Useless Information Overload~

Swine flu

2009-04-30T21:13:00.001+08:00

Found a site on facts and myths. Good to read:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/04/090427-swine-flu-facts.html

Blog shift! Change ur bookmarks people!

2007-11-18T22:21:00.000+08:00

Hey all

It's been 2 years!! The longest I've ever been at keeping a blog actually. Thank you for being around and reading the posts. Although I don't actually know most of you, I know you guys are around cos my stat counter says so. =p So once again, thank you so much.

I'm shifting my blog to a new site: http://tcube.wordpress.com/

tcube is actually a short form for triviatriviatrivia (t -cubed) cos I know how much of a pain it is to type the whole website out. Hopefully the new site name is easier to remember?

The new site is going to house new trivia as well as other information which I would like to share from my feeds, random surfing etc. So do go there and take a look okay?

Cheerio folks.

Free rice

2007-11-11T21:42:00.000+08:00

I've just got this really cool site from a friend: http://www.freerice.com/index.php

What it basically does is that it works on your vocab with you and at the same time, for every vocabulary you learn, you get to 'donate' 10 grains of rice.

Details of how that works can be found on the site itself. I think it's actually quite fun (Maybe I'm a bit of a geek/nerd... heh.) and you get to do good things while you are at it too.

A fun time waster that you actually dun feel guilty about playing. Yay.

Go play now! - I'm at my 1000+++ grains of rice already. whee.

p.s. this post isnt quite my typical trivia post. but hey, you guys wouldn't mind right? =)

Brain freeze

2007-10-17T16:06:00.000+08:00

Ever drunk an ice-cold smoothie only to get a throbbing headache?

Congrats, you just had a brain freeze!

How does it work?

Basically, on a hot day, you are probably dying for a cold cold drink. but when u take a sip from the freezing drink, you subject the nerves at the roof of your mouth to extreme coldness. This results in your nerves sending signals to your brain that you are freezing (when u really aren't) and your brain then reacts by heating itself up (to protect itself from being frozen).

When that happens, your brain is actually overheating itself without realising it. Hence, you get a brain freeze!

So if you ever want to avoid a brain freeze, try drinking ur drink such that it does not touch the roof of your mouth so as to avoid the nerves clustered there going haywire and sending wrong signals to your brain! =)

Why does the moon have phases?

2007-10-03T18:55:00.000+08:00

What are phases? Notice that when you look at the moon, it looks round on some days and on other days, it looks like a boomerbang or like a half of a pizza (yes i'm hungry). Those are, crudely explaining it, the phases of the moon.

Many people have the misconception that phases of the moon is due to the shadow of the earth falling on the moon. Actually, that's the reason for lunar eclipse not for the phases of the moon. In fact, the shadow of the earth doesn't fall on the moon so often or regularly.

So what's going on?

Again, this is a concept that's difficult to explain using words, so here's a site with diagrams to explain. Do read about it and teach others about the correct reasoning!

Misconception about seasons!

2007-10-03T18:43:00.000+08:00

Before I begin... I just wanna say: WOW i'm blogging in here REGULARLY again. yay for me.

Ahem. now to continue.

Does anyone ever wonder why there are seasons in the northern and southern hemisphere and why countries in the equator has none?

Most people have the misconception that seasons are due to the elliptical rotation of the earth around the sun - the longer distance from the sun gives us winter while the shorter distance gives us summer.

That is in fact very wrong!

Think about it, if this explanation was true, why would the seasons of the northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere be the opposite of each other? When US and Canada is having their summer, Australia and New Zealand is experiencing winter. Shouldn't they have the same seasons if the earlier explanation holds true?

So what should the real answer be? Seasons have something to do with the tilt of the earth. It's not easy to explain this without diagrams so for more information, do go to this site to learn more!

Miss or Ms. ?

2007-10-01T19:28:00.000+08:00

I've always struggled with the titles 'miss' and 'ms.' .

What exactly is the difference between the two? Aren't they both the same??

Today, I've decided to go find out. (Yes, I admit I'm abit slow about checking up on this =p)

So, here's the deal.

'Miss' is the title used for a single woman who has never married before.

'Ms.' is the title used for a woman regardless of their marital status.

Contrary to popular belief, 'Ms' is not short for 'Miss' but it is short for 'mistress' which is the female version of 'mister'.

The general idea is that the titles for men do not specify their marital status so the titles of women should also be ambiguous about it. Hence, people coined the non-marital status specific title - 'ms.'

Nowadays, 'ms' is often used in business correspondence when people do not know the marital status of the person they are liaising with.

So there you have it. the difference between 'miss' and 'ms' is that the former is a title for unmarried women and the other does not specify the marital status.

Extra trivia!

Seldom do people need the plural form of Ms, Mr, Miss and Mrs. But what are they exactly?

Here's the list:

(Mr) Messrs
(Miss) Misses
(Ms) Mses/Mss
(Mrs) Mesdames

[ref 1] [ref 2]

Why is the clockwise direction in a clockwise direction?

2007-09-29T12:50:00.000+08:00

Ever wondered why clocks go in a certain direction?

There's actually a reason for this!

Clocks were first made in the northern hemisphere where the sundial goes in the direction we now call clockwise direction. Hence, when they made clocks, they made it so that the needle would follow the direction of the shadow of the sundial.

So... if our clocks had been made in the southern hemisphere, they would probably move in the other direction!

Anti-theft strips

2007-09-27T16:02:00.000+08:00

The other day, when my friend and I were walking past a departmental shop, a DVD we had with us triggered the shop's anti-shoplifting system. The security guard came over and helped us figure out that the trigger belonged to a plastic strip attached to the DVD casing which looked like this:

Of course, ordinarily, removing it and throwing it away would be what most people would have done. But, I'm not quite the ordinary person =p

Curious about why such a small strip of metal could prevent theft and transmit signals to trigger an alarm, I decided to take it apart.

It was rather disappointing to see that besides housing a few strips of metal, there really wasn't any circuits or wires jutting out of that thing. So how does it work?

Here's a summary of what this site says:

Basically, the strip has a magnetic, iron-containing wire or ribbon inside that has a high permeability that makes it easy for magnetic signal to flow through it. To deactivate this ribbon, you simply use a weak magnet to saturate the tag and this puts it in an inactive saturated state. The active state is the state at which the strip will trigger the alarm.

How does the system work?

At the gate of the shop, there is an intensive low frequency magnetic field generated by the transmitter antenna (those 'gate'-like things you see near the door). When the active strip passes through, it transmit a unique frequency pattern which is picked up by an adjacent receiver antenna. The signal is processed and if it is recognised, an alarm will be triggered!

Because of it's low frequency, it can be placed on other metal objects and these metal objects will not trigger the alarm because their permeability is just not high enough.

p.s. sorry if this trivia contained too much scientific terms... If anyone needs a layman explanation, you could drop me a comment and i'll try to work on a layman explanation. =)

The single parent bee.

2007-09-01T13:21:00.000+08:00

Bees are strange things.

Female bees come from fertilized eggs. Nothing strange there.

But did you know that male bees come from unfertilized eggs? They have only 1 parent - the queen bee and no father. Hence a female bee inherits genes from both mother and father while a male bee inherits only the mother's genes.

They are born to a life of leisure as their sole purpose of life is to mate with a virgin queen in summer. They don't even have to work but just before winter comes, they get kicked out of the hives cos they are not needed.

I'm serious!

Read abt it here, here and here.

*update*

perhaps I should make this more informative. Apparently, the reason for the male bees to have only one parent is so that it can spread the genes of the queen bee. Having only one source of genes, the male bee is a great method for the Queen bee to spread her own genes around. It's like a vessel she's making use of... hmm...

Scratches on a CD

2007-08-13T19:05:00.000+08:00

Here's something I discovered some time ago and promptly chucked aside till today:

When a CD is scratched on the data side(side without label), chances are, it can be saved. However, scratch it on the label side and you probably end up with a new coaster (CD can't be saved).

For most of us, that somehow doesn't seem too right.

When I put my CDs down, I nearly always tend to put it label facing down but alas, that's not the correct way! Instead, if you want to protect ur CD, it's always better to put the CD such that the data side faces down.

Here's an explanation:

In CDs, the reflective and data layers are just below the label and a thin sheet of polycarbonate substrate. A much thicker layer of the substrate supports and protects the bottom of the disc.

[link]

While not all scratches on the data side can be salvaged, small scratches do little to affect data reading as the laser reads the data layer of the CD through the substrate. Big scratches might affect data reading though often, error detection and correction can minimise such problems from occuring.

However, one must note that when the scratches on the data side is so deep that it cuts into the data layer itself, the CD will be a goner.

Because of this same reason, since the data layer of the CD on the label side is protected only by a thin sheet of substrate compared to the data side, the former is a lot more sensitive to scratches. As such, even a small scratch on the label side could result in the data layer being destroyed and hence making the CD un-readable!

For those who needs more proof, try taking two unwanted CDs and test out this idea. Scratch one CD on the data side and the other on the label side. Most likely the one with a scratch on the data side would still be able to play while the one scratched on the label side would not.

