Tetanus

I was cut by a rusty wire yesterday. My first instinct told me to go see a doctor. Nevertheless I didn't and I didn't know why. Ego, perhaps?


Chances are that I've caught tetanus.

Anyway what's so big deal about tetanus?

Tetanus is caused by a species of bacteria that infests on the surface of rusty metal, in areas with hot, damp climate and soil rich in organic matter.



The bacteria enters the body via puncture wounds and it takes 8-15 days to incubate. The further the wound from the central nervous system, the longer it takes to incubate. In my case the wound is on my toe, so I figure I might experience some symptoms of tetanus in a weeks' time.



The bacteria releases tetanospasmin, a neurotoxin that affects skeletal muscle. As a result, the victim would suffer from facial spasms, followed by stiffness of the neck, difficulty in swallowing, and rigidity of pectoral and calf muscles. Other symptoms include elevated temperature, sweating, elevated blood pressure, and episodic rapid heart rate.

Spasms may occur frequently and last for several minutes with the body shaped into a characteristic form. Spasms continue for up to 4 weeks, and complete recovery may take months. Mortality rates reported vary from 40% to 78%, and it affects not only human, but also horses, dogs and other animals.




Anyway I should've got myself an injection to prevent tetanus but... miss me if I do get infected



Malcolm
info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetanus

Albert Einstein......'s Brain

In case you do not know, Albert Einstein was buried without his brain~

The person who famously quoted "imagination is more important than knowledge" died on 18th April 1955, the passing of a not-so-great man.. succumbed to heart failure(he was a keen smoker) and within several hours his remains was cremated.

The autopsy was done by Dr. Thomas Stoltz Harvey, the Princeton Hospital pathologist and he secretly removed Einstein's brain for scientific purposes, WITHOUT any consent from the mourning family~~


Dr Thomas Stoltz Harvey in 1998 with Einstein's brain

He cut the brain into 240 pieces and sent it to experts all over the world for further research.(macamlah otak tu dia yang punya... beri kepada orang lain macam hadiah~~) He was later fired from his position for failing to relinquish the organ.

Anatomy of the brain
Scientists discovered that Einstein's brain has significantly more glial cells in the region of the brain which is responsible for synthesizing information.



Apart from that, his brain is also denser, and has less "wrinkles" than normal brains. This means different part of his brain could communicate better and process different information into one.



It is also said that Einstein was autistic. He was a late talker as a child and he spoke very slowly, often trying out entire sentences in his head (or muttered them under his breath) until he got them right before he spoke aloud. But another trait of this disorder is that he could concentrate on a certain topic with great intensity; ie he could do his math or continue his essay writing even when the bomb is about to detonate o.O

All this has got something to do with his remarkable brain.


Two supreme intellect of modern time; Neil Bohr and Albert Einstein. Their relationship stiffened due to the rise of Quantum Mechanics

And it was this remarkable brain that has given us two of the most important theories of humanity; The General Theory of Relativity and The Theory of Relativity; one dealing with gravity and another dealing with the speed of light.



Einstein was, however, not a faithful man. He cheated on his wife and reportedly had relationship with six different women. He married twice and his first daughter was illegitimate. His second wife was his cousin, Elsa and he even considered marrying Elsa's daughter!
He cheated with his secretary Betty Neumann.

By the way brilliant people are always unfaithful, for example Erwin Schroedinger(the dude who devised the Schroedinger Equation) and Albert Einstein. Richard Feynman was faithful but he often ventured into strip clubs and fooled around with his female students~~~unfaithful genius littered with infidelity o.O


Erwin Schroedinger...muka macam ni pun boleh playboy...what's wrong with you ladiesss!?!


Richard Feynman during one of his lectures

It's probably because they were mostly atheist, and thus they were not bound by a certain moral or religious ethic...


WWRFD = What Would Richard Feynman Do.... and I think the above diagram sums up the man himself =P

Einstein wasn't good with his son, Hans Albert and when Einstein died he left very little inheritance for Hans. Einstein was against the marriage of his son and allegedly "damned the union"



This man, nevertheless, is hailed not for his rocky relationship, but his wit and charm and the most astounding intellect that has fascinated the world since 1915..

A bicycle brought out the child in Einstein

Malcolm

North Korea

Last night I was enjoying futsal with my bunch of fren when Portugal scored seven goals past Ri Myong Guk, the goal keeper of North Korea.



