Success is often the result of taking a misstep in the right direction.

Al Bernstein

According to reports, scientists have sequenced an extensive genome of wooly mammoths using their hair specimen.

This news brings scientists a step closer to “resurrecting” the extinct species through cloning. However, some experts doubt it could ever happen due to the many technical limitations in the way.

This particular experiment is regarded as the first ever decoding of an extinct species’ nuclear DNA, which contains massive amounts information.

Once interpreted, the genetic data will give researchers never-before-seen access to the biology and evolution of these amazing creatures, which started becoming extinct about 10,000 years ago.

“What our paper shows, for the first time, is that it is possible to sequence the genome of an extinct animal almost as well and as efficiently as a modern genome,” said Stephan Schuster of Pennsylvania State University, one of the two project leaders.

Just as exciting, the methods could be employed to sequence the genomes of Neanderthals, and early humans. The bad news is, the same cannot be done for dinosaurs because they went extinct too long ago for their DNA to be viable today, according to the researchers.

The reason behind this is that nuclear DNA resides in cell nuclei and it’s difficult to extract from ancient bones. It’s far less plentiful than mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down only by mothers. Complete sequencing of the mitochondiral genome of the mammoth was achieved in 2006.

Baby Mammoth

And even though this next news isn’t exactly brand new, we’re guessing we won’t be the last to find out either. Apparently, a discovery of a preserved baby mammoth has been made some time in 2007. It’s kinda cute and disturbing at the same time. Poor little thing.

Check out the newest and saddest piece of news about the little thing.

Positive something is always better than negative nothing.

Elbert Hubbard

Serving drinks, kicking a ball and even dancing. These are some the new “tricks” demonstrated by Honda’s ASIMO at 1 Utama over the course of its 3-day stop at One Utama Shopping Complex. Making its first official public appearance in a special preview since its arrival in late October, ASIMO hopes to inspire Malaysians to reach for their dreams.

Some of the things we may have missed in the last post was that ASIMO can also adjust a cart’s operation by reducing its speed or changing direction when there is any object in its way. It has a tension sensor system built in both of its mechanical wrists, enabling him to operate a cart by adjusting the pushing strength in both arms and maintaining a standard distance from the cart.

We find it really funny though that ASIMO speaks with an American accent despite being built by the Japanese! :p

You can see some nicely taken photos here and here.

The Face on Mars. There have been strong arguments on both sides of the fence. The sceptics seemingly having the upper hand in light of new “scientific photographic” evidence. The advocates however refuse to believe and give into these new findings.

We will be examining both the sceptics and the believers point of views so you can decided for yourself.

So please stay tuned for ,“The Face on Mars: The Real Deal” in our upcoming posts.

We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.

Calvin Coolidge

It’s not that hard really. All it takes is some time and effort on your part to sit down and plan it out. After that it should be pretty straight forward.

Here are  the 5 reasons why you should get busy and start up that society.

5. Experience

This is one of the most important reasons. You learn a great deal from being the founding member of a college society. You pick up lots of skills needed in the working world because starting a society will help you break out of the “lecture and tutorial” mode, and apply your practical skills and lets it flourish.

When starting a society, you’ll be able to teach yourself how to set up the club from scratch, having a joint-venture with other societies, booking space in your college  area to set-up your booth, distributing fliers to promote your club and much more.

4. Resume-Building

Trust us, when the time came to write out our resumes not too long ago, it took us literally ages to figure what to put in the “extra-curricular” activities section! That’s when we wished we were more active in our college societies. While being in a society would be a good addition to your resume, being able to say that you started one is one heck of an upgrade! It will go a long way in helping you separate yourself from that other applicant when it’s time for you to go jobhunting.

3. Networking

When you start up a society, you will definitely meet all sorts of people from your college/uni. And those who join your society are actually people who share the same interests as you (that’s why they joined in the first place).  Over time, these core members and the other people who joined the society along the way will become your close friends and when you leave college, you will have a network of buddies in many fields. You never when an opportunity pops up for you to help them and them to help you.

2. Immunity. MUAHAHA.

You get away with coming to class late. Not exactly the best advice to give but heck, it’s true.

1. Girls

Guys listen up, if all the above isn’t enough to motivate you to start a college, then hopefully this one will.

Although it has no proven success rate, we reckon it’ll help somewhat.

Most colleges/universities in Malaysia have an amount set aside to help kick-start beneficial societies. And if admin issues start bogging you down, all you have to do is ask your seniors for some help. No worries.

Change in all things is sweet.

Aristotle

Just letting you good folks know, University Life:Malaysia Boleh, will be know as MyEduvacation as of today!

We’re excited about the name change and you too can look forward to our upcoming posts!

The MyEduvacation Team

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

Onitsuka Tiger, which began as Onitsuka and now known as ASICS, started off when its founder Kihachiro Onitsuki began manufacturing sports shoes in Japan.

