Caramel walnut brownies
7 years ago
Saturday, March 31, 2007
from strait times home - 31/03/2007
why those under 35 years old can not get rental HDB flats with their grandparents?
Friday, March 30, 2007
news update - final week of March 2007
1. Playboy in Indonesia
2. FDA Tries to Thwart Web Accutane Sales
3. Unsafe Deposit: In Iraq, an Army Officer Battles to Open a Bank --- Military shifts Fight To Local Politics; Gunfire Outside Hall
4. Sanyo Ends Era of Family Rule --- President Steps Down as Owners Push to Shed Weak Businesses Faster
5. What Drove Spike in Crude?
6. Business-Investment Drop Stirs Worries
7. Business Brief -- Citigroup Inc.: Branch Openings to Help Accelerate Growth in China
8. Politics & Economics: Paris Clashes Shape France's Political Agenda --- Echoes of 2005 Suburban Unrest Sharpen Campaign's Focus on Law and Order
9. Slouching Dollar, Hidden Inflation
10. Why Private Colleges Are Surging in India
11. ProLogis Feeds Off China's Boom --- With Large Presence in Nation, REIT Pleases Wall Street
12. Politics & Economics: In Brief
13. Parents Rebel Against School Fund-Raisers --- Tired of Being Forced to Sell Wrapping Paper and Raffle Tickets, Some Opt Out While Others Devise More-Effective Alternatives
14. Finding Day Care That Helps Kids Play Well With Others
15. Does Cutting Oil Revenue Help or Hurt al Qaeda?
16. Bookshelf: Making Sense of a World Turned Upside Down
17. Reinventing the Wheel: Customizing the Sound of a Car Horn
18. Politics & Economics: Bush, Defensive on Iraq, Blames Congress
19. 5 in 10 consumer financial disputes are with life insurers
20. HDB unveils its first 'green' housing project
21. Crime Library offers hope to some people
22. MM to critics: Gauge S'pore by any yardstick of governance
23. US biologics giant to make anti-blindness drug here
24. Rejected for PSC scholarship but he's now MTI perm sec
25. Striking deals
26. Maximise Koon Seng Road's heritage potential
27. Neighbour's dog victim of hit-and-run accident
28. McDonald's will look into pricing of vegetarian meal
29. On streaming, motivating and educating students
30. 5 THINGS YOU CAN DO TODAY
31. No more increase in medical fees, please
32. Plan early to 'find the sweet spot'
33. Wheeling out a message
34. Vietnam under pressure to join anti-terror initiative
35. Kids freed as Manila hostage crisis ends
36. Leading the News: Indonesia reports three deaths from avian flu after WHO deal
37. Technology Journal: Companies tolerate ads to obtain free software --- Most users include smaller businesses; no tumbling clowns
38. Technology Journal: Microsoft-Sony games battle escalates
39. CAPITAL: Why skepticism about free trade appears to be on the rise
40. The 'Genocide Olympics'
41. Bad Chemistry
42. Bush, Democrats aim for trade compromise
43. China, Russia sign a trade deal
44. U.S. spending indicator falls
45. Fiscally Fit: Love Isn't Cheap --- Terri Decides to Replace a Trinket Whose Value Can't Be Measured
46. The Evening Wrap: Captives & Crude
47. The Afternoon Report: Terror in Tal Afar
2. FDA Tries to Thwart Web Accutane Sales
3. Unsafe Deposit: In Iraq, an Army Officer Battles to Open a Bank --- Military shifts Fight To Local Politics; Gunfire Outside Hall
