Fresh Brainz

Structure In A Structure In A Structure...

2011-12-05T22:25:00.010+08:00

I'll briefly interrupt the usual whooshy wind and tumbleweed here at Fresh Brainz with this video you just HAVE to see.

Check it out in 720p for all the astounding detail.

At first, it seems like a well made, Transformer-esque CG virtualscape...

... but when it zooms in, you start to see recursive patterns of Lego-like metallic plates, and it zooms further in and...

HEY! SELF SIMILARITY!

It's a fractal!

Yes my friends, now solids can also be fractals.

Apparently, such 3D fractal sets have only been developed a couple of years ago, and mathematicians are still considering if it is a "true" 3D Mandelbrot set.

But mathematical rigour aside - just think of the artistic potential!

The ability to generate visually spectacular landscapes with both sweeping scale AND detail - simply by plugging numbers into a formula.

Incredible, bizarre environments that goes to the limit (or beyond?) of human imagination.

Filmmakers and gamemakers, get a crackin'.

Would you like to know more?

Other epic 3D fractal videos:
- Mandelbox trip (YouTube)
- Trip to center of hybrid fractal (YouTube)

About the mathematics of 3D fractals:
- The Mandelbulb: first 'true' 3D image of famous fractal (New Scientist)
- Mandelbulb: The Unravelling of the Real 3D Mandelbrot Fractal (by Daniel White)
- Mandelbox (by Tom Lowe)

Tech Review: Garmin eTrex 20 Handheld GPS

2011-10-01T23:47:00.005+08:00

I just purchased a Garmin eTrex 20 handheld GPS (released in late September 2011) and I decided to do a quick user review of it.

Here, check out my video:

This is my first GPS device, which means I can't do a relative comparison with other units.

So, based on its own merits, here are my comments on the eTrex 20:

1. Build quality is solid, and when loaded with batteries it has a nice, reassuring heft to it. Dark grey areas are rubberized for wear resistance. USB connection is hidden under a rubber weather-resistant flap, and the micro-SD slot is protected inside the battery compartment, which are thoughtful design features.

2. The glassy LCD screen is tad reflective when viewed under direct sunlight.

3. Ability to decode both GPS and GLONASS satellite signals is a very useful feature. In the field, it takes less than a minute to get a position fix, and the precision is quite good, around 4 metres at best.

4. It works well inside vehicles too, I've tried it in buses and get practically instantaneous position and speed readings. It will definitely work as a car GPS, though that is not its intended function.

Would you like to know more?
- GPS (Wikipedia)
- GLONASS (Wikipedia)

Space Launch System: The "Shutturn V" ?

2011-09-15T12:02:00.010+08:00

NASA has announced their latest plan for a heavy launch vehicle - capable of manned missions into space - called the "Space Launch System (SLS)".

That isn't a particularly imaginative name.

YouTube commenter linghun dubbed it the "Shutturn V", which is actually quite appropriate, since the SLS is both technological and visually a hybrid of the Space Shuttle and Saturn V vehicles.

Here, check out NASA's video...

The SLS is a multistage, non-reusable vehicle that can launch both cargo-only and human-rated missions, much like the Saturn V.

The core stage uses an arrangement of five engines (Saturn V), which will consist of five RS-25 engines (Space Shuttle), while the upper stage uses a modernized version of the J-2 engine (Saturn V).

The first stage fuel tank will have the same diameter as the external tank of the Space Shuttle, and likely manufactured using similar methods. Two solid-fuel rocket boosters are attached, one on each side (Space Shuttle).

Visually, it either looks like a short Saturn V flanked with extra boosters, or a tall Space Shuttle external tank but without the Shuttle orbiter itself.

Appearances aside, expert observers seem to be unimpressed with the SLS programme and are already predicting its demise, calling it more of a job-creation exercise that may cost more than a completely new launch system, due to the re-hiring of the expensive legacy workforce.

To me, the SLS appears to have a much safer layout than the recently cancelled Ares I which perched human passengers on top of a solid-fuel first stage that cannot be throttled down or even shut down after ignition.

Of course the longevity of this new initiative is difficult to predict in this gloomy economic climate, and in light of less costly alternatives such as the SpaceX Falcon Heavy system, which is further along in development and has better scalability by using essentially the same engines and fuel tank components throughout.

Nevertheless, the SLS vehicle can initially lift 70 tonnes of payload into low-Earth orbit, up to a maximum of 129 tonnes in later configurations (more than Saturn V's 118 tonnes!). Even at 70 tonnes it would already be the heaviest lift launch vehicle in the world, compared to other launch systems currently in service.

Maximum lift capacity to LEO:
Delta IV-H (USA) ~ 23 tonnes
Proton M (Russia) ~ 21.6 tonnes
Ariane 5 (EU) ~ 21 tonnes
H-IIB (Japan) ~ 19 tonnes
Atlas V (USA) ~ 18.5 tonnes

If all goes according to plan, the first flight (unmanned) of the SLS is slated to be in December 2017.

Would you like to know more?
- NASA’s Space Launch System Unveiled: Analysis (Popular Mechanics)

Space Shuttle Rolls Into History

2011-07-21T18:50:00.005+08:00

A quiet night landing of the space shuttle Atlantis, returning from the STS-135 mission, marked the end of the US space shuttle programme.

NASA's Constellation Program, which was projected to develop a replacement rocket for the space shuttle, was cancelled last year.

While the government is not currently working on a shuttle replacement, potential private sector candidates include the Falcon 9-Dragon vehicle from SpaceX, which has been successful in test launches so far, but is still in early development.

Thus for the foreseeable future the USA will no longer have any human-rated launch vehicle.

Without manned spacecraft, US astronauts will now have to rely solely on the Russian Soyuz to access the International Space Station.

Would you like to know more?

About the ~~past~~ future of spaceship design:
- Counterintuitive Science: Fast Speed, Fat Shape

Goodbye To Tanjong Pagar!

2011-07-01T01:21:00.002+08:00

Here's my video of the last train service to leave Tanjong Pagar Railway Station, taken from a pedestrian bridge.

Apparently there was an additional 11:00pm train driven by the Sultan of Johor himself.

I didn't catch that but somebody else did; please check out his video.

So... I only managed to film the penultimate train.

I love that word.

Would you like to know more?
- Video of last train out of Tanjong Pagar, driven by the Sultan of Johor
- Video of last afternoon train

Snapshots of Malaysia

2011-06-25T18:01:00.039+08:00

Here is a video and some photos I took on my travels in Malaysia over the past year.

For this video, I took fairly short clips because my previous computer had less than 10 Gb free space to store all my media files, but this is no longer a limitation. In future videos, longer segments will be more common.

As for the photos, I picked those with striking colours and patterns... plus some with a touch of curious.

I try not to feature photos of regular touristy attractions - because, as you know, they have been photographed millions of times.

Public hand wash (May 2010) - Johor Bahru

Motorcycle park (May 2010) - Johor Bahru

Sculpture (May 2010) - Johor Bahru

Bus number 666 (Jun 2010) - Larkin

Gazebo (Jun 2010) - Kota Tinggi

Raw latex (Jun 2010) - Kota Tinggi

Street football (Jun 2010) - Kota Tinggi

Melaka Sentral (Jun 2010) - Melaka

V formation (Jun 2010) - Melaka

Viaduct (Jun 2010) - Melaka

Menara Taming Sari (Jun 2010) - Melaka

Colourful trishaws (Jun 2010) - Melaka

Old propeller (Jun 2010) - Melaka

Rusty musket (Jun 2010) - Melaka

Ornate bridge (Jun 2010) - Melaka

Jonker Walk (Jun 2010) - Melaka

Use Malaysian rubber (Jun 2010) - Melaka

Berjaya Times Square (Jul 2010) - Kuala Lumpur

Maybank (Jul 2010) - Kuala Lumpur

Muzium Negara (Jul 2010) - Kuala Lumpur

Sultanate of Malacca (Jul 2010) - Kuala Lumpur

Communist hat (Jul 2010) - Kuala Lumpur

Demolishing Pudu Prison (Jul 2010) - Kuala Lumpur

Petaling Street (Jul 2010) - Kuala Lumpur

Petronas Twin Towers (Jul 2010) - Kuala Lumpur

Parit Waterfall (Aug 2010) - Cameron Highlands

Giant vegetables (Aug 2010) - Cameron Highlands

Double helix (Aug 2010) - Cameron Highlands

Strawberry (Aug 2010) - Cameron Highlands

Unlike in my previous photo galleries, I've decided not to mention the brand and model of the cameras used for these pictures, since it doesn't really matter.

Suffice to say that they were not SLRs and no tripods were used for any of the above shots. That's right, they were all handheld.

Please tune in next time for a media-rich, day-by-day account of my recent journey to Japan!

Planes And Trains

2011-06-21T16:40:00.008+08:00

I've been travelling a bit in the past year, and thus I have accumulated so many hundreds of photos and videos that I'm not sure where to start.

Stay tuned for a more substantial series of blog entries soon, but for now, here are some videos about the transportation I took during a short trip to Kuala Lumpur a couple of months ago.

Enjoy!

Flying from Singapore to KL

Taking the KLIA Ekspres

Taking the Aerotrain at KLIA

Return flight to Singapore

Steamshovel Harry

2011-05-24T14:34:00.005+08:00

Everything is better with Auto-Tune.

You won't get it unless you play the game first...

Steamshovel Harry Song
----------
by Brad Sucks

Lyrics:

Watch out for that gravity, watch out, watch out.
Gravity, watch out... watch out for that gravity.

Science times mass equals gravity.

Gravity is gonna kill you, Harry.
Gravity is gonna kill you... gravity.

It's time to learn about astronomy.
It's time to learn about astronomy.
It's time to learn about astronomy. Hey...

Steamshovel Harry, Steamshovel Harry.
Steamshovel Harry, Steamshovel Harry.

Asteroids are smaller than planets.
Asteroids are smaller, wo oh wo oh.

Asteroids are larger than meteorites.
I meant to say meteroids then, wo oh wo oh wo oh wo oh.

Steamshovel Harry, Steamshovel Harry.
Steamshovel Harry, Steamshovel Harry.

That meteor is gonna kill you, Harry.

Physics are gonna kill you, Harry.

Physics are gonna kill you, Harry!
Physics are gonna kill you, Harry!

It's gonna kill you and make you dead.

Physics gonna pull out a gun.
Shoot you right in the head.
BLAM oh no, look out now! Hey...

Physics.

Oh yeah. Oh...

Oh...

I can't wait to make love... to physics.

Gonna love her all night long.
Making physics love, singing the physics song.
Throw another downwards to double jump.
Or throw it up to not jump as high.

Do it Harry, do it to win.

Punch that missile right in the face.
Punch that missile all over the place.
One two three four, punch that missile!

When we open the door...

Steamshovel Harry, Steamshovel Harry.
Steamshovel Harry, Steamshovel Harry.
Steamshovel Harry, Steamshovel Harry.
Steamshovel Harry, Steamshovel Harry.

Physics are gonna hunt you down and kill you in the middle of the night.
Physics are gonna hunt you down and make everything all right.

Would you like to know more?

About the Steamshovel Harry game:
- Steamshovel Harry flash game
- Steamshovel Harry music

What the hell is going on!?!!:
- Metagames: Games About Games

Explanation Of Millisievert

2011-03-18T11:27:00.002+08:00

With the international media spotlight on the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant emergency, radiological terms such as "millisievert" have entered the public consciousness.

Here is a video that clearly explains what the sievert is, plus a demonstration of two instruments that are used for measuring radioactivity:

It is understandable that the international media is more focused on Fukushima than the devastation caused by the tsunami, since they reflect the concerns of foreign nationals living in Japan.

However, some of their headlines seem sensationalistic and have the potential to cause unnecessary worry among Japanese residents.

Take for example this headline - "Tokyo radiation levels 23 times normal: officials". This brief article states that radiation levels in Tokyo "surged to 23 times normal on Tuesday" and reported a measurement of 0.809 microsieverts, presumably over the hour (10am local time) mentioned.

Without explaining the significance of this reading, a 23-fold increase in radiation levels sounds very serious indeed.

However, if we take into account the average annual background radiation dose per person, which is around 2000 microsieverts, we can see that the reported radiation level spike is actually about 1/2470 of the average annual dose.

Further, by doing this form of comparison, we can find out that 0.809 microsieverts is about:

- the dose received during 6 hours of flying time in a jet airliner.
- 1/120 of the dose of a chest X-ray.
- 1/12400 of the dose of a CT scan.
- 1/24700 of the annual limit of a radiation worker (20mSv).
- 1/124000 of the lowest level that can cause a measurable increase in cancer rates.
- 1/309000 of the lower limit for acute radiation sickness.

Just for comparison, a news report about more recent readings in Tokyo has this headline - "Tokyo Area Radiation Around Typical Background Levels - City Government", which I think is a more responsible headline.

The article states a measurement of 0.05 microsieverts per hour, slightly higher than the background level of 0.035 microsieverts per hour - which could have led to a headline like "Tokyo radiation levels 143% of normal!", but their editors didn't do that.

Would you like to know more?

About units used for measuring radiation dose:
- Sievert (SI unit)
- Roentgen
- Rem
- Gray
- Rad

Japan Hit By Severe Earthquake And Tsunami

2011-03-11T20:26:00.024+08:00

A severe earthquake hit Japan today at 2.46pm local time (0546h GMT).

The epicentre of the quake was about 100km off the east coast of main island Honshu, at a depth of about 20km.

The Japan Meteorological Agency reported it to be 8.8 on the Richter scale, which makes it the most intense earthquake ever recorded in Japan.

In addition, the northeastern coast of Honshu was hit by tsunamis as high as 10m. Boats, cars and even houses were swept away in the flood caused by a series of tsunamis. The worst hit areas appear to be in the region around the city of Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture.

Earlier today I watched some of the live TV coverage of the earthquake on NHK World; for those of you without cable TV, here are a couple of videos:

Severe Tremors at NHK Sendai Newsroom (from NHK World)

CCTV Footage of Tsunami Wave at Sendai Airport (from Russia Today)

I think this footage of the wave front sweeping into the airport - almost at a walking pace but gradually covering the entire tarmac - is especially chilling.

It is disturbing to see how unstoppable and how much damage the visually unspectacular flood flow was causing, if you compare these scenes to the hyped-up special effects in Hollywood disaster movies.

Videos taken by the NHK helicopter also show the wave front moving gradually and relentlessly, engulfing everything in its path. As it moved inland over farmlands and residential areas, the wave front picked up so much mud and debris that it became dark in colour and had a chunky appearance.

Live video from the air also helped to convey the huge scale of the tsunami waves as they approached the coast. The photo below is a screen capture from NHK video that shows several such waves, each of them hundreds of metres long, about to reach the coast of Sendai (treeline at the lower left):

Based on latest reports, at least 300 people are dead.

Please click here for a compilation of the latest reports on casualties and damage.

Would you like to know more?

Latest warnings:
- Japan Meteorological Agency: Tsunami Warnings/Advisories

Latest news:
- NHK World English
- LIVE: Japan earthquake (BBC News)

Latest casualty and damage reports:
- Massive earthquake brings a destructive tsunami in Japan (Earthquake-Report)

How To Avoid The Featured Video On YouTube

2011-01-07T21:50:00.011+08:00

For quite a while now, the YouTube.com main page has been showing a "Featured Video" section on the top right part of the page.

This feature appears every time you visit YouTube.com, whether you are logged in or not, and often displays videos that are completely irrelevant to your interests.

Unfortunately, it cannot be removed like the customizable modules on the left side of the page. It also cannot be minimized or even shifted downwards.

Apparently there are many YouTube users who dislike this "Featured Video" section on their YouTube homepage.

If you google "how to remove featured videos on youtube", you'll get a whopping 777,000,000 results!

Just to get an idea of why some users are unhappy, here are some of their comments on the YouTube help forum:

"I agree completely. I used to love watching featured videos when they were good, but now, all they feature now is stupid makeup and gossip videos I don't even want to see"

"I know , i hate those Featured Videos , they got nothing interesting on it, not only that, i have blocked some of the users on my account and still they keep showing up on the feature list, i don't want to see them at all, i don't like their videos , i don't want to know about them , and i wish i could remove them from my list forever and never see them again. but they keep showing up. Youtube pls ."

"I hate the featured videos. But what I hate more is the fact that youtube does not give us the option of disabling them. Who cares if they pay to have them on there? Some of these featured videos are just garbage that equate to visual polution. Let us turn it off!!! Well I guess there's always Vimeo; hmmm, maybe I'll give them a try."

As mentioned by some other commenters, one method of preventing the Featured Video from appearing is to use the Mozilla Firefox browser and install ad blocker addons.

However, there is a simpler method to avoid seeing Featured Videos - by avoiding the YouTube.com page altogether!

Here at Fresh Brainz we have worked out how to do this:

First, you'll need to delete the "http://youtube.com/" autocomplete entry from your Web browser.

Eg. For IE8, just type "youtube" in the address bar and a dropdown box will appear below with the "http://youtube.com/" suggestion. Use arrow keys to highlight this line and press delete (or click the red "X") to remove the entry.

Next...

1. If you have a YouTube account

Enter "http://www.youtube.com/my_subscriptions" in the address bar.

If you are logged in to your YouTube account, you will reach your Subscriptions page, which is full of videos that you like.

If you are not yet logged in, you will get a login page to key in your username and password, before you get directed to your Subscriptions page.

Either way, you will not encounter any Featured Videos.

Once you are in your Subscriptions page, you can use the top search bar to navigate throughout YouTube.

"http://www.youtube.com/my_subscriptions" is now your new YouTube homepage.

2. If you don't have a YouTube account

Enter "http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=" in the address bar.

You will reach an empty search page that says "No video results for “”".

There are no videos on this page and certainly no Featured Videos.

