John 1:6-13

"...a man sent from God...John...witness of the Light...believe."

John the baptist. Strange man. From Matthew 3:1-17, Mark 1:1-11, and Luke 3, we obtain the general description of a man who lived quite unlike the others in his generation. He lived in the wilderness, wore camel's hair with a leather belt, and ate locusts and wild honey. His main message was "baptism of repentance for the remission of sins". This is significant. Consider John the baptist, since he was sent from God as a witness of the Light. How was he a witness? Why was he chosen? Is there even a reason he was chosen or did he grow into that role?

Consider the saying from Isaiah 40:3-5. This is the passage whose context is to speak comfort and deliverance to the people of Israel. There is also the very telling statement "The glory of the Lord shall be revealed". And John is the voice of one crying in the wilderness, "Prepare the way...make straight in the desert". Get ready! How many were unaware? How many did not comprehend the light? But more on this in later passages.

The key points in these verses seem to be about the testimony to some facts or revelations about the Light. The Light gives light to every man, the Light was not known by the world, the Light was not received by His own, those who received the Light by believing in His name, are given the right to become children of God. This is an expansion of the earlier verses. From the original idea that the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness not comprehending, John the author develops the idea of how the Light shines in the darkness.

The Light was in the world. Now, the Maker of the world is in it. Yet He was not recognized, He was not known. This is the tragedy. What has gone wrong that the world does not know its Maker? As a child does not know his or her parents. But John does not stop here, for although the world, His own, did not know Him or receive Him, those who did receive Him received something in return. And here, there is the idea of spiritual birthhood into being a child of God.

Now when we talk of spiritual birth, we refer to something fundamental, something to do with souls. For we are not talking about physical bodily birthing, but divine birthing. We are born of God. For all physical births are reflections of what is happening spiritually. A new soul is born. A new being. A new life. However, that life apart from The Life, and The Light, is sadly, because of our ignorance of Him, our lack of knowledge of Him, our non-reception of Him, that life is still just as good as death. For consider its eternal futility apart from The Light.

Yet, the good news is that if that life were to receive Him, then, there is a spiritual birth as well. One by God's own will. Consider the fundamental, qualitative difference that is now in place between these two lives. Is it a continuum? As in are there "better" lives and "worse" ones? Are not all equal? Good or bad? All die. The only distinction then must be what is eternal. Do you know the Eternal One? And, just as importantly, does the Eternal One know you?

Fall Chao and Qiu

So the color all change already. The wind blowing very strong. All the leaf fall down, like raining orange like that. Then when you walk, the floor got dry leaves, you make the shee shee sha sha sound. Very fun. But then a little bit cold lah. Probably around 15C. I like. This one all take while walking along Springfield, Elm, Prairie, White. So you see, all very nice nice like that. But then ah, its means its going to become very the cold lor. Already some qiu botak already. Ah, got poem come out.

Bua Toh
Wind blow blow
Color red red
Orange orange
Yellow yellow
Floor sha sha
Light warm warm
Air cold cold
Leaf bua toh bua toh

Time travel back to CNS 2006

Another time travel back one lah. Sorry ah. Very very busy. But I got put you should xie tian xie di already. This one is for the CNS conference in San Francisco. Very good! Also got chiak hong, but this one even better, can chiak hai also. See the golden gate, the pier 39, or issit 36? Aiyah, same same lah. 30 something lah. Then also, the whole lab got drunk. Yah man. Fun right? Dun worry lah, we know what we doing. Is good one. Here is some movie clip: CNS San Francisco 2006 [movie].

Time travel back to SFN 2005

Acherly hor, this one is last year happen one lah. But now then I put up. Because busy mah. But anyway, we go there for conference lah. And then one day, got some time, me and Lucas go there to chiak hong. Then see here see there lor. Not bad lah. Can see all these famous places. Only cannot see peh chu very clearly (check out my pics for Washington)...good lah...then like that is more safe for them. But ah, I thought I saw a sniper on the roof leh! Wah lau! I felt a little insecure...look carefully on my pics for the peh chu. You can see shadow...maybe ninja...maybe only lah. Also got movie: SFN Washington DC 2005 [movie]

Tofu Fa Man!

