You Have to Decide Whether You’re a Tigger or an Eeyore

The book The Last Lecture caught my eye in a bookstore a few days ago, and later I found out that it was based on a lecture given by Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon.

Now, I’ve heard about a “last lecture” a few months ago, and frankly I was expecting a frail dying man imparting his wisdom on how to live.

Imagine my surprise when a fit, happy and upbeat guy came onto the stage! He talked on childhood dreams.

Overall, the talk, which is actually titled Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams is truly inspiring, very hopeful and not morose at all. The fact that it was geeky, means that I could relate a lot, and sustained my interest (not that you’ll actually feel the whole 76 minutes going by).

The best part though, are the many great quotes/advices peppered along the talk, like:

• “Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things.”
• “Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you want.”
• “Wait, and people will surprise you.”
• “Decide if you’re a Tigger or an Eeyore.”
• “Loyalty is a two-way street.”
• “Don’t bail; the best gold is at the bottom of barrels of crap.”
• “Don’t complain; just work harder".”
• “Be good at something: it makes you valuable.”
• “Luck is where preparation meets opportunity.”

If you have some spare time, or in the mood for some productive procrastination, do give it a watch.

Note: Randy Pausch passed away on 25th July 2008.

Nothing Escapes Death: Farewell Michael Crichton and Phoenix Mars Lander

I guess I have to get used to having my favourite authors passing away one by one.

Yesterday, renowned best-selling techno-thriller author and biotech geek Michael Crichton died at the age of 66. His death was caused by a yet-to-be-announced cancer.

He will always have a special place in my heart. Among my first serious (read: thick paperback) novels were Crichton’s, and my subsequent interest in science was ultimately piqued by them.

It has always astounded me, how a lot of scientific and technical research was put into his books. The stories are usually followed by pages of appendix, documents and discussions. Although a lot of them utilise false document, you just can’t deny the sense of authenticity that they possess.

My favourite? Sphere. It started as a sci-fi adventure in deep sea, which evolved into a surreal take into psychology. I can still remember the concept of “a perfectly spherical structure is a sign of a really advanced technology”.

Not many people know that Crichton was also a prolific contributor in the TV and film industry. Besides being the creator of the long-running medical drama ER, Crichton also wrote the screenplay for The First Great Train Robbery, Twister and directed a number of movies.

I hope the novel he was working on right before his death will get to be published soon.

* * * * *

The saddest story in science this year has got to be the shutdown of the Phoenix Mars Lander due to insufficient solar coverage to recharge during the Martian winter. Not only that, the punishing climate will also most probably damage its system and parts.

If you have been following the lander on Twitter, you’ll get what I mean. It’s like hearing the last words of an abandoned astronaut in a distant star, his supplies running low and there’s only so much oxygen left…And you can’t do anything about it to rescue him.

John Herman of Gizmodo said it the best:

To the Phoenix, I say we’re right there with you, buddy. To NASA, I say STOP PERSONIFYING YOUR ROBOTS, IT ONLY LEADS TO PAIN.

I agree, mate. It’s just too depressing listening to Phoenix talking ever so calmly and high-spirited about its slow descent into death, and seemingly impossible chance of rebirth.

You can read Phoenix looking back at its life with its guest-blogging spot in Gizmodo, before the cold harsh winter swallows it.

Wired graciously ran a contest to create an epitaph for the lovable lander. I’d go with

It is enough for me. But for you, I plead: go farther, still.

I’ll wait for you next Martian summer with bated breath.

Cool Concepts in Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain

Michael Crichton has always been one of the favourite authors of me and Puteri, and he played a big part in introducing me to novel reading. The Andromeda Strain was the first novel he wrote and was the one which debuted him as a master of sci-fi and techno-thriller.

I loved the book, and was excited to hear that Sci-Fi Channel had produced a miniseries based on the book. I’ve finally got the chance to watch the two-episode miniseries, and quite immensely enjoyed it, despite its many corny cliches. Among others, the main bunch of casts was conveniently altered to accommodate the almost prerequisite quotas of the handsome protagonist, the hottie love interest, the black, the Asian and the gay.

The miniseries, although differing from the novel in a lot of ways, does however have a chockful of interesting scientific concepts. Among others:

• Thermal vent mining
  Some hydrothermal vents possess rich deposits of metals and minerals, which can produce profit if exploited. The mini-series explores the attempt of the American president in convincing his citizens the returns of vent mining, amidst the protests of environmentalists and eco-terrorists.
• Odd-Man Hypothesis
  This fictional hypothesis posits that statistically, single unmarried males are better able to execute the best, most dispassionate decisions in crises.
• Buckyballs
  Fullerene, or Buckyballs (named after American genius Buckminster Fuller), are spherical constructs made from carbon atoms. In the miniseries, the casing for Andromeda was a buckyball in the form of 60 carbon atoms, interlinked with rubidium and potassium. The manufacturing of buckyballs was suggested as a really advanced form of nanotechnology which is not available at present times.
• Messenger theory
  This refers to a theory by John R. Samuels, a communications engineer who postulates that an advanced race of extra-terresterials would have used biological organisms, specifically self-replicating ones, to carry messages to other races due to its practical advantage over other forms of communications such as electromagnetic signals, light or radio.
• Communication between particles
  It was suggested that isolated particles  of Andromeda possess ability to communicate with each other using subtle vibrations, which is mighty impressive.
• Binary code and ASCII
  Binary code is the simplest and most practical way of carrying data, and an advanced civilisation from the future will most likely encode their message to people in the past using binary code, and the most basic of all standards of encoding: ASCII.
• Extremophiles
  Extremophiles are organisms, mostly microbes that thrives in extreme conditions such as extreme heat, acidity or pressure. In the mini-series, the thermophilic sulfur-consuming bacillus infernus was discovered as the solution to destroy Andromeda.
• Wormholes
  Two basic types of wormholes, Lorentzian and Euclidean, were featured. Wormholes are basically hypothetical anomalies that theoretically can tunnel through space or time, hence enabling faster-than-light space travel or even time travel. There’s also another type cals Swartzchild wormhole, that theoretically enables us to travel through parallel universes.

There you go, the miniseries does throw concepts at you from left and right, but if you have a deep interest in science, you’d love it, despite its corniness (is that a word?) and obvious shot at resource exploitation. You’d probably catch already that time or space travel is involved. It’ll make for a mindblowing watch.

Do You Know Where Your Towel Is?

Possibly hundreds celebrated (maybe secretly, as in the case of yours truly) Towel Day today, a tribute to unmistakably one of the funniest genius ever: Douglas Adams.

What started as a joke took life as one of the most sacred rule in his seminal work, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy (H2G2).One of the first advice For Prefect gave to Arthur Dent was to get his towel.

It’s no surprise that H2G2 has captured many hearts—it’s just achingly hilarious. Just take a look at this compiled uses of towel for a hitchhiker around the galaxy.

This section in H2G2 explained one of them:

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

I can still remember my feeling of disgust when I read the part where somebody ate the mold on the towel for nutrition, or drink from the moisture of the towel. Suffice to say, I laughed hard through the absurdity of the idea, though when you think hard it does make a lot of sense where survival is concerned.

Which is exactly what I like the most about Douglas Adams—the absurd concepts that he came out with.

Maybe some other time, I’ll talk about the ingenuity of the Babel fish, the mindboggling Bistromathic drive or the annoying doors that sigh in pleasure for a job well done.

But just for now, I urge you to pick the book and be prepared to be tickled silly. Yes, the UNSW library has a copy of the complete trilogy of 4 books!

There’s a reason why the book was number 4 on the BBC’s Big Read list.

Until then…42!

thanks for the ta’verens

Just over a month ago, on 16th September 2007, Robert Jordan finally left the world, and much to the dismay of his fans.

I was one of those grieving fans.

The news of his passing reached me through Boing Boing, and I could still remember the heartache. I remember asking Puteri what the hell primary amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy (cardiac amyloidosis) was, and she explained that it’s a very serious condition. I remember pouring my heart out to Sheera who, thankfully, understood. And seeing the only other people I know who loved his work–Ariff–a week ago, I was glad that we shared the same sorrow and frustration.

Why the grief?

Robert Jordan left us with just one more book to finish the Wheel of Time saga. The 12th book.

That is like J. K. Rowling dying just before The Deathly Hallows was finished. Only double the pain, since Harry Potter has only 7 books. Maybe more, since it has been 17 years since the 1st book in the saga was published.

My anguish might sound like I’ve been following his works since 1990, but shame to say, I’ve only started reading since last year. In 2000, I saw the just-published Winter’s Heart in a bookstore, and I made a vow that I want to read the whole series, without even knowing the crux of the story. But it wasn’t until early 2006 that I discovered Ariff had a bookcase of the (then) complete series. How delighted I was! Hence the beginning of my transfixion on the saga.

Just like most of his fans, I was enthralled by the vastness of the fictional world (Randland as fans call it) and the intricacies of the plot. So intricate it is, that by the 11th book, not much of the main plot has actually moved since around the 8th book. Having read Tolkien, it striked me as refreshing that he writes in humble English (I always find Tolkien too verbose for those not having a native tongue) and a total absence of stock creatures like elves and dwarves. Instead, he introduced us to Aes Sedais, Ogiers and Aiels.

I love how he made us grew up with the character, from naïve country boys and girls transformed to heroes, kings and leaders. I love how he told love stories in a corny but relatable way. How he described women spot on. I love how he mirrored contemporary politics in the Daes Dae’mar. I love how he described the discrimination (and acceptance) we extend to other races and people from other countries. I love the concepts of Ji’e'toh, the prophecies, the subtle references to religions, the Shadowspawns, the Asha’mans, the Aelfinns and the Eelfinns!

It’s a wonder how they’re going to finish and publish the last book. Granted, he could’ve written a few more spin-offs or prequels.

As for me, I think I’ll start reading again. I seem to be stuck on book 9.

Rest in peace, Robert Jordan. Know that you have been immortalised with your splendid works.

*sobs*