Encounters

I was sitting down on my bed during the weekends, slowly recovering from the battle scars that I have picked up after my weekly football game. My knee was hurting from the wound, blood and plasma slowly emerging from the wound. Being the typical me, I can't help but sadistically poking at it, hoping for something to happen. No big surprise there, just a yelp from the pain.

Since it was a sunny Saturday afternoon, and I was really drained physically and emotionally, I figured that this good bloke deserves a little R&R. While lying down on my soft, orange comforter, recuperating from what I can only perceived as a confusing morning, several thoughts came to mind. I've never really had moment of time to think, I can vaguely remember having one of this 'brain-storming session' which I used to have with myself. It gives me a moment to reflect and summaries the events that transpired over the week; figuring where and what I have done wrong, organize what needs to be done and just take some time to slow down.

I have said this before, we as humans love to rush things. It is not just a habit, the tendency for everyday people just like you and me embraces the fact the faster you work on something, the faster you get to forget about it. It's an observable habit, which I have countlessly encounter during my stint here abroad, especially amongst students. Of course I am not admitting to be the perfect sentient being, I have my own flaws, and friends and girlfriend will vouch for that testimonial. I've observe course mates, especially in 3 hours practical classes, eagerly finishing their given exercise. 2 hours in, half of the class will be gone and I can only sit in my chair and wonder if my endeavours will pay off. I am a great believer in spending quality time on a given exercise, and not stop until I am satisfied that I have the methods and steps correct. It is my responsibility as a student to put in as much effort in my studies, and I don't take my responsibility lightly.

Anyway, as I was lying down, leg still bleeding, albeit less profusely then it was, one thing that came to mind is my blog. I was pondering about the direction I am taking with my blog, my purpose of writing the things I write, is purely for educational purpose. But it was time to be honest with myself, do people want to read things like geological and atmospheric processes and what not? The most likely answer would be simple - no. A mutual friend of mine, which I met via a atheist/agnostic facebook group told me two important things which I can't stop thinking about pertaining blogs...

He said when blogging, he follows two important rules: (1) Be honest and (2) Write for yourself and not for other people.

That two points hit home on what I have been missing with regards to the direction of my blog. The only reason why I stop writing about certain topics that people would deem 'insulting' (note I won't call in insulting, just mentally challenging) is because of several factors such as family members reading my blog or if readers are insulted at what I write.

Though, I can proudly say that I don't write things too over-board to the extent that readers would feel insulted, I take the effort to proof read my shit and to make sure that I don't over do with the 'mentally challenging' anecdotes. I pride myself to not write based on my emotions, I know how to disconnect myself with my emotions so that things don't come out as too harsh. Evidently, some people have felt insulted, but I can only say that Im sorry if i truly went over-board and where I haven't then too bad for not being able to keep an open mind. 

Now, bring yourself back to where it matters. What really brought me back to this subject due to an argument/debate if you will, which ensued on my wall a few weeks back.

It started out like any other Friday night, I sit lavishly on my throne, downing a bottle of cider (friends will know which) and watching videos on youtube about atheism, science and skepticism. I stumbled upon a discussion/forum based video where a moderator is talking on the subject of atheism and science with 3 other notable figures in the the Sciencedom. Presenting Michael Shermer (Publisher - Skeptic Magazine), Sean Carroll (Theoretical Physicist - Caltech), and Edward Falzon (author of 'Being Gay Is Disgusting'). 

Out of the blue, I see a notification pop up, and just by looking at notification, I knew I was in for a long night. Clicking on my particular wall post, I read the comment that Atheism is the most selfish philosophy....it's not worth living life as an atheist. Naturally I don't take offence on such comments, I've encountered a few of those ever since I opened up about my atheism/agnosticm. Believe me, I've received far worst comments but you tend to let it go, and laugh at their hypocrisy. I can't go on and on barraging individuals who put down other individuals when one declares themselves an atheist/agnostic. 

I've learn the hard way to stop all form of discussion with a people who are not open minded, or who talks out of their ass when it comes to the topic of atheism. The amount of fucks I give is tantamount to zero divided by zero. I do respect religion, I respect that people are free to believe in anything they want, even if its a unicorn riding a dolphin in the sky with layers of water in between. My disbelief in religion is a personal matter, and I dare to say that I am not well verse in the teachings of the variety of religions out there, and that is why i take the time and effort to study on other religions, not because I want to find god, but because I want to understand how people of certain religion thinks. You have to agree that some of the mindsets are the same with every religion. With that, you can provide a proper argument with 'facts'.

