Per Ardua Ad Astra

Darn it, this entry was supposed to be up half a week ago, but a freaked out friend, bureaucracy, UCAS and work came between me and this entry. Yeesh.

Anyway, on to the ‘latest’ scoop. Anybody remember ‘The Apprentice’? That’s right, the one with the ‘humble’ real-estate mogul (with a bankrupt casino) seeking somebody to work for him (and then gets fired after the year end?). Well, Donald came to help his ‘good friend’ Martha in starting up her own Apprentice series about a year ago when she got out of jail. And guess what? A year later, they’re at each other’s throats! Such are the friendships of magnates? I have no idea. Of course, their not-so-trivial spat got some prime time on the media which both sides invariably used to their own advantage, which brings to mind one obvious question: "Is it a stunt?" I don’t really care what’s going on, but its kinda fun to see 2 public personas with big egos and fat purses sparring out for all to see.

Now we move onward to a certain Harvard President. Which one, you wonder? Anybody knows who Lawrence Summers is? Feminists would. See, he’s the one who suggested that the gender disparity in sciences result from innate differences of the sexes, which provoked outrage from the female members of the scientific community (among them was Nancy Hopkins, who was featured in Campbell & Reece’s Biology 6th Ed?).

IMO he has a valid point.

No, I don’t mean that women are incapable in producing scientific works of value. In the past, their priority is usually family first, not career. Add that to gender discrimination and that’s a practically a dead end to a woman’s career advancement in science I guess. At least today the social barriers are coming down with equality between genders being promoted and technological advancements mean that mom can juggle both work and family. But if mom goes career mom and leave the kids at home, would the children get to have a holistic development as they grow up?

Although the issue was never settled for once and for all, I still think that if mom neglects to fulfill the family function as the anchor, the potential damage to society can be quite costly. After all, isn’t the family a basic functional unit of society? The ‘division of labor’ between the 2 family founders has generally evolved to the extent that the male becomes the breadwinner; the female keeps the family together. But today, the question actually boils down to this: Financial security or marital bliss? Tough choice.

All right, enough of that. We’ll have plenty of time to ponder that out. As for Mr. Summers, he’s probably looking for another job now, since he has resigned to avoid getting fired in another scandal. More on that here.

It’s still a looooong way from April 1, but The Economist decided to spread some Christmas joy by launching a competition to find the best pranks of all time, in this article on japes (I didn’t even know the word exists!). Oh, do check out the websites in the Related Items section on the top 100 April Fools pranks! Might as well start getting ready for the big day eh? hehehe. I love what the Yale students did, and for what those

Cambridge

students did. What great fun and organisation! Well, there was an article in Discover back in 2005 that detailed the life in the MIT campus. The article was both funny and scary at the same time, and made me think twice about trying for someplace as outstanding as MIT (among them is that I’m not ’scheming’ enough). And they did a lot of things with the dome before, among them was turning it into the ‘One Ring’ complete with the Elvish inscription. But still, with the mantra ‘Friends, sleep and work, choose two’, it’s quite a demanding place to be (although I’d bet it’s also a fun place to be). Anyhow, have fun going through the articles!

For those of us that visit Jason’s pseudoblog, you would doubtless be well acquainted with his entry on evolution, and the entry generated quite some feedback. It’s supposed to be an anomaly, since nobody ‘in their right mind’ visits it, but yet foreseeable by looking at the amount of debate generated in the Internet. Perhaps, perhaps I need to eke myself further out on controversial issues to generate more comments on my site. But however, comments or no comments, part of my vision of blogging is to fight the evils of misinformation and fundamentalism out there by presenting facts as impartially as possible. Now, enough of me talking about my lofty aims.

As I was saying, while they’re busy trying to make sense of what Romanticism is and how Evolution really shapes us in the pseudoblog, I came across a couple of pieces on the origins of life itself. So here is more facts for thought. The first was an analysis by The Economist, ‘In the beginning…’ on the current scientific school of thoughts on how life came to being. Nothing new in particular, if you’ve been reading the related chapter in Biological Science 2 (the first half of the analysis has already been elaborated on in the text), so it can serve as a refresher (or crash course) in getting to know the current lines of thought on how the first molecules of life came into being.

