ECLIPSE

On Tuesday, July 22, there was much excitement over the total solar eclipse of the sun that lasted more than 6 minutes, the longest for the 21st Century. It started in India and crossed through China into the Pacific Ocean. I had hoped to see the total eclipse but found out that it could not be seen directly from Singapore. Even if I could, the overcast sky and thunderstorm would have prevented me. This once-in-a-lifetime event will not occur again until June 2132, when it will last even longer than this year's .

The closest I had gotten to see was a partial lunar eclipse when I was living in a small oil town in Brunei Darussalam. I was then about 8 years old. My father was working for the Shell petroleum company and had been posted to Brunei. He was a counter salesman in the meat section of a Shell 'supermarket'. One night, I heard a big commotion outside our 'atap' house (a house built entirely of thatch made from dried fronds of the mangrove nipah palm). People had come out banging on pots, woks and empty tin cans. They were making the din to drive the dragon from eating up the moon. They were successful for the moon became full bloom again from the crescent it had become. Strangely, that was the last and only time I can remember witnessing an eclipse.

Eclipses had always engendered superstitions. Indian astrologers have predicted violence and turmoil, including a devastating natural disaster in Southeast Asia (where Singapore is) and a possible USA military action in Iran in September 09. Rumours abound in China of a forthcoming terrible earthquake. As for me, I am keeping my fingers crossed.

HUMOUR

My wife, May, was laughing loudly and called me to look at a piece - Learn Chinese in Five Minutes - our daughter, Joan, has emailed. I had earlier had some good laughs over the same piece on our elder daughter, Ann's, tweet. I am glad I married a woman who really has a chuckling sense of humour and have daughters who appreciates the good laughs.

I remember when I was a teenager, I immensely enjoyed the humour and wit in "Life with Bliss", aired over the Rediffusion. Back then, besides radio, Rediffusion, was somewhat ubiquitous. It is a wired system on which you listened to programmes through a loudspeaker. The rest of my brothers and sisters didn't like the programme. On another occasion I was in a cinema for Alfred Hitchcock's, "Trouble with Harry". I was the only one among 4 in there who laughed aloud at the funny situations. Today I enjoy shows like "Seinfeld" and "Two and a Half Men". Having a good laugh lightens up my spirit, and worry tends to drip away, at least temporarily.

Why humour? It seems every human being has a sense of humour. It is only a matter of degree. Even the lips of people with perpetually dour outlook will twitch when a spot-on funny bone strikes them. Whether you are tickled depends on your cultural background, maturity, intelligence, level of education and context. A sense of humour seems to be a sort of evolutionary trait that allows human to recognise out-of-place patterns in situations that could signify danger and the responses to them help build group cohesion. Research is continuing.

In the meantime, my family and I will continue to enjoy "The Black Adder", "The Vicar of Dibley", Jim Carey, Jimmy Kimmel and the likes, and I may also revisit P.G. Wodehouse, especially Jeeves.

Dog for sale: eats anything and is fond of children.

EXTINCTION

We watched a DVD movie "Knowing" with Nicolas Cage as an astrophysics professor. The story is based on a simple premise. A new elementary school buried a time capsule containing drawings of what they thought the future would be like 50 years down the road. One girl put in a sheet on which she had written a string of numbers covering the full page. Fifty years later the capsule was opened and that sheet landed in the hands of the professor. He discovered they predicted all the major disasters of the past 50 years with 3 remaining. Within a few days two, involving him and his son, came true. The last one foresaw the extinction of the Earth.

The Earth dies by a super solar flare - all life wiped out. This is not impossible. Actually, solar flares are common. And every seven years, coinciding with a peak in sun spot activities, solar flares cause very significant disruptions to Earth's communication systems. Perhaps there are some apocalyptic solar cycles we are not aware yet. The Earth will die for sure when the sun becomes super nova, albeit billions of years in the future. But it could be tomorrow, no one really knows.

Extinctions have happened in the past. Before man came along, the dinosaurs died off when a huge asteroid crashed into Earth. Even today, species become extinct, through the hands of man.

The idea of an armageddon is rather ubiquitous in major cultures and religions. In Christianity, the end of the world is prophesized, but exactly when is still a mind game with some Christians. The Mayans seemed to have thought that the world will come to an end on Sunday, December 23, 2012. Even the Jews and Muslims have their 'day of judgement'. According to Indus, Shiva destroys the world at the end of a 'kalpa', an æon of some 4 .3 billions years.

So what when extinction comes? In the movie, aliens came and transported the 'chosen ones' to a new earth and mankind gets a new beginning. For us ... To the religious who believe in an after-life, it should matter not. They go to a supposedly better existence. What for those who do not subscribe to an after-life? Poof, the end, that's it. Really?

ANGER

How easy it is to get angry. Yesterday, over an insignificant matter, a burst of anger at my wife erupted in me. Why? Did it build up over time over other small things? I though hard over it. Maybe she had been irritating me. Maybe it is the decision to take on a job, or lingering worry about health. It is hard to say. Vague things build up in you and then, wham, a small dam burst.

Good thing I didn't let it go out of hand. As soon as I walked away, the cooling began. By the time I returned, hardly any of the aftermath of the burst remained. But I know this is not last of it, just as the past outbursts were not. Anger comes and goes. We learn to cope; successfully, hopefully.

WRINKLES

I just read about some Singaporeans' reactions, especially the younger ones, to seeing Zoe Tay's wrinkles in her TV drama 'The Ultimatum.' Her wrinkles are now more obvious on high definition TV. One even said that if he wanted to watch someone average on TV, he might as well look at his neighbour. Some suggested that she should go for botox injections.

How superficial has Singaporeans become? Looks are more important than acting ability. What about other areas of life? Is wealth preferred to a good heart? I think much of messages sent out by media have created this mindset - appearances over values. How sad.