So let's call this guy J, he comes on my wall, said something about atheism being selfish. So I countered my argument by respecting his opinion, but with that I expect a person to provide a perceivable and adequate explanation to back up their opinion. It's only the natural course of things, I respect your opinion, but you need to tell me why and not just type with a wet finger in your ears.

What I know about J is very little, but enough to know that he is one of your typical hypocrite religious individual, a Protestant to be specific. While in our discussion/argument, J made a hell lot of statements, which to me was unsound.

He stated the people who practice atheism, go to hell. But I argued that atheism do not believe in hell, so you can save your 'burn in hell' statements to someone who will. He then goes on and say that people who practice Buddhism will go to hell. Now I don't believe in religion, but when i see someone who talks about other religion without proper knowledge, it's a natural tendency for me to correct them. I was then told that he does not know much about anything Buddhism, and yet he has to balls to say that Buddhist will go to hell. I personally thought it was unfair for him to say such nonsense.

J then told me he leads his life the same way Jesus does, and proudly told me he converted many atheist. My only response was, and what it was suppose to mean is that if Jesus could see him right now, he would be very dissapointed. It was a very lengthy argument at this point, and all that is still on my wall. I purposely let it be, so that other people can see the true nature of a very extreme Protestant.

It goes to show you never really know a person until you pushed them to a corner, and get all out defensive. I still don't think he has any remorse for what he said, I personally have not met such a judgemental individual, practising conformational bias in the sense that he only picks arguments that agrees with him and discards the rest. I dislike such practice, it's a dishonour to yourself. 

Well that is a few of my encounters will religious bigots. Important things I learnt from that discussion/argument is that there is no point talking to a person who has his head buried way up his ass and that in every religion, there is always that one person who thinks he is all that. The very fact that he does not respect other religion, and yet insists he loves everybody is an indication of a person living in his own deluded world, where his words and actions are acceptable due to his glorified practice of what he thinks is the "Jesus way".

And after this post, I realize that I have a lot to learn when it comes to writting, because my sentences are all over the place.

Shaking Grounds And That Woozy Feeling

Hello readers! Sorry for the long hiatus yet again for I have been very busy. 3rd year shit would do that to you trust me, assignments and class test just about every week coupled with sleepless nights would do that to you. Fortunately i was built to withstand such mental and physical abuse, I guess that's why I am so scrony. Bam! 

Anyways, today I would like to touch up on a little bit of seismology. You know, a fancy, douche-bagery way to say earthquakes. I was inspired about writing about earthquakes after noticing the 7.9M earthquake that just hit the coast of Philippines just awhile ago. Also, seismology happens to be one of my favorite topic and I have no idea why it never crossed my mind to blabber of such, but it's never too late, of course until i decided to close my blog down because it appears that I'm writing to myself. So let's get shaking.

A Brief History

Earthquakes, many of us are well acquainted with this term. Simple yet curious. Those born in 90s, like myself just incase you're wondering, would have had heard your fair share of earthquakes. Most notable ones in our lifetime are of course the 8.6 magnitude Indonesian Earthquake of 2004 and recently the 9.0 magnitude Japan Earthquake of 2011. 

But what are earthquakes? Is it wise to say that earthquakes means that the earth is shaking? Well personally I would not say you're wrong, but you're not right either. While the earth is shaking, there are more physical attribute to the propagation of earthquakes. In a more precise terms, an earthquake is the release of energy in the form of seismic waves due to the failure of the crust.

Seismic waves now, what are they? Seismic waves are waves of energy that travel through the earth's crust via an earthquake. Basically this is what causes the destructive nature of an earthquake. Seismic waves come in two flavours:

• P-waves or Primary waves: These are waves that travel parallel to the direction of propogation.
• S-waves or Secondary waves: These are waves that travel perpendicular to the direction of propagation.

Think of a slinky, P-waves is when you push the slinky back and forth while S-waves is when you push the slinky up an down.

Now that you are well equipped with how an earthquake functions, on the the causes of earthquakes.

Causes Of An Earthquake
There are hell lot of ways to create an earthquake, and no, HAARP is not a weapon that causes earthquake and Project DESTINI is just a science-fiction creation. For simplicity sake, i will only highlight earthquakes that occur at two different sites: (i) at subduction zones and (ii) at strike-slip faults

Convergent plate boundaries are basically a site where two plates collide with each other, and I have highlighted this term in my Mountain-Building post. I will now dive deeper into a convergent plate boundary, and I will keep the jargons simple.

