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Money matters:
Graham Macdonald MBMG International Ltd.
This is not the first credit crisis and it won’t be the last, part 2
In 1907, things were of course tad different to now: banks
declined to lend money out to anyone that needed it at less than 100% interest.
Nowadays people are panicking at more than 7.5%. Once more, Morgan stepped up to
the breach. He persuaded the big financial institutions to stump up another
USD25 million. However, this wasn’t enough and the same companies had to pledge
a further USD10 million. Initially this appeared to have worked.
Still, the problems came. Unrelenting creditors kept insisting on having their
money back. The problem looked to be escalating to a scale beyond that which
even Morgan and his associates could afford. Clearly even more liquidity was
needed. Morgan gathered his group one last time and they vowed to put in another
USD25 million. Fortunately that was enough to break the back of the crisis and
everything started to return to normal.
However, there were people who thought that Morgan had planned all of this from
the start just so he could buy things on the cheap. The Anti-Trust faction
manoeuvred things so that a Federal Reserve Act was in place before the start of
World War I which was meant to stop this type of situation. You could maybe
compare this with the effects of and responses to globalization these days?
However much of a hero Morgan and his confreres were perceived to be at the
time; it is only with hindsight that we can see the ultimate dangers of their
actions. Had there been a systemic banking system failure in 1907 the human
misery and economic suffering would have been widespread. Not nearly as
widespread, however, as it was to ultimately prove in 1929 when the system
supported bubble had inflated to even greater proportions and its inevitable
bursting occurred with devastating global consequences.
The real question now isn’t whether we face problems ahead - it’s whether we’re
at 1907 again, 1929 again or somewhere totally new. The reality is that 2008
will bring its own problems but echoes of the two previous crises will ring out
loudly throughout the year ahead of us. We agree with Mark Twain that “history
doesn’t repeat; it chimes…”
Another highly respected market commentator with a pen almost as sharp as Twain
is Tim Price who recently said of what is going on now, “The point being, a
monumental financial debacle involving a deficiency of savings and a secular
credit pyramid, naive borrowers and unprincipled mortgage brokers, unprincipled
mortgage lenders, unprincipled investment banks and naive investors occurred
during an otherwise benign economic environment. ‘Only’ the housing market
became problematic, but that was sufficient ultimately to provoke international
financial crisis. Now the IMF has added its voice to the chorus expressing
concern over prospects for the UK property market. Citigroup’s Buckland and
Sharp-Pierson are probably right, in that the tide has turned for credit markets
for this cycle, and not in a good way. It would be nice to think that the equity
bull run still has legs, as they suggest - but the gathering and deepening storm
clouds (not least the ominous rises in the prices of oil and gold) suggest
otherwise, at least as far as western markets are concerned.”
There are many reasons why financial crises happen, but a recurrent theme
throughout history is that many people tend to think that things aren’t as bad
as they really are until realization dawns, way too late. For instance, there
are almost four million people in the UK spending more than 25% of their wages
paying off unsecured lending (the government’s official definition of
financially overstretched). And yet only one in 45 people surveyed will admit to
pollsters that they are heavily in debt, according to debt management company
Chiltern.
“Unfortunately debts don’t go away, they need to be re-paid and ignoring them
will just make the situation worse,” said a spokeswoman for Chiltern. Too true
and when that happens at a global scale, it’s a recipe for disaster.
The Bank of England has basically echoed this and has said the UK equity market
is “particularly vulnerable” to a downturn. As has been pointed out, things over
the last twenty five years have changed significantly whereby most working
adults have got some access to the markets by either investing directly or via
pensions and life policies. They could take a real hit if the markets plunged.
The BoE has stated that there is a real risk of the UK financial markets taking
a beating as the credit crunch has some way to go yet.
With money becoming more expensive and loans harder to get, it is the first time
buyer and ‘Buy-to-Let’ mortgage payers who are most likely to suffer first. The
former are presently paying about twenty percent of their income in mortgages.