The other, a lengthy article in Discover titled ‘Unintelligent Design’ presents a new view of particles that exist in between the worlds of living and non-living objects. Apparently, viruses, or Latin for ‘poisonous slime’, could be our ultimate ‘mother cell’ of all life! How ironic. These ‘unliving’ crystalline particles which propagates by hijacking nuclei (and eventually killing the living cell) are actually the precursors of life itself. Their simplicity, and the fact that segments of our genome contain viral DNA, seems to be the irrefutable proof of this conjecture. Well, regardless of how this postulate turns out, the distinction of life and non-life is now completely blurred out by viruses. That’s because they just found the largest virus ever, one that can be seen under a light microscope! Imagine, from the nanoscale to the microscale! Must be like discovering that Jupiter and the Sun are the same.

Next, healthy chocolate bars! Unfortunately, we’re still better off eating vegetables and fruits (and it’s still cheaper!). What a bummer. BTW, it’s not the cocoa that’s unhealthy; it’s what they add to make chocolate bars. My conclusion? Go eat bittersweet chocolate.

Want more healthy stuff? Look, natural cures! Wait, look again. Just another one of those people out to get your cash whatever the cost. It was funny though, seeing how Michael Shermer sarcastically goes through some of the recommendations made in the book.

Gotten sick of those ‘healthy’ promotionals? Wait till you hear this, research that is actually fun to read! Darn those researchers, getting paid to count teaspoons! Too bad they can’t tell us quantitatively if buying Harry Potter books can reduce medical expenses by the same amount or more.

And for a little of foreign relations, the US is courting India by offering them a membership into the official nuclear club (I assume that everybody knows the 5 members). So that’s why Chirac is in New Delhi (but then, who cares?). If you ask me, that’s one step close to having India on the UN Security Council. The other leading Asian candidate IMO, Japan seems further from getting their seat on the UNSC. They just don’t get the point of apologising. Hopefully, it wouldn’t get to the point where ‘Sorry is not enough’. So far, India seems to be a more benign (except, perhaps in China and Pakistan’s POV) and responsible caretaker of atomic weapons (unlike Iran and Pakistan), so it’s good place for that country to start emerging as a world player. Now, if only they continue keeping their hands away from the red button …

It’s another failure for the NPT, but at least there is no major arms race sparked off anywhere, and nobody is threatening to nuke anyone yet. Except Iran,openly hostile in an already volatile region. Not my problem, I hear you say? Go Iran, nuke Israel! I don’t care! You know why you should care? If the day comes when somebody throws sanctions or bomb Iran, you could be walking and having candle-lit nights the next. It’s a bit on the exaggerating side, but if the crude oil and gasoline prices shoot up as predicted in such a situation, your mamak trips, MSN chatting, DoTA sessions, anime watching sessions are going to be in danger of being severely curtailed. Now that is going to be a little personal, I bet.

lol, to end by dispensing a little doom and gloom. Happy pondering!

P.S. Ben, that’s a darned good entry on the cartoon issue! For some reason, when you said  ‘wearing a turban and wielding a sword while shouting Allahu Akbar’ this came to my mind.

Copyright Time.com

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

That is one of the most famous lines in English literature. The opening line from Jane Austen’s most famous novel, Pride and Prejudice. Now why would I suddenly talk about literature? Well, I finally got a chance to watch the latest screen adaptation of the novel. How did I find it? The storyline is good (duh!), the scenery is beautiful (it reminded me of King Arthur somehow) and the screenplays from the actors are well done! For once it is a refreshing change from all those blockbuster movies that only seemed to care about avowing its audience with breathtaking CGI and special effects. Nothing to go ‘Wow’ about, but it leaves a nice warm glow in your heart.

