Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Town's Hall of Fame: local heroes of San Juan, La Union - Dionisio De Leon, Regino Padua, et al

"Just a passing breeze of change they brought,
More than we ordinary mortals have thought." avr

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio

738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday
A
 Town's Hall of Fame: local heroes of San Juan,
La Union - Dionisio De Leon, Regino Padua, et al

All the world's a stage, Shakespeare once said,
Everyone has a role to play, yes everyone;
But others did a greater part for which they died
Sans dream of fame, comfort they had none;
And to be remembered? They never aspired.
Just a passing breeze of change they brought,
More than we ordinary mortals have thought.~

Light from the Old Arch 2, AVR

Sunday, September 21, 2014

BLOG (Web Log) as Learning Supplement: Living with Nature - School on Blog

Dr. Abe V. Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

Why School on Blog? 20 Reasons
1.Compensates for disruption of classes due to typhoons, floods, other force majeure, and 2. Unexpected suspension of classes;
3. To cope up with holidays on schooldays;
4. Facilitates learning process;
5. Assists irregular students and those with class deficiencies

6.Study-friendly to working students.
7.Provides makeup for missed requirements.
8. Avenue for special assignment for students on travel,
9. Students attending conferences, athletic events, etc.
10. Provides alternative teaching for indisposed professors, and those with pressing appointments.


11. Compensates for lack of books and references; expands sources of information,
12. Supplements lost or damaged notes.
13. Creates Multiplier Effect to family and friends.
14. Keeps student abreast with current events, hones their perception on global scale.
15. Digs into past lessons .
16. Encourages research as study ethic.
17. Provides means to test and evaluate lessons through general readership.
18. Provides wider access to various fields of study;
19. Establishes interdisciplinary linkages, and linkages with various systems through the Internet;
20. Provides quick and responsive communication between teacher and students.


What is a Blog? 10 Applications
1.School in your palm (Tablet, Notebook, iPod, smart phone)
2.School-outside-school
3.Extension of the classroom
4.Distance education
5.e-Learning          



From The Gods Must be Crazy 

6.Home education
7.Self-learning program
8.Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid Cyber Version
9. Learning hobby
10. Link with Facebook, Twitter, other websites 


Coverage and Dimension of the Blog 
1. Blogosphere - collective community of all blogs, A collection of local blogs is sometimes referred to as a bloghood. 

2. They are interconnected and socially networked, through blogrolls, comments,
linkbacks (refbacks, trackbacks or pingbacks) and backlinks.

Living with Nature – School on Blog Linkages
1. Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People’s School-on-Air)
2. Classroom instruction (UST Graduate School and Faculty of Arts and Letters, other schools)

Managing Editor Cles Rambaud with author at the Bannawag office 

3. Popular writing (Bannawag, leading Ilokano weekly magazine, as columnist )
4. Dialogue with followers and viewers through the Comments Box (Interactive)
5. Conference lecture, outreach project, thesis, and the like.

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Goya's Paradox of Human Life

Dr Abe V Rotor 
Living with Nature School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

Goya's painting of two men clubbing each other while
being swallowed by quagmire to their inevitable death.


If there is Plato's Allegory of the Cave - a man escapes and sees the truth and that it is his obligation to lead others to get out of the cave of ignorance;

If there is Thoreau's Walden Pond that man's isolation from society is realization of his inseparability, however principled he may be;

If there is Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo that tells at the end the emptiness of the soul, triumphant one may have revenged on his enemies;

If there is Burnett's Secret Garden that has long been forgotten and that having the courage to open it is discovering the joys of the past and starting a new life.

If there is Picasso's Guernica mural, symbolic of peace triumphant over war, coded secretly to carry on the message in novels, sculpture, movies, photographs, etc., to this day;

If there is Rizal's Noli and Fili denouncing abuses of colonial masters, demanding reform and equitable governance, and inevitably igniting the flame of revolution as the ultimate recourse;

If there is Goya's Two Men Fighting in a Quicksand, exuding strong and direct message to warring nations, that no one wins at the end, mankind ultimately the loser;

It is art - the brush and the pen - that has really changed the world - and is still changing it. ~

Francisco Goya (1746-1828), Spanish painter, is considered "the Father of Modern Art." His career began at the close of the late Baroque period, and the rise of Gothic art, extending over a period of more than 60 years, for he continued to draw and paint until his 82nd year.