What is significant about this is that it is the highest proportion since just
before the last property crash. This is exacerbated by the latter where rental
yields are at least a couple of percentage points lower than the cost of a
mortgage. This may precipitate an even bigger slowdown in the housing market
than was first envisaged.
The knock-on effect is there for all to see. The BoE has issued further warnings
in a recent report where it says, “The financial system is more than usually
vulnerable to further adverse shocks - sourced either in recent events or from
new sources, such as the equity markets or a weakening commercial property
market.” This will give many people much to worry about in the run up towards
the end of the year. The report goes on, “A deeper downturn in the United States
and rising credit defaults could trigger a further round of asset price falls.”
The mechanisms now exist to bail out systemic problems but we should see these
as being palliative treatments that will ease the immediate symptoms and
suffering. The underlying causes need a far more radical treatment. A bail-out
will initially ease the pain but the excessive debt will have to be worked out
of the system - only one type of surgery is known for this - a severe and
protected recession or depression. Anyone who would have you believe otherwise
has not studied their economic history.
If they had they would tell you that real diversification among all asset
classes, an active adaptive approach to asset allocation and a healthy regard
for preservation of capital are the three weapons that you need in your armoury
at times like this, now as always. Plus ca change…
You have been warned!
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The above data and research was compiled from sources
believed to be reliable. However, neither MBMG International Ltd nor its
officers can accept any liability for any errors or omissions in the above
article nor bear any responsibility for any losses achieved as a result of any
actions taken or not taken as a consequence of reading the above article. For
more information please contact Graham Macdonald on
[email protected]@mbmg-international.com.com
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Snap Shots: by Harry Flashman
There is so much more to photography than record shots
 Simple
shots are those you take of your wife at the beach with her sister and
your brother-in-law. You know what I mean, and you have taken lots of
them in your lifetime. Photographically, we call these ‘record shots’ as
all they are doing is recording and event. No ‘art’ or even artistic
input by the photographer.
Here’s a simple (and cheap) way to put some art into your photography by
using filters, without having to buy expensive filter kits. Filters can
be used with any camera, film, digital, compact or SLR, but digital will
certainly give you an instant result. I also believe in not spending too
much on filters, and when I say cheap, the first one costs 1 baht (and
is recoverable) and gives you a center-spot soft focus filter. It will
enhance portraits, particularly of women, giving a soft dreamy look to
the photo. Using this filter just means the center is in focus and the
edges are nicely soft and blurred. This effect is used by portrait and
wedding photographers all over the world to produce that wonderful
“romantic” photograph.
You will need one can of hairspray, a one baht coin and a clear piece of
glass or plastic (perspex) around 7.5 cm square. This piece of perspex
needs to be as thin as possible to keep it optically correct. One supply
source can be hardware shops, glaziers and even picture framers.
Having cut out your square, put the coin in the center of the perspex
and then gently wave the hairspray over the lot. Let it dry and gently
flick the coin off and you have your first special effects filter – the
center spot soft focus.
Now set your camera lens on the largest aperture you can (around f5.6 or
f4 is fine). Focus on your subject, keeping the face in the center of
the screen. Bring up your magic FX filter and place it over the lens and
what do you see? The face is in focus and the edges are all blurred!
You’ve got it. Shoot! Take a few shots, especially ones with the light
behind your subject. Try altering the f stop as well, as this changes
the apparent size of the clear spot in the middle. Simple, cheap and
easy art.
Here is another, the Super Sunset Filter. This one will give you that
wonderfully warm “tropical sunset” which will make people envious that
they aren’t over here to enjoy such spectacular endings to the day. To
produce the warm glow, just take off your sunglasses and place one side
over the lens. It’s that simple! Just look at the difference yourself,
with and without the sunnies. The camera will see it the same way.
Soft romantic effects can be produced super inexpensively as well. The
first is to gently breathe on the end of the lens just before you take
the shot. Your warm breath will impart a “mist” to produce a wonderfully
misty portrait, or that early morning mist look for landscapes. Remember
that the “misting” only lasts a few seconds, so make sure you have the
camera pre-focussed and ready to shoot. If you have control over the
aperture, try around f4 as well.
