The Proposed Maracas Tunnel September 10, 2010
Posted by Emir in Politics, Thoughts, Trinidad and Tobago, Uncategorized.Tags: beach, budget, maracas, road, trinidad, ttbudget, tunnel
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On Wednesday, September 8th 2010 the Trinidad and Tobago National Budget was presented. Now I liked a lot of what I heard – even if it was a bit short on details – but one that has caused quite a bit of controversy is the Maracas Tunnel.
Now granted, Minister of Finance Mr. Winston Dookeran probably should have better worded what he said in Parliament. He did say a tunnel from Tunapuna to Maracas and when he first said it, I scoffed. Thankfully, the published Budget Statement was a bit clearer. What it stated, and I quote, is as follows:
The fourth growth pole involves developing the North-Coast. We all know how difficult it is to access Maracas Bay through the North Coast Road. Currently, it takes approximately 45 minutes to get from Santa Cruz to Maracas Bay. Furthermore, landslips on the North Coast road are a major deterrent to persons wishing to access this scenic route for pleasure or business. As a result we will do a business plan for a new: ‘Connective Development Project’. This project would create an underground tunnel from Maracas Valley to Maracas Bay, to enable quicker access to the North Coast.
Source: Budget Statement 2011 available at the Ministry of Finance of Trinidad and Tobago website.
Now if one thinks about there is in fact already a road through the Maracas Valley. It could probably use some work to accommodate a better flow of traffic but the road does exist. It ends at a hill on the other side of which is Maracas Bay. Presumably the tunnel being proposed would burrow through this hill which is not a significant distance at all. In fact, persons regularly hike over the said hill on foot.
Currently, access to Maracas Bay is via Maraval or Santa Cruz and then east along North Coast Road. There is also the Arima-Blanchisseuse Road which is an extremely long mountain road that is really more trouble than it is worth. Using that route you then have a rather long westward North Coast Road trek to get to Maracas.
Why a tunnel? I for one strongly believe that the central government should be an enabler. It does not exist to micromanage the nation but to provide opportunity that the people can build upon. A tunnel between Maracas Valley and Maracas Bay would create a new easily navigated access road that punches straight through the hill and into the vicinity of Maracas Bay.
The opportunities are tremendous. There is a zone of flat land around the bay before the Northern Range begins, sitting right where a tunnel should theoretically exit. In fact, a village already exists there so what is stopping a town emerging in its place? Right now what stops it is the lack of easy access. The tunnel can change that. Where there is easy access, people will buy land and build homes. Where there are homes, businesses will emerge to service the residents.
In a few short years with properly enforced building codes, Maracas Bay can become a beautiful beach town. Fishermen get more business, as do vendors and owners of lodging. A new economic zone emerges servicing locals and foreigners alike – the tourism opportunities of the North Coast become much more accessible and marketable, falling in line with our need to diversify the economy. Not all tourism has to be foreign either; if properly developed then locals looking for a cheap weekend getaway will have an opportunity right here at home other than Manzanilla/Mayaro.
Not just the North Coast gets to develop; consider that with Maracas Valley becoming an access route to the North Coast, the valley itself begins to develop. With beach access so close in one direction and the Eastern Main Road in the other people move in, business appear, real estate rises…it’s not rocket science.
Yes, I am speaking mostly theoretically. I am not looking at what exists now but what can exist in a few years with appropriate road access. I don’t see the tunnel being excessively expensive either – it is only one hill after all.
Microsoft’s 2010 June 18, 2010
Posted by Emir in Information Technology, Science and Technology.Tags: 2010, exchange, microsoft, office, sharepoint, silverlight
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Today I attended a small Microsoft Tech Briefing. There, I got a look at SharePoint 2010, Office 2010, Exchange 2010 and Silverlight 4. Very interesting stuff.
This is a short blog entry because frankly I’m pretty tired. It’s been one of those long, long, LONG days.
