#silliman university

[mariellewritesalot]

Reposting from The Silliman University National Writers Workshop's Facebook page:

𝗠𝗘𝗘𝗧 𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗙𝗘𝗟𝗟𝗢𝗪 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗖𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗩𝗘 𝗡𝗢𝗡𝗙𝗜𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡:

𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐄 𝐅𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐀 𝐁. 𝐓𝐔𝐀𝐙𝐎𝐍 is a writer and children’s rights advocate graduating in 2023 with a BA Philippine Studies degree from the University of the Philippines-Diliman, where she also obtained a certificate for Malikhaing Pagsulat sa Filipino in 2020. She has by-lines in publications such as Esquire Philippines, PhilStar Life, Youngblood of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Mega magazine, among others. In 2017, she won her first Carlos Palanca Award for Literature in the Kabataan Essay English category. Aside from fostering her work through campus journalism since high school, she started writing poetry and prose online in 2014 through her blog, mariellewritesalot. Currently, she is studying Spanish at Instituto Cervantes de Manila.

The 61st season of the oldest creative writing workshop in Asia will be held on June 26 to July 7, 2023 in Silliman University, Dumaguete City.

#61stSUNWW #SUNWW2023

[philippinewildlifeart]

Yesterday National Scientist Dr. Angel C. Alcala passed away after living a life dedicated to conservation. From ridge to reef, from fish to… frogs!

Born on March 1, 1929 in Negros Occidental he eventually became a prominent marine researcher at Silliman University. There he helped establish community-led marine reserves in nearby Apo Island. It was then that he showed the world that effective marine conservation efforts can occur with long term partnerships between communities, local government, and NGOs.

He also worked with fellow researcher Walter Brown on co-authoring more than 70 publications including those about Philippine amphibians and reptiles. The Brown & Alcala’s Sierra Madre Frog was named after them: 𝘚𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘢 𝘵𝘪𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘯, where the word tipanan refers to their partnership. Several reptile species have also been named after Dr. Alcala such as the recently discovered Alcala’s Reed Snake from Mindoro, Alcala’s Wolf Snake from Batanes, and Alcala’s Triangle-spotted Snake from Romblon.

Dr. Alcala has shown us the importance of our environment, from ridge to reef, and how working together is the best way to conserve it!

[reasonsforhope]

"Many people know about the Yellowstone wolf miracle. After wolves were reintroduced to the national park in the mid-1990s, streamside bushes that had been grazed to stubble by out-of-control elk populations started bouncing back. Streambank erosion decreased. Creatures such as songbirds that favor greenery along creeks returned. Nearby aspens flourished.

While there is debate about how much of this stemmed from the wolves shrinking the elk population and how much was a subtle shift in elk behavior, the overall change was dramatic. People were captivated by the idea that a single charismatic predator’s return could ripple through an entire ecosystem. The result was trumpeted in publications such as National Geographic.

But have you heard about the sea otters and the salt marshes? Probably not.

It turns out these sleek coastal mammals, hunted nearly to extinction for their plush pelts, can play a wolf-like role in rapidly disappearing salt marshes, according to new research. The findings highlight the transformative power of a top predator, and the potential ecosystem benefits from their return.

“It begs the question: In how many other ecosystems worldwide could the reintroduction of a former top predator yield similar benefits?” said Brian Silliman, a Duke University ecologist involved in the research.

The work focused on Elk Slough, a tidal estuary at the edge of California’s Monterey Bay. The salt marsh lining the slough’s banks has been shrinking for decades. Between 1956 and 2003, the area lost 50% of its salt marshes.

Such tidal marshes are critical to keeping shorelines from eroding into the sea, and they are in decline around the world. The damage is often blamed on a combination of human’s altering coastal water flows, rising seas and nutrient pollution that weakens the roots of marsh plants.

But in Elk Slough, a return of sea otters hinted that their earlier disappearance might have been a factor as well. As many as 300,000 sea otters once swam in the coastal waters of western North America, from Baja California north to the Aleutian Islands. But a fur trade begun by Europeans in the 1700s nearly wiped out the animals, reducing their numbers to just a few thousand by the early 1900s. Southern sea otters, which lived on the California coast, were thought to be extinct until a handful were found in the early 1900s.

In the late 1900s, conservation organizations and government agencies embarked on an effort to revive the southern sea otters, which remain protected under the Endangered Species Act. In Monterey Bay, the Monterey Bay Aquarium selected Elk Slough as a prime place to release orphaned young sea otters taken in by the aquarium.

As the otter numbers grew, the dynamics within the salt marsh changed. Between 2008 and 2018, erosion of tidal creeks in the estuary fell by around 70% as otter numbers recovered from just 11 animals to nearly 120 following a population crash tied to an intense El Niño climate cycle.

While suggestive, those results are hardly bulletproof evidence of a link between otters and erosion. Nor does it explain how that might work.

To get a more detailed picture, the researchers visited 5 small tidal creeks feeding into the main slough. At each one, they enclosed some of the marsh with fencing to keep out otters, while other spots were left open. Over three years, they monitored the diverging fates of the different patches.

The results showed that otter presence made a dramatic difference in the condition of the marsh. They also helped illuminate why this was happening. It comes down to the otters’ appetite for small burrowing crabs that live in the marsh.

Adult otters need to eat around 25% of their body weight every day to endure the cold Pacific Ocean waters, the equivalent of 20 to 25 pounds. And crabs are one of their favorite meals. After three years, crab densities were 68% higher in fenced areas beyond the reach of otters. The number of crab burrows was also higher. At the same time, marsh grasses inside the fences fared worse, with 48% less mass of leaves and stems and 15% less root mass, a critical feature for capturing sediment that could otherwise wash away, the scientists reported in late January in Nature.

The results point to the crabs as a culprit in the decline of the marshes, as they excavate their holes and feed on the plant roots. It also shows the returning otters’ potential as a marsh savior, even in the face of rising sea levels and continued pollution. In tidal creeks with high numbers of otters, creek erosion was just 5 centimeters per year, 69% lower than in creeks with fewer otters and a far cry from earlier erosion of as much as 30 centimeters per year.  

