FREAK STORM AND STRONG WINDS IN SINGAPORE LAST NIGHT

A FREAKISH storm with strong winds uprooted trees, damaged cars and left a trail of destruction on Wednesday night, all within about 15 minutes.

There were numerous reports of fallen trees island-wide, with at least one car damaged by the falling branches in an open carpark. At a housing estate in Dover Road, a large tree almost snapped in half and lay fallen on its side, with other branches strewn across the grassy area.

Eyewitnesses also reported that large plastic barricades used in roadworks were blown across a road by the strong winds, causing traffic obstruction. Pham Tan Hung found a large tree fallen outside Hong Leong Gardens in Clementi while on his way to work on Thursday morning. 'It's a shocking scene to me. It covered the whole walking path to the bus stop, around 6 to 8 metres,' he wrote to straitstimes.com

Weather maps from the National Environmental Agency (NEA)'s website showed that a rain storm blew over Singapore shortly after 11pm on Wednesday.

Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter were also abuzz with postings about the freak storm. Bloggers in Singapore also recounted personal stories, with many saying they were awoken by the violent rattling and slamming of doors caused by the winds. Others reported car alarms going off.

'We had to duck from the many things that were blowing out of control. There was a road block signage that blew across a major road. heavy duty dustbins dropped like bowling pins. We had to take refuge on the outside of a building' wrote mistipurple on her blog.

'I don't know how widely the winds could have travelled, but tonight for about five minutes, I experienced one of the strongest winds since returning to Singapore,' wrote blogger mis-erialc.

'In fact, I don't remember a time that we've ever experienced winds so strong. As the wind repeatedly assaulted my blinds, I couldn't help but look outside at the environmental commotion it was causing - the bending of trees, the picking up and tossing around of random objects outside.'

Why can't the Met Services predict this strong winds coming over Singapore and release a warning beforehand ? If for some divine reasons that Spore is to be struck with a typhoon or hurricane, Sporeans will be caught unaware and unprepared. The earth is no longer behaving normally and is unwell, Sporeans should better prepare for freak weather coming.

Harry Potter: A Good or Bad Influence?

Who don't know HARRY POTTER. It have been famous since the movie was out. The Harry Potter series of books tells the tales of Harry's trek through adolescence at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. With the incredible success of these books their content has gone under a great deal of scrutiny. Some groups have raised concerns that the Harry Potter novels may not be suitable for children because of the major theme of witchcraft in the books. Further, they draw on the author's use of numbers in the book to further prove that books are indeed evil.

The first, Numerology in Harry Potter, looks at the supposed evil symbols. Second, the Witchcraft looks at how the domain of mystics is portrayed.Finally, look at what this may mean for a parent or guardian who is debating if they should bring Harry Potter and his friends to their children.

Six hundred sixty six This number has obvious biblical references to the evil Number of the Beast from Revelations 13:18. In the book/movie The Philosopher's Stone [or the Sorcer's Stone in the USA] Nicolas Flamel, who we never meet, has a special stone that allows him to live forever, so long as he uses it to create the elixir of life. Nicholas Flamel, it turns out, was an alchemist, who, in their time, were seen as almost religious men who basically attempted to turn metals into gold. Gold was considered to be the purest substance at this time, hence, the relation between alchemy and being 'religious': The process was mirrored by attempts to reach spiritual purity. The myth of the Philosopher's Stone is also linked to this, which is something Flamel was believed to have worked on for much of his life. Needless to say, there was a mystic view that people held about alchemists. By the end of the movie Nicolas Flamel had agreed to destroy the stone, because it could be misuse it. He dies at the age of 666. Is this an obvious jab at Christianity? Or is this proof of their being evil in Harry Potter? It turns out that Nicholas Flamel was born around the year 1330. While J.K. Rowling was working on her first book, in 1996, Nicolas Flamel was born six hundred and sixty six years before. Further, the author was aware that some people may take offence to this number, so instead of saying that he will die at the age of 666 she says that when he is 665 it will be he last year.

Up until now this document has been concerned primarily with 'evils' found within the pages of Harry Potter. In order to give full coverage to this issue, which is basically about whether or not Harry Potter is good for children, this next section is, I believe, important for parents to read over. What is discussed here is if Harry Potter promotes good lessons for children.

Lying

One founded criticism about this book is the fact that in just about ever adventure Harry Potter embarks on his friends and he, himself, usually end up lying to their professors and the head of the school. I, personally, believe this brings a bad message to the children viewing the movies, because Harry and his friends rarely are punished for these lies. In fact, they are usually not found out.

However, I believe that this could be turned in to a valuable lesson for youngsters, since they will almost inevitably lie at some point in their life, and they themselves may not be found out. After a close analysis and plot dissections of the stories I have come to the conclusion that if the trio of characters had told the truth to their professors almost always no trouble would have befallen them: In fact, had they told the truth, they may very well of made their lives easier on themselves. Consider the following scenarios.

In The Philosopher's Stone Harmonie's feelings are badly hurt, and she runs to the girls washroom to cry (adolescent boys can be very mean). When Harry and Ron discover that a troll is loose in that area, they immediate run to get her. Between the three of them they manage to defeat the troll on sheer stupid luck. Course of events: Harmonie is innocently in the washroom, Ron and Harry come to get her away from danger. Harmonie, however, lies, telling her professors that she went to 'take on the troll' herself, and Ron and Harry rescued her. I honestly don't see the difference between these two stories. One gets her in trouble.

In The Chamber of Secrets Harry told Professor Dumbledore, who has the up most respect for Harry and has proven to be a friend, that he had no idea what was going on, or who was responsible. Had he trusted Dumbledore, they may have succeeded in capturing the creature who was on the lose in the school.

If you read these books with your children, or watch the movies with them, and point out these facts, and discuss it, you will find that it will probably have twice the effect of helping, rather than having any normal bad effect.

It should also be noted, however, that all kid's movies tend to involve lying, any many times they are not found out. This is by no means specific to Harry Potter.

Friendship

The Harry Potter books have been said to show friendship and loyalty as one of the many fine points about the series. Though this is true, there is one point about friendship that links up with the above lying section. As mentioned, Hermione lies to keep everyone--but herself--out of trouble. Until she did this she was an outcast and not a particularly close friend. If we accept this, there is an effect that I find questionable: Hermione cannot be there friend until she lies to her teacher. This seems to me to be a poor way of choosing friends.

Rules

The books also encourage disobedience. Harry is always trying to get away with some scheme forbidden by his guardians, or teachers. He spends a lot of time figuring out how to do something that he is not supposed to do instead of, say, finding another way to the same end.

In conclusion, it seems that these books and movies are no better or worse than any other set of books or movies for children. In fact, they are not as bad as many 'kids' movies that I have been seeing lately. I would recommend these books to anybody with two conditions:

1. They are meant for older children. (Think over 10.) Younger children have yet to learn to separate fiction from reality and would be frightened.
2. As with all books or movies, I think these should be read by a supervising adult and discussed with the child to make sure they are properly understood (as fiction, etc, not necessarily the complex themes or author's techniques).

Musicians versus Music Scholar

In my opinion Musician and Music scholar they are both working in the music field or taking music as their career. But the thing that differenciate them is Musician is more focus on the perform music and interact with the audience, they play a various musical instrument included conductor whom is an important person for the performing of the orchestra. Whereelse music scholar is the people who teach and studied music mostly on the pedagogy and theory. Actually as a musician we can choose either being a performer or teacher(music scholar), like when I joined ABRSM Diploma test they let us choose either we want to be a Diploma for teaching or Diploma for performing. Music scholar reaches their success if their student have become successfull musician on the other hand Musicians means success is when they have reaches their fame, known by a lot of people of their successfull performances.

What Music Means to Me

Music is one of the greatest gifts we as humans have been given. Music in our world today is an very important thing. Without music people can feel a lot of different. Because they are already use to it, they hear music almost everyday, anywhere, even we can see someone holding mp3 player everywhere. They enjoy music as they listen to it. It can also be their relaxation.

A lot of composer in earlier days even make music for they way they are making money, for entertaining aristocrat and wealthy people. Starting from Romantic period of the history of music they start believe that music itself is a thing that must exist and not only composed for entertaining people. Music have their own meanings that can describe something even it is not mentioned.

For me as a musician, music is a huge part of my life. It can express my feelings, thoughts and emotions. The piano is my refuge, and the keys are a book from which I may draw stories. Stories of sadness and happiness. Stories of love, hope, and of despair.