SharePoint 2010
- Great use of the now-standard Ribbon interface
- Web apps to edit documents online – great touch for quick edits. I also see this as a great tool for letting users work from home without having to go the VPN route.
- Integrated organization chart complete with reporting hierarchy, blogs and smart display of positions. Scenario: I want information on a topic. I search it, find a blog entry. I want help so I contact the person’s supervisor. Person is not available, but I am already presented with others at a similar level to my original person who may have similar knowledge. I’ll talk to one of them instead.
- Murphy’s Law witnessed in action: Presenter changed the SharePoint theme. The server promptly restarted itself. Whoopsie.
Exchange 2010 and Office 2010
- I feel like the Office 2007 interface looked sleeker somehow, but that is not to say the revised look is at all shabby. I like how easy it is to print documents etc. Farewell, print dialog.
- Integrated voice messages is nice but you know what I really, really liked? The fact that when typing up a message, Outlook will check and let the sender know if the recipient is out of office before the mail is ever even sent. Say goodbye to those “Out of Office” messages – now you will know before you hit the send button.
- Saving documents directly to a SharePoint site or to a SkyDrive account.
- Maybe it’s time I dug out my Office 2010 beta and meddled around again. I don’t think the trial period is over yet…
- Exchange on the Cloud. Nothing more to say there. It seems to be a great idea and should save a lot of companies the stress of an internal mail server.
Silverlight 4
- Very powerful. I honestly have not given it enough credit. I really don’t know what else to say here but it plays its part in the whole SharePoint scheme of things and allows for creation of some pretty slick Web Apps.
I really should have typed this up when I have more energy but say what…if I wait it will probably never get posted, so however it is there you have it. I have been liking Microsoft’s new direction in recent times and what I saw today cements that. I like open source as much as the next geek but hey, credit is due where credit is due.
Sue the T-Rex and NAPA June 12, 2010
Posted by Emir in Politics, Science and Technology, Trinidad and Tobago.Tags: dinosaur, fossil, napa, sue, t-rex
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So I finally got my tail down to the National Academy for the Performing Arts (aka NAPA) today to visit Sue the T-Rex. Dear old Sue – and I do mean old – is, I have to say, quite impressive. Now I have seen other dinosaur fossils before on vacation. There has been some speculation that the Sue on display at NAPA is not the original Sue but one of the copies but regardless, it is impressive to look at. If I recall the stats correctly, Sue stands 13 feet high at the hips and is 42 feet in length. This makes Sue not just an old lady but a big one too – notwithstanding the idea that given one of the bones they found, Sue may not even be a lady.
Sue the T-Rex at NAPA
Well, what of the exhibit? There’s Sue herself, and there’s a big rotating cast of the skull on display that you can touch, as well as other casts of bones you can get up close and personal with. It’s not a big display but it is interesting and worth the $60 entrance fee.
Sue aside, this was my first visit to NAPA – the National Academy for the Performing Arts. You know, the same NAPA that cost a fortune and was used to host the Opening Ceremony of the 2009 Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference (CHOGM). I unfortunately have to say that the criticism of the place seems to be justified. There are already stains on some of the silver exterior panels, the fountain water urgently requires changing and the interior is frankly a little plain. Granted, I only went as far as the outer halls of one section where the T-Rex display was but for the cost and the architecture I expected something more posh beyond the glass doors. I mean, we’re talking about Vinyl flooring and fuzzing carpets here.
National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA)
At least on the outside we have a nice landmark…right? Ah well.
Back in action June 10, 2010
Posted by Emir in Thoughts, Uncategorized.add a comment
Let’s see how long this lasts. Time to get this blog moving again.
Stay tuned…or tooned.
