The tallest building in the the world, a title widely coveted, is being claimed by 3 cities, namely

Kuala Lumpur Petronas Towers
Chicago Sears Tower
Taipei Taipei 101

On measuring the height of a building, various definitions exist. Depending on which one you use, the answer is different

1. Height to the structural or architectural top (including spires and pinnacles, but not antennas, masts or flagpoles). Taipei 101
2. Height to the highest occupied floor. Taipei 101
3. Height to the top of the roof. Taipei 101
4. Height to the top of antenna. Sears Towers

But Taipei 101 will not hold its record for too long. In Dubai, a structure is going to surpass all previous records, and can claim to be the tallest building in the world, without any doubt. It is still under construction. When completed, it will be about 800 meters tall with 160 floors. As of now, it is already one of the 5 tallest buildings in the world, set to climb up the ladder as construction goes on. Every time I drive by the building, it is amazing to see that it grows, little by little, to the sky. At night, the building is illuminated by construction lights, like a big white torch

For more information,

Burj Dubai official website

Wikipedia entry on tallest buildings in the world

Kuwait is a major oil exporting country, and it’s economy is highly dependent on the oil sector.

Here is a piece of interesting statistic that I’d like to share. Below is a list of the 10 largest industrial and service sectors in Kuwait, and their contribution to GDP. Oil is the largest sector, bigger than all the 9 other top 10 sectors combined

While the economy is booming now due to high oil price, this situation should not be taken for granted. If oil price plummets, the economy will face big problems. It should diversity its economy away from oil to better react to oil price fluctuations

GDP contribution from each sector
2005 figures, in USD millions

1. Energy, Mining and Quarrying (24)
2. Public Administration, Sanitary and Personal Services (8)
3. Business Services (3)
4. Real Estate & Dwelling (2)
5. Petroleum Refineries (2)
6. Financial Institutions (2)
7. Retail Trade (2)
8. Wholesale Trade (1)
9. Communications (1)
10. Transportation & Storage (1)

The data can be obtained from the Central Bank for free, or international data vendors, e.g. Global Insight, at a cost

Central Bank of Kuwait

Ministry of Planning

For frequent fliers, finding the best route is a constant headache. People always want to find flights that

Meet their time schedule
- For those who travel during the week, flights departing 7 - 9pm are the best. Then you can work the whole day in one city, travel to another and start the next day

Have the least number of stops, or ideally, non-stop

Have the best timed connections
- You don’t want to wait in Heathrow for 8 hours for your connecting flight. Examples of well-timed connection are flights from Taipei to Shanghai, via Jeju Island. Barring direct flights, this is the shortest route between Taiwan and Mainland China, with travel time just ~4 hours

These are some tools that help you plan your trips. Using these programs, you can look at flights and find the route that best fits your need. An handy feature of these programs is that you can use them on the go, without the Internet. The timetables are downloaded automatically when you’re online, and are stored in your computer. They also support Palm and PocketPC

Star Alliance trip planner

Skyteam trip planner

OneWorld trip planner

Beijing Olympics is coming in a year’s time. There’s one way to see your favorite sports star, free of charge! (This is not scam) The way is to become volunteer

Applications are open to Chinese living inside and outside China, Taiwanese, and foreigners. Many types of positions are available, so you can either apply the skills learnt in your normal job in the Olympics, or acquire a new skill via volunteering

Deadline for applications will be March 2008. But don’t miss the opportunity - so apply early!

The official website isn’t a one-stop shop. People from different regions have to apply differently. Here’s a brief guidance on where you should go, depending on where you are. Hope it helps!

Applicants from Taiwan: www.bjtx.org
Applicants from HK: www.hab.gov.hk
Applicants from Macau: www.sport.gov.mo
Overseas Chinese: http://www.bjqb.gov.cn
Non-Chinese volunteers: www.ebeijing.gov.cn

More information about Beijing Olympics

Site for volunteers of Beijing Olympics

Beijing Olympics official website

The Pentagon has released a report on the mental health of American soldiers in Iraq. The results are worrying. My read on its findings

Factors affecting soldiers‘ mental health, pretty logical, no surprise
1. Soldiers are more likely to have mental problems the longer they stay in Iraq
2. If they are actually engaged in combat, they get significantly higher stress levels
3. Marines and soldiers suffer equally (dismissing claims by many that marines are better, tougher fighters)

Soldiers’ attitude towards treating non-combatants, reflecting their status of mental health. Alarming!
1. 41% of soldiers and 44% of marines believed that torture should be permitted if it would save the life of a fellow soldier or marine
2. 36% of soldiers and 39% of marines said torture should be allowed to extract important information about Iraqi insurgents
3. 47% of soldiers and 38% of marines felt that non-combatants should be treated with dignity and respect, as required by the Geneva Conventions

While acknowledging the problems, remedial measures listed in the report are largely tactical short-term fixes. Not sure whether they’ll yield any significant effect

For more information,
View the Economist’s coverage

View the full report at the US Army website

I have always had bad experience with Kuwait International Airport. Lately I’ve spent many hours just waiting for visa to be issued. They employ a lot of people, but they don’t seem to care about passengers. Rather, they just play with their phones, smoke, make fun of each others, in front of many disgruntled customers! The tip from me is to always have visas pre-arranged before you reach Kuwait soil. That’d save you 2 hours PER TRIP!

To contribute to the world’s body of knowledge on airport satisfaction, or share some of your dissatisfactions with your fellow travelers, feel free to fill in this survey

Alternatively, if you are impressed by the service that an airport has offered, you can nominate your airport of choice for the World Airport Award. In the past, the winners have been Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai. Coincidentally, all of them used to be British colonies. If only Heathrow can match them in terms of waiting time, I’ll be 10 times happier

I’m extremely delighted to be able to spend time with two fine gentlemen, a Kuwaiti (Mr. K) and a Croatian (Mr. C). Because of them, I truely feel how fortunate I have been. Both of them have experienced wars first-hand. Mr. K with the First Gulf War and Mr. C with the Yogoslavian war in the early 90’s

One of the conversations with Mr. K goes like this
Me: What do you think about the US?
Mr. K: Well, I can’t say that I agree with the US foreign policy. But I have to be thankful to them. Without America, there’s no Kuwaiti. By the way, our security depends on the US now. So we are friends
Me: Do you feel happy being a friend of the US?
Mr. K: I know their intentions. They didn’t help us because they really love Kuwaitis. But I was in Kuwait City during the whole duration of Iraqi occupation. Life was tough. When the Iraqis retreated, they took everyone they could see hostage. No matter how evil their intentions are, the outcome is that the US saved us
Me: Do you like to continue working with the US?
Mr. K: Sure, we’re making a lot of money. We supply them a lot of things - drinks, rubber, oil, power. Their money is helping us build our industry. It’s good to have American military bases here