Red_Apocalypse_Horse's Xanga

K219

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:19:31 GMT

The Cuban missile crisis in 1962 was one (of two) moments when the world almost went into all-out nuclear warfare. But I'm not here to talk about this more well-known event. I'm here to talk about a lesser known moment when the USA went into DEFCON-2 mode (the only other moment was in the Cuban missile crisis):

The K219 incident.

During the Cold War, American, Soviet and Chinese submarines often play the deadly game of "cat and mouse" with each other in open international waters. Submarines equipped with ballistic nuclear warhead missiles are called "boomers". The aim of these boomers is to get as close as possible to the enemy's sea border undetected, while "hunter" submarines are tasked to track down and chase these boomers away.

In one such "game", a Soviet boomer, the K219, managed to slip pass America's extensive sonar "shield" in the Atlantic. They did so by trailing a merchant freighter ship. But not for long. The American submarine, Augusta, soon tracked down this boomer and tailed it.

The captain of the K219 soon suspected that he was being trailed, and ordered his crew to perform the "crazy ivan" manuevre. Basically, this meant turning the submarine 360 degrees to produce turbulence which would disrupt the tracking submarine's sonar. However, the K219 didn't know that the Augusta was trailing closely behind it, and in the course of the manuevre, the two submarines collided with each other!

The Augusta did not sustained much damage, but the K219 sustained heavy damage. Fire broke out in the missile silos and nuclear reactor and water was streaming through cracks in the hull. By then, the K219 was already in the mid-Atlantic; within striking range of America's east coast.

The captain was inside American waters, but had no choice but to surface the submarine in order to contain the fire, leak and repair damage. The fire had caused the missile silo hatch doors to remain open, and when the Augusta saw this, they were horrified because they thought that the K219 was about to launch nukes against the American east coast cities!

To add to the gravity of the situation, the K219's nuclear reactor was on the verge of meltdown. The fire had destroyed the electrical controls and the only way to prevent meltdown was by entering the chamber and manually pulling out the fuel rods. If meltdown occurred, it may trigger the 16 missiles to launch... so 3 heroic men decided to sacrificethemselves to stop a nuclear apocalypse by manually pulling out the fuel rods.

The exact accounts differ slightly, due to political reasons, but one thing is clear; the world was saved from a nuclear holocaust... for now.

Restaurants for the rich, but not seats for the poor

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:20:23 GMT

Yesterday, I went out with my family to this (relatively new) restaurant in Vic Park called "Big Bowl". It's kinda like a restaurant-fast food hybrid, where they have machines making noodles. The food is a bit pricey, but portion is huge. Food is not bad, but I'm not here to talk about the food.

We parked our car in one of the back streets of Albany Hwy, and then walked to the restaurant. On the way, we passed by the Christian Social Action building. The building stood out from the rest in the street because it was wooden, grafittied and shabby, in stark contrast to the more "glamourous" restaurants along the road. I saw a bunch of homeless people hanging out and sleeping behind the building. And a sign on the side of the building said:

"Restaurants for the rich,
but no seats for the poor."

I didn't really enjoy the food that much after reading that sign. The guilty feeling of being part of the great divide made me ponder on every single bite that I took from my noodle. The irony is this:

I have a family, a car, and a home... we drove there, parked our car right outside the shelter for homeless people. We walked across the street to fine dine, while those people just a stones throw away, huddle outdoors in the cold and probably hungry.

Again I became conscious of myself... how just by doing nothing, I'm propagating injustice. I wish I could do something, but I knew my dad would strongly dissapprove "wasting" money on the needy. Also, the most we can do is help one person get one meal; no long term solution. Sigh... the reality is that the world operates on simple profit making economics rather than compassion.

One simple solution would be for the restaurants in the area to employ these homeless people so that they have jobs at least. But then, would customers come to a restaurant hiring shabby bums rather than cute azn waitresses? Of course not. Also, the restaurants could simply feed the poor in their vicinity for free... but then how would one control whether or not that person is truly poor, or abusing the system?

But then it comes back to myself again... what can I do that'll make real change in the long term?

Figtrees commercial

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:27:06 GMT

I hear this figtrees commercial on 98.5 FM all the time (paraphrased):

"Looking for that special someone? Tired of being single? Most singles do everything in their power to stop that from happening. They go to the same church, hang around the same group of people, and never really go outside their circle. Join figtrees... blablabla"

Everytime I hear that commercial on the radio, it seems like the spokesperson is talking to me. On one hand, it seems to promote the (bad) culture of church-hopping, yet on the other hand, there are some truths in the statement as well.

