Per Ardua Ad Astra

Well, it looks like I’ve completed 19 revolutions around the Sun already (oh, 19 years and 1 day now). =) Too bad there’s no celebration (darn exams are in the way, but I’ll be happy enough if things turn out the way I want on Jan 20th).

Anyway, I would like to say a bit THANK YOU to all of you out there who managed to remember the ‘momentous’ occasion on November 16th, 2005! And THANK YOU again for actually taking the time to bombard me with your birthday messages and cards. Thanks for the effort in making my day a memorable one. I shall remember the ‘bombardment’ I received, and hopefully, I’ll be able to return the favour next year! Hehe.

For those of you who didn’t, a nice big fat present will go a long way in soothing my ‘bruised’ feelings! =P Nothing less!

To the uninitiated, hyperhidrosis is basically a condition where some parts of the body perspire excessively. To me, it is a constant source of irritation. That is because I suffer from it (at least it’s not something much worse).

I decided to blog about this after I read about it in The Star on Sunday. At least, my condition has a name, I’m not alone in suffering and there’s something you can do about it (but I’m not in favour of operating to sever some of my nerves just yet). Yes, it’s a problem with the nervous system. No, I can’t will it to stop, but I can definitely make it worse by getting nervous and such. I hope it’s not because I have a psychiatric disorder! So to those who are all too aware of my condition, I’m really sorry ladies and gentlemen for the inconvenience, but it can’t be helped.

You see, I sweat almost continuously from my palms and feet. That’s why I wrap my feet in socks and carry a handkerchief every time I go out. It’s really troublesome, I can tell you. In a way, you can think of it as having too much ‘lubricant’ on your hands and feet. It gets over everything I touch, stationary, notes, books, keyboards, mouse, everything! And I can’t get a solid grip on anything!

All in all, I’ll say the most challenging was trying to do pull-ups on the bar after the 2.4kms run for PE in S’pore. Imagine trying to haul yourself up the bar, when your palms are giving you no grip! And that’s even with rubber matting on the bar to provide extra grip! Sigh… But still, it’s no big deal to complain about, just another challenge to overcome. Solution? Now that I’m back home, I can only do pull-ups after washing my hands thoroughly (and cooling it), at least for the short 5 mins or so before the sweating comes back in full force. Hrrmph, at least I could still get some chin-ups done. Now, I’m doing it at home, with nobody to yell at you to get a move on with a crowd watching you battle with your palms. The only upside I can think of is that my sisters treat my things as if they have biohazard signs on them (regardless of how clean it actually is) so my stuff is assuredly untouched and not tossed around the house after being borrowed and used.

That’s the hardship part, the hassle comes with having to wipe my stuff clean with soap and water more often than any normal people would (well, I’m not sure how often does somebody wash all the keys on the keyboards, probably never at all?).

Now the embarrassment. Can’t shake or hold hands, hold people’s belongings, walk barefooted on people’s floor and definitely no holding iron! Especially in warm weather! Perhaps some of you would say that I’ll be more comfortable at somewhere like Siberia or Alaska. It might have been except for a minor problem. The skin on my hands will start cracking in cold weather! Its probably because due to the very fact that I have permanent ‘moistening lotion’ on my hands, so once it’s gone…Think of it as the dry lakebed in a drought-riddled area. The one with cracked soil? Close, but it’s not that bad. But it’s uncomfortable having minor cuts on the palms for a few days just because of exposing palms to air-conditioned environments for just a few hours! Terrible, really terrible. But then again, it can be avoided with some precautions, but I just have to remember…

That’s sums up my biggest problem with hyperhidrosis. But other than that the rest of the symptoms just pales in comparison. Migraines? That’s only short term, and besides, I haven’t had any since secondary school. High pulse rates? It’s barely noticeable, until I go for the jog around the neighborhood. Besides, I never knew that it was unusually high until one Bio experiment back in Form 5. Guess that my personal pulse rates couldn’t be used as experimental data since everybody gets about 70-90 at rest and mine’s already at 120!

Yep, that sums up most of my daily troubles. So if you’re having a sweaty problem, think again. On an ending note, I’m lucky that I didn’t aspire to have the same occupations like these people here.

Well, its almost a week after this blog came into being now. The initial results are encouraging, so I’ll keep this up for at least a little while more (I hope you all out there aren’t muttering "No, no more, please?"). At the moment, I’m not particularly inclined to post much this week, since I’m busy stuffing information from 3 different subjects into my brain right now (fine, you can start cheering in front of your monitors now). Just a little over 6 days to go…

However, here’s something you can check out here. One of the featured videos of the week is titled Night Patrol Ambush. Its simply a night patrol being ambushed in Iraq. The initial commentary reminds me of Vietnam, when the local populace isn’t particularly supportive of the US troops, since the soldier doesn’t place much trust in Iraqis. And when the ambush comes, you can notice that the main sources of gunfire are from the Americans after the initial moments of the ambush, machine gunning away. I suspect that by the time the Marines started unloading, the insurgents would already be on their way out. And I wonder of the hundreds of rounds of rifle and machine gun rounds fired, how many actually hit someone, and of the people hit, I hope that none of them are civilians! As for the Iraqi policemen, how are they going to police the country since they just stayed back until the worst is over? Can’t blame them though, since they would only have pistols, with the occasional AK-47, probably Kevlar jackets and riding in a jeep, while the Marines are in up-armoured Humvees and Strykers, Kevlar and ceramic armor on the troops, and armed to the teeth!

Hmm, from what NewScientist says today at http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18825252.900 , we can actually order some viruses through mail? Its not cheap (at $1.50 per base pair, and even a gene for virulence is a few thousand base pairs long!) but its still cheap enough for Osama and his merry band of followers to splurge on for his new brew of terror plots. All he needs to do is to copy the desired sequence from the Internet, place a mail order with an unsuspecting company with a fee of
$300,000 for a 200,000 base sequence long virus and voila! A crate filled with bacteria with some virus gene spliced into its genome. The next step? Mail the crate with no bio hazard containment precautions by US Postal Order to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. To add insult, place a huge sticker labelled ‘Made in the United States of America’! Haha!

Now, I think its worth an update on Intelligent Design (ID). The score in the battle between ID proponents and scientists remains a draw at 1-1.

Now, some of you may ask ‘What is ID?’ Basically the critics maintain that it is Creationism repackaged in an attempt to discredit science in US classrooms in a crude attempt by the Discovery Institute (sounds scientific, but it’s really a conservative Christian think tank) and other creationists in an attempt to overrun evolution.

Why are they doing this? To quote from LiveScience.com’s Special Report  on Evolution & ID :
Also in 1999, a fund raising document used by the Discovery Institute to promote the Center for Science and Culture was leaked to the public. Informally known as the "Wedge Document," it stated that the center’s long-term goals were nothing less than the "overthrow of materialism and its cultural legacies," and the replacement of "materialistic explanations with the theistic understanding that nature and human beings are created by God."

Basically, they want to overthrow modern science so we can ‘return to our religious roots’ in a sense. IMHO, that’s absurd. To understand the controversy better, you can visit http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/050922_ID_main.html for more
information.

But the main point is this, President Bush actually gave his endorsement on the teaching of ID in schools which if proven to be linked to Creationism, ID will be outlawed since its unconstitutional (separation of Church and State, you see).
Oh, and ID is supposed to be actually Creationism Episode II since Creationism is outlawed by the Supreme Court years ago, when the Discovery Institute tried for the first time to include it in the education standards. That in itself tells you how ignorant and hardcore some conservative Americans are on science and religious issues (and the level of understanding of the President on science) . Unfortunately, science is winning (and losing) at the moment. There is actually a court case going on right now in Dover, but the decision by the judge is due to
be out in Jan ‘06, so I shall only go into that when the decision’s out.

If you ask me, the whole thing would never have happened if the public just know the limits of religion and science. Science only seeks to explain natural phenomena, and is currently unable to explain how the Universe and Life begins.
They better recognise that that those questions still lie very much in the realm of theology and philosophy. Heck, they best listen to the Vatican (yes, the Holy See!) which urges its faithful to listen to science!

Now back to the current score.
John Rennie, the Editor in Chief of Scientific American (not Scientific America!) gave a humorous and half-sarcastic commentary in his personal blog:
http://blog.sciam.com/index.php?title=kansas_where_ignorant_is_the_new_educate&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
and
http://blog.sciam.com/index.php?title=it_s_over_in_dover&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

A brief synopsis:
In Kansas, (in John Rennie’s words)  ’six dimwits on the state’s Board of Education voted to lower the standards for how science is taught. Needless to say, they don’t think they are lowering the standards–to the contrary, they think they are
raising them. That’s how you can tell they are dimwits.’

And in response to them changing the definition of science :
‘it’s no longer just a search for natural explanations for natural phenomena. Now it’s a search for… well, that’s a bit hard to say. Any sort of explanation, apparently. Pixies, ghosts, telekinesis, auras, ancient astronauts, excesses of choleric humor, they all seem to be fair game in the interest of "academic freedom." Oh, and God, of course.’

And now moving on to Dover, Pennsylvania the idiots who got themselves sued in court have been voted out of the Pennsylvania school board in recently concluded elections. But although the idiots have been dealt with, the court case still remains. I’m rooting for them to rule ID unconstitutional as well. =)
Those things belong in the pews, not classrooms!

