Life in America: How you walk

So a lot of things surprised me when I arrived here in the US, like people driving on the wrong side of the road (that's what they say about us too haha), or how the houses weren't fenced (I knew about this, just that seeing it is another feeling altogether). It was a little bit of a culture shock. But today, I'm going to talk about one of the most notable thing - at least to me - about the people in Madison when I arrived.

And that is the way people walk here.

No, it is not that they walk in a weird way or something. But they walk real fast!

Some of you might have had an opportunity to hang out with me and do a little bit of walking together. You may have noticed that I walk very fast most of the time. But here in Madison, the speed I walk in is just the average speed.

How I walk in the streets of Malaysia

I first noticed this when I was walking in the streets of Madison. Then all these people kept overtaking me from behind, which immediately caught my attention. Back in Malaysia, noone overtakes me while I walk, usually anyway. Which is kind of weird when we consider that the world's fastest walkers are Singaporeans, our neighbor in the south.

There are probably a couple of reasons why they walk so fast here though:

1.) Just because they can - Well, most people here are taller than me, and thus have longer legs. Makes perfect sense.

2.) People here are more time conscious - I do not mean to generalize, but overall time is seen as something valuable here. People tends to walk faster because it saves time.

There might be more reasons. But I will try figure that out on another day. Meanwhile, more homework!



Till next time, Cheers~


p.s. Like the post on facebook if you want to see more mini-posts about the life here. Greatly appreciated!

Life in America: Not your reality TV show

Oh hi! Sorry for taking an extended break from blogging. In case you haven't know. I AM NOW IN AMERICA!

I am currently studying at University of Wisconsin-Madison, as you may recall from this post. Anyway, I am now 3 weeks into my first semester in this awesome university, and I want to say this: This is not a place for you to fool around. Classes here means business, you pay for education, it is education you get. And I have been super busy with studies, which explains my lack of presence here on this blog since I came to US. To explain why I had not been blogging while I was in Malaysia before I came to US, well, let's just say I needed some time to contemplate about my life before I fly. It was a time when I was really uncertain about what lies ahead. But more of that later!

So, today (and for most days of the coming weeks I hope), I will take some time to talk about what is it like to be here in US. This is a short entry, as will most of my future blog posts be. What I hope is to give you a glimpse of the real US from the perspective of a boy from Malaysia.

So one of the most common thing before people arrive to US is to think that they know what is it like to be in the US (or at least I did). You thought you know what is it like from the books you've read, the TV show you've seen, etc. But that is wrong. Way wrong.

There is no one unifying culture in US. None. Your idea of US culture is not applicable to every part of the country, and there is a reason why. THIS IS A BLOODY HUGE COUNTRY!

If you do not know how huge is US, let me show you what is it like when you compare it with Europe:

That's right, the country itself is larger than Europe. So we are talking about thousands of miles from the West Pacific coast to the East Atlantic coast here.

Think this, can a TV show from England tell you what is it like in France, which is just across a strait? Absolutely not, right? So it is actually unreasonable to generalize Americans into one culture.

There is an appreciable difference between people of different states, much like the differences between the people from different parts of Europe. The only thing that is keeping these many states from having distinct differences like European countries is federal governance (which means they are under one government), while every country in Europe is an own and self-governing entity.

Also there is the historical factor. Europe had a longer time for development of distinct cultures, while US was only discovered and colonized about 500 years ago. So there wasn't a lot of time for the first settlers in America to go separate cultural pathways before it was unified into one country.

That is one thing to keep in mind: do not generalize Americans although they may be somewhat similar. People differs from region to region. One good practice when arriving to US for the first time is to keep an open mind and expect the unexpected (as cliche as it may sound lah).

That is all for this time. Next time, I will talk more about the people here, especially in this city of Madison a.k.a. Madtown.



Till next time. Cheers~

Born This Way?

Hi there. Apologies for long absence but let's get straight into the topic of the day.

Today we are going to talk about the brain. Human brains.