Contact lost with India’s Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter August 30, 2009
Posted by Emir in Science and Technology, Space.Tags: chandrayaan-1, india, isro, moon, space, spacecraft
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Artist's concept of Chandrayaan-1 in lunar orbit
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has lost contact with its Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter. Chandrayaan-1 was launched in October 2008 as India’s first lunar probe, carrying aboard it eleven (11) scientific instruments from partners in the United States and Europe.
As part of its mission, the probe carried out mapping of the lunar topography in 3D and identification of its chemical characteristics. Data beamed back to Bangalore has provided information on the formation of the moon and the possible presence of water frozen in the lunar regolith. The presence of water has serious implications for a manned presence as it will reduce any outpost’s reliance on raw material from Earth.
Contact was lost on the night of Saturday 29th August 2009. As of yet no reason has been given for the loss of contact, but it may be noted that other problems have been had with the spacecraft before. Any space mission carries with it considerable risk. The important part is that even though its mission may have been cut short, Chandrayaan-1 has been an enormous success.
In 2012, the ISRO intends to launch the Chandrayaan-2 mission which will include both an orbiter and a lunar rover. Both missions will provide invaluable science and should aid NASA’s eventual return to the lunar surface via the Constellation programme circa 2020. Constellation will involve a series of landings at the south pole’s Shackleton Crater culminating in a permanent moon base at that location.
David Yates shines with the Half-Blood Prince July 29, 2009
Posted by Emir in Film.Tags: dumbledore, ginny, half-blood prince, harry, harry potter, hbp, hermione, hp6, movies, review, ron, slughorn, tom riddle, voldemort
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Prepare for a bit of a read.
I’ve been to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince twice now on the big screen, and I’m considering a third viewing. There are so many things one could criticize about the film. After all, it is a two and a half hour film adapted from a novel and as such will never be able to fit everything in. People will never agree on what was included, what was cut, what was emphasized and what was downplayed. I am therefore not going to beat down the film on those points.
Harry and Dumbledore
I must say point blank that I was let down by the fifth film in the series, the Order of the Phoenix. This surprised me because while it was not my favorite of the books – the Prisoner of Azkaban earns that place – I felt that Phoenix was the most movie friendly of the lot. Despite its length, I could see it playing out on the screen as I read the book but was left with a flat-feeling shell of a film. Imagine therefore my irritation upon learning that David Yates was going to return to direct the Half-Blood Prince. Prince was my personal disappointment of the Potter books and I wanted a director like Azkaban’s Alfonso Cuaron or Goblet of Fire’s Mike Newell to breathe some magic into the film! Even the trailer did not sell me, because while it did generate excitement within me, so did the trailer for Phoenix.
Boy, was I surprised when I sat down to view Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on the big screen. I must warn you that from here on in, there are spoilers. Now let me say that there are two things that seriously irked me about the book.
Firstly, there is the entire chapter where Snape makes the Unbreakable Vow to protect Draco Malfoy and if needed carry out Draco’s mission (more on that later). With all due respect to Jo Rowling, who I credit as the gifted author of one of my favorite stories of all time, that chapter could have been written better by a twelve year old. The second thing that irks me is the Harry/Ginny relationship. I found Ginny to be very poorly developed in the novels and the relationship while vaguely hinted at beforehand appears to happen out of absolutely nowhere. I remember turning the page, reading Harry’s and Ginny’s first kiss, and wondering where in the heck that came out from. Harry’s ridiculous closeness to best pal Hermione Granger makes it even more difficult from a reader’s perspective to believe that Harry’s great intended is this character we barely know and barely relate to.
Unbreakable Vow
I would say I digress, but I digressed because I wanted to emphasize the fact that the film adaptation of the Half-Blood Prince is much more successful in those areas. The Unbreakable Vow scene leaves you the viewer on the very edge of your seat. The scene depicts Narcissa, the shaken mother of Draco and wife of imprisoned Death Eater Lucius Malfoy accompanying her sister, Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange to meet Professor Snape in a house. Narcissa is seeking out Snape to protect Draco, who Lord Voldemort has tasked with a mission. Bellatrix is dubius, given that Snape’s allegiance is in question. Is he Voldemort’s man, or Dumbledore’s? Bellatrix then makes Snape take the Unbreakable Vow: A magical vow that if broken results in the death of the bearer. Snape must protect Draco, and if Draco fails, carry out the mission for him.
