Halloween


Halloween is a date of astronomical interest: it's a cross-quarter date, midway between an equinox and a solstice. There are four cross-quarter dates throughout the year, and each is a minor holiday. One is Groundhog Day (Feb. 2nd), another is May Day (May 1st), the third is Lammas Day (Aug. 1st), and the fourth is Halloween (Oct. 31st).

Says John Mosley of the Griffith Observatory: "The Celts of the British Isles used the cross-quarter days to mark the beginnings of the seasons, and winter began with Halloween. Halloween marked the transition between summer and winter, light and dark - and life and death. On that one transitional night those who had died during the previous year returned for a final visit to their former homes. People set out food out for them and lit fires to aid them on their journey -- but remained on guard for mischief the spirits might do on the one night when the dead returned to the land of the living."

Linking Chains

A blacksmith is given five pieces of chain, with three links in each chain. He has to connect the pieces together to make a single chain. How many links does he have to open and then close again to do so with the least amount of effort?

Hint: It isn't four links...

Answer: The blacksmith needs to open only the three links of one of the pieces and use these links to connect the remaining four pieces of chain.

Taken after a thunderstorm outside my flat... 

Nice article about Homo Florslensis i posted earlier, upon further reading found out more about the discovery linked to the change in concept of evolutionary theory of mankind and 'island dwarfing'...

Wasted about half-hr reading about this discovery, and neglecting my Social Studies revision, what an idiot..haha...maybe will just intro human evolution.


The conventional view of early human evolution is that the species Homo erectus was our first relative to spread out of Africa, some 2 million years ago. The spread that our cousin achieved is indicated by a 1.8-million-year-old, primitive form of H. erectus found at Dmanisi in Georgia, and by finds at slightly younger sites in China and the Indonesian island of Java. It was not thought that H. erectus travelled any farther towards Australia than this, because although early humans could have walked to Java from Southeast Asia at times of low sea level, the islands east of Java, always separated from it by deep water, seemed beyond their reach.

Of a certain age

It seems that Flores man (or woman) still has one more surprise up its sleeve: its age. Astonishingly, two methods of dating agree in placing the skeleton at only about 18,000 years old. Its ancestors, probably a form of H. erectus, could have reached the island in the hunt for stegodons a million years ago, either by building some kind of boat or by walking across a short-lived land-bridge.

Their resulting isolation and inbreeding may have led them to evolve a small body size, in a process known from other mammals as 'island dwarfing'. Because of climate change or the impact of modern humans, who began to spread from Africa around 100,000 years ago, the strange story of H. floresiensis eventually ended in extinction. But modern humans must surely have encountered this tiny relative of ours, and the discovery shows how much we still have to learn about the story of human evolution.

Flores, God and Cryptozoology

Henry Gee

When the first human colonists arrived on the island of Flores in eastern Indonesia a few thousand years ago, they had no idea that they were treading on the remains of a lost world.

Until around 12,000 years ago, when a volcanic eruption seems to have ended the party, Flores was a looking-glass garden of Komodo dragons and even larger lizards, giant tortoises and enormous rats. Alongside them were tiny, primitive elephants and, as we now know, tiny, primitive people1,2.

Probably descended from full-sized Homo erectus that made landfall on Flores as much as 900,000 years ago3, the islanders dodged the dragons and hunted the elephants. Killers and quarry became smaller with each generation, instances of the well-known phenomenon of endemic dwarfing in small, inbred island populations, until they were transformed into new species. Homo erectus became Homo floresiensis.

These people, each a metre tall as an adult, lived on Flores from at least 38,000 years ago to 18,000 years ago2. But fossilization is a chancy business, so it is likely that they were there long before that interval... and long after it. They may have been alive when modern Homo sapiens arrived in the region. Yet as far as we know, Homo floresiensis survived for thousands of years, unnoticed and unmolested by humans, before becoming extinct.

Florid tales

The discovery that Homo floresiensis survived until so very recently, in geological terms, makes it more likely that stories of other mythical, human-like creatures such as yetis are founded on grains of truth.

In the light of the Flores skeleton, a recent initiative4 to scour central Sumatra for 'orang pendek' can be viewed in a more serious light. This small, hairy, manlike creature has hitherto been known only from Malay folklore, a debatable strand of hair and a footprint. Now, cryptozoology, the study of such fabulous creatures, can come in from the cold.

