Saturday, November 02, 2013

"as in heaven, so in earth" - 4000 years after Abraham


The Sumida-gawa River, Tokyo


4000 years after Abraham

It is believed that the greatest pyramid in Egypt was built around 2500 BC, while the era of Abraham started around 2000 BC.

One enigma is why ancient Egyptians could not continue development and advancement of its material civilization.

If they could have continued to expand and diversify their civilization, they must have carried out an industrial revolution even before Abraham was born.  But ancient Egyptians could not invent a steam engine, a locomotive, and a railroad system.  Virtually they could not invent those machines forever.

For mankind to invent a railroad system, as the greatest product of an industrial revolution, it had to pass through the era of Abraham, the era of Moses, the era of David/Solomon, the era of Pythagoras/Socrates, the era of Alexander the Great/Archimedes, the era of Caesar/Cleopatra, the emergence of Christ Jesus, the era of the Roman Empire, the development of the Vatican, the emergence of Islam, the Middle Ages, the era of Columbus and Luther, development of America and Protestantism, the era of the Scientific Revolution around 1800, and then the Industrial Revolution.

So, while the greatest pyramid in Egypt was built around 2500 BC, the first commercial railroad was introduced in England around 1820.  It took 4300 years or more.

It also needed Judaism, Christianity, and Islam for the Industrial Revolution to start on the earth.  In addition, this Revolution could not be of course realized without critical scientific and material contribution from Asia: mathematics from Babylonia, India, and Arabia; a marine compass, gunpowder, the paper-making technology, and printing from China.

Today, 200 years after the start of the Industrial Revolution, all the peoples in this world, regardless of different religions they believe in, trust the modern science and technology which is on natural extension of the Industrial Revolution having been launched in the 19th century.  Even those who do not believe existence of the God, they believe effect and usability of high-tech products, including medicines and processed foods.

As the the modern science and technology is backed by more than 4300 year-long history, major religions, and works and efforts of various races, it is not a simple system.  It has been tested for centuries to show its power.  Conversely, such deep and wide background have been able to stop fatally negative influences of the modern civilization on the human society.  Nonetheless as mankind is further accelerating development of the modern material civilization, such restraining conditions, accumulated through our long history, might come to be ineffective or useless.

Future science and technology can destroy mankind if it should exceed a certain level where human religions and morality stop following and controlling the blind and violent growth of our material civilization being driven by desire and avarice.  

In this context, it is time in deed that we must expect the Second Coming of Christ Jesus 4000 years after the era of Abraham.

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/ucl-views/0809/mammon

The Industrial Revolution has eventually led mankind to believing in Mammon.  So, we need another direct interference by the God.



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Luk 11:1 And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.
Luk 11:2 And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.
Luk 11:3 Give us day by day our daily bread.
Luk 11:4 And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.

Friday, November 01, 2013

"the Gentiles had also received the word of God" - New Religions

Tokyo Suburbs


New Religions


The major events for believers:

300 BC - Alexander the Great conquers the regions from Egypt to Pakistan which are to become Islamic 900 years later.

Around AD 1 (or 4 to 6 BC) - Christ Jesus was born to preach Good News to Israelites.

600 - Islam is established in the south of the regions having been conquered by Alexander the Great 900 years before.

1500 -  Judaists are dispelled from most of cities in France, Spain, Portugal, etc.
Columbus discovers America.
Martin Luther launches a Protestant church.

1800 - The Industrial Revolution starts in Western Europe.


The God prepared future Islamic regions by using Alexander the Great.  But it took 900 years from the conquest by Alexander to the emergence of Islam.  And Europe entered an era of great changes 900 years after establishment of the religion Islam.  Around 1500, European Christians started to drive out Judaists from their towns and cities.  In addition, Christopher Columbus sailed out from Spain to the Atlantic Ocean to eventually discover America.  In this context, America itself can be regarded as a kind of religion.  Then 300 years after Columbus, the Industrial Revolution started in the UK and subsequently in Western Europe and North America.  In this context, the Industrial Revolution can be regarded as a kind of religion.

In other word, America and the Industrial Revolution are the two new religions which were established after the emergence of Islam.

