Podcast: Play in new window · Download
16:00 – From the forum (Internet Explorer problems), coffee review (Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf Mocha), visiting Putrajaya, (Alamanda SC, playing chess at Starbucks), Christmas decorations in an Islamic country and a Liverpool player on chess!
Recorded in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Licence for this track: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5. Attribution: Ruben Schade.
Podcast: Play in new window · Download
10:00 – Microphones (Shure PG48 and $3.00 Cheap as Chips), home computers dropping like flies, losing notes, testy pops, a nostalic look back at the LaserDisc (digital versus analogue signals, how it represents stuff, sheer size!) and what sickens Elke.
Recorded in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Licence for this track: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5. Attribution: Ruben Schade.
According to the Associated Press roughly an hour ago now, George W. Bush is in Singapore to meet Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and to reassure the Asian community of the United States's "commitment" and so forth.
SINGAPORE – With China on the rise and his own stature weakened at home,
President Bush sought Thursday to ease any doubts in Asia about the United States’ long-term commitment to the region.“The United States hasn’t been there so much,” he said. “China has eaten America’s lunch.”
As a way to highlight Singapore’s success at integrating the many ethnicities and religions of its people, Bush opened the trip with a visit to the Asian Civilisations Museum overlooking the mouth of the Singapore River.
The president and his wife, Laura Bush, were treated to a performance of Asian fusion music by a group called “Gamelan Asmaradana,” which played a classical Javanese piece and a Singapore folk song. Bush was even talked into briefly giving the saron — an Asian-style xylophone — a few bangs with a rubber mallet.
In another room, the Bushes watched school children perform dances representing Chinese, Indian and Malaysian culture. Some of the children in brightly colored costumes twirled with peacock feathers and others performed acrobatics.
I used to frequent the Asian Civilisations Museum quite regularly… I'm scared! It's a fascinating place.
Let's hope though that his stupidity doesn't rub off on any of the Singaporean officials before he leaves ;).
singapore,
asia pacific,
asia-pacific,
george w. bush,
george w bush,
dubbya,
lee hsien loong,
united states,
china,
asia
Podcast: Play in new window · Download
20:00 – Inappropriate Language Warning! Elke's bright pink hair, Ruben bashing Microsoft (no existing Microsoft DRM music on Zune, Zune and Vista are incompatible), the net send command, balaclavas, burkas for The Sims 2, the best Weird Al song (White and Nerdy), using del.icio.us to bookmark stuff, Elke Software Review (MSN Messenger vs. Windows Live Messenger), Ruben's old MSDN subscription, Ruben's Software Review (Google Desktop), Elke's high-school subjects, and Putt Putt on flying breakfast!
Recorded in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Licence for this track: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5. Attribution: Ruben Schade.
Don't you think that would be a great show idea? Segway Cops! Chasing the bad guys down the streat, guns blazing, swear words being thrown everywhere and the cops on Segways! Where's my television contract? Anyone want to licence it from me?
Actually just for fun I typed Segway into Google Image search and discovered that the Italian Police Force actually use Segways!
20-01-2006 – Segway: un veicolo elettrico per la sicurezza delle stazioni
I'm sure having people on Segways is much better than having them on smoke spewing petrol motorbikes too. You can read more on the official Italian Police Force website.
segway,
italy,
italia,
polizia distato,
italian police,
cops,
police,
funny
According to Bloomberg, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose above 19,000 for the first time, and Singapore's Straits Times index posted a new record!
The article states that despite a cooler than expected Chinese economy Hong Kong was able to post strong gains which pushed it into record territory.
Elsewhere in Asia-Pacific though, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia fell, led by resource stocks such as BHP Billiton in Australia and JR East, Japan's largest railway operator.
economics,
singapore,
new zealand,
australia,
japan,
malaysia,
indonesia,
straits times,
hang seng,
nikkei
EDIT: Within the first few hours of posting this I received a great comment from BeepBeepItsMe from Australia who was able to sum up all that I said succinctly in a few lines! If you would like to share your views too, don't forget to either click "Add Comment" or use the text boxes below. I'd also recommend checking out her site, Beep Beep It's Me: An atheist's satirical view of the universe. I'm sure she always has a towel! Cheers :D.
If you're an Atheist, or a "believer in Science" such as myself, I'm sure you'll find this article hilarious: It's Not Easy Being An Atheist by the always unbiased and logical Steve Cornell.
I think it's ironic that a guy who clearly isn't an Atheist would then write about how hard it is to be one! I should give this article to my granddad in Australia and let him have a go, I'm sure he'd find flaws everywhere.
Anyway I love debunking lists that are generated on this site, so here I present his arguments for why he believes it's not easy being an Atheist, followed by actual feelings from an Atheist, a more reliable source if you ask me. I'll label each claim for what it is: a Whopper. Mmm… Burger King Whopper… I'm hungry!
An atheist assigns himself to life without ultimate purpose.
