A Little Corner of Eden in Painting

A Little Corner of Eden 

Painting by Dr Abe V Rotor 

A Little Corner of Eden in acrylic (4ft x 4ft) by the author 2020

Tell me not of a lost paradise forever gone,

but where flows gently a stream,  

with children fishing for the biggest fish, 

in fantasy and dream.    

Eagle's Nest

The bold, the brave, the regal in the air,

meek, homely, gentle, and shy

in their nest - oh, what a lovely pair!

as they rear their young to fly.

Boys Fishing 

Minutes to hours to days in summer,

shortest season of the year ever.

 

A flock of white doves, and A kaleidoscope of butterflies

They descend with the light in the morning,

and join the company of children fishing. 

 Lavish yet dainty their colors are in the sun,

fluttering and posing for leisure and fun. ~

Fossil Hunting - Study and Hobby

 Fossil Hunting - Study and Hobby

Dr Abe V Rotor

Legends are rich in stories of the supernatural when gods do the impossible to the awe and fear of mortals, such as turning man into rock. Or wood into rock. For who would deny the markings of every tissue of the demised tree - its xylem vessels, phloem which carry manufactured food from the leaves, the pith or dead center of the wood? In fact one can count the age of the tree when it died by counting the annular rings. And how long had the tree died. The circumstances of its death, and the events like drought, flood, fire that it had undergone.

Top: Teachers view the Fossil Collection of the Museum of Natural History, UPLB, Laguna; author (left) studies fossil of a Nautilus. Right: fossils of Ammonites, and ancient fish fossils.  

Next time you visit a quarry, or landscape supplier, or simply walking along a river bed, or rocky cliff, be keen at the possible presence of petrified wood. If there are more clues to the fossil you can even tell what tree it was. Is it already extinct? Is it the ancestor of modern species? What if the tree has not changed, evidenced by its similarity with its living progeny?

Indeed fossils are nature's geologic timepieces; they take us thousands, if not millions of years back. Didn't Charles Darwin gauge the stages of evolution of plants and animals through paleontology - the science of the study of fossils?

At first I didn't see it, until the tides left it in shallow water. It is a fossil of a very big staghorn coral, its base cut like the anther of a deer after the mating season. So clean did it appear I can count the number of years the coral lived. But that is deceiving because corals grow very slow. It takes fifty long years to grow to the size of a man's head. Each ring therefore, is compounded with other rings, making it difficult to tell the exact age of the fossil. A clear break may be an indication of an extreme condition of the environment that left such mark.

Around the fossil are many fossils of small organisms, other corals and shells. Fossils are known by their total age by combining the age of the fossil itself and the age of the surrounding rock.

How do fossils retain their form and structure even to the detail? Well, calcium carbonate seeps into the cells, and tissues, and in this particular case, into the fine structures like pores of the coral skeleton where the compound solidifies hard - harder than the mold itself. It's a skeleton in a skeleton, so to speak. Through hundreds or thousand of years the mold disintegrates leaving behind the hardened calcium compound. The process is also the same in wood turning into rock - petrified rock.

Here is a fossil of a bivalve - a big Tridachna, as large as the shell of its progeny shown in the lower photo. This shell is a receptacle of holy water at the entrance of Mt. Carmel Church QC. Shells survive adverse conditions of the environment, and as such also retain their original shape and form. Sand and silt become sedimentary rock entombing the shell until it is discovered through erosion and other means.

  

Fossils are made in a different way such as a hairy caterpillar stuck in oozing latex of rubber tree. The latex solidifies and hardens into rock, the same way an insect is engulfed in oozing resinous substance of pine tree. The resin hardens into a clear transparent material with the doomed insect or any other creature clearly visible. Resin turns into amber. Remember Jurassic Park movie? A mosquito after feeding on blood of a dinosaur was trapped in amber. The DNA of the extinct monster was reconstructed from the mosquito's food blood. Of course this is fiction. But Flash Gordon and Jules Verne proved beyond being just fiction writers.

  

 Fossil of a bivalve

  
 Petrified wood is actually rock which bears the exact likeness of the original wood. The species can be traced to present specimens.   

