Monday, April 30, 2007

Family news

Posting will be lite. It's fiesta time.

Lolo and the other local WWII vets used to march in the we just went in the car, but no one rememebers him. Sad.

A couple more political shootings in the province, none so far here. Loud speaker cars and campaign posters all over.

Today the city parade, tomorrow the fiesta. Lots of people coming. Busy Busy.

And my laptop is "sick" with a virus that entered the register and windows reset.....I think I got it out but now none of my drivers work...Well, if worse comes to worse there's always Linux...

Sunday, April 29, 2007


Last friday...dang, missed it...

HelloKitty wedding dress

...and don't forget to wear

a Hello Kitty Thong

and HelloKitty strapless bra under it...

wonder if the Mullahs would approve?

Fighting malaria

BBC reports about Bush taking the lead to fight HIV and Malaria...

Didn't get press coverage since Bush doesn't "feel their pain", he only helps them to stop hurting.

Attention Jane Russell

The Mullahs are upset about bosoms...on mannequins...
so they ordered mastectomies,,,

Wonder what they'd think of if they saw Jane Russell in action (Did you know she was a "born again Christian...who backslid once in awhile)

Gatewaypundit has more about the Iranian crackdown on fashion HERE

Recycling take two

Manolo says, Bjork sings to us of the joys of the shower bath.

Global warming alert!

Stop Global warming!

It's not the SUV''s the cows...
The UN says livestock farming generates 18 per cent of greenhouse gases while transport accounts for 14 per cent.

And HERE are green tips.

The National Geographic's Green Guide is HERE.

Alas, if this report on laundry detergents is an example, it's useless...I mean, they discuss chemicals with long names to scare you, but don't tell you what to do, but do recommend stuff that you pay thru the nose for and won't work as well...castile soap flakes? In hard water? $850 dollar Dryers?

I guess the "real" efficient way is to hire a Pinay maid, who can do all the work by hand...

Full rant moved to BNN...

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Cowabunga! HelloKitty

And yes, we surf here in the Philippines...LINK..but not here in Gapan unless you mean wading in the rice paddies

The Nietzsche candy bar


The trouble is, once upon a time, some people in Germany did read him. And they did take him seriously. And they acted on what he said. Ideas have consequences. When Nietzsche asks us on the back of a Will to Power candy bar, “Is man merely a mistake of God’s, or God merely a mistake of man?,” we Americans can swallow our chocolate along with our Starbuck’s and grin at the irony from the comfort of 2007. Sixty years ago, no one would have gotten the joke. There was nothing funny about the Holocaust.

In other words, ideas have consequences..."

Chaput goes on in a long essay about the importance of truth. and if God is true, that idea has consequences also.

The Night of the Flying Ponchos...

Headlines below the fold

Heh....Sounds like the movie Rules of Engagement....
Ironically, the movie is based on a short story by James Webb, who supported the Marines before he didn't...

UPDATE: The non political Strategy Page, whose intelligence is accurate on Philippine matters so I trust them, notes the evidence, and says if true, it is similar to previous incidents where the press was used for other disinformation campaigns to smear Americans in the war on terror...

IraqTheModel is angry at the Democrats.

The downside of Fuorescent lightbulbs: Mercury in the environment... could be a major problem in places like here that don't have nearby places to dispose of them.

And Rostakovich has died: Here is an example of his artistry.

Headsup from Fausta's blog

Friday, April 27, 2007

Gift item of the day

Headsup BoingBoing

Miss Congeniality take two

Last week, a former Miss America cornered some thieves by waving a handgun at them...despite the fact she was using a walker.

This week, the most recent Miss America helped FBI agents in a sting by allowing them to use photos of herself as a teenager to catch pedophiles on line. .

Nah, no war on terror here, folks, just move along.

One can argue if the US should have gone to war. However, at the present time, saying that leaving and letting those who kill innocent women and children win is both dangerous and evil.

And to have the anti war vote be seen as a political move, with all the talk on CNN etc about how this affects President Bush, not on how it affects the world, makes me wonder if the US is in the stages of terminal Bush derangement syndrome.

Ironically, the only candidate who actually ran on the war was Joe Lieberman, and he won...the link is to his editorial.

Family News

We went to Florinda's birthday party yesterday. Alas, photos didn't work...too dark for my palmpocket camera.
Lolo's cousin Coring was visiting from Florida...he is retired from the US Navy. Other relatives will probably avoid coming due to the election.

It is very very hot but aside from that we are well.

Fiesta parade was yesterday.

Terror vs hit jobs

The linked article is about election violence. Lots of stuff going on by many groups.

Ironically, although the main danger here is the NPA, most people can distinguish from NPA hit jobs or hit jobs by politicians, hit jobs against activists, and real terror.

In real terror, they're not aiming at you. They just want to kill as many innocent bystanders as possible to make a political statement. They could kill you in a mall, or in a palenke, or on a ferry, or at a fiesta.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

How to stop harassment of those who mourn

Mike Gallagher explains why he again is offering the funeral protest nuts time on his radio show in exchange for not protesting at the funerals of those who died in Virginia Tech.

He did the same when they threatened the Amish children's funerals...

Red Fridays

Another reason to fly SouthWestAirlines. Wear red to support the troops.

And, of course, no one in their right mind would try to hijack a SWA plane...there just might be an Okie wrestler on board

Southwest blog here

Gift Item of the day

Micro lightsabers for your key ring.

"May the itty bitty force be with you".

Headsup from Gizmodo

Anti's not just for Rosy anymore

Don Camillo

The stories of Don Camillo are no longer printed, and somewhat dated as the cold war fades. Yet they still have some humor. Some of the stories can be found at link.