That scene not only rivets the viewer but illustrates the tasteful execution of the film’s special effects as magical threads weave around Snape’s and Narcissa’s clasped arms and then leave a faint raised mark on the skin of each. The effects are eye catching, yes, but well placed. While you do see some special effects before this scene, namely the Death Eaters collapsing London’s Millennium Bridge into the River Thames, this is the first time the viewer gets to see the more subtle effects in action.
The Half-Blood Prince also marks the second installment of the films that does not feature the Dursley residence at Privet Drive. We instead meet Harry at a small muggle cafe reading the Daily Prophet. Dumbledore quickly arrives to whisk Harry away, meet Professor Horace Slughorn, and deposit him at The Burrow; home of his best friend Ronald Weasley. This is where we see Harry and Ginny’s relationship developing. As Harry walks up to the house, he spots Ginny sitting at a window. When he arrives, he is greeted with an embrace from her, much as he gets from Hermione, Ron, and Molly Weasley – Ron and Ginny’s mother. This is in stark contrast to when we first met Ginny, the little girl infatuated with the famous boy who lived.
Harry and Ginny
This trend of development continues through the story and David Yates (and of course, screenwriter Steve Kloves and producer David Heyman) tastefully script little things like Ginny helping Harry get the Quidditch team to listen to him, get a book from him nobody else could and offer him some food that just round out the whole plotline. We also get to see Harry witness Ron hating Ginny’s then-boyfriend just on the basis that he’s her big brother.
We also get to see Lavender’s sicking relationship with Ron (aka. Won-Won) and Hermione’s resulting jealousy, setting up their relationship to come in the final installment. The whole story is rife with hormones, but then again that’s also how the book was written. It does however make for a lot of comedy in an otherwise very dark film. A lot of laughter can be had from Hermione beating up Ron for stuffing his face while Harry was missing, or from Harry’s “desert” scene at Slughorn’s dinner gathering, or Hermione’s backfired attempt to make Ron jealous that led to Harry’s “dragon balls” line. You’ll know what I mean if you’ve seen it.
There is of course more comedy, such as Harry high off Felix Felicis potion, or Slughorn ainviting Harry and Hermione to his gathering of best students and then simply telling Ron that it was good to see him! All that said, this is, truly a very dark film. The romance and the comedy serves to offset some of the more serious issues going on. You see, the wizarding world is at war. In one instance, the trio run into Katie Bell, being flung about in the air like a rag doll by a curse. The scene looks like one straight out of a horror flick.
Katie Bell cursed
The film gets even darker. Throughout the film, Harry aces Potions all because of a book he found with notes written all over it by someone known only as the Half-Blood Prince. One of the spells is Sectumsempra, which physically lacerates one’s opponent. There is a scene where Harry uses it on Draco, and frankly speaking almost kills Draco if not for Snape. The volume of blood spilling out of Draco’s unconscious body is something I did not expect to see in a Potter film.
In fact, the entire Draco plotline is so well executed that it leaves one genuinely feeling sorry for the kid. Draco Malfoy was always a bully, but now he has been inducted into the Death Eaters and must carry out a grim mission. Throughout the story we see Draco go from arrogant, to dubious, to scared and downright traumatized.
Draco Malfoy
We must not forget the memories we are privy to. Through a series of memories we learn of how young Tom Riddle who would grow up to be Lord Voldemort came to be a Hogwarts student, and how he learned to split his soul, allowing him to survive the destruction of his body. The part of young Tom Riddle is played by Hero Fiennes-Tiffin. I was impressed by how well that boy pulled off the part of a malevolent child. In fact, all of the actors and actresses did a fantastic job. I think those who felt the child actors (mind you, they’re not children anymore!) had subpar performances in the last films will be pleasantly surprised. Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Tom Felton, Bonnie Wright…their acting has truly improved by leaps and bounds.
