Gasoline prices went down by P1 today.. that’s equivalent to like.. say.. $5 cents USD? So it’s at about $.90 per liter now, or $3.20 per gallon. Prices for diesel is supposed to go down by about P9.

I’ve been so busy. Ridiculously busy, almost. But life is good. No time to stop and think sometimes, but maybe it’s better that way.

I read some articles a while ago about bees.

The fact is, I grew up around bees- and everything I’ve got I have because of bees. My dad’s a commercial beekeeper, and I’d say, I love the honey business. The bees smell good, you don’t have to work hard all year- and it’s great to be out in nature and just be around the bees. And well- I’m a workaholic, and so are bees, we fit together I think. I also have this rather strange fetish, I suppose, for drones- i.e., the male bees.

I mean, just look at that. Who can resist? These little guys don’t have stingers, have round bums, and hugely round eyes. They move around rather slowly and are just so totally cute! It’s really funny that one of the Philippine’s dialects has a name for these little guys- i.e, “mama lupar” which basically means “mama’s boy”.

The lives of drones are very simple. Since all the worker bees, and the queen- are female, – well, the only work of the drone is to basically mate queens. After having mated, these poor guys die. One other thing they are said to do is heat up the hive. Their bodies have a bit more fat than the regular worker bees, so they kinda help the heat going inside the hives. But once food is scarce, these guys are thrown out of the house! They are quite high maintenance, hence in the harsh months such as winter months or rainy season – it’s rare to see any drones around because first of all, they have big appetites and well- they kinda like the service, like you know, having worker bees come around and feed them. I guess, in nature’s law, you really can’t get everything you want.

Honeybee Wipeout May be Averted with Flower Recovery Zones

STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) – Honey bees, whose numbers are falling, must be given flowery “recovery zones” in Europe’s farmlands to aid their survival, a leading EU lawmaker said Wednesday.

Bees pollinate numerous crops and scientists have expressed alarm over their mysterious and rapid decline. Experts have warned that a drop in the bee population could harm agriculture.

“If we continue to neglect the global bee population, then this will have a dramatic effect on our already strained world food supplies,” said Neil Parish, who chairs the European Parliament’s agriculture committee.

Parish, a British conservative, said vast swathes of single crops such as wheat often made it difficult for bees to find enough nectar.

But he said farmers could help bees by planting patches of bee-friendly flowers — including daisies, borage and lavender.

“We’re talking about less than one percent of the land for bee-friendly crops — in corners where farmers can’t get to with their machinery, round trees and under hedges.”

Genetically modified crops, climate change, pesticides and modern farming techniques have all been blamed for making bees vulnerable to parasites, viruses and other diseases.

More research is needed to pin down the exact cause of the declining number of bees, the European Parliament is expected to recommend in its vote Wednesday evening.

“The experts themselves are mystified,” said Parish. “A failure to act now could have catastrophic consequences.”

The EU parliament’s vote will carry no legal weight but is intended to nudge the European Commission and EU member states to take the matter seriously.

Source

UP, aming minamahal.
Good ole oble. I study at the University of the Philippines. My course is major in social anthropology, minor in poli sci. I just started tho, because I shifted course. My original course was educ, – I do still intend to take educ units.

I just got back from classes a few minutes ago. My Pol Sci 14 teacher is a terror! Or at least he is quite intimidating. He’s huge, talks real fast, hits the board, the table, the chairs, talks real loud- as if almost yelling, and even just the way he looks at people is kinda scary, but at least I know he’s a genuine male specie! I don’t mean to offend anyone, but sometimes I wonder who’s truly male and who isn’t. Being of the supposed “female” specie, of course the males are quite intriguing. Speaking of intriguing, the “foreign language syndrome” is quite a story! Do check out these women who just woke up one day with a different accent!

In the meantime, kita kita nalang sa lobby!

I just started reading the “Chinese System of Food Cures, Prevention & Remedies” by Henry C. Lu today. Here are some interesting excerpts from the book:

Five Flavors of Food
The five flavors of food include pungent (acrid), sweet, sour, bitter, and salty.

Pungent foods include green onion, chives, cloves, parsley, and coriander.
Sweet foods include sugar, cherry, chestnut, and banana.
Sour foods include lemon, pear, plum, and mango.
Bitter foods include hops, lettuce, radish leaf, and vinegar (I list vinegar as bitter because the Chinese call vinegar “bitter wine”. Vinegar tastes both sour and bitter; it is common for some foods to have two simultaneous flavors.)
Salty foods include salt, kept, and seaweed.

