CANDLE IN THE DARK

I said it first

2006-10-30T05:30:00.000+08:00

This line came to my mind suddenly, then I googled it and found that nobody said it before. So I want to write it down here, in case this line becomes a famous quote in the future, people will know it's me who's the first one who said it.

"To understand women is just like understanding Quantum Mechanics, they both are defying common sense!"

Choy Onn , 29/10/2006

Universe is a child of previous one (from BBCNEWS)

2006-05-07T23:38:00.000+08:00

A joint UK-US team has put forward an alternative theory of cosmic evolution.

It proposes that the Universe undergoes cycles of "Big Bangs" and "Big Crunches", meaning our Universe is merely a "child of the previous one".

It challenges the conventional view of the cosmos, which observations show to be 12-14 billion years old.

The new ideas, reported in the journal Science, may explain why the expansion of the Universe is accelerating, the researchers say.

"At present the conventional view is that all of space, time, matter and energy began at a single point, which then expanded and cooled, leaving the Universe as it is today," said Professor Paul Steinhardt of Princeton University, New Jersey.

"However, this new theory suggests that there's a continuous cycle of universes, with each a repeat of the last, but not an exact replica.

"It can be thought of as a child of the previous universe."

Cosmological constant

The new idea builds on previous work by the same team, and is set to challenge the current model.

Back in the 1920s, when Einstein was developing his general theory of relativity, he introduced a constant, known as the cosmological constant, to explain his idea of a static Universe.

Einstein's equations predicted a Universe collapsing under its own gravitational force, whereas observation showed it clearly was not contracting.

The cosmological constant represented an inherent pressure or force associated with free space, which would be resisting the gravity-drive contraction.

The concept was later abandoned when observations showed the Universe to be expanding - causing Einstein to label the cosmological constant as "the greatest blunder of my career".
In 1998, a form of the constant was re-habilitated when it was found that the Universe's expansion was actually speeding up.

Unanswered questions

Although the re-introduction of the constant enabled calculations to match theory, it also raised the question that there was something in physics that was "missing".

Professor Neil Turok, of Cambridge University, told the BBC News website: "When the value of the cosmological constant was calculated, it was found to be much smaller than expected.
"The explanation as to why this constant is so small has become one of the biggest problems in physics.

"At present, the only explanation for this is that things just have to be that way." This theory leaves many questions unanswered, but now Professors Steinhardt and Turok have developed a new theory to explain why the cosmological constant is so small.

They suggest that time actually began before the Big Bang, meaning there was a pre-existing universe.

This would also mean that the current Universe is much older than presently accepted.

Dark matter

"At present there may be an alternative 'dark matter' universe that exists at the same time as ours, but we could never reach it," explained Professor Turok.

"The best way to think of this is to think of a pane of double glazing with a fly on it. The fly is unable to cross over from one side to another, just like we are unable to get from one universe to another.

"These two universes are drawn together by the force of gravity and will eventually collide.

"This means that things that are happening now will help to create another universe in the future."

The right Formula

2006-04-03T19:28:00.000+08:00

Formula 1 season started not too long ago, but this time with brand new rules and even more constrictions. The greatest being the use of smaller, less powerful engines. Instead of the screaming V10s of the previous years, all cars have 2.4 litre V8s under their hoods, or in this case their carbon fibre monocoque chassis. My good friend, Colin Charles, had the privilege of going to the Melbourne Grand Prix this year, and he tool some spectacular shots, eventhough he was standing behind a stupid fence.

Why do you think they changed the rules? This is not a rhetorical question. Please comment! It may seem counter productive, because reducing engine power reduces speed, which reduces lap times, etc; and this would reduce the spectacle as a whole right? I watched a few minutes of this weekend's qualifying, and I noticed that the sound of the engines seem abit more docile, not like that beautiful scream of those V10s as they feel the pain of going past their own limits. I also noticed that the tachometer shown on screen was easily going past 19,000 RPM, which as I recall is not at all different from the V10s. So are the lap times slower? I really don't know. Please tell me. I can't be bothered to watch Grands Prix anymore!

Ferrari have lost their dominance ever since that tyre rule came about. Bridgestone could not produce a tyre that came close the Michelins. This could bring one to think that all the new rules were introduced to end Ferrari's dominance.

But are these rules really counter productive? I don't think so. In the long run, it will be beneficial not only to the teams, but to the whole automotive industry, and thus to us. The engineers are forced to take all the raw power out of those engines and convert it into sheer speed. And from what I saw this weekend, those V8s make me more excited than the old V10s. Just the thought of those V8s going even further past their limits than the V10s ever did makes me all tingly inside. This is what engineering and machine development is all about; maximising the output no matter what the constraints are.

So these new rules might just rekindle my interest in F1 (not to mention the other spectacles that F1 brings with it)..................................

note: my excellent friend rocks hard at his flickr site.

There is no god

2006-03-31T09:04:00.000+08:00

As I promised Ruben, I will write something about GOD. I told him I finally realized what is god. So, I would like to talk a little about it here.

Ok before I get started. Let’s ask ourselves, what is god? Different religions have different gods, but generally, god can be considered as an almighty being, which stands above everything. What do I mean everything? Ok, if you want to be a god, here are some qualities you must have:

You need to know everything. What do I mean by everything? As a Physicist, when I say someone knows everything, then he/she knows exactly the values of both the position and the momentum of every single particle in the universe.
You must be able to do anything.
You must stand above all dimensional spaces, time, moral…. everything.
You must be good, but not evil! Of course, we all know god is good, but is that really true?

Ok for the first quality, which is god must know everything. If you read Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle before, you know that this is not possible. If you know everything, then you must violate this law of Physics. So now, what is the result if we follow this theory? This theory tells us, even god himself doesn’t know everything! He cannot predict both the position and the momentum of a particle at the same time. If god himself doesn’t know everything, do we still call him god?!?!

Let’s discuss 2nd quality now. God can do everything. Come on, do you really think it is possible to do anything? Can 1+1 be anything other than 2? Can a 2-D being see exactly how we 3-D beings look like? The answer is no. Next time if the religious people still argue with you, ask him this “Can god kills himself?” If god can kill himself, then he is not almighty being because he dies. But if he cannot kill himself, that means he cannot do something, again, he is not almighty. Need me to prove more?

3rd, he must stands above time, all dimensional spaces, moral and …. This is the most interesting and funny one. Let’s imagine a little about god, he stands above time, spaces, moral, existence… he is self containing… When you think deeper about it, doesn’t this sound exactly like our own universe? If our universe must be created by god, then who created god? Ok, you can say no one created god. Then tell me why universe must be created by god then? Why not unverse created itself? Like the theory of Big Bang? God is not the answer to everything, but it is a barrier for us human beings to find the answer to everything.

The last quality. God must be good, shouldn’t be evil. If god is really the best in the universe, or even outside the universe, then why he made evils or evil things to happen? If he got no choice but to make it, then he is not invincible, cos he got no choice. But if he got a choice, but still created evils, then he is not good. If he is not good, then why call him god?

Well, I want to tell everyone here something. There is nothing called INVINCIBLE in this universe. If there is, then paradoxes will appear. Don’t believe me? Let’s go back to god knows everything. If he knows everything which included the past, present and the future. What will happen? He will just become like a ‘factory worker’ or worse than that, he does whatever it is destined to be done because he knows everything. For example, he knows I was going to write this article, and now I am writing it, and he knows I am going to put it in my blog. So, he cannot do anything but just follow the order, and let me do all these. If he felt pissed and decided to make me not to criticize him in the article, and he wanted to make me to write an article which praises him. But the problem is, he couldn’t!!!! Because he knows everything. He got to let me finish this article to criticize him. If he could change my mind somehow, then he doesn’t know everything.

