mercredi, septembre 24, 2008  Is it just me, or does it feel like Palin's cramming for the exams in October? She just got her passport, and then now she's on a crash course to become an international affairs expert. In the UN. In New York (so no overseas stamp on her new passport.)I'm not pro-Obama (mainly, he's too idealistic), I just think that the Republican ticket has lost its mind. If McCain dies in office (high possibility), a runner-up to the Miss Alaska is going to run the country. Libellés : current affairs, politics, thinking [Palin: Cramming for the Exams] |
dimanche, septembre 21, 2008  ... and the meltdown continues, with the US set to give out up to USD$1 trillion - yes, that's with a T - in buying out the horrific sub-prime market.The price has been steep for all of us - there is a stake which was lost by my family - and the carnage on Wall Street does NOT seem to be letting up any time soon. However, I think the larger question has not been answered yet: where did all the money go? Where is the cash? In the words of Jerry Maguire: show me the money! Who's holding on to it? Go think. The answer will arrive in the fullness of time. Libellés : current affairs, thinking [Money Market Bustup] |
vendredi, septembre 19, 2008 The buzz has been about how completely perplexing the new microsoft ads are, with Gates and Seinfeld in them. I think they're completely hilarious. The second one is much better than the first, but the whole entire start of the US$300m campaign is so surreal and ridiculous, it's funny. Can't wait to see what's next. Libellés : technology [Microsoft Ads: Too advanced?] |
jeudi, septembre 18, 2008 Premature outrage over Palin running the government on Yahoo! email account  While I laud the furor of alarm and consternation which is erupting over the Palin email invasion of privacy, I think it's extremely naive to start pointing fingers at Palin, or the Bush administration (much as I detest it), or the Republicans, or anyone else for that matter, for using a public web-based email for work purposes. Why? For the simple reason because government email and computer accounts are often technologically inferior to the other available free email providers, such as yahoo, hotmail and gmail. Which civil servant here has NEVER come across a problem of insufficient storage space in their government mailboxes? (Come on, own up.)In addition, sometimes even just getting the damned account up and running takes a week or two - or more. You've got forms to fill out in triplicate, and yet your boss wants you to get the programme up and running like, yesterday, so you have absolutely no choice - you formulate that email using your personal email account (or like me, you create a new work email account), and start running your office from there. This is not a Singapore-centric statement; I've worked for an American government-linked agency before, and had to spend an agonising 2 weeks in email limbo as I waited for Washington to get back to me on the status of my email account application. In the meantime, I used my gmail account to get my work done. And to add a feather to this wonderful cap of government account woes, sometimes - as in the case of the government service here in Singapore - you can't access your email account from home because it's an intranet account. I really do understand the arguments under the FOIA, I really do. I also firmly believe that governance should be transparent in all their dealings. And I also understand the problems of running a government from, say, a gmail account. There are a multitude of legal issues that implicate and dominate this area of discussion. But cut the girl some slack. Sometimes the government needs a little help from the private sector. Libellés : current affairs, issues, politics, thinking [Premature outrage over Palin running the government on Yahoo! email account] |
jeudi, septembre 11, 2008 Recreating the Big Bang: Old News So apparently we've/CERN's managed to successfully smash to protons together, after spending $3.8 billion flinging them 17 miles round and round and round somewhere in Switzerland.Yay. Now what? "Now that the beam has been successfully tested in clockwise direction, CERN plans to send it counterclockwise."  Gee whiz! No kidding! COUNTER-clockwise! You could knock me over with a feather."Eventually two beams will be fired in opposite directions with the aim of recreating conditions a split second after the big bang, which scientists theorize was the massive explosion that created the universe." You put your left hand in, you put your left hand out, you put your left hand in, and you shake it all about... no? And we're also building a good camera that's fast enough to capture this "split second" right? (Might be a picture of God.) Oh, and of COURSE, because what's life without a little penis envy, Fermi (another geek lab in Illinois) claims to have beat them in this "race" - but with "Omega b baryon, a cousin of the proton". Of course, nobody understands this gobbledegook, so they took pains to explain it to us neaderthals: "Omega b bayon is a distant cousin of the proton and neutron from which the universe is made... along with electrons...Protons and neutrons are the lightest elements in the baryon family, but Omega b is six times heavier than a proton." Source: Associated Press, 10 Sept 2008, Largest particle collider conducts successful test http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g5nGPtmoUVIJDgehVJ_snD6vDA6gD933R4B80 EE Times, 11 Sept 2008, Particle race: US lab tops CERN, http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=210601016 Libellés : current affairs, humour, issues [Recreating the Big Bang: Old News] |
mardi, septembre 02, 2008 Chris Rice: Baby Take Your BowChris Rice: Breakfast Table Chris Rice: Missing You (this video is a cover) Steven Curtis Chapman: With Hope Libellés : music [Songs for a Christian Funeral] |
 I really do have an icon on my desktop.[It really is like this now.] |
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