Everyday we encounter fossils and pseudo 
fossils we simply call skeletons, or artifacts if they did not directly come from living things. Fossils are always in the making. There is no ceasing since the appearance of life on earth, and ever expanding with increasing biodiversity of the living world. 

Making of a fossil.  Hairy caterpillar trapped in latex becomes a fossil thousands, millions of years from now. 

They are the remains of living things that survive time and circumstances, and of luck or fate as people put it. The older and better preserved fossils are, the more significant is the discovery - and the more we realize the secrets they reveal. Scientists reconstruct fossils close to their original form and virtual reality, complete with the organism's movements, sounds, habitat, special effects included. Thanks to advanced technology and fine arts.

Toys are then patterned after these reconstructed fossils. I know of children who grew up with collections of dinosaurs, birds, mammals, fish- all reconstructions from fossils. Many of these children grew into scientists and naturalists. I know of other children who were more interested with toy cartoon characters. They took a different career path, less meaningful and fulfilling than that of the latter children.

Geologic time is not constant though it may be contiguum. There are intervening factors we may not and never know. And if this were the case, we say, we have yet to discover the "missing link." Such was the predicament of Darwin in his theory of evolution, the bewilderment of Wallace before him, and the deceiving simplicity of Lamarck theory to decipher correctly the path of evolution. Fossils reveal the web of life as a labyrinth. We can only appreciate the early works of other paleontologists that Cuvier and Huxley who could only make inferences about life in the past and the present. In spite of all these, the world looks at all these men as pioneers and greatest fossil hunters.

Do you like to be a fossil hunter, too? ~

The “Eighth Sense” - Naturalism

                                   The “Eighth Sense” - Naturalism

Dell H Grecia

Guest writer

Ka Dell, veteran journalist: columnist,

Women's Journal; co-host, Ating Alamin

Dedicated in memory of Ka Dell

To make natural farming and gardening work, one must turn to the so-called “eight senses” - the intelligence of naturalism- which, in turn, makes a green thumb.

My friend, Dr. Abe V. Rotor of the University of Santo Tomas Graduate School and St. Paul University of Quezon City, is a “gold mine” of tips not only in biology and the arts (music and painting, in particular), but also in a totally different turf: agriculture and gardening.

Over lunch at the SPUQC canteen recently, we discussed natural farming and gardening. Abe said this genre of farming and/or gardening is identified with the old school of agriculture, which immediately caught my attention.

Local wine Basi and Sukang Iloko are made from sugarcane - other than sugar and it many confectionery products.

Eucheuma seaweed culture maintains clean environment; it is compatible with fish and shells culture in pens and cages.

Revival of pottery: clay pots, ceramics, decors, figurines; it is a practical livelihood and environment-friendly craft.

According to him, natural farming and/or gardening is described by five principles, to wit:

1. Take advantage of the functions of living things as producers;
2. From a single process, harness two or more products;
3. Use leftovers and wastes as resource for the next process;
4. Remember that the value of a given process can be greater than the sum  

of its  parts; and
5. Capitalize on natural assets of certain organisms and certain environmental factors.

For the first principle, Abe explained that plants grow and produce food by photosynthesis. The efficiency of the process is both genetic and environmental, which means that a potential high yielder is enhanced by favorable agro-climatic conditions. This is the principle of plant breeding and agronomy.

In agronomy, time and space elements are crucial. Proper crop sequence and rotation take advantage of this principle.

In many areas of the country, rice is followed by a cash crop such as corn, legumes and vegetables. When a farmer decides to practice crop rotation, he should identify the proper technology involved and the crops suitable on the farm and salable in the market.

As producing machines, livestock animals should be maintained only during the most economical period in their life cycle, Abe averred. For example, pigs are kept for six to seven months, attaining around 80 kilos when they are sold. Beyond this period, feed conversion ratio decreases.

This is also true with beef cattle raised and fattened to no more than three years, depending on the breed. For poultry, marketing time is programmed according to the desired size of the broiler.

