Queries: Reality that Involves Infinity

"Transcend" means going beyond the limits of something.  Therefore, when you transcend reality, it means that you go beyond the limits of reality.  Does this necessarily mean fantasy? or perhaps fiction?  In this case, what are the limits of reality?  Does it mean something confined within the five senses: listen, see, touch, taste, and smell?  Perhaps it would help if the terms "fantasy" and "fiction" are defined.  "Fantasy" is about imagining improbable things.  "Fiction", on the other hand, means something invented; and therefore, involves things that are considered imaginary.  How about delusion?  Does the idea of transcending reality involve delusion?  How can you transcend reality without having delusions?

How about we apply this to truth.  When you search for the truth, will it involve transcending of reality?  When you do your search for truth, it demands something from your mind.  When you think about reality, your mind is always involved.  If reality is something confined to the five senses, and your mind is the one that controls these senses, how can somebody be sure that one is not having fantasies and living in fiction since the same mind is capable of something imaginary? 

Is reality a concept that is something relative, relative to the subjects involved, and in turn, relative to the minds involved?  If reality is relative to the minds involved, then is it some sort of a social convention, just like in the case of mathematical notations, such that there is the "reality of mathematics"?  Maybe reality is meant to be intertwined with imaginary things.  When one chooses not to transcend reality, e.g. being staunchly realistic, how can one be so sure that he or she does not imagine things?  Can this person be considered a conformist since reality is a relativistic social convention confined within a particular scope of subjects or group of persons for that matter?

Perhaps being perfectly realistic means conforming to a relativistic convention formed by an infinite scope of subjects -- yes, "infinite scope" is the term.  Reality is indeed a natural thing since it always involves nature.  If reality is a natural thing, and reality is a relativistic convention formed by a scope of natural subjects, is something supernatural still a form of reality?  Is reality, as a product of relativistic convention formed by an infinite scope of subjects, which may involve an infinite mind, can be considered supernatural?  Does this mean that being supernatural is something ultimately real?  Are we all designed to be supernatural since we have a mind that can imagine things?

That would mean that we belong to a family of supers.

what's with East Timor

I came across a subject about East Timor from an unexpected article.  I have been reading articles about the Cold War, and there, just like popping from mid-air, the situation of East Timor was mentioned.  What I knew about the country before was that it is a former Portuguese colony, and Indonesian forces invaded it during the time of Indonesian president Suharto.  So it appeared to me that the situation in East Timor was another case of annexation, which is usually associated with economic interests; thus, something not right was going on.  Furthermore, it occurred during problematic times in Portugal leading to its decolonization, so it made me think that the Indonesian government during that time might be taking the opportunity to invade the colony.

The Cold War articles revealed interesting logical connections with the East Timor invasion.  It also revealed that my knowledge about the invasion was very limited.  Yes, it is related to the Cold War in many probable connections such as the case of what has been a fragile relationship between UDT and Fretilin - the two leading nationalist movements aiming for East Timor independence.  UDT is essentially democratic, as the name says; while Fretilin has a program considered to gear towards the left wing (read "East Timor Revisited" for more details).  Fretilin, however, is known to have the greatest public support.

Articles that I have read about the Cold War showed situations wherein superpowers tend to take sides in favor of movements in a foreign country that hold the same ideology as theirs.  Ultimately, they get direct involvement when the clash of ideologies went worse into a war situation, e.g. civil war.  Little did I know that the case with East Timor is somewhat related to the case of Vietnam War, Korean War, Cuba, and Afghanistan.  I think you might be familiar with the scenarios in those countries, and superpowers such as USSR and/or US are visibly involved.  In the case of East Timor, you might be interested to read an article by the Sydney Morning Herald.  Think about how Vietnam was divided into North and South, whereas Korea is until now divided into North and South.  These situations demonstrate acute cases of clashing ideologies.  Afghanistan, on the other hand, has its own Soviet regime when the communist forces prevailed in that country sometime in its history.  A more popular case is Cuba.  As you might have known, the world was almost brought into nuclear war mainly between US and the former USSR because of the situation in Cuba.  That was the Cold War, and it is a heavy subject matter.

