Stephen' Hawking's Theory of Everything

Love and Sacrifice

This all-catching title for a movie encapsulates the space sciences and quantum physics and one man's mission to prove that there is a theory of time and the creation of the universe.

His Best Selling Book

Stephen Hawking's doctoral thesis is about the existence of black holes and the death of falling stars. His later theories were to demonstrate how stars burnt to their death in the black holes.

Generally, the movie tells us of the love life of Stephen and his wife, Jane Wilde and the love triangle that finally emerged when Jane fell astray in love with the pastor Jonathan Jones and married him.

Romance in Cambridge

As for Hawking, life  goes on as he lived with his ravaging motor neuron disease till this day

Good portrayals by Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones.

Redmayne and Jones in the lead

Hope it can garner some Oscars this time around.

The GST Terror!

Come April 1, be ready to pay the piper like a fool.

With the imposition of GST, many items that are currently tax-free will attract 6% GST tax.

The chart below shows you how you will be hit.

The Unbroken Olympian

Unbroken Valour

Anjelina Jolie's movie, Unbroken showcasing the life and times of Louis Zamperini from his rowdy childhood days, his rigorous training in track and field and to his triumph in the 5,000 meters track event at the Berlin Olympics in 1936 set the stage ahead for the second half of his life as a bombardier shot down over the Pacific Ocean, lost  at sea in a life-boat with two comrades and finally his incarceration and brutal torture  at the hands of a sadistic commandant in a Japanese hard labour camp in Tokyo.

Capturing Olympic Gold in Berlin 1936

The incessant torture by the commandant of the camp named Bird Watanabe who took an instant dislike of him and the challenges he was put through physically and mentally can be quite graphic and nerve-shattering to witness. Louis Zamperini was only completely sure of his peace of mind when the Allied Forces took Tokyo.

The real Louis Zamperini who died in 2014

This movie was directed by Angelina Jolie and she co-produced it as well.

Quite a good movie to watch especially the agony and triumph of Louis.

Good Directing

A Weekend Escapade in Danang

5th Most Populous City

   My daughter had a week-end resort in Danang, Vietnam from 23rd to 25th January 2015.

Danang Street Food

Travelling on Air Asia, the journey began with a hitch. The plane that was supposed to fly them developed fuel leakage from one of its tanks. So, after a long wait, they got on board the plane that have just got in from Danang.

Danang Beach Hotel

Arriving almost two hours late, she had a late lunch with her colleagues from the office.

Heritage Cham site

So the office skipped the team building exercise but managed to pursue the rest of their Danang agenda.

Pristine Beaches

On reflection she told me that the two-nights 3 days stay was a breather and she managed to enjoy the cool climate of Vietnam, the ambiance of the hotel, historical Cham artifacts. good food as well as some shopping for Vietnamese coffee.

Messy Traffic

From Selma to Montgomery

The Civil Rights Classic

 The movie;Selma, chronicles the civil rights fight of Martin Luther King against the state of Alabama where Blacks were denied the right to register to vote.

Standing between Lyndon B. Johnson the President of America and King is  the racist Governor George Wallace who made it his personal mission to curtail the rights of the Blacks.

David Olewoyo as King and Carmen  Ejogo as Coretta Scott King

A moving docudrama, it is well paced and keeps the audience longing in anticipation for the next thing to happen in this volatile quest by King to secure voting rights for the Blacks from President Johnson through a Bill of Rights.

The walk across the bridge from Selma to Montgomery by King and the protesters as they faced the local police force bent on beating them down is the climax of this movie.

This movie has great stars both in starring roles and in cameos.

Attractive Ejogo

David Olewoyo stars as King while Carmen Ejogo stars as his wife Coretta. Johnson was played by Tom Wilkinson with cameos from Cuba Gooding Jr,Giovanni Ribisi and Wendell Pierce. Oprah Winfrey acted as  Annie Lee Cooper and also co-produced Selma.

Great movie to enjoy if you like witty dialogue.

Shale and Innovation-The Tectonic Shift of Oil

Shale up your alley!

I have edited Guy Bechor’s Opinion Piece on the Shifting of the focal point of  crude oil beginning 2015. 

I do not know how much of this is based on facts and how much on conjecture but it makes interesting reading.

Stones and Rock Flakes?

If you read this piece and believe it so based on one singular fact, then it must be that in 2014 the USA lifted its oil export embargo  technically causing a mayhem in world markets beginning in January 2015 with the phenomenal slump of world crude oil  prices. 

Mountain of Oil

This can be described nothing less than tectonic!

And the conjecture part? 

Minting Oil Money

Bechor tells you that this will be the likely scenario.

I will put them in bullet points.

New Black Gold

• The new innovative technology has flung open the doors to extract shale oil economically which will potentially produce 12 million barrels of oil per day within a year. 
• Minusing domestic consumption, a million barrels a day will be available for the USA to export! In contrast, Iran today only manages to produce 1.5 million barrels a day. Also, as of today, the USA has become the single largest crude oil producer to the world eclipsing even the oil lord, Saudi Arabia.
• Bechor expects oil to keep on dropping in price with little reprieve. 
• His scenario is Arab oil exporting nations will begin to lose their shine. Politically, deprived of the oil largesse they are used to, there will be internal shocks in the form of political and social turbulence and upheavals. The sudden cutbacks will also curb their development and their influence on world politics.
• Non-OPEC nations will also enter the export market along with the USA. These include Canada, Brazil, Mexico, and Nigeria.

Innovation-Driven Process for Shale

2015 is a brand new world powered by a revolution of information, innovation and inventions.

Every USD Spent will bring in USD2

So,if you do not have a creative mind, you will so be relegated to be fossilized!


PS:

Latest figure of oil production in USA from Commerzebank of Germany on 22 January 2015:

" The USA now produces a good 9 million barrels of crude oil per day,the largest volume in 28 years. Never before were crude stocks in the US as ample at this time of year than at present."-Reuters

You Only Live Twice-Tan Hoo Passes On

I guess I can call him a good acquaintance.

Our paths did cross way back in the early 1980's.

Seconded from the Ministry of Health, Tan Hoo was involved in sewage projects in such places like Sungkai and Lunas. We were looking to upgrade the pit latrine systems.

He was an affable guy, telling me about the stories when he was studying overseas. The interesting one was how he dived to harvest abalone in Australia. Or was it New Zealand?

His favourite expletive was, "No Shit!"

He got his Datukship when he became Director-General on the Health Services Department of the Ministry of Housing

You Only Lived Twice?

Yes, when he was renting a house and reading the Sunday papers in Section 17,  a bullet graced his forehead after ricocheting off his wall. It was a shot from a police chasing a robber.

He lived to tell the tale and told me so.

As he passed away on 19th January 2015, I bid him farewell in the high heavens!