Expect thrills and spills at Singapore F1

Hantu Laut

Click to enlarge

The glitz,glamour and noses up in the air will fill up the corporate boxes at the Singapore Grand Prix tonight, the first night racing under light in the history of Formula One.

This is the third most watched sport in the world after the Olympic and World Cup.

It wouldn't bode down well with the greenies and down to earth conservationists that at this time of high fuel prices,global financial insecurity and global warming the Singapore government would bring this expensively fast and furious sport to a tiny island and a sport that's going to burn million of calories of expensive energy just to show those modern gladiators in their awesome machines to Singaporeans and the rest of the world to boost the city state image,tourism and hopefully its coffers.

If you are going down to Singapore tonight to watch the Grand Prix, forget about the air and noise pollution and just make sure you get a strategic viewing point if you haven't yet bought your tickets with your hard-earned money, unless you re the rich and famous than you may not have to pay at all, you get invited.


The narrow pit lane at the Singapore circuit, lit up on Thursday evening as teams prepared for track action Friday. (Brad Spurgeon/IHT)

To hell with those nosey saviours of the earth,like Singapore and my good friend Jimmy, I too like F1 races but prefer to watch it from the comfort of my home, cause it's more comfortable and wouldn't burn a hole in my pocket.



The article below can guide you to where you would have the best vantage point to watch the thrills and spills of the race.

SINGAPORE: Singapore will host the world’s first Formula One city night race at the end of this month. But the entire race track will be lit up as if it was daylight.

With F1 cars whizzing by at speeds of up to 300 kilometres per hour on what are essentially just city streets, fans can expect some spills and thrills.

The excitement begins from the start at the pit straight where drivers line up for a 61—lap race on a track that is just over 5 kilometres and has 23 turns.

From Turns 2 to Turns 4, spectators will get to see the power of an F1 car as top drivers overtake and establish their leads.

But if it is speed fans are after, they have to wait till Turn 6.

The fastest corner on any street circuit ever, Turn 6 is where cars could go faster than 300 kilometres an hour.

Spills could be likely at Turn 7 — one of the best overtaking opportunities — as cars slow down to take a sharp left.

If it is the best seats fans are after, they should try the Grandstands at Turn 8.

Here, cars will whizz by heritage buildings like the old Supreme Court and the colonial Anderson Bridge, creating a backdrop similar to Monaco’s Casino Square.

Spectators would have to agree that the bridge will definitely be one of the most unique features of the Singapore F1 track.

But from a technical perspective, it will also be challenging for the drivers. Only the left side of the bridge will be used, and at 8—metre wide, will be the narrowest part of the circuit.

The difficulty does not end there. After crossing the bridge, the cars will approach Turn 13, which is the tightest turn on the circuit.

There will be more excitement at Turns 8 and 14 — where it may look like cars are going to crash into one another, because of the way the circuit is designed — slower cars come down one way and faster cars go up the other in an unusual two turns.

Cars will then whizz past Raffles Avenue, where there will be another overtaking opportunity before reaching the Bayfront where a wrong move could possibly land a driver into hot water.

Water is not the only concern for the drivers, as this is also the slowest part of the track, working the brakes hard and really testing the drivers’ skills.

After running along the waterfront in front of the Bay Grandstand, the cars actually turn beneath the grandstand itself at Turn 18 — another aspect of the track that sets it apart from the rest.

After that, a few more turns and the cars will be back at the Pit Building for a thrilling end to the race.

The 'Rich and Famous' list here.

Source:Yahoo News, S'pore

The Enigma Has Spoken

Hantu Laut

In my previous article 'Tunku Aziz: An Enigma?' I raised the question and rationale of him, not so much as joining politics but his choice of political party, DAP a party aligned to Anwar Ibrahim whom, going from some of his past articles , one can conclude that Anwar is not one of his favourite politicians.

In the past, West Malaysian politicians including Anwar himself had ridiculed,condemned and laughted at Sabah politicians, those that can be easily bought by offer of money and positions.Today the disease promoted by Anwar to grab power had come to the Peninsula and those in the Pakatan camp made it sounds so morally acceptable to use this option to take over a duly elected government.What's is even more surprising the Western media which usually screamed their head off on such undemocratic actions are keeping their silence.

Although I don't think the present government is doing a fantastic job I do believe Anwar should wait until the next general elections to mount a challenge to takeover the government.In the meantime he should stay and be a good and effective opposition.

Much as I have suspected Tunku Aziz will not disappoint those who believe in the ballot boxes and the democratic process.Below is his wisdom on Anwar's political philosophy.

KUALA LUMPUR: It is unethical to don the mantle of government other than through the ballot box, says DAP vice-chairman Tunku Abdul Aziz Ibrahim. In disagreeing with the idea of forming a government by asking politicians to switch sides, he said: "This is really a matter not so much of politics but really to do more with ethics in politics.

"There is no law to stop people from crossing over from one party to another and this has happened in Sabah where opposition members crossed over to Barisan Nasional.

"Still, this does not really give it any legitimacy just because it has happened before.

