Close Calls

It had been the week for final exams for most schools. Undeniably, it would be around this time that cramming is at its peak, but with increasing levels of difficulty and wave after wave of daunting tasks, only the best can pull it off and win the high stakes involved: pass or fail. My advice therefore, although it might be late for this school year, is to not attempt cramming in the first place.

The final exams themselves are such fine examples of torment for students. I've narrated before of one such instance to comical effect. Indeed, in the end such stressful episodes of student life do end up as memories that surfaces to the office rat who's slaving away for a crucial presentation the next day. As for myself, I recall two glistening memories of final exams that have given me a real scare.

-oOo-

The first was my finals in Linear Algebra in my sophomore year. For this course, our batch of math majors was split into two classes. One class was under this brilliant young man, who unfortunately was disposed to utilize scare tactics like tough homework and recitation questions. Then there was his infamous set of conceptual statements which require some amount of mathematical proof for the students to determine its veracity. (An easier approach suggested by one of our sharpest minds was to formulate a counterexample.) The other class was under this gentle lady with a motherly demeanor. She was nevertheless just as skilled with the subject and her long experience had resulted in numerous contributions (which if I'm not mistaken, includes the correction filter for signals beamed from deep-space probes). Her theoretical constructs truly boggles the simple minds who were tasked to derive from them illustrative mathematical insights.

The students in the former class had been terrified of their instructor, and this has kept them on their toes. Thankfully, most of the more adept minds were also with them, and had assisted them quite ably in their studies. I was lucky enough to be in the latter class, yet the subject itself is very challenging, giving us no room to slack off considerably.

When the finals came, I was in a precarious situation grades-wise. In the two hundred points available from more than ten items in the two-hour exam, I had to get more than a hundred to pass the course with a grade of D. I needed twenty more to pull off the average C grade. Upon receipt of the questionnaire, the first to pop up were the dreaded statements that taunted for a "true" or "false" assessment. Since they required no display of a solution or proof and provided relatively low points, I brushed them aside and went for the rest. More than an hour later, with significantly large minutes wasted wrestling with the mind-boggling constructs, my estimates showed that I was still short of the passing score. Oh boy, it was like dangling at the edge of a cliff! There were two more items to be tackled; would they be enough? Interestingly, the answer for one came after small effort and the proof for the other was routine. I barely made it to passing. Slightly relaxed now, I answered the true-or-false part by basically deluding myself of having found a counterexample or a hint of proof.

Immediately after the end of the exam, a kindred friend and I whooped it up like we just stepped off a roller coaster ride of a lifetime. Others opted for a cigarette. Surprisingly, even those whom I never saw smoking before puffed wantonly like they had just climaxed from an intense and steamy act of lust.

When the report cards were distributed, I was expecting a passing grade of D. The mortality rate of the other class was real bad: a significant number of batch mates failed the subject. Behold my surprise when I got a C+! My classmates noticed that their grades did go one notch higher as if a statistical curving was implemented. But that still did not explain why mine went two notches higher.

It was only months later when I chanced upon a pile of exam papers for disposal at the Math Department that I got to explain my grades. It turned out that I actually scored enough in the finals to get a C. How? My answers (or should I say delusional guesses) in the True or False part actually delivered enough points to get me there. Oh bless my most unexpected luck! I kept that paper to remind me that even in the direst circumstances one could still prevail. Even if years later I no longer have a clue on the meaning of the equations and figures scribbled on it, I still remember its life lesson.

-oOo-

The second was the finals for Statistics in my junior year. This particular Stat class we had was supposed to be a masters' subject being taught to undergrads. Twisted, wasn't it. Anyway, we had for our professor a lively one who had a quirky and colorful fashion sense. Her teaching style could somehow be reminiscent of elementary school, but it does serve some purpose considering the inherent difficulty in the course. Indeed it was a struggle throughout the semester, and long test results were agonizing. The challenging part for me was the memorization of numerous steps in some procedures, so even if formulas and charts were allowed to be seen there was still something else to worry about. Then again, maybe I was just lacking in practice exercises.

On the night before the final exams, my plan was to review my notes from the beginning. Not the best way to go about it, admittedly, but it should get me somewhere, especially on the concepts and the procedures. All was going well until a few hours before midnight, then the lights went out. Normally, our in-campus dorm would have the power back on via generator, but it must have been the wirings themselves that had the problem, meaning the generator would be of no help. The technician would only be available by morning, so we had to bear it the entire night.

Surely, it could have been worse. At least I was merely reviewing my notes. Others were actually cramming a ten-page paper, a program or their thesis and who knew what could have gotten busted in their computers. The outage appeared to be limited to the dorm building only since the other school buildings were all lit up, so the solution, aside from studying under candlelight (which I've done before, so this should be no big deal), would be to go to those places. On the other hand, some were caught up with the novelty of the prolonged darkness and silence. These people opted to hang out for a while (equivalent to a few hours) and just had a chat with dorm mates. Of course, I was with them.

Later on I resumed my studies under candlelight (to keep the time I suppose, and I wanted to study alone since the other buildings had been filled up with dormers and tend to be distracting--excuses, excuses). It turned out to be an all-night endeavor, which I was not a stranger to anyway. I'd just take breakfast and have a bath later; the exam would still be at nine. Unfortunately, by six in the morning I was drowsy and went to bed.

By some providence, I jolted awake at nine o' clock. The test was starting! There was no time for bath and breakfast, and a dormer knew what to do with this kind of situation. After fifteen minutes I was in the examination room and was answering away. There were some final exams that bored me within the two hours that I had to complete them, but I don't think this was one of them

I got the barely passing mark in Statistics. A significant number of classmates were not so fortunate, so I should be thankful. It got me thinking of other outcomes if I did not wake up on time. Waking up on time had been a problem of mine up to this day, so it must have been something that I actually got to do it back then when it mattered. What were the odds?

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To Kill a Crashing Bird

I was supposed to write some travel entry--significant since it had been 18 years since I last went to that place--but the photos aren't available yet.

-oOo-

With the nation's penchant of getting preoccupied solely on the current political circus, Filipinos might be blissfully unaware that the United States and China had started war in outer space. Of course I'm exaggerating. Or am I? Allow this writer, whose education in world politics consisted mostly of reading Tom Clancy, to comment on a recent development just above the earth's atmosphere.

More than a year ago, on December 14, 2006, a US satellite, supposedly a spy satellite (a "bird" in Clancy slang), lost communications shortly after entering orbit. It was calculated to crash back to Earth in a little more than a year.

Weeks later, on January 11, 2007, China successfully tested its anti-satellite (ASAT) capabilities when it shattered its own defunct weather satellite with a ground-based ballistic missile in a kinetic strike (meaning, no explosives were used, the high-speed impact itself provided the destructive energy). The secrecy of the test and the resulting orbiting debris field that until now is a concern for space mission planners provided fodder for a US-led international criticism.

One year later, the spy satellite, known as USA-193 or NROL-21, was almost due for its fiery plunge to the ground. Around this time, the United States floated around its plan to shoot down the bird, citing the chance that the hydrazine fuel tank of the bus-sized object may survive re-entry and pose a hazard to people over an area of two football fields. While hundreds of satellites have made planned or unplanned deorbits, they all have almost empty fuel tanks. In this particular case, since the bird had no contact with controllers so early in its mission, the hydrazine was never used up in orbital maneuvers--the fuel tank was still full.

The plan was to modify the software of the ship-based AEGIS missile defense system to better recognize and track the falling satellite. The range of AEGIS could reach the edge of space, but the bird was moving faster than the ballistic missiles AEGIS was originally designed for, so tracking the falling object might be problematic. A modified SM-3 missile, the type recently used in missile defense tests, would be launched from a ship to destroy the satellite via a kinetic strike. A successful hit should destroy the fuel tank, and the satellite fragments should be too small to survive re-entry or pose significant damage. Striking at low altitude would ensure that most of the debris would fall to back to earth within weeks, compared to the Chinese high-altitude ASAT test. Three cruisers would be positioned in the Northern Pacific to provide three chances of interception.