Another argument in favour of such searches comes from the recent discovery of several new species of large mammal, notably in Southeast Asia.

For example, Pseudoryx nghetinhensis5, a species of ox from the remote Vu Qiang nature reserve on the border between Vietnam and Laos, was first described from hunting trophies in only 1992. Another species of bovid, the kouprey (Bos sauveli), was discovered in Indochina in 1937.

Neither of these creatures is as exotic as a yeti or orang pendek, but the point is made. If animals as large as oxen can remain hidden into an era when we would expect that scientists had rustled every tree and bush in search of new forms of life, there is no reason why the same should not apply to new species of large primate, including members of the human family.

Cryptic clues

The discoverers of Homo floresiensis suggest that their find could be the first of many, and that other species of recently extinct humans might be discovered on other isolated islands.

But whether other recently extinct (or extant) hominid species are found or not, the fact that even one distinct species of human was found to have lived alongside modern man not only enriches our understanding of recent human diversity; it could change our view of ourselves in a fundamental way.

As far as we know, Homo sapiens is the only species of human that yet lives on the planet. It is very easy to take this solitary estate (and our consequent separateness from the rest of the animal world) for granted, so much has it become ingrained in our philosophy, ethics and religion, even our science.

Until very recently, evolutionary thought was couched in terms of a linear, progressive trajectory rising from lower life forms and culminating in man. I have argued elsewhere that this view is not, regrettably, as extinct as it should be6.

In palaeoanthropology, this idea is seen in the view that only one species of hominid has existed at any one time, each one succeeding the next in a scheme of orderly replacement. This idea began to crumble in the 1970s7, since when discoveries of ancient relatives of humans have revealed a marked diversity of form. Human evolution is like a bush, not a ladder8.

But these discoveries concerned the more remote reaches of human ancestry. Despite the fact that some of our relatives, such as Neanderthal man and Homo erectus, are thought to have become extinct in relatively recent times9, our complacency that this view holds for recent history has not been shaken.

Until now. If it turns out that the diversity of human beings was always high, remained high until very recently and might not be entirely extinguished, we are entitled to question the security of some of our deepest beliefs. Will the real image of God please stand up?

Eclipse coming...not for we peeps in Singapore...so sad...
Mugging bio...scared...difficult...

Moon phases


Physics practical over...i think only those RI RGS peeps would enjoy the paper...Freakin' hard, and the nice 'singly' english Cambridge uses....don't talk much...I'm still feeling good, only knew got a few marks deducted, don't bear to listen anymore...However, my intelligence would not allow me to fail...=)

Yea...chem pract over, tomorrow would be my Physics Practical...

Will talk a little on chem pract, was sad that organic chemistry did not come up, can't smell ester...sad sad...
Titration was the usual sodium thiosulphate and potassium iodide crap...the only thing interesting about this expr was when you forget to add Dilute Sulphuric Acid, you would get a brown ppt which is extremely difficult to wash away...
nd sadly, my titration was off-target by 0.4cm....sad not??!!! Damn man...
And for chemical analysis, i forgot to test for the damned gas called oxygen...No effervescene what, then i forgot. Damn...

never mind, tomorrow would be physics pract, and i'm praying hard not to fall asleep if i need to swing a pendulum...gesh, how i hope bio pract would come soon, yea, then i will get to eat cotelydons....

Orionoid Showers today!

Tomorrow will be chemistry practical...
Been reading about titrations and stuffs...
Suddenly got interested in doing organic chemical analysis...
I can't wait to whiff the smell of ester...
It must be sweet too...
If only i can drink it...

Event over...it was a success...yay...
But, the turnout: 330participants...abit disappointing...lowest in the four years lohz...
Damn Siglap to snatch host from me...I gonna bomb down the school into smithereens.

Corals (Plagiarised from Jani, a marine biologist, Blue Waters Volunteers)

Hi there. I'm here to ask you what corals are? I mean, what they REALLY are? O.K., for those of you who already know, you guys can just go...eat some cake, drink beer or something. For the rest of you, it's time for some learning. Yups, it's not examinable. So...please please don't go away...COME BACK! It's FUN facts. Not serious stuff. I promise to make this short and painless. Promise.


OK, here's the real deal. What do you think corals are? Do you think they're animals? Or plants? Or rocks? Hmm Hmmm Hmmmmm?????

