The FURE, The Surgery & The (Hopeful) Recovery

Technorati tags: Vitreous Humor, Eye Surgery, Post Op

You're probably wondering about now - what the heck is FURE? Well, let Walski tell you right off the bat: it's another one of those acronyms he made up.

And it stands for F*cked Up Right Eye. What Walski was seeing out of the FURE is something like this.

Okay, it's not exactly a perfectly accurate rendition, admittedly, but Walski was kind of in a hurry when he created the image above. It does, however, give you an idea of what the right eye saw out of it.

Past tense, because he has since undergone surgery to try to fix it a couple of days ago. Technically, Walski shouldn't even be blogging about this so soon after, being that he's been advised to lay off being on the PC for long periods of time.

But writing has always been a kind of catharsis, and quite frankly, it feels good to be able to talk about it. Plus, Walski reckons that this is not going to be one of his famously long-winded posts.

He simply needed to talk about what he's been going through these past few days, then off he goes to get the eye rested. Again.
(the eye, the procedure, and more, in the full post)

Yes, it's been light duty for him since his surgery on Tuesday, staying home most of the time, spending much of it taking catnaps on the couch. And it will continue to be more of that for the next couple of days or so.

It's also utterly boring, by the way.

In any case, about a week ago, Walski felt that his right eye felt very blurry, with the sudden appearance of 'cobwebs' amidst a very cloudy span of vision. Kind of like what you see in the picture above, only worse.

Apparently what happened was that a blood vessel in his eye, somewhere along the retina area, burst, causing the vitreous humor (the clear gel within the eye) to get mixed with blood, clouding the eye and creating what appears as "cobwebs" swirling within the field of vision. In the process, part of his retina was also dislodged.

The surgical procedure that Walski underwent is called a vitrectomy, which involves removing parts of the vitreous humor contaminated by the hemorrhage.

Sounds painful, but the surgery was pretty much painless. The worst part was probably when the 23 gauge needle was inserted, and that too felt nothing worse than a dust speck getting onto the eye.

A day after the procedure, Walski then went for his check-up, and had the bandages off. So no pirate eye patch for him, as he initially thought he might have to use for a while.

Arrrrr…. 

In any case, it's about three days after the procedure, and Walski does feel that the vision is coming back to normal.

But the doctor did say that some laser therapy may still be needed to seal the retina (if it didn't heal properly), and some other scans and stuff to ensure that the problem doesn't recur.

Speaking of which, enough time in front of the PC, and it's time to get back to rest.

The last thing Walski wants is to aggregate the FURE, or to get it FU again...

 

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The Apes Franchise Reboot!

Technorati tags: Film, Planet Of The Apes, Film Franchise, Review

This is actually one film that Walski is quite looking forward to watch. You see, when he was growing up, The Planet of the Apes, and the subsequent film franchise, was somewhat of a favorite.

It will be kind of interesting to see how Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes (1981) gets tied in to how the new franchise is expected to progress. The film was released yesterday, and is expected to run in Malaysia sometime soon (although IMDB.com doesn't have the exact release date yet).

Amplify’d from movies.nytimes.com

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

Looking Apocalypse in the Eye

“Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” an amusingly cheerful film about the end of humanity that’s PETA and critic approved — no animals were harmed in its making, and neither was James Franco’s career — is precisely the kind of summer diversion that the studios have such a hard time making now. It’s good, canny-dumb fun. Employing bleeding-edge technologies in the service of old-fashioned entertainment, it insists on the emotional truth of its absurd story, its tongue in cheek (and in check), while offering self-aware asides, like the ritual bow to Charlton Heston, the lockjaw hero of the original 1968 “Planet of the Apes.”