On February 21, 2007, amidst an ongoing lunar eclipse and earlier concerns on bad weather, the shootdown pushed through with spectacular results at the first attempt and with a video to boot that showed a brilliant explosion indicating possible destruction of the tank and dissipation of the hydrazine fuel. The US government had been harping about its transparency regarding the shootdown, wherein the public had been informed before, during and after the event. In an apparent diplomatic one-upmanship, they were willing to share with China information on the strike.

Critics, however, doubted the reasons behind the shootdown. The probability that the satellite would crash on a populated area was very low (only 3 percent, if I wasn't mistaken). Cynics wonder why the United States suddenly became concerned about the potential human tragedy. Perhaps there was classified information or technology that the US would not want to be in the hands of other countries. Others pointed out the $60 million price tag. Surely it could be cheaper, although more complex, to just evacuate an entire city if things ever came to that. The shootdown could also legitimize the Chinese ASAT test and spark an arms race in outer space (as if there is currently none).

Technically speaking, the shootdown isn't good enough to be bragged around as an ASAT capability. The bird was destroyed at an altitude of only 247 km. No satellite could sustain an orbit that low because it would encounter significant atmospheric drag. The Chinese ASAT test, on the other hand, was aimed at a satellite 865 km high up there. What the activity demonstrated though is the capability of AEGIS to accomplish objectives beyond its original air and missile defense purpose. With a successful hit at first attempt, AEGIS surely works as advertised and even more! Russia indeed has valid worries that the Americans were actually flexing its missile defense muscles. No doubt valuable data for a variety of, at the very least, military purposes had been gleamed from this activity. I would also think that planning may have started a year ago, when the bird was determined to crash with a full load of hydrazine, but if the government was to be believed that planning began only in January, then the speed in implementing modifications on existing systems when the need arises could prove to be a crucial tactical factor.

What's with the suggestion of using the space shuttle to scoop out the bird? At such a low altitude, the shuttle would be in danger of encountering drag and falling back to earth earlier than scheduled. The shuttle Atlantis was actually on a mission to the International Space Station during those times, and only when it had landed back at Florida did the shootdown commence.

As for a new Cold War where outer space is the new battlefield, I've been hearing of analysis that the Chinese have noticed US dependence on satellites in warfare: reconnaisance, communication and navigation. And if Reagan's plan pushes through, the future might see orbiting defensive and offensive platforms. It does follow that China would endeavor to counter this American capability via ASAT weapons. With no direct casualties, destroying satellites seems to be a politically correct tactic in future wars. The US is also trying to be one step ahead with their research on satellite protection and even self-repairing satellites.

I think, though, that China would rather compete in economic terms, as it had done so throughout history. If I may wager, it would be a United States, in some form of desperation, which would initiate a military attack against China. This is where the Chinese ASAT capability comes in: destruction of the navigation then communication then reconnaisance satellites may stop a conventional attack. To continue the offense or to push things further with unconventional means would prove to be messy, and hopefully the Americans would come to their senses before that happens.

Maybe I've been reading too many Clancy novels, watching too many action movies or playing too many computer games to have thought of these things. After all, these are just speculations and shouldn't be taken seriously at present. If there's any mention of the jostling among the superpowers in local politics, it is again connected to the NBN scam, wherein the President is being accused of giving the Chinese territorial and economic concessions, among others, in exchange for paltry loans and projects. If the public has been numb to appeal on morals, then an appeal to nationalism might do the trick.

If it were not for a news article buried in Philstar, I wouldn't be aware of this shootdown. There was no mention of this event in the Philippine blogs I frequent save for one. Both actually connected it to an earlier fallen spacecraft, Skylab. This space station flew and fell in the '70s, the decade before I was born. Back then, the Philippines had been included among its probable crash locations, causing a stir among the population. Its remnants eventually crashed somewhere in Australia, but the stir in the Philippines must be considerable enough that people here do remember it.

(Photos from Wikipedia, which in turn must have sourced it from the US government)

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Flash Back 2012

The top search terms that led visitors, mainly from the US, into my blog involved an impending end of the world by the year 2012. It appeared that my entry of more than a year ago had been one of the top search results for queries about "2012" and "end of the world." Actually, the most common search string would be one in denial: "2012 is not the end of the world." That made me chuckle, though the funniest for me was "how to prevent the end of the world in 2012." For some time, I actually topped the "how to prevent" search results!

I had mentioned my earlier post, the scientifically sound predictions for 2012: the alignment of the center of the Milky Way with the Sun as seen in the sky (the effects of which are open to speculation) and the height of solar activity leading to solar storms (that can damage satellites and power grids, among other things). Other events converging on that year, or specifically December 21, has fired up the imaginations or fears of the general public. Some of these events have been mentioned in Wikipedia. There are the astrological speculations on the said alignment. Also, the Earth might have a close encounter with some heavenly body. On the other hand, there could be an "elevated consciousness," a "superintelligence," a "singularity" on that point in time. Or, with talks on global warming, there could be an environmental/geological upheaval and depletion of resources, which could lead to war. The comprehensive collection of Dire Gnosis adds to the mix aliens, Kali Yuga (the Indian equivalent of the fallen state of humans) and predictions from indigenous tribes. My own explorations of the Internet have led me to The Fourth Turning which claims a cyclical nature of Anglo-American history. Of course, around 2012, there will be another crisis, but the book is optimistic that a new generation of Heroes would rise to the challenge. In a future entry, I'd discuss more on generations, but for now Wikipedia can provide an overview.

In all, the journey towards 2012 is either that of destruction or of enlightenment. Then again, maybe nothing will happen, but that will be a big boring disappointment.

The convergence from various sources: cultural, religious, historical, scientific and pseudoscientific, with some of them arriving at a 2012 conclusion independent of each other, could be quite compelling. It's no wonder fiction isn't far behind. The Wikipedia link on 2012 also provides references in the arts and popular culture, but anime is not listed, so I'll provide two.

The first one, RahXephon, has explicit references to 2012: its timeline indicates a re-emergence of a lost civilization a week before December 21. The rest of the story features battles between music-powered giant beings in a conflict between humans and the race of the lost civilization. I hear it's a mind-bender, but since I haven't watched this anime, I comment no further.

The second one is a real classic: Macross, also known in the West as Robotech (an adaptation that branched out to its own story). In its timeline, by 2010, humanity was almost wiped out in the first Space War with an alien race. Two years later, the first space colonies leave Earth to spread humanity and culture throughout the galaxy. The concept of fighter planes transforming into robots leading to spectacular dogfights in outer space captured my attention to its awesomeness. Its breakthrough use of music and war romance also made it attract a wide variety of fans. I actually stole the title of this entry from the collection of music videos made in line with the launching of the first colony.

Twenty-five years worth of movies and TV series later, the franchise is back with its latest offering, Macross Frontier, which tells the story of a colony traveling to the center of the galaxy by the year 2059. Two stills from the special premiere of this latest eye-popping animation series now adorn this blog entry.

-oOo-

Speaking of catastrophic events of cosmic proportions, Mars had a close scare when news of an asteroid impact came out last month. This asteroid, named 2007 WD5, passed by Earth (as close as 7.5 million kilometers) and was on its way to the red planet. On the event of an impact, this 50-meter space rock would produce a crater on Mars similar to the one in Arizona.

There actually had been one other documented celestial collision. Back in 1994, astronomers pointed their telescopes, Hubble included, to the Jupiter as 21 fragments of the comet Shoemaker-Levy smash into the gas giant (if just one of those chunks had struck Earth, we're goners). The difference this time, aside from Mars being a terrestrial planet like Earth, is that there are Martian probes in orbit and on the surface. These could check on the impact and return richer data, which could prove valuable in our own defense against falling space rocks.

