An interesting poem written by Dr. Bob Moorehead, (actually some says it's George Carlin a comedian or Jeff Dickinson or someone unknown, but either way the Paradox of our Time is a very inspiring piece:

The Paradox of our Time

The paradox of our time in history is that…

We have taller buildings, but shorter tempers.
Wider freeways, but narrow viewpoints.
We spend more, but have less.
We buy more, but enjoy it less.

We have bigger houses and smaller families.
More conveniences, but less time.
We have more degrees, but less sense.
More knowledge, but less judgment.
More experts, but more problems.
More medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly,
Laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry too quickly,
Stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little,
Watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
We talk to much, love too seldom, and hate too often.
We’ve learned how to make living, but not a life;
We’ve added years to life, not life to years.

We’ve been all the way to the moon and back,
but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor.
We’ve conquered outer space, but not inner space;
We’ve done larger things, but not better things.

We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul.
We’ve split the atom, but not our prejudice.
We write more, but learn less;
We plan more but accomplish less;
We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait;
We have higher incomes, but lower morals;
We have more food, but less appeasement;

We build more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever,
but have less communication.

We’ve become long on quantity, but short on quality.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion;
tall men, short character; steep profits, and shallow relationships.

These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare; more leisure; but less fun;
more kinds of food, but less nutrition.

These are the days of two incomes, but more divorce; of fancier houses, but broken homes.

These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throw away morality,
one-night stands, overweight bodies,
and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.

Image Source

Have you guys heard of the Bioluminescent Bay in Puerto Rico? This particular ecological nature is not just your ordinary bay. It is considered a very special tourist attraction in Vieques, Puerto Rico for its natural, amazing ecological feature.

The Bioluminescent Bay or Biobay for short is definitely a wonder in nature and taking a dip in it during moonless nights would give you the feeling that you’re like “bathing amongst the stars.”

This attraction caught my attention when I saw a photo on one of the travel catalogues we have at home. It was a really cool sight and just seeing the pictures made me want to visit.

Here are some pictures taken from tourists taking a dip at the Bioluminescent Bay:

Image Source

Image Source

This bay is very special because it is concentrated with a certain living organism called Pyrodinium bahamense dinoflagellates. It is said that the bioluminescent bay in Vieques, Puerto Rico contains around 700,000 of this light emitting organism per gallon of water. (Now that’s population bomb.)

Image Source

These one-celled microorganisms, once disturbed, get nervous and emit a certain substance that causes their bodies to radiate like crazy. They are said to measure around 0.002 of an inch and once their tiny bodies burst light, it sorts of gives the bay a glowing, bright-green, twinkling appearance against the dark, moonless night.

For most tourists, the Biobay is where the shooting stars fall at night.

I sort of created an imaginary romantic scene on this bay inside my head.

This bay is a must see. Added on my list of travel destinations, page 112... Oh no, make that 113.

Aside from this spectacular bay, there's also a noted event of bioluminescent red tide on 2005 at Carlsbad, California, and here's a taken picture of the crashing glowing waves filled with billions of dinoflagellates.

Amazing isn't it?

Sources: here and here

Scientists have recently discovered a “magic diet pill” that can help a person lose fat minus the exercise. Could this exercise pill be the answer?

A team of researchers and scientists stated on a press release that they have discovered a drug that provides a faster way to burn fats without the gym.

A Breakthrough Exercise Pill for Athletes?

The so-called “exercise pill” called GW1516 (not yet commercially available) was tested on laboratory mice and revealed dramatic results in just four weeks.

The said exercise pill increased treated animals’ resistance by 77 percent. And mice show no signs of fatigue from the strenuous regimen of 50 minutes of treadmill everyday.

Scientists from Salk Institute of Biological Studies stated that the drug activates a certain genetic switch called PPAR delta. When this PPAR delta hormone was activated, it can boost energy levels and improve body resistance against fatigue.

Surprisingly, activating this certain hormone to lab mice resulted more than that, it turned mice into inexhaustible runners with super-endurance (We’re talking about Super Mice here). The mice were fed with high-calorie diet and they showed no signs of gaining weight compared to untreated mice that gained weight fast and turned obese.

Diet Pills without Exercise

In the same study, untreated mice were given another drug called “AICAR.” This is what the scientists refer to as the “ultimate couch potato” test.

