Piracy... as in.... real piracy!

I ain't referring to VCD or DVD piracy.. I'm talking about REAL PIRATES! like those you see in Pirates of the Caribbean, stinky ppl... knows nothing but violence..



"Pirate" comes from the Latin word "pirata". It should not be confused with privateer, which was mandated by their respective governments to plunder and steal from ships from other countries.



So piracy was made popular by the movie "You-all-know-the-name" starring Johnny DeEp and the sweet NIGHTLY along with the handsome Orlando BROOM.
(actually I was at the cinema and there was this dude with his funny foochow slang trying to pronounce the name and he was mentioning "neh... JONNY DEEP lorr... KIRA NIGHTLY lorr.. and also ORLANDA BRROOOM is SOOO HANSEM ohhhhhh)

Piracy began when Man started using the ocean as a mean of transport. Popular pirates include: the Vikings from the Scandinavian region, Muslim pirates of the Mediteranean, and also pirates from the Baltic sea.


The pirates of our Straits of Malacca are also notorious for their ferocity and efficiency. Malaysia Boleh!!! XDD



Pirates usually plunder the ship and kill all the crew along with their captain. Pirates are thieves, but they are subjected to the code of the ship; respect the captain or you'll be thrown overboard. Both the captain and the quartermaster were elected by the crew; they, in turn, appointed the other ship's officers.



The captain of a pirate ship was often a fierce fighter in whom the men could place their trust, rather than a more traditional authority figure sanctioned by an elite. However, when not in battle, the quartermaster usually had the real authority.

Many groups of pirates shared in whatever they seized; pirates injured in battle might be afforded special compensation similar to medical or disability insurance. There are contemporary records that many pirates placed a portion of any captured money into a central fund that was used to compensate the injuries sustained by the crew. Pirates spend the wealth they plundered on food, wine, entertainment(most likely prostitution, as there are no woman allowed on the ship).



For your information, Jack Sparrow is a fictional character, along with Captain Barbosa and so on(disappointed?). Anyway real pirates should not be like Jack Sparrow, he is too lenient and polite. Pirates are a bunch of illiterate people, they don't brush their teeth, and they pee and shit into the ocean (to save freshwater supply on board). Pirates are not bound to any religious obligation and ethics. Thus real pirates are really fearsome, and you thought they're sexy like Johnny Depp~~~ damn i'm so sarcastic today XDDD

Popular pirates of the past


Blackbeard(Edward Teach)
This dude is one of the most popular pirates ever lived. As his name suggests, he had a long beard, and he allegedly tied lit fuse to his beard in battle to intimidate his opponent. Contrary to the modern-day image of the traditional tyrannical pirate, he commanded his vessels with the permission of their crews, and there are no known accounts of his ever having harmed or murdered those he held captive.

He was an awesome fighter too. When he was killed the person who examined his body found out that he has got no less than five gunshot wounds and more than 20 severe cuts on various part of his body. He was romanticised after his death, and became the inspiration for a number of pirate-themed works of fiction across a range of genres.


Blackbeard's head was attached to the ship's bowsprit

Anne Bonny
This woman is one of the only two women that has ever adorned a pirate ship. Her compatriot, Mary Read, was with her on the ship of Jack Rackham.


The Jolly Roger flag was accredited to Jack Rackham

Anne Bonny was a redhead (saliva dripping) and considered by many to be a sexy catch(gulp).



Anyway her story was a dramatic one. She was born in a wealthy family, got married to a not-so-famous pirate, then had an affair with Rackham, and her husband tried to sell her off but instead she ran away with Rackham and became his crew on board.


Mary Read

When Rackham's ship was captured the two women, along with another male pirate fought the invaders, but was overpowered. Rackham and the rest of the crew were too drunk to set up any resistance. Anne and Mary escaped the gallow because they pleaded their bellies, meaning they claimed that they were pregnant with baby and so their punishment was delayed. Mary died in the prison due to fever, and Anne presumably was rescued by her wealthy father and sent to America and since she disappeared from history.

Modern day piracy
Modern day pirates are better equipped and they are equally feared, just like their predecessors. The water off Somali and the Straits of Malacca are among the most dangerous water ways in the world.


Somali pirates waiting for negotiation

We have seen quite a number of Somalian piracy activities highlighted in the news in recent years, and there was this Turkish ship which was hijacked by Somali pirates four months ago, and it was released yesterday (30/7/2010) after the negotiation went through.



Somali is one of the poorest countries in the world, and piracy is a lucrative business. Because of the low salary of other jobs, they prefer piracy to working. The pirates usually demand several million dollars in return for the crews' release, and the success rate is relatively high.