Liao Chor! I make one. Not bad at all...and the fried bee hoon. Bah tor yiao liao! Jia bng!

Here is the recipes (I give recipe no milligram one ah, just go by feeling lah):

Tofu Fa
Ingredients
Soya bean (2 handfuls)
Water (one pot)
Muslin cloth (go get from the fabric auntie, very cheap one, get white color hor, don't fancy fancy, if not your tow huay got color)
Soya bean curd agglutination powder (buy from the bai huo gong si)

Make
Soak the soya beans in the water over night. Go to sleep. Tomorrow then continue.
Wake up already, pour the soya beans and water mixture into a blender, and blend. Blend blend ga li song. Then pour the mix into the muslin cloth. Then squeeze the juice out of the mix in the muslin cloth into a pot. Then boil the pot of juice, get rid of the foam. This is the tow huay jui. Can drink one. Add sugar if you want when you drink.

Then mix the agglutination powder with cold water, one pack of powder put about 1/4 pot of water. Mix until powder all dissolve. Then pour the tow huay jui into the powder water and cover the pot. Let it stand for at least 15 min. Afterward, it become tow huay, or TOFU FA!

Cha Bee Hoon
Ingredients
Tang Hoon (3 packs)
Straw mushroom or shiitake also can (2 handful sliced)
Chilli (as much as you want, whole or chopped up to you, whole better lah)
Cabbage (half head sliced)
Carrot (one big one, sliced)
Egg (2 or 3 beaten)
Meat base (can be pork, chicken slices, or that fake crab stick sliced also can, or don't put meat also can)
Celery (2 or 3 sticks sliced)
Vinegar, rice wine, soya sauce, salt, sesame oil

Make
Boil the tang hoon until soft, then dry and put aside first.
Mix half cup vinegar, half cup rice wine, 1/4 cup soya sauce, a little bit of sesame oil.
Pour some oil into wok and fry some garlice, ginger, shallots (all chopped).
Wait until slightly golden color. Then put the chilli. Stir fry a while.
Then put the cabbage and carrot. Stir fry until the mix shrink a little and softer.
Then put the celery and the meat base if have. Stir fry until meat cooked.
Then put the tang hoon in. Maybe very long and dry, but patient lah. Chop up the tang hoon as you mix it into the stir fry.
Add the egg. Keep mixing. Wait until the egg solidy in small bits in the mix.
Add the vinegar/wine/soya sauce/sesame oil mix. Mix.
Add salt until you like the taste, or don't add also can.

Cha Bee Hoon win oredi.

Gluttons Bay, SG

The new eatery beside the Durian. Not bad lah. A bit the ex, but then good view lor. Also as usual got many people lah. Some more the esplanade there like every night now got something happening. So if you wan go then better be early lor.

Gluttons Bay (movie clip)

The good old kopi loti!

Ah...the good old days. Nothing beats a nong nong de kopi-o. Half boiled eggs and kaya toast. That's all you need to get your day going.

This pic taken before heading for church service one Sunday morning.

Mid-Autumn 2006

Mid-Autumn in Hessel Park, Champaign (movie clip)

Chuang qian ming yue guang
The moon big big.
The air cold cold.
The meat sweet sweet.
The grill hot hot.
The people talk talk.
The tea smell smell.
The time slow slow.
The day gone gone.
Hungry already.

The Chicago Jazz Festival 2006

Chicago Jazz! (movie clip) Very fun. Got music, got beer, got sit on the chao in the windy city. Is good. Some more best! Is FREE! They very crazy one. One time got two jazz organ ah, they play lai play ki. Plus they got showmanship. Not say I say what lah, but they damn good lor. Can go must go. Don't go you lugi.

Aging effects on visual object, background and binding processing

Earlier, we saw different brain regions involved in object, background and binding processing. Now, we see if these regions might be engaged differently in older adults. Older adults typically show poorer episodic memory but relatively preserved item processing that does not require episodic or contextual access. Might this be due to a reduced engagement of binding processes in the MTL of older adults?