Just use the top search bar to navigate throughout YouTube.

"http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=" is now your new YouTube homepage.

Of course, this method also works if you have a YouTube account.

Easy, isn't it?

林湘萍 (Yvonne Lim) vs 陈邦鋆 (Andie Chen)

2010-12-30T13:33:00.011+08:00

I can't be the first person on the planet to have noticed this...

The resemblance is uncanny.

That. Same. Smile.

From the side, there are some differences.

Andie clearly has a more angular jaw and broader chin, but MAN... the positions of the eyebrows, eyes, nose and mouth are spot on.

Did I mention that Yvonne Lim was a Star Search '97 finalist while Andie Chen was the '07 winner?

Or that both of them are Poly grads (albeit Yvonne was in SP while Andie was in NP)?

Oooh scary!

It's the exact same smile I tell you... the way the smile line extends straight below the edges of the mouth.

As you can see, other facial features are pretty similar too.

I guess it doesn't help my case to point out that at 1.83 m tall, Andie is a towering 21 cm taller than Yvonne.

Though you don't have to be Jedi Twins to have the same smile.

Would you like to know more?

- Andie Chen's photos

Science Reporting By The Straits Times

2010-12-18T23:09:00.016+08:00

Just read a science article in the Straits Times entitled "Brain Illness Leaves Woman Fearless." (ST 18 Dec 2010 Page C14)

The research study that is featured in the article (diminished fear experience of a woman with a genetic condition of the amygdala) is quite interesting, but what is even more interesting is how the Straits Times presented the news.

Since the ST article was edited mainly from an original article by Agence France-Presse (with some details from an Associated Press report added in), it is informative to compare the ST and AFP versions to see the differences.

Words that are different or missing in either version are highlighted in RED (additional source marked with asterix).

~~~~~~~~~~

ST Version

Brain illness leaves woman fearless

WASHINGTON - United States scientists have discovered a woman with a rare brain disease that makes her afraid of nothing - not a huge snake lurking near her children, not a knife to her throat, and certainly not a horror movie.

The 44-year-old* woman cannot experience fear because of a condition that has destroyed the part of her brain - the amygdala - where researchers believe the feeling of fear is made.

Over the past two decades researchers have been analysing the woman, known as SM, for clues about her condition which they say could help them treat post-traumatic stress disorder, particularly in soldiers returning from war.

A study of her fearlessness was published online on Thursday in the journal Current Biology by University of Iowa researcher Justin Feinstein and colleagues.*

"It is quite remarkable that she is still alive," said Mr Feinstein. "The nature of fear is survival and the amygdala helps us stay alive by avoiding situations, people, or objects that put our life in danger," he said.

Instead of fear, SM, whose rare condition is known as Urbach-Wiethe disease, describes "an overwhelming feeling of curiosity."

The woman's eldest son, who is in his 20s, told researchers he could not ever recall seeing his mother afraid.

He said he remembered one event in particular from his childhood when he was playing with his two brothers and they saw a big snake in the road nearby.

"Well, mum just ran over there and picked it up and brought it out of the street, put it in the grass and let it go on its way," he said.

The woman also told researchers that when she was in her 30s, a man grabbed her and stuck a knife to her throat.

"She looked at the man and confidently replied, 'If you're going to kill me, you're gonna have to go through my God's angels first.' The man suddenly let her go," said the study, adding the woman then described walking calmly home.

Other experiments devised by the researchers - leading her through a haunted house where people dressed as monsters and ghosts sprung from the darkness, and showing her a series of scary video clips - fell flat too.

She considered the haunted house to be "highly exciting and entertaining", like the rush she gets from a roller coaster, Mr Feinstein said.*

Scientists believe she was once able to feel fear because she has described childhood memories of being afraid of the dark, and being once frightened by a dog.

Mr Feinstein said he hopes that SM's experience could help treat people with post-traumatic stress disorder, a problem he has seen in his work treating US soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Their lives are marred by fear, often times unable to even leave their home due to the ever-present feeling of danger," he said.

"By understanding how the brain processes fear, we may one day be able to create treatments that selectively target the brain areas that allow fear to take over our lives."

*From AP report

AFP Version

Woman who knows no fear could offer brain clues

WASHINGTON - US scientists have discovered a woman with a rare brain disease that makes her afraid of nothing - not a huge snake lurking near her children, not a knife to her throat, and certainly not a horror movie.

The woman cannot experience fear because of a condition that has destroyed the part of her brain - the amygdala - where researchers say they believe the feeling of fear is made.

Over the past two decades researchers have been analysing the woman, known as SM, for clues about her condition which they say could help them treat post-traumatic stress disorder, particularly in soldiers returning from war.

"It is quite remarkable that she is still alive," said lead author Justin Feinstein whose study appears in the journal Current Biology.

"The nature of fear is survival and the amygdala helps us stay alive by avoiding situations, people, or objects that put our life in danger," he said.

"Because SM is missing her amygdala, she is also missing the ability to detect and avoid danger in the world."

Instead of fear, SM, whose rare condition is known as Urbach-Wiethe disease, describes "an overwhelming feeling of curiosity."

To test her reaction, researchers led her into an exotic pet store filled with spiders and snakes, animals she repeatedly said she "hates" and tries to avoid.

"Upon entering the store, SM was spontaneously drawn to the snake terrariums and appeared visually captivated by the large collection of snakes," the study said.

Asked by a store employee if she would like to hold one, SM agreed and then played with one for about three minutes.

"She rubbed its leathery scales, touched its flicking tongue, and closely watched its movements as it slithered through her hands," it said.

"Her verbal behavior revealed a comparable degree of fascination and inquisitiveness: she repeatedly commented, 'This is so cool!'"

When she reached for a tarantula, however, she had to be stopped because there was a high risk she could be bitten.

"When asked why she would want to touch something that she knows is dangerous and that she claims to hate, SM replied that she was overcome with 'curiosity,'" the study said.

The woman's eldest son, who is in his 20s, told researchers he could not ever recall seeing his mother afraid of anything.

He said he remembered one event in particular from his childhood when he was playing with his two brothers and they saw a big snake in the road nearby.

"Well, Mom just ran over there and picked it up and brought it out of the street, put it in the grass and let it go on its way," he said.

"I thought that was kind of weird."

The woman also told researchers that when she was in her 30s, a man grabbed her and stuck a knife to her throat.

"She looked at the man and confidently replied, 'If you're going to kill me, you're gonna have to go through my God's angels first.' The man suddenly let her go," said the study, adding the woman then described walking calmly home.

Other experiments devised by the researchers - leading her through a haunted house where people dressed as monsters and ghosts sprung from the darkness, and showing her a series of scary video clips - fell flat too.

"She reacted to the monsters by smiling, laughing, or trying to talk to them," the study said.

"She found the fear films to be exciting and entertaining, and in one case, she inquired about the name of the movie so she could rent it from the video store later that day."

Scientists believe she was once able to feel fear because she has described a childhood memory of being afraid of a dog.

They also note that "SM has never been convicted of any crime, but rather has been the victim of numerous crimes."

Feinstein said he hopes that SM's experience could help treat people with post-traumatic stress disorder, a problem he has seen in his work treating US soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Their lives are marred by fear, often times unable to even leave their home due to the ever-present feeling of danger," he said.

"By understanding how the brain processes fear, we may one day be able to create treatments that selectively target the brain areas that allow fear to take over our lives."

Feinstein said science should look for PTSD treatments that "focus on ways to safely and non-invasively dampen amygdala activity," mainly through medication and psychotherapy.

~~~~~~~~~~

A significant portion of the original AFP article is omitted from the ST version.

Interestingly, the missing parts are mostly related to the downside of having practically no fear, such as the inability to detect and avoid danger, fascination with potentially dangerous animals, becoming a victim of crimes etc.

A quick survey of other new reports indicates that this danger of lacking fear is actually an important message from the researchers - here are some excerpts:

~~~~~~~~~~

1. Associated Press

a) Her case shows that the amygdala plays a key role in making people feel afraid in threatening situations, researchers say.

Her life history also shows that living without fear can be dangerous, they said.

b) She apparently hasn't felt fear as an adult, not even 15 years ago in an incident described by the researchers. A man jumped up from a park bench, pressed a knife to her throat and hissed, "I'm going to cut you."

SM, who heard a church choir practicing in the distance, looked coolly at him and replied, "If you're going to kill me, you're going to have to go through my God's angels first."

The man suddenly let her go. She didn't run home. She walked.

"Her lack of fear may have freaked the guy out," Feinstein said.

But it also got her into that situation in the first place, he noted. SM had willingly approached the man when he asked her to, even though it was late at night and she was alone, and even though she thought he looked "drugged out."

SM has also walked into other dangerous situations because of her lack of fear, and all in all, it's remarkable she's still alive, Feinstein said.

2. ABC News

a) S.M. also had exposure to fearful situations in her past. She was held up at gunpoint and at knifepoint and was almost killed during a domestic incident. S.M. told researchers she did not feel fear during these life-threatening situations. She was also aware that her inability to react to fearful stimuli was not normal.

b) S.M.'s case is also important to understand because the ability to experience fear and respond to it is essential to survival. The researchers believe that because she could not detect threats to her safety and avoid them, she wound up in numerous life-threatening situations.

"Indeed, it appears that without the amygdala, the evolutionary value of fear is lost," the authors wrote.

3. Time.com (Healthland)

a) The authors note that SM's response to what would normally be considered fear-inducing situations was not characterized simply by a lack of responsiveness, but rather a heightened arousal and interest. In other words, she practically courted danger.

b) The researchers stress that SM's condition is more a curse than a blessing: "[SM's] behavior, time and time again, leads her back to the very situations she should be avoiding, highlighting the indispensable role that the amygdala plays in promoting survival by compelling the organism away from danger. Indeed, it appears that without the amygdala, the evolutionary value of fear is lost."

4. Discovery News

a) That wasn't the only occasion that SM, who was living in the projects in a seedy part of town, got herself into a precarious situation. There was the time, for example, that a man approached her from behind, put a gun to her head, yelled "Boom!" and then ran away. She figured her attacker was a drug dealer whom she had repeatedly turned in to the police, but she didn't consider calling the cops after the incident.

"She described the situation as strange," Feinstein said. "She's not reacting in normal ways that anyone who had fear would."

b) "We don't suggest by any means to remove this area of the brain," Feinstein said. "We don't want a million SM's walking around getting in trouble. This one case highlights why we do need an amygdala."

Instead, it's possible that drugs or behavioral methods could quiet the amygdala just enough to free people whose lives have been taken over by fear.

5. Scienceblogs.com (Neurophilosophy)

a) SM has been studied extensively during the past two decades. Early investigations showed that her non-verbal visual memory was signficantly impaired but that otherwise she had an IQ in the low-average range. She also displayed inappropriate social behaviours, quickly becoming friendly with the experimenters and making sexual remarks, due to disturbed executive control. Subsequently, it was found that she was unable to recognize emotions in facial expressions, and a study published earlier this year showed that the brain damage had eliminated her monetary loss aversion - that is, she makes risky financial decisions that most of us would avoid because of a fear of losing money.

b) But based on interviews with her and her three children, the authors suggest that she probably has not experienced fear at all throughout the whole duration of her adult life, despite having encountered an unusually high number of traumatic and life-threatening events. Aged 30, she had a knife held to her throat by a drug addict while she walked through a park at night, but did not panic and walked away calmly when he let her go. She has also been held at gun point, was nearly killed in an act of domestic violence, and has been the victim of numerous crimes in the poverty-stricken area in which she lives.

~~~~~~~~~~

From these excerpts, it can be seen that all the above news articles - except for the Straits Times version - emphasize the researchers' point about the dangers of lacking fear.

Would you like to know more?

- The Human Amygdala and the Induction and Experience of Fear (Feinstein et al. 2010) Current Biology

Right Round Round Round

2010-11-23T20:48:00.007+08:00

Enjoy unsolved mysteries?

Here's one for you: why do people travel in circles when they can't see a fixed landmark?

Apparently, difference in limb lengths doesn't explain this behaviour (eg. driving the car) so this remains an unsolved question.

I wonder if you'll see the same circling movement if you make the blindfolded person lie down on a skateboard, so as to position the inner ear balance organs 90 degrees to the usual orientation.

Or if there is still circling if you give the subject a fixed auditory landmark, like a tall loudspeaker.

Via Mind Hacks.

Would you like to know more?

- A Mystery: Why Can't We Walk Straight? (npr.org)

Beware Of Geeks Bearing Fembots

2010-11-02T11:46:00.005+08:00

Latest development by Hiroshi Ishiguro's group: the Actroid-F.

Now attempting to bridge the uncanny valley with fast facial expressions!

The multiple eye blink demonstration from 1:26 - 1:33 is very impressive. To me, one major reason why androids today look so stiff is due to the sluggishness of the actuators.

People don't slowly move their heads and facial muscles into position; they sort of "snap" into it.

In that respect, the current Actroid-F appears to have the fastest motor response of any android so far. Older videos of the Actroid-F in April still show the slow eye blink and head movement, so something must have been enhanced since then, be it faster motors and/or software.

Also, I think there is one point in this video where the Actroid briefly slips across the uncanny valley.

It's at 1:46, when after repeating a series of mechanical-looking mouth movements, the Actroid suddenly shifts attention to the left in a snappy, human sort of way.

In that instant, the robot seemed to be alive.

Looking at the progress so far, this is merely a little taste of what is to come.

Would you like to know more?

- ACTROID-F: Android robot that coexists with human (AIST Channel)

Pick Your Brain For Some Loose Change... And Your Watch

2010-10-29T11:14:00.004+08:00

Here's an intriguing Scientific American video that uses street magic to help illustrate some concepts in neuroscience.

Or is it using neuroscience to help illustrate some concepts in street magic?

Not surprisingly the street magician steals the show, after all, it's his job to capture your attention by being in your face, enthusiastic and funny.

Whereas the scientists appear standoffish and matter-of-fact.

This distinct contrast tells us that there's some showmanship going on here, and obviously it's the magician who's doing it.

Or is it?

via Mind Hacks

Next Up, World Domination. But First, Here's A Song For You!

2010-10-20T11:23:00.010+08:00

You know them pop stars - celebrities who don't play instruments, can't sing and can't really dance either.

Behold the next step in prepackaged, manufactured entertainment...

Whoa, that's almost... adorable.

As YouTubber anharmyenone grimly observed: "Skynet is a Japanese idol singer."

Verily I say, beware of Those with the half-bent knees and awkward head-shake.

Heh.

via Tokyo Mango

Update 24 Dec 2010: Video with clearer (less buzzy) sound quality and some close-ups of the robot - from AIST Channel.

Would you like to know more?

- The star: HRP-4C Gynoid
- The synthesized singing: Vocaloid Hatsune Miku
- The song: "出逢った頃のように" by EveryLittleThing

Later!

2010-07-25T19:47:00.003+08:00

Wow, it's been months since my last post! Currently I don't have the need to blog any more, and I'm often travelling regionally, so unlikely to have regular updates.

For the long time readers of Fresh Brainz, many thanks for your support in the past four years! Cheers and so long!

Many Or Most?

2010-05-19T13:10:00.004+08:00

In Singapore, the mainstream media has often been criticized by our online community for biased, pro-ruling party reporting.

However, I think that even the mainstream media itself is not entirely homogeneous.

Compare these two news articles, both reporting on the response of Mr. S. Iswaran (Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry) in Parliament to questions about the Integrated Resorts.

Click on the headlines for the full articles:

1. No compromise to concept of IRs, with small portion for gambling (Channel NewsAsia 18 May 2010)

2. Too early to judge success of IRs: Iswaran (TODAYonline 19 May 2010)

Here are excerpts from both reports to highlight a small but crucial difference between them:

1. Channel NewsAsia - He also addressed concerns from opposition MP Low Thia Khiang that many Singaporeans were hitting the casinos. He felt there is a novelty factor at play, but pledged that agencies are monitoring the trends closely.

Hougang MP Low Thia Khiang said: "There are reports that most visitors to the casinos are actually Singaporeans, is that a concern of the government?"

Mr Iswaran replied: "Obviously we want to ensure that Singaporeans who choose to go to the casinos give due thought to that before they go in and not do it on an impulse — which is why we have a whole slew of measures that have been put in place.

"It would be fair to say that there is a novelty factor in place, and to say that whatever we see at play in terms of numbers, in terms of performance in the first few weeks and months is an accurate predictor of what will be happening 12 months, 24 months down the road, I think may be stretching the argument a little bit."

"I think what I can assure the member is that the agencies are monitoring the situation closely and I think once we have a better sense of the patterns and trends, then I think we will better know how the measures we have put in place are working."

2. TODAYonline - Opposition MP (Hougang) Low Thia Khiang asked if the Government was concerned that many of the casinos' patrons so far seem to be Singaporeans.

To this, Mr Iswaran replied that the "novelty factor" was at play and may not accurately reflect the situation one or two years down the road.

"The agencies are monitoring the situation closely, and once we have a better sense of the patterns and trends, then I think we'll know how the measures (against problem gambling) we've put in place are working," he said.

If the Channel NewsAsia's direct quote is accurate, then Mr. Low actually asked if the government was concerned that MOST casino visitors appear to be Singaporeans.

He didn't ask if the government was concerned that MANY casino patrons appear to be Singaporeans, which is how TODAYonline paraphrased it.

MOST is not the same as MANY.

There is a difference because MANY refers to raw numbers whereas MOST refers to a proportion.

Over time, any foreign-owned casino that opens its door to native citizens will have MANY native visitors.

But if the casino was planned to be a tool for boosting tourism, then MOST of its visitors should be foreigners, not natives!

Otherwise it would have become yet another shiny new avenue for citizens to transfer their money to foreign corporations.

