blood-y drone

I could not believe that one company had provided services to deliver blood in Rwanda using drones. The drones are able to cut the delivery time from 3 hours to 15 minutes. It is also interesting that the blood is parachuted down to the point of delivery. I guess this would safe time as the drones don't have to land. These drones are launched from their base to go airborne. They have a special launcher for that which obviously are not available where the drone drop the delivery. 

I am amazed that such innovation is implanted in an African country. I have nothing against any African country for this matter but I guess this country has something that my country does not have. To start with it is possible that such demand of blood does not exist here (enough hospital around that people does not have to wait for hours to get blood). But the company that developed such delivery system in Rwanda is convinced that drone delivery is the future. 

I could see that in remote places where road transportation would take longer time. But in a typical cities of Indonesia I don't see it. I am sure the online service like GOJEK would be more competitive. Not to mention about regulation etc. 

However there another interesting thing related to the story. Turns out the Iphone technology is the main enabler for this drone delivery system. The drones use Iphone's gps and processor among other things. The point is that one innovation is allowing us to be creative and innovate further. It means it would not be easy to predict the future as the impacts of one innovation could inspire a number of other innovation that might not closely connected

  

No Salah in FIFA Word Cup 2022

We won't see Salah playing in the upcoming FIFA world cup 2022 as Egypt was defeated by Senegal in the second leg game recently. Loosing a game of football is not news. It could happen to any team however the way the fans acted during the game were disappointing if not a disgrace. The fan attacked the Egyptian players with laser pointers. 

FIFA officially prohibited lasers in a football stadium because the maximum soccer organism considered lasers affected the players on the pitch. However during the game referees did not do anything at all.  The referee didn't stop the game, and neither did FIFA speak about the problem. I guess the Egyptian players could themselves walked out from the game to protest. Too bad they did not do that and continued with the game. They did log an official complaint about the incident and FIFA promised to analyze the official match reports.

I would seriously doubt if FIFA would do anything other that reprimanding - but in any case Senegal would play in Qatar 2022. Winning at all cost like so is simply unfair. Of course the world is an unfair place but we should do anything within our reach to make is a fairer place. If FIFA does prohibit laser in a stadium then the referee  should stop the game and ask security to ensure no more laser being used. I would doubt the referee or FIFA official would had the nerve to do so.

Of course we could "blame" Egyptian team for not winning the game in normal time despite having one goal advantage from the the first leg. But of course the should have the right to have fair game until the last minute.

I guess my immediate reaction is to wish an instant karma to whomever that have done such a terrible act. I hope I am not having wishful thinking

Tales of Alan Parsons Projects

Like any other musicians that I had no clue about my first Alan Parsons Project music I heard from the pirated the best of produced by Aquarius. The cover was not as great but I thought 'The Eye in the Sky' is a great song. It started with simple power chord that I thought so great. I did not know the name of the guitarist back then but I learned that he played the solo in Kate Bush famous hit 'Wuthering Heights'

The next Alan Parson Project cassettes that I had were 'The Turn of a Friendly Card', 'Tales of Mystery and Imagination' and 'Ammonia Avenue'. I thought 'Tales of Mystery and Imagination' was an unique album. It did not have radio friendly poppy songs but the album was enjoyable to listen in a whole. The cassette was also great as it had one song titled  'Shadow of a Lonely Man'. In fact this song was part of another Alan Parsons album titled 'Pyramid'

I remembered one radio station in my home town play 'Time' each time they end their program. I could understand why they picked this song. The melancholy melody and romantic lyric is appropriate to usher listener to a deep slumber. The other song that I recognized is 'Sirius'. Chicago Bulls use this song to introduce the line up. 

However, I thought the best song of Alan Parsons Project is 'Days Are Numbers (The Traveler)'. When I travelled around Europe this song often came to my mind. 

The traveler is always leaving town

He never has the time to turn around

And if the road he's taken isn't leading anywhere

He seems to be completely unaware

How true

enjoying wasted time

Time you enjoyed wasting is not wasted time

The above phrase is often attributed to Bertrand Russel or John Lennon. One argues that it was not from Russel so let's assume it from Lennon but the point I wanted to argue in this blog is the definition of waste. Imagine two people riding a car trapped in traffic. The car was inching forward and it took ages to reach the destination. To rub salt the wound the person which was supposed to be there was no where to be seen and hence the trip did not meet its objective. Question was: was the trip a waste of time? 

It depends. Apparently the driver was enjoying the ride regardless. She loves to drive. Anywhere and nowhere. It does not matter for her whether she meets the objective or not. The point is enjoying the journey not so much questioning the destination nor the purpose. The guy in the passenger seat would curse the traffic and questioning the purpose of the ..well.. waste of time. He would think about ways to optimize things (for example: she should have hired someone to bring the things she was after - yes she would have to pay but the cost would be relatively cheap considering the traffic, the gasoline, car maintenance, and most importantly the wasted time

He could continue arguing about the cost of opportunities. He could have done other things in stead of being stuck in the traffic. And of course once spent there is no way to get the time back. In a sense his some minutes of his life had been spent and being dead for eternity  won't make it back. 