The flavors of food are important in Chinese diet, because different flavors have their respective important effects upon the internal organs. Food that have a pungent flavor can act on the lungs and large intestine; foods with a sweet flavor on the stomach and spleen; with sour flavor on the liver and gall bladder; with a bitter flavor on the heart and small intestine; foods that have a salty flavor can act on the kidneys and bladder.

At the beginning, some foods with obvious flavors found to act on some internal organs perform specific actions in the human body. The basic relationships between flavors and internal organs and the actions are studied and analyzed by a process in science called the inductive method. As time goes on, other foods whose flavors are more difficult to determine may be found capable of active upon some internal organs and performing some specific actions.

In general, the common action of foods in regard to their flavors are as follows:

Pungent foods (ginger, green onion, and peppermint) can induce perspiration and promote energy circulation.

Sweet foods (honey, sugar, and watermelon) can slow down the acute symptoms and neutralize the toxic effects of other foods.

Sour foods (lemon and plum) can obstruct the movements, and are useful, therefore, in checking diarrhea and excessive perspiration.

Bitter foods, reduce body heat, dry body fluids, and induce diarrhea (which is why many Chinese herbs recommended to reduce fever and induce diarrhea taste bitter)

Salty foods (kelp and seaweed) can soften hardness, which explains their usefulness in treating tuberculosis of the lymph nodes and other symptoms involving the hardening of muscles or glands.

Mmm… it’s nearly been exactly a year since I went to China. I loved the place we went to, and the food! I never ate so much street food in my life. If only I hadn’t accidentally deleted all the pictures we took of our trip. :’( I just have a few left now.

Ahhh isn’t this a nice photo? It’s taken on a windless night in Whangamata.

My heart goes out to these people, I hope things’ll be ok soon.

Crews search for survivors in Haiti school collapse

* Story Highlights
* Nearly 200 children remain trapped under rubble after Haiti school collapse
* At least 50 children have been confirmed dead, officials say
* Government official questions structural integrity of school
* Red Cross official calls for heavy search-and-rescue equipment

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (CNN) — Rescue workers continued to search for survivors Saturday after a school collapse killed at least 50 children in Petionville near the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.
A fireman holds a child who was rescued from the rubble of a school collapse in Haiti on Friday.

Clarens Renois, a journalist with the Haiti Press Network, said nearly 200 children remained trapped under rubble as of midnight Friday.

As many as 700 children were inside when the building collapsed around 10 a.m. ET Friday, officials said. Some were in class and others were in a playground, Haitian media reported.

“We are looking at major casualties here,” said Alex Claudon, a Red Cross official on the scene.

President Rene Preval and Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis toured the disaster area. The Haiti Press Network quoted Preval as saying that he “heard and saw with my own eyes children appealing for help.”

At least one member of the Haitian Parliament has raised questions about whether the school was built for the number of students and teachers who were inside when the College La Promesse Evangelique collapsed, Renois said. The official described the building as “not quite solid” with “weak construction.” Video Watch rescuers pull students from the rubble »

Preval has since called for a review of building-construction guidelines.
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* Dozens killed in Haiti school collapse

The Haitian Civil Protection Bureau said at least 100 people have been injured, but the death toll is expected to rise.

Most of the students at the school ranged in age from 10 to 20, officials said, but some are younger. Haitian press reports said kindergarten, primary and secondary students attended the school.

“We are taking all necessary steps. The government has mobilized to save those who can be saved,” Pierre-Louis said.

Preval asked residents to stay away from the area to allow police and rescue officials to do their work unimpeded.

Michaele Gedeon, president of Haiti’s Red Cross, said that, while she was on the phone with rescuers trying to coordinate their efforts, she could hear the voices of distraught children.

“On the phone you can hear so many children, you know, crying, crying, and saying, “This one is dead. that one is dead,’” she said.

Claudon said hundreds of bystanders and rescue workers were digging through the rubble with their hands and rudimentary tools, but “what we need right now is heavy search-and-rescue equipment.” Video Watch Red Cross official describe scene »

In a later interview, Claudon said, “Local authorities are doing their best.”

