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Saturday, July 21, 2007

Bucky Group 4 - Local, Global and Universe - Penang Hill




The picture says it all, a happy Singapore group with Bucky's famous Geodesic Dome on top of Penang Hill with breathtaking scenery!
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We were there for the “LOCAL, GLOBAL & UNIVERSE - A Tribute to Buckminster Fuller" seminar organised by Penang Tourism Council Action, Suriana Events, BigPictureSmallWorld (USA), Universiti Sains Malaysia, Angkasa (Malaysian National Space Agency), Penang Hill Resident Association and Bellevue-The Penang Hill Hotel.
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Well thank you so much to all those that made this event possible because we enjoyed it thoroughly. It was indeed an environmental awareness and education program for learners of all ages.


The opening address overlooking Penang City and Butterworth on the Peninsula. Of course, we could not see anything of the cities below as the mountain mists decended on us.

Talk about mists, Datuk Sri Lim Chong Kiat the owner of Bellevue Hotel said that Bucky invented a shower that uses mist spray to cleanse the body and this saves water.


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Incidentally, Bellevue Hotel uses a de-ionised water system called Tamura Water. No soap or detergent is needed to wash your body and your hair. The de-ionised water even cleans kitchen grease. The Bellevue kitchen washes all its plates and crockery just with water and a cotton cloth. That way, no chemicals are discharged into the water system.


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I showered in the hotel's water system without soap and true enough felt it to be very refreshing and clean. Not satisfied, a few of us put the water to the ultimate tests, by washing our fingers with only their water after eating durains!!! :) True enough, even the durains smell went off! That was impressive!


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One of the main activity of the weekend was World Game. It was a scaled down version of the game and was also customised for the high school students.
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Bucky said, "Perspective is more important than Knowledge".

This seems to be the message in the World Game.
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We started with the World Map. The one which we are usually fed with is the following...

This is not a very accurate one. For instance, the island of Greenland is almost bigger than the entire South America. This inaccuracy is the result of trying to put a spherical surface on a flat piece of paper.
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The Dymaxion map, made of many equilateral triangles is a more accurate representation of the world map. Here, South America is a lot bigger than Greenland. And look at the size of Antartica, which is usually even forgotten!




The standard size of the Dymaxion Map for the World Game is a lot bigger. This is a cut down version due to constraint of space. We carried out this activity in a Hindu Temple Hall on Penang Hill.


As the Game proceeded, the participants got to experience the feeling of the size of the world, its demographics, wealth distribution and commonly disproportionate representation by the Western World.

It's through games like these that the next generations of young people will have a better perspective of the world, its problems and the resources to solve them to make the world young again!

In between the World Game sessions, we had a meeting with Dr Medard Gabel, the facilitator of the Game. Dr Gabel said he is very impressed with the enthusiasm of the Bucky Group in Singapore and that he is now inspired to think of what he can do to promote the principles of Bucky's philosophies in Singapore and the region. After a short brainstorm, we came to the conclusion that perhaps we should focus on spreading the awareness of Bucky's Generalised Principles. Bucky's Generalised Principles are principles that works across different human categorised disciplines. Bucky believes that in the Universe there is only one system, not different systems obeying different laws. We are now working on how we can organise seminars based on Bucky's Generalised Principles.

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That means, from the vastness of the Universe and the minutest sub-atomic 'particle' that we are studying, they all obey the same laws under one system. As we understand more about the Universe, how stars in the cosmos expands and create new elements and it is the same types of elements that make earth and our bodies, we know that we can understand the Universe by understanding ourselves. That is, the understanding of the smallest 'particle' will enable us to understand the vast Universe better. Therein, now comes the subject of "Quantum Cosmology", which at first glance would sound like an oxymoron term of two contradicting terms. That was what Prof Mazlan Othman from Angkasa said.

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In the evening, we spent our time star gazing. Had the opportunity to see planet Jupiter and three of its moons and also planet Venus using the telescopes. It was so relaxing gazing at into the skies. At some point, I became entirely immersed into the universe and forgot about my physical presence. In those brief moments, I became one with all.

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For more pixs of this Penang Hill trip, click here

Past Posts: Usury, Usury 2 - World Game, Usury 2a - World Game, Usury 2b - World Game Bucky Group, Bucky Group 2

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