Horizontal Perspective 横顾天下

In a previous post on the same subject, I ended on an optimistic note, on my belief that the Mayan calendar will probably enter a new cycle. However, I am less optimistic about the humanity’s ability or will to take bold steps to confront current global problems. To paraphrase Ensign Nellie Forbush in Oscar Hammerstein’s South Pacific:

I heard that human race -  Had fallen on it face -  And hasn’t had far to go
(A Cockeyed Optimist)

You see, we need to be really mindful of the fact that we do not need any ancient prophecy of impending doom to put life on planet earth in jeopardy. To that end, we are progressing at a good clip totally unassisted on our own. Some signs of this: (more…)

Back in 2001 I come across a documentary on the Discovery Channel about the ancient Mayan civilization. The documentary told of how the Mayan had advanced knowledge of mathematics and astronomy, and had developed a sophisticated 52 yearly cyclical calendar to govern all daily activities ranging from agriculture to festivities. In addition, they also devised a non-repeating ‘long-count’ date system to document major events (inscribed on the monuments they built). The Mayan calendar could accurately predicted astronomical evens such as solar eclipses well into their future (our present days). Towards the end of the programme, it was mentioned that the current long-count calendar (started with 11 August 3114 BC as day 0.0.0.0.0) will ‘run out of days’ after 20 December, 2012. That would be day 12.19.19.17.19, sort of like 99,999 on a 5-digits odomete (i.e. there’s no provision for 100,000 in the system). What comes next only a Mayan mathematician can answer, and at this day and age, that’s a bit hard to find. When I mentioned this to my friend Barry, he jokingly said he hopes that’s when ‘the rapture’ will occur. While I’d love to agree, the signs that must precede this as prophesied in the book of Revelation is yet to manifest, so I guess not. (more…)

A New Zealand couple, Pat and Sheena Wheaton, was blocked in August 2007 from naming their baby boy 4Real, (names beginning with numbers are forbidden in NZ) so they settled on Superman instead. This is just one example in a trend of parents giving their children bizarre names today. Apple, Brooklyn, Zowie, Fifi Trixibelle, Seven … celebrity offspring are even more likely to end up with more colourful entries on their birth certificates than us mere mortals.

Unfortunate Names

Unusual names has been with us as long as human history, often as unfortunate accidents. I remember back in high school there was a popular lower form boy with a perfectly normal Chinese name Zhuang Jie Chun (庄介春). Being a Cantonese, he was entered in the school register as Chong Kai Chun. Unfortunately for him, in the Hakka (客家) dialect (the lingua franca of the majority of students), this means 装鸡春[蛋] (container for chicken egg). So for the duration of his schooldays he was known simply as kai-chun (鸡春). While he took it in his strides, and the nickname even contributed to his popularity, not all children are as lucky. Just imagine being christened Justin Kayce, Barb Dwyer or Stan Still. It sounds like a bad joke, but there really are unfortunate people with those names.

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Recently released documents reveal that in 1980, the British Government ordered its scientists to calculate the chances of a Briton dying from a falling asteroid.

Death may be the only certainty in life – but how it comes about is anything but certain.

The study was carried out as part of government plans to persuade people of the safety of nuclear power, claiming that there were things more likely to happen than death via a neighbourhood reactor. It turned out that, by comparison, there’s a higher chance of dying of a heart-attack, much higher, as you shall see.

It was calculated that the chances of dying of an asteroid were one person every 7,000 years. Here’s a list of some other causes of death – and just what the odds are of an average Briton meeting his Maker in that way…

• 300,000,000/1: Shark attacks or fairground accidents.
• 250,000,000/1: Falling coconuts.
• 11,000,000/1: Plane crashes.
• 10,000,000/1: Lightning strikes or escaped radiation from a nuclear power station.
• 9,300,000/1: Terrorist attack.
• 5,000,000/1: Scalded from hot water.
• 4,400,000/1: Left-handed people using a right-handed product.
• 3,500,000/1: Snake bites.
• 3,000,000/1: Food poisoning.
• 2,300,000/1: Falling off a ladder.
• 2,000,000/1: Falling out of bed.
• 685,000/1: Drowning in the bath.
• 500,000/1: Killed in a train crash.
• 43,500/1: An accident at work.
• 8,000/1: Killed in a road accident.
• 5/1: Cancer.
• 2.5/1: Heart attacks or strokes.

Story from the Daily Mirror

A song by the heavy metal band AC/DC is becoming one of the most requested funeral tunes in their home country of Australia.

Highway to Hell, with lyrics including “Going down, party time”, is among a number rock classics, including Led Zeppelin’s Stairway To Heaven, that are replacing traditional hymns in Adelaide.

Funeral managers at Centennial Park, the largest cemetery and crematorium in the city, said only two hymns still rank among its top 10 most popular funeral songs: Amazing Grace and Abide With Me.

Leading the funeral chart is crooner Frank Sinatra’s classic hit My Way followed by Louis Armstrong’s version of Wonderful World.

The Led Zeppelin and AC/DC anthems rank outside the top 10, but have gained ground in recent years as more Australians give up traditional Christian hymns.

“Some of the more unusual songs we hear actually work very well within the service because they represent the person’s character,” Centennial Park chief executive Bryan Elliott said.

Among other less conventional choices were Always Look on the Bright Side of Life by Monty Python, Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead from the Wizard of Oz, Hit the Road Jack, Another One Bites The Dust by Queen and I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead.