Google your MP3

I used to publish this long before about advanced searching for your favorite MP3 or song which can be played and listened online or direactly be downloaded to your desire storage directory. I'm just enjoy doing this and would like to share it again, in case you guys are not able to scroll down to see my previous post. Here below:

intitle:index.of “mp3″ +”your song title” -htm -html -php -asp “Last Modified”

Just enter the name of ur song title in the above key text and past it in ur google search bar.
E.g. If you wanted to find a song called… Remember when (From 28 Days Later)then you put…

[Key text: Select all below]

intitle:index.of “mp3″ +”Remember when″ -htm -html -php -asp “Last Modified”
Try it out !

Next in my list...

String Theory.. cont.

1. How do you know string theory is true?
The simple answer to this question is: we do not yet know whether nature is described by string theory or not.

2. So, why are so many scientists working on it then? Isn't it more important to work on theories of which we know they are true?

Scientists work on string theory because they believe it has a very good chance of being true. In other words, the theory is compellingly beautiful and resourceful, to experts, and it is convincingly consistent. Moreover, it addresses problems that theoretical and other physicists believe need to be examined, and it does this in rigorous fashion. All these scientists believe it is also important to work, for instance, on delving deeper into the guts of the quantum field theories of the standard model (i.e. a theory which has been experimentally established), but they have chosen to follow an alternative path. There is a much larger community of physicists that do work on theories that are known to describe nature accurately. Some try to go beyond this framework, because this has been proven to be instructive, useful and interesting in the past. That is well-established methodology.

3. Why don't you just do the right experiment, and check whether string theory is true or not?

We should consider the fact that we have continuously tried to heighten the energy scale at which we can do experiments. This becomes more and more difficult to realize. If a new particle accelerator is constructed, we are happy with a gain of a factor of ten in energy scale -- a lot of new physics can be hidden in the new energy range that will be accessible to us after it is operational. But, this costs a lot of energy, money, time, knowledge, engineering skill, etc. We should not underestimate the resources that we put into this enterprise.

Simultaneously, string theorists try to lower the energy scale at which string theory can predict spectacular new phenomena. We're happy each time we can pinpoint a new peculiar phenomenon that would be indicative of the existence of strings, and that could be observed at relatively low energy scales.

But, the gap between theory and experiment is still large in the sense that the new phenomena that string theory predicsts MAY happen at low energy scales (i.e. energy scales that we will soon be able to access with sufficient political and public support), but that this is not guaranteed to be the case (i.e. the energy scales at which these spectacular signs would pop up could be much higher than the ones that will be accessible in near future experiments).

Moreover, it should be stressed that even when string theory is verified, we wouldn't claim to have solved all problems in nature. Perhaps string theory will be our best approximation to experiment at some point -- we should be aware though that presumably new theoretical problems will then be discovered on the horizon -- in fact, we can already discern some now, and we are already trying to address them. We should be weary of people predicting the end of physics, the theory of everything, or the answer to the question of life, the universe and everything. Therefore, a statement as: "I know string theory to be true and final" cannot reasonably be expected of a serious scientist. Clarity does not always spell truth, and the truth is not always cristalclear. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that trained scientists have a reputation of being vague, careful, slow and deliberate.

source: http://tena4.vub.ac.be/beyondstringtheory/faq.html

Question...

Is string theory true? What are its applications? ... How practical it is?

String Theory

Source: Wikipedia

String theory is a developing branch of theoretical physics that combines quantum mechanics and general relativity into a quantum theory of gravity. The strings of string theory are one-dimensional oscillating lines, but they are no longer considered fundamental to the theory, which can be formulated in terms of points or surfaces, too.

