Living with Nature - School on Blog by Dr. Abercio V. Rotor

Mystery of the Hidden Figures on St Paul Mural

2012-02-18T21:17:00.000-08:00

Dr Abe V Rotor

Mystery of the Hidden Figures on St Paul Mural

St Paul, a former Roman general, before he became saint, falls from his horse on Damascus Road, and heard a voice, "Saul, Saul why do you persecute me?" Mural painting the size of two plywood boards (8ft by 8 ft), 1995.

This mural is the most popular of seven murals of the former St Paul University QC museum. It was removed (together with the other murals) from the museum after 15 years of controlled atmospheric condition and strict museum rules.

In its present location the mural has shown signs of deterioration from sudden change in temperature and relative humidity, more so to damage by molds, insects and other vermin, including humans, force majeure notwithstanding.

But there is something mysterious appearing of the mural since it was transferred from its original home.

I was surprised at what I saw early this month. I took photos of the mural which revealed the details which I did not intend to include when I painted it in 1994. What are these figures? Have they been there before incipiently, and that it is only now that they are being noticeably expressed? What have the damp air and fungi to do with the figures? Or dirt and uncontrolled lighting?

I prayed hard on my knees before the sacred icon:

I am deeply sorry for abandoning you after fifteen years of companionship at the museum.
I know you understand, I am now very old, I cannot take care of you anymore.
I can no longer climb the scaffolding to wipe off the dust and grime, and let Heaven always shine.
I have lost the fine art of painting, my sight cannot put back your colors and holy expression.
I can only visit you once in a while - until I am gone; just don't die in the cold, on another Damascus Road - unknown, forgotten.

Could this be the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Paul (right) talking. The mother of Christ must be indeed very thankful to Paul who died for the sake of her Son and His church.

It's a colored man's profile found at the upper left corner of the mural. Isn't God the Father often represented as a colored person? (Examples: the movies Evan, the Almighty, and God)
Note the rays of light emanating from the corner, creating a mysterious veil on figure.
Red heart. I never saw it before as red as it is now - 15 years after. I painted St Paul's heart, red all right, radiating from an inner source. It has lost that radiance, I can feel the pain in his heart.

This is another version of the Blessed Mother: she is holding baby Jesus tenderly on her breast - indeed a symbol of sacredness in mother-child relationship.

It's a dove. White dove. But how far, how faint! How difficult it is to realize. Not a plane. It is peace this world longs for. Peace is the primordial message of God.

Closeup. The paint I used is acrylic. I used marine plywood, twice thicker than the standard. Although I coated it with latex primer, the wood absorbs moisture from high humidity especially during the rainy season. The paint is starting to crack and scale off due to shrinking and expansion caused by alternate hot and cool air, dampness and sudden gust of wind.

Let me continue to pray to you, dear St Paul, in my simple and humble way.

I did not create your image; an unseen hand just guided the paintbrush and colors in my hand,
and guided me to paint other murals as well, which I never attempted before.

I was visited by a kindly nun while I was up on the scaffolding painting in an unholy hour; I came to know there were others who died on the campus during the war; I lived among their spirits.

I am blessed. I was not afraid. I saw them at the corner of my eyes passing, sitting.
On opening the museum I greeted them and bid them on leaving, how happy they were,
so I imagined. Three nuns kept the museum - when I wasn't around, and at night.

Pilgrims would come, prominent ones, infirmed, well-wishers. Why the museum was always alive! Workshops, stage play, poetry reading, poster making, temporary laboratory and classroom with construction work going on. It was refuge.

I did not create your image - I only tried to make a symbol of your martyrdom, and of your teachings. A self-taught painter I am, yet you trusted me, you chose me to be your disciple,
to bring to you the sick and lonely, and you made them well; those facing the uncertainty
of the future - examination, business, family - you made me to take them to you. And you rewarded them.

You trusted me as guardian to the young. Above everything, to trust myself of your trust.

I am deeply sorry for abandoning you after fifteen years of companionship at the museum.
I know you understand, I am now very old, I cannot take care of you anymore.
I can no longer climb the scaffolding to wipe off the dust and grime, and let Heaven always shine.
I have lost the fine art of painting, my sight cannot put back your colors and holy expression.
I can only visit you once in a while - until I am gone; just don't die in the cold, on another Damascus Road - unknown, forgotten. ~

Alternative Energy Sources

2012-02-18T03:20:00.000-08:00

Abe V RotorModern wind turbines (windmills), Bangui, Ilocos Norte
Potential Small Water Impounding Project (SWIP) to produce hydroelectric needs of a community .

Potential energy from garbage dump by incineration and composting, Payatas, QC

Here is a short list of renewable energy sources in response to queries on how to cope up with the crisis of dwindling supply and soaring price of fossil fuel.

1. Wind power farm, re-inventing the Dutch windmill (Remember the novel, Don Quijote, Man from La Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes?), farm type wind mills to generate electricity and pump ground water. Wind turbine generators (WTGs)- In Bangui, Ilocos Norte, there are 20 modern WTGs.

2. Ethanol from sugarcane, sugar beets and root crops (cassava) – There is a debate on the wisdom of converting food into fuel, focusing on the scarcity of human food in developing countries. There is also displacement of the other uses of these crops in industry.

3. Biogas: home type (China and India models), farm model (Madamba Maya Farms), community (energy from garbage), commercial types, mainly methane.

4. Composting – production of organic fertilizer, soil conditioners.

5. Solar energy: reflected light (mirror concentrator), desalination, direct drying, solar panels, solar battery/cell, Ex. Telephones tap power of sun, solar car (Sunraycer GM crossed Australia on a desert route at ave 24 miles per hour

6. Fire in the Earth: geothermal energy; hot rocks. Water is pump to a depth up to two miles (Britain), circulates in crack, becomes hot up to 200 centigrade and comes through a borehole which then turns a turbine. Anglo-French link Old Red Sandstone 76 centigrade hot enough to heat buildings. Trapping volcanic heat. Hot water in island, Los Baños.

7. New sails for sea vessels (Back to the time of sailing ships.

8. Surging energy of the sea: waves, tides, heat content, salty water itself, ocean currents.
(gully wave generator, wave power, OTEC Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion, CLAM – British wave pressure system, Japanese osmosis system at estuaries. .

9. Biodegradable plastics for biogas and compost production

10. Firewood as product of farming firewood crops such as kakawate, aroma (kandaroma Ilk), ipil-ipil.

Overall conclusion and recommendation: Less is More

Spanish system of volumetric measurement in the Philippines

2012-02-16T18:31:00.000-08:00

Dama Juana, early glass jar was introduced
by the Spaniards mainly for wine, like basi
(Ilocos Wine). It is approximately 5 gallons.

Abe V Rotor

The Spaniards introduced into the Philippines a practical system of volume (in lieu of weight) measurement which we used for almost 400 years. Some of them are still being used today.

This system applies mainly to agricultural crops - rice, corn, mungo, muscovado sugar, sesame, beans, flour of rice, corn and cassava, and the like. It is also used in measuring fish and fish products like ipon (dulong), dilis (dried anchovies), salt, suso (snail), padas (fry of samaral fish) and other small fishes.

The system consists of the following units, systematically patterned as follows:

cavan
ganta (or salop)
litro
chupa.
gantilla

There are six chupa in a ganta, twenty-five ganta to make a cavan. There is also litro, equivalent to four chupa, and gantilla, eight of which is equivalent to one ganta. Except for the cavan which is made of jute sack, these measuring tools is made of wood having the same dimension on all sides and bottom.

Spain did not invent this system; it evolved in early Europe and Middle East, which in turn was introduced into the Philippines. Remember the story of Alibaba in One-Thousand-and-One Arabian Nights? The story tells how Alibaba's brother came to know of his secret of having found a treasure. A gold coin stuck at the bottom of a ganta!

How accurate is the system?

I remember old folks saying, it depends if you have "light hands" - meaning when measuring, say rice, pour the rice lightly into the ganta and run a lever quickly across its top to level it, so fast and light, it's like a sleight of the hand. The idea is to avoid compressing the content.

As a kid I tried the technique. It's true. Test it by measuring the commodity, compact it by tapping the ganta real hard on a solid surface. You will notice how the content "shrinks." That's how much you gain having the gift of "light hand". Which to some people is like having a Green Thumb.

But here is a malpractice of vendors. Place your thumb as deep as possible into the container, and while filling it up, discreetly elevate your thumb to create a space inside. This is done on commodities you don't have to use the level, like ipon, monamon, ariyawyaw, sapsap, padas - and other kinds of small fish. But culprits can't escape the watchful eyes of experienced customers.

The Spanish volumetric system was popularly adopted during the whole Spanish period in the Philippines, extending to the Commonwealth era and thereafter,. It was phased out only recently with the introduction of the international Metric System.

However, we still use cavan today, now standardized to 5o kgs in weight. Fish is sold wholesale inbañera, fruits like mango are packed in tiklis, tomatoes and pomelo oranges in standard size wooden boxes. There are still ganta and chupa used in the market, and Filipinos being innovative, have alternative measurements duplicating the obsolete volumetric system. Del Monte can is approximately one ganta, sardine can for chupa, table glass for gantilla.

A dozen of eggs, please. Isang piling (sapad Ilk) na saging. Pinch of salt. Isang dakot na bigas. One cup of milk. A flock of sheep. A truck of gravel. One light year is 186,000 miles per second. Micron is one-millionth of a mete. How about nanometer? Megapixel?

Indeed measurements have evolved a long, long way. ~

Some Indigenous Measurements

2012-02-16T18:29:00.001-08:00

Abe V Rotor

There is nothing new in old folks' measurement. The length of the outstretched arms, fingertip to fingertip, is equivalent to the height of the person, according to the classical drawing Leonardo da Vinci in the 15th century. Is this true? What don’t you try it on yourself?

Here are some practical means of measurement by old folks, can you add to this list?.

The least shadow you make while standing, the closer it is to noontime. Old folks estimate other hours of the day by the angle of the sun and their shadows.

A child is ready for school if he can touch his opposite ear without tilting his head.

Dipa’ – the length covered from fingertip to fingertip with both arms fully stretched.

Dangkal – distance from tip of thumb to tip of forefinger, or middle finger.

Guhit – when measuring the amount of water in cooking rice we use the finger – one or two guhit. When cooking rice, the amount of water is measured by the "nodes" of the middle finger, according to the kind of rice, amount and texture.

Talampakan – distance from heel to toe, equivalent to one “foot.”

Tingi – in retail selling this is a parcel without any standard reference.

Hanggang tuhod, bewang, liig, lampas tao, etc (up to the knee, waistline, neck, taller than man)

Reference to depth of water is the length of a bamboo pole, height of a person, dipa (arm's length)

Carpenters still make shortcut measurements - dangkal (dangan Ilk), dipa'.

Fishermen look at the sky for reference of time. The North star and phases of the moon tell them when to set out to sea and come back to shore.

Acacia leaves start to fold with the setting of the sun. It is an old folks' reference to start going home before it gets dark.

Arrival of rainy season comes with the singing of cicada and emergence of salagubang andsalaguinto, also the swarming of termites and ants.

Migrating birds from the north tell of the coming amihan season, accompanied by gusts of cold wind from Siberia.

Distance is measured by the number of steps. It is important to know ones pace factor(equivalence in meter) to use this technique reliably.

A midwife can tell when a baby is due to be born (dalawang daliri - two fingers).

A stone's throw refers to a distance in the neighborhood; kabilang ilog means distance across a particular river.
Reference to objects is quite popular, such as kasinlaki ng butil na bigas o mais (like the size of rice or corn grain), kasinlaki ng cuarto na ito (as big as this room).

There is no assurance of accuracy in most of these means of measurement. Take for instance when one says “isang sigarilyo lang ang layo” (it takes a stick of cigarette to reach the place), and the guide has yet to light his cigarette and you have gone a long way. Or somebody says, “It is only at the other side of the mountain.” Which mountain and how many are there? ~

Paintings and Drawings

2012-02-16T02:58:00.000-08:00

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog Update February 15, 2012

2012-02-15T05:09:00.000-08:00

Living with Nature - School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid

We are happy to report to our viewers of this Blog ( avrotor.blogspot.com ), as well as our listeners of Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air), this very encouraging capsule report, summarized in the chart and outline below.

There are at present 2,080 lessons which can be accessed from this blog. The lessons are made available nationwide (Philippines) and worldwide, through 738 DZRB AM and www.pbs.gov.ph. Listeners may open the blog as on-the-spot outline or reference for the day's lesson.

A. Pageviews
Pageviews last month
16,345
Pageviews all time history
243,445

B. Pageviews by Countries (top 10)

Philippines 133,038
United States 42,278
India 7,904
Germany 6,623
United Kingdom 3,914
Canada 3,576
Russia 1,930
Netherlands 995
Australia 931
Indonesia 734

Our heartfelt gratitude to all our viewers and listeners. Let's continue sharing our gained knowledge to the members of our family and community, as well as in school and work.