Observations crossing over the New Year increased the probability of impact to as high as 3.6%. This wouldn't amount to much, but reaching the same level of probability of impact within the next hundreds of years is already rare among other Near-Earth Objects. Further observations within this month, however, reduced the chance of impact to 0.01% and the asteroid would deal Mars a close shave as it passes to within 4,000 to 26,000 km. Oh well, too bad there would be no interplanetary fireworks for January, but I'd still be counting down to 30 January 2008 18:55 UT+8, the estimated time of impact or closest encounter. Blame it on the movie Armageddon that showed how countdowns could be cool, especially when it counted down until the last second to catastrophe.

By the way, there would be a bigger one which would also give earth a close shave at around the same time.

-oOo-

One movie caught my attention while I was scanning the list of films for this year. It was a remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, a 1951 film about a visitor from outer space named Klaatu and his invincible robot. I had watched the black and white original two years ago via Google Video (the movie's old enough to be part of the Public Domain, thus can be distributed for free) and was amazed at how they pulled off the "primitive" special effects. It could still induce the desired audience reaction fifty years later! Perhaps the iconic theremin music helped. The movie's message for peace had retained its lasting impact from the Cold War to the present War on Terror.

What got me really amused with this remake was that Klaatu will be played by Keanu Reeves. I could imagine him turning Klaatu into a Neo, and with a possible change in the script, might actually do some kung-fu fighting again. I don't know if the producers would include a 2012 angle to this one, but I'd be watching this remake, even if only for the lulz of seeing The Day the Earth Stood Still get remade into The Matrix.

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Naga at Random - The Follow-ups

It’s almost Christmas, and my thoughts naturally wander back to the place of my childhood. Going back to Naga City last Peñafrancia Fiesta gave me an opportunity to have some sort of follow-up to my two previous posts.

This time, I managed to go inside Avenue Square and confirm that it truly is a small version of Metrowalk. I was visiting my brother and his family, whose residence / music studio was just a block away, and they invited me for some after-dinner coffee in the local branch of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. The Avenue Square was in fiesta mode and customers from the nearby residential areas came in force (possibly they also brought along visitors from Manila). What caught my attention was the dramatic lighting and landscaping. The ambience in the cafe, as well as the other shops I assume, catered to middle class sensibilities. The wooden furniture, comfy seats, wall decors and the large glass of smoothie I was consuming, generic though they may be, could be likened to coffee shops in Manila.

Speaking of Manila standards, I had also gone inside the E-mall--in its Robinson's Grocery to be exact. From the outside the E-mall looks both promising and imposing. The mini-mall itself was just as large as its local counterparts like Master Square and Robertson's, so the grocery itself was quite small and lacking in shelf space to display a wider range of products, but its cleanliness and orderliness was just as good as its counterparts in the NCR. Too bad I didn't have time to roam around.

-oOo-

I managed finally to get a photo of that Greenbelt impostor in downtown Naga. It's not much though since I just used a cellphone camera as I was riding a tricycle.

-oOo-

Being in the city itself enabled me to be reoriented to its spatial context, and made me form some Urban Planning concerns a la Urbano de la Cruz.

Regarding the housing developments in the frontier barangay of Pacol (as well as contiguous municipalities north of Naga), the increasing affluence of its residents might cause more automobiles in the city since they would go to work and school downtown, which is at least four kilometers away. But downtown Naga (the original Central Business District or CBD1, more commonly known as Centro) is barely able to handle rush hour vehicle volumes, and for parking, vehicles merely park along the road. There's a CBD2 being developed, but it's just bedside Centro and also far from Pacol.

The easiest solution would be to encourage the development of commercial areas in Pacol itself. I must emphasize though that the environmental impact should be minimized to preserve the pristine environment of this originally agricultural area near Mt. Isarog. What I'm hearing is that this is the present track being taken by the city government, understandably so since it would involve less political and financial strain for City Hall.

The other solutions include policies discouraging ownership of private vehicles together with policies boosting public transport. For instance, the car owner would face higher taxes and fees. Environment-friendly alternatives to the jeep and tricycle could be introduced. These may be too drastic and burdensome, therefore unpopular. In turn, implementation and enforcement would require a great deal of government resources.

As for the parking problems, there are vacant lots in Centro that could be opened to parking. At the same time, stricter parking measures (including towing) should be implemented. Multi-storey parking structures may be built on the larger lots. Underground parking is iffy due to the almost yearly flooding episodes encountered in the low-lying areas of the city.

-oOo-

Speaking of transportation, I encountered no hassles in my bus trips to and from Naga last September. I rode Isarog Bus Lines on the way there. I must say, the La-Z Boy seats were overrated for me at least. Sure, it had easy push-button adjustment controls and superior shock absorption that cushioned my butt for the whole eight-hour trip, but I was still in a moving vehicle, and whatever discomfort and difficulty in sleeping I had have was primarily due to the motion, not the seat ergonomics. On the way back to Manila, I rode a Philtranco bus that wasn't speed crazy at all. Lastly, there was no "road kill" encountered this time around.

-oOo-

There's another Naga City nowadays. Residents of Naga town in Cebu chose cityhood in a plebiscite earlier this year. I guess this new city will be known as Naga City, Cebu, while my home city in Bicol, by virtue of its being a chartered city, will simply be called Naga City. For me, who had experienced and is still experiencing awkward dealings with namesakes, all I can say (in my limited Visayan) is "samok."

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President Jack Ryan and the TV News Anchor (Part 2 of 2)

(Continuation. Spoiler alert still up.)

What kind of a president is this John Patrick Ryan? For the enemies of the United States, who by this time have regrouped from their humiliation as narrated in the previous novel, this new president may be skilled as a technocrat, but he was unprepared for leadership and statecraft, a weakness they shall exploit. Indeed, an America reeling from tragedy was most vulnerable, and they shall keep the superpower distracted with attack after attack, like hyenas circling the lion, while they pursue their world-changing goals. (What's a political thriller without the megalomaniac?) For Jack's personal friends, he's a straight shooter, a committed man, and, being a non-politician, someone with the willingness and capability to finally put some order in the government.

Ed Kealty had taken the political bumbling of the neophyte Ryan as a sign, an opportunity for his political redemption. In those troubled times, entrusting the presidency to an amateur was a risk the country should not take. On the other hand, he, Ed Kealty, experienced in the ways of government and beloved by media was ready and willing to take over. His only problem was that his charm was irresistible to women as they were irresistible for him.

Working on the notion that the resignation letter was never submitted, Kealty claimed that he was, in effect, never been removed as Vice-President and was therefore the rightful successor to the late President. This was political suicide, Kealty acknowledged, but in all earnestness before the camera, he would say that he was doing this for the country. At first he put the White House in the defensive, and Ryan, whose temper was a character flaw, would privately fume in the Oval Office. But the presidential Chief of Staff was a great political mentor, and Ryan's sincerity was eventually received by the public: exhortations in his speeches translated to voting trends at the emergency Congressional polls. Even the normally skeptical press had started to cut him some slack.

Kealty sensed his efforts were coming up short. As a last-ditch effort, he turned on Ryan's mysterious CIA past, hoping to play on the public distrust on the secretive spy agency as well as expose the international scandals that Ryan's actions in the Agency had concealed. With a leak from a news special, ironically more favorable to the President, that a print journalist was working on, as well as Kealty's own CIA source, the fallen Vice-President showed to a TV news tandem classified information about the anti-drug operation in Colombia and the defections (and conveniently omitted the part about stopping a nuclear war). Now to catch Ryan unawares, Tom Donner, the younger, more aggressive anchorman of the pair, suggested that they tell the Presidential staff that the tape of an earlier White House interview got damaged and request for a live one at primetime. Later on TV, Jack's eyes widened upon mention of places and names better left unsaid. He could not admit nor deny, but feebly insisted on his position not to comment on CIA intelligence activities.