Your coral, as an individual, is essentially an ANIMAL. YES! An animal!! Like you and me...and the tigers and babboons at the zoo! And just like the polar bears at the zoo, these coral polyps (individuals) harbour ALGAE in their bodies. Just that the algae they harbour are not only GREEN, but of many different colours! That's what makes corals so colourful. (By the way, for those muggers out there, the name of the algae harboured in corals is ZOOXANTHELLAE)

The algae photosynthesizes and gives some food to the coral, while the coral provides the algae with a home and protection. Kinda like a landlord and the mafia at the same time. Oh, but not ALL corals like to harbour algae in them though. These are called AHERMATYPIC corals (like, Turbinaria species corals). Most do, though, have algae in them.

The coral polyp is actually just a big huge stomach with a big mouth and many hands. Kinda like me when I'm really really really hungry. Or maybe just during lunch time. Anyway, point is, they're not very complex beings. Here's a what a coral polyp looks like:



This rocky hard housing is actually calcium carbonate secreted by the coral polyps. As individuals die off, it gets built up and up and up to make the corals look bigger and bigger and bigger. Imagine new houses being built on mounds of old torn down houses year after year. Your house would be pretty high up. Same thing for corals, the living tissue is only the first few millimeter and the rest are just old dead houses of corals long and gone. Cool eh.

Two days ago...
Went out with my bestest pal to study...as usual, he being the indecisive guy, made me scratch my mind to look for a place to go...we communicate via sms in class practically for the whole morning and finally we decided to meet in Bishan.
Then, we went Toa Payoh Central food court to makan and then decided to o to Sengkang to mug...Then, after following a chio bu to Boon Keng, we decided to study there...(Actually is coz' we tot can find some p skool mates that could join us)...Then after mugging for 2hrs (I'm finished with NYGS chem paper with a nice score of 87%), Ms Boi Boi wanted to sleep instead of joining us, and Christ dad locked her in the house, bestest pal felt bored and decided to return to Toa Payoh...don't know why...he loves Toa Payoh as much as Emil and Kel...
Before that, we went back Primary School but dear Jennie Hon wasn't there...

Went for a meeting for JOTA JOTI after that...perturbed by some kuai lan gia...kkn...he came when my meeting ended...damn jiao...aanother person made me so fed-up by SMSing during the meeting and WE PLAYED TUG AND WAR game...I felt rather upset frankly, that the group had not matured after i left...

Unity Primary School replied...10participants (I'm Worried for the low turnout)


One day ago...

Graduation day...won the 'Commitment' Award...Lame day...Collect banner from HQ, accompanied by my Chimpanzee friend named Hao Tong, a shuai ge from my class whose results sux...NO ONE CRIED...All speeches sucks, except for Alfred's 'jiao' speech with his imitated sexy voice and squeeky emphasis of important words...

Felt rather happy that almost all my preparation for JOTA JOTI was ready...Mr Alex Choo, damned IT comissioner, praised me for my wonderful proposal and efficiency...It was an achievement on my side...juggling with both studies and project...coz' mi revision is on schedule...

Hong Kah Primary replied...10 participants (Bluffing myself more will reply tomorrow...)

Today
JOTA JOTI preparation on the way...went to school...Teachers smiled at me when i walked past, but shouted at Dennis when they saw him...WHY like that? Scolded him co' he achieved bad academic grades? Is academic so important? You mean lousy academic grade students need to mug all day long? Haha...i don't give much of a damn...coz' i'm don't fall in such category..haha...
MORAL OF STORY: Get good grades...

After dismissal, Koh and i got some minor disagreement, and he blew his top...Haha, it was my fault, but after i had done so much thus far, not even a single flaw till now...And because of a small misunderstanding, he flared...

Well, it's my fault..i kept mum...Knowing an argument would not brng us anywhere...

Went out with another bestest pal, or rather another self-claimed chimpazee Chee How for LUNCH. Mainly all the conversation were about his zha bor...haizz, he asked me to find a mate myself...Damn him...As if i got so much time and effort, and i won't want find another Ms Gorilla...
I admit i criticised him and his gf, that hi relationship would not last..i mean for sure right? I know him rather well, that the girl don't suit him..too bad vulgarities were strewn at me, allowing me only to hurl more obscenities at him...

Then in the evening, he called me. Said he told his gf about my bet with him that he will break up within 6months...Then, his gf guessed it was me instantly...haha...obviously we have 'bad blood' for each other...I DON't WANT GO SCHOOL ON MONDAY LE!!!!!NO FACE MAN...

