Roger Federer Won Tennis Double!

Wow! Federer finally won a gold medal for himself in the Olympic; the men's double. Check out here and here.

And Russia swept all three medals for Women's tennis. Check out here.

As a Malaysia, my heart goes all out for Mr. Lee Chong Wei who will be competing with Lin Dan (China) for badminton's single match.

Malaysia Boleh!

Roger Federer Lost in Olympic Again (2008)

Image via Wikipedia Roger Federer lost again, yeah he did in Olympic 2004 (as top seed).

Quite unlikely he is going to have a gold medal for Olympic anymore.

But having a gold medal for Olympic doesn't make you world champion these days, it merely makes your country proud. Or rather to say, it is just for the fun of it.

This is especially true for people like Roger Federer (multi-millionaire in USD) as well as James Blake; both are professional tennis players.

I managed to catch the match about 1/4 through the match and 3/4 in the first set. By mere observation, I knew that Federer is not playing at his best.

Why ? I don't know. Maybe it is part of the strategy for anticipation of US open which is around the corner. Or simply, it just wasn't his day.

First of all, he just couldn't serve well. So this adds a point to what makes a world champion, you got to serve well.

Secondly, it is interesting to note that even not playing at his best, Federer did demonstrate a lot of uncanny behaviours which make him world champion. I noticed that Federer is a risk taker, comparing to Blake. Federer would risk taking wicked shots and just that this time, it didn't work most of the time. Blake on the other hand, conquered most of the important points and he won. Federer is definitely more charismatic than Blake. We would want Federer to win and he disappointed all.

The third thing that I noticed is that Federer is a practically patience man. He could just keep going under pressure. I predicted that if the game were to go on for another set, Federer may turn it around and win it in 5 sets. This also suggests that if the professional tours were to switch to 3-sets decider, Federer may not be the world champion.

And to guess why must he lose again ? I don't know, maybe it is boring. The is no passion to win.

Conclusion : What makes a world champion ?

• Critical Success factor - Serve
• Risk taker and charismatic
• Patience

Heart, Determination and Immensity

Image via Wikipedia The success of Yao Ming.

Critical success factors:

His heart, determination and immensity.

Rumours will always hold some weights

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeJohn Edwards admited to extramarital affairs.

"In the course of several campaigns, I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic."

This behavior is common.

Simple Rules for Healthy Life

Image via WikipediaAccording to Dr. Mehmet Oz,

• Don't overeat, smoke or drink too much.
• Exercise and diet
• Daydream
• Meditation
• Men should exercise and eat well, to have better sex

Just go back to basic.

Prevention is better than cure.

Check out inside the human body.

KL Sing Song

KL Sing Song, Malaysia's first and best-loved annual singer songwriter showcase, is back for its fourth year, with all the things you love about it intact and more!

Presenting three generations of Malaysian independent singer songwriters in concert, this year's KL Sing Song is a unabashed celebration of the growing popularity and pool of talents in the local singer songwriters scene.

Come and hear twenty one of Malaysia's best singer songwriters perform some of their best original compositions in KL Sing Song 2008, held over three nights at one of KL's premier performing arts venues, the KL Performing Arts Centre (KLPac). The performances will be acoustic, with just the performers and their instruments in an intimate setting, so the audiences can experience the music in its purest and most immediate form. Each day of KL Sing Song will feature a different line-up of singer songwriters, performing in different genres and languages, displaying the growing diversity of local talent.

People Never Change

First of all, kudos to the Sultan of Selangor.

And this is an example where majority of people simply never change; live the life which is intended for.

And would Pakatan ever work ??? Hope so.

Even though I will not be going (for the event) for the next 10 years, but it is not my business and why should I care? Sometimes we have to learn to mind own business.

Last Minute Only

The biggest thing about this Petrol price rise in Malaysia is that people are just not ready.

Due to the fact that Malaysia has been living under the "Bolehland" culture where even many don't believe that we are superior, but in certain ways, Malaysian feel that we are lucky in many ways.

