You know what they should have? A post exam scream instead of a pre scream. I need a scream now. AAARGGGH!!! Virtual scream better than nothing lah. Finished all finals. Now just wait for results. Screwed. Wrote an essay on nothing. I can't remember how I managed to vomit out some coherent essay during JC times in 1.5h. I had a bit more than an hour today and wrote trash. What was I doing? 2 consecutive crazy papers. Even though chem was a killer paper, I shouldn't be that badly slaughtered. Tired.
Possibly going Mexico next week. Extreme last minute decision in my opinion. Decided last week. Well, hope the people are fun. A bit too tired to blog.. will say sth substantial later..
Thursday, 23 March 2006
Wednesday, 15 March 2006
It's the time of the year when the US unis send out admission letters.
Everybody who replied me knows sth abt Singapore and A*. One of them knows so much I'm amazed.. He even talks about the amount of funding we get.. wow. They are all very impressed with Astar of course. But I'm taking a biased sample, cos if they don't like, they wouldn't have asked to meet this girl from Singapore in the first place, even if she got a good grade in O chem. I need to make a decision very very soon, like by Friday, on which I should go. I can't decide. A new one vs an established one. Working for a grad vs working for a post-doc. One where they're used to undergrads vs one that doesn't have a single undergrad. I can't decide.
Haha. wy's amazing. she always ask the right questions. I need people like this around.
Finals next week. Why are all my classes so mug? How much of it would I eventually remember anyway? I couldn't remember what a yeast is this morning. Is it a protist or a fungus or just a yeast kingdom? It's a single cell fungus. Current study plan: mug all my bio and chem stuff by the end of this week and spend next week on hum. As usual, it's a super disproportionate time spent on hum, but i need it.
Strange as it may sound, I want time to move slower. I don't want the term to end. Wonder why, it's only the 2nd quarter of my 1st yr here.
DNA origami.. really cool
http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060313/full/060313-8.html
"Why are you hesitating?"
Everybody who replied me knows sth abt Singapore and A*. One of them knows so much I'm amazed.. He even talks about the amount of funding we get.. wow. They are all very impressed with Astar of course. But I'm taking a biased sample, cos if they don't like, they wouldn't have asked to meet this girl from Singapore in the first place, even if she got a good grade in O chem. I need to make a decision very very soon, like by Friday, on which I should go. I can't decide. A new one vs an established one. Working for a grad vs working for a post-doc. One where they're used to undergrads vs one that doesn't have a single undergrad. I can't decide.
Haha. wy's amazing. she always ask the right questions. I need people like this around.
Finals next week. Why are all my classes so mug? How much of it would I eventually remember anyway? I couldn't remember what a yeast is this morning. Is it a protist or a fungus or just a yeast kingdom? It's a single cell fungus. Current study plan: mug all my bio and chem stuff by the end of this week and spend next week on hum. As usual, it's a super disproportionate time spent on hum, but i need it.
Strange as it may sound, I want time to move slower. I don't want the term to end. Wonder why, it's only the 2nd quarter of my 1st yr here.
DNA origami.. really cool
http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060313/full/060313-8.html
"Why are you hesitating?"
Thursday, 9 March 2006
I'm writing a essay arguing about something which I haven't decided, and telling more stories in the essay than talking abt the significance of the stories.. screwy once again.. need a lot more work on it..
This psyc professor talked about his research on learning and memory. According to his research, ok a bit hard to explain. Firstly, if you revise something after you learn it, you'll remember the thing better. That's quite obvious, that's why we all revise. The time between the learning and revising, however, determines how long you can remember the thing. And according to his research, the optimum gap between learning and revising is 10% of the time you want to remember the thing for. Which means if you want to remember something for 10h, you should do the revision 1h after you learn it, and after 10h, you'll still remember it. After that, not so sure, most likely you'll forget it.
So let's look at the education systems now. Quarter system. 10 weeks per quarter. Let's say there's 1 final exam that covers everything you've learnt in this quarter, and you study right before it, so there's about 10 weeks' time between learning and revision. Acc to his predictions, you'll be able to remember stuff in this course for 100 weeks, that's about 2 years. A levels system, 2 year syllabus, 1 final exam at the end. 2 years time between learning and revision. You'll be able to remember the stuff for 20 years.