Young Tom Riddle
At the culmination of the entire story of course Harry and Dumbledore must go off alone to find a Horcrux. I cannot impart to you just how powerful it was to have Dumbledore being forced to drink a pain-inducing potion by Harry. Neither can I impart just how utterly creepy the Inferi were. They were not zombie-like; they were something else entirely. Water logged living corpses is the best I can think of.
By now the whole world knows that Dumbledore met his end in the Half-Blood Prince. That was in fact Draco’s mission: To kill Dumbledore. I cannot soon forget Dumbledore making Draco doubt every fiber of his being, and finally cryptically asking Snape “please” to do the deed instead. A scene that will move even the most hard backed of viewers is that of Harry crying over Dumbledore’s body with all the teary-eyed teachers and students around them with wands lit and held high in a vigil.
Wand Vigil
The ending has Harry vowing to leave Hogwarts to complete Dumbledore’s mission: to find the remaining Horcruxes. It includes Hermione telling him that he can’t do it alone. This scene sets up the final installment, which is to be released in two parts next year and the year after.
All in all, the movie was amazing and while the Half-Blood Prince remains my least favorite of the books, it has taken its place as my favorite of the films. There are things I disagreed with: It was a little overdone on the romance, Dumbledore’s funeral was not included and small tidbits from the book that would make the final installment more powerful were not present such as featuring Dobby and Kreacher, and Harry actually dating Ginny then breaking up with her. Still, these do not detract from the film being extraordinarily well done. The biggest flaw of the entire thing is that the characters personalities do not flow smoothly from the last installment, but alas that was the way Rowling wrote the book.
David Yates is also directing both parts of the Harry Potter finale, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Obama and McCain, Pinky and the Brain July 28, 2009
Posted by Emir in Humour, Politics.Tags: brain, funny, mccain, obama, pinky, Politics
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I was googling for a photo of someone drinking tea with their pinky finger sticking out. I needed it in order to poke some fun at a friend. 
In the process, I ran into the below picture. I lol’ed. I lol’ed some more. I decided to share. So here:
Obama and McCain, Pinky and the Brain!
Restore XP bootloader after trying Windows 7 July 23, 2009
Posted by Emir in Information Technology, Science and Technology.Tags: bootloader, dual boot, easybcd, fixmbr, vista, windows 7, xp
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If you have installed the Windows 7 Release Candidate in dual boot alongside Windows XP, you may eventually for whatever reason wish to remove Windows 7. Today that is exactly what I had to do. First I will tell you what did not work:
What did not work was what may be considered the “usual” way to get rid of the second OS. I began by deleting my Windows 7 partition. The Windows XP install CD is capable of this, but I used a GParted Live CD. GParted is a free Linux based utility that allows not only adding and removing partitions, but resizing as well. I opted to expand the Windows XP partition to fill the entire hard drive.
With Windows 7 gone, I rebooted the machine off the Windows XP CD. When prompted, selected “R” to enter the Recovery Console and ran the fixmbr command to rewrite the boot sector.
Now here’s what happened…I rebooted and found myself facing the Windows 7 bootloader despite the fact that Windows 7 no longer resided on that system. I ran a search on Google and found that I was not alone in XP failing to restore its bootloader after a Windows 7 – and apparently sometimes Windows Vista – removal. I could still boot into XP by selecting “Earlier version of Windows” from the boot menu, but who wants to do that?
I would strongly recommend a small, free Windows utility called EasyBCD from NeoSmart Technologies. Once installed all you need to do is click on “Manage Bootloader”, select “Uninstall the Vista Bootloader” and click on “WriteMBR”. That’s it! The Windows 7 (or Vista) bootloader will be removed and you will be operating exactly as you were before dual booting.