My schedule

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:58:54 GMT

This is normally how my weekday goes off:

6 am -> Wake up, roll in bed, perform the "corpse position"
6.30 am -> Really wake up
6.45 am -> Drive to uni, eat 1st breakfast on the way

7.15 am -> Quiet time, read book, read Bible
8 am -> Eat 2nd breakfast, check my emails, blog, read blogs, Facebook
9 am -> (work)
11 am -> Tea break
11.30 am -> (work)
12.30 pm -> Lunch
1 pm -> (work)
3.30 pm -> Tea break
4 pm -> (work)
6 pm -> Wind down for the day by surfing the net or walking around campus
6.30 pm -> Drive home

7 pm -> Dinner
7.30 pm -> Free time! Check email, practice instruments, play pc games, msn, read blogs
10 pm -> Sleep

Notice the total lack of exercise in my schedule. I have to figure out where and how to squeeze it in. Maybe it's about time I bring my bike to uni. Oh, and for Fridays, I leave straight after 12 pm... start of my early weekend! I need that Friday afternoon to do whatever errands I need to do, and also because I have already earned a half day off from working overtime for 4 days.

122

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:28:00 GMT

Cool mouse!

The mouse that came with my work laptop is a mini retractable-corded mouse.

The "compact mode"

Out comes the cord!

Now it's ready to be plugged in (cord can be extended to about 50 cm).

And it stores back neatly inside.

Whoever thought of this idea is a genius.

Phase shift

Good old oscilloscope. Red signal is proportional to the current going through the coil of the electromagnet. Blue signal is proportional to the actual magnetic field produced by the electromagnet. There is a clear phase lag here; the response of the magnetic field lags the current. The yellow signal is a plot of magnetic field versus current; if they were both in sync, then the yellow plot would be a straight line, but since it is an ellipse, it indicates a phase difference.

Important to perform these sort of callibrations in order to correct for phase differences; ie, systematic error.

122

That brings me to the reason why this post is entitled "122". That's because I have 122 .csv files to analyse! A .csv file is simply a set of data points; signal versus time. They can be opened in a spreadsheet program like Excel into a two column matrix array of data. So in the image above, each signal can be saved into a .csv file.

122 breaks down into:

48 coil callibration data, taken at various frequencies and amplitudes.

74 moke data for Co-CuMn bilayers, taken at various frequencies and temperatures.

Oh yes, it's going to be fun (sarcasm intended).

Potential dead-end

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:59:50 GMT

Me: "People have not studied (such and such) material using these (such and such) methods. I think it's a good idea to go down this path."

Bob: "Hang on a second. What do you hope to measure using (such and such) methods? Is it even feasible? Maybe the reason why people have not done (such and such) is because it is not feasible."

Me: "Oh... So just because something hasn't been done doesn't mean it's a project opportunity?"

Bob: "Yes, that's right. Perform some preliminary calculations first from first principles to see if (such and such) method will work or not."

Why wasn't I warned about this earlier, rather than 3 months into my PhD, with only 3 more months before my research proposal is due? It's time to stop the car so to speak, and check to see if this route is a deadend or not. It's won't be a total loss; I'll learn something as I dive into the sea of theory which experimentalists loathe.

Later during the day...

Bob: "I've just got an idea. Why don't you do (such and such) on (such and such) material? It may work."

Me: "That's new. I've never thought about that. We could give it a try."

But that means diving into the sea of theory and first principle calculations twice. Oh well, such is the cycle of no-life.

On the bright side of things, my work laptop has arrived! In theory, I can now setup a small workspace in the lab, but in practise, the lab is overcrowded with an assortment of instruments and people.

Cyber bullying

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:55:33 GMT

Yesterday, N told me that she was angered by an atrocity committed by her friends at school; they had created a Facebook group, making fun of a particular person. This person apparently is a loner at school, which is not his fault at all. Nobody wants to associate with him and everytime he tries to make friends with someone, people see him as weird. At least this is the story as told by N. Not unusual for high school dynamics.

Anyway, I had a look at the Facebook group, and was appalled by it. How could they be so heartless to continue to bully him in the virtual world; as if he doesn't already have enough of it in the "meat" world. This is serious and not funny at all; teens commit suicide from bullying.