We found that not only is MTL reduced, but older adults seemed to not process the entire visual stimuli in the same way as young adults. In particular, older adults seem to process only background components of the pictures while somewhat treating the objects less attentively. Abstract: Age-related changes in object processing and contextual binding revealed using fMR adaptation.

So we know that at least part of the changes in aging might be related to the partial processing of the entire picture rather than the entire central item and context. Next, we turn to consider what are some of the factors that might lead to these changes with age.

Binding information about items and their contexts

So we know frequency has bearing on how the brain works during semantic judgments, encoding, and retrieval. Now, we take a look more specifically at how the brain does the work of binding the item to information about its occurrence for subsequent memory. Previously, we showed that if you had to engage the brain more during encoding, you are more likely to remember the item's occurrence. Now, we are interested in where in the brain this occurrence information or contextual information about the item is processed.

We looked at pictures for this inquiry instead of words because they afforded more relevant ways of manipulating the stimuli, as well as the ability to test these items more easily in other sample groups of people as will become apparent later on.

When looking at pictures of objects in background scenes, we are able to process information about the identity of the object, the content or spatial layout of the background. Furthermore, we form the binding between object and background that relates to information about their co-occurrence. The brain regions involved in these respective processes are the lateral occipital complex (LOC), the parahippocampal place area (PPA), and the medial temporal regions (MTL) that includes a different region of the parahippocampal gyrus and the hippocampus. Abstract: Cortical areas involved in object, background, and object-background processing revealed with functional magnetic resonance adaptation.

Thus, we know that the brain processes the component item information and their contextual binding in seperate regions. These then give us clues about how these different regions might operate differently across people groups that show different memory behavior and/or processing of visual stimuli.

Frequency, memory formation, memory retrieval or access

Once we know that the brain works differently when making semantic judgments about words encountered with different frequencies, we can ask how the brain processes these words so that information about them can be accessed later. So, with regards to frequency, why is it that when asked to recall word lists, we tend to recall more frequent items, whereas when asked to recognize word lists, we do it better for less frequent items. Clearly, something about the previous history of these words of different frequency of encounters has an affect on the way information about a specific encounter of these words is retrieved later.

First, we can look at what the brain does differently for words of high and low frequency that leads to different memory access. In sum, the brain seems to be more active during semantic judgments for words that are later recognized. Furthermore, these words that are more active tend to be the low frequency words. Perhaps, because we have to work harder at making semantic distinctions for such words, we end up enhancing their recent representation. This makes it easier for them to be retrieved later for recogntion. Abstract: Word frequency and subsequent memory effects studied using event-related fMRI.

Next, we look at how the brain handles these words during recognition itself. Perhaps during this stage, other processes additively or interactively affect the resulting recognition response. The mechanism might operate in this manner: the top-down criteria is made active (words that appeared at a particular point in time), probe words are encountered and identified, information for these words are matched to the active set, a decision is made about the recognition memory for the word. In sum, word frequency of the test words seen during encoding did not affect brain activity differentially, however, word frequency of new words not seen at encoding did make a difference to brain activity. That is, high frequency novel words activated the parietal region more than low frequency words when subjects recognized them as such. Abstract: Recognition memory for studied words is determined by cortical activation differences at encoding but not during retrieval.

So once we encode the word recently, the word frequency does not matter anymore, at least to the recognition judgment. What matters in the recognition is trace of recency or specific time information associated with the probe word. This, presumably, is not dependent on the frequency history of the word. However, if the word is not encountered before, word frequency seems to make a difference in the parietal area, an area that is involved in attention modulation and visualization. Perhaps, the higher activity for high frequency words in this case marks the more connected representation of high frequency words compared to low frequency words. Sort of an automatic engagement of the relatively wider spread of activation for high frequency words.

Word Frequency and brain activity

One of the basic forms of information that our brains are sensitive to, is the number of times we encounter an external event. This is most easily seen in examples of learning. Such as, the more we practice doing something, it becomes easier, we get faster at doing it, and even more accurate. Another example is that the more we encounter a specific information about an item or concept, we know a little more about it, maybe in a different way, maybe in a clearer way. Prior knowledge is updated.

