At least

Here I am, waiting for the Olympics closing ceremony and watching Astro reviews how Malaysian athletes performed in the Olympics.

It's been full of "at least".

Like, "At least he broke the national record."
Or, "At least she got the international experience."

Then, the commentators talked about how Lin Dan studied the video of Lee Chong Wei's moves - enabling him to play fast and anticipate most of Chong Wei's shots. Surprised?

Well, at least next time they can consider using video too...

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Beijing 2008

I was lucky to get the chance to go to Beijing early this week to see some actions in the Olympics. This was a corporate hospitality program of which I was selected to participate. So I'd like to think it has something to do with the cigar I celebrated last year.

The visit was only three days short, but the schedule was packed. It started with table tennis on the first day, men's beach volleyball and athletics on the second day, and women's diving on the last day.

I brought along my new Sony Alpha SLR camera, and took a lot of pictures. (Yes, some of them were the cheerleaders from the beach volleyball game.)

Here are some of my observations.

Olympic Lane. To anticipate traffic during Olympics, one lane is dedicated as Olympic lane in some streets and highways. Surprisingly (or not?) people are pretty disciplined in keeping this lane only for the Olympic-related vehicles. I was also told that during this period Beijing implements odd-even license plate number to match with the days; that it was quite bad that some offices allow their employees to go to work during the days they can drive. Hey, it's the Olympics after all.

Supporters. When their countries do not play, most supporters will support the better-looking players. At least that's what I observed during the table tennis matches. Tetyana Sorochynska from Ukraine (was playing against Wenling Tan Monfardini from Italy), for example, received full supports from my Indian colleagues.

Chinese-descendant players. Most table tennis players are Chinese-descendant. Whether they represent France, Italy, Canada, Poland, and more.

Men's beach volleyball. My colleagues made fun of me going to see the men's beach volleyball game. Sure, women's beach volleyball would be perfect. But we were definitely entertained by the cheerleaders (the game was of high quality too!) See, men's beach volleyball isn't that bad.

Athletics. Usain Bolt was damn fast, and he really looks enjoying every single moment. That's the way it is!

Foreigners. The city is full of foreigners. Most are corporate guests from the main sponsors, and the athletes and coaches themselves, of course. I met a Texan, quite arrogant, who comes with the U.S. soccer team. He doesn't like to sightsee (though I met him near the Forbidden Palace), only to drink and boom-boom.

English. More people in Beijing, I believe, are able to speak English. Some information booths are trilingual. Cops can clearly explain where to get cabs. Servers can even explain that the yummy Peking duck was cooked with pork oil. (damn it!)

I uploaded some of the pictures to my flickr and facebook.

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Confused with history

Still with the spirit of independence day, and the fact that I'm home alone and got nothing to do, I was thinking about some heroic stories from Indonesia's independence day history.

One, the only one indeed, that came in mind was the Battle of Aru Sea. It is the one whose diorama I still remember after my visit to the Satria Mandala museum, thanks to Mas Aroengbinang.

It's truly heroic. One of three Indonesia's warships (MTB, motor torpedo boat,-type) decided to let itself to be a target so that the other two could run away from two Dutch destroyers' attack. The ship, KRI Macan Tutul, eventually got hit and sank.

Googling for more information about the incident, however, led me to some variations from the story I learned back in the elementary school. The version in Wikipedia seems to be the most updated one.

It says, the decision was for all ships to return and sail away. KRI Macan Tutul, unfortunately, got a problem and kept making right turn. (Another version is going straight to the two destroyers.)

Holy moly! What's happened? What has really happened?

Sigh...

Well, the heroes are still heroes. They fought for their country, and they deserved to become heroes. Not only the high-ranked officers. But all who contributed - physically, mentally, or with any other means.

But hell, why histories are tweaked? Were they genuine mistakes? Were they versions of the writers (being subjective)?

If a-century-ago histories are not that accurate, what about those from thousands years ago?

Yes, like today's religions.

I guess the truth is out there... we just want to believe...


Other interesting websites that discuss Indonesia's history are Anusapati (check an entry on heroism) and Beni's Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia.

