Last night I went to watch the movie “The Day The Earth Stood Still”, starring Keanu Reaves.

I’ve heard people mentioning about it but I’ve never actually taken the effort to read more about it prior to watching the movie. So you can say that when I was in the cinemas, I was clueless on what I was up for.

The story begins with a random ice climber (Keanu Reaves)  stumbling upon an alien spherical object which the object obtains a DNA sample of him. You probably won’t realise this until later on in the movie. It’s quite random and not really well explained.

Then moving forward to the present time, a similar spherical object but probably 100x larger accelerates as a speed of 3×10⁷ ms^-1 from outer spaces heading towards earth. As the Americans prepare for an imminent collision, the object suddenly slows down and lands on a park.

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For some reason I’m quite intrigued by the oil prices and how the economy reacts to it.

From my previous posts on oil price fluctuations, you can see that it was during mid July this year that prices peaked at US$147.50 per barrel. The current oil prices are below US$50 per barrel now, at US$48.77 per barrel.

That’s a great whopping one third drop in price in just under 6 months. I was filling up my car with petrol yesterday and I’m amazed to see the dollar meter going up at a much slower pace.

Heck, I’m even astounded that I got more liters than the dollars I’m paying for. I’ve noticed in Sydney, oil prices have cracked below the A$1 per liter mark. I think the last time we saw this was a few years ago.

It is speculated that the demand for oil will continue to fall as the economy is still crashing with unemployment rates rising and spend decreasing due to confidence levels.

Let’s hope the Arabs (OPEC) don’t cut production too much to the point that oil prices rise again despite the failing economy. Their black gold glory have come to an end.

For now anyways.

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I just read an article from the BBC news about a riot by Jews during the Jewish holy day of atonement, Yom Kippur.

Apparently it was caused by an Arab man who drove his car during the religious holiday where there is fasting and much standstill among the Jews. So he was reported to have been attacked by youths because of his offensive act of driving on the streets.

What I don’t get is that people would go berserk over these things when it’s meant to be a holy period. Hello? Is rioting and expressing your anger seen as holy, or is even holy?

Ok, maybe the Arab guy might’ve been a tool and decided to take the piss out of Jews by driving his car during this period, but to pay back with rudeness and intimidation with anger and hostility, well I think most of them might’ve missed the point of the holiness of the event.

Holiness is to be set apart, to repay hostility with kindess, good with evil, and above all love with hatred. To do what goes against your sinful nature and to do what is right instead. Yes, it takes an active decision to be made holy and to do what is right rather than what feels right.

This is what the bible says and this is what I believe.

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I’m very upset at the Australian dollar plummeting in a blink of an eye. From reaching heights of US$0.98 in July to now closing just below US$0.68, the Australian dollar has lost 30% in value in under 3 months.

Imagine if you’ve invested $1 million into the US dollar few months ago and sold out now? You’d make the quickest $300,000 gross you’d ever imagine.

What does that mean for people like me? It means it is now more expensive to travel overseas and purchasing overseas goods. With the price of oil dropping to around US$90 per barrel, I haven’t noticed any drastic changes in local petrol prices and also airfares. That really sucks as I’m planning to travel overseas early next year.

I’m sure there’s news all over with blazing headlines on how the global markets are following the US path as confidence of investors spiral downwards and selling off whatever they can to salvage what’s left.

Sure you’ve heard of all the sweet news of the US government bailing out companies such as Freddy Mac, Fannie Mae and AIG. I suppose this is to impart confidence into investors to not go into a selling frenzy and add further momentum to the downward freight train.

Rumours have emerged that Richard Fuld, Lehmann Brothers’ CEO tipped the economic landslide with the bankruptcy of Lehmann Brothers. But I guess he has no problems with his healthy $300 million in bonuses over the last 8 years. Apparently he feels horrible.

Yet despite these events, Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffet’s company, has bought a $5 billion stake in Goldman Sachs, another ailing investment bank.

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I’ve been thinking recently amount costs relating to transport.

It will cost me $6 for a return bus ticket and $6.80 for a return train ticket. Amounts to $12.80 a day.

If I buy a travel 10 bus ticket and a city weekly train ticket, it will cost me $10.40 a day (assuming a Mon-Fri week).

If I buy a green weekly travel pass, it will cost me $8.60 a day (again, assuming a Mon-Fri week).

If I decide to drive to the city, it is approximately 20km from my house and assuming I’m driving a car that has an efficiency of 10L/100km, it will cost me $5.60 a day. This is with the assumption that petrol is $1.40/L and I travel 40km (to and fro).

To me, it seems that driving to work is a winner (if you exclude parking costs). So how come people are flocking in on the public transport system and trains are getting more crammed on a continuous basis? Everyday I feel like I’m in a can of sardines.

I think the media and Cityrail perhaps have provided a misconception that travelling by public transport is more cost effective. And let me tell you this, public transport fares ain’t going down with the demand of oil decreasing, pushing down the oil prices to around US$113 a barrel.

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If you haven’t noticed the new feature of Google Maps, Street View, you should definitely check it out. It is absolutely stunning how they’ve managed to pretty much capture the entire image of Australia on a street level.

