Needed: a new revolution for the current soaring of price of rice

Dear students,

From now on, I'm going to choose some good articles occasionally for you to read. These are usually quality articles which have in-depth analyses of current issues. They will all be labelled as "A+". "A+" articles are articles of more difficult in nature. It is not a good idea for you to browse through them quickly. You need to be serious in reading them. I will use "A+" articles for future discussion or writing purposes.

Regards,
Mr. Fu

Needed: a new revolution for the current soaring of price of rice

THE soaring price of rice and dwindling stockpiles of Asia's basic food are causing anxiety across the region. In particular the Philippines, a big, hungry country which cannot grow enough to feed itself, could be in trouble. The front pages of Manila's newspapers scream about a “rice crisis”, as politicians float drastic solutions, such as forcing the country's 100 leading firms to take up rice farming. Farmers in Thailand, the world's largest rice exporter, are delighted with the price surge, although some were said this week to be organising patrols to protect their crops.

The president of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, last month pleaded with Vietnam, the second-largest exporter, to guarantee supplies. The two countries signed an agreement on March 26th, apparently to do just that. But the various escape clauses that Vietnam secured suggest it was more of a face-saving measure than a firm pledge. Vietnam and India, another big rice exporter, have recently announced export restrictions to try to curb soaring food prices at home. This will make it tough for poor, rice-importing countries, in Africa as well as Asia, to secure supplies.

Until a few years ago, rising harvests satisfied the growth in rice demand caused by population growth and Asia's success in cutting poverty. But recent wobbles in output have reversed a long-term trend of falling prices. They have also left global stockpiles at their lowest since the 1970s.

Political consequences may follow. Mrs Arroyo came to office in a “people-power” revolt in 2001 and her grip on office is tenuous. Hunger could be the excuse the opposition needs to bring Filipinos to the streets. So Mrs Arroyo is straining to be seen doing something about food: posing for photos at grain warehouses and pledging to crack down on the fiddling of subsidised rice supplies.

Indonesia's president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, had hitherto been expected to sail to re-election next year. But costly food and rising poverty may endanger him. That Mr Yudhoyono made a show of completing a doctorate in agricultural economics during his 2004 election campaign only increases his potential for embarrassment. He has tinkered with, not abolished, Indonesia's absurd restrictions on rice imports. These, like the Philippines' rice import tariffs, were intended to protect poor rice farmers when prices were low, but they hurt poor rice eaters, a larger group.

This week a senior Indonesian official said the country had reached its goal of becoming self-sufficient in rice. Mr Yudhoyono later contradicted this, by saying Indonesia would need to continue importing Thai rice for now. Even if Indonesia attains self-sufficiency soon, it will be hard to maintain. The Philippines became self-sufficient in the 1980s, only to relapse into deficit, despite an expansion in its paddies.

Nature affects countries' ability to grow rice—but so does governance. An extreme case is Myanmar. Once it was the world's biggest rice exporter, and it still produces a small surplus. Yet many of its people go hungry, thanks to a crude, cruel regime.

Robert Zeigler of the International Rice Research Institute—a driver of Asia's “green revolution” in the 1960s—says governments are now paying for years of neglecting agricultural research and irrigation. They have lost prime land and water supplies in the rush to industrialise.

Simply reducing disparities in productivity, even between identical fields in a given district, could solve Asia's rice worries for decades to come. That would require, for instance, ensuring farmers can buy higher-quality seeds, which in turn would require more funding from governments for old-fashioned things such as cross-breeding existing strains of rice.

A report this week from the UN's economic commission for Asia said a boost in farm productivity could lift more than 200m Asians, a third of the region's poor, out of poverty. Asia's masters may need a new green revolution, if they want to avoid upheavals of a bloodier hue.

The Economist.

David Beckham century gift - a golden ipod

Former England captain David Beckham will be dancing for joy after his team-mates clubbed together to buy him a special something to celebrate him reaching the elite 100-cap club for his country.

Beckham, 32, who reached his century during last week's friendly match with France in Paris, has been given an ipod by his colleagues.

As you can see it is not just your standard Apple product but rather a golden 32-gigabyte personalised version to mark the occasion.

Beckham, who made his England debut in September 1996 against Moldova, was picked for new coach Fabio Capello's second national squad, after missing the friendly with Swtizerland due to lack of match fitness.