Have you ever wondered, if some people are really born geniuses while some are born dull? (Shall be very careful about using the seemingly politically incorrect term "stupid", though it means just the same.) I'm sure you had at least once during the course of your life, wonders how the hell did that smart kid in your class breezed through the exams without much effort, while you struggle to even stay awake to read the first page on your exam topic. "He's just born smart," you said to yourself, conceding defeat.

You may had even come across this situation where you are in a peer study group, a friend of yours asks you a question, and the next half an hour was spent just to explain to him why 5+3(2*3) is not the same with (5+3)(2*3), without getting a bit of it into your friend's head. You find an excuse to go to the toilet, leaving him to bug the other friends. "He's just born stupid," you think to yourself, thinking why did you even agreed to study together with him in he first place.

And you wonder if your friend's was eaten by zombie.

Let me tell you something. You may be right. Some people may be born smart, while some may born with less capable brain.

If this notion makes you uncomfortable, or strike you as a little (or very) offensive, ask yourself, "why not?" Some people are born tall, some are born short; some born with long limbs, some have short stubby fingers; some people are born with darker skins, some are born with lighter skins. It makes perfect sense then, that intelligence could vary between people too, however we chose to define intelligence. Some people could really be born geniuses, with above average mental capability.

Notice here I had been very careful with my words, the use of words "could" and "may" says that I do not have a definite answer for you on whether absolute intelligence varies between people. But I do believe it to be very plausible, if not a sure fact. Unpublished studies have been done on this topic many times before, often treading on ethical minefield and deemed offensive, or biased, or baseless, or racist, or... you get the idea. It is a very difficult study to conduct, given that we people usually do not take personal insults that well. Imagine if you are born short and was stuck with the nickname "shorty" throughout your high school, now imagine if you substitute the words "short" and "shorty" with "stupid"s, how does that feel? Well, sucks I know.

So, studies have been done. Mostly unpublished for the fear of public repercussion, can't really be blamed when most societies would value equality highly, except this country where we still have constitutional discrimination. (You know, sometimes I really wonder if we really think of each other as equals, given the way we treat each other. Hmm... )

I have no published studies to back me up. Which is fine, as I am going to appeal to logical reasoning based on our current model of the theory of evolution. This will get dizzy so hold on.


Suppose we are evolved from earlier hominids (great apes), we have to agree that our ancestors were not as intelligent as we are. How do we know? Well, their brain size are smaller than ours, and they had no evident technological advances. We must take note though that the brain size is not an absolute measurement of intelligence, as we can see from elephants having bigger brains than we do. But gives a fairly good comparative measurement for members of the same evolution lineage and we shall take it as that.

Premise one - Ancestors not as intelligent as modern humans.



Now how does evolution work? It may look complicated, but it is actually many theoretical models unified by one simple concept - survival of the fittest. I am going add a bit of explaining on that - each individual of a species are slightly different from each other because we possess different genes, such as everyone is this world is unique in the sense that no two people share the same characteristics, personality, and identity.

How do we get different genes? Well, sometimes genes mutate when they are passed down from parents to offspring, it may be harmful, it may have no effect, or it may be beneficial to the offspring. The individual who gets the beneficial modification to the genes has an advantage over the other individuals of the species, it then has more chance to mate and reproduce more offspring possessing the same beneficial genes. Over time, the individuals with the beneficial genes will out-compete the ones that do not, replacing the population. Thus the gene gets fixed in the species.

That being said, we have to understand that evolution can only happen if there are genetic variations for a trait. That means, in other for a body part to evolve, the population has to have different versions of the body part for nature to "choose". For example, skin color may evolve easily because we have different versions of gene s coding for skin color; while evolving a whole new limb may be near to impossible because the genes coding for the number of limbs are fixed.

With this in mind, we can establish another premise.

Premise two - evolution of a trait can only happen if there are genetic variations within the population.


Here comes the punchline. If we put the two premises together, we must conclude then that for our ancestors to evolve better brains, some of our ancestors had to be on the duller side, while some had to be on the brighter side. If everyone was born equally smart back then, nature couldn't have selected on smarter brains and brain power couldn't have made any improvement down many generations. But we are in fact smarter than our ancestors, therefore surely they are not all born with equal intelligence then?

