Trash

Guess what I saw in the corridor outside my office, a pair of ice skates! Somebody must have thrown it away. The first time I saw them was by the nearby trash bin, but then somebody moved the skates just outside my office.

They are definitely the weirdest trash I’ve seen here at the office yet. I pointed them to the boss, who noted that they are still in good condition, picked the ice skates up and put them in the storage closet.

The Reason

rainy day in sunny june by ssilence at deviantART

I have just had a beautiful drive home from work. The sky was heavily clouded with the sun ray penetrating through like giant spotlights upon the landscape. I almost wanted to pull over by the road side and enjoy the view; it was definitely the highlight of an otherwise dull and uneventful day.

So, to celebrate the occasion I made a quick stop by Secret Recipe at Sungai Buloh and bought a nice cake.

Footwear

Let’s talk about shoes.

I prefer to wear shoes when I go out of the house. There is a pair of slippers I wear when I take out the garbage or go to the mosque next door, but beyond that I always put my socks and shoes on. Many people don’t like to wear shoes (with socks) because they consider it a hassle and uncomfortable in the hot Malaysian climate, but I like to wear shoes because I don’t like to get my feet dusty and wet; and I don’t think that it’s a hassle at all. So, I put on my socks and shoes even to go to the local night market, restaurant, or grocery shop, knowing that my feet will be comfortably protected and I don’t have to worry about stepping on a puddle of water.

I have five pairs of shoes (I thought I have four, but I forgot about the pair of sneakers), but only wear two pairs regularly: a pair of black Dockers ProStyle to work, and a pair of waterproof Columbia Trail Meister Mid hiking boots everywhere else. They are both very comfortable shoes. There are also two pairs of dress shoes in my closet. One I bought for my convocation and only wore less than five times since, while the other I bought because it was on 70% discount and my brother thought I could use a new style.

Hiking boots may be a bit heavy for casual day-to-day wear for most people, but I like the protection, stability and support. Plus, I don’t have to worry much about the weather and where I step. There is this coal-colored Pagora Mid Omni-Tech trailing boots I saw recently on Columbia’s website I like. Bad news:

1. I don’t know if it is available in Malaysia; the distributor in Singapore listed on the website didn’t reply my email inquiry.
2. It sells for US$90 online, excluding shipping, which is a lot of money for a pair of shoes.
   

The good news is that the Trail Meister boots are still in very good condition. It’s already more than three years old, and I’ve worn it everywhere from going shopping and to the movies to hiking and camping; on concrete and mud and snow. Still, I figure it could last another three years!

__________
TRIVIA: Before going to the US I wore size 8 shoes. Now, I wear size 10½. No, I’m not confusing American/European/Asian sizing. Does walking a lot make your feet bigger?

Da Post

Today’s post is brought to you by the letter “D”.

D for deserted, which the department seems to be. The new semester will begin on December 22. Until then, staff members are away on vacation, courses, and conferences etc. Some may have simply disappeared.

D is for deadline and dateline, two words that get confused a lot. No wonder, for they are similarly pronounced.

dead•line (ˈdɛdˌlaɪn)
–noun

1. the time by which something must be finished or submitted; the latest time for finishing something: a five o’clock deadline.
2. a line or limit that must not be passed.
3. (formerly) a boundary around a military prison beyond which a prisoner could not venture without risk of being shot by the guards.

date•line (ˈdeɪtˌlaɪn)
–noun

1. a line giving the place of origin and usually the date of a news dispatch or the like.

–verb (used with object)

2. to furnish (a news story) with a dateline: He datelines his reports Damascus.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)

A deadline gives you stress. A dateline is what you don’t read, until somebody points out that you’ve been raving about an article that is three years old.

D is for DAGR; more on this later.

Choice

People don't like to be meddled with. We tell them what to do, what to think, don't run, don't walk. We're in their homes and in their heads and we haven't the right. We're meddlesome.

River Tam, Serenity (2005)

What is the meaning of virtue without the chance to sin?

I wanted to write about government, religion (or the roles of religious authorities), faith and freedom of choice – all heavy stuff – but I got lazy to actually do it.

Die

A random movie quote because I don’t have anything better to post.

President Thomas Whitmore: What do you want us to do?
Captured Alien: Die. Die.

Independence Day (1996)

Small Insignificant Things

1. These last few days there are crickets (or something) on the other side of my bedroom wall keeping me up at night. They are still singing now. ARRGH!
2. Now that Gmail has implemented those cool new themes, I find myself checking my mailbox more often than usual; like two million times an hour!
   
   
   
   
   
3. I can’t help getting annoyed when I hear or read announcements that begin with “Please be informed that ...” Of course announcements are meant to convey information, DOHH! The worst is the guy who makes those announcements just before Friday prayer at the university mosque. Every week he’ll make about five announcements one after another and starts every single one of them with “Please be informed that...”
4. Just as annoying – well, a bit more annoying actually at the moment – are students who obviously don’t know the answer to an exam question but still write an essay three pages long about everything else. Yes, it’s the spray-and-pray method; throw everything in including the kitchen sink and hope that they’ll score some points. Add to the combo some barely legible handwriting, and it’s a recipe for hypertension.

PESDenial

For Mon:

Election @ xkcd

The proposed cure: Super Obama World

Book Report – Ender’s War

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card is one of the books everyone tells me to read. A classmate first recommended it to me way back in high school, but I only got around to reading it just recently.

Against the backdrop of humanity’s long war against an insectoid alien species referred to as buggers, Ender’s Game tells an intimate story of Andrew “Ender” Wiggin, perhaps humanity’s greatest military commander in fiction. Although a “genius among geniuses” and identified at early childhood as the future defender of mankind, Ender doesn’t have it all easy. In order to draw out his potential, his handlers subject him to isolation and intense conditioning and training, even to the point of real risk of physical and psychological harm. He rises above the challenges, of course, which I cannot help but compare to the other “The One” who is supposed to bring balance to the Force but turn to the dark side instead.

Ender’s strength, apart from his tactical genius, is his empathy. While fully aware of his capability, he is always fearful of his potential for cruelty. After unknowingly wiping out the whole bugger species by destroying their home planet, thus committing xenocide, he sets out to redeem himself by finding a surviving bugger queen cocoon a new home.

