Brown Motion

After getting somewhat acclimated to the near-equator weather in Singapore we made the south to the north transition en route to Kuala Lumpur on a luxury bus passing through local immigration control in under four hours. What immediately strikes you is the preponderence of palm trees along the way. Acres and hectares of this stuff growing in neat organized plantations owned by a couple of local oil producers. Palm oil that is. The country's largest export. Apparenty they are so good at it that the government sends the average citizen a MYR 7,000 refund check each year (approx $2,200). See Uncle Sam you got to change your agri mix. Also another noteworthy item is the state of their highways. Fantastic. Equal to or some cases better than those interstates stateside. For another ex-colonial country that made it to independent status (less time than India has been independent) and occupied by a largely Muslim, peace loving people it is a wake up call for other nations not abl...

I am back. In one piece. Tired and jet lagged. Yet after having added a couple more countries to my roster of places I have been to. Singapore was the first stop. I am not sure how I would describe this place. It is a city, country, megapolis, metropolis, cosmopolitan melting pot (talk about the humidity and heat) all in one. It is mostly clean - I mean you can drop your egg on the boardwalk and can proceed to eat it type of clean - although I assume you would pay a hefty fine to drop said egg on boardwalk in the first place. Not that I experimented but I did fall asleep on one whilst waiting for a technological marvel in the form of a laser light show on water, outside an expensive hotel. The trip was part of a quickie two country visit that also incuded the adjacent nation of Malaysia. Hectic in many aspects 10 days is barely the vacation time we could squeeze but it was very enjoyable and I highly recommend a visit for the unvisited. What strikes one from a background ...

So the search for the next generation of vehicle continues. We have been playing the test driver for the past few weeks now to secure the right automotive contraption for the spouse whose prior conveyance has aged - frankly its boring to sit on the same seat for too many years and do the same commute. Need to change something...its easier these days to change the seat rather than find a new job. So off we go checking out a range of products from domestically owned (car company) and produced to foreign owned and produced and everything in between. In the flat world economy its hard to ultimately know who actually made the car and what sort of engineering went into it and what sort of jobs it created and who actually made the profit. I mean for all I know the Titanium for the catalytic converter actually came from Rwanda while the seat fabric was from a cotton mill in Gujarat or the leather trim was from a cow butchered in Australia. Its mind numbing I tell you. And the Italians...

1. What does 'holy shit' mean? Esp when Americans use the term. I can see it being holy and shit as in cow dung in India but I suspect it means something else here. 2. Okie Dokie - what is that all about? Slang? Some tirbal exchange that stuck without facebook? 3. High Five - then on the flip side - other than making for good comedy in Seinfeld I am baffled by this ritual amongst Americans too. What might the origins of this be? 4. B'jeezus - I guess its a derivative of a call to the almighty but then again used in the context of 'scared the b'jeezus out', am not entirely sure about how it got in in the first place. 5. WTF (spelled out) or any variation of the 'F' word (probably the most popular of the F words in the entire Merriam Webster) is by far the most bizzare of them all.. Now one might conclude that this blog is F'd up too.

With the large scale global economic turmoil underway for close to five years I am totally confused. Not because it impacts me in a direct way but because I am not sure why people are tolerating public instituional leader salaries that get paid out. Here are a few examples - International Monetary Fund - IMF - what does their MD do? Its a French woman who seems nice on camera but what exactly does she do to deserve a $400K annual salary? (TAX FREE). WORLD BANK - newly elected Korean American that runs this entity also a government elected official. What exactly is the World Bank's role these days? What does he do? European Central Bank or ECB - this is a new one to me - I am not sure what they have done in the past and what their current charter is but whoever is running it is as clueless on what to do than the jokers that make up the private banks in Europe. EU head followed by the heads of the large federal institutions incuding the USA. Then come the slew of governing ...

I cannot help but notice how insane our world really is. The coming elections in America underscore the fact. Most of what the political parties actually campaign for is extermely irrelevant to the function of governing a nation. What exactly do you think governing a nation would or should include? To me there are only a few key things that you want to outsource to some organized entity so that you do not have to step up and do it yourself as you laze on that beach in Hawaii. 1. Make sure no one bombs the beach while you are napping. Ergo - need a military presence to keep bad guys out. Get the Government to manage this function. 2. Make sure that the road signs are consistent whether in Hawaii or New York city so my beer addled brain can process information about exit ramps quickly and without confusion. Ergo - need a standards body to make sure we know what we are buying, driving and selling. Get the Gov to manage this function. 3. Make sure there are trees on the beach...

July 4th was spent wandering the great city of San Francisco from its piers to the Golden Gate park. We started by arriving from the east bay on the local transit which early in the day was not crowded at all. Most would arrive later for the fireworks in the city. Grabbed some spicy Mandarin food at a place called Red Jade. Had heard good reviews on a local food show. The Onion Pancake was a cripsy delight with peanut sauce to go with it. Then we tried a lamb dish with spring onion and green capsicum. Also a tongue pleaser. Dessert was these little sweet doughy balls coated with white sesame seeds. Much like a modak but less sweet. Steaming hot and just enough sweetness to wipe away the spicy heat from the palate. Then we set out on a local bus to visit the Ferry Building. Always a view to be had from here to see the Oakland Bay Bridge span across the waters of the Pacific as they pierce inwards (it too is almost as old as the Golden Gate at 75 years). From there it was a ...

Have you ever wondered if there is anything on this planet that has truly got staying power. Living or non living. Most things and people are merely a blink in the continuum of time. Yet once in a while there is born a miracle living or non living. It captures the imagination of the masses and energizes or soothes or perhaps changes the way history would be written. The legacy of this entity lives on. That is staying power. Very much like that of a coastal redwood. We saw these maginificent beasts along the northwest coast of the United States, standing 100s of feet tall and looking none the worse for wear after at least 2000 years. They have been around so to speak and show no sign of leaving. They provide a soothing environment in their shade, a soft bed of pines to walk on effortlessly and noiselessly. Once you enter the grove you literally cannot hear traffic or any other noise and can feel the power of these giant cellulose based beings envelop you. Mahatma Gandhi is a...

we would not have large Fortune companies that bottle this stuff - from the likes of Coke to Pepsi to Praxair to Air Liquide..big bottles or small we need gas; we would not (there beeno) have the likes of pharma companies producing gas buster pills; we would not have all the large multinationals like Shell, Exxon, BP and then there would be no disasters that in turn keep other companies alive; we would not have these large generals like motors or electric (where it seems they encourage imagination at work - @ home you can slouch) that rely on the gas that the shells produced; speaking of which now there is a new shell in town called Shale (this a type of rock that needs gas and water to frack so we can get more gas out); Its the gas that keeps our world employed. So next time you pooh pooh it as all gas think about all the hot air that the elected officials and corporates have to spew to keep us all afloat (on gas) so to speak.. how do you like all this vaporware?

Ever wonder what it would be if none of the drivel being shown on television in the form of news casts, weather updates or traffic was beamed without a person being employed to read this stuff? Its called Radio. So it was one fine day when some marketeer came up with the idea to dress these dolts up and put a tie or skirt on them and show them to the viewers. Then there were viewers. Thus was born Television. Not just everyday yokels but people who thought that watching these highly paid readers (with poor grammar and diction) was also entertaining. To the point that their hiring and firing and salaries and other trivia have itself become headline news. Same with the actors in Hollywood. I mean how is what these people do, their sexual preference, their family history or their alcoholic dependencies a matter of national debate? Does this sound like something a first world country should be doing?