Apart from the usual inaccuracies that always happen in novel adaptations, the movie was a nice way to enjoy the essence of the novel without the long winded descriptions afforded in the book, in following how Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy overcame their respective pride and prejudice in ending up in holy matrimony. Sigh, if only real life could be as nicely scripted and have happy endings such as this. An ideal world, where love can overcome social barriers, where intelligence and wit proves to be as equally attractive as physical beauty itself. It is quite a nice story from beginning to finish, where a person’s pride is revealed as a front for a loyal and generous nature, where a person’s prejudice is revealed as flawed, from they affronting each other’s vanity, to tragic misunderstanding between them both, poor Mr. Darcy being put at fault for what he thought was in the best interests of everyone, the awkward moments as they try to make amends with each other, all leading to the beautiful ending. And it was kind of fun, to see Mr. Darcy tripping over himself over Elizabeth. Even more hilarious was the part where Mr. Bingley rehearsing in trying to overcome his nervousness in proposing to Jane. I’m sure; most of us can imagine being in that kind of position, distracted, tongue-tied and desperately trying to please at the same time. Nice, very nice movie indeed.

But I was still slightly outraged by the idea of mothers ‘trading’ their daughters off to suitors, like a commodity! Unfortunately, this kind of mentality still exists today, and is still a part of life across the Middle East. The sad thing is, it’s the women themselves who are amongst the loudest voices in demanding more restrictions in the region, which is both ironic and paradoxical at the same time.

Also, is it just me or the director is particularly fond of including the sun in scenes and zooming in? The soundtrack was quite pleasant, and blends in nicely. Been trying to get my hands on the soundtrack, but it’s a little like trying to find a needle in a haystack at the moment. And the temptation to go read novels is back again, but unfortunately time is short. But the quote I remember best is still “We are all fools in love.” Such a resoundingly true statement, don’t you think?

Other than that, I finally got to watch The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe! Yeah, yeah, I am really behind time, but I’m trying to keep up with things as best as I could. Although the story is less complex than LOTR, it still displays the same grandeur and diversity in portraying another world. If I remember correctly, the swords used in the movie are made of rubber, and that knowledge colours my experience of the movie slightly. And Georgie Henley’s reaction to the forest is actually genuine, and not ‘mere acting’ as it was her first time seeing the set. One odd thing though, for a young teen, Peter managed to choose an excellent defensive location to place his troops, and using ‘artillery’ to bombard the enemy as they charged. But yes, there were bad strategic decisions made. The archers was not put to better employment, and Peter should have made a charge downhill for maximum effect. Again, the soundtrack by Harry Gregson-Williams is simply splendid, and again, I’m looking for movie soundtracks.

Yes, if you haven’t noticed already, I have a liking for movie soundtracks. I think I’ve amassed quite a collection of songs composed by Hans Zimmer, Harry Gregson-Williams, John Williams, Howard Shore and many others. That’s among the reasons why I’ve stopped listening to radio. It’s more elegant and magnificent, and less distracting when I take my daily ‘drinking from the firehose’.

What else, Alexander, Riddick, Behind Enemy Lines, U-571, the Band of Brothers miniseries! And my family wondered why I had such a liking for war. Well, these quotes sum up my preoccupation with war, the death and destruction that comes with it.

"So long as there are men there will be wars."

- Albert Einstein

"All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers."

- Francois Fenelon

"Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die."

- Herbert Hoover

"They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s

country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying.

You will die like a dog for no good reason."

- Ernest Hemmingway

"War is delightful to those who have not experienced it."

- Erasmus

"We make war that we may live in peace."

- Aristotle

"I don’t know whether war is an interlude during peace, or peace is an

interlude during war."

- Georges Clemenceau

"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived."

- General George S. Patton

"We happy few, we band of brothers/For he today that sheds his blood with

me/Shall be my brother."

- William Shakespeare, King Henry V

"Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble and beautiful end of a

human being."

- Kahlil Gibran, "The Voice of the Poet

"You know the real meaning of peace only if you have been through the war."

