№ 533. In the beginning....

Why is the first instinct for many to volunteer and donate after a natural disaster? One reason is that as humans we’ve evolved to survive in groups, not alone. Rallying together makes us feel less alone in the experience, explained the sociologist Christine Carter, a fellow at the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley.

“When our survival is threatened, we are going to reach out and strengthen our connections with people around us. We show generosity. We show compassion. We show gratitude. These are all emotions that function to connect us with each other,” Dr. Carter said.

Scientific evidence supports the idea that acts of generosity can be beneficial when we volunteer and give back regularly — and not just after a natural disaster. Volunteering is linked to health benefits like lower blood pressure and decreased mortality rates.

 

№ 533. Happy New Year 2021

 

№ 532. G for Generosity

 

№ 531. V for Vaccine

 

NYTimes.

 

"I think the vaccines are the way to go. But people seem to have a view of it will give me 100% protection -- no vaccine does that," Collignon. And even if someone is vaccinated, scientists don't yet know whether it's possible that they could get the virus and spread it, even if they don't get sick themselves.

 

It's likely that even once there is widespread vaccination, we might still have to live with the virus. After all, only one virus in human history has been declared eradicated by a vaccine -- small pox."

 

№ 530. The Politics of Spam

I am in good company. The war-time delicacy is also known as Special Army Meat.

Who knew The Iron Lady shopped for Spam? Who knew Spam also fed the Soviet army in World War 2?

Spam was my go to staple at 11pm dinners after work from Makati. 

"In his memoirs, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev writes that "without spam we wouldn't have been able to feed our army," while British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher recalled serving spam and salad to friends over Christmas in 1943, along with "one of our very precious tins of fruit which we'd saved from the pre-war days." Even decades later, when she was living in Downing Street, Thatcher still bought a can of spam as part of her regular supermarket shop."

 

 

№ 529. Many Words, Many Worlds

Brad Veley

 

Sometimes a word is not enough. You have to string a number of them to describe one confounding reality. Complexity is in the details. The words help untagle these layers of little gods and tiny devils.

"It was the first thing I found strangely fascinating about German: a word that went on and on until you ran out of breath or got totally lost in the middle. Invariably it had to be hyphenated on to the row below. Geschwindigkeitsbeschränkungen, all 30 letters of it: a very big word for a fairly simple idea (it means speed limits)."

 

№ 528. Rule of Law

William Roper: “So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!” 

Sir Thomas More: “Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?” 

William Roper: “Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!” 

Sir Thomas More: “Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!” 

― Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons 

 

Adam Zyglis

 

 

 

 

 

№ 527. Hope

 

Orange County Register

 

Life blooms. Hope claws up and out. 

From dark rotten things, 

both seek light and wait for rain.

 

№ 526. Boston

Pinterest

 

The keys taste icy, 

salty in this blue morning.

Wrecked pianos litter our shores.

 

Uprights gasp the foams

as their last songs drown in the tides.

Rusted strings claw sand.

Sunrise lights the sea.

As bards sing of running 

away to Boston.

№ 525. Otherness and Prejudice

The least. The last. The lost. The minority. The fringe.

Speed Bump

№ 524. Lullaby on a Saturday

 

№ 523. If I Die Young

If I Die Young
The Band Perry
 

If I die young, bury me in satin
Lay me down on a bed of roses
Sink me in the river at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song
Oh-oh, oh-oh 

Lord, make me a rainbow, I'll shine down on my mother
She'll know I'm safe with you when she stands under my colors
Oh, and life ain't always what you think it ought to be, no
Ain't even gray, but she buries her baby
The sharp knife of a short life
Well, I've had just enough time 

If I die young, bury me in satin
Lay me down on a bed of roses
Sink me in the river at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song 

The sharp knife of a short life
Well, I've had just enough time 

And I'll be wearing white when I come into your kingdom
I'm as green as the ring on my little cold finger
I've never known the lovin' of a man
But it sure felt nice when he was holding my hand
There's a boy here in town, says he'll love me forever
Who would have thought forever could be severed by 

