... and moving on from Election Day, the first priority of our Opposition State governments and the now very substantial Opposition bloc in the Federal Parliament, is to REIGN IN the Civil Service - with particular emphasis on the POLICE who must be brought to task, reformed, re-engineered, re-trained and otherwise re-organised to reduce the country's crime rate.
Corrupt and inefficient officers interested only in bullying HINDRAF lawyers and booking cars with Singapore licence plates in the hope of earning a fast buck must be punished - in clear, certain and painful terms.
Forensics training, and the mastery of other types of basic evidence gathering, retention and delivery for the purposes of successful prosecution must be the order of the day. No more reliance only on informers, anonymous "tip-offs", and the extraction of doubtful confessions under torture.
Makkal Ossai, Makkal Shakti!!
Lawman
LawMan's Dogs
Killer Beasts Doing Breakfast
Sunday, March 09, 2008
What Happens When You Try to Kill All the Lawyers
The impossible has happened - the BN has lost its two-thirds majority for the first time since 1969, and the Opposition controls 5 states and all Parliamentary seats for the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur (which is not a State).
The DAP, PAS and Keadilan will, operating as a loose coalition, form the State Governments of Penang, Kedah, Perak, and Selangor. In addition, PAS will rule Kelantan with a much stronger majority than it obtained in the last election in 2004.
As President Musharraf discovered much to his dismay when he decided to Kill All the Lawyers - figuratively speaking - Abdullah Badawi's BN has realised, too late, what happens in any functioning society which wants to maintain at least a semblance of democracy: when you find yourself trying to put down (well, at least ignore or denigrate) street protests mounted by lawyers, you are at the deep end of the pool and will drown in the next election.
A tip for politicians in future elections: be careful how you treat the professional class. You start dumping them in jail, it's a good leading indicator that you will fare poorly at the next (honest) polls.
For a better idea of what I'm talking about, go here and here.
And of course, Mr Shakespeare's famous line about Killing All the Lawyers, which when read in context was actually a Major Compliment to the Legal Profession, can be found here (Act IV, Scene 2, Henry VI Part 2).
One compliment to the ruling party though; the Malaysian elections were by and large, free and fair, and allegations and fears of rigging were basically unfounded, going by all currently available evidence.
Unfortunately, as Musharraf discovered in Pakistan, if you rig the vote you lose the elections no matter what the official outcome may be, and if you don't rig the vote then you lose the elections fair and square - either way, you lose.
Like I said, don't put the lawyers down, or you are looking at losing the next polls.
Now, some will say the BN hasn't actually lost the polls, at least not in the way that Musharraf was wiped out in Pakistan. Musharraf wasn't actually up for election; his party lost big and lost all control of Pakistan whereas Badawi WAS up for election, and the BN managed to retain all of East Malaysia and the southern and eastern regions of Peninsular Malaysia. But I say the BN very obviously lost in the sense that despite having gerrymandered election seats over many years in its favour, lopsided media coverage, the devotion of massive resources to a PR campaign, and the detention without trial of its most extreme recent critics (Manoharan & company, of HINDRAF), the BN received an absolute whopping in states it had considered reasonably safe - Selangor, Perak, Kedah - and in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, previously divided between Opposition and BN but as of yesterday TOTALLY Opposition (bar 1 seat). AND the BN lost Penang, was wiped out in Kelantan, AND lost its 2/3 majority - the holy grail of Opposition politicians. The Barisan Nasional has NEVER been beaten so badly since Independence. In Malaysian terms, it counts as a certain defeat.
For the first time in all recorded history, we have 5 Opposition Menteris Besar - one each from Keadilan and the DAP, and 3 from PAS. My congratulations to them all. I just hope they don't waste the chance to Just Change It!
and, for good measure: MAKKAL SHAKTI!!!
- Lawman -
The DAP, PAS and Keadilan will, operating as a loose coalition, form the State Governments of Penang, Kedah, Perak, and Selangor. In addition, PAS will rule Kelantan with a much stronger majority than it obtained in the last election in 2004.
