i had a great dinner. =]

here's an excerpt from something talking about Salmonella being all over eggs... Big end up indeed... tralala

Does it make a difference whether you refrigerate eggs with the big end or the little end up? Big end up is the recommendation of food scientists. Why? The object is to keep the egg yolk and any embryo residing on it as close to the center of the egg as possible. This maximises the distance an invading microbe would have to swim from the shell to the yolk. The egg white is filled with chemical hazards for the bacteria. Lysozymes attack the bacteria cell walls, killing many bacteria by rupturing their walls. Nutrients, vitamins, and metal ions of iron, copper, and zinc are wrapped tightly by proteins and other substances in the egg white and so are unavailable to the bacteria. Deprived of nutrients and chewed up by lysozymes, bacteria do not survive the swim; the embryo is safe.

But why the big end up? The natural tendency of the lipid-rich yolk is to rise, just as oil floats to the top of water. Bird eggs have two ropy cords called chalaza, which act much like the ropes of a hammock to suspend the yolk from the shell linng. The larger chalaza is at the small end of the egg and can hold the ylk down better, preventing it from rising too close to the edge of the protective egg white.

trying to refrain from posting until 28th nov. so you can ignore this space for some time, svp

from a Biochem textbk:

Percentage of Population with Lactase Persistence
---------------------------------------------------
Country and Lactase Persistence (%)
---------------------------------------------------
Sweden 99
Denmark 97
United Kingdom (Scotland) 95
Germany 88
Switzerland 84
Australia 82
United States (Iowa) 81
Bedouin tribes (North Africa) 75
Spain 72
France 58
Italy 49
India 36
Japan 10
China (Shanghai) 8
China (Singapore) 0
--------------------------------------------------

now isn't that fascinating. especially the China (Singapore) bit. in case a non-Singaporean chances upon this post: Singapore is NOT part of China.
also interesting that France has relatively low lactase persistence. maybe that's why they convert it to cheese.
anyway lactase persistence is the level of activity of the enzyme lactase in adult stage. the only enzyme in humans to cleave beta-glycosidic bonds and converts lactose to galactose and glucose. hm, apparently in placental mammals lactose is synthesized during late pregnancy and lactation. the galactose is used for purposes like synthesis of gangliosides in developing brain. so lactase is supposed to be made only during this period, late gestation to 3-5 years old.

[glycerol can also enter glycolysis. glycerol sounds like something they use for antifreeze]

aw so our Transport Minister confirmed that Buangkok Station is opening by mid-Jan, definitely before CNY. what a surprise.

studies show that the station will not be viable till 2008.. .HMM... so why are they opening? well he says it's nothing to do with general elections. lala. if it was true, would he have admitted it either? or was it because SBSTransit is probably owned or closely related to the govt. and SBSTransit wasnt exactly making good money on NEL, they still have allowance for Buangkok.. hmm. maybe it would help justify their next round of price hikes huh.

Straits Times front page says that Buangkok MRT may open in January. according to sources... one wonders whether the Straits Times have any interesting sources at all. or do they only talk to PR departments. do you think the govt would allow them to bring up this topic, in this manner, if it weren't true? do you think the Straits Times would even be interested in stirring up public opinion. it reeks of a PR scam.
sorry im a critic at heart and i don't see why you should bother wasting front page space on telling us what the minister is going to announce tomorrow. esp when you only have boring sources and no facts. like this will make more people buy your papers tomorrow or what.

if there were no oxygen atoms, maybe i would have less organic chemistry to study. and no nitrogen and so sulpher atoms as well. why must all these electrons do what they do.

which brings me back to the boring topic of lifeform. does the electrons(and protons and neutrons and subatomic particles), know that DNA and molecules are big intelligent beings which do many things with apparent purpose function and direction? do the molecules know that humans and other cellular lifeforms have apparent awareness and thought? do the electrons know that they are part of molecules, do the molecules and DNA know that they are part of humans? do the humans know that they are part of the next higher level of lifeforms? (maybe divine beings).

HIV

i don't understand why people would want to lie in their questionnaire and then want to donate blood. shakes head. why are these people like that. not like they'll get killed or persecuted or thrown into jail. not like it's a genetic discrimination screening process. not like they have to donate blood to survive. why why why.
anyway donating blood is a way to check if you've got syphilis, HIV, Hep B or C. but don't do that.