Interestingly, Mr. Iswaran did not dispute Mr. Low's observation; instead, he talked about the novelty factor and the need for more time to determine the trends, which seems to be a tacit acknowledgement of the current situation - if you read the Channel NewsAsia version, that is.

In contrast, that insight cannot be obtained from the TODAYonline version.

For any piece of news, I think it's a good idea to read a number of sources to get a better picture of what is going on.

Gong Fu, Noh, And A Magical Robot Unicorn

2010-05-17T13:34:00.005+08:00

During the 1990s, the 80's must have seemed like the gayest decade in human history, with its big shiny clothes and big multicoloured hair.

Little did we realize that the 90's turned out to be even gayer than the 80's.

Ladies and gentleman, may I present to you the Year 1994:

And with the advent of free flash games, kids today are rediscovering the gayness of the 1990's all over again, one high score at a time...

Would you like to know more?

- The Gay '90's

- Robot Unicorn Attack flash game by [adult swim]

- I want to be a magical rainbow unicorn, chasing neon butterflies and flying dolphins through a purple marshmellowly land! OH YES!

- I am secure with my masculinity.

Can Science Answer Moral Questions?

2010-04-23T01:19:00.004+08:00

Just watched an interesting TED talk by Sam Harris about how science can shed some light about questions of morality.

I like many of Harris' talks, and as a structuralist I agree with the overall premise that questions of morality can be investigated scientifically.

Thus I was looking forward to hearing his arguments; however, after listening to him I realized that I mainly disagreed with him instead!

Here, check it out first:

Eloquently articulated, to be sure, but I have so many disagreements with his view that... wow, where do I even begin?

1. "Values are a certain kind of fact. They are facts about the well-being of conscious creatures."

Firstly, I don't know which moral philosopher would agree with Harris' definition of "values", but dictionary.com defines "values" as "the ideals, customs, institutions, etc., of a society toward which the people of the group have an affective regard."

In common language the term "values" has a very strong social component which is missing in Harris' definition - making "values" appear to be some kind of individual-level property.

This is a very big problem. There is a difference between the moral sense/personal principles of individuals and the social values of groups.

Harris makes it look as if social values can ultimately be reducible to neuroscience, which in my view is pitching it at the wrong organization level.

Secondly, how would you measure "well-being" in the context of social values?

There are many cultures that consider some amount of physical/psychological pain to be an important aspect of a person's development toward adulthood, or to be recognized as a legit member of society.

Even if someone was able to create some kind of standardized "well-being" metric, how would you convince other people to agree with it?

Take for example, our "civilized" culture in Singapore where children are subject to at least a decade of institutional education, usually longer.

It is a system which regularly inflicts pain of varying degrees.

Does anyone think that most teenagers want to be scolded by teachers/prefects, spend their holidays on homework/tuition, learn calculus/linear law, or train furiously/contort their bodies in order to get silver for their NAPFA test to avoid PTP during NS?

So are all these activities immoral?

2. "There are truths to be known about how human communities flourish - whether or not we understand these truths. And morality relates to these truths."

During the talk, Harris constantly emphasized human "flourishing".

Harris was trained as a biologist, as was I. From a biological perspective, the survival of a population can be easily measured - in terms of reproductive fitness, children per woman, population growth rates etc.

But how would anyone agree on what "flourishing" means, let alone how to measure it?

Take for example, the Spartan civilization in Ancient Greece.

Spartan society was highly structured, militaristic and brutal - from the cradle to the grave.

Small or deformed babies were left to die of exposure. Boys began military training at age seven - deliberately underfed to encourage them to learn the skill of stealing food.

By eighteen they were trained to kill members of the Helot minority; at twenty they were eligible for military service and they would remain on duty until they were 60 years old.

If a Spartan soldier lost his shield in battle and returned alive, it was assumed that he attempted to flee and thus was subject to punishment by death or banishment. Even mothers enforced the militaristic lifestyle that Spartan men endured!

Yet, for such a cruel and warlike society, Sparta was well-admired during its day, considered by many people - even some of its rivals in Athens - to be an ideal state free from the corruption of commerce and money. Spartan women also enjoyed more rights and equality to men than elsewhere during that time period.

In terms of survival as a group, Sparta managed to maintain its political independence for several centuries.

So did the Spartans "flourish"?

And how do we critique the morality of their societal practices scientifically?

**********

There are many, many other things that I disagree with, but it's late and I need to sleep.

Suffice to say that I am amazed to see how reductionist Harris' view is, and how much he is attracted by the concept of a universal morality - eg. continuum along a single dimension, fixed peaks and valleys in his "moral landscape".

I realize that the systems perspective is not immediately intuitive, and people, even science-trained people, like to see things along a simple spectrum of black and white, right and wrong.

This spectrum, especially for social values, cannot exist because of confounding variables such as short-term vs long-term benefit, individual vs group benefit, stability vs flexibility etc - there are multidimensional trade-offs that preclude simple optimality.

Ash By Any Other Name Would NOT Smell As Sulphurous

2010-04-17T12:30:00.007+08:00

The Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland must surely count as one of the most unpronounceable volcano names in the world.

Nonetheless, the effects of its latest eruption can be easily communicated.

Check out this satellite photo by NASA:

Iceland is outlined on the upper left of the photo, spewing what looks like atmospheric diarrhoea towards northern Europe on the lower right.

Volcanic ash clouds gradually spread over Europe causing numerous cancelled airline flights in... SINGAPORE?!??

That's right.

About 6,000 travellers at the Changi Airport have been affected by flight disruptions in Europe, many of them stranded at the transit lounges due to insufficient hotel rooms.

According to the Straits Times, about one in two travellers at Changi are transiting through Singapore to destinations in Europe or North America.

Also in that news report - an affected traveller Mr. Ken Jones said: "I am resigned to what is happening. It is nobody's fault, I guess, but of course I am annoyed and frustrated."

Understandably he is annoyed, but Mr. Jones may also add "relieved" to his mixture of emotions if he only knew what happens when a jet aeroplane flies through a plume of volcanic ash at 900 klicks an hour.

On the 24th of June 1982, passengers and crew of British Airways Flight 9 had the terrifying experience of just how that feels like:

Ah, the imprecision of the English language - volcanic "ash" sounds harmless enough, but it is not the same sort of "ash" that you get from burning paper or cigarettes.

Volcanic "ash" is actually made up of tiny, irregular pieces of rock and glass.

Oh my.

Would you like to know more?

More satellite photos of the Icelandic eruption:
- NASA Observes Ash Plume of Icelandic Volcano (NASA)

News of passengers stuck in Singapore:
- Stranded in Singapore (Straits Times)

Full video of the British Airways Flight 9 incident:
- Air Crash Investigation - British Airways Flight 9 (Google videos)

Another imprecision of the English language:
- Seven Years Of Science (Fresh Brainz)

A Grey Lizard That Isn't Really Grey

2010-03-09T10:40:00.010+08:00

Last month, during the Chinese New Year period, I was passing through a jogging track beside a canal in Ghim Moh when I spotted this little critter:

GREY LIZARD!

It had a surprisingly deep grey colour that matched the surrounding asphalt very well. If not for the fact that it was dashing across the track right in front of me, I would have missed it.

I think that its grey skin is a good camouflage to protect the lizard against predators, such as birds.

I don't know much about lizards, but I find its even grey tone surprising since I've only seen garden lizards in brown and green.

My first thought when I saw it was - maybe there is a selection pressure for "jogging track lizards" to be grey?

Here's the fellow next to a ten cent coin.

The lizard was about 3 cm long. It could be a juvenile, so the grey colouration could be a transitory feature.

Most scientists who study the evolution of animal features tend to focus on the adult form. That doesn't mean that the features of young animals are less important.

We must remember that the environment starts to act against an animal, even before it was born!

If an animal cannot survive its youth, it cannot become an adult.

When I took a close-up photo of the lizard, I realized that it wasn't really grey!

The scales were in a mottled pattern of light and dark brown, and coupled with the fact that the lizard appeared to be moulting, the resultant colour from a distance was a dull, dark grey.

It made me ponder about the concept that quantitatively different features at the component level can result in qualitatively different features at the system level, ie. emergence.

After all, if you try to find a novel "grey gene" on this grey lizard, you might end up finding nothing! It might have been the combination of expression level changes to existing brown colour genes and opacity of the scales that contributed to its overall grey appearance.

Well, that's too much speculation for one day.

So I left the lizard, which had remained frozen in that position for minutes on the asphalt and didn't leave even after I had walked several metres away.

Survival instinct or excessive fear?

Seconds later, a bicycle zipped by that same spot.

I didn't look back.

Would you like to know more?
- Tertiary color (Wikipedia)

Minister Pay To Increase By 8.8%

2010-02-25T06:52:00.006+08:00

Despite the raging debate among citizens about the government's performance regarding the foreign talent policy, HDB price spike, losses by Temasek Holdings and GIC etc., looks like the government has decided to raise the salaries of ministers yet again in this year's Budget.

Committed to going green (TODAYonline)
by Teo Xuanwei 05:55 AM Feb 23, 2010

Excerpt:

"Salaries for political appointments - ministers, ministers of state and parliamentary secretaries - are estimated to be $58.28 million, or 8.8 per cent higher than last year."

Ministers in Singapore are already the highest paid politicians in the world, earning over a million dollars a year and beating their counterparts in other countries by a large margin.

Check out this graph that compares the salary of the Prime Minister with prominent leaders of first world countries:

It is shockingly inappropriate timing to raise their salaries while our country has barely recovered from the recession, and the sustained recovery of the global economy is still in doubt.

Some commenters on sociopolitical blogs say that this pay hike suggests that the government is not confident of winning the next general election and thus is increasing their salaries while they can.

Alternatively, it is also possible that the election will not be held this year after all, since it is inconceivable that the government would make such an insensitive move shortly before the election.

Le mariage est il la tombe de l'amour

2010-02-17T17:27:00.009+08:00

Another piece of biting satire from the Onion News Network, this time parodying the same-sex marriage controversy in California, USA:

Ha ha ha... imagine the total chaos that would result when they try to enforce the law.

What is the legal definition of love (or lovelessness) anyway?

Gravity Is Just A Theory

2010-02-11T17:17:00.004+08:00

Evolution is just a theory. You know what else is just a theory?

Gravity.

There you have it, an object that rolls uphill - "Gravity" has been debunked.

Now buy my snake oil!

Would you like to know more?
- Defying gravity: The uphill roller

Singapore Airshow 2010 Gallery

2010-02-07T18:47:00.014+08:00

Just came back from Changi Beach with some photos of the flight display this year.

Unlike last time, this afternoon the weather was excellent with blue skies and puffy white clouds.

One of the star attractions, the F-111, flew during trade days, but it seems to be grounded due to technical problems so there were only four jet aircraft in the air today.

Also, there were no aerobatic teams participating this year, so the display was pretty short.

F-16

Pulling Gs while descending. Note the plume of condensation over the wings.

Barrel roll, trailing a cockscrew-shaped stream of smoke.

Making a near pass.

A-10

From a distance, the A-10 doesn't look menacing at all. It resembles a UAV...

Also, despite the fact that it is a fearsome tank-killer, its quiet engines and relatively slower speed compared to the other jets makes it appear rather sedate.

Pulling a tight turn and showing the business end of the machine - the 30mm Avenger cannon, visible as a dark bump on the aircraft's nose.

T-50

In contrast to the A-10, the nifty Korean built T-50 jet trainer is both loud and speedy.

I think the Singapore Air Force is deciding between the Korean T-50 and the Italian M-346 for its new generation of advanced trainers.

Here it comes again for one more pass, just as the portside smoke generator runs out of smoke.

M-346

Fast and agile, the M-346 is also a superb trainer. It's not as fast as the T-50, but it uses two engines, a redundancy which is a good safety feature in a trainer aircraft.

Trailing streams of condensation from its wingtips as it pulls a tight turn to complete the performance.

Would you like to know more?
- Singapore Airshow 2008 Gallery

A Teen Who Looks Like An Old Woman

2010-02-02T09:40:00.006+08:00

Zara Hartshorn is a 13-year-old who lives in a poor neighbourhood in northern England.

Life there is difficult enough, but Zara is experiencing an even tougher problem...

She has lipodystrophy, a rare genetic condition involving the loss of fatty tissue, resulting in the wrinkled skin that makes her look much older than she really is.

Partial Solar Eclipse 15 Jan 2010

2010-01-14T13:26:00.003+08:00

My blog stats is showing a significant spike of visitors looking for information about the solar eclipse tomorrow, so here are some details about the event organized by the Science Centre (click the heading to go to their site):

IYA Partial Solar Eclipse

Event Name: International Year of Astronomy Partial Solar Eclipse
Date: 15th Jan (Fri)
Time: 3:30pm - 5pm
Venue: The Observatory @ Omni-Theatre
Fee: Free admission (No pre-registration required)
Come join us as a partial solar eclipse makes its appearance over Singapore! A galore of fun & exciting activities await you!

**********

For those of you who intend to observe on your own, the eclipse starts at around 3 pm, greatest coverage (less than 1/3 of the solar disk) at around 4.30 pm and ends shortly after 5 pm.

Remember the usual precautions (eg. avoid looking directly at the Sun). Pinhole cameras and eclipse glasses are the safest ways to view the eclipse.

Would you like to know more?

About tomorrow's solar eclipse
Solar eclipse of January 15, 2010 (Wikipedia)

About last year's solar eclipse
Solar Eclipse In Singapore

About the next solar eclipse visible from Singapore
Solar eclipse of March 9, 2016 (Wikipedia)

Introduction To Jean Baudrillard

2010-01-11T13:03:00.010+08:00

Here's a superb primer by globalbeehive to the work of Jean Baudrillard - French sociologist and philosopher best known for his book Simulacra and Simulation, which was misinterpretated by the popular movie, The Matrix.

To a science-trained person, postmodernist philosophy can be very annoying due to the abundance use of metaphors and abuse of scientific jargon.

Moreover, I strongly disagree with the view that the world is fundamentally unknowable - even if "objectivity" can never be reached in practice, we can still distill a high level of intersubjectivity, which for many purposes is good enough knowledge to generate testable predictions and create technologies.

Even so, I think that Baudrillard's observations about the modern consumerist culture are spot on, especially his view on the "sign value" of objects.

Globalbeehive puts it this way:

"For Baudrillard, the sign value is much more important. So you don't just buy a computer to use it, but you also buy a computer in order to prove to the others, in a capitalist system, to make them believe that you are participating in it and have a certain status in it."

Oh my, that is really eerie!

Have you ever wondered why people put up those "Made on a Mac" badges?

Wondered why people spend a quarter million dollars on sports cars, only to drive them through city streets with a 50 km/h speed limit?

Why people spend tens of thousands on high-end audio systems that sound practically the same as those costing ten times less?

The yucky aesthetics of the Bohemian fashion trend in early '09? Bubble skirts? Croc shoes?

Well... now you know!

The consumer doesn't just consume the brand, she also gets subsumed by the brand, and the identity of the person becomes inextricable from the products that she brandishes as signs of her status.

Baudrillard's view on "hyperreality" is also very interesting.

From my perspective, hyperreality is a systems-level, socio-emergent trait that can become more compelling than factual reality.

Hyperreality can be created by distorting or exaggerating certain aspects of factual reality such that it becomes more "real" to the people than reality. This can be reinforced by constantly repeating the message ad nauseum (eg. through media bombardment) and eventually through the mechanism of "normalization of deviance" the people accept the hyperreality as the authentic version.

Or as Baudrillard would say:

"The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth - it is the truth which conceals that there is none. The simulacrum is true."

This concept is not only of great importance to systems theorists, it is also important to those who are involved in creating the perception of value, for example politicians and sales/marketing people.

**********

I know this is quite a heavy topic to start the New Year with, but heh heh heh... get used to it.

It's going to get even heavier.

Would you like to know more?

About Jean Baudrillard's ideas:
- Excerpt from Simulacra and Simulation (Stanford) *Warning: postmodernist language!

About hyperreality in society:
- War between Business and Science

Happy New Year 2010!

2009-12-31T15:15:00.003+08:00

So the media says that the decade is over... or is it?

Did the decade start in 2000 or 2001?

Who gets to decide these things?

?

In any case, a New Year beckons! I would like to thank all regular Fresh Brainz readers for your support through these years.

And just like last year, I'll present a compilation of the Weekly Obscure Quotes from this outgoing year.

Hope you like them!