"I totally disagree with it. The only way you can really achieve legitimacy to govern is through the ballot box. As I have said before, there is a time and place for it.
"The time is the next general election and the place is the polling station," he told the New Straits Times. Read more........

Anwar's No List And Pak Lah's Sleepless Nights

Hantu Laut

Only Anwar Ibrahim has the list of defectors says DAP Secretary General Lim Guan Eng.Neither leaders of DAP or PAS have seen the list.Anwar keeping it close to his chest and even closer to his heart.

How do you expect this man to rule the nation fairly if he can't even trust his coalition partners who are going to be part of his dream team if he formed the government.Many Malaysians who supported him believe he is telling the truth but with the latest revelation it now appears he might not have the list after all or the names on the list are just put there without expressed consent of the would-be frogs.Anyone can make up a list of lies.

At the UMNO Supreme Council meeting scheduled at 10 a.m today there will be strong opposition for Pak Lah to stay on longer than May 2009.Most MT members would insist on that date but some may resist.Muhyiddin will insist Dec 2008.

I think to remove the pain once and for all Pak Lah should consider as soon as possible but not later than December 08.

If Pak Lah insisted to stick to his original plan both him and Najib would be deleted and assigned to the recycle bin after December this year.

Muhyiddin proposal makes more sense as it will not complicate the line-up at the UMNO Elections this coming December.Postponing the elections to May 2009 make no sense at all except to give Pak Lah more time to re-consolidate his support.That would be perilous to UMNO which is becoming irrelevant day by day.

Pak Lah must not forget there are enemies at the gate.

America A Bankrupt Nation: Mahathir Was Right

Hantu Laut

President Bush appealed to the nation on Wednesday night to support the bailout financial package of $700 billion to avert a financial meltdown on Wall Street and a prolonged recession that could have serious repercussions on the nation and American people."Our entire economy is in danger" he said.

America is now in early stage of insolvency.Without the rescue package it would be a bankrupt nation.

In the 1997 East Asian financial crisis almost the entire East Asian countries were not spared the effect of the meltdown.The crisis was triggered by the collapse of the Thai baht in July 1997 which led to currency and financial crisis with domino effect that eventually affected other countries in the region.The financial anomaly led to recession in most of those countries.

However, the Malaysian economy and population were not as badly affected by the recession as compared to Thailand,Indonesia and South Korea.Although Malaysia indebtedness was quite high at that time the foreign debt was much lower and unlike Indonesia was not in default of its repayment.Its foreign liabilities did not exceed its foreign exchange reserves so the country was not in dire need of emergency credit facilities including those from IMF (International Monetary Fund)

The meltdown was due to highly speculative currency trading that was traced to one of the biggest fund managers and currency traders George Soros as the culprit who speculated in currency of the regions making billion of dollars for his hedge funds and himself and caused those currencies to collapse.Subsequently, the stock market collapsed and the KLSE Composite Index which stood at 1300 in early 1997 dropped to a low of 262 by September 1998. Mahathir the prime minister at that time blamed Soros and took defensive action to avert a financial disaster by pegging the ringgit.The peg slowed down the flights of capital and ended with war of words between Mahathir and Soros and criticism by the Western media and Western governments of Mahathir's unilateral action.Even his own finance minister at that time didn't agree with him and was one of the many things than that drove them apart.

The 1997 financial meltdown caused the Malaysian government to restructure and amalgamate its financial institutions and bailouts some of the troubled government linked companies

The American government was highly critical of Mahathir's political and financial policies at that time and didn't foresee that they would one day face even worse and more embarrassing situation.They accused Mahathir of bad governance,corruptions and a government that is not accountable to the people.

What causes the financial meltdown in America.A number of things and GREED is top of the list.

Highly speculative trading on Wall Street, over extended sub-prime sector, pay for failures CEO with huge paychecks, over-innovative financial system, poor financial governance and a society that live on credit.

The American stock markets and financial system are tailored to make the rich get richer. Short selling which is a dangerous form of share trading is rampant on Wall Street and financial institutions are willing to finance this risky business because they are conducted by big hedge funds and investment banks.

Britain is contemplating a permanent ban on short selling after the bashings of bank shares in the past weeks.Prime Minister Gordon Brown defending the recent ban said "when a group of people are exploiting a difficult economic situation, it is right to stop it." and said "I think you'll find new rules come in for the future...We have very unusual and volatile financial markets . It would be wrong for good companies to be brought down by speculators."

This will be the most expensive bailouts in the history of the US.Where are the money coming from ? Print more greenback, sell more Treasury Bills or go to war and sabotage the economy of other countries ?

If the American economy collapse and the greenback become useless many countries would go down with America. Their foreign reserves would be devalued and become almost worthless.

Mahathir was the only man who foresees this coming over a decade ago and the West ridiculed him and branded him as anti-Westerners.They condemned him for pegging the ringgit and the bailouts of some of the troubled government-linked companies during the Asian financial crisis.The man certainly has vision 20/20.

George W.Bush is going to put the money where his mouth is and hand over a very shattered economy to his successor.

The rest of the world have no choice.Rescue America or go down with it.