Blandie

Know what? The global warming also makes your vegetables less nutritious than normal. Weird, because you have the greenhouse to protect your veggies from Nature and then it turns out, greenhouse effect make them less palatable. Max Taub of Southwestern U in Texas made the study analyzing 200 experiments:

Taub's analysis, detailed in the March issue of the journal Global Change Biology, found that when grown in elevated carbon dioxide levels, potatoes showed almost a 14 percent decrease in protein. Protein concentrations decreased by more than 15 percent in barley and almost 10 percent in wheat and rice. Soybeans had the smallest protein reduction at 1.4 percent.

The paranoid in me knew it that Wyeth, Dupont and other Chemical Brothers are behind this global warming to sell their products. Anyway to all you beer drinkers out there, here's the SCIENTIFIC way to make your friends think they are having more beers that they are actually quaffing.

Should we Allow the Burning of Nabokov's Last (Unpublished) Work?

In a Swiss bank vault are about 50 index cards of Vladimir Nabokov's handwriting. This is "The Original of Laura," VN's unfinished last novel which he wanted burned. His wife Vera died and now son Dmitri, 73, has the dilemma of following his father's order or not. And according to Slate, the decision is near.

Reminder

At the end of the year, this is what I will ask myself:

And I hope the world would be satisfied with my answer

On Being a Bearer of Shocking News

Last Sunday, I had to break two tragic news to people who should have known of the incidents before I did. At about 2 pm, I called up Mountain Province Gov. Maximo Dalog to get his reaction about the amush of Paracelis Mayor Cesar Rafael. Then later, I had to convey to Abra Gov. Kit Bersamin that the house of Cong. Luna was bombed. Dalog was shocked. I can imagine him raising his eyebrow. My introduction to hiim was, "Merry Xmas, Gob. Did you hear about the news..." Silence. The cellphone meter was ticking. "I didn't know that, ah. Why wasn't I informed?" he said. Then he has to be my legman for the story. With Bersamin, he was at the airport, seeing off his children and apos back to the U.S. With Kit, it was silence and more silence. Then, "I'm here in Manila. Tell me what happened."
These situations are hard for journalists because you would be catching your sources in an awkward moment. They would be in a situation when they can't give you the soundbites you need. Most of those you see on TV are orchestrated. The cumbersome setting-up of the crew and lighting and sounds and the introduction would erase the novelty.
Unless you are like that guy who went to the scene of the collapse of a building in Cabanatuan during the earthquake and then was confronted by a victim trapped between concrete slabs. All the poor TV guy can ask was, "How does it feel?"
Surprising sources about shocking news would only say that they are not in any way connected with the tragedy. And we are not even sure about that either. Maybe you can write, "the governor was shocked upon hearing the news" but we're not really certain. The interview was done on phone and you can only imagine the reaction.
I think the best thing to do is to call again.

Bashing the Birthdays

Last weekend up to last night, I must have witnessed about 20 "birthday celebrations" in John Hay Manor, Pizza Hut, Don Henrico's and Tia Maria. These "celebrations" require the waiters making a fool of themselves by dancing and singing "Happy Birthday" with guitars and maracas. I am familiar with this gimmick and I can tell you that 90 PERCENT OF THESE BIRTHDAYS ARE FAKE. No one is celebrating a birthday. Most of these are aging guys who are having their reunions and it's really a macho thing that all the people should know that they are having fun and out to wreak havoc. They just want to make people perform crazy stuff. The real classy people (like me) would hostage the whole bar and buy everyone a drink and not give a reason. If I have a bar, I will require any proof of birthday before I will allow my people to become fools. And I will announce the true age. That includes you, Jesus.

