Frank A. Hilario
Articles by Frank A. Hilario
November 05, 2009
If we don't change, climate change will change us. If you don't define your terms, who will? If not now, when?
October 30, 2009
The fastest carbon sink on earth, and you can find it in your farm, field, or backyard garden
October 29, 2009
I'm tired being pro-poor. Being pro-poor is hard work. I now am pro-rich!
October 28, 2009
Climate change is not about energy; it's about lifestyle.
October 27, 2009
The editors of the law were sleeping on this one; was theirs the sleep of the just?
October 25, 2009
In Copenhagen in December, will the big boys believe their own lines?
October 21, 2009
If we don't mitigate Climate Change, Climate Change will mitigate us.
October 16, 2009
The Gospel of the Poor Farmers according to Bill Gates.
October 10, 2009
Those who graduated from the University of the Philippines know that UP is incomparable. If you're not UP, you're DOWN!
October 07, 2009
What gathers people, shelters, warms, comforts and lends them dignity and, surprise, it glows?
September 27, 2009
The Perfect Storm is between Science and Political Will.
September 24, 2009
Charice? She was Cinderella, and she had no right to be happy.
September 23, 2009
A perfect storm is brewing in Buenos Aires - and the scientists are talking about it.
September 20, 2009
HYDERABAD – India! Land of the Tiger. Land of Mystery. Land of Ancient Wisdom. We are in the City of Pearls, in the State of Andhra Pradesh in India. And about 25 km from here is Patancheru, where we find the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT, the leading inst...
September 20, 2009
When climate change comes, can winters be far behind?
September 17, 2009
When I celebrate my birthday, a whole University Town celebrates with me!
September 15, 2009
To be President, Noynoy Aquino has to learn from Phil Jackson, Frank Baum - and he has to have Vision.
September 12, 2009
The BBC goes to India for brown sugar.
September 10, 2009
Freddie Aguilar, Anak ng Putdown.
September 10, 2009
The developing climate change and the developing countries
September 09, 2009
'I am running' - Senator Noynoy Aquino
August 24, 2009
We have enough of popular martyrs. And popular widows.
August 14, 2009
Every man's life enriches me, for I am involved in mankind. If that man knows how to love truly.
August 12, 2009
Climate change calls for a change in thinking. Do you know what agriculture has wrought?!
August 10, 2009
It's easy to delete a life; how do you undelete?
August 01, 2009
Life is a morality play, but we can't simply watch it.
July 31, 2009
A new paradigm for technical writing and publishing: Elsevier's Article for the Future.'
July 30, 2009
Is Google after market share? No, after you.
July 27, 2009
Here's to learning new tricks from old dogs!
July 26, 2009
What is the color of a cure for cancer?
July 23, 2009
The email grows on you if you're not uptight.
July 21, 2009
International collaboration is the call of the times, especially in computer-based training.
July 20, 2009
I'm interested in a purpose-driven email - are you?
July 18, 2009
With email, I am Harry Potter and the Half-Blog Prince!
July 17, 2009
If you don't love your email, who will? If not now, when? If not you, who?
July 17, 2009
What can you do with the mouse on Windows Vista? A few tricks you can easily learn.
July 14, 2009
A family approach to business you haven't heard of.
July 12, 2009
'Michael saw everything with his heart' - Brooke Shields.
July 10, 2009
If not I, who? If not now, when? A challenge to the scientists and scholars of the University of the Philippines.
July 10, 2009
The flu virus has many strains? So do swine!
July 05, 2009
A tribute to a Filipino revolutionary, journalist and thinker who showed that an Ethiopian can change his skin, a leopard can change his spots.
July 03, 2009
Agriculture may be the riskiest business there is - when a farmer fails because of weather or pest, the business loss can be 100%.
July 01, 2009
Being the best one can be, doing the best one can
June 30, 2009
'Climate Change is real,' says ICRISAT Director General William Dar. If symptoms persist, consult your science doctor.
June 30, 2009
The rich must do much for the poor; along with that, the poor must do much more for themselves.
June 27, 2009
Tony Buzan's Mind Map? Not creative enough for me. Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way? I'd rather do it my way.
June 26, 2009
Now, you can learn to do good technical writing, at no expense to you except time.
June 25, 2009
What can I do with the PC? Let me count the ways.
June 23, 2009
Iran's protest movement must now graduate into a people movement.
June 21, 2009
MORE FOODS AT LESS COSTS for more dryland farmers in Asia – this was the message of Director General William Dar of ICRISAT at the opening day of an Asian gathering of scientists in the City of Hyderabad yesterday, 21 June Manila time. Dar was Guest of Honor at the First Asian PGPR Congress for Sust...
June 19, 2009
Can you sell a sex video in your data storage device as an anthropological artifact? You can try.
June 17, 2009
Conservation Agriculture is better described as Saving Agriculture. Learn all about it!
June 14, 2009
June is a Pride Month for the Filipinos - they are celebrating the National Hero's birthday, 19 June 1861, not frivolity.
June 13, 2009
Revised 13 June 2009. The original short essay Advice #1 of 09 June has expanded into 7 different short essays uploaded separately – after suddenly yesterday I wanted to dramatize the phenomenon called People Power in distinct contrast with what Imperial Manila is now trying to raise to the nth powe...
June 13, 2009
Revised 13 June 2009. The original short essay Advice #1 of 09 June has expanded into 7 different short essays uploaded separately – after suddenly yesterday I wanted to dramatize the phenomenon called People Power in distinct contrast with what Imperial Manila is now trying to raise to the nth powe...
