Pilih Presiden 2009!

Dreesyach’s Ignition by Dreesyach is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

TAG: Time to Nostalgia, for a while..

(Picture Taken from txd)

This is an atoning for my best blogger mate, Oma Gratcia from GratciaNulis who has made my day colorful by given me a Tag about Time to Nostalgia. Actually the tag was given by her on June ‘08. Dude! It was 2 Months ago.. @#%^ *lol*

Over the past couple of months, I’ve noticed with some alarm that my assignments is need a full attention. With every passing days, with all hellishly busy things, I’m getting a little insomnia also get a little wider body as well. Hohoho.. *drooling eyes*

Okay, let’s back to the topic -Time to Nostalgia. Overall, I am highly nostalgic when it comes to a school teacher, Mr. Yana, from my childhood when I was about 10th years old in elementary school at SDN Depok Baru 03. It wasn’t a good one, mine were horrible and mostly because of my teacher who got me through execrable days. I think he spent much time to insult me as a spoilt child or whatever in front of the class. I saw his face very “smugness in hell” after he said something terrible about me. It really suc**! Sadly, don’t know why! I’m just a kid, at that time. I wasn’t a mischievous kid anyways. *sigh*

Did he know Child Psychology? Hmm..Probably not! Yes, he was too intelligent enough to understand child psychology (heh? wasn’t he?).

You know, children are innocent and when they do mistakes in their innocency, adult people (parents or maybe teachers) will insult or even spank them by thinking they won’t do the same mistakes again. This has developed depression or grief for kids -maybe worse- a typical trauma, which when originating in childhood. Of course it is difficult to erase trauma from one’s mind completely even after the reality of this life becomes clear. There is yet one more reason. Some semblance of privacy as the child begins to become conscious of the need for it. Just allow the growing child “his/her” moments of privacy. Teaching the child the enjoyment of his/her certain convenient moments of privacy is one of those factors which determine the extent to which the child develops independent personality. The need for their moments of common privacy should be respected.

(Picture Taken from feminaerecta)

Discipline to a child should not mean punishment. It is about teaching him right from wrong. Emphasizing the positives gives a child something to look forward too and be respectful. For younger children several positive approaches seem to work best. First is the ‘do as I do’ routine. Children love to imitate adults and by modeling good behavior, you are showing them how to do it. If you expect good manners from your child, show him that they are important by using them yourself. Speak in a normal, respectful tone and look them in the eye. This tends to make the child listen to what you are saying instead of how you are saying it. Tell him what you expect or want instead of what not to do.

Let me end with this note:

Children are human beings and deserve to be respected as a person. It is up to the adult people to find positive ways of helping children grow up to be respectful and responsible adults. Insulting or spanking teaches children that they can get their way using violence, and most parents really do not want that lesson learned. For all teachers or parents who are still using this methods to children, d’oh! “get real” and “get into your head”, this will lead to worse children’s behavior.. Pay attention please!

Ho boy! Not a good childhood nostalgic at all.

The 63rd Anniversary of Indonesia’s Independence

Indonesia celebrates 63 years of independence on the 17th of August this year. The Dutch colonized Indonesia for three-and-a-half centuries and the Japanese colonized Indonesia for three years. It had happened when Indonesia consisted of kingdoms until it had the form of a country of Republic. Through the hard struggle, Indonesia reached the freedom proclaimed by Soekarno and Hatta as pair of the first president and the first vice president of Republic of Indonesia later. Indonesia had exactly surrounding the proclamation of independence on 17th August 1945, which is read as follows :

PROCLAMATION

We the people of Indonesia hereby declare
THE INDEPENDENCE OF INDONESIA Matters relating to the transfer of power and so forth will be executed in an orderly manner and in the shortest possible time. Jakarta, 17 August 1945
On behalf of the people of Indonesia Sukarno-Hatta

(Click Play to listen “Proclamation Announcement” by Soekarno)

As for celebration of the Indonesian Independence Day, is observed by people of many ages, genders, and regions. Many events will be held as in the form to celebrate the day, usually held by schools, offices and neighbourhoods as part of the celebration. These are some popular list of unique events, such as:

(Panjat Pinang, taken from Mohamad Affan)

1. Pinang-climbing (pinang is tree of areca nut) or Panjat Pinang (in Bahasa)

Panjat Pinang is played by the people. The tree, pinang, is well greased with a mixture of clay and oil. Various prizes in the form of bags, radios, TVs, bikes, dispensers, etc are hung at the top, kids and even grownups climb over each other struggling to reach the prizes.

