Curiosity

I'm Back With A Vengeance!

2012-01-30T11:26:00.000+08:00

I received an email this morning from the airline that gave me hell on 20th Jan 2012.
It's time to rock their boat!

The poster girl is hot~ so yeah I took the survey. No harm blasting them with my predicament.

Totally unacceptable

Honestly, I'd prefer MAS stewardess to dress like this airline; short skirt, tight OL dress XD

Feeling much better.

Malcolm

Why Do Students Cheat?

2012-01-29T16:34:00.002+08:00

*Personally I'd never cheated in the university, so now I can write an article without guilt to excoriate those who had.

Cheating comes in many forms -- cheating during exams, copying someone else's assignment, signing attendance for a friend who's absent, etc. Somehow after they had cheated, they wouldn't want their honest friends to label them as dishonest, preferring to use the term cooperation, reference, and even friendship.

Whether we like it or not, we have to admit that cheating is a global phenomenon. Everybody cheats. Businessmen, artists, lawyers, tax collectors, students. The temptation of taking an easier route is always there, albeit not always towards success. And ironically we're always demanding for an honest government to handle important decisions, passing bills, make our lives better--that's a perfect example of cheaters demanding some cheaters to be honest.

Image: thepeoplescube.com

What can we do to curb the problem? Educate, of course, is easier said than done.

A survey done by Donald McCabe, a professor of management and global business at Rutgers Business School shows that one of the reasons students cheat is because the professional world tells them it's okay to do so. In this era where information can be transmitted and received within a blink of an eye, students get to see how successful entrepreneurs earn millions, if not billions, from cheating. Business talks and conferences always emphasize on hard work and perseverance, but rarely, if any at all, encourage the attendees to be honest.

Image: styledip.com

The same is happening in colleges and universities. Students cheat because everyone is doing the same-- the u jump, I jump attitude. Honesty is not rewarded, and cheaters go on to obtain honors and recommendations despite having the same level of mental capabilities as their ethical C-grade friends. The administration isn't willing to confront the cheaters, whose future they claim would be affected if their unethical act is recorded. And not forgetting those evaluation systems, which enable cheaters' friends to nail the lecturer in return for sanctioning the students for academic dishonesty.

Of course there are circumstances when a student is forced to be unethical. A class full of cheaters, frustratingly difficult subject, and professors-who-are-afraid-of-low-evaluation-marks could always tempt a good student away from the honest realm. The thing is, if left unchecked, this behavior will be embedded within our subconscious, and these cheaters will one day go out to become lawyers, engineers, scientists, politicians, and most ironically, teachers.

Image: smartfinancialanalyst.com

So it's down to the student themselves to determine whether they would want to be a part of the plague, or to be ethical. Nice guys do indeed finish last.

Malcolm
info:
http://angrybychoice.fieldofscience.com/2011/11/why-students-cheat.html
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/12/do-nice-guys-finish-last/all/1

Chinese New Year 2012

2012-01-27T09:30:00.001+08:00

Time flies. I flew back from Sibu yesterday and my CNY is officially over.

Met this lil' dude on the plane. Beautiful blue eyes and blonde hair.

Orang tua ini sudah 43. Looks like 31 to me.

Shit! This thing still exists!?!

This is what you get for asking money from loan sharks.

Oiii orang tua~ apa lu beli?!?

Mom-made bak gua

Keropok Udang + Azar

Stick insect at my front door.

Mom cooked too much we can't finish the food. Talk about capitalism.

My neighbor shooting fireworks. It's almost similar to launching rockets in battlefield.

I like this one. Reminds me of our universe.

The Milky Way?

An army of 79 raided my house on the first day of CNY. We ran out of glass to serve drinks, and ran out of chairs too.

My sister and Ivan the lil baby.

My.... cousin's grandchild... big age gap huh~

You don't get butterflies hanging around your backyard everyday in KL. But it's a totally different story in Sibu.

Home grown chili padi.

Millipede.

West Malaysian call this "Big Big Astro". Sarawakian call this "Satellite Dish".

Life persists.

Mom's orchid collection.

Papaya tree in my backyard.

Had a gathering with ex-schoolmates. Haven't seen one another for at least 3 years. My bro had his a day prior to mine and he hasn't meet them for 27 years. Well time hasn't been kind to everybody. Front; left to right: Michelle, Wei Ying, Jacinta, Shin Shin, Ee See. Back; left to right: me, Miin Fung, Say Siong.

And when I came back to Mont Kiara I realised I did something so dumb I should be hanged. =.='''
Anyway I'm cleaning up the mess right now and will be heading off to lab soon. Chinese New Year is officially over for me, but for my fellow Chinese friends, Happie New Year~again.

Malcolm

Going Back Home 2012

2012-01-21T11:24:00.001+08:00

Going back home to Sarawak every Chinese New Year is to me an enormous endeavor that requires tonnes of planning and commitment. And this year's trip has been nothing short of catastrophic.

I arrived at LCCT at 6:00pm and went straight for the check-in counter. The flight was delayed to 7:20pm so I figured I should have time to check-in and get my ass back in Sarawak by the end of the day because I was officially 80 minutes ahead of departure time.

But I was so wrong. Thanks to the airline.

Whether the company is too dependent on the Chinese ethnic, or they'd decided to slash the number of people resting on their ass doing nothing, the counters were terribly undermanned. There were very few counters that actually worked and I queued for an exhausting 40 minutes only for the crew to slap an unjustified "pax 6:40pm" sign on my itinerary, and the pushed me off to the "problem" counter.

There was no queue at all. Talk about efficiency.

At the abovementioned counter, I had to queue for another 60 minutes to meet the lady who later told me I was late because I arrived at 6pm and the counters had been closed 45 minutes prior to departure time(6:50pm). I told her I queued for 100 damn minutes because the counters were horribly slow. Moreover, the flight was delayed to 7:20pm, so the closing time should be 6:35pm and not 6:05pm. I wasn't late and I should be admitted for the flight. But she said it's the consumers' responsibility to make sure they arrive at the counter 45 minutes before the departure time.

Great. Let's put it into perspective: Let's say I come 90 minutes prior to departure time. I queue for 60 minutes because you have decided to cut cost by reducing the number of people sitting on their ass while we stand, and you say I'm late because I've stood for too long.

WOW.

Then the next best thing happened: she said I have to pay RM426 to compensate the air fare for the next flight which is at 5:50pm the next day. That was fast of her to make decision on my behalf, because actually I was planning to head off to MAS airline instead. It's as if I was being blamed for queuing too long, and then slapped a fine to cram onto the next flight. One of their marketing tactics?

So I had to spend the night at the airport. The Tune Hotel nearby was fully booked. Had KFC for dinner, and made a new acquaintance at the airport. At least I had someone to talk to, otherwise I really had nothing to do because the wifi service was utterly horrendous. It blocks hotmail but it doesn't block porn site. Exhilarating? I know.

I have slept in bus station (in Penang), in train station (Rome, Italy), and KLIA. Now add LCCT into my resume.

My new friend gave me this. Can you guess his nationality? (Answer at the end of this entry) =)

Having so much time to spare, I took the bus to KLIA this morning, and glad I did. RM2.50 only.

Ini barulah layak digelar LAPANGAN TERBANG!

KLIA having some sort of CNY exhibition. Great.

Alright this is something really new for me. Glad I came KLIA.

This is how you sleep at KLIA. Not sleep sitting-up like LCCT.

Tony, you're making big bucks through us. It's not okay we pay RM 1400++ for the lousy in-flight service and the ill-facilitated terminal, when adding another RM200 could get me a far better terminal at KLIA and a free in-flight meal, not to mention a better counter service too. The terminal is one thing, your tactic of earning more money from consumers through various surcharges and excuses can never be justified.

Whether you like it or not, majority of your customers from Sabah and Sarawak dislike you. Do a survey if you doubt my statement. I fly at least twice a year since 2007, and some of my friends even fly 6-8 times a year. So trust me, we don't like you. Given a choice, we really do not want to board your planes.

One thing is for sure, you'll never have me as your customer ever again (unless the destination I want to go is only accessible through your airline). Eat my briffit instead.

Err.. come to think of it, if the destination I want to go is only accessible through your airline, I would cancel my trip instead.

Answer:

Central Bank of Myanmar. =)

Malcolm

Maybank Malaysia Open 2012

2012-01-15T22:09:00.003+08:00

I've been to several live concerts throughout my life--MPO, Lee Hom, Backstreet Boys, Akon, etc..
And last year I experienced watching live football at Stadium Bukit Jalil, the match between Kelantan and Terengganu in the FA Cup final. The atmosphere was UNBELIEVABLY AWESOME! And at RM 30 it's totally the bargain of the year, if not decade.

And today, I received a pair of Maybank Malaysia Badminton Open 2012 ticket for free. My sis got it from somewhere and decided not to go and so I went instead. But everyone I called seemed to be really busy so yeah... went there alone.

I still have the unused ticket. Anyone?

Mixed double Champions and 1st runner up, during the prize-giving ceremony

Men's double featuring Korean and Taiwanese pair. The Taiwanese won the 2nd and 3rd set LIKE BOSSES!

bluek =Þ I didn't bring my DSLR. god. damnit.

Dato Lee Chong Wei VS Kenichi Tago.

Proof of attendance. =Þ

On a side note, I was surprised to see SOOOOOOOOOOOO many hot chicks there. It's time to switch from football to badminton.

Malcolm

Me Gusta

2012-01-14T20:22:00.000+08:00

Messing around with Facebook last night.
This what I did.
Me Gusta~

Malcolm

Do We Need Lynas-A Twist Of Mindset

2012-01-10T12:59:00.000+08:00

I have always been a fan of people who are willing to acknowledge changes. For me, a person who apologizes for his mistakes is more honorable than someone who stands his ground in the face of contradicting evidence.

Image: sodahead.com

In December last year I blogged about the issue of LYNAS in Kuantan, and I questioned whether are we ready for the sudden uplift of lifestyle. I totally disregarded the aspect of science in my previous post, which was suicidal. Suspecting a problem last night, I took to the table and started doing some math, which I should have done when I wrote the previous post. (so right now I'm giving myself some spanking, to be fair)

Image: resourceinvestor.com

*Behold math/science haters, you might want to skip the following section.
Thorium exists almost exclusively as Thorium-232 (more than 99%), and so I will omit the calculation for Thorium-230 and Thorium-229.
The radioactivity for a gram of Thorium-232 can be calculated via the following formula:

Activity, A = (M/Mo)*NA*λ

where
λ = (ln 2/t1/2)

So the formula becomes
A = (M/Mo)*NA*(ln 2/t1/2)

t1/2 = half-life of Thorium-232
M = mass of thorium (in grams)
Mo = molecular mass of Thorium-232
NA = Avogadro's number

If we have a gram of Thorium-232,
A = (1/232)*6.022 x 10E23*(ln 2/14000000000)
= 4070 Becquerel

That's not a huge number to be honest. Bananas are radioactive too. The unstable radioisotope Potassium-40 in bananas has a half-life of 1.25 billion years, but it only makes up 0.0117% of the total Potassium content in a banana. So a typical 120gram banana has roughly 15 Becqueral, and 273 bananas produce the same amount of activity as a gram of pure Thorium-232.

Image: hobbiesteller.com

I sent an email to LYNAS a couple of days ago and got some very helpful information.

The figure you quote for the specific activity of Th-232 of 4070 Bq/g is correct. However this relates to PURE Thorium-232. The Lynas rare earths concentrate contains only 0.16% Thorium-232:4070 x 0.16% = ~6 Bq/g.
Which means every gram of soil mined by LYNAS produces 6 disintegrations per second. That's less than half the radioactivity of a banana.

Does it mean if we could afford to stand by the fruit stall selling several bunches of bananas for hours on end and expose ourselves to plenty of banana-radiation, then perhaps we're ready for thorium?

Image: worldofstock.com

Well, not exactly. Radioactivity is directly proportional to the mass of sample i.e. more Thorium-232 means more radioactivity. Pound for pound, Thorium-232 still gives off more radiation than bananas. So importing a tonne of Thorium-232 into Kuantan everyday will definitely impose some severe environmental hazards.

And according to LYNAS,
The LAMP is completely different to the Bukit Merah rare earths plant. The Bukit Merah plant processed "monazite" from the waste of tin mines, which is very different to the rare earths we are processing. There are now much higher standards in place which mean Bukit Merah could never be repeated.
"Monazite" typically contains 6~7% thorium i.e. 40 times more than the thorium contained in the soil mined by LYNAS. Hence it is much safer than the Bukit Merah rare earths plant.

Monazite sand. Image: geology.com

Statistically, the radiation given off by LAMP is really minute. What worries me still, is the safety of the plant itself. As I'd suggested in previous post, no one can predict when the next flood/landslide is going to happen. Fukushima was a safe plant, until tsunami left it in a state of derelict in 2010. But again, I shouldn't ignore the fact that radiation-wise, the LAMP is safe.

Image: mynewshub.my

A bit of self-reflection is certainly good once in a while.

Malcolm
info: http://www.lynasandmalaysia.com/#faq-section
http://nuclearfissionary.com/2010/03/28/safe-levels-of-radiation/
http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/phys_agents/ionizing.html
http://www.chiquitabananas.com/Worlds-Favorite-Fruit/bananas-and-potassium.aspx
http://www.evs.anl.gov/pub/doc/Thorium.pdf

Why Do We Yawn?

2012-01-08T19:30:00.000+08:00

We know that we yawn when we're sleepy. But why yawn?
Our knowledge has enabled us to put a man on the moon, and yet we have not the slightest idea when it comes to yawning, something we probably do every night.

Image: saypeople.com

Even as I'm writing this, I'm actually yawning myself. Scientists say yawning is contagious, but I didn't know typing the word is enough make one yawn.

A research group from the Princeton University recently proposed that
yawning causes the walls of the maxillary sinus to expand and contract like a bellows, pumping air onto the brain, which lowers its temperature. Located in our cheekbones, the maxillary are the largest of four pairs of sinus cavities in the human head.

Image: revolutionhealth.com

Hack and co-author Andrew Gallup reason that our brain is sensitive to temperature. Whilst computer has a ventilation system to lower the temperature of the central processing unit(CPU), our body resorts to yawning.

Gallup tested the idea in animals by implanting probes into rats' brain and recorded the brain-temperature changes. He found out that brain temperature increases in the run-up of a yawn, then starts to decline, before falling rapidly to pre-yawn temperature.

Image: stevenmagnet.tymoon.eu

He then tested the hypothesis in humans, albeit only in two women that suffer from chronic bouts of excessive yawning, which showed the same trend in temperature changes.

The study also helps to explain why humans have sinuses, whose existence has baffled scientists. This is like a unified study of sinus, yawning, and brain cooling, which is very interesting. Still, more tests are needed before we can confirm that yawning cools our brain--two subjects to prove something so poorly understood is statistically unacceptable.

Malcolm
info:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/11/111115-yawning-mystery-brains-sinuses-health-science/?source=link_tw20111121news-yawn

Spiders Have Huge Brains

2012-01-07T11:36:00.000+08:00

Do you see spiders lurking in their webs at the corner of your house? Disgusting? Scary?
Don't think of it that way. These arachnids are incredible creatures.

We all know from the movie Spiderman that spiders are lethal and have amazing physical abilities. Jumping spiders, for example, can jump several times the length of their body. The silk they produce is stronger than steel and tougher than Kevlar. A thread with a radius of 3-cm can stop a Boeing 747 in full flight. And tiny spiders have brains so huge the neurons spill into their legs.

Horizontal sections of several spider species showing extension of neurons (black arrows) into leg joints in tiny individuals.
Image: R. Quesada et al. , Arthropod Structure & Development, 40 (2011) 521-529

Scientists were baffled as to why young spiders are able to build complicated webs like adult spiders. Well, their enormous brains may hold the answer. Our brain makes up only 2 to 3 percent of our body weight. A spider brain takes up almost 80 percent of the animal's body cavity, and it spills into its leg, making up about a quarter the mass of its legs. Insects like ants and minute beetles have brains that weigh roughly 15 percent of their weight.

Dorsal view showing the cephalothorax (C), the supra-oesophageal (white arrow) and sub-oesophageal (black arrow) ganglia of adult female orb-weaver Anapisona simoni (A) and Faiditus elevatus (B).
Image: R. Quesada et al. , Arthropod Structure & Development, 40 (2011) 521-529

The tiny lump of fat in our head consumes 20% of the body's energy. Similarly, much of the energy netted by the tiniest of spiders goes straight to their head. In fact, the percentage of space devoted to cognition in spider brains dwarfs that of humans.
Given the huge brain size, why are they not the dominant species on Earth?

