Anyone old enough here to remember that road safety campaign slogan I used for the post title? Well, I know I am! It’s been a long time, but yet our roads are more dangerous than ever these days.
The message still holds true though. If you’re traveling this festive season, do drive safely, carefully and considerately. For those who already do, keep up the good work. For those who don’t, remember:
If you don’t value your own life, your friends and family do;
If not, the people whom you kill or maim value theirs, and have loved ones who do to.
When you hit the road, peoples lives are in your hands. If you DO NOT DRIVE SAFELY, CAREFULLY and CONSIDERATELY, know this: THERE ARE EASIER WAYS OF KILLING YOURSELF WITHOUT TAKING OTHERS WITH YOU.
Take care folks, and have a safe and pleasant journey wherever you are going. Peace out!
Her readers too have outdone themselves and suggested, among others:
coating nails with an easily removable transparent coating or plastic before having the indelible ink painted on; and
filing away the layer of indelible ink over the nail.
Might I add pulling out finger nails to the list? No? Oh well, but looks like it’s still back to the drawing board again for this indelible ink plan. Or was it actually part of the plan by the incumbents to steal the elections?
The implications of such an acquisition are huge. By taking Yahoo out of the equation, the only two major players left in online search and advertisement would be Google and Microsoft. If one of these giants fell, the survivor would monopolize the entire field. And we all know how “well” monopolies treat their customers, especially in regards to Microsoft. Remember how awful Internet Explorer was before Firefox came along? Remember Vista and the disaster it has become since there are no viable competitors out there? That’s monopoly, and it’s not just a board game.
That aside, it is strange that Microsoft even considers buying Yahoo at all. While it would gain significant advances from Yahoo’s web search technology, Microsoft would also be wasting quite a fair bit of money buying online services which directly compete with its own services. Take Flickr, Del.icio.us, 360° and Yahoo Messenger for example. Microsoft already provides competing services such as Windows Live Photo Gallery, Windows Live Favorites, Windows Live Spaces and Windows Live Messenger. Would it then decide to shut down one or more of these competing services to save operating costs? Will the acquisition even go ahead? Looks like time will tell.
The next time anybody asks me why our local universities are producing graduates of such dismal quality (yours truly included), I’m gonna tell ‘em that we don’t have super brainy and totally gorgeous/sexy/beautiful/kawaii part-time model academicians lecturing us, unlike them lucky folks in Singapore universities. Which makes it hard to give 1001% of our attention to them and the subject being taught.
Sorry, links deliberately not given to help protect the career of said academician. But damn :-0…
V for Vendetta is a fictional story of a mysterious hero with superhuman strength and reflexes. This hero, V, is an anarchist, fighting against an oppressive and corrupt UK government whose leaders have perpetrated systematic fraud and committed human rights atrocities on a massive scale in order to usurp and secure complete power over the country.
While the original motion picture was based upon a comic book series of the same name, in reality, the sinister backdrop of V for Vendetta doesn’t seem too far fetched in our current period of national and global turmoil. In the story, it is during an atmosphere of fear and hopelessness that V delivers a most eloquent and stirring speech to his fellow countrymen. This speech was so utterly thought-provoking that I have taken the liberty of posting a video clip of it together with a transcript on this blog for anyone who may come by to peruse and digest. I recommend watching the entire show, as it is really pretty good IMHO, but here’s a clip of the speech I was talking about:
Good evening, London.
Allow me first to apologize, for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of everyday routine, the security, the familiar, the tranquility, repetition… I enjoy them as much as any bloke. But in the spirit of commemoration, whereby those important events of the past, usually associated with someone’s death or the end of some awful, bloody struggle, are celebrated with a nice holiday, I thought we could mark this November the 5th, a day that is certainly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat.
There are, of course, those who do not want us to speak. I think that even now orders are been shouted into telephones and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because when the truncheon maybe used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who would listen, the enunciation of the truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn’t there?
Cruelty and injustice, intolerence and oppression, and where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillence coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission? How did this happen? Who’s to blame? Well certainly there are those who are more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again, truth be told, if you’re looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.
I know why you did it. I know you were afraid! Who wouldn’t be? War, terror, disease… There were a myriad problems that conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic, you turned to the now High Chancellor, Adam Suttler. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient, consent.
