The question really, is "Will the dreamliner ever soar???"...In a recent article i had read in Time magazine, i learned that was an unveiling of the newest Boeing 787 airplanes. Not only is in bigger and better, it is also more environmentally friendly that all the previous series behind it...its being built with a lighter material to achieve cost savings and thus concentrate more on establishing comfort to the passengers. On top of that, its usage of LED lights inside the plane thus helping to save on energy usage. This combination of comfort and a social consciousness to reduce pollution looks set to take the aviation world by storm...already there 677 orders of the plane from just about 47 aircraft carriers while simply tells us the enormous demand for these aircrafts...
There is a lot of competition brewing between the airbus and the Boeing. The airbus initially had the upper hand with the release of their latest Airbus A380 into the market in 2007. While the Boeing seems to go for more class, the Airbus seems to be merely focussed on getting the largest number of people in flight as possible. The A380 is currently the world’s largest passenger aircraft. Its capacity numbers reach around the mid 800s. Looking at the monstrous size of the Airbus from the front, its very hard to see how such an aircraft could fly giving its sheer weight. But, alas, welcome to the world of technology. Moreover, due to the ever escalating level of technology in the world today, it is no longer hard to picture over 1000 people i a plane on a commercial flight.
The Boeing company now have to face an extremely uphill task of producing over 600 Boeing 787s in time for 2015. The important thing is that they have got to ensure that the planes made are of extremely good quality. Else, they will be exactly like Airbus, which had the structure of the plane all laid out but due to problems with the production of the various aircraft components in different countries, the overall finished plane ended up being like crap...this had disappointed many people and had reduced the reliability of the Airbus company.
Still, overall, it’s been amazing how much the aviation world has achieved in such a short time... i just hope that the comfort level of passengers in plane such that they feel no sorts of awkwardness...its only then when air-sick prone people like my mother, will start enjoying air travel...
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Saturday, July 7, 2007
The terrorists at work again
Its yet another scare for the British. This week saw a terrorist attempt in London and Glasgow foiled by the vigilant efforts of the London police. As i look back at the September 11 World Trade Center bombings, I can't help but think how much terrorism has affected us this past few years. Its also really sad to see that the British is currently feeling the full force of the Al Qaeda terrorists.
Is there really no end to this??? Though the car-bombing attempt was far from a successful one, it still strikes fear in the hearts of Londoners that the terrorists are still relentless in their pursuit of vengeance. Like how the world is gather ring on the 7th of July to increase the awareness of global warming through "Live Earth", I feel that there should really be a large-scale effort to curb terrorism as well.
Britain has felt the brunt of the terrorists especially from the London subway bombings. Its good to see that the increased security by Scotland Yard has paid of. The quick apprehension of the perpetrators of the car bombings is good evidence of that. But the fact that the nation is at a terrorist level threat 4 puts every one of its citizens in a very precarious position. I don’t mean to sound racist, the Londoners are probably going to be keeping a wary eye of any Iraqi or Muslim in their streets...but, who can blame them when even people in such a noble occupation as that of a doctor suddenly turns into a suicide bomber...
We live in a very dangerous world where the notion of peace seems as ludicrous as the idea of Singapore winning the world cup...but, if Singapore does put in loads of effort into its soccer, I cannot deny our chances and this idea works the same for terrorism. Try hard enough to curb terrorism and I have no doubt that terrorism can become non-existent and from there, we can look towards creating a safe haven right here in Earth...
I believe in this, now the only problem is convincing others to believe in this....
Is there really no end to this??? Though the car-bombing attempt was far from a successful one, it still strikes fear in the hearts of Londoners that the terrorists are still relentless in their pursuit of vengeance. Like how the world is gather ring on the 7th of July to increase the awareness of global warming through "Live Earth", I feel that there should really be a large-scale effort to curb terrorism as well.
Britain has felt the brunt of the terrorists especially from the London subway bombings. Its good to see that the increased security by Scotland Yard has paid of. The quick apprehension of the perpetrators of the car bombings is good evidence of that. But the fact that the nation is at a terrorist level threat 4 puts every one of its citizens in a very precarious position. I don’t mean to sound racist, the Londoners are probably going to be keeping a wary eye of any Iraqi or Muslim in their streets...but, who can blame them when even people in such a noble occupation as that of a doctor suddenly turns into a suicide bomber...
