Kuan Yean

Author: Lee Kuan Yean

  • Stupid

    Disputation between St Dominic and the Albigensians c. 1490 - Pedro BerrugueteTo the wonderful people who compile the OED, I present a new definition of stupid:

    stupid n. [stoo-pid, styoo–]  Dove World Outreach Center

    In a blog post entitled Ten Reasons to Burn a Koran, Fran Ingham outlines a bunch of ideas that tries to justify why, on September 11, everyone should burn a Qur’an. I’m not sure what positive outcome this bunch of lunatics hopes to achieve, but a comment on the blog kind of sums up what I think:

    … You are angry about something you are afraid of and I am angry with your stupidity.  But do us all a favor; go get a glass, fill it with a handful of ice cubes (they are in the refrigerator on your back-porch) and pour yourselves a nice tall glass of “shut the fuck up”.  You are going to get people killed with your hateful acts scheduled for 9/11.

    Fran’s interpretation of the Bible and of history is dangerous, ignorant and… stupid. I really, really cannot fathom how anyone can come to the conclusion that a problem can be solved by burning a book that is holy to a quarter of the world’s population. Sigh.

  • Paul’s low fibre diet

    Fibre - breakfast of championsPaul Broad (CEO of AAPT) was on the news this morning, once again bleating about how the National Broadband Network is wrong and how wireless is the future. I’m usually a very calm person, but I did find myself wanting to throw things at the TV while he was speaking.

    It is true that wireless is a complementary technology that will work with fibre to deliver services where hard-wiring would be unfeasible. Inside premises, for example, and the last mile for some geographically difficult areas. But does he really think that wireless – with its profusion of protocols and spectrum issues – will serve the needs of a tech-savvy Australia in the way a FTTH network would? There is a distinct lack of vision here, and also an ignorance of what is going on around the world.

    Have a look at this fibre plan from Malaysia. It works out to be about A$60, and you get more than anything you could possibly get in Australia. And this is available right now. It is truly a disgrace that the chief executive of a major telco:

    1. thinks that these services can be delivered over any type of contemporary wireless solution.
    2. believes that the core of internet delivery in the future will be wireless
    3. thinks that the current trend of people moving to wireless will hold

    In the first place, the people moving to wireless broadband are moving because the process of taking a fixed-line internet connection when you move premises is slow, painful and expensive. If you could move from one apartment to another and have your internet connection move with you with little to no downtime, then you could be fairly certain that fixed line abandonment rates would be much lower. This can easily be solved by having an open FTTH framework.

    Furthermore, you would think twice about wireless broadband if you did anything more than check your email and browse the internet for non-critical things. Even so, right now there are parts of inner-city Melbourne where you can fail to watch a YouTube video on wireless broadband. I would never dream of running my business over a wireless connection, mostly because my phone systems require a low latency that  just cannotbe provided by wireless networks. With all the wireless congestion around, I can’t even run a low-payload codec over VoIP using a 54Mbit 802.11g connection. How do you think LTE or 4G would fare? Better? Next to fibre, they would not stand a chance.

    Paul, set up a nothing-special wireless connection in your inner-city office, and tell me how reliable it is. Run your business off it and then tell me that you want to have this replicated all over the country.

    I will leave a discussion of the importance of the NBN for regional and rural Australia for another day. The argument that “people don’t want this” seems to reign supreme amongst detractors at the moment, but I would again refer these detractors to business owners in Ingham and Clermont and Richmond (QLD, not VIC) who are trying to compete with businesses in Brisbane and Sydney and Melbourne. Without the NBN, they will fail in anything but the most ambitious attempt. But that is a rant for another day.

  • You’ll be the death of me

    The Michaelangelo PietaRomantic legend has a habit of introducing dramatic effect by having a hero or heroine die of a broken heart.  It happens so often that it somewhat becomes the default cause of death in tales of yore. It’s easy to scoff dismissively… I wager that a modern death certificate with “broken heart” listed as the cause of death would raise a few eyebrows… and – considering the age in which we live – a few lawsuits.

    But can you really die from a broken heart? I haven’t looked into this exhaustively, but I do believe that heartbreak is a killer – a painful, painful killer. The Associated Press filed a 1999 report in which an elephant named Damini allegedly did such a thing out of grief, having lost a younger companion. Elizabeth I, after living through a slew of deaths amongst close friends, supposedly died from anguish. I make the distinction here between types like Ophelia and Dido, who ended their own lives as a result of love lost. This is something more sinister and delicate, not prone to rational discretion. Worst of all, it is silent.

    If it were one day found that the will to live is driven by the subconscious – the thing that keeps us alive without us knowing it – then we might well have a case for death by broken heart. It is not likely that we will ever directly discern such a link, because the subconscious is (by definition) beyond our perception. Having said that, research at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine has suggested that a broken heart may manifest itself in a condition known as stress cardiomyopathy, a strain on the heart brought on by psychological trauma of some sort.

    Whatever the cause, and whatever the effect, if you know of anyone whose eyes have lost their sparkle, or their step has lost its bounce, and you know of a trauma in their life that would shake anyone but the most hardened battler, do everything you can to show them that you care. From the heart.

  • Bob the Basher

    I came across this comment on the website of the Australian Christian Lobby, after an article outlining the feelings of the ACL on the federal leadership change:

    June 25, 2010 at 6:04 am
    It is almost time for work, and yet I have spent so much of the time I normally spend in silent prayer totally engrossed in the stories and comments on this blog.

    I must prepare myself for the day, but I must also share this last piece of my mind.

    Many more posts have appeared here, and I note with some astonishment that it is suggested that there is a homosexual in the Australian Parliament.

    I have noted with satisfaction how these deviants have been recently driven from their positions of power in state government.

    In my youth we had another name for these perverts, and although I don’t go in for bashings any more, I am proud to say that I have taught my sons to treat them with the disrespect that they deserve.

    Yours in Christ
    Bob

    Before signing off in Christ’s name, Bob should actually read Christ’s teachings.

  • Premiere album: J-Lard

    What just happened? 24 hours ago, we had a government that was stable and working, but not doing so flash-hot in the polls… no dramas that can’t be sorted out by a general election. All of a sudden, we have a new Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. I repeat: what just happened?

    I may not have been a big fan of everything that Kevin Rudd did while in office, however I was prepared to give the man time to get his house in order before the next election. In every respect, he was and is of Prime Ministerial calibre, and nothing makes me doubt my expectations. It is especially uncanny how he does things that seem to be textbook Art of War. To sum it up, I think he knew what he was doing.

    But what happened today was not something out of the Art or War; it is better explained by a passage from The Prince:

     A prince far more easily wins the friendship of those who were formerly satisfied with the existing government, and so were hostile to him then, then of those who, because they were dissatisfied, became his friends and favoured his occupation.

    He should have been watching his back. The factions timed this in order to install a new leader, rather than to allow an old leader the ability to reassert his leadership. A political coup de grâce, and one that I think is unfair. The man should have been allowed a fair go at completing his term with his (very busy) political agenda addressed.

    What we have witnessed is the reason creative types (builders, designers, authors etc) avoid showing their clients their products before they are finished. They are quite often a mess while they are being put together, but to be fired (or even given a dressing down) for the fact is simply a demonstration of impatience and rash impulsion.

    I am not suggesting that Julia Gillard will not make a fine Prime Minister; she more than likely will. What I am not comfortable with is the fact that Kevin Rudd was never given the chance to be one too.