Remember Our Best Friend - Cecilia

A deeply sad news received that our best friend Cecilia (Ceci) passed away on the morning on 9^th July 2024. Ceci is very lively, cheerful, optimistic and perseverant girl we know. She is my wife best friend (閨蜜) and I met Ceci when I was dating Minda. Minda and I would like to express our sincere condolences to Ceci’s family, friends and colleagues. 

(Photo taken on 20 Dec 2006, full of energy!)

In the morning, Minda wrote a message to inform all friends of Ceci. As knowing Ceci situation, Minda went to Australia with Ceci two sisters two weeks before.

Let's remember past events. In July 2006, Minda and Ceci visited Japan with their old colleagues.

Minda and I then decided to get married in Austria at the end of 2006 and Ceci arranged it for us. We went to Melbourne, Sydney and Tasmania. We took a photo at Sydney Olympic Park.

Take a ship ride to see the prison and play in the water on the way on 21 July 2006.

At our wedding, we took a photo with Ceci and her boyfriend.

We also took a photo outside the church park.

Advanced Class III for I Ching (易經高班III)–Lecture 1

Minda and I joined Prof. Pang’s (彭泓基教授) advanced class III for I Ching (易經高班 III) again. The first lecture was held on 6^th Jul 2024. The topic of lecture 1 is “I Ching and Qigong” (易經與氣功). 

Prof. Pang firstly reviewed the Ten wings of I Zhuan (《易傳》⼗翼).

And then he briefed "Tuan Zhuan" (彖傳), “Xiang Zhuan” (象傳) and “Xi Ci” (繫辭). Prof. Pang said the most important for the phenomena of I Ching is imagination that is association of ideas (聯想).

After that he explain the Xi Ci from 1^st chapter to 12^th chapter. The first chapter explained the Yin and Yang (陰陽) and the second chapter is how to observe the phenomena and know good or bad luck. 

In chapter three, it explains the Yao (爻) indicating the change. 

Chapter four indicates how to align with the way of the Tao of the World (天地之道).

And then Prof. Pang briefed the relation of Tao and Yin Yang.

Part of classmates attended onsite and other part attended online. The chapter 6 to 9 are talking about “Huge Scope” (廣⼤), “Virtue” (崇德), “Vast Business” (廣業), “Hexagram Application” (卦⽘之應⽤) and “Divination” (術數).

There are four way of Saint and they are “Speak” (言), “Action” (動), “Design Rules” (制器) and “Forecast” (卜筮).

Finally, he mentioned “Divination” (占筮) and briefed the last chapter for Phenomena and Xi Ci (⽴象和繫辭).

The second part of the lecture is “I Ching and Qigong” (周易與氣功).

Then Prof. Pang explained the “Health Preservation and Qigong Thoughts” (養生與氣功思想) that come from I Ching.

After that he wrote Chinese calligraphy “君逸臣勞” meaning that the king is at ease but the minister is busy. So that calm your spirit and maintain your vitality. 

Finally, he quoted Yi Gua (頤卦) to explain the Qigong Thoughts (氣功思想). It relates breathing and mouth. 

After the class, we had lunch together.

(Left: Bond (邦), Rachel Chan, Matthew Lai, Patrick Ng, Karen Mak, Kenny Lo, Patrick Lui, So Easy (蘇穎勛), Kinsen Leung)

(Left: Tony Chan, Andy Law, Lotto Lai, Minda Chiang, Lawrence Pang (彭泓基), 陳金成, Christ Yu, KM Ng (吳國銘) and Janet (佘桂英))

Reference:

彭泓基教授 - https://www.master-insight.com/author/penghongji/

屈機TV (屈基論) - https://www.youtube.com/@wgtvhk/playlists

2024

Advanced Class II of “I Ching”:

20240224: Advanced Class II for I Ching (易經高班II)–Lecture 1 - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2024/02/advanced-class-ii-for-i-ching-iilecture.html

20240223: Chinese Wisdom and Calligraphy Grammar (中華智慧與書法文法) - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2024/02/chinese-wisdom-and-calligraphy-grammar.html