As President Musharraf discovered much to his dismay when he decided to Kill All the Lawyers - figuratively speaking - Abdullah Badawi's BN has realised, too late, what happens in any functioning society which wants to maintain at least a semblance of democracy: when you find yourself trying to put down (well, at least ignore or denigrate) street protests mounted by lawyers, you are at the deep end of the pool and will drown in the next election.
A tip for politicians in future elections: be careful how you treat the professional class. You start dumping them in jail, it's a good leading indicator that you will fare poorly at the next (honest) polls.
For a better idea of what I'm talking about, go here and here.
And of course, Mr Shakespeare's famous line about Killing All the Lawyers, which when read in context was actually a Major Compliment to the Legal Profession, can be found here (Act IV, Scene 2, Henry VI Part 2).
One compliment to the ruling party though; the Malaysian elections were by and large, free and fair, and allegations and fears of rigging were basically unfounded, going by all currently available evidence.
Unfortunately, as Musharraf discovered in Pakistan, if you rig the vote you lose the elections no matter what the official outcome may be, and if you don't rig the vote then you lose the elections fair and square - either way, you lose.
Like I said, don't put the lawyers down, or you are looking at losing the next polls.
Now, some will say the BN hasn't actually lost the polls, at least not in the way that Musharraf was wiped out in Pakistan. Musharraf wasn't actually up for election; his party lost big and lost all control of Pakistan whereas Badawi WAS up for election, and the BN managed to retain all of East Malaysia and the southern and eastern regions of Peninsular Malaysia. But I say the BN very obviously lost in the sense that despite having gerrymandered election seats over many years in its favour, lopsided media coverage, the devotion of massive resources to a PR campaign, and the detention without trial of its most extreme recent critics (Manoharan & company, of HINDRAF), the BN received an absolute whopping in states it had considered reasonably safe - Selangor, Perak, Kedah - and in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, previously divided between Opposition and BN but as of yesterday TOTALLY Opposition (bar 1 seat). AND the BN lost Penang, was wiped out in Kelantan, AND lost its 2/3 majority - the holy grail of Opposition politicians. The Barisan Nasional has NEVER been beaten so badly since Independence. In Malaysian terms, it counts as a certain defeat.
For the first time in all recorded history, we have 5 Opposition Menteris Besar - one each from Keadilan and the DAP, and 3 from PAS. My congratulations to them all. I just hope they don't waste the chance to Just Change It!
and, for good measure: MAKKAL SHAKTI!!!
- Lawman -
Thursday, June 14, 2007
SHOOT THE MALAYSIAN POLICE NOW!!!
Waylaid Couple Assaulted, Woman Gang-Raped
It's time to shoot the cops - publicly and immediately. Time to pull a few monkeys in the Royal Malaysian Police aside, try them for dereliction of duty, and have them shot in public and the bill sent to their families.
I want to ask our highly devoted and super-efficient ROYAL policemen exactly how much shit they expect the average Malaysian civilian to take before they will move their sorry little cholesterol-filled, corrupt, overpaid and underworked arses to actually do more than just stop people for driving with tinted windows and Singapore licence plates.
I am of course referring to that bit in the above article which states: "...the girl's brother who was driving around Taman Perling searching for his sister, chanced upon a police patrol car."
"...the policemen in the car listened to the girl's brother before driving off."
In other words, they did ABSOLUTELY nothing.
So the girl gets gang-raped by 4 men in Taman Tampoi Indah in front of her boyfriend, who is himself slashed in the legs with a parang.
The Chinese papers contain more information on how the police completely SLEPT with their eyes, ears, hands and legs wide open (begging to be assaulted, I suppose). It seems that the various police stations in the Johor Bahru area passed the complaint on from one to another, each station unwilling to actually take the report.
WHY are you afraid to act, hmmmm? Are these 4 men YOUR OWN perhaps?? I really want to know - but I'm sure I'll never find out, because short of yet another Commission of Inquiry - and how many of those do you our beloved men in blue actually want before anything changes in your sorry little decrepit excuse for a police force?? - YOU will never really investigate this "little" offence - your men are too busy taking RM100 bribes to settle RM300 compounds and shaking down honest businessmen for their money.
Is this an isolated incident? AM I over-reacting?
