Old cars

1951 Buick Le Sabre. Weird looking car.

Michelle Reis

The beautiful Hong Kong actress -Michelle Reis, 38 years old, got married on 23 Nov. 08. Husband is Julian Hui 46 years old, (His ex-wife was Pansy Ho - daughter of Stanley Ho, married 1991 divorced 2006; another ex-girlfriend/fiancee was Carina Lau.)

I like watching her movies. She is such a beauty.

Night sky

Look at the southwestern sky after sunset on Nov 30 and Dec 1. An interesting sight awaits you of the thin crescent moon and Venus and Jupiter very close together in a triangle. My imagination is: the moon is romancing two stars? The eternal love triangle ha ha. Hope it does not rain so we can see this celestial event.

Galaxies

Was looking at some astronomy sites and stumbled on this Google Earth community. The pictures captivated my attention and I had to download some for my viewing pleasure.

1) Firstly this is our world, Sun and her planets. We are Earth, the only place where life exists.




Picture of our solar system & planets scaled to size. Earth (so small) is third from sun.

2) Deep sky objects - the other world out there. The cosmos is so mysterious and scary - galaxies, nebulas, etc.etc. To my naked eye,the night sky is just the moon and twinkling stars. The universe is so very complex.



Pictures by NASA space telescope.

NGC 7331 sits about 50 million light-years from Earth and has been billed as a twin of our own Milky Way galaxy because of its similar mass, star count and spiral arm shapes. Skywatchers Paul Mortfield and Dietmar Kupke recorded this view of NGC 7331 on Oct. 4, 2005 during a nightly observing program run by Kitt Peak. This image was featured as space.com's Image of the Day.

Credit & Copyright: Tony Hallas

One of the brightest galaxies in planet Earth's sky and similar in size to the Milky Way, big, beautiful spiral M81 lies 11.8 million light-years away in the northern constellation Ursa Major. This remarkably deep image of the region reveals details in the bright yellow core, but at the same time follows fainter features along the galaxy's gorgeous blue spiral arms and sweeping dust lanes. Above M81 lies a dwarf companion galaxy, Holmberg IX, sporting a large, pinkish star-forming region near the top. While M81 and Holmberg IX are seen through a foreground of stars in our own Milky Way galaxy, they are also seen here through a much fainter complex of dust clouds. The relatively unexplored clouds are likely only some hundreds of light-years distant and lie high above our galaxy's plane. Scattered through the image, especially at the the right, the dust clouds reflect the combined light of the Milky Way's stars and have been dubbed integrated flux nebulae.

3) The Orion constellation - one of the most visible group of stars, can be seen from Nov to Jan. I will be looking out for it. In KL the orientation of the stars will be different from this picture because of different latitudes.

Credit & Copyright: Wally Pacholka (Astropics.com)

Explanation: Welcome to The World At Night. Sharing the night sky seen around the world, this view from Monument Valley, USA includes a picturesque foreground of famous buttes. Buttes are composed of hard volcanic rock left behind after water eroded away the surrounding soft rock. The two buttes on the image left are known as the Mittens, while Merrick Butte is on the right. Recorded just last week, planet Mars is at the left of the skyscape, a glowing beacon of orange that is the brightest object in the frame. To the right of Mars lies the constellation of Orion. Betelgeuse is the reddish star near the center and the Belt of Orion and the Orion Nebula are farther right. Finally, the bright blue star Rigel appears above Merrick Butte in this stunning view of The World At Night. NASA-APOD

Credit: Digitized Sky Survey, ESA/ESO/NASA FITS Liberator Color Composite: Davide De Martin (Skyfactory)

Explanation: Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka, are the bright bluish stars from east to west (left to right) along the diagonal in this gorgeous cosmic vista. Otherwise known as the Belt of Orion, these three blue supergiant stars are hotter and much more massive than the Sun. They lie about 1,500 light-years away, born of Orion's well-studied interstellar clouds. In fact, clouds of gas and dust adrift in this region have intriguing and some surprisingly familiar shapes, including the dark Horsehead Nebula and Flame Nebula near Alnitak at the lower left. The famous Orion Nebula itself lies off the bottom of this star field that covers an impressive 4.4x3.5 degrees on the sky. The color picture was composited from digitized black and white photographic plates recorded through red and blue astronomical filters, with a computer synthesized green channel. The plates were taken using the Samuel Oschin Telescope, a wide-field survey instrument at Palomar Observatory, between 1987 and 1991.more: NASA-APOD

