What does a Dracula mean to you? If you think a Dracula is an antagonist who sucks blood like what a vampire does, Dracula Untold might make you change your perception on that.
The Dracula in the film is more a hero than a monster. At the beginning of the film, it exposes audiences with the fact that the Master Vampire is entombed in a cave. The film does a good job in establishing the setting and characters. It introduces us to the life of Vlad Tepes (the Dracula), who spends his young life serving in the Turkish army. Raised by his enemies, the Turks, Vlad learns to be a great warrior. He is then the prince of Transylvania and is a vassal to Mehmed, the Sultan of Turkey. He seems to live a happily-ever-after life with his family. However, the peace and harmony is not eternal. War begins when the Sultan demands additional 1000 boys from Vlad for his army, including Vlad’s son, Ingeras.
Realising the fact that he does not want to give his son up to slavery, and that he could not defeat the predominant Turkish army with his people, Vlad seeks supernatural aid in the cave where the Master Vampire is there. He accepts the power of damnation which gives him extraordinary power to cover long distances as a flock of bats.
Cinematography plays a crucial role here to impress and gives audiences a clearer picture of how powerful Vlad is with computer-generated effects. In the scene, Vlad successfully protects his people from 1000 soldiers with his power. Nevertheless, his people betray and try to kill him when they know Vlad has become a Dracula. He has to seek for his people’s understanding and acceptance of who he has become.
At the same time, Vlad has to resist his desire to suck blood for three days as he fights Mehmed, so that he can revert to his former self. His power will be weakened if he is exposed to sunlight and silver metal.
On the other hand, Mehmed does not give up in the war and he manages to catch Vlad’s son. Vlad’s supportive wife, Mirena dies as well. Vlad has both mental and physical stress when his family leaves him at the time he needs them the most. Struggling to save his son and to resist the desire to suck human blood, how could Vlad and his people survive? This film definitely challenges you to watch it till the very end.
Monday, August 31, 2015
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
News: LHP456 to be registered manually
Students of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) who would like to take LHP456 Spoken English as one of their courses have to go to the School of Languages, Literacies and Translation (SoLLaT) to register the course.
Different from previous semesters, this semester, LHP456 is not available on campusonline for students to register before semester reopens. Students have to go to SoLLaT to register themselves during the first week of semester.
According to the Dean of SoLLaT, Prof. Dr Tengku Sepora Tengku Mahadi, the reason they decided to make such move is due to the online system which could not allow students to choose the group and time they wanted.
“This causes many students to add and drop courses early in the semester because they realised the timetable clashing with another courses, or the group is already full”, she said.
“This further makes teachers difficult to confirm the number of students early and they will have difficulties to find classrooms if the students requested to change the time”, added Dr Tengku Sepora.
She does not encourage students to register the course at SoLLaT on behalf of their friends.
“This is because we would like to avoid students who did not attend the lectures, claiming that they did not know they’ve registered the course, when in fact their friends registered for them”, she added.
Asking about whether the same registration procedures continues in the coming semester, Dr Tengku Sepora said the school has not decided yet.
“It depends on the efficiency of the procedure. If registration at SoLLaT found to be more efficient, we’ll make the same thing in the coming semesters. If registration through campusonline and SoLLaT has no much difference in efficiency, we’ll allow students to register through campusonline again”, she explained.
Different from previous semesters, this semester, LHP456 is not available on campusonline for students to register before semester reopens. Students have to go to SoLLaT to register themselves during the first week of semester.
According to the Dean of SoLLaT, Prof. Dr Tengku Sepora Tengku Mahadi, the reason they decided to make such move is due to the online system which could not allow students to choose the group and time they wanted.
“This causes many students to add and drop courses early in the semester because they realised the timetable clashing with another courses, or the group is already full”, she said.
“This further makes teachers difficult to confirm the number of students early and they will have difficulties to find classrooms if the students requested to change the time”, added Dr Tengku Sepora.