Weeeel, try the above article on for size - see the last bit which states: "The family called the police around 4am but Salima said a patrol car only arrived at her house about 7.30am. Kulim district police chief Superintendent Abdul Majid Hashim said he would look into the allegation that the police were slow in responding."
Yes, go ahead, look all you like. You won't find anything - because YOU are PART of the problem, not the solution.
Want to learn some real policing? Go see your neighbours down south. But that's not all, I think at least some of you require some brain surgery first. Radical brain surgery. Involving the complete physical separation of brain from body, in a clean-cut manner.
LMT.
It's time to shoot the cops - publicly and immediately. Time to pull a few monkeys in the Royal Malaysian Police aside, try them for dereliction of duty, and have them shot in public and the bill sent to their families.
I want to ask our highly devoted and super-efficient ROYAL policemen exactly how much shit they expect the average Malaysian civilian to take before they will move their sorry little cholesterol-filled, corrupt, overpaid and underworked arses to actually do more than just stop people for driving with tinted windows and Singapore licence plates.
I am of course referring to that bit in the above article which states: "...the girl's brother who was driving around Taman Perling searching for his sister, chanced upon a police patrol car."
"...the policemen in the car listened to the girl's brother before driving off."
In other words, they did ABSOLUTELY nothing.
So the girl gets gang-raped by 4 men in Taman Tampoi Indah in front of her boyfriend, who is himself slashed in the legs with a parang.
The Chinese papers contain more information on how the police completely SLEPT with their eyes, ears, hands and legs wide open (begging to be assaulted, I suppose). It seems that the various police stations in the Johor Bahru area passed the complaint on from one to another, each station unwilling to actually take the report.
WHY are you afraid to act, hmmmm? Are these 4 men YOUR OWN perhaps?? I really want to know - but I'm sure I'll never find out, because short of yet another Commission of Inquiry - and how many of those do you our beloved men in blue actually want before anything changes in your sorry little decrepit excuse for a police force?? - YOU will never really investigate this "little" offence - your men are too busy taking RM100 bribes to settle RM300 compounds and shaking down honest businessmen for their money.
Is this an isolated incident? AM I over-reacting?
Weeeel, try the above article on for size - see the last bit which states: "The family called the police around 4am but Salima said a patrol car only arrived at her house about 7.30am. Kulim district police chief Superintendent Abdul Majid Hashim said he would look into the allegation that the police were slow in responding."
Yes, go ahead, look all you like. You won't find anything - because YOU are PART of the problem, not the solution.
Want to learn some real policing? Go see your neighbours down south. But that's not all, I think at least some of you require some brain surgery first. Radical brain surgery. Involving the complete physical separation of brain from body, in a clean-cut manner.
LMT.
Monday, May 07, 2007
Spiderman 3 and that Catholic Church Thing
A Catholic church or cathedral (read: large church) (link connects to my best guess of which church that is) - is featured in Spiderman 3.
That's the place Spidey (ie. Peter Parker) goes when he realises his little Jazz-ballroom dance thingy-in-a-bar revenge show-up of Mary Jane using Gwen Stacy has gone a little too far, apparently for some quiet contemplation. Also featured in Spiderman 2.
This follows on from the Catholic church featured prominently in Daredevil (see the very first scene - same church, me-thinks...).
What is it with Hollywood and Catholic Churches? How come we don't see superheroes seeking contemplation, redemption and the odd property-destroying fight-scene in Orthodox or Anglican/Episcopal or - yeeks - Pentecostal Charismatic Evangelical warehouse-type churches? Or, perhaps, a Shinto temple or a Mosque?
Here's where Catholic churches, especially those of the traditional French Gothic design, have a couple of advantages.
Firstly, they're somewhat more familiar and "comfortable" to be in, to the West, and that includes the Anglophile East, even in today's widely-travelled, multi-religious, even somewhat irreligious, secular world, than Orthodox churches and buildings of other religions. Quite a few are architectural representatives of the cities they were built in.