For more info, click here, here, and here.

Catnip as a mosquito repellent

2007-06-03T17:42:00.000+08:00

This isn't really a useless piece of information but hey, it's information!

Seeing that I just came back from a holiday to my home country which seems to be having trouble with dengue these days, I thought it would be good to look online for some natural mosquito repellents that I could use around the house.

I have found amongst other 'mosquito repelling' plants, catnip proved to be pretty effective against those pesky mossies.

In the Iowa study, the researchers noted that small doses of catnip oil were at least as effective at repelling mosquitoes as 10 times larger doses of DEET (which was used at typical recommended application rates for commercial products).

[link]

Sounds good to me. Things to note however is that you need to crush the leaves to release the aromatic oils in order for the plant to be useful. But here comes the problem: these oils also have an effect on cats - they make them 'high'. So, the plant might start attracting all the neighborhood cats to my garden!

The mess!

Nonetheless, I think I prefer cats to mossies. So I guess I shall be looking for catnip plants in nurseries near my home then.

The Quacking Duck.

2007-04-22T16:13:00.000+08:00

Man. Haven't been in blogger for so long already!

Here's a new post I wanted to post.

Anyone heard of the story that a duck's quack doesnt echo?

I've always thought it to be true, but I just found out from here that it isn't!

A duck's quack does echo!

Interesting eh!

Merry Christmas~

2006-12-24T20:37:00.000+08:00

It's Christmas and many people, christian and non-christian alike, around my country are celebrating this festival.

One of the local comics I read had an interesting post on the history of this festival and I just thought it would be an interesting read for my readers. =) Afterall, he's done all the research hehe. (hope he doesnt mind =p)

Read here.

p.s. the comics are nice too!

Calculating Pi - the fun way

2006-12-03T18:20:00.000+08:00

Okay so i may be a bit late in discovering this real experiment to calculate pi. but for those who dunno, here's a cute experiment for ya.

When you are really bored, and if you happen to have a pack of frozen hotdogs lying in ur freezer, here's what you can do:

How to calculate Pi using food!

It's a real experiment and it will give you an estimate of Pi. Suitable for nerds, maths geeks and other random maths lovers =p

Snellen Chart

2006-09-10T11:59:00.000+08:00

I just got my glasses done and noticed that even with my glasses, I couldn't see the bottom row of the Snellen Chart. Worried that my glasses wasn't made well, I asked my optician whether that was normal - and she said yes.

Before I continue, let me show you a picture of a snellen chart:

Apparently, most people can see up to the red underlined row. And that already is 'perfect eyesight' but few could actually read beyond that red underlined row. I wonder how many readers can actually read beyond the red line. I know I can't... even with glasses.

Anyway, here's some more trivia for you:

Why is the letter "E" on top of all eye charts?

Read more about the chart here

After a hiatus..

2006-09-01T09:18:00.000+08:00

I have a question: Which languages have at least 100 million native speakers?

Before you hasten to list the languages you know best, it might be worth knowing that the language French has about 65 million speakers and German about 95 million. Not even 100 million! Are you surprised? I was.

There are 9 languages that actually make the cut. Any idea which are they?

Think!
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Sigh. I don't know how to do those cool javascript thingy that would hide the answers... so I'll hope no one cheats and write the answers below:
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Got ur list ready?
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Here goes!~

Mandarin Chinese has nearly 900 million speakers. Of the other Chinese languages, the most widely spoken are Wu (80 million) and Yue/Cantonese (55 million). Recommended reading: The Languages of China.
Spanish has about 320 million native speakers.
English has about 310 million native speakers.
Hindi+Urdu have about 240 million speakers (split 180/60).
The various Arabic varieties have about 210 million speakers.
Portuguese has some 180 million speakers (most of them in Brazil).
Bengali has about 170 million speakers (in India and Bangladesh).
Russian has about 150 million speakers.
Japanese has about 120 million speakers.

Cool eh?

taken from here

Wiki of the day: Spontaneous human combustion

2006-05-20T20:45:00.000+08:00

An excerpt:

Spontaneous human combustion (SHC) is the alleged burning of a person's body without a readily apparent, identifiable external source of ignition. The combustion may result in simple burns and blisters to the skin, smoking, or a complete incineration of the body. The latter is the form most often 'recognized' as SHC. There is much speculation and controversy over SHC. It is not a proven natural occurrence, but many theories have attempted to explain SHC's existence and how it may occur.

Link here

The M&M trivia!

2006-05-16T11:19:00.000+08:00

Ever wondered how M&Ms are manufactured?

I was biting into one some time ago and was rather curious as to how it is possible to coat the chocolate fillings so evenly with candy...

Anyway, I managed to find out the answer and here's a short summary!

Firstly, the chocolate is placed in molds to get the shape that we want. Then they are tumbled around to make the chocolate smooth and rounded. Once it is harden, it is dumped into large containers of liquid candy and rotated. During this process, coats are sprayed on the rotating chocolates at timed intervals. This gives the chocolate an even layer of coat. Finally, color is added in the last coating and we get M&Ms!

Cool!

Did you also know that candy coated chocolate were used as combat rations in world war 2 also? It was because coating chocolates ensure that they would not melt. So, it's perfect for eating in any climate! =)

How to best pour ketchup out of a bottle

2006-04-30T18:51:00.000+08:00

Have yet to update since the start of this year. Don't worry, I have not disappeared. Just been busy =)

Still busy currently so I just put something interesting up till I have more time to collate my recent findings into new posts.

Here's how to pour ketchup from a bottle the proper way:

http://www.icogitate.com/~ergosum/recipes/ketchup.htm

I'm sure physics is involved somehow. Let's see if I have time to figure out the physics.

back to work now. ^^

This could save your life!

2006-01-31T23:51:00.000+08:00

A very happy Chinese New Year to all my readers!

It's the third day of the Chinese New year, and a short trivia for those who don't know about chinese new year, there is a total of 15 days for our new year celebration! So there's a lot more celebrating to do!

But. Today's trivia shall not be on CNY. Instead, I was reminded on this special day, something my late grandfather told me. Something that could very well save someone's life one day. ^^

My late grandfather was a taxi driver and he once told me that if the car I was driving ever had a faulty brake, one way to stop the vehicle would be to immediately keep changing the gear randomly and quickly. A car on manual gear would stall if the gear kept changing randomly and by stalling your car, you stop it without ever needing brakes.

There you go. Keep this piece of info in your mind and who knows, one day it might just save your life!

Now some of you may ask, what about cars that are on automatic gear?? Well... I don't know. I guess you *could* try to put it in reverse gear and pray hard that it works, though I've never tried it myself. Hey. I don't have a licence you know. *wink*

The lowdown on hymen.

2006-01-16T21:11:00.000+08:00

Since a reader of this blog asked me to write about the hymen, I decided to give you readers a little trivia about the hymen.

According to cool nurse:

During the early stages of fetal development there is no opening into the vagina at all. The thin layer of tissue that conceals the vagina at this time usually divides incompletely prior to birth, forming the hymen. The size and shape of this opening (or openings) varies greatly from person to person.

Sometimes this formation of an opening does not occur, resulting in an imperforated hymen (it lacks the more common opening).

It has been long thought that if a girl is a virgin, then during her wedding night, her hymen will break and she will then bleed. Many women, even now, are expected to bleed on their wedding night to proof their virginity and when they don't they face shame and humiliation.

But the truth is, whether a girl bleeds on her wedding night doesn't prove anything at all!

It is a proven medical truth that some females are simply not born with a hymen, since all the tissues had divided completely while they were still in the womb.

And if the woman is active in sports, her hymen could tear naturally. Apart from that, once she menstruates or when she uses a tampon, the hymen could break too.

For some females, the hymen may be very small or elastic and that means that they could be pregnant even if their hymen is still intact. In fact, the remnants of the hymen are usually still present until a women delivers her baby vaginally.

Of course, everyone's different. So gauging a person's virginity via this myth on the hymen is simply bullocks. =p Spread the word!

to Den: I hope this post helped you with your question. The other two topics are actually too medical for this trivia blog. So, I shall just post a couple of good sites for you to look at, and hopefully it'll help explain your questions. ^^

On dermoid cysts : [1] ; [2]

On parthenogenesis : [1] ; [2]

And yes, you asked about the purpose of the hymen... Well, from what I gather, there isn't any purpose. It's just something left over from fetal development. Correct me if i'm wrong. =)

Aluminum foils and microwaves

2006-01-11T09:16:00.000+08:00

I have been wondering why pple keep telling me that aluminum foils cannot be use in microwaves. So i decided to find out.

I found an association called the European Aluminium foil Association, (dun laugh i'm serious!) and here's wat it says abt aluminum foils in microwave:

A prime benefit of aluminum foil containers is consumer convenience. Warming, cooking, baking, grilling or steaming can be done without complication using any of the domestic types of cooking equipment available. Independent research in the UK has confirmed the findings of several other test programmes conducted over several years.