But of course his train of thoughts did not exist in her mind, the driver who loves to drive anywhere and nowhere. For her it is her raison d'etre. She enjoys being there in traffic. That is life, for her. It was not time wasting at all as she enjoys each  minute of it. Alas, time you enjoyed wasting is not wasted time

Disastro

One big news for Italian Football lovers is that Italy is out of world cup after missing it back in 2018. This would be the first time for the Azzurri to miss successive World Cups for the first time. The last time they missed out from World Cup was back in 1958 in Sweden. Since then they won the title twice (Spain 1982, Germany 2006) and twice as runners-up (Mexico 1970, USA 1994 both lost to Brazil)

In competitive one country could not afford to stand still while the rest of the world strive for improvement. This apocalypse of Italian football is ironically only a year after they were crowned as the champion of Europe. Hence the title of 'disastro' in some Italian sport newspapers is pretty appropriate. Newspapers stress a loss of identity, suggesting Italy have reverted to an older version of themselves; they have shown a lack of creativity, their most experienced players short of self-confidence.

Of course life goes on. Many nations never made to world cup ever but of course for them the world does not end as they know it. Football game could be addictive and for some could be treated as a form of religious ritual but I would argue that Jurgen Klopp comments would best summarizes what football is all about : 

“The most important job of football is entertaining the people. It’s only football. We don’t save lives, we don’t plant anything, create anything, are not good in surgeries. We only play football, so if we don’t entertain the people why would we play then? It’s not always possible, but it’s a really important thing. That’s why we have to try to create constantly, or as often as possible.”

placebo effect?

Anyone who believes in God will never lose to someone who believes in Buddha

The above was quoted from Cláudio Taffarel, Brazilian goal keeper of the team that beat Italy in World Cup 1994 final penalty shoot out. The person Taffarel referring to Roberto Baggio  a practitioner of Nichiren Buddhism. Tafarrel was a member of  evangelical churches of Brazil which promote the Athletes of Christ movement

Of course logically Baggio would not miss his penalty just because he is Buddhist. Anybody could missed a penalty for myriad of  reasons but one's religion should not be one of them. But for Tafarrel it was the sole reason. I am not sure if his belief could affect Baggio as if Tafarrel had some kind of telepathic power. 

Looks like Tafarrel religious experience could be classified as placebo effect. The word "placebo" comes from Latin and means "I shall please." And "please" it does. In study after study, many people who take a placebo show improvement in their symptoms or condition. Such effect had been studied in the context of religious beliefs and practices

I do not think we could judge Tafarrel conviction as that would be his personal belief. People would be entitled to have his/her personal faith. If you were Brazilian supporter I guess you would be happy seeing Brazil won the trophy regardless of Tafarrel rather arrogant faith. But again the game was played fairly and after the normal time no one could score any goal.

Back to the story of Brazilian footballer. When Bayer Leverkusen striker Paulinho scored for Brazil in a 4-2 win over Germany at last year's Olympic Games. Paulinho celebrated his goal by making the gesture of an archer in homage to Oxossi, his orixa (a spirit deity) in the Candomble religion. Clearly he is no evangelical. Different religion but looks like similar placebo effect.  

windows of openness to novelties

If you don't eat sushi by the age of 35, there is quote 95% chance you never will. As we get older, we are less open to "novelty." 

I have not checked if it the above quote is based on legitimate scientific studies or it is just another myth but I could sense the truth about the windows of openness to novelties. Obviously kids would be open to any novelties so that parents would have to guard their kids from negative influences. As we grow older we would developed preferences, routines and even a set of biases that would act as glasses that would filter information that we would allow to enter our brain. 

Of course the rest of the world would not care of our individual way to understand the world as we see it. Fifty years ago my parents would not dream that someday people would communicate using smart phones. But of  course smart phones happen as novelties in the beginning and as life essential later on. I would not be surprised to find out that for most elderlies smart phones would be just 'too modern' for them. They are no longer open to such novelties. Physically smart phone might be too small for them (their eyes would typically are no longer sharp enough to see the relatively small screen and not to mention typing the text, that would beyond their capability) 

Passing the age of fifty in the age of digital would mean I am still following the trend of digital world but of course I have no idea how soon another novelties would be around. I guess I would not be surprised finding out sometime in the future that I would prefer using the 'old' technologies of the 2020s for example. Eventually my window of novelties would be closed to

Until then   

for the love of spock

I do not think I ever watched the original Star Trek when it was aired in my country for the first time. In fact I have no idea when was it. I started watching Star Trek series when I was in the US in early 90s. I recall every week night at nine one of the channels rerun the next installment of Star Trek, The Next Generation. I fell in love instantly with the crew. Mostly Picard with his English accent and Data the android. 

I did not watch the next series until last year. The next series is called Deep Space Nine  which was aired in the US (1993-1999). I was not convinced that a series that centered on a static space station would be a good show. It turned out that when I started to watching it I loved Sisko the captain. I thought Dax is one of the most beautiful female crews so far.

I thought Captain Janeway is a a great captain. It would be hard for me to rank the captains of Star Trek. All of them (including Archer from Star Trek: Enterprise) are great captains even though I guess I would emotionally more attracted to Picard as the first Star Trek captain that I watched. That is why I loved Star Trek: Picard.

Returning to Spock, the title of this blog, I did listened to Nimoy autobiography: I am not Spock which was narrated by Nimoy himself. I thought Nimoy was one great actor and not only that he was responsible to make Spock more like Spock. He suggested the Vulkan salute, Spock's mind-meld and Vulkan nerve pinch. I thought without him there was no Spock and without Spock I would seriously doubt if Star Trek would boldly go where no series has gone before

 

Test as You Fly, Fly as You Test

NASA applied the principle of 'Test as You Fly, Fly as You Test ' on during their Mars Polar lander project. The principle of "test-as-you-fly" means that ground tests and simulations should accurately reflect the planned mission profile, plus margin and the appropriate off-design parameters.  Test as You Fly emphasizes testing to find fundamental flaws in a system that will prevent it from performing the mission. It is all about confirming that the system - as a whole - will operate in the environment it is designed to operate, the environment we typically refer to as "live"  

This concept of Test as You Fly reminds me of the concept of training for emergencies. Such trainings are common in the world of industry or in case of Test as You Fly for special multi-billion dollar project  of NASA. I wonder what about in our own personal life. Why don't we develop similar traditions of preparing us for events in our life? 