Headlines under the fold

Rosie is leaving. The LATIMES uses the phrase "outsize personality" to describe her aggressive outbursts...
In the good old days, we would call her a fat loudmouth bigot.
Sigh. I used to like her when she was just trying to be funny...

Spring in Oklahoma: Tornado seasons starts. I'm so glad I live in a safer place, where all I have to worry about is earthquakes, typhoons, and Dengue fever...

Anzac Day...the ceremonies were on a "local" Aussie on cabletv we get local channels, but also channels from Singapore, China, Japan, Korea and Australia.

Bipartisan panel to discuss dividing Iraq? Hmm. Interesting if true.

Dow hits's Bush's fault.

links to a Harvard report noting how faux photographs and press manipulation misled the western press to frame the war as Israeli aggression, and that Israel lost the war in Lebanon. "Here's the rest of the report in PDF format, but be sure to read Charles' take on it as well.

And finally, scientists have devised a new mathematical formula describing the evoluation bubbles.

How to travel from New York to London, according to Google

Who needs those complicated AAA maps, when Google does it all for you, giving you detailed instructions on the way to travel from one point to another.

Just look at these instructions taken from how to go from New York City to London UK:
Partial toll road
56.0 mi
56 mins

1 min
Merge onto Atlantic Ave0.8 mi
3 mins
Turn right at Central St0.1 mi
Turn right at Long Wharf0.1 mi
Swim across the Atlantic Ocean3,462 mi
29 days 0 hours

Your email of the day from Col. Updraft

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Yum! Kipper!

If you ever saw a British movie where they talked about eating Kipper, here is the explanation:

Unfortunately these fish do not have a place on the full English platter but are certainly worthy of a mention or two none the less, or even more.
(first you catch the sea...on a rod)
Then after they have suffocated on deck they can be smoked, not with cigarettes but by hanging them upsides down in a smokery (a place where they burn lots of hickory dickory dock) until they are sort of cooked, but not really just too hot to be raw: like a fine young cannibal do.
Then you can buy them from fishmongers, cook them in milkery waters or eat them.
Try with a poached egg on top, or even betterer than that. Unless you hate fish.

And if that doesn't sound tasty, try their black pudding.

Of course, here in the Philippines, we frequently eat dried fish or fried bangos and rice for breakfast

Yum Donuts

You Are a Boston Creme Donut

You're a traditionalist, and you don't change easily.

Hey Alice

I didn't know that the Library of Congress had lots of MP3 folk collections...
Here's an MP3 for that lovely fiddle tune:

Somebody Else is Getting It Where the Chicken Got the A X E


To celebrate St. George's day, 4300 British citizens assembled in Trafalgar Square to bang coconuts together, to celebrate Monty Python's Spamalot.

In doing so, they easily broke the current mass coconut-playing record, set last March in New York to celebrate Spamalot's first year on Broadway.

England: Still a world power, dryly comments Dave Barry...

London Mayor Ken Livingstone gleefully boasted: 'I can see already we've got enough people to break the coconut orchestra record, and we're going to beat New York in everything else over the next few years as well.'

Well, considering that we have a dozen palm trees on our small property (yum...buko juice), I suspect that the Philippines could easily break this record. After all, we hold the Loveapaloosa Kissing record in the Guiness book of world records.

Okay, Pinoys, one two three: Always look at the bright side of life...

Stylizing the classics

I just saw the film "300", and found it fascinating. (Note: right now I'm rereading my college books on ancient Greece, which I brought with me to the Philippines). Link. But LINK2 is easier to read

You see, if the PC Hollywood had made it into a "historical" drama, they would have upgraded Leonidas into a twentieth century metrosexual wimp, sort of like they did in the movies Troy and Alexander.

Instead, the harshness, pride, and independence of Sparta was not minimized; Leonidas, like the Spock character in StarTrek, was portrayed as having a soft compassionate heart under his stern exterior that was molded by that culture. Checking out my Herodotus, I found his wife was named Gorgo and was indeed a strong woman...raised by her father similar to a son and allowed to attend government meetings with her father....

But what was fascinating was the way the comicbook effects mirrored Greek vase art, and the way that the dialogue and the narrator that in classic plays would be sung by the chorus filled in the details.
Greek chorus? Heroic quotations? Just wouldn't work in films...Imagine Brad Pitt saying "if you want my weapons, come and get them".... even John Wayne or Arnold would say the line with irony instead of seriously..., but with a stylized film, it works fine.

All this makes me wonder if someone could stage other classical Greek plays using the "blue screen" style, since the dialect, which would be laughable if mouthed by Brad Pitt or Orlando Bloom, would be more believable in this more stylized way of movie making.

Hint to producers: Sophocles

Monday, April 23, 2007

Gift item of the day

snake wine...

Headsup Dave Barry

Light blogging

Between the blackouts destroying posts two seconds before I was done to the 90 degree heat making it impossible to think, posting has been light.

However, LINK and LINK2 makes one realize that there is something very wrong with a religion of peace, or at least with some of it's leaders who prefer the letter of the law to the humility of finding the mercy of God.
However if you want to know why people quietly follow the Lord under the guidance of the Koran, read HERE.

And IraqtheModel questions why those who want to end the war don't bother to ask this of those who are actually killing civilians?

And the latest save the earth suggestion: only use one sheet of toilet paper.
Presumably if you don't the religious police who monitor bathrooms will come and arrest you, with a paper warning for the first offense, fines for the second, and jail time if you really overdo it and use a dozen sheets and clog the drain.

Yes I'm being sarcastic, but I find the smoking police and the green police who monitor your trash are just as bad as the religious police who measure your hemline.

Of course, here in the Philippines, we have the opposite problem: Trying to get the local vendors from dropping their trash off across the street and trying to get the city to pick up the trash.

