John 3:22-26

"After these things..." refer to the Passover and Nicodemus's visit. It is important to note that Jesus was gathering quite a crowd here, and that there was quite a religious sentiment going on in the Judean region, especially in Jerusalem. Also note that Jesus' disciples were baptizing. Referring back to the section in the John posts on baptizing we see that it was quite a common practice, however, its origins are not clear, and what Jesus' disciples were baptizing the people for is also not mentioned. It might be that while they were baptizing, Jesus was also teaching, since it is mentioned that He Himself did not baptize. This also tells us that Jesus' disciples at this time might have some religious status and recognition, being associated with a popular teacher, Jesus.

In any case, there arose a debate. How often, when there is a large crowd of believers, even religious leaders, there will also be a debate. And note that it was a purification, a debate about rituals probably between John's disciples and the Jews (probably the Pharisees), a dispute about who is doing what and who is right about it. Perhaps we can get the sense here that while the Pharisees were in legal religious authority, there were bands of teachers who might have disagreed with them, and there was constant voicing of religious ideas. Can we map this on to the way churches and religious organizations behave now?

But note even more surprising is that while the dispute was about purification, what John's disciples asked John about was nothing about purification but they were concerned about Jesus having more followers than John! Perhaps they were not really concerned about purification after all, perhaps it was bothering them that this thing was happening, and the unrest made them choose a topic just to vent? Again, do we do that ourselves? This is a call to re-examine our motives, no matter how admirable, we may have the best of intentions to dispute about religious motives and practices, but is that really our concern, and even more important, is that really what matters? Did we miss the point about what Jesus is doing?

Examine John's response deeply, because it seems in contrast to his disciples' and perhaps may be what John the author is putting as an example for us to follow in response to the Christ.

"He must increase, but I must decrease".

We are but witnesses to a more glorious Light. Always remember that. Be humble. Especially in the presence of One who comes from above and testifies to that which He has seen and heard. This statement constitute another testimony from John the Baptist as quoted by John the author, another testimony about the Christ. And Christ's testimony, through His actions, about Himself.

CNS 2007: New York City

New York, New York. The greatest city on earth...lah. We walk here walk there, walk everywhere. This photo show the city from the New Jersey side. A dense fog is covering the midtown area. Very thick, very mystery one.

Anyway, someone may is being asking me, why you go there ah? So I have to tell you, is not for fun one ok! Is for work. We is actuallying doing work lah. Conference. CNS Conference. Stand for Cognitive Neuroscience Society lah. Is for people who do my kind of work one, neuroscience. About the brain lah. Anyway, as you can see, we are very busy. So cannot talk very long. We are constantly finding out new, and interesting and important things, so also have to keep ourselves fit in order to maximize productivity. This next photo is showing Wenjing eating the duck bones, then Blair is eating the fish bone. See we very poor, eat only bones.

The the city also very one kind, the sell us jiu. Then got so many kinds. We dunno what to get, so we see this one, must be super good lah. Because the name is SIMI. So we think this one is asking us "Kua Si Mi?" That's means is got very stylo right? Because got attitude. Then you know this one is for when you dunno what jiu this is, you ask the store owner, he will recommend and say "Simi jiu you want?" Then of course you say "yes!"

Then not say I say what lah, but there is a very good sushi place called Yuka in the Upper East Side, this is in the upper side, in the east. That side. Is eat all you can one, anytime. Most New York eat all you can is only on certain days only and at some times only. This one is everyday, anytime also can. Only about $20. Is cheap already lah for New York. Only thing is you must not over order. So if you order, then never eat, then must pay the full price for ala carte. Remember ah, don't order too much, then no more siao mei mei price.














The next time is we go to the statue lah. Here is the poem they write about it. Acherly, not they lah, is one xiao jie write one. Is talking about the liberty, the freedom, is so good. Everyone also is like.













Then hor, lastly but not least lah, is the brunch in the West Village in place call Manteno, or Man something lah....and dinner in Le Petite Bistro.













This one is the You've Got Mail restaurant where the guy pretend to dunno the girl like that, then sian her from there lor.













So you can see we is very busy lah. I also recommend you see this movie lah. Is very good, but because take on phone may give you headache. [movie] And no say I never tell you ah, this movie is quite long one...about 20min long!

Why did Jesus Christ have to die?

There are many aspects to this question, but I would first deal with the most direct one and leave the rest for later comments and feedback.

Christ died because of our sin. Therefore, first we have to know what sin is. Sin is not just doing "bad" things like stealing, lying, or even killing. The core of sin is not knowing God as God. We all have sinned in that we all are born into this world not immediately knowing who God is, and not immediately acknowledging Him. All of us, at one point in our lives, were separate from God. This is a result of the original sin from Adam. But the sin also lies on us as well.