“The return of the sea otters didn’t reverse the losses, but it did slow them to a point that these systems could restabilize despite all the other pressures they are subject to,” said Brent Hughes, a biology professor at Sonoma State University and former postdoctoral researcher in Silliman’s Duke lab.

The findings raise the question of whether other coastal ecosystems might benefit from a return of top predators. The scientists note that a number of these places were once filled with such toothy creatures as bears, crocodiles, sharks, wolves, lions and dolphins. Sea otters are still largely absent along much of the West Coast.

As people wrestle to hold back the seas and revive their ailing coasts, a predator revival could offer relatively cheap and effective assistance. “It would cost millions of dollars for humans to rebuild these creek banks and restore these marshes,” Silliman said of Elk Slough. “The sea otters are stabilizing them for free in exchange for an all-you-can-eat crab feast.”"

-via Anthropocene Magazine, February 7, 2024

[dragoneyes618]

The major lesson that reviewer Christine Rosen extracts from Rob Henderson’s new memoir, Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class, is: “The people who control a great deal of our cultural and political conversations are a rarified elite with little understanding of how most people live their lives.” (I have not yet read Troubled, though I’m eager to do so. What follows draws primarily on Rosen’s review in the Free Beacon and on Henderson’s op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.)

To comprehend the gap between those elites and the vast majority of Americans, consider a recent Rasmussen survey of what the authors call “elites” — more than one post-graduate degree, an annual income of $150,000 — and a subset of those “elites,” who attended an Ivy League school, or another elite private school, such as Stanford or University of Chicago, whom Rasmussen dubs “super-elites.”

Three-quarters of the elites and nearly 90 percent of the super elites describe their personal incomes as on the upswing, while almost none describe their incomes as on the decline. For all Americans, however, nearly twice as many view their income as worsening as view their financial situation as improving — 40 percent to 20 percent.

Despite having eventually made it to Yale as an undergraduate in his mid-twenties and later earning a PhD in psychology at Cambridge University, Henderson most certainly did not stem from the elite class from which so many of his classmates came. Students at Yale from families in the upper 1 percent of wealth are more numerous than those from the bottom 60 percent.

One of Henderson’s Yale classmates, who had attended Phillips Exeter Academy, America’s top prep school, once lectured Henderson on his white privilege — even though he is actually half Asian and half Hispanic. Yet it would take a certain obliviousness to label Henderson a child of privilege. One of his earliest memories is of his drug-addict mother being pulled away from him in handcuffs and hauled off to jail, when he was three. He never knew his father.

After that, he was shuttled between various foster homes, none of them stable, until he joined the US Air Force after high school. The discipline of the military helped him overcome some of the chaos that had characterized his life until then. But many of the old demons remained, including his penchant for self-medicating with alcohol, and he ended up in a detox program, where a talented therapist helped him work through some of those demons.

One of the central messages of Henderson’s memoir is that a non-stable childhood family life is not just bad because it hurts your chances of getting into an elite college or attaining a high-paying job later in life, but also because those raised in such an environment experience “pain that etches itself into their bodies and brains and propels them to do things in the pursuit of relief that often inflict even more harm.”

Given their difference in backgrounds, Henderson found many of the social rituals of his classmates incomprehensible. One example was when the Yale campus erupted in hysteria over an email from Erika Christakis to the students of Silliman residential college, of which she served as co-master with her husband Nicholas, suggesting that they were old enough to work out themselves which Halloween costumes to wear, without asking the administration to issue an elaborate set of rules to avoid “microaggressions” or “cultural appropriation” — e.g., a white student wearing a sombrero. After the childhood and teenage years he experienced, a fellow student in a sombrero did not seem like such a big deal to Henderson.

Erika was eventually force to resign her position in Silliman and on the Yale faculty, much to Henderson’s disappointment, as he had been eager to take her course on early childhood development. Meanwhile, the black undergraduate who confronted Nicholas Christakis in the Silliman courtyard, in an expletive-laden tirade, in front of a group of students cheering her on, was given an award for extracurricular excellence at the next Yale graduation.

Henderson offers an invaluable term to describe the opinions expressed so fiercely and with no tolerance of opposing views by his fellow undergrads: “luxury beliefs.” Luxury beliefs, as Henderson defines them, “confer status on the upper class at little cost, while often inflicting costs on the lower classes.” The conspicuous displays of wealth and leisure activities that broadcast elite status in Thorstein Veblen’s time have been replaced by opinions and beliefs that give proof of one’s elite education. After all, Henderson notes ironically, how many non-Ivy-League-educated Americans can easily toss off terms like “cisgender” or “heteronormative”?

Mantras such as “defund the police” are luxury beliefs because their impact on those living in gated communities or the most affluent neighborhoods is likely to be negligible. Henderson comments about the policies implemented to combat white privilege, “It won’t be Yale graduates who are harmed. Poor white people will bear the brunt.”

He recounts the story of a refugee from the North Korean police state, attending Columbia University, who raised concerns about the anti-free speech movement on campus, only to be taunted with “Go back to Pyongyang” on a social media site for Ivy League students. Normally, nothing will earn faster exile to social media purgatory than telling an immigrant, “Go back to where you came from,” but this particular refugee was deemed deserving of insult, writes Henderson, because she “undermined these people’s view of themselves as morally righteous.”

Incidentally, I would rank as near the top of “luxury beliefs” the familiar chants about Israeli genocide and apartheid. They cost their proponents nothing, yet effectively broadcast one’s moral righteousness and humanity, not to mention elite education, especially when terms like settler-colonialism and intersectionality are thrown into the mix.

Henderson is primarily concerned with the way that bad ideas — e.g., dismissal of matrimony and monogamy as passé, decriminalization of drugs — filter downstream in the culture, where they wreak havoc. As Charles Murray thoroughly documents in Breaking Apart, rates of marriage, children living in two-parent homes, and attendance at religious services have remained more or less constant in the most affluent quintile of the population, while plummeting in the lower quintiles. But on elite campuses, marriage is more likely to be portrayed as a prison for women, just as the same students for whom the words “capitalist oppression” roll trippingly off their tongues can be found the same day lining up for interviews with Goldman Sachs.

