Timelapse at the Grand Canyon by Gavin Haffernan

This timelapse video by Gavin Heffernan from SunchaserPictures is just amazing. Shot at Grand Canyon National Park with stunning Milky Way shots together with star trails.

New Wide Angle Lenses from Canon

Canon has just announced two new wide angle lenses: EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM and EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM.

So, now you can kiss Miku...

If you do not know who Hatsune Miku is, you can read it up here. In short, Miku is a humanoid persona voiced by a synthesizer or also known as a vocaloid. She is just one of the MANY vocaloids that are available (Full list here). I believe she is the most popular of them all. In addition, Lady Gaga is currently on her Artpop Ball tour together with Miku!

Song About Ramen

I am sure there are quite a number of songs about food, but this one by Otsuka Ai is quite catchy and funny at the same time. Yes it's an old song and don't ask me how I some how stumbled across it.

Enjoy the miso, shoyu, ramen & to-to-tonkatsu...ssllluuurrrrpps!

Astronomers Discovers Sun's 'Sibling'

Astronomers from the University of Texas announced that they have discovered the 'sibling' of our star. The team lead by Ivan Ramirez has identified the 'sibling' star is most likely formed from the same gas and dust cloud as our sun from 30 candidate stars. The identified star is HD162826, located in the constellation of Hercules at a distance of ~34 parsec (~110 light years) from us. It is an F-type dwarf star about 15% more massive than our sun and it can be observed using small/medium sized telescopes. They have also ruled out any possibility of hot-Jupiter planets, a high chance (2/3) that there are no Jupiter sized planets but could not rule out any smaller size planets.

Violin String in Slow-mo

This is my first time watching a violin string in action in slow motion. The vibrating string looks like it is going to snap at the bridge just from bowing! It was really unexpected.

And you just 'wasted' 3 minutes of your life.
Seen on Gizmag

Message from Tunku Abdul Rahman's Great Granddaughter!

Source

Tunku Abdul Rahman's great granddaughter

Sharyn Lisa Shufiyan, 24, Conservationist

Both my parents are Malay. My mum's heritage includes Chinese, Thai and Arab, while my dad is Minangkabau. Due to my skin colour, I am often mistaken for a Chinese.

I'm happy that I don't have the typical Malay look but I do get annoyed when people call me Ah Moi or ask me straight up "Are you Chinese or Malay"

Like, why does it matter? Before I used to answer "Malay" but now I'm trying to consciously answer Malaysian instead.

There's this incident from primary school that I remember till today. Someone told me that I will be called last during Judgement Day because I don't have a Muslim name. Of course, I was scared then but now that I'm older, I realise that a name is just a name. It doesn't define you as a good or bad person and there is definitely no such thing as a Muslim name. You can be named Rashid or Ali and still be a Christian.

I've heard of the 1Malaysia concept, but I think we don't need to be told to be united. We've come such a long way that it should already be embedded in our hearts and minds that we are united. Unfortunately, you can still see racial discrimination and polarisation. There is still this ethno-centric view that the Malays are the dominant group and their rights must be protected, and non Malays are forever the outsiders.

For the concept to succeed, I think the government should stop with the race politics. It's tiring, really. We grew up with application forms asking us to tick our race. We should stop painting a negative image of the other races, stop thinking about 'us' and 'them' and focus on 'we', 'our' and 'Malaysians'.

No one should be made uncomfortable in their own home. A dear Chinese friend of mine said to me once, "I don't feel patriotic because I am not made to feel like Malaysia is my home, and I don't feel an affinity to China because I have never lived there.

I know some baby Nyonya friends who can trace their lineage back hundreds of years. I'm a fourth generation Malaysian. If I am Bumiputra, why can't they be, too? Clearly I have issues with the term.

I think the main reason why we still can't achieve total unity is because of this 'Malay rights' concept. I'd rather 'Malay rights' be replaced by human rights. So unless we get rid of this Bumiputra status, or reform our views and policies on rights, we will never achieve unity.

For my merdeka wish, I'd like for Malaysians to have more voice, to be respected and heard. I wish that the government would uphold the true essence of parliamentary democracy. I wish for the people to no longer fear and discriminate against each other, to see that we are one and the same.

I wish that Malaysia would truly live up to the tourism spin of Malaysia truly Asia. Malaysians to lead - whatever their ethnic background. Only ONE NATIONALITY MALAYSIAN. No Malays, No Chinese, No Indians - ONLY MALAYSIANS. Choose whatever religion one is comfortable with.


MERDEKA
MERDEKA
MERDEKA

Really meaningful, I hope this wish comes true!