To understand Goya's paintings, it is equally important to know the life of painter. Three stages marked his long active life.
  • His attitude towards life in his youth, when he accepted the world as it was quite happily,
  • His manhood when he began to criticize it, and
  • His old age when he became embittered and disillusioned with people and society.
The world had changed completely during his lifetime. He saw the society in which he achieved great success dissolved during the Napoleonic war, so that he turned to new ideals, as reflected in this painting of two men clubbing each other while being swallowed by quicksand.


UST-AB Photography: How lonely can you get?

Photos by Abe V Rotor and Marlo R Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

Ranch, Santa, Ilocos Sur
Farm, Silang Cavite
Empty Beach, Calatagan Batangas
Broken Bridge, SPC Vigil House, Antipolo Rizal
Empty Bench, St Paul University QC

St Paul of Chartres Memorial Park, Antipolo Rizal


Activity: Rank the photos in increasing order of intensity. Express your feelings by writing a verse or a short essay for each photo. You will find this exercise a pleasant experience: firstly, it takes you to explore your talents; and secondly, it is therapeutic. Above all, you will find a great reward - peace of mind and with the world. Good luck!


Ballpen War!

Refill, give your spent ballpen a second or third life. 
Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday



Tips to win the war 

1. Refill, give your spent ballpen a second or third life.
2. Be consistent with the ballpen you use to enhance your penmanship and writing skill.
3. Pick one for function, rather than fancy.
4. Buy the brand who have already tried (nakasanayan), with an extra filler (that fits).
5. As much as possible, don't buy the expensive brands, otherwise you will depend exclusively on their refills.
6. Suspect if the cost is very low. Most likely it is a promo, a throw away.
7. Dispose ballpens you are not using before they get dry. Never mind the sentimental value; they are for friends and the needy.
8. Your ballpen is personal, as much as possible don't let others use it. Put your name for identification. Like any belonging give its due care.
9. Ballpens have been the culprit of damaged clothes (and embarrassment), ugly marks, poor grades, frustrations, and even in quarrels and fights. Keep dignified.
10.Talk to your teachers. Include in your recycling project "giving a new life to ballpens." Write your local leaders to promote this campaign. Don't patronize brands that are not cooperative.
Rage against the ballpen  


Rage against the ballpen -
overbuilt with very little bullet,
body plastic carcinogenic,
spills and blots, cheap unwashable ink,
signatures, trademarks makers' gimmick,
obsolescence hidden from public.

Rage against the ballpen -
craftsmanship appeals emotion,
far deserving its noble function;
remote from once building a nation
mightier than the sword that it was born,
greed has taken over - sad, forlorn,

Rage against the ballpen
no more the names that carried its name
death sans laurels beaten in the game,
save the pioneers of yester fame;
aloft, but to save their dying name,
instead of joining the ballpen campaign.

Rage against the ballpen
refill for second life, third maybe,
refill at large, one or two or three,
with brand or without, or given free,
for the children's thrift and study
to save the earth, and prayer for Thee.~

       

Author's collection. I have preserved these pens - and more. I have always looked to the time when I can revive them, give them a second or third life by refilling each one with the appropriate type. 

I succeeded in some. But my collection is increasing because there is no standard refill in the market, and the life of ballpens are getting shorter. Lose the cap and you lose the pen. One accidental drop destroys the ball point - goodbye to the ballpen, even if it's a new one. 

 A waste of money indeed, these retired pens and ball pens before their time. While millions of schoolchildren all over the world have nothing to write at all. Let's join the campaign. We will prevail in the same way we survived in the "Cola War," and the
"Shampoo War.
"

Things to do.

1. Pool spent and discarded ballpens in the family, in school, in the community.

2. Arrange with a supplier of ball pen refills. Involve members, organizations.

3. Sustain campaign on calendared events: Earth Day, Ecology Week, or without fanfare. Hold a contest.

4. Make your own ball pen with bamboo reed, rolled paper, and other environment friendly materials. All you need to buy is the filler. Give prizes, appreciation.