The sharp knife of a short life
Well, I've had just enough time 

So put on your best boys, and I'll wear my pearls
What I never did is done
A penny for my thoughts, oh no, I'll sell 'em for a dollar
They're worth so much more after I'm a goner
And maybe then you'll hear the words I've been singin'
Funny when you're dead, how people start listenin'

 If I die young, bury me in satin
Lay me down on a bed of roses
Sink me in the river at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song
Oh-oh, oh-oh

The ballad of a dove
Go with peace and love
Gather up your tears, keep 'em in your pocket
Save 'em for a time when you're really gonna need 'em, oh

The sharp knife of a short life
Well, I've had just enough time

So put on your best boys, and I'll wear my pearls

№ 522. Hope

"Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, 'It will be happier.' "--- Alfred Lord Tennyson 

 

 

№ 521. Gratefulness: Bird Songs

 

A friend asked me about what I'm grateful for. I think the question is like a chain letter that's being passed around and made more current for the pandemic.

Why not? Finding something to be grateful for in 2020 is a useful exercise of mindfulness. It helps keep the black dogs at bay.

Here it is.  

Every morning, I'm grateful for the bird songs that wake me up, without fail, at 5 am. Thanks to the micro-forest behind our house, we have lots of singing visitors all day.

I send her this clip. I couldn't find a good clip of Philippine bird songs, without the background music. This will do for now.

 

№ 520. Data in Color

 

№ 519. TEOTWAWKI

 

The Pandemic has arrived. We are still managing it. Barely.

Winter is coming. 

Not the white walkers, but worse, the irreversible rise in temperature. An accelerating system that could wipe out our civilizations.

Singapore, as always, is leading into that foreseeable future.

"Giant solar-powered air-conditioners, vacuum garbage collection, subterranean roads for electric vehicles, urban farms and green architecture. Put them all together and you have Tengah, Singapore’s most ambitious project yet to build the city of the future.

TEOTWAWKI = The end of the world as we know it.

№ 518. Happiness Sunday

 

I realize that one could easily read this column as a jeremiad against modern life. That isn’t my intention. (Indeed, I am a very public proponent of democratic capitalism with a modern welfare state.) Rather, I mean to appeal to all of us to remember that material prosperity has both benefits and costs. The costs come when we allow our hunger for the fruits of prosperity to blind us to the timeless sources of true human happiness: faith, family, friendship, and work in which we earn our success and serve others. Regardless of how the world might change, those have always been, and will always be, the things that deliver the satisfaction we crave.

 

№ 517. Travel

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all of one’s life.” --- Mark Twain

 

 

 

If you are an avid traveler, you hopefully soak up new and interesting information everywhere you go. Volunteer travel, however, takes experiential learning to the next level. 

In most cases, volunteer travel programs allow adults and families with vastly different backgrounds and life experiences to contribute to an important project in a developing community.

№ 516. Pag-Ibig

"Pag-Ibig" by Apo Hiking Society 

No'ng tangan ng nanay ang munti mong mga kamay 

Ika'y tuwang-tuwa, panatag ang loob 

Sa damdaming ika'y mahal

 

No'ng nakilala mo ang una mong sinta 

Umapaw ang saya at siya'y ibang-iba 

Sinasamsam ang bawat gunita 

 

Hindi mo malimutan kung kailan nagsimulang 

Matuto kung papa'nong magmahal 

At di mo malimutan kung kailan mo natikman 

Ang una mong halik, yakap na napakahigpit 

Pag-ibig na tunay hangang langit 

 

No'ng tayo'y nagkakilala nang hindi sinasadya 

Ikaw lang ang napansin, nahuli sa isang tingin 

At sa pagbati mong napakalambing 

 

Hindi ko malimutan kung kailan nagsimulang 

Matutong ikaw lang ang mahalin 

At di ko malimutan kung kailan ko natikman 

Ang tamis ng iyong halik, yakap na nakapahigpit 

Pag-ibig mong tunay hangang langit

 

Hindi ko malimutan kung kailan nagsimulang 

Matutong ikaw lang ang mahalin 

At di ko malimutan kung kailan ko natikman Ang tamis ng iyong halik, yakap na nakapahigpit 

Pag-ibig mong tunay hangang langit 

 

№ 515. Philippines 2050

The Philippines has an abundance of skilled and unskilled labor, some say oversupply. 

