Ytterbium?

One of my pastimes is to solve The Age's word puzzle with my wife everyday – a correct word from nine alphabets arranged in a 3-by-3 format. Yesterday’s  

 

R	M	T
Y	B	U
T	I	E

Both of us couldn't figure the word out. We woke up this morning to find the correct answer was YTTERBIUM.

Never heard of such a word! I went on-line to do a search. 

I took a liking of it instantly!

Ytterbium is an element in the rare earth family. Its atomic number is 70. What I love about this new knowledge is this: It is designated Yb. I am also an YB! Friends tend to introduce me as YB to people whom we meet for the first time. Many thought I was a datuk or the likes, since YB has always been an acronym for "Yang Berhormat" in Malaysia! I must confess I do enjoy being called YB! 

Me a Yang Berhormat? What a fake!!!

A little footnote: A non-politician datuk or Tan Sri is usually not addressed as Yang Berhormat; I believe the right honorific is Yang Berbahagia. Only members of parliament or state legislative assemblies are addressed as Yang Berhormat, regardless whether they are datuk/Tan Sri or not.

This is Malaysia's Pagoh, not Germany!

I now go to Singapore sometimes as often as twice a month, each time for a week or so. In between meetings, I usually swung by Kuala Lumpur, since idling away in a hotel room in Singapore is a torture to me. Moreover, over in Malaysia, I have my own pad - a cosy apartment in Saujana Resort - and a toy car which I need to spin around a little from time to time to prevent battery failure.

I didn't feel like catching a flight today. There are two coach companies in the building where my principal's office is. I decided to try out First Coach.

 

The coach pulled out of its station punctually. Traffic at both the immigration checkpoints was a breeze. (Notwithstanding, some people were still trying to beat fellow travelers to the counters; very cheeena in behaviour indeed!)

 

R&R at Pagoh, Johor, Malaysia

The coach stopped at Pagoh's R&R lay-by for a twenty minute break. The modest eatery there was a pleasant surprise! The tables were spotlessly clean! No flies!!! The staff displayed the highest level of service etiquette and hygiene - the cutlery was dry and the food was pretty good. Peeping into the kitchen, I could see that the food-preparation staff even had had their gloves on! This eatery can put even the food courts in Singapore to shame! Chinese hawkers the world over should go there to learn the ABCs of public hygiene!

I did have a complaint, though - I asked for "Tea-O-kosong"; what was served had sugar in it. Sweet-toothness is still very much a part of us! 

Another surprise: the young lady manning the counter at the mini-market could speak good English - not the Fellali variety you hear so often nowadays! Oh, I forgot to mention Pagoh is part of Muar, where I hail from. No wonder!

19 August 2013

 

One Man's View of The World

Koreans have Mongols' DNA!
I learned something reading from LKY's One Man's View of the World. The Koreans have the Mongols' bloodline! I knew that part - Yuan generals and admirals were preparing an all out assault on Japan from the Korean Peninsula some time in the 1200s. It is generally believed in Japan that the country was saved by "divine" winds, but some recent researchers argue that Japan has to thank disgruntled Chinese for constructing sub-standard ships for the serviced of their new masters. It didn't occur to me that the Mongols also left their genes in Korea! (Interesting indeed but not surprising though; after all, one in eight in Central Asia can claim to be a descendant of the great khan!)

The Incredible Birds at Orchard Road!

I always wonder, why very few birds on the trees that line Singapore's Orchard Road soil the walkways below - where tens of thousands (70% Indonesians and 20% Filipinos?) throng every night? (Elsewhere, you are sure to be hit on the head. Yak, it is so slimy!) I can only surmise this, even the birds in Singapore listen to (or fear?) LKY.

Face of a crook

 

The silly me fell prey to a "robbed and stranded" message from Manila in my mailbox. Fearing for the well-being of my good friend Mr Chan Teck Kee and his family, I lost no time in sending AUD2K through Western Union to him. It didn't dawn upon me that this was a scam until the crook got too greedy. He emailed me for more the next morning. I thought I could recover the money from Western Union since there was no way someone could identify himself as Teck Kee to collect the money. The real Teck Kee was in Singapore all that time. There must be some collusion going on between Western Union's paying agent in Manila and the crook, so I thought. I promptly took the matter up with VCAT (Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal).