Now Bring Us Some Figgy Newtons

"Now bring us some figgy pudding. Now bring us some figgy pudding," the Madrigal Singers sang in Vigan last Sunday. "What's a piggy fooding," a local journalist asked me. Now, seriously. I wanted to sing, "Now bring us some Fig Newtons" because December 25 is the birthday of Sir Isaac Newton. You might say that is the birthday of Jesus but remember what some sects told you: that December 25 was chosen as His birthday through a papal bull. Meaning, it can be true of not true. But Newton is true and Dec 25 was his birthday.

A Plague of Girl Suicides: Another One in Baguio

An 11-year-old girl was found hanging inside their rented house in Cabinet Hill last Monday. She was found dead by her sister who had to climb up the roof because the door was locked. The girl did not attend school that Monday because of a stomach ache, her parent said. She was said to have been left to the care of their neighbors and she was last seen watching TV. This is the third case of suicide among 11 years old girls this year in the country. An 11-year old girl in Davao committed suicide last November and left a suicide note saying that her family was too poor to send her to school and that she thought all her simple Christmas wishes for her family are not bound to come true.

Ponderables for this Week That You Just Can't Discuss with your Cab Driver

1. Ireland and Northern Ireland decided to be strict in their drinking laws. Guess who are protesting? U2 fans? No.
2. Now Canada is the first country to come out with a study using literature to show that immigrant women are stronger than immigrant men. Aray!
3. Hitler farted a lot.
4. They are now saying the Vivaldi was a pedophile.
5. Helvetica is 50 years old.







And this is the tomb of Laurie (Laurence) Matheson, who died in 1987, and his widow commissioned Peter Schipperheyn to make this gravestone called "La donna dormentata". Laurie was 57 years old. The gravestone is located in the Mt Macedon Cemetery in Mount Macedon, Victoria, Australia. The other photos will tell you why Laurie is rolling in his grave. Is that his widow?

Gov’t takes responsibility for girl’s suicide: Inquirer.net story

Gov’t takes responsibility for girl’s suicide

Assures steps to ease hunger, poverty
By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 05:51pm (Mla time) 11/08/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- The government is taking responsibility for a 12-year-old girl who took her life because of extreme poverty but assured that steps are being taken to ease hunger and poverty, officials said on Thursday.

At a news conference in Malacañang, Health Secretary Francisco Duque said the government is taking responsibility for what happened to Mariannet Amper, who hanged herself inside her family’s makeshift house a day after her father told her he could not give her the P100 she needed for a school project....

So would this mean that PGMA and her cabinet would do harakiri? Because everybody wants to take the blame for the suicide of Mariannet. Months ago, another young girl from Malate committed suicide. Same thing. We blame ourselves and then move on. Enmity is nothing unless you do something. Maybe like President Arroyo and Mayor Atienza, we let people have sex only for procreation and then let them go hungry because God will provide.

And Finally for the Day, the answer to Kira and Marionne's Question:

I'm too chicken to answer you so I let the savage chickens do it

"What Kind of People Would Do That?"

This was what Norberto Gonzales, GMA's Security Adviser, said about the Glorietta bombing. He later said that only mga "sira-ulo" would think of such thing. Gonzales was a member of the Light-The-Fire Movement which bombed PICC during the Marcos years. The LTFM may be considered a patriotic act now (notwithstanding the fact that Nonoy Zuniga lost a leg during the blast) but if Marcos is still in power now, where would Norberto be in the scheme of things? The fact that the government authorities were so fast in finding the culprit (Rajah Soliman Group) and slow in admitting that a bomb containing C4 caused it makes everybody suspicious of the involvement of the government. "What kind of people would do that," he asked. Of all people.

No Tip Allowed

We used to think that once you tip a turtle, they're as good as soup. Not so, says this Argentinian snake-necked turtle. The secret is due to the design of their shells. Of course it will not help you in your daily problems but (at least for me) I can sleep better thinking that no turtle or tortoise would be slowly dying out there looking at the stars and cursing mankind:

I don't know much about creative writing programs. But they're not telling the truth if they don't teach, one, that writing is hard work, and, two...

that you have to give up a great deal of life, your personal life, to be a writer."