I really hope we can scale up and harness this human capital more to leapfrog our country into the top 20 economies of the world. China was able to do this in about 30 years, beginning in the 1980s. HSBC predicts that by 2050 we will become one of the world's top 30 economies. Now na. 

I cannot wait for 2050. 

Add caption

№ 514. Lockdown Through Square Lenses

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

№ 513. Future Tense

 

"Be patient. Your future will come to you and lie down at your feet like a dog who knows and likes you no matter what you are." Kurt Vonegut

№ 512. Grace

 

 FORWARDED MESSAGE: 

One of my earliest contemplative prayers was about Jesus walking on water. I'm Peter and I see Jesus walking on water. I call out to him and he invites me to walk to him. Seeing the rough seas, I jump out of the boat and swim effortfully to Jesus. In between breaths, I could hear Jesus laughing. 

 It took me some time to figure out that prayer. When I did years later, I realized that, in the end, it is often not effort that matters but grace. We are sometimes not called to swim to Jesus by our effort but we are called to walk on water by his grace. 

Seems apt nowadays when seas are rough and times are uncertain. We're being called to walk on water.

№ 511. Zombie Preparedness. Since 2018.

The CDC, yes, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a Zombie Preparedness page. 

For real. 

Its says:

"So what do you need to do before zombies…or hurricanes or pandemics for example, actually happen? First of all, you should have an emergency kit in your house. This includes things like water, food, and other supplies to get you through the first couple of days before you can locate a zombie-free refugee camp (or in the event of a natural disaster, it will buy you some time until you are able to make your way to an evacuation shelter or utility lines are restored). Below are a few items you should include in your kit, for a full list visit the CDC Emergency page.

• Water (1 gallon per person per day)
• Food (stock up on non-perishable items that you eat regularly)
• Medications (this includes prescription and non-prescription meds)
• Tools and Supplies (utility knife, duct tape, battery powered radio, etc.)
• Sanitation and Hygiene (household bleach, soap, towels, etc.)
• Clothing and Bedding (a change of clothes for each family member and blankets)
• Important documents (copies of your driver’s license, passport, and birth certificate to name a few)
• First Aid supplies (although you’re a goner if a zombie bites you, you can use these supplies to treat basic cuts and lacerations that you might get during a tornado or hurricane)."

 

   

№ 510. Sorrows & Remedies

 

№ 509. Meanwhile, Inside Netflix

GodSpaceLight

Netflix ends the write-up on its organizational culture with a vision:

"Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the author of The Little Prince, shows us the way:

If you want to build a ship,
don't drum up the people
to gather wood, divide the
work, and give orders.
Instead, teach them to yearn
for the vast and endless sea."

Wow.

№ 508. The Paradoxes of Enclosure

At a time when the rule of life across the globe has been disrupted by the paradoxes of collective isolation, a sensitivity to “the small,” to containment and enclosure, presses upon individuals, families, and society in unexpected and often confounding ways. Like Jones’s experimental letter forms, we awkwardly jostle for space within the confines of our homes, balconies, and gardens. Even communal spaces like parks and grocery stores seem to have shrunk, as attempts to heed social distancing alter our awareness of space. Our sense of what counts as crowded has changed, as we learn to accommodate these new rules. Meanwhile, many of us, particularly those in self-isolation, are simultaneously learning just how vastly vacant even a small space can feel.