The world was obviously laughing at North Korea, stepping, humiliating and thrashing their effort. But I wasn't really happy about the rout, in fact I was fearing the worst for the players and their coach when they return to Pyongyang..



North Korea is one of the five communist countries left in the world, and one of the poorest and most oppressed as well.

According to an article I read from facebook, a top footballer's monthly income in North Korea is only six ringgit, equivalent to one Great Britain Pound. They painstakingly fought their way to the world cup and yet the world wasn't even paying attention to them, let alone respecting them for their endeavor.



When they beat China in the qualifying match they could only drink the half-bottle of water left unwanted by their opponent to quench their thirst. During this world cup, they eat cake as their meal while other great and mighty teams hire professional chefs to cater their meal.



Their Legea jerseys were sponsored by a company in China back in 2006, and they kept the same jersey even to this world cup, unlike other teams(England for example) whom introduce new jersey from Nike, Umbro every other year.

When the substitutes are sitting warmly in the dugout watching their team mates playing, the North Koreans have got no sweater to keep themselves warm in the cold winter night of South Africa (mind you it's 18°C right now in Johannesburg, it will drop to 2°C by tomorrow night. search on google to convince yourself that Africa is not that hot after all)

How many of us actually respect them for defending their goal especially against five times world champions, Brazil up until half time in their first match? I was~ I was especially impressed, and I really respect them a lot for standing up to the challenge.

So how did North Korea ended up becoming a communist state?

Actually Korea was ruled by the Korean Empire until World War II when they were occupied by the Japanese army. When the war ended, foreign land occupied by the Japanese were handed to the United Nations, and Korea was divided into two, the north part to be administered by the Soviet Union while the south was given to America. The Soviets and Americans were unable to agree on the implementation of Joint Trusteeship over Korea. This led in 1948 to the establishment of separate governments, each claiming to be the legitimate government of all of Korea.



South Korea has achieved much since its formation, unlike its northern counterpart, to become one of the most powerful countries in Asia.

North Korea, at odds with the world right now with its nuclear program, imposes an isolation policy, which means international trade is highly restrictive. It has an almost entirely government-planned, state-owned economy, a self-reliant state...


Kim Jong-il

Kim Jong-il, the current leader of North Korea, with his totalitarian leadership allow only one state-run TV channel, ban shortwave foreign radio broadcasts and restrict outside Internet access to the elite. It has one of the worst human rights records of any nation.


A North Korean woman who defected to other country shows her torture wound..

Everything is restricted... Listening to music from the South and you may end up dead. 0.85% of its population is in jail, that's an awful lot of prisoners. Wearing shirts imported from the South and you might end up in jail as well...

The players, however, are dead serious about defending their nation's pride..

When singing the national anthem, one of the North Korean striker Jong Tae-Se(鄭大世)(bald headed guy) was seen crying, but it wasn't out of fear or any negative feeling, but plainly due to his love for his country.



He was born in Japan and got his football education in Japan. He declined invitations from Japan and South Korea national team and joined his home team which couldn't even afford his meal. North Korean players were very hardworking on the field, running their lungs out for the team during their previous games. England players, on the other hand, are so PATHETIC

Terry on a press conference, informing the reporters that he is "going to tell Capello what's going wrong"

so do the FRENCH PLAYERS, WHOM OUSTED THEIR COACH AND SUPPORTED THE BASTARD ANELKA IN HUMILIATING THEIR COACH~~


Nicholas Anelka


France coach Raymond Domenech explains the mutiny to the press

What the North Korean players did was truly patriotic, and they have set an example for all of us, especially for:
-the rich and spoiled kids around the world who hate their parents and their government
-those university students who do not even want to do well in their studies and spend their parents money like turning on tap water,
-those who prefers clubbing to reading, watching endless hours of drama while neglecting their studies



-those who always take vegetable from Dewan Makan of Fifth College and end up not eating them but throwing it away, if it's not nice please don't give excuses such as "I didn't know it's not nice so I was trying but hell it taste like shit how do you expect me to eat it?" It's always been like that so don't take vege if you can't eat it

-those who can't even open the damn door for themselves and need their frens to do it for them,
-the bitch who dropped her phone in the toilet after buying it for two weeks and instantly asked her mom to buy her a new one, with one costing around RM2500, and after buying the new phone she hardly ever uses it
-those kids that are so spoiled they cried when they arrived the university from hometown, Ipoh...

