nondescript in blue

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

War of the Units (and I don't mean orientation games)

The issue of imperial vs metric units made its way into a Singaporean-dominated (with one token American participant) breakfast conversation today. Annoyed with having to perform mental calculations every time we encountered a weather forecast, among other daily inconveniences, we began bashing the imperial system, much to the discomfiture of our American friend. The poor girl kept insisting that the traditional system of measurements in the US 'just makes more sense'. To her, maybe, but not to us, so we proceeded to blast imperial units and argue passionately for SI units.

From a scientific point of view, metric units do make more sense. The fundamental metric units are derived from physical constants and Invariable Properties of the Universe. For example, the metre is the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299 792 458 of a second. One degree Celsius is 1/100 of the interval between the temperature of a water/ice mixture and the boiling point of pure distilled water under standard atmosphere. The Kelvin is 1/273.16 of the thermodynamic temperature of the triple point of water. One gram is the mass of one cubic centimetre of water. Simple.

Besides, it's conveniently aligned with our decimal numeral system, which in turn makes intuitive sense. (We do have 10 fingers - barring unfortunate accidents or genetic disorders - right?) 1000g = 1kg, 100cm = 1m, 1000 cubic centimetres = 1 litre, which has a mass of 1kg! And so on.

Now, consider the imperial system of measurements, an archaic holdover from Anglo-Saxon/Norman/mediaeval/Imperial England, riddled with regional variations and awkward conversion ratios that comes of such an unpromisingly confused set of origins.

Because it was always close at hand (ahaha), the human body provided the dimensions upon which traditional measurements were based - this despite the obvious fact that not all men (or women - as if we need reminding) are born equal. The inch represents the width of a human thumb, the foot was supposed to represent... well, a foot, and the yard is the distance from the nose to the tip of the middle finger (specifically that of King Henry I, according to certain sources). So: 12 inches = 1 foot, and 3 feet = 1 yard. Makes a hell lot of sense when there's a perfectly logical, physically consistent, decimal-based alternative available.

It gets better. The mile was originally defined as 1000 paces of a Roman legion (those Roman legions must have been really well-trained), and later on, after a lot of confusion, the English Parliament set it to measure 8 furlongs (note: 1 furlong = length of a furrow ploughed by oxen on Saxon farms), or 5280 feet. A gallon = 231 cubic inches, but was redefined as 277.42 cubic inches by the British Parliament later - a change the Americans didn't like, so, contrary to the spirit of standardisation, they stuck with the old gallon. And it goes on.

Why on earth does the most powerful nation in the world still cling to such an - to use a more charitable expression - eccentric system? What could explain this illogical unwillingness to make the transition to the brave new world of SI units? And Americans can be quite touchy about their units, I find. At the very least, they cannot understand why we feel so strongly about imperial units, just as we cannot comprehend how they can find those pesky units comprehensible. It must have been pure torture for our American friend this morning, being forcefully subjected to our withering criticism of the inches, pounds and gallons she had known and loved all her life. In distinctly Singapore-flavoured English (though not quite Singlish) to boot. Er. We really ought to be ashamed of ourselves.

Still, quaint things are interesting in their own ways. I mean, look, these units have been around since the Norman conquest! Totally awesome, hey? Compared to the sterile cold reason embodied by SI units? The elaborate conversion ratios probably help stimulate the mind as well, being intrinsically more challenging than simply multiplying or dividing by 10.

Well, to live is to learn and adapt. However unwillingly.

Which reminds me, I still haven't sorted out the accent thing yet. I find myself rewatching Deep Space Nine episodes just to listen adoringly to Bashir's cute Brit accent. I watch 'Gods and Monsters' and worship the words Sir Ian McKellan so exquisitely pronounces, in stark contrast to Brendan Fraser's all-American drawl. Sigh.

words were spilled on Tuesday, September 27, 2005

(3) comments

Friday, September 23, 2005

I finally managed to score a decent Mandarin conversation at Brown. The guy was sitting next to me in math class, obviously bored because he kept doodling little parallelograms all over his notes. I was doodling kanji on mine. He noticed and mistook my random scribblings for Chinese characters (even though they were appended by hiragana), so when the class ended he asked me, in Mandarin, if I was from China. Since opportunities to converse in Mandarin don't present themselves too often (PRCs want to speak English, the Hongkongers mostly speak perfectly Americanised English and/or Cantonese, most of the ABCs have lost the language, and Singaporeans always use Singlish what), I happily replied in Mandarin and it went on from there, all the way across the campus to my next class.

My new conversational partner was an American-born Taiwanese, so the accent difference wasn't much of a problem. And we did not lapse into English at all, (except for place names, of course, but that's forgivable), even upon hitting awkward snags where our fluency proved lacking. I hope this new acquaintance goes somewhere, though - I'm sick of being a social underachiever, capable only of conducting annoyingly cliched conversations while people bond all around me but never with me. It's been - what? - 4 weeks already, and I do try, but somehow things never seem to go anywhere.

