Bird Flu, "Dalai," Low BP, JB Trip and TODAY Articles

鳥インフルエンザの略語として定着してしまったような「鳥インフル」だが、どうも自分にはしっくりこない。「インフレ」「インフラ」と似た略語がすでに存在するし、「インフルエンザ」には「流行性感冒（流感）」という日本語もある。なぜ「鳥流感」ではいけないのか？それとも「流感」が死語となりつつあるということか？英語で「influenza」の略語は「flu」だから、「鳥フル」とでもするか。

産経新聞の電子版には、「中国、ダライ側と対話」とあった。気にいらん。どうしても「ダライ・ラマ」を略す必要があるなら、「ラマ」とする方がいいと思うが。

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Yesterday morning, it was so difficult for me to get out of bed, feeling that my heart was not pumping with enough pressure to send blood into the body system. It seemed its beatings were weak and slow, making me take many deep breaths to try to kick-start it. It was not my first time feeling this way. I remember, when I was a kid, a neighborhood doctor said, “Your heart is a little bigger than normal…” And my veins are now big too. If my heart is really even a bit bigger for my body size, it is no wonder if my blood pressure sometimes goes down. No doctor or nurse has any problem to insert a needle into my veins. So big, fine and clear that an anesthetist even cried out, apparently with a joy, “Beautiful veins!”

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And then this morning, I woke up in a far better state than usual… I don’t know what is so different today from yesterday. As my social visit pass expired in a few days (on Sunday), I decided to go out. It was a super jam (but no bread) before the Woodlands Checkpoint. I brought my PC to do some work but my same old Coffee Bean in JB was so so cold (what’s worse, the keyboard was not so kind to me (now the “M” key is really funny), I left there after less than two hours. I am quite content though because tonight’s officer, having a look at the rather old letter from the director, let me in with no question asked.

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“TODAY” reported (with no photo) in its weekend edition (19-20), as it should, on previous day’s press conference by the “Reform Party.” On the left of the article was a longer story titled “Why Choose PAP?” consisting an interview with two smiling PAP members.

On 24th, the same paper published a letter from a reader, “Nothing like the printed word: Internet users must back up reading from reputable print sources.” Above the letter was a photo of a collection of magazines and books. And among them is “The Economist,” which seems very much reputable except in a few countries in the world. One of the few is…