The World Recently

The U.S. and North America

– that when Barack Obama said in a recent debate that ‘the center of gravity in this world is shifting to Asia’, he had one nation clearly in mind. “China is rising and it’s not going away,” said the senator from Illinois. “They’re neither our enemy nor our friend. They’re competitors.” (China will definitely be an enemy when you choose to make it one.)

– that Barack Obama defended his foreign policy credentials , saying Hillary Rodham and other rivals were trying to pass off entrenched Washington ways as experience. Obama, a first-term U.S. senator from Illinois, has been hit by accusations he is too inexperienced to be the Democratic nominee for the November 2008 election. A new CBS poll shows that while Obama is seen as the candidate offering fresh new ideas, Clinton has a 20-point advantage partly because respondents think she has the right experience to be president. (Thumbs up for Obama!!)

– that the resignation of Karl Rove, architect of Warmonger Bush’s election triumphs and a crucial behind-the-scenes policy guru, is the latest sign of the White House’s diminished agenda and shattered dreams of a Republican super-majority, analysts said. Rove, the last and most prominent of Bush’s inner circle of Texas advisers to quit the administration, leaves a lame-duck president suffering from low approval ratings, an unpopular war in Iraq and public rejection in the 2006 elections. (A war crimes tribunal should be set up to put Warmonger, Dickhead Cheney and Rumsfool on trial.)

– that the word ‘Iraq’ doesn’t appear in former Rumsfool’s resignation letter. Neither does the word ‘war’. In fact, the deadly and much-criticized conflict that eventually drummed him out of office, comes up only in vague references, such as ‘a critical time in our history’ and ‘challenging time for our country’, in the four-paragraph, 148-word letter he wrote to Warmonger Bush a day before the Nov. 7, 2006 election. The elusive letter – which the Pentagon denied existed as recently as April – surfaced this week in response to multiple Freedom of Information Act requests by The Associated Press. (Too ashamed to list the thngs he fxxked up?)

– that Warmonger Bush invoked the Vietnam war to argue against withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, warning that if the United States pull its troops out of Iraq, ‘the terrorists would be emboldened’. (Not like they were any less ’emboldened’ with the Americans there now.)

– that a B-52 bomber flew the length of the U.S. recently loaded with six nuclear-armed cruise missiles in a major security breach, U.S. military officials said. (Maybe they should have just fired one on Washington.)

– that a new airport screening policy for turbans and other headwear has some U.S. Sikhs worried that they are being targeted unfairly. The federal policy change went into effect Aug. 4 and subjects travelers to secondary screening at security checkpoints if they wear head coverings, such as cowboy hats, berets or turbans. The screenings could include a pat-down search of the head covering if the screener should find it necessary. (Use X-ray machines lah.)

– that Warmonger Bush wants Congress to expand and make permanent a law that temporarily gives the government more power to eavesdrop without warrants on suspected foreign terrorists. Without such action, Warmonger said, “our national security professionals will lose critical tools they need to protect our country.” (What’s going to stop you from doing a Watergate?)

– that clarifying a controversial comment in his new memoir, Alan Greenspan GreenSperm said he told the White House before the Iraq war that removing Saddam Hussein was ‘essential’ to secure world oil supplies, according to an interview published. GreenSperm, who wrote in his memoir that ‘the Iraq War is largely about oil’, said in a Washington Post interview that while securing global oil supplies was ‘not the administration’s regime’s motive’, he had presented the White House before the 2003 invasion with the case for why removing the then-Iraqi lea-duh was important for the global economy. “I was not saying that that’s the administration’s regime’s motive,” GreenSperm said in the interview conducted. “I’m just saying that if somebody asked me, ‘Are we fortunate in taking out Saddam?’ I would say it was essential.” (Better than letting China get the oil, right?)

– that the half-point cut in interest rates by the Federal Reserve accomplished several important objectives, reassuring jittery financial markets by cutting the cost of money while demonstrating its determination to head off an economic downturn. But the move will have little short-term impact on the worst housing market in 16 years, which is at the root of the problem. (It’s not over yet, dudes. So don’t rush into stocks yet.)

– that the Israeli army has asked a French television network – France 2 – to turn over unedited footage of the shooting death of 12-year-old Mohammed al-Dura in the Gaza Strip, reopening one of the most contentious incidents of the second Palestinian uprising. (It is time to put an end to that lie once and for all. Anyone who wants a better an alternate perspective to all the craps that the Arabs are spinning, should visit this site.)

– that a spokesman for Hamas reiterated that his group was ready to open dialogue with Europe and hailed a call by Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi for launching dialogue with the movement. “We hope that the calls to launch a dialogue with Hamas would find an echo and would lead to fruitful results,” Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement, adding that “we reiterate our concerns and readiness for an opened dialogue with the West.” (No recognition of Israel and no giving up of terrorist activities = No dialogue.)

