The Malays? The Sultanate of Johore maybe? At least for China and the Roman Empire we know there were historians who recorded everything in the news when it was still news. These archives were so complete that some countries have to go to them to find out about their own history.
I remember this guy from Kazakhstan I met in NTU, who said that his country had to get its history from the records in China because theirs were mostly destroyed during the USSR period. I hope China doesn't go through a similar period or get another Emperor Qin, or much of the world will probably lose their history.
Hmm, wait a minute. There really wasn't anything about our history until Raffles came along. By then the British would have recorded everything. That tale about the prince who saw the lion and named the island Lion City (Singapura) sounds suspiciously like a folktale, since no one has ever seen lions in the wild here. Boars and tigers have been spotted before, but even the tigers have disappeared now. Just not a single lion ever.
Was thinking about this while reading about the Egytian pet mummies in this month's National Geographic. Apparently those who could afford it mummified their dead pets. The Kazakhs are lucky compared to the Egyptians. The latter only has the Roman archives to refer to, but it isn't complete since their earlier history wasn't there.
The Egyptians lost so much of their history that they couldn't even exactly revive their ancient language, the Egyptian hieroglyphs. Even the Jews were luckier in that they still kept the written form of Hebrew alive (eg via private letters between each other) when the verbal form was lost. The death of the original written language of the Egyptians was so complete the hieroglyphs has become a code that has to be deciphered.
Languages die all the time, but a language crucial to finding out about a long history and rich culture of an ancient civilization is a different story altogether.
The multiyear ice in the Arctic is as good as absent. Multiyear ice is probably ice that was formed more than a year ago. Now most of the ice in that region is ice that were formed within the year. A recent expedition to find multiyear ice was a failure. The only significantly large chunk of this ice they found broke up right in front of them by the waves. It must be very dramatic for the people who studied this.
Now Earth will warm up much faster, without the ice at the North to reflect light away.
This is proof that commercial mass-produced food isn't always bad. How can any sane human being dislike the Vienetta? Does this make you drool? It does for me.
I usually go for medium, but medium rare is fine too. Unfortunately the hygiene of hawker centres/food courts is not exactly the best so I go for only medium when eating in such places. To me, well done is only for meat that is almost spoilt (ie left in the fridge for too long, beef no longer bright red)Good steaks don't need gravy, good gravy don't need steaks. =D
And steaks definitely don't need ketchup. Ketchup is only for bad food since it covers up all other flavours. Good steaks just need to be seasoned and marinated well.
A space hotel? Architects estimate it will cost each tourist 4.4million USD for a 3-night stay. Of course, this term "3-night" is misleading, since night is an Earthly concept. In space, things are very different, especially since the hotel won't be in geo-synchronised orbit.
Indeed, space tourists will be seeing 15 sunrises every 24 hours. By the time they're back on Earth, they will be pretty sick of it.
The space visit will also include 8 weeks of training, basically to get them used to the lack of gravity. Lots of things happen different without the aid of gravity, like when you sneeze, your snot will fly. Since this is going to be made for the wealthy, they will obviously provide suction where it is needed, eg in the various parts of the bathroom. Still, dropping a glass of water is a much larger issue in space than on Earth.
And the basic necessities of living in space is expensive. According to NASA, it costs $450 million per mission on the Space Shuttle. The max payload according to Wikipedia is 25,060kg. That's $17,957 per kg of payload. In other words, a 5-course meal will cost tens of thousands of dollars even if you have to eat the ingredients raw. However, this is only a rough estimate since they aren't going to use the Space Shuttle to transport cargo for them.
The price is actually quite different from those of early commercial flights. In the early 1900s plane tickets in the US were costing about $10-$20. Train ticket prices were probably still in tens of cents over the same distances.
Then again, the circumstances were quite different then. The Wright Bros had achieved success just before WWI, and it was quickly employed by the armies. By the time the fighting was done, planes were mostly built for the wars. Hence in early commercial flights, passengers were often travelling on converted military aircrafts, not the comfortable Boeing 747 most of us are using today. So they wouldn't dare to charge too much for the poor quality of the ride.
I was curious about the impact of China's efforts to keep the RMB down. Although some questions can be answered by laymen, it feels better to get them from someone who has actually studied economics. This Q&A seems to be pretty good, though I'm unsure of the credibility of the authors.
Copied from the article:
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF CHINA LET ITS CURRENCY APPRECIATE?