Injustice has been committed, and doing nothing is being part of the problem. Even though I don't know the full story or even know this victim at all, I knew that I need to put a stop to it. So I did what I could; reported the group to the Facebook authorities. It is a legitimate report of abuse, because it targets a specific individual. Now it all depends on Facebook whether or not they will take the group down or not. As for N, I told her to try to talk to this guy and befriend him so that he doesn't feel as lonely.

(For identity protection, "N" does NOT represent the initial of the informant)

To my high school readers:

Bullying should not be taken lightly. Just because the crowd does it doesn't make it right. If someone were to eat poo or jump off a cliff, would you do so too? Put yourself in the victims' shoes. How would you like to be teased and made-fun of, physically or socially abused? Don't do to others what you don't want done to yourself.

Not only that but go one step further; do to others what you want done to yourself. Go and befriend that lonely guy sitting by himself at recess. Who cares what others think of you? They might tease you for associating with the "rejects" but in their hearts, they will respect you because you have the guts to do the right thing. And if you're a Christian, it is what Jesus would have done (WWJD).

Also, do everything in your power to help reduce this problem. Tell your friends that it is wrong to bully. And put a stop to it whenever you can (like reporting virtual groups/sites that target specific individuals).

New blog design?

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:40:02 GMT

I've been thinking of changing the outlook of my blog, but I'm not sure what the new theme should be. Well, for starters, I want to get rid of showcasing those instruments, and maybe create a collage of photos. But what theme should I go for, as in the background design. I want to create my own one rather than just simply using a template someone else has created; I like uniqueness.

Ideas anyone?

Dampening

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:09:00 GMT

My bass (Yamaha RBX375) is a low price ranged 5 string bass. For its price, it is quite a good quality 5 string bass:

- almost zero static noise
- very ergonomic; comfortable to play
- good pick-ups and control knobs

However, the down side is that the body and neck are made out of softer wood (hence its cheaper price) compared to the beasts like Fenders and Musicmans. Softer wood means that the string vibration dampens faster (vibration "dies" away faster).

This isn't a problem when playing fast songs where it involves hammering away quavers and semiquavers most of the time; where the dampening between notes are insignificant because the notes come one after another like bullets out of an machine gun. The Yamaha RBX375 is thus appropriately assigned as a "rock bass".

However, it is noticeable when playing slower songs - where one plays minims and semibreves most of the time - and the vibration dies away too fast (if the tempo is slow enough), resulting in the note ending earlier than it should be. This is most noticeable on the low B string (where the open string note is the B above the lowest A on the piano).

On the other hand, if the neck and body are made out of harder wood, then they act as more sturdy anchor points, and the vibrations dampen slower. Fender basses are well-known for this reason. The down side of course is the weight and price.

But as far as basses go, the sound depends a lot more on the amplifer and technique more than the quality of the bass itself. This means I'm in no hurry to upgrade. I have developed ways in my playing technique to compensate for this rapid dampening effect; a.) chopping up whole notes, and b.) gradually increase the volume knob to artificially make the string vibrate longer after playing the ending note of a song.

This is in sharp contrast to acoustic guitars for example, where there is a huge difference in quality between say, a beginner guitar and a Martin. Electric guitars lie in between acoustic guitar and bass guitars, in terms of the criticality of instrument quality on sound.

So as far as the guitar family goes, the sound quality dependence are:

- bass = 80% amplifier + 20% instrument
- electric = 50% amplifier + 25% effects + 25% instrument
- acoustic = 80% instrument + 20% pickups

Well, that's my own subjective opinion, but most musos would most probably also break it down something similar like that.

I have already spent $3000 on the Telecaster, laptop and wah pedal, so that means no more spending big until next year. Here is my "to get" list, for next year:

- a Taylor acoustic guitar ~$2k
- a Fender Jazz bass ~ $2k (optional)
- a proper electric guitar amp ~$1k (optional)

Something silly

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:23:06 GMT

Nat's early 21st birthday party today was themed:

"Something Silly"

Basically we had to dress up in something silly. I planned to buy a cheap wig from those budget stores, but totally forgot. In fact, I even forgot to buy her a birthday present... but it's not the end of the world because her actual birthday is still to come, so *phew*.

Anyway, I ended up just improvising simple:

Wore a PINK Hang Ten shirt and shorts. Then I tuck in my shirts and pull up my pants really high. Then I grabbed a clean towel, and drapped it around my back like cape. To complete the look, I grabbed my dad's azn-style straw hat and put it on.

Just a matter of time before someone uploads photos on facebook and tag me...