For that Healthy Glow, Drink Radiation! - Popular Science

For that Healthy Glow, Drink Radiation! - Popular Science

"A century ago radioactivity was new, exciting and good for you—at least if you believed the people selling radium pendants for rheumatism, all-natural radon water for vigor, uranium blankets for arthritis and thorium-laced medicine for digestion (you don't even want to know about the radioactive suppositories)."

Click the link for a very intresting read

FPJ - Da King

Today, December 14, 2004, Fernando Poe Jr., the person in the middle of the issue (the Philippines Presidential campaign and the allegations of cheating) that made me create this blog, has died.

I, like many Filipinos, watched his movies and idolized his persona, I remember watching his movies, watching how as a regular guy he held up truth, justice and the Filipino way against invading japanese, criminal syndicates, american thugs, and he always got the girl.

He will always be remembered

What I Like About Scrooge - In praise of misers. By Steven E. Landsburg

What I Like About Scrooge - In praise of misers. By Steven E. Landsburg

This is interesting, I have never thought about scrooge in this fashion -

"In this whole world, there is nobody more generous than the miser—the man who could deplete the world's resources but chooses not to. The only difference between miserliness and philanthropy is that the philanthropist serves a favored few while the miser spreads his largess far and wide."

Human Rights Day

December 10 - Human Rights Day

Baloney Detection Kit

With all the brouhaha about Faye and her story, i thought it would be a good idea for us to review Carl Sagan's "Baloney Detection Kit" which should at least give us some inkling if or when we are facing deception. The links below reproduce the links faithfullly and they also link to addtional reading if you wan them.

Operation Clambake

http://www1.tpgi.com.au/users/tps-seti/baloney.html

Skeptics.com

Carlsagan.com

The Philippine Chess Team

I forgot to mention that the Philippine Team to the Chess Olympiad had again exceeded expectations and was tied with several other countries in 12-19 places with 32 points. The Philippines was seeded 40th.

Congrtulations to the members of the team:

Eugenio Torre
Rogelio Antonio
Mark Paragua
Jayson Gonzales
Emmanuel Senador
Darwin Laylo

Faye the Conquering Hero

A new e-mail is spreading through the Philippines. It is about the heroism of a youg girl named Faye who despite being abandoned by her father, despite not having enough money, despite being ignored by the Philippine government, was able to travel to Indonesia and Australia to win the "Mathematics for the Young Asians" and the "Intercontinental Science Quiz Net" respectively beating competition from the Japanese, the Germans, the Americans etc.

Unfortunately, the e-mail being disseminated lacks any kind of detail that can be used to verify the story. The competitions, the little girl supposedly won, cannot be found on the internet. The story seems to be too good to believe, and when that happens it usually is.

Unless new details that can verify this story surfaces, I think that we should consider this story with a large grain of salt, it is inspiring if true but it can make you want to puke on the people who would try to manipulate the emotions of Filpinos with this kind of stunt when this story is proven to be false.

Update (10-18-2004)

The Philippine Daily Inquirer ran two follow up stories on Faye last Saturday and Sunday (November 13 and 14) which established that the story circulating among Filipinos about Faye is untrue.

Some thoughts on blogging

Ang hirap pa lang mag maintain ng blog. Nung sinimulan ko itong blog na ito akala ko ang dami-dami kong gustong isulat, pero pagkatapos ng isang linggo, wala na akong maisip. Parang napaka-trivial ng mga naiisip ko para isulat dito.

Anyway, wala namang magbabasa nito kundi ako so ok lang siguro na yung pinaka trivial na detalye ng buhay ko ay mailagay dito.

Short Sighted

Hindi ako pumasok kahapon kaya napanood ko yung NBA finals, saka yung canvassing ng elections. Habang pinapanood ko yung canvassing naisip ko lang na hindi natin dapat binibigyan ng ganitong kapangyarihan ang kongreso.

Napanood ko kung saan, pinagbobotohan nung mga kasapi ng Canvassing Committee kung bibilangin ba nila o hindi yung Certificate of Canvass. Invariably, natatalo yung oposisyon dahil mas marami yung administrasyon, Bigla ko na lang naisip, pano kung baligtad ang sitwasyon? pano kung mas marami yung oposisyon, kaysa administrasyon?

Sabi ni Senator Joker Arroyo, ang papel lang ng canvassing committe, ay mag canvass, ng Certificates of Canvass(COCs). Hindi na dapat ito bumaba sa Statements of Votes (SOVs) dahil ang Presential Electoral Tribunal, ang tamang forum para maghain ng kuwestion tungkol sa mga SOVs at Election Returns (ERs)

Sabi naman ni JV Bautista, hindi raw ni-take into consideration ni Joker yung mga rules na ni-promulgate ng Canvassing Committee na nagbibigay ng karapatan sa Canvassing Committee na makialam sa SOVs.

Hindi ko alam, kung ang rules na sinasavi ni JV Bautista ay dati ng nakalagay o isa sa mga rules na pinagtibay ng Canvassing Committee sa hiling ng oposisyon.

Pero sa tingin ko, napaka delikado magkaroon ng ganitong kapangyarihan ang Kongreso. The Congress is a political body, and it will always remain so. Inaalala ko baka dumating ang isang panahon na may kandidatong natalo pero kontrolado niya ang Kongreso, puede niyang gamitin ang mga rules na ito ngayon para i-dispute ang botohan, at magkaroon ng no-proclamation. Iniisip ko pa nga na puede niyang isantabi yung disputed votes, tapos bilangin lang yung undisputed votes kung saan nanalo siya, tapos ipadeklara niyang siya ang nanalo base sa mga undisputed votes.

I know that I am being an alarmist and that we should only consider this particular circumstance. Pero we have acceded to politicising (may ganito bang salita?) , what is already a political process. Nakakatakot yan.

I believe that the Canvassing Committee should be limited to doing a ministerial duty (yung sinasabi ni Joker), as far as possible, huwag na nating bigyan ng pagkakataon na haluan ng politika ang what should be a straight-forward process.

P.S. Ang assumption ko hindi nandaya si Gloria. O kung sino man ang nanalo, at puedeng madehado sa ganitong proseso.

Happy Independence Day!

Nabasa ko lang ito sa column ni alex magno

"When Manuel Luis Quezon so famously declared that he would rather have a country run like hell by Filipinos than one run like heaven by Americans, this was supposed to be posturing, not prophesy."

Alex Magno

Hello World

Susubukan ko lang na mag blog, napansin ko kasi marami akong opinions nitong mga nakaraang araw, nakakahiya minsan na i-email sa mga kaibigan ko kasi madamin na akong masyadong ini-email sa kanila.