- Kosovar

As war is so much a part of human life and forms such a huge part of our history, why not endeavour to understand its nature and reality? War, it is often said, brings out the best and the worst in man, so it might be a good place to examine our ‘true’ selves. The horrifying atrocities committed, the hardships endured, the cruelty inflicted to the firm bonds of brotherhood, the brilliance and ingenuity of leaders, the resilience of society in enduring suffering. But all that were overshadowed by the ‘glamorous’ aspect of war, fighting. All that was properly addressed in the Band of Brothers, but the usual response I’ve heard was "After all the action, it gets boring". Well, for me it was quite engrossing in whole, when you try to delve into what they’re trying to show you, that war is never as glamorous and fun as it seemed. Erasmus was right.

Drat, I think I’ve overdone it this time.

P.S. : I’ve never known before this, but thanks to a dear friend, I’ve recently been made aware that the ‘it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country’ part in Ernest Hemmingway’s quote actually referred to Dulce et Decorum Est. Such is my ignorance. My gratitude, for the help in opening my eyes. You know who you are. Merci, mon cher!

You know what, this is getting boring. Somebody going off this week or the other, all bound for the same city, but different campuses. Who is it this time? My fellow PM13er Natassya, and her friend Ling Mien, aiming for Biological Sciences and Actuarial Science, respectively at the University of Melbourne. Adieu!

Contrary to most people’s reaction to departures, I’m quite ambivalent to it. That might seem pretty heartless of me, but a few factors helped facilitate it. Among them was my experiences in the last 2 years meeting new friends and then parting ways soon after, my increasing preoccupation with the Internet allowing me to keep close contact with friends while not necessarily being in the same town, and things that demand my attention (yeah, college is over but working helped retain the status quo).

That, helped me alienate myself from the sorrows of people going on here and there, although not the subsequent emptiness when the realisation sets in that they’re in different time zones, and there’s less people around here now. Hopefully, by the end of this year, I’ll be just like them. Gaining new experience, and going through the rigours of gaining knowledge (otherwise known as the horrors of study). But currently, my dreams and reality are worlds apart, and the gulf seemed to be widening. My aim wavers, but hopefully my zeal remains unscathed. The Monash, Nottingham, and NUS or elsewhere question still lingers, but somehow I’m still hoping for something more, much more…trying to bite off more I can chew again. I never learnt from my lessons.

And the wait, has been stretched longer. Thanks to bureaucracy, my long wait is still unended. A trip to Shah Alam, filling in some forms and paying some fee is required, before the shipment undertakes its final leg of its journey, from KLIA to SJ.

Apart from the gloom, and the flickering of hope, at least all is not doom and gloom. As for my project, another round of testing was completed recently. Luckily, no negatives turned up. But most surprisingly, the results turned up to be exactly what I predicted it would be! Nothing much to cheer about, but at least it’s one less thing to be depressed about. Paradoxical right? I’m heartless, yet feel for things, and also apparently perpetually cheerful, but yet so depressed? Yup, I’m a unique bag of jigsaw puzzles, each piece of a different face, yet when fully assembled, yield another picture. It’s stable now, which is a happy thing for me. Something like a safe harbor in the midst of a chaotic sea, it provides a means for me to keep my head, when so much around me threatens to do otherwise. Now, on to the next phase! Slowly but gradually, of course!

Plus, it’s late for a something related to Valentines, but this is dedicated to the nice guys and girls out there. It’s the same thing Christine posted on Friendster, and what Joyce blogged about. I know some nice guys, but very little nice girls, so that shows how pathetic my life is.

Gosh, the title reminds me of what Mich usually do in chatrooms

Just less than a week after going over to Heng Lin’s house to say goodbye to him (who’s now in Melbourne), it’s time to say goodbye to another bunch of Seafieldians; Jia Yee, Nicholas, Hui Kean and Lionel who’s going over there tonight.

So, to say farewell to them, Timothy, Michelle, Joyce, Hazwan and I (Sebastian, Tim’s sister, Cheng Choo, Chee Wei and Johnny took the other car) went all the way to KLIA for a farewell hug and wave goodbye. Hopefully, there wasn’t any police watching on the highway today, because we sped all the way there at 190kmh to reach there in time. It’s a hair raising speed, especially with what happened to Keegan in mind, but luckily Tim’s Honda Accord was sturdy enough to handle that kind of speed. And summore my parents advised me to go slow before I left home! Yet we went along at more than halfway to takeoff speed!