These have demonstrated that, as long as simple guidelines are followed, shallow foil containers can be used safely and beneficially in microwave ovens.

Combination microwave/grill ovens are increasingly popular. It follows that the use of foil containers, which offer critical performance benefits in both methods of heating, will be increasingly seen as the natural packaging choice for foods requiring cooking or re-heating.

Making the best use of microwave ovens

Shallow containers can be used safely in a microwave oven, and better-cooked results can be obtained.

The microwave guidelines are: The aluminum foil must not touch other metal, such as a metal turntable, the oven sides, or another container.

Use containers singly, and place on an ceramic plate if the turntable is metal.

Microwave energy cannot pass through metal, therefore remove board lids lined with foil and, where appropriate, use a suitable cover such as microwave film or a plate.

Microwave energy only enters food from the top, so use shallow trays only, and ensure they are at least two thirds full.

Heat food for slightly longer than usual, and ensure that it is piping hot before serving. Thanks to the excellent heat conductivity of aluminum, many foods heat more evenly in foil containers, but where appropriate foods should be stirred as usual.

So, if you are careful, you can use aluminum foils in the microwave.

Another trivia on aluminum foils: the shiny and dull side - which is better?

Well, as someone who have studied physics, I've always thought that the shiny side is better. But apparently, the difference in the two sides is only due to the manufacturing process and actually, neither side is especially better than the other. However, since the shiny side is a better reflector of heat, it might still be a good idea to wrap food that you want to cook shiny side in. And if you want to refrigerate something, wrapping it with dull side in would be a better choice.

But there's one exception. Those who actually buy non-stick aluminum foils should always wrap their food dull side in. This is because the dull side happens to be the non-stick side. ^^

Yet another author's note.

2005-12-18T14:35:00.000+08:00

Hi all.

Gonna disappear for a while again. Meanwhile, if you have any burning questions, go ahead and ask me, I'll answer them when i can. Also, if you are an aspiring writer and wants to contribute to this little blog, you are most welcomed to. Just let me know 'kay?

Till I come back, See you all soon!

Rule of the thumb

2005-12-17T10:44:00.000+08:00

Ever wondered how the phrase 'Rule of the thumb' came about?

Perhaps many of you have heard of the claim that the phrase was derived from an old English law which stated that a man could not beat his wife with anything wider than his thumb. I, for one, have heard that story often enough.

Well, for those who had believed it to be the truth, it's time I debunked this urban myth.

A quick check is all it takes to dismiss this interesting but false theory. I came across a wonderful site that helps get our facts right. Let's see what this site has to say:

"The real explanation of 'rule of thumb' is that it derives from wood workers... who knew their trade so well they rarely or never fell back on the use of such things as rulers. instead, they would measure things by, for example, the length of their thumbs."

The author pointed out that,

"That the phrase did not even originate in legal practice could have been ascertained by any fact-checker who took the trouble to look it up in the Oxford English Dictionary, which notes that the term has been used metaphorically for at least three hundred years to refer to any method of measurement or technique of estimation derived from experience rather than science."

In fact,

"British law since the 1700s and our American laws predating the Revolution prohibit wife beating, though there have been periods and places in which the prohibition was only indifferently enforced."

Apparently, there never was a law that states that a man can beat his wife whether or not the instrument used was bigger or smaller than his thumb. It was then suggested that perhaps this myth was brought about because of this particular quote:

"In America, early settlers held European attitudes towards women. Our law, based upon the old English common-law doctrines, explicitly permitted wife-beating for correctional purposes. However, certain restrictions did exist and the general trend in the young states was toward declaring wife-beating illegal. For instance, the common-law doctrine had been modified to allow the husband 'the right to whip his wife provided that he used a switch no bigger than his thumb' -- a rule of thumb, so to speak"

—Del Martin, Battered Wives Volcano Press, 1976, page 31.

If anyone's interested to know more, they can visit this wiki site.

Pesky Mosquitoes

2005-12-16T20:44:00.000+08:00

Today's topic is on a pesky little buzzing creature that suck ur blood - the mosquito!

Mosquito is a spanish word which means 'little fly' and its use dates back to 1583.

Perhaps most of you already know that only female mosquitoes suck blood, male ones don't. Thus, only the female mosquito has mouth parts suited for that purpose. But why is it only female mosquitoes bite other animals for blood?

Well, mosquitoes don't suck blood for food. Their food is actually the nectar of plants. Instead, their reason for sucking blood is because they need the protein that can be found in blood to lay their eggs.

For the past few days, I've had access to a lab equipped with a microscope. Since this lab also happen to have plenty of mosquitoes, it was easy to obtain a mosquito for observation. A friend asked, which one is the mouth? Unfortunately, I couldn't tell. Nonetheless, here are some photos of parts of the pesky little thing for your viewing pleasures:

The wing~

The feelers~

Actually, the pictures are rather pretty aren't they? As for the mouth, since I cant find it using the microscope, I went to look for a photo online.

This, my friends, is what a mosquito's mouth looks like:

note: this is a false color image taken by Kevin Mackenzie using a SEM .

Shocking? My immediate reaction to the photo was to exclaim "OMG. IT HAS A TONGUE!!!!" (Well, it actually isn't really a tongue. But it sure looks like it right?)

If you are interested to know how the mosquito sucks blood, click here.

By the way, I realised this post doesnt have much information in it... But then again, I just wanted to show you readers that picture I found of the mosquito mouth because it grossed me out. =p (hope you people still liked the post despite the lower standards. *sheepish smile*)

L'abscence est a l'amour ce qu'est au feu le vent; it eteint le petit, il allume le grand

2005-12-15T12:05:00.000+08:00

Before I continue, let me say what that long title translates as: "Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great."

A friend of mine asked me, so why does wind extinguish small fires (as of birthday candles) but build up bigger ones?

Well, he actually knows the answer but just wanted to test me. Luckily, I managed to find the answer. muahahaha. I win! *clears throat and gives victory sign* ^^

Ok, the answer to that question is:

Fire requires 3 conditions to exist - (1) Fuel, (2) oxygen and (3) minimum ignition temperature.

When we want to extinguish a fire, all we have to do is deprive the fire of at least one out of these three conditions.

Wind brings a fire more oxygen and at the same time, it also reduces the temperature of the fire.

In the case of a small fire, a sufficiently large wind can reduce the temperature low enough to go below the minimum ignition temperature required for the fire to continue burning. This meant that condition 3 cannot be satisfied. Thus, in small fires, wind serves the role of an extinguisher.

In the case of the birthday candle, the act of blowing it also removes the vaporised wax around the flame (thus removing its fuel source). So by blowing at a birthday candle, a person can effectively remove two conditions for the candle to remain lit.

In the case of a large fire, the temperature is much too high for the wind to cool it to a temperature level below that of the minimum ignition temperature. So all it does is feed the fire with more oxygen. Therefore, instead of extinguishing big fires, wind enkindles them.

There. Problem solved.

But there's alot more questions you can ask regarding this issue.
Questions like:
How do trick birthday candles work?
How does a fire storm work?

Keep on asking folks!

A note from Xae

2005-12-15T11:08:00.000+08:00

Let's see now, the last post was... *gasp* nearly one month ago! Where have I been?!?

Sorry about the prolong absence folks, I know you guys missed me. I've been busy =p=p But hey, I havent ran out of ideas yet and since I've got such a huge backlog of posts waiting to be published, I think I shall just type all of them in advance and post them one per day for the next few days. ^^ Sounds exciting isn't it?

Can't wait? Read on then!

Lard - the healthier choice?!

2005-11-25T14:20:00.000+08:00

I had a fantastic lunch today - Thai Crispy Chicken and only after I'm about to finish the dish, I realised why the dish was so delicious: lard. loads of lard.

Lard! Some of you may cringe to know that I actually enjoy eating lard especially the deep fried ones. Well, before you condemn lard (or me, for that matter), it may be of interest to know that lard is actually a rather misunderstood fat.

In the blind pursuit of healthy food, many people had put a stop on cooking and eating anything with lard, prefering instead to stick to butter, margarine and vegetable shortening, simply because they were told that it was the healthier choice. But is it really?

Animal fat, being saturated fat, is said to be bad for the bloodstream and arteries. That, I do not deny. However, there is also another form of bad fat that is often overlooked - the trans fat. Whenever you eat anything that contains partially hardened vegetable oil, you are eating trans fatty acids. These unwholesome trans fats shoot extra LDL cholesterol (the bad kind) into your arteries while batting away the other, good cholesterols.

In this 'anti-lard' times, food such as french fries are often cooked in a "partially hardened vegetable shortening" cooking oil rather than saturated animal fat. This is despite the fact that potato deep-fried in a good lard may be cooked in less time at a higher temperature, thereby leaving less total fat imbedded in the finished, more thoroughly cooked, less soggy, less rancid food product. The fat in French fries cooked with "partially hydrogenated vegetable shortening can be as much as 46 per cent trans fat! (Old-fashioned lard had zero per cent trans-fat.)

