CO2 Emissions Have Doubled

In a report by the Associated Press; the rate at which humans are pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere has more than doubled since the 1990s.

Findings published by Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization also showed that 2005 marked the fourth-consecutive year of increased carbon dioxide emissions.

"To have four years in a row of above-average carbon dioxide growth is unprecedented," Paul Fraser, a scientist with the CSIRO's center for marine and atmospheric research, said in a statement.

The study analyzed a 30-year record of air samples collected at an Australian Bureau of Meteorology observation station on the southern island state of Tasmania.

Mike Raupach, a scientist with the organization, said from 2000 to 2005 the growth rate of carbon dioxide emissions was more than 2.5 percent per year, whereas in the 1990s it was less than 1 percent per year.

Our world leaders should really push for changes on our Carbon emissions. We read daily reports abouts ice caps melting faster than they are suppose to, organisms becoming extinct, coral reefs dying etc.

I wonder what's in store for humanity fifty years from now, that is, 2056?

Shooting our foot in small ways

The news in the Philippines for the past few weeks and months were very encouraging. Some of these were:

1. Many companies reported record profits.
2. The peso was in strongest for the past 6 years.
3. The stock market was surging to new highs.
4. Pacquiao won the fight.
5. Remmitances are up double digits. Etc.

However, look at the news below! The police should not arrest tourists guides, like they are drug dealers or terrorists! There should be some form of civility, and hospitality.... whatever. Why brandish M16 on helpless Korean tourists!

Is this our way of attracting more tourists into the country?

From PDI:

South Korea protests arrest of 15 compatriots in Cebu
By Jolene BulambotInquirer

CEBU CITY -- The Korean community here, through its embassy in Manila, filed a protest before the Department of Justice for the allegedly irregular arrest by the National Bureau of Investigation of 15 South Koreans accused of working as tour guides without permits.

Shin said Cebu’s Korean community was confused by the arrests because the 15 Koreans were legally documented tour guides.

The agents also failed to present warrants of arrest against the 15 Korean nationals when they were taken in custody, he added.

The NBI operatives, who carried high-powered pistols and long arms at the time of the arrest, "terrified the arriving tourists, composed mainly of senior age persons," Shin noted in his statement.

"Not only were the hapless Korean visitors/tourists treated to a scary and an inappropriate welcome by these government law enforcers, but residually left to fend for themselves, not knowing where to go and what to do, having lost the assistance of the tour guides who were arrested and detained," he said.

Here is the link to the news.

http://pinoy-jobs.blogspot.com/

I made a new blog with an objective of providing collated information about international and local scholarships, jobs, and other opportunities to our Kababayans. It is a day old blog, and I am hoping it will be successful as this one. The site address is: http://pinoy-jobs.blogspot.com/ .

Pinay Mabuhay Ka!

Not that I am a woman, hehehe. I have a third leg, dangling in front of me, hahaha.

My previous post, surely is a testament of the quality of the Filipina. It may surprise women in the developed countries, from New York to California, to Toronto to Sydney, that Filipina women fare better in facets of gender equality.

Just look at my mother...how she played masterfully in running our family successfully. From preparing my breakfast, to washing my clothes to ensuring that I am on time in going to school (when I was a kid); not to mention that there were seven of us - kids that she had to attend to everyday.

Also, look...it took a woman (GMA) to make sure the the country's economy kept on moving forward. We avoided an impending default, through her unpopular decisions of implenting EVAT and resisting coups etc. Comparatively...she was made of a better material than Thaksin, hehehe.

What else....our teachers of course, mostly women, educated most of us.

And finally, most of our OFWs are women, and they are doing unimaginable ordeals abroad...to make sure that the young Filipinos can go to school, a new house is built, etc., and most importantly, to make sure that the Philippine economy is afloat. We all know OFWs sent around 13 B dollars this year to their families in the Philippines.

Mabuhay ka Inday..

Where is the Philippines in the 18th World Economic Forum’s gender gap index.

The Philippines is ranked 6th in the World Economic Forum’s gender gap index.