Tabloids and trains (and weird characters)(and steven lim)

i forgot to blog about this yesterday actually. on the train back home, two women stood next to me, left and right. working women. both opened 晚报 (if chinese words too small: local chinese evening tabloids) to read. *inaudible sigh* i was trying to study for french test actually. but i peeked at what they were reading, since they opened it so wide. more ppl dying (so boring), more ppl getting ditched, sun yan zi's relationship falling apart (particularly big chuck, and the woman was reading it for a long time), and other misc etc. oui. then, .. then what.. i dunno what.

and then the woman on the right changed to Straits Times. ooh la la. impressive. so many papers. *glances*, hm, carrying a bag (shopping bag) full of papers, presumably Straits Times and the above-mentioned junk. why carry a bag to bring papers, ah well, but nvm. well read Straits Times, good improvement. she works at Hong Leong Finance too. she opens main section, flip flip flip flip. ?reading?. nvm. oh she stops. hm, what is she looking at. oh, some advertisement from Citibank. ... more flips. within no time, switches to Home section. flips considerably slower than just now. (at least she din spend as long on the trash paper as the other woman, but then she had more things to go through)

tabloids. what i noticed about it:
1. Almost every page has Colour! Straits Times is rather stingy on colour printing. i wish they use colours on the photos, since most of the pages are black words.
2. Assorted array of articles STREWN all over the pages. no clear layout, no orderly arrangement.
3. Many photos. with multicolour borders, like some kid having fun with MS Word in a sch project.

and what does that remind me of? Steven Lim's website. for those who don't know who he is, very good, you shouldn't know. he's the person who did some stripping thing on Singapore Idol and who solicits young girls for eyebrow shaping services at C.K.Tangs.
his website depicts somewhat the same arrangement as the tabloids. Surprisingly. hm. cool. and i was having an interesting discussion about his mental disposition with jx. hm. steven lim and william hung and perhaps related ppl.
oh and we saw him at his usual spot today, wearing a purple tank top and being a public nuisance. and first impression: flubbly fake muscle builder. oh my what a pathetic sentence. ok, er, person pretending to look like a hunk/body builder, and showing obvious signs of attempts at body building, but results are covered in generous proportions of energy-laden adipose tissues. what a loser at that. it's so horrible when you're trying to be someone you're not, and failing at that, and giving away that you're such a failure.

French (and Biodiversity) and Paris and Positive Discrimination

french test today. orals are always freaky. learning french, and the fun things about it, and reading about the stuff going on in Paris. heartache ah. wouldn't i be. sigh.

Biodiversity module. which spent the entire sem covering every living thing. and which humans were barely mentioned. the diversity of life has little space for humans. we are only but a little section, one little kind. there are so many others.
and one cannot help but always think how evolution and natural selection has "stopped" for humans. how we have created our own world and our own rules. (are we still actually subject to the old rules? hard to say for sure it seems) and how we try to have our morals ( are morals natural?) and how we try to help everyone, every single human being, how we try to be nice to everyone, how we want everyone to survive together. juxtaposing with the kill or be killed fundamentals of nature.

Paris, Paris. a few great articles in today's Straits Times, from the Review section (not surprisingly), a great great great respite from the factual boring reports of numbers of cars burnt. one titled "Why S'pore hums and Paris burns", seemingly attributed to International Herald Tribune. 2nd one "An underclass culture that spans the globe", New York Times Syndicate. 3rd one "Tackling the tricky question of integrating immigrants", Stratfor. and 4th one "Where dreams of a better life don't exist", New York Straits Times Syndicate.