All they need is just a small speedboat, with rifles and guns. No problem for a country wrecked by violence...btw they have an ongoing civil war in the country which started back in 1991...


Ongoing civil war in Somalia

Pirates aren't good, but they have no choice. What can they do in a country where most of the men are recruited into the army and the economy is so slumped you cant get a job.. They have petroleum but most of the factories are shut down, they have agriculture but rainfall is infrequent, and their livestock export receives periodic bans by the Arabian states for fear of disease.. They are so poor they couldn't afford an extra pencil for their children.

That's why.. Ongoing war, parliament has no budget for economic growth, citizens are poor, no education, and the child grows up with no knowledge, no ethics, no immunization against disease, no healthcare, no knowledge about oral hygiene, and so... they resolve to piracy, from which they could make several million over several minutes of negotiation and intimidation...

We are so lucky we are born in this era where legal justice and law enforcement are in place to protect us. We do not have to fear for our lives when travelling on cruise, and better still, the most serious pirate activity in Malaysia is in the form of VCDs and DVDs XDDDD




The Pirates' Lair of Malaysia



Malcolm
info:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy

Pen + rose = Illusion

Don't get what I mean?

From the movie Inception I saw this Penrose staircase.



It is a two-dimensional depiction of a staircase in which the stairs make four 90-degree turns as they ascend or descend yet form a continuous loop, so that a person could climb them forever and never get any higher. This is clearly impossible in three dimensions; the two-dimensional figure achieves this paradox by distorting perspective.

Ah just another optical illusion....? Think again~

This was designed by Roger Penrose and his father Lionel Penrose.



A bitta history about this dude Roger.
He is still alive o.O not really old, currently residing in the UK, an Emeritus Professor of Mathematics in the University of Oxford. He works in the field of physics mathematics, integrating mathematical methods in physical problem.

He has won numerous awards in his field and he worked with Prof Stephen Hawking in the field of space and time, and of course that relates to the understanding of the theory of general relativity proposed by Einstein.

Roger Penrose himself is interested on how the human mind works. He once proposed that the known physical laws of our time are inadequate to properly describe the human mind. He argues that the new branch of science may need to bridge quantum mechanics and classical mechanics, which is quantum gravity.


Quantum gravity links classical and quantum mechanics under a single roof

In fact we now do have this subject called quantum gravity (its nothing new by now.. you probably haven't heard about the theory that requires 11-Dimension to work... the String theory...


Depiction of gravity by string theory

some of us have problem understanding 4-Dimension; X,Y,Z and t..let alone tackling 11-Dimension), which reduces to ordinary quantum mechanics in the limit of weak gravity (in places like... the moon, having only 1/6 of our gravitational force...



but no... it's not small enough. The gravity of moon is still too strong for this theory to work) and which reduces to Einsteinian general relativity in the limit of large actions.

Nevertheless that's just a bit of history and physics.



There are several other illusions created by the Penrose father-and-son; the Penrose triangle, blivet, and multi-legged elephant.



All these are strictly 2-Dimensional, and it is impossible to create those in 3-Dimensional. There are actually mathematics behind all these drawings. I can't decode the mathematics here cuz it's designed by ROGER PENROSE!!! COME on not everyone is smart like him~~ =(

Note the Penrose stairs... It has 6 stairs at 90 degree to each other, followed by a pair of 3 stairs at 90 degree to each other. Try other number, say 4 stairs with 6 stairs and you'll probably fail in constructing a similar image.

Also the Penrose triangle. All I know about the triangle is that the shape is the most stable shape. Once erected, a triangle is hard to fall to the side, ever wonder why the pyramids are 3-Dimensional triangle? why not square, or...spherical? =)




Well that remains a mystery to egyptologists. One suggestion here could be that the egyptians are skilled mathematicians, and they knew from ancient time that a triangle, at 60 degree to one another is the most stable structure ever. Even the Mayan and Aztec Civilization thousands of miles away in the depth of the Amazon knew this, and they've constructed similarly impressive pyramidal shaped monuments in the middle of the forest.


Aztec Civilization


Mayan Civilization

No one taught them that~ and the two civilizations have not encounter one another (sea travelling was not available until the time of Zheng He in 1421 A.D). But their remarkable intelligence enables them to acquire a common insight; the triangle is the most stable structure.