The report measures the size of the gender gap in four critical areas of inequality between men and women and the Philippines ranking puts it as the highest ranked Asian country.

Firstly there's the economic participation and opportunity category, which involves outcomes on salaries, participation levels and access to high-skilled employment. In this category, the Philippines is ranked 4th....... not bad.

In the second category, which is the education attainment category which involves outcomes and access to basic and higher level education, the Philippines ranked 1st! Hello...

In the political empowerment category, I am sure we ranked unfairly...at 16th. I think we should also be number 1. We have two women presidents, hundreds of Governors, Congresswomen, Mayors etc.

In the health and survival category, this is one category which I do not understand why we placed number 1.

The report covers all European Union countries, 20 from Latin America and the Caribbean, over 20 from sub-Saharan Africa and 10 from the Arab world. Together the 115 countries cover over 90% of the world population according to the report.

Ricardo Hausman, director of the Centre for International Development at Harvard University says that the index assess countries on how well they are dividing their resources and opportunities among their male and female populations, regardless of the overall levels of these resources and opportunities.

“Thus the index does not penalise those countries that have low levels of education overall, but rather those where the distribution of education is uneven between women and men,” he said. The repot also provides evidence in the link between the gender gap and the economic performance of countries.

“Our work shows a strong correlation between GDP per capita and the gender gap scores. While this does not imply casualty, the possible theoretical underpinnings of this link are quite simple. Countries that do no fully capitalise effectively on one half of their human resources run the risk of undermining their competitive potential,” Laura Tyson, Dean of the London Business School said. “We hope to highlight the economic incentive behind empowering women in addition to promoting equality as a basic human right,” Tyson said.

Source: http://www.moneyweb.co.za/economy/economic_trends/450333.htm

Stem Cells Yields Heart Valves

There it goes....another news from the stem cells breakthrough. Scientific progress is indeed moving forward faster than anytime in human history.

From the New York Times, as reported by The Associated Press:

Scientists for the first time have grown human heart valves using stem cells from the fluid that cushions babies in the womb, offering an approach that may be used to repair defective hearts.

The Swiss experiment follows recent successes at growing bladders and blood vessels and suggests that people may one day be able to grow their own replacement heart parts, in some cases, even before they are born.

It is one of several tissue engineering advances that could lead to homegrown heart valves that are more durable and effective than artificial or cadaver valves.

For full copy of the news, here is the link.

Parity

Six months ago, I decided to quit my job! I decided to be lazy…on my terms, that is watch TV whenever I like, be on the internet and blog whenever I like, and even get drunk anyday, anywhere, and anykind, anytime (1 pm, hehehe). Also, travel anywhere whenever I got the itch of going…anywhere, anytime.

Gone are the days of bosses, work schedules, deadlines, office politics, blah blah, hehehe.

This is what I told my friend and his reply was…..What? Don’t you have any responsibility? No dependents?

Well…. Ever since I quit my job I have become a sort of a Charity institution. Taya ako palagi sa inuman, and I have scholars (3), I still pay my mothers meds, the electric bill, cable, telephone, water, DSL, repairs and salaries of house and shop helps etc. hehehe.

And I am still doing fine…financially, so far. Until when? …I don’t know.

What did I do?

---------------

If you have been following my blog for a while now, you will know that my father was a Porter, and my Mom used to be a labandera. So there is no inheritance money involve.

What I did was work…save…and invest. That is

1. I spend less that what I earned (save).
2. I directed the money saved to do its work (invest). I decided not be slave of money, but to make money my slave, kuno, hehehe. Thus far, I have been goading my money to work and work for me.
3. I took a few risks (losses) …but earned something (lessons) .
4. And waited for parity.

What’s parity?

I calculated how much is my spending budget for a month, say 35K, and the moment my investments started earning 35K a month, I reach parity. To be safe, I waited parity + 20%. The 20% was used to roll over the funds to ensure that I have a cushion for inflation blah blah, and growth for my investments.

So I am enjoying now the so called “parity thing” + 20%.