Wonderfully written, Ender’s Game won both the Nebula and Hugo Awards for Best Novel in 1985 and 1986 respectively.

Last Order

Yesterday, I placed my last Amazon order for 2008 for the following items:

• Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet [Hardcover] by Jeffrey D Sachs
  
• Little Brother [Hardcover] by Cory Doctorow
  
• Saturn's Children [Hardcover] by Charles Stross
  
• Under a Blood Red Sky - Deluxe Edition [CD/DVD] by U2
  

The delivery estimate is given as December 31, 2008.

Book Report – Timescape

Timescape by Gregory Benford is the winner of the 1980 Nebula Award for Best Novel, a science fiction classic. The Nebula Award, given out by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), and the Hugo Award are two of the biggest awards in science fiction, analogous to the Golden Globe and Academy Awards for movies. I picked up the book at a thrift bookshop for RM6, while waiting to watch a movie.

In 1998 (the book was first published in 1980), the world is falling apart. There are shortages of energy and food, and New York City has been destroyed by a nuclear attack by terrorists; but the overarching problem is a growing ecological disaster. John Renfrew, a Cambridge physicist struggling to secure research grants not only to fund his research but also feed his family, proposes to send a warning to the past using tachyons – particles that move faster than light.

At the receiving end are unsuspecting young University of California, La Jolla (UCLJ) physicist Gordon Bernstein and his graduate student assistant Albert Cooper in 1962, who notice Morse code while sorting out noise that is messing up their nuclear magnetic resonance experiment. Tachyons are unheard of in 1962. Braving scepticism and ridicule, Bernstein follows through in figuring out the messages, leading to the biggest discovery in his career.

Author Gregory Benford is an actual physics professor, so the best thing about Timescape is in it being an example of hard science fiction, the science of the story – the physical natures of tachyons, reality and time; e.g. the grandfather paradox – are amply discussed. At the same time, the private lives of the characters are not neglected as well, like Bernstein’s struggle in figuring out his girlfriend Penny and adapting to the California lifestyle and Renfrew’s neglect of wife Marjorie. If there is a weakness in Timescape, I’d say it’s its perhaps too realistic portrayal of the repetitive work of experimental scientists; emphasis on the repetitive.

Overall, a very satisfying read.

I’m now reading Ender’s Game.

Compulsory

com•pul•so•ry
adjective, noun, plural -ries.
–adjective

1. required; mandatory; obligatory: compulsory education.
2. using compulsion; compelling; constraining: compulsory measures to control rioting.

–noun

3. something, as an athletic feat, that must be performed or completed as part of a contest or competition: The ice skater received a higher score on the compulsories than on her freestyle performance.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)

I received a letter yesterday saying that I’ve been selected to attend a week-long course I don’t want to go. It says that attendance is compulsory, but attached with the letter was a reply slip with two boxes: I will attend, I will not attend. I ticked the second box and sent it away.

So much for “compulsory”.

Book Report – The Clone Elite

The final portion of my July order from Amazon – The Clone Elite by Steven L Kent – arrived on Friday!

Humanity has spread across the Milky Way. The Unified Authority (UA), modelled after the United States of America and Plato’s Republic, resorts to the use of clones as soldiers, though led by natural-born officers. In 2510, a separatist war erupts when four of the six spiral arms of the galaxy declare independence from the UA, incited by a religious cult commonly referred to as Mogats. However, infighting between the rebel factions forces the Confederate Arms Treaty Organization (CATO) to form an alliance with the Unified Authority, leading to a successful combined UA/CATO attack on the Mogat home world that ends the war.

The attack on the Mogat home world draws out their alien allies then known as Space Angels. Now the aliens are turning on human colonies one by one, seemingly unstoppable, heading for Earth. Desperate for soldiers, the UA constitutes a mandatory conscription of retired clones, and the planet New Copenhagen is selected as the site for an all-or-nothing last stand against the alien invaders.

The Clone Elite is the fourth instalment of the so-called Clone series by Steven L Kent. I am a sucker for series, so I’ll keep buying and reading them as they come, but The Clone Elite is easily the weakest book in the series so far. The story is mostly monotonous and often repetitive. Little, if anything, new is learned about series protagonist Wayson Harris or his occasional sidekick Ray Freeman. Little of import too is revealed about the aliens, especially their motives and their arrangement with the Mogats. I suppose more will be revealed in subsequent books.

__________
PS: With The Clone Elite, which I finished reading late Saturday night, I’ve reached my twelve books target for 2008!

Slow Day

I
They are a bit tricky to put on and take off, but I absolutely love toe socks!

II
Change (and more) found in the various compartments of my faithful five-year old backpack:

• RM1.13
• US$5.51
• £2.16 leftover from a 15-hour transit in Heathrow/London
  
• €0.01 from Professor Fenollosa
  
• ¥123 leftover from a transit in Narita
  
• 1 × MBTA brass token that used to worth US$1.25
  
• 1 × MARTA token from a visit to Atlanta
  

III
I finished marking the Principles of Macro paper on Tuesday and submitted the results yesterday. With the department virtually deserted I thought about taking today off, but decided against it thinking that some students might come looking for me with the Intro to Econs final coming this Monday. Guess what, nobody came.

What's on TV Again?

It’s November, in the middle of the examinations period, Barack Obama has just been elected new President of the United States, and I don’t have anything to write about. So let’s talk about what’s on television to get the ball rolling.

Counting, I can’t believe that despite dropping some shows from my previous list I am watching twenty-four television shows a week!

1. 30 Rock. Tina Fey and gang are back for season 3. Her Sarah Palin impersonation on SNL got a lot of attention, but my favourite character on 30 Rock is definitely Alec Baldwin’s Jack Donaghy.
   
2. Bones should be back soon after a month-long break.
3. Californication. Star David Duchovny supposedly went into rehab for sex addiction just weeks before the season 2 premiere. True or not, it was definitely great publicity for the show.
4. CSI-NY. I wonder how the original CSI is doing.
5. Dexter. In this third season Dexter has a new best friend, and is getting married and becoming a father. Are things going on too well for our favourite serial killer?
6. Eleventh Hour and Fringe. Two shows about science gone mad. Eleventh Hour, based on a British show, is the more grounded of the two while Fringe, like Walter, is totally out there.

