David reads books

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2009-11-30T21:58:00.001-08:00

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Cannondale Dutchess - beautiful bicycle design

2009-11-20T19:02:00.000-08:00

Wytze's graduation project for Cannondale from Eelke D. on Vimeo.

The Cannondale Dutchess is a a new concept bike designed by Wytze van Mansum, a design student at the Delft University of Technology. The bike is a working prototype, but the bike is not in commercial production. The bike looks beautiful and has many interesting design features like the adjustable sweep of the handlebars which also serve as a lock. Watch the video and check the links below for more information.

Cannondale Dutchess follow-up - Bicycle Design
Cannondale Dutchess - Bicycle Design
Cannondale Dutchess photoset at flickr.

The rise of the trollumnist

2009-11-02T22:17:00.000-08:00

I first came across the word "trollumnist" in this article from New Matilda. I tweeted about it and also mentioned it in an e-mail to Dan Bloom. Dan added the word to the Urban Dictionary (although misspelt as "trollumist"). Crikey mentioned it on their Pure Poison blog. Range also mentioned the word on his blog. Google currently returns 159 results for the word in a search. This is significantly more than when I searched for it yesterday. It will be interesting to see how far the word spreads.

Al Gore in the news

2009-11-02T21:56:00.000-08:00

Al Gore, the former US Vice-President that won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change is in the news.

Newsweek reports on the evolution of an eco-prophet, a behind the scenes look at Gore's work and the writing of his new book, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis. Interestingly it reveals Gore trained 200 Christian ministers and lay leaders in a version of his climate change slide show that is filled with scriptural references. He also has Muslim, Hindu and Jewish training programs coming up.

The New York Times reports on some of Al Gore's investments in green businesses (aka greentech or cleantech). While some people might want to point out potential conflicts of interest, they would do well to look at the much more serious ethical issue of businesses that advocate a political position supporting industries which are harmful and exploitative.

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon.com affilliate links.

Cars are the problem not bikes

2009-10-30T18:45:00.000-07:00

Miranda Devine published an incendiary opinion piece attacking cyclists in the Sydney Morning Herald on Thursday. It was in response to an incident involving a cyclist riding a busway. In that incident the cyclist may have been in the wrong, but she used it as a starting to point to launch an all out war of words on cyclists.

Devine has followed up with a slightly more balanced piece today. However, she stills fails to recognise that the root of traffic problems is too many cars. Conflict between cyclists and car drivers arises because of this point.

It seems that rants against cyclists in the Australian media are not uncommon. Last month it was comedian Magda Szubanski who unleashed a verbal tirade against cyclists (link to news article with video) on the TV program Good News Week. She later apologised for what she said. However, the fact that she openly advocated violence against cyclists was absolutely unacceptable. Imagine if homosexuals or Aborigines had been the target of her rant rather than cyclists. It would have certainly meant the end of her career.

Unfortunately there are some cyclists out there who flout road rules and act aggressively. However, there are many more car drivers that also behave similarly. The difference is cars can easily kill, and cyclists are especially vulnerable.

Governments need to not only invest in infrastructure that makes the road safer for cyclists. They need to develop policies that actively reduce the number of cars on the road. Car drivers can also take responsibility by reducing their car use and using public transport, walking or getting on a bike. If more car drivers rode bikes perhaps there would be greater sympathy for the difficult road conditions cyclists face rather than blame shifting, hostility and aggression.

The power of Twitter

2009-10-18T01:32:00.000-07:00

While a large percentage of tweets on Twitter might be inconsequential garbage, the power of Twitter should not be underestimated. The tweet, shown in a screenshot above, showed that in the age of the internet social media has the power to challenge the clout of corporations.

Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger's tweet links to an article from The Guardian, reporting that the paper had been gagged from reporting parliament. Twitterers sought out the reasons for the gag, and discovered that it was related to Trafigura, a company involved in dumping toxic waste in Africa. They then disseminated the relevant information online effectively nullifying the impact of the gag order. Rusbridger has a summary of what happened here.

Update: Also reported in the New York Times: Twitter and a Newspaper Untie a Gag Order.

Dean Dirt is dead

2009-08-24T01:44:00.000-07:00

Today I found out the sad news that Magic Dirt bassist Dean Turner had died of cancer at age 37. I felt shocked and sad. I can still remember the first time I heard Magic Dirt on 3RRR and then went out to buy their EP Signs of Satanic Youth. Not long after that I saw them live at The Punter's Club in Brunswick Street.

Fifteen years later Magic Dirt is still my favorite band. The last time I saw them live was in 2001 in Hobart. I haven't followed their activities so closely in the last few years as I have been mostly living outside Australia. However, I still listen to their music often and will never forget some of their awesome live shows in Melbourne back in the 1990s.

I guess the biggest shock is that Dean is about the same age as me. It makes you realise that life is so impermanent. You never know how long its going to last.

Update: The video I embedded yesterday is now inaccessible. I have replaced it with another one. Magic Dirt have released a statement on their website.

As a founding member of Magic Dirt, Dean was the linchpin, the heart and soul of the band. He was the rock, the glue, the oracle, the cool filter. He was deeply dedicated and passionate about the music he made and the impact the band had on peoples lives.

China knows while Australia in the dark

2009-03-23T20:49:00.000-07:00

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd (L) meets with Li Changchun, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, in Canberra, capital of Australia, March 21, 2009. (Xinhua/Liu Jiansheng)

On Saturday 21 March 2009 Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had lunch with Li Changchun, a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party, at The Lodge in Canberra. Chinese news agency Xinhua reported this within a few hours with a report in English and photos on their website.

The news was not broken in Australia until Tuesday 24 March when it was reported in The Australian.

This raises some important questions about why preferential access was given to the Chinese media while Australian media were not even informed of the meeting. One might also ask why the Australian media remained unaware of the meeting for so long when it was reported in English by the media in China and easily available via the internet.

Tibet Watch February 2009

2009-02-26T19:33:00.000-08:00

The UK Free Tibet campaign has released photos of a military buildup in Labrang (Xiahe) in Gansu Province. The military activity is related to fears by the Chinese authorities of Tibetans protesting in response to the fiftieth anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising on 10 march and the one year anniversary of the March 2008 protests where some 200 people are believed to have died.

According to an AFP report, "Four government-run travel agencies in China and other industry people in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, told AFP that Tibet had been closed to foreign tourists." The report also notes a Chinese government official denying this.

An article from NPR says that authorities in Tibet are cracking down on the sale of music and even the downloading of ringtones. This article was based on an initial report (中文) by Beijing-based Tibetan blogger, Woeser. An English translation of the article is available.

Tibetans, both in Tibet and around the world, are foregoing their usual celebrations of Losar, the Tibetan New Year, this year. Instead they are remembering those who lost their lives in last year's protests. His Holiness the Dalai Lama released a statement on the New Year. He wrote:

... in the snow land of Tibet, we have the tradition to observe the New Year in the first lunar month with elaborate celebrations incorporating both spiritual and temporal elements. However, last year in Tibet we witnessed hundreds of Tibetans losing their lives, and several thousands facing detention and torture, in response to the widespread display by Tibetans all over Tibet of their discontentment with the Chinese authorities' policies.

Therefore, since they faced immense difficulties and sufferings, the occasion of this New Year is certainly not a period when we can have the usual celebrations and gaiety. I admire the determined move by Tibetans, inside and outside of Tibet, not to indulge in celebratory activities during this New Year.