Voyager: Surviving our time July 19, 2009
Posted by Emir in Science and Technology, Space, Thoughts.Tags: carter, golden record, nasa, space, termination shock, voyager
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In 1977 NASA launched the Voyager spacecraft. On concluding their respective missions to the outer planets, the probes were cast off into interstellar space where it will be on the scale of tens and hundreds of thousands of years before either pass even close to another star system.
The probes flew with the Golden Records; discs containing sounds of the Earth, greetings from mankind, the origins of the probes and instructions on how to play the records. In addition, they carried a statement by U.S. President Jimmy Carter. The statement read:
“We cast this message into the cosmos… Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, some — perhaps many — may have inhabited planets and space faring civilizations. If one such civilization intercepts Voyager and can understand these recorded contents, here is our message: We are trying to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope some day, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of Galactic Civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination and our goodwill in a vast and awesome universe.”
When you think about it, this is a truly profound message. The likelihood that these probes would ever be recovered by another civilization is next to nothing. Perhaps by sheer statistics, it could happen one day but how far into the future would that be? What is truly amazing is that these machines will certainly outlive the society that created them.
Today both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are on the periphery of the solar system, passing through the Termination Shock where the influence of the Sun meets the galactic winds of the Milky Way. Long after their power runs out these vessels will still carry that message; a statement to the cosmos that once upon a time, mankind existed on the third planet from Sol.
To the Moon and back again July 19, 2009
Posted by Emir in Science and Technology, Space.Tags: apollo, moon, nasa, orion, shuttle, space
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“The Eagle has landed” – Forty years ago the first human beings touched down on the surface of the Moon. You know; forty years is a lifetime.
No human being has set foot on the Moon since 1972. Since the retirement of Apollo we have not had a manned vehicle capable of making the trip. The Space Shuttle was a marvel of engineering; it is reusable, can carry huge loads into orbit and glide down to a conventional runway landing. The Shuttle retires next year after almost 30 years of service and only two vehicle losses.
Starting in 2015, for the first time in decades a space agency will once again fly a manned, Moon capable spacecraft. NASA returns to the capsule design with Orion and has planned a series of lunar landings with the aim of establishing a manned outpost on the Moon’s south pole. Eventually, the findings of that project are hoped to be put to use in finally landing a man on Mars.
This is great news of course, but it is shameful that t has taken us this long to get back there. In the 1960s pioneers envisioned a permanent human presence on Mars and manned trips to the asteroid belt and Jupiter’s moons. Ideas for advanced autonomous probes exploring neighboring star systems were on the table: see Project Daedalus and Project Longshot.
This is all just NASA. Over the years, the European and Russian space agencies have not fared much better. Only recently has China entered the fray but has only managed to send people into orbit. The visionaries of decades gone by are probably turning in their graves.
The one saving grace of this whole mess is that technology has come a very long way since the Apollo era. We know a great deal more today and in many ways the technologies are far more accessible. A few years ago the first privately funded spacecraft entered suborbital space and soon Virgin Galactic will be flying a fleet of SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplanes to paying customers. Initiatives are under way to encourage private advancements beyond suborbital trips: look up the Bigelow Prize and the Google Lunar X-Prize.
We may yet have a shot at that future of a spacefaring society. There are still the detractors of course; that we should fix all our problems here on Earth before venturing elsewhere. I find the proposition naive. There will always be problems to be fixed, but that has never stopped anyone from exploring and venturing into the unknown. Why should we stop that now? That apart, I wonder if the detractors of space exploration have ever looked up all the advancements in everything from kitchenware to medicine that developed out of the space programme?
The benefits of private enterprise getting involved in space are simple: There will always be an effort to get better for cheaper, it becomes available to the general public, and there are no political detractors for all that matters is that there is a market to sell it to.
