CBC Newsworld

I'm getting quite addicted to this channel, especially their show the Passionate Eye. I just hope that it's not like another CNN or something. I too, also watched an episode of the passionate eye where they were talking about racism towards aboriginals and how this one lady was trying to teach about racism by reversing the situation. The one thing that really got to me was how one aboriginal stated that he felt insulted when people treat him like any other average person. Usually people think they're not racist because they don't really take notice of their heritage or what not, but judge them based on their character. Yet, to that aboriginal man, that was insulting because people were not acknowledging his heritage. He basically said why can't you see me as a brown eyed person? So yeah, I wonder how many times people have offended without even knowing?

Just now, I finished watching an episode of David Suzuki's the Nature of Things (also on the same channel), where he talked about Union Carbide (now Dow) and the accident in Bhopal. I wonder how much power these companies have. The US gov't isn't really doing anything either unless they can link it to national security (ie safety of chemical plants located in the US). But one other thing that came to my mind is that the episode I saw seem to be quite one sided. Almost like someone else...

In response to my previous post, as someone who does believe in evolution, I really want to know what he said. I suppose it's a theory, but I only know of evidence for, not really any against.

Evolution

While I thought the movie was somewhat funny, that's not the point of this entry. What I want is: Evolution - fact or fiction?

Project Implicit

Well, I got this link Project Implicit and did the gender-career test... and my result - inconclusive... great... now not only do I not know what I wanna do, but I dunno my gender :D Ha ha, no, it doesn't mean that... but it's quite interesting doing the test - you'll see as you do it...

[edit]I just did a couple of other tests and I noticed something - for some reason, it appears to be training me to enter stuff even though it shouldn't really be... Ah well...

Heh, fine, I retract my closet Buffy statement - you are now a proud Buffy fan. Hrmmm, as for how many more apps to go, I don't know - I'm gonna look at Western, but at first glance, they don't seem to do what I want... well, if I don't get in, maybe I'll try for the teach english in (ie japan, taiwan, etc).

The waiting game...

I just mailed off my grad app to UT... gonna mail (or drop off rather :D) UW's soon. Now I can only wait and see....

Someone just showed me this Time Cube - it's somewhat interesting...

Symposium - La fin!

I'm sooooooo fucking sore and thirsty right now. We just spent a good 12 hrs just standing and talking (8:30am to 8:30pm...) But I think our fourth year design project symposium went well. There were tons of cool projects - and I think CTV interviewed Nelson's group!

Heh, anyway, I thought of uncertainty principle like an hour after I wrote the damn thing (and it took me like an hour or so to write the last entry since I kept on writing stuff and erasing since I ended up not wanting some of the stuff in public... watching tv also doesn't help either :D) But yeah, I totally forgot about the name Heisenberg, so good call on that one XDDDDDDDDD (btw, XDDDDD = cross eyed + many big tongues/smiles... i've really only seen fobs use it.... but it appears to be the happier you are, the more DDDDDDDDDDD's u add, heh)

Thanks, and I would probably enjoy reading it, but right now, I'm so busy, it's ridiculous. I just finished symposium and my weekend is essentially full again... !@#%#@$@#!@#@ Grad apps, biomed assignment, researching night vision systems, photonics homework, and helping out with my prof in setting up some crap... ugh.... (he comes to my booth in the symposium and says like "we should have a meeting - can you come in on friday morning?" that kind of ruined my nice 3 day weekend that starts thurs after lunch...) But anyway, yeah, sometimes on the way home, Chris would bring up these quantum mech stuff and we'd talk about it - but unfortunately, i dunno enough to have a meaningful conversation. he was talking about theories like what if the universe is not going "forward" or expanding, but rather going backwards, just that to us, it appears as if we're going forward. oh yeah, i obtained da vinci code, still have to read it... argh^2!!!! all in all, I guess my last entry should've stated somewhere that I believe true and untrue science are not all that unlike, and I was trying to draw parallels between the two, hence the approximation in econ via distribution graphs and the "ideal physics world" for science experiments...

