Saturday, February 27, 2010

We will be rocked.

Today, an earthquake of scale 8.8 hit Chile, 1 1/2 months after the earthquake at Haiti struck. The Haiti earthquake which killed more than 200,000 people was only 7.0 on the richter scale! I thought that this year has been particularly disastorous, with only 2 months going, 2 devastating earthquakes struck. But in reality, earthquakes are actually quite common, i just found out that from 1st Jan - 26th Feb, a total of 67 earthquakes were recorded, that's not counting the tremors of each instance afterwards, for example the Haiti earthquake 15 more instances of quakes of varying scales were felt after the initial one.

After this latest earthquake in Chile, a tsunami warning has been raised for areas from Hawaii to the Phillippines to New Zealand. A total of 53 nations were given tsunami warning. Interestingly, the largest earthquake ever recorded happened around the same area in Chile, and it was in the scale of 9.5!!

After all this, now i realize that i really don't know too much about earthquakes. Initially i wanted to type about doomsday and what's happening to the world due to our excesses and such. A bit of treehugging. But in actuality, i'm ignorant! Must find out more when i have time.

That's all for now. Goodbye~~~

Friday, February 26, 2010

What you want? What you need?

Saw an episode of 'Superhuman' on BBC Knowledge. The episode talked about bodypart replacement. I'm not going to talk about the medical/technical side of it, i'm not knowledgable enough anyway. What intrigued me is some of the meaningful quotes in the episode.

First "What you want may not be what you need." The risk of getting a biological transplant is that the patient has to consume many drugs for the rest of their lives to repress the immune system. The immune's system purpose is to defend us from alien substances in our body regardless whether it is harming us or not. So because of this, the immune system would attack the transplant's cells because obviously it is someone else's cell structure and hence our immune system rejects it. In short, it's risky, and so what that particular patient said is that if a person have a good social life, good work relationship and a supportive family, don't do it just to make yourself feel and look good.

Another one is "I'm a see-food person, i see food and i eat it." Hahaha, for your information this guy has got heart problems and is waiting for a heart transplant in hospital. So jokes aside, don't do what he does and eat moderately and healthily to have a better quality of life.

And finally, "It's frightening to think that my life depends on another person's death." To get a heart transplant, the donor obviously has to be dead. This shows regardless of what really happened on any particular situation a certain level of guilt will always be felt by the beneficiary (unless of course he's morally inept). So before doing anything rash which you may think noble and will benefit others by being selfless, think it through first and think whether they'd really be grateful or be burdened by it.

That's all for now. Goodbye~~~

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Bit of an update.

3 days since i last posted. Been busy so yeah. 2 days ago met up with the usual gang, the Warlords, Mr.Misanthropist, Miss Mango and Miss Sleepy. The occasion was to celebrate Mr.Sengoku's birthday, though the real day is the day after but everyone could only made it on tuesday. We ate japanese food, still a bit sick so the only one who didn't eat spicy ramen is me. Had prawn noodle for lunch anyway so i wanted rice. Miss Mango, Mr.Misanthropist and Mr.Shanks ate 4-Chilli-level. Only Mr.Shanks struggled a bit. Mr.Sengoku and Miss Sleepy ordered the 2-Chilli-level and the Admiral visibly suffered. His sweat's no joke, poor thing. Had dessert before we went to watch "Percy Jackson and the lightning thief". Miss.Sleepyhead didn't join us though, had to leave so that she can wake up for work. The movie was a typical one, but well-made. Then went home!

That's all for now. Goodbye~~~ and Happy 25th Birthday Admiral Sengoku!

Monday, February 22, 2010

Boggled mind filled with theoretical thoughts.

Finally finished reading Hart, a day late to the misson's objective. Regardless a valid excuse or not, i've been sick. Next mission would be to practice economics as much as i can as well as finish reading international relations study guide. Hopefully i can regurgitate what i've read successfully in a written essay and a bigger hope is that i've understood the terms and theories and arguments correctly. Things like law backed by threats, coercive orders, duty imposing and power conferring rules, primary rules, secondary rules, rule of recognition, change and adjudication, validity, internal and external points of view and statements.

Man, can't type anything random or interesting right now after all that. I fear that i'd forget and lose what i just read. Though deep down you and i both know that it is futile and that it's going to happen and at some point i'll have to read it again to remember. Where got time to read so many things la like that!

