PeterMosesLee

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I was in the accounting line for decades but did poorly because of https://bbs.market/MEMORE/posts/dUw7bXuAZfNcr01XoBUO Recently I changed my career to become a ✍️writer so that I can work slowly without irritating bosses

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🦋 Suicidal USA Crackdown

Huawei  is a world leader in 5G technology. The USA has pressurised  other countries  not to use 5G from Huawei on the grounds that it would compromise security. This has slowed down the adoption  of 5G. Has anyone in this board used 5G? How much better is it compared to earlier  mobile phone technology? This week the Mobile World Congress 2023  is being held in Spain. Huawei is showcasing 5.5G there. 5.5G offers substantial  advancement over 5G. It will allow immersive interactive experience. Remote operations of complex and fine procedures will be possible such as performing surgery remotely. A on site surgeon will have a remote surgeon beside him to help him. Both of them will be able to see the patient and each other clearly. If Robotics become advanced enough, the remote surgeon can even do the surgery himself via the robot. The USA has tried to suppress Huawei by also stopping suppliers like Qualcom and Intel from  providing  advanced chips to Huawei. As Huawei  is still progressing, the USA is considering broadening the ban  against Huawei. Such a crackdown will temporarily  hurt Huawei and China. But in the end it will hurt itself and its allies. They and their company will lose business and market share. The crackdown will make China and companies like Huawei develop their own technology  and aim for self sufficiency.  One day it will not be you refusing to sell to me. It will be I do not need to buy from you. My own products are better than yours. When that happens it will be the  USA , its allies and their companies who suffer. Refusing to use Chinese technology  will deprive its people from enjoying the latest technology. Huawei is now launching 5.5G. When 6G comes along, Huawei is likely to be in the forefront. Currently Andriod and Apple IOS are the 2 operating systems in use. Huawei is developing its own operating system, Harmony. It does not need to develop Harmony if it was not pushed into doing so by the USA. Will one day Harmony turn out to be better than Andriod and Apple IOS? The USA administration does not seem to be wise and is commiting suicide. Besides the technology front, suicide also extends to the economic front. The USD currently has the dual status of World Trade Currency and World Reserve Currency. Trade around the world is done using USD. Inter country payments via SWIFT has to go through USD. Even though an Australian company pays a UK company in Sterling £, the way SWIFT works will involve the USD. The amount that is deducted from Australia and credited to UK is based on converting Australian $ to USD and converting USD to £. Because world trade is mainly conducted in USD and payments also go through USD, countries hold most of their foreign reserves in USD and US Treasuries. The buying and holding  of US Treasuries is other countries lending money to the USA. From being the largest creditor nation (lending money to other nations) the USA  has become the world  largest debtor nation. No other country in the world owe other countries as much as the USA. The US treasuries held by other countries is debt owed by the USA and it has to pay interest  on those treasuries. Because of the low interest rate environment following the 2008 global financial crisis, the burden of paying interest was not heavy. With the sharp rise in interest rate for the last year, the burden will become heavier. The current national debt of the USA is USD31.46 trillion. Source of this figure is the US Treasury. The USA  became independent in 1776. It took 235 years from the date of Independance to 2009 when Obama  became president for the national debt of the USA to grow to USD10 trillion. 8 years under Obama to double it to USD20 trillion. About 5.25 years later, it has grown from USD20 trillion to USD31.46  trillion. The growth in national debt is going parabolic. Is this sustainable?  The people of the USA is enjoying life by living on borrowed money. This is known as Wealth Effect. Having money to spend (including borrowed money) gives the feeling of being wealthy. The Debt to  GDP of the USA in December 2022 is 123.4% According to the World Bank  having a Debt to GDP ratio of above 77% for an extended period will have negative consequences. By imposing sanctions on other countries, and stopping them from using SWIFT, the USA is driving them away from using the USD.  The BRIC's + countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China are moving away from the USD. S can be taken to include South Africa (not that big an economy). A game changer will be the + which refers to Saudi Arabia the most important country for oil trade in "Petrodollars" More countries will be joining them especially if Saudi move away from Petrodollar. When the use of USD for trade and payments fall the countries of the world will reduce  buying and holding US treasuries for their foreign reserves. The double blow of the USD losing its status of World Trade Currency  and World Reserve Currency  will mean that the USA will no longer be able to enjoy the Wealth Effect of living on borrowed  money By imposing sanctions and stopping countries from using SWIFT the USA is commiting economic suicide. This is happening together with the suicide on the technological front 🦋3y

Science & Technology

🦋 ✈️ AI Pilots 🛩

Airlines have 2 pilots on their planes for safety.The 2 pilots eat different meals so that they will not be both be affected by food poisoning. If anything happens to the pilot in flight, the co-pilot will take over. Mid flight, the plane is put on Auto pilot where plane is completely controlled  by computerised systems. However one of the pilots have to be on constant guard and ready to take over immediately if necessary.  Will AI one day enable the number of pilots to be reduced to 1 or 0?  With further advances in AI, the AI pilots will be better than human pilots. However for public relations  purposes and also for safety, it is likely that there will be 1 human pilot. A system malfunction might cause a plane to crash if there is no manual override by a human. No airline can take the public out cry if this ever happens. Having full AI military  planes is more likely. Using ground based simulations for F16 planes, highly experience fighter pilots of USAF have lost to AI. Encouraged by these simulated battles, the USAF  in last December has actually used AI to fly F16 planes that cost hundreds of millions. China may not yet have such advanced simulators as the USAF. But they are catching up with the USA on AI piloting. China has conducted actual combat battles between AI controlled drones and drones controlled drones. The computational ability of AI systems exceed human ability. Everything that can be done is programmed into it. Learning by AI enable it to anticipate what would be done by humans and be ready for it. In one of the battles, the human moved into attack position first. AI knowing what the human will do reversed the situation. The human went into a sharp dive to the ground hoping that the human will crash. Anticipating a last minute pull up, AI positioned itself for the pull up. The human pilot tried other tactics such as “rolling scissors” – a sudden slow-down and change of course – hoping the AI would overshoot in the chase. None of them succeeded Like the USAF, China has found that AI will win dogfights between planes. AI is superior in reaction speed. AI is superior in computational ability and  ability to anticipate. (Like in the case of grandmasters of chess V super computers) AI is not affected by physical forces like G forces that hurts and can drain blood from a human brain when making extreme manoeuvres The shortage of experienced pilots is a crucial limitation for airforces around the world. Russia is not able to fully  exert its air superiority over Ukraine because it does not have enough pilots. Taiwan is buying a lot more fighter jets because of tension with China. It already has a shortage of pilots and its efforts to train new pilots is hampered by the need of trainers (current experienced pilots) to fly on missions to intercept Chinese planes. The pilots of Taiwan are being worn out by their work load. The time will come when military planes will be piloted by AI.3y