In case you havent got it, trans fats are very bad. very bad indeed. Worst than saturated fat which might actually be healthy (if taken moderately) according to this site.

But I'm digressing. Enough about trans fat. Back to the good old lard.

It may be surprising to note that lard contains just 40 percent saturated fat. Before you protest that 40% is alot, it may be good to compare this figure to butter which has nearly 60%. The level of monounsaturated fat (the "good" fat) in lard is at a very respectable 45 percent, which is comparable to double butter's paltry 23 or so percent.

Not only is lard healthier than butter, it is also a whole lot better than butter (or vegetable oil for that matter) when it comes to cooking finger-licking good food. Nothing can beat lard in making the best pie crust, the type that flakes so wonderfully under a fork. You've got to try it to believe it.

But, before you scramble to include plenty of lard in your diet, remember, too much of a good thing is still BAD! ^^

Read more about why trans fat is bad and lard is better: [link1] ; [link2] ; [link3] ; [link4]

the author anticipates the return of lard on her dinner table... slurp!

Talcium powder

2005-11-25T00:47:00.001+08:00

Have you used talcium powder recently? Perhaps on yourself? Or perhaps, on your new born baby?

Today's trivia will be about Talcium powder. That innocent looking, white, wonderful powder which I myself often like to use especially in the hot hot weather of Singapore where I'm from.

As you all probably have guessed, Talcium powder is made of Talc. But what exactly is talc?

This, my friends, is what Talc looks like:

Yes, talc is actually a mineral. For those chemistry buffs, the chemical formula of talc is H₂Mg₃(SiO₃)_4.

Besides talcium powder, talc is also used as a lubricant, and as a filler in paper manufacture. Besides that, most tailor's chalk is made of talc. Even then, the most well known use of talc is probably as baby powder for preventing nappy rashes on babies.

It's common, widespread usage hides a worrying issue. Apparently, scientific studies conducted has been suggesting that talc is likely to be carcinogenic. In fact, it has been shown that routine application of talcium powder to the genital area is linked with a three-to-fourfold increase in the development of ovarian cancer.

Not only that, because the texture of talcium powder is very fine, it can be inhaled easily. When this happens, the powder in the lungs could lead to illnesses such as pneumonia and inflammation of the airways. In fact, too much aspiration could cause a baby's death. Yes. It is that serious!

Though these findings are still in their preliminary stages and have yet to be conclusive, many doctors are already advicing parents against using talcium powder. I'm sure most parents would rather take caution about such matters and avoid using talcium.

However, talcium powder is such a convenient way of protecting a baby from diaper rashes and to soften their skin that it wouldn't be easy finding a satisfactory alternative that people would use in its place.

It has been suggested that cornstarch and lotions are plausible alternatives to talcium powder. There are of course commercial powders available that are talc-free. Perhaps, if you are still using talcium powder, it's time to consider switching to a talc-free powder for the sake of your health.

As what chinese say, 宁可信其有，不可信其无。(roughly translated: It's better to believe it, rather than to dismiss it)

I, for one, will have to quit my habit of dousing myself in talcium powder everytime the weather gets too hot. =p

Links on the health issue concerning Talc: [link1] ; [link2] ; [link3] ; [link4]
General information on talc: [link]

On the topic of menstrual bleeding.

2005-11-15T17:39:00.000+08:00

I promised myself if I could finish my work for today I'll do a little blogging so here's another trivia for you readers!

Unfortunately for male readers, this trivia shall be yet another female related trivia. =p

We all know (or at least tt's what i presume) female humans menstruate. What I want to know is whether other female mammals also menstruate. After some research, I came to some amazing revelations! Before I move on to those, the answer to the first question is: yes and no. Some female mammals menstruate while others don't. Read on, I'll explain myself.

Firstly, according to this website along with many other websites:

Only humans, apes and some monkeys menstruate. Other mammals like dogs and cats sometimes will bleed a little when they are in heat, which is when they ovulate and mate, but they do not have menstrual cycles. Having a menstrual cycle means you do not go into heat. Because of this, humans can mate whenever they want, and have babies at any time of the year.

So evidently there are animals that do menstruate. But then comes a problem: I'm wondering, if animals do menstruate, then they wouldn't they bleed? And leaving a trail of blood while traversing around isn't very discreet, right? Wouldn't they get found out by predators easily? So how?

This is where the interesting bit starts.

Apparently,

"ovulation need not be accompanied by often painful and prolonged menstruation; no haemorrhage or rupture of blood-vessels is natural and normal." [link]

After consulting several websites, I realised that the menstrual bleeding that many women faces arent really a natural or healthy thing! In fact, a woman can experience no bleeding at all and be perfectly healthy and be able to give birth!

This particular website is very enlightening.

Here's what the article says:

During the days before a woman ovulates, the lining of the womb - the endometrium - thickens in preparation for a possible conception. If the egg released at ovulation passes through the womb unfertilized, the thickened endometrial tissues are not needed - and in a truly healthy woman, as in animals in their wild state, those tissues are mostly reabsorbed. What remains is expelled over a short period of time as a slight mucus discharge.

The author claims that

It has also been long observed that not only do some apparently healthy women, even in our culture, never menstruate, but that non-menstruating women can be fertile and have healthy children. That is, ovulation does not require menstruation.

In fact, coming to the first conclusion that only humans, apes and some monkeys menstruate, it should be noted that

"animals in the wild, with the exception of certain apes, pass through periodic seasons of 'heat' without any noticeable discharge of blood, whereas domesticated animals do menstruate, as a result of confinement, overfeeding, and sexual overactivity." [link]

Amazingly, menstrual bleeding is actually a hemorrhage and thus not a natural condition. It occurs because of our modern diets which are not suited for our bodies.

The human body is actually constitutionally adapted to a diet of raw fruits, vegetables and nuts. Only with proper diet and right living will women be healthy and cease to bleed. The same thing applies for animals, because we feed them with high protein food, they menstruate, otherwise, their wild counterparts do not menstruate.

Another article here explains how the hemorrhage in women occurs.

******

Interesting! I was rather surprised that the norm that women menstruate was not really normal. Instead, it is an unhealthy condition brought about by our lifestyles and diets. Hemorrhage! oh dear.

I wonder why no one really tell us this. That bleeding every month is not a natural thing to be doing. Perhaps no one really knew.... But now you and I do!

2005-09-30T22:42:00.000+08:00

Dengue facts. fyi.

There are two types of dengue fever. The dengue (DF) and dengue hemorrhagic fever (the latter is the deadlier version) caused by 4 viruses.

When a person is infected, he gains immunity only to that particular variation for life but he can still be infected again with another virus. i.e. you can get dengue more than once. There is good evidence that sequential infection increases the risk of more serious disease resulting in DHF.

The aedes mosquito which spreads the disease is a day-biting one.

Mosquitoes only acquire the virus if they bite after the virus has circulated in the blood of infected humans for two to seven days (ard the time they start having a fever). And even then, the virus would incubate in the mosquito for an additional 8-10 days.

The symptoms of dengue include the abrupt onset of high fever, severe headache, pain behind the eyes, muscle and joint pains and rash. The Dengue haemorrhagic fever will have high fever, sometimes with the enlargement of liver and if severe, circulatory failure.

There is no vaccine for dengue yet.

Bananas and wine.

2005-09-23T20:05:00.000+08:00

What's common about the two of them?

You know, when you eat bananas then there is this taste in your mouth? Apparently this taste can also be found in certain wines.

The chinese call the taste 'siap-siap'. For a long time I have always assumed that there is no equivalent term in english but lo and behold. There is such a term!!

A quick google search on wine appreciation is all it takes to find out. The word to describe that taste is 'astringent'.

Main Entry: ¹as·trin·gent
Pronunciation: &-'strin-j&nt
Function: adjective
: having the property of drawing together the soft organic tissues <astringent cosmetic lotions>: a : tending to shrink mucous membranes or raw or exposed tissues : checking discharge (as of serum or mucus) : STYPTIC b : tending to pucker the tissues of the mouth <astringent fruits and wines> —as·trin·gen·cy /-j&n-sE/ noun plural -cies

So next time you wanna describe the taste of bananas, instead of saying 'that banana very siap-siap' you act sophisticated and say 'that M. acuminata taste astringent.' ^^

Btw, any malays willing to tell me what astringent means in malay?

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The medicines that children and adults alike loves~

2005-07-04T21:21:00.000+08:00

After two cans of pepsi (yes, i'm developing a sweet tooth under stress), I tot it apt to update this long-forgotten blog with a post on two of the world's more famous soft drinks: Coca Cola and Pepsi.

I'm sure many of you have drunk it, but how many actually know much about their history?

Since I'm a fan of Pepsi, let's start with Pepsi first.

Did you know that Pepsi was first made in the early 1890s by a pharmacist? The concoction was called 'Brad's drink' then. It was made of carbonated water, sugar, vanilla, rare oils, pepsin and kola nuts.

What is more intriguing is that fact that this soft drink was actually made with the intention of curing stomach pains. In fact, the name Pepsi was coined from the condition dyspepsia, or putting it simply, indigestion!