Subduction zones occur at CVB's, this is a site where the a) oceanic plate is subducted under the continental crust or  b) oceanic plate subducts under an oceanic plate. Which plate subducts under another is highly dependent on the density of the crust. The less dense plate will always subduct.I would also like to note that subduction do not occur exclusively at trenches.

Now, how do earthquakes form due to subduction? Let's take a look at a simple cross-section of a subduction zone

Subduction, geologists equate this to blowjobs

Ignore all the terms and jargons, and focus on the two plates. In general, the principle behind an subduction zone related earthquake is when the oceanic plate subducts under the overlying plate, there will be a huge stress at the hinge point.

Hinge point is basically the site where two of the crust with opposing density meets (look at the red line on the surface of the subducted plate in the diagram above). Now, what happens sometime is that when the subduction 'stalls' for some reason, the stress build-up will be so huge, the eventually the it will snap and fracture. There will be a huge displacement of the crust at a short amount of time; ie: the subducted plate moves down, and the overlying plate moves up.

And this is the basic principle behind a subduction zone related earthquake. When the failure occurs, seismic waves are created, hence the ground does not only move up and down, it also move side to side. There you go ladies and gentleman, an earthquake is produced.

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is this "M" abbreviation i see at the end of the number spectrum of earthquake intensity?
  
  M stands for magnitude, at it usually denotes the strength of an earthquake based on the amount of energy that is released

• What is the min and max amount of magnitude for an earthquake? How can I physically explain the strength of an earthquake?
  
  The min and max amount is 1M and 10M respectively. To physically think of how powerful an earthquake is, we start by understanding that the magnitude is based on some calculations involving log. This means that for every increase in 1M there is 10x  increase in energy.
  So for example, a 5M earthquake to a 9M earthquake, there is an increase of 1000x in energy. That is how powerful an earthquake can be.

•  Why is the maximum in magnitude 10M, what happens beyond 10M?
  
  10 magnitude is the maximum amount of energy a rock can withstand before it fails (ie breaks apart). So far I have yet to come across a 10M earthquake, i can't even begin to think of it.
  What happens at 11M? I don't really know? 2012 i suppose?

• Can we predict when earthquakes will occur?
  
  Simple answer is, no. There is no equipment at the moment to predict when an earthquake will happen in the future, simply because the nature and movements of plates are unpredictable.
  What we can do however is gather hundreds and thousands of data set and correlate when an earthquake had happened before, the time lag between an earthquake and from there we can 'predict' when an earthquake is due. However, we cannot confuse correlation with causation, and this method is basically not well used, in fact not used at all.

And there you have it ladies and gentleman, I know it is a long post but i hope you have fun reading this. I dropped the funny simple because i don't kid with seismology bro!

Hey Guys, Look At My Ridiculously Huge Mountains.

You read it right people, I have huge mountains. I have such huge mountains, i have no idea what to do with em. Shave of the top, erode the sides, a little lava spewing from the tip and you have the Isle of Hawaii. I am coming out of the closet after 21 years with my mountains, and by Tom Hanks I am not afraid to scream 'SHOW ME THE MOUNTAINS!'

If you don't get it by now my chatter for today's box is related to mountains, really huge mountains. I believe some mountains will make you jealous and no I am not talking about those soft, delicious and perky goodness that is cotton candy. Let's me bring you back in time..

I remember when I was young, driving back trough Penang, we would always pass this area riddled to the brim with huge, tall, majestic and beastly creation that is a mountain..as seen below.

Pretty mountains!

Well it's not exactly like that but it sure as hell are similar and no one can tell me otherwise you hear me? SHOW ME THE MOUNTAINS! Now look at the mountains!

Now back to me, and back to the mountain. Now back to you sister, and back to me, straight to the toilet, back at you at the mirror now back to me.

On the road, being young and naive and highly curious with my sexuality, i find myself strangely attracted to mountains. I'd mount a mountain while mounting down a Mountain dew (Mountain-ception). One has to wonder, how are mountains form? Why are there mountains in different settings (eg: near the coast, or inland in isolated areas where no one can hear you scream SHOW ME THE MOUNTAINS!)

Enter the Himalayas!.......

I said enter the Himalayas.