Science & Technology

🦋 Why water may make you pass EXPENSIVE URINE

The response to the post on electron orbitals of Hydrogen, Helium, and Oxygen had more responses than I expected. One of those responding  disagreed that hydrogen atoms can easily lose electrons to become H+ ion. I have already explained in the above post why hydrogen can lose its electron easily and become a H+ ion like in hydrocloric acid HCl. The bonding of HCl is ionic bonding where  the electron of H is with Cl so the HCl molecule is H+ bonded to Cl- The 2 other types of bonds that hydrogen atoms form are covalent  bonding and hydrogen  bonding which were explained in the above post and the comments thereon. The most common bonding for hydrogen  is covalent bonding like in H2 and H2O. H2O molecules have the same number of protons and electrons and so are neutral in charge. However the orbitals of electrons is such that the sharing of electrons between the O atom and the H atoms is not exactly equal. The bigger O atom has a stronger pull on the shared  electrons than the H atoms have. So the O is partially negative whereas the H atoms are partially positive. The degree that H atoms is + in the covalent bonded H2O is much less than in the ionic bonded HCl. The partial polarity of water makes it a solvent of other partially polar compounds and ionic compounds. How this works is as follows: The polar molecules and ionic compounds form hydrogen bonds with water. surrounding the particle Water molecules surround the particles causing them to disassociate. This is referred to as a sphere of hydration, or a hydration shell, and serves to keep the particles separated or dispersed in the water. For example when common salt NaCl dissolve in water the Cl- ion is hydrogen  bonded to the H side of H20 molecules that surrounds it.  The Na+ ions is surrounded by water molecules with the partially - O atoms  near the Na+ ion. The hydration shell keeps the Na+ and Cl- ions dispersed in water Water dissolves hydrophilic or water loving substances. Lipids or oily substances are hydrophobic or water fearing/disliking and will not dissolve and mix with water. Most vitamins and minerals that we eat are water soluble whereas  some are oil soluble. Excess water soluble vitamins and minerals are passed out in our urine. For example we require less than 100 mg of Vitamin C a day. If we take a 1,000 mg  Vitamin tablet everyday, most of it become expensive urine. Adult vitamin C tablets often come as 250 mg, 500 mg or 1,000 mg tablets. Much more than what our bodies will use. Oil soluble vitamins such as Vitamin E are not excreted in our urine. If we keep eating excessive amounts of such substances their level in our body will build up. Such substances become toxic when their  level is too high. If we get our nutrients from the food we eat, it is unlikely that the nutrients will be so much that they become toxic and also our urine is not so expensive. We we take vitamin/mineral tablets the possibility of toxicity or expensive urine is higher. 😄😨🥶🦋3y

Science & Technology

🐷🐖 Super Pigs- an example of Science going wrong.

Science has helped man to produce more hardy or disease resistant plants or animals. Faster growth, bigger size, higher yields, better taste, higher nutritive values are also examples of improvements.  Crossbreeding to get desirable traits and to reduce undesirable traits have enabled the above to be achieved. Genetic engineering to produce Genetically Modified Organisms has sped up the development of super breeds. Wild boars suited to the environment have always existed. Wild boar meat has been an important source of protein for natives. Although generally tougher, wild boar meat is also sought after by urbanites because of its taste and medicinal value. In my country Malaysia, wild boar curry is considered a delicacy by non Muslims. Wild boars were native species that evolved to adapt to the environment. Hybreed super pigs were originally crossbred to help farmed pigs grow larger and tolerate the cold temperatures of Canada. A drop in the market about two decades ago led some farmers to let their hybrid pigs run free. Now they’re running very free, according to Field and Stream. Too free and difficult to control. These growth of super pigs in the wild has caused problems to both flora and fauna.  They eat or destroy both plants and other animals. The super pigs are so hardy that their growth is hard to control.   The area that they habitat is increasing from Canada and now includes  parts of the USA. Have you heard of the term "bloody pig"  being used to scold or curse people? The Super pigs are considered as  " bloody  pigs". The genes in their blood made them so 😃🤣🦋3y

Science & Technology

🦋 What happens when you drop the metal, potassium, on water?

