Lesson from the Manila Hostage taking

It was frustrating too see how the hostage taking ended leaving some hostages dead..It shown us how weak our official and police methods in handling such crisis.
It fails for some obvious reason

1. Negotiating skills of hostage crisis- Thay should issue positive statement to the hostage taker-Says ok we wil reinstate you in the police force again-grab him -and says later we lied-just like Sen. Mirriam said once-I lied-Lying is not bad when you were saving innocent lives, isnt it?
2. Lack of training of police in assault operation- No coordination- They just standing there waiting the suspect to peek hoping to take some shot.- they should watch in you tube-how the police commando storm the japanese embassy in Peru years back..
3. No elements of surprise - They finding hard time opening the door..and urong sulong ang assult..If its terorrist-all hostages would be dead by then..
4. Too early violent response for hostage crisis--remember peru hostage crisis-it took months to end but still in the end they were praised..Its good to end a crisis early if we were sure what we were doing..
5. Live media coverage - Suspects watch every police move in bus television-watch how his relative were treated by police-It agitate him to the point negotiating is not an option..
3. Lack of equiptments- A must for any assault opeartion
No night vision google- they should take advantage of the darkness-
a. kill all lights (hard eventhough because of media people lights and spotlights)
No ladder - Imagine police swat climbing in the back of the bus - grrrr they could use ladder making them more mobile at the same time easy peeking..
No flex camera - They should have used it-ive seen it the movie swat to determine location of hostage taker..Pathetic our local swat police just merely peeking the windows hoping in luck to see the location of the hostage taker..
No Gas Mask- Its funny the police enter the bus without gas mask and keep snooping out the have refresh air even after the siege was over..Rescuing the victims will be lot easier if they used gas mask and google entering the bus..wheeew..it cost only 50 dollars in ebay..
Media airing the whole scenario- Emotional attachment of the hostage taker is critical-ive seen his family in someway being manhandled by police making the suspect agitated.
No infrared camera- The hostage taker was easier to be spotted using body heat registering infrared camera..
Despite all these our police force displays gallantry..imagine assault without body armor?thats amazing-ive only seen it in movies..
But we salute our police forces, they did well specially waiting sniper on stand by waiting for a shot- limited resources and lack of training was to blame-still it was resolved- its the system and method needs improvement..
Godwilling hope this kind of incident will not be repeated..

Miss Universe 2010 National Costume

Miss Great Britain Tara Vaitiere Hoyos poses in her national costume - a Beefeater's uniform with wet-look leggings. Because that's what we all wear in Great Britain, obviously

Rima Fakih, Miss USA 2010, wears a costume inspired by the Seal of the President of the United States as a tribute to Barack Obama. She apparently drew a basic design, and then Victoria's Secret Fashion Show designer Martin Izquierdo came up with the final creation.

Name a famous Belgian. Kim Clijsters, you say? So that's why Miss Belgium Cilou Annys is decked out in tennis paraphernalia

Miss Philippines in a gorgeous gown waving traditional fans

Miss Egypt Donia Hamed poses in her national costume at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada

Think "France" and you think berets, the Tricolour and the Eiffel Tower. All Miss France Malika Menard is missing is a bicycle and a string of onions

The costume worn by Jesinta Campbell, Miss Australia 2010, was described as "a dingo's breakfast" by some, though the Telegraph's Fashion Director, Hilary Alexander, quite liked it, saying: "the sheepskin shrug is bang on trend, the Ugg boots are as quintessentially Australian as Aussie Rules, and having the 'togs' hand-painted by an Aboriginal artist is a master-stroke"

Miss Brazil Debora Lyra poses in her national costume at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada August 16, 2010.

Miss Australia strikes a nice pose as well

Organisers originally claimed that the costume worn by Maiko Itai, Miss Japan 2010, was designed by John Galliano. But when a missosology.org forum member pointed out that the dress was ripped off from a Yumi Katsura 2008 collection, the claim was retracted

Poor Miss Zambia 2010, Alice Musukwa. Not only does she have to carry a large calabash, she also has two gourds for a bra, and phallic gourds on her dress

Asselina Kuchukova, Miss Kazakhstan 2010, seems to be courting favour by wearing all of the other countries' flags in her elaborate headdress

Miss India with a traditional namaskar greeting

Miss Venezuela Marelisa Gibson wears a costume covered in glittering shards in tribute to a glass monument to revolutionary icon Ernesto "Che" Guevara that was shot up and destroyed less than two weeks after it was unveiled by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's government

Miss Colombia Natalia Navarro is dressed as India Catalina, an indigenous woman who acted as interpreter and intermediary for the Spanish invaders. To many people in Colombia, she is an icon of the extermination of the Precolumbian inhabitants

The costume worn by Miss Bahamas Braneka Bassett is called The Flamingo. We assume that's the Las Vegas casino

Miss Curacao Safira de Wit has sequined hibiscus flowers on her head, a dress that opens to reveal a harbour scene, and ruby slippers. There's no place like home!

