Bird flu virus for sale: unethical opportunism or state of survival?

Indonesian government's decision to negotiate the bird flu virus with an American company has sparked some debates. Many, it seems, argue that this is just another vehicle for corruption.

My buddy Sheque wrote "Kisah Anta dan Prota", about antagonistic and protagonistic (?) characters in Indonesia's sinetron (soap opera) and in real life.

There are new cases of bird flu in Hong Kong and Korea. Not human cases, fortunately.

What if, a big if, one of the bird flu-affected countries sell the virus and make a lot of money out of it, while Indonesian government decides not to? What if, a bigger if, the Indonesian government, indeed, plans to use the "profit" for the welfare of its citizens?

It's like rain on your wedding day
It's a free ride when you've already paid
It's the good advice that you just didn't take
Who would've thought ... it figures
-- Alanis Morissette

Ironic? Dreaming?

[Read more...]

Barack Obama to run for president

Philips in his blog touched how Obama can be a friend to Indonesia if he becomes the president of the U.S.

At that time Obama hasn't decided if he would run. Last Saturday, he declared himself a candidate for the White House in 2008. Here's the full text of the announcement speech.

Is this good? If elected, will he turn the U.S. to be a friend to Muslim-majority countries like Indonesia?

I don't know. I don't intend to analyze that. But here's an interesting reaction to his announcement.

Australian leader slams Barack Obama for Iraq policy. John Howard, a staunch Bush ally who has sent troops to Iraq and faces his own re-election bid later this year, said Obama's proposals would spell disaster for the Middle East.

Obama's proposal, by the way, is to end the war in Iraq and to remove U.S. combat forces by March 31, 2008.

"I think that will just encourage those who want to completely destabilize and destroy Iraq, and create chaos and a victory for the terrorists to hang on and hope for an Obama victory," Howard said on Nine Network television.
(-- and what are your motives there? Destabilize, destroy, chaos... specifically, what are you and your buddies doing there?)

He further said: "If I were running al-Qaida in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and be praying as many times as possible for a victory, not only for Obama but also for the Democrats."
(-- oh, he's a Republican...!!)

"You either rat on the ally or you stay with the ally," he said. "If it's all right for us to go, it's all right for the Americans and the British to go, and if everybody goes, Iraq will descend into total civil war and there'll be a lot of bloodshed."
(-- Mr. Howard, aren't you aware of what's going on there now?)

Apparently, Howard is seeking his fifth term later this year. Recent polls suggest voters are increasingly unhappy about his refusal to set a deadline for withdrawing Australian troops from the Middle East. He currently keeps about 1,400 Australian troops in Iraq despite domestic opposition to the war.

What does really Howard and Blair get from Bush, I wonder...?

[Read more...]

Hair-pulling disorder

Trichotillomania.
trich·o·til·lo·ma·ni·a (trĭk'ō-tĭl'ə-mā'nē-ə, -mān'yə). n.

Some definitions:

• Dictionary: the compulsion to tear or pluck out the hair on one's head and face and often to ingest it.
• Medical: a compulsion to pull out one's own hair.
• WordNet: an irresistible urge to pull out your own hair.

What? Pulling your own hair (and ingest it)?

It came to my attention as a printed article on the Sun last week briefly discussed this type of disorder. Here's some of it:

Trichotillomania is a poorly understood disorder in which a person repeatedly pulls out his own hair, leading to visible hair loss. This disorder can have a crippling effect on the sufferers and treatment is rarely effective, notes a survey of patients with this condition.

“It has a much larger impact on people than I think even most mental health practitioners understand,” says lead author Dr. Douglas W. Woods, of the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. “A lot of people will look at this and say it’s just a nervous habit, but it’s not really.”

....

I would seriously think this is just a nervous habit. In fact, I can't recall I saw anyone that I know of show the symptom of trichotillomania as defined above. Not until I found the definition of Trichotillomania from Wikipedia.

Trichotillomania (TTM) or "trich" is an impulse control disorder characterized by the repeated urge to pull out scalp hair, eyelashes, beard hair, nose hair, pubic hair, eyebrows or other body hair. It may be distantly related to obsessive-compulsive disorder, with which it shares some similarities.

So it's really about pulling many types of body hair. Now I can see why the study says up to 3.4% adults may suffer from this disorder. I think the number should be even higher. I can now recall some people doing it regularly.

Perhaps we need to worry about this not only because its negative effect on health (e.g. fatal balls of hair in the stomach), but also because it's disgusting.