June 13, 2009
Thinking systems is like thinking of Cancer - what you don't know can hurt you.
June 12, 2009
Revised 13 June 2009. The original short essay Advice #1 of 09 June has expanded into 7 different short essays uploaded separately – after suddenly yesterday I wanted to dramatize the phenomenon called People Power in distinct contrast with what Imperial Manila is now trying to raise to the nth powe...
June 12, 2009
Revised 13 June 2009. The original short essay Advice #1 of 09 June has expanded into 7 different short essays uploaded separately – after suddenly yesterday I wanted to dramatize the phenomenon called People Power in distinct contrast with what Imperial Manila is now trying to raise to the nth powe...
June 12, 2009
Revised 13 June 2009. The original short essay Advice #1 of 09 June has expanded into 7 different short essays uploaded separately – after suddenly yesterday I wanted to dramatize the phenomenon called People Power in distinct contrast with what Imperial Manila is now trying to raise to the nth powe...
June 09, 2009
To call for People Power 3, you need someone with the charisma of Jaime Cardinal Sin. Where is he?
June 09, 2009
New! Hilario's Idea: How to learn from mistakes
June 06, 2009
Tony's Will is invoked on Tony first. To invoke political will on others, you may invoke the law, if the law is on your side.
June 03, 2009
Did you know that the Philippine National Hero, Jose Rizal, was Red and Green? He wanted both Revolution and Reformation.
June 01, 2009
Blessed are the poor when they become financially free. Blessed are the rich when they become financially independent, when they untie themselves from their material wealth, when they share it with the poor.
May 27, 2009
The Filipinos have always been good in raising Cain; the Indians are good in raising cane now.
May 22, 2009
Shame and scandal in the family. Whose family?
May 19, 2009
Genomics can create the seeds to populate Earth, especially the barren parts, to combat climate change.
May 17, 2009
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Nobel laureate, has cancer, and has written a farewell letter, which I find almost as boring as his bestselling book 'One Hundred Years of Solitude.' I'm reading on Annona muricata as a natural cure for cancer, which I find exciting.
May 15, 2009
My hometown of Asingan, once the vegetable bowl of the province of Pangasinan in Central Luzon in the Philippines, now buys its vegetables from the next town. A modern story of modern farming.
May 11, 2009
Susan Boyle came from a big family; Manny Pacquiao came from a broken family. They dared to dream divine and went ahead and did it.
May 09, 2009
It was not the WHO who triggered the pandemic flu panic - it was the lack of knowledge.
May 07, 2009
Why the Americans don't have a monopoly of American corn.
May 05, 2009
Boxing Superhero teaches us some English, in case you're paying attention.
May 03, 2009
When we little Filipinos are good, we're the biggest best! We have the Superhero of Boxing: Pac-Man.
April 29, 2009
After all, CATHOLICS are the MOST CREATIVE MINDS: Try St Therese of the Little Flower for size! Subscribe to the Catholic Ethic: Faith & works, theory & practice. Not separate Church & State. 'The Catholic's Way' accepts the oral & written past (Holy Traditions & Bible) and present (Teaching Authority of the Church, or Magisterium). The Catholic's Way is truly self-empowering. Creativity is revelation, inspired by the past, informed by the present. Lovely!
April 26, 2009
Where the man with the hoe is not a painting.
April 11, 2009
Your Diet Soda & my Diet Satire.
April 09, 2009
Here's the world's first satire on satire! Cheap shot on cheapskates.
April 07, 2009
Brainstorming is out, Brainshopping is in.
April 05, 2009
You can't have science without human faces.
March 29, 2009
We wax poetic about the sunset in a bay and we make it septic.
March 28, 2009
Thinking out of the box is still thinking of the box.
March 24, 2009
Creativity is thinking out of the box into the circle.
March 17, 2009
Here's how I can't lose them all.
March 16, 2009
By shifting paradigms, ICRISAT has made itself creative, productive.
March 11, 2009
Honesty is the best policy - assuming you practice it.
March 10, 2009
Francism is more than love of country; it's love of fellowmen.
March 05, 2009
'There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy and achieving success' - Rose, 87 years old. She got her college education at that age; she had fun.
February 26, 2009
The male is the weaker sex, and the women prove it!
February 23, 2009
A gift is never magnified if it is never shared.
February 20, 2009
I'm counting my blessings; how about you?
February 12, 2009
In what context is Barack Obama saying? 'Change we can believe in.'
February 11, 2009
The Brown American is funny, very funny.
February 03, 2009
You can't teach old dogs new tricks? Old dogs can teach you!
January 25, 2009
A modern Jack & the Beans Talk
January 24, 2009
You can reinvent the rainbow - I just did.
January 19, 2009
Rediscover Microsoft Word 2003 for yourself.
January 08, 2009
Corruptions covers a multitude of sinners.
December 23, 2008
You can't love too much.
December 25, 2008
Here's my gift to you: The journey of Christmas is the reward.
December 27, 2008
PacMan is not in the same league as Golden Boy. Golden Boy is gross, PacMan is great!
December 19, 2008
The Rotary 4-Way reinvented, this time for Science.
December 19, 2008
To succeed, you need a team.
December 15, 2008
'Don't put all your eggs in one basket' is true for stocks and crops.
November 29, 2008
Reproductive Health? Love for sale
November 27, 2008
The little people we will always have with us, if we don't think big.
November 24, 2008
He wants you to be simple. She wants you to be simple.
November 19, 2008
To prevent a Fall, keep up the Good Works.
November 10, 2008
Water is life. Water is people. Water is problems.
