Gleaning - Give a new lease of life to your used pencil and stubs

Gleaning - Give a new lease of life to your used pencil and stubs

"... a little ingenuity, a simple expression of beauty, a little act of goodness -   and a little prayer, too."

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog

The art of gleaning extends far and wide, and now with pencils (and capless ballpens) thrown away before their time is up - why not give them another chance?

Simply wrap up, roll over each one a colorful, pliant paper from handouts and color magazines (just like the photos show), and there you have made a beautiful piece of art!

Pencil stubs once more fit for writing - oh, how precious they are to you their savior; they have defied the category of waste for the duration of their second life; 

Like scabbards you sheath an unassuming dagger, saving someone from getting stabbed on the skin or in the eye, in a simple act of  "prevention by protection" principle;

Why didn't the manufacturer think of that? To provide safety caps to pencils before they reach the market, to warning of danger school kids, and grownups too? 

There is meaning in small things, we do -  a bit of economy, a little ingenuity, a simple expression of beauty, a little act of goodness -  and a little prayer.~

LESSON on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

"Cities in the Sky" - Boom or Doom?

134 cities with the most high-rise buildings

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Living with Nature School on Blog

Acknowledgement: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article's factual accuracy is disputed. Please help to ensure that disputed statements are reliably sourced. (October 2013)

Burj Khalifa in Doha, Qatar - soon to be the tallest buildings in the world 

Do you like to live in a high-rise building in a big city?
A self-analysis based on 20 scenarios. 
Dr Abe V Rotor

You would feel you are on top of the world, and in Cloud 9 dreaming, detached from the rest of humanity and the realities of life;

You will be dependent for most of your daily activities on technology, and on hired services and remote control gadgets;

You will not have neighbors in the traditional sense built by natural communities, but by acquaintances and circumstances;

You will be living most likely alone, or with others incidental to your work; your quarters as residence and workplace;

You will learn to tolerate the effects of changing pressure on fast lanes and elevator, but not its ill consequences;

You will learn to defeat fear of living in a high rise building, but unable to erase the worst scenario of an earthquake;

You will be accustomed with locations, directions, floor numbers, hour of the day, yet get disoriented not without embarrassment;   

You will be using credit cards, take advantage of the convenience of e-mails, e-commerce,

e-learning, and the ethic of self-service;

You will not know when the sun rises or sets behind heavy curtain; and aware only of the direction and views your window faces; 

You will learn to live with the danger of possible disaster with worst scenarios depicted in movies, and the 9-11 Twin Tower tragedy;            

You will learn to live without touching the ground much less the garden soil, pick flowers and fruits, sit on the grass, except on occasions; 

You will soon forget what a tobacco plant looks like, if apple mango is a hybrid, how to make kites that fly; if toads also croak;

You will be seeing your doctor now and then for unexplained ailments, and he will tell you the air above the city is stale; it's smog;

You will have to go to the gym to lose weight, avoid fast foods and overeating, and fight off psychological appetite and sedentary living; 

You will find it difficult to tell if your condo, studio, apartment, suite, is truly a home with your family - or just temporary, or for investment; 

You dare not think The Day After Tomorrow is a true story, not even a futuristic one, yet know for certain that cities are the main targets of war; 

You seem to see the world fleeting with The Good Life, frivolous and prosaic, unaware of the passing of seasons, and inevitability of getting old; 

You can hardly trace your roots save immediate relatives because of transience, change of domicile, and acculturation;

You think you have reached the peak of civilization; you can't imagine yourself to be living in Castaway, Robinson Crusoe, Swiss Family Robinson; 

You will keep your faith in the Almighty but feel less attached to organized religion in the light of spiritual enlightenment and freedom; 

You feel you are on top of the world, and in Cloud 9, longing to be part of humanity again, and face the grim realities of life.~

Tallest buildings by comparison

 Tallest buildings in the world in a composite satellite image. It used to be that only the Great Wall of China is the only man made structure that can be seen from the moon with the naked eye. Now the great cities and tall building complexes are a common sight from the moon glowing in the dark space like a star, and beaming with sunlight on a clear day.  

