Category: Books, essays and others

Categories
Books, essays and others Environment Personal Sports

[251] Of Intergovernmental Panel on Global Warming at the Surface of the Earth

With all assignments almost done, I’m currently hyped on the upcoming Michigan versus Ohio State game.

It is sure going to be a blast. An optimist prediction, 28 against 3 in Michigan favor. That, might be biased but you could never be too biased with Ohio State.

p/s – I’m currently reading Leggett’s The Carbon War and so far, my favorite part is this:

…Back in the negotiating hall, it was doing just that. The US delegation had spent an hour and a half trying to get the words ‘climate change’ replaced with the words ‘global warming at the surface of the Earth’. There was little proof as yet, they said, that climate change would result from this warming.

The suggestion was met with barely suppressed annoyance, and, from Austria, ridicule. ‘Maybe we should change the name of the panel,’ they said, ‘to the “Intergovernmental Panel on Global Warming at the Surface of the Earth”.’

Wry laughter filled the hall.

pp/s – w00t! The Dutch is set for Portugal! Final aggregate is the Netherlands 6 and Scotland 1.

ppp/s – Ann Arbor is Overrated (AAIO), one of A²’s most famous blogs is planning a meet up. Wanna go? Mail me or leave me a msg and then we’ll wear a paper bag on our head! At the meet up, we’ll figure out how to make Annarbour (no, it’s not a typo) less suckier.

pppp/s – A friend from Minnesota told me that Poen’s father has just passed away. Be strong mate.

Categories
Books, essays and others Environment

[250] Of Jeremy Leggett in The Carbon War

…Greenpeace offered me the chance of moving from one of the most conservative universities in the world to one of the most radical environmental groups.

I jumped at it.

Jeremy Leggett on his dilemma between teaching method of oil drilling and geology in general at the Royal School of Mines and his environmental conscience; The Carbon War.

Categories
Books, essays and others

[181] Of hard cover Green Mars

I found a dead-tree, first edition, hard cover Green Mars, an installation one of the greatest sci-fi in the 90s and bought it for USD5 at Dawn Treader. I’ve been searching for the Martian Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson for years in Malaysia but now, I even found a first edition hard cover Green Mars. If you are wondering how precious this book is, even Borders doesn’t have any hard cover edition of Red Mars, Green Mars or Blue Mars.

It’s a collection edition and I’ve bought it for merely USD5. OMG. OMFG! OOOMFG!

I think I’m going rich. At home back in Malaysia, I have a coin that dated back to the Straits Settlements and now, here in Ann Arbor, I have one of the greatest sci-fi novels in hard cover. Now, the hunt for dead-tree, first edition, hard cover Red Mars and Blue Mars has begun.

p/s – The __earthinc is still in renovation stage. I haven’t written a code for the gallery section yet.

Categories
Books, essays and others Poetry

[157] Of Mathnawi

Rumi’s Mathnawi.

Beautiful piece of work.

From love, bitter things become sweet,
From love, copper becomes gold,
From love, the dregs become pure,
From love, pains become medicine,
From love, the dead are made alive,
From love, kings are made slaves…

Categories
Books, essays and others Sci-fi

[125] Of Dune

Thank to one of my friends, my interest in Dune has reemerged.

Dune is one of the best science-fiction ever written. Some would even go further by saying Dune is an epic, a science fiction answer to the Lord of the Rings.

Dune is a series of novels written by Frank Herbert concerning the struggles between three great houses with the Spacing Guild plotting against each other. The storyline gets more complicated (very) as it progresses.

Dune is a desolate desert planet, also known as Arrakis. However, Arrakis is the center of attraction as the Spice, the most precious mineral in the whole known galaxy only exist on Arrakis. The Spice enables the Spacing Guild to fold space and thus controlling trade. Furthermore, all the great houses depend on the Guild for trade and the Guild on the other hand depends on the stability of the galaxy to ensure the continuous flow of the Spice. As the author puts it, whoever controls Arrakis, control the Spice; and whoever controls the Spice, controls the universe. Distrust is everywhere when the Spice is concerned.

Due to the epic’s popularity, it has been introduced to the silver screen a few times. The best adaptation was done by David Lynch back in 1984. Dune was further made known to the public by the legendary Westwood Studios when they made the revolutionary real time-strategy (RTS) game called Dune II in the mid-90s. The game was such a success that a few sequels were made, including the highly rated Emperor: The Battle for Dune.

Up-to-date, there are roughly four games that bear the Dune’s franchise.

To the Star Trek: The Next Generation fans, Dune might be known to them as one of the movies that Patrick Steward starred in. The actor took the role of Gurney, one of the main characters.

I would highly recommend Dune to all readers that share an interest in the science-fiction and fantasy genre.

Below is the Bene Gesserit’s Littany of Fear, one of the famous lines in Frank Herbert’s Dune.

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
When the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.