SIMPLICTY@gombui.net

Crouching Tiger

The man in the picture is none other than Tiger Woods,  crouching but nothing to hide.  He’s one if not the most successful professional golfer to date. I’m not a golf fan but I can’t help being interested in the latest sensational affairs surrounding this celebrity.   Recently his separation from his Swedish wife Elin was made official after months of probably efforts in trying to save his marriage.  I’m sure deep inside him he wanted it to work.  The ultimate break up was a result of his admitted infidelities in the past.  The stories alone would be enough for lawyers on both sides to resort to good document management.  I’m not sure what the divorce settlement was but surely it must be lot’s of money.

Philippines Bus Hostage Drama

The recent bus hijacking event in the Philippines reminds me of the movie Speed which stars Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock and the villain Howard Payne characterized by Dennis Hopper.  However this real-life “movie” should be called Halted! rather than Speed cos the bus was stationary at the famous Manila’s Rizal Park.

What is remarkably similar to the movie is the villain or nemesis were formerly highly decorated police officer.  In the movie Speed, Payne used to be in the LA Police top bomb disposal unit, hence his choice of destruction was to use explosives.    In the Manila event, Rolando Mendoza was also a highly decorated officer, reportedly to be best top 10 cop in the Philippines.  However,  Mendoza was dismissed from the force and was supposedly on charges of drug trafficking and extortion.

I believe Mendoza had the same feeling of vengeance just like Payne did. The last straw was when he hijacked a bus packed with tourists from Hong Kong last Monday.   The drama ended however when police SWAT stormed the bus which saw Mendoza killed as well as eight other hostages.

Looking at the SWAT storming the bus, I can’t help noticing how sloppy the operation went.  I believe more lives could have been saved if only they (SWAT) had acted swiftly and decisively.  In the end I also felt pity for Rolando Mendoza for being a victim of circumstances.  He should have registered himself at the healthcare job bank and more lives could have been saved. My heart also goes to  the tourists who died tragically,  who happened to have their bus picked.

Getting Owned by Social Networking

This happens when one does not understand how far reaching social networking sites can be.   Lynn France discovered recently via Facebook that her husband has had a second wedding.  Pictures of the wedding were posted on facebook.  Surely it was devastating for the wife to finally know that her husband has been having an affair.  On the husband part, I can’t understand what is going on in his mind.  He might have done it deliberately or just don’t have a clue about how public Facebook can be.  Perhaps he’s just in it for the groomsmen gifts. Either way, the popular social networking site can be a nightmare to many and a blessing to some.  These days there has been lot’s of debate about the true benefits of such sites that some have gone so far as to ban it.  I think one can’t blame technology.  I always believed that, it is the human user that has to show restraint and must understand how far reaching such sites can be.

Details of the story here.

100meters race

What would be the equivalent Moore’s law in the 100 meters sprint race?  Of course you can’t compare quantum of computer processing power to the sheer determination and power of human feat in sprint.  Beating the 100m sprint under a minute used to be the holy grail of athletes, till Jim Hines managed to break the barrier with his 9.95 seconds run.  Since then many more had attempted to go even faster.  The current record of 9.58s is held by Jamaican Usain Bolt.   I do hope Usain has not had HCG Injections Austin.  Recently his 100m winning streak was broken by the second fastest man to date - Tyson Gay.  Could that be a sign that Bolt has lost his speed?  One thing for sure, beating 9.58s will be huge undertaking.

Beautiful Sabah

So often we take for granted that the world and environment we live in will last for a long time.  Little do we know how fragile it is and everything is somehow interlink.  Lately I had the priviledge to be involved in the first ever seminar on e-waste in Sabah.  I’m proud to be part and had some contribution to the eventual event that was held 15 July.  The trigger was part of a paper that our Training and Research division had prepared for the Sabah State Public Sector CIO meeting about two years ago.  I’m glad the matter has been brought to the attention of  Sabah’s Ministry of Culture, Environment and Tourism.  Credit goes to my colleague, Iswalah Arshad who had done the research and prepared the draft paper.   At the seminar, there were 7 resolutions that were announced and it goes to show that we are now (fingers crossed) committed to tackle the problem so that we may continue to send pictures like above as photo Christmas cards.  By the way, the picture above is taken at the Kundasang Golf fairway with a majestic early morning view of Mt. Kinabalu, the hallmark of our state’s beautiful environment. So I guess whatever action next would be worth the pain so that our generations to come would not suffer, unlike the picture below.