They fed untrained, untreated laboratory mice with AICAR and after 4 weeks of providing this drug, the mice where able to run 44 percent longer than normal mice, with no prior training.

It sorts of like fool the muscles to believe it is exercising. By chemically mimicking exercise, it reprograms the muscles causing it to burn fat and not tire easily.

AICAR: Magic Diet Pill Description

AICAR activates a protein called “adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase” or AMPK for short. When this protein is activated it produces signals to the body that it needs more energy and thus more energy boosting components are produced.

We need to exercise because this protein is only activated when the body is subjected to a muscle stretching workout.

However, this supercharging stamina booster is said to be more than that, its primary use is to cure muscular disorders and metabolic diseases.

I’ve searched the net and based on the searches per day on “diet pills” it seems like people who are desperate to lose fat are even willing to try “tapeworm diet pills” just to lose weight. Yeah, pills full of tapeworm. This is just an urban legend but the search results show that many consumers are willing to try one...

tapeworm diet pills? anyone?
(interesting number of searches per day...urgh)

Excited to try these magic pills? Don’t pop the magic beans right away, because other scientists argue that “rats are not humans.” Michael Rennie a physiologist from University of Nottingham in England says that “Rats and mice are much more metabolically unstable than human beings.”

The exercise pill and magic diet pill are not yet commercially available and still under further scrutiny and athletes on the Beijing Olympics shouldn’t get high hopes on trying the effect of these pills because scientists have already found a way to detect this drug on urine samples.


Sources: here, here, here and here.


Side comment:
Today sexy energetic rats... tomorrow... hmm..super cats? =)
But this is great news really!

Speaking of rat... I just wanna add this very cute picture... hope nobody would mind... =)

cutie!

We’ll I have just received a very sad news about a juvenile Philippine eagle from the Philippines.

The Philippine eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi), named “Kagsabua” a male, 2 year old eagle, that has only been recently released by the Philippine Eagle Research Center Foundation, was killed after spending years of taking care of the giant bird.

Kagsabua was rescued from captivity last 2006 and was only released into the wild March this year after it was shot and wounded by game hunters in the Kitanglad Mountains, located at the southern part of the Philippines.

And on July 10, just a few months after its release, a local farmer from the Philippines has killed and eaten the rare Philippine Eagle. The farmer, a 22 year old local from the Southern part of the country thought the endangered Philippine eagle was an ordinary bird.

He shot it with an air-gun and saw the transmitter attached to its feet, frightened, he buried it in a ravine. He later changed his mind, dressed the eagle and cooked two kilograms of meat. He stated he cooked the eagle as “Tinola,” a Filipino broth.

The attack was only discovered when members from the Philippine Eagle Foundation noticed that radio tracking device of the said eagle was not moving for quite sometime. They started the search and found only the feet of the hapless eagle, with its radio tracking device still attached to it.

Wildlife officials say that the farmer is now detained and is facing 12 years of imprisonment.

“The Philippine environment secretary has called for the farmer to be punished severely to show that the authorities are serious about enforcing the wildlife protection laws,” local newspaper, Philippine Daily Inquirer noted.

“He shot and ate one of the world’s largest, tallest and rarest eagles.” Researchers and those who spent time with “Kagsabua” later on stated that it felt like the perprator, Brian Balaon, has killed their brother.

Kagsabua is just one of the remaining 250 Philippine eagle roaming the Philippine skies. It has a 2 meter wingspan, weighs 8.8 pounds and is only 2 years old and can only be found in the said country.

Aside from “Kagsabua”, “Tinuy-an,” another Philippine eagle, a female one, was also released last June. The team from the Philippine Eagle Research Center are focusing their efforts to track and observe the giant bird closely to avoid another shooting and eating of the endangered eagle.

This is just one of the many killings of endangered eagles going around the world. Last 2005, an immature eagle was killed in Pennsylvania, while 2 wedged tail eagles have been killed in Tasmania last 2007.

Check out more Philippine Eagle pictures and photos here and here.

Source: Philippine Eagle Foundation, BBC NEWS, NowPublic.Com, Philippine News, Inquirer.Net

Scienctists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or MIT opens up a new window of opportunity with a “window.”

They have discovered that using windows can provide a better way in capturing solar energy.The MIT team have created a new technique that uses simple windows to capture sun’s energy and convert it into electricity.