Secondly, they use 3-D imagery (read: impressive (as in, makes a lasting impression!) architecture, interior design and icons) a lot - to convey the essential truths or values of the religion. Jesus crucified, the theme of sacrifice: see both our favourite blind lawyer and his arch-enemy Bullseye in Daredevil. Bell tolls for those who seek salvation: see Spiderman in Spiderman 3. High church spire: quiet contemplation; attaining peace through forgiveness, the double-edged sword of hate and revenge, etc - see both movies. So, if you want to use some kind of quasi-religious imagery to get your moral high point across, Catholics have an advantage over your average Hillsong-type concert hall or hotel ballroom Evangelical outfit.
All goes to show that Messrs Luther, Calvin, Melanchton, Zwingli & Co just got it all wrong when they decided to throw out and burn their icons in favour of the Word. It wasn't even right to call them "idols" when they were just icons. Talk about a senseless contribution to global warming, not to mention an overly optimistic view of literacy rates in Reformation Europe (the reason for Protestantism being restricted to just Northern and Western Europe perhaps?)
But oh, don't worry. I won't get into a "How to Find God in Spiderman 3" here. That's already been done, sort of, in a movie review here.
Cheers. And ignore the critics. Spidey 3 is a great movie; 'tis true that it won't win any Academy Awards, the pace is just waaay too fast for proper development, but it is a great movie nonetheless, with some great scenes and good acting, and a very good moral message for the viewer to boot. Well worth the RM11 per ticket + RM1 for a couple seat that Cathay Cinemas is charging...
LMT
That's the place Spidey (ie. Peter Parker) goes when he realises his little Jazz-ballroom dance thingy-in-a-bar revenge show-up of Mary Jane using Gwen Stacy has gone a little too far, apparently for some quiet contemplation. Also featured in Spiderman 2.
This follows on from the Catholic church featured prominently in Daredevil (see the very first scene - same church, me-thinks...).
What is it with Hollywood and Catholic Churches? How come we don't see superheroes seeking contemplation, redemption and the odd property-destroying fight-scene in Orthodox or Anglican/Episcopal or - yeeks - Pentecostal Charismatic Evangelical warehouse-type churches? Or, perhaps, a Shinto temple or a Mosque?
Here's where Catholic churches, especially those of the traditional French Gothic design, have a couple of advantages.
Firstly, they're somewhat more familiar and "comfortable" to be in, to the West, and that includes the Anglophile East, even in today's widely-travelled, multi-religious, even somewhat irreligious, secular world, than Orthodox churches and buildings of other religions. Quite a few are architectural representatives of the cities they were built in.
Secondly, they use 3-D imagery (read: impressive (as in, makes a lasting impression!) architecture, interior design and icons) a lot - to convey the essential truths or values of the religion. Jesus crucified, the theme of sacrifice: see both our favourite blind lawyer and his arch-enemy Bullseye in Daredevil. Bell tolls for those who seek salvation: see Spiderman in Spiderman 3. High church spire: quiet contemplation; attaining peace through forgiveness, the double-edged sword of hate and revenge, etc - see both movies. So, if you want to use some kind of quasi-religious imagery to get your moral high point across, Catholics have an advantage over your average Hillsong-type concert hall or hotel ballroom Evangelical outfit.
All goes to show that Messrs Luther, Calvin, Melanchton, Zwingli & Co just got it all wrong when they decided to throw out and burn their icons in favour of the Word. It wasn't even right to call them "idols" when they were just icons. Talk about a senseless contribution to global warming, not to mention an overly optimistic view of literacy rates in Reformation Europe (the reason for Protestantism being restricted to just Northern and Western Europe perhaps?)
But oh, don't worry. I won't get into a "How to Find God in Spiderman 3" here. That's already been done, sort of, in a movie review here.
Cheers. And ignore the critics. Spidey 3 is a great movie; 'tis true that it won't win any Academy Awards, the pace is just waaay too fast for proper development, but it is a great movie nonetheless, with some great scenes and good acting, and a very good moral message for the viewer to boot. Well worth the RM11 per ticket + RM1 for a couple seat that Cathay Cinemas is charging...
LMT
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Why Second Life is Just Not Ready - Yet
SECOND LIFE PROTEST
Second Life Gambling Issue
The above will add further fuel to the fire of what I've been saying for a while (to anyone who asks, that is) - Second Life is more trouble than it's worth. Not only does the game suffer from massive lags, but there are bugs and plenty of unsavoury characters online, plus the educational institutions I've been to in SL seem to be ... underwhelmed ... with response from prospective or actual students and staff. Oftentimes I've been the only one there. Where's the kick in that?