Finally, computers making a weird noise is never good - you should just give your system to me :D Hrmm what else... oh yeah, how can I forget - DS9 RULES, and if you don't agree - let's agree to disagree... and agree that you have poor taste in shows XDDDD But then again, I'm starting to get hooked on Buffy (no, not the girl - the show!)

Dream come true...

Today, I just experienced what prolly many men could only dream of - waking up surrounded by hot women. XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Unfortunately....
1) They're cute, not hot - but hey, those of you who know me... XDDDDDDDDDDD (so yeah, maybe this shouldn't really go under unfortunate... alright, file it as fortunate :D)
2) They came to see the house, not me >D (I wonder what they were thinking when a grumpy, half-asleep guy came to answer the door...) Ah well, perhaps next time... I can still dream can't I?

Heh, on a more serious note - I also believe in the importance of "non-scientific" topics - but I disagree with a few things. Firstly, just because it's "true science," that doesn't mean it's predictable. In fact, there's a name for some theory about how you can't measure something without affecting it in quantum mechanics (I can't think of the name at the moment, but I'll ask Chris - he should know...) Even atoms have an electron cloud, not a known orbit - it's all probabilities... meaning you can't 100% certain. So yeah, I'd like to point out that in "true science" - there are also inherent unpredictability. Just look at forecasting weather - we've been doing that for how long now?

This leads me to my second point - that BECAUSE of all of these factors which results in inherent unpredictability in nature, we need to have the scientific method and need to make it "sterile and static" in order to have some tangible conclusions. I don't claim to be an econ expert or anything, but isn't that like what approximations are for? Like in "true science" - nothing is 100%, but it will most likely follow some distribution/probability curve and have a high probability of occuring in such a way. a.k.a approximations, if you will, since we know that it should end up being similar to so and so, given a condition. (Gaussian curve anyone?) To me, I view that was a way of making it "sterile and static" since we're approximating it to reduce the # of variables.

Anyway, I still fully agree with the importance of non-science or non-engineering fields. While I believe everything can be accounted for via science - we're bound to social science whether we like it or not. Successful inventions - why're they succcessful? Because of their technology? Perhaps... But also because society accepted them. (Software startup companies anyone?) However, if I can make a borg and assimilate the rest... screw individuality :D Figuring out the market will be so much simpler if we're all alike... Now I'm going off topic... Hrmm, on a side note, I found my "artsy" courses (anthro, psych, econ, society and technological values, etc) to be harder than my technical ones! I miss the days of 1+1=2. Ah well, back to prepping for symposium tomorrow...

Symposium coming up!

Well, for those of you who can't make it to loo this wed, here's a sneak peek at our crap... errr, I mean project. If we don't get our posters on time, this will have to suffice. I seriously hope I won't have to make many changes to the animation between now and 8am wednesday... BTW, solar car pic was obtained from Midnight Sun and was nicely edited by Kuo (just look at the old solar car pic I used in the previous link...) I got other pics from elsewhere, as I can't draw... and I definitely can't draw even on a computer.

Flash Animation. Enjoy!

Oh, on another topic, here's Bible vs. science war rages on in classrooms.

Boston Legal

Damn, I didn't think this series was gonna do well after The Practice, but I'm watching it now and there's sooooooooooo many famous ppl (can't say big names as not all of them are,) but I can guarantee you've seen almost every one of them in some movie or long running series somewhere (even Odo from DS9 is in there XDDDDD) Granted names <> quality show, and usually, it's quite the contrary since they require them to draw the crowd, but I love most of these actors. They're awesome! It's also kind of cool how they're having clients from The Practice appearing again in this show. I like continuity in shows... Lets see how he can handle the budget with this cast...

Follow your nose!

No wonder he says that, since the colours seem off!!! I'm here eating my cereal and I notice something - lime green froot loops??? It's been prolly a good couple of years since I last had froot loops and I seriously don't remember a lime green colour. In fact, as I'm looking at my cereal now, all of the colours just seem off!!! Ah well, at least they still taste as good XDDDDDDDDD

Oh yeah, good news: Op-amp works afterall (ie it didn't fry)
Bad news: someone find me a better solar car clip art pls??? This solar car "isn't showing up so hot..." - Animation

We'll find out on monday if the board works somewhat... Weeee, time for more froot loops!