Credit & Copyright: Gemini Observatory, AURA, NSF

Explanation: Why are bullets of gas shooting out of the Orion Nebula? Nobody is yet sure. First discovered in 1983, each bullet is actually about the size of our Solar System, and moving at about 400 km/sec from a central source dubbed IRc2. The age of the bullets, which can be found from their speed and distance from IRc2, is very young -- typically less than 1,000 years. As the bullets rip through the interior of the Orion Nebula, a small percentage of iron gas causes the tip of each bullet to glow blue, while each bullet leaves a tubular pillar that glows by the light of heated hydrogen gas. Pictured above, the Orion bullets were captured in unprecedented detail by the adaptive optics technology of the Gemini North telescope. M42, the Orion Nebula, is the closest major star forming region to us and filled with changing dust, gas, and bright stars. The Orion Nebula, is located about 1,500 light years away and can be seen with the unaided eye toward the constellation of Orion.

Two images of Orion :-

left picture taken under normal visible light.

right picture taken with an Infrared telescope. The 'orange coloured' parts are frozen gas.




Light has wavelengths. We only can see the spectrum (or rainbow colours) but Infrared telescopes can 'see' the 'invisible' wavelength and translate it into colours.

Look out for the above group of stars (left picture), at night east direction, now till January 09. I havent done much stargazing since my neighbour's tree grew and blocked my eastward view. His tree is my arch-enemy!!

Orion is also known as "The Hunter". Top 2 stars are shoulders, middle 3 stars his belt, 1 star below belt is the tip of his sword, and bottom 2 stars his knees.

Names of Stars in Orion (left to right):-

Shoulders - Betelgeuse (reddish) & Bellatrix.

Belt stars - Alnitak, Alnilam & Mintaka.

Sword - Hatsya.

Knees - Saiph & Rigel (brightest).

The Bible mentions Orion three times:-

Job 9:9 :- He is maker of the Bear and Orion.

Job 38:31 :- Can you loosen Orion's belt?

Amos 5:8 :- He who made the Pleiades and Orion.

(Pleiades is another group of stars also known as the 7 sisters)

Worship songs

Links to Christian worship songs that I like on youtube.

1) Above All
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNv4xVVVHd8

2) Jesus, we enthrone you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNsbIvCpwsO

3) As the deer panteth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF27EczT_pU

4) Your are my all in all
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC617kE1maU

5) Heart of worship
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPC22XHc8tQ

Worship songs

Links to a few of my favourite Christian worship praise songs. Soothing music for our soul.

1) The Power of your love - Geoff Bullock
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyHNNljZ-Yk

2) Worthy is the Lamb - Darlene Zschech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR4CCLnmf1Q (Hillsong 2004 conference.)

3) How Great is our God - Chris Tomlin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmQRZjQmIx4

4) Lord, I give you my heart - Michael W Smith
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvUNkRbi5Rc

This is my desire
To honor You
Lord with all my heart
I worship You
All I have within me
I give You praise
All that I adore is in You

Lord, I give You my heart
I give You my soul
I live for You alone
Every Breath I take
Every moment I'm awake
Lord, have Your way in me

Insects

One cool fresh rainy morning while admiring my plants I saw this pair of insects motionless on a leaf of my 'water jasmine'. I quickly snap a few photos. These insects are not very big.

They didnt even move or fly away when I use the flash. The bigger one might be the female.

A close-up view of them. Their orange & black stripes body with patches of transparency on their wings. Beautiful insects.

The little light orange dot is what they left behind. Insect egg!

Also found this small insect nest stuck on the green netting of my front door. Nest is made of earth, the entrance is a tiny perfect round hole. Size of nest is smaller than my thumb nail. I must say this insect is a good architect, its little mud bungalow is well built.

I removed the nest and fortunately for the insect, it was empty inside. Whatever insect it is, it has morphed and flew away, otherwise it would meet its untimely death at my hands.

Car workshop

Never liked going to car workshops, 'cos it seems to be a men's domain, but since there's no choice, have to, who else is there to send my car for repair etc. Went to change two new front tyres some time ago. They had to do realignment. They showed me the readings on the computer screen and said its very 'out'. So I took a picture of this and after a while I asked the supervisor, "Oh, so this contraption attached to the wheel does the realigning automatically ah". He laughed, "no no, we have our man down there on the other wheel doing the job".