You can turn on the Street View feature on the top right navigations by clicking on Street View (d’oh). The blue lines that you see are the regions that Google has mapped out on a street level. Pretty impressive ay?

The Street View feature allows you to rotate 360 degrees, inspect all angles around the point on the map you selected. To move to a different spot, simply click and drag the yellow man on the map to a region that has the blue outlines.

It also has a limited zoom feature which will result in a pixelated view, but I guess that is a good thing for privacy reasons.

You can also see that a general concensus showed on the ninemsn homepage shows that majority of Australians do not see the mapping of the streets as an invasion of privacy.

I’m quite impressed at the quality of the images and the accuracy of the rotational views. Google has definitely stepped up in its mapping technology and only one can wonder what will Google’s inter-galatic mapping be like.

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You might get stung by the excess data usage of iPhone 3G if you’re not careful with your data usage. That means phone bills hitting the three digit and even four digit mark!

Telcos such as Telstra are charging $2 per megabyte over the data allowance ($2000 per gigabyte) and Optus are charging $0.35 per megabyte over ($350 per gigabyte).

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Google Maps on the iPhone 3G is not actually fully installed onto the device but rather downloads the data through the Internet. I have met quite a few people thinking that Google Maps usage is actually free.

Also with the massive closure of Starbucks stores around Sydney, Telstra will be loosing a big chunk of their free wifi hotspots. However, Telstra still has a big partnership with McDonalds that offers free wifi access.

There are rumours that the 3 network might be able to get their hands on the iPhone 3G as Virgin Mobile has already done so.

As more and more telcos are starting to enter the iPhone market, you should be seeing pricing plans dropping as the competition heats up.

It’s quite a big disappointment to see the three large telcos coming up with pretty crappy iPhone pricing plans and data allowance. I personally would wait another month or so and see if anything drastic happens.

But if you can’t keep your fingers in your pocket, then start heading over to the Sydney Apple store. It can take up to 2 hours to process so best bet to get in early.

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According to Yahoo! News, oil prices closed at US$126.77 per barrel yesterday, down almost $20 from July 11 record high prices of US$147.50 per barrel.

If you do the maths, that’s about a 14% in falling costs for petrol. A few weeks ago, I saw petrol prices in Sydney go up to about AU$1.68 a litre and last Tuesday, I saw petrol prices were around AU$1.49. Tuesday is meant to be the “cheap fuel day” here.

Now if you do the maths again, that’s about a 11.3% in price reduction, which is inconsistent with the 14% fall in barrel costs.

I’m not entirely sure if my assumptions in calculations are right, but why aren’t the prices fluctuating proportionately?

Are the major oil companies pocketing big time from the large fluctuations in petrol prices due to supply and demand? Well according to The Age, British energy giant BP announced a net profit of US9.47 billion in the second quarter, up 28 percent.

So yes, I’d probably say so. If you somehow find a “black gold” mine, please let me know as I’d be interested in investing in it.

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I’ve been trying to get my hands on the iPhone 3G on the Optus network but it seems that every Optus store is sold out except for the Apple store. The last one I visited was at centre point and the guy said that it was sold out for another 3 weeks.

I never thought this would continue after nearly 3 weeks of the iPhone 3G official launch but it seems that Apple is trying to keep the hype up by keeping up the demand and reducing the supply to their Optus affiliates so that everybody can say, “Oh my gosh, the iPhone is still sold out. It must be so great! Yadi yadi ya…”.

However, the Sydney Apple store does have stock but they usually close registrations 2-3 hours before close of business to ensure everybody gets out of the building by that time.

Last week I visited the Apple store about 4 times after work and got there around 6.15pm, only to be turned down each time by their staff because registrations are closed. They suggested that I either come early in the morning (yes yes, they continue to remind me that the store opens at 8am but I can’t be bothered to wake up that early for a phone) or during lunch time.

Oh by the way, they also said that the registration process may take up to 2 hours. That is another factor that I cannot be bothered to get the iPhone just yet.

So I’ve gone ahead and taken up Vodafone’s unrestricted offer where you get a bonus $20 credit if you recharge by 31st July. Now I don’t even have to think about the iPhone for a month and hopefully by then will the stupid queue decrease and other Optus stores won’t be entirely sold out.

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Anwar Ibrahim has been arrested over allegations of sodomy after being accused by a former male aide 2 weeks ago.

It is sad that the Malaysian government is so corrupt and has been strongly fighting against Anwar’s rise to political leadership. He has recently led the oppositions to unprecedented victories over several states from the current ruling party during the recent general elections.

10 years ago, Anwar Ibrahim was accused of the same allegation of sodomy and corruption, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. However, the charges of sodomy was dropped due to insufficient evidence and he was later released from prison after spending 6 years there.

During his time in prison, he was also allegedly mistreated by the ex-police chief through beatings.

With his current momentum in politics, its no surprise that this recent accusation is aimed at thwarting his comeback. He has also previously seeked protection from the Turkish embassy for fears that he would be wrongly accused again and imprisoned unjusticely.

Let’s hope that Malaysians have a glimmer of faith in the justice system that is already failing in the eyes of the people.

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