I'm not sure how accurate this 10% thing is, but I certainly remember A levels stuff better than my psychology stuff last quarter. Is the British system better then? Americans have been surviving on this kind of quarter/ semester system since middle school? Do they learn less? I would say probably. Haha. But of course the 2yr syllabus also has many many assessments in the middle, so you study for the same thing over and over again, and remember it better. Then for science and math courses, you have to build further learning on foundations, so you'll always need to know how to solve x2 +2x + 1 = 4.. and because of all the practice, you'll remember it very well. Also when you forget something, say in a psychology course, when you relearn it the 2nd time, not revision, but totally forgot and have to relearn, it takes a shorter time to learn. So you did make some marks in your brain when you learn stuff.
Ok, enough about this psychology stuff. I think it's pretty interesting. =)
There's this guy in my Hum class. He's really smart. 1 of the few brilliant Americans I've met here. He's the only person other than my seniors recommending me to take Nesbitt, he even recommended her class to a computer engineer who wants to take a bio course. That's a bit crazy but anyway this smart guy got an A for her class. You know how you'll roughly know where the brains come from in a discussion class, like in 3f during gp, can see how sophisticated wang ning's arguments are.. These kind of people just ooze intelligence.. ok a bit gross.. Like how we want beef to diffuse some of her geniusness to us all.. haha. Anyway you get the point. So with him in our group for debate, we thrashed the opposition. Just amazed at how he puts all my unlinked, unrelated ideas into a coherent argument. If only he writes my essay for me, save all my trouble. Haha.
"You don't seem to know what you're doing, but you're doing a pretty good job of it" ~John about my Hum thesis
I wanted to quote some other people, but I forgot.. Not paying attention much in lectures..
This psyc professor talked about his research on learning and memory. According to his research, ok a bit hard to explain. Firstly, if you revise something after you learn it, you'll remember the thing better. That's quite obvious, that's why we all revise. The time between the learning and revising, however, determines how long you can remember the thing. And according to his research, the optimum gap between learning and revising is 10% of the time you want to remember the thing for. Which means if you want to remember something for 10h, you should do the revision 1h after you learn it, and after 10h, you'll still remember it. After that, not so sure, most likely you'll forget it.
So let's look at the education systems now. Quarter system. 10 weeks per quarter. Let's say there's 1 final exam that covers everything you've learnt in this quarter, and you study right before it, so there's about 10 weeks' time between learning and revision. Acc to his predictions, you'll be able to remember stuff in this course for 100 weeks, that's about 2 years. A levels system, 2 year syllabus, 1 final exam at the end. 2 years time between learning and revision. You'll be able to remember the stuff for 20 years.
I'm not sure how accurate this 10% thing is, but I certainly remember A levels stuff better than my psychology stuff last quarter. Is the British system better then? Americans have been surviving on this kind of quarter/ semester system since middle school? Do they learn less? I would say probably. Haha. But of course the 2yr syllabus also has many many assessments in the middle, so you study for the same thing over and over again, and remember it better. Then for science and math courses, you have to build further learning on foundations, so you'll always need to know how to solve x2 +2x + 1 = 4.. and because of all the practice, you'll remember it very well. Also when you forget something, say in a psychology course, when you relearn it the 2nd time, not revision, but totally forgot and have to relearn, it takes a shorter time to learn. So you did make some marks in your brain when you learn stuff.
Ok, enough about this psychology stuff. I think it's pretty interesting. =)
There's this guy in my Hum class. He's really smart. 1 of the few brilliant Americans I've met here. He's the only person other than my seniors recommending me to take Nesbitt, he even recommended her class to a computer engineer who wants to take a bio course. That's a bit crazy but anyway this smart guy got an A for her class. You know how you'll roughly know where the brains come from in a discussion class, like in 3f during gp, can see how sophisticated wang ning's arguments are.. These kind of people just ooze intelligence.. ok a bit gross.. Like how we want beef to diffuse some of her geniusness to us all.. haha. Anyway you get the point. So with him in our group for debate, we thrashed the opposition. Just amazed at how he puts all my unlinked, unrelated ideas into a coherent argument. If only he writes my essay for me, save all my trouble. Haha.
"You don't seem to know what you're doing, but you're doing a pretty good job of it" ~John about my Hum thesis
I wanted to quote some other people, but I forgot.. Not paying attention much in lectures..
Monday, 6 March 2006
I got an A!! Haha. Done the impossible, though I didn't know how. Must work on my next one now.. My TA made me promise that I would know how to get As by the end of the quarter. I sure hope I will..
