Urban Real World

6 Space Myths that Hollywood movies have promoted - Debunked!

2012-02-22T18:56:00.002+08:00

A layman’s knowledge of space is very similar to their knowledge of science and history…It’s usually based on what we’ve picked up from movies, not research-based awareness of the world around us. I’m not underestimating laymen but there are a good many people who just assume they know the truth and have not sought it – so here’s another mythbuster: Outer-Space-style!

Asteroid belts are deadly.

Myth: Remember in The Empire Strikes Back, Hans Solo (temporarily hyperdriveless) had to navigate through a chaotic asteroid field while trying to evade the Empire. Obviously, all of the Empire starships were destroyed while Hans succeeded in doing what C-3PO said the chances were slim to none. But that’s what an asteroid belt is right? A stampede of millions of huge murderous space boulders instead of pissed off buffalos…

Reality: Wrong! The asteroid belt in our solar system looks like the picture below (scroll down…got it?) It looks very similar to the one in Star Wars. Yes, there are about half a million asteroids that we know of, in there but no picture of space can convey the real distances. There are miles and miles inbetween those hunks of rock, to the point that when NASA sent a probe through the belt, scientists said the odds of colliding into a meteorite was one in a billion!

So basically, Hans could’ve blindfolded himself and steered through the belt with his knees and his odds of colliding with an asteroid wouldn’t be much more than hitting one driving to the grocery store. Once upon a time, our belt had a thousand times more asteroids in it and even then, each asteroid had (wait for it…) 400,000 square miles to itself. No jokes.

You could argue that this particular galaxy and this particular asteroid belt in the Star Wars universe could be superdense but that’s impossible due to the laws of physics. Over time, they would HAVE to disperse due to all the collisions; they would go flying off outside the belt into outer space, free from the bounds of the belt’s gravity.

So to get hit by an asteroid, you’d have to have a hell of space pilot with a hell of a deathwish!

Black holes are cosmic vacuum cleaners.

Myth: Out of all the horrible things out there in space, black holes are one of the worst. They are ominion, invisible, huge and hoover everything within lightyears into their incomprehensible void. Due to this tendency, black holes are pretty much contractually obliged to appear in every sci-fi epic. From the planet-Vulcan-destroying black hole in Star Trek to Doctor Who, the black hole is portrayed as an inescapable vortex of destruction, slurping our universe through a straw.

Reality: Say tomorrow we woke up to find someone had replaced our sun with a black hole of the same mass. What would happen? Nothing. Well, we would freeze because our sun is gone but other than that, neither would we get sucked into or fall into space. Black holes are not as frightening as other people believe them to be. As big as they are, they still have mass and that means they have a finite amount of strength (Force =Mass x Acceleration of Gravity). So, black holes are like any other object subjected to the laws of physics meaning that this black hole would have the same gravitation pull as our sun – no more, no less.

The sun is yellow.

Myth: If you grab a crayon now and you drew anything other than a yellow sun, you would be a smartass or failing kindergarten. The sun is yellow, pretty much the first thing a child learns, right after it is hot. It’s even classified as the yellow dwarf.

Reality: Sorry to crush all the memories of art class, the sun is not yellow, nor is it engulfed in wavy flames. Doesn’t look like anything much, except perhaps an intergalactic cue ball. The sun appears yellow-tinted due to the Earth’s atmosphere and at 6,000 Kelvin, any thing can only be one colour: white. Pretty boring white, too. Yes, the sun looks like the moon, but without the face or interesting dents.

I'm not kidding. That's actually our sun. (Courtesy of NASA)

We aren’t dependent on our eyes for the rest of our solar system either. For example, Mars, we’ve got pictures right, straight from the Mars rover landed on the ground, taking pictures of the red planet from inches away? It’s not even NASA’s fault - extraterrestrial photography is tricky, and the pictures that result do not necessarily represent the most accurate version of the subject. Instead, the scientists involved in the process tend to go for the combination of colors that help their work the most.

Basically, all those awesome pictures space research has been throwing our way for years are nothing but black and white images colored in to show how much science each part of the picture features. And NASA will run it through filters to approximate what the full color version would look like if you were actually there sitting on the rover:

(Left: What the Mars Rover sent back. Right: What we coloured in.
All pictures courtesy of NASA)

But then you have to remember that Mars gets less than half as much sunlight as the Earth, and that said light is shining down through an atmosphere full of dust made of iron oxide (rust) particles. What we're saying is, the question of "What color is ________?" never has a simple answer when you're talking about outer space.

Meteorites are hot.

Myth: Say, a meteorite were to land in your backyard right now. You run out and see it sitting in its very own crater. Do you touch it? Hell-to-the-no, right? Not till it cools down? I mean, we’ve seen it in a million movies like Armageddon where the fiery meteor shower bombard NY, exploding stuff on impact.

Seriously...would you touch this? I wouldn't choose to be anywhere within 100km.

Reality: Sorry, wrong. These chunks of rock have been in space, 3 degrees above absolute zero, which is -270degC for billions of years. Due to their extreme speed, they are only in the atmosphere for a few minutes. They have NO time to become scorching hot before impact and likely to be just lukewarm.

So where does that giant fireball image come from, in those meteor showers? In fact, the fireball is not from the actual physical meteor but from the air in front of the meteor being compressed at incredibly fast speeds. That layer of air, creates a shock wave all the way to impact and heats up to point of catching fire!

Of course, the fire would heat up the outer layers of the meteor in those few minutes but it doesn’t matter since those always get blown off on impact. So if you’re around when a meteor lands, just pick it up. Great souvenirs for when the alien conspiracy fellas turn up!

YAY! All for meeee!

People explode in the vacuum of space.

Myth: In countless movies and sci-fi shows (the low-budget 0nes), we’ve seen it time and time again; if you go into space without a spacesuit, you will explode! The pressure inside you compared to the pressre outside will turn you inside out in a gruesome way immediately. Even Bart and Homer Simpson died this way (although I’m not sure we can expect accurate science from The Simpsons).

For example a balloon in the upper atmosphere, the pressure outside is greater than the pressure inside the balloon, the balloon will go splat! So this part is indeed correct. But why not humans?

Reality: Well…we’d like to think that we’re more complicated than balloons! We have our skin and circulatory system! The skin contains and protects our body so well that it can negate the effect of explosive decompression. The circulatory system is so adaptable that instead of boiling, the blood keeps going. Even freezing isn’t an immediate issue despite the cold environment, as there’s not much matter in space to absorb your body heat. The fact is that the main dangers of not having a spacesuit are oxygen-related: breating and holding air in your lungs, which leads to lung-inflating trauma.

Of course, if you just decide to hang around in space in a bikini and a respirator, it will kill you. Just won’t be as hilarious to watch.

There is a permanent dark side on the moon.

Myth: The moon has a dark side that doesn’t receive much sunlight, resulting in a freezing, dark wasteland, complete opposite to the other side where there is warmth. Thus, the dark side of the moon has become a place of myth, mystery and fear in popular culture, such as hiding ancient Transformer technology.

Reality: There’s no such thing, just like there’s no dark side of the Earth. Of course, only one side of the moon faces the Earth at any given time, just the Earth, not the sun! Besides eclipses and other anomalies, both sides of the moon get exactly the same amount of light as the face side, at different times though. On Earth, scientists refer to this phenomenon as ‘night’ :D

Just because we don’t see the far side of the moon doesn’t mean it’s bathed in darkness. It’s like applying the same logic as the baby game, Peekaboo: ‘Can’t see my face? Not there!’

Yes, I'm obsessed with Memes. I almost added one with the Win Baby :)

So there you go...Now you can watch Star Wars and point out more flaws...than usual. Thanks Shrusti and George Lucas :)

Source + Pics from Google Images mainly...It's too annoying to list sources for pictures.

Psychology and History behind To-Do Lists

2012-02-12T00:17:00.001+08:00

So...what do you do when you are completely stuck? I have been having writer's block for a month. It's BAD! The lack of inspiration is not for lack for trying. I'm still reading plenty of articles, bookmarking what I find interesting as possible future blogposts; but I can't get around to writing them. I've been working on ONE post for what seems like 2 weeks. Anyways, so instead of making some grand return to the blogosphere, I'm going to ease my way in with articles I have enjoyed and don't see any purpose in redoing it as it is very interesting by itself!

Written by: Maria Popova at BrainPickings

“The list is the origin of culture,” Umberto Eco famously proclaimed. (Leonardo da Vinci,John Lennon, and Woody Guthrie would have all agreed.) But the list, it turns out, might also be the origin of both our highest happiness and our dreariest dissatisfaction. So argues New York Times science writer John Tierney and psychologist Roy F. Baumeister in Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength. While the book is fascinating in general, its third chapter, titled “A Brief History of the To-Do List, From God to Drew Carey,” is particularly interesting. In it, Tierney and Baumeister dissect the sociocultural anatomy of our favorite organizational tool, from the storytellers who crafted the Bible and wrote the Genesis myth with its six-step world-creation plan, to Benjamin Franklin’s fastidious pursuit of virtue bound by goal-setting lists, to comedian Drew Carey’s quest for supreme personal productivity.

These anecdotes and pieces of cultural mythology are interwoven with ample psychology experiments from the past century and, ultimately, distilled into insight on how to make the to-list a tool of fulfillment rather than frustration.

Franklin, for instance, demonstrated one of the greatest pitfalls of the to-do list: trying to do too much at once, letting different goals come into conflict with one another:

Franklin tried a divide-and-conquer approach. He drew up a list of virtues and wrote a brief goal for each one, like this one for Order: ‘Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.’
…
When, as a young journeyman printer, he tried to practice Order by drawing up a rigid daily work schedule, he kept getting interrupted by unexpected demands from his clients — and Industry required him to ignore the schedule and meet with them. If he practiced Frugality (‘Waste nothing’) by always mending his own clothes and preparing all his own meals, there’d be less time available for Industry at his job — or for side projects like flying a kite in a thunderstorm or editing the Declaration of Independence. If he promised to spend an evening with his friends but then fell behind his schedule for work, he’d have to make a choice that would violate his virtue of Resolution: ‘Perform without fail what you resolve.’”

The result of conflicting goals is unhappiness instead of action. But deciding on the right goals can be a daunting task.

Tierney and Baumeister recount a revealing experiment: When a psychologist was invited to give a talk at the Pentagon on managing time and resources, he decided to warm up the elite group of generals with a short writing exercise. He asked them all to write a summary of their strategic approach limited to 25 words.

The exercise stumped most of them. None of the distinguished men in uniform could come up with anything.
The only general who managed a response was the lone woman in the room. She had already had a distinguished career, having worked her way up through the ranks and been wounded in combat in Iraq. Her summary of her approach was as follows: ‘First I make a list of priorities: one, two, three, and so on. Then I cross out everything from three down.’”

Unscrupulous, perhaps, but the authors argue this is a simple version of an important to-do list strategy for reconciling the long-term with the short-term, or “the fussy with the fuzzy.”

Comedian Drew Carey took a different approach to mastering his to-do list — he outsourced his strategy to productivity guru David Allen, author of the cultish, modern Bible Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, who taught him how to adhere to specific next steps rather than abstract larger goals. The latter loom in the back of our mind like a nagging mother, never fully silenced until specific actionable steps are taken.