I do not think we could rely on formal education in our schooling system. They have their own agendas and we all have stories about people with academic degrees that behave badly. Getting the academic degree seems has no strong correlation with the quality of the person. 

I guess the next source of guidance -if you may - would be religion. How do our religions prepare us to face our life crisis? I could not say about other religion but I could see that Catholic church does give opportunity for the faithfuls to meditate, to repent, to become a new person for example during Lent Period. Of course it is up to each individual if they would use the opportunity or not.

I guess we could conclude that it is up each of us in matters of training ourselves so we are better prepared to face any kind of crisis in our life. But one thing is sure that industry and NASA had reminded us the importance of such training.  Obviously. it would be too late to learn swimming when the boat we are in is sinking. 

Rain whisperer from Mandalika

One of the highlight of recent Mandalika MotoGP was a ritual performed by a female rain whisperer that was proven effective to stop (well technically what she had done was pushing the rain elsewhere)  the rain pouring on the race track area. For many foreigner such ritual was a spectacle in itself and of course the fact that it stopped raining was amazing. 

Some Indonesians thought that such ritual is against the teaching of their religion while some others argue that such ritual is an inherent part of genuine Indonesian traditions. Such ritual to modify weather in fact is pretty common across cultures. In North America, Africa and China people some kind of rain dance is common.

However this role of the rain whisperer in Mandalika is different to those people who did rain dance as the idea is to move the rain away from the designated area in comparison to summon the rain cloud to one particular area. The latter would more 'powerful' in a sense of creating something out of nothing while the former is mere relocating something that is going -presumably- to happen.

Those who thought such ritual is compromising a religion belief would be mistaken to assume that the rain whisperer is more powerful that the deity or any supernatural as the concept of his/her action is relocating the rain. Whatever the whisperer does or pray he/she mere cajoling the rain cloud to draft away to another place. 

Of course such ritual would be outside scientific endeavor. However if I were in the position of the organizing committee of the event I would adopt Pascal's wager to the situation. The fee of such rain whisperer is nothing (less than USD 350/day) in comparison of the value of the event at stake. Certainly the benefit would outweigh the cost and in case the rain whisperer failed we could say we had tried all efforts, including something that others do not have it in their culture.  

Kipchoge believed

It is now a cliché but 'whether we believe we can or we can not we're right'. This resonates clearly in a movie Kipchoge: The Last Milestone, is a documentary film about a Kenyan athlete named Eliud Kipchoge and the events leading up to the Ineos 1:59 Challenge that saw him breaking the two-hour mark for running the marathon distance

Kipchoge emphasized that once we lost our belief anything would be just impossible. I second that. Often during my run if I believed I am too tired to continue running that I would somehow feel more fatigue and decided to stop my run.  

What Kipchoge did in beating the 2 hours challenge is not a stretch of imagination in terms of absolute difference of time. In Berlin Marathon 2018 he ran 2:01:39. Hence he need to beat his record by cutting his time by 1 minute 40 seconds. 

To achieve this goal Kipchoge and his team employ science, technology and teams of pacemakers.  He wore special shoe, had an electric timing car driving 4:34 per mile and with his flock of rotating pacesetters -35 on the course, six on reserve. Those pacemakers formed a protective, aerodynamic pocket around Kipchoge, five of them running in front in an open-V formation and two more in the back. They knew exactly where to run thanks to a pattern of thick, green laser beams projected onto the street by the timing car. 

This achievement was not officially recognized as a world record because it was not run under normal race conditions. Some people would quick to criticize about the technological doping etc. But of course  not anyone could just be able to run this fast wearing the same shoes and having all the helps that Kipchoge had. 

Kipchoge himself doesn't mind of someday his record will be broken. That’s the nature of sports, he says. He recalls that the four-minute mile barrier went unchallenged until 1954.“I have shown at least that to run [a marathon] in under two hours, it’s possible,” he says. “They now know the way.”

NFL101

When I was in Austin, Texas studying for my master's degree I decided to watch one whole season of NFL, the American style of football. I went to my Uni library to borrow a thin book that would help me understand NFL. Obviously without understanding the rules of the game I could not enjoy watching the games as I would be lost. To help me understand the season also I bought a magazine that explain a bit about each team, the schedule etc.

After watching a couple games I found that I loved a particular Quarterback named Warren Moon. Admittedly he was not the best quarterback in that season but I loved his style. Moon typically would throw a long pass. Houston Oilers, his club at that time, held records on Total yards gained and Yards passing. Moon Oilers did not make it to the super bowl. In Super Bowl XXV New York Giants beat Buffalo Bills, too bad. I would prefer Bills to win as I thought  their Quarterback looked nicer. Haha

American football is pretty similar to a war as basically each team is trying to push the ball toward the opponent's end zone, just like in war each army is aiming to conquer the capital of the opponent country. When the capital is under the opposite army the war ends. Team could rush (run with the ball) and pass (throw the ball to a running team member). Each team has four opportunities to gain 10 years. The defensive team would try to steal the ball or at least prevent the offensive team in making progress. When the ball reached the end zone six point is awarded. One extra point could be gained if the kicker could pass the ball in between the parallel bars. Pretty simple isn't it

