CakTopan’s Journal

Duh, bejatnya Israel. Tak bosan2nya menyerang Palestina. Negeri kere yang cuma punya milisi Hamas. Cuma dapat simpati negari Barat. Banyak dukungan dari sodara sesama Muslim. Bahkan tak sedikit yang menyanggupi berdiri di garis depan menantang tentara Zionis. Tak kurang dari 434 people telah mati dan 2,240 luka-luka sejak bombardir Israel di mulai. Termasuk diantarnya pemimpin senior Hamas, Nizar Rayyan, yang terbunuh di rumahnya. Demikian kata Al-Jazeera di sini. Tanah

Berita semakin seru dan makin membingungkan. Menteri Luar Negeri Israel, Tzipi Livni, mengatakan di NY Times bahwa Hamas yang harusnya disalahkan karena Hamas, menyelundupkan senjata dan membentuk pasukannya. Hamas telah meluncurkan roket2nya ke pemukiman Israel. Saya belum ketemu ada laporan yang menyebutkan jumlah korban di pihak Israel. Untuk itulah Israel menyerang balik. Saya mengetahui dari Channel 5 Singapore, bahwa Israel ingin membuktikan, melalui jaringan intelejennya, bahwa mereka mengincar obyek militer dengan me-launching video pengeboman di Youtube. Mereka ingin memenangkan opini publik setelah dikecam habis2an oleh negara Arab dan PBB. Ini era media dan image itu penting, Kawan. Bukan Marcella Cs, pengacara2, dan Roy Suryo saja yang memanfaatkan media. Israel juga. Sapa yang menguasai publik, maka dia sudah menguasai “kebenaran”.

Demi mengurai benang kusut sapa menyerang sapa dan tergerak oleh rasa ingin tahu, serta tidak ingin termakan media Barat yang kadang berat sebelah, maka kulanggan RSS dari 2 media ternama Timur Tengah. Al-Jazeera yang sudah terkenal anti mainstream dan Gulf News yang konon kata Hanif, adik kelas saya, adalah media terpercaya di Mid-East. Menarik mengamati perang yang berat sebelah dan ga jelas motifnya. Perang di tanah suci 3 agama besar di dunia ini selalu menyita perhatian umat.

Salah seorang teman penyuka conspiracy theory telah menunjukkan Grand Scenario gilanya. “Harga minyak naik karena suhu politik memanas di Middle East, Cak. Baca di sini. Amerika dan sekutunya ga mau rugi lama-lama. Segala cara dilakukan untuk menaikkan harga minyak mentah demi mendongkrak perekonomian. Kurang aja betul. Tak elok kelakuannya karena bersenang2 diatas derita orang.”, katanya berapi-api. Saya cuma diam. Beritanya benar begitu, tapi apa memang begitu?

Saya juga mengajak teman saya itu berdoa untuk Palestina. Saya cuma mampu berdoa saat ini.

The world celebrating the first afro-american elected US’ President, Barack Obama. National Geographic captured this moment. Congratulations, Mr. President.

At U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's former elementary school in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta on November 5, students cheer at news of the candidate's victory.

A nun and a child walk past a poster of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, which says "The World Changes" in Italian, in downtown Rome on November 5, 2008.

His hat plastered with Barack Obama's image, a Kenyan supporter of the U.S. presidential candidate awaits election results in Obama's ancestral village of Kogelo, Kenya, on November 4.

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.'s sister, Christine King Farris, celebrates U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama's win Tuesday night at a Baptist church in Atlanta, Georgia. History was made when Obama, 47, became the United States' first African-American President.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's step-grandmother, Sarah Hussein Obama, leaves a press conference in her home village of Kogelo, Kenya, on Wednesday, November 5. Barack Obama's father, Barack Obama, Sr., was a Kenyan economist who died in 1982.

More photos here

Short Message (SMS) is destroying our language. Short the word by throwing and deleting the vocal letters. We use it for writing messages to our colleagues, or family. Chatting via YM, or Gtalk as well. We love it, because it short, cheap. We do it oftenly as part of social activity among them and get to be used to it. In several occasions, we didn’t realize that we use this language in formal documentation such as letter, etc. Carefull, Guys

The Strait Times 25 October, page E8

Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rate – already the world’s highest – has soared to 231,000,000%, newly released official figures show.

The rise – from 11,200,000% – was largely due to increases in the prices of bread and cereals. (BBC)

Two Hundred Million Percent? Hello…We are talking a HUGE number here. It’s not a common percentage number for me.
Another story about Zimbabwean Billionaire in here.

Here are some design considerations about lighting the Marina Bay Circuit at night for 2008 FORMULA 1™ SingTel Singapore Grand Prix., with graphics from Allianz.

• The lights will be situated on only one side of the street circuit, to prevent the drivers from being disorientated in cases of spinning.
• Should one of the generators fail, the other generators will provide a back-up power by default
• Each generator will also have its own engineer on standby whenever they are in operation
• The F1 night light will be four times brighter than the lighting in a sports stadium. The lighting provides 3,000 lux of light (light intensity). In comparison, the lights at the National Stadium during a football game at night shine at about 650 lux. Lux is a unit for illuminance, and measures the intensity of light.
• The projectors are placed on one side of the track, at the same side as the television cameras, to reduce glare when broadcasting the race.
• Drivers would not be affected in the rain. Maioli, the designer, explained: “The light beams come in at angles instead of vertically, so that the reflection doesn’t get into the drivers’ eyes even if there are puddles during a downpour.”

Other technical facts:

• Valerio Maioli S.p.A, the Italian consultant company appointed by Singapore GP Pte Ltd. to light up the first Formula One night race.
• The system will feature a total of 1600 lighting projectors attached to aluminum trusses.
• Philips was awarded to provide lighting projectors for this night race.
• Aluminum trusses will be suspended 10 meters above the track on vertical steel pylons.
• Vertical steel pylons will be mounted on prefabricated concrete blocks, placed behind the barriers at intervals of 32m.
• A total of 240 steel pylons used and 108,423m of cables used.
• Lighting will be powered by 12 twin-power generators, each located in a sound-proof container.

Organisers declined to reveal costs, but early estimates put the system at around US$5 million (S$7.3 million). F1 commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone is pushing for several night races, especially in Asia, to increase television viewership in North America and Europe.

More pictures from designer presented here.