New Edition of LUMS NEWSnet Published

The March 2009 edition of LUMS’s external newsletter, NEWSnet, was published recently and you can read all of it online. This edition covers about nine months worth of news and events and makes a good read.

Terrible Usability

What’s weird about it, though, is the format it’s been published in: it’s all image files. Basically, instead of taking the time to make a proper website for the newsletter or even make a PDF file out of it, they’ve converted each page of the newsletter into an image which they’ve then sliced into smaller images for faster transfer over the Internet. (Note: making image slices for online publishing is pretty standard for intricately designed websites but is highly unusual for publishing newsletters online.)

Publishing the newsletter in this way makes life a lot simpler for them because (a) making image slices is really easy and (b) the newsletter’s original design, formatting, fonts, photographs, page numbering, etc. are all preserved without them having to make any extra effort. However this is a silly way to publish a newsletter online. Why?

Well, first, the image-only format takes up too much bandwidth and is slow to transfer over the Internet (no matter how many slices you make, transferring HTML code is still quicker). Second, though it’s nice to be looking at a well-formatted page, you are basically stuck with whatever font size they’ve decided to publish the newsletter in (in this case, 9pm Tahoma). Third, reading text as text is much easier than reading text that’s an image. For example:

Text as Text:	Text as Image:
Jahanzeb Sherwani is Pakistan’s first developer (and LUMS alumnus) whose application has been accepted into Apple’s iPhone App Store. Jaadu is a groundbreaking application for the iPhone and iPod Touch that lets you control your computer from wherever you ware in the world.

Finally, to nitpick a little: I hate the fact that you can’t click to zoom-in on any of the photos they’ve published and the newsletter’s masthead is far too large for an online publication.

The Options They Had

The thing is, I understand why LUMS would do something like this because the online version of NEWSnet is probably not a priority for them. Indeed, they most likely wanted to make as little extra effort as possible in converting the print version to a format they could publish online.

That said, they actually had three choices for that print-to-online conversion:

First, they could have made a proper website for the newsletter. This, however, would have required a bit of work on their part because they would have had to design the site layout, create a template, and then copy all the text and images into it.

Second, they could have made a PDF version of the newsletter and made it available for download. PDFs are the Internet-standard way of publishing newsletters online because they preserve your design, layout, fonts, page numbering, and so on. They are also much better from a usability standpoint because readers can zoom in and out to adjust the print size and, if the text within them is rendered as text, they are also much easier to read.

Finally, they could have done what they did: convert the pages into images and publish those online. This, while the second-easier option for them (making the PDF is easier), is the least user friendly option for readers (or, in this case, site visitors).

Why, then, did they do it this way? I’m not sure. Image files certainly look better than a simple link to a PDF file from the LUMS homepage. And they could have been trying to cater to their six site visitors who don’t have PDF file reading software installed on their computers or in their browsers. Regardless, their choice of publishing the newsletter in this manner is, in opinion at least, a bit of a cop-out. And though I understand why they did it, the reasons for doing it aren’t very convincing to me.

Some Good Things

Among the things they did do right, however, is the fact that the newsletter’s content is both short and very interesting. Also the design and layout of the newsletter itself is quite good. So, even though it’s a pain to read, I have actually skimmed through bits of the newsletter to see what’s going on in the world of LUMS.

Sound of Music Sing-a-long-a in Melbourne

The Sound of Music sing-a-long-a is back in Melbourne this year. It’s on 15 and 16 May at the Hamer Hall (tickets from Ticketmaster, details on the Sing-A-Long-A website) and I would love to attend but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to (it’s expensive!). Besides, it won’t be as much fun without, say, either of my sisters going with me. Still, I’ll see if I can make it.

Meanwhile, have you seen this bit of Sound of Music awesomeness? It’s an Improv Everywhere type of flash mob performance of ‘Do-Re-Me’ at the central train station in Antwerp, Belgium:

Brilliant, isn’t it?  Or should I say “Charming. Quite charming.” :)

Science in Film & Television

USA Today’s Dan Vergano has written a good article, called ‘TV, Films Boldly Go Down Scientific Path’, on how film makers and television producers are making an effort to get the science that they put into their films and TV shows to be as accurate – or at least as internally logically consistent – as possible.

