Today is World Philosophy Day

Photo: by UNESCO

Happy World Philosophy Day!  Today is designated World Philosophy Day for 2012 by UNESCO's General Conference.

This is what UNESCO says:

In establishing World Philosophy Day in 2005, the General Conference highlighted the importance of this discipline, especially for young people, underlining that “philosophy is a discipline that encourages critical and independent thought and is capable of working towards a better understanding of the world and promoting tolerance and peace”.

Can anyone dispute that?

May the Path of Light be Yours

The paths of light and darkness are without beginning and are as eternal as the material universes; by one, liberation is attained and by the other, one repeatedly returns again. 

Bhagavad-Gita, Chap 8, verse 26 

Wishing all Hindus joy and wisdom as they celebrate the victory of good over evil on this day of light!

Let's bust that myth No. 1 - Kuwait's shark tank collapse

Most of you would have received an email with this photo:

The photo is always followed by an explanation that the shark tank in Kuwait's Scientific Centre collapsed and sharks were all swimming on one floor of the centre.  While it is true that Kuwait's Scientific Centre does have a shark tank, there has been no incident of the tank collapsing.

Here is another example of myths perpetuated on the internet.  What really happened was a recent flooding in Toronto's Union Station and here is the photograph that was subsequently doctored by people with loads of time on their hands:

Click here to see many other examples of funny photoshopped pics that came about from the Union Station flooding.

Here are excellent reports of the flooding at Union Station: National Post and CBC

Well, obviously, flooding happens everywhere.  The next time we in Singapore experience a heavy downpour and Orchard Road begins to flood, let's remember we're not alone in our troubles.

Body-building competition?

At a body-building contest today, 10 contestants displayed their chiselled figures:

But not all of them were that well-built.  One of them was laughed at by the audience when he moved to the front row.  It's easy to see why.

The guy at the centre was so obviously like a fish out of water.   It wasn't just that he wasn't muscular enough, he was positively skinny.

I was later told that these were not top range body-builders.  They were all National Servicemen, 18-year-olds who were undergoing a 2-year compulsory military training.  Now, that makes more sense.

Why Paul picks Spain for World Cup.

It's so obvious why Paul picked Spain.  Spain's box was closer to it when both boxes were lowered into the tank.

Here are stills from the video taken from the BBC.

Notice that Paul is in the right bottom corner of the tank. The box on our right is Spain:

And of course it's no surprise that Paul ends up in Spain's box:

You may wish to see the entire video.  Here is the link to BBC's video:

Click here for the BBC video 

2010 Australian International Music Festival

Here's wishing the boys luck as they perform this afternoon at the 2010 Australian International Music Festival at the Sydney Opera House.

 

We and the North Koreans

See this and ask yourselves honestly if this is not pathetic.  We should then reflect on our own religious beliefs and ask ourselves if we are not similar to a large extent to the North Koreans.

Click here to view the video 


EDIT [21 June 2012]:
The video has been removed from youtube.  I wish I had saved it and posted it here separately.  It's about a US eye surgeon who went to North Korea to treat 100 people with blindness that is treatable by simple surgery.  The bandages over their eyes were removed in a large hall, one by one, and most of them reacted with tears of gratitude but not for the surgeon. They were only grateful to their "dear leader".  One by one of them would go to a portrait of their leader and make obeisance before the portrait and they would vow loyalty and devotion.  It was too frighteningly familiar to me.