№ 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.

free

№ 60. Scale Me Up, Scotty!

Again, old, time-tested principles are given new lives in tech and biz insights.

Light bulbs!

№ 59. Playing With the Odds

So what are my odds?

I don't have the skill sets to check the claim--- how and where did they get the numbers and assumptions?

If there were some intelligent design that willed my existence, then luck would have been irrelevant. Against all the odds, I would have come into the twilight of history. I must be as special as the other 7 Billion humans now alive. Smug. People, let's start a smug wave.

Or really.

Does this debunk our chance existence? Isn't chance simpler to conceive than a Watchmaker who devised the intricacies that defied probability through the millenia?

by visually via

№ 58. Sunday Lullaby

Empire of the Sun, an old favorite, is being shown in HBO Signature. I saw this first in GMA 7, back when cable meant a written message sent through submarine wires. Late 80s, I think.

Easily recognized is a very young Christian Bale, with his wide-set, glassy eyes. He carried the long film for the most part on the strength of his talent. Impressive!

Spielberg directed this epic and loaded it with imagery and metaphors of the war. Sometimes it felt like a sequence of vintage film slides. I was still awed even though the grand scenes were much diminished by my smallish TV screen.

Some films are meant to be watched on the big screen. This is one of those films. With John Williams's soaring musical scoring, it has to be appreciated with Dolby surround and big bright silver screens.

Empire of the sun / Suo Gan - Umi Yukaba 

Huna blentyn ar fy mynwes
Clyd a chynnes ydyw hon;
Breichiau mam sy'n dynn amdanat,
Cariad mam sy dan fy mron;
Ni cha' dim amharu'th gyntun,
Ni wna undyn â thi gam;
Huna'n dawel, annwyl blentyn,
Huna'n fwyn ar fron dy fam.
Huna'n dawel, heno, huna,
Huna'n fwyn, y tlws ei lun;
Pam yr wyt yn awr yn gwenu,
Gwenu'n dirion yn dy hun?
Ai angylion fry sy'n gwenu,
Arnat ti yn gwenu'n llon,
Tithau'n gwenu'n ôl dan huno,
Huno'n dawel ar fy mron?
Paid ag ofni, dim ond deilen
Gura, gura ar y ddôr;
Paid ag ofni, ton fach unig
Sua, sua ar lan y môr;
Huna blentyn, nid oes yma
Ddim i roddi iti fraw;
Gwena'n dawel yn fy mynwes
Ar yr engyl gwynion draw.

English Translation:

Sleep my baby, at my breast,
’Tis a mother’s arms round you.
Make yourself a snug, warm nest.
Feel my love forever new.
Harm will not meet you in sleep,
Hurt will always pass you by.
Child beloved, always you’ll keep,
In sleep gentle, mother’s breast nigh.
Sleep in peace tonight, sleep,
O sleep gently, what a sight.
A smile I see in slumber deep,
What visions make your face bright?
Are the angels above smiling,
At you in your peaceful rest?
Are you beaming back while in
Peaceful slumber on mother’s breast?
Do not fear the sound, it’s a breeze
Brushing leaves against the door.
Do not dread the murmuring seas,
Lonely waves washing the shore.
Sleep child mine, there’s nothing here,
While in slumber at my breast,
Angels smiling, have no fear,
Holy angels guard your rest. (Wikipedia)

№ 57. Planned Obsolescence

"The source of real discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes... But in having new eyes."

---MARCEL PROUST

№ 56. Advice for the Young-ish at Heart

“Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends.

You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things: air, sleep, dreams, sea, the sky - all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.”

― Cesare Pavese

Bento Box:

I've traveled back in time. Thanks to gmail and my trove of archival data in the past 10 years. I've been deleting mails, spams and other forwarded wisdom.

There is so much history.

I remember circa 2001, email was the status line for online buddies. And forwarded anything---photos, videos, jokes, spams, chain mails, NSFW centerfolds and other trivia---used to pile up on our office inbox.

How far have we come? So far: snail mails, postcards, texts, emails, ym, Facebook updates and tweets. Same content, different media.

The Baz Luhrman video is one of those I came across in the pile.

№ 55. Strong and Hard: 7 Billion

The human race is now 7 billion strong. But the ants easily outnumber us with a quadrillion (wikianswers) swarm from super colonies and some such megapoli (BBC News). They say that the population climb we are embarking is a steep curve. Alarm bells and Malthusian echoes are again being sounded to temper our fertile imaginations and inclinations. Many claim that the resources which are already stressed and stretched to irresponsible limits can dissipate further with nothing reserved for the future generations.

Yesterday we just visited the dead. After that long litany of titles, saints and honors such as the "Rose of Sharon", "All ye holy Angels and Archangels" and "we beseech Thee hear us", we went for a stroll. 


We noticed that it was a little less crowded, maybe because, this year, our family rituals were advanced by two days---before the November 2 crowds. There were also several vacant niches marked by a red square with a Chinese character for "Fu" or luck. The resting spaces were still empty because the beneficiaries were still living. 

Still, even with millions passing away, the rate of population increase has outpaced the death rate. Is October 31st a happy day to celebrate the 7 billion living before our official days for the dearly departed: All Saints's and All Souls's (7 Billion)?

I hope we're really lucky to be alive. And, with such red hot luck, I also trust that the tides bring us alternative thinking, food supply and energy. There should be enough for everyone. That's an imperative and not just an option. Oh well/hell.