With the 2012 apocalypse subject aside, let's move to a more grounded and cultural view of the annual event known as the winter solstice.
As you might remember from your Geography class - I had to refresh my memory reading some material on the web - the winter solstice typically falls on the 20-22 December and marks the start of winter.
In the East, there should be multiple interpretations of the event. I know of a few associated to the Chinese culture. Every year, the Chinese celebrate the 'Dongzhi' Festival, or as I like to call it, 'Tangyuan' festival. It is a time when families reunite and share tangyuan soup, a dish of glutinous rice balls cooked and eaten in sweet soup. I remember watching a TV programme that says that a family reunion on this day is more important than during the Chinese New Year. I've also heard from my family members that eating tangyuan signifies that you have grown a year older. Besides that, some of my friends worship their ancestors or pray to their gods on this day.
I'd like to learn more about how different cultures celebrate the winter solstice. So if you have knowledge of or experience any sort of cultural significance towards this day, feel free to drop a comment below. Thanks.
Cheers
zhusun
Further reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dongzhi_Festival
Sunday 23 December 2012
Friday 21 December 2012
Another Failed Apocalypse Prediction
It's 22-12-12. I'm living to type these letters and words right now. There is still electricity - hence my computer is functioning. Hey, I'm connected to the internet. Go figure. The earth survived 21-12-12, like it has for 4.54 billion years.
Today, coincidentally, is also the winter solstice, which is also the shortest day of the year and marks the start of winter. On this day, the north pole is at its furthest distance away from the sun. Different cultures celebrate this annual event with their own significance. I'll discuss this in another post.
This failed prediction of an apocalypse can come as a shocker - a disappointment, even - to believers, but it is no novelty. Throughout history, there have been failed attempts by priests, preachers and enthusiasts have tried in vain - and luckily - to pin-point a specific date for the second coming, or an armageddon. Calculations were even made.
I don't think the attempts to try to pin-point the day of the apocalypse will ever end, nor will be hype ever be dulled. Maybe we can all share a hope that the prophecies of an end-of-the-world continue to be wrong.
Cheers
zhusun
Further reading:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20712815
Today, coincidentally, is also the winter solstice, which is also the shortest day of the year and marks the start of winter. On this day, the north pole is at its furthest distance away from the sun. Different cultures celebrate this annual event with their own significance. I'll discuss this in another post.
This failed prediction of an apocalypse can come as a shocker - a disappointment, even - to believers, but it is no novelty. Throughout history, there have been failed attempts by priests, preachers and enthusiasts have tried in vain - and luckily - to pin-point a specific date for the second coming, or an armageddon. Calculations were even made.
I don't think the attempts to try to pin-point the day of the apocalypse will ever end, nor will be hype ever be dulled. Maybe we can all share a hope that the prophecies of an end-of-the-world continue to be wrong.
Cheers
zhusun
Further reading:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20712815
Thursday 20 December 2012
The End of the World?
Lo and behold! It's the day before the dreaded 21-12-12. What have you been up to leading up to the faithful day? Have you been stocking up on food supplies? Have you been building a bunker beneath your house? Or have you just been living out each day, not expecting anything extraordinary to happen? Whatever you've been doing, I'm sure you're well aware of tomorrow's date.
According to the Mayan calender, well, there are no more days after 21-12-12. I came by a comic somewhere, and it goes like this: a man was asking an ancient Mayan why he'd stopped carving the calender, and the Mayan replied that he had run out of stone. From this, you can tell that there really are many ways to look at it.
The most popularised and if not, frightening, interpretation of the termination of the Mayan calender is the termination of life on earth. This is just a theory put forward by modern scientists. Many sorts of cataclysmic events are predicted such as shifting of poles, a sort of celestial alignment that only happens once every 26,000 years, solar storms and horrific earthquakes and tsunamis. What makes this sound rather fantastical is that different people expect so many different things to happen on one single day.
Another way to look at this is, of course, that the ancient Mayans simply ran out of stone to carve on, as mentioned above. Besides that, we can take the concept of the Mayan calender like how we take our modern calender - the Gregorian calender or Western calender. In fact, the Gregorian calender ends on 31 December every year. Do we theorise an end-of-the-world event? According to an article on the National Geographic News, the Mayan calender ends so that it can start a new cycle, actually repeating it. The circular calender that is the image of the Mayan calender is called the Long Count. The Mayans called the day of creation as Day Zero, approximately in 3114 BC. Therefore, the end of the Mayan calender simply means the start of a new, lengthy cycle. In other words, the Mayans did not prophesise an armageddon.
While I think it's a good idea to be on the alert of disasters and to be ready at all times, I don't think you should panic over the coming of 21-12-12. Let's just hope for the best.