20240309: Advanced Class II for I Ching (易經高班II)–Lecture 2 - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2024/03/advanced-class-ii-for-i-ching-iilecture.html

20240323: Advanced Class II for I Ching (易經高班II)–Lecture 3 - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2024/03/advanced-class-ii-for-i-ching-iilecture_23.html

20240406: Advanced Class II for I Ching (易經高班II)–Lecture 4 - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2024/04/advanced-class-ii-for-i-ching-iilecture.html

20240420: Advanced Class II for I Ching (易經高班II)–Lecture 5 - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2024/04/advanced-class-ii-for-i-ching-iilecture_20.html

20240504: Advanced Class II for I Ching (易經高班II)–Lecture 6 - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2024/05/advanced-class-ii-for-i-ching-iilecture.html

20240616: I Ching Advanced Class II Graduation Trip (易經高班II畢業之旅) - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2024/06/i-ching-advanced-class-ii-graduation.html

2023

Advanced Class of “I Ching”:

20231007: Advanced Class for I Ching (易經高班) – Lecture 1 - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2023/10/advanced-class-for-i-ching-lecture-1.html

20231021: Advanced Class for I Ching (易經高班)–Lecture 2 - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2023/10/advanced-class-for-i-ching-lecture-2.html

20231104: Advanced Class for I Ching (易經高班) – Lecture 3 -https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2023/11/advanced-class-for-i-ching-lecture-3.html

20231125: Advanced Class for I Ching (易經高班) – Lecture 4 - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2023/11/advanced-class-for-i-ching-lecture-4.html

20231202: Advanced Class for I Ching (易經高班) – Lecture 5 - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2023/12/advanced-class-for-i-ching-lecture-5.html

20231216: Advanced Class for I Ching (易經高班) – Lecture 6 - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2023/12/advanced-class-for-i-ching-lecture-6.html

20231227: I Ching Class Christmas Trip to Zhongshan (易經班聖誕中山之旅) - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2023/12/i-ching-class-christmas-trip-to.html

Intermediate Class of “I Ching”:

20230603: Intermediate Class for I Ching (易經中班) – Lecture 1 - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2023/06/intermediate-class-for-i-ching-lecture-1.html

20230610: Intermediate Class for I Ching (易經中班) – Lecture 2 - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2023/06/intermediate-class-for-i-ching-lecture-2.html

20230615: 閱讀彭泓基教授著作的心得 - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2023/06/blog-post.html

20230617: Intermediate Class for I Ching (易經中班) – Lecture 3 - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2023/06/intermediate-class-for-i-ching-lecture-3.html 20230624: Intermediate Class for I Ching (易經中班) – Lecture 4 - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2023/06/intermediate-class-for-i-ching-lecture-4.html

20230629: Ritual and Music Education as well as Chinese and Western Culture(禮樂教化與中西文化) - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2023/06/ritual-and-music-education-as-well-as.html 20230708: Intermediate Class for I Ching (易經中班) – Lecture 5 - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2023/07/intermediate-class-for-i-ching-lecture-5.html

20230709: Wudang Health Exercises (武當養⽣功) - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2023/07/wudang-health-exercises.html

20230715: Intermediate Class for I Ching (易經中班) – Lecture 6 - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2023/07/intermediate-class-for-i-ching-lecture-6.html

20230907: I Ching Intermediate Classmate Dinner (易經中班同學聚餐) - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2023/09/i-ching-intermediate-classmate-dinner.html

20230914: Music Seminar on “How to train children to have feelings for their country and family” (如何培訓孩子的家國情懷音樂講座) - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2023/09/music-seminar-on-how-to-train-children.html

Introductory Class of “I Ching”:

20230325: I Ching and the Wisdom of Life (易經與人生智慧) - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2023/03/i-ching-and-wisdom-of-life.html

20230401: I Ching and the Wisdom of Life II (易經與人生智慧) - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2023/04/i-ching-and-wisdom-of-life-ii.html