In illustrating the second principle, Abe explained that in rice milling, rice bran is an important byproduct that is used as a main feed component. This is also true with corn and wheat milling. The idea is that we would utilize efficiently both the principal and byproduct of a process.

In Mindanao, pineapple pulp and peelings from the cannery are fermented into vinegar or used directly as livestock feed for cattle. In the banana industry, rejects are converted into catsup and cattle feed.

Nata de coco production and vinegar making can go together. In the process of wine making, alcohol and acetic acid are products derived by distillation.

The idea behind the third principle, according to Abe, is recycling of waste. The biogas digester processes wastes of piggery and poultry into two products- cooking gas and sludge (the latter is used as organic fertilizer). Corn stover and peanut hay are fed to livestock and supplementary forage. Rice hay after harvest maybe used as mulch, mushroom bed or as summer roughage. Hay is also used as binder of clay blocks for rural housing.

Mushroom culture depends largely on the availability of substrates. The Volvaria species of mushroom requires rice straw or banana leaves to grow on, whereas the abalone (Pleurotus) mushroom requires sawdust as substrate.

In the fourth principle, Abe explained vividly that the effective but common practice to suppress obnoxious weeds on ranches and orchards is to grow cover crops such as kudzu, Centosema, and spineless Mimosa. Cover crops, besides being effective in controlling weeds, are also a good forage for cattle and other ruminants; their residues add fertility to the soil. Cover crops also reduce the rate of evaporation of soil moisture and control soil erosion.

Crops protected by cover crops are less vulnerable to the invasion of succeeding weeds through seed dissemination and vegetative reproduction. There are lesser incidents of brush fire.

The idea of burning crop residues after harvest also illustrates this principle, said Abe. This is to get rid of the waste in the quickest way possible. Through burning, the potential nutrient value of hay both as feed and as source of organic matter is lost.

Rice straw is definitely very useful as mulch, explained Abe. Mulch increases production of garlic and onions by as much as 100 percent. With the high price of mushroom, there is money in its production. (A kilo of mushroom in the local market reaches as much as P200.)

On the other hand, the value of compost is not measured by its volume, but on the beneficial effect it contributes to the soil: improving its physical, chemical and biological properties. Crops grown on soil with high organic matter do not only produce higher yields, but have higher food values.

For the fifth principle, Abe illustrates this postulate, thus:

1. Clayish soils have better retention of essential soil nutrients.
2. Closely planted jute and kenaf produce longer and cleaner fibers.
3. Leaves of madre de cacao or kakawate enhance natural ripening of fruits like bananas.
4. Like neem and derris, madre de cacao is a natural pesticide.
5. Chicken dropping has an anti-nematode substance.

Be alert to nature’s warning signals, such as the flowering of bamboos, which signals the coming of severe drought. In the insect world, minor groups called congregans precede the migratory phase of locusts.

These are but some examples to show the silent workings of nature that we can tap. These postulates are important reminders for us to exercise our “eight sense”- the intelligence of naturalism - which, in turn, in the words of Dr. Abe Rotor, makes a green thumb. ~

Rare Beauty in the Plant World

 Rare Beauty in the Plant World

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Epiphytic liana on a tree trunk creates a fairy tale scene in Honey I Shrunk the Kids.  It offers a good subject for cartoons and abstract art. Crust of blue green is composed of lichen, an association of alga and fungus, a perfect example of survival through co-evolution.  Lichens are among the oldest living creatures on earth.

Buds emerge in summer on the highland, braving alternate heat and cold of day and night, which explains its rare color - red pigment dominating the normal green color of the plant, a biological phenomenon.   

Euphorbia displays extreme features: tender and colorful flowers in cluster perched on cruel and thorny stem - sharing somehow the romantic attribute of the rose, and the mythical imagery of "beauty and the beast."     

A pair of aster flowers emerges at the edge of a hedge, appearing "imprisoned" by striated ornamental grass. Such a scene is romantically associated with stories about "beauty behind bars."  

   

This leguminous shrub of the genus Cassia attracts attention by its unique pack of golden flowers and fine foliage even as other ornamental plants around have gone into aestivation in summer heat. A bumble bee settles down for nectar - a good subject of biology and photography.    

