Weird weather
Monday, May 26th, 2008 
Kind of strange that the weather in June is stormy in certain days and I’m living on the equator of the planet!
Archive for May, 2008
Living in the seasons
Monday, May 26th, 2008 
Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.
Henry David Thoreau
Rice production
Friday, May 23rd, 2008 
Rice price seems to move up this recent months causing some households here to stock up prompted thailand to assure that there’s enough rice for all to ensure price stability.Indeed with rice as the food staple across Asia, rice production has become the talk of the town lately when Thai PM suggested a rice cartel to be formed with her neighbouring countries.
Nothing concrete came out of that but the mindset to move towards a similar structure like opec with oil does raise some concerns.Fears of a small group will control the rice prices dictating the fate of billions of rice eaters will set off a series of fierce debates in the near future.
Thailand seems to think the low rice exports and expenisve oil imports is unfair to her and upset her trade balances and in a way the rice cartel will offset the imbalances.But there are serious issues on the table before any real talk of a rice cartel being form.
First, thailand must have the co operation of the countries which to form the cartel and also top importers of rice like china and japan. Both are big players not only in asia region but also the international stage of world trade.
Even if the external influences is solved, she must be able to control the supplies of her domestic output of rice farming which is not really possible in the forseeable future.With all the problems yet not overcome, rice production and prices will be open for business as usual.Politics aside, the filling of the stomach of the world populace comes first for better or for worse .
Vesak day blues
Monday, May 19th, 2008 
19th of May is the celebration of Vesak day here in Singapore.For those in the west who do not know what’s a Vesak day is, it is the celebration of the birth and enlightenment of buddha.
My family though buddhists are never strict vegetarians but surprisingly my mum cook vegetarian meal today.Why the blues you may asked?The cyclones in Myanmar and earthquake disaster in PRC that killed tens of thousands ,the death toll is still rising.All this coincide with the Olympics 2008 held in China which is in Asia.
PRC military are rushing in but even then with the massive scale of human catastrophe in Sichuan china , the resources at their disposal may not be able to cope.Foreign rescue teams are allowed to help in the excavation efforts to save remaining people who survived but trapped under the rubbles.All this is being done when our crude energy are not being yet exhausted.
I’m never much of a religous person but after 911 my search for the meaning of life intensified, and the answers is never an easy one. Buddhism on the surface seems like a fatalistic faith , much more of a philosophy of life than a religion.Maybe that’s what life is all about, the fragility of men and coming to terms of one’s mortality.
Does IQ matter in a post oil world?
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 
IQ and the wealth of nations seems to be on my mind the last few days..to correlate IQ with race seems to have a tint of racism putting jews, asians and whites on the average top and others below the intellectual ladder.But does IQ matters now fossil decline has started?
During the last century fuelled by abundent oil economy..many information has been unlocked and pass on to the masses thru public education and hence test scores of students began to become increasingly important. From industrial to information economy knowledge that the people have and able to apply in the broad spectrum will determine the success of any nations.
Hence eugenics became a serious topic for academics and politicians alike.The pursuit of human perfection to control our destiny but is it just a fallacy to measure IQ if it can be measured at all?Test scores no doubt measured memory and understanding of various subjects the students went thru but life is larger than classroom textbased knowledge.
All the present knowledge is fuelled by cheap fossil energy , we’re talking about medicine, engineering and a legal and social economic structure promoted and backed by crude oil.What used is the IQ of a top brain surgeon without the medicine and tools needed to operate on the patient?And all the research of nanotechnology of whiz kids will be redundant without cutting edge lab facilities.
So the final question does IQ still matters in the psot oil world?Sure the world will still have smart people but the guage of measurement will be redefined as paradigm shifted in the usage of our energy.
Decadence
Monday, May 12th, 2008America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.
Oscar Wilde
April fool housing economics
Monday, May 5th, 2008 
Stockmarket guru Warren buffet proclaimed that the worst is over for the Wall street crisis.The Berkshire CEO cited that the global credit crunch has eased for bankers and FED may have saved the day by bailing Bear Stearns.
The subprime crisis will probably hit more Americans with personal mortgages and nasty ordeal will be inevitable but in April many Americans including the rest of the world will be glad that the Omaha investor positive analysis may calm the US markets and even bring a stablizing force in the investment communities worldwide.
The ongoing housing crisis is a tale about greed to overextending of credit to borrowers who lack the means to make the payments of the housing loans.In the end, borrowers must pay back to the banks and the high default rate display the weakness of the market that brought forth the real estate foreclosures that spillover worldwide.
There’s no free lunch in free market economics, ultimately someone got to pay and it’s no joke even in April when the fools are borrowers who overstretch themselves.
