 |
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Sure signs of the beginning of summer include skin and flies. You know summer's here when, looking around, you see everybody wearing sleeveless or short-sleeved shirts and skimpy dresses. This makes it a delight to pass by places like Newtown. Then you know summer to be absolutely true when even older people dress less heavily.
The more accurate indicator that summer is here is when people swat around their faces as flies buzz around them. Not that I'm saying there's a deeper metaphorical connection between exposed flesh and flies. The connection is the heat and warmth. With months of hibernation, the sudden smell of meat must drive them wild. It's a good distinguishing line from autumn since in autumn, you never really know the season. One day, you can sit all night without your feet getting cold; the next day you can't go out without a jacket. So it's really useful to have at least two indicators when summer's come. Well, it's fine weather down here. Up in the northern hemisphere, days are getting shorter. By the way, the clock was adjusted one hour ahead for Daylight Savings Time.
Posted at 11:53 pm by starsi
Permalink
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
The hardest barriers to break are those we ourselves create. The most invincible obstacles are not physical objects. We can build dams, even break them as easily as a caterpillar bulldozer and wrecker can, yet the most impenetrable strongholds are the social relations we fortify in the way of social justice and equality.
What prevents human progress is not some force to be discovered in the laws of nature, it can be found in social structures that act like Prince Rupert drops* - almost indestructible when met with deadening blows and crises, but at the most intensely focused confrontation, it can be entirely shattered by internal contradictions.
*Definition from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Physics Department: Prince Rupert drops are little tear drop shaped pieces of glass, which are formed by dropping a small gob of hot, molten glass into cold water, and leaving it to cool. This creates tremendous stress between the outside layer, cooled by the water, and the inside, which is warm. Because of the tremendous surface tension, the thick, bulbous end can endure a blow with a hammer. However, if you scratch, or break the surface of the glass in the thin, fragile tail, the glass releases the internal stress with such force that the entire piece shatters into fine powder.
Posted at 12:03 am by starsi
Permalink
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Makybe Diva wins Melbourne Cup
Melbourne Cup. Makybe Diva, ridden by Glen Boss and trained by Lee Freedman, wins for a record-breaking three straight wins. 2nd: On a Jeune. 3rd: Xcellent
Posted at 11:30 am by starsi
Permalink
Monday, October 31, 2005
contemplative in the dark
Take a few minutes alone in the dark to reflect:
Our fate is bound up with nature's desire to feel itself, to think about itself, to contemplate about itself, to act upon itself.
Here's a Halloween trivia for you: The first thermonuclear bomb was detonated on this date in 1952 at the Marshall Islands. Que horror!
Posted at 07:48 pm by starsi
Permalink
Sunday, October 30, 2005
***
The way I understand it, public transportation here is subsidized by road fees and tolls for use of specific roads. In a motor-run highway, the environmental implications of this are clear. You want to use private cars that seat less people and use more gas, you pay more for it, at the same time those who ride public transportation benefit. In my mind, that makes sense. Now why can't they implement that in other countries? Other constraints come to mind.
***
Indicators show a rise in unemployment rates in a period of economic slump in Australia compared to last quarter.
Posted at 01:13 am by starsi
Permalink
Saturday, October 29, 2005
In a discussion about the Muslim insurgency in the Philippines, I commented that I was Christian myself, and whatever opinion Christians may have about the establishment of an Islamic state in the Philippines, we shouldn't condone the bombings of Muslim communities and the repression of Muslims themselves. We can resolve the issue in other ways, through dialogue, through addressing grievances and helping to alleviate the problems in those communities. The thing is, given the historical injustice we Christians have inflicted on them, they've earned the right to demand for self-determination. It's complicated, it's not easy, but oppressors have a high responsibility towards their oppressed. The same goes for Australians in the matter of the Aborigines. The same with Americans with Native Americans, African-Americans, and now the Iraqis.
***
People may have noticed that in the Philippines, we have a woman president, at the same time many of the victims of human rights violations there are women and children. The bad news for feminists is that there's no solidarity among women from different social levels. As long as a certain system exists, a woman in power would act no differently from a man in the same position.
***
In the news: Hungary claims to have developed a vaccine against the H5N1 that has produced 10x more antibodies in its recipients. But what could hit people on a pandemic scale could be a more mutated form of virus. Nevertheless, the announcement is good news and must be looked into.