We reached there with more than enough time to spare. And there we got a surprise farewell party at McD. JY’s parents just bought extra food for us when we came(thanks!). Took a few photos and chatted a while as the group split into two to see the other guys off.

In the end, all of us didn’t get to see everyone off. All because the guys quietly went first. So in a way, it was a bit wasted but at least everyone got somebody to say goodbye to. It wasn’t a tearful farewell or sth, because so many of us are going over there, so it’s like I’ll see you in a bit, or we’ll see you online (yep, modern technology sure helps). Well, my dear pet sis, I won’t miss you much since you keep bugging me with problems with your laptop, but we’ll keep in touch won’t we?

After all the farewells were over and done with, Mich took over the wheel and we all went back at a ‘leisurely’ max speed of 140kmh (Note: Mich, don’t ever let your parents see this! ;P).

While on the way, I reflected on my life so far, and felt quite confused and lost. Yes, like a boat adrift in a vast sea, with the desired land nowhere in sight. Friends are flying off there and here, and here I am, still here and not fully decided on what to do next. After all, my parents and myself are at odds with each other on where I should go next. First, they insisted that I go to Monash, then Nottingham Malaysia campus. Me, I have loftier dreams (yeah, I always try to chew off more than I can swallow, and that was one reason why I failed miserably in S’pore). For now, I just hope something works out for the best.

Then, we dropped by Cafe Flem at Pyramid for dinner/supper and chatted for a while there before coming back. While there, I got a chance to sample a martini (think it’s a red martini or sth). To illustrate how little I consume alcohol, the closest taste I can relate it to was mouthwash (actually, it’s because mouthwash consists mostly of alcohol). After all, the alcohol I drink is usually a sip or two of wine once in a while, and the little of XO my mom put into marinated meat once in a while.

And now, feeling a bit tipsy and tired plus a bit lightheaded thanks to Tim turning about there and here like a madman, causing us at the back to be tossed about there and here, here I am blogging…

And waiting…

At last, the day of reckoning is finally at hand!

The long awaited moment!

The glorious moment!

All right, I’m getting delirious.

Hopefully, I’ll get what I’ve been hoping for ages on Tuesday.

It’s the beginning of the end of my quest to be connected.

I’m just like a child on Christmas Eve now.

I’d better try to remain sane till then.

It’s coming, It’s coming!

While waiting for the day to come, a friend suggested something to me. Well, I’ve been working on this pet project of mine for quite some time, and it has been consuming much of my attention lately (I’m starting to get obsessed with my project yet again, a hard to kill habit of mine). It all started on an impulse, and I’ve pretty much lost track of how long I’ve been working on this. So far, I think the project is progressing well on some parts, but on some other fronts I always ended up back at square one when I tried to make some progress. That’s right, stuck at a bloody deadlock. Just like doing accounting, but you keep on ending back at a figure that isn’t right. Doing this kind of stuff practically all by yourself without people to help you out is quite challenging, so finally I’ve yielded and asked for help. Some things are best understood from another perspective, and a second opinion never hurts. J

Other than that, from what I’ve worked out so far I think some data I’m getting is faulty. And it’s one hell of a time figuring out which is real and what is a mere facade, an illusion (that’s right, I think somebody is deliberately misleading me here, or that I’ve been incredibly stupid, again!). Back to double checking and see if I’ve missed anything. And then my friend urged me to get it all done with and finish it up quickly! Just get it done and over with! Yeah yeah, I know your project is already complete, so now you’re trying to goad me along too? ;P It’s not a competition! To be honest, I’d love to get it finished soon, but the last two similar projects ended in abject failure, and I fully intend to see this project to fruition. No, this is a delicate thing, like trying to grasp a flower, but if you rush, you’ll just end up crushing it. It seems complete, but to me, there’s still plenty of things to sort through.