Most of us think that metals are heavy solids that will sink in water and that will expand when heated. Potassium (K) is a metal that you should not try to heat. You may get injured if you do. K is a metal that is highly reactive and so it is dangerous to heat it. Below is an experiment that we did in a school laboratory. Unfortunately you cannot do it at home because you cannot buy potassium. Hold  a boiling tube with clamps like in the picture below. A boiling tube is a test tube that is bigger than the common test tubes. Boiling tubes are used to boil liquids in experiments and so there are clamps to hold the hot boiling tube. Fill half the boiling tube with water. Drop a small piece of K into the boiling tube. Take a lighted wooden splinter to the mouth of the boiling tube. Did you expect the K to sink into water like most metals will do? I made a post comparing the orbitals of Hydrogen,  Helium and Oxygen  with the Solar System. The orbitals of electrons of various atoms of elements can explain how reactive that element is. In order to achieve stable orbits of for its electrons, atoms can do 1 of 3 things: 1 ) Share electrons with other atoms using covalent bonding eg 2 hydrogen  atoms bonded together in a H2 molecule 2 ) Grab electrons, making it have more electrons than protons and so become a negative ion 3 ) Give up electrons, making it have less electrons than protons and so become a positive ion. My post on the orbitals of electrons also mentioned 3 rules for the orbitals: 1 ) Electrons like to be in pairs 2 ) Electrons like to fill up its shells  3 ) Electrons like to form Octets of 4 pairs. A K atom has 19 electrons. The odd number of electrons means that it has 1 electron that is not part of a pair. The electrons of K orbit in 4 shells with the electrons arranged as 2, 8, 8,1 K atoms will happily give up the odd atom in its outermost shell so as to achieve a stable 2, 8, 8 configuration. K then becomes a positive ion. When K is dropped on water, it will react vigorously  with H20 and burn at the surface of the water. Hydrogen gas is released and K becomes  potassium hydroxide KOH The reaction can be represented by the fomula: 2 K + 2 H2O -> 2 KOH + H2 When the lighted wooden splinter is brought to the mouth of the boiling tube a pop sound is heard as the hydrogen gas burns and combine with the oxygen in the air to form water H2O The chemical fomula for the above is: 2 H2 + O2 -> 2 H20 The heat from the burning of hydrogen  cause air to expand and move faster than the speed of sound. Moving faster than the speed of sound causes a sonic boom - the pop sound when the lighted wooden splinter is brought to the mouth of the boiling tube.🤣 🦋3y

Science & Technology

Orbitals in Hydrogen, Helium and Oxygen compared with the Solar System

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and make up 75% of the mass of the universe. The next most abundant element in the universe is Helium. They are the 2 simplest elements (by atomic structure) that exists. Helium is also produced  by stars like our sun that fuses 4H atoms into 1 He atom. The loss in mass when this takes place is converted into energy based on Einstein  fomula of E = m (c squared) The lightest element and the second lightest element  in the universe are hydrogen (H) and helium (He) Why are they so light can be explained by looking at their atomic structure. Atoms of all elements are made up of protons, neutrons  and electrons. Protons and neutrons have an atomic mass of 1. The difference between protons and neutrons  is that protons have a positive charge whereas neutrons are not charged. Protons and neutrons make up  nucleas of atoms. Electrons are negatively charged and are very small having almost no mass compared to protons and neutrons. Electrons orbit around the nucleas of atoms. An atom of oxygen contain 8 protons and 8 neutrons  at its nucleas and has 8 electrons in orbit. It has an atomic mass of 16 from its protons & neutrons. A Hydrogen atom H has only 1 proton & 1 electron giving it an atomic  mass of 1. The typical He atom has 2 protons, 2 neutrons, and 2 electrons giving it an atomic mass of 4 (there is a very rare isotope of He with only 1 neutron) Electrons like to be in pairs so a single H atom is not stable. Each H atom bonds with another H atom so that they can share their electron. So hydrogen exists as molecules of H2 (2 H atoms bonded together) The 2 electrons of He is already in a stable pair that completely fill the first orbital level (shell). So He molecules is just a single He atom. Because its orbital shell is completely filled He is an inert element that does not react with other elements. Because of its inertness and its light weight, it is ideal for filling balloons or airships. H atoms have only 1 electron and achieves a measure of stability by sharing electrons with another H atom. Hydrogen  is far less stable than He. The H2 molecule can split to allow H atoms to combine with other elements. For example mixing hydrogen gas with oxygen gas is dangerous as the mixture will burn explosively to form molecules of H2O that has very strong bonds. Stars like our sun is mainly made up of hydrogen and fuses hydrogen  into helium atoms.  The solar system with its planets orbiting the sun on different planes is like a giant atom. The  electrons of atoms orbit around their nucleas in shells like the planets have seperate orbits. The orbits of planets are not all on the same plane. The orbits of electrons also have different orbitals:  s, p, d, f orbitals The planets orbit around the sun in accordance to physical laws such as the law of gravity. Electrons also orbit nucleas according to laws. It has already been mentioned that electron like to be in pairs. The shells of the orbits of electrons is like the different orbits of planets at different distances from the sun.  Electrons like to fill up its shells. He with 2 electrons that fills up the its first shell is very stable and is an inert gas. Oxygen  is an element that often combines with other elements. This is because of the orbitals of its electrons is not stable. It has 8 electrons. 2 of these completely filled the first shell. The remaining 6 orbits as 3 pairs in the 2nd shell. In order to be stable, an O atom has to either lose all the 6 electrons in the 2nd shell or to fill the 2nd shell by acquiring 2 electrons to make an octet of 4 pairs. Getting 2 is off course easier than giving up 6. Just like how H atoms gain stability  by sharing electrons to form H2 molecules,  O atoms will share electrons to form O2 molecules  of 2 O atoms. The rare form of oxygen as O3 molecules is beyond the scope of this post. As we go on to the 3rd shell and later shells for large atoms with a lot of electrons, it is very difficult to completely fill the capacity of its outermost shell. So atoms are stable by filling an octet of 4 pairs in its outermost shell. There is a strange completeness in the number 8 or 2 cube (2x2x2). In computers a byte of information is made up of 8 bits. Each bit is one of the Binary state of 1 or 0. Computer language is based on binary states. Electrons like to be in pairs. Is it all coincidence that everything seems to follow some hidden laws? The planets orbit around the sun because of gravity. Most of the mass of the Solar system is in the sun. Most of the mass of atoms is in its nucleas which exerts its gravity on the electrons. The H nucleas is the nucleas that has the smallest mass of all elements. Just 1 proton without any neutron. Is the low gravity of this tiny mass one of the reasons why H atoms easily lose its electron and  is so reactive? Hydrogen is the lightest gas and will provide balloons and airships with the greatest lift. Why is hydrogen  not used to fill these? The Carbon in fossil fuels form CO2 which causes the greenhouse  effect for climate change. The burning of H2 produces H20 ( water which is a desirable  product) instead of CO2. Why is H2 not widely used as a clean fuel? Besides the possibility  of using H2 as a fuel for combustion will fusing H2 to form He become a very important source of energy? The simplicity and smallness of both H2 and He may be why they are the easiest elements to be formed in a Big Bang. Is this why they are the 2 most common elements in the universe? Hydrogen  and Helium are the most common elements in the universe. Hydrogen  is also produced by green algae in ocean water using sunlight to break up H20 molecules. Why is both H2 and He so rare on  earth? Is hydrogen  really rare as alleged or is  there a lot of  hydrogen  on earth? I will not give the answers to the above untill readers have tried to answer the questions  🦋3y