For example, those living in the US are more believers in the American culture than in any traditional religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.  And those living in developed or developing countries today are more believers in modern science and technology than in any traditional religions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc.

However, devils have been going one better than believers in America and in industrialized countries like they have done in the Judaist, Christian, and Islamic worlds.





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Act 11:1 And the apostles and brethren that were in Judaea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God.
Act 11:2 And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him,
Act 11:3 Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them.
Act 11:4 But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning, and expounded it by order unto them, saying,
Act 11:5 I was in the city of Joppa praying: and in a trance I saw a vision, A certain vessel descend, as it had been a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it came even to me:
Act 11:6 Upon the which when I had fastened mine eyes, I considered, and saw fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.
Act 11:7 And I heard a voice saying unto me, Arise, Peter; slay and eat.
Act 11:8 But I said, Not so, Lord: for nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered into my mouth.
Act 11:9 But the voice answered me again from heaven, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.

Thursday, October 31, 2013

"of more value than many sparrows" - Alexander the Great and Islam

Tokyo


Alexander the Great and Islam

I have been thinking about how the God used Alexander the Great.

Before 300 years of emergence of Christ Jesus, the God allowed the young king of a Greek kingdom to advance to Asia Minor, Syria, Jerusalem, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan in the west of the Indus.

Consequently, the Greek culture was conveyed to these areas covering Egypt to Pakistan.  Greeks built not only many cities in these areas but also Greek kingdoms such as the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt.  But more importantly Alexander the Great gave great room for expansion of religions which had emerged or would emerge around the Mediterranean regions.

Put simply not only ancient Greek culture works but also Judaism must have been carried through the areas Alexander the Great conquered.   And then finally Christianity came to have influences on cultures and religions in those areas from Egypt to Pakistan.  For example, Mahayana (greater vehicle) Buddhism is believed to have been built on original Buddhism under an influence of Christianity which must have diffused from Palestine around the AD first century.

As this school of Buddhism became later popular in China, Korea, and Japan, even the most eastward nation Japan is under the influence of Alexander the Great and thus Christianity.

And 300 years after the Migration Period of mostly Germanic peoples in the north and the east of the Alps which started around 300, Islam started to prevail in those areas Alexander the Great marched on.

What is more, these areas all came to be subject to Islam.  Islam was built on underlying cultural and religious influences of the ancient Greek Civilization, Judaism, and Christinity.  So, the plan of the God expands 900 years from 300 BC to 600.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great_in_the_Quran
The Empire of Alexander the Great in 300 BC


However it is not known that Islam is truly the last religion the God gives to mankind, though Muslims seem to believe so.

Nonetheless, it is very interesting that Alexander the Great virtually connected the nation of greater vehicle Buddhism Japan to those areas presently Islamic around Jerusalem.  You had better check Japanese Buddhism as well as Islam if you really want to study history which is holy emergence of God Himself.



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Mat 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.
Mat 10:30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Mat 10:31 Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

"and in the world to come eternal life" - Industrial Power based on Unique Spirit


Tokyo Subway


Industrial Power based on Unique Spirit

Japan is a country with unique culture and modern industrial power backed by its unique spirit.

Engineers and scientists working in any Japanese businesses are subject to this condition.  But let's see there are so many companies in Japan where they are working so hard.


Ranking of Japanese Companies concerning Patent Assets:

No.       Company  
========================
1          Panasonic

2          Toshiba

3          Mitsubishi Electric

4          Toyota Motor

5          Canon

6          Sharp

7          Honda

8          Fujitsu

9         Denso

10       Ricoh

11       Hitachi

12       Fuji Film

13       NEC

14       Konica-Minoruta

15       Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal

16       Sony
========================

But what about a global landscape on patent power?

Ranking of Countries concerning Patents:

No.       Company         No. of Patents in Force
========================
1 United States 1,872,872

2 Japan 1,270,367

3 China 828,054

4 South Korea 624,419

5 United Kingdom 599,062

6 Germany                 509,879

7 France 438,926

8 Europe 268,384 (E.P.O.)

9 Hong Kong               227,918

10 Spain 166,079

11 Russia 147,067

12 Canada 121,889

13 Australia               107,708

14 Sweden 105,571

15 Belgium                 87,189 (2003)

16 Ireland                  78,761
========================

Then what about manpower and educational background?