Since its birth as the dual resonance model which described the strongly interacting hadrons as strings, the term string theory has changed to include any of a group of related superstring theories which unite them. One shared property of all these theories is the holographic principle. String theory itself comes in many different formulations, each one with a different mathematical structure, and each best describing different physical circumstances. But the principles shared by these approaches, their mutual logical consistency, and the fact that some of them easily include the standard model of particle physics, has led many physicists to believe that the theory is the correct fundamental description of nature. In particular, string theory is the first candidate for the theory of everything, a way to describe all the known natural forces (gravitational, electromagnetic, weak and strong interactions) and matter (quarks and leptons) in a mathematically complete system.

Many detractors criticize string theory because it has not yet provided quantitative experimental predictions. Like any other quantum theory of gravity, it is widely believed that testing the theory directly by experiment would require prohibitively expensive feats of engineering. Whether there are stringent indirect tests of the theory is not yet known.

String theory is of interest to many physicists because it requires new mathematical and physical ideas to mesh together its very different mathematical formulations. One of the most inclusive of these is the 11-dimensional M-theory, which requires space time to have eleven dimensions, as opposed to the usual three spatial dimensions and the fourth dimension of time. The original string theories from the 1980s describe special cases of M-theory where the eleventh dimension is a very small circle or a line, and if these formulations are considered as fundamental, then string theory requires ten dimensions. But the theory also describes universes like ours, with four observable space-time dimensions, as well as universes with up to 10 flat space dimensions, and also cases where the position in some of the dimensions is not described by a real number, but by completely different type of mathematical quantity. So the notion of space-time dimension is not a fixed thing in string theory: it is best thought of as different in different circumstances.

String theories include objects more general than strings, called branes. The word brane, derived from "membrane", refers to a variety of interrelated objects, such as D-branes, black p-branes and Neveu-Schwarz 5-branes. These are extended objects that are charged sources for differential form generalizations of the vector potential electromagnetic field. These objects are related to one-another by a variety of dualities. Black hole-like black p-branes are identified with D-branes, which are endpoints for strings, and this identification is called Gauge-gravity duality. Research on this equivalence has led to new insights on quantum chromodynamics, the fundamental theory of the strong nuclear force.

History of Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh from east drawn in 1887

The Birth of Phnom Penh

This year, the Phnom Penh City will celebrate the 575th anniversary of its founding. It will be a first celebration of its kind of the birth a modern city that took its name from its founder. Phnom Penh City takes its name from the present Wat Phnom or Hill Temple. Legend has it that in 1372, an old nun named Penh went to fetch the water in the Mekong river and found a dead Koki tree floating down the stream. Inside the hole of that dead Koki tree contained four bronze and one stone Buddha statues in it.

Daun (Gandma) Penh brought the statues ashore and ordered people to pile up earth at northeast of her house and used those Koki trunks to build a temple on that hill to house the five Buddha statues, then named the temple after her as Wat Phnom Daun Penh, which presently known as Wat Phnom, a small hill of 27 metres (89 ft) in height.

A horse-drawn cart and man-drawn rickshaw on Dragon Bridge in 1920

The city was originally called Phnom Daun Penh after it was founded, but it was later abbreviated to just Phnom Penh. The city was also previously known as Krong Chaktomuk meaning "City of Four Faces". This name refers to the junction where the Mekong, Bassac, and Tonle Sap rivers cross to form an "X" where the capital is situated.

Phnom Penh: The Royal Capital of Cambodia

Phnom Penh first became the royal capital of Cambodia in 1432 after His Majesty Ponhea Yat (b.1421, r.1432-1462), king of the Khmer Empire, moved the capital from Toul Bassan (presently called Srey Santhor) at Angkor Thom after it was captured by Siam a few years earlier. There are stupa behind Wat Phnom that house the remains of Ponhea Yat and the royal family as well as the remaining Buddhist statues from the Angkorean era.

Wat Phnom in a 1900's drawing from the Paris Exhibition

Phnom Penh remained the royal capital for 73 years from 1432 to 1505 when it was abandoned for 360 years from 1505 to 1865 by subsequent kings due to internal fighting between the royal pretenders. Later kings moved the capital several times and established their royal capitals at various locations in Tuol Basan (Srey Santhor), Pursat, Longvek, Lavear Em and Oudong.