Science & Technology

Urban Farming

One of the greatest problems of the world is food shortages. If you are living in a rich country this may not be a big problem. It can buy and import whatever its people wants. Famines and food shortages are not your concern and only affect other countries. Supply chain disruptions because of Covid pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict has has caused food shortages in countries which did not face such shortages before. Singapore imports 90% of its food requirement. Shortages faced by its foreign suppliers has reduced the amount exported and in some cases banning of the export of certain food items. For instance, in 2022, Malaysia  banned the export of chicken to Singapore. Chicken is a major source of protein and chicken rice is a meal that almost every Singaporean eats. Food shortages in 2022 was a wake up call for Singapore.  In 2009 its government  had already  implemented  a policy called LUSH or Landscapping for Urban Spaces and Highrises LUSH requires greenery to be part of developers plans. Because of this Singapore is a beautiful city with a lot of greenery. However the greenery is to make Singapore beautiful to keep it cool and help to maintain  the level of oxygen  compared to carbon dioxide. The greenery hardly contribute to food supply. In 2017 LUSH was amended to include  rooftop farming. In order to insulate itself from supply chain problems, Singapore has adopted  a 30-30 policy. Produce 30% of its food requirements by 2030. Land is so scarce in Singapore. Rooftops make a small area compared to the area of the huge number of floors of its highrises. In order to achieve its 30-30 policy, urban farming must also include indoor farming. This allows many floors to be used for farming using artificial  sunlight and carefully  controlled environment of temperature and humidity. Ideal environment can be created and different climates simulated. Using water instead of soil reduce disease. Compared to traditional farming where fertilisers are wasted or contribute to pollution going into the ground, vertical hydroponics allow nutrients to feed multi levels and still be able to be used after that by being pumped. Aquaphonics combines the rearing of fish with growing crops. The poop of fishes provide nutrients to plants. Compared to cheap imports, the price of the urban farm products is higher. Sunlight for the imports is free whereas the artificial light of indoor farms require energy. Energy is also required to maintain the environment within the farm and for pumps. As a consumer are you prepared to pay more for indoor farming products? Will the quality of the products affect your decision?  Various  factors are involved here. Indoor farming can produce clean organic products. On the other hand there are questions of whether natural sunlight  is better and whether hydroponics food has health issues. Rooftop farming has the advantage of natural sunlight. It is also not restricted by a ceiling and so verticle farming with layers going 5 or more meters  up is possible. Carbon footprint is a measure  that is frequently  used to judge the impact on climate change. What do you think of food production indices? Should the use of such food indices (how much proteins and how much carbohydrates are produced per hectare or per sq meter) be encouraged and adopted globally? Can the adoption of the technology being used and tested in Singapore by many countries overcome the problem of global foodļ shortage? 🦋3y

Science & Technology

🦋 Fever, Antipyretics and Traditional Medicine

Fever is when our body is in the state of having an elevated temperature  above normal.  The normal temperature varies but is around 36.7 C. Generally temperatures above 37.5C or 38C is considered as having fever. Fever in itself is not bad and is not an illness. It is both a symptom of an infection  or disease  and helps our bodies to fight the infection. However excessively high fever can cause febrile convulsions (fits) and brain damage. In very serious  cases, the brain damage can be permanent. It is advisable to seek medical attention  if the temperature  is above 39C or if fever does not go away after 5 days. This may be a sign of something  serious. Drugs used to reduce fever are called antipyretics.  Drugs that reduce fever often also reduce pain. Painkillers are called analgesics. So some drugs are both antipyretic and analgesic Some NSAID's are antipyretic, analgesic, and anti-inflammatory (reduce inflammation) Antipyretics commonly in use fall into the category of NSAID or acetaminophen.  In the 1950's corticosteroids were also used but these have acquired  a bad reputation because of the misuse of them. So non steroidal drugs (drugs that do not contain steriods) gained favour. The most common antipyretics in the US are usually ibuprofen and aspirin, which are nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) used primarily as anti-inflammatories and analgesics (pain relievers), but which also have antipyretic properties; Aspirin is sometimes classified  as a salicylate because it contains a derivative of salicylic acid (salicin which is also found in the traditional remedy of willow bark) Some of the traditional remedy for fever work because they contain salicylic acid and salicylates. The most common acetaminophen  is  paracetamol (acetaminophen), an analgesic without anti-inflammatory properties.[2] The advantage that paracetamol  has over ibuprofen  and aspirin is that paracetamol is that it is less likely  to cause gastric bleeding and kidney complications. The disadvantage of paracetamol  is that its effect wear out faster and it has to be taken at 4 to 6 hourly intervals. There is some debate over the appropriate use of such medications, since fever is part of the body's immune response to infection.[3][4]  Fever helps to fight infection. A study published by the Royal Society claims that fever suppression causes at least 1% more influenza deaths in the United States, or 700 extra deaths per year.[5] Question: Do you agree that low grade fever should be left untreated? (Perhaps take cooling drinks only - see Traditional medicine below) Traditional medicine  As mentioned earlier, Traditional  remedies  that use herbs or parts of plant work because the contain substance  found in modern medicine such as salicylic  acid and  salicylates. There is one aspect of traditional medicine that I want to bring up: The belief of heaviness and coolness. Certain food is considered as heaty and certain food as cooling. Eating too much  heaty food or lack of sleep can cause our body to become heaty and cause sore throat/cough/fever. Boiling herbs that cools is supposed to drink is supposed to relieve heatiness. Periodically taking such cooling drinks will prevent heatiness. Do you believe in this heaty & cooling types of belief?3y