At once an origin story for that period-appropriate freakout and a solid kick in the franchise pants, the new “Apes” movie takes place in a present that, with a few exceptions (a space mission included), looks plausibly like our own. Mr. Franco — serious, focused, sympathetic — plays Will Rodman, a scientist and romantic idealist who is one hubristic mistake away from becoming a latter-day Frankenstein. Like the shiny headquarters at Gen-Sys, the pharmaceutical giant for which he works, Will makes science look good, as he bustles about in his white lab coat. Rarely have big-pharma-like doings looked so harmless, at least if you don’t count the animals doped up on the would-be wonder drug that Will hopes will cure Alzheimer’s.

It isn’t long before that temple of scientific rationalism goes kablooey. One afternoon a prized chimpanzee, nicknamed Bright Eyes for the eerie green tint of her peepers, throws a fit, running amok through the Gen-Sys labs and into the meeting room where Will is pitching his cure to his boss (David Oyelowo) and prospective investors. Oops! Cut down by a bullet, Bright Eyes both ends Will’s immediate dreams and offers him something like a new beginning in the form of her baby, a bundle of beastly joy. Out goes the man of science, as the accidental daddy takes the infant home, where he’s baptized Caesar by Will’s own father, Charles (John Lithgow), and grows quickly, fast becoming a lively, curious, very smart young thing.

After this brisk preamble, “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” settles into a playful stretch. Caesar cozies into his human home for an inverse version of the first “Apes” movie (with shades of “Curious George”), if mostly without incident, despite foreboding static with a neighbor (David Hewlett). Time passes, and Caesar grows stronger and smarter as Will finds a love (Freida Pinto) and Charles, suffering from Alzheimer’s, worsens. In desperation Will plays God and turns Charles into his next experiment, becoming both the son and the father to his own lab rats. More time passes, and a story about a modern blended family shifts into a jittery cautionary tale about man’s domination of nature and turns “Apes” into a weird twin of the recent documentary “Project Nim,” about a chimp who was used and abused in the 1970s in the name of science. Read more at movies.nytimes.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a1abls

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It was 50 years ago today...

Technorati tags: Science, Space, Yuri Gagarin, Anniversary, Space Exploration

Not, it wasn't the day Sgt Pepper told the band to play, but something that would become a milestone for humankind. Today in 1961 Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the Earth.

This would pave the way for further space exploration, an era of mankind that we're still in today. Granted we're still at an infantile stage of exploring the vastness of space, but it was Gagarin who made the first baby steps, half a century ago today.

Amplify’d from www.themalaysianinsider.com

108 minutes that stunned the world: Russia honours Gagarin

STAR CITY (Russia), April 11 — His 108-minute flight into space 50 years ago set new a horizon for humanity and turned a farm worker’s son named Yuri Gagarin into one of the century’s heroes overnight.

But half a century after his exploit captured the world’s imagination and fuelled a space race with the United States, Russia has found it necessary to release top secret archives to counter persistent rumours that Gagarin was later murdered on the orders of jealous or paranoid Soviet rulers.

The 27-year-old’s single Earth orbit on April 12, 1961 was one of the Soviet Union’s most enduring Cold War victories and is proudly remembered today, especially in the cosmonaut town that is the heart of the nation’s space programme. Read more at www.themalaysianinsider.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/byugb

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Going Nu-killer - Another View

Technorati tags: Nuclear Power, Environment, Commentary

Not half an hour after the latest Top Ten was posted yesterday, our friends at PopWire posted something on myAsylum’s Facebook page. It was a link to a letter written to the Malaysian Naturalist magazine, by Ian Hall (of Arkitrek), a self-confessed environmentalist.

Since the Top Ten list, despite its title, was pretty much Walski’s glib way of saying we shouldn’t have nuclear power (which only somewhat reflects his real views – more later in the post), and in the interest of fairness, he's decided to do this post, to highlight some differing views.

Sir,

I have read in Malaysian Naturalist recently arguments against nuclear power. This has prompted me to write a letter to the editor to come out of the closet as an environmentalist who is in favour of nuclear power.

I don’t believe that we can change our energy consumptive behaviour quickly enough to avoid climate change. Therefore we need an instant low carbon way to generate power. Nuclear power seems to be the only technology that we have available right here, right now, that can do the job.

