I'm guessing that this guy, a certain Dr Euston Quah Teong Ewe who wrote in the forum of today's Straits Times that...
"It is important, in my view, to attempt to place money values on the environment where it is affected by development projects. It is only by putting such things on a common plate, by deriving values in dollar terms, that some means of comparison and relative worth of projects and policies can be assessed inclusively.
There is not much advantage in listing, as is done traditionally by most nature societies, all the so-called biodiversity and species that face extinction in an attempt to stop a proposed project.
On the one hand, there is a development project worth, say, $50 million. On the other, there is a list of 10,000 species of birds, 8,500 types of insects, more than 2,000 species of trees and so on. How is one to make much meaningful sense of this, let alone weigh the merits of the project?"
... is gonna be taking lots of flak for what he said. I'm not one to call people names but on behalf of the rarer community which appreciates the intrinsic value of our natural heritage more than most others, I'm tempted to call him a bastard. Excuse me, but I actually felt angry at his words. Darn I have so much I wanna say about this, going all political and scientific and crappy, but for now I'll just keep my mouth shut. It ain't worth debating with people like him. I mean, just look at the title! "Economy v environment: Let's talk dollars and sense". Huh. Them Stoopid Money Monkeys.
Monday, January 31, 2005
Sunday, January 30, 2005
How do you sleep?
I thought I recognised the name Prof Chris Idzikowski from somewhere. Today's Sunday Times had an article about his and his research into sleeping habits and personalities. I dug up a thread in the AdCo forums, and found a similar article from the Sydney Morning Herald about his work:Windows to the soul
September 18, 2003
Illustrations: sleeping positions
New research has found that sleeping positions can be a big giveaway to revealing your personality, writes Becky Barrow.
A British scientist claims to have discovered a direct link between people's favourite sleeping position and their personality. Professor Chris Idzikowski, one of Britain's leading sleep experts, has identified six different positions and each one says more about personal character than people may care to reveal.
The most popular position, particularly among women, is the "foetus" position, with 41 per cent of people, and 51 per cent of women, saying that they usually slept curled up on their side, holding on to the pillow.
This position, Idzikowski claims, means that they may appear tough but "are actually sensitive souls right to their core" and are usually shy.
Those who adopt the "starfish" - spreadeagled on their back - tend to be good listeners who make friends easily but do not like to be the centre of attention and prefer to let other people take the limelight.
Of the six positions, the "freefaller" is the more rarefied of sleeping shapes, with just 6.5 per cent of people preferring to sleep on their front.
They tend to have "a brash and gregarious exterior", although this confident front hides a nervous personality who responds badly to personal criticism.
"Soldiers", who sleep on their back, tend to be quiet and reserved, setting high standards for themselves; "logs", who sleep on their side, are relaxed and social; and "yearners", adopting similar position to "logs" but with raised arms, are suspicious and cynical.
Idzikowski, who carried out the research for the hotel group Travel Inn, says: "We are all aware of our body language when we are awake but this is the first time we have been able to see what our subconscious posture says about us.
"What is interesting is that the profile behind the posture is often very different from what we would expect. For example, 'freefallers' are actually hiding a more reserved side to their personality despite occupying a large amount of the bed."
The research was conducted by comparing a person's preferred sleeping position with the most common personality traits identified in the subject.
Despite certain personality difficulties associated with the "freefall" position, its users can comfort themselves with the fact that the position is good for digestion. "Starfish" and "soldiers" are more likely to have a bad night's sleep and to snore.
The research also revealed that changing a position was just as unlikely as couples changing the side of the bed on which they usually sleep. Just 5 per cent of the subjects adopted a different position each night; the vast majority stuck to their favourite one.
Idzikowski even bothered to research "duvet use" during the night, and found that one arm or leg sticking out of the doona is a favourite position, followed by both feet poking out the end.
One in 10 people like to cover themselves entirely with the doona, but the research did not reveal what this says about somebody's personality or the heating arrangements in the home.
Idzikowski is a "freefaller". He is also attempting to sleep in a yogic position that involves crossing your legs around your neck, but says there is no perfect position in which to sleep.
"That's a question like, 'How much sleep should I have?' I never answer it," Idzikowski says.
Anime Nation
Look out for this article in today's Sunday Times. A comprehensive article about the anime trend among Singaporeans."... super-robot Gundam and ninja extraordinaire Naruto lead the pack in the wild, wild world of anime." ~ yeah man!
Friday, January 28, 2005
Interesting upcoming talks by two outstanding figures... anyone keen in coming along?
Richard Dawkins (renowned evolutionary biologist - The Blind Watchmaker, The Selfish Gene, A Devil's Chaplain, etc.): "Is Evolution Predictable?" (23 Feb at LSE)
Bill Bryson (Notes from a Small Island, etc., but most famous for authoring A Short History of Nearly Everything): "A short history of nearly everything" (10 Mar at the Royal Society)
Richard Dawkins (renowned evolutionary biologist - The Blind Watchmaker, The Selfish Gene, A Devil's Chaplain, etc.): "Is Evolution Predictable?" (23 Feb at LSE)
Bill Bryson (Notes from a Small Island, etc., but most famous for authoring A Short History of Nearly Everything): "A short history of nearly everything" (10 Mar at the Royal Society)
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Holocaust Memorial Day
Started four years ago, the Holocaust Memorial Day commemorates communities which have suffered as a result of the Holocaust and Nazi persecution. This year's 27th January marks the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the WWII Nazi concentration and extermination camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau. "The day also provides an opportunity for reflection on more recent atrocities that raise similar issues..." (BBC)This year will see London being hosting holocaust memorial services and events, building on the theme of 'Survivors, Liberation and Rebuilding Lives'.
Its Statement of Purpose -
The creation of a National Holocaust Memorial Day aims to:
1. Recognise that the Holocaust was a tragically defining episode of the 20th century, a crisis for European civilisation and a universal catastrophe for humanity.
2. Provide a national mark of respect for all victims of Nazi persecution and demonstrate understanding with all those who still suffer its consequences.
3. Raise awareness and understanding of the events of the Holocaust as a continuing issue of fundamental importance for all humanity.
4. Ensure that the horrendous crimes, racism and victimisation committed during the Holocaust are neither forgotten nor repeated, whether in Europe or elsewhere in the world.
5. Restate the continuing need for vigilance in light of the troubling repetition of human tragedies in the world today.
6. Reflect on recent atrocities that raise similar issues.
7. Provide a national focus for educating subsequent generations about the Holocaust and the continued relevance of the lessons that are learnt from it.
8. Provide an opportunity to examine our nation's past and learn for the future.
9. Promote a democratic and tolerant society, free of the evils of prejudice, racism and other forms of bigotry.
10. Support the view that all citizens - without distinction - should participate freely and fully in the economic, social and public life of the nation.
11. Highlight the values of a tolerant and diverse society based upon the notions of universal dignity and equal rights and responsibilities for all its citizens.
12. Assert a continuing commitment to oppose racism, antisemitism, victimisation and genocide.
13. Support our shared aspirations with both our European partners and the wider international community centred on the ideals of peace, justice and community for all.
... just reading those makes you a more grateful person already, ya?
--------------------------------------------
Some pages to explore:
UK Holocaust Memorial Day
BBC TWO unravels the secrets of Auschwitz
Memorial and Museum: Auschwitz-Birkenau (with a detailed history)
Video clip: Auschwitz - A story of survival (Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Monday, January 24, 2005
Rats can tell two languages apart from speech cues
(From a press release from the American Psychological Association, 9th Jan 2005)They’re the third type of mammal shown to have this skill, sharing an ability with humans and monkeys.
Mammals other than humans can distinguish between different speech patterns. Neuroscientists in Barcelona report that rats, like humans (newborn and adult) and Tamarin monkeys, can extract regular patterns in language from speech (prosodic) cues. The report appears in the January issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, which is published by the American Psychological Association.
This study of 16 rats per each of four conditions showed that they were able to pick up enough cues from the rhythm and intonation of human speech to tell spoken Dutch from spoken Japanese. After the researchers trained rats to press a lever when hearing a synthesized five-second sentence in Dutch or Japanese, they tested the rats’ response to the alternative language. Rats rewarded for responding to Japanese did not respond to Dutch and vice versa. They pressed the lever only for the language to which they’d been exposed. What’s more, the rats generalized the ability to differentiate to new Dutch and new Japanese sentences they had not heard before.
This special ability to detect the features that distinguish one type of speech from another – enabled by a test using two very different spoken languages – has now been documented in three different mammalian species: Humans (both newborn and adult), Tamarin monkeys, and now rats.
Scientists study Tamarin monkeys because they can use the same kinds of experiments that they use for infants, allowing for direct comparison.
The rats were the first non-primate mammal studied; research on non-mammalian species (such as songbirds) may shed light on whether this ability is unique to mammals.
The rats’ linguistic sophistication was limited. When experimenters used different humans to speak each sentence, the rats found it much hard to tell the languages apart. Humans, even in early infancy, can overcome this problem – and only get better at it by learning a lexicon and syntax, phonology (letter sounds), word segments, and semantic information (what words mean).
Author Juan Toro, who is about to earn his PhD, says the results were surprising. “It was striking to find that rats can track certain information that seems to be so important in language development in humans,” he says. The research, he adds, shows “which abilities that humans use for language are shared with other animals, and which are uniquely human. It also suggests what sort of evolutionary precursors language might have.”
Toro cautions that just because the rats share an ability with humans doesn’t mean they use it the same way. He says, “Rats have not evolved the ability to track prosodic cues for linguistic requirements. It is more likely that they do it as a byproduct of other abilities that have some evolutionary relevance for them. The idea that species can use certain structures for a different function than that for which they evolved is not new. For example, human newborns coordinate all the speech information they take in to eventually make sense of language, something that a rat is not likely to do.”