In fact, our brain appears to be wired to nag about unfinished to-do list items as uncompleted tasks and unmet goals continue to pop up into our minds. This is called the Zeigarnik effect and explains phenomena like earworms — when you hear only a portion of song, the song is likely to run through your mind at odd intervals as your brain struggles to finish it. Originally, the Zeigarnik effect was believed to be the brain’s way of ensuring goals are eventually accomplished, by prodding you into urgency until they are. But recent research has shed new light on the relationship between the conscious and the unconscious in our cognitive to-do lists.

[It] turns out that the Zeigarnik effect is not, as was assumed for decades, a reminder that continues unabated until the task gets done. The persistence of distracting thoughts is not an indication that the unconscious is working to finish the task. Nor is it the unconscious nagging the conscious mind to finish the task right away. Instead, the unconscious is asking the conscious mind to make a plan. The unconscious mind apparently can’t do this on its own, so it nags the conscious mind to make a plan with specifics like time, place, and opportunity. Once the plan is formed, the unconscious can stop nagging the conscious mind with reminders.”

The moral, then? Unless you are Woody Guthrie, keep your to-do list to a few very specific, actionable, non-conflicting items, then go fly your kite in peace.

I love this for multiple reasons.

LISTS are amazing! They are neat, organised and highly productive if used efficiently.
The fact that the only person who managed to eke out her strategic approach was a woman! (Yes, I'm a feminist. Sue me!)
It's nice to see that even Benjamin Franklin was sooo busy he couldn't get his lists to work towards his advantage at times.
The Zeigarnik effect, not only has a cool name, but explains the way your conscious and subconscious mind interacts. The earworm (classic problem). Not being able to focus on anything nowadays, yes there are more distractions, but at the same time, we also have more to do, which means we are spread thinner. So if we don't have a plan to tackle these things, we can never get a single thing done right. Great explanation.

Thanks for reading...Sorry for the long hiatus (if you missed me at all). I promise I'm going to try harder.

Google Dependence and Withdrawal...

2012-01-18T18:36:00.004+08:00

Have we become too dependent on Google and its subsidiary products?

I have absolutely no doubt that I’m addicted to Google. To its search engine, its mail system, calendar, docs, reader, G+ and even blogger! Since Tuesday morning, I have not had access to my Google Account and thus, all the Google Apps that I use regularly (regularly, in this case, means about 10 times a day). The reason for this malfunction (and oversight on my part) is that due to all the things that I have on Google, I use a higher security system to access it called the 2-way verification. This means that after I input my password, a text is sent to my cellphone with a code that I have to input into my computer (Only when accessed from a new IP address). If you would note, this is something banks generally do when you buy something online. Ever since I came back to Singapore 3 weeks ago, I haven’t logged in on my own computer since I never log out in the first place so it was never an issue. When my friend logged me out to check her email on Tuesday, I realised I couldn’t log back in as I left my sim card in UK and Google finally realised that I was running on a different IP address. I realised that I didn’t give Google a back-up phone number and my back-up email address wasn’t receiving any emails as everything was forwarded to Gmail. Thus, my life was effectively ruined. Not being dramatic. Just over.

Through all of Tuesday, I tried to forget about it although my friends and family thought it’d be hilarious to make fun of my dependence. But it’s 8:30pm on Wednesday night and I’m not kidding but I’m going through some serious withdrawal symptoms. I’m depressed, lost my appetite, have a headache, indulged in retail therapy and don’t feel any better. This is an addiction. Fine, I admit it. But the fear that I might lose all that information terrifies me.

So the question remains, have we (the human race who have computers and internet) become too dependent on Google?

In the wake of Google's weekend error that labeled the entire Web as malware, some like CMS Watch analyst Kas Thomas are asking a provocative and timely question: have we become too dependent on Google?

One wonders: If Google were to go down (or become essentially unusable -- same thing) for, say, 72 hours or more, how disruptive would it be to the economy? Would online retailers see a slowdown in business? Would job-seekers remain out of work longer? Would the productivity of information workers (who supposedly spend a couple hours per day doing online searches) be seriously affected?

Sometimes even the most highly distributed, highly virtualized, "enterprise-hardened" infrastructure is no stronger than its weakest component. And quite often, the weakest component is human. That's never going to change--cloud or no cloud.

In the case of the Google error, which was caused by a simple human mistake, the world arguably went its merry way without serious disruption. But it's a fair question, and the same one formerly raised about Microsoft's dominance on the desktop. When one company dominates a market so completely, does it become an essential facility and hence require government regulation to ensure that it doesn't bottleneck the economy?

I'm not sure. I tend to eschew government regulation whenever possible, and I'd hate to see Google significantly constrained by U.S. oversight. Even so, the weekend snafu demonstrates just how vulnerable Google is to attack, as well as how susceptible we'd be to going down with Google.

Yes, other search engines are just a click away, but with more and more people enveloping their online lives with Google products (Gmail, News, Finance, Reader, etc.), an error in one aspect of Google's product suite could have a domino effect on all of them, and significantly hamper productivity until Google fixes the source error.

Even so, the answer to Microsoft's dominance wasn't regulation: it was competition. Google, too, will face increased competition on the Web, so perhaps the answer to the concern is simply to wait. Over time, open source and other trends will no doubt diminish the relevance of Google's stranglehold in online search.

But for now, I can't help but feel a little vulnerable.

Lol.

Lemons, Life & Many Questions

2012-01-09T15:04:00.001+08:00

If life gives you lemon, make lemonade.

Why? What’s wrong with lemons? Why do I have to make lemonade? The way I see it, if life gives you lemons, that’s pretty good because you got yourself some free lemons and why do you have to use them in some way? Life thinks about you and gives you something for free, even after all the irreparable damage we have caused and how hard we’ve seemingly tried to destroy this planet. The idea that we always have to turn lemons into something else seems pretty rude when we look at it in this light. There are times when a lemon would be useful, right? If you were in a desert, would you be picky about where you satiated your thirst from?

I like lemons. And if you don’t like lemons, then how can you like lemonade? I guess you coud add sugar to it but what if life didn’t give you sugar? And why do you need sugar…oh wait, because you put all those ice cubes in it, watering down its lemony flavour. Wait, where did you get ice? Oh and what if life didn’t give you a glass?

I read somewhere (sorry I forget) and it made me think; this saying is a fitting metaphor for our species’ obsession with consumerism and manufacturing nature into a mass produced package. We get something for free (lemons) from our kind and generous Earth and instead of just using what we need and leaving the rest, we manufacture it and force Earth to make more and more. Well, originally the idea came because we could feed the hungry but why are they hungry in the first place? Our society is based on large-scale agriculture, which reaps huge surplus of food: increasing any given population’s food supply results in a population increase. Doh. Ok, but then we get what we need, population increases, we run out, population dies (just like every other animal in the ecosystem). Nope. Humans took the agricultured land and ‘developed’ it to make room for cities and set up all the mining and deforestation operations that are required to support the mass production industry.

Ok. So the same land that used to give us lemons (for free) can’t support us any longer because you wanted your DAMN lemonade! Our air is polluted, 200 species a day become extinct because of the factories that you need to make aluminium cans and cardboard boxes to package the lemonade? ‘And the Earth is bleeding under the oceans and the ozone layer is being depleted and the ice caps are melting and countries are perpetually bombing each other because of all the petroleum you need to fuel all the trucks and planes you built to transport the lemonade to thousands of corporate distributors worldwide?’

Sometimes sayings become so cliché and I understand that the true meaning is a motivational thing to make something positive when you’re handed something that you don’t like in life. Looking at the bright side is great and of all people, I’m usually the last to say this, but sometimes we should look at the other side. If life gives you lemons, just be thankful you got something.

Bonus (Alternate saying):

When life gives you lemons, be sure to send a hand written thank you note for the lemons, as email thank you notes can appear to be less sincere.

When life gives you lemons suck out all of the vitamin C and yell “EAT THAT, LIFE!

When life gives you lemons ask for salt and tequila!

When life gives you lemons, make orange juice, then wonder how the heck you did it.

When life gives you lemons, collect them one day life will stop and u would have the most lemons ever.

When life hands you lemons make lemonade and find someone else who life handed vodka to, and have a party

When life gives you lemons alter their DNA and make super lemons!!!

When life gives you lemons sell them on ebay,

When life gives you lemons when no one is looking, throw them through life’s window and run away.

When life gives you lemons, squirt the juice in his eye

When life gives you lemons, find a kid with a paper cut

When life gives you lemons, ask for the receipt

The James Bond Shower

2012-01-06T18:23:00.000+08:00

A Shot of Cold Water for Health and Vitality

James Bond always starts off his water (inthe shower) nice and hot and then, turn it down to cold for the last fewminutes. Perhaps a subtle way to illustrate Bond’s ancestry since this type ofshower is sometimes known as the ‘Scottish Shower’ (although many cultures havethis routine).

HilariousHistory (as it usually is)

Hot water used to be a luxury in theancient times, unless you lived near hot springs, so for most of human history,people bathed in cold water. However, even after the Greeks invented a heatingsystem for their public baths, they continued cold showers for health benefits.Although they also made ill people bleed orinduced vomit…

During the first century, the Finnish wouldsweat it out in the ancient version of a sauna and then, jump into an ice-coldstream or lake, a past-time also known as icehole swimming and still enjoyed bymodern Finns and Scandinavians. And bythose stupid Americans in movies, who fall into the ice, get stuck and die.

I'm still considering whether or not to add this to my bucket list. What say?

Many other cultures also incorporated coldwater dousing during religious ceremonies. Native American tribes wouldalternate between sweating it out in a sweat lodge and jumping into a snowbank. Ancient Russians also took frequent plunges for health and spiritualcleansings. Who’s betting that Vodka wasinvolved? Japanese Shinto practitioners would stand under an icy waterfallas a part of a ritual called Misogi to cleanse their spirit and is stillpracticed today.

In the 1820s, a German farmer named VincenzPriessnitz started touting a new medical treatment called ‘hydrotherapy’ whichused cold water to cure everything from broken bones to erectile dysfunction. Shhh…Don’t tell the pharmaceutical companies,they’ve got billions of dollars in this research! He converted his house into a sanitarium and patientsflocked to it in the hope that his cold water cure could help them. Why couldn’t they just take long cold waterbaths? This soon spread to the rest of Europe and United States and people tookto it like a duck to water - haha get it?– Charles Darwin was one of them (a chronically sick guy in addition tocoming up with evolution). By the end of the 19^th century, therewere over 200 hydrotherapy/sanitarium resortsin the US, the most famous founded by John Harvey Kellogs (Inventor of cornflakes, preacher of circumcision to prevent self-abuse and great believer inthe power of enemas).

What is practised in the name of hydrotherapy these days. Just looks like a $60 bath.

Although its popularity declined over the 20^thcentury as more physicians started to adopt allopathic medicine rather than holisticapproaches which were seen as pseudo-hokum. While ice-cold baths are notprescribed for illness cures, they are still used to treat injuries such as sprainedmuscles and broken bones.