But the danger posed by the holders of luxury beliefs lies not only in their pernicious cultural influence. Holders of those views are quite comfortable with the use of coercion to advance their beliefs. Four-fifths of the super elites, interviewed in the Rasmussen poll cited above, would ban gas-powered cars. Just under 90 percent support strict rationing of meat, gas, and electricity, and 70 percent would ban all nonessential air travel.

The impact of these restrictions on the most affluent would likely be relatively small. They can afford electric cars, and would buy carbon offsets to circumvent some of the most onerous rationing or purchase them on the black market. And dollars to donuts that their air travel would be deemed necessary. The impact of such policies on the less affluent doesn’t figure into their calculations.

Elite campuses have been focal points for the limitations on free speech, and over half of the super elites educated on those campuses describe Americans as possessing too much freedom. That goes with a general contempt for markets, which allocate equal weight to the choices of the unenlightened and the enlightened.

That concern with “too much” freedom goes together with a remarkable trust in government among 70 percent of the elites and 90 percent of the super elites. Government is beneficent, in their eyes, because it can force people to do what the enlightened have determined is good. The elites know that their hands will be on the levers of coercion, particularly administrative agencies. (I would wager that the majority of those lower-level staffers staging mini-rebellions in the White House and the State Department over American support for Israel’s war on Hamas are holders of elite credentials.) Ronald Reagan’s quip, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help,’ ” does not resonate with the elites.

Sixty years before Rob Henderson first stepped onto the Yale campus, another man already in his mid-twenties entered Harvard as an undergraduate. Like Henderson, Thomas Sowell came from a deprived background and served in the military before entering college. He was born in the Jim-Crow-era South, in a home without electricity, and served in the Marines during the Korean War, after dropping out of high school.

The 1969 black student riots at Cornell, where Sowell was an economics professor, and subsequent pressure at UCLA to lower his standards for students, soured Sowell on academia, which he left for a position as senior fellow at the Hoover Institution almost half a century ago.

Over 50 years and almost 40 books, most still in print and many of them standard texts in economics, and ten volumes of collected columns, Sowell has leveled a sustained critique at the dominant intellectual doctrines of our day, in particular those of his fellow black intellectuals, whom he views as having spectacularly failed the black masses by advocating for policies that may serve their interests but not those of the large majority of American blacks. (Only about one-third of his writing concerns issues of race, and he has penned classic works in intellectual, social, and economic history.) Jason Riley’s intellectual biography of Sowell is appropriately titled Maverick.

In a short new work, Social Justice Fallacies, which I would commend to every college student and social justice warrior, Sowell fleshes out many of Henderson’s observations, including the detachment of elite theorists from the lives of those whom they purport to advocate, and their sometimes subtle, sometimes not, contempt for those whom they view as their inferiors.

The second chapter compares the Progressive movement of the early decades of the 20th century to present-day progressives. At first glance, it would appear that little connects the two groups, apart from their position on the political left of their day. A strong streak of racial determinism characterized the early progressives, and many of their leading lights fretted about the disastrous impact of an influx of people of inferior races to America. By contrast, today’s progressives start from the premise that there are no differences between races and that all differential outcomes are a result of systemic racism.

In the earlier period, Professor Edward Ross, the chairman of the American Sociological Society, warned that America was headed toward “race suicide” by virtue of being inundated by people of “inferior types.” American universities and colleges taught hundreds of courses in eugenics, defined as the reduction or prevention of the survival of people considered genetically inferior. The most famous economist of the 20th century, John Maynard Keynes, was founder of the Eugenics Society at Cambridge.

Irving Fisher of Yale, the leading monetary economist of the period, advocated for the isolation or sterilization of those inferior types. Or as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes put it, “Three generations of idiots are enough.” Sowell remarks upon how casually Fisher spoke of imprisonment of those who had committed no crime and the denial of normal life to all regarded as inferior. Not by accident did Hitler yemach shemo term a work on eugenics by Madison Grant, a leading conservationist and advocate for national parks and the protection of endangered species, his Bible.

At first glance, today’s progressives could not seem further removed from their namesakes. They are the opposite of racial determinists. In the modern progressive creed, all differences in outcomes between people of different races can have one and only one explanation: discrimination by the majority group.

Despite the opposite views on race, Sowell finds important continuities between the progressive movement of the early 20th century and that of today. Today’s progressives share, according to Sowell, their predecessors’ aversion to confronting empirical evidence that challenges their fixed verities, and a similar inclination to respond to empirical challenges with ad hominem insults — racist being the most powerful — rather than with counter-arguments and evidence.

And they are similarly inclined to use government power to coerce the less enlightened to behave in accord with their “expert” opinions, and too frequently oblivious to or unconcerned with the impact of their policy prescriptions on those constituting the “lower orders,” in their minds.

Woodrow Wilson, perhaps the leading figure of the Progressive era, served as president of Princeton before being elected president. Like many of his fellow progressives, he was an unabashed racist who insisted that black employees in government offices be physically segregated.

But what joins him to present-day progressives is his enormous confidence in government by experts. He presided over a massive expansion of the federal government and the creation of many of the largest administrative agencies, run by “experts.” He viewed the Constitution as outmoded for a modern age. But not to worry, government agencies headed by experts would usher in a “new freedom,” albeit not quite the freedom of a constitution limiting the power of government and enshrining individual rights.

Today, DEI bureaucracies on almost every campus seek to enforce right-thinking and enter into every aspect of university governance, including faculty hiring. Those mushrooming bureaucracies account for a large part in the explosion in higher education costs.

Sowell takes aim at the racial theories of the early progressives and contemporary ones alike. He seeks to empirically refute the claim that each race has a different “ceiling” for intelligence. (If anecdotes were data, his own genius would serve as refutation.) He met with and debated Professor Albert Jensen, one of the leading modern proponents of that view.

