World Tuesday: Earthquake!

Recently, I don't know when becouse I missed the news, the good Earth suffers a massive quake down south of Singapore; in the Indonesian island of Java. It's epicentre lies somewhere in the middile of the island, surrounded by dozens of active volcanos. If you think about it, this place is just disaster waiting to happen. But still, it does not mean that human lives in this instance is worthless, only their political decisions are. That is not the point. The point is that in the neighbouring state of Philipines and East Timor, strong tremors are also recorded.

Is this a trend? Or is this a warning of bad times yet to come? Some conspiracy theorist says that with the advent of the Day of the Devil, well, the name is false obviously, but the date, the sixth of June, 2006, or in numeral format; 06.06.06. a.k.a. 666, the Devil's number. Interestingly, there is another one instance where this date happened before and nothing untoward happened...not that I'd know anything about it. The previous date coincidence was on the sixth of June, year six AD; or 06.06.6, or 6.6.6. And another that happened all year round; the curse that is, when the year is 666AD. Does that mean that the whole of 666AD is the year of the Devil? Hmmm.......seems hardly likely that we are still here when the supposed anti-Christ is supposed to destroy humanity.

Which I think is preposterous. One, there is the logic of "There is no evil without good.". The Devil does not exist without God. And God does not exist without humans. If the Devil is to destroy humanity, it is essentially destroying the vessel in which contains the world that the Devil lives in, thus destroying humans, destroys evil, a.k.a. the Devil. Which leads me to another point, this zero sum reductionist arguments for the existance of the Devil points to a decidedly absent God.

So long......

Today is a day that shall live in infamy, for today is the day that after so very long, I have finally posted. But since the world of sporting events has passed me by today, I shan't comment on them lest I make it seem that I am interested in sports, which by the way, I am not. Expecially not football, and expecially not the FIFA World Cup this coming June. I don't know how anyone could be attracted to this boring "game". What's the fun of watching 22 grown ups chasing after a tiny ball in a huge field? It just totally espcades me.

However, let's talk about something else, the Grand Belief. I belief that humans, by nature are evil. This belief coincides with many a philosopher throughout history. Suffice to say that we are who we are just becouse we are born who we are. And the choices we made in our life are by far the most selfish of decisions. Even someone who does things, makes decisions that brings benifits for other people, like monks or priests or charity volunteers, have you ever wonder what drove them?

Greed of course.

"How so?" you may ask. Simple. Why become a monk in the first place, let's take for example. Is it to meditate and fullfill his destiny? Let's take it as it is. Fullfill his destiny. His own destiny, and not others. I don't know about you, but that's greed talking.

Let's take another example; helping people. Do you really wants to help people? Or do YOU wants to feel good about helping people? Ahhh, see, YOU feel good, that's desire! What about helping people to the point of ignoring other people's wishes? That's greed, selfishness and ego all roled into one. That, my friend is pure evil.

I'm boring you guys. Even I had my evil reasons to write this blog. So that people can come and read and leave comments. My ego get's boosted when I see there are comments on this page. I'm egoistic and greedy ain't I? So is the rest of the world.

Popcorn Wednesday: The DaVinci Code

Leonardo DaVinci is my favourite artist of all time.....period and period. End of discussion. He was a genius before I recognised Albert Einstein as his heir. He was a visionary, a dreamer, an engineer, a prolific painter, and many many more multiple slashes abilities. So it was with surprise when I heard sometime ago about a book, a book about DaVinci's code. Which I find quite ridiculous becouze DaVinci of all people is not a very religious man, and by all definations of curious, he is up to a sense, but not to the point of being a detective. So the tale of him spinning a secret message into his paintings is absurd at the most and ridiculously insulting at the very least.


But that does not mean that a movie made in his name would not be a good movie. And I'm hoping against hope that this one, starring Tom Hanks (one of the better actors I must say) and Audrey Tautou (a French beauty, stars in some other French arty movie...pretty lass she is), the movie opens tommorow, so clear your schedules people, I'm going in on Saturday, and I'm not writing a review. Becouse One: millions of people would have written about it to death, and Two: I don't write rosy reviews. If anything, I tend to write sucky reviews, so there. Enjoy the movie tomorrow people, and buy me a popcorn while you're there.

Battle of Britain

"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."

These immortal words were spoken in tribute by Winston Churchill to the Fighter Command of the Royal Air Force in the conclusion of Battle of Britain. His words captures so truthfully the essence and feeling of the people of England whose freedom was defended by several squadron of planes and the indomitable pilots who flew them. They are The Few; the men who risk their lives so that others may live in freedom. Hundreds lose their life in the battle, and none shirked their responsibilities.

A young British pilot, A.V.W. Rosewarne, wrote to his parents shortly before he was killed in 1940: 'Today we are faced with the greatest organized challenge to Cristianity abd civilization that the world has ever seen, and I count myself lucky and honoured to be the right age and fully trained to throw my full weight into the scale. You must not grieve for me, for if you really believe in religion and all that it entails, that would be hypocrasy. I have no fear of death; only a queer elation...

'The Universe is so vast and ageless that the life of one man can only be justified by the measure of his sacrifice. We are sent into this world to acquire a personality and a character...that can never be taken away from us.