Here’s another. Use a piece of stocking (pantyhose) material. Stretch it
over the lens and tie it on with a rubber band. Cut a small hole in the
middle and go ahead and shoot romantic portraits.
There are also other ways of bending, refracting or just generally
fooling the camera’s lens system. This you do by holding transparent
materials in front of the lens when taking your photographs. I suggest
you get small pieces of glass or perspex (around 10 cm by 10 cm) and use
these as the final filter. You can even use semi-transparent material
like shower screen glass. The concept is just to produce a “different”
effect, one that the camera will pick up. It is very difficult to
predict the outcomes in these situations, but you can be pleasantly
amazed at some of the results. The main idea is to give it a try!
Modern Medicine:
by Dr. Iain Corness, Consultant
How to beat Alzheimer’s!
I have stopped worrying about Alzheimer’s disease. Between
Google and my four year old daughter, I can find anything. In the mornings
when I leave home, there is Little Miss, with index finger outstretched,
showing me just where I parked the car last night. And Google, the patron
saint of writers, is always there to remind me of the things I had
forgotten. Now all I have to do is get my brain hot-wired into a wireless
network and I can meet the world head on.
However, we’re not quite there yet, so we (you and me) have to retain as
much cerebral function as we can. And it turns out that it is not all that
difficult.
We have known for some time that if you don’t use your muscles, they waste
away. By not using your hands for physical work, the skin on your hands gets
thin. However, we also know that if you use your muscles again, the muscle
tissue builds up and becomes strong once more. If you use your hands again,
the skin builds up and becomes thicker. The message is that all is not lost!
Recovery is possible.
However, we were always told that the one organ of the body that could not
reverse the wasting process was the Central Nervous System. Once it started
to fail, that was it. Dementia was just around the corner.
That view has recently been challenged and the results are comforting, to
say the least. Experiments have been carried out that showed that by
inducing stress in an animal resulted in chemicals being released. This on
its own was nothing new, but what was new was the fact that some of these
chemicals produced a difference in the brain’s anatomy! The idea that the
brain could not change was incorrect! It could be ‘short-circuited’
resulting in a new wiring pathway.
What was even more exciting was that if the animal was restored to its own
‘safe’ and non-threatening environment, then the brain reverted to its
pre-stressed anatomy! It was possible to ‘re-wire’ the brain.
In turn this has led to much research into the effects of stress and its
reversal, and then on to Alzheimer ’s disease (if I have remembered to spell
it correctly)! And if it were possible for its reversal too!
Returning to the research, we have shown that stress can physically damage
nerve cells used in storing memory. We have also found that mindless
watching of the goggle-box also produces a decline in brain function. In
fact the numbers are more worrying than that. It has now been found that
people with no stimulating leisure activities, and who are couch potatoes
instead, are nearly four times more likely to develop dementia compared to
those people who have leisure stimuli and do not waste hours in front of the
TV.
Taking that a step further, and turning the scientific data around to be
useful, it has been found that in being the converse to the couch potato,
intellectually stimulating leisure activities had a ‘protective’ effect for
the brain and its capabilities. What is more, they have also found that if
you are doing a job you enjoy, then this was again protective, but a dull
job with no stimulus or challenge was another way to head downhill.
This does not mean that we all have to take up chess tomorrow, because in
place of intellectually stimulating hobbies, it has been found that physical
exercise itself stops memory loss and stimulates growth of nerve cells.
Another protective factor appears to be marriage! Those who have never
married have twice as high an incidence of dementia than those who are
married. So there you are, rather than say that your wife is driving you
insane, it appears that she is driving you towards sanity instead.
So the secret towards staving off dementia and Al whatsisname’s disease is
to have a job you enjoy, get some exercise, watch a very limited amount of
TV and settle down with a good cook (sorry, that should have read “a good
book”).
