Happy day which only comes once every four years! I'm sure that there are many superstitions associated with this day, even though it's added to the calendar for mere convenience.
Tomorrow is my PhD's anniversary as well, which is... less exciting. It's just another reminder that time is trickling away. There's never enough time, it seems, to find all the answers.
Wednesday, 29 February 2012
Sunday, 19 February 2012
Scale of the Universe 2
Or, how to feel small and insignificant.
Humans can't comprehend large numbers. It's only when a bigger and a smaller number or objects are placed side by side that the differences are obvious, and even then it can be hard to comprehend. The creators of the Scale of the Universe series have done a great thing here.
(The Large Hadron Collider is bigger than Vatican City? Seriously?)
(Actually it's bigger than Uluru as well. And the Titanic looks quite comfortable sitting next to the International Space Station.)
(I need to think a little.)
Humans can't comprehend large numbers. It's only when a bigger and a smaller number or objects are placed side by side that the differences are obvious, and even then it can be hard to comprehend. The creators of the Scale of the Universe series have done a great thing here.
(The Large Hadron Collider is bigger than Vatican City? Seriously?)
(Actually it's bigger than Uluru as well. And the Titanic looks quite comfortable sitting next to the International Space Station.)
(I need to think a little.)
Thursday, 9 February 2012
Update XXX: Thirty Posts Titled "Update"
Quick check in here - been stupidly busy. SO MANY EXPERIMENTS. I am a fiend of science.
Whatever that means.
There was a great short story in Nature last month. Go take a gander. (Make sure that you're not eating anything, or intending to eat anything. There's a fair amount of squick.)
Whatever that means.
There was a great short story in Nature last month. Go take a gander. (Make sure that you're not eating anything, or intending to eat anything. There's a fair amount of squick.)
Monday, 23 January 2012
Back Again
In Australia, again.
I think I have a cold.
(This post has the exact same title as one from last year, except in reverse. I really must be jetlagged to find that amusing.)
I think I have a cold.
(This post has the exact same title as one from last year, except in reverse. I really must be jetlagged to find that amusing.)
Thursday, 19 January 2012
Blue Ball Machine
It's sorta like a Rube Goldberg machine, only insane.
But check out all those details! Those hypnotising, hypnotising details.
But check out all those details! Those hypnotising, hypnotising details.
Tuesday, 10 January 2012
Unpublished Post: In the New Year
(Note from the future: I found this post in my drafts, it was never published for any reason that I can see.)
The (Chinese) New Year is almost upon us! I'm irrationally excited because this is the Year of the Dragon, and I'm a dragon. (This also means that my age this year will be a multiple of 12.)
I discovered that the Today newspaper publishes a Sudoku puzzle almost daily. Sudoku puzzles are fun! I've even gotten the hang of the 5-star difficulty ones, and no longer have to slave for 3 hours over them.
I recently had some Kinokuniya vouchers to spare, so I got hold of Black Jack volumes 16 and 17. Black Jack is a manga series about a renegade surgeon with incredible skills and a tendency to be involved in the most bizarre of medical situations. (Building a little girl out of a teratoid cystoma? Surgery on a computer? Surgery on himself while suffering from a parasitic disease and being attacked by wild dingoes in the Australian outback? All in a day's work for Dr. Black Jack.) The stories are well-written with a balance of humour, seriousness and poignancy. In spite of Dr. Black Jack's almost godlike skills, he cannot save everyone, and his personal life is beset with tragedy. Yet there are the moments of fourth-wall breaking silliness, triumph and sheer awesomeness. (Self-surgery! Dingoes, I'm telling you!)
Also, the art is excellent. Poo to all those people who think art has to be realistic to be good. Black Jack is unashamedly cartoony, and yet there's a brilliance about the composition of each panel, even the panel layout as a whole. (In one story, a ship is rocking badly in a storm, tossing its passengers back and forth. The panels angle diagonally and even crisscross to reflect the movement.)
tl;dr Black Jack is an awesome manga about an awesome doctor, definitely a series I recommend.
The (Chinese) New Year is almost upon us! I'm irrationally excited because this is the Year of the Dragon, and I'm a dragon. (This also means that my age this year will be a multiple of 12.)
I discovered that the Today newspaper publishes a Sudoku puzzle almost daily. Sudoku puzzles are fun! I've even gotten the hang of the 5-star difficulty ones, and no longer have to slave for 3 hours over them.
I recently had some Kinokuniya vouchers to spare, so I got hold of Black Jack volumes 16 and 17. Black Jack is a manga series about a renegade surgeon with incredible skills and a tendency to be involved in the most bizarre of medical situations. (Building a little girl out of a teratoid cystoma? Surgery on a computer? Surgery on himself while suffering from a parasitic disease and being attacked by wild dingoes in the Australian outback? All in a day's work for Dr. Black Jack.) The stories are well-written with a balance of humour, seriousness and poignancy. In spite of Dr. Black Jack's almost godlike skills, he cannot save everyone, and his personal life is beset with tragedy. Yet there are the moments of fourth-wall breaking silliness, triumph and sheer awesomeness. (Self-surgery! Dingoes, I'm telling you!)
Also, the art is excellent. Poo to all those people who think art has to be realistic to be good. Black Jack is unashamedly cartoony, and yet there's a brilliance about the composition of each panel, even the panel layout as a whole. (In one story, a ship is rocking badly in a storm, tossing its passengers back and forth. The panels angle diagonally and even crisscross to reflect the movement.)
tl;dr Black Jack is an awesome manga about an awesome doctor, definitely a series I recommend.
Sunday, 1 January 2012
MMXII
Happy New Year!
According to certain people, the world ends this year. End of the year or no, I prefer to take a leaf from Pascal's book, and continue with the assumption that the world isn't going to end.
I tend to take some time and reflect, at the end of the year. Last year I was lonely, my life spinning out of my control, and I was unsure of what would happen to me. Last year's reflective entry had a tone of desperation which makes me wince now, because I can clearly see the mistakes I was making and they shouldn't have happened.
Then again, hindsight is always like that, isn't it?
This year, I pulled myself up, out of the morass I'd watered for myself. I learnt to accept myself, and to live, really live. I think I grew up more this year than I have before. I think this was the year I finally became an adult.
Last year I wrote that there's never any time. This year I realised that time isn't a commodity which needs to be spent.
I wonder what I will think next year?
To the new year.
According to certain people, the world ends this year. End of the year or no, I prefer to take a leaf from Pascal's book, and continue with the assumption that the world isn't going to end.
I tend to take some time and reflect, at the end of the year. Last year I was lonely, my life spinning out of my control, and I was unsure of what would happen to me. Last year's reflective entry had a tone of desperation which makes me wince now, because I can clearly see the mistakes I was making and they shouldn't have happened.
Then again, hindsight is always like that, isn't it?
This year, I pulled myself up, out of the morass I'd watered for myself. I learnt to accept myself, and to live, really live. I think I grew up more this year than I have before. I think this was the year I finally became an adult.
Last year I wrote that there's never any time. This year I realised that time isn't a commodity which needs to be spent.
I wonder what I will think next year?
To the new year.
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