$1.76 Million Wooden Cottage

Wooden cottage for US$1,760,000? Sure this is in New York, but can I not buy 20-30 small, old houses like that (looks more like hut to me) for such price? Surely it must be a camouflage of something.

Image by: Select Sotheby's International Realty

The property looks just like a typical weekend chalet in the forested Adirondack Mountains, according to AFP report. But that is what you see from above the ground. Go underground (literally) and you will see why it's just the tip of an iceberg you saw up there.

It further explained:

First comes the old underground missile control center, refitted as luxury housing. From there, you enter a tunnel, passing several massive blast doors, into the now empty silo descending seven floors down.

For the James Bond wannabe, the property, which can be viewed on http://www.coldwarmissilesilo.com/index.htm, also has its own airstrip.

The Atlas-F missile site, part of the first generation of "super-hardened" silos, was activated in 1961 and closed in 1965, then later bought by businessman Bruce Francisco. A black and white picture on the property's web ad shows an intercontinental missile protruding from the silo's open doors. - AFP

You can view the photographic details of the silo from Sotheby's website.

If you want to live in a silo like that, I'm putting my money that you are interested with none other than to protect yourself from intense bombing of up to 200psi blast, and for a nice cool hideout when things get messy.

My question is that, if this place is intended to be a safe heaven, why must the plans/drawings and pictures be revealed to the public in great detail?

Perhaps it's a better idea to radically convert this to a museum of sort and make it a tourist attraction.

100% Power Supply coverage in Sabah by 2012

This was what some local media reported in October 2011. As misleading as the headlines seem, that is what exactly the people deserve after seeing SESB (formerly known as SEB and NBE) in operations for more than 50 years.

A better fit for purpose title would have been 'Towards 100% power supply coverage in 2012' so as to ward of unrealistic expectations. The then Managing Director of SESB, Ir. Baharin Din said it was targeted that Sabah would reach 95% electricity coverage by the end of this year.

Something the utility company must strive to achieve to walk their talk on "WORKING HARDER FOR BETTER POWER". This is also the least that the people can expect from the RM962.5 million of allocation for electricity supply in rural areas in Sabah under The 2012 Budget.

SESB grid and generating capacity, 2010. Source: SESB

As it now stands, electricity coverage in Sabah is about 80%, and by looking at the development plans and data released by SESB from time to time, I'm confident that the additional 15% more of coverage is realistic and achievable probably by 2013.

Also, an interesting fact worth mentioning is that, by percentage, SESB is currently the biggest taker in the country on Renewable Energy initiatives. The contract for take-off in 2010 accounted for more than 30MW capacity or about 3% of Sabah Energy Generation share. In comparison, the national average is less than 0.5%.

The new SESB MD, Ir. Abd Razak Salim is expected to continue to steer the utility company to play major role in encouraging such RE initiatives, in line with the national objective to minimise the impact of power generation on environment.


TheGreenmechanics' two cents:

The allocation of almost RM1 billion is huge and whoever is entrusted to carry out the task is duty-bound to deliver the goods. Infrastructure network, especially in the rural areas has been the stumbling block for rural electrification due to the geographical condition of the state. It is a huge challenge we know but it is a good opportunity too.

I say, if the mountainous terrains of Sabah is to blame it is about time that we turn to Greener Source of energy. It is no doubt more expensive but that is what the big allocation is for.

Last year, Malaysia through SEDA, has embarked on feed-in-tariff initiatives for 4 sources of renewable energy and it will be all the more meaningful for the state take que from and be aggressive in its effort towards environment-friendly power generators.

COME ON! Let's go for 100 percent. That will do for the rural rakyat!

Petronas Twin Towers

There are few things I really wanted to do before 2011 closes its door, two of them being watching the Formula 1 race in Malaysia or Singapore, and to 'scale' the famous Twin Towers of Petronas. Not to literally scale it the spider way; visiting the observation deck would be more definitive.

Cut the story short, I managed to catch Michael Schumacher - my all time favourite race king - in action at Malaysian GP Sepang in April 2011. The race was won by another German tho in Sebastian Vettel, a fast improving no-nonsense young driver.

Petronas Twin Towers was more of an elusive target as I failed to gain entry in my first two attempts - once in December 2010 and another in April 2011. On both occasions, tickets were sold out and I could not make advance booking as I did not stay long enough to exhaust the long waiting period (1 week).

So, few days ago on 31st December 2011, while wifey and kids were enjoying their nap in the early morning, I woke up and took a walk from the hotel to the towers to join the long queue of tourists taking their chances nicking that elusive tickets. Joined the zig-zag lines at 6.30 in the morning and finally get to purchase a ticket at almost 9.00am (first group of 22 visitors made their way up at 9.00am); I opted for afternoon visit at 1.00pm.

One of the landmarks to die for is KL Tower (seen on the background)



A sample of the concrete jungle around the Towers



KLCC Park viewed from above

As a twin structures, Petronas Twin Towers is still regarded as the tallest in the world. Standing at 451.9m, the 88-storey Twin Towers is inspired by Islamic geometric shape with each tower plan being based on an eight-pointed star. It's tall and the scenery from up there is breath taking.

Wifey doesn't like height and my small daughter doesn't fancy going either. Still it's a mission accomplished for me personally.