Had a super efficient day. Went to 3 professors' offices to talk to them abt all I needed to talk to them about in 2h. Amazed at myself. I like what I heard today. =)
Flowers everywhere. On trees and bushes I mean. Spring's coming.
"You can't take a compliment?"
Had a super efficient day. Went to 3 professors' offices to talk to them abt all I needed to talk to them about in 2h. Amazed at myself. I like what I heard today. =)
Flowers everywhere. On trees and bushes I mean. Spring's coming.
"You can't take a compliment?"
Sunday, 5 March 2006
Went to Mt Laguna. =) 45min away fr school.. 6000+ feet. But we went up to about 4000ft only. To do what? Watch the stars. =) Love this class and love the small size of the class. A class with a waitlist of a hundred people but end up with a class size of 7. How cool is that?
Wasn't as cold as it's supposed to be. Weather report says it's 0C but it's nowhere near there, 7-8C I'll say. But of course that's cold enough for Southern Californians. Haha. I'm glad I have my Boston/ NY clothes and I'm glad there's a chance to wear them. Saw a moon halo, remember the sun halo? It's going to rain tomorrow. Saw meteors. 2 of them. Made wishes. =) Saw a man-made satellite. Most of the time, just hung around and tried not to get blinded by camera flashes. Lay on the ground and stare at the night sky. This is life man. Too bad there were clouds and we couldn't see the Milky Way. That would have been fantastic. But managed to use my planosphere to locate many many constellations. Rocks. Saturn is, as usual, fascinating; Nebulae are cool; Moon was blinding through the telescope, took quite a while to unbleach my visual purple after looking at it. Fantastic class.
一闪一闪亮晶晶，
满天都是小星星，
躲在天上放光明，
好象你的小眼睛
一闪一闪亮晶晶，
满天都是小星星.
Just couldn't remember the lyrics just now, or maybe I never knew it. Couldn't get past the 2nd line. Hee. And while googling that up, found this..
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Jane Taylor wrote the lyrics in 1806.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Then the traveler in the dark
Thanks you for your tiny spark;
He could not see which way to go,
If you did not twinkle so.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
In the dark blue sky you keep,
While you thro' my window peep,
And you never shut your eye,
Till the sun is in the sky,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Was this the original song?
Wasn't as cold as it's supposed to be. Weather report says it's 0C but it's nowhere near there, 7-8C I'll say. But of course that's cold enough for Southern Californians. Haha. I'm glad I have my Boston/ NY clothes and I'm glad there's a chance to wear them. Saw a moon halo, remember the sun halo? It's going to rain tomorrow. Saw meteors. 2 of them. Made wishes. =) Saw a man-made satellite. Most of the time, just hung around and tried not to get blinded by camera flashes. Lay on the ground and stare at the night sky. This is life man. Too bad there were clouds and we couldn't see the Milky Way. That would have been fantastic. But managed to use my planosphere to locate many many constellations. Rocks. Saturn is, as usual, fascinating; Nebulae are cool; Moon was blinding through the telescope, took quite a while to unbleach my visual purple after looking at it. Fantastic class.
一闪一闪亮晶晶，
满天都是小星星，
躲在天上放光明，
好象你的小眼睛
一闪一闪亮晶晶，
满天都是小星星.
Just couldn't remember the lyrics just now, or maybe I never knew it. Couldn't get past the 2nd line. Hee. And while googling that up, found this..
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Jane Taylor wrote the lyrics in 1806.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Then the traveler in the dark
Thanks you for your tiny spark;
He could not see which way to go,
If you did not twinkle so.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
In the dark blue sky you keep,
While you thro' my window peep,
And you never shut your eye,
Till the sun is in the sky,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Was this the original song?
Saturday, 4 March 2006
Jasmine 点心 for breakfast/ lunch. First time having dim sum in the year and first time eating it in San Diego. I wouldn't say Jasmine has very good dim sum. But it's nice going out as a huge group again to eat somewhere. Been a while since we did that. And it was a long long breakfast/ lunch, almost 3h.. in the true spirit of 饮茶. =) And in a meal that's that long, politics/ religion/ some other controversial topic is bound to come up..
Highlight of the lunch: fingers kana squashed by the car door. Oww. Due to my previous week of being accident prone, I had cuts on my fingers, the slam opened one of the wounds, that's why my finger was bleeding. I was wondering why it was bleeding when all that happened to it was high pressure, would need extreme high pressure to force vessels to bleed and my hand won't be in the right shape if it had happened. To tell the truth, I don't remember my reaction, and I don't know what my reaction should have been, but I probably hesitated for a sec before realising I should ask the person who closed the door to open it. Good thing my fingers are still in shape..
