Life in the Tech Age

Is there an equipment or a gadget that we can't live without at present,that our forefathers functioned perfectly well without?

An equipment or a gadget that you think has revolutionised the 21st Century?

Send me your views.

Alphonse ( Scarface) Capone

Many of us knew the great Gangster Al Capone as the notorious gangster in the early 1900s in Chicago.BUt, not many knew that he was loved and he was a Robin Hood like character, was well respected and loved by the people. But that all changed after an an accident

Capone got his nickname Scarface due to a cut on his left cheek.Capone started his life of crime at a young age. Rumored to have started pimping prostitutes before reaching puberty, he was raised on the tough streets of Brooklyn and earned extra money as a bouncer in various brothels. By the age of twenty, Capone had moved to Chicago and was managing a popular nightclub named The Four Deuces. By the age of 30, Capone had his hand in various rackets, including prostitution rings, bootlegging, and gambling houses.

Capone had mastered the art of politics, and as a wealthy, powerful gangster figure, he attempted to balance his activities. Despite his illegitimate occupation, he had become a highly visible public figure. He made daily trips to City Hall, opened soup kitchens to feed the poor, and even lobbied for milk bottle dating to ensure the safety of the city's children. City officials often were embarrassed by the politic strength of Capone, and began leveraging his illegal activities through police raids, along with setting intentional fires to his places of business.

In the beginning, the public glamorized Capone's activities and identified with him as a modern day Robin Hood. It wasn't long, however, before the public started weighing against him when it was believed that he had ordered the death of a famed local prosecutor. The young prosecutor had before tried to pin Capone with the violent murder of a rival gang member and he had a reputation for going after bootleggers. Although many speculated against Al's involvement in the prosecutor death, there was a great outcry against gangster violence, and public sentiment went against Capone.

After this incident, Capone became a public hated figure and had to flee into hiding. He finally came out of hiding and surrendered to the police.
But, however as you would see in movies, there is insufficient evidence against Capon and he was released.

Capone then went back to his business, crime, Organised Crime a term which was coined because of him.

An Organised Crime division was formed, especially to stop Capon and finally they got him for Tax evasion.Capone was jailed and eventually moved to Alcatraz where he was kept with watchful eyes.

After a few years years, Capone was transferred to Terminal Island Prison Southern California to serve his rest of the sentence.Syphilis, a disease he had evidently been carrying for years

He was soon released due to poor health and finaly died in his luxurious Palm Beach Mansion.

A.I

What is artificial intelligence?

The defination is the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs. It is related to the similar task of using computers to understand human intelligence,

But AI does not have to confine itself to methods that are biologically observable.Thats the reason for its existance.

When we talk about intelligence, what actually defines that?

I think that Intelligence is the computational part of the ability to achieve goals in the world. Varying kinds and degrees of intelligence occur in people, many animals and some machines.

We all were intrugued by the plot of Terminator.
In the James Cameron's Trilogy, SKYNET an artificial Intelligent military backup computer system, takes over the military weapons system and simulates that USA have fired Nukes against the rest of the world.

Now, the system has been designed that, only and ONLY as an act of defence, the USA can fire nukes. SO it simulates that effect, and the rest of the world reacts by firing theirs. That triggers off thier own nukes.

Judgement Day.

The machines then go on to self produce other machines to fully eradicate mankind. They arem so advance that they can even travel through time and create Cybernatic organisms, part man part machine, THE T-1000, The Terminator.

Darwin's Theory of evolution essentially views man as a genetic accident--a product of chance in time and space.

Can A.I be like that?

And what about this,. How about making a " child machine " that can be improved by learning and nuturing and doctoring by humans.
That would make the perfect A.I. It will learn form man and though experience.
And when its is ready, we can release it to the outside world.

I am pretty sure they are already working on that,Humans I mean.

The Orgin of Muay Thai

We all know about the ring sport called "Muay Thai" or "Thai Boxing",
its explosive and devastating techniques have thrilled audiences worldwide and ensured its popularity.Remember "ONG BAK"?. Well, for those who have,watch out for "TOM YAM GOONG"

But where did this sport come from, where are its origins? I had to find out.

It is believed that the Siamese people had their own styles of fighting, in each Kingdom a different style.

Muay Thai started way back in the medieval ages when wars were fought with bows and arrows, swords, and pikes. And in hand-to-hand combat arms, legs, knees, and elbows were also used as weapons. This sport which was included in military training was made famous by King Nareusan 1560 A.D.