The other side of the car where the mechanic was working. He was shy to face the camera. I joked he will be famous when I put his photo next to Edison Chen.

Hurricane satellite photos

Technology is so marvellous that we can view a hurricane forming. These satellite pictures are so calmingly beautiful, but the hurricane which is the white swirls of clouds is very devastating and destructive. Seen here is Hurricane Paloma which is currently slamming into Cuba. Two other hurricanes Gustav and Ike has struck here before in Aug & Sept. Extensive damage , no wonder America pun economy no good. Homes, property damaged, deaths & lots of insurance claims. Bankrupt!

Nov 6, 08 - see how fast the clouds form.

Nov 7, 08 - 5.02am

Nov 8, 08 - 12.32am, the eye of the storm in the center.

Hurricane winds 200km per hour. Lucky Malaysia no hurricane.

Goodbye 2008

Year 2008 is soon coming to an end. Year-ends were greeted with happiness when I was very young but now its both happy and sad; especially as age creeps in and numbers are added onto my age. A year also means our planet Earth has completed a full orbit round the Sun. This picture shows Earth's position (and where humans exist) in the solar system in mid-november, and also 3 other planets.

View of the Sun from Planet Earth. Beautiful sunset. Location: Phuket Island.


Imagine you are standing on the moon and watching Earth rising, this video is what you'll see. On earth we see sun rise, sun set and moon rising. We cant see ourselves, earth rising. Earth do looks like a blue marble from outer space.

See Video taken by Japan's Kaguya Lunar Orbiter on Nov 5, 2007.
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1513658585/bctid1729299792 (Video)

RT -Bomba demo

Few months ago, the Rukun Tetangga organised a gotong royong, some games and a talk by the Fire Department (Bomba) on safety tips and how to use a fire extinguisher. Its the first time I see a fire demonstration. Its good to learn.

The white powder inside fire extinguishers is soda bicarbonate which is used in baking. The extinguishers should not be kept on the floor, but away from ground level, on top of a kitchen cupboard maybe.

Moon

Watching the moon again last night. The moon's position has changed now, so its not close to Venus anymore. Moon is high overhead, with Jupiter below it, and then Venus below Jupiter.

Obama, American President

America, on 4.11.08, has voted Barack Hussein Obama II to be the 44th President. The first African-American President in history. Father - Kenyan, mother - white from Kansas. Raised by his mother and grandparents, he never saw much of his late father who lived in Kenya, his parents separated when he was 2 yrs old. So is greatness due to luck, hardwork or destiny.

On 20.1.09 this family will be moving into the White House.

Birthdate: 4.8.61 at 7.24 pm, Hawaii. A "Leo" born in the Year of the Cow, (and he is a lefthander.) Good luck America and the rest of the world.

A photo of Obama's parents taken when Obama was about 10 years old. The father came to study at Harvard and its the first time he met his father again since he left when he was 2 years old. Both parents have remarried. His mother married an Indonesian. It proves that anyone can achieve greatness even without a father if you focus on your dreams and goals with God by your side. Obama is a Christian (United Church of Christ). His father is born-muslim.

It dont matter if you are black or white
ooh, ooh, yea yea, yea now
Its black, its white, its tough for you to get by
Its black, its white, its tough for you to get by, whoo.ooo.. (so sings Michael Jackson long ago)

Pet terrapins

My 9-year-old pet turtles or terrapins. We bought these in 1999 when the F1 Sepang circuit was launched (and because Mika Hakkinen has pet turtles). I found it amusing a F1 driver keeps turtles. So I decided to have this as I cant handle mammals as pets: terrified and hate dogs and allergic to all furry animals. The turtle on the left is Jade (dedicated to Michael Schumacher) and on the right is Emerald (dedicated to Mika Hakkinen). Jade laid some eggs in January 08 but it was all smashed because they live in a plastic aquarium in water and there was no sand for for them to lay eggs. They are lively and nicknamed ninja turtles.

Moon & Venus

Moon & Venus. My camera not powerful to photo celestial objects. Zooming always produces this blurred effect.

Moon & Venus.

Tonite at 8pm; I was outside my house and was immediately captivated by the lovely view of the thin crescent moon in the south-western blue sky . Close to the right of the moon is the planet Venus, very bright. To the left of the moon and overhead is the planet Jupiter. Nice sight. View this immediately after sunset and before the moon sets in the west.