The fall out was immediate. Colombia questioned the violation of their sovereignty and was worried on the impact to their anti-drug campaign. More importantly, coordination with Russia was hampered at a crucial point when the international threat was growing. Also, the defectors were outed and, thus, their lives were put in danger. Both friend and foe abroad were in agreement that the news anchors committed an act of treason, and in their countries the necessary punishment would have been meted out. But Ryan could only release his rage in private: charges could be filed, but that would only mean an implicit admission. Not that it mattered anyway. Russia for instance, had figured things out, and for them it was merely a matter of reclassifying which information was true and which was false. His enemies, though while acknowledging the revelation that could be Ryan cunning and formidable, took the non-action to the committed treason as another sign of weakness.

Perhaps it could be said that Tom Donner was indeed siding with Ed Kealty, for the latter was good to the media and they were just finding comfort in the familiar. Or perhaps he was just acting out media's role as a watchdog, naturally critical of the government, especially this new one slowly being populated by political outsiders and led by a non-politician with the absence, as of that moment, of the usual checks and balances. Indeed, the Congress and Supreme Court were killed off in the crash, and only the media remained unscathed to check on the administration: what an immense responsibility. The CIA might hide and disclose on a need-to-know basis, but for the media, the people had the right to know who their president was.

On the other hand, maybe it was primarily about the scoop, and confidential information was one hell of a scoop. Maybe it was no different with the journalist whose story they stole. Although the journalist had expressed the intention of helping Ryan, in the end, especially for the journalist's editor-in-chief, it was just one good scoop, and putting the President's past in a favorable light was just secondary.

What about public reaction? Of course, some people would fuss about the violence and the fact that Ryan had killed twice, others would admire him as a man of action, perhaps consider him a hero for a lot of reasons, but mostly because he defended his family. Some would be shocked at the interference to other countries while others would accept it as the roles of the World's Policeman. In the novel, the popular pulse wasn't really given that much attention or it was dismissed as susceptible to spin. This tells something about the government's perception, or maybe just Clancy's.

Meanwhile, the journalist wouldn't take the theft of his story sitting down. He had an idea of where the lies were and he would expose these to get even. He found help in the person of John Plumber, Tom Donner's senior and conservative partner. Plumber had misgivings of his partner's deceptions and was looking for a way out. The new pair of conspirators hatched a plan that involved the anchor's surprise farewell address at his nighttime TV news program and a top story at the journalist's paper with him as co-author.

The expose sent ripples across the media industry and disgraced Tom Donner in particular, but also his TV network as well as TV news in general, as the journalist had hoped it would accomplish, such that the public's trust would shift back to the newspapers. Back at the White House, Jack Ryan might have gloated, but again, no charges were pressed. Maybe he was just too busy dealing with the foreign attacks that had ravaged the country, which even his family was not spared. Moreover, the situations in the Indian Ocean and Taiwan Strait were getting complicated. On top of all these, a war was looming in the Middle East. The expose on Tom Donner was just a small thorn off Ryan's presidential arse.

Speaking of that war in the Middle East, it came to a point that US troops will have to be mobilized, and Tom Donner, as part of an earlier arrangement to be a war correspondent, was shipped along with the soldiers. The first though that would come to anyone's mind, was that Donner would be killed in the heat of battle, and Ryan would actually have his revenge. However, as the full extent of the conflict was revealed and the tanks Donner was embedded with rolled along virtually unopposed, the repentant reporter declared with gratitude how he was given the rare opportunity to witness history as it unfold.

All's well that ends well in the world of fiction. Perhaps this is why amidst the bad news hovering over the country in the past weeks, I immersed myself in the world of Executive Orders as a form of escape or maybe as a way to flesh out the hope that, in a better age, systems fulfill their purpose and persons rise above their differences, contribute their talents and lead all to the path to happily ever after.

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President Jack Ryan and the TV News Anchor (Part 1 of 2)

Coming into the last month of 2007, we were back in interesting times and every blogger had a field day flaunting his or her biases. On the days immediately after the Manila Pen incident, I engaged in punditry at Philstar.com, this time zealously defending my comments by contesting every deletion (futile it may seem, but paraphrasing did get me somewhere) and arguing against other posters foolish enough to piss me off.¹ When the comments started waning and the debate was more subdued, I shifted my attention to friends' blogs. Thankfully, what I encountered was either an absence of a discussion or entries similar to my opinion.²

As for this blog? Well, my way of thinking is not so much like that of journalists and columnists but more like those of historians, futurists and fictionists; thus, I shall not inflict further upon you, gentle reader, high-blood-pressure-inducing appeals to emotions most blogs and columns alike enjoy dishing out at this moment since I might do it poorly (and really induce hypertension). Rather, I shall be sharing a subplot from a novel I just finished recently. A spoiler alert is in order.

Tom Clancy's Executive Orders is the culmination of the career of Tom Clancy's fictional hero Jack Ryan who was introduced to public consciousness in a novel chronicling his exploits as an obscure history lecturer and stock broker thrust into history by saving a family of the British Royalty from the IRA (Patriot Games). Due to subsequent terrorist attacks on his own family, he becomes a CIA analyst, and rises though the ranks to become Deputy Director, Central Intelligence. The novels show him pulling the plug on an illegal operation in Colombia (Clear and Present Danger), facilitating three Russian defections (Red Rabbit, The Hunt for Red October and The Cardinal of the Kremlin) and stopping a nuclear war (The Sum of All Fears), wherein the last one made him quit the CIA.³ Big stuff indeed, all of which could make him a well-loved All-American Hero, which, in turn, he could easily translate into a seat in the government but they were well-kept secrets in the CIA. Besides, he may respect the institutions, but he abhors the politics involved in running them.

Now it so happened that after Ryan's CIA stint, the novel Debt of Honor shows how he got sucked back into the government as the National Security Advisor mainly because he was not someone who runs away from a challenge as well as the opportunity to serve his country. (Aww, ain't that cute? It's even cuter because he doesn't say it like a politician would--out loud for the world to hear.) Like any good fictional coincidence, Ryan's appointment came at a time when America finds itself at war with an international alliance of emerging powers. It was a 21st century war waged with stealth, minimal force, espionage, sabotage and deceit (the last of which involved--gasp!--the US media). And oh, USA won that conflict.

A subplot in that novel was a sexual harassment scandal involving the Vice-President Ed Kealty. In order avoid impeachment and further shame the entire administration, which was busy fighting a war, it was agreed that he would tender his resignation. Jack Ryan's impressive contributions in winning the war made him a shoo-in for the vice-presidency, it did help that he was supposed to merely fill in the vacancy for the next six months before the elections.

There was no stopping Jack's ultimate rendezvous with destiny, however. In a "shocker" of a "heart-stopping climax" as the reviewers had put it,⁴ an unexpected attack killed off the country's leadership--the Congress, the Supreme Court, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Cabinet and even the President himself--with only Jack Ryan surviving and immediately sworn in as the new president, setting the stage for Executive Orders.

(To be continued.)

-oOo-

Footnotes

1. My opinion was in the majority, but as the mutineers have shown, stupidity existed and their mutiny had agitated me enough to be in the fighting mood: one rabidly biased idiot got his ass handed back to him with at least one fan cheering me on to boot. Too bad the entire "debate" was deleted; the world was deprived of laughing at his stupidity.

2. If ever there's a different opinion, I don't think they'll be as ridiculous as what I occasionally see in Philstar.com and what I usually see in some blogs out there--one tip, it's so easy too see your bias in this incident if you focus on the mistakes of one side only when it is clear that all sides were incompetent fools playing heroes, villains and broadcasters of a painful comedy.

3. The movie version made major revisions and consequently resulted in a Ben Affleck flop way too inferior to the novel, worse than the usual case with novels turned to movies. How dare they mess up one of my favorite Clancy novels! My other favorite is Debt of Honor. Let's see if they would ever dare make a movie out of that one!