Real Benefits of a Cold Shower

Jump-start yourmood and motivation
Deepen yourbreathing
Keep your hairhealthy
Help withinsomnia (although warm showers are alsoknown for doing the same thing)
Detoxify yourbody
Rejuvenate,heal, and tone the skin
Enhance immunityagainst infections and cancer
Give your glands(thyroid, adrenal, ovaries/testes) a boost, improving hormonal activity
Crank up yourmetabolism to fight type 2 diabetes, obesity, gout, rheumatic diseases etc…
Increasetestosterone and also virility
Reduce stress byregulating your autonomic nervous system
Strengthenexhausted, irritable nerves
Normalize yourblood pressure
Train andimprove your blood circulation
Fight fatigue
Improve kidneyfunction
Reduce swellingand oedema
Improvelymphatic circulation, thereby increasing immune function
Regulate temperature,fighting chronically cold hands and cold feet and excessive sweating
Improve haemorrhoids and varicose veins
Decrease chronicpain
Reduce aches andpains

Peoplewho shouldn't try this: If you have the followingconditions – heart disease, high blood pressure, overheated or feverish

Stepsfor the perfect James Bond Shower

Startoff with the hot water.
Washyour hair with some Pinaud Elixir shampoo, just like 007.
Whenyou’re ready to rinse, turn on the cold water. Bond would spend a few minutesunder the cold water, meditating about a lost love or on how awesome his jobis.
Asyou walk out of the shower, kill the hitman that’s been hiding in the closetusing nothing by a towel and a Scotch glass.
Say apithy one liner and proceed to put on a tux.

Mypersonal advice (if anyone cares), is take it with a pinch of salt. If you wantto try this, gradually decrease the temperature so your body can adjust.

Mostimportantly, listen to your body, it knows best.

Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs of 2011

2012-01-05T22:24:00.001+08:00

Courtesy of TIME Specials

1. Scientistsuse cloning to create stem cells

Notexactly human cloning but not too shabby either. A variation of somatic cellnuclear transfer (SCNT) was used on human cells; the same technique that createdDolly except from ewe skin cells. SCNT replaces the egg cell’s genetic materialwith a mature cell’s DNA. The egg cell then is stimulated to divide and if itdevelops fully, it produces a genetically identical clone of the animal fromwhich the mature cell was taken.

Atthe New York Stem Cell Foundation, they modified the technique recently andinstead of replacing the egg’s DNA, they combined it with the mature cell’sgenetic material. Something about this seemed to click and appeared tofacilitate cell division and allow stem cell generation. However, the stemcells weren’t quite normal since they contained an extra set of chromosomes (theones from the original egg).
Theresearchers hope to find a way to silence or eliminate the extra set of DNA.But there seems to be a lot of promise as potentially yielding stem cells meansthat we could, one day, treat diseases such as Parkinson’s and spinal cordinjuries that match their donor but also erase the need for an embryo.

2. First everMalaria vaccine

Avaccine tested in children in sub-Saharan Africa cut the risk of infection withmalaria by about half. Considering there has never bee a vaccine against ahuman parasite before, or against malaria (which infects millions of childreneach year), this is a remarkable achievement. Scientists reported that theexperimental vaccine known as RTS,S was 56% effective in protecting childrenaged 5 to 17 months from infection with malaria a year after immunisation andalso 47% effective in preventing severe case of the disease. Although the trialis not complete, the infants (aged 6 to 12 weeks) who have been vaccinated aregoing to be followed. This age group would be the target population (if it proveseffective). Clinical trials are a long and laboured process and the age groupswould be followed for three years to determine how long protection lasts and totrack malarial infections, if any.

Whileencouraging, public health officials are still on the fence as whether towarrant widespread immunisation in malaria-endemic areas. Vaccines againstchildhood infections such as measles usually reach efficacy rates of 70% tomore than 90%.

3. HIVPrevention as Treatment

HIVtreatment has come a long way, thanks to anti-retroviral drugs (ARV) than canlower the virus levels in the body, keeping people healthy and reducing therisk of HIV transmission. Recently, studies are showing that the same treatmentdrugs can also help protect HIV-free people from becoming infected in the firstplace. Inn 2011, two ground-breaking trials (the first with heterosexual men andwomen) showed that HIV free people were significantly less likely to becomeinfected if they took ARV drug Truvada every day.

Inthe developing world, where most new infections occur in heterosexual couples,using ARVs could help curb the AIDs epidemic. Public health officials facesignificant challenges to make ARVs widely available but if they can, beatingAIDs is a real possibility.

4. Food pyramidbecomes a plate

Everyfive years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health andHuman Services update its Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA). This year's update, released in June, unveiled MyPlate, its new symbol forhealthy eating to replace the well-meaning but confusing food pyramid. The circularMyPlate departs from the original triangular shape and better represents theaverage person’s place. Health officials hope that the symbols’s clear andsimple visual cues will prompt healthier eating choices.

5. Body Partsgrown in the Lab

MaryShelley may have been on to something as the WakeForest Institute of RegenerativeMedicine recently created real functioning body parts like the urethra.Theurethra is the thin tube responsible for transporting urine out of the body. Inmen, it can become damaged or narrowed by disease. To build a new one, Atalafirst created a biodegradable scaffold in the shape of a tube, then seeded itwith patients' own bladder cells, and watched them grow. When the man-madeorgans were transferred into patients, remarkably they started working toeliminate waste.At the moment, the technique istoo expensive to be of much help to most patients — it requires a $5,000investment in materials and equipment. But it's a promising step toward a newworld of regenerative medicine where creating healthy body tissues to replacediseased ones isn't such a mad idea.

6. Link betweenColon Cancer and Bacteria

Tworesearch groups reported similar findings about a type of bacteria calledFusobacteria which are rarely among the usual bugs that live in our guts butseem to flourish in colon cancer cells and are linked to higher rates of thedisease. In some samples, they found hundreds of times more fusobacteria incancerous as opposed to healthy cells. Earlier studies have also shown that themicrobes are associated with a higher risk of ulcerative colitis, a condition inwhich inflammation destroys the colon’s epithelial cells (a risk factor forcolon cancer). But is this a matter of cause and effect?

7. Weight-lossMiracle

Ifthere's one constant in the world of weight loss, it's that there's no magicpill to melt off your excess pounds. At least, not yet.

Butin the latest study of an experimental drug called Qnexa, researchers saidobese patients taking the drug lost 10% of their body weight in a year. Thepill combines two existing drugs — the weight-loss drug phentermine and theanti-epilepsy medication topiramate. The idea is to tackle the problem ofweight gain on two different levels: phentermine (a distant cousin ofamphetamines) can decrease appetite (although its long-term safety is still aquestion mark), while topiramate, which controls epileptic seizures byregulating electrical connections between nerves in the brain, also affectsappetite and the body's ability to burn calories by modulating the same brainactivity.
In other obesity-drug news year,scientists at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston tested an injectablecompound called adipotide, a drug based on cancer research, and found that it slimmedfat monkeys by 11% in just a month.

8. Dogs thancan sniff out Lung Cancer

Man'sbest friend might also be a doctor's newest weapon in detecting cancer. Dogsare known to have a keen sense of smell — sharp enough, according to a newstudy, to detect the presence of cancer on a person's breath.German researchers trained dogs over nine months to distinguish between breathsamples from lung cancer patients and from healthy people; the animals wereable to identify 71 out of 100 cancer samples accurately, and also picked out93% of the cancer-free samples.Whatwere they sniffing out? The scientists think the dogs were picking up on verysubtle changes in certain volatile organic compounds in the breath, which maychange when cancer is present. It may be possible to analyze cancer patients'breath for whatever compounds the dogs were identifying, but it's not clearwhat that is. "It is unfortunate that dogs cannot communicate thebiochemistry of the scent of cancer!" the study's author noted.

9. Your spitcan give away your age

Despitemany medical advancements, something that science cannot do till now isaccurately establish the age of a body at the time of death. DNA doesn't giveaway age (AN - and it shouldn't since it should be constant throughout life andif it’s changing, you’re in trouble, my friend!)

Thanksto some sophisticated analysis of saliva, UCLA researchers reported thatscientists can now glean the age of a dead body from genetic material. Theseare not fundamental changes to the DNA, but epigenetic changes caused byenvironmental influences like diet, stress, exposure to sunlight, carcinogensor toxins even. These don’t change the DNA but are layered on top of thegenome, affecting how genes are on or off. At specific area of the genome,these changes build up or decrease in an almost chronological way, serving as atimeing to predict a person’s age within five years accuracy. While this needsmore studies to confirm and validate, every clue will definitely help!

10. A death riskpredictor?

Researchersat Uppsala University in Sweden reported in August that a simple blood test maybe able to predict who is most likely to die of heart disease or cancer. In a12-year study of nearly 2,000 people, the researchers found that those withhigher levels of an enzyme called cathepsin S were more likely to die thanthose with lower levels. The enzyme, which helps break up certain proteins,tends to be higher in people with heart troubles or tumors, and may contributeto atherosclerosis, so people with higher levels of the enzyme are more likelyto die of these diseases, the researchers found. Cathepsin S is also abundantin fat tissue, which isn't surprising since being overweight is a major riskfactor for heart events.

It'snot clear yet exactly how cathepsin S contributes to either heart disease orcancer, but drug companies are already busy working on compounds that mightblock its effects.
(AN– Not to put a damper on things, but something that has such widespread effectson the body probably shouldn't be blocked as it will definitely have too manyside effects but be my guest!)

Happy New Year 2012 :)

2011-12-31T12:22:00.002+08:00

So it's New Year's again...And with that, comes New Year's Eve expectations...I, for one, have never had a perfect New Year (while I have had close-to-perfect birthdays) except for the time in New Zealand when I was actually climbing a glacier at 3am on 1st Jan 2004 (That was Legendary!) In retrospect, after 20 NYE, if I have had one legendary one, I really shouldn't be complaining, should I?

Yes, I have plans tonight, to go to multiple parties, wearing a gorgeous dress that prevents me from breathing and heels that hate feet and to countdown while at the soppy equivalent of TimesSquare in Singapore. You can see that I don't have a lot of expectations but I guess my sister is excited to do something that is different so for her, I can suffer through the night, when I'd rather just go out to dinner and watch the fireworks (as long as I'm not in my house in front of the telly at midnight, I'm alright).

So here's Cracked's version of NYE:

That asideeeee....Hope you all have had amazing and fulfilling 2011s and if you haven't, it's a new year and plenty of time to get it right this time.

Hope you have a wonderful time welcoming 2012 and live it just for you and the way you want to, so that when 2013 rolls around, you have NO regrets.

I actually have plenty more love and good wishes to give but I think the next picture sums it up brilliantly...

New Year's Resolutions

2011-12-28T16:42:00.000+08:00

Every year, I’m impressed by people’s faith behind their resolutions, those hardy perennials that crop up on a regular basis: lose weight, start exercising, take up a new hobby. Regardless of the resolution, the faith remains in hope: we can all be better people tomorrow. Of course, anyone can say that this is not supported by evidence since they are repeated so often, we could hardly be making good on our promises, can we? Montaigne once said, “Is it not stupidity to let myself be fooled so many times by one guide?”

I’m not sure I agree because as cynical and sceptical as I am, I don’t underestimate the value of hope. I try to think of myself as glass-half-full and I usually am, but it’s not easy. Don’t let those pessimists let you think that being an optimist is the easy side cuuz it ain’t. Think about it, to have to keep believing in other people (who sometimes let you down), to have faith in your ability to stand by your resolutions (even though history suggests otherwise), is not an easy task. I disagree with the great philosopher (with all due respect) because resolutions represent a distinct and oddly inspiring sub-category of error: ‘wrongness as optimism’.

