Came across this:

Burma is the worst place in the world to be a blogger.

Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Egypt have emerged as the leading online oppressors in the Middle East and North Africa.

China and Vietnam, where burgeoning blogging cultures have encountered extensive monitoring and restriction, are among Asia’s worst blogging nations. Cuba and Turkmenistan nations where Internet access is heavily restricted, round out the dishonor roll.

Full report here: http://cpj.org/reports/2009/04/10-worst-countries-to-be-a-blogger.php?utm_source=BnATodayTweets&utm_medium=BnATodayTweets&utm_content=BnATodayTweets&utm_campaign=BnATodayTweets

:-)

I started this blog about 10 years ago. That was when I came up with Scorpio -Jerm with the dash in between.

Didn't think the dash it would bother me much as it never occurred to me how lifelong a blog would turn out to stay with you. Internet fads come and go and there were many a thing I've signed up for to tinker with only to forget as it turned out to be something I didn't enjoy or something that didn't have a high engagement factor.

Through the years ScorpioJerm stuck and I started using it for everything. It's either ScorpioJerm if it was more personal and JermynToh if it was more professional.

The dash has bugged me for a while and today I finally purchased a rename token changing my blog from http://scorpio-jerm.livejournal.com to http://scorpiojerm.livejournal.com

Now am i a stickler for details and am I just being anal?

LOL

I was super active until 2 years ago when work demands kept me away from the gym and laziness also got the better of me.

Over time, several things prompted me to think that maybe my metabolic rate was slowing down. I was eating less food and feeling full faster. Regular snacking or suppers was starting to show up rather quickly. I didn't feel as energetic as previously but kept thinking I'd swing back into high gear once I hit the gym again. The gym was always next week or the next week.

A friend of mine who's doing some research and a study on Asian metabolic rates for a health conference started chatting about his work and this is what I found out to my dismay!

- 60% of one's resting metabolic rate is determined by one's organs, not muscles
- when the trainers tell people to pack on more muscles so that the metabolic rate will go up and they can burn more and lose weight, it's all hogwash
- you can't exactly increase your basal metabolic rate
- it declines with age
- regular exercise maintains it

A lower metabolic rate means its easier to put on weight and you can become lethargic.

The weight part I understand but the lethargic part got me worried. There are still quite a few things I want to do like the Great Wall of China and camper-vanning through New Zealand and they require an energetic and active state of being.

Argh! Now I'm on a mission to keep active regularly so I don't become used to taking things easy, becoming lethargic and eventually a couch potatoe.

He did say that there is some new research to suggest that if it's vigorous exercise, it may be able to increase the metabolic rate.

So I'm putting my bets on vigorous exercise.

Ok. Maybe not that vigorous. But at least getting more exercise regularly.

This inspired me to set-up a new blog to share things I come across as I try to keep myself healthy.

Tips, Bits & Notes On Health - http://haleness.blogspot.com

I'll be cross-posting to LJ as well for now.

I was OUTRAGED today at a Forum held at The Star, Malaysia's most widely read newspaper, when a young blogger said she didn't feel that journalistic codes of ethics should be applied to her or that she needed to follow any code of ethics when she blogged .... and also, she thought it was OK to take money from advertisers to write reviews about their products.

She also said she didn't feel the need to let her readers know that she was getting paid to do the write-ups and that she would not flag these posts as "advertorial". She then talked about how she still had control over what she wanted to say but had to let "clients" vet through her post and amend words they were unhappy with before uploading.

Me and a couple of bloggers sitting in the audience were like ..... WTF!!!!

Where's your honor & integrity!? What kind of credibility do you have if you do that!? What do you make other bloggers look like when you're saying all this to a whole room packed full of communications consultants and media folks!?

I'm really wondering about NuffNang and what it's all about as it tries to monetise blogging.

I really wish the more senior blogger who had a site of his own dedicated to automotive reviews would have spoken up on how he handled earning a living as a blogger.

Would you take money to write a product review?

Would you let friends who read your blog know you were paid to write a post?