She does not encourage students to register the course at SoLLaT on behalf of their friends.
“This is because we would like to avoid students who did not attend the lectures, claiming that they did not know they’ve registered the course, when in fact their friends registered for them”, she added.
Asking about whether the same registration procedures continues in the coming semester, Dr Tengku Sepora said the school has not decided yet.
“It depends on the efficiency of the procedure. If registration at SoLLaT found to be more efficient, we’ll make the same thing in the coming semesters. If registration through campusonline and SoLLaT has no much difference in efficiency, we’ll allow students to register through campusonline again”, she explained.
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
News: Choose2Protect clears sex myths
Choose2Protect workshop has been held on the 30th April 2015, at 8pm at DKM Universiti Sains Malaysia by Durex, in partnership with AIESEC in Malaysia, Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO), and the Federation of Reproductive Health Associations, Malaysia (FRHAM).
Aimed to educate young Malaysians about the dangers of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), the workshop was carried out by three peer educators. The peer educators are AIESECers who have received sex education from WAO and FRHAM.
The Project Director, Jessie Yong Qian Mei, as one of the peer educators, during the ice-breaking session, showed students a video that emphasised on the message “Sex is not a stigma. Ignorance is”.
She then presented the facts and statistics in Malaysia.
“Based on the report of the Ministry of Health Malaysia, 51 cases of teen pregnancies have been reported each day. However, this figure only represents those who have been reported, imagine teens who feel ashamed and dared not admit that they’ve pregnant. Also, 45% of the Malaysian youths had their first sex without the protection against STIs. This is then leads to the fact that 21% of Malaysians have been infected with an STI in their lifetime”, said Jessie.
“Our reproductive organs, like penis and vagina, are just like our eyes and mouth. They are parts of our bodies and there is nothing to be ashamed of”, explained Jessie when showing photos of reproductive organs of both sexes to let students understand their reproductive organs.
The workshop also cleared some myths on sex that are normally perceived by majority of people.
One of the myths is that most people think that women cannot get pregnant when she is having menstruation during the sexual intercourse. In fact, according to Jessie, there is no time of the month that is completely safe for unprotected sex.
There is also another common myth where people think if a male draws before ejaculation, a woman would not get pregnant.
“This is not true because before a man ejaculates, there might be some leaking of liquid which contains thousands of sperm. Do bear in mind that it only takes a sperm to fertilise an egg”, explained Jessie.
The second peer educator, Ngoo Xiao Wei, shared knowledge about STIs. There are basically four types of STIs, which are either caused by bacteria, fungi, parasites or viruses. Among these four types of STIs, only STI caused by viruses could not be cured. However, according to Ngoo, prevention is always better than cure. Prevention methods suggested by Ngoo are abstinence and the usage of condom.
Ngoo told students that STIs could only spread through unprotected sex, sharing of needles and syringes and sharing of sex toys. Sharing the same toilet seats, kissing, bitten by a mosquito that has bitten a person with STI, and spitted by a person who has STI do not spread the infection.
Meanwhile, the third peer educator, Erica Seng Ee-Su gave talk on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). AIDS is the disease caused by HIV, the virus. According to Erica, having HIV does not mean that one infects AIDS. She also said that HIV test could be done through a specific blood test in hospitals and clinics.
Even though there is no cure for AIDS, Erica said there are antiretroviral (ARV) drugs that help stop the HIV from spreading. However, one has to continue taking the drugs throughout his life once he starts taking it.
The workshop ends at 9.30pm. Students who attended the talk were given a brochure, a notebook and a badge. They were also required to fill in a questionnaire to assess their knowledge of sexual and reproductive health.
Aimed to educate young Malaysians about the dangers of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), the workshop was carried out by three peer educators. The peer educators are AIESECers who have received sex education from WAO and FRHAM.
The Project Director, Jessie Yong Qian Mei, as one of the peer educators, during the ice-breaking session, showed students a video that emphasised on the message “Sex is not a stigma. Ignorance is”.