4. It would still be about a decade later that all would be shocked--for real. Though the counterpart events in the real world were under different circumstances, the eerie similarity with 9/11, the anthrax scare and war in the Middle East (in similar chronological order to boot!) would make one think that Tom Clancy had a political crystal ball up his sleeve.

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The Philstar.com Feedback Section

Apologies for the long absence in this little blogspot of mine. Aside from my usual glacial pace of writing, I was dabbling with my other interests in the Internet, one of which I'd be writing about in this entry...

A few months ago, the online edition of the Philippine Star made a site upgrade, as seen in the new layout and features, one of which is the Feedback Section. Now before I proceed to the bone of my contention, a quick glance at the sidebar would show that Philstar is my preferred source of Philippine news. A big reason for this is how they present the news and opinions: the two do not mix. The opinions stay in the opinion section and the news stay in the news section, with the former never influencing how the latter is presented. Yes, this balanced reporting could be boring, but at least it gives me less hypertension unlike the other "leading" newspaper out there that seems to thrive in creating sensationalized titles (to grab a buyer's attention?) and selective exposition of facts (this I cannot explain without malice). Curiously though, it's the other paper that's preferred by the "intellectual heavyweights" in the academe and blogosphere.

The bloggers' preference for the other newspaper, especially in terms of linking to its online edition, may be due to the fact that it has a better archiving mechanism while Philstar's archive is incomplete. One more peeve I have for Philstar is that they do not upload the article photos online, which reduces the impact of certain picture-heavy columns especially in the Lifestyle section. But I understand that these two may be due to system limitations, where further upgrades would need a significant chunk in the budget.

What I'll be ranting about is the newly-introduced Feedback Section of Philstar. This feature is truly a bold pioneering move of Philstar and it ups the ante for online Philippine newspapers. Every day, the site registers around 50-100 comments (and even more whenever there are hot topics like the Philippine elections, the Basilan ambush and the Philippine Basketball Team). Commentators come from the middle class conservative people (of course readers have the same mindset as the paper they read) as well as OFWs. There is a gaping absence of leftist commentators, though. I wish there was one, so that I may see them clobbered by the overwhelming conservative majority who can be equally intense in their vitriol!

Even if Philstar is the pioneer of adding a feedback section for their articles, it can easily be surpassed because of two major shortcomings: lack of true interactivity and dubious moderation.

The first reason stems from the impression that the columnists and reporters do not read their work online. Of course they have their complimentary copy of the paper, and if ever they go online, e-mailed feedback would already keep them preoccupied. Ultimately, they do not seem to have the time to log on to the site and reply to the comments of their articles.

If that is not frustrating enough, the second reason is a real can of worms that may:

1. Provide doubts about Philstar's true intentions. Are they really about "truth shall prevail," or are they just like the other newspapers, only with contrasting agenda, just as the cynics of Philippine media have always insisted?

2. Provide another proof of their declining competence (the competition boasts of technical superiority in terms of proofreading, for instance and, as mentioned above, designing websites) especially now that the great ones like Max Soliven and Teddy Benigno are gone.

The Feedback section actually has two levels of moderation. The first one involves an automated censorship of certain keywords in English and Tagalog deemed inappropriate for use in an online newspaper. Aside from the usual cuss words, strong words denoting mental incompetence like stupid, idiot, gago and gaga are replaced with asterisks. The funny thing is, every instance of the keywords, even if they are just substrings of other words, will get censored: for instance gagawin would become *****win. Thus, one would have to mentally uncensor to get what the commentator meant. The automated censorship code seems to be works of amateurs and can be easily circumvented by using Leetspeak, which, fortunately enough, the present crop of commentators are not yet sophisticated enough to adopt.

If one gets past the auto-censor, there is a second layer of moderation that should in theory be the most superior method of moderation available: human moderators. At regular intervals, mods scan the comments and delete those violating the editorial policy, namely comments that are irrelevant to the article, duplicate comments, and personal attacks.

Now it so happened that for August 4, 2007, most of my comments were deleted while some survived. It gave me an opportunity to check the human moderation of the Feedback Section. Below are the details that led to my can-of-worms conclusion above.

Let's start with the two that survived:

Two suspects in the Marines ambush surrender

• Said that this new development is a joke
• Defended another commentator that was critical of the military and sounded like a Bangsamoro propagandist and challenged the critics to go ask any soldier on their opinion. (I sensed he/she was just dismayed and was being sarcastic by taking on an online persona of a Bangsamoro propagandist, but of course I may be wrong and he/she truly was a propagandist. Ah, anonymity, that's the beauty of the Internet.)

RP students show strong performance in an international math contest

• Remarked how the popular culture does not have high regard for math and science and thus no incentive for politicians to push for R&D. Ultimately the grown-up whiz-kids will then move to places more appreciative of their talent.

Then, for the fun part, we have the deleted comments:

Salvage victims

• Noted that the comments preceding mine were appreciative of the vigilante attacks.
• Remarked sarcastically (probably not detected by the mod) that their statements were surprising and may cause more bleeding to the bleeding hearts out there.
• Also said that I got their (the previous commentators') point and that (rather than antagonize them) I would prefer to see this kind of comments as symptoms. (I deliberately ceased completing that statement because I considered it harsher in full: symptoms of a breakdown of law and order. I guess the mod deemed what I've written as harsh enough.)

Bulacan bank robbery

• I merely remarked on the stupidity of the robbery gang leader: he was wounded in his escape and went to a hospital. Of course the cops were waiting there to arrest him. He's not supposed to be ignorant with this police tactic because he was himself a cop and I wondered aloud how he could have been accepted to the force in the first place.
• Was it deleted because I wrote it in a lowly type of Tagalog one usually hears in TV Patrol?

Controversy over Atenean foreign players

• Picked on the Blue Eagle's flair for drama due to its usual close games and that this is what might have made them a favorite of Studio 23 (for the ratings).
• Asserted UE will win the championship unless something like the Great Upset of UAAP 2002 should occur.
• Insinuated that the Archers expected a win, that's why they pushed the protest only after the game (why not halftime, right?).
• By the way, I didn't introduce myself as an Atenean. I abhor playing the Blue Card when stating my opinion because it just might put color (pun intended) to the current discussion on the table. But what if I did--just to save this comment? Nah, not worth it.
• My main beef here was that other comments more vicious in attacking DLSU (stating outright that they are notorious cheaters, KSP, dense or egotistic), but they had survived deletion. I was actually dismayed at the sudden strictness with my comment as I had noticed that highly charged threads (like the ones I've mentioned earlier) wrought with inflammatory statements, name-calling and one-upmanship were generally left alone.

Jessica Zafra's Young Star article about her dream

• She was asking readers to interpret it for her--heck, she even shared her mood and other background info to establish the dream's context.
• Commented that if she wrote this in a blog, I could have supplied her with an interpretation. But since it was a newspaper article, and that she had her own blog and might probably not read the comments in Philstar anymore, I would not bother doing so.
• Took a swipe at her blog-like writing in a newspaper and the fact that she's won't be reading the comments, but I still I don't see these as personal attacks.

Come to think of it, maybe I'm just taking this deletion thing too personally. It does not help perhaps that the handle I use allude to its competitor. This might perhaps caused the moderator for that day to consider me a marked man. But anyway, because of this incident, I realized the importance of having my own blog, my nook in cyberspace, my Ivory Tower where I can indulge my armchair columnist tendencies.

By the way, happy 21st anniversary, Philippine Star!

Edit: What a shame! The entry is about a newspaper yet I found lots of grammatical errors in it! That's what happens when I write and publish a post with remarakable "speed." Oh well, what can I do? Unlike a newspaper, I have no editor here but myself.