It is very likely, he and his co-authors suspect, that the ability to tell apart two different languages is a byproduct of more general perceptual abilities used for detecting time order through hearing – a useful adaptation for the rat. Thus, he adds, “rats can co-opt these abilities to differentiate sentences by detecting their prosodic regularities.”
Article: Toro J.M., Trobolan J.B., Sebastián-Gallés N. (2004). Effects of Backward Speech and Speaker Variability in Language Discrimination by Rats. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes. 31(1).
For you budding scientist-types, the full text is available from www.apa.org/releases/speech_article.pdf
Sunday, January 23, 2005
In my MSN nick I mentioned that Slipper limpets, a kind of marine mollusc, were protandrous hermaphrodites.
And in response I've had more than five intrigued people making some comment about it, or asking what it means... wanting an explanation in laymanish terms. They became even more intrigued.
*blink blink*
I prefer the proper biological expression thankyouverymuch.
Don't know what it means? Go search it up in Google. ;)
And in response I've had more than five intrigued people making some comment about it, or asking what it means... wanting an explanation in laymanish terms. They became even more intrigued.
*blink blink*
I prefer the proper biological expression thankyouverymuch.
Don't know what it means? Go search it up in Google. ;)
Saturday, January 22, 2005
If the younger me watched Team America: World Police, she would have left muttering and shaking her head, disgusted by the language and inappropriate scenes of sex and violence. If Singapore did let it through in the first place; it's too politically offensive. The fact that the characters are only marionettes doesn't make a diff. But the younger me was much… younger, more naive, less uncouth. Not that I'm now the opposite of those… far from it… I hope… but then, I was totally raw and green. Then, I didn’t watch South Park (although I was aware that they killed Kenny). Then, I thought that Analyze That was about as bad as it could get in terms of me watching a movie filled with four-letter words. High school introduced me to the vulgarities of the world, and then university almost completely filled my world with those. Hall life last year kick-started it, and I was surprised at myself for taking it all in. I still shake my head but nowadays it is done with laughter and an acknowledgement of this contemporary adolescent inclination towards the things less clean. Is this what young adult culture is nowadays? Is it just the environment I’m in, or is this happening everywhere? Like a stage when you reach a certain age and your generation undergoes a cultural revolution or something. I’m being swept along but I refuse to engage in such followings… trying hard. It’s hard to stay untainted, but it’s not impossible. Crudeness, bawdiness, lewdness… they threaten to corrupt and it takes much effort to resist.
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Aliens to ourselves?
Do we ever wonder why people... normal, human beings... degrade themselves so with such acts of abuse on other fellow human beings? American and British soldiers have been making the headlines lately - again - for abusing Iraqi civilians and prisoners in Abu Ghraib, among others.A famed study in 1971 may shed some light on the physchological basis for such occurances. Not sure why the media hasn't really mentioned this research case in their many ramblings about the abuses... perhaps it's because of the controversy surrounding it but I thought it was a rather decent way of explaining everything scientifically. The Stanford Prison Experiment was a study of how a group of intelligent, middle-class students randomly assigned as 'guards' abused their 'prisoners'.
The designer of the experiment (which lasted for only six days, under the planned 2-week duration), Stanford's Prof Zimbardo, who was also the principle investigator and superintendent of the mock prison, wrote in a report that:
"Good boys chosen for their normalcy were having emotional breakdowns as powerless prisoners. Other young men chosen for their mental health and positive values eased into the character of sadistic guards inflicting suffering on their fellow students without moral compunction...So that's human nature for ya. Just some food for thought.
Human behavior is much more under the control of situational forces than most of us recognize or want to acknowledge. In a situation that implicitly gives permission for suspending moral values, many of us can be morphed into creatures alien to our usual natures. My research and that of my colleagues has catalogued the conditions for stirring the crucible of human nature in negative directions."
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Elements in Ecology
How cool is this textbook? I love this module! Finally I feel that I'm learning stuff that's got to do with what I'm here for. No more neurons, no more muscles... there's still molecular bio but at least this time it hooks up with molecular ecology, which isn't that bad at all. Adaptation and evolution, the physical environment, population regulation, predation, mutualism, human interactions, biogeography, various different types of ecosystems, global environmental changes... this is the stuff man. My days end later but I've got Wednesdays off. Now struggling with my field course report... there's just so much to cover.
Trails in Singapore
Someone from the pigeon-holes e-group pointed out 'Exploration Trails', which since 1998 has been listing and hosting pics of a great many nature sites in Singapore. Photos aren't really that great, nor is there descriptive text but at least it offers you a rough idea of what can be seen where. Oh, and be sure to check out the map section.Monday, January 17, 2005
We Will Rock You was rather cool, or so I thought. Seeing Queen’s songs being used to fuel a musical staged in the West End… it was somewhat like Mamma Mia! but less cheesy and, being set in a slightly-futuristic world, it contained many elements of the contemporary music society which brought it close to reality and with which we could identify with. Think of it as a tribute to music, to Rock & Roll especially, and to the great classics and famous artistes who’ve made their mark in the music industry. I’ve devoured so many musicals in the past academic year that now I don’t have any ‘want to watch’ lists anymore… just going with whatever’s floating by my way.