November 03, 2008
I believe in grounding policy on science grounded on practice, not theory.
November 02, 2008
It's the old top-down or bottom-up question.
October 27, 2008
Creative Capitalism gives birth to Creative Science.
September 16, 2008
I preach genius - what do you preach?
September 03, 2008
Is your faith proper, pleasing and perfect?
July 02, 2008
Laugh, and the world loves with you.
June 27, 2008
Where the pixels are more important than the Big Picture.
June 25, 2008
If you ask for a miracle, who do you turn to?
June 15, 2008
To err is human, to forgive divine.
June 14, 2008
Of the 3 owners of development, the poor cannot be more equal than the other 2, nor the rich.
June 07, 2008
When teachers spell disaster.
June 06, 2008
Science without the Change Agent is dead.
June 04, 2008
He is one of the best surgeons IN the Philippines.
May 20, 2008
You can't have our food and we eat it too!
May 08, 2008
You learn vocabulary in context, not in memory.
May 04, 2008
Microsoft: The Greatest Escape Artist of All Time?
April 29, 2008
With his slogan 'Change we can all believe in,' Barack Obama will bring Pace to America, but not Peace.
April 27, 2008
For blogging, Windows Live Writer gets 4.5 stars from me, Google Docs 3 stars.
April 24, 2008
Science has no choice but to reject the Malthusian theory.
April 23, 2008
The road ahead? No, look far ahead!
April 21, 2008
Excellence is usually in people, not data.
April 20, 2008
How can you look at the water cycle and not see yourself?
April 15, 2008
'Manila is the heart of the pool world' - Gerry Watson
April 13, 2008
PowerPoint is Show. But first, what do you have to Tell?
April 11, 2008
In the fight against Google, has Microsoft run out of options? No, ideas.
April 03, 2008
Revolution in prison? No. Revolution in person.
March 30, 2008
I do not believe in the separation of Church & State. I believe in the separation of princely language from unpriestly language.
March 22, 2008
Behold, I give you a new mantra for creative writing!
March 17, 2008
How to launch a revolution, with a view to history.
March 06, 2008
The HullabalLozada is short on logic and long on language.
March 05, 2008
BO hypes himself as the only hope for his country, and that's scary.
March 03, 2008
The Catholics have more to their faith than Protestants, and I can prove it.
February 29, 2008
The mass media in the Philippines seen as different groups of animals - they deserve each other.
February 25, 2008
Where are the Christians when you need them most!?
February 24, 2008
How to be (more) creative by fooling around with Word 2003's outline-organize feature
February 14, 2008
If you don't make the PC your slave, you are.
January 27, 2008
Maria Sharapova is World #1. She's prettier. She didn't win against Ana Ivanovic - she won against herself.
January 21, 2008
Here is a new formula for creative writing, borrowing from Einstein: E = mc2 (squared), where E is Enlightenment, m is mass of materials, and c is the speed of write.
January 16, 2008
A witty response to the claim of Professor Hartmut Michel (Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 1988) that growing biofuel crops results in net energy loss – it´s in the Professor´s assumption, approach, strategy.
January 16, 2008
Is the US smart enough to make a paradigm shift and make a sharp turn from corn to sweet sorghum? I doubt it. How about Brazil from sugarcane? As smart the United States, I guess.
January 07, 2008
Who am I talking to this time? They would be public speakers, lecturers, PowerPoint presentors, resource persons, debaters, reviewers, essayists, biographers, autobiographers, authors, ghostwriters, columnists, journalists, consultants, managers, even proposal packagers in science. And why is that? ...
January 02, 2008
A record, I suppose; for the record, I Francisco have written 100 Franciscan essays published online by the American Chronicle in the last 100 weeks, from February 2006 to December 2007. I didn´t count before, but those 100 now makes me feel I count a lot.
100 suddenly is important to me, ...
December 31, 2007
Today, December 31 (Manila time) is the day of the Holy Family of Jesus, Joseph & Mary according to the calendar of the Roman Catholic Church worldwide. In the Philippines, the only Roman Catholic country in Asia, the interjection ´susmaryosep!´ actually has the names of the Holy Family ...
December 29, 2007
Now that I´ve done my own bit of translating 19th century Spanish to 21st century English, I personally know that something is always lost in the translation. In the case of the greatest patriotic poem of that century, ´Adios, Patria Adorada,´ I hope the loss is not too much of a g...
December 28, 2007
Every December 30, my country the Philippines celebrates Rizal Day, in honor of Jose Rizal, The National Hero, the one who gave his life for his country showing the fire in his mind when he had the choice to fight with the fire in his hands. Filipino nationalists say he was invented by the Americans...
December 24, 2007
´Merry Christmas anyway!´ Whatever Mikep was trying to say in his email, on December 19, I made the mistake of replying to my good friend with that greeting. He emailed back, ´You know very well Christmas is a pagan holiday. So let´s celebrate!´
That´s a triple...
December 23, 2007
You heard it once: ´Why reinvent the wheel?´ You heard it a thousand times: ´Don´t reinvent the wheel!´ Once in a while, someone thinks: ´Why not reinvent the wheel?´ I think differently: I´m a wheel – and I´m reinventing myself.
Earth itself ...
December 21, 2007
I´m eating Yankee corn, and it tastes funny. Well, I´ve always known that the Americans are laughable. I´m a Filipino.
Actually, I´m not eating corn; I´m eating chicken. I´m eating the chicken that ate the Yankee corn. It´s not funny – it´s expensiv...