Sowell argues that environment, not inherent ceilings, underlies much of the difference in IQ between races. For instance, those raised in the Hebrides Isles and the hill country of Kentucky, though of pure Anglo-Saxon stock, have IQs comparable to American blacks. And like American blacks, their IQs tend to decline from childhood to adulthood. Social isolation appears to be the key. Sowell cites another study that blacks raised by white adoptive parents had IQs six points above the national average.

As an amusing example of the fallibility of IQ tests as measures of inherent capabilities, Sowell quotes Carl Brigham, who developed the SAT test. Brigham claimed on the basis of army mental tests administered in World War I that the myth that Jews are on average highly intelligent had been refuted. At least he had the good grace to admit by 1930, as Jews excelled on standardized tests, that his earlier conclusions had been without merit, and had failed to take into account that most immigrant children were raised in non-English-speaking homes.

Sowell is equally effective skewering the present-day progressive belief that all differences in outcomes are explained as products of racial discrimination. He chafes at the resultant cult of victimization that stands in the way of examination of cultural behavioral factors that prevent black advancement.

He insists that behaviors count and explain a great deal of the differences in income levels between different racial groups. For instance, black married couples have experienced poverty rates of less than 10 percent for decades, which is less than the national poverty rate for all families. And black married couples have higher income levels than white single-parent families. The problem is that black marriage rates overall are lower.

It is often said that the high illegitimacy rate in the black community is attributable to the “legacy of slavery.” But for nearly a century after slavery, the rates were relatively low. In 1940, they were one-quarter of what they are today. Sowell suggests that the rapid expansion of the welfare state in the 1960s explains much of that rise, as births to single mothers have also risen rapidly in Sweden, the welfare paradise, where there is no legacy of slavery.

Evidence cited to show discrimination against black children by “white supremacists” — e.g., discipline rates two and a half times those of white students — proves the opposite, Sowell suggests. For white students are themselves twice as likely to be disciplined as Asian students. Perhaps, then, disruptive behavior, rather than discrimination, explains differential rates of discipline. To get rid of school discipline in the name of equity leads to schools in which it is impossible to learn, and ends up harming black students, he argues. Attacks on discriminatory school discipline is thus another one of those “luxury beliefs,” like defunding the police.

One of the major causes of the burst housing bubble of 2007, which Sowell predicted, was government pressure on lenders to greatly reduce credit requirements for mortgages. The regulators’ theory was that blacks were being discriminated against in the mortgage market, as evidenced by the higher rate of rejection for black mortgage applicants. The only problem with the discrimination hypothesis, Sowell shows, was that black-owned banks rejected black mortgage applicants at even higher rates.

The hypothesis that different income levels are exclusively a function of discrimination founders on the fact that other minority groups — e.g., Asians — have, on average, incomes well above the medium national income, and dark-skinned Asian Indians earn on average $39,000 more per annum than full-time, year-round white workers.

The victimization narrative, in Sowell’s eyes, is not only unhelpful but damaging to blacks, as it shifts the focus from one of encouraging the types of behaviors that are associated with success. In the immediate wake of slavery, and for nearly a century afterwards, almost all graduates of all-black Dunbar High in Washington, D.C., went on to college. Black and Hispanic kids in New York City charter schools are six times as likely to pass city math proficiency exams as their counterparts in the regular public schools. Why? Sowell wants to know.

Focusing on the behaviors that foster success rather than wallowing in a narrative of discrimination — which he personally experienced in his younger years and does not deny still exists today — is for Sowell the key to black advancement. And that requires more empirical study and less airy theorizing.

Many of the panaceas that derive from au courant theories have been conclusively refuted on the ground. Black political power in most of America’s largest cities, for instance, has done little to change the lives of the vast majority of black citizens. And affirmative action has, in Sowell’s view, reinforced stereotypes of black inferiority, among whites and, even worse, among blacks themselves, while doing little to help inner city blacks.

Without a clear-eyed attention to empirical evidence and an openness to debate based on facts and logic, in Sowell’s terminology, we are forever consigned to the realm of “luxury beliefs.”

[scotianostra]

May 2nd 1860 saw the birth of physiologist John Scott Haldane in Edinburgh.

He attended Edinburgh University and the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, before graduating in medicine at Edinburgh in 1884. He was then appointed Demonstrator in Physiology at University College, Dundee, where he investigated the composition of the air in dwellings and schools.

In 1887 he joined is uncle at Oxford University but later left when the title Professor of Physiology was denied him. His early studies included the respiration hazards that coal miners were exposed to, and his report emphasized the lethal effects of carbon monoxide poisoning. In 1898 he created the Haldane Gas Apparatus.

He began to study caisson disease in underground workers which connected to decompression sickness, also commonly known as "the bends." His work in this field lead him to produce the tables for staged decompression, which prevented the development of nitrogen bubbles in the diver's tissue as they ascended from their working depth.

Haldane's approach was in contrast to French physiologist Paul Bert's continuous - ascent decompression procedures of that period. Although developed for the trade of diving in 1907, the staged tables are equally applicable in the recreational and technical diving fields. Engineers sought his opinion on ventilation and respiratory issues when designing submarines, tunnels, mines and ships.

In 1915 Yale University honoured Haldane by selecting him to deliver the Silliman Lectures. The lectures became the basis for his 1922 book Respiration, which is recognised as a landmark work in the field. Haldane received numerous awards and honours for his work.

His work on high altitude physiology, diving physiology, oxygen therapy, and carbon monoxide poisoning led to a sea change in clinical medicine and improved safety and reduced mortality and morbidity in many high risk situations. During the First World War Haldane was able to identify the use of disabling chlorine and phosgene gas by the Germans, and designed the first gas masks for use in chemical warfare and also an oxygen therapy equipment to treat its victims.

John Scott Haldane died in Oxford on the night of 14 March/15 March 1936, soon after returning from a trip to investigate cases of heat stroke in the oil refineries in Persia, he made lasting contributions to improved working conditions years before health and safety itself became an industry, and he never failed to give credit to colleagues. He is considered as ‘Father of Oxygen Therapy’.

