and the objective of it is to motivate problematic students down the right path and to make better choices for themselves.

First one of the 5 women opens up with saying "I remember as a little girl looking at a balloon tied to my hand, without a worry in the world. Now i wake up to a confined wall and life has turned out so differently for me".

Another inmate relates on her accounts with drugs and how it has ruined her life and her relationship with her daughter. She relates a story about her daughter who sent her a letter saying how much her mother has let her down and only wants to connect when she gets caught be the police everytime.

One woman who was 53 years old accounted how she was "raped by my own father, molested and gang banged beofre the age of 16 and I used drugs to cope with all my problems". She then relates how there were other more positive ways to dealing with the issues and the people who hurt her are free while she victimized herself and ended up in jail.

There was a surprise performance by a former inmate who was released from prison recently and flew in from the Big Island to relate her story. She had been drunk driving and hit into an oncoming car and had killed the passenger in that vehicle.

All the accounts were told to the family court which is a program that minors who are running into trouble with the law such as running away from home, truancy and other minor offences. Nonetheless it seemed to be effective because there were a lot of tears that were shared hearing the accounts of some of the inmates and how they live their lives out in prison. Some had been there for 10 or more years but were allowed to join the program because they were non-violent offenders and also had good behaviour during their stays so far in prison.

Take a Leak.

I recently heard of wikileak.org, an organization which is "A place for journalists, truth tellers, and whistle blowers to leak (publish) personal accounts and evidence of injustice or illegal activity completely anonymously, ..."

Now what made this website so interesting was that it had obtained a decrypted video of the slaying of 12 dozen Iraqi civilians by a U.S air support. 2 Reuters reporters were also killed on the scene. The video is a lengthy one but it is well worth the time to check out. I do warn you that it is a bit graphic. It seems the chopper gunner is having a field day going to town on the civilians with his 50 caliber bullets.

I have always known that in a war there will always be civilian casualties but i am lost for words after seeing the video myself. Normally i write quite lengthy blogs but can't find the right mindset to continue to write this blog.

One point i must bring up though is that at some part of the video you will see that the air support continues to shoot at the people who are down. According to the Geneva convention for the rules of engagement i have found that once a perceived target is down and can no longer fight he is no longer a target and is protected by the Geneva convention. The person must then be provided with the proper medical care and be treated humanely. Before i say anything judgmental i must stop myself. It is up to you to decide for yourself what is right or wrong and whether the actions were justified and on top of everything necessary.

Wikileaks needs donations to continue running so if you have a bunch of dollars lying around try to donate to them but it's no pressure for broke college students to try to keep them running ok.


i wish i had more things that were funny to say and put one or two insensitive comments to make light of the situation but i really can't but for the sake of the booze blog tradition i leave you with this:

"Confucius he say: War does not determine who is right. War determines who is left".

peace,
boo