The brain probably represents this frequency information in terms of changes in individual neuronal activity and inter-neuronal connectivity. In terms of internal neuronal changes, neurons may form more synapses that facilitate the generation of an action potential. There might also be reductions in synapses, leading to inhibitory type responses or de-potentiation. In terms of inter-neuronal connectivity, neurons may form more synapses with other neurons, axons may travel along certain paths in order to reach target brain regions, neuronal branching becomes more dense, or even less dense depending on the nature of the stimulation and connection. In all these cases, frequency of encountering stimuli, represented as frequency of individual neurons and networks of neurons being stimulated, leads to changes in neuronal structure and activity.

We start with an evaluation of how frequency of encountering words changes the way our brains respond when trying to access semantic information about those words. By semantic information, we typically refer to all associative information (neuronal connections) that are involved when we make an inclusion/exclusion categorizing judgment. In theory, we make these judgments by first evoking a set of semantic restrictions that define the target categories and keep this set active. We then identify the words, retrieve connections of these words, then match these retrieved connections to the active restriction set. This can proceed in a top-down/bottom-up competition type mechanism whereby bottom-up perceptual information about the word representation (lexical features, semantic associative strength and density) have to be resolved with the top-down imperative to match or not match the active semantic set relevant to the task.

In sum, the brain has to work harder for words encountered less frequently during such semantic judgments. Abstract: Frequency of concrete words modulates prefrontal activation during semantic judgments.

Perhaps, while low frequency should have fewer connections than high frequency words, since they have not had that much opportunity to form these connections due to the sparsity of their occurrence, the brain compensates their lack of obvious semantic associations by engaging more neuronal processing (particularly in the frontal regions). This may mark the recurrent search or matching effort to decide the category for the probe word.

3T Siemens Allegra

This is where its all done. You put someone in there, make them do some cognitive task. Compare it to when they are doing another task or doing nothing. Then make some inferences about the brain activity and the brain regions involved in performing the task.

John 1:3-5

"All things were made through Him..."

The creation story. Here, John is clearly looking at Christ as the beginning of everything that we see and know. Not only was He in the beginning, His is also the beginning of all things. Consider this again. What we know about reality. Planets, creatures, animals, plants, the environment, molecules, atoms, physics, color, smells, sounds, movement, change, reason, logic, chaos even. Christ was the author of all these. Which means He must be incredibly smart. He is the one in whom resides perfect knowledge as those in the sciences envy. He is the one in whom resides perfect expression as those in the arts envy. He is the one in whom resides perfect thought as those in philosophy and religion seek after. Everything is found in Him because everything that exists owes itself to Him, even time.

And the culmination of this creative force is life. In Him was life. Even now, we find it hard to define what life really is. Reproduction? Awareness? Growth? Automation? These are but facets for we can always find exceptions to the rules we might devise. But here is the source of all life. If we were to take this point, then John could be telling us, here is what life is. He is. And we who live, do so because He does. And if so, there are implications that follow, such as emulation of His perfect life. Seeking after His life force.

How can we choose otherwise? Because that would be to deny life. And in the end, that would mean we are extinguishing ourselves. To not flow with His life is contradiction, and the most meaningless thing of all.

"...the light of men...in the darkness..."

Now we cross the line. From just the idea of perfect existence, life, we cross into the physical, light. This juxtaposing of life and light vs darkness. John was probably thinking about the world as we know it as darkness. The ignorance, the denial, the rebellion. And this is likened to not having light. Darkness. Not being able to see. Not having light. Not having life. So then, apart from Christ, we are in fact not alive. Recall that God said in Genesis "Let there be light", again. He started creation with light. There is therefore significance here that John speaks of Christ's life as the light of men. For in His life, in His ultimate work, He created light in us, while we were in darkness, uncreated, unformed.

"...the darkness did not comprehend it."

The ultimate failing of the human race. We did not recognize Him. Even though we belong to Him, and He made us. We have fallen so far that we cannot see the truth as it is presented in our very faces. Consider this. How have we, how has the world, not comprehended its Maker?

Cognitive Training

Two main findings emerge with research into the efficacy of cognitive training.