So now, why believe in god? Why pray? Why not read Physics and explore the universe together? Why not go outside and make a better world yourself? Instead of praying to god and ask him to do it? Furthermore, if there is god, he would have known everything, he would have made the most ideal universe he could. So, there’s really no point in praying.

So you think you really have faith? Think about it! For any religion, there will be something which they call it the ‘truth’. For examples, Christians have bible, Muslims have koran. Now, the followers accept the ‘truth’ and they need to have faith in those believes. What does this sound like? This sounds like you first decided to believe something, then you try to convince yourself and everybody around you to believe that the ‘truth’ is true.

Let me tell you a story. When I was a little kid, I believed in a lot of crazy things. For example, let me tell you a funny one. I was very naughty when I was young, I always fought with my mom. She was angry and told me “You better listen to me and stop fighting, for a kid to fight with the mom, the god will punish you with lightning strike!” Haha… I was so scared, I didn’t really dare to fight with my mom especially during raining. When I think about it now, I have no idea why I believed that. Perhaps because it was my mom who told me, and I chose to believe that it is a ‘truth’, and I convinced myself to believe it. By the way, if what my mom said was true, I would need many lives to survive till today. Hahahaha…

-Choy

(edit)
The following is a reply to the above post.

There is one more thing you forgot to mention Choy. As you know I have been thinking alot about this subject and I came to one of many conclusions about the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Perhaps God's intention is not to interfere with his creations. Perhaps he is just like you and me; a scientist. But maybe we humans overestimate his powers. Let me explain.

We know about M-theory and all, which says there are an infinite amount of universes. Ignoring the paradox about who created God first, thing about this. Maybe God created all the Laws of Physics in order for the multiverse to self-propagate. Then he added one last thing, that we call Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, so that noone, including himself, can ever interfere or know what is going to happen within the multiverse, or any of the universes. This means that even God cannot know what is going to happen in the future. The universe is entirely random, and God is just an Observer who cannot manipulate events. And since there are an infinite number of universes, he has an infinitely large sample of data to work with.

About God being good and not evil, look at what we are taught when becoming scientists or engineers. We must not involve any emotion in our experiments, analyses or research, for this may cause us to become biased. Just like this, God is void of any emotion and cannot and does not exist in our plane of existence, since he has no power to manipulate our universe due to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle.

The result of all this randomness in the universe may even suprise God. For example the phenomena of life, or even intelligent life. Imagine what God may think of us. Is he interested? Is he afraid that we may one day come to learn of all the Laws of the universe, and even find a way around the safety of his Heisenberg Principle? If this happens, he would be in big trouble.

This of course is just one thought of God, if he exists at all. I think at this stage, we cannot really be sure whether he does exits or not, just like how we are unsure of how the universe works.

-Ruben

Funny Malaysia

2006-03-01T20:33:00.000+08:00

Guess everybody should feel the pain of the RM0.30 increase in fuel price. Well, I am not going to comment anything politically about that but I just felt very funny when reading the news. Why? Ok, I will show you why...

See, for people who have stayed in Malaysia for some time will know that the government talk bullshits all the time. I mean we are used to things like these:

"whatever savings the Government could make from this increase would be channelled towards making the public transport sector more efficient. " which can be translated into "The government is damn broke now, you guys take care of yourselves, I am not any better than you, I just changed my order of S500 to S350"

or

“Hopefully, the people can adjust to the new price and change the way they use fuel”, can be translated into the golden line "There is nothing you people can do, just accept it, or else leave this country"

BUT LOOK AT THIS!

“The increase this time is 30 sen. But we won’t be raising fuel prices again this year because we understand businesses need to plan for the long term and need this stability.”

Can you believe something like this came out of the mouth of our Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister? In order to say that, he must have assumed all the Malaysians are extremely bad in Mathematics, anyone who went to high school would prefer the government to raise the petrol price several times a year in a smaller amount each time (i.e 10 sen every 4 months) than 30 sen a year.

When they are going to stop? Malaysia government has been famous lately for many scandals, and now, they are humiliating the public by assuming we are all retards who cannot count by saying low quality words like that...... Where is our future?!?!?!

Choy

Candle in the dark

2006-02-22T03:56:00.000+08:00

Hi, my friend sent me this picture of a painting, drawn by a French artist. I found it can actually match the title of the blog, so I decided to post it here.

Choy

The Properties of Dark Matter (Latest News)

2006-02-07T03:17:00.000+08:00

Not long ago, my professor told me Physicists and Astronomers have no idea what is dark matter. But now, a team from Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge has been able to place limits on how dark matter is pack in space and measured its temperature.

The team used the VLT, Very Large Telescope (You know, astronomers really not fancy to name things, there is another telescope coming soon called OWL, guess what does that mean? Overwhelmingly Large......), made a 3D maps of the galaxies, using the movements of their stars to trace the impression of the dark matter aming them and weigh it. (Of course, it involved a lot of Physics here...)

Ok, about the properties:

"It comes in a 'magic volume' which happens to correspond to an amount which is 30 million times the mass of the Sun."

"It looks like you cannot ever pack it smaller than about 300 parsecs - 1,000 light-years; this stuff will not let you. That tells you a speed actually - about 9km/s - at which the dark matter particles are moving because they are moving too fast to be compressed into a smaller scale."

"These are the first properties other than existence that we've been able determine."

"If this temperature for the dark matter is correct, then it has huge implications for direct searches for these mysterious particles (it seems [science] may be looking in the wrong place for them) and for how we thought the galaxies and clusters of galaxies evolve in the Universe."

"Having 'hotter' dark matter makes it harder to form the smallest galaxies, but does help to make the largest structures. This result will generate a lot of new research."

"It turns out the Milky Way is more massive than we thought,"

"It now looks as though the Milky Way is the biggest galaxy in the local Universe, bigger even than Andromeda. It was thought until just a few months ago that it was the other way around."

Human beings are one step forward again to understand our universe! This is exciting!!!

Our thinking is as ancient as our ancestors

2006-01-02T01:36:00.000+08:00

Do you think your mind is pretty modern? We are born in this century, and we always think we are modern enough. But I see in my life, in the news… we are always ancient although we live in 21st century.

I laughed immediately when I looked at this particular ‘nation news’ from thestar. This ‘news’ came as we entered 2006, but it also brought us back to 1006. I was wondering what this has to do with ‘nation news’, it doesn’t tell us anything about our nation. For me, I think it is just a story, or perhaps an advertisement which is designed to boost the business of gold abacus? Let me tell you a little about the ‘news’.

For Prosperity and Protection

“Carry a symbolic gold abacus in your wallet for prosperity and to protect you from harm.”

“Lynn Yap, 47, who is popularly known as feng shui queen and often invited for talks, said this year, which was the Lunar Year of the Fire Dog, would be a great year for business because it combined strong yang or “bright” elements.”

“In the first 15 days of the Lunar New Year beginning Jan 29, people should buy or receive calculators so that they would have lots of money to count the whole year round,”

“It is a year to get married and have babies. The year also favours males who stand a better chance in winning competitions, including singing contests.”

