Just doing my part

If you want to learn more about the movie Expelled, please go to this site.

Censorship, dishonesty, plagiarism, it has them all!

There is a point to make here, and i am going to make it.

Expelled.

Expelled.

Expelled.

Expelled.

Expelled.

Expelled.

to be continued..

Good days (midnight disjointed typings)

When you are young and happy, you thought the world will last forever.

In those days, the all-important exams would loom up maliciously. But everything is okay, because we'd form a study group. Every day we'd meet, and till night we'd stay. What is the pain of studying when you are with friends? In the shadow of exams we'd fraternize, the group in the corner.

throwing paper planes and snack wrappers at each other, testing out understandings and acronyms. The work is tedious and dull, but plodding through it is easy. Students we all are; where and when better to form fast bonds than during exam time?

We've been successful.

We're doing what we wanted, but seldom meet anymore. Should i throw myself into my work? Can I?

Bittersweetness is such an ambivalent emotion to have.

In awe

You know how much i like science. I'm a bio geek. So i really take offense when IDiots (can't spell idiot without ID) decide to strawman well working theories like evolution. Hence why i am in total awe at people who manage to make videos like these:



This parodies one of the common failed arguments against evolution, the so-called microevolution not macroevolution argument.

In a strike against Paley, the same person made a vid where a clock is evolved. It is in silica, of course, and you have to imbue to the clock certain characteristics that organic molecules normally have. But watch it for yourself:



Back to studying for me. Should be easy. I'm in such a good mood cuz these videos just made my day.

Some things should never be brought into this world

A few notes.

Yes, i am alive. Alive and kicking. Kicking and screaming in agony and frustration even. Everything is so hectic now. Honours applications, end of semester tests, reports, personal issues. I can't even summon up the energy to be half the smarmy bastard i once was.

A few notes:

• No, ChangYang. No more cheesy memes. No more taggings that has such contentless content. I'm a nerdy biology geek, not a bimbo. Send me another book meme or something and we can talk =P

• Someone told me that my blog is the most random one she has ever read. I think this largely comes from me being a geek. So, to further cement that viewpoint, here are some little somethings:
  How to pick locks
  Brainy man Steven Pinker on why we swear
  Dynamic Periodic table

• I spent the last couple of days obsessing over paper airplanes. Found a couple of sites and started folding away with last years lecture notes. Then i threw them off the balcony. I must have spammed the whole Citygate area with 9-10 pieces of random biology by now. Hopefully the people who get it will be so entranced by neuronal firings and stomach lining secretions that they won't complain. Paper plane websites here and here.
  The second link is a step by step flash instruction on how to build a paper plane that was perfected by a bunch of young scientists. it won a competition i think. Nice to think of scientific inquiry applied in a very relevant area. This will completely overturn cellulose aerodynamics. The first site has a lot of fun paper plane designs, including a paper Zepellin and a paper helicopter (not as cool as it sounds). The paper helicopters stay afloat for ages. I threw one off the balcony and it flew all the way across the road over to the Carlton Gardens where i lost sight of it. Try it on a windy day.

• I am very very glad that the birthday season is over. I managed to survive the September Swarm with moderate damage to my expenses. Like locusts descending on the green notes, they are.

Thats it for now. Maybe there will be more stuff coming along. Maybe there isn't.

Late night madness

My flight is later at 3pm, its now 5:46am, and somehow, for some inexplicable reason, i find myself watching this:



Lets hope that i get so plastered from lack of sleep that i'll finally be able to get some rest on the plane. And lets hope that this vid won't last long enough to scar me in my sleep.

Heres a picture from the resultant topic i had with Wolf after showing him the vid.



Hell, i think i'm already screwed. Might as well take anybody i can down with me.

Cheers.

Ipoh Mali

I can't believe i missed this.

I'm not usually for hip hop and rap, but i think this deserves a special place in my heart *grins*




Oh yeah.

Animaris Kinetic

Sometimes you see something so awe inspiring, that you can't help but say "That is too fucking cool to exist." But it does.

Meet Theo Janson. For the past 15 years or so, he has been making a new life-form. Fashioning beasts from innocuous materials like plastic sticks, rope, and plastic sheets, Theo crafts creatures that harvest the wind in to roam the plains. Like a modern day DaVinci, his contraptions resemble the highly ingenious sketches of wood and paper machines featured in DaVinci's notebook.

