Per Ardua Ad Astra

Yes, they share the same surname and they’re both Muslims. But that doesn’t seem to be all of the similarities.

While I was reading The Star over the weekend, I saw this interview with our local Hussein. On the page was a small picture of him brandishing the keris.

Imagine this…

Image courtesy utusan.com.my

…just that he was holding the keris straight up to the sky. Just like a lightning rod. Ironically, that is what he became in the media lately. The lightning rod for UMNO critics.

When I saw the photo, I was suddenly reminded of the Iraqi Hussein.

Why?

Although most might not remember the photo I had in mind, I believe that the essence of that picture of Saddam Hussein remained in the Malaysian public’s subconscious. Not in the conscious mind because the photo was taken way back in 2001 (this proves my brain’s capacity for storing junk and linking them together btw) and nobody has publicly drawn attention to this two photos.

Granted, it might be too controversial/sensitive to be publicised. As such, I am not implying anything by drawing the link here, just trying to put a finger on why the general public was spooked by the keris waving (besides the fact that it’s a weapon!).

Now, for the next photo.

Saddam Hussein staged a surprise military parade back in late 2000. Can you remember how he started off the military parade?

Image courtesy bbc.co.uk

That’s right, by brandishing a rifle and firing two shots.

Now can somebody please tell me this is purely coincidental?

NUSians!

D-Day is today!

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.org

Good luck for the finals everybody!

May the Grace of the Valar protect you!

P.S. For the rest of you about to face the demons that awaits you at the end of term, best wishes to you too! I would have used the Star Wars parting words, if it wasn’t for ls who used it first.

Ich bin so dumm. Should have looked for this waaaay before finishing my papers!

Need to cite, but don’t know the format?

Never fear, here’s the Son of Citation Machine to the rescue!

MLA, APA and Chicago formats available.

Looking for sources to cite? Go look for them yourself you lazy bum! There’s plenty of articles and journal archives available online!

NOTE: Please double check with your own guidebooks and lecturers for the respective styles when consulting this machine. I am not responsible for any formatting anomalies that might arise from blind copying of the output produced by the citation machine.

Credit goes to Zhen Guang for passing me this The Age article when I’m supposed to be reading Singaporean policy papers and speeches as well as writing my own paper.

I’m still in the middle of quite a lot of stuff so I’ll make this quick. I’ll ‘reappear’ on the face of the Earth this NovDec 4, so stay tuned.

As you can already summarise I was handed this article in the Australian paper titled "While Malaysia fiddles, its opportunities are running dry" by Michael Backman. Read and see why the author calls our country ‘Malaysia Bodoh’ and not ‘Malaysia Boleh’. It’s enlightening in some aspects. Here are some excerpts.

Now I understand what the fuss on the Malay corporate equity is all about:

The long-held aim is for 30 per cent of corporate equity to be in Malay hands…. It bases its figure on equity valued, not at market value, but at par value.

Many shares have a par value of say $1 but a market value of $12. And so the Government figure (18.9 per cent is the most recent figure) is a gross underestimate. Last month a paper by a researcher at a local think-tank came up with a figure of 45 per cent based on actual stock prices. All hell broke loose. The paper was withdrawn and the researcher resigned in protest. Part of the problem is that he is Chinese. (emphasis added)

At least you can’t say our bureaucrats can’t count. It’s just that they’re counting the sheep instead of the wool.

And he’s quite right about the KLCC too.

Malaysians are very proud of these towers. Goodness knows why. They had little to do with them. The money for them came out of the ground and the engineering was contracted out to South Korean companies.

You’re quite right Mr. Backman. In fact, I used to wonder the same thing too. I still do.

On the proposed RM490 million Sports Complex in London.

…the Government announced that …so that Malaysian athletes can train there and "get used to cold weather".

But the summer Olympics are held in the summer.

So what is the complex’s real purpose? The dozens of goodwill missions by ministers and bureaucrats to London to check on the centre’s construction and then on the athletes while they train might provide a clue.

Ah, now I get it. Our politicians are athletes! Those air-conditioning systems in Putrajaya must need some real adjusting to when they perform their ‘acts’.