2. Sack-races or Balap Karung (in Bahasa)

People are running using a sack along the race track. This make the race attractively when we see participant having difficulties in running/jumping with a sack.

(Balap Karung, taken from Nie Chan)

3. Kerupuk-eating or Makan Kerupuk (in Bahasa)

Kerupuk is traditional chips made of flour flavored of fish or shrimps. Makan kerupuk is usually played by children. The chips hung from string and, at the count of three, children with hands behind their backs furiously tried to be the first to finish the chips.

(Makan Kerupuk, taken from Irwan Sutjipto)

Over the past few years, Indonesia has quietly undergone a more fundamental political transition from autocracy to democracy than perhaps any other Asian country. No doubt, Indonesia must face any obstacles head on and change if it is to survive.

Last but not least, thank you to all heroes who have struggled for Indonesia’s independence. To indonesian people: let’s make Indonesia -one nation and one language together to build a better future for our country in every aspect of life. Stop corruption, stop drug abuse, stop child abuse and trafficking, stop gender bias, stop haze and forest fires, stop illegal logging, stop poverty.. and many others.

MERDEKA!!! Sekali Merdeka Tetap Merdeka!
(FREEDOM! Once Freedom, Freedom Forever!)Bersatu kita teguh bercerai kita runtuh..

Indonesia’s National Children’s Day 2008

(Picture taken from © Ben Heine)

Indonesian children have called on the government to immediately set up a special ministry tasked with improving child welfare. Some 330 children from the country’s 33 provinces gathered in Bogor, West Java to attend the 7th national congress on children’s welfare ahead of National Children’s Day on July 22.

The participating children, aged between 12 and 18, ranged from street children to top-grade students. At the gathering, they exchanged ideas on what they would recommend to the government, and identified with one another’s problems.

(Picture taken from © Henri Ismail)

Voice of Indonesian Children

Here’s the declared in the seventh National Children’s Congress, that we (children):

1. Will aspire to be creative, intelligent, qualified children and be protected from all acts of violence, exploitation, abandonment and discrimination.
2. Will need protection from the dangers of tobacco in order to grow and develop as naturally as possible.
3. Will increase our understanding and be conscientious toward healthy lifestyles and our reproductive health to avoid the dangers of infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and the use of drugs.
4. Will unite children living in underprivileged, border and isolated regions with the help of proper infrastructure.
5. 5. Will voice our aspirations through the regional children forum that will subsequently be passed to the Indonesian National Children’s Congress as a platform to share information and education on civil democracy at the earliest stage in order to build solidarity among children and the territorial integrity of the Republic of Indonesia.
6. Will call for the need for a special ministry for children’s affairs to respond to children’s needs.

In commemorating of Indonesia’s National Children’s Day, which falls on July 23, the government cannot turn a blind eye to children’s problems if we want to lay the country’s future on the younger generation’s shoulders. It should take concrete measures to stop violence against children and give them opportunities to build their future. Need to create a protective environment from children against risks of violence, abuse and exploitation.

Life has virtually become a nightmare for children. Poverty has subjected poor families to numerous problems affecting children such as a high child mortality rate, malnutrition, child labor, gender bias and school dropouts. Many parents have encouraged and even forced their children to do work they were not supposed to be able to do. This type of activity must end… The state, the government, the institution must be giving awareness to its people as to what will be an appropriate and concrete solution to address the issue.

However, children is everyone’s concern!

(some articles taken from © Jakarta Post)

digg story

New Era of Architecture, Dynamic Tower

Hi everyone! I did not have much activity on my blog for months (almost two) and I’m Back! Sorry for the lack of updates. I’m woozy with my assignments, computer and papers..but whatever it is..I hope it all done and fully completed soon. During this time I was not sleeping, I still have a lot of work to do..
Eh? Who cares?! *cough*.