x x x x

Recent Posts
Living with Nature - School on Blog Update February 15, 2012

Our culture is rich in superstition
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Abe V. Rotor and Melly Tenorio Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid 738 DZRB AM 8 - 9 evening, Monday to Friday Lesson: Superstitious beliefs are part of our culture and tradition. We treasure many of them indiv...
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How superstitious are you? A self evaluation
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Abe V Rotor and Melly C Tenorio Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid 738 DZRB AM 8 - 9 evening, Monday to Friday Old folks attach superstition to a faint full moon as bleak times ahead, viewed from St Paul Cathedra...
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Ancestral Home
posted by Abe V. Rotor at Living with Nature - School on Blog by Dr. Abercio V. Rotor - 11 hours ago
Batungan, a natural rock formation in Mandaon, Masbate. I entered the heart of this living rock, hollow and eerie; bats and other creatures lurk in the dark; it's a scary story. Years after I visited this ...
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Murals: Scenes from the Bible
posted by Abe V. Rotor at Living with Nature - School on Blog by Dr. Abercio V. Rotor - 1 day ago
Abe V Rotor My family and I had the opportunity to view these beautiful murals in a prayer room inside the huge Agoo cathedral in La Union. Painted on the concrete walls some ten feet high the murals re...
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Where have all the classics gone?
posted by Abe V. Rotor at Living with Nature - School on Blog by Dr. Abercio V. Rotor - 2 days ago
Dr Abe V Rotor St Paul Novitiate ruins circa 1949 St Paul University QC, then a Novitiate of the Sisters of St Paul of Chartres, was occupied by the Japanese during the second world war and served as a ga...
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Part 1: Destruction of Santo Domingo Church in Intramuros, Manila during World War II
posted by Abe V. Rotor at Living with Nature - School on Blog by Dr. Abercio V. Rotor - 2 days ago
Dr Abe V Rotor Professor, University of Santo Tomas Acknowledgment: These photographs (Parts 1 and 2) are part of a collection of Professor Alice C Villadolid, an internationally known journalist, author ...
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Part 2: Destruction of Santo Domingo Church and Plaza Santo Tomas, Intramuros, Manila, Philippines during World War II
posted by Abe V. Rotor at Living with Nature - School on Blog by Dr. Abercio V. Rotor - 2 days ago. Plaza Santo Tomas. Note monument of founder Fr Miguel Benavides. It now stands at the present site of the university, From the collection of Prof Alice C Villadolid
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Captured Moments of Joy in Photographs
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Reviving the Do-it-Yourself Culture
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Convergence in Nature - Meditation
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Painting and Verse by Abe V Rotor Convergence in Nature, (30" x 70") AVR 2012 One may find where land, water and sky meet: peace and turbulence, light and darkness, order and chaos, love and hate, joy and ...
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Four-Seasons-in-One
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by Abe V Rotor Four-Seasons-in-One, acrylic, AVR 2012 I love the seasons, I want them all at the same time: spring, summer, autumn, winter - rolled into one; for I can't wait each coming, or the trouble t...
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Classics - Timelessness is the Essence
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Abe V Rotor Plato, Greek philosopher and pupil of Socrates, challenges man with the concept of a perfect society, in his discourse, "The Republic." Today, anything that pertains to man's aim for the ideal is...
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Floriculture: Flower Arrangement
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Lightning is Nature’s Primordial Invention
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Where have all the murals gone?
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Light in the Forest
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Backyard Garden as Ecological Sanctuary
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Sweet, Sweet Memories
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Biggest Bell - Santa Monica, Capiz
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* Abe V Rotor** * *The big antique bell, measures 7 feet in height, 5 feet in diameter, and 10.4 tons in weight. It is surrounded by eight smaller bells that are sounded in coded pattern depending on th...
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Tunnel Windows to Heaven
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*Abe V Rotor* *Daybreak, I ask what lies beyond the wall, and a whisper * *came through, what goes in there. * ** *And the view * *I see is the same though, * *yet a vine across the window * *is cal...
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Museo de Santa Monica, Roxas City, Capiz
posted by Abe V. Rotor at Living with Nature - School on Blog by Dr. Abercio V. Rotor - 1 week ago
*Abe V Rotor* *The museum is housed in a renovated convent beside the old church.* *Church of Sta Monica originally built in the 17th century * *National Historical Marker. The old church itself is a mus...
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Bannawag - the International Ilokano Magazine
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Abe V Rotor Managing Editor Cles B Rambaud and the author at the editorial office of Bannawag, Manila Bulletin Bldg., Intramuros, Manila *Bannawag* (Iloko word meaning "dawn") is a Philippine weekly magazin...
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Happy Faces, Pleasant Views
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Death of Privacy - Watch out you are being watched!
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Convergence
posted by Abe V. Rotor at Living with Nature - School on Blog by Dr. Abercio V. Rotor - 2 weeks ago
Painting and Poem by Abe V Rotor Convergence in acrylic (65" x 32"), AVR 2012 Assignment: Write a verse for this painting.
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Mount Makiling - Ideal for Nature Study
posted by Abe V. Rotor at Living with Nature - School on Blog by Dr. Abercio V. Rotor - 2 weeks ago
*Abe V Rotor*
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2012 Signs - Prelude to the Mayan Prophesy
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Disturbing Street Scenes
posted by Abe V. Rotor at Living with Nature - School on Blog by Dr. Abercio V. Rotor - 2 weeks ago
Abe V Rotor Here are photos taken with a palm size camera from the front seat of a passenger car. Write down the caption of each photo as you would imagine yourself to be the photographer. Share your thou...
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Amihan - Siberian High
posted by Abe V. Rotor at Living with Nature - School on Blog by Dr. Abercio V. Rotor - 2 weeks ago
Painting and Verse by Abe V Rotor Midas touches all – from the grains to the sun sinking, And the grains become beads of jewels, heavy, gleaming, In October Amihan where children with kites meet, Bringing ...
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Spirit of the Tree
posted by Abe V. Rotor at Living with Nature - School on Blog by Dr. Abercio V. Rotor - 2 weeks ago
** ** *Abe V Rotor * Call the kapre, dwende, tikbalang to scare or just for fun; the goddess Maria Makiling, and Helios, the sun. I imagine the world without them - without them around: Children wouldn...
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Leaning Pisa Tree
posted by Abe V. Rotor at Living with Nature - School on Blog by Dr. Abercio V. Rotor - 2 weeks ago
Abe V Rotor The Leaning Fire Tree Fire tree (Delonix regia,) Family Caesalpinaceae. At first glance the road and tree are tilting toward each other - which only shows the extent of the "Living Pisa" pheno...
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Forces of Nature Models
posted by Abe V. Rotor at Living with Nature - School on Blog by Dr. Abercio V. Rotor - 2 weeks ago
Abe V Rotor and Melly C Tenorio Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid 738 DZRB AM 8-9 evening Mon to Fri Forces of Nature Models, murals by AVR, 2010. Model A: Cyclic Force of Nature Model B: Non-cyclic Force of N...
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Enigmatic Aphid - Master of Survival
posted by Abe V. Rotor at Living with Nature - School on Blog by Dr. Abercio V. Rotor - 2 weeks ago
*Abe V Rotor* *A colony of aphids (Aphis gossypii) on cabbage* By sheer number, you're statistically stable, ruled by the multiplication table. Ensconced in your host's leaves and flower, you're safe fro...
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Talisay: Tree of Death and Rebirth
posted by Abe V. Rotor at Living with Nature - School on Blog by Dr. Abercio V. Rotor - 2 weeks ago
Photos and Verse by Abe V Rotor Talisay or Umbrella Tree (Terminalia catappa) loses its entire crown during the amihan (cold month). The cooler the wind coming from Siberia, the redder the leaves become b...
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DORMANCY: Hibernation and Aestivation - Survival Adaptations of Organisms
posted by Abe V. Rotor at Living with Nature - School on Blog by Dr. Abercio V. Rotor - 2 weeks ago
Abe V Rotor Ant colony on the move to safe ground, sensing the coming of the rainy season. The lichen is a classical example in the art of dormancy. The lichen shown here belongs to the foliose type. Li...
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Claude Monet's The Water Lilies Mural
posted by Abe V. Rotor at Living with Nature - School on Blog by Dr. Abercio V. Rotor - 3 weeks ago
Abe V Rotor Claude Monet's masterpiece (1923); closeup. Monet continued to paint in old age even with failing eyesight. Nymphaea waterlilies became his favorite subject which he repeatedly painted in t...
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Beware of the Higad! (Tussock Moth Caterpillar)
posted by Abe V. Rotor at Living with Nature - School on Blog by Dr. Abercio V. Rotor - 3 weeks ago
Abe V Rotor We call it samrid in Ilocano, higad in Tagalog and Pilipino. It is perhaps the most avoided insect next to the putakti or paper wasp. Unlike the latter, the injury one gets by contact with thi...
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Taming the Dragon Fruit
posted by Abe V. Rotor at Living with Nature - School on Blog by Dr. Abercio V. Rotor - 3 weeks ago
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Return of Ipil-Ipil Shows Nature’s Healing Process
posted by Abe V. Rotor at Living with Nature - School on Blog by Dr. Abercio V. Rotor - 3 weeks ago
Psylla, a minute Homopteran, destroyed ipil-ipil plantations all over the country. Abe V Rotor Ipil-ipil (Leucaena glauca), the miracle tree in the sixties and seventies has provided Filipinos much hope f...
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Poecillia or Kataba - Nature's biological agent against mosquitoes
posted by Abe V. Rotor at Living with Nature - School on Blog by Dr. Abercio V. Rotor - 3 weeks ago
By Abe V Rotor This fish is also called by other names like tora-tora in Marilao, and talundi in Bocaue and San Miguel. It is relative of the molly and guppy, which are favorite aquarium pets. Kataba l...
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Haring Gagamba
posted by Abe V. Rotor at Living with Nature - School on Blog by Dr. Abercio V. Rotor - 3 weeks ago Abe V Rotor

These are the most recent lessons out of 2,08o (running total) lessons.

Our culture is rich in superstition

2012-02-15T03:01:00.000-08:00

Abe V. Rotor and Melly Tenorio
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid 738 DZRB AM
8 - 9 evening, Monday to Friday

Lesson: Superstitious beliefs are part of our culture and tradition. We treasure many of them individually and collectively. And try to determine their truth and veracity through research, debate and other means. We take pride in knowing a number of them. They add spice to conversation, make stories for bedside entertainment. Superstition gives quaintness to living. Why don't you gather superstition beliefs from your place and make a compilation for ready reference?

Felled century old balete tree (Ficus benjamina). Lagro, QC
The balete has a bad reputation. First, it is the home of evil
spirits; second, the tree kills its own host tree by strangling it,
hence named strangler's fig. It has no true trunk, instead its
massive prop roots snugly embrace the host tree until it dies
and decays leaving the prop roots inarched into a trunk. Third,
some people believe that Judas Escariot hanged himself on a
balete tree. It can't be, because the balete lives on moist
warm climate associated with a tropical rainforest - which
is too far from the biblical setting.

Elephant Tree, Kenting Park, Kaoshiung , Taiwan, is
a tourist's attraction. It is a belief of certain societies
that the spirits of the dead may manifest themselves
in other organisms. This is not confined in humans.

1. When you happen to encounter a funeral entourage, throw some coins in respect of the dead.

2. Don’t stand in front of a gate if you are pregnant.

3. If by mistake it’s the bride that hands over the arras to the bridegroom, expect that she will be the breadwinner.

4. Diamond studded wedding rings do not make a perfect relationship.

5. When blessing a new vehicle, sprinkler fresh blood of chicken in tires and engine to ward bad omen of accident.

6. Place some coins in the foundation of buildings and other structures during ground breaking ceremony to make them strong and withstand time.

7. Children are sacrificed in making bridges and other infrastructure.

8. Bury placenta with rosary and pencil so that the child will be both intelligent and God-fearing.

9. Shake (pagpagin) the items such as clothes after a customer had left without buying any, to break bad luck.

10. When you give a wallet as gift be sure you put a coin or a money bill in it so that the wallet won’t run out of money.

11. Eat raw eggs to enhance easy delivery of your baby.

12. A pregnant mother should not eat eggplant, else her baby will have dark complexion.

13. One who cries every time she cuts onions means she does not love her father- and mother-in-law (biyanan).

14. Taking a bath immediately after ironing clothes will make you sick of leprosy.

15. If a pregnant woman eats eggs, her child will be born blind.

16. Full moon causes abnormal behavior. People who are affected by this belief are called lunatics.

17. Beware of Friday the 13th, you might meet an accident.

18. No two siblings should marry within the same year, otherwise their marriages will not be successful.

19. When someone gives you a footwear as a gift, be sure to pay him any amount in order to break the omen that you will be “kicked” or pushed around.

20. When the pregnant wife skips or walks over (laktawan) her husband, the husband will bear the burden of paglilihi (maternal impression).

21. Forego your trip when a black cat crosses your path – it is bad luck.

22. Don’t clean the house at night, more so, if you sweep the dirt out of the door. You drive good luck away, (Lalabas ang suwerte.)

23. If you get lost in the wilderness, reverse your shirt, so that you will be able find your way back.

24. Tikbalang (Filipino version of a centaur) comes out when it is raining while the sun is out.

25. Three persons in a picture means the one at the middle will die.

26. A mole (taling) on the sole indicates the person is a wanderer (gala’).

27. A mole located along the path of tears means the person is going to be widowed, or a widower.

28. Bride must never try her bridal gown before the wedding; the ceremony might not push through.

29. Don’t hang on the window; you court bad luck.

30. Itchy palm means you are going to have money.

We don't believe in superstition, of course, because what we believe in needs a basis, or it must have an inference to something logical.

But there are superstitious beliefs which, for one reason or another, come true. And they come when least expected. Or things happen first, then we search for a superstitious thing to which we attribute the event.

In short, superstition mystifies us and links our living world with the unknown, with fantasy,and the supernatural. And with our faith. ~

How superstitious are you? A self evaluation

2012-02-15T02:57:00.000-08:00

Abe V Rotor and Melly C Tenorio
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid 738 DZRB AM
8 - 9 evening, Monday to Friday

Old folks attach superstition to a faint full moon as bleak times
ahead, viewed from St Paul Cathedral, Vigan, Ilocos Sur.

Apparition of a headless lady, Virac Catanduanes, 4 o'clock pm, Oct 20, 2011

We don't believe in superstition, of course, because what we believe in needs a basis, or must have an inference to something logical.

But there are superstitious beliefs which, for one reason or another, come true. And they come when least expected. Or things happen first, then we search for a superstitious thing to which we attribute the event.

In short, superstition mystifies us and links our living world with the unknown, with fantasy,and the supernatural. And with our faith.

Do you believe in the following?

1. Forgo your trip when a black cat crosses your path – it is bad luck.

2. Don’t clean the house at night, more so, if you sweep the dirt out of the door. You drive good luck away, (Lalabas ang suwerte.)

3. If you get lost in the wilderness, reverse your shirt, so that you will be able find your way back.

4. Tikbalang (Filipino version of a centaur) comes out when it is raining while the sun is out.

5. Three persons in a picture means the one at the middle will die.

6. A mole (taling) on the sole indicates the person is a wanderer (gala’).

7. A mole located along the path of tears means the person is going to be widowed, or a widower.

8. Bride must never try her bridal gown before the wedding; the ceremony might not push through.

9. Don’t hang on the window; you court bad luck.

10. Itchy palm means you are going to have money.

Rating: 6-10 You are undeniably superstitious
1-5 You are superstitious sometimes or influenced by superstitious people.

Crocodile in the sky, sign of prevalent graft and corruption, 2009

Cave is home of ghosts and spirits, Virac , Catanduanes.
Author with Prof Manrico Masagca (left).

Ancestral Home

2012-02-14T18:31:00.000-08:00

Batungan, a natural rock formation in Mandaon, Masbate.

I entered the heart of this living rock,
hollow and eerie;
bats and other creatures lurk in the dark;
it's a scary story.

Years after I visited this scene once more,
and stayed longer;
I saw shadows moving in the rock's core;
it's a story to wonder.

It speaks of an allegory and history,
where man was born,
when man lived a simple life and free,
happy and at home.

Murals: Scenes from the Bible

2012-02-13T05:37:00.000-08:00

Abe V Rotor

My family and I had the opportunity to view these beautiful murals in a prayer room inside the huge Agoo cathedral in La Union. Painted on the concrete walls some ten feet high the murals recreate some scenes of the bible surrounding the visiting pilgrims in prayers.

I stood with awe and admiration to both the art and its message. It was travelogue sort of in time and place. And looking closely at the murals, they must have been the work of a single artist influenced greatly by the old school as shown by his faithful reproduction of biblical figures, the colors which reminded me of Rembrandt and Goya. Could it be that the blurred lines were also an influence of Da Vinci's style? The pleating of the robes and dresses is unmistakably El Greco's sans foreshortening effect because the place had a rather low ceiling. I could sense in them quaintness from Amorsolo and passion from Luna. The local artist - whoever he is - must have been very knowledgeable in his art and sense of history and religion.

Maybe I have my bias of elevating these murals to the level of a masterpiece. More so because I found them in a fast deteriorating state being exposed to the elements. Moisture from the concrete wall has destroyed much of their original colors and fine details. In fact the paints are peeling off, and lime water is seeping through the cracks and drying up into crusts over sensitive parts. Ironically works of art when endangered are perceived with concern and in effect become more precious . Remember the hieroglyphics inside the pharoahs' tomb in Egypt? The cave paintings in Lascaux, France? And similarly the cave paintings and engravings in Montalban, Rizal? No less than the Last Supper by Da Vinci and the Sistine Chapel ceiling murals by Michelangelo faced even greater problems. Fortunately they were restored in time and today they stand out among the most popular paintings in the world.

They say time is the greatest test of an art. It is patient and cruel in a way. But it gives us time to heed its distress call for artists and patrons of art themselves to come to the rescue. This is how classics are made.

If you go up north this Lenten season, find time to visit (Bisita Iglesia) at Agoo Cathedral and see these beautiful murals.

These scenes are based on the Old Testament. The murals
are indeed old. They could be as old as the original Agoo
church on which the present cathedral was built.

Where have all the classics gone?

2012-02-13T05:21:00.000-08:00

Dr Abe V Rotor

St Paul Novitiate ruins circa 1949

St Paul University QC, then a Novitiate of the Sisters of St Paul of Chartres, was occupied by the Japanese during the second world war and served as a garrison. The main building was burned down before liberation. A war memorial stands on the campus to signify this inglorious part of Philippine history.

But, like a Phoenix bird rising from the ashes, the ruin transformed into a school, now a member of a university system.

Here the finer side of life - the antithesis of war, is shown through the arts - music and drama.

Group Violin Rendition

School String Orchestra

Shakespearean Drama

NOTE: These photos were provided by Sister Sarah Manapol, SPC, and were enhanced by today's computer editing.

Part 1: Destruction of Santo Domingo Church in Intramuros, Manila during World War II

2012-02-13T02:19:00.001-08:00

Dr Abe V Rotor
Professor, University of Santo Tomas

Acknowledgment: These photographs (Parts 1 and 2) are part of a collection of Professor Alice C Villadolid, an internationally known journalist, author and professor. I wish to express my deepest gratitude to Prof Villadolid for providing these photographs for my research and writing.

The Santo Domingo Church, Intramuros, was the
headquarters for the Dominican Order of the Philippines.

Aftermath of the war - total destruction of the historic and legendary church, and the old buildings of the University of Santo Tomas which were adjacent to the church. The plaza named after the theologian Santo Tomas, has been preserved as a historic landmark. Both the church and the university have been relocated to their present sites. UST has just celebrated its 400th anniversary (1611-2011)

Part 2: Destruction of Santo Domingo Church and Plaza Santo Tomas, Intramuros, Manila, Philippines during World War II

2012-02-13T01:42:00.000-08:00

Plaza Santo Tomas. Note monument of founder Fr Miguel Benavides. It now stands at the present site of the university,
From the collection of Prof Alice C Villadolid

Captured Moments of Joy in Photographs

2012-02-12T05:08:00.001-08:00

Abe V Rotor

Moments of joy, moments of sadness;
they come like a moving wheel
every day, all the time in our lives,
on the road of trial and will.

Moments of joy, moments of loneliness,
they come like a rolling cloud
in light and shadow, bright and gray,
fall as rain and clear the shroud.

Moments of joy, moments of suffering,
they come together in ease and strain;
nostalgia the happiest state of mind,
sweet is sweeter after pain. ~

Posing with a baby elephant, Thailand

Wild pigeon (bato-bato), pangaw (Ilk)

Philippine Hawk, Avilon Zoo San Mateo

Taking pride of ones craft.

Apple mangoes, Don Antopnio Subd, Diliman QC

Floating lotus flowers, Thailand

Baby rabbits

Bronze sea lion, Thailand

Prize catch to market - siriw

Fruit cart, Darwin, Australia

Vegetable market, MM

Fish sauce (patis) for sale in a wet market, MM

First to see dragon fruit. Origin: Vietnam

Friendly owl. Avilon Zoo, San Mateo, Rizal

Bunny at home, QC

Garland of Dioscorea, relative of the ubi, at home QC

Listening to the sea with tambuli shell, MM

Goodbye St Paul Museum, Goodbye

2012-02-11T06:59:00.000-08:00

Dr Abe V Rotor

Dr Anselmo S Cabigan lectures on natural history at the former SPUQC Museum

These, among hundreds of items, are what used to be the features of a school museum of its kind - St Paul University Museum QC. These earned the museum recognition by the National Commission of Culture and the Arts with the curator sitting as member of one of its committees for a decade.

PHILIPPINE GRASS OWL (KUAGO)
[Tyto capensis amauronota (Cabanis)] Stuffed specimen
" Of all the birds I ever did see, the owl is the queerest me ," goes the rhyme we learned in the elementary school. It is true in a sense because first, owls have monkeylike faces and large round eyes which are fixed in their sockets so that the bird must turn its head virtually 360 degrees to focus its sight on an object without moving its body. Second, owls are active only at night , hunting for other animals which they swallow whole and sometimes live and kicking . In their search for prey they fly silently and ghostlike, making occasional humanlike scary sounds . These indeed paint a very queer picture of this maligned creature which is in the list of endangered species. Ecologically owls are important in controlling the populations of rats in the field and forest. And without the owl, a full moon scene would be less romantic because it would be devoid of the chilly touch of Doyle and Hitchcock . Besides, writers would have to look for another symbol, which we doubt of there is any other animal wiser than the wizard owl.