It is possible that the variation persisted till today, although there is also a possibility that we have a reduced variation, if not fixed. It could be as varied as skin colors, or it could be as fixed as the number of fingers. Both are probable, but if daily observations were to go by it would probably lean more to the skin color side of the scale.

This does not mean however that we may still evolve into smarter human beings in the future even if there are variation in intelligence. Simply because our society has grown to the point that everyone, regardless of the level of intelligence, gets basic rights that ensure one's survival. People with less than average brain capability do not have selection pressure against them like our ancestors, they get to live and get married and have kids too. And the genes will swim around in the gene pool with other versions of the gene and codes for smarter brains. We may have already reached the point where our raw brain power will not grow on natural selection anymore.

===   ===   ===   ===

Although it is quite clear that I do believe that some people are more blessed than others, I do not advocate discrimination based on intelligence any more than I advocate racism. What am I trying to achieve by telling you this? Well, frankly speaking, I do not know. Maybe I think, it would be better if we can all accept the fact that not everyone is equally fast at learning and do not take it too personally. After all, if it's in the genes, we can't do much to change a thing about it. That doesn't mean though, that we should all stop our work on something altogether just because it takes a long time to accomplish it; we just have to try our best and if it works, it works, if it doesn't, it doesn't. Accept the fact that you are born this way.



Till, next time. Cheers~

We Are Empty Spaces

Warning: Science Content

Let me tell you something very beautiful. Yes. Beautiful is the word. What if I told you that... We are all empty spaces? It's not a metaphor, it's not a figurative speech. It is what it is, we are all empty spaces...



Look at your hand. What do you see?

You see your fingers, your skin..

Delve deeper. What do you see?

The creases on your palm, finger prints.

Go on... What do you see?

The epidermis of the skin... Skin tissues?

Cells... Thousands of them. No, millions of them.

There is the phospholipid membrane surrounding the cells, enclosing the inner cytoplasm.

Proteins, hurling everywhere randomly within the fluid cytoplasmic cavity; Enzymes, the intricate machinaries of the cell, working as if they are sentient; DNA, the recipe of life, the blueprint to complex biochemistry, unwinding and duplicating in a blink of an eye.

Billions of atomic bonds were formed, and broken simultaneously. New molecules assembled every fraction of a second.

They are nothing more than just the exchange of electrons in a vast bargaining atomic market. Transactions made in the form of charged currency. Stormy, unpredictable movements of the electrons, orbiting the tranquil nucleus in the center.

But nay, not all nucleus are as still as the eye of the electron hurricane. Some nucleus of massive radioactive atoms gets split into fragments due to unstable fluctuations. 

What lies beyond? Are there nothing but protons and neutrons and electrons that makes us? Or are there a far more fascinating constellation of smaller particles, awaiting for our quantum explorers to discover?

DNA, secret ingredient to life.

Ahem. Forgive me for the failed Carl Sagan imitation. But you get the point. Point is, what is smaller than the (supposedly taught by teacher as the smallest particles of) proton, neutron, and electron. In this post, I shall attempt to explain away some introductory basics of particle physics, and then naturally we will converge to the title of this post of "we are empty spaces", where everything will (sort of) be clear to you.

Let me start by telling you this: your high school chemistry teacher was wrong. It was a conspiracy all this while. They thought you were incapable of understanding something deeper, so they stopped at telling you that protons, neutrons, and electrons are all there is.

Well, not so much of a conspiracy lah. But yes, you/they were wrong. The books were wrong. The examination papers were wrong. Wrong wrong WRONG!

Ok. With that aside. I shall start by telling you the current understanding of particle physics.



What are fundamental particles? Fundamental particles are the smallest observable particles, they are smaller than protons and neutrons, which essentially are made up of these fundamental particles. Currently, physicists think that these fundamental particles are the basic ingredients of the matters in the universe. If you do not know what does matter mean, just cut out that part and read: basic ingredients of the universe. That should serve the purpose for now. Note that I said "smallest observable particles" because these particles can be detected in lab, however it is unknown if they are made up of smaller things.