“The stock market will generally slow down a little due to cautious investors. But, there may be a sudden craze for horse-racing because it is about fire and earth elements,”

See what I meant? Although we are in the 21st century and we always think we are the modern ones compared to our ancestors. But we never notice our thinking is as ancient as them. Yap said “people should buy or receive calculators so that people have lots of money to count the whole year round.” Well, I also have something to say to the people. “people should buy or receive books so that people would be enlightened from the books and know how to differentiate truth and fake in this information age.”

I came across this wonderful sentence in an article written by a very smart Taiwanese man and I want to share with you. He explained a very great artist + antiques collector, why that artist forged a painting to cheat. “So you guys like arts and collecting antiques, and you want to come into this world, I(artist) have been spending my life in collecting antiques and I am an expert, you want to join this world to show how elegant you are? I am sorry, I have to con you, and you have to pay the price to learn.” I translated this from Chinese, I hope you can get what I am trying to tell you. Which is, the artist was doing that to fool the people, and you need brain and skills to distinguish REAL and FAKE. This applies perfectly to this century.

Choy

Language

2005-12-22T12:11:00.000+08:00

Like I promised, I will talk about language in this post. According to experts, out of 6800+ languages in the world, 50-90% of languages will disappear before Year 2100. People speak different languages and dialects in different parts of the world. Humans interacted in a simpler way in the past, in a village, in a small kingdom, so dialects could exist. The world then went through industrial revolution, and today we are in the information age. You can’t isolate yourself with the world anymore, so there comes the existing of strong and weak languages, slowly the strong languages will defeat the weak languages and then disappear one day. If a language is spoken by less than hundred thousand people, does not have enough of words, cultural philospohy as the backbone to support it, it will be annihilated.

English used to be a dialect from Germany. English people were expanding their culture later, bibles were written in English, English literatures existed… English language became strong, it threatens French, it threatens Chinese. But before English language became strong, French was used in Britain’s universities, politician fighting with French language in parliament and French was used in the churches in Britain. Ok, so we now know, when a language is strong, other languages cannot threaten it. Although English is strong, it cannot hit French, it cannot hit Chinese, it cannot hit Spanish. What does this mean? It means, those languages have enough words and culture to support them.

I understand what Dr. Azly wants to tell us. He loves our country. But I think what he doesn’t realize is what language we are now using to compete with the “Language of Imperialism” that he meant. What is Bahasa Malaysia? What is our national language? How many people in the world speak the language? I think over 200 millions. Wait a minute, what is the population in Malaysia? 25 millions? So where are the 90% of the population? They are in Indonesia. Bahasa Malaysia comes from Indonesia. There is no such thing as Bahasa Malaysia, it is a Malay language from Indonesia. Even you have everyone in Malaysia to speak our national language, including Ruben and me, you still can’t compete with Indonesia. Here comes the problem, you want to speak national language, but now there are more people speaking the same language in Indonesia, how can you say this is Bahasa Malaysia? NOT only this! The language Bahasa Malaysia does not have enough words ( open the dictionary and you will know what I mean ), not enough cultural philosophy, not enough literatures to support it. This tells us what? Basically, while some people keep talking about we should love and speak Bahasa Malaysia, but this is a weak language there is no root for this language, it is just wasting the children's time. Even 25 millions people speak it, there is not much meaning, it is going to be varnished.

I appreciate Dr. Azly’s effort to try to save us from the invasion of English language in our country. I like his spirit, but he should understand Bahasa Malaysia cannot compete with English. If he writes the same article, let’s say in Taiwan, Korea or Japan, I think more people will appreciate than in Malaysia. BUT, as a Malaysian Chinese, I do have a little to say although I think the Malaysian government will not be happy to listen to this. I saw the government putting too much efforts to stop Chinese education from running properly, which I think it endangers Malaysians who want to have Chinese education. Unlike Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese is a much stronger language, of course I am talking about Mandarin not any other Chinese dialects spoken by some Malaysian Chinese like Hokkien, Hakka or Cantonese. Those dialects are weak languages, going to be varnished in the future as well. Mandarin is supported by very strong cultural philosophy, history, literatures/books (>100,000 ancient literatures) and spoken by huge population in the world. With all these as backbone, no matter how strong is English, it cannot varnish Chinese, just like English cannot destroy French or Spanish. This is more likely a language that can overcome the invasion of English in the world today. I therefore, hope that all the Malaysian Chinese will think about it, start learning Chinese today, I mean Mandarin, not Cantonese, not Hokkien, not Hakka. Perhaps the Malaysian government will not be happy or agree with me, but I am directing this to all the Malaysian Chinese who want to have the Chinese language to continue to flourish, please think about it.

The world is cruel, we have to stay alert. We have to use our brains to analyse the information we have, that’s the way we live in information age. Do not simply accept every information, especially those from some crappy politicians. I cannot go to parliament and make comments, BUT you are not going to stop me to spread my thinkings in this blog. To the Malaysian Chinese who still love the Chinese language, learn Mandarin, not dialects, not languages that are going to disappear!

*I am not asking people to stop learning English, I am studying in a British University now, don’t get me wrong. I just don’t want to see Chinese language fades into nothingness.

*About teaching Mathematics and Science in English, I think that makes no difference. I as a Physics student, Mathematics for me is a toolkit to solve problems in Physics. Science is about imagination. You do not need a specific language to use a toolkit and imagine, do you? There are great scientists from all over the world, and that tells us language is not a barrier.

Choy

The Language of Imperialism (Malaysiakini)

2005-12-22T10:52:00.000+08:00

I found this article in a blog called "Politics 101 Malaysia", they didn't write this article, but they took it from Malaysiakini. This is an interesting article, I hope to show the readers in my blog. I will write my own opinions in the next post as I actually spent some times thinking about the same problem before I found out about this article. - Choy

The Language of Imperialism

As in capitalism’s seed of destruction, in any language there is the seed of its own imperialistic tendencies. We must look at the long-term impact of the use of the English language in the teaching of Mathematics and Science.

Language, as linguistic anthropologists would agree, is not only a mirror of reality but also shapes consciousness and installs ideologies. The Hindu-Buddhist languages of Sanskrit and Pali did it to Southeast Asia. The Arabic language did it to the Islamic world. All institutions we see around us are built out of the transplantation of concepts.

And now this language of Celtic-Germanic origin called English is advancing the “civilising and consuming mission” of the postmodern Anglo-American Empire. Some language will teach us to be more spiritual, some will train us to be more technical, and some will educate us to be good consumers in the global capitalist market.

Language policies produces the homo economicus (the economic human being) who then produce ideologies that then produce institutions of knowledge/power that will then inscribe better institutions of mind control and ultimately rob humanity of its freedom.
From logos become flesh become machines in the landscape of humanity.

McDonaldisation of English

What we see around us is the consequence of what sociologist George Ritzer would call the “McDonaldisation of Nothing” in which materials sold and consumed has no real value.
What McDonaldisation of products, goods, and services – spread through the use of the English language – are goods that satisfy wants and not basic needs.

This is the epoch of the global reach of the English language that is neither neutral nor spiritual. The English we are asked to use to teach Mathematics and Science may further shackle our nation in a more complex Center-periphery, Metropole-submetrople, Coloniser-colonised, Brown skin –White mask relationship – if we are not careful with our policies. The English language in its present form is advancing the cause of the military-industrial complex of the Anglo-American empire of this millennium.