**********

1. “Pablo Casals was a great cellist of the last century – he was a great virtuoso, just considered the absolute master of his instrument. And in his 90s he was still practicing 3 hours a day. And one of his friends asked him, ‘Senor Casals, you're a master, why do you still practice 3 hours a day?’ and he said, ‘Well, I'm beginning to notice some improvement.’” – George Carlin

2. “A student of ours, Fran and her husband, John, decided they wanted to go to live in the Missouri Ozarks. Everyone told them that there was no way for them to make a living there. Everyone they asked advised them not to do it. Finally, a minister in the Church they proposed to attend told them that they were to serve there. Out of twenty or thirty people they asked, that minister was the only one who told them to come. Of course, it was exactly what they wanted to hear. They sold their home and most of their possessions accumulated over a lifetime. They moved to the Ozarks and went broke within a year. They had to leave and begin all over again.” – Joe Ross

3. “If a judge was to say to you: ‘How do you account for the fact you say you are home asleep at midnight, but we found your DNA at the scene of the crime’, and you went: ‘I move in mysterious ways, goodnight!’ It won’t wash.” – Ricky Gervais

4. “Excellent black people have always been compensated for excellence. Always. The real equality is when we can have a black president as dumb as George Bush. That's when we're really equal. That's when the dream has come true.” – Chris Rock

5. “How easily nonsense proffered in an earnest and profound manner can browbeat someone into acquiescence.” – John Allen Paulos

6. “The opponents of evolution education are not disputing the facts of any particular scientific conclusion - that’s why they don’t do experiments, or publish research. What they want is “equal time”: equal time between religious dogma and science - between faith and reason - between provable theory and unprovable assertion.” – Timothy Sandefur

7. “Using ‘Darwinism’ as synonymous with ‘evolutionary biology’ is thus a touch unfair to the men and women who have contributed to the scientific edifice to which Darwin provided the cornerstone, including (to name a few) Wallace, Huxley, Weisman, De Vries, Romanes, Morgan, Weidenreich, Teilhard, von Frisch, Vavilov, Wright, Fisher, Muller, Haldane, Dobzhansky, Rensch, Ford, McClintock, Simpson, Hutchinson, Lorenz, Mayr, Delbrück, Jukes, Stebbins, Tinbergen, Luria, Maynard Smith, Price, Kimura, Ostrom, Wilson, Hamilton, and Gould, to say nothing of even more who are still contributing to evolutionary biology. As Olivia Judson (2008) recently commented, terms like ‘Darwinism’ ‘suggest a false narrowness to the field of modern evolutionary biology, as though it was the brainchild of a single person 150 years ago, rather than a vast, complex and evolving subject to which many other great figures have contributed.’” – Eugenie C. Scott and Glenn Branch

8. “Governments seem to be unaware that bankers do not rescue economies, they rescue banks. They always want to privatise profits and nationalise losses.” – Daniel Thorniley (The Economist)

9. “No feature of consciousness has ever been discovered that does not depend 100% on neurophysiology. Stimulate the brain with chemicals or an electrical current, and the person’s experience changes; let a person’s experience vary, and you can measure the changes in chemistry or electrophysiology. When a brain is damaged, the person’s mental life is diminished accordingly, and when the brain’s activity ceases, the mind goes out of existence – Wallace’s séances notwithstanding, no one has found a way to communicate with the dead. The very existence of a subjective correlate of brain activity may not be understood (if it’s an intellectually coherent problem at all, which some would deny), but positing a ‘soul’ simply renames the problem with no insight, and leaves the perfect correlation between consciousness and neurophysiology unexplained.” – Steven Pinker

10. “They say a rising tide lifts all ships. As the water drains out of the market, all of the rocks and sharks are left exposed.” – Hendersonmj (commenter at StarTribune.com)

11. “If anything, a student who tries really, really, really hard at something and still repeatedly falls short might benefit from realizing that his talents lie elsewhere… not to state the obvious, but I don't want a brain surgeon who graduated at the top of his class because he had perfect attendance. I want one who is an artist with a scalpel.” – Michelle Cottle

12. “Additionally, a frightening web of mutual dependence develops among huge financial institutions. Receivables and payables by the billions become concentrated in the hands of a few large dealers who are apt to be highly-leveraged in other ways as well. Participants seeking to dodge troubles face the same problem as someone seeking to avoid venereal disease: It’s not just whom you sleep with, but also whom they are sleeping with.” – Warren Buffet

13. “The worst kind of censorship has always been the kind that newspaper people impose on themselves.” – Andy Rooney

14. “Science lets us see superstition for the disempowering nonsense that it is. I think it’s the only method that can truly satisfy our innate curiosity and it literally lets us reach for the stars. That’s why science is important.” – Alom Shaha

15. “Does anybody understand me? Don't go. I am lonely. I am delicate. Please don't leave me. I'm like an old car in Cuba.” – Hans Oberlander

16. “Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a landmine. The landmine is me. After the explosion, I spent the rest of the day putting the pieces together.” – Ray Bradbury

17. “It's the rain that I hear coming, not a stranger or a ghost. It's the quiet of a storm approaching, that I fear the most.” – Delerium (Innocente)

18. “Doth thy other mouth call me? Mercy, mercy! This is a devil, and no monster. I will leave him; I have no long spoon.” – Stephano (The Tempest)

19. “Sometimes, you don't have to do anything to offend... but I'm not in the business of making everyone happy.” – Sam Ho

20. “The world is a mess, and I just need to rule it.” – Dr. Horrible

21. “It depends on what you mean by organising. It is kind of flattering in a way. I'm frustrated, I talk to people, I collect info, I send to different people. You want to join, join. I will help you. We discover that networking helps.” – Dr. Thio Su Mien

22. “It’s a trap!” – Admiral Ackbar (Return Of The Jedi)

23. “What, then, do Jim Watson and I deserve credit for? If we deserve any credit at all, it is for persistence and the willingness to discard ideas when they became untenable.” – Francis Crick

24. “If I ask you for sex, will you give me the same answer as the answer to this question?” – via ‘That Sounds Clever’ blog

25. “In real life, she has almost nothing in common with most of her viewers. She is an unapproachable billionaire with a private jet and homes around the country who hangs out with movie stars. She is not married and has no children. But television Oprah is a different person. She somehow manages to make herself believable as a down-to-earth everywoman. She is your girlfriend who struggles to control her weight and balance her work and personal life, just like you.” – Weston Kosova and Pat Wingert (Newsweek)

26. “Ribonucleotides are simply an expression of the fundamental principles of organic chemistry. They’re doing it unwittingly. The instructions for them to do it are inherent in the structure of the precursor materials. And if they can self-assemble so easily, perhaps they shouldn’t be viewed as complicated.” – John Sutherland

27. “If we cooperate, it will mean opening up our rocket program to them. We have only two hundred missiles, but they think we have many more. So when they say we have something to hide? It is just the opposite. We have nothing to hide. We have nothing. And we must hide it.” – Nikita Khrushchev

28. “Fundamentalists are people who consider themselves oppressed when they’re not allowed to force their beliefs on everybody else.” – Yoga for Cynics

29. “The clue to the entire mindset is in the import of her first few sentences: if we believe that we were "created out of love" by a loving creator, then we are worthy of love, and can love. If not, then not. Like only comes from like. If we are material and physical, then nothing can come out of that but material, physical things. No values, no morals, no thoughts and no feelings. Mind comes from mind. Life comes from life. Fish come from fish. Monkey come from monkeys. People come from people. Love comes from love. If the universe wasn't a kind of love to begin with, then there would be no real love in it at all, ever. Their views are impoverished by their lack of imagination, and the almost infantile inability to see that small changes can accumulate till they are big changes, and novelty can grow out and emerge from something not at all like it.” – Sastra

30. “Because with great power, comes giant robots.” – Starschwar

31. “You're either growing or dying, there’s no middle ground. You can’t hold what you have, that doesn’t work in business. So we grew.” – Hugh McColl

32. “A tree is known by its fruit.” – Leileilove1101

33. “One blueprint for trouble, making collapse likely, is where there is a conflict of interest between the short-term interest of the decision-making elites, and the long-term interest of the society as a whole. Especially if the elites are able to insulate themselves from the consequences of their actions.” – Jared Diamond

34. “What is the point of having independent scientific advice if as soon as you get some advice that you don't like, you sack the person who has given it to you?” – Chris Hunhe

35. “I think it is important at least to raise the possibility that you can criticize something which everybody has accepted as uncriticizable.” – Howard Zinn

36. “I did have another job at one point, as a computer programmer, but I kept up with my other work because it was so much more enjoyable.” – Brooke Magnanti (Belle de Jour)

37. “By 2006, chief executives at the biggest U.S. companies had bumped up their compensation to 364 times that of the average worker, compared with just 40 times the average worker's pay in 1980.” – Michael Brush

38. “The crisis almost certainly spells the end of Dubai's economic model that’s focused heavily on property investment and inflows of foreign capital.” – Paul Chapman (Reuters)

39. “On two occasions I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.” – Charles Babbage

40. “Over the past few decades, psychologists have dismantled the myth of objectivity. The fact is, we carefully edit our reality, searching for evidence that confirms what we already believe. Although we pretend we’re empiricists - our views dictated by nothing but the facts - we’re actually blinkered, especially when it comes to information that contradicts our theories. The problem with science, then, isn’t that most experiments fail - it’s that most failures are ignored.” – Jonah Lehrer

**********

Have a Happy and Healthy New Year 2010!

Not Always About Who You Know...

2009-12-28T11:58:00.009+08:00

Check out this superb article "Is the Tipping Point Toast?" (Fast Company article via Mind Hacks) which critiques the concept of "Influentials" in Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point and highlights some of the interesting research data by network theorist Duncan Watts.

Social-networking tools are extensively used in marketing today, stemming from a belief that there exists a small group of highly-interconnected Influentials who play the major role in starting or propagating trends of any sort.

However, this belief is rarely put to a rigorous investigation and the assumption that these Influentials can be identified and targetted is made with the benefit of hindsight.

In fact, studies by Watts suggest the counterintuitive result that random Ordinary people are more likely to start trends than Influentials, and there is no way of telling in advance who that person will be.

He performed an interesting "turn back the clock" experiment (conceptually similiar to Richard Lenski's experiment in evolutionary biology) that was published in Science in 2006:

Watts wanted to find out whether the success of a hot trend was reproducible. For example, we know that Madonna became a breakout star in 1983. But if you rewound the world back to 1982, would Madonna break out again? To find out, Watts built a world populated with real live music fans picking real music, then hit rewind, over and over again. Working with two colleagues, Watts designed an online music-downloading service. They filled it with 48 songs by new, unknown, and unsigned bands. Then they recruited roughly 14,000 people to log in. Some were asked to rank the songs based on their own personal preference, without regard to what other people thought. They were picking songs purely on each song's merit. But the other participants were put into eight groups that had "social influence": Each could see how other members of the group were ranking the songs.

Watts predicted that word of mouth would take over. And sure enough, that's what happened. In the merit group, the songs were ranked mostly equitably, with a small handful of songs drifting slightly lower or higher in popularity. But in the social worlds, as participants reacted to one another's opinions, huge waves took shape. A small, elite bunch of songs became enormously popular, rising above the pack, while another cluster fell into relative obscurity.

But here's the thing: In each of the eight social worlds, the top songs--and the bottom ones--were completely different. For example, the song "Lockdown," by 52metro, was the No. 1 song in one world, yet finished 40 out of 48 in another. Nor did there seem to be any compelling correlation between merit and success. In fact, Watts explains, only about half of a song's success seemed to be due to merit. "In general, the 'best' songs never do very badly, and the 'worst' songs never do extremely well, but almost any other result is possible," he says. Why? Because the first band to snag a few thumbs-ups in the social world tended overwhelmingly to get many more. Yet who received those crucial first votes seemed to be mostly a matter of luck.

Word of mouth and social contagion made big hits bigger. But they also made success more unpredictable. (And it's worth noting, no one in the social worlds had any more influence than anyone else.) So yes, Watts figures, if you rewound the world to 1982, Madonna would likely remain a total unknown--and someone else would have slipped into her steel-tipped corset. "You cannot predict in advance whether a band gets this huge cascade of popularity, because the social network is liable to throw up almost any result," he marvels.

Contingency is important, and the role of Influentials is highly exaggerated.

In any case, I find it curious that both Duncan Watts and I have a similar key criticism of The Tipping Point which I reviewed over three years ago - using a similar metaphor!

Watt's view:

Perhaps the problem with viral marketing is that the disease metaphor is misleading. Watts thinks trends are more like forest fires: There are thousands a year, but only a few become roaring monsters. That's because in those rare situations, the landscape was ripe: sparse rain, dry woods, badly equipped fire departments. If these conditions exist, any old match will do. "And nobody," Watts says wryly, "will go around talking about the exceptional properties of the spark that started the fire."

My view:

Just one match (Maven) in a fireworks factory can blow everything up. You don't need to set up a comprehensive network of fuses (Connector) and detonators (Salesman) first. In contrast, even a hundred detonators would have trouble blowing up a hydroponics farm.

We have both observed that an agent in the midst of change has a tendency to believe that she is the prime mover of the change, ignoring the contributions of others, preconditions in the environment and the vagaries of blind luck.

Counterintuitive Science: Fast Speed, Fat Shape

2009-12-19T11:13:00.020+08:00

In popular science fiction, fast spaceships are often shown as streamlined, sharply-pointed vehicles: such as the X-wing in Star Wars or the Colonial Viper in Battlestar Galactica.

Sleekness has long been associated with speed, at least since the dawn of rocket science in the early 20th century.

This is hardly surprising because an aerodynamic shape is necessary to attain high speed on Earth, becoming increasingly important at speeds over 200 km per hour.

By the 1950s, human beings were on the verge of space travel, and the popular conception of a spaceship then (and even now!) for both professional engineers and the general public alike, was the sharp-nosed spaceplane.

A good example of this was the X-15 hypersonic research plane.

Striking resemblance to a you-know-what.

However, the reality that awaited spaceflight enthusiasts was somewhat less svelte...

How did needles turn into fat cones and bells?

It turns out that pointy-nosed spaceships perform well on their way out of the atmosphere, but not when they have to come BACK.

The re-entry speed of a vehicle coming in from low Earth orbit is about 27,000 km per hour (over 7 km per second!) or about 25 times the speed of sound.

Clearly, the vehicle has to lose a lot of speed in order to descend safely into the atmosphere, but how should this be done?

It is impractical for an Earth-launched spacecraft to reduce most of that speed using retro-rockets, since the large amount of fuel required becomes an additional burden to the launch vehicle.

So the returning vehicle must decelerate mainly ~~by atmospheric friction~~ using the atmosphere itself, and this is where the pointy-nose shape becomes a disadvantage.

At hypersonic speeds, a sharp object generates only a thin shockwave, allowing the intense heat of ~~friction~~ compression to ~~come very close to the surface of the object~~ contact the leading surface of the object. Thus, during early wind tunnel tests, the noses of the test vehicles simply melted away.

No known material could withstand such high temperatures.

However, when a blunt object is subjected to hypersonic speeds, due to much higher drag the air molecules ahead of the object cannot move away fast enough. A thicker shockwave forms, acting as a cushion of air that shields the leading surface from much of the intense heat, and lowering peak temperatures to within the limits that can be tolerated by existing materials.

Thus, only with the development of fat re-entry vehicles did human orbital spaceflight become a possibility.

Initially, Russian designers used a cannonball shape for their Vostok space capsule, which could safely re-enter the atmosphere in any orientation, but had a steep ballistic trajectory that was very harsh on the cosmonauts.

They later developed the "bell on a bowl" shape for their Soyuz, while US designers developed the "cone on a bowl" shape for their Mercury, Gemini and Apollo spacecraft. These shapes have a similar function - to provide some lift and self-righting ability, allowing the spacecraft to re-enter with a shallower and more comfortable trajectory.

For 20 years these fat and aesthetically displeasing spacecraft had the counterintuitive honour of being the fastest manned vehicles in history.

Not everyone was satisfied with this and there were numerous designs of spaceplanes (eg. Sänger, Hermes) to replace them, but most of them were unable to proceed beyond test phases.

Then, with the arrival of the US Space Shuttle (1981) and the Russian Buran (1988) the age of spaceplanes appeared to have finally arrived, though with their fat noses and thick bodies neither of them can really be considered sleek-looking. Unfortunately, Buran was cancelled after just one flight and the Space Shuttle is slated to be retired next year.

So for the foreseeable future at least, the vision of a sleek needle-shaped spacecraft stays bogged down in the realm of fantasy, while the cutting edge of real manned space exploration is delivered by the venerable, and fat, space capsule.

Would you like to know more?
- How the Spaceship Got Its Shape (Air & Space Magazine)

Where Is The "Swim" In A Swimmer?

2009-12-18T12:54:00.006+08:00

Here's a concise and nicely presented video by QualiaSoup about the problems with the philosophy of dualism.

I should add that substance dualism is also not consistent with the experience of people who go through general anaesthesia.

They describe feeling drowsy before the operation and then abruptly awake after the operation, as if no time had passed in between.

This subjective continuity of consciousness is a problem for dualists - where did the consciousness "go" during those hours?

If consciousness can be suspended in this manner by chemicals, then it cannot be independent of physical reality. The strong possibility exists that consciousness is simply a process of physical reality, and can be obliterated via physical means.

Also, if an "eternal soul" is supposed to persist even when consciousness is suspended during anaesthesia, this suggests that they are distinct entities.

If someone's "eternal soul" survives physical death but is not linked to her consciousness, then she didn't really survive.

You Don't Need A Rocket...

2009-12-15T12:51:00.005+08:00

... to take photos from space (more accurately the stratosphere).

Guess how they did it?

I think this is a superb idea for a student project.

It's not very expensive and is a lot of fun, especially if we can have live telemetry and low-res video transmission in addition to the fixed camera.

Moreover, if the weather is clear, 30 km is almost high enough to capture a photo of the entire Singapore using a 28mm wide-angle lens, so it is possible to take a "satellite" photo without actually using satellites.

Though I think the biggest challenge with such a project is getting the clearance to avoid commercial flights.

Wonder if I should pitch this idea to the Science Centre people?

Would you like to know more?

About this project:
- View of Earth from the OZONE layer in the Stratosphere (Project Pegasus)

About an earlier successful attempt in Spain:
- Teens capture images of space with £56 camera and balloon (Telegraph)
- Scenes from 30,000 meters above (Boston.com)

Photo Gallery Fifteen

2009-12-13T23:10:00.019+08:00

It's been months since the previous photo gallery, so I've got quite a bit of backlog to clear today.

Nonetheless it's that usual eclectic mix of art and weirdness around Singapore. As before, the Lomo photos below have been rectilinearized.

Hope you like them!

Big Shoes
(2009) Lomo Fisheye 2

Book City
(2009) Lomo Fisheye 2

Dots and Geometry
(2009) Lomo Fisheye 2

Hien Toh
(2009) Lomo Fisheye 2

In the Shadow
(2009) Fuji J10

Jellyfish Umbrellas
(2009) Lomo Fisheye 2

Many Mysteries
(2009) Fuji J10

Monolith
(2009) Fuji J10

Motorcade
(2009) Fuji J10

Or Money?
(2009) Fuji J10

Rainbow Ceiling
(2009) Lomo Fisheye 2

Skyward
(2009) Lomo Fisheye 2

Sure I Can
(2009) Fuji J10

Triangles of Light
(2009) Lomo Fisheye 2

Would you like to know more?
- Photo Gallery Fourteen

Norwegian Blue, Beautiful Plume, Innit?