Coca Cola, or coke, the more 'popular' brand (though i still prefer Pepsi), has a pretty similiar story to it - both started out as medicines.

When it was invented in the late 19th century, it was intended as a patent medicine. It was made as a cocawine which is an alcoholic beverage containing both cocaine and wine.

In fact, the name Coca-cola was due to the stimulant of the drink being made from cocaine (hence coca) and flavor from kola nuts (hence cola). And in case you are wondering, yes, this is the same cocaine that is also known as 'crack' - a powerful addictive drug. -- no wonder coke was so popular those days!

Before you go ditching your cans of coke, take note that Coke has since taken out the cocaine stimulant and replaced it with caffeine instead. (sigh no kick liao lor, =p)

[more about pepsi and coke? click here and here.]

Yellow and blue paint does not give you green!

2005-06-27T19:31:00.000+08:00

Any artist probably can tell you that when they add yellow paint to blue paint, they almost definitely get green paint.

However, from the earlier post:

Paint is yellow because it reflects red and green light to the eye and absorbs blue.
Paint is blue because it reflects blue light to the eye and absorbs red and green

In this case, by mixing the two paints together, we are suppose to either get paint which:

reflect all three colours, resulting in white paint;
absorb all three colours, resulting in black paint;
or, reflecting and absorbing all three colours in parts, resulting in different shades of grey paint.

So why aint it so?

Not sure if anyone ever thought about this problem, but here's the reason why:

When people see cyan, they usually think that it is 'light blue'. In actual fact, cyan has a certain amount of green in the paint itself, making it an 'un-pure' paint.

In fact, there is still no such thing as a purely blue paint. By that, it means that there does not exist a dye that would only simulate the 'blue' cone of our eyes.

The truth is, our technology has yet been able to find a completely blue pigment and all of our current blue paints actually contains many wavelengths of light around the green part of the spectrum.

Also, apart from those factors, there is also the problem of complex chemical reactions due to the impurities in the chemicals that results in yellow and blue paint giving green.

In fact, according to the theory mentioned in the earlier post,

Green + Magenta = black/white,

Red + Cyan = black/white

Amazing? I was surprised myself. But if you think about it, it does seem to make sense!

[ref]

The wonders of light and color~

2005-06-24T22:56:00.000+08:00

To start off this post, let's first explain what the basic colors of light is. That is namely, red, blue and green.

This is different from the basic components of color which, as we know, are red, blue and yellow.

Now the world of light is different from the world of colors.

In the world of color, red and blue gives purple. red and yellow gives orange, blue and yellow gives green. Sounds all very logical and intuitive. so far so gd.

But in the world of light, everything's not so intuitive anymore.

Red and Blue light gives Magenta (Purplish color)<--gd gd..

Blue and green light gives Cyan (that's peacock blue) <-- still ok...

But. Red and green light gives you Yellow. <-- now tt's strange dun you think?

How come Red and Green light gives Yellow??

Having said all these, here's a trivia for you:

let's go back to colors. Think of your paints. Paints have color not because they emit light but rather because they take away some of the colors from white light.

White light, as most of you should know, contain all the colors of the rainbow: red orange yellow green blue indigo violet.

Because they take away colors from white light, any combination of paint takes away even more colors away from white light. Thus, a combination of paints works differently to a combination of colored lights.

thus,

with this in mind, we look at the following combination of paints:

magenta paint reflects red and blue light to the eye (absorbing green)
yellow paint reflects red and green light to the eye (absorbing blue)
Cyan paint reflects blue and green light to the eye (absorbing red)

In this sense, mixing yellow and cyan means blue and red is absorbed, reflecting green light to the eye. i.e. cyan plus yellow = green paint!

interesting rite?

Now you might wonder, isnt it yellow and blue gives you green? Why yellow and cyan?

And anyone with a bit of logic can see for themselves (though i shall kindly point it out to you) that since

yellow paint reflects red and green light to the eye (absorbing blue) and

blue paint reflect only blue and absorb red and green light,

a combination of those two should effectively absorb everything/ reflect everything!

i.e. Yellow paint and Blue paint should in fact give you a hueless black! or grey! or even white. but not green! (or any other color for that matter) <---strange, yes?

But we all know that this does not happen...

Well, believe it or not, wat i just pointed out is correct. Yellow and Blue paint should, by right, give you a hueless color. So, what gives?

oh boy. =)

Dun you just love these mind boggling puzzles? I've discovered the answer to this qn quite some time ago... but i shant spoil it for ya all... haf fun thinking it over. ^^ i'll explain next time. ta~

All that glitters is not gold.... or is it?

2005-06-24T21:55:00.000+08:00

Pardon me for disappearing for so long. Was erm... busy. =p

Anyhow, lemme cont with today's trivia.. i know u are dying to know more. hehehe.

The question of the day is: Is white gold really Gold?

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the answer to the above qn is... yes... and... no...

As some of you might already have known, there really is no such thing as white gold. The so-called white gold selling in those goldsmith shops in ur neighbourhood are actually alloys of gold. These alloys appear either grey, white or silver and are all known to the layman as White Gold.

A bit of info abt the color of gold:

The yellow colour of gold is caused by gold absorbing violet and blue light, but reflecting yellow and red light.

Because real pure gold is very soft, it is usual to mix it with other metals to produce an alloy. (for those who dunno, an alloy is simply a mixture of two or more metals)

I was quite surprised to find out that there are many ways of producing white gold. The most common ways to produce white gold is to mix gold with nickel, zinc, and palladium.

It is said that the above metals produce a whitening or bleaching effect and by simply mixing the two metals together, you produce a difference in the atomic structure which then alters the reflectivity of light of different wavelengths. (hmm too much physics? sorry lar)

anyway...

Nickel/Gold alloys are probably the cheapest to produce. However, nickel tends to result in skin irritation and allergy. (that's y some pple can only buy nickel free jewelleries). Cos of this problem, nickel/gold alloys arent quite the best type of white gold available. Even then, you might like to know that most American and Italian white gold alloys use nickel.

Palladium, a close relative to platinium, is also a very good metal to use for making white gold. Unfortunately, it is also very expensive. Also, it has a very high melting point. <-- not too gd. Nonetheless, palladium/gold alloy is IMHO better bah. Afterall, no nickel means almost everyone (who has money) can wear it without worrying abt skin allergies. ^^ *****

Besides white gold, there is also other colors of gold alloys~

There's Blue gold: Gold / Iron alloy

Green gold: Gold with a high proportion of Silver or Cadmium

Pink gold: 50% Gold, 45% Copper and 5% Silver

White gold: see above. other possible metals include copper, tin, manganese-nickel

Yellow Gold: 50% Gold, 25% Silver and 25% Copper (hmm i wonder wat the diff is..)

Purple Gold: ~79% Gold and 21% aluminium

and last but not least, Black gold

Black gold can be made by many different methods too.

Electrodeposition using black rhodium or ruthenium is one method. Amorphouse carbon is also used at times, with the Plasma Assisted Chemical Vapour Deposition process. Controlled oxidation of carat gold containing chromium or cobalt can also be made to yield black gold. Ruthenium containing, electroplating solutions give a slightly harder black coating as compared to electroplating solutions that contain rhodium.

(wah. lookie cheem words above! oh boy oh boy... =p)

Heard from someone that a very very thin sheet of gold appears pinkish... Cant find any sources that confirms this piece of information as yet... Anyone care to clarify?

however, what i did find out about very thin sheet of gold is that they actually transmit a greenish tint of light. go figure out why urself. then come back and let me noe. =)

Actually if you are taoist, and burn those paper money during the seventh month (ghost festival), you can actually tear a bit of gold foil off one of those paper and look at the light passing through that foil... I remember doing it before and ya.. the light is greenish. ^^ (by the way, i'm not a taoist)

and that ends today's trivia. This session has been brought to you by xae after booty and I started a conversation about 'what composition white gold has' on the mrt whilst going home.

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Now's the time to learn a new word...

2005-06-18T18:07:00.000+08:00

The word of the day is

Onomatopoeia

Whoa. BIG word sia... So, what does it mean?

In rhetoric, linguistics and poetry, onomatopoeia is a figure of speech that employs a word, or occasionally, a grouping of words, that imitates, echoes, or suggests the object it is describing, such as "bang", "click", "fizz", "hush" or "buzz" and not "moo" "quack" or "meow", since animals do not create those sounds.

Onomatopoetic words exist in every language, although they are different in each. For example, in Latin, tuxtax is the equivalent of "bam" or "whack" and was meant to imitate the sound of blows landing. In Ancient Greek, koax was used as the sound of a frog. In Japanese, dokidoki is used to indicate the beating of a heart.

One onomatopoeia word i always use when playing one of my fave games in yahoogames wld be "boing boing". Cos the balls there go 'boing boing' =)

Other onomatopoeia words include: plop, bloop, crack etc.

Can ya think of other onomatopoetic words?

[ref]

Suffering from cramps gers?

2005-06-02T22:57:00.000+08:00

Girls suffering from cramps take note!