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My dilemma is,.. I am getting bored. My plan is either go back to school again (kaya ko pa kaya?), or blog more than my appetite could handle, or expand my businesses, or start traveling again, or find a job again, near my home… something…anything that would make me busy.

What have I been doing? Well…what I have been doing the past few days was cook some great food, and shop for Christmas gifts, hehehe.

I have to do something. Boredom is not my cup of tea.

Photo courtesy of propertyroom.com

Cebu International Convention Center

I have read a few days back, in the newspapers that Teddy Casino, the Bayan Muna rep that is descending to become a trapo, that he will file a resolution to investigate the construction of the CICC, calling it "Imeldefic" which simply means a grand waste of money.

From the Sunstar: "Bayan Muna Representative Teodoro Casiño described the project as "Imeldific" and he fears it will end up "unused and underutilized" like the Manila Film Center, a project of former first lady Imelda Marcos."

Well...to tell him, the people of similar political colors with him ( in Vietnam), according to the news from the National Post prepared a much more Imeldefic structure for the APEC summit, than the Cebu's CICC, and I quote:

The centrepiece of the two-day summit is the National Convention Centre, a grand, $300-million building constructed on 64 hectares of land that used to be a rice field. Built of marble, with a wave-like roof, it was built in two years but has no clear purpose beyond the APEC meetings, though Vietnam hopes it will attract international events in the future.

The Philippines venue for the ASEAN Summit.... "The CICC is a joint venture of Capitol, which spent P450 million for the construction of CICC, and the Mandaue City Government, which owns the 3.8-hectare property where the center is located."

How much is 450 million pesos in dollars? 9 million right? And this Bayan Muna guy is complaining? I am starting to believe, that he is not only a communist, but an e-dyut as well, hehehe.

Philippine Religions

While drinking with two friends last night, and for lack of topic to entertain ourselves while drinking,we talked about religions in the Philippines.

Below are the point of view I shared last night.

1,000 years ago, the people living in the 7100 island composed of Ilongos, Bicolanos, Tausugs, Maranao, Tagalogs, Igorots, Visayans and other tribes probably shared one religion, and they called their God – Bathala.

1. In 1380, Makhdum Karim, the first Islamic missionary to the Philippines brought Islam to the Archipelago.
2. In 1521, Magellan arrived in the Philippines, and Spanish colonial rule which brought the Catholic religion, began in 1565 and lasted for about three centuries until the Philippine Revolution of 1896.
3. Other religions were organized (Aglipayan, Iglesia ni Kristo) and recently, Ang Dating Daan , El Shaddai, Villanuevas group, and 999 others such as Mormons, Sabadista, Rizalista, Protestants, Adventists; and a hosts of cults (2,000+).

Recently, I watch on TV the Iglesia ni Kristo hitting Dating Daan as fraud, etc. and when I switch the channel, I saw Ang Dating Daan hitting the Iglesias. Both shows were entertaining and bordering to being funny. They were like our politicians, squablling, fighting, and mudslunging. The good thing is that, neither of these groups are using guns, or are exploding themselves.

In my community in the Visayas, we have all sorts of religions, and the Muslims here are not fighting as much as their counterparts in Mindanao. Peaceful co-existence, and respect of each others religions persists. For example, in one of our main highways here…. the Iglesia ni Kristo constructed a big church right in front (across the street) of the big church of Mormons, while a stone throw away, is the big Catholic Church. Not a single fight has been reported to the police among the church goers of these religions. I do hope a big Muslim Mosque is also constructed nearby…to create a good market of beliefs, and the people would clearly have a choice were to go to meet their spiritual needs.

Why are Muslims not belligerent here? ….my friend told me that, it is because the % of Muslims to the population is less than 1%. If there memberships reach a critical mass of, I don’t know, maybe 5% to the population?, it is probable that they would get violent, i.e. organized bombings, kidnappings, Jihads, Abu Sayyaf, MNLF or MILF.

I told him….I do not believe him. I told him all religions are suppose to respect life. Besides, Catholics has followers that are kidnappers, bank hold uppers etc. Not a single religion has the monopoly of rotten eggs.