Nobody, even Lim Kit Siang, would have expected that oppositions would take five states in the recent general election. Barisan National is still recovering from shock.


And same goes to the inflation problem, people are just caught off-guard.

Some examples quoted in the newspaper.

1. Depend on God
   
2. Working Extra Jobs (still not enough)

I have spoken to some people with high rise incomes and they think that the petrol price of RM 2.70 is justifiable. Of course, these people can afford to pay for it.

But not the majority who are unprepared.

The government is looking into a system for which people can buy in bulk. This is not a bad suggestion actually.

Personally, I feel that if the inflation problem is left unchecked, Malaysian would be forced to undergo unprecedented social evolution which marks the beginning of complex social-economy ecosystem.

When the sole-breadwinner is not able to make ends meet, options would have to be opened up.

Unless, someone can manage to invent in time a superfood and this will kill the food industries along the way.

Do U Believe in Bad Luck ?

I do.

Let me try to illustrate it to you.

I was at Starbucks (Amcorp Mall) at around 4pm. I wasn't feeling hyper today due to slight fever.

So, as human nature, when the body is weaken, the mind starts to purify itself.

I found a place and sat there comfortably, trying to do many things on the Internet.

It wasn't low time, the place (Starbucks) was filled with people.

Suddenly, came walking in a stranger dressed in black T-Shirt. He was trying to market something or maybe donation. He approached people starting from the door and since I am in the purifying process, I feel that I would definitely entertain this poor fella.

One by one, he was rejected by the people he approached. I waited anxiously until he reached my place and I didn't try to look into his eyes.

You know what ?????

He skipped me.

He left.

Damn, is he bad luck or me ?

Ego Dented

The most most important thing about government is pride and power.

It is a pride thing.

But government is not your father, you can't expect much.

“From those to whom much is given, much is expected.” - Bill Gates

“From those to whom much is given, much is expected.” - Bill Gates

From the moment you dreams are realized, you have been loved.

And at that same moment, there are 6 billion souls being left in the dark.

Therefore, if you feel lucky, your next journey is not about you anymore.

And this next line has to be left blank because it is where it defines the unspeakable (nobody never ever able to guess what you are really up to next). Period.

Photography and Portrait

I know this guy from the BNI networks who specializes in photography and potrait.


So according to Jen Siow, a portrait is an art and it lasted for generation whereas photograph really is just a photograph. Jen admitted that he had recently just acquired this new skill of turning photographs into potraits.



Check out Jen Studio.

Mixed Culture : Malaysia Boleh (2)

Towards a better culture tolerance! Malaysia Boleh !

1. Malaysia Boleh (1)

Two Reasons To Be Vegetarian Today

1. Myanmar disaster took 216,000.
   
2. China Chengdu's disaster took 12,000 life and still counting.

Story Starts Before Birth

Two examples...

1. Steve Jobs - Apple Inc. CEO
2. Eva Vertes - Microbiology Prodigy

Towards a more liberal world - Malaysia Boleh !

Syariah court lets muslim convert renounce Islam and go back Buddhism.

This is freedom, this is love, this is God.

Malaysia Boleh!

Survival of The Sickest - Must Read

I think I have read a good book. Must read.



The Survival of the Sickest.

Some of the key points noted...

