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Like to listen to what goes on behind the scenes in film making or acting straight from an actor? Click here.

A Reunion Dinner with a secret to hide. Click here.

Have you taken all the modern comforts for granted? Behind every modern device there is the technology and with them comes the management and risks. Interested to find out what goes on below the hood? Click here.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Face Reading


Dr Aaron Lim - once upon a time in the Universe :)


Just back from a one-day seminar on "Face Reading" by Dr Aaron Lim in Malacca. We had a splendid time, both from the seminar and also gallavanting the streets of Malacca the day before.

For more pixs of our trip, click here
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[Note: The following notes are written from the first person perspective, as if Dr Aaron is speaking. However, it is not exactly ad verbatim, as I have written them based on my sketches, scribbles and memory.

The face feature interpretations are deliberately obscured in these notes. This is not a teaser to get you to pay up the fees and attend the class, but because a little knowledge derived just from the written word sans tutor, can be dangerous. To get a fuller and more complete appreciation of face reading, it is best you attend the course. The course is very cheap, as Dr A teaches this not for the money. (See later.) Sorry, I know it is a anti-climax here, but I think I would rather err on the safe side.

Ok, may be just mention of the 'juicier' parts! :) See later...]

It has been a long time since I did this course on "Face Reading", as I did not want to teach things that you may end up too reliant on, and create superstition. Superstition is based on fear. It is easier to make money by teaching fear. Many people make lots of money from teaching fear, few make money by teaching love. I teach this course to help you to understand yourself.

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Unlike many other seminars on this subject, this course is not about fortune telling. It is not about "You are what you are now because of your facial features." Conversely, it is about, "Your facial features are like that because of what what you think." So, the cause is your thoughts.

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1. Thoughts are 'things'.

This is the first thing you need to know. From thoughts come forms or 'things'. Your face is form and therefore is a 'thing'. Your face comes from your thoughts. You are here to understand the cause - that is, your thoughts - that has created this face of yours.

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Again, this is not a course to teach you how to make more money! Not about your fortune as told from your face. You already have the best fortune there is, which is your smile. When you meet someone, first smile, then say "hello", then stretch out your hand, then say "thank-you". Fortune will follow if you live like this.

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Thoughts are the centre of our lives. Learning what stones to put in which corner of your house, the orientation of your house, shape of your garden...etc, are peripherals. Put the 'centre' in the centre; and NOT the 'peripheral' in the centre, and the 'centre' in the peripheral.

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Until you were born, you didn't have a face. Then your thoughts created your facial features when you were born. So your face changed according to your thoughts, until you are 25 years old, when the bone structure are crystalised.

To change your life, you need to change the invisible - the beginning of the beginning or th beginning...

My quick sketch whilst Dr A was talking...

I grew up in a Malay kampung (village). Kampung houses are elevated on stilts and most people have wooden staircases leading up to their houses. My house has a concrete staircase, so we kids love to sit there and talk.

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Everyone would be enjoying the chat until someone mentioned the word "Hantu" (ghost) and we would freeze for a few seconds. Then surely one of us will tell us of a story, and usually one they have not experienced themselves, but "heard from someone else who heard from someone else...".


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Then as the stories got scarier, we all got more afraid until we would think that there was one next to us... and then one of us would scream and we would all run away. So you see, from 'nothing', we started this crazy idea that became 'something'.

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2. You can only change Yourself.

You cannot change anyone else but yourself. By changing your thoughts, you change yourself. Be like water. Water adapts to the shape of its receptacle without changing itself.

3. No Judgement

Nothing is 'good' or 'bad'. Look at the world as 'it is'.

4. Everything is Relative

For instance, if you say something is 'beautiful' - it is beautiful compared to 'what' or 'who'? Nothing is absolute. In face reading, compare within your race. If you are of mixed race, then use the dominant race.

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[Personal note: Cross race comparison is possible. From there, you get general racial characteristics. But know that you are generalising.]

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5. All Humans are Social Beings. No one is an island

Your success is partly due to contributions by others. Be grateful to their contributions. Say 'thank you'.

