Rubénerd!

Speaking of emails, I got this message from Amazon this morning. I'm emphatically pointing out that emphasis was added by me, for emphasis.

Dear Ruben Schade,

We thought you'd like to know that eligible songs from 2 CDs you have purchased from Amazon are being added to your Cloud Player library. [..] In addition, we're excited to announce AutoRip. Now when you buy any CD with the AutoRip logo, the MP3 version of that album will instantly be delivered to your Amazon Cloud Player library for FREE.

AutoRip is available to U.S. customers only.

Amazon, can I have a quick word with you? You seem very nice. I like your site. As you've said here, you've posted me music to my address in Australia. You've billed my Australia debit card, and a Singapore card before that.

So why, my friend, are you telling me about a US-only service?

The school's armed guard didn't stop the perpetrator. Rather than precipitating a gun fight in a crowded classroom, a courageous teacher talked him down, and he surrendered.

I've constantly heard the argument on Twitter and iRL that the answer to gun violence is more guns. If a violent person is aware a target is armed, it will act as a deterrent. Of course, this assumes disturbed people with guns are thinking rationally.

Fortunately, many conservatarians also stress the need for improved mental health. How people in a country with a utopian "limited government" and no insurance can get treatment is a deafeningly unanswered question. Ron Paul would probably be able to provide a meek answer, but it would take him a long time.

Accessible mental health care and education coupled with crisis training for people in allegedly high risk occupations would solve far more than simply arming everyone. It will take more work though.

From TODAYOnline, a Singaporean news site:

The first 250 US Marines will arrive next month in northern Australia where a permanent joint training hub will be based. [..] In November, the United States and Australia announced plans to send more US military aircraft and to rotate up to 2,500 Marines through the northern city of Darwin to better protect American interests across Asia.

They're not evening hiding who this arrangement benefits any more.

Now that Australia is the 51st state of the United States, I'll be expecting my American Amazon account to become active any day now. I'm proud of this post!

The Obama

Firstly, after many aborted attempts to visit us in the land where things are upside down, where kangaroos are the primary form of transport, and where steep Alpine slopes take tourists down a breathtaking ski run to a Germanic cabin where hot chocolate is served, President Barack Obama visited Australia. To minimise the disruption for commuters, he eschewed (gesundheit) the more populated areas in favour of vising the the new regional Amercian capital of Australia in Darwin, and the former one in Canberra.

Speaking in the newly constructed Capitol building in Darwin where a large military base is being assembled, details of the scope of the new occupation force began to emerge. From SBS World News:

Referring to joint plans to base 250 US marines in the Top End next year, rising to 2500 in five years, he said Darwin would write the next chapter in the "proud history of our alliance".

Marines were chosen over other military personnel for the occupation force, to prevent waves of Australian refugees from fleeing on small boats to Indonesia.

The PRC

Confusingly, while the United States takes on the roll of administering Australia from the largely ineffective minority government led by Alan Jones, China remains the primary supplier of Australian economic aid which has helped former politicians including John Howard and Peter Costello to claim successes for their policies.

Speaking at a conference in Bali to escape the heat in the ACT, Julia Gillard assured the Chinese government that the new administrators weren't a threat to Chinese hegemony, and downplayed the words of the new President. From SBS World News:

"We have in Australia made an announcement with president Obama about the rotational deployment of marines into the Northern Territory for the purpose of exercising [because they're were getting fat], that having the US engaged in our region is a force for stability, that having those marines training alongside the ADF in Australia enables us to have a strengthened capacity to respond to regional contingencies including things like natural disasters.

While also taking a swipe at the Singapore government's treatment of Australia as a dumping ground for helicopters, Gillard took the opportunity to provide some much needed perspective.

[..] during the last Australian summer of flood and bushfires, Singapore offered use of helicopters to assist in relief operations. That was possible because Singapore has military helicopters on Australian territory for long-term training.

The Convenience

Meanwhile, back on Australian American soil, ZDNet Australia reported on how the annexation of Australia would have long term security benefits.

As part of US President Barack Obama's visit to Australia, a raft of new accords have been agreed upon to strengthen the national security of the two nations, [..]

Not "theoretically" strengthen, or "allegedly", but straight out strengthen. Certainty is critical in these matters.

[..] including a memorandum that will see US law enforcement agencies score access to the names, aliases, DNA and fingerprint information of suspected criminals and terrorists.

Following in the footsteps of draconian global copyright treaties that would see suspected file sharers have their internet revoked, in this scenario merely being a suspect without conviction would be enough to have your personal details sent to the United States.

While drastically securing everything because they say so, this would allow travelers who have never even been to the US to have their personal information transported there and stored. From a convenience perspective, its a win-win. I'm sure Bruce Schneier would wholeheartedly agree, if someone stuck a gun in his back, or something.

