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Have a great weekend 
Source: http://joongangdaily.joins.com
| Why is Korea sending an astronaut into space? It is part of a bigger project to increase people’s appreciation of science. January 15, 2007 |
| On Christmas Day, two candidates, a man and a woman, were selected as the finalists in a competition to find the first Korean to go into space. As the process came to a close, it seemed as if all of Korea was becoming excited and ready to be involved in space development. But why is it important for a Korean to go to space? What do people actually do in space? Furthermore, what do astronauts do after they come back to Earth? Let’s find the answers to these questions. Korea’s plan to send its first astronaut into space is part of a bigger project to increase people’s appreciation of science. Since Korea is a very small country with no special natural resources, Koreans must use science and technology in order to become more prosperous. A knowledge of science allows Korean companies to create products that sell well all over the world. When Korean companies do well, the country becomes more affluent. However, science appears to be out of favor these days. A trend has been reported that young Koreans are avoiding science and engineering. This means, among other things, that students who do well in school avoid science and engineering studies in college because graduates from those programs have a hard time finding jobs that pay a lot of money. However, if the brightest people continue to avoid science, the country’s capabilities in science and technology will never improve. That’s why the government, through the Science Ministry, came up with a plan to search for scientific ventures that Korea has not explored yet ― and decided that the biggest untapped field was space exploration. That is why Korea is sending an astronaut into space. The government’s plan was to promote the astronaut’s selection process, as well as the space trip and what the astronauts do when they come home, hoping that knowing about the entire process will boost public interest in science. Of course, you may be thinking, “Just how much will sending one person up in space help promote science?” That is a very good question. Raising people’s perception of science is not easy to do or measure, like counting the number of apples in a sack. But the government has a ballpark idea of what the project’s impact will be. The two candidates who were selected in December will stay at the Yuri Gagarin Training Center in Russia for one year and receive the training needed to live in space. The process and the astronaut’s activities in space will be intensely watched by the media. When sent into space, a person must be able to live in a space shuttle environment. The air pressure must be the same as on Earth, and oxygen and water must be brought up. To achieve this, state of the art technology is required. Korea doesn’t have such technology yet. Although Korea has developed and launched a few satellites, no space shuttle has been built here. That is why Korea must borrow the expertise of the Russians to go into space. The only countries that have launched spaceships that actually carried human beings are the United States, Russia and China. Humans have been going into space for about 50 years. As of now, about 400 people have made the trip, which is very expensive. In Korea’s case, the total costs from astronaut selection to training to travelling to the International Space Station and back costs 26 billion won ($28 million). Only one of the two candidates will make the trip, which has a total flight time of 10 days. The cost of the trip itself is 2.6 billion won. You may say it’s a very, very expensive trip. Not many people, even in the future, will be given the opportunity to take it. Since the costs are phenomenal, the government is doing its best to avoid criticism by making the trip valuable scientifically. The selected astronaut will be required to conduct a diverse series of experiments, so people will see that the trip is more than space tourism. The experiments that the astronaut has to do have already been selected. These include testing how water freezes in space, how people write in a zero-gravity environment, how plants grow in space, and so forth. When the astronaut returns, he or she will serve as a spokesperson for science promotion, one of the conditions for being selected. In other words, since the person will be receiving a lot of benefits, he or she will also have to take on certain responsibilities. Now that you know why Korea is sending its first astronaut into space, what would it be like to become an astronaut? The first Korean astronaut will be staying for a few days at the International Space Station, which is entirely different from Earth. Located about 350 kilometers (217 miles) to 450 kilometers from Earth, there is almost no gravity. Gravity, as you may well know, is the force that pulls objects toward the center of the Earth and prevents us from floating out into space. |
The Fortieth True God's Day - Motto
January 1, 2007
FFWPU International
Eog Mansei for the Sacred Era of Peace in the Cheon Il Guk Realm of Cosmic Peace (tentative)
January 1, 2007: The 40th True God’s Day midnight prayer was broadcasted live through the internet from the Cheon Jeong palace and Cheongpyeong Heaven and Earth Training Center to 180 mission nations.
1,500 ambassadors for peace, prominent leaders in society and members of the Unification Church from home and abroad filled the main hall at the Cheon Jeong palace while 8,500 gathered in the main hall of the Cheongpyeong Heaven and Earth Training Center to take part in the 40th True God’s Day celebrations.