Ah... deviated from topic. Back to Mr. Penrose and his designs(he must be very angry if he reads this). So his creation has been used by many in IQ tests(pls la...u think everyone smart like Penrose meh....). And so, he must be really happy if he read this by now cuz another guy just fed his arrogance XD

Ah...talked too much. I'm supposed to go to lab now~ =P
p/s: i'm supposed to address him by Sir Roger Penrose~~ nvm I doubt that he's gonna read this =P


Malcolm

Giant Panda

Yeah I'm back~! Fuck that emo-ness last night. I was trying to write something interesting but it was such a bitter pill to swallow and I rolled on my bed for almost an hour before falling asleep (normally we need only 7 minutes to fall asleep).
Okay... a fren encouraged me to fix my attitude, i.e. to exclude the cursing element from my entries~ alrite I'll try, but no guarantee.

felonious entry

Ahh...
have you ever tried :

1)having something in your mind but its hard to say it out

2)you know its the truth and its good for you but its just too bitter to swallow

3)you know its hard but you have to try but you know you're gonna die trying

4)try not to hate someone because they are doing it for your own benefit but its hard not to hate them

5)don wanna admit that you hate them but the fact is you are extremely unhappy with them

6)thinking that you would leave with vengeance but regret that the memory might hang on to you like leeches, and someday when they come back to you and you'll becoming soft again

7)thinking that your ego is helping u to overcome this, and that you will never need them nor miss them nor fucking think of them but the fact is... you're always asking when will they turn their heads...and when they do turn you're not sure whether you'll execute them or cry out to them or blame them or... get back to normal..


Ah...it's good that none of them read this

I'm just fuckin self-centered. Kill me

p/s this is the 2nd time I emo this week and post felonious entry. No more entry of such low stature...but actually I feel VERY VERY GOOD after writing it down.

Malcolm

The Science of Inception

I was walking in One Utama Shopping Mall and I came across the trailer, and I had this urge to watch and so I just went in and gosh it was so good~~~~ o.O

Everyone's talking about that movie now. I visited imdb.com and the rating is 9.3/10, the highest in recent history (the last movie to hit above 9 was in 1994, the Shawshank Redemption)



So... again.. Like I would always do, I went back and started googling about dreams, the concept of subconscious, etc.. and to sum it up~ it's a really good science-fiction movie.

Revisiting old topics; Why do we dream? We spend 8 hours a day, and 1/3 of our lives sleeping. If you live to 90 years old, then you've spent 30 years sleeping o.O and you probably think we'd spend 30 years dreaming~ well, that's NOT the case really. We actually spend less than 5 minutes dreaming every night.

Dreams have fascinated philosophers for thousands of years, but only recently have dreams been subjected to empirical research and concentrated scientific study. Chances are that you’ve often found yourself puzzling over the mysterious content of a dream rather than wondering why you dream at all =P



Scientists pulled plugs and wires over dogs and cats to monitor their dreams, and found out that mastiffs and Great Danes might dream every 45 minutes for about five minutes, compared to their smaller canine cousins that enter a dream state every 10 minutes with episodes lasting less than 60 seconds.



We, like our mammalian pets, dream as little as 5 minutes everytime we dream but it seems like several hours or weeks in our dream. Yes! That's the concept we saw in Inception and hell yeah they did some research before venturing into the genre~~

However, the concept of infiltrating someone else's dream to steal their subconscious secret is purely science fiction~ The architect part is interesting, because they utilized the role of an architect to "build" a dream and place the victim inside the dream, and thus they could manipulate him easier, just like Fischer in the movie, he was 'taken' into the dream created by the sweet Ariadne and he got manipulated easily.



And the idea of your subconscious attacking you in the dream is similarly intriguing, but it was based purely on science fiction.

"You wake up when you are killed." How about that? Yes I do agree to a certain extend because I experienced that once, where I was almost killed in my dream and I woke up sweating... o.O in fact I was falling from an airplane... and the sensation of free fall was due to the headache that I was experiencing at that moment, and thus created the sense of free fall in my dream.



Similarly, when there is a phone ringing by your side when you're dreaming, you could be wondering in your dream whose GOD DAMN phone is ringing, and damn that person is so ignorant because HE DOESN't WANT TO PICK IT UP!!! In fact it's you~~ XD

And another point is; we always start our dream in the middle of nowhere, or...somewhere. It's as if all of a sudden we stood by the roadside facing an oncoming train, and the first thing you'd do is to jump to the side and GoD your leg got hit by the train and in fact it was your TV set falling from the shelves and hit you~!