For biology-majors, you have probably heard of Haller's rule, which holds that the brains of smaller animals are larger relative tobody size than large-bodied forms. Well this is a classic case of animals adhering to the rule. Human beings do not have the heaviest brains in overall weight, or even weight in proportion to their bodies, but our brains appreciate humor, beauty, death, and many more, whereas animal behaviors are driven largely by instinct.
The power of contemplation only exists in the minds of human and some highly intelligent animals--well at least that's what scientists found so far.

Size doesn't matter; it's the way the brains work that does.
But still, whenever you choose to smack a tiny spider, remember that it is way brainier than you can ever be.

Malcolm
info:
R. Quesada et al. , Arthropod Structure & Development, 40 (2011) 521-52

The Science of Great White Sharks Breaching

2012-01-06T20:16:00.000+08:00

The great white shark is one of the most feared animals in the ocean.

Image: sharkinformation.org

At the Seal Island at False Bay, South Africa, great white sharks regularly launch themselves out of the water, using momentum to kill seals.

Image: newswatch.nationalgeographic.com

That might not interest you, but for an animal that size (some weigh up to two tonnes) to leap that high into the air, it's just unthinkable. I've seen footage of breaching great whites on National Geographic and I was totally speechless. I mean, anyone of us could end up like those seals...

Anyway, a team of researchers have decided to decode the science of breaching. They dropped decoy seals into the water to elicit 121 Great White strikes over a period of years. Using the data of how high the sharks jumped, they were able to calculate how fast they were moving.

Image: theatlantic.com

"For example, on 18 June 2002, broadside to our observation vessel, a 3.5-m white shark performed a breach with a height of at least 2.4 m, a water-escape trajectory of ±45 degrees, and duration of 1.2 s,"

That is to say, an 11.5-foot shark jumped 8 feet out of the water and caught air for more than a second. Doing the math, they estimated that the sharks got up to speed of almost 10 meters a second (or greater than 21 miles per hour)!

Most shark attacks on seals occurs where the bottom depth of the water was 26-30 meters. In those circumstances, the researchers calculated that the sharks would reach the seals in around 2, 2.5 seconds after they begin their strikes. That's not much time for a seal to get out of the way, which is one reason that the attacks have a 40 to 55 percent success rate, depending on the lighting conditions.

Image: apexpredators.com

If you think staying in the boat is safe, think again. On July 19th 2011, a 3 meters great white shark breached and landed in an ocean research boat, shocking a field specialist and her crew. The 500kg shark had landed with only half of its body onto the boat and the researchers hoped that as it thrashed it would make its way back into the water. But instead the panicked shark worked itself into the boat. The shark began thrashing around, destroying equipment and cutting the fuel lines as it twisted and turned on the boats deck.

Image: thedorsalfin.com

To cut a long story short, they eventually released the shark back into the ocean.

Malcolm
info:
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/12/the-physics-of-great-white-sharks-leaping-out-of-the-water-to-catch-seals/249799/
http://www.thedorsalfin.com/shark-news-stories/3m-great-white-shark-breaches-and-lands-in-oceans-research-boat/

Pantun Tahun Baru 2012

2012-01-01T00:00:00.000+08:00

Tiap-tiap hari hujan lebat
Sehingga air membanjiri muara
Pasukan Harimau Malaya semakin hebat
kembali merangkul kejuaraan Asia Tenggara

Image: bharian.com.my

Iphone baru ada aplikasi Siri
Samsung pun memperkenalkan Samsung Galaxy
Tahun 2011 ramai orang kenamaan mati
Osama, Kim Jong Il, Steve Jobs dan Gaddafi

Image: telegraph.co.uk

Menonton TV di rumah sendiri
Buletin Utama melaporkan berita terkini
Isu GSTT masih belum selesai

Kementerian Pelajaran tak boleh pakai

Musim tengkujuh melanda Terengganu
Merosakkan bot, sampan dan perahu
Ekonomi Eropah menjunam macam batu

Rakyat menderita tiada arah tuju

Image: plus.google.com

Pak Belang di negeri Kelantan
Burung Pegar di Irian Jaya

Kebangkitan rakyat Timur Tengah menjatuhkan kerajaan

Mesir, Tunisia, Yemen dan juga Libya

Image: sanfranciscosentinel.com

Rakyat Palestin hidup sengsara
Menerima bedilan senjata Yahudi
Tahun 2011 tahun bersejarah
Palestin kini anggota UNESCO PBB

Image: un.org

Masakan sendiri sedap sekali
Ikan keli masak lemak cili api
Tahun 2012 kian menghampiri
Semoga kalian bahagia dan sentiasa diberkati

New Year Resolution 2012

2011-12-31T11:34:00.000+08:00

It's time for New Year Resolution again~~
Oh btw I hate the fact that I'm living here amidst all the construction sites, and they work even on Saturday. This is so WTF.
By the way these are what I'd wished for last year:

1) Learn a new language, maybe German (or Spanish or Italian)
Well I've picked up the German language, albeit still slow and elementary. Perhaps I should put it to good use this year? =) Ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch~

2) Visit a foreign country and at least 4 Malaysian states (other than Selangor, Melaka, and Sarawak)

This has got to be the highlight of my life--In May 2011 I traveled across all 11 states of Peninsular Malaysia, covering 1176 km over 15 days on my 100cc Honda Wave. Enough said. XD

As for the foreign country thing... errr... *run away*

3) UM Convocation
Finally~ had a nice day with dad and mom. And a bunch of friends.

4) Get a pair of new spectacles (finally)
Done. Not a striking one but close enough. Even learnt how to use contact lens

5) Get a new phone
I bought my Nokia C7 while attending a Career Fair at KLCC in April. It was an impromptu decision my two housemates couldn't believe I was serious.

6) More pitch football than futsal.(I have to pay for futsal but not football)
Definitely. Bought Mercurial Tala at discounted price RM120 (normal price RM279) too~ Bargain of the year.

7) Move to a new house.
Now lor... staying at bro's apartment here.. surrounded by constructions. *dislike*

8) 62kg!!!!
Shit. I have no time to check that out really. But I think I should have hit the target la. =P

So what do I want to achieve in 2012, the year we all die on December 21st?

1) Publish at least 1 paper in quartile-1 journal
2) Go Redang -- a turtle conservation program called SEATRU
3) Visit Danau Toba, the largest supervolcano in the world.
4) Visit Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary--and be a volunteer perhaps?
5) Busking on Christmas Day 2012
6) Complete one 21-km marathon

Well it's kinda congested really. Each project would need around 2 months of preparation. Backpacking should not be a problem though, but busking and marathon require quite a lot of practice and training.
I thought last year's items were kinda tough, but now I think they're peanuts compared to this one.

That's why it's called the New Year Resolution =)
Happy New Year ~

Malcolm

The Incredible Naked Mole Rat

2011-12-30T21:21:00.001+08:00

The naked mole rat is an awesome little creature despite its ugly look. Underneath the wrinkled skin lies one of the toughest operating systems of the animal kingdom--it's the Superman of the rodent's world.

Size wise, there's not much difference between a naked mole rat and a house mouse. A naked mole rat is typically 3 to 4 inches in length and weighs around 35 grams. A queen, meanwhile, can be as heavy as 80 grams.

A queen. You can actually see the babies in her belly. Image: animalpicturesarchive.com

This wretched-looking rodent uses its teeth to dig tunnels which can span up to three miles in cumulative length. They live underground in an eusocial system, like that of insects--a queen and several males reproduce, while other rats serve as workers. A naked mole rat has very small eyes which seems to serve no function, and it navigates through the darkness by scent to thrive on tubers as well as its own feces. They can cope with chokingly low level of oxygen and high level of carbon dioxide.

Image: naked-mole-rat.org

Now the incredible part: the naked mole rat has an incredible lifespan. A rodent of its size lives around 3 to 4 years, but a naked mole rat may live up to 28 years. Putting the figures into perspective, that's like you living for 490 years while your friends lived for a meager 70.

And they are apparently immune to cancer. Professor Rochelle Buffenstein from the Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies have been trying for years to infect the penis-like rodent with cancerous cells, toxins, pollutants, and even heavy metals, but the rodents in her lab were unimpressed.

Image: nationalzoo.si.edu

A drug regimen that would be murderous to mouse cells must be doubled or tripled or even multiplied 50 times over before it would have similar effects on a naked mole rat.--Professor Rochelle Buffenstein, Slate.com

Having bizarre sperm is another trait of the naked mole rat. They are smaller than those of other mammals, and are produced in lower amounts. Most of the sperms have abnormally-shaped head; squashed, shrunken, two heads, conical heads. Just behind the head, there are only seven mitochondria rings--the fuel that powers the sperms' frenzied movement. Human sperms have 15 rings, while some rodents' sperms can have up to 300 rings. So it's not surprising that only between 1 to 15 percent of the sperms can swim, and out of those, only 1 percent that can actually swim quickly.

And the most ironic trait of all: the rat is actually cold-blooded. Well I thought all mammals were warm-blooded. The rats do not possess stable body temperature like other mammals, and so they have to regulate their temperature by basking in chambers close to the surface or retreat to cooler chambers when it gets too hot.

In 2008, scientists found out that these incredibles were missing the body chemical, Substance P, a neurotransmitter released by pain fibers that send signals to the central nervous system in mammals after making contact with things that cause long-lasting, achy pain, like chili peppers. This means that they can endure capsaicin better than any human who has ever lived. Better still, they can't feel pain from the injection of acid. Researchers found out two mutations in their sodium channel (which triggers a chain reaction in neurons that results in the release of neurotransmitters and the sensation of pain in the brain) that renders them pain-free.

Image: io9.com

This is probably caused by the high level of acidic carbon dioxide in their burrows. Over time, the rats developed resistance against the pain

Despite its ugly look, I hope this bucktoothed creature will continue to reveal more of its incredible trait. It's not very often you see a superhero that feasts on his own feces really.

Malcolm
info:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2011/12/16/naked-mole-rat-super-power-12-they-feel-no-burn/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080129125533.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_potential
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_mole_rat

圣诞节 2011

2011-12-25T21:29:00.000+08:00

今天是圣诞节。
再过五天就是鬼佬新年咯。
时间过得可真快呀。。

Image: chachaba.com

回头看看2011年，发生了许多事情。二月就有了中东革命，令到各大阿拉伯豪门纷纷倒台。最近就轮到也门总统弃权逃离国家到美国。然后还有欧债危机，恐怖教父奥沙马被枪毙，利比亚领袖卡达非也死于国人手下。前几天连朝鲜狂人金正日也死了。（为什么拿鸡就偏偏死不了？）

而本人呢，也毕业了。也作了许多事。旅游，演出，等等。
接下来呢？
当然要做完 MASTER 的研究，写论文，专心做平凡人。等 MASTER 毕业后再作狂人两个月。

其实本人今年 2011 还有一些狂事要做。连新加坡朋友来KL，我为了这个私人计划而不能与他见面，可是被计划中的朋友放飞机料。心理现在有点不平衡--计划泡汤真的令我有点冲昏头。
哦还有亲人的圣诞派对我也去不成了。现在想起来还真有点火料。

Image: iruntheinternet.com

之所以我独来独往，做事单打独斗就是因为怕被人连累。兴致勃勃要来个不同的圣诞，可就被人临时放飞机。要一团人一起旅行更难。一开始大家肯定什么屁都讲得出，要爬山咯，去海边咯，然后订机票时就出问题了，这个不能去，那个不敢去。到最后去的人肯定少过当初讲屁话的人。可是这次圣诞计划我只找到了一个朋友，连这样都会被放飞机。可见，到最后还是自己最可靠。

Image: troll.me

不过还好他还不至于一个信息都没寄来，至少还会说很忙，不能赶到.....（当初不是说圣诞节没事做，很闷吗？）
算料啦。算自己倒霉咯。

今年走完了西马，明年的计划呢？

有点想去印尼三日游，去多巴湖。可是要看看有没有便宜机票，和 passport 有没有过期。还有去登家楼海龟保护计划。还有~！明年一定要做今年圣诞没做到的。可是明年圣诞坐落在拜二叻........几不方便哦...... =.=
今年圣诞单独的过。计划泡汤，在家两天非常闷，什么都没做到。浪费时间等信息，睡觉咯。不过昨晚有美女相伴--独自在家看 NTV7 的环球小姐比赛.....可怜到.......

期盼明年会更好。大家圣诞节快乐~

Malcolm
p/s: 拿鸡，大家都上车料，几时轮到你？

What Can We Buy With Human Lives?

2011-12-23T23:02:00.001+08:00

Stanford economists estimate that the average value of a year of quality human life is close to about $129,000.
But for the people of Mosquito Coast in Cocobila, Honduras, a lobster is priced at 352 lives.

The Miskitos are a native American ethnic group in Central America, and most of them dive for lobsters to earn a living. These lobsters are no ordinary lobsters--they are considered luxury food for the European and American market, and the Miskitos literally risk their lives catching these sea critters for the rich and famous.

Image: en.wikibooks.org

Diving without proper equipments is a dangerous feat. In order to catch lobsters, Miskito men will have to plunge as deep as 150 feet into the sea to search for their catch, and they do it as often as 12 to 15 times a day, when only three or four dives beyond 90 feet would be considered safe.

Without depth gauge or air gauge, they often ascend too quickly when it becomes difficult to breathe, causing nitrogen bubbles to form inside the body.

Image: lakesidepress.com

When the bubbles lodge in the joints or nervous system, they can leave the diver paralysed. A bubble that reaches the lungs or brain can be fatal. Death from the bends can be particularly disturbing to witness: it is sometimes accompanied by heavy bleeding from the nose, ears and mouth.-independent.co.uk

Image: whoi.edu

In the past, the Miskitos had no idea what struck them; they thought it was a curse from a vengeful mermaid, angry that they'd taken so much from the sea.
Now that they know the reason behind the constant headache, they still can't anything about it--they are paid because most of them can't afford an additional gauge. And most ship captains don't trust the divers to handle better kit.

Since 2003, the Association of Disabled Miskito Divers has registered 352 deaths from Decompression Sickness (DCS), but this is a conservative figure: many will have been killed at sea never to be accounted for, and hundreds more will have died at home, slowly, from diving injuries. But a beggar can't be a chooser, as the only other established industry in Honduras is drug trafficking. Not wanting to get involved with drugs, young Miskito men must continue to risk their lives diving for lobsters.

Image: kickstarter.com

A similar thing is happening approximately 8000 kilometers away, in the town of Koidu, in eastern Sierra Leone. Here, an average man earns $220 a year and dies at 39. Like the Miskitos, the lives of the 1million miners here cannot match the value of their product--diamonds. Most miners earn a meager stipend of 7 cents to contribute to the $60 billion industry.

Image: europe.org.uk

Realizing the value to the diamond industry, a group known as the Revolutionary United Front killed, threatened, and even cut off the arms of people living and working in diamond villages until they were able to take control of the mines in the area. Then the group moved on to the next village to do more of the same, effectively terrorizing the entirety of Sierra Leone.

Image: un.org

And the smuggling and illegal trade of these diamonds helped to fund the civil war in Sierra Leone, which ended in 2002. But all in all, roughly 20,000 innocent people suffered bodily mutilation, 75,000 were killed and 2 million fled Sierra Leone as a result of the war. The diamonds sold to fund the war were thus dubbed "blood diamonds".

Image: thevoicesofthem.blogspot.com

The thing is, lobsters and diamonds aren't diabolical--irresponsible humans are. Boycotting lobsters and diamonds cannot solve the problem, because these people are dependent on the industry (girls and diamonds are inseparable). What we really need is a strict law to regulate the extraction and trade of these products. A law to force lobster companies to provide competent diving kit, or to open clinics for injured divers could help to prevent further death from DCS. As for the diamond, it'd be prudent for consumers to avoid purchasing a blood diamond. Most companies wouldn't charge extras for asking the origin of their diamonds anyway.

A diamond is a symbol of eternal love, and a lobster, err... luxury food.
But human lives are more valuable than either glittering stones or tasty sea critters.

Malcolm
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1808049,00.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/whats-the-price-of-lobster-352-lives-6270161.html
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/12/11/8395442/index.htm
http://history.howstuffworks.com/african-history/african-diamond-trade2.htm

The Challenger Deep Revised

2011-12-22T23:26:00.000+08:00

The Mariana Trench is the deepest place on Earth. It is located to the east of Mariana Islands, running for about 2550 kilometers but has a mean width of only 69 kilometers.

