Asian Tiger

On the way to office this morning, I heard this piece of feng shui news from the national radio. An interview with the famous Lillian Too revealed that the year of 2006 will be a good year indeed. In fact, it will be a better year compared to 2005 economic-wise. During the interview, Lillian Too revealed the method to welcome the God of Prosperity.

There are 2 days which you can welcome the God of Prosperity. The first being the Lunar New Year and the second, the Solar New Year.

On the day of the Lunar New Year, there are 2 timeframe which you can perform this ritual. At 1.00am - 3.00am or 7.00am - 9.00am. During this timeframes, the God of Prosperity will come from the North. In between this times, simply open your door or windows that are facing north and shout “Welcome! God of Prosperity”. That’s all to it. Lilian Too mentioned that you can also fortify this ritual by obtaining an image of the God of Prosperity and have it carried in from the north into your house, be it through the window or door. After which, place the image to face your door. That will symbolically welcome the God of Prosperity.

The second day which you can welcome the God of Prosperity is on the Solar New Year. This time around the God of Prosperity will come from the SouthEast direction. However, it is not recommended to welcome the God of Prosperity on this day as the God of Chaos will also be coming in the same direction. If you welcome the God of Prosperity on the Solar New Year, you may inevitably welcome the God of Chaos.

Happy New Year to all and may 2006 bring you good fortune and God’s blessings.

I’m quite a travel buff. Every year, I make it a point to travel to some part of the world on a budget-styled vacation. I have stopped signing up with tour/tourism companies after a disastrous trip to Hong Kong and China. I have decided from thence that travelling should be done by oneself and not to be dictated by another.

Thanks to a yearly bonus I received from my company, I’m able to stash up some money to fund my travels. I’ve been to many places and it is here, in this very blog, that I would like to share the photographs with readers like you. For every location, I choose the best 9 photographs to be displayed with some caption to explain the scene.

Stop reading and start watching the photos. Click on the link to my World Travel Photos or access it directly through this URL http://www.amoswong.com/amos-world-travel-photo-gallery/.

In February 1999, NASA launched Stardust spacecraft to travel 3.2 billion kilometres to collect a handful of cosmic dust (dust from comet and interstellar). The dust are collected in January 2004 using tennis-racket-like collectors filled with aerogel. The motivation for this scientific cause as posted in Stardust@Home’s site:

The scientific importance of these first solid samples from our Galaxy can’t be overstated. Interstellar dust and gas were the building blocks of our solar system, the Earth, and all living things, including people. We are truly made of stardust. But we don’t know what the typical interstellar dust grain looks like. Not even one contemporary interstellar dust grain has ever been studied in the laboratory! In January 2006, the Stardust spacecraft will return to Earth, for the first time, a few dozen precious contemporary interstellar dust grains. We are extremely excited about the prospect of directly studying contemporary interstellar dust for the first time.

The challenge that the scientific community is facing is rather ironic. They are able to send spacecraft to faraway-3-dimensional-lands to collect dust but once the dust return home, they need 20 years to search for the dust if they do it themselves. The problem is not finding the comet’s dust but rather the interstellar dust. It is estimated that searching for the interstellar dusts is like searching for 45 ants in an entire football field.

Therefore, NASA is now calling for volunteers to help comb the aerogels in search of the dusts. Not all volunteers will get a chance to scan the images as there will be a test and selection process. I’ve volunteered as I do not want to miss the chance to see a cosmic dust first hand and be credited if I find one.

As of the time of this post, the spacecraft Stardust has successfully landed in Utah. Work has begun and it is estimated that the first image for cosmic dust search will be made available on 1st March 2006. For more information and to volunteer, visit Stardust@Home.

Tags: Stardust, cosmic dust, aerogel