Posted at 01:05 pm by starsi
Permalink
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Here's a take on one of those surveys going around. Apologies to those who can't understand Tagalog.
1. Ano'ng kwento ng suot mong t-shirt? Ginawa ito ng mga contractualized workers sa mga lugar tulad ng Cambodia o China kung saan mababa pasahod, pangit ang mga dormitoryo, at bawal mag-unyon. Ganyan talaga, pag bumibili tayo, commodity lang, disguised ang ensemble ng social relations ng paggawa at pag-exchange nito. Malay ko ba?
2. Ano'ng kwento ng breakfast mo?
Whole grained bread - kwento nito minasa sya ng mapagmahal na kamay ng baker at bunudburan ng wheat at kung anu pa na inani ng mga magsasaka na gamit ang teknolohiya na me suporta ng gubyerno.
Tapos, ipinalaman ko nutella. Yum! ang nutella ay low-GI, ibig sabihin, slow ang pag-release ng energy para di magutom agad at di madaling mawalan ng enerhiya. Me mga kumpanya na nilalagyan din ng malusog na ingredients ang kanilang produkto kasi yun ang demand ng mga consumers.
Juice - na galing sa orange na hinalikan ng araw. Hindi ito galing sa mga low-wage na manggagawang bukid na pinagsasamantalahan ng mga may-ari ng lupa.
3. Ano'ng kwento ng lunch mo? Ah, lunch ko ay me kasamang hipon. Etong hipon na to pangalan nya, Nemo. Tama, Nemo the prawn, o Nemo the shrimp parang yung palabas. Wala syang kamuwang-muwang, akala nya safe sa dagat. Bigla ba namang me net na lumitaw at hinuli sila ng kanyang mga kaibigan. Ayun, napunta sa kusina namin.
4. Ano'ng kwento ng merienda mo? Syempre walang merienda dito di ba? Pero Pinoy syempre, kaya nag-merienda. Nagkape ako at biscuit. Eh Nestle yata yun, e di ba pinapatay nila yung mga kasali ng unyon? Kaya sabi nila: "There's Blood In Your Coffee!" So yun, bampira pala ako, pati lahat ng umiinom ng Nescafe, there's blood in your coffee. Me kaibigan ako na manager dun, totoo daw, me conspiracy na parang sa "Blade." Gusto nila maging bampira tayo.
Di naman talaga ako umiinom ng kape masyado no, pero syempre para naman maging funny at socially-relevant naman tong kalokohang survey na to no.
5. Ano'ng kwento ng dinner mo? Ah, chicken naman. Eh delikado pa naman ngayon kasi me bird flu pa naman. Etong chicken na to me nakasamang ibon kasi, nagka-in-love-an sila kaya yun, na-pick-up nya yung flu. Eh yung lover nya daw manlalakbay, napadaan ba naman sa Iraq at nakita yung mga tinorture at binomba dun na mga tao. Hindi nya maintindihan daw, pero para daw yun sa 'democracy.' Ano daw ba yun? Ang kwento ng manok ko, wala naman talaga pandemic kasi kelangan ng 3 factors para magkaroon nito. kelangan daw me 1) mutated virus, 2) transmittable from birds-to-humans, tapos 3)sustainable ang human-to-human transmission at di lang 1st generation. Yung unang dalawa pa lang daw namimit na criteria. Naalala ko PR ko, baka nga exaggerated ito; isa sa unang ginagawa sa health campaigns e mag-apila sa fear, para ma-rouse ang mga tao sa complacency. Kwento pa ng manok, baka daw galing sa mga flying fox na kumain ng mangga na fertilized ng tae ng me sakit na baboy.
6. Ano'ng kwento sa news? Uso daw obesity
7. Ano'ng kwento sa TV show? Si Chris Angel, magician, nagpalibing. Ewan ko, alam mo na kasabihan: "Life is the funny thing that happened on the way to the cemetery."
8. Ano'ng rele nito?
Wala, ganito talaga sa ganitong burgis na kundisyunes, malamang me mas tragicomedy pa sa ilang lugar.
Posted at 07:34 pm by starsi
Permalink
Sunday, October 16, 2005
The Conveyor and global climate
The global ocean as we know it is not a steady-state pond, as winds slap it and waves roll on to beaches. But underneath the global ocean may be one of the planet's greatest secrets, pricking the conceit of the planet being named Earth, when it is the ocean that largely determines its fate.
An enigmatic process underneath the oceans may have a great impact on climate changes, especially in the coming decades.