Here in Taipei the Tibetan community and Tibet supporters marked the New Year with a candlelight vigil. I have reported on it at my Taiwan blog and you can also see photos at flickr.

Writing in TIME, Simon Elegant notes that the Dalai Lama's middle way policy has failed. He suggests the only way for the Dalai Lama to break the deadlock is a bold move.

Now it is time for one final, bold stroke: an announcement that the Dalai Lama is willing to return without any preconditions. Though Beijing has said it would accept him back on those terms, it is possible that the Chinese leadership--mindful of the return of exiles like the Ayatullah Khomeini to Iran--will try to block his path or refuse to live up to its promise to allow the Dalai Lama to go back to Tibet. But such a result would only broaden support and sympathy for the Tibetan cause.

Movies seen in 2008

2009-01-01T21:42:00.000-08:00

Following up on the list of movies seen at the cinema in 2006 and 2007 here's the list for 2008. I also wrote a post about Taiwanese movies in 2008 at my Taiwan blog. I have included links to movies I have reviewed.

Help Me Eros
Rendition
My Blueberry Nights
Sweeney Todd
Paranoid Park
No Country for Old Men
God Man Dog
Iron Man
Winds of September
Red Cliff
The Dark Knight
The Square
Cape No. 7
War Inc.
Orz Boyz
Chocolate
Body of Lies
Romulus, My father
I've Loved You So Long
The Visitor
1895
Parking

In addition I saw a number of documentaries and short films at various film festivals. These included Manufactured Landscapes at the Canada Taiwan Human Rights Film Festival, They are Flying and various shorts at the Taipei Film Festival, Standing Up and Who is Bozo Texino? at Urban Nomad and The Forbidden Team at a screening organised by Amnesty International in Taipei.

The most memorable film of 2008 was undoubtedly The Dark Knight. I chose Orz Boyz as the best Taiwan film for 2008.

Some Indian movies

2008-09-24T07:03:00.000-07:00

I've watched a few Indian themed movies lately. While none of them were masterpieces they were certainly fun and enjoyable to wait. I hope Bollywood can start to challenge Hollywood in coming years.

Outsourced -- Anyone that has travelled to India will identify with some of the experiences that Todd has when he arrives in India. The basic story line is that a manager from a US company gets sent to India to set up a new call centre. Of course Todd (Josh Hamilton) ends up learning a lot more about India than he ever imagined. Todd's romance with Asha (Ayesha Dharker) is a focal point of the movie.

The Darjeeling Limited - This film was shot in India but it doesn't really have any deep insights into Indian culture. India just forms a spectacular and interesting backdrop rather than being essential to the film. The film is the story of three brothers who go to India to search for their mother. Most of the film is set on a train which gives a distinctively Indian twist to the road movie genre.

The short film Hotel Chevalier forms a sort of prequel to the movie. It stars Natalie Portman and Jason Schwartzman. It is about the meeting of two lovers in a Paris hotel room. It was included on the DVD that I rented. The short is elegantly executed and worth watching.

Bride and Prejudice - Jane Austen could never have imagined what would have happened if her novel was given a setting in a modern Indian family. This is a classic Bollywood tale with all the dialogue in English and several big song and dance numbers.

The Mistress of Spices - Aishwarya Rai plays a starring role in this film which is set in San Francisco. The story line is a fairly simple romance and fails to achieve its potential. The movie really needed to adopt a more serious tone or else lighten up with more comedy and musical elements. The beautifully shot scenes of the spice shop are a highlight.

Climate change has been understood for decades

2008-09-07T02:41:00.000-07:00

While it seems that a general consensus about climate change has only emerged in the last few years it is not a new idea. Many people have known about and understood the problem for decades even though people continue to try and cast doubts on it today.

The latest issue of Cultural Survival Quarterly is on the topic of "Indigenous People and Climate Change". Mark Cherrington writes:

Just five years ago, governments, pundits, and the general public were talking about climate change -- to the extent they were talking about it at all -- as a vague issue that was open to question. Today it is not just accepted as a fact; it is seen as a crisis. But indigenous peoples have known for decades that climate change is happening, and they know better than most exactly what it means.

Indigenous peoples tend to live close to the land. They are subsistence farmers, herders, fishers, and hunters, with millennia of collective knowledge about the ecology of their surroundings. With that knowledge and experience, even tiny changes in water cycles, wildlife, soil, and weather are readily apparent. An indigenous farmer notices that a certain insect is slightly less abundant this year or that a particular flower is blooming three days earlier.

Unfortunately, the same closeness to the land that has given indigenous peoples early warning about global warming also means that they suffer the consequences of it to a far greater degree than others. The trends of history and hegemony have left many indigenous peoples living on land that is already marginal, so even relatively small changes in temperature or rainfall have an outsized consequence.

Some of the world's best scientists were all quite aware of it too. An article from The Times writes about "Jason", a group of leading scientists including a number of Nobel Prize winners engaged by the US Government to think about the big issues.

Recent research reveals how the roots of this argument stretch back to two hugely influential reports written almost 30 years ago.

These reports involve a secret organisation of American scientists reporting to the US Department of Defense. At the highest levels of the American government, officials pondered whether global warming was a significant new threat to civilisation. They turned for advice to the elite special forces of the scientific world – a shadowy organisation known as Jason. Even today few people have heard of Jason. It was established in 1960 at the height of the cold war when a group of physicists who had helped to develop the atomic bomb proposed a new organisation that would – to quote one of its founders – “inject new ideas into national defence”.

[snip]

In 1977 they got to work on global warming. There was one potential problem. Only a few of them knew anything about climatology. To get a better understanding they relocated for a few days to Boulder, Colorado, the base for NCAR – the National Center for Atmospheric Research – where they heard the latest information on climate change. Then, being physicists, they went back to first principles and decided to build a model of the climate system. Officially it was called Features of Energy-Budget Climate Models: An Example of Weather-Driven Climate Stability, but it was dubbed the Jason Model of the World.

In 1979 they produced their report: coded JSR-78-07 and entitled The Long Term Impact of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide on Climate. Now, with the benefit of hind-sight, it is remarkable how prescient it was.

When climate change impacts become even more severe and historians look back at humanity's failure to act they won't be able to say it was because we didn't know. Politicians and lobby groups taking care of vested interests will have a lot to answer for.

Tibet in the media

2008-06-13T04:21:00.001-07:00

The Tibet issue gets quite a lot of media attention. However, the quality of a lot of what is written is not great. News from the Chinese media is nothing more than propaganda and it often gets re-reported by the major news agencies. What is written in the media outside China does a good job of representing the viewpoints of both sides but lacks nuance. It tends to be the Tibetan Government in Exile versus the Xinhua News Agency. There is no appreciation of the wider range of viewpoints that exist.

Shakya Tsering, a leading Tibetan historian and author of Dragon in the Lands of Snows, has an excellent article in the Far Eastern Economic Review titled The Gulf Between Tibet and Its Exiles. In it he highlights the difference in outlook between the Tibetans in exile and the Tibetans in the PRC. The article discusses many of the complexities of Tibetan politics that are generally ignored.

The article was written in response to two earlier articles. One was by William Engdahl in Global Research which was later retracted and is no longer online. The other was by Ching Cheong repeating Engdahl's argument.

