cdymek's Blog!

There was an interesting rumination this morning in Briefing.com (subscribers only) on Microsoft and the motivation of virus creators. Specifically, they make this point:

What motivates the creators of viruses? Most people view the viruses as simply technological graffiti, written by immature adolescents. While there are certainly virus-creators that fit this profile, a deeper protest is the source of many viruses, and the reason is generally not spoken in public. Many viruses are protests against the imposition of industry standards by Microsoft.

Don’t forget to patch your computers!

Tonight I began watching The Majestic as I was ironing clothes. I have to say that while this movie has potential, as a writer, upset at his sudden blacklisting from Hollywood during the McCarthy Communist hearing times, leaves L.A. one night in a depressed stupor, crashes, and lands without a memory of his former life in a little town along the coast. The town determines that he’s a long-lost son of a local who never returned from World War II, and celebrates him, all while the FBI determines that he’s even more of a concern than they originally expect.

Sounds like a fairly solid drama story line, yet the film suffers from what I’ll label the “Beat Joe Black” syndrome: a production team that, unwilling to make decisions about what should and shouldn’t be cut or rewritten, decides to include nearly everything. And this ends up bogging down what is otherwise a potentially solid storyline. Certainly it’s more than most plots, and the quality of actors aren’t terrible either. It’s a shame to see such a waste of a good movie.

It is unfortunate yet revealing to read this article on how the media pursues what is termed as untruths and evaluating the credibility of statements by politicians.

I can wholly understand the eagerness to pounce on those non-political statements that are determined to be untrue by politicians (i.e. “I had no knowledge” or “I did not have relations with that woman”), yet those untruths uttered regarding actual topics of political discourse are left unexposed. The end result is that by simply having enough voices repeating a lie, the lie becomes true in so far as the media is concerned, which leads to it being perceived as true by the general populace.

This is an important breakdown in the watchdog role that the media are in theory exercising over the political class. That they are unwilling to challenge leaders when their statements are disprovable, and with a minimum of legwork, strikes me as reckless and irresponsible. Because statements regarding Iraq were argued as true by George Bush, for instance, over Iraq’s weapons capability, and backed up by other Republicans with a minimum of evidence, led the major media outlets to essentially report these as true. Rather than performing additional investigation that may have discredited some of these claims early on, before a war was launched, they were allowed to slide. Yet now, examples continue to be shown over where spin overruled fact. Just recently, there was another Washington Post article on how the spy agencies argued that the Iraqi resistance would be significant, as opposed to the convential views put forth by the Bush administration. Even now, the argument surrounding adequate troop levels is raging, and questions regarding the initial post-war plannings range freely.

While actually investigating remarks by public officials for their validitiy may take extra effort in this 24×7 news cycle, this is part of the value of a free and open press. Being critical when necessary is vitally important, even at the risk of appearing partisan.

I saw this article a few days ago and I’m finally posting it. An investigation in to the origin of SARS has turned up some important clues about how the virus may have made the leap from another species to humans. The researchers identified methods of interspecies transmissions by investigating live-animal markets in Shenzhen, China, right over the border from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR).

Specifically, they found similar versions of a coronavirus in a cat-like species, humans, and a raccoon-dog and badger ferret.

Swabs from two Himalayan palm civets, members of a cat-like family, turned up a coronavirus resembling one that is carried by many humans but does no harm, scientists at the University of Hong Kong report in the Sept. 5 issue of Science. The virus was also found in a raccoon-dog and a ferret badger from the same market, and in some employees at the market.
…
The concept here is that we know that coronaviruses are mutable, says Dr Philip Tierno, director of clinical microbiology and immunology at New York University Medical Center and author of The Secret Life of Germs.. But it was not known previously that animal and human strains could recombine to become more profoundly infective that the human strains we knew in the past.

They also implore governments and NGOs to maintain their watchful stance, as there is an expectation among the World Health Organization that SARS may re-emerge this winter and become a seasonal disease, like influenza.

I simply love Dhalia Lithwick’s description of the Scotus arguments. Her vivid, off-color remarks combined with fine-tuned analysis add an edge to her commentary. Take this line, for example.

Argument is virtually an Ice Capades of former solicitors general, as Kenneth Starr, who served as SG under the first President Bush, faces off against Olson and Waxman. Starr, who looks so much like Justice Anthony Kennedy that one half expects them both to start patting at their hair simultaneously, describes BCRA as intruding “deeply into the political life of the nation” and warns that the effect of the law will be to destroy political parties and redirect dollars in the direction of “razor sharp interest groups.”

How is that not quality commentary?

