Just blog.

Did you know that Mars could be seen up in our night sky the day before yesterday?
According to news(from Nat geo and UM Astrophysics department), we could observe Mars last night, 29th January 2010 even via naked eye, when the red planet gets closest to Earth. This year Mars swung by at just 61 million miles (98 million kilometers) on January 27.


Apart from Mars, our cosmic neighbor, the Moon, will also be extraordinarily luminous. January's full moon is also called the wolf moon, according to Native American tradition associating this month's full moon with wolves howling in the cold midwinter. The 2010 wolf moon will appear 30 percent brighter and 14 percent larger than any other full moon this year, because our cosmic neighbor will actually be closer to Earth than usual.

The moon will be at its closest perigee—the nearest it gets to our planet during its egg-shaped orbit—for 2010 at 4:04 a.m. ET Saturday, reaching a distance of 221,577 miles (356,593 kilometers) from Earth.


Anyway i missed the opportunity to observe Mars because I was busy working in Nagomi that night..There was this telescope set up by the Physics Department to observe the cosmic wonder,but I guess not many turned up for the event.

By the way, was working today and a kitchen staff showed me a seahorse amidst a school of fried prawn. It's dead of course, and they found it while frying the prawn.
This lil tiny creature is only the size of my thumb, and poor thing it swam too close to a group of prawn on that fateful day and was caught, probably by a trawler, as no other net could catch something that in the ocean.






Seahorses are fish from the family Syngnathidae. They have a horse-like head and prehensile tail, and gills which enable them to breath in the water. Seahorses are popularly known for male pregnancy. The male has a brood pouch below its abdomen, which serves to protect and nourish his babies. They are known to be the best dad in the world(and worse mom too). But recent studies reveal otherwise(for the dad part, mom stil sucks). It was revealed that during pregnancy daddy seahorse would often go hungry. So how do they sustain themselves?

ans: by sucking dry nutrients from SOME OF THEIR babies. NOT ALL!
no offence to all seahorse lovers out there, but I read this in Nat Geo website.

This small, less than a palm-size fish has reduced in numbers by over 80% since 1998. Further habitat loss will very likely drives them into local extinction.
I'm not a fan of seahorse consumption, and I'm totally against it.

ANyway, had a bad day at work today. My manager and supervisor got scoldings from customers, and I got some of the spilled milk too. The manager, however, advised me to ignore those customers, which I gladly did. They are fussy, ridiculously stupid and ignorant.
Anyway why spend time hating ppl? They don't even care so why should you?

I checked that person's profile via google(not gonna tell u how I did it), and found out that he's the CEO of a company.
Well,it's time to sleep =P

Malcolm
=)

Tired

Am really tired, haven't blog since 21/1/10.
Am occupied with tasks and chores given by lecturers, mates..

"gasping for air amidst the chaos"

really describes how my mind works now.

=(


Malcolm

Haiti

Haiti, a country in the Caribbean suffered a magnitude 7.0 earthquake on January 12, 2010.

A Haitian woman emerges from the rubble on January 12 in the capital Port-au-Prince, which was completely devastated by a magnitude 7 earthquake. The earthquake is reported to be the strongest ever to hit the country since 1860.

The Haiti earthquake toppled buildings, including the president's National Palace, a hospital, and schools, trapping untold numbers in the debris and killing perhaps thousands of others. After the Haiti earthquake, witnesses described "general mayhem" in the impoverished Caribbean city, which has no electricity, phone service, or passable roads..


The quake, however, did not trigger a tsunami as the epicenter of the quake was at the capital city, Port-au-Prince.
Hospitals are already packed, and thousands more are buried under the rubble.
And since this is one of the poorest countries in the world, they are expecting foreign aides to help them to get through this.
Now aides are pouring in, and local gangs started to emerge. They monopolize everything, raping and gang fights are common now.
Estimated death? Around 200,000 ppl died. It is only an estimation though. But if the number is true, that is the total population of Sibu.

The estimated death of 2004 disaster is around 230K, comprises of people from 14 countries.
But Haiti, a small, poor, chaotic country loses 200k of its population in 30-40 seconds. According to reports, the cemetary is full, and there are still bodies waiting to be buried. Running out of idea, they dug a large hole and dumped all the bodies in, and the victims died without a grave of their own.