Armed with sails and a multitude of legs, Theo's strandbeests creak to life, taking shaky but unhesitant steps, moving forward with mechanical precision. His creations have over the years evolved beyond simple movement, you can find plastic bottles acting as pressure valves, a series of locks that open and close, acting as logic gates, giving them a primitive nervous system. Some of them have the ability to detect strong winds with their sails, unleashing a strapped on hammer and start bolting itself down. Some are larger than a bus, the creaking contraption looks like part dinosaur part insect. Theo christens his inventions with the genus name "Animaris", such as Animaris Percipiere, Animaris Ventosa.





There was one part of his creation process that really appealed to me as a biology student: Theo uses the computers to make a code for his creatures, which roughly translates into a rough DNA analogue, and uses them to configure his beests. Using these codes, he'd use the computer to generate variations, and he'd select the best ones out in an odd homage to the theory of evolution. Racing his strandbeests on the beach, he would pick the fastest ones and combine their traits together. In an interview with Theo, he states that he would like to make herds of these things and eventually release them into the wild, letting them live their own lives.


For more pictures of Theo Janson and his works, you can visit his website.

Happy bidecade

Lugging the luggage past the stairs and past all the doors, i come to the door labelled T15. Putting on a smile, i opened it. No one was in there. But the nodding fishing orange blob at the window seems to be content to see me, i wonder for a moment what sort of person my roommate is. Looking over at the occupied desk, i was pleasantly surprised to see an english name i had never encountered before. "Keegan Bow".

"huh, weird name."

***

I glanced at the bed, amused. The three girls trying to settle themselves on your bed seems to finally manage an ill fit, what with you being in one of the corner. Chattering incessantly about not letting you sleep till 3am, i wonder what sort of life would i have with a bunch like this.

Seeing as i didn't know them that well, and i haven't managed to make much headway in friendships, i was content to be ignored, as i tried to focus my attention back to the biology textbook.

Perhaps i should tell them i need to sleep as well? Nah, this is too interesting not to see to the conclusion.

***

We beamed with pride at the wall. I raised a skeptical eye at you.

"Isn't that soft porn? two girls kissing on the bed."

"no, its called "Kiss", and its art."

I go back to looking at my iceberg.

"Ok, so i'll put my rug in the middle of the beds, and my drawer can go to the middle too. You can put your lamp on top."

"Wonderful, coziest room in Albert House."

"No shoes allowed?"

"Yes."

***

"I'm thinking about starting a blog."

"Seriously? that sounds kinda fun. Maybe i should start one with you. But.. i dunno.."

"Yes, yes start one with me. It'll be good for you."

"Hmmmmm."

***

"Heh, i'll bet we're the only rooms to join the beds in this place."

"Nevermind, it'll be cozy! Unlike Jon's room. Its like, there is this hole in the middle of the room."

***

"Haha, so i'll put the cookie jar way at the top of the shelf, so Steph can't get at it. Nor Sarah. Mwahahahaha."

***

"Nooo, the net is gone!" I wring my hands up in frustration. "Yours is going to be gone soon too!"

A second later, sounds of dismay from your side vindicated my claim.

"Its like a wave, see. I have the crappier card, so when the system goes out, it hits mine first, then it hits yours a second later."

"Crap."

***

"Church bells on sundays and no bread in the freezer,
Derek standing there making us feel short,
and these are some of our most hated things!"
*chorus*

***

"Keegan, i'll most definately beat you today in Foosball."

"Bring it on!"

***

"I just felt that.. somebody else should have been responsible for his birthday, when we all have exams to deal with. That somebody else shouldn't have just spent the whole day playing RO with jon."

I didn't look you in the eye. There was nothing i could say, and i hadn't thought about planning anything at all, even though i should have.

***

"you know, you always say what i want to say 1 second faster than i can."

***

"Your thoughts are just too acidic."

"So what would be normal thoughts then?"

"Basic ones."

"ROFL, brilliant."

***

Some memories, dredged up from the recesses of my mind. Perhaps these impressions largely differs from your. But they are my impressions, nonetheless, and are uniquely mine, i hope. Uniquely mine, as a tribute of sorts.

Thanks for the memories. Happy 20th birthday, Keegs.