2009-12-11T09:40:00.010+08:00

Something weird and beautiful appeared over the skies of Norway in the morning of December 9th...

It's a UFO!

It's a transdimensional portal!

It's a SIGN FROM GOD ABOUT OBAMA'S PEACE PRIZE!

Heh, not a UFO anymore, it isn't.

More like the failed third stage of a Russian test missile.

Failure can be spectacular!

Pipette tip to Bad Astronomy.

Would you like to know more?
- Spirals Sighted Over Norway as Bulava Fails (The Moscow Times)
- It's not a UFO, just an intercontinental missile blowing up (Times Online)

Would You Bet Your LIFE On Science?

2009-12-07T10:13:00.004+08:00

This guy did.

Heh, nice music. Somehow I feel that donning a Faraday suit and dancing with lightning bolts is more heroic than the old Feynman bowling ball trick...

Flinching at the last possible second!

There is a thin line between heroism and stupidity. That line is called knowledge.

Dubai World's US$59 Billion Debt

2009-11-27T11:05:00.005+08:00

Dubai's sovereign wealth fund, Dubai World, has shocked investors with an announcement to delay debt payments until 30th May 2010.

Before the onset of the global economic recession, Dubai accumulated US$80 billion of debt, of which US$59 billion is owed by Dubai World.

Would you like to know more?
- Dubai World Seeks to Delay Debt Payments as Default Risk Soars (Bloomberg)
- World stocks slump amid Dubai's debt woes (Daily Mail)
- Dubai’s debt default shakes world (Hindustan Times)
- Dubai World debt fears haunt financial markets (The Australian)

Scientist, Programmer and Prostitute

2009-11-17T08:54:00.005+08:00

The year was 2003.

PhD student Brooke Magnanti was living a double life. In the midst of making corrections to her thesis, she was unable to find a job in science and running out of money to pay rent.

So she became a part-time computer programmer... and prostitute.

For 14 months she worked as a high-class call girl in a London escort agency. She wrote about her sex work experiences as an anonymous blogger in the "Belle de Jour" blog, which led to a series of successful books and even spun off a TV show.

Today, she is a research scientist in developmental neurotoxicology and cancer epidemiology at St Michael's Hospital in Bristol.

Until two days ago, practically no one knew of the true identity of Belle de Jour.

Why is Fresh Brainz interested in this story?

Apparently she was also an experienced science blogger before she turned to prostitution. So boys and girls, what did we learn today?

1. Science blogging is not enough to pay rent.

2. Part-time computer programming is not enough to pay rent.

3. Sex work is enough to pay rent.

4. Science blogging + Sex work = Sex blogging

Crystal clear.

Would you like to know more?
- Belle de Jour: Diary of a London Call Girl
- British scientist unmasked as call girl Belle de Jour (Reuters)
- Belle de Jour blogger unmasks herself as 'big mouth ex-boyfriend' looms (Guardian)

LCROSS Finds Water On The Moon

2009-11-14T11:49:00.005+08:00

After a month of analysis on the LCROSS impact data, NASA announced that they have detected about 24 gallons (~90 litres) of water in the impact plume.

Would you like to know more?
- Splash! NASA moon crash struck lots of water (AP)

Why Societies Collapse

2009-11-06T17:49:00.004+08:00

Interesting TED talk by Professor Jared Diamond, better known for his book "Guns, Germs, and Steel".

1. "One interesting common thread has to do with, in many cases, the rapidity of collapse after a society reaches its peak. There are many societies that don't wind down gradually, but they build up, get richer and more powerful, and then within a short time, within a few decades after their peak, they collapse."

2. "One blueprint for trouble, making collapse likely, is where there is a conflict of interest between the short-term interest of the decision-making elites, and the long-term interest of the society as a whole. Especially if the elites are able to insulate themselves from the consequences of their actions."

I am concerned with situations where a leadership class sets the society on a unsustainable trajectory that results in a rapid collapse of the whole system in a matter of decades.

This is especially worrying when the decision-makers are insulated from the consequences of their actions, therefore there is no feedback inhibition to reduce or stop their damaging policies.

If Corporations Can Do It, So Can You!

2009-11-03T18:04:00.002+08:00

Some things in life are really weird if you think about them a little.

More American Workers Outsourcing Own Jobs Overseas

You can outsource your work to a cheaper party, but then who would want to hire you?

It doesn't make sense for individuals, but somehow, it works for companies and countries.

More, More, Not Enough, Still Not Enough

2009-10-17T21:18:00.004+08:00

If you like the webcomic "Cyanide and Happiness", you may like their latest short video:

As some guy once said: "Success is a menace. It fools smart people into thinking that they can't lose."

Some William guy.

Wrong Department

2009-10-17T09:41:00.005+08:00

Whenever you face difficult problems in life, whenever the situation seems to be bleak and hopeless, whenever you need a shoulder to cry on, just remember - there will always be someone there for you...

... the Tech Support guy.

I don't know which is funnier, the fact that the lady thought that "support" was the place to voice her relationship woes, or that the respondent thought that to file for divorce is to "sue the shit out of the guy".

Whichever it is, here at Fresh Brainz we believe that the truth is always funnier.

The Magic Is In The Implementation

2009-10-09T12:56:00.003+08:00

Here is a beautiful rendition of the classic "Blue Room" stage illusion which shocked and mesmerised audiences when it was first shown in 1878.

The magic is in the implementation.

Can Delusions Be True?

2009-09-28T10:54:00.004+08:00

YouTube skeptic Nykytyne2 discusses the definition of the word "delusion", and some nuances of its meaning.

I like the clarity of his thought process and I find two aspects of his analysis especially interesting.

1. The Importance of Social/Cultural Context on Mental Disorders

Mental illness is often considered to be a problem within an individual himself or herself, but here it is clear from the DSM-IV that social/cultural norms is a major component of the definition of delusion.

Actually, if you think about it further, social norms and expectations are a big part in the definition of any disease!

Imagine a group of people who spend most of their lives in dark caves, searching for food and communicating via sound and touch. Loss of sight due to eye injury would be a minor inconvenience, not a serious pathology.

Conversely, imagine another group of people who for some historical or religious reasons find freckles to be absolutely vile and diabolical. They would shield children from sunlight to avoid the formation of freckles and advocate aggressive treatment once the freckles develop. Scarring caused by freckle removal is more culturally acceptable than the freckles themselves. In such a case, the term "freckles" would be defined as a serious skin condition, a type of disease.

2. The Importance of End Result in Social Perception

I find it fascinating that delusions can be about things that might eventually be shown to be true, like the micro-organism example mentioned in the video. So to Nykytyne2, the thought process is more important than the result when trying to determine if a belief is a delusion.

Still, an army friend once told me, "Money talks. Bullshit walks." For many people, the end result is of paramount importance, whereas the means is not so important or relevant.

But how can you get a "result" without a process?

This differing appraisal of a goal-directed process is very personality-dependent thing; there are people who are impressed by wealth and power and instantly confer respect based on these results, while there are others who cannot confer respect no matter the wealth and power, unless the process used to achieve the results are impressive.

For example -

a. Someone might say: "Hats off to Larry. He caught my heart. He has 12 billion Dollars and is the Head of a big company."

And the other might say: "Hellooo... he is an investment BANKER! He'll tell you lies, and then it's your turn to CRY CRY CRY-Y."

Alternatively -

b. Someone: "She's not an actor, she's not a star. She doesn't even have her own car. Therefore she is a loser, QED."

Other: "Not only that, she also tried unsuccessfully to be a pole dancer. That's why I'm hoping so much she'll stay. And that she'll love me anyway."

**********

Wait, that doesn't sound right.

I wanted to write some sort of MacGyver story for Example b, but I heard singing in my head and wrote that down instead.

Was that an auditory illusion?

*gobbles a handful of pills*

Shutters Shutters Everywhere

2009-09-15T12:34:00.002+08:00

The financial markets, energy prices and real estate prices are soaring.

Is the actual economy recovering?

Someone once said that you can't tell that Singapore is going through a recession because the central shopping districts are always packed with people.

Here at Fresh Brainz, we know that downtown malls are frequented by the rich and thus are not representative of the state of the economy in general.

Moreover, we have long realized that window shopping is free and thus you can't assume that everything is normal-normal simply because there are lots of people (penniless? heavily in debt?) walking around.

To know what is going on, you have to open your eyes and actually look at how the retailers are doing...

Business Vs Science: A Dash Of Gold

2009-09-13T09:41:00.005+08:00

Lab results are usually boring documents of jargon and numbers that only experts can appreciate.

So when would business people and investors be "excited" about scientists and their lab results?

When the scientist is a geologist, and the lab results are about the amount of gold deposits at a site.

**********

In 1993, geologist Michael de Guzman, project manager of Bre-X Minerals Ltd, discovered some gold near Busang River in Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Estimates of the gold deposits gradually rose from 2 million ounces to a massive 70 million ounces (~1984 tonnes), and consequentially Bre-X expanded from a penny stock into a 6-billion-Canadian-dollar company with a peak stock price of CAD $286.50 (over 10,000% increase in two years!)

Then, in 1997, the company collapsed. Bre-X filed for bankruptcy and billions of dollars of investor funds went up in smoke.

And the term "Bre-X" became synonymous with one of the biggest mining frauds in history.

Check out this documentary for a quick (and slightly over-dramatized) overview of the entire affair:

Masterminds - Fool's Gold Part 2 of 3

Masterminds - Fool's Gold Part 3 of 3

To me, two segments from the documentary are especially interesting -

1. Andrew Willis: "There was always some science backing up this fraud."

2. Narrator :"For years, de Guzman struggles for recognition in an industry dominated by large American mining companies."

Andrew Willis: "Mike de Guzman knew he was smart, he had fabulous marks, he had an engineering degree, but he never got a great job, he never got a crack at a great job. It's very difficult for the Filipinos, even with extremely good engineering training, to get senior jobs with the big mining companies."

Narrator: "While exploring the jungles of Borneo, de Guzman devises a plan to make himself rich. Unable to get the support he needs to find a gold mine, he decides to invent one."

Here's another interesting exerpt from an article entitled "The mystery of Michael de Guzman" -

3. By 1993, de Guzman was heading up the site for Walsh's Bre-X Minerals as the company's exploration manager in Indonesia.

At one point, it appeared as though the Canadians were preparing to pull the plug on the expensive -- and fruitless -- exploration.

De Guzman pleaded with Felderhof for more time and soon, Busang's drilling results turned up stunning levels of gold.

"We almost closed the property," de Guzman told Fortune Magazine in 1997, before the scandal erupted.

"In December 1993, John said, 'Close the property,' and then we made the hit."

**********

When business collides with science, when one person's ambition is repeatedly met with denied opportunities and rejection, when desperation coincides with brilliance and creativity...

Who can predict what happens next?

Would you like to know more?

About the Bre-X scandal:
- The mystery of Michael de Guzman (Canada.com)
- Stranger than Fiction: The Bre-X Gold Scandal (CBC Digital Archives)

About other cases of fraud:
- Scientists Who Cheat

War Between Business And Science

2009-09-04T09:55:00.015+08:00

Have you ever wondered why billionaire talkshow diva Oprah Winfrey is so well respected by business professionals but almost universally disliked by scientific professionals?

Check out what a Harvard Business School Professor has to say about her:

""Still, when Professor Nancy Koehn introduced her guest on the last day of class this past spring, "everyone did a double take," Koehn recalls. Oprah Winfrey was in the house.

How the icon of daytime television and chief executive of a major media empire came to HBS after three years of effort is a story in itself. And what she told students brought them a unique perspective about leaders and leadership in the twenty-first century. "I think she's a great bellwether for the future of business," Koehn says. "Maybe she and her organization are on a path that a lot of leaders and organizations are going to be on.""

Compare and contrast that appraisal with this view from medical doctor David Gorski:

"Personally, I have no problem with Oprah’s level of success. Clearly, she is a very talented and savvy TV host and businesswoman.

Unfortunately, in marked contrast, Oprah has about as close to no critical thinking skills when it comes to science and medicine as I’ve ever seen, and she uses the vast power and influence her TV show and media empire give her in order to subject the world to her special brand of mystical New Age thinking and belief in various forms of what can only be characterized as dubious medical therapies at best and quackery at worst. Arguably there is no single person in the world with more influence pushing woo than Oprah."

Do you know why Oprah seems to be so intent on supporting dubious medical therapies?

Here at Fresh Brainz, I've had the misfortune of being trained in BOTH science and business, so let me give you my own analysis of what is going on...

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When you hear the word "science" or "evidence-based medicine" what does it mean to YOU?

Maybe you associate those words with a method of discovering facts and building theories by making observations, doing experiments/testing treatments, interpreting results and checking for biological significance/inherent biases/alternative explanations etc.

In other words, a careful method of learning about reality.

Or maybe you associate these words with large bureaucratic organizations/corporations, expensive machines, committees of powerful old men, obsession over meaningless details, close-mindedness and arrogance.

In other words, "wasting" tonnes of money to investigate the details of Nature that nobody else cares about, or a giant corporate machine that creates an incredibly high entry barrier so that only it alone can rake in the big bucks.

The reality is that modern scientific research is very expensive.

The days of the lone microscopist making a significant finding are numbered (though probably not true for the lone amateur astronomer). You can recycle fashion trends every two decades, but you can only make a scientific discovery once.

The "cheap" science, the "small" science; they have already been done by people in the past.

To do big science today, you need more than fancy degrees from a brand name school.

You also need big money.

That represents a very high entry barrier. You want to map the human transcriptome? Perform a large-scale clinical trial? Only governments and multinational corporations have that kind of money.

Moreover, from a purely business perspective, scientific research represents a weak return on investment.

Practically all curiosity-driven basic research has no chance of making money directly, while only a small proportion of biomed/biotech research will ever reach profitability. Even if you can come up with a technology or treatment with promising biological effectiveness, it will still have to face years of regulatory hurdles, as well as market pressures, before it can start raking in the dollars.

Clinical research is obviously nearer to practical applications, but only big companies have the resources to conduct large-scale trials. If you intend to invest money in a big, well-established pharma company, you can't expect to make much more than an incremental gain of around 10% yearly.

That is because most of the company's growth is already over, during its infancy - but that was also the riskiest stage of its development.

So what do you do if you are an ambitious young person who wants to build a successful business, preferably within your own lifetime?

Here's one way of doing it:

You take a fucking chance.

Governments and Big Pharma don't talk to nobodies. So you talk to much smaller players - obscure new outfits, individual inventors, alternative medicine practitioners, motivational gurus, unknown book authors...

It doesn't matter what they do, as long as you can identify the potential for a powerful social impact.

You have to understand the needs and desires of regular people, work closely with those who claim to have just the solution that the people need, and then promote their special solution confidently to the world.

The highest growth potential comes from untested small players, thus you should try to seek them out and grow with them. Remember that when blue chips rise by a few dollars it's only a percentage gain, but when a penny stock rises by a few dollars, it has increased its value by a FEW FOLD. The returns on investment can be tremendous.

However, penny stocks are very risky. Similarly, if you constantly align yourself with mystics and alternative healers, you might open the doors not only to harmless crackpots, but deliberate frauds and pranksters as well. This can have a negative effect, both on your bottomline and on your reputation.

Fortunately, if you were NOT trained in science, you don't have to dwell on it. Just disassociate yourself from any negative incidents, and move on. Your target audience won't know the difference anyway and won't expect you to be scientifically accurate. Academics may protest but you can always appeal to the anti-establishment sentiments of your supporters!

It's more important to get the timing right and seize an opportunity quickly, than to be factually correct or even conceptually consistent.

Remember that your goal is commerce, not science. More human than human should be your motto - it's about selling a hyperreality to the masses. Nobody will give you a single cent more for being too truthful or too careful.

In fact, in Oprah's case, she often seems to act first and check later!

This can be clearly seen from the site "Top 12 Oprah Mistakes, Lies and Embarrassments". The writer concluded that (emphasis mine) :

"In a long and extraordinarily successful career, Oprah Winfrey has often been wrong, but she rarely, if ever, conveys uncertainty. She’s admitted to having used cocaine in her 20s, under the influence of her then-boyfriend. She’s made questionable diet and health choices and presented each one to the world as a wonderful new discovery, only to change programs, beliefs and approaches. She’s invited at least two blatant frauds to share their stories with the world on her show, and has encouraged us to buy books full of lies and health products with no proven benefits. She is, in short, wrong quite a lot. And that’s okay. Most of us are. Most of us, though, don’t have millions of people accepting our every word as gospel. That should inspire a person to choose her words with a bit more care."

Note that uncertainty and persistence is the bread and butter of scientific research, whereas unshakeable confidence and flexibility is an indispensible aspect of business enterprise.

Also, Dr. Gorski may wonder why Oprah is successful despite her apparent lack of critical thinking, but in contrast, I find it hard to see how Oprah could have succeeded if she was saddled with critical thought!

**********

"Science" means something different from an academic or business perspective. It is both a method and an industry; an endeavour of individual effort and organizational strategy.

To make money directly from science is a difficult challenge because there are many contradictory skillsets between business professionals and scientific professionals.

But ultimately, in any organization somebody has to be the one to make the big decisions.

What if you spent your entire life training to become a scientist, only to realize that somebody who is neither interested in your research nor even appreciates its significance actually has more power over your research direction, your lab and your whole career than you yourself?