Theoretically, the cost of Chinese-made products would rise for consumers around the world. If prices rise sufficiently, other countries' goods might be substituted for those China now makes. Some in the United States hope that domestic firms that now say they cannot compete might decide that they can boost their share of export markets, in turn cranking up production and hiring. If Chinese consumers were empowered with a stronger currency, they might become more aggressive importers, perhaps even swinging China's trade surplus to deficit.
In practice, though, the yuan's 21 percent rise from 2005-2008 barely registered on the price tags of Chinese goods abroad, as buyers -- often foreign firms like Wal-Mart -- demanded that costs be kept down and their suppliers were able to oblige, thanks in part to productivity gains.
Economists often describe China's trade surplus as structural, referring to the country's cheap capital and over-investment, which generate excess production that is cleared through exports. The implication is that deeper reforms to China's economy such as building up a social safety net, and not just yuan appreciation, are necessary to stimulate domestic demand and rein in its yawning trade surplus.To those who would say things like 'You wouldn't download a car!" I say,
"Would that I could!"
Potato salad, one of the simplest joys in the world. Here, I used 3 leftover sautéed potatoes from 2 nights ago when my mum made pork chops. The cores had ice chips when I diced them, so it looks like my fridge isn't working too well.
Anyway, this contains 3 potatoes, 2 hard-boiled eggs, a small packet of "Smoked Salmon with Dill and Olive Oil", a tiny onion (maybe it's a shallot, I don't know), a generous sprinkle of black pepper and about 3 tablespoons of mayo.
Result is that the salmon is undetectable unless I am looking for it. Should have used bacon, but I ran out of bacon and was too lazy to go out to buy some. So I used my last resort, the salmon. Was saving it for something else, but this was worth a try.
Dual-screen laptops. Out by Christmas, probably. Now you can multi-task on the move! There will be a 16- or 17-inch model before a 13- or 14-inch one. Not exactly useful for most of us, but... it's a dual-screen laptop!
Victim In Fatal Car Accident Tragically Not Glenn Beck
" I jumped out of the ambulance and I ran to the wreckage to make sure that the victim was still breathing or else was Glenn Beck."
According to another source, the onboard computer of the Lunar Module used by Neil Armstrong contained only NOR gates. After checking Wikipedia, I found out that the computer had 5600 NOR gates, could complete 8 tasks in parallel and skip low-priority tasks in emergencies.
In short, the designers were fucking geniuses.
According to NASA, it had 2048 words of RAM, each word being 16 bits. That is 32,768 bits of RAM, or 4096 bytes, or about 4kB. They went to the moon with less computing power (it used a 2MHz CPU) than an iPhone, which has 128MB of RAM and a 600MHz processor. A 2Mhz processor would be quite similar to an average scientific calculator.
The moon landing itself was an incredible feat not only because some dudes went to the moon, but also because of the machines that made it happen.
It is strange how 30 degrees Celsius can be either warm or cool.
Getai, a form of public performance similar to busking but more annoying. Each time they set up their stage in my neighbourhood, they entertain the entire region with their singing. Seriously, why do they even bother to arrange for chairs under a temporary shelter when I can hear their songs clearly right here in my bedroom with my window shut?
And it's not like they're particularly good either. Some of them sound like my neighbours when they're enjoying their karaoke in their living room, or worse. It gives me the impression that the getai is really just a larger form of karaoke and people who find themselves enjoying life too much would sit in front of the huge speakers to get a large dose of exquisite audio torture in order maintain a balance of yin and yang.
Where do they find those singers anyway? Do they post recruitment ads in KTV lounges? Do they hire deaf singers or something? Why don't they at least make some effort at sound-proofing the area where they preform?
Maybe Singaporeans are living lives that are too comfortable and this is our karma. I'm pretty sure if the getai singers are wearing good solid headphones that are blasting hard metal into their ears during their performances, their singing would remain the same.
The military should hire them. They would be excellent at PSYOPS, or whatever the equivalent is here.
Finished Borderlands. Not exactly a long game, especially if you have people helping you. Multiplayer games tend to go faster if the host picks the right quests and keep completing them. In Borderlands multiplayer, the host chooses the quests to be completed and everyone enters each zone together, so if the host keeps focusing on completing the main quest, no one can stop him. Not that anyone would, since the main quest is the most exciting part of the game.
In fact, if I just keep doing main quests, people would usually stay, instead of getting bored and quit. More players also means tougher enemies and better loots, and loots dropped when there are 4 players are very much better than those dropped in solo mode. In after getting all my weapons from multiplayer, everything seems to die like flies when I play solo.