Naturally, what you’ll see in films and television shows isn’t practical science because real, practical science is long and arduous and sometimes boring. Films and TV shows, meanwhile, are entertainment so at the most you’ll get a montage of a scientist (or a team of scientists) hard at work. And these montages will range from the suit-construction-in-the-cave montage from Iron Man to the working-by-the-window-as-the-seasons-change montage from A Beautiful Mind to the evidence-collecting-and-processing montages that you see on CSI all the time.

On most films and TV shows, though, the actual scientific process gets skipped and you only get to hear the results (e.g. “the lab tests are in”, “forensics has shown”, and so on). Unless, of course, the scientific investigative process itself is part of the storyline like it is on shows like CSI, Numb3rs, Lie to Me, and House – all of which feature real science with only a few liberties taken to make the plot more interesting. All four of those are awesome shows, by the way.

Anyway, Vergano has written a good article and I highly recommend you read it. It even quotes Phil Plait! :)

Where is the Outrage?

The BBC’s Ilyas Khan has written an excellent article on how casually top Pakistani officials continue to treat the local fundamentalist militant threat that has grown so quickly over the last year.

Khan uses the official reaction to the recent attack on the Manawan police academy in Lahore to make his point:

Eight hours of siege, eight policemen killed, nearly 100 injured, and at the end of the day what do we know about the stand off at the Manawan police academy?

Very little, as usual.

And just as usual, analysts have continued to point out on television news shows that Pakistan has yet to stop being casual about the militant threat.

…

The question is, why do top Pakistani officials continue to make off the cuff remarks about a problem that appears to be ripping the country apart?

I don’t know the answer to that question but it saddens me to see a lack of outrage from many of those top officials. Certainly they claim to be upset by what’s happened, but they’re obviously not upset enough to do anything concrete and long-lasting about it. All they seem to want to do is apply another roll of duct tape to the problem in the hope that it’ll hold everything together.

I mean, seriously, why are analysts, journalists, and reporters the only ones – aside from the general public, of course – who are openly discussing the gravity and long-term implications of attacks such as these? And why are they the only ones who seem to be saddened by the loss of life that accompanies each and every one of those attacks?

This lack of acknowledgement (of gravity) from the top is an issue because openly admitting that you have a problem really is the first step you have to take before you can start to solve things. And it’s that very acknowledgement that doesn’t seem to be coming from the people who can actually do something about it.

Some Optimism

Mosharraf Zaidi, meanwhile, is optimistic that this most recent attack will finally get the bureaucracy to do something about the situation. In his most recent article and blog post, ‘Counter-Terrorism Through the Civil Service’, he writes:

The attack on the Lahore police training facility yesterday, which as of the time of this article’s writing had not ended, should wake Pakistan up. There is an existential monster that Pakistanis are unable to acknowledge because of the weakness of their Muslim faith. This weakness is exacerbated by the average Pakistani Muslim’s dependence on unholy mullahs whose money-ing by General Zia, radical Saudis, and the joint efforts of the CIA and the ISI is now proving to be the single gravest threat to the sustainability of Pakistan as an operational entity.

The ostrich-like reaction to terrorism is driven by the average Pakistani’s inability to debate the mullah, and an unwillingness to invest the effort and time required to tame that mullah. Abandoned and let loose by the “shurafa” that once were able to tame the mullah, and to speak his language, the mullah’s new master–the comfort of Land Cruisers and bottled water–has no scruples.

Do make sure you read his entire blog post as well as the comments the post has generated. The comments on all of Zaidi’s posts are always worth a read.

What Happens Now?

So there you have it: a reason to be pessimistic about the whole situation and yet there’s always a glimmer of hope that maybe this time people will be motivated enough to actually do something concrete to fix the problem (or at least start to fix the problem). The lawyers certainly did with their long march. How long before the rest of us wake up and really do something about the militancy problem too?

Here’s hoping there is cause for optimism over the next few days as officials tell us exactly what happened during the Manawan attack and what they’re going to do about it. As one expert commentator on Geo News said a couple of days ago: until the government actually captures, punishes, and makes an example of the people who are carrying out these acts of terrorism, the militants don’t really have any incentive to stop doing whatever it is they darned well want to. This, then, is the opportunity for the government to do just that. If they want to send a message to the militants, now is the time.