Conversely, what if you were a business-trained manager who was told that science was just another area of business, only to realize that research routinely spends far more money than it can ever generate, and because of the increasing pressure to achieve a better return on investment, you now have to convince over 1,000 disgruntled PhDs that all big science decisions have to be made by you yourself?

Those are interesting, academic questions.

Perhaps not academic for long.

We Can Simulate Your Marriage Wholesale

2009-09-03T16:40:00.007+08:00

Just came across this nice romantic flick with an interesting sci-fi twist...

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Ok, now that you've wiped your tears dry and snorted your nose juice down your throat, it's my duty as the resident spoilsport to inform you that:

1. Memories can't be implanted directly into the brain like that because the brain doesn't really have a central, fixed location where all the memories get stored. Also, unless you intend to cut a big hole on the back of someone's skull, the only way for a person to "experience" a VR is to actually put on sensory devices such as goggles, headphones... and Sogo-7 data gloves.

2. Complex systems are not predictable to the same extent that simple systems (eg. traffic patterns) can be. Thus it is not possible to produce an accurate simulation of a relationship by only plugging in the subjects' DNA and personality profiles, while ignoring other important factors such as the environment (eg. economic downturn leading to loss of job). Even if that was possible, at best the simulation can only be probabilistic, because a confluence of small factors can result in some emergent, opposite effect.

I know you don't care.

Would you like to know more?

Another movie about people getting their minds fucked:
- Total Recall (YouTube)

Looking Inside The Human Body At SGH

2009-08-30T16:46:00.004+08:00

I received this information from an old friend regarding a science.09 event at the Singapore General Hospital. If you are free this coming Saturday, why not bring your family along and check it out?

**********

Division of Surgery presents

"Looking inside the Human Body - Science Fair @ SGH"

"Looking Inside the Human Body" is a Science fair organised by Singapore
General Hospital's Division of Surgery in conjunction Singapore Science
Centre's annual science festival, science.09. The fair will feature
hands-on activities showing the inner workings of the hospital and
demonstrating key surgical principles, and will promise hours of fun for
you & your family!

Experience how our surgeons train in keyhole surgeries! Be involved in
saving a heart attack patient! Pick out your favouriate hearing aid and
cosmetic implants! And fill your goodie bags with souvenirs and prizes!!

No registration required.

Please help to disseminate this to your staff who have no access to email.

See you at the Fair!

**********

Let the kids have some hands-on fun - who knows, one of them may grow up to become a doctor... or even an angry doc!

Would like to know more?

A previous science.09 event:
- Exclusive Interview With Dr. Bunhead

South Korea Launches Naro-1 Rocket

2009-08-26T03:31:00.007+08:00

Yesterday, South Korea launched their first Naro-1 (also called KSLV-1) rocket from Naro Space Centre at Goheung.

Technically it was a cooperative effort with the Russians who designed and built the first stage of the rocket, while the Koreans built the second stage and its payload, the STSAT-2 satellite.

Check out the launch video:

One of the scariest launches I've seen so far!

The vehicle leans to the right immediately after lift-off and then makes a sharp correction to the left.

Not sure why this happened but I'm guessing that the gantry arm might have something to do with it; a video taken from another angle showed the rocket leaning away when released from the gantry.

In any case the rocket managed to reach space, but the satellite was sent to a maximum height of 342 km, which is higher than its planned orbit at 306 km. Some news sources report this as "overshooting the orbit" or "higher orbit" or "incorrect orbit" but I think it's more likely that the flight path was too elliptical to even make one complete orbit.

According to Reuters, South Korea's space agency had tried to play down expectations, saying that only about 30 percent of countries' first attempts to put a satellite into orbit succeed. Their officials have called this project a "partial success".

*Update: The satellite failed to reach orbit because one of the two fairings that covered it during the atmospheric phase did not fall off properly, causing the rocket to pitch up and also to lose too much speed to enter orbit (S. Korean Satellite Lost After Flawed Launch - Korea Times).

Would you like to know more?

- Latest updates: KSLV-1 launch (NASA spaceflight forum)
- Satellite Fails to Enter Orbit (The Korea Times)

Photo Gallery Fourteen

2009-08-23T11:57:00.010+08:00

The photos for this week's gallery were not chosen for any artistic quality, but for their ability to mildly amuse me.

I hope that they will make you smirk too - in a "heh" sort of way.

Heh.

Chope
(2009) Fuji J10

Someone dropped a tissue paper pack - at a strangely appropriate place.

Clumsiness
(2009) Fuji J10

Hmm... think I might go for the chance to excel in clumsiness and learning disability...

Giant loaf
(2009) Fuji J10

Now all we need is a giant jar of kaya.

Manicure disaster
(2009) Fuji S6500fd

"See! I TOLD you to leave it to the professionals!"

Moustaches and women
(2009) Fuji S6500fd

The main thing that define the 1980s is Mario... and Luigi.

TWO things that define the eighties - Mario, Luigi... and Tom Selleck.

Wait... THREE things that define the eighties include Mario, Luigi, Tom Selleck... and George Lam.

No, amongst the things that define the eighties are such things as Mario...

I'll come in again...

Moving on
(2009) Sony Ericsson K630i

Whatever happened, it's time to move on...

Throw Felicia
(2009) Sony Ericsson K630i

Why Felicia? What did she do to you?

Would you like to know more?
- Photo Gallery Thirteen

Was It The Publication Record?

2009-08-20T21:36:00.011+08:00

I must say that I find Dr. Cai Mingjie's blog "A Singapore Taxi Driver's Diary" an interesting and engaging read.

It is a brutally honest account of a new taxi driver trying to make a living on the roads of Singapore.

But after reading his posts, most readers would undoubtedly ponder the question:

What happened?

How did an Associate Professor become a taxi driver?

Prominent blogger AcidFlask has a hunch; he examined Dr. Cai's publication record and found that Dr. Cai published a total of 16 papers (14, plus two more discovered by his commenters) in 16 years.

He felt that:

"With that in mind, it becomes a damning fact that Dr. Cai only has 14 publications to his name since joining the IMCB 16 years ago. Going only by that criterion of quantity, publishing less than one paper a year makes for a truly unimpressive publication record. But just about every practicing scientist knows that despite the current pressure to publish or perish, science and research isn’t (entirely) about churning out more and more papers, and the number of papers that can attributed to one’s name is not necessarily a good measure of a scientist’s productivity."

While AcidFlask acknowledges that there could be many other plausible factors leading to Dr. Cai's contract termination, one of his commenters is much, much less charitable...

#4 by i am not that great at August 19th, 2009:

"i don’t think it is that worth defending him per se. in the current competitive research environment, his publication record in 16 years probably only speaks of one thing – he is working in a very sheltered environment in which he does not have to fight for funding, and he is very comfortable in it.

i didn’t go that in depth into digging up his past papers, but my impression from his pubmed-searchable papers is that – his lab didn’t actually grow that much in the 16 years, and he does not have collaborators.

if he had worked in the states, and if he had been so comfortable with himself, he wouldn’t have survived the assistant professor stage. he probably is indeed a good scientist, but the environment spolit him. and when imcb’s culture changed, he didn’t realise it and he didn’t change, and he got killed.

hence, regardless of what measure a*star uses to judge the performance of its employees, he would still have been killed. face it, even in the US, if you are a young professor, you will have to work for money. if you apply for funding from ACS, you ought to package your work around cancer. it is a fact of life. if you work in a*star, you will have to make those guys that give you money happy. it is a different story if you are tenured, but obviously that guy is not…!"

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So, was it his publication record that ended Dr. Cai's appointment?

Here at Fresh Brainz, we are outsiders to this issue.

Moreover any single case is always a "unique" case.

However, Dr. Cai was not the only Principal Investigator who was affected.

When there is more than one case, an opportunity to learn more about the truth surfaces.

In Dr. Cai's blog a commenter by the name of Xinmin (most likely A/Prof. Cao Xinmin) left this comment:

Xinmin said...

"I read your article with tears. At the beginning, I was very sad, but at the end, I was so proud of you. I admire your courage and spirit. With these, nothing can beat you. As your former colleague, another PI in IMCB, we share a similar fate. I graduated from University of Chicago, working in IMCB for 19 years, publishing >50 papers (including 7 in 2008), trained many PhD, university, and polytechnic students. All the years of hard work and teaching don’t seem to count for anything. My lab will be closed down soon. You are not the first, and I won't be the last. We have made Singapore our home, and our children have gone or will go to National Service. More importantly, we have made our contributions to put Singapore on the world’s scientific map! Isn't it ironic that when the government is putting in considerable efforts to develop life science in Singapore, we lost or will lose our jobs? I may not have the qualification to become a taxi driver, but I will do my best in my life after IMCB, whatever that will be and to be like you. Even as a taxi driver, you live in a brilliant and wonderful way. I wish you all the best!

August 18, 2009 1:00 PM"

Was the publication record a major factor?

I'll let the readers decide.

God Is Made Of People

2009-08-19T18:33:00.007+08:00

Just read an interesting comment regarding the ST news story "PhD holder now a cabby".

Posted by: opinion2009 at Wed Aug 19 17:51:07 SGT 2009

"Solomon said that men of understanding are not the only ones who gain riches: 'nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding; nor favour to men of skill, but time and chance happen to them all'.

Solomon is telling us that those who are better, wiser and stronger don't win the war, don't win the race, don't get the riches and don't win the favour.

But those who are in the right place at the right time win the race, and enjoy favour and success.

The only one who can put you in the right place at the right time is God.

We can try through self-effort to better position yourself for success by studying more, working harder and cultivating more strategic relationships.

You may end up being slightly faster, slightly stronger and more well-connected, but only God can put you in the right place at the right time and give you success.

There are people who find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. They are caught in a 'net' and they don't even know why.

For man also does not know his time: Like fish taken in a cruel net, like birds caught in a snare, so the sons of men are snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly upon them.

We need God for 'Right Happenings'.

If we are honest and humble enough, we will acknowledge our need for God in our lives."

**********

So... God is somebody who gives you opportunities for success, and if you are "honest and humble enough", he will help you win wars, get $$$ and stuff like that.

But what if God has decided to put YOU in the wrong place at the wrong time?

And why would an all-loving, all-knowing and all-powerful God want to "help" some of his creations to become so rich and powerful that they would dominate and utterly devastate some of his other creations?

To an extraterrestrial observer, it seems like a "God" is actually a human social network that aggressively grows to accumulate material benefits to insiders while engaging in territorial conflicts with other "Gods".

Hmm... that reminds me of a classic movie "The Gods Must Be Crazy".

Narrator: "But the Gods have been careless; they had sent only one. And now for the first time in their lives, here was a thing which could not be shared because there was only one of it.

Suddenly everybody needed it most of the time; a thing they had never needed before became a necessity. An unfamiliar emotion began to stir. A feeling of wanting to own, of not wanting to share.

And other new things came. Anger, jealousy, hate and violence.

He was angry with the Gods.

He shouted: "Take back your thing, we don't want it. Look at the trouble it brought!"

But the Gods did not take it back.

He shouted: "You must be crazy to send us this thing, take it back!""

**********

Of course, the Gods will never take it back, because it was made by human beings.

To dispose of it, someone would have to take it to end of the Earth and throw it off, even if it meant that the person would have to walk for 20 days, perhaps 40.

Have you started walking yet?

Taxi Driver, Associate Professor

2009-08-17T16:43:00.008+08:00

In a bizarre turn of affairs, Stanford-trained former Principal Investigator and Adjunct Associate Professor Cai Mingjie is now a taxi driver.

He writes the blog "A Singapore Taxi Driver's Diary".

It's a great read, please check it out.

Here's an exerpt:

"On my way home, I thought about what “man goes higher” means. In most people’s dictionary, it means higher pay, higher education, higher social status, etc. A higher position on the social food chain. That’s the norm of the society. From a professor to a taxi driver could only be seen by most people as a classical example of the exact opposite of “man goes higher”. But, I look at it differently. Yes, the bigfoots sitting high on the food chain can force me into a jobless situation. What it has done to me, however, is only to push me to a “new high”, a new boundary where their powers to set the rules, to twist the rules, to do whatever at will, do not apply, where I don’t have to survive by playing their games.

This is all that matters to me. Low or high, I can take it either way. In fact, I feel happier now as a taxi driver than before in my last two years as a professor, when I often had to feel sorry for myself for having to work in that environment."

**********

Still think that research is about the love of science (or pouring liquids from one tube into another)?

That's not the whole story, my friends.

*Update (19 Aug 2009)

Dr. Cai has been interviewed by Amresh Gunasingham from the Straits Times.

Online edition: PhD holder now a cabby

Print edition (scanned): cabby PhD holder now a taxi driver

Exclusive Interview With Dr. Bunhead

2009-08-15T23:24:00.018+08:00

Just visited the X-periment! 2009 venue this afternoon and it was a blast!

I caught Dr. Bunhead's 2:30pm performance and managed to grab a hold of him after the show for some totally impertinent questions.

The sort of questions YOU would ask him!

But first, a quick overview of the whole exhibition:

Compared to last year's event, this time round there are even more activities for audience participation at the booths.

Here are some visitors assembling electronic parts...

... learning about instant snow...

... learning how to constructing model molecules...

... making model molecules with lots of soapy films (which seems to be a hit among the kids) ...

... creating rainbow-coloured layers of sugary stuff...

... or playing a virtual version of "Human Tetris".

And it's not just the kids who are curious about the exhibits!

Our old friend the non-Newtonian fluid is back, this time as a glob of green-dyed cornstarch on top of a subwoofer speaker.

If you set the conditions right it can appear like a disgusting clump of teeming worms, but this glob here doesn't look that wormy.

Not sure if that is a good or bad thing.

In addition to the booths from various research institutes, this year there are booths set up by other organizations as well.

One of them is the Science Centre, which brought over some of their exhibits. Here, a girl and her mother play with a device that creates moving pictures.

A volunteer amuses a couple of visitors with a set of classic visual illusions.

The Singapore General Hospital has set up a booth too. This young lady is practicing laparoscopic surgery using a surgical trainer.

Oh NOES! Which hapless furry animal is at the sharp end of her merciless tools?

Whew... she is only trying to manipulate a furry wire through a series of metal loops.

She might have a future in suture!

And now - time for Dr. Bunhead's show!

He actually has a different show for a different timeslot, and some members of the audience have followed all of them.

"How many of you have seen four of my shows?"

A number of hands went up.

For this show, Dr. Bunhead introduces the audience to... LIQUID NITROGEN!

Uri Abusikov would have been proud.

Очень хорошо!

"Its temperature is -196 degrees, which is so cold that it's hard to imagine how cold it is. Does anyone want to touch it?"

Any brave volunteers?

When the cup of liquid nitrogen is lightly touched, it boils at a faster rate.

"Let me put it nearer my microphone so that you can hear it."

*fizz... pop pop... fizz...*

When you blow carefully into a container of liquid nitrogen, the water vapour in the breath condenses into a mist of water droplets.

"Look, her face is in a cloud!"

Next, Dr. Bunhead blows a long orange balloon and asks: "What would happen if I dip this into liquid nitrogen?"

Kids: "I KNOW! I KNOW!"

Will it become hard? Will it explode?

Let's see...

*squeek squeek*

Hmm, it didn't explode.

Let's squeeze it in there for a little while longer.

*squeek squeek SQUEEK!*

Oh my... it shrank!

Whoa, it's starting to expand again...

Next, what would happen if we put this piece of cut rubber tubing into liquid nitrogen?

It becomes hard enough to drive into a plank of wood!

*THUNK THUNK THUNK*

"It looks hard now, but it's not a good idea to make nails out of rubber. Unless you can keep the entire room in a very cold environment."

Which means that you CAN make nails out of rubber... on Pluto.

NASA never tried this!

Ho ho, is that a banana?

Dr. Bunhead actually gave the banana a name, but I forgot what it is so I'll call it "Mr. Banana".

I think I can see what's coming...

"I need a volunteer to check if Mr. Banana is firm and muscular."

"Mr. Banana is a very grumpy banana. You must approach him carefully, like you would approach a tiger."

Slowly... slowly...

*GROWL!*

Rabid banana on the attack!

"And now it's time for Mr. Banana to go bungee jumping into the container of liquid nitrogen!"

"Are you ready Mr. Banana?"

*fizz...*

Sounds painful.

Mr. Banana is now hard enough to drive a metal nail into wood.

*THUNK THUNK THUNK... plop*

Oh NO! Mr. Banana's head has fallen off!

Dr. Bunhead picks it up with a pair of tongs.

When liquid nitrogen turns into gas, it expands about 700 times in volume.

"This bottle contains about 100 ml of liquid, which will expand into 70,000 ml or 70 litres of gas, which is a much bigger volume. Normally this is difficult to see, but we can see this by attaching a balloon to the bottle."

The balloon starts to fill up...

... getting bigger...

"Maybe I should stand over here instead..."

*POP!*

"Did that balloon pop scare anyone? Good, because I am going to try something bigger!"

"How many lumps should we put inside this bottle?"

Strange that Dr. Bunhead says "lumps" instead of "cups".

"... and one more lump - just to scare me."

Nice.

"Hey, the balloon is not expanding. What's going on?"

The kids in the audience are all pointing to the liquid nitrogen container.

Kids: "IT'S STILL INSIDE! STILL INSIDE!"

"Will it work if I take the bottle out?"

Wow it is really expanding!

In fact it's expanding a bit too quickly.

"Should I be holding this?"

Kids: "NO! NO!"

"All right then. Do you want to hold it for me?"

Kids: "NO!!! AHHH!"

Children retreat anxiously as Dr. Bunhead scouts unsuccessfully for a volunteer.

Maybe cooling it in this pail of water will slow the expansion...

"YIKES! It's expanding even more quickly! What should I do? What should I do?"

*GASP*

*BOOM!*

*foooosh...*

"And now for the finale I will attempt to make the biggest cloud in the shopping mall!"