Unlike Basket Ball -another popular sport in the US- which is played all over the world I would doubt that American Football is played regularly in other country. I believe such game is played only in the US and Canada. Understandably it is not easy to play the game without proper gears. Soccer could be played anywhere as all you need is a ball. You do not need anything special equipment. The game is very physical and one would need proper gears like helmet, etc.  According to 2017 study on brains of deceased gridiron football players, 99% of tested brains of NFL players had various stages of CTE (Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disease linked to repeated blows to the head). 

propaganda terminator

Propaganda is a modern Latin word meaning 'to spread' or 'to propagate'. Originally this word derived from a new administrative body of the Catholic Church (congregation) created in 1622 as part of the Counter-Reformation, called the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (Congregation for Propagating the Faith), or informally simply Propaganda. Its activity was aimed at "propagating" the Catholic faith in non-Catholic countries.

This morning I watched the nine-minute video of Schwarzenegger warns Russians they are being fed misinformation about their country's assault on Ukraine. The video was trending on Russian Twitter on Friday and has sparked reaction. To some Schwarzenegger sees Russians are people who have lost their ways, but pro Kremlin would just dismissed it an opinion that was paid US talking heads which means nothing to Russians

I could understand why those pro Putin would belittled this propaganda from a movie star who played as terminator but to me Arnie's points are valid. I could not see the war as justification to "denazify" Ukraine. Nazi is a ghost from the past. But I guess to many Russians this ghost is still real or at least sells. Schwarzenegger on his part wants to bust this ghost as without it the invasion would have no basis.

I would not expect Schwarzenegger would be successful in stopping the war single handedly but I certainly admire his action to step up and tell the people of Russia some side of the war that their government wants to hide from them.

the question of handling flood of information

Some three decades ago  we had no internet, newspaper were printed, we read books and the number of new books were still manageable. Yes life was slower, news crept rather slowly (as the fastest we could get news was a live TV newsflash) but life was more manageable indeed. 

Speed up to today we would not afford even to blink as news, social media, internet are 24 hours with us. I feel it is impossible to to be on top of every thing without getting inundated.  Three decades ago I had morning afternoon papers, 24 hours TV and monthly international magazines (I subscribed both TIME and NEWSWEEK). I read books published by Kanisius, I mostly read theology and philosophy. I thought I managed to finish books that I bought. Obviously there a handful new books each month and I had no problem picking and reading those before a set of new ones appear on the shelf of  Gramedia. 

I had email address but it was for work only. I do not think I send emails outside business purposes. Of course now people do not use email like we used to be as we have whatsapp, facebook, twitter, etc. Information are tons load and I do not dare to understand the size of data streamed each minute across the web. 

I have many printed books that are still unread from the day I bought them years ago however the number of those books is nothing in comparisons of the e-books that stored in my hard disks. Even if I could read one book a day I would not exhaust my list and of course each days many more books are published.

I guess future generations would find the solution for this question of balancing between getting the needed information is shortest possible time. Our ancestor in the savannah would have to master all the necessary skills to survive their life condition which I would assume would be less complicated that what we have today. They should have ample time to learn - otherwise we would not be here as our existence is the proof our our ancestors successful strategy to transfer the necessary skill to younger generations. 

Will we ?

from genesis to the last domino

Like Yes I could not remember if I started following Genesis when Gabriel was the singer or Collins but I think like other bands I started by listening the best cassettes. Below we could see that this cassettes had both Gabriel and Collins fronted Genesis. I am amazed seeing the double necked guitar in the cover. I am sure it is Rutherford who played both bass and guitar after Hackett left the band    

I am sure I had both the second cassettes 

and the third one too

After listening to those compilations I decided to listen to each album. It was either Abacab or Duke. But both have different style in comparison the the last Gabriel era : The lamb lies down on broadway. In the beginning Gabriel era was too hard to stomach to me. However I thought Foxtrot was really great. I thought Hackett composition (Horizons) was great. I was able to play some part of the song. Of course if I had YouTube back then I would have added it to my routine. The other great was Supper's Ready. Specially those lines 

And it's hey babe your supper's waiting for you

Hey my baby, don't you know our love is true?

My next album in Gabriel era was Selling England by the Pound. If I had to pick just one song I would no doubt pick Firth of Fifth. I thought this song should be one of the the peaks of Gabriel era. Hackett solo was fantastic. His signature. It was pure Hackett. 

I guess the band were lucky to have Collins taking up the role of singing when Gabriel left. I thought Collins voice resembles Gabriel's in some sense For sure Collins has higher (or lighter) pitch? But Collins had no problem singing Gabriel's songs.

These are three songs that I love the most of the three albums after Gabriel left: A Trick of the Tail (album: A Trick of the Tail. Note: some says that Indonesian musicians "copy" this song),  One for the Vine (album: Wind and Wuthering) and Follow You Follow Me (Album: ...And Then There Were Three... Hackett left the band before this album, hence the title)

I am completely in agreement if one said Duke is a leap into the pop music but retained a heavy dose of progressive rock.  The departure to pop music was getting clearer on the next album Abacab. In this album we could even hear Earth Wind and Fire Horn section. Such radical concept for a once progressive rock band. I would vote Me and Sarah Jane as the best song from this album.

I thought the conversion to pop was completed in the next album: Genesis. You could hear many radio friendly songs in this album but I would pick It's Gonna Get Better as the best. I won't mention the next three albums as I do not think they could be called Genesis that was once had Gabriel singing lead. 