Another article on a similar theme was published in the Asia Times Online in March 2008. Tibet, the 'great game' and the CIA by Richard Bennett talks about Tibet's connections with the CIA. Although some people some people are surprised by the historical connections between the Tibetans and the CIA during the Cold War it is hardly a secret. It is the subject of the book The CIA's Secret War in Tibet and the documentary The Shadow Circus.

While I am sure that various foreign intelligence agencies (especially those of India and the US) maintain connections with various Tibetan groups I think it is a little naive to connect the covert guerilla war in the 1960s to the present outbreak of protests in Tibet.

What journalists should be spending more time doing though is investigating and understanding the politics of the Tibetans in exile. Some of them might be quite surprised to learn that not all Tibetans regard His Holiness the Dalai Lama with uncritical devotion. There are a wide range of viewpoints in the Tibetan diaspora.

Another topic that really needs thorough investigation is the Dorje Shugden sect who are protesting against the Dalai Lama claiming he is opressing their religious freedom. This group is closely linked with the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT) led by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso. There is a very long Wikipedia article titled the Dorje Shugden controversy which covers a lot of the details.

Some suspect the Chinese of being an invisible hand behind the Dorje Shugden controversy using it to discredit the Dalai Lama. However, as far as I know thre is no credible evidence to prove this. It could also be the result of a split within the Tibetan in exile community. This would not be a first as there has already been the Karmapa controversy. It is also possible that this is just the workings of a religious sect or cult that is fanatical about its beliefs. Whatever the case might be it is something that needs more investigation and analysis in the media.

The cost of climate change

2008-06-04T21:19:00.001-07:00

Today is World Environment Day. The theme for this year's event is "CO2, Kick the Habit! Towards a Low Carbon Economy." I have already written a post about climate change and Taiwan at David on Formosa.

I was struck by this alarming article from the ABC about how climate change is affecting the Pacific island nation of Kiribati. Kiribati is a nation of low lying coral attols with a population of about 100,000 people. President Tong is in New Zealand for talks about relocating his people.

The IPCC forecasts sea level changes by the end of this century of 18-59 cm. This estimate is probably conservative. If the entire Greenland ice cap were to melt sea levels could rise by seven metres. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet would have a similar effect. This would be catastrophic for the entire world. (US EPA)

Australia has been slow to react to the problem of climate refugees, but this issue is likely to become more serious in the next decade. Australia has the capacity to host the refugees from Pacific Island nations. I would like to suggest an innovative way it could do this.

The people of Kiribati (or Tuvalu or other island nations) could be offered a piece of land on which to resettle. Not all of them would necessarily move at the same time. Initially at least a few thousand would need to move to establish a working community.

The land would need to be along the coast as fishing and living by the ocean is an important part of their culture. People would come under state and federal laws of Australia but form their own local government. As Kiribati is a former British colony there should be no major problems with this. People would be free to use their own native language and the school curriculum would be bilingual.

Development of the land would be a model of ecological sustainability. The community would aim to develop in a way that is carbon neutral (although some carbon emissions may be necessary in the early stages of development). They would seek to develop a local economy that provided for as many needs as possible as well as some industries producing surpluses for sale to outside.

As the community developed its economy and infrastructure more people could relocate from the islands to the new community. If the space or resources were limited a second community could be established based on the lessons learnt from the first.

Of course detailed plans and financial support would be required to realise this idea. However, to not attempt to solve the problem is to condemn an entire nation to extinction.

Fact vs fiction

2008-05-18T03:16:00.000-07:00

Science fiction:

Artwork by Freddy Lopez Jr. from the Iron Man Fan Art Gallery.

Science fact:

Soaring Over the Alps on Homemade Jet Wings - Wired blog
Swiss 'Fusion Man' takes to skies - Taipei Times

Cadel Evans says Free Tibet

2008-05-06T23:56:00.000-07:00

photo from The Age

Cadel Evans wore a Free Tibet t-shirt during the Liege-Bastogne-Liege one-day classic on 27 April. But according to the IOC he won't be wearing the same t-shirt when he competes in the road race at the Beijing Olympics. The Age reports:

AN AUSTRALIAN Olympic hopeful, the star cyclist Cadel Evans, may come under greater scrutiny from Chinese and Games authorities in Beijing after wearing a "Free Tibet" T-shirt during a race in Belgium.

The International Olympic Committee yesterday toughened the interpretation of its Olympic Charter, adding to the rule that no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted at any Olympic site, venue or other area.

It has said such propaganda can include "the conduct of participants … including but not limited to their look, external appearance, clothing, gestures and written or oral statements".

I should also note Cadel Evans finished seventh overall in the classic which was won by Alejandro Valverde. (Full results at www.cyclingnews.com). Evans is one of the favorites for the Tour de France and the Olympic road race in Beijing. asdf

Installing Ubuntu Linux

2008-04-29T09:22:00.000-07:00

I have an old laptop which I rarely use. It had Windows 2000 installed on it. I decided to install a Linux operating system as an experiment.

I downloaded Ubuntu Linux 8.04. The download is an ISO image. To convert this to a readable CD I used BurnCDCC. This program is very simple to use as it is designed just for burning ISO files to CD.

With the bootable CD it is possible to run Ubuntu Linux live of the CD without installing it. The install was very simple. I just started up the computer with the Ubuntu Linux CD in the drive and then I was guided through the install. There are options for a dual boot system and partitioning the hard drive. I just kept it simple though.

Once the install was complete I restarted the computer and everything worked fine. I haven't spent a lot of time playing around with it, but the interface is very simple to use and all the software you need is included. This includes the OpenOffice.org package and programs for playing music and video files.

Interestingly the Windows 2000 system had a problem with the driver for the sound card and I was never able to get the sound to work. However, after the Ubuntu Linux system was installed then the sound worked fine.

The laptop still runs very slowly. I am not sure of its exact specifications, but I suspect it is because it only has 256MB of RAM. Otherwise it seems fine though. The system seemed very stable and I have not detected any problems.

I am not going to switch my main PC (which currently has Windows XP) to Linux just yet, but I will certainly think about doing it some time in the future.

New camera

2008-04-04T17:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I bought a new camera, a Canon EOS Kiss Digital SLR (same as 400d). After almost three years of use my Fujifilm Finepix s5500 can go into semi-retirement. I was getting a little frustrated with the Fuji, especially the lack of manual focus (actually it has manual focus but it is almost unusable).

I bought the camera with the 18-55mm kit lens. I also purchased the 50mm f/1.8 lens. This lens is one of the cheapest available, but that doesn't mean it's not a good one. I look forward to using it in low light situations and for portraits. The large aperture gives a narrow depth of field which creates the bokeh effect as demonstrated in the photo below.

I also purchased a 4 GB memory card, spare battery and a new bag. The price was actually a little less than I expected. The 45od has just hit the shops, so the 400d is being sold at a discount. I will probably spend some more money again very soon on more lenses and accessories.

Here is a photo I snapped today. It was taken in macro mode with the 18-55mm lens. I have cropped it from the original in camera version. More photos will be uploaded to flickr.

Sci-fi reading list

2008-02-15T20:38:00.000-08:00

Following on from an earlier post about reading science fiction here's a list of SF books and authors that I made for a friend.

Karmapa on our connection to the environment

2008-01-28T10:23:00.000-08:00

His Holiness the 17th Karmapa created a new logo for the Kagyu Monlam. It represents the connection between humans and the environment. Part of his explanation of the logo follows.

"Ever since the human race first appeared on this earth, we have used this earth heavily. It is said that ninety-nine percent of the resources and so on in this world come from the natural environment. We are using the earth until she is used up. The earth has given us immeasurable benefit, but what have we done for the earth in return? We always ask for something from the earth, but never give her anything back.

"We never have loving or protective thoughts for the earth. Whenever trees or anything else emerge from the ground, we cut them down. If there is a bit of level earth, we fight over it. To this day we perpetuate a continuous cycle of war and conflict over it. In fact, we have not done much of anything for the earth.

"Now the time has come when the earth is scowling at us; the time has come when the earth is giving up on us. The earth is about to treat us badly and give up on us. If she gives up on us, where can we live? There is talk of going to other planets that could support life, but only a few rich people could go. What would happen to all of us sentient beings who could not go?

"What should we do now that the situation has become so critical? The sentient beings living on the earth and the elements of the natural world need to join their hands together—the earth must not give up on sentient beings, and sentient beings must not give up on the earth. Each needs to grasp the other’s hand. So doesn’t the Monlam logo look like two hands clasping each other?

The full text is here.

Idealism vs realism

2008-01-19T11:02:00.000-08:00

A few years ago I read Satish Kumar's autobiography, No Destination. I was deeply inspired by his peace walk undertaken across continents without carrying any money.

I read an article about Satish in the Taipei Times today. It contained this wonderful quote:

"Is my approach unrealistic?" he asks. "Look at what realists have done for us. They have led us to war and climate change, poverty on an unimaginable scale and wholesale ecological destruction. Half of humanity goes to bed hungry because of all the realistic leaders in the world. I tell people who call me 'unrealistic' to show me what their realism has done. Realism is an outdated, overplayed and wholly exaggerated concept."

This echoes with me deeply. I often think I am overly idealistic, but perhaps I am not idealistic enough. I haven't had the courage to walk the path that Satish has walked. Another world is possible. We just need to have the courage and the wisdom to create it.

Movies seen in 2007

2008-01-01T21:48:00.000-08:00

Following on from the list for 2006 here's a list of movies I saw at the cinema in 2007.

Curse of the Golden Flower
Blood Diamond
After this our exile
Apocalypto
Notes on a Scandal
Ghostrider
Little Miss Sunshine
Reflections
Spider Lilies
Island Etude
Sunshine
Next
The Nighttime Picnic
The Valley of Flowers
The Science of Sleep
The Summer Palace
Ten Canoes
The Wall-Passer
Pan's Labyrinth
Oceans Thirteen
Ming Ming
The Bourne Ultimatum
Knocked Up
Lust, Caution
The Drummer
The Most Distant Course
Michael Clayton

2007 in photos

2008-01-01T10:27:00.000-08:00

January 2007: Taiwan's high speed rail opened. I took a trip to Xinzhu.

February 2007: I spent the Lunar New Year in Indonesia with my family.

March 2007: I saw the Tour de Taiwan and Taipei Cycle Exhibition.

April 2007: More cycling, the 422 bikes on the road protest in Taipei. And I saw the wonderful Taiwanese movie, Island Etude.

May 2007: I went to Siam (Thailand) and saw Ajarn Sulak.

June 2007: I had a wonderful visit to the Taipei Artist Village.

July 2007: The Maokong Gondola opened in Taipei.

August 2007: My semester of Chinese language study at Shi-Da came to an end.

September 2007: The INEB Conference and study tour was held in Taiwan. At the end of the month I started studying for a Master's degree in Taiwan Studies at NCCU. I also enjoyed the Daniel Pearl Day of Music in Taipei.

October 2007: The UN for Taiwan torch relay was held. Typhoon Krosa hit Taiwan.

November 2007: I was a volunteer at the International Conference on Religious Culture & Gender Ethics at Hsuan Chuang University in Xinzhu.

December 2007: I visited Smangus with Ben as part of a research project at NCCU. I also participated in the 1208 climate change action in Taipei.

Dismissing the global warming skeptics

2007-12-21T18:04:00.000-08:00

Despite the fact that the evidence for climate change is now overwhelming some people still don't want to believe. They would prefer to think it is some kind of conspiracy, hoax or scam. George Monbiot suggests four questions for the skeptics.

1. Does the atmosphere contain carbon dioxide?
2. Does atmospheric carbon dioxide influence global temperatures?
3. Will that influence be enhanced by the addition of more carbon dioxide?
4. Have human activities led to a net emission of carbon dioxide?

He also has debunks some of the junk science put forward. In this case the ridiculous claims of David Bellamy. Paradoxically a Google search for junk science brings up JunkScience.com as the first result. This website actually tries to prove that global warming is a hoax. I would like to ask them to produce a single refereed article from a reputable scientific journal proving it.

Contraction and convergence

2007-12-20T11:50:00.000-08:00

This is one of my favorite cartoons. It illustrates so many issues in world politics. It highlights the need for contraction and convergence as a solution to climate change. This would also solve many of the problems related to global inequality.

If I had the artistic skills I would like to draw a similar cartoon of the world in 2050. In it there would be no divide and all the people would be living in a peaceful, happy world without extreme poverty or extreme wealth.

*cartoon by Nicholson, www.nicholsoncartoons.com.au.

Spin - book review

2007-11-11T09:14:00.000-08:00

Spin is a science fiction novel by Robert Charles Wilson. It won the Hugo Award for best novel in 2006.

boomp3.com

I have made this little podcast as an experiment. I hope you like it. If you cannot see the embedded player above then you can listen to it here.

The nature of war

2007-07-01T05:53:00.000-07:00

At Hell's Gate
by Claude Anshin Thomas
Shambhala Publications, Boston, 2004
ISBN: 1590302710

I first read about Claude Thomas on the internet a few years ago. I found his story so strong and powerful. I was glad to finally be able to read this book. This is a very powerful story about the power to heal and transform.

Thomas's experience is proof that even people who have endured the most horrific experiences can come to peace. He is so honest about the horrific experiences in the Vietnam War, his substance abuse and other problems in his life. Through his journey he has learnt how to live with these wounds.

He writes:

...suffering is not our enemy. It is only through a relationship with my pain, my sadness, that I can reach the other side, that I can truly know and touch the opposite, which is my pleasure, my joy, and my happiness.

I greatly admire the path that Thomas has walked. He has truly embraced the spirit of Buddhism and the meaning of being a monk, going forth into homelessness. He studied first with Thich Nhat Hanh and then with Roshi Bernie Glassman. The pilgrimages and street retreats that Thomas has done, to me represent one of the finest expressions of engaged Buddhism.

I highly recommend this book as a spiritual biography and a guide to Buddhist practice.

A note to myself

2007-05-13T11:10:00.000-07:00

臥虎藏龍

飛簷走壁

武俠小說

The story of Lonely Planet

2007-03-12T14:25:00.000-07:00

In 1996 I set out on my first solo trip across Asia. I had a copy of Lonely Planet's South-East Asia in my hand and Lonely Planet India was stashed away in the bottom of my backpack. I arrived in Bali and negotiated with a taxi driver and found a guesthouse all thanks to the helpful advice of Lonely Planet.