December 17, 2007
A newsmagazine has just given birth to a book by one of its writers; the newsmagazine is American Chronicle based in Beverly Hills, California, USA; the book is by a Filipino based in Manila in the Philippines, Frank A Hilario. The book: Team ICRISAT Champions the Poor, published 2007 November by th...
December 13, 2007
The History Place (historyplace.com) gives me a good list of what happened or who died or who was born who was important in the month of December throughout recorded time, but it misses on the most patriotic date celebrated in my country, the Philippines: 1896 December 30, in the early morning of wh...
December 10, 2007
Know what? At 5 early this morning, December 11 Manila, surfing the Web, I suddenly realized the New Testament has a funny bone. Here´s a sample verse, this one´s from Matthew 11:5 (English Standard Version 2001, semanticbible.com):
The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, ...
December 10, 2007
People, water is every country´s greatest natural treasure, I say – no, people are not resources; they´re more – but we take water for granted until there´s a drought, we take people for granted until we know they´re not coming back. That´s when we lose not only the wat...
December 06, 2007
If you belong to the Filipino opposition, or if you are plain of brain, which may be the same thing, you will not appreciate the fact that because of GMA´s visit to Spain Monday, December 3, the Spanish and Philippine Governments will be implementing, for example, several infrastructure and e...
December 03, 2007
Among what I call climate change crops, jatropha is a strange species in science. Among the paths to take on the road to creative writing, math is a strange device. Stranger than fiction? In truth, that's what I'd like to invite you to find out. (I'm no stranger to fiction myself.) What about the m...
Manila Rain-Walk. The Day Senator Trillanes Declared A Revolt, Peter Drank Coffee & The Bride Danced
November 30, 2007
Senator Antonio Trillanes the other day (November 29) called for a revolution at the Manila Peninsula Hotel and nobody came: Why? Why, the Manila Pen is a 5-star hotel, and wasn´t that an invitation to dinner? But no, learning from Mao Tse Tung, the Filipinos didn´t think a revolution is...
November 28, 2007
SAMUEL BECKETT WON THE 1969 Nobel Prize for Literature and changed the universe of the literate with his book Waiting for Godot, that which is centered around two men, Estragon and Vladimir, who keep a vigil for Godot, who never gets there, the road to nowhere. By refusing to abide by the Kyoto Prot...
November 23, 2007
Poor Team ICRISAT! The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics is exulting, celebrating its 35th anniversary this week, November 21-24, with the knowledge that it has been rated O (Outstanding) by the World Bank. Excellent, I say. Now I shall expect more.
I? I am the poor;...
November 22, 2007
Regina Isabelle my granddaughter was 1 year old yesterday (Manila time) in New York, November 20; the 20th Philippine Advertising Congress is being held at Subic Bay in Zambales, Philippines November 21-24; my good friend Naz´s daughter Lina is 30 years old November 22; ICRISAT is holding its ...
November 18, 2007
Almost simultaneously last week, the Parliament of the United Kingdom (UK) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of the United Nations (UN) published their official statements on global warming. November 15 UK, a bill to be debated by Members of the Parliament. November 17 IPCC, a...
November 16, 2007
Atlanta, Georgia: ´Gov Sonny Perdue stepped up to a podium outside the State Capitol on Tuesday and led a solemn crowd of several hundred people in a prayer for rain on his drought-stricken State´ (Greg Bluestein, November 13, news.aol.com). The Governor was joined by other State elected...
November 12, 2007
Simon says: 'Coping with the inevitability of defeat makes victories all the more sweet' (Simon Barnes, timesonline.co.uk). Pray tell me, Simon, how can you celebrate a victory when it's not yours?
Yesterday, Sunday, November 11 (Manila), in the 2007 World Pool Championship, Daryl 'Dazzler' Peach ...
November 11, 2007
The 4 Es Club. Earth, Environment, Education, Entrepreneurship. Right now, I´m the President and only member. This is a crusade. A crusade begins with one man, one mind.
Actually, I just came out with the new name but this crusade is about 2 years old, and I did not start it. He did. He is Jo...
November 08, 2007
Yes, Sir, the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD) was the first such sectoral council in the Philippines; it was so successful in research management that it was emulated in other countries of Asia. This pioneer did the Filipinos proud...
November 06, 2007
This is a long story, and it really began 36 years ago, if you can read that long. It´s in my databank called memory waiting to be told all those years. Memory is a databank that fails every now and then, as any 67-year old will tell you. Ask me. Needs improvement. Quite undesirable, quite necessary...
November 04, 2007
Today, we study figures of speech, but especially metaphors. Why? George Lakoff & Mark Johnson, linguist & philosopher, in their book Metaphors We Live By published in 1980 (theliterarylink.com) tell us: ´We live by metaphors.´ Even if we don´t understand them.
Examples from the ...
November 02, 2007
He called it ´An Offering To Our Lady Of Fatima.´ I call it ´An Offering To The World.´ In time the world will know about it. He said it was built on time, money and efforts donated by men and women of golden hearts devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary. I say it was built on faith.
This is part of th...
November 01, 2007
Watermarking your book with young John Gokongwei Jr riding his bicycle: Are you saying this is the boy image of entrepreneurship? The boy didn´t even know the word existed. He had to buy & sell for his family to survive. Then, at 15 years of age, he started taking risks. That was when within t...
October 30, 2007
If so, may the Curse be with you! ¶ Since I´m not a doctor, don´t be surprised I´m studying curses, not cures. And for a very practical reason too: It´s easier to curse than to cure.
In 1962, Eleanor Roosevelt addressed the United Nations General Assembly, and Adlai Stevens...