Cheers
zhusun
Further reading:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/11/091106-2012-end-of-world-myths.html
According to the Mayan calender, well, there are no more days after 21-12-12. I came by a comic somewhere, and it goes like this: a man was asking an ancient Mayan why he'd stopped carving the calender, and the Mayan replied that he had run out of stone. From this, you can tell that there really are many ways to look at it.
The most popularised and if not, frightening, interpretation of the termination of the Mayan calender is the termination of life on earth. This is just a theory put forward by modern scientists. Many sorts of cataclysmic events are predicted such as shifting of poles, a sort of celestial alignment that only happens once every 26,000 years, solar storms and horrific earthquakes and tsunamis. What makes this sound rather fantastical is that different people expect so many different things to happen on one single day.
Another way to look at this is, of course, that the ancient Mayans simply ran out of stone to carve on, as mentioned above. Besides that, we can take the concept of the Mayan calender like how we take our modern calender - the Gregorian calender or Western calender. In fact, the Gregorian calender ends on 31 December every year. Do we theorise an end-of-the-world event? According to an article on the National Geographic News, the Mayan calender ends so that it can start a new cycle, actually repeating it. The circular calender that is the image of the Mayan calender is called the Long Count. The Mayans called the day of creation as Day Zero, approximately in 3114 BC. Therefore, the end of the Mayan calender simply means the start of a new, lengthy cycle. In other words, the Mayans did not prophesise an armageddon.
While I think it's a good idea to be on the alert of disasters and to be ready at all times, I don't think you should panic over the coming of 21-12-12. Let's just hope for the best.
Cheers
zhusun
Further reading:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/11/091106-2012-end-of-world-myths.html
Tuesday 11 December 2012
12-12-12
There is some hype surrounding the date 12-12-12 which only occurs once every century. This will be the last time we see all numerals in the date repeat for the next 88 years. So some people have planned to do some significant tings today.
I can predict many couples getting married today, and especially at the time 12:12. According to the New York Daily News, 65,000 couples got married on 7-7-7. Mass weddings, anyone? Besides that, there will be concert called '121212 Concert: The Concert for Sandy Relief' to benefit the Robin Hood Relief Fund where the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, The Rollings Stones, Paul McCartney, Alicia Keys etc. will perform in Madison Square Garden. There are even people who will turn 12 today. A boy named Kiam Moriya is one such child whose time of birth matches the day and month of birth. Furthermore, some people are trying their luck with the lottery or other forms of gambling. Some people are starting businesses, trade, buying property etc.
Though, don't let the date's significance cower you into a corner due to fear of a doomsday event. From the years 2001 to 2012, we have witnessed these kind of days come and go with normality. Of course, you shouldn't let your guard down. Well, we being humans, always want to seek out some significance to patterns or dates that seem too good to be insignificant. This date is special, no doubt. The number 12 is significant because its everywhere: the modern 12-hour clock face; in Christianity, there were 12 apostles of Jesus; there are 12 signs in Western astrology; in the Chinese zodiac, there are 12 animals; 12 inches in a foot; 12 months in a year - obviously; 12 days of Christmas. And by the way, there are only 12 more days to Christmas. So you might think people over the ages were obsessed with the number 12.
This date should not be confused with 21-12-12 which is the prophesied 'doomsday' because the Mayan calender ends there. That topic is for another blog entry.
In the meantime, enjoy your 12-12-12, the last date with repeating numerals until 1st January 2101.
Cheers
zhusun
I can predict many couples getting married today, and especially at the time 12:12. According to the New York Daily News, 65,000 couples got married on 7-7-7. Mass weddings, anyone? Besides that, there will be concert called '121212 Concert: The Concert for Sandy Relief' to benefit the Robin Hood Relief Fund where the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, The Rollings Stones, Paul McCartney, Alicia Keys etc. will perform in Madison Square Garden. There are even people who will turn 12 today. A boy named Kiam Moriya is one such child whose time of birth matches the day and month of birth. Furthermore, some people are trying their luck with the lottery or other forms of gambling. Some people are starting businesses, trade, buying property etc.
Though, don't let the date's significance cower you into a corner due to fear of a doomsday event. From the years 2001 to 2012, we have witnessed these kind of days come and go with normality. Of course, you shouldn't let your guard down. Well, we being humans, always want to seek out some significance to patterns or dates that seem too good to be insignificant. This date is special, no doubt. The number 12 is significant because its everywhere: the modern 12-hour clock face; in Christianity, there were 12 apostles of Jesus; there are 12 signs in Western astrology; in the Chinese zodiac, there are 12 animals; 12 inches in a foot; 12 months in a year - obviously; 12 days of Christmas. And by the way, there are only 12 more days to Christmas. So you might think people over the ages were obsessed with the number 12.