20230415: I Ching and the Wisdom of Life III (易經與人生智慧) - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2023/04/i-ching-and-wisdom-of-life-iii.html

20230422: I Ching and the Wisdom of Life IV (易經與人生智慧) - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2023/04/i-ching-and-wisdom-of-life-iv.html

20230525: I Ching Classmate Dinner and Introduction to Extenics (易經同學聚餐和可拓學導論) - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2023/05/i-ching-classmate-dinner-and.html

PolyU Farewell Seminar - Testing the Son of God Hypothesis

The PolyU Department of Computing arranged a Farewell Seminar by Dr. Robert Luk on 5^th July 2024 and the topic named “Testing the Son of God Hypothesis”. 

Before the seminar, I took a photo with Dr. Robert Luk for memory.

In the beginning, Dr. Robert Luk quoted Matthew 7:7 “… Seek and you will Find…” to introduce today’s topic. Then he asked a series of questions like “What is the biggest research question?”, “Why the Son of God hypothesis?”, “Why do we prove an existential statement?”, “Is there an afterlife?”, etc.

Then he used Pascal Wage to explain the consequences of believing or disbelieving whether it is true or false. Thus, the god hypothesis is the biggest question he concluded.

Dr. Luk also mentioned different definitions about the Son of God. And then he said we cannot be sure with 100% certainty the Jesus Christ is or is not the Son of God that we need to test the hypothesis. 

The null hypothesis (H0) stated “Jesus Christ is NOT the Son of God” and the alternative hypothesis (H1) stated “Jesus Christ is the Son of God”. It needs to calculate the probability based on H1 given the evidence (En).

According to Mackie (1982), religion is predicated on miracles. If there is a miracle, M, related to Jesus Christ is the Son of God, then M implicates H1 (M=>H1).We cannot be certain that a miracle is true or not, so we use probability (i.e. p(Mi)) and then combining the evidence by Bayes’ rule.

Finally, Dr. Luk separated different miracle type or evidence types for estimating their probability. Miracle types or Evidence types (En) considered are E1-Shroud of Turin, E2-Eucharistic miracles, E3-Marian apparitions, …, E9-Bible (as Testimonies). 

And then Dr. Luk explained one by one. For the E1-Shroud of Turin, a piece of linen cloth that bears an image of crucified man that is not formed by painting, the image can be shown to have 3D quality using the VP-8 analyzer. Using carbon dating, it was suggested in medieval time (1200-1300) that is heterogeneous. Blood type is AB. He assigned a subjective probability p(M1|E1) = 0.65.

Another miracle is E3-Marian apparition. I am interested that accidentally spilt nitrate acid by a scientist on the image of the cloak and had not damaged the image.

After reviewed nine miracles, Dr. Robert Luk summarized all his subjective probabilities in the table.

He had calibrating p(H0) and calculated the combined probability. Three assumptions on p(H0) that are rejected H0. 

Lastly, Dr. Robert Luk showed the repeatability of miracles happenings since 1100s.

Q&A session. Dr. Luk is preparing the e-book entitled “From Science to Christianity: Hypothesis Testing, Theory, Model, Experiment and Practice”. Our questions could contribute for his e-book.

Reference

COMP, PolyU - https://www.polyu.edu.hk/comp/

20101107: Certainty Among the Uncertainty – Dr. Ng’s Evangelistic Night - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2010/11/certainty-among-uncertainty-dr-ngs.html

PolyU Flag-Raising Ceremony

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) today held a flag-raising ceremony on campus in celebration of the HKSAR’s 27th anniversary. I was one of COMP members to attend the ceremony. 

I met Dr. Goman Ho who is my wife's cousin. There are many guests and participants including council members, senior management team members, staff, alumni and students of the University.

At the ceremony, the national flag together with the HKSAR flag and the PolyU flag were raised.

Flag-Raising record

After the ceremony, I also met Dr. Ho family and his son relatives by marriage.

Reference:

PolyU Flag-raising Ceremony and Inauguration - https://www.polyu.edu.hk/sao/news-and-events/sao-annual-highlight-2223/strengthening-national-education/