World University Ranking of Engineering Schools 2009:

RANK
UNIVERSITY
COUNTRY
SCORES
1Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)United States100.0
2University of California, BerkeleyUnited States93.9
3Stanford UniversityUnited States85.3
4California Institute of Technology (Caltech)United States81.6
5University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom76.2
6Carnegie Mellon UniversityUnited States71.6
7Imperial College LondonUnited Kingdom70.9
8Georgia Institute of TechnologyUnited States68.9
9University of TokyoJapan67.4
10University of TorontoCanada66.0
11National University of Singapore (NUS)Singapore64.5
12Tsinghua UniversityChina63.4
13Eth Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)Switzerland63.1
14University of OxfordUnited Kingdom61.6
15Princeton UniversityUnited States61.5
16University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)United States61.4
17Delft University of TechnologyNetherlands60.4
18McGill UniversityCanada60.1
19Harvard UniversityUnited States59.6
20University of IllinoisUnited States58.4
21Tokyo Institute of TechnologyJapan57.0
22Kyoto UniversityJapan56.8
http://www.universityportal.net/2007/09/world-university-ranking-of-engineering.html

But it is not only genuine Americans that support the US industry and engineering sectors.
The Importance of Foreign-born Scientists and Engineers to the
Security of The United States
Statement of William A. Wulf, Ph.D.
President National Academy of Engineering
The National Academies
before the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims
Committee on the Judiciary
U.S. House of Representatives
for The Hearing on "Sources and Methods of Foreign Nationals Engaged in Economic and Military Espionage."
15 September 2005

...
Between 1980 and 2000, the percentage of Ph.D. scientists and engineers employed in the United States who were born abroad has increased from 24% to 37%. The current percentage of Ph.D. physicists is about 45%; for engineers, the figure is over 50%. One fourth of the engineering faculty members at U.S. universities were born abroad. Between 1990 and 2004, over one third of Nobel Prizes in the United States were awarded to foreign-born scientists. One third of all U.S. Ph.D.s in science and engineering are now awarded to foreign born graduate students. We have been skimming the best and brightest minds from across the globe, and prospering because of it; we need these new Americans even more now as other countries become more technologically capable.
...
After WW II, the U.S. forged a mutually reinforcing triad of complementary R&D strengths in industry, academia and government. However, U.S. industrial laboratories have greatly reduced their support for long-term basic research; and many U.S. corporations are shifting research and development to overseas locations—not just because foreign labor is cheaper, as is the common and comfortable myth, but because it is of higher quality! U.S. government laboratories are in various states of disarray, and no longer maintain the stature that they did in 1960's. Government support for the physical sciences and engineering at universities has declined in real terms, and is suffering further under present budget pressures – clearly, a strong research capability is not a current federal priority. Enrollment in the physical sciences and engineering, as a percentage of undergraduates, is among the lowest in the industrialized world – the U.S. now graduates just 7% of the world's engineers, for example. Given that our 12th graders score among the lowest in the world in science and mathematics, the ranks of U.S. born scientists and engineers are not likely to expand dramatically anytime soon. Our once strong triad of R&D capabilities is crumbling.
http://www7.nationalacademies.org/ocga/testimony/Importance_of_Foreign_Scientists_and_Engineers_to_US.asp
Science and engineering are basic sources for modern wealth.  The US is now relying on foreign talents to develop and expand its material prosperity.  It can be thought that this situation has some analogy to that of the Roman Empire in its declining years.  Ancient Roman citizens and noblemen came to more and more rely on mercenary soldiers recruited in the north of the Alps.

Along with an increase of mercenary soldiers, soldiers of the Roman Empire lost the original spirit of the Romans.  They fought for money but not for glory of Rome and Romans.

But today, not only in the US, but also in Japan, power of money has overwhelmed morality of individual scientists and engineers.  Material development of the US should be guided by the American spirit which the God gave to Americans, namely some types of Christians, Judaists, and so on.  So, there must be serious conflict between the science/engineering sector and the spiritual/religious sector of the US.

In Japan, as long as the Japanese spiritualism is dominant among citizens which are the basic source of Japanese scientists and engineers, they will produce meaningful results.  