Evening, clementi Town replied (25participants)...at least something....

Then, HQ Razak called me up to collect the laptop from him and the registration of some other schools...so my hopes were high, thinking at least more MORE MORE schools would register...however, to my utmost disappointment, it wasn't as i hoped...only 4 schools replied to HQ, and 2 of the schools had nothing better to do that they also replied to me...SO ONLY 2 SCHOOLS FROM HQ SIDE...

Then, the laptop doesn't contain the presentations i wanted...i was ultimately sad at this moment! Koh's misunderstanding, the low participation level for the event, the hostile attitute of my juniors, and losing a'bit' of 'face'...

On the way home, with the heavy baggage on my heart and shoulder (laptop), i saw a Cedar Chio Bu in the bus...a cute girl, wearing the usual Cedarian Skirt and a round-neck shirt which i reckon was a class T-shirt...Carrying a bag of canvas blue, topped with chains of mickey mouse...Our eyes met, i was standing 2metres from her (She can't see my pimples!! haha). More glances were exchanged...
When i alighted, i need to cross the road, and while waiting at the traffic light, the bus whizzed past, but i caught a glance of her, and she also caught a glance of me...haa...so fun...

Perhaps that's the only nice thing for the day...

10minutes from now, Kelvin Chew told me that there should be other schools that would come uninvited...that at least cheered me up a little...

And before i clicked the 'post' button, one joker laughed at me for taking up this project...I am sad again...

Disorientated...

The project is getting a hold on me. I'm extremely stressed...I'm trying to find sponsors who could supply me with $500 ++ bucks...and till now guess what, the sum remained ZERO. I desperately need help. and in my desperation, i told my father about my project status. He gasped in absolute horror of the inefficiency of HQ and SARTS personnel. He is now pushing me like hell, reminding my project every now and then...

Well, i seriously do not need constant reminders...nor help...i did not request any help from my seniors, knowing they would not help me much. Perhaps i'm just arrogant, sheer arrogance led me to the disoriented state i'm in. All my committee members are mugging for exams, and of course i cant disturb them.

JOTI had some problems...the damned technician obviously does not have initiative...i had to copy and paste the mIRC program for him to download in Computer Laboratory 3...Damn, he could have search for it himself...

I don't want to waste another day...but it seemed i had no choice...Kelvin, the adult badge coordinator called...Alex choo, the IT commissioner called...koh called...Herry called....blah blah...blah blah....lots more unsaid...

10minutes up...i got to check my mails and send more emails to companies to reach for sponsors...I think i should ask some girls to help me with their guillable tougue...

Sea Slug (Glossodoris atromarginata) and more rumblings


First and foremost, will need to thank Ms Qin for helping me with the damned haloscan commenting system...It's working alright now! Thank you! Dedicate picture to you..hee...

Okay, i'm rather busy with my this JOTA/JOTI project. The idea of it being a national project involving commissioners makes me quiver with fear. I'm rather scared i'm not up to the job...

I'm done with circulating invitations to all Singapore School, with my BIG name at the footer as coordinator...haha..And i'm done with my proposal which was approved...I'd just submitted my banner proposal to the producer...Had liaised with the badge coordinator...had confirmed with volunteers who would help out in booths on that day...had confirmed with the food caterer...

I met the IT commissioner this morning...supposed to meet him at 8am, but he came at 9...gave me a firm handshake that my bones cracked...Then, he wanted me to present him my proposal, then do a powerpoint presentation, then blah blah blah......

My guys are having exams and i'm having my 'o's soon...what an idiot!

Moon lightning...

Wonderful, isn't it?
Guess what, i'm reading Newtonian mathematica OPTICKS...

Human populations are tightly interwoven

Michael Hopkin
Family tree shows our common ancestor lived just 3,500 years ago

The most recent common ancestor of all humanity lived just a few thousand years ago, according to a computer model of our family tree. Researchers have calculated that the mystery person, from whom everyone alive today is directly descended, probably lived around 1,500 BC in eastern Asia.

Douglas Rohde of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and his colleagues devised the computer program to simulate the migration and breeding of humans across the world. By estimating how different groups intermingle, the researchers built up a picture of how tightly the world's ancestral lines are linked.

The figure of 1,500 BC might sound surprisingly recent. But think how wide your own faily tree would be if you extended it back that far. Lurking somewhere in your many hundreds of ancestors at that date is likely to be somebody who crops up in the corresponding family tree for anyone alive in 2004.