*FOOOOOOM!*

"Thank you everyone!"

With that, the show is over and it's time for the kids and their parents to pose with Dr. Bunhead for photos.

And time for me to ask Dr. Bunhead some questions!

Here goes:

1. Can you tell us a bit about your experience as a grad student?

Dr. Bunhead: "I applied to work with someone whose research I really liked, but he had no money. So I had to go to another supervisor, but I hated the project. We were fighting right from the beginning. The research work was repetitive and very precise, such that a small mistake could ruin three months of work. I found it very boring, very tough and very lonely."

2. How did you first get the idea to perform as a stunt scientist?

"During my PhD I was invited by a friend to do a chemistry show at a local school. It was just to help him out really, but they liked it and the school headmaster invited me back. Gradually, I did more and more shows, and less and less research. At first I was doing the shows for free. Then one day I met someone who was explaining some difficult physics concepts to an audience. I was impressed by his explanation. He gave me his namecard - 'Adam Selinger, Science Communicator'. Up till that time I had no idea that such a career existed; I was 30 years old and didn't know what to do. That was my Eureka moment."

3. Of the other Brainiac presenters, who do you like the most - Richard Hammond, Jon Tickle or Vic Reeves?

"Richard Hammond is my favourite. I think that Brainiac is most suited to him. He enjoys doing it and brings a cheeky enthusiasm to the show. I try to learn from him; when he speaks, his delivery is compelling, like David Attenborough. I feel that they are two of the most compelling science presenters in the UK."

4. How does the Brainiac production team manage to find so many sexy women for the show?

"I'd like to know that myself, actually *laughs*. And why they always get assigned to Jon Tickle. I am more handsome than he is!"

5. On the Brainiac show you are always unsuccessful when you try to use science to get a date. Were the women on the set really unimpressed or did you manage to work your charms on some of them?

"Actually, in real life about half the women responded positively. I was shown to be unsuccessful to make the comedy work. When we were making 'Pub Science with Dr. Bunhead', there was this lady who said that, yeah, she would go on a date with me after the show. But the production team wanted her to say no, and she protested 'why should I say no?'. In fact, this incident later became the inspiration for the "Dr. Bunhead on the Pull" segment. So, it does work in real life. I mean, how many men will walk up to you with a fire tornado?"

So there you have it. All your questions about the big mysteries that beset mankind, answered right here on Fresh Brainz.

OK, that's not really true, but you can still send your other questions about the Universe by tweeting them to @ProfWhy.

Don't miss your chance to win an Apple 16GB iPod Touch!

Would you like to know more?

Last year's event: X-periment! 2008

Other fun science shows:
- Kids Science Fest!
- Science in the Gardens

Dr. Bunhead Is Coming To X-periment! 2009

2009-08-14T00:03:00.012+08:00

Great news, fellow rabid Brainiac fans - Dr. Bunhead is coming to town!

The Science Centre and their co-organizers have informed me that, for the first time ever in Singapore, this year's X-periment! event will feature this world famous "stunt scientist".

Doctor of Exploding Things, Foamy Things... and Exploding Foamy Things.

I mean this guy.

If you have never heard of Brainiac (either because you've been living under a rock, or because you're a banker), here's a sample of what Dr. Bunhead does on the show...

Fooosh... BOOM!

And now, time for some of the details I've received about this event:

**********

science.09 will kick off with X-periment!, a three-day science carnival at Marina Square Central Atrium and will run from 14-16 August 2009. Highlights at X-periment! include special performances by Dr Bunhead from the UK. Dr Bunhead is sure to be a hit with everybody!

This year we are igniting that spirit of inquisitiveness at the heart of science, which has led to so many of its discoveries, with the theme – Ask Why. In that spirit, we are encouraging you and your readers to ask your science questions! (and win an Apple 16GB iPod Touch!)

So how do I participate?

1. Our website: Submit your questions along with your full name and email on the science.09 website (http://www.sciencemonth.org.sg/)

2. OR Twitter: To submit questions and qualify for the contest via Twitter:

a. Follow @ProfWhy (www.twitter.com/profwhy), the science.09’s mascot Professor Why

b. Tweet your questions to @ProfWhy

The more questions you ask, the greater your chances of winning!

Every Monday, Professor Why will also respond to a selection of the previous week’s questions. Check the science.09 website for answers!

How long is the contest period?

The contest will begin on Tuesday, 11 August 2009 and end at midnight (Singapore time) on Friday, 4 September 2009.

For further details, visit: http://www.sciencemonth.org.sg/asky_cont.aspx

***********

If you are free this weekend, why not bring your family down to Marina Square to check out Dr. Bunhead's mind-blowing performance? There are also interesting exhibits to see and hands-on activities to do in the various booths there.

Here's the schedule for Dr. Bunhead's show times:

15 Aug 09 - 12:00 noon, 2:30 pm, 4:30 pm and 7:30 pm.

16 Aug 09 - 12:00 noon, 2:30 pm, 4:30 pm and 7:30 pm.

See you there!

Would you like to know more?
- Last year's event: X-periment! 2008

The Problem-solving Intelligence Of Bird Brainz

2009-08-11T10:10:00.004+08:00

Picture this - you are a hungry bird and you are looking at a fat, juicy worm.

Unfortunately, the worm is floating on a bit of water in a very tall glass, and your beak is not long enough to reach it.

What do you do?

Sharp.

That practically replicates the Aesop's Fable "The Crow and the Pitcher"!

Is that a particularly smart bird, you ask?

Actually, four out of four rooks in the experiment were able to figure out this solution to the problem.

An elegant demonstration that problem-solving intelligence at least predates the evolution of mammals.

Pipette tip to Bayblab.

Would you like to know more?
- Rooks Use Stones to Raise the Water Level to Reach a Floating Worm (Current Biology)

Who's A Celebrity?

2009-08-06T19:18:00.013+08:00

Johnny Depp has a strange relationship with his own art:

So now I know of two movie stars who have stated that they don't watch their own movies, Johnny Depp, and if I remember correctly, Hong Kong actor Shing Fui-On (成奎安 - who often acts as a thug in gangster films).

Unlike Depp, Shing Fui-On doesn't want his children to watch his movies either, because his character usually ends up getting brutally killed on the big screen.

It's quite odd to see Johnny Depp say this - perhaps there is no simple profile of a "celebrity" and many people sort of wander into their professions via a series of contingent events.

I've been reading up a bit about the Myers-Briggs test and observe that in any given field, there is a wide range of personalities, which if unanticipated, can result in a lot of interpersonal stress.

I have previously assumed that certain professions should have a self-selecting tendency to attract certain personalities (eg. the Rationals in science and the Artisans in entertainment).

However, in my working experience I've realized that this sorting process is much less effective than I imagined and factors other than personality (eg. socio-economic status) could in fact be a stronger determinant of which career a person ends up in.

Even stranger, people whose personalities are not in sync with their careers can still be very "successful" based on the metrics of that profession (such as rank and earnings), often due to sheer determination and/or social pressure, although they may be privately living in abject misery.

Other people who are not aware of this tension might wonder: "This person has everything going for her, why did she suddenly snap?"

A rubber band can only stretch so far.

Creationism And False Dichotomies

2009-08-04T12:30:00.006+08:00

Lim Say Liang at The Online Citizen has written an interesting article entitled "God sneaks into our classrooms" about how creationism has turned up in Singaporean schools.

I understand that creationism is formally not acceptable by the MOE, so I have nothing to add to that discussion from an education policy point of view.

From the scientific perspective, as Dr. John van Wyhe from Cambridge has emphasized in his recent talk, there has been no debate between evolution and creation since the 1870s.

Evolution - more specifically the part about common descent - has been accepted by the scientific community for over a hundred years.

However, debate about the details of evolution, such as its primary mechanism (eg. natural selection vs neutral drift) continues on today.

This sort of dispute is usually only interesting among specialists (may sound very boring to the general public) but will be gradually resolved in time with theory development and more experimental evidence.

On the other hand, the "Evolution vs Creation" culture war (and predominantly US culture at that) is a very tiresome and possibly neverending squabble that will persist as long as people, politics and money exist.

I won't go into the details of this - interested readers can just click the "evolution" tag to see my numerous articles (and even more numerous comments) regarding this topic.

Instead I would like to focus on a pair of comments posted in response to the TOC article -

1. New Renaissance on August 3rd, 2009 2.33 pm:

"In fact, what critical thinking can there be if only one side is presented?"

2. Jer Bear on August 3rd, 2009 3.09 pm @ New Renaissance:

"The other side of science is not fiction. The other side of science is science itself. One cannot disprove logic with fairy tales – therefore if you truly believe in teaching our children critical thinking, show them the thousands of articles written to refute certain scientific and mathematical explanations. Creationism or ‘intelligent design’ doesn’t count."

I think Jer Bear has addressed the New Renaissance's criticism quite well, but I would like to add my views on this matter.

I have observed that creationists like to think of science as if it was some kind of legal process and like to think of scientists as if they were lawyers.

In fact, creationist lawyers tend to think that their legal training makes up for their lack of scientific training.

Why is this so?

Simple.

Dichotomies, even false dichotomies, have a lot of SOCIAL POWER.

Remember ex-US president George W. Bush's infamous line: "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."?

A legal system is an adversarial system. Either a suspect is innocent or guilty. There is no middle ground and thus no need to consider alternative explanations.

By proving your opponent wrong, a lawyer can confidently "prove" that she is right.

When deliberately forced upon science, this legalistic perspective crushes the whole scientific process into an oversimplified single dimension with two absolute outcomes: right or wrong.

That is why creationists spend practically all of their time attacking science rather than do actual research to support their views.

To their credit, they do understand the human psyche very well; the general public is easily impressed by outward appearance of authority, conviction and eloquence. As long as they can "prove" that the scientists are unsure, or hesitant, or not very good at public speaking, or too easily annoyed, creationists can then claim success.

This can be done without actually addressing the scientific content of the argument; indeed, it can be done without adequate understanding of the subject matter at all!

That is because creationists are not as interested in knowing what is factually correct as they are obsessed about being "proven" right. If they are "proved" to be right they can consolidate the social cohesion among fellow believers and also feel that they have the justification to impose their worldview on everyone else.

To directly address New Renaissance's comment that there can't be any critical thinking if only one side is presented, I would say:

"Are there only two sides in every debate? What critical thinking can there be if only two sides are presented?"

If the subject matter is creation stories, why not present a multicultural primer about creation stories throughout the world? If the focus is on anti-evolutionary views, why not include a section on animal spiritualism and Hare Krishna's "devolution" idea?

Creationists will never advocate multifactorial thinking, because it weakens their case that they can be "proved" right as long as their opponent is "proved" wrong. If there are ideas that don't support their case, they will cleverly package all of them together into a single opponent, even if those ideas don't have much in common with each other.

Eventually they will try to force an adversarial approach in order to maximize their social power.

Only the debates between "us" and "them" matters; disagreements between them "evolutionists" or disagreements between them "pagans" don't matter.

They are all wrong anyway... because my belief "proves" it.

Photo Gallery Thirteen

2009-08-02T12:09:00.010+08:00

In a previous post, I briefly talked about how brand marketing has contributed towards the rising phenomena of tool worship and diminishing respect for professional training.

For this week's photo gallery I won't just talk the talk - I'll walk the walk!

Let me show you what a "toy camera" can do in competent hands.

Enter our unfortunate victim - the Lomo Fisheye 2.

Popular among fashionistas a couple of years back, it used to retail in arty bookstores for about a hundred bucks each. One look and you can tell that it's the sort of camera for the supercool to pose with and get totally bored with by the end of the week.

This example here is well kept, but has fallen onto hard times. I bought it used for $30 - "faulty" with an ailing internal flash (but I won't be needing it, as you shall soon see).

Incidentally, all the non-Nikon, non-Canon cameras in the above photo are second-hand. Poverty has its special way of compelling one to train hard - if you're rich then you can pay someone to do all the thinking and working for you!

That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I digress.

Time for a checklist!

The Fisheye 2 has:

1. No Megapixels (uses 35mm film).

2. No Autofocus (fixed from 30cm on to eternity).

3. No Variable Aperture (fixed f/8 plastic hole).

4. No Metering.

5. No Automatic Shutter Speed (fixed 1/100 sec and a bulb mode).

6. No Multicoated Lens (10mm fisheye lens which looks cheap and plasticky).

7. No LCD display (with no pixels by no pixels resolution).

8. Has Optical Viewfinder (Hah, bet your digicam doesn't have one of these!).

9. No Spare Batteries (you don't even need any if you don't use flash).

10. No Free Cleaning Kit (OK, now I'm getting carried away...).

Hmm... looks sufficiently devoid of modern camera features.

Passed!

In fact, somebody once said that:

"If you cut the bottom off a beer bottle and hold it in front of your standard lens you will take better pictures than the Lomo."

Ho ho ho... is that RRRRRRight?

Well, the Fisheye 2 was intended to be a chic fisheye camera for "Lomographers" to take wacky portraits with multicoloured flash and streaks of light everywhere.

But that's not what I had in mind for this little fellow.

Here's one of my pictures, straight out of the camera (or film processing shop actually):

Interesting.

But I prefer my scenery shots to be rectilinear rather than have fisheye distortion.

To do that, you don't even need to buy Photoshop. Just head over to TawbaWare and use their PTAssembler shareware to "de-fish" the distortion in a few quick steps.

And now for the finished product (cropped and exposure-corrected):

Arch
(2009) Lomo Fisheye 2

Not quite the bottom of a beer bottle huh?

Come to think of it, I could possibly make that work too...

Enjoy the rest of the photos!

Ceiling vanes
(2009) Lomo Fisheye 2

Financial focus
(2009) Lomo Fisheye 2

Old market vibe
(2009) Lomo Fisheye 2

Passing through
(2009) Lomo Fisheye 2

Stone life
(2009) Lomo Fisheye 2

Underpass curves
(2009) Lomo Fisheye 2

Welcoming palms
(2009) Lomo Fisheye 2

Wide and bright
(2009) Lomo Fisheye 2

You are thinking: "Hey, it's not the fact that the Lomo cost $30 that allows it to take nice scenery shots. It's the fact that it has a 10mm lens! The equipment DOES matter!"

Ha ha... you're right that every photographic tool has its strengths and weaknesses.

You generally can't use the Fisheye 2 for macro or sports photography.

But then again, if you know what you need for those applications, you wouldn't use the Lomo!

I think you understand what I'm saying now.

Would you like to know more?
- Photo Gallery Twelve
- Your Camera Doesn't Matter (by Ken Rockwell)

Solar Eclipse Over The Pacific

2009-07-22T15:31:00.004+08:00

From my blog statistics I noticed that there has been a large spike of visitors to Fresh Brainz looking for information on the 22nd July solar eclipse.

Well, it has been rainy and overcast in Singapore so we can't see the Sun, but even if the sky was clear only about 6% of the solar disk is covered by the Moon from our location, so there isn't much to see.

Good thing that the Japanese TV company NHK has just uploaded this video of the eclipse relayed from a ship in the Pacific Ocean that is smack in the middle of the lunar shadow, providing a few minutes of totality.

Spectacular.

I like the fact that you can see planets in the daytime, for example Mercury as shown in this video. I for one have never seen Mercury directly before.

It is also interesting to see that while at totality, the surrounding horizon is still lit by the Sun, so it's sort of like a weird sunset all around them - except that the Sun is still straight up in the sky!

Pity that in the middle of the sea there aren't birds to sing their mis-timed evening song, which often occurs when totality happens over land.

"Militant Secularism" In The Netherlands

2009-07-12T10:00:00.008+08:00

"Aggressive secularization" in the Netherlands leads to polygamy, euthanasia, infanticide and a suicide pill.

Oh noes, the Netherlands is DOOMED!

Wait a sec, this news report came from Fox News, which is the most "Fair and Balanced" news network in the USA.

Better go check some actual data...

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Divorce Demography
(crude divorce rate per 1,000 total population)

USA = 3.8 (2003)
Netherlands = 1.91 (2004)
Singapore = 0.78 (2004)

Prison Population
(per 100,000 total population)

USA = 701 (2002)
Singapore = 388 (2002)
Netherlands = 100 (2002)

Intentional Homicide
(per 100,000 total population)

USA = 5.8 (2008)
Netherlands = 0.97 (2002)
Singapore = 0.48 (2005)

Infant Mortality
(death per 1,000 live births)

USA = 6.3 (2005)
Netherlands = 4.7 (2005)
Singapore = 3.0 (2005)

Abortion
(per 1,000 women aged 15-44 years)

USA = 20.8 (2003)
Singapore = 12.6 (2004)
Netherlands = 10.4 (2004)

Suicide
(death per 100,000 total population)

USA = 11.1 (2005)
Singapore = 10.3 (2006)
Netherlands = 9.4 (2004)

**********

Wow, the USA is truly a world "leader" in all these areas!

Let's hope that the Netherlands (and Singapore too) will never follow its "lead" here.

Indeed, Fox News should be proud of their country and their own special style of reporting where the truth is always optional.

Pipette tip to Sandwalk.

Would you like to know more?
- Is Polygamy Really Legal in the Netherlands?

Third Year

2009-07-11T12:28:00.006+08:00

It's been three years down the road, and I would like to thank fellow Clearthought Singapore veterans and all my regular readers for staying on this channel.

I'll probably write a more substantial post a little later, because I went to the Darwin and Wallace talk in late June and took extensive notes, but right now my situation is not conducive to serious blogging.

So, to mark this third blogiversary I'll leave you with this little piece of Socratic dialogue, inspired by the post "don't need doctors anymore" at Angry Doc's site.

I hope you'll find it funny and interesting.

**********

Geordie: "Did you know that Steve McCurry, the photographer who took the famous 'Afghan Girl' photo came to Singapore and gave a talk at SMU?