It's election year, so usually the politicians clean the place up for a month or two before elections, but not so far this year. Maybe their heard some of our relatives are not backing the mayor...

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Science Class

* Ampere was worried he wasn't current.
* Audobon said he'd have to wing it.
* Boyle said he was under too much pressure.
* Darwin waited to see what evolved.
* Descartes said he'd think about it.
* Morse's reply: "I'll be there on the dot. Can't stop now, must dash."
* Newton planned to drop in.
* Ohm resisted the idea.
* Pavlov was drooling at the thought.
* Pierre and Marie Curie were radiating enthusiasm.

NYTimes article on Migrant workers

A long and sad article on Pinoy OFW...
I love the Philippines, but the difference is that here a poor person can't become rich. So the only opportunity is to work overseas...which is sad for families, but better than the alternative, poverty. Read the whole thing.

Requires registration (free...or use Bugmenot )

Thanks for the "headsup" from PinoyCentric

News below the fold

I posted on BNN about the killing of a local reporter investigating certain local murders, crooked politicians, and their links to the fertilizer scandal (where funds to give fertilizer to poor farmers was diverted to politicians in the last election).

Carolyn Glick notes Syria is setting up missiles to hit Israel while threatening them with war...their pride was hurt in Lebanon, so they have to bully Israel...

BoingBoing....banned in Boston?

Attention Thieves: Beware of Miss America packing heat...even if she is 82.
Sounds like something out of Miss Congeniality

Saturday, April 21, 2007

The difference between men and women

Name that species

some names are a doozy...Long list at link, including:

Ba humbugi Solem, 1983 (endodontoid snail) from Mba island, Fiji.
Bombylius aureocookae Evenhuis, 1984 (bee fly)
Carmenelectra shechisme Evenhuis, 2002 (fossil mythicmyiid) from Dominican amber.

1066 and all that

Friday, April 20, 2007

Update on peace corps teacher murder in Luzon

They think they have the murderer...

And a local blog notes that when she went missing, the college where she taught scheduled a mass for her safety...but changed it to a mass for her soul when her body was found.

Politically correct laws of science

Artists' Law of Bravery

Boyle's Law
Global Warming is a product of peer-Pressure and the Volume of calls for 'something to be done'.

Wilberforce’s 1st Law of Guilt;
Guilt (as measured by public prostration) is inversely proportional to Responsibility (as measured by personal involvement) multiplied by Time (since event occured)

Dawkin’s 2nd Law of God
Belief in God is inversely proportional to belief in Gaia

The Roe Wade Feminist Law
Hatred of the killing of adults (gun ownership and war) is directly proportional to Love of the killing of babies (abortion)

Headsup from TimBlair
who has his own version of them HERE
although many of them are only funny if you are Australian.

How to peel a potato

How to peel an egg

Want to peel an egg?

Ah, but now for the hard part: How to peel an uncooked egg:

Check link

Cut rate Computer suggestion

What is terrorism?

When "insurgents" behead innocent working men who are supporting their families by buidling roads, that is terrorism.

The twentieth century had murderous terrorists take over many countries in the name of many utopian ideas: Fascism, Nazism, and especially communism. And the reason some people call present day terrorism "Islamofascism" is that these groups have more in common with Soviet funded terror groups than with Islam.

And, like the communist groups, they work on many levels, not just terror, but thru Saudi funded mosques that preach extremism, and through elites who push their agenda at the level of government. The dirty little secret is that these groups could not exist without funding, either official or via "charities", from other governments. Without Soviet backing, the local NPA has degenerated into a Mafia type gang, and these groups also would be more of a murderous gang without the careful guidance and funding of their actions.

So when a car bomb by a group with only a few thousand adherents can make the Democrats decide "the war is lost", while not even mentioning sadness for the innocent civilians killed trying to shop for food, one wonders where is their priorities. Let the murders win? Are you nuts?

When you say such things, you are essentially telling the worst type of murderers that it is okay to murder in the future to gain power, and telling rogue states that preach murder as a way to extend their utopian ideology that terror works, encouraging them to fund even more terror to extend their aims.

But of course, these terrorists won't shoot up malls in Utah (one mixed up teenager tried it, and was promptly shot dead, if you remember.) They will be bombing ferries in the Philippines and beheading teachers in Thailand.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

FYI stuff

Andre Norton mp3 on Librivox....or if you prefer, Jeeves is there too...and lots of others.

A localJournal says the soldiers will be guarding local polling places in our area...they also note the "political dynasties" in local, not like Clinton/Bush, more like feudal lords.

Like Korean food? YUM...

And your video of the day, from TheLlamButchers:

Corruption in Zimbabwe lets Mugabe stay in power

If you wonder why murderous tyrants stay in power, it's because the elite get perks, and ignore the rest of the population...

Volcano alert in colombia


PBS on Galeras here.

Headlines beneath the fold

Supreme court bans Partial Birth Abortion. A barbaric procedure that is so dangerous to the mother that we don't even do it for dead babies (danger of perforation and hemorrhage).

So now abortionists will have to kill the kid with injections before doing a safer delivery for mom, at least until we get a few moms dead from the KCl injections...

the dirty little secret is that when we deliver kids early to save the mom's life or health (e.g. toxemia, lupus, heart disease), it is not an abortion, it is an induction of labor. The difference? We also try to save the kid. Of course, a lot of times you have a 1 lb kid with little chance of living. Should you go and treat a kid with less than a ten percent chance of living (meaning you torture the 90 percent with tubes and isolation before they die) or let mom hold the kid until it dies? They've been arguing that for 50 years...but 50 years ago we argued it about 3 lb babies, who with modern care do fine.

