Friday, February 29, 2008
Biology Friday is back
If you don't know what significance this week have for biology, it is the launch of the Encyclopaedia of Life whose aim is to classify every single of the 1.8 million species known to us, and add more that we don't know of. (Which was immediately overran by too much traffic, I don't want to overrun them with more traffic, but take a look.) Here's a short introductory video.The project is brought to you by everyone's favourite biologist/sociobiologist - E.O. Wilson.
In addition I give you the largest animal ever found, it's jaw is so strong that it is capable of biting any ordinary car into 2. (those prehistoric flying dinosaurs in the picture are already quite big, certainly larger than your largest seagull)
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Wilhelm Kempff plays Moonlight Sonata
I shan't say more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_KempffHis playing never fails to leaves me touched and breathless, even after listening to them so many times.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Cool Idea
Let's vote for the M1 ad Mr Vadi starred in!SMS "VC S4" (without quotes) to 73388!
I didn't read the fine print, so I dounno if they'll charge exuberant (correct word?) prices for the SMS.
But it's definitely worth it! ;)
Song of the Month
"Uncertainties" - Matthew SantosEnjoy. U gotta respect musicians like these. I cant believe they aren't recognized in the mainstream music scene. Buy his album if u like his music!
Dont RIP his music illegally like a little someone i know... hehe (cough) (sianying) (cough)
Cheers!
Saturday, February 23, 2008
a random thought.
think about it.people listen to the songs that were
popular in their time period. which
means, there is going to be a
generation where grandparents are
gonna be listening to rap and emo.
Friday, February 22, 2008
I feel like start a biology Friday or something...
This isn't a toy, it's a fish. Check out http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=516741 to find out what makes it looks this way.
And this is a real octopus, not some kind of video trick.Finally this is what whales have in common with dogs.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Shameless Advertising
Okayy... I'm doing some advertising for a friend (as promised) for another school, so I shall be brief (to not offend anyone).http://www.huangcheng.hcchisoc.org/ <-- click me
Those who wish to go as a group, please tell me, I'll make sure my friend makes special arrangements to have you all seated together. (From what I've heard, tickets are going fast and contiguous seats are running out)
That's all.
P.S. My set of Take5 photos will be with Sian Ying tomorrow. Go bug her, or have her upload somewhere (but those photos, no matter how terrible they are, still belong to me!!!). =)
Monday, February 18, 2008
Hey, it's from the New York Times!
I would like to direct your attention to this article from the New York Times (webpage, of course). Back by unpopular demand (crackle with evil laughter)Excerpt:
...In doing so, he founded one of the most important and successful branches of evolutionary research. We now have a robust understanding of how sexual pressures — the pressures to find, impress, and seduce a mate — influence the evolution of males and females. So much so that if you tell me a fact, such as the average size difference between males and females in a species, or the proportion of a male’s body taken up by his testes, I can tell you what the mating system is likely to be. For example, where males are much bigger than females, fighting between males has been important — which often means that the biggest males maintain a harem. If testes are relatively large, females probably have sex with several males in the course of a single breeding episode.
These forces are so reliable that, if only we could determine the sex of dinosaur fossils, we could begin to infer their mating habits. But alas. Unless the animal died while heavy with eggs, as one oviraptor obligingly did, determining the sex of a dinosaur is close to impossible. At one point, it was thought that the shape of a particular bone at the base of the tail might indicate sex; but a recent analysis has shown it does not. Now the best guesses come from subtle differences in structure of the bone in the hind legs. For the time being, then, fossils are stonily silent about the dinosaurs’ private lives, their methods of wooing, the exuberance of their song-and-dance routines.
Which brings me to my tyrannical fantasy. I want to take a journey 68 million years back in time to see a Tyrannosaurus rex couple mating. What was it like? Did they trumpet and bellow and stamp their feet? Did they thrash their enormous tails? Did he bite her neck in rapture and exude a musky scent? Somehow, I imagine that when two T. rex got it on, the earth shook for miles around.
And if I could only take this journey, I could answer a question that sometimes bothers me. Did T. rex have a penis? Did he even, as lizards do, have two?...
For those of you who are wondering why this is here, we (or rather I) talked about it during lunch. And this is also to prove to Lih Wei that this article actually existed and I'm not talking crap. But most importantly the article is here because......I can......
(oh and the webpage have a skeleton of the T-rex)
Sunday, February 17, 2008
take 5
hi everyone, here's a photo from take 5: president getting stuck on the ship!