Here’s hoping…

Maliha Got Married

If you’re wondering why I published only one blog post in February that’s because I spent most of that month in Pakistan attending (and, of course, helping organize) my younger sister Maliha’s wedding. This is her and my brother-in-law, Ibaad, at their wedding in Islamabad:

From Maliha and Ibaad's Wedding

Yes, I know I’m about a month late in blogging about this but I’ve only recently gotten the time to organize the photos from that trip. This is me ‘n Nadia in Karachi, which is where Maliha and Ibaad now live:

From Pakistan Trip Feb-09

You can view all these photos on my Picasa Web Albums page in these two albums:

1. Maliha and Ibaad’s Wedding
2. Pakistan Trip Feb-09

Enjoy :)

Music from the Watchmen Film

I’ve seen the ‘Watchmen’ movie twice now, and though I really like the movie itself, what stands out, for me at least, is they way they used music throughout the film; particularly in transition scenes and montages.

[WARNING: Possible spoilers, especially if you haven’t already read the graphic novel]

The musical good-ness starts with the opening credits that feature Bob Dylan’s ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’’. This was a really neat way to start the film as this montage is our introduction to the parallel reality that the movie is set in (I particularly liked the bit where Silhouette replaces the sailor in Eisenstaedt’s famous ‘V-J Day in Times Square’ photo).

The two most memorable uses of music, however, are the cold war era protest song ‘99 Luftballons’ by Nena that gets played at the start of the Daniel Dreiberg and Laurie Jupiter dinner scene and use of Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘The Sound of Silence’ for The Comedian’s funeral. Awesome stuff, particularly the entire funeral scene. Also memorable, but more because of it’s unusual placement, is the use of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ during the Nite Owl and Silk Spectre sex scene.

Then there are the more energetic songs that are used at appropriate points. These include ‘All Along the Watchtower’ performed Jimi Hendrix (but, of course, written by Bob Dylan), ‘Desolation Row’ as performed by My Chemical Romance (also originally by Bob Dylan), and ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ as performed the Budapest Symphony Orchestra (which is a nod to the helicopter attack scene from ‘Apocalypse Now’). Oh, and if you stay for the credits you’ll also get to hear Leonard Cohen’s ‘First We’ll Take Manhattan’.

Finally there’s the brilliant use of a muzak version of ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ by Tears for Fears that is played in the reception area outside Adrian Veidt’s office.

[End spoilers]

Actually, come to think of it, the good use of awesome music started months ago with the Smashing Pumpkin’s ‘The Beginning is the End is the Beginning’ being used for one of the film’s trailers.

Anyway, if you haven’t yet seen the film I suggest you do because it really is quite good. One thing, though: do keep in mind that this is not your typical, happy-ending superhero film. It’s a dark, dismal, serious movie – darker than what Batman films are supposed to be – and if you don’t go into the cinema expecting that, you probably won’t enjoy it as much.

[For more on the music used throughout the film, check out the Reel Soundtrack Blog’s feature on the Watchmen Soundtrack or the film’s Wikipedia page.]

Imran Ahmad is in America

I read a whole lots of blogs and among them is Imran Ahmad’s hilarious ‘Unimagined’ blog. The name, of course, refers to the title of Ahmad’s book: Unimagined – A Muslim Boy Meets the West. I haven’t read the book myself – I’m not buying any new books till I get a job – but I’ve heard it’s quite awesome and I hope to get it as soon as possible.

Anyway, Ahmad was recently in Australia, which is how I first heard about him. Now, though, he’s driving around the US doing a book tour which you can read about in his recent BBC article ‘Hello America, I'm a British Muslim’. He’s also writing about his travels on his blog and that’s always worth a read (even though his blog posts are rather lengthy).

Enjoy :)

Why is Science Important?

Why is science important?

Physics teacher and film-maker Alom Shaha decided to ask a whole bunch of scientists and educators that question, the answers to which he compiled on the ‘Why is Science Important?’ website that he had created for this purpose.

He then put all those answers – including, of course, his own – into an awesome video that is now available online:


Why is Science Important? from Alom Shaha on Vimeo.