Currently, with traditional solar energy systems, we are using quite a large number of “solar cells” (expensive semiconductor devices that changes solar energy to electricity) to gather electrical power.

In a home solar energy for instance, we need an entire solar panel or roof to be covered with these expensive solar cells to obtain the needed amount of electricity and power the entire house.

But with this new discovery, the MIT team believes that the “solar concentrator” will be able to minimize the cost because the solar cells will only be placed around the solar window’s edges.

By using special chemical dyes coated on the entire window surface, the solar concentrator window can trap light from the Sun without the need to cover the entire window with solar cells. The special dyes work together to gather light energy and then transport it to the solar cells located around the window’s edges.

"We were able to substantially reduce light transport losses, resulting in a tenfold increase in the amount of power converted by the solar cells." MIT engineer expert Jon Mapel said.

The MIT team expects that this new technology can be commercially available in three years time. That could also mean that buildings can be a good source of electricity and windows could start to power our homes and could fight further environmental or climate change.

So we need not just to look outside our window anymore, but start looking at the window closely.

The Great Pool of China: Take a Dip

This is a surprising photo taken recently in a swimming pool located in Penglai, Sichuan, Western China. Seems like China swimming pools are getting more crowded.

warning: Don't swallow.

Thousands of swimmers can only just thread with their rubber rings when people started to swarm the place. China swimming pools are back to business when it starts to become popular again after the earthquake tragedy last May.

Chinese families are now starting return to their normal lives and seems like taking a dip on swimming pools is one of those missed routines.

I'm just fascinated with how Chinese people could get close to one another while on a public bath. I can't imagine pushing elbows while enjoying a relaxing bath (or maybe not so relaxing) in a pool. But they seem to be having a good time while pushing their rubber rings with each other.

Source: Anyone seen my Rubber Ring? The world's most crowded pool

I came across a very interesting article about the quest for perfect society. It’s pretty detailed and got me wondering about this topic.

So I blogged about it.

I don’t know, but you guys may be familiar with Eugenics. Actually I’m more used to hearing about human breeding program, human cloning and genetically modified bloggers nowadays than read about books or article that define eugenics.

Well as I quote Wikipedia, eugenics is “a social philosophy which advocates the improvement of human hereditary traits through various forms of intervention.”

When we hear of eugenics, usually it is often related with terms like genetic testing, genetic engineering, in vitro fertilization, test tube babies and selective breeding... but sadly, it is also often linked with discrimination, forced killing (cleansing), and immoral act.

Eugenics was first coined by a man named Sir Francis Galton. He even made up the phrase “nurture versus nature.” He believes that the human society deserves only the best breed. Based on what I’ve read about this guy, he’s described as one with prolific intellect. I had to scamper and find my dictionary to see what that means and one thing I found out was that I don’t actually fit the bill. *ugh*

Francis Galton studies lots of things, and well, he got to hang around frequently with Charles Darwin, so you could imagine what kind of conversation they must have... because he is, in fact, Charles’ cousin, so imagine that.

If Charles believes that we came from evolution, Galton was thinking way faster. With clenched fist (maybe) he asserted that “it’s high time we take control of our evolution.”

Okay, so he thought that if flowers and animals could be genetically modified through selective breeding, wherein the farmer can make a flower grow with certain desirable qualities with a little “help,” then why not use this for humans?

And there came eugenics. But actually, it wasn’t Galton who was considered the first eugenicist, I talked with Plato yesterday and told me a very useful quote for this article, "The best of either sex should be united with the best as often as possible, and the inferior with the inferior as seldom as possible."

So in simple math, it goes something like (Good + Good = Unquestionably Good, or Good 2x)... Hmm, I thought opposites attract... never mind.

The history of eugenics show that Galton’s idea was acknowledged and was well received (with an applause) during his time which lead to series of experiments, (era of the guinea pigs I should say), and where the term “forced sterilization” was coined.

Compulsory Sterilization is actually a big part of eugenics history because it was an attempt to minimize human imperfection by “sterilizing” mentally retard or mentally ill, people with physical deformities, blind, deaf, those who have epilepsy, and those with criminal violations. The history provides us some notes that there has been some serious eugenics movement in Britain and America.