We live in a very dangerous world where the notion of peace seems as ludicrous as the idea of Singapore winning the world cup...but, if Singapore does put in loads of effort into its soccer, I cannot deny our chances and this idea works the same for terrorism. Try hard enough to curb terrorism and I have no doubt that terrorism can become non-existent and from there, we can look towards creating a safe haven right here in Earth...
I believe in this, now the only problem is convincing others to believe in this....
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Commentry on Friend's Blog
I would like to comment on Vjay's blog entry titled "The Rising EPL".
Link to Vjay’s blog: http://www.woshitiancaiertong.blogspot.com/
Yes, I totally agree with Vjay that the English Premier League (EPL) is on the up rise. It’s now the third biggest grossing sport, still behind the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball. But I have no doubt that in time, the EPL will top the word as the highest grossing sport. Soccer in the beautiful game after all….
But what has made the EPL such a success. Like Vjay said, the English football scene wasn’t as glamorous in the past, having its fair share of hooliganism and out-of-control fans. But the scene of English football today has seen a dramatic change. There hardly is any domestic violence and the conduct of the English fans are by far the best if you compare them with the fans of other big footballing nations like Brazil, Argentina. Italy, and Spain. So bad is the violence in Argentina that the fields are actually surrounded with a extremely high metal fence to prevent the raging fans from getting onto the pitch and harming the players and opposing fans. In Italy, the violence was so great that there were cases of deaths, which resulted in the footballing body in Italy actually banning fans from entering the stadium to watch the matches. It was highly humorous seeing those top teams in Italy playing their matches in virtually zero crowds. Where is the fun in that??? The players did not even get the mood to celebrate after they had scored.
That’s nothing compared to what happened in Spain. Racist taunts were the scene of Spanish football last season. There were a few black African players that were taunted by the opposing teams’ fans. They made offensive hoots and monkey actions at them. One particular world-class player, Samuel E’To, was also subject to these cruel taunts and wanted to walk of the pitch because of them.
Why not in England then??? Because the English Football Association has implemented harsh stands and fines to stem hooliganism. Their efforts have not been in vain with the fan conduct in their domestic league being one of the best in the world. Which is why the English Premier League is so marketable. Besides being host to some of the world’s best football teams and world-class football players, the enormity of fan support in England is astounding. It’s no surprise that billionaires, who have never watched football before, can become so engrossed in it the next minute.
The EPL now is becoming home to not only the world’s best football player, but also to the world’s richest billionaires. More than 5 clubs are being owned by billionaires with the most high profile billionaire to enter the scene being ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The fan base that these billionaires can tap on is worldwide. Not like some sports like, Rugby, which is not so popular in Asia.
It goes without saying these rich investors are going to even further the popularity of the EPL, but there are certainly going to be the negatives of such things. In football, if you have the money, you can get the best players who in turn can get you the victories that you want. Thus, there is the problem of the league being too one-sided. The richer teams will eventually end up owning the poorer teams. That’s just the way it is. At the end of the day, football will always be money driven sport.
With this bring the only problem I see in EPL, maybe the English Football Association can bar such transactions where rich billionaires take over clubs, already financially capable, and perhaps request for them to invest in a poorer club. Although the answer is going to be “no” due to the lesser marketing power of lesser popular clubs, it’s worth a try…its time we made the game beautiful and fair again…
Link to Vjay’s blog: http://www.woshitiancaiertong.blogspot.com/
Yes, I totally agree with Vjay that the English Premier League (EPL) is on the up rise. It’s now the third biggest grossing sport, still behind the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball. But I have no doubt that in time, the EPL will top the word as the highest grossing sport. Soccer in the beautiful game after all….
But what has made the EPL such a success. Like Vjay said, the English football scene wasn’t as glamorous in the past, having its fair share of hooliganism and out-of-control fans. But the scene of English football today has seen a dramatic change. There hardly is any domestic violence and the conduct of the English fans are by far the best if you compare them with the fans of other big footballing nations like Brazil, Argentina. Italy, and Spain. So bad is the violence in Argentina that the fields are actually surrounded with a extremely high metal fence to prevent the raging fans from getting onto the pitch and harming the players and opposing fans. In Italy, the violence was so great that there were cases of deaths, which resulted in the footballing body in Italy actually banning fans from entering the stadium to watch the matches. It was highly humorous seeing those top teams in Italy playing their matches in virtually zero crowds. Where is the fun in that??? The players did not even get the mood to celebrate after they had scored.
