Dominatio Per Malum

Battlestar Galactica will be shown on Arts Central

Arts Central screens BSG from 13th May (Tuesday) from 11pm onwards. Now you have no reason not to watch the best show on TV. Seriously, go watch it: you won’t regret this.

TIME MAGAZINE: The 100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME

TIME MAGAZINE: Best Series of 2005

So, the other day (11 Apr), the PM was saying that protests is useless, because:

“Prime Minister Lee believes that no protesting group truly expects their public display of outrage at China’s treatment of Tibetans or ethnic Han dissidents will change China’s policy. “

But then now, Beijing ‘to talk to Dalai aides’:

“Chinese officials will hold talks with the Dalai Lama’s representatives, state media say, in the first meeting since rioting broke out in Tibet last month.”

So now, Singapore got to backtrack and say “S’pore welcomes China’s decision to meet Dalai Lama’s representative”

Pwned.

At Expense of All Others, Putin Picks a Church - New York Times

Just as the government has tightened control over political life, so, too, has it intruded in matters of faith. The Kremlin’s surrogates in many areas have turned the Russian Orthodox Church into a de facto official religion, warding off other Christian denominations that seem to offer the most significant competition for worshipers. They have all but banned proselytizing by Protestants and discouraged Protestant worship through a variety of harassing measures, according to dozens of interviews with government officials and religious leaders across Russia.

This close alliance between the government and the Russian Orthodox Church has become a defining characteristic of Mr. Putin’s tenure, a mutually reinforcing choreography that is usually described here as working “in symphony.”

I should be doing exam prep, but i was moved to write this quick diatribe because Singtel Mio sucks. Big time. It has caused me significant annoyance since its installation, mainly because its modem has a tendency to disconnect for no apparent reason. So it disconnects and then after a while, it reconnects, leaving me frustated. Because it is not serious enough for me to go through the hassle of getting tech support to fix this, but it is annoying enough to seriously piss me off. And from what i gather after googling the web, mine is no isolated issue and alot of people are annoyed by Mio. So if i suddenly dc while on MSN, you know why.

PM Lee says ministers shouldn’t be automatically removed for lapses down the line

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said that public officers, including Ministers, should not be automatically removed or punished just because a lapse has occurred down the line. … Mr Lee stressed that while it is an easy way out for ministers and leaders to accept responsibility and resign to appease an angry public, this will not fundamentally solve the problem.

Contrast with this:

Officers responsible for Mas Selamat’s escape to be disciplined

SINGAPORE: Officers responsible for Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) detainee Mas Selamat Kastari’s escape from the Whitley Road Detention Centre (WRDC) will be disciplined and penalised, Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng said in Parliament on Monday.

The Commissioner of Police and the director of the Internal Security Department (ISD) have also been told to replace all the WRDC officers - as identified in the Committee of Inquiry report - who were responsible for Mas Selamat’s escape.

Executive Summary of events: Blame them (low level peons) not us.

Our ministers are experts at pushing the blame.

Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New ‘Intelligent Falling’ Theory | The Onion - America’s Finest News Source

KANSAS CITY, KS—As the debate over the teaching of evolution in public schools continues, a new controversy over the science curriculum arose Monday in this embattled Midwestern state. Scientists from the Evangelical Center For Faith-Based Reasoning are now asserting that the long-held “theory of gravity” is flawed, and they have responded to it with a new theory of Intelligent Falling.

Lolz. I love the Onion.

Lords of the Blog

Blogs. By House of Lords members. OMG.

Now you can finally learn why the Lords have long titles like Lord Sauron of Mordor.

Having said that, there doesn’t appear to be any Law Lords blogging. Hmmm…

Breath (2007) 7/10

Breath is vintage Kim Ki Duk. Less violence, and much tamer than his usual offerings, but it bears the classic Kim Ki Duk trademarks. A silent protagonist, existentialism and themes of suicide take center stage. Much of the film enforce a claustrophobic feeling, but there is enough color and even hope that the film does not feel dreary. I have no idea what this film is about. It might be about nothing, really. But it is full of enough symbolism that you could really interpret it in what way you can. In Breath, two strangers meet and connect in what is one of the most mind-warpingly unconventional romance prison stories ever. The performances are great, and Kim is an assured director. But whether you will enjoy it is debatable. Still i found it mesmerizing it its own, meditative way. In a sense Breath is more similar to Kim Ki Duk’s contemplative films like 3 Iron and its use of silence and sparse dialogs is unparalleled. Very, very few directors can make a full film which consists of so few lines of dialog but Kim Ki Duk is a master in that respect.