We can recalibrate our senses to the mysteries of the small through meditation on that paradox of paradoxes, the Incarnation, with the help of this little wood block by David Jones. Throughout Jones’s work there is a marked affection for “things familiar and small.” It is inseparable from a spiritual practice of attention—tuning our senses to that which is easily overlooked or undervalued. Wrapped up in this sensitivity to the small is a care for the fragile, the vulnerable, and a discovery of the surprising resilience of the delicate. It is guided above all by the conviction that it is through refinement of our attention that the wonder and mystery of the created world, particularly in its relation to the divine, reveals itself most fully to us. Focusing on what is small and seemingly commonplace becomes a portal for seeing all things in light of the love of God and thus yields, paradoxically, the most generous and capacious of vantage points.

As the whole world fights to contain a contagion through the mantra “stay at home,” uniting and separating lives in various ways, our spiritual labor in this time may be to find these openings for grace within the multiple circles of our everyday circumstance as these widen and intersect with others, and in light of their relation to the divine Other. We are in truth, as Julian of Norwich reminds us, enclosed not by walls or government guidelines, but by the enduring intimacy of the love of God. For “he is our clothing that for love wrappeth us and windeth us, holdeth us and all becloseth us, hangeth about us for tender love that he may never leave us.”

Grand Mosque at Djenne, Mali

№ 507. Happy Feet: Palazzo Ducale

Bocche di leone or Lion's Mouth, or a lion head letter box, through which it was possible to post anonymous denunciations of crimes or misdeeds. Renaissance Wing, 2nd level, Doge's Palace or Palazzo Ducale. 

Is this a 16th Century Ombudsman?

The inscription below the face reads: "Secret denunciations against anyone who will conceal favors and services or will collude to hide the true revenue from them".

№ 506. Economic Recovery During & After the Pandemic: Subways

Wikipedia says, "the London Underground (also known simply as the Underground, or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom.

The Underground has its origins in the Metropolitan Railway, the world's first underground passenger railway. Opened in January 1863, it is now part of the Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines; the first line to operate underground electric traction trains, the City & South London Railway in 1890, is now part of the Northern line. The network has expanded to 11 lines, and in 2017/18 carried 1.357 billion passengers, making it the world's 12th busiest metro system. The 11 lines collectively handle up to 5 million passengers a day."

The first subway opened in 1863 London. 

It's now 2020. That's 157 years since that landmark urban infrastructure was built. Subway is an essential feature of all modern cities. Metro Manila's first subway system is still a work in progress. I hope they finish it quickly and build more connected networks underground.

Transportation officials are one step closer to constructing the 17-station Metro Manila Subway Project, as the first of the six Japan-made tunnel boring machines (TBMs) will be shipped to the country in January 2021.

Measuring 6.99 meters in diameter and 95 meters in length, the 700-ton TBMs will be used to dig underground and lay the tunnels for the 34-kilometer project, spanning Barangay Ugong in Valenzuela City and Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Pasay City.

The first-ever subway in the country is expected to partially operate in 2022 and serve 370,000 passengers daily in its first year.

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) hopes all stations will be fully operational by 2026, with a design capacity of 1.5 million passengers per day.

The Metro Manila Subway is designed to connect with other urban rail transit services in the region. Riders may transfer to LRT Line 1, MRT Line 3, and MRT Line 7 at the North Avenue Common station, which is also currently under construction. Other connections include the existing LRT Line 2 and PNR Metro Commuter Line, as well as the planned Makati Intra-city Subway and MRT Line 8. 

 

Please build more. Then connect them into a logical, convenient network of transportation.

№ 505. Lunate Sigma

 So in 2000, he created three-dimensional computer models of the pages of a damaged manuscript, Otho B.x (an 11th-century collection of saints’ lives), then developed an algorithm to stretch them, producing an artificial “flat” version that didn’t exist in reality. When that worked, he wondered if he could go even further, and use digital imaging not just to flatten crinkled pages but to “virtually unwrap” unopened scrolls—and reveal texts that hadn’t been read since antiquity. “I realized that no one else was doing this,” he says.