Since they didn’t think of something easy like adjusting the thermostat control, I can summarise another fact: They forgot the thermostat control when they built Putrajaya. To be fair, they didn’t realise that we’ll need air conditioning when you built Middle Eastern architecture in the South East Asia in the first place.

Honourable sirs, I think London isn’t that cold. Maybe you should try Siberia. The land’s cheaper than London, and it’s far colder…provided that global warming haven’t gotten there first. Waaait…doesn’t it happen in London too? I mean, global warming’s global, right?

On his website, he has another piece. This one is written in response to our brethren emailing him. You can check it out here. Below is a part of it.

Since my column was published, plans for a new RM400 million Istana have been announced…

It seems that the Istana is no longer big enough to accommodate all the functions they’re having. The first thought that loomed in my mind when I read The Star’s article then was: Emperor Nero on ‘kenduris’? Maybe they should try a diet program instead. I think it’s cheaper. Besides, the SPB YDPA (the abbreviated King’s full title) already has a retreat in Putrajaya and he needs yet another residence there?

On our first ‘angkasanaut’ and my pet subject of space exploration, Space.com announced M’sian space plans before, but they didn’t announce this piece this time round (thankfully!). I found out through The Star, and Mr. Backman knew about it too:

…and the Agriculture Ministry parliamentary secretary has told Parliament that Malaysia’s first astronaut will be playing batu seremban and spinning tops and making teh tarik while in space.

Yes, and it’s costing us nearly RM100 million people! That is enough for us to send 100 people to the UK to study Medicine! Maybe 200 rocket scientists (more if we send them to Russia)

I’ve always thought it’s a farce to send a Malaysian up by paying somebody to send him/her up. Even then, I knew that space tourism will get there faster (SpaceShipOne eventually did it in 2004). National pride in sending somebody up? The pride is in being able to send up people on your own, not by paying for a ticket you fool! I never forgave Dr. M for doing this.

Now, WHAT THE HELL does the Agriculture Ministry gotta do with PLAYING GAMES IN SPACE? Look, having the Agriculture Ministry announcing that they’ll experiment with paddy up there is fine, but this is pushing things too much! What kind of space experiment is that, to prove with batu seremban Newton’s First Law of Motion? Hello, they’re already testing general relativity with Gravity Probe B!

I have heard of many ludicrous things while reading space exploration history and space tourism plans. Nuking the Moon, deliberately stranding people on the Moon/Mars and even a sex ’sock’ for 0-G encounters but this wins hands down. Yes, there are countless scientists around the world who would give anything for the opportunity to go to space and do real experiments, and we’re spending RM100 million for an astronaut to frolic in space. Are we retards or what? Memang pun ‘Malaysia Bodoh’!

P.S. : Rafidah, the AP Queen came out to rebut this in The Star here.

The Wanita Umno chief said the Australian writer had apparently not followed the Umno general assembly proceedings closely. 

“If he did, he would have seen things differently.” 

Datuk Seri, IMHO, I think Mr. Backman followed our UMNO proceedings close enough. He’s seeing things differently, because he’s a thinking adult you see.

Been occupied lately, shall be home soon. Hopefully I’ll be able to do some real studying then. A big thank you goes to all the well-wishers. My apologies for not giving a personal response to each and every one of you, but I’ll get to it soon enough.

Anyhow, here are three cartoons that sums up my thoughts about the elections best. Can’t find any better ones.

What the Democrats actually won

The task awaiting the incoming ‘lady of the house’

On her leadership direction with the Big Man

Images courtesy of Time.com

How often do you press the button?

I was waiting for the elevator to get back to my room after dinner just now and bumped into my Swede clustermate. Yes, I know it sounds just like sweet but next time will you just listen to the emphasis on the letter ‘d’ (the ‘e’ at the end of Swede is silent) and ‘t’ at the end of the word?. Ceeesh!

Anyway, while going up after having pressed the buttons, he remarked to me that Asians love to repeatedly mash the close button (presumably until the door is closed, or else that is definitely a psychological thing) which is in stark contrast with people in his homeland as nobody practically uses the close button there. What did I do?

