Since I was six months old, I was a fan of Michael Jackson. He was the best. I just can't describe how I felt when I heard the news of his death...............

I wouldn’t exactly call myself an environmentalist but when some hotshot private corporation or any government entitites try to manipulate any food supply in liue of  higher monetary gain, then I have a problem with that.  I previously blogged about the “adding” of the chemical “melamine” in milk in China in my blog entitled “The Food Crisis: Adding Insult to Injury.”  Now here comes another one - it’s in rice.  I have encountered the term GMO (Genetically-Modified Organism) used in corn after a rough campaign by the school where I used to teach.  The provincial government in Negros Occidental, Philippines, assured the public back in 2006 that no GM corn are shipped in the province.  But last year, I read a news about it that some GM corn were said to have been found in one warehouse.  It’s not hard to believe how something like that can pass through the government’s lenses, especially when graft and corruption is a major trade in some parts of the world.  Really sad. Money over conviction. Money over Public Good.

Here comes another one - GM rice.  I love rice and even my husband loved it.  We have it in every meal.  Heck, we even got ourselves a rice cooker here! Back home, “rice” was regular white long grained rice that was Php24.00 per kilo.  Here, we get a 5 lb Jasmine rice called “Mahatma Jasmine” (Thai rice) at Food Lion for less than $7 and the 25 lb at Sam’s Club for like $17. The first few attempts we had of getting affordable rice was a disaster- low grade rice that never seemed to grow soft after 10 minutes of boiling. Now that we found the kind of rice we wanted (and smells good, too!), we are sticking to a kind we want. So basically, everybody can assume that I am very particular about my rice.

Greenpeace has been in the forefront about campaigning against GM (um..not General Motors).   According to a Greenpeace report, Bayer (try to remember bug spray), a German company, has  genetically-manipulated rice in order to withstand toxic doses of a pesticide called glufosinate.  Well it’s toxic so it means that it’s harmful to living organisms.  Since Bayer is based in Germany, naturally the European Union has a say whether they would agree to the import of GM rice. If they import GM rice, then farmers will plant GM rice. This means, in the near future, we would be eating GM rice, as they would now be available for sale in supermarkets everywhere.

So now you know why it’s very frustrating to make people understand that “better invention” doesn’t necessarily mean “better for humankind.”  Okay, so Bible classes would tell us “go feed the poor” and the next thing we know we are doign a lot worse by feeding them GM rice.  What is safe to eat then? And heck! What’s next?!?

You may go to this link for more information from Greenpeace: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/genetic-engineering/hands-off-our-rice/hands-off-our-rice

Below is a concrete explanation of GM rice:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsxFZ0rUCoM[/youtube]

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© rustan108 for Babel: The multilingual, multicultural online journal and community of arts and ideas, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: genetically modified, genetically modified rice, GM Rice, greenpeace, rice

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I wouldn’t exactly call myself an environmentalist but when some hotshot private corporation or any government entitites try to manipulate any food supply in liue of  higher monetary gain, then I have a problem with that.  I previously blogged about the “adding” of the chemical “melamine” in milk in China in my blog entitled “The Food Crisis: Adding Insult to Injury.”  Now here comes another one – it’s in rice.  I have encountered the term GMO (Genetically-Modified Organism) used in corn after a rough campaign by the school where I used to teach.  The provincial government in Negros Occidental, Philippines, assured the public back in 2006 that no GM corn are shipped in the province.  But last year, I read a news about it that some GM corn were said to have been found in one warehouse.  It’s not hard to believe how something like that can pass through the government’s lenses, especially when graft and corruption is a major trade in some parts of the world.  Really sad. Money over conviction. Money over Public Good.