GIANT SEASHELLS
Shells belong to vast Phylum Mollusca which contains about 100,000 species, half of which live in saltwater, while the other half live in freshwater and on land. All mollusk have complete organ systems, including a brain. They are generally egg laying. They are vegetarians, carnivorous and scavengers, and a few have even look to kill their prey. There are also poisonous species which may be lethal to man. These specimens are rare collections which are seldom found today. Their white and chalky characteristics are a result of continuous exposure to heat and rain.

PYROCLASTIC ROCK FROM MT. PINATUBO
This figurine was carved from a solid rock emitted during the volcano's eruption on June 12, 1993. Although the volcano emitted pyroclastic material which was principally ash, occasionally there were stones and rocks which were either thrown out directly from its bowels, or coagulated in the process of emission or sedimentation. The local folk etch a living from this solid material, which they carve into figurines or gather for the construction industry.

GIANT CORAL
With the unabated destruction of our coral reef it is not common to see undisturbed huge corals such as this one. Corals are animals in colonies belonging to Phylum Coelenterata, which is often associated with Cnidaria, of the Class Anthozoa. This specimen belongs to an Acropora or Elkhorn species. Coral reefs are the forest of the sea, the counterpart of our terrestrial forests. With the association of seaweeds, they constitute the abode of fishes and other marine life, without which our seas would not be as productive as they are today. However, the destruction of coral reefs through illegal fishing like "muro-ami" and dynamite fishing, as well as the conversion of shores into resorts and fishponds have greatly reduced fish catch and the diversity of marine species. Today our laws prohibit coral gathering, more so for export. Coral reefs conversation is a priority program of many countries. Without corals our island would fall back to the depth of the sea and our continents would be reduced through erosion. Thus, corals are nature's architectural and engineering wonder for they serve as riprap and barrier against the restless sea, while making the world underwater a truly beautiful scape beyond compare.

PHILIPPINE FLYING LEMUR
Cynocephalus volans Linnaeus, (Stuffed specimen)
In Carmen , an hour drive by jeep on rugged road from Davao City, a pair of Philippine lemur was caught at the edge of a forest clearing. The animals were clinging upside down, their face buried in the membranous fold that covers the body, batman style for fear of light and human beings. As we invade their habitats, cut down the trees and expand our farms, we are unwittingly flushing out the remaining rare Philippine flying lemurs. This animal is found also in Samar, Basilan and Bohol. It is nocturnal and solitary, spending the day inside holes of big trees in the forest. At night it climbs to the peak and glide again to the next as it feeds on young leaves and ripening fruits of certain tree species. Sometimes it travels too far that it is overtaken by daybreak before it reaches its tree home. In this case it seeks a nearby thick cluster of leaves and hides there, then resumes its travel back home the following night. Except for its fur which is used as fancy cap , the animal has no commercial value. Its species is now endangered along with our vanishing forest. AVR

STONE GRINDER "Gilingan"
This two-piece primitive grinder is perhaps one of the first machines developed by stone age man following the invention of the wheel some 4000 years ago. Although flour milling is now highly mechanized, this grinder is still used in remote areas. In fact there is a unique place in San Esteban, Ilocos Sur, where local stone carvers, using hand tools, still make this grinder. The operation is simple. Glutinous rice previously soaked overnight is fed through the top aperture. The upper stone is slowly and steadily rotated by hand. The rice is crushed between the stones and the wet flour is expelled through the sides. With gradual addition of water, the flour flows down the furrow and is finally collected. Partially crushed grains are once more fed into the grinder. The tedious process adds traditional color and quaintness to our indigenous "puto bongbong", "duyduy", "suman", and other native delicacies.

PHILIPPINE BATS (Stuffed specimens)
This cluster of Philippine bats are cave dwellers (Eonycteris), while the big solitary specimen is a fruit bat, Macroglossus lagochilus lagochilus. Cave bats belong to the genera Eonycteris, Megaderma, Hipposidros, and Rousettus, to mention the most important ones. Because the Philippines is endowed with their natural habitats, bats are a common sight in practically all over the 7,100 islands. one can imagine the fiction scene at dusk when the bats emerge in horde from their abode inside the cave complex of Tabon, Palawan or in Callao, Cagayan. Most bats are insectivorous and are therefore, ecologically important. Bat droppings form guano which is the best natural farm and garden fertilizer. Bats are nocturnal and can "see" their prey by radar using high pitch sound which echoes to their sensitive ear, enhanced by their acoustic membranous wings. They have developed the unique agility to catch their prey as small as a mosquito in mid-air through this aerial echo loaction phenomenon, compensating for their poor visual sense which has degenerated through evolution. Our concern today is to arrest the decreasing population of bats as we destroy their habitats, converting caves into tourists' spots, quarrying and deforestation. To literature lovers, would horror stories be the same without bats? AVR.

PETRIFIED WOOD
This is wood turned into rock by a natural process called petrifaction. This piece of wood was converted into rock by infiltration of mineral matter mainly calcium, the same material which makes up limestone. This specimen reveals the original anatomy of the wood - the bark, cork, cambium layer, xylem and the like - which may lead to the identification of its species, including its age by counting the annual rings, and such historical information as the occurrence of fire, pest attack, and drought which affected the living tree. All these were accurately preserved through petrifaction. This specimen belongs to an early Gymnosperm, relative of the pine, which dominated the Coniferous forest where the dinosaurs probably roamed. AVR

THE WHEEL
Man's First Invention
The wheel revolutionized human life and society. It laid down the foundation of agriculture, and later, industry - from the bullcart to the steam engine, and soon after, the automobile and spacecraft. Today we are virtually living on wheels - everyday. (From the prairies of Manitoba, Canada)

THE PLAGUE (Sand table)
It was supposed to be cycle, a round about wherein one branch was to benefit from the other. From the Supreme Being came the gift of creation and the division of talents among the races. And then came the innovations made by man to benefit their kind and the other living things. But along with the advancement of technology provided us were their waste products.
The earth's pristine forests and the living inhabitants that adorn the surroundings would never have crossed our minds to even translate its parts into huge dumpsites. Garbage disposal has posed as a massive and disturbing problem since the sites are almost all filled up and has caused so much pollution to the nearby towns where the dumpsites are located.

It is surprising how much things can change in just a short span of time. In the most recent years, the rivers have bluntly been marred; its natural hues have transformed into a thick, black pigment synonymous to that of an oil spill which has pervaded throughout the seas, and sadly, these are all because of the careless discard of waste products. The chemicals emitted by industrial factories go straight to the waterways, directly affecting the condition of the water and the species inhabiting their particular niche. Shanties which are erected nest to the creeks or rivers disposed their garbage in the closet, most convenient place - the water. in a much wider scope, the waterways are continuous which means that one polluted water body will flow on the next path, and it may influence or eventually affect the water contained in another area.

Various insects swarm over the rubbish. These insects fly and prey from one object to another, and the cause disease that may severely affect our health. Facilitation of the chemical repellants contain strong components which, when infused into our system, may or will cause diseases.
Fortunately, the elders of the nations around the world have finally been roused by the peril that the ecological imbalance may induce in the coming years if they continue to neglect the warning condition of the mother earth. We, as people of this earth have an austere responsibility to confront the current detriments that pang our niche.

Whatever we give out, it comes back to us in a hundred or ten folds. Waste segregation, if sternly followed will benefit not only us, the human race, but mother earth , as well since some matters of waste may be used to enrich the soils that hold the sturdiest of trees, and the most beautiful of greens. Segregation will also ease the efforts of recycling, since everything will be put to its proper places. Donated by Miss ROCHELLE N. ALFORJA, ABMC

SHIPWRECK: Paul on his Way to Rome
Acrylic Painting (105 " x 48") and Poem by Dr AV Rotor

There are crossings ahead unexpected,
No lights, no guide; to the lesser, the end
Of dreams or riches told but ne'er granted;
But to Paul the beginning’s yet at the bend.

There is a Caesaria where the laws of men
May deny the just. There’s a friendly Malta -
Goodness begets goodness in every brethren.
And there, too, a Herod or an Agrippa.

On a stormy night for Rome, Paul's last mission
To plant the Seed in the very heart of power,
Was a grave at sea, but greater was his vision,
On weathered rock a tree rose like a tower.

To live one must almost die is reference,
But is he willing to die that others might rise?
He is truly brave, and there's the difference
To the one who deserves to walk with Christ.

PARADISE AFTER ROME: End of Paul's Mission
Acrylic Painting (105" x 48") and Poem by Dr AV Rotor

The seed in time gives rise to a forest;
In the like of the Faithful that grows,
Leaving the Pharisees and Sadducess
To Nero's wrath, to where the wind blows.

Sodom after the Ark was forgotten,
‘Til Ormoc sang the dirge of Pompei;
What’er happened to Utopia since then,
Look down Paoay Lake the old folk say.

Augustine warned people going downtown,
The city’s like a horde of restless ants.
And asked, where have all the proud souls gone,
The Pharisees, sapiens and the savants?

Ask not now if old friends will ever meet
Where once stood the great city's gate.
Who sees Golgota, Paradise at his feet,
Truly he deserves a blissful fate.

The heaven in the stars and in dream,
The promise of afterlife fulfilled
Starts here with nature, Eden redeemed -
Walk Paul, Milton and others who sinned.

FIRST PAULINIAN TEACHERS

He was thirty then when he arrived in Levesville-la-Chenard. It was 1694. Here Fr. Louis Chauvet prepared young girl volunteers to run a school where the children were educated and taught Catholicism. Among the four young volunteers was Marie Anne de Tilly who came from a noble family, and Marie Micheau who became known outside Levesville. In 1708 the bishop of Chartres, Monsignor Paul Godet, invited the Sisters to open a house in Bourgneuf. A congregation soon grew here, not far from the famous cathedral of Chartres.
By 1727, the congregation was serving 17 institutions in France. In the next five years missions were sent to many parts of the world. it was at the beginning of this century when the first SPC missionaries arrived in the Philippines. From here on Paulinian education spread all over the country. There are twenty major institutions under the St. Paul School System today, and one of them is SPCQ. The teachers at SPCQ continue to carry on the vision-mission of the founders and first teachers at Levesville and Chartres.

Original photos and reproduction of the first Paulinian and lay teachers at SPCQ just after the Second World War.

ETHNIC TOOLS

These are tools and paraphernalia of early cultures which retain their basic forms and functions through time. Many of them are still used to this day by the minorities, such as the Aetas around Mt. Pinatubo, the Ilongots of Nueva Vizcaya, Igorots of Cordillera, the Itneg of Abra, Itawes of Cagayan, the Yakans and Tausogs of Mindanao, and many others. There are certain commonalities in these tools and equipment, but it is more of their distinctive characteristics with which we associate or identify the culture using them. The advance of civilization however, has either modified or displaced many of them. On the other hand, their discovery has led to many efforts in trying to preserve them, mainly for historical and aesthetic reasons - and posterity. They are often part of cultural presentations, or decorations on walls and hallways, and it is not seldom that we see a foreigner wearing rattan knapsack in downtown Manila or New York.

The Young Once (Original photos and reproductions)

Looking back many years ago your teachers looked like these in these photographs - cute babies, budding beauties, knights in the shining armor, and what have you. Compare them now. Is there any semblance? But first you have to identify them. No coaching, please. Abide with the rules of the contest. There are prizes at stake.

Birthplace of SPC (Original photos)
At Levesville a school was organized by Fr. Louis Chauvet and run by four young volunteers, among them were Marie Anne de Tilly and Marie Micheau. Near the Cathedral of Chartres is a house in Bourgneuf, the seat of the congregation. Above: these sisters who soon took over the helm of SPC and helped the congregation spread to parts of the world.

The First Graduates of St. Paul College Quezon City. 1946-1947, 1946-1950 (original photos)
These Pioneers blazed through the travails of SPCQ in the first 5 years of struggle for survival and self-reliance, a proof of SPC's determination to carry on the Paulinian vision and mission.

Reviving the Do-it-Yourself Culture

2012-02-10T21:22:00.000-08:00

Reviving the Do-it-Yourself Culture

Home made food products

Musical instrument repair

Practical tool

Dr Abe V Rotor

Picture a man-in-the-house. Name the many roles he plays. Or she plays.

He wears an overall, a baseball cap, a pair of working gloves, and eye protector. A tool harness around his waist hang some basic tools and materials, like screwdriver and pliers. And with today's portable mechanized tools, he can weld, paint, make toys, assemble cabinets, repair and redesign almost anything in the house, garage and garden.

Welcome back to the do-it-yourself culture.

A. Parts and fixtures of the house most often need fixing.
1. Lights
2. Roof
3. Wall
4. Window
5. Gate and doors
6. Wall and table clock
7. Door knob and locks
8. Bookshelves and cabinets
9. Fence
10. Garage
11. Chair, bench and table
12. Playground fixtures
13. Working area
14. Façade, veranda
15. Garden
16. Sidewalk and path walk
17. Doghouse
18. Glass pane, skylight
19. Floor
20. Stairs

B. Major causes of damage, or reasons to renovate
1. Termite and fungus
2. Typhoon
3. Heat and cold
4. Obsolescence
5. Wear and tear
6. Defective make or construction
7. Poor/substandard materials
8. Expanding family/Children have grown up
9. Business/office
10. Retirement home
11. Kids’ home (children and grandchildren)
12. Refurbish, remodel, decorate
13. Accident caused/accident prevention
14. Energy conservation
15. Simplify and organize
16. Healthier environment
17. Global warming, pollution
18. Laws and regulation
19. Taste, aesthetics
20. Modernize

C. Common tools and equipment
1. Handy tools: saw, hammer, chisel, crowbar, cutter, tucker, puncher, file, metal saw
2. Cutting tools: bolo and knives, saw (keyhole, crosscut, miter)
3. Metal shear, scissor, sinsil (concrete chisel), cutters, pliers, cutter pliers
4. Plumbing tools
5. Car and garage tools
6. Kitchen tools
7. Grinder and sharpener
8. Solder, glue gun,
9. Riveter
10. Gardening tools
11. Welding
12. Electrical
13. Electronic tools
14. Mechanized tool: drill, planer, sander
15. Finishing: air compressor and painting
16. Sewing machine
17. Crowbar, spade, rake, spading fork
18. Wheel burrow, portable cart
19. Ladder
20. Measuring tools: meter, tape, plumb bob. try square, lever

Accessory tools and equipment
1. Tool cabinet
2. Working bench
3. Working table
4. Tool bag/box
5. Safety Devices
6. Fire extinguisher
7. First Aid
8. Exhaust fan
9. Organizer

D. Skills and Training
1. Vocational Courses
2. Elementary Industrial Arts
3. Hobby
4. Entrepreneurial
5. Books and catalogs
6. Shows and exhibits
7. Malls and hardware
8. Growing up with tools
9. Learn from the expert
10. Apprenticeship
11. Clubs and associations
12. Modeling (sand table, school project)
13. Lecture-Workshops
14. Self-study and practice
15. Internet

E. Advantages and benefits
1. Wholesome hobby and pastime
2. Teaching children the culture of do-it-yourself
3. Hones talents, creativity
4. Savings
5. Earning and profits
6. Aesthetics and ergonomics
7. Safety and convenience
8. Health and exercise
9. Recycling, repair, restore
10. “Skill is a lifetime, a heritage.”

Any man or woman in the house who can pass the proficiency test of do-it-yourself deserves the titles man-of-all-trades and man-for-all-seasons.

NOTE: Lesson on Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (school-on-air) DZRB 738 KHz AM 8 to 9 pm Monday to Friday [www.pbs.gov.ph]

x x x

Monday with Saint Paul, the Apostle

2012-02-09T23:50:00.000-08:00

Dr Abe V Rotor

One Monday I visited Saint Paul with inquiries I seldom asked before;

Fifteen years I served him, a teacher of this school, keeper of a museum;

Time has changed the world, global is its effect - would St Paul tell me

More of the ways of the world to give life a meaning? So I assume.

"Tell me where Damascus Road is where you heard God speak;

Tell me how you crossed the Mediterranean in a storm and survive;

Tell me how you carried the Word amongst unbelievers and Pharisees;

Tell me how you faced death yet keep alive your faith and noble pride.

"Tell me where have the Gentiles you converted and followers gone;

Tell me how you wrote the scriptures that gave the bible a wider view;

Tell me how man can become a saint and a saint to become man;

Tell me how to reach heaven without striving to be a martyr like you."

The sun rose high, sending reflection of gray clouds on giant glass panes;

The pavement is bare, the marble floor a mirage, yet empty as the sea;

High rise the buildings are - towers and spires, proud symbols of power;

In the deep silence, I heard the same words, "Why do you persecute me." ~

Convergence in Nature - Meditation

2012-02-09T17:38:00.001-08:00

Painting and Verse by Abe V Rotor

Convergence in Nature, (30" x 70") AVR 2012

One may find where land, water and sky meet:
peace and turbulence,
light and darkness,
order and chaos,
love and hate,
joy and sorrow,
hope and despair,
life and death.

Another may find where land, water and heaven meet:

turbulence and peace,

darkness and light
chaos and order,
hate and love,
sorrow and joy,
despair and hope,
death and new life. ~

Painting: Courtesy of Dr Rene and Marilyn Makilan, USA, on the occasion of their visit with Shekinah, and Ronnie Rotor, to the Philippines, 2012.