Lab..
不是我要说，可是这些人真的很势利眼。sorry grammar very wrong, nvm lah hor. Point is, I sent out a bunch of emails asking if any lab want free labour from me and I got either negative replies or no reply. Then I decided that I must be more assertive, so I sent out the next batch with my transcript attached, immediately I got replies. But of course I wanted to get into the first batch more.. So now I'm not sure if I should resend to the 1st batch or just leave it. I was looking at the careers website just now, and guess what? people who rejected me are hiring.. hmm.. maybe those they're hiring do diff stuff from volunteers.. Sian..
I think that this quarter has been pretty sociable. Turning many 2nd and 3rd degree friends into 1st degree. And hum is a big know more people class. So somehow or other, I already know someone in all my classes next quarter. Oh, but I've been neglecting 1st degree people.. like my suitemates. AS-ing them like crazy. I need personal space.
Housing
I don't know what I want.
Hum
Super difficult.
Classes next quarter
I can't decide.
I announce that the amount of studying I do now is comparable to J2 time, even though I'm not learning that much stuff, am I?
I need time to think and sort out stuff.
Highlight of the lunch: fingers kana squashed by the car door. Oww. Due to my previous week of being accident prone, I had cuts on my fingers, the slam opened one of the wounds, that's why my finger was bleeding. I was wondering why it was bleeding when all that happened to it was high pressure, would need extreme high pressure to force vessels to bleed and my hand won't be in the right shape if it had happened. To tell the truth, I don't remember my reaction, and I don't know what my reaction should have been, but I probably hesitated for a sec before realising I should ask the person who closed the door to open it. Good thing my fingers are still in shape..
Lab..
不是我要说，可是这些人真的很势利眼。sorry grammar very wrong, nvm lah hor. Point is, I sent out a bunch of emails asking if any lab want free labour from me and I got either negative replies or no reply. Then I decided that I must be more assertive, so I sent out the next batch with my transcript attached, immediately I got replies. But of course I wanted to get into the first batch more.. So now I'm not sure if I should resend to the 1st batch or just leave it. I was looking at the careers website just now, and guess what? people who rejected me are hiring.. hmm.. maybe those they're hiring do diff stuff from volunteers.. Sian..
I think that this quarter has been pretty sociable. Turning many 2nd and 3rd degree friends into 1st degree. And hum is a big know more people class. So somehow or other, I already know someone in all my classes next quarter. Oh, but I've been neglecting 1st degree people.. like my suitemates. AS-ing them like crazy. I need personal space.
Housing
I don't know what I want.
Hum
Super difficult.
Classes next quarter
I can't decide.
I announce that the amount of studying I do now is comparable to J2 time, even though I'm not learning that much stuff, am I?
I need time to think and sort out stuff.
Thursday, 2 March 2006
A level results
囊括全国最多优秀生的莱佛士初院再次以出色表现，创造了学院25年历史上的最佳成绩。获得3科主修特优的学生有651人，占该校总考生人数的76.4%，其中504人获得4科主修特优的好成绩。
RJ broke record again? How is it possible for RJ to get the best result in don't know how many years every year? Because every time something new comes up, SPA in this case, they'll look to RJ students as standards to grade others? Or RJ teachers are just fantastic and students superb?
http://www.zaobao.com/sp/sp060302_509.html
Congrats to all with fantastic results. To others who don't think they've done well enough, well, A levels is not everything in life. To people working towards As, jiayou!!
RJ broke record again? How is it possible for RJ to get the best result in don't know how many years every year? Because every time something new comes up, SPA in this case, they'll look to RJ students as standards to grade others? Or RJ teachers are just fantastic and students superb?
http://www.zaobao.com/sp/sp060302_509.html
Congrats to all with fantastic results. To others who don't think they've done well enough, well, A levels is not everything in life. To people working towards As, jiayou!!
Monday, 27 February 2006
Let me do an express post in 5 min.. Hmm, not possible. Nvm, I'll read less tonight then and do speed reading tmr.