She then presented the facts and statistics in Malaysia.
“Based on the report of the Ministry of Health Malaysia, 51 cases of teen pregnancies have been reported each day. However, this figure only represents those who have been reported, imagine teens who feel ashamed and dared not admit that they’ve pregnant. Also, 45% of the Malaysian youths had their first sex without the protection against STIs. This is then leads to the fact that 21% of Malaysians have been infected with an STI in their lifetime”, said Jessie.
“Our reproductive organs, like penis and vagina, are just like our eyes and mouth. They are parts of our bodies and there is nothing to be ashamed of”, explained Jessie when showing photos of reproductive organs of both sexes to let students understand their reproductive organs.
The workshop also cleared some myths on sex that are normally perceived by majority of people.
One of the myths is that most people think that women cannot get pregnant when she is having menstruation during the sexual intercourse. In fact, according to Jessie, there is no time of the month that is completely safe for unprotected sex.
There is also another common myth where people think if a male draws before ejaculation, a woman would not get pregnant.
“This is not true because before a man ejaculates, there might be some leaking of liquid which contains thousands of sperm. Do bear in mind that it only takes a sperm to fertilise an egg”, explained Jessie.
The second peer educator, Ngoo Xiao Wei, shared knowledge about STIs. There are basically four types of STIs, which are either caused by bacteria, fungi, parasites or viruses. Among these four types of STIs, only STI caused by viruses could not be cured. However, according to Ngoo, prevention is always better than cure. Prevention methods suggested by Ngoo are abstinence and the usage of condom.
Ngoo told students that STIs could only spread through unprotected sex, sharing of needles and syringes and sharing of sex toys. Sharing the same toilet seats, kissing, bitten by a mosquito that has bitten a person with STI, and spitted by a person who has STI do not spread the infection.
Meanwhile, the third peer educator, Erica Seng Ee-Su gave talk on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). AIDS is the disease caused by HIV, the virus. According to Erica, having HIV does not mean that one infects AIDS. She also said that HIV test could be done through a specific blood test in hospitals and clinics.
Even though there is no cure for AIDS, Erica said there are antiretroviral (ARV) drugs that help stop the HIV from spreading. However, one has to continue taking the drugs throughout his life once he starts taking it.
The workshop ends at 9.30pm. Students who attended the talk were given a brochure, a notebook and a badge. They were also required to fill in a questionnaire to assess their knowledge of sexual and reproductive health.
Friday, August 14, 2015
News: USM Lifeguards teaching disabled athletes to swim
Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) lifeguards provided a free swimming lesson to Special Olympics Penang athletes on 27 September at USM swimming pool.
The lesson which started at 9am was attended by eight athletes, ranging from 10 to 30 years old, who are having mental disabilities.
According to the Captain of USM Lifeguard Corps, Ng Shin, most of the athletes can swim, just that their strokes might not be correct. However, for those who cannot swim, the lifeguards will teach them the basic skills like floating and bubbling in the water before proceeding with other swimming skills.
“Few years back, our USM Lifeguard Corps seniors did teach members of Special Olympics Penang. However, the teaching stopped for a few years until this year”, he added.
Talking about challenges during the lesson, Ng said communication is the major problem. Sometimes the athletes might not understand what the instructor says.
“So we have to be very patient most of the time. We have repeat and teach them step by step. The progress might be slow, but we have no way to rush on that”, he explains.
Ng feels it is very meaningful to teach Special Olympics Penang athletes. He feels happy to provide an opportunity for the athletes to learn and do sports they like.
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Athletes having their warm up session before getting into the water.
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Before swimming, instructor checked to make sure her student knows
bubbling in the water.
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Besides patience, caring is one of the qualities presented by a good
instructor.
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Wednesday, August 12, 2015
News: "Reducing crime comes first", says Zahid
The 9th Forum on “Crime and Policing in Malaysia” with the title of ‘Policing strategies in reducing violent crimes’ has been held at Dewan Tuanku Syed Putra (DTSP), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) on 12th March 2015.