Hey I just met you, and this crazy..so here's my mountains, so mount me maybe?

 

 

 

The Himalayas, a long mountain range, home to the tallest mountain on Earth, Moun. Everest situated north of the Indian subcontinent (Himalayas). The Himalayas were formed by collision between the Indian and Asia continents. But before I explain how mountains are form, let me introduce to you some important concepts you need to know:

• There are two types of crust; oceanic and continental crust.
• Oceanic crust is denser than continental crust, hence why the continental crust 'floats' above the oceanic crust.
• There are areas on earth, fondly termed as margins called trenches such as the Mariana trench (Marina Trench) <------ i love pasta
• Trenches are locations where oceanic crust are consumed.
• At trenches, oceanic crust are consumed. Continental crust are never consumed because they're less dense, hence never sinks. 
• Trenches are located at subduction zones.

Now let's begin with forming mountains, in this case the Himalayas. Like any other delicious cake, you need the right ingredients. I stated earlier that the Himalayas were formed by (i) collision between what is now (ii) India and Asia continents.

But how did this this collision occurred? How was it initiated? What were the mechanisms? I will address this in detail.

Events Leading Up to The Collision
The collision between the Indian and Asian continent roughly started 25 Mya. The Indian continent was attached to oceanic crusts. A subduction zone at the margins of the Asian continent consumed the oceanic crust, dragging the Indian continent closer and closer, like your ex-wife when you win the lottery, towards Asia. Eventually all the oceanic crust in consumed, and what is left is two, less dense, bouyant continental crust on a collisional course towards each other.

This picture roughly summaries what I have stated above. Note that Asia is situated in the Eurasian plate. There are differences between plates and continents.

Collision Between Asia and India
Now, since i have explained to you the events leading up to this massive collision like two bulls in heat. I will now explained the actual process.

Remember that continental crust are less dense? Now imagine this, if you take both your index finger, direct them in such a way that both the tips are pointing at each other. Now push both of your fingers together towards each other, the resultant force causes you finger to diverge upwards. Briefly, that is the principle behind mountain building.


We apply this concept to the collision between Asia and India. Since both the continent crusts are less dense, neither of the two continent will subduct beneath each other. Thus, there is only one way, and that is up. The two continents will 'stick' to each other upon contact, and inwards force will push the now 'sticked' continents upwards.


And that ladies and gentlemen, is how mountains are formed, in general of course. Not all mountains you see in nature are formed this way, there are many other mechanisms to mountain-building. This is one of many other processes but a fundamental into understanding the concept.

I shall leave you into a deep thought now, but hopefully with this you gain new insight into Earth processes that once plagued your thoughts as a young, curious person.

Cheers.

Calling All Fellow Readers

I have never really interacted with my readers before, mostly because I have no idea if there are any left (mostly my fault) or because they're afraid to comment. Granted that some topics that i have written may seem a little, well hard to swallow at times. 

But putting that aside, let's see if I can turn the tables around and experiment with different ways to interact with you, ladies and gentleman. I am going out on a limb here and post question to you guys. What do you want me to talk about? Is there things you would like to know about? Could be anything, could be stuff about me, could be anything from the ocean up to the sky.

Ever had that moment where you can't sleep at 3 am while going HUH, because you're wondering how mountains were form. I will try my best to cater your young, wild curious minds because I am against bad scientific information at all levels.

Or have you ever stared at the world map, and instead of dreaming about yourself sitting on an island in Bora-Bora drinking the ocean, you realize that the continents, are somehow able to fit side by side like a puzzle that your mother-in-law left in her will.

Of course i will fulfill my duty as well, coming up with stuff, weed.

So leave some comments and show some love people!

Oh, and ICE CREAM! Because everyone loves ice cream! 


By the way, you can leave comments as anonymous! Worry not, I won't be able to find you on Facebook.

Cheers!

Hi, Meet My Mother-In-Law.

I am trying to find a common theme I can use yet again for my blog, but I can't seem to stay right on track, it appears that digressing runs in the family because 2 months ago I asked my dad if I could get a new Iphone 4S but till this day he is still going on with his 'back in the days' story.