I am fucking pissed right now because I get angry whenever I think about those people who are so ignorant not knowing what other people are going through and thought the world is so against them and they bang the table and crying out loud just because their mom decided not to raise their monthly allowance and they refuse to eat vegetable and they throwing non-biodegradable rubbish out through the window and thinking I'm fucking annoying cuz I'm always against them .

Fucking pissed~ you know who you are, perhaps you're reading this right now =P
Perhaps you should be sent to North Korea

So what punishment faces them when North Korea return to Pyongyang? According to a South Korean source, they would probably be sent to coal mines, never to set foot on a football field again...



North Korea Football team, You lifted your head high up against all odds! I SALUTE YOU~!


Malcolm

Sonicator

I went to the lab today knowing absolutely nothing about the instruments etc, and I stumbled upon something very interesting, it's called the Ultrasonic Cleaning System, or commonly called Sonicator =)

It's the first time I see something like this so I came back searched some info about it~~



An ultrasonic cleaner is a cleaning device that uses ultrasound (usually from 150–400 kHz) and an appropriate cleaning solution to clean delicate items.

They are often employed for cleaning of jewellery, lenses and other optical parts.


In everyday use such devices may be found in use in most jewelry workshops, watchmakers establishments, or in electronic repair workshops (where it could be used for cleaning an electronic device that has been exposed to particles which hinder its operation).

Working Principle

In an ultrasonic cleaner, the object to be cleaned is placed in a chamber containing a suitable solution. In aqueous cleaners, the chemical added is a surfactant which breaks down the surface tension of the water base.

An ultrasound generating transducer built into the chamber, or lowered into the fluid, produces ultrasonic waves in the fluid by changing size in concert with an electrical signal oscillating at ultrasonic frequency. This creates compression waves in the liquid of the tank which ‘tear’ the liquid apart, leaving behind many millions of microscopic ‘voids’ or ‘partial vacuum bubbles’ (cavitation).

These bubbles collapse with enormous energy. However, they are so small that they do no more than clean and remove surface dirt and contaminants. The higher the frequency, the smaller the nodes between the cavitation points, which allows for cleaning of more intricate detail.


info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrasonic_cleaning

Telecommunication

We use telephone almost everyday. It started from a humble beginning, from Mr. Alexander Graham Bell (some of us don't even know this dude invented the telephone) to our sophisticated Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Iphone today.


Alexander Graham Bell

Yet how many of us actually ask: How does a phone work?

We have to answer those in two parts: wire phone and wireless phone, which is the cell phone, and wire phone is also related to how out internet works, and again, how many of us ask the same question again? How does the internet work? We plug in our computer and got onto the network, what does it mean to someone who has never used the internet? Why do we need phone lines to connect the internet?? What is a modem? Why do we need modem??

Wired phones;


A telephone is wired to a network of lines, connecting all the neighboring phones. In larger area the network would be bigger, and it is all connected in a box on a pole



and for a bigger population it's in a metal booth or something, which often end up at someone's front yard.



The idea is simple, pick up the receiver and you'll hear a dial tone, dial your number and the network booth would instantly direct your call to the intended phone line, and when it is connected, your speech(sound wave) is converted into digital signal via a modulator. The signal will travel via the phone line to the other end, and be converted back to sound wave. For farther call, for example international call, the signal will be transmitted via satellites(there are hundreds of satellites in our orbit now) or via undersea fiber optic cables.



As for wireless phone, they need cell phone towers. Take maxis for example (go Maxis go!!!)



They have excellent coverage =P simply because they have set up more cell phone towers than their competitors. Each cell phone towers limit the amount of users, for example 3000 users per tower, and thus the larger the population of a certain area, more cell towers are needed. Your call can actually be passed from one cell phone tower to the next.



As you are walking or driving and you are leaving one area and entering another, your cell phone will automatically connect to the tower with the strongest signal. You won't even notice that this has happened and your call will continue as normal.. This is the transmission method, but the concept is still the same, converting sound wave to digital signal via a modulator, and then going to the tower, venture to the other phone, convert the signal back to sound wave via demodulator..



But beware that someone might end up talking in the same frequency as you are(they can hear what you say!!), intentionally or unintentionally.