5. Shift to ink pen instead, it's more economical. A bottle of ink may be equivalent to writing output of dozens of disposable ball pens. ~

UST-AB Photography in Advertisement Exercise in Photography in Advertisement

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature - School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday [www.pbs.gov.ph]
Example of a good advertisement.
One of the worst ads.

The relationship of photography and advertisement is like horse and carriage. Photography is the medium and advertisement is the message (to patronize a product, service, idea, etc.)

Advertisements in print and broadcast create demand of many products and services. There are brand names that are well known, they are imprimatur themselves to many people. They build personalities, fashion, institutions, relationships, and even loyalty.

There is more than visual and audio parts; advertisements dig deep into logic, psychology and emotion, and spiritually, too. For this reason, the effects are both positive and negative.

The purpose of this exercise is to evaluate present advertisements: printed, billboard, radio, TV and the Internet. The main guideline is values.List down the best (5) and the worst (5) local advertisements and give the basis of your decision. How did photography help bring about such effects?

Present the advertisements as they are originally presented. If not feasible, briefly describe the advertisement and critique on it. (Use two ordinary bond.) ~

Part 2: Photo and graphic ads. Here are some examples. Study them and relate each one to current issues. Prepare similar ads for class presentation and discussion.



Part 3: All about smoking - good and bad. More and more young people develop the habit of smoking. On TV there is this chain smoker kid who would demand cigarette with tantrums. Doctors unanimously agree smoking is bad to health, yet cigarette is one of the most in demand commodities in the world. What's the role of advertising?Whatever this is, it is devoid of good taste and decency. Many products lose their market this way. 
There's a local brandy advertised this way, "Nakatikim ka na ba ng kinse?" (Literally, "Have you tasted a 15-year old?") Sales plummeted. The company lost its good public image.

Birds on a Tree at UST

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday


Silhouette image before its time -

by the tower cross of UST,
a flock of black birds sit
on the inflorescence of a tree,*

namesake of the eight-arm
monster of the craggy sea -
what a coincidence, I say! 
and there's me 

with camera on campus free;
the feathered ones stalk
their prey, the bee
pollinating the flowering tree. 

I wonder, if by design one dies
that others live, is the key:
tree lives because of the bee,
bee on the nectar of the tree.

and the birds, black birds,
that free, to prey on the bee,
unafraid of the monster
that rose from the sea -

image in silhouette, the world
in peace unquestioningly see,
lessons to set man free
by the tower cross of UST.
~ ~ ~
Octopus tree, named after its unique inflorescence resembling the enigmatic sea creature, with the same color, radial symmetry, and the presence of sucker-like flowers arranged on eight tentacle-like flower stalks.

Friday, September 19, 2014

The Eyes of Nature

"Many eyes are looking at me
here with Nature,
by day and night 
beneath and atop a tree." - avr

Painting and Poem by Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday
 Eyes in the Forest, acrylic painting on canvas (60" x 44"), by AVR, May 2012
Details: Young adventurers in full gear prepare to penetrate the forest; emergent tree rises to a hundred feet surpassing the canopy layer. A nest is perched on the top, with a mother hawk attending to her young.
A pair of deer, a coiled boa, and many more hidden and camouflaged. Trees are real giants of the living world. This Dipterocarp is tallest tree in the Tropical Rain Forest. 

The Eyes of Nature
Many eyes are looking at me here with Nature;
By day and night, beneath and atop a tree.
They're scary, they're mean, they're sleepy, 
And how do I look to them seeing me?

Wink and they wink, close and they do, too.
Quick the flashlight, and they disappear;
Can eyes exist alone, like stars in the sky?
I wonder if these eyes are like stars to cheer.  

Yes, the fireflies have lamps that flicker,
The moth and butterfly have wing spots
Like monstrous eyes to stave off predator,
And cave dwellers glow in rows and knots. 

The fish in the stream is silver in the moonlight,
As bubbles rise to the surface and sparkle,
The owl rarely blinks, no creature dare around,
Its infrared vision indeed a marvel.

Raindrops falling make a thousand eyes
Life they bring to the rainbow, borrowing
its colors glow, and sparkle as they drop,
reborn with the light of the river flowing. 