Umm.. actually I’m always inspired to do more in architectural stuff when I get back from “blogging” (*grin). Last days, I found an interesting new architectural building based on Dynamic Architecture, a rotating skyscraper that is to be built in Dubai, U.A.E.

A new skyscraper that will be ‘the world’s first building in motion,’ a tower with revolving floors that give it an ever-shifting shape. Yes, one of the future architecture; it moves, it rotates, it is sustainable and of course it will be green too. Each floor rotates separately by time and rotates around a central axis powered by the sun and wind, meaning the shape of building will constantly change. Well, it’s mean that you can take breakfast facing sunrise and having dinner enjoying sunlight without moving from your room. It is phenomenally idea. This Dynamic Architecture concept (named as Rotating Tower) was introduced by Florentine-Italian architect David Fisher. According to Fisher, the building ensures a very high resistance to earthquakes as each floor rotates independently.

For a quick look at the skyscraper, take a look at this video.

As you can see in the video, each individual floor is able to rotate. Note that the rotation of the floors is slow and uses power – the rotation of the floors does not produce power.

But that’s not all. The tower is also a ‘green’ building that generates electricity for itself and five other equivalent buildings. The secret is 58 wind turbines mounted horizontally between one floor and the next, and the photovoltaic cells located on the roofs of the individual apartments. Never before has a building been designed to produce so much more energy than it consumes.

Rotating skyscrapers get their power from wind turbines that are placed between floors and which rotate freely with the wind. (The above illustration shows the only part of the occupied floors to emphasize the turbines.) Additional power is provided from solar cells on the tops of the individual floors.

Construction dates for the first building have not yet been announced (dunno yet), but the first one will be built in Dubai. Pre-fabricated units for the tower will be produced in a facility set up in Jebel Ali (a port 35 kilometers southwest of Dubai). The same units will then be shipped to eleven other major cities, including Moscow, Milan, New York and Tokyo, where similar towers will rise.

More details from the architects:

Our Architecture employs wind turbines, positioned horizontally between each floors, which will produce energy to the building itself and will supply as well energy for several other buildings. A tower of 59 floors will have 58 wind turbines, making the building to be also a Power Station producing Green Energy in the city. Because if tomorrow is the time where we all are going to live the rest of our lives, we want it to be a really better place.

The Dynamic Architecture building, which will be constantly in motion changing its shape, will be able to generate electric energy for itself as well as for other buildings. Forty-eight wind turbines fitted between each rotating floors as well as the solar panels positioned on the roof of the building will produce energy from wind and the sunlight, with no risk of pollution.

The total energy produced by this inbuilt ‘powerhouse’ every year will be worth approximately seven million dollars. Each turbine can produce 0.3 megawatt of electricity, compared to 1-1.5 megawatt generated by a normal vertical turbine (windmill).

Considering that Dubai gets 4,000 wind hours annually, the turbines incorporated into the building can generate 1,200,000 kilowatt-hour of energy.
As average annual power consumption of a family is estimated to be 24,000 kilowatt-hour, each turbine can supply energy for about 50 families. The Dynamic Architecture tower in Dubai will be having 200 apartments and hence four turbines can take care of their energy needs.

The surplus clean energy produced by the remaining 44 turbines can light up the neighborhood of the building. However, taking into consideration that the average wind speed in Dubai is of only 16 km/h the architects may need to double the number of turbines to light up the building to eight. Still there will be 40 free turbines, good enough to supply power for five skyscrapers of the same size.

The horizontal turbines of the Dynamic Architecture building are simply inserted between the floors, practically invisible. They neither need a pole nor a concrete foundation. In addition, they are at zero distance from the consumer, which makes maintenance easier. The modern design of the building and the carbon fiber special shape of the wings take care of the acoustics issues.

Producing that much electric energy without any implication on the aesthetic aspect of the building is a revolutionary step in tapping alternative energy sources. Furthermore, this energy will have a positive impact on the environment and economy.

This architecture is revolutionary even in the way it’s built. It is in fact the first building produced in a factory, apart from the concrete core. It’s produced of complete luxury units in a factory, including all plumbing, electrical, air conditioning and installed on the concrete core right on location.