On that sobering and depressing note, that's all for now. Goodbye~~~

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Tigerish pussycats.

There was a Tiger special on NGC (that's National Geographic Channel), and they were showing this documentary called Living with Tigers about two researchers Dave Salmoni (how can anyone forget that name!) and John Varty trying to reintroduce two Asian Tigers into the wild but in Africa. So what they did is essentially what a mother tiger would do, that is teach the two young tigers how to hunt for themselves and survive in the wild. First, they got them to get used to the new surroundings, then teach them on hunting guinea fowls, then on to gazelles, then wildebeests.

The funny thing is, when they introduced ostriches into the enclosure, the tigers got so scared and traumatised! They hid in the bushes without doing anything for a week! Apparently they got scared because of the feathers of the ostriches which confused the tigers on their actual size and so deterred them, and also because the ostriches are big and stands on two feet. What they normally hunt and eat had all been four legged creatures. But in the end though the researchers got them to be comfortable around ostriches and hunt them too. Interesting eh?

Speaking of Tiger, no it's not gonna get any better, so just play annd talk golf and talk about nothing else Mr.Woods. What you do is your business and if you don't want to make it anybody else's business don't talk about it. If you wanna clear your conscience then do it by getting your wife's forgiveness and not anybody else's. Whether you say anything or not, they're still going to criticize you so why bother.

On a personal note, my One Piece collection welcomes new additions. 22 new additions that is. Got a message from the shop that the One Piece Skypeia Anychara i ordered arrived and i duly went and collected! Plus got myselves bleach gashopons. Now i have the full collection of all 13 captains (ex or otherwise) of the Seiritei. Kurotsuchi Mayuri finally attained. Also, my flu's getting better. The runny nose and bad coughs subsided, but it's still there. Should be ok soon.

That's all for now. Goodbye~~~

Thursday, February 18, 2010

The beginning of the creation of a man-made universe?

Ok, i admit, i'm a sci-fi geek. Nothing wrong with that right? Anyway, i was (again) reading random news as usual around yahoo and i came across this article of scientists who's trying to recreate the "Big Bang" in a laboratory setting, they used the Relativistic Ion Heavy Collider or RIHC (remember this invention?). Without getting too technical, the amazing thing is that they managed to reach a temperature of 4 TRILLION degrees celcius. Youch. I don't think the term "Smokin' " is enough to explain how hot that is.

The achievements of scientists in their quest to explain the creation of the universe scientifically, ie. with proof, ie. reproducibality, recently has been astronomical. The very first Hadron Collider was first completed in 1971, and it's operational till 1984. Now the most recent upgraded version is the LHC (Large Hadron Collider), which some may remember started it's experiments on September '08 (although the LHC's completed on April '07), and some may also remember that 9 days later it's operations are halted due to a fault between two superconducting bending magnets. For more read the wiki on LHC.

Anyway, with these inventions and the success of the experiments and the continuous upgrades of the colliders, i wonder if it's not long until scientists successfully reproduced a "Big Bang" and thus create a man-made universe. How exciting is that! A man-made universe means man-made planets, meaning man-made lifeforms which we would then be able to control from start to finish and not do the known irreversible mistakes that we have done on our current world. Granted, as humans we will continue to make mistakes but at the very least we won't be doing the big ones again, ie. global warming, over-exploiting resources that would cause imbalances in our eco-system and endanger our own long-term survival. Especially for our future generations. Another life-long argument would also be put to an end, hint-hint, evangelicals know what i mean, righto? Let's leave that for another time.

That's all for now, goodbye~~~ Go science!

News article: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20100217/tts-us-science-physics-972e412.html
LHC Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

A branding problem.

Ever heard of "1000 years of good work, ruined in a second" ? I'm sure you have. Obama's been sweet-talking China ever since he's president. But of course he just had to waste all that effort by selling weapons to Taiwan as well as meeting with the Dalai Lama. Anyway, this post is going to be me ranting a bit. About what you ask? About fools that doesn't feel embarassed doing embarassing stuff but embarassing others. The ranting's brought about by this particularly embarassing news (for Indonesians that is). A guy lost all his money at the casino and then he stole at the airport, the guy's of course an Indonesian as you might've guessed. Read the article for more details.