Opponents will talk of alternatives; but wind, hydro, tidal and biomass all have their own environmental costs or are unproven, solar is promising but does not work at night, hydrogen is not so much a source of power as a good way to store it and clean coal does not exist. Only natural gas seems viable as our other option for a low carbon fuel.
(source: The Arkitrek)

Read the rest of the letter here.

Extraneous u’s in the spelling aside, Ian does lend some very valid points to the argument of whether we should, or shouldn’t, consider nuclear power as an alternative means for our continued enjoyment of American Idol and Glee… 
(satisfying our power hunger, Walski’s views, and more, in the full post)

Let’s face it – if you were born at any point in time after the 1970’s, electricity has become a necessary facet of our mundane existence. Without it, well… kinda unimaginable for most of us.

And with our innate desire to move up the food chain, the more electricity we need to power our lifestyles. That power needs to come from somewhere. In the context of Malaysia, there are primarily three sources of fuel used today for power generation – coal, hydrocarbons (either fuel oil or gas), and to a lesser degree, water (to generate hydroelectric power).

One would think that Malaysia could use solar energy, what with it being so frickin’ hot all the time. But as Ian points out in his letter, the Sun doesn’t come out at night – AND there’s the issue of cloud cover. The same fluffy stuff that causes Astro outages also makes for solar power being a less-than-efficient alternative energy source.

Wind power? Well, what wind, really, to speak of? Malaysia happens to lie within what’s a called a wind “dead zone”, or so Walski’s been told.

And so, until clean cold fusion technology becomes something more tangible than a sci-fi pipedream, good ‘ol fission is still a very much viable alternative to coal, fuel oil, and natural gas.

Walski reckons the biggest fear about Malaysia’s foray into nuclear energy is the fact that we’ve had some pretty crappy experiences when it comes to construction, particularly the public funded ones. Leaky roofs, among other things. Not to mention collapsed stadium roofs (via anilnetto.com). And being that if not done right, nuke power plants are disasters waiting to happen, it’s no surprise that most people are trepidatious when hearing such proposals as one being considered somewhere in Malaysia.

Fair enough – but don’t forget that at the same time, we have had some pretty impressive feats of engineering in our backyard (and frontyard) – the KLCC Twin Towers, the SMART Tunnel (just the tunnel, not the traffic system around it), the Penang Bridge, to name a few. Yes, they were for the most part foreign built.

However, don’t forget that nuclear power is something that is very strictly regulated on an international level, and that such a power plant built within our borders would be subject to intense international scrutiny. In theory, at least.

And while Chernobyl continues to present environmental hazards, an accident of that scale, or even the near-miss that was Three Mile Island, have prompted much investigation into the how and why, and R&D to ensure that nothing like that ever happens again.

Perhaps the one area that Walski does have some concerns about is the disposal of the spent nuclear fuel…

But let’s not count our chickens before the hen’s even fornicate… it’s very, very early days yet, and going nuclear is something that will take a lot of consideration, planning, and international involvement. Not to mention finding a site that everyone can agree on.

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Man On The Moon

Technorati tags: Science, Space, Apollo 11, Man On The Moon, R.E.M

It was 40 years ago this week, when Walski was a wee brat of 5, while KL and Penang (among other places) were still reeling from what happened earlier in May that year, that something truly historic happened.

One small step for Man… and for those fake landing theorists, still a giant leap of faith for Mankind. For the rest of us, however, it was an historic moment.

Personally, Walski doesn’t thing any other song could be more appropriate to commemorate Neil Armstrong’s historic first step, and the inadvertent creation of a cliché, than this lovely ditty by R.E.M.

No, the song has nothing whatsoever to do with actually landing on the Moon, but is, in fact, a tribute to the late Andy Kaufman, a zany comedian whom many Malaysians may not even know of, or heard about.

