Check If Your Email Account Details Has Been Leaked

News article: Anti Public Combo List with Billions of Accounts Leaked by HackRead
        There is now a platform called "have i been pwned (HIBP)" created by Troy Hunt from Australia, where we can search if our email addresses and accounts are included in "combo lists". These lists contain email address-password pairs.

Searchable database of the combo lists: have i been pwned? (HIBP)
        Search your email address and it will tell you how your account is compromised. It will tell you if your email account is included and in which websites e.g. Yahoo! It will also tell you if your email-password pair is being shared publicly (aka 'pasted').

Learn more about HIBP by the author's blogpost

Here are things I think I should do when my email account has been "pwned": 
     1. Change password or delete the account that has been compromised
     2. Check for details entered in the account e.g. credit cards, IDs....
     3. Change password of the email used in the account, especially if they are the same [never do this, by the way]
     4. Employ a password generator machine, like what is suggested by the HIBP author

Any more suggestions, or updates? Let me know!  (and consider donating to HIBP)

Visit to National Gallery Singapore

Correction: National Gallery in TripAdvisor corrected me: the museum offers Open-House ONLY on SELECTED Public Holidays (which are announced in their website), not all public holidays.

Christmas free treat (as a foreigner): https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/ShowUserReviews-g294265-d8077179-r452873577-National_Gallery_Singapore-Singapore.html#REVIEWS

I highly recommend everyone to visit the extensive Southeast Asian art pieces in the National Gallery Singapore. Standard ticket for Non-Singaporeans is 20 SGD, which is not expensive given the exhibits offered at each of the ~7 galleries. The museum is FREE FOR ALL during selected public holidays, which are announced in their website. So I was finally able to visit during the Christmas holidays, and it was an enriching experience and unique treat for myself. I was able to see paintings by Fernando Amorsolo, Felix Hidalgo and a Juan Luna! I would like to go back after I get to know more about other pioneering artists in S.E. Asia like Raden Saleh, Liu Kang... and acclaimed modern and contemporary artists like Norberto Roldan... The architecture of the former Supreme Court and City Hall is also something to behold, and I was also able to see Singapore's historical documents at the former Chief Justice's Chamber.

Here are some of my favourites during my visit (I wasnt able to finish from Level 2 to Basement galleries):



And here are some useful links I have found and is worth exploring!
The Filipino Collection in the National Gallery Singapore  by Manila Art Scene
National Heritage Board, Singapore at Google Arts & Culture
National Gallery Singapore Website

9/11 Truth (And Materials That Makes You Less Ignorant)

Published and peer-viewed paper "What Did and Did not Cause Collapseof WTC Twin Towers in New York" done by structural engineers. Basically, they are saying that yes, it was the airplanes.

Popular Mechanics also published a book on 9/11. (I may buy it ^_^ Amazon wishlist?)

Skeptic.com (by my idol Michael Schermer) has a comprehensive article about 9/11. The author, Chris Mohr, also has a YouTube playlist to go together with this article, so go check it out!

Finally, confessions of a "Truther" in Cracked.com and I quote: "I cracked and broke down in tears. It was the true human emotion of a mother who lost her kid that changed me. The others believed it was a fake recording and that she was in on it. It was the monstrous ugliness of the other theorists which set me on edge. I'm made to believe they're all a part of the 10,000-man-strong Illuminati? I said to the producers on day five, 'I've changed my mind.'"

Respect victims. The world is not obligated to make sense to you, and have to make you smart and know everything.

Self-learning on Climate Change - free and easy way

For the past years I have been educated on water engineering, so naturally I have encountered Climate Change on more than several university courses. I am in the impression that the issue of Climate Change is a global concern and should not be confined to classrooms and scientific conferences, nor should the general public be motivated to learn only after extreme events (like Typhoon Haiyan in Philippines).

With this, I thought that by writing in my personal blog, I can appeal to the average web-surfers by letting them know how to learn about Climate Change in a free, easy and more convenient way. The MOOC on Climate Change "Turn Down the Heat: Why a 4°C Warmer World Must be Avoided" by World Bank (2014) that I have attended provided me with the resources for this project.

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First stop is to watch a video by NASA entitled Carbon and Climate Change in 90 Seconds where NASA carbon expert Peter Griffiths explains the different kinds of carbon (e.g. exhaled CO2 VS emission from fossil fuels), those that absorb carbon (e.g. oceans and plants) and why it is said that Climate Change is human-induced - all in a minute and a half. Follow this with another video from NASA, Piecing Together the Temperature Puzzle, that describes the causes of global warming and their impacts to our planet.