So, what can we do? Or..should we do anything? IF THERE is NOTHING that we can do, at least we care enough to know their plight.

The country is politically unstable, with a per capita annual income of around $400. That's around 1500 ringgit per year, roughly RM105 per month. Some of us spend that much in a shopping trip~~

Place yourself in their shoes. You are poor, and in the midst of chaos you try to look for your children. They are dead. You try looking for your parents, they are dead. You try to look for your wife, and she is severely injured, buried within the remnants, still breathing. You try to get help, but to no avail..



The last thing you can do is sitting there and listen to your wife's last breath. You plan to at least give them a proper burial, but you are poor.
Aides are pouring in. You got your share of food, and while you were comforting a fellow victim some thugs stole your food. What can you do? Everyone is trying to survive...



What else can you do?
What can we do?



Malcolm

Open Question

Was shopping on Sunday, and saw this thing in a shop


And saw the metal plate spinning inside.
Suddenly a thought struck me: what is the size of that metal plate?
Given the circumference of the protruding segment, can it lead me to know the circumference of the whole plate?

So I went back and worked out the solutions.


The data that I can acquire without harming(dissecting la) the meter are the h,l and c as shown below




Q: WHAT IS THE TOTAL CIRCUMFERENCE OF THE METAL PLATE?
by having those 3 data, we can deduce a relationship by using the angle θ of the segment
θ=57.296c/r______(1)

and also
c=0.01745rθ_______(2)

since we can measure c, so c is a known variable. Thus we can solve equation (1) and (2) by using simultaneous equation to get the radius of the metal plate r.

Once we have the radius then we can calculate the total surface area of the metal plate and also its circumference, assuming the plate is very very thin.
With these we can even calculate the electric potential of the plate, and how it affects the overall performance of the meter.

Anyway this is just random but I guess it's nice to just pop up with random application problem and train our brain to think =)


Malcolm

Ladies

No offence, sometimes I just feel like ladies are like shit.
They got emotional, and start crapping shits.
And they blame u for humbly abiding the law.

Sometimes they like u being honest and humbly following orders.

When they're mad they just blast at u even in public with no sign or warning. Screaming or grudging in public is the way they communicate. WOrds are rough and rude, and insensible arguments emerge.
What's wrong ladies?

THis really piss me off to a certain extend. Maybe someday I might just give up on marriage.
Perhaps friendship is the best solution for me. No shits about marriage and having kids or starting a fucking happy family.
I aint those kinda person, as I just found out. I hate ppl screaming at me, throwing shitty arguments, making no absolute sense, and that's what women are good at.

Women who watch this,pls realise that you are no better than any other women. U are just another emotional whore on this planet. I aint falling for men, however, but ladies, pls give your man some space, and just..........control your fucking emotion, and no stupid-notmakinganysens-idiotic arguments. Some girls are good, but u can never deny the fact that they do sound stupid at times.

you may think you are intelligent and independent. Try throw your stupid arguments at random ppl and see what's their opinion.U think we men are dumber, well think again your arguments when u're calmer, and see who's smarter.

Sorry for all the harsh words. Perhaps i'm just not fit for a relationship after all

Malcolm

Whales

Haven't blog for many days, and realised how packed my schedule is.
Am responsible for 3 songs for this coming dayao: 如果你爱的不是我,断剑,and 手..
2 are pop song, another is sortta Chinese-inspired..
anyway, saw a video regarding a dead Sperm Whale that exploded, yes, EXPLODED, when it was being transported for dissection in Taiwan.




this is a sperm whale, and u should know why ppl call it SPERM whale..



This shit can grow up to 20.5 metres (67 ft) long, weighing in at around 60-70 tons. It is the largest living toothed animal. The head can take up to one-third of the animal's length.The species feeds on squid and fish, diving as deep as 3 kilometres (9,800 ft), which makes it the deepest diving mammal. Its diet includes Giant squid and Colossal Squid.

The sperm whale's clicking vocalization is the loudest sound produced by any animal.
Females give birth every three to six years, and care for the calves for more than a decade. It is known to have the largest brain of any animal.

The sperm whale can live for more than 70 years. This is not surprising tho as most large mammals do live a long life, eg elephant can live up to 60 years, and other species of whale can also live up to 50-70 years.

Alright now enough of the facts, let's talk about the exploding whale..