Four-Seasons-in-One

2012-02-09T15:51:00.001-08:00

by Abe V Rotor

Four-Seasons-in-One, acrylic, AVR 2012

I love the seasons, I want them all at the same time:
spring, summer, autumn, winter - rolled into one;
for I can't wait each coming, or the trouble to find;
one sitting before the canvas and everything's done.

So in my life, seasons crowd in, knowing not which one
comes in the morning or evening, at work or play;
I lost track of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, and the bond
of creation that brings all together to pray.

The artist in me called, there's order in every thing -
the seasons come and go, never growing old;
each with rhyme and rhythm, the meter of living,
renewing hope, keeping faith, humbling the bold.~

Classics - Timelessness is the Essence

2012-02-09T06:31:00.000-08:00

Abe V Rotor

Plato, Greek philosopher and pupil of Socrates,
challenges man with the concept of a perfect society,
in his discourse, "The Republic." Today, anything
that pertains to man's aim for the ideal is associated
with his philosophy, such as Platonic Love.

Confucius, the greatest teacher of the Orient.
His teachings on love and piety, filial respect,
and human dignity continue to guide man and
society to live in peace and harmony.

Venus de Milo, made by an unknown Greek
sculptor, elevates the essence of beauty to the
level of philosophy, keeping beauty alive through
various human experiences, and preserving the
mystery that kindles its flame.

Michelangelo, the greatest artist of the Renaissance,
takes human imagination to a realm where the
temporal and the spiritual worlds are linked in
reverence to an Omnipotent Being through his
immortal paintings and murals (Sistine Chapel) and
sculptures (Pieta, David), among other works.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a respected 18th
century Cambridge professor and writer. Evangeline
or the Tale of Acadie, and Song of Hiawatha,
rank among the world's most loved literary works
depicting a hybrid of classicism and romanticism,
and transcending contemporary values as reflected
in his poem The Arrow and the Song.

Dr. Jose Rizal, national hero of the Philippines,
wrote Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo that
ignited Philippine Revolution that consequently
liberated the country from 400 years of Spanish rule.
Noli and Fili rank with the world's most influential
novels led by War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, Don
Quijote by Miquel de Cervantes, Uncle Tom's Cabin
by Harriet Stowe, and Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.

Classics never die, timelessness
their essence, like a tempered sword
in war and peace, brings silence
through wisdom in deed and word.

Suggested exercise: Add to these examples, other world's classics,
citing their contribution to the world in their time and ours today .

Floriculture: Flower Arrangement

2012-02-09T06:21:00.001-08:00

Abe V Rotor

Flower arrangement is an art. The Japanese call it Ikebana. Filipinos are among the best floriculturists in the world. You encounter the art in many occasions: parties, graduation, weddings, church offerings, corsage and leis, wakes, or simply arranging flowers for the home. .

There is a flower arrangement for every occasion, but the primordial guide is Nature herself. Just look around in the garden, orchard, along hedges, on the meadow, in the forest. There are 1001 models of flower arrangement - and holistic views that make us realize flower arrangement is just part of the whole aesthetic scenery that we are recreating.

Natural arrangement of flowers of white lily. Note series based on sequence
of maturity of flowers to keep pollinators to visit the flowers regularly.

The flowers of this pond lily are arranged on a common branching stalk.

A typical flower arrangement with a central attraction, top view.

A typical man-heaven-and-earth flower
arrangement for the dining table.

Flower arrangement around a colorful bowl.

Lightning is Nature’s Primordial Invention

2012-02-08T06:28:00.000-08:00

Abe V Rotor

Lightning is Nature's quick-fix agent converting inert atmospheric Nitrogen into soluble Nitrate compounds that fertilize soil and water, and nourish plants, other autotrophs, and saprophytes principally the mushrooms such as these specimens shown in the following photographs.

Shelf mushroom; Auricularia (tainga ng daga)

Dung mushroom

Oyster mushroom; stinkhorn

All over the globe lightning strikes at one point or another

incessantly night and day, in good or bad weather.

The atmosphere and earth meet in deafening thunder

that accompanies a spark of a thousand atomic bombs

enough to light a city for days if captured and stored.

In the process chemistry combines nitrogen with oxygen,

one-to-three in proportion to form nitrates in tons

and tons in a single bolt, becoming negatively charge

and soluble, riding on the rain to descend to earth.

Nitrate the free radical ion joins a positive ion and forms

combinations of compounds that nourish plants and all

all photosynthetic organisms, and the saprophytes, too

- the mushrooms and their kin of Kingdom Mycophyta.

Wonder the hills and mountains turn green soon after

the first rain in May or even only a shower in April;

afterward the whole landscape builds into a realm

of emerald green as the sky sends boundless energy.

Electrical energy transforms into chemical energy

passing from the inorganic to the organic world, thence

through the living world - the food chain and web,

food pyramid, there into the ecosystems and biomes,

finally to the biosphere that make the earth full of life.

Mysterious are nature's ways, the sun's energy

transforming into electrical energy through lightning,

henceforth building proteins, the building blocks

of all living things, great or small, as they grow and die,

and into the next cycle the process is the same -

ad infinitum. ~

Light in the Forest

2012-02-08T02:47:00.000-08:00

Mural by Abe V Rotor

Morning in the Forest Mural, 5' x 10'

Where have all the murals gone?

2012-02-08T01:14:00.001-08:00

Dr Abe V Rotor

Backyard Garden as Ecological Sanctuary

2012-02-08T00:54:00.000-08:00

Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid DZRB 738 AM, 8 to 9 Evening Class
Monday to Thursday, Dr. Abe V. Rotor and Ms. Melly Tenorio,

Pangasius fish

Other Topics: Importance of a garden pond. You believe in the Doctrine of Signatures

Our homelot nearly equivalent to a typical subdivision residential lot lies just across the watershed of La Mesa dam, the source of water for the population of Metro Manila.

Everyday birds from the watershed come to our garden. They perch on the trees singing melodious songs for hours. They are a gentle alarm clock and at sunset draw out the tension of the day and put it to rest. For some 25 years now with the children spending their childhood and adolescence, memories come spontaneously alive at nature’s presence. We look for nature, but nature comes to you, too. We can make the backyard a sanctuary of living things. It becomes a corner of Eden so to speak, in the inner eyes of the English poet John Milton, in the soul searching music of Beethoven, and in the quasi-spiritual reverence for life of John Muir and Also Leopold.

What makes an ecological garden? Here are some guidelines.

Let nature do the arranging of the plants – their kinds, growing habits, seasonal occurrence, and niches. This principle must prevail over our plan to make the garden Italian or Japanese in which man dictates the plan of the garden.

The garden serves three important functions.

• Cooling effect. A 10-year old acacia tree for example, has the capacity to provide the cooling power of ten 10Hp air conditioning units. Trees make a huge umbrella that protects us from heat stroke.

• Windbreak. Trees, especially if planted in group or rows, and in combination of other plants, can withstand the strength of strong wind.

• Sound barrier. Foliage serves as acoustic, absorbing echoes, and filtering unwanted sound waves, and resonating the good ones like in an amphitheater.

• Dust filter. Plants eliminate particles in the air with their leaves trapping and moistening them with transpired water, thus sending them back to the soil.

• Radiation filter. Plants serve as buffer against ultraviolet rays as well as cosmic rays. So with other forms of radiation, visible and invisible, that are harmful to health and environment.

• Color filter. Plants act like a giant prism, but unlike the lens, colors are pooled into a common color - green – the coolest of all colors, neutral and soothing to the eyes and other senses.

A garden is not a garden if it does not smell like one. Ilang-ilang exudes sweet scent throughout the year. It is sweetest in early morning and evening, and a soft breeze spreads the scent in the neighborhood. The best scents in the garden come from Eucalyptus, binunga (samat), pandan mabango, sweet basil, roses, rosal, dama de noche, and of course, sampaguita.

One day I found leisure watching a spider span a huge web. It is a giant spider called Haring Gagamba working of a tapestry. I remember the story of the Irish hero, Robert The Bruce, watch a spider making a web. The spider failed in several attempts to construct the primary frame. It gave the downhearted hero the heart to win back the crown.

In the garden, there are unceasing battles between and among living things. . Birds eat on caterpillar, frogs have their fill on flies, dragonflies hover and devour flying gnats, spiders entrap grasshoppers, preying mantis prey on unwary insects. I have observed hantik or green tree ants (Oecepalla smaragdina) build nest in the upper branches of talisay. Their colony is closely knit and their nest is an architectural wonder. The green leaves are sewed together by the workers stroking the larvae to secrete a sticky substance that dries like paper. The larva is actually carried by an adult like a tube of epoxy as other workers hold the leaves to be sewed together. These ants attack as an army that even a caterpillar is subdued in an instant and sooner or later cut into pieces which the ants carry to their nest to feed the colony.

Yet in the same spot ants and termites live together. It is a demonstration on how two different niches work, bounded by biological rules. The ant colony stays above ground to up the foliage, while the termites in an anthill called punso. Yes, the termites – they are an engineering genius. They build their mound at the foot of the big talisay tree – then, when dug out move to another place overnight, and when we think they are no longer there, it is likely that they are virtually sleeping with us inside the house. And true, we discovered a colony of termite in an apparador, and another in a roof beam. It is here that man turns against a destructive organism.

Plants kill other plants to maintain their boundaries. They abort germinating seeds even of their kind that become threat to their existence. Allelopathy is a phenomenon plants harm one another, in order to enhance success in competition for sunlight, nutrients, water and space. Plants secrete chemicals in their roots, stems, and leaves. To illustrate, we have a ten-year old malunggay that is slowly being choked by coconut and binuga tree (Macaranga tenarius). All the cultivars of mayana I planted were lost, due to inter competition, and then they were overrun by carabao grass. Ube (Dioscorea alata) takes advantage with its viny habit virtually leaping out into space, its leaves covering much of the trees and wall, then after rainy season it all disappears leaving but a five-kilo tuber ensconced in the soft earth and mulch.

But wonder what those plants are clinging on the trunk of trees. These are epiphytes, a relationship called commensalisms. The epiphytes benefit from their tree host. They gain foothold and elevation to reach sunlight without harming their host. We have a talisay tree that carries on its trunk a cluster of native orchid that blooms with a dangling inflorescence appearing like giant leis.
Lest a garden is misunderstood as purely aesthetic and ecological. One coconut tree can provide an ample supply of walis tingting, sweets, coconut milk (gata), husk for the orchids, firewood, and buko, but we love this tree of life most whenever birds build their nest on top and unfold a primitive sense of family love and care.

At night bats come and gather the ripe fleshy fruits of talisay (Terminalia catappa), and would accidentally drop a fruit or two hitting the roof of our house, and if we are not aware of the cause, we would attribute it to a prankster – or a spirit who wants to disturb our sleep.

Do you believe in spontaneous generation? Saluyot, amaranth, kamkamote, Portulaca – these and other wild growing vegetables pop out of the ground following the first heavy rains in May, and believe it, after two weeks they are ready for the kitchen. Their succulent leaves and stems are rich in vitamins and minerals. But we do not gather the plants entirely; we simply trim down the leaves leaving the plant to reach maturity. How these wild species survive the dry months is a proof of their sturdiness which guided their successful evolution.

How high can a tree reach? Well, our ilang-ilang grew and grew and grew, and then one day a strong wind decapitated it. Then the upper branches dried up one by one until the tree has but a bunch of low branches. We know that there is always limit to growth, and the very same factors that favored it also created its liabilities. I am reminded of the syndrome of bigness whether it be an animal or tree or business. We call this Dinosaur Syndrome.

The Importance of a Garden Pond

Are you aware that having a pond to complement your garden is beneficial for you and members of your family? This is so because a pond represents an ecosystem. As such it has the basic features of a functioning ecological unit.

The pond is a field laboratory for microbiology. Plankton organisms are revealed under the microscope. In their diversity, a whole new world unfolds- a world man did not know before Anton van Leewenhoek introduced the science of microscopy sometime in the 17th century.
There are monerans and protists, the world’s oldest- yet simplest- organisms. It is a wonder why these organisms did not evolve and develop into complex organisms like the plants and animals we know- and why they are ensconced in a confined environment such as a pond.
………………………………………………………………………………………………
The microcosm of the ocean is the pond; it is like “seeing the world in a grain of sand.” And for the eons of time and generations these organisms have passed through, it is like “holding eternity in the palm of the hand.” Thus the pond is the representation of our biological world, manifesting how little we know of God’s immense wisdom contained in a drop of water that teems with myriads of micro-organisms.
………………………………………………………………………………………………
Anyone who takes time to sit by the pond could lose his thoughts in the larger realm of nature and the countryside. Cattail and umbrella plants rise among the floating water lilies, whose pink to purple flowers break the monotony of the pondscape. But the centerpiece of the pond is a community of white-flowered lotus or purple flowered Nymphaea..

From the deep green water, one may be surprised to see a school of colorful carp and tilapia, stirring at the slightest hint of company and food. Their graceful movement creates gentle waves and soft lapping sounds against the shore line. To an observant eye, small fish like Poecilia and rainbow fish form small schools that inhabit the edges of the pond and its tiny islets and coves formed by aquatic plants and stone. These tiny fish are always mindful about staying out of the path of their large counterpart. Other than small insects that fall into the water, they subsist on the latter’s morsels.

At the bottom of the pond lies the harmless, independent janitor fish known for their role of eating crust of algae and scum. That is why they are important in keeping aquariums and ponds clean. In the process, they convert organic matter into detritus, the pond’s natural fertilizer, and are the source of sediments that accumulate and become a foothold of aquatic plants. Seldom to these helpful creatures rise to the surface, but if you want to see these shy, docile fish, peer into the water on a clear day when the sun is directly above, and you will find them lying prostrate at the bottom, like sunken ship on a sea floor.

The pond relieves tension. When you need to relax, observe the turtles basking in the morning sun, stretching their neck and appendages. Or watch those cooling off on a hot day, their nostrils and carapace protruding out of the water. Nearby, a toad might patiently sit on a leaf pad, sheepishly eyeing an unwary insect for its next meal, its long tongue coiled like spring, ready to strike like lasso.

Bees buzz from flowers to flower, while dragonflies - red, green and brown - hover prettily above the water as they search for a suitable place to lay eggs that will hatch into aquatic nymphs that feed on mosquito wrigglers and Daphnia. Strung on leaves and stalks are spider webs glistening with dewdrops. These resemble strings of diamonds that will soon turn into nearly invisible death traps for the hoppers, mosquitoes and flies that stray into them. Frogs are permanent residents in a small pond, singing at the onset of rain and exchange love calls throughout the breeding season. They remain quiet in summer as they aestivate and wait for the rains to come again.

Kataba or canal fish (Poecillia) thrives without any care, as long as there is water, living on plankton and insects that fall into the pond or attracted by a nearby vigil light. Whenever there is stagnant pools around, I put a pair of these mosquito-eating fish and that solve the possibility of malaria or dengue to occur in our the place. Our pond serves as kataba nursery of sort; we give relatives, friends and students who wish to grow kataba in their own aquarium or pond.

The green water in the pond is a good hunting ground for microscopic flora and fauna. With a microscope on hand I have discovered a lot of planktons, many of which are unfamiliar. The green color is made up of millions of one-celled green algae which constitute the pasture of zooplankton organisms. They are the autotrophs, the base of the food pyramid in a pond ecosystem.

Would a backyard fill in the vacuum created by our wanton destruction of natural resources, the rape of our forests, the draining of swamps, the conversion of mangrove to fisheries? Or the gross negligence in keeping our lakes and rivers full and clean – or at least for having nature to take care of them? I doubt. But the little Eden each one of us make in our backyards would collectively recreate little by little that bigger Paradise we lost, when and to what extent we can only surmise and struggle with will and resolve. It is our little contribution in regaining the Lost Paradise. xxx

Trivia: By examining the physical characteristics of plants we can read how nature intended them to be used. This is not true.

This is a belief called Doctrine of Signatures, which was popular during the Middle Ages. Liverworts (Riccia and Marchantia) which resemble the shape of liver are effective for liver diseases. The shapes of eggplant and avocado suggest fertility and aphrodisiac value. Apple and mango resemble the heart and are therefore good when it comes to matters of love. Kidney beans are good for the kidney, but the truth is that it has high uric acid content. The garlic plant has a hollow stem so that it would be of benefit in afflictions of the windpipe, hence used in all types of respiratory disorders such as cough, colds, catarrh, asthma and bronchial problems.

Physical appearance has nothing to do with the curative powers of plants, or animals for that matter. It is true that garlic is an effective respiratory cure, but it is its active ingredients that are responsible for it. ~

Sweet, Sweet Memories

2012-02-06T16:56:00.000-08:00

Abe V Rotor

Century old mango trees, San Luis, Batangas

Whoever planted these trees I may not know,
yet know his thoughts and dreams;
for the trees carry on long after he is gone,
a world of many realms.

Frolicking in a river, Bohol

Turn back the hands of time I beg,

when the rivers and streams flow,

whisper and shine deep from their bed,

of stones like gems in the glow.

Turn back old age to happy childhood

when there were no airplanes and cities;

when tall trees are enough to behold

the faces of clouds and the deities.

For childhood is the saintly phase of life

though raucous in frolic and in game;

who cares about rules knowing no strife,

that makes grownups sad and ashame? ~

Sled kiddie ride. Bantay, Ilocos Sur

It's a ride to the moon and among the stars,
in air castle and fantasy;
It's a ride through time and into the future,
child to man, man to reality.

Sunken pier, Santo Domingo, Ilocos Sur

Enigma of the sea before us in the sea urchin;
so vast to be seen in a specimen;

enlarging on the contrary what is and had been
that makes knowledge indeed a gem.