Anyway, I finally decided that my new theme for this blog will rely on topics, interesting topics related to the curios world of Earth Sciences. Usually I would be flattered with 'Wow' and 'That is interesting' but most people find it very intimidating due to the amount of scientific jargons in the syllabus. My objective of starting this whole new Earth Science theme lies with the fact that I require skills to write sciency related articles to the general public instead of the earth science community. It's harder than you think, how do you explain to a person what a mafic or felsic rock is? Easy, hit them with the rock, explaining is tough so stuff you. No I'm just kidding, writing is a skill that will be valuable to me, hence for my first article, let's make things interesting.

So have you ever been in a situation where your mother-in-law has recently kicked the bucket (hypothetically speaking) and your husband happened to have her ashes lying around the house? You're sick of it because she doesn't pay the rent, she doesn't clean after herself, she leaves the toilet sit down and she just doing jack shit. So you start to wonder "how can i take this wonderful mount of dirt...ashes of my mother-in-law and dispose it into something useful, beautiful and actually pays for the rent without angering my mother-in-law and my husband?'.Fret not lady, for science has a way to solve your problems, let me present to you METAMORPHISM!

For only a certain amount of cash, you can now convert your mother-in-law's ash into diamonds! Yes, you heard me real, pure diamonds! The kind that fits on your rings. All of this through metamorphism! 

Let me first present this curious term called metamorphism. Metamorphism is a process where something, a rock mineral for examples undergoes changes in composition, texture or minerology via increasing temperature and pressure! Let's use a more interactive example shall we?

I know it's a little small, but quit whinging. Yes you read it right, you can now convert your mother-in-law into a diamond! How is this done? The science behind it is simple! You sent them ashes to Russia where a brilliant guy will subject the ashes to high temperature and pressure! Increasing temperature and pressure would cause the structure will rearrange itself to achieve the most stable arrangement! As human ashes are mostly carbon, increasing temperature and pressure will cause ashes to convert to petroleum, followed with carbon and lastly diamond where it's most stable at very high temperature and pressure.

Diamond exist in the deepest part of the earth's crust, near the asthenosphere where temperature can reach thousands of degrees Celsius and enough pressure to flatten the twin-towers to pancake! <----- exaggeration but you get the concept.

So there you go ladies and gentleman, if you happen to have some of your mother-in-law's ashes lying around the house, send that bag of wonderful goodness to Russia and in return you will have a beautiful diamond where you can a) fit it onto a ring and carry it around on your finger, it clears your conscious of guilt and makes good dinner party chatty topic or b) sell that diamond and use the money to pay the rent your mother-in-law's ashes refused to pay before!


Either way, there's no set-backs! So what are you waiting for! Disclaimer, please do not burn your live mother-in-law, it's such a mess but I guess accidents do happen!


Cheers!

Elementary My Dear Watson

I can vaguely recall entering my whole 'Sherlockian' mode at lunch time today, I have been doing that a lot recently, so much so it could be a cause for concern. Imagine this particular scenario (could be true or not depends), you're eating your lunch right, enjoying a decent meal, decent enough to cost you a whopping 7.50 AUD for a pompous piece of chicken which had once seen better days, a chicken that once enjoyed roaming in the field, pecking of rice that farmer John happily threw in his backyard. Then the unfortunate happened, you pecked into the wrong side of the lawn, you tell yourself fock-a-doodle-doo, just pecked myself into the alpha chicken's yard, and the rest of the story concludes with you getting poul-trised (trying to get in some poultry joke here, this working for you?) by a hen. That kind of chicken.

Needless to say the chicken was scrony as a super-model, only less well-dressed. Come to think of it those dresses weren't even nice to begin with, nothing looks nice on an anorexic stick. Trust me, have you ever seen a stick wearing a dress, its like ruffling trough thick bush only to find out it's not grass.

What im trying to say is you're sitting down there with your pack of wolves, thick as thieves as you are in that 70's retro gibbon skin, munching down joyously on fried chicken that looks like it just came out for rehab and that vegetable that looks more like spitfire and suddenly you realize you're being watched, hawk-eyed sharply with precision of your mum putting a thread trough a needle...by non other than that dark sin boy with plaid shirt across the table who is non other than me.

My tuition teacher once told me that if you, i don't know for some reason why just started staring blankly in space, trough time continuum, passing by the 4th dimension for a burger, running past the 5th for a quickie, racing down 6th like being chased by your 5 ex-wives asking for a prenup, and finally reaching the 7th dimension where your legs is now a hand, your fingers are i-phone, your brain is running on windows 7 and your body is a facebook...., than you're getting stupider by the day, congratulations your thumbs are for smsing. I don't know how true this is because back than i used to worship my tuition teacher (like Jews and that slab of granite stone they called rules), his passion and sweat (literally) ignited a fire in me, a fire burning brighter than the sun, the heat so strong it melts trough space, the colours...oh the colours; the orange, the blue, the yellow, the burnnning plasma white piece of crap they call mac-book. I trusted the man, i trusted him with my life, it was like war, it was like in the fox-hole you gotta trust the men next to you, that's how much i trusted him. I still do, but until that one particular day....