Between September 2021 and March 2022 Genesis did concert reunion tour called The Last Domino? Tour as after a 13-year hiatus. Collins senior would sing and Collins junior (his son) played the drums. (Collins (senior) said he can no longer play the drums due to his deteriorating health) Did they mean this would be the end of road for Genesis? 

 

the enjoyable recollection of past events

One definition reminiscence is just that  the enjoyable recollection of past events. I had the luxury of meeting an old friend and enjoying iced coffee as we recollected our shared past events. We chatted about friends and events as we remembered from 35 years in the past. The coffee was nice but the chat was more special. Yes both of us are older, obviously, but those memories feel so fresh as if no day had passed. How strange my memory works that I could forgot  what I had for lunch yesterday, but those events 35 years ago were very clear in my head

I noticed, however, that the persons that I remembered were pictured just like what they looked like 35 years ago. I asked when did S cut her hair short ? In fact S had cut her hair short for ever, that is after I finished etching her long hair in my mind. Yes, it is clear to me that those that I remembered did not aged. They were as young as they were 35 years ago. 

Forever young
I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever
Forever young

Do we want to live forever given that our memory eventually be full and the most of it consists of what we had in the past, when we were young? Our bodies are aging, weakening. Our memories fades, Except for those what had when we were young

Do you really want to live forever
Forever young

 

training for emergencies

I was very surprised when I descended Mt Kinabalu to see that the last 100 m or so was really nothing that I imagined when I climbed. I guess it was about 5:30 AM or so when I stood at the same spot, dark, cold, out of breath, the summit was nowhere to be seen, Where was I ? Was it still much to climb ? How could I survive the cold, wind, and breathlessness? When I descended of course the sun shone, much warmer, I could clearly see where was I, more relaxed, etc. But I was convinced that the fact that I was rather blind on the ascending made the difference. I am sure if I had to do that again I would be more relax. Yes the wind would still be blowing hard, it would still be cold and I would likely be breathless. But the fact that I know where I am would make a difference. 

I guess this is also the principle of training for emergency situations like fire fighting or helicopter under water escape training. The sense of been there and done that. If we knew the steps to follow, the expected things to happen we should be calmer. Basically we said we had been there, we knew what to expect and we should be OK.

I wonder if we could deliberately train ourselves to handle life crisis such as loss of jobs, loss of spouse etc. I get it that such trainings are no fun, but in a sense they have valuable purposes. Basically they act like vaccinations. We deliberately introduce weaken germ into our body so our antibodies would be ready when the real thing does enter or system. Like other emergency trainings we wouldn't expect to use the skill at all as we do not want to be in that situation, but in case it happened we should be in better position to be. 

memento mori (2)

A friend of mine - some 15 years my junior - is diagnosed with stadium 3/4 cancer. I know a bit about his family. He has two small kids, the eldest is some 7 years or so. I am wondering what would one think if a doctor is telling them that the chance to live until ripe age is rather small.  I doubt that my friend would think that back in 1950 the life expectancy of Indonesian is around 40. Hence we would likely beat that odd back then. But of course now that the life expectancy is around 72 the diagnose would discourage him. 

We all are going to die someday somehow. But we typically do not put this fact into perspective. Unless people had been ill for sometime we  assume that everybody dies unexpectedly. We would say: we met so and so just last week, or even last couple days ago and now so and so already passed away. Oh how fragile life is? But we forgot that once started life would end sooner or later.

I guess we all know that death is part of the picture when we react to the news that someone passes away ay say 99 years old. We think that it is normal for someone that old to die. We would typically wonder if the person was already weaken or even sick. We knew that this mortal body of ours has expiry date written somewhere. 

However dying at 'relatively' young age would be tragedy. We would ask about the potential that has not been fulfilled, about the young children of this person etc. But of course in nature such thing happens. 

We do not know when that time would happen to us but we know it would happen.   
Remember how precious your time really is.

Don’t hide from it. Embrace it.
Let it motivate and inspire you.
Let it be a call to action.
Memento Mori.

'new' alternative to return to the earth

When it is the time for us to leave this earth our family would have to make decision either cremation or burial. However there is another alternative for us return to asses/dust i.e. human composting. In nature of course this composting would naturally occur. Decomposition is just one part of any circle of life (and death) where molecules are recycled into the next life. But of course this human composting is a novel thing in modern life.  

Recompose provides services of human composting (technically: natural organic reduction, NOR). The Recompose process takes 30 days in a vessel full of wood chips and straw, then another few weeks in “curing bins,” large boxes (one per person) where soil is allowed to rest and continue exhaling carbon dioxide. Once that process is complete, friends and chosen family can either retrieve the soil themselves, or donate it to an ecological restoration project. The state requires Recompose to test for pathogens in the resulting soil, as well as heavy metals, including arsenic, lead and mercury. Recompose costs $5,500. According to a 2020 price survey , cremation prices in Washington state - where Recompose is situated-  vary in the range of $525-$4,165 and burial from $1,390 for the most frugal, direct, no-service burial to $11,100 for a complete, high-end funeral service.

Colorado is the second state in the US after Washington to allow human body composting. The company's name is The Natural Funeral. The process (6 months) takes longer than what Recompose does. The Natural Funeral charges $7,900 for body composting, compared with $2,200 for flame cremation, and Viddal notes that a traditional burial and service in the Denver area can run well north of $10,000.