How are these poor guys “sterilized”? By castrating males, and preventing women labeled as inferior or physically deformed, to reproduce. It was a bit tedious work, until Hitler came and thought there’s an easier way to do it... See Holocaust.

Okay so not so good background for eugenics right there. But after the buzz about this area of science died down, another scientific leap made its way on center stage.

Search for Designer Babies
Genetic engineering, molecular biology, human cloning these are just a few of the many scientific advancements that promise to provide the “perfect baby” we’ve always wanted.

If you would read certain articles about how they could improve life and the health of your baby, somehow, it does make sense. But thinking that you can have the power to customize your baby, decide whether you would like to have a blond child with blue eyes or a girl with straight hair... this could be really frightening.

Human breeding programs promise betterment with the help of science. But isn’t that playing God already?

Galton may be a prolific genius but he definitely doesn’t fit the bill to be tagged as perfect, doesn’t he?

So how do we define a perfect human? Out of the blue, Beethoven and Helen Keller came into mind. I don’t know. Maybe you know why.

Time travel? Time Machine? You may only heard about this on some sci-fi TV series like CSI or Dr Who but someone out there is really making serious attempts to bridge space and time with a time travel machine.

Charles Blanca presents a different and actually splendid design with his time machine model he called The Madeline Concept.

It’s a pretty fantastic wonder I should say. And it’s a real thing. The designer stated his belief that our sense of smell does have something to do with our memory. He believes that we might just go back our past simply by breathing in that certain smell that would refresh our memories. And he built this time travel machine with this idea in mind.

As I quote him, “So small and discrete molecules though so powerful when we come across them, odours are rooted in our memory and make us travel through time. Madeleine offers to help us find the smells we have lost because of the evolution of our living environment. In a convivial place, everybody will be able to experience a creative immersion in a time-travelling capsule. But more than a product, Madeleine is a community linked by olfactory experience and by the expression of their senses. Let’s wake our sense of smell up and share what inspires us…”

“Find the smell you lost.” I was caught on that one. Actually I have been fascinated with our physiological methods of perception especially with this particular sense. I’ll promise to post some other things that not everyone knows about sense of smell. I’m still gathering my notes on that still.

But this time travel model design is like something that came out of a MI movie!

Well, I guess the Earth is in dire need of a good, trusty time machine. Really. I could use a little time rambling myself. Find the smell I lost, hmm, maybe my ex's perfume? shucks.

I guess it only makes sense that we really do interact with our surroundings without us knowing it. We breath in episodes of our life, taste the sweet or bitter incidents and watch sorrow or happiness unfold. And that's all we do everyday.

Though there are a lot of reasons to consider when getting a divorce, there is one more thing that one should contemplate before actually filing for one.

Recent studies show that divorce is….err.. bad for the environment. Literally.

A research study conducted by ecologists in Michigan State University showed information on divorce that has never been considered. The published paper addressed the environmental impacts of divorce. Yep.

Divorce and the Environment

The published paper shows that the high divorce rate contribute strong negative impacts on our planet. Divorce rate in US shows that 0.74% of the entire population gets divorced every year.

And here are the straight facts:

-In 12 countries studied, divorced households are 27% to 41% smaller than married households. (Living alone after separation. Sort of)

-Houses with divorced couples have MORE rooms to spare than married households. (I did think about that.)

-Divorced households spent 46% to 56% percent more on electricity and water than married households. (Do divorced couples take a bath more often than married couple? Hmm.)

-And 42% to 61% percent of person who underwent divorce consumes more resources and produces more waste than a regular married person. (I hope they were able to check the gender of who consumes more.)

The paper continues that if divorced couples did stay together, the world could have saved approximately 73 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, 627 billion gallons of water in a year, less trash and less pollution. Wow.

These only suggest that the current lifestyle of a divorced person does not help save the environment at all. And staying married really does save money too.

Ok, so before you get those free downloadable divorce forms, or checking up online for do it yourself divorce, divorce made easy etc, try to contemplate the idea that saving your marriage could actually have a greater purpose. =)

I better tagline would be, “Save your marriage and help save the environment.” Well, this could be a better way to combat climate change right?

I was watching some funny clips this morning and decided to compile these funny office videos that made me almost fall off my chair.

hmm, for some reason the first video i've embedded from College Humor has been removed. So i'll have to replace it...

