No, I'm not in the US yet. I've just decided to procrastinate just a bit more rather than finish off my packing. After voting today, I went into uni to talk to a prospective supervisor for my research project next year. Dr. Kinwah Wu (following Western convention... his surname is Wu) isn't usually in the Department, because he is based in MSSL (Mullard Space Science Lab) which is outside London. I have emailed him a few times previously (along with a few other prospective supervisors, all from MSSL), so when he said he'd be coming into London, I decided to take the chance to talk to him.

He was at the MSSL's 'branch office' in Taviton St., where I usually have my tutorials there under Dr. Mason, my personal tutor. Dr. Mason let me in, and brought me to the room where Dr. Wu was. I had half-expected Dr. Wu to be a venerable grey-haired Chinese guy...instead, he can't be more than 30 years old. He's short and bespectacled, but the first thing that struck me was his manner of talking...fast, short bursts, words almost rolling into each other in a rather soft monotone. The accent wasn't something I could really place either.

He asked me if I was Korean (my name does sound Korean, admittedly), so I told him I was Malaysian, and in turn I asked him if he was from Hong Kong. He was born in HK, but brought up in Australia. He started off asking what my plans for the future were (I made references to this in my emails to him, by enquiring whether the projects would lead to published papers). I told him frankly, and he said, 'Well, my student Chris, two years your senior, is now is Caltech...', and he mentioned a few more ex-students who are now in places like Princeton, Harvard etc (implicit implication: he writes a good reference letter. He also told me that I'll need to be the 'best of the best' to get into the elite universities.

The trivialities out of the way, he went on to explain the project I was enquiring about. Basically, black-holes emit x-ray radiation, and they are trying to create an accurate theoretical model to explain certain characteristics of the radiation (that's the only way I can explain it without causing mass perplexity). There are several steps to creating a theoretical model: get to grips with the various processes that might be responsible and combine them, put that into a computational model to give predictions as to what the radiation spectra would look like, and then comparing the predictions with the actual observed data. The first couple of steps are being taken cared of by PhD and MSc students, so being merely a humble final-year undergrad, I would, if I choose, be doing the interface between the predictions and observed data.

Dr. Wu also showed me a presentation on the topic which he gave recently, and attempted it to explain to me as best as he can. As he explained, he became visibly animated and enthusiastic...as for me, I was struggling to keep up with what he was saying (and not quite successfully). He made various references to the fact that the stuff was beyond my present understanding (which was perfectly true, of course), and that more advanced projects would await me under his supervision in the fourth year (this project is actually under the supervision of another researcher, he's just the secondary supervisor). When I mentioned that I'll only be doing 3 years, and might instead be doing a MSc in maths, he almost recoiled in horror. 'No, no, no! To get into the top universities you need research projects in your CV. Any bookworm can get a top first-class honours, so they will be looking for something more than just academic results. If you do a maths Master's you won't do any research!'.

He went on a rant on how important research is for a prospective PhD student. In response to my statement that I am crap at maths, he said that he is an arts student in high school, yet his maths skills are the best at MSSL (impressive, but I'm not sure what his point is). He said that in the first couple of years in a US PhD, I will be getting hard maths drilled into my skull anyway, so there's no point wasting a year doing maths. At some point he also mentioned that he used to work for NASA, but didn't go into much detail.

I managed to get a word in edgeways, and mentioned that I will be spending my summer doing research in the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. He paused for a while and said, 'Oh....were you the one who asked Mark Cropper to write you a reference letter?'. Mark Cropper was one of my first year lecturers, and yes, I did ask him to write me a reference. 'Ah....Mark is one of my best friends in MSSL, and he has mentioned you....', at this point he seemed to struggle for words a little bit, and finally said, 'He regards you as his prize student'.

In any case, all good things come to an end, and I decided to take the project. However, the situation is now interesting: Dr. Wu has, shall we say, persuaded me as to the virtues of staying on for a fourth year. On the other hand, if I stay for a fourth year, I'll only get to do a research project in the 4th year and not in the 3rd year. The only way out: do the 3 years BSc, and do a separate MSc, still in UCL. I will be eligible to apply for full scholarships to cover my MSc, rather than having to rely on the paltry partial scholarship I have now. That's assuming I get the scholarship, of course...

On a more light-hearted note, at my final dinner at Netherhall House this evening (well, the final one for a few months at any rate), we were handed a sad-looking helping of rice and two suspicious-looking pieces of meat, with green salad and COLD chicken soup as sides. As I sat down at the table, I looked at the guy beside me, Fred from Mauritius, and we both couldn't help laughing. Later, I loudly commented that it must be 'Oliver Twist Appreciation Day', because they're making us ask for a second helping of slop, a comment which rather ominously coincided with some rather witch-like laughter from the serving ladies behind the counter. After finishing the food (which didn't take long, despite the dubious quality of the food), I made a quick survey as to the origins of the meat we just ate. Paul K from Uganda said 'Chicken', Alfredo from Mexico said 'Beef', and the most respected Fr. Joe, our resident chaplain said 'It's either pork or lamb'. FOUR different opinions from three people...impressive isn't it? However, as my fellow Malaysian Hon Weng put it, 'Outside, you'd probably have to pay 65 pounds to eat something like this...'

To sign off, let me congratulate my friend Si Xian, who just notified me that managed to win a JPA scholarship to study engineering in France! You go, buddy!

Ah...the irony of life. Not being 21 yet until August, I was not eligible to vote in my own country, and in any case the chances are that the value of my vote would be watered down by gerrymandering, phantom voters and other shenanigans (in any case, my constituency, Seputeh, is a DAP stronghold, so I don't think the opposition needs my vote there!). So, imagine my surprise a couple of months ago, when I received a polling card to vote in the regional elections here in London!