About 50 to 60 patients, 30 of them severely injured, were taken to Trinite Hospital in Port-au-Prince, said Isabelle Mouniaman Nara, the head of mission in the capital for Doctors Without Borders.

Another 150 patients were treated elsewhere, Nara said Friday night.

The situation at Trinite “is under control right now,” she said.

Trinite is the only hospital that is open in Port-au-Prince, Doctors Without Borders said. The other two — General Hospital and Hospital de la Paix — have been shut down due to worker strikes.

The school is in an extremely poor part of town and the roads are nearly impassable, Renois said. He also said an United Nations helicopter was unable to land.

“The school is poorly built,” said Amelia Shaw, a journalist with United Nations TV who visited the scene.

The two-story school had an addition built in the rear over a 200-foot ravine, Shaw told CNN by telephone. The steep hillside, she said, is covered with run-down houses and shacks on both sides.

The disaster occurred when the second floor crumbled onto the first, Shaw said.

The U.S. Agency for International Development sent a Disaster Assistance Response Team, which arrived on the scene within hours of the collapse, the agency said in a news release.

After assessing the situation, USAID activated its partner, the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue Team. That team will be composed of 38 personnel, four search-and-rescue dogs and 31,000 pounds of rescue equipment and is expected to arrive Saturday.
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The Urban Search and Rescue Team will be accompanied by four additional USAID disaster experts.

U.S. Ambassador Janet Sanderson expressed her condolences in a note, the Haiti Press Network

Source: CNN

I read this article which is questioning whether kids should be encouraged to go to college by the time they’re 16. Here in the Philippines, almost all the kids are in college by the time they’re 16. Some people are in college at 14. There are pros and cons to this system. The pro of course is that you finish school much earlier. You can learn more faster- i.e., you could finish your masters by age 21 or 22, and take a doctorate degree if you’re really into it. Or go for a double degree. But for the most part, I find that there are more cons to this system.

First of all, here in the Philippines, once you get to college, you’ve still got a year or year and a half of math, chemistry, english, science, etcetera. How many times over do you have to study that stuff anyway? The Comm 3 course I took – I basically learned as a 12 year old when I had one of my aunt’s friends (a professor from La Salle) come and teach us. And for people like me who are hopeless at math, it’s just depressing to be faced with “Math 11″ in college.

Anyhow, it can also be difficult for a person to decide what course to take. It’s fine if you’ve got parents around or active guidance counselors who can guide you well on what course to take according to your personal strengths or weaknesses, otherwise you’ll see a lot of course switching- and in short, time wasted. And in situations where the 16 year old students move to a totally different place, situation etc to do their schooling, especially if the student comes from a far away, simple province, a lot of people just get ruined that way. They’re unable to take or deal with the peer pressure, etc etc. It can be quite a headache. Nobody said anything in this world would be easy tho.

Should Kids Be Able to Graduate After 10th Grade?

By KATHLEEN KINGSBURY Kathleen Kingsbury – Fri Nov 7, 4:50 am ET

High school sophomores should be ready for college by age 16. That’s the message from New Hampshire education officials, who announced plans Oct. 30 for a new rigorous state board of exams to be given to 10th graders. Students who pass will be prepared to move on to the state’s community or technical colleges, skipping the last two years of high school. (See pictures of teens and how they would vote.)

Once implemented, the new battery of tests is expected to guarantee higher competency in core school subjects, lower dropout rates and free up millions of education dollars. Students may take the exams – which are modeled on existing AP or International Baccalaureate tests – as many times as they need to pass. Or those who want to go to a prestigious university may stay and finish the final two years, taking a second, more difficult set of exams senior year. “We want students who are ready to be able to move on to their higher education,” says Lyonel Tracy, New Hampshire’s Commissioner for Education. “And then we can focus even more attention on those kids who need more help to get there.”

But can less schooling really lead to better-prepared students at an earlier age? Outside of the U.S., it’s actually a far less radical notion than it sounds. Dozens of industrialized countries expect students to be college-ready by age 16, and those teenagers consistently outperform their American peers on international standardized tests. (See pictures of the college dorm room’s evolution.)

With its new assessment system, New Hampshire is adopting a key recommendation of a blue-ribbon panel called the New Commission on Skills of the American Workforce. In 2006, the group issued a report called Tough Choices or Tough Times , a blueprint for how it believes the U.S. must dramatically overhaul education policies in order to maintain a globally competitive economy. “Forty years ago, the United States had the best… read full article

This was taken in La Union, Philippines, soon after one of the big typhoons hit the area.