For comparison the cost of cremation in Indonesia (as per google search) is between 7 -75 millions IDR (489 to 5,235 USD). Burial in one of the popular cemetary is between 800 - 3500 millions IDR (55,839 - 244,293 USD). There is no company in Indonesia that would offer such service as human composting  but it looks like it would be hard to sell this idea as people might argue that such practice doesn't show respect for the deceased 

our capacity to learn

Apparently we could teach ourselves anything. Given enough time, resources, correct attitude we should be able to learn anything out there. Our brain should have enough capacity to learn whatever other people could do. For example learning foreign languages. For sure some foreigners are able to communicate using that language and since they are human being like us, with the same brain is we have that would mean logically we could learn their language too. Of course some languages are harder to learn, and our own condition could also poses extra challenges to us (for example dealing with sounds that we do not have in our mother tongue) but of course if we are persistent that would not be out of our reach. Eventually we shall be successful. 

I haven't started learning anything new lately, but based on my previous attempts (mostly in learning languages) I could see that the biggest challenge is finding the motivation. Basically we need to answer this question of what's in it for me? Why should we spent times and effort learning this skill? Would it worth our effort and sacrifice? Without the motivation we would easily give up or making excuses. 

Once we identify the necessity we should certainly be able to be persistent. We might still experience frustration but knowing that this endeavor is important for us we would certainly find ways and solutions. We would ask around, buy books, browse YouTube etc. In the age of the Internet chances are someone would have posted what we are looking for somewhere. 

The other thing that we need to consider is the need to have enough resources. Imagine learning piano without ever touching a real (or virtual) piano. Piano skills needs hand coordination that would typically be mastered by hours of exercise playing the piano. I would think some skill would necessitates us to exercise manually and not just imagining working  

  

Negativity DNA

The bias toward bad news is hard wired. We use negative information to protect ourselves against life’s dangers. Floods, fires, and tornados put our brains on high alert. Destructive aftermath moves us to find ways to help, with a sense that any of us could be victims next time. However in the age of 24 hours TV and internet this tendency is often manipulated by the media to drive rating and increase clicks. 

This constant exposure to such bad news also makes us misplacing the importance of such events. For example a news about plane crash would likely locked up the attention of the whole nation for days if not weeks. Yes flying has some risk but the risk is lower than death due to car accident.  It is estimated that the odds of dying in a plane crash are 1 in 9,821.  For a better perspective, that is 1 fatal accident per 16 million flights.  Whereas the odds of dying in a car crash are approximately 1 in 114. However any news of plane crash would be rated "very important" that we misplace the risk of car accident as of lower rate.

It seems that we are at the mercy of the media in terms of defining the importance of the news we see on TV or internet. It is obviously dangerous to watch TV or social media mindlessly. At least we need to do our own homework to check the fact, the hear the balancing arguments, etc. But of course no one wants to do hard works when all the want is entertainment. 

Some would have made up their own opinions that they would just disregards anything that would argue the opposite. In this situation these people would select opinions that would strengthen their own opinion. Of course this is another bias. But anyhow it is clear that we do have our own agendas when we hear news or read social media. 

I understand that media editors find it hard to create a clickable headline from the fact that “John Doe is fine and dandy for the 3578th consecutive day and nothing is new.”  We all wants to enjoy our life. This pleasant view of the world, we unconsciously create a light background on which the negative news stands out even more prominently.

from the perspective of THE universe

I found a print out of Milky way Galaxy from documents from my old companies. I remember pasting the picture of a Galaxy in my view, next to my PC monitor. Why did I have that picture ? I remember that my boss was an a**hole that would be best avoided at all cost. In short I was not happy in the office and I am trying to find a way out, but until then I had to put working under this guy. I loved my job, my family loved living in the city, My children had great schools. So I had plenty of reasons to stay except for putting up with this a**hole boss. When I stressed out I focus my eyes to  the picture of Milky Way and asked myself where I am there ? Of course I was nowhere. Never myself, even the planet earth is nowhere to be seen. I am just a small, unimportant, mortal being so stop complaining. My problem is nothing really. Many others would like to trade anything to get my life. I should shut up, counted my blessings, keep looking for opportunities and just survive the day. My boss is a mere mortal that was not unreplaceable anyway. 

Neil deGrasse Tyson once tweeted that from time to time we need to be reminded that human are fragile and that our perspective is not THE only perspective in this vast universe

I am sure Neil did not mean that human beings are unimportant. We all are part of the whole universe and to some degree we all have some contributions but we could not say that we are the top of the food chain. the jewel of evolution, etc. In other words - putting ourselves in different perspectives would help us to see the bigger picture instead of dwelling into our small irrelevant life

Again I am not suggesting anyone to be apathetic, easily giving up, doom and gloomy. On the contrary we should do all we could do as the universe is the limit and in the meantime we should focus on the situation at hand. For sure life is more than work, etc. So we need to put all those in our perspective. That way we would not be attempted to make hasty decisions that we would regret for the rest of our lives

To me, pondering the picture of The Milky Way is a quick way to remind me where am I in the perspective of THE universe (PS: Milky Way is one of  two trillion (2×1012) or more galaxies in the observable universe)

  

our cyber world

According to this book "nothing in the physical world is really secure". This book that I am referring to titled  "A History of Cyber Security Attacks: 1980 to Present". There you read a long list of cyber attack up to the year 2016. I am sure we do ask why can't we make the system more secured? The writer answered : If people want to focus and target something, more than likely they will obtain what they want (if they have the time, patience, and other sufficient resources behind them). Basically (bad) people would find a way to penetrate anything. It would be more scarier if behind those bad people are unlimited resources of money and talents. This article discusses about Russia cyberattacking the US. The Russian could attack even the water supply in the US.

I guess we could not just simply pull the plug and go back to paper and pencil era. That would simply be impossible. And of course paper and pencil won't prevent hackers to create a clever way to corrupt it. The only way is. 

