Solar Eclipse on 26 January 2009

The best solar eclipse for the decade in Singapore will occur on 26 January 2009. About 72% of the Sun will be covered by the Moon at maximum.

An eclipse occurs when the Sun, the Moon and the Earth form a straight line. A Solar eclipse occurs when the Moon comes in between the Earth and the Sun.

This year there will be five eclipses that will occur. Only two out of the five eclipses will be visible in Singapore, subject to weather. The next eclipse, after 26th January, will be another Solar eclipse, which will occur on 22 July 2009.

The first solar eclipse of 2009 is an annular eclipse, not a total eclipse. An annular eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are exactly in line, but the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than that of the Sun. Hence the Sun appears as a very bright ring, or annulus, surrounding the outline of the Moon.

In Singapore, the partial eclipse will be begin from 4:30PM to 6:30PM (local Singapore time). Maximum eclipse will be at 5:49 PM. The sun will be in the western sky and during maximum eclipse, 72% of it will be covered up by the moon! It will be a pretty impressive sight. Just pray that the clouds stay out of the way.

Please remember that viewing the sun without proper protection is extremely dangerous. Even when 72% of the sun is covered by the moon, the light is still bright enough to blind your eyes. And please do not try to view the eclipse using sunglasses. They will not protect your eyesight. If you have a pair of binoculars or a telescope, please do not look at the sun through them without proper solar filters that are fitted at the front of your instrument, not at the eyepiece!

Ok so you don't have any telescope, how are you going to view Monday's eclipse then? There are a few simple ways to view the eclipse safely. One is to make yourself a pinhole projector. Get a long box (the longer the better), a piece of aluminum foil, a pin, and a sheet of white paper or you can opt for a quick and easy version using just two pieces of cardboard. Instructions here.

But of course, you can always pay a visit to the Singapore Science Centre's Observatory to view the eclipse together with other astronomers. They will have a variety of telescopes there equipped with proper solar filters but it could be very crowded. Details here.

Attention : Do not observe the sun with your unaided eyes as it may cause permanent eye damage or blindness. To view the solar eclipse safely, you can use the solar eclipse viewer.

America has it's first black President sworn into Office. It is my very first time that I witness the swearing in of a United States President in my life.

Barack Obama is sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts as the 44th president of the United States. (AFP: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

I have my TV tuned to Channel News Asia (CNA) to watch the inauguration. It is simple and joyous one. At least the guests get up close to the President elect.. past surviving presidents were present too.. Jimmy Carter, George Herbert Walker Bush, Bill Clinton and out-going President George Bush.

Let's pray and hope as the World and America usher in a President Barack Obama may he gives the world a New leadership and lead us out of the current crisis... May God Bless us all!!!

Alright..providing another free software to make 'Magazine of the Year' using your every own photo.. is free and is fun!

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Like to have some fun using your photos or those of your love ones or friends? try out this website http://www.photofunia.com and I am sure you will have a fun time :)

By: The Late Luciano Pavarotti & Placido Domingo

Celtic Woman / Chloe Agnew - "O Holy Night"

Some of my favourites...

When they are in Singapore..

On 23rd of December, my parents and myself were invited by Elaine to her care
group place for My Hope Singapore Dvds viewing. We watched Kelvin's conversion testimony together with 20s other pre-believers.

God work in an amazing way... my mum prayed the sinner's prayer together with another 3 pre-believers that was present during the session.

Looking back...in 2008 Dec 14th my dad too prayed the sinner's prayer.. God's perfect gift during the month of Christmas.

Jesus Loves You

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes on Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16

In order to be saved we must first realize our need of a Savior. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23. For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23.

We need to repent of our sin. True repentence is a genuine remorse for our sins and a turning away from them. We need to realize that salvation is a gift from God not of our own works but the grace of God. In order to recieve that gift we need to accept it.

Jesus Christ died on the cross to buy our pardon from sin. We need to believe that Jesus died for our sins on the cross and that He rose from the grave and be willing to turn from our sins and accept His gift of eternal life.

Invite Jesus to come into your heart and cleanse you from your sin and ask Him to live in your heart and recieve Him as your Lord and Savior.

