Tuesday, May 31, 2005

More Than A Clock



I was looking at my photo album couple of days ago and I saw this photo which I think it's worth sharing. This is a photo which I took in one of the shopping mall in Paris which I don't remember the name. Perhaps you guys will think this clock is nothing great, but for me it is more than just a clock that shows time. It shows how much the French love science and how beautiful scinece is. There was about 15 minutes before the next hour when I saw it. This clock attracted me so much that I got this constant feeling coming into my mind saying "Wait 15 mins and see what happens!" Of course I waited for it and saw how the laws of physics and mathematics did their beautiful works......

Sunday, May 29, 2005

'Star Wars"

The popular movie ‘Star Wars’ is back, episode 3 this time. There have been lots of advertising, and I noticed my friends around me always asked “Have you seen Star Wars 3 yet?” When I was a kid, I thought those weapons in the movie were craps ( yeah I was young and stupid ) but then I found out that the American / World military are adding more and more similar like weapons to their arsenals lately. The airborne laser for instance.

The movie reminds people about the space race. The atomic bombs dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki sparked Cold War between United States and Soviet Union. The challenge for both nations after the WW2 was developing ICBM to reach its enemy’s cities or military bases.

The Soviets launched a satellite called ‘Sputnik 1’ in 1957. They went on to launch a series of Sputnik satellites. 'Sputnik 2' carried a dog into space. The Soviets were winning the space race, they launched the first manned space rocket 'Soviet Vostok 1' with a cosmonaut. America started to catch up with Soviet, they responded by putting the first American in space.

The Soviets won most of the milestones and both nations also suffered tragedies. They continued the space race to the moon. America won this by putting 2 men to reach the moon on 20 July 1969 and first man to orbit the moon in the Command Module. Soviets didn’t put a man on the moon but a number of unmanned robots were to the moon. The America, thus won the space race. The Cold War continued until the collapse of the Soviet Union’s economy and the break-up of the Soviet Union.

The Americans have been dominating the space since then. But did the Americans really win the race during the Cold War by landing on moon or a studio? Look at the evidence and decide yourself.















Friday, May 27, 2005

Introduction



How can we make intelligent decisions about our increasingly technology driven lives if we don't understand the difference between the myths of pseudoscience, New Age thinking and fundamentalist zealotry and the testable hypotheses of science?

No doubt we are living in a so called "information age", but what I have seen, at least in my city, it's still full of antiscience, withcraft, hallucination... all sort of unreason beliefs and are getting more attention and respects. All these shouldn't be seeing as a simple culture of a group or a country. But as a serious push into darkness which could pose danger to the freedoms of our lives. I think the people of the 21st century should start a battle against irrationality and superstition.

I still remember one day, I was like usual, walking into my lecture room. I found a seat and sat down. And I heard 2 of my classmates were criticizing the theory of evolution. I got a shocked, and believe me that I never in my life thought of students in my class would have said something like this "The theory of evolution just won't work, and doesn't care if u shake a stone for how long, it won't turn into something else". (*In philosophy and metaphysics, the development of the universe, and of consciousness through time, is referred to as evolution.)

I got no idea what he meant by 'shake', but it is interesting cos for the first time I heard something like that. I didn't say anything to them as I knew it would spark a long debate, I have met enough of people like them, they tend to get annoyed easily as well. It was too bad that the lecture started early, I really wanted to hear what theory he had in his mind.

Therefore I decided to create this blog, discussing all the 'interesting' things that I encounter in my life. I welcome comments from anyone in the universe in my blog.

At last, I hope all of you live in a world free of devils and darkness but full of lights!