Lack of imagination

I think this clerk at the supermarket lacks imagination. It reminds me fascism.

from BBC

Supermarket staff refused to sell alcohol to a white-haired 72-year-old man - because he would not confirm he was over 21.

Takeshi Kitano, a film director

I do not like Takeshi Kitano as a comedian (I do not think he is funny at all). However, he is a genius artist for sure. I love his movies very much. I usually do not watch Japanese movies but only his.

Abuse or not

from New York Times:

A 13-year-old girl was brought to a doctor’s office to have her clitoris removed, a surgery considered necessary here to preserve chastity and honor.The girl died, but that was not the source of the outrage. After her death, the government shut down the clinic, and that got everyone stirred up.

In Egypt, majority of people still support unnecessary circumcision. I think this is a kind of child abuse, and we should work to prevent it.

Tracking down

I think this is interesting. Scroogled

The U.S. government had lavished $15 billion on a program to fingerprint and photograph visitors at the border, and hadn't caught a single terrorist. Clearly, the public sector was not equipped to Do Search Right.

It will be google but not any government who will be able to tack down any individual on this planet. We have to be careful so that google will not abuse their power and that they will not be used by the U.S. government.

Smoking

My dad told me he was trying to quit smoking. I really think that it is a good idea. But nature of this week said that gene expression changes would remain decades after quit smoking.

Nature:

Gene expression changes brought on by heavy smoking may persist long after the smoker has kicked the habit, researchers have found. The results could provide a molecular explanation for the continued increased risk of lung cancer and other pulmonary ailments among former smokers.

When smokers quit, their bodies gradually begin to undo the damage cigarettes have wrought. But contrary to popular belief, not all of the body's systems make a full recovery. Although the risk of heart disease, for example, eventually returns to that of a nonsmoker, the risk of getting lung cancer and emphysema — a progressive lung condition that leaves sufferers struggling for breath — remains elevated even if the patient hasn't smoked a cigarette in decades.

"You are reducing the risk of disease by quitting," says Raj Chari, a cancer biologist at the British Columbia Cancer Research Centre in Vancouver, Canada, "but it isn't going back to zero."

Flickr

Flickr is a nice tool. I love this web site.

To Built a Fire

Jack London is the one of my favorite writers. I read "To Built a Fire" yesterday. Mother nature mercilessly killed the man who struggled desperately to survive.

Keep it.

Keep swimming, keep swimming.

Debate

I hope the health insurance system in this country will be fixed soon. At this point, it is really a disaster.

Vista

I bought a new computer last week, since old one stop functioning. However, I found that Windows Vista is still a crap. I really do not like Vista.