One question: Take the above example.
How do we know that we are GOING TO experience pain and the dream relates us to the pain? Or.. How do we know that the TV set is going to fall and cause us pain, and our dream immediately relay an appropriate set of action; say got hit by an oncoming train?? IF the TV set doesn't fall down, then probably when we get hit by the train in our dream we wouldn't feel anything, right???

Yes, you wouldn't feel anything. BUT you'd probably got woken up by the fact that you died in your dream. BUT if there is something that hits you right at that moment... then you're probably STILL in your dream, but your brain will relate the pain to getting hit by the train, and that you narrowly escaped a horrible death, ie wake up from your wonderland.

I know this sounds a bitta crappy cuz I probably cannot convey my meaning clear enough via English, nor via Chinese. >_< Limited language ability certainly hits me hard...
I'm still at the ape-th level

Other facts about dream:
1) Lucid dream is a dream in which the sleeper is aware that he or she is dreaming. A lucid dreamer can actively participate in and manipulate imaginary experiences in the dream environment. Lucid dreams can seem extremely real and vivid, depending on a person's level of self-awareness during the lucid dream.



2) Precognitive dreams are prophetic dreams in which future events are revealed. Many times these dreams act as warnings. An example of this would be to have a dream about a plane crash the night before one was to board a plane.
The person heeds the warning and avoids the flight only to find out that the plane later crashed. Numerous people have reported experiencing precognitive dreams before 9/11.

3) Nightmares
The scariest kind of dreams are nightmares. Often times people awaken in a frightened state and the fear is so strong that it, along with vivid memories, can stay with a person all day. It is possible that nightmares are the result of unresolved problems or conflicts.



4) Recurring dreams are dreams that repeat themselves. It is a common occurrence and different theories exist as to why they happen. One theory is that the mind has an unresolved issue. Another theory is that the recurring dream represents an unconscious or conscious fear that a person is experiencing.

5)Past Life Dreams
Proponents of reincarnation believe that some dreams are actually memories of a past life. Researchers in the field of reincarnation believe that every memory of every life is stored in a person's subconscious. These memories can be recalled while being in an altered state of consciousness.

6) Other Types of Dreams
There are people who believe that spirit communication is possible during a dream. The theory is that people will be less frightened to see a deceased loved one in a dream, rather than in waking hours. Another belief is that people astral travel while dreaming. Astral traveling is an out of body experience in which the soul supposedly leaves the body and can go anywhere it wants.

I was once having problem with a math question, and I went to sleep without solving it... and soon I was dreaming on solving it WITH THE RIGHT METHOD in my dream, and... it was probably a lucid dream because I knew I was dreaming so I woke up and rushed to my table and finished the question.


This was the question i was solving, it turned out wrong!! XD

And, like I mentioned in previous entry, sometimes we should not try to recall our dreams. But sometimes, some dreams are irresistible.. if you know what I mean =)



Malcolm

Info:
http://newage.suite101.com/article.cfm/types_of_dreams
http://www.brilliantdreams.com/product/dream-interpretation-facts.htm
http://blogs.webmd.com/breaking-news/2010/07/why-we-dream-the-science-behind-inception.html

I hate God for all the empty promises He made.

I worked my way according to what He said,

Yet it's my relationship and trust that had to pay.

"No more" to myself I said.

"Thou shall live in peace"

"Full of the blessing of the Holy Spirit"

Damn~! All I get is trouble and worries.

A blessed relationship???? Forget it!!


I have totally lost my trust in religion.

No more religion all you fanatics.

There is no God. It's only man believing in empty space and the calling of their own heart. It's the hormones and enzymes at work you fools!

Be it coincidence, or luck, one thing I'm certain; there is no God.

I shall remember this is the date as the day I part way with the word GOD.
Fuck you~

The worst thing ever created by man is religion. *PUI!* I shall never be the same again

Nostradamus

Nostradamus, a name shrouded in mystery.
He was featured in an episode of National Geographic several years back.
Can you guess what he did to deserve such honor?