Bangbangsit, which means odorous, Lantana has lately invaded gardens, not because of its notorious nature as cosmopolitan weed, but gardeners have learned to like it for two reasons: its attractive multi-colored hybrid flowers, and its repellant property in protecting surrounding plants from pest. 

 

Angel's trumpets dangle in the morning sun on a Palm Sunday, as if muted by the observance of Christ passion.  They appear attractive and lovely nonetheless. The flowers are claimed to have marijuana-like properties so that the presence of this shrub in the garden creates suspicion in its purpose other than being an ornamental. 

   

 

Inflorescence of Cyperus, a relative of the papyrus, adds unique ambiance in flower arrangement. Although devoid of fragrance and attractive color, its unique flower design and long vase life brought this common weed to the artist's eye and dining table. 

This sapling has two kinds of foliage, an example of dimorphism in biology - white to cream and tender when newly open to deep green and bold when mature. It grows up into a medium tree that has attractive orange inflorescence, which local folks fondly call the plant "queen of flowering plants." 

These specimens were photographed by the author in Tagaytay, March 24, 2013 

In search for the true beauty of life

In search for the true beauty of life 

Can man lead a life in which he can see 

and realize the true beauty of life?

Our institutions should challenge the intellect, touch the heart, show the path the citizen should take, and enlighten the man on the street.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog

The Parthenon  represents "the supreme effort of genius in pursuit of beauty." (Aris Messinis / AFP/ Getty Images)

The Parthenon stands proudly as the centerpiece of Centennial Park, Nashville's premier urban park. The re-creation of the 42-foot statue Athena is the focus of the Parthenon just as it was in ancient Greece. The building and the Athena statue are both full-scale replicas of the Athenian originals. (Internet)

 As I watch, read, and listen to various topics regarding the penultimate thesis, "Quo vadis, Homo sapiens?" (Where is human  going?), scenarios came flashing like an imagery in travelogue.  All boils down to a challenging search, "Can man lead a life in which he can see and realize the true beauty of living?"

o The whole world holds its breath against the current Coronavirus Pandemic with tens of thousands infected daily  with the deadly disease, accounting to 40 million cases to date, and almost 1 million mortality.   In spite of this global crisis, regional and national conflicts and unrest are growing in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the Americas, in fact in practically all parts of the globe, experts believe as apparent consequence of the trauma of the disease, notwithstanding the difficulty in complying with strict and conflicting policies in its control. Worst is the fact that there is known vaccine that can guarantee the end the pandemic.    

Children are most vulnerable in the protracted Syrian crisis.  They are among the 4 million displaced Syrians living in refugee camps outside their country, and on the run barred from entering other countries.   
o Terrorism is today's enemy of the world. Terrorists are claiming for  a state of their own, The Iraq Syria Islamic State or ISIS.  The tentacles of terrorism have grown widespread even before the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center, NY. As a boundless, invisible organization founded on hate and destruction, it undermines the present world order, particularly capitalism. We have our own share of terrorism in the Philippines and it is a serious one. Year 2015 was highlighted with the upsurge of terrorism.  Today it remains as the most critical element against attaining lasting peace in Mindanao.

o More than conventional weapons, terrorism is employing biological and chemical warfare – and not remote, nuclear weapons - the very tools used by the superpowers themselves against “enemies.” These weapons are around us and may be right in our backyard. It is not remote that the Philippines is in the target list. With the state-of-the-art of weaponology war is going to be fought by remote control using sophisticated drones both in air and sea.  Drones. 

o Polarization is not limited to politics; it extends as well to religion, reminiscent of the Dark Ages, when people were pitted against each other by their faiths. The Middle East has not recovered from religious conflict as an aftermath of the Arab Spring people's revolution in 2014, so with the persistent border conflicts.