Heart to Heart with Hillary
Dear Hillary,
Dear Mistersingha,
How could I ever have doubted you? Just when I was ready to strike you out
of my rolodex (remember them?), up you come with a (small) bottle of Bacardi
Orange and a Mars bar. Such beneficence! What a paragon of largesse you have
become. It was a veritable cornucopia in a Tesco-Lotus bag you dropped off
at the office, though I doubt that one small bottle and a Mars bar really
qualifies as cornucopia. However, Mistersingha, my purple petunia, I do
thank you and I can honestly say your offerings have been drunk and eaten.
Dear Hillary,
We are coming over your way again, after five years away from Thailand. We
have kept up to date by reading the Pattaya Mail, and we always read your
column first, Petal! There must have been many new restaurants in that time,
can you recommend a few we should try?
The Travelers
Dear Travelers,
Thank you for the nice words, but you neglected to tell me just where you
will be going in Thailand. I also suggest that rather than coming through
me, go to Miss Terry Diner in Pattaya at [email protected] or in
Chiang Mai go to [email protected]. I hope you find our new
restaurants simply delectable. You can always invite me too.
Dear Hillary,
First off I would like to say I love reading your column. I do not have
promises of champagne or chocolates and I am sorry for that. I do have a
question for you though. Do all girls in Pattaya flirt with all tourists or
am I just a walking sign board that says here I am come take advantage of
me? Well I don’t really know who is taking advantage of who but at times I
feel that there really is a spark, a kind of connection. Am I dreaming this
or is it possible?
Dreaming
Dear Dreaming,
First off, thank you for your kind words, though wrapped around a bottle of
bubbly makes them even better. Now to your specific questions – do all girls
in Pattaya flirt? No, all girls do not. A percentage do, and that percentage
increases exponentially as you approach the bar areas, until after you have
passed through the “Welcome! Sit down please,” threshold, the percentage is
nigh on 100 percent. Is there a spark, a kind of connection? Of course there
is! That connection is called “money”. As the book says, No money, No Honey!
Dear Hillary,
If the bars are to close at one in the morning, it means that my eardrums
will not have to suffer the onslaught of unmitigated noise masquerading as
music, it means that I will have every opportunity to go home to bed in a
somewhat sober state, it means that if I feel lonely after midnight I won’t
have to pay bar fines, it means that I will be able to wake up in the
mornings feeling fresh and alive. Yikes! The thought of waking up in the
mornings rather than late afternoons, the thought of having good eardrums
capable of hearing my landlord bashing on my door for his rent money, the
thought of becoming sober and actually feeling my hangover, the thought of
attracting a pretty girl and falling in love is enough ruin my very
existence. Is there something in between these extremes that could be
regarded as appealing?
Mighty Mouse
Dear Mighty Mouse,
Still traipsing around the bars I see. Still getting drunk. Unable to get up
till the afternoons. Oh Mighty Mouse, what are you doing to yourself. You
used to be such an upstanding member of your community. Perhaps the people
you associate with have pulled you down to these depths, Petal. I hope not.
But help is at hand from Hillary. There are many alternatives, Mighty Mouse.
For example, you can stay at home and watch old detective movies on the late
night cable TV. They should appeal to you. You don’t have to be lonely
either, as I believe the Ministry of the Interior will be manning an after
midnight hot line (perhaps that will be a ‘warm’ line, on reflection), for
lonely people such as yourself, with no particular place to go, as Chuck
Berry once sang (before midnight naturally). Of course you will have to be
older than 35 years of age to be out at night after midnight, even if it is
just walking home by yourself, but I’m sure you knew that already. Think of
the money you will be saving. Think about what you can do with that money
too – but make up your mind before the pub shuts!
