- Here you go, tech dorks (okay, so I’m one of you), your next big “get” is about to make its debut as a worldwide “must-have” item. The “wallet phone” has been available in Japan since 2004, but it hasn’t been a factor in the tech market anywhere outside the Land of the Rising Sun. Soon, Japanese tech companies will be launching a worldwide marketing push for the phone, which relies on a small computer chip called FeliCa, which is embedded in the phone. The chip communicates with a reader device at stores, train stations, vending machines, etc. for cashless payments. Sony Corp. is the maker of the phone, which uses technology common in smart cards. Smart cards are more popular in Europe than the United States at this point, but if Japanese companies like NTT DoCoMo have their way, this technology will be in American hands more often and in short order……
- Stories like that of Natalie du Toit are what makes the Olympics great, much more so than tales of Michael Phelps’ greatness or the U.S. men’s basketball team’s return to dominance. See, du Toit is an athlete who lost one of her legs in that horrendous motorcycle accident and yet here she is, competing in first open water swimming race in Olympic history. The 24-year-old South African was right in the thick of the race for most of the tough 6.2 mile course, but fell off the pace near the end and finished 16th on Wednesday. She was obviously disappointed by where she finished, but the spirit and toughness of this amputee made a big impact on anyone who saw her, even if she finished more than a minute behind gold medalist Larisa Ilchenko of Russia. “I tried my best,” du Toit said. “I'm not too happy with it, but I'll be back for 2012.”
She is every bit as tough and talented as the 24 other swimmers she competed against. “My message isn't just to disabled people,” du Toit declared. “It's to everyone out there that you have to work hard. I've been through a lot of ups and downs ... but I've seen a lot of good things along the way. I was able to use the negativism in a good light and say after my accident, 'I can still do it if I work hard.' You have to set dreams, set goals and never give up.” There’s no better way to proclaim that message than to do what du Toit did, not being bitter over what she’s lost and finding a way back. Heck, she even carried the South African flag in the Opening Ceremony and hung with the lead pack much of her race. If not for a problem with her cap, which caught on a buoy and forced her to spend much of the race fiddling with it, making sure it didn't fall off, her time could have been even better. Of course, she would be the last one to use that excuse and it’s why she’s gotten back to where she is. Her courageous swim of 2 hours, 49.9 seconds may not have won a medal, but it should be remembered as more than most medal-winning swims. For a woman who just missed qualifying for the 2000 Sydney Games and saw her life nearly crumble in 2001, it has been an amazing journey. While returning to school on a motorbike after a training session, she collided with a car and sustained massive injuries to her left leg. For a week, her doctors attempted to save the leg but eventually had to amputate at the knee. But du Toit was back in the water six months later and when the open-water swim was added to the program for Beijing, she saw her chance and took it. Du Toit qualified for the Olympics with a fourth-place finish at the World Championships in Spain this year. Even the officials at the venue recognized her efforts;
she received a special gift from officials at the rowing basin: a traditional Chinese drawing encased in a wooden box. The race may not have received as much air time as the Redeem Team, May and Walsh in beach volleyball or Phelps in the pool, but it’s a more powerful image than any of them as these Games wind down….
- A flag-waving march by thousands of people is a classic form of protest, a time-tested way of showing your dissent and showing off a little patriotism in the process. Granted, there are no overturned/burned cars, looted storefronts or violent clashes with cops in riot gear, but you can still get your message across. So when thousands of flag-waving Muslims marched on the United Nations office in Indian Kashmir’s main city, I was happy to see it. Thousands of angry individuals directing their rage at the U.N. to demand that India give up its claim to the region is cool with me. The Kashmir region has been a tinderbox of political unrest for a long time now, so any quick solution is unlikely. In the meantime, why not stage some angry protests, throw out some ultimatums, make hostile demands and have the various sides in the dispute go after one another? How else would you like to pass the time? Sitting down at the negotiating table in some stiff, stuffy board room? Borrrrrring. Let’s battle it out in the streets, have some showdowns and get dissident, everyone!
- Even in the Ivy League, there are ignorant knobs who seem to take immense pride in being ridiculous jackasses who create problems over pointless issues. Witness the following a-hole, who has been busy crusading against ladies’ nights in bars in and around New York City and is now turning his misguided focus to Columbia University’s women’s studies program. His claim is that the program is unconstitutional, which is absurd on many levels. First, anyone can major in women’s studies if they choose, so it’s not exclusionary. Second, what’s wrong with wanting to learn more about the role of women in society, both now and in the past? And oh yeah, who the frak objects to ladies’ nights? The idea is to bring more hot chicks out to the bar, which most guys would consider a win-win situation. Just because the ladies get cheap drinks doesn’t mean there’s anything to gripe about, loser. Heck, if it’s that much of an issue, just have a female friend get a cheap drink and give it to you - that would be if you had any female friends, which, judging by your bass-ackwards stance on women’s issues, I’m guessing you don’t. Nice to know that there are still mindless tools out there with time to waste on the most idiotic of issues…..
- Not a banner day for disgraced British glam rocker Gary Glitter Wednesday. Of course, there really aren't any good days to be Gary Glitter right about now, but the only person to blame for that is Gary Glitter. The G-Man spent nearly three years in a Vietnamese prison for molesting children, so he’s persona non grata in a lot of places right now. For example, he was denied entry to Hong Kong this week after refusing to return to England, officials in Hong Kong said. “The Chinese authorities have informed us that they have refused Paul Gadd entry into Hong Kong,” a spokeswoman for Britain's Foreign Office said. In case you didn’t know, Glitter's real name is Paul Francis Gadd. Another Foreign Office spokesman said Glitter was interviewed by Chinese immigrations officials after arriving in Hong Kong and subsequently turned away “as a result of those interviews.” I wasn’t in the room for any of the interviews, but I’d guess they went something like this:
Official: Aren't you Gary Glitter, the has-been glam rocker?
Glitter: Yes I am, I’m a major celebrity and -
Official: Aren't you a convicted pedophile?
Glitter: Yeah, but -
Official: You need to leave - now.
Of course, Hong Kong government is in good company when it comes to denying entry to glitter; it was the third country to bar Glitter in the last two days. It all started Tuesday night, when Glitter was taken from his prison cell to a flight out of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, with his itinerary calling for him to change planes in Bangkok en route to London. That was the plan, but when Glitter refused to board a flight to England because of an alleged earache, Thai authorities would not allow him to pass through immigration. According to Lt. Gen. Chatchawal Suksomchit, the chief of Thailand's immigration police, Glitter was denied entry because under Thai immigration laws those convicted of child sex abuse in a foreign country can be barred. Always a safe policy, sticking with the pedophiles you already have in your country and not stocking up on new ones. Thai officials then turned Glitter over to the custody of Thai Airways Wednesday afternoon after he agreed to travel to a third country. In case you don’t know the specifics of Glitter’s pedophilia and sexual freakery, he was convicted in March 2006 of committing “obscene acts with children,” and served two years and nine months of a three-year sentence. The incidents involved two girls, ages 10 and 11, from the southern coastal city of Vung Tau, whom Glitter was found guilty of molesting the girls at his seaside villa in Vung Tau and in nearby hotels. Hard to imagine what country wouldn’t want a fine, upstanding human being like that within its borders…..
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