And… nowadays, it takes just a little more than a moment for me to realise that I'm again the odd one out in a group of guys. Happened so many times in Linstead... so much so that I no longer even think about it, even when hanging out while in Singapore. But when the gang of guys is a different bunch... they're newer friends... freshers too (though that doesn't really make a diff 'cept that I don't know them as well as those in my year), I suddenly find myself a lot more conscious of myself and things around me... and behave a little more uptight too. And a big change certainly makes a big diff in the way others tread around you. I guess like many others, and like many times in the past, I'm still trying to find out what I'm really like. One side a no-nonsense, serious and only mildly-humorous being, and the other side which has a certain degree of wildness and fun-seeking tendency. I sometimes I wish I could be totally carefree and indifferent and let it all flow… but the watchdog in me is just too… watchful. Despite that, I’ve no intention of shaking it off though. It has served me well and will continue doing so.
And… nowadays, it takes just a little more than a moment for me to realise that I'm again the odd one out in a group of guys. Happened so many times in Linstead... so much so that I no longer even think about it, even when hanging out while in Singapore. But when the gang of guys is a different bunch... they're newer friends... freshers too (though that doesn't really make a diff 'cept that I don't know them as well as those in my year), I suddenly find myself a lot more conscious of myself and things around me... and behave a little more uptight too. And a big change certainly makes a big diff in the way others tread around you. I guess like many others, and like many times in the past, I'm still trying to find out what I'm really like. One side a no-nonsense, serious and only mildly-humorous being, and the other side which has a certain degree of wildness and fun-seeking tendency. I sometimes I wish I could be totally carefree and indifferent and let it all flow… but the watchdog in me is just too… watchful. Despite that, I’ve no intention of shaking it off though. It has served me well and will continue doing so.
Sunday, January 16, 2005
Haha… how should I start? Dad came to London yesterday. Treated the Emperor’s Gate households and a few other friends to dinner at Shanghai Knightsbridge… wahhh the fooood… it was lots! Were there for almost 3 hours. Hehee the night was funny. It was just too entertaining in its little ways. The conspiracies… the glances and the looks… the winks and the grins…
Hmm nightly dosage of FRIENDS followed by a household meeting. Domestic affairs. Then some frantic messaging. Whoops, haha. Change of plans…
Lunch the next day was amusing too. Lol… had to stifle my chuckles too many times for my own good. w00t! Let flow the points bank! But now I’m in debt…
And after some chats with my dad… now I’m more certain which direction I should head towards from here… hee all those lengthy talks… thanks dad.
Bah politics and programming assignments. Yay! for the 11am start from tomorrow onwards. Yay! again for the Ecology module. And yay!… for the sake of it. Am in high spirits… :)
Hmm nightly dosage of FRIENDS followed by a household meeting. Domestic affairs. Then some frantic messaging. Whoops, haha. Change of plans…
Lunch the next day was amusing too. Lol… had to stifle my chuckles too many times for my own good. w00t! Let flow the points bank! But now I’m in debt…
And after some chats with my dad… now I’m more certain which direction I should head towards from here… hee all those lengthy talks… thanks dad.
Bah politics and programming assignments. Yay! for the 11am start from tomorrow onwards. Yay! again for the Ecology module. And yay!… for the sake of it. Am in high spirits… :)
Saturday, January 15, 2005
Of experience...
"Men do not know the natural disease of the mind; it does nothing but ferret and inquire, and is eternally wheeling, juggling, and perplexing itself like silkworms, and then suffocates itself in its work; Mus in pice. It thinks it discovers at a great distance, I know not what glimpse of light and imaginary truth; but while running to it, so many difficulties, hindrances and new inquisitions cross it, that it loses its way, and is made drunk with the motion: not much unlike Aesop's dogs, that seeing something like a dead body floating in the sea, and not being able to approach it, set to work to drink the water and lay the passage dry, and so choked themselves. To which, what one Crates said of the writings of Heraclitus, falls pat enough, "that they required a reader who could swim well," so that the depth and weight of his doctrine might not overwhelm and stifle him. 'Tis nothing but particular weakness that makes us content with what others or ourselves have found out in this chase after knowledge: one of better understanding will not rest so content; there is always room for one to follow, nay, even for ourselves; and another road: there is no end of our inquisitions; our end is in the other world. 'Tis a sign either that the mind has grown short-sighted when it is satisfied, or that it has got weary. No generous mind can stop in itself; it will still tend further, and beyond its power; it has sallied beyond its effects; if it do not advance and press forward, and retire, and rush and wheel about, 'tis but half alive: its pursuits are without bound or method; its aliment is admiration, the chase, ambiguity, which Apollo sufficiently declared in always speaking to us in a double, obscure, and oblique sense; not feeding, but amusing and puzzling us. 'Tis an irregular and perpetual motion, without model and without aim; its inventions heat, pursue, and interproduce one another." ~ Montaigne (1587-88)Friday, January 14, 2005
Feeling much better now... 'cept for the occasional stomach rumble.