Modern Don Quijote before the wind mill. Bangui, Ilocos Norte

Wind mill and sail - prime movers in union:
muscle of living,
wing to freedom;
And man may choose to be a fool with vision:
invent and discover,
travel and conquer;
Or lose himself in the crowd into oblivion.

Anna at the Twin Falls, Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte

Rage, rage, rage,
and I shall be calm.
Be calm and I shall rage.
Rage, rage, rage!

Kid Leo and his kid, at home, circa 1982;
20 years after.

Don't believe in the troll,
instead believe in a lovely kid
growing up with its master,
to test their bond its bid.~

Biggest Bell - Santa Monica, Capiz

2012-02-06T16:52:00.000-08:00

Abe V Rotor

The big antique bell, measures 7 feet in height, 5 feet in diameter, and 10.4 tons in weight. It is surrounded by eight smaller bells that are sounded in coded pattern depending on the church occasion.

Author stands beside the replica of the biggest bell in Southeast Asia and third world's biggest. The original bell hangs atop the Sta Monica church belfry (lower photo). The faithful respond to its call with respect, to as far as eight kilometers away, like their ancestors did for generations. Roxas City, Capiz

Old Santa Monica church's interior garden

Details: engravings, scar of war, hanger, bell's interior and thickness

"Nothing is far from God."

- Saint Monica

Feast Day - August 27th

Patron of Wives and Abuse Victims

Sta. Monica church was built in 1774, it is considered one of the oldest churches in the country and can be found in Panay, Capiz. Declared as a National Landmark by the National Historical Institute in 1997, its architecture is majestic Baroque.

The grand structure of the church is made of coral stone, shaped into Latin cross with one large central altar and four lateral ones. Each lateral altar, stunningly gilded with retablos of hardwood, supports artistically-made polychrome religious statues.

Atop the five-storey belfry of the church hangs the Dakung Ligganay (big bell), which is believed to be the biggest bell in Southeast Asia, and third in the world. The bell was cast using 70 sacks of coins by Don Juan Reina to honor God and the Virgin of Consolacion in 1878. (Mystical Capiz, by Ma Glaiza Lee)

For whom the bell tolls but for thee,

when born to when you shall leave,

and in between silence takes you free

into what life is and what you believe,

yet not being alone in this cruel world,

but finding it sane in Heaven's bid.

Acknowledgment: Very Rev Msgr Benjamin F Advincula, PC

Episcopal Vicar for the Clergy, Archdiocese of Capiz; Santa Monica Parish; and Museo de Santa Monica curator and staff.

Tunnel Windows to Heaven

2012-02-06T16:50:00.000-08:00

Abe V Rotor

Daybreak, I ask what lies beyond the wall, and a whisper

came through, what goes in there.

And the view

I see is the same though,

yet a vine across the window

is calling, hello!

Walls, walls, walls, I complain.

Windows, windows the sun and wind in refrain.

One window is blocked

with the machine of a clock

that had long stopped.

Tic-tac-tic-tac-tic-tac

Here's one bright morning, ah, but another game,

yet a holy name I hear to learn to say, Amen.

I see heaven through a keyhole,

and myself whole;

I wish to reach it, but the key isn't mine

And neither time.

Acknowledgment: Santa Monica church; Rev Msgr Benjamin Advincula

Episcopal Vicar for the Clergy, Archdiocese of Capiz,

and Parish Priest of Santa Monica

Museo de Santa Monica, Roxas City, Capiz

2012-02-06T16:47:00.000-08:00

Abe V Rotor

The museum is housed in a renovated convent beside the old church.

Church of Sta Monica originally built in the 17th century

National Historical Marker. The old church itself is a museum.

Memorabilia

Centuries-old relics and icons

Gasera, oil lamps

Altar made of carved and molded silver plate

Mediogori Mother and Child icon

Blessed Sacrament

Relics and carved wooden table-chest

Original altar piece

St. Augustine

Author pays respect to the dead Christ; sacred garments (above)

Map of the Province of Panay

Sta Monica, tabenacle, halo of gold and silver

German accordion; Microphone, WWII

Acknowledgment: Very Rev Msgr Benjamin F Advincula, PC

Episcopal Vicar for the Clergy, Archdiocese of Capiz; Santa Monica Parish; and Museo de Santa Monica curator and staff; Rev Msgr Vicente F Kilata, Rev Fr Vic Bendico, Fr Anthony Bautista, Fr Mark Granflor, Fr Nonoy Abalajon, Fr Noel Abalajon, Fr Robert Alba, Bro Ray Bofill et al

Bannawag - the International Ilokano Magazine

2012-02-06T05:43:00.000-08:00

Abe V Rotor
Managing Editor Cles B Rambaud and the author at the editorial
office of Bannawag, Manila Bulletin Bldg., Intramuros, Manila

Bannawag (Iloko word meaning "dawn") is a Philippine weekly magazine published in the Philippines by Liwayway Publications Inc. It contains serialized novels/comics, short stories, poetry, essays, news features, entertainment news and articles, among others, that are written in Ilokano, a language common in the northern regions of the Philippines.

Bannawag has been acknowledged as one foundation of the existence of contemporary Iloko literature. It is through the Bannawag that every Ilokano writer has proved his mettle by publishing his first Iloko short story, poetry, or essay, and thereafter his succeeding works, in its pages. The magazine is also instrumental in the establishment of GUMIL Filipina, the umbrella organization of Ilokano writers in the Philippines and in other countries.

History

Bannawag magazine was conceived in 1934 when Magdaleno A Abaya of Candon, Ilocos Sur, who was then a member of the editorial staff of the Graphic magazine, an English weekly published by the Roces Publications. Don Ramos Roces, the owner-publisher of Graphic magazine and other vernacular magazines which included Liwayway, Bisaya, and Hiligaynon, scoffed at the idea when Abaya presented a proposal to put a magazine for Ilocanos.

But Abaya did not lose hope until Don Ramos gave his consent-with condition that the first issues were only for a try-out, that after one or two months without improvement in the sales, it will be stopped. Abaya was elated and hurried to find willing companions to help him run the magazine. In the end, he was able to persuade Mauro Peña to be the magazine's assistant and news editor, Francisco Fuentecilla of Zambales as assistant and news editor,; and Benjamin Gray, also of Candon, Ilocos Sur, as proofreader. Thus, Bannawag or "Dawn," or the Iloko equivalent of Liwayway, was born.

Bannawag's first issue on November 3, 1934 had a production run of 10,000 copies with a selling price of PHP 0.10 per copy. The magazine was an instant success beyond the belief of Don Ramon, and he allowed the continued publication of the magazine.

During the Second World War, the combined U.S. and Philippine Commonwealth ground troops to fought by the Japanese Imperial forces led by General Tomoyuki Yamashita around the fall the battles started the liberation in Northern Luzon in 1945.

When Roces Publications was sold to Brig. Hans M Menzi in 1966, the name was changed to Liwayway Publishing, Inc. Thirty nine years later, in 2005, the publication of Bannawag was transferred to Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation. Clesencio B Rambaud, Prudencio Gar, Padios and Juan Al, Asuncion were tasked to man Bannawag. However, Padios migrated to Canada in October 2006 and Ariel S Tabag of Sta Teresita, Cagayan was recruited to fill in the vacancy.

New Bannawag

Bannawag underwent significant metamorphosis when its publication when taken over by the Manila Bulletin, from its content, color, quality of paper used, page layout, and other aspects to keep up with the needs of the times. These changes made the magazine more prestigious in its tasks in bringing entertainment, information, and inspiration to millions of readers in the language spoken by hardly Ilocanos and in depicting the different aspects of the Ilocano character.

Recently, it was picked up by the Department of Education as one of the important references of the educational system in Ilocano-speaking areas in the country.

Present

Bannawag has gone a long way from its 10-centavo cost for each edition in the 1930s and is moving vigorously to live up the past as an important part of today and tomorrow's dream of the Ilocanos. Bannawag celebrated its Diamond Anniversary on November 3, 2009. ~

Acknowledgment: Wikipedia, Bannawag Magazine editorial staff

Paliiwem No Kasano nga Agasan ti Ayup ti Bagina (Observe the self-healing power of animals) - a lesson in Ilocano

2012-02-06T05:13:00.000-08:00

Abe V Rotor
Reprint from Okay ka Apong: Dagiti Tawid nga Sirib ken Adal, ni Dr Abe V Rotor, Bannawag Magazine

Ammo ti aso nga agasan iti bagina. Dilpatanna iti sugatna, ket aginana a nabayag iti maysa a nalamiis a lugar. Saan a mangmangan (fasting) inggana't makaungar.

Esteria da apong nga adda dagiti ayup a maagasanda ti bagbagida.

• Dalusan dagiti aso, ugsa, baka, ken kapadada ti sugatda babaen ti panangkunnot wenno panangdilpadilpatda iti sugatda. Addaan iti natural nga antibiotioko ti katayda. Nakadidillaw met nga ipainitda dagiti sugatda. Adda met sumagmamano nga ayup kas iti baot’ talon a mangtapkal iti sugatda iti tutot ti kayo (resin/gum).

• Naipakdawyan kadagiti manok ken billit ti mangamloy kadagiti dutdotda tapno maurnos, tapno maduktalanda no adda ‘parasite’ (ulmog, kuton, kdp.) ken dadduma pay a rugit.

• Regular ti panagdigos dagiti animal ken tumatayab. Agduduma ketdi ti panagdigosda— danum, init (panagpainit, panagpabilag), pitak (nuang ken baboy a netib), ken uray tapok.

• No masugatan ti orangutan wenno gorilia, padasenna a pagsardengen ti panagdarana babaen dagiti imana. Ken kabaelanna ti agsapul iti umisu a bulbulong a pangtapalna.

• Adda met dagiti oso nga agdigos iti napudot a sulfur.

• Ti lobo a tinukkaw ti karasaen, mangtilmon iti snakeroot.

• Bayat ti panagtutudo, pakanen ti atap a pabo dagiti annakna kadagiti bulbulong dagiti pagrekado a mulmula.

• Ti aggurigor nga animal, mangbirok iti napariir, nalinong a disso iti asideg ti dan-aw ket agyan dita a siuulimek, sagpaminsan a mangan ken naynay ti yiinumna.

• Kasapulan dagiti babbai a billit ti apog (lime) iti panangbukelda iti ukis ti itlogda. Gagangay laeng ngarud no makakitatayo kadagiti taraken a billit nga agtuktuktok iti cuttlebone (tulang ti laki).

• No agsakit wenno nasugatan, gagangay nga usaren dagiti atap nga ayup ti duogan a remedio ti nakaparsuaan: agas, angin, ken naan-anay a panaginana. Naamiris daytoy ti tao ket natignay wenno nainspirar iti panangipakatna iti arte ti natural a panagagas (natural healing). Agingga iti agdama, adu a mangngagas (kaaduanna dagiti erbolario) ti mangar-aramat iti wagas dagiti ayup iti panangagasda iti bagbagida.

Toad (Bufo marinus) - maturog ti uneg ti ringgat wenno kueba bayat ti panagtikag wenno panaglamiis ti tiempo

Nakakitakayon iti burtong iti bulong? Dayta a burtong ti awaganda apong iti kanser dagiti mula.
Masansan a kapten daytoy a kanser ti bulong ti santol, gawed, dapdap, ken dadduma pay. Agpapada dagitoy a kapten ti nasao a kanser iti uray ania a bangir ti bulong. Iti uneg dagitoy a tumor, sibibiag dagiti nagbabassit a ‘parasite’. Agbiag ken umaduda. Agingga a dagiti “annakda”, umakarda iti sabsabali pay a bulong, ken uray dagiti sanga. Umadu nga umadu agingga nga agregregen dagiti bulong ti kayo, ket no awanen dagiti bulong daytoy, agbisin agingga a matay.

Daytoy ti makagapu iti panagpukaw dagiti dapdap iti adu a paset ti pagilian.
Adda met ketdi usar dagiti burtong. Mabalin a maaramid a diubos ti burtong a partuat ti

Homopterans iti sumagmamano a kita ti kaktus.
Ngem kaaduanna a makadidigra kadagiti mula ta bumassit ti maibunga wenno produksion dagitoy, wenno patayenna pay ti mismo a mula.

Pagsayaatanna, maisupadi iti pammati ti kaaduan, saan a makaapektar daytoy burtong dagiti mula kadagiti animal ken tao.—O

Happy Faces, Pleasant Views

2012-02-02T17:56:00.000-08:00

Abe V Rotor Floridablanca, Pampanga

Summer is vacation everyday,
and any time is spring;
autumn is just romantic
and winter - if any - is brief;
such is life the greatest art
for the young and happy heart.

Manaoag, Pangasinan

Mingle with the gods and angels under the sun
while childhood and innocence are one.

DZRB radio station, PIA Visayas Ave QC

Confidence and smile - they go on air, too;
invisible they are, yet have wings
that carry the spoken word
and melodious sound,
to the mind, heart and soul.

At home, Lagro QC

Capture in colors and hues,
light and shadow, object and views;
imagination, more than thought -
it is dream that you sought.

At home, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

Real wealth in bounty and praise,
nature's gift of grace.

Mall of Asia, MM

Forever young - yes, you are,
as young as your heart and mind,
with things that make children
children and hold back the time.

A harvest of guyabano, at home Lagro QC

Remnant of bat or bird, fruits are sweeter;
such is man's fate by his lesser sense,
yet accepts it part of life and game
by competition and evolution.

Parks and Wildlife Center QC

Learn outside the school;
away from shop and mall,
to where Nature is the teacher
the greatest teacher of all.

Dr Anselmo S Cabigan, scientist and professor, with rare bamboo, Lipa Batangas

Teach in situ where Nature is,
where learning is at ease;
teach with wisdom of old,
and learners take what is told.

UST campus, Manila

Loitering is idleness in disguise;
it's keeping with one's pace, too;
for the mind hangs up sometimes,
like the computer, must reset anew.

Atop a guava tree, Floridablanca, Pampanga

Grownups deny childhood,
it comes spontaneously,
surreptitiously -

and innocently.

Anna, Mall of Asia MM

Oh, little brother, little sister,
tell me, who is who,
in the world of animae,
and that of grownups, too.

Anna with parakeets, Safari World, Bangkok Thailand

They come when they're hungry
by two or three;
they come when they like to play,
or seek company.

UST campus Manila

Photography the latest fad
subjects from real to toy;
in takes one into freedom
to find simple joy.

Coed, UST campus, Manila

It matters little if called Doña Aurora
or Doña Trining,
or mythical Medusa transformed;
she is the star shining.

Death of Privacy - Watch out you are being watched!

2012-02-02T16:45:00.000-08:00

Dr. Abe V. Rotor and Ms. Melly Tenorio
DZRB 738 AM Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid
Monday to Friday, 9 to 10 Evening Class

Transmission tower - eye in the sky

“Someone is watching your every move – at the bank, on the Internet, even walking down the street. Our right to be left alone has disappeared, bit by bit, in Little Brotherly steps.” Say Time magazine in a special issue on The Death of Privacy. We are headed for an even wired unregulated, over intrusive privacy-deprived planet. Privacy is dying.

Our letters are no longer private on e-mail dispatch. ID are also for time record, entry pass, emergencies, discounts. We carry USP (removable disc) which contains a library of information indistinguishable whether for private or public consumption. And who cares, if you too, get access to the same unsolicited materials?

Don’t forget to lock up your personal computer; even then, be sure no one knows your PIN (personal identification number). One moment every it contains is copied without your knowing it. For hackers it worst; you can’t keep your own files anymore.

Go to the mall, drop at the Post Office, pick up grocery, visit an ITM. Waiting for a ride, speeding on a highway, practicing in a gym, promenading? Anything you do, even in your rented bedroom, someone is looking at you through the electronic eye, a n-generation of the conventional camera, complete with sounds, and special effects, versatility likened to Hubs telescope or Skylab’s.

In fact your organs are monitored on TV during diagnosis, more so during operation. I saw my kidney bombarded by laser. “Oh, you are awake,” my doctor was surprised. “See, the stone is gone, the fragments are being flushed out.” It’s me I was seeing. I don’t know if I passed out afterward that.

Cell phone. Yes, it’s a magnificent invention. You can be at any place at anytime. And with modern hybrids, you send and receive information to whomever without full control. That is why clever people make a dummy of them and hide their reality. This is your Second Person, your avatar, your clone, but you are soon to be discovered, and little by little your second person becomes your first person – you.

Good if it’s the real you as you would like put your best foot forward, so to speak. Somebody did some anatomical experiment, putting your face on another body, doing a thing you don’t like in a place your find impossible to be, attired differently, if at all. And your dignity? “Oh, it’s not me,” you deny, but it’s your face people see. And this monster runs on the wire and soon you find yourself an international figure (disfigure). You are lost.

Melly asked me if it’s all right to have a digital ID system. Why not, who does not have one nowadays? Even a kinder child has one around the neck; college students enter the school premises by swiping their ID to show their face and number on the monitor, otherwise you are trapped and questioned. Remember terrorists are also in white.

But the worst and ultimate loss of privacy is in having a Personal Gene Map. Since HGP (Human Genome Project was launched and published, there will come a time each of us will be wearing a mini disc that contains the map of our chromosomes and their corresponding genes, and each gene carrying a specific trait from the color of your hair to your temperament. In short, genetic cartography reveals all our traits which doctor, insurance companies, prospective employers and spouses are, and likely, to know. “Will the map also show loyalty, infidelity?” asked Melly. I was speechless. I was nodding my head in disbelief. Why not? Hasn’t holism been re-defined by science and technology. Now what chromosome or chromosomes, and what gene or genes can we view the so-called inner self – conscience? God, where is the soul to be found?