Also, I told him not to generalize Tausugs or Maranaos as Muslims; because in both tribes there are several Catholics that are Tausugs or Maranaos. Some are maybe members of Mormons, Iglesia etc.

Why I am posting this?

Because I believe Muslim is a religion of peace. So are the Catholics, the Aglipayan, the Iglesia ni Kristo, Ang Dating Daan , El Shaddai, Villanuevas group, the Mormons, the Sabadista, the Rizalista, the Protestants, the Adventists etc.

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PS: Why some Muslims are exploding themselves? My answer is, some Koreans are burning themselves in protest, but not as frequently as Muslims exploding themselves. Honestly, I don’t know the answer…. I am not sure whether it says in the Koran, “explode yourselves” or not; as I haven’t read one.

Photo courtesy of www.oberlin.edu

XAG/USD

I am currently hitched on Silver/USD, I was short 100 units at 12.5500 and , another short of 500 units 12.8650. I am on the red with the former by 2,650 pips, while I am black by 500 pips on the later. My take profits for both of this trade is 11.940, which is around halfway from the previous high of around 13.300 last September 3, and its lowest which was 10.490 last September 14. I am looking for a repeat....hoping it will reach TP before Friday.... or anyday next week so long as it wont hit my margin call.

I don't trade as frequently as before. I wait for weeks for a best set up - and I hope I am right on this one.

If not....trade another day.

Blind see after cell transplant

There it goes (sequel to my post).....a step forward, in this weeks news from Nature.com, it reported that : Blind mice see after cell transplant, Study suggests newborn cells best for transfer.

Does this mean that blind people would not be needing eye donors in the future? But would only need stem cells transplantation to see again? Could be...

The report further notes that:

Using a technique that may one day help blind people to see, researchers have shown in mice that retinal cells from newborns transplanted into the eyes of blind adults wire up correctly and help them to detect light. The finding challenges conventional biological thinking, because it shows that cells that have stopped dividing are better for transplantation than the stem cells that normally make new cells.

To read the full news, here is the link.

Photo courtesy of http://www.safetymgmt.com/

Stem Cells: Ultimate Cure?

I have always commented in some blogs, even in my own blog entries the potential of stem cells as the ultimate cure. I have read somewhere that the next knowledge revolution is on biology: the next frontier.

It now starts, this weeks news from Nature.com, reported that " Stem cells fend off lung cancer" , a big hope for smokers to live a longer life. The report further notes that,

Embryonic stem cells, the controversial and versatile cells that seem able to do just about anything, have now expanded their repertoire into cancer prevention. A vaccine made from these cells shields mice against developing lung cancer under conditions thought to mimic the effects of smoking.

O diba? If you read deeper the highlighted portion of the above paragraph, it could mean the cells could possibly cure paralysis by creating new nerve connections, alzheimer by creating and reviving those loose connections in the brain, and probably in the future, tricked the cells to grow a new heart to replace tired old ones, grow new and young eyes to replace those blurry catharic eyes, and even replace our old raggy skin with a youthful one.

Well, what's my point? Business, of course.... how you/we wish to have purchased Microsoft stocks during its infancy, I mean, before it become the Microsoft that we know today?

Photo courtesy of http://www.rsna.org/

Fisheries collapse, etc.

I have asked my friend how many people would die, from today until 2086. Yup, how many? Any idea?

I told him, if the stem cells research would not proved to be successful in the coming years, then probably 90% of the current more than 6 billion people all over the world would die by 2086. That's a fact, and that's normal given that average lifespan nowadays is around 80 years. Imagine, 90% of all the Chinese today would be dead by 2086, hehehe. But so are the Americans, the Europeans, and the Asian, and Africans etc. All the money stashed in banks, you're house now, and you're lands would be owned by somebody else - by that time. Di ba?

But this is not the issue of my post.

My post today is supposed to answer the question, how much would a kilo of galungong would be in 2086? Would there still be galungong around?

From the news Philstar:

Warming threat to earth's seas, marine life endangers mankind: study

NAIROBI (AFP) - Urgent and resolute measures must be taken to arrest rising global temperatures that increasingly threaten the delicate balance of marine ecosystems and human lives, scientists warned Thursday.