Mushrooms are phosphorescent, they glow,
while others absorb light for future use; 
Ah, boast the snake, I can freeze you to fall,
An eagle swoops, there's no excuse.

Petals attract a pollinator in the night
Crickets shine when won by a song,
Seeds pop out to meet the rising sun,
And the sun shines happily all along. 

Eyes, eyes, eyes, - for us to see the world, 
And all eyes the world is bound;
In our sleep, in the deep forest and ocean,
Eyes make the world go round. ~

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

UST-AB Photography: Photo editing with light and color tone. And reminder of your Photo Essay UST Arch of the Centuries.

Photo Editing exercise: Practice using Adobe Photoshop. Use one of your best shots of UST Arch of the Centuries. Convert it into sunrise, sunset setting, and black and white, all on one bond. Don't forget caption. This is in addition to the Photo Essay test-assignment. For submission on Thursday, September 18, 2014 
 Note: There are photo essays in this Blog which serve as model for your work, one of them is Lichens and Mosses ... (preceding article). Others: Bacarra Bell Tower. Quaintness of Living in Virac Catanduanes,  
Dr Abe V Rotor*
Living with Nature School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday
Effect of Black & White
Splash of light in two tones.
Effect of bluish and golden tones 

Lighting's magic creates various moods, 
enigma and secret combined,  
weaves a veil beauty is hidden yet seen
through the keyhole of the mind. 

* Author is a professor in digital photography and photojournalism.  
Model is a coed in Communication Arts, UST Faculty of Arts and Letters

Lichens and Mosses are Nature's Indicator of a Healthy Environment


The Greater Lagro Gazette 
(For Vol. 7 No. 2, July to August 2014)
Special Report: Living with Nature


Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class Monday to Friday


Ecologists are learning from lichens and mosses as natural indicators, a sort of barometer, of environmental conditions.  They thrive best where the air is clean; temperature change is moderate, so with relative humidity, the vegetative cover undisturbed, the rivers and lakes full. From various observations and scientific researches, it is believed that lichens and mosses and their kind thrive best where man's intervention is least – or none at all.  
        
Top photo: Country lass poses with living specimens of lichens and mosses growing on ilang-ilang tree. Lower left photo: A closeup of lichens and mosses around a cast skin (exoskeleton) of cicada (kuliglig) which has just emerged. Right: A lichen-bryophyte complex found on cycad. Its species composition is unknown. It is a good subject of study. All these organisms are biological indicators of a good environment in Greater Lagro. They are Nature’s barometer of good climate and clean air.  

The Lichens – Earliest and longest known model of symbiosis  

A lichen is a group of two distinct genera of different kingdoms in the phylogeny of living organisms - alga (Kingdom Protista) and fungus (Kingdom Mycophyta) or in other cases bluegreen (Cyanophyta, Kingdom Monera) - living inseparably, a relationship developed through millions of years of evolution.  

Instead of each member developing its own adaptation, the two joined forces so to speak, in order for both to survive.  It is a perfect example of evolution through
cooperation, instead of competition as in most cases of evolutionary success.

The alga being photosynthetic manufactures food which it shares with the fungus.  The fungus on the other hand, being saprophytic, converts organic matter back into elemental forms which the alga again uses. Such a relationship consists of an enduring cycle - season in season out, year in year out, covering a span of hundreds if not a thousand years. Such a feat is among the wonders of the living world. If the
Redwood or Sequioa is the longest living individual which is estimated to be up to three thousands years, the lichen is the longest living union (mutualism). 

The key to such success through mutualism lies not only in highly efficient nutrient exchange, but gas exchange principally CO2 and O2, as well, more so, for their ability to transform rocks into living mass which they share with other living things in their own time and in the future. They are the precursors of succession in the living world. Which points out to another evolutionary tool - benevolence - the sharing of resources albeit destructive competition. 

Yet lichens are found in the most difficult areas like the Arctic and desert, on rock cliffs, even dilapidated and abandoned structures. Their resistance as well as vulnerability to changing environment has led scientists to use the lichen not only as environmental  indicator, but as pioneer organisms of a young ecosystem. 
How do you rate the place you are living in?