As Atheists we believe that religion critically devalues human life. By claiming there's an afterlife, people throughout history have gone into wars believing that they will be saved when they die, when in reality they simply cease to exist just like every other organism on this planet. A very convenient lie for world leaders.
Atheists believe that the ultimate goal of any person should be the advancement of our species, such that the world would have been at a loss without us: whether that means a person develops a new kind of toothbrush, a new propulsion system, a catchy new song that entertains us, or even raising a happy, loving family they have fulfilled their duty as a person.
The claim that we live life "without ultimate purpose" is laughable. Because we don't believe in a God or Gods and an afterlife does that have to mean what we do in this life is completely worthless? I don't think so ;).
The atheist must also suppress the demands of logic.
What is this guy smoking? The last time I checked, Atheism and the belief in Science hold logic as the central pillar to everything! For something to be passed as scientific theory, one has to:
Apparently that isn't logic though ;).
Yet, ironically, the atheist has to believe in miracles without believing in God.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but no we don't. I'm sure in the days of the cave people when a lightening bolt hit a tree and started a fire they believed it was a miracle. When the invaders from Europe arrived in the Americas and brought with them horses the native peoples must have believed that those creatures were mythical beasts.
The word "miracle" is a very subjective term and has to be taken in context. We are far more scientifically advanced than the first settlers and cave people; we now know what causes fire, where horses come from etc, but there is still a lot we don't understand. Should we just assume that what we don't currently have an explanation for should be classified as a miracle (ie: what came before the big bang?). You can if you want, but be prepared to be laughed at in the future when we do have an explanation.
An atheist must also suppress all notions of morality.
Religion was something created by humans, just like what we hold to be true and false. Atheists believe it should be our own moral compass and common decency that should determine what is right and wrong, not a holy scripture that is full of contradictions, ambiguity and messages of hate.
The bible claims "If within the city a man comes upon a maiden who is betrothed, and has relations with her, you shall bring them both out of the gate of the city and there stone them to death: the girl because she did not cry out for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbors wife." (Deuteronomy 22:23-24 NAB).
What kind of sick, twisted "right and wrong" belief is that? Want another one?
"They must be dividing the spoils they took: there must be a damsel or two for each man, Spoils of dyed cloth as Sisera's spoil, an ornate shawl or two for me in the spoil. (Judges 5:30 NAB)"
I'm sorry, reading these quotes is making me sick. Let's move on.
In fact, the atheist must conclude that evil is an illusion
Evil is a term and concept in our language that we as humans created. There is no illusion in that.
The atheist must also live with the arrogance of his position.
Atheism is the acceptance that there is no credible scientific, logical or factually reliable evidence for the existence of God, Gods, faeries, elves or the supernatural. As atheists we don't believe there is no God, we assert that there has been no evidence produced so far that proves the existence of a God. A very critical difference which shows Steve Cornell really should research what he writes about so as to prevent himself looking like a fool.
In law we assume innocence until proven guilty, in science we don't even pass as theory until we have evidence and in our minds we don't usually believe something until we've been given some form of proof. Remember, the onus isn't on us to prove a God or Gods don't exist, the onus is on people like Steve Cornell to prove that there is.
Arrogance is defined as "having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one's own importance or abilities". To me that describes Steve Cornell's position just fine.
The atheist must also deny the validity of historical proof.
Not only does this statement remove any shred of credibility Steve Cornell had in my mind, it also shows his lack of understanding of the world around him having been brought up under strict religious teachings that brainwash you into thinking things that don't make sense.
Science has proven conclusively that the Earth is billions of years old. Satellites that have returned from near the sun have collected dust that is billions of years older than our planet. Fossils buried under rock that would have taken thousands or even millions of years to form prove that animals have been living on our planet for millions of years. DNA evidence shows the link between different organisms on our planet… did you know we share over 60% of our DNA with bananas? Wicked!
Now lets look at the historical "proof" that Steve Cornell has provided us with: "he would be forced to accept the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead". There has been no evidence whatsoever that this happened. What evidence does he attempt to provide? "The account of Jesus' resurrection is strongly validated by standard rules for judging historical accuracy. The extensive manuscript evidence of eyewitnesses to the resurrection is presented in an unbiased, authentic manner." That is not evidence. In a murder trial, someone saying "he did it, I saw it" is not evidence enough to get a conviction, so why should people base their entire belief system on something even less than this? Christianity itself draws upon many Pagan rituals and beliefs, and it's more likely these concocted pieces of "evidence" did too.
Eyewitness accounts, given their nature, have been proven time and time again to be something we cannot solely rely upon. And then there's the Bible itself: it contradicts itself on matters of history. A person who reads and compares the contents of the Bible will be confused about exactly who Esau's wives were, whether Timnah was a concubine or a son, and whether Jesus' earthly lineage is through Solomon or his brother Nathan. These are but a few of hundreds of documented historical contradictions. If the Bible cannot confirm itself in mundane earthly matters, how are we to trust it on moral and spiritual matters?