Neo-Tower of Babel - the Two-Mile-High Ultima Tower.  Actually, it's a concept as old as in paleolithic times when humans became really humans some 2.6 million years ago when whole mountains were carved into cave dwellings and communities.  Put them together in a compact scale, and you have the proto-Ultima tower - even higher and wider, cum subterranean and towering superstructures and networkings.  While all these manifest human genius and creativity, the syndrome of the biblical tragedy - the Fall of the Tower of Babel - will always haunt mankind of its vulnerability -  and eventual doom.            

 Hongkong

 Singapore

 New York

 London

This is a list of cities with the most high-rise buildings. 

A high-rise is defined as a structure at least 35 meters (115 ft) or 12 stories tall. Cities with 100 or more high-rise buildings are listed here.

Rank      City             Country          Buildings       Population

1          Hong Kong  Hong Kong       7,896        7,061,200

2          Singapore   Singapore        6,959        5,312,400

3          New York United States      6,504        8,336,897

4          São Paulo  Brazil                6,467       11,316,149

5          Caracas[3] Venezuela        3,864         5,962,259

6          Moscow  Russia                3,754       10,452,000

7          Seoul South Korea             2,955       10,421,782

8          Rio de Janeiro Brazil          2,947         6,161,047

9          Tokyo Japan                     2,779       13,001,279

10        Toronto  Canada                2,511         2,791,140

11        Istanbul Turkey                  2,439       11,372,613

12        Mumbai  India                    2,299       20,748,395

13        Tehran Iran                        2,203       15,828,365

14        Karachi Pakistan                1,942       22,000,000

15        Buenos Aires Argentina      1,870         2,891,082

16        Belo Horizonte Brazil          1,770         2,594,968

17        Kiev Ukraine                      1,531         2,819,566

18        Dhaka Bangladesh             1,521       15,000,000

19        London  United Kingdom     1,478        8,174,000

20        Osaka Japan                     1,463        2,643,805

21        Mexico City Mexico            1,364        8,836,045

22        Delhi  India                        1,347      21,753,486

23        Lahore Pakistan                 1,285     10,500, 000

24        Madrid Spain                     1,227        7,213,271

25        Chicago United States        1,125        2,707,120

26        Bangkok Thailand              1,106         6,653,987

27        Recife Brazil                      1,103        1,549,980

28        Santiago Chile                   1,094        4,985,893

29        Shanghai China                  1,057        9,145,711

30        Campinas Brazil                   931        1,056,644

31        Beijing China                        899       12,746,519

32        Sydney Australia                  845        4,399,722

33        Curitiba Brazil                      800        1,797,408

34        Minsk Belarus                      808        1,830,700

35        Yekaterinburg Russia           792        1,323,000

36        Isfahan Iran                         739        1,908,968

37        Kuala Lumpur Malaysia        725        1,887,674

38        Manila Philippines                778      11,553,427

39        Paris France                        689       2,234,994

40        Porto Alegre  Brazil              674       1,420,667

41        Jakarta Indonesia                 674      9,898,978

42        Los Angeles United States    659       4,234,340

43        Vancouver Canada               638         578,041

44        Mashhad Iran                       635      3,069,941

45        Sofia   Bulgaria                     631      1,404,458

46        Chittagong Bangladesh         630      6,500,000

47        Kolkata India                        627      9,811,265

48        Rawalpindi/Islamabad Pak    625     2, 680, 905

49        Karaj   Iran                          622     1,967,005     
51        Dubai U Arab Emirates         568     2,262,000

