My Yahoo 360 Blog

Since WordPress can’t upload my Yahoo 360 blog for some reason, I uploaded it manually. I started this blog in March 07 and it was my first.

AUTHOR: pocholo_peralta
TITLE: Entry for September 05, 2008
DATE: 09/05/2008 06:08:30
STATUS: publish
BODY:
My blogs are now on tumblr at mybloglog and posterous.com if you’re interested. Thanks a lot.

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TITLE: CHINA OLYMPICS
DATE: 08/15/2008 05:54:17

What do you think would have happened if the Dalai Lama didn’t support the China Olympics and instead urged the nations to boycott it? It would have been interesting to see which countries would have heeded his call.

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TITLE: Obama
DATE: 08/08/2008 03:11:45

If Europe loves Obama but it wouldn’t vote for him, then Stefan Theil is insinuating that Europe reeks of political hypocrisy, isn’t he?

If ever Obama becomes US president, that would only mean one thing: there’s no racism in the US which would make the Americans really biblically moral fundamentally—a dream bigger than Martin Luther’s but which is also possible like any other.

Would it be more correct if we call Obama a Pessimistic Realist instead as an optimistic realist? As I see it, most realists are pessimists by experience.

By the way, McCain wasn’t flip-flopping when he argued that a ‘League of Democracies’ should expel both Russia and China from the group—he took a big gamble.

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TITLE: Press lords
DATE: 08/08/2008 03:09:36

American ‘little press lords’ use the Net to hit their targets like what KellyB did to Politico.com.

In Philippines, ‘press dictators’ hit corrupt officials, workers and offices by sending text messages to radio stations that announce them—almost all of them hit correctly praise them (you can almost see the targets cringe in pain!). Other countries should avail of this practice too.

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TITLE: China
DATE: 08/08/2008 03:07:57

Even though China is agonizing at its self-reinvention, at least their progress is steady. It’s never easy for (a man or) a country to escape from its past.

In the exclusive Chiang Kai Shek Manila School, I was surprised to hear the students loitering at the schoolyard not speaking Chinese or English but Filipino!

The mystery of China is that despite being one of the oldest civilizations and its slow pace of life and progress, it doesn’t cease to be a world power and keeps on getting more powerful

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TITLE: Lessons In Oil
DATE: 08/01/2008 02:04:05

So many commentators have speculated on why oil prices keep rising and on what may be the consequences. I think Robert Samuelson did the best (Jun 23).

He wrote, ’But governments that control 75% or more of known oil reserves… they’re hoarding… by limiting new exploration projects.’

Are some governments using oil as a weapon by selling cheap to allies and withholding it from non-allies? We may just be reaping the punishment for wasting too much of almost everything. But the ‘punishment’ did good! We are now wasting less and conserving all that we can thereby lessening pollution.

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TITLE: Science for Hire
DATE: 07/21/2008 20:29:03

Just after I learned about Science-for hire (product-defense firms that endorse unsafe drugs), now comes the Green shams and overhype. One result is that Biofuels caused the price of food to rise.
TerraChoice, a watchdog group evaluated the ‘earth-friendly’ claims of 1018 consumer products and found out that 1017 were false.
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TITLE: Science and Integrity
DATE: 07/18/2008 02:58:09

“This book will shock anyone who still believes that science and integrity are soulmates,” wrote Sharon Begley.

That book is David Michael’s ‘DOUBT IS THEIR PRODUCT: HOW INDUSTRY’S ASSAULT ON SCIENCE THREATENS YOUR HEALTH.’ The book tells us how ‘Product-defense firms’ and ‘vanity journals’ create ruses and make us believe that their drugs are not as toxic as they really are.

Begley cited aspirin as example: ‘…children who took aspirin when they had a viral infection…were at greater risk of developing Reye’s Syndrome which damages the brain…thousands of kids developed Reye’s. Hundreds died.’

Science-for-hire can be murder-for-hire.

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TITLE: Martin Amis
DATE: 07/18/2008 02:53:55

I wonder why Jonathan Tepperman seemed hell bent on lambasting Martin Amis’s book ‘The Second Plane’(NEWSWEEK apr 14). Amis’s personality and writing style was attacked so much that the piece didn’t appear to be a book review anymore.

The face shot of Amis the journal printed even depicted him as an insanely angry man.

Of course the words: ‘agglutination,sempiternal,ratiocinative’ which Amis used are indeed obscure. We should wonder why Amis’s sense of humor and play was replaced with only rage.

If Amis wants to be a political commentator, why not let him be? I don’t see why novelist’s shouldn’t write about politics. In fact, most fiction writers do.

Thanks to Tepperman anyway, for warning us about a crack novelist who turned into a crackpot.

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TITLE: GAS CATASTROPHE
DATE: 07/11/2008 02:07:20

Why do you think gas prices keep soaring up like there’s no tomorrow?
Someone I know had an answer and it’s ominous:
Prices keep soaring because the Big Boss OPEC and other VIP’s know that the earth will soon be sucked out dry of gas, oil or petroleum. Scary whether we like it or not. What next?
Labor and food production would stop because the working masses can’t travel anymore. Next?
The masses of the world would revolt. They might not even know what they would be revolting about.
What next? I leave it to your imagination.
Of course we hope that these dire scenarios wouldn’t happen. But do you think it would not?
In the meantime, we can do some things to prevent this apocalyptic disaster.

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TITLE: SINKING SULPICIO
DATE: 07/04/2008 06:45:35

I have edited my blog ‘SINKING SULPICIO’. You may want to scan it.

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TITLE: FERTILIZER FLOOD
DATE: 07/04/2008 06:25:22

This blog is adressed to filipinos. I will translate it upon request. Thanks.

Hoy! Mga kapwa kong pinoy na nagdurusa dahil sa presyo ng bigas. Wag nyong kalilimutan si Joc Volante. Isang dahilan kung bakit mahirap ang bigas. Ninakaw nya ang fertilizer ng bigas ng Pilipinas.

Some Big Bosses are hiding her because she might talk and squeal.

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TITLE: SUSPICIOUS SULPICIO
DATE: 06/27/2008 06:09:01

Philippines should be in the Guinness record for ‘Disaster Tolerance’ a long time ago. Sulpicio Lines proved that once again! For the fourth time (fourth!!) since the 1980’s, one of their ships sank again adding another a thousand or so casualties or deaths to their credit. A reporter has claimed that in twenty years, Sulpicio has had 32 various accidents (malfunctions, fires,etc.).

The big question is why Sulpicio was still operating? Was someone bribed again so Sulpicio could go on sailing?

In the meantime, the Coast Guard and Weather Bureau are at each others throat blaming each other on who’s responsible for the catastrophe. Classic Philippine game. The retrieval of bodies was also suspended when it was discovered that a very toxic chemical carried illegally was inside the ship. The destruction just keeps on making more damage.

A sharp radio host said that Philippines is a land of fools who keep on destroying themselves—we don’t learn from experience. We keep on electing rotten government officials.

Let’s hope and pray that those who died in the Sulpicio sinking are now peaceful. But what about their relatives and friends who are now slowly dying of despair and depression? They are the ones who need help and attention. Let’s put ourselves in their shoes (if they ever wore one or not).

By the way, a philosopher friend of mine asked: If the passengers knew that Sulpicio wasn’t trustworthy, why did they get aboard? I thought ignorance. Which led to another philosophical question: Should their ignorance be excused? Please try and answer.

Expect more skeletons to be discovered—literally and figuratively.

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TITLE: GTA IV
DATE: 06/20/2008 02:43:08

Can you believe that the most brutal pc game ‘GTA IV’ broke the Guinness record on sales? This would probably mean that more children would play the violence-prone game.

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TITLE: Political Vendors
DATE: 06/20/2008 02:41:01

Imagine if Christ drives out vendors near churches again in this our time without identifying himself. What do you think would happen?

Best guess:
some politician would have him arrested. Why? So that his take from the vendors would continue.

I heard this beautiful riddle from Percy Lapid, the fiery radio host of DWIZ.