Yes, because it's also disgusting...

[Read more...]

Where is Winona?

Winona Ryder, that is. Perhaps the most beautiful actress ever.

She is still out there, acting. It has been much fewer and less popular movies, however, after the shoplifting incident in 2001. After starring in quite good movies, like Bram Stoker's Dracula, Reality Bites and Alien: Resurrection, the only big movie she did was Mr. Deeds in 2002. In fact, she didn't do any "movies" in 2005.

In 2006 Winona starred in A Scanner Darkly, an animated futuristic movie which I could only find in pirated DVD stores. I didn't even bother to buy despite Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr. and Woody Harrelson also starred the movie.

But I look forward to watching a couple of her new movies in 2007.

The first one is Sex and Death 101, a dark comedy movie about, as the title says, sex and death. The second one is the Ten, a comedy of ten stories, each inspired by one of the ten commandments.

"For a long time I was almost ashamed of being an actress. I felt like it was a shallow occupation. People would be watching my every move." -Winona Ryder

"Winona Ryder is to Hollywood what Superman is to Metropolis. They both live in the shadows, make newspaper headlines once in a while and live a pretty quiet life." -AskMen.com

Some Winona Ryder links:
Winona Online
Winona Ryder News Channel

[Read more...]

Water fountain vs. dark force

The water fountain has now been (or actually was) turned on! There are now more happy, motivated faces, I hope. Just before the Chinese New Year.

It didn't start very well, though. Only after half a day since it was turned on, the pump broke. And now still waiting for the replacement pump. I guess the dark force is much stronger than the chi... :)

(The real water fountain is not as nice as this one...)

[Read more...]

2007 Super Bowl

I heard the Indiana Colts won the Super Bowl, beating the Chicago Bears 29-17. But Super Bowl is really not about the game, isn't it? It's the commercials and half-time entertainment.

Remember Janet Jackson in 2004? (Don't worry, the link is to Wikipedia)

Past commercials like Reebok's the Office Linebacker or Visa's Yo or Levi's Crazy Legs are pretty cool and popular. And if I'm not mistaken, some of those commercials were made and aired during Super Bowl only. Hang on, this one's cool too: FedEx's Caveman.

For this year, my favorite is Bud Light's Rock, Paper, Scissors.

[Read more...]

Water fountain = no more issues?

Business has been tough for the past year or so. Despite the initiatives we have accomplished, challenges keep coming like there is no tomorrow. It started with one supplier after another. Raw and packaging materials. Capacity. Equipment. Process. The list is quite long...

What's happened?

Because last year, water fountain on the entrance was stopped and dried, some colleagues claim. It took all the good luck away.

Really?

Feng shui tip 83 from fastfengshui.com says that moving water brings prosperity and good luck to the home. Water fountains and aquariums are great feng shui enhancements because they are at the same time soothing and energizing.

"The sound and motion of gurgling water activates chi and adds humidity to a dry room, helping to balance chi. Moving water gets things going when the chi has been stagnant for a while (think of ice melting in the spring). Use moving water cures anywhere you want to enhance water or wood energy."

Chi, by the way, is kind of life force or spiritual energy.

Back to the issue - will having the water fountain running back again take all the bad luck away?

I'm not sure. I've never been a fan of this kind of "old sayings"; always try to rationalize it. If it works, in this case, there's a high chance that it's because people are psychologically and mentally more positive, more determined.

[Read more...]

The miseducation of George W. Bush

The latest edition of the Top 10 Conservative Idiots (#276) is State of the Union special. This one is about Bush's education policy.

The Miseducation Of George W. Bush

We all know that George W. Bush pays special attention to the nation's education. That's why you so often see him carrying books during the summer months and pretending to have read them. He understands his position as America's educational role model and standard bearer. Just listen to how well his No Child Left Behind scheme is panning out:

PRESIDENT BUH: Spreading opportunity and hope in America also requires public schools that give children the knowledge and character they need in life.

Whoa, hold on bub. We've seen how you "spread opportunity and hope" in Iraq. I'm not sure we need that in America, and certainly not in our public schools.

PRESIDENT BUH: Five years ago, we rose above partisan differences to pass the No Child Left Behind Act, preserving local control, raising standards, and holding those schools accountable for results. And because we acted, students are performing better in reading and math, and minority students are closing the achievement gap.