Here comes another one – GM rice.  I love rice and even my husband loved it.  We have it in every meal.  Heck, we even got ourselves a rice cooker here! Back home, “rice” was regular white long grained rice that was Php24.00 per kilo.  Here, we get a 5 lb Jasmine rice called “Mahatma Jasmine” (Thai rice) at Food Lion for less than $7 and the 25 lb at Sam’s Club for like $17. The first few attempts we had of getting affordable rice was a disaster- low grade rice that never seemed to grow soft after 10 minutes of boiling. Now that we found the kind of rice we wanted (and smells good, too!), we are sticking to a kind we want. So basically, everybody can assume that I am very particular about my rice.

Greenpeace has been in the forefront about campaigning against GM (um..not General Motors).   According to a Greenpeace report, Bayer (try to remember bug spray), a German company, has  genetically-manipulated rice in order to withstand toxic doses of a pesticide called glufosinate.  Well it’s toxic so it means that it’s harmful to living organisms.  Since Bayer is based in Germany, naturally the European Union has a say whether they would agree to the import of GM rice. If they import GM rice, then farmers will plant GM rice. This means, in the near future, we would be eating GM rice, as they would now be available for sale in supermarkets everywhere.

So now you know why it’s very frustrating to make people understand that “better invention” doesn’t necessarily mean “better for humankind.”  Okay, so Bible classes would tell us “go feed the poor” and the next thing we know we are doign a lot worse by feeding them GM rice.  What is safe to eat then? And heck! What’s next?!?

You may go to this link for more information from Greenpeace: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/genetic-engineering/hands-off-our-rice/hands-off-our-rice

Below is a concrete explanation of GM rice:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsxFZ0rUCoM[/youtube]

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© rustan108 for Babel: The multilingual, multicultural online journal and community of arts and ideas, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: genetically modified, genetically modified rice, GM Rice, greenpeace, rice

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My favorite part in the “Sound of Music” has always been “How do you solve the problem like Maria?”  It’s a part of a song that seems to have buried itself in memory.  Two years ago, I met this wonderful friend named Maria from Romania. So that sort of triggered a memory of that song and I eventually told Maria about this.  Even when I was in high school, Music class started with “doe a deer a female deer...” or “when you know the notes to sing…” I actually could hum the latter and play the piano (without learning it) by just listening to myself hum. Then during a trip to North Carolina with my husband to meet some wonderful folks, we got into this topic about Sound of Music and Julie Andrews‘ career - from Mary Poppins to Sound of Music.  We were basically talking about Julie Andrews‘ accent and how prim and proper she was when she talks.  But when the guys blurted out that she has a “potty-mouth” I was like “what?!?”  I don’t exactly know how that topic came up but that was coming from a Scottish friend.  Between grasping that tidbit and the guffaw after that, I forgot to ask how our friend knew.

Anyhow, I am mentioning Sound of Music because I got this email from my friend Maria and she sent me a video of  how 200 dancers went to the train station in Antwerp, Belgium and basically “rocked the house” with the tunes in “Sound of Music.”  Thought I’d share these little “coincidences” and it might just trigger some good ole memory (and why I am blogging about it now).  I wonder how many out there have watched the Sound of Music over and over again? Well here I am - guilty!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EYAUazLI9k[/youtube]

You can also watch it from this link: http://www.flixxy.com/antwerp-central-station-sound-of-music.htm

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© rustan108 for Babel: The multilingual, multicultural online journal and community of arts and ideas, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: julie andrews, sound of music

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msbeeee posts what has to be some of the creepiest adverts ever seen. Ew.