Miss Ukraine Anna Poslavska poses in a dress which appears to be covered in wheat, while her hairstyle seems to be a nod to former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko

Miss Albania Angela Martini wears a costume inspired by the country's flag - and a trip to Ann Summers

Miss Italy Jessica Cecchini wears a Roman Gladiator costume. Thumbs up or down?

Miss Switzerland Linda Faeh seems to be prepared for battle with her sword and shield. We thought they always remained neutral

The designer of the costume worn by Miss Ireland Rozanna Purcell says it "incorporates Irish lace, Celtic Symbols, and the rich colours of Ireland". We can't help thinking she looks more like a swords and sorcery fantasy illustration

Miss Kosovo Keshtjella Pepshi has a gold antelope head on her head and a sceptre. No, we don't know why

Miss Angola Jurema Ferraz clearly doesn't believe in the maxim "less is more"

Kenia Martinez, Miss Honduras. Where the tigers come from, right?

Miss Guam Vanessa Torres seems to have had a long run through lush tropical foliage on her way to the pageant

Awurama Simpson, Miss Ghana 2010, wears an adaptation of traditional West African women's wear

Many of the Caribbean and Latin American countries have chosen flamboyant Carnival costumes. Here's Miss Nicaragua Scharllette Allen Moses

Anyoli Abrego, Miss Panama 2010

Miss Dominican Republic Eva Arias

Miss Paraguay Johana Benitez Olmedo

Miss British Virgin Islands Josefina Nunez

Miss U.S. Virgin Islands 2010 Janeisha John - neither from the U.S. nor an island

Miss Haiti Sarodj Bertin

Cunningly, Elena Semikina, Miss Canada, distracts attention from the fur she seems to be wearing by flashing a bit of leg

Shortest number move to solve Rubik`s Cube puzzle revealed

An international team of researchers using computer time lent to them by Google has found every way the popular Rubik's Cube puzzle can be solved, and showed it can always be solved in 20 moves or less.

The study is just the latest attempt by Rubik's enthusiasts to figure out the secrets of the cube, which has proven to be altogether far more complicated that its jaunty colors might suggest.

At the crux of the quest has been a bid to determine the lowest number of moves required to get the cube from any given muddled configuration to the color-aligned solution.

"Every solver of the Cube uses an algorithm, which is a sequence of steps for solving the Cube," said the team of mathematicians, who include Morley Davidson of Ohio's Kent State University, Google engineer John Dethridge, German math teacher Herbert Kociemba and Tomas Rokicki, a California programmer.

"There are many different algorithms, varying in complexity and number of moves required, but those that can be memorized by a mortal typically require more than forty moves."

One may suppose God would use a much more efficient algorithm, one that always uses the shortest sequence of moves; this is known as God's Algorithm. The number of moves this algorithm would take in the worst case is called God's Number. At long last, God's Number has been shown to be 20."

The research, published online, ends a 30-year search for the most efficient way to correctly align the 26 colored cubes that make up Erno Rubrik's 1974 invention.

"It took fifteen years after the introduction of the Cube to find the first position that provably requires 20 moves to solve," the team said. "It is appropriate that fifteen years after that, we prove that twenty moves suffice for all position."

Using computers lent to them by Google -- the company won't disclose how many or how powerful they are -- the team crunched through billions of Cube positions, solving each one over a period of "just a few weeks."

The study builds on the work of a veritable pantheon of Rubik's researchers, starting with Morwen Thistlethwaite who in 1981 showed 52 moves were sufficient to reach the solution from any given Cube position.

By May 1992, Michael Reid showed 39 moves was always sufficient, only to be undercut a mere day later by Dik Winter, who showed 37 moves would work.

Rubik's enthusiasm extends not only to God's number, but the speed with which the tricky puzzle can be solved.

The current world record holder is Dutch Erik Akkersdijk who successfully solved the puzzle in just 7.08 seconds.

Source: Yahoo News