My initial reaction was to throw the thing away (and I did), because I simply could not believe that I, a temporary student in this country, had the power of the vote. As the polling date approached, what I read from the newspapers confirmed the impossible: I am eligible to vote for the mayor of London, the local council members AND the member of the European Parliament (MEP). And what's more, the pot's been boiling like never before. Tony Blair's Labour party (which got landslide votes previously) is suffering from Tony's Iraq policies, and the main opposition Conservative party is ALSO suffering because they supported Iraq, and add to that the emergence of high-profile splinter parties from both the left (Respect) and right (British National Party and UK Independence Party), the plot is REALLY thick this time round. With such split votes and a potentially low voter turnout, each vote counts for more than ever before.

This morning, despite my polling card languishing in a rubbish dump somewhere, I walked to the local polling centre (which was just a few minutes' walk away), told the people running it my name and address (they had my name in a list), and they handed me the ballot papers without even asking me for ID! Being the pinky weak-hearted liberal that I am, I obviously voted for the left leaning parties, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens (I split my votes for them more or less randomly between the different seats up for grabs). I did however vote for Ken Livingstone, the Labour candidate for London mayor, because he was anti-war and has been doing a good job as the incumbent.

Anyway, I fly tomorrow for the US. Surprisingly, I'm not excited about this prospect, considering that I'm usually quite worked-up before I travel. Will keep this updated when I get internet access over there.

Cassandra was the daughter of Priam, King of Troy. After 9 years of being besieged by the Greeks, the Trojans woke up one morning to find the Greeks gone, except for a huge wooden horse by the beach. The exultant Trojans decided to drag the horse back to Troy in celebration. Cassandra had a gift, and a curse: she was gifted with the ability to prophesise the future, but cursed so that no one would ever to believe her prophecies. She prophesised that the great horse would spell doom for her city, but the triumphant Trojans refused to believe her. As history and the Brad Pitt blockbuster tells, her prophecy did indeed come true, and at night the Greek soldiers poured from the wooden horse to open the city gates for the Greek army hidden nearby.

For the past couple of decades, modern-day Cassandras have been trying to convince us that breakneck economic development could spell doom for mankind with its potential for climate change and pollution. Even as we revel in our riches and wealth (or at least the few percent of us lucky enough), our detritus and filth slowly chokes our planet. Environmentalists and scientists have been trying to warn us of the potential consequences of our actions, from the ozone layer problem, to the really big cheese, global warming and the little-acknowledged fact that petroleum sources are finite. Of course, the almighty dollar speaks the loudest, and whatever lies in the way of short term profit and gain has to be suppressed. So we have the Bush administration and the rest of the money-engorged US government (the US congress killed the Kyoto treaty even though the Clinton administration was in support) effectively covering their ears even as the climate is already changing around us.

All across Europe, weather patterns are clearly changing. Almost the entire scientific community apart from a few quacks are certain that climate change is anthropocentric (i.e. man-made). This is not a problem that a few magic-pill ideas can solve. It requires a massive change of public opinion, and a complete overhaul of the way societies and economies function.

As if to make things more interesting, last week crude oil prices went above $40 per barrel. The current crisis, like that of the 1970s, is of course political in nature, but it does bring to surface the stark reality that global oil supplies are finite. At current projected rates of increase in consumption, the world's oil reserves are not going to last more than 30 years. Indeed, there's talk that we've already hit 'peak oil', i.e. the amount of oil produced will continue to decrease from now on: gasoline prices are gonna keep going up from now, people. If no new sources of energy emerges to plug the gap, we're going to have economic problems that make the 1930s depression look like a walk in the park. Hell, it's going to be much more than an economic problem...almost everything in our daily lives depends on energy. Worst-case scenario is that all hell breaks lose, and anarchy reigns, with a helping of mass-starvation and war.

Our only hope is in new sources of energy and the new techologies to harness them, and that requires the powers-that-be to take their heads out of their collective asses and realise that much more is at stake here than just money.

On another note, I have added a comment function to this blog, so readers (yes, all two of you...) can add insults or sycophantic praises as they see fit...

Yesterday, I had a meeting with Neil Pickering, who's one of the chairmen of my halls of residence. He's one of the friendliest people I know, always with a smile and something nice to say. He was a resident here as well back in the 50s, and since then he's been the de facto liaison with other former residents. He's often travelling about, and he goes to Malaysia quite often. In fact, he's very active in the British-Malaysian Society. Which brings me to the point: He's organising a concert by several young Malaysian musicians, and I'm going to be one of them!

There will be four musicians in the concert: Jane Ng, a violin post-grad from RCM, May Yee, a piano post-grad from RCM, and Bobby Chen, who's one of the most prominent pianists to have emerged from Malaysia in recent years, and yours truly of course. Now, playing in the same concert as two music post-grads and a reasonably famous pianist (I've heard of him before this, so...) is no joke when I'm the only amateur among the lot! We won't actually be playing together though...instead, we'll play individually one after another. To make things more interesting, the Malaysian High Commissioner to Britain will be there, along with a host of other diplomats and dignitaries.

It's been decided that each of us will get about 15-20 minutes of playing time, and I'll be playing first. So, the challenge for me is to present pieces which are sufficiently within my grasp so that I won't embarrass myself too much, yet solid enough not to seem too flimsy in comparison with the other guys' repertoire. A wee bit challenging, considering that I haven't been practising consistently in months! Fortunately, the concert is schedule for October, so I'll have a few months to try and bring things up to scratch. This will be by far the biggest performance I've ever had to give.

Oh, and the other day I got back a 2000-word review that I had to do last term. The marker's comments were priceless: 'This is really excellent. Also very well presented and easy to read. Thank you for the pleasure of reading it'. :P