. SELF . Chasing Hapiness

Schuylkill River Park, in Philadelphia

(just a nice picture, never been though)

Running. Why do people do it? Its not like it's overly exciting... maybe, it's the feeling. For me, it is meditation in motion and an happy pill. It makes me feel good, while allowing me to fully contemplate what is trully important to me and to think of the best solutions to my problems. *By the way, each time you start running, the glycogen in your muscular cells is cracked into millions of glucose molecules, in a very fascinating chain reaction.* Running releases the built up anger, sadness and restlessness that can accumulate in day to day life. It also makes you feel accomplished and more confident. It might inspire you to achieve other goals. And the best part of running is the fact that you are in control; you decide how long, how fast and where you are running. The runner in me really is chasing hapiness.

. SCIENCE & TECH . The Dust-Buster Has Landed

Schematic of Stardust

Four days ago, the Stardust probe returned to earth. Why could this be interesting? It's carrying some space dust that was collected from the Comet Wild 2. It will help NASA scientist learn much more about the early solar system and maybe even make it a neater, cleaner, more organized living space. Their next mission will involve the construction of a hugemongous closet organizer, most likely from IKEA, to store and sort the troubled asteroid belt. A person standing next to me at the bus stop commented: "Well, somebody has to clean that mess up!". I know, I know. Who said the news has to be based on reality!

Read the full article here.

. SCIENCE & TECH . Plow The Sky

When I first came across this idea, I was simply amazed. An innovation that could revolutionize the world. Imagine getting food from a supermarket that actually grows it on location. Fresh. Delicious. Now, imagine the food is grown through ecologically sustainable methods and requires no fossil fuels or fertilizers to produce. Imagine, water trickling down a helical structure to irrigate the vertical gardens. Imagine the water is actually waste water from the city that has been purified by an interior artificial wetland. Compostable waste, dirty water and sunshine go in and fresh food comes out, all within a few blocks of your home. This is the dream of the vertical farm project.

. SCIENCE & TECH . Industrial Ecology

The most interesting thing about an ecosystem, is that all matter and energy is cycled and used continuously. It other words, it is renewable. Imagine if all human activities would be like that... Pollution would be minimal, one company's waste would be another company's building material or fuel. This is what is called industrial ecology. It would be cool as well, if instead of throwing out things that are not safely biodegradable, people could just bring them back to the stores they bought them at and the companies that manufactured them would be in charge of recycling the product, in what the famous architect William McDonough coined as a Cradle to Cradle philosophy (check out the book, its really interesting!).

. SCIENCE & TECH . Ladies and Gentlemen; Introducing the first ever Bio-Camera!

Did you ever look at a petri dish and ever wish: "Man, how sweet would it be if I could use this as photographic film!" I'm a 100% sure, many if not everyone, has dreamed of this... lol.

Blue-Green Algae

Today, thanks to advanced genetic engineer, this dream has now become a reality. A team at the University of California in San Francisco, US, headed by Chris Voigt, was able to achieve this feat by carefully inserting a gene from blue-green algae into a strain of the E. Coli bacterium. Ingeniously, the scientist decided to use E. Coli, commonly known as a food contaminant, because it doesn't normally use light for any biological processes which would interfere with there goal.

E. Coli

The protein produced by the algae's gene reacts only to red-light, which , once activated, prevents another gene from being expressed or used to make a different protein. This leads an indicator solution that is added to the bacterial colony to become black. And voila, after a 4-hour exposure to red-light, you get a crisp, one color, 100-megapixel image, like this one of the flying spaghetti monster.

Not to shaby. Now you ask: "Who on earth would want such a zany thing?" Well, no one really. The important part is that this was an exercise in advanced genetic engineering. This innovative process can one day lead to genetically engineered bacteria that construct very advanced materials guided by beams of light, which would be a dream come true for people working in nanotechnology, material science and even perhaps medicine.

You can read the full article here.

. ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT . Beautiful

Memoirs of a Geisha was a very beautiful movie. I am just awstruck by the quiet elegance and natural beauty of the japanese gardens that were visited in the movie. They are oasis of serenity. The plot of the movie was also very strong and highly enjoyable. Very interesting view on japanese culture.

. WORLD . The Places No One Ever Sees

Many now live in the endless concrete and neon labyrinths called cities. This human engineered habitat requires many utilities such as heat, water, air conditioning, drainage and sewage extraction. Usually, these veins of the industrialized world lie hidden in the tissues of urban megastructures. Some persons hunger for curiosity has lead them to create a whole community that devouts at least some of their spare time to exploring these secret places. I think it's a pretty damn cool thing! When I first discovered this site, it felt like all the wonder of my youth had returned, the world becoming mysterious again. For the first time, things that I became so accustomed too acquired an aura of magic. Enjoy!

. ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT . Cool T.V.

Cold case is a really great show. If you like CSI-like shows and you love music, this show will blow you away! It is so magical in it's ability to bring you so close to that characters, not with dialogue, but with the power of its music. Sometimes, it is as if the stories are written around the songs. More than any other show or film I've seen to date, this show so perfectly melts sound and prose as to emerge you into another time and place and life. Art.

. SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY . Where DID the moon come from?