6. Everybody with no exception, wants to be loved and to love

Whoever, standing in front of you wants to be loved the way they are. Ok, careful, it's not necessarily about romantic love or wanting to make love with you! [amid chuckles!]

Ah, remember don't comment about other people's bodies. You are not going to get away with it. For instance, I was in Sarawak for a seminar and I hugged this lady. Her first comment was, "Wah! Your tummy so big!" [Chuckles]

Anyway, for this course, we are only going to look at the face, not the body. For body, there is another course called "Body reading". [Murmurs of interest heard from the audience already!]

Face vs Facial Expressions

Don't confuse facial expression with facial structure. Expression can mask the person's personality easily. Especially if you are an actor and have been to charm school.

Also, when you analyse or measure a face, that person should be as expressionless as possible. Imagine if you are being photographed when you are arrested. That is the type of photo that will tell the features accurately.

For instance, a lady student came to tell me that when she was dating, the boyfriend (and now husband) couldn't get his hands off her. They are always very physical, but now he doesn't seem to like being together. On the couch, she would like to sit next to him to cuddle and he would typically say, "Aiya, the sofa is so big, why don't you sit over there!" The girl will tend to think that he doesn't love her anymore, but he could be just a different nature. And his facial feature showed that he is the physically cold type of person who needs distance. So do not confuse between facial expressions and hormones. These come and go, but the facial features tell more accurately about a person's natural behaviour and thoughts.

Features

We studied the lines on the forehead, the shape of the forehead, the shape of the eye brows, the distance between the eye brow and the eye, the broadness of the nose, the lines from the nose to the side of the mouth, the shape and thickness of the lips, the shape of the jaw, the proportion of the distance of the eye with the length of the face, the broadness of the filtrum and the shape of the ear.


Eye brow and forehead


Distance of eyes to each other and distance of eye brow to eye



Shape of the jaw and shape of the face (which does not matter)


Square jaw - someone who will dig in his heels when challenged




Proportiion of length and breadth of face


Line from face nose to edge of lip

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Thickness of lips

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Broadness of filtrum

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Shape of ear lobe (see arrow)

Let's talk about Sex

Generally (and remember it is general), the darker skin races have a stronger sex drive. Thicker lower lips and deeper filtrum means stronger sex drive. Eye brows close to eye mean that the person is a naturally warm person, they love to hug and be hugged. They don't need much time to warm up against another person. A person with a 'high brow' far from eye does not necessarily mean that he is not loving, he can be loving, but just that he naturally needs the space in between people first and takes time to warm up.

A person with rounded/curved forehead (side profile) is a more spontaneous person, I guess that helps in sex, compared to one who is super-logical and analytical during sex.

Ear lobes: The part that is arrowed (see pix above) - if it is a rounded U-shape turn, the person needs shorter time to be aroused sexually and conversely if it is V-shape turn, the person needs a longer time to be aroused.

So which is better? Longer time or shorter time?

[Class shouting out loud: There is no better or not. There is no good or no bad! (amid laughter)]

Good, I nearly got you for this one. Yes, there is no 'good' or 'bad'. Everything is relative and there is no judgement, but just to see things as they are.

It just helps you to understand that we are all different by nature and there is nothing personal if one party is not so interested in sex. It doesn't mean that the man does not love his wife or girlfriend if he is not so interested in sex.

All the rules above must be applied together. For instance if you get someone with square jaw but long face, it means that though he has a strong determination to face challenges, but his motivation and support has to come from outside to start him off.

Personal Notes:

I find the rules apply to me very accurately accept for two rules, namely: the proportion of the length of the face to the breadth of the edges of the eyes; and the lines from the nose to the edges of the lips. Perhaps I continue to change after the age of 25 years old. By that time, the bone structure would have already crystalised.

As it was said before, this course is meant for you to understand yourself, and is not for fortune telling.

The day passed quickly whilst we were having fun. Thank you Ruby for organising the whole seminar.

Exercise 1:

Get a photo, and join the left half with the laterally inverted left half. This is your face showing your "learned you".

Likewise, join the right half of the photo with its laterally inverted right half. This is your face showing the "Real you".

Exercise 2:

Turn to the news on tv and watch the newsreader's features. Try it for news from different language channels.