Already, our economic and ideological landscape is predominantly English. We argue that we are slow in technological innovation and therefore we are behind, arguing that the process of translating bodies of scientific and technological work is at a turtle’s pace whereas our material development projects are moving at break-neck speed.

Therefore, the argument goes, we change policies of teaching the two languages, not realising the long-term base-superstructural implications we will see in decades to come.

English-speaking geeks

We will create more than just the new Malaysian administrative, English-speaking elites of the Eton mould and gung-ho multicultural corporate raiders and robber barons of the Wall Street ethos, but also a new breed of English speaking and geek-talking cybernetic beings that are technologically-savvy and ready to collaborate with foreign capitalists to plunder our nation’s economy, displacing local cultures and creating linguistically-deranged citizens.

What is happening to the Multimedia Super Corridor and the future of Biotechnology Malaysia project is a good example of the impact of our obsession with the lingua franca. We fear that we may not be able to “compete” in the “world market” that speaks English to global power.

But are we gearing up our education system to merely meet the ideology of globalisation? We are chasing “progress” but sacrificing “human development”, making 60,000 graduates unemployed and unemployable?

Even worse, the children of the multicultural poor will continue to struggle with the complexity of the bilingualism in the educational conveyor belt of a win-loose Malaysian education that filters human beings into class stratification so that the winners will become successful technocrats and cybernetic Malaysians whose allegiance is to globally-linked English-speaking corporate elites.

Children left behind?

The children of the multicultural poor will continue to be left behind year after year in the hands of teachers who not all of them are proficient in English. These teachers will be handing them watered down concepts of these two subject areas and hence unable to bring the students to the commanding heights of the study of Mathematics and Science.

A teacher affects the lives of hundreds and thousands of students in his/her lifetime. How might we create a good scientific and technologically-based middle-class when there are still problems with the teaching language itself, especially when it is taught to children in their formative years?

This is what we are confronting as the fundamental issue of language, national and technological development.

We are caught in a debate on language. We must understand how it colonises our physical and psychological consciousness turning nations into beings and nothingness in the matrix of the evolving empire.

The debate over language rages on – whether Mathematics and Science need to be taught in English. Language, from the time of independence continues to become a contested terrain in education and social development. What more if we are talking about the language of technological progress – of Science and Technology.

What is the real issue here? Where will the English language bring any nation if we are to adopt it into building our ideological-technological landscape? Is the English language neutral? Or is it imperialistic, carrying with it the lifeline of the Anglo-American Empire, in an age of globalisation that is creating dire human consequences and threatening our fragile environment?

Reconstructed neo-colonialism?

Who owns the means of the production of scientific knowledge? Who owns the global production house of knowledge? Who owns the most advanced knowledge base of informatics in this Age of Information?

The language of business and industry, of marketing and advertising and of cutthroat competition thrives on the power of the English language.

Major multinational corporations continue to spread their wings and bury their tentacles of imperialism by structuring nation-states with the lingua franca called English.

Look at the landscape of Malaysia – her hypermodern urban landscape. What do we see? Installations of ideologies that transplanted the English language onto the otherwise lush forests, exploited hence by those who profit with the aid of the English language.

Who owns the means of producing highbrow, lowbrow, and popular culture? How do we Malaysians enculturalise these industries and get caught in the conveyor-belt of global-ideological production?

But there is still the progressive strand in the English language – one that will build foundations of civilisations better than the philosophy of Oriental Despotism, be it derived from the Malay, Chinese or Indian cultural philosophies.

It is the strand of liberalism and humanism of the language that needs to be brought to the linguistic forefront of our national language policies. It is the dimension of the critique of capitalist greed that needs to be enculturalised and used as a foundation for our education system.

We have not started exploring because we are busy blindly adopting the technocractic aspect of this language of Anglo-American corporate dominance, so that our power elites can profit from the creation of “globally-linked” and “governmental-linked” companies that will continue to plant the seeds of destruction – through borrowed words of a language that has spread through guns, guts and glory.

Malaysiakini column by Dr Azly Rahman, December 2005.

Am I a Coward?

2005-12-21T10:10:00.000+08:00

I was like usual having dinner with my Korean friend about a week ago before he went back to Korea for Christmas. I can’t remember for what reasons, we talked about fighting. He is a hot tempered person although his face doesn’t show that. Plus his 2.5 years in Korean Special Forces and his well built body definitely made him a strong man who can fight. Unlike him, I am much weaker and never really fight in my life, although I am a hot tempered person sometimes.

We agreed that in order to start a fight, you must be right in the first place. However, as we talked and we came to this point which we didn’t agree with each other. He said that when you fight, you must play fair. 1 on 1. No weapons allowed. You fight because you are bullied by others and you have to fight back to show that you are right, no matter the opponent is stronger or weaker. OK… here is it. This is where I didn’t agree with him.

I told him, for me, fighting is divided into 2. First, I fight because I am attacked, without ready for the attack earlier. In this case, I have no choice but to fight to defend myself. If it is possible, defeat the opponent, if not run. Second, which means I am the one who starts the fight. I am the one who attacks. I told him that, if I want to start a fight, that means I have to win. If I can’t win, I do not start a fight. I start a fight because I have planned, everything is in my control, I will beat the hell out of the bastard(s) who bullied me. Also, if necessary, gathering more people or carrying weapons are ok for me.

Korean friend: “You are not a man, you are a coward. How can you attack quietly? Carrying weapons and gathering people…...”
Me: “Why not? If I fight, I have to win. Otherwise why should I fight?”
Korean friend: “Then you will not fight as you will not have time to plan normally. You will only avoid since you are weaker and your way of thinking”
Me: “Of course I do not fight normally, who wants to fight?”

Perhaps I am weak, so I see fighting seriously. About whether I am a man or a coward? I do not think if I get whacked will make me looks like a man or hero. If you are going to play fair, like my friend said, 1 on 1, no weapon, no attack quietly… then tell me, how you are going to fight if your opponent is Mike Tyson? If like my friend said, then there will be only 2 outcomes. 1st, you get whacked and end up thinking you are a man in the hospital. 2nd, you let him bully you and keep quiet. For which I think it’s the act of coward too. So why not let there be a 3rd outcome? How do you fight with someone stronger? Plan your fight or grab a weapon! By doing this you can turn your stronger opponent into the weaker one. What is the most effective way of defeating your opponent? SURPRISE ATTACK! I seriously can’t find a better way than this.

If you think about it more, even heroes we are familiar with do not fight with bare hands with stronger opponents, so why should I?

Choy

Vision 2020 ?????????????????????????

2005-12-03T12:51:00.000+08:00

Look at this article in the BBC website. Note that this is the BBC, which means, the world knows.

The sad thing is, probably the majority or all of Malaysians do not share the views of the barbaric chiefs of police. How can such seemingly uneducated morons be in charge of a national force that is supposed to protect the innocent? They have once again permanently tarnished the already hopelessly tattered reputation of our country.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4483840.stm

UPDATE:

I've been thinking about this whole thing, and I came to the conclusion that maybe we should not accuse the police of certain things before knowing the whole story. What if this Chinese lady was suspected, or known, to have been smuggling drugs? Perhaps this stripped squatting procedure is a form of cavity search to induce hidden packages to be revealed? Or maybe she was under the influence of some drug, and they were testing her balance or something?

The police need to come up with a clear and concise report after some sort of investigation to explain to the people, and also to gain our confidence.