The deepest point, known as the Challenger Deep, which had hitherto been measured at 10919 meters, is now estimated to be 10994 meters.

To put the figures into perspective;
The tallest mountain in the world, Mount Everest, is only 8848 meters.
The world record for scuba diving is 330 meters.

Image: whoi.edu

Let's do some calculation.

Water pressure, P is given by hρg

since h = 10994 m, g = 9.81 m/s^2, and ρ = 1097 kg/m^3

Therefore P = 110763120.78 Pa, or 110.7 MPa.

So it's really cold and pressurized down there. One might not expect to see any living organism here until they set their eyes on something glittering in the dark--the Angler Fish!
There are also other organism here, for example the Vent Crab, and bacterias. Lots of them. These animals are kept alive probably by hydrothermal vents, which release hydrogen sulfide and other minerals, as well as heat.

Pretty cool isn't it?

Malcolm
info:
http://deepseanews.com/2011/12/deepest-trench-now-with-more-deep/

It's Not Easy To Be A Guy

2011-12-21T11:11:00.000+08:00

Who Really Invented The Computer?

2011-12-10T15:17:00.000+08:00

No, it wasn't Steve Jobs.

Some people might say Alan Turing, the guy who, in the 1930s, laid the foundation for computational science.

Bill Gates? Nope. Steve Wozniak? Err... Nope.
All these were sparked by a question put up by a British research team in the New York Times: Did an eccentric mathematician named Charles Babbage conceive of the first programmable computer in the 1830s, a hundred years before the idea was put forth in its modern form by Alan Turing?

Charles Babbage? Yeah it got me wondering too, and thinking... I seriously read "cabbage" until I looked at it again.

Image: en.wikipedia.org

I wiki-ed the guy and here's some fact about him:
He was born 1791 and died 79 years later. He was born in London into a quite well-off family. Smart but constantly plagued by health problem, he loved mathematics and was a member of the Ghost Club, a club concerned with investigating the supernatural.

In Babbage's time, numerical tables were calculated by humans who were called 'computers', meaning "one who computes". At Cambridge, he saw the high error-rate of this human-driven process and started his life's work of trying to calculate the tables mechanically. He began in 1822 with what he called the difference engine, made to compute values of polynomial functions..... using the method of finite differences, it was possible to avoid the need for multiplication and division.-- wikipedia.

Babbage, however, didn't manage to build his machine due to cost overrun and political disagreements. He did, however, completed the plan of the machine, and the Science Museum in London actually built the machine in 1991, and guess what, it actually works.

Image: computerhistory.org

So Babbage did came up with the concept of computer in 1800s. But he didn't actually build it. So can he really be called the Father of Computer? I'll leave it to you to decide.

Malcolm
info: http://techland.time.com/2011/11/10/who-really-invented-the-computer/

Do We Need Lynas?

2011-12-09T20:31:00.000+08:00

The Fukushima disaster brought Japan, the third largest economy in the world to her knees. What about us? With our meager GDP of US$ 247.7 billion (2010 est.) are we able to handle the clout and the massive compensation in the event of accident? Or should we turn a blind eye on safety and contamination issue, and focus on profit instead?

Before I begin, I have a few questions regarding rare earth.
What exactly are rarely earth elements?

As defined by IUPAC, rare earth elements or rare earth metals are a set of seventeen chemical elements in the periodic table, specifically the fifteen lanthanides plus scandium and yttrium.-wikipedia.org

Image: personal.psu.edu

So, what are these minerals for?
Yttrium can produce phosphors that produce light in LED displays and compact fluorescent lightbulbs. Neodymium magnets turn wind turbines. Cerium helps reduce tailpipe emissions.
Cellphone circuit, tablet computers, video games, laptop batteries, flatscreen TVs, and virtually every electronics you have in your home contain rare earth elements.

Image: binzaman.com

Rare earths are also found in cars--hybrid and electric cars often contain as many as eight different rare earths. Defense technology; radar system, sonar system, tank engines, navigation systems in smart bombs.

Since they are used so extensively, why are they called rare earths?
They are termed rare earth because of they are typically dispersed, and not a lot are found in concentrated and economically exploitable form. In fact rare earth minerals actually refers to those very rare economically exploitable deposits.

Image: aussmc.org

Given all this, it's not surprising that the number of millionaires in China has been increasing over the last couple of years. China produces 97% of the world's rare earth supply, but this number could drop because Beijing may want to reserve the useful metals for domestic use.

Now, let's get back to the Lynas issue.
Given all the benefits of rare earth, why are the people of Kuantan unhappy about Lynas? The plant in Kuantan is actually a rare earth refinery, which, upon completion, would become the largest rare earth refinery in the world. Another best in the world for Malaysia, why not?

Image: mamakk.com

Also the plant could provide a plethora of job opportunities as well as elevating the living standard of local population. Most important of all, the revenue generated from the plant could help improve the country's GDP, so we could have another major source of income apart from petroleum. Or better still, we could be a thorn in China's flesh, upsetting them in terms of rare earth production.

But the entire project has a drawback.
Though Lynas will mine the ore in Australia, the radioactive material will be shipped to Kuantan, and that, my friend, is the major concern for the people of Kuantan. Rare earths occur naturally with the radioactive elements thorium and uranium, which, if not stored securely, can leach into groundwater or escape into the air as dust. The refining process requires huge amounts of harsh acids, which also have to be disposed of safely.

Image: smh.com.au

One of the reasons China could control the world's rare earth market is because the mines in China couldn't care less about safety and contamination. Be it coal or rare earth, mines in China generally lack necessary safety precaution for miners, and contamination is rampant. Communities around a former rare-earths mining operation in Inner Mongolia, for example, blame hundreds of cases of cancer on leaked radioactive waste from the mine, and local people complain that their hair has gone white and their teeth have fallen out.

Image: news.bbc.co.uk

Why Lynas have chosen to build the refinery in Kuantan in the first place has also baffled a lot of us. Jon Hykawy, an analyst with the Toronto-based brokerage Byron Markets, which specializes in rare earths, suspects that Lynas is choosing to refine in Malaysia because it would be easier to acquire a permit in Malaysia and most importantly, it is a lot cheaper than refining in Australia.

The thing is, we have had a rare earth refinery in the past. Unknown to many people, Mitsubishi Chemical's rare earth refinery built in Bukit Merah was

closed in 1992 after years of sometimes violent demonstrations by citizens. Local residents blamed the refinery for birth defects and eight leukemia cases within five years in a community of 11,000 — after many years with no leukemia cases.-nytimes.com

Lai Kwan prepares to bathe her son, Cheah Kok Leong, who was born with severe mental disabilities. She believes that his condition is related to the radioactive exposure she received while working at the Mitsubishi Chemical's refinery in Bukit Merah. Image: Rahman Roslan for The New York Times

The company has quietly agreed to clean up the site, but even after 19 years the cleaning process is still ongoing--and that's after the refinery closed without any accidents.

"It's safe--it's built by an international team of builders and engineers"--International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), 30th June 2011.

No it's not when there's leakage--the risk is especially high when you're dealing with something dubbed "the largest radioactive material refinery on earth". Weather, mismanagement or human error could easily turn a profitable business into a life-threatening investment. The Fukushima nuclear crisis, for example, was caused by an earthquake. Unpredictable. The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year was caused by human error. Similarly unpredictable (though maybe avoidable). And the Chernobyl disaster, which was caused by human error as well as design features. Again, unpredictable.

Image: modernsurvivalblog.com

The Fukushima disaster brought Japan, the third largest economy in the world to her knees. What about us? With our meager GDP of US$ 247.7 billion (2010 est.) are we able to handle the clout and the massive compensation in the event of accident? Or should we turn a blind eye on safety and contamination issue, and focus on profit instead?

For me personally the entire project embodies a deeply resented scheme derived by rapacious politicians, and seriously I should actually re-quote myself : the refinery improves our politicians' GDP, not the country's.

So the question remains: do we need Lynas? If an accident happens, are we ready to face the consequences?
The people of Germany recently campaigned against the government's action of accepting nuclear waste from France. The people tried to stop the train carrying nuclear waste from France by laying flat on the railway.

Image: ourmediaindymedia.blogspot.com

They are not ready to face nuclear waste, how could we?

Malcolm
Info:
http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/10/rare-earths-prius-molycorp
http://www.gfmag.com/gdp-data-country-reports/226-malaysia-gdp-country-report.html#axzz1fYscT4ge
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/09/business/energy-environment/09rareside.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/30/business/global/30rare.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.thesundaily.my/news/64701

A Brief History Of Academic Dress

2011-12-04T15:16:00.000+08:00

I was stalking my friend's facebook page this morning when I saw his graduation pictures. And, as always, a question popped up and I started googling on the history of academic dress, who designed it, and why is it designed that way.

University of Malaya Academic Dress. No the elephant is not part of it. Image: Tan Chin Seng.

According to students' best friend, Wikipedia, an academic dress is

A traditional form of clothing for academic settings, primarily tertiary (and sometimes secondary) education, worn mainly by those that have been admitted to a university degree (or similar) or hold a status that entitles them to assume them (e.g., undergraduate students at certain old universities).

Alright I know that's crappy information.

Academic dress (AD from hereafter) found in universities in the British Commonwealth (like Malaysia) and the United States is derived from that of the University of Cambridge and University of Oxford.

An AD has three major components: the robe, the hood, and the mortarboard, and it's distinctive to each institution.

University Putra Malaysia Academic Dress.

The design of the AD is actually inspired by the fashion of medieval Europe.
Gown was a common fashion among both sexes during that time. So was the hood. It was originally intended to hide or cover the wearer's face i.e. it was used during execution of criminals; this practice was known as hooding. Otherwise, it would be used on a person who has been arrested or kidnapped, none of which was positive.

In terms of AD, the color of the hood represents the particular faculty from which the degree was earned

As for the mortarboard, or cap, it is generally believed to have developed from the biretta, a similar-looking hat worn by Roman Catholic clergy. It is derived from Latin birrus, meaning "red." The biretta was used in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to identify humanists, students, artists, and learned and blooming youth in general. It was originally reserved for holders of master degrees (the highest qualification in medieval academia) but was later adopted by bachelors and undergraduates.

Image: Wikipedia.org

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it was termed corner-cap.

In 1950, inventor Edward O'Reilly and Catholic priest, Joseph Durham filed their patent for the mortarboard found in the United States today. The duo incorporated a metal filling into the mortarboard thus making it more sturdy, and as a result the mortarboard can be thrown over and over again by generations of erudite scholars without suffering a dent in shape.

Image: bookstores.umn.edu

Finally, on top of the mortarboard, lies the tassel. The word comes from the Latin tassau, which refers to a clasp. The tassel is usually black, but may be colored differently in some institution to represent the field in which the wearer obtained his or her education. It actually serves no function other than covering your face when you bow. Pretty disturbing.

Some institutions have strict code on the side which the tassel should hang. It's either :
(a) Consistent among all students throughout the ceremony;
(b) It differs based on level of study with undergraduate students wearing the tassel on the right, and graduate student wearing them on the left;
(c) The student wears the tassel on one side until reception of the scroll, then it is switched to the other.

So, there you have it, a brief history of AD.
Oh wait a minute. AD differs by country.

In some countries, for instance the Philippines, some universities had their AD derived from the Spanish AD, which looks fabulous (the cap is like a winter cap). The University of the Philippines, on the other hand, incorporate the use of the Sablay, inspired from the Malong of Muslim Mindanao. During the commencement ceremony, the Sablay is worn at the right shoulder, which is then moved to the left shoulder after the President of the University confers their degree. The Sablay is worn over traditional Filipino attire - Barong Tagalog for men and Filipiniana dress for women.

University of Philippines Academic Dress. Image: Wikipedia.org

Spainish Academic Dress. Image: Wikipedia.org

Portuguese Academic Dress. Image: Wikipedia.org

By the way, the Portuguese AD reminds me of Alfonso de Albuquerque. Would love to try it someday.

Malcolm
info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_regalia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hood_(headgear)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gown
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortarboard#Tassel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tassel

Who's Smart And Who's Not?

2011-12-03T10:54:00.000+08:00

Is the recently deceased Steve Jobs smart?

Most of us do not know Jobs personally, though we're constantly told of Jobs' accomplishment, his temperament, and his brilliance. He sold me my iPod, presented me with the ever sophisticated iTunes, tempted me with iPhones, and fascinated me with his death.

Image: digitaltrends.com

Walter Isaacson wrote biographies of both Jobs and Albert Einstein, and he ponders the crucial question, “was Steve Jobs smart?” Isaacson has written biographies of two of the icons of humanity so he should be a smart guy himself.

One might think that the answer is an obvious “yes,” and Isaacson admits this. But then he tells this anecdote:But I remember having dinner with him a few months ago around his kitchen table, as he did almost every evening with his wife and kids. Someone brought up one of those brainteasers involving a monkey’s having to carry a load of bananas across a desert, with a set of restrictions about how far and how many he could carry at one time, and you were supposed to figure out how long it would take. Mr. Jobs tossed out a few intuitive guesses but showed no interest in grappling with the problem rigorously.--nytimes.com

Was Jobs being blasé? Could be.
Or he could be so smart he thought the question was an insult to his intelligence. Isaacson suggests that Mr. Jobs was smart, though not conventionally--like the nerds we find in schools, those who bury their heads in mountain of books and are sociopaths, secluded, forever-alone, and interested only in solving puzzles and sudoku.

Image: technabob.com

Jobs' accomplishments didn't make him a conventional smart guy--he represented a new generation of smartness. He didn't accomplish it all by sheer luck, or even by simple hard work. Looking at his iPhone presentation video, you would know the guy standing on the stage knew the product inside out, and he's brimming with confidence, as though he was the only one who had made it possible. He captivated even the most cynical of skeptics, and turned product-unveiling-ceremony into an art form. Steve Jobs, if you'd noticed, hardly looked at the screen behind him for more than a second, if he ever looked at all. Because he understood the fact that the screen serves the audience, not him.

Image: ivorytowermetaphysics.com

A recent visit to the Malaysian Institute of Microelectronic Systems (MIMOS) enlightened me on yet another harsh reality: smart nerds aren't exciting. The conference invited several speakers from Russia, and the most prominent one have had several papers published in Nature, and he turned out to be the worst presenter. He struggled and stuttered like an earthquake whilst staring not at the audience, but at the screen beside him during the entire presentation. His presentation was long, sheepish, ineffective and in short, it was in a state of derelict.

Now is this professor smart? His academic history says yes. But his performance suggested anything but smart. He’s boring, unexciting, and unappealing to the general public, and mentors like this, in a long run would cause even the most enthusiastic of science zealots to turn their back on science.

But this is exactly how we perceive smart people isn't it? Most of us believe that intelligence represents an ability to solve logic puzzles and do well on IQ tests. Instead of judging the intrinsic traits of an individual, we normally resolve to tests and exams--a two-hour exam is deemed the fastest though not the most accurate way to measure the mental capability of an individual.

Image: ozdoctorwebsite.com

But the fact is there is more than one way to be smart. The ability to solve problem, the ability to understand the presence of problem, having ideas, speaking and writing well, seeing things clearly. Sometimes you can be very good at those things, and not very good at (or interested in) logic puzzles or IQ tests. And unfortunately, the conventional two-hour examinations can't possibly measure these traits.

Steve Jobs was a college dropout, yet he could solve problems and understand things as well as, if not better than, any college graduate. Could things have turned out differently had he been to college?

Image: seerpress.com

One could argue that he was smart for his ability to inflict the right amount of pain to evoke the best out of his co-workers. Others might find it disturbing when he fired random employees in the elevator, or fired an assistant for having brought him the wrong brand of mineral water. Fastidious it may seem, but I would consider him as a different thinker. He wasn't a conventional smart guy after all.

He's smart, just in a different way.

Malcolm
info: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/opinion/sunday/steve-jobss-genius.html?_r=4&pagewanted=1

This Blog Is TWO Years Old Today

2011-11-28T20:16:00.000+08:00

Yaay, two years old now.
I just realized how much I resemble my brother--love traveling, googling information, knowing new things, new culture, and writing.
Err... writing as in... typing.

Image: waitingfornextyear.com

Oh by the way I kinda like it when this blog reaches a milestone, like achieving 150th post, but it's not special anymore because I've written well over 300 posts now. Ed Yong, the science blogger that inspired me two years ago is still writing and I think he has written well over 800 posts already.
The original intention of creating this blog, however, hasn't changed. Blogging like conventional Malaysian blogger isn't my cup of tea, though sometimes I do have silly posts =P. But if we look at people blogging in the west, they are seriously good writers writing newsworthy articles, compared to a lot of our Malaysian bloggers who blog in accordance to their feelings. DiscoverMagazine, Scientific American, Slate, and even National Geographic have their own army of bloggers to keep them relevant to the current generation of internet users.