The LA Galaxy midfielder started the France game in his preferred right-midfield position before being replaced by David Bentley just after the hour mark.

Beckham looks like to add to his 100 caps following Capello's post-match appraisal of his performance, and with just four men ahead of him there is a small possibility the Leytonstone-born footballer could surpass former goalkeeper Peter Shilton's record of 125 England appearances if he is able to continue playing until the 2010 World Cup in South Africa as he desires.

In the meantime he can enjoy listening to his wife's back catalogue on his £600 ipod - he certainly has enough storage space with 32 GB.

The Telegraph.

Building reborn as gallery, pub and restaurants

Before restoration

After restoration

The verandah of The Pawn

The building containing the Woo Cheong Pawn Shop, one of the Wan Chai shophouses preserved by the Urban Renewal Authority six years ago, has finally passed stringent building regulations and will open to the public this week.

Its 9,701 square feet comprises four shophouses in Johnston Road. The ground floor of the four-storey building will be occupied by an art gallery, the authority said, while the three floors above will house a themed pub called The Pawn and restaurants operated by a private company.

The British-style pub is expected to open on Saturday. Its operator, Joseph Baclay, said hundreds of thousand of dollars had been spent decorating the shophouse. Customers would be able to sit on the large verandahs or the roof-garden to enjoy city views while being served food and drinks. Lifts and fire escapes had been added to meet regulations.

The shophouses, built in 1888, were restored by the authority at a cost of HK$15 million in 2005.

Lee Ho-yin, director of the University of Hong Kong's architectural conservation programme, said the revitalisation project would be more successful if the pawn shop had been invited to stay. The pawn shop moved to another street after the building was acquired by the authority.

Dr Lee, who studied the history of shophouses in Hong Kong, said the shophouses preserved by the authority were different from those found in Guangzhou.

"Shophouses built in Hong Kong have back lanes and larger verandahs," he said, and their style was influenced by British building regulations imposed to improve hygiene after the plague in 1894.

SCMP. Apr 1, 2008.

What's Smartone's HomePhone+?

SmarTone-Vodafone stirs the market with fixed-line package

SmarTone-Vodafone's promotion of its new fixed-line service heralds a shake-up in the mature Hong Kong telecommunications market.

The mobile business arm of Sun Hung Kai Properties last week introduced its Home Phone Plus plan for residential fixed-line users, offering a flat voice plan with value-added services including voice over internet protocol access for HK$118 a month.

A dedicated phone set would be provided for free if users committed to an 18-month contract, the company announced last week.

PCCW dominates the fixed-line segment with a market share of almost 70 per cent, serving more than one million homes. The balance is shared by Hutchison Telecom, Wharf T&T, Hong Kong Broadband Network and New World Telecom.

Residential fixed-line service penetration reached 95 per cent at the end of February, data from the Office of the Telecommunications Authority shows.

"Over 60 per cent of local families said that a phone is still a must at home," SmarTone chief executive Douglas Li said, citing a survey conducted by his company. "This is a family-shared phone and represents the location of the family. It is not affected by mobile substitution."

Mr Li said there was still plenty of room to lure users from competitors.

As a mobile operator, SmarTone-Vodafone can make use of the coverage provided by the 2G mobile network to deliver the service. The dedicated phone set is connected to the GSM mobile network, so that once a user switches on, an over-the-air network setting can be applied to fix the phone network signal at a customer's home. The network signal could be reset when a customer changed address, Mr Li said.

"We deploy a new auto network zoning technology with our new home phone service," he said. "This is a self-developed technology that helps guarantee the network coverage of the home phone."

However, an executive at a rival operator said SmarTone-Vodafone's mobile network might not perform well in some residential high-rises, and signals might be poor in some harbour locations.

SmarTone-Vodafone's tariff is set at a premium compared with plans of as low as HK$30 per month at some operators.

Mr Li said the company would compete on the quality of its offerings, rather than on price.

For calls using the internet, users can register their own internet phone account, such as that offered by Skype, on the Home Phone Plus account. Such calls can go through the home phone.

Meanwhile, PCCW is promoting its fixed-line product as a home multimedia hub. Its newly launched Eye service enables users to watch television programmes, learn languages and place bets on Mark Six through a broadband phone.

"Multimedia content is about personal preferences. With multimedia services, I believe the 3G mobile phone is much more suitable," Mr Li said

SCMP. Apr 1, 2008.