After this, there really isn't much to do in the game. I can play a second time, with tougher enemies and even better loots, but it's not as interesting anymore.
We're going to have an increasingly powerful space defence system to protect Earth against possible alien invasions. Introducing... space junk, an economical yet effective entry deterrent. By leaving all our defunct satellites, dead machines and smashing them into bits, they form a randomly generated network of high-velocity projectiles that will cause difficulty for even an ant to enter our atmosphere without getting hit.
Potato salad, one of the simplest joys in the world. Here, I used 3 leftover sautéed potatoes from 2 nights ago when my mum made pork chops. The cores had ice chips when I diced them, so it looks like my fridge isn't working too well.Anyway, this contains 3 potatoes, 2 hard-boiled eggs, a small packet of "Smoked Salmon with Dill and Olive Oil", a tiny onion (maybe it's a shallot, I don't know), a generous sprinkle of black pepper and about 3 tablespoons of mayo.
Result is that the salmon is undetectable unless I am looking for it. Should have used bacon, but I ran out of bacon and was too lazy to go out to buy some. So I used my last resort, the salmon. Was saving it for something else, but this was worth a try.
Dual-screen laptops. Out by Christmas, probably. Now you can multi-task on the move! There will be a 16- or 17-inch model before a 13- or 14-inch one. Not exactly useful for most of us, but... it's a dual-screen laptop!
Victim In Fatal Car Accident Tragically Not Glenn Beck
" I jumped out of the ambulance and I ran to the wreckage to make sure that the victim was still breathing or else was Glenn Beck."
According to another source, the onboard computer of the Lunar Module used by Neil Armstrong contained only NOR gates. After checking Wikipedia, I found out that the computer had 5600 NOR gates, could complete 8 tasks in parallel and skip low-priority tasks in emergencies.
In short, the designers were fucking geniuses.
According to NASA, it had 2048 words of RAM, each word being 16 bits. That is 32,768 bits of RAM, or 4096 bytes, or about 4kB. They went to the moon with less computing power (it used a 2MHz CPU) than an iPhone, which has 128MB of RAM and a 600MHz processor. A 2Mhz processor would be quite similar to an average scientific calculator.
The moon landing itself was an incredible feat not only because some dudes went to the moon, but also because of the machines that made it happen.
It is strange how 30 degrees Celsius can be either warm or cool.
Getai, a form of public performance similar to busking but more annoying. Each time they set up their stage in my neighbourhood, they entertain the entire region with their singing. Seriously, why do they even bother to arrange for chairs under a temporary shelter when I can hear their songs clearly right here in my bedroom with my window shut?
And it's not like they're particularly good either. Some of them sound like my neighbours when they're enjoying their karaoke in their living room, or worse. It gives me the impression that the getai is really just a larger form of karaoke and people who find themselves enjoying life too much would sit in front of the huge speakers to get a large dose of exquisite audio torture in order maintain a balance of yin and yang.
Where do they find those singers anyway? Do they post recruitment ads in KTV lounges? Do they hire deaf singers or something? Why don't they at least make some effort at sound-proofing the area where they preform?
Maybe Singaporeans are living lives that are too comfortable and this is our karma. I'm pretty sure if the getai singers are wearing good solid headphones that are blasting hard metal into their ears during their performances, their singing would remain the same.
The military should hire them. They would be excellent at PSYOPS, or whatever the equivalent is here.
Finished Borderlands. Not exactly a long game, especially if you have people helping you. Multiplayer games tend to go faster if the host picks the right quests and keep completing them. In Borderlands multiplayer, the host chooses the quests to be completed and everyone enters each zone together, so if the host keeps focusing on completing the main quest, no one can stop him. Not that anyone would, since the main quest is the most exciting part of the game.
In fact, if I just keep doing main quests, people would usually stay, instead of getting bored and quit. More players also means tougher enemies and better loots, and loots dropped when there are 4 players are very much better than those dropped in solo mode. In after getting all my weapons from multiplayer, everything seems to die like flies when I play solo.
After this, there really isn't much to do in the game. I can play a second time, with tougher enemies and even better loots, but it's not as interesting anymore.
We're going to have an increasingly powerful space defence system to protect Earth against possible alien invasions. Introducing... space junk, an economical yet effective entry deterrent. By leaving all our defunct satellites, dead machines and smashing them into bits, they form a randomly generated network of high-velocity projectiles that will cause difficulty for even an ant to enter our atmosphere without getting hit.
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