The whale was found dead on a beach in Taiwan, and a local Professor, apparently an expert of whale ordered it to be transported for further checkup.
En route, it suddenly exploded, spilling innards in every direction. imagine that... and some ppl puked on the spot due to the unforgiving smell of fresh sashimissssss

Anyway the explosion was due to the build up of gas within the decomposing carcass. The whale died due to collision with a ship, leading to the weakening of its spine. The damaged spine could not hold the pressure within the body and so it exploded.

This huge animal has few natural predator, except for man and maybe orcas.

Speaking of orcas, do you know what is an orca?




This shit is no larger than a bus, and yet it is the king of the ocean. It's hard to imagine this creature, cute and intelligent as we always seen in ocean park could be so ruthless and violent in nature.

It is the largest species of the dolphin family (dolphins and porpoise are mini whales, they have blowholes on top of their head like whales). They are found in all of the world's oceans. As I mentioned, this shit could live up to 50-60 years.

This animal eats anything in the sea;sea lions, fish, even GREAT WHITE SHARKS and LARGER WHALES. It is known to attack baby blue whale and great white sharks(there is a video in NatGeo.com where witness recorded 2 orcas killed and ate a GREAT WHITE SHARK, the largest predatory fish in the world).



imagine this shit being killed and eaten by a cute, intelligent, innocent orca..
Anyway log on to nat geo to look out for the video.
The orcas that killed that shark were very intelligent. They somehow turned the shark upside down into a paralyzing position.. u know sharks cannot be turned upside down, as they will become paralyzed in that position, but not dead.. it's called tonic immobility. check tat up ppl~



Malcolm =)

DSLR practice

Leow Wai Mun..
Circling-blur-background
with black and white effect



Nikon lens cap with blurred background
inconsistent background light


This is not an accident panning effect.
Reduce the shutter speed and there you have it.
Improving?? hehe.....=)


Malcolm

Religion, Malaysia..

So far 4 churches have been attacked by radical Muslims after the decision by the court to allow Christians to use the word "Allah".



In addition, a car in Bangsar, believed to be owned by a Christian was attacked yesterday.

What say you?
As a Malaysian, I say this is absolutely ridiculous, one that only happens in places like Indonesia, India, the Middle East, where extremism is the name of the game.
I was stunned when I heard that churches were being attacked, and pictures of barbaric deeds emerged.. pls la bro.. we are a country made up of many different races, and the Constitution has ensured religious freedom. You said let's pass this matter to the court, and yet now you're pouring shits at ppl for not doing you favor.


The PM is unhappy with this


and obviously worried...



and Khairy said: this is not my Malaysia..
True, though I haven't like that guy for as long as I remember, but he is right this time. This is not what we expect from a country boasting of its multicultural ethnic and religion.

I don't know what our moderate Muslim friends are gonna say, but I'm sure they aren't happy with their radical brothers as well.

PAS stood up and disagreed with this cowardly act of terror, yet they also kept quiet about the court's decision.
What shall we do? My frens took away the rosary from his car, afraid of an attack.

I say; do nothing. Let the authority do something and give us an explanation. If this is a country worth living in, which I believe it is, then the authority will certainly take action to stop this event from happening again.

p/s: don't forget to compensate the church for the damage caused. =p

Silicified Wood

Silicified woods are woods that have been changed into quartz by a replacement of the cellular structure of the wood by siliceous waters.

In some mountainous area, woods regularly fall into stream and river. The water containing Silica will then slowly replace the cellular structure inside the wood with silica, and this causes the wood to have the property of glass.


Pic: The wood reflects like a mirror. Amazing huh~~



This process takes millions of years and this one is being exhibited at FRIM (Forest Reseach Institute Malaysia) at Kepong.
Saw it and knew that piece of junk is certainly no ordinary junk. =P


Malcolm

Dolphin Killing

I know you guys probably heard about dolphin killing in Denmark, Japan, and other parts of the world. The pressure is on, and some have chosen to stop killing the intelligent mammal.
BUT there is a town in Japan, famous for its annual dolphin hunt, still oblivious with the pressure surrounding them, and that town should be continually condemned. Taiji is the name..

Fishermen drove a pod of dolphin into a smaller creek, and used harpoons to stab the dolphins, as shown in this undated photo (courtesy of NationalGeographic.com)

The sea water becomes red, saturated with dolphins' blood.