Enjoy :)

[Via the Bad Astronomer]

U2 Live at the Brit Awards

U2 performing ‘Get on Your Boots’ at the Brit Awards 2009:

Awesome.

Managing Procrastination

I used to be a champion procrastinator but, over the last few years, have gotten a lot better at managing my work schedule – almost to the point that I end up doing things well ahead of time.

The techniques I use to get around my procrastinational tendencies were mentioned in the recent PsyBlog post on ‘How to Avoid Procrastination: Think Concrete’. These are:

• Breaking down complex tasks into concrete and much more manageable bite-sized pieces
• Self-imposing a schedule (with deadlines) on yourself and then sticking to that schedule

Surprisingly, these techniques pretty straightforward to execute and they work really well too. Yes, I am simplifying a bit here so read the full PsyBlog post for the details. Also read this post: ‘Getting Big Projects Done: Balancing Task-Focus with Goal-Focus’.

I also have a theory on why it's easy to procrastinate on simple, low-value, 'chore'-type tasks. My theory is that these tasks don't present much of a challenge to you so, in an attempt to make your life more exciting, your subconscious delays doing them. That way, you’re forced to do them in a rush and at the last minute which, basically, ends up making the tasks more challenging and your life a little less mundane.

Of course this also happens because the tasks themselves aren’t all that important so they get put in your lowest priority queue which, by definition, means you’ll only do them when you really have to…but I’m sure my theory is also partly true. Anyone have any other theories?

The Islamization of Pakistan

This month’s Newsline has a couple of excellent articles on the Islamization of Pakistan.

First there’s an article called ‘The Power of the Pulpit’ by Mohammad Hanif, author of ‘A Case of Exploding Mangoes’ which was shortlisted for the 2008 Guardian First Book Award.

Hanif writes:

Mullahs, maulvis, imamas, or ulema-i-karam as many of them prefer to call themselves, have never had the kind of influence or social standing that they enjoy now. A large part of Pakistan is enthralled by this new generation of evangelists. They are there on prime time TV, they thunder on FM radios between adverts for Pepsi and hair removing cream. In the past few years, they have established fancy websites with embedded videos; mobile phone companies offer their sermons for download right to your telephone. They come suited, they come dressed like characters out of the Thousand and One Nights, they are men and they are women. Some of them even dress like bankers and talk like property agents offering bargain deals in heaven.

Then there’s an article called ‘The Saudi-isation of Pakistan’ by Pervez Hoodbhoy, professor of High Energy Physics and the Head of the Physics Department at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad.

Hoodbhoy writes:

The common belief in Pakistan is that Islamic radicalism is a problem only in FATA, and that madrassas are the only institutions serving as jihad factories. This is a serious misconception. Extremism is breeding at a ferocious rate in public and private schools within Pakistan’s towns and cities. Left unchallenged, this education will produce a generation incapable of co-existing with anyone except strictly their own kind. The mindset it creates may eventually lead to Pakistan’s demise as a nation state.

Both are excellent, though long, articles that I highly recommend you read.

Axis of awesome – 4 Chords

If you haven’t already seen this, make sure you check out Axis of Awesome’s song ‘4 Chords’:

:)

Nadia Gets a Tattoo

Nadia’s been wanting to get a tattoo for…well, forever. Certainly she wanted to get one soon after we got to Australia (back in the middle of 2006) but there was a problem: she couldn’t decide what she wanted the tattoo to be, say, or represent.

Last week, however, she had a eureka moment and three days later, it was done:

Yes, the tattoo says ‘stet’.

Er, ‘Stet’?

So, what does ‘stet’ mean? Well, ‘stet’ is an editing/proofreading mark that means “Let it stand” or “You know that change you made? Undo it and leave my original text the way it was, thank you very much”. Author Max Barry explains it best:

On Monday I received the copyedited manuscript of Company. This means someone at Doubleday has gone through it with a red pencil and pointed out everything I did wrong …

…[If] I want, I can overrule them, with the awesome power of STET. “Stet,” I discovered while editing my first novel, means, “Put everything back just the way I had it.” (Accompanied, one suspects, by the subtext: “Idiot!”) How good is that? When I discovered this word, it was like a gnawing, hollow place in my heart had finally been filled. Looking back, I can’t work out how I ever made it through a day without it. “Max, I tidied up your desk for you.” “No! Stet! STET, dammit!”