According to the historical records, in the 1600s, many Japanese immigrants had settled on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

Ox carts transporting soil to fill up the low lands for construction (1891)

In 1884, the colonial administrator commissioned the constructions of underground sewage systems, canals to control the wetlands and roads, buildings and a port were also constructed.
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In 1893, Wat Phnom park had been rehabilitated and a zoo was built, surrounded by gardens. A construction of Boulevard Doubart de Lagrée, presently renamed Blvd. Preah Norodom had also begun. In 1895, CEEL, the first French company that produced clean water for Phnom Penh, built its first water plant at Chroy Changva.

In 1897, the population of Phnom Penh city was close to 50,000 people out of a total population of the whole country of more than a 1,000,000. The population of Phnom Penh consisted of many ethnic groups such as the Chinese (22,000), Khmers (16,000), Vietnamese (4,000) and the French residents who were only numbered at about 400 people.

Besides above ethnic groups, there were Malaysians, Thais, Indians, Laotians and others who called Phnom Penh their homes.
Phnom Penh during the reign of H.M. King Sisowath: 1904-1927

There are not much records about the developments of Phnom Penh City during the reign of King Sisowath, except that the colonial administration had contracted the dredging of the Mekong and Sap rivers in order to facilitate marine navigation to enable ships and naval vessels to reach Phnom Penh. The records show that in 1914 the colonial administration had begun to expand the city to the west and to the south until Bassac river.

Phnom Penh during H.M. King Monivong’s Reign:1927-1941

King Monivong’s reign was a period that Cambodia had first begun a policy of constructions. In 1928, a French company, Grands Travaux de Marseille (GTM), had been contracted to begin pumping sands from the bottom of Tonle Sap River to fill up Decho lake and other lakes in the city. The year of 1929 also seen a construction of a steel Preah Monivong Bridge. In 1932, the first railway tracts and stations from Phnom Penh to Battambang had been commissioned. The Boulevard Miche, now renamed Blvd.Preah Monivong had also been constructed.

In 1935, the Grand Market, now called Phsar Thom Thmey Market, was built. And in 1939, Verdun Avenue, now renamed Blvd. J. Nerhu and Ave. Preah Sihanouk was built.

In 1939, the population of Phnom Penh City was about 108,000 people, and the population of the whole of Cambodia was about 3,000,000 people.

Phnom Penh during the reign of H.M. King and Prince Norodom Sihanouk : 1941-1970 and 1993-2004

Phnom Penh under the period of Sihanouk’s rule had seen the expansion and the constructions of many modern infrastructures. The City’s population had also grown dramatically. The city’s population had grown to 111,000 in 1942. By 1950 it had grown to 354,000 and 355,000 in 1958. By 1962, the population of Phnom Penh City reached 394,000.

The city had been expanded and many infrastructures had been built. In 1958, the Blvd. Mao Tse Tung was constructed. And in 1961, the city had expanded and Tuol Kork, a new flashy modern suburb, was constructed.

Other infrastructures had also been built during this period. The International Olympic Stadium was built in 1963. In 1964, Tonle Bassac Theater and a Casino, now renamed the Cambodiana Sofitel Hotel, were constructed. A railway line from Phnom Penh to Kompong Som (Sihanoukville) was also commissioned in 1964. And the International Airport of Pochentong was also built. And in 1966, the Sangkum Reah Niyum Bridge, now renamed the Cambodia-Japan Friendship Bridge, was built with funds provided by Japan. Many tertiary institutions such as the Sangkum Reastr Niyum University, The Khmer-Soviet Institute of Technology, Royal Phnom Penh University, the Institute of Foreign Languages and many more were constructed during this period. Gardens and parks were constructed and beautified. Phnom Penh City in the 1960s was called the Pearl of Asia.

