My five quarantine re-read list

1. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - Yuval Noah Harari

2. Homo Deus - Yuval Harari

3. The Wisest One in the Room -Thomas Gilovich and Lee Ross

4. god is not Great - Christopher Hitchens

5. Mind and Brain - Angus Gellatly and Oscar Zarate

I usually do not read books that I have read before. But owing to this long quarantine, I found myself picking up past books that I have read and the above list are those which I found myself picking up rereading the most. 

Yuval Noah Harari is currently my favorite writer. His insights on humanity, our prospect and our future are not just thought provoking but for me, they are a useful guide to living a meaningful life at our specific stage of evolution.

With the disturbing  rise of leaders with autocratic, even despotic tendencies aided by fake news, there is Harari's observation which I would like to quote and share: In the past, censorship works by blocking the flow of information. In the twenty-first century censorship works by flooding people with irrelevant information....In the past, having power means having access to data. Today, having power means knowing what to ignore".

I do not know what other people will make of this, but I completely agree with him.

Thoughts on the franchise renewal woes of ABS CBN

It is outrageous that we can allow politicians to toy with the life of media company. But yes we do. And so here we are, witnesses to the sadistic and ugly torture that ABS-CBN is subjected to by politicians before it is permanently snuffed off the air.

There may be legislative hearings and airing of grievances to justify the travails imposed on ABS CBN. But all that is just drama....

Duterte has spoken. He said he will see to it that "ABS CBN is out" and he suggests that the owners just sell their company. End of story. From here, the minions take over and regale the public with political pornography in gleeful obedience to  their principal's will.

There are many issues and accusations being thrown to justify not renewing the franchise of ABS CBN. But all these are spurious and the company has answered them all. The real issue is simply confiscation of  private property. It is wrong. It is immoral. It is a sick and repugnant display of abuse of power.

Lessons learned from stem cutting propagation of bougainvillea

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Contain, Detect, Isolate ...the virus

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Double mask

idea one meter by one meter cloth

Reasons why we can hope in the face of COVID19

COVID19 maybe invisible but it is not totally unknown. We do not have to fear it. We just have to know as much about it as we can.

We know that it is a virus that mainly attacks our respiratory system. At the moment there is no effective vaccine or established cure against it. However, there are promising studies that suggests that certain drugs and substances can stop it from replicating in our body.

In case the virus gets a foothold in our body, it is our immune system that will have to deal with it. But we are not helpless. Fortunately, there are measures we can take to build up and strengthen our immune system. Taking vitamin C, D plus zinc supplements, getting adequate sleep and moderate sun are measures we can take. Other interventions are plasma infusion from recovered patients and with doctor's advise, even saline irrigation of nasal.

It has also been observed that other vaccines like that for tuberculosis can confer some kind of immunity or better resistance to this virus. The Philippines is one country where there was a wide campaign for anti tb vaccine and this may now work again in favor for many of us who received this vaccine.

PPP Prevention, Protection, Prophylaxis vs Wuhan CV19

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Enhanced Community Quarantine -Day 1

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Experiment with water rooting and cluster planting

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