Happy faces. Participants in an ecology seminar, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Santo Tomas with author as speaker

o Mass evacuation of Overseas Workers principally as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, and secondarily those who are in the war zone have nightmare stories to tell. Hundreds are dying far away from their home country and families. Two things our country loses everyday: tremendous cost of evacuation and virtual drain of dollar flow from the remittances of the OFWs.

o To worsen our fear the world has plunged into climatic episodes, first El Niño, a climatic phenomenon characterized by extreme drought. Spontaneous forest and brush fires are occurring in Australia, US and Indonesia. The Philippines had poor harvest in rice and corn in the last two years. And now La Nina, characterized by extreme rains in the dry season has set in and is expected to continue until next year.

o Food security as key to maintain our economy is difficult to attain, what with 10 percent production shortfall in rice, 30 to 40 percent in corn? We also fall short in the production of meat, poultry, fruits and vegetables. Yet we have IRRI and UPLB, the alma mater of scientists of foreign countries that now export agricultural products to us in exchange for the knowledge they earned.

o For a rich agricultural country such as ours, the need for a huge buffer stock is ultimate recourse since it is feasible to build one from local harvest. But this is not the case. We have been importing rice in the tune of 1.5 million MT to maintain supply-demand balance and to provide buffer stock, from Thailand and Vietnam, and a part from China, Pakistan and India.

Imported rice from Vietnam

o It is a paradox that in this modern age of medicine, one of the leading causes of death in US hospitals is doctor’s error, chiefly wrong diagnosis and over treatment. Yet we are going to embark into a new field of medicine, gene therapy. Are doctors really prepared for it? The current COVID-19 is the top cause of death worldwide, both treated or untreated in hospitals.

Among the ten major causes of death in industrialized countries are those associated with the good life such as heart attack, severe depression, accidents, diabetes, and the like. What is good life then?

o On the other hand millions of people die every year from the ancient scourge of mankind – tuberculosis, respiratory diseases, infections, childbirth, and many other diseases associated with poverty and malnutrition.

o The lack of doctors and healthcare exacerbates the suffering of millions more, especially the children, who are victims of malnutrition and poverty. We witness the growth of slums, and a runaway population, and we stand there unable to alleviate their plight.

According to Susan George in her book, How the Other Half Dies, people either have too much or too little, traced to human nature and the institutions he made. Because it is a question of governance, man holds much faith in his ability to solve the problems of his society. But the UN has not lived up to the expectations of the world. The EC is too regionalistic, so with ASEAN. But the holding of summits and conferences attests to man’s immanent goodness, and in spite of our limitations we have gone a long way towards progress.

Indeed science has definitely contributed to man’s success to this point. But to where does science ultimately lead us?

Let us consider these issues.

o Sixty percent of us Filipinos live below the poverty line.
o Exodus to cities and abroad seems unstoppable. COVID-19 has slowed down the trend.  
o There is breakdown in peace and order.
o Loss of species is rampant, but loss of entire ecosystems is more damaging. 

(Philippine Eagle, now critically endangered) 

o Liberalization is trade and commerce exacerbates the gaps between rich and poor nations.
o Values seem to be taken for granted.
o Conditions in the slums are virtually sub-human.
o Forty percent of our youth do not practice their religion.
o Ignorance and illiteracy is prevalent – and increasing.
o Government service is generally poor and riddled with graft and corruption.
o Diseases can develop into epidemic proportion as in the case of bird flu and SARS. COVID-19 and allergy have reached global proportion.

It is an open-ended list of issues science should address itself. But we can not wait too long.

Global warming is stirring the cauldron of the world's climate and local weather as well.  More and more natural and man-induced calamities at increasing intensity such as the earthquakes in Haiti, Peru, and Japan with a new record of 8.8 on the Reicher Scale. Hope dims and faith may not hold on for long. As the world prays, "the hall is silent." 

Questions unresolved todate: North Korea’s nuclear program has emerged as a new threat to the region and to the world. But South Korea, which is expected to reunify with the North soon, is apparently undisturbed - seemingly so with certain countries. Will US apply stricter sanctions on North Korea? Will it apply its formula of allowing Iran to develop nuclear power for peaceful means in the case of North Korea? Is Japan considering re-armament? What is our (Philippines) stand with these developments? Is this the beginning of a third force? As the world waits, "the hall is silent."