It was a weekend right, it was all black and white, me dressing up like the Dick Tracy then i realize that I just went Sherlock. Benedict Cumberbatch reminded me why I like the Brits so much. The white pale skin, that sharp long nose, the possum in my mouth accent, the bone structure, the long fingers like mine and that coat! Oh the 1981 weekend coat, the seams were beautiful sewn, the smell oh the smell, scented of cheap child labor it was. What i am trying to say here is, yes i do stare blankly in space, but it's not the twilight zone in there, i reserved that for when im arguing with my girlfriend...'yes honey, you're right, i was wrong, terribly wrong, you win'.

I only tend to stare blankly in space when I am in a deep thought, a very deep thought, equations glittering trough my frontal lobe, the modern Laplacian Theory doing a swirly in the right lobe, fluid dymanics in the left articulating lobe and the plate tectonic theory way down south, way down. But for some reason that day, while i was clearly not staring at Madonna in a gibbon suit across the hallway, i wasn't think academically. No, most intriguing, because I on that day was judging every single person that unfortunately walked past me. Darn, now i know why i tend to sit near the exit door, all this while i was practicing proper fire safety hazard; last one out burns to death.

But it's true, i was judging everyone ones i saw; trying to figure one anyone, a person. So when they came up to me and ask me what the hell is my problem I can say 'Look you have 2 sisters, one from your uncle and another from your step-dad, you're dominantly right handed judging from the ink smudge on your palms, when i say dominantly right handed i do mean you're left handed as well, wanker. The mud on your shoes suggest you were late for classes today, the smell of teenage hormone tells me you did not shower for 2, wait no 3 days based on the shrooms growing on your underarms and you had brocolli for lunch'.

Of course i was terribly terribly mistaken about that because my lecturer then failed my for my assignments. But back to the story at hand, with some concluding statements, i stare blankly in space when im in a deep sherlockian thought and that girl who thought i was staring at her got freaked out and I am clocking out.

Cheerio.

 

Cliche

Another term, another post of how things are getting more difficult. I once said that I lead life with a motto, be all you can be. It's simple, yet vague, it's one of those things we say to ourselves to make us feel better. Aren't we all like that? We simple human, we always find an excuse to avoid a certain something, or to not go out or to not see your girlfriend, just so we can sleep well at night. After all we are only human, we lie all the time. White lies, normal lies or whatever coloured orientation you prefer, they're still lies. It will either benefit us, or benefit others. 

I digress though, it's only the second week of my new term, but I am feeling the wrath of it. Personally, my field of study may not be as hard compared to medicine or engineering, but what are the merits to compare what I study and what you study are harder? Just because we listen medicine, the generalization instantly springs into attention that it is so difficult, you'd be nuts to even consider studying medicine. I don't buy that, every area of study has it's difficulties, be it medicine, geoscience, atmospheric science or even arts. They all have their own intricacies and that is what makes it all special. When someone comes up and tell me oh, science, must be hard because accounting is a breeze, I don't buy it. It's bullshit salesman sells to you to make you feel special.

Undertaking double major was a tough decision for me (that ladies and gentlemen is an excuse to make me feel special) to make, I knew it was going to be difficult. Only did I realize now its not only difficult, it's challenging. I always thought it would be the coursework, the pracs and the exams that would make my life a little more interesting but i was wrong. The syllabus itself was beyond logical, everything i read to me now sounds more like bla bla bla. However, I would go on with it, i want to be someone, i want to be all i can be. If that means going all the way, i would no matter how difficult it is, no matter how challenging, or no matter if I come out with a slight mental disease or slightly more disturb than usual I would. 

It was never about the money, or the popularity, although i must admit discovering something new and having your name being spoken trough out the community is something special but it's not even that. To be honest, working the field of science should never be about the money, fame is a bonus but never about the money. It's about what you as an individual or a group can contribute to the science community, even more than that humanity. It's about knowing one day your research or your work will contribute to humanity, help ease things be it the cure for cancer, the cure for food depletion, early warning systems. I mean it's not just in the field of science, there are many other fields out there than can contribute to humanity.