Science & Technology

Can this work against cancer?

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) there is a herb that has been used for patients with cancer. Preparation needed to prepare the medicine from the herb is laborious. Relatives of the patients are willing to make the effort in the hope that the medicine will help the patient The collaboration of UK and Chinese researchers who utilized DNA sequencing technology to piece together the genomic sequence of the skullcap plant (Scutellaria barbata), commonly known as banzhilian in China has enabled them to identify a cancer fighting compound. Professor Cathie Martin, Group Leader at the John Innes Centre, and one of the authors of the study hopes that further research will enable them to synthesize larger quantities of compounds more rapidly and sustainably by using a host such as yeast. It is too costly to plant the herb on a large scale and to prepare it based on TCM methodology. If there is a demand for scutebarbatine A, the natural form of it cannot be produced in sufficient quantities and its costs will be too high. Will synthetic scutebarbatine A be as effective  as the natural compound? Many synthetic  vitamins have been around for a long time but the preference for natural vitamins from food we eat is still prevalent. Natural scutebarbatine A may very well prove to be better and more effective than the synthetic  product. The research on the skullcap plant (Scutellaria barbata) and the compound scutebarbatine A which appears in the journal Molecular Plant is led by CEPAMS, a partnership between the John Innes Centre and the Chinese Academy of Science and supported by The Royal Society. The drug has not been certified  by the FDA yet. Do you believe in traditional medicine? Perhaps we can have a discussion  on the role of traditional  medicine in the modern age. Should the use of TM be discouraged? Are natural vitamins and drugs better than synthetic ones? This is another area of debate. Which do you prefer?3y

Science & Technology

🐛 Tape Worm 🐛

I have a post about EARTHWORMS In that post, I briefly mentioned Tapeworm.  I remember that when I was a child , I was treated with deworming  medicine. While passing  out a worm, the worm got stuck. It was dangling out of my anus. My mother had to pull it out. According to The POST linked, a tapeworm  can grow up to 30 feet long. The worm that I had was probably less than 2 feet. The post in the link has terrifying information that you may want to read. Tapeworm  can live in a host for years without symptoms. As it live and grow, it robs us of nutrients and so we may suffer nutrition deficiency.  On the other hand tapeworm  can also get out of our intestines and cause severe harm to us. Examples of such complications are - Organ function disruption is a risk when larvae invade your liver, heart, eyes or lungs. - Neurological symptoms can occur when larvae invade your central nervous system, including headaches, seizures, confusion, meningitis and brain swelling. Adult tapeworms cannot survive outside the body of its host which can be a human or an animal. The poop of the host contain tapeworm eggs. These eggs can survive and get ingested by a next host. Another way tapeworm can spread is by the consumption of raw or undercooked meat including fish. The post will make you scared of eating raw meat.3y

Science & Technology

🐛Earthworms 🐛

There are many types of worms. Some are harmful to man such as hook worm and tapeworm. Such worms will grow inside your body, robbing you of nutrition. The common earthworms you find growing in soil is not harmful. They do a lot of good and improve the soil. I started to write this post because of a POST ON SOIL by Mmk. Earthworms  improve the quality  of soil. The presence  of Earthworms  together with other organisms like nematodes is an indication  of a healthy biosystem in the soil. The common species of earthworms  is known as the night crawler. They come to the surface at night and burrow into the ground during the day. The burrows aerate the soil and also improve drainage.  Earthworms  eat soil. After absorbing the nutrients from decaying matter in the soil eaten, the 🐛 pass out the soil as worm castings.  You may have heard that compost (decomposed organic matter)  improve the quality of soil. Worm castings which is worm poop is even better. The digestive system of worms concentrates the organic and mineral constituents in the food they eat, so their casts are richer in available nutrients than the soil Owing to its high organic matter content, it improves the soil's water retention capacity. Better nutrient absorption and root growth are promoted by it. Both the micro and macronutrients of the soil status are improved by its use. There are people who purposely rear worms to produce worm castings.  The rearing of worms to produce worm castings  is known as Vermiculture. Besides the common earthworm, a species of worms , red wrigglers is  often used in Vermiculture. Even though we may not use Vermiculture  to produce worm castings on a large scale, we can use Vermicomposting.  Vermicomposting or using worms to speed up the composting process also produce better quality compost that contains worm castings. Whenever I see 🐛 when I collect leaves that have fallen down for a long time already, I will take the 🐛 as well. Earthworms are hermaphrodites and posses both male and female sex organs. However the do not self fertilise but mate with another worm. They inject semen into one another. This exchange  of genetic material  is healthy. Earthworms  can multiply quickly. However they are smart and will adjust the rate of reproduction to suit the environment they are in. If conditions  are right, each 🐛 can produce about 50 cocoons that gives around 200 worms per year. Earthworms provide an excellent source of protein for fish, fowl and pigs but were also used traditionally for human consumption.  Noke is a culinary term used by the Māori of New Zealand, and refers to earthworms which are considered delicacies for their chiefs. Will you eat earthworms? "Earthworms are a wriggling superfood. They're high in protein and have high levels of iron and of amino acids, which help break down food and repair body tissue. They also contain copper, manganese and zinc.10 Aug 2016https://www.npr.org› 2016/08/10" Should We Make Room For Worms On Our Dinner Plate? - NPR If we eat enough of the superfood, can our tissues  self repair and regenerate like worms  can? Source Mmk's chickens are very smart. See what they can do in his post. Is eating superfood why they are so mart?3y