Image: freedomscientific.com

Bloggers blogging for these sites are themselves researchers, engineers, and even university lecturers. They blog about their work to educate and elevate the mindset of the people around them. Unfortunately, not a lot of our Malaysian researchers and engineers are willing to do serious blogging on science and technology. But when it comes to writing anti-government sentiment, a lot of us are like horses on steroid, willingly compose with dismaying enthusiasm.

Anyway, I don't know how much longer I can blog like this. Savor it while it last. =)

Malcolm

Climate Change Skeptic Confirms Climate Data

2011-11-27T22:31:00.000+08:00

Climate change, a term we all seem to be pretty familiar with. But how many of us actually understand global warming?

Most of us, I believe, can rephrase what Al-Gore famously said in 2006: global warming is REAL. But not a lot of us could come up with reliable data to back up the claim, apart from quoting bits and pieces of scientists-say-so newspaper quotes. That, my friend, is a seriously flawed method to convince climate skeptics.

Image: ipohecho.com.my

In fact National Geographic featured an article on global cooling back in 2010. The article tells how scientists attempted to answer the mystery on the growth of Antarctic sea ice despite global warming. Moreover, the Butterfly Diagram of our Sun indicates that 2011 is somewhere near the peak, meaning we are having a plethora of sunspot activities in our Sun. So global warming IS in fact a natural phenomenon, not man made.

Or is it?

Last year, a Berkeley physicist and self-proclaimed climate skeptic named Richard Muller launched the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST) project. The main objective was to review the temperature data that underpinned global-warming claims.Muller and his team scrutinized and re-checked the data and published the results online. His endeavor was cheered by plenty of other skeptics. The Koch brothers who lead the Charles G. Koch Foundation (and avid climate skeptics) even gave Muller $150,000 to fund his project.

Image: guardian.co.uk

“I’m prepared to accept whatever result they produce, even if it proves my premise wrong,” wrote Anthony Watts, a blogger who has excoriated the quality of weather stations in America that provide temperate data. Watt has long argues that many weather stations collecting temperature data could be biased by being located in cities, since urban areas are naturally warmer than rural areas. This is dubbed the “urban heat island effect”.

Image: weatherquestions.com

To counter the effect, Muller’s team decided to compare overall temperature trends with only those weather stations based in rural areas. They also took serious measures to annihilate other sources of error which could potentially wreck the credibility of the entire project.

In March 2011, Muller told the House Science and Technology Committee that, to his surprise, the existing temperature data was “excellent”.

“We see a global warming trend that is very similar to that previously reported by other groups” he went on.The BEST team later released a flurry of new papers that confirm that “global warming is REAL”, and they flatly (to their dismay I believe) wrote that in their two-page summary. How exciting.

Image: costlife.org

So, you’d guess Muller and his team would’ve put the climate argument to rest, no? Well, actually Mr. Watt is currently still holding on to his skepticism, and duly argued that the papers have yet to be peer-reviewed.

Fine. Flap all you want like a fish out of water.

In a nutshell, GLOBAL WARMING IS REAL.

Malcolm
info: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/a-skeptical-physicist-ends-up-confirming-climate-data/2011/10/20/gIQA6viC1L_blog.html

Penang Bridge International Marathon

2011-11-26T10:27:00.000+08:00

How could anyone spend up to 4 hours running in a competition 99% of us would not win (not forgetting the involuntary leg cramp and severe dehydration)?

Well, marathon is more than just a run--it's about the spirit of Marathon.

It came from the story of Pheidippides, a Greek messenger. Legend has that he was sent from the battlefield of Marathon to Athens (approximately 40 kilometers) to announce that the Persians had been defeated in the Battle of Marathon (in which he had just fought). He allegedly ran the entire distance without stopping and burst into the assembly, exclaiming "Νενικήκαμεν" (Nenikékamen, 'We have won.') before collapsed and died.

It's about self-determination and the desire to finish the race, to achieve a milestone in life, despite the abdominal pain and fatigue.

Right, enough of history and philosophy crap.

The run was on the morning of 20th Nov, so I took the midnight bus from Duta Terminal to Penang expecting to arrive at around 5am--but the bus actually arrived at Sungai Nibong Bus Terminal at 3:30am-- only four hours!!

So no choice lor, had to sleep at the terminal lor. The terminal itself was deserted. I walked up into the waiting area and saw two beggars sleeping on the chairs.

This is my bed

Not a bad experience really, though the chairs were really killing my back. And by 5am there was a group of young assholes that came into the station and talked so freaking loudly with utter disregard for those who were sleeping there.

The next morning I planned to take a bus to the jetty where I thought I could find a place to stay, only to realize the useless information counter served no function. So had to jackpot again; stood at roadside and opened my eyes as big as possible and waved down every bus that passed by and asked where it was heading to. Oh by the way I found the taxi drivers very annoying. They always have been.

Took bus No. 401 to Lebuh Chulia and then walked to the backpackers lodge in Lebuh Muntri. From there I rented a scooter at RM30 per day and spent the rest of the day finding nice food and..... BLAH! PENANG BUTTERFLY FARM AND BEACHES! XDD

Hainan Fried Noodle. VERY NICE!! ^^ RM3.50

This Hainanese restaurant is located somewhere at Jalan Burma. The shop itself is pretty old, the electrical switches are those from the 60s'. It's a family-run restaurant and I really liked the food there.

Assam Laksa Jalan Pasar ^^ RM 3.50

This is the infamous Assam Laksa Jalan Pasar. It's way better than the one I tasted at Sungai Petani during my tour around Malaysia in May. It's more fishy, and the soup is somewhat sweeter.

ASIA CAFE Y U NO AT SUBANG?

Penang Road Chendol~ RM3.50

This is another must-try for me. I was asking about Penang food in Facebook and Kit May said this is a local favorite. Somehow I don't really think it is super-nice, other than its overflowing chendol.. Taste wise, I still prefer Malacca chendol.

Oh Jian + Char Kuay Teow. Oh Jian RM 6, Kuay Teow RM 3.50.

Alligator Gar. Amazing species

Catfish

Baby Hawksbill Turtle

Grouper and Turtle

Penang Aquarium. Not bad. RM5 only.

Spatula... Why follow me to Penang? =.=

Rubbish on beach

Childhood

Bluespotted Stingray

I don't know what species is this. Some kind of treefrog?

Crab

Penang Butterfly Farm. YAAY~~~ ^^

Mandarin Duck

I personally love this one the most

I thought it's called the Pitcher Plant.. =.=

Dance of Death

Stink Bug

The power of zoom lens

The Moment

Determination

Tiger on the prowl

Lim Guan Eng

I believe that's Lim Guan Eng's car. Can we take shelter under Najib's car like those kids?

Clock Tower built in 1897 by a wealthy Penangite to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. The clock tower is 60 feet high, representing 60 years of Queen Victoria's reign.

Finally I found this place wuahahaha~~

And finally....

Right... the guy is a famous DJ whose name I'm supposed to know but I aint really sure of...

It has been a fruitful trip really. Met Ivy after the marathon and she brought me to two successive assam laksa, and then the Khoo Kongsi Temple, and the famed Penang Free School, the first English-medium school in South East Asia, built in 1816. So you'd expect the walls to be crawling with legends.

But I thought maybe the weather should've been kinder to me =.=

I hate extremely hot weather...=.=

Malcolm

Tilapia Fin—Shark Fin?

2011-11-25T11:28:00.000+08:00

The number is dropping fast. Wekill 100 million sharks annually for the lucrative Chinese market; that’s 3sharks getting killed every second. You don’t need to be a Nobel Laureate torealize the unsustainable nature of this massacre.

Unlike most bony fish, sharksreproduce and grow relatively slowly. Sharks have relatively few (zero toaround 100) offspring each year, and the mother invests much energy in each toincrease the chance that it will survive. Some female sharks put so much energyinto a litter that they must take two years to recover their strength beforebreeding again.

Image: bigjimstangytunes.com

Several countries havebanned the killing of sharks, but still the hunt continues. The threat of jailsentence becomes exiguous in the face of profit. Is there anything, anything atall that we can do to help save the species that outlived the dinosaurs?

Image: weddingguideasia.com

Wang Yi-feng, generalmanager of the Kouhu Fisheries Cooperative in Taiwan thinks there’s analternative: he is selling farmed tilapia fins as a substitute for shark fins.

The tail fins of Taiwan tilapia are a perfectstand-in for shark fins because they have the same appearance and texture- WangYi-feng.

Both typesof fin are just cartilage, tasteless and similar in shape. His company shredsthe Tilapia fins and ships a ton of fins per month to restaurants in Taiwan for $120per kilogram, about a quarter the price of shark fins. He claims that unlikesharks, farmed tilapias are sustainable, and this “guarantees stable suppliesof the delicacy, which could prevent sharks from being wiped out.”

Image: en.wikipedia.org

PeterKnights, executive director of WildAid approves the substitution.

“I’m allfor it,” he says, “Tilapia is a perfectly good, sustainable and healthiersubstiture.”

The idea,however, doesn’t really help to curb the demand for shark fin. “It’s all aboutprivilege and expense,” he continues.

The demandfor the soup, which symbolizes wealth, has been rising along with prosperingChinese economy. Now that Tilapia fins are available, people would definitelypay higher price to get shark fins, and thus exacerbate the problem further.

Image: en.wikipedia.org

To addressthe problem, the substitute for shark fin should be of the same status, forexample an expensive bottle of wine. This would fulfil the Chinese’s insatiabledesire to display wealth and status.

“It’s really more about perception, thenotion of hosts having spent a lot of money on their guests.” Knight says.

Sharks have walkedthus far in the history of our planet, only to be ruthlessly eliminated by ayounger species. We can do something to stop all this. Regardless of thenature of the idea, let’s hope that all the ideas could help fight for the survival ofsharks.

Malcolm
info: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/2011/10/18/could-farming-sustainable-tilapia-help-cut-demand-shark-fin-soup/

Where Does Your E-Waste Go?

2011-11-24T09:37:00.000+08:00

When our old laptop, mouse, pendrives and handphones stop functioning, we dump them into the rubbish bin and the rest is history and most of us probably have no idea where they'd go next.

Well, like organic waste, these e-waste will be sent to landfills, i.e. local electronic graveyards, if your town or municipal happens to have one. Unfortunately, e-waste site is fairly rare due to its toxic nature, and hence most of them, if not all, will be exported to China.

Guiyu is a small town made up of several villages in the province of Guangdong, China. The town started receiving e-waste in 1995, primarily from the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Today the area spans 52 square kilometers with approximately 150,000 workers processing some of the most toxic waste known to human--it is dubbed the largest e-waste site on Earth.

Image: images.businessweek.com

There are several e-waste sites in India as well; in Delhi, Chennai, and Mumbai, but none as massive as Guiyu in China. The initialization of e-waste site has attracted local population to work on the waste. The workers crack open electronics to retrieve valuable metals such as silver, copper, lead, and chromium. And these metals are known to cause diseases ranging from brain damage to kidney failure, and hence the warning sticker on your electronics.

Workers burn and boil circuit boards to remove chips and solders. Acidic solution which they use to extract gold (I blogged about this solution, it's called the Aqua Regia) is then poured directly into the river. The soil is filled with lead, tin, and other heavy metals, rendering it unsuitable for agricultural purposes. The toxic material seeps into underground water and thus polluting it. In fact, the underground water is so polluted drinking water has to be trucked in from other town. According to Basel Action Network (BAN), an NGO that combats the export of toxic waste, the lead level in the river sediment in Guiyu is two times higher than European safety level.

Image: techcrunch.com

A recent study of the area evaluated the extent of heavy metal contamination from the site. Using dust samples, scientists analysed mean heavy metal concentrations in a Guiyu workshop and found that lead and copper were 371 and 115 times higher, respectively, than areas located 30 kilometres away.--Anna Leung et al. (2008) Environmental Science and Technology

As a result of prolonged exposure to toxic gas and heavy metal;

1) 88% of workers suffer from neurological, respiratory or digestive abnormalities or skin diseases.
2) Women in Guiyu are six times more at risk of miscarriage.
3) Lead in the blood of Guiyu's children is 54% higher on average than that of children in the nearby town of Chendian.

Image: hugobowne.wordpress.com

The workers aren't getting richer risking their health. They earn a meager income at US$ 7 a day, clocking in at least 10 hours shift everyday. Guiyu, which hitherto had been agricultural-based, no longer produces rice and crops because the river is teeming with toxic metals.

Of course, Greenpeace and other environmental NGOs are fighting against all these. After years of lobbying for support, The NGOs managed to compel local governments to impose bans on burning electronics and soaking them in sulfuric acid. And the air quality has now returned to level II after over 800 coal-burning furnaces were upended.

Image: thejunction.net

Guiyu will continue to act as the final resting place for our e-waste for the moment. The negligence of local governments over safety precaution and toxic control is what the NGOs are fighting for. However, my conscious tells me that the people of Guiyu should stop being on the receiving end of the world's e-waste. Of course, that's not a solution at all. Where should we dump our old handphones if one day Guiyu decided to stop managing our waste?
One thing's for sure: it's going to be ugly.

Malcolm
info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_waste_in_Guiyu
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es071873x?prevSearch=heavy+metals&searchHistoryKey
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/06/60minutes/main4579229.shtml
http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/realfiles/members/2007/9697/9697.html

Five Reasons Why Capello Shouldn't Make John Terry His Captain

2011-11-22T22:37:00.000+08:00

To be given the captain's armband is a huge honor for any player.

A captain is often regarded as one of the most influential players on the pitch, though not always the most skillful. Roy Keane, the infamous former captain of Manchester United was notoriously influential he could drag the entire team back from the abyss of defeat. Patrick Vieira, and his predecessor Tony Adams were two of the recent captains of Arsenal, and they were equally influential, the former even helped Arsenal to an impressive 38 unbeaten run during the 2003/2004 season.

Image: amateurfootballcombination.com

To be a captain, one has to be a role model, disciplined, level-headed, committed and all other positive traits you could possibly think of. And after watching last week's match between Chelsea and Arsenal, which Chelsea lost 3-5 at their home turf, I am once again convinced that Capello was wrong in giving back the captaincy of England to John Terry.

Racist
John Terry is a notorious racist. He allegedly abused the brother of Rio Ferdinand, Anton, in a Premier League match between Queens Park Ranger against Chelsea on 23rd October 2011. Footage broadcast during Chelsea’s 1-0 defeat caught Terry mouthing the words ‘black ****’. However, the start of Terry’s sentence is obscured by Ashley Cole’s head in the pictures shown live by Sky Sport. Hey come on lah Terry, he's your national team defensive partner's BROTHER and he MIGHT partner with you in the near future. And by racially abusing Anton, Terry might have to be careful every time he looks at Drogba and co.

Image: guardian.co.uk

He screwed his teammate's girlfriend
Wayne Bridge was a former left back at Chelsea. It was such a joy watching them both working together to carve out results for The Blues. But unknowingly to Bridge, the married England captain slept with his girlfriend Vanessa Perroncel and made her pregnant, and then arranged for abortion (so he's also a proponent of abortion). Humans have 15% successful conception rate. In other words, in order to make Perroncel pregnant, Terry would have to increase the sample size n. In layman's term, it means the affair didn't happen just once.

Image: totalfootballmadness.com

Poor Bridge. As a result, he announced his permanent withdrawal from international duty on 25th February 2010, and refused to shake Terry's hand during the match between Manchester City and Chelsea, which Chelsea lost 4-2.
Ahhh... Revenge has never been sweeter~

Mutiny, mutiny, mutiny
In ancient piracy, anyone who attempts mutiny will be killed and thrown overboard.

In Capello's England team, the mutineer has been reinstalled as the captain.

During the World Cup 2010, England were not doing well in the group stage, thanks to a blunder by their goalkeeper Robert Green, so John Terry tried to be the "hero" when he told reporters that he "is going to tell Capello what's wrong". Too bad it backfired eh?
The old fox, with all his magic and experience, managed to foil Terry's plot and subsequently brought England into the knock-out stage.

Image: dailymail.co.uk

But why reinstalled him after thirteen months?

