Russia considering nuclear arms August 17, 2008
Posted by Emir in Current Events, Politics, World Affairs.Tags: america, baltic, nuclear, poland, Politics, russia, war
2 comments
Russia is considering arming its Baltic fleet with nuclear arms, reports the UK’s The Sunday Times via Times Online (link). This of course entails nuclear warheads on Russian Federation submarines, cruisers and aircraft much like in the days of the Cold War.
The move has been reported to be in response to American plans for a missile defense shield in Europe, specifically with respect to Poland permitting components of the defense shield to be installed on its soil. Moscow, possibly viewing the missile shield as a threat has warned Poland that it could face a nuclear strike for such actions. According to Moscow, its Baltic fleet has suffered underfunding since the collapse of the communist USSR, but that is about to change.
Now I can of course go on reiterating the various news reports, but I am sure anyone who finds the time to read this blog is capable of reading those reports on their own. The entire affair is undoubtedly part of a much deeper issue with each side having their own reasons for their actions. However; I must say that the involved nations are playing an extremely dangerous game.
For what reason does the United States need to set up a missile shield over Europe? Just how bold can that nation be? Why does Poland need to permit foreign missile arms to be installed on its soil? Is it that much of a pushover? Or do they have some ulterior motive for permitting such an act? And finally, why does Russia regardless of its worries over the missile shield need to respond with the threat of nuclear attack of all the possible options?
This is of course the start of a very worrisome state of affairs. During the Cold War, the USA and USSR were preventing from ever actually escalating to nuclear warfare by what is known as MAD, short for Mutually Assured Destruction. Both countries were acutely aware that should one attack the other, an equal retaliation would be launched before any targets were even struck that would assure both suffer far worse than Japan did in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. To this day, both the United States of America and the Russian Federation who now control most of the old USSR land and resources retain significant nuclear stockpiles.
With Russia’s economy experiencing steady growth and their Siberian region containing what is considered by many to be one of the world’s last vast oil reserves, Russia is poised to once again become a powerful adversary of the United States. A second cold war between these two highly armed nuclear powerhouses is not what the world needs.
Thompson brings home Silver August 17, 2008
Posted by Emir in Current Events, Sports.Tags: beijing, olympics, richard thompson, usain bolt
1 comment so far
In some countries, Olympic medals are a given. For a nation like T&T it is a moment of pride when one of its very small Olympic delegation brings home a medal. Yesterday, Richard Thompson brought home the Silver in the Men’s 100m sprint. He was one of five Caribbean athletes to make the final round. Jamaican athletes Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell and Michael Frater ran first, fifth and sixth respectively while Trinidadian atheltes Richard Thompson and Marc Burns ran second and seventh respectively. Thompson set a new personal best of 9.89 seconds while Bolt set a 9.69 second world record.
Now I do congratulate Bolt, but before I accept that as a fair win I need to know he was clean when the record was set. If anyone saw the race, Bolt was skipping ahead of the pack and looking back, to the extent that at the end he was not even running. It was one of those finishings that leaves you wondering how anyone could be THAT far ahead of the pack. Regardless, this is not a discussion about Bolt.
Richard Thompson: Congratulations on your Olympic Silver and I would think that given what a hot topic of conversation you became yesterday, you have done your country proud.
TSTT cannot be serious August 12, 2008
Posted by Emir in Science and Technology, Trinidad and Tobago.Tags: adsl, blink, bmobile, broadband, internet, phone, trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago, tstt
1 comment so far
TSTT is probably one of the worst companies I have ever had to deal with. Fortunately, I live in a country where I enjoy freedom of speech and as such can speak about my experiences when a company has failed in the provision of its services.
To those who do not know, TSTT is the Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago. It is 51 % owned by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and 49% by Cable & Wireless. I might add that until fairly recently, TSTT held a monopoly over the telecommunications market, a monopoly I personally believe the Government of T&T only relinquished due to the increasing economic partnerships (such as CSME and the now-stalled FTAA) in which the country has become involved that call for liberalized markets. I will split this blog entry into Cellular and Internet segments.