So let's not hear of "mother's health" as a reason for or against delivering these kids alive. If the mom is in danger, so is the kid, and if she is so sick that we have to remove the kid, the kid's chances of living is better outside than inside. If you have an easy answer, let me know.

But the dirty little secret is that most of these are done for convenience, or when a child with abnormalities is expected. Think Down's syndrome, average IQ 50. Mom hears the kid will be retarded and often a "vegatable" (which is not true for Down's syndrome, by the way) and panics into aborting it. Similar scare jobs are done for children with myelomeningocoels.

Again, with some abnormalities (anencephaly, myelomeningocoels, bad kidneys,) there is so much amniotic fluid that we induce labour and if the child has a lethal disease it dies. But again, this is not an abortion, although some prolifers who are not docs call it a live birth abortion. Nope. The object is to save mom's life and health.

No easy answers, but before the "perfect baby perfectly planned to fit into our life" ideas started, it used to be babies were sent by God and even if the child was imperfect, well, somehow you'd find a way to cope.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Gift item of the day


Headlines below the fold

The VaTech shooter is not Chinese, but a Korean with a green card who got his guns legally. For conspiracy theorists, BoingBoing has the Indonesian connection...

But an easier explanation is ordinary paranoid schizophrenia due to stress.

What about when "ordinary" people become paranoid? Dr. Sanity discusses this...and the NYTimes reports of a cass of "mass hysteria" in a Mexican boarding school...stress, fear, displacement, and those around you reinforcing the delusion...the difference of course is the treatment. Haldol for the schizophrenics and valium/hypnosis/psychotherapy/reality based environment for the second.

Chemical attack foiled in Iraq...when the truck had an accident, the Americans went to help the guy...
Won't get much publicity, of course...

Instapundit points to a NYTimes story on Flu prevention...old fashioned quarantine...Movie HERE is to educate authorities on how to respond...

It's not easy being green...Dustbury points out that the Prius turns off when idling, so flunks the Georgia test standards ("an incomplete 24dollars).

And the new Tolkien book gets thumbs up...son Christopher "edited" the many variations of the story into a single text. But it's a gloomy tale: "Don't expect an uplifting ending like the one to "The Lord of the Rings," however. " says the CNN reviewer...Ah, but LOTR did not have a "happy ending" but a realistic one: even "good" wars leave good men with permanent wounds, as war veteran Tolkien (or Vonnegut) well knew.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Professor killed saving his students in VTmassacre


He was a Holocaust survivor

Professor Liviu Librescu z"l
Photo: Virginia Tech website

End of the world take three

Proof of Global warming

The AGGGH WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE! award goes to

BBC radio 4 lecture: "
Jeffrey Sachs argues that the world faces challenges on an unprecedented scale - global warming, terrorism, poverty, disease and bad governance.

Right. Poverty is at an all millenum low. Global warming after the famine and plagues caused by the medieval little ice age seems like a good idea. Terrorism? Even if the a...h... bomb London, we probably won't have the nuclear winter that the naysayers in the 1950s and `1960's predicted. And plague? You mean worse than smallpox that decimated 90 percent of Amerindians, the black plague that decimated 50% of europe, the middle East and China, or even the Spanish Flu which killed 40 million people?

We used to hear sermons that God would smite us for our immorality. Now we hear sermons that Gaia will smite us for our immorality.
The difference is that the priests didn't want to start a new world order to force it down our throats.

Headlines below the fold

The terrible shooting on that Virginia campus are probably going to promote more gun control. Now, I support gun control, but the dirty little secret is that with all those guns out there, you won't be able to keep them from criminals. Look at the Philippines, where Marcos banned guns and yet killings don't stop. Indeed, most middle class families have their gun well hidden in case of thieves. (No, we don't. I made Lolo give away his WWII submachine gun when he had his stroke).

The best thing to do in this case is pray for the families of those hurt or killed.

African economies
are least some are...doesn't get many headlines, although Tom Friedman had an editorial on the "pay only" NYTimes last week about Kenya.

Wesley Smith points out that disability groups are the main obstacle in stopping euthanasia movement in the USA...don't blame them. The dirty little secret is that a small percentage of docs are sociopaths or dislike "useless eaters".

Speaking of medicine, Publius Pundit has some Cuban Clinics that Michael Moore seemed to have missed...LaCucaracha! LaCucaracha!

Powerline discusses a story about Congressmen using their vacation to become educated on world hotspots...checking "port security" in places like Trinidad and the Virgin Islands, not to mention London and Brussels.....
What? No Senators interested in investigating terror threats in Boracay? They could get a decent room for a tenth of the Caribbean resort while investigating the nearby oil spill...volcanos, mudslide, terrorism and of course extrajudicial kilings of all sorts....ooops...if they did that they'd have to work...

Monday, April 16, 2007

Headlines beneath the fold

LINK "This is a time for great decisions. Luckily, solutions converge. To mitigate the effects of climate change means to protect the poorest communities of the world; to reduce extravagant consumption in the richest countries means to create a new way of life all around the world.."

Heh. "New way of life" indeed. Didn't Pol Pot and Stalin and Mao try that?

Spiderman3 will open...In Japan.

North Korea sacks their Prime minister...rumors say it is because he misused oil meant for the farming sector...but another report says he was removed because he was involved in plans for a military coup to replace the government.

But the really big news here is: PACMAN KO's FOE in the EIGHT ROUND.

Where are the "moderate Muslims? Right here....

ANKARA, TURKEY — More than a quarter of a million people rallied Saturday in the Turkish capital to voice secularists' opposition to a run for the presidency by the country's prime minister, who is affiliated with an Islamist party.PHOTO: Mass Protests in Turkey

The AK’s programme is founded on political Islam. The possibility of Erdogan’s candidacy has divided this mostly Muslim, but secular country.