It is a truly arthouse flick that will alienate most viewers but will once again intrigue fans of Kim Ki Duk. Slow, meandering yet strangely fascinating. I can’t exactly call Breath a success, but it was interesting in a Kim Ki Duk kind of way. It is probably only a film that arthouse movie buffs can appreciate. And just to show how weird it is, check out the trailer which incidentally seems to be shot in one long take.

J.K. Rowling should lose her copyright lawsuit against the Harry Potter Lexicon. - By Tim Wu - Slate Magazine

But Rowling is overstepping her bounds. She has confused the adaptations of a work, which she does own, with discussion of her work, which she doesn’t. Rowling owns both the original works themselves and any effort to adapt her book or characters to other media—films, computer games, and so on. Textually, the law gives her sway over any form in which her work may be “recast, transformed, or adapted.” But she does not own discussion of her work—book reviews, literary criticism, or the fan guides that she’s suing. The law has never allowed authors to exercise that much control over public discussion of their creations.

Supreme Court Allows Lethal Injection for Execution - New York Times

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld Kentucky’s method of putting criminals to death by lethal injection, not only clearing the way for Kentucky to resume executions but also for other states to do so. But one justice predicted that the ruling would not end disputes over lethal injection and could reignite the debate over capital punishment itself.

:: DESTRUCTOID PC blog - Hardcore Gamer Community :: PC News, PC Hints, PC Cheats, and Codes on Video Games: PC, Wii, Xbox 360, PC, PlayStation 2, GameCube, PSP, DS, GBA & Retro

Interplay announces Fallout MMO. Not to be confused with Fallout 3, which is developed by Bethesda. Now, i still have good memories of playing Interplay games, back when they were good. So, tentatively, i hope that the MMO will meet the standards of the original Fallout.

Hide the Safari “Update” Notification in Windows

getting annoyed when itunes asks me to install safari. No, i do not need another browser when firefox v3 (beta 5) works well enough.

There Will Be Blood (2007) 7/10

Daniel Day-Lewis deservedly won his Best Actor Oscar. As oilman Daniel Plainview, he exudes a maniacal drive that is hauntingly scary. Although somewhat reminiscent of his role in Gangs of New York, Daniel’s performance is nevertheless a veritable tour de force. Equally deserving of praise is Paul Dano, who inhibits the role of a firey young preacher with aplomb. It is the sort of performance that will make people stand up and take notice, and is a sharp departure from his role in Little Miss Sunshine.

Technically, the film is very strong and performance-wise it is top notch. What i felt lacking was the plot itself which never really set up a conflict or confrontation. Nothing really memorable happens in the film which made the plot feel rather slow-moving. Although Daniel’s character is immensely compelling, the problem is that nothing exciting actually happens. Even the supposed conflict between the main characters: Plainview and Eli remains simmering up until the explosive final confrontation. The other major plot arc, which is the relationship between Plainview and his son, because of Plainview’s inherently cold nature, never becomes interest. Ditto for the Plainview’s brother plot arc. At the end of the day, what you get is a powerful portrait of a driven, ambitious oilman who fails to forge any meaningful relationships. However, because he is so distant and paranoid, the subplots involving the other characters in his life are meandering and not particularly interesting. It is only his conflict with Eli that drives the movie forward. Overall, There Will Be Blood is a film worth watching because of the brilliant performances of Daniel Day Lewis and Paul Dano, even though the plot itself is somewhat predictable.

“Anderson digs into the American mystique and into the vaults of Hollywood greatness to produce a picture that is intensely and thoroughly its own, yet teems with ghosts of movies past.”- Jonathan Richard

Creative pisses more people off, like… HORDES! - CNET Asia Blogs: reHASHplus by Michael Tan, Singapore

Long story short, Creative sells supposedly “vista Ready” Sound cards. Unfortunately, its buggy and basically sucks. So this modder helps develop a patch to make it work on Vista properly. Instead of thanking him, Creative threatens to SUE him because, well, it infringes on the IP or something llike that. facepalm In the process, it commits PR suicide and pisses off alot of its customers. Releasing a lousy/ deliberately crippled driver is bad enough, but when someone fixes it so that it does not suck, you threaten to SUE?! Its so infamous, its been slashdotted, which means that its a bona fide PR disaster. Luckily i don’t buy Creative products: I’ve never had a particularly good opinion on their quality control and this incident doesn’t improve their image any bit.