Finally, the atheist must admit that human beings are not importantly different from other animals
The first statement he has made that makes sense. We are no different biologically from our animal cousins, the only difference we have is our larger brain capacity and out ability to have abstract thought (and to concoct religion… hey, I hadn't thought of that!).
The argument that we are supremely different from other animals fall apart when you think of the time frame. There is irrefutable scientific and empirical evidence that animals have been on this planet for millions of years.
Elephants are an endangered species. In Africa they they have almost been poached to extinction for their ivory. What has been interesting is that it has been a real world example of evolution at work: elephants that don't have tusks haven't been getting killed and as a result they are the ones surviving. Now think that this took less than half a century to happen. 50 years. Now multiply that by millions of years; a number which I myself cannot even begin to comprehend; all of sudden the idea that we all evolved from a common ancestor doesn't sound so cooky anymore does it?
Always remember that the atheist’s problem with belief in God is not the absence of evidence but the suppression of it.
I'm afraid not. Give us some real, irrefutable evidence to back up your claims and we'll believe you. Otherwise, you're just "suppressing" the truth yourself aren't you? :)
Podcast: Play in new window · Download
10:00 – The November outage, woeful internet woes (Telekom Malaysia StreamyX, Coffee Bean WiFi, Helen Coonan sucks), new microphone standy things, the American mid-term elections (as seen here in Asia), and Einstein on gravitational lovin'.
Recorded in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Licence for this track: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5. Attribution: Ruben Schade.
While I was in Adelaide for university earlier this year and last year, I arrived just as the city's new airport was supposed to take off… sorry, bad pun. First it was a long construction delay, then there were repeated problems with the fuel supply lines, then the bad publicity regarding the woeful accommodation of regional airliners… the list goes on.
Now it seems our beloved new terminal, the newest international airport in Australia, has been ranked third behind Perth and Brisbane, despite their terminals being more than 10 years older!
From the Adelaide Advertiser newspaper's website AdelaideNow:
THE $260 million Adelaide Airport terminal is the newest in Australia, but has been ranked only the third best by passengers and airlines.
An Australian Competition and Consumer Commission report ranks the year-old facility’s service and quality behind Brisbane and Perth airports, both built more than a decade ago.
But Adelaide Airport managing director Phil Baker says the rankings are “ridiculous”.
I like how frank and blunt he is when he describes the ranking system:
“I don’t understand how they get the rankings . . . the old international terminal scored highly very often (in past reports) but it was crap.”
The article continues by explaining that the number of car parking spaces seemed constrictive. I can relate to that! That said though, I actually like the new terminal, I just hope they can fix these problems.
adelaide,
adelaide airport,
south australia,
airports,
aeroplanes,
airlines,
qantas,
singapore airlines,
sia
Song Playing: I lost my headphones, so nothing :(
Have you noticed in WordPress (and virtually every other blogging tool for that matter!) that when you're posting on your site the software tells you that you are "writing a post". Writing is so 60's, I type thank you very much!
Met up here in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday with my good friend Kevin from Singapore who I met at university and boarded with in Adelaide… sounds really complicated! He's got a job working at a subsidary of the Tata group, a bidness name even my dad recognises! He seems to be doing pretty damn well for himself, and to think I still have 2 years left before I finish uni… argh!
Unfortunarely he couldn't come over to see our house in Gita Bayu because of my mum, he understood so it was all fine. As it stands my mum has three weeks of treatment followed by one week of rest, so if anyone wants to visit let me know and I can see when her next window of opportunity is ;). My poor mum, I can tell she feels guilty sometimes about weighing down on us, but the way I see it she's doing swimmingly given the circs!
One thing Kevin and I noticed when we met up at KLCC was that the wireless internet welcome screen on my MacBook Pro said "service interrupted", and I got an SMS from my sister a few minutes later to say the internet was down at our house as well. Of course both places use TMNet's StreamyX service so it wasn't a big surprise. I'm more reliable in my house cleaning duties than the internet is here, and Kevin would let you know that's saying something! Argh!
But of course the big news today was that it was my parent's 25th wedding aniversary. Bit of a hollow one considering what my dad did but still amazing that they're still together even after all that, my sister and I are relieved. My mum was too weak and tired to go downstairs so my dad made the secret Schade family recipie Freeman's Reach Toast and brought it upstairs to her bed where we all sat for brekkie. I tell you, if you haven't had the secret Schade family recipie Freeman's Reach Toast, then you haven't had the secret Schade family recipie Freeman's Reach Toast!
Cynicism aside, I love my parents and I'm pleased for them today. Also you must admit for my own selfish reasons, had they not got together I wouldn't exist! Whether or not that would be a loss would be questionable to some people…
No but in all seriousness, here's hoping the next 25 years will be good ones. I love you Little Mumster and Mr Father :)
Signing out,
Ruben
