Er...

Excerpts from Weiyang's thermodynamics lab report:

Volume flow rate for hot water, q_vh = 3 litre/minute = 5×10^-5m³/s
Volume flow rate for cold water, q_vc = 2 litre/minute = 3.33×10^-5m³/s

Density of Water = 1000kg/m³
Density of Water at 60°C = 983kg/m³

Mass flow rate for hot water, q_mh = 5×10^-5×983 = 0.04915kg/s
Mass flow rate for cold water, q_mc = 3.33×10^-5×1000 = 0.0333kg/s

Heat power emitted from hot fluid, Q_e = q_mh(C_p)_h(T₁-T₂)
= 0.04915×4.18×(60.0-64.8)
= –0.98615W

Heat power absorbed by cold fluid, Q_a = q_mc(C_p)_c(T₄-T₃)
= 0.0333×4.18×(34.7-27.4)
= 1.01612W

Heat power lost, Q_f = 0.98615 – 1.01612 = -0.2997W

Overall efficiency, η = 1.01612/0.98615 × 100% = 103.04%

...which means my lab group members should win the Nobel Prize. Oh well, either that or there's something wrong with the experiment machine and the experimenters.

Pluto Demoted

From space.com:

"Capping years of intense debate, astronomers resolved today to demote Pluto in a wholesale redefinition of planethood that is being billed as a victory of scientific reasoning over historic and cultural influences..."

Couldn't have said it better myself. If you ask me, it's certainly a better option compared to expanding our solar system to 12 planets and possibly even more.

Okay, so I lose...

...and my younger bro wins. Jay Chou songs can be seriously addictive. And I was pleasantly surprised that Paris Hilton can actually sing!

Does this surprise you?

Recently published in Lim Kit Siang's blog:

August 17, 2006
Newsweek Top 100 Global Universities - Malaysia excluded

August 18, 2006
Another blank - Malaysian universities omitted in Jiao Tong’s 500 Top World U Ranking 2006

Sad to say I'm studying in a local public institution.

And you know what? I can already imagine what our govt is gonna say:
a) It's a western/Jewish conspiracy
b) The rankings are flawed/twisted/biased (but the govt won't offer a more 'accurate' ranking)
c) We run our universities our way. To hell with their 'imperialist' rankings and what they think

Oooh, wait till the THES rankings come out this year...

Huh?

There's something wrong with my computer. I can't read what I've posted. Let's see if I can read this.

Untitled

Okay, its mid-August and I don't have anything much to say here.

Tharan came on MSN a while back and gave me with the usual Singapore 22 heavy greeting. I feel like hitting my head on a wall. Really. I mean, how would you feel if you knew you breezed through everything the interviewers could throw at you only to be rejected (for what I presume) is a medical problem? Yeah, I'm talking about the pilot thing. I've wanted to be a pilot for as long as I could remember. Bet not many of you know this, eh?

Oh, and don't feel bad if you're reading this, Tharan. I'm disappointed, that's all. Not aiming a salvo of Weiyang's famous 30-pounder artillery at ya. Just disappointed.

And I caught Pride and Prejudice somewhere last month. Not a bad movie. Nice costumes, nice views of rural Britain (Shuls, if you do indeed read any of this, know how lucky you are!) and very nice Keira Knightley. But there was something else in the movie that really made me think. It was the fascination that the Bennet sisters had with Army officers. Well, the younger ones anyway. I'll give you a quote from one of the Bennet sisters

"Officers!"

Right. Officers. And I can't even remember if it was Kitty or Lydia who said that. But that's besides the point. What matters is that they shrieked "Officers!". Why? Blame me for being an old-school romantic, but there's just something about modern day women that make them shy away from the military and military men. Especially Malaysian women. I'm sure I mentioned many, many, many times that I wanted to be in the Navy (or the Marines, depending on who you are and how self deluded I was at the time) right? Now, upon hearing that, most girls I meet would start to go along the lines of:

"Are you crazy, ar?"

"Seriously??"

"Er..."

And a few others. Bottom line is, the 'dashing cavalry officer' model is dead nowadays. Gone is the idea of chivalric military officers walking their ladies to balls. Sad. Really. I'm an old school romantic like I said. And I'll give the wall another hit of the head to that :|

But I guess I did do some productive stuff this month. In an attempt to immerse myself in university life, I joined the Unimas debate team. Now those who went against me in high school will probably remember that I suck in debating. And maybe for that 'b*tch' incident involving a certain someone from SMK Convent Taiping too. Yeah. But I surprised myself this time. I mean, I really did. With Gary (Gary George from the LaSallian convention) as my debating partner, we did well. Us LaSallians rock, don't we? And now that we're in the finals, we're gonna meet Swinburne, Inti and UKM-IPBL. I hope it will turn out in our favor, cos I really wanna feel good about myself for once in my life. That's right, I hope we win this...big time.

Finally...to any of you debating guys who might happen to read this: yes, Sheela's hot. So sue me.

And whaddya know? I started this entry with the line "Okay, its mid-August and I don't have anything much to say here."

What a liar I can turn out to be sometimes :)