Best, Malaysian, Song, Ever.

Can you feel the wave of change that’s sweeping all over the nation? Malaysia’s all growing up. /tears

Anyways do check up the site. It’s full of delicious fruits. Just don’t eat the guava. The geek bites. (I know she said she doesn’t, but it’s scary nonetheless).

I’ve fielded this question twice already so far. If the materials in the films to be aired on Pangea Day are so great and powerful, why not just watch it later? Why not download the shows say, a week later, and sit alone in your room and watch it? Why stay up at 2-6 a.m. (GMT +8) on a Sunday morning to watch the show with millions of other people all over the earth (who are physically sitting down at the exact same moment)?

Because at exactly 2-6 a.m., millions of people around the world will be saying, “I want to know.” I want to know about everyone else on this earth, I want to understand them, I want see what they see, and feel what they feel.

Because at exactly 2-6 a.m., millions of people around the world will be saying, “Let’s stop.” Let’s stop this relationship based on fear and lies and misunderstandings. Let’s stop stereotyping and assuming. Let’s escape our narrow mindsets.

Because at exactly 2-6 a.m., millions of people around the world will be saying, “Let’s begin.” Let’s begin changing our minds if not ourselves, let’s begin spreading the love and the understanding. Let’s begin making the world a better place for all of us.

Because on Monday, or Tuesday, or the week after that, those 24 short films will be just short films. And the reason anyone will be watching the show after that, will be because it was recommended all at once by those millions of people, who will be sitting down this Sunday, at 2-6 a.m. (GMT +8). Watching it after that by yourself will be like, as one of my friends put it, “sitting your ass watching some inspirational stuff and doing nothing.” Well the doing’s on this Sunday guys. We’re doing so much more than making a statement, but we are definitely making a strong one. We’re saying, ALL of us, collectively, that we care.

http://pangeadaymelaka.blogspot.com

This Sunday (11 May) at exactly 2.00 a.m. (GMT +8), millions of people around the world will be sitting down together at the first ‘global campfire’ in the spirit of unity and peace, to watch 24 short films made by the world, for the world.

Starting at 02:00 a.m. locations in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro will be linked for a live program of powerful films, live music, and visionary speakers. The entire program will be broadcast – in seven languages – to millions of people worldwide through the internet, television, and mobile phones.

The 24 short films to be featured have been selected from an international competition that generated more than 2,500 submissions from over one hundred countries. The films were chosen based on their ability to inspire, transform, and allow us see the world through another person’s eyes. Details on the Pangea Day films can be viewed here.

Myself and Ugendran are organizing the Pangea Day event for Multimedia University Melaka Campus. More information about our local event is available at http://pangeadaymelaka.blogspot.com. All staff, students, and alumni are invited! Please RSVP to us at pangea@mmu.edu.my so that we can keep track of how many people are coming.

/fume

Here’s a conversation I had about 20 times in the past 5 days.

Me: “Are you coming for the Pangea Day event?”

Person: “I have to work the next day lah.”

Me: “…”

Person: “Wut.”

Me: “It’s 2.00 a.m. on Sunday. ON SUNDAY. It’s errr, Saturday night or Sunday morning. Not Sunday night.”

Person: “Owait.”

Me: “The clearest I can get is, 3 hours after the show ends, it’s 9.00 a.m. Sunday morning. You can sleep the rest of the day.”

Person: “Right.”

Really? It’s that hard to understand “11 May 2008 (Sunday), 2-6 a.m. ??”

/facepalm

Well, it’s not my country, but I would be remiss for not posting this speech by Barack Obama, one which will probably (and definitely should) be remembered for a long, long time in history, depending on how the next US Elections turn out. Far away as I am, his honesty and the simple efficiency with which he boils down issues which aren’t too alien in my own country brings on the kind of surge of hope I’ve been feeling quite a bit of lately after Malaysia’s recent round of elections.

Not just ‘one of the’ constructs, but THE construct.

Wikipedia might disagree with such a statement, considering the number of definitions you can find there. Well let’s see what the contributers there have to say. The summary of common traits associated with intelligence can perhaps be listed as:

1. using tools
2. culture
3. problem solving
4. abstract thoughts
5. complex thoughts

All these terms (and the long sentences on Wikipedia) are human attempts at defining the thoughts that dominate our consciousness, something which no other species on earth appears to exhibit. Figuring out the presence of intelligence based on 4 and 5 is a rather daunting task - no one is quite capable of experiencing consciousness from another person’s perspective. It will not be easy to ‘prove’ that another species or even person is actively thinking abstract and complex thoughts. However, due to our ability to communicate our own thoughts to another person, and have them reciprocate with ideas/thoughts of their own, we assume that they possess a similar intelligence (and that they are not a very powerful supercomputer pre-programmed to produce all the right responses to any given input in order to seem intelligent). Since that animals are unable to communicate any similar thoughts to us, we assume they do not.

However, aspects 1 to 3 is considerably easier to test for.