The result of our sin, is our death. Not just physical death, but death as separation. That is, once we are separated from God, we remain always separated. The problem is that God does not have sin, and therefore there is separation. On the other hand, God does not think that this separation is totally good. It is better for us to be with Him. So He worked out a way for us to be with Him again, even though we have sinned. The answer is Jesus.

Jesus Christ is God. Although He is God, He took on our sin, and died. This at once forms a bridge. It is both shocking as well as beautiful all at once, because God who cannot even have a hint of sin, took on our sin. And God, in whom is life itself, died. This might sound impossible, or ridiculous, or contradictory at first. But consider that there is a lot about God we don't fully understand. Furthermore, what is impossible to man, is possible to God. To live and die at the same time, to be pure but tainted at the same time. This is a radical concept, that perhaps we can slightly identify with in the form of our own emotions. How we can feel so completely elated but hollow, sad and happy, worried but at peace, angry yet in love, hate but respectful. How we can be many persons yet the same person at one time. Is it any more impossible for God to have this characteristic too but in infinite terms?

In any case, once Christ died, we see that the separation is made null, because God crossed over to our side, and in doing so, brought us back to Him. There is identification and acknowledgment. There is also a form of payment, as it were. A ransom for the price of sin. Sin meant death for us, but in our stead, Christ died. Ironically, it is Christ/God that defined that sin means death. So in essence, He was both fulfilling His own law as well as abolishing Himself and His law.

The story doesn't end there of course, because Christ also rose again from the dead.

Parko Cho-O

No, this isn't a tribal dance. No, this isn't us burning the house. It is us saying goodbye to a dear friend. Parting is never easy. Which is why we do it with some partying. Parko Cho-O was held at Hessel Park, 6pm. BBQ, good food, good company. At first, the weather forecast threatened to thunderstorm, but, I quote someone, "60% chance for thunderstorm means, 40% chance". It all turned out well. People gathering wood, people burning marshmellows. Everyone just being plain crazy. We wish you all safe journey, and a better road ahead.

Check out the awesome pyro fest [movie].

Galactica Finale

There's a reason for him grabbing you...its because it is the end. The final five...the return of Starbuck...the silly music...Earth!

Ending episode of Galactica 3rd season finale.

Goose on Roof

Walking along the Beckman Quad, it was a breezy Spring evening. When something caught my eye on the right. Two geese. Flying in tandem, barking! They swooped past behind and landed on the roof of the computer science building. Tension ruffled in the air. What would they do next?

Click [here] to find out!

Press Release: Culture and Aging fMRI Study

Culture, Aging fMR-Adaptation press release in UIUC News Bureau.

http://www.news.uiuc.edu/news/07/0501culture.html

Culture, Age and Eye-Movements

We repeated the same experiment as in the culture and aging adaptation fMRI study. Only this time, we were recording subject eye-movements. We know that there were already cultural differences in old adults in terms of brain activity. Specifically, old East Asian adults did not engage the object processing regions to the same degree as Old Westerners. But how do we really know for sure that this was related to visual processing and not some other form of cognitive operations at work. A way to understand this better was to use eye-tracking. Which is what mainly motivated this study. In parallel, this eye-tracking version of the paradigm allowed to examine three main questions:

1. Cultural experience with age predicts that individuals become more different as they become more developed in their culture (assuming that the cultures are different on some dimensions and levels). However, aging also leads to a phenomena called de-differentiation, which refers to the fact that cognitive processing in older adults becomes less individually distinct due to general decline and increased variability in performance. So it would seem these two forces are in opposition. Thus, one question was whether cultural difference diverge or converge with age.

2. Another question was whether these cultural differences are robust to environmental biases. Cultural biases are such that East Asians are context-oriented and Westerners are object-oriented. These are sweeping statements of course, and should in no way be understood as stereotypical. However, there is evidence that suggests that, for whatever reason, there are visual processing differences that are related to the cultural background of individuals, including this current study. The question though is if we were exposed to visual environments that biased us to attend to objects or backgrounds, how would we behave given our own cultural biases to one component over the other?

3. Finally, the last question is whether these cultural biases in visual processing is just an inconsequential behavior, or if it does indeed have impact on other cognitive processes, perhaps an obviously important process such as memory.

In sum, we found that cultural differences diverge with age, these cultural biases remain despite environmental biases, at least in a passive viewing case, and these biases also impact on memory such that the item we attend to less is subsequently less well remembered.

[CNS Poster 2007.pdf]