That’s nothing compared to what happened in Spain. Racist taunts were the scene of Spanish football last season. There were a few black African players that were taunted by the opposing teams’ fans. They made offensive hoots and monkey actions at them. One particular world-class player, Samuel E’To, was also subject to these cruel taunts and wanted to walk of the pitch because of them.
Why not in England then??? Because the English Football Association has implemented harsh stands and fines to stem hooliganism. Their efforts have not been in vain with the fan conduct in their domestic league being one of the best in the world. Which is why the English Premier League is so marketable. Besides being host to some of the world’s best football teams and world-class football players, the enormity of fan support in England is astounding. It’s no surprise that billionaires, who have never watched football before, can become so engrossed in it the next minute.
The EPL now is becoming home to not only the world’s best football player, but also to the world’s richest billionaires. More than 5 clubs are being owned by billionaires with the most high profile billionaire to enter the scene being ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The fan base that these billionaires can tap on is worldwide. Not like some sports like, Rugby, which is not so popular in Asia.
It goes without saying these rich investors are going to even further the popularity of the EPL, but there are certainly going to be the negatives of such things. In football, if you have the money, you can get the best players who in turn can get you the victories that you want. Thus, there is the problem of the league being too one-sided. The richer teams will eventually end up owning the poorer teams. That’s just the way it is. At the end of the day, football will always be money driven sport.
With this bring the only problem I see in EPL, maybe the English Football Association can bar such transactions where rich billionaires take over clubs, already financially capable, and perhaps request for them to invest in a poorer club. Although the answer is going to be “no” due to the lesser marketing power of lesser popular clubs, it’s worth a try…its time we made the game beautiful and fair again…
Freedom of Expression or Social Responsibility
Firstly, I would like to talk about the contrasting opinions of the two writers, Singer and Szilagyi. Singer basically places a firm believe that there should be freedom of expression for democratic countries and is making his stand by using the example of one Austrian, David Irving, who was sent to jail because he denied there ever being a holocaust. From this, it is not hard to gather why Singer has such strong believes. Imagine, someone in Singapore denying that the Japanese occupation ever existed. Is he going to get arrested? You see, the basic principle behind having a democratic society is to grant each and every person in society the chance to voice himself or herself, regardless of how controversial their opinions may be. Thus, he feels that David Irving has to be released, as he was simply telling out what he felt was right. You can’t just silence them and throw them in prison. It shouldn’t be done in any society, much more in a democratic one.
As for Szilagyi, she believes that social responsibility should be exercised even in a democratic society. She bases her claims from the Danish cartoon saga There is no shadow of a doubt that it sparked controversy in the Middle East and the temperatures down there were reaching boiling point. It was so terrible that the Muslims refused to but anything that was Danish, believing them to be tainted of sorts. Now, knowing that the situation was volatile in the Middle East, shouldn’t the Danish government, in the least prevent it from being published? If everyone was going to dismiss the cartoons with a hearty laugh, they were obviously, wrong.
Now we shall take a look at Singapore. Singapore is a democratic nation, in which all our voices, grievances are attentively heard by our government. But we must not forget that Singapore is also a multi racial society. Then means being extra careful with what we say or do. This virtually means that we are in total freedom over what we say but know when to keep our mouths shut so as to avoid saying anything that may come across as racist remarks. Of course, Singaporeans are wary about this, with the 1964 race riots still fresh in our minds. So, I’ve finally decided that both writers’ approaches should be adopted to ensure that will be able to build a strong, cohesive multi-racial society, while still keeping the idea of freedom of expression.
But, then again, this idea is absurd…Its near impossible to say that the government is going to be able to do such a thing when the two principles contradict each other on almost every scale. Thus, while I would certainly have been content if there was a way to combine the two principles, I would have to say that Singapore should most probably adopt Szilagyi’s approach. Social responsibility is what’s most important in Singapore…
Firstly, we must think about what our society in made up of: a multi-cultural society. While over the years, the threat of there being social or racial tension has been quelled, we all cannot deny that there still lies distinct lines existing between each racial group. Nobody just wants to admit to it. So say that we focus on the principle of freedom of expression and a cruel racial-related article crops up in the newspaper one day. There is most certainly going to be an outcry of injustice the next day…Yes, this is Singapore, and the outcry certainly is not going to rival those in the Middle East, but it will stir up a bit of hatred and tension within the targeted racial group. A volatile bomb, ready to burst once its endured too much. What could be worse???