Prior to midnight, Rev. Chung Hwan Kwak, the emcee for the midnight prayer celebration, led everyone in song in preparation for the New Year. A couple of minutes before midnight True Parents entered the room with the other members of the True Family. Everyone then offered a bow to True Parents. Rev. Kwak counted down the seconds and at exactly midnight True Father began to pray.
After the prayer, True Father then wrote the motto for the New Year.
The tentative translation is:
“Eog Mansei for the Sacred Era of Peace in the Cheon Il Guk Realm of Cosmic Peace”
The midnight prayer celebration ended with three cheers of Eog mansei by Rev. Sun Jo Hwang, president of FFWPU Korea.
Source: http://www.ffwpu.org/
Dear Family,
Happy True Children's Day. We began the celebration with a 7 am pledge service at Cheong Pyeong International Training Center. True Parents both look great. They did three world tours in the past 12 months. True Mother led the way for the second and third tour --Mother looks beautiful and radiant -- it is amazing that she went through such an exhausting and endless course. Being on the world tour we are experiencing with the clergy the exhaustion of travel each and every day. True Parents overcame this situation and walked the way literally before us. It is amazing. What True Parents are doing is something that no one has ever done in history: Sending Ambassadors for Peace and religious leaders with the message of peace to every nation. When we were in Lebanon, we visited some dangerous and unstable areas, but I know that it is because of True Parents' condition of sacrifice that we are protected. Father shared with us that his way of setting conditions is to literally put his body on the altar of sacrifice. To do this during the Ambassadors for Peace World Tour, he goes out on the ocean - whatever the weather - for prayer. He sets conditions and sometimes goes from early morning to late at night. It is a total sacrifice. But this is the way we can protect the family, the nation and the world. I felt the protection of True Parents while in the Middle East. I know that is why our clergy could go into small communities throughout Africa in sometimes unstable situations and be protected. True Parents' sacrifice is protecting us all. Father is stronger than ever. He knows that this is the hour for which all of God's providence has been prepared, and Father knows what to do to bring the world out of darkness. He is fulfilling this at this time.
We had pledge service. All providential nations, continents, regions and religions were represented for the pledge ceremony in which we bow before God. True Parents are one with God; it is profound to see the progression that is occuring after True Parents entered the original palace.
Archbishop Stallings represented Judeo Christianity for the Kyung Beh. Rev. and Mrs. Kwak, as the representative of all Blessed Central Families, offered a tearful prayer of gratitude and recognition that True Parents having restored Adam and Eve and established three generations of the blessed family have unlocked the blessing for all of humanity. Rev. Kwak read True Parents' address from the 2004 Children's Day. Father gave a special address. Then we went to Kintex Convention Center for a rally of 50,000 people. It was very uplifting. Rev. Hwang was the MC and led the gathering with great inspiration. Key representatives from Korean society, Cabinet members, and Members of Parliament were in attendance. One former Cabinet minister congratulated us on the impact of the 120 Ambassadors for Peace World Tour and commented that the news we made at the DMZ was important. Father's influence is now seen as very central to the direction of the unification of Korea. 50,000 people gathered with one week's notice at Kintex; one elder told me that no other group in Korea can manage this and everyone knows it. Father's ability to gather so many so quickly is coming from our work in every community throughout Korea. The small meetings in each neighborhood for Tong Ban Kyok Pa and HDFC have given us an extremely solid base.
Another exciting thing is the fact that the Seong Am soccer team, which is owned by our movement's foundation, just won against the Samsung team. This was the first time in the last 18 matches. It has created a strong sense of Father's fortune and victory among the Korean people. Our time has come to bring the world into the Peace Kingdom.
Archbishop Stallings was asked by True Parents to give a special report on the Fourth World Tour. Dr. Yang translated. Bishop Stallings gave a beautiful powerpoint presentation that highlighted the work of Archbishop Milingo and the Married Priests Now and the very inspiring highlights of the world tour. He testified with words and pictures that True Parents are without question the king and queen of peace. He started by showing how he was moved by True Parents to no longer remain as a single Catholic priest and was blessed to Sayomi- san in 2001 along with Archbishop Milingo and 60 other religious leaders and their spouses. The gathering was so inspired to see the pictures of the Blessing and shouted out when he said, whatever Father Moon does brings results, and then he flashed the pictures of his family with sons Shin Young and Young Pal -- the crowd was very inspired.
