Ending July and Hijri 1445

More than a week ago, we have entered the new Hijri year 1445. I have been trying to contribute wherever I can, but with criticisms, I do tend to wonder why I continue to do the things I do. Anyway, I have gone through worse and I pray that I have an easier and fulfilling forthcoming life. In any case, with my sons coming back home every now and then, I try to enjoy the moments with them.

My other half had her follow-up appointment at Ara Damansara Medical Centre earlier this week. She had decided not to remove the fallen loose turbinate in her nose since that would require another surgery and incur significant expenses. She also hoped that this will be the final follow-up as each time we are here, we would stay in the nearby Z-Hotel. So we were there on Monday and before checking-in, we decided to go to Citta Mall to get our food for the evening.

Early next morning, we went to the medical centre in the hope to have breakfast there before the appointment. Unfortunately, the (relatively cheaper) cafe was closed due to renovation. So, we went to W-Cafe near the lobby, which is pricier. 

Saw this happiness tip (had never screamed to a pillow before but I'm pretty sure that there were many internal screams not vocalised).

Side note: I discovered Dr. Rania Awaad who spoke about Islamic roots of psychology, which is pretty interesting. Other discovery is Dr. Maya Shankar who is the daughter of theoretical physicist R. Shankar whose book on quantum mechanics I have referred to - she was speaking on identity and goals in the Huberman podcast.

The meet with the doctor was brief; he examined the mend near the dura mater using a scope and it seems to be healing (no apparent leakage). As for the loose turbinate, he agreed that it can be left alone for the moment. My other half is now used to the discomfort experienced while prostrating in her prayers. So for now, there will be no further follow-ups (unless there are problems arising, Allah forbid).

In the weekend before our Ara Damansara trip, I decided to replace the swelling laptop battery before any unwanted incidents happen. I have been stalling this for some time to avoid spending things for my own personal use. At the same time, I took the opportunity to increase the RAM of my laptop as the computer tends to slow down a lot with many applications open. Thus, spend a few hundred ringgit on this upgrade. Below is the pic of the swelling battery (yes, it's bad).

Labels Peeled Off

This is one of the posts that I hesitated to put up because of associated stir of emotions and the possibilities of misunderstanding. Certain events may have prompted this post but let me say from the outset that it is not directed to anyone but merely expressing my thoughts on certain issues and how I think one should move on.

A biased opinion of mine: people tend to get too obsessed with labels. One can see this in all spheres of life. Labels have their beneficial purposes. They can be used in classifying things. For instance, how I group papers in my collection; on the coarsest level, I simply use how arXiv classify papers into their major groupings and thereafter I zoom into my own specific interests for the subgroupings. Such classification is not without problems; just as in arXiv, there will always be cross-listings and some may not even fit a particular class and may even evolve into their own groupings.

Life in general are even affected by labels (stereotypes); types of social groupings, cultures, political groups (one of the most revolting and divisive that I can see), understanding of religion and philosophy. On the last one, my readings on them are probably scanty, but that doesn't mean I'm static on the matter. I'm pretty much average (or to some, less than average) on religiosity. I had my religious awakening in the 80's and was buying plenty of religious books then, but I realised pretty early that I can't go far intellectually in religion without knowing enough Arabic. However, I read what I can, particularly now, when I'm on my last lap of life. I tend to keep this very much on the personal level and immediate family members and friends. Some will probably passed me off as being secular. I remembered participating in a colloquium between religious scholars and scientists in a university in the east coast. I overheard my presentation is said to be secular because of my slides do not contain any Qur'anic verses or prophetic sayings. The contents of my presentation (in Malay) can be found here (with links to earlier parts - whatever happened to the proceedings of the colloquium?). In fact, after my presentation, I overheard some ridiculed my pronunciation of the word 'mantiq' as man-tick (see this FB post). Perhaps, my hope that we can learn from each other at the time, was too idealistic (I did learn something from presentation of others; not sure what others think of mine).