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TITLE: RICE CRISIS
DATE: 06/13/2008 06:49:17

I thought that work-related suicides are only high in Japan. But now, the rice-farming crisis in Australia because of drought had pushed some of its farmers to the limit. ‘…the suicide rate in rural areas is 20% higher than in the cities.’ (TIME Jun 2)

Daniel William also wrote that there’s scientific opinion ‘there’s no evidence global warming is causing the drought.’ Not surprising.

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TITLE: ALZHEIMER’S SCARE
DATE: 06/13/2008 06:31:44

Normal thinking people should be afraid of memory loss or Alzheimer’s right? Then I think your article ‘Forgetting is the new normal’ (TIME May 26) did a great job of proving that aerobic exercises really prevents memory-loss and that that should motivate us. I’m grateful for that.

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TITLE: BORN INTO HELL
DATE: 06/06/2008 03:12:48

Life is really becoming very cheap here in Philippines. (I don’t say ‘the Philippines’ because I don’t think it deserves such honorific). The foremost reason: financially and mentally poor parents keep on producing offsprings.

It’s just disgusting.

It seems as if these idiots are saying: ‘Let’s create human beings so they can go through hell.’ And that’s almost sure to happen. And it appears they’re hell-bent on doing just that. What happens then when these poor infants grow up starving and dumb? They either beg or commit crime. Some mothers throw their foetuses in the garbage before or after birth. Some parents kill their children out of frustration.

There’s an annoying irony here. While poor parents keep on producing (hellbound babies), people who can or should produce financially secured ones produce less!

I want to make it clear that I’m not against the poor. What I am against is the social crime of producing babies who face a dire future. This affects all whether directly or indirectly.

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TITLE: Greed Multiplication
DATE: 06/06/2008 01:54:00

When government official Jun Lozada exposed the NBN deal scam last 2007, he coined the term ‘greed moderation.’ The inference is obvious : government workers should limit their corruption.
Now comes ‘greed- multiplication.’
The Philippine senate is investigating and suspecting the Manila Electric Co. and National Power Corp. of corruption that is resulting in extremely high price of power which mostly affect the lower-class clients. It really seems obliteration of the masses is happening.

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TITLE: WEIRD WEATHER
DATE: 03/01/2008 05:03:33

Now even the weather is weird in the Philippines! It’s now March but still december-cold here. First time I experienced this! Its as if a different and colder God willed this.
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TITLE: Entry for January 30, 2008/ Amazon Kindle
DATE: 01/30/2008 05:10:39

It’s just mind-boggling how Amazonkindle will possibly alter how readers read, writers write, and publishers publish. And with that, how ‘physical’ publishing will die as another victim of technology.

As Bill Hill puts it : ‘ Do you really believe that we’ll be doing that (paper publishing) in 50 years ?’

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TITLE: Entry for January 30, 2008/ Copperfield on-line Magic
DATE: 01/30/2008 05:02:57

DEC /07

To the amazing David Copperfield,

I think I found the trick you used on your on-line internet magic where you read the user’s mind. ( The user pick one out of six cards then DC announces the card you chose accurately again and again!! ) I think you used Eyebox2 didn’t you?

I can elaborate on this for the readers but I want to evoke reactions first.

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TITLE: Death of Dialects
DATE: 12/08/2007 03:58:20

What do you think would happen if children aren’t speaking their native dialect anymore? This is what’s happening now here in Zambales. I’m seeing a dialect die before my eyes– native children speaking Tagalog instead of Ilocano.
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TITLE: Kasparov’s New Game
DATE: 11/30/2007 20:27:45

It seems that Kasparov is winning at his political ‘Russian chess roulette’ after being jailed for just five days and then being released.

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TITLE: Senator Trillanes
DATE: 11/29/2007 18:32:43

Why did senator Trillanes attempt a coup when he knows it would fail? Or why did he think it would succeed if he did?
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TITLE: Yahoo Answers
DATE: 11/14/2007 22:47:09

I just recently discovered YAHOO! ANSWERS. Now I don’t know what hobby I like better– reading or it.
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TITLE: Prophetic Painter
DATE: 10/12/2007 22:55:37

A painter named Emily Carr wrote this prophetic message (Sep 4 1939) :
‘…perhaps some day radio will be so powerful (probably she meant phones too) that battlefield screams and the suck of sinking ships with their despairing chorus of the drowning will reach our ears… if the air were filled with sobbing nations, one could not bear it… when I told my maid there was a war, she laughed. It made me very angry. It was so with the two maids before this one… here was some new half- joke to explore and they sniffed around it, pleasurably excited on any change in the monotony of life that would make for variety.’
True prophecy and comedy in one article!!