Learn to Live to Learn: with Andrew Watson
Swimming alone in an ocean
What is the job of schools, if not to prepare students for the
reality of the world outside? Indeed, it could be strongly
argued that it is their duty to teach students how to function
in a ‘global market economy’. Here perhaps, some kinds of
idealist might be slightly blind to the possibility of
acknowledging a centrist (political) strategy which unites ideas
of market with another kind of idealism, reminiscent of the
politics of Blair’s (1998) ‘third way’. If this means a model
which constructs education “as a commodity to be bought in
accordance with their capacity to pay” (Bridges & McLaughlin,
1996) then the benefits of considering this paradigm should be
acknowledged. For instance, a “consumer” of education would be
entitled to expect increased accountability and responsibility
for performance and would expect to see results improve. You’re
not paying for ‘C’ grades, I presume. In this sense, it is
difficult to argue against an ideology such as a capitalist
market economy, which is grounded in what might be termed
‘pragmatic’ realism. Following on from this, in terms of
implementing something like the IBO mission statement, which is
itself a statement of left of centre ideology, it appears that
one of the central questions is, “To what extent is ideology the
product?” Indeed, the growth of international schools can itself
be regarded as a pragmatic response to a market led desire.
Without resorting to cynicism, it is perhaps surprising, in
light of Blair’s “Third Way” (1997) which embraced a new
socio-economic reality, that he took so long to acknowledge that
the IBO might hold one of the keys to unlocking a better future
(2006). Yet interestingly, he stresses that schools, like other
organisations, do not succeed because of the programme they run,
but because of how they are run.
“A strong, ethical, educated, qualified Head Teacher. Well
motivated staff. Attention to the basics, but also imparting the
thrill of knowledge. Discipline. Good manners and life skills.
Schools succeed that have a powerful ethos, sense of purpose,
pride in themselves and what they do. In this, schools are like
any other institutions in public or private sector. The premium
today - whether in a successful business or public service - is
the ability to be creative, to adapt and adjust, to internalise
external influence and practice.” (Speech at Specialist Schools
and Academies Trust Conference, 30 November 2006)
It is useful to consider the reality of teacher’s lives ‘at the
coal face’ in relation to the idealistic discourse of
politicians like Blair. Teachers would probably readily
acknowledge that there are daily impediments to the
implementation of ideology and one of the reasons for this is
that staff might have little or no sense of involvement with
decision making and school direction. Organisationally, the
perceived need for future generations to be educated to be more
internationally minded has evolved alongside the essentially
pragmatic need for a child to be educated and probably, in many
cases, for someone, somewhere, to make some money. After all,
forty years on from the birth of the IBO, there is little
empirical evidence (Walker 2003) to suggest that whilst the IBO
may have succeeded in developing or producing individuals who
embrace a ‘world view of the problems of humanity’ or that any
particular good has come of it.
According to many, including Tony Blair, “personalised learning”
is the key to modern education, requiring a distinctive approach
from school to school and child to child. It is in my view, this
tacit and essentially optimistic recognition of the reality of
the relationships between government, school and students, which
marks the bridge between ideology and pragmatism; a statement of
“ideological pragmatism” perhaps. One hopes that Mr Blair would
appreciate the ‘spin’!
But before I lose you in polysyllabic fog (thanks for staying
with us) maybe it’s important to clear the air. The core
“business” of education has always been and will always be,
teaching and learning and anything that interrupts, impedes or
distorts this essential truth in a school environment means that
things have gone badly askew.
The inherently transient nature of international school
populations is one of the reasons why, if you’re a parent or
student, you always have to remain on your toes. You simply
cannot take anything for granted. For instance, the thing about
recruitment, as acknowledged by Dave Nassef of Pitney Bowes, is
that organisations recruit people, by and large, who are suited
to the organisation, rather than any mission, which is often
seen as peripheral and abstract rather than central and
concrete. I have seen plenty of cases where little attempt is
made to identify the core values of teachers. Weak leaders look
only for “yes” people, preferably with (if it is possible in
some cases!) less experience than themselves. Then it’s the
familiar cycle of clique construction, no accountability,
bullying of those who don’t “fall into line” and then, why
hallelujah! Another recruitment round happens; attended by weeks
of all expenses paid global travel, with little expectation of
any kind of result (because the objectives have never been
expressed and nobody is accountable!).