Working on my politics essay, I've come to realise exactly how difficult it is to read and understand material that is written before 300 B.C., and by the likes of Plato and Aristotle too. It is interesting... more interesting... if only it can be made more understandable by the layman.
And shunning aside the above which is due on Monday, I went to work on another assignment that is due on Wed - the computing website project. w00t! I love such stuff. If only they can give us a website to construct for every module... how wonderful life would be lol. Am more or less done with it... after a bit of tweaking here and there, between episodes of FRIENDS. Yeah, watching FRIENDS during mealtimes and after worktimes has become a household hobby, where everyone'll snuggle up in front of the laptop and go crazy over Ross-ish and Phoebe-ish jokes. I wonder if Charl and Lionel can hear our laughter from below. ;)
Dad's coming to London tomorrow; we'll see what happens. Gotta work, sigh, gotta work. A weekend ain't really that long.
Working on my politics essay, I've come to realise exactly how difficult it is to read and understand material that is written before 300 B.C., and by the likes of Plato and Aristotle too. It is interesting... more interesting... if only it can be made more understandable by the layman.
And shunning aside the above which is due on Monday, I went to work on another assignment that is due on Wed - the computing website project. w00t! I love such stuff. If only they can give us a website to construct for every module... how wonderful life would be lol. Am more or less done with it... after a bit of tweaking here and there, between episodes of FRIENDS. Yeah, watching FRIENDS during mealtimes and after worktimes has become a household hobby, where everyone'll snuggle up in front of the laptop and go crazy over Ross-ish and Phoebe-ish jokes. I wonder if Charl and Lionel can hear our laughter from below. ;)
Dad's coming to London tomorrow; we'll see what happens. Gotta work, sigh, gotta work. A weekend ain't really that long.
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
I guess a London student's life would not be complete without a Bad Encounter with the NHS.
I wanted to go see a doctor today, so I rang up the NHS closest to me (the one opposite the road... the one which I can see from my window). After a whole lot of useless questions like how long I've been residing at my current address and how long I'm planning to stay here and what's my age and stuff, they said that I wasn't registered with their centre, and I could only go down on Monday to register.
...? Wth? It made no sense at all.
I said I could pop down right now and just fill in whatever forms and get registered, but no, the woman on the other side of the line went, "Don't bother coming today, we're not free. Come on Monday, register yourself, and then you can see the doctor." Heck, come Monday, which is like... 5 days from now... I'd have recovered... I'm ill today and I wanna see the doctor today! How simpler can it get? No point argueing... and I hated the tone of the operator anyway; I don't think she'd have blinked an eye had I choked and gasped for air while talking to her. Fritz. Bah.
So that's what a free National Health Service is like. Some service *scoff*.
Grumbling vibrating tummy sounds... gahh...
I wanted to go see a doctor today, so I rang up the NHS closest to me (the one opposite the road... the one which I can see from my window). After a whole lot of useless questions like how long I've been residing at my current address and how long I'm planning to stay here and what's my age and stuff, they said that I wasn't registered with their centre, and I could only go down on Monday to register.
...? Wth? It made no sense at all.
I said I could pop down right now and just fill in whatever forms and get registered, but no, the woman on the other side of the line went, "Don't bother coming today, we're not free. Come on Monday, register yourself, and then you can see the doctor." Heck, come Monday, which is like... 5 days from now... I'd have recovered... I'm ill today and I wanna see the doctor today! How simpler can it get? No point argueing... and I hated the tone of the operator anyway; I don't think she'd have blinked an eye had I choked and gasped for air while talking to her. Fritz. Bah.
So that's what a free National Health Service is like. Some service *scoff*.
Grumbling vibrating tummy sounds... gahh...
Certain things about myself freak me out from time to time.
One which I can't quite understand is that of 'fever dreams'.
Since young, whenever I am running a fever, I dream the same dream. Or... more like the same kinda dream. It's not an action sequence. It's not a scene, or dialogue, or anything to do with people, or the real world. It's a dream of patterns... of shapes... or movements within those patterns... and colours. Usually just two or three colours, never more. There's always some form of rotation... and a feeling that you're being pulled in, with bits becoming larger and closer with each cycle... something like a mirror-within-a-mirror-within-a-mirror kind of illusion, combined with fractals of sorts. But once I wake up, I can never remember what exactly the whole dream was like, or what patterns I saw. I all know and am aware of is that it's the same type of dream... the fever dream.
It's not normal, is it?
Last night, even before I fell asleep, I dreamt the fever dream. And when I woke up numerous times throughout the night to find myself breaking out in sweat, I knew I was unwell. It's like my body's been saving this moment till the exams have past.