To keep things simple. There is just three types of fundamental particles you need to know:

Leptons, Quarks, and Bosons

That is it. No sweat right? Now allow me to explain further.


Leptons are... well, leptons... Maybe I should try another way. Electron is part of the family of leptons, which has particles that has either 0 charge, or -1 charge. There is no need to know about other leptons other than the electron.

Quark Family

Quarks are the particles that make up protons and neutrons. There are 6 types of quarks, all with either +2/3 charge or -1/3 charge. So basically a combination of 3 quarks form protons or neutrons depending on the sum of the charges of the quarks.

How quarks form bigger particles.

Bosons are kind of difficult to grasp, they are known as the carrier of the fundamental forces. If I may put it this way, photon is a boson. If you don't know what is a photon, a photon is a light particle; light consists of photon particles. Light as you know it, is a manifestation of the electromagnetic force. Before I fry your brain, let just stop at bosons are the particles that creates electromagnetic force, weak and strong nuclear forces, and gravitational force. Without bosons, we will not have these forces, and quarks and leptons will just exist without doing anything to each other.



Interaction between these particles form the very fabric of our universe. Bosons give rise to nuclear forces that allow quarks to stick together in groups of 3, forming neutrons and protons. The nuclear forces created by bosons also bind neutrons and protons together within a nucleus of an atom. Electrons whirl around the nucleus due to charge attraction.

But even though it seems to you that the proximity of these interactions are very close, it is not. These particles interact at distances so far apart, thinking about it will melt your brain. Okay maybe not so serious, but almost.



Let me give you an idea.

Imagine you have quarks and electrons, almost similar in size (in reality quarks are at least 10 times smaller than electrons, but let us just imagine they are the same size). Let us give them a size in metric measurement of, let's say, 1 millimeter across. How big is 1 millimeter? It is more or less the thickness of 10 pieces of your normal printing paper.

If quarks are 1mm across in size, the protons and neutrons they form will be about 1 meter across! Imagine, 3 quarks of 1mm across occupying a space of 1 cubic meter! What is in between them you ask? Well, nothing! Between them is nothing but empty spaces.

There is more. Putting together the protons and neutrons, you will get a nucleus 10 meters across, all made up of quarks just 1mm long at most.

It does not end here, the next is the most mind-boggling.

Now we have the electrons, orbiting the nucleus. The extent of electrons' orbit around the nucleus is the boundary of the atom. So the further the electron orbits around the nucleus, the bigger atom we have. Typically, at this scale, the entire atom will be 100 kilometers across. Yes, you have not read me wrong, it is one-hundred kilometers! Again, imagine all these are made up of quarks and electrons about 1mm across. What is in between? Empty spaces.

An illustration of the nucleus and atom.

If you want to calculate, the percentage of the volume taken by these quarks and electrons are so close to zero we might as well say that the universe is 100% empty spaces.



We are empty spaces...



But we do not perceive it that way. We can see things! We can touch and feel things! So how can the universe be almost vacuum?

The answer, my friends, lies mainly in one of the fundamental forces of physics - The Electromagnetic Force. But that is for another day.

Electromagnetism - The Beautiful Force

Till next time.



Cheers~



p.s. Extra freebies for nerds, check this out! http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~dfehling/particle.gif

Malaysian Rant

Disclaimer: Malaysian English, read at your own risk (of learning bad English).



Haiyo! One a fine day was today. If you confused about why did I started the sentence with such an exclamation, it is because the fine day was short-lived. There I was, waking up to a good day, sipping my coffee, just to be spoiled by what I saw on the newspaper today.

Walaueh, see already also want to vomit blood ah. But then hor, everyday also I read the newspaper one, why should this one be any different? Aiya, dunno leh. Maybe I had a little bit more of extra time today, so I read the news articles more carefully lor.