Last night, I sought to end that silence. Last night, I destroyed the Old Bailey to remind this country of what it has forgotten. More than 400 years ago, a great citizen wished to embed the 5th of November forever in our memory. His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice and freedom are more than words, they are prespectives. So if you’ve seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you, then, I would suggest you allow the 5th of November to pass unmarked. But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to stand beside me, one year from tonight, outside the gates of Parliment, and together we shall give them a 5th of November that shall never, ever, be forgot.
Quoted from “Be honest, politicians told”, The Star Online (January 15, 2008):
Politicians saddled with debts or mixed up in immoral activities should not even think of offering themselves as candidates for the next general election.
Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohamad Khir Toyo said individuals deep in debt or those who have dodged income tax should not offer themselves as candidates as their representation would be a liability to the Barisan Nasional.
Quoted from “You’re in if you can win”, The New Straits Times Online (January 15, 2008):
Dr Khir, the menteri besar and state BN chairman, said fielding candidates who could deliver seats was priority. Whether they were perceived to be corrupt, scandalous or having disciplinary problems, they could be “forgiven” as long as they had a strong base in their area and could win the seat.
If they passed the screening by the Anti-Corruption Agency, their names can be in his list.
“When the election comes, the most important thing is the seat. After that, the system can take care (of itself) and we move on. My judgment is easy,” said Dr Khir, 42, who himself is not free from controversies since taking charge in 2000.
While first statement isn’t much cause for concern (It’s fair, IMHO), I’m quite sure the second one is. Apparently being involved with corruption, abuse of power, breaking the law and generally being an asshole doesn’t disqualify one from being a potential Member of Parliament these days. I wonder what else a potential candidate could do which would disqualify him/her, short of arson, or maybe blowing up someone with C4. The so-called screening by the Anti-Corruption Agency would probably be the least of anyone’s worries, what with the agency’s operative term being NFA (No Further Action a.k.a. He’s-already-paid-us-off-with-his-side-income-so-all’s-good).
This “winning at all costs” mentality is stinks of arrogance and extreme short sightedness, to say the least. A country’s leaders are supposed to be the cream of the crop, the “best of the best of the best, SIR!” kinda people. Letting lowlife with dubious backgrounds run the country is just a recipe for national disaster. Leaving the “system to take care of itself” is unmitigated bullshit from a man who ought to know better but doesn’t, being as he is, a product of the so-called system itself.
The word on the street is that the General Elections are coming soon. Just how soon is anyone’s guess. If you need proof though, just look at the newly paved roads, shiny new traffic lights (LED no less!), the sparkly street lamps, brand new playgrounds; all done in record time within the last 6 months. I dunno about anybody else, but the coming election sure has sure brought plenty o’ goodies to my area. The oil prices haven’t even been raised yet, can you believe it?
It’s life as usual in Malaysia. When the elections come, the goodies come along too. The politicians on their rounds can then tell the folks, “Hey, see what I did? New roads. New playgrounds. New traffic lights. New streetlights. I’m ‘da bomb! Vote for me!” And as usual, they get voted in. And again, as is usual, they go back to their making messes/fools of themselves/fools of everyone for the next 4.5 years. And then the road/street light/traffic light/playground building starts again.
Let me put it in an analogy, if you will. A gentleman (no, not really a gentleman, but let’s pretend he is) would like to bed his young and attractive wife (This is going to be 18SX. Stop now if you’d rather not continue reading). He rolls over to her side of the bed and starts to rub her down. “Darling, not tonight, I’ve got a headache,” she says. Oops.
Undaunted, he tries again the next night, getting the same negative response. Same too, the night after that. Royally fuckstrated, the gent then has a brainwave! He rushes into the florist the next day and grabs the biggest bouquet of roses and a box of chocolates, presenting it to his wife with a flourish. “Darling, that’s so nice of you, but I got a meeting early tomorrow,” she says. Foiled again!
Furious, he wields his Platinum Visa and charges into the local jeweler for a platinum necklace with a 24 carat diamond. That evening, he brings the wife for a romantic dinner at the a classy French restaurant, and puts on the necklace for her. Everyone at the restaurant is impressed and applauds him, while the wife is infinitely charmed.
Here’s a slightly delayed Zagnook comic for the New Year. I’d started on it, but unfortunately couldn’t finish it earlier due to time constraints. It is done though, in “Amazing Technicolor”, and still within the first week of the year.
