baby on board

It's raining outside. Spent the whole day sleeping after I got back from the doctor. Took MC today, didn't feel up to a day of work. Down with a cough and cold. As an NSF, I'm supposed to get full medical benefits: show 11-B at government clinic and SAF will pay for me. But was told at the polyclinic that somehow my card was not valid. I called some SAF number and after a few transfers, they said my medical benefits not yet activated, need to get my boss to contact their boss, but their boss on leave... Bottom line is that until this all gets sorted out, I'll have to pay first and claim later, which is always a risky proposition, but I guess I have no choice.

On the subject of cars, I think hybrids are the way to go. Theoretically (and naively) they offer an up-to 100% increase in mileage. The basic principle is that when braking, normal cars use the frictional force from applying brake pads to the wheels to slow down and stop. All the kinetic energy the car had is lost to friction, and this amount of energy is roughly how much it took to get the car up to that speed initially.

In a hybrid, the battery is charged up using the energy otherwise lost when braking. It works like a dynamo or a windmill, generating energy from the moving wheels. Of course, one could charge the battery while the car is accelerating, but that makes little sense unless the battery is close to dead, because this would slow the car down. The battery is less powerful than gas-power, but it is more efficient at low speeds, and it can supplement the gas-power when the driver needs more acceleration.

According to
http://www.hybridcars.com/faq.html
"Toyota has announced plans to offer hybrid versions of all their high-volume cars by 2007", which is great news.

Bush and Kerry are losers for not being brave and honorable enough to invite Nader into their debates. I'm sure any of them could have said anything and got him into the debates. Just too scared to look worse than him. Acting in their self-interest: Bush would look stupid compared to anybody, and Kerry probably knows Nader is a brilliant thinker and activist. None of them cares to offer the American public a chance to know about this other option they have in voting, and is content with pushing their plan even if there might be a better one.

I think abortion is certainly a form of murder when the baby has developed past a certain level, though I would expect that this level is hardly well-defined and can be quite different for different people. The law currently defines this level to be when the baby is completely past the cervix, which in most cases is aligned with the point in time when the baby can breathe and feed by herself. (Of course, a baby might be born prematurely and require intensive care, etc.)

As such, abortion should be allowed only in cases where there's say threat to the woman's life. Though I wouldn't go all the way and ban the "abortion" of a fertilized egg, I think. This would mean that abortion won't be allowed even for rape victims, but I think a "morning after" pill is morally acceptable. I guess the perspective of the "pro-choice" camp is mostly that the woman has a right to "control" her body and what happens to it. In the way she can decide to amputate her legs if she wishes, or cut her hair, or inject all sorts of hormones into her body.

I guess that means someone should have the right to kill herself. With regard to suicide, I think someone who attempts suicide shouldn't go to jail, but I'm guessing the "illegality" of suicide means there will perhaps be some kind of compulsory treatment or therapy, which I support.

Perhaps I might say that ideally we could get round this moral problem by a technological advance: find a cheap, sustainable method of bringing babies to term outside of a body. Because the current state of affairs means either the baby dies or the baby has to live in the womb, possibly against the will of the mother. Ultimately, the womb is the main source of inequality between the sexes, when you look at the workplace, because having a baby has quite an impact on lifestyle and mobility, for several weeks at least. I mean before the baby is born, that is; after the baby is born, the inequality is largely societally created.

Even still, it's just several weeks, maybe a month or two, for each pregnancy... It should be quite negligible when companies give parental leave (of several months), and that is taken into account. Equal rights for men and women!!

It seems Bush will win, because the polls say he's up by 8%. Oh well.

My laptop hasn't been too happy lately. But it's certainly happier with linux than with Windows. It's back to work tomorrow. I'm feeling better. Still not ready to jump around, but well. Bush seems to be going to win anyway. All's right with democracy. I wonder if he'll be assasinated by some crazed liberal. But that might mean that his vice president becomes president, which could be worse...

I'm going to bring a box of tissues to office. I should probably sleep soon. My M1 mobile plan has also been changed to a free incoming call plan. It should be in effect already. Everyone should know why this is much needed.