This doesn't slumber quietly all year, waiting to make an appearance in the final week of the year as we begin to reminisce and take notes on what we achieved this year. On the contrary, it is with us all the time, such as when my friend says he’s smoking his last cigarette. Why I lug 5 books about philosophy on a 2 week holiday, none of which is even opened. It is why I went to sleep last night, saying I’ll wake up early this morning, go to the gym and continue working on college applications (In reality: I had breakfast, rearranged the living room with my mother – counts as gymming, right? – and browsed the newspaper.) It applies to everyone. Politicians, once elected, who had good faith in their campaign, break their promises, because they, like the rest of us, overestimate their ability to make good on their hopes and dreams. It explains why ardent sports fans continue to support the hopeless underdog teams.

As easy as it is to mock our species for falling for this trick time and again, the truth is we are wise to be this particular kind of wrong. In most aspects of life, climate science for example, we do not want blind faith to outweigh the importance of facts and the evidence. But, in the case of murkier terrain such as our sense of self, a small sense of delusion serves us well by preventing us from falling into existential despair; The classic Waiting for Godot-complex, but never finding out the truth, nor believing in your ability to achieve and create change in your life. In fact, a lack of faith that our lives will get better in the future is a classic warning sign of depression.

The second reason is that sometimes, wrongness as optimism, wonderfully transforms into rightness. Human beings can never become something without pretending to be it first; so, in other words, resolutions are successful acts of the imaginations, not just the failure of will. That is not to say that you will lose 20 pounds, stop eating chocolate or spend more time with your children in 2012 just by resolving to do so. However, you will be doomed to failure if you never even dreamed of those resolutions in the first place.

Just as our other forms of wrongness as optimism propel out of bed after a wasted day watching all seasons of Dexter, our annual resolutions propel us into the new year, hopeful all over again that we will be better people in the days to come. So here’s to that, and to 2012 – the year that I shall finally figure out what I want to do in life, attain my goal dress size and ride every roller-coaster in the world (and hopefully, not die, but that’s for another post!)

I wish I were that confident. That would be half the battle, right?

Merry Christmas & 10 Little-Known Facts :)

2011-12-25T00:38:00.001+08:00

HO HO HO! Merry Christmas to all :) Whether or not you celebrate Christmas in any way, you can't end the year without acknowledging its existence...Not just a religious holiday (although it is for many Christians), for others, it's just a time of being with friends and family and enjoying some well-deserved time off of work! So hope you all enjoy the holiday season with copious amounts of food and drink, great company and make some beautiful memories.

Now on to some interesting facts (this site is just a great way to procrastinate...or find interesting things to blog about):

Before you get on that, check this out for a great little prank Xmas present (great for international buddies): http://www.sendacallfromsanta.com/

Getting into the Xmas spirit with some historical facts :)

2011-12-23T18:38:00.000+08:00

Just The Facts

Christmas was originally a pagan festival dating around 4th century in Germany. It was then known as Yule, which sounds so much better (Coincidentally, the ball in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was called the Yule Ball and was held during the Christmas period.)
It has since been absorbed into Christianity to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, but is also celebrated by people from many faiths.
Today, Christmas is celebrated by a lot of the world, but not all of it.
Coca Cola invented Santa Claus (citation needed).
Okay okay, they didn't invent him, but there was a rumour that they invented the image of the red suit, you know, for marketing.
Christmas is now a capitalist holiday that is all about greed and money. It's still the most wonderful time of the year in spirit and abstract concept (like so many other things in the world).

Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year :)

History of Christmas

"Christmas is the most magical time of the year, more magical even than four bank holidays glued together and multiplied by Easter!" - Charlie Brooker, UK TV Comedian

Yule has been celebrated for a long time, but the first time it was noted down by anyone was around the year 730AD. It was obviously a winter festival celebrated by Pagans from Germany, and consisted of great feasts, yuletide songs and happiness all around. The traditions of Yule haven't changed much since being converted to Christmas, apart from the inclusion of Jesus Christ.

Today, we follow the same traditions (nearly) as originally carried out during Yule. We eat ridiculously vast meals, sing songs that fill the heart with happiness and drink ourselves into an early depression in preparation for the New Year that's looming on the horizon.

Santa

Santa Claus goes by many names around the world, such as:

· Saint Nicholas

· Kris Kringle

· Father Christmas

· Pere Noel

· Baba Chaghaloo

· Santa Klaus

· Julemanden

· Weihnachtsmann

· And far too many more..

Santa is mainly known for delivering presents over the world to all the boys and girls. Of course, there are lot of skeptical people that say he doesn't exist, but there are factors that they haven't taken into account, like:

Time Zone differences
The fact that not everyone celebrates Christmas (So only believers get presents? Because they've done the shopping...how convenient!)
He has a reliable airline

We can see from these facts that the chance of Santa getting presents to all of his believers...is still pretty slim. But not completely impossible (for any believers out there, I'm trying to appear unbiased).

The real point of the Santa Claus story is to bring happiness to people at Christmas time. The idea is stronger than the embodiment, as shown in the film "Miracle on 34th Street", both the original and the remake, but more so in the remake. The end states that if the people of America can believe in God without physical evidence, and believe in him enough to print his name on their currency, then surely the people can believe in Santa as well.

Where is my seat? These budget cuts really suck...

Bonus - Just cuz it's hilarious

Is the World better off without Religion?

2011-12-19T08:59:00.002+08:00

Clarification: I’m not disputing or endorsing the existence of God. That is a personal belief and something that can’t be proven either way you stand. However, I can say that religion is a sociological phenomenon, a man-made concept. Thus, it is therefore, fallible, because humans are fallible creatures.

Religions are extremely diverse, have different interpretations of God (& Goddesses), have different opinions as to what people should wear and eat, how many wives they can have, what rituals they should follow. As they each take the view that they are the ones correct and that they vary dramatically in various respects, it is obvious why throughout the course of history, religion has burdened mankind with a great deal of conflicts and divisiveness. Instead of going into the differences between religions; let me point out a common recurrence: Throughout history and in most of the orthodox manifestations of religion, women are given 2^nd class status (not being able to make independent choices for their body and future, not able to get the same education etc.), being hostile towards homosexuality and a severe opposition towards scientific progress. (AC Grayling, author of The Good Book and Ideas that Matter) First point is that religion usually endorses a patriarchal heterosexual version of society, to maintain control of the community and to continue the spread of their religion via children (which homosexuals cannot physically have); progress for progress’s sake must be stopped since the truth has been revealed a long time ago and relinquishing the hold of religious authorities would cause them to lose economic and territorial power.

Then there are those people who believe that without religion, there would be no morality. Of course, that is not true. Loving your neighbours, responsibility, concern for others and being a useful member of community: these are all shared by all people, regardless of religion, race or geographical location. About 16% of the world’s population (1.12 billion people) consider themselves atheists (Of course, this is extremely hard to judge since the term is interpreted differently and some people call themselves agnostics and to be honest, it gets quite confusing but suffice it to say, that these are the people who may have an individual belief system which is not part of any community or its rituals). It is incredibly narrow-minded and hopeless to believe that without the fear of authority or punishment, people will behave in a manner that is not conducive to a communal living. Where is our trust in humanity and our inherent sense of right and wrong? Can’t ethics simply be taught without the shadow of religion clouding our judgement? If you look at the Greek philosophers, all of them preached ethics and morality rather than religion and since no God told them what was right or wrong, it was simply reason and human experience.

Interesting point in the debate: Does believing in one religion make you an atheist in every other? Therefore, if we are to say that there are roughly about 20 major religions in the world and you consider yourself to be part of one religious community, you are 5% Christian (for example) and 95% atheist.

The current estimation is that 0.1% of people belonging to a religion sect are extremists (although I’m not sure how this is estimated, seems like a far-fetched statistic but for the purposes of the argument…) which is about 5 million people. But then you can argue that the rest, the moderately religious, are peaceable and usually approach a ‘live-and-let-live’ policy.

This is the part I’m not entirely convinced about: AC Grayling says that the moderately religious are prone to cherry-picking and they choose the best aspects of the religion they follow and the more awkward or embarrassing bits they leave to one side. He also argues that extremists are the only honest bunch of the lot because they commit themselves whole-heartedly to the entire religion and moderates are simply hypocrites since they follow only what is convenient. He then continues to say that, “If that is real religion, honest religion, then the world is very much better off without it. And if the world is better off without the true and honest form of religion, why not put the hypocrites along with them too.”

This doesn’t sit well with me, my interpretation of extremists is that they have misread, misinterpreted and abused their religious texts and are brainwashed to believe that they are following the word of God, when they are actually following the word of a few charming, authoritative enemies of humanity. However, even if what I’m saying is true, is there any way we can eradicate all extremist thoughts for eternity, realistically speaking? In that case, is it better to live in a world without religion but with ethics and morality instead?

To really drive this point home, “If religion made people behave better (and morally), then markers of social dysfunction such as drug addiction, ignorance, violent crime or teenage pregnancy would be lower in highly religious communities; in fact, the opposite is true.” (Matthew Chapman, Co-Founder of Science Debate - An organization seeking to get politicians to debate science policy issues). Austin Dacey, author of The Secular Conscience, says that “90% of Americans are religious but we have by far, the largest prison population on Earth, drug addiction is widespread, gun violence is grotesque, our education system produces kids whose maths and science skills are far lower than any in secular countries while our rate of teen pregnancy is far higher. And in a country so rich and Christian, it’s amazing how many people live in abject poverty. Religion is irrational, morally confusing and divisive…Making no reference to God, scientists have, among other things, rid us of the plague, smallpox and polio, dramatically reduced infant mortality, doubled the average length of a person’s life and is coming to understand how the brain works, including its capacity for empathy and moral decision-making.” All this progess, all this beautiful knowledge, all this alleviation of human suffering has been achieved in only a hundred years, while religion has had its chance for thousands of years to prove its supernatural effectiveness.

Again to clarify, I'm disputing the religious construct of society, not individual faith and believers. Institutions that support and propagate religion such as churches and synagogues seems to have an ulterior motive besides a common prayer area. If religion were to become an individualised ideal, where God existed only has an energy force to drive the world, subject to entropy in the universe, not as an authority figure who tells you what is right or wrong (We have parental figures for that!); I do agree that life and universe is a miracle, both a scientific and spiritual one but why does it cloud judgement of persons and prohibit progress. Why can’t humanity function without being told what to do? And if you want an understanding of the world’s nature and its laws, look towards science for answers. I’ll be the first to admit that science doesn’t have all the answers but it is aware of that fact and together with its conclusions, presents its limitations (which are gradually being eliminated as technology progresses). Why do we have to know everything at once anyway? Knowledge is a journey and should remain that way.

Sources: I watched the debate posted below, read up on each of the participants in the debate, read a few articles and the rest is my personal opinion.

Slutwalk from an Indian Perspective

2011-12-14T03:23:00.000+08:00

I read the following article on a facebook page and am in complete agreement with everything Protiti says so I had to post it. I relate to it as an Indian, a feminist and a humanist.

Design: Power2Women.in

Background info:

What is SlutWalk about?SlutWalk is a movement that seeks to fight against Victim Blaming in cases of Sexual Abuse. The movement wants to discourage the practise of believing that the victim of a sex crime was “asking for it” with his/her clothing, lifestyle, interactions or history.

Why was the word “Slut” used?The word “slut” came in as a sarcastic response to a comment made by a Toronto police officer. On Jan 24th, 2011, Constable Michael Sanguinetti was speaking on crime prevention at a York University safety forum. He said “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized”. The statement sparked considerable outrage because of its judgemental nature, and co-founders Sonya Barnett and Heather Jarvis decided to use the word “slut” in their response.