Cellular
I am sure most of us who live in the western hemisphere have seen the Verizon Wireless advertisements on American cable channels where a guy roams the United States calling into his phone, “Can you hear me now?” This was the sour reality of cellular service in T&T for many, many years. Imagine at one point (while we were using TDMA technology but most of the world had long gone GSM) we had to pay not only for calls we made, but calls we received! My phone remains prepaid to this day because I have heard too many people complain of finding massive postpaid bills for calls they never made.
Fortunately, Digicel has entered the market, forcing TSTT to slash its cellular prices, increase its feature set and rebrand the service to “bmobile”. You know what’s really quite funny though? TSTT was there for so many years, yet Digicel managed to arrive and in record time provided more reliable service, more coverage area, more features and a clean slate. TSTT did make a great comeback with its improved service, prices and advertising campaign but…they turned a massive loss in doing that. For the first time ever, I might add.
Internet
How about internet services? Broadband took a very long time to arrive in T&T. But when it did, we got a whopping 128k ADSL connction for TT$460 a month – that’s US$72 and includes tax. WOW. Did I mention its North American competitors were already offering 2 and 3MB connections by then for half the cost? Eventually we got a boost to 256k. Yey. Wave flag.
Recently, Columbus Communications bought over our halfway excuse for a cable company and converted the system to digital. One of the benefits was cable internet (the old cable company tried it before but it was an abysmal failure). TSTT saw this coming and decided to upgrade their network. They have changed the service name to “Blink Broadband”, and I now get a 2MB connection. I can get “up to” 10MB but only if I pay TT$700 a month which even a geek like myself is uncomfortable with.
Now here’s the kicker. They tell me the speeds before were so slow because they have only just upgraded the system to ADSL2+. Are they serious? Do I look like a complete moron? Old school ADSL would have provided up to around 9MB. The ADSL2+ they have now rolled out can offer 24MB!
That aside, they did choose an appropriate name for the service. My connection really does tend to BLINK. Every evening at a little after 6pm, my DSL signal will drop, and require a modem reboot to resume the connection. It then happens again at a little before 7pm. It tends to be more troublesome than that on weekends. Their tech support told me that it’s my phone line. Now I don’t believe my physical phone line likes to malfunction only at specific times of the day, but they have now promised me three times to investigate it but never did.
I should not expect less. Usually when I call their tech support I get put through to a call center somewhere in India where a guy will make me look over every single modem setting by the book unless I point blank ask if there is a problem with the service. At my workplace, we requested our internet package be upgraded to a higher speed. We never got it, but a technician did come in to switch our modem for another of the exact same model (while letting us know the lady we spoke to on the phone did not know what she was talking about!). A week later another technician randomly and without request delivered a third modem, also of the exact same model.
Sigh. You may be wondering why I’m still with TSTT. It was only because I was waiting to see how FLOW, which has just recently been installed in my area has been working out for others. I’m going to switch as soon as I get the chance. FLOW has 3x the speed for the same price anyway and excellent reviews. If it works out at home, I’m also going to recommend my workplace migrates with immediate effect.
In closing
TSTT, you are a downright shame on all local business enterprises. Trinidadians and Tobagonians are always being told to support our local business, but how can we do so when the service is as abysmal as it is?
The Smog of Beijing August 12, 2008
Posted by Emir in Current Events, World Affairs.Tags: beijing, china, human rights, olympics, pollution
add a comment
Time for a reality check. Now that we have awed at a historic opening ceremony, we need to examine some of China’s failures in hosting the 2008 Olympic Games.
Seven years ago, Beijing was awarded the opportunity of hosting the 2008 games. At the time, Beijing promised that the media would have complete freedom in their reporting, that they would improve their abysmal human rights track record and they would significantly reduce Beijing’s pollution. I’m afraid these promises have not been fulfilled.
When international media arrived in Beijing for the games, several internet sites were blocked including those that may provide information on protests. Now while China may not be telling the reporters what stories they can and cannot cover, it does not take a genius to deduce that media personnel require access to sources of information in order to accurately report their findings. Let this count as strike number one.
Secondly, can anyone show me exactly how China has improved on its human rights? There are reports of China using surveillance against activists and their families, blocking access to the capital city to others and sentencing people to prison and/or labour as punishment for speaking out. It has gotten so bad that Amnesty International has gone so far as to publish a document on China’s broken Olympic promises! (link) That’s two strikes, China.