Now, if you’ve survived this far, here’s some refreshing break from all the crap I’ve just posted.
http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?pic=051109_mountains_pkg_02.jpg&cap=Spitzer+image+of+the+Mountains+of+Creation%2C+or+W5%2C+in+infrared.+Inset+shows+visible+light+view+of+same+region.+Credit%3A+NASA%2FJPL-Caltech%2FHarvard-Smithsonian+CfA%2FDSS
Its a very nice infrared picture of giant clouds of gas and dust harbouring baby stars taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope titled the ‘Mountains of Creation’. Enjoy!

Ok, I’ll be ****ed. My PC is getting cranky yet again (why does it always have to happen either during my exams or holidays?) so my online schedule is bound to be affected slightly. And yes, I’ll be crapping a bit less than usual. This time, if those fellers are going to ask me to pay for a broken part again, I’m going to clobber them! After all, it already has a new CPU, new motherboard, new powerbox, new DVD-RW, new modem and router! Yeesh!

Oh, a first comment! Hooray! Thanks Bran! Well, hopefully there’s more comments coming up to help light this place up! =)

Hmm, I was planning to post something related to the Intelligent Design (ID) controvesy that entered the US courts with pro-creationism people on one side and pro science people on the other side. I guess I’ll just have to delay posting on it further for now, probably when the judges made their ruling on this case sometime mid-November.

Oh, BTW for anyone interested here’s something for you to wonder about : http://www.livescience.com/othernews/051004_sea_glow.html

So the glowing ocean myth isn’t purely fiction at all! Now if it is really an organism at work here and we can identify what it feeds on, perhaps we can come up with an organic light source! =P

Hmm, my profile views have been rising steadily since this blog’s inception. Hope that means somebody is actually reading the blog! However, the lacks of responses still leave me hanging in the air. In the meantime, I’ll just put up short blogs whenever opportunity presents itself. When the exams are over, the freaking huge blogs are going to follow. heh heh heh.

Now, for a short piece on military science. To the uninitiated, the US Armed Forces have been steadily (and quietly) implementing a plan to use Directed Energy (DE) weapons platforms from Kinetic Energy (KE) weapons (in layman’s terms, from projectiles such as bullets and missiles to primarily lasers). If I’m not very much mistaken, the plan is currently calling for operational status for some of these DE weapons platforms sometime in 2007. Some of the projects currently in the advanced testing stage are the AirBorne Laser (ABL) and another is about using microwave emitters mounted atop HMMVWs as crowd control. I might go into that at some point later in time but not now. The reason I’m blogging about it is this: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8275 (Apologies for just cutting and pasting, so please bear with me for now)

Now apparently the Air Force Research Laboratory (don’t ask me why it’s not the Army) came up with this cool looking rifle that can blind you (and seems to do nothing else). It’s bound to be of not much use on the battlefield unless you want to draw attention to yourself or as emergency signalling equipment so I’m guessing that this is yet another crowd control device. So, aspiring suicide bombers of the future, please wear the welder’s face shield or overinflated sunglasses as eye protection if you still want to drive headlong into US military checkpoints and installations at night! Don’t think about wearing protective goggles since they’ve thought of it already.
Oh, if you’re wondering what the heck is a HMMVW, it’s usually called the Humvee.

Came across this in a thread for Engineering jokes. No prior knowledge of particle physics required although it’s recommended!

A major research institution (MRI) has recently announced the discovery of the heaviest chemical element yet known to science. The new element has been tentatively named Governmentium.

Governmentium has 1 neutron, 12 assistant neutrons, 75 deputy neutrons, and 224 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.

These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert. However, it can be detected as it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A minute amount of Governmentium causes one reaction to take over four days to complete when it would normally take less than a second.

Governmentium has a normal half-life of three years; it does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, Governmentium’s mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause some morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.

This characteristic of moron-promotion leads some scientists to speculate that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a certain quantity in concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as Critical Morass

Hie there guys and girls, Huei Ming has gotten a blog at long last!

Hmm, it isn’t exactly my intention to start blogging now, in the midst of the A2 examinations but I’m simply too lazy to study at the moment! And since my fellow friend Ah Pee just made her first post recently, and mine is still empty, I guess its time to write something.
Now, you people who know me will probably have this question running around in your respective heads: “Now what on Earth can this stupid guy blog about?!?!?!”

Well, there’s no simple answer to that one yet ladies and gentlemen. But first and foremost, I will not blog solely about Physics stuff only! Have a few ideas at the moment, but I haven’t made a final decision yet. I won’t elaborate further or else it’s going to be boring when I finally make another post. Maybe I’ll just crap nonsense! Hahaha! I’ll just have to see what are the biggest news around first before blogging further.

But just wait and see people, hopefully the next blog is going to be interesting enough for you all to stop by and have a look!

Until then, please exercise your utmost patience!