Author: Protiti Roy

Yesterday evening, while standing at the newspaper stand of my college, going through reports about the detention, I struck up conversation with a professor about Indian clothing. This professor, who had been a District and Sessions Judge before he joined Law School, had the following to say:

“What is Indian clothing? If you go to Kerala, people wear comparatively less clothing. It is not that sparse now, but in earlier days both men and women wore very few items of clothing. On the other hand, in Rajasthan, people wear a lot more clothes to beat the heat. In earlier days we did not have the practice of wearing too many clothes in India. Clothing varies from place to place, depending on various conditions such as climate and convenience. You may change your dress many times in one day for the sake of convenience, depending on what you are doing. Now that you have come to college, you are wearing jeans. When you go to play a sport, you will wear something else. If you go to the temple you will wear something else. It is all about what is comfortable and convenient.

Now in different parts of the country, depending on what people do, different styles of clothing are convenient. If by looking at a person’s dress, someone’s mind can get so agitated, or someone can get so frustrated, that he or she feels compelled to commit a crime, that person requires reformation.”

I want to further elaborate on both his points. For everyone who has told us that SlutWalk is against Indian culture, what precisely do you mean? Is advocating victim’s rights against Indian culture? No. All our epics talk about upholding the rights of those who have suffered. That is what Ram did when Ravan abducted Sita, that is what Krishna did when Kamsa was on a killing spree in Mathura, that is what Narasimha did when Prahlad was being tortured in numerous innovative ways. (I refer to these incidents not in their capacity as religious texts but in their capacity as literature written many thousand years ago in the Indian subcontinent.)

For those of you who are stuck at the name and cannot force yourselves to move beyond and see the larger picture, I ask you, what is wrong with the name? There have been comments on this page that say “wearing small clothes is not Indian culture”. I clarify once again that we are NOT asking people to wear small clothes. We are telling them to wear whatever they want – jeans and sweatshirt, sari, salwar kameez, lehenga, langa davni, shorts and tshirt, summer dresses, long gowns, skirts whether long or mini, whatever they want. And if you think that those who opt for smaller clothes are going against “Indian culture”, please tell me which civilization was Mohini from? Her clothes were so small and so transparent, that it caused Lord Shiva to ejaculate just by looking at her (I am not making this up. Please go read the Bhagavata Purana.) But did he try to touch her? Did he force himself on his object of desire? No. He asks her to come to him, and when she says no, he accepts it.

Going back to the point of clothes, there are more than enough instances of in our epics and mythological texts of women walking around with very little clothing. Read Kalidasa’s Kumarasambhavam. Read Jayadeva’s Geetagovindam. They all speak of barely clothed human bodies in public spaces, and these are people who are respected (Gauri, Shiva, Radha, Krishna). Ambapali, Magadh’s royal courtesan, was one of the most educated and wise and respected women in all of India in 500 BC. The temple sculptures of Khajuraho and Konark are not the imagination of artists but a portrayal of how society was at that time.

You speak of skimpy clothing being a “Western” concept? It was Queen Victoria’s dictate that nobody’s legs should ever be seen – not even a table’s! This squeamishness about wearing clothes that reveal some pats of the body is Victorian morality and that, my deluded friend, is a Western notion. The blouse that is worn with the sari entered the scene only with the British. The women of the Tagore family were the first to wear it and they were mocked at for mimicking western ideals. No Indian woman ever wore a blouse under her sari till then. My own great-grandmother never did. Trust me, she was completely Indian. In the Andamans, people wear no clothes at all. Are they not Indian? In the North East, a lot of women wear a long length of cloth wrapped around their bust and falling to their knees with various decorative belts (no blouse) or they wear shorts and sleeveless top. (No, that is not what all women there wear, but a significantly large number of them do.) Are they not Indian?

Coming to the second issue, it is also a part of Indian culture to never touch a woman however much her looks and her mannerisms may tempt you, unless she has expressly said yes (remember the Arjun and Urvashi incident?). But today people say that if a woman is dressed “provocatively” she is “asking to be raped”. Really? Do men have no control over their bodies? Please do not insult mankind with such notions. Men are rational human beings and can exercise restraint over their thoughts, feelings and actions.

Secondly, there is no logical connect between seeing a desirable woman and actually walking over, pulling her down, getting both your clothes off and forcing yourself into her. A mere thought or sensation cannot lead to such drastic consequences. That is a very long chain of causality and holds no ground at all. Every time you see a plate of mouth watering chicken (or avial) do you just run over, grab it and eat it? You do not wait to think whom does the food belong to, do you have a right to eat it, does it have to be acquired in a different manner? No? You just walk over, pick up the plate and polish it off? If you do, you need therapy. If you don’t, then you are bound to agree with our point of view that there is NO connection between a man seeing a woman provocatively dressed and actually assaulting her. (My note: While it is quite a stretch to compare a woman to a place of food, I think the author's is simply trying to make a strong point and please don't get held up in the metaphor.)

And then again, when has a “conservatively” dressed woman not been harassed? I myself have been stalked and whistled at while wearing a full sleeved kurta and a churidar. Is a kurta and churidar provocative? So please let us drop the farcical notion that only women who dress “provocatively” get assaulted. Not true. You will be fooling yourself if you believe in that.

The point, then, remains this – clothes have NOTHING to do with it. Whatever you wear, however you wear it, wherever you wear it. People may not like what you are wearing, but that does not translate into hurting you physically. Hence, please trash the clothing debate for once and for all. Clothes do not rape. Rapists do.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/notes/slutwalk-bangalore-the-official-portal/the-indian-sense-of-dress/304903996206765

If you are a man who feels they can't relate to this:

The classic stereotyping is that women invite sexual assault with their provocative clothing and loose behaviour. The men upon seeing them are instantly aroused, cannot control their sexual urges and hence pounce on these women. This mentality paints men as irrational beings who cannot exercise restraint over their thoughts, feelings or actions. Would you like it if every woman on the road looked at you as a potential sexual offender? Or would you like it if your sister, wife, girlfriend or mother was accused of “asking for it” if they’d been sexually assaulted? If the answer to both questions was “NO”, then you know exactly why this movement is relevant to you.

Funny things about Wikipedia :)

2011-12-11T23:00:00.000+08:00

After a couple of really heavy and serious posts, thought I'd lighten it up with some funny pictures I found about Wikipedia.

LOL. Explains a lot.

Your parents classroom

What my classroom used to look like (without the smartphones, mainly BBs)

People are going to have many versions of history in the future, it seems. Sounds like a good thing since we always say that history was written by the winners, hopefully won't be the case anymore.

अभी के लिए अलविदा (Just because I just realised I can do that on Blogger. How cool is that?)

Cheerio :) xoxo

Flash Mob that I organised with a Friend :)

2011-12-06T00:04:00.001+08:00

We interrupt your lives with some interesting news: FLASH MOB IN BIRMINGHAM, UK :)

Recently, my friend Benita and I decided that we wanted to be part of a flash mob (after seeing numerous videos online and Friends with Benefits - starring Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis)

So, instead of going around looking for one, we decided to organise one. Let me just say it now, we are not trying to break any world records or anything, just trying to have some fun. And so here we have our iconic dance medley flash mob with about 40 people at the end!

Watch, enjoy, comment and share! (I suggest you go to Youtube to watch it as the display screen is bigger.)

P.S Am working on my next few blogposts so should be coming up soon :)

Bikini-Bod Rant...

2011-12-02T05:25:00.001+08:00

Ok, this is a deviation from my usual posts about the good of the world and good habits that people should have and for many, would be considered a very silly thing that really doesn’t deserve this much thought. But…after it came up during a conversation with my sister, I went as far as to Google it to see what other people thought about this (although that’s not saying a lot, since I google everything!).

What is this topic? To wear or not to wear…a bikini? Sorry, this is a woman-oriented post but I’ll be glad to hear a man’s opinion on this as well.

As an Indian who’s never lived in India but brought up by very cultural parents, I like to think that I’m an amalgamation of the best of the both worlds, traditional enough where I need to be yet modern enough in the right situations. But this confuses me.

I’m definitely NEVER going to wear a bikini in India ever (at least in present circumstances). I’m barely allowed to wear a little cleavage-baring dress there (leGasp! Just in case some future proposal is hindered?) I hate to say this but Indians are quite judgemental in nature, about bodies (I was once told by a random stranger that I need to lose weight), about a person’s character (Yes, they would judge a girl’s character by what she was wearing so bikini means…Slut alert!). Sorry, this rant basically concludes with me saying that India’s not really the right place for a bikini (or even a one-piece sometimes, but there are places for that…)

However, even if I were to wear one in UK, Singapore and all the other modern countries and beaches I’ve been to, I’m not sure I can. Like most women, I’m body conscious and a bikini just feels like a lot on display. Everyone would say, don’t worry, wear what you feel comfortable with. But at the same time, I know that I'm sometimes thinking about the woman whose love handles are so huge you can't actually see the bikini, "Well, that's a bit overconfident, innit?" But the thing is, I’m only young once and now that I’m an average size (rather than the obese I used to be), now is the time to try one on.

Yet, when my sister announced over Skype that we are going to be taking a family vacation on a cruise in January with some other families, my first thought was, I’m gonna have to wear a swimsuit infront of people who are not related to me. Before you interject, “But Shrusti, you must’ve worn a swimsuit infront of other people before!” Since I’ve been a teenager, I’ve only worn swimsuits (without tshirts or shorts covering me) with really good friends and mostly girls, due to my body insecurities. I hate that when I said this to my sister, her reply was “You know what’s funny? That was the first thought in my head too!” And that sucks – Is it because we were told that bikinis (and swimsuits in general) are culturally taboo or that the media stuffs images of celebrities with amazing bikini-bods or that it’s just a girl’s body image problem?

Well, I’m going to take a stand. I shall buy my first ever bikini and wear it to a beach (when I’m not with family) and not care who sees me. Because well, I may not be perfect but I’m gonna be confident (and hopefully that’ll cover up the imperfections).

P.S. I understand that this is generally a summer problem and I’m living in the northern hemi where it’s currently winter but since I’m going back to the tropics where it’s a constant problem, it’ll always be on my mind.

Author's edit:
I applaud any other woman who has the confidence to wear a bikini. I do, whether she is Indian or otherwise. That's exactly my point, that the culture or geography has nothing to do with what you are comfortable in. And being an Indian, I think the freedom of speech allows to make comment and generalisations (which obviously doesn't apply to everybody). If we completely stopped thinking about what the world thinks, then society as we know it, will cease to exist. If we wish to coexist with as many people as possible, it's human nature to wish to please as many as possible. Rubbing people the wrong way culturally is never smart but a recent post about Slutwalks in India has given me much more confidence that attitudes in India are changing. Also some things in the comments annoyed me, but others I do agree with. It might just be my own perception of others' attitudes that is giving me this hang up. You know what? The only way to test the theory is wear one and see.

On a totally different note, I read this in the news recently and it scared the BEEP out of me!

Man arrested at Large Hadron Collider claims he's from the future

Oh and a funny picture just cuz...

Health Myths Busted!

2011-11-27T07:17:00.001+08:00

Those old wives’ tales told by our grandparents: Don’t do such and such otherwise something horrible will happen to you! Well, even as a kid, I take pride in the fact that I used to ask, what is the science behind it? And without solid reasoning, I would ignore the advice. Not saying that’s a completely good thing, but I’m proud of the fact that I was a precocious? Or at the very least, a curious and logical child!