Mexico 66 Core Line

Onitsuka first made his mark in basketball shoe manufacturing when he introduced “suction cups”  under the sole of his shoes to help basketball players start and stop instantly without slipping. There are a few versions of how this idea came about. One of them suggested that Onitsuka’s octopus salad became his source of inspiration.

Mexico 66 Baja

He went on to revolutionize the running shoes industry by developing shoes that helped avoid marathon runners from developing blisters. This milestone was achived when in 1953, Tooru Terasawa suffered no blisters for first time, after a run totalling 42.2km in Onitsuka’s designed shoes.

Ultimate Tiger

The company was spurred to even greater heights when Onitsuka managed to convince Abebe Bikia, an Ethopian marathon icon in his time, to slip on a pair of Onitsuka manufactured shoes. Abebe never ran in shoes before and he won the race in shoes for the first time in the Onitsuka shoes. This help send Onitsuka’s company to a whole new level.

WOMEN

Ultimate Tiger

Then in 1977, GTO, Jelenk and Onitsuka merged as a single company know today as ASICS. An interesting fact that many people may have missed is that ASICS is actually an acronym. It actually stands for, Anima Sana In Corpore Sano, a latin phrase which translate into “a sound mind in a sound body.”

Ultimate 81

Today, ASICS still manufacture shoes under the name Onitsuka Tiger, reflecting a more old school feel for the collection. And they are painfully gorgeous.

SwingGal

These shoes are essentially, beautifully crafted  pieces of art. Just as well, they’re don’t come so cheap. You can expect to fork out between RM 299 to RM 459 for a pair of these. For the full range of men’s and women’s Onitsuka Tiger shoes, please visit:-

www.onitsukatiger.com.

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Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.

Zig Ziglar

Time to pay tribute to our fellow Fifth Formers who are currently studying hard for their SPM exams. As this post is being written, we can see so many of you studying late into the night out in public places. Keep it up!

However, one of the biggest problem encountered in the course of revision and studying, not just by Fifth Formers alone of course, is staying awake!

Sleep is a biological need that knows not the importance of exams to students. It just creeps in uninvited, much to the annoyance of us all. Here we are, trying to make full use of our 24 hours and our eyelids start to take weight of baby African elephants.

Fear not people! It’s time once again to turn to the trusted, age-old adage, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

Here are some of the things you can do to help yourself keep yourself awake and focused for a wholesome study session.

1. Apples

Eating apples help you stay awake thanks to the natural sugar content in it. Unlike coffee, muching on apples or any other fruits for that matter,  is a much healthier option. Plus, there are those who feel that the natural sugar stays longer in your system compared to caffeine.

2. Don’t study in your bedroom!

This tip is always overlooked. You won’t do well hoping to get in a whole night’s worth of studying if you’re doing it in your bedroom! Haha. Quite a simple theory to understand but we’re sure you’d agree with us that many still fail to recognize the importance of choosing the right place to study.

Do yourself a favour and stop believing that you can have an effective revision session on your beds. We dare bet you, 9 out of 10 times, you’ll just end up waking up the next morning regretting how much time was wasted all because you tried to fool yourself.

If possible, set up a place suitable for studying. You should be sitting up and the room should be brightly lit. Your body system reacts differently if you place yourself in certain environments. When you’re set up for studying, your brain “knows” that it’s time to study and this will help you keep those eyes open and soldier on.

4. Physical Activity

When tiredness sets in and you start to feel sleepy, get up for a bit and do stretches. If possible, trying running around. This is to get your blood flow going again to increase the likeliness of you staying up and alert. It’ll help you forget that you’re sleepy, too.

5. Study with friends

Get a group of friends to go out for night study sessions. It really helps. Go to a mamak, Mackers or any other place with your buddies to have a beneficial group study. You can help each other stay awake and discussions between your friends will more than likely help you keep your eyes open and your brain alert. Be sure to tell your parents where you’re going and always place top priority for your friends’ and your safety.

6. The Right Mindset

This is could be up for debate but we feel that this is the most effective tip to staying awake in the midst of revision.

Sleepiness sets in because your brain tells your body that it is tired and needs to rest. Under normal circumstances, you would do well to listen to your brain’s pleas. But c’mon, it’s crunch time, there’s no time for sleep!

What you should do is to try to consciously convince your brain that you’re not sleepy. Just keep repeating to yourself how awake you feel and try hard to keep your tiredness off your mind. Just ignore it. If you don’t think about it, you’ll stand a better chance of having your brain “forget” about your sleepiness. You’ll be surprised how well this works.

So there you go, very simple, tried and tested ways to help you burn the midnight oil. Just keep telling yourself that YOU CAN do it. Try hard enough and you’ll see how right you are.

Be sure not to neglect your sleep though whenever possible. Your body needs it and staying up late for days on end is not healthy at all.

