RIFLE RANGE BOY

Swans in Venetian Canal  Credit @filterjm Probably for the first time since Man started giving salutations to the feared forces around him, he has been asked to stop all kinds of religious congregations in big groups. For aeons, Man believed that maladies take place because the Divine forces have been angered. In their simple understanding, the only avenue left for them to correct the tragedy is to appease the Divinity by glorifying it to high heavens; hoping that He would throw us His Grace. Hence, despite appeals by the authorities, practitioners of various faiths continue to put their trusts in the forces above, not in rational thinking and the sciences. They feel that people have been misled for far too long. The way the human race appears to be heading does not assure them of a happy ending. Too many have placed self-interest above salvation to expect altruism to prevail. There are groups of people who are hellbent in finding scapegoats. In their minds, many if not mos...

I come from an era when travelling from Penang Island to Province Wellesley meant taking a ferry or a sampan if you are going to Prai. My generation in Penang also saw the Penang Bridge materialise piece by piece. The presence of a mammoth monolith in the middle of the straits must have created many eddie-currents and turbulence in the waters which in turn must have caused deposition of sands a little distance from the shore. Over time, more soil deposits eventually created a small islet. Birds must have rested on it to break their journey, sowing seed through its droppings. Over the years, during my regular visits back home, I noticed that the islet was literally growing under my nose. From a barren piece of pebbled sand, I saw patchy vegetation. Then came scrubs. And what do you know? In 30 years' time, it became a self-sustained island with trees and a weekend spot for adventurous sun-seeker. Boats can be seen strapped by the beach. Yes, it now has a fairly dense mini-j...

The question is whether an occurrence can solely be put on one event is questionable. It appears that our national pastime is playing the blame game and to shame the alleged perpetrator(s) in the hope that if someone can be pinpointed to have caused the gaffe, we can put closure to a catastrophe. And they hope to prevent the shortcomings in future. It all sounds noble but unfortunately life is not so simple. Not every bad incident has a simple etiology. Most often than not it is multi factorial. Like in Murphy's Law, when something is doomed to go wrong, it will go wrong. Airline industry have considered a 'no blame' policy but to identify the precipitating events and to take a collective approach to improve safety. On the other hand, is a leader culpable to take the brickbats if his subordinates faltered? Should he be made to answer or just take the easy way of saying, "it wasn't me. It is not easy to control so many people's actions, you know!"? ...

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/gallery/2015/apr/01/over-population-over-consumption-in-pictures Waves of humanity Sprawling Mexico City rolls across the landscape, displacing every scrap of natural habitat ‘If our species had started with just two people at the time of the earliest agricultural practices some 10,000 years ago, and increased by one percent per year, today humanity would be a solid ball of flesh many thousand light years in diameter, and expanding with a radial velocity that, neglecting relativity, would be many times faster than the speed of light.’ Gabor Zovanyi  Photograph: Pablo Lopez Luz Oil spill fire Aerial view of an oil fire following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico‘We must realise that not only does every area have a limited carrying capacity, but also that this carrying capacity is shrinking and the demand growing. Until this understanding becomes an intrinsic part of our th...

So you think you are just. You have done enough suffering in this lifetime and now you want a reprieve. You think you deserve a break. You seek your outlet through divine path. You feel it is your duty to serve Him after being tortured all these while. You realise your days on Earth are numbered and you want to cajole Him to catapult you up the ladder of rebirth. This is the impression I get after hearing about all the prayers in which you are right in front to conduct, the special sacred functions that you wriggle to be present to collect your brownie points for the after-life. You sing hymns over hymns of devotional chants to be blessed. And you feel that you are exemplary to how a human should live. You feel that you are kind and follow the path of righteousness. Unfortunately, all your actions do not translate to zen in real life. The perception that people around you have is one that is so negative. You paint a picture of someone who is conceited and self-centred. You are inter...

Heard on WYNC Radiolab the other day on something revolutionary. Somebody researched on the inside of exoskeleton of the coral. Understandably,  the inside of the coral had about 365 grooves depicting the days in the year and the change in the tides. Some smart professor decided to go one step further and looked into prehistoric corals. To his astonishment, he consistently found 400 to 410 grooves in them. The great minds started wondering... Is it possible that the year was longer in the prehistoric days when the Earth was in its 'infancy'? It turned out that there is a plausible explanation to this end. The Earth, just after the Big Bang was devoid of a moon. In its place when just meteorites, hence the mass that was rotating the sun was following a different orbit (longer). When the meteorites coalesce to form the Moon, the gravitational force of the Moon slowed Earth, hence shortening the number of days in a year! The things that you learn.... limitless!