I lost the case; Western Union was able to show that the chap who collected the money did produce a bona fide photo ID!

Do take a good look at the face. This is the face that has been conning people everywhere!!! Apparently he is still very much up to his tricks in the Philippines. To my Filipino friends, do something to stop this non-Filipino looking crook from tarnishing the good name of your country!!!

 

Sharira - What is that?

A friend asked if I could approach some of my wealthier contacts to see if any of them was interested to acquire a collection of 舍利子.There were seven of them and he was convinced that the relics were genuine. The figure mentioned was mind-boggling – in hundreds of million RMB. He even sent me an article about an auction do for such a relic to support his claim.

That was the first time I heard about this stuff. I turned to my good friend KM Chee, whom I can always count on for advice for such matters, to enlighten me.

"舍利子”is called "Sharira" in Buddhism or in the Sanskrit language. Apparently, they are crystals that remain behind after a body has been cremated. Most monks and even those who are strictly on a vegetarian diet and pursuing spiritual development would also leave behind crystals when their bodies are cremated. The collection of 舍利子 that my contact was referring to is said to be from the cremation of Sakyamuni Buddha after his passing to Nirvana!

Out of curiosity, I wrote to another friend in China. She said these relics could not be sold or bought; they had to be “song” (送) or gifted. I also surfed the net for more of it. I was surprised that there were so many websites talking about it.

I always thought simplicity is the hallmark of this religion. How wrong I have been! I sure have learned a great deal from all these.

Humanism

I was reading "The God Argument" by A C Grayling who is the professor of Philosophy and master of London's New College of the Humanities. His latest book consists of two parts: (a) Against Religion and (b) For Humanism. I suppose many will not share his argument on the former; however, his argument on the latter touches me greatly. I would like to share the following excerpts with you...

"Cicero in his De Senectute (On Old Age) held that people should be free to think for themselves, because they possess rights; but at the same time they should be conscious that their rights define their responsibilities to others. Our ethics should be premised, he said, on the fact that all humanity is brotherhood: 'There is nothing so like anything else as we are to one another,' he wrote in On Laws; 'the whole foundation of the human community' consists in the bonds between people, which should reside in 'kindness, generosity, goodness and justice'. The possession of reason places on individuals a duty to develop themselves fully, and to treat others with respect and generosity. These ideas are the essence of humanism today."

"Ideas of a distinctively humanist stamp are however not restricted to the Western tradition. Equally ancient in their roots, they are central to Confucianism and the tradition of non-theistic ethical schools of India."

"That the human good is for human responsibility to discern and enact, without reliance upon, or invocation of, any of the many religions which claim a transcendental source of authority, and posthumous rewards or punishments for obeying or failing to obey."

Batavia by Peter Fitzsimons

Friends who are interested in maritime history may want to read this book: Batavia by Sydney journalist Peter Fitzsimons. Its account of the fate of the people in the Titanic of the day is so gripping that one can easily breeze through it in a couple of days, even though it is quite a thick book.

The Dutch were the foremost maritime power of the world in the 17th century; it had already 'colonised' Jacarta (Jakarta). Batavia was the newest, most modern addition to the Dutch East India Company (VOC)'s merchant fleet. The route from the Cape to Batavia latitudinally across the Indian Ocean was already known, yet a skilled captain could overshoot the longitude it was supposed to turn north and sail straight into the reefs at Houtman Albrolhos Islands off the west coast of Australia. No sooner had the VOC commander and the captain left to look for help than those who were left behind were condemned to hell by the mutineers headed by a charlatan. Massacres and atrocities were blatantly carried out. Greed and betrayal was the order of the day. Fortunately, all was not lost, thanks to a great soldier on board and the commander's return in the nick of time. Two mutineers were left to rot in Continental Australia. Although there appeared to be no trace of them after that, some aborigines there are said to carry European features.

I did not know that Batavia is actually the name of the Germanic tribe that became the forebears of the Dutch people and samurai mercenaries were already being employed by the VOC to inflict fear and terror into the Javanese under the Sultan of Mataram. Surprisingly, the Dutch also did not seem to have family names during that time. And Netherlands was a republic at that time!