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Drifting Thoughts 05

First up is the news: observe that my side bar is still counting up the days after the election, and we still have no complete senatorial line-up. But I'm not here for another heavy-handed commentary. Instead, I'd just like to share something I found in the June 28, 2007 homepage of the Philstar.com. Shown then and there was a photo of Rep. Migz Zubiri propping up his legs while watching the favorable (for him) news about the Maguindanao polls. I find it surprising that no blog jester has picked on the picture's potential for hilarity, so I shall do the honors then:

-oOo-

If there is one thing in the news that I'd like to comment on it would be the issue concerning the first Filipino conquerors of Mt. Everest. Well, it's not exactly news anymore, but remember how Dale Abenojar's sherpas has earlier been quoted by the physician of First Philippine Mount Everest Expedition as indicating that Abenojar, whom they have accompanied, has not really reached the summit? Well recently, the Philippine Star has contacted the sherpas of Abenojar, and the guides deny ever having issued that contrary statement and maintained that their Filipino companion has reached the summit.

I personally would want to believe that Dale Abenojar, on his own physical and financial capacity, devoid of the media hype and corporate sponsorship, is the first Filipino to have climbed world's tallest peak. It's a shame that the quest for the first Filipino up on Everest became a rat race, fuelled and escalated by corporate rivalries most notably ABS-CBN and GMA7. What's the glory in fellow countrymen racing against each other to the top, especially if the race is greatly seen not as a noble contest (like the X-Prize that promotes scientific breakthroughs) but as a mere extension of the Network Wars? Competition, one may say, has forced out excellence, but this quest for Everest is better achieved through cooperation (as the team of first Filipina climbers have demonstrated the following year--why is it that in the Philippines, the women are more reasonable?). But if there is no cooperation, the one with the strong sense of purpose must plod through, and that is where the independent climber Dale Abenojar has redeemed the Filipino and trumped the corporate wannabes who have not achieved the restoration of Philippine pride but rather have shown the negative attitudes that burden this nation.

It would be easier and more gratifying to believe if things are just so simple, but they're not. I've read some blogs that tell of Dale's penchant for tall tales and acting like a wuss. Could he have improved and fulfilled his dream, but was tragically viewed like the boy who cried wolf by those in the local mountaineering community that he have pissed off? Whatever it is, in the absence of solid evidence to prove one claim or the other, I stand by my personal preference, because the message of this version of events is in line with what I want to impart.

-oOo-

I finally figured out the existence of some searches that lead to my blog, and discovered an unintended meaning of my blog title. I got to know of something called "Drifting" (picture from the same Wikipedia link), which is, more than a motorsport, a new paradigm in driving. It is popularized by the manga and anime Initial D and the movie The Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift. Unfortunately for Drifting enthusiasts, Highway Drift is not about the practice of the driving technique in the highway but rather about this writer's current drifting in life while having residential and business addresses located near highways.

-oOo-

To cap a somewhat sports-themed entry, a few words about the just-started UAAP season 70 are in order. I'm actually one of the apathetic students then and now, the one who would be contented with reading about my school's game in the papers the next day and who would watch the live telecast only during important games. Heck, I haven't watched one game live at the gladiators' pit that is the Araneta Coliseum! But now that I have the means, allow me a little bit of ra-ra-rah...

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah!

Now perhaps you might be wondering how I have created this picture as well as manipulated that of Migz Zubiri in this post. No need for Photoshop, and no need to shell out some few thousands of bucks. Behold the open source GNU Image Manipulation Program--the GIMP, in short. Special thanks to Jose for showing me the light.

The image sources for this banner, specifically, is taken from the Broderbund ClickArt collection for Windows 95(!), whose CDs contain the Photodex CompuPic image browser legacy program I have featured (with screenshots!) before. It was a pleasant surprise that these companies are still alive and selling the latest versions of their software. The ancient ClickArt jpeg collection I have with me, for instance, had this awful resolution that the cameraphones of today can rival. Now they have this DVD ClickArt collection, haha. On the other hand, the latest version of CompuPic amazingly features an upgraded version of The Eye! I wonder if it still follows the mouse, though. Come to think of it, with help from the latest software like the GIMP, these really old relics can still fulfill their purpose.

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ABNGTTGLOGN Blogger Ko!

Kakaiba talaga ang bumulaga ba naman sa akin nang tinungo ko ang website ng Blogger. Aba! Ang Blogger ay ispokening piso! Bahagyang baluktot man ang pagka-salin (dahil literal o kaya'y gumamit ng program na pangsalin) ito'y kyut para sa akin. Kung may oras pa ako, marahil itong template kong ito ay isalin ko rin sa Tagalog. Ngunit sadya akong tinatamad ngayon. Kung hindi lang dito sa pagbabagong ito e marahil sa katapusan ng linggong ito pa ako makakalathala ng bagong sulatin.

-oOo-

Garo maray kun an IP address nagtatao kan pinaka-eksaktong lokasyones, bako lang itong kun aring nasyon kita haen kundi pati itong ronga ta. Maurag baga kun sa Bikol ako, ma-Bikol man an Blogger.

-oOo-

Bitaw gyud! (Gamay lang kabalo ko Binisaya. Samuk!)

-oOo-

Hablo y escribo en español un poco tambien, pero tengo que escribir para un demonstracion de mi abilidades, jeje.

-oOo-

Ah crap, enough with this Babel of a post. Feel free to point out my shortcomings in these languages. Admittedly, I write best in English. Besides, my MS Word can only check English.

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Drifting Thoughts 04

Last Saturday, I was supposed to go out with some DS people for a rare bonding session. It was to be held somewhere in Pasig, in an area I'm not familiar with. I was to test my "pathfinder" skills: the ability to go to an unfamiliar place primarily by using a map and, only if no other choice, asking the locals. Pasig was a notoriously difficult place for me, having been lost there twice, so I "cheated" by exploring the environs with my officemates when we had a lunch out the day before. Besides, the stakes were high this time since instead of just me, I had to accompany a friend going there (although I'd prefer getting lost with good company than getting lost alone). Well all these came to naught when the arbitrary quorum wasn't reached and the activity was cancelled.

All was not lost however for my need to attend a get-together and to practice my path-finding skills. On that Saturday I did get to know of another gathering, this time with my course-mates, over at Quezon Avenue. All I needed to know was the general area starting from the MRT station. I found the destination after a long-distance walk, and had more than enough time to reward my efforts with a halo-halo and to still get restless by waiting for the others.

Our gathering was a sort of sending-off for two of our friends (a third one was absent) who'll be working overseas for a year. After a tasteless dinner at a place that's more apt for a drinking session, we sang until our throats (or just mine) felt sore at the nearby videoke and then made some celebrity sightings at Starbucks-ABS CBN (with no TV for a year, I really had no idea they are celebs; all of them looked ordinary to me).

On the way home at three in the morning, I passed by sidewalk vendors sleeping soundly while their wares are still on display. It was good to know that none among the passers-by picked up those unguarded items. Dear reader, cling on to this sign of hope while continuing with this entry.

-oOo-

Behold the editorial cartoon of the Inquirer last May 3. Were they merely being naive about military stuff, giving the Air Force a good-natured ribbing about its clunky widow-makers, or, now that the military has been somewhat humbled, were they displaying their anti-military bravado, which is reasonably fashionable nowadays? (By the way, the cartoon was badly drawn since the punch line would be read first; better if the kid and the general switch places.)

Let's get the facts straight. Back in the Vietnam War, the US Air Force has suffered Huey crashes from the hands of the Vietcong. How did the guerillas pull it off? Rocket-propelled grenades? Snipers? A well-aimed shot may work, but why waste precious ammunition when one can just lay a web of wires along the path of a low-flying helicopter a la Spiderman? Yup, these flying babies are vulnerable to things that can snag its whirling blades--dramatically reducing their lifting power or tragically diverting them towards a collision course. And yes, the pilots won't notice a menacing wire or string until it's right in front of them. In fact I was actually surprised that a Philippine Air Force official admitted that their Hueys have been "disabled" before by Mindanao rebels using the lowly kite.

