Today in History 3rd October 2012

 1226: St. Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan order, died; he was canonized in 1228

 1582: Gregorian Calendar introduced

1605: Li Tzu-ch'eng, Chinese revolutionary who dethroned last Ming emperor born He was a Chinese rebel leader who contributed to the fall of the Ming dynasty. With the help of scholars he organized a government in S Shanxi prov., proclaimed a new dynasty, and sought popular support by giving famine relief and spreading songs and stories lauding his heroic qualities. By 1643 he held much of Hubei, Henan, and Shaanxi provs., and in 1644 he captured Beijing, finding the last Ming emperor dead by suicide. Advancing to Shanhaiguan, a strategic pass on the Great Wall, Li confronted the Ming general Wu San-kuei. Rather than surrender to a Chinese rebel leader, Wu preferred to collaborate with the Manchus. Li was driven from Beijing, and within a year he was killed and his forces were crushed. The new Manchu Ch'ing dynasty rewarded Wu with an independent satrapy in Yunnan and Guizhou provs.
         

1789: Washington proclaims the 1st national Thanksgiving Day on Nov 26

1803: John Gorrie, invented cold-air process of refrigeration was born.

 1899: The patent was issued for the motor-driven vacuum cleaner.

1941:

Singer Chubby Checker born Ernest Evans in Spring Gulley, South Carolina

Have always enjoyed his "Last Twist again", as we still played this song at parties & functions to cheer the atmosphere

1945     Elvis was only 10 years old when he made his first public performance today back in 1945
Elvis was encouraged to enter a singing contest after impressing his schoolteacher with his singing of Red Foley's country song "Old Shep" . The contest,  held at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show on October 3, 1945, was his first public performance.
He dressed as a cowboy, Elvis Presley, then a 10 years old boy stood on a chair to reach the microphone and sang "Old Shep". He recalled being placed in fifth position.
A few months later, on his birthday, Elvis received his first guitar ; he had actually hoped for something else, by different accounts, either a rifle or a bicycle. But that guitar leads him on to be a great singer.


 1990: That year was the Happiest News for Europe- West Germany and East Germany ended 45 years of postwar division, declaring the creation of a new unified country with 78 million citizens . Soon after that, the Soviet Union was disintegrated .And Germany has came a long way since then .
The present Chancellor was from East Germany


1994: South African President Nelson Mandela addressed the U.N., urging the world to support his country's economy. Looking at how successful the World cup was held, South Africa has indeed came along way

 2005: US rejects EU proposal to give Internet control to the UN. If Internet control has been given to the UN, that might be the end of free flow of news and information ?

as the 2nd October was Gandhiji's birthday, we would like to share a small part of his greatness  in OUR GOOD NEWS  ..

Mahatma Gandhiji's View on Christianity

Why I didn’t become a follower of Christ 
 If not Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the Indian Independence struggle would have taken longer with more bloodshed, division and war.
When senior leaders of the Hindu political groups urged Gandhi to respond 'violence with violence' and 'sword with sword', he opposed insisting and exhorting the path of non–violence and peace, which was Gandhi's biggest sword to combat the trained and fully equipped forces.

For sure this great man is one of the most respected leaders of modern history, for not only his life, but also his ideals and his message to the people. 

Although Hindu, Gandhi had a very close connection with Christianity and admired Jesus very much, often quoting from his favourite 'Sermon on the Mount' chapter in Mathew 5–7.
When the missionary E. Stanley Jones met with Gandhi he asked him,

"Mr. Gandhi, though you quote the words of Christ often, why is that you appear to so adamantly reject becoming his follower?"
Gandhi replied,

"Oh, I don't reject Christ. I love Christ. It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike Christ." 

“If Christians would really live according to the teachings of Christ, as found in the Bible, all of India would be Christian today,” he added.
Gandhi's closeness with Christianity began! when he was a young man practicing law in South Africa. Apart from being attached with the Christian faith, he intently studied the Bible and the teachings of Jesus, and was also seriously exploring becoming a Christian, which led him to his discovery of a small church gathering in his locality.

These strongly entrenched Biblical teachings have always acted a panacea to many of India's problems during its freedom struggle.
After deciding to attend the church service in South Africa, he came across a racial barrier, the church barred his way at the door.

"Where do you think you're going, kaffir?" an English man asked Gandhi in a belligerent tone.

Gandhi replied,

"I'd like to attend worship here."
The church elder snarled at him,
"There's no room for kaffirs in this church. Get out of here or I'll have my assistants throw you down the steps."
This infamous incident forced Gandhi to never again consider being a Christian, but rather adopt what he found in Christianity and its founder Jesus Christ.