But, if we take the better route, in this case, towards having social responsibility, we can be assured that almost everyone in the public are going to go about their daily lives as per normal. By saying almost, I do refer to those minority die-hards who are so vocal and expressive that the press has to cover-up their views. There is going to be an out-cry by these people that there is no freedom of speech but, for Singapore’s sake, I pray that their volumes will be almost negligible.
Finally, I believe that everyone in Singapore has a good moral sense, and have virtues that would make even our forefathers proud. Nobody’s going to post an article, knowing that the social impacts of it would be insurmountable. If not why have the principle of transparency between the government and the public in place??? The government must surely feel that Singaporeans will be mature enough to not boil over racial issues and etc. Take for example; the government was very transparent about revealing the economic status of all the racial groups though this information was indeed a sensitive one.
The fact that we have not had even a glimmer of a potential racial riot in the last 40 years has indicated that whatever transparency the government and public are having is really effective. I almost feel as if I have nothing to worry about…
As for Szilagyi, she believes that social responsibility should be exercised even in a democratic society. She bases her claims from the Danish cartoon saga There is no shadow of a doubt that it sparked controversy in the Middle East and the temperatures down there were reaching boiling point. It was so terrible that the Muslims refused to but anything that was Danish, believing them to be tainted of sorts. Now, knowing that the situation was volatile in the Middle East, shouldn’t the Danish government, in the least prevent it from being published? If everyone was going to dismiss the cartoons with a hearty laugh, they were obviously, wrong.
Now we shall take a look at Singapore. Singapore is a democratic nation, in which all our voices, grievances are attentively heard by our government. But we must not forget that Singapore is also a multi racial society. Then means being extra careful with what we say or do. This virtually means that we are in total freedom over what we say but know when to keep our mouths shut so as to avoid saying anything that may come across as racist remarks. Of course, Singaporeans are wary about this, with the 1964 race riots still fresh in our minds. So, I’ve finally decided that both writers’ approaches should be adopted to ensure that will be able to build a strong, cohesive multi-racial society, while still keeping the idea of freedom of expression.
But, then again, this idea is absurd…Its near impossible to say that the government is going to be able to do such a thing when the two principles contradict each other on almost every scale. Thus, while I would certainly have been content if there was a way to combine the two principles, I would have to say that Singapore should most probably adopt Szilagyi’s approach. Social responsibility is what’s most important in Singapore…
Firstly, we must think about what our society in made up of: a multi-cultural society. While over the years, the threat of there being social or racial tension has been quelled, we all cannot deny that there still lies distinct lines existing between each racial group. Nobody just wants to admit to it. So say that we focus on the principle of freedom of expression and a cruel racial-related article crops up in the newspaper one day. There is most certainly going to be an outcry of injustice the next day…Yes, this is Singapore, and the outcry certainly is not going to rival those in the Middle East, but it will stir up a bit of hatred and tension within the targeted racial group. A volatile bomb, ready to burst once its endured too much. What could be worse???
But, if we take the better route, in this case, towards having social responsibility, we can be assured that almost everyone in the public are going to go about their daily lives as per normal. By saying almost, I do refer to those minority die-hards who are so vocal and expressive that the press has to cover-up their views. There is going to be an out-cry by these people that there is no freedom of speech but, for Singapore’s sake, I pray that their volumes will be almost negligible.
Finally, I believe that everyone in Singapore has a good moral sense, and have virtues that would make even our forefathers proud. Nobody’s going to post an article, knowing that the social impacts of it would be insurmountable. If not why have the principle of transparency between the government and the public in place??? The government must surely feel that Singaporeans will be mature enough to not boil over racial issues and etc. Take for example; the government was very transparent about revealing the economic status of all the racial groups though this information was indeed a sensitive one.
The fact that we have not had even a glimmer of a potential racial riot in the last 40 years has indicated that whatever transparency the government and public are having is really effective. I almost feel as if I have nothing to worry about…
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