More than the issue of antiquated military hardware due to corruption and incompetence, the media has overlooked the issue of safety. And when I mean safety, I do not just mean saving a soldier's life, I mean saving the lives of the flying public as well as those down below. You see, aside from helicopters the lowly kite may also get sucked into one of the engines of a 737 and jeopardize its take-off. It's a very probable scenario; since, like in Cebu, kites are being flown in the vicinity of airports, and while this is prohibited, the rule isn't being enforced. Why didn't the media hyped things up by emphasizing this more troubling possibility? They might be merely ignorant about these things. Or, given the election fever nowadays, are they more attracted to the chance of criticizing the corrupt and incompetent military, and by association, the administration? Unfortunately, the Air Force officer didn't help dispel the impression of incompetence, at least in PR skills, when he himself did not raise this safety issue when he was being interviewed.

-oOo-

Well, look what the Supreme Court has forced the Comelec to reveal: party-list nominees who are identified with the administration, and more than that, have spotty reputations.

The left is not exactly immaculate on the party-list issue. First, they also enjoy government funding in the form of pork barrel. Second, they have the support of the largest private army in this country: the NPA. Lastly, like any traditional politician, they want to horde party-list votes by attacking all the other parties they can discredit. Suddenly being pro-administration or even moderate or neutral is a mortal sin.

Considering that these leftist groups and the administration have been doing attacks and counter-attacks with each other, it would be better to just cancel out the parties identified with the two. One would still find more meaningful parties that are not that obnoxious or notorious but rather silently fulfilling their role in truly representing the marginalized.

-oOo-

Recent developments have troubled my home city. A Comelec Division had ruled on a complaint back in 2004 regarding Mayor Robredo's citizenship. It's an old, overused, futile attack against Robredo, but this time the camp of Luis Villafuerte managed to pull it off.

For the complete coverage, I present Willy Priles's blog. Focus links: Historical Background, Family Drama, Foreboding (see the last part), The Watershed Event. (There's supposed to be an entry where Willy speculates on the election plans A and B of both Villafuerte and Robredo, but I can't find it anymore. Is it deleted?)

I have long been planning to go home this summer. Having missed the opportunity during the unusually long Holy Week break, I suppose the election weekend would be a good alternative since the horde of travelers will not be that massive. But I never expect to come home to this summer tempest. Curiously though, this scandal had strengthened my desire to go back to Naga--perhaps due to the youthful "foolishness" of wanting to be where the action is.

I reply to this madness with a picture originally taken by Randy Villaflor, posted online by Willy, and crudely edited in MS Paint by yours truly:

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From the Fall to the Legacies

It was just within this month when my brother and I were discussing safety in tall buildings. My brother remarked that the buildings in this housing complex of ours were much more safer than the ones in other places he had visited. To illustrate, he said that the presence of canopies, pot holders and raised windows, although unable to completely eradicate accidents, would ensure that only the really darn frisky children would encounter the most severe consequences.

Yesterday, one darn frisky two-year-old boy did suffer the most severe consequence of falling from the fifth floor.

My first inkling of the accident was a terrified wail from the boy's mother. She bawled out loudly and continually of how she was about to prevent it all but was still too late. When I peeked out of our window, the boy was already whisked away for treatment; instead, I saw dazed onlookers staring from their own windows and a throng of kibitzers at the ground. A crying, ballistic four-year-old stares and jumps at a spot surrounded by scattered bougainvillea bracts. He most probably witnessed it all and was heavily traumatized. From the scattered bracts I pieced out in CSI fashion how the boy might have been outbalanced from the fifth floor, plummet through the overhanging bougainvillea branches at the third floor, bounced off the canopy roof of the ground floor entrance, before falling on the cement walkway. My brother's wife, who was at the window before me still saw the immobile body, the right side of the face blackened and bruised, the mouth oozing with blood, and was shakened by the vision for the rest of the day. Actually, everyone in the vicinity were shaken for some time. Even my brother who missed the whole episode by a couple of hours would not bring himself to play the piano. "Play a somber piece, say, the Moonlight Sonata," my wisecracking self still managed some dark humor.

What frustrated me in this incident was that, of the large number of military personnel and nursing students in this housing complex, the first one on the scene was an idle bystander (tambay) who was clearly ignorant of first aid procedures. In a seemingly heroic gesture, he cradled the boy in his arms and rushed him to some transportation to the hospital.

Pathetic and downright wrong!

To manually carry the victim in this instance is the last thing anyone with even the faintest first aid knowledge (that includes me) would do! Doing so may potentially exacerbate any injury to the head and neck like for instance, completely severing the spinal cord leading to paralysis. Instead, one should check on the pulse and breathing while another looks for a stretcher and a neck brace and calls for transport. Lack of pulse and breathing will necesitate CPR like in all those TV dramas. Stop external bleeding by applying pressure with a clean cloth. Etc, etc... Consult a more reputable and updated source for first aid techniques, save lives and be a real hero, not just on style but substance.

It is fortunate that with the help of prayers, building safety features that prevented a direct slam to the ground, and the fact that growing children are more robust than we consider them to be, x-ray results as of this writing amazingly indicate no fractures to the skull and the boy is now responsive to stimuli.

-oOo-

Ugh, what a gloomy entry! Allow me to lighten things up:


At around the same time as the falling incident, I was engrossed with a five-CD Click-Art and font collection from the mid-1990s. It came with legacy software for viewing and editing the numerous images in the CD along with instructions for installing in Windows 95, imagine that. In fact the viewer program was clearly of a different era because it uses a different window theme, a more primordial one. The most funny thing about it was the eye icon for its View button: like a precursor to present-day cheesy Flash objects, this eye follows the mouse pointer around and blinks randomly.

Creepy.



I don't know why, but encountering relics of electronica, especially those of the 90s, gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. Perhaps, it's because of the fact that these were the very first objects that have captured my imagination, and launched me to a quest of knowledge from MS-DOS to Windows to Unix; from Game & Watch to Brick Game (Tetris) to PC games (note the jump, no Famicom to Gameboy to Playstation for me, loser); from QBasic to Turbo Pascal to Java to Unix scripting; from dBase to Access to SQL; from copy con file.txt to Wordstar to Word to Blogger; from 256 KB floppies to 1.44 MB disks to CDs, hard drives and USB drives.

Sigh.

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Remembrance of the Wave

It might have been noticeable that, aside from revealing my fascination for the End Times, I have delved in Apocalyptic themes recently. It happens whenever I'm pissed off enough to rant. I guess, in my helplessness, I resort to the eschatological and seek the ultimate justice. Before everyone gets fed up with this fear-mongering, allow me one last venture into the supernatural, at least for this year.

Last November 13, 2004, I received a forwarded email, the screenshot of which is shown below...


Well, at first glance it looks like one of those dire predictions of the future. By the way, part of that email, which isn't shown anymore, is an article from Phivolcs. This more scientific earthquake projection which coincided with the prediction is what pushed the original author to finally spread the word. What impresses me is that the prediction imposes a deadline: before the year 2004 ends, there will be a great earthquake that will devastate the Philippines, or Luzon to be a bit more precise. Furthermore, there is the claim: the old man has never missed.

I initially surmised that this should be a very strong earthquake, stronger than any other quake before it, to topple down every building in an area and erase an entire town from the map. Anyway, I shrugged, if ever it would happen by the end of the year, I might already be vacationing in Bicol; thus, I would be spared from its full force.

The old man was off by a few thousands of kilometers, and I was more precise with the timing of the event.

I was eating breakfast at our Naga City home when news of a magnitude 9 tremor from CNN Breaking News got my attention. A magnitude 9 earthquake was really strong, the strongest I had heard of in my twenty years on this earth; still, I didn't think this can flatten all buildings within its area. That may be true, but there was something else that I hadn't thought of. Hours later, CNN reported of a tsunami from that quake hitting Thailand and Malaysia, and later still in the afternoon, the same tsunami hit India. Upon the news anchor's query, the scientist at the US Geological Survey related this recent turn-of-events to a Pacific-wide tsunami decades ago. That was the time I had an inkling that this was something big. Later, the waves reached Africa.