2 dance performances in a row. Watched I mean. 1st was cos Adeline was performing. She's really good, so are some of the ballet girls. 2nd was Peru Negro, folk music of the blacks. They should have told me that knowing Spanish is a prerequisite for the concert, they talked in Spanish, sang in Spanish.. I just thought listening to Spanish songs felt like listening to Malay. Sometimes I'll be switching through the radio channels and land on a spanish channel, and it'll feel like I'm in Malaysia or sth and landed on a Malay channel. Are the tunes similar? Or is it just the language?
Anyway, Peru Negro. Somehow it didn't feel high class. I know it's supposed to be folk and as traditional as possible, but so was Riverdance and Lord of the Dance, and those are so elegant. So is any chinese orchestra. Is it the skin colour that's making the difference, the performance skills? Or are we just more acceptive of European culture? The content was well, very traditional, courting dances, religious dances, and competition between the sexes. Oh they wore masks during the religious dance, and it looked very similar to the Javanese or is it Balinese religious masks.. why am I making so many connections to SEA? I can't remember what I felt about Chinese dances, so I don't know what is it that's making these dances seem less worthy of the place than it should. Mummy always say that there are some things that just won't be fit for high class places, like erm, char kway teow and hokkien mee. They'll always remain as hawker centre food while Cantonese dishes can enter elegant restaurants. Dim sum used to be roadside food and look how popular they are now in restaurants. I don't know if I agree with her. We did go to a proper restaurant in NYC to eat prata and ice kachang..
Growing fat rapidly, getting cut by numerous things including a paper, a file, a plastic container, a wooden table. How is that possible I don't know. But I have enough cuts on my hands. And I'm not suicidal.
Disproportionally spent time. Spent 2 days studying for Biochem midterm, result was a lot better than what I expected, I like the way they give credit for my rubbish. Spent forever on a Hum essay, and probably wouldn't do half as well as I did for my biochem. Choi, that would be a C again. Cannot cannot.
I need more credits.. This enrollment thing is too sad.
2 dance performances in a row. Watched I mean. 1st was cos Adeline was performing. She's really good, so are some of the ballet girls. 2nd was Peru Negro, folk music of the blacks. They should have told me that knowing Spanish is a prerequisite for the concert, they talked in Spanish, sang in Spanish.. I just thought listening to Spanish songs felt like listening to Malay. Sometimes I'll be switching through the radio channels and land on a spanish channel, and it'll feel like I'm in Malaysia or sth and landed on a Malay channel. Are the tunes similar? Or is it just the language?
Anyway, Peru Negro. Somehow it didn't feel high class. I know it's supposed to be folk and as traditional as possible, but so was Riverdance and Lord of the Dance, and those are so elegant. So is any chinese orchestra. Is it the skin colour that's making the difference, the performance skills? Or are we just more acceptive of European culture? The content was well, very traditional, courting dances, religious dances, and competition between the sexes. Oh they wore masks during the religious dance, and it looked very similar to the Javanese or is it Balinese religious masks.. why am I making so many connections to SEA? I can't remember what I felt about Chinese dances, so I don't know what is it that's making these dances seem less worthy of the place than it should. Mummy always say that there are some things that just won't be fit for high class places, like erm, char kway teow and hokkien mee. They'll always remain as hawker centre food while Cantonese dishes can enter elegant restaurants. Dim sum used to be roadside food and look how popular they are now in restaurants. I don't know if I agree with her. We did go to a proper restaurant in NYC to eat prata and ice kachang..
Growing fat rapidly, getting cut by numerous things including a paper, a file, a plastic container, a wooden table. How is that possible I don't know. But I have enough cuts on my hands. And I'm not suicidal.
Disproportionally spent time. Spent 2 days studying for Biochem midterm, result was a lot better than what I expected, I like the way they give credit for my rubbish. Spent forever on a Hum essay, and probably wouldn't do half as well as I did for my biochem. Choi, that would be a C again. Cannot cannot.
I need more credits.. This enrollment thing is too sad.
Saturday, 25 February 2006
Thursday, 23 February 2006
美国人做事就是不一样。One of my suitemates, A, was in the shower just now and another suitemate B went to the toilet and turned off the light. Whether she did it on purpose is not clear, we'll just assume that she's blur and somehow didn't hear the water running. So poor A has to shower in the darkness until someone else went into the toilet and found her in the dark. What would you do if you were A? I would, firstly, yell at B when she turned off the light. Then if B doesn't hear me, then too bad for me, and I'll just let the matter rest. Well after A got out of the shower, she went to B's room and said
"I know you're trying to save electricity, but can you please leave the light on next time someone's in the shower?"