The presentation highlighted the clergy's faith and journey through America, Japan, Korea, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Great rallies occurred through each continent. The response in Africa was truly amazing; many huge mosques in Africa welcomed the UPF representatives with rallies of several thousand. He showed how True Parents sent us to Lebanon with Dr. Lee and the Middle East team of UPF. We go to the most dangerous and difficult areas and we bring the message and example of ppeace and family. Archbishop Stallings testified that indeed True Parents can send us everywhere because they have the protection, blessing ,and power of God to bring peace on earth. They are the fulfillment of Scripture and the ones anointed by Jesus for the Second Coming. 50,000 people jumped to their feet affirming, "Amen, Aju, Aju !!"
Father came at that moment and delivered the next level of the peace message, emphasizing absolute sexual morality through the blessing and the family. Father's address was so powerful and great. Father stuck with the text of his address, " God's Model for Absoluteness, Peace and the Ideal is the Family and the Global Kingdom Upholding Absolute Sexual Morality." It is a message that is based on the past series of peace messages, adding the teaching on the foundation of morality. He said, "These words are the words of life that 120 international religious leaders who received them from True Parents directly are proclaiming to 120 nations of the world." Father's message goes directly into the heart of true love and the meaning of the blessing, especially that to secure the peace Kingdom we must have absolute sexual morality based on fidelity and purity in the marriage and the family.
True Parents have untangled all the knots that have bound Cain and Abel and are now bringing grace and blessing to each and every family. Peace has now been secured in the spirit world, between all races and religions, and it is just a matter of time in which enmity will be swept away and true love will be realized throughout the world.
What a great and truly historic Children's Day. May each and every family be blessed and please pray for the 120 clergy as they spend their Thanksgiving serving the world in Asia.
Happy Thanksgiving to all !!
Happy True Children's Day.
With gratitude to True Parents and to the Blessed Families of America and the world.
MWJ
Source: FFWPU, 11/22/2006
Three high school students from Batangas put the Philippines on top of the world.
The robotics team of the First Asia Institute of Technology and Humanities (Faith), a small educational institution in Tanauan City, won the 2006 World Robot Olympiad held in Nanning, China over the weekend.
The team, composed of a senior and two freshmen high school students, bested 30 other entries from 20 countries--including highly regarded participants from Japan, South Korea, Russia and Singapore.
“This is like a dream. We really didn’t expect to win. It’s unbelievable,” Merlina Placino, coach of the robotics team, told the Inquirer over the phone on Sunday.
“We are very happy. All our hard work and sacrifices paid off,” said team leader Kim Marco Perez, 14.
Placino, Perez and teammates Dan Joseph Garcia, 13, and Francisco Gabriel Nunez, 13, were still waiting for their flight at the Nanning airport when they spoke with the Inquirer.
They were expected to return to the country before midnight Sunday.
“We are excited to come home,” said Garcia.
The team from Faith was one of six local entries to the robotics tournament.
The entry of the Grace Christian School won one of the seven special awards. They were conferred with the “Best Team Spirit” award.
Placino said their team topped the open category (secondary school level) of the annual competition of young robot inventors from all over the world.
They received a trophy and gold medals from the event organizers.
In 2004, the school, which had dominated the local robotics tournament for five years in a row, placed fourth in the event held in Singapore.
This year’s competition had humanoids, or robots which display human-like characteristics and behavior, as its main theme.
Placino said the entries were judged on their creativity, originality and relevance to the theme.
“Winning the Olympiad is more than what we expected. When we went here, we thought winning a special award was more than enough,” she said. “This is just too much.”
When asked what could have won them the top award, she humbly said: “Maybe it was our unique design and presentation. Others didn’t have a concept.”
While others made big robots which can lift things, some measuring up to one and a half meters tall, the team from Faith designed a scene inside a café.
Inside the 2.25-meter café are 11 humanoid robots which include a waiter, a receptionist, a coffee mixer, a customer, bar attendant and security guards.
It also had a three-piece robot band--composed of a pianist, a guitarist and a drummer.
“What’s more important is that we showed robots serving and drinking kapeng barako because we wanted to show the culture of Batangas,” Placino said.
Placino only had praises for her over-achieving wards.
She said the team overcame lack of support from the government and a relatively little experience in building robots.
“They just showed what the Filipinos can do,” she said.
She said the three-day event had already taken its toll on the young winners.
Because of the weather and physical and mental stress, the three kids were taken ill, she said.