He disappears in big matches
In the London Derby against Arsenal on 29th October 2011, John Terry made a ludicrous mistake to hand the victory to the Gunners--he fell whilst chasing the ball--without anyone within his 2 meters radius to threaten him. The opposition striker ran up and collected the ball and coolly dribbled it past the Petr Cech and sent it into the net.

Image: telegraph.co.uk

In the UEFA Champions' League Final against Manchester United in 2008, both teams were equal and the match had to be decided via penalty. As captain, John Terry stepped up to take the fifth penalty.

Alright to make the long story short, he slipped. And the Manchester United emerged victorious.

He's not a captain material
Like I said, a captain is one of the most influential players on the pitch. And he lacks all these criterias:

1)To be a captain, thou shalt be a role model to all other players.
2)Thou shalt not incite racial element.
3)Thou shalt always excel in thine performance on the pitch. Thou shalt always deliver because if thou do not, thus no one else can.
4)Thou shalt always respect the manager, no matter how wrong the manager seems to be (that's how Sir Alex Ferguson managed to stay at the helm of United for 26 years).
5)And most importantly, thou shalt not sleep with thy teammate's girlfriend.

England is one of the most supported teams in the world cup, thanks to her immensely popular domestic league, the Barclays Premier League. The English team, however, have not won any major tournament since the world cup in their own back yard in 1966.

Perhaps a change of captaincy would work?

MalcT32

info:

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

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/3918419/John-Terrys-worsening-disciplinary-record-Football.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2054877/John-Terry-racism-row-Sky-TV-FA-unseen-footage.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1247364/John-Terry-England-captain-team-mates-girlfriend-pregnant--arranged-abortion.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Bridge#West_Ham_United

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1246974/John-Terry-named-star-affair-Wayne-Bridges-ex-girlfriend-Vanessa-Perroncel.html

Parody - Ong Kim Swee Turned Down Request From Christiano Ronaldo

2011-11-18T12:35:00.000+08:00

KUALA LUMPUR- Head coach of Malaysia Under-23 football team, Ong Kim Swee had turned down the request from the 2008 Ballon d'Or Winner Christiano Ronaldo to play for the side.

Ronaldo had earlier said in an interview with the Portuguese media of his admiration for the team, and how he wishes to play for the Malaysian national team.

Christiano Ronaldo to don Harimau Muda Jersey? Image: topnews.in

"It will be a dream come true for me. I mean, there are so many great players in the team, Shahrul Azwani; Baddrol Bakhtiar; Khairul Fahmi, and so on. I watch every match in the Liga Malaysia and I was so happy when Negeri Sembilan won the Malaysia Cup recently. I am an avid fan of the team and I sincerely hope that Mr. Ong could consider my request.

"No one would want to miss the chance to play for the Malaysian team. I may not be good enough to play in the first eleven but I promise to give my best during the training to impress the coach." he said to the Spanish media in Madrid.

Ong Kim Swee, when interviewed after beating Malaysia's nemesis Indonesia 1-0 in the SEA Games match at the infamous Gelora Bung Karno Stadium cited Ronaldo's request as inconsequential.

"I can't possibly include everyone in the team. All I can say is sorry and to be honest, we have too much strength in our side to include Christiano.

"If he comes in, I will have to add another player on our bench, in addition to observing his physical endurance and his adaptability to our South East Asia climate. Not every European could play well under such humid environment."

Ronaldo's exorbitant lifestyle was earlier predicted by the media to be the stumbling block for his inclusion into the team. Ong, however, steadfastly refuted the claim.

"Being rich is not a crime. But he will have to bear with the team's menu of nasi lemak and rendang because, well, we are the Malaysian team.

"That is, of course, if I take him into the team." he said with grin.

Malcolm

P/S: this is a fake news written within 5 minutes. The truth is out there.

移民，做模？

2011-11-17T12:13:00.000+08:00

你有钱了吗？

中国近年来发展迅速，人民逐渐富有了起来。而中国也在去年正式取代日本成为世界第二大经济国。
最近一个由中国中央银行和胡润百富（一个位于上海的财富研究机构）进行的研究指出，在现今中国的九百八十名百万富翁中，有超过一半的人考虑移民。其中就有十五巴仙已移民或已开始移民程序。移民到的国家则是美国，加拿大和新加坡。

北京清华大学的政治经济学教授蔡继明指出，中国人移民有两大原因：孩子的教育，以及拥有个人财产的权利。他说富有的父母亲都希望自己的孩子接受到西方教育，而且中国人也缺乏西方人的私人财产拥有权。近年来中国政府还是有强行夺走人民的土地。虽然现今的中国已不同往日，但是中央政府还是步步为营，小心行事。共产意识还是很强。

Image: joanisval.com

华尔街日报日前就根据美国移民厅的数据报到，今年已有九百三十名中国人获取了充满争议性的美国移民证。这美国移民证其实是给那些在美国投资五十万美金和提供十份工作的中国人。而四年前只派出一百六十一份移民证。

胡润百富也报道说三分一的富豪将二十巴仙的财富投资于国外，以便将来移民时较方便。

其实啊，不只中国人爱移民。全球的华人都爱移民。移民就像是一种地位的象征。有钱有地位才能移民哪。马来西亚华人爱移民到西方国，新加坡。新加坡华人爱移民去西方国。中国，香港人也要去西方国。当然，移民也有很多原因。像刚刚说的，中国共产主义并不能让每个人都享有独立财产。马来西亚华人每天投诉被歧视。香港人说要到西方国过个“高素质生活”。

Image: efficient.ws

新加坡人呢，又不被歧视，也有个人财产，本身也是个先进国，那移民来做模？

怕输咯。怕人家不知道他们有钱能够塞给西方移民厅的官员。

其实啊，每个国家都有隐忧。

种族歧视?
逃不过。就连在中国，大家都是中国人，汉人还是把西藏人，维吾尔人当二等公民（去 google Uyghur China）。西方人呢？不要太天真以为他们不会讨厌华人。大多数的还是会认为亚洲人都是傻子。在他们眼里，我们就像这里的孟加拉和印尼外劳一样，不值一提。

Image: anorak.co.uk

个人财产？
美国官员的腐败都是众所皆知的。美国四十巴仙的财富属于华尔街里头每天不用上班的一巴仙总裁。其他的九十九巴仙美国人所有财产加起来才不过全国的六十巴仙财富（去　google American Wealth Wallstreet）。问你怕没有？有财富什么都能买，包括官位。美国 Koch 兄弟就是最好的典范。他们富可敌国，他们的生意包山包海，包括石油业。为了不让全球暖化打坏他们的生意，不惜以巨款“买下”科学家来反全球暖化。这种事实都能扭转，你说可不可怕（去 google Koch Brothers Climate skeptics）？

Image: forbes.com

社会安全？
算了吧。美国年年发生学院枪杀案。原因大多是枪手自小就被人欺负，导致自卑心泛滥。身为亚洲人的你，要你的孩子自小就被人欺压吗？而且在美国，买枪像买糖一样。好，不说美国，咱们把目光转向欧洲。德国不错吧？在德国最近发生了纳粹分子杀人事件。

哇！不要乱讲好噢！纳粹早在希特勒年代崩溃了！不要当我傻子好噢。

其实，这些自称 Neo-Nazis 分子并没消失。他们依然活跃于德国，并且杀害了十多位土耳其人，还有一位女警员。但多数早在十四年前就被德国秘密警察关进牢里。可是就突然消失了。多年后，这些人又出现了，还拥有一些秘密警察才能颁发的护照。Al-Jazeera 就说到很明显，这些秘密警察部队出了问题（去 google Neo-Nazis Al-Jazeera）。现在还搞到德国总理 Angela Merkel 读栏。

Image: dailymail.co.uk

经济平稳？
欧洲联盟的希腊已经破产。国家老大（总理）被迫下台。意大利也惨不忍睹，想发唱片的总理也被迫下台料（意大利总理　Berlusconi 真的是歌手叻）。意大利债务比葡萄牙，西班牙，希腊和爱尔兰加起来还要多。美国自认救不了欧盟，而大家都把目光转向北京，希望胡景涛愿意给点红包给国际通货基金来过冬（这不用谷哥了吧。。这事你还不懂你读大学真的是....）。

Image: guardian.co.uk

警方？
马来西亚人最爱骂的就是政府和警察。好吧。把目光转向希利亚（Syria）。日前发生了像咱们的 BERSIH 示威。政府发动武力杀了一些示威者（google Syria unrest）。中国当年天安门事件，领导们用坦克车把示威者压扁（google 天安门事件）。两个月前英国发生暴乱，一群鬼佬少年成群在都市捣乱，还打伤一名马来西亚留学生。警方控制不力，还得请纽约警察部队的一个不知什么人来“教”他们怎么镇压示威者。搞笑咩（google London Riot 2011）？加拿大法国社群和英国社群政府势不两立（google Quebec Act）。

Image: dawn.com

马来西亚警方是差，是腐，是烂。可是你把眼光放远点，你就会发现世界各国警察都是一样。马来人警察如何对待华人，那你认为白人警察会对你好一点？公平一点？我们 MACC 做事乱来，用“自杀”来草草了事。美国 CIA，FBI　办事隐秘。人们都不知道很多真相。我们政府部门差，世界大哥政府部门也差。欧洲也好不到哪里。

看开点，在哪里都一样。不要以为西方的月亮比较圆。如果认为西方教育好，为什么西方人成绩不比亚洲人优越（去 google 数据，不要狡辩，我懒得理你）？

一个教育系统的好与坏是由我们来决定的。你态度差，送你到哈佛都是一陀屎。你态度好，出自印尼烂学院都会让人对你刮目相看。所以请各位马来西亚华人不要再骂马大差，骂马来西亚差，没水准。你读了大学还是英文差，世事不知，那是你自己平时不努力，马大校长宣布所有学生必须上英文课，你在哪里？在睡觉，还是在逛街？该怪自己还是怪马大？怪国家？

说国家没水准，可是吃完东西喝完水，把塑胶袋水瓶乱丢。浪费电源浪费水。该怪谁？怪国家？

至少，我们还没像意大利一样，身为世界古国之一还沦落如此下场。悲哉～
所以，移民做模？

Malcolm
info:
http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/11/11/made-your-millions-in-china-now-its-time-to-move-overseas/

Publicity Stunt Over Laughable Matters Is Just Plain Stupid.

2011-11-13T22:18:00.000+08:00

I guess most of us fans of the English Premier League have seen players and managers with poppies embroidered on their shirt around this time every year.
At first I thought it was meant to commemorate the death of some prominent figure, until I read the debate between the English FA and FIFA last week.

Image: rs.goal.com

Armistice Day, also known as Remembrance Day, observed in commonwealth countries to remember the members of their armed forces who have died in the line of duty since World War I......Remembrance Day is observed on 11 November to recall the official end of World War I on that date in 1918; hostilities formally ended "at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month" of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice.-wikipedia.org

The poppy is worn on this day because according to the poem "In Flanders Fields", poppies bloomed in some of the worst battlefields of Flanders in World War I, and their red color symbolizes blood spilled during the war.

Image: seanlinnane.blogspot.com

It's just like the National Day, a day to remember the fallen heroes. In Malaysia, we celebrate the National Day, which is also known as the Independence Day by remembering the pioneers who'd fought for independence of the country. It's an acknowledgement of the sacrifice made by previous generations. But for the British, the Malayan independence celebration has never been seen as a slur against them, and we have never thought of it as such.

Image: seanlinnane.blogspot.com

So why oh why did FIFA ban the poppies from entering the field for the friendly match between England and Spain today?

FIFA officials claimed that it would upset the Germans.
That, my friend, has got to be the biggest joke of the century.

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron has launched a string of attacks on FIFA over the matter, and he certainly has every right to do so.

Image: guardian.co.uk

Mr Cameron said: 'This seems outrageous. The idea that wearing a poppy to remember those who have given their lives for our freedom is a political act is absurd. Wearing a poppy is an act of huge respect and national pride. I hope that FIFA will reconsider.' -- dailymail.co.uk

What right does FIFA have to deny England's right to wear the poppy?
I mean, we're already in the 21st century, and the war was nearly a hundred years ago. Germany has learnt to cope with slurs and chants over their slaughtering of Jews during World War II (Don't call me anti-German/anti-semitic. Let's face it, it's all over the internet), so how is it possible that they can't emotionally handle a poppy on a rival's shirt?

FIFA's act of politicizing the issue has earned even the snub from the Germany FA. Germany's Federation general secretary Wolfgang Niersbach said that the idea of Germans being upset by the poppy hasn't even been mentioned in their meetings. He then voiced out his support for England to field players with poppies on their shirt.

It's absurd to say the least that the overlord in Zurich wouldn't budge.

Sepp Blatter. Image: mirror.co.uk

FIFA under Sepp Blatter is a disgrace, an utter embarrassment, over-commercialized, and the ultimate circus. The selected few earn millions while football clubs in poor regions of Brazil and Africa continue to struggle financially. The organization has lost its purpose and direction. They no longer promote football properly, instead the message it sends out sounds like this: make me rich, and I'll make you rich.

The world cup in South Africa was supposed to promote football in the region, to instil the love of football in every African soul. But profit comes first for Mr. Blatter, and FIFA apparently earned £2 billion (approx. RM 10 billion) out of that world cup alone. Consider other world cups under Mr. Blatter; Japan-Korea 2002, and Germany 2006.

Image: davidwarren202.demon.co.uk

Johannesburg spent £4 billion (approx. RM 20 billion) on infrastructure development in the nine host cities. Transportation system was upgraded and it was so new that South African didn't know how to use them. Stadiums were upgraded to comply to international standards. But still, amidst the rapid development under Jacob Zuma, 40% of the population in South Africa are unemployed, with a further 30% living under £100 a month.

So where was FIFA's role in South Africa? They messed it up in Africa, and now they're coming after one of the richest domestic leagues in the world.

Image: topnews.in

The Chancellor of Germany is Angela Merkel, and I believe she's as forgiving as any other women. England's insistence to wear the poppy is by no means a gesture to remember their heroes, not to remember the cruel act inflicted by another human being. Sepp Blatter should stop making a clown of himself. Publicity stunt over laughable matters is just plain stupid.

Malcolm
info:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-2059178/FIFA-wrong-England-poppy-debate--Martin-Samuel.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_Day

Peeing Your Pants

2011-11-11T23:02:00.000+08:00

Have you ever peed in your pants? Why do people pee in their pants when frightened?

Our urine is stored in the bladder. The bladder maintains a constant contact with a part of our brain known as the pontine micturition centre (I spent 20 seconds typing that), which is a collection of cell bodies located in the brainstem. It detects the rise and fall of pressure in our bladder, and it tells us to pee. So this is the area which sends out impulses urging us to urinate whenever our bladders reach the limit. However, the signal can be overridden by the prefrontal cortex, the region of our brain that plans complex cognitive behavior, which sends a restraining signal to the brainstem, otherwise a major part of human civilization would have been dedicated to inventing hand-carry toilets.

Image: neuroskills.com

When we are under stress, the inhibitory signals from the prefrontal cortex which keep us dry most of the time, can themselves be overridden by the signals from our brainstem. So it's all about the battle of the two impulses. Under stressful conditions, signals from the brainstem become so intense that the it has trouble following the frontal lobe’s commands, which explains why some people urinate more frequently before an important event. In life-threatening situations, the orders become so urgent that you won’t even have time make it to the lavatory.

Image: en. wikipedia.org

The explanation, however, doesn't answer the larger evolutionary question: why evolution permits peeing in the face of danger? A fleeing wolf has got no time to pick a spot, assume its posture and pee at leisure. But it's clear that urinating in the face of danger pervades the animal kingdom.

Gazelles wet themselves with a lion in hot pursuit. Pigeons often become incontinent when chased by wild-eyed toddlers. Laboratory rats have a nasty habit of peeing all over researchers’ hands.--Slate.com

Perhaps peeing could help turn off the predator's appetite?

Malcolm
info: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer_extra/2011/10/peeing_your_pants_why_do_people_urinate_when_they_re_scared_.html?tid=sm_tw_button_chunkyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prefrontal_cortex
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainstem

Mobile Phones Do Not Cause Cancer

2011-11-07T21:32:00.001+08:00

This is the third time I blog about mobile phone and its connection to cancer.
A new Danish study of over 350,000 people, published recently, has found no link between using mobile phones and an increased risk of cancers of the brain and central nervous system.--- bmj.com

Image: b4tea.com

This is by far the best evidence yet to repudiate the claim. Unlike previous studies which was criticized heavily for exhibiting "recall bias"--relied on people who had already been diagnosed with brain cancers to remember how frequent they used their mobile in the past, the researchers for this study followed a group of mobile phone subscribers over a mean period of 10 years, and recorded new cases of cancer in the group and then compared this to cancer rates in the general population.