[slyakoch13]

SPAMTON AND THE SPOT ARE THE SAME CHARACTERS and now I will explain why.

Let's start with the obvious: they have the same type (?) of the character - Once great cool smart etc. man who fell to the very bottom and is now pathetic.

Spamton was an inconspicuous addison, and became a big shot. Spot was an inconspicuous scientist, but achieved tremendous results in his work with the reactor and parallel universes.

Both are homeless. Spamton lives in a garbage heap and earns money by dubious garbage sales. Spot does not live anywhere and steals (trying).

Both are shown at the beginning as rather pathetic, clumsy losers. Which they are at the moment.

Both have some sort of tragic history that took them from their peak of perfection to their fall to a miserable silliman. In Spamton, it is not revealed, while in Spot it is the incident with Miles and the reactor.

Both know or understand "something beyond" that the protagonist does not understand or has not seen, unlike them.

Both understand that everyone sees them as losers and does not take them seriously, so they strive to return or receive some kind of very powerful force.

Both eventually receive this very power and become super beings.

They are both so fucking silly, no like what is it?Have you heard them speak? How they walk? how they do anything??? THEY ARE SUPER SILLY SCRUNKLY I love them.

thanks for reading my hyperfix essay. end.

[macflorendo]

THANK YOU to life!

This is my Eulogy.

First. I would like to thank Life and God for giving me the opportunity to live and experience a taste of this world.

TO MY FAMILY. Thank you for raising me well. I am not me without any single of you. I may not express as much as needed but I want you to know that I LOVE YOU. See you soon!

I may not be the best son, not the best brother. I don’t wish to be one but I would like to believe that we are destined to be the way we are. Well, that’s where I learn from my lessons from anyway - all my mistakes.

TO THE ENVIRONMENT. I am so proud to have joined Cuernos de Negros Mountaineers Club, Inc. of Silliman University for teaching me how to love the environment. Because of that, I was able to travel to 5 countries (USA, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand) for FREE to attend different environmental programs and its alumni engagements.

Aside from being able to see different parts of the world. I am fortunate to learn that there is a problem that we need to do something about. Our children’s lives are at stake.

-

MUSIC, MAGIC, & MOVING PICTURES. MY PASSIONS. I cannot thank you enough. We have been through the happiest and most difficult times of my life. When there’s no one else to talk to and hang out with, you were there.

You even got me jobs!

-

SOUTH KOREA. You are my second home country. You made me realize that I am part of the world, a global citizen. There is the potential of anyone to make a difference even to another individual in the world. Thank you Silliman University and Hannam University for this opportunity!

I am happy I am able to learn Korean so I could understand you. Now, I am giving back by learning your language too. South Korea is beautiful. I know most of you are tired of the pressure in your country. But please, never forget your passions and purpose. There’s more to the world than getting a “good” job and lots of money.

-

EVENTS.

2011 - Moved to Dumaguete to study in Silliman University, Dumaguete City. I lived in Vernon Hall inside the campus, lived in an apartment for summer class, and then lived with mom and sister until I graduated.

2013 - I was exchange student to Hannam University in Daejeon, South Korea. That was my first time abroad. I took up Korean Language classes, Faith and Film, and Advance VIdeo Production Class. I taught English to students during my free time and that’s where I got my allowance.

2015 - I became an academic fellow on Environmental Issues under Young Southeasts Leaders Initiative. We went to Hawaii, Colorado, and Washington DC.

- I founded Food Rescue Philippines (formerly Food Rescue ASEAN)

2016 - I graduated Cum Laude from Silliman University.

March 2020. There’s an ongoing virus called COVID-19 infecting people around the world. Who knows what will happen next? We will not be always safe. I live in a dorm, I live with other people. They may be carrying the disease. I hope not. I have one roommate who still goes to work at this time. I hope he won’t bring the disease in the dorm. There’s currently 187 infected patients in the Philippines and recovery rate has not moved at all.

July 2020.  COVID cases are not easing down here in the Philippines. I heard stories of the government just making money out of this situation…

2021 - 2022. Met the worst person in my life. But thank you for making me wiser and way better.

MARCH 2023 - I got hired as Food Rescue Supervisor at Scholars of Sustenance. This is a dream come true. I used to bike and work with volunteers for this advocacy but I now work with a bigger organization that can create more impact.

JULY 2023. I will be turning 30 in 2025. I want to focus on meaningful and valuable work. I also want to create opportunities for myself and others to grow financially, and spriritually.

- 

I am happy that I have experienced many jobs. I realized that I can do so much more, and at the same time, I know I will have options when any career I would choose won’t work.

-

LOVE. Love is a BURST of emotions that happen in your body. That feeling is temporary. When choosing a partner, remember BURST.

B - Believe in each other.

U - Understand each other.

R - Respect each other.

S - Support each other.

T - Trust Each Other

-

MEANING OF MEANING

Meaning starts with ME. Everything you do should start and would meaning something to you.

MEAN has three meanings.

1. what do you mean to say

2. you are so mean

3. what does it mean

MEANING is present tense. Is it something that you currently do. It should be something that you are doing now.

-

A MESSAGE TO MY YOUNGER SELF/TO MY CHILDREN/ TO YOUNG PEOPLE:

1. Exercise more. Play more.

2. Get long hair and donate.

3. Grow a beard! (DONE)

4. Talk to more people. (ALWAYS)

5. Go to more places. Be more adventurous. (BE MORE SPECIFIC)

-

A MESSAGE TO MY FUTURE SELF:

1. Hope you are still doing what you love; performing really good magic, doing something for the environment, helping people, and sharing what you know.

2. Stay fit.

3. Be financially secure.

4. Always learn.

5. Network more. Meet more people.

6. Don’t work for a boring company with boring people.

-

TRAVELS

Countries I traveled to..