I probably didn't appreciate it much at the time, but the history of Lonely Planet and the book South-East Asia stretches back to 1973, the year I was born! Now after reading The Lonely Planet Story by Tony and Maureen Wheeler I can say that I have a new understanding of what went into creating the world's leading publisher of travel guidebooks.

Tony and Maureen Wheeler took an overland trip from London to Australia in the early 1970s. Although the route was popular with adventurous travellers at the time there was very little published information and certainly not the huge range of guidebooks that exists now. As a result of the trip they published a small book called Across Asia on the Cheap to give others advice about how to do the trip.

Tony Wheeler gives a very honest account of the ups and downs of the business from its humble beginnings to becoming the world's largest independent publishing house. The road to the top was not smooth, but I guess that is much like travelling in a way. His wife, Maureen, also includes some of her comments and this adds an extra dimension to the book.

I would have liked the book to go into more detail about the Wheeler's early travel experiences. The book mainly focuses on the development of the business. Still it was a great read and gave me a new appreciation for Lonely Planet.

Links

The Lonely Planet Story - at the Lonely Planet Shop
Big bucks in backpacking by Ron Gluckman

Climate change is real

2007-01-18T21:50:00.000-08:00

This graphic comes from the Taiwan News, 16 January 2007. It shows very clearly the rapid increase in global temperatures, particularly since 1980.

Movies seen in 2006

2007-01-02T08:33:00.000-08:00

Below is a list of movies I saw at the cinema in 2006. I watched a lot more on DVD too, but I didn't write them all down.

Brokeback Mountain
Walk the Line
Munich
Memoirs of a Geisha
A History of Violence
Inside Man
Riding Alone for 1,000 Miles
Fearless
Syriana
Azumi 2
The Sentinel
Just My Luck
The Lake House
A Scanner Darkly
The Banquet
The Departed
An Inconvenient Truth
Eternal Summer
The Prestige
The Road in the Air
A Battle of Wits
Perfume
Babel

I won't give them ratings or rank them all, but I will note a few of the movies which I thought were special.

I loved the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line. The music and superb acting performances from Reese Witherspoon and Joaquim Pheonix made this movie great.

What can I say that hasn't already been said about Brokeback Mountain. Stunning in every respect.

A History of Violence was a surprising and challenging film. I loved seeing Philip K Dick's novel A Scanner Darkly translated into film complete with rotoscoping. It might be true that Al Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth was little more than a PowerPoint presentation, but it was an important message at a critical time.

I love many of the recent Chinese historical dramas and kung-fu films. Of the few I saw this year I loved A Battle of Wits. It had a well developed and thought provoking plot carried by a great acting performance from Andy Lau. The Departed had an all star cast and I thought Leonardo DiCaprio proved himself to be a fine actor. The last movie I saw for the year, Babel, was also brilliant.

I look forward to seeing some more great movies in 2007.

My first video production

2006-12-25T22:46:00.000-08:00

I rarely use the video function on either of my digital cameras. However, when I went to the temple festival in Xinzhuang on Saturday I determined to capture some of the events on video. There is so much action at these events that it is impossible to convey the entire experience with photos. The beating of the drums, blowing of horns and explosions of fireworks all contribute to the atmosphere.

I took a little over four minutes of footage in four separate takes using my Nikon Coolpix 5200. None of the videos on their own were really very interesting and all included some messy bits. I decided to try and edit some of the better footage to make a short video.

I had never done this before, but it wasn't so hard. I have Windows Movie Maker which is included with Windows XP, but before I could start editing I had to convert the .mov files to .avi. I did this by downloading a free program called RAD Video Tools. The conversion was fairly simple although the .avi files had an extremely large file size which made the editing a little cumbersome.

In Windows Movie Maker I simple chose the better segments of video and put them in sequence. The software was user friendly and intuitive. I added a title to the front and credits at the end. It was a lot more straight forward than I thought. I could have spent some more time making it look more professional, but I was already pleased with the results. The movie was 1:47 and the .wmv file was a manageable 10.8 MB.

You can download it here (10.8 MB file) or watch it at Youtube or Google Video.

Technorati tags: video | Taiwan

Sonic Youth

2006-12-23T07:59:00.000-08:00

Few bands can claim to have been as influential as Sonic Youth. The video clip is for the song Incinerate. It is Sonic Youth at their best -- a perfectly crafted song that you could almost sing along to. Their latest album Rather Ripped was released six months ago. You can listen to it for free via streaming here.

Few bands can claim to have been as influential as Sonic Youth. I just wanted to post this as a tribute to a band who have created brilliant music for over two decades.

Technorati tags: Sonic Youth | music

Capturing the light

2006-12-12T18:55:00.000-08:00

I took the above shot in a Taipei cafe with my Fujifilm Finepix s5500 digital camera. It didn't even compose the shot, I mainly took it just to test how the shot would come out in low light. Even though the shutter speed was 1/4 second there is not much camera shake. It takes a little practice to do this and I can't say every shot at these low shutter speeds is free of camera shake, but you can take good pictures in low light without a tripod.

Technorati tags: cameras | photography

Amazing documentary from Mongolia

2006-12-10T21:57:00.000-08:00

The Story of the Weeping Camel is a truly amazing documentary. The way that the life of the nomads is captured on film is something special. There is no narrator, the story simply tells itself. In its simplicity there is something profound.

Highly recommended.

Links

The Story of the Weeping Camel - National Geographic World Films
The Story of the Weeping Camel - IMDb
The Story of the Weeping Camel - Rotten Tomatoes

Technorati tags: movies | documentary | camels | Mongolia

Washing without water

2006-11-10T07:35:00.000-08:00

Australia is currently in the grip of a major drought and water crisis. It is said to be a one in a thousand year event.

I discovered this idea to save water on the Open All Hours blog at The Age. It is a waterless car washing method used by a mobile car washing franchise in Saudi Arabia.

The secret to waterless washing is a biodegradable wash and polish compound which is sprayed onto the car exterior, surrounds surface dirt and provided a lubricant better than water to remove dirt with a soft cloth - not rocket science, but a supremely clever idea to reduce water usage. (emphasis added)

We need more clever ideas like this. As Bob Brown says, "This century is going to be about environmental technology - not IT, it's ET."

Technorati tags: ideas | drought | water | environment

Upgraded to Firefox 2.0

2006-11-08T23:02:00.000-08:00

I upgraded to Firefox 2.0 today. The install was very easy. There were a few plug-ins that I was using in Firefox 1.5 that were incompatible version 2.0 and these were automatically updated the first time I opened 2.0.

One of the most noticeable new features is the spell checker. It just underlines words that aren't in the dictionary in red. A right click on the word suggests alternative spellings or allows you to add it to the dictionary. It is fairly unobtrusive, but works well. The other feature that is much needed is opening new pages in a new tab rather than a new window. That saves the hassle of right clicking on a link when you don't want it to open in a new window.

I also installed Internet Explorer 7 a few days ago. I don't use it much but it does seem to work much better than the dinosaur-like IE 6.

I still think Opera is probably better than both of them, but I switched from Opera to Firefox about six months ago. One of the main reasons was because Firefox had better support for blogger. I no longer use blogger for my main blog, but I have never felt the need to switch back to Opera. Opera 9.0 supports widgets, which are like the plug-ins in Firefox.

