On Saturday 15th May 2010 Ngae Koh Hieng left us for hopefully a better place. He will be so dearly missed by just about everyone that ever met him. Always (and I mean ALWAYS) smiling, always optimistic, always positive and always supportive, sometimes cheeky and more often than not loud. He was the type of guy that was usually the centre of attention but only because people were drawn to him and his magnetic personality. You always felt better for an evening, a few words or just a passing greeting on a run with Ngae.
I was shattered when I heard the news and still am. I felt like one of my closest friends had been torn away from me. Then I got to thinking that Ngae was such a warm and welcoming person that probably most people who were acquainted with him had similar feelings of loss. He's not a person that people will simply feel sad about losing and forget easily. His passing will leave a huge gaping hole in the running and triathlon community of Malaysia, he will be deeply missed by hundreds and hundreds of people.
My Mum once said to me that people never really die and leave us so long as someone still remembers them - Ngae is going to live on in our hearts and minds for a long long time.
I hear there will be an impromptu memorial run this Sunday morning at Lake Gardens. Everyone will do their usual run i.e. double hill, Sri Hartamas but there will be a minutes silence at 6:29am and then everyone will do their run in honour of Ngae. I will be doing the Bintan Triathlon (assuming I'm well enough, if not I'll be at Lake Gardens for sure).
I'll be doing the race in honour of Ngae. Disco Dave will be there too - we will have our own minutes silence. I will swim, bike and run with him in my mind & heart but I will not mourn his loss but rather celebrate his life, I will do my best to wear his trademark smile from start to finish. He was an inspiration, an icon, a role model - they don't come any better than Ngae. We love you buddy, you will be missed but not forgotten.
I was there at the run. I shouted to everyone to observe a minute of silence but they were louder than me.
Though I do not know Ngae, I still respect those who leave the world for a better place. For those people who didn't make way and clear the path for the Lady Runners, I can understand that you guys are not gentlemen. But at least give respect by observing one minute silence.
Hey Simon, I was still rushing to the start line when the women's start took off and when the minutes silence was being held but don't let it upset you, the crowd were mostly not aware of Ngae's passing and probably didn't even hear the announcement. There is going to be a memorial run on Sunday morning starting at 6:30 and a proper 1 minutes silence at 6:29 - I urge you to attend that - it will honour Ngae as he deserves and will greatly help the healing process for the rest of us.
oh so there was a moment of silence on Sunday. There wasn't any speakers at the starting point, so we didn't hear any announcement. I could vaguely hear the MC said the word "silence", and then nothing. This Sunday would be a better choice.
sorry to hear about the loss! honoring the people who make this sport as wonderful as it is is important! we take it for granted, it sounds like people like him made it wonderful for us! God bless him!
This series Ngae's race pics,just sent to his wife with using Ngae gmail.His wife will check this gmail.
The general arrangement of film cartridge position, dielectric separator and active electrode is given in the following drawing:
As we can see, the film slides smoothly over the ECNT (Non Transparent Condenser Electrode), without any curvature, thus remains flat over a flat surface, minimizing air trapping between itself and the ECNT working surface.
The distance between the FWP (Film Working Plane) and the imaginary plane formed by the film cassette and the spool centers it's not arbitrary; it is given by the general film cassette dimensions. Therefore, when designing or modifying any camera, this distance must be observed.
This simple precaution prevents any deformation that eventually may appear. Preventing this deformation we help minimize the air gap between the lower film surface and the ECNT upper surface. This two measures combined certainly will assure that the film stays flat when the finger press against it, minimizing any under-the-film discharge that may occur.
Usually advertised Kirlian cameras fail entirely to fulfill these simple precautions. In my point of view, faulty designs regarding this aspect are responsible for many of the typical images observed.
Here, in a faulty design, when we use color films, we see the formation of two microcavities of trapped air .
Inside we may have some streamers, thus the lower red-sensitive layer may be exposed, producing all-red streamers (even though there were no "red streamers" at all!).
It's obvious that if we prevent the formation of streamers under the film, the predominant colors will be blue and white.
With a faulty camera design, we pick a new film cassette. In a dark room we unreel the film and proceed to reel it again, but this time with the emulsion turned to the other side, thus, when the cassette is loaded in the camera, the emulsion side will no longer be in contact with the finger but in contact with the ECNT surface.
Thus, the central streamers over the film will now expose the central region, which now has the red-sensitive layer toward them. The streamers appearing under the film inside the K1 and K2 cavities, will now expose the blue layer of the emulsion, and will appear as a bluish diffuse light.
This film inversion will produce an inverted pattern of colors in relation with the normal pattern obtained when the emulsion is in contact with the finger (emulsion "up" scheme).
A simple experiment can be made to simulate these cavities under the film. This air pockets will produce under-the-film streamers which in turn will expose the lower red sensitive layer.
It's important to understand that there were no red streamers at all. The image is the result of a faulty design coupled with an inappropriate employ of a common color prints film with its tripack layer system
If the air trapped in these pockets suffers ionization, we may have a secondary corona under the film. These streamers will travel then trough the antihalation coating (which is translucent) and expose de red-sensitive layer of the emulsion. Here, two important considerations must be made:
First, being the antihalation coating translucent, we may obtain some light diffusion in the transparent film base. This reduces the sharpness of the secondary corona.
Second, as the red-sensitive layer has a different sensitivity from others layers (because the film was designed and adjusted to deal with light impinging from the emulsion side), the overall response to light (mainly blue and uv) will be difficult to estimate, i.e.: How will this red-sensitive layer respond?
These experiments were designed to prove certain points I've had in mind regarding the so called Kirlian Photography. I have always thought that there were many obscure points that were never mentioned in many classical books written about the phenomena., therefore I proceeded inspired in what I thought were the real variables working behind the scene. Years after proving myself that I was right about my observations, I came across three publications which gave full support to my own observations.
Kirlian photography in theory and clinical application, by Leonard W. Konikiewicz. Journal of the Biological Photographic Association, Volume 45, Number 3, July 1977.
In this excellent paper Mr. Konikiewicz arrived to the same conclusions about secondary corona discharges under the film and alerts researchers to take precautions against them.
Although I do not agree entirely with their claim that moisture is a principal determinant of the form and color of Kirlian photographs of human objects, they verified that secondary images are produced inside air pockets under the film as mentioned above.
In this paper the authors made an exhaustive investigation, and a comprehensive study of color film construction and its behavior under this type of photography. Again, their results agree with all authors mentioned above and myself, concerning under the film discharges.
It obvious to me that the use of color film under the current Kirlian technique was never intended by the photographic laboratories who manufacture these films. They were designed to work with light in a certain way, which means with light arriving at certain angles and from a particular direction. Any deviation from this original working parameters may certainly introduce unknowns that render the current images obtained useless from a scientific point of view. Therefore I have serious doubts about the claims of certain researchers when they say they've found certain "formations" that regularly appear when the subject suffers a particular disease, particularly those claims relating certain color formations to a particular disease. I would like to see many of these "loose ends" in their work really tied up before taking their claims seriously.