I cleaned the kitchen today. Had been wanting to do this since I returned. Wiping tabletops and scrubbing stoves has a therapautic effect.
Went downstairs to have some cake... it was Charl's bday yesterday (happy belated, Charl!). Poor Lionel's also taken quite ill.
Some computing test tomorrow. I haven't revised. Just can't take in stuff anymore. Shall be doing some cramming tomorrow morning. 'Night folks.
One which I can't quite understand is that of 'fever dreams'.
Since young, whenever I am running a fever, I dream the same dream. Or... more like the same kinda dream. It's not an action sequence. It's not a scene, or dialogue, or anything to do with people, or the real world. It's a dream of patterns... of shapes... or movements within those patterns... and colours. Usually just two or three colours, never more. There's always some form of rotation... and a feeling that you're being pulled in, with bits becoming larger and closer with each cycle... something like a mirror-within-a-mirror-within-a-mirror kind of illusion, combined with fractals of sorts. But once I wake up, I can never remember what exactly the whole dream was like, or what patterns I saw. I all know and am aware of is that it's the same type of dream... the fever dream.
It's not normal, is it?
Last night, even before I fell asleep, I dreamt the fever dream. And when I woke up numerous times throughout the night to find myself breaking out in sweat, I knew I was unwell. It's like my body's been saving this moment till the exams have past.
I cleaned the kitchen today. Had been wanting to do this since I returned. Wiping tabletops and scrubbing stoves has a therapautic effect.
Went downstairs to have some cake... it was Charl's bday yesterday (happy belated, Charl!). Poor Lionel's also taken quite ill.
Some computing test tomorrow. I haven't revised. Just can't take in stuff anymore. Shall be doing some cramming tomorrow morning. 'Night folks.
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
First night out in nine days. First time crossing a road at a traffic junction. First time going elsewhere besides home-college-home since I came back to London last Sunday. Feels so surreal... even if it's only Gloucester's KFC or Kai's place. Done with exams; but there's still a test tomorrow. All this studying... it's been too long since I mugged so much... am becoming numbed from it all. Too much to remember in too little time... too much to stress over with too little a brain. Mind's floating around... it's like I'm not here.
Major event meeting last night... I'm just glad it's all over and we can all take a breather now. It wasn't that healthy... it wasn't really encouraging... but it was a challenge. It taught us lots... we've learnt lots. I hope everybody's alright though. Like what Darren and Marv said... it's like a loss of a gf... or a baby. Emptiness inside. lol. All of a sudden. Still, I'm glad. Time to focus on other things. Perhaps it's a sign... yeah... there are other more important things.
It's good to know... yep... that there're some cool brudders & sistas out there who care. Thanks guys.
Major event meeting last night... I'm just glad it's all over and we can all take a breather now. It wasn't that healthy... it wasn't really encouraging... but it was a challenge. It taught us lots... we've learnt lots. I hope everybody's alright though. Like what Darren and Marv said... it's like a loss of a gf... or a baby. Emptiness inside. lol. All of a sudden. Still, I'm glad. Time to focus on other things. Perhaps it's a sign... yeah... there are other more important things.
It's good to know... yep... that there're some cool brudders & sistas out there who care. Thanks guys.
Sunday, January 09, 2005
Friday, January 07, 2005
Studying too much; another paper on Mon, a test on Wed, a programming assignment and a politics essay due next Mon, a computing assignment due next Wed, and 0.5 units' worth of field course reports due the week after. (-_-")
And trying to understand the way people in this wretched world think can be such a boggle.
Can't think straight 'nimore.
And trying to understand the way people in this wretched world think can be such a boggle.
Can't think straight 'nimore.
General Eisenhower, in a discussion of leadership, once stated that “character in many ways is everything in leadership. It is made up of many things, but I would say character is really integrity. When you delegate something to a subordinate, for example, it is absolutely your responsibility, and he must understand this. You as a leader must take complete responsibility for what that subordinate does. I once said, as a sort of wisecrack, that leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well”.
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
While going through my notes I found a little exchange which I penned down during one of my lectures (we all need a little entertainment now and then, don't we?):
[on the topic of hormonal interactions and signalling molecules]
Lecturer: "... and one turns on the other"
Student: "What do you mean, 'turn on'?"
The lecture hall erupts in laughter.
Lecturer: "Wait, wait, refocus - we're doing Animal Physiology, not Animal Behavior!"
[on the topic of hormonal interactions and signalling molecules]
Lecturer: "... and one turns on the other"
Student: "What do you mean, 'turn on'?"
The lecture hall erupts in laughter.
Lecturer: "Wait, wait, refocus - we're doing Animal Physiology, not Animal Behavior!"
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Recovering from tsunamis
University College London's Benfield Hazard Research Centre had undertaken a project, in 2000, to study the risks of tsunamis.The Disaster Recovery Timeframe drawn out for the tsunami generated by the 1964 Alaskan earthquake records the period for the emergency phase at four weeks; the restoration phase lasted until the 40th week, and the reconstruction phase was completed only after 12 years after the disaster. This was for a tsunami generated by an earthquake which measured 8.4 on the Richter scale, which claimed a hundred or so lives, and caused an estimated damage of US$311,192,000.
I'm uncertain what the figures for the Indian Ocean tsunami is, but it seems like it's gonna take much more than what any of us can imagine. Now, with advanced equipment and logistical and manpower management, Godspeed the relief workers and government leaders. I hope something'll materialise out of the summit tomorrow.
That aside, exams are approching way too fast for my liking... first one's on Thurs. Argh. Help.
Monday, January 03, 2005
So there goes Changi Point Jetty.
Come this Wednesday, the new ferry terminal will be in operation.
I'm not sure what's gonna happen to the familiar bumboats and dialect-speaking boat uncles at the old jetty, but that site will be demolished to make way for some waterfront park. Or at least that's what the URA plans to do.
Have a look at wildsingapore's repost of the Straits Times news, or Habitatnews' post.
I was aware that a new 'jetty' was being built right next to the old one, but I didn't actually realise how soon it would be ready by. Now I'm just grateful that I had a chance to have one last little boat trip to Ubin in one of those iconic bumboats which has come to become so characteristic of an offshore island trip. My thanks to those friendly uncles for being so accommodating and willing to take us on those 4am-ish morning trips. :) I would never forget one of those rides in particular, through stormy seas and rickety waters... the boat seemed like it was about to topple over... salty seawater and rainwater splashing in from both sides. Hehe, those bumboat rides were fun. I wonder how it'll be like in future? I'll only know in Easter.
Ps. Today's birthday wishes go to the one and only Xiyunicus!
Come this Wednesday, the new ferry terminal will be in operation.
I'm not sure what's gonna happen to the familiar bumboats and dialect-speaking boat uncles at the old jetty, but that site will be demolished to make way for some waterfront park. Or at least that's what the URA plans to do.
Have a look at wildsingapore's repost of the Straits Times news, or Habitatnews' post.
I was aware that a new 'jetty' was being built right next to the old one, but I didn't actually realise how soon it would be ready by. Now I'm just grateful that I had a chance to have one last little boat trip to Ubin in one of those iconic bumboats which has come to become so characteristic of an offshore island trip. My thanks to those friendly uncles for being so accommodating and willing to take us on those 4am-ish morning trips. :) I would never forget one of those rides in particular, through stormy seas and rickety waters... the boat seemed like it was about to topple over... salty seawater and rainwater splashing in from both sides. Hehe, those bumboat rides were fun. I wonder how it'll be like in future? I'll only know in Easter.
Ps. Today's birthday wishes go to the one and only Xiyunicus!
Sunday, January 02, 2005
So played, so charmed, so conquered...
Some of us think that we have changed ourselves so much that we no longer know who we really are. Through a number of conversations with a few close friends, over entirely different matters... the topic all boils down to change. And also that we're always playing masquerade and nobody knows. Nobody needs to know. For they are not us, and they do not need to know what it is that is us. We let events and people around us influence us so much... in how we think, act, and speak... that we are losing too much of our true selves. Or so we think. Are we controlling the change, or are we letting the changes control us? And sometimes too, we're afraid of what those external factors can do to us... that we become overprotective of ourselves... becoming more stoic, bland, void of expressions... not wanting to be read and understood by others... and thus in a way, deceitful. Experience has taught that total honesty with the world can bring us harm. Issues of politics thrive everywhere; it's a tough playground.I've only just recently understood that I'm a social animal, really. Perhaps a little introverted, or maybe just that I'm more of an observer. I learn from others' experiences, and add them to my own. I thrive among people, and feel happiest among friends. Contrary to my younger days of seeking for solitude and self-sufficiency, I have come to realise that I need my friends. And maybe just a few... who're more than a simple friend, and then the dependency'll go both ways. Aye, amigos para siempre...
I treat life as a game... in many ways. No matter what I think life itself is... borrowed time, to find a God-given calling and to follow it, to discover one's purpose... it doesn't really matter. The process of living life is like a game. Of times and timings, risks, wills, and changes.
There are actually many things inside of me which I want to express, but never knew how to put in words. It's like a fleeing idea of something, which in turn links to something else, and it all adds up together to form some kind of mosaic that I can't quite put together.
Sometimes...
I feel very self-contained.
I feel stress, sometimes, of course I do, but I choose not to recognise it, not to yield to it.
I could cry, quite easily if I let myself cry. All I'd need to do is to open up this valve in me and let the thoughts go and the tears flow.
I could yearn for solitude, if I let myself realise that I need solitude.
I could hate others, if I could allow myself to live with enemies in this world.
I could be more blunt, if I allowed myself to be inconsiderate of others' feelings.
I could be sad, only if I think of myself as being unhappy.
I could do anything I want, as long as I let myself and will myself to do it.
