Money Given, Money Return

Unlike most people in the world, I’m not a rabid fan of U.S. President Barack Obama. He did well in his first year as but it's still early in his presidency and there’s no need to give out prizes (cough, Nobel Peace, cough) before he exactly achieved something.

However, President Obama has struck me as a guy who tried hard to be fair and his announcement of a levy on Wall Street banks to raise 90 billion dollars to recoup the bailout struck me along this line.

Personally I think this is a great idea. The U.S. government dished out billions to help Wall Street from going down, now things are better so it’s only fair the banks pay back the money.

Not only will this stop (or at least dent) huge corporate bonuses, the money is sorely needed to tackle the U.S. deficit. President Obama is at last trying to make the banks accountable for their actions.

U.S. taxpayers gave the companies money and want them returned. Seems very fair to me. Now if only the Singapore government will do the same to GIC (Government of Singapore Investment Corp) for the S$850 million loss in New York.

Best Drama

Just a few weeks ago, I gave a so-so review on science-fiction blockbuster "Avatar". In it, I say the movie looks beautiful, has great action but could do with better direction from director James Cameron.

To show me how little I know, Avatar won best drama at the Golden Globes and James Cameron was named best director. I know I haven’t been seeing a lot of movies this year but Avatar is best drama? Is Avatar even a drama? I thought it was an action flick but not only is it a drama; it is the best drama of the year!

I must really must the movie again because I must have missed something.

Cue Evil Laughter

On the 21/1, Funcom announced that they will be deleting all Age of Conan (AoC) characters between levels 1 to 20 in accounts which have been inactive for over 7 months.

Howls of protest greeted the announcement from AoC players, but personally I don’t see what the problem is. One of the problems developers of MMOs have is players who create tons of characters, take-out all the cool names for them, and then left the characters to rot.

This is especially true for MMOs with free trials. Players try the free trials, then promptly forgot about the game. AoC is not the first game to face this problem, and it will not be the last. So I find it understandable why Funcom is doing this.

What I have problem with are the players who squat on characters they are not playing. I mean how many level 1 to 20 characters can you have? In every paid MMORPG I’ve played, I have at least one character at the max level. Even if it was a pain to get there (yes, I’m talking about you City of Heroes/Villains), surely you would want to try the end game at least once.

I do not understand those players who just camp between levels. If all your AoC characters are between levels 1 to 20 and your account is inactive for over 7 months, then frankly you deserve all the trouble coming your way. HAHAHAHAHA...

Comics this week

Secret Six #17 – Suicide Squad #67 works because it was barely a Blackest Night tie-in. All the focus was on the Suicide Squad and the Secret Six, and the Black Lanterns were an afterthought. That’s why #67 worked. Unfortunately in Secret Six #17, the Black Lanterns are front and centre as both teams are attacked together by a host of Black Lanterns. Result is a lackluster issue that just did not have the coolness of Suicide Squad #67. It says a lot that the best scene this issue belongs to the NHB fight between Bronze Tiger and Catman, a scene that does NOT have a single Black Lantern around. If only the rest of the issue was like that.

S.W.O.R.D #3- I always thought Beast was a strange addition to the cast of S.W.O.R.D. A X-Men, a mutant, an ex-Avenger; he has no connection to S.W.O.R.D outside his relationship with Abigail Brand. However for the first since this series started, writer Kieron Gillen made a case on why the blue muffin should be in the cast. Gillen’s characterization of Beast was spot-on as Beast finally proved his worth. His plan was clever, imaginative, the way he put one over Henry Gyrich as funny as hell, and his word duel with Unit (or whatever that robot is called) was wonderful. If Gillen keep this up, Beast may become the star of the series.

Dr. House

In the medical drama show House, the doctor is a grumpy ass who used crazy medical methods and procedures to save his patients…most of the time.

Singapore seems to have our own Doctor House as the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) had found Dr Gobinathan Devathasan guilty of professional misconduct for using an untested experimental procedure, the Ultrasound Sonolysis, to treat an elderly woman with Parkinson’s Disease.

Funny thing is; no one is arguing about the effectiveness of the procedure. Dr Devathasan, a neurologist, had successfully treated more than 700 patients using Ultrasound with no complications and had even shared his findings of a study at an international conference. In fact the SMC’s disciplinary committee had, in its own words, said that they "reluctantly" found the doctor guilty of professional misconduct.

Dr Devathasan is now appealing against the SMC’s decision in court and even alleged that the true person behind the complaint against him was an unnamed professional rival. Whoever made the complaint against him, the main case of the SMC is that Dr Devathasan used a medical treatment that was not accepted by the profession. The fact that his patients were helped by the procedure seems almost secondary.

I would have thought the well-being of the patients would be first and foremost on the minds of the SMC, but I guess I'm no doctor. Where’s Dr. House when you need him?

A Deep, Deep Movie

I had a review of the movie Avatar last week where I talked about the pros and cons of the movie. However if you go through the internet, you will see that my review lack something most reviews has; a social message!

I have seen Avatar and I think I must have missed something because I cannot remember any social message in the movie. Yet if you read the reviews everywhere (everywhere outside my blog), everyone seems to be putting James Cameron up as some sort of activist.

Currently I have read that James Cameron is a pro-nature, anti-war, anti-imperial, pro-American Indian, pro-white Messiah, anti-humans activist. And these are just the ones I had read.

So to all those who had read my review of Avatar; I am very, very sorry. I thought Avatar as nothing more than a high tech, high explosion blockbuster with a lousy love story but instead it is actually a deep, deep movie with all sorts of (very) subtle messages that was too much for me.

I mean even the Vatican newspaper reviewed the movie and accuse Cameron of trying to replace God with a natural entity. Man, how did I miss something like that!

Throwing in the Towel

It was always a risk. When Tishman Speyer Properties and BlackRock Inc bought a property in Manhattan for US$5.4 billion to develop the apartment complex known as Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, there were open mouths at the sheer amount of money thrown around.

It was in October 2006 when times was good and before the financial crisis. However in 2010, it was hardly a surprise when the property owners were unable to service debt payment of US$16 million per month.

Unfortunately for Singapore, the Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) is an investor in the property and with the owners’ default this will go down as another loss for Singapore. This time to the tune of US$675 million or over S$850 million.

With the coming foreclosure on Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, GIC had already booked it losses. This means that GIC have thrown in the towel and accepted that they would probably not be seeing the S$850 million again.

I think booking the loss now is a good idea. Considering the monthly debt payment is US$16 million, there is pretty much no chance of getting the money back. Take the loss, close the books and look to the future.