October 29, 2007
Having read many a report, and retort, on global warming, it´s the risqué global scientific language that bothers me, not the rising local everyday temperature. This morning (October 28, Manila) I googled with Safesearch for "global warming" and got 10,500,000 English pages. I looked into 100 ...
October 27, 2007
Estrada´s World is that of make-believe. You make it, you believe it.
Frank´s World is that of the Franciscan Essay. I essay that we´ll see each other in a little while.
This is all about the education of Joseph ´Erap´ Estrada. I began this one thinking of Erap and ...
October 27, 2007
And so Asiaweek ranked the University of the Philippines Diliman #48 among Asia´s Best Universities in 2000 (asiaweek.com). A very hard slap on a proud face in a very public place. By reputation, UP Diliman is the best of the University of the Philippines; the Asiaweek rank rankled the System...
October 26, 2007
The Yankee poultry raisers feed their chickens with expensive food: corn. That is because corn prices have jumped following the high demand for corn for ethanol, gw Bush´s biofuel of choice. Are they riding Volkswagens now? Do Yankees always make terrible food-for-non-food choices?
With each...
October 22, 2007
WHEN THE CUSTOMER SAYS ´NO!´ the sale begins. That´s a mantra of sales people, and it´s a daunting challenge to be creative about a critical situation. So: When the science writer says ´No, I don´t understand this material at all,´ the science writing begins...
October 18, 2007
Bill Gates is a Boy Wonder to me; I wonder what he was doing in 1973 outside school in Harvard – studying law? (He dropped out.) I don´t know him from Adam Smith, but I know he´s a Word Wizard, known that for years, beginning with his alpha Word 1 circa 1987. His Word 4 was a pain in the...
October 17, 2007
IGNRM? Ignoring it is what I have been doing. But there comes a time when you can no longer ignore the technical term, that which I suspect was invented to add some mystery to the science. Or to confound science writers like me who already have enough problems grasping for a metaphor or two.
A met...
October 17, 2007
No, no, no! Science parks? The concept is all wrong. Science parks not, Science stops not. If it doesn´t change, if it stays as is, it´s not Science – it´s Status Quo. Or Art. That goes whether you are in Los Alamos (a nuclear weapons town), Los Baños (a university town), or Las Ve...
October 14, 2007
Making love is beautiful, but these rules apply: Do not fold, spindle or mutilate! Don´t mis-use, dis-use, mal-use. Amuse, don´t abuse. If you´re making love to the body, not both body and soul, you´re pathetic.
If you have never made love, you´re welcome here – you may, however, fail to appreciat...
October 14, 2007
Al Gore ran for US President and lost; he has been running for Global Prescient for 30 years and just won the Nobel Peace Prize, October 13. When running, act locally, think globally. Now at peace, Al Gore is not running for President and losing again. He has been running a greater race. Run, Al Gor...
October 11, 2007
You want to use Microsoft PowerPoint well enough, yes? My professional advice is (and it´s free): Begin with Microsoft Word. I´m a joker, but PowerPoint is no joke – if you don´t get it, you become a jester in a court of no appeal.
I´m writing this, meaning from scratch to finish, as on a car, in...
October 11, 2007
4 scores and 7 years ago we Filipinos learned the lesson of loyalty to our ideals; the Yankees only 4 years ago. In July 1921, the University of the Philippines declared a Loyalty Day (October 10) as I had written earlier (upbeloved.wordpress.com); it was only 87 years later, in April 2003, when Pre...
October 09, 2007
The Philippines, with 7,000+ islands, is perfect for growing biofuel crops, including the drylands, wetlands, infertile soils. We just have to invest on her.
To begin with, Chris de Lavigne, Global Vice President of US-based Frost & Sullivan, says the Philippines is now ´one of the most attr...
October 08, 2007
Filipino hotshot Manny ´PacMan´ Pacquiao won two titles against Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera at noon yesterday, October 8 in Manila. That´s how good my countryman is. He´s not unbeatable, but when he´s good, he´s better. (Photo by ydhsu)
PacMan´s t...
October 06, 2007
There is a new AI emerging in the horizon in Asia. It´s called Agricultural Innovation.
It´s coming from India. It´s coming from the United States of America. And, if you´re sleeping, it´s coming to heads near you.
At first it had a long name: ´The India-US ...
October 06, 2007
I´m looking at many a would-be writer of The Philippine Story (Revised Edition): motivated Senators, aspiring Representatives, venturesome PMA graduates, go-getting ex-Cabinet members, daring militarists, enterprising businessmen, starry-eyed journalists.
Men, women they´re all the sam...
October 04, 2007
(1) What is the very basis of life? (2) What is the single most important feature of our planet? (3) What is the most threatened world resource today?
I have already given you two clues. There is only one answer: Water. One word for ´turning point´ is ´watershed.´
Water. ...
October 03, 2007
Bill Gates is acting strange. Microsoft is no stranger to computer science research and development (R&D) – but agriculture R&D?
Today, Bill Gates is into crop research, specifically the Tropical Legumes II Project, in faraway Sub-Saharan Africa, no relation to Microsoft Windows or Office 2007. He...
October 01, 2007
Manila – Do you wish peace for Burma? I don´t. Peace is an impossible dream.
What I wish for the Burmese people is non-violence. Now, today, September 30, I realize that non-violence has two beautiful & deadly senses. The historical one, that it is a means to an end. The original one, the one I j...
October 01, 2007
This time, when I looked at the numbers, lo and behold! I saw Charles Darwin amidst 13 new varieties of sweet sorghum, 13 survivors of selection. Darling, I´m referring to the biologist who revolutionized the world of thought by inventing the concept of evolution, coming out in 1859 with such ...