52        Macau China                       564     546,200

53        Tabriz Iran                          563     2,276,880

55        Melbourne  Australia            555     4,200,000

56        Chongqing China                  539     6,300,000

57        Kharkiv Ukraine                   522     1,461,000

58        Faisalabad Pakistan            521     2,540,069                                   

60        Guangzhou China                503     7,607,200

61        Wuhan China                      479     4,550,000

62        Montreal Canada                475     1,620,693

63        Barcelona Spain                 463     1,615,908

62        Bangalore India                  462     4,292,223

65        Honolulu United States        439     953,207

66        San Francisco US               417     799,185

67        Ankara Turkey                    416     4,751,360

68        Hyderabad Pakistan           410     3,429,471

69        Lima Perú                          400     8,700,000

69        Multan Pakistan                 396     5,216,268

70        Benidorm Spain                 390     67,627

71        Houston United State         360     2,208,180

72        Shenzhen China                 357     1,245,000

73        Ottawa Canada                351     883,391

74        Rotterdam Netherlands      349     616,248

75        Novosibirsk Russia            348     1,425,508

76        Bogotá Colombia              346     6,776,009

77        Philadelphia US                330     1,449,634

78        Washington  US                330     588,292

79        Berlin Germany                326     3,429,300

80        Bilbao Spain                     302     354,145

81        Santo Domingo Dom Rep  300     2,552,398

82        Málaga Spain                    298       576,725

83        Miami United States          295      424,662

84        Valencia Spain                  292       810,064

85        Tianjin China                     289    11,760,000

86        Brisbane Australia            286     2,115,440

87        Frankfurt Germany           285     670,095

88        Gold Coast City Australia  281     469,214

89        Calgary Canada               260     988,193

90        San Juan Puerto Rico       252     434,374

91        Dallas United States         246     1,266,372

92        Edmonton Canada            244     812,201

93        Boston United States        237     608,352

94        Arlington United States     232     204,568

95        Atlanta United States        231     420,003

96        Valencia Venezuela          229     2,222,549

98        Seattle United States        222     594,210

99        Brussels Belgium              208     1,134,638

100     Auckland New Zealand       205     1,377,200

101     Denver United States          204     588,349

102     Peshawar Pakistan            196     3,307,798

103     Milan  Italy                        196     4,216,268

104     Glasgow United Kingdom   192     662 954

105     Minneapolis  United States 192     377,392

106     Detroit United States          170     916,952

107     Birmingham UK                  166     965 928

108     Burnaby Canada                164     223,218

109     Baltimore United States      159     640,150

110     Pittsburgh United States     151     311,218

111     Miami Beach United States 150     87,925

112     St. Louis United States       150     355,663

113     San Diego United States     149     1,266,731

114     Perth  Australia                  145     1,602,559

115     Manchester UK                  138     2,030,519

116     Fort Lauderdale US            136     183,606

117     Gujranwala Pakistan           136     1,124,799

118     Adelaide Australia               136     1,172,105

119     Las Vegas United States     135     558,880

120     Winnipeg Canada                132     619,544

121     Portland  United States        129     550,396

122     Cincinnati United States       120     752,490

124     Austin United States            119     743,074

125     Leeds United Kingdom         118     715,000

126     London Canada                   116     470,000

127     Wellington New Zealand       116     393,400

128     Milwaukee United States      114     604,477

129     Nashville United States         114     590,807

130     Kansas City United States    112     475,830

131     Cleveland United States        111     438,042

132     New Orleans United States   107     288,113

133     North Sydney Australia         107     61,802

134     Newark United States           100     278,980

NOTE:    Reference has no data for Nos. 50, 54, 123

LESSON on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School on Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio; 738 DZRB 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

Value-added Principle through Recycling

Value-added Principle through Recycling 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Kinds of Recycling

• Biological – Trichoderma, a fungus, to hasten composting
• Enzymatic – Wild sunflower in composting, urea in hay
• Mechanical – Shedding, decortication, grinding
• Fermentation – Silage, retting, biogas digester
• Burning – Rice hull ash, wood
• Combination of two or more of these methods. Ex. Mushroom production, 

   mulching and composting using rice hay

Recycling in Nature
1. Lightning is Nature’s quickest and most efficient converter and recycler, instant manufacturer of nitrates, phosphates, sulfates; it burns anything on its path, recharges ions. Lightning sustains the needs of the biosphere, it is key to biodiversity.

