ALL THINGS BIG AND SMALL 2.0

Ten Types of Common Trees In Singapore from Singapore Postage Stamp * all images generated with Fractal Grower software by Joel Castellanos of University of New Mexico: See http://www.cs.unm.edu/~joel/PaperFoldingFractal/paper.html 1. Leaves on a stem 2. Fern 3. Weed 4. Simple tree. This post is on what we often ponder: that what shapes our life as we grow is a combination of our genes, our environment, the decisions we make along the way, and random unforeseeable events which had an impact on the path we were traveling on. I choose to compare our lives with the shape of trees. An Oak is as different from a Coconut Tree as a Fern is different from a bush of Roses. An Oak cannot turn into a Coconut Tree and yet each Oak is different. The analogy with Life is that to a certain extent there is a boundary beyond which your Life cannot cross, yet within this boundary, there is considerable freedom for you to choose the the eventual 'shape' you will become. Let us illustrate this wi...

Giant Freshwater Stingray of the Mekong [Himantura Chaophraya] Chinese like bump-headed Cichlids because it resembles that of the deity that represents Longevity [third deity] in the trio Fu,Lu,Shou. Stingray 1 : I think this one is called Pearl or Black Diamond Stingray 2: How many lucky number '8's can you see? Stingray 3 : Plainer and cheaper Stingray pattern 1 : Numbers '8' enlarged Stingray pattern 2 Some giant catfish Bump-headed Cichlid Elephant-Nose Fish High Fin Pangasius: Most elegant fish I have ever seen Recently, in the Singapore newspapers, the case of a person who was accused of defrauding the Telco he worked for to the amount of S$12 million was mentioned. Readers were not surprised to read about $400000 Porsches, Patek Philip watches and apartments bought with the loot. But many found it strange the the accused paid $200000 for an Amazon Freshwater Stingray. I have kept freshwater stingrays as pets, but that was 30 years ago, and I don't r...