4. Sanyo Ends Era of Family Rule --- President Steps Down as Owners Push to Shed Weak Businesses Faster
5. What Drove Spike in Crude?
6. Business-Investment Drop Stirs Worries
7. Business Brief -- Citigroup Inc.: Branch Openings to Help Accelerate Growth in China
8. Politics & Economics: Paris Clashes Shape France's Political Agenda --- Echoes of 2005 Suburban Unrest Sharpen Campaign's Focus on Law and Order
9. Slouching Dollar, Hidden Inflation
10. Why Private Colleges Are Surging in India
11. ProLogis Feeds Off China's Boom --- With Large Presence in Nation, REIT Pleases Wall Street
12. Politics & Economics: In Brief
13. Parents Rebel Against School Fund-Raisers --- Tired of Being Forced to Sell Wrapping Paper and Raffle Tickets, Some Opt Out While Others Devise More-Effective Alternatives
14. Finding Day Care That Helps Kids Play Well With Others
15. Does Cutting Oil Revenue Help or Hurt al Qaeda?
16. Bookshelf: Making Sense of a World Turned Upside Down
17. Reinventing the Wheel: Customizing the Sound of a Car Horn
18. Politics & Economics: Bush, Defensive on Iraq, Blames Congress
19. 5 in 10 consumer financial disputes are with life insurers
20. HDB unveils its first 'green' housing project
21. Crime Library offers hope to some people
22. MM to critics: Gauge S'pore by any yardstick of governance
23. US biologics giant to make anti-blindness drug here
24. Rejected for PSC scholarship but he's now MTI perm sec
25. Striking deals
26. Maximise Koon Seng Road's heritage potential
27. Neighbour's dog victim of hit-and-run accident
28. McDonald's will look into pricing of vegetarian meal
29. On streaming, motivating and educating students
30. 5 THINGS YOU CAN DO TODAY
31. No more increase in medical fees, please
32. Plan early to 'find the sweet spot'
33. Wheeling out a message
34. Vietnam under pressure to join anti-terror initiative
35. Kids freed as Manila hostage crisis ends
36. Leading the News: Indonesia reports three deaths from avian flu after WHO deal
37. Technology Journal: Companies tolerate ads to obtain free software --- Most users include smaller businesses; no tumbling clowns
38. Technology Journal: Microsoft-Sony games battle escalates
39. CAPITAL: Why skepticism about free trade appears to be on the rise
40. The 'Genocide Olympics'
41. Bad Chemistry
42. Bush, Democrats aim for trade compromise
43. China, Russia sign a trade deal
44. U.S. spending indicator falls
45. Fiscally Fit: Love Isn't Cheap --- Terri Decides to Replace a Trinket Whose Value Can't Be Measured
46. The Evening Wrap: Captives & Crude
47. The Afternoon Report: Terror in Tal Afar
Monday, March 26, 2007
Sunday, March 25, 2007
The Economist reading - 24/03/07 week 4 March 2007 (part 2)
** New word: prone to take and reluctant to give
** New word: In the first place,...
flourish (v)
initiative (v+n)
--------------------------
Can Asia Avert a Globalization Crisis?
The occasional rhetorical flourish by political leaders notwithstanding, the policy agenda for global trade is paralyzed. This endangers everyone, but especially Asians. As part of a growing backlash against globalization, protectionism, driven by a widespread fear of competition and job losses, is flourishing in many places and in many forms. Instead of common vision, ambitions and political will towards greater integration of markets and communities, there are today many symptoms of a "globalization crisis."
Protectionism is likely to cause considerable havoc, considering that goals such as global security and global prosperity are unlikely to be achieved in the absence of collective vision and action.
According to the Economist Intelligence Unit Foresight 2020 Report, between 2005 and 2020 Asia's share in the global economy is expected to rise to 43% from 35%.
If the Asian economies can practice free trade regionally, they will be in a much stronger position to preach free trade globally.
-------------------------
Britain: the price of knowledge - students' debt, Britain trying to make undergraduate education more easily available to the poor through better accessible loans.
--------------------------
An inspector call: doing business in China
According to the official Consumers' Association, 44% of China consumers have been "seriously violated" during the past year.
In January inspectors from the Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Administrative Bureau began an investigation of foreign designer clothing. It found that 17 of 40 brands tested were selling "substandard" goods. But the faults it uncovered were hardly the stuff of lawsuits. MaxMara and Burberry were both pulled up for selling trousers that "fade easily" while Armani's Collezioni jackets were singled out for lacking "fibre content". Other big brands were accused of using poor dyes or having bad colour quality. Makers of designer goods, of course, are no more infallible than other firms, but the companies concerned cannot help wondering whether they are victims of a new form of protectionism--bad publicity.