Jess invited me out to her MND (Monday Night Drinking) session, which was a good time last night. Pete Amos, one of the old McCormick residents, actually did show, much to my surprise. And only about 30 seconds after I bet against his appearance, no less. The rest of Jess’s MND friends seem to be good peeps, too.

The trip report and photos will be forth-coming. Today I finally feel as though I’m more or less on East Coast time. Although my new iPod was extremely distracting last night, as I feed my CDs in to it.

Yes, I am back in the Garden State (as of Saturday night, actually). Unfortunately, I’m still awash in jetlag. Right now I think I’m on a timezone somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I’d love to do a trip write-up but unfortunately, at the moment, most of the past few days is quite hazy. Hopefully this’ll clear up once I readjust to the local time.

Yes, and I would love to post some more items on our “Dear Leader” and his recent address but I don’t have the stomach for it right now. Hopefully that will change as well.

Well, I’m down to my last evening here in Hong Kong, unless another typhoon roars through between now and tomorrow morning. Since that appears unlikely, I should pack up so I’m ready to roll in the wee hours of the morning. Time for another 25 hours of airport fun!

CNN picks up the typhoon story. Looks like it’s expected to be a direct hit!

Today, I had been originally planning to head down to Macua. This, however, went on the backburner as I pondered whether I might also want to combine it with a trip to Zuhai, as it seemed like a more pleasant location to head to, of the two SEZs that I’m able to visit without a full Chinese visa. Then, Typhoon Dujuan came and that permanently put all such plans on hold.

This morning I woke to a flat gray sky, menancing rain, and pondered whether to head out to Stanley after breakfast. Figuring that the rain would likely come sooner than later, I headed off to the Flower and Bird Street Market near the Prince Edward MTR station. After wandering through a long, long street of more flower varieties than I’d seen before, and seeing some beautiful birds, I went off to the Jade Bazaar near Kanusu Street. Guiltily, without really haggling at all, as I’m simply terrible at it, I picked up a green jade statue of Buddha for about US$13.

By this time the early rains had begun. Still, undeterred, I headed down to the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, wandered around by the ferry terminal for awhile, and picked up a ticket to an Chinese Opera tomorrow night.

I also ended up speaking to a nice woman Emmie, who very much wants to meet up at Kowloon Park so I can meet her brother. Of course, with the Typhoon rating about to be raised from a 3 to an 8 (high numeric jump, yes, but it’s only the next step up the ladder) I’m not convinced this is the best idea. Since, after all, I’m told many things begin to close up once the rating jumps.

Well, we’ll see how this all turns out. And I wanted some excitement, so a Typhoon will just have to do.

Today marked my first full day spent in Hong Kong. This morning, after bumming around my hotel for about two hours shaking off jetlag and putting together an itinerary, I headed out in to the sweltering city of Hong Kong. Starting to sweat before I had even reached the street, I wandered down Nathan Road to locate a) the MTR station, b) Kowloon Park, and c) a Currency Exchanger offering fair rates (HK$7.73 vs. HK$7.2). Successfully locating all three, and taking a bath in my shirt, I spirited off to Hong Kong (forever abbreviated HK after this, because Hong Kong is taking too much time to write) Island. Two spots in, I alighted from the train and wandered uphill, thankfully via escalators for most of the way, to a decent eatery for lunch.

Heading onward, I wandered through the zoological gardens, enjoying some splendid views of animals (although the San Diego Zoo remains the creme de la creme). The monkeys were chattering quite a bit though, with screams echoing throughout the park. And the enclosed greenhouse felt refreshing, compared to the sweltering temperatures outside.

Nearby was the Peak Tram, and the skyline looking not-too-overcast, I headed up to Victoria’s Peak. This provided a fairly decent view of the surrounding areas, and a decent walk around the plateau area that took about an hour and a half or so to complete. Along the way I had a discussion with someone named Jeffrey, originally born in Canton province (I believe) and now living in Auckland, regarding travel, foreigners, and HK (see, I promised!). Splitting up back at the Peak Tram station, I wandered back to the viewing platforms and rested until sunset, which by then wasn’t very far off. While I waited, a cute young “couple” (probably, if I was forced to guess, in their early, early teens, but I’m terrible with age so they could have been older than me for all I know) asked to have their photo taken and then, to my amusement, have their photo taken with me! The guy sitting on the bench next to me was really amused by this, but of course I did. I’m starting to wonder how many strangers in foreign countries are going to have photos of me floating around.

Dinner followed the evening photo shoot, with a meal at the nearby restaurant. This was when I was first informed that there could well be a strong storm (i.e. minor typhoon) heading through tomorrow evening. Surprise, looks like tomorrow evening in to Wednesday will be a wash-out if the forecast is accurate. We’ll just have to see.