8. Gossip Girl. I’m not sure why I’m still watching this.
   
9. Greek has just concluded its ten-episode second season.
10. Grey’s Anatomy.
11. Heroes.
12. House.
13. How I Met Your Mother. The closest we have to Friends (apart from Friends re-run)?
14. Life.
15. My Own Worst Enemy. Christian Slater plays a secret agent with a chip implanted in his brain. Instead of the usual secret agent with a secret cover identity, we have a secret agent with a split personality. At the flick of a switch Edward the secret agent becomes Henry the middle-class family man. The story begins when the chip malfunctions.
16. NCIS.
17. Prison Break. The stupid hacker Roland is dead. Good.
18. Private Practice.
19. Sanctuary. Stargate alum Amanda Tapping runs a “sanctuary for all”. Expect all kinds of weird stuff.
20. Sons of Anarchy.
21. Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
22. Stargate Atlantis.
23. The Unit. The top-secret US Army Special Forces team soldiers on into season The season starts in high-gear with assassination attempts on the President-elect and the Vice President-elect.
24. True Blood. First, there is this woman who can hear people’s thoughts. Then, there are vampires, people getting high on vampire blood, and I suspect werewolves of some kind too in the future. People are getting killed, but so far the main characters are just busy having sex.
    

Cartoon Heroes

Star Wars: The Clone Wars is now showing on the Cartoon Network. The five episodes so far have been fun but my favourite is still the first with Yoda. Episodes with Anakin and apprentice Ahsoka have been the most annoying, save for the battle scenes. Though it is Star Wars, and a cartoon series to boot, I still can’t help feeling irritated at seeing scenes of spaceships burning and churning out dark smoke in vacuum!

Meanwhile, Macross Frontier completed its twenty-five-episode run quite recently. In my opinion, it was a wonderful tribute to the original Macross. The story, the songs, the action sequences were all awesome. Now I must find the DVDs.

Magic

It is that time again. The semester is closing and finally students are coming to see me in my office for consultation. Poor students, they were always “too busy” to drop by during the semester. Many come with questions for me to answer, clarify or explain; but a few come expecting nothing less than magic.

Magic to make them pass the course for nothing.

Title

Judging from news and blog articles, many Malaysians are not happy that the Melaka government last week awarded Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan a Datuk-ship.

I only found the news and ensuing small controversy amusing.

Titles and the practice of awarding them is a feudal relic. In the past, the crown awarded titles along with pieces of land in exchange for allegiance and military service. Later on titles were also given to rich merchants in return for gold. In a democratic society such titles mean nothing. But of course, traditions die hard. Instead of opening an address with simply “Ladies and gentlemen,” we still have to mention the Tan Sris and Datuks first, lest any of those pompous asses get offended.

With regard to the actor, there are basically two complains. First, people are asking what he did to warrant the award. The official line is that he helped promoted the state by filming one of his movies there. I say we can all laugh at that one, but [1] in principle the heads of state can give titles to whoever they want and [2] the titles mean nothing. The second complain is that there are many more deserving Malaysians. To this I say [1] there will always be a more deserving someone and [2] again, the titles mean nothing.

See where I’m going with this?

Demand and supply tells us that too much supply of anything lowers its value. Our society is literally littered with Datuks. Yet, the top two awards of the land – Seri Pahlawan Gagah Perkasa (SP) and Panglima Gagah Berani (PGB) – don’t carry any titles.

Covers

I saw this book at MPH on Wednesday night. I’m sure the author did a fine job writing the book, but I can’t help finding it funny that a book titled Task Force: The Inside Story of the Ships and Heroes of the [the UK’s] Royal Navy has two US Navy ships on its cover.

Meanwhile, copies of Brisingr stacked high gave me heartache, until I arrived at the office this morning to find a package from Amazon waiting. Amazon charged me US$25.11 for the book including delivery charges. It translates into RM88.54 on my credit card statement. The book sells for RM89.90 on MPH Online and RM104.50 on Kunikuniya BookWeb, both not including delivery charges. MPH even puts a disclaimer that “the price may change from time to time as advised by the publishers”. PFFT! I guess I’ll be sticking with Amazon for my future book purchases.

People give me a certain look when I tell them I buy books online all the way from the USA. I suppose it’s because they thing that it’s expensive to get the books delivered from halfway across the globe. I thought so too, but decided it was worth it because I don’t want to go from one bookshop to another across KL looking for a book nobody stocks and I don’t want to wait three to six months for a title to be officially released locally. Another book I was looking at last week sells for RM92 locally but only costs RM85 to have it delivered to your doorstep by Amazon.

Good to know that I actually save money by buying online. Of course, it depends on the prevailing exchange rate as well.

Best Buy at Landmark

View Larger Map

A few minutes’ walk from the apartment I shared with Suapi at Kenmore Square was Landmark Center. It is a restored art deco building which serves as a commercial centre. My favourite thing about the Landmark Center is that it has a 13-screen cinema (AMC Fenway 13 then, but apparently a Regal cinema now) as well as Best Buy, Staples, and Bed Bath & Beyond outlets. Movies, electronics, office supplies, and home furnishings – everything I could stare at when I was bored, under one roof.

I’m writing this because at the moment I’m missing the Best Buy shop. My wireless router is beginning to act up so I may need to buy a new one soon. The thing is that the typical computer equipment shop here is laid out like a garage or storage room. You tell the person standing behind the glass display cabinet what you are looking for and he or she will get it for you. It is not fun at all. I remember spending hours (figuratively, of course) moving aisle by aisle at Best Buy looking at CDs, DVDs, MP3 players, digital cameras etc. You could hold and try out stuff and read labels at your own leisurely pace. It was a proper supermarket experience.

It’s been a while since I looked at wireless routers online but I’ve been doing just that these last couple of days, and have narrowed down my options to a few potential candidates. In the meantime hopefully, the old D-Link set will last quite a bit longer.

‘Eid Mubarak

Planet Earth... by Aquiel at deviantART

This is when I say Selamat Hari Raya to everyone. I hope that you are now happily with your loved ones, or at least are in touch with them.

Thankfully, the two hijacked MISC ships have been released so the crew members too can return home to their families and friends.