Poof!

...and it's gone.
Good news: reported was finished and handed in on time (but no comment on the quality) :P
Bad news: we were working in the lab at around 6 or 7 in the evening when I heard a "crack" and I thought I saw our pcb jump. We didn't think much of it since we found a screw on the floor and figured it must have fell on the board and landed on the ground. Anyway, later on, we discovered that our phase shifters weren't working properly - in fact, the biased lines had 0V!!!! After much testing (and prolly cursing,) we realized that (a) our layout was wrong (our PCB was designed for a 900MHz component's layout, but when we had it replaced with a 400MHz one, we didn't think the pinouts of the new component would change too, esp since it was from the same manufacturer and in same casing, etc.) and as a result of (a), we had (b) fried one of our op-amps. So yay, now we really have nothing to show next wed... :D

On the bright side, time to focus on our poster and presentation...

Oh, I've also decided to go with the techy course. Gomen! I sat in on a class and I actually enjoyed it (since it was kind of informal) and I learned stuff. (Not that I wasn't learning stuff in my east asian course). I finally decided to drop east asian because I really want to learn about the history more so than the culture it is now. From what I could gather from my 3hr class, while the prof did talk a bit about the history, she focused more so on the culture we see today, and then maybe talk about how it came to be. I don't blame her since the course is supposed to be about the culture, and it's supposed to cover China, Japan and Korea, so there's no possible way to start from "Day 1" for each... but I wanted to learn more about their history, and then see how their history brought about the cultures we see today, not the other way around. It was a tough decision, but since I enjoyed the other course more, I decided to go with it. Hopefully I'll find time to learn about them on my own... hrmm, since someone made it into Mandarin this term - if he keeps it, maybe I'll borrow his txtbook and learn how to read/write something other than 一二三四 :D

And no, I'm not jealous... DS9 rules! No talk-back! (or whatever that line is...)

What are you, nuts?

I read this somewhere...

"...spoke of DS9's superiority over B5.
I must respectfully disagree."

and thought "what are you, nuts???" Although perhaps I should watch more than a handful of B5 (babylon 5) - if I can stay awake for that long =D I think I'd sooner watch Farscape (which is actually very good - and the only series with an ending I never saw coming)

Our FYDP report is now postponed till 4:30pm tomorrow instead of 12pm.... yay, 4.5 more hours of BSing and sleep :D

Misc. videos

Okay, I was sent this dude's video several times, so I'm just gonna post it for whoever was left out of the loop. I was actually impressed by his lip-syncing - but I've no clue what the words mean... Dude Here's another version with some ppl's postings about their thoughts on the video, perhaps someone translated the song in there :/ Dude again with various comments. On the topic of videos, someone from my class posted this and I found it somewhat interesting - http://mediamatters.org/static/video/cc-200412010011.wmv. Now I'm just curious if these actually made the air - but I'm kind of glad if they did - at least there's some freedom of speech...

Marks vs learning?

I'm at a point where I have to pick courses and right now I'm stuck between two courses - east asian culture, where I will undoubtedly learn something of interest and hey, I'll learn about the chinese, japanese and korean culture... or should I take a technical course (embedded real-time systems) where it SHOULD be easier just because of the topics covered and i tend to fair better in these type of courses? There's only 2 midterms, labs and a project - no final. As a result, the marks should be spread out and thus, not heavily weighed upon the performance of exams. East asian has 3 midterms - one for each culture, so it's also spread out, but it'll prolly be essay like. Sigh... Oh yeah, anyone got textbook connections? The place I normally go to is out of stock for one of my course!@#$$!@#@

