Project Petaling Street Blog

A reader forwarded this email to us that i feel should be shared with all; its a good read on a geeky-yet-incredibly-curious subject: "The Theory of Everything".

Recently, "Newsweek" Magazine featured several high-profile individuals in its year-end, Special Double Edition (Issue January 2, 2006). The one person who caught my attention was Professor Lisa Randall of Harvard University.

Professor Randall is a highly decorated Theoretical Physicist in the Academic World. Her research centers on elementary particles called "Strings" (the tiniest components of matter) and how they may travel beyond our 3-dimensional world.

This is no science fiction or magic. The idea of the existence of extra dimensions beyond our own is revolutionary and intriguing. What else is there besides length, width, height, and time? What do those extra dimensions look like? Can we travel to those extra dimensions? How come we cannot feel those extra dimensions?

I decided to write about Professor Randall and her research because those questions turn the world of Physics on its head and forces us to contemplate our own existence.

The article is divided into two parts and can be found at:

A quest to find the "Theory of Everything" - Part I
A quest to find the "Theory of Everything" - Part II

via The Technocrat Soapbox.

Posted by Aizuddin Danian at 09:33 AM | Permalink

So it's that time of the year again, the Asia Blog of The Year award is now open for nominations which closes on 30th December 2005.

There is a little debate about whether Xiaxue would win this year. What do you think? They're also calling for the organisers to reveal themselves for the sake of transparency. haha!

Posted by Yvonne at 09:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This may be a little stale news, but Google has issued the Zeitgeist for 2005 here.

Its the list of the most popular search words on Google for a particular, and since Google is the biggest search engine there is, the keywords are pretty much the most popular ones. They have 3 listings there - top gainers, top searches in Google News, and top searches in Froogle (their shopping arm).

What is interesting are new top new entries for this year. No.1 is 'Myspace' the latest online community portal. I can't say that its wildly popular here with my friends, but apparently it is so in the US. Hmmm. Other interesting debutants are Ares (the P2P software), China upstart Baidu, and even wikipedia.

Even more surprising is that on the news search, Janet Jackson came out tops, higher than brother Michael. I know, it baffles me too. Even the wardrobe malfunction thing was in 2004, can't be that people are still interested. The rest are pretty predictable, like Katrina, Britney Spears and American Idol.

And on another note, iPod was mentioned in the top ten Froogle queries (not counting 'mp3 player').

You can chck out the listing here.

Posted by simon at 05:51 PM | Permalink

Philotheist, a blog written by a PR firm Researcher, Jonathan Cohen, who intends to pursue a doctorate in science and technology studies. His obsession with trends and innovations have given birth to this newly acquired blog , which is powered by the Creative Weblogging network.

Among his latest updates are:

> Google Buying 5% Of AOL For US $1 Billion
> Methanol Fuel Cells Achieve 33% More Power Density
> Improve Apple's iPod, Win A $50 Amazon.com Gift Certificate From Philoneist

Jonathan's blog is made of an entire jungle of categories comprising of, Agritech, Applications (Productivity & Service), Automotive / Transportation, Biology, Broadband, Communications, Computing, Concept Contest, Concepts , Consumer Electronics, Content Delivery, Demographics, Digital Copyright, Digital Media (Audio), Digital Media (Print) , Digital Media (Video), E-Commerce, Editorial, Engineering, Ethics, Exploration, Finance (Personal), Government / Law, Green Tech, Home, Innovations, IT / Search, Links (Recommended), Medical Treatments, Mobile Phone, P2P , Philanthropy, Philoneist Announcements, Privacy / Security, Product Announcements , Products (New), Robotics , Social Networking, Sports, User Interface, Video Games, VOIP, Web 2.0.

Give it a go!

Posted by Yvonne at 06:50 PM | Permalink

San Francisco, CA - iTalkNews.com, a website providing a place for everyday citizens to read, write, discuss and publish news stories, is launching on December 12, 2005.

Citizen, or “participatory journalism,” is a developing form of web-based content which encourages average people to collect and report news. iTalkNews stands out from other citizen journalism sites because of its focus on national and international stories. iTalkNews’ degree of accuracy as well as its wide range of topics also sets it apart from similar sites.

“While blogging has ushered in a new era where everyone can write news, somethings that worked in traditional journalism have gotten lost,” says Elizabeth Lee, Editor-in-Chief and co-founder of the six month-old web site. Lee has spent the past several months showcasing iTalkNews, which has gained press attention in the United States as well as Europe. According to Lee, “iTalkNews preserves the accountability and factual accuracy present in your grandparents’ journalism, and hybridizes it with what blogging offers: letting everyone tell their story.”

The site is launching with several new features, previously unavailable in beta mode, including:

- A new voting system for iTalkers

- Enhanced iTalker community interaction

- The ability for iTalkers to edit each others’ articles

Whether citizens should be allowed to edit each others articles has been a hotly debated issue. But sites like WikiNews show that it can work. After arming iTalkers with some writing and editing guidelines, iTalk is letting citizen democracy reign, with a few practical safeguards. For instance, articles are “locked” for three hours while a member is editing. Also, edits must be accepted by the original writer before posting, to prevent any possible abuse of the open system. This makes iTalkNews one of the few citizen journalism sites to give its members this much access – and responsibility.

iTalkNews has already attracted a variety of members, from people who have previously been involved in traditional journalism, to those who have never before been published. While they all come from diverse backgrounds, together they form the dynamic and interactive iTalker community. As iTalkNews member MJ Call notes, “Where else can a writer get instant feedback from their audience?”

iTalkNews

Posted by Yvonne at 08:51 AM | Permalink

A very good read by Oon Yeoh about Malaysia's most prominent blogger, Jeff Ooi.

Now, what is his (Jeff Ooi) mission again? "I'm on a crusade to produce more bloggers," he says, because "lone voices don't get heard".

via Oon Yeoh.

That's what PPS wants to achieve too. We're proud to have Jeff as one of our founding bloggers.

Posted by Aizuddin Danian at 09:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)