This date should not be confused with 21-12-12 which is the prophesied 'doomsday' because the Mayan calender ends there. That topic is for another blog entry.
In the meantime, enjoy your 12-12-12, the last date with repeating numerals until 1st January 2101.
Cheers
zhusun
Tuesday 4 December 2012
How to detect cervical cancer cheaply
In poor countries, women can't afford a pap smear which requires high-tech and expensive equipment and trained personnel that many clinics in these countries lack. This is why deaths by cervical cancer is higher in poor countries than in countries like America. But have no fear, a cheap solution has come underway. It is already being done in countries such as Thailand, India and Botswana.
Developed by the John Hopkins medical school, the colposcopy involves using a common household item - vinegar - to detect precancerous cells on the cervix. How ingenious is that? In this procedure, all you need is a nurse, some vinegar and some simple equipment. No laboratory tests are required and precancerous cells that are detected can be removed in a subsequent procedure called cryotherapy, all during the same appointment.
So how does it work? Firstly, the vinegar is applied on to the woman's cervix using a swab. The doctor, nurse of midwife then looks for whitish or yellowish spots on the cervix using a colposcope, a lighted binocular microscope. Some may even use a magnifying glass. These white tissues are abnormal cervical tissues and are potentially cancerous lesions that need to be removed. If there are no white or yellow spots then the patient is free from precancerous cells and the appointment is over.
As for the patients with whitish tissue, the health care personnel then carries out cryoptherapy which involves freezing these white tissues with carbon dioxide, nitrogen or nitrous oxide. Then the frozen layer can then be removed. The woman may feel a bit of pain during this procedure. However, this momentary pain is well worth to prevent the development of cervical cancer which can be a painful and undesirable death.
I found this procedure interesting because something as common as acetic acid in vinegar can be used to detect and thus prevent a potentially life-threatening disease. These sort of innovative and inexpensive procedures are what lower income countries need to improve the people's health. I would like to see a decline in the number of deaths from cervical cancer which is about 250,000 annually, of which about 85% are from low or middle-income countries.I think the hardworking health care personnel and the experts who developed this procedure deserve a big thank you from everyone.
Cheers
zhusun
Further reading:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/health/27cancer.html?_r=0
http://womenshealth.about.com/cs/cevicalconditions/a/colposcopy.htm
http://womenshealth.about.com/cs/surgery/a/cryosurgtherapy.htm
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/09/18/161264247/botswana-doctors-stop-cervical-cancer-with-a-vinegar-swab
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20595131
Developed by the John Hopkins medical school, the colposcopy involves using a common household item - vinegar - to detect precancerous cells on the cervix. How ingenious is that? In this procedure, all you need is a nurse, some vinegar and some simple equipment. No laboratory tests are required and precancerous cells that are detected can be removed in a subsequent procedure called cryotherapy, all during the same appointment.
So how does it work? Firstly, the vinegar is applied on to the woman's cervix using a swab. The doctor, nurse of midwife then looks for whitish or yellowish spots on the cervix using a colposcope, a lighted binocular microscope. Some may even use a magnifying glass. These white tissues are abnormal cervical tissues and are potentially cancerous lesions that need to be removed. If there are no white or yellow spots then the patient is free from precancerous cells and the appointment is over.
As for the patients with whitish tissue, the health care personnel then carries out cryoptherapy which involves freezing these white tissues with carbon dioxide, nitrogen or nitrous oxide. Then the frozen layer can then be removed. The woman may feel a bit of pain during this procedure. However, this momentary pain is well worth to prevent the development of cervical cancer which can be a painful and undesirable death.
I found this procedure interesting because something as common as acetic acid in vinegar can be used to detect and thus prevent a potentially life-threatening disease. These sort of innovative and inexpensive procedures are what lower income countries need to improve the people's health. I would like to see a decline in the number of deaths from cervical cancer which is about 250,000 annually, of which about 85% are from low or middle-income countries.I think the hardworking health care personnel and the experts who developed this procedure deserve a big thank you from everyone.
Cheers
zhusun
Further reading:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/health/27cancer.html?_r=0
http://womenshealth.about.com/cs/cevicalconditions/a/colposcopy.htm
http://womenshealth.about.com/cs/surgery/a/cryosurgtherapy.htm
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/09/18/161264247/botswana-doctors-stop-cervical-cancer-with-a-vinegar-swab
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20595131
Monday 3 December 2012
Oh no! Chemical weapons...