It was good that  Jesus "occassionaly" send a living SAINT to earth . in the 9th Century, there was St Francis of Assisi  who disowned his fathers wealth and clothed himself in a paupers sack. He reminds the world that the poor should not be forgotten
In this century, there were two living Saints in the person of
 - Mother Teresa of India who took in and care the unwanted children and the old and
-  the late Pope John Paul II, who many believed brought down communism in his native country- Poland and soon to follow, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and finally the Soviet Union.
These both have brought much love and peace to our world

ROAD courtesy by a Taxi

Yesterday 2nd October 2012 around9.25am
Was driving along Victoria Street towards Jalan Sultan, noticed a goods carrying lorry constantly switching on his lorry's right signal.
A Comfort company  blue Taxi was on the lorry's right and this comfort Taxi driver slows down, and when the lorry didnt turn in, the taxi driver drove slower. Finally the Lorry driver switch to the right lane as he has to turn right to Jalan Sultan further up
Good road courtesy from Comfort Taxi SHC 1424 T

Lets  hear more happy news about taxi drivers not only in Singapore but ALL over the world. anyone one to share
SingApraise

China's Top young Entrepreneurs 2011- PPTV Founder YAO

PPTV Founder Yao (He didnt mention  his Chinese full name) Developed a program which enabled thousands of Football fans to watch live sports online. Yao,32 years old was named China's top young entrepreneurs last year.
It all started when he and his friends found it difficult to watch live telecasts of the 2002 world cups and the 2004 European football championship.
Yao, who helped repair computers at the factory where his father worked, developed peer-to-peer software PPLive which enabled thousands to watch live sports online.
Yao ( wonder why he calls himself "Billy" in the news. He IS THE man from China and a successful Chinese , isnt he ? ) is today the founder of PPTV, a major Chinese TV Company.

Well done, Yao _ _ , we the football fan have you to thank for.
SingApraise to  you

today in history 2nd October

 1535:  Jacques Cartier reaches a town which he names Montreal. what post was Jacques holding at that time ?

1849: 24-year-old Johann Strauss the Junior took over his father's orchestra, just one week after his death and he encountered his first musical problem, his father's musicians weren't too happy about it, but Johann Junior told them he needed to keep the band going to support his siblings


1866: The tin can opened with a key was patented by J. Ostyerhondt of New York City . unfortunately there were also cans which were subsequently coated with aluminum, which many thought was the cause of Parkinson's disease 

1869:

Proponent of peaceful civil disobedience for social change and leader of India's Independence from Britian, Mahatma Gandhi born in Porbandar, Gujarat, India .
He later went to live in South Africa where his nationalistic aspiration began and he returned to his India to start a non-violence civil disobedience movement for India's Independence.  The Unite nations may plan a 'NON VIOLENCE DAY' in honor of him


1870: The papal states vote in favor of union with Italy. The Capital is moved from Florence to Rome.The Catholic church is commonly known as the Roman Catholic Church (RC -for short)

.1950:

The "Peanuts" comic strip by Charles M. Schulz is published for the first time
 Have always enjoyed his and friends innocence. The Sunday times in Singapore still published this comic on their Sunday cartoon page.
                Hope they are also doing in the same elsewhere.

1946: Scientists announce findings that smoking can cause cancer.
But then nobody really believed them as smokers were more influenced by the macho men the tobacco advertisement would connect with, especially with many good looking actors and actress smoking them on screen, making them looked cool- that slang wasn't used then.

 1988: Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered free elections, and back then maybe every body wasn't sure how long it would last. But at least they believed in the system.

singApraise to these wonderful people who makes our lives livelier then and now

Anorexia

Read from Todays' Newspaper 1st October,2012
that Ms Emma O'neil at the age of 22,was so thin that lying on a bed left her bruised and her doctor said she was suffering the worst case of anorexia they had seen.

Now eight years on and back in full health, Ms O'neil ,from Glasgow has set up A FOUNDATION with two friends, who has also battled anorexia, to help others who are recovering from an EATING DISORDER.

sad  to know that her worried family and medics had to begged her to eat and up to four nurses had to hold her down to force feed her. only when she collapsed while trying to run across a road , almost being hit by a car that she decided to start  her long road to recovery.

 It all started when she was a teenager. She said that she had a very addictive personality and trying to see how thin she could get.
A lot of teenager does not know that anorexia may cause death. SKINNY is not beautiful,  going to that extreme actually makes a beautiful teenage girl looks like a walking skeleton.
Eat well, exercise and FITNESS is the only way to beauty.

Hi Emma , happy with yr passion to help other  anorexia sufferers and you and your  two friends 'THE ONLY WAY IS UP FOUNDATION"  is a move to the right direction
SingApraise to you three

KTM Ride from Tanjong Pagar Railway Station to Malaysia video

This is the video we took from the right window view of the train ride from Singapore's Tanjong Pagar Rail. It's a little blur and shaky because it's taken on a mobile phone, but it's pretty interesting to watch! See if you can identify any of the places - like Bukit Panjang, Railmall and so on! We already deleted most of the footage of the forested areas cos it's not so entertaining to watch that much foilage zooming past. Singapore really does have A LOT of untouched green spaces. Those footage of forests and greenery that you see is only like, 10%.

Left window view coming up soon!