Remember back in school when your science (or biology) teacher said, “Humans are actually a type of animal as well, biologically speaking. It is only our intelligence that separates us.” And you asked, “But what is this intelligence that makes us different?” And he/she answered, “We are the only species on earth that have displayed the capability to use tools.” At least, that was the textbook answer in my country back in around 1995. Apparently the textbook writer(s) didn’t do his/her homework or check in with Jane Goodall, who have discovered tool-using chimpanzees since 1960. In fact, tool-use is not common to all chimpanzees but exclusive to certain communities of them which have apparently discovered it, and these continue passing on that knowledge across the generations. Chimpanzee communities which have not figured out how to, for example, fish termites from their mounds using a stick, leave termites alone despite their abundance as a food source in their territory.

When Louis Leakey received an excited telegram from Jane describing her discoveries he made his now famous response: “Now we must redefine tool, redefine Man, or accept chimpanzees as humans.”

No. 2 (culture) and 3 (problem solving) have never been strong arguments for intelligence since that many animals display some semblance of group behavior and the ability to survive and adapt in different environments, suggesting some ability at problem solving. More thorough research have actually revealed animals to display cultural differences between different communities - exclusive behaviors that is passed on through observational learning. And apart from being observed solving problems in the wild, many animals display and pick up increasingly complex problem solving skills quickly when in captivity. What then is left to differentiate us from them?

Language.

Of course, I am aware that dogs are capable of expressing anger by growling, and that romantics may call this language. I don’t. The language I’m referring to here is more like an arbitrary set of learned symbols (usually vocal) organized systematically into a logical grammar consisting of small infinitely combinatorial elements, capable of communicating concrete and abstract meaning, and shared by a group. (Yes, I ripped it off somewhere.)

Try coming up with an abstract or complex thought without the usage of language. Try to explain the word ‘explain’ in pictures, or how binary addition works without 0s and 1s (mathematical language). If you think a little, you will find that most of the activity in your mind is either prompted by your dominant language, or facilitated by it. Which is why I much prefer to ask people what language they think in than what their mother tongue is. The guy who tells you that he thinks mainly only in a pictures is a monkey (trying to be funny) or maybe a donkey (trying to be an ass).

Our tool-use, culture and problem solving capacities are also vastly superior or more complex compared to animals due to language in two ways. The fact that we have been cataloguing the things, experiences, and concepts we’ve seen, heard, felt, experienced or dreamed up for centuries through language, and the fact that we’ve shared all these things with each other in (almost) all it’s complexity and richness. Simply put, language allows us to think, and saves each of us the need to start from scratch.

After writing the bulk of this article, I found out happily that Dan Dennett agrees, and he explains all this in a much more precise way. Here’s an excerpt:

Our human brains, and only human brains, have been armed by habits and methods, mind-tools and information, drawn from millions of other brains to which we are not genetically related. This, amplified by the deliberate use of generate-and-test in science, puts our minds on a different plane from the minds of our nearest relatives among the animals. This species-specific process of enhancement has become so swift and powerful that a single generation of its design improvements can now dwarf the R-and-D efforts of millions of years of evolution by natural selection. [...] if we survive our current self-induced environmental crises, our capacity to comprehend will continue to grow by increments that are now incomprehensible to us.

I’ve had long philosophical conversations in the past in which there were differences in opinion. A great many people seemed to be always happy to say, “Yeah, I know what you mean, but I don’t agree. I have my own opinions, and it’s hard/cannot be explained, but it’s there.” I checked - it wasn’t the traditional language barrier - they couldn’t explain it in any other language either. They just disagreed for a reason they could not state. Similarly a lot of people when talking about their world view goes, “I have this perspective, you know. On how the world works and stuff. I just haven’t really figured it out yet in detail yet, so I can’t explain it, but it ’s there I assure you.” Others are reluctant to air their opinions citing, “I don’t want to say why I think like that, because your language skill is better than mine. Of course your argument will sound better! I don’t explain mine as well. [But mine is just as good.]“

If you are too lazy/can’t be bothered to reason out an ‘opinion’ or ‘perspective’ to yourself in some form of language, you don’t have an intelligent one. Haphazard thought which is not reasoned out and cannot be explained is not thought. Human intelligence is facilitated by language. Language defines intelligence - and intelligence is what sets us apart as a species on this planet. Understanding the most complex of concepts requires the understanding of the language that describes it. Which is probably why I am still currently hopeless at the kind of maths required for advanced physics.

A monkey may think the world is a banana for whatever reason (if it can even think that), but I doubt it would claim that reason an intelligent one - at least, not by human standards.

I’m glad to have picked up at least one language - relatively well.

William found this little gem on http://cectic.com/019.html . Brilliant.

I sat down to watch the first bits of this movie to find out what it’s about. I did not intend to finish watching it. I did.

The only other movie that I felt as powerfully described the cornered human person was The Hours. And that one had multiple Oscar winners as actresses and a convoluted story that very few of my friends ever truly understood.

The Blue Light or Ao no hono-o (2003) is simple, to the point, and yet contains enough small cues that you would miss if you weren’t paying attention. And the acting was shocking superb considering the experience of the actors. I have a feeling I’m going to be watching this one for a long time. Now if only I could find a good copy…

L-M-A-O. Best Star Wars joke evar (imo)…

The comedian is Eddie Izzard, someone video-lego-ified it.