One article really got on my nerves la. Want to know what is it or not? Of course you do. Nah, here it is http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/8sitx/Article

Apparently an Indonesian maid working for one of our fellow Malaysian household graduated with a diploma at the Open University of Malaysia wor.

Wahsei, I thought. So geng (powerful) ah? No no, then I think again... Should be - Wah, that family so rich ah can afford to send their maid to university? Hire maid never mind, want to spend money to let her study some more (they said only pay half of the fee lah, but still a lot wei).

Ok lah. People want to do the maid a favor, I cannot say anything lor. Do good is do good mah, I'm feeling happy for the maid too. As for the family, thank you lor. But hor, I think the money can be better spent on something else lah. What is it? I don't know. Sendiri pikir lah (think yourself).

That is not the point lah. The point is, the news article hor - of all the lines they can start with - must start with "The Tan family of Damansara Utama is proof that the average Malaysian family cares for its domestic maids."

Immediately I thought, Walaoeh. One family can afford to send their maid to college, then it is a proof that everyone in Malaysia cares about their Indonesian maid is it? Like that if one politician is corrupt, then it is a proof that all politicians are corrupt too lor? Isn't it? Nah.

Remember last year we got into a row with Indonesia again about maid abuse? Then the fellers in Indonesia said they want to invade our country some more, for revenge wor they said. What does that proof? That all Malaysians torture their maid ah? Or that all Indonesians are crazy buggers that want to drench in our blood?

No ah? Then how the f**k can this one proof that all average Malaysian families care for their maid ah?

I really don't know lah. Sometimes I think these people write without using their brain one. But never mind lah, it's newspaper. Nobody believes what is on the newspapers anymore lah in Malaysia. Except for some people that still believe that Utusan Malaysia is holier than Al Qur'an lah.




Anyway, let's talk about something else. Last week, the hacker group Anonymous hacked into our government websites. About 100+ websites got attacked and was brought down.

Aiyo. Really fail lah. These people already declared that they will attack a few weeks earlier. Announced the date and time some more. And then this Minister of Ancient Information Technology berlagak (boast) want to say," We are ready".

Then what happened? We got hacked lah, that's what. Got pwned like Mike Tyson giving a little kid a left hook for a knockout punch.

Walaoeh. How can? Government websites wor, not got a lot of people like those in Pentagon one working for government one meh? How come can get hacked by these people? Cannot lah like that. If government also can get hacked, then we normal rakyat (people) how? Aiya. Really ah, depend on this ancient dinosaur as a minister, might as well ask your dog to fend off these hackers lah.

Then ah. All these for what? All because our government blocked some downloading websites lor. Say want to protect local entertainment industry wor. Walaoeh. What local entertainment industry? Some people want to download porn cannot is it? Malaysia got make one is it? (Got lah, if you find hard enough)

Say want to protect local entertainment industry. Wah, what do you think har? Now must force us to buy these lousy music is it? Nah, give us download also donwan lah. You musicians in Malaysia, think what har? Haven't start to make good music you want us to buy and listen ah? Mimpi lah (dream on). What if I bought your album and it sucks har? Maybe if you all start to make some good music, we might consider spending our hard-earned money on your decent songs lah. Our money not easy come one you know, want us to simply invest on you ah?

What? No money, can't produce good music? Walao. What you think, the whole world charity ah? You want us to give you money first, then only you make good music ah? If like that, everyone also become a millionaire already lor. This business plan, is brilliant lah, only we everyone is gullible enough to part with their money lah. I also can say, if everyone give me some money, then I can start a business and become a billionaire, then repay everyone who lent money to me lor. How is that? You want to invest in me or not?

Walaoeh. Really beh tahan (cannot stand) lah Malaysia. But then hor, it's the only country I know. Must sabar... sabar... Haiyo. Ok lah my rant ends here. Soli ah if my English polluted your brain. Promise next post I will revert to my own writing style (if it's not another Malaysian rant).



Till next time, cheers~

Why Angry Bird U So Angry?

"You seen any eggs around?"