Left, crustose lichen; foliose lichen (leaf-like)


Young colony of squamous-foliose type of lichen on the trunk on acacia. Note its spreading and coalescing growth that will soon carpet a large area. Lichen is a closely knit association of algae and fungi in a state of symbiosis.


Fruticose lichen (right) hangs on  tree trunk. In spite of its epiphytic nature it does not harm its host because it is not parasitic. It shares however with the water and nutrients collected by the tree from rain and dust, as well as from the gradual wearing out of the bark tissues. 


Leave Nature Alone There is a simple old man living a hermit’s life close to the summit of Mt Pulag in Benguet.  It is reminiscent of the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau who lived by a pond (Walden Pond) deep in a woodland far away from town. Here on the country's second highest mountain, 'Tang Ben, when asked on how Nature is kept pristine, simply quipped with confidence and sparkle in his eyes. "Just leave Nature alone."  ~   
---------------------------------------
Lichens are indicators of clean air, in the order of increasing pristine condition: crustose, foliose, fruiticose.  How do you rate the place you are living in?

--------------------------------------------------------It has been estimated that 6% of the Earth's land surface is covered by lichen. Lichens are informally classified by growth form into:

· crustose (paint-like, flat), e.g., Caloplaca flavescens
· filamentous (hair-like), e.g., Ephebe lanata
· foliose (leafy), e.g., Hypogymnia physodes
· fruticose (branched), e.g., Cladonia evansii, C. subtenuis, and Usnea australis
· leprose (powdery), e.g., Lepraria incana
· squamulose (consisting of small scale-like structures, lacking a lower cortex), 
                      e.g., Normandina pulchella
· gelatinous lichens, in which the cyanobacteria produce a polysaccharide that absorbs  and retains water.
-----------------------------------------------------------

Bryophytes, Bridge of Evolution in the Plant Kingdom.


“Ah, but what good is a rock when it loses the essence on which life arises?”  avr
 
Imagine a lowly moss as a tree, and a liverwort as a large green carpet shaped like a liver. A hornwort has pinnacles in Gothic style. It is when you are small that you see small things big, and big things present themselves as giants.

Bryophytes are the dwarves of the plant kingdom, while the true or vascular plants are the giants. Mosses and liverworts are the early forms of plants, which botanists believe to have stopped evolving. What they were millions of years ago are what they appear today. They are living fossils.Observe a piece of rock covered with bryophytes. Under the magnifying lens you are looking at a miniature forest. It is thick and every space is taken by structures that look like stalks, leaves and other parts. On closer look these are not true organs because they lack vascular tissues, which in higher plants are for conduction of water and food and in providing support to the plant.

Since bryophytes are short-lived and seasonal, the soil deposit becomes thicker in each generation, while the borders extend to new frontiers. Soon whole trunks of tree, walls and rocks become covered like green carpet. As the bryophyte community reaches its peak and climax, more and more organisms become dependent on it. Insects frequent the place as a hunting ground for their prey. In turn predators of insects like amphibians and reptiles follow, then birds of prey – and a food web is formed.

Close-up of moss growing on a tree trunk. 

Feel the softness of a carpet of mosses on the wall or rock. It is thick and spongy. Now this is important because when it rains the carpet absorbs and stores water. In the night and in the morning dew precipitates and settles down making the surroundings cool.

Months, years pass. New plants rise out in the middle of the carpet. You are witnessing plant invasion. Soon the bryophytes will lose their dominance to ferns, and ferns to tracheophytes - annuals, biennials and trees. This is how an ecosystem is made together with its biodiversity.  This is how the La Mesa reservoir complex was made through thousands of years – a part of which is Lagro, the community in which we live today.

“What good is rock when it loses the essence from which life rises?”  Ask the lichen and the moss,  et al. ~

Luxuriant growth of moss; close-up of dewdrops clinging on moss.  



Two common bryophytes, liverwort (left) and moss in their reproductive stages. Bryophytes make a carpet of soil which is actually a combination of organic matter and minerals from weathered rock surface. Bryophytes produce acidic substances that break down compounds of calcium, phosphates and other materials. Through time with the process continuously repeated, soil builds up to the advantage of invading plants. A prototype ecosystem arises with the lichens and bryophytes taking the back seat. Biologist, Dr Anselmo S Cabigan examines lichens and brophytes growing on trees.