Among all the respectable fantasy stories I’ve read (Magic the Gathering books is absolute trash and therefore doesn’t come into the scope of this comment) I found Lord of the Rings the most boring - I fell asleep reading the trilogy (even the Hobbit) several times. Just not my type. That first sentence is to give all you ‘high fantasy’ fanbois some perspective so that you can stop reading this if you find your mouse finger already twitching towards the flame, ooops, I mean comment button.

I enjoy what some may call ‘modern’ fantasy. (Though I suspect I have read a lot less of them than most of my friends). I read a good number of Warcraft books based in Azeroth, and thoroughly enjoy reading in greater detail, stories of which the general plot is already known to me. Some of those warcraft books are seriously good. (Zomg) But this post isn’t about those books either. I guess this post is about the kind of fantasy written by David Eddings (and no, it doesn’t include Leigh), Jim Butcher, Ed Greenwood, R.A. Salvatore and Terry Brooks among others. (+ maybe *cough* Robert *cough* Jordan *cough*).

Most of my friends knows that I am a long time fan of David Eddings. My single favourite fantasy book in the whole world is “Belgarath the Sorceror” which is sort of like a history of the world told from the perspective of a 7000 year old wizard, filling in the blanks left by the two series (of five books each) called the Belgariad and Malloreon based in the same world. Eddings wrote his best work (imho) in those 12 books (+ Polgara the Sorceress). I wish that David Eddings would allow a movie to be made out of the whole story. I don’t care if it takes 12 years, with a movie for each year, but I digress.

Compared to Eddings, I think Terry Brooks is a relative noob, and the late Robert Jordan is like a doddering old man who’s a master of lengthening one story into as many thick books as possible. (One that he incidentally failed to finish before he moved on from this world.) Ed Greenwood is most certainly having a gay love relationship with Elminster the way that mage is impossibly and ridiculously overpowered. Granted, I enjoyed their stories as well, but they mostly consisted of characters whom I either fell asleep reading about, or rolled my eyes at constantly.

Eddings’ character development, world development and magic system in the Belgariad books is the best I have ever seen in a fantasy universe. Belgarath, Polgarath, Belgarion and Silk’s personalities are still fresh in my mind despite not having read the books for 8 years now. Eddings’ series is also the first fantasy series I’ve seen where magic was understandable instead of mysterious, and explained in great detail, working in harmony with real world physics.

Enter Jim Butcher. Thanks to a friend called Calvin, I recently started reading the books in the as yet incomplete Codex Alera series - one that starts with “Furies of Calderon”. This series has made me stop playing World of Warcraft for about two and a half weeks now. (Yes dear friends/guildmates, your raised eyebrows are noted.) Weeks that’s busy with Chinese New Year, and later workplace responsibilities. Every moment of free time I had, I have been devouring his books.

I would say that his character development is not bad, and his world development is slow, but his elemental fury-based magic is pure genius. It even has it’s own name - ‘furycrafting’. I don’t think the word ‘magic’ appears significantly anywhere in the books so far (though references to sorceries exist for non-furycrafters). In fact, what initially drew me into the story was all the furycrafting. It’s the kind of magic system that needs little explaining, and yet makes complete sense. I find myself trying to summon the air into the shape of a horse… or touch the ground and make it ripple… - wait how old am I again?

Also, his writing is … erm … well. William calls it ‘mature prose’. I don’t know what to call it. When writing something yourself, you often find yourself with an ‘uncomfortable sentence’ - one that isn’t quite perfect for describing whatever it is you’re trying to describe. So far, I haven’t found any such sentences in Jim Butcher’s books. The story flows easily and with an incredible pace. He is also better at structuring his stories into self-contained chunks that each offer a satisfying conclusion.

In fact, his descriptive writing is so good and you enjoy his storytelling so much that you don’t care where the story is going. (Something that R.A. Salvatore pulls off really well too.) Whereas most (almost every) fantasy authors describe an artifact of great power which is needed to solve the ‘main quest’ early in their books, Jim Butcher tells the ‘as it happens’ story, where the reader figures out what is going to happen as the characters finds out themselves. There is no ultra-wise, all-knowing old man guiding the ‘only guy who can do this’ along his path. It’s very refreshing.

I told William if Eddings and Butcher were to run Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, Eddings would be like a Game Master, describing the world and the NPCs in great detail, and identifing the main questline reasonably early in his campaign. Butcher is more like a Dungeon Master, focusing on the adventure, banking adventure hooks on a few major NPCs, and coming up with excellent combat/interaction situations. Both are excellent, but I am leaning towards Jim Butcher at the moment.

My only complaint - the world of Alera doesn’t have a bloody map. Being hopeless at spatial imagination, I’m still not sure if the Canim homeland is to the east or west, even though I know the direction was mentioned countless times in the book. Calderon is supposed to be north of the capital right? Argh. WTB official map.

Thank gawd for a user called ‘Belgarion’ on the official Jim Butcher forums for coordinating some user-created maps. The irony though.