Phnom Penh during the Khmer Republic of Marshall Lon Nol: 1970-1975

Phnom Penh from 1970 onward had not seen much developments due to the Cambodian civil war. The original population of Phnom Penh City of 900,000 had swelled to over 2,000,000 at the end of the war in 1975 because of war refugees from the countryside.

On the contrary, many infrastructures had been destroyed by fighting and shells. In 1973, the Khmer Rouge mined Chroy Changvar Bridge two times which eventually destroyed it.

Phnom Penh during the Khmer Rouge Reign of Terror: 1975-1979
The Khmer Rouge took power on 17th April 1975 and immediately began to evacuate whole population out of the city. In three days, a city with a population of 2,000,000 had been reduced to a population of a few Khmer Rouge officials. Many infrastructures and buildings and part of the city had been significantly destroyed.

After the Vietnamese troops toppled the Khmer Rouge on 5th January 1979, the population began to return to Phnom Penh. As of 1998, the population of Phnom Penh City had numbered to 862,000 people, including 149,000 families. In 2009, the population of Phnom Penh is estimated to number more than a million out of a total country’s population of approximately 14,000,000.

References:
http://www.canbypublications.com/phnompenh/pphistory.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phnom_Penh
http://www.phnompenh.gov.kh/english/history.htm
Pictures by: Koshsantepheap Newspaper

Map of Climate Change S-E Asia

Numerous reports have named Southeast Asia as one of the world's most vulnerable regions to climate change. Most countries are emerging economies with the majority of their people living in poverty. They are home to mega-cities and coastal areas with high population density, rely heavily on agriculture, and have limited ability to adapt to weather-related disasters. A new map launched this month in Indonesia by the Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA), which is administered by the International Development Research Centre of Canada, aims to go one better than many on this issue by breaking vulnerability down into district and provincial levels.

Covering 530 sub-national areas of Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, it combines different elements that contribute to vulnerability - climate-related hazards, capacity to adapt and human and ecological sensitivity - using data from organizations such as the Center for International Earth Science Information Network and the World Wildlife Fund.

While the results largely correlate with commonly held views on vulnerability in the region, there are a few surprises.

Landlocked Laos and its neighbor Cambodia, for example, have a relatively low exposure to climate hazards but figure among the most vulnerable countries because they have such a low capacity to adapt.

The map also shows that mega-cities such as Bangkok, Manila and Jakarta are at extreme risk from the effects of climate change, mainly due to their high population densities and significant exposure to hazards.

Herminie Francisco, director of EEPSEA and co-author of the mapping report, says local governments should consider taboo issues including resettlement - moving people out of the city - and controlling the inflow of people.

All regions of the Philippines are at high risk from tropical cyclones, floods, landslides and droughts, but Jakarta is the most vulnerable city in the region - a victim of the intersection of all climate-related hazards except cyclones.

Other regions regarded as most vulnerable include Vietnam's Mekong River Delta and Bangkok, due to their exposure to sea-level rise.

One limitation of the map is that it's based on past data. It doesn't include projections, and some say analyzing the situation as it is today won't be enough in the face of rising disasters.

But while these concerns may be legitimate, Francisco argues the map - unlike some of the countries it depicts - can adapt to changing realities.

"If we have newer data that will give us new information...we can easily generate the map that corresponds to (that)," said Francisco. "It shows the essence of what vulnerability is, but is simple enough to accommodate new information."

19 May 2009
Written by: Thin Lei Win

Soundtrack of the Day

I remember sometimes in the past, when I was at junior high, my friends and I would pick rhythm that best describe our mood for the week. It used to be a song, music or lyrics that define the feeling of that moment. The soundtrack of today recalls to my old time, and embeds to mood as it suggests. I'm going to leave this soundtrack here:

Alone in this house again tonight
I got the TV on, the sound turned down and a bottle of wine
There's pictures of you and I on the walls around me
The way that it was and could have been surrounds me
I'll never get over you walkin' away

[Chorus:]
I've never been the kind to ever let my feelings show
And I thought that bein' strong meant never losin' your self-control
But I'm just drunk enough to let go of my pain
To hell with my pride, let it fall like rain
From my eyes
Tonight I wanna cry