Where is peace and quiet for man and his society?

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Related Articles in this Blog avrotor.blogspot.com

Search i The Riddle of theSphinx – Are we in our sunset as a species? It is a discourse showing how vulnerable is the human species toward extinction – a vulnerability of his own making.

Also search, Bioethics – Expression of Values. It is a first hand account based on the author’s own experience in making a crucial decision in bioethics. Bioethics has expanded into various disciplines from its former confines in medicine and healthcare. It challenges a critic a deep responsibility - that ethics and virtue must go together. 
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Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) Dr Abe Rotor and  Ms Melly C Tenorio 738 DZRB AM, 8-9 evening class Monday to Friday

Requiem to a Dead Coral - Relic of our Dying Mother Earth

Requiem to a Dead Coral 

- Relic of our Dying Mother Earth

Photos and text by Dr Abe V Rotor

 

Someday these children will understand what "ruined nature" means.  

A broken coral is permanently dead; it cannot serve as foothold of baby 

corals (larvae) to become polyps and grow to maturity, much less to 

form a colony and community with other organisms. Likewise, seaweeds 

will hardly survive. In short, the ecosystem in which they were once a

part is dead.

 

 

Dead coral samples, Morong Bataan, April 16, 2014

My kin are dying in mass grave of toxic water spurred by global warming,

acid rain formed by gases and particles rising and mixing with the clouds: 

 

My symbionts - the algae and other protists, monerans, that catch the sun

through the magic of photosynthesis, their products I cannot live without;

My tenants free in my household their abode, living in unity and harmony

in a pool of energy, passing on to others their share through the food web.  

My transient friends that come by to rest along their route to other places,

to find refuge from danger, tide with the season, then resume their journey; 

My colleagues living in vast colonies, growing dutifully over the bedrock 

set by my forebears through the ages that protect the land from the sea;  

My friend octopus ensconced in my crevices lurking in perfect camouflage     

and mimicry, giant lapu-lapu its kingdom within my walls, a fort it made;

My favored guests the whale, dolphin, and sea cow, once land mammals

that turned to sea and never returned, are now orphans without a home;    

My strange bedfellows, at one time lovable at others not, the sea urchin, 

starfish that invade like an army, yet useful in keeping nature's balance; 

My co-host of countless organisms, the seaweeds attached on my back

as thick as a forest, layer after layer, with the biodiversity of an ecosystem; 

My enemies - the mudflat and sand bar - shifting and invading my territory,

and while I choke,  sea grasses will soon grow, to which I gladly withdraw;

My gentle friend the tide that baths me everyday, washing away my dirt,

and keeping me clean and fresh, so with my tenants and visitors alike; 

My adopted children, a nursery I provide them, from early life to weaning,

as they prepare to go out into the open sea, strong, confident, and free;

My next generation of free swimming larvae in sheer numbers seeking

a permanent home to become polyps, and grow into corals like me.

My visitors from the human world,  peering through the glass and lens,

the beauty of my world, no other can compare, now dead - and gone. ~

A healthy young coral reef, painting by the author

Beauty with a Coral at the former St Paul College QC Museum 

- a false concept of aesthetics and conservation.

 Life cycle of a coral (Internet)

 An unspoiled coral reef (Internet)

There is no escape from our high tech world

There is no escape from our high tech world 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog

Virtually there is no escape from our high tech world.

Imagine life if there were no cell phones, cable TV, video games, malls, hospitals, e-mails, solar watches, MRT/LRT, ATM, and the like.  And if we think about today's processes in making the many products we use everyday - from ballpoint pens to cars - imagine computers and robots at work in place of man.

Scenario: a quart clock awakens you. You switch on the light, tune in the TV or radio, take a bath, pick up the phone, cook breakfast, read the morning paper, dress up, take the elevator, drive the car, etc., etc., etc.  All this is not surprising to those of us who live in urban centers.  