UPDATE 2 (By Choy):

I want to point out something about your update Ruben. I agree we shouldn't see something from 1 side, but

1. You should ask your dad if what the police did was legal in human rights?
2. There are better ways to do the 'search' and 'test' that you meant. Perhaps let a professional like a doctor to do that?

Why we are angry? You should try to listen to what Noh Omar said, the way he spoke. Here are a few lines that he said which I think those lines really prove that he is an idiot. I translated them into English:

"You have to respect police"
"Don't try to demolish the image of Malaysian police!"
"If foreigners think that we are cruel, go home, don't come to Malaysia."
"Why foreigners still come here to work if they think we are cruel? Go home-lah! Somemore the Malaysian citizens have to spend millions to protect them! Go home-lah!"

Let's now have a look at what Mr. Bush said when the world found out that American soldiers abused Iraqi prisoners.

"I share a deep disgust that those prisoners were treated the way they were treated,"
"Their treatment does not reflect the nature of the American people. That's not the way we do things in America."

See the difference? Bush is a man who 'holds a book and a sword', but Noh Omar is a barbarian who 'holds a keris'.

Ruben

The God Particle

2005-11-29T20:11:00.000+08:00

This is just something for you to read while waiting for our next post (if it will ever come). This God Particle is called the Higgs-Boson particle. It is a hypothetical particle that is said to be the reason why stuff acquires mass. Mass is basically a resistance to change in motion, or as some may call it, inertia. When reading the articles, I was reminded of the old theory of space being filled with a substance called ether, which was made up to try and explain how light and other electromagnetic energy could propagate through the apparent vacuum of space. It also reminded me of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle and the Cassini effect, where a measurable force occurs between two metal plates due to particles and anti-particles suddenly appearing and annihilating each other randomly. This could be seen as analogous to this "ether" substance. (Mr. Choy should have something to say about this, as he is more learned in electromagnetic propagation and wave theory than me).

A good read, thanks to some physicists who came up with short and simple explanations.

http://www.phy.uct.ac.za/courses/phy400w/particle/higgs.htm

Ruben

The Space

2005-10-21T00:49:00.000+08:00

I have realized something interesting by reading the news lately. China’s Shenzhou VI carrying two astronauts returned to earth after 5 days in orbit last Sunday. This is not something new for China, its first manned mission was in 2003. At that time, I was shocked by the technological development of the Chinese.

Ok, China is the 3rd nation to put a man into space, but I do not think they are more technological advanced than European Union or Japan. Why? Not only because they went to space 10+ years earlier than China but I also always see their missions in the news. For examples, the latest one was the European Space Agency's Cryosat spacecraft was lost minutes after lift-off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia on 8 october 2005. For the Japanese, it would be the H-2A rocket, with the word Nippon painted on its side, blasted off and placed a satellite in orbit in February 2005. Although they don't seem doing so well lately but they involved in advanced missions like collecting a sample from an asteroid or studying the comets and etc…

The question I asked myself 2 years ago was “Why I can’t see any Japanese or European manned mission?” Here is my answer (my opinion, might not be right). US wanted to stop China from joining the International Space Station last time, invited Japan and Europe to join. Perhaps Japan and Europe thought joining US can save lots of money instead of individual development. So they joined and eventually they cancelled manned missions and concentrated on satellites and rockets, which means unmanned missions. US’s intention was clear, to delay China’s space development. But they didn’t relax on the European and Japanese as well. Why do I say so? Yes, European and Japanese have great rockets and their astronauts went to space decade earlier than Chinese. For them, space is just something they “see” and “know”, that’s it.

If European and Japanese want to go to space, well, they will have to see what’s the ‘mood’ of the American not to even mention to use the space station for their own purposes. As I mentioned in my previous articles, the world military is heading to ‘Star Wars’. Space forces for the European and Japanese partially exists, depending on the mood of the American. Without the support of the space today, even the most powerful military equipments you have on earth are rubbish.

I think that’s why the US and Japan are spreading China’s military buildup is a threat. What about Europe? I will highlight some lines from an article about what the British Physicists think in bbcnews, this article came 2 days after the 2nd Chinese manned mission was over. It seems that they woke up by the Chinese's alarm clock finally...

Title: UK should ‘reverse astronaut ban’

“The Royal Astronomical Society’s report warns Britain risks being isolated on the international stage if it continues its longstanding refusal to fund the human exploration of space.”

"Recent developments across the world strongly suggest that, after a 30-year lull, space-faring nations are gearing up for a return to the Moon and then to Mars," said panel member, Professor Ken Pounds, of the University of Leicester.

"It is hard to imagine that the UK, one of the world's leading economies, would not be fully involved in a global scientific and technology endeavour with such strong potential to inspire. We therefore recommend that the government re-evaluates its longstanding opposition to British involvement in human space exploration."

Choy

Playful mind(s)...

2005-10-08T00:59:00.000+08:00

Ruben's mind...

Choy's mind...

Choy
Ruben

Life As I See It

2005-09-06T00:46:00.000+08:00

This idea came to my mind this afternoon as I was like usual, sitting alone and day dreaming after having lunch. It was an idea about what is actually LIFE. No! No! Not that kind of lives that most of the Malaysian bloggers write in their blogs, not about what food you eat, how much alcohol you consume or did you enjoy your previous sex…

Many people have told me that ‘life/soul is energy’ since I was young, they described it as energy in your body, and it ‘gets’ out of your body when you die. I didn’t know if they really knew what they were talking about, but that was what they believed. I have not heard any further explanation till this afternoon, I suddenly thought of a better answer for it. I don’t know what you will think about my idea but I will write it down here anyway. But I can tell you my idea doesn’t come with unreason beliefs.

I was thinking that, perhaps second law of thermodynamics can be used to find an answer to the question. Here is a refresh if you have forgotten this theory you learnt in high school:

The total entropy (measure of the disorder of the system) of any system plus that of its environment increases as a result of any natural process.
ΔS = ΔSsys + ΔSenv > 0.

OR

Natural processes tend to move toward a state of greater disorder.

Our life is all about doing work, and we need energy to do work. Also, we can see that in natural processes energy is always conserved (First law of thermodynamics), but as time goes on energy becomes less useful. This is due to the increase of entropy for which order goes to disorder and eventually some energy cannot do useful work anymore. So, you must be thinking, from a single cell evolves to a human being, doesn’t mean that is the increase of order? That sounds like it violates the second law of thermodynamics. In fact, it doesn’t. Yes, from macromolecules to homo sapiens or single cell to human being, these are the examples of increasing order. However, the small molecules (wastes) removed in the process of evolution or growth are simple molecules with higher entropy or disorder. “The total entropy of the molecules cast aside by the organisms during the process of evolution and growth is greater than the decrease in entropy associated with the order of the growing individual” - Douglas C. Giancoli.

In short, my thought is that LIFE IS ABOUT INCREASING ENTROPY. Why? Since a system has the ability to perform work means it has higher order than a system that has no ability to do work. So, from the moment I was born till I die. Order has gone to disorder.

Ok, I want to add something more here. Back to my first post, I mentioned about my classmate who believed god made everything and he doesn’t believe in evolution. As I said, from macromolecules to homo sapiens, a single cell to human being. Things evolve because of second law of thermodynamics, because of things gone from order to disorder. So now, why do we need god here? What is the purpose of having god to exist? I mean we know our universe governed beautifully by Physics laws and Mathematics, things happen because the laws say so. If you ask why the laws are here, then the answer is they must be here otherwise you will not live to ask so. Well, perhaps religious people will say the same thing that we shouldn’t question about the existence of god too. BUT, which is more convincing, the Physics laws that explain the universe to you or god which doesn’t explain anything?