P.S Just in case you’re all wondering, eating Kopiko like nobody’s business, even a whole bag of em’, won’t do the trick. All that’ll do is give you a tooth ache. Trust us. Been there, done that.

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be.
Now put foundations under them.“

Henry David Thoreau

Advanced Step in Innovative MObility. Well, that’s what ASIMO supposedly stands for.

And it is one fine machine. ASIMO is about 4 feet 3 inches tall and weighs approximately 54 kg.

Among the impressive capabilities possessed by ASIMO include being able to track moving objects, the ability to recognize body posture and gestures, having the capabiliity to react to the surrounding environment, being able to differentiate other sound from voices and even recognize up to 10 human faces.

It’s even quite eerie when you witness ASIMO doing its thang and how closely its movements and walking/running motion mimics that of a human being. Watch one of the many a videos of ASIMO here and be amazed.

Although not exactly breakneck speed, the current version of ASIMO, after multiple predecessors, is capable of running up to speeds of …… 6km/hour. We know, a little anti-climax. But this, ladies and gentlemen, is no small feat for a mechanical beaset such as ASIMO.

While running at top speed, it should be noted that ASIMO actually has both feet off the ground at one point of time during the running motion. Fantastic. ASIMO has definitely come a long way, from only “static walking” (pausing after each step to balance itself on the forward foot before moving the trailing foot) to running and turning simultaneously.

The Evolution of ASIMO

And guess what people. Are you ready for this? ASIMO will be visiting Malaysians soon! ASIMO will be touring at 3 different locations in Malaysia starting on 14 Nov 2008 and the last chance to catch ASIMO in action will be on 30 Nov 2008.

Head on to the Asimo website for more information. Be sure not to waste an amazing opportunity to watch such awesomeness that is ASIMO! The ul:mb team is most definitely planning to be there and so should you!

P.S Fancy snagging an ASIMO for your own pad? Well start saving soon and lots because last we checked, renting an ASIMO for a whole year will set you back about US$150,000 (approx. RM530,000). :p

FUN FACT: On 14 February 2002, ASIMO rang the NYSE opening bell for trading!

Have a good day people!

Quote and Unquote: Experience is the best teacher – Unknown

You hear your parents say it all the time:  We know better. we’ve been your age.

As hard as it is to come to terms with it, we do have to admit that there is some truth to their mantra.

You’ll come to realize it only after you leave that last tutorial or lecture, hand in that last assignment, walk out past those front gates for the last time as a full-time student.

Now that we’re out of uni and working, here are the 3 big things that we’ve learned and want to pass on to you so mistakes are not repeated:

i. FOR REAL YO! : Studying is way better than working! So PLEASE enjoy your studying life to the fullest!

Every student, including us, dreads it when they hear parents repeat this. How can that be? How can it be possible that being a student is way more fun than working?

We’re making moolah in the working world, of course it’s more fun. Err, right? Studying just cannot be more fun than being employed! It’s just not possible right?

We’ll were here to tell you from our experience now that we’re working, our and your parents were right all this while!

It’s not that we’re ungrateful that we have our jobs now because we are so thankful that we’re employed. But 10 out of 10 times, we wouldn’t second-guess going back to our days as university students!

ii. University life is more than just exams and assignments. Really.

Although this has been widely talked about, we feel that it hasn’t been taken seriously by many. Exams are a very important part of your studying life but it’s definitely not everything.

There’s much more to university life than just dope exam results. You leave with, among others an experience of struggle, perseverance and commitment. The attitude and expanded perspective and receptiveness of the things around you.

Your view on the world is broadened by the experiences you go through in university.

And that’s why you should always look for opportunities in uni to test yourself in those situations, so you can leave a stronger person, poised and ready to take on the world.

iii.There really is a reason why your lecturers put you through those darned assignments!

We really regret thinking ill of our tutors and lecturers all those times when we were struggling with our reports and assignments. We were just like you, thinking that those assignments were merely “weapons” used by modern day educators to make the lives of youths and students woeful and miserable, made worse by the “impossible” due dates.

How wrong we were! We wish we tried harder with those assignments. Oh how that could’ve helped us manage our worklives better!

Deadlines here in the working world are many times tighter than those given to uni students. Those painful assignments should be taken seriously because they are test runs to what you will face in the working world.

Till next time readers, have a great week!

Hi guys and girls!

We’re a newly registered blog and we’re very much looking forward to bringing the student population of Malaysia and the rest of world loads of advice, reviews, tips, news that affect the world around you and much much more! Doesn’t matter if you’re a university student, highschool student, college student or even a pre-schooler!

This website is sure to bring you great stuff about the wonderful world of education. So stay tuned and bookmark us please! Be sure to keep a look out for a lot of cool stuff from this website!

Best regards,

The “University Life : Malaysia Boleh” Team