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© racarrera for Babel: The multilingual, multicultural online journal and community of arts and ideas, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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I have heard about this rendition that Jon Schmidt did with Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” from the movie “Romeo + Juliet” (well starring Clare Danes and Leonardo di Caprio) and “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay.  It was a superb rendition! It relaxes you - sort of calming.  I remembered attending my nephew’s piano recital last May 2 at Texas Tech University and remembering how I learned to play the piano by myself  years back- learning to read notes from Music class at school and then listening to the rhythm of a song intently.   I would always combine one piece with another and just be silly and play it.  So listening to Jon Schmidt rendition made me thoughtful as it is a unique ability to combine two pieces and make it sound so fun. Well, I’m a fan now!
I actually wanted to download the music format of this and hoping to upload in my ipod (without resorting to P2P sites). It seems like the free download was temporarily postponed due to some legal matters, according to the site.  Copyright issues, I assume. The rendition/combination of two songs can be genuinely unique for the artist as the artist who combined and created something new. But the other means to come up with that genuine, artistic piece was not wholly owned by the artist. I think obviously that is where the legal aspect come in. I’d say personally, both Taylor Swift and Coldplay may even get more recognition for their songs due to this special rendition.  Wouldn’t this rendition by Jon Schmidt then be categorized as a “remake” - where some artist would sing an old song and record it again under a new label/artist?

I await the mp3 download. So watch out at http://www.jonschmidt.com/catalog/index.php

The YouTube video is below. You may also watch it at Tangle: http://www.tangle.com/view_video.php?viewkey=4c06065c76d3284dc3dc

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v3d6SFcDys[/youtube]

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© rustan108 for Babel: The multilingual, multicultural online journal and community of arts and ideas, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Coldplay, Jon Schmidt, Love Story, Romeo+Juliet, Taylor Swift

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I have heard about this rendition that Jon Schmidt did with Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” from the movie “Romeo + Juliet” (well starring Clare Danes and Leonardo di Caprio) and “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay.  It was a superb rendition! It relaxes you – sort of calming.  I remembered attending my nephew’s piano recital last May 2 at Texas Tech University and remembering how I learned to play the piano by myself  years back- learning to read notes from Music class at school and then listening to the rhythm of a song intently.   I would always combine one piece with another and just be silly and play it.  So listening to Jon Schmidt rendition made me thoughtful as it is a unique ability to combine two pieces and make it sound so fun. Well, I’m a fan now!

I actually wanted to download the music format of this and hoping to upload in my ipod (without resorting to P2P sites). It seems like the free download was temporarily postponed due to some legal matters, according to the site.  Copyright issues, I assume. The rendition/combination of two songs can be genuinely unique for the artist as the artist who combined and created something new. But the other means to come up with that genuine, artistic piece was not wholly owned by the artist. I think obviously that is where the legal aspect come in. I’d say personally, both Taylor Swift and Coldplay may even get more recognition for their songs due to this special rendition.  Wouldn’t this rendition by Jon Schmidt then be categorized as a “remake” – where some artist would sing an old song and record it again under a new label/artist?

I await the mp3 download. So watch out at http://www.jonschmidt.com/catalog/index.php

The YouTube video is below. You may also watch it at Tangle: http://www.tangle.com/view_video.php?viewkey=4c06065c76d3284dc3dc

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v3d6SFcDys[/youtube]

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© rustan108 for Babel: The multilingual, multicultural online journal and community of arts and ideas, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Coldplay, Jon Schmidt, Love Story, Romeo+Juliet, Taylor Swift

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I  sent a posting recently to the ISOC PH mailing list - just sort of an observation I had while trying out Wolfram Alpha.I tried it and just spontaneously typed weather information in my city. To my surprise, it gave me a “Wolfram|Alpha isn’t sure what to do with your input..“  According to the BBC article I read about Wolfram, it should return annotated pages rather than list of sites. Instead I got a “…isn’t-sure-what-to-do-with-your-input.”

So I did another search and key in “value of pi,” after Gonz, an ISOC PH member, told me that Wolfram is quite good with computational information.  I actually got the answers to my query and not just links to sites. I got the value of “pi” in decimal, fraction and in other representations. That was cool for me since I didn’t have to browse through several sites just to find answers.  I was even thinking that if only we had Wolfram during college days, I wouldn’t have to dig into my notes, decipher my handwriting (and get some answer or formula wrong with my own handwriting that I couldn’t understand!) and just use the Internet instead.

My husband told me that if we need some information, we can “wolf” it now instead of “google” it.

