My friend just sent me an update on his daughter using the PowerBook 15″.
If my friend forward any product of Jane’s usage of the PowerBook I will share it with everyone.
PS: of course by permission of the author.
Air Quality of Hong Kong
As you can see from this photo, Hong Kong does and can have clear sky days. Unfortunately, these days are far and few between in recent years.
Coincidentally for some strange reasons the situation got worst ever since the handover (in 1997) of Hong Kong back to China.
In the past week when Hong Kong’s temperatures reached the mid 30°C, the conditions became worst, to the point of dangerous for many people who suffer from respiratory diseases.
The Hong Kong Observatory explains that the hot temperatures resulted in conditions where there are not enough wind to blow the pollutants out to sea and away from Hong Kong. This caused a high pollutant count at street level and low visibility in the Victoria Harbour.
The Environment Minister further explains that these excessive pollutants are the direct result of increased power consumption by Hong Kong residences. Which caused the power companies to increase their electricity productions.
The Energy Minister’s report is also when I first realize that Hong Kong still relies heavily on coal fuel for electricity generation. According to government’s figures, as of the end of 2005, coal fueled energy constitute 55% of the fuel source for electricity generation in Hong Kong, while the cleaner and safer natural gas fuel constituting only 18%.
How come Hong Kong, a modern metropolis still uses coal for majority of its electricity generation? Is it due to economics or business decision.
In an attempt to lower power consumption, the government began a major advertising and educational campaign to encourage Hong Kong residences and businesses to raise the thermostat so to reduce general energy consumption in the territory. Unfortunately, for those who lives in or visiting Hong Kong, will be familiar with the experience of walking along a street lined with retail shops, and feeling gusts of cool (sometime cold) air conditioned air pumping out from these shops (normally without doors). Even on the hottest of days, one will often get enough relieve from these shops to make walking along the busy and crowded streets bearable. Remember I am talking about out in the open, so there are excessive use of energy in Hong Kong.
Both electric companies in Hong Kong also have natural gas fueled power plants. One of the power company even erected a large wind mill for experimental power generation on a near by island within the Hong Kong territories. This latter form of power generation is not the most practical in Hong Kong, mainly due to the lack of land in Hong Kong for such purpose. With wind power being one of the most viable natural source of energy, and Hong Kong’s spirit of exploiting the coastal waters, the government is therefore considering a plan to build a farm of wind mills in the Hong Kong territorial waters for energy generation.
I have an idea that will kill-two-birds-with-one-stone, per se. We can build a farm of thermal and solar powered wind mills in the territorial waters of Hong Kong. At initial thought you may think this idea sounds a bit weird and contradictory. Please allow me to explain.
My idea is to utilize thermal and solar energy to spin these wind mills (giant fans) in the farm, and this farm or farms will also be positioned strategically. As a result they generate enough turbulence in Victoria harbour and the general Hong Kong coastal regions to blow the pollutant into the sea or at least disburse it enough to help its natural dissipation. These thermal and solar powered wind mills will also be able to generate electricity, which it can either transport back to the land power lines or store for days when the thermal and solar energy are not enough to run the wind mill farms.
You can see how this idea can solve a few problems with a simple self contained solution.
So until the right people acknowledge my idea, let’s all do our part and return the Hong Kong skyscape that we’re all used to in the past decades.
Technorati Tags: Hong Kong, Pollution, wind mill, solar, thermal, alternative energy
How Young Will They Be?
Today my friend’s daughter became one of the youngest user of an iPod.
I kind of donated my old 3rd generation iPod to my friend’s daughter, who is 2 and a half. So she is now an official Apple product owner.
According to her father, she now listens to Sesame Street on her new iPod. I hear that Jane also favors Barnney.
PS: I am happy to say that she does not do “Windows” (including the OS) and has started to use a Macintosh PowerBook.
A Conflict Without George?
…. or is that really true?
As many of you may already know, there had been fierce fighting along the borders of Israel and Lebanon this week. The fighting is between the Israeli military and the Hezbollah’s military wing, Al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya.
As far as most people know, this conflict was neither started by the United States or George W. Bush.
Although any conflict in the middle east involving Israel must have the backing of the United States of America. Given that Israel is one of the only ally in the region dominated by Islamic countries.
The latest conflict was instigated by Hezbollah in their operation “Operation Truthful Promise”, with Israel retaliating with “Operation Just Reward” or later named “Operation Change of Direction”.
This is definitely not something that Israel needs, especially when they already had an active conflict with Hamas in Palestine.
Will the USA get involve? Will they come to the support of their middle east friend and alley being pushed around by its neighbours? Given the importance of middle east to the US foreign policies and domestic stability. I would not be surprise if US carriers are entering the strait of Hormuz or the Mediterranean sea.
I just hope these conflicts will be settled soon and everyone concern can resume the peace process that was already started in the middle east. It is beneficial to all countries to have a stable middle east.
Technorati Tags: israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Hezbollah, Hamas, Hormuz
GST in Hong Kong
In my humble opinion. This is definitely a bad thing for Hong Kong.
I had lived through the whole discussion and then implementation of GST in Canada and it is definitely not something that Hong Kong needs.
I feel so strongly that I had created a page on my site dedicated to this cause, plus creating a petition that I plan to send to the HKSAR Government when they begin accepting public opinions.
So, if you also agree with my opinions please help by signing the petition and then most importantly help spread the word.
Thank you for your support.
Environment Awareness
Given the current condition of our world everyone should be environmentally aware.
Here in Hong Kong the Discovery Asia channel is airing Earth Communication Organization (ECO) 1998 campaign, “Think”. The message of the campaign is simple and direct:
What if your family lived in a home on an island you couldn’t leave?
With limited amount of food and save drinking water
It would be very important to make things last wouldn’t it?