Touche! 1 for A and none for B. The whole suite doesn't like B anyway.
Had a lecture by this professor in the Chem dept. His research is really amazing, not his results or the things that he's working on, but where his work brings him. He's studying the environment, global warming, ozone hole and stuff. Anyway, he built a rocket and launched it to collect a tube of air from the edge of the atmosphere, a hundred km above the surface of earth. Then he went to Antartica, to the geographic South pole, and collected slabs of ice from there. He also went to the tropical rainforests of South America to collect.. hmm.. I forgot what he was collecting. To top that off, he has a piece of a meteorite from Mars. And he's in the midst of writing a proposal to NASA to let him build a rocket to go to Mars to collect something from Mars. Amazing right? I forgot his name though haha. But can google it out some time.
Some things to ponder over:
"The dreadful but quiet war of organic beings, going [on] in peaceful woods & smiling fields" ~Darwin, on struggle for existence
Layered explanation
Observation: A pot of water is boiling
Explanation:
Layer 1- Molecules gained kinetic energy from heat from fire
Layer 2- I turned the fire on
Layer 3- I wanted some tea
Observation: Emergence of complex structures in organisms, such as brain or well-adapted features
Explanation:
Layer 1- Organisms need it
Layer 2- Evolution by mutations followed by natural selection
Layer 3- Divine meant for it to be this way, ie intelligent design
Moral of story: Evolution and Intelligent design are not mutually exclusive, they're just looking at things from different levels. An integrating view will be that the divine gives self-creating capabilities to the world.
The above are not my views. My stand still hasn't changed.
If every time something happens, entropy has to increase, why did organisation happen at all? Why did atoms become molecules, why did molecules assemble themselves into cells, why did cells gather to become organisms? Did entropy increase?
If you eat 1kg worth of food and go weigh yourself, do you weigh 1kg more? Assuming you didn't poop, where did the mass go to? The only explanation I can think of is that CO2 is heavier than O2 and you lose mass as you breathe.
Loads of questions, no answers.
"I know you're trying to save electricity, but can you please leave the light on next time someone's in the shower?"
Touche! 1 for A and none for B. The whole suite doesn't like B anyway.
Had a lecture by this professor in the Chem dept. His research is really amazing, not his results or the things that he's working on, but where his work brings him. He's studying the environment, global warming, ozone hole and stuff. Anyway, he built a rocket and launched it to collect a tube of air from the edge of the atmosphere, a hundred km above the surface of earth. Then he went to Antartica, to the geographic South pole, and collected slabs of ice from there. He also went to the tropical rainforests of South America to collect.. hmm.. I forgot what he was collecting. To top that off, he has a piece of a meteorite from Mars. And he's in the midst of writing a proposal to NASA to let him build a rocket to go to Mars to collect something from Mars. Amazing right? I forgot his name though haha. But can google it out some time.
Some things to ponder over:
"The dreadful but quiet war of organic beings, going [on] in peaceful woods & smiling fields" ~Darwin, on struggle for existence
Layered explanation
Observation: A pot of water is boiling
Explanation:
Layer 1- Molecules gained kinetic energy from heat from fire
Layer 2- I turned the fire on
Layer 3- I wanted some tea
Observation: Emergence of complex structures in organisms, such as brain or well-adapted features
Explanation:
Layer 1- Organisms need it
Layer 2- Evolution by mutations followed by natural selection
Layer 3- Divine meant for it to be this way, ie intelligent design
Moral of story: Evolution and Intelligent design are not mutually exclusive, they're just looking at things from different levels. An integrating view will be that the divine gives self-creating capabilities to the world.
The above are not my views. My stand still hasn't changed.
If every time something happens, entropy has to increase, why did organisation happen at all? Why did atoms become molecules, why did molecules assemble themselves into cells, why did cells gather to become organisms? Did entropy increase?
If you eat 1kg worth of food and go weigh yourself, do you weigh 1kg more? Assuming you didn't poop, where did the mass go to? The only explanation I can think of is that CO2 is heavier than O2 and you lose mass as you breathe.
Loads of questions, no answers.
