civilisationReview

Edison 6w LED MR16 bulb (neutral white - 5000kelvin). Comprises 3 2W LEDs...just arrived by post this morning using a velcro adjustable bicycle handlebar mount made for conventional hand-held torches My aim was to come up with the simplest, cheapest, DIY design that required no soldering, no drilling, and takes about 5 minutes to assemble by anyone, and requiring just about no electrical knowledge.  I also wanted it to be easily taken apart and put in another housing if one just felt like a change in housing colour to match one's mood;), or if the housing got damaged in anyway.  The housing-change takes less time as it is just a matter of unscrewing the cap, pulling everything out as one piece, and sticking it in another housing. One of the reasons why i opted for this open-ended (the other end of the housing is open) curved design was for ventilation purposes as bulb-life can be compromised by all-round enclosure.   Additionally, the bottom-side being open enabled me to ...

As stated in a previous article (ed’s on sabbatical), a2ed is moving on from singaporean affairs to wider vistas, and also figuring out how to construct a bicycle light as cheaply as possible, making it bright enough to rival most of the overpriced ‘Cateye’ bike lights out there, and making it as simple as possible for anyone to replicate or take apart for simple repairs or part-replacement without compromising too much on aesthetics. Well, it’s going on quite fine so far.  Did quite a bit of research on the net on bicycle lights, the electrical stuff behind it - i.e. watts, volts, switches, battery holders, wiring, etc - my background in sociology/psychology/art/music/photography isn’t really relevant in the technical sense unfortunately;)  Basically, what i ended up doing was to put together ideas from various tutorials, and come up with my own in the aesthetic and functional sense after considering and taking on the best of the ideas i’ve seen - that’s ‘progressive multicul...

Merry Christmas, not, 'Happy Holidays', or 'Happy Break from Work and sleep till noon'. A Merry, 'Love thy Neighbour as thyself' Day that serves as a resolution for the countdown to the next Christmas that might, hence, make that a day where we celebrate our being a living illustration of that Ideal. It's a celebration of an Ideal, as espoused in Christ's 13th Commandment, 'Love thy Neighbour as thyself'.  It's a celebration of the birthday of the one who was born out of, and for, Love, for humanity, with empathy, and with humility - which makes it just about one of the most significant of Socialist statements in human history.  It matters not whether you believe He is the 'Son of God', or 'just a Prophet', or 'just a bloke'.  It matters not if you believe that it was an Immaculate Conception, or if God exists, of if the birth of Christ was on the 25th of December or January the 6th.  What matters, as I stated, is th...

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I was watching Jeeves and Wooster last night (one of my favourite shows) and there was a scene where 'Wooster' exclaims, 'Blasted!' and all the women present, including Aunt Agatha, took great exception to it (see video below - "Bertie! Kindly restrain your language!"...which can be paraphrased with, "Kindly restrain your passion/opposition").

 Now, literally, there is nothing vulgar about 'Blast' - unless, of course, it was to be expressed through one's rear end in a crowded restaurant during the main course, and within earshot of all present. But i suppose it is the expression of passion and and vigour that might at times seem vulgar to the relatively dispassionate.

  I suppose the curtailment of passion does, in a way, vasectomise and ligate the population into political and perspectival impotence, whilst rendering them objective enough to do their best to put up with a bad situation with a cool head instead of attempting to get rid ...

(part of the following was placed as a comment beneath the ‘Mashable’ article, ‘ Why Women Make Excellent Entrepreneurs in the Digital Age ’) The positive ‘traditional’ traits of women become negative ones when such traits are molded to fit and succeed in a patriarchal/capitalist status quo. One can say that, ‘boobs are the new balls’ That is when women, previously being more empathetic and detailed within the family unit, in the present, becomes, ‘being able to know people profoundly enough to exploit them better’. That, in a sense, can make them ‘better’ than men….or worse human beings. And men being unable to own women as they unfortunately did in the past, will be more easily subjugated, in return for favours from a smile to a date, to sex, to marriage, and hence, be easily led by these women-turned-men. Women will be setting the new ideal for ‘manhood’ by presenting traits that men would eventually have to take on to be considered equals.  One can say that, ‘boobs are the ne...

On the basis of reason, I refuse to subscribe to the belief and faith in the 'bi-polar' condition. It makes people think that this is an internal/mental/psychological condition as opposed to a situational/environmental one. That entrenches them in this condition which can become a self-fulfilling prophecy where one can actually expect to have mood swings instead of realising that one's situation and a failure to formulate correct strategies is the true cause of their mood swings.  For instance, when a person is in a good/objective mood, that person who also believes that s/he is ‘bi-polar’ can actually expect this ‘good mood’ status to change to a ‘bad/depressive/anxious’ mood.  This belief itself can cause it to happen as it will lead one to expect the end of a ‘good mood’ and simultaneously lead one to begin focusing on information/memories of how one felt when in a bad mood previously/physical sensations like high heart-rate/etc that eventually brings it about - hence, t...

Sometimes, it is what we buy into today that determines what innovations are left out tomorrow That's about the size of it.  When people started buying the Ipod Nano - which basically gave you less space for more money - I knew that this didn't bode well for the 'innovations' of the morrow.  That basically slowed down technological progress or else we would have seen large storage spaces in smaller sizes today, and the larger storage spaces that are available in smaller sizes today much earlier. You could say that Apple is one of the greatest evils of our times, and Jobs, one of the greatest of the devil's minions, not because it is evil per se, but because it's products are popular enough to be used as a medium to compromise the objective sense and sensibilities of many. Profit is paramount in capitalism.  That is why, as there is no immediate profit from feeding the hungry or poverty-stricken areas, 4000 children die every day in certain parts of the world...