This ready made implementation offers high quality finishing, high quality control and the use of a very few workers on site, with a real cost, life risks and time savings. Besides, this architecture, made of single separated floors offer higher seismic resistance than any other normal building. Dynamic Architecture is designed for better living even before it’s finished.

Thanks to the fact that it’s built in a factory and just assembled on site, the number of workers on site is reduced from 2000 to 90. The ready made technology allows a revolutionary implementation which is the quickest way to build a tower: building time is reduced from 30 to 18 months. The revolutionary ready made technology, plus the fact that it moves to the wind, allows the building to be 1.3 times more resistant to earthquakes.

The big question is : I didn’t see the building entrances! Didn’t see them in their promotion pics, vids, etc.So, where the heck are they? Hehehe… This is a dimwit dumb question. No? Yes? Uh-oh!
On the other side, huzzah! superb idea!!

Happy Earth Day, Folks!

Happy Earth Day! April 22, 2008…

I would really like to know. What do you do to help save the environment? How does your office look like? Paper everywhere? Or everything is on your computer? Please share your own tips and tricks. Help make the Earth a better place to live. We’re already aware things are bad, let’s do something about it. Writing about it just isn’t enough!
What are you gonna do today to help?

Check out this cool video!

However, Earth Day is Every Day! Have a great one!!!

Bizzare: ‘Pregnant man’ Male Pregnancy?!

Well this is the first time for me to post a bizzare thing like this which is an American man, Thomas Beatie, 34, of Bend, Oregon who claims he is six months pregnant. However, he used to be a woman before undergoing gender reassignment surgery.

Check this : ‘Pregnant man’ goes on Oprah Winfrey show.

Speaking on Oprah Winfrey’s Show, he said: “Different is normal and love makes a family. And that’s all that matters.”

Beatie appeared with his wife, Nancy, for the interview. The audience was shown footage of his ultrasound scan and heard the sound of a heartbeat. As he saw the scan on the monitor, Beatie told the doctor: “She’s kicking. I can’t believe it. I can’t believe she’s inside me. This is a miracle. We see this as a miracle.”

How does it feel to be a pregnant man? “Incredible. Despite the fact that my belly is growing with a new life inside me, I am stable and confident being the man that I am. In a technical sense I see myself as my own surrogate, though my gender identity as male is constant. To Nancy, I am her husband carrying our child—I am so lucky to have such a loving, supportive wife. I will be my daughter’s father, and Nancy will be her mother. We will be a family.

Outside the local medical community, people don’t know I’m five months’ pregnant. But our situation ultimately will ask everyone to embrace the gamut of human possibility and to define for themselves what is normal.

He described pregnancy as a “human desire”, not limited to women. “I’m a person and I have the right to have my own biological child,” he said. Beatie said pregnancy did not make him feel more feminine.

“It doesn’t make me want to go and shave my legs or something,” he said. “I’m a man, I just happen to be a pregnant man.” He told Winfrey he had had a sex change but had not altered his reproductive organs because he wanted to have a child.

Is society ready for this pregnant husband?

What do you think if a man be able to experience the same joy and excitement as a pregnant woman feels within?!

Like what has happened in Junior (1994), a comedy film that revolves around the world’s first human male pregnancy starring by Arnold Schwarzenegger as part of a fertility research project, a male scientist agrees to carry a pregnancy in his own.

Anyway, now that pregnant men becomes a reality in life, RYT Hospital-Dwayne Medical Center, for male pregnancy is still in its experimental stage. In this case their research is experimented in Mr. Lee Mingwei, artist who has had solo exhibitions at The Whitney Museum of American Art and The Cleveland Museum of Art and, of course, became the first human man to successfully become pregnant. He will be the first human male to ever birth a baby from his own body.

Based on RYT researched, in vitro fertilization (IVF) techniques were used to induce an ectopic pregnancy by implanting an embryo and placenta into the abdominal cavity, just under the peritoneum (the surrounding lining). Please read below for the step-by-step process.

1. HORMONES

Oral doses of female hormones were administered to Mr. Lee, to make him receptive to the pregnancy. The following graphs of his hormone treatment were prepared by Simone M. Lowell, M.D., Ph.D., Attending Physician and Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Reproductive Medicine at RYT Hospital-Dwayne Medical Center. Dr. Lowell’s research is one of the primary reasons that this clinical procedure is now possible.