PHOTO: Mass Protests in Turkey
The centre of Ankara is flooded with people protesting against the leading party’s decision to put up Premier Erdogan for president.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

In cyberspace, no one has to clean Catlitter

but 3000 dollars for a virtual pet does seem a bit steep...

Gift Idea

A retro bluetooth headset for your cellphone.
Neat headset that fits nicely into your hand, and no messy wires connecting to your cellphone

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Squashed Philosophers, anyone?

All those books you never got around to reading, summarized just for you.

Headsup HughHewitt...

Friday, April 13, 2007

Weekend trivia

Know a line of song but not the name? Try this search page:

FolkandFairy has photos of's Peter Pan.....
The happy news of this week: Ramses II is getting his hair back. The hair was stolen, and recovered when the "new" owner put them up for sale on a French website...

Seaweed as biofuel? The Japanese think so...

How do birds sing? LINK....and don't miss the exciting song of the Nightiar Caprimulgus Europaeus, a bird that sings both inhaling and

What happens when HelloKitty marries?

Football might save Zimbabwe

I have an entire blog about the problems in Zimbabwe, and right now things are getting worse. Despite western pressure, the only one who can actually can pressure Mugabe into leaving is Mbeki of South Africa, and alas he has refused to do so, even though Zim is going to hell, and the next sector of the economy to collapse will be the mining sector, many of which are owned by South Africa.

Solidarity with a fellow Marxist is more important than money, it seems.

But there is one thing that might make Mbeki do something. No, not the Christian churches, who are taking a louder stand against the tyranny. And not the Trade Unions, whose South African brothers are pressuring Mbeki to intervene.

What might make Mbeki change his mind

Already a number of European countries have raised their concerns at sending their teams to a country whose neighbour is involved in gross human rights abuses. Amid the spiralling brutality, violence, rapes and destruction of property belonging to the opposition, there are reports that the Southern African Development Community are also pushing Mbeki to force Robert Mugabe to stop his ‘dirty war’ on innocent Zimbabweans. Sources on Thursday said Mbeki is expected to travel soon to Harare for talks with Mugabe and opposition leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara. Reports from Johannesburg said there have been a flurry of discussions over the phone between other SADC leaders and Mbeki, urging him to act fast on Zimbabwe to ensure the whole region benefits from South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 World Cup.

The world cup is expected to draw half a million visitors, and would benefit not only South Africa but neighboring countries. However, if Zimbabwe descends into anarchy or civil war, or if the continued economic crisis leads to more refugees, the entire region could be destablized and South Africa's bid would to hold the World Cup would be rejected.

Ironic, isn't it, that it might just come down to football?

Family News

Tradefair 4 07
Chano and Joy are getting ready for next week's trade fair. So not only do we have our "normal" workers, we brought in a half dozen others. So it's quite busy here, and dusty from the woodwork.

Bill Whittle takes down conspiracy theorists

In the middle of all this laziness, this lack of rigor, this mush… a few small lights still twinkle in the darkness.I think the entire nation owes a deep and profound debt of gratitude to the editors of Popular Mechanics magazine. Their debunking of the 9/11 conspiracy was not only first-rate journalism. It was an act of vital national importance. It was heroic.

LINK: PopMech:Debunking 911 myths
And another article blasting the narcissism of the yuppies is HERE...


Kentucky Fried T. Rex

Philippines in the news

The first Gentleman is recovering from a triple bypass and replacement of part of his aorta. His dissecting aortic aneurism was discovered in time to save his live.
Of course, having a helicopter nearby to whisk him from Baguio to Manila helped too.

Big Terror alert in the army kills terrorists the and isolates the J.I. and Abusayaf from the MILF by making peace, the danger is that they will set off some of the bombs they imported from Indonesia.
No danger here: The main problem here is the NPA and the crossfire between politicians. Comelec may or may not be stepping in to count the votes, and soldiers may or may not guard the polling places.

YouTube! it's not just for kids anymore...the Bishops have their sermons on line...which is good for our OFW's...

And when Miss Norway walks down the aisle at the Miss Universe contest next week, you won't be seeing a tall blond Scandanavian, but a Pinay...well, half Pinay. Her mom is from Laguna.

Dick Morris lays it out for you

Front page is a right wing site, but Dick Morris is always interesting, and you should read the whole thing.

Hillary is a socialist. Hillary will win the young family vote because she is a socialist. And Hillary will wreck the economy because she is a socialist.

Bush and company is solving the North Korea crisis but no one is noticing. Actually, he explains the context behind some quiet stories on North Korea, about frozen bank accounts, China and Japan becoming friends, and Bill Richardson.

He also brings up a way to stop Iran: Disinvest. They need oil, but the nearest refinery is in Dubai. If California and others pressure companies to disinvest, and if free trade Republicans work with Democrats to promote real sanctions on these companies, it just might work. Of course, it will upset the Europeans, but we should ignore their teenaged hissy fit because it means saving their tushes in the long run.


one of the headlines in the NorwayPost is...that the Swedes are tying to find a way to "salt" their icy roads that is both environmentally friendly but tastes bad enough that the moose won't want to lick it.

But what is most amusing is their sidebar, with other "moose stories"...
Related stories:


Thursday, April 12, 2007

How to make a ukrainian easter egg

a little late for Easter, sorry.

The step by step instructions are found by entering each step above the egg. You start with the "pencil" and then go on to white, orange, etc.

more complicated designs HERE

Gift Item of the day

Monster stole.

Made of genuine imitation fur.

Guaranteed to make people turn around
and stare at you.

HelloKitty the food

In Japan, food not carried in a paper bag or lunch box, but a Bento Box where food is arranged beautifully inside a box of bamboo, plastic, or aluminum.