2. Fire is the Nature’s second tool. While fire is indeed destructive, in the long run, fields, grasslands and forests are given new life by it. Fire is a test of survival of the fittest. It is the key to renewal and continuity of life.

3. Volcanoes erupt to recycle the elements from the bowels of the earth to replenish the spent landscape, so with submarine volcanoes that keep the balance of marine ecosystems.

4. The Laws of Nature always prevail with the seasons, weather and climate. They govern the life cycle and alternation of generations of organisms; the food chain, food web, and food pyramid. The same applies to long term phenomena such as Continental Drift and Ice age.

Fruits in season are made into wine and vinegar (rambutan, dragon fruit). 

5. Naturally occurring cycles govern the physical and chemical properties pf the earth’s chemical elements and compounds, principally Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen (CHON), which are essential to life.

6. Nature recycling of organic materials in through the action of microorganisms: bacteria, algae, protists (amoeba, diatoms), fungi, blue green algae. Fibrous materials are broken down by fungi. Other than roughage and fuel, rice hay is used as substrate for mushroom growing. The spent materials decompose easily into organic fertilizer.

 

Algal bloom, natural fertilizer; Azolla, an aquatic fern 

in symbiosis with Anabaena, blue-green alga

Top, clockwise: bacteria attacking  a cell, blue-green alga, amoeba, paramecium.   

7. Recycling in nature through the action of microorganisms: (PHOTOS) bacteria attacking a cell; algal bloom; protists (amoeba, paramecium, blue green algae). Recycling of fibrous materials with fungi. Other than roughage and fuel, rice hay is used as substrate for mushroom growing. The spent materials decomposes easily into organic fertilizer.

8. Recycling by animals also helps in controlling the destructive ones such as the mosquito, which is food of fish, spider and bat.

9. Nature’s nutrient converters. Simple life forms such as lichens, algae, mosses and ferns silently work on inert materials, convert them into nutrients for higher organisms.

Harvesting Sesame. The stalk is used as fuel, and material in composting. 

10. Nature’s recycling with waterways Mekong river in Vietnam, Pasig River in the Philippines, Great Britain, Danube and Rhine in Europe, the Nile, Mississippi, Amazon, Yangtze, Tigris-Euphrates. Rivers, lakes, swamps, basins – they provide many basic needs of man. They are arteries of life, the ecological bridge between the living and the non-living world. It is said that no civilization exists without a river.

Mekong River in Vietnam 

LESSON on former 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 night of Nature's music in a garden*

A night of Nature's music in a garden* 

The garden meets sunrise with fluttering butterflies, so does a garden surrender into the night with an array of concerto and orchestra music, and becomes a place for meditation.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Long horned grasshopper or katydid (Phaneroptera furcifera)

I am introducing two principal singers, the long-horned grasshopper or katydid (Phaneroptera furcifera), and the cricket (Acheta bimaculata), both belonging to a large group, Order Orthoptera, to which grasshoppers are typical members.

Since childhood I have always been fascinated by insect music. Stealthily, I searched for the singer. I found out that these insects are ventriloquists and a slight turn of their wings or bodies would deceive the hunter. And when I succeed and get nearer and nearer to the source of the music, the singer would abruptly stop.

Then I finally succeeded in pinning down with a flashlight the little Caruso in the middle of his performance. He is well hidden behind a leaf, brown to black, compact and sturdy, nearly two inches long, with a long tail and a pair of antennae. His front wings are raised 45 degrees above his abdomen on which the hind wings are folded. This is the cricket’s fiddling position. Now he rubs the two leathery wings against each other in a back and forth motions, a process called stridulation, which inspired man to invent the violin. On closer examination the base of the front wing in lined with a sharp edge to form the scrapper, while the ventral side has a file like ridge, the file, which represents the bow of the violin.

And what about the stereoscopic sound effect? A pair of tympana, which are drum-like organs, found at the base of the front tibia, are actually ears which, together with the raised wings, serve as resonator, sending the sound to as far as a mile away on a still night.