Then a fisherman is sent diving down to pull the carcasses up into the boat.



(above: a fisherman held up a severed tail. Killed dolphins are piled up in boat and sold as delicacies in restaurants across Japan.)

A picture tells a thousand words. What else should I say? Look at the sea, and the brutality of the Japanese, that once murdered, plundered and raped thousands of civilian in Nanjing during World War 2, and consequently got the atomic bomb as their reward. If this act of terror on animals do not stop, Mother Nature will no doubt reward them her own version of atomic bomb..



Malcolm

Sir Isaac Newton

4th January 2010, 367th birthday of the late Sir Isaac Newton, decoder of gravity, calculus and many other subjects we hate.



Born two to three months prematurely on January 4, 1643, in Lincolnshire, England, Isaac Newton was a tiny baby who, according to his mother, could have fit inside a quart mug. He was a practical child, and so he enjoyed constructing models, including a tiny mill that could actually ground flour—powered by a mouse running in a wheel. I wouldn't want to eat the bread made from the flour..

Admitted to the University of Cambridge on 1661, Newton at first failed to shine as a student, much like Einstein..

In 1665 the school temporarily closed because of a bubonic plague epidemic and Newton returned home to Lincolnshire for two years. It was then that the apple-falling brainstorm occurred. Legend has it that Isaac Newton formulated gravitational theory in 1665 or 1666 after watching an apple fall and asking why the apple fell straight down, rather than sideways or even upward.

Despite his apparent affinity for private study, Newton returned to Cambridge in 1667 and served as a mathematics professor and in other capacities until 1696. I remember reading from a book by Stephen Hawking that Sir Isaac Newton's post was Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in Cambridge, which was later succeeded by Paul Dirac in 1932.. then later by Prof Stephen Hawking himself.

Newton published his findings in 1687 in a book called Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) commonly known as the Principia. . Yet the book was read by only a handful, understood by far fewer. Yet they knew that the book was a great work, sorta like what Einstein did with his theory of relativity.

Despite his wealth of discoveries Isaac Newton wasn't well liked, particularly in old age, when he served as the head of Britain's Royal Mint, served in Parliament, and write on religion, among other things. As a personality, Newton was unattractive—solitary and reclusive when young, vain and vindictive in his later years, when he tyrannized the Royal Society and vigorously sabotaged his rivals.


In 1727, at 84, Sir Isaac Newton died in his sleep. What a good way to die for a tyrant.. anyway we have to thank him for his discoveries or else we wouldn't have GPS, TV Satellites, Rockets, this and that.. cheers Sir Isaac Newton~ and thank God that apple dropped on your head~

Ego

I laid down my pride to write about this.. Yet the very truth itself eluded me..I couldn't reach a conclusion. My mind was spiraling.
I was wondering whether I changed at all.. I was once an obnoxious kid, arrogant, over confident, no humility, selfish, double-faced.

Alright.. There are a lotta people whom I've hurt in my life. Being ego and arrogant, and sarcastic over every comments they made. Perhaps, I thought I would not need them, so even if they finally decided not to ever see my fucking face again I wouldn't even care.

Upon reaching UM and realizing the stupidity of local residents, I could not help but to think back those friends that I've hurt. I did some good deeds here (things like helping the blind to cross the road) and no one knows. Friends here are like.. shit. Nothing can compare to your ex schoolmates, ex classmates, ex those-who-fell-for-you, ex football pals...etc..

In class, I arrogantly ignored XXXX XXXXX XXXX and made him a laughing stock. He probably knew it but I didn't care.
Also, XXXXX XXXX was orally abused by me although I was the lil' one. Also there were cases where I was double-faced, selfish, over confident.

Now, after 3 years in HELL, I realized that my confidence has ceased a lil, and of course sarcasm as well. I became more polite (compared to the old Malcolm) but still working on it, and my language became softer(hard language is like: why do I have to care if you get hungry? It has nothing to do with me). But there is 1 thing I will not let go: my ego. Horatio has it, Bezita has it, Christiano Ronaldo has it, and I shall keep it. :P

why did I change? Because I realized that the people that I once hurt, either by sarcasm, arrogance, selfishness, double-faced were the one that I would really miss for the rest of my life. Yes, YOU are very important!

people, I am sorry for what I've done in the past.