The Indonesian population as a whole are going to get so much stick just because of this one moron. In any case, besides ranting about the moron, couldn't the press be a little more delicate by reporting it like 'Tourist' instead of 'Indonesian' or something? Sigh, i myself know i'm being unreasonable in saying that. People are gonna remember this and brand us all in the same league as this goon. Same goes for what's been happening with Toyota, they'll be forever remembered by this one humongous mistake and receive bad press for a long long time to come. People won't trust them and they'll lose tons of money. All that years and years of reliability forgotten. They probably won't recover from this flub ever.

Know why there's so much negativity in the world? Because it's so much easier to remember than positive stuff that's why.So remember people, be positive! I can say the same way to myself, who knows maybe people won't actually find out about this news except me. Yeah right...

That's all for tonight, goodbye~~~

Article: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1038033/1/.html

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Two rhinofed-s a day keeps the flu away?

Past few days have been really hot and humid, even at night. But can't use the AC for long because of my flu. Yes, i fell sick, again... What's new eh? Probably got it from mom, who was sick before. There was a slight lag though, 'cos she recovered already a few days before i got it. So she might be innocent after all. Anyway, started taking rhinofed since yesterday, hopefully i'll get better real soon.

Was browsing some articles and i found two especially interesting ones. First, an obama statue was made and placed at a Jakarta park. But now it's been removed because a lot of people were complaining that we (Indonesians that is, which i am) should be honouring our heroes more than Obama. I agree, since he's not Indonesian anyhow. Plus it's not as if he's done anything for the better of Indonesians, which by the way is not his responsibility, he's got enough problems as is in US of A. The statue(of obama when he was 10) was relocated to the school that he attended when he was in Indonesia.

The second one is from Switzerland, which if you were paying attention during Social Studies when you were in secondary school, practices a direct democracy system. An initiative requires 100,000 signatures while a referendum require 50,000 (read the article on what the differences are if you don't remember your social studies). The important point of this second article is that an initiative was brought out, with 144,000 votes, so that animals are able to be represented by a lawyer for animal abuse cases. Read the article for more.

That's all for now. Goodbye~~~

Article 1: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100215/ap_on_re_as/as_indonesia_obama_statue
Article 2: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1963933,00.html?xid=yahoo-feat

Monday, February 15, 2010

Clownish comedy.

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! The year of the tiger is upon us, which means that i've been in this world for two full constellation years! Also Happy Valentine's day to those fortunate enough to have significant others. Moving on...

Was browsing channels earlier, and on Parkinson (a british chat show) one of the show's guests remarked that his being in the comic business for 54 years owe to his philosophy of "Not putting off things till tommorrow. Do it today and if you like it, do it again tommorrow." He further said that "People only retire to start doing things that they enjoy, and i see no reason why i should retire being a comedian when i'm bloody enjoying it." At the point of interview he's 80 and even though i just saw the episode i can't remember his name! Didn't manage to catch the guestlist during the end credits.

Anyway i'm gonna try my best and apply this philosophy myself in my bid to become a better person and achieve and do more this year. Which is my new year's resolution, this will be my year! Been a chronic underachiever for far too long...

Oh before i forget, Mr.Underscore's daughter is born, don't know when but Congratulations anyway!!! Heard this news from Mr.Shanks and he also told me that her name, wooops almost wrote it down just now. All names of the people i know shall remain as an alias!

That's all for now, goodbye~~~

Saturday, February 13, 2010

New Week, Old Friends.

Been out a lot more than usual lately. Met with Mr.Godzilla who arrived from melbourne, accompanied him for most of the 2 days that he's here, doing his usual manic shopping of bling-blings and AX. Good to see him though, ate lots of good and sinful food with his cousin, as well as with Mr.SooKee and Mr.Klinsmann on the second day.

The following evening went to eat a simple dinner of Long John's Silver with Mr.Shanks and Mr.Misanthropist. Was shocked out of my skin when some immature-twats rang the Long John's bell. Had my revenge afterwards though! Ahhhh immaturity is so illuminating and revenge oh so sweet. Mr.Misanthropist gave us some pineapple tarts for the Lunar New Year, felt bad because i didn't bring anything for him or Mr.Shanks...