Then there are “the few” whose commitment to a greater good
marks them apart. Sadly, too often they are voices in the
wilderness. Sometimes, it seems that this imbalance is reflected
in the “bigger picture”. Even a global, rapidly expanding
organisation like the IBO have had trouble ensuring quality in
the delivery of their programmes. Even as believers in their
mission might feel like they are swimming alone in an ocean,
with demand growing at an ever increasing rate, dilution of the
IBO mission in some schools is less a real risk, more a
guarantee.
Many schools seem to leap towards the IB programmes blindly,
without genuine understanding, seeing it more as a branding and
marketing option and opportunity, less a programme to fuel real
change. I’m not at all sure sometimes, how some consciences
manage to live with this at all. As Arsène Wenger said, “The
most important thing is that you wake up and can go to work.”
Conscience intact, preferably.
Next week: The recruitment cycle
DOC ENGLISH Teaching your kids how to learn English:
Monitoring your child’s progress under a personal tutor
Hi, welcome back. Last week we looked at
what to look for in a personal tutor and how to engage one. This week we
look at how to monitor your child’s progress under a personal tutor and
how to find out if they are being ‘over tutored’.
Once you have established with your tutor what should be taught and when
(plus what should be paid!), then you can begin tutoring. If your child
is being tutored at home, provide a quiet area away from any
distractions. Provide a few drinks and snacks for both tutor and child,
so that they can stay refreshed and keep their energy levels up. Ensure
your child has stationery and paper. If your child is attending a
language centre and being tutored there, ensure you arrive early so that
both tutor and child have time to relax and meet each other before
starting.
You may wish to stay and observe whilst your tutor is working, but try
to not interfere. Your tutor may feel uncomfortable if he feels he is
being watched and you will distract your child’s attention away from
their tutor. Provide a fun activity or go for an ice cream together
afterwards, so you can talk about the lesson and unwind. By going for an
ice cream after each lesson, your child will associate the tutoring with
a tasty reward and will feel more positive about it. The trick is to
find a language school that’s next to an ice cream parlor.
After a few weeks of tutoring, begin to notice any changes in your
child’s attitude to the burden of extra lessons. Are they enthusiastic
about being tutored? Has there been any change in their motivation for
learning, their ability at school and/or their confidence? Flick through
your child’s school books. Are they managing to finish work? Do they
look like they have been enjoying the task and presented it nicely? Are
the teacher’s comments positive? Is your child getting higher test
results? If so, then the tutoring is working.
If things aren’t working out, discuss things with your tutor and allow
him to suggest changes to the tutoring schedule or the content of the
lessons. It’s important to build a relationship based on trust between
your tutor, your child and yourself. You should not feel bad about
making recommendations to your tutor and your tutor should be skilled
enough to accommodate recommendations into their tutoring to and suggest
improvements of their own.
It’s obvious that tutoring can benefit most children at some time in
their lives (as long as you can afford it!), but how can you tell if
your child is in danger of being ‘over-tutored’ or ‘over-schooled’? In
addition, how can you tell if your child is not enjoying school, or
finding the challenges there too great? What symptoms should you look
for and what can you do about it?
Children can find the challenges at school overwhelming sometimes and
they may display their anxiety in many different ways. Younger children
may return to babyish habits, such as thumb sucking and clinging to a
rag or toy. They may find it difficult to sleep at night and may be
reluctant to communicate. In older children, there may be violent
outbursts and unwarranted aggression. Children may make regular claims
that they are too sick to attend school and they may also lack
enthusiasm for carrying out homework tasks.
All of the above may indicate that your child is finding the challenges
at school too great. They may also display similar symptoms if there are
other problems at school, such as a problems integrating into school
life and making friends. Perhaps there have also been occurrences of
bullying or your child may feel ‘picked on’.
If your child is displaying anxiety about school (or tutoring) there are
many things you can do to make their life easier. First, talk to your
child about the problem, and then make an appointment to see their
teacher. If ‘over-schooling’ is the cause, then talk to the teacher
about the volume and complexity of their homework. Allow the teacher to
suggest changes. If your child is struggling in class, again allow the
teacher to suggest changes, such as allowing your child to work in a
different group and on different tasks, more matched to their ability.
Your child may also be eligible to receive help from support staff.