In a study released on the sidelines of a key UN climate conference in the Kenyan capital, they said climatic changes had sparked rapid rises in sea levels, temperatures and acidity that pose severe dangers to humanity.

"Human activities are unleashing processes of change in the oceans that are without precedent in the past several million years," said the study "The Future of Oceans -- Warming Up, Rising High, Turning Sour."

In another news:

World Fisheries Risk Collapse by 2048, Scientists Say

Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- World fisheries risk collapsing completely by 2048 if humans continue to erode species diversity by causing regional extinctions, scientists said in a study. The rate at which ocean fisheries collapse, or fall below 10 percent of the maximum recorded annual catch, has accelerated over time, the scientists led by Boris Worm of Canada's Dalhousie University said today in a study in the journal Science. By 2003, 29 percent of species were below that threshold, they said.

``If the long-term trend continues, all fish and seafood species are projected to collapse within my lifetime -- by 2048,'' Worm said in an accompanying statement. ``It is a very clear trend, and it is accelerating.''

Any idea how much would a kilo of galunggong be in 2086? hehehe.

Trap your Carbon

I am not an alarmist.

It seems that weather and climate changes used to be discussed in different time scales as we used to know it, i.e. evolutionary time scales or geological time scales which means in thousands or millions of years; but recently, the news papers all over the world have been talking climate changes occuring in just decades, and changes expected to occur in millenias occuring only in a few years. It seemed we have cut time lavishly...in favor of environmental, human and world destruction. Not in any time in world history have there been changes as drastic as climate change. And it is unsettling because

(1) it will be the first time in human history,
(2) our generation is mostly responsible of these changes, and
(3) the world impact is unmeasurable, and unthinkable.

In my life time of 30+ years, thus far. I have observed first hand the following changes which probably confirms scientists claims of drastic climate changes occuring faster than we thought:

a. I have been swimming around the coral reefs in the central Philippines for years, and one day sometime in June 1998, I was aghast and angry when the corals reefs that used to be alive and vibrant just died. Since then, I have been swimming colonies and colonies of dead coral reefs. The reefs slightly recovered, but then again in 2002 a mass killing happened again. These killings and deccimation of reefs did not happen just in the Philippines, it occurred all over the world. The culprit of these killings pointed to higher than normal sea temperatures or to climate change.

b. Typhoons. Every time there is a typhoon coming to the Philippines, the likelihood that it will pass Samar and Leyte is 90%. Nowadays, it seems that these islands have become typhoon free. My guess is that the normal typhoon pathway has been changed, dramatically, due to higher temperatures. Ask any person in PAGASA.

So what can we do?

Let us be responsible human beings. How? by calculating our individual production of carbon dioxide, and trapping the same amount. How? by planting a tree. The weight of the tree is equivalent, more or less, to the carbon dioxide in weight that we have trapped. So, if you have cars, and you are using 1000 liters of crude a year, you are contributing carbon to the atmosphere of around, shall we say, 50 carbon unit per year. Therefore, you must plant around 5 trees to trapped the 50 carbon unit you spewed to the atmosphere (assuming each tree would gain 5 carbon unit in weight per year). (Carbon unit is arbitrary, it could be kg of carbon or gram of carbon). This way, you avoid contributing carbon to the atmosphere, and thus helped save mother earth.

On the news (PDI):

* Sir Nicholas Stern, former World Bank chief economist, last Tuesday urged global leaders to act urgently to avert a looming environmental catastrophe.

* The meeting of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the parent of the Kyoto Protocol, is taking place against a backdrop of distressing data confirming the rise in the Earth’s temperature caused by oil, gas and coal whose invisible carbon pollution traps the sun’s heat, in effect creating a global greenhouse.
* Scientists report melting sea ice around the North Pole, shriveling glaciers in Greenland and Europe, retreating permafrost in Siberia and the progressive acidification of the sea from atmospheric carbon dioxide.

So what can we do? Maybe we should start a world wide campaign :

Trap your Carbon, Save the Climate, and Save Mother Earth.

O , diba?