Here we go…

1. Sitting Too Close to the Screen Will Ruin Your Eyes.

When TVs first became popular in the 1950s, they emitted 100,000 times more radiation than they do today, so parents may have been smart to keep their kids away from the tube back then. But sitting too close to a modern set or computer screen won't do any permanent damage to your eyes. The fuzzy vision and headaches that follow a long day at the office (or a Lost marathon J) are symptoms of eyestrain-a temporary condition no different from the soreness you feel after a workout. Your eye muscles are simply tired from their workout of focusing all day!

2. Vitamin C Prevents Colds

It's true that if you don't have enough C, you'll get sick. But with scurvy, not a runny nose! Carroll and Vreeman hypothesize that this bug-fighting theory began when we discovered the vitamin's link to that infamous sailors' affliction, in 1932; if C could prevent one illness, the logic likely went, perhaps it could prevent others, too. But dozens of studies have found no difference in the number or duration of colds suffered by people who take C and those who don't. The best way to prevent the common cold is washing your hands.

3. Jet Hand Dryers are More Sanitary Than Paper Towels

Dryer or paper towel? Right old Sophie’s Choice! Molecular biologist Keith Redway, of the University of Westminster, has done a series of experiments to put an end to the debate. He found that jet dryers actually increase the amount of bacteria on users' hands because the air inside the machines is...let me put it this way, far from sterile! The driers make the restroom dirtier, too, spewing germs more than six feet. Paper towels are the clear winner.

4. A Glass of Warm Milk will Help You Snooze

Even thousands of years ago, the Talmud associated drinking milk with sleep. Today there's no scientific evidence that it has the slightest impact on drowsiness. Milk does contain the nap-inducing amino acid tryptophan, but only in trace amounts. Eggs and cheese have more, but even an egg and cheese sandwich won't knock you out. (You'd probably have to eat seven of them, the authors speculate.) However, if a hot-milk nightcap seems to help you catch z's, drink up. A little placebo effect never hurt anyone.

5. If Your Mucus Turns Green, Your Infection is Bacterial-and You Need Antibiotics

Congratulations, nose-blowing sleuths! This adage is partially true: When you have an infection, your body sends white blood cells called neutrophils to fight the germs, and when an enzyme in the neutrophils mixes with the healthy cells in your nose, your mucus changes color. The falsehood is that you need antibiotics. The infection in your body is not necessarily bacterial; it could be viral-in which case, no amount of antibiotics will help.

6. Spicy Food and Ulcers

If a person suffers from an ulcer, spicy food can often aggravate it; however, ulcers are not caused by spicy food at all – if they were, ulcers would be pandemic in many eastern nations. An ulcer is usually caused by overuse of medications like aspirin and anti-inflammatories.

7. How to Catch a Cold

There are a huge number of myths about how to catch a cold, but in fact there is only one way to catch a cold virus – by direct contact with the virus itself. You can stand outside on a cold night with wet hair and your chances of getting a cold do not increase at all. The reason that colds seem to spread more in Winter is not from the cold itself, but the fact that people tend to live more often indoors and this increases your chances of coming in to contact with a sufferer. It is also worth mentioning that if you get a cold in your nose, you can not stop it from spreading to your chest if the virus is programmed to attack you there. Most cold medicines are completely pointless and do nothing to help except alleviate the pain through the inclusion of painkillers.

8. Eat carrots to improve your vision

It is possible that this tale came about due to allied propaganda during the second world war when rumors were spread that the British airmen had excellent night vision due to eating carrots. The myth was spread to stop the Germans from discovering that the British were using Radar. While carrots contain vitamin A which is good for healthy eyes, eating lots of them will do nothing to improve your vision.

Bonus *Warning: It's a long one!*

Cracking your knuckles does not cause arthritis.

Cracking your knuckles (or any of your joints) can have therapeutic benefits. When you crack one of your joints you are pulling the bones that are connected at the joint apart from each other. This process stimulates your tendons, relaxes your muscles, and loosens your joints. Chiropractors do this for spinal joints when your back is sore and stiff, but you can do this on your own for your knuckles, toes, knees, neck, etc.

Unfortunately, there can be too much of a good thing since scientists have discovered that it can cause tissue damage in the affected joints. Knuckle-cracking pulls your finger bones apart which stretches your ligaments. Too much stretching of your ligaments will cause damage to your fingers akin to the arm injuries sustained by a baseball pitcher who throws too many pitches. In addition to making your hand really sore, this ligament damage can also result in reduced grip strength.

Science: Your joints, the places in your body where you can bend, are where your bones intersect and are held together by ligaments. These joints are surrounded by a liquid called synovial fluid. When you stretch your ligaments by pulling the bones apart to crack your knuckles a gas in the synovial fluid escapes and turns into a bubble. This process is called cavitation. Cavitation ends when the bubble eventually bursts, producing that popping sound we know and love. After that, your joints won't be able to crack for another 25-30 minutes while the gas gets reabsorbed into the synovial fluid.

Bonus for the bonus: FACT!

Scary Science...Things that frightened us silly as kids!

2011-11-16T10:06:00.001+08:00

So I’ve been reminiscing lately…on the good ol’ days when I was a kid, when I got together with my friends, ate junkfood – no holds barred (if you see my pictures from school, you’ll see) – prank calling the cute boys we were crushing on and the losers but definitely, some of my fondest memories are when we were trying to scare the shit out of each other at a rite of passage, the slumber party. We would huddle together in the dark with a flashlight telling ghost stories and daring one another to do stupid things.

Yup, that's what we looked like. HAHA. You wish.

That's more like it :)

Scariest of all were the games that everyone seemed to know (even without Google or Youtube, it’s shocking to any New Millenium baby), the tricks that seemed to unlock paranormal powers or spiteful spirits. According to my research, the reason these things have been going on for generations is because, on a certain level, they work. No, not the demonology part, but who would’ve thunk it, it’s science.

Scary Things Explained by Science

Bloody Mary

I have to admit I did this and scared myself so much so that I will probably never try it again to this day (even after knowing what I’m going divulge now). The game is relatively simple, you stand in front of a mirror in the dark and say ‘Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary’ (sometimes while spinning in a circle or some other variation). And then a woman is supposed to appear and she’s going to scratch off your face and lead you to a very bloody death.

See...I actually scared myself searching for this picture. I'm a scaredy-cat.

But as far as we know, no one has summoned any psychotic serial killer but still, at this very moment, somewhere, a pre-teen is standing in the mirror whispering ‘Bloody Mary’ loud enough for his/her friends to hear.

And she IS going to see something in the mirror.

Science

Giovanni Caputa, a psychologist did an experiment where he asked 50 people to look at a dimly lit mirror for 10 minutes. The participants were then asked to write down what they saw. Bear in mind that this was not a sleepover and no one was told they’d see anything scary.

Results were that 66% of participants reported massive deformations of their own face. 18% saw one of their parents with a few traits altered (among which 10% parents were dead). 28% saw a stranger’s face, like a child or an old woman. Most strikingly, almost half of the participants saw ‘fantastical and monstrous creatures’.

The reason is that if you stare at something long enough and I mean, really stare, not being looking while doing something else, like shaving – your vision starts to distort it due to something called the Troxler effect.

Stare at this for about 20 seconds

If you did it right, the dots would start to disappear after awhile. Apparently, to maintain our sanity, our brain is wired to prevent it from taking in the same thing over and over again. (in terms of sensory perception). Imagine the alternative of being aware of every limb, every breath and every blink! Life would suck because at our current brain activity levels, that would take up all our day’s activity. So a cool little trick is Selective Peripheral Fading where the neurons cancel out constant information.

I hope to God that's a doll with parts of its face missing. On the plus side, Halloween costume idea for next year!

So how does this apply to Bloody Mary? Since our faces don’t have a central point (I always considered the the tip of the nose to be one but I guess it’s hard to just focus on that?) , like that target above, the whole face starts to become distorted as the brain cancels parts of it out. The result is some kind of horrific monster face. And of course, ‘Bloody Mary’ can’t attack her victim because they are usually terrified and run out of the bathroom screaming. Add that to a child’s overactive imagination and voila – I summoned a scary bloody psychotic woman in my mirror!

Ouija Board

Oldest trick in the book. You know the funny thing is, I still know adults who believe in this and they have told me not to do this (Just IN CASE)! So your friends get together in a dark room and contact spirits with the board; everyone places their hand on a planchette, that moves around a board and points to letters to spell our words or phrases in response to your question.

Science

So the thing is, the real reason the Ouija board works is almost as freaky as communicating with floating spirits in the Earth world, we are actually communicating with the subconscious part of our brain.

This involuntary movement in your hand muscles are called the ideomotor effect. Your body can and does move your muscles without your express permission because your body operates on autopilot most of the time anyway. Think about it, the next time the light stops working in a room, you will unconsciously keep flipping the switch everytime you walk in anyway.

So similarly with the Ouija board, your brain thinks of a response to the question and subtly moves the planchette where it wants it (but subconsciously). This does not work if you were creepy enough to try the board alone but with a few people together and all subconsciously pulling, it creates a distinct sensation that the planchette is moving on its own accord.

Get some milk from the market.... -- My subconscious is really boring.

For further proof, check out the video below, where magicians Penn & Teller blindfolded some random people, flipped the Ouija board 180 degrees and had them try to contact the spirit of the guy who played Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy. The results are less than startling.

In theory, ghosts should be able to direct their hands no matter the orientation of the board, right? Turns out, without being able to see the board, they just kinda move their hands to where they think the letters are.

The Orange Kangaroo Game

If you didn't do this at parties, or weren't invited to any parties, then you've probably seen this one in an email (with huge gaps in between steps to allow you to do the math or consult your handy-dandy notebook!)

I really need a better spam filter.

Pick a number between one and 10. Multiply it by nine. Add the two digits of the resulting number together. Now subtract five from that. Take your number and match it up with a letter of the alphabet (so 1 would be A, 2 would be B, etc.). Pick a country that begins with that letter. Pick an animal whose name begins with the last letter of the country name. Pick a fruit that begins with the last letter of the animal's name.

You got Denmark, kangaroo and orange, right?

MAGIC!

How did I guess?

Science

No matter what number you pick, they will always be four. So FOUR gives you D.

Apparently, with only four countries in the world that start with D (Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic)

Most people go with Denmark. Last letter is K and there are also very few animals that start with K and most tend to choose kangaroo - For a full list ofanimals that start with K

With an O, most people tend to go with orange - Another list from Wikianswers

So essentially, you’re pretty much forced into those answers. Sorry, no magic, we are all still just muggles. Unfortunately. Really really unfortunately.

On a side note, how sad were you when you didn’t get your letter from Prof Dumbledore on your 11^th birthday? (In fact, I gave my sister a letter for her 17^th birthday, just because…I’m cool like that.)

So...those are some myths busted. I want to be a mythbuster cuz how cool would that job be? Blow stuff up on television...I'm up for that. Where do I interview?

Ok, random introspective notes but no real conclusion...oh well. Who really wants to read that?

Strange forms of Renewable Energy that COULD work!

2011-11-07T07:23:00.000+08:00

So energy is a huge relevant issue in today’smodern world. I remember writing a ginormous essay (in 1 night the day before it was due. It turned out great! But sorry Idigress,) about renewable energy and its effects on economic, political andsocial aspects in the world. My father works in Oil and Gas, a chemicalengineer by degree and project manager by profession so I’ve heard about the main ways that we obtain oil and natural gases for energy purposes. Obviously,if you have access to the internet (which you must, since you’re reading this),you should know how those main sources (oil, gas, coal) are getting depletedand so, we (the planet) needs to find alternate, more sustainable form of energythat both meets our needs as a human race and also prevents more damage to ourplanet.