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TITLE: TooWrite
DATE: 09/28/2007 04:16:01

My second story (fiction) is now on toowrite.com. I hope you read and like it. Thanks a lot!

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TITLE: Flash Pass
DATE: 09/21/2007 03:33:35

Paying ‘placeholders’ to wait in line and hold your place maybe fair but using Flash Pass so that you won’t have to wait in line would be promoting elitism. Flash Pass is now being used anywhere from amusement parks to airports. There’s even a company called Boardfirst.com which offers to secure you an ‘A’ boarding pass at airports!
Steve Rushin was great in using the orderly boarding at Noah’s ark as an illustration of civility. Not human civility though.

There’s a certain exclusive village somewhere in M.Manila where there are too many cancer victims. A famous physician said that maybe electromagnetism is too much in this area. Anyone planning to move into this place must think twice.

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TITLE: Obsessive-compulsive Disorder
DATE: 09/04/2007 01:01:03

Someone named Ashley Marc James is spreading a deadly virus. DO NOT OPEN TO HIM.

So obsessive-compulsive disorder shouldn’t be ignored or treated lightly after all. It’s shocking to know that ‘the average lag time between the onset of the disorder and a proper diagnosis is nine years and that OCD is behind schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism, and ADHD.’
Not to worry though. Almost all of us have it in mild form.
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TITLE: Greed and Death
DATE: 08/24/2007 04:55:39

Hello to all! I’ve just submitted another story at toowrite.com. Title : Greed and Death. This time, it’s fiction. Hope you like it. Thanks.

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TITLE: True Crime
DATE: 08/19/2007 09:55:36

HELLO! I’ve got a story you can read at toowrite.com. Search : TRUE CRIME. If you like it, please vote for it. I will submit one or two more fiction stories very soon. Thanks a lot!
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TITLE: On Food
DATE: 07/03/2007 21:05:21

ON FOOD

There were conflicting statements I found in the TIME article about food (June 25). First, Perroud claims that national preferences are still relevant to taste because ‘the taste profile is fixed very early in people’s mind (childhood).’ Then Sobal states that because mothers are now in the workforce and can’t shop and cook, ‘the less exposure younger generations have to the food their grandmothers ate and the less they develop the sensitive palates that allow them to appreciate it.’ I tend to believe the latter more. How can people have national food preference when they grew up without home-made food? So the question now would be : Are there more or fewer people with home-made food preference?

Anyway, it was kind of Karlansky to consider the status of the poor concerning food.

There was a writer who said that a man lived as long his stomach. I say we are what our stomachs are.

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TITLE: DDOS CyberATTACK
DATE: 06/26/2007 20:30:27

CYBERATTACK

The cyberattack called DISTRIBUTED DENIAL of SERVICE on Estonia could be a trial run for
a more devastating attack. If it’s a warning, who are the perpetrators giving the warning to?

JAPAN

The underemployment problem in Japan is very scary because if it could happen to a rich nation like japan, then it could probably happen more to poorer ones. Now any government poorer than Japan claiming to have no underemployment problems would seem to be lying.

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TITLE: Kasparov’s Politics
DATE: 06/22/2007 03:30:26

ON KASPAROV

For those who are interested, Kasparov himself wrote an article in NEWSWEEK (June 11) about his controversial political move and related events.

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TITLE: On Education
DATE: 06/12/2007 03:02:24

ON EDUCATION

It was good that Claudia Wallis (TIME, May 28) pointed out that students ‘who quit school don’t just suddenly drop out.’ I know it’s really more of a slow fade because I experienced it (during college). Reasons for dropping out are many and varied. Most of them are personal or cultural. Some who do are even bright or brilliant ones.

The world should copy the example of New York city– finding out the reasons for dropping out then helping them to return to school.

I was surprised at how good the writers of Elizabeth Seton High of Las Pinas are. But I won’t be surprised if one of them turns out as an international one. ‘Counterflow’ is their book.