I gave him a guilty smile. Oh, I remembered that I didn’t touch the close door button at all this time (although I might have unconsciously pressed the button ONCE). Nevertheless, I do use the close door button almost all the time but that depends on my relaxed/stressed mood.

So, in defending us Asians that uses the button, I replied:

"Well, at least we [make use of] it over here."

Oh yeah, must not forget to post this. It’s just, so adorable and so touching! Lesson to us 2 legged and 2 handed humans: If a Kiwi bird can ‘fly’, we’d be able to do it too! (although that means landing with a ‘BLAM’)

Hope this guy makes it to Pixar someday!

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.org. Credit for finding the video goes to Ivan Ong.

At last, I got time to blog on what I wanted to blog all weekend and the Internet connection is being very cooperative.

So, blue has finally replaced red in the Governor mansions, House of Representatives and the Senate. Well, many are rooting for change in government policy both domestic and foreign but I’m still doubtful given the weak majority the Dems hold in the Senate. After all, the Dems didn’t win, the Republicans lost. About the only thing I’m cautiously optimistic of is a future change in policies concerning federal grants for biomedical research (esp. stem cell research), more effort done on tackling global warming (they can’t do any less than what they are already doing) and to a lesser extent space exploration. As for having the guts to send in more troops to stabilise Iraq so they can bring them home faster, I doubt they have it. North Korea and Iran? It’ll just continue to drag on as usual. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about today.

I’m starting to be convinced that the beginning of the end of Pax Americana may have arrived. It wasn’t the military failure in Iraq that convinced me, nor the diplomatic failures on Iran and North Korea, and definitely not the economy with its growing budget deficit. It was something more dangerous that all these things combined together. If it is left to continue, it may just be the final nail in the coffin.

So, what earth shattering piece did I read? A home-schooling special by NewScientist titled ‘Preach your children well’. It chronicles the growing number of children that are home-schooled, currently numbering roughly 2.5 million (figure from NS chart) out of 55 million students enrolled in both public and private institutions in the US (figure from US Dept. of Education). That amounts to roughly 4.5% out of the elementary and secondary student population (the figure doubled in the past 3 years alone, so it could be at 9% by 2009). What’s wrong with home schooling, you may ask. After all, religious schooling is usually conducted in a home setting. For me, as long as the subjects are being taught proficiently I don’t have any qualms with it. A person’s religious beliefs are entirely up to themselves, but I’m not questioning their rights either.

My problem is this: Faced with humiliating failures in the legal arena to instate ID into state education, the creationist supporters are quietly working in another legal arena in campaigning for home-schooling and thus undermining science education in the country. If they can’t have ID being taught in schools, we’ll teach it at home as the reasoning seems to imply. Now you see where it’s going. No wonder why American students have declining competitiveness in math and science subjects. Remember, America is founded in part for political and religious freedom. Furthermore, it is the leading nation in innovation and high-end technology today, the foundations of its dominance in world affairs. This unjustified melding of religion and science will, IMO interfere with the very foundations of the country. In short, America is atrophying from within. It might sound like scaremongering, but the science community has been worrying about it for quite a while now. If more and more students go into creation science, what is going to happen to science and the policies that dictate federal research in the future?

Enter Patrick Henry College. It is a college tailor made to cater to these home-schooled students. Apart from creationism, they also focus on political and legal debates consistent with their aim of preparing "leaders who will fight for the principles of liberty and our home-school freedoms through careers of public service and cultural influence". Snicker at them if you would, but after you read their accomplishments, you will sit up and think twice. Just because they are misguided on science doesn’t mean that they’re stupid either. I’ll quote directly from NS:

By 2004, PHC students held seven out of 100 internships in the White House, a number even more striking when one considers that only 240 students were enrolled in the entire college. Last year, two PHC graduates worked in the White House, six worked for members of Congress and eight for federal agencies, including two for the FBI. "Patrick Henry is something to worry about because these kids end up in the administration," says Glenn Branch, deputy director of the National Center for Science Education in Oakland, California, which campaigns against the teaching of creationism as science.

