Before the race, everybody was saying that overtaking was impossible in street circuit. Amazingly, Fernando Alonso, who started from 15th spot, eventually emerged the winner. Admittedly, safety car intervention helped him, but I did see a few occasions of overtaking.
One advantage of a street race was that TV audience could see the night view of the city.
A suggestion to
中国传出牛乳受污染事件，大家都在问：“为何这种事情会发生？”马来西亚星洲日报报道：
石家莊市委、市政府主要負責人對三鹿牌嬰幼兒奶粉事件未及時上報、處置不力。
這是中國首次承認官員蓄意延遲上報。
另一方面，中国政府也再三保证，北京奥运期间选手饮用的牛奶绝对安全，于是就有阴谋论说：中国高官老早知道奶粉含毒，但为了维护奥运前辛苦建立起来的国家形象而加以隐瞒。
或许这就是中国人“家丑不外扬”的心态吧。如果家丑外扬了，会有什么后果呢？还记不记得几年前 SARS 在亚洲爆发？当时中国官员也隐瞒病情，向外界揭露真相的医生反而受对付。有前车之鉴，官员都明哲保身，谁都不敢当吹笛人 (whistleblower)。
牛奶受污染事件，绝对不只是“奸商牟利”或“官商勾结”那么简单，而是整个政府的体制和文化都有问题。总理温家宝公开道歉，在这极权国家实属难能可贵。但是，道歉是不足够的。
But why hold the event at night? I think there are marketing factors at play here.
First, F1 cars racing down the street at night is unique, and uniqueness draws attention. By the way,
Second, 8pm at
Now let’s hope that
The lovely model is Maria.
中国又传出食物受污染事件，这一回的黑心食品是乳制品，已造成四名婴孩丧命，另外六千人患病。
对于这起事件，中国老百姓又和往常一样，把矛头指向地方政府：这是地方官员的错，不是胡爷爷、温爷爷的错。
令我不解的是：中国是一个极权国家，地方官员全数由共产党委任，为何胡锦涛和温家宝会管不到？中国政府在奥运期间，禁止北京一半的汽车上路，成功解决空气污染问题，为何对黑心食品却束手无策?
日本最近也发生白米受污染事件，农业部长已引咎辞职。美国前总统杜鲁门 (Truman)，在他的办公桌上放了一个牌示，上面写着一句很有名的话：
The bucks stop here!
很明显的，中国人还不明白这句话的意义。
As usual, Chinese blame the ‘local governments’ for the incident. Their general reaction is: This is the fault of the local governments. It has nothing to do with Grandpa Hu and Grandpa Wen.
What puzzles me is,
The bucks stop here!
Apparently, Chinese still fail to appreciate the meaning of this phrase.
A
What is dynamic range? For the average “gearheads” who know little beyond megapixel, dynamic range can be a new concept. Imagine this: you shoot a landscape picture with a digital camera. If the trees are as green in the picture as in reality, but the blue sky is rendered white, we say that the digital camera has limited dynamic range. Film is said to have wider dynamic range and can handle this condition better.
Film is also useful in taking long exposure shots, such as the star trails image shown below.
In taking a star trails image, the film has to be “exposed” for an hour or longer. You can’t do this with a digital camera, yet.
Furthermore, if you love black-and-white photos, film remains the better choice.
Technical superiorities aside, some photographers simply love the experience associated with film photography. For example, a member of the forum just mentioned say:
好似等個 BB 出來, 睇下仔定女 
[Developing film] is like waiting for a baby to be born, and wanting to know whether it is a boy or a girl.
With a digital camera, you can review the images just taken on the tiny LCR. Alternatively, you can upload the images to a computer and view them on the monitor. This is very convenient. Unfortunately, you also lose the excitement of waiting, anticipating and suspense that you have with film photography!