Nope, no rushing there. Better to do things slowly and meticulously. But you’re right, can’t do things too slowly or else the whole thing is pointless, rendered obsolete. Yeesh. But at least I have one thing less to bother about. It’s coming at last, it’s coming!

It’s already Friday morning, so do the figuring out what day I was referring to. Yee Pei blogged about the events briefly alluded to towards the end of my latest blog. Thanks Pei, at least I can sit back and relax a little and rest my fingers for a brief while.

So, if you’re interested, hop over there for photos of the RM300 prize for the 5A achievers (it’s quite small actually, about an inch in diameter), the Chocolate Indulgence cake we got for Ling Mien and Nat and the new PM13 couple. And Pei, I agree. Memang Sepet! hahahaha. As usual, with the typical ignorance and stupidity that I possess, I finally found out after all this while what is the true purpose of the experiment and variables Say & Chris were experimenting about. Say, a very special day is coming up soon, so pandai pandai lah ar?

All right, first up my good friend Jason Lim came up with quite an interesting entry in his blog about my entries on evolution and ID. For those who wouldn’t know him, he’s a great guy I had the honor of meeting while I was an ASEAN Scholar a loooooong time ago. We had a great time teaching some bits and pieces of theoretical physics to a ‘worm’ back then. Hmm, teaching wormholes to a worm, how often does that happen eh? Those were the good old days. By the time you’ve read this Jason, you’ve already read my response posted at your blog. Not much to add on because most of what I have to say have already been said here on my own blog. And note this now Jason, I am not to blame for any loss of sanity for reading my blog. So read on at your own risk! ;P

And then there’s Vee Vian with her second blog. Seems that all the ‘harsh realities’ of life are settling in and she needs a place to vent it all out. Although her entries may be a bit depressing for idealistic minds, it is still quite enjoyable reading her engaging description and thoughts of herself, society and the world through her point of view. Keep on going girl, with the entries! And that comment you ‘demanded’, I’ll give you one in due time. Just don’t chew off my head for my tardiness.

Enough about blogs. Let’s move on with something else.

Like say, the furore over the Prophet Muhammad cartoons among Muslims. This Time article, ‘Your Taboo, Not Mine’ takes quite an interesting view of the situation. But I would also like to echo a writer in quoting this line attributed to Voltaire, "I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it." That sums up the perception on religion and freedom of speech perfectly. And also, I still think that this issue is disproportionately blown out of proportion (must be the fault of politicians and religious zealots). For those of you who still wondered about the cartoons, you can go have a look at them here and here. To me, it’s just cartoons. Don’t know about you people out there. A blog has also been set up to follow the whole hullabaloo here at Blogspot.

Moving on, MSNBC probably came up with this Web-Exclusive Commentary on ‘Tech Ties That Bind’. This is probably related to Valentines coming up next Tuesday (but has been of little significance to me for as long as I remember). So much for the pessimists of modern technology. True, it may minimise physical contact among our acquaintances, but it does strengthen pre-existing bonds in the family. Glad to know that Nokia’s vision of ‘human technology’ in mobilising our lives does, in some small way bring the world together for us (at a price of course, as they run on money too). But most of all it looks like geeks would be most delighted with this article, as their vast knowledge with operating electronics will be viewed as an asset now, not a liability for those electronically illiterate potential spouses out there. Might be a good time for me to go learn to operate more electronic gadgets too.

On the other hand, we July 2004 intakers just had our Award Ceremony for the A-Levels top scorers. Needless to say, you people would have guessed my results. Thanks to CIE for being so generous with their exam questions, my results came out looking quite good. Not as good as I wanted, but I must be thankful for what I get. After all, there is always another time to sit for exams. So, what did I get? A 4.02 gram souvenir worth RM71 per gram. With workmanship, that adds up to RM300. No comments on whether the reward measures up to the achievement awarded, but my dad rewarded me with much more.

And then, after a short stop for refreshments it was off to have a farewell gathering for Ling Mien and Natassya at MidValley, who are scheduled to leave for Australia next Tuesday and Thursday respectively. They would be bound for University of Melbourne studying Actuarial Science and Biomedical Sciences respectively, joining my other friends Heng Lin and Lionel in going over to study there. Enjoy life Down Under ladies! Will post more on this later. That’s all for now.