'Thus at my early age my earthly mission is already fulfilled. But you will live in peace and freedom and I shall have contributed to that.'

It brought tears to my eyes. A life extinguished in defence of freedom. Salut!

What a week...

I don't know what's gotten into me. Always at this time of the week, I felt reluctant to pen my thoughts here. Maybe it's becouse I'm all grouchy on Monday? Or was it becouse nothing nice ever happens in the world at large on Tuesday? But then again, it could be becouse I did not watch a movie today or buy popcorn on Wednesday.Whatever it is, I did watch a show last night. A sci-fi that goes by the name Stargate SG-1. Currently in it's tenth season (this is old info, it might have ended its run already) and the spin-off in its second. A very popular show that actually received the support and endorsement of the United Stated Air Force, this could be to the USAF what Top Gun is to the US Navy.

Basically, this show premises on the discovery of an ancient device aliens used to travel the galaxy. The USAF then used this device to explore the galaxy in teams of four, encountering various lifeforms and displaced human civilizations. Many become friends, but some turned enemy. As the story progresses, human civilization as a whole grew technologically, and spiritually by the time events in the spin-off, Stargate: Atlantis, occurs.Watch this show and journey into the stars with Stargate!

Celestial Sundays: Eye in the Sky

This week's photo gives a whole new meaning to the old adage of "eye in the sky". Several decades back, "eye in the sky" most probably means spy satellites or surveillance planes. It could still be the meaning now.

However, after seeing this photograph, tell me what you see.
Yep, that's right. It looks suspiciously like a lop-sided mask for Picasso's model. In actual fact, this is the image of two galaxies which are in the process of merging together. Of course, the moment this exact event in the image happened was 140 million years ago, and by all logic, should have ended ages ago, but due to the querks of speed of light, the information has just reached us after travelling a distance of 140 million light years. In all speculation, these two galaxies could probably be a super giant black hole right now, sucking other galaxies into it. We'll know in about 140 million years.....that is, if humans do not kill each other first.

A more complete description follows:
These shape-shifting galaxies have taken on the form of a giant mask. The icy blue eyes are actually the cores of two merging galaxies, called NGC 2207 and IC 2163, and the mask is their spiral arms. The false-color image consists of infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (red) and visible data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (blue/green).

NGC 2207 and IC 2163 met and began a sort of gravitational tango about 40 million years ago. The two galaxies are tugging at each other, stimulating new stars to form. Eventually, this cosmic ball will come to an end, when the galaxies meld into one. The dancing duo is located 140 million light-years away in the Canis Major constellation.
Source: NASA
Image source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI/Vassar

Political Fridays: Election in Singapore

Well, politics. A dirty word. Never stood for anything but vanity, lies, deceit, corruption, power and hypocracy. Something which we will all see....well, at least for those living in and around Singapore, tomorrow. Yes, tommorow is Singapore's General Election. As elections go, the Singapore affair is innocent, if not downright boring. Imagine this; you are running for office, and o and behold, due to the "Popularity of the party you belong to", there is no contestant against you. Hence, you win via walkover. Tell me, is that election or just rubber-stamping of faces?

I think it's the latter. Cheerios for now. I'm going to enjoy the one day public holiday given to us now.

Warring Thursday: Battle of the Coral Sea

USS Lexington seen burning from a cruiser, Minneapolis

Battle of the Coral Sea. There was a movie made to that name. And that name means the first naval engagement where neither side saw the other's naval assets directly. This was also the first battle where aircraft carriers engaged each other. Lessons learned here after the battle with no winners or losers sets the stage for a bigger naval air power battle, Battle of Midway. It also had a movie made after it.

The Battle of the Coral Sea was fought this day, May 4th, 1942 and lasted until May 8th, 1942. A battle which was engaged with the Japanese fleet trying to invade Port Moresby, thus denying the US forces their toehold in a Pacific that has grown dangerous for military espansion. After the battle, the Japanese was denied Port Moresby, and was forced to take Moresby by land. That is another story.

USS Lexington

The players in the Battle of the Coral Sea are aircraft carriers USS Lexington and USS Yorktown and 3 cruisers on the side of the United States. On the Japanese side, they have aircraft carriers Zuikaku, Shokaku and Shoho, one large cruiser and 4 cruisers. The final tally of loss are one carrier, one oiler, one destroyer and 543 American personnels against one carrier, one destroyer and 1074 Japanese personnels. This counts as a Japanse tactical victory, but strategically, with the averted invasion of Port Moresby, American forces were able espand their war effort in the Pacific, relieving troops in battles after this of harsher times. And the rest, are history.

Finally, wars come and go, but stupidity stays eternal. Let us hope that World War Three never starts. Good day people.

Grouchy world against me

No, not really, but these past few days has been abit grouchy for me. Maybe moody would be the right word. Monday, no mood what-so-ever 'coz was watching the entire third season of 3rd Rock From The Sun, in one day! Yeah, that is how so do-not-have-a-life me was doing on Labor's Day. I wacthed until my eyes goes blurry, and I had trouble walking straight. Hmm, must be the Maggi Noodles. Have too much of them, and not enough sun.

Anyway, I've heard nothing interesting on the Net these past few days. Anything of note? People who died? War happening? Remind me to put one up tommorrow. Until then cheerio!