For me it always has been and always will be saving lives. Personally, i have kept a secret i never have told anyone. For one because it is silly, and another its because for fear people might and will laugh at me for wanting to do it. For 2 years, i've not told anyone that I always wanted to train, join and work for a search and rescue team. Yeap there you go, my huge little secret which im sure people think it's silly, parents will tell me its not a job, friends will tell me it's money-making job, girlfriend would say she supports me but most likely think it's silly as well but I don't care, no one would ever understand why i feel that i have to do it. I've never really taken it seriously, but it has always been at the back of my head.

Yes i would jump into a disaster area and try to help and save lives even if it means taking my own. I cannot explain to anyone why and how I feel this way, it's just something personal to me. It is what keeps me going, only recently have i found several groups both here (OZ) and UK that provide training, but i want more than training, i want to be deployed. People see it as crazy, i see it as a volunteering job. I've had about enough telling myself how I should help and support the needy, money contribution can only do so much, and I don't like saying things, I want to do it. I reached the age where it's time I do something with my life, apart from many other ambitious things I have conjured, I will reach my goals no matter what. It's just personal business. That is who I am, and that is who I will always be. 

Nobody can take that away from me, they can try, but won't succeed.

A Personal Review of 2011

Welp, we all knew that a review of last year was inevitable, twas an easy way to sum up my 2011 is to write a post about it. 2011 for me was a year with full of happenings; a drama if you may see it as, one filled with joy, happiness, love, romance, climax and of course the sadness and despair. If my 2011 was a made into a movie, there will be no shortness of time to breath, you'd be on the edge of your seat wondering if the he will jump or not. This of course if a huge exaggeration of my 2011 but isn't that what Hollywood is all about?

The laughs i have shared, the tears that i shed, the hugs that i gave/received and the individuals I have come to know, love and respect will always be an integral part of my 2011. Many lives have crossed my path, lives that have touched me directly or indirectly, no matter how small or significant they are, it has made me who I am today. Some became friends, others became brothers, one become my other half, and surely enemies has been made along the way but i hold no grudge. Life as we know it, no matter how you see it is small in a way, we take for granted that every single soul, every single entity than we see, touched, smell or heard will never affect us, but it does, in a poetic sort of way that guy who spit on the floor, that girl who stares at her self in glass, that homeless man on the sidewalk, the smell of coffee and even the way the sun reflects the lights on a jagged surface, it all affects us.

People ask me what my resolutions for 2012 are, truth be told i have no resolution, nor did i had one in 2011. New Year's to me use to hold many significant meanings; it was a fresh start to the year, a way to redeem ourselves, to make fortunes out of ideas, to forget the misgivings...that bitter luck of yesteryear. However now, New Years to me mean nothing more than a transition of numbers, a transition from boy to men and responsibility; that every action has an equal an opposite reaction and to accept that opposite reaction good or bad. It was the Same Shit Different Day. I live my life with a code of sorts, some basis that i can hold on to keep me going from day to day; and as cliche as it may sound it has helped me, build me to what I am now. That code i live by is "Be All You Can Be". 

Simple, short and straight to the point. Don't live the life by which you are a puppet and the people around you are the puppet masters, why succumb to the needs of others when all you need is yourself and your aspirations. We acknowledge that some people want to see you succeed but are obsessed of telling you directions that works for them. You are you, them are them...it is what it is for a reason.

Well, that appeared to be my introduction into 2012, and i will begin summarizing, well inadequately summarizing my 2011. It will be reckless as always because it's going to be an essay as always and hence i will post it after the break!

also many spelling errors and grammars will be corrected

Climate Communication

"The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing to find the place where all the beauty came from"

-C. S. Lewis

One of my many goals in life, besides being able to spend an evening with John Frusciante talking nothing  but music is to bring back the knowledge of what I have learned back to Malaysia. I am not talking in the sense that if Malaysia wants to achieve its 2020 vision it needs to be highly credited in the field of sciences or what not. I am talking in the sense that Malaysians needs to be more involved in the issue of the environment, climate change, mitigation and sustainability. No i won't be asking you to recycle because you can go shag yourself, but from my personal experience and observation, most Malaysians do not care about issues pertaining the globe in which they live in.

