RIFLE RANGE BOY

Mary Queen of Scots (2018) It is disheartening to see brothers of the same mother killing each other just to prove that their brand of showing allegiance to the Maker is the real deal. Each insists that they are doing it right and the other got it all wrong. The Maker, in turn, just maintains silence, watching His siblings gorge the others' eyes. Both parties eventually realised that blind faith was not leading anywhere. Many lives had to be sacrificed before sanity kicked in. They had the wisdom to initiate reformation with the religion and embrace science into their fold. We saw this in Christianity. Many wars were fought under the umbrellas of the Roman Catholics and Prote stants. The story of Mary of Scots and Queen Elizabeth is a testimony of the above. Mary, the daughter of King Henry VIII, returned from France after the death of her husband. She, a Roman Catholic, sojourned in Scotland. In England, her sister, Elizabeth was sitting on the throne. Queen Elizabeth was ...

Ex Machino (2014) When the upright apes started exploring the savanna and heading out of Africa, little did they realise that they were leading to extinction. Not only the descendants of these apes would quickly destroy their own kind and reflect, 'I am become death, the destroyer of the worlds', they would also create machines that one day possibly annihilate them. This is the premise of this and many other apocalyptical sci-fi movies. The one that makes this film different is the inclusion of artificial consciousness as compared to artificial intelligence what most scientists test. The Turing test, when humans are unable to differentiate an interaction with a machine from that of with a human may be the benchmark of AI excellence, but it only measures intelligence, not consciousness. It tests the adaptability of the machine to its environment. In the case of a conscious machine, it processes external information, transforms it with its subjective ju...

A Big Little Murder (Documentary; 2019) Channel News Asia You think you have everything under control. You work hard to provide for the family, give what you missed out, and have their future all carved out, nice and smooth. You want to open up opportunities for your little ones and smother them with love and gifts. One perfect day you are swimming in bliss, and the next day, without any forewarning, you are stuck in a cesspool of melancholia. 8th September 2017 was just another day for a 7-year-old boy from a middle-class family in Gurugram (Gurgaon), a highly industrial township near Delhi. Within minutes of dropping him at the entrance to the private international school that he goes to, the parents get a call informing of him being hurt.  Long story short. The 7-year-old boy, a chubby and lovable @Prince, was brutally killed in the school washroom with his throat slit by a kitchen knife. A frenzy ensues, with all parents getting upset that such an event ...

The Web of Debt (The Shocking Truth About Our Money System And We Can Break Free) Ellen Hodgson Brown, JD. I grew up confused. On one hand, I was told to live within my means, to balance my income to my expenditure and to ensure that there is always something for savings. Being in debt was frowned upon. On the other hand, on the other side of my family, living on credit was a way of life. Nothing wrong to borrow, they would say. Even nations take huge loans. In the modern world, it seems that one is deemed to be rich by his assets but the properties are leveraged by debts. In other words, he is only as rich as much as he can pay the interest on his debt. Money begets money and the poor get poorer. The divide between the haves and the have nots becomes more apparent as the days go by. One small hiccup in this set-up and the house of cards comes down crumbling.  Nations that have secured high amounts of loans apparently have a higher credit rating on their credib...

The Little Drummer Girl (Miniseries; 2018) Shakespeare said that the world is a stage and that we all mere actors playing our roles. It is true. The things that are allegedly happening at this very moment are actually staged and real actors play the part. This is the premise of this confusing spy saga which is based on John le Carre's novel of the same name.  It tells the tale of a clandestine Israeli spy agency that, through its covert activities, nips troublesome anti-Israeli resistance at its bud. To infiltrate through the enemy lines, university students, activists and actors are recruited to act out their roles wholeheartedly. This indoctrination process is so intense that participants lose their grip on what is reality and what is not. They are sometimes needed to play the part of double-crossing agents. Their interaction with the 'enemies' open their realisation that the people on the other side of the divide have their point of view which also makes sense....

Credit: topdocumentaryfilms.com We all know the drill - that up to 70% of our body is filled with water; that 70% of the Third Rock from the Sun is covered by water and that it is the elixir of life. We also accept oxygen and hydrogen molecules could be alien visitors who landed on Earth via meteorites that reached here. Scientists agree that water is indeed a strange chemical. With its composition, it should be in a gaseous state, not liquid as it is. Unlike other solids, water in a solid state is less dense, encouraging lifeforms to live and prosper under an iceberg. Capillary action ensures that water reaches the highest leaf of the giant redwood and the minuscule of the body organs. I will not do justice to the WhatsApp that my childhood friends and I share if I do not divulge some of the new things that were brought to my attention through them. Water has memory. Having been around for so long on this planet, it only makes sense. The same water molecule that was drunk by a...

Uncle Hooi at his best © The Star I remember the barrages of concerned pep talks from my family members when they discovered that I, at the tender age of 43, slowly started indulging in competitive distance running. In not so many words, they were obviously trying to tell me that I would just drop dead by the roadside to be found by passersby as if I were just roadkill. Another old friend, obviously overweight and looking much like Peter Griffin of the 'Family Guy' fame was even generous enough to offer free anaesthetic services as and when I need a knee replacement.  As a last resort, my family went ahead and gave me a 'stress test - CT angio' combo as a birthday present on my 50th birthday. When the cardiologists gave a clean bill of health after silently cursing under his breath for wasting his precious time from his more deserving patients, they essentially gave up and let Nature take its course.  This must have been what Fauja Singh must hav...

Found it floating around the social media, WhatsApp specifically. PULAU Talang Talang sedia untuk berlepas (Pulau Talang Talang is ready to depart),” the voice booms over the public announcement system. This is quickly followed by two short blasts of the ship’s horn. Almost immediately, the entire vessel starts to shudder as its powerful engines below deck effortlessly nudge the submerged propellers to life. Fortunate to get a choice position right next to the metal railing at the upper deck bow, I join the dozens of excited holidaymakers and regular commuters in enjoying the scenic landscape that lay in front of us as the ferry slowly glides towards Pengkalan Raja Tun Uda, our disembarkation point on Penang Island. Apart from enjoying the fresh and invigorating sea breeze blowing in our faces, quite a number of my fellow passengers also start taking selfies and wefies with the imposing city skyline forming an irresistible backdrop. At the same time, the smell of freshly ba...