1. Good clerks gone bad

An actual footage of a guy going totally berserk in the office...

http://view.break.com/513310 - Watch more free videos

2. Good clerk gone bad.. different angle

This is another shot of the same incident taken from a different angle. More action packed i should say. It was taken from another employee's cellphone...


Funny Videos

Raawwr.


3. Watching Porn at the Office (Tsk.)



4. Butt Naked. Copy-busted!



That hurts.

A Life for Sale?
“Hi there, my name is Ian Usher, and I have had enough of my life! I don't want it any more! You can have it if you like!”

Hmm, another one of a kind. A guy in the name of Ian Usher has decided to sell his entire life on Ebay after a failed marriage.

Ian Usher, a Brit who currently lives in Perth, Australia placed on Internet auction his three bedroom house, all his furniture, his job, even his friends are part of the deal.

Ian Usher sells his entire life after his wife of 12 years left him. This bid started last Sunday, June 22 and will end on June 29. He’s hoping to raise-up A$500,000 to start a new life as a toady of whomever who’d like to buy him off. And currently he has attracted 66 bids, with A$399,300 being the highest bid. This one big auction is now attracting thousands of users to his website. Not a bad idea getting web traffic.

As I’m putting this to writing, bidders still have 15 hours, 42 minutes and 22 seconds left to bid for his life.

He looks pretty good and fit. This 32 year old man comes with a jetski, a three bedroom house, a car, and a sensitive heart. He’s so sensitive that he’s willing to open his heart out to you and tell his entire autobiography, romantic story and the name and address of the woman who broke his heart for one-time payment of A$2.95.

The House (Price: A$420,000)

Jetski. (Price: Around $1,136)

Car. (Price: Around $4,000)

Ian Usher: (Price: )

I like this guy. I really do.

Hmm, by the way, this is not the first time someone has tried selling his dignity and entire self in Ebay. A guy named Adam Burtle also tried to sell his soul on Ebay last 2001. But poor guy fetched only $400 dollar for the bid. Ebay had to call it off.

Usher seems to be in mint condition with only minor head scratches.

Most Expensive (Pathetic) Bags

Do you think this bag is silly?


This is a Louis Vuitton Tribute Patchwork Bag. I was laughing so hard when I saw this bag but I almost gagged when I saw how much it costs. It's a whopping $42,000 dollars!

This fugly (new term I learned while I was reading reviews about this bag) ridiculously looking bag designed with 15 different LV design samples is now available in Louis Vuitton Boutiques. And thank heavens they only made 24 of this bag! Four are available in the US and 20 are distributed in Asia and Europe LV boutiques.

Hold your breath, because it's on number 6th on the Most Extravagant Designer Bags Handbags List!

Okay, you can scream now.

I don't even find Louis Vuitton bags attractive and was wondering if I really don't have an eye for fashion, but this designer bag really proves that it wasn't me, it's Louis Vuitton!

Simply put, it's really ugly. Too many designs to appreciate creativeness, if there's any. But if there has been a lot of heated discussions about loving or hating this Louis Vuitton bag, check out Louis Vuitton's NEW RELEASE for 2008.




Ta-da! It's the Louis Vuitton Urban Satchel Bag! I have never expected to see anything like this!
It is totally ridiculous!

This Louis Vuitton Urban Satchel Bag is said to be handcrafted and is made of the finest Italian leather (yada yada yada) and was described as one-of-a-kind luxury(yawn).

You can only have nightmares of owning this one! But what's lunatic about this is that it is for sale for, check this out... $150,000!

This definitely belongs to the Collection of the Most Absurd. This Louis Vuitton Urban Satchel Bag is nothing but a nasty pile of trash pretending to be something like.... an elegant rubbish. Well, I guess no pretentious designs over here! It's a rubbish, period.

Unbelievably fugly, hideous and absurd. See the shrimp tails? Dirty band-aid? A plastic cap? It's all dirt glued in one sweet carry.

But here's more..

Ashley Olsen signed a multi-billion dollar contract to advertise for Louis Vuitton Urban Rubbish. And the Olsen are rumored to be in a heated argument on who gets to purchase the monstrous bag...


Fighting over one big joke. But with their current style and with the money they make, these twins could surely burn $300,000 so they could both each have this silly urban junk.

Just perfect.

What is going on? What's wrong with these people?! 24 of these have been made and all them are already reserved