2013 - South Korea - Seoul, Daejeon, Busan, Chuncheon, Okcheon, Jeonju

2015 -  USA - Hawaii, Colorado, Washington DC

2015 - Singapore

2015 - Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur

2016 - Thailand, Bangkok

2016 - Cambodia, Siem Reap

2017 - South Korea - Seoul, Daejeon, Pohang, Busan

2020 - Japan - Osaka, Nagoya

2022 - France - Paris

2023 - Thailand - Bangkok

PHILIPPINES

1. Zamboanga

2. Dumaguete

3. Manila

4. Cebu

5. Davao

6. Iloilo

7. Palawan - Puerto Princesa

8. Baguio

9. Tagaytay

10. Bohol

11. Siquijor

12. La Union

13. Zambales

14. Dapitan

15. Bacolod

16. Boracay

17. La Union

18. Pampanga

19. Bulacan

To be continued…

Edited 5/9/2019

Edited 10/2/2019

Edited 3/18/2020

Edited 3/29/2020

Edited 7/23/2020

Edited 9/6/2021

Edited 1/1/2022

Edited 4/14/2022

Edited 7/11/2022

Edited 7/1/2023

[schooloffeminism]

#Herstory #UnDíaComoHoy #KláraDánVonNeumann (Budapest, Hungría, 18/8/1911 - San Diego, California, 10/11/1963), #científica estadounidense #pionera de la #programación. Hija de Károly - Karl Dán y Camila Stadler. Su padre había servido anteriormente en el ejército austrohúngaro como oficial durante IGM, y se mudaron a Viena para huir de Bela Kun. No regresaron a Hungría hasta que el régimen fue derrocado. Su familia era rica y solía organizar fiestas en las que Dán pudo conocer a mucha gente de diferentes ámbitos. Con 14 años, fue campeona nacional de patinaje artístico, y poco después fue enviada a estudiar a un internado a Inglaterra. Estuvo casada en cuatro ocasiones, y después de su segundo divorcio, se casó con John von Neumann en 1938. Posteriormente, contrajo matrimonio con Carl Eckart en 1958. Murió en 1963 en extrañas circunstancias: tras abandonar una fiesta en honor a la ganadora del premio Nobel #MariaGoeppertMayer, Condujo desde su casa a la playa y se ahogó. Su cuerpo se halló en la playa de La Jolla. La policía consideró su muerte como un suicidio. Dán fue una de las primeras programadoras del mundo y ayudó a resolver problemas matemáticos usando código informático. Escribió el código utilizado en la máquina #MANIAC I desarrollada por John von Neumann y Julian Bigelow en el Laboratorio Nacional de Los Álamos. También estuvo implicada en el diseño de nuevos controles para la #ENIAC y era una de sus principales programadoras. Enseñó cómo programar a los científicos de aquella primera época. Escribió el prefacio de la influyente obra de John von Neumann Silliman Lectures, publicada póstumamente y más tarde editada y publicada por la editorial Yale University Press como "El ordenador y el cerebro". Aparece como una figura relevante en el libro de historia de la computación "La catedral de Turing: Los orígenes del universo digital" de George Dyson. #efemérides #cientificas #mujeresyciencia #womeninscience
#educarenigualdad #educarenfeminismo #schooloffeminism https://www.instagram.com/p/CkxlgZ8jgTt/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[jeomee]

Period of Third Republic

Photo Credit: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/346573.Edilberto_K_Tiempo

Edilberto K. Tiempo, a novelist, poet, and literary critic who lived from 1913 to 1996, is renowned for his contributions to Philippine literature. Themes of love, loss, and the search for one's identity frequently appeared in his writings. One of the most esteemed literary workshops in the Philippines, the Silliman University National Writers Workshop, was co-founded by him. Throughout his career, Tiempo received numerous literary honors, including the 1999 National Artist for Literature award.

Photo Credit:https://tl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alejandro_Roces,_Sr.

Alejandro Roces, a writer, essayist, and diplomat, was born in 1924 and died in 2011. He was well-known for his witty and hilarious writing, and many of his works took a satirical approach to social concerns. The essay "The Filipino Way of Life," which examines the distinctive features of Philippine culture and tradition, is Roces' most well-known composition. Additionally a prolific short story writer, he received the National Artist for Literature award in 2003. Both Joaquin and Roces are acknowledged as significant authors in Philippine literature, whose writings have had a long-lasting effect on the nation's cultural and literary landscape.

[dopeanchorcherryblossom]

 

Literary Period After EDSA1986 - Present 

        The year 1986 marks a new beginning of a new scene for Filipino writers and artists. It saw the downfall of late President Ferdinand Marcos when he placed the Philippines under martial rule last September 21,1972. This action does not only oppress the writers' right to free expression but also created conditions that made collaboration and cooperation convenient choices for artists' struggling for recognition and survival. Furthermore, the growth of underground writing was created both in urban and in the countryside.

        The popular "Edsa Revolution" (EDSA, a highway in Metro Manila that runs north to south from Caloocan to Baclaran) has paved the way for the flight of the dictator and his family to Hawaii, USA on February 24,1986. The revolt established the presidency of Corazon Aquino, which marked the "restoration" of a pre-Martial Law society. However, the Philippines did not recover that easily. The years that followed "Edsa" was a wild "roller-coaster" ride for many Filipinos. The unease times was caused by natural disasters that left the economic plans in shambles.

       Militancy and belligerence best describes writing under the Martial Law regime. With the overthrow of the enemy in 1986, however, the literary activity showed certain disorientation manifesting itself in a proliferation of concerns taken up by individual writers and groups.

       Creative writing centers after Edsa maybe grouped into two. Academic institutions where Creative Writing is part of the curricular offerings, and students majoring in Literature are able to come in contact with elder creative writers/critics/professors belonged to the first group. Such academic institutions includes the Silliman University; the University of the Philippines; the Ateneo de Manila University; De la Salle University; and last but not the least, San Carlos University in Cebu.