And so HelloKittyHell has some wonderful photos of HelloKitty made from food,

The photos come from this site which has even more cute food.

Yup. Easter is over

The "jesus tomb" is now officially declared a fraud.
The media shrugs, ignores the problem, and is busy trying to figure out the Christian bashing article to print for Christmas...

Bombs, anyone?

BBC REPORTS :Oxford group claims Iraq spawns "new terrorism". It's all Bush's fault, of course. Except when the fault is evil globalization and evil climate change, both of which have been going on for quite awhile but are usually spun as Bush's fault.

But in today's bomb news, most of the places have had civil wars or "insurgents" that long predate Bush or have little or nothing to do with Bush

Northern Ireland....started by King Willie 350 years ago.

civil war goes back to the 1950's and Islamic terror campaign in the 1990's killed 100thousand people.

Car bomb hits Colombianpolice headquarters goes back to the 1950's...
Harare is the government's way to justify jailing the opposition.

Morocco can be traced to the annexation of Spanich Morocco in 1975 and the Algerian Islamicist support for that area's independence movement.

Thailand? Yup Islamicists going after Buddhists, but no one is sure why.

SriLanka? Local independence movement. Hindu versus Buddhists.

And I haven't even included India, and the Philippines, both of which have terror movements dating back to the time of their independence.

Even THIS WSJ article points out that a lot of the Iraq violence is not due to Bush or the "war on terror" but is a very nasty payback that would probably have been worse if the US hadn't stepped in, since the US troops are the buffer preventing a complete explosion.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Bataan anniversary

Bataan fell on April 9th, and then came the Death March. In the US, California and New Mexico National Guard units were honored locally:LINK
and LINK

And here in the Philippines, it is called "Hero day"....30 000 Philippino military died in the death march or during their imprisonment, and many civilians were killed for trying to give food and water to those marching or in the camps.

Headlines below the fold

Imus says outrageous things...duh. Who wuddathot? I thought that's why we listen to him: Because he is the only liberal Non politically correct humorist on TV...

A car bombing prevented Israel...move along folks, no new news's just Hamas doing their thing. Nancy Pelosi take note...

Instapundit writes: A WEAK TURNOUT FOR SADR IN NAJAF: Plus, a more laudable protest in Kabul.

SHH....don't tell CNNInt....they might get upset.

Stem cell success in treating Type One Diabetes? Shhh...don't tell Arnold...the stem cells were from the patient's own bone marrow,, not from Embryos...
Type one Diabetes is though to start when the immune system destroys the beta cells in the Pancreas. This experiment did not replace the beta cells but changed the immune system to remove the cells producing the antibodies that destroyed beta cells, and only worked in early cases where there were still some beta cells left.

Big battle in Baghdad...Iraqthemodel gives firsthand report...CNN lists headline below Imus story, showing their priorities are correct:


Philippines claims half of those reported by the UN as "extrajudicial killings" either didn't exist, were killed in battles, or were killed by ordinary criminals...
As I have pointed out before, the problem is the idea that you are allowed to kill your politicians kill rivals, businessmen kill rivals, NPA kills politicians and businessmen and those who left the NPA, Army kills NPA and "extrajudicial killers" kill those supporting the NPA. List them all, and listen to the bishops: Thou shalt not kill.

Want to stop global warming? DON'T PLANT THAT TREE...duh

And want to disappear? In one word: HAIRBRUSH....the newest idea in cloaking devices.

E.T. Phone home

Headline of the day: "Bush avoids endorsing GOP stance on Aliens"...

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Everyday heroes

SigmondkarlAlfred blog have a post on the April battles of Canadians in world war I...

Little taught except to condemn the "uselessness" of war, the lessons of heroism are rarely remembered. Too bad. Because we still are affected today by that war. Ever hear a discussion about the British in Iraq in 1919 or the Versaille treaty?


Lileks writes about Easter, the TV show Cops, and Alien as a Gilbert and Sullivan Musical.
He is an ay-ly-en!
He’s very rarely bled, it
Eats through floors if you let it
His remains are ay-ly-en

His remains are ay-ly-en

MakeZine links to how to make your own chemistry lab. LINK2

And how about making a nice steam powered R2D2?

And finally, your peeps post of the day:

The WaPost has a PeepShow...Peepmobiles and Diamonds are a Peep's best friend...

Monday, April 09, 2007

Catholic converts...

Posted to show that a major newspaper can print a happy story about Catholics.

Most people know about midnight mass for Christmas, but few know about the lovely ceremony for Easter. It includes a time when all the lights are turned off, and then a single candle is lit, and then the light grows as everyone shares the flame, one candle to the next one, until the entire church is lit with a thousand candles held by a thousand worshippers. The light indeed shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it. For he is risen, and life triumphs over death.

Traditionally, adults are baptised at the vigil, which is what the story is about.

People don't realize that Catholicism is multicultural, or that the Washington DC area is also multicultural:
The converts were among 2,000 people in the area inducted last night during Easter Vigil services, in which Catholics welcome newcomers to their faith as they celebrate the Easter resurrection of their suffering Christ. Today in the Washington area, where there are almost 1 million Catholics, Masses are celebrated in more than 20 languages

Haggis Recipe

Essentially it's sausage using a sheep stomach instead of intestines, and has oatmeal filler. Since it is so large, you have to boil it for five hours. duh.

The vegetarian version is here, and sounds almost good enough to eat.

Haggis Hunt!

Your timewaster of the day, in honor of Tartan Day.

Tartan Day jokes

Great Events in Scottish History:

1326 - The game of golf was invented in Scotland, followed shortly thereafter by the invention of the word "DAMMIT!"

