Kung Hei Fat Choy – Happy Chinese New Year 2013

May your year of the Water Snake 2013 be filled with an abundance of health, happiness and prosperity!

(From Eljaygee’s Blog)

Moments of Silence

If you want to relax and enjoy some inspiring videos, check out the channel Moments of Silence and click on the two little arrows to see them in larger size or even in full screen mode with the pop-up window.

A portrait of the Temple of Heavenly Happiness

Thian Hock Keng, the “Temple of Heavenly Happiness” is the oldest Hokkien Chinese temple in Singapore. It was built from 1839-42 and dedicated to Ma Zu, the Chinese goddess of the sea. Sailors would seek her advice before embarking on voyages because of the widely held belief that she could predict the weather. On the morning I produced this short film, I could have used Ma Zu to predict the weather conditions for my shoot. I awoke early, planning on utilizing the morning light. So much for planning in tropical Singapore. On the way to the location, the sky opened up and I suddenly found myself in the middle of a torrential downpour. Instead of instructing my taxi driver to turn around and head back to the flat, I decided to take this opportunity to document a most tranquil setting despite the rain. And because there were no tourists getting in my way due to the cloudburst, I ended up capturing a rare and unique moment at Thian Hock Keng. -Rick Macomber

Canada Pavillon in Shanghai focuses on sustainability

The design and construction of the Canada Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo 2010 (until October 31st) reflects Canadian values of inclusivity, sustainability, and creativity. This three-story structure is the product of collaboration between the Government of Canada and Cirque du Soleil, with building expertise from SNC Lavalin. The curved design creates a large public space that encourages interaction and a community feeling. An angled accessible ramp invites visitors beyond the interior courtyard into the pavilion. A 15 metre by 40 metre green wall of evergreen seedlings is a backdrop to the courtyard. In addition to illustrating a universal desire for green space in urban centres, the green wall also operates as a natural bio air filter. The exterior skin of the pavilion is composed of 4000 m2 of Canadian red cedar, certified by the Canada Wood Association and Canada Wood China. This is an important sustainable aspect of the design. The cedar boards are individually fastened to a steel frame, which allows easy dismantling so the wood can be reused in construction projects following Expo 2010.  The Canada Pavilion public presentation offers visitors a feeling of life in a vibrant, diverse, and green Canadian city. Each individual experience is unique. Every journey through the Living City is personalised by visitors’ imagination and creativity, much the way urban lives are shaped by each individual’s decisions and contributions to the city. The animation and interactive elements of the public presentation are complemented by music and a rich soundscape throughout.

As a thoughtful finale to the journey through the Living City, visitors are immersed in a unique cinematic experience created by Canadian film-maker, Jean-François Pouliot and the National Film Board of Canada on a 150-degree screen. Glimpses: A Human View of the Living City pays visual homage to an ordinary day in the life in a Canadian city. A panorama of images takes visitors on an incredible journey across four seasons. These Canadian moments were captured by Serge Clément and Claude-Simon Langlois, who travelled the country with a small crew in order to capture close to 57,000 unstaged images of people and places. The film evokes a personal story, unique to each viewer.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: Solar Eclipse in China

Cloudy skies over Wuhan, China hid the delicate solar corona during July’s total eclipse of the Sun. Still, the Moon’s silhouette was highlighted by these glistening diamonds as the total eclipse phase ended. Caused by bright sunlight streaming through dips and valleys in the irregular terrain along the Moon’s edge, the effect is known as Baily’s Beads, named after Francis Baily who called attention to the phenomenon in 1836. The dramatic appearance of the beads at the beginning or end of a total solar eclipse is also known as the Diamond Ring effect. In this remarkable image, a small, pinkish solar prominence can also be seen along the edge, below the diamonds. Credit & Copyright: Óscar Martín Mesonero (OSAE), SAROS Group. Website: Astronomy Picture of the Day

What is I Ching?

The I Ching suggests that one’s individual condition is intricately connected to the dynamic workings of nature (to include the cosmos and the Will of Heaven). The earliest version of the I Ching evolved out of Chinese nature philosophy and, as legend has it, dates back to Emperor Fu-hsi, c. 2850 BCE. It was composed of eight trigrams (three lines each), which themselves might have been of foreign origin. Around 1150 BCE King Wen, who became the Duke of Chou, composed 64 hexagrams of six lines each (two trigrams) with short commentaries, each hexagram apparently representing an archetypal situation. Each line of the hexagram is based on a binary system (solid or broken line) and is attained by selecting a single yarrow stalk from a randomly arranged heap and going through a specific set of operations. The I Ching influenced Lao Tzu’s composition of the Tao-te-Ching around 500 BCE. During the fifth-century BCE Confucius became fascinated with the I Ching and contributed to the “Ten Wings.” Each Wing is a commentary on an aspect of each hexagram. Since then, the tyrant emperor Ch’in Shih Huang Ti ordered the burning of the I Ching and all Confucian commentaries but some copies survived. Around the third-century the scholar Wang Pi refashioned the book, stressing its wisdom instead of divinatory use (in contrast to the opportunistic court magicians of the day).

In the 17th century the book was introduced to the philosopher Leibniz by a Jesuit priest. Leibniz substituted the solid and broken lines of the hexagrams with “0″ and “1″ and found them to be arranged in a binary system that counted up from 0 to 63. It’s noteworthy that computer programming uses binary code–the same ancient logic found in the structure of the I Ching. In the 1960’s the I Ching became popular in the West and tossing three Chinese coins six times became a viable (and marketable) alternative to the ancient method of selecting yarrow stalks. Just before this time, Carl Jung wrote a forward to the sinologist Richard Wilhelm’s translation of the I Ching. Jung also mentions the I Ching in relation to his concept of synchronicity. The Canadian poet and musician Leonard Cohen and other notables became fascinated with the I Ching’s attractive combination of simplicity and depth. Numerous interpretations and self-help books based on the ancient texts are available today and recent attempts have been made to connect the underlying philosophy of the I Ching with the notion of karma as found in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. (Source: earthpages.wordpress.com)

International Ice and Snow Festival in Harbin, China

Every year the International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival is held at Harbin since 1963. Harbin is the capital of Heilongjiang, China. The average temperature in winter is -16 Degree due to cold winds from Siberia. Generally it starts at January 5th every year. But they permits earlier for the visitors according to weather conditions. Artist around the world participates in largest snow and ice sculpture festival. Sculpture are made with latest laser cutting and also with hands. The festival officially begins on January 5, when 800,000 tourists are expected to visit the freezing city in northern China.