Science & Technology

🦋 The 3 states of H2O - an example of why I like physics.

Do you like physics? Is physics a subject you find difficult? I like physics because it explains the phenomena we see in life.  It is a subject that do not require the memorisation of details. Understanding  principles and applying principles  will enable us to answer questions  like what is below. The molecules in ice, water, and steam  are all H2O. What makes them different? Ice has a fixed shape. Until it melts it does nor need any container to keep its shape. Water will fit itself into the shape of whatever  container it is put into. Why? Why do water remain in its container and not leave it? Boiling water in a pressure cooker will increase the pressure  in the pressure  cooker untill a certain  point. After that the pressure remain the same untill the flame or heating source is turned off. Why? If you take 1 litre of water that is at 4 degrees  Celsius  and slowly increase it temperature the volume will increase. Why? If you put a jar of water at 4 degrees Celsius in a room that is kept at - 10 degrees  Celsius the water in the jar will eventually freeze. Does the water at the top of the jar freeze first or the water at bottom  freeze  first or does the water of the whole jar freeze at  roughly the same time? Why is this important  to fishes in a pond during winter?🦋 Unlike a subject like History which requires  the memorisation of details, we do not need to study in order to answer questions  like the above.  Students who memorise  facts will struggle with such questions. Students who can apply principles of atomic structure & bonding and the effect of energy on such will be able to answer the questions.3y

Science & Technology

Is Food better than Viagra or Cialis?

Drugs like Viagra or Cialis earn big money for pharmaceutical firms. While they have been proven to help, they also have side effects. Long before such drugs came on the market, humans have used food or herbs. How do food/herbs work and what was hoped for when consuming them? An indirect way is to improve health because of the vitamins, minerals  and other health  giving substances they contain. A more direct effect is that they are supposed to boost the flow of blood and improve circulation. Eg ginko and ginger. The improvement  in blood flow and circulation can apply for the whole body and not just to specific part of the body.  I had a serious  cut from an accident that required an operation for wound debridement and to remove some flesh. The remaining flesh had to be stiched back. My mother gave me high dose vitamin C tablets and ginko tablets. Ginko was supposed to increase blood flow to the wound and so hasten healing. Blood flowing to certain parts of the body is supposed to help to get or maintain those parts aroused. Not just being able to start but to last longer is a hoped for result. Yohimbine is supposed to have an alkaloid that does this. A third objective is an increase in desire. The food/herb is considered to be an aphrodisiac to stir desire eg chocolate. Taoist vegetarians consider that garlic is non vegetarian because it arouses desires. The hoped for effects are not proven so do not take what is in the post below as fact. Fruits like figs, bananas,and avocado's have been recommended. Is it because of the nutrients they contain or do they work in other ways as well? Some of the claims may have some basis. Not proven but some hope is better than none😃😛 Do you think that the shape of 🍌 has anything to do with why it is highly regarded? 😛3y

Science & Technology

🦋 Lenses and the images they produce.

Cameras, telescopes, microscopes, and magnifying glasses produce images. The images produced by telescopes, microscopes and magnifying glasses are bigger than the object looked at. The image produced and captured by cameras is smaller than the object. Of all the instruments  mentioned magnifying  glasses is the one where most of us have used. Lenses can be divided into 2  categories  depending on the shape of their surfaces - Convex lens and concave lens. (For this post, we shall ignore that are flat on one side and convex/concave on the other side) Lenses  have focal length. Where we place on object compared to the focal length will have effects on the image it produce : the position of the image, whether the image is real or virtual, whether the image is upright or inverted (upside down), and whether the image is magnified/diminished (size of the image) Those who are studying physics may be asked about the quality of images as mentioned in the above paragraph. They may also be asked to draw ray diagrams for different types of lenses  based on the position of the object compared to the focal length of the lens. The video below explains the concepts more clearly than textbooks do. It even tell you tips how you can cheat to ensure your ray diagram is correct. If you know the theory, do not draw rays and take the point where the rays meet to produce the image. Inaccuracies in your drawing may produce wrong answers. Draw the image at the correct position and of the right size. Then draw the rays to fit the image. Question 1 How does how far away we place the magnifying glass from an object have an effect on the size of the image we see? Question 2 Why can we use a magnifying glass to light a fire? Question 3 What is the difference  between a real image and a virtual image?3y

Science & Technology

Video on the REFRACTION of light

The video has tricks that you can try with your children. It is also recommended for those studying physics as it explains refraction in a way that is easy to understand.  The explanation here is clearer than that in textbooks so students are encouraged to watch it. I have another post with a video by the same person that is also highly recommended for students studying physics. If you stand at the edge of a swimming pool and look at a spot in the pool 2 m away, the water looks shallower than it actually is. If you stand in the pool and look  straight down, does the water look deeper or shallower than the real depth?  Why does the depth look that way?3y

Science & Technology

🦋 Shortest time to reach a destination. Science or mathematics?