• Cancer cells require iron to grow, so the body attempts to limit its availability.
• Mother's milk contains lactoferrin - a chelating protein that binds with iron and prevents bacteria from feeding on it.
• Viking men may have offset the negative effects of hemochromatosis because their warrior culture resulted in frequent blood loss.
• Diabetes may have helped European ancestors survive the sudden cold of the Younger Dryas.
• When we are exposed to the right kind of sunlight, our skin converts cholesterol to vitamin D.
• Ultraviolet light detroys folic acid in the body, the darker your skin, the less ultraviolet light you absorb.
• People of African descent have darker skin and are more likely to have a gene that causes them to produce greater amount of cholesterol.
• People of Northern European descents have pales skin and are much more likely to have iron loading and predisposition for Type 1 diabetes.
• People of Asian descent are much more likely to be unable to process alcohol efficiently.
• The current mainstream consensus is that modern humans evolved in Africa around 250,000 years ago.
• In Africa, where the heat was an evolutionary argument against denser body hair, people are prone to sickle-cell anemia, which, as we'll discuss, offers some protection from malaria.
• High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a particularly insidious disease - it's responsible for as much as 25 percent of end stage kidney failure, but it usually has no noticeable symptoms; that's why it's often called the "silent killer."
• Organic plants produce more natural toxic than non-organic plants. Eat your vegetables, your vegetables can kill you.
• Women infected with T.gondii spend more money on clothes and are consistently rated as being more attractive than women without the infection.
• The diarrhea caused by cholera isn't just a symptom - it's a transmission channel. It's how the disease makes it into the water supply and ensures its ability to find new hosts.
• At its most basic, cance is uncontrolled cell growth caused by a mutation in the gene that is supposed to control the growth of the cancerous cells.
• Most scientists don't consider viruses to be "alive", because they can't reproduce or metabolize on their own.
• There are all 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 viruses in the world's oceans. Over the few millions of years, perhaps we've given them the ride of their life and, in return, they've given us the chance to borrow some code from their huge genetic library.
• Researchs have certainly noted that many miscarried fetuses have genetic abnormalities
• Through a combination of epigenetic effects, various genes are turned on and off.
• Pups that were gently licked by their mothers grew into confident rat babies that were relatively relaxed and could handle stressful situations. But rats that were ignored by their mothers grew to be nervous wrecks.
• Children whose parents are overly stressed are more prone to depression and have less self-controlled. Children whose parents are relaxed and available tend to be happier and healthier.
• When cancer cells are successful, it's usually with the help of telomerase. Without telomerase, cancer cells woudl die out after dividing fifty to sixty times, or perhaps a little longer. Many scientists believe cancer prevention is the "reason" cells have evolved with a limit on the number of times they can reprduce.

Conclusion (from a reader):

• Humans (today) are mutant, we mutated by being infected with viruses.
• By default, our body can fight off cancers.
• Genes can be turned on and off due to various factors.
• As a semi vegetarian, I think that vegetarian don't eat vegetables because we like it so much, it is just to survive, thus, don't eat too much. Try to strike a balance.

Caesar 3 : Cartigo

This is a difficult scenario. With frequent attacks. limited farming area and houses keep burning down.

1. Must know how to preserve army, otherwise, you will waste money and funds. Sept 161 BC, army will come from North-East, be sure to get ready army standby at that location because it s very unlikely that you will get to build a lot of walls and towers since that area has high concentration of farming ground. Try to not let any part of the city destroy, especially the farm which otherwise it will throw u into recession. The will be another similar attack on Sept 154 BC (after the attack of local uprising).

2. Build small huts to remote locations where employees are needed, such as location where towers are built. As soon as these places have been attended by employees, remove the these huts (which are unlikely to have full facilities) to avoid it becoming high crime areas. High crime areas are due to resident not having their request met.

3. Try to achieve the population quota by creating new residential area whenever you have enough funds, this is to engage into prolonged wars with enemies which would potentially destroy your city.

4. Without enough food supplier, houses will burn out by itself. Build at least 3 market and prefecture within a 9x9 residential area and import wheat.

Caesar 3 : Mediolanum

This is a very dangerous region, with frequent massive enemy invasions which include which include elephants.

Challenges:

1. Building a city which contains 7,000 people.
2. Fighting frequent enemy attacks.
3. Wolf can be a problem initially, killing off immigrants.

Pros:

1. Plenty of farming spaces.
2. Plenty of iron mines and timber yards. Manufacturing weapons and furnitures would bring you abundance of fortunes. Remember to start importing items from traders before they will start buying from you.
3. Plenty of water all along the region.

Cons:

1. Unable to have clay pit, have to import. Pottery shortage is a common thing.
2. Maximum of 7 forts can be built.

Tips:

1. Build multiple residential areas (9x9) and spread them all over the map, starting from the right most region. This is because enemy would gain pathway only through the left most region.