Conclusions

Now that the United States is administering Australia, I am looking foward to having their laws implemented here, which will facilitate me opening Amazon and Apple Store accounts without the messy overseas cards I'm currently using.

Are you Alaskan and worried that your country's credit rating may spill over to you? Not to fear, according to the graphic above from CNN Money at 2:52 PM Eastern US time, you're still AAA! I'm still awaiting confirmation from Bloomberg and CNBC.

In other news, I love that Singapore is represented in "The AAA Club" with a single dark pixel. Very generous, considering its land area barely qualities it for a subpixel rendered on the edge of a glyph let alone an entire pixel. Must be all that land reclamation.

Read it on The J-Walk Blog from Reuters, so it must be true!

Coffee... Coffee Coffee!

From the report itself, which J-Walk also quoted, which means this post may qualify for some serious Inception:

Young American adults have increased the amount of coffee they drink daily in 2011, after feeling better about their finances following the global economic crisis, a survey showed on Saturday.

Funny, I would have thought drinking coffee to cram for more exams to get into the fewer available jobs would be endemic of further financial difficulties and job problems. Go figure!

For what its worth, I started drinking coffee when I was 14, so I could stay awake during my mum's super early chemo sessions. I used to drink six cups a day, but I'm down to two now and no longer get serious caffeine headaches if I miss out. Ironically, I feel I have more energy as a result.

That reminds me!

Having only just wrote an entry about coffee, I noticed in my PayPal inbox that Roel247 donated a cup of coffee to me a few days ago! I wanted to thank him personally here for being so friendly :).

For those who don't know, Roel was one of my most loyal supporters of the Rubenerd Show back in the day and is one of the most genuinely nice people I've ever had the plesure of conversing with. One of these days I'll go to The Netherlands and meet him, this much is sure :).

I love Borders. I spent a ridiculous amount of my childhood there, not to mention my money. I know its not politically correct to admit to liking retail chains, but if they go I really will miss them.

The Book is The Word

If you've been living under a rock, or a rather large hardcover book about geology, you may not be aware of the recent news that Borders has entered chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States. A favourite amongst American airline companies that defaulted on their commitments after airline deregulation (thank you Carter and Reagan), chapter 11 protects businesses from their creditors and allows them a chance to reorganise themselves in the hopes they'll be able to return to profitability at some point. Theoretically.

According to Wikipedia, a site that perhaps reduced Border's profits on printed manuals, encyclopaedias and self serving autobiographies:

On February 16, 2011, the company announced that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, listing $1.275 billion in assets and $1.293 billion in debts in its filing

Ouch. According to the same article, all of their superstores will be shut down and the number of smaller stores drastically reduced. Presumably if they can make it through the chapter 11 period they'll continue to operate.

Singapore

Of course being heavily influenced by childhood nostalgia, my first thought was whether Borders in Australia and Singapore would be affected.

My sister, parents and I moved to Singapore shortly before Borders opened their now iconic store in Wheelock Place, and as I said at the beginning of this pointless post I spent much of my childhood there. Kinokuniya across the road in the Takashimaya complex had more stuff, but Borders had carpet and nicer lighting. It was huge but felt cozy. I spent many a happy afternoon after school school sitting in their IT section deciding which O'Reilly programming books took my fancy. I loved that they were open so late even on weekends so when other people had social lives and were exploring alcohol and nightclubs, I could go somewhere with my good buddy Felix and just explore. I liked the place, you get my point.

It turns out though that much like Borders UK, Borders in Singapore has no business relation to the presumed parent company in the US. Writers in Singapore acting like the true PR spokespersons that they are were quick to assure readers that the operations in the city state were safe:

Feb 15, 2011
SINGAPORE - Borders Singapore is not closing down its operations here.

Although The Wall Street Journal has reported that Borders Group is preparing to file for bankruptcy in the United States, book lovers need not fret because, since 2008, Borders stores in Singapore, as well as Australia and New Zealand, are owned by Redgroup Retail - an Australian book and stationery retailer - and not the US chain.

Nothing to worry about right?

Australia

Well, maybe not. On the 17th, RedGroup Retail that operates Borders and Angus & Robertson bookstores in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore reported that the were dire straits themselves. Again from Wikipedia:

On 17 February 2011, RedGroup Retail (including the Borders, Angus & Robertson as well as Whitcoulls chains) were placed into voluntary administration with Ferrier Hodgson appointed as administrators.

So it looks as though Borders may be shutting down in Australia after all, and along with the parent company we can presume the stores in Singapore will also be closing. Right? RIGHT?

Well, maybe not. Again from that bastion of journalistic integrity in Singapore known as TODAYonline:

Feb 21, 2011 SINGAPORE - Go ahead and flip those pages at Borders, for this bookstore is unlikely to close anytime soon [...] staff said customers have no cause for concern. The employees believe that the latest reports suggesting financial woes at RedGroup Retail, which oversees Borders here as well as in Asia, Australia and New Zealand, will affect stores located Down Under only.