The most realistic way to handle this potential threat is pretty simple in concept: firstly, DO NOT let our guard down and secondly we need to CONTINUE to ENHANCE our security in the cyber realm. Basically we are in a perpetual arm race with those bad guys. They surely won't stop testing our security and hence we should a step or two ahead of them. 

We could find tips on how to protect our data online. But at the end of the day what important is understanding that bad guys are always there around us lurking. We just have to do our own home work to protect ourselves. The world won't stop progressing in this cyber technology.  It is pretty much a swim or sink situation. Obviously we have to learn to swim !

Sentimental Disney

I have been to three out of five Disneyland: Anaheim, Hong Kong and Paris. The remaining two are Tokyo Disneyland and Walt Disney World in Florida. I am already grown up when I was there. The first Disney trip was part of the touristic trips when I was a student of a language center while preparing for my TOEFL and GRE tests. I was already 25 years old. I visited the other two with my family. Still I would say I enjoyed being there, at least for sentimental reasons

When I was in elementary school every Saturday afternoon I watch Disney show aired by the national TV. I could not remember how long it was run, but I am sure it was at least a year worth of TV shows. One of my neighbor had a View-Master with Disney reels that I was fascinated with. I thought it would be a dream comes true if ever I visited Disneyland 

Of course I did not know that about 12 years later that my dream would came true. I went to Disneyland in Anaheim with some students of my English Center in Redlands University. It took about an hour to drive there. I recalled we were there as soon as the gate were opened (8 AM) and stayed there until the evening. I thought we even had our dinner there. 

I recall I went to most if not all the rides. In the afternoon we watched the Disney parade where we could see all of our favorites characters parading the main street of Disneyland. I bought soundtrack of Disney movies like Cinderella and Snow White. I could not find those cassettes anymore, too bad,  but the memory would remains. Being in Disneyland was my childhood dream came true. 

Seven years later my family and I were in Paris for my six months trainings in main office of my company. We went to Disney Paris. Now our daughter was with us. I guess she was too small to remember the details but of course I kept my score. By that time I had been in two out of four (Hong Kong Disney was opened in 2005). Of course by then we did not know that later on we would revisit Disney Paris once more

Thirteen years later as a family with two kids we flew from KL to Hong Kong. This would be my third Disney. I recall that Hong Kong Disney is rather smaller than the other two that I had been visited but I enjoyed being there anyhow. 

Five years passed by and life would bring us to Disney Paris for the second time, this time there were four of us. I did dream up to visit Disney Tokyo my fourth Disney but seems like it would remain a dream. Firstly Covid is still around and secondly being a pensioner would mean putting travelling long distance at the bottom of the list. 

Why would I would like to be in Tokyo Disney? For sentimental reasons. I recall those Disney TV that I watched when I grew up. Somehow three Disney is still not enough

whose side are you on?

 Plato said: “Those who tell stories rule society”. I could see the truth in this. Everything we believe is in a sense a story. Our ideologies,  theologies, science etc. are narrations of some sort. Of course science is different to mythologies, math is no theologies but still they all have narrations of some degree. 

In our world of social media the stories of the winners is the truth. That is why people compete for twitter taglines, viral videos and memes. If you could flood the internet with your version of story you could expect that most people would believe your version more than other's. 

There are three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the truth. And no one is lying. Memories shared serve each differently

Of course some people would lie but of course they would say they were focusing of their sides of the story and ignoring the things against their narration. So the challenge for us - the consumers, the ones whose opinion to be persuaded - is to be critical. We all are bias unfortunately and hence it is not easy for us to check all the facts. We might not have time nor resources to do so. 

I could see for example that people would have different opinions about the war in Ukraine. Some condemn the Russia other would see differently (for example that when the US invaded other country many would turned the other way). Of course there many facets of the story and each of us tend to focus on the one that interests us the most. Myself, I would focus on the suffering of the civilians, on the refugees, on those who lost their lives. Some would argue that those are the cost of international politics which I am sure were said be those who are sitting comfortably miles from the war (like me).

      

a day in a pow wow

I was once invited by an American student that I knew to come to an Indian Pow Wow. At that time I was preparing for my TOEFL and GRE tests in a small university in Redlands California back in 1990. I could not recall where the Pow Wow was held but I recall it was an hour or so ride. So it should not be too far out. 

It was my first (and last) Pow Wow. Pow Wow is, by the way, a celebration of American Indian culture in which people from diverse indigenous nations gather for the purpose of dancing, singing, and honouring the traditions of their ancestors. There I see "the real" American Indian. Of course the term Indian is a misnomer. The word Indian came to be used because Christopher Columbus repeatedly expressed the mistaken belief that he had reached the shores of South Asia. Convinced he was correct, Columbus fostered the use of the term Indios (originally, “person from the Indus valley”) to refer to the peoples of the so-called New World. 

There I saw many tribes of Indigenous American. The have different costumes, obviously representing different tribes. California has the largest population of Native Americans out of any state in the United States, with 723,000 identifying an "American Indian or Alaska Native" tribe as a component of their race (14% of the nation-wide total). There are currently over one hundred federally recognized native groups or tribes in California. 

I do not recall seeing any horse, I saw only cars. I guess they are pretty much living like any other American, however I could sense how proud they were. They sell beads and other traditional hand made artifacts. I did not think those are imported from China like many stuff I found in any touristic places. They sang, they danced. For one day they could be themselves. The descendants of the first people who migrated there. 50–17,000 years ago, falling sea levels allowed people to move across the land bridge of Beringia that joined Siberia to northwest North America (Alaska).