Following that, went to play futsal at Kallang Cage from midnight till nearly 3 am! This session is to makeup for this week's lack of the usual sunday futsal. Was satisfying because my form's good this time. Saw many people that's been missing for quite a long time, Mr.Zidane-alike to name a few. After all that went to have late supper at Tampines 201 for a chat. Reached home at about 430am.

That's all for now, quite a boring post i think, goodbye~~

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Crispy sickprone anyone?

Past two days has been especially hot hot hot HOT. Went to the Airshow on Saturday and played Futsal on Sunday with the sun blazing full blast, well at least the wind's favourable, but still.... Nose went red and all... The day before, went to catch a movie with the usual gang, had dinner at Bark's Cafe and lo and behold Ms.Candy was there. Been awhile since i last saw her, way back at Mr.Underscore's wedding, nice to see her.

The airshow was good, lots of planes on the ground for the crowd to see. Tons of companies were exhibiting stuff too inside, representing a wide range of nations. Singapore, US of A, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Israel, Russia to name a few. Many flags were flying up on the mast. Mom was so excited on that day looking at all the planes and stuff. The only thing that got me going though was the flight show, Singapore showed one of their jets plus their apache helicopter, America showed their Thunderbolt, Italy showed their Masters. One thing that dissappointed mom and myself a bit was that it's quite... regular, nothing exciting. We were lamenting the fact that there wasn't a part where like a group of 6 jets will do a flyby maybe, and the dissappointment of the F-11's no show. Oh well, next one in Singapore is at February 2012, hopefully there'll be more on show on that one.

Still a bit sick, hence the lack of posts since 3rd Feb. Got to pick what i eat because of it, tounge's still delicate. The time i take to eat is also very long because of this, mom never ate faster than me before, she is now... Thankfully the headaches are gone. That's all for tonight, goodbye~~~

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

The bigger picture.

Heard this quote today, "Without the science, you won't see the bigger picture." Meaning if you're making personal judgements without finding out what others think of the same subject, your judgements will always be flawed, no matter whether at the end of the day your feeling proved to be right. Good thing i keep asking for other's opinions then eh? Though there's always the problem of the anything dudes, ahem you know who you are.

That's all for now, goodbye~~

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Don't think less of craftsmen please.

Ok so i bought a table, one item of my wishlist if you noticed, an IKEA Muddus Fold Table - Black. So i got home, set the box down on the floor, opened it with the intent of assembling the whole thing myself. Half an hour later............. found that i can't do it myself. Needed someone to hold the frames up steady while i screw the nails onto them. THEN, after struggling for another half hour, found that i put one part to the wrong side, so i gotta take it apart and re-do it. GRRRR. THEN, after finished assembling the thing happily, realized that those things sticking out of one side of the frame are meant to support the foldable part of the table AND i put it on the wrong side! SO! With that bombshell i say heck it. SIGH. I'll probably disassemble the darned thing again tommorrow morning and reassemble it again.

Anyway, point is, please don't think less of people craftmanship field and building and what not. It's not as easy as it looks. For those who cry "But after doing it over and over and over again for years and years it's easy!" Well doesn't the same apply to everything? So while i'm at the topic of thinking less of people doing what we perceive as 'less' tasks. With hightlighting the word 'perceive'. I'll focus on domestic helpers (the politically correct term), otherwise known as Maids. I've noticed a lot more cases on newspapers of employers abusing their maids for whatever reason. Whether it's by pinching them till they're blue black all over, searing them with ironers, banging their heads to a table, kicking them, these examples are just from reported cases. Of course there's the more subtle and cunning mental torture way, which is more difficult to proof and punish.

Listen people, just because you're educated and have important jobs, does not mean that you can do whatever you please on people less fortunate. As i state before what they do, we may perceive as 'less' but it's still a skill. For example, domestic helpers need to find out what you prefer to eat and what you can't eat and adjust accordingly. Say you don't like noodles, how would you feel if she makes mee goreng every single meal? It's a learning process that takes time too you know adjusting to what their employers require them to do, just like any degrees/diplomas out there. So be kind to everyone, regardless of what they do and appreciate what they do to help improve the quality of their lives and in extension your lives as well.

That's all for tonight. Goodbye~~

BN(Blogger's Note): Not all domestic helpers are from indonesia/phillipines. And definitely not all indonesians/filipinos are domestic helpers.