September 27, 2007
If you´re looking for trouble, you came to the right place. If you can´t solve it, you´re part of the problem!
http://www.icrisat.org/Vision/chapter1.htm. Last night, I surfed to there and while I was reading ´ICRISAT´s Vision and Strategy to 2015,´ I realized t...
September 25, 2007
´@LóRiLi?¿?[xqsVN]??sV;?´
I don´t speak the language either. It´s Telugu, Sahiti tells me so (sahiti.org). If I could write Telugu, Sahiti will translate me into English instantly, and it´s free.
No, I didn´t find Telugu a trickery; I found it a treasure once I started thinking Marshall McLuha...
September 21, 2007
Today Danumán, tomorrow the world!? Today, the drylands.
It´s the water. There is pleasant irony in the fact that William Dollente Dar comes from a village called Danumán West in the lowlands of Santa Maria, Ilocos Sur, Philippines while he was ensconced as the Chair of the Committee on Scie...
September 17, 2007
IT'S 0520 HOURS 2007 September 17 in Manila and I can hear rain pattering on the roof, but who´s complaining? I bought an Intel Core 2 Duo PC system 2 months ago, complete with a 5-in-1 Epson CX2900 color printer – I sold the old one and got 2 times less than I paid for the new one, but who´s compla...
September 16, 2007
If we don't learn from history, who will?
September 12, 2007
Global science has caught up with the Filipino who has talent and technique. William Dollente Dar, from Santa Maria, Ilocos Sur, has just been elected as Chair of the Committee on Science and Technology (CST) in the current (September 3-14) conference in Madrid, Spain under the auspices of the UN Co...
September 07, 2007
He is my kind of hero. He is my Caped Crusader – he is a lawyer who fights for unpopular causes; he is my Superman – he has a lingering health problem yet stands out as he continues to fight for the Filipino soldier. He sits still on his wheelchair while his mind prowls the past and the present, loo...
September 05, 2007
I´m looking for University of the Philippines (UP) lawyers who will prepare and file a case for The Filipino People vs Congress of the Philippines. The Bastards. Those who make it noblesse oblige to gleefully display their ilk as citizens of virtue and to censure most anybody except the loud...
September 03, 2007
Claudia Lopes tells me it was Jose Marti, Cuban national hero, who said, ´There are three things that a man must do before he dies: Plant a tree, write a book, (sire) a son´ (utenvironment.org). I´m 67; I´ve done all those but I´m not stopping at writing a book – I want...
September 01, 2007
My friend, you told me the father was generous and abrasive. You´re wrong. The father was nice, the son was abrasive.
I, who have been writing for 32 years at least on many a subject technical and popular, got a lecture on popular writing this noon at the Blue Danube at Blues Street in Blue...
August 22, 2007
One Vision Indivisible. Pinoys, we modern Filipinos ignore that as requisite for countrywide development, because we are all Los Indios Bobos. Exactly like Jose Rizal, our National Hero, in 1889. No wonder we can´t progress from Third World to First World, even to a Tiger Economy.
Bobos, plu...
August 20, 2007
After the PGA Championship on August 12 at Tulsa, Oklahoma, reading on Tiger Woods in the papers, as I read about great golf, I think about great writing all at the same time and on the same page. Believe me; I don't know about golf, but I know my writing like Tiger Woods knows his golf – and beyond...
August 16, 2007
1907 was a great year. Maybe. The recliner was invented, and so was popcorn. And so was our Cow College.
As to the recliner, it made Edwin J Shoemaker´s La-Z-Boy furniture company one of the most successful companies in the US (britannica.com).
As to the popcorn, Orville Redenbacher co-creat...
August 02, 2007
American minds? They don´t necessarily agree with each other, and that´s the beauty of it all – with an open mind, you can make sense upon nonsense of all that chaos and confusion upon the waters of democracy. The Yankees are the greatest act in history, but that doesn´t mean they&...
June 30, 2007
The Philippines has just conducted the world´s first workshop with a theme song: Alfie in Technical Writing For A Refereed Journal. And we did it, 13 from the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research & Development (PCARRD), and I. And it´s all about lov...
June 24, 2007
In the developing world, agriculture is the most promising site of growth – since the Green Revolution, it has always been full of promises, promises, promises.
We need leaders in science – as well as politics – who do not merely promise but deliver. And we have an outstanding one, in the fie...
June 19, 2007
1861 June 19: American pioneer missionary Frank C Laubach writes that in the town of Calamba, province of Rizal, the Philippines, today is born ´the apostle of Filipino freedom´ (1909, rizalslifewriting.tripod.com): Jose Rizal, who became the National Hero. Laubach (born 1882 September 2...
June 18, 2007
I hope the world will always celebrate Father's Day. To make us fathers feel important – for one day at least once a year.
Today, 2007 June 17, I tell my friend Dr O early this morning: ´I have to go home.´ I have been helping his wife edit a book, in Word 2003, the Microsoft versio...
June 11, 2007
Enough! I´ve had enough of your Noise of Democracy, Manila. Your No´s of Democracy tell me you will never understand the music of the spheres. ´Nothing essential happens in the absence of noise,´ says Jacques Attali (answers.com), French genius of noise. Not your noise, Manila. I am declaring indepe...
June 10, 2007
GO? Fair warning to those opposed to George W. Bush, friend of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, to those who would become US President: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Bill Richardson and the rest of the runners (washingtonpost.com): You can become your own best enemy. I´m ...