1. Training helps. Training improves behavioral performance in the task that people are trained in. This is evidenced in the Seattle Longitudinal Study and the Berlin Aging Study as studied by Baltes, Willis, Schaie, Lindenberger from the 70s to 90s, and even current day. Mostly, these studies train people in tasks involving spatial orientation and inductive reasoning. And they show that training in these specific domains leads to improvements post-test in that domain. This might explain why expertise exists. That is, why there are people around who are very good at what they do because they have so much experience doing it.

2. Training does not spill over to other domains as much. To be fair, there are some general transfers of learning, mostly within other tests that probe that trained domain. But across different domains, there seems to be not much transfer. Many have tried to investigate if training serves to improve general intelligence, and thus would logically lead to more transfer, since it is general. However, this has proven elusive. Most of the problem is because general intelligence itself is elusive, and is really still very much a modular thing. That is, there may not be a general intelligence at all, but specialties in cognitive abilities like spatial orientation, inductive reasoning, perceptual speed etc.

3. Perceptual speed does not improve with training. This is the general finding. However, not finding improvement with training does not mean that it is not possible. Perhaps there is a method of improving perceptual speed, but we have not found it yet.

4. These improvements with training are found even in aging!

The Freiahdim: Chapter 1.1

Kira maxed out the acceleration of the pod. He had to finish collecting all the ore by the second rotation or it would be another night of eating tapioca. Ore collection was an elaborate process in the asteroid belt. The unpredictable trajectory of the rocks required a pilot who was able to read movement and react instantaneously, and a lot of luck. The ore was basic iron, and would be purified in reactors down on the mother planet. The refineries paid good money and ore collectors needed plenty of it.

Another dive, and a swerve to the left. That was close! Kira looked back. The dragnet was just about full. One more. He arched his back and yanked at the helm. His pod pitched up in response and swung over a looming space rock. There! A glint of light. A fancy roll and a burst of speed. Kira held the pod steady and targeted the light. He fired two shots and circular blade cutters flew out of the pod's battery towards their target, spinning with jagged edges. They hit and spliced the ore loose from the base rock. Kira banked to one side, and scooped up the ore with the dragnet. That's done it. Now. Home.

The Freiahdim: Prologue

"All men must die". This was the carved inscription on the ground at the foot of the Rock of Delmonutha, a mountain of pure diamond. A giant, solitary monolith on the surface of the infamous desert asteroid Durathane. Travellers came from all the corners of the known Universe to witness this spectacular sight. Every rotation cycle, the rays of the setting Durathanian sun cut into the enormous gem and splayed out in a multi-colored fanfare. It is said that the eyes that beheld this reflected glory will from then on look upon the universe with supernatural clarity. Some devout pilgrims have left this place enlightened, and used their newfound wisdom to save many from folly. Other eager visitors, while no less passionate, were not so favored and the intensity of the revelation, the starkness of the reality, simply drove them to utter madness.

No one knows who carved the words there into the diamond rock. Even less understood is the purpose of the words. The mountain structure itself had been studied for millennia. Using magic and science, scientists and mystics tried to probe its inner contents. But the mountain of diamond remained impregnable. "All men must die", it said. They always have.

Though technically an asteroid, Durathane was large enough to contain a basic atmosphere. However, it was not spherical like the other planets, and it belonged to the asteroid belt that orbited its mother planet, Sardis. Legend has it that the asteroid belt used to be a whole planet even larger than Sardis. But a terrible war amongst the inhabitants on the planet eventually ended with its total destruction.

Identity Phones

Mobile phones that use fingerprint and retina scan to verify our identity. They can therefore contain our credit card info, our bank account info...even the "cash" we have withdrawn from our bank into our phones...and info for all the various cards we carry...train passes, office passes, discount vouchers, etc.

So all we have to do is scan the info into our phones, and if we need to make a purchase or use the info which is secure, just place our fingerprint and retina scan for access and then the money or info is accessed accordingly by the relevant external devices...

No need to walk around with big fat wallets!

iTable

Picture this, a table with the desk surface as a touch screen monitor so you can write on it with a stylus, or use your hands and fingers to "move" paper. Moreover, have the desk hot-wired so that the CPU is integrated into the drawers. Have the port built into the table too. You can have a USB port on the table, a phone or ethernet port for physical network connectivity, a built in wireless. Have all the cables fabricated into one cable, so that the user just needs to plug-in one cable for power and/or for networking.