Monday, 20 February 2006
Sun halo: A ring around the sun/ moon brings rain or snow. When the sun/ moon has a halo or ring around it, this is due to cirrus clouds in the higher altitudes. Cirrus and cirrostratus clouds typically proceed low pressure systems bearing moisture. These clouds also contain ice crystals which refract the light giving the impression of a ring. Expect a drastic change in the weather within 12 - 24 hours of a sun halo.
http://www.stalkingthewild.com/stw/weather.html
I saw a sun halo the other day and guess what? It rained that night. It's the first time I saw a sun halo and the only reason why I saw it was because we were staring at the sun during sungazing class. But apparently halos are pretty common.
What I want to catch before I go back to Singapore. Perfect sunsets are very common here.. Hope this can be seen.
Green flashes and green rays are rare optical phenomena that occur shortly after sunset or before sunrise, when a green spot is visible for a short period of time above the sun, or a green ray shoots up from the sunset point. It is usually observed from a low altitude where there is an unobstructed view of the horizon, such as on the ocean. Its explanation lies in refraction of light (as in a prism) in the atmosphere and is enhanced by atmospheric layering. Whilst we would expect to see a blue light, the blue is dispersed (this is why the sky is blue) and only the green light remains visible.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_flash
Friday, 17 February 2006
Frustrating. Had the most frustrating 25min ever when we're at different frequencies and just not doing anything productive, i couldn't get my question right, my queries couldn't get answered cos of that. This is just not the way I work, I think slooow, I need time to concentrate and think. Makes me seriously wonder if I should just take Caciola next quarter.
Open up girl. You can't be helped unless you let others help you. deja vu, I think I wrote this some time before. Markom was talking about studying for Ochem today and upper div bio classes and I was thinking how comparatively, ochem and biochem are the easiest subjs I'm taking now. Just mug and ace, especially since what to mug is clearer than it can ever be.
Inspiration. My aunt is getting very very inspired by her lunch partner. "Studying is the easiest thing on earth." I've heard that fr alfie before and now it comes up again.
I'm blogging in a really disorganised, haphazard, incomplete, mysterious way. Can't be helped, cos that's how my thoughts are.
Vday. Soiree. This violin girl that's really really good, played Vivaldi's winter and summer, accompanied by Janos and Paivikki and others.. The rest are ok. Vocalists' voices didn't really blend, each had very good voices but well, didn't really blend. After vday got this unexpected reception, champagne and chocolates, wow. Cool. Huge chocolate dipped strawberries. Wish you were here siew, be my date to the concert.
Open up girl. You can't be helped unless you let others help you. deja vu, I think I wrote this some time before. Markom was talking about studying for Ochem today and upper div bio classes and I was thinking how comparatively, ochem and biochem are the easiest subjs I'm taking now. Just mug and ace, especially since what to mug is clearer than it can ever be.
Inspiration. My aunt is getting very very inspired by her lunch partner. "Studying is the easiest thing on earth." I've heard that fr alfie before and now it comes up again.
I'm blogging in a really disorganised, haphazard, incomplete, mysterious way. Can't be helped, cos that's how my thoughts are.
Vday. Soiree. This violin girl that's really really good, played Vivaldi's winter and summer, accompanied by Janos and Paivikki and others.. The rest are ok. Vocalists' voices didn't really blend, each had very good voices but well, didn't really blend. After vday got this unexpected reception, champagne and chocolates, wow. Cool. Huge chocolate dipped strawberries. Wish you were here siew, be my date to the concert.
Thursday, 16 February 2006
Wednesday, 15 February 2006
太厉害了，C+ for my essay. Will the next few be like that too? What if I'm so slow and I won't get what I'm supposed to do till forever? What if it's sth that i just won't get? This is one of those times that I long for a 2-yr syllabus where everything's determined by 1 final exam. At least I'll have 2yrs to get it instead of let's see, 1 week to my next essay, 3 weeks to the last essay.. My parents will freak if they know my grade. I have a biochem midterm on Friday and I just started revision today. Not like me to start so late, but I don't feel insecure about it. Hum essay is due next wed but I'm freaking out. My planned 15min on paper today turned out to be 40min.. felt like GP times again..
Need to reevaluate my time management skills.
Did you know that..
Undergrad research is not owned by anyone. If you discover something when you're an undergrad, you own the discovery, not the school, cos the school's not paying you to do it.
Brilliant discoveries/ ideas are always not accepted at first, like McClinkok (gosh I can't spell her name)'s transposons, Krebs' TCA cycle, chemiosmosis hypothesis, Mendel's genetics.. All rejected by Science and Nature. Makes you wonder what Science and Nature publish..