How to pray:

Dear Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner and need your forgiveness. I believe that you died for my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I now invite you to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow you as Lord and Savior. In Jesus name. Amen

The Lord Jesus prayed: Give us this day our daily bread. He was talking about spiritual food. Our daily bread is the word of God. Read your Bible everyday. Set up a time each day when you can be alone with God. A good place to start is the book of John. Jesus commands us to unite with other believers: Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is. It is important to attend a Bible believing church. Jesus says to pray unceasing, meaning that we should talk to Him in our thoughts as we go through the day as well as during our daily devotional time. Jesus gives us His Holy Spirit so we will never be alone.

On 15th December 2008, the charter of the Association of South East Asian Nations now has official status, binding members to an enhanced legal framework. But as Asia begins to experience the full force of the global economic crisis it may be some time before the grouping begins to operate as a European Union-style community.
What is in the Charter?...

Principles set out in the charter include:

• Emphasising the centrality of ASEAN in regional cooperation.

• Respect for the principles of territorial integrity, sovereignty, non-interference and national identities of ASEAN members.

• Promoting regional peace and identity, peaceful settlements of disputes through dialogue and consultation, and the renunciation of aggression.

• Upholding international law with respect to human rights, social justice and multilateral trade.

• Encouraging regional integration of trade.

• Appointment of a Secretary-General and Permanent Representatives of ASEAN.

• Establishment of a human rights body and an unresolved dispute mechanism, to be decided at ASEAN Summits.

• Development of friendly external relations and a position with the UN (like the EU)

• Increasing the number of ASEAN summits to twice a year and the ability to convene for emergency situations.

• Reiterating the use of the ASEAN flag, anthem, emblem and national ASEAN day on August 8. (Listen to anthem here)
  

ASEAN's members are Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

They are home to half a billion people. In terms of development, they range from wealthy modern Singapore and Brunei to impoverished, agrarian Laos and Cambodia. Politically, members include democratic Philippines and Indonesia, and military-ruled Burma.

The charter was to have been inaugurated at the annual ASEAN summit in Thailand this month, but a political crisis there forced its postponement. Monday's meeting at the Jakarta secretariat was convened specially to enact the charter.

The charter opens the door to a single ASEAN market within seven years. However, the unfolding global economic crisis may slow. There are fears that the crisis may slow efforts to negotiate the free trade agreement.

ASEAN has also come under attack for failing to address human rights abuses by its member, particularly in military-ruled Burma.

Jatropha, a plant that is native to Central America and grown in countries throughout Asia such as India, China, Indonesia and Myanmar. Could be the rising star as biofuel replacing the crude oil that we are using now.

Jatropha is a resilient plant. It is resistant to drought and pests attack. It produces seeds that can produce yield of up to 40% oil. When the seeds are crushed and processed, the resulting oil can be used in a standard diesel engine.

Myanmar can produce up to six million barrels of crude oil annually. At current stage it is not enough to meet domestic demand thus forcing them to spend more than US$200 million (S$302 million) a year on diesel and crude oil imports. But this could change when the production increases.

Comparing with other feedstocks, Jatropha when used in diesel engines will emits less carbon emissions thus making it a good alternative to diesel.

Jatropha's oil yield is said to be 2,000 litres per ha, against rapeseed's 1,200 litres and soybean's 600 litres.

Although, palm oil yields is higher, at 4,500 litres per ha but it is less sustainable and suitable cos it is a food crop and competes for arable land, at times leading to deforestation.

In terms of breakeven costs jatropha is by far the most efficient biofuel at US$50 per barrel. It trumps other traditional feedstocks such as palm oil (US$149) rapeseed (US$190) and soybean (US$144).

Let's see how jatropha will develop to become the champion of biofuels in the 21st century

Good news to many of us, the price of oil is going south. But fall in oil prices could somehow be limited by the news that President-elect Barack Obama plans to implement a major infrastructure program to help boost employment in the weakening US economy.

With all the stimulus packages and output cuts by Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), we may see the oil price stabilizing.

Opec, which controls about 40 percent of world crude supplies, announced a production cut of 1.5 million barrels a day in October and 500,000 barrels in September.

But let's keep our fingers crossed as Opec will meet again in Algeria on December 17th to discuss on further output reduction, this may cause the oil to go up again.