What is the direction we have to travel if we want to go from a point A to a point B in the shortest possible time? Is the above an easy question that has a simple answer : a straight line AB? If we travel at a constant speed the answer is yes. If our speed depends on the path we take, the answer is no. The answer require complicated mathematics  and is related to science. Suppose that A is x meters from the age of a pool. B is a point in the pool that is y meters away from the edge of the pool. The line AB is not perpendicular  to the edge of the pool. You can walk at the speed of u and swim at the speed of v  What is the route you have to take to reach B in the shortest possible time? If u = v, the answer is a straight line AB. If u is not equal to v you will have  to walk to a point C before swimming to B How do you find C and what angle do AC  and CB  make with the edge of the pool? The answers  depend on the ratio between u and v. The time taken to go from A to C  is AC/u and the time taken to go from C to B is CB/v. Your immediate  problem is that you do not know how long AC and CB are. So you have to draw a perpendicular lines AD and BE to the edge of the pool. AD = x and BE = y Let us call the length of the line DE as f and DC as g CE will then be = f - g We now have 2 right angle triangles ADC and BCE. We also have the lengths of 2 sides of each of these 2 triangles. Using Pythagorous fomula, we can calculate AC and CB.  Next we are ready to calculate the time taken (T) to reach B T = AC/u  + CB/v So far we have only used basic mathematics that secondary school students are capable of. To find the minimum  value of T and where C is, we will have to use more advanced  mathematics including  calculus and algebra to find the roots of a  quartile or 4th power equation. Calculus allows us to find maximum and minimum  values by using a technique  known as "Differentiation" By looking at the rate of change of T we can find the minimum value of T. This is when the rate of change of T changes from negative to positive. This is when the rate of change  of T is  zero. Most of the readers here is probably not familiar  with calculus so I will explain in layman's  terms how it solve our problem. The position of C will determine the total time taken. As we change the position of C and increase the length of AC (starting from zero), the rate of change of T is negative. So the time taken to reach B will keep falling. After a while the rate of change of T becomes positive and the T increase instead of decrease.  The minimum value of T is at the turning point when the rate of change of T is zero. What has the above to do with science? The question above is like looking at the path light takes when changing from 1 medium to another. Light will change direction at the border of the 2 mediums  eg air and water. This change in direction is called REFRACTION. Snell's law allows us to calculate how much light rays will change direction. (The angle of incidence and the angle of refraction) The amount of change of direction depends on the speed light travels in the 2 medium. Light travels faster in air than in water. Different types of glass refracts light to different extent. Glass with a higher Refractive Index (RI) refracts light more. People who wear spectacles to correct high degrees of short sightedness  or long  sightedness  will appreciate  high RI glass. The use of high RI glass make the lenses  a lot thinner and lighter. The spectacles do not look look so ugly and are more comfortable  to wear. Now let us look at REFLECTION.  This is when the value of y in the above question is negative. After reaching C, light does not move in the new medium but bounce back (is reflected) to the original medium. INTERESTING FACT : The path that light takes is the path that gives it the shortest possible time to reach its destination.  Both the laws of REFRACTION and REFLECTION  is based on the path light should take to in order to achieve the shortest possible time CONCLUSION: God is an efficiency  expert 😃🤣🦋 and am I a mathematician or am I a scientist?3y

Science & Technology

🦋 Jumping into a pool of water Vs Jumping off a tall building.

Spring board diving is an Olympic sport. The divers do not hit the bottom of the pool and get injured. Those who jump off tall buildings hit the ground and die or is seriously injured. Why is the 2 so different? We see children enjoying themselves jumping into a shallow pool without harm. Why is the depth of the pool or the height we jump off important? In this post, we will look at various  forces and the concepts of terminal velocity and law of conservation of energy. Whether we jump off the spring board or a tall building, there are 2 forces that affect us. For both cases the effect of the 2 forces are identical.  Gravity makes us gain speed at the rate of 9.8 m per second per second. The greater the height we jump off, the more speed  and kinetic energy we will gain. Another force that is acting on us all the time to slow us down is friction. Air is not dense and so the amount of friction is not much. The faster we move the greater the amount of friction. Friction  varies with the square of our speed. Doubling our speed quadruples the friction. Friction slows us down while gravity increase our speed. The rate at which we gain speed will decrease from the initial  9.8 m per second per second. If our speed increase to the point where the force of friction is exactly  equal to the force of gravity we stop gaining speed and travel at a constant speed. The constant  speed is know as Terminal Velocity. Because air is not dense, the terminal velocity for a human falling is very high. We will keep falling untill we hit the ground. Water is much denser than air so friction of moving in water is much greater. The friction slows down our speed quickly. If the depth of the water is sufficient, we will reach a final velocity of zero. We stop falling.  The pool used for spring board diving is deep enough for the diver to stop the descent of the diver. In the case of jumping off a tall building, friction does not increase enough to overcome gravity. Although the rate of acceleration decrease as we fall, we keep accelerating untill we hit the ground. The amount of Kinetic  energy  (KE) a body is based on the fomula KE = 1/2 m vv  (Sorry I can get my hanphone  to type v squared) m is mass and v is velocity. When we hit the ground our velocity become zero. Our KE become zero ( mass x zero x zero is zero) Because of the law of conservation of energy, the KE is not destroyed but have been used for something.  Part of the KE was converted to the thud sound as we hit the ground. Most of the KE was used to cause injury to our body. The taller the building, the more KE we had and the more serious  our injury. Jumping from the edge of a swimming  pool is safe because the height of the edge of the pool to the surface of the water is so small. When you take your children to a beach where there are big rocks, make sure that the water below the rocks is deep enough before you allow your children  to jump off the rocks.3y