And so therefore I can also not do anything I do not want, for then I'd lack the will to do it.
It all lies in the will.
It's like believing in yourself, whatever yourself may come to represent or mean, deep down inside. It's the knowledge that you are you, and nothing can affect you if you do not allow it to affect you so. It's also your own faith... as long as you hold strong to your faith. It's knowing that you do not need to know what your purpose is, as long as you are working towards some purpose, for some good. And there, good by itself is what you believe good is. It all boils down to belief. The world runs on beliefs. All the world's a stage... how true that is. We're all players, all actors, and how well we act and carry ourselves within this fantasy-reality is what we believe each of us to be.
But when the will falters, you struggle too much, and everything is suddenly amplified for you have, by allowing one realisation through, coupled with the emotions that accompany it, allowed a whole stream of accumulated inertia to barrage through.
And that is when you'll be forced to take a step back and reflect and pause and think... and express yourself the way you want it to. The way you knew you had wanted to before you had thought of wanting to. And, having understood your true self better... you'll re-emerge a stronger person.
I'm speaking in circles and riddles again. Heh, only I'll know what I'm talking about. ;)
A new year, and a new term awaits. I flew on the first day of the first month of 2004... to Hong Kong. To visit relatives, and my Sydney-HK friends. I flew again on the first of the first month of 2005... back to London to face a few exams, another 3 months of studies, SingSoc commitments, and a whole lot of fun and changes.
Saturday, January 01, 2005
UN will assess environmental damage
Focus is on coral reefs, mangrove forestsBy Beth Daley, The Boston Globe
December 31, 2004
The United Nations has set aside $1 million to assess environmental damage caused by last week's devastating tsunamis, as reports of destroyed coral reefs and uprooted mangrove forests began trickling in.
While attention is clearly focused on the disaster's rising human toll, some dive operators and marine biologists are reporting that from Sri Lanka to Thailand corals are suffocating under layers of mud, heaps of rotten fish are clogging beachfronts, and rare turtle nesting sites have been washed out to sea.
"There is a huge natural cost, but what it is is still to be determined," said Lynne Hale, director of the global marine initiative for the Nature Conservancy, who worked in Thailand's Phuket Island and Sri Lanka for many years. Both areas were hard hit by the tsunamis.
Now based in Rhode Island, Hale said the tsunamis may have caused lasting environmental damage that may take decades or longer to recover from.
A U.N. task force based in Geneva will assess two things: environmental damage that threatens human health and the toll on the ecological resources - many of which support tourism and the fishing industry.
The Indian Ocean region, with its aqua, shallow seas, hosts some of the most beloved and famous coral reefs in the world that support scores of fish species found nowhere else. Mangroves are critical nurseries for many of these fish. And the beaches of Sri Lanka, the Andaman and Nicobar islands, and other countries hit by the tsunamis host prime nesting spots for some of the world's rarest sea turtles, such as leatherbacks that return to the same spot year after year to lay eggs.
Scientists said last week that they expect marine life from shore to about a mile out to have suffered the worst damage. However, some biologists speculated that marine mammals such as whales and dolphins swimming near shore when the tsunamis struck may have sensed the strange seas and headed for deeper waters, where the giant waves were barely noticeable. Land animals may have had the same "sixth sense" to move to safety: Wildlife officials in Sri Lanka's Yala National Park said they have not seen evidence that many animals died, despite the preserve's closeness to the ocean.
Scientists don't have comprehensive historical data about marine damage that tsunamis can cause, especially ones of this magnitude. They do know that in 1883, when the Krakatoa volcano exploded and sent a giant tsunami washing over Indonesia, coral heads that weighed hundreds of tons were tossed hundreds of feet inland.
This week, dive operators and researchers began sending e-mails to the WorldFish Center in Malaysia, an international fisheries research center, painting an early bleak picture of the region's treasured coastal waters. On Phuket Island, one popular beach was piled with dead staghorn coral, starfish, gulper eels, sea cucumbers and sea grasses.
In the Maldives, dive operator Norbert Schmidt said the eastern part of the island was hit the worst, with dead coral and sand covering the runway at Hulule International Airport. In Sri Lanka and Thailand, coral damage is reported to be severe, and trees have crashed down onto reefs, ripping apart many of the corals, some hundreds of years old.
Already stressed from fishing and tourism, many of the reefs may be covered in mud, which can block sunlight that fish and other organisms below them need. Meanwhile, corals, which grow only a fraction of an inch each year, may be excreting mucus as a defensive mechanism against the mud - "expensive in terms of energy (that) weakens the coral," e-mailed Marco Noordeloos of the WorldFish Center.
Some scientists have said human activity in the coastal zone contributed to the immense damage on shore - such as building tourist hotels too close to the water and tearing out mangrove forests to put in shrimp aquaculture farms throughout Asia. But others say that while the lack of mangrove forests probably exacerbated the destruction, it's unlikely that they would have slowed the tsunamis' enormous volume of water.