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Independence day spirit and Dara Torres

Dara Torres is the oldest in the U.S. swimming team - and perhaps among all swimmers in the Olympic - competing in her 5th Olympics. Neither the sexiest nor the prettiest athlete (but she posed on Maxim magazine in 2000).

And, umm, she's got short hair too.

What she recently did in the semifinal was quite a topic, given the competitive nature of the event: helping out a rival swimmer.

"Therese's suit ripped when we were getting ready to walk out," Torres said. "I tried to help her with it, tried to do it up, and it ripped again. So I walked out and was trying to get them to hold the race for her. I was saying, 'Her suit's ripped.' And waving my arms around."

A counter argument on this is that what she did actually threw off other swimmers' concentration. Ridiculous argument. I think what she did was based on fairness, or fair play - one that some soccer players just fail to do.

On how this qualifies as an independence day spirit, I'm not sure. (What is independence day spirit, anyway?)

But for the sake of it - her act is a quality that we, as a nation, must possess to move forward. To accomplish what our predecessors dreamed of, and to correct mistakes we did in the past.

The quality of being fair, unselfish, and mindful of others.

We have been an independent nation for 63 years, and we're still fighting over things because our lack of this quality, for crying out loud.

It's been too long. It's the time now to move on.

Merdeka.

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On bullwhip effect

In a supply chain network, (demand) variability increases as orders move upstream. Eventually, the network can oscillate in very large swings as each organization in the supply chain seeks to solve the problem from its own perspective. This phenomenon is known as the bullwhip effect and has been observed across most industries, resulting in increased cost and poorer service.

Among the culprits are demand forecast inaccuracies: everybody in the chain adds a certain percentage to the demand estimates. The result is no visibility of true customer demand.

This phenomenon apparently also applies in life.

Well, how?

It's simply the attempt to impress. Unfortunately, people get inaccurate and unconfirmed information about how to impress. They end up trying many things that they think or assume will work.

This is cascaded down. And further down, with many more assumptions, in the hierarchy. Moving the herds up and down with new assumptions. The swings get bigger each level.

No one wins.

It sucks.

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On single-sex school, bikinis and decision-making

Research says single-sex schools help children thrive.

It says boys, particularly, have trouble paying attention in class, and often ignore instructions and generate sloppy work. Among the reasons, the article concludes, are more female teachers (than male teachers), superior female student counterparts (girls read faster and control their emotions better), and unfit educational structure.

An alum of both types of schools myself, I fairly agree with the argument, but am not sure about the details - perhaps because the article refers to U.S. education. (Shoot! There was also literally no girl in most of my Mechanical Engineering classes.)

To me, the boys of single-sex schools can practically say "there is one less thing to worry or think about". Thus they can more freely express their feelings and actions.

Most of which are usually deemed unmannered.

What are other potential advantages? Well, they can benefit through better decision makings.

What?

Well, there's this research that scientifically demonstrated that bikinis make man stupid, that sexy images rob male brain of ability to make wise decisions. The paper is formally titled "Bikinis Instigate Generalized Impatience in Intertemporal Choice".

How will this benefit the students? While there shouldn't be any bikinis at school, I'd say that you never know what's in young men's mind... or what they can imagine. For single-sex school students, at least this imagination part is eliminated or 'constrained'.

The experiments must be like torture to the 358 young men subjects.

Read this: "In one test, the men looked at images of women in bikinis or lingerie and at images of landscapes. In another, some men were given T-shirts to handle and assess while others were given bras. Another batch of men was assigned to watch a commercial featuring men running over landscapes while other guys watched a video of “hundreds of young women, dressed in bikinis running across hills, fields and beaches.” (No word on whether they used “Baywatch” slo-mo)."

How valid is this research? If concentrating itself is difficult, let alone making decisions, then the research must be quite valid.

Take an example from my friend, at his previous company.

One of his best technicians was fixing a pump when a female employee with sizeable yet well-proportioned boobs (that's how he explained to me) passed by. Without realizing it, the technician let his fingers cut (but did not require amputation) in the pump. Recordable accident.

In manufacturing environment (in any environment, in fact) it's a big deal. But you know what the technician said?

"It's OK. It's worth it."