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TITLE: Local Elections
DATE: 05/22/2007 01:55:26

On Elections

There’s a big city south of Makati where the counting of election returns was stopped because two election officers suddenly both got sick. Wonderful ! Why not send apolitical doctors to check if they were really too sick to abandon priority duty ? If we can’t prove they conspired to cheat, at least we could charge them of job dereliction.

Some winning candidates continue to blast away noisy fireworks even a week after the elections. Wonder whose money are they burning.

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TITLE: Bad Resuscitation
DATE: 05/22/2007 01:44:56

About RESUSCITATION

I think the article about the new science of
resuscitation (NEWSWEEK May 7) should have been the main
headline. I mean, we’re talking here about saving
lives the right and proper way. Wouldn’t it seem like
murder if EMT’s continue to use the standard
emergency-room procedure of resuscitating heart-attack
patients?

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TITLE: Amazing Internet
DATE: 05/01/2007 01:23:19

It’s just mind-rocking to know that back in 1965, we already have 1,700 algebraic computer languages that can nearly reply in plain English!

Which reminds me of a puzzling incident : I read a Ballantine book printed in 1984 and it had already an internet address– www.randomhouse.com!? How come? As far as I know, the first website became browsable only in 1993. Who misinformed?

I was searching for a job as an on-line writer for about two years now. Finally, I found a publisher! The problem: they only accept ‘personal stories’; meaning non-fiction ones. I’m good at essays and opinions (reactions) but not at personal stories. Now I wonder why you find things so near to what you should but never the thing you really should. Frustrating. Not funny.

By the way, TIME had just published a letter of mine. Maybe, it’s God’s way of consolation bless Him. The rival magazine should now learn not to be a snob.

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TITLE: Russian Roulette
DATE: 04/07/2007 03:35:54

TIME published this blog in May 7/07

About Kasparov

It’s such a shame (another one) that even Gari Kasparov (possibly the greatest living chess supergrandmaster) did’nt scape filipino (Philippines) ‘injustice’ (or corruption?). I still remember him calling Campomanes ‘Karpovmanes’. He became a politician because of that injustice he said.

When Kasparov and Short (England) played for the world title in the Philippines (1992), I rooted for Short because he was the underdog. I knew that K was too much for him. K was an underdog in chess politics. Now, he’s an underdog again– this time, in real Russian politics (let’s hope not russian roulette).

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TITLE: Idiocy in the Net
DATE: 04/02/2007 06:11:59

This is about the internet

Is’nt it dreadful to think how many people around the world accept Wikipedia definitions and as bible truths when probably many of these were just written as pranks? It’s unique and funny too that one can describe an internet movement as both ‘ dictatorship and democracy of idiots’! The problem with helping millions reach audiences via no-cost Internet outlet is obvious.

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TITLE: Digital Overload
DATE: 04/02/2007 06:09:04

About the human brain

For a long time (more than ten years), I’ve been wondering if human brain really gets overloaded with data. I think with an expert like Steven Pinker saying so, I should stop wondering. So the brain is like a sponge that should be squeezed (data out) when it’s already saturated.

I will now be contradictory to Professor Pinker. He cited the 9/11 terrorists as believers of life to come who devalues life on earth. And anyway, life devalues itself morally and continuously even without human help. He should realize that the majority of believers ( any religion) of life to come are not terrorists and are against violence.

Daniel Dennett supposed that someone contracts a brain disease and eventually loses control of his body. I recently read a book by Wes Craven ( Fountain Society) where an old but genius brain was transferred to a very healthy body of an intelligent young man. Dennett’s and Craven’s question is the same—is the ‘robot’ grateful that he’s alive or just pretending to be so because he feels like a guinea pig?

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TITLE: Crime Fiction Trivia
DATE: 03/30/2007 04:41:51

This is about CRIME FICTION

There were similarities I found on the books ‘A FIGHTING CHANCE’ ( MIGNON EBERHART) and ‘HAND IN GLOVE’ (NGAIO MARSH) i.e.: whistlers and dog-bitten suspects. Their stories were really different though. Anyone cares to check my claim?

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