Technorati tags: Firefox | internet

Ecological books

2006-10-26T20:20:00.000-07:00

My mother recently asked me to suggest some books to read to better understand global environmental problems. Here is the text of the e-mail I sent to her.

I have been thinking about a good book for you about the environment. While there are lots of good environment books I can't think of one in particular that gives a good overview of the problem.

I suspect Al Gore's book that accompanies the movie [An Inconvenient Truth] would be an excellent introduction to climate change. I haven't read it though. There is another recent book about climate change called Heat by George Monbiot which would probably also be good.

There is a book called The Great U-Turn by Edward Goldsmith which is probably the closest to what you might want. Although it was written about thirty years ago it does a very good job of outlining the greatest environmental problems facing the Earth. It may be difficult to find in a bookshop or library, but it is available to read for free on the internet.

A couple of other books which have influenced me a lot are Ancient Futures by Helena Norberg-Hodge and Small is Beautiful by E.F. Schumacher. They offer an alternative way of looking at the world and explain some of the roots of the environmental crisis. Books by Vandana Shiva are also very good, especially for understanding how women and the poor bear a greater burden of many environmental problems. [some articles by Vandana Shiva are available here]

Technorati tags: books | ecology | environment

What I should study

2006-10-19T13:56:00.000-07:00

Your Learning Style: Curious and Brilliant

You are a very abstract learner. You can grasp even the most complex theories.

You Should Study:

Astronomy
Biology
Chemistry
Computer Science
Linguistics
Mathematics
Philosophy
Physics
Psychology

What Should You Study?

UPDATE: I replaced the original result with a new one. The change was from "Innovative and Independent" to "Curious and Brilliant". I think it better reflects me, although there was a fair degree of overlap in the results. I got the new one by changing the answer to one question:

For you, choosing what classes to take:

* Pretty easy. You know what you're interested in.
* Is difficult. You change your mind a lot.

Yes, I do change my mind a lot.

The power of ideas

2006-10-19T07:35:00.000-07:00

I have recently read a couple of books and seen one movie that show how powerful ideas can be.

The first is the book Freakonomics by Steven Levitt. Levitt is an economist that asks questions that most people would never think of. For example, why do most crack dealers live with their mothers? In doing so he reveals that what the commonly accepted explanation for things is not necessarily the best one. While Levitt's theories are firmly grounded in mainstream economics theory I like his way of thinking.

Levitt cites The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell a number of times and it has obviously influenced his work. It was a book I first heard about several years ago. The sub-title of the book is "How little things can make a big difference".

Like Levitt, Gladwell thinks outside the box. His ideas are applicable to a number of fields, most notably marketing, management, education and activism.

One of the important ideas in The Tipping Point is the idea of "connectors". These are people that have a large number of contacts and a disproportionate impact in the spreading of information. Most people have a small circle of friends and often those friends are also friends with each other. Connectors, on the other hand, have contact with a wide range of people. Their contacts are not limited to certain location or people with certain interests.

Obviously these people not only talk to more people, but the people they talk to a wider range of people. This is a key in making ideas spread.

Al Gore would easily qualify as a connector. A long career in politics including eight years as Vice-President of the United States would have bought him into contact with innumerable people around the world. And when he talks people listen to what he has to say.

He has made a documentary called An Inconvenient Truth about climate change. Interestingly Gore had a professor while he was at university in the 1960s who was one of the first people to measure CO2 levels in the atmosphere. Gore has known about and understood the problem for a long time.

He explains it all in a very clear manner in the film. Anyone who doesn't understand climate change or quite believe that its real should be convinced by the end of this movie. If they remain unconvinced then surely it would be because of political ideologies that remain unchangeable.

Action on climate change has been delayed for too long because those with vested interests in the status quo have been very successful in sowing seeds of doubt about whether climate change is really happening. Hopefully this film will act as a tipping point and convince enough people that it is real and something needs to be done now!

I highly recommend this film and also The Tipping Point.

"Balanced" reporting is biased

2006-10-19T06:47:00.000-07:00

I often think society is overly obsessed with bias in the media. Or perhaps to put it in another way it rails at one kind of bias and ignores another.

First, there can really be no such thing as an entirely objective reporting, or if there was it would be too bland and uninformative. Second, different weight needs to be given to different opinions. The same amount of words or time doesn't need to be given to opposing views if they have little credibility or merit.

Sharon Beder wrote a great opinion piece about this in The Age yesterday.

The officious policing of impartiality and balance will mean ensuring that statements by those challenging the establishment (government or business) are balanced with statements by those whom they are criticising, though not necessarily the other way round.

Too much emphasis on objectivity in news and current affairs can lead journalists to leave out interpretations and analysis, which might be construed as personal views, and to play it safe by reporting events without explaining their meaning and keeping stories light and superficial so as not to offend anyone.

Journalists who accurately report what their sources say, can effectively remove responsibility for their stories onto the people they interview and quote. The ideal of objectivity therefore encourages uncritical reporting of official statements and those of authority figures. In this way, the biases of individual journalists are avoided but institutional biases are reinforced.

The enforcement of impartiality tends to give powerful industry spokespeople guaranteed access to the media, no matter how flimsy their argument or how transparently self-interested. No such access is guaranteed to critics.

No where is this more evident than in reporting on climate change. Despite the overwhelming scientific consensus (not to mention clearly visible evidence) that climate change is happening, media reports often include the opinions of pseudo-scientific experts who disagree that climate change is real. Often these experts are funded by fossil fuel companies or other groups with vested interests.

Beder writes,

In their attempts to be balanced on a scientific story, journalists may use any opposing view even when it has little scientific credibility in the wider scientific community. This can be very misleading. In the case of global warming, the fossil fuel industry has taken advantage of this convention by funding a handful of dissidents and demanding that they are given equal media coverage despite their poor standing in the scientific community.

This strategy of exaggerating the uncertainties and confusing the public has ensured that governments such as the Howard Government have been able to avoid doing anything to prevent global warming, despite the overwhelming evidence that significant global warming is likely without government intervention.

It is only recently, after many precious years have been lost, that the most intransigent governments have been forced to admit that action must be taken to avoid global warming. Some ask why this has not occurred earlier. Clearly part of the problem has been the ability of vested interests to manipulate the media by holding up the rod of balance and impartiality.

There has been a noticeable shift in media reporting on climate change in the past year or so. It may be decades too late, but hopefully those who dispute climate change will soon belong in the same category as creation scientists or flat earthers. Then we can start working to solve this problem and not just argue about it.

Technorati tags: climate change | global warming | media bias | journalism | Sharon Beder

A dark vision

2006-09-17T19:46:00.000-07:00

I bought the novel A Scanner Darkly a few months ago and read it in anticipation of the imminent release of the movie based on the book. I have read a few of Philip K. Dick's novels and this one ranks along side The Man in the High Castle as his best.

Philip K. Dick is under appreciated as a writer. I say as a writer and not just a writer of science fiction, because his books are noteworthy beyond their genre. His works have gained more attention in recent years as some of his novels and stories have been made into films.

The most notable of these is Bladerunner, which was based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. However, this film was only loosely based on the novel. Some of the other films based on Dick's works include Minority Report and Total Recall.

I went to see the film yesterday. It was in every respect as brilliant as the novel. The script was quite faithful to the novel, too. The most obvious and striking thing about the movie was the rotoscoping. This is a technique of shooting a film and then drawing over the film to make it appear like an animated cartoon. In this film the rotoscoping was done digitally rather than by hand.