This cosmic conundrum has baffled many scientist for many years. To say the least, it wasn't a very peaceful affair. The magic all began one steamy hot day, about 4.5 billion years ago. Love was in the air. Also, there was a object roughly the size of mars that was hurdling toward our planet at a relaxing 15 km per second. When they collided, sparks and much debrish flew. The two making one, for a moment, and then, like many hollywood couples, divorced just as quickly. Two discs coalesced (ooo, big word, just click and find out what it means, don't be embaressed :P) from the debris of the impact, one became our beloved hood, called earth, and the other became the pretty ball of cheese in the sky. Well, that's how the story goes according to these guys. So, next time you look up at the sky and wonder: "Is the moon made of cheese?" go visit another site. If you wonder where did it come from, well now you know!

(Thanks Maggie McKee, from New Scientist Space for the cool article!)

Some frames from the computer simulation that modeled the story, shown in the article.

. SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY . Red Hot Rocks

Is there anything humankind has created that nature hasn't done first. Most surprising, nuclear reactors can be added to the list. Like what the heck! You would never of guessed it, but it just so happened that the conditions were perfect. They were discovered in a uranium ore deposit in Oklo, Gabon, in west afrika. Apparently, water was the key ingredient. You can find out more over here.

. SELF . The Importance of Fear

Fear is the most basic emotion. It leads people to avoid certain choices in fear of negative consequences. Sometimes, fear can be very useful, as in when something doesn't feel or seem right, like when a stranger offers you chocolate and a ride in his car; fear screams to you to run the hell away!

There is a second way fear can be useful. Fear can lead you to explore yourself and find your true potential. The feeling of overcoming certain fears, such as the fear of heights, can feel very empowering. They also show strength in character and willingness to improve. In my opinion, these non-logical fears, whether it is talking in public or elevators can be overcome and make you a better person in ways you can't even imagine. Fear as an instinct is useful in protecting you from certain harms and fear as an emotion can be a powerful motivator. It can even help fight evil-doers.

As for the science aspect, fear can be divided into two steps. At it's most basic, the brain has the ability to recognize threats and dangers, in other words to be scared shit-less. Whatever scared you is then stored in a segment of the brain called the amygdala as a memory. The next time you encounter whatever scared you, your brain accesses your amygdala and says: "Oh crap, not a bumble bee! It can sting me! That hurts like a bitch!" So, to save your bum, it releases epinephrine and norepinephrine, two hormones or chemicals that tell your heart to beat faster, your lungs to breath quicker and your muscles to get ready to run or kick that bee's ass! Hence, this is why, whenever you get scared, your heart starts to beat faster and you start to sweat and such. Psychologists call this reaction (and you have to hand it to them to give things wacky names) the "fight or flight" response.

Something to think about next time you get scared!

. SELF . Life's hard choices

Young and poor. I feel like a million bucks, like the world is my oyster. I can't go anywhere though. I have some very important things to finish, like my education. HA!

I, like many other teens, am feeling a bit disillusioned about this whole process society calls education. It was all good and fun until you actually have to make some life altering choices. What will you be when you grow up? Who knows, all I want to do is party, while I'm young enough to enjoy it. Relunctantly, I know it won't be that easy and it is in my advantage to stick with this education thing for just a couple more years. My goal though, is to get a job where I won't feel like I am wasting away behind some office, in some sort of socially imposed prison. In other words, I want to have fun, satisfying job.

This is where many people are seeming to get things a bit right. I definately should have taken a year off to explore myself. Not party too much, work and end being in the same boat when I'm done, but actually try figuring out who I am, what I want in life, what makes me trully happy and what will make feel like getting up in the morning. Go to career counsellors, talk with different people in different careers. It's been two and half years and I've been slowly exploring myself, while taking a full course load. I think, I'm slowly getting there.

This brings me to my next point. It will be a half a year of university that has been not wasted, but not exactly useful. I don't really feel too inspired. I still have some more soul-searching to do, but I feel like I am closing in. If I look at my education so far, I guess it has been helpful, in that I feel that I'm finally able to be a bit more decisive. I can say now with some confidence, what I do and don't really like. So, I guess that is where this schooling has been useful. I wish though, that schools would make finding your career easier. I had career counselling (mostly what everyone else in my grade had to do) since I was fifteen, but at that age, I don't know what I like or don't like doing, hell I didn't do anything "work related" whatsoever. So, how should I know if I prefer operating on someone's heart over, say, baking a cake. My concerns then where far from those related to my future career, as if that was a distant future that would only come after a very very long time. Well, now that I'm here, at a university that has been advertised to me all my life as THE "institution" to attend, I feel a bit lost. That's where the dissatisfaction comes from. It is as if the goal of my life was not exploring myself and attaining satisfication (and not only financial security, but something that feeds my soul as well), but to simply get to university, as if it was an end in itself.

Perhaps, it would be nice to have a well advertised 1 year education program with no true courses to take, just 1 to 2 week introduction courses, to see the basics of many unrelated life paths, like a vocational buffet of sorts. Interspursed in this smorgasbord of activities, there would be a place and time to read inspirational stories and maybe some non-fiction to help people learn more about themselves as well.

Anyways, life sucks only if you let it suck and I'm not ready to let it suck just yet.

. SELF . What's up!

Alright. Somehow, in your utter bordem and search for answers to life's most pressing questions such as: "Where DID I leave my underwear?", you seem to have stumbled upon the Ponderous Picayune. Well, this is a really really good thing.

So as you have probably read the caption beneath the title of the blog, you should know what this place is all about. Mostly, it's about me, writting down anything I feel is totally damn cool, and you reading that and getting slightly excited. So to end this first entry, download the song Precious, by Depeche Mode. It is totally freaking awesome!

P.S. If any of you guys are interested in personality tests and such, I'm most likely an ENTP or ENFP.