I found out some interesting facts about this great king as well.

We all know that before Thailand, there was Siam. But beforew Siam, there was this great Kingdom of Ayutthaya.

Ayutthata was under Burmese rule and the ayutthians and the burmese hated each other.
Picture the Scots and the English.(Remember BraveHeart,Rob Roy?)

Young Naresuan was taken to Burma as a hostage by the Burmese King to ensure good behavior of the Ayutthian King.The Burmese king, taught the young prince well. Educated in arts and military tactics and war, Naresuan became a firm favourite of the Burmese Royal Family

But when he was 16, he was returned to Ayutthaya as part of a Hostage exchange.
However in Ayuttaya, Naresuan did not forget where he was brought up.

By that time, the Burmese King died, and his son took over the Kingdom
Then one day, Burma was attacked by a group of Monguls. The Burmese prince sent armies to fight these monguls. But the monguls were too strong for them.

Learning this, Naresuan led his own army and defeated the monguls.The burmese were jealous and saw Naresuan as a threat.They saw Naresuan's victory and saw it as a disgrace for the Burmese.
They attacked Naresuan army, offguard and killed many of his soldiers.

During this battle, it has stated that Naresuan was the prime target.Burmese soldiers, had one objective, to kill Naresuan. Naresuan soon found the odd stacked against him and lost all his weapons.
But instead of surrendering, he then used his bare hands, feet,knees to fight the Burmese Army.

The Burmese were stunned, and with the confidence and inspiration from Naresuan, he and his army won.

Some say he single handedly battled 15 men, unarmed.
He had displayed probably the 1st style of Muay Thai.

King Naresuan the Great(whom he was later known as), began building up his army and eventually got independance for Ayutthaya.

Muay thai was inducted into the military and is now known as the famous unarmed martial art of Thailand. It has also spawned different styles of muay thai in different parts of Thailand. Various styles and tactics were developed
It's populartiy has spilled over Asia and into the West.The Thais take it as a prestigous national sport in their native land.Muay Thai fighters are seen as great figures in the country and are treated with respect

Hail King Naresuan the Great, probably the founder of Muay Thai

The 47 Ronin

The story of the 47 Ronin is one of the most celebrated in the history of the samurais.

It happened that Lord named Asano was chosen by the Shogun to be tasked with imperial duties for the Imperial family. To assist him in this new duty, the highest ranking samurai master, Kira was assigned to instruct him in matters of etiquette. Kira, it seems, was a somewhat difficult character and expected Asano to compensate him monetarily for the trouble, which Asano held was simply his duty.
The two grew to dislike one another intensely, and Kira made every effort to embarrass his student. Finally situation exploded within the shogun's palace - Kira insulted Asano once again, prompting the latter to draw his sword and swing at him. Kira was only wounded in the attack and Asano was promptly placed under confinement. Asano perforemd Seppuku, Ritual Suicide for the disgrace(better known as harakiri)

When the news of the unfortunate event reached Asano's castle, his samurais were thrown into an uproar and argued heatedly over what to do next.

Kira was no fool, and expecting some sort of attempt on his life by the Asano men increased his personal guard.

But Asano's men were notimpulsive. They waited and waited for almost a year until Kira grew complacent and relented his guards.

Then one day,47 of them, donning samurai armour, set out on their revenge. Once at Kira's mansion, they attacked, and murdered Kira, his men and his family, his servants and even his domestic animals

Kira's head was then put in a bucket and carried to the place where Asano was buried.

After performing thier rites to the spirit of Asano, they turned themselves in.

When news reached the shogun, people were shocked.It was a mass murder, they had wiped out virtually all decendents of Kira.

When the Shogun learned of all the unfortunate incidents, strangely he was impressed with thier loyalty.He gave them a light sentence and to carry on being samurai in his castle.

But the 47 ronin did not see it as justice and performed Seppuku right before the Shoguns eyes.They would serve no other master than Asano.

The story of the 47 Ronin is told to every japanese kid growing up.
It's a japanese legend.
A Tale of Pure Loyalty.