June 03, 2007
George Will writes for the Washington Post and for everybody else; I write for myself. I write about software; George writes about soccer (football to you) – now there´s a match and a play; now therein lies genius.
George Will is what I get for ogling at the Flickr Slides girls using the se...
May 31, 2007
What the world needs now is love – and to write, speak & think better, much better. Two software are necessary here: a computer program and a brain. Because the computer helps us think, but we have to think for ourselves.
I think we have user-unfriendly software, especially an inconvenient worp (w...
May 20, 2007
I’m looking at a visible universe on the road to Dabda, that which is the 5 stages of grief according to Swiss psychologist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross: Denial > Anger > Bargaining > Depression > Acceptance. To those who deny global warming, this is a global warning from Ms Elisabeth, who presented Dabda ...
May 15, 2007
To Bill Gates, Lee Iacocca, Osama – or those of you who can’t think beyond today’s Bush, today’s Iraq, today’s Blair, today’s Israel, today’s Musharraf, today’s elections & erections, today’s Vista: Debug your thinking!
And yes, we can learn from Microsoft Windows and Edward de Bono – but first thi...
May 13, 2007
What say the thousands of news items, editorials and columns relating to the government and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and tomorrow’s mid-term elections? Mostly Cimmerian, Stygian, Tartarean – never mind what they mean!
This is the image in their minds: With GMA, they see dark, foreboding s...
May 10, 2007
Senatorial candidates crossing over party fences is the music that played out among candidates for this year’s Philippine elections. Harsh music to my ears. And some of the senatoriables are playing our song, the song of patriotism. Be careful about patriotism now, as it is the last song of scoundre...
May 07, 2007
´Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down,´ Mary Poppins pipes in, ´in a most delightful way!´
And so children love Mary Poppins and cough syrup, and mothers love their children – somebody out there hates them all. The Mad Barber.
He is the modern Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, barber at d...
May 05, 2007
Man bites dog; Yahoo bites Microsoft – now, Yahoo can say its bite is bigger than its bark.
Yahoo wins! Its stocks shot up 19% Friday. Microsoft stocks shot down 1.3%.
Microsoft contemplating buying Yahoo!? Yahoo deserves the Gold. I look at it differently – it’s the smaller fish enticing the bigg...
April 08, 2007
‘Boo!’ One of the centurions glares at him. ‘Drink it all!’ one of the soldiers shouts into his face. It is myrrh and vinegar. He is going to be crucified.
He drinks with revulsion. The soldiers strip him of his ragged clothes, tie his arms with ropes and drag him up a ladder. So now his wrists, ...
March 03, 2007
PRIMATE, I GO APE! IF YOU ARE HOMO SAPIENS, THE THINKING SPECIES THAT I THINK YOU ARE, BEFORE YOU FINISH READING THIS, YOU WILL TOO.
In my primate mind´s eye, right in the forefront of country-to-country efforts to mitigate Global Warming, I envision Blogal Warming, a rise by 2 degrees Celsi...
February 26, 2007
THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH, ITS ORIGIN IS WESTERN.
Al Gore´s film, Our Film, directed by David Guggenheim, has just won the Oscar for ´Best Documentary´ as I revise this 26 February 2007, at high noon Manila time. An inconvenient truth is that it is high time we revise everything we ...
February 14, 2007
Man invents Valentine's Day, dates it 14 February and celebrates love each year with the Signs of the Times: Valentine cards, greetings, gifts. I shall from now on celebrate it by looking for Signs of Love.
The world stones me with the gravel of hate and showers me with the sand of indifference, u...
February 04, 2007
GLOBAL WARMING IS HEATING UP the thinking of the world about an inconvenient truth: FIRE & ICE. Except that of the Yankees, the Rip Van Winkles of the Millennium.
Remember Washington Irving? You will remember also The Legend Of The Sleepy Yankees a hundred years from now. I certainly hope the worl...
January 12, 2007
SHOCKINGLY INNOVATIVE IS Microsoft´s Office 2007, and I´m convinced that its appearance is evidence that its rival, OpenOffice 2, is winning the game with its suite of application programs equivalent to those of Office 2003, which means that what is 4 years older is as good as new. Office 2007 with ...
December 30, 2006
I, SPECIMEN.
I, the hangman of Saddam Hussein, the one who would be king of kings of Iraq. Iraq – Mesopotamia – the world´s first civilization. He would not be hooded, so he was not; he would be an eyewitness to his own execution, so he was. I circled his neck with the hangman´s noose, and in the ...
December 27, 2006
IN OFFENSE OF CHRISTMAS, 2000 years before Christ: The story of Christmas goes back to malevolent times. Historically, celebrating Christmas begins its history from idolatrous Babylonian, Egyptian, German, Roman, Scandinavian fertility festivals – the factual origins of Christmas are that of wicked ...
December 04, 2006
THE DEADLIER SPECIES IS MALARIA, NOT AIDS. THAT IS IF YOU BELIEVE THE BRITISH DATA, AND I DO. AIDS JUST HAS HAD MORE ADVOCATES, MORE MEDIA ATTENTION.
1 December: Today is World AIDS Day. How do you solve a problem like malaria? President George W Bush of the United States has announced his new anti...
November 26, 2006
He’s Blond, James Blond. He’s a counter-spy, an impostor, a pretender, a double-agent. The aura doesn’t match that of the real McCoy. You ask, rhetorically: ‘Who cares whether James Bond was black-haired or blond in Ian Fleming’s mind?’ I, Moviegoer mind. And I mind not only the color of the hair...