Finally, the smog! Now granted, a lot has been done. Factories have been reportedly moved out of Beijing, traffic conjestion has been limited and rerouted…but the air was still awful! Beijing’s smog is so bad that I have read various news sites reporting the sun can be looked at directly and visibility was only as far as one kilometer off. From the photos I have seen; I believe it. If this is how bad it is now after the improvements, then think of how it was before! Sorry China but even if this is an improvement, that’s the third strike. As the Americans would say in baseball – you’re out!
Not to mention that it has now surfaced that the little girl who ’sang’ during the opening ceremony was miming to the voice of another little girl who was deemed to be not cute enough for the ceremony! (link) How horrible!
Now don’t get me wrong. I am facinated by China’s development and their return to the world stage of superpowers. I am also extremely happy that this has happened because ever since the fall of the USSR, the United States has been the world’s sole superpower. Nothing against the USA, but the world needs either no superpower, or more than one. One by itself is a recipe for that power to get away with anything it pleases.
I welcome China back to the world stage and I congratulate them on a historical Olympic Games. I just think they have a very long way to go before they can call themselves first world. They may have a gargantuan economy, they may have an impressive armed force and they may be one of only three nations with independent access to outer space. However, as long as personal freedoms and a high standard of living are repressed, China is little more than a third world nation with a fat bank account.
Orion spacecraft not to fly before 2014 August 11, 2008
Posted by Emir in Science and Technology.Tags: constellation, orion, science, space, technology
add a comment
NASA’s next-generation spacecraft, the Orion crew capsule will not be in service before 2014, a SPACE.com article revealed today (link). While NASA was pushing for a 2013 operational date, available funding appears to have put that idea to rest.
Even though the programme is still well within the 2015 deadline, this means NASA will be without its own manned vehicle for a period of four years. Remember that the Space Shuttle will make its final flight in 2010, retiring upon completion of the International Space Station. Inevitably, this is going to result in massive layoffs and deterioration of NASA’s launching and training facilities. It happened when Apollo ended years before the Shuttle flew, and it’s going to happen again when the Shuttle retires with Orion still in development.
There are certainly going to be those who disagree with me but if the US government can spend such wanton resources on military might then it can pump the extra dollars into its scientific ventures. Thus far, space technology has provided us with so much we take for granted in our daily lives, from medical care to communications to kitchen frying pans. More than that, space technology and exploration provides inspiration to many and in the long term addresses the age-old proverbial problem of having all our eggs in one basket.
Not many people know it, but in a very real sense we are not that far off from setting foot on other worlds and exploring beyond the solar system. Now is not the time to skimp. Give NASA what they need to do their job.
2008 Beijing Olympics: Opening Ceremony August 10, 2008
Posted by Emir in Current Events, Sports, World Affairs.Tags: beijing, ceremony, china, olympics
add a comment
The glittering Olympic Rings are hoisted into the air at Beijing's "Bird's Nest" stadium
I would think that anyone who saw the opening ceremony for the 2008 Olympic Games hosted in Beijing, China would have been completely blown away by the event. It was not only the amazing display of culture, but the sheer scale, effects and the coordination of so many participants!
China has a talent, and let me tell you what that talent is. It is not the amount of money they have to throw behind an event like this, nor is it their extremely impressive cultural heritage. What China’s talent is, is the ability to coordinate large masses of their people in perfect harmony. Every part of the opening ceremony was filled with masses of people drumming, dancing, running and performing other antics in complete synchronization. Even at points where the performers had no means whatsoever of seeing what the others were doing, the timing was flawless. I’m talking about the giant Movable Type printer – if you saw the ceremony you would know what I’m talking about.
Now unfortunately, most internet clips of the opening have been removed due to copyright claims. However, I did find the next best thing: A collage of still images set to the song “Sadness” by Enigma, created by the user “NewAgeEnlightenment” on YouTube. You can view this clip below.
This of course doesn’t show the true splendor of the event. You really need to catch a rerun if you haven’t seen it as yet. What I have to say though is that with this event China has shown the world not only the depth of its culture and its vast human and financial resources, but it has also told its critics to sit down and shut up.
Welcome! August 10, 2008
Posted by Emir in Uncategorized.Tags: welcome
add a comment
Welcome to the Shattered Sky, where the sky’s no longer the limit. Here I will blog about various points of interest to myself including current events, developments in technology, space exploraton, reviews of films and novels and other topics.