The researchers also looked at different types of brain cancer and found no increased risk for some of the types some previous studies had suggested may be linked to mobiles, such as glioma--bmj.com

And the fact that some people still furiously forwarding silly news linking mobile phones to cancer on social network is absolutely absurd. They are not doing much good to the society by making people scared of their own mobile phone. Some culprits, which include some engineers and science major, are supposedly erudite enough to know the flaw.

Image: arterimalaysia.com

However, there are still questions to be answered. Mobile phone subscription data isn’t the same as hard data on mobile phone use -- my dad is a mobile phone subscriber, but for him to make a call is like once-in-a-bluemoon event. Moreover, some cancers are slow-growing, so 10 – 13 year follow up might still not be long enough to detect any really long-term effects.

I won't lecture much on the physics of electromagnetic radiation here. Let us all do our world some good by knowing that electromagnetic radiation from mobiles phones does not damage DNA or affect cell growth in any way that could subsequently lead to cancer. Yet.

MalcT32
info: http://www.bmj.com/content/343/bmj.d6387

Why Do We Cry When We Cut Onions?

2011-11-06T19:36:00.002+08:00

I hate cutting onions.

But it is one of the most essential ingredients for good food, so I rarely let my eyes stop crying.

When we cut open an onion, we allow an enzyme called alliinases to react and break down amino acid to generate sulphenic acid. At this point the chemical still remains on the cutting board-- so how does it get to our eyes?

Image: diyhealthtips.com

A second enzyme called lachrymatory factor synthase or LFS later mix with sulphenic acid to form, get ready for this, propanethiol S-oxide. Propanethiol S-oxide is a volatile gas, and it travels readily in the air. When the gas reaches your eyes, it mixes with water in your eyes to form sulfuric acid. This prompts our eyes to release water to irrigate the irritating invader.

The natural reaction to the Propanethiol S-oxide invasion is to shut your eyes. This, of course, is not a good idea if you are cutting an onion. Rubbing your eyes is a bad idea, since your hands are likely full of the tear-making onion juice, and by rubbing your eyes you are actually transferring the sulphenic acid to your eyes, in addition to the sulfuric acid induced by the Propanethiol S-oxide gas.

Image: funadvice.com

So how do you keep from crying? I believe there are many methods out there, or some traditional methods passed down from mom to child, but I need luck finding them.
Otherwise, I'll stick to wearing goggles.

Image: trianglevisions.com

MalcT32
info:
http://www.sciencebob.com/questions/q-onion_tears.phphttp://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistryfaqs/f/onionscry.htmhttp://web.fccj.org/~ethall/h2so4/h2so4.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion#Eye_irritation

Palestine's Bid For Statehood

2011-11-05T10:48:00.000+08:00

The long wait is over.
1.11.11, a date that will be forever remembered by all Palestinians, for this is the day the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) approves Palestine as its 195th full member.

Cheers filled the hall at UNESCO's headquarters here after the vote, with one delegate shouting, "Long live Palestine!" in French. The Palestinian foreign minister, Riad al-Malki, praised the organisation, saying that "this vote will help erase a tiny part of the injustice done to the Palestinian people" and will help protect world heritage sites in Israeli-occupied territory. - smh.com.au

There were 107 yes votes, 14 against, and 52 abstained.
You might be wondering why didn't U.S veto against it. Well, at UNESCO, no country has a veto.
At the 15-seat United Nations Security Council, five permanent members (China, Russia, United Kingdom, United States, France) have veto power.
Riyad al-Malki's told journalists in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, that the Palestinians could have won observer state status long ago and were not interested in it now

Riyad al-Maliki told journalists in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, that the Palestinians could have won observer state status long ago and were not interested in it now. Image: en.wikipedia.org

This marks a small step towards a full UN membership for the Palestinians. The foreign minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA) announced on 3rd Nov 2011 that Palestinians will not accept anything less than full UN membership and do not want an upgrade to an observer state in the world body. And to have gained a full membership in UNESCO as a start is an event worth celebrating. Palestine could now seek World Heritage status for the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, a structure which is built over the cave that is believed to be the birthplace of Jesus of Nazareth.

Church of Nativity. Image: palestinefacts.org

And by the way, countries that voted against Palestine, Canada; Germany; and the United States (whose national motto is, ironically, "In God We Trust") would prefer, it seems, to offer no protection against the desolation and abandonment of one of Christianity's most holy edifices, while almost all the Arab, Latin American, African and Asian nations, including India and atheist communist China, voted in favor.

For far too long, Palestinians have been denied of their rights in their own land. And for far too long Israel and America have dictated how the Middle East should act. Intermittent attacks by armies from both sides had cost the lives of thousands of innocent civilians. And it all sparked by land on which Israel is residing now was actually forcefully taken away from the Palestinian to be given to the Jews.

Image: thepeoplesvoice.org

Jews who fled to the United States during World War II imparted their influence on American politicians via generous donations, to the point that they could literally decide who gets to be the president. The US Congress passed the Lodge-Fish resolution in 1922 stating its support for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish ", though it wasn't until 1942 that the Zionist Movement in America demanded "that Palestine be established as a Jewish Commonwealth." This is a win-win situation for both sides; for the Jews, Israel gets permanent protection from the largest economy (and most advanced infantry) on the planet. For America, Israel embodies the key to the Middle East, symbolizes American presence amidst 22 hostile Arab countries, and it's a way to keep a watchful eyes on dictators and most importantly, crude oil.

Image: oil-world-2011.com

As a result of this consensus, the United States have decided to stop the $60 million annual funding to the UNESCO. To prevent the realization of a Palestinian State, the US congress made laws from 1990 to 1994 to mandate a complete cutoff of US financing to any UN agency that accepts the Palestinians as a full member. This poses a sticky circumstance for UNESCO because funding from Washington makes up 22 % of its budget. But UNESCO had managed to survive without US donation in the past; America pulled out of UNESCO under President Ronald Reagan in 1984, and rejoined under President George W. Bush in 2002.

Over the last couple of years, however, Israel herself, under the leadership of their Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is getting under Obama's skin. Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which hitherto have yet to come to fruition, have long stalled, and tension between the two has reached new heights. Obama tried, as evident in his speech at the Cairo University in Egypt on 4th June 2009, to revive the negotiation but to no avail. And Obama just cant seems to stop the boisterous ally from running rampant on the West Bank. Al-Jazeera theorized that the failure of Obama stems from the fact that the most influential person (also the most generous money-spitting machine) behind Obama's successful campaign three years ago is now the Mayor of Chicago, and a Jew.

Rahm Emanuel, Mayor of Chicago. Obama's Chief of Staff. A Jew. Image: en.wikipedia.org

Obama is just like a puppet-president, manned by unseen forces behind him. He has to take in all the humiliation, repudiating his own words and so much more. For Obama, Israel is an ungrateful and self-destructive ally. Is Obama willing to alter the law to allow the continuity of US presence in the UNESCO regardless of what just happened in Paris? Will he choose to value an ill-mannered ally or work on his promise to deliver a better tomorrow for the people of Palestine?

Image: desertpeace.wordpress.com

For Palestine, the struggle to form an independent and sovereign state is far from over. A full UN membership is the ultimate goal for the Palestinian National Authority, and they will continue to fight for it despite warning from Washington that failure is by no means a forgone conclusion.

Image: gerryco23.wordpress.com

Malcolm

info:

http://www.smh.com.au/world/unesco-approves-full-membership-for-palestine-20111101-1mt5w.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_%E2%80%93_United_States_relations

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/09/2011919102245537768.html

http://middleeastprogress.org/2011/10/unesco-approves-palestinian-membership/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_negotiations_between_Israel_and_the_Palestinians_(2010-2011)#2010-2011_Israel-Palestinian_peace_talks

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/09/201192216365733499.html

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/spotlight/unpalestine/2011/08/201182893234567545.html
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/11/2011113184841560847.html

Like A Girl? Don't Let Her Know

2011-10-30T18:11:00.001+08:00

Let her know that you love her.

That's what we were taught to do by our mom, right guys? We all know that people like others who like them. But when it comes to attracting the opposite sex, it doesn't necessarily work that way.
A paper published by Erin R. Whitchurch et al. recently shows that ladies are attracted to men who play hard to get.

Image: cartoonstock.com

The researchers recruited 47 female undergrads from the University of Virginia and told them that their Facebook profile would be viewed by several males from two collaborating universities. Then, each participants would see the Facebook profile of four of the men.

In the liked-best group, participants learned that they had been randomly assigned to see the four men who had given them the highest ratings (e.g., “of all the people who saw your profile, these are the four who thought they would like you the best”).

Image: corporatespeak.wordpress.com

In the average-liking group, participants learned that they had been randomly assigned to see the four men who had given them average ratings (e.g., “of all the people who saw your profile, these four did not rate you as the highest or the lowest; they are people who liked you about average”).

After knowing what their respective ratings, the girls viewed the men's Facebook profile and rated each man according to how much they liked him.

Whitchurch found out that for the liked-best group, the ladies were attracted to the men, i.e. it replicated the reciprocity principle. Pretty common phenomenon.

For the average-liking group, the ladies however, weren't repelled by the men. In fact, they were attracted to these men who'd earlier given them an average rating—even more attracted than were participants in the liked-best group.
In other words, women were more attracted to men whose liking for them was uncertain than to men who they knew liked them the best.

Image: businessinsider.com

The researchers wrote that by "playing hard to get", the mystery the shrouds a man makes him more attractive to women. Moreover, she would be guessing and dying to know the amount of love he actually has for her. And the women in the uncertain condition reported thinking about the men more than did women in the like-best condition.

So guys, like a girl? Don't let her know.

Malcolm
info: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21169522

How Do Pandas Survive On Bamboo?

2011-10-29T18:02:00.001+08:00

The Giant Panda belongs to the order Carnivora, i.e. meat-eating animals. However, 99% of their diet consists of bamboo, and birds, rodents, fish and eggs make up the remaining 1%. Unlike plant-eating animals, carnivores lack the enzymes, bacterias, and the long intestine required to digest fibrous material. Moreover, bamboo has notoriously poor nutritional value.

So how do pandas do it?

Researchers have long speculated that panda intestines must have cellulose-munching bacteria that play a role in digestion. But previous attempts to find such bacteria in panda guts had failed. A new study published recently looks at gene sequences in the droppings from seven wild and eight captive giant pandas—a much bigger sample than what was used in previous panda-poop studies

Image: dance4thecure.com

The study leader, Wei and colleagues found that pandas' digestive tracts do in fact contain bacteria similar to those in the intestines of herbivores.Thirteen of the bacteria species that the team identified are from a family known to break down cellulose, but seven of those species are unique to pandas.

"We think this may be caused by different diet, the unique inner habitat of the gut, or the unique phylogenetic position of their host," Wei said.

Even with help from gut bugs, pandas don't derive much nutrition from bamboo—a panda digests just 17 percent of the 9 to 14 kilograms of dry food it eats each day. Pandas spend up to 16 hours a day eating, and they could ingest up to 8-14 % of their body weight. To put this into perspective, I eat about a kilo of rice everyday (lunch and dinner), and I weight 60 kilograms. Hence I eat about 1.67% of my body weight each day.

Image: ksfm.radio.com

This explains why pandas also evolved a sluggish, energy-conserving lifestyle. In the wild, pandas live in mountainous regions where temperatures could go surprisingly low. Hence it's baffling that pandas could thrive on bamboo alone.

But how and why did pandas became plant-eaters in the first place?

Well, that remains to be seen, though some scientists theorize that, as the ancient human population increased, pandas were pushed into higher altitudes. The animals then adopted a bamboo diet so they wouldn't compete for prey with other meat-eaters, such as Asiatic black bears.

Image: quantum-conservation.org

Not a convincing theory really.

Human population has only increased over the last several thousand years. Prior to that humans were nomadic hunter-gatherers, and civilization has yet to begin. But for pandas to adopt an entirely new diet, or to evolve a digestive system capable of digesting fibrous food, it would require at least several hundred thousand years. Evolution is not an overnight matter. Hence it's unlikely that pandas evolved a vegetarian diet because of humans.
Just my two cents.

Malcolm
info: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/10/111017-pandas-bamboo-bacteria-plants-meat-bears-animals-science/?source=link_tw20111026news-panda

Do You Believe In 2012 Doomsday?

2011-10-24T21:18:00.000+08:00

How To Kill A Cockroach

2011-10-22T22:08:00.000+08:00

Cockroaches.
Filthy.
Apart from acting as an indicator of hygiene, the presence of this six-legged creature often prompt nerve-breaking shrieks and wails from ladies.

Image: superstock.co.uk

Cockroaches, however, are no less fascinating. They're nocturnal, have two brains (one inside their skulls, and a second, more primitive brain that is back near their abdomen), they have cream-colored blood, they can tolerate a higher dose of radiation (cockroaches survived the atomic bombs test blast at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands), and female stores sperms which may last her a lifetime.

Cockroaches will eat almost anything including glue, feces, hair, decayed leaves, paper, leather, banana skins, other cockroaches, and dead or alive humans. They will not, however, eat cucumbers. They are particulary fond of dried milk around a baby’s mouth. German cockroaches Blattella germanica, the most common domestic roach in the United States, have been observed to live 45 days without food, and more than two weeks with neither food nor water.

Image: stockphotos.it

The roaches are not confined to any particular environment and live in a tremendous variety of places, from underneath woodpiles in Alaska to high in the jungle canopy in the tropics of Costa Rica. They are even found in the caves of Borneo and under the thorn bushes in arid stretches of Kenya. Wherever they live, they are masters at surviving.

Image: collegesuccess33.blogspot.com

The insect is also notoriously hard to kill.

Richard Schweid, the author of The Cockroach Papers observes that

“when a cockroach feels a breeze stirring the hairs on its cerci, it does not wait around to see what is going to happen next, but leaves off whatever it is doing and goes immediately into escape mode in something remarkably close to instantaneous fashion.”

Image: vishaaa.hubpages.com

Studies show that a cockroaches can respond in about 1/20th of a second, so

“by the time a light comes on and human sight can register it, much less react by reaching for and hoisting something with which to squash it, a roach is already locomoting towards safety.”

Image: buzzle.com

Since it's almost impossible to kill a cockroach physically, we should let them come to us instead.
Moist stale while bread with warm, slightly soured beer, and then place it in a jar. Apply petroleum jelly, for example Vaseline to the interior rim of the jar to prevent the trapped insect from climbing out.

Image: k12.hi.us

Next, dispose the intruder accordingly. You may not want it to return so make sure it is killed and not released. It's not an endangered species anyway.

Malcolm
Info: http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/why-is-it-so-hard-to-kill-a-cockroach-with-your-shoe/

Scientists are from mars

2011-10-21T18:58:00.001+08:00

Add caption

Let's face it.
That's why they could invent the atomic bomb.

Malcolm
info: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/10/19/scientists-are-from-mars-the-public-is-from-earth/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+BadAstronomyBlog+(Bad+Astronomy)

Discrimination

2011-10-17T18:40:00.001+08:00

I really don't understand why Malaysian Chinese love to migrate to western countries just to be abused like fugitives.

Our politicians are egregious. But in fact every other politician on this planet is just as bad. At least in Malaysia I don't get mocked when I walk down the streets of PJ/KL.

How To Hide A Nobel Medal (A True Story)

2011-10-16T10:04:00.000+08:00

Imagine you have a medal made of 23-karat gold. No, imagine you have TWO medals made of 23-karat gold. And they belong to your friends. Possessing them is like signing your own death warrant. What would you do? Would you even think of dissolving them?

That's what a Hungarian chemist did to his friend's medal.

Image: portal.unesco.org

The Nazis took Copenhagen in the year 1940. Prior to that, they declared that no gold shall leave Germany. But two German Nobel laureates, James Franck, of Jewish descent, and Max Von Laue, an opponent of the Nazis, have quietly sent their medals to Bohr's Institute of Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen for protection. They never thought that one day the Nazis would conquer Denmark too.

Image: bcc.cuny.edu

Their act is probably a capital offense. And Bohr himself could probably be arrested for hiding evidence. The medals are heavy, shiny, and had "Von Laue" and "Franck" inscribed on them. Oh how inconvenient.

Bohr knew he had to do something to make the medals disappear. Bury them? No. The army would upend the entire lab, leaving no stones unturned. Send them away? There was neither DHL(founded 1969) nor FedEx(founded 1973).