*I am not trying to be provoking to the religous people, it is just my thought. If you think my idea is stupid, leave your comments, cheers.

Choy

Is It Worth It?

2005-09-04T00:05:00.000+08:00

I read this news from BBC with the title ‘Malaysia risks row with Thailand’ and I think that is perfect to prove the point I made in my post called ‘Malaysians told to pray for rain (What the…)’. Here is what I said in that post:

“I am just wondering if the haze is not from Indonesia, but our neighbours from the north or south, will the Malaysian government act so gentle? I still remember when the Thailand armed forces stormed the mosque and killed the Islamic terrorists in their own country about 1-2 years ago, Malaysia had big response. I think our country was not even in the state of emergency that time.”

Ok now let’s briefly talk about the news from BBC.

“Malaysia has said it will not immediately deport 131 Thai Muslims who have fled across the border due to violence in southern Thailand.”

“He said he had spoken to Thai Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon about reports that the 131 arrivals were afraid to go home because of the violence.”

"He has told me there is no truth [in the reports]. I'll be trying to get reports of our own to see what exactly is happening," Syed Hamid said.

“In Bangkok, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Friday that some members of the group who had crossed into Malaysia were Islamic separatists.”

See? Remember the damages that the haze brought to our country? How did our government react? And now, the Thai side has asked us to send back those Thai people who entered illegally to our country where some of them might be Islamic militants. What did our government say?

"We cannot just chase people away...There is a need for us to do investigation on our side."

Why are we risking row with Thailand by involving in Thailand's national security problem without being asked? Why in a serious matter that threaten the health of millions of Malaysians like illegal slashing and burning of forests in Indonesia, our government acts so gender? If some of the 131 people are Islamic militants. Then we will be the country that provides protection to the terrorists who killed innocent Thai citizens.

Choy

Men are more intelligent than women

2005-08-26T12:54:00.000+08:00

Hi guys, I just found out another interesting research although I think we do not really need to spend time and money to discover that. Any guy/man has a relationship with girl/woman before would have noticed that. It is again, about WOMEN. Oh but wait... perhaps this would be the tool for men to keep the women quiet when the women try to make some stupid arguments.

Men are more likely to win Nobel prizes and achieve excellence simply because they are more intelligent than women, an outspoken male academic has claimed.

Richard Lynn, the emeritus professor of psychology at Ulster University, argues that men have larger brains and higher IQs than women, to such an extent that they are better suited to "tasks of high complexity".

His study is due to be published with Paul Irwing, a senior lecturer in organisational psychology at Manchester University, in the British Journal of Psychology in November. He said that men not only have larger brains but also have higher IQs, on average by about 5 points, than women.
This means more men than women have high IQs and the authors claim this means men are more likely to win Nobel prizes and make scientific discoveries, according to The Times Higher Education Supplement.

The professor has caused outrage in the past with claims that white people are more intelligent than blacks and that criminal traits are genetically inherited.

Dr Irwing said he had initially been reluctant to take part in the study, arguing that he would have personally preferred not to have discovered that men had a biological advantage.

I noticed something from last sentence... Dr Irwing is really a wise man no question, he knew the result before the study!

Choy

Women are evil?

2005-08-19T17:31:00.000+08:00

I watched a documentary on the National Geographic Channel a while ago. I forgot the name, but it was about the New Testament or something. They briefly talked about a religious sect who believed that women are evil. I did not understand why they would believe such a thing until last night when I was lying awake in bed, unable to sleep as usual. Let me explain here.

Most people believe that we have souls, or we are infact spirits living in a material world. So the soul is the entity of life itself, and the body is just a vessel. And people believe in heaven and hell; that all good comes from heaven, and all evil from hell. The soul is pure, and is free from all temptation. But not flesh. With flesh comes the seven deadly sins. Vanity, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Wrath, Avarice (Greed), and Sloth. All these are the result of the sensory abilities of flesh. The body can interact with the physical world, and some of these interactions bring pleasure. So the body wants more, when the soul knows that it may be doing wrong. That little voice at the back of our heads will be telling us to stop, but our body desires more and more pleasure. So the fight of good against evil may infact be the fight between body and soul. Satan can be a metaphor for flesh. And Satan may have won a great victory a long time ago by trapping all souls in these vessels of flesh. The body is weak and can be damaged or destroyed, but the soul perseveres forever. So death can actually be the gift of man, where Satan is vanquished, and the soul released forever. If that is so, then birth is the Doom of man, where a soul is captured, and trapped in a weak, fragile, unholy vessel. So that sect may have seen that women are the agents of procreation, and the womb is the machine that manufactures these vessels to trap souls.

Note: I am not sexist. This is just a thought.

Ruben

Malaysians told to pray for rain (What the...)

2005-08-12T15:54:00.000+08:00

I read this from the BBC News which I think is funny and feel ashamed.

“Malaysia's Muslim community has been asked to pray for rain to lift the smog that has enveloped the capital, Kuala Lumpur, and surrounding areas. The request came from the country's prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, a day after he declared an emergency in two areas worst affected by the haze.”

Is there any non Malaysian who is reading my blog here? Please tell me what you would feel if your country’s leader made that speech, ok? I am just curious to know…

Indonesia’s failure to prevent slash and burn of its own forests causing serious damage to the health and the economy of the Malaysians. This ‘gift’ from our special neighbour is not something new, in fact it happens annually, just that the haze this year is the worst after 1997 and 1998.

Ok so what we have done so far? On Thursday, ministers from both countries agreed a three-point plan under which Malaysia will help to put out thousands of fires sweeping across Sumatra. Today, Malaysia’s Natural Resources and Environment Minister and Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister are having further talks with the Indonesians in Medan. (Why not the Indonesians come to KL to have talks with us? So they can see and smell for themselves the damage they have done to our country.)

I am just wondering if the haze is not from Indonesia, but our neighbours from the north or south, will the Malaysian government act so gentle? I still remember when the Thailand armed forces stormed the mosque and killed the Islamic terrorists in their own country about 1-2 years ago, Malaysia had big response. I think our country was not even in the state of emergency that time. Why today, I only see demonstration done by opposition party, why only opposition party demand compensation from Indonesia? Is it because of the haze that’s why I can’t see others.

Indonesians burn their forests at our expense every year. They damage our health and cause billions of loss to our economy every year. I don’t think Malaysian government and ASEAN can solve this problem. Talks have been proven useless, no word on when to stop farmers from island slashing and forest burning by the Indonesian government.

If pray can help, then I think Mr. Abdullah shouldn’t pray for rain as this cannot solve the problem, the haze will come back again next year. He should pray for the haze to hit Singapore, I mean very badly. Then I think a solution to the problem will be found, and the haze will not come again next year. What do you think?

Choy

Seen Her Before?!

2005-07-27T21:52:00.000+08:00

She didn’t go for plastic surgery although she has silicone skin.
She flutters her eyelids and she breathes.
She understands naturally spoken words and she speaks Chinese, Korean, English and Japanese.
She responds to people touching her.
Her name is Repliee Q1.

