Trumpo, tag-araw

Para sa mga bata ang trumpo ay isa lamang laruan. Pero sa mga guro na nais magturo ng
science sa mga bata, ang trumpo ay isang magandang kagamitan upang ipa-unawa ang ilang konsepto ng physics.

Ang mahalaga ay mapukaw ng mga guro ang curiosity ng mga bata at ang hangad nila na unawain ang batas ng mga bagay bagay para magamit ito sa iba pang pagkakataon at pangangailangan.

Good morning Vigan!

I was not really expecting much from my first time visit to Vigan but to my surprise I had a pleasant experience and enjoyed my stay there. The city with her old houses does give one a feel of the old times. There were even areas in the city that reminded me of my childhood hometown now gone forever due to wanton urbanization.

For me however, the best time to go around the city is early in the morning when the city is just waking up and the tourists are still asleep - no crowd, less noise and more time to imagine how it was like living in the past.

 

The people I met in Vigan were also truly nice, friendly and welcoming. They are an asset of the city and are a factor of Vigan's tourism success.

 

Viva Vigan! more power and success to her people.

Aquarium art

 

People who create beautiful underwater worlds in an aquarium may consider themselves just as hobbyists. But for me they can be considered as artists.

 

I used to be interested in having an aquarium to grow colorful fishes, but as I grew older, this interest gave way to practicality and decided that this hobby is not for me. I would rather raise animals or plants for food.

 

Still, this has not stopped me from appreciating underwater worlds created by other people.

 



 

 

(pictures taken at a pet and  aquascape exhibit in Makati)

Nature art

Sometimes in order to see the beauty of nature, all we have to do is to take a closer look.

Very very close.

I realized this while walking along a busy street. The picture above may seem like an abstract work that evokes images of clouds or fluffy feathers.

But actually, it is a bloom of white algae growing in canal water running beside a busy street.

Quack science

I wonder if the DOST and DTI are aware that they are being used to give credibility to the power of the healing mat.

 

SAF 44 and the need for sobriety

 

 

It is very easy for some people who did not have to make hard decisions and speaking from hindsight on scant information to come up with a conclusion   on the Marwan pursuit operation that felled 44 members of the Special Action Forces of the Philippine National Police in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.

They call for the truth but at the same time demand heads to roll with specific personalities in mind.

 Yet despite our best laid plans who can really tell the future?

Anger in a time of grief is understandable. But if we give in to anger we risk making wrong choices and deepen our losses. If this terrible tragedy that cost so many lives happen in a time when we are supposedly on the verge of peace, how many more lives are we prepared to lose in an all-out war? True there can be no peace without justice nor honor without truth but let us not mistake revenge for justice and angry opinion for truth.

 It is thus reprehensible that instead of steering the public to sobriety some members of the media even stoke public emotion to fury substituting their opinions and speculations for news and discarding objectivity, fairness and balance all together.

In the past, did soldiers killed in the line of duty, whether by the MILF or NPA receive similar arrival treatment with the president on hand? What was media opinion then? How ironic that the man who is working to end this carnage will be pilloried simply for working on the day the soldiers’ bodies arrived in Manila.

We cannot correctly honor our heroes in anger, for by so doing, we fail to discern who truly grieve with us.

 

If we are angered that the killers of the SAF 44 looted and desecrated the policemen’s bodies by stealing their weapons and clothing we should also be outraged at the effort of the leftists to take advantage of the situation by sowing intrigue in the military and calling for President Aquino to resign. Their call is nothing but rank opportunism and cold hearted cynicism.

 The SAF 44 died for the country, peace and freedom. They did not die for the cause of the marching militants.

Squirrel in our backyard

What a nice surprise to see a squirrel right in our own backyard. When I saw it, I immediately went to my room to get my phone camera but when I got back, the squirrel had moved high up in the mango tree and I could not take a good shot of it anymore.

However after the novelty of seeing it had vanished, I began to wonder how it got there and where it came from. Is it a good thing that we have this new animal in our place? Will it eventually become a pest?

At this time, I saw only one squirrel and I have no answer to my questions. So in the meantime, maybe it is better to just leave that squirrel alone.

Abel possibilities

In a challenge to think of ways to use "inabel" - the traditional hand woven cloth from the Ilocos- aside from the usual blanket or table linen, I came up with these two items:

Puruntong/surfer shorts


Lambag

I support efforts to keep our local crafts alive. But I believe that for the crafts themselves to survive, artisans and their technology must at least try to keep up with the times by innovating and adapting in order to be relevant. It is not enough for mere goodwill and volition to sustain something that has lost its purpose except as curio displays in museums.

44

This is a day of deep grief for the country. Forty four Special Action Force members of the Philippine National Police were killed in Mamasapano, Maguindanao while on a mission to arrest a notorious bomb making terrorist.

It is already a great tragedy that these men had to give up their lives in order to secure peace for our country. But it will be a greater tragedy if we lose our heads all together and allow this incident to lead us to war instead of peace and we confuse revenge for justice.

Huwag kang magnakaw!

Nagkataon lang kaya ito o sadyang nagpapatama ang kung sino man ang naglagay ng karatula sa papasok ng simbahan sa Makati. Paalala ng karatula ang isa sa 10 Utos na huwag magnakaw.

Sa kalapit na kanto naman, at tanaw na rin mula sa simbahan ang Ospital ng Makati na siya ngayong pakay ng imbestigasyon sa Senado kaugnay ng malawakan at nakalululang pandarambong.

Sana lamang ay manaig ang katotohanan dahil gaya nga ng isa pang sinasabi sa 10 Utos, Huwag ka magbibintang ng kasinungalingan sa iyong kapwa.

Para sa akin, ang inaakusahan ay may buong karapatan at tungkulin na ipagtanggol ang sarili at pabulaanan ang mga paratang sa kanya. Ang hindi pagharap sa nag-aakusa ay para na ring pagpapatoo ditto.