Heroes

Heroes
by The Wallflowers, from Godzilla, The Album (1998)

I, I wish you could swim
Like the dolphins, like dolphins can swim
Though nothing, nothing will keep us together
We can beat them for ever and ever.
We can be heroes just for one day.

I, I will be king
And you, you will be queen
Though nothing, nothing will drive them away
We can be heroes just for one day
We can be us just for one day

I, I remember standing by the wall
And the guns, shot above our heads
And we kissed as though nothing could fall
And the shame was on the other side
We can beat them for ever and ever
Then we can be heroes just for one day

We can be heroes just for one day

I just feel like another song. It is a cover, I know, of David Bowie. David Bowie is an acquired taste, however, so I prefer this (shorter?) version from the Godzilla movie soundtrack by Jakob Dylan and gang.

Speaking of David Bowie, how about some Bowie Bonds?

__________
PS: Heroes season 3: Villains has started!

Read, Zoe's Tale

I finished Zoe’s Tale during the weekend and absolutely loved it. I don’t think anyone regularly reading this blog cares much about science fiction so I’ll skip the review. There’s Google if you’re interested. Let me just say that it is not the typical SF novel. Zoe’s Tale is told in the first-person narrative of a teenage girl, with all the attitude and issues that goes along with the age and gender.

Just as well, my copy of Brisingr is already in the mail!

It’s Just Been a While

... Since we had a song.

That the original is an all-time classic is no question, but the Mary J Blige duet version grew on me too.

One
by U2, from the album Achtung Baby (1991)

Is it getting better, or do you feel the same?
Will it make it easier on you, now you got someone to blame?
You say one love, one life, when it's one need in the night
One love, we get to share it
Leaves you baby if you don't care for it

Did I disappoint you or leave a bad taste in your mouth?
You act like you never had love and you want me to go without
Well, it's too late tonight to drag the past out into the light
We're one, but we're not the same
We get to carry each other, carry each other... one

Have you come here for forgiveness?
Have you come to raise the dead?
Have you come here to play Jesus to the lepers in your head?
Did I ask too much, more than a lot?
You gave me nothing, now it's all I got
We're one, but we're not the same
Well, we hurt each other, then we do it again

You say love is a temple, love a higher law
Love is a temple, love the higher law
You ask me to enter, but then you make me crawl
And I can't be holding on to what you got, when all you got is hurt

One love, one blood, one life, you got to do what you should
One life with each other: sisters, brothers
One life, but we're not the same
We get to carry each other, carry each other
One, one.

The Book Bug Bites

The web with all of the world at your finger tips just a Google search away is addictive, but nowhere nearly as addictive as a good book. Thankfully though, a book can only be so thick.

I’ve just finished reading By Schism Rent Asunder by David Weber, the second book of his Safehold series which started with 2007’s Off Armageddon Reef. By Schism Rent Asunder picks up right where the previous book ends. I’m not very good at reviewing books so I’m not going to. Instead, here’s the link to a review on Sci Fi Weekly. The Safehold series files under science fiction, but the story takes place in a medieval society, albeit in a far away planet in a far away future. So instead of space ships we read about naval battles fought on galleys and galleons while the role of the villain is filled by an almighty Church of God Awaiting. It makes an interesting mix of science fiction and historical fantasy. I’m definitely looking forward to the next book, By Heresies Distressed.

I’m now reading Zoe’s Tale.

__________
The package of DVDs I’ve been waiting for arrived on Monday. Shipped by Amazon from Phoenix, AZ on July 25, the package was cleared by our Customs on September 12, and arrived in my hands on September 15, after 52 days total. It’s definitely my longest delivery yet from Amazon, but it arrived, which ultimately is the most important thing.

What's on TV?

Returning to things superficial, I have absolutely no idea what they’re showing on local TV but here’s a list of shows I’m downloading:

1. 90210. Yup, remake of Beverly Hills, 90210 of the ‘90s. Episode 2 aired on The CW channel (and went straight into cyberspace) on September 9. From what I’ve read Jennie Garth and Shannen Doherty are two of the original main casts returning. I’ve only skipped through episode 1 so I cannot say how good or bad it is.
2. Bones. Season 4 returns with Bones giving a lecture at Oxford. Of course, Booth was there too, and (of course) somebody found a dead body.
3. Burn Notice. One of the more interesting shows currently. Jeffrey Donovan plays a “burned” spy Michael Westen surviving on small jobs while trying to figure out the people who framed him. Think of a cross between MacGyver and Mission Impossible. Gabrielle Anwar plays the former IRA operative ex-girlfriend while Bruce Campbell plays an ex-SEAL buddy who informs on Westen to the FBI. Season 2 introduces Tricia Helfer of BSG fame as Westen’s new handler.
4. Do Not Disturb. New half-hour comedy revolving around employees of a once-famous New York City hotel.
5. Eureka. Quirky science fiction series Eureka is almost half-way through Season 3!
6. Flashpoint. Canadian show about an elite police Strategic Response Unit (SRU) – think of SWAT or our very own UTK. Casts include Veronica Mars’ dad Enrico Colantoni as team sergeant and crisis negotiator and former Pink Ranger Amy Jo Johnson as second sniper.
7. Fringe. One of the most anticipated new shows this year by J J Abrams about an FBI team tasked with investigating all things strange. Of course, behind it all is a huge conspiracy. This is a new X-Files with an in-house mad scientist.
8. Gossip Girl. Season 2.
9. Greek. Season 2.
10. Prison Break. Schofield and gang are back in season 4 to take the Company down with help from DHS agent. They really should think about changing the name of the show now, unless they mean to put him back into another prison to break out again.
11. Privileged. Another new show on The CW about rich people meant for young women. An aspiring writer/journalist takes up a new job as live-in tutor to two spoiled teenage girls.
12. Raising the Bar. Saved by the Bell alum Mark-Paul Gosselaar plays public defender in a new series by Steven Bochco.
13. Samurai Girl. Six-hour mini-series based on Samurai Girl young adult novels by Carrie Asai. Already finished, unless they’ll turn it into a proper TV series.
14. Saving Grace. It’s already half-way into the second season of this mature-rated show with Holly Hunter as an Oklahoma City homicide detective with a “last-chance” angel.
15. Secret Diary of a Call Girl. Billie Piper returns for a second season as London prostitute Belle.
    