Attended by the Minister of Home Affairs, Dato’ Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, the forum was organised by School of Social Sciences, USM, in collaboration with the Ministry of Home Affairs, Institute of Public Security of Malaysia (IPSOM), Malaysia Crime Prevention Foundation (Federal), Malaysia Crime Prevention Foundation (Penang Chapter), Security Department of USM, Penang Police Contingent, Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM), and Penang Education Department.
Speaking about crime, the Vice Chancellor of USM, Prof Dato’ Dr Omar Osman said it is an undeniable fact that there are crimes happening around us.
“Crime is not something we want to live with, but definitely we have to live with it”, said Dr Omar Osman in his speech.
On the other hand, Zahid said tackling the crimes will always be the first agenda in the country, and this task would be carried by PDRM and other related agencies.
“Although the crime rates has decreased 30%, majority of the public are still having negative perception towards PDRM”, he said.
“I hereby would like to congratulate PDRM Penang for doing very well in decreasing the crime rates”, said Zahid.
Witnessed by Dato’ Zahid, USM signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Institute of Public Security Malaysia (Ipsom) on information, knowledge and expertise sharing about safety and welfare in Malaysia.
USM was represented by Prof Dato’ Dr Omar Osman, while Epsom was represented by Dato’ Sri Ismail Abdul Rahman.
Attended by the Minister of Home Affairs, Dato’ Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, the forum was organised by School of Social Sciences, USM, in collaboration with the Ministry of Home Affairs, Institute of Public Security of Malaysia (IPSOM), Malaysia Crime Prevention Foundation (Federal), Malaysia Crime Prevention Foundation (Penang Chapter), Security Department of USM, Penang Police Contingent, Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM), and Penang Education Department.
Speaking about crime, the Vice Chancellor of USM, Prof Dato’ Dr Omar Osman said it is an undeniable fact that there are crimes happening around us.
“Crime is not something we want to live with, but definitely we have to live with it”, said Dr Omar Osman in his speech.
On the other hand, Zahid said tackling the crimes will always be the first agenda in the country, and this task would be carried by PDRM and other related agencies.
“Although the crime rates has decreased 30%, majority of the public are still having negative perception towards PDRM”, he said.
“I hereby would like to congratulate PDRM Penang for doing very well in decreasing the crime rates”, said Zahid.
Witnessed by Dato’ Zahid, USM signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Institute of Public Security Malaysia (Ipsom) on information, knowledge and expertise sharing about safety and welfare in Malaysia.
USM was represented by Prof Dato’ Dr Omar Osman, while Epsom was represented by Dato’ Sri Ismail Abdul Rahman.
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Minister of Home Affairs, Dato’ Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi
was escorted by the organising chairman of the “Policing strategies in reducing
violent crimes” forum, Associate Professor Dr P. Sundramoorthy to Dewan Tuanku
Syed Putra (DTSP), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM).
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| Minister of Home Affairs, Dato’ Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi praised Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) Penang for being one of the good states in reducing crimes during a forum held at Dewan Tuanku Syed Putra (DTSP), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). |
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Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Institute of Public Security Malaysia (Ipsom), under the witness of the Minister of Home Affairs, Dato’ Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Monday, August 10, 2015
News: Parking is a privilege, not a right
In response to the parking issue, Director of University Sains Malaysia (USM) Security Department, Associate Professor Dr P. Sundramoorthy expressed his disappointment towards drivers in USM, especially those who have always assumed that parking is a right that USM has a responsibility to provide enough parking lots for them.
“Drivers should understand that parking is a privilege and not a right for them. It is the same as our driver licenses which are given by authorities. It can also be revoked by the authority anytime”, he said.
Dr P. Sundramoorthy admitted that parking has always been an issue in USM. According to him, although the population in USM has increased year by year, USM, in fact, has not grown very much physically. As more people are bringing vehicles to USM main campus, the incorrect perception that parking is a right has created more frustration among drivers in USM.
