Maddox Tan: August 2014

Happy 57th Independence Day Malaysia

August 31, 2014
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Malaysia's National Day of Mourning For MH17 Victims

August 22, 2014
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Johns Hopkins University Ends Partnership With Perdana University

World renowned Johns Hopkins University School Of Medicine has cut ties with Malaysian's Perdana University Graduate School of Medicine (PUGSOM) due to frequent late payments.The four years collaboration between Johns Hopkins University School and Perdana University has come to an end on 31st of July 2014. The top US medical school will no longer have any association with Perdana University Graduate School Of Medicine (PUGSOM). According to the American medical school, it was a painstaking decision as the payments made by Perdana University under contract were often late. to the extend that payments were 12 months overdue when the partnership between the two university was terminated on July.

Lindsay R Rothstein, director of marketing and communications stated in an e-mail to The Malaysian Insider, "It was our honour and priviledge to help create a new model for medical education in Malaysia by providing guidance and advice to Pugsom and by assisting in teaching and in the initiation of the school."

She added,"However, we reached the difficult decision to end the existing relationship because payments required under the agreement for the services provided by John Hopkins and its faculty were frequently received late and at the time the agreement was terminated, Johns Hopkins had not been paid for more than 12 months of work."

She further added, " As of July 31, 2014, Johns Hopkins, its faculty and its curriculum are no longer associated with Pugsom. While we are deeply disappointed by this outcome, we hold firm to our belief that international collaborations such as this are critival to advancing our mission."

Furthermore, in order to protect the interest of the existing PUGSOM students, Johns Hopkins allowed the school to use the it's 'Genes to Society' curriculum and the 'in Collaboration with Johns Hopkins University School Of Medicine' tag line' until 31st of July 2014 although the notice of its decision to end the collaboration was sent to AMC (Academic Medical Center Sdn Bhd), the owner of Perdana University, on 17th of March 2014.

Despite the sour ending of the first international partnership, Johns Hopkins remain positive and would not close its door on other possible international collaborations.

PUGSOM, which is opened for applications in September 2011, currently has three batches of medical students. The 141-acre campus located in Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS), which costs approximately RM2.3 billion (USD $730 million), is expected to be completed by 2014.

Serdang's MP,Dr Ong Kian Ming stated that measures must be taken in order to ensure the current batch of medical students who are under PUGSOM will be able to graduate in 2015 as planned. He also urged the government to stop sending new JPA students to Perdana University; be it PUGSOM programme or Perdana University-Royal College of Surgeon of Ireland (PU-RCSI) programme.

August 18, 2014
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Taking Selfies Everyday For 7 Years

August 17, 2014
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Mother's Love

August 16, 2014
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Ngu Yi Qi of The Voice Of China Season 3

August 15, 2014
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Pianist Maan Hamadeh Wows Passengers At Prague Airport

August 14, 2014
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Perseid Meteor Shower and Supermoon

Supermoon. Image via nbcnews.com

Perseid meteor shower. Image via nationalgeographic.com

Astronomers and sky-watchers were all excitedly waiting for the annual Perseid meteor shower which occurred on the second week of August this year. Adding icing to the cake, the Perseid meteor shower also coincided with the perigee moon or simply known as Supermoon this year!

Image via boston.com

Every 133 years, the comet Swift-Tuttle will pass through the inner solar system, leaving behind a steam of debris. While most of the particles have been part of the cloud for nearly a century, there is also an addition of relatively young debris in the stream that was pulled off the comet back in 1865, which can give an early mini-peak on the day before its peak When Earth passes through its pathway, the debris hits the atmosphere at a whooping speed of 140,000 mph and burn up in flashes of light, creating the Perseid. The Perseid gets it name due to the point from which the meteor shower appears to come, called the radiant, which lies in the constellation Perseus. Besides, the name originates from the word Perseides (Περσείδες), term found in Greek methodology which refers to the sons of Perseus.

Image via opticscentral.com.au

Supermoon, on the other hand, occurs when the moon reaches its orbit that is closest to the Earth, known as perigee. The perigee moon would be up to 14% bigger and 30% brighter than other full moons during the year. In fact ,supermoons occur quite often, with every 13 months and 18 days. Nonetheless, they are not always noticed due to poor weather during the occurence. For those who had missed the opportunity to watch the supermoon few days ago, fret not as the next supermoon is expected to appear on 9th of September 2014.

Image via baltimoresun.com

Hence, it is inevitable that the moonlight would swipe the black, velvety background which is the ideal environment to watch the faint glows of the Perseid meteor showers. Nonetheless, the effect can be reduced by few methods. One of the methods is by facing away from the moon during meteor shower gazing. In, addition, find a setting where the view of the moon is blocked.

Some of the useful tips for watching meteor showers are:

Binoculars and telescopes are not necessary for enjoying the breath-taking meteor showers. The human eyes are the ideal device as the fireballs will cover large part of the sky.
Human eyes require at least 15 to 20 minutes to adapt to the darkness of the night.
Find a dark (the darker the better) location, ideally away from city lights, in order to get the best view of the faint lights.
The most perfect time to view the showers is between midnight and predawn hours.
All it takes to capture a snapshot of the shooting stars is a tripod-mounted DSLR camera that is able to take exposures of 15 seconds or more with a as wide a lens as possible and use an ISO 400 setting in order to capture the fainter meteors, not to mention settind a remote timer to eliminate any shaking of the camera.