You think the new AIG Tower in Hong Kong looks like a mobile phone? Wait till you see this:
Crazy idea! The high-rise mobile
MILLIONAIRE mobile phone salesman “Crazy” John Ilhan has unveiled his radical design for a $40 million tower in the shape of a phone.
The distinctive 120m highrise in City Rd, Southbank, would house his multi-million-dollar communications empire and 166 luxury apartments.
Mr Ilhan, who put forward his “phone tower” plan earlier this year, hopes his distinctive building will become a Melbourne landmark.
“Every country has a building of some sort. Sydney has got the Opera House — why not this for Melbourne?” he told the Herald Sun.
Look. As you could probably see as I tugged my luggage off my taxi, I was there because I had a flight to catch, and therefore probably had no interest at that point in time in inspecting your hottest property in town. And as you could probably judge from my pace of walking, I did not have much time, if any, to entertain you.
Therefore, blocking the footpath between me and the entrance to the station would probably not raise my interest in your apartment deal. No, instead you just made me bloody furious and I am not sorry for bumping into you in full force together with my 20kg piece of luggage.
That BitTorrent case sure did cause quite a bit of stir around technology sites. But what’s this about spending years in a PRC prison and flea markets around the corner?
Hong Kong is not China. They are under completely different jurisdictions. Is that clear mate? Criminals convicted in Hong Kong never serve their sentences in a PRC prison, just as criminals convicted in the UK don’t get sent to a French prison.
Furthermore, Hong Kong is a common law jurisdiction, and I haven’t seen any Americans grasp the significance of that. Americans. Ignorant as always.
(BTW has anyone seen the full text of the judgement yet? Case number is TMCC1286/2005.)
CX2034, Hong Kong -> Beijing, October 18 03:25 - 06:35
Yeah, a red-eye flight. It was pretty interesting in several ways:
Nearly everything at the HKIA shut down after midnight. Even the drinking fountains… damn. The only places still open were Cafe de Coral and Ajisen Ramen. Cafe de Coral was doing better business than Ajisen by far; loads of immigration and customs officers were having their supper there.
They closed down the people mover as it is being extended to a new building outside of the restricted area. Actually how does that work?
First time at HKIA that the plane was at a remote gate and we had to take a bus ride, because…
… CX2034 was a cargo plane. Being a cargo plane means we had a pretty long bus ride from the passenger terminal to the air cargo terminal. Also, everyone were allocated seats at the very back of the plane, and the flight attendants had us stay where we were assigned for the entire flight, in order to maintain the plane’s stability.
This year’s Chung Yeung Festival is on October 11; it’s that time again for many local Chinese people to pay respect to the dead. As per tradition, people provide offerings to their ancestors in a bid to improve their afterlife; the offering made in the form of burning them gifts that resembles everyday goods such as televisions, cars, or more recently, laptops, mobile phones, WiFi routers and so on. Usually these are made out of paper for a better burn. And with today’s technology, the paper imitations are getting pretty damn good at resembling the appearance of the real stuff. Have a look at this on eBay for an example.
The view of West Kowloon outside the office window reminds me that a goal post is going up there soon. Last week, it got a name — the International Commerce Centre. The blurb reads, “ICC and Two ifc on the opposite shore will form the Victoria Harbour Goal Posts. Players will be able to enjoy Aussie Rules from an exclusive angle.” I wonder how long before somebody tries to score a goal from the top of Star Ferry? Now that would be an interesting game…
… if they can see where the goal posts are in the midst of all these respirable suspended particulate matter in the air, that is.
I’ve always wondered why the government insists on an underground Central-Wanchai Bypass, instead of underwater so that no ground need to be created for it to go under.
Apparently Swire Properties think so too, and they’re now saying it’s technically feasible to have it underwater. Their alternative proposal is actually pretty reasonable and one that I’d like to see implemented. Normally I don’t advocate for yet more road-building and want to see public transport improved instead, but in this case I can see why the Bypass is needed (public transport already stretched to its limits, no alternative road for people not wanting to go into Central, etc.)—the arguments have already been rehashed to death.
The other question is, why is Swire doing this even though the government will probably ignore them, just as they did with Swire’s West Kowloon proposal? Is it all marketing? Or could it be that they are smart enough to see the value that improving Hong Kong’s liveability brings to them?
No, this is not about some exciting new home-theatre technology…
Went to watch the new Willy Wonka movie with Sharon today (great fun movie BTW). Amazingly, not a single mobile phone rang during the entire movie. Actually apart from the occasional laughter, the audience were dead quiet. No chatter, nothing. Yes, we are in Hong Kong.
I think it was more than a decade ago when I watched an entire movie inside a cinema, without noise. Were we simply lucky or are the tides turning?
Sir Bowtie, you don’t want to even hear about electoral reform. Fine. You are kowtowing to property developers’ interests in West Kowloon. Fine. You are arse-licking the CCP with regards to Ching Cheong and the swine flu. Fine. But what the hell is this? Just because you’re not happy with the fact that the courts aren’t happy with how ICAC spies upon us mere mortals, you issue an executive order that effectively slaps the whole legislature in the face? What the hell are you trying to tell us? The legal process’s a pain in the arse, eh? Why not simply get rid of jurisprudence, the courts and other annoying stuff like the LegCo? Just keep issuing executive orders! A return to the rule of the emperor! That’s been oh-so-successful for thousands of years in China! How efficient! Only two months in office, and you have done so much. Way to go Bowtie!
It has been almost 2 weeks since reports of Sichuan’s swine flu outbreak have trickled through to Hong Kong. And while Sichuan pork meat has disappeared in local markets, this is not because Hong Kong has banned the import of pork from Sichuan, but rather, Sichuan themselves have banned the export of their pork.
While the end results may be the same, the difference is significant. What good is a government that outsources the protection of its own citizens to some other state?
Even other provinces in mainland China have imposed their own bans. Alarmingly, ’sources from the HK Government’ (don’t you just love these unattritable ’sources’?) reveal that Hong Kong actually do not have any autonomy over foodstuff imports; Hong Kong has to ‘present enough scientific evidence’ before ‘negotiating with the PRC any bans’. How wonderful. Once again, one country two systems successfully implemented — HK gets the worse system.
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