Case in point, recently our great, overly-educated Minister whose name i forgot because i couldn't care less attributed the current freak storm show this year to climate change. Here I am wondering what the heck is he trying to say. Is he saying that of all the real, current and observable climate change impacts like I don't know.....receding glaciers, climate refugees, increasing sea level, shore erosion, increasing global temperature and tralalala, he decided that extreme weather is going to be one issue that is being highlighted. I have no problem with that he said, extreme weather event is an impact of climate change but here's the contradiction in his statement.

Awesome bell curve

Weatherman here stated that both the monsoon and La Nina event are coinciding with one another, hence the increased and heightened stormy weather we are experiencing. The problem is that these are not extreme weather events. Extreme weather events are 'rare' events that does not occur annually. We attribute climate to a bell curve as per showed in this Davinci like drawing on my left. N is normal climate and E is extreme climate, and we attribute its occurrence to probability. On either side of the bell curve the probability of E events are small, hence the word 'rare' extreme events.

But here is where superweatherminister went wrong; it is not extreme weather events due to climate change. Monsoon and La Nina are seasonal and decadal weather phenomenons respectively. To highlight what these are in elementary terms; imagine monsoon as a giant sea breeze and La Nina as a phenomenon where a lot of rain and storms happen. Add both of them together you get a multiplication of awesomeness for storms. My problem is that if said minister wants to communicate about climate change to Malaysians, i hope next time he would consult me at least (<---- LOL) because he is getting his facts wrong. I know my climate science, i've done my research, spewing out rubbish like these is only an embarrassment to the climate science community because he is communicating to the public wrong and incredibly stupid scientific facts, the facts are wrong, the knowledge are wrong and most importantly the public is misinformed as well.

But the sad part is, Malaysians don't care, they read the news and take it as something that happens every year. How many of them even know the difference between weather and climate. How many of you know the difference? To me the reasons why Malaysians don't quite care about climate change because it doesn't have a pronounced and adverse effects to their livelihood. We are so involved with the concurrent notion that "Malaysia is free from natural disaster", and we are naive enough to believe that. Because there is no research on how climate change will affect Malaysia in years to come, because we believe Indonesia will shield us from everything and that is the sad inconvenient truth. How many people know that small villages in PNG were displaced due to the rising in sea level which inundating their villages.

Research, research, research that is what we need. Climate scientist is what we need. We need to know how it will affect us, so that we can take proactive and proper mitigation steps and not just the age old "let's dig the drain deeper" mitigation. We do not need to scare Malaysians into believing climate change would affect us, we just need to highlight issues which which climate change will have a direct impact on.

What I mean is that instead of telling them climate change will cause sea level to rise, we say in this way for example; climate change will cause sea level to rise in Penang, properties will be directly damage and some even destroyed and there will be adverse effect to properties pricing and investment. When you put it this way, if there is a direct impact to their livelihood or even property investment, than people's head would start rolling around. Look, were not lying, it may be true. So here we told you what may happen, so we take steps to prevent it. Sure it's hard, but you can't build a house without bricks, and you can put bricks together without cement.



And for heaven's sake, will you ministers at least go and Wikipedia before you open your mouth, it's disgusting how you guys misguide Malaysians into believing the climate change caused extreme weather and therefore you can blame the weather instead of your lousy development projects that are taking years to finish.

Of Morality and Religion

So here is the deal, often i hear people talking and telling me that morality comes from understanding religion, trough religion we are able to learn the rights and wrongs of life which basically governs our morality.

What a load of bollocks.

Picture this scene, which i am sure has happen before.

You and Charlie are best of friends, you both knew each other since your primary school days and even went to the same high school together. Both of you are Muslim/Christian/etc.

Now one day, Charlie tells you that his gay. This is where we question religion and morality. Let's take the former and latter as two separate entities and are independent of each other.

Religion says homosexuality is unnatural (yeah as if Modern Medicine and GMF are natural...the irony) and it is a big sin. Religion tells you that you should shun Charlie away because he might be a bad influence and hence you should stay away from sinners.

Now morality tells you that, Charlie is your best friend, you knew each other since you were kids. You only want to see your best friend be happy, and comfortable in public. Naturally, you wouldn't want to see you best friend being insulted and made fun of and shunned by society because of his sexuality. So you sticked with him and be his friend and supported him like you always do.

So, what are your views now? Do you still think morality comes from religion? Never view religion and morality as the same entity because for one, it's a big hoax and two it's just plain stupid.