First of all, congratulations, President-elect Obama! I usually follow the US elections quite closely, but this year I only just started following the election news a few days before the election itself. I was not really eagerly wishing and praying either one would win. I do not exactly fancy Palin, although I am a republican, or maybe I should just start saying I’m an independent. Anyhow, Obama has made history, and I hope the best for him during his term(s).

Now for my day- I just finished enrolling this morning. The second semester starts next week. Yay. I love learning, but sometimes it is hard to keep up with all the different responsibilities, and some teachers are just down right terrors.

During the semester break I took advantage of the extra time I had to work on the projects I am working on. I come from a middle class family with an upper class background. My dad has done community service for the past 30+ years or so, and I think it’s rubbed off on me. I love working with people and know community service is definitely very fulfilling. As the old saying goes, “Good is the man who strives to do his best. Honorable is the man who lives not just for himself, but for others. Glorious is he who lives for the Lord, dedicated to His cause.” Not that I am saying I’m honorable or anything.

Yesterday, it was in our headlines that the Philippines is top 5 in the world for hunger. Knowing that, it is not surprising to know that there is a very high amount of malnourished people in the country. Just in the little elementary school that I volunteered my community service hours for school last semester, over 90% of the children are malnourished. The irony of it all is that these people live in farms and are farmers! Unfortunately the consumerism attitude has greatly influenced these people, and our politicians are no help either. Instead of growing food and eating it, they grow food and sell everything they grow then buy some “goods” wrapped in plastic from the store. What was common knowledge in the past has now been forgotten. People no longer know the herbs to take as medicine, nor do they know the basic foods to eat to keep their bodies strong and healthy. It is this that I want to change. I would like to make it so that my fellow people can have the basic needs and rights that all living beings deserve – at least a full belly, good health, and of course, real education. I have started out outlining my plans and am working with the mayor and other government officials and a big group of my friends and fellow volunteers to get this project to lessen hunger (and hopefully eliminate it) going. After all, how painful and difficult is it actually to reach out and help a fellow human being? A single smile of thanks from someone else can erase all personal sacrifices in such work.

With that, I leave you with some pictures. The first one is one is a picture of rice terraces, as you can see, that my friends took during our hike up to a beautiful waterfall I’ll post about tomorrow. The second one is a nice little river that is just about 200 meters away from the elementary school I teach in. The kids brought me there during their school break the other day, when I was walking around their school taking pictures. The following picture is a picture of the great garbage control system they’ve got going. I especially like how all the plastics and non-degradable wastes are thrown as near the water as possible. (In all the schools I’ve been to the situation is the same) And finally, pictures of my 1st grade students. Just look at those smiles! One thing I really like about working in the rural if not- provincial areas, and with children like these guys is that despite the fact that they’ve hardly got anything, their eyes seem to retain a clarity and the bright freshness like that of cool winds blowing through shady bamboo, and they are definitely much quicker to smile than city folk. As you can see tho, they need some major dental help. That’s another project I’d like to do to help the people around here.

A little creek on the east coast.

This is a place called Piha on the wild west coast of New Zealand. It’s about 45mins from Auckland City. I grew up in Piha so I’ll probably be posting a lot of pics.
I almost died in Piha surfing. Theres a lot of jagged Rocks and caves all around the west coast. I was surfing with one of my friends just around the bay from this photo. I caught a big wave and ended going over the falls. I got smashed by a few waves and when I came up I was right against the rocks. A cave was about 5 meters away from me and the current was sucking me in there. That was about the freakiest time of my life because I couldn’t see what was in the cave. So I ended up getting sucked in the cave which was like a washing machine. Very freaky. I got stuck in there for over an hour until I managed to climb up onto a ledge then climb out of the cave. My board was smashed already. I climbed out of the cave and sat on a perch. I decided I wasn’t going anywhere until a helicopter came to save me haha. while I was in the cave my friend had gone to get the life guards so they ended up coming round in their IRB (rescue boat) to save me. I tell you that was the best sight of my life. I thanked the lord at that point because I thought that was it for me .

These pictures are taken of Lion Rock. From some angles it really looks like a lion sitting down but you can’t really tell from these pics.