– that Mahmoud Mahbouk Ahmadinejad rejected the alleged supplying of weapons from his gover-min to Taliban terrorists in neighboring Afghanistan. “We strongly support the political process in Afghanistan as a strong and stable Afghanistan would benefit Iran. I seriously doubt the reports that we supply weapons to militants,” Ahmadinejad told a joint press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. (It’s safer to trust a cobra.)

– that the uproar over defective Chinese toys – on the heels of scares about unsafe tires, tainted pet food and other flawed goods – has sullied the ‘Made in China’ label for many consumers and led to calls for greater regulation. China on hit out at the foreign press and other ‘irresponsible people’ for hyping up fears about Chinese-made toys and other exports that have been recalled due to safety concerns. (Everyone knows the quality of some Chinese products are far from desirable.)

– that a local court of first instance in Taipei announced a verdict of ‘not guilty’ for former KMT party chairman Ma Ying-jeou in the special fund case. Ma was accused of misusing more than 11 million Taiwan dollars in expense funds during his tenure as mayor of Taipei. Ma resigned as chairman of the KMT, Taiwan’s leading opposition party,after being indicted on Feb. 13, but declared that he would run for the 2008 election. The expense funds, also known as special allowance funds, are allocated by the Taiwan authorities to executive officers. Official receipts are required for half of the funds. The spending of the other half only requires the signature of the official. (It is a joke that they even charge him in the first place!)

– that new findings by a senior economist and a former member of the Jakarta commission investigating charges of unfair business practices against Temasek Holdings have verified that the firm’s shareholdings in Indonesian mobile-telecom companies do not violate anti-monopoly laws. (This signals the end of round one with Temasek as a punching bag.)

– that Bernard Dompok, a senior Cabinet Minister has broken ranks with the Deputy PM on whether Malaysia is an Islamic state or not, reported Malaysiakini. The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, said that the nation’s founding fathers had intended the country to be a secular state when the Federation of Malaysia was formed in 1963. He is the first minister to speak out on the controversy following Najib Razak’s remarks: ‘Islam is the official religion and we are an Islamic state.’ (Najib should just join the PAS if he thinks it’s an Islamic state.)

– that Dompok also criticised the Malaysian courts for being indecisive on cases concerning religion. “The judiciary seems to play football with cases. It is neither for Syariah nor civil courts.” (It’s the religious fanatics they fear.)

– that divorces among those aged 20 to 24 have seen the sharpest increase in the last 10 years compared to that of all other age groups. But the largest number of divorces is still among males in the 35 to 44 age bracket and females in the 25 and 34 age group – on par with 2005 figures. (Some married too early. Some tolerated too long. Why get married at all?)

– that residents may soon pay 20% less for their lift upgrading – thanks to an innovation by the HDB that could save the gover-min about $230 million. Its new system will mean that lifts take six instead of nearly eight months to construct and will cost less than the traditional method. (Why should anyone be paying at all for refurbishing called another name?)

– that from next year, the Special and Express streams in secondary schools will be merged. This means incoming Secondary One pupils will no longer be set apart by whether they are able to qualify for or take Higher Mother Tongue Language. (Language also have higher and lower versions like Windows Vista, or… soy sauce?)

– that while there are ‘little bush fires’ on the ground, relations between Singapore and Indonesia remain strong at the national level despite the rejection of a defence treaty by lawmakers in Jakarta, said Lao Lee. (It is only as strong as its weakest link)

– that exclusive agreements for content on pay-TV are here to stay, after SingTel – a newcomer to the pay-TV scene – failed in its bid to appeal against a decision in May last year by the MDA. SingTel submitted an appeal on May 24 last year after the MDA, which had conducted a three-year study on this area, gave the green light for exclusive tie-ups between StarHub and their content partners. (Which means to say we will continue to be paying ridiculous rates for pay-TV, just like how a particular French TV station which is free was charged until the French Embassy received letters of complain from expatriates here in Singapore.)

– that the PTC announced that the two public bus operators – SBS Transit and SMRT – must now ensure bus frequencies do not exceed 10 minutes for at least 80% of their services. The current requirement is 15 minutes. Operators have been given two years to comply with the shortening of the peak-period frequency, which will take effect in August 2009. (What about the MRT? Will there be a maximum wait time for the MRT?)

– that from October, operators will be fined between $100 and $10,000 if they fail to meet the quality of service standards set by the PTC. (Why fine these blood suckers? Just deny them further fare raises until they freaking buck up!)