Here’s the BBC article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8052798.stm
Wolfram Alpha: http://www.wolframalpha.com/

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© rustan108 for Babel: The multilingual, multicultural online journal and community of arts and ideas, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: wolfram alpha

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And they have the nerve to put a picture of soup being served?!  There goes my appetite…

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© racarrera for Babel: The multilingual, multicultural online journal and community of arts and ideas, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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As a busy traveler and a history and culture buff, I’ve prided myself on making deep preparations for trips overseas, and it has paid handsome dividends.  Zach Dunkin at Indystar.com writes on how one can avoid some of the faux-pauses that less-experiences travelers endure.

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© racarrera for Babel: The multilingual, multicultural online journal and community of arts and ideas, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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I think I’ve figured it out. There’s something in public health called the “prevention paradox”: measures of disease prevention that offer great benefits to populations at large (such as fluoridation of water sources, wearing seatbelts, lifestyle changes, smallpox vaccinations, etc) offer little benefit or personal incentive to individuals.

But research shows that health education geared toward individuals (counseling on reducing salt intake for hypertension, exercise for diabetes, etc) are less effective when geared only toward individuals and/or used in a short-term approach. People are motivated to act for immediate gain and substantial personal benefits, but “the medical motivation for health education is inherently weak. Their health next year is not likely to be much better if they accept our advice or if they reject it. Much more powerful as motivators for health education are the social rewards of enhanced self-esteem and social approval.” (Geoffrey Rose, Sick Individuals and Sick Populations.)

Physicians also prefer individualized health education because with population interventions (such as anti-smoking campaigns), their success rates are low and results take a long time to achieve.

The US is such an individual-centric society that people have no cultural reason to care about population health as a whole. Most Americans do not see that universal access to healthcare means that problems are detected and treated early (which is less costly), and that sometimes preventive medicine can encourage life-saving behavior change. That the person going into the ER for stomach pain because s/he does not have health insurance is costing the taxpayer literally thousands more dollars than s/he would if s/he’d gone to a primary care physician.

Nor do they understand the concept of herd immunity- if a large proportion of a population is immune to or vaccinated against a particular disease, the likelihood that one individual will get that disease is far less.

The focus on the individual and the apathy toward the well-being of communities and populations is by no means restricted to health alone. The same can be said about the current financial crisis. Individuals who borrowed more than they could pay back, and their unscrupulous lenders have created a global downward spiral of hundreds of economies, with the bottom billion hit the hardest.

I find it ironic and deeply saddening that 30 million more people have been pushed into starvation thus far due to the financial crisis while bankers are taking hefty bonuses and governments are bailing out businesses that were failing even before the crash (GM, Chrysler, etc…)

And to think they call Americans prudes, hah!

HT: Breitbart.

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© racarrera for Babel: The multilingual, multicultural online journal and community of arts and ideas, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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My dear blogging compatriots, this news comes as a treat! Kindle will be opening up their machines to instantly download RSS feeds from your favorite blogs, so it may behoove you to submit your links (or just do what I do and read it for vanity’s sake!). HT: MediaBistro.

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by James Schwartz

TKO! Yet here I am standing.

Through our carnage and through our calm.

I hear one voice in storm and Psalm.

　

Sacred scrolls of henna fonts.

A Global Era Renaissance.

Connected consciousness. WE ARE ONE!

Longfellow in Levis: the day is done.

　

Of queer quills and pink ink.

A pretty boy poet to make you think.

Of equality. Diversity.

And what he really means to me.

　

March with PRIDE. Love awaits.

Open your mind. Stop the hate.

Free your foes. Remove your muzzle.

We are all a piece in the puzzle.

 

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© James Schwartz for Babel: The multilingual, multicultural online journal and community of arts and ideas, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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All the teenage members out here, how many of you would like to write for a new online literary e-zine? Please reply back. I have got a plan....................and even those who write for teenagers but are adults themselves , please reply.