President Obama has warned Syria - Assad, specifically - against the use of chemical weapons. While the Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesperson has confirmed that they would never use these weapons on its own people. But what about non-Syrians? If there is sufficient aggression from foreign parties, would they really deploy these chemicals? If there should be chemical warfare in Syria itself, then its citizens would undoubtedly be affected. If the chemical agents were delivered outside of Syria, then not only would there be war, but civil rife, political hostility between warring counties and a massive loss of lives. Not to mention another dark chapter in our history books.
Starting a war is one thing, but chemical warfare is one of the most undesirable and abominable forms of war that have devastating effects, especially on bystanders. Let's touch a little bit on the history of chemical warfare. For one thing, it's nothing new. It's been used even during the medieval times. Although they didn't have sarin or agent orange, they could make poison arrows, using natural sources, such as snake and scorpion venom. The ancient Chinese in 200 B.C took it a step further by pumping their chemical agent into the air. Later on, the ancient Greeks used suffocating fumes in the Trojan War. In the 20th century, mustard gas in WW1 and WW2, agent orange in the Vietnam War, nerve agents in the Cold War, etc. The list goes on. We all know the effects of agent orange such as the birth defects and people becoming maimed.
Let's not have another century marred by chemical warfare. Let's hope that all the countries which have chemical weapons to use them wisely and if possible, to never have to use them. Quote President Obama, 'We simply cannot allow the 21st century to be darkened by the worst weapons of the 20th century.'
Cheers
zhusun
Further reading:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20583966
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/03/us-usa-syrian-obama-warning-idUSBRE8B21C320121203
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/23/syria-chemical-warfare-threat-assad
Starting a war is one thing, but chemical warfare is one of the most undesirable and abominable forms of war that have devastating effects, especially on bystanders. Let's touch a little bit on the history of chemical warfare. For one thing, it's nothing new. It's been used even during the medieval times. Although they didn't have sarin or agent orange, they could make poison arrows, using natural sources, such as snake and scorpion venom. The ancient Chinese in 200 B.C took it a step further by pumping their chemical agent into the air. Later on, the ancient Greeks used suffocating fumes in the Trojan War. In the 20th century, mustard gas in WW1 and WW2, agent orange in the Vietnam War, nerve agents in the Cold War, etc. The list goes on. We all know the effects of agent orange such as the birth defects and people becoming maimed.
Let's not have another century marred by chemical warfare. Let's hope that all the countries which have chemical weapons to use them wisely and if possible, to never have to use them. Quote President Obama, 'We simply cannot allow the 21st century to be darkened by the worst weapons of the 20th century.'
Cheers
zhusun
Further reading:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20583966
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/03/us-usa-syrian-obama-warning-idUSBRE8B21C320121203
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/23/syria-chemical-warfare-threat-assad
Purpose of this blog
Hi, everyone! I have just created this blog in light of my growing interest in e-media and my long-standing desire to write. I also thought blogging would be a good platform for me to jump-start a possible career in writing.
The purpose of this blog is to allow me, the yappy yuppie puppy, to express opinions on international events and my everyday happenings, which I may use to relate to other things in my life. For example, I may have an opinion about a certain news headline or a TV programme I had just watched. I wanted to use a media that was accessible, free and allowed me to update it whenever possible - and whenever I wanted. So a blog seemed like the right choice.
I'm guessing some of you might be wondering what the blog title means. Well, it's significant to who I am and my current stage of personal development. 'Yappy' means that I like to talk - about a lot of things - which I translate into writing; 'yuppie' is a word to describe a young and ambitious person who lives in the city and is a professional; though, I'm not a professional yet so the word 'puppy' describes me figuratively as a young adult who has aspirations and hopes to become a professional in my chosen field. Also, because I thought it sounds catchy. My Dad helped me come up with the title. Thanks, Dad!
I hope my blog turns out to be - and remains - as interesting as I intended it to be. So keep coming back for more, everyone!
Cheers
zhusun
The purpose of this blog is to allow me, the yappy yuppie puppy, to express opinions on international events and my everyday happenings, which I may use to relate to other things in my life. For example, I may have an opinion about a certain news headline or a TV programme I had just watched. I wanted to use a media that was accessible, free and allowed me to update it whenever possible - and whenever I wanted. So a blog seemed like the right choice.
I'm guessing some of you might be wondering what the blog title means. Well, it's significant to who I am and my current stage of personal development. 'Yappy' means that I like to talk - about a lot of things - which I translate into writing; 'yuppie' is a word to describe a young and ambitious person who lives in the city and is a professional; though, I'm not a professional yet so the word 'puppy' describes me figuratively as a young adult who has aspirations and hopes to become a professional in my chosen field. Also, because I thought it sounds catchy. My Dad helped me come up with the title. Thanks, Dad!
I hope my blog turns out to be - and remains - as interesting as I intended it to be. So keep coming back for more, everyone!
Cheers
zhusun
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