Just read from here that besides the usual (read: boring) ways of relieving the pain... you can also try...

Having an orgasm! (and the website went to say for gd measure that you can have it "alone or with a partner". hehehe)

ooh and Kung fu!

"Ovarian Kung Fu alleviates or even eliminates menstrual cramps and PMS, it also ensures smooth transition through menopause"

Now there are more interesting ways to relieve ur cramps and *ahem* 'enjoy' urself at the same time gals! =p

erm as for guys.

Option number one allows you to actually help ur gf relieve her menstrual cramps wor... Finally you can actually do something to help her instead of just sitting there listening to her ranting. That's provided she doesnt knock u on ur head for suggesting that option in the first place. hehehe.

Myth? Fact? A women issue. =p

2005-06-01T10:31:00.000+08:00

Have you ever heard the theory that when women live in close proximity with each other they tend to menstruate at the same time?

Think that it is a myth? Think again!

Apparently, this is a fact and it is said to be an evolutionary phenomenon.

This is a phenomenon that medical science only became aware of in the last 30 years. But in fact, it has already been documented first among nuns.

Apparently, if a group of women were to live close to each other for a long time, their menstrual periods will initially be asynchronous. However, after a while, some would have shorter or longer periods until all of them have their periods at the same time. In that way, they'll then be fertile at about the same time as well.

The reason for this phenomenon is still not clear but one of the explanation scientists gave was that since a woman is only fertile for a small part of each month, and if in a tribe, all the women are fertile at the same time, it would mean that men of that tribe will have less chances of having alot of children by a lot of women.

More importantly, if women had different cycles, the men might pick the wrong girl to fertilise. i.e. no offsprings *gasp!* However, if all the women are sychronised, then he can't be wrong cos they are all fertile at the same time. So confirm can haf offsprings.

This way, it compensates for congenital male cluelessness about women's bodies. =p

I've checked this with several other website... and they all agreed that the phenomenon is real but most cant really give an explanation why. Wonder wat's the mechanism behind all this.. I mean... we gals wun go ard telling each other when our periods start and everything. So somehow, our bodies communicate to each other and synchronises our periods without us knowing! hmm... *update* from the website below, apparently it's due to a scent females give out. read how they test out the scent theory. pretty gross i think

The article i got the above explanation from is here. It has loads of interesting scientific issues on sexual selection if you are interested to read more.

oh and here's wat another website says:

there are women who are menstrual pacesetters--they made other women conform to their cycles. So if those women are around you (if you are a girl) beware! Heh.

men also have an effect on women's menstrual cycles--and not just because they make women pregnant. Women who associate with males frequently find that their periods become shorter and more regular.

hmm do i see males cringing? got information overload anot? =p Gers.. does this article help solve a bit of mystery regarding the synchronisation now? =)

Sun burns

2005-05-16T18:21:00.000+08:00

Havent been updating this blog for quite some time. If u follow my other blog, u'll understand why. =)

Got a bit of a writer's block also... dunno wat trivia shld i write... =p nobody suggesting anything =p.

After observing how horrible my tan lines are. (it's very ugly rite now) I've decided that i shld learn more abt sun burns.

It'll be very useful too. Cos it's the holidays. Surely many of ya wld be gg out to the 'wonderful' sunny outdoors!

Abt Sunburn:

The sun emits three types of UV rays: UV-C, UV-B and UV-A. UV-C doesnt do much damage to our skin and most of it is screened effectively by our ozone. UV-A is the harmful one as it penetrates the skin and the eyes.

Approximately 90% of UV-B is absorbed by the epidermis and about half of UV-A reaches the dermis and subcutaneous fat.

The primary offender in sunburn are the UV-A rays.

Girls and Guys who love their good looks take note:

Sunburn accelerates the aging process, manifested by wrinkles and a pebble stone appearance of skin, which develops over time. It is also a culprit in the increased risk of cataracts and skin cancer.

So it's very impt to use sun block/ sun tanning lotion to protect ur skin!

What does SPF on sun blocks mean?

SPF is actually short for Sun protection factor.

What is the SPF value on sunscreen?

This is defined by a ratio of energy that is required to produce minimal redness of the skin penetrating the sunscreen, compared to the amount of energy required to produce the same reaction with the absence of sunscreen.

This gives you some idea of how long you can remain in the sun before burning.

An example as provided by Dr. McKay, if one would normally burn in 10 minutes without sunscreen, applying a 15 SPF would provide you approximately 150 minutes in the sun before burning, approximately 15 times the protection.

A sunscreen of 15 SPF filters out about 90% of UV rays. It should be noted that filtration or protection of UV-A in sunscreen is only about 10% of the UV-B rating.

[a really gd reference]

滴血认亲

2005-05-11T22:38:00.000+08:00

ok. for those who dun understand chinese or get frightened by chinese, dun worry, i'll translate.

the title: 滴血认亲 refers to the ancient chinese belief that when two people mix their blood together, if it coagulates then the two of them are related. i.e they are close relatives. (so lengthy a phrase to explain just four chinese characters hor? see? chinese is such a wonderful language! elegant and simple.)

Anyway, was watching this chinese period show where the folks inside were trying to determine whether a certain someone is another person's son. then they were using the above mentioned method.

I'm curious... alot of those shows use this method to determine if someone is related to another. but issit accurate anot? Y do pple even use that method? Blood really will coagulate for related pple meh?

Sooo... i set out to find the answer.

Din noe wat the correct phase for that method is in english. cos afterall, it is a chinese thing... i think. so, i search the phase in chinese.

Naturally, i got my answers in chinese.

here is the untranslated version:

怎样进行亲子鉴定？谈起这个有趣的医学问题，中山医科大学法医系物证学教研室主任陆惠玲话语滔滔。
陆主任说，“亲子鉴定”的概念古已有之。由于中国传统伦理对血缘的重视，滴血认亲的事情早在三国时代就出现了，“血相溶者即为亲”的观念盛行一时。宋代的法医名著《洗冤录》记载过将子女血液滴在父母尸骨上，以血液能否渗入骨中来认定亲子关系的案例。

不过，以现代科学分析，上述的古老方法并不可靠。因为人类的A型、B型血是能够溶合在一起的，如果以所谓的“和血法”检验两名分别是A、B血型的人，其血液虽能溶合却没有亲子关系。

[read the full version here]

hehehe. do i see pple cringing away? No fear! although my chinese sux, i'll try to translate that 'offending' piece of chinese into comforting english for the non-chinese and kentangs. =p

Basically, the gist of the article is:

Traditionally, the Chinese places great importance on the idea of blood relations as such, the idea of accepting a person as one's kin if their blood coagulates with his own has its roots during the era of the three kingdoms.

In the Song dynasty, it was documented that if you were to drip the son's or daughter's blood on the bones of their parents, whether the blood actually seeps through the bone and gets absorbed would determine whether the child is really their child.

However, actually this theory is not totally correct. Given two blood types, A and B, they will both coagulate together whether or not they come from people who are related or not.

Thus, this method is not foolproof!!! Yay. did i translate correctly?? correct me if it's wrong. but anyway, i learnt something new. did ya?

can comment anot folks? dunno if my 'teachings' mean anything to u pple lor. neva tell me whether you pple found it interesting/boring/enriching...

In light of so many of my friends' bday coming up...

2005-05-10T14:04:00.000+08:00

here's a trivia on the birthday song we always sing on birthdays!

Did you know that the happy birthday song we sing every year is copyrighted?

The story of "Happy Birthday" began in 1893 with two sisters Mildred J. Hill and Patty Smith Hill.

Mildred came up with the melody and Patty added some lyrics to create the song "Good morning to all"

Good morning to you,
Good morning to you,
Good morning, dear children,
Good morning to all.

The "Happy Birthday to You" lyrics first appeared in a songbook edited by one Robert H. Coleman in March of 1924, where they were published as a second stanza to "Good Morning to You"

When the song got popularised in several musicals, Jessica Hill, a third Hill sister who administered the copyright to "Good Morning to All" on behalf of her sisters, sprang into action and filed a suit.

By demonstrating the undeniable similiarities between "Good Morning to All" and "Happy Birthday to You" in court, Jessica was able to secure the copyright of "Happy Birthday to You" for her sisters in 1934 (too late, unfortunately, to benefit Mildred, who had died in 1916).

The Chicago-based music publisher Clayton F. Summy Company, working with Jessica Hill, published and copyrighted "Happy Birthday" in 1935. Under the laws in effect at the time, the Hills' copyright would have expired after one 28-year term and a renewal of similar length, falling into public domain by 1991.

However, the Copyright Act of 1976 extended the term of copyright protection to 75 years from date of publication, and the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 added another 20 years, so under current law the copyright protection of "Happy Birthday" will remain intact until at least 2030.

Interesting sia! But if you are worried about getting sued for singing it during the next birthday party, dun worry abt it. The Copyright is for commercial purposes... So singing it in a private occasion like birthday parties is fine. =)

Fire via water!

2005-05-09T22:50:00.000+08:00

You can make fire quite easily using water!