I am not particularly happy with the renaming, as my hometown is another KK – Kuala Kangsar. Kota Kinabalu essentially hijacked the name ‘KK’ from my hometown! Furthermore, Kinabalu itself derives from
Anyway, Kota Kinabalu is by the sea, not some 3000m above sea level. It has a beautiful waterfront. Here are some photos taken on September 15, 2008 – the eve of Malaysia Day.
It is worth noting that Chinese Sabahans continue to refer to this city as Api 亚庇.
The flags of Sabah, Malaysia, and... not sure about the last one
A ship, a boat, a sampan and the sunset...
Much has been written about Google Chrome in the blogosphere. Most bloggers write about the new browser from the perspective of user. I, as an MBA student, will instead study the Chrome’s business case.
When Chrome was announced, the first thought which came into my mind was, “Why on earth does Google want to compete in the Web browser business?” After all, the Web giant had always been a staunch supporter of Firefox. Blogger, for example, worked better on Firefox – until version 3.0.1. (Read my gripes on Firefox 3.0.1 here.)
After some study, however, I started to feel that Google’s move might be a good one. I have been using Firefox since for quite some time now, but still find something lacking in it. For example, some sites load faster on Internet Explorer (IE). I don’t see how Firefox can unseat IE as the dominant Web browser. According to estimates by research firm Net Applications, IE is used by 74% of the surfers worldwide compared with 18% for Firefox.
Google’s ultimate motive is not to win the browser war, but to lure computer users to what we call cloud computing. Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, explained, “… people started building powerful applications on top of browsers and the browsers that were out there, in particular [IE], were not up to the task of running complex applications.” Google creates many of those “online applications”.
So even if you are a fan of IE or Firefox, you may still need to resort to Chrome when you want to tap the power of cloud computing. Eventually, Microsoft and Mozilla will be forced to make their browsers better handle online applications. In whichever case, Eric Schmidt, Larry Page and Sergey Brin will be laughing.
Malaysians love warehouse sales.
On a Saturday, there was a warehouse sale near my university. Shoppers parked their cars illegally along the road outside the warehouse, causing traffic jam.
I was inching along the two-lane road, which then narrowed down to one lane. A car suddenly cut in the line, nearly hitting mine. The car eventually stopped outside the warehouse. Apparently the driver would rather be caught in an accident than missing the sale.
Out of curiosity, I went to the warehouse for a look. What were being sold?
Dolls, baking powder, baby powder, toothpaste/toothbrush, canned food, plastic containers, A&W rootbeer, shoes, gas stoves, Casio digital cameras, condoms…
In the end, I walked out of the warehouse empty-handed.
If you are a shareholder of premium shopping complexes, such as 1 Utama, KLCC and Pavilion, I suggest that you quickly sell your shares off. Warehouse sales are more profitable!
P/S
I learned about Just-in-time (JIT) production in my MBA study. Many Japanese manufacturers, including auto giant
A Thai court ruled on September 9, 2008 that Samak violated the constitutional for accepting payment for hosting TV cooking shows. Samak received payments of up to 2,000 baht (US$58) for each taping, which he told the court he used to buy ingredients for his recipes and pay his driver for petrol.
Samak’s transgression was a relatively minor one, and purely technical in nature. It was not related to mismanagement or the leader’s integrity. I personally think that a monetary penalty of say 50,000 baht would suffice.
I am sure this tom yam coup will go down the history as a world-famous joke.
Related post:
泰国前任首相塔信 (Thaksin) 和沙玛 (Samak)，均是华人。他们的死对头 Sondhi，也是华人，中文名叫林明达。林明达的排挡 Chamlong 将军，又是另一个华人，中文名是卢金河。
林明达原本是塔信的商业伙伴，两人后来因为争有线电视经营权而决裂。过后林明达就不断的反塔信。
个人并不欣赏林明达的做法。沙玛是人民选出来的首相，要他下台，还应当靠手中的投票权。如果沙玛贪污，就应该通过法律途径对付他。塔信夫人已被泰国法院判贪污罪成，这说明法官并不受沙玛的人民力量党控制。林明达甚至主张国会议员只三成由人民选出，其余七成受委任，这等同于摧毁泰国民主。
泰国出了这么一个流氓，不是华人的光荣。泰国人支持林明达，是微笑之乡的耻辱。
The latest version of Firefox sucks!