Environment Crisis that I have too little time to blog about

How many of us know that:

1)Toilets around the world flush away 27,000 trees everyday in the form of toilet paper.

http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/thegreenguide/2010/04/27000-trees-a-day-used-for-toilet-tissue.html


2)0.3% of the water in the world is fresh water(consumable), with glaciers and icecaps making up 70%, Amazon basin around 20% and the rest in rivers and lakes around the world.

http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthwherewater.html


3)The Great Barrier Reef in Australia is shrinking in size.

http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/article/2008/01/07/9630_hpnews.html


4)Methane pumps 4 times more heat into the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas


5)Cow farming is one of the main contributor of methane, but changing its diet may reduce its methane emission.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0816/p13s01-sten.html


6)Plastic bag and polystyrene can last for 100 years. We can still see the same polystyrene that we used in kindergarten if we live to a century old o.O



This one no need evidence. All of us know that =P


7)The famous River Ganges that gave birth to the Indus Civilisation is the most polluted river in the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollution_of_the_Ganges



8)China is generating more greenhouse gases than any other countries in the world, using coal as its primary energy source. France is utilizing its nuclear energy plant to generate 75% of its electricity.

http://www.pbl.nl/en/dossiers/Climatechange/moreinfo/Chinanowno1inCO2emissionsUSAinsecondposition.html

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf40.html


9)Heading for the wrong direction in committing to vegetarian diet to combat environmental crisis. Vegetarian diet doesn't help reduce methane emission; Cows are still alive and they still fart. =P

This one just to annoy those vegetarians


10)Tree farming is helping to solve greenhouse gases problem by absorbing carbon dioxide, but tree farming doesn't help Nature to get back on her feet; animals losing their habitat and newly planted trees will be brought down again before animals could settle in.


11)Global warming is melting out glaciers and icecaps,causing sea-level to rise. Lowland places such as Venice in Italy and Thailand will face the prospect of constant flood and finally, totally submerged underwater. New Moore Island is the first victim of rising sea level; became completely submerged in March 2010.

http://celebrifi.com/gossip/New-Moore-Island-DISAPPEARS-Into-The-Sea-1955979.html

And I overheard a dude from 3rd College UM telling another guy that GLOBAL WARMING IS NOT REAL. Get real fat ass. I feel like slapping u with my dick for saying such childish thingy though u are a BIOLOGY MAJOR!!! what a shame


12)The Californian Condor, the largest flying bird of our time, was left hanging by a thread; only 22 condors left in the world in 1980, while our population swelled to six billion in 1999...

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/california-condor987.html


13)We kill 100 million sharks annually; every second I spend typing here, 3 sharks die in the hand of fishermen

http://www.seashepherd.org/sharks/


14)Tuna, the main ingredient in Japanese Cuisine alongside Salmon, is disappearing fast. Overfishing and pollution (The recent Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, for instance) are the main culprits.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1227/p15s03-sten.html


15)Our oceans absorb Carbon Dioxide. They have been doing this silently for ages, until recently scientists discovered that our oceans has lost their appetite for the acidic gas. Oceans are turning acidic~!

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/11/091118-oceans-carbon-sink-global-warming.html


16)The Giant Redwood is the largest tree species in the world, growing to a staggering 100 meters.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/10/redwoods/bourne-text


17)Sumatran Rhino is the smallest rhino in the world, and the most threatened.

www.rhinos-irf.org/sumatran/


18)There are at least 100 uncontacted tribes left in the world. They have no electricity, no clothing, with unique language, and still use bows and arrows.

blogs.nationalgeographic.com/.../five-uncontacted-tribes-nearing-extinction.html


19)We have evolved for 4 million years.. and we have brought more destruction to Earth than any other creatures that Mother Nature has created.
That's common sense. No evidence but we all know it.


20)Arapaima Gigas, Giant Mekong Catfish and the Giant Mekong Stingray are jointly the largest freshwater fish in the world. Whale shark is the largest fish in the world. Blue whale is the largest animal that has ever lived. All of these giants are facing extinction due to anthropogenic activities.

Arapaima Gigas


Giant Mekong Catfish


Giant Mekong Stingray

http://surftherenow.com/2009/03/02/giant-stingray-and-fish-with-transparent-head/



21)There are cases of animals invading homes in America, because the animals are losing their habitat; alligators found in swimming pools, bears ravaging the neighborhood, raccoons found in chimneys, snakes found in toilet bowls, raptors nesting in churches, pumas attacking pet dogs...

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/4321949


22)The hybrid between a male lion with a female tiger is called a Liger, and it is hugeeeee~!! A female lion breeding with a male tiger produces a Tigon, which is smaller in size. They are, however, naturally sterile =P

http://www.liger.org/


23)In America, lions and tigers are kept as pet, which often lead to abandonment when the owners find it hard to fulfil their enormous caretaking fee.

http://mypetrescueblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/lion-tiger-and-bear-unlikely-trio.html


Alright, so these are the topics that I would like to blog about, but if I were to blog it one by one it would take years to finish, and new issues and ideas would pop up along the way... so yea.. perhaps I would revisit some of these topics in the future but now~ hehe laziness has got the better of me~~


Malcolm