Exercise 3:

People watching. Sit by a cafe along a busy mall and watch people.


Coming up?? 'Body-Reading' seminar coming, probably also in Malacca.

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Thursday, September 20, 2007

Kids Play 6 - Maths



(Got this story from an email. Don't know the source, but whoever he (or she is) a "big thank you" for such an amusing story.)

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Once upon a time, there was a little boy who was very weak in mathematics in class. He hated the subject and his results in the subject was very very bad. The mother had hired maths tutors, brought him books to aid him, brought him to child psychologists, etc, but they did not make any difference to the child.

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Then someone advised her to enrol in a nearby Catholic school which was known for turning weak students into gems. As her mother had exhausted all other avenues, she thought, "Why not? There is nothing to lose." So she enrolled him in the school.

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After the first day from the Catholic school, the little boy came back home, greeted his mum and went straight upstairs to his room to study. Not a noise. He only came out of his room for dinner and after dinner again went upstairs to his room to study. The mother was impressed!

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The next day, the same thing happened. Straight from school, went upstairs to study, came out only for dinner and then back to studies. This went on for days after days, and soon, it was the first maths test in the Catholic school.

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When the results were out, the son came back took the report card gave it to his mum and without a word again went upstairs to study. The mum looked at his report card and was amazed to find that he scored a 100 marks for the maths test! It was a miracle! "What did the school do that made the change?" she wondered.

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So she went upstairs to the little boy's room to asked him,
"Son, what happened in school? How did you get such good marks all of a sudden?"

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The little boy replied, "On my first day in school hall, when I saw this man nailed to the plus sign on the wall, I knew they meant business!"

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Past posts: Kids Play, Kids Play 2, Kids Play 3, Kids Play 4, Soar above the clouds, Kids Play 5

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Daily Contemplation

I got this email today about subscribing to "Dailiy Contemplation" - a free email service of wise sayings each day. Incidentally, I have already subscribed to it for over a year and have found it very inspiring over that period.




An Invitation To Subscribe

Begin and create your new day consciously

with

DAILY CONTEMPLATION

A FREE email service

from


"Bodhi Fellowship / Center For Inner Peace"
( http://www.bodhifellowship.org/)

to inspire and empower you to live a spiritually-centered
and loving life.

To receive your free copy every day, simply send an email to: http://us.f565.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=subscribe@bodhifellowship.org
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Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Efficiency

Those of you who have lived in Singapore will understand what I am talking about. Efficiency drives are everywhere. Sometimes it is so efficient, it all happens and end without you noticing. I experience some of these yesterday in the food centre. I was enjoying my bowl of noodles. Then halfway, I got up to go to the wash basin. Just less than 10 seconds and the cleaners took my bowl away.
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Food centres should train their cleaners that efficiency and honesty are not enough. Instead, they should be looking out to serve customers, rather than bent on completing their task.
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I found this funny video on YouTube. Enjoy!
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Monday, September 17, 2007

Technology 3 - Personal Rapid Transit

During the hippie years in Oxford, England, there was the white bicycle system. These whitebicycles (literally painted white) are for everyone's use. When you see one you pick them up, ride them and leave them where you stopped. This bike will then be picked up by someone else to be used and left somewhere else. Then someone else who needs a bike will in turn pick up the bike to go somewhere... and the story goes on.
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What if we apply a closely similar system to cars? That means, for a very small fare, you pick up the car, drive to where you want to go and leave the car to be used by someone else. This way, you can enjoy the comforts and convenience of a private car, without owning one or even renting one. In short, it is a public transport of cars.
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Some of you may think that this is but a pipe dream. It won't be possible, as who will take care of the cars, or that it won't be a feasible system for mass transportation.
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Now enter, electric cars, computers, simple guide ways and an automated fare system and you get a Personal Rapid Transit (PRT). The technology is already here and now. And I met up with the inventor recently and he showed me this video...