-----------------------
The cost of non-Europe, Serbia's future
While Montegreno has signed SAA (Stabilization and Association Agreement), Serbia is still out of it due to not having arrested war crimes like Ratko Mladic, restricting itself a great deal in economic activities.
-----------------------
Oil-rich Iran may have to ration petrol. It sounds weid but the country is in a shortage of refineries, now meeting only 60% of the nation's demand. For the rest amount, ppl have to face with the expensive market price, abt 45cent per litre, more than 5 times motorists would pay at the pump. Especially after this new year festive, the bill is increasing more than ever.
-----------------------
Hope fades for a fairer UN policy on human rights.
At best, the council is a declamatory body; real power lies with the Security Council in New York. But the mess in the UN's top human-rights agency augurs ill for the reform of the UN as a whole.
-----------------------
A shift of perspective: malaria
Recruiting mosquitoes to fight malaria
MAKING an ally out of an enemy is often a good policy. And that is what Mauro Marrelli and Chaoyang Li of Johns Hopkins University are trying to do. Until recently, Anopheles, the mosquito that spreads malarial parasites, has been seen by those trying to eradicate the disease as a target. Now, a few far-sighted researchers see it as an opportunity.
------------------------
United States: collateral damage; the Iraq war
------------------------
United States: Of banners and bongs; Free speech in school
** New word: censor (v+n) (a person) examine and supervise the quality of others (things or human) regarding morality and manners
** New word: bong (n+v) a dull, resonant sound, as of a large bell
** New word: In the first place,...
flourish (v)
initiative (v+n)
--------------------------
Can Asia Avert a Globalization Crisis?
The occasional rhetorical flourish by political leaders notwithstanding, the policy agenda for global trade is paralyzed. This endangers everyone, but especially Asians. As part of a growing backlash against globalization, protectionism, driven by a widespread fear of competition and job losses, is flourishing in many places and in many forms. Instead of common vision, ambitions and political will towards greater integration of markets and communities, there are today many symptoms of a "globalization crisis."
Protectionism is likely to cause considerable havoc, considering that goals such as global security and global prosperity are unlikely to be achieved in the absence of collective vision and action.
According to the Economist Intelligence Unit Foresight 2020 Report, between 2005 and 2020 Asia's share in the global economy is expected to rise to 43% from 35%.
If the Asian economies can practice free trade regionally, they will be in a much stronger position to preach free trade globally.
-------------------------
Britain: the price of knowledge - students' debt, Britain trying to make undergraduate education more easily available to the poor through better accessible loans.
--------------------------
An inspector call: doing business in China
According to the official Consumers' Association, 44% of China consumers have been "seriously violated" during the past year.
In January inspectors from the Shanghai Industrial and Commercial Administrative Bureau began an investigation of foreign designer clothing. It found that 17 of 40 brands tested were selling "substandard" goods. But the faults it uncovered were hardly the stuff of lawsuits. MaxMara and Burberry were both pulled up for selling trousers that "fade easily" while Armani's Collezioni jackets were singled out for lacking "fibre content". Other big brands were accused of using poor dyes or having bad colour quality. Makers of designer goods, of course, are no more infallible than other firms, but the companies concerned cannot help wondering whether they are victims of a new form of protectionism--bad publicity.
-----------------------
The cost of non-Europe, Serbia's future
While Montegreno has signed SAA (Stabilization and Association Agreement), Serbia is still out of it due to not having arrested war crimes like Ratko Mladic, restricting itself a great deal in economic activities.
-----------------------
Oil-rich Iran may have to ration petrol. It sounds weid but the country is in a shortage of refineries, now meeting only 60% of the nation's demand. For the rest amount, ppl have to face with the expensive market price, abt 45cent per litre, more than 5 times motorists would pay at the pump. Especially after this new year festive, the bill is increasing more than ever.
-----------------------
Hope fades for a fairer UN policy on human rights.
At best, the council is a declamatory body; real power lies with the Security Council in New York. But the mess in the UN's top human-rights agency augurs ill for the reform of the UN as a whole.