How are you spied on?

Bank machines – Every time you use an automated teller; the bank records the time, date and location of your transaction.

Prescription drugs – If you use your company health insurance to purchase drugs, your employer may have access to the details.

Browsing on the web – Many sites tag visitors with magic cookies that record what you’re looking at and when you have been surfing.

Cellular telephone – Your calls can be intercepted and your access numbers cribbed by eavesdroppers with police scanners.

Credit cards – Everything you charge is in a database that police, among others, can look at.

Registering to Vote – Voter registration records are publis and online – if computerized. They typically list your address and birth date.

Making a phone call – The phone company does not need a court order to note the number you’re calling – or who is calling you.

Supermarket scanners – Many grocery stores let you register for discount coupons that are used to track what you purchase.

Sweepstakes – In the US these are bonanzas for marketers. Every time you enter one, you add an electronic brushstroke to your digital portrait.

Satellites – Commercial satellites are coming online that are eagle-eyed enough to spot you – and maybe a companion – in a hot tub.

Electronic tools – In many places, drivers can pay tolls electronically with passes that tip off your whereabouts.

Surveillance cameras – They’re in banks, federal office buildings, 7-elevens, even houses of worship; New Yorkers are on camera up to 20 times a day. How about us in Metro Manila?

Mail-order transactions – Many companies, including mail-order houses and publishers, sell lists of their customers. Why do you think you’re getting those catalogs?

Sending e-mail – In offices, E-mail is considered part of your work. Your employer is allowed is allowed to read it – and many bosses do.

1. Protect Yourself
2. Just say no to telemarketers. Say, “I don’t take phone solicitations.”
3. Consider removing your name from many direct-mail and telemarketing lists.
4. Pay cash whenever possible.
5. Be wary about buying mail order.
6. Give your Social Security number only when required by law.
7. Think twice before filling warranty cards or entering sweepstakes.
8. Be careful when using “free blood pressure clinics.”
9. Avoid leaving footprints on the Net.
10. Surf the Web anonymously.

If you can make it, disarm yourself of any electronic device on a weekend, and stay home. Take a vacation away from electronic devices. It could be the best way of restoring a part of your privacy. Set on mailbox, if not switch off, your cell phone to enjoy your weekend or vacation.

Assignment: List down in what ways, and other means, you can preserve or restore your privacy. ~

From cigarette to pipe smoking – then I stopped. A personal saga

2012-01-30T06:03:00.001-08:00

By Dr AV Rotor

I did not only smoke cigarettes, I graduated to pipe tobacco smoking. When you have tasted Half-and-Half or Captain Black, believe me Marlboro and Philip Morris taste flat. That’s how one gets addicted to more and stronger nicotine. And having a pipe on a Monday, and a dozen more to fit each day or occasion, and dress code, makes you stand out of the crowd, so to speak. Wow! Sikat! And you feel a special person. For in the seventies, up to now, pipe smoking people have either the British or American accent. I even tried Australian but settled poorly with Ilocano, my native tongue. Now compare pipe tobacco with pinadis (hand rolled cigar) tobacco, exaggeratedly foot-long. I almost forgot my origin.

So you see smoking is air, it is high society, it is macho, it is advertising something you do not really have, or have to. I wore coat and tie once in a while with Sherlock Holmes’ “S” pipe, or wore khaki jacket and denim pants and had MacArthur’s corn cob pipe. I also had pipes with the bowl covered with genuine leather from camel, kangaroo and anaconda, and made people believe I have gone all over the world including the Amazon. Which actually I hadn’t except a stopover once in Europe which introduced me to the idea of shifting to pipe smoking.

And I had a friend, Sel, who shared the same idea. So after finishing our doctorate, we started scouting for the best pipe in town. Definitely it should be briar wood because it’s the only wood that does not burn, and its nesting weight on the palm of the hand is assuring. I suspect that it’s being a briar is not the species but the age of the wood, perhaps as old as the Redwood or the Bristle Cone, estimated two to three thousand years old. Imagine holding a piece of time as early as BC. And history! Just like what the great English poet William Blake said, “Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour.” You hold too, time and space. Pipe smoking leads you to hallucination.

I tell you what the substance is – the filler tobacco - that rouses the olfactory more than grandma's pie? It must come from a combination of selected tobacco varieties, cured with the best liqueur, and hermetically sealed to greet the user as fresh as it was blended. In Europe a blend is highly personalized, like wine. This is top secret of connoisseurs. For us here, I for one settled for two brands, American and European pipe tobacco in can, then the only available ones. Believe me the difference between the two is indistinguishable. It’s still Nicotiana tabacum, the same tobacco of Fidel Ramos, Deng Hsiao Ping, Fidel Castro, et al.

More about the art of pipe smoking. I lit my pipe with a special lighter whose flame goes downward into the bowl, and witnessed in the process of huff-and puff a Krakatoa in the making. I peered into the glowing crater. Then I would savor the maiden smoke as fresh as morning air, blowing it in a series of “O’s” which takes skill to perfect it. You don’t inhale, unlike cigarette. The smoke runs through the oral to the nasal cavity and out through the nostril, gently fuming a cloud of smoke that surrounds the face, with your eyes half close in dreamy relaxation. It was really thrilling, exhilarating. What on a Sunday morning with brewed black coffee and newspaper and elevated feet?. Ah, and ahs….

Some high-chin and easy-chair years passed. I was in my middle thirties, still a bachelor. I wondered if pipe smoking attracted women of my liking. Or did I drive them to safe distance? On the mirror I didn’t change, not a bit American or European. Not even with sparse mustache which I jokingly tell my barber it is insured like that of Clark Gable. My lips were a little deformed now, and being right handed the pipe tended to settle rightward, with some teeth bearing the weight giving up. My lips lost their natural curve and color, and my teeth permanently stained no toothpaste would dare clean it in advertisement. My fingers could be mistaken for pellagra. If only they had the Midas touch!

I reeked tobacco. People avoided me, but how did I know, if I couldn’t even smell myself? It’s true. Smokers are immune to the smell of tobacco, and it is stale odor – breath, sweat, clothes, books, bed, and the like - so whom would they trust to tell them so? And my skin became dull and dry, and episodes of feeling down became frequent – so with refilling and caressing my pipe. In short I was already addicted to the nicotine and the pipe is now only secondary to it.

Nicotine is a poison, a very strong one. The extract of one stick of cigarette when directly injected into the blood stream will immediately kill the person. So why don’t we die with packs and packs of cigarette or can after can of mixed tobacco?

Doctors tell us that it’s not the nicotine per se that kills, it’s tar its carrier and a dozen other poisonous substances. The tar deposits into the alveoli, the countless air sacs in the lungs, constricts blood vessels, and stains teeth and clothes. The alkaloids pile up in the kidneys and liver, and restrict natural elimination of other toxins. Elevated heart and pulse rate is our body’s coping mechanism, but like a car running uphill it loses steam fast and soon, until it conks out. Eyesight blurs, sense of taste deadens, so with sensation to touch, pain and pleasure. Alertness slows down, sex urge decreases and staying power shortens.

And it is not the tobacco plant itself that's the enemy; it is how it is grown. The plant picks up the arsenic dusted or sprayed, the lead and mercury in contaminated soil, so with cadmium from batteries today. Systemic pesticides that kill insects, nematodes and mites ensconced in the plant body, unreached by ordinary spraying, persist as residue of high dosage.

By the way, there’s something in the tobacco that changed biology on the concept of what really makes a thing living?. It is the tobacco mosaic virus, Marmor tabaci. The rod shape virus infects tobacco on the field just by rubbing or mere touch of a diseased to healthy plants. And it infects as well all members of the tobacco family - Solanaceae , to which Irish potato, pepper, eggplant, tomato belong. The virus remains dormant for as long as twenty years in the cigarette or filler. And when you touch any of the host plant, the virus resurrects and spreads out in the whole plant and onto neighboring plants. Luckily, scientists assures us the virus has no effect on humans.

But with millions all over the world dying from smoking and its many complications, I believe the virus has mutated - even if biologically it is not considered a true organism. Mutation is still governed by error in DNA replication. And the virus basically has the DNA structure like all things considered as living.

Really there’s nothing good about smoking, contrary to advertisements. I wonder how one can go a mile for a Camel when he is already exhausted at the start. Didn’t the cowboy in Marlboro retire too soon? Salem doesn’t make a beautiful landscape. Fortune isn’t something one expects. Fighter did not make us in our time as brave as Buccaneer.

Take the economic side. Our DOH says the government spends every year some P235 billion a year to treat illnesses caused or related to smoking like heart diseases, stroke, emphysema and lung cancer. And what does the government get in return from the tobacco industry? Only P23 billion, a measly 10 percent of the cost. PDI’s editorial The Puff that Kills, June 1, 2011, reported smoking kills 10 Filipinos every hour, or 243 a day. That’s 87,600 a year – and that’s a conservative estimate. Here is a case of an “old” goose laying the golden eggs, not worth it.

One day I was diagnosed of ulcer in the mouth, a wound that doesn’t heal. If you can’t eat, imagine the rapid decline in body weight and the various ailments you fall to. My clothes became oversized. I likened myself to a POW in a concentration camp in WWII.

“If you don’t stop smoking, you will die,” my doctor warned. “And soon!” he admonished.

Period. My pipes became museum pieces. A beautiful girl came along. We got married, and have three children. We are now living happily.

Smoking changed my life – when I stopped it completely. ~

Convergence

2012-01-30T06:03:00.000-08:00

Painting and Poem by Abe V Rotor

Convergence in acrylic (65" x 32"), AVR 2012

Assignment: Write a verse for this painting.

Mount Makiling - Ideal for Nature Study

2012-01-29T20:32:00.001-08:00

Abe V Rotor

2012 Signs - Prelude to the Mayan Prophesy

2012-01-29T03:54:00.000-08:00

Abe V Rotor

Hanging cross on a topless belfry. Once the
most massive standing Spanish tower in the
Philippines, it lost its crown to earthquake
in the sixties. Bacarra, Ilocos Norte 2009

Defiant smoke belching bus plies along Commonwealth
Avenue QC, a blatant disregard to law, and indifference to
public order and decency. This bus, among thousands of
smoke belching vehicles, is supposed to have passed gas
emission test prescribed by LTO (Land Transportation Office)

Neo colonial building modeled after Greco-Roman
architecture of the Renaissance and introduced by
the Americans during the Commonwealth era gives
way to modernization, Paco, Metro Manila

Razed by fire, this building remained an empty shell for a
long time as people everyday pass by. Intramuros, Manila

"Time overtakes all,
structures crumble,
dreams dim;
acceptance its kindness;
forgetting its end."

Vigan, Ilocos Sur

Drought survivor, field kangkong, gropes over parched
earth caused by El Niño phenomenon. Photo by Nilo
Manalunsong, National Food Authority

Receding shoreline is caused by rising sea level and
more frequent tidal waves brought about by global
warming. Morong, Rizal

Death to all living things, a reminder of Armageddon.
A sand model, St Paul University Museum QC

Dead barnacles bleached and subsequently dislodged from
their rocky foothold as a result of increasing temperature
of sea water mainly attributed to global warming.
Sto. Domingo, Ilocos Sur

City ablaze (Ho Chi Minh, then Saigon capital of Vietnam)
is depicted in this mural painting. Photo 2006

Good Friday sunset. Gray and red sunset is sign of inclement
weather - and true to the prediction of old folks, it ushered the
start of the current El Niño plaguing the country and other parts
of the world. Photo taken at San Vicente Ilocos Sur, April 2009

Sugar mill chimney emits tremendous amount
of heat and carbon dioxide, as well as other
pollutants, an eerie night scene, Calatagan,
Batangas 2007

This dead kamachili tree provided shade and
edible fruits for some fifty years or so until a
barangay road was built beside it necessitating
pruning of its limbs that subsequently led to
its demise. Sagpat, Bantay, Ilocos Sur 2010

Disturbing Street Scenes

2012-01-28T21:47:00.000-08:00

Abe V Rotor

Here are photos taken with a palm size camera from the front seat of a passenger car. Write down the caption of each photo as you would imagine yourself to be the photographer.
Share your thoughts and feelings with others. Come up with advocacy to make our world a better place to live in.

(1)
(2)(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
(8)
(10)
(11)(12)
(13)
(14)
(15)
(16)
(17)
(18)
(19)(20)
(21)
(22)(23)(24)
(25)
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(27)

Amihan - Siberian High

2012-01-28T21:46:00.000-08:00

Painting and Verse by Abe V Rotor

Midas touches all – from the grains to the sun sinking,
And the grains become beads of jewels, heavy, gleaming,
In October Amihan where children with kites meet,
Bringing all life together in retreat.

Music is the rustling of the grains, and the singing
Of the harvesters and flocks of maya birds flying,
While haystacks, like giant mushrooms, grow big and tall,
Living symbols of Good Life for all.

Of all the seasons, Amihan creates the greatest view,
When the colors of the rainbow come sweetly low.
Vivaldi, Rembrandt and Amorsolo – they were touched-
Their hearts, their lives, their art. ~

Spirit of the Tree

2012-01-28T04:54:00.000-08:00

Abe V Rotor

Call the kapre, dwende, tikbalang
to scare or just for fun;
the goddess Maria Makiling,
and Helios, the sun.
I imagine the world without them -
without them around:

Children wouldn't be home before dark;
and dogs at night wouldn't bark?

Why sunflowers always face the sun,
and go to sleep when gone;

trespassers, beware, take the road instead,
unless you hold the labyrinth's thread;

over the hills and valleys thunder rolls
when angry Thor growls,

and mushrooms spontaneously appear
breaking the ground like spear;

phosphorescence fascinates us,
even after the fire has turned to ash;

look up, they’re but one - fireflies and stars,
fireflies are the missing stars;

holiest the altar of nature unspoiled,
where logging was foiled,

where the kapre lives in big trees,
and scares with a sudden breeze;

paddies sigh, bamboos creak and whisper,
unseen - creatures or not – slither.

The world is alive with tales and legends;
untrue yet true, for they are a twin;
and if you pass by a tree, stop and listen
to the spirit that throbs within.~

Leaning Pisa Tree

2012-01-27T19:01:00.001-08:00

Abe V Rotor
The Leaning Fire Tree

Fire tree (Delonix regia,) Family Caesalpinaceae.

At first glance the road and tree are tilting toward each other - which only shows the extent of the "Living Pisa" phenomenon. The tree is found near the junction of Regalado and Fairview avenue going to SM Fairview in Quezon City.

Actually there are thousands of leaning trees in Metro Manila that are pruned to keep them from touching power lines and communication cables running overhead. These are actually the few survivors, but sooner or later they too, will give in to the consequences of deprivation and the law of gravity. ~

The Leaning Fire Tree

Fire tree, burn and speak with rage,
before your flowers become your wreath;
burn the whole day through to its edge,
but never die with the sunset. ~

Forces of Nature Models

2012-01-27T15:56:00.000-08:00

Abe V Rotor and Melly C Tenorio
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid
738 DZRB AM 8-9 evening Mon to Fri
Forces of Nature Models, murals by AVR, 2010.

Model A: Cyclic Force of Nature

Model B: Non-cyclic Force of Nature

Nature is alive. She doesn’t sleep. She can only rest like fallowing, aestivation, hibernation. She is as gentle as breeze and rough like a storm at sea. She is discreet like alpha radiation, silent as a dormant volcano, suddenly waking up.

So with living things. They reproduce, form populations, reach a climax level and establish a niche. Populations interact, they compete. There is diversity. Balance of Nature is built this way and is always dynamic.

There are two general models to illustrate the forces of nature: cyclic and the non-cyclic, as shown in these paintings.

Model A: Cyclic Force of Nature
Model B: Non-cyclic Force of Nature

Every thing in the universe is governed by these two models. So on Planet Earth, in the living and non-living world, in our lives, the march of seasons, in the life cycle of organisms - they follow the concentric model, characterized by repetition as if it is a plantilla .

The second model is best shown by the relationship of matter and energy, by Einstein's formula of E=mc2. It is clearly illustrated in the duality of metabolism – anabolism (constructive) and catabolism (destructive), photosynthesis and respiration, respectively. The classical application of the second model in the transformation of energy from one form to another.

Distinct as these models may appear, the forces of nature are not fixed. There is gradual or sudden transformation from one model to another, from A to B and vice versa. This how is Nature’s healing power can be explained.

For example a typhoon disrupts the balance of an ecosystem, such as a forest (A to B). Trees are felled by strong wind, epiphytes and lianas as brought down by the death of their host trees, nesting birds are driven off. So with myriads of tenants in the forest. All these disruptions represent A.

As the swath of destruction across the forest heals – saplings take over the space of the fallen trees through the years, little by little the former residents return. In fact there are new ones that emerge. Food chains are restored. And food chains form interrelationships to form food webs and food pyramids. We call this process homeostasis (B to A). Then the forest once more becomes a balanced ecosystem (A).

The typhoon that caused such destruction follows also a pattern.

A typhoon by the way starts as a low pressure area. This is caused by differential heating of the atmosphere and surface of the earth by the sun, and in effect creates wind. Cold air is heavier than warm air, so that warm air rises and a low pressure is formed. Now the cold air moves in toward the low pressure area (Boyle’s Law), in the process develops into wind. Because of the nature of the rotation of the earth the wind also rotates, counterclockwise above the equator, and clockwise in the southern hemisphere. As the wind gains momentum it becomes into a cyclone or typhoon. Or hurricane in the South Pacific. Or a tornado. All these represent Model A.