November 22, 2006
Erik Morales’s Reason told him that Science belonged in the Top Rank if he wanted to win – and he did. Manny Pacquiao’s personal Faith told him that his uncommon Sense was the way to go if he wanted to win – and he did.
Faith won over Reason on the 18th of November (19th, Manila time) at the Thom...
November 01, 2006
It is the 1st of November 2006, and I see a dead body. The Bible is dead! You expect an error; I expect a resurrection of the body.
Dead. Having lost life; no longer alive. Marked for certain death; doomed; having the physical appearance of death. A corpse. From American Heritage Dictionary
I ...
September 08, 2006
Revised 09 June 2009
IT TOOK A HANDFUL of Roman Catholic nuns ignorant in mass communication to teach media experts from Canada to the United States of America how to use television to light fires of faith in 100+ countries and 100+ million households all over the world simultaneously broadcasting ...
August 15, 2006
IN MY WILD ROAMINGS AROUND THE WORLD, I HAVE ACCIDENTALLY DISCOVERED SOMEWHERE IN ASIA THE LOST KINGDOM OF MAIA. NOT SURPRISING – DISCOVERIES ARE ALWAYS ACCIDENTAL: PENICILLIN, THEORY OF GRAVITATION, HYBRID RICE, DNA, THE PHILIPPINES, PETER PRINCIPLE, CONTINENTAL DRIFT, AMERICA.
Maia is actually...
July 31, 2006
HIS NAME IS LESS IMPORTANT HERE THAN HIS WORLD-CLASS ACHIEVEMENT IN MANAGING RICE PEOPLE. HOW IMPORTANT IS THAT? RICE IS THE FOOD OF MORE THAN HALF OF THE WORLD´S 6,500 MILLION HUMANS. IN ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE, I GET 200 MILLION ENGLISH PAGES FROM GOOGLE IN 0.50 SECONDS SEARCHING FOR RICE.
In...
July 24, 2006
MY COUNTRY, THE PHILIPPINES, IS AT THE LOWER RUNGS OF THE TALL LADDER OF FIRST WORLD SUCCESS. ACTUALLY, OTHER COUNTRIES ARE JUST A BIT BETTER, NOTWITHSTANDING THEIR MUCH HIGHER WORLD RANKING. AFTER ALL, FIRST WORLD IS NOT ONLY ABILITY BUT ALSO SUSTAINABILITY, MORE SO EQUITABILITY.
True, the Thir...
June 29, 2006
YUPEE/UP. UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES IS THE STATE UNIVERSITY: TODAY I REALIZE THAT THE FUTURE OF UP IS THE FUTURE OF THE PHILIPPINES, THAT’S WHY I’M UPSET. UP IS A DAMAGED ACADEME.
When it comes to material wealth, millions of Filipinos are below the poverty line. When it comes to UP, we’re be...
May 16, 2006
IN HIS NEW BOOK, RAPTURE DIALOGUES, TERRY JAMES WRITES A TERRIFYING STORY OF CHOSEN ONES OF MANKIND BECOMING CHOSEN ENEMIES OF THE HUMAN RACE. THE WHOLE NOVEL IS A DRAMATIC IF UNNERVING TALE OF THE BATTLE OF GOOD AND EVIL BETWEEN 1947 AND 2001. AND BEYOND.
The book is subtitled 'Dark Dimension,' ...
April 24, 2006
5 APRIL 2006: A RARE BIRD, STEVEN CURTIS CHAPMAN WINS HIS 50TH DOVE AWARD, SHOWING HE IS THE GREATEST CHRISTIAN MUSIC ARTIST EVER. MAY HIS DOVES INCREASE! AND HIS YEARS ADD ON TO SPIRITUAL HEIGHTS.
He wins, he loses, he hurts. Like every husband, every father, every songwriter, every singer, like ...
April 07, 2006
THE INTERNET IS A MESSAGE, A MEDIUM, IT MIGHT AS WELL BE A MESSIAH.
THE IDEAL: The Internet is a message of universality, borderlessness, relationships. The Internet is a medium of communication characterized by openness, earnestness and high purpose. The Internet is a Messiah as it is all of the ...
March 20, 2006
08 March, International Women?s Day. YOU COUNT HOW MANY THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES HAVE LADY PRESIDENTS. I count how many First World countries have.
There appears much hope in the election of the first woman President of Chile, good-looking Michelle Bachelet. There appears much despair in the admini...
March 03, 2006
100 million Filipinos in 100 tribes in 100 languages: DIVIDED WE STAND, UNITED WE FALL.
My count, composition and grammar, 2006 AD. Aesop counts, composes and grammars it differently as the moral in his fable of the 4 oxen and the 1 lion ? ?United, we stand; divided, we fall.? My punctuation, ...
February 22, 2006
I learned more about feature writing today, 21 February. I have been reading on public speaking.
In the latest issue of TOASTMASTER (February 2006), published by Toastmasters International, Michael Scroccaro writes his own ‘Confessions of a Political Speechwriter’ (pages 14-15) and grabs my atten...
February 14, 2006
What has become of love?
This is the story of love memorialized in the 3rd century in Rome and in the 16th century in England, and made memorable in England in the 15th century and in the United States in the 19th century. A Tale of Four Loves. The first was under a dictatorship, the second was un...
February 11, 2006
If we can't solve the problem of the bird flu worldwide, the joke's on us.
February 11, 2006
When Microsoft speaks, the whole world listens.
Proof: About the change of plan of Microsoft regarding MSN, I searched the Net and found that thousands of papers worldwide carried the news before and after the actual announcement on 10 February. MSN may be in trouble, but Microsoft isn't. Apparen...