Choy

Scientific Determinism

2005-07-14T18:09:00.000+08:00

This post contains comments from me to the post called ‘Unbreakable Bonds’ written by ‘The Procrastinator’in his blog http://phoenix2100.blogspot.com. I would like to thank him for inviting me to read and give comments on his post. Basically, from what I understood after reading his post, he was trying to say that the state of the universe at one time determines the state at all other times. Before I start my comments, I would like to highlight some sentences in his post.

"What is the equation of a good karma? How do you quantify it?"

"Faith is the idea that a higher power exists and governs the world, fueled only by the actions of the souls it governs."

"Albert Einstein once famously said “God does not play dice!” and I am inclined to agree."

"An aspect of the Chaos Theory is the Butterfly Effect which fits in beautifully with the idea of karma and reaffirms the notion that nothing is a coincidence."

"The truth however is that we, at each moments of our lives, are presented with a multitude of options and the choices we make determine the future that follows."

Pierre Simon de Laplace said that if at one time we knew the positions and speeds of all the particles in the universe, then we could calculate their behaviour at any other time, in the past or future. However, the extremely complex equations and sometimes a property called Chaos appeared to limit us in predicting the future. ‘The Procrastinator’ pointed out that a butterfly flapping might cause a tornado to hit Indonesia which reflects Chaos. The problem here is, it doesn’t repeat. The next time the butterfly flaps will cause other things to happen which might cause tornado as well. That is why I don't trust weather forecasts completely. If you think only this prevents us from predicting the future, then you are wrong. Scientific determinism is also threatened by Uncertainty Principle and Black Holes.

Uncertainty Principle by Werner Heisenberg stated that: the uncertainty in the position of a particle times uncertainty in speed is greater than a quantity called Planck’s constant divided by the mass of the particle. This means that the more accurately you try to measure the speed of the particle, the less accurately you can know the position and vice versa. So now, how do you predict the future when you cannot even measure accurately the positions and speeds of particles at the present time? The best thing you are allowed to do is to predict a combination of speed and position.

But then if we take into account of Black Holes, there is no room even for this limited predictability. The particles that we lost down Black Holes will only come out randomly. (* I will not explain how this happens as it will take lots of words) Yes, perhaps probability will work here but we cannot make a definite prediction.

These are the Physics theories that I have learned so far in my life and hence I would like to conclude that the future is not fully depended on the present state and the laws of science. The history also shows that the universe continued to surprise us with unpredictability. With the evidence, my opinion is if there is god, then he not only plays dice (Uncertainty Principle) but he hides it somewhere (Black Holes) we can’t see sometimes!

Choy

A Little Bit of Music

2005-07-10T17:38:00.000+08:00

Ok, this post is not about Mathematics or Physics as my mind is still amazing in the music of the 12 Girls Band concert since last night. The China’s traditional musical instruments with modalities of modern popular musical performances were great. I have always wanted to go for a concert like this, which can take you to musical paradise.

Young classically trained female musicians, healthy dose of makeup, some club couture and then mix classical music together with modern music in a way that represented both the old and the new. I just love this…

Choy

This Week's Historic Event

2005-07-07T17:38:00.000+08:00

A historic event that happened in the world this week was definitely the NASA’s success crater crashing into Comet Tempel 1 which is more than 130 million km away from our earth at a relative speed of 37,000 km/h. The aim of the mission was to gain new information on the Solar System’s original composition and perhaps even how life emerged in our corner of the Universe. I think this event is comparable to landing human on the moon.

"We hit it just exactly where we wanted to," said an overjoyed Dr Don Yeomans, a Nasa mission scientist. The mission needed high accuracy for which one mission scientist said it was like one bullet hitting another bullet with a third bullet exactly in position to see it all happen.

The projectile was able to make last-minute course corrections whilst at the same time taking its own pictures of the oncoming target.

“The mission also gives scientists some information about how they might one day stop a comet if one threatens Earth -- but they would need a far larger strike to make a significant dent in turning a comet off-course”, A'Hearn said.

I learnt all these information from CNN and BBC NEWS. But my opinion is beside gaining information on the Solar System’s original compositions, how life emerged and changing the course of a comet that threatens earth. It is a demonstration to the rest of the world that United States is one BIG step ahead in information warfare. Read the lines which I typed in bold again and you will understand. Switch the target of the mission from Comet Tempel 1 to the Global Positioning Satellite or spy satellite, it will be a far more trivial mission. United States can easily threaten their enemies in information warfare whenever they declare a war.

As I mentioned in my ‘Star Wars’ post - “the American / World military are adding more and more similar like weapons to their arsenals lately”, this is no question another new Star Wars like weapon. I think we are going to watch Star Wars 4 live in the future, good for the Star Wars fans as you guys don’t need to go to the crowded cinema next time, just raise your head and stare to the sky!

Choy

Did You Know...

2005-07-01T16:54:00.000+08:00

The 46th Paris Air Show, “Bourget 2005” ended not long ago. It reminds me of a great fighter aircraft which I guess not many people know about it because when talk about aircrafts with my friends, they will only tell me F-16, F-18, Eurofighter… Hence, I decided to have this post to provide an avenue about records breaking combat aircraft – Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-25.

The MiG-25 was the Soviet answer to the US bomber B-70. It is an interceptor aircraft for countering air targets in all weather conditions, by day and by night, and in dense hostile electronic warfare environments. It is produced by RSK MiG which is based in Moscow and Sokol Aircraft Manufacturing Plant Joint Stock Company at Nizhni Novgorod in Russia.

"At 70,000 feet we reach Mach 2.5 and are still climbing. The sky has turned a very deep blue and the Earth below is distinctly curved. At 80,000 feet, the sky is cold black and a translucent-blue hue hangs over the curvature. By God, that is the entirety of the atmosphere, I think. I'm astonished by its thinness." – Writer and professional adventurer James M. Clash, Forbes Magazine.

On August 31, 1977, the MiG-25 set a record by reaching speed of Mach 3.2 (3,390km/h or 2,110mph) at 13,000m (42,650 feet). The MiG-25 also holds a record of absolute altitude, reached the altitude of 37,650m (123,524 feet). In order for you to get an idea about the performance of the MiG-25, let’s compare it to other modern combat aircrafts.

Eurofighter Typhoon
Max speed: Mach 2 at 11,000m
Ceiling: 18,290m (60,000 feet)

Dassault Rafale
Max speed: Mach 2 at 11,000m
Ceiling: 19,810m (65,000 feet)

General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon
Max speed: Mach 2.05 at 12,190m
Ceiling: >15,000m (50,000 feet)

Mc Donnell Douglas F-15 Eagle
Max speed: Mach 2.5 at 10,975m
Ceiling: 30,840m (100,000 feet)

Finally, I would like to end this post by introducing the 2 fighter jets that are in service with the Royal Malaysian Air Force.

The MiG-29 Fulcrum was designed to be a single-seat supersonic, all-weather, air superiority fighter. The mission of the MiG-29 is to destroy hostile air targets within radar coverage limits and to destroy ground targets using unguided weapons in visual flight conditions. The MiG-29 is internationally recognised as a high-performance combat aircraft, and has often been compared to the F-16.

The F/A-18 Hornet is a supersonic, single-seat (A, C and E models) or two-seat (B, D and F models), twin-engine, all weather, night, combined fighter/attacker aircraft and can be refueled in flight. The F/A-18 is able to do various missions: air superiority, reconnaissance, suppression of enemy air defenses, fighter escort, air support, and day/night missions. It can operate from either land bases or aircraft carriers.