What happens when the typhoon hits land? It slows down, dissipates by transferring its energy on structures of the land, on settlements and farms and forests. (A to B)

Nature is always alive. She doesn’t sleep. She can only rest like fallowing, aestivation, hibernation. She is as gentle as the breeze and rough like a storm at sea. She is discreet like mild radiation or bold like volcanic eruption.

But even volcanic eruption (B) is necessary. Lava fertilizes the surroundings, varies the topography of the land, in fact creates islands and atolls, which become symbols of peace and beauty of Nature (A). ~

Exercise: Here is a list of phenomena and events. Classify each one according to the two models and explain.

Hurricane Katrina
Jogging
Higad season
Migration of birds and animals
Oil spill at Gulp of Mexico
Earthquake in Haiti
The Great Recession
Birth and death of stars
Rise and fall of the Roman Empire
Pasig River before and now
Cloning
Speciation
Desertification
H1N1 pandemic 2009
Adolescence and senility
Chernobyl incident and aftermath
Muro-ami
Liposuction
Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Cancer

This lesson is recommended as a research paper or project in school. It allows student to choose the specific topic, and to work either individually or as a team. ~

Enigmatic Aphid - Master of Survival

2012-01-27T05:34:00.000-08:00

Abe V Rotor

A colony of aphids (Aphis gossypii) on cabbage

By sheer number, you're statistically stable,
ruled by the multiplication table.

Ensconced in your host's leaves and flower,
you're safe from predator and sprayer.

Generations, one after another, under a roof,
your offspring in all stages the proof.

Winged, the males fly to visit other colonies
to share and bring in new genes.

Parasitic by habit, yet you spare your host
from untimely demise at all cost.

But when food supply threatens your colony,
your young is forced to mature early

By the mysterious process of paedogenesis;
and sexless parthenogenesis.

And by symbiosis with the fierce red ant,
food you give, protection its grant.

No other creature I know can you be compared,
your kind I think, will be spared

The morning after, from the Armageddon,
when the earth is barren and alone.

And life after people, you are likely a survivor,
all because Nature is in your favor . ~

Talisay: Tree of Death and Rebirth

2012-01-26T06:02:00.000-08:00

Photos and Verse by Abe V Rotor
Talisay or Umbrella Tree (Terminalia catappa) loses its entire crown during the amihan (cold month). The cooler the wind coming from Siberia, the redder the leaves become before falling off the tree.

I wait for a gust of wind
to shake you up and make you
a skeleton in the blue sky;
your nakedness is also mine
in the passage of time.

One by one your noble death
is proclaimed, each leaf a page,
falling in peace and dignity;
dying to tell the world the story
of the greatest mystery. ~

DORMANCY: Hibernation and Aestivation - Survival Adaptations of Organisms

2012-01-25T16:36:00.000-08:00

Abe V Rotor

Ant colony on the move to safe ground, sensing the coming of the rainy season.

The lichen is a classical example in the art of dormancy. The lichen shown here belongs to the foliose type. Lichens are made up of algae and a fungi living in symbiosis, which explains their superb ability to withstand extreme environmental conditions - except pollution.

Frangipani or kalachuchi remains leafless in summer, then

bursts with flowers. It regains its foliage come rainy season.

"Sleep, so called, is a thing which makes man weep,
And yet a third of life is passed in sleep."
- Lord Byron, Don Juan

Who is not fascinated by the first heavy rain in May, the start of the monsoon season or habagat? The fields come alive, transformed from scorched landscape into vast greenery. What brings about this sudden transformation?

Rainwater breaks the dormancy of seeds lying in the ground. It wakes up the sleeping little plant in a poem, The Little Plant, we learned in the elementary.

In the heart of a seed,
Buried deep so deep.
A tiny plant,
Lay fast asleep.
"Wake," said the sunshine,
"And creep to the light."
"Wake," said the voice,
Of the raindrops bright.
The little plant heard
And it rose to see,
What the wonderful,
Outside world might be.

Seeds of many annual plants like saluyot (Corchorus olitorius) and wild Amaranthus wake up to the rain. The same stimulus touches dormant buds like a magic wand, and in a short time become new and fresh crowns of trees that had been in deciduous state. Tubers and corms come alive simultaneously with tillers and stolons and take their first peep above ground. Bulbs send out their first shoots. There is rejuvenation everywhere.

Thunder and lightning accompany rain and send old folks to hunt for mushrooms the day after. There is scientific explanation to this, although much of the mystery remains. Lightning directly fixes atmospheric nitrogen into nitrate (NO3), which being soluble, is brought down by rain. It is then absorbed by plants, protists - and fungi to which mushrooms belong. How is dormancy of fungi explained? Is it the same as in green plants?

Basically, it is. While plants photosynthesize their food in the presence of sunlight, fungi on the other hand are saprophytic, and draw energy from decomposition of organic matter. But the conditions that break dormancy is the same – the supply of nitrates and other nutrients, sufficient water, suitable foothold and substrate, and favorable temperature. The mycelia of fungi which appear as white, threadlike mass may remain dormant, then springs to life, rapidly spreading all over its growing medium until it is time to produce fruiting bodies, which are the mushrooms.

Dormancy of Seeds

Seeds are masters of the art of dormancy – the temporary stoppage of life processes. Nature has precisely made dormancy as a means of adaptation, and adaptation is a means of survival. Adaptation is the key to fitness defined in Charles Darwin’s law of natural selection. The failure of seeds to grow immediately after maturity – even though conditions of the environment may be favorable – is generally an advantage of many plants.

This phenomenon is demonstrated by plants which are highly sensitive to photoperiodism. These are classified as short-day and long-day species and varieties. For example, the traditional rice variety, wagwag, produces grains only during the short-day period, usually in the last quarter. If it is planted late and does not have chance to mature within the period, it will remain in its vegetable stage and will flower only in October in the following year.

Many desert plants exhibit superb resistance to punishing heat and dryness. They produce seeds that lay dormant in the hot desert soil for as long as there is no rain. Then, when rain finally comes, these seeds sprout immediately, grow and mature as fast as water in the soil is lost. Before the desert reverts to its arid condition, the plants have completed their life cycle, and their seeds once more lie dormant waiting as long as they could for the next unpredictable rain.

Many seeds of cereals and other annual remain dormant for a few days to some weeks under natural condition. However at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Baños, the seeds of about 100,000 rice cultivars kept in the institute’s Germplasm Bank can remain viable for 20 years. It is necessary to germinate the seeds before they lose viability to replace the gene collection.

A colony of dormant Drynaria fern clings on an acacia tree.

This epiphyte, relative of the mistletoe, takes advantage over its host in its deciduous state.

Most farm crop seeds are probably dead after 25 years, even under favorable storage conditions. The alleged germination of seeds after prolonged storage in ancient tombs is known to be a myth. I had a chance to examine some authentic seeds recovered from a pharaoh’s tomb at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The seeds were highly carbonized and have completely lost their viability. There are however, seeds of some plants in the wild that retain their vitality for 50 years or more. Dry arctic lupine seeds found buried in lemming burrows under 10 to 20 feet of frozen soil in the Yukon Territory in Canada, were able to germinate. Their assumed age is older than that of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Vernalization – Overwintering of Crops

Local yam or singkamas sends out shoots after a long
dormancy, which coincides with the rainy season.

Dandelion, other than being dehiscent, is disseminated by
wind. The seed remains dormant in its new home as it
wait for the habagat season.

The term vernalization was first introduced by my professor in Plant Physiology in the late fifties. The technology had just began to revolutionize farming in countries where winter is long and harsh. Formerly in these areas, it was almost impossible to grow wheat and other crops because of the very short growing season. Even if planting is done in early spring, by the time the grains start to mature, frost has already set in.

The Russians found out that by pre-germinating wheat seeds and keeping them safe and healthy during the long winter, the young seedlings will resume growth immediately as the snow thaws. Much time is saved for the crop to grow, while its life cycle is significantly shortened. Before the winter sets in, the crop is already harvested.

Thousands of hectares have been placed under cultivation following this procedure. Seeds of wheat, oats and barley are planted in late autumn. They germinate and remain dormant under snow for the whole winter (overwintering), then resume growth in spring and harvested at the end of the short summer. Researches on the application of vernalization have successfully made other crops adapted to this kind of environment. Former wastelands in Siberia and Northern Canada are now productive farmlands.

Breaking the Dormancy of Wildlife Species

Aestivating snails, crustaceans and frogs ensconced in the bottom of rice fields are similarly liberated by the monsoon rains. Together with hito and dalag which aestivate in mud like the lungfish, they stir with the first contact with rain water, wiggling out to freedom in the flooded fields where they resume active life – growing, mating and reproducing – and migrating while the monsoon persists and whole fields are one contiguous lake.

These are biological feats that feed man’s fantasy to live long and postpone death.
1. The African lungfish buries in mud up to two feet deep in order to escape extreme drought and heat in the desert. It curls into a ball and seals its chamber with its own mucus secretion and there it aestivates for as long as four years in the absence of rain.

2. Garter snakes survive the long Canadian winter while remaining in burrows, or in extreme cases, encrust in ice. They are liberated only when the ice thaws in spring, and soon resume their normal activities. They grow, mate and reproduce before they hibernate again come next winter.

3. Snakes and other reptiles easily go for long periods without food. Snakes have been kept alive without food for almost two years. A python in captivity has been observed to go without food for a period of 13 months. Frogs can fast for 16 months and fishes for 20 months; land tortoise for a year and salamander for one and one-half years.

4. The most popular mammals that hibernate is the bear. Sustained by large amounts of stored fat, it sleeps in the entire winter in its den. Its normal body temperature remains the same in spite of its heartbeat reduced from 40 to 10 times per minute. Beware, a sleeping bear may be provoked at the slightest disturbance.

5. Bats in hibernation hang in caves, eat nothing, their hearts feebly beating and their breathing scarcely imperceptible. Through collective body heat the colony survives extreme cold and long winter.

Fasting – Mechanism for Survival

After its fill, an iguana can fast for several days.

Hairy caterpillar prepares for final molting, enters pupal stage, and emerges into moth.

Fasting is a means of meeting exigencies of life. It is one of nature’s best methods of dealing with physiological problems. Take the hibernating bear, the aestivating crocodile, the sick elephant, the wounded dog – these fast in order to meet the problems before them. Fasting is indeed a very useful means of adaptation.

But how long can animals abstain from food? Let us look into these examples.

1. There were dogs that remained alive for 38 days without food. The longest survival record is 117 days.

2. Rats may survive after 5 to 6 days. Guinea pigs may last for 7 to 8 days without food, while rabbits can live for 15 days under strict fasting.

3. Spiders undergo incredible fasting, spinning webs daily from substances generated by their bodies. Spiders have been observed to exist without food for 17 months.

4. Unicellular organisms such as amoebae and paramecia can exist without food from 4 to 24 days. As a result they undergo diminution in size.

5. The larvae of a beetle, Trogoderma tarsale, that infest cereals can live for as long as five years without food.

6. The condor, like all other vultures, is capable of fasting for days. It gorges itself however, when it finds food.

7. Scorpions are known to have starved for 368 days.

8. A freshwater fish, Amia calva, can fast for 20 months.

9. Ticks can exist in an active state for as long as four years without eating anything.

10. A boa constrictor may remain inactive for months after a full meal. So with the anaconda in the Amazon jungle.

Deeper mystery shrouds our knowledge of Dormancy

It is practice to irradiate potato and onion before they are stored in order to retard sprouting. If radiation does not kill the embryo how does it induce dormancy?

Locusts may suddenly group and coalesce into a swarm. Like birds and other animals, migration is an adaptive mechanism to escape extreme conditions of the environment. Are these organisms not equipped with the gene for dormancy?

Deciduousness (complete shedding of leaves) of certain trees like the narra, occurs periodically but not necessarily jibed with the dormancy period. In fact some trees are even more luxuriant when other plants are dormant. We have little knowledge about the biological clock that dictates dormancy among different species of organisms.

Episodes of the Red Tide phenomenon caused by dinoflagellates, such as Pyrodinium, Peridinium, and Gonyaulax, are unpredictable. What predispose these organisms to bloom? How do they stay dormant in between seasons of occurrence?

This leads us to the epidemic cycles of certain human diseases. How do influenza viruses stay “alive” during off-season? What made H1N1 virus (swine flu) spread into pandemic in so short a time? When will its virulence subside?

How does HIV remain passive in an HIV positive patient? Bubonic plague devastated medieval Europe in three major waves killing one-third of the population. How do we explain alternate virulence and dormancy of the causal organism?

What really induce flowering? How does potassium nitrate induce flowering of mango during off-season? Why is it that old folk cut notches on the trunk of trees that are “lazy” to bloom? Then for whatever reason, the wounded trees come alive with flowers and fruits.

As I was writing this article, some birds came flying by and perched on a nearby talisay tree singing melodious songs that herald a new season - amihan. The Siberian winds have arrived. In the Northern hemisphere it is time for hibernation, in the South hemisphere it is aestivation. For many birds and animals, it is time for migration.

Except for humans, all living things take heed of Nature’s call. ~

Countless organisms take refuge at the bottom of this drought
stricken pond, ready to resurface upon the arrival of rain.

2012-01-25T04:05:00.000-08:00

Claude Monet's The Water Lilies Mural

2012-01-24T17:08:00.000-08:00

Abe V Rotor

Claude Monet's masterpiece (1923); closeup. Monet continued to paint in
old age even with failing eyesight. Nymphaea waterlilies became his favorite
subject which he repeatedly painted in the same impressionistic style, for
which he is regarded one of the pioneers of impressionism as a movement
that revolutionized art toward the end of the 18th century.

Failing eyesight like failing heart
is keener, sturdier
in the remaining hour, at sunset,
ever eager, fiercer.

Failing eyesight like coming home
down the road or river,
finds meaning to life in a masterpiece,
that lives forever. ~

Claude Monet worked on twelve large canvas, The Water Lilies while his eyesight was already failing. Monet donated them to France, installed in an architectural space designed specifically for them at the museum of the Orangerie in Paris.

Beware of the Higad! (Tussock Moth Caterpillar)

2012-01-24T15:02:00.000-08:00

Abe V Rotor

We call it samrid in Ilocano, higad in Tagalog and Pilipino. It is perhaps the most avoided insect next to the putakti or paper wasp. Unlike the latter, the injury one gets by contact with this spiny caterpillars is far reaching - it can spread to other parts of the body. Thus the rule is: Never rub - not even touch, the affected area. If feasible, light a candle, train the drops on the embedded spines, allow to solidify, then lift off. In this way the spines are pulled out without much damage. Apply vinegar to neutralize the alkaline chemical substance. Taking a bath without vinegar treatment will only spread the minute Neptune spear. There are people who are extremely allergic to higad that they need immediate medical treatment with antihistamine drug.

Tussock moth caterpillars are passive and tend to group together. Before they enter pupal stage they descend from their host tree, hide in crevices, and other suitable places where they will later emerge as moths.

Tussock moth caterpillars in three stages (instars), pupa (left, scantily covered with cocoon thread), molted skin (lower left), and frass or waste (right).

Snowy tussock moth mimic the color and pattern of its host tree, and growing lichens.

Tussock moth - a master of camouflage. It can adjust to the color and pattern of its environment.

First aid: Train melted candle over embedded bristles, then carefully peel off. Apply vinegar on the affected area to dissolve remaining bristles. Do not rub.

NOTE: Skin castings of higad can inflict considerable injury. Eliminate castings by burning or burying, just as caterpillars are disposed off. Higad may inflict the same injury on pets. Regular smudging (smoke emitted by burning dead leaves) can effectively reduced higad population. Household insecticide spray can help. Community control using chemicals needs expert's assistance.

Taming the Dragon Fruit

2012-01-24T05:25:00.000-08:00

Return of Ipil-Ipil Shows Nature’s Healing Process

2012-01-23T12:35:00.000-08:00

Psylla, a minute Homopteran, destroyed

ipil-ipil plantations all over the country.

Abe V Rotor

Ipil-ipil (Leucaena glauca), the miracle tree in the sixties and seventies has provided Filipinos much hope for cheap wood, fuel, paper, board, feeds, compost, and in reclaiming our denuded forests and wastelands.

The Department of Agriculture came up with a “litany” on the miracles about this tree. Ipil-ipil as a new source of dendrothermal power; ipil-pil for high-protein component feed for poultry, piggery and livestock; ipil-ipil as construction material, scaffolding, pole, furniture, toothpick, matchstick – to name a few.

Ipil-ipil can be used in the manufacture of organic fertilizer to reduce our dependence on imported chemical fertilizer. It is also used for rip-rapping, terracing and strip cropping to save our lands from erosion and desertification. It is an excellent source of firewood and charcoal for many homes.

Ipil-Ipil “Gold Rush”

The ipil-ipil fever spread throughout the country that no home lot or farm was virtually without this leguminous tree. Plantations sprouted. As a biologist I know that there are nitrogen-fixing bacteria (Rhizobia) which reside in its roots, adding to the fertility of the soil. With the tree continuously shedding off its leaves, there is free mulch with which to conserve water and control weeds choking the plants intercropped with the tree. Along levees four to six rows of ipil-ipil could effectively serve as windbreak, buffering strong winds and filtering the sand and dust that affect sensitive field and garden crops.

As Forest Wood Substitute

Because the wood is white, soft, and uniform grained, many entrepreneurs tried making toys and decorations such as fans, spin tops, picture frames, knife handles out of it. Since it is easy and fast to grow, it helps in conserving forest trees. This means we can spare harvesting our forests’ reserve. We can keep our narra, almaciga, apitong, and mahogany that are considered rare. Ipil-ipil is also a good substitute of acacia, a favorite of woodcarvers.