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Blogging addiction

Rima lists "20 signs you're a blog addict". From the comments, most, if not all, plead guilty of being addicts.

How bad blogging addiction can be?

None reported so far. But how about this: "At least two cases of phone addiction have been reported in Britain where young people who were obsessed with their phones and became depressed when the number of incoming calls or messages dropped."

Not too far off, perhaps?

If mobile phone addiction can be a good indication, you (we?) may end up in a mental health clinic. Just like these two Spanish kids who were treated in mental clinic.

Two children are learning to live without their mobile phones after becoming so badly addicted to the technology they were admitted to a mental health clinic.

The children, aged 12 and 13, were treated for mobile phone addiction

They were brought in after spending an average of six hours a day on their phones, talking, texting or playing games.

Their parents became concerned that the children, aged 12 and 13, were unable to carry out normal activities without their handsets. They were failing at school and deceiving relatives in an attempt to obtain more money for phone cards.

However, it may take a year to wean them off the "drug", said Dr Maite Utges, director of the Child and Youth Mental Health Centre in Lleida, north-east Spain, where they have been treated for the past three months.

"It is the first time we have used a specific treatment to cure a dependence on the mobile phone," she said.

"They both showed disturbed behaviour and this exhibited itself in failure at school. They both had serious difficulties leading normal lives."

Both children had had their own phones for 18 months and were not controlled by their parents.

"One paid for their phone by getting money from the grandmother and other family members, without explaining what they were going to do with it," said Dr Utges.

At least two cases of phone addiction have been reported in Britain where young people who were obsessed with their phones and became depressed when the number of incoming calls or messages dropped.

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Prospectus - friends with benefits

In case you haven't heard, the term friends with benefits refers to two individuals (friends, as the term implies) who mutually and regularly engage in sexual activity without any aspirations of anything more than just sex. How does it compare to the traditional relationship? The prospectus below provides the answer. :)

(Found this on Yes, I Can't See You)

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Roadblocks - preventing crimes or causing traffic jam?

Today's massive traffic jam / flood was pretty bad and pissed off many of my colleagues. It reminded me how annoyed I was with traffic jam resulted from roadblocks.

"Roadblocks part of regular crime prevention" - title of the article below.

clipped from thestar.com.my

PETALING JAYA: Police say the roadblocks around Kuala Lumpur and here on Saturday were part of the normal crime prevention measures.

Several readers had called The Star office in Petaling Jaya on Saturday expressing concern that several roadblocks had been set up around Kuala Lumpur and here, causing traffic jams. Some even questioned whether the roadblocks were in any way related to Sunday's rally organised by the Coalition Against Inflation (Protes) at Stadium Kelana Jaya here.

I fully agree with the idea of having sensible roadblocks. Like the ones for speeding (which I got caught), the ones for drunk-driving (I assume so if it's done past midnight), or the ones for some unknown reasons - most likely to catch criminals or something.

But I think it's a little too many roadblocks in Malaysia. I doubt the effectiveness to prevent crime (how would it prevent crime from happening?), but for sure they cause traffic jam. Even the Deputy Tourism Minister complained about having it (done just outside KLIA).

On this particular roadblock in KLIA, I experienced it once or twice. Why did it have to be just outside the airport? What were they looking for?

Perhaps positively responding to the Minister appeal, the roadblock was once done on the highway between the airport and KL, causing at least 30-minute jam on the highway. Yeah, I was there as well... *sigh*

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Drama nation

I don't follow politics - well, except the big events like elections. I'm a skeptic when it comes to politicians (or politician wannabes).

I also don't read newspaper regularly. We don't subscribe to any local paper, but every other week we always get the free Star everyday - because our maid is nice enough to pick up the free paper every time she takes Anya out to wait for her carpool.

Last week Anya was carpooling so we get to read local newspaper everyday. That's when I've really had enough about drama with Malaysian political leaders.

The news are full with crappy drama from the political leaders. Either it's about sodomy, or unresolved murder of a Mongolian model, or racist comment, or missing private investigator (after providing a report, of course), or other things that are shameful enough to occupy first page news for days.

Or maybe they should be on the first page. Because these news involve the number one and the number two, as well as the former number one and the former number two...

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