He added that the parking lots in USM are given priority for those who operate USM, including the administrative and academic staffs. For students, he said, the actual parking lots are only at Padang Kawad, parking lots at the E41 building and their respective hostel parking lots.
“It saddens me when those who do not have a USM student car sticker are parking as they wish in the campus”, he said.
Dr P. Sundramoorthy added that the university has always provided alternatives for them, for example, shuttle bus and ecovan services, to help solving this parking issue.
“Drivers should understand that parking is a privilege and not a right for them. It is the same as our driver licenses which are given by authorities. It can also be revoked by the authority anytime”, he said.
Dr P. Sundramoorthy admitted that parking has always been an issue in USM. According to him, although the population in USM has increased year by year, USM, in fact, has not grown very much physically. As more people are bringing vehicles to USM main campus, the incorrect perception that parking is a right has created more frustration among drivers in USM.
He added that the parking lots in USM are given priority for those who operate USM, including the administrative and academic staffs. For students, he said, the actual parking lots are only at Padang Kawad, parking lots at the E41 building and their respective hostel parking lots.
“It saddens me when those who do not have a USM student car sticker are parking as they wish in the campus”, he said.
Dr P. Sundramoorthy added that the university has always provided alternatives for them, for example, shuttle bus and ecovan services, to help solving this parking issue.
Monday, August 3, 2015
News: RUwhoUR to collect Facebook user data
Developed by the Behaviour Analytic and Social Signal Processing team of School of Computer Sciences of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), the “RUwhoUR” project is a web application which aims to create the first Facebook user database in Malaysia.
Directed by Dr Syaheerah Lebai Lutfi, this research further aims to predict personalities of the users through their usage on Facebook.
“This kind of research is not new in Western countries but it has not been done in Malaysia. We would like to compare the results of our research with Western results, we believe there’s a cultural difference between Malaysia and Western countries. Cultural affect is what we would like to investigate”, she said.
Talking about the application, Dr Syaheerah said there is a personality questionnaire which helps to verify whether online self is matching the real self.
“There are 24 questions in the application, and it only takes five to seven minutes to complete the questionnaire”, said Dr Syaheerah.
At the moment, there are only two students and one intern working with Dr Syaheerah in this project.
“I would like to invite all readers to log on to www.ruwhour.com/ to take part in our research. Those who are interested in working out the project are also welcome to approach me, as this data collection platform will be opened for a long time to collect as much as data we could. This project is meant not only for Computer Sciences students, as it involves social work, communication, security, trust, privacy, and ethnography”, she said.
The master’s student, Zaaba Ahmad said users do not need to worry about the privacy of the web application, this is because once the application received users’ data, a numeric identification will be assigned to users and no names will be revealed.
Directed by Dr Syaheerah Lebai Lutfi, this research further aims to predict personalities of the users through their usage on Facebook.
“This kind of research is not new in Western countries but it has not been done in Malaysia. We would like to compare the results of our research with Western results, we believe there’s a cultural difference between Malaysia and Western countries. Cultural affect is what we would like to investigate”, she said.
Talking about the application, Dr Syaheerah said there is a personality questionnaire which helps to verify whether online self is matching the real self.
“There are 24 questions in the application, and it only takes five to seven minutes to complete the questionnaire”, said Dr Syaheerah.
At the moment, there are only two students and one intern working with Dr Syaheerah in this project.
“I would like to invite all readers to log on to www.ruwhour.com/ to take part in our research. Those who are interested in working out the project are also welcome to approach me, as this data collection platform will be opened for a long time to collect as much as data we could. This project is meant not only for Computer Sciences students, as it involves social work, communication, security, trust, privacy, and ethnography”, she said.
The master’s student, Zaaba Ahmad said users do not need to worry about the privacy of the web application, this is because once the application received users’ data, a numeric identification will be assigned to users and no names will be revealed.
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