So, American uniqueness and Japanese uniqueness are so important for each country, since the Roman Empire fell when it lost its own uniqueness.



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Mar 10:30 But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

"And who is my neighbour?" - The Case of Reischauer




Tokyo Suburbs


The Case of Reischauer


Edwin Oldfather Reischauer (1910-1990) was attacked by a young Japanese with a knife.

But the then US Ambassador to Tokyo could survive this horrible incident of March 1964, four months after the assassination of JFK who had appointed him to the Ambassador.

However months before, he did save a young Japanese woman around a seaside house outside Tokyo where he often stayed during his holidays after he came to Tokyo as ambassador in 1961.  When Reischauer was taking a walk along a path on a coastal hill, he suddenly saw a young Japanese woman tumbling down from a slope covered by woods.  She cried loudly, "Help me! Save me!"  As her clothes were out of order wildly, he sensed that she was being attacked by a man.  So, the US Ambassador to Japan helped and saved her.  A bad guy seemed to run away through a thicket.  He took her to the police.

From a viewpoint of Buddhism, as Japanese-speaking Reischauer did good to the poor young woman, Heaven spared the life of Edwin Reischauer.  The principle of causality surely worked for the Ambassador against the mentally-ill Japanese young man who stabbed Reischauer's thigh. .

Since President Kennedy was assassinated in the preceding year, if then US Ambassador had been killed in Tokyo, it should have given a grave shock to both the Japanese and American people at the time.

However the older brother of Edwin Reischauer, a Japanese born American professor of Asian history, was killed during battles around Shanghai before the Pearl Harbor attack.  In the summer of 1937, tens of thousands of Chinese troops launched an all-out attack on far-smaller units of troops of the Empire of Japan, the US, the UK, and France stationed in the then international city Shanghai.  The Chinese Army used even warplanes to bomb naval ships of Imperial Japan patrolled in a big river running through Shanghai and foreign soldiers on streets of the city.  But they had no bombing accuracy.  Chinese bombs dropped from the sky killed many Chinese citizens as well as foreign civilians living in the then most prosperous city in Asia.

And Robert Karl Reischauer, the older brother of Edwin Reischauer, was killed by this Chinese bombing on the street before a hotel in Shanghai on August 14, 1937.

After WWII, Edwin Reischauer became professor of Harvard University to visit Japan a few times.  Then in 1956 he remarried a Japanese woman, a daughter of a prominent family of the Japanese high society.  In 1961 Reischauer became US Ambassador to Japan as President Kennedy appointed him so.  Reischauer left Japan in 1966, while Johnson was President, mostky because the Vietnam War was getting intensified in a manner Reischauer could not support.

Now President Obama appointed Caroline Bouvier Kennedy, the daughter of President Kennedy, to the Ambassador to Japan, tough she doesn't seem to be able to understand the Japanese language like the former Ambassador Reischauer, one of  the most respected ambassadors to Japan by the Japanese people.

Local media embraced Caroline Kennedy's nomination. Boston University professor of international relations, Thomas Berger, cited three critical assets of a Kennedy ambassadorship to Japan: celebrity status, direct access to Obama and gender. 
“Japanese women continue to look for role models who demonstrate that it is possible to be a woman and have a successful career in politics,” Berger told the Associated Press. “I expect that many in both the United States and in Japan will want to use her to send that message to the Japanese public.”
http://world.time.com/2013/08/06/tokyo-doesnt-care-who-the-u-s-ambassador-is-but-caroline-kennedy-will-do-fine/
So, Caroline Kennedy might help Japanese women in any possible way, too.



*** *** *** ***





Luk 10:27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.
Luk 10:28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.
Luk 10:29 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?

Sunday, October 27, 2013

"many that were come together" - NSA Interception Request to Japan


Koriyama Station, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan



NSA Interception Request to Japan


It was reported by The Tokyo Shimbun newspaper today that the US National Security Agency (NSA) asked the Japanese Government, in 2011 or so, whether or not Japan would cooperate with NSA for intercepting communications through optical fiber cables running under the seas around Japan.

NSA wanted to get personal information from e-mails and telephone conversations being transmitted through Japan to China and other Asia-Pacific regions.  In fact many international telecommunications paths are built using submarine cables running through Japan or relayed in Japan.

