Ed's journal

Reading Johann Hari's pieces on Dubai.

• The dark side of Dubai
• Dubai Has Always Been Bankrupt -- Morally and Environmentally

It describes Dubai's dark side and that slavery still exists event in this modern world. With the bubble bursting, Dubai's time is finally near the end.

Below is a poem in Malay on Dubai's financial crisis. (originally from http://1426.blogspot.com/2009/12/ego-sebutir-pasir.html)


Ego Sebutir Pasir
gurun sayup berkelipan
dari gerak sang pemimpi
melebar denyut nadi kapitalis
gah membina struktur dan ikon
sebagai perhiasan kemilau
peradaban kaca, batu-bata
megalomania menjerat ruang
bersama keringat pendatang
menghujan kemewahan
diantara nestapa yang bertimbun
sebagai sampah di lorong belakang
kehidupan kosmopolitan

gurun subur menghijau
tasik dan sungai merentas
ke laut pun tumbuh
pulau-pulau katarsis
perlambangan pembangunan fizikal
tiada perbandingan nilai
gah mencakar langit
dalam kehidupan superfisial
ilusi pun melakar sejarah

kilat menyambar gurun fatamorgana
tiba-tiba ego sebutir pasir
berderai terhempap ke bumi
walau sayap terbang tinggi
terkandas kaki di permukaan
di tarik lanskap realiti
graviti pasaran terbuka
yang tidak kenal darjat
dan tidak peduli maruah
pada estetika yang mencalar
warna-warna kabilah!

Just finished reading THE LAST DAYS OF THE POLYMATH By Edward Carr.

Interesting to know a lot about a lot.

What is a polymath?. Polymath is someone that "have learned much". There's a wikipedia page here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymath. Some well known polymath are Leonardo Da Vinci and Benjamin Franklin.

Specialisation is hard on polymaths. Every moment devoted to one area is a moment less to give over to something else. Researchers are focused on narrower areas of work. In the sciences this means that you often need to put together a team to do anything useful. Most scientific papers have more than one author; papers in some disciplines have 20 or 30. Only a fool sets out to cure cancer, Rees says. You need to concentrate on some detail—while remembering the big question you are ultimately trying to answer. “These days”, he says, “no scientist makes a unique contribution.

So do you think you're one of these rare breeds

Watched it recently. Story about a new virtual-real world where humans replace themselves with "Surrogates" to in daily life to minimize crime, death rate, disease, accidents etc. A little bit like the movie Gamer recently on the cinemas.

Although Bruce Willis was great, I think the movie lacks the action needed to justify having a great actor as the hero.

We need bad-ass die-hard actions whenever we hit the cinema for a bit of Bruce Willis.

Overall the movie was great but it's one of those "could've been great" movie.

p/s: 3 out of 5 stars

New template, wannabe pirate!