Because of its success as a plantation crop in Hawaii and Peru, we did not only import its technology, we introduced its varieties into the country, in favor of our own native variety which is small. In fact one would consider it a mere shrub which happens to be growing in places where no other plants grow, usually on scrubby and inclined slopes, wasteland where only the sturdy talahib and bamboo grow. The early uses for native ipil-ipil are firewood and bean poles.

On closer look the secret of success of the native variety is its tap root system. Few trees can grow on rock with their penetrating deep through cracks in order to reach deep-seated water. In the process, they pry off the rock itself helping in weathering it. And if it is adobe rock, the locked up nutrients are released as soil formation progresses. One drawback of the native variety however, is its high mimosin content.

Mimosin as Pesticide

“Don’t allow the goats to browse too much on ipil-ipil,” my father used to remind me on the farm. I would then secure the rope that restrains the animals feeding in the open. Years later I found out that the warning is based on the fact that mimosin causes poor growth (bansot) and falling of hairs in animals. I believe that early balding is one of the effects of drinking coffee clandestinely mixed with ipil-ipil seeds.

Initial experiments show that mimosin can be made into pesticide against weeds, insects and pathogenic fungi. It has been also observed that it repels insects such as flies and mosquitoes.

Re-vegetation of Corrigidor Island with Ipil-ipil

Our native ipil-ipil is perhaps the first plant used for rehabilitating wastelands in the countryside. Immediately after the war, sacks of native ipil-ipil seeds were air dropped on Corrigidor island at the onset of the rainy season. The project facilitated the re-vegetation of the war-torn island, and prevented it from further destruction, this time from the ravages of erosion.

What Wiped Out Ipil-ipil?

With the introduction of Hawaiian and Peruvian ipil-ipil varieties, the expected performance level in terms of fast growth, adaptation and yield were achieved. This stimulus caused universal acceptance of the new crop, creating a new field in agriculture: dendrothermal (or firewood) farming.

But the boom was short lived. Nobody knew that the foreign varieties also carried with them a deadly pest – the leafhopper of the genus Psylla of the Family Psyllidae, Order Homoptera, the same group of insects that are the scourge of many agricultural crops, such as the tungro leafhopper, aphids, scale insects and mealybug.

Cause of Widespread Infestation

In biology, natural enemies control a pest. If the enemies are not around, the pest multiplies rapidly. Despite quarantine procedures, the Peruvian and Hawaiian varieties carried the Psylla insect from their port of origin. Unlike in their native countries abroad, this pest while here, lost all natural predators. Thus the insect began to multiply to epidemic proportions. Thousands of trees, and plantations, succumbed to the pest.

This is how the pest attacks. First, it establishes a foothold on the young leaves and shoots, where it builds a colony. Being highly prolific the colony can explode into thousands of insects inside of a few weeks, nurtured in all stages of development by the virtually endless supply of nutrients from the growing tree.

The final blow comes when the insect drains the tree sap dry, stopping the growth of healthy shoots to replace the dying ones. Interestingly the bigger the tree is the more it is prone to attack and eventual starvation.

Homopterans are among the most adaptable of all insects. They are very small, reproduce rapidly and can adopt through seasons through alternate tree hosts. Having studied their unusual reproductive development, I have found that when stressed for food or due to a harsh environment, they can shorten their life cycle to accelerate reproduction. Under extreme conditions they either lay eggs prematurely or directly bear young. Sometimes nymphs can reproduce. Biologists call this phenomenon paedogenesis.

Abandonment of Ipil-ipil Projects

In the late 1970s many farms of ipil-ipil were laid waste by the insect. Owners cut down the trees prematurely. Tree, after tree, was felled not by the ax but by the ravages of the pest. But our own native ipil-ipil stood healthy, a proof of genetic resistance of the indigenous variety.

Poecillia or Kataba - Nature's biological agent against mosquitoes

2012-01-22T16:20:00.000-08:00

By Abe V Rotor

This fish is also called by other names like tora-tora in Marilao, and talundi in Bocaue and San Miguel. It is relative of the molly and guppy, which are favorite aquarium pets.

Kataba lives in the wild. It is abundant on the Pasig River, its tributaries up to Laguna Bay. Because it frequents polluted esteros and canals, it is also called canal fish. It is omnivorous, feeding on algae (lumot), decomposing matter, but prefers aquatic organisms. It is so voracious that it can eat nearly the equivalence of its body weight, its belly distended for which it got its name bubuntis or bubundat. It preys on kiti-kiti (mosquito wrigglers), and other aquatic insects and plankton organisms, thus serving as valuable biological agent in checking malaria and dengue which are transmitted by mosquitoes.

Dr. Grace M. Cruz of Bulacan State University studied the larvivorous characteristics of kataba, known as Poecillia latipinna, in a dissertation she defended for a Ph.D. degree at the UST Graduate School in 1998 and found out that six kinds of insects comprise its regular food along ther Marilao River in Bulacan. Other than mosquito wrigglers it feeds on leafhoppers (Nepothettix apicales), aphids (Aphis gossypii and A maydis), gamu-gamu or midges and red ants (Solenopsis geminata), a finding which confirms kataba is a farmer’s friend.

On the other hand, kataba is a voracious predator of other aquatic organisms, which include eggs and fry of valuable fish species, nymphs of dragonflies and damselflies which are themselves predators of kiti-kiti. There are few studies about this resilient fish and we do not even know if they are of any commercial value as human food.

Aquarium shops sell kataba to feed aruana and other predatory fish pets. Kataba is fished from rivers and lakes - and esteros, for this purpose, but the demand has greatly declined because the hobby of keeping aquarium fish is no longer popular.

One way to get rid of mosquitoes is to introduce kataba in stagnant water and waterlogged areas. It is Nature's biological agent against mosquitoes and mosquito-borne diseases. Kataba makes a good project in biology, particularly on the following aspects:

Life cycle
Feeding range
Salinity resistance
Pollution resistance
Pollution control
Species diversity
Food chain study in the ecosystem
Breeding experiments

x x x

Haring Gagamba

2012-01-21T19:50:00.001-08:00

Abe V Rotor

Requiem to Manta

2012-01-20T19:51:00.000-08:00

Slaughter of a Manta Ray in Batangas

Goodbye Manta, I wish to say with respect,
but I will not;
I would only deceive the world and myself,
if you depart.

Goodbye Manta, I wish to say to others too,
but I will not;
for you do not deserve this dreadful fate -
a bloody bath.

Goodbye Manta, I wish the world to go on,
but I will not;
the chain of all creatures on earth must stay,
and we are a part. ~

Childhood: Reflection of Time Past

2012-01-20T16:04:00.000-08:00

Painting and Verse Abe V Rotor

It is on pristine still water
On the face of a wide blue sky,
Climbing on trees and rocks up high
That we see ourselves in the hands of time;

Through the mist we see children
Of many years back with Mark Twain's
Huckleberry Finn and company
On a meandering river to the sea.

Who is fishing there? Ahoy!
Only the tingling chime answers;
The childhood in us throbs, throbs
With the sweet music of time past. ~

The Violin - Therapeutic Effects of Violin and Nature

2012-01-20T04:58:00.000-08:00

Dr Abe V Rotor

Violin and Nature is an experimental approach to music

Music must be elevated from the level of entertainment and expression of skills to one that brings the listener to a state of catharsis, relieving him of the stresses and tensions of daily living. Music therapy is now recognized as part of alternative medicine. There are musical compositions that bring about the so-called Mozart Effect, named after Amadeus Mozart whose compositions are acclaimed by scientists to be the most therapeutic of all musical compositions, even among his contemporaries in the classical and romantic schools.

This article is the result of a research conducted by the author with his class at the UST Graduate School as respondents to the hypothesis that the combination of Violin and Nature sounds has therapeutic effects to the listener. And if so, how? What aspects of our body physiology, mind, psyche, and spirit are affected? In what ways, and how do we measure such effects?

Cover of tape, later copied into CD. Shorter versions are available:
Violin and Birds, Violin and Waves

Can auditory art be developed by converting word to music, and re-create the sound of nature to accompany it? The idea is to find a compatible blend of science - the prosaic and formal, with humanities - the entertaining, cultural, and the sounds of nature, definitely a rare experience that takes place in the inner vision of the mind. Violin and Nature is a CD recording or 32 extemporaneous popular and semi-classical compositions played on the violin by the author with accompaniment of birds, insects, wind, waterfall and running stream.

People say, “ Relaks lang” or “just do it” as part of daily conversation. Either it is taken as advice or compliment, the message is clear: life today is growing tenser. “ Take it easy” has a reassuring note that everybody must learn to live in a stressful world.

Both the poor and rich are subject to different forms of stress, so with the city and village dweller. Ironically, stress does not spare growing affluence. In fact, it persists invariably throughout life, virtually from womb to tomb.

The idea of dealing with tension or stress is how one is able to reduce it effectively so as to enjoy life and get rid of its complications from headaches to various psychosomatic symptoms- and eventual health problems, if it is not checked on time.

One proposal is the use of therapeutic effects of music and nature, thus the rationale of this experiment that employs the combined soothing sound of the violin, and the harmony of nature.

Music is well known to reduce tension. Pipe-in music increases work efficiency in corporate offices, takes out boredom in otherwise monotonous assignments, and fosters proper attitude and disposition, when correctly applied. In fact, scientists have established the biological basis of music by being able to increase the production efficiency in poultry and livestock with the use of background music. The key is the reduction of stress in the animal. The same result has yet to be established in plants.

A stressful life builds tension in the body. Headache, wakefulness, palpitation, indigestion, trembling and many other symptoms, which wear away the life force, accompany tension. Tired nerves need rest and quiet, as nature needs time to recuperate her exhausted energies.

What is tension? It is the effort that is manifested in the shortening of muscle fibers. Physiologists compare muscle tension with “neuromuscular relaxation” to differentiate popular interpretation of relaxation as amusement, recreation, or hobbies. To be relaxed is the direct physiology opposite of being excited or disturbed.

Neurosis and psychoneurosis are at the same time physiological disturbance, for they are forms of tension disorders. Therefore, the key to treatment lies in relaxation.

Who are victims of tension? Everybody is a candidate. These are models of tensed individuals: the “burnt out” housewife, the tagasalo in the family, the gifted child, the dominant lola, the authoritative patriarch. These persons themselves are not only victims of tension; they spread tension among people around them.

Multitudes long for a better life, but they lack courage and resolution to break away from the power of habit. On the other hand, many escape from the harsh realities of life by taking alcohol and drugs.

Hypothesis

The whole idea of relaxation is in disciplining the body to budget life’s energies, and to immerse oneself to relaxing moods. Music and nature are a great inexhaustible source. Plato and Confucius looked at music as a department of ethics. They saw the correspondence between character of man and music. Great music, they believed, is in harmony with the universe, restoring order to the physical world. Aristotle on the other hand, the greatest naturalist of the ancient world supported the platonic view, which through the Renaissance to the present dominate the concept of great composition. Great music has always been associated with God’s creation.

Nature on the other hand, produces calming effects to the nerve. Sightseeing, picnic and camping are a good break to prosaic city life. Different from ordinary amusements in the park or theater, the countryside is one arena of peace and quiet. Features on TV and print media provide but an alternative scenario. Today “canned” Nature is being introduced in many forms such as traveling planetarium, CD-ROM Nature Series, Ecology Village, and the like, to illustrate the growing concern of people to experience the positive effects of Nature in an urban setting characterized by a stressful modern life.

This experiment is based on the premise that the combined effects of music and Nature help reduce tension in daily living, particularly among working students in the city.

Conceptual Framework

A- Tension tends to dominate the body to relax, resulting in tension build-up in the muscles;
B- Music (violin solos) and Nature’s sounds( birds, running stream etc.) make a composition which provides a rare listening experience in varying intensity; and
C- The experience enhances relaxation, reduces tension and its physiologic effects in the individual.

Methodology

The Violin and Nature recorded in compact disc (CD) was then presented for evaluation to students in Research Methodology at the UST Graduate School on two aspects, namely, the content of the tape and the perception of the respondents. Physiologic response was determined by measuring the pulse rate before and after listening to eight sample compositions from the tape for thirty minutes.

These are as follows:

1. Serenade by Toselli (semi- classical)
2. Meditation, from the Thais by Massenet (classical)
3. Lara’s Theme (sound track of the movie, Dr. Zhivago)
4. Beyond the Sunset (ballad)
5. Paper Roses (popular)
6. A Certain Smile (popular)
7. Fascination (popular dance music)
8. Home on the Range (country song)

Respondents Profile

This is the profile of the 42 respondents, which made up one class in research methodology. They are predominantly female students (81%), employed (86%), with ages from 21 to 29 years old (76%).

Content Analysis

The respondents counted eight tunes or pieces, of which 5 are familiar to them. They identified three non-living sounds (running stream, wind, and waterfall, aside from the violin), and two living sounds (mainly birds).

Physiologic Response

The average pulse rates before and after listening to the tape are 79.47 and 73.29 per minute, respectively, or a difference of 6.18. Statistically, the difference is significant, thus confirming the relaxing effects to the respondents after listening to the CD.

Perception

The ten criteria used in rating the perception of the respondents are ranked as follows, adopting the Likert Scale. Note: A scale of 1 to 5 was used, where 1 is very poor, 2 poor, 3 fair, 4 good, and 5 very good.

Criteria Rating Rank

1. One has the feeling of being
transported to a Nature/Wildlife scene. 4.48 1

2. Listening to the tape creates an aura
of peace and serenity. 4.39 2

3. The composition is soothing to hear,
Has calming effect on the nerves. 4.24 3

4. The composition creates a meditative
mood. 3.95 4

5. It brings reminiscence to the
listener of a past experience. 3.64 5

6. It helps one in trying to
forget his problems. 3.59 6

7. One has the felling of being
transported heavenward, to Cloud 9. 3.55 7

8. There is tendency to sleep while
listening to the composition. 3.52 8

9. It brings about a nostalgic feeling. 3.19 9

10. The composition makes one
sad and melancholic. 2.55 10

Analysis and Interpretation

The means the first three criteria fall between good and very good, while the others, except the 10th, are between fair and good. This finding supports the positive relaxing effects of Violin and Nature.

Conclusion and Recommendation

Listening to Violin and Nature slows down pulse rate significantly, thus reducing tension, and brings the listener closer to a state of relaxation. The effects are measured as based on ten criteria. Topping the scores which are classified Very Good are:

1. One has the feeling of being transported to a Nature /Wildlife Scene;
2. Listening to the tape creates an aura of peace and serenity; and
3. The composition is soothing to hear, and has calming effect on the nerves.

There are six other parameters that support the hypothesis that the CD is relaxing. This is different from its effect of bringing nostalgia, sadness and melancholy that received the lowest scores and rankings.

However, there is need to improve the quality of the compositions, and their recording. It is also recommended that similar evaluation be conducted on other age groups and people of different walks of life who are similarly subject to stressful life and environment.

Spirit of Music

The violin lifts the spirit high,
as the keys strike, in cadence, fly
like birds above and passing by,
while we humans laugh and cry.

I love insects - 12 reasons

2012-01-19T06:21:00.000-08:00

Stinkbug (Nezara viridula)

Dr Abe V Rotor

1. I love insects for their honey, the sweetest sugar in the world, elixir, energy-packed, aphrodisiac, therapeutic, the culinary and confectionery arts it makes;

2. I love insects for their silk no human fabric can equal - cool in summer, warm in winter, velvety to the touch, flowing and free, friendly to the wind and sun, lovely in the night, royal on the throne, smooth to the skin, hypoallergenic, dynamic to fashion and casual wear;

3. I love insects for their shellac, the best varnish that lasts for years, unequaled by synthetic substitutes; their wax, the best lubricant and natural polish that makes the dancing floor alive and schoolrooms happy.

4. I love insects for the resin they produce with certain plants which is used in worships, to bring the faithful to their knees, similarly to calm down fowls on their roost, drive vermin or keep them at bay, pacify and make peace with the unseen spirits;

5. I love insects for the amber, transparent rock originally from resin, which forever entrapped fossils of insects and other organisms, complete with their genes and attendant evidences of natural history, enabling us to read the past, turning back the hands of time in visual imagery;

Long horned grasshopper or katydid (Phaneroptera furcifera) - Nature's violinist (fiddler)

6. I love insects for their crimson dye produced by certain scale insects that made the robes of kings and emperors, and only they were privileged to wear; likewise for their phosphorescence like the wing scales of butterflies that make the most beautiful and expensive paint for cars today;

7. I love insects for their medicinal substances they produce - antibiotics from fly maggot and soldier ants, cantharidin from blister beetle, formic acid for weak heart, bee sting for rheumatism;

8. I love insects as food, high in protein and minerals, elixir and stimulant, not only in times of famine but as exotic food in class restaurants, and on occasions that bring closer bonding among members of communities and cultures;

9. I love insects for all the fruits and vegetables, the multiplication of plants, geographically and seasonally, through their being the world's greatest pollinators; and in effect make the ecosystems wholesome, complete and alive;

10. I love insects for disposing garbage, of bringing back to nature organic compounds into elemental forms ready to be used again by the succeeding generations of living things.

11. I love insects for play, and for lessons in life - how they jump and fly, carry tremendous load which I wish I could, how they practice frugality, patience, fraternity, and how they circle a candle one lonely night and singed into its flame that inspires heroism and martyrdom;

12. I love insects for whatever nature designed them to be, their role in health and sickness, , sorrow and joy, ugliness and beauty, deprivation and abundance, even in life and death, for I have learned that without insects, we humans - so with many other organisms - would not be here on earth.~

Walking Stick

2012-01-19T06:08:00.000-08:00