Aside from videos, NASA has provided an interactive historical map on climate change that lets you see the changes in Earth during the past decades i.e. the melting of sea ice; average increase in sea level, carbon emissions and average increase in global temperature. Then the video Climate Change Impact: NASA's 21st Century Predictions describes the impacts of Climate Change over this century, collated from different models used by the IPCC.

NOAA's Ten signs of a warming world is another interactive site that presents the biggest impacts of global warming e.g. sea level rise, some with comparison between current and simulated future state, data plots and other resources about Climate Change. EPA explains in this interactive video about more about climate modelling: testing, historical models and future projections.

PIK (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research) provides information about Tipping Elements, which are Earth System components that are sensitive to small external changes, then will be in rapid (and mostly irreversible) transition through self-mechanism once tipped. Another characteristic of these elements are that their impacts are large-scale and cascading.

World Bank then illustrates the impacts of Climate Change scenarios to society through this interactive map. The maps show the effects from different scenarios used by IPCC on food security, economy, and disasters. Then, it provides a comprehensive Climate Risk and Adaptation Country Profiles of 51 developing and vulnerable countries.

Additionally, World Bank presents a fact sheet on regional climate change in Asia and Africa:

Other interesting links and more resources:

• The Keeling Curve, a daily record of atmospheric CO2 from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego  
• SPEI Global Drought Monitor, near real-time drought conditions at global scale.
• for the environmentally conscious (or starting to be), use this Carbon Footprint Calculator
• Videos on Climate Change by NASA: http://climate.nasa.gov/climate_reel
• World Bank's Portal on Climate Change: http://sdwebx.worldbank.org/climateportal/index.cfm
• IPCC's Data Bank: http://www.ipcc-data.org/
• IPCC's latest (5th) Assessment Report WG1 "The Physical Science Basis" and the latest (4th) Assessment Report Synthesis

More On Foreign Languages

A previous post ago, I suggested a website wherein you can have a crash course on French at your own convenience. Now, using a Samsung unit running on Android, Basics on Foreign Languages has been made less difficult!

First of, Samsung Market offers free "to-English" Dictionaries. Using my VERY limited knowledge in French, I found the free French/English Dictionary very comprehensive yet student-friendly. NM/NF, VT/VI are all in place, as well as grammar construction. I am certain that for other languages (at least for major languages) Samsung's Dictionaries will deliver satisfacorily.

Secondly, Android Market offers an app of its native company that surpasses expectations. Google Labs' Goggles, amongst its other awesome features, can translate any written document with a single camera capture. It's not perfect yet - but it's better than your expectations. Believe me!

A handy app called Tourist Language Learn & Speak offers basic sentences on almost all European and American languages, ranging from "number one" to "how are you" to "can you take me to this location". The Read Aloud feature will let you learn how to read and speak basic phrases. Its French phrases are OK so far.

Learn Basic French DIY

Found a competent Online Basic French Learning site, as suggested by Madame Beth Enerio!

• Premiere Classe avec TV5MONDE

Playing Around With ArcGIS

With the gigantic software that is ArcGIS, I do admit that it is easier for everyone to just pinpoint and draw areas with Google Earth. Converting GE shapes into shapefiles became a necessity, of which I did with ease, although I did a little workaround:

1. an ArcScript that converts KML files to shapefiles by Jason Parent which can convert a file or a group of files in a "folder". I had no problem when converting points.
2. DNR Garmin by DNR-Minnesota which I used to convert one polygon at a time into a feature. Not that convenient but it beats having to redigitize the area in ArcMap all over again. Using this application I noticed GE puts an empty string on the first point of the polygon.

EPubs And Why I Am So Into Them

So I recently had an Android unit, and jumped right away into saving my .pdf books there. Nothing beats the convenience (and just the awesomeness of it) of ebook readers. Unfortunately, ebooks come in different formats - and PDF is just not one of them. Luckily, I do have some books that comes in EPUB. =D Enjoy!

• Contracts, Specifications and Engineering Relations and Ebook and Texts Archive
• epubBooks where classics (e.g. Les Miserables) are published in digital form, "copyrighted" with Creative Commons. In other words, it's free!