Saturday, February 16, 2008
10 Fascinating Facts about Edison
Hello! This is an interesting article about Thomas Edison. My favourite part is how he proposed to his 2nd wife by morse code.our KICKASS/ BADASS post take 5 day
so to people who had
more important stuff on;
like meeting your girlfriends [ahem shuntaa]
or some campp [ahem dinggg]
this is what we did after take 5.
and i really can't figure what could be more important than spending
post take 5 with the whole lot of us (:
because harold said there was some BAD ASS wind.
we decided to fly sianying's KICK ASS kite.
but siaying's KICK ASS kite decided to get caught in a BAD ASS tree
so BAD ASS xiayi decided to save it by climbing the BAD ASS tree.
after we got the BAD ASS kite down (not really intact, but whatever)
we walked this super duper longggggg BAD ASS road towards white sands
because our BAD ASS president suggested so.
and along the way KICK ASS evelyn and BAD ASS harold
were lucky enough to ride on KICK ASS sianying's foldable KICK ASS bike
and as i said the road was BAD ASS longgg
so we walked some moree
and finallyyy we reached BAD ASS downtown east
and ate KICK ASS sushiiiii.
actually we ate
ALOT ALOT ALOT ALOT ALOT ALOT ALOT ALOT ALOT
of KICK ASS sushi (:
now, didn't you wish you were there (:
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
The Darwin Awards
A follow up to Jan's post: Presenting to you...THE DARWIN AWARDS
Honoring those who improve the species...by accidentally removing themselves from it!
Happy Darwin's Day
12th January, today, if you didn't already know is Charles Darwin's birthday, this year celebrating his 199th anniversary. What so significant about it?Charles Darwin had managed to unify all of biology with one of the most well established theory in Science, namely the theory of natural selection, that evolution is the non-random process of the selection of the random mutations of a gene (but what he once thought was the organism, because at that time no one new genetics). And from it not only do we derive principles in combating diseases, find ways to improve our crop, produce better domesticated plants and animals, etc... but most of all, it lets us understand the question of where life came from, that each living cell is a relative to each other, that all life lies on the branches of the same tree of life, and that we humans are but just one of all the wonderful species that have arisen from the blind mechanical (and metaphorical) hand of nature slowly and unwittingly tinkering with itself.
Some might say that this trivialise life, and makes life meaningless. On the other hand, as Darwin so eloquently sums up when he concluded his book, "There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."
And now for some of the e-cards I received: (Ok, so I didn't really get any cards, these are just some of those being shared among the scientific community.)
That small dot being circled is Earth, in case you didn't know.
And also, if you hadn't figured this out after reading the whole post, next year would be Darwin's bicentennial, expect a bigger celebration in all scientific communities everywhere. In addition, Darwin published his book when he was 50, so it's also the 150th year of the theory of evolution by means of natural selection in 2009.
Now, evolve!
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Tonight Is Hokkien Night
Nah, its just an excuse for me to post a lot of Hokkien dubbed videos...Film roll!
[In increasing order of what-i-think-is-cool-ness]
That standard "Star Wars in Hokkien" done by Power98 now comes with lip-synced actual Star Wars footage!
Next up, a highly disturbing hokkien dubbed LOTR scene... (warning, one expletive at the end)
[O.O Gollum has a pair of dramatic tarsier eyes too!]
And finally, what I think is the most ingenious and professionally done dub I know of.
As usual, I'll have a bonus. Here's a funny racist (xiayi!) hokkien song by Malaysian artist, Ah Niu (I think). I used to have this song before my phone died...
For those who want it, its not a video actually, just that I feel uncomfortable hot-linking the MP3 file. Google is your friend.
[Someone provide a translation, I roughly know the meaning, but that's because I had a friend to translate on the spot for me]
Thursday, February 7, 2008
can i have your number?
how NOT to ask a girl out on valentine's day next week (:Saturday, February 2, 2008
Liwei! watches YouTube
In this issue of "Liwei! watches YouTube", we bring you this informative video that is sure to teach you a thing or two about the sub prime mortgage crisis - with a humorous twist.Watch it, economics students, and learn about the "ingenuity of the markets".
And as an added bonus, stare in awe as this "Dramatic Tarsier" flaunts its big Japanese Tezukan-style eyes, with the accompanying THX "Deep Note"
(For those who found that scary instead of strangely funny, try this instead)
Then watch it 12 times in succession
Have fun!
*"Liwei! watches YouTube" is a randomly issued compilation of YouTube videos Liwei! watches when bored with mugging.
The views expressed in the videos listed are those of their respective authors (or tarsiers or prairie dogs) and do not necessarily represent the views
of, and should not be attributed to, Liwei!. Liwei! will also not be responsible for any inaccuracies in information presented in the videos.