2. Mobilize barrack to a newer residential area because older areas would have no unemployed people, which would slow down the recruitment and training process. If you want to, build more than one barrack to spend up the training process. However, this can only be done in the early stage, before the first barrack is filled with employee. And even with more than 1 barrack, only one of them will have weapons delivered to it and thus training for legion. Training for Javelin and Mounted-horse don't require weapons.

3. Build walls and towers smartly. If you have walls blocking the main path, enemy would try to squeeze into the city through the edge, usually near rocks and jungles let's called it hot-gates. Thus, this creates a loophole where you can actually build walls and towers parallel with these hot-gates, so that as they are busy breaking through the hot-gates, they are being tricked and army from your towers can start killing them. This works!


3. Use different armies for different enemies. Legion is most effective to deal with hand-to-hand, which include grounded armies and archers. Javelin is suitable with short distance attack, most effective with killing elephants. Mounted horse is the weakest army and is useful as backup and also to kill wolf which runs pretty fast. Legion is not effective with elephants.

Kill all elephant first (using Javelin); distract enemy armies with walls and towers, kill the elephants. This will force them to surrender.

4. Legion moves the slowest but they are the bravest. Do not keep Javelin and Mounted-horse out of the fort for too long; their spirit will start to decrease faster than any the Legion. This means that as enemy start to move nearer to the city, you have to start mobilize Legions first (you have to guess which location to mobilize them to because they move quite slow). As for Javelin and Mounted-horse, mobilize them only as enemy are close to walls and towers which would hold them for a while.

5. Build plenty of granaries close to each residential areas. You would probably need at least 7 residential areas (to accommodate 7,000 people) with 1 granary each.

6. You need to have some marble to build medium-sized temple. But don't over produce marble, stop the production if necessary so that you don't waste the warehouses' space.

7. When you are finally able to have around 6,500+ people, reaching 7,000 people may not come very quickly because shortage of pottery may drive people away. Thus the number of people may fluctuate in between 6,800 to 6,500. To win the scenario, just have to build another residential area; 7x7 will be enough.

8. Build appropriate gatehouse in between residential areas. This is a smart move to make sure that prefectures and engineers do not travel to far from the areas which they are supposed to cover.

9. Built plenty of oracles around to keep all gods happy (all the time). Oracle requires marbles but does not need to be manned. Thus, it is good for remote areas where human resource is scare. This can also provide a few doses of 'The Spirit of Mars' whenever necessary.



Refer to previous entry on Syracusae.

Caesar 3 : Syracusae

Tips:

The biggest problem is there isn't enough places to build enough farm to feed 4000 people. (Try to salvage as much as possible, even at the edges.)

Since there are only three types of food available (wheat, vegetable and meat), the solution is to build three major residential locations with each having one granary accepting only 1 type of the foods available. Meats have to be imported. Vegetable can grow faster than wheat.

The economy can be prosperous, start trading early, selling weapons and oil will give you plenty of fortunes. However, be sure to be the first mover to import something first before traders will buy something from you.

The biggest challenge is to get enough food in order to attract 4000 people to the city. Build as large a residential area as possible (to make food distribution efficient). Don't try to build more than 2 residential area. Check out this scenario which can only hold up to 3400 people (fall short of 600). Check out the scenario here.

One backup plan is to increase wages as high as possible and decrease tax at the same time. (This will be the last resort when your city has a lot of funds and just waiting for people to come in).

Build enough armies to defend your cities. For this scenario, you only need one fort legion with two forts of Javelins. This will be an effective military tactics. Two teams of Javelins will support the legion as the front-runner in each batter. Always take note that legion is good at confrontation while Javelin is effective to throw Javelin from behind. However, legion is not effective against elephant.

Make your warehouse distribution efficient.

1. Keep one warehouse for each item to be imported near to the dock area.
   
2. Keep one warehouse for each item to be exported or used internally in between docks and factory.