Especially when your family kept growing and growing… and growing
Well… it doesn’t matter where your home is
Because we all lived on an island we can’t leave [and they show the picture of the Earth floating in space]
So please only use what you need because supplies are truly limited
We can do that… [and the caption at the end is “Get involved”]
I think this video is very powerful and yet subtle. More people should see it.
The air condition of Hong Kong had deteriorated substantially in recent years and we, as citizens of Hong Kong, really need to help out to reverse or stop the situation as soon as possible.
One thing we can do is to begin to change all our utility bills and bank statements to online statements by registering with their respective services.
If you live in Hong Kong, to get you started I have listed the web sites of some of the Hong Kong utilities below:
Another thing you can do as citizens of Hong Kong and members of this planet is to join the “Lights Out Hong Kong” event. The organizers of this event are asking every person and companies to turn off the lights in their homes and businesses for 3 minutes on August, 8th, 2006 at 8:00pm.
Are We All Paparazzi?
Now a days digital video and still cameras, and mobile phones capable of both are all around us, almost anyone can be a paparazzi. Is this a good thing for our society or is it something that is part of living in a metropolis in the 21st century?
There are sites like YouTube allowing amateur videographers to share their videos. With the Hong Kong video “Bus Uncle” being the most viewed video on YouTube last month (June).
There are also web sites and organizations like Videopower in Hong Kong that are independent videographers capturing the latest stories in Hong Kong using a different view point than commercial news broadcasts.
With so many readily media technologies in the hands of amateurs, many people are now raising the privacy issues of these media. I personally think that we must forego some personal privacy, when we (particularly in Hong Kong) lives in a place with over 7 million people in a territory smaller than the island of Manhattan, New York.
So if you are not doing something wrong you have nothing to worry about. If you are you should keep in mind that you may become the star of a video posted on YouTube or alike sites.
Having said that, like everything else, there are always bad apples in the mist. For amateur videographers and photocasters, there are ones who take hidden videos and photographs of others with sexual intentions and then post these media files onto the Internet. This is where I do agree that there is a violation of privacy to the extent of being illegal.
How do we draw the line? When does it consider invasion of privacy and when do we accept it as part of freedom of expression?
Please feel free to support your opinions.
Why Programming and Sex are Similar
Here are the reasons why:
- Some people are just naturally good at it.
- Once you started you will only stop when you are exhausted.
- Only someone who has experience will appreciate what you are doing.
- If you make one mistake you will have to support it for the rest of your life.
- Most of what you learn are not taught in school.
- There are more males enjoy doing it than females.
- If you have not done it for a while you will miss it.
- You can either get pay doing it or just do it for fun.
- Many people write books about the right way of doing it.
- You often feels like you do not know enough.
Technorati Tags: comparison, programming, sex
Can United States Afford To be the Police of the World?
Calling United States the “Police of the world” may seen as generous by some critics of United States’ foreign polices. These critics instead may refer it as imperialism, “U.S. Global Empire”.
United States’ foreign policies have brought US troops to 135 countries around the world including Afghanistan and Iraq, which equates to 70% of the world’s countries. These deployment range from as low as 1 to as high as 74,796. Although the total number of troops deployed in foreign soil may be lower than the average in the past 50 years, the number of territories that US troops deployed are the highest in 50 years.
The U.S. foreign policies seem to have a need to impose American believes and virtues onto other nations. Take the case of Iraq. Yes, Saddam Hussein may be a tyrant and it harsh towards Iraq’s citizens. Who gives the right for the U.S. to intervene. I am not condoning dictatorship or (alleged) genocide, but no foreign government should interfere with the politics of a sovereign nation. That is what the United Nations is for.
In the case of “Osama Bin Laden” and Al Qaeda. The U.S. [government/president] has to understand that they are not fighting an individual who has a following. Bin Laden has successfully made the war against the U.S. into a religious war; a Jihad. Hence, no matter who is the leader of Al Qaeda the war will not end. The only difference along the way is how organize these individuals will be.
With the U.S. existing foreign policies, they had taken their needs to protect “American interests” to the extreme.
I do not have a solution or grand plan to resolve all the conflicts around the world, but as long as there are unequal balance of power and the ability of any one party to have leverage on the situation the conflicts will continue. I wish the respective governments would put more emphasis on local policies instead. May be then we will have “peace on earth”.
What is George W. Bush Trying to Do?
The 43rd president of the United States.
Over the years there had been many criticism on George W. Bush and I definitely do not call myself an expert in US politics, but it is hard for me not to comment on some of the policies and decisions of George W. Bush.
His policies on Afghanistan, Iraq and North Korea are not without controversies, but it is hard for me to believe that all these controversies are true. It is not that I believe in George W. Bush or agrees with him, I just cannot imagine that someone in his position can do so many, alleged, bad things and behave the way he did. He has even been labeled “The War President” among its critics.
A movie, “Fahrenheit 9/11“, by Michael Moore, was released in 2004 that documents Micheal Moore’s version of what happened after the attack on New York City on September 11, 2001 (aka 9/11).
The evidence Moore presented are very convincing, but if all that were presented were true than the Bush family is definitely guilty of some sort of crime against the American citizens.
Not sure if it is because Bush is now on his half way mark of his second term and still coming up with policies that do not make sense, Moore is going to release a sequel called “Fahrenheit 9/11 ½” in 2007, and I suppose it is to elaborate on what had transpired since 2004.
The apparent theme of the reasoning behind Bush’s actions and decisions, and how he is able to get away with it, has to do with the large amount of money involved. I guess this further proof that money talks and people are willing to do almost anything for sake of money.
So will George W. Bush legacy be known as “The War President” or will he be know as the most powerful manipulator in the history of United States, it will take many more years before that is known.
Technorati Tags: George W. Bush