1410 - Drinky MacDrunkard discovered how to make single malt scotch. He was then beaten to death by his neighbors when they found out they had to wait 12 years before they could drink it.

1453 - Kurt MacCobain invented the plaid flannel kilt and followed it up with his hit song "Smells Like Distilled Spirits"

1623 - The Scots invented money. That same year, they also invented tight-fisted skinflintery.

1697 - By a three-vote margin, the Scots lost the "Brawlingest Drunkards" award to the Irish. A title which the Irish still hold to this day.

1724 - Smartass MacJoker entered his newly created dish, haggis, into the Betty MacCrocker Cooking contest as a prank. The judges, being three sheets to the wind at the time, picked it as the winner, and the culinary atrocity has been a Scottish staple ever since.

Let's have a picnic

Just thought this was funny..

Heroic UK Medic

Private Johnson Beharry with his Victoria Cross



The following month,..(after an attack).Despite his very serious injuries, Pte Beharry then took control of his vehicle and drove it out of the ambush area before losing consciousness. He required brain surgery for his head injuries and he was still recovering when he received the VC from the Queen in June last year.

Bonnie Prince Charlie Chicken

A recipe in honor of Tartan Day

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Headlines below the fold

Philippine commentary thinks they need a prank terrorism this blog, he speculates who was behind last week's "hostage" crisis" in Manila...

Pope laments "continual slaughter" in Iraq..."the thousand faces of violence which some people attempt to justify in the name of religion," You mean AlQaeda killing Shiites and Sadr's death squad attacks killing Sunnis and Christians in Iraq?
He also condemns human rights violations referred to are in Zim and Dafur and the Congo.

"In second life, no one knows you're a lapsed catholic". Well, God knows, but this is about fantasy, not about reality.

While you are busy living second life, you can visit TV links.....Peeple has workstations online....Buzzillions helps you shop.

It's Easter, time to bash the Christians...LINK explores why.

And finally, RIP B.C's creator Johnny Hart has died.

Science experiment of the day: Goldfish

Does overfeeding your goldfish kill them?

Alltooflat did the experiment, and ...uh oh.

Family News

Chano might have a big order for his furniture and flower lamps. He is heading out to Pampanga to get supplies.

The family celebrated Easter by going to mass and then took everyone swimming. Joy's parents are here, and two young cousins for her to play with. Lolo went but came home when it got hot. I was up half the night thanks to crying puppies and went back to bed instead.

So everyone is fine.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Your Easter Sermon

....The real question is not so much whether we believe that Jesus rose from the dead (though one cannot be a Christian if one does not believe. What else is the faith all about?) but whether we believe that we too shall rise. The resurrection of Jesus is a "sacrament," a dazzling burst of illumination that brings light to the darkness in which we live. It does not solve the problem of evil; rather it tells us that in the end the greatest evil of all will lose. Life conquers death...."

Don't's Andrew Greeley...come'on, a priest who writes R rated novels can't be all bad

PEEPS IN SPACE! The experiment

The Voyage of the Peeponauts...

your tax dollars at work.

PEEPS! The Science Project

We all know the story of how evil cigarettes and alcohol are for humans. But what about for Peeps?

They report, you decide...

.hint: don't mix cigarettes with booze if you're a peep..


Your timewaster of the day

Recipe of the day

Spread peanut butter on one graham cracker. Place 1/2 Hershey's bar on top of it. Layer two or three peeps (chickens) over chocolate. Press another graham cracker over chicken and press together. Microwave just until Peeps start to melt. About 30 to 45 seconds.

Another recipe HERE
PDF for a Peeps decroration topiary HERE

check out LINK for all sorts of links
and LINK for the official Peeps page

Miscellaneous stuff

My rambling essay on recent studies about the brain/body connection can be found HERE

Did you know Peter Rabbit's mommy almost became a botanist?

Blue Tea blog has links art books. No, not books of arti, but artists who use books to create art.

And what happens when you replace an old fashioned wood violin with a metal amplifying cone? a StrohViolin......Film HERE.

Want to make money? One word: Stem Cells.
No, not the embryonic type, but the adult type, that are easy to get and work.
And the real money is not in curing rare but terrible diseases, but in breast enhancement...

And you heard the expression, if life gives you a lemon, make Lemonaide?
Well, in Los Angeles it's if people give you poop, make energy out of it. Cows aren't the only ones to produce methane by products, you know...

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Good Friday

I won't be blogging for Good Friday. It's a holy day.

Posted by Picasa

Photo of the day

headsup from FARK

Family news

They are holding the chanting of the Passion at San Lorenzo, and today they had a feast for lunch, which Lolo and I attended.

Chano is busy getting stuff for a big sale of furniture/lamps.

Last night, I heard the black dog crying, and found that she had just delivered puppy number five, two days after puppies one two three and four. Sigh.

San Lorenzo Chapel

Posted by Picasa

What are they teaching children in school these days?

Newsweek finds 97 percent of people believe in a diety, and 80% are Christians. So they make most of their poll about how stupid Christians believe in the bible's story instead of evolution.
The problem? Confusing scientism/Darwin's religious philosophy of atheism, with science/evolution as science. More HERE

One thing I am able to do with my leisure life is listen to lectures on philosophy...the idea of the just man living a life of goodness in a family and the idea of the golden mean is Plato, but I was startled to hear a teacher of the Upahishads essentially say the same thing.

Somehow, with all the talk about religion and the latest "Wealth is good" fad at Oprah, we miss this idea.

Stories under the fold

Nancy Pelosi might not know a Shiite from a Sunni, but she took Tom Lantos with her, and he laid it on the line in Syria..."Tom Lantos, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he asked Mr. Assad how someone “of his intelligence and knowledge of the world could have common cause with President Ahmadinejad of Iran, who has denied the Holocaust and calls for the elimination of Israel.”
HERE Tom Lantos was quoted as saying:

“..Assad should be given a final opportunity to disengage from the “axis of evil.” Lantos said that in a few years, Sunni Muslims and not Iran under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be in control in the region, and it is to the advantage of Damascus to know which side to be on.