On the day the Nazis came to Copenhagen, a Hungarian chemist named Georgy de Hevesy (who would one day win a Nobel Prize of his own) decided to turn to science for help. He decided to dissolve the medals.

Image: wn.com

Gold is a very stable element, doesn't tarnish, doesn't mix, unreactive, and doesn't dissolve in anything — except for one particular chemical emulsifier, called "aqua regia," a mixture of three parts hydrochloric acid and one part nitric acid. The nitric acid loosens the gold atoms, after which hydrochloric acid moves in, using its chloride ions to surround and transform the gold. And it's a painstakingly slow business.

But as the minutes ticked down, both medals were reduced to a colorless solution that turned faintly peach and then bright orange. By the time the Nazis arrived, both awards had liquefied inside a flask that was then stashed on a high laboratory shelf.

Image: flickr.com

..When the Nazis ransacked Bohr's institute, they scoured the building for loot or evidence of wrongdoing but left the beaker of orange aqua regia untouched. Hevesy was forced to flee to Stockholm in 1943, but when he returned to his battered laboratory after V-E Day, he found the innocuous beaker undisturbed on a shelf. - The Disappearing Spoon

After the war, Hevesy returned to Copenhagen and did a little wonder of his own. He reversed the chemistry, precipitated out the gold and sent the material back to the Swedish Academy in Stockholm. The Nobel Foundation then recast the prizes using the original gold and re-presented them to Mr. Laue and Mr. Franck in 1952.

Image: alaska-in-pictures.com

So where was Bohr's medal?

Image: nobelprize.org

Well he auctioned it off in 1940 to raise money for Finnish Relief. A big man with a big heart indeed.

Malcolm
info: http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/10/03/140815154/dissolve-my-nobel-prize-fast-a-true-story?f=5500502&ft=1

The Less Intelligent More Likely To Accept Astrology As Scientific

2011-10-14T20:43:00.001+08:00

Finally, a comprehensive study to prove that.....er.... I'd rather let the data speaks for itself.

From the graph above, we can see that the level of acceptance of astrology as science drops as the level of intelligence increases. In other/ coarser word, the dumber a person is, the more likely he or she would accept astrology as science.
Why?

Image: paulwilkinson.wordpress.com

Modern astronomy stemmed from astrology, which is a cross-cultural enterprise which emerges in distinctive and unrelated civilizations. Ancient astrology could affect the livelihood of an entire kingdom. And most of us, like philosophers and astrologers before us, experience awe and wonderment when we look skyward at night. On first blush the idea that the stars may have something to do with the fates doesn’t seem ludicrous.

Image: explodingdog.com

And, as pointed out by blogger Razib Khan;

Organized religion has also played a role in this skepticism. In particular, the Abrahamic religions, which evolved in an environment of competition with late antique ‘astral religion.’ But this is obviously not always the case. Most forms of Hinduism are steeped in astrology as very much a valid and utilitarian enterprise. And in any case the campaigns by Christianity and Islam against astrology has often been fitful and futile.

Malcolm

info: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2011/08/the-less-intelligent-more-likely-to-accept-astrology-as-scientific/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+GeneExpressionBlog+(Gene+Expression)

Seven Myths Alcohol Manufacturers Want You To Believe

2011-10-13T10:25:00.003+08:00

I ain't no proponent of the alcohol industry (many thanks to my allergy), and I know that it has done more harm than good to our body ever since its conception in ancient Iraq in the 6th millennium BC.

Though my mom has inherited the alcohol-machine-trait from her father, I don't get a share of the pie. My sister does. And I, like my father, am a poor drinker. But unlike my father, I am allergic to it. Anything more than 20ml can trigger rashes and severe drowsiness.

Image: bodygeeks.com

Alcohol is bad, and the alcohol industry will never want you to know that. They also try very hard to manipulate the seven messages below to make you drink more.

Message 1: Consuming alcohol is normal, common, healthy, and very responsible.

Explanation: To bring this message home, alcohol advertisements nearly always associate alcohol consumption with health, sportsmanship, physical beauty, romanticism, having friends and leisure activities.

Image: thevreelandclinic.wordpress.com

I note here that it’s left to the social service agencies and non-profits to attempt to convey the opposite side of the coin: a dramatically heightened risk for health problems, traffic fatalities, domestic violence, loss of job, loss of marriage, suicide—you name it.

Message 2: The damage done by alcohol is caused by a small group of deviants who cannot handle alcohol.

Explanation: Indeed, the message of the industry is that ordinary citizens drink responsibly and that ‘bad’ citizens drink irresponsibly and are the cause of any and all problems associated with high alcohol consumption.

Image: picturesof.net

This one is insidious and unscientific. There is no evidence that alcoholics are “bad people,” or simply unwilling to stop engaging in bad behavior. For the industry, irresponsible drinkers are a major revenue source—the dream customer— even though alcohol manufacturers continue to insist that their advertising is primarily about driving home the message of responsible alcohol consumption and brand choice.

Message 3: Normal adult non-drinkers do not, in fact, exist.

Explanation: Only children under 16 years of age, pregnant women and motorists are recognized by the industry as non-drinkers.

My personal favorite, this one. The existence of non-drinkers is seen by the industry as a threat. Accordingly, they have subtly reinforced the message that moderate drinking is not only normal, but also good for you. Never mind that the real profits come from excessive drinking and pricing strategies that encourage it. Estimates vary, but recent studies at UCLA show that “the top 5% of drinkers account for 42%of the nation’s total alcohol consumption.” If 5% of all drinkers account for nearly half of total alcohol sales, it would be folly for the alcohol industry to get serious about encouraging moderation. It’s not too far off the mark to say that the alcohol industry’s quarterly statements hinge on the success they have in encouraging alcoholics to believe that everything’s okay, everybody drinks that way.

Image: drugfreehomes.org

The message becomes clearer: Drinking is mandatory—unless you’re a deviant.

Message 4: Ignore the fact that alcohol is a harmful and addictive chemical substance (ethanol) for the body.

Explanation: The industry does not draw attention to the fact that alcohol (ethanol) is a detrimental, toxic, carcinogenic and addictive substance that is foreign to the body.

Image: zazzle.com

Naturally, pointing out the neuroscientific parallels between alcoholism and heroin addiction is not part of the message. Alcohol is a hard drug—ask any addiction expert. Alcoholism can kill you quick. But so far, the labeling mania that struck opponents of Big Tobacco has not played out in a major way in the battle against deceptive alcohol advertising.

Message 5: Alcohol problems can only be solved when all parties work together.

Explanation: Good, effective policies to combat alcohol consumption would require a higher excise-duty, no marketing or sponsoring, an increase in the drinking age to 18, a prohibition of the illegitimate sale of alcohol, and an increase, through a campaign, in the public’s awareness of the damages that alcohol can cause.

Image: a3bs.com

Obviously, these bullet points are not high on the alcohol industry’s agenda.

Message 6: "Alcohol marketing is not harmful. It is simply intended to assist the consumer in selecting a certain product or brand."

Explanation: Meanwhile, research has indisputably demonstrated that alcohol advertisements are both attractive to young people and stimulate their drinking behavior. Yet the industry continues to flatly and publicly deny that advertising stimulates alcohol consumption.

Image: alcohol-freaks.blogspot.com

Stuffed with attractive young people meeting and mating over alcohol, it seems fair to suggest that alcohol ads had better stimulate increased drinking, i.e., a boost in quarterly sales, or else the industry is wasting a lot of money fighting over pieces of a pie that isn’t getting any bigger. These days, slow growth is no growth.

Message 7: “Education about responsible use is the best method to protect society from alcohol problems.”

Explanation: Effective measures such as a higher alcohol excise-duty, establishing minimum prices, higher age limits and advertisement restrictions can reduce alcohol related harm and will therefore decrease the profits of the industry. The industry therefore does its best to persuade governments, politicians, and policy makers that the above mentioned measures would have no effect, are only symbolic in nature or are illegitimate.

Image: topnews.in

A truly great dodge, because the strategy being advertised sounds so imminently sensible. Who could be against the promotion of responsible alcohol use? Irresponsible zealots and deviants, that’s who. Why should all of us happy drinkers be made to suffer for the sins of a few rotten apples?

Indeed, all of the messages, overtly or covertly, send the same signal:
You should drink more. It’s good for you.

Malcolm
info: http://addiction-dirkh.blogspot.com/2011/08/7-myths-alcohol-industry-wants-you-to.html

毕业咯

2011-10-08T23:08:00.001+08:00

好久没写华语料。
也没画画，讲笑话。
也没踢球。。。

好，回正题。本人念了十九年书，终于拿到了第一份文凭。其实算一算还蛮不值得的、读书十九年，做工三十四年到退休年龄五十八（最近首相发布2012预算案把退休年龄提升到六十），然后文凭就没得用料。其实你一找到工作文凭就失去作用料，因为你第二份工将会注重你第一份工的工作经验。

那书读浆高作莫？
读十九年书来应付第一份工作？

我小时候就问妈妈为什么要读浆多书。我当时听到新闻说国家缺米，需要从泰国进口米，可是我们砂拉越却拥有如此大的土地，也没有大型草食动物（例如大象，犀牛等）来破坏稻田，本地土著人力资源充足又经济，所以用我们的土地来种米的话，能借此机会控制整个大马米仓呢。我们砂劳越地方大，又少车和马路，又能提供工作给当地居民，乃一石三鸟之计。

Image: 7junipers.com

可是妈妈说，
“不读书就没知识，容易给人骗。”

“我要做农民，我把米卖给政府，没人骗我。”

“读了大学再作农夫，做个有知识的农夫。”

我当时觉得妈妈敷衍我。农夫根本就不需要知识。她根本是要骗我继续念书。

现在毕业了，看看周围的人。真的觉得知识很重要。

毕业料。会继续读Ｍａｓｔｅｒ。人家毕业就开始了纳闷的工作生活。我还有一关哦。其实刚刚开始Ｍａｓｔｅｒ时有觉得压力，因为我的实验真的很难。所以就有点怀疑当初放弃马六甲那份工是不是个错误。

不管怎样，放也放了，就像屁放了就不能再挤回屁股里。算了吧。硬着头皮冲过这最后一关吧！！

而这毕业典礼，我在面子书上绝口不提。也没打广告要求大家来，原因很简单：不是因为我蓝席（虽然有一丁点的成分），而是我需要照顾我父母。

我父母比许多人的父母都还老。我妈生我时已经三十九岁。现在的年龄是属于公公婆婆的年龄了。所以我不能让他们在日光下暴晒而我跑去找朋友吹水吧？很幸运的是，这次的 Rumah U 就摆了桌子椅子，我今早看到了就买了午餐给他们，让后让他们在 Rumah U 里吃，然后才去找朋友。如果 Rumah U 没有这样的设备，我应该就回家咯。

当然，我不能跑得太远，所以我只有在 Rumah U 的楼梯哪里徘徊。哪怕老豆突然热的发狂要找我。。所以咯，我也没有找特定的摄影师，原因就是这样咯。。

不过还好啦，还看到很多的朋友，老朋友，美女，野兽。还有一些朋友主动帮我拍照，就谢谢咯。可是整体来说还是很够力少照片咯。这次看到很多美女（够力多），通常在 fac 看到她们而不会留下印象（或留下不好印象）的，今天都让我出乎意料。可惜的是，嗨。。。

妈的，做模空空的？！？！
中骗料！！

两位前室友。谢谢阿顺和阿祥

幸福很简单，
这样就够了。

下一关：Master！

Malcolm

What Should We Do If An Asteroid Heads For Us?

2011-10-07T22:22:00.000+08:00

2012? Armageddon?

In the movie Armageddon, for instant, a team of oil drillers were sent up to land on the surface of the asteroid to blow it off. Hey wait! There could be valuable minerals up on that rock!

Image: spamusement.com

At least that's what a team of Chinese scientists said on ArXiv.

There are a lot more space debris drifting just outside of our atmosphere than any of us could ever think of. At any moment there could be thousands of satellites and tiny space rocks hovering above your head. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to recognize the threat poses by asteroids. Dinosaurs were killed by an asteroid the size of Isle of Wight, which generated a force a billion times greater than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

Image: universetoday.com

But what if we could catch one and bring it home? And maybe put it in Earth's orbit and perhaps do some real-time asteroid research, or, if the rock contains valuable minerals, we could send miners-cum-astronauts up there to generate some cash.

Image: kidcyber.com.au

In fact, according to the Chinese scientists, there’s a snazzy little number approaching the Earth right now. It’s about 30 feet (10 meters) wide. We can use conventional explosive, kinetic impactor and nuclear explosive as outlined in the paper.

The nuclear route, however, may not be advisable: “Because the nuclear explosion can release a very large amount of energy, the result may be a fragmentation of the target near-earth-object (NEO).”

Image: arm.ac.uk

A better solution would be the kinetic impactor: little tap to the ol’ asteroid, and it will accelerate just enough to get stuck orbiting the Earth.After that, well, the orbit could be unstable, and eventually the rock would fly off across the heavens. But with that as practice, one could could move on to mile-wide rocks, which, according to calculations made by gobsmacked tech and science bloggers around the web, could yield trillions of dollars of metals.

Image: lmnop.blogs.com

The thing is, this sorta business is kinda risky. Now, were something to get screwed up and that mile-wide metallic asteroid hit Earth instead, we’d be looking at something like a 24-mile-wide crater and a fireball so large that trees 200 miles away would spontaneously burst into flames, among other fun effects.

But of course, should NASA decides to mine the next asteroid that's heading for Earth, please consider signing me up =).

Malcolm
Info: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2011/09/01/1-capture-asteroid-2-mine-it-3-profit-4-kabloom/

Singapore Expands At Other Nations Environmental Expense.

2011-10-04T21:14:00.000+08:00

Singapore has been reclaiming land from the sea since the mid-1960s, and it's still growing.

But the Singapore government doesn't disclose any information whatsoever on where exactly they get their material, i.e. sand from. It's strictly classified and Singaporean themselves don't really care anyway, as long as they are kept happy with more and more land.

Image: excelingeography.blogspot.com

Reporters from the Associated Press recently tried to track down some of these supply lines. They ended up in Cambodia's Tatai River, where they found “an industrial nightmare” in the middle of “a tropical idyll.”

Lush jungle hills give way to a flotilla of dredgers operating 24 hours a day, scooping up sand and piling it onto ocean-bound barges. The churned-up waters and fuel discharges, villagers say, have decimated the fish so vital to their livelihoods. Riverbanks are beginning to collapse, and the din and pollution are killing a promising ecotourism industry.

The environmental degradation caused by these illegal dredging operations can explain why Singapore is reluctant to reveal its sources. As the founder of the Kiasu-ism dogma, it does not want to be seen as taking advantage of its poorer neighbors or counter its image as a leader in sustainable development.

A few years ago, Indonesia banned sand exports to Singapore. A decade earlier, Malaysia imposed a similar ban, and last year, it was Vietnam's turn. Singapore, in utter disregard for environmental concern, would do anything to get sand from these countries, even if it means purchasing sand via unscrupulous means. And then there's the ever impoverished, ever secretive police state of Myanmar, which might become a major supplier.

Should Singapore continue with the expansion? Well, eat Mother Nature at your own peril.

Malcolm
info: http://pruned.blogspot.com/2011/09/mapping-dark-geography-of-sand.html

The End Is Near

2011-10-02T15:14:00.004+08:00

This post is written to MOCK all of those who tried, try, and will be trying to invoke confusion and fear about how and when the world is going to end.

Humans have been contemplating of their own extinction ever since they knew Death. The mystery and enigma of death prompted the inception of religion to serve as an answer to what happens after death.
The bible also predicts the end of the world, and that has been systematically utilized by medieval churches as a propaganda tool to instill fear in the mind of the people.

But as the internet propels our intelligence forward, idiots find it useful for spreading rumors and fictitious ideas. Superstitious self-proclaimed gurus emerge by the thousands and preach about the end of the world.

Wang Chao-hung is one amongst a plethora of end-of-the-world believer in Taiwan. He predicted the island would be flattened by an earthquake on May 11 at 10:42:37. Now that, my friend, is more accurate that Nostradamus the supposed-prophet.

Image: taipeitimes.com

As the appointed time approached, watchers held their breath. Tick... tick... tick... the moment came and went. Nothing happened.

Believers looked sheepish. Non-believers mocked, but also looked rather relieved.

In 2000, a Japanese guru named Yuji Taniguchi, 65, said the only to escape the eminent end of the world was by singing a song composed by a space alien named Elina. The song went like this:

Image: averydraws.wordpress.com

What's your name? I feel wretched about myself, oh yay, yay.

