Love your neurons!

The motor cortex, somewhere deep in the brain . . .

Placebo: Clinically proven relief

there will be little flowers here

- 0 - 0 - 0 - 0 -

we hit the clay
and he judged that it was enough
i rested my blisters
unused to man's work my hands
soft in the mild days that
seemed to stretch forever

i would like to bury a scream
a cry, a word
we commit nothing to the earth
even the familiar weight of care
is kept close
unyielded, we keep it very close

they say there are little earthquakes
rumors in the dirt
too soft to be felt
but if you keep still
and hold your breath just above the grass
you can let yourself tremble
and be moved


1997? - June 23, 2008

(an old song)

Assignments for the year

Federation of Philippine Photographers Foundation (FPPF)
Photoworld Cup: Themes and deadlines

February - panoramic ------------ --- 8th March
March- holyweek ------------ --- 29th March
April - jeepney (color)----- -- 26 April
May - skin ------------ --------- 31 May
June -portrait of a filipino - 28th June
July - still life ------------ ------- 26 July
August - rain-------- --------- -------- 3o Aug
September - black and white------- - 27 Sept
October - nature ------------ --------- - 25 Oct
November - christmas song ------- 29 Nov


If anyone has ideas or can help with one of the themes then say so!

It takes practice

forensic experts at a suicide bombing:
"... if you focus on the piece of kidney, cross your eyes, then move your head back very slowly, you'll start to see the 3-D fish. See it yet?"

Petsa sa Pilipinas, pataas ng pataas! Gobyerno aaksyunan agad ang krisis!

DUMARAMI NA ANG DUMADAING sa patuloy na pagtaas ng petsa sa Pilipinas. Tinatayang araw-araw sa mga nakaraang buwan ay may nangyayaring pagtaas sa halaga ng kasalukuyang petsa. Ayon kay Secretary of Finance Margarito Teves, bagamat bumagsak ang petsa ngayong Abril 1, maasahan daw na tataas muli ang petsa sa mga darating na araw. "This is bigger than the Philippines. Many outside factors are at play, like global warming."

Marami sa mga kababayan natin ang nakararamdam na ng kagipitan dahil sa walang patid na pag usad ng gulong ng panahon. Isa na rito si Jacko, taga Mandaluyong. "Yung lipad ng eroplano ko papuntang Dubai eh nung 25, eh nung pumunta ako sa NAIA eh sabi nila hindi na daw ako pwede lumipad kasi 28 na. Pahirap talaga 'tong pag-bago bago ng petsa, hindi ko maintindihan!" Si Feli naman, taga-Navotas iba naman ang daing "Konti nalang at Mayo na, malapit na akong manganak. Naloloka na ako!"

Ayon sa mga ekonomista, sa bawat isang puntong pag-taas ay nababawasan ng isang araw ang buhay ng bawat Pilipino.

Nangako naman ang gobyerno na gagawan agad ng mga hakbang para pigilan ang pag akyat ng bilang sa kalendaryo. Nabanggit ni Secretary Eduardo Ermita na mayroon nang nahandang solusyon ang national government. "Sa U.S. mayroon silang tinatawag na Daylight Savings. Which is a good idea, kasi you should not waste your days, you should save it." Naglalaan daw ng pondo ang gobyerno para makapagtayo ng Daylight Savings Bank kung saan maaring magimpok ng oras at panahon ang mga manggagawang Pilipino.

Bilang pansamantalang lunas, maraming mga tao ang gumagawa ng mga paraan para maibalik ang kahapon, tulad ng pag-iinuman, pag-lambing sa misis, o pagapapaturok ng botox.

Panoramic Manila Bay

(click to enlarge)

Poll on evolution

If you change something about your body there is a possibility that your son or daughter can inherit that change through genes
	I agree with the statement and I believe in evolution
	I agree with the statement but I do not believe in evolution
	I disagree with the statment but I believe in evolution
	I disagree with the statement because I do not believe in evolution
Powered by Quimble - Create and Share Polls

Utos ng Hari!

"Kamahalan, nandito na ang babaeng pinahanap ninyo"

the reinstigation comencifies

matatapos na ang This Year at parating na ang Next Year kaya bukas Last Year na itong post na ito. bumili na ng mga Next Year na calendaryo baka pagtingin nyo bukas eh Last Year pa ren ang nakalagay at malito kayo. Happy Next Year!

through souless streets and soaring depths the music has come back home. the following was born in the midst of the October 2006 Milenyo smackdown and its taken more than a year to learn to walk and soon it will learn to run, jump and kick. drumtrack is courtesy of FL Studio. i think of it as a chewy-chewy sound

chewy chewy sound (mp3, 3.2 mb)

Lecture Essay #2: The Real Reverse Psychology

"Life Imitates Art"
- Oscar Wilde

The idea that advertising tries to manipulate us is no longer so controversial to most people. Hence the question is no longer academically interesting and it has lost its shock value for the more sophisticated. Even the weight conscious person is aware that Cosmopolitan is trying to play with her sympathies and sell her stuff through supermodel subtlety.