Freddie: "Dang, I missed that. I went to John van Wyhe's talk at NUS instead. So, anything interesting?"

Geordie: "Somebody asked him what brand of camera he used. Ha ha, can you believe it?"

Freddie: "Heh, don't tell me it's the Nikon vs Canon dickfight again. Or is it Leica vs Zeiss?"

Geordie: "It's the Nikon vs Canon. I think that marketing hype is making people stupid. Nobody would ask a famous painter what brand of paintbrushes he used, so why should people care about the brand of camera that a famous photographer used? As long as the picture is focused and well-exposed would it have mattered if he used a disposable camera?"

Freddie: "I think that tool worship is common to people who don't understand or are not interested in the process. Perhaps the professionals themselves are contributing to this misunderstanding by making the process look too easy. The tool IS the profession. I can totally see it from that point of view."

Geordie: "What are you talking about? Are you saying that a camera can walk by itself to Afghanistan, endure the hardships of a wartorn environment, seek out interesting people, interact with them and produce a well-composed and expertly-timed shot?

Freddie: "Look, a camera is what takes the photos, right? If Steve McCurry didn't have a camera with him when he saw the Afghan Girl, the photo could never happen. You can consider him merely as a vehicle to bring the camera to the Afghan Girl and then press the shutter button. All he did was to travel to a remote place, turn some dials and push some buttons - the camera did all of the 'real' work."

Geordie: "Ha ha, that's a pretty twisted way to see it. The facts are the same but the emphasis is backwards. From such a view you can dismiss the photographer as an incidental, or even an irrelevant aspect of the photographic process!"

Freddie: "You don't need photographers any more, you just need an expensive brand name camera. The photographer only pushed a button! Anyone can push a button."

Geordie: "From that perspective you can pretty much dismiss the work of any professional. Teachers? Anyone can talk and write something on the whiteboard. The textbook IS education. Scientists? Anyone can push buttons and transfer liquids from one tube to another. The PCR machine IS research. Oh man..."

Freddie: "There you go."

Geordie: "Who could see it that way? Apart from a few strange people? I mean, that can't be a prevalent view, right?"

Freddie: "I suspect that it is more common than you think. To a society that is obsessed with results and performance indicators, most people can't be bothered about the process behind anything. What they want are results, now now now! Don't care how you do it. Just tell me what I want to hear."

Geordie: "But without the process you cannot have results."

Freddie: "But even with the process, you may not have results. So why care about the process? As long it produces a result that you like, it must be a 'good' process, whatever it is."

Geordie: "Ha ha, this must be a personality-dependent thing, because I don't understand how anyone can think that way. I suppose it is some kind of superduper mental shortcut. Good photo = expensive branded camera. Expensive = good. Cheap = lousy. Quick and easy."

Freddie: "Easy on the brain, but difficult on the wallet!"

Geordie: "Yeah, which reminds me of that neverending treadmill of earning and spending. If the price is the primary gauge of what is 'good' then people must keep buying more and more expensive stuff in order to feel a sense of improvement in their lives."

Freddie: "That's good news for the marketing people."

Geordie: "For the Nikon marketing people, Canon marketing people, or the disposable camera marketing people?"

Freddie: "Ha ha... suffice to say that happiness is not free, but it is surprisingly inexpensive.

Geordie: "It is meaningless to talk about the 'expense' of happiness. It's a process. You can't just stuff happiness into a bottle and slap a brand label on it."

Freddie: "Actually I think you can. And someone will pay real money for it."

Geordie: "Someone?"

Freddie: "Everyone."

Everybody Cheats... At Least A Little Bit

2009-06-20T10:30:00.004+08:00

Interesting talk by MIT behavioural economist Dan Ariely about the psychology of cheating and how it relates to the stock market.

While the observation that morality is heavily dependent on the social context is not new, what really impressed me most is the implication of his experimental results - that a moral code not only helps to regulate in-group behaviour, but also concurrently enhance in-group loyalty via a "Us vs Them" mechanism.

Even if the moral code itself is completely made up!

I don't understand why there is a deep human need to feel morally superior to other people, but this need can clearly be exploited by people who stand to benefit richly from it.

Pipette tip to Mind Hacks.

Would you like to know more?

Another TED talk by Prof. Dan Ariely
- Are we in control of our own decisions?
- Predictably Irrational

Rise Of Creationism In Asia

2009-06-19T11:23:00.005+08:00

Brandon at The Biology Refugia wonders why the creationist/ID movement has suddenly gained prominence outside of the USA in the past ten years or so.

I see the rise of the movement more as an incremental phenomenon, though likely spurred on in recent times by eight years of the Bush administration.

Monuments of ignorance such as the Creation Museum and the Discovery Institute have undoubtedly ignited the enthusiasm of others who are interested in replicating these impressive results in their own country.

Brandon also asked:

"So, future intellectual historians of our times: why is this happening now? And why simultaneously in societies so different from each other and from the US, where all this started?"

That's a great question - an interesting consequence of globalization is that with the increased exposure to travel and mass media, two people in one "society" of a country can have practically nothing in common, whereas two people living in different continents may share practically the same motivations and goals.

This has and will continue to create tensions between people living in the same "society" who share the same nationality, ethnicity, language and cultural history but yet have completely different or even conflicting worldviews.

Yau-man Chan at the Skepticblog puts it this way:

"The problem I have with Chinese fundamentalist Christians is how could they discard their own history? For better or for worse, we come from an ancient culture and definitely have the baggage to show for it. We have written history as old as any Middle Eastern civilizations. We have our own legends and sagas to tell the stories of our glorious ancient past. So how can a Chinese, knowing his own culture and historical past become a Young Earth Creationist? How can a person have two histories? What kind of mental gymnastic must my YEC classmates perform to adopt the Genesis stories as real and to discard the narratives of our forebearers was mere legends?"

Considering that respect for our ancestors and cultural history is an integral part of many East Asia societies, it is curious to observe that so many people are abandoning their own identity and embracing a foreign culture wholesale.

Perhaps their own local culture is not atas (high class) enough for them.

In any case, it is interesting to discuss how these people insist on "traditional values" that are not really traditions in their own culture but are actually imported "traditions" from a Western country, eg. USA.

What do you think?

Aw... What A Cute Song!

2009-06-07T13:11:00.003+08:00

For some odd reason I can't seem to find the lyrics to this song so I've decided to transcribe it myself.

Enjoy...?

Screw You

by Kate Micucci
(featured in Scrubs Season 8 Episode 8)

Short Version

F: I've got too many questions in my mind.
M: I've got too many answers to find.

F: Can I give up all I've imagined?
M: Am I magical enough for this to happen?

F: Because I like you.
M: I like you.
F: I like you.
M: I like you...

Both: And like can lead to like-like.
And like-like can lead to love...

Sure as the stars above I'd really like to (F) screw/(M) kiss you.

M: Oh.
F: Oh.

Full Version

F: I've got so many questions in my mind.
M: I've got so many answers to find.

F: Can you be the man I've imagined?
M: Am I magical enough for this to happen?

F: Because I like you.
M: I like you.
F: I like you.
M: I like you...

Both: And like can lead to like-like.
And like-like can lead to love...

Sure as the stars above I'd really like to (F) screw/(M) kiss you.

M: Oh.
F: Oh.

M: Can I be the man you're looking for?
F: Can I be your girl forever more?

M: I'll try real hard not to lose her.
F: And I'll try to be less of a loser.

M: Because I like you.
F: I like you.
M: I like you.
F: I like you...

Both: And like can lead to like-like.
And like-like can lead to love...

Sure as the stars above I'd really like to (F) kiss/(M) screw you.

(F) Screw/(M) Kiss you
(F) Kiss/(M) Screw you
(F) Screw/(M) Kiss you

Both: Screw you.

Would you like to know more?

- Kate Micucci website
- The full song (YouTube)

How To Do It

2009-06-04T13:02:00.006+08:00

Have you ever wondered why professionals in technical fields can become so grumpy and pessimistic?

Yes it would be sooooo nice if one simple, quick solution can be found for everything, such as "Just believe in success and you would achieve success!" or "Just vote for us and we'll guarantee job security and societal stability!" or "Just stop eating animals and you can prevent heart attacks, cancers and achieve world peace!" or "Just believe this book and everything will finally make sense when you attain eternal life!"

Pollyannas are especially annoying.

Not only because they keep shifting goalposts to make everything look cheery.

Not only because they dismiss the difficulties that technical people face with cute soundbites or the mere wave of a hand...

But most of all, because they are not the ones who have to take any real responsibility when their over-optimistic and simplistic plans end in utter failure.

It's never the "Vision" that is flawed!

It's always the workers "down there" - they are too complacent, they don't work hard enough, they are not resilient enough, they are not sufficiently hungry for "Success", they don't "believe" in the "Vision"...

The world is ruled by obscenely wealthy and well-connected people who are impressed by "The Secret" or "Who Moved My Cheese?" or "The Purpose Driven Life", while other people who make their opulent lifestyle even remotely possible with the blood and tears of their toil are marginalized and fed table scraps.

This is not a sustainable situation.

That's Not How You Play The Violin!

2009-05-25T09:10:00.011+08:00

Here's a classically trained violinist, Alex Mitchell, playing the violin in a decidedly unclassical way...

Some people spend years and years learning from the establishment so that they can emulate them exactly and perpetuate the tradition forever.

Some other people spend years and years learning from the establishment so that they can evaluate them, transcend them, and sometimes even consign the useless bits of tradition into the giant trash heap of history.

As the great non-scientist/non-engineer Tay Ping Hui once said on TV:

"Scientists ask 'Why?'. Engineers ask 'Why not?'."

Actually, scientists MUST ask "Why not?" - at the minimum, to examine alternative explanations to their pet ideas to avoid getting shot down by their peers, to say nothing of scrutinizing established theories.

And did you think engineers have the luxury of asking "Why not" if scientists never asked "Why"?

Did you think that James Clerk Maxwell, Michael Faraday, Hendrik Lorentz and André-Marie Ampère were electrical engineers?

Did you think that Erwin Chargaff, Rosalind Franklin, Francis Crick and Jimmy Watson were biomedical engineers?

If the science stuff doesn't exist, then what would engineers engineer on?

A magic voodoo chant?

Hugh Laurie knows that playing a doctor on TV doesn't make you a doctor. Maybe Tay Ping Hui doesn't.

Nineteen Sixty-Six

2009-05-19T09:53:00.010+08:00

Two astounding events occurred in 1966 that would forever change the face of broadcast television.

Nah, not really.

Observe the brutal transparency of the villian; not since the Talking Snake has there ever been a baddie of such epic honesty.

To paraphrase an old tag-line from the Space channel:

"It's funny how the future looks exactly like 1966."

OH MEIN GOTT!

Censoring Myself Into Silence

2009-05-18T22:59:00.004+08:00

This is it folks, I've totally run out of steam. Essentially, I've politically-corrected myself into silence. Fresh Brainz was supposed to be about science, which is a reliable method for discovering the truth. Unfortunately, the truth can be very offensive to many people in this world. They would cling on to their beliefs even when strong evidence indicates the contrary.

For too long I have been tasked to do impossible things. I don't considering focusing all your energy into doing impossible things as some admirable sign of tenacity or resilience. Especially when the evidence is clearly there.

I think that ordering other people to do impossible things and forcing them to believe in impossible things is a sign of megalomania, maybe sadism or even madness.

There is only so much one can do to hint or use subtle words to somewhat nudge you to plausibly tangentially consider some sort of issue. It is very tiring to bend over backwards to respect the feelings of everyone all the time.

That is not my style.

And so I have nothing left to say.

Mas Selamat Captured In Malaysia!

2009-05-08T08:26:00.002+08:00

Latest news - Mas Selamat has been caught in Johor and is now held by Malaysian authorities:

Mas Selamat captured (Straits Times)

Fugitive who escaped from Whitley detention centre last year is tracked down and captured in Johor after tip-off from Singapore; he is being held for interrogation by Malaysia

By Leslie Lopez, Senior Regional Correspondent

KUALA LUMPUR: Thirteen months after his audacious escape from detention in Singapore, Mas Selamat Kastari has been caught in Malaysia.

Singapore's most wanted terrorist was captured on April 1 while hiding in Johor, regional intelligence sources told The Straits Times.

It is believed that he was nabbed in the outskirts of Johor Baru and is now being held by the Malaysian authorities for interrogation.

It is not known how he slipped out of Singapore or when he entered Malaysia.

Although he was arrested six weeks ago, the Malaysian authorities have not yet announced the capture.

Mob Behaviour Of Social Groups

2009-05-05T14:11:00.003+08:00

What a remarkable confluence of events today!

1. This morning I received an email from an old friend - unfortunately it was a chain mail with some pretty NASA photograph in it.

I prefer not to propagate chain mails, so I deleted it while asking myself: "Why do people fall for chain mails so easily?"

2. Next, I came across this YouTube video about chain letters on MySpace and other social networking sites:

Nykytyne2 sees a connection between Pascal's Wager and the mob behaviour of people who keep reposting chain letters.

He thinks that social networking and multiplayer game sites can potentially be a great tool for social psychologists to study mob behaviour.

3. And then, sociologist Jesse Fagan of Orbital Teapot posts a summary about this research study:

Effective leadership and decision-making in animal groups on the move (Couzin et al. 2005, Nature)

This paper has revealed a very interesting result. Jesse explains:

The powerful insight, I thought, was that groups that behave like swarms or flocks can find some resource if only a small proportion of the the individuals have the knowledge. Furthermore, the ratio between those who know and those who follow scales logarithmically with respect to the size of the total group. That means the larger the group, the group of knowledgeable individuals does not have to rise linearly.

When I say agents who behave like a swarm I mean they obey a small set of simple rules.

So here's a plausible explanation for why there are so many "sheeple" in the world today mindlessly following a tiny clique of powerful overlords.

Maybe it doesn't hurt society to have many stupid people who are only good at following orders - there could be a structural reason behind this.

Ain't that neat?

The question, the hypothesis-generation and the results all popped up within the space of a few hours.

Sometimes I wonder if I am trying to find systems science, or if systems science is trying to find me...

Paint Your Palette Blue And Grey

2009-05-05T13:35:00.007+08:00

Thanks to everyone who turned up for the Sidewalk Astronomy Carnival, especially Angry Doc and Ed, as well as Richard of SingAstro.

Three drinks under the stars.

Contemplating the certitude that eludes them.

Update: Results Of The AWARE EGM

2009-05-02T20:17:00.005+08:00

Latest news - the result of the no confidence vote in the new AWARE Exco has just been announced:

1414 vote yes (in favour of the old guard).

761 vote no (in favour of the new Exco).

The vote of no confidence has been passed.

At this point in time (8.25pm), the new Exco is still considering whether to resign or not.

*Update 03 May 2009:

Ms. Josie Lau's team has resigned.

The newest AWARE Exco is now led by president Dana Lam.

Would you like to know more?

Online media sources:
- More than a thousand turn up for Aware EOGM (The Online Citizen)
- LIVE from Suntec: AWARE EGM, 2 May 2009 (The Wayang Party)

Mainstream media sources:
- New Exco of AWARE given vote of no confidence (Channelnewsasia)

Swine Flu: Alert Orange

2009-04-30T22:09:00.002+08:00

Latest update on swine flu - the Ministry of Health has upgraded the Disease Outbreak Response System Alert status in Singapore from Yellow to Orange:

Swine Flu

Last Updated 30 April 2009

The Mexican swine flu outbreak situation continues to evolve rapidly.

As of 30 April 2009, there are reportedly 99 confirmed cases of Mexican swine flu (H1N1) cases in Mexico (with 8 deaths), 91 in the United States (with 1 death), 19 in Canada, 10 in Spain, 5 in United Kingdom, 3 in Germany, 3 in New Zealand, 2 in Israel, 2 in Costa Rica, 1 in Austria, 1 in Switzerland and 1 in Peru.

As of 30 April 09, there are no human cases of Mexican swine flu in Singapore. There have been 22 cases in total referred for further medical assessment. Of the 22 cases, 19 cases have been tested negative for Influenza A. 2 tested positive for usual circulating seasonal strains of Influenza A and 1 is pending laboratory investigations.

Alert Status

On 29 April 2009, WHO raised the current level of flu pandemic alert from phase 4 to 5. The change to a higher phase indicates that there is human-to-human spread of the virus into at least two countries in one region. The declaration of Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent, though not inevitable. WHO has recommended countries to take steps to heighten surveillance, adopt measures for early detection and treatment of cases, and step up infection control in all healthcare facilities.

Even though there are currently no human cases of Mexican swine flu in Singapore, the Singapore Ministry of Health on 30 April 09 upgraded the Disease Outbreak Response System Alert status in Singapore from Yellow to Orange. There is a real possibility that such cases may surface in Singapore and we must be prepared at all fronts to delay its spread to Singapore for as long as possible.

Public Advisory

Members of the public are strongly advised to postpone or avoid non-essential travel to Mexico and affected areas. In the event that travel is unavoidable, the public is advised to take precautionary measures such as avoiding crowded areas and maintaining high standards of personal hygiene at all times.

The public is advised to maintain high standards of personal hygiene, such as washing hands frequently with soap and water, especially after contact with respiratory secretions (e.g. after sneezing and coughing). Those who are unwell with respiratory illness should stay at home and wear a surgical mask if possible.

Schools, workplaces and places of mass gathering are encouraged to conduct temperature checks routinely. Those with a higher-than-normal temperature should be advised to seek treatment immediately. Recording of all information of all visitors, including the date and time of visit, personal particulars and contact number of visitors, is recommended. This will facilitate contact tracing when the need arises.

Would you like to know more?

- FAQS on Swine Flu (flu.gov.sg)
- Communicating the Swine influenza A (H1N1) crisis (The Biology Refugia)
- We are now at Alert Orange (Angry Doctor)