However, the then Japanese Government led by the liberal, pro-Chinese Democratic Party of Japan rejected the request.

http://www.sof.or.jp/jp/news/101-150/118_1.php
Underwater Cables

http://gigazine.net/news/20080211_undersea_cable/


When the M9.0 earthquake occurred on March 11, 2011, the Internet traffic in Japan drastically dropped to 1/1000 or less than a normal level, but it recovered to normality at the end of the day.  Incidentally, among 6,000 network prefixes in the global routing tables used in Japan, only 100 stopped service due to the great natural disaster.  They also recovered along with time.

However the following undersea cables were damaged due to the 3/11 earthquake and tsunamis:

1. APCN-2 (connecting Japan to China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, S. Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan)

2. PC-1 N and PC-1 W (a Japan/US undersea cable run by NTT's Pacific Crossing)

3. PacNet and East Asia Crossing (EAC)

4. Part of the cable network linking Korea Telecom and Japan/America.

Including them, the 3/11 earthquake caused disconnection and damage of undersea cables at more than 20 locations in seven cable systems in Japan.  But, taking three to four months, they were put into normal conditions.

Anyway, American intelligence agencies would probably never give up their plan to intercept communications over phone lines and internet lines through submarine cables running around Japan.

Other aspects on the Internet and telecommunications interception:
Can China Protect Itself From NSA Spying?
Following Edward Snowden's revelations, Beijing has kickstarted its domestic cyber-security industry. But there's still a long way to go.
ADAM SEGALSEP 26 2013, 11:26 AM ET 
This week the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team Coordination Center of China and the Internet Society of China sponsored the Chinese Internet Security Conference in Beijing. At the conference, NetentSec‘s CEO Yuan Shengang (Tony Yuan) compared the U.S. and Chinese cybersecurity industries. Yuan, who spent eight years in the United States, shows the difficulties of converting the attention to NSA surveillance into economics, painting a frank picture of the barriers to growth and innovation for Chinese companies. He also takes a much less techno-nationalist tone on the growth of a Chinese cybersecurity industry then the NSA spying promotes domestic industry argument would suggest. 
Yuan highlights at least three problems China will face:
Awareness. As Yuan noted in a quip to the Washington Post, before the NSA revelations there was very little recognition of Internet security problems in China. Now, according to Yuan, domestic companies realize the need to invest in security and the government is focused on the problem. “For those in the industry, we really need to thank Snowden.” Still, the government lacks laws on cybersecurity and overemphasizes the supply of products through evaluation, licensing, and testing to the detriment of creating domestic demand. 
Investment. In both private and public sector funding, the United States dwarfs China. According to Yuan, the U.S. government spent $6.5 billion on security, China $400 million; the U.S. private sector spent $4.3 billion on a broad array of products, Chinese companies only $80 million. Yuan also notes a vast difference in the scale of cybersecurity companies. China’s Venustech, which claims 80 percent of Chinese banking institutions and over 60 percent of large state-owned enterprises as its customers, had revenues of close to $120 million in 2012; by comparison, Symantec’s revenue was approximately $6 billion. The pressure to maintain high sales means Chinese companies have no time to develop products and cultivate customers. 
Entrepreneurship. Yuan sees entrepreneurs having difficulty getting into and out of the sector. The barriers to entry are high with numerous government regulations and certificates. Preferential policies help large companies and squeeze start-ups. Venture capital (VC) is scarce; Yuan says he knows of only $30 million of VC investment in Chinese companies (including his own) compared to $1.4 billion in the U.S. Exits for small companies are hard. Yuan stresses that here are no equivalents to IBM, Cisco, or Intel buying up small companies as a major difference in the Chinese and American industries.
http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/09/can-china-protect-itself-from-nsa-spying/280022/

Finally the Japanese Government announced that it never believes that the US is intercepting telephone conversations by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe; Japan is taking necessary preventive measures.  However, having watched quick response of the US Government in the wake of the 3/11 Tsunami and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, it is doubted that some US agencies are monitoring communications by Japanese elite bureaucrats and politicians in addition to Japanese businesses.



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Act 10:25 And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him.
Act 10:26 But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man.
Act 10:27 And as he talked with him, he went in, and found many that were come together.