(Inspired by the movie, Ronin)

The Moon Bike

From 1996 to early 1998,I was working in Penang,in the Royal Malaysian Air Force Base as a Singapore Ambassador.The FPDA - The Five Power Defence Arrangement which consists of the Brits,Aussies,Kiwis,Msians and Sporeans

It was a lovely place to work. Relaxed. No Pressure.Pure bliss
I used be very close to the aussies as they also happened to be my neighbours.
I used to have a passion for Off road bikes, scramblers, and everyone in the base knew about this.

I even participated in races over there.

There was a large contigent of aussies at the base, alomost 3/4 of the ambassadors were aussies. So they had like a little auditorium where weekly, there will be talks and discussions on certain subjects from back home - Australia.

My Aussie mates came over one day and told me that they are going to have a talk about this new Moon Bike which is THE COOLEST bike they ever heard of and they were all going to attend the talk.

Well,sounded interesting.
I made my way, about 20 mins walk down to the auditorium and took my place in the room.
It was a bit strange, considering a large number or women attending the talk. Did not see my mates, figured they may be late
I was just too tired walking for 20mins, took my seat at the back and waited for my exciting Moon Bike. I was pretty excited actually.

A few minutes later, an Aussie Woman walked to the front area of the auditorium and said "Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen(I swear she looked at me when she said that),lets begin our talk about the Lunar Cycle"

The Suicide Gods

When Japanese fighter pilots during WWII got into dogfights that were going poorly, they naturally considered the "honorable" option of crashing their planes into enemy airfighters.

By late 1944, the war was not going as well as the Japanese had hoped. American naval forces were slowly making headway across the Pacific. After some discussion among the brass, the first formal suicide attack was organized as a volunteer effort (apparantly, previous suicide attacks had been spur-of-the-moment decisions).

Suicide has always been a much larger component of Japanese culture (which has a lot of issues) than in Western civilization, which never really embraced the idea of "death with honor." Samurai code allowed for the practice of "Seppuku," which was a ritual self-disembowerment, popularly known in the West as Harakiri. Seppuku was generally used to absolve one's self of some disgrace or defeat.

The suicide mindset continues in Japan today, where failed businessmen opt for the "honorable" way out and deranged teenagers take part in Internet suicide pacts for no special reason. Japan has the highest suicide rate among industrialized nations, with more deaths by suicide than by traffic accident.

This is indeed an alarming fact.

According to the Japanese, transcend life and death. When you eliminate all thoughts about life and death, you will be able to totally disregard your earthly life. This will also enable you to concentrate your attention on eradicating the unsolvable problem, a predicament that has no solution, in WWII the enemy.

The kamikaze pilots carried manuals in their cockpits,which included passages extolling the spiritual worth of the mission as well as helpful tips in doing the maximum amount of damage before one's fiery demise. A ritual is done before the pilot embarkes on this mission.

A Guide to Honorable Death.

Jihads in Lebanon, Female Tamil Tiger suicide bombers, Chechen suicide bombings and most recently and famously 9/11.
Seppuku has transcended into the world beyond culture, beyond race.

I cannot imagine talking and coaxing a suicide bomber to stop his or her mission.
I guess its a Futile mission in itself.
One can not negotiate with suicide bombers and deal with their kamikaze mindset
The suicide bomber will sacrifice themselves for maxium death and believe the religious rants and propaganda that embodies his or her death, Honourable death.

(Inspired by the book "Kamikaze: Japan's Suicide Gods.")

Murder 101

Body Parts Murder. Severed Body Parts found in Orchard and MacRitchie. Second in a space for 2 months. Murders are getting more interesting. On the brightside, our CID and our very own CSI have some REAL cases to crack. Fortunatly for the Police and UNFortunatly for the media, the killers , our LOCAL killers usually..correction always leave clues behind and are always caught.
Efficient police??? Now, thats a thing to ponder.

I am not a sadist.I don't get off people being chopped up, it's just that our local murderers always get caught.
I mean, don't they ever read, or watch movies on how to clear your trace.
Proper Planning perhaps? There even links on the net.Serious,search under AOL online.

Then again, murders can't be not planned for. Impromptu situations that make men come to a decision , to murder, to kill, a solution to a problem

The mind can be an unpredictable thing. You thought you knew your next door neighbour? The mind is like the earth's plates. It moves every single moment, and we don't realise it, at all.

All it takes is a shift,a change in plate tectonics, and we have a catastrophe. An earthquake, Hurricanes, Volcanos, death

Like Plate TeCtonics - Life Situations that lead men to have an intent to kill.
Inevitable.
Our Resistance is Futile.