Conversely, problems at home can cause anxiety at school. If there is a
problem at home, then you should explain this clearly to your teacher.
It will help them make provisions for your child. Don’t feel shy about
coming forward. Your teacher may be able to help ease your child’s
anxiety about the situation.
If over-tutoring is the cause of the anxiety, then decrease the amount
of tutoring, or ask the tutor to provide a wider variety of fun
activities, not just reading and writing.
That’s all for this week mums and dads. As always, if you have any
questions, suggestions or free Marmite on offer you can mail me at:
[email protected]. Enjoy spending time with your child.
Let’s go to the movies:
by Mark Gernpy
Now playing in Pattaya
The Spiderwick Chronicles: US Adventure/Fantasy – With
Mary-Louise Parker. A broken family moves into an old house that has
been in the family for years, in hopes of “starting over.” Freddie
Highmore impressively plays twin brothers, Jarod and Simon. Jarod
discovers a book written by his uncle depicting in great detail the
creatures of a “hidden world” all around us. In the process of reading
the book he awakens an evil Ogre and a horde of goblins hell bent on
obtaining the knowledge hidden within the book to destroy mankind, and
creature-kind as well. A richly detailed family film – although it might
cause nightmares for young children, it will delight older ones, for it
tends to be truly scary. Generally favorable reviews.
Rambo: US Action/Drama – Rambo has retired to northern Thailand,
running a longboat on the Salween River. On the nearby Thai-Burma
border, the world’s longest-running civil war, the Burmese-Karen
conflict, rages into its 60th year, and Rambo, despite himself, soon
becomes involved. Rated R in the US for strong graphic bloody violence,
sexual assaults, grisly images, and language. Mixed or average reviews.
Mist: US Horror – I loved this film, bleak and uncompromisingly
misanthropic though it is. Demonstrates Stephen King’s favorite point
that people are basically no good. Lock a few of them in a room, and
they’ll soon find reasons to start killing each other. And some of it
done in the name of religion, of course, as by the horrible religious
zealot in this film. I loved the author’s solution for her. The story is
of terrified townspeople trapped in a grocery store by a strange mist,
with “things” lurking inside. It has one of the most chilling and
dispiriting endings to a film I’ve ever seen. Rated R in the US for
violence, terror, and gore. Mixed or average reviews.
10,000 B.C.: US Adventure/Drama – A ridiculous action and
spectacle piece set in a wholly imaginary prehistoric time, where they
speak English and there is an incredibly advanced civilization that has
built vast, impressive pyramids. Not to be taken as a reflection of
current scientific thought on prehistoric man, despite the filmmakers’
extensive two-year research effort at the La Brea Tar Pits and the Tala
Game Reserve in Durban, South Africa, studying the bone structure of
prehistoric creatures.
The film is marvelously photographed in the cold and snow of a New
Zealand winter, in the hot and humid climate of Cape Town, South Africa,
and in an arid desert landscape in the African nation Namibia.
Director Roland Emmerich in the past has depicted vast-scale alien wars
and environmental catastrophes in some of the most successful
blockbusters of the past decade, including Independence Day and The Day
After Tomorrow, but also made boring and disastrous movies like
Godzilla.
Here, rehashing a myth about a hero who emerges from an isolated tribe
to challenge an empire, Emmerich seeks to transport audiences into a
sweeping adventure – and does so in a mindless way. He is a director
committed to delivering old-fashioned, undemanding escapist fare – at
all costs. And the costs are high indeed: In the name of visceral
thrills and chills, he sacrifices narrative logic, emotionally involving
stories, and intriguing characters with any semblance to real
individuals. As he does here. I’m afraid I was mostly laughing at it,
when I wasn’t cringing. But everyone agrees the visuals are terrific.
Generally negative reviews.
Jumper: US Adventure/Sci-Fi – Remember to check your brains at
the door and you’ll be all right – provided you enjoy wild action
movies. Samuel L. Jackson is a hoot as an evil fanatic with shocking
white hair. It’s about a young man who can teleport to any location he
wishes, and those out to kill him. You will certainly enjoy some of the
photogenic places he “jumps” to. Generally negative reviews.