Not-so-smart Location Bar
One of the new features of Firefox 3.0.1 is Smart Location Bar, but it turns out to be not-so-smart. In the older version of this web browser, when I typed a ‘2’ in the location bar, it showed the URLs of two sites – my own blog and that of 宝茹 (http://21knots.blogspot.com/) With latest version, the location bar lists a lot more sites. It actually makes navigation slower as I either have to type additional character or scroll down the list.
Problem with Blogger
Since my PC is not always online, I often draft my post in MS Word, then copy and paste to Blogger. Word also checks grammatical error, albeit not always accurate. Unfortunately, Firefox 3.0.1 copies Word’s additional HTML codes, which are in conflict with Blogger’s template. Now I have to manually remove the HTML codes before I can publish the post
许氏曾任职空务员，也就是所谓的空中小姐，达十一年之久。她没在书中说明她所任职的航空公司，但我猜想是马来西亚航空 (MAS)。此书记录了她十一年空姐生涯中所经历的千奇百怪的事。
怪事例子1：一名美国乘客，在禁烟的航班里躲到厕所里抽烟。许氏等一众空务员和他玩猫捉老鼠，但由于找不到烟蒂，奈他不何。
怪事例子2：一名怀疑是操淫业的女乘客，为另一名男乘客“服务”。
看完这本书，我时常在想：为何我的生活是那么的平淡乏味
P/S 我相信马航的空姐在受训时都会学习化妆。从《飞同凡想》中的照片看来，作者许彩平在机舱外比在机舱内漂亮多了。马航似乎应当炒掉它的化妆指导师。
When we were young, we had radio cum cassette player. As cassette was being phased out, electronic firms rolled out CD players with radio function. Today, we have mobile phones that can take photos and play MP3 music. Our compact digital cameras can shoot video and our camcorders can also take photos. The latest multi-functional gadget:
Nikon D90 digital SLR with video mode
Just a few years ago, DSLR were seen as tools for serious photographers who did not bother to shoot video. As their price drop, however, more and more gearheads own one. DSLR that shoots video suddenly makes sense.
What is next? Here are some possibilities:
Sex sells!
ITTF vice-president Claude Bergerewas reporting as saying, “We are trying to push the (female) players to use skirts and also nicer shirts, not the shirts that are made for men, but ones with more curves.”
It may seem derogatory to ask women table tennis players to wear skirts and sexy shirts. But think again, female track-and-field athletes are already wearing bikini-typed suits. Of course, there should be no coercion. As a libertarian, I find it acceptable that table tennis players wear sexy attires. On the other hand, if some women from conservative countries wish to wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants, it is also perfectly fine. No veils, though.
I expect many feminists to rebuff ITTF’s proposal, calling it a discrimination against the fairer sex. But wait a minute. Before you object, ask yourself this question, “Why is David Beckham so popular among ladies?”
Shown below are Russian pole-vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva in bikini-typed tracksuit and some stylish table tennis attires.
Related post:
Badminton - why no commercial breaks?
Not every thing is good though. The Land of the Morning Calm has its own dark side. Koreans are the angriest people in the world. According to The Exciting World of South Korean Protests, the country has a “national average of 11,000 protests a year”. The ways the Korean protesters vent their anger are also interesting. Here are some examples:
Flag Eating
Flag burning is outlawed in
Shit Throwing
For some inexplicable reasons, South Koreans have protested against import of
Ripping Apart Pigs
This is the most inhumane one. These demonstrators ripped apart a two-month-old piglet.
Just as Koreans who flock to undergo cosmetic surgery, it turns out that Korean drama is but a packaging which hides the ugly side of the people.
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