Random thoughts:

Every 18 year old in the world is to write an essay entitled "How different would be the world be like in forty years if I did not exist?"

Then when someone becames very famous and makes a huge impact on the world, publish it. I would personally like to see one by Adolf Hilter or Saddam Hussein.

This is, of course, assuming no one is a solipcist. Otherwise it would just go, "There would be no world to speak of if I did not exist."


Chem SPA videos have funky music.


Be careful, the Pipette is a Big. But don't worry, we are for the Big. We are more and more Strong and Big. And may the Force be with your Velocity; for you'll be more Strong and Big than any of your counterparts.

In physics, we can see what can possibly happen to a few particles using energy principle, but to find out what really happens in the next instant would require a knowledge on the forces acting on the particles. For systems involving many particles, energy can also tell us what can possibly happen, but only entropy can tell us what would actually happen. Even so, entropy would not be able to tell us what exactly happens at the microscopic level.

Darwin's theory of evolution tell us what can possibly happen according to the assumptions (scarce resources, excess offspring, random mutation, survival of the fittest, propagation of inherited traits). It can tell us the general trends, but it cannot give us more details than that. It cannot tell whether a tiger would fight back when its children are threatened. However, if such an action aids in its survival and propagation, then the evolutionist can say that a tiger can possibly do that. Still, it would not be able to predict what happens.

However, even forces seem to be unable to explain why things happen; the idea of a force is, after all, a tool used to account for observations, predict future behaviour, and to manipulate the surroundings to obtain the effects we want. So is energy. These things do not necessarily exist. People have lived for a long time without Newtonian mechanics or proper definitions of work and energy, and yet they are still able to come up with many wonderful inventions. Science can only describe nature.

Example:

Why do things fall? Because Fg=-GMm/r² ?

Nope, that is just a description. I don't think there is a "why" to it.

At the end of the day, we'll just have to take it as a fact that Fnet=dp/dt, and that since this "fact" is taken from experience, there will always be a possibility that it is not a correct description.

Which is so gay. Ultimately, all that we have to "explain" phenomena are simply nothing but descriptions? There is nothing that tells me what is actually causing things to happen. Even when taking time as simply another dimension, science still cannot answer "why?"

I suppose we are too used to having "why"s answered for us. The idea of an event being causally linked to another event preceding it is a powerful idea, because it allows us to predict and manipulate the latter event, and allows us to prepare for it. However, just because it works, it doesn't mean it is true.

Gah. Science being a descriptive framework, it would work, but ultimately it cannot answer many questions that we have. I suppose our questions are somewhat loaded. It seems kinda disturbing that things just happen. Maybe it just so happens that humans would want to ask such questions that can never be answered, and we can never be satisfied.

Yet in math, can we ask "why?"

Why is x²+1 always positive for real x? Because x² is at least zero for real x, so x²+1 is always positive for real x. It sounds like we can answer this question. However, what is the point of knowing whether x²+1 is positive? If you assign values to x and use math to find the area, it would work. But even without knowing algebra, one can too show that this similar real life phenomenon leads to such a conclusion. Trial and error would always work if you try long enough.

So is math simply descriptive? What would happen to math if it doesn't correspond to real life phenomena? I suppse math would have to be tweaked in such a way that it does somewhat correspond real life phenomena before it can be accepted. Math is perhaps descriptive to some extent as well.

Darn. So we have been living in this nature, and all we have been doing is describe it? This is... gay.

Nobody said challenging the process is impossible. But then again, nobody said it is easy.

Then again, nobody said that eating brinjals would cause the koala population to decline.


It is easy to underestimate people to the extent that you do not consider the idea that they might be right, yet it is also easy to overestimate people to the extent that you do not consider the idea that they might be wrong.

This is so fun.


It is easy to kill someone, it is easier to get killed. Yet people generally are not worried about getting killed. People don't even consider killing as an option. I see that "an eye for an eye" is a pretty good policy.