Cool looking.

Visor Monitor

Instead of using monitors, we can use visors and monitors. This would increase the field of view with the screen being the whole visor. You can make it into a 3D interface so active windows or documents and applications are ordered in terms of depth layers. You can also detect the user's head position and move the screen in a 3D world accordingly. You can even include earphones connected to the visor. Just connect an LCD visor with a DVI or VGA cable to the CPU, with the approriate driver and softwares of course!

Sonic Boom Horn

Sometimes, people can't react in time to oncoming traffic, or they just don't notice. By the time they know how to react, it might be too late. So why not let the honk of an oncoming vehicle do more than warn? Why not enable it to actually push people away?

The sonic boom horn is a device which blasts a wave of sound that both warns people as well as pushes them away. This is because the sonic energy blast is creates a pocket of air pressure that is strong enough to displace bodies that might be in its path.

BOOM!!

Domed City

Dome an entire city in glass or plexiglass.

This would offer the advantage of climate control and protection. Imagine, having cool air when the external air is too hot or vice versa. You could also protect against typhoons and storms and UV light exposure.

The dome structure itself can be used as scaffolding for buildings, train tracks. In other words, your city could go up instead of sideways.

I'd live in that city!

Kua Si Mi Part 1

Aiyah. Talk too much also not good lah. Sometime, a man gotta do what a man gotta do lor, right? But then, what about women? So women no need to do lah? Also cannot like that say right?

Sometimes hor, this whole sex equality thing also very irritating lah. All the men want to have women who are nice nice...gentle gentle like that. Want to have wife that cook lah, clean lah, look after chewren lah. Then have already, feel bored, dowan to go home, not exciting...always go out dunno do what...then come back sian, watch tv, dun help out. Like that how can!?!? Then the women also lah. Want to be equal with men, dowan stereotype like must be housewife like that. But then, when got heavy thing to carry, always tell the men to do it.

Not say I say what lah. But biology is biology is biology hor. Men got more muscle lah. Women got more curves lah. You all got to use what you got to do the best thing, right? Don't fight anymore lah! Fight for what? Got so much time to fight, go sell char kway teow lah! At least make more money that way.

Aiyah, gong kah tao tiah lah. Go lim kopi!

Blogging with widgets

Sodesne, genius lah! Now can post things straight from the computer desktop. Liao chor manz! Not say I say what, but sometime hor, I scared that we too smart for our own good lah. Anyway, this thing very the cool. So for more good years!

John 1:1,2

"In the beginning..."

This echoes the words of Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth". Why is this important for John? Realize this, when the apostles, when John set his eyes on Jesus, he was looking at someone, some Thing, that has existed before time. To say, "In the beginning" is to packet Time within something else. Which is also to say Time is not everything, it is part of something. This is where we will find it hard to grasp. For we live in a temporal world. Things exist and happen according to some temporal order. Something leads to something else. But when presented with the idea that something just is, or is not, we are left hanging with an uncomfortable feeling of HOW? Because this is not about something that existed before Time as we know it, because that would imply some other kinds of Time that this thing existed. No. Rather, this is about something that exists as it is. Timeless, Time is irrelevant. Is.

Yet, John starts with this idea. Prior to eternity, the Word was. The Word precedes it. Let us consider this for a while. Our words are expressions of our thoughts. Our words have power to change other people's thoughts. Our words also have the power, through influencing people, to change the physical world. Our words exist within the physical world in that they are either written on materials, or spoken as sound waves. Our words also exists in allegorical and metaphorical forms, like communicating via pictures, or music. In sum, our words are a result of our being. We exist in a relation to other beings, in relation to the physical world. And as soon as we exist, we have words, even as babies.

The Word then, is a result of God being. God in His infinity relates to the finite which He made. Which He made by the power of His Word. As it is written in Genesis He said "Let there be light, and there was light". Is it hard to see how when God speaks, it is like when we speak, only God speaks perfectly, and we speak but mere reflections and shadows? When He speaks, the Word acts. The Word does His Will. The Word is His Will. Jesus, the very outward expression of God in relation to us, and to all reality. For in Jesus, everything is fulfilled of which God intends. Both in the past and in the future. In Jesus, God is revealed. Just as when we speak, people know us. By our words, we are known, and judged. By God's Word, He is known, and found to be the just judge of all.