“Aside from the stress brought by the competition, the kids had to lift our heavy cargoes,” Placino added.
But more than the pride that their win brought the country, Placino said their triumph could serve as a catalyst and a wake-up call for the government to take a more serious look into the promotion of robotics and information technology among the grade and high school students.
“Our win also proved that even schools in the provinces can win in events like this and offer better education than some Manila schools. We’re really not behind in terms of (quality education),” she said.
Inquirer Southern Luzon
Related Article: Filipinos win World Robotics Olympiad in China
By Jocelyn Uy
BAGUIO CITY--Koreans have made the country's summer capital their second home and they want to return the favor by bringing snow here this Christmas.
Yes, snow.
Acting Mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr. stressed during a press conference on Thursday that this was not a joke. He said Korean entrepreneurs had offered to invest in snow-blowing machines that would be placed atop buildings here to produce snowflakes that would fall on downtown Baguio.
He said the plan was to operate the machines every afternoon during the Christmas season when tourists flock to the city.
"These Koreans have visited modern Asian cities where there are theme park-like activities. Hong Kong and Singapore have fireworks display every weekend to delight residents and tourists. This is something similar," Bautista said.
He said the Korean businessmen also proposed to convert any government facility located in an elevated area in the city into a resort that would offer snow-theme rides such as a snow slide.
"We thought of fixing up [the sequestered Diplomat Hotel] on Dominican Hill here, where they can construct pipe slides where people can slide down on ice and water," Bautista said.
While the proposals sounded absurd at first, he said, they could be feasible.
Coldest city
"Baguio remains the coldest city in the Philippines and it would take less energy to produce snow flakes here during the Christmas holidays when temperatures can reach as low as 12 degrees Celsius," Bautista said.
More importantly, the idea was fresh enough to attract the curious. "Baguio has nothing new to offer tourists anymore, and they're giving us a good idea," he said.
Bautista declined to identify the brains behind the proposal, although he said they were businessmen who set up groceries and schools here.
At least 6,000 Korean students and missionaries are staying in Baguio, according to the Bureau of Immigration. The number excludes Korean tourists who visit the city.
Bautista said the city's failure to keep tourists was best reflected by the latest competitiveness survey of mid-sized cities that saw Baguio in the bottom three in 2005.
Lagging behind
The survey was conducted by the Asian Institute of Management and the Saint Louis University's College of Business Administration. It compared Baguio to the cities of Angeles, Bacolod, Batangas, Butuan, Cabanatuan, Cagayan de Oro, Calamba, General Santos, Iligan, Iloilo, Lipa, San Fernando (Pampanga), Tarlac and Zamboanga.
Bacolod, Batangas, Iligan, Iloilo and San Fernando topped the survey.
In a report provided by the city government, Baguio "had a high cost of doing business, bad vehicular traffic, inefficient provision of basic utilities, insufficient banking institutions, a worsening environment and poor [local government] responsiveness [to] local development."
World-class toilet at PMA
The city government is gearing up for a major infrastructure boom before the end of the year, in part, to make up for the competitiveness survey, according to Bautista.
Part of the investment plan is the construction of a P1-million "world-class" toilet at Fort del Pilar, catering to guests of the Philippine Military Academy.
The PMA draws some of the prominent guests of the city, but the last tour here of the Miss Earth candidates embarrassed officials because the PMA could not offer them toilets.
Father has explained Cheon Seong Gyeong as follows:
“This is the holy book for the Kingdom of Heaven. In Cheon Seong Gyeong, the word cheon consists of the Chinese characters meaning two (二) and people (人). When you think of who the two central people in a family are, you think of the husband and wife. The separation of heaven and earth came about because a husband and a wife in the Garden of Eden lost the way to love. Therefore, in order for heaven and earth to reach completion, these two people (天) must follow the holy (聖) way (經) in which they must love completely. This way is elucidated in Cheon Seong Gyeong.” He added, “Cheon Seong Gyeong defines the way for two people to walk towards holiness; this way is none other than the family.”
Currently it is available in English, French, Spanish, Romanian, Ukrainian, Mongolian, Thai, Chinese, and Taiwanese Chinese. Versions in additional languages are in progress.
To order, please contact your regional headquarters before Dec. 15th, 2006.
Outside the US, members should contact their national headquarters for more information.
Source: http://www.familyfed.org/, Nov. 6, 2006
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