I'll come back, say, next year, when things might be a little more settled.
Meanwhile I'll just stick to my first life.
Second Life Gambling Issue
The above will add further fuel to the fire of what I've been saying for a while (to anyone who asks, that is) - Second Life is more trouble than it's worth. Not only does the game suffer from massive lags, but there are bugs and plenty of unsavoury characters online, plus the educational institutions I've been to in SL seem to be ... underwhelmed ... with response from prospective or actual students and staff. Oftentimes I've been the only one there. Where's the kick in that?
I'll come back, say, next year, when things might be a little more settled.
Meanwhile I'll just stick to my first life.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Why I Hate Microsoft So
You know what?
I don't really have anything against Microsoft as a company. I'm sure if I could, I would buy shares in this company as they would seem to be a good investment. I'm sure they treat their people well. But tonight, I got truly annoyed with Microsoft and it wouldn't be the first time. This company just has a knack for borderline misrepresentation, certainly withholding relevant information, and downright lousy customer care and software design practices from the viewpoint of the end-user.
A little while ago I installed Office 2007 - the edition purchased by my employer - onto my employer-issued laptop. This was encouraged. Better software all around, I was told. Use what your students are using, know what they see and experience, keep up with the people you are supposed to be teaching, and all that. Fine.
Only one problem - the old edition of MS Office on my laptop came with Outlook 2003 which I used to sync my handphone contacts - these are work contacts, mind you - and worked just fine. The new edition removed Outlook 2003 and didn't install any new Outlook in its place.
One teeny weeny question: why didn't the installation software tell me this? What could possibly be the benefit and how could it possibly be necessary to remove Outlook 2003 if Outlook 2007 wasn't a component of the 2007 edition purchased by my employer? Why program it into your software to remove a component for which an update does not exist in the selected bundle? My employer paid for Outlook 2003 didn't it? Why wasn't there even a warning that this might occur?
Now I have to cast around for options, eg. reinstalling Outlook 2003 somehow. I wish I'd tried a sync with my handphone immediately after installation - but who could possibly have guessed this might occur? It certainly wasn't something within the realm of logic (Microsoft might beg to differ, which would really not be a surprise, but then Microsoft simply **isn't** the end-user).
I wonder which universe Microsoft's beta testers come from that nobody seems to have picked this up and tagged it as an issue to be addressed. Am I supposed to believe that none of Microsoft's testers owns and syncs a PDA or smartphone regularly to Outlook? It seems to me that this issue was deliberately ignored. Just wipe it out, leave the user to find out on his own, make trouble for him. Yeah. That's the Microsoft Way.
I suppose I should count my blessings that my *.pst Outlook data file was still there on the laptop, intact. Now I only have to find a way to retrieve the data.
The above brings to mind other ugly experiences with Microsoft that I've had, over the many years that I've been - through necessity rather than choice - a MS user - ranging from having to dial long distance to activate multiple copies of software (what a real waste of time that was), to discovering the hard way, ie. through actual use, that essential functions such as mail-merge in newer versions of Office won't work properly with datafiles created using older versions, especially over the LAN. And, mind you, the network config wasn't Linux or anything exotic - it was Windows NT, Service Pack 6, serving a PC running Windows Millenium, at that time the latest MS OS, from Dell, running the latest version at that time of MS Office, which version came as part of the bundle from Dell. So it was all Microsoft software - and they didn't work properly with one another.
Sigh. The power of Monopoly to bring corporate prosperity in spite of technical mediocrity.
LMT
I don't really have anything against Microsoft as a company. I'm sure if I could, I would buy shares in this company as they would seem to be a good investment. I'm sure they treat their people well. But tonight, I got truly annoyed with Microsoft and it wouldn't be the first time. This company just has a knack for borderline misrepresentation, certainly withholding relevant information, and downright lousy customer care and software design practices from the viewpoint of the end-user.