Evolution Theory revolutionised biology. Before evolution theory came out, biology was just some thing. After that Biology became a science, Biological Sciences. ~quoting my biochem prof.. I seem to quote him a lot.. cos he says a lot of oop stuff.
Need to reevaluate my time management skills.
Did you know that..
Undergrad research is not owned by anyone. If you discover something when you're an undergrad, you own the discovery, not the school, cos the school's not paying you to do it.
Brilliant discoveries/ ideas are always not accepted at first, like McClinkok (gosh I can't spell her name)'s transposons, Krebs' TCA cycle, chemiosmosis hypothesis, Mendel's genetics.. All rejected by Science and Nature. Makes you wonder what Science and Nature publish..
Evolution Theory revolutionised biology. Before evolution theory came out, biology was just some thing. After that Biology became a science, Biological Sciences. ~quoting my biochem prof.. I seem to quote him a lot.. cos he says a lot of oop stuff.
Tuesday, 7 February 2006
杨烈国任胚胎干细胞公司董事主席
http://www.zaobao.com/sp/sp060207_530.html
Forwarded by my mom. See if your chinese is good enough to know who they're talking about.
Forwarded by my mom. See if your chinese is good enough to know who they're talking about.
Canon in D Guitar - Google Video
Canon in D Guitar - Google Video
He rocks man!! I should do sth like this some day..
He rocks man!! I should do sth like this some day..
Monday, 6 February 2006
Sunday, 5 February 2006
Destress time.. I am probably stressed.. too much of a control freak.. when can I just let life move on its own and not regret when I make a 'wrong' move? Not like this controlling is helping me much.. plan A, plan B... nothing's perfect anyway. 顺其自然怎么那么难？Let go girl.. relax.. worst case scenario is just the status quo, isn't it? 有空多睡觉，多读书，多看些星星，crash lects, prac, 少想一些这些无聊琐碎的事..
sighz. Anyway, destress time..
This is kind of freaky. I was trying to get to jacinth's blog, so i googled jacandthebeanstalk, and this came up
http://www.factbites.com/topics/Shifeng-Bridge
utterly freaky. what does jac's blog have to do with that china bridge? and so3f blog is there too..
So i just spent the last 10 min reading Nov03 of so3f.. our blog was quite happening, and i actually sounded quite on.. haha
Beware of no. 8!!
http://www.personalityquiz.net/test/beach.htm I think it's quite accurate =)
sighz. Anyway, destress time..
| You are White Chocolate |
 You have a strong feminine side with a good bit of innocence thrown in. Whether your girlish ways are an act or not, men like to take care of you. You are an understated beauty, and your power is often underestimated! |
This is kind of freaky. I was trying to get to jacinth's blog, so i googled jacandthebeanstalk, and this came up
http://www.factbites.com/topics/Shifeng-Bridge
utterly freaky. what does jac's blog have to do with that china bridge? and so3f blog is there too..
So i just spent the last 10 min reading Nov03 of so3f.. our blog was quite happening, and i actually sounded quite on.. haha
Ten Top Trivia Tips about Shifeng!
- Over 46,000 pieces of shifeng float on every square mile of ocean!
- Shifeng can run sixty-five kilometres an hour - that's really fast.
- The Aztec Indians of Mexico believed shifeng would protect them from physical harm, and so warriors used her to decorate their battle shields!
- The international dialling code for shifeng is 672.
- Most bottles and jars contain at least twenty-five percent recycled shifeng!
- Marie Antoinette never said 'let them eat cake' - this is a mistranslation of 'let them eat shifeng'!
- There is no lead in a lead pencil - it is simply a stick of graphite mixed with shifeng and water!
- If you break shifeng, you will get seven years of bad luck.
- If you don't get out of bed on the same side you got in, you will have shifeng for the rest of the day.
- Louisa May Alcott, author of 'Little Shifeng', hated shifeng and only wrote the book at her publisher's request.
http://www.personalityquiz.net/test/beach.htm I think it's quite accurate =)
伊朗和美国是全球最不受欢迎的国家
英国广播公司委托的调查显示，伊朗和美国是全球最不受欢迎的国家，俄罗斯排在第三位。
调查在全球33个国家进行，参与调查的总人数达到将近4万人，整个调查由加拿大“环球扫描”公司协调，时间长达三个月。
调查在全球33个国家进行，参与调查的总人数达到将近4万人，整个调查由加拿大“环球扫描”公司协调，时间长达三个月。
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