IM:2 Many

There's way too many instant messenging programs out there. Which ones do you use? I'm still pro ICQ, but so many are switching to MSN (and I do like the fact that MSN loads faster since I don't keep history for my MSN.) But there's still AOL, Yahoo etc. Why can't people just stay on one thing??? I know there's all in one programs like Miranda out there, but they're buggy... Anyway, I'm done bitching. I saw The Aviator yesterday and so far, I'm pleased with their accuracy (I've upgraded the movie to okay from crappy due to this fact), although the movie could have been edited much better. I read up on Howard Hughes when I got home and I'm surprised by how much impact his company and its people had - from DirecTV to Apache helicoptors. But then again, this area used the same people - Arrow engineers went to NASA, etc. Guess rocket scientists were in demand at the time huh... But yeah, SO FAR I couldn't really find spots in the movie that were incorrect, so yeah, that's a plus on my list. (Although I haven't found anything on PanAm being bed buddy with the senator.) I just felt parts of the movie were needlessly dragged out and repeated. Ah well, I'm sort of glad I watched the movie - it made me read up on this Howard Hughes dude. Much better than watching some crap Nicolas Cage :D

[Edit] Well, nvm as apparently some of the events in the movie didn't happen in the right time/timeline, so some events never happened at all as portrayed in the movie. Maybe this will soon be added to the list below...

Hollywooded

Actually, I was gonna blog about whether it is right to purchase something like The Passion of the Christ since I am more on the agnostic side. It would seem like I value it more for its entertainment than religious value, which makes me feel insulting (not insulted). I thought it is one of the better films I have seen in a while, and thus have considered adding it to my collection. But wouldn't that be similar to objectifying or devaluing a belief that many people live and die by? Have I succumbed to the luring pleasure of materialism and living in the moment? The big machine known as entertainment, where everything is depicted as both personal and distant at the same time, doesn't help. We're constantly being bombarded by shows that try to depict our everyday life (sit-coms like Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, etc) and on the other hand, what lives could be (drama, reality shows, etc). Using this formula, they've successfully lured us in by having situations we can identify with so we can point and laugh along (and also AT since they also try to distance the absurd so we won't feel too insulted). So they've lured us, where am I going with this? I'm starting to see people start living the life they see in these shows. Shows like Friends setting trends, etc. I don't know if brainwashing is the right word, but it's almost as if our view [of the world] is becoming smaller and smaller, and our knowledge is more dependent on what we see on TV (and I'm certainly guilty of this). But this is nothing new. What really peeves me is the supposed "documentaries" that don't really report the complete truth. From Michael Moore to even news of the documentary on Michael Jackson a while back, I wonder how people could just make up some of these stories and "report" them. But what of this "Hollywooded"? Recently, I have seen many movies that are based on true stories. That's fine and dandy, since they're "based" on true stories, but how many people out there take them for real? Interestingly enough, I wasn't gonna blog about these inaccurate portrayals until I did some digging and came across arguments of the portrayal of Jesus in movies, such as his colour, appearance, etc. I myself don't know anything about this topic, so I can't comment on the accuracies of these arguments, but it just reminded me of other movies like A Beautiful Mind, Gladiator, The Last Samurai, etc. where supposedly research was done, yet they appeared to disregard their findings. For A Beautiful Mind, John Nash is portrayed as going crazy with a gov't conspiracy instead of he thinks aliens are talking to him. Gladiator, the thumbs up or down for mercy or not is actually thumbs pointing to the throat. At the time, if they were to be killed, it was a quick jab into the neck - hence thumb to the throat. Ridley Scott based it on this one painting that I've no clue what it's called, but it portrayed the thumbs down, so I guess I can't fault him 100%. At least for The Last Samurai, they said how the system was like at the time in Japan in the special features. I also heard similar inconsistancies with The Terminal, but I haven't seen it, so I don't know. Anyway, you get the point - things are changed so it becomes more entertaining. In Troy, Achilles lives until the trojan horse is brought into the city, when according to the poems, he died soon after killing Hector and several other people. In fact, although this is a version, he's said to be lovers with Patroclus. Patch Adam's life wasn't as portrayed in the movie - but I'll admit the changes made the movie better.

So yeah, as people start believing what they see on TV, these tendencies are transferred over to movies which appear to be historically correct. I'm just waiting for the Hollywood movie labelled as "A True Story," cause I know then people wouldn't even bother looking up the facts afterward. Hrmmm, now I wonder if the moon landing really did happen?