But Andy Kaufman did have one thing in common with the Apollo 11 mission – both dared to venture into then uncharted regions.    
(Apollo 11, the Moon, and beyond, in the full post)

And still uncharted, or at least, unreached, is much of our solar system. Today, Mars seems to be humankind’s next target, four decades after setting foot on the Moon.

Walski does vaguely remember watching the moon landing on TV, way back in 1969, when he was an impossible kid aged 5 living in Kulim. He didn’t totally understand what the fuss was all about, but does remember it being fascinating for some unknown reason.

And if memory serves him correctly, It was perhaps Walski’s first brush with the realm of science. It also caused him to get interested in things mechanical and electrical.

The Apollo 11 mission was a culmination of a challenge posed to the American people by the late great John F. Kennedy, almost a decade earlier. Inspirational leaders do have a knack of getting folks do the impossible. Makes Walski wish we had some inspirational leaders of our own, thinking about this.

President Barrack Obama, on Monday, hailed all three of Apollo 11’s crew – Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins – as “genuine American heroes”. And perhaps Obama, four decades later, will inspire the current generation to explore space further, something both Armstrong and Aldrin support, calling upon the President to properly fund NASA so that man can return to the moon, and perhaps venture out to Mars.

Who knows… perhaps in Walski’s lifetime, even. Until then, however, humans reaching the Moon, and returning to tell their story, is still something of an achievement.

Definitely a much bigger achievement than the quest to obliterate one another over silly things like power and influence… or, for that matter, bickering over what language to teach Math and Science in.

 

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Rise of the Replicating Nanobots

Technorati tags: Humor, Nanotechnology, Be Amazing, Animation, Nanorobot

Truth be told, Walski's pretty much fed up with all the politics of gloom, and the gloom of politics, that's engulfed this nation of late. Not a day goes by without something crapily stupid that the world of Malaysian politics offers us.

And so, he thought it would be a good idea to engulf you folks with some nanobot destruction instead...

The video appeared a few days ago on the Mental Floss website, via Wired (hat-tip: Clipmarks user Einbar). It's actually a promo for the upcoming book, Be Amazing, scheduled for release on March 17, 2009.

Funny as it may be, there is some real science behind the goofy scenario... and some real concerns.
(nano science in a not so nano world, and more, in the full post)

The Wired blog entry makes reference to a letter published in the Nature Nanotechnology online journal. It expresses concerns over the possible health, safety and environmental impact on nanotech, a technology that's still in its infancy today.

Emerging nanotechnologies pose a new set of challenges for researchers, governments, industries and citizen organizations that aim to develop effective modes of deliberation and risk communication early in the research and development process. These challenges derive from a number of issues including the wide range of materials and devices covered by the term 'nanotechnology', the many different industrial sectors involved, the fact that many areas of nanotechnology are still at a relatively early stage of development, and uncertainty about the environmental, health and safety impacts of nanomaterials

Public surveys have found that people in the United States and Europe currently view the benefits of nanotechnologies as outweighing their risks although, overall, knowledge about nanotechnology remains very low.
(source: Nature Nanotechnology)

So, as far-fetched as the promo may seem, there are some real concerns about what would happen if indeed something like the self-replicating nanostructures in the video were unwittingly unleashed.

Science, eh? And yet, here at home, we're still at each others' throats about what language to teach the sciences in, rather than creating some of our own.

But you know, there are some cool nanobot applications Walski can immediately think of.

Like, for instance, a horde of nanobots that you'd ingest in a capsule, which then searches out cancer cells in your body, and eradicate them. Then, using the base building blocks found in abundance in our body, repair the damaged tissue. You probably don't want these to self-replicate, for obvious reasons.

Or, how about a household cleaning liquid that's actually an army of cleaning nanobots. Spray on, the bots then feast on the dirt... munch-munch-munch... then after half an hour, just wipe off with a wet rag. How about nanostructures that oxidize waste?

Another more sinister idea - nanobot assassins. It'll make every murder look like natural causes, without the mess that C4 usually leaves behind.

Walski could go on and on with this... but what about you? What kind of applications would you like to see nanotechnology used in?

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