With millions of copies sold, Angry Birds is undoubtedly one of the most successful casual games to be created so far. (Still remember Plants vs Zombies? Oh well)

I am yet to play Angry Birds, but from the testimonials of my friends I think I should refrain from touching this game lest I will be addicted to it.

Addiction to this? I can't fathom doing something this repetitive, but better to be safe.

Anyway, I did some readings on the Internet about Angry Birds, and I found out that Angry Birds has a historical reference behind the whole idea!

Why, of course you would have never thought of that. You think this is just another mindless casual game, uh, well maybe the developers intended it to be, but I doubted it with the uncanny resemblance to one of the historical events in human (or animal) history. Do you know what it is? One word - Dodo.

What dodo?

This dodo.

Let me tell you a story, if you haven't heard it already. Come, darken your lights, cuddle around, light a candle. Ready? Just kidding lah, not a ghost story also. Anyway...


Long time ago, there was a species of birds living in an island isolated from the whole world, living in bliss, ignorant of what is happening (guess this is why they said ignorance is a bliss). They never had to face any predators, so they never had the need to run very fast or fly. Evolution took their flight away, and directed their energy elsewhere (such as doing you-know-what all day, in numbers).

So they lived happily for thousands of years. They eat, they make love, they lay eggs. Such is the simple life of the dodo birds. Until one day in the 16th century (1500s ah, don't misread it), the Dutch came. Then you heard the rest of the story.

The island was named Mauritius, an island off the island of Madagascar. Over the next century, many sailors came. The dodo, living in peace for years, lost their natural instinct to escape from predators. They were fearless of the humans, so naturally, easy capture means easy food. Humans fed on these dodos by tons whenever they made a stop at this island. That is probably one of the reasons dodo became extinct within about a hundred years from the first encounter.

Then came one of the key factors that has a direct link to Angry Birds - pigs!

Allow me to explain. Dodos as you know, had no natural predators. They lay their eggs on the ground. But when the human came, they brought in other animals into the island ecosystem. One of them is - you guessed it - pig.

The pigs contributed as much if not more to the extinction of dodo, by eating their eggs. Lots of them.

This took the dodo too fast for them to have any evolutionary adaptations, and in the end, the last dodo was sighted in 1688 (date is being disputed, but its around that lah.).


That's it? You ask. That's all it took for me to link them together? Well, there are more to it. I think I should lay it out for you to see. I'm sure you will be convinced.



First: Angry Birds and Dodos can't fly

Slingshot is there for obvious reasons.

Why of course. Why else? WHY ELSE? Slingshot?!



Second: Both lay their eggs on the ground.

Dodo with eggs.

Happy Angry Birds with eggs.

Third: Pigs stole their eggs.

Like I mentioned for the dodo above, in the game the pigs stole and wanted to to eat the eggs too.

Pigs did it.

It is no wonder the Angry Birds are real angry. It's extinction we were talking about for F's sake. So the next time you wonder "Angry Birds, Y U so angry lah?" You can think about this piece of event in history.

Oh yes. Don't mess with them. They'd rather explode and die than to let you steal their eggs, though I still don't know what is the historical significance in that.

I think I should end here. Till next time, happy Angry Bird-ing



Cheers~

People: Bath Boys Comedy

Comedy is an essential part of Internet culture (well, besides porn). On YouTube, comedy channel rakes in the most subscribers on YouTube (didn't do fact check, but I presume that is the case when most top subscribed channels are listed under 'humor').

Today, let's talk about one of the most underrated channels on YouTube - Bath Boys Comedy.

With only about 3,600 subscribers, they are really under appreciated for the quality videos they produce. If I were to name the funniest channel on YouTube, I would give it to Bath Boys.

Although relatively unknown, they got their little shot at fame when they made a parody trailer to the then-new movie Inception.



Oh well. Nothing else I can tell you about them. You would have to watch all their videos to judge whether they are really underrated. Find them below!


YouTube Channel
Facebook Page
Twitter Account


Till next time (I am entering a very busy two-week period, forgive me for not posting and writing as much as I want to), cheers~