The basic idea is to take a piece of plastic wrap (Saran or otherwise) and form it into a "pocket", i.e. bring the four corners together.
The pocket is then filled with water.

The corners are then grouped together and twisted until the whole assembly resembles a sphere. This creates a makeshift lens.

It was pretty easy to start a fire using cedar bark tinder.
Using tinder fungus would of course made things even easier.

Yap. The old-fashioned lens method, without the store-bought lens.

Pictures and details here

Mothers' Day

2005-05-05T20:27:00.000+08:00

Mothers' day is coming... anyone got anything in plan for their mummy?

Ever wondered how mothers' day came about.

Mother's Day celebrations first started in ancient Greece, in honor of Rhea, the mother of gods.

In U.S, Mother's Day was first suggested in 1872 by Julia Ward Howe as a day dedicated to peace.

In 1907, Ana Jarvis, from Philadelphia, began a campaign to establish a national Mother's Day. She presuaded her mother's church in Grafton, West Virginia to celebrate Mother's Day on the second anniversary of her mother's death, the 2nd Sunday of May. By the next year, Mother's Day was also celebrated in Philadelphia.

Ms Jarvis and her supporters then rallied to establish a national MOther's Day and by 1911, Mother's Day was celebrated in almost every state in US. IN 1914, then President Woodrow Wilson, made an official announcement proclaiming Mother's Day as a national holiday to be held each year on the 2nd Sunday of May.

[ref]

Happy Mothers' day, mum. I love you.

Contraception - a historical look

2005-05-03T22:42:00.000+08:00

Was at 7-eleven when i saw them selling vibrating condoms over the counter... contraceptives with more functions than merely preventing pregnancy... heh. =p =p

Well, it gave me an idea for today's post! Let's look at how far into history did contraceptives went... heh. (no. me not gonna find out how that thing i saw in 7 eleven works... u smart pple can find out urselves.. i'm sure.)

here's wat i've found:

Contraception can trace its roots all the way back to the Bible. In the Book of Genesis (38:9), Onan practices coitus interruptus: "And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother."

Probably da first spermicide: According to an ancient medical manuscript called the Ebers Papyrus (1550 BC), women were advised to grind together dates, acacia (a tree bark), and a touch of honey into a moist paste, dip seed wool into the sweet gel and place it in the vulva. As primitive as this sugary mix appears, it was usually effective. Acacia eventually ferments into lactic acid, a well known spermicide.

Condoms: early Egyptian "penis protectors" are made of various animal membranes. the fine linen versions are favored by Casanova. And for the very amorous King Charles II, the cloth style is said to have been introduced by Dr. Condom, his physician.

Oral contraceptives: the availability and use of oral contraception also stretches back to biblical times and further. Over 4,000 years ago, women in China drank mercury to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Centuries later, women in India imbibed carrot seeds. In North America, women in New Brunswick made a kind of white lightening brewed with dried beaver testicles.

[ref]

Yap. So there. Curiosity met. Back to work.

Born sterile

2005-05-02T15:15:00.000+08:00

*ahem* I'm not toking abt anyone in particular... rather, I'm talking about animals!

Do you know which animals are sterile at birth? i.e the animal cannot give birth to itself.

I'm not talking about individual animals, i'm talking about an entire species.

Ah you argue that it is impossible? afterall, if the species is born sterile, what gave birth to it since that species cant produce itself? Shouldn't it die out?

Hah. But you are wrong! There really are animals born sterile and yet they still can exist despite that seemingly problematic situation they are in. Can you think of any?

nope?

hehehe. Read on read on! *grins*

Well, there are actually many animals that are sterile at birth! Two examples would be mules and ligers.

mule:

liger:

A Mule is a cross between horses and donkeys while ligers is a cross between a lion and a tiger.

Most hybrids are born sterile with the very few and very rare exceptions. These animals cannot breed on their own to produce their own young. However, they can still exist because they are the offsprings of two non-sterile but different species.

Aint they pretty? Wow if you keep them as pets you dun ever hafta worry abt them humping the pets next door! oops. =p

Headaches...

2005-05-02T00:37:00.000+08:00

Taking a break from my project right now. Having a headache now, so I tot might as well blog abt the different types of headaches a person can have and how to tell the difference.

I'm sure everyone had headaches at least once before. Especially those living in SG, what's with the ultra fast pace of life we have here. But can you tell whether you are having a headache or a migrane?

Here's a simple outline of the differences:

Common Headache:

Causes: fever, anxiety, long hours, lack of sleep, common cold etc

symptoms: ranges from mild disconfort to throbbing pain

How to tell that it is not too serious:

It is self limited– occurs for a limited duration ; no other side effects like vomiting, nausea, or flashes of light.

Generally relieved with common medications like Aspirin (Disprin), Paracetamol (Calpol).

Karaoke anyone?

2005-05-01T16:18:00.000+08:00

I'm sure quite alot of you go for karaoke. ^^

How many of you know what karaoke stands for? Or the origin of it?

Dunno? hehehe.

Not telling. =p

...

...

...

ok lar. tell u.... after you pek chek (read: that's singlish for frustrated)

Karaoke is imported from Japan over twenty years ago.

Karaoke is an abbreviation of "Karappo Okesutura", the Japanese word meaning "empty orchestra" an apt description for singing along to a music video, with the original vocals eliminated and reading the lyrics displayed on the bottom of a video or television screen.

The origin of Karaoke in Japan could not be separated from the traditional piano bar or guitar bar, which is the major premise of entertainment for Japanese business people since a long time ago.

In the bars, the audience could be invited or even volunteered to sing with accompaniment of piano or guitar.

It is also said when a strolling guitarist could not come to perform at the bar due to illness or other reasons, the owner of the bar prepared tapes of accompaniment recordings, and vocalists enjoyed singing to the tapes.

This preceded the birth of Karaoke.

Interested? To read more click here.

How much is inside ____________?

2005-04-30T20:48:00.000+08:00

'Discovered' this gem of a website quite some time ago and it's really cool. check this out:

Aluminum Foil

How much aluminum foil is in a roll? Well, 200 square feet, it says so right on the box. But what if you are trying to wrap a large amount of food? How many rolls should you buy? We were not sure, so on Saturday, we cracked open a new roll, and tried to cover my entire car.
We couldn't exploit foil's unique wrap-around adhesion properties, so we were forced to use tape to get started on the hood. Everyone helped, Marc, Kara, Chuck, Mike, James and Ambur.Actually, Kara didn't help at all, she just stood around, and Leif asserts that he WOULD have helped, but that he had to go to work.

We carefully covered the top and sides of the car, followed by the bumpers and wheels. Mark paid special attention to the antenna and wiper-blades. It took a long time, with everyone pulling aluminum off of the same roll. This episode of "How Much is Inside" took place outside in the open, exposing my delicate research to public scrutiny. I took the opportunity to promote cockeyed.com. I may need to develop some promotional materials if this exposure continues.
Suddenly it became obvious why the Delorean sports car was such a sensation: The car looked awesome! I busied myself with stretching the end of the aluminum while my co-horts devised plans to get the car up to 88 miles per hour at the precise moment we applied the 300 Gigawatts of power to the flux capacitor. We had just enough aluminum to cover the body of the car, and 3 of the tires. About 5 square feet short of covering the last wheel, we were out of foil. We didn't have any foil left to build the rear mounted "anti-spoiler". We should have tried a smaller car. A nice '74 bug perhaps would have been nicely covered in foil, safe from bird droppings and freezer burn.
Anyway, we came pretty close, and you now know how much is inside. I am going to leave the car wrapped for one year, filled with rare foodstuffs and survival equipment for the millenium crisis. I will use this car to travel the barren irradiated plains in search of the precious juice, fighting roving bands of brigands with my crossbow. I'll be OK...as long as my camera works.

Epilogue

Ah, Crap!

There's more of these where this article came from! Click here! hah. I wanna do crazy stuff like them too! So fun! Any ideas anyone? =)

The origin of the Qwerty Keyboard

2005-04-30T20:11:00.000+08:00

How the QWERTY keyboard came about:

Did you ever feel that the QWERTY keyboard was just absolutely awkward, inefficient and time-consuming to use? Afterall, why place the keys on the keyboard the way it is today? It's not as if the most commonly used letters are placed together...

If you have no idea what I'm talking abt, look down at your keyboard right now... notice that the first few alphabets on the keyboard says QWERTY? Yap. You are looking at the QWERTY keyboard.

So who's the guy behind the QWERTY keyboard?

Sholes, a U.S mechanical engineer, invented the first practical modern typewriter, patented in 1868.

However, there was a problem with the typewriter as it jams up easily (think of the ancient four tiered typewriter whose keys tend to fly up and stick together)

To reduce the possibility of it jamming up, James Densmore,a Business associate, suggested splitting up keys for letters commonly used together to slow down typing.