Adobe Launching Free Version of Photoshop Online

Adobe is taking a note from startups nipping at the edges of its core products, and has now launched a free version of its Photoshop picture editing software. Called Photoshop Express, the service is available directly through any browser though it will only work on Flash 9, so you may have to upgrade. Users have to register for the account, and get 2GB of free storage. Also, it also has ties to social networking sites like Facebook and other image-sharing sites, reports News.com (I am still waiting for the verification e-mail from the service to try it out).

Adobe intends to offer more premium features down the line, which include a printing service, more storage, support for audio and other media, and the ability to read additional image file types (the service works with .JPGs now.). It also plans to build an offline client, which will surely cut into its Photoshop revenues, but better to undercut itself than let others do. Some pics of the software are here.

This of course will be bad news for the likes of Picnik (a service we have used regularly here before) and others in the startup space.

Washington Post.

An interview with "Dr. House"

Hugh Laurie hits America’s funny bone

THE British comedy actor Hugh Laurie is the unlikely star of a hit new show on American television. Critics have been raving about his “career-shifting” performance as a misanthropic doctor in the drama series House.

Laurie plays Dr Gregory House, a cranky hospital doctor lacking a bedside manner, with a flawless American accent. It is a far cry from his upper-class twit roles in Blackadder and Jeeves and Wooster, which helped to make his name in Britain.

“I’m enjoying the character,” Laurie said during a break from filming. “There is something appealingly adolescent about him. He is dramatic and intense at times but he can be very witty. I get the best of all possible worlds.”

If Americans knew Laurie at all, it was as the father of a talking mouse in Stuart Little, the children’s film. Bryan Singer, director of X-Men, the science fiction series, and who is an executive producer of the new show, had not heard of Laurie but was “floored” by his audition. He had no idea the actor was British.

“I was very lucky to sneak under the wire,” said Laurie, who was not sure what he was auditioning for from the two-page script. He assumed his tape would be thrown unwatched in the bin. “It actually worked to my advantage that he had never heard of me.”

The series began slowly last autumn but was propelled into the top 10 when Fox gave it a slot after American Idol, the ratings giant. The audience for House doubled overnight and has continued to grow weekly, reaching more than 18m viewers last week.

“This rarely happens in American television. It’s a bona fide hit. The word of mouth is really strong,” said Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly.

“People love its blend of mystery and meticulous character study and have fallen head over heels for Hugh Laurie’s complicated doctor.”

House walks with a cane, is addicted to painkillers and has little time for patients, believing that they habitually lie to doctors. His prickly character is loosely based on Sherlock Holmes. In the show he obsessively ferrets out the truth about patients’ unusual medical conditions. He is equally brusque with his colleagues, whom he quizzes impertinently about their private lives.

In last week’s episode he uncovered the infidelity that led a woman who had never been to Africa to contract sleeping sickness. Among his memorable quips is: “Have you ever seen an infected, pierced scrotum?” George Clooney in ER was more obviously dishy and sympathetic to his patients, yet the dishevelled Laurie, 45, is showing unexpected signs of sex appeal.

“It’s a very amusing and perfectly absurd comparison. George Clooney is very easy on the eye, I’m the ogre on the set,” Laurie said modestly.

There are traces of sexual tension at the hospital, nevertheless.

“House has one aspect that drives women crazy,” said Jenson. “He’s so aloof. There is a young woman doctor who is becoming hopelessly enamoured of him because she is constantly seeking his approbation.”

The series also reveals the moody doctor to be an old boyfriend of his female hospital boss.

In real life Laurie’s wife, Jo Green, and their children have remained in London while he finishes filming. “I feel like I’m working on an oil rig right now,” he said. “I’m away from home a lot.”

After all the acclaim Fox has signed up for a second series. Television critics have hailed House as “one of TV’s great shows”, Laurie’s character as a “magnificent creation” and his performance as “grumpy, guarded and brilliant”.

The actor, who has suffered from depression in the past, now has to cope with the demands of success. “Making a new show every eight days is punishing. It’s the quantity that’s the problem. It’s like eating lobster. By the 70th plate you start to go off lobster,” he said.

“We’re doing in eight months what I did over four years with Stephen Fry in Jeeves and Wooster.”