Would it help if I turned a sad song on
"All By Myself" would sure hit me hard now that you're gone
Or maybe unfold some old yellow lost love letters
It's gonna hurt bad before it gets better
But I'll never get over you by hidin' this way

[Repeat chorus twice]

Fact Sheet: Cambodia

Over 75 percent of Cambodians live under poverty line (Jan 2008)

According to the latest official statistics, 35 percent of Cambodians live below the "national poverty line", which is defined as $0.75 of income a day. But if the poverty line is raised to $2 a day, which is the level used to measure poverty in most developing countries in Asia and Africa, 77.7 percent of Cambodia's population live under this more realistic poverty line. The 35 percent of Cambodians identified above through our "national poverty line", are actually those who survive under a "starvation line" of $0.75 a day.


Nearly 80 percent of Cambodians live under poverty line (March 2009)

Government and aid officials claim that the percentage of Cambodians living below the poverty line dropped from 47% to 35% between 1996 and 2006. The fact is that, during that period, the “poverty line” used to assess the number of poor people and defined as a threshold of daily income, was surreptitiously lowered from US$1.00 to US$0.75. Had the “poverty line” not been changed, the percentage of Cambodians living with less than US$1.00 a day would be close to 50%. Moreover, had the “poverty line” been set at US$2.00 income a day as it is in the Philippines and some African countries, the percentage of Cambodians considered as poor would be 77.7% according to the UNDP. See “Over 75 percent of Cambodians live under poverty line” (KI News, 13 January 2008).

Poverty to worsen in 2009 (March 2009)

Given the population increase, inequality in revenue distribution and gross misallocation of resources in Cambodia, a minimum 5 percent annual GDP growth is required to prevent poverty from worsening. For 2009, the IMF has predicted that Cambodia’s economy would shrink by 0.5%, meaning a negative growth leading to a marked increase in poverty.

Sharp drop in customs revenue (March 2009)

In the 2008 state budget, the Customs Department accounted for over 60 percent of all tax revenue, which is a relatively high figure in the region. For 2009, it should collect US$585 million, a figure that now looks impossible to achieve given the ongoing economic slowdown.

For the first two months of 2009, customs revenue reached only US$64 million compared to US$86 million for the same period last year, which represents a 25 percent drop [adjusted for the collection of a US$7 million duty pertaining to 2008].

State budget for 2009 in jeopardy (March 2009)

The government will soon be obliged to revise downward the state budget for 2009 that was adopted last December because it is unable to collect the projected revenue. See above news “Sharp drop in customs revenue” while knowing that the fall in revenue also holds for other sources of income. The projected 2009 budget amounts to US$1.75 billion compared to US$1.37 billion for the 2008 budget, representing a 28 percent increase. This 28 percent increase will likely evaporate and be replaced by a decrease instead. Cambodia is facing the world economic crisis with a collapsing budget, let alone a strong budget with an appropriate economic stimulus package.

Cambodia losing competitiveness because of its dollarized economy (March 2009)

A dollarized economy puts Cambodia in a weak position in the face of the global economic crisis. The fact that Cambodia’s currency, the riel, is pegged to the US dollar is putting pressure on its economic competitiveness as its neighbors’ currencies (Thai baht, Vietnamese dong) depreciate vis-à-vis the US dollar. Little can be done about this in the short term since 95 percent of Cambodia’s money supply consists of US dollars. Paradoxically for the poorer country, the cost of living is higher in Cambodia than in Thailand and Vietnam. For instance, a factory worker can live on a monthly salary of US$60 in Vietnam but not in Cambodia. Cambodia’s economy has been dollarized as a result of weak economic foundations (low productivity, lack of diversification, over-reliance on foreign remittances, shady foreign investors/speculators, cash economy) and poor governance.


Source: 2007/2008 Reports, Human Development Reports, UNDP.