Now let us analyze the music produced - or is it only a sound that is mistaken for some music qualities? The cricket's sound produced by a single stroke called pulse. Each pulse is composed of a number of individual tooth strokes of the scraper and file. Pulse rate is from four to five per second, but on warm summer night the rate becomes faster. Thus, crickets are not only watchdogs (they stop when they sense an intruder), they are also indicators of temperature – and perhaps the coming of bad weather. It is for these reasons, other than their music, that the Chinese and the Japanese love them as pets.

The pulses of cricket are relatively musical; that is, they can usually be assigned a definite pitch, varying from 1,500 to 10,000 hertz, depending on the species. Those of the long-horned grasshopper or katydid are more noise-like; that is, they contain a wide band of frequencies, including clicking and lapsing, and cannot be assigned to a definite pitch. The monotony of its sound must have led to the coining of the insect’s name, katydid-katydid-katydid…

There are three musical pieces the cricket plays. Calling songs are clear crisp, and loud, which, of course, suit the intention. When a female comes around and nudges the singing male, his music becomes soft and romantic, lasting for many minutes to hours, and he forgets his role of warning the presence of an intruder or telling of the coming storm. Anyone who is love-struck is like that, I suppose..

But worse can come all of a sudden. This sentinel falls silent as he takes the bride. And when another suitor is around, this Valentino takes a fighting stance and sings the Bastille, a battle song.

I came across studies on insect music. I began to take interest, imitating it with the violin. It is impossible and the audiospectrogram tells why. You cannot deceive them and break their code of communication. Nature is specific: only the members of the same species understand one another. And no two species can communicate vis-à-vis this auditory means. This is one area in development biology, which has not been fully explored. How did this mechanism of species communication evolve? With computers today, can it be explored as an alternative and safe means of controlling destructive species?

The garden meets sunrise with fluttering butterflies, so does a garden surrender into the night with an array of concerto and orchestra music, and becomes a place for meditation. I say that the music produced by this insect is a sound of peace and praise for life. When the students have gone home and the offices already closed, I usually spend hours waiting for my color-coding time at the SPCQ garden. The chores of the day vanished easily, and I found the evening so relaxing that I did not complain of the traffic on my way home.

The great Charles Darwin himself expressed his deep feelings for these night’s musicians in his book, Cricket at the Hearth. He said, “I love it for the many times I have heard it, and the many thoughts its harmless music has given me.”

 Field cricket (Acheta bimaculata)

Carolus Linneaus, the father of taxonomy, was more affected by these insects. He kept them to send him to sleep. Japanese children delight in collecting crickets, as American children do with fireflies. Caged crickets are sold in shops. In a mall I found a battery-operated cricket in a cage. We are indeed in Computer Age! Poet David McCord laments, “The cricket’s gone. We only hear machinery.”

As for me, I still find peace in the garden with these humble companions in the night. ~

*Written at the former Eco Sanctuary of Saint Paul University QC.
Living with Nature School on Blog
LESSON on former 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

Accelerated Composting with Wild Sunflower

Accelerated Composting with Wild Sunflower

Dr Abe V Rotor

Who would think those shrubs growing on roadsides and wastelands with bright yellow flowers make excellent compost?

Wild sunflower, Tithonia diversifolia. Acknowledgement: Internet

Wild sunflower, Tithonia diversifolia, has been found to contain high nitrogen content, exceeding nearly 6 percent, and not only that, it contains enzymes that hasten decomposition and cut down composting time from three months to just a few weeks. This is why it is an excellent additive in composting rice hay and other farm wastes which have low N content and which normally decompose slowly.

Because of immediate heat buildup and sustained high temperature in the compost pile that the sunflower initiates, weed seeds and harmful microorganisms are sterilized. This cuts down bacteria and yeast responsible in fermentation which causes acidic reaction. Acidic soil locks up, nutrients that are otherwise available for plant use.

With the addition of chopped sunflower in the compost pile, the pH value remains at 7 to 8 (neutral to slightly alkaline), throughout the decomposition period. Under this condition nitrogenous materials are immediately mineralized into ammonium nitrogen (NH4N+) and nitrate (NO3) which are directly absorb by the plants.