A little while ago I installed Office 2007 - the edition purchased by my employer - onto my employer-issued laptop. This was encouraged. Better software all around, I was told. Use what your students are using, know what they see and experience, keep up with the people you are supposed to be teaching, and all that. Fine.
Only one problem - the old edition of MS Office on my laptop came with Outlook 2003 which I used to sync my handphone contacts - these are work contacts, mind you - and worked just fine. The new edition removed Outlook 2003 and didn't install any new Outlook in its place.
One teeny weeny question: why didn't the installation software tell me this? What could possibly be the benefit and how could it possibly be necessary to remove Outlook 2003 if Outlook 2007 wasn't a component of the 2007 edition purchased by my employer? Why program it into your software to remove a component for which an update does not exist in the selected bundle? My employer paid for Outlook 2003 didn't it? Why wasn't there even a warning that this might occur?
Now I have to cast around for options, eg. reinstalling Outlook 2003 somehow. I wish I'd tried a sync with my handphone immediately after installation - but who could possibly have guessed this might occur? It certainly wasn't something within the realm of logic (Microsoft might beg to differ, which would really not be a surprise, but then Microsoft simply **isn't** the end-user).
I wonder which universe Microsoft's beta testers come from that nobody seems to have picked this up and tagged it as an issue to be addressed. Am I supposed to believe that none of Microsoft's testers owns and syncs a PDA or smartphone regularly to Outlook? It seems to me that this issue was deliberately ignored. Just wipe it out, leave the user to find out on his own, make trouble for him. Yeah. That's the Microsoft Way.
I suppose I should count my blessings that my *.pst Outlook data file was still there on the laptop, intact. Now I only have to find a way to retrieve the data.
The above brings to mind other ugly experiences with Microsoft that I've had, over the many years that I've been - through necessity rather than choice - a MS user - ranging from having to dial long distance to activate multiple copies of software (what a real waste of time that was), to discovering the hard way, ie. through actual use, that essential functions such as mail-merge in newer versions of Office won't work properly with datafiles created using older versions, especially over the LAN. And, mind you, the network config wasn't Linux or anything exotic - it was Windows NT, Service Pack 6, serving a PC running Windows Millenium, at that time the latest MS OS, from Dell, running the latest version at that time of MS Office, which version came as part of the bundle from Dell. So it was all Microsoft software - and they didn't work properly with one another.
Sigh. The power of Monopoly to bring corporate prosperity in spite of technical mediocrity.
LMT
Monday, March 12, 2007
BUT of course, there're 2 sides to every story...
Last Updated: Sunday, 19 October, 2003, 23:37 GMT 00:37 UK
Parents a moody lot say teens
Teenagers say they dislike the way they are portrayed
Teenagers say moody parents are their biggest headache.
And more than half of those responding to a BBC survey agreed they get "a bad press" - with only 13% agreeing that society values teenagers.
Almost one in five felt that this stereotyping was the hardest thing - above exam pressures, mood swings and boyfriend/girlfriend relationships.
The findings are from responses of more than 16,000 teenagers and 6,000 parents to an online survey done this summer.
LMT
The link is here.
Parents a moody lot say teens
Teenagers say they dislike the way they are portrayed
Teenagers say moody parents are their biggest headache.
And more than half of those responding to a BBC survey agreed they get "a bad press" - with only 13% agreeing that society values teenagers.
Almost one in five felt that this stereotyping was the hardest thing - above exam pressures, mood swings and boyfriend/girlfriend relationships.
The findings are from responses of more than 16,000 teenagers and 6,000 parents to an online survey done this summer.
LMT
The link is here.
Now we know why...
Teenage mood swing hormone found
Teenage mood swings are known to be down to hormones, but scientists claim they have identified the specific one that makes adolescents so volatile.
A team from the State University of New York identified a hormone which normally acts to calm anxiety, but the effect is reversed in adolescence.
And they add the study should help parents and teachers understand teens.
A hormone called THP is normally released in response to stress.
It usually behaves like a tranquiliser, acting at sites in the brain that calm brain activity and, in adults and pre-pubescent children, helps someone cope with stress.
But a mouse study by the New York team shows THP actually increases anxiety at puberty.