P.S. : I nearly forgot! Thank you so much Thinesh for your strawberries brought all the way here (from Genting I think)! It better not be from a shop!

Ooh, finally. Somebody came in support of evolution after all in the Star Education. Looks like my pessimistic opinion that nobody would bother to come out and support evolution is wrong after all. Well, to be sure, nobody came out and said that creationist science is wrong and why so, but Dr Mazlan Madon sure did a great job by sidestepping the whole debate and hitting the nail dead squarely on the head by saying that creationism, ID and its variants (ID is just creation science renamed to avoid the Supreme Court ruling forbidding the teaching of religious related science in schools, because of the separation of Church and State and also because it isn’t science, so in essence they are the one and the same, just relabelled).

Anyhow, Researcher did come out and write again. Apparently, the writer too wishes to sidestep the creationist science thingy. Why most scientists do that is to avoid getting into a useless debate with those who advocate creation themed ‘science’. For example, if some evolutionist illustrates the gradual change of one species using fossil evidence, the creationist will argue that it is inconclusive evidence, because there are missing gaps in the fossil evidence (where is the fossil in between these 2 fossils then? It’s not continuous! So evolution is wrong!) and so forth. So it’s pretty useless to convince the unbeliever in this case. And to top it all off, they think that evolutionists should burn in Hell for not believing! Pretty harsh judgement to pass off isn’t it? Sigh, the extreme views people can hold can be pretty astounding.

But IMHO, evolution and God can still be reconciled. Many scientists do acknowledge this fact, science and religion can be reconciled. Well, to simply put it like this you can still get the best of both worlds: God created Man using the mechanisms of evolution and natural selection. In this way, how we came into being, and who created us are answered satisfactorily form both the religious and scientific concept. End of story. As for MOSTI advocating creationist science, that’s more of a political or religious issue than science I think.

Moving on to the next part of the Researcher’s letter, he mentions another statement in a survey described in the ‘The Public Awareness of Science and Technology Malaysia 2000’ publication. The statement goes like this ‘The Universe began with a huge explosion’. The statement is deemed False. The Researcher is again up in arms again, over this statement. In his view, it means that MOSTI is proclaiming that the Big Bang theory is wrong!

But hold on a minute! To me, the Big Bang was always a fishy concept. If it is really an explosion in the conventional sense (a really humongous bomb going off), then it is really odd. Think about it. When a bomb goes off, there is a huge expansion of space in between the atoms of the explosives material of the bomb going off. So it’s essentially like a block of solid combusting to become vapour almost instantaneously and sending shrapnel everywhere in the process (standard college level Chemistry, explosions are reactions involving extremely high rate of reactions).

So is the Big Bang literally a Big Bang? I didn’t think so. Because, an explosion would require pre-existing space to expand into! In that case, it would be an infinitely compact singularity of matter exploding into an infinite space. Now why is the singularity there and why did it go off? What caused it to go off? Where did the infinite space come about? So at that time I concluded that I must have understood the Big Bang concept, because the infinite space must have come from somewhere, and hope to be able to understand it better later on. Thanks to SciAm, their article ‘Misconceptions about the Big Bang’ helped me resolve all my questions (well, almost) and all is well now. And to answer the question ‘Is the Big Bang literal?’ most specifically, please refer to this sidebar, second point for a summary of the main article. And if the Researcher ever read this, please read the sidebar too! Note: Yep, space is expanding, but we don’t expand and planets fly apart because subatomic forces and gravity continue to hold us together, so you can’t blame the Big Bang for getting fatter! Besides, if that really happens, the measuring tape will be expanding at the same rate too, and the measurement will still stay the same.