Offshore structures to obtain oil and gas from undersea ventures

But I don’t usually write about something unlessit’s going to be both illuminating and humourous! So this isn’t just a boringold blogpost about alternative energy, this is about energy solutions designedby supervillains to take over the world (but they’ll probably fix the problemtemporarily but lead us into quite a few more). Evil villains definitely thinkoutside the box and their potential power sources would possibly be considered ridiculousbut worse than coal? I think not.

(All links are the research I did. There's more but I didn't want to link every word lol. Don't bother clicking unless you're really curious where I got my info.)

5 Energy Crisis Solutions

1. A battery that runs off of human blood (Not kidding, it exists.)

Mad scientists have searched for years to get powerfrom stolen souls but since that didn’t quite work out for them, they settledon getting electricity from human blood! At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,scientists have invented a strong and flexible battery, powered by blood, whichlooks like a curled up scab!

This is part of a larger series of batteries calledbio-batteries which can run off of a a few bodily fluids (sweat, urine or…tears)All of these can be produced during a human response to fear…wow, MonstersInc. the Sequel. Also I can't believe all that information is on HowStuffWorks, a predominantly children's science site!

It has the texture of paper and is implanted underthe skin but draws electrolytes from your fluids and channels them throughnanotexh carbon tubes to create energy (Wouldn’t that dehydrate you? Wouldyou have to be on the drips? Or continuously be drinking H₂O orMountain Dew or something?)

Apparently, the goal is not to make a huge one andpower it with a lake consisting of human victims’ blood but rather to helppower medical implants such as pacemakers.

BTW, as creepy as this may sound, the older method(not in current use) was to power those devices using nuclear power but havinga little hunk of plutonium inside the batter. As the plutonius decayed, theheat released would power the device. When the patient eventually died, they’dhave to ship the pacemaker to Los Alamos to safely dispose the radioactivematerial.

2. Harvesting human body heat (Not by trapping in pods. I promise.)

The Matrix has taught me a many wonderful thingsabout life (definitely going to be a blogpost in the near future!) but usinghuman heat was not one of them. In Sweden, however, some engineers watched it and said, “Hey, youknow that’s so true! We SHOULD harvest human body heat for our planet’s energyneeds! Great idea!”

They don’t, however, round up crowds and shove theminto power plants with IVs to sustain them and suck out their heat energy (Idon’t know why but evil laugh sounds appropriate) – MuaHaHaHa – these peoplevolunteer themselves. Let me explain, he Stockholm Central Station is a huge trainstation that acts as a central hub for all Swedish travel and some 250,000people pass through everyday. According to The Matrix, the human bodygenerate 400BTUs of heat/hour. Multiply that by a quarter million and voila! –A building that stays too hot even in freezing Stockholm.

So instead of opening a window and wasting all thatextra heat energy, they installed heat converters in the vents that suck allthe extra body heat, heats water and then they send it across the street toheat an office building. Apparently, the air can’t be directly pumped overthere because it would smell like sweaty train travellers and Swedish hobos.

Besides completely deducting the station’s heatingbill, the office building knocked off 25% of their their bill! This sounds likea really easy method to be used in any Metropolitan city in the world, wherethere are plenty of packed buildings! Especially now that we’ve reached7million (although I’m pretty sure that’s not contributing to the Metros toomuch)

You know what would really work? Pay an unemployed orhomeless person to just sit in a container (or pod) and just provideenergy. Of course, that might increase the amount of money invested as youwould have to entertain them, pay them, benefits and all…Or you could getrobots to guard them and make sure they don’t leave. Ever.

3. VolcanoPower!

This makes me laugh because every famoussupervillain has his evil lair within a volcano where he hides from the lawharnessing energy to fuel his death ray while the superhero comes to his rescueright before the eruption, only to throw the guy in jail J The ultimate supervillain symbol from Sauron toSyndrome (The Incredibles).

But, most power plants operate by heating up wateruntil it becomes steam. So if it’s heat you need, why not use the giant holdspewing molten rock from the center of the Earth?

Iceland already provides power to 95% of theirpopulation and has plans to start selling this power to other countries soon.These people are taking the very unpronouce-able volcano that screwed upeveryone’s air travel earlier and making it work for them!

Even by modest projections, it’s estimated that UScould power 25% of their country and for volcanic-activity-heavy countries likeIndonesia where 35% of the population doesn’t have electricity, this is a Godsend!The volcanoes in the Indonesia archipelago would produce 4,000 MW of power by2014.

Context: World’s largest solar plant: 400MW/year andLargest windplant: 800MW/year

Hold on to your horses, reader who thought ofgalloping off to Eyoihwifwoehoi (something or the other) to make yourown power plant…there is some risk. If the volcano erupts, power supply can be interruptedand that’s kinda what volcanos tend to do. And even if it’s not exploding inyour face, drilling into the ground and releasing a cloud of super-heated steamthat makes your equipment explode and form a crater 100ft deep and 100ft wideis a scenario that is very possible (it has happened several times). But thinkabout it: you’re trying to tame a freaking volcano to serve your energy needs,it’s gonna fight back dammit!

4. Harnessing eel electricity

Ok, so this is more Disney Pixar supervillain thanreal supervillain (If I can be permitted to call a non-animated movie badguy that…what’s a real supervillain anyway?) If you were to look at anelectric eel and say, “I’m going to put them in a tank and use them to power mylair!,” I would assume you’re a 12 year old. Or Japanese. (Sorry for theracism but you’ll get the reason in a minute.)

At the Kamakura Aquarius just south of Tokyo, they’veset up a demonstration of a single, huge electric eel powering…a Christmastree. Yes, they used the evil henchmen in The Little Mermaid to power aChristmas tree. They produce electricity similar to batteries and it workssimply by putting them in a tank and when it moves, it generates power.Electrodes feed the current into a Christmas tree and voila! – You’ve got anerratically powered Christmas tree.

Besides getting our super-villain a prince for a husband, our ultimate goal was to light up Christmas trees.

I hope the eel tree’s inventor is joking when he isquoted as saying (perhaps the most uncreative vision of the future in thehistory of mankind), “If we could gather up allthe electric eels from all around the world we would be able to light up anunimaginably large Christmas tree." Solve the global energy crisis? Noooo…Christmastree!

Well, I suppose it’s better than the alternative offor example, having 10,000 square km pit of electric eels or breeding aGodzilla-sized eel. On second thought, if you were planning on something likethat, you wouldn’t advertise it. You’d cover it up by saying you were doingsomething no one would question. Like say…Christmas. Hmm…

5. AGiant Invisible Energy (Death) Ray

Ok…wires are old technology and physically havingto connect your chargerto a power station through cords, power lines andtransformers is overly complicated, essentially the same as what has beenhappening for the last century. Shouldn’t we be able to beam the energy towhere we need it? Yes, there are small scale versions of it like phone chargers without plugs but hopefully, someone out there is thinking much much bigger,like huge, right?

Now THAT is a fire hazard.

Yes, this is also true. Scientists have built a laser that can transfer power nearly mile into the sky, a project that was doneas part of a NASA contest which awarded teams for innovations in beaminginvisible power over distances. The winning team wirelessly beamed enough powerto command a robot to climb a 4,300ft cable up to a helicopter. The articledoesn’t say if the robot then climbed into the helicopter and threw out thepilot like Robert Patrick in Terminator 2.

Another research team has outlined plans for a colossal solar space sail that would pick up outer space solar winds and beam them toEarth. There’s plenty of energy in space, enough to power Earth many timesover! The beaming technology to transmit the mind-boggling amount of energyneeds to be perfected and also a few missions in orbit to build the sail. Andthen, the grand revelation: it’s a Death Star.

So that's it...Renewable energy. Super villains. Hopefully, technology will be used for good. I guess that's a human's most redeemable quality. Hope. So here's hoping...

Amazing Uses of Coke...

2011-11-05T22:16:00.000+08:00

So you’ve all heard that Coke has many uses (besides being a cold soda to enjoy on a hot Summer afternoon) So I’ve compiled a list just for reference purposes. Also, am in no way, promoting Coke, pretty sure that Pepsi, ThumsUp or any other kind of cola can probably do the same (unless it’s the secret coca-cola ingredient!)

Personally, I’m trying to stop drinking cola after all the bad stuff I’ve heard…might as well drink water right? But this is going to be hard as I do like myself some ThumsUp (If you haven’t been to India, you probably don’t know what that is but it’s like a tangier/spicier/more fizzy version of Coke and as any Indian will vouch, a 100x better!)

The list
1.       Remove grease stains from clothing and fabric I had to start with the most obvious.
2.       Remove rust; methods include using fabric dipped in Coke, a sponge or even aluminium foil.
3.       Remove blood stains from clothing and fabric.
4.       Clean oil stains from a garage floor; let the stain soak, hose off.
5.       Loosen a rusty bolt; pour on some Coke and wait for the magic to happen Same application as cleaning rust
6.       Kill slugs and snails; a small bowl of Coke will attract them, the acid will kill them. Salt works as well.
7.       Help a lawn become lush and green
8.      Prevent an asthma attack! Apparently, the caffeine in two 330ml cans can prevent the onset of an attack but beware the sugar rush that follows…
9.       Defrost a frozen wind-shield. Apply liberally and wait…
10.   Clean burnt pans; let the pan soak in the Coke, then rinse. No way!
11.    De-scale a kettle using the same method in 11.
12.    Neutralize a jellyfish sting.
13.    Clean car battery terminals by pouring a small amount of Coke over each one.
14.    Cure nausea; let a can of Coke go flat then take a teaspoon of Coke every hour.
15.    Also, flat coke can help relieve an upset stomach (aka “the runs”).
16.    Make a Mentos & Coke exploding fountain. This one takes a 2-liter bottle of Coke.