       The second group is composed of writers' organizations that periodically sponsor symposia on writing and/or set up workshops for its members and other interested parties. UMPIL (Unyon ng mga Manunulat ng Pilipino), PANULAT (Pambansang Unyon ng mga Manunulat), Panday-Lipi, GAT (Galian sa Arte at Tula), KATHA, LIRA (Linangan sa Imahen, Retorika at Anyo), GUMIL (Gunglo Dagiti Mannurat nga Ilokano), LUDABI (Lubas sa Dagang Binisaya) and P.E.N.

       Writers get to hear about new developments in writing and derive enthusiasm for their craft through these twin centers. The two "unyon" function as umbrellas under which writers belonging to a diversity of organizations socialize with fellow writers.

       Award giving bodies, annual competitions and publications provide the incentives for writers to keep producing. These actions perform the important service of keeping the writers in the public consciousness, making it possible for commentators and audiences to identify significant established writers and give attention to emerging new talents.

       The National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA), a post-EDSA state sponsored institution, was created by the law in 1992, superseding the Presidential Commission on Culture and the Arts which was established in 1987. The said institution has a Committee on Literary Arts which funds workshops, conferences, publications and a variety of projects geared towards the production of a "national literature". The committee has the aim of developing writing that is multi-lingual, multi-cultural, and truly national.

       Non-governmental organizations have helped hand in hand with some institutions in giving recognition to writers from specific sectors in the society. These NGO's includes the Amado V. Hernandez Foundation; the GAPAS foundation, and the KAIBIGAN.

       Campus publications are another group of outlet that is of importance as a source of non-traditional, experimental writing. These campus publications could either be a weekly student newspapers, quarterly magazines, or annual literary journals. The University of the Philippines has the Collegian; The Diliman Review; and The Literary Apprentice. Silliman University has Sands and Coral; Ateneo de Manila University issues Heights and Philippine Studies; De la Salle University has Malate, Likha, and Malay to offer; University of Santo Tomas publishes The Varsitarian.

       Overall, the character of the Philippine literary scene after "EDSA" maybe pinpointed be referring to the theories that inform literary production, to the products issuing from the publishers, to the dominant concerns demonstrated by the writers' output, and to the direction towards which literary studies are tending.

       1. There is in the academe an emerging critical orientation that draws its concerns and           insights from literary theorizing current in England and the United States.

       2. Post-EDSA publishing has been marked by adventurousness, a willingness to gamble on "non-traditional" projects.

       3. The declining prestige of the New Criticism, whose rigorous aesthetic norms has previously functioned as a Procrustean bed on which Filipino authors and their works were measured, has opened a gap in the critical evaluation of literary works.

       4. The fourth and final characteristic of post-EDSA writing is the development thrust towards the retrieval and the recuperation of writing in Philippine languages other than Tagalog.

Reference: Angelfire.lycos.com

https://www.angelfire.com › litera1

Literary Periods - After EDSA

[onenettvchannel]

FLASH REPORT: An Electrical Tip Transformer Busted Out for a Sudden Power Outage hits local substation of NORECO II in Dumaguete City [#NewonOneNETnews]

DUMAGUETE, NEGROS ORIENTAL -- A sudden and unexpected local power outage, struck the whole afternoon Wednesday (August 28th, 2024 -- Dumaguete local time), due to a busted short circuit in an electrical tip of transformer. The incident took place, covering only Bagacay or Pulantubig Substation before 1pm in Brgy. Pulantubig, Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental; leaving local residents of the area without electricity.

Apart from the outage, the Consumer Welfare Desk (CWD) reportedly refused to take calls, some are more likely to switch haters off, as Member Consumer Onwers (MCOs) of regional electrical company 'NORECO II' (Negros Oriental Electric Cooperative 2) are on permanent pause to skip the frustrations and being harassed of electrical criticism, regardless of either unexpected or scheduled power interruption.

Electricians of NORECO II are currently on-site, working diligently to replace a damaged and busted transformer. Thankfully, the rest of Dumaguete City, including Silliman University (for example) remains unaffected by this sudden power outage.

Power has now restored locally, the same day in the afternoon at 3:45pm. NORECO II apologizes for this sincerity of inconvenience, for those affected this said local barangay of Dumaguete.

PHOTO COURTESY: Rhayniel Saldasal Calimpong (Freelance Photojournalist of OneNETnews) BACKGROUND PROVIDED BY: Tegna

-- OneNETnews Online Publication Team

[mariellewritesalot]

Happy to announce that I will be one of the creative nonfiction fellows of the 61st Silliman University National Writers Workshop this year, June 26 to July 7 at Silliman University, Dumaguete City! 💛 Submitted my manuscript in January, around the time I was also finalizing the edits for my undergraduate thesis in UP Diliman. I had low expectations of getting in, hence, I only informed my mentors, two of my friends, and my mother of my decision to try out. Stoked that the efforts paid off and eternally grateful for the people who helped me attain this personal goal in writing. Muchas gracias!

This blog on Tumblr gave me a place to work towards becoming a writer on the internet, back when I was only fifteen years old. Now at twenty three, I admittedly do not post as much as I used to, but I remain eternally grateful that the online home of my words continues to live on and that I still have readers on here who are witnesses to me reaching new heights in the writing world. Here’s hoping that the future is brighter than I could ever imagine. SUNWW is the oldest writing workshop in Asia and a prestigious one in the Philippines, founded by Edilberto Tiempo and National Artist for Literature Edith Tiempo in 1962. I am excited to partake in this journey and learn more about writing from the best writers in the country this summer. 😁 Nos vemos!