This was not the only stint on religious scholars-scientists meet that I have participated in. Another one was at IIUM in Gombak (can't precisely remember when). Presented some similar ideas there and also my (personal) views on hidden variables, which surprised my scientist friend. I'm unsure of what the outcome of this event. In any case, I did air my (unpopular) views on philosophy in a small private discussion. Philosophy is great in uncovering hidden assumptions and I often seek if there's anything there that would help me progress in science (very much like mathematics). The downside for me, it is often too wordy for my liking and it conjures up labels to mark extreme positions for philosophical thoughts. These are rarely maintained (consistently) by a normal human. If I ever want to be imaginative, perhaps these extreme positions may be likened as pure states but generally one has mixed states in a convex geometry. The complex, rich human life tend to push humans for more contextual reasoning. If ever this is considered too flimsy, one may have to uncover some partial ordering in our thoughts leading to some hierarchy of priorities. Added note: Somebody once tried to put a label on me for what school of quantum theory that I adhere to, and he mentioned 'salafi' to which I was amused.

Finally, let me go to what led me to do this posting. By the Grace of God, my scientific life seems to fall in the domain (label) of mathematical physics (I would rather classed myself to be a theoretical physicist, being less rigorous). I remembered a story relayed by my late mum from a conversation during a journey to the Holy Land, mentioning the scientific area I am exploring for my studies and somebody (I figured he was an academic, but don't now who the person was) made the remark that this is a difficult area to go into for a Malay (another label) guy. My own experience when I first encountered the subject is the question why I have not been exposed to this earlier (completely off the radar) and part of my ambition as I came back home from my studies is to give more exposure for others to consider theoretical/mathematical physics as a domain of study. I'm not sure whether I have been successful in doing this but I do have a group of students under me that are now taking theoretical/mathematical physics for their academic career. I do still think, I have not done enough. For instance I wished that I had introduced quantum field theory and particle physics in our courses at UPM, but alas, there was very little that I can do then.

Now the label mathematical physics seems to be amphibious since it contains both mathematics and physics. Where do I belong? Well, I was a staff in Physics Department, but I graduated from School of Mathematical Sciences. How did I proceed? At some point, I was told that theoretical physics is not the main focus area of the department. So, when institutes were formed, and I had the impression that they tend to be interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary (the very least to be different from the departments), I joined the institute as a venue to pursue theoretical physics with a bigger aim and emphasis. At a later stage, I found myself in the maths institute. There I found myself to feel like how Penrose felt, "To a physicist, I am a mathematician; to a mathematician, a physicist" (see this video). I would take the stance of Penrose, but if I was pushed further for a definite answer, I would have to say I am a physicist because of my strong reliance on intuition (which is not really unique to physicists; mathematicians have them too).

Some might coarsely lumped mathematical physics as applied mathematics, to which I pointed out why did University of Cambridge have a Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP). Roughly I do feel that they tend to have different tools of mathematics (and domains of physics) that they rely on but there's nothing sharp in their boundaries. Once, an international mathematician suggested to use physical mathematics, so that the basic domain (the second word that anchors the subject in English) remains to be mathematics (instead of physics). I tend to disfavour this (in fact it is not popular); to think mathematics as 'physical' seems 'odd'. Now there have been suggestions to use physical mathematics for 'different' subdomains. I have covered this in a talk I gave to undergraduate two years back. I don't think this idea caught on by the relevant community.

Does it matter what label do we use? This again, depends on the context. For me, it is always what scientific problem one is addressing and which community is considering such problems. In a way, it is a social construct but this does not mean anything goes. We have now a wealth of information and tradition to consider; what is valid, what is novel depends on the type of questions one is trying to answer. This is why I mentioned earlier, if pushed further, I would consider myself as a physicist. But that doesn't mean one can't pursue mathematics for its pure, general considerations (usually generalization and abstraction). These too, are of interest to physicists.

Perhaps a final thought on this: there is this tendency in the academia to put 'our ego' as primary concern. To me, this is harmful. I rather use Ghazali's classification of praiseworthy knowledge and blameworthy as a guide. Note that this does not quite pertain to the subject matter but more on the ethical dimension. Both physics and mathematics have the possibility to be blameworthy. May Allah guide us in our path in our pursuit of knowledge and render our knowledge beneficial to many.

Frequenting JB and Funeral

Over the last week or so, we have went down to JB twice to visit my sister-in-law whose husband (Tn Hj. Shafie) was not well, who later passed away on Wednesday afternoon. Some weeks before that, we had gone to JB for his daughter's wedding.

It was near the end of the first week of July, we heard his health was deteriorating. He had experienced stroke before and had not quite recovered ever since. He fell down quite a few times before this but the last one on Friday, June 7th, had him being admitted into ICU. His blood pressure dropped quite low then and was on life support in ICU in KPJ hospital. We quickly booked the same hotel, Molek Garden Hotel and travelled to JB the next day (Saturday).