Which is great, except they're not. According to NPR:

There's no question the law has had a significant impact on the nation's 14,000 school districts. But the results from the tests known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress are more mixed than the president suggested. The administration can point to some modest gains in math and reading among fourth graders, and math among 8th graders. But in 8th grade reading, test scores fell from 2002 to 2005. And the achievement gap between black and white students in that period actually widened a little.

The less encouraging numbers among older students are troubling to many educators.

But hey, let's not forget that George W. Bush didn't have all the awesome advantages of No Child Left Behind when he was a young lad, so you can't blame him for being a little slow. Plus, NCLB is really great for finding and targeting those 17-year-old kids who don't know what they want to do after school but figure those Army commercials look kinda fun. So it's not all bad.

(from Democratic Underground)

[Read more...]

What is enough sleep?

A question posted in LinkedIn: "Sleep less, live longer? What is enough sleep?"

The responses are quite interesting. Most people would say 6, 7, or 8 hours is "right". Some even say that if they don't have at least 8 hours of sleep everyday, they can't function the next day.

One even go as far as: "I figure I'll get enough sleep when I'm dead. There's too many fascinating things to do in life -- including work... "

The Royal College of Psychiatrists has a leaflet on sleeping well. How much sleep do we need?

This depends mainly on how old we are.

• Babies sleep for about 17 hours each day.
• Older children only need 9 or 10 hours a night.
• Most adults need around 7-8 hours sleep each night.
• Older people need the same amount of sleep, but will often only have one period of deep sleep during the night, usually in the first 3 or 4 hours, after which they wake more easily. We also tend to dream less as we get older.

There are also differences between people of the same age. Most of us need 7-8 hours a night, but some (a few) people can get by with only 3 hours a night. It's not helpful to regularly sleep more than 7-8 hours each night.

The short periods of being awake feel much longer than they really are. So it's easy to feel that we are not sleeping as much as we actually are.

Of course, there are other studies and surveys. Each has its own conclusion, which makes it more interesting.

An article in livescience.com says:

"There is really no evidence that the average 8-hour sleeper functions better than the average 6- or 7-hour sleeper," Kripke says, on the basis of his ongoing psychiatric practice with patients along with research, including the large study of a million adults (called the Cancer Prevention Study II).

And he suspects that people who sleep less than average make more money and are more successful.

The Cancer Prevention Study II even showed that people with serious insomnia or who only get 3.5 hours of sleep per night, live longer than people who get more than 7.5 hours.

Another one from an interview in CNN:

The sweet spot appeared to be somewhere between 6.5 and 7.5 hours a night. Those are the people who lived the longest. Now if you got less than 4.5 to 6.5, you were probably going to live longer than those who slept more than the sweet spot.

Hmm... I would conclude that for most people "around" 7 hours of sleep is the best, i.e. healthy yet productive. Also, sleeping less seems to be better than sleeping more...

[Read more...]

Skin color discrimination

A recent study says that skin tone affects earnings in the U.S. The darker the skin is, the higher the chance to get paid less than the counterparts with lighter skin do. The study looks at legal immigrants to the U.S. from around the world.

Several other findings from the study:

-/ Being one shade lighter has about the same effect as having an additional year of education.

-/ Taller immigrants earn more than shorter ones, with an extra inch of height associated with a 1 percent increase in income.

-/ Skin tone still seemed to make a difference in earnings, although other factors that could affect wages (e.g. English-language proficiency, education, occupation, race or country of origin) are taken into consideration.

"... that means that if two similar immigrants from Bangladesh, for example, came to the United States at the same time, with the same occupation and ability to speak English, the lighter-skinned immigrant would make more money on average."

So life's better in the U.S. if your skin color is relatively lighter, or if you're tall. This is sad.

The study also confirms that many cultures show a bias toward lighter skin.

I think Asian cultures strongly show that bias. Bule in Indonesia and Mat Saleh in Malaysia clearly often get preferred treatments over the locals.

They - the foreigners, the white men - probably deserve it, though. Usually, these people are financially better than most locals (except, of course, bules in Jalan Jaksa). And the attitudes too - they typically are more confident and demanding when it comes to service, compare to most locals. They speak English, or a foreign language, for the sake of it. And... perhaps their skins are lighter too...?

Is it the Asian politeness (or dumbness)? Is it that we were colonalized for quite a long time, that we now feel inferior?

What about the Japanese, who, despite of their well-known politeness, are one of the economic and technology 'powerhouses' in the world? But they are already light-colored...

[Read more...]