Choy

Think Like Einstein

2005-06-24T16:27:00.000+08:00

Just want to make my blog a little more fun for the visitors. I found some simple and interesting questions from NOVA Online which I think can help readers who have no knowledge in time travel to understand quickly. Trust me, the 4 questions will make you think like Einstein, don’t worry as they are not hard at all, really! You can post your answers in the comments if you are interested in knowing the answers.

1. Adding velocities
You're on a train that's moving forward at 50 mph. You throw a ball in the direction that the train is moving. Relative to you and the train, the ball leaves your hand travelling at 20 mph.

Question: From the point of view of someone standing alongside the tracks, how fast is the ball moving?

2. Speed of Light
OK. Everything so far makes sense. Let's move on to the speed of light for a moment.

Again, you're on a train. This time, though, the train is moving much faster—at half the speed of light, or 93,000 mps (miles per second). And instead of throwing a ball, you turn on a flashlight.

Question: How fast is the light travelling relative to the observer standing alongside the tracks?

3. The Speed of Light
Here's our last question. This one's like the previous one, but with a twist. Again, you're on a train moving at 93,000 mps, and again, you turn on your flashlight.

Question: How fast does the light travel relative to you?

*You should have realised a paradox in this question, otherwise you shouldn’t move on to question 4.

4. The Solution
By now you probably understand the conflict: How is it possible that light always travels at the same speed, no matter how fast its source is moving? Einstein, when he was 16, thought about the same thing.

Are you familiar with the equation v=d/t? All it says is velocity (speed) equals distance travelled divided by time.

If we use this equation in our first scenario—the one where you threw the ball—it works out fine. For you, within the train, as well as for someone standing by the tracks, we can calculate the speed of the ball by adding the distance the train travelled and the distance the ball travelled.

The equation does not work out so well in the second scenario, though, because we're dealing with the speed of light, so the "v" in the equation always has to be 186,000 miles per second.

Something has to give.

Question: What can we infer from what we've seen so far?

Choy

Latest News On Time Travel!

2005-06-19T22:48:00.000+08:00

I have been fascinated by time travel since I was a little kid but I just started to understand time travel a little bit more when I was learning Relativity and Quantum Physics. Einstein discovered that time travel is possible in his Theory of Relativity many decades ago. I would like to talk about the latest findings done by the physicists today in this post. I just got to know three latest findings, two are for wormholes and another one explained the paradox of time travel.

For a long time, wormholes are the theoretical tunnels which seemed the best way for us to do time traveling. Using wormholes to do time traveling can be seen in this way. Mark 2 holes at the opposite ends of a paper to represent 2 points in space-time. Then the paper can be bent so that 2 points are on placed top of each other. In this way, a person can theoretically go through a wormhole and appear at another space-time. The region that a time traveler will pass through called the throat, exotic matter is used to fill the throat to keep the wormhole open.

Calculations by Stephen Hsu and Roman Buniy of the University of Oregon show that a wormhole combining exotic matter with semi-classical space-time would be fundamentally unstable.

“We aren’t saying you can’t build a wormhole. But the ones you would like to build – the predictable ones where you can say Mr Spock will land in New York at 2pm on this day – those look like they will fall apart.” Dr. Hsu said.

A different approach to the question of wormholes was done by Chris Fewter of the University of York and Thomas Roman of Central Connecticut State University. Their calculations show that, even it is possible to build a wormhole, the throat would be too small for time travel.

“It might - in theory - be possible to carefully fine-tune the geometry of the wormhole so that the wormhole throat became big enough for a person to fit through. But building a wormhole with a throat radius big enough to just fit a proton would require fine-tuning to within one part in 10 to the power of 30. A human-sized wormhole would require fine-tuning to within one part in 10 to the power of 60. Frankly no engineer is going to be able to do that” Says Fewter.

According to Einstein, space-time can curve back and allowing us to travel to the past. Time travel to the past is thought to be possible by physicists and nevertheless it gives some uncomfortable contradictions. The obvious one would be that theoretically, we can travel back in time and do something which will change the present. This is something I always wanted to do when I was a kid although I didn’t think about the consequences of it. If you think more, it will eventually mess up the whole theory of time travel.

Today, a team of physicists from US and Austria says that it is possible if only there are physical constraints acting to prevent the present from changes in the past. This new model uses the laws of quantum mechanics to get rid of the paradox. The physical constraints exist because of the laws of quantum mechanics although they don’t account for backwards movement of time before. This model is easy to understand as quantum behaviour is governed by probabilities. There are a numbers of possibilities regarding its state before something is observed. But the possibilities will shrink to 1 when the state is measured, which means the uncertainty is eliminated.

"Quantum mechanics distinguishes between something that might happen and something that did happen," Professor Dan Greenberger, of the City University of New York, US.

Choy

The Other Milesian

2005-06-07T13:05:00.000+08:00

You maybe wondering who is the other Milesian. Well its me. My name is Ruben, and it was my friend Choy's idea to start this blog after we overheard two of our esteemed colleagues trying (quite unsuccessfully) to disprove the theory of evolution. This blog will contain all our interests and philosophisings. Since we are thinkers, we decided it is better to put down and share our thoughts somewhere instead of letting them fade away into nothingness.

I too remember that day when our colleague said that if you shake a rock long enough, nothing will happen. I think I know what he meant. Maybe he meant that in order for anything to change so drastically until it becomes another thing entirely, a superior being like God has to intervene. This kind of thinking should be classified as pure laziness. If someone cannot explain or understand how the many forms and variations of life came about, he just says, "God's work" and leaves it as that. He is too lazy to think of a proper explanation and try to understand the universe better. The theory of evolution may be just a theory, but its definitely far better and more solid than saying God made it happen. And besides, the Uncertainty Principle proves that all the air in a room can exist at only one corner in that room if given a long enough time. So if my esteemed colleague were to shake his rock long enough, all the matter in that rock will exist, for a fleeting moment, in just one part of the rock's volume.

So come back here in the future for more interesting articles on this universe and everything within it.

Ruben

A Pathetic Creature's View Of It's Universe

2005-06-06T13:57:00.000+08:00

Our human experiences tell us that we seem to live in a 3 spatial dimensions universe. But some physics theories include additional spatial dimensions. Not only that, some experiments also showed that we are in fact living in a higher physical dimensions universe than we think. I have been wondering how does a high dimensional world look like for a long time but I just couldn't imagine. I always like to think myself as a pathetic creature in a curved flatland who tries to figure out how does a 3D universe looks like while other 3D creatures laugh at my foolishness. Maybe I will never ever know how does a high spatial dimensions universe looks like but I think I do have some clues about it. This idea comes from imagining myself as a flatland creature.

We all should know the shadow of a 3 spatial dimensions object on a flatland (who doesn't know...) for which we can think as a cube's shadow on a paper where the paper has length and width but NO thickness at all. Hence, the same way, I think we can imagine the shadow of a 4 spatial dimensions object in a 3 spatial dimensions universe. I have sketched them out in the picture below.

That is only the shadow of a 4 spatial dimensions object, Mathematics favor String theories with 10, 11 and 26 physical dimensions! I really hope I will have the chance to see someone shows an equation explaining the universe we are living, no matter a simple or a complex equation.

More Than A Clock

2005-05-31T15:19:00.000+08:00

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......

'Star Wars"

2005-05-29T12:33:00.000+08:00

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.

Introduction

2005-05-27T16:30:00.000+08:00

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!