The salemen for the typewriter then decided to use the QWERTY system because if you look carefully, notice that you can type the word 'typewriter' without ur fingers ever leaving the top row? Heh. Legend has it that the salemen arranged the words this way to impress the buyers on how they can type the word 'typewriter' without ever needing to lift their fingers off the first row. (cue: woah~ so smart~~)

As the typewriter slowly evolved to the keyboard, the QWERTY system held its place and is now the most well used system.

This is despite the fact that there is a better system called the Dvorak keyboard. What's so good abt the Dvorak keyboard?

With the Dvorak keyboard, a typist can type about 400 of the English language's most common words without ever leaving the home row (middle row). The comparable figure on QWERTY is 100. The home row letters on Dvorak do a total of 70% of the work. On QWERTY they do only 32%.

you: WOAH~ If it is that good then why dun we all switch to the Dvorak system??

Well, cos it is just too troublesome to relearn a new keyboard. and besides if you are already a very good typist, the keyboard layout wouldnt do much difference... You'll probably be faster, but the time needed to relearn the keyboard and master the keyboard is probably not worth it. =p

Aiyah. it just means we are all lazy bums that's y we din change the keyboard layout lar. =p

p.s. this is a mere reproduction of my older post of trivia on the other blog. Anyway, realised that there's very few comments. sob sob. hehe. tell me whether u all found the trivias useful/silly/entertaining or wat lar. or suggest some new topics lar. =p

btw, most information is taken from my previous module: Simplicity as well as several websites off google cos i dun remember the dates and figures.

Currently on who's who: Who is Dubya!

2005-04-29T23:01:00.000+08:00

Before I continue...

Raise your hands those who knows who Dubya refers to!

Hah. Not too many. Let me enlighten you pple.

What: Dubya
Pronounciation: 'duhb-yah'
Function: Noun
Etymology: Old Texan variation of the English letter 'W'
Refers to: A certain US president

Can anyone make a guess now?

*drumrolls*

Yesh. it is none other than George W. Bush!

Actually Dubya is a rather common nickname given to Bush by his supporters and non-supporters alike. And it is so given because Texans tend to pronounce the letter 'W' as, you-guess-it, "dubya". However, the nickname usually has a slightly derogatory connotation to it as it makes fun of his not-so-perfect English.

Here's some of the Dubya websites for ur surfing delights!

Dubya speak

Dubya Comics

Dubya News

Let's talk about private matters!

2005-04-29T14:43:00.000+08:00

Have you ever wondered why *certain* parts of ur body has curly curly hair despite ur own head of hair being straight?

Yes... I'm toking abt *ahem* pubic hair.

Hey, it's perfectly normal to be curious you know. =p Besides, the inspiration for this particular post is from a family-oriented tv show on channel 8 in SG. Heh.

So, why is pubic hair curly???

Let's talk about hair.

Hair is made of a protein called keratin, the stuff of horse hooves, antlers and fingernails. There are two types of hair: vellus, which is our fine body hair; and terminal, which is the coarser hair on our scalps, eyebrows, pubic areas, and men's faces, chests and limbs.

Terminal hairs grow faster than vellus hairs. Terminal hairs are sometimes curly because they can sprout from an oval-shaped follicle, rather than a round one.

Hair type and shape is determined by the shape of the follicle - the flatter the follicle, the curlier the hair. During adolescence, the androgens (male sex hormones) floating around your body instruct all the follicles in your pubic area to grow flat, thus becoming curly-hair follicles.

The follicles on your head aren’t usually sensitive to androgens, so curly head-hair is the result of genetic predisposition.

Enlightenment!

Da Ultimate Survivor

2005-04-29T10:12:00.000+08:00

Today's trivia will be on the world's best survivor. An evolutionary champion.

Da amazing.

Da gross.

Da one whose charms attracts everything from worn-out slippers to rolled up newspapers.

Gather ur slippers and newspapers pple as we 'welcome' today's guest.

......

Da Cockroach!

What's so special about da gross creepy crawlie cockroach? Well, we already know that it has really amazing survivor skills that could actually allow it to survive extreme temperatures and nuclear warfare.

BUT

Did you know that it's so gd at surviving that even if you chop off its head in frustration, it can still live?

A cockroach could live for a long time, perhaps a month without its head.

You might ask how's that possible? Nobody should be able to survive without a head! Right?

Well, the only reason we need our head for basic survival is:

(1) We breath through our mouth or nose and the breathing rhythm is controlled in our brain. Cutting off our head would interfere with breathing although that could be maintained with a respirator.

(2) Cutting off our head could lead to blood loss and a drop in blood pressure which would result in death due to lack of blood transport of oxygen and nutrition to our tissues.

(3) Cutting off our head would prevent us from eating and we would die of starvation pretty quickly.

All of these reasons for dying are not present in cockroaches and many insects in general:

(1) Cockroaches breath through spiracles which are in each body segment and the blood does not carry oxygen to the tissues. The spiracles deliver air to each cell of the body through a set of tubes called tracheae. The brain does not control the breathing through the spiracles.

(2) The cockroach does not have blood pressure the way a mammal does and so cutting off the head does not lead to uncontrolled bleeding.

(3) The cockroach is a poikilotherm or cold blooded animal. They need much less food and a one day meal would be enough to last them a whole month as long as they were not extremely active. Without a head the cockroach would just sit around without doing anything much.

All this along with a cool temperature could allow the cockroach to last about a month without need for their head, as long as they did not get infected with a mold, bacterium or virus, which could kill them prematurely.

[ref]

OMG. So they wun even die after we cut off their heads?!

Then HOW CAN WE KILL THOSE PESKY LITTLE CREEPY CRAWLIES?

Tough luck folks. These things have been around since the age of the dinos. Smack all you want, spray all you can, there will still be more of those around. However, if you really wanna try, here's a lethal suggestion from Straight Dope!

The Origin Of Trivia!

2005-04-28T23:29:00.000+08:00

Having noticed how much I love sharing my stash of useless information, I have decided to start a new blog specially dedicated to 'educating' the masses! So nice rite? hehehe.

For the first post, I thought it would be really meaningful to reveal to all the origin of trivia!

Everyone uses the word 'trivia' but who really knows how it came about?

Curious?

Read on!

The word trivia is actually a back formation from trivial, a word which English borrowed from Latin in the early 15th century, but which didn't take on its current meaning until the late 16th century.

English took it from trivialis the possessive form of the Latin trivium "crossroad" (literally "three roads"). It has often been suggested that, the meeting place of three roads being equivalent to today's street corner, common folk would pass by having common (hence trivial) conversations.

The sense of "commonplace" evolved into "trifling" or "unimportant", and that is where today's sense of the word comes from. The noun trivia arose at the end of the 19th century. Although the "crossroad" theory has had wide currency it may not be the truth.

The earliest English use of trivial (1432) says nothing about crossroads or gossip. It is the adjectival form of an entirely different trivium... Now, the Greek word for "four" is tetra, so the claim about the meeting place of three roads was a little wide of the mark.

There was, however, something in Medieval English known as the quadrivium, a term taken from Latin and referring to the upper four liberal arts: Arithmetic, Astronomy, Geometry, and Music. The lower three were the trivium: Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric. These were the "three ways" of knowledge.

By the way, the Indo-European root from which the tri- part of these words come is *trei- "three", which gave most Indo-European languages words related to "three". The -via portion is descended from the root *wegh- "to go, transport in a vehicle" the subject of last week's Spotlight.

Woo hoo. So now you know!

Today's trivia has been brought possible by: Take Our Word For It

Useless Information Overload~

Swine flu

Blog shift! Change ur bookmarks people!

Free rice

Brain freeze

Why does the moon have phases?

Misconception about seasons!

Miss or Ms. ?

Why is the clockwise direction in a clockwise direction?

Anti-theft strips

The single parent bee.

Scratches on a CD

Catnip as a mosquito repellent

The Quacking Duck.

Merry Christmas~

Calculating Pi - the fun way

Snellen Chart

After a hiatus..

Wiki of the day: Spontaneous human combustion

The M&M trivia!

How to best pour ketchup out of a bottle

This could save your life!

The lowdown on hymen.

Aluminum foils and microwaves

Yet another author's note.

Rule of the thumb

Pesky Mosquitoes

L'abscence est a l'amour ce qu'est au feu le vent; it eteint le petit, il allume le grand

A note from Xae

Lard - the healthier choice?!

Talcium powder

On the topic of menstrual bleeding.

Dengue facts. fyi.

Bananas and wine.

The medicines that children and adults alike loves~

Yellow and blue paint does not give you green!

The wonders of light and color~

All that glitters is not gold.... or is it?

Now's the time to learn a new word...

Onomatopoeia

Suffering from cramps gers?

Myth? Fact? A women issue. =p

Sun burns

滴血认亲

In light of so many of my friends' bday coming up...

Fire via water!

Mothers' Day

Contraception - a historical look

Born sterile

Headaches...

Karaoke anyone?

How much is inside ____________?

Aluminum Foil

Epilogue

The origin of the Qwerty Keyboard

Currently on who's who: Who is Dubya!

Let's talk about *private* matters!

Da Ultimate Survivor

The Origin Of Trivia!

Let's talk about private matters!