– that since both public transport operators have applied to the PTC for a fare increase, a bus or train trip could cost 1 to 3 cents more on average. While no details were given of the proposals submitted, SBS Transit and SMRT must keep the hikes capped at 1.8% of current fares, as dictated by the PTC’s formula. Both operators cite growing costs as the reason for asking for a fare hike – though SMRT said the maximum allowed adjustment would only partially mitigate increases in energy costs. (No energy cost increase also 起 [hike] lah. Suka suka 起! Suka Suka 起!)

-that commuters can expect lower flag-down fares and safer rides when the eighth taxi company – Prime Car Rental and Taxi Services – rolls out its fleet next month. Flag-down rates for its automatic transmission taxis would start at $2.50, instead of the usual $2.70. (That is if we can even flag down one in the first place.)

– that its golden brown taxis, made up of Honda Airwave and Toyota Fielder wagons, would also be fitted with airbags for drivers and passengers. Prime Car Rental and Taxi Services hopes to put about 500 taxis on the roads within a year. All will run on compressed natural gas, which is cheaper and more efficient. The cost savings will be passed on to drivers in terms of lower rentals, and lower flag-down rates. (There’s no real benefits to commuters without a real change in the mindset of these drivers.)

– that Singapore was found to be the fourth-costliest place to live in the region, based on the ratio of the purchasing power parities to the exchange rate. Topping the list were the Fiji islands, Hong Kong and Macau, with Taiwan coming in fifth after Singapore. (This gover-min will have us believe it is not costly at all. Compared to Fiji, Hong Kong and Macau, that is.)

– that average public hospital bills have increased across all ward classes from 2005 to 2006, with the hikes ranging from 10 to 30%. The MOH’s data showed that the average bill size for a class C ward cost $1,112 last year – up 29.6% from $858 the year before. As for B2 class wards, it went up 17.4% from $1,094 to $1,284. (Don’t see our pay going up that fast!)

– that in the first six months of this year, the economy grew 7.6%, ‘higher than we had expected’, said Baby Lee. A total of 111,000 jobs were added, ‘the highest number ever’ and unemployment stands at 2.4%, which he described as ‘very low’. (What’s the big deal? GST up 40% in one month, and some people would be lucky not to receive less than 2.4% of pay increment.)

– that if you are male, admitted to a hospital and have not opted out, you might be asked to take an HIV test.. MOH is looking into an opt-out system for HIV testing as statistics show that one in 350 hospital patients is HIV-positive. A recent MOH study of more than 3,000 anon-ymous blood samples collected in hospitals showed that 0.28% of those who thought they were free of the disease were in fact HIV-positive. (Who is footing the bill?)

– that the Religious Rehabilitation Group (RRG) launched its website www.rrg.sg to carry its counter-extremism efforts to cyberspace. (It has to thread carefully so as not to be labeled a gover-min mouthpiece.)

– that come November, ERP hours for Singapore’s busiest expressway, the CTE, will be extended – from as early as 7am to as late as 10.30pm. (Why bother? Just have 24hrs ERP. 66.6% so the people will still LPPL.)

– that Odex had ‘no right of civil action’ against illegal downloaders. This is because it was just a sub-licensee and not the copyright owner or exclusive licensee for most of the anime titles sold here. This is the rationale behind the court’s surprise dismissal of Odex’s bid to get Pacific Internet to disclose its customers’ identities. (That begs the question why in the other 2 court cases, the judge has ruled in favour of Odex.)

– that to prove it is not profiteering from the enforcement actions, Odex will hire an independent auditor to go through its accounts at the end of the case. And every extra dollar will be donated to charity, said Odex director Stephen Sing. Odex is seeking between $3,000 and $5,000 from each illegal downloader. Said Mr Sing: “We are just trying to recover the costs incurred for this (legal) action.” (Why not just return the extra dollar to the people who need the money instead?)

– that District Judge Earnest Lau also expressed unease over the hasty manner in which Odex tried to go after some 1,000 PacNet subscribers. In particular, he was not convinced of the investigation method it used to uncover the IP addresses and pinpoint the alleged wrongdoers. (Long live Earnest Law. May the wisdom of God be with you forever!)

– that in response on queries on why the MHA had disallowed The Workers’ Party’s application to hold a cycling event to mark their party’s 50th Anniversary, Ho Peng Kee said, “It is an open area where there is potential for breach of peace, public disorder, and unruly behaviour…. You may be well behaving, but there may be other people whom you come across when you cycle who may stop you, may want to debate with you and that may attract a crowd, therefore will result in problems the police want to avoid.” (Right. The Tali-PAP has a lot of outdoor events too and do we see people doing that?)