Laurie remains close to his old circle of British friends such as Fry, whom he met at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge and one of his earliest girlfriends was Emma Thompson, the actress. Laurie’s British chums have been supportive of his American career. “Stephen has been very kind,” he said. “He’s seen one or two episodes and seems to approve but maybe they’re all sniggering up their sleeves.”

It remains to be seen whether British audiences will take to Laurie’s freshly minted American accent. “I think I will probably shock and disgust everybody. English people are naturally embarrassed by affectation,” he said. “If you are in France and your friend starts speaking French to the waiter it’s worse than watching a person go to the lavatory. The same may apply here.”

The Times.

Teens turn deaf ear to risks of MP3 players

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Teenagers seem to know that loud music can damage their hearing, yet most see no reason to lower the volume on their iPods, a small study suggests.

In focus-group discussions with students at two high schools in the Netherlands, researchers found that the teens were generally aware that blasting an MP3 player could harm their hearing. Yet most said they usually played their own device at maximum volume and had no plans to change that.

Like many teenagers, the students often denied their own personal risk. Most knew the general hazards of loud music, but believed they had a "low personal vulnerability" to hearing loss, the researchers report in the Journal of Pediatrics.

Given this, lead researcher Ineke Vogel told Reuters Health in an email interview, "we strongly recommend parents to inform their children and to discuss with their children the use of MP3 players and the potential long- term, irreversible consequences for hearing capacity."

Parents can also look for signs of a problem, like when a child complains of ringing in the ears or sounds being "muffled," according to Vogel and co-researcher Dr. Hein Raat, who are both based at the University Medical Center Rotterdam.

Based on the focus-group discussions, though, many parents may be unaware of the hearing risks posed by MP3 players, the researchers note. Of the 73 students in the study, few said their parents had warned them that playing the devices too loud could harm their hearing.

It may also be necessary for MP3 manufacturers to make changes, the researchers note in their report.

Many students in the study said they did not know how to tell when their MP3 players were too loud. Volumes at or above 90 decibels (dB) are believed to be hazardous, Vogel's team notes, but noise levels need to reach 120 dB to 140 dB to become uncomfortable or painful.

Manufacturers, according to the researchers, could equip MP3 players with an indicator that displays the volume level in terms of decibels, along with a signal -- such as a flashing light -- that goes off when decibel levels reach the danger zone.

For now, Vogel and her colleagues recommend that, as a general "rule of thumb," MP3 users set the volume no higher than 60 percent of its full capacity when using "ear bud" style headphones, like those that come with iPods.

With over-the-ear headphones, they recommend 70 percent as the maximum.

Just as there are safety standards for occupational noise exposure, Vogel and her colleagues suggest that more long-range studies are needed to develop safety guidelines for "leisure-time" noise exposure.

Reuters.

McDonald's Egg McMuffin inventor dies at 89

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Herb Peterson, who invented the ubiquitous Egg McMuffin as a way to introduce breakfast to McDonald's restaurants (NYSE:MCD) , has died, a Southern California McDonald's official said Wednesday. He was 89.

Peterson died peacefully Tuesday at his Santa Barbara home, said Monte Fraker, vice president of operations for McDonald's restaurants in that city.

He began his career with McDonald's Corp. as vice president of the company's advertising firm, D'Arcy Advertising, in Chicago. He wrote McDonald's first national advertising slogan, 'Where Quality Starts Fresh Every Day.'
Peterson eventually became a franchisee and was currently co-owner and operator of six McDonald's restaurants in Santa Barbara and Goleta, Fraker said.

Peterson came up with idea for the signature McDonald's breakfast item in 1972. He 'was very partial to eggs Benedict,' Fraker said, and worked on creating something similar.

The egg sandwich consisted of an egg that had been formed in a Teflon circle with the yolk broken, topped with a slice of cheese and grilled Canadian bacon. It was served open-faced on a toasted and buttered English muffin.

The Egg McMuffin made its debut at a restaurant in Santa Barbara that Peterson co-owned with his son, David Peterson.

Fraker said that, although semiretired, Peterson still visited all six of his stores in the Santa Barbara area until last year when his health began to deteriorate.

'He would talk to the customers, visit with the employees. He loved McDonald's,' Fraker said.

Fraker, who said he worked with Peterson for 30 years, said 'he was amazing as far as giving back to the community.'
'He embraced the community and the community embraced him,' Fraker said. 'We loved the man.'
Peterson is survived by his wife, son and three daughters.