This is the coolest and most powerful mark (read: command) that an author has over her editor and proof reader and I presume this is what JRR Tolkien used when he started spelling the plural of ‘dwarf’ as ‘dwarves’ – instead of the more commonly used ‘drwarfs’ – when he wrote his ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy [More on this here].

Anyway, here’s a close-up of the tattoo:

Isn’t it awesome? It’s simple, yet powerful and relevant on so many levels.

The inspiration for this tattoo came from two places, by the way: the Science Tattoo Emporium (that Carl Zimmer maintains on his Discover Magazine blog) and our love of geeky t-shirts (the kind you find on Think Geek). And though I am honoured to be the one who suggested ‘stet’ to her, I’m pretty sure she would have gotten to it on her own anyway.

The Middle of the Story

What was funny, however, was the way in which it finally happened. Nadia had decided to get her tattoo from Tattoo Magic in Fitzroy so, on the morning of 27 January, the two of us made our way down to Tattoo Magic to have a consultation with one of their artist and to book in a date and time for when the actually tattooing would take place (which would hopefully be some time later that week).

When we got there, however, their receptionist was out to lunch so we ended up talking to a couple of tattoo artists directly. When they saw what Nadia wanted for her tattoo, one of them said tattooing this would take just a couple of minutes and he could do it right then. After a slight hesitation, Nadia said ‘yes’ so the artist (Sean Jackson) went to his office to make a stencil that he would use to size and place the tattoo on Nadia’s arm.

Making the stencil took about five minutes, placing it correctly on Nadia’s arm took less than a minute, and the actual tattooing took less than three minutes (and it wasn’t painful). So, after having waited for two and half years to get a tattoo, Nadia walked out of a tattoo parlour with the tattoo she really wanted less than twenty minutes after she had walked in!

Also funny was that Nadia had psyched herself up for a painful tattooing experience and I was there holding her hand when Sean started to make the first line. I didn’t laugh out loud but I did chuckle inwardly as her facial expression went from “Must tolerate this pain…must tolerate this pain…” to “Er, WTF? This barely stings” :)

So there you have it, Nadia has a tattoo:

You can see more photos (including some funny ones) on my ‘Nadia and her Tattoo’ Picasa Web Albums gallery.

Tips on Napping

Lifehacker’s Adam Pash recently blogged about a new article in the Guardian called Napping: The Expert’s Guide which is a text-based re-hash of an older Boston Globe guide called How to Nap (this was published on the web as an image file).

As you would expect, the article gives some pretty useful tips on how to nap. For example, it suggests you limit your afternoon nap to 45 minutes or less. Unless, of course, you don’t get enough sleep at night in which case it might be good to nap for more than 90 minutes.

The sleep science behind these tips also helps explain my own heuristics around napping. For example, I’ve always likened afternoon naps to charging mobile device batteries:

• If all you need is a quick recharge, either sleep for 10-15 minutes to clear your head or for 20-30 minutes to get a more useful recharge (that will help you function for a few hours longer that a 10-minute nap would).
• If you’re tired, do a full recharge which takes about 2 hours – but make sure you don’t do it too late in the afternoon (like 4-6pm) otherwise you’ll wake up feeling groggy and goggle-eyed.
• Make sure you’re in a quiet and dimly lit (or dark) location to get your nap.
• Don’t let anyone interrupt you because getting woken up 5 minutes into your nap is the worst thing that can happen.

I also have a few heuristics for night time sleeping – some which I have collected over the years (from other news articles or research on sleep) and some of which I’ve come up with myself:

• Never sleep for less than 3 hours at a stretch. Indeed, it’s almost better to not sleep at all (or take a quick 30-minute nap) than it is to sleep for only 1-2 hours at night. This tends to happen when, say, you need to pick someone up from the airport at 2am and you figure you should get an hour’s worth of sleep from midnight to 1am. No! Either go to sleep at 10:30 PM and wake up at 1:30 AM or don’t sleep at all. Trust me on this one.
• If you’re a college student, the previous rule changes to never sleep for less than 2 hours at a stretch. The 2-hour rule was actually my original sleep rule and, as you can guess, I came up with it while I was in college. Once I graduated, developed a more regular sleeping pattern, and (basically) got older, the 2-hour rule became the 3-hour rule.
• Make sure you get 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep at some point during the night. This is important.
• If you and your partner sleep in the same bed (or you have a room mate), make sure you take their sleeping pattern into account when planning your own. For example, you don’t want one partner interrupting the other when the latter is deep in the middle of a sleep cycle.
• If you’re not getting enough sleep (i.e. 7-8 hours every night), at the very least sleep in on weekends or nap in the afternoons. However, doing just that is not sufficient to completely repay your sleep debt. What you have to do is sleep a little extra every night till your natural sleep cycle is restored. That is, sleep for 9-10 hours every night till your body tells you its time to go back to your regular 7-8 hour sleep schedule.
• Don’t drink too much liquid before going to sleep otherwise your 5-7am sleep will be disturbed by your need to go to the bathroom.
• One good way of waking yourself up – especially if you’re feeling tired or groggy – is to start breathing deeply while still in bed. This increases your heart rate and will pump more oxygen into your blood, both of which will help make you more alert which, in turn, will make it easier for you get up and out of bed. Also, force open your eyes to let the daylight in. Your body reacts to environmental light and using your eyes to acknowledge that, “yes, indeed it is morning” helps wake you up.

If you have any napping or sleeping tips of your own, please do let me know. I’m always looking for ways to do things better.

5th Anniversary Sightseeing

Nadia and I like to spend public holidays and other special days doing things we don’t normally do – such as picnicking, sightseeing, and travelling. That’s how, for example, we took a trip down the Great Ocean Road on my birthday last year.

This year, our fifth anniversary [1] fell on a Saturday (24 January) so we decided to do some touristy sightseeing stuff around Melbourne.

Specifically, we did three things: First, we took a cruise up the Yarra River (which, believe it or not, we hadn’t done before):

 

We wanted to go down-river (to the Docklands) as well, but it was too windy for our river boat to go into the Docklands harbour.

Next, we took a trip around part of the city in the Melbourne City Tourist Shuttle. We did this partly because we hadn’t completed the entire circuit the last time we’d ridden on this and partly because, like the City Circle Tram, the tourist shuttle is a free and convenient way to get from one Melbourne touristy hotspot to another.

Finally, since the river boat had failed us, we got off the Tourist Shuttle at Docklands and chilled out there – to a live African band and live video of the Australian Open – for a bit:

You can see all the photos from this trip on my Picasa Web Albums gallery called 5th Anniversary – River & Dock.

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[1] Yes, our wedding anniversary is on 1 February but, technically, we signed our nikah nama (marriage contract) on the 24 June, 2004 so we get a whole week’s worth of celebrations! :)

TEDx Melbourne Evaluation Survey

Fill out the TEDx Melbourne evaluation survey: http://is.gd/gVeM.

Politics – Change & Struggle for Change

So a number of interesting things happened in politics this week. I’m not good at writing about this stuff [1] so you get pictures, video, and links to other sites.

I Can Haz Change?

The big news, of course, was the US presidential inauguration and Aretha Franklin’s hat. I guess Americans finally have earned the new puppy that coming with the Obamas to the White House :)

The Struggle for Change

Meanwhile, Nadia and I attended a protest rally in Melbourne over the weekend:

And though the people who attend rallies (myself included) all have their own particular agendas, mine was summed up by this poster:

And The Struggle Continues

Finally, if you’re in Lahore, consider attending the peace rally being organized by the newly-formed Amn Tehreek  (peace movement) at 3pm on Saturday, 31 January (click the image for details):

It’s easy to have a “nothing I do will make a difference anyway, so why bother?” attitude towards all this, I know. But if there is one thing that has the potential to make a difference – however small that influence may be to begin with – it’s attending rallies such as this one (at least to start with). Because if you don’t, then you might as well stick your head in the sand, renew your silent majority membership, and lose your right to complain if the future doesn’t turn out the way you wanted. (I extend the same argument to voting in elections, by the way, which is why I love the fact that, in Australia, voting is compulsory.)