Doris Lessing, who wrote that, just won the Nobel Prize for Literature. She's 88 and she deserves the award (no irony there). I read some of her works years ago including The Golden Notebook which I totally forgot. Anyway, here are some quotes from Lessing which you can pepper your cocktail conversations later so you can pass yourself as an erudite Lessing fan. Maybe Lesser.

• There is only one real sin and that is to persuade oneself that the second-best is anything but second best.

• What's really terrible is to pretend that the second-rate is the first-rate. To pretend that you don't need love when you do, or you like your work when you know quite well you're capable of better.

• You only learn to be a better writer by actually writing.

• The current publishing scene is extremely good for the big, popular books. They sell them brilliantly, market them and all that. It is not good for the little books.

• Trust no friend without faults, and love a woman, but no angel.

• Laughter is by definition healthy.

• This world is run by people who know how to do things. They know how things work. They are equipped. Up there, there's a layer of people who run everything. But we -- we're just peasants. We don't understand what's going on, and we can't do anything.

• It is the mark of great people to treat trifles as trifles and important matters as important

• It is terrible to destroy a person's picture of himself in the interests of truth or some other abstraction.

• What is a hero without love for mankind?

• In university they don't tell you that the greater part of the law is learning to tolerate fools.

• With a library you are free, not confined by temporary political climates. It is the most democratic of institutions because no one - but no one at all - can tell you what to read and when and how.

100 Effects of Global Warming

Say Goodbye to French Wines
Wacky temperatures and rain cycles brought on by global warming are threatening something very important: Wine. Scientists believe global warming will “shift viticultural regions toward the poles, cooler coastal zones and higher elevations.” What that means in regular language: Get ready to say bye-bye to French Bordeaux and hello to British champagne.

Say Goodbye to Baseball
The future of the ash tree—from which all baseball bats are made—is in danger of disappearing, thanks to a combination of killer beetles and global warming

Volcanoes Blow Their Tops
British scientists warn of another possible side effect of climate change: A surge of dangerous volcanic eruptions.

And 97 more

A Parable for Baguio

This is the dream of Einstein on 26 April 1905:

"In this world it is instantly obvious that something is odd. No houses can be seen in the valleys or plains. Everyone lives in the mountains..."

This is part of Alan Lightman's Einstein's Dreams.
In this particular dream, it was said that scientists discovered that time flows more slowly the father from the center of the earth. It was a very small difference, measured only by really sensitive instruments but you try to bring that out in the newspapers and "sexy" it up so I guessed the headlines then was: Time Slower On The Mountains.
So people decide to leave the shores and went up the mountains. They built their houses on mountaintops.

"People most eager to live longest have built their houses on the highest stilts. Indeed, some houses rise half a mile high on their spindly wooden stilts. Height has become a status."

Those who live on high literally looked down on the people below. if they need to transact business in the lowlands, they do it as fast as they can so they will not lose time and age faster.
Of course, there would always be rebellious people who thought, What the heck! Let's go down the mountains and enjoy our lives while we can.

"In time, people have forgotten the reason why higher is better. Nonetheless, they continue to live on the mountains. to avoid sunken regions as much as they can, to teach their children to shun other children from low elevations. They tolerate the cold of the mountains by habit and enjoy the discomfort as part of their breeding. They have even convinced themselves that thin air is good for their bodies and, following that logic, have gone on spare diets, refusing all but the gossamer food. At length, the populace have become thin like the air, bony, old before their time."

Friends for Life. For Now.

These four are orphans staying in a zoo. Somehow they have become friends and inseparable. Of course, adulthood will mess up this friendship. But for now, savor the moment.

Improving Frank

I never would dream either

Outside a Texas Restroom is the Answer to Your Problem

Diana/Whore Complex

They died almost at the same time. Princess Di and Mother Theresa. Ten years later, they are back in the news. The dead "living saint" with her crisis of faith and the princess with a women's studies chapter all by herself.