In fact, if it were not for the fact that oceans helped to keep populations apart, the human race would have mingled even more freely, the researchers argue. "The most recent common ancestor for a randomly mating population would have lived in the very recent past," they write in this week's Nature1.

Striking out

To work out how much different groups of humans mingled, Rohde's team simulated the rates at which a few pioneering people made journeys across the world to meet and breed with other populations. Their model gave each individual a certain probability of quitting their home town, country or continent and striking out for pastures new.

They were then able to name a time and place at which our most recent common ancestor lived. But who was this person? He or she must have had a flourishing family, says Rohde. "Maybe it was someone who happened to have 40 children or some such astronomical number," he says. "But it could equally have been someone with above-average productivity for a few generations." Instead of two kids, Rohde suggests, maybe the person and his or her direct descendants had three.

The fact that the person probably lived in Asia is down to its prime position along the most commonly used migration routes, Rohde suggests. "East Asia is at a crossroads," he says. "It's close to the Bering Strait and the Pacific."

No isolation

Rohde's simulation aims to include everyone alive today, and therefore relies on the assumption that no population has remained completely isolated for any significant length of time. Rohde is confident that this is the case; even Tasmania, once thought to be isolated by choppy seas, contains no people with purely Tasmanian blood.

If we discount those living in the world's remotest places, the common ancestor becomes more recent still, says Mark Humphrys, who studies human family trees at Dublin City University in Ireland. "Looking at the whole sweep of the Americas, Europe, Asia, right across to Japan, I wouldn't be surprised if we had a common ancestor in the AD years," he says.

A single prolific parent can have a vast influence once their descendants begin to multiply, Humphrys says. "The entire Western world is descended from Charlemagne, for example," he says. "There's really no doubt."

All or nothing

Besides dating our most recent common ancestor, Rohde's team also calculates that in 5,400 BC everyone alive was either an ancestor of all of humanity, or of nobody alive today. The researchers call this the 'identical ancestors' point: the time before which all the family trees of people today are composed of exactly the same individuals.

This recent date is not really surprising either, Rohde says. Anyone whose lineage survived for a few generations was likely to have descendants spread all over the world. At the identical ancestors point, then, our ancestors came from every corner of the globe, although those from far afield are unlikely to have made a significant contribution to our genetic make-up.

Nonetheless, the results show that we are one big family, Rohde says. As he and his colleagues write: "No matter the languages we speak or the colour of our skin, we share ancestors with those who planted rice on the banks of the Yangtze, who first domesticated horses on the steppes of the Ukraine, who hunted giant sloths in the forests of North and South America, and who laboured to build the Great Pyramid of Khufu."

Damn...i can't view my comments! It appeared as nothing for the past few days...HELP!!! Haiz, i'm stressed.

Comparison between nice weather and bad weather





How nice is it??

Circumzenith arc....this is not a rainbow!



Wonder what happened to my haloscan...

11.34am Another Dilemma

Finished Da Vinci...nice...

The PSA candidate replied to HQ in the morning...Mr Koh broke the news to me, asking me whether i would like to work together with him or do it myself...
Of course, ME, being a nice person, i thought working together with the PSA would in fact help him a lot...
I was asked to give HQ a call...the senior operation officer told me to work with him, i thought i don't have a choice at first, and i don't want to make a big fuss out of this thing...
I was doing the project out of 'sheer fun', to test myself and to fill myself with satisfaction of chairing a national project. While he had a reason to take up the project--a PSA project. Furthermore, in my conversation with the senior operation officer, he was 18 and needed the project desperately...
Being a nice soul, i agreed to help him...
I called back Mr Koh, told him my decision...he somehow hinted to me that i would not benefit after all, if i had cooperated with him. He would claim all the credit, and as he had a REASON to do the project, and HQ won't accept my report. The piece of cake will not be shared! It's so unfair...However, the ball is still in my court, and i could still choose how to serve it before it's too late...
Yea...i called back HQ, and stood by my stand...then reluctantly the senior operation officer agreed to let me handle the project myself...

Koh was bad...he purposely did not make the choice obvious to me...he just hinted...and when i called him back again after my second HQ call, he sounded relief, as if i made the right decision...
But exactly, did i make the right decision? I think i had...My good friend was asleep, at the right time, so no advices this time...right not pig?
Think that guy poor thing...he got to handle another project le, with no professional help...