– that 13% of young Singaporeans between 16 and 23 years old could be sexually active, going by a recent survey of 609 post-secondary students commissioned by Bayer Schering Pharma Singapore and Youth.SG. 4% of the sexually active youth admitted to having multiple partners. What was alarming is the fact that only 36% said they use contraceptives all the time. This is despite their relatively high awareness of safe-sex practices, with 74% saying the condom was the most effective method of preventing sexually transmitted diseases. (The percentage of sexually active people would probably be the same for all ages.)

– that computer hackers posted an anti-war message on the UN’s official Web site, claiming that U.S. and Israeli policies in the Middle East were taking innocent lives. The first attack on a UN Web page reserved for statements from Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon occurred at about 9 a.m. 11 Aug morning, UN spokeswoman Michele Montas said. The Web site of the U.N. Department of Public Information was then attacked as was the UN Cyberschoolbus site for teachers and students and the UN Economic and Social Council’s site. (The UN has been a joke ever since the Invasion of Iraq.)

– that Creative Technology, whose music players compete with Apple’s iPods, reported a wider loss in its fiscal fourth-quarter as sales tumbled. The net loss swelled to US$19.3 million, or USD 0.23 / share, in the three months ended June 30, from US$12.7 million, or USD 0.15 a year earlier, the Singapore-based company said in a statement. Sales fell 28% to US$165.2 million from US$230.9 million. (Bye bye, Creative.)

– that Calyon, Credit Agricole’s investment banking arm, will swallow a $347m trading loss in the third-quarter, after the firm took a hit because of unauthorised trading at one of its prop desks in New York. (Someone commented: ‘It would be interesting to know how much money investment banks make from ‘Rogue trading’ gains – isn’t it odd that gains are attributed to the bank’s trading savvy, and never make the headlines or worry the regulators, while losses are always due to some wacko trader acting on his own ?’)

– that when scientists first identified the human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) in 1984, they expected to have a vaccine in two years. Twenty-three years later, we are still waiting. (If it is a plague from God, there might as well never be a cure. And in the end it is how we respond to the epidemic that matters to God.)

– that astronomers have stumbled upon a tremendous hole in the universe. That’s got them scratching their heads about what’s just not there. The cosmic blank spot has no stray stars, no galaxies, no sucking black holes, not even mysterious dark matter. It is 1 billion light years across of nothing. That’s an expanse of nearly 6 billion trillion miles of emptiness, a University of Minnesota team announced. (Stupid says, “Maybe it’s just the place where the big bang started… “)

– that a friend sms’ed me on his way home: “I saw a mother, and 3 kids bought a desktop, LCD, hub station and printer on the MRT. Wonders why they not taking the cab.” (Spent all teh money buying all those at Comex and ran out of money to take cab lah.)

– that according to iLounge that conducted a test, it shown Apple has silently disable their own TV-out functionality. Test suggested that you will still see the iPod content on the TV only when connected to accessories that include an Apple authentication chip such as the iPod and Universal Dock, but many third-party accessories fail to support TV-out from the new portable media players. This will only allows Apple-authorized iPhone developers to incorporate the Cupertino-based company’s authentication chip into their iPod accessories. (Is there any company more anti-user and anti-competition than Apple?)

– that Steve Jobs will have to appear before federal investigators as part of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit against Nancy Heinen, Apple’s former head lawyer. Jobs hasn’t been charged with anything. But he’s going to have to testify under oath about the depth of his involvement in the entire stock option mess at Apple. That might finally clear his name of any suspicion, but it could also create serious problems for the company if anything surfaces that’s contrary to Apple’s public statements about his involvement. (There are two laws in America. One for the rich and powerful. One for the not-so-successful.)

A blog on zdnet.com alleged that it has confirmed the existence of stealth updates by Microsoft.

It is alarming because regardless of your preferences and settings for Windows Update, Microsoft can activate it without your knowledge and then update files right under your nose without you even being informed about it. And it is even more alarming because Windows Update will be a program that most people will allow to bypass their desktop firewall.

Simply put, Windows Update is now behaving like a rogue program aka mal-ware. If this is true, it means Microsoft can then update any file on your system. The consequences of that maybe that you might suddenly discover on the next reboot, software being rendered inoperable because it’s not compatible with the updated files from Microsoft (or because Microsoft didn’t like them). There might even be the possibility that after you restart your system, you end up staring down a blue screen of death. When that happens, user may end up spending loads of time reinstalling their systems just so they can use it again. I shudder at the thought of the need to call Microsoft up again to re-activate Windows.

Anyway, even if there are no insidious intent on the part of Microsoft, how are users going to rollback if the updates introduce some unforeseeable conditions on the user’s PC? Obviously, the goons in Redmond hasn’t consider that, because when the users don’t know what’s broken and who broke it, they won’t go to Microsoft to get a solution! What bastards!!

And that’s as if this public relations boo-boo isn’t bad enough on its own. I am trying to imagine how outraged privacy advocates are right now.