So for the evolution statement, the Researcher is right. MOSTI is wrong. But for the Big Bang statement, I think it’s the Researcher that had the misconception. But at least the main issue is laid to rest, for now…

"Today we pause to remember the loss of all of our employees, including our Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia astronauts, and to honor their legacy. Nearly 50 years into the space age, spaceflight remains the pinnacle of human challenge, an endeavor just barely possible with today’s technology. We at NASA are privileged to be in the business of learning how to do it, to extend the frontier of the possible, and, ultimately, to make space travel routine. It is an enormously difficult enterprise. The losses we commemorate today are a strong and poignant reminder of the sternness of the challenge."

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin

In honour of those NASA astronauts lost in ‘the line of duty’, the agency designates January 26^th as a day to remember the ones that had gave their lives in the pursuit of exploration and discovery, most prominently the fallen heroes of 3 different missions (click on images to enlarge), the crew of Apollo 1, January 27, 1967, lost in a fire on the launch pad during a test,

The crew of space shuttle Challenger, lost during takeoff, January 28, 1986 and,

                                             

                                                                                                                              
                                                               
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

The crew of space shuttle Columbia, lost during re-entry, February 1, 2003.

                                                               

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Copyright Time Magazine

                                             

So, it seems that the ‘last frontier’ is still a forbidding place for us humans to go to right? But spacecrafts are designed to be highly survivable, reliable and have multiple redundancies. So how did it happen? Well, apparently the answer goes like this. They are complex systems, having up to millions of individual components in them. If any one of these parts fails, lives wouldn’t be at stake. But history has shown that the weakest link in the chain is us fallible humans. The events leading to these disasters take time to unfold (the saying ‘a nail in time saves nine, a tile in time saves a hundred’ is probably the most useful one to remember here), and they happen because nobody manages to catch them and add two and two together. Or sometimes, the engineers submit to the decisions of the mission managers although they have misgivings.

The Apollo 1 crew was killed when a spark ignited the materials in the cabin filled with 16++ psi pure oxygen. They were killed within 17 seconds of the first cry of ‘Fire!’ from the command module. The cause: Smoke inhalation.

"In space, the cabin would be filled with pure oxygen, but at 5.2 to 5.6 psi, not at 16+ psi. Outside the cabin the pressure was zero-the vacuum of space. The command module was designed to handle a positive pressure differential of about 8psi from inside to outside, but only a 1 or 2 psi negative differential from outside to inside. If the outside pressure was 2 psi higher than inside the cabin, the pressure hull could implode."

Chris Kraft, from his book ‘Flight’

                                             

Later, in tests, it was found that even a solid bar of aluminium burst into flame when ignited in a 16psi pure oxygen atmosphere. At 6 psi, the fires can easily be contained but at 16 psi, it is like a bomb waiting to go off. All it takes is a spark from an exposed wire (of which the command module have miles of wiring) and…

For Challenger, short story is the launch managers decided to launch when the temperatures are below the recommended operating temperatures of some shuttle components, as the launch was behind schedule. In this case, the ‘O-ring’ seal on the solid rocket booster sealing a joint failed. Fire leaked from the seal during ascent, and damaged the main external tank. The shuttle and tank rapidly disintegrated, and the cabin containing the crew fell down while the boosters continue to fly upwards before being self-destructed. The crew did not die then. The shuttle was not destroyed in the explosion of the external tank, but the crew was most likely rendered unconscious. They died when the shuttle impacted the sea, but it might be possible that some was conscious until then as some of them are ex USAF pilots, so they would have higher thresholds for the changes in acceleration than civilian astronauts (more Challenger myth busted here. Lesson for all: If the manufacturer says it’s not safe to use it under these conditions, listen!

Columbia? They saw the foam, larger than any ever seen before, hitting the wing of the shuttle, reasoned that it’s nothing unusual, and did nothing beyond doing some computer modelling, of which the model is unsuitable for foam (this is no spongy or squishy foam, but hard rigid foam) of such a size. And so, the crew came back in, and never touched ground again. If they have made real life tests, the outcome might have been very much different, because here are the results.

                                                               

This was only a glancing blow…

                                                                                                                                                   

                                                                                                                                                                                             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

But it left an 18-inch gaping hole in the wing.

P.S. I’m terribly sorry for multiple edits, but the HTML coding was faulty this time round, so I have to manually recode some sections of this blog.