16. Sons of Anarchy. Interesting new show about a motorcycle gang from The Shield writer/producer Kurt Sutter, featuring The Soprano’s Drea de Matteo and Hellboy’s Ron Perlman.
    
17. Stargate Atlantis. This fifth season turns out to be the last for Stargate Atlantis as Sci-Fi Channel decided not to order season 6. Sad, but not surprising considering the series’ plot has basically stagnated. Good news new Stargate series Universe will begin next year!
18. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Season 2.
19. True Blood. Anna Paquin plays a telepathic waitress who falls in love with a vampire. Oh, vampires have just come out of the coffin, so to speak, so everybody knows about them. The series is based on a series of books by Charlaine Harris.
20. Weeds. Season 4 of this HBO series about marijuana-dealing single-mother Nancy Botwin is almost finished.

Wow, that’s an even twenty! I don’t watch TV all the time, by the way. Some of the shows listed above are reaching the end of their respective seasons; some are going into a mid-season break, and many of the new shows I won’t watch beyond the first episode or two.

Swingtown has just concluded its first season. The show has a brow-rising plot involving swinging or open marriages, but is really about relationships. Spooks: Code 9 is a spin-off of British spy series Spooks, taking place in new-future United Kingdom after a nuclear bomb was detonated in London. I really have to ask why British shows have such short seasons, or series as they call it – only six episodes – compared to US shows running twelve to twenty episodes per season?

Finally, anime series Macross Frontier, released in conjunction with the twenty-five-year anniversary of the original Macross will soon complete its twenty-five-episode run. The series retains the familiar Macross space opera theme but with updated graphics and catchy new songs. This time around, however, the main characters are members of a private military company SMS while the enemy is a new mysterious race of bio-mechanical alien called Vajra.

__________
PS: How could I forget The Middleman, the coolest and funniest show this summer?!

Identity Crisis II

Somebody read my blog!

Is it unreasonable to expect citizens of any country to speak the national language? Most, if not all, countries have some language requirement for naturalization. You must be able to speak English if you want to become a citizen of New Zealand, or French to become a French citizen. I assume the expectation, if not express requirement, applies to native citizens as well. If that makes me a bigot and extremist I’m definitely fine with it.

Every Malaysian, especially one born and raised in the country, should be expected to be able to speak the national language. That much doesn’t have to be spelled out in the Constitution. I’m not saying that those who cannot should be kicked out of the country. I have relatives, both native and naturalized, who cannot speak proper Malay and I think it’s funny.

A country should have only one integrated school system and in Malaysia that is the national schools system. The existence of religious and vernacular schools does not help the development of a robust singular national identity. So the national schools system is not perfect. Fix it. The existence of alternative school systems is actually contributing to the problem by taking off some of the pressure to improve the national schools system. I’m being simplistic but with better funding we can hire better teachers. That alone should solve a lot of the problems with our schools.

I’m not saying religious and vernacular schools should close. They can stay, but not with public funding.

Quality Service

I received a delivery from Amazon yesterday but it wasn’t the one I was expecting. The package that arrived yesterday with two books – By Schism Rent Asunder and Zoe’s Tale – was shipped from New York on August 24. Although Amazon gave a delivery date estimate of October 1 for the particular delivery, their shipments usually take only 2-3 weeks to arrive.

I was really expecting an earlier delivery that was shipped on July 25 containing two DVDs. Yes, I pay good money to buy original DVDs. They are Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum, two made-for-DVD movie sequels to the Stargate: SG-1 television series. They were supposed to arrive last week by September 2.

So, on Monday I wrote an email to Amazon to ask about the overdue delivery. I also wrote an email to Pos Malaysia. Amazon’s reply came within the day; apologizing for the delay and asking me to wait till September 26 before they’ll send a replacement. Though frustrated, I’m fairly confident that Amazon will come through. They sent me a replacement for a delivery lost in the mail before. My email to Pos Malaysia came back with a “Delivery Status Notification” message from Pos Malaysia’s server, the electronic equivalent of “Return to Sender”. I suppose the customer service email address on Pos Malaysia’s website is only for show.

Popeye’s trip to the bank reminds me of the several times I went to the Bank of America branch at either BU’s George Sherman Union (GSU) building or Kenmore Square. Even at the ever busy GSU branch, a bank officer with a clipboard will always approach you every time you step into the bank to offer assistance. They’ll even fill up your forms for you. I never spent more than five minutes at the bank. We don’t have that level of service yet at the small Bank Islam branch on campus but the officer on duty at the customer service desk by the door is always helpful and the few service counters are always manned.

Identity Crisis

Sunday September 7, 2008
Malaysian spends 11 months at depot for illegals
By C.S. NATHAN

SEREMBAN: Young mother M. Rajeshvari spent 11 agonising months at the Lenggeng Immigration depot for illegals – all because she could not recall her identity card number and was not fluent in Bahasa Malaysia.

The 22-year-old, who was six months pregnant then, was waiting for a relative at a coffee shop in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur, when a raiding police party asked to see her identification card. She could not because she had lost it. Worse, she also forgot the IC number.

...

You really cannot fault anyone for not believing your claim to be a Malaysian when:

1. You do not speak the national language;
2. You cannot produce your identification card (she lost it) and cannot even recite your identification number; and
3. You cannot account for your own background including the addresses of your parents and relatives.

Firstly, M Rajeshvari only has primary school education, which is very unfortunate considering our national education policy calls for twelve years of compulsory schooling. Somehow this, however, has not been rigorously pursued and enforced. Despite our current preoccupation with tertiary level education issues (graduate unemployment, ranking, APEX universities, etc.) it is the availability and quality of primary and secondary level education that has the greatest impact to society. It is a greater tragedy that many miss out on this basic level of education due to poverty.

Secondly, all Malaysians must be able to fluently speak Bahasa Malaysia. That much should really go without saying. In many countries, command of the national language is a prerequisite to naturalization. It is therefore ridiculous for any citizen born and raised in the country to not being able to speak the national language. Again, this is a failure of the national education system. We must have only one system – the national schools system – catering to everybody. Public funding of vernacular schools – Chinese and Tamil – must stop, as do public funding of religious schools.

Thirdly, our basic biometric information, namely fingerprints, is already in the national identification registry. IIRC illegal immigrants processed for repatriation are also fingerprinted. Why, then, didn’t they look up her fingerprints to ascertain her claim?