2. IMPLANTATION

IVF techniques were used to induce an ectopic pregnancy by implanting an embryo and placenta into the abdominal cavity, just under or into the peritoneum (the surrounding lining). There is a severe risk of massive hemorrhage when the ectopic ruptures; this is also the most common cause of women dying in pregnancy.

3. EMBRYO GROWTH

Once implantation was complete, Mr. Lee stopped taking hormones, because the pregnancy itself, as expected, took over. The embryo secretes sufficient hormones to maintain its own growth and development.

In the years since the first “test tube baby” was born in 1978, physicians and scientists from RYT Hospital have been working to develop a viable technique for the successful impregnation of male individuals. Illustrated to the right is a recent radiographic image of Mr. Lee, the first human subject to attempt this procedure, which shows the healthy fetus developing in his abdominal cavity.

4. GROWTH OF THE FETUS

The duration of the pregnancy has been surprisingly normal, i.e. fetal heart monitoring, chorionic villus sampling, ultrasound scanning (as seen on this web site), and a constant watch over Mr. Lee’s health and his enlarging stomach. “Men, as they grow older,” Dr. Winston of London’s Hammersmith Hospital observed playfully, “have already learned to cope with a steadily expanding waistline. Granted, well, this is a bit different.”

5. DELIVERY

The delivery will requires open surgery (Cesarean section) to remove the baby and the placenta. Removal of the placenta is the real danger because it forms such intimate connections with surrounding vessels that massive hemorrhage is likely. Implantation may have also involved other structures in the abdomen, including the bowel and it is possible that parts of other organs may need to be removed. Several physicians who are well-accustomed to advanced and dangerous forms of ectopic pregnancies will be on-hand to handle any complications.

Eeeewwww, pfffttt…..yea right! *dizzy*
So technically, isn’t this still a female pregnancy?

I think that this is not a pregnant man. He may look like a man on the outside but organs on the inside say otherwise, Fe-male.

As for me it’s weird, Gosh, world is going crazy with it weird offbeat science!!

Interlude: As if Back in Time

Last days I saw in TV, actually one of my favorite movies in childhood, BACK TO THE FUTURE trilogy. Do you remember that movies / have ever seen it? Back to the Future is a 1985 science fiction–comedy film Starring by Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd. The film’s basic storyline involves the premise of time travel being used to breach the generation gap.

What do you want to do, if you can back in time – past or future? Imagine that you could use a time machine to journey back in time.. Ever wish you could reach back in time and change the past? Just Imagining..

As for me, I want to go back to the past in Dutch colonialism era in Bandung where I live nowadays in. Well, I want to see the real situation, buy a huge land to build own palace in the present, kidnap the most beautiful dutch lady to go with me to the present, taking photograph with Charlie Chaplin & ask for his signature. Heh?? LOL.

Bandung?! Check this out!

However, Bandung (City of Flowers), is the provincial capital of West Java and Indonesia’ s fourth largest city – host to the historic Asia Africa conference in 1955. Bandung known in colonial times as the “Paris van Java”, was a name which means approximately the Paris from Indonesia, deserves this name because it has a number of interesting tourism objects, namely natural tourism, shopping tourism, artificial tourism, religious tourism and also various special snacks and foods offered in food stall, café, even restaurant – well, actually we can say because of its European ambiance and sophistication for sure.

(old time clip, 1912)

Bandung shares with Miami a fine legacy of Tropical Deco architecture dating from the 1920’s. Situated on a plateau in the beautiful Parahayangan mountains, Bandung’s pleasant climate and lush surroundings have offered an escape from the heat of the lowlands since the mid 19th century when it was the heart of the region’s most prosperous plantation area.

(Hotel Homann, 1880)

This is the view of the old Grand Hotel Homann and surroundings. Hotel Homann was founded around 1870 on the Groote Postweg (now Asia Africa Street) as a simple hotel, but grew to be the most popular hotel of Bandung. Many famous people stayed there (Charlie Chaplin stayed in 1925, Mary Pickford and many of the Third World leaders), but besides that it was very well known for its rice-table. In 1938 / 1939 the old hotel was replaced by a modern Indonesian new-business-style (art deco style) building by a design of architect Aalbers, with the new name Hotel Savoy Homann.

