Kyoto is Beautiful this time of year

Have not had the time yet to edit the photos.

I might load it up on Flickr soon.

8.45am

I spent all night trading the DAX and DOW and repeatedly breaking my own trading rules, with predictables results.

Then this comes to me.

It is a profound truth that in the end, no one will remember you. All the great and wonderful deeds that you have done or will have done will be forgotten.

One day no one will remember the name of Bach, Tallis, and all the other great and amazing people because no one will be alive.

Everyone has to die sometime. Even our Sun will die. One day.

Singapore justice system - enter the spider web

https://sonofadud.com/2016/03/02/shanmugam-defames-a-dead-child-and-calls-ls-president-thio-shen-yi-black/

I think most people are familiar with the case of the 14 year old boy who was accused by the police and then committed suicide. This site explains

Is it a surprise that the gahmun uses intimidation and strong arm tactics ?

Its like petting a tiger and wondering how your arm just got bitten off. Oh so THAT'S what those sharp teeth can do.

Singapore is all about efficiency - this is an example of how it works here.

Welcome to Singapore.

Christianity, the Bible and self-loathing

The Bible is a book. Its actually a collection of poems, laws, letters written by individuals - all from the same culture and race. The problem is that human beings have elevated a book written 2,000 -3,000 years ago to a sacred holy text.

God wrote it. It's God'd breathed. Its the WORD of GOD!!!!

There are a number of peculiar and even upsetting things written in the bible. But we as Christians are told to switch off our brain and believe. Its called Faith. I'd rather call it abuse of power.

God or our Creator gave all of us brains. Brains to think. Brains to reason. I don't see how switching that god given part of ourselves off and relying on faith is suppose to help - esp when it involves causing the unnecessary suffering of other people.

For too long partners in marriage, for example, are forced to stick with their spouses and live unhappy lives til the day they die. Life is too short for this sort of rubbish.

We also cannot go on living under the shadow of self-loathing. What the bible calls sin - is quite likely our natural desires. We all need to eat, sleep, work, have sex. But preachers - church leaders often condemn our desires as ungodly, carnal desires. Then a lot of them go behind closed doors and do what they preach against. lol.

I think so long as we operate under the principle - "respect others as you yourself desired to be respected" than its ok.

What I find appalling is that a lot of Christians becoming conceited proud people - quick to judge, quick to take offence. How can a religion of love, peace, and forgiveness produce arseholes? It doesn't make sense.

Taharrush gamea: Rape Game

http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/01/its-not-only-germany-that-covers-up-mass-sex-attacks-by-migrant-men-swedens-record-is-shameful/

Clash of cultures. In some cultures women are to be silent, unheard, unseen - kept under lock and key by male guardians; a woman walking alone unescorted by a male guardian is fair game. When the people who believe in this anarchic belief system enter into a liberal western society - its like introducing wolves into a colony of naive bunnies.

A distance far away

In a distance far away
Lies the end of our dreams
As we approach it seems farther away

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/01/10/when-you-fall-in-love-with-a-stripper.html?source=TDB&via=FB_Page

Eunoia - its Greek to me

I'm not sure why the Ministry of Education chose the word "Eunoia" for the name of the name college.

According to http://www.vocabula.com/vrbestwords.asp

eunoia (yoo-NOH-ee-ah) — It comes from a Greek word meaning "well mind" or "beautiful thinking." It is also a rarely used medical term referring to a state of normal mental health. In rhetoric, eunoia is the goodwill a speaker cultivates between himself and his audience, a condition of receptivity. In book eight of Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle uses the term to refer to the kind and benevolent feelings of goodwill a spouse has which form the basis for the ethical foundation of human life (from Wikipedia). 

This word is the shortest world in the english language that contains all 5 vowels. It means beautiful thinking, or as a medical term it means a healthy mind. I first found it in Aristotle's Nichomechean Ethics in book 8. Nichomechean ethics was written as a guide to Aristotle's son as to how to achieve a happy life, the good life. Book 8 focusses on friendship and eunoia is one of the bases needed for a trusting friendship between husband and wife. I think it's a beautiful sounding word, with a beautiful meaning and story.

Frankly they might as well have chosen Oxford, Cambridge Or Harvard. I suspect the Singaporean parents would have been delighted by those three other choices.

I'm still not sure why a Greek name was chosen - its not as if the govt appreciates the finer points of ancient Greek life - like debate or democracy very much.

I think a better choice would have been "Trinity" - a name that some of the school kids were advocating. That seemed more fitting since three schools were joining together for this effort.