So it seems we can expect Borders in Australia to go, and many of the Borders stores in the US to go... but not New Zealand or Singapore? Can we trust the here-say of staff being asked in their place of employment? Would the powers that be have even informed them yet?

Clear as mud. Oh well, I need a coffee. At least the Borders in Singapore had the Borders Bistro in store to serve coffee and snacks while I sat there in delight flipping through my Programming In Perl book; in Australia they peddle the wares of the Hillsong Church which is creepy to say the least.

Hey wait... Malaysia?

One other point that I've found scant information on: what about Borders Malaysia? Granted I didn't go there as much because I only lived in Kuala Lumpur for a year, but I did go to their branch at The Curve in Damansara several times. The staff there were super nice, and they had a super impressive manga section, I reckon maybe even bigger than the one in Wheelock Place.

From what I can tell, Borders Malaysia is licenced by the Berjaya Group, which means its also unrelated to Borders USA and to the RedGroup Retail outfit. I think.

I got an unexpected package in the mail today!

Keith Olbermann's last show

A week ago I was on the phone to a friend of mine in America lamenting Keith Olbermann's recent suspicious and secretive dismissal after NBC was bought by Comcast.

Olbermann was a news anchor for MSNBC who I thought composed excellent news dialogue, delivered it in his fast pace, no nonsense style and had wit as sharp as a tack. As someone wary of TV news I found myself disagreeing with him at times and I still did my own research, but I also found him to be a breath of fresh air and a valuable counterforce to "certain" loud Fox News presenters. Bill O'Beck, I think that's his name.

As well as his role as a general news commentator for breaking stories, he hosted MSNBC's highest rated show Countdown which discussed five news stories of the day interspersed with readings of Thurber, odd news in the Oddball segment and his infamous Worst Persons in The World which got him into trouble with Jon Stewart of all people, though Bill Maher was quick to show his support. Ah politics ;).

I bought my second pair of glasses to match his. I emailed him a couple of times with opinions on news stories and even got a reply once! But I digress.

The Podcast Factor

What I appreciated as someone without access to their channel is that unlike many other media companies, MSNBC made Countdown available in its entirety as a podcast. Generally speaking networks prefer cutting up shows into smaller segments and releasing them, I suppose to make watching it on TV with advertisements more appealing or to reduce load on their servers.

Despite living overseas, I was able to download and watch his show for three years to get a glimpse into what was going on with my American friends.

I first talked about this in October 2009: Keith Olbermann's Countdown as a podcast.

Mail, motherf*cker!

I belabour all of this to say that after hanging up with this friend in the US, without telling me he went on the NBC Universal internet store and ordered me some memorabillia that I talked about here back in 2009: A Keith Olbermann Bobblehead! Presumably now the show is toast, NBC won't be selling these for much longer, so now I have a piece of history along with all the gigabytes of podcast episodes I've downloaded over the years.

He stands about 20 centimetres tall - well actually he's sitting, at his smart desk thingy - which places him in a similar scale to many of my anime figures, though obviously much larger than my Singapore Airlines A380!

I wish I could use your name!

As this friend of mine has done in the past when he bought me 100 pixels on the Million Dollar Homepage and paid for my hosting fees for the whole of 2008, he insisted I not divulge his name on my site if I discussed it. He even paid a small mint to have it shipped FedEx Priority which meant it arrived in three days! Amazing!

He's truly one of the nicest, most humble people I know and I really value his friendship. If you're reading this good sir, thank you so much! I hope one day you'll let me talk about you here, though I understand your personal reasons why I probably won't be able to. Frustrating, but understandable! Thank you again *manhug*

The last heading

Like Countdown, I wanted five separate headings for this post, but I ran out after four so here's another one. I'll end by quoting some Thurber as Keith used to do:

It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.

Nice.

This is the greatest thing I've read in a long time.

Critics of Social Security and Medicare frequently invoke the words and ideals of author and philosopher Ayn Rand, one of the fiercest critics of federal insurance programs. But a little-known fact is that Ayn Rand herself collected Social Security. She may also have received Medicare benefits.

The Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights also has a page on their website entitled Social Security is Immoral. Me thinks we'll be seeing a revision soon to include an exception clause. Sounds like if Santa was a programmer. Bad joke, sorry.

One score and nine years ago, our father Reagan brought forth, on the North American continent, a new nation, conceived in the idea that greed is good and taxes are bad, that government is the enemy , and dedicated to the proposition that rich men are more equal than “others.” ~ James K Weston

Perhaps a slight oversimplification, but I still liked it. The quote I mean, not the actions. Something about Thatcherism would have been good to include too.

My 24th year on this spinning lump of rock was a real watershed: my dissolution with politicians finally eclipsed my optimism. It doesn't mean I'm a pessimist, perhaps more a realist.