Home-schoolers are drawn to PHC partly because of its political connections and partly because, unlike most Christian colleges, it boasts high academic standards. Besides the focus on creationism, much of the curriculum is dedicated to rhetoric and debate, preparing students to fight political and legal battles on issues such as abortion, stem cell research and evolution. The technique is effective. For the past two years, the college has won the moot court national championship, in which students prepare legal briefs and deliver oral arguments to a hypothetical court, and has twice defeated the UK’s University of Oxford in debating competitions. (emphasis added)

So, President Bush might not be an aberration but instead he might just be the first of many who would pander to evangelical interests. Of course, you might argue that it’s because of the Bush Administration and the elephants’ dominance that the PHC students are getting internships. Point taken, but I think they might be around at ‘The Hill’ for quite some time after Mr. Bush is gone (the Commander in Chief might be on his way out, but the Republicans on Capitol Hill are far from it) If you’d think that it’s the US’s problems and not ours, it’s not quite so. Those students are reading stuff like "All of the scientific evidence gathered indicates that there is no danger of a global warming disaster"(emphasis added) in their books (read the accompanying article below the main article). These people are learning ‘facts’ that are thought up just because some people feel that it doesn’t fit with two millennia old books that would be considered a great fiction story (I’m not meaning to insult, but I’m being honest) if it were to be first published today, overturning many years of rational thought, theory and experiment. Imagining what they could do when they hold office is going to be something that can keep all of us awake at night.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not that optimistic in expecting God to be there to fix things when the Earth goes down the drain.

To all budding engineers and scientists (engineer scientist included too!), read on.

What is it that brings science and law together? Of course, on the surface it may seem that scientific and legal personnel are like oil and water. Nevertheless, oil and water do mix together under certain conditions, and that is also the case with business, law and science (I think here in NUS they call it technopreneurship). They all converge together on the subject of Intellectual Property (IP), a domain which would already be familiar to any who follows the news in the computing industry. To address the blank stares I’m getting, think patents and trade secrets (and to a lesser extent, publications).

All right, I guess that would suffice as a brief intro. In this month’s Science, there is a new monthly column titled Opportunities: Intellectual Property and I’ve just read Part 1. I think many of you would find this article useful in the long run. Using the example of Shuji Nakamura (don’t worry, not many people know about him and his important invention) the article’s author stressed the importance of knowing how to defend your IP.

FYI, Mr. Nakamura was an employee at Nichia Corp in Japan who invented the blue LED. You may laugh at the notion of the blue LED being considered a major invention, but it’s not as easy as it seems. You see, before the blue LED discovery, there is only red and green LEDs. So there’s no white LEDs because you don’t have all three RGB colours and there are physical difficulties in trying to get LEDs that emit sustained blue light (and not UV instead). Thus the invention of the blue LED enables white LEDs to be made (although other alternatives are used to create white LEDs today). Therefore, at the time of discovery the blue LED was of some major significance. Thanks to his invention we are getting higher density storage devices (does Blu-Ray ring a huge enough bell?).

Guess what Nichia Corp awarded him for his genius.

A few tens of millions of dollars?

Nope.

Then a few million dollars?

Still nope.

A few hundred thousand dollars?

Still nope.

Give up?

Mr. Nakamura was given a cash bonus of 20,000 yen and that’s it. That’s roughly GBP90/USD180/SGD300/RM650. Yes, profound unfairness isn’t it? See, the Land of the Rising Sun has this cherished tradition of respect for seniority. If you respect your grandfathers, that’s perfectly fine. But when you’re promoting people just because they’re older, that’s where the problems start. In fact, this problem was so serious that Japanese companies were stagnating in the past because their younger talents moved to the United States for better job prospects. Now you know why Japanese companies are giants in their own right but suffered from creativity and innovation problems. For those interested in Japan for SEP, I hope this wouldn’t deter you. Despite this problem, Japan still has a great culture and studying there would be an enriching experience. At least, justice still prevails there. In the end, Mr. Nakamura is awarded USD7 million by the courts (he originally won USD180 million in settlements but settled out of court for a smaller sum). He’s currently a professor at UC Santa Barbara now.

Well, I’ve given you as much context as I could. You can go on and read the article now and see what kind of Faustian bargains you’re in for. If you remain in science, it is almost certain that at some point in your career you will invent something–or be working on a team that invents something–that has potential commercial value. Let’s hope Mr. Fiske is right.