The Great Ocean Conveyor (also called thermohaline circulation) may hold the key to understanding the cycle of ice ages.
The conventional theory about ice ages is that they come steadily every couple thousand years or so, with a long ice age followed by a longer warming period. Yet recent evidence shows sudden spikes of ice ages. The mystery points to the role of the Conveyor.
The Conveyor, as its name suggests, is an oceanic conveyor belt of about 100 Amazon rivers flowing at approximately 10 centimetres per second. Heated surface water from tropical regions in the Pacific and Indian Oceans move to higher latitudes, passing through the coasts of places like Britain. At a further point in the north, cooling and saltier water (glaciers retain fresh water) makes the water denser, suddenly forcing the water from the Conveyor to go down, producing what is called a sink hole. This sink hole of heavy water creates a vacuum which pulls the waters of the Conveyor northward. This cold water then gets back to the Conveyor. So in a way, the sink hole serves as the engine of the global oceanic conveyor belt.
Recent evidence from different areas show a threat to the Conveyor's flow. In an observation of certain shelled creatures in the Atlantic, a scientist showed a slowing down of the flow. At a certain speed for the Conveyor, nutrients would not have enough time to settle down on the floor along the Conveyor's path. So if it becomes slower, it would show in the mineral content of the shelled creatures. Basically, the more nutrients they absorb means the flow is slower for the Conveyor. Another indicator was seen in the lower salinity levels in the sinkhole.
Now what does this have to do with an ice age? Well, remember the warm currents brought in by the Conveyor to the Atlantic? This enables places like Britain to have good surfing, even as they have the same latitudes as places in Canada. Once the Conveyor stops, places like Britain would have colder winters.
What causes the slowing down, and why is it feared that an ice age will occur soon? While ice ages occurred in the past without human intervention, humans now produce a new factor on the global climate scene. That factor is an accelerated global warming caused by human activities.
One would think that global warming would put a dent in this theory of an ice age. After all, the standard interpretation is that with global warming will come the melting of the polar ice caps, and there will be wilder rains and an increase in the water level. But the counterintuitive impact on the climate is this: general warming results in regional ice ages (in Northwestern Europe) along with drought regions. See, what happens is that with global warming, glaciers are melting, supplying more freshwater to the sinkhole, reducing its salinity, in turn reducing the downward flow of water from the Conveyor. Once the Conveyor ceases to flow, areas in Northwest Europe would stop receiving the warm waters passing through them, resulting in colder temperatures.
Moreover, climate changes brought about by global warming include more rains and typhoons. We're seeing the consequences now, in the tsunami, hurricane or typhoons occuring in different parts of the world. This rainwater adds more freshwater to places like Siberian rivers that reach the sinkhole.
Computer simulations show that the earliest cold front could come in the next twenty years, affecting Nortwest Europe. That's the worst-case scenario. Nevertheless, the dire impact should be taken seriously. For British people, it could mean nothing less than the dissolution of the British way of life. Simulations also show that areas like Central America could experience drought, drying up large areas of rainforests. The effects are nothing less than cataclysmic. Global warming has to be addressed.
Posted at 09:28 pm by starsi
Permalink
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Harbour Bridge
@@@
Private investment, public benefit. At least that's the theory behind public-private projects. But such public-private collaboration is increasingly being discredited, recently highlighted by public outrage over the Sydney Harbour cross-tunnel, according to ABC News Affairs. Motorists are angry by the traffic gridlock and the high toll fees to cross the tunnel. ABC and other media indict the public-private schemes that have been disadvantageous to the public.
Posted at 12:24 pm by starsi
Permalink
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
The Howard government is under fire from church leaders and unions for the proposed industrial relations changes. The Catholic Church and Sydney's Anglican Church Archbishop condemn the new workplace plans, saying it would affect family weekends and would turn workers into robots.
A showdown between the Federal (Liberal) and State Governments (Labour) may be in the offing in the coming months. Despite Labour's complicity in some of Howard's policies - Labour was instrumental in watered-down versions of government bills - like the Voluntary Student Unionism (VSU), the Iraq war and anti-terror laws, it is being pushed by unions, families and the rest of the public to fight this one out. Even mainstream media is critical of the policies; concern about the fate of wages, of workers and their families cannot be offset by the A$100 million set aside for the new policy's publicity.
Posted at 02:23 pm by starsi
Permalink
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