*now I immediately pick up my ego and say NO MORE APOLOGIES FROM ME!*

Malcolm
=)

My DSLR and Pangolin..

Digital Single-Lens Reflex Camera, that's what they call it.

I bought a Nikon D60, with a AF18-55mm lens.



alright let's forget the technical cuz I'ma newbie >_<

anyway stumbled upon an article in Nat Geo yesterday regarding Pangolin.
Google that up if you dont even know what a Pangolin is...

Anyway this is a pangolin.


It's a scaly animal like an armadillo(google that up if you don't know tat too), and it's now being threatened by human activities including poaching and deforestation. Because of growing demand for pangolin meat and scales, the toothless creature is now being hunted to the edge of extinction.

This animal is native to the Indian subcontinent, Asia and Africa. In China, this animal is particularly prized for its meat and scale. The sad fact is that pangolin mothers typically produce just one pup per litter, and only few survives to adulthood.



July 14, 2009--A rare pangolin fetus floats in soup in Indonesia in 2008. Some practitioners of Asian traditional medicine believe pangolin-fetus soup increases a man's virility. (photos and information courtesy of NatGeo.com)


A poacher in a pangolin-processing house prepares to boil a carcass in Indonesia in 2008. The pangolin will then be de-scaled and gutted for freezing and shipping into China, the primary market for pangolin products.

Last year officials intercepted 38 tons of frozen pangolin carcasses being smuggled into China. That's 38 tons man!! 38000Kg of pangolins... that's a lot of slow-reproducing individuals you see, and naturally of course, the number started to dwindle ages ago..The mammals' plummeting numbers could have nasty side effects, because pangolins perform millions of dollars' worth of pest control. As anteaters, they eat annoying termites and ants and help save your house from collapsing, which of course doesn't happen because you do not have a pet pangolin..

People, there are hundreds of other species listed as threatened or critically endangered.. and I will repeat this again and again; it's time to act or our children will have to acknowledge the existence of the animal via encyclopedias or museums..like the Dodo bird(Discovered 1598, extinct by 1681) and Tasmanian Tiger (extinct 1936)..


Malcolm =)

Always

As always, the same old routine occurred again.
I didn't ask for it, and this time it took mere 3 days.
Sometimes I pride myself for being able to achieve it, but at times it really bothers me. It ended within 30 minutes, and everything was decided. Good, I said..
I hope destiny wouldn't end there.That fall was a disaster, but it managed to spark up a conversation..

Where it all began...as always...

Pantun Tahun Baru

Makan minum tidur berak
semua orang perlu buat
negara kita ekonominya kuat
harap 2010 tetap mantap

Along dan ah beng berkumpul semeja
cakap kosong dan cakap kasar
international student di universiti malaya
jangan jadikan library macam pasar

Seorang diri makan durian
monyet mari rampas durian
parti politik janganlah bermusuhan
agar rakyat hidup aman

tengok bola tengok awek cina
Rooney gol Lampard dapat red kad
Universiti Malaya universiti perdana
jangan sombong kedudukan dah meningkat

Orang jepun jual bahan lucah
orang cina pula sangat bijak
sesetengah orang kurang ilmu pengetahuan
tapi hebat menuntut hak keistimewaan

bangun pagi gosok gigi
cuci muka dan makan roti
rempit rempit mari mari
hidup kita tidak lagi berseri

anak kita tengok tv,
mana tau ada pencuri,
ahli politik tolonglah jimat sedikit
jangan claim allowance untuk sendiri

saya pergi makan ketam
tengah jalan terjumpa Ah Tan
polis trafik dan polis baju hitam
berhenti rasuah baik untuk kesihatan


suratkhabar banyak berita MACC
sebab ada orang sudah mati
tahun baru tahun "er ling yi ling" (2010)
marilah kita bersyukur dalam hati..


=)
Malcolm

2010

The clock just hit 12:01am, and now its year 2010. But nothing really changed. The fan is still spinning, the night is still dark, shits are still smelly, dead people are still dead...

Nothing much really changed. And as I said in my previous post, this damn process happens 24 hours but no one in the world seems to care, until 31st December every year.

Anyway, any new year resolution?
1) study well =)
2) save more money (triple the amount I have now)
3) control my ego
4) be a lovely son
5) kill more ants
6) attend UM convocation

That's all for now~ =)

Malcolm