More civic minded people have therefore been telling themselves “If television can tell people what to buy, television should be able to make people be better citizens and children better students, right?” To their credit these people haven’t been lazy in their mass-media preaching. Recall the “Just Say No” campaign of the 90’s, the Flying house bible-adventure theme and compare that with the recent Safeguard animation mini-series.

The really amazing thing about do-gooder ad campaigns like these is that in many cases they are spectacular failures, sometimes backfiring by actually leading to an increase in the behavior they are supposed to get rid of. There was plenty of embarrassment and head-scratching to go around, and the problem remains one of the more annoying facts about behavior that won’t fit neatly into the theories. To their credit, psychologists have not been idle and have even named the phenomenon. And so the concept of “psychological reactance” has entered into the vocabulary of psychology, but just because you’ve named something doesn’t mean you understand it.

What is known so far is that if you try to persuade people sometimes they get the idea that you are trying to control them or limit their freedom. When that happens the tendency is for the person to not just ignore you but for them to do the exact opposite of what you’re trying to make them do. This is psychological reactance. Think of all those government warnings on cigarette packs: Is it possible that by some strange logic they are actually promoting smoking? I’m sure the top bosses at Marlborough find this very amusing. It seems that by trying too hard you could actually turn your audience against you and defeat your purpose, making things worse than if you didn’t try at all.

And so the art of persuasion might not be as straightforward as it seems. A little slight of hand is in order; the problem of how to manipulate people without them knowing that you are doing so. This doesn’t have to sound so nasty and Machiavellian as I might be putting it if you think about the fact that you could use this to convince people to save the environment by driving around less or that condom use can prevent the spread of HIV. We try to persuade people to change their behaviors and attitudes all the time, when asking for more allowance or asking people to sin no more.

Part of the problem might lie in the person trying to persuade you. So far at least one experiment has shown (Chartrand, et al 2006) that if the person making a request (or issuing a command) is close to them and is seen as controlling (think nagging mother-type or annoying supervisor), reactance is more likely. And this can even happen nonconsciously, meaning we are likely not aware that we do it at all, and might especially be true for people who value personal control and freedom.

Which when you think about it means the more someone values their freedom and the more they resent authority the more manipulable through reactance they are. An uneasy thought...

So what’s the trick? Well, maybe if you keep reminding your friends that you are studying psychology and then when you want them to do something why not try telling them to do the opposite. Sneaky, if it works.

Isang araw sa Intramuros

Sabado at kakatapos ko lang ipasa ang entries namin para sa Mayo sa FPPF Fort Santiago. Naglalakad na ako sa Gen. Luna nang huminto ako sa isang gusaling basag ang mga bintana at halatang nasunog. Huminto ako para kumuha ng ilang litrato. Saka ko lang naisip na ito pala ang headquarters ng Comelec na nasunog nuong Pebrero (mayroon pang sunog na memo sa bintana). Inisip ko kung anong nangyari sa imbestigasyon pero hindi ako nag-isip ng matagal dahil tanghaling-tapat at mainit. Naglakad na ako uli. Ilang hakbang pa palapit na ako sa gusali ng NCAA. May mga batang nagiingay at humihiyaw. Mayroon atang palaro. Maya maya pa ay lumabas ang dalawang magkatunggali, parehong lalaking laseng (o mukhang laseng). Tulakan at suntukan hanggang umabot sa gitna ng kalye. Nakalamang ang isa sa suntok at tumba ang mamang walang pang-itaas. Naunang lumapag ang likod sinundan ng malakas na pagumpog ng bumbunan sa aspalto. Hindi nakuntento ang nagwagi at dinaganan pa ng isang paa sa dibdib parang pumapatay ng ipis. Sabay lakad palayo mula sa walang malay na kaaway "SAbi ko saYO huwag MO akOng Ngyar ngyar ngYAR..." Ang lahat ay naganap ng mabilis pa sa kalahating minuto. Nakalampas na ako sa lugar ng insidente, ang kawawang lalaki ay inaakay patayo. Buhay pa naman yata pero matamlay ang buong katawan, walang buto parang jellyace. May dalawang security guard na masayang sumaksi sa lahat. Sabi ko sa kanila "Mabilis ang laban" Sagot nila "Knock-out kaagad". Tumawa kami. Wala nang ibang nangyari sa pag uwi ko.

This is a poem.Walang biro, poem nga ito:

Appendix to Mein Kampf
or
How to Talk like you Know what you’re Talking about
Even when you Don’t

First, Enumerate
Enumerating makes people think several things
One, that you have more than one point
Two, that you know beforehand that you have
more than one point
Three, if you have many points, people can’t accuse you
of being pointless,
or can they?