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These cars run on electricity and are piloted by a central computer system. Unlike mass rapid transits and light rail transits, these cars are independent of their tracks. Hypothetically, they can operate as electric cars on conventional roads. However, when operated within the PRT the car movements are monitored by the central computer, their speed calculated and interactivity synchronised across junctions to regulate smooth traffic flow. That means, no more traffic lights!!! The guide ways, which are just normal roads with embedded transponders will be able to take more cars at close proximities to each other, than in conventional roads.
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The advantages of the PRT system are that it is a cheaper, nimbler, quicker and more convenient mode of transport. It negates the need to own private transport and if it succeeds in doing so, will save the world a lot of carbon-dioxide emissions; at the same time improve the quality of life for the masses.
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Does it all add up?
Yes! PRT can transport the masses faster and cheaper than mass rapid transit (MRT) and buses. It doesn't need a regular schedule as in buses. When not in use, it stays stationary, unlike MRTs and buses that must make their loss-making rounds during the off-peak hours. When in use, it only move the number of cars needed, unlike MRTs and buses which have to move their mon0lithic whole consuming more fuel. So PRTs make economic sense. It is counter-intuitive to mass transportation, but it serves the masses well.
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Post scriptum:

I got a reader comment/contribution on some relevant links on YouTube:

Ultra PRT

A PRT Project Presentation


PRT in Korea?

PRT in West Virginia

PRT in Brisbane, Australia?

Nissan electric car demo

Who killed the electric car?

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Bucky Group 9 - Love


Movie
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This week we continue with the documentary movie series on Happinesss - with "Schopenhauer on Love". While love is central to our lives, surprising few philosophers write about the subject leaving it mostly to poets and composers. Schopenhauer born in 1788 in Germany is one of the rare few.
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The documentary focused on marriage and romantic love and opine that human beings largely go into marriage for the purpose of propagating the species. During that courtship, subconsciously couples select physical features of their mates that will complement and improve on their dificiencies - such that they will produce healthier babies. For instance, a very tall guy may choose a shorter wife for fear that if he does otherwise, he may end up with children who are too tall to survive. In other words during courtship, biology is stronger than reason, and it all works on us sub-consciously.
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Since it is all so subconscious and we get ourselves so engrossed in the selection of mates to produce healthy babies, we forget that this may not bring us lifetime happiness. On the contrary, many couples get into matrimony with expectations that it is a route to their happiness.
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Looking at the animal kingdom, they too have their instinct to propagate their species. However, they do not do it merely to produce offsprings and have no expectations of happiness. Should human beings take a lesson from the animal kingdom? Or at least we should go into a marriage with our eyes open that we are strongly guided by our subsconscious need to propagate our species rather than all the fantasies of romance and everlasting happiness. [movie ends here].
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Discussions
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One of the participants mentioned of an experiment that had photographs of married couples mixed in a pile and had ordinary people who doesn't know any of the couples pair them up based on their looks. Surprisingly, they managed to pair the husbands and wives correctly to a very high score. Evidence, that married couples have complementary facial features. Or is it that they tend to look alike after living together for sometime?
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Joo Hock then said that some dogs grow to look like their masters after some time - much to everyone's laughter.
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It was said that many Singaporeans marry because they want to buy a HDB flat (public housing), as only married couples are qualified to buy. And so they get married because of the dwelling. If it is any consolation, animals do that too! Birds, for instance, build a beautiful nest to attract their females to live with them. So this mating/courtship rituals are already very much built into our instincts.
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Here's some worthy parts of our discussions... that happiness comes from within...
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And about egg nests...
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So once again, sitting on swivel salon chairs, surrounded by mirrors, perm stylers and shampoo bottles, we finished another worthy session of the Bucky Group with a "Whoosh!"
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Past Posts:
Bucky Group 8 - Self Esteem,
Bucky Group 7 - Thinking Out of the Box,
Bucky Group 6 - Specialisation,
Bucky Group 5 - Independent Thinking,
Bucky Group 4 - Local, Global and Universal-Penang Hill,
Bucky Group 2,
Bucky Group,Usury 2b - World Game,
Usury 2a - World Game,
Usury 2 - World Game,Usury,

