Friday, 16 November, 2018

Margaret Thatcher

Posted on Wednesday, 17 April, 2013Sunday, 20 August, 2017 by Zheluo Cai

I just came off watching Margaret Hilda Thatcher’s Ceremonial Funeral Procession through London, and the Service at St Paul’s Cathedral on TV. It was quite a moving farewell to one of Great Britain’s most able Prime Ministers from 1979 to 1990. I recalled I was barely in my 30s, and just before our Philippines escapade, when Mrs Thatcher announced she was going to war in the Falklands. I sat up in my chair and began to take note of this unusual lady throwing her gauntlet down for some islands over 12,000km off the Argentinian coast, instead of negotiating for a peaceful settlement. My admiration for her started then.

Her hero was Sir Winston Churchill, and apparently this quote made a deep impression on her through her years of political service, “The only guide to man is his conscience; the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions. It is very imprudent to walk through life without this shield, because we are so often mocked by the failure of our hopes and the upsetting of our calculations; but with this shield, however the fates may play, we march always in the ranks of honor.” What integrity!

The sermon was surprisingly evangelical and mildly evangelistic. She chose the Bible verses she wanted read at her funeral, and these were from Ephesians 6:10-18 and John 14:1-6.

The Ainu, in the historical Japanese texts the Ezo, are an indigenous people of Japan (Hokkaido, and formerly northeastern Honshu) and Russia (Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, and formerly the Kamchatka Peninsula). On June 6, 2008, the Japanese Diet passed a bipartisan, non-binding resolution calling upon the government to recognize the Ainu people as indigenous to Japan, and urging an end to discrimination against the group. Recent research suggests that the historical Ainu culture originated in a merger of the Okhotsk culture with the Satsumon, one of the ancient archaeological cultures that are considered to have derived from the Jōmon-period cultures of the Japanese archipelago. The Ainu economy was based on farming, as well as on hunting, fishing and gathering.

The Cave Nebula in Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Sulfur.
Image Credit & Copyright: Chuck Ayoub. The featured skyscape is dominated by dusty Sh2-155, the Cave Nebula, a stellar nursery 10 light-years deep. About 2,400 light-years away, the scene lies along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy, towards the royal northern constellation of Cepheus. Astronomical explorations of the region reveal that it has formed at the boundary of the massive Cepheus B molecular cloud and the hot, young stars of the Cepheus OB 3 association. The bright rim of ionized hydrogen gas is energized by radiation from the hot stars, dominated by the bright star just to the left of the cave entrance. Radiation driven ionization fronts are likely triggering collapsing cores and new star formation within.

The national flag of Nepal is the world's only non-quadrilateral national flag. The flag is a simplified combination of two single pennons, known as a double pennon. Its crimson red is the colour of the rhododendron, Nepal's national flower, while the blue border is the colour of peace. The inclusion of the celestial bodies indicates Nepal's permanence and the hope that Nepal will enjoy the same longevity as the Sun and the Moon. Additionally, the stylized moon represents the calm demeanour and purity of spirit of the Nepali people, while the stylised sun represents their fierce resolve. The current flag was adopted on 16 December 1962, along with the formation of a new constitutional government.

The Last Judgment is a fresco by the Italian Renaissance painter Michelangelo, covering the whole altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. It is a depiction of the Second Coming of Christ and the final and eternal judgment by God of all humanity. There are over 300 figures, with nearly all the males and angels originally shown as nudes; many were later partly covered up by painted draperies. The work took over four years, between 1536 and 1541. Michelangelo began working on it twenty-five years after he finished the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and was nearly 67 at its completion. It was commissioned by Pope Clement VII but was completed under Pope Paul III.

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