I am lucky that I had for once been in a pow wow. It was an eye opening experience. About people, about culture, about the heritage of human being. Later when I watched Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves I would recall my day in a pow wow. 

citius armstrong

This morning I was listening to a podcast about Lance Armstrong the winner of 7 tour de France that was found to used illegal substances (doping) so that his achievement was stripped and he was banned for professional cycling for life. I got the impression that Armstrong is convinced that everyone in the tournament were using one substance of the other. He mentioned that all he did was to manage the lactic acid which is naturally produces by the body during exercise. His statement sounds like saying that during the tournament he did experience all the hard work but of course his body did not react like normal human being. The accumulation of lactic acid would certainly affect our performance. We would feel pain, hence tend to slow down and we could not perform at top level in endurance  event like Tour de France.

I am sure that there is limit to human performance. Current world record of 100 m sprint is 9.58 seconds. Would it be broken ? If so how much is it going to be attributed to pure human capabilities ? I guess stronger people with certain type of bodies would be able to sprint faster, long legs might help, etc. but after all of these factors are explored we could enter into unethical realm. If that is so would we consider the achievement as pure human effort ? But one might argue that using drug enhancing performances is after all human effort too. What if all athletes would be allowed to use certain drug enhancing performances? Would it make the race more fair ? 

Citius, Altius, Fortius the motto of Olympic express the spirit of humanity to achieve the limit. Of course  the most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well but still all of us dream of winning. These days the Olympic glory would also means money from sponsorship etc. 

I guess we should still draw a line somewhere. OK  we might debate about the drug enhancing performances but I guess anyone would agree that robotic arm or leg or eyes would be out of question. That would simply be too far as the competition would no longer be about human - unless of course human would also consist robotic assistance performance

  

 

practice makes perfect

This morning we went trekking to Tahura Bandung. It was about 12 km return. Not much a challenge as the trek is pretty easy. We had hiked Mt Kinabalu back in 2019. That was much more challenging. Mostly because we did not have enough preparation. If we were to repeat hiking Mt Kinabalu I am sure with better preparation we could hike faster and certainly enjoy it more. Practice does make perfect.

I experience the benefit of practice with my running exercise. I could see that I am able to run faster without having my heart beat exceeding my 76% of my maximum heart rate. The thing that I am currently practicing is to run longer than 8K with the same pace. I am not sure if I could achieve that goal or not. But trying makes exercise more interesting

Half of me knows that this attempt to improving my ability is pointless as obviously I am getting older and hence my body would naturally be weaker. I could over two counter points, one the journey is worth more than the destination and secondly I am sure at least my exercise would help me slowing down my aging process.

I learn that some people experienced the so call  "arrival fallacy", feeling empty once their goals were achieved. I haven't reach my goal yet but I guess I would be surprised to experience this. In any case I keep reminding myself that the doing is often more important than the outcome. 

Exercise is the best defense and repair strategy that we have to counter different drivers of aging. I knew that I started rather late but scientists are convinced that no such thing as too little, too late. 

Running is fun, no argument on that, in fact as I close my eyes to sleep I remind myself that tomorrow I shall run. I go to sleep with this happy thought. 

 

point, shoot and share

The first time I used camera was when I was ten years or so. Of course at that time we used film. I recall you had two options: 36 shoots a roll or 24. There were two types of ASA - 100 and something else. I could not remember what ASA stands for but I guess it is the measure of how sensitive the film is to light. For outdoor I recall we could use lower ASA. My dad had a fancy camera - I don't remember the brand anymore but it had bells and whistles which made it more than a point and shot camera that I had. I don't remember exactly if we had a flash or not. The word we used to call it is "blitz" which I am sure is a Dutch word. For my point and shot camera there were disposable flash light (see below, highlighted in yellow). One flash had four faces so each were for 4 shots. So cumbersome indeed but at that time I thought it was brilliant. 

Hence I was amazed to hear that in fact Kodak invented the digital camera but decided against it. The management feared that it would kill their existing business (which is film) and it looks like the prototype was slow, low resolution and bulky. Well of course Kodak got it wrong as eventually the digital world wiped out the old film era. 

I had my first digital camera much late - might be the year 2005 or so. Like Kodak management I had concerns about the resolution, At that time the technology was still growing and hence you had to pay premium -which I was reluctant to- to get higher resolution. Anyhow that camera was a point and shot type. I had my first DSLR camera about a year later. It was a Nikon. The lower end. I learned enough to shot photos. Like everything Nikon would provide default settings for some types of photos e.g. indoor, outdoor, night photo, etc. 

My favorite genre is candid photography. I lived in KL at that time, about 500 meters from the iconic KLCC tower. Every week end I would hunt for photos of tourists, Typically tourist would pose in front of KLCC tower. Obviously it is hard to have a great pose in front of such tall building at its foot. I found it amusing to take their actions. 

As I moved elsewhere this hobby of hunting for candid photos slowly disappeared. From KL I moved to Brisbane, Australia and I was afraid that shooting candid would be against the law. I did not check if it this was the case anyhow Brisbane does not have a tourist magnet like KL and hence the 'hunting ground' is kinda dry.

Anyhow as the camera in mobile phones gets more sophisticated my DSLR is more and more idle. Nowadays you would have to be a hardcore photographer to bring around your DSLR for taking photos. Some people would even go to extreme by taking pictures using Polaroid. This old technology had its own niche in the last - way long time ago - but I do not share the enthusiasm today. The point of taking photos with your mobile is the ability to share them instantly either via WA, IG or FB. 

Sharing is caring, but mostly to share is to exist.