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Buck Group 8 - Self Esteem

In the old communist Eastern Europe, revolutions were born in cafes and pubs. Here in Singapore, the Bucky 'revolution' happens in this tiny hair salon where Joo Hock serves. This is the place where we gather on Saturday mornings for our Bucky education, before the salon starts its business.
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This week we watched a documentary movie on "Self Esteem", based on the thoughts of Monsieur Michel de Montagne who retired at the age of 38 to become a full-time philosopher in France. He mentioned particularly about people who has a complex about their own bodies, leading to their loss of self-esteem and also that formal education, even in the elite Oxbridge colleges don't teach students about how to become wise. Michel call such graduates mere 'blockheads' and opined that it is possible to be wise without formal education.
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I feel that some of the points brought up in the movie are perhaps more of a lesson to Europeans who are overly conscious about their body and its natural functions like farting or making other noises whilst in the toilet closets. Asians tend to be more natural about those processes. Perhaps even a little too easy about them. So, you get a fart here, a spit there...etc.
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This lead to Joo Hock's Teochew poem that goes...
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Translation...
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The Farter is the gentleman
The Laugher is the small man
Fart is bodily gas
Not farting will injure the body
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(You are allowed to laugh at this poem...)
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I had once taught in a local polytechnic. In my classes, my lessons were mainly experiential.
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In my exams, I refused to have multiple choice questions as I have rarely encountered (if at all) any problem in my life that has four multiple choice answers with one of them correct and three others definitely wrong. Instead, most of the time, all the answers are wrong, and it is up to us to make it as right as possible.
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Also, all my questions are scenario based. The scenario is described in the question and the students are to describe how they are going to solve the problem. So it could start as : "What is the question, given this scenario?" or rather, "What is the problem?" or "Where is the problem?"
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I had also taken great pains in conducting oral interviews with each student individually, to let them learn how their suggested answers to the problems measure up.
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Sadly, after a year, I was ejected out of the course. The students complained in the feedback forms that I didn't know how to teach. So, it didn't pay going the extra mile to make the students think. Incidentally, my favourite lecturer from another polytechnic quit in frustration. He said that the system encourages teachers to take the safe route by giving easy lessons and easy exams. *sigh* No wonder we produce 'blockheads'!
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Here's the new Bucky Group T-Shirt...






The Bucky Group meets every week:

Saturdays:

8-10am at Hair Affair, Basement 1, The Adelphi, Opposite Funan IT Mall, Singapore

Breakfast, book reading/movie, discussions and brunch

Sundays:

7-9.30am at MacRitchie Reservoir

Jogging, book reading and discussion and breakfast

All welcome. No membership and no payment required. Agreement and belief is not necessary. Just turn up with an open mind to explore.





Past Posts:
Bucky Group 7 - Thinking Out of the Box,

Bucky Group 6 - Specialisation,
Bucky Group 5 - Independent Thinking,
Bucky Group 4 - Local, Global and Universal-Penang Hill,
Bucky Group 2,Bucky Group,
Usury 2b - World Game,
Usury 2a - World Game,
Usury 2 - World Game,Usury,

Friday, September 07, 2007

Usury 3 - Renewable Energies



Just back from the Arab-Asian Financial Forum. The Forum is about Islamic Banking and financing, held in the lovely Palace of the Golden Horses in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This year, there is special mention on environmental technologies and renewable energies, which was quite a surprised given that most of the Arab nations are major oil producing countries. Just a year ago at the same conference, renewable energy investments were objected explicitly.
. The Palace


I was there to talk about providing clean drinking water for the rural folks in the region and also to convert domestic waste to electricity. While most of us take clean drinking water for granted, there are some in the neighbouring countries that are not as lucky. In fact, every ten seconds, about two persons die because of consuming unclean water somewhere in the world.

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Two local residents of a Sumatran landfill site
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Environmental technologies go on very well with the objectives of Islamic Banking - which is to finance projects that are beneficial to both investor and investees, and not for profit maximisation. In Islamic Banking, both the investor and investee share the business risks together - and in the case of environmental technologies, they go beyond benefiting the investor-investee to include also the community, the animal kingdom and plant life.


For more of my travel pixs of the palace, click here.