This creates an effect that blurs the lines between vision and reality which fits in neatly with the theme of the film: the perils of drug abuse. It also brings to life some of the "sci-fi" elements of the novel. In particular the "scramble suits". While reading the novel, I imagined these as being somewhat bulky and cumbersome devices, but in the film they are light and slinky. They are also central in the plot of the film, as they are worn by undercover police so you never know exactly who knows who is inside the scramble suit.

Even though the actors actual faces are "painted over" by the rotoscoping they give brilliant performances. Other reviews of the film seem to make note of the fact that they have had past histories of drug use/abuse. Whether this contributed to their performances, I don't know. Perhaps they were just given a film that was a good script to showcase their talents.

Anyway, I highly recommend this film and if you enjoy it take the time to read the book. They are both great and reading or watching one will enhance your appreciation of the other.

Taking photos on a bike

2006-09-02T14:50:00.000-07:00

rear view of the camera mount

I saw this mountain bike out in Bali, Taipei County. It had a camera mounted on the handlebars. It is a fairly simple idea and I'm sure you could find the necessary equipment at any good photography shop. It would allow you to create some very cool movies without putting yourself in any danger. The possibilities are endless really.

front view of the camera on the handlebars

Powerful and moving documentary

2006-08-16T21:38:00.000-07:00

Two friends independently recommended this documentary to me. The two great things about this documentary are the vivid and realistic way it portrays Indian life and the inspiring efforts to help raise children out of poverty.

There is something special about India that you can only really appreciate if you go there. It is the extraordinary vitality and vibrancy of the people. The makers of this documentary have done a wonderful job of capturing some of this spirit on film. It is quite an accomplishment.

This film is so positive and it shows that if someone makes an effort they can make such an enormous difference to children's lives. The documentary is about children living in the red light district of Calcutta. Zana Briski, a New York-based photographer, lives with the children and women in the red light district. She gives the children cameras and teaches them how to use them. This gives them a new perspective on the world and empowers some of them to achieve their potential.

This film is truly inspiring. Thanks to my friends for recommending it to me.

Links
Born into Brothels - official website
IMDb: Born into Brothels
Kids with Cameras

Photos on flickr

2006-08-04T08:39:00.000-07:00

I started uploading some of my photos onto flickr today. I was amazed by how easy to use the site was. I used to upload some of my photos to Yahoo Photos, but navigating through and viewing the photos was a bit clumsy.

I added a flickr badge to the sidebar of this blog. You can see thumbnails of some of my photos there and also link to my photos on flickr.

Video on demand

2006-07-29T22:45:00.000-07:00

The internet has already had a huge impact impact on the circulation of newspapers. Podcasting and audio streaming is changing the way people relate to radio. Soon video on demand will fundamentally change the other major form of media, television. YouTube offers a taste of what the future might look like. This site has millions of videos uploaded by users from around the world. There are other sites like Google Video and Yahoo Video which are similar to YouTube.

Below are a couple of interesting videos that I recommend. One of the biggest problems with the site is the although there is a huge amount of content and it is possible to find a video of almost anything the quality is often poor.

Israelis in India

Israeli backpackers in Asia have a bad reputation and many guest houses simply refuse to admit them. I don't know whether there reputation is deserved or not. I have met some great Israeli people on my travels. Anyway, this clip comes from an Israeli television, so at least they seem to be able to laugh at themselves.

Yellow Fever

Why do white guys always get the Asian girls? Watch this video and find out.

White out

Awesome big wave surfing action. Starts with a tow in from a jet ski, ends with...

A true Tibetan tale

2006-07-25T08:47:00.000-07:00

Tibet suffers from being seen from two diametrically opposed points of view. Some people idealise Tibet and its people as representing a peaceful Buddhist culture. Others hold the view that the Chinese colonisation was necessary to civilise to the Tibetan people.

The reality of life in modern Tibet is undoubtedly somewhat different. While there have been a number of notable films related to Tibet in recent years, they still try to represent Tibet as a Shangri-la.

Kekexili: Mountain Patrol is a film set in Tibet based on a true story. It is beautifully shot in the harsh mountain landscape. The scenery makes you realise that despite its rugged beauty, life here is tough. In fact, as the movie develops you can see that people are really fighting to survive in this high altitude desert.

The story of Kekexili revolves around the mountain patrol, a group of Tibetan men who are trying to stop the poaching of the endangered Tibetan antelope. These men are as tough as the mountains they live in. They are trying to do something to protect their environment. As the movie progresses it becomes clear that the distinctions between good and bad are not always clear. Often moral decisions are based on nothing more than what is necessary to survive.

Overall, this film presents a stunning and realistic picture of life in modern Tibet.

Links

Mountain Patrol - National Geographic World Films
IMDB: Kekexili (2004)
Kekexili - Rotten Tomatoes

Reflections on the Tour de France

2006-07-24T07:34:00.000-07:00

Cadel Evans

Well, the Tour de France 2006 edition has been run and won. After being pretty much a one-horse race for the last few years this one definitely departed from the script. Floyd Landis amazing comeback to claim victory is being hailed as one of the greatest ever. Although I think Greg LeMond's victory in 1989 ranks equally with it.

For much of recent history the Tour de France has been dominated by a single rider. Miguel Indurain won five consecutive tours from 1991 to 1995 and Lance Armstrong seven consecutive tours from 1999 to 2005. In most of these tours these two riders were so dominant that everybody else was merely racing for second place.

Thankfully the 2006 Tour saw a big change in the script. It began in dramatic fashion with the two biggest favorites forced to withdraw over doping allegations. That left perhaps a dozen riders who could have realistically had a chance of winning the tour.

After the first major time trial Landis emerged as the favourite, which was later confirmed in the Pyrenees. However, on the second stage in the Alps he blew up and his Tour appeared to be over. The next day he rode like a man possessed to regain most of the time he lost. His daring breakaway confirmed his extraordinary class and talent. He was a deserving winner of the tour.

For me though, the most exciting thing about the Tour was the performance of the Australians. Robbie McEwen won three stages for a career total of eleven and he won his third green jersey. He proved himself as one of the finest sprinters of the modern era, able to win in all sorts of conditions.

Not since Phil Anderson back in the 1980s has an Australian finished in the top five. This year Cadel Evans again confirmed his class, equalling Phil Anderson's best placing and improving on his eighth place last year. Cadel was consistently up with the pace in the toughest mountain stages. He perhaps lacked the power to attack and take the time out of his rivals. He needs to be able to do this if he wants to win the Tour. Also having the support of a stronger team would be a great help.

Michael Rogers was the other big star from Australia. He finished tenth overall. Given that he was riding for T-Mobile team leader Andréas Klöden, who finished third overall. Rogers is a three time world champion in the time-trial and he, too, showed that he may have what it takes to win the Tour de France.

Floyd Landis' victory marks a continuing domination of the Tour by riders from the USA. American riders have now won 11 of the past 21 Tours (Greg LeMond 1986, 1989-990; Lance Armstrong 1999-2005; Floyd Landis 2006). Let's hope Anglophones continue to dominate one of Europe's biggest sporting events, but next year I hope it will be an Australian wearing the yellow jersey in Paris.