big sigh on the things mentioned in there. they speak of how the unrest in Paris is not due to racial or colour discrimination, not a lot of things that people assume. but that it is due to the inability to assimilate the immigrant subgenerations into the French identity. of how France uses a model of no discrimination, where all are equal, totally equal, and one does not judge, discriminate or even separate out based on race. you cannot even do a census on the racial distribution, because everyone is just seen as French, and that's all. French. no Chinese, Malay, Indian, Hokkien, Teochew. sounds great, sounds equal and fair, but unofficially, people are discriminated against. harder to get jobs and things like that. and the children of these immigrants, are born and grown up in France all their lives. they associate themselves with France, with being French. and not with their skin colour, their old origins. they want to be French, to be recognised as such, to be accorded normal priviledges and respect as with the French-French. and that's where the unhappiness started.
and even more peculiarly, an explanation is offered as to why the heart of Paris remains relatively undisturbed. these teens identify with the areas they live in, they form groups, gangs, they conform to their authority, the gang authorities. they do not listen to parents, authorities, "outsiders". and they are attacking only where they live. their own areas. they protest against the symbols of unfairness, the cars, the gyms, hm. and unemployment in these areas is so high, up to 50%. and they live on state welfare.
one article compared France to USA, Canada and Australia. 3 counties who welcome immigrants, who need immigrants, who live on immigrants, and whose systems and national identity have been structured such that they can assimilate easily. The european countries and the EU are not the same, and they face problems like these. of integrating these immigrant communities, of discrimination, of sub-classes. so sad.
and the article comparing Singapore and Paris. i was very glad the author wrote out one thing: positive discrimination. it's something i have always felt very keenly, and which sometimes i feel rather vexed about. Singapore's policy is to recognise ("discriminate" as used in this expression) the different racial, ethnic, divisible groups in the multiracial society of Singapore. it recognises and promotes the different hertiages and encourages Tolerance and Harmony between the different groups. it actively seeks to balance and neutralise discriminatory actions. it imposes restrictions on HDB racial distributions. to create a more homogenous mix. all these cannot be done in France because they do not allow this kind of separation and pointing out of people. it's as if all Singaporeans can only be classified as Singaporeans. Singapore's policy, and all that talk about racial discrimination, introduced the concept into me. before it all, i don't feel racial discrimination. now it seems as if i am actively avoiding it. and it feels like such a ever-commanding presence. in a way, i feel the discrimination even more. i feel more like a Singaporean, like a human, and little as a Chinese, or even any dialect group. i also do not feel the difference of religious classification as keenly. Singapore's model has worked for Singapore. you do what you do because it is supposed to be right. perhaps it is better than leaving things to human nature?. perhaps people cannot naturally be nice and totally harmonious. Sedition Act, racist bloggers. sensitive muslim communities.
Singapore seems to assume the worst of people, and make rules to prevent that. we are too small for mistakes, too small for tolerance of errors and deviation. too fragile and young to question. a young fledging corporation can only try to build upon its newfound success, instead of being a well-rounded nation with time and allowance for the higher aspects of life.

i wish the Straits Times journalists would be the ones writing these kind of articles rather than recommending prom dresses and hairstylists.

im bored. food is boring. meals are boring. no appetite. need interesting food. or need hunger.

does studying make the brain use more glucose? or does it use the same amt as normal? anyone has the answer? or... less.

afternoons at home are so sleepy. lousy. wrong light frequency, wrong light intensity, wrong noise intensity, wrong temperature, wrong humidity.

what was i going to say.

oh, and it hasn't been raining. which is terrible. >2000mm of annual rainfall and i haven't felt rain for days.

perhaps the citric acid cycle might cheer me up

people who hide in the stairwells to smoke, in the 'basement', in the corners. hah. don't they have the feeling that smoking is an illegal, despicable, undesirable, vice they are indulging in. don't they feel the accusatory eyes, contempt and hatred others feel for their lowly addiction.

hobbits smoke too. and so does gandalf.

---
number of comments is coz ppl are too bored with mugging and decided to vent it on smokers.

ok i am temporarily very high on chymotrypsin catalysis of peptide bond cleavage. what a great mechanism. cool.

two people said that the pumpkin is very scary. hmmm. therefore i shall put it here. i think it's pretty. yeah. pumpkin.

anyway the picture was taken off commons.wikipedia.org, this free repository for media.

$4k for a 3 week immersion in France. should i. can i afford it.

an old show. abt the War. abt Jews. ... abt the War.
about the children in a church, and the Jews the priests were hidding. about children feeling the reality of the war.

din get to watch the first half, sister wanted to watch some lousy drama serial. plenty of them these days.

shall i call it a nice show? good film?. it seems to have brought back to me the familiar feeling of dejectedness and profound sadness. to see the valiant priest, the confident german soldier, the resigned Jewish boy, the small incomprehending-comprehending french catholic boy.

the war the war the war. and hindi shows of dancing prancing, and serials where i fall in love with you, you fall in love with him, everybody falls in love with everybody. (and harry potter)
la guerre la guerre la guerre.

what is life like to not know these, nor to care. does it make me better, does it make them worse. when historians look back, decades and centuries into the future, perhaps they will weep at the religious violence in these days. and they will make films and write stories. and they will mourn for us, and vow not to make the same mistakes. and they will wonder what was it like to live in these days, under the fear of terrorism, in the midst of silent nuclear proliferation.

and perhaps they will meditate upon nuclear bombs, suicide bombers and aeroplane crashes as we wondered upon muskets, chlorine gas, trench warfare and U-boats. the only clear progress, seems to be technological advancement.
ever thought of what the humans in Africa or India were doing while most of the human race was bombing itself to bits.