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Monday, September 03, 2007

Bucky Group 7 - Thinking out of the Box


From: Joo Hock
Date: 8/27/2007 10:49:20 AM
To: undisclosed-recipients:,

Subject: Bucky Gp - Can man ever design a computer .....

Dear Fullerenes,
Can humans ever invent a computer, that can think outside the box? This was the challenging question posed by Chia Siew in our discussion on Sunday at MacRitchie, as we were reading Bucky's "Utopia or Oblivion" Bucky said possibly never, or at least not for a long long time.
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It seemed impossible, however Bucky also said: "Only the impossible happens" It was a very stimulating discussion, as Chia Siew maintained her position that one day it would possible for the computer to be cleverer, than man.
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Hmmmm........
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What do you think?

From: Michael
To: Joo Hock
Subject: Re: Bucky Gp - Can man ever design a computer .....

Dear Fullerenes

Conventional computers are single processor and are purely logic based. Multi-processors 'think' faster but only logically.

However, there is AI (Artificial Intelligence).

AI can be applied in hardware or in software.

In AI, there is an INPUT, a Rules Engine, and an Inference Engine. These three operate fairly independently.
Some conventional computers apply this. The difference is that AI operates with 'back-chaining'.

We all have experienced 'back-chaining' reasoning processes when we visit our doctors.
When the doctor sees us, he will listen to what symptoms we have and suspect that we have caught (say) flu. Then he will ask questions pertinent to flu. If most of the questions are right, then we have flu. This is back-chaining.

In forward chain reasoning, the doctor will academically have to take an infinite number of bio-data about you. E.g.. Height, blood samples, color or eye, temperature, blood pressure, what you ate for the day, ...etc., then conclude that you have (say) flu.

With back-chaining, the computer does its own reasoning. For those who are technical, it is basically performing a search in a knowledge tree. After the whole process, the computer will also learn from its mistakes/successes and update its knowledge tree.

Now the million dollar question - Can future computers think out of the box?

Well based on back-chaining reasoning and knowledge trees or neural networks (another way of storing information and traversing information) then probably not. This is because the computer cannot think outside the information tree, even though the knowledge has been learned by the computer itself.

To think out-of-the-box, the computer needs to be inspired.

To be in-spired, the computer needs to be "in spirit". Does a computer have a spirit?

In theosophy, we learn that all things have life, albeit some of the commonly called non-living things are mere lower life forms.
For instance, sand grains have life forms, otherwise the silica in it would not be able to help the computer to store information.

Taking this further, we also learn in theosophy that all objects in the Universe stores information. This is the Law of Archarsha, one of the 105 Universal Laws that governs the Universe. This universal record is called the Archarshic Records. Those who are in One with All, can access these Records and know ALL.

Psychics can go into a room and touch the walls and know the room's history of events. But this is still based on the psychic's ability and not the walls (lower life form).

So, I guess my answer would be no.

Besides, do we want or need a computer to think out-of-the-box. It will be good enough if we can get humans to do it.

Mic
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Selling Fear Part 4 - Turning the Other Cheek



Old people are not easy to handle. Despite my good intentions and effort to secure an appointment with the massage auntie (a famous one) for my mother, she refused to come along. She said she is afraid of the pain even though she acknowledged that it did helped her the last time. *sigh* All my efforts went to waste - taking time off my schedule and going out of the way to take her there.
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It is difficult for depressive people to look at the bright side of life. To compound matters, it is easy for people around these depressive people to look at the dark side of life, to focus on the darkness and get depressed themselves. Such a fatal downward spiral. Like they say, if you can't beat them, join them! haha.
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However, there has been a turnaround lately. After the arrival of my little niece, my mother has been enlivened. She said that it is very amusing to see the little baby's face and hold her little finger. At last, there is some light cast on her life again!
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It is like she has turned the other cheek - turning away from facing fear (the fear of dying) - to facing love (the love for my little niece). Isn't it amazing? Once light is shone, the shadows automatically disappears. We can't make the shadows disappear by focusing on the shadows. Fear are the shadows in our lives. If we focus on love, fear disappears.


Past posts: Selling Fear, Selling Fear - Part 2, Selling Fear - Part 3, Growing old...