17.    Get rid of hiccups; gargle with a big mouthful of ice-cold Coke.
18.   Shake up a can and pour it over your wind-shield/car bumper to remove bugs and other crud.
19.    Clean your engine; Coke distributors have been using this technique for decades.
20.   Relieve congestion; boil and a can of Coke and drink while hot to clear you up.
21.    Make a sweet BBQ sauce. Mix a can of Coke with ketchup and brush over ribs or chicken.
22.   Baste a ham roast with Coke as it cooks. The sugars will caramelize; the ham will be moist.
23.   Add a can of coke to your pot roast to tenderize it and add extra flavour.
24.   Make pretty pennies; soaking old pennies in Coke will remove the tarnish.
25.   Make your hair curly; pour flat Coke onto long hair, leave for a few minutes then rinse.
26.   Also, a bad dye job can be faded by washing in flat coke.
27.   Age documents and photos; for that antique look, apply Coke, pat with paper, leave to dry.
28.   Clean tile grout; pour onto kitchen floor, leave for a few minutes, wipe up.
29.   Mix a can of Coke with a packet of Italian seasoning; cook a tough steak in it.
30.   Make better compost; Coke increases the acidity, adds sugars and feeds micro-organisms.
31.    De-skunk yourself. If you have been sprayed unfortunately, cover yourself from head to toe in the shower and rinse off.
32.   Dissolve a tooth in it; Use a sealed container, this takes ages. Why would you want to though, unless you’re Hannibal Lecter?
33.   Remove gum from hair; dip into a small bowl of Coke, leave a few minutes. Gum will wipe off.
34.   Get silky skin; mix a spoonful of Coke with regular lotion and apply liberally. I don’t believe this nor am I trying it!
35.   Make low-fat brownies. Not sure how anything with coke in it can be deemed low-fat! On second thought, after looking at this, have to try this!
36.   Pour a little in a cup and set it out an hour before a picnic, away from your site; it will attract wasps and bees so they’re not bugging you and your grub.
37.   Remove stains from vitreous china.
38.   Got a dirty pool? Add two 2-liter bottles of Coke to clear up the water (it acts as rust remover).
39.   Add Coke to your laundry to remove bad smells, especially fish.
40.   Remove (or fade) dye from hair by pouring diet Coke over it.
41.    Mop a floor with Coke to make it sticky. It’s a movie industry trick to stop actors slipping. Why are studio floors so slippery?
42.   Remove marker stains from carpet. Apply Coke, scrub, then clean with soapy water.
43.   Clean a toilet; pour around bowl, leave for a while, flush clean. So essentially acts as toilet bleach?
44.   Apply to skin for a deep tan. Although this seems like a recipe for skin cancer to me.
45.   Supposedly, drinking 220ml of Coke every day can prevent kidney stones and induce obesity.
46.   Perk up your Azaleas or Gardenias, plants that like acidic soil.
47.   Coke and aluminium foil will bring Chrome to a high shine.
48.   Strip paint off metal furniture; soak a towel in Coke, sit it on the surface for days. Make sure you keep adding Coke to keep the towel wet. Wouldn’t it be easier to buy paint stripper?
49.   Add it to vodka, rum or bourbon.
50.   Drink it straight from the can.

You know, one of the most amazing things is that most of us who read or are even slightly in touch with the world, know at least 10 of these things yet we still continue drinking a black sugary drink who's main ingredients are carbonated water, sugar, caffeine, phosphoric acid, carbon dioxide and 'natural flavouring' what ever that means!

Hope some others have decided to join me in my resolution to quit destroying our bodies!

Legend of Jack-O-Lantern

2011-11-01T22:00:00.003+08:00

So as to continue the Halloween themed week...here's a new story for ya...

Optional: To be enjoyed with some Irish Lager :)

EveryOctober, the American suburban lawns are lined with carved pumpkins, peeringout from porches and doorsteps. Pumpkin carving exists in other countries but it’sjust not that prevalent. Pumpkins are inscribed with ghoulish faces andilluminated by candles, a sign that the Halloween season is upon us (see what I did there? Haha.) Thepractice is decorating “jack-o’-lanterns” and its story comes from an Irishfolktale about a man referred t as Stingy Jack. Originating in Ireland, insteadof pumpkins, it was first done within large turnips and potatoes. When Irishimmigrants brought the tradition to the US where pumpkins are the mostavailable fall fruit and it just probably looked nicer than potatoes (can’t imagine what that would’ve lookedlike!).

Legend of Stingy Jack

Accordingthe story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him (because well, I can’t think of any reasonto do that.) True to his name, Stingy Jack didn’t want to pay for his drinkso he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack then used tobuy their drinks. The Devil complied (What?!?!)and Jack decided to keep the money in his pocket next to a silver cross,which prevented the Devil from returning to his true form. Jack thenblackmailed the Devil, freeing him only after the Devil promised not to bother Jackfor a year and that in the event that Jack died, will not claim his soul.

Thenext year, Jack again tricked the Devil (Ihave no words for how moronic the Devil is made out to be in this story.)into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. However, while he was up inthe tree, Jack carved a cross into the tree’s bark so the Devil could not comedown until the Devil promised Jack not to bother him for ten more years (See, why does it take any magical power toclimb down a tree? If I’m correct in understanding that the symbol of God takesaway the Devil’s power…)

I just imagine the fruit being an apple...you know, to symbolise the forbidden fruit that the Devil convinced humans to eat...IRONY is hilarious!

Eventually,Jack died but as irony would have it, God didn’t allow such a rapscallion intoheaven. The Devil (who would obviously befurious to be outwitted by a man not once, but twice!) kept his word not toclaim his soul and didn’t allow Jack into hell either (The smartest thing the Devil did!). He sent Jack off into the darknight with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack then put that coal into acarved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth ever since. He became known asthe ghostly “Jack of the Lantern” or when spoken with an Irish accent, “Jack-O’-Lantern”!

<-- An actual turnip lantern!

Howdid everyone start making their own version of Jack’s lanterns? Well, inIreland and Scotland, people would carve scary faces into turnips or potatoesand place it in their windows or at doors to frighten away Stingy Jack or otherwandering evil spirits. In America, the native pumpkins were found to beperfect jack-o’-lanterns!

Hope that little story was cute and interesting..I sure thought so...old legends are always so fascinating!

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Halloween Special...Boo!

2011-11-01T00:00:00.001+08:00

Well,I’m going to jump on the bandwagon for the holiday seasons. Yes, Halloween is aholiday. Not really, but it’s seasonal? Happy Halloween everyone! I do lovethis holiday, mainly because I love dressing up and it’s the one night Iactually spend some time on my make-up (Otherwise,it’s a well-rehearsed routine that I can breeze through in 5 minutes)!

Sohere are some facts (that I researched online since I’m no encyclopedia!):

Origin of Halloween

Morethan 2000 years ago, its origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival ofSamhain (pronounced like sow-in), in the area that is now Ireland, the UK andnorthern France, whose New Year was on the 1^st November. It markedthe end of the summer and harvest and beginning of the cold and dark winter, atime associated with death (Why would youwant to start your year on a cold and dreary note?) Anyway, so the last dayof October was considered a day when the lines between the world of the livingand dead became blurred and the dead returned to the world. These ghosts wouldthen cause trouble and damage crops (Evenduring that time, vandalising teenagers existed!) but also helped Celticpriests make future predictions. Obviously, during those times when everythingwas dependent on Mother Nature, prophecies were a source of comfort anddirection during the dark winters.

Tocelebrate this time of year and to prevent the ghosts from harming them, theDruids built huge sacred bonfires and gather to burn crops and animals (I’m not sure why…since the Ghosts obviouslypreferring to do that themselves!) They also wore costumes of animal headsand skins, (like people do cuz of thefantastic scent) and tried to tell each other’s fortunes (sounds like an old-school carnival!)

By 43AD, the Roman Empire had conquered quite a lot of Celtic territory and duringthe course of the 400 years that they ruled the Celts, 2 Roman festivals wascombined with the Celtic festival of Samhain. First was Feralia, a late Octoberfestival that Romans deemed was important for the passing of the dead. Thesecond day was to honor Pomona, Roman goddess of fruits and trees, due to theend of harvest, whose symbol is the apple. The incorporation of thiscelebration into Samhain probably explains the modern tradition (what an oxymoron!) of ‘bobbing’ forapples.

Around600 years later when Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome in honourof Christian martyrs and the catholic feast of All Martyrs Day was establistedby the Western church. Pope Gregory III later included all saints as well asmartyrs and moved the observance to November 1^st (as opposed tomid-May). The influence of Christianity had moved into Celtic lands by the 9^thcenturywhere the rituals and believes started to blend and supplement the older Celticrites. By 1000AD, the church made November 2^nd All Souls’/Saints’Day, a day to honor the dead in general (inan attempt to replace old ‘Pagan’ Celtic festival with something similar butchurch-sanctioned). All Saints’ Day was celebrated similarly with bigbonfires, parades and dresses up in costumes as saints, angels and devils. TheAll Saints Day celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas – from MiddleEnglish Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day – and the night before it, thetraditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion, began to be calledAll-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.

Halloween Traditions Today

The Americantradition of ‘trick-or-treating’ probably dates back to the early All Saints’Day parades in England when poor citizens would beg for food and richerfamilies would give them pastries called ‘soul cakes’ in return for theirpromise to pray for the family’s dead relatives. The church encouraged this asit was a way to replace the ancient tradition of leaving food for roamingspirits (or hobos!). Initiallyreferred to as ‘going-a-souling’, this practice was eventually taken up bychildren who visited their neighbourhood houses to ‘beg’ for ale, food andmoney (I can see why many people inEngland no longer celebrate this, with such overtones. As a parent, I woulddefinitely not encourage my children to beg for sweets!)

Soul Cakes: Still made to celebrate All Saints Day on 1st Nov

The traditionof costumes has both European and Celtic roots. As previously mentioned, thisHalloween was the time that the ghosts would roam our earthly world, peoplewere worried they would encounter said ghosts when they left their houses atnight (and during the short and dark days of winter, nights were long!). Toavoid being recognised by ghosts, people wore masks so ghosts would mistakethem for fellow spirits (I can see somany things wrong with this belief but LOL will have to suffice!).

Ghost on right says to 'ghost' on left: I bet you can't pass through the banister.

Halloween Superstitions

Halloweenhas always been a holiday (I don’t knowwhy we call it that, considering we go to work and have school!) filledwith mystery, magic and superstition. When it first began within the Celticcommunity, it was a time when people felt close to their deceased friends andrelatives. They would set places at the dinner table, leave treats on thedoorsteps and light candles to help them find their way back to the spiritworld (Personally, if I were a ghost, Iwould stay. You get food and treats! Also, if you light candles, I’ll gotowards them and not towards the spirit world!)

Today,ghosts are perceived as fearsome so the customs are scarier too. We don’t crosspaths with black cats in fear they will bring us bad luck – stemming from the MiddleAges when witches were believed to turn themselves into black cats to avoiddetection. Walking under ladders is supposed to bring bad luck – maybe becauseancient Egyptians believed that triangles were sacred (So walking through a triangle should make you closer to God, right?).

But what about the Halloween traditions and beliefs that today'strick-or-treaters have forgotten all about? Many of these obsolete ritualsfocused on the future instead of the past and the living instead of the dead.In particular, many had to do with helping young women identify their futurehusbands and reassuring them that they would someday—with luck, by nextHalloween—be married.

In 18th-century Ireland, a matchmaking cook might bury aring in her mashed potatoes on Halloween night, hoping to bring true love tothe diner who found it.

In Scotland, fortune-tellers recommended that aneligible young woman name a hazelnut for each of her suitors and then toss thenuts into the fireplace. The nut that burned to ashes rather than popping orexploding, the story went, represented the girl's future husband. (In someversions of this legend, confusingly, the opposite was true: The nut thatburned away symbolized a love that would not last.)

Another tale had it that ifa young woman ate a sugary concoction made out of walnuts, hazelnuts and nutmegbefore bed on Halloween night she would dream about her future husband.

Youngwomen tossed apple-peels over their shoulders, hoping that the peels would fallon the floor in the shape of their future husbands' initials

Women tried to learn abouttheir futures by peering at egg yolks floating in a bowl of water

They stood infront of mirrors in darkened rooms, holding candles and looking over theirshoulders for their husbands' faces.

Other rituals were more competitive. Atsome Halloween parties, the first guest to find a burr on a chestnut-hunt wouldbe the first to marry; at others, the first successful apple-bobber would bethe first down the aisle.

Source: http://www.history.com/topics/halloween

Thatwas just so hilarious, I just copied it straight from the site.

More Halloween-relatedposts coming this week. Where did the concept of Jack-O-Lanterns come from? Howis Halloween similar to other festivals around the world? Coming up soon…

On another Halloween related note, check out Google's search page: https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&tab=iw