Thousands of Japanese sang in unison and thanks to their cooperation the world failed to end, except for music lovers, who probably felt suicidal.

And earlier this year in America, a cult emerged claiming that the world would end on May 21 2011. Harold Camping, the 89-year old american behind the May 21 hoax, said he and his flock would be lifted into the sky in a religious event called The Rapture.

Image: guardian.co.uk

Camping and his followers spent big money on billboards and posters and sent the ludicrous message half way across the globe to the Phillippines and even Vietnam, where thousands of the Hmong ethnic hill tribe gathered on the Thai border in anticipation of the event.

Image: forum.ebaumsworld.com

The entire joke (they certainly didn't think of it as a joke, because they referred to the bible, which is a joke itself) was made worst by Camping's radio show, which can be heard worldwide, and a website that featured a countdown clock.

Image: haroldcamping-21.blogspot.com

Camping's radical campaign gained momentum and became so real a lot of Americans fell for it. His aggressive advertising tactics prompted quite a number of idiots to quit their jobs, sell their properties and donated them, and then waited for the inevitable. When interviewed, they claimed they were so sure of the event that they had "no back-up plan whatsoever".

Image: theblogismine.com

Unfortunately for Camping and co, the world did not only fail to end, they (New York and Rhode Island) also passed the gay marriage bill. Perhaps Camping was referring to the passage of the bill as the end of the world.

In 1988, a former engineer named Edgar Whisenant published a book called 88 reasons why the rapture will be in 1988. It didn't happen.

Undeterred, he published another junk in 1989 to explain his failure, and to convince readers that the world would end in 1989 for sure. The year also went peacefully.

In 1993, he published another book saying that the world would end in 1993, and then another book in 1994. He remained grounded on both occasions.

Image: amazon.com

Finally he shut up.

What's with all these idiots? I mean, these idiots use various claims; fengshui, ancient texts, and the most popular one, the bible, to predict the doomsday. Why would anything outside of our earth care about a little book written by a 4 million year-old species? The asteroid will not come hurling at us just because someone wrote it in hidden codes 2000 years back. How would he knew in the first place? Alien information? Extraordinary intelligence? why didn't Noah or Abraham invent the ipad then?

Image: spiritual-research-network.com

Most importantly, we are so insignificant in this universe no other celestial bodies would care to even take a look at us. And yet the bible is telling us that the entire planet, solar system, galaxy, and universe were created with us especially in mind. blah!

Image: lifestreamsdb.blogspot.com

The inevitable will come. That's for sure. But definitely not in the near future. And the world will not just explode suddenly and turn all of us into vapor like what those self-professed gurus said. Our doomsday would probably caused by disease, or us got hit by an giant asteroid or the death of our sun.

Either way, the gurus were wrong.

Malcolm

Info: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/22/rapture-harold-camping-end-world

海笑

2011-09-30T19:19:00.001+08:00

People Who Doodle Learn Faster

2011-09-29T16:26:00.003+08:00

New research published recently shows that doodling helps you learn. In fact, say scientists, students should be encouraged to doodle while they take notes in class.

"A doodle is an unfocused drawing made while a person's attention is otherwise occupied. Doodles are simple drawings that can have concrete representational meaning or may just be abstract shapes."

I remember drawing one of our nationalist heroes Rentap in my Form 3 History text book, and that book got into my junior's hand. She told me it was entertaining and helped her at it.

Image: kosmo.com.my

And in high school, I noticed that physicists doodle a lot; movement of planets, objects, propagation of light, etc. My notes are littered with funny diagrams, phrases and questions so it would be hilarious if it somehow got into someone else's possession.

Image: exampaper.com.sg

The thing is, our brain loves diagram, or any funny and entertaining jokes, stories. So by doodling (about the topic at hand, mind you), you can engage people who might otherwise not pay attention; it helps them learn how information is presented; it inspires learning and retention of information; and it can assist people in communicating that information later.

So, go ahead and draw in the margins. It's helping you get the most out of that boring meeting — science says so!

Image: chinese-tools.com

Image: tieba.baidu.com

Malcolm
info: http://io9.com/5834081/people-who-doodle-learn-faster

Cheating Neutrinos Jumped The Starting Gun: Physics Ref Failed To Notice

2011-09-25T23:56:00.001+08:00

Reuters reported on Friday night that a team of Italian scientists had detected some neutrinos travelling faster than the speed of light.

As a physics student myself, my first reaction was: Hell NO. Freaking impossible.

In fact I was soon joined by many professional physicists who'd also expressed their reservations on the matter. It simply doesn't make sense.

Carl Sagan once said that "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." If your experiment seems to break the laws of physics, especially one that is so fundamental and has been proven experimentally over and over again, then chances are you know you've made a mistake than a discovery.

Image: sushantskoltey.wordpress.com

What happened was that a team of physicists created neutrinos at CERN in Geneva. Neutrinos are massless particles that travel at the speed of light (prior to this ground-breaking news). In a fraction of a second, some of them entered a detector called OPERA in Italy where they were recorded. When the scientists calculated the speed of the neutrinos that came, they found the neutrinos got to Italy about 60 nanoseconds faster than a photon (light particle) would.

Image: kurzweilai.net

60 nanoseconds. That's 0.000000060, doesn't seem to make that much of a difference but hey, it threatens to dismantle one the most fundamental laws of physics. So it's only natural for all other physicists to regard this news with a lot of skepticism.
Moreover, plenty of other scientists are using the Supernova that happened in 1987 as an example to refute this faster-than-light claim.

Image: solstation.com

Supernova (SN) 1987A was a supernova in the outskirts of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby dwarf galaxy. It occurred approximately 168,000 light-years from Earth, close enough that it was visible to the naked eye.

When a star dies it releases multiple blasts of particles, including neutrinos. So when SN 1987A exploded neutrinos and photons went out in all direction and some of them headed to our Earth.

The paper quotes a fractional difference between neutrino speed and that of light of

(2.48 ± 0.28 (stat.) ± 0.30 (sys.)) x 10-5

The neutrinos from SN1987A traveled so far (168,000 light-years) that had they been moving 0.0000248 meter/second faster than light, they would’ve arrived here almost four years before the light did.

However, the light got here only three hours later than the neutrinos. And the lag could be explained by accounting the time it takes for the explosion to eat its way out of the star’s core to its surface. So it's not about neutrinos moving faster than light; it's about why light didn't arrive early.

Image: ereads.com

But still, the researchers are not at fault, and in fact they are asking for criticism on their work. The work has yet to be properly published or peer reviewed, let alone scrutinized or replicated by the scientific community. At the time the Reuters report appeared, the researchers hadn't even uploaded their draft paper to Arxiv, the pre-print repository. And hence this can't yet be presented as 'fact', but that's exactly what mainstream media like Reuters chose to do with their headline, "Particles found to break speed of light". Nature News posted a similar headline, "Particles break light-speed limit" and declared "Neutrino results challenge cornerstone of modern physics."

And these sortta headlines give rise to this kinda brainless comment on Facebook.

This just gives me one more reason to dislike mainstream media.

Malcolm
info:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/09/22/faster-than-light-travel-discovered-slow-down-folks/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+DiscoverMag+(Discover+Magazine)

http://neutrinoscience.blogspot.com/2011/09/arriving-fashionable-late-for-party.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN_1987A

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/the-lay-scientist/2011/sep/23/1

Arthur's Day 2011

2011-09-24T17:08:00.001+08:00

Departed to PJ at 6pm, Shaun came fetched me at 7pm. After dinner we hit the road and the traffic was so WTFFFFF we arrived at Selangor Turf Club at 10pm.

Btw I couldn't help but notice the extremely bad Malaysian culture of not carpool-ing. Are we Malaysian made up of extremely shy or socially awkward people? There were so many cars on the road but almost every car contained only one person, or at most two. Our car contained four so I'm practising my right to blast all shitheads who'd made TRAFFIC JAM possible.

Come on la.... We all know the benefit of carpool-ing but I guess a lot of us just wanted to go there IN OUR OWN FREAKIN PATHETIC machine to make EVERY OTHER PERSON including carpooling individuals stuck in the stupid jam. According to my GPS we were making 300 meters in 40 minutes. Now that's fast.

Wake up la Malaysian! Carpooling DON'T kill. And if u're really shy squeezing around with ladies in a car, take the bus instead. Do Mother Earth a favor by reducing your car-fart.

And now it's picture time! Too bad DSLRs weren't allowed =(

At lot of local artistes performed but sorry I know not any of them. In fact only yesterday I got to know who Taio Cruz is. XD

The entire show wasn't good really. The traffic and location of the show made it worst. Will not attend the next Arthur's Day celebration.

Malcolm

Sperm Whale Facts

2011-09-20T21:14:00.001+08:00

1)The Sperm whale is the biggest predator in the world.

2)The brain of the sperm whale is the biggest on earth, and perhaps the biggest brain of any animal that has ever lived.

Image: petroleumhistory.org

3)The Sperm whale makes the loudest sound made by any living creature - over 230 decibels.

4)Up to 1/3 of their body is taken up by their head - which is filled with a strange and complicated echolocating system that the whales use to see in the dark and communicate with each other.

5)The Sperm whale hunts a great variety of animals including Giant Squid and Colossal Squid. No-one has ever seen a sperm whale hunt a giant squid. Because the whales spend so much time in the extreme deep we know very little about them, so the chance to explore inside them is a rare opportunity to figure out how they live by looking at their incredible adaptations.

Image: amnh.org

6)The Sperm whale can dive into the deep for over an hour at a time to hunt their prey. Sperm whales have to breathe air, but their prey lives deep in the ocean, perhaps as far as 3km beneath the surface. The conditions are so extreme - cold, dark and the pressure is enormous - here that humans would be killed if we dived this deep. But the whales have evolved incredible adaptations - bendy ribs, strange blood vessels and muscles that can load up with oxygen which allow them to dive into the deep for over an hour at a time to hunt their prey.

7)Sperm whales are born after about 15 months in the womb.

8)Females tend to stay with their mother and her social group, and will spend their whole lives with them, which could be over a century. Males leave the group and eventually live alone, travelling far away to polar regions and growing their enormous noses hunting in these richer waters.

9)Males are much bigger than the females - they can grow over 20m long and weigh over 60 tons.

10)Sperm whales are extremely social. They will co-operate to raise each-other's young and will protect each-other, even risking their own lives to fight off attacks on other sperm whales by their main enemy, the killer whales.

Image: seaworld.org

11)When they are young they learn to make clicking noises to communicate with one another. It's thought that each social group of whales has its own patterns of clicks, and that maybe individual whales have their own click patterns. Some researchers believe that different groups of whales live in the same place but don't interact with each-other - like different tribes they have their own customs and unique behaviours, such as what food they choose to hunt and how deep they dive. This is called 'whale culture'.

12)Whales are mammals - they once walked around on land and at some point moved back into the sea.

13)Like us they have lungs, warm blood and breasts which they use to feed their babies milk. You can still find the whiskers of their deer-like ancestors poking out of their noses and inside their flippers are the bones of enormous mammal hands.

Image: whalesongs.org

14)There are two kinds of whales - the baleen whales and the toothed whales. The baleen whales (like the blue whale and the humpback) take big gulps of water and filter out tiny animals like krill. The toothed whales (dolphins, killer whales, sperm whales) are hunters - they take larger prey.

Malcolm
info: http://www.channel4.com/info/press/news/inside-nature-s-giants-explores-worlds-biggest-and-loudest-predator

How To Make Antivenom?

2011-09-18T00:24:00.002+08:00

Snake bite kills 100,000 people every year. Despite the fact that we started producing antivenom 100 years ago, the supply is still very limited due to the painstaking process.

To make antivenom, we would need to milk the venom first. The snake must be quarantined and monitored for weeks to months to ensure their good health.

Image: coolcompanions.com.au

To get enough venom, each snake must be milked many times.In 1965 for instance, the National Institutes of Health asked Haast, who founded the Miami Serpentarium, to produce 1 pint of coral snake venom. It took him, a man of unrivaled skill and patience, a total of three years and 69,000 milkings to get that much, from which the first and only American coral antivenom was made.

Image: livelufflove.blogspot.com

After milking, the venom must be cooled, labeled and transported to farms and injected into horses. Why horse? They are chosen because they thrive in many environments worldwide, have a large body mass-and hence a lot of blood, and are forgiving.

Image: adventure.howstuffworks.com

Goats and sheep work well, too. Other animals used include donkeys, rabbits, cats, chickens, camels, rodents and even sharks. Sharks make nice antibodies, but most of us prefer standing close to a horse to a shark.

Antibodies in the horse's bloodstream peak after about eight to 10 weeks. By then, the horse will be bled, which involves drawing 3 to 6 liters of blood from the jugular vein. The blood will be purified to separate the antivenom.

Image: adventure.howstuffworks.com

One of the last steps involves using an enzyme to break down the antibody into small parts and isolating its active ingredient. Now that you've gone through all this effort, your antivenom still must be deemed safe and effective by the FDA, which can take another 10 years.

Effect of snake bite. Image: rogerknapp.com

All these steps certainly add up on the balance sheet. A typical antivenom costs $1600 per vial, and a snakebite that needs antivenom requires an average of 20 to 25 vials.

Malcolm
info:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/med-tech/how-to-make-antivenom-why-the-world-is-running-out#fbIndex7

Our Politicians--Are They Good Enough?

2011-09-15T19:39:00.004+08:00

Americans love checking on their leaders.

Last April President Obama was forced to release his birth certificate to prove that he is indeed a born-and-bred American. Today I saw another news; Rick Perry, the current Governor of Texas who intends to run for president in 2012 got his academic transcript examined by the media, and guess what? Rick Perry is not really smart.

Image: thyblackman.com

Academic transcript is like our passport to a better job. I guess many of us remember how we had our brain juice squeezed to the last drop every time we entered the examination hall, the nights we spent cuddling into a ball in the library, and the dates we had to let go because there was a test on the following morning. All those we did, for the sake of a nicely furnished academic transcript.

Image: steckzone.com

A good academic transcript ensures a good-paying job, and the glamor that comes with the job.
When it comes to job, however, nothing beats the glamor and status of a President. But managing a country is no laughing matter, especially if you ought to manage the most powerful country on Earth. A wrong word could set off a nuclear war, and maybe a fart could cause an unrest somewhere in the world. Not understanding what your science advisor says is embarrassing enough, and more often than not, most politicians don't understand a thing in science.

Image: brownpelicanla.com

And Rick Perry, with his towering ego and theory of rhetoric, is not the most suitable candidate for the post. Let's take a look at his transcript:

At least at the start of college, Mr. Perry did not make any F’s, turning in mostly C’s along with a smattering of B’s and one A as well as one D, which he received for a class in plane trigonometry during the spring semester of 1969.

The grades did not improve as his college career went on, as Mr. Perry pushed ahead with some of the more difficult science courses including organic chemistry, in which he made a D one semester and an F in another.His other D’s included courses in the principles of economics, Shakespeare, “Feeds & Feeding,” veterinary anatomy, and what appears to be a course called “Meats,” though the quality of the copy of the transcript makes it hard to tell for certain.

I am not making fun of Mr Perry here (only partially =P). The fact that his father was a farmer made his achievement much more commendable. But after seeing his transcript I cant help but to worry about the leaders of my own country.

In Malaysia, political leaders come from all walks of life; PhDs, Masters, degree holders, etc. And yes, a lot of them graduated from foreign universities. The Prime Minister himself graduated from the University of Nottingham in 1974. These degrees, however, do not accurately forecast the intelligence of their respective holders. Sometimes we could hear ludicrously childish comment and statement made by these degree holders on TV. So one can never help but to wonder how did they do it? Er.. I mean how did they even graduate?

Image: malaysiannews.info

In my university, for example, we sometimes see students extending their studies due to "unforeseen circumstances". It could be a personal choice,especially when one do not wish to enter the job market yet. Or it could be the only option left, especially for those imbecile who'd rather imbibe in plenty of college politics and activities than to graduate with flying colors.

Image: redbubble.com

Being a graduate doesn't mean that particular person is smart, as evident in the case of Mr Perry (and a lot of Malaysian politicians as well). And sometimes we see politicians acting "know-it-all"... that's just sickening. They are unaware that their thoroughly schemed arguments are just a laughing-stock for some of the people whom they govern, and could well be more mentally competent.

Graduated, yes. But are they good enough?

Malcolm

info: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/perry-explains-his-poor-performance-in-college/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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