A brilliant Buddhist movie

2006-07-17T22:39:00.000-07:00

I just watched Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring on DVD. The film is exquisite. There are just so many fine details that capture the spirit of Buddhism.

The film is set on a small temple that floats on a lake in a secluded mountain valley. The temple itself is only small, but the artwork inside it is absolutely exquisite.The location is Chusanji Lake located in Mt. Chuwang National Park and it looks like an amazing place. I would love to visit Korea just to see it.

The story is simple and revolves around an old master and his disciple. At the beginning of the film the disciple is just a young boy, but he is middle aged at the end.

I don't want to give away the story or just rehash the plot. I can only say that this is one of the best films I have ever seen. Watch it, you won't regret it.

On reading science fiction

2006-07-12T08:51:00.000-07:00

Although I have been an avid reader and lover of books all my life it is only recently that I have taken a serious interest in science fiction. When I was at high school The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin was one of the set texts in my final year English class. I also remember reading The Triffids by John Wyndham and The War of the Worlds by HG Wells.

Yet despite having a good introduction to some of the sci-fi classics I never took a special interest in the genre. As a university student I read most of Ursula Le Guin's books, but this was because I thought Le Guin was a great writer, not because I was specifically interested in science fiction. I also read Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Some might argue whether these books actually qualify as sci-fi. I guess I read them for the humour anyway.

I don't know whether science fiction is really the best word to use to describe some of these books anyway. I prefer the term speculative fiction which can be similarly abbreviated to SF. It can refer to a broader spectrum of literature including science fiction, fantasy, horror and alternative history.

Considering the field of speculative fiction also includes fantasy I can add to the list of books that I read earlier. I read The Hobbit when I was eleven or twelve and loved it. However, it took me about ten years before I finally read the entire "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. I tried reading a few other fantasy books but I found them derivative and unoriginal. Acknowledging Tolkien is one thing, but trying to write books that are little more than poor clones of his work is really unforgivable. I am sure there are some good works of fantasy out there, but I haven't read them yet.

My real interest in SF was prompted after a friend recommended the book Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. I liked it so much that I went on to read the rest of the Ender Saga and a couple more of Card's novels. Reading these books helped me overcome some of my prejudices towards science fiction -- namely that the writing is one dimensional with little character development.

After Card I moved on to reading Frank Herbert's Dune. It was dense reading but I was impressed by the originality of the novel in constructing an entire world so vastly different from our own. I read the second book in the series, too.

I don't know why it took me so long to finally get around to reading Asimov. And when I did it was kind of indirectly. My introduction to Asimov came via the novel Nightfall which is based on one of Asimov's short stories of the same name. The novel itself was co-written by Robert Silverberg.

Nightfall struck me as such an important and relevant story. It was on reading this book that I realised sci-fi was not just fantasy set in space. It was about examining the human condition and asking questions about what would happen if... The whole world of SF was suddenly opening up to me and I picked up books by Philip K Dick, Ray Bradbury and Kim Stanley Robinson.

One thing about SF is that it is about imagining alternative realities. One genre where this is achieved in a novel way is alternative history. Two examples of great works in this genre are The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson and The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick.

The Years of Rice and Salt is a history of the world based on the premise that a plague wiped out the population of Europe in the 14^th Century and China rose to be the centre of world power. The Man in the High Castle takes a more recent look at history as it might have been. It tells of a world where Germany and Japan were the victors in WWII.

After taking an interest in science fiction novels I also began to take a greater interest in science fiction in popular culture. I don't watch television so I might have missed some good television series, but I do watch movies and there have been a number of successful science fiction movies made in recent years. Steven Spielberg's The Minority Report was great, even if it did star Tom Cruise, as was his movie A.I. The movie adaptation of Asimov's I, Robot was probably great for fans of action films starring Will Smith, but it didn't really do justice to the book and the ideas behind it. Serenity was a great film even though it was probably more of a Western set in space than hard science fiction.

The world of SF is something that I have only just begun to explore. I am sure there are many more gems out there waiting to be discovered.

Watching DVD movies on a PC

2006-07-06T08:38:00.000-07:00

After I bought my computer I thought I would be able to watch DVD movies without any problems. I put a movie in the DVD drive and selected "play with Windows Media Player", but then found I lacked some of the necessary software.

I was lead to this page and this page on Microsoft's website. It seemed like I would have to pay US$15 or thereabouts to download a DVD decoder plug-in for Windows Media Player.

A little more searching via Google lead me to discover the VideoLan site where I was able to download the VLC media player for free. After installing the program I put a DVD movie in the DVD drive and I was able to watch it without any hassles.

It really is amazing that there is so much free software out there that is often just as good as the stuff you pay big dollars for. With the exception of Windows XP, all the software installed on my computer was free. And it is totally legal!!!!

A few of the excellent programs I can recommend are Irfanview for editing photos and OpenOffice.org for word processing. Mozilla's Firefox internet browser shows up Microsoft's Internet Explorer as a hopelessly inferior product.

Le Tour

2006-07-04T08:43:00.000-07:00

The Tour de France started a few days ago. I am a big cycling fan and there is no bigger race than le Tour.

Australian riders have been some of the biggest stars of the race in recent years. Robbie McEwen is one of the world's fastest sprinters and has one the green jersey twice and many stages. He has already claimed another stage victory in the 2006 Tour.

Stuart O'Grady has been another big star. He has won several stages and also worn the yellow jersey. He is a very aggressive rider and although he is not a sprinter in the class of McEwen he is consistently near the front of the bunch in sprint finishes. He is an outside chance for the green jersey.

Among the other big stars of recent years have been Baden Cooke and Bradley McGee. However, while the Aussies may have won many stages and other honours, none has yet been on the podium when the race finishes in Paris. That may change this year. For the first time since Phil Anderson wore the yellow jersey in the 1980s an Australian is finally amongst the favourites for this year's race.

Cadel Evans is a former world mountain bike champion who made a successful transition to road racing. He made a long awaited debut in the Tour last year and finished eighth overall. He was impressive in several mountain stages, holding his own with the best climbers.

Unfortunately this year's Tour seems to be engulfed in controversy with the two favourites, Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso, left out over doping allegations. The allegations raise so many questions about drug use in cycling. It is not the first time something like this has happened. The 1998 Tour was similarly controversial and many of the Tour's biggest stars have been guilty of doping.

Still when the Tour reaches the mountain stages I will be keeping a close eye on the performance of Cadel Evans. In the absence of an obvious favourite the race is there to be won by any rider that has the consistency to finish among the leaders in the mountain stages. Cadel Evans has what it takes. Go Aussie, go!!!!

Skype me!

2006-07-02T17:00:00.000-07:00

I bought a new computer a few days ago. My apartment has an ADSL line, but not a phone line, so I thought I would try Skype as an alternative way of making phone calls.

I downloaded Skype and paid for 10 Euros of credit with my Visa card. I bought a USB phone and then I could dial away. I was surprised how simple the process was. I have already called my family in Australia. It will now be able to talk to them more regularly.

Welcome to my new blog

2006-06-30T20:51:00.000-07:00

I have been blogging regularly at David on Formosa. However, I like to limit posts on that blog to stuff specifically related to Taiwan. I will use this blog to write stuff about topics unrelated to Taiwan. It will probably be a bit like a public notepad. I don't really expect anybody to read this blog.

Topics will include books that I am reading, movies, science, ecological issues, technology, computers and perhaps occassionally politics.