№ 504. Burgis

№ 503. Blessed Sunday

The numbers 10, 68, 84 and 89 were brought to you by Count Dracula.

 

"So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom." Psalm 90:12 New King James Version

№ 502. Warp Speeds & Heat Waves

Regardless of what’s driving the link between the weather and our behaviour, it has some uneasy implications for the future. Scientists have predicted that, as climate change kicks in, just a 2C increase in global average temperatures could increase the rate of violent crime by more than 3% in temperate regions such as Western Europe. At the moment, many experts believe we’re on track for a temperature rise of over 3C, even if we meet all our current climate commitments.

Though why the weather affects us remains a mystery, perhaps we’d better brace ourselves for what’s coming.

The Core

№ 501. Heal the World

№ 500. Covid Response: Government Spending and Balanced Economy

№ 499. Avoid the Three Cs

World Health Organization

№ 498. Sorrow into Sustenance

"I read tonight that certain moths drink the tears of sleeping birds, turning sorrow into sustenance." from Wanderer, by Luisa A Igloria.

Pinterest

№ 497. Green Havens: Kendall Jenner's House

Photographs from the Architectural Digest article.

№ 496. Traveling

Restaurante Botín, a cozy eatery in Madrid, Spain, was founded in 1725 and holds the Guinness World Record for being the world's oldest restaurant.

And like most dining establishments, Restaurante Botín was forced to close its doors when the coronavirus swept across Europe.

"When we closed the restaurant during the pandemic, we felt devastated because it never closed before, even during the Spanish Civil War, my grandfather kept Botín open," Antonio González, general manager of Botín, said. 

№ 495. Work from Home: Traveler's Spirit

Travel teaches us that there’s more to life than increasing its speed. This quarantine has been therapy for a workaholic like me. Perhaps the pandemic is the universe’s way of telling us all to slow down. And, like travel, this crisis is reminding us of how we need one another, and we need one another to be safe and cared for. Hard times highlight the importance of public services and good governance, as well as the value of neighbors.

№ 494. Iggy's Friday

№ 493. History and the Apollo Moon Landings

History is politicized.

How much of what I've learned as textbook history is really true, fair or a balanced view? Is there even supposed to be a balanced view of history. How much of the propaganda of the victors went into the viewpoints that we learned in school?

Wasn't it said that "“In all revolutions the vanquished are the ones who are guilty of treason, even by the historians,”  “for history is written by the victors and framed according to the prejudices and bias existing on their side.” This is attributed to Sen. George Graham Vest, a former congressman for the Confederacy.

№ 492. Working from Home: Planning

Munch's Covid Scream

That’s why, according to a recent study Neupert co-authored, it’s important to keep making plans – even if they turn out to be futile. Doing so can help you stay in a positive mindset and keep you from being overwhelmed by stress. After all, planning’s in our nature. “As humans, we’re uniquely capable of thinking about the future,” explains Neupert. “We’re the only species that spends this much brain power planning ahead.”

№ 491. Maurice Ravel's La Valse

“We can redream this world and make the dream come real. Human beings are gods hidden from themselves. ” ― Ben Okri, The Famished Road


 

№ 490. Cast in Iron

№ 489. Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake

Here's a modern reinterpretation of a beloved classic.

№ 488. The Art of Small Steps

Lord, teach me the art of small steps

I am not asking for miracles or visions but strength to get through the day. Give me the wit to understand at the right moment who and what really matter to me. Help me to choose how I portion out my time.

Give me the sense of what is essential and what comes second. I ask for strength, self-discipline and moderation so that I don’t get swept up in life but can order my day wisely.

Help me to face up to the immediate as best I can and to recognize the present hour as the most important. Let me recognize that life is accompanied by difficulties and setbacks, which are chances to grow and mature.

Make of me a man capable of joining those who have gone below. Give me not what I want but what I need. Teach me the art of small steps.

--- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

№ 487. Working From Home: Hope

I'm stealing this quote from a post of a law school teacher.

Paul Gaugin on Vincent Van Gogh