Science & Technology

🦋 Genetically Modified Organism (GMO)

A genetically modified organism contains DNA that has been altered using genetic engineering. Genetic engineering  can be used to make crops disease resistant, produce more, grow faster, and  make food more nutritious. Genetic engineering can do the same for animals too. Imagine a world where chicken lay 2 eggs a day for 365 days per year and can keep up that rate of production for 5 years. Cows produce 80 litres of highly nutritious milk a day. Cows and chicken reared for their meat mature in half the time currently required. They are 50% bigger than current livestock and their meat is leaner, tender, tastier, and more healthy. Production per acre for grains like wheat and rice increase by 50%. Same for other food crops like fruits and vegetables.  Time taken for plants to mature is reduced by 50% Plants and animals are resistant to disease. The scale of improvement above are ridiculous. If Science and technology  can bring about half of the rate of the above, food production would be much higher. Famines and food shortages will not be a problem. The 🌍  will be able  to support a higher population than what was proposed in  Not everybody  welcome GMO. There is a belief that GMO food is not healthy. There is even belief that GMO is part of a plan to depopulate  the 🌍. Ie GMO will ruin the health of people and cause them to die earlier. Do you consider this as Conspiracy theory? Will you consume GMO? What do you think of genetic engineering? It has also been used for humans. Is genetic  engineering  wrong? For example, certain  conditions are not caused by any germs, bacteria, virus, or fungi.The condition is caused by genes that we inherit. Modifying certain  part of the string in the DNA of the gene may stop the spread of the condition. Hmm. I am wondering whether  to make a post on research on  DMD which is sex linked (carried on the  X chromosome) inherited condition. 3y

Science & Technology

🦋 Creation or Evolution?

Creation or Evolution is a controversial topic. Was man created òr did man come about by evolution? What did man evolve from and please explain the various  stages of the evolution of man. How did the solar system and the Universe come about? What is the Big Bang Theory? How does the father and son story below affect your belief about this theory? This is a post that can generate a lot of discussion. Before we start our discussion  in the comments, I want to tell you a story about a  nuclear physicist and his son. The physicist was familiar with atomic structure and study things like protons, electrons, neutrons, positions. His son was fascinated by the solar system and enjoy reading anything about the solar system. One day when the physicist came home, he saw a wonderful  3D model of the solar system. The planets of the model were not on a single plane but on different planes. Even more fascinating was that the plants could be moved in orbits.  The physicist was stunned by the complicated movable model. The son remarked that the model has similarities  with electrons moving around the nucleas of atoms. The father asked his son how he made the model. The son said that put sand and dust into a glass container. I also used a fan to blow on the glass container. Then I  took a hammer and bang the container so that it broke. The wind from the fan blew on the sand and dust which arranged themselves  to form the model.  The father scolded his son, "Don't  be ridiculous. You must have made the model. How did you make the planets stay up in the air. How did you make them move in orbits?" The son said,"I did not make the model. I don't understand how the sand and dust arranged themselves. I do not understand how the planets of the model can move in orbits with different  planes" The son asked the father, "How do electrons move around the nucleas of atoms? How did the real solar system come about? Perhaps that will help to explain how the model we have here  came into being" What do you think of the story? Was the son telling the truth or does the son possess magic to make the planets of his model orbit around the sun? The physics laws that give atoms their shape apply to the solar system.  The solar system  is like a giant atom. Perhaps one day with more scientific knowledge, we will find out that the solar system is an "atom" in a huge sysyem that contains many universes. That system will also obey the same physics laws. Going the opposite direction we may find systems  obeying the physics laws make up atoms. Minute particles like neutrino that is so small that scientists say they have no mass. Is there a God whose laws apply to everything? Ha ha. I am looking forward to see a lot of comments that answer all the questions in the above post.😲😳👏👏 PS - Darwin's theory of evolution is taught as the way man came into being. Those who go against this theory are strongly condemned for believing in conspiracy theories.3y

Science & Technology

What will happen if the sun did not exist for 10 seconds and then reappeared?

The earth will lose its moon. About 500 seconds after the sun disappeared, the 🌍 will fly off at 18 miles per second on the trajectory  it was travelling at that time The gravity of the sun kept the earth in orbit. When the sun disappeared the earth 🌍  flew off at a tangent to its orbit. (The effect of gravity of other planets on the earth  is negligible  compared to the gravity of the sun and so has been ignored) During the 10 seconds the sun disappeared the 🌍 travelled 180 miles only. According to the law of inertia, the earth will continue travelling  in a straight line (ignoring the gravity of the other planets) About 500 seconds after the sun reappeared, its gravity will cause the direction of the earth to keep  bending. There will be slow changes in the direction of the 🌍's travel. Eventually  it will settle into a new orbit. The earth's  moon will also fly off in the direction it was travelling when the sun disappeared. This direction will be different from that of the earth so the 🌍  and its moon will fly apart. The moon will also find a new orbit eventually.  Both the orbit of the 🌍  and the moon will be very different from their original orbits. The other planets and their moons all suffer similar fates. The time the different planets start flying off at a tangent will be different. Some will start flying earlier and some later  By the time the planets and their moons settle into new orbits, the solar system that we knew no longer exists.  The new solar system  will be bigger and every planet have new orbits. Some of the moons may be permanently  lost. Perhaps some may become asteroids if their original planet is unable to get them to orbit itself. The above is based on my inquisitive mind and logic. Why do you think the planets start flying off at different times? Please correct me if I am wrong. 3y

Science & Technology