[this started off as a postscript for yesterday's schizo like post. (which is absolutely not schizo.) but it got too long, and here it is a separate entity]

I went to bed thinking that a lump of particles having positive-negative interactions (and also positive-positive, negative-negative repulsions.) could lie there and think cogito ergo sum. i'm sure when that phrase appeared, they did not realise it was just a lump of particles with attractive-repulsive forces which was doing the 'thinking'.

and this is particularly worrying. the computer, thinks in zeroes and ones, and it can display this interactive meaning full interface which you are looking at now. which seems to mean something more profound than zeroes and ones. but we were the ones who input the extra knowledge in, and we are the ones interpreting it, so it means something to us.

but as to ourselves, we are interpreting our own actions? our own thoughts? our own creations? some sort of circular logic failure here. so every single atom, sub-atom, quantum particle reacts instinctively on all the positive negative stuff they see, like zeroes and ones, and it means nothing to them. but the sum of it all means something to us. and how they react is determined by? DNA? no. by untouchable physical laws of nature. which have always been in existence. and DNA is just the evolving accidental program? and we are the manifestations of this. and we look back and understand what's going on? but was this written for us to understand?

perhaps we are allowed to understand what we can, based on our capabilities and complexity. i suppose the quantum particles know what they are doing, and 'realise' it. i suppose the DNA knows what it is doing, and 'realises' it too. and we know what we're doing. but the particles cannot know what the DNA is doing, and the DNA cannot know what we are doing. or can they? probably not.

interestingly this evolution is actually gradual! we don't jump from one level to another. so at some point, the particle is transiting towards DNA, and DNA is transiting towards human thought. so? is everything just smarter or stupider, more conscious and less conscious?

hah. amusement.
this is like pouring in ( i wanted to say "a clump of particles", but that's not very correct), a lump of energy, suspending it in emptiness, and then watching it as the energy coalesces and becomes particles, molecules, humans. and the energy gets used up slowly, and after zillions of human years, the indulgence dies off.

-
anyway, i've got to go on studying before i get carried away with this. ze reality...

i was opening a cheese wrapper and i saw Ouvrir, and i was very happy.

French journalist Yann Arthus-Bertrand's works are in singapore! go take a look, they're wonderful. (details mentioned in today's Straits Times)

[digression: i am so glad that it's possible to dig up past newspaper articles from school. darn straits times took off their free online service some time ago.]



anyway yeah great photos! www.yannarthusbertrand.org has nice displays.





















P.S.: singapore photos from Yann Arthus-Bertrand

are you real? i'm not sure you are. i only see you for a few hours. do you need to eat? do not need to be sad? do you cry? are you ever unhappy? do you get tired? do you have a life?

are you happy?

perhaps you are. perhaps those smiles i see in the photographs mean that you are happy. perhaps you were happy. what are you feeling now?
from then till now, from the photos, from the last words you wrote, from the last letter, what emotions have you gone through. is my impression of you just an imprinted imagination of what you might have been feeling.

how much do you ever see of anyone? how often, for how long. how much before we can call a friend?

are you real. or will you just appear once a year, and fade away again.

just a little recap on whether i exist in this physical world. whether i still exist. or whether my brain is just playing tricks on the non-existent alter-ego. or my brain could be pretending to be playing tricks on itself. i would never know. and how do i believe you

cheers.
drink the wine of life, before the spirit evaporates into the air, leaving behind the dregs of the acids.
the alcohol, means nothing. it is only a medium, a solvent, an effector, to facilitate the transport and expression of the unique 'impurities' to your senses. the taste and value is not of the alcohol. but of course there are the alcoholics who get carried away and misguided in life.
i think i digressing too much. but well. wine and life.

cheers again.

i look forward to seeing purple hair in the very near future