We should therefore be mindful of Who it is we speak to, and Who it is we speak of. For this is Someone who is since before time. This is Someone who is the very essence of power, life, existence, as it is revealed here in this statement made by John. This is Someone who's words never return void but accomplish what He says(Isa 55:11).

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

And then John shifts. "He was in the beginning with God". We started with an entity, an unnamed thing and finally move to "He". A person. Jesus. So the Word of God, is not like our words that are just lifeless forms. The Word of God has life in himself, and is a person. With His own character, personality, existence, thoughts, perceptions. "He". Jesus. This person who walks in Israel when He was walking there, has been with God right from the beginning. Ponder the existence of such a person. Of such a being.

Theory about frequency and perception

All that we can see and feel requires frequency.

Our eyes see light and color reflected of objects because our retinal cells process light energy of varying frequencies. The complex integration of these frequencies of energy give rise to the phenomena of seeing.

Our hearing comes from the physical vibration of sound energy of varying frequencies that gives rise to the phenomena of hearing.

Even smell, taste, and touch, come as an phenomena that is represented as the spiking activity of neurons when an event occurs versus when that specific stimulus is not present. Frequency, on/off.

What if everything froze. For example, light. What if all the existing energy waves were stopped in whatever phase they are in. We would no longer see, because technically, there would be no frequency to which our eye cells can respond.

That is, if time stopped, there would be nothing. Because that thing ceases since it is no longer defined with respect to a phenomenon.

What is the mind?

What is the mind? How do we see, hear, taste, smell, and feel? How does thought occur? What is it? How do we remember things? How do we know anything at all? It seems that at least a large part of the answer to these big questions, lies in understanding how the brain works.

While in the past, many have tried to unlock the mysteries of this organ, they were limited in their ability to verify their ideas. In fact, the Egyptians, for all their architectural genius, did not think much of the brain. During the famous mummification process, they preserved much of the body but sucked out the brain tissue through the nose and discarded it. Centuries later, people realized that the brain was in fact a rather important organ and somehow, it carried out the phenomena known as thought. However, they were still in the dark as to how it worked. Even Rene Descartes was slightly misguided when he reasoned that the pineal gland was the center of human thought by virtue of its position deep in the brain.

Today, we are able to view the brain without having to harm even a single hair on anyone's head. Technology, such as magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalograms, allows us to measure brain activity while a person is actually thinking. Of course, we cannot read peoples' minds as if we were gazing into some crystal ball. But we can at least verify if our theories of how the brain works are generally in the right track. Hopefully, with time, as we discover more about this complex organic machinery, we will know enough to more effectively improve human life and, more importantly, fix the machinery when it breaks down.

This blog is a meek attempt at collating and synthesizing what we currently know about brain function. While some parts of it may get technical, I will endaevor to make this knowledge as accessible as possible to the average reader.

John - Introduction

The gospel of John records Jesus' life from a very different perspective compared to the other three gospels. There are personal conversations that elaborate Jesus' thinking and teaching. There are many instances where Jesus makes claims and statements about Himself, and this is usually accompanied by signs and acts that support these claims. In fact, there are 7 signs recorded in the book. The number of perfection.

There is little doubt that this gospel was written by John, the apostle, the one whom Jesus loved. And he probably wrote it after the writing of Mark. Thus, while being able to use some material from Mark, John greatly digresses and gives us more specific records of what Jesus said in other episodes of his ministry. Amongsts these new episodes not available are: Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman at the well, and Lazarus' raising from the dead. Also, from here, we are informed that Jesus made several trips to Jerusalem throughout His ministry, probably in keeping with celebrative traditions of the various Jewish feasts. This is in contrast with the other gospels where only one general trip (the final one) to Jerusalem is mentioned.

This is a very beautiful gospel in that we see Jesus in a different, almost more personal, light compared to what is described in the other gospels. As such, we should expect to learn a more intimate understanding of Jesus' mind and heart.