Inanely anal internal dialogue, courtesy of a brain pumped up on caffeine:
- My social life sucks. I need to make a conscious effort to be less self-conscious.
- Isn't that rather paradoxical?
- I'll have to remember not to be so self-conscious about it, then.

words were spilled on Friday, September 23, 2005

(4) comments

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Staying up till 4am has its benefits. You get to catch up on much-needed reading, revise essential concepts, tackle recalcitrant problem sets with renewed confidence, chat online with friends, and finish the bloody homework with more ease than you would have thought possible. A cup of morning coffee effortlessly counteracts the side-effects, enabling you to keep up with classes; and best of all, you receive encouraging feedback about your problem set solutions from the TA during clinic, which really lifts the overall mood of gloom pervading the past few days.

The icing on the cake: the professor for my biotech in medicine class screens a highly entertaining (at least to me, and probably to the prof as well) excerpt from The Voyage Home at the end of a lecture on peritoneal dialysis to illustrate where the future might take us wrt treatment of renal disease. And yes, it's Star Trek, and is also a movie that I've watched at least 4 times. Probably more. Still, it was good to see the old crew and their hijinks in a 20th century hospital again.

All's right with the world again, at least for now.

words were spilled on Wednesday, September 21, 2005

(6) comments

Monday, September 19, 2005

near-fall foliage
Originally uploaded by banscylla.

Autumn in Providence
Or 'fall', as the lingo here goes. My abortive experiment with using the word 'autumn' in conversation with an American was met with puzzlement.

My dorm neighbours across the corridor are holding some sort of impromptu karaoke session, warbling enthusiastically in the sort of amateurish diva-esque manner that is lethal to ear-drums. Nevertheless, I have my door open, because I am not an anti-social person. On the contrary, I'm desperately friendly. (Or at least, I want to be.)

Chlorophyll is beginning to yield to carotenes, anthocyanins, tannins and xanthophylls. Foliage is still predominantly green, but the verdancy has faded somewhat, and the maples are perceptively darkening to shades of russet-red.

The weather is really nice though. Perfect for long walks through charming suburban neighbourhoods on my way to Blockbuster or East Side Marketplace.

words were spilled on Monday, September 19, 2005

(4) comments

Friday, September 16, 2005

From the classifieds, Brown Daily Herald (a student-run college newspaper):

'Loving, Ivy couple seeks caring egg donor. Looking for a healthy woman who is emotionally balanced, very attractive and has proven academic accomplishments, 5'3'' - 5'8'', slender and Caucasian, preferably with brown hair and 20-30 years old. Athletic ability a plus. Compensation offered: $50K.'

I have learned 2 things from this:

1) I am not cut out to be an egg donor. Oh, my poor battered ego.

2) Some people deserve their infertility.

words were spilled on Friday, September 16, 2005

(3) comments

Thursday, September 15, 2005

I think I have lost the ability to forge (take whichever meaning you prefer) meaningful human relationships. That or I'm not adapting too well to a foreign culture.

I know I can't expect instant chemistry with everyone I meet, but it's a tad depressing all the same.

I'm booking tickets with an airline gone bust. Northwest Airlines is filing for bankruptcy, and while that is intuitively unsettling, apparently this sort of thing happens all the time with US carriers and could actually be good for them, i.e provides a breather from creditors while allowing restructuring to take place. Gives management the upper hand when handling those endless negotiations with the unions, which is definitely useful for the airline with the highest labour costs in the US.

And I thought I was over econs. The things one does for stress relief.

words were spilled on Thursday, September 15, 2005

(9) comments

Saturday, September 10, 2005

I dreamt that Brown had a city campus in Singapore, near Orchard Road, but students were advised not to venture near Orchard too often because terrorists frequently targeted the area with suicide bombings, car bombings and the like. Not that college students cared about such petty restrictions, so we frequented Orchard anyway.

Much earlier on, I had a dream about Queen Elizabeth I and her lover travelling through time to land, by accident, off the eastern coast of the United States, where they were retrieved from the wreckage of their time-ship by Americans and I acted as interpreter because the Queen understood not American English. Interestingly enough, she didn't understand modern British English either, so I attempted German that, surprisingly, worked.

I've also had a few more airport-related nightmares, that were simply no fun.

Homework is coming, alas. And I recently learned that angioplasty, the procedure by which they insert a tube into the femoral artery, snake it up through the aorta, and inflate a balloon in a choked coronary artery to widen it, is conducted while the patient is fully conscious. Much like laser eye surgery. How I love bio classes.

words were spilled on Saturday, September 10, 2005

(9) comments

Thursday, September 08, 2005

It's been beautiful weather for the past week. Dazzlingly blue skies, a comfortable temperature by day, refreshing breezes... though it's best to be indoors at night, because the temperature drops quite quickly once the sun sets.

After listening to one of my dorm-mates talk, I was thrilled to catch the non-rhotic Rhode Island accent in her speech patterns. I'm so used to a non-rhotic accent that the sudden presence of r's everywhere is discomfiting.

New pictures up. Went walking yesterday through the suburbs of East Side Providence, in an attempt to visit the cemetary (only to find that it was closed). Naturally I brought my camera along, or the scenery and wonderful weather would have been wasted.

My room is beginning to look more lived-in. Hooray.

words were spilled on Thursday, September 08, 2005

(2) comments