These findings highlight the results of a graduate research at the University of Santo Tomas leading to a masteral degree in biological science. Says Luisito Evangelista, the researcher, "accelerated composting is the key to successful production of on-farm organic fertilizer especially in areas where sunflower abounds."

Wild sunflower is also an alternative to Trichodernia activated composting where the fungus inoculant is not readily available. This technology was developed by Dr. Virginia C. Cuevas of the Institute of Biological Sciences at UPLB in which Trichodernia, a cellulose-acting fungus is inoculated in the compost pile.

When the sunflower-activated compost was used on Red Creole onions, yield increased by as much as 20 percent, and the physical quality of the bulbs improved. Other than being bigger, the bulbs are brighter, heavier and more uniform in size. Their neck is well closed and this is important in storage as danger of rotting is reduced.

How can one make his own sunflower compost? Here is how.

1. A well drained area, half shaded if possible, is prepared. Here a compost pile of 2 x 4 meters in dimension, breast high when compact, will be constructed.

2. The raw compost materials are prepared by chopping the rice straw and fresh wild sunflower separately. The ratio by weight of sunflower to rice hay is 3:1. Chicken droppings or animal manure and top soil from the farm are also readied.

3. These materials are piled in the following arrangement: the rice hay makes the first layer, 20 cm thick. On top of it is the chopped sunflower, followed by manure and soil.

4. A second set of layers is made on top of the first, compacting the pile as the process is repeated. The pile should not be higher than 1.5 meters for convenience in watering and turning over.

5. Aeration tubes made of bamboo are planted vertically into the pile 50 cm apart. The tubes are made by partly opening the nodes, outside and inside to allow air to enter and heat to rise.

6. Temperature is monitored with a thermometer inserted through the tubes. Heat is expected to increase immediately reaching its peak for two weeks before it gradually declines.

7. Watering should be just sufficient to maintain a moisture content of 60 to 70 percent. Plastic or sacks are used to cover the pile to protect it from rain and to help conserve the heat generated.

8. As decomposition progresses the pile will shrink, and temperature will soon equal to that of the surroundings. After three to four weeks the compost is "ripe". To facilitate, the pile is turned once or twice before harvesting it.

9. Temperature is monitored with a thermometer inserted through the tubes. Heat is expected to increase immediately reaching its peak for two weeks before it gradually declines.

10. Watering should be just sufficient to maintain a moisture content of 60 to 70 percent. Plastic or sacks are used to cover the pile to protect it from rain and to help conserve the heat generated.

As decomposition progresses the pile will shrink, and temperature will soon equal to that of the surroundings. After three to four weeks the compost is "ripe". To facilitate, the pile is turned once or twice before harvesting it.

To know if the compost can now be used, here are the indicators.

• There is no foul odor emitted by the pile.
• Temperature has gone down to the same as that of the surrounding area.
• The original substrates are no longer recognizable.
• The color is dark, loamy and soft to touch.

Composting is a bio-oxidative process which results in the production of stable organic product that contributes directly to soil conditioning and fertility. In many books it is called mineralization, that is, the breaking down of organic compounds into their elemental forms and as they settle down in the compost or in the soil as may be the case, become available to plants. This is particularly true with nitrogen. This is nature's way of recycling chemical compounds, from organic to inorganic form, and vice versa.

Composting rice hay alone is not advisable as it has low C:N ratio. This is the reason farmers seldom convert rice hay - and also corn stover - into compost but would rather have other uses, such as roughage, if not burn them. The addition of sunflower, manure and topsoil brings the C:N closer (30:40) in order to increase the plant nutrient value of the compost while accelerating the rate of decomposition. Maintaining moisture content at 60 to 70 percent and temperature at 50 degrees centigrade in the initial two weeks, the pH levels stabilize between 6 to 8 which is favorable to both biological and chemical reactions taking place.

Start making your own compost with wild sunflower. You will find it highly advantageous over conventional methods. Composting is safe to health and the environment, and has many its socio-economic benefits.~