We arrived at KPJ hospital in JB sometime around 11 am and had to wait until 12 noon for the visiting hours. For the visit to ICU units, we can only come in pairs. Here we are waiting for our turns.

More of my in-laws came later in the afternoon.

By sometime in mid-afternoon, we were told that the condition of Hj. Shafie has improved, with no need for the life support system and that he will be transferred to the normal ward in the evening. In the evening, we went to the hospital again to see him in the normal ward. Following the news of improvement, most of us went back on the next day (Sunday). We spent a day in Segamat for some personal matters and returned to Seremban on Monday.

Later in the week, we were told that Hj. Shafie's health deteriorated and had lung infections. He was transferred back to the ICU ward. It was on Wednesday late afternoon, that we heard he had passed away. I quickly cancelled a meeting scheduled that evening and tried to book a hotel. Unfortunately, the usual hotel was fully booked and I had to look for another place. Without looking too much, I simply booked (and paid) Molek Regency, which I thought initially to be a hotel. After packing our stuff, we immediately took off to JB around 5pm since we were informed that the burial will take place after Isya'. I told both eldest son and my other half not to rush/speed on the highway. These days, I tend to feel more vulnerable when I'm on the road (perhaps being old). We stopped at Machap RnR for some rest and met my other in-laws there. We arrived at the Muslim cemetery at Mount Austin sometime after 9pm and the burial process was done but managed to be there for the do'a recital (prayers). The following is a pic (taken by another person)

After attending the funeral, we dropped by at the sister in law's place and thereafter went our for a meal with the other in-laws.

My other half decided to stay with my sister in law to comfort her, while we head off to Molek Regency which are really apartments. I communicated through WhatsApp with the owner of apartment (Mr. Sky) and asked my son in JB to pick up the key from the owner at the nearby Starbucks. Here are the views from the apartment (in the next morning).

The apartment has two rooms with the main room having its own bathroom/toilet attached. There is also a kitchen, which we did not use at all.

We stayed there for two nights with my other half joining us on the next night. There were shops/eateries nearby (including Starbucks) and thought that we could just cross over to the shops from the apartment. We were mistaken since the apartment has tight full security and we had to get out through the main gate to get to the shops.

The next day (Friday), we headed back to Seremban. After travelling much, my back ache seems worsening and so today I took Tramadol to help ease the pain (which also mean that I will be sleepy most of the day).

Reorganizing Complex Network Papers & A Zoo VIsit

Yesterday, I spent my time rearranging my collection of papers on complex networks and related topics. In my last post, I have already mentioned that the initial space for these papers are already filled up but I have still several papers on this topic lying around. So I decided to swap the space for high energy physics papers with that of complex networks. While doing this, I decided to arrange the complex network topics into some subtopics.

The largest pile seems to be on scientific collaboration network and related topics of citation network, scientometrics and papers from Research Policy journals. This is due to I had a student working on collaboration network before this while scientometrics and research policy papers was due to my involvement in management. I do think some of these can be useful in doing informed decision making but this is only done very cautiously. The pic below shows the collaboration network pile and the top paper sums up the subject.

The next largest pile of papers are the theoretical papers including mathematical papers of graph theory and statistics. This pile will go in front layer of the cabinet space since I am more interested in this.

Out of this collection, I separated out the papers of Tomasso Aste which had me interested in exploring complex networks. In actual fact, I initially wanted my students to explore this (but perhaps it was too difficult)

In fact, my first student on complex networks decided to work on stock correlation networks. Lumped together with this is corporate networks, finance & trading networks. These give the third largest pile. Other smaller piles are social & information networks, networks in condensed matter (which could easily merged in the theory papers), biological networks, geographical & transportation networks.

Fast forward to today, my family decided to make a trip to our national zoo. My other half has been wanting to see the pandas (after watching them on tik-tok). The parents to these pandas have been returned to China (see this news article). I did not go with them since I was not in a joyous mood. Here are some pics.

The time of their visit did not coincide with the shows that was on tik-tok; instead the pics are just the pandas lazing around. The only show they get to see was the one with seals.

They did not quite get to see all parts of the zoo because it takes a lot of ground to cover (they were saying that I would be exhausted if I were to go with them).

Later in the evening, I saw my name appeared in a poster of this year's National Physics Conference. Technically, my name should appear without the Associate Professor title since I have retired from UPM (and hence no affiliation was given).