'Things are harder for teenagers'
They found that the target for the hormone, a specific receptor, is more prevalent in the part of the brain which regulates emotion during puberty.
This appears to reverse the normal calming effect.
...
"As adults, we just deal with things, but it is harder for teenagers because of their biology. I think it's important for people to know that."
Heh Heh.
The full article at: TEEN HORMONES
Teenage mood swings are known to be down to hormones, but scientists claim they have identified the specific one that makes adolescents so volatile.
A team from the State University of New York identified a hormone which normally acts to calm anxiety, but the effect is reversed in adolescence.
And they add the study should help parents and teachers understand teens.
A hormone called THP is normally released in response to stress.
It usually behaves like a tranquiliser, acting at sites in the brain that calm brain activity and, in adults and pre-pubescent children, helps someone cope with stress.
But a mouse study by the New York team shows THP actually increases anxiety at puberty.
'Things are harder for teenagers'
They found that the target for the hormone, a specific receptor, is more prevalent in the part of the brain which regulates emotion during puberty.
This appears to reverse the normal calming effect.
...
"As adults, we just deal with things, but it is harder for teenagers because of their biology. I think it's important for people to know that."
Heh Heh.
The full article at: TEEN HORMONES
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Earthquake Hits Eastern Sumatra
First time I'd ever been in a swinging (ok, make that swaying) building. Quite amusing, actually, to be honest, from a totally personal point of view. There I was typing away on the computer when the whole world started to shake a little around me. I thought I was giddy, perhaps insufficient sleep or stress from the upcoming meeting, but I hadn't suffered from stress-induced giddiness in, like, a million years, if ever, so there I was closing my eyes and quietly and slowly leaning back in my chair - thinking a few minutes' sleep would be enough to shake off the giddiness.
Then the chair started shaking and that was when I got REALLY worried - worried that I was seriously hallucinating, that is.
Thankfully there were other human beings around and they affirmed upon my enquiry that I was not going mad or suffering a serious loss of blood to the brain; in fact, they had initially looked at me like I was insane, since they were rushing to evacuate the building and there lay yours truly snoozing, to all intents and purposes, in his comfortable office chair.
Anyway the entire population of the office decamped to the field outside and then adjourned to the nearby (low-level) canteen for lunch as the earthquake passed.
After a while staff began to whip out their respective O2 XDA's, Palm TX's, and other similar devices to access the Internet in the hope of discovering more about what was obviously an earthquake, probably somewhere in Indonesia. Amazing isn't it, that nowadays we have come to expect so much of cellular telephone networks and broadband wireless Internet access. In the end the first word of the earthquake came from good old fashioned television. Channel News Asia reported the earthquake long before BBC News and AsiaOne picked it up. One day some bright young Channel 5 executive is going to create a screenplay based on this and call it The Evacuation of Shenton Way or something.
Familiarity breeds contempt. The aftershock came around 2 hours later, when we had all returned to the office. This time we half-heartedly made it all the way to the lift column and then decided, en masse, to turn back for our all-important meeting. So nobody evacuated.
At the commencement of the meeting, our senior colleague stood up (the swaying had stopped, thankfully, it was starting to give me a headache) to announce that the building was safe, so long as we all stopped working whenever it was swaying. Somehow I found that very funny.
News of the earthquake can be found here: Earthquake News from the BBC
LMT
Then the chair started shaking and that was when I got REALLY worried - worried that I was seriously hallucinating, that is.
Thankfully there were other human beings around and they affirmed upon my enquiry that I was not going mad or suffering a serious loss of blood to the brain; in fact, they had initially looked at me like I was insane, since they were rushing to evacuate the building and there lay yours truly snoozing, to all intents and purposes, in his comfortable office chair.
Anyway the entire population of the office decamped to the field outside and then adjourned to the nearby (low-level) canteen for lunch as the earthquake passed.
After a while staff began to whip out their respective O2 XDA's, Palm TX's, and other similar devices to access the Internet in the hope of discovering more about what was obviously an earthquake, probably somewhere in Indonesia. Amazing isn't it, that nowadays we have come to expect so much of cellular telephone networks and broadband wireless Internet access. In the end the first word of the earthquake came from good old fashioned television. Channel News Asia reported the earthquake long before BBC News and AsiaOne picked it up. One day some bright young Channel 5 executive is going to create a screenplay based on this and call it The Evacuation of Shenton Way or something.