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[1] I have a hard time writing about politics because this is not something I talk about often. As a result, I have far too much to say and far too little space to say it in. I also have a hard time cutting to the chase which, funnily enough, I have no problem doing when I’m writing about other topics (…must work on this). Besides, I find that, when it comes to politics, others say what needs to be said much better than I do. People like Mosharraf Zaidi, for example.

New U2 Single - ‘Get Your Boots On’

Want to hear the first single from U2’s upcoming album ‘No Line on the Horizon’? :)

The album will be launched in the US on 3 March. [Via E!Online]

TEDx Melbourne was Awesome

Saturday, 17 January was definitely “a day of TED” in Melbourne [1].

Over forty of us TED geeks got together at Monash University and spent the whole day watching our favourite TED talks, talking about those talks, and also watching a live talk on rebuilding faces (through engineering assisted surgery) given by Dr. Ninian Peckitt of ComputerGen Implants Limited. The video of Dr. Peckitt’s talk will be uploaded to the web some time soon.

What I loved most about the day, though, was meeting and talking to all the people who were there (search for #tedx or #mted on Twitter and you’ll find a whole bunch of them). In between the talks we managed to swap stories on how we got hooked onto TED, we talked about what each of us is doing personally and professionally – we’re a fun bunch doing a lot of fun things, by the way – and, of course, we talked about the talks themselves. [2]

So a million thanks to the organizers who did a wonderful job planning and then running TEDx Melbourne. I’m sure this event will becomes a regular feature from now on – maybe with groups of us taking turns to organize it each time – and I’ll keep you posted on this blog every time such an event does take place.

Meanwhile, Shawn Callahan has written about this on his blog as well so make sure you check that out. Also, keep an eye out for the post-event survey that Cheng is in the process of putting together.

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[1] This despite the fact that they didn’t include one of my all-time favourite TED talks: ‘Benjamin Zander: Classical music with shining eyes’. Oh well. Next time, perhaps :)

[2] My apologies but the over-use of the word “talk” in this blog post was inevitable!

Roland Emmerich to Direct Asimov’s ‘Foundation’ Series

Variety reports that Columbia Pictures has won the screen rights to the ‘Foundation’ series of books written by Isaac Asimov. Asimov is one of my all-time favourite authors and ‘Foundation’ is one my all-time favourite series of book so the fact that they’re in the process of developing these books for film – presumably a series of films – is awesome.

Unfortunately the director they have chosen to do so is Roland Emmerich. Now Emmerich isn’t a bad director – ‘Stargate’ (1994), ‘Independence Day’ (1996), ‘Godzilla’ (1998), ‘The Patriot’ (2000), and ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ (2004) are all good films – but the ‘Foundation’ series is much too awesome to be made into simply a good series of films. And thus I am…concerned.

That said, what is cool about Emmerich’s films is that they manage to depict very well the epic scale of the stories being told. Further, the epic nature of these stories is brilliantly supported by superb special effects that don’t get in the way of the storytelling (think: ‘Star Wars’ prequels as a case in which the CG got the better of the story being told).

What all of those movies lack, then, are deep, complex, meaningful characters that you find yourself caring about…well, with the exception of Benjamin Martin’s character (played by Mel Gibson) in ‘The Patriot’. Okay so the characters aren’t all that bad (you could even say that some of them are good) and, yes, you do end up sympathizing with them (and the predicaments they find themselves in) but they are pretty one-dimensional. Indeed, most of the conflict that makes Emmerich’s films interesting occurs, not because of the way the characters are written, but because of the stories themselves.

*Realization dawns on Ameel*

Ah.

Which is why, I suppose, that Emmerich is the perfect director to tell Asimov’s stories. Why? Because Emmerich makes the kinds of stories that Asimov writes.

Let me explain: Asimov was never good at writing characters that were deep, complex, and meaningful – indeed very few science fiction authors are – but he did tell awesome stories on a very grand scale.

For example, the Foundation series – which spans a period of about 500 years – contains only one deeply-written (though not very complex) character in Hari Seldon and only one complex (though not very deeply-written) character in Golan Trevize. What you get instead is an excellent, nay mind-blowing, story that is worthy of the the special “Best All-Time Series” Hugo award. And since this matches so well the types of stories that Emmerich likes to make into films…this could actually work really well!

And thus I am now…excited :)