P.S. I Love You: US Comedy/Drama – Reviewers think Hilary Swank
is miscast as the romantic lead in this clichéd film about loss and
love. Targets an older female audience. Generally negative reviews.
Chocolate: Thai Action – A superior Thai action film with a new
martial arts star, who is really amazing. Within the conventions of a
martial arts movie, it’s quite inventive. If you like Thai martial arts,
go see this one – it’s got everything.
Salad Tadeaw: Thai Action/Fantasy – Nine kids find themselves
stranded on a remote island where they encounter pirates and giant beach
creatures. Pretty standard fare, except for the kids, who steal the show
The Ghost and Master Boh: Thai Comedy – Your usual Thai low-class
comedy with the usual stable of comedians.
Scheduled to
open Thu. Mar. 20
Shutter: US Horror – This is a remake of the wildly
successful 2004 Thai chiller which starred heartthrob Ananda Everingham
– the top Thai film in 2004. After they have a horrible accident, a pair
of newlyweds sees evidence of a supernatural presence in their photos.
Five Reasons why Gmail
stands out among them all
Gmail has become a part of our lives. A big one for
many. And for those who don’t have an account yet, here’s what you are
missing:
1) Space. Lots of space.
6497 MB available to you as of today, and counting! This is as close
as it gets to having unlimited space. Ask your friend to send you emails
with attachments of 10 MB a day and it would still take him 2 years to
fill up your mailbox. My own Gmail mailbox has over 2500 emails and yet
it never crossed the 5% mark. Gmail is very generous at this feature so
why not take advantage of this? Never delete emails again. Use this as
your email backup. Or how about using Gmail as your virtual 6.5GB Flash
Drive?
2) POP? Free. IMAP? Yes, Free.
The feature we always wished for with free web-based email is to be
able to download emails to your emailing software on your computer like
MS Outlook. Gmail lets you do just that with POP download feature. The
best part, its Free!
The same for IMAP. Don’t download but sync your emails on your computer,
laptop or even your mobile phone through the IMAP feature. Every action
is automatically synchronized with all your devices. Mobile users can
check their mail by pointing their browser to http://m.gmail.com
There’s more. You can even download emails from other accounts that you
have POP access to Gmail mailbox. This allows you to check multiple
email accounts from one location.
3) Speed
With the standard version of Gmail, it’s almost as quick to check
your mails as you were doing with the email software on your computer.
The web-based email is fast and highly responsive. Try your hand at it
and find out if it’s fast enough for you.
4) Kick spam in the face
Spam and junk mails are the annoying part of our communication life.
Get rid of it. Gmail is very effective when it comes to blocking
unwanted messages. To my experience, Gmail leads at this feature. It can
never be a 100% clean mailbox, but for Gmail, 99% is possible.
5) Forgot that mail? Search it!
We love Google and we know it’s the best search engine on the
planet. Use the same technology to search your email. Looking for an
email sent to you 2 years ago? Remember what it was about, put in those
keywords, and let Gmail search feature find it in a flash!
Other features that will help make your communication life better may
include archiving emails, auto-saving into Drafts as you compose a new
mail, chatting with your contacts from the mailbox itself, really “Quick
Contacts”, displaying emails of same context in a group or
“conversations”, and countless more… Judge it yourself and let us know
what you think about it.
For more tips and tricks to enhance the way you use your computer, visit
www.mrtechsavvy.com
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Just for Geeks
Why not backpack your ideas, to-do lists, notes,
clippings, photos and have them on the go? Check out this really cool
organizer tool - www.backpackit.com. |
Ewan, Winner of the Just
for Geeks Answer
and Win, shows off his 2GB Flash Drive.
Does the word computer seem like “100110110” to you?
Ask Mr. Tech Savvy for help. Or if you’d like to impress the ladies with
your computer skills, suggest a tip and find it featured here next week!
Go ahead, send them to
[email protected]
Till then… Tata ;-)
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