Familiarity breeds contempt. The aftershock came around 2 hours later, when we had all returned to the office. This time we half-heartedly made it all the way to the lift column and then decided, en masse, to turn back for our all-important meeting. So nobody evacuated.
At the commencement of the meeting, our senior colleague stood up (the swaying had stopped, thankfully, it was starting to give me a headache) to announce that the building was safe, so long as we all stopped working whenever it was swaying. Somehow I found that very funny.
News of the earthquake can be found here: Earthquake News from the BBC
LMT
Thursday, February 15, 2007
How To Get into Trouble With the Law in A Certain Country
For those of you who wish to have a DIFFERENT kind of travel experience, go no further than A Certain Country. Make sure you are a FOREIGNER, this is essential, and bring your passport with you.
Make sure you enter the country from the SOUTH, again this is essential. Make sure you DRIVE in, and make sure you hand your passport over to Immigration for the usual endorsement as you come in.
Make sure you DO NOT CHECK that the said endorsement has been made before driving off, and I guarantee you a very pleasant stay at the pleasure of His Majesty the Yang Dipertuan Agong (Supreme Ruler) of A Certain Country, upon your attempt to exit the country after your tour.
Malaysia must be the only country in the civilized world (disfunctional regimes in Africa do not count) where Immigration has every right under the law to punish legitimate visitors to the country for the failure - whether deliberate or otherwise - of their OWN officers at valid entry checkpoints to the country to endorse visitors' passports with the appropriate rubberstamps.
Other countries would readily admit that it was THEIR problem if, upon presentation of valid passports, their OWN officers (whether by way of oversight or just a general dislike of foreigners in general and Singaporeans in particular) failed to endorse those passports when they should have.
But in Malaysia, NOOOOOO, they have to really put you through the dry-wringer when you attempt, of all things, to EXIT the country validly, as opposed to hopping on a fishing boat somewhere near Kukup for a midnight trip to Sumatra.
So we are put in this truly embarrassing position where bona fide visitors entering by bona fide means in to Malaysia are put in jail for mistakes committed by Immigration - and the only excuse Malaysia can give is that those visitors were, by law, obliged to check if Immigration officers had done the job for which they are paid by their own country's taxpayers. Obviously, we can all see who this law was designed for and enacted to protect.
"Berkhidmat Untuk Negara!!" - my A**.
LMT.
Make sure you enter the country from the SOUTH, again this is essential. Make sure you DRIVE in, and make sure you hand your passport over to Immigration for the usual endorsement as you come in.
Make sure you DO NOT CHECK that the said endorsement has been made before driving off, and I guarantee you a very pleasant stay at the pleasure of His Majesty the Yang Dipertuan Agong (Supreme Ruler) of A Certain Country, upon your attempt to exit the country after your tour.
Malaysia must be the only country in the civilized world (disfunctional regimes in Africa do not count) where Immigration has every right under the law to punish legitimate visitors to the country for the failure - whether deliberate or otherwise - of their OWN officers at valid entry checkpoints to the country to endorse visitors' passports with the appropriate rubberstamps.
Other countries would readily admit that it was THEIR problem if, upon presentation of valid passports, their OWN officers (whether by way of oversight or just a general dislike of foreigners in general and Singaporeans in particular) failed to endorse those passports when they should have.
But in Malaysia, NOOOOOO, they have to really put you through the dry-wringer when you attempt, of all things, to EXIT the country validly, as opposed to hopping on a fishing boat somewhere near Kukup for a midnight trip to Sumatra.
So we are put in this truly embarrassing position where bona fide visitors entering by bona fide means in to Malaysia are put in jail for mistakes committed by Immigration - and the only excuse Malaysia can give is that those visitors were, by law, obliged to check if Immigration officers had done the job for which they are paid by their own country's taxpayers. Obviously, we can all see who this law was designed for and enacted to protect.
"Berkhidmat Untuk Negara!!" - my A**.
LMT.
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