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 8.28 (before 1920)

475 – The Roman general Orestes forces western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos to flee his capital city, Ravenna. 489 – Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, defeats Odoacer at the Battle of Isonzo, forcing his way into Italy. 632 – Fatimah, daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, dies, with her cause of death being a controversial topic among the Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims. 663 – Silla–Tang armies crush the Baekje restoration attempt and force Yamato Japan to withdraw from Korea in the Battle of Baekgang. 1189 – Third Crusade: The Crusaders begin the Siege of Acre under Guy of Lusignan. 1521 – Ottoman wars in Europe: The Ottoman Turks occupy Belgrade. 1524 – The Kaqchikel Maya rebel against their former Spanish allies during the Spanish conquest of Guatemala. 1542 – Turkish–Portuguese War: Battle of Wofla: The Portuguese are scattered, their leader Christovão da Gama is captured and later executed. 1565 – Pedro Menéndez de Avilés sights land near St. Augustine, Florida and founds the oldest continuously occupied European-established city in the continental United States. 1609 – Henry Hudson discovers Delaware Bay. 1619 – Election of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor. 1640 – Second Bishop's War: King Charles I's English army loses to a Scottish Covenanter force at the Battle of Newburn. 1648 – Second English Civil War: The Siege of Colchester ends when Royalists Forces surrender to the Parliamentary Forces after eleven weeks, during the Second English Civil War. 1709 – Meidingnu Pamheiba is crowned King of Manipur. 1789 – William Herschel discovers a new moon of Saturn: Enceladus. 1810 – Napoleonic Wars: The French Navy accepts the surrender of a British Royal Navy fleet at the Battle of Grand Port. 1830 – The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's new Tom Thumb steam locomotive races a horse-drawn car, presaging steam's role in U.S. railroads. 1833 – The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 receives royal assent, making the purchase or ownership of slaves illegal in the British Empire with exceptions. 1845 – The first issue of Scientific American magazine is published. 1849 – Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire: After a month-long siege, Venice, which had declared itself independent as the Republic of San Marco, surrenders to Austria. 1850 – Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin premieres at the Staatskapelle Weimar. 1859 – The Carrington event is the strongest geomagnetic storm on record to strike the Earth. Electrical telegraph service is widely disrupted. 1861 – American Civil War: Union forces attack Cape Hatteras, North Carolina in the Battle of Hatteras Inlet Batteries which lasts for two days. 1862 – American Civil War: The Second Battle of Bull Run, also known as the Battle of Second Manassas, begins in Virginia. The battle ends on August 30 with another Union defeat. 1867 – The United States takes possession of the (at this point unoccupied) Midway Atoll. 1879 – Anglo-Zulu War: Cetshwayo, last king of the Zulus, is captured by the British. 1898 – Caleb Bradham's beverage "Brad's Drink" is renamed "Pepsi-Cola". 1901 – Silliman University is founded in the Philippines. It is the first American private school in the country. 1909 – A group of mid-level Greek Army officers launches the Goudi coup, seeking wide-ranging reforms. 1913 – Queen Wilhelmina opens the Peace Palace in The Hague. 1914 – World War I: The Royal Navy defeats the German fleet in the Battle of Heligoland Bight. 1916 – World War I: Germany declares war on Romania. 1916 – World War I: Italy declares war on Germany. 1917 – Ten suffragists, members of the Silent Sentinels, are arrested while picketing the White House in favor of women's suffrage in the United States.

[jadeyorkle]

pinterest.com/pin/397020523381899490/

No, I did graduate from New York University in 1994. I graduated in 1994. Did a second degree at Fordham 1998. NYU - Communications, Conceptual Art, minor in Spanish + Visayan + Phoenician, Fordham, - Linguistics, Poetry, minor in English + Polynesian + Visaii, 1996 - Penn, Masters in Clinical Psychology, 1999 FIT - Film + Visual Arts, Lee Strasberg Institute, Mount Holyoke + Amherst - Gender Studies, Language Arts, Minor in Bisaya + French-Japanese + Oriental Quinnipiac - Native American Indian Studies, JD

Silliman - Education, Music, Dance

Doctorate in Humanities, New York University

Doctorate in Classics, CUNY + SUNY

Cardozo College of Law, LLM - Magna Cum Laude

But always a Trustee's Scholar and a SUNY Albany Presidential Scholar. And AHANA, Phi Beta Kappa.

Columbia '06, economics + political science [Talisay, Ād], masters

MFA, Horary Astrology - The New School

St. Luke's College - RN

ACSOM + Downstate: MD [pending]

Cooper Union - Robotech/Nanobyte Engineering + Radio Programming [with Kris]

Iman is gorgeous. Those like her - of her social stature and distinction- must really detest the small minds here in the US and other regions like it.

~Jade Yorkle

[marichulambino]

University Updates: University of the Philippines Diliman, UCLA, University of Mindanao, West Point, Silliman University student pub, California State University, University of Sto Tomas, UC Irvine, Mapua University, ETH in Zurich, University of the East, The University of Hong Kong, Technological University of the Philippines, Universidade de São Paulo … and “Showtime University” in between

Day-to-day updates: University of the Philippines Diliman, UCLA, University of Mindanao, West Point, Silliman University The Weekly Sillimanian, California State University, University of Sto Tomas, UC Irvine, Mapua University, ETH in Zurich, University of the East, The University of Hong Kong, Technological University of the Philippines, Universidade de São Paulo … and… “Showtime University” in…

[wendellcapili]

Bon Voyage, Thelma Enage Arambulo 🌻 Toronto-based Thelma was a Professor of English and former Department Chair at UP Diliman, as well as Acting Dean at both the Joint Faculty of Social Sciences & Humanities and the Faculty of Science & Technology during the early years of the UP Open University (UPOU). Thelma is a graduate of St. Theresa’s College in Cebu and the University of Pittsburgh and has also taught at the University of San Carlos.

She received the UP Diliman Gawad Chancellor and UP Gawad Leopoldo Yabes for Outstanding Teaching. Her publications include Nation and Culture (with F. Sionil Jose and Edgardo J. Angara, 2012) and Prism: An Introduction to Literature (with Yolanda V. Tomeldan et al., 1986).

Before returning to Canada, over brunch, Thelma shared photos of Filipino writers from her collection when she attended the 6th Silliman University National Writers Workshop (1967) as a fellow for fiction.

Thelma's dedication to language, literature, and education for over 50 years has impacted those she has taught and worked with. For me, her retirement and relocation to Canada over a decade ago signified the end of an era in UP’s English Department. Her legacy as a committed teacher and university administrator resonates with those she has touched ❤️