-----------------------
A shift of perspective: malaria
Recruiting mosquitoes to fight malaria
MAKING an ally out of an enemy is often a good policy. And that is what Mauro Marrelli and Chaoyang Li of Johns Hopkins University are trying to do. Until recently, Anopheles, the mosquito that spreads malarial parasites, has been seen by those trying to eradicate the disease as a target. Now, a few far-sighted researchers see it as an opportunity.
------------------------
United States: collateral damage; the Iraq war
------------------------
United States: Of banners and bongs; Free speech in school
** New word: censor (v+n) (a person) examine and supervise the quality of others (things or human) regarding morality and manners
** New word: bong (n+v) a dull, resonant sound, as of a large bell
The Economist reading - 24/03/07 week 4 March 2007 (part 1)
Election in India's most populous state, Utah Pradesh, promises another unstable regime
** New word: social caste (n) /ka:ste/
--------------------
Malaysia - though the economy is doing well, corruption is getting to the hot point, said to be worsening in Malaysia since last year
--------------------
China's orphans are traditionally specially surnamed Dang (meaning party) for girls or Gou (meaning the country) for boys, creating tough their life thereafter. Some states have now regressed from such rules (eg. Dalian and Ghuanzou) while others still stick to those.
--------------------
UNDP is suspecting that North Korea is misusing its fund but it's hard to prove. Korea is also denying that it has an alleged uranium-enrichment programme.
--------------------
March 19th, Nyepi event, day of silence, rest and reflection that the Hindu people, most of Indonesian population observes to celebrate the New Year
--------------------
Central Asia - Once a place of exile, Kazakhstan is now attracting a large number of workers. World Bank even ranks it as the world's ninth biggest attraction to migrants.
--------------------
India and Pakistan are playing out their riveries in Afganistan.
Afganistan - Pakistan - India - Taliban : a war on borders and oil.
--------------------
Now that books are getting digitalized, how will people read? Everyday, Google is expectedto digitalize 3000 books, thus 10m books estimated per year. The current source of books now stops at 65m. And Google is not the only agent scanning books. Other names to mention include Internet Archive, Microsoft and Yahoo.
People might still come to paper books for the meer idea of "sourvenirs of the way we feel".
---------------------
Your financial savvy may reach its peak at 53, a survey suggests.
---------------------
France is having its presidential election.
---------------------
Kosovo is heading for independence whatever the Russians say or do.
They want to become European newest state.
Kosovo is home to some 2m people, at least 90% of whom are ethnic Albanians who have long demanded independence from Serbia. Since 1999 it has been under UN jurisdiction, although it is a province of Serbia. Some 14 months of UN-sponsored talks chaired by Martti Ahtisaari, a former Finnish president, have not produced a deal. So Mr Ahtisaari has unilaterally presented his plan for Kosovo's future to the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon. He proposes independence for Kosovo, but with conditions, including an EU-led mission to succeed the UN one and an international overseer, whose job would be modelled on Bosnia's.
Kosovo's Albanians grudgingly accept this but its Serbs, as well as Belgrade, do not. Because jurisdiction now lies with the UN, a new UN Security Council resolution is needed to transfer powers to the EU-led mission and international overseer. But an angry (and veto-wielding) Russia insists it will not assent to the Ahtisaari plan if Belgrade does not. Indeed, Russian spokesmen say that if Mr Ahtisaari cannot find common ground between Serbia and the Kosovo Albanians, somebody else should do the job. Yet this is just a delaying tactic. The Russians know that the Serbs and Kosovo Albanians will never agree.
So it is significant that Mr Holbrooke adds what many suspect: if Russia blocks a new resolution, Kosovo will declare independence anyway--and the Americans will "probably" recognise it. Many Muslim countries will follow, though Mr Holbrooke thinks most EU countries may not. Without a new UN resolution, diplomats say the choice is not independence or not; it is between "controlled" and "uncontrolled" independence.
** New word: social caste (n) /ka:ste/
--------------------
Malaysia - though the economy is doing well, corruption is getting to the hot point, said to be worsening in Malaysia since last year
--------------------
China's orphans are traditionally specially surnamed Dang (meaning party) for girls or Gou (meaning the country) for boys, creating tough their life thereafter. Some states have now regressed from such rules (eg. Dalian and Ghuanzou) while others still stick to those.