Most importantly, read the ending paragraph.

You may be shocked to learn that something you invented in graduate school, as a postdoc, or while in a staff position at a university, national lab, or company doesn’t belong to you. You gave it away, probably without knowing it.

That should get all of you scrambling for the article.

I suppose I’m being unoriginal in posting a music video. After all, I have seen various music videos like Polish/German piano pieces, Chinese pop, Western R&B and pop, Christian music, Korean drama soundtrack, Indonesian dangdut and even our local Malaysian variety being posted on blogs. You know who you are. Fortunately, there is still some niches left unexplored and that is the tale for this week.

This music was composed by Brian Tyler for the SciFi channel miniseries Children of Dune and sung by Iranian Azam Ali in Fremen, a language from Frank Herbert’s fictional universe. In a way, it’s sci-fi’s version of Enya’s LOTR: FOTR The Council of Elrond or Evenstar song but themed on maternal love instead of romantic love.

For the sci-fi ‘infidels’, Dune’s central plot is the political and military struggle for control of the planet Arrakis roughly 8 millennia into our future. It is a centerpoint for the universe, as the Fremen desert homeworld is the sole source of the spice melange vital for interstellar travel. If you thought that the premise of this story is literally out of this world, like me you would find the source of Herbert’s inspiration shocking - a down to earth concept of oil and the Middle East. Oh well, I should have done a better job of linking the desert and Arabic elements more closely to the spice.

Dune Messiah and Children of Dune, the second and third in the series of seven books (the last one’s coming out next year!!!) of which the miniseries is based on features the aftermath of Paul Muad’Dib Atreides’ successful conquest of Arrakis from House Harkonen and the ascension of House Atreides to the throne of the empire. Inama Nushif is a powerful music about Chani’s (Paul’s concubine) ultimate sacrifice in giving Paul an heir to the throne. This very special pair of twins born will ultimately change the fate of the universe. Enjoy this song of life and death!

Here is the lyric from briantyler.com

Inama Nushi, Music and Lyrics by Brian Tyler

Inama nushif (She is eternal)
Al asir hiy ayish (No malice can touch)

Lia-anni (Singular and ageless)
Zaratha zarati (Perpetually bound)

Hatt al-hudad (Through the tempest)
Al-maahn al-baiid (be it deluge or sand)
Ay-yah idare (A singular voice)
Adamm malum (speaks through the torrent)

Hatt al-hudad (Through the tempest)
Al-maahn al-baiid (be it deluge or sand)
Ay-yah idare (A singular voice)
Adamm malum (speaks through the torrent)

Inama nishuf al a sadarr (Forever her voice sings)
Eann zaratha zarati (through the ages eternally bound)

Kali bakka a tishuf ahatt (Sacrifice is her gift)
Al hudad alman dali (one that cannot be equaled)

Inama nishuf al a sadarr (Forever her voice sings)
Eann zaratha zarati (through the ages eternally bound)

Kali bakka a tishuf ahatt (Sacrifice is her gift)
Al hudad alman dali alia (that Alia will one day equal)

Inama nushif (She is eternal)
Al asir hiy ayish (No malice can touch)

Lia-anni (Singular and ageless)
Zaratha zarati (Perpetually bound)

P.S.: For clarification, it would be obvious from the music and reading the book that the Fremen language has a strong Arabic origin, but not quite. You see, it is also grounded in Roma and Slavic which is why it is relatively difficult to discern the languages Frank Herbert used to derive the language.

Need to distract myself from Advanced Calculus to preserve my sanity. So here I am again, blogging at 0400.

It was one of those random thoughts I get while walking back to my room some time back (smart people get brilliant ideas/inspiration while walking, I get crap/junk/rubbish).

I once read that MIT’s mantra was “Friends, work, sleep: choose two.”

I thought, "I bet we can integrate better, make a simpler and more efficient mantra Singapore style."

And so, my first contribution as Singapore’s foreign talent: The NUS mantra!

Here goes, "Mug or slack: choose one."

Kind of obvious, but fitting isn’t it?

Ok, goodbye multiple integrals, hello line and surface integrals.