№ 62. Tabang Mindanao: Help Mindanao

Tropical Storm Sendong (international name: Washi) ravaged Mindanao, slamming it with devastating rains and unleashing flash floods and landslides that have left a horrifying trail of destruction. As of 10AM, the death toll has reached 497 (Cagayan De Oro 215, Iligan City 195, Bukidnon 47, Negros Oriental 22, Lanao del Norte 9, Compostela Valley 5, Zamboanga del Norte 3, Surigao del Sur 1). Most of the dead were asleep Friday night when raging floodwaters pounded their homes from rivers and cascaded from mountain slopes following 12 straight hours of heavy rains in Mindanao. The typhoon has affected a total of 5,884 families, with 202 injured and 162 still missing. 2,252 are still sheltered at 23 evacuation centers.

Online Donations to Philippine Red Cross

№ 61. Future Tenses

Already wrote about the predictions on artificial intelligence and human consciousness. They may/will happen in the proximate future (Waking Up to Binary Dreams). That means, they're expected to break ground during my lifetime, if the tech seers get it right!

The future paints a landscape taken off the pages of our classic science fiction from Dune, Star Trek or Star Wars.  Maybe it's a world even more bizarre than prveiously imagined. Maybe it's just a mix of the familiar and the twilight zone. Maybe.

Barring or despite all the future laughs we'll have about all the misses, here's another broad peering into the beyond. It's the New York Times's projection of the near future: Imagining 2076: Connect Your Brain to the Internet.

Scotty, it's time to do environmental scanning and look for our niches. I wonder if virtual or Lunar---heck, Martian tourism would prove popular. I'll settle for underwater cities, for now.

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