Death lurks in the byproducts of "The Good Life"

But hear this.  The milk you drink is genetically modified (human embryo hormone was injected into the cow to produce more milk);  the corn flakes you eat comes from Bt corn (corn with a gene material of a bacterium - Bacillus thuringiensis); your potato and onion are irradiated for longer shelf life; your lettuce carries a trace of dioxin (the deadliest toxin ever synthesized), your tuna carries a residue of mercury; the microwave emits rays that are not good to health; the paint in your condominium contains lead; plastic deteriorates and you may not know you are suffering of the harmful effects; synthetic fabric is the cause of your allergy; there is nitrate (salitre) in corned beef and in tocino; MSG (Mono Sodium Glutamate) in noodles, aspartame in softdrinks, sulfite in sugar; Potassium Bromate in bread.  And the list goes on, ad infinitum. 

In an issue of Time magazine*, a new research links common chemicals and brain disorders in kids. This is how everyday toxins may affect our kids.

1. Manganese - Found in drinking water, is linked with lower math scores, hyperactivity, impaired motor skills and some drops in intellectual function.

2. Carbonates - Found in pesticides used to kill cockroaches, flies and mosquitoes, and lawn bugs, are linked to defects in brain development.

3. Tetrachloro-ethylene - Found in dry cleaning solvents, is linked to problems in brain development and a higher rate of psychiatric diagnoses. 

4. Polybrominated biphenyl ethers - Found in furniture and toys as a flame retardant is linked with disorders in brain development among kids with higher in utero

exposure. (In utero is a Latin term literally meaning "in the womb". In biology, the phrase describes the state of an embryo or fetus.)

The deleterious by-products of today's science and technology exacerbate the problems of mankind.  Paradoxically, science and technology have not successfully eradicated the ancient scourge of mankind - disease, poverty, and ignorance.

While man may have a grasp of history and his society, he has apparently lost control of his destiny.

 Globalization also takes away our original identities as individual and as a people.  It homogenizes diversity into a common pool, including our independence in belief, thinking and conviction -  and the quaintness of alternative ways of living.  Lower photo: Curitiba Botanic Garden

At this point we would like you to switch your thoughts and focus your attention on the following areas:

• Environmental preservation/conservation
• Saving the endangered species
• Reducing wastage, recycling
• Natural medicine, organically grown food
• Pollution-free cars
• Ecology tourism (eco-tourism)
• Model cities like Curitiba, Brazil
• Ban nuclear weapons
• Free Willy movie, Fly Away Home, etc
• Clean Air Act, stop CFC emission
• Zoning, proper land use
• Ban cloning, genetically modified organisms (GMO) and their products.

This is an open-ended list, and we ask you to continue it and share this lesson with your family and community in a lively and positive discussion.~  

*Time, March 3, 2014

Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid Dr Abe Rotor and Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

Impressionism - Springboard to Abstract Art

Impressionism 

- Springboard to Abstract Art 

Paintings and Verses by Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog

Nesting Fish (11" x 14") 2012

Lurking or hiding the monster waits

its eyes the measure of its strength;

 to the bold it's but a feigning show,

wanting both of breadth and length. 

Birds (16" 28") 2012

Search them from their songs in the trees

reverberating in the foliage of their shield;

deep in camouflage they test your skill 

if you can conquer them in their field.  

  

Bugs (11" x 14") 2012 

Here's a colony of aphids and ants

living in symbiosis;

each can not live without the other 

in a world of crisis.

Bullfight (13" 24") 2013

Where is beast, where is human,

when raw and brutal the contest;

I only hear but thunderous roar,

the bench faceless, nameless. 

Eyes, Eyes (12" 24") 2013

It's a blob, no form or shape to the eye,

 its essence of its survival;

It's asymmetry the secret of its evolution 

shapeless, bare and oval. 

Autumn Bloom (22" x 22") 2013

More beautiful you are when you fall

from up high;

in death like a dying candle glows 

its last sigh. 

; Big Bang (19" x 23") 2012

Tell me if this is your first or your last,
if life is but this scene  -
its beginning and also its end,
or its cycle in between.

Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) Dr Abe Rotor and Ms Melly C Tenorio 738 KHz DZRB AM Band, 8-9 evening class, Monday to Friday