I shall be a bastard and talk about physics O selection test.

Shocker 1: 10 questions.
Shocker 2: Open ended (but I'm not surprised)
Shocker 3: 2.5 hour paper.

I accidentally opned the question booklet and w00t! This... weird looking shape appeared before my eyes. In physics, generally, the more weird looking an object is, the harder it is to talk about it. I closed the booklet in horror and apprehension.

But actually, it wasn't too bad. Doable... though I'm very worried about presentation now.

:<

I have made twenty free grinders jump from Peru to the Southern Ocean. It may take another fifteen seconds for another such extravaganza to commence again. Indeed, six of the green flies have found themselves devoid of the great misery they wanted to acquire; alas! they donate their carcasses to the big atmosphere, where sixty two of their fifty four relatives appear beyond them. So as may one wonder how the jellyfish covet after their earthly possesion, one must seek to understand that they are close substitutes for fugu. Just as one cannot make seventy one stoats all sit in reverence to their follow reptile debaters, one ought not expect the same from their ancient counterparts: the snake. Thus, while the quick brown fox jumps over the sloth, the big bad pig eats up the lazy dog. Besides, as the wolf is unable to change their spots and they can no longer expect the tiger to give them further protection, the leopard shall then be justified to taunt the canine class ones more. In other words, heterolytic fission cannot act as an advocate for racial harmony day. Speaking of which, the people can no longer find themselves inside another great cozy environment; they must be prepared for the Big. Only by acquiantance with the ethereal, they can remind themselves that their free air is not to be taken for granted. As such, jams of cheeses of the old democracies once again reign sumpreme in their everlasting bid to generate the new dynasty of unilateral displacement.

Auspicium Melioris Aevi.

Random thought of the day:

Play "two truths and a lie" with your fengshui advisor. Then you can find out if he is good. Or better still, "3 truths and 2 lies". Even better still, warn him that everything you say about your current circumstances may or may not be true, then tell him the complete truth about your circumstances.

It was fun trying to sell goods and services.

The stall I was helping to manage for Viva worldcup was a stall selling iced fruit dessert and an ice breaking challenge. I was very enthusiastic about the ice breaking challenge. Here's what the challenge is about: The organisers have frozen tissue paper in ice, and the ice is supposed to become very very hard to break. So the participants can try to break the ice with a hammer in 4 hits. If they manage to do so, they get free dessert. If they can't, they pay $1. Simple? If the ice is very hard to break, the marginal cost of the service is almost nil. And considering that it is a sports event, you can expect lots of sportspeople with swollen ego to test their strength.

Indeed. When the lady boss asked the announcer to advertise for us, 10 seconds later there were about 9 muscular people + female canoeists trying out the challenge. The sad thing is... the ice didn't freeze properly, and it was so easy to break! I thought this would be so profitable and fun to watch.

It was not because we didn't test it out. I did test out to see if it works. When I did it, it took me 200 hits to break the piece of ice. You could say I'm weak, but the fact remains that I broke 2 bricks into 8 pieces of stone and lots of sand in trying to break the piece of ice. The piece of ice I tested with was frozen with a normal freezer for 20 hours. The ones we offered for challenge was frozen in an old freezer for 15 hours and placed in a cooler box for 3 hours. Not very good. But overall the dessert stall + ice breaking stall didn't make a loss.

Later we ran out of fruits, so we tried out some ideas. We blended syrup with ice, and it was really good! And it is so much cheaper and easier to make. We played around with the concentration and composition of the syrup, and we sold one of them. We made that out of all the remaining ice, and it was so nice we bought them ourselves. And then we closed shop. Not very profitable, but at least we all had fun, we learned from this experience, and we have a better idea of how to set up a stall next time. And we all had CIP hours.

After that, when all the shops were closed, the remaining stock were free for all! Play table soccer for free! Cookies and brownies and cakes and tarts all for free! w00t! Damn if I didn't have to go home for dinner I would probably stay there for 2 more hours or something.