Second, Cite Statistics
People who aren’t good at math can
be bullied into believing you through numbers
As a matter of fact, 89% (almost 90%!)
of those surveyed say
they are more likely to believe people who give percentages
Additionally, 89 is a prime number
and is the 11th term in the Fibonacci series
Isn’t that odd?
Yes, that too

Third, Quote from Impressive Sources
Like the Good Book says
“…And the Wiki shall inherit the Earth”

Fourth, Use Jargon
Make strategic use of exotic words in your talk
Coniferous
They will make you sound intelligence
Tessellated mendicant
Or even smart
Burrito

Lastly, Make Bold Claims
This, among all the techniques,
is the best and is guaranteed to work
It will make anything you say totally believable,
help you make new friends,
and will even get rid of tooth decay
Peksman.

Vote wisely!

lets try a poll

Which news source would you trust more?
	Broadcast media (TV, radio)
	Print media (newspaper, magazine)
	New media (internet, podcast)
	Friends and relatives
	I don’t care about the news at all

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Why would I want a soul?

We usually think of the soul as the essence of being human, of existence itself. It's also a comfort to think that when your body dies your soul survives and so you somehow go on in kind of disembodied ghost-like way. Then come the questions:

1) Do souls have memories?
I believe memories are stored in the brain. If it weren't, people who suffer brain damage shouldn't experience any memory loss, but they do. But the brain rots away when we die, so if there is a soul would it be able to carry our memories with it? Assuming that it could, could it also make new memories? Does the soul remember even the things we forgot? Can the soul think? For reincarnation, is memory of past lives affected by brain damage? On the other hand if it doesn't carry any of our memories with it, is the soul that leaves your body still YOU when it contains nothing about you at all?

2) Do souls have emotions?
The way psychology sees it, emotions are experienced by the body. You wouldn't feel fear if you didn't have a gut to clench and palms to get clammy. A soul has none of these and so would it be able to laugh, cry, feel anything that we usually associate with being human? If it can't would you be still YOU, the person with a sense of humor, the person who can empathize with others, or did that person die with the body?

3) Do souls know everything?
Plato says that souls know everything, or at least a lot more than we as embodied humans can possibly know. They are able to see things as they Truly are. It is assumed that in that state we would be perfectly content. But again I ask, is that enlightened being still YOU or is it such an alien state that there is absolutely no connection with the flesh-n-blood person you were, who loved and hated and tried to live on uncertainty and half-truths?

The argument I advance is this: If in the process of becoming undying soul you discard everything that makes you YOU, in short anihilating your identity, what life do you continue in the afterlife if that life is no more? It seems to me that even if we have souls the persons we are still cease to be and will never be again.

What do you think?

Ars Galactica

February weather in Manila is the best. It seems you can walk anywhere without breaking a sweat. Other days its hot and going anyplace is a kind of personal time-dilation; getting there takes forever. But for now everyday feels like its made for untiring swiftness, clean wind-smells carrying you along. Days like these you should breathe long and deep, and remember.

nasarapan ba tayo sa hotdog ni sam?

September this year will mark 100 years since the execution of Makaryo Sakay and the beginning of the end for what the Americans called "the Philippine Insurrection" but is more properly remembered as the Filipino-American Bloody Date-Rape. An ugly example of bullying, it has been conveniently forgetten by both sides, which is seen in the relatively few books and fewer movies about this non-event. Even its eerie reproduction in today's Mesopotamia fails to jog what has been thoroughly repressed: they keep referring to Iraq as a second Vietnam and fail to note that Vietnam was a second Philippines. The Empire was born on our soil and in return we made them bleed for a decade. And so we were punished with forgetfulness so thorough that both the New Yorker and her caregiver don't even know the reasons why, once upon a time, their ancestors were shooting each other in the jungle. But why care for history, dead and dry, when our countries are such good buddies now. They take our smart young people and we get their coffee and trans-fat. Hating kapatid?

a prodigal story

chalice

i thought this story lost but now its found. written in 2001, it explores two hypotheses. one is: since jesus was a carpenter, what happened to all the stuff he made? it was supposed to be part of a larger piece. i was imitating Eco not Brown.

leavetaking

para sa aming kaklase na nasagot na ang lahat ng tanong


cha 2006 (right-click save as)

it made me sad
to know we'll never know
the thoughts behind the butterflies
the flowers hiding smiles
i hoped that we would talk someday
but now we're out of time
never even said goodbye

you remembered feyerabend
nobody remembers him
but you remembered feyerabend
you remembered me
and i'll remember you

we try our hand at making sense
we laugh when we don't quite
i'm just trying to say goodbye

you remembered feyerabend
nobody remembers him
but you remembered feyerabend
you remembered me
i remember everything
that will never be
you remembered feyerabend
you remembered me
and i'll remember you

healthy eating for sick creatures

i am a silly disgusting man. nothing new