I argue HERE that the tide is least in some ways.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

No Knead at all

Yields a 11/2 pound loaf
Recipe time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours of rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
11/4 teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed


Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at room temperature, or 70 degrees, for at least 12 hours (up to 24 hours is OK). Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles.


Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) or Silpat mat with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal.

Cover with another cotton towel and let rise 2 to 3 hours.




It may look like a mess, but that's OK. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes.


Remove from oven. Cool on a rack.
This recipe was adapted for the New York Times from Jim Lahey of the Sullivan Street Bakery in New York City.

Go to the link for photos and story...

Your video of the day

Turn up the speakers and dance!

New anti terrorist weapon

Your email of the day from Col. Updraft

Uncovered meat take three

A Picture of uncovered meat here

And no, Luke, you can't open it...warning, not work friendly...

The problem is not if women choose to dress a certain way, but that it is enforced by law.
During one month last year, 63,900 Iranian women in Tehran were issued warnings by police for improper dress, it shows two things: One, that the state is spending a lot of time and money on trival things, and two, that a lot of women don't agree with their stupid rules.

And Iran is women friendly next to Saudi...

Gift Item of the day

"If you take uncovered meat and put it on the street, on the pavement, in a garden, in a park, or in the backyard, without a cover and the cats eat it, then whose fault will it be, the cat’s, or the uncovered meat’s? The uncovered meat is the disaster. If the meat was covered the cats wouldn’t roam around it. If the meat is inside the fridge, they won’t get it."
-Australian Muslim Leader, Sheik Taj Din al-Hilaly's Post-Ramadan Sermon, Sydney Australia 2006. He was referring to women.

Show the Sheik how things really are and Sheik your Booty in this quality Infidel Clothing.

Manufactured in the Great Satan, all proceeds go towards forbidden consumption of alcohol.

The Oriana Fallaci award for promoting Feminism goes to:

Nope, no uncovered meat here, folks, just move along...

Headlines below the fold

The Good News: Michigan considers law against bullying in school.
The Bad News: What kind of parent ignores that their child is being bullied? A good parent would send the kid to a different school...(been there, done that).

The Good News: Indonesian troops find explosives of local terror groups, probably preventing another Bali type bombing. There have been lots of arrests but no major bombings for two years there.
The Aussie special forces are helping the Indos like the US Special forces are helping here in the Philippines.
The Bad news: Success on the War on Terror never make headlines...

The Good News: cockburn and the UK left say the UK sailors didn't accidentally cross into Iran, but were kidnapped as revenge. They are so busy blaming Bush that they didn't notice they are actually accusing Iran of planning a deliberate act of war.
The Bad News: Victor Davis Hanson muses: "...a patrol sanctioned by the U.N. gets no support from the U.N., a member of the EU is left hanging in the interest of EU trade, a NATO member finds no NATO allies, other than the U.S., to offer support...

The Good News: Giant Rabbits from Germany were going to solve North Korea's food problem.
The Bad News: Someone ate the rabbits...

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Yam recipe

baked yams yum.

The world's largest Vegetables

Is a yam...

The 1985 Guinness Book Of World Records (UK Edition) lists some of the record-breaking vegetables, including a 35 pound (16 kg) turnip, a 45 pound (20 kg) red cabbage, a 28 pound (13 kg) broccoli, a 52 pound (24 kg) cauliflower, a 25 pound (11 kg) lettuce, and a remarkable 124 pound (56 kg) cabbage six feet (1.8 m) in diameter. Although this giant cabbage cited in the Guinness Book seems unbeatable for the title of "World's Largest Vegetable," there are tropical yams belonging to the genus Dioscorea that may be 6 to 9 feet long (2-3 m) and weigh 150 pounds (68 kg) or more, although they are usually harvested at about 2-6 pounds. These yams are not to be confused with fleshy storage roots of red sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) of the Morning Glory Family (Convolvulaceae) which are also called yams.

Headlines below the fold

Your R2D2 stamps are being released at the May 25th Starwars convention, and will be on sale at your local post office...and don't forget to enter the Jedi Master contest...
And if you use Expressmail, you can get the JediMaster expressmail envelopes.

Nanny state update: Educators in England think kids need lessons on how to walk...duh.

Congressional Democrats seem willing to put soldiers into danger by cutting funds...maybe I missed something from 12 000 miles away, but I don't remember a lot of discussion that the last election was about the war, except in the case of Joe Lieberman, who won. It was about macaca and some guy's emails to congressional pages...And now they want to make peace with those who kill schoolgirls, not to mention blow up mosques, hospitals, and civilians?

Ummm...Nancy, does the word Cambodia mean anything to you? Oh yes, but the "lesson" is that removing a tyranny and trying to stop a worse tyranny from taking over is wrong. Notice that the actual killers aren't even mentioned in the article, let alone asked to take any responsibility.
What's wrong with this picture?

And if that isn't discouraging enough, read this unrelated story...the euthanizer is gets so annoyed when people try to change their mind about being made dead. How dare they...

Dinesh D'Sousa
reminds people that Islamic terrorists do not represent the opinions of a million Muslims...why yes. We know that. But only the bad religious people get publicity...and a million pious Muslims peacefully making a pilgrimage isn't news any more than a billion and a half Christians peacefully celebrating Palm Sunday with prayers is news...

Want to tell if your dog is happy? well, happy dogs wag to the right...

How do jellyfish manage not to bump into things? They use a few of their 24 complex eyes.