The days passed and the kill count grew from hundreds to thousands to tens of thousands. Now it was really big. More than a week later, with the kill count pushing a hundred thousand, ground zero was finally reached by rescuers. As shown in before-and-after satellite pictures, the town of Banda Aceh was in complete ruins, erased from the map as the old man had said.

I guess the old man really did see beforehand these visions I saw in the TV screen. It was just he mistook the similar-looking Southeast Asian faces and places to be Filipino.

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Not Another End of the World

Ever since my father persuaded the family to read a series of newspaper articles pertaining to Marian prophecies and a coming "Three Days of Darkness" in an effort to make us turn away from our sinful ways, I had been fascinated by Apocalyptic scenarios (it helps when your father is alarmist especially when it comes to religion). A few years later, my most read part of the family Good News Bible is the Book of Revelations, followed by the Old Testament prophecies. I've read them enough to know that these writings are not really so much glimpses on the things to come but more of messages of hope for the victorious future amidst the present tribulations for keeping the faith. Besides, they don't really give out an exact date, merely signs. But what if there was a given date for destruction? More than that, what if different factors like religious, scientific, social, etc. suggesting various scenarios for the end all converge on that date?

Remember Y2K? I first learned about it in a 1995 article in that good old tech magazine Popular Mechanics. The writer was sharing how he was testing his personal computer (an ancient unknown model by today, I assume) by setting its date to a few minutes before January 1, 2000. While waiting for zero hour, he enumerated what the experts back then believe would happen to vulnerable computer systems when they encounter the year 2000. I don't remember the details anymore, but the fearful scenarios have been well-known even by then. It was due to these speculations that he became curious and wanted to test them himself. His computer was now seconds away from revealing the results...and it conked out. Oh well, he said, better start readying computers for that moment five years away. Yes, they know how to prevent it even back then, but humans are known procrastinators. To illustrate, after reading the article, I understood the principle of Y2K: that computers, processing only two digits for the year, will get confused upon encountering the year 2000 and might do crazy things because of this. However, that was a year before my computer subject in elementary, and not seeing much relevance back then (I was living a relatively low-tech lifestyle in the province), I brushed this knowledge aside.

It was only in 1998 that Y2K started capturing public attention. By this time, it has been colored with other Apocalyptic predictions ranging from Nostradamus, New Age prophets, the friendly neighborhood albularyo, and any other pundit whose story managed to get TV coverage or whose book managed to get published. (That's what happens when the media gets involved.) It turns out the thousand-year milestone has been a favorite end-of-times date. By around this time we get buzzwords like "Y2K compliant" as companies and other institutions rush to protect their computer systems and their business. Others would like to prepare for the inevitable end by stacking up supplies and preparing the bunker, or cave, or, to force the issue, performing rituals like mass suicide. Still, others would just like to party like there was no tomorrow. If the world was about to end, at least they would go down partying. Otherwise, it was a novel experience to do a countdown and watch 1999 turn into 2000. Novel enough for a big party, like what their predecessors did at the turn of the 20th century; thus, we had the millennium songs of Jennifer Lopez, Will Smith, and the Backstreet Boys (Incidentally, their songs and videos contain common themes like the future, the past, the Y2K bug, and, yes, parteeeh!).

Since January 1, 2000 was essentially New Year's Day, I am more inclined to the party aspect of things since it coincides with what I usually do around that time. Also, as seen in CNN, other countries were also preparing their own big celebrations. It came to pass that something global did happen in New Year's Day, but it wasn't a catastrophe. On the contrary, the world was one in partying. The last time the world was one in doing something was World War II. It appeared that the world has markedly improved on its ways, and, as the more optimistic people had predicted, the new millennium will usher in a new Renaissance for humanity.

Not.

Anyway, in the summer of year 2000, I was enjoying the Discovery Channel documentary Mysteries of the Ancient Civilizations. The documentary explored peculiar commonalities among the civilizations like the presence of pyramids, the alignment of structures with constellations, and the presence of a Great Flood myth, among many other themes. In the part about the South American civilizations, they featured the Mayan calendar. This calendar is said to rival the present-day Gregorian system in its efficiency and precision in recording the passage of time. One thing peculiar with the Mayan calendar is its having an end date, says the documentary, and this end date, believed by the Mayans to be the end of Time, ends on (at this point the documentary ups the ante by having the animated gears of the calendar stop one by one, each with a foreboding click) December 24, 2023 (the final gear ends with the most ominous thud).

Oh great, I said to myself, after Y2K, we have to contend with another supposedly "End of the World." By then I would be 39. I guess by that time I had enough experience in my life. Besides, as before, this one's too far away. In any case, I marked the date in my cellphone's calendar.

A few years later in college, I stumbled upon the book Domain by Steve Alten. So much for Discovery Channel dramatics, the book states the end of the particular Mayan calendar cycle is on December 21, 2012, the Winter Solstice of that year. The book is somewhat a written version of the Ancient Civilizations documentary since it also explores the commonalities of the civilizations. In addition to that, though, it provides a fictional answer to the questions surrounding the mystery. I won't spoil it for the prospective readers out there, but the book itself essentially gives it away from the very start, which in my opinion ruins the suspense. It was after reading the book that my interest in 2012 became aroused to the point that I would monitor and research about it every now and then. (The pervasive presence of the Internet, of course, was another factor.) So, what have I found out about it? Just like the year 2000, various sources have offered, some independent of other sources, various scenarios for 2012.

One may conclude that something would happen by around that time, but which scenario would prevail? As a man of science, with Astronomy being my favorite branch, I would point out to two events: one is an alignment of the center of the Milky Way Galaxy and the sun in the sky by December 21, 2012, the other is a heightened solar activity around that year. The former is as sure as the sun rising in the east every morning, while the latter is as sure as the weather prediction for the next few days. The heightened solar activity brings about solar storms. These storms, when headed directly to the Earth, are known to be destructive to technology, although previous encounters didn't produce heavy and lasting damage (But if the Internet is damaged, then it's the end of the blogging world. Catastrophic indeed.) The radiation it brings can also be lethal, but the Earth's surface is protected by the planet's magnetic field. Meanwhile, the alignment basically is just a curious configuration in the sky. As to what it can do to Earth, this one is open to speculation. For instance, a planetary alignment last May 5, 2000 caused a minor stir back then. Mostly it was just media hype. The people had just came from the Y2K non-catastrophe, and also the alignment wasn't really as perfect and spectacular as all the planets in the Solar System queuing up in straight line for a pose. And yes, nothing happened.

December 21, 2012 may indeed turn out a non-event as well. But some of us may do a Haruhi Suzumiya and wish that, for excitement's sake, something just happen to distract us from a humdrum, conflict-filled, angsty life on Earth. Perhaps another world party is in order. Besides, it's just a few days before Christmas anyway.

-oOo-

Links

The most comprehensive database I know of 2012-related stuff is found in Dire Gnosis. This site compiles anything and everything related to 2012, so, although the owner also provides reviews, an information overload warning is in order.

What can mere humans do in face of planetary cataclysm? It's not that easy to stop a galactic alignment compared to tinkering with computer systems. Well, we can wait for the completion of my inter-galactic space ship that will ferry us to the stars, but don't count on me finishing that one on time. Perhaps you may just wait for the aliens to come; although according to New-Age gurus, they may be a bit choosy, if they come in the first place. Instead of running away, isn't it better to face the problem head-on? Well, a group has thought of a way, which in theory, they claim, may be able to influence the cosmic order: humanity must unite, pun intended, to achieve Global Orgasm.

O-kaay.

Whatever happens, at least, when you start getting the media hype by, say 2010, you can tell them that you read it here first at Highway Drift.

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