(Hotel Savoy Homann, present)

Fokker airplanes of the KNIL (Dutch Army) airforce are flying above the Department of Government Buildings (Gouvernements Bedrijven) in 1925, betterknown as Gedung Sate. North of this area are no buildings on the picture, only the Geological Laboratory, beside which the Geological Museum later was to be built, is already completed. This city-district mainly was reserved as an building-area for other departments from Batavia (Jakarta), but those transfer-plans were cancelled. South of the Gedung Sate roads are built and the first country-houses are to be seen.

(1925)

(Gedung Sate, present)

(Clip of tourist tour in bandung, 1993)

Some contents are taken from Bandung City & Indahnesia.

Research: Game Architecture for Architect

Above is sample works of the Second Life game that can be useful for students of architecture in visualizing his ideas with 3ds game without using any Image processing software such as 3dsMAX / Maya. It will be more fun and still educated. The Architectural community has also found a benefit from the Second Life application. 3D designs are usually presented through ’static images or fly-throughs’. Second Life offers the user the ability to ‘virtually look around the urban space’. This offers a better experience for the end client, giving them the ability to explore the space prior to building or further planning work taking place. Second Life also acts as a great network tool for all involved in the building project to communicate and change objects on the project.

Second Life has recently become one of the cutting-edge virtual classrooms for major colleges and universities Second Life fosters a welcoming atmosphere for administrators to host lectures and projects online, selling more than 100 islands for educational purposes, according to a New York Times article.

There are now many universities/colleges, including the University of Florida, Princeton, Rice University, University of Derby (UK), Vassar, the Open University (UK), Harvard, INSEAD, Pepperdine, Saint Joseph’s University, Drexel, Ball State, University College Dublin, Edinburgh University, Elon, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Bowling Green State University, New York City College of Technology (CUNY), New York University, Ithaca College, University of Houston, Michigan Technological University, Stanford, Delft University of Technology, schools and other educational institutions researching the use of Second Life as an environment for teaching and learning which offers a community of practice and situated constructivist learning.

Among the institutions bringing the use of Second Life into the provision for distance learners is the Open University UK which already offers a range of teaching and learning provision on two islands in the metaverse (CETLment and SchomeBase) and is gradually developing a range of tools and resources which support learners and offer a sense of presence and engagement to distance learners who can otherwise feel isolated and alone.

As for our country, this kind of sample shall be the mirror for us to self develop an application that can be used by educational institutions. New learning methods trough fun-education is considered as the best way for students to study for hours without feeling over-saturated.

My next thesis project is making an application which is designed to educate as well as to amuse –approximately still in Architecture’s stuff and Urban Planning, which is allows users to interact with virtual content using natural hand gestures. Based on finger and hand-based interaction trough fiducial markers in tracking gestures from the user, stencil buffering to enable the user to see their fingers at all times, and fingertip-based haptic feedback devices to enable the user to feel virtual objects. I took reference from a paper “Gesture Based Direct Manipulation in Augmented Reality” by Mark Billinghurst – HITLabNZ. Augmented reality is a field of computer research which deals with the combination of real-world and computer-generated data. At present, most AR research is concerned with the use of live video imagery which is digitally processed and “augmented” by the addition of computer-generated graphics. Advanced research includes the use of motion-tracking data, fiducial marker recognition using machine vision, and the construction of controlled environments containing any number of sensors and actuators. (Wikipedia.org)

Hope I can do this to the realization. Just wait, and I will post mine to say the word that we can – developing country also can do the same. Copycat?? No worried. It will just be taken as references and we will live our own creative life. At least, with it, (hopefully) I can help my country to a better future with inserting new fun based-education. To all my friends, need your help for contributing in architectural & urban planning issues or advices for the best reached.

p.s: Kalau punya 3ds objek (rumah, fasos/fasum, dsb) boleh juga dikirim untuk dijadikan model pada aplikasi. Waah sangat membantu tuh! heehee..