Internet

The internet is using the same concept, but they dont speak, they transmit bits. Each computer transmit their "speech" in the form of bits that are converted to digital signals via a modulator, and travel through the telephone line to the other side and demodulated into bits again. Modulator and Demodulator is the device we call MODEM



Each modem has its transfer limit, for example a 56K modem transmit 56000 bits of data per second, or modulate-demodulating 56000 bits of data per second, and so the same concept works for broadband modem and narrowband modem. It all depends on the amount of transistors and diodes in the modem nowadays. As technology advances we get faster speed and broader band, and encourages people to download more porns and torrents =P


For this entry, I may not have the most correct answer to how those stuff work, because I'm just a general physics student and I read those in magazines and websites and do not actually attend classes like telecommunication engineers. So please bear with me should I make any mistake in my explanation. =)

info:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/cell-phone.htm
http://www.wisegeek.com/how-does-a-telephone-work.htm
http://www.theshulers.com/whitepapers/internet_whitepaper/index.html

世界波

大家好

昨晚英国暴冷不胜阿尔及利亚，以 0-0 握手言和。
加上之前对美国队的 1-1 成绩，目前英国队晋级十六强的希望已相当的渺茫。

我就说了，英国一直以来都以为自己强，可是当我们分析他们的球员，您就会发现英国队太多弱点了。



第一；英超水准的确高，但是也不能把他们与皇马或巴塞相提并论。历来的欧冠就显现出英超球队的不足。他们通常都以一球小胜西班牙球队，但西班牙球队却经常大败英国球队。这与英国的传统打法有关。

英国传统打法就是由后场长传到前场，然后以中锋控球，横传给边路，再传中以身体优势压倒对方。这种打法过时已久，但在英国中级与低级联赛还很常见。所以当英国球员一紧张，他们就会不知不觉的打回他们的传统打法。也因这样，敌方很容易就看穿英国队。


Year 2003: Manchester United 0-3 Real Madrid.

第二；英国队的阵容真是不堪一击。拿 HESKEY 来说，英格兰居然以联赛第六名球队的前锋来担起进球的责任。别忘了至今(2010年六月18日)打了五十九场国际赛， HESKEY 的进球量只有七个，少的可怜~！当天对上美国队时他也有个单刀直入的机会，一个前锋居然不能把握一个单刀的机会还有什么资格作前锋??



还有，英国中后卫费地南受伤后来顶替的人是谁?? 居然是联赛排名第十七的西罕的中后卫 Matthew Upson 。在他之前的利物铺后卫 Jamie Carragher 也不过如此，还领了两张黄卡，下一场遭禁赛~~ 哈哈哈~！

门将更死，也是拿联赛排名第十七的西罕的门将 Robert Green 。 我有看英国对美国的比赛，Green 让球溜入龙门，哈哈英国活该~！连其他两个门将David James 和 Joe Hart 都是鱼喃队 Portsmouth 和曼市的门将。门将来自浆差的球队，表现自然也差咯~~~


当年罗宾森踢失了一球，成为全世界的笑柄

英国一直都不能出产出色的前锋与门将，连 “容易受伤的男人” 欧文都能成为英国最出色的前锋。。。门将更不用提了。。相比起来，意大利就是能出产出色的门将和后卫，比如布丰和内斯塔，马尔地尼。。西班牙和巴西出产出色的前锋，大卫维拉，Torres，罗宾荷，等等。。


大卫维拉


Fernando Torres

英国出产出色的中场，但中场不是进球的主要人物。新一代的英国小孩都因曼联六小福：Beckham, Scholes, P. Neville, G. Neville, Butt, Giggs 影响，纷纷都要做中场，要踢自由球，要学 Beckham 和 Scholes 一样风光。


Left to right: Giggs, Butt, Beckham, Gary, Philip, Scholes

英超也不利于本土球员发展。英超的金钱诱惑引入了品质高的外国球员。像阿申纳，几乎没有一个英国本土球员~本土球员只有在中级或低级球队拼糊口，他们也没得打欧冠，所以品质自然就不及人家啦。。。

第三：骄兵必败。 英国常常看不起其他队。遇到鱼喃队就 “肯定获胜”，遇到强队就 “有机会胜”。 所以对上弱队时就不能像德国一样以大比分获胜。对上强队而和球，就把球员捧上天，还自夸能夺世冠~！喂老兄，你以为以你的 ”差点降级球队门将“ 和 “59场比赛进七球前锋” 能给您带来世界杯 ??? 我呸 ！！！

我对英国队怀恨已久，在英超也只有曼联和阿申纳打得有声有色。 所以这次世杯我将投靠于西班牙~ =P

英国去死吧~祝你十六强不进~如果幸运进了，祝你早日遇强队，以便早日回国， 哈哈哈！！！