I don't know a lot of things about East Timor so I think it is worth to explore some things about this young independent state.  

East Timor is located in the island of Timor in the archipelago of Indonesia (see map below).  It's a small country that comprises approximately half of Timor, and it was colonized by Portugal in the 16th century.  It became a sovereign state in 2002, but prior to that, the country declared its independence in 1975.  In that same year, however, Indonesia launched its invasion of the territory in December.  The history leading to its independence is bloody, and until now, peace and order is still prone to disturbances.  Its capital and largest city is Dili.  It has two official languages: Portuguese and Tetum, and in distinction to its largely Islamic neighbor Indonesia, majority of the people in East Timor are Christians by affiliation.  It is home to two Nobel Peace Prize laureates: Jose Ramon-Horta and Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo.

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Time will come for a more peaceful Repúblika Demokrátika Timór-Leste.

Matthew Winterburn

Janina Pawelz

青函トンネル, Channel, and Берингов пролив

Seikan Tunnel, Channel, and Bering Strait

While browsing for some information about the Caspian Sea, I find the oil pipeline system remarkable.  The system would go for miles in order to reach their country or region of destination; they originate from areas near or within the Caspian Sea.  Thinking about the pipelines made me think about tunnels and eventually about the ambitious tunnel projects that mankind has undertaken.  Somewhere at the top of the list are the two longest undersea tunnels in the world: Seikan tunnel in Japan and Channel tunnel between Great Britain and France.  Seikan tunnel is the longest and the deepest undersea tunnel in the world running for 53.85 km and 140 m below seabed and 240 m below sea level.  It connects the Honshu and Hokkaido islands in Japan and allows train travel between the two islands.  It crosses the Tsugaru Strait.  Similarly, the Channel tunnel allows train travel between the island of Great Britain and continental Europe through France.  It connects Folkestone, Kent in United Kingdom and Coquelles, Pas-de-Calais in France.  It is 50.5 km long and 75 m deep at its lowest point.  Seikan tunnel opened in 1988 (construction started in 1971) while Channel tunnel opened in 1994 (construction started in 1988).

Seikan Tunnel Location:


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Channel Tunnel Location:


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For a developing country like the Philippines, these projects are totally not feasible in the economic perspective.  In fact, at first impression, one may find these projects unbelievable to exist in reality given the engineering challenges and the project cost.  It costs $3.6 billion in 1980's prices to build the Seikan tunnel while it costs around £4.7 billion in 1985 prices to build the Channel tunnel.  Huge projects indeed; however, many years from now, the records established by these tunnels will be surpassed by a proposed project in Bering Strait that was already given a go signal by the Russian government.

The proposed tunnel project in Bering Strait is estimated to cost up to $30 billion (according to interbering.com) while the railway constructions in Russia, US, and Canada leading to the tunnel are estimated to cost up to $70 billion.  Think about spending for a connection by land going to North America or going to Asia - soon to be a link between two of the largest economies of the world and a major link between two of the biggest continents.  The significance can be comparable to that of the Suez Canal or the Panama Canal.  The tunnel will link Siberia in Russia and Alaska in the United States.  The map below shows the locations.  Of course, what goes together with the project are the engineering challenges, and perhaps a big challenge there is how they are going to deal with the seismic activities in the area.  Let's just hope that it is not going to lead into any major disaster brought about by unforeseen factors and consequences.

The length of the tunnel will be around 103 km or 64 miles, and it may take up to 10-15 years to complete.

Bering Strait:


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A press release of the project is found here.  Although additional figures can be found here.  For Russia, creating a tunnel in the Bering Strait means more infrastructure projects such as railway systems in a relatively "infrastructure-deprived" Northern Siberia where the temperature can drop to as low as -50 degrees Celsius.  Russia plans to extend rail lines to the northeastern part of Siberia, which is expected to be completed by 2030.

This project is not really new for it has a long history in its planning and proposal.  It dates back in 1905 from the idea of Tsar Nicholas II.