A public memorial service will be held April 23 at All Saints by the Sea church in Montecito.

CNN Money.

Massive ice shelf collapsing off Antarctica

Scientists are citing "rapid climate change in a fast-warming region of Antarctica" as the cause of an initial collapse of the Wilkins Ice Shelf. The damage got started at the end of February when an iceberg dropped off and triggered the "runaway disintegration" of a 160-square-mile portion of the 5,282-square-mile shelf.

The ice shelf, which scientists speculate has floated in the Antarctic region for hundreds of years, is succumbing to recent rises in temperature in the area--an average of 0.9 degree Fahrenheit every 10 years for the last 50 years.

This series of pictures that show the beginning of the breakup were taken by NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer sensor, which flies on its Earth Observing System Aqua and Terra satellites.

Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center/NASA

Click the link to CNet News for more information.

Do you want to own a Tablet Macbook?

Review: Modbook Tablet Is a Designer's best friend forever

One look at Axiotron's slate Modbook tablet and it's clear the company has given Apple's 13-inch entry-level laptop the full Steve Austin treatment. Well, minus the 20:1 bionic eye with infrared capabilities. Nevertheless, the end result is a better, (slightly) faster, and, yes, even stronger Mac tablet. Sure, it's the only Mac tablet for now, but this baby is certain to give anyone who dabbles in the dark graphical arts exquisitely rendered heart palpitations.

One minor nit before we start examining the goods. Some reviews have described the Modbook as a touchscreen device. While, technically, this is true, it's important to note we're not talking capacitive touching here. In fact, you can only use the provided Wacom digitizer pen and its 11 nibs as an input device. While that lack of skin on screen action, coupled with its high price, probably keeps the Modbook from being a truly mainstream device, it is by no means a deal breaker.

The tablet touts both Bluetooth and the standard two USB ports should you want to use it with a full-size keyboard and mouse. Hell, you can even mount it on your wall or hook it up to an external monitor via the standard mini-DVI port (like we did), if you prefer a slightly larger screen to show off your squiggly Garfield drawings.

In fact, given that the Modbook is essentially a niche device, it's still impressively versatile. It comes pre-loaded with Apple's Leopard, including the OS's surprisingly accurate built-in Inkwell handwriting recognition software. Using their formidable engineering kung fu, the folks at Axiotron also crammed a GPS unit into the Modbook, which -- ahem -- lets you geo-locate to your heart's content.

As far as looks go, Modbook stays true to Apple's overriding aesthetic sensibilities. It's clear Axiotron has done some Frankensteining here and there (the bottom portion of the tablet is identical to the MacBook while the top half is basically a Wacom Penabled Digitizer), but the Modbook still looks like something Steve Jobs could potentially unveil from an envelope. Both the shell and interior display frame are built from aircraft-quality magnesium alloy -- not that anodized crap. Axiotron also went for the trifecta of metal plating -- that's nickel humping copper and topped off with a little chrome for good measure. While that combination certainly attracts smudges, it's also extremely scratch-resistant.

Our only major quibble with the Modbook is its lack of graphical zing and relatively small screen. For designers, Intel's standard GMA X3100 with 144 MB of SDRAM doesn't exactly do the trick, and it would've been nice to include something like Nvidia's GeForce 8600M GT cards that come standard on MacBook Pros. Similarly, the 13-inch screen size, while bigger than other slate-style tablets out there, still isn't the ideal dimension for a device that purports to be ideal for artists and designers.

So yeah, it's clear the Modbook isn't for everyone. If your days consist of endless spreadsheets or you're some hack banging out gadget reviews, the $2,300 base price is a hard thing to justify. That said, the fact that Axiotron has transformed a run-of-the-mill MacBook into a hyper-specialized device is probably a smart move considering Apple is undoubtedly working on its own mainstream 'Macblet'. —Bryan Gardiner

WIRED: Built-in GPS. Badass handwriting recognition software accurately renders chicken scratch into coherent words. Durable screen and shell makes porting this pricey device a relatively worry-free ordeal.

TIRED: Did we mention this is a pricey (US$2,290) device? Stylus pen occasionally loses connectivity or freezes and requires reset. Heavy; weighs as much as a 15-inch Macbook Pro (5.5 lbs).

US$2,290, axiotron.com

Wired.