Not a Good Day

Two stalled trucks in Sungai Buloh turned a routine 30-kilometer trip home yesterday which usually takes only about 45 minutes into a more than three-hour nightmare. I left work at about 4.30 p.m. and arrived home at about 7.45. Seriously, there must be a law that punishes people causing traffic jams. Traffic accidents aside, those who cause traffic jams because their poorly maintained vehicles break down should be fined at least RM5000. Why? There are real economic costs to traffic jams and people “saving” by not properly maintaining their vehicles are creating problems the rest of society simply do not need.

Earlier in the morning I found the leather strap of my watch broken from wear. During the weekend the silicone strap of my other watch also broke. What a coincidence! Instead of having to look for a new strap for one watch now I have to look for two. It doesn’t help at all that the Fossil watch has a non-standard design and size.

And my Amazon shipment is overdue.

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TECH NOTE #1: I’ve just changed the blog’s default font to Cambria. Despite everything I said about Microsoft, I really like this new font they ship with Vista and Office 2007. If you still see this blog in plain ol’ Georgia, well, too bad.

TECH NOTE #2: Currently on Google’s new browser, Chrome, which is looking really good towards becoming my new favorite.

Legacy

Happy 51^st National Day!

My late maternal grandmother came here from Sumatra before the Second World War. She used to sing me the Kimi-ga-yo, Japan’s national anthem, and told me how she and others hid in the jungle from the rampaging MPAJA at the end of the Japanese occupation. Ironically, then, I told the other kids at school that my grandmother was a communist (for hiding in the jungle)! On my father’s side, my Bugis and Minang ancestors came much earlier from lands also now belonging to the Republic of Indonesia. They came as warriors.

We are, for the most part, a nation of immigrants. Some came earlier, some later. Even the great Malacca Sultanate was founded by an exiled Sumatran prince. We are all Malaysians now.

I wonder what stories we will have to tell the next generation. In keeping with the tradition of this blog, I give you Stairway to Heaven.

Stairway to Heaven
by Led Zeppelin (1971)

There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold
And she's buying a stairway to heaven
And when she gets there she knows if the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for

Oh, and she's buying a stairway to heaven

There's a sign on the wall but she wants to be sure
‘Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings
In a tree by the brook there's a songbird who sings
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven

Oh, it makes me wonder
Oh, it makes me wonder

There's a feeling I get when I look to the west
And my spirit is crying for leaving
In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees
And the voices of those who stand looking

And it's whispered that soon if we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason
And a new day will dawn for those who stand long
And the forest will echo with laughter

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now
It's just a spring clean for the May Queen
Yes there are two paths you can go by but in the long run
There's still time to change the road you're on

Your head is humming and it won't go in case you don't know
The piper's calling you to join him
Dear lady can't you hear the wind blow and did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind

And as we wind on down the road
Our shadows taller than our soul
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show

How everything still turns to gold
And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last
When all are one and one is all

To be a rock and not to roll

Oh, and Happy Ramadan too!

Another Quickie

I
Back in July I pre-ordered four books (they were not yet released then) from Amazon and opted for all cheapest delivery option of having all four books shipped together. I thought I could wait. The first book, By Schism Rent Asunder by David Weber was released in late July while the last, The Clone Elite by Steven L Kent is due to be towards the end of October.

It turns out that I really cannot wait, especially after reading all the wonderful reviews for Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi, billed as his best work so far, so I changed my order. Hopefully the first two books will arrive soon. The third book, Brisingr by Christopher Paolini, the third book of the Inheritance series that began with Eragon, which was made into that awful movie, will be released in late September so I’m really looking forward to that as well.

II

The website for the International Conference on Islamic Economics and Economies of OIC Countries 2009 I was working on is already online. Please, do have a look and tell me what you think. The committee seems to be happy with it.

The thing with IE last time turned out to be my coding mistake. :P I figured it out on my own soon enough. This, however, does not mean that I don’t hate IE – I still do. Oh, and the new Opera (latest version 9.52) looks really slick.

III
I felt like eating cheesecake, so a few days ago I bought one whole cheesecake from Secret Recipe. I so wish we have The Cheesecake Factory in Malaysia.

The Truth

I find it interesting that instead of referring to August 31 as the National Day, as the celebration is officially known, more and more people are calling it Independence Day. The fact is that only West Malaysia, then the Federation of Malaya that included Singapore, gained independence from British rule on 31 August 1957. East Malaysia only became independent through the formation of Malaysia on 16 September 1963.

While we may argue ad infinitum whether August 31 or September 16 should rightly be celebrated as our National Day, reducing August 31 to merely the Independence Day only serves to highlight the gap between the two sides of our nation separated by more than just the South China Sea.

“May you live in interesting times” may not be an actual ancient Chinese curse, but few will dispute that we are living in an interesting time in the history of our young nation, and it is beginning to look very much like a curse. Fifty-one years on, we are still struggling with our identity, perhaps more than ever.

In the meantime the new political reality is creating a lot of confusion. Our past, our history is being questioned. Have we been wrong all this while? How can we move forward to the future if we cannot be certain of who we were, who we are? There are many stories, conflicting stories about everything, all claiming to be the truth.

Of course, there is only one truth, out there, but we are all really like the blind men with the elephant grasping with half-truths. Everybody claims of having an open mind and thinks of knowing better than others but do we really? After all, we only see what we want to see.

Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it.

Andre Gide (1869-1951)

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NOTE: Hazy out of whack insomnia entry.

Quickie

I
The department is organizing a conference in April next year. Tasked with creating a website for the conference – we don’t have the budget to get it professionally done – I’m reminded yet again that Internet Explorer (IE) really, really sucks. The simple CSS styling tweak I was working on comes out perfectly on Firefox and Safari but not on IE. Why, oh why? Oh well, I can’t be bothered to figure out a solution so @#$% it! Seriously, IE should just be banned and Microsoft burned.

Dirtiest car on campus

II
My car hasn’t been washed since... I can’t even remember when. I almost got the car washed last month, though, before I took it to its regular scheduled service. Apparently my father, who was quite the car-guy way back then, really can’t stand the sight of my car and complains about it all the time to my mother, who complains to me. LOL.