--------------------
UNDP is suspecting that North Korea is misusing its fund but it's hard to prove. Korea is also denying that it has an alleged uranium-enrichment programme.
--------------------
March 19th, Nyepi event, day of silence, rest and reflection that the Hindu people, most of Indonesian population observes to celebrate the New Year
--------------------
Central Asia - Once a place of exile, Kazakhstan is now attracting a large number of workers. World Bank even ranks it as the world's ninth biggest attraction to migrants.
--------------------
India and Pakistan are playing out their riveries in Afganistan.
Afganistan - Pakistan - India - Taliban : a war on borders and oil.
--------------------
Now that books are getting digitalized, how will people read? Everyday, Google is expectedto digitalize 3000 books, thus 10m books estimated per year. The current source of books now stops at 65m. And Google is not the only agent scanning books. Other names to mention include Internet Archive, Microsoft and Yahoo.
People might still come to paper books for the meer idea of "sourvenirs of the way we feel".
---------------------
Your financial savvy may reach its peak at 53, a survey suggests.
---------------------
France is having its presidential election.
---------------------
Kosovo is heading for independence whatever the Russians say or do.
They want to become European newest state.
Kosovo is home to some 2m people, at least 90% of whom are ethnic Albanians who have long demanded independence from Serbia. Since 1999 it has been under UN jurisdiction, although it is a province of Serbia. Some 14 months of UN-sponsored talks chaired by Martti Ahtisaari, a former Finnish president, have not produced a deal. So Mr Ahtisaari has unilaterally presented his plan for Kosovo's future to the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon. He proposes independence for Kosovo, but with conditions, including an EU-led mission to succeed the UN one and an international overseer, whose job would be modelled on Bosnia's.
Kosovo's Albanians grudgingly accept this but its Serbs, as well as Belgrade, do not. Because jurisdiction now lies with the UN, a new UN Security Council resolution is needed to transfer powers to the EU-led mission and international overseer. But an angry (and veto-wielding) Russia insists it will not assent to the Ahtisaari plan if Belgrade does not. Indeed, Russian spokesmen say that if Mr Ahtisaari cannot find common ground between Serbia and the Kosovo Albanians, somebody else should do the job. Yet this is just a delaying tactic. The Russians know that the Serbs and Kosovo Albanians will never agree.
So it is significant that Mr Holbrooke adds what many suspect: if Russia blocks a new resolution, Kosovo will declare independence anyway--and the Americans will "probably" recognise it. Many Muslim countries will follow, though Mr Holbrooke thinks most EU countries may not. Without a new UN resolution, diplomats say the choice is not independence or not; it is between "controlled" and "uncontrolled" independence.
healthy day check
a useless day today, filled with sleep, sickness, idleness, surfing and chitchating
things to do tmr:
1. wake up at 7.00, take shower (hair wash included, breakfast: cakes and milk (bring along some to school)
2. 8.30 - school visit, sob gsr 3.20
3. write 3 300 idebate essays - till lunchtime - 1200 to 1300 (with coffee buying in kopi lib)
4. calculus doing in national lib - 1330 till 1630, with calculus summary if possible
5. intro econs summary - principles of economics borrowing in lib - from 1700
6. 2100 - heading home for dinner - sweet sour chicken wings deep fried with honey
7. phone check of old number
8. 2300 - news reading n analysis and free stuff
** Note for next day: call n work application visit!
things to do tmr:
1. wake up at 7.00, take shower (hair wash included, breakfast: cakes and milk (bring along some to school)
2. 8.30 - school visit, sob gsr 3.20
3. write 3 300 idebate essays - till lunchtime - 1200 to 1300 (with coffee buying in kopi lib)
4. calculus doing in national lib - 1330 till 1630, with calculus summary if possible
5. intro econs summary - principles of economics borrowing in lib - from 1700
6. 2100 - heading home for dinner - sweet sour chicken wings deep fried with honey
7. phone check of old number
8. 2300 - news reading n analysis and free stuff
** Note for next day: call n work application visit!
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