Now that the season’s turned wet I’m definitely not going to wash the car anytime soon; but that is really not the reason why I leave the car covered in a layer of dirt and dust. Lorries fully laden with dirt and sand ply the stretch of road I use to travel to work every morning, so there really is no escape getting splattered. Everybody knows how incredibly annoying it is to have your freshly cleaned and shined car violated by the smallest speck of dirt. I’ve had enough of the heartache so am rolling with it. The interior of my car is clean, though.

III
I have all three of Avril Lavigne’s studio albums, plus one EP, because I think she’s sexy. :P PAS Youth cannot exactly call her sexy, unlike Inul, so plays the patriotic card to try to get her banned. Still, apparently some idiot at the Home Ministry does think she’s sexy too and almost got her banned nevertheless, and once again the whole world reads about dynamic and progressive Muslim Malaysia.

I’m not going to her concert, though, because I’m saving for when U2 comes to Malaysia.

I Heart The Clone Wars

Rex, Obi-Wan and Anakin (StarWars.com)

Apparently, the critics hate Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Basically, the main complaint is that it is campy and childish. Well, duh, everybody knows that Star Wars: The Clone Wars the movie serves as a pilot of sort to Star Wars: The Clone Wars the television series coming up soon on the Cartoon Network! So why expect a seventh Star Wars episode/blockbuster movie?

That said, I’m definitely looking forward to Star Wars: The Clone Wars the series, not so much for the Jedi-Sith good versus evil fight but for the clone troopers. Supposedly, there will be “episodes with nothing but clone troopers,” according to George Lucas, so it will be awesome.

The Wedding Song

That’s Why (You Go Away) by Michael Learns To Rock

I am starting to think that the real purpose of having music played at weddings, ranging from a live band to just the bride or groom’s brother hooking up his MP3 player to the family hi-fi set, rather than to entertain people, is to scare them away. The music – often of very dubious taste – is played so loud with the speakers at full blast that not only your ears hurt but your blood pressure rises. Forget about having any meaningful conversation with anyone other than the person sitting right next to you. So, for quite some time (about two minutes) I wondered why people bother paying for such “entertainment”.

Then it hit me: the loud and annoying music is really a form of crowd control.

The typical Malay wedding reception is held at the family residence under tents erected in the yard or along the street. Since there aren’t enough tents available, due to both budgetary and space constraints, guests are generally expected to vacate their table after having their meal so that other guests may have theirs. Common courtesy as well as sense dictates that one should not stay too long at a table as if having a teh tarik session with long lost friends, even though teh tarik has indeed become commonly served at weddings too. However, more often than not some people simply don’t get it, hence the loud and annoying music, just to make sure that nobody gets too comfortable.

How’s that sound?

One other annoying feature of music played at weddings is more of a faux pas, I think, though one which nobody seems to care much. A wedding is supposed to be a happy occasion celebrating the union of the newlyweds. It is no surprise that ballads get played a lot at weddings since love songs are usually of that form. Nobody wants to hear beat thumping house or European techno music played at a wedding. However, it surprises me that nobody cares much about the actual theme of the songs played. A lot of ballads especially the hit tangkap leleh Malay love songs really have such depressing themes as failed relationships, heartbreak, infidelity etc. – hardly the kind of positive and optimistic vibes we would really want to have at such happy occasions as weddings, don’t you think?

Got Meat?

Jo Walton refers to Terry Bisson’s short story They’re Made Out Of Meat at the end of her article on science fiction’s treatment of the Fermi Paradox about the existence of aliens. I think the story is hilarious, but the short movie adaptation by Stephen O'Regan is funnier.

Fixed?

Addicted to Oil by keiross at deviantART

An interesting piece of news over the weekend was a government proposal to fix the petrol subsidy at 30 sen per liter beginning September. I wrote about this before; more than a year ago, in fact.

It is very important that we wean ourselves off our addiction to subsidized fuel as soon as possible. Since outright abolishment of the fuel subsidies is a political no-go, the second-best thing is to fix the amount of the subsidy. Let’s just hope that the government won’t change its mind yet again.

Book Report

All right, it’s official; I’ve lost a book. I couldn’t find The Logic of Life anywhere; not in my office, not in my bedroom or anywhere else at home I bothered to look. Nobody saw it at the department office, and I definitely never took it to class. It’s simply gone.

Anyway, one lost book means time for another.

[SPOILER ALERT: Naomi Novik’s Victory of Eagles]

At the end of Empire of Ivory, the Celestial dragon Temeraire and captain Will Laurence were forcely separated for committing the treasonous act of delivering to France the cure to the flu-like epidemic that was threatening to wipe out all of the world’s dragons. Laurence was swiftly tried and condemned for helping the enemy, while Temeraire was sent to the breeding grounds in South Wales.

Finally, in Victory of Eagles, Napoleon Bonaparte landed in England and the British Army was in retreat. Believing that Laurence was dead, Temeraire rallied the retired and unharnessed dragons at the breeding grounds to launch attacks against the invading French forces. Laurence, surviving the initial French invasion, was given a temporary reprieve to reunite with his dragon.

London fell and the British forces under the command of the future first Duke of Wellington fell back to the highlands of Scotland. In order to force Bonaparte into battle, Laurence and Temeraire were assigned, along with a small contingent of dragons, to search and destroy French raiding parties all across England sent out to gather supplies for the occupying French forces. Victory of Eagles climaxed with a massive battle in which the British Army and Aerial Corps, with the arrival of Nelson’s fleet, defeated the French forces and had Bonaparte fleeing on dragonback across the English Channel.

Naomi Novik did a splendid job with this fifth instalment of the Temeraire series. I am hoping that more will come. Have we seen the last of Bonaparte? Will Temeraire ever get to confront Lien? In the meanwhile, I’m wondering how I can get my hands on the UK release hardbound copies of the preceding four Temeraire titles for keep.

Sleepy

Sleepy Head by Prussian at deviantART

I’m feeling really sleepy all day today at work. It’s not that I didn’t have enough sleep last night, so it’s must be the Monday thing. It has been an awfully boring few days too, and I think I’ve misplaced a book.

Aww, I wish I had a cat.

The Ultimatum

The university has given us staff members without PhD an ultimatum: go pursue a PhD program or we’ll cut your housing allowance. I’m not sure if that’s entirely legal, but we have one year to comply.

It is not that I don’t want to get a PhD. I know coming into this line of work that I’ll have to get a PhD eventually. I just don’t really want to get a PhD just yet. A PhD is meant to teach, or rather train, you to do independent research. Beyond that it’s just a paper qualification. One does not need a PhD to do research, and I’m not too concerned over promotions. At the moment I am much more interested in trying to be a better teacher than doing research, and I have not found a problem that I want to spend three to five years dwelling on.

However, now that this ultimatum is out colleagues are telling me to just get a PhD and get it over with. Perhaps I’ll do just that. As much as I’m not in the mood to go back to school, I’m in a much lesser mood to either accept a pay cut or find another job. Besides, I love teaching; it’s research that I’m not sure about. If a PhD is what I need to keep doing what I love doing, then a PhD is what I’ll get.

Freebies!

Jon Foster’s painting Mobiebot, from his book Revolution: The Art of Jon Foster

Freebies! Tor.com, “a site for news and discussion of science fiction, fantasy, and all the things that interest SF and fantasy readers” by Tor Books is now live.

Since the beginning of the year, Tor has been giving away, via email newsletters, DRM-free electronic versions of one of its titles plus a couple of cover art wallpapers every week. The only catch is that each issue is only available until the next one comes out. The titles include award winning works like John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War and Robert Charles Wilson’s Spin – two books I already own – and Jeffrey A. Carver’s Battlestar Galactica novelization.

Joe DeVito’s logo for Spectrum: Fantastic Art

I’ve been downloading them all until my previous notebook expired (God bless its electronic soul) along with everything in it, leaving me with... ARGHHH! Thankfully, now they are making all twenty-four titles plus wallpapers available for download for another week till July 27. Yeah, I’ve always thought they would. :P

So, though many of you may not be into science fiction, why not click here, download a title or two (or twenty four!) and give it a try. They’re free anyway.

LINK: Tor.com

Transformation

A visiting scholar recently argued that in order to successfully develop Islamic economics we need to throw away all the conventional, particularly neoclassical, economic ideas and work on developing the discipline from scratch. Efforts to simply “Islamize” conventional economic ideas have so far failed to produce the desired results and are doomed to failure simply because they were born out of approaches and philosophies that are flawed and inconsistent with Islamic ideals.

I tend to agree with his argument as so far there isn’t much to be said about Islamic economics as a discipline. In Malaysia at least, discussions on Islamic economics tend to hover around just Islamic banking and finance including takaful, the zakat and waqf institutions, and halal industries. Though the government seems to be very interested in Islamic banking and finance, I suspect it’s mainly if not totally just for the funds and revenue mobilizing promises. I have yet to see how the Islamic banking and finance industry differs significantly from its conventional counterpart as far as its impact on society is concerned.

A huge challenge is to abandon all the conventional ideas we have been so familiar with. Another challenge is the fact that Islamic economics may not look anything like the economics that we understand. We simply cannot detach value from Islam, the complete and universal religion, so part of developing and promote Islamic economics is working to transform our society from a society based on competition to one based on mutual cooperation.

Savings

Greetings from Amazon.com.

You saved $3.07 with Amazon.com's Pre-order Price Guarantee!

The price of the item(s) decreased after you ordered them, and we gave you the lowest price.

The following title(s) decreased in price:

Victory of Eagles (Temeraire, Book 5)
Price on order date: $19.00
Price charged at shipping: $15.93
Lowest price before release date: $15.93
Quantity: 1
Total Savings: $3.07

$3.07 is your total savings under our Pre-order Price Guarantee.

$3.07 isn’t much (about RM10); it doesn’t even cover the shipping fee but a nice gesture anyway. I’ve just pre-ordered four more books with release dates ranging from later this month to late October.

After four bestselling titles, the fifth volume of Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series is finally released in hardcover! For the uninitiated, the series is a “reimagining of the epic events of the Napoleonic Wars with an air force—an air force of dragons”. Imagine that.

Continuity

Analysis Results [Not Recoverable]

This Hitachi drive (Model HTS548060 - 60GB s/n: H31HXC) has few serious scratches on the disc media, this normally caused by the aged slider (the read and write head unit) physical contact, resultant the digital data failed to be compiled into useful data, such cases will not able to be recovered.

Patah tumbuh hilang berganti.

The new Dell Inspiron 1520 comes with a 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4GB DDR2 667Mhz memory, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M video controller with discrete 128MB DDR2 video memory, and 160GB SATA hard drive. Other bells and whistles include a DVD burner, 8-in-1 card reader, 4 USB ports, Wireless-N adapter, and a 2MP camera I don’t think I’ll ever use.

The old Dell Inspiron 8600 is powered by a 1.5GHz Intel Pentium M processor with 512MB PC2700 memory, ATI Radeon 9600M video controller with discrete 128MB video memory, and 60GB hard drive. I just recently upgraded the memory to 1GB.

The 8600 served me really well so the 1520 has quite large shoes to fill. Since it is still in good shape, perhaps I’ll just install a new hard drive and pass the notebook down to my brother.

Law of Unintended Consequences

Murphy’s Law says that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Then, there is the law of unintended consequences [1][2], where things can turn out beyond (or opposite of) your wildest expectations. Extending that a little bit further gives you the proverb “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”. Take how the Alliance “created” the Reavers, for example.

:P

One of the more interesting bit of news articles, or rather press releases, I read this week was one of unintended consequence. In February, US President George W Bush signed off a $150 billion Economic Stimulus Plan, which includes direct payments of up to $1,200 to more than 130 million US households. The idea is straightforward: give people money and they will spend, and thereby create jobs. One of the huge beneficiaries of the plan, it turns out, is the porn industry.

Adult industry market research firm AIMRCo reports that Internet porn sites are recording 20-30% increase in subscription since the plan came into effect in May. Apparently, summer is typically a slow period for porn.

This may not entirely qualify as an unintended consequence as the plan merely aims for higher consumer spending, and spending on porn is still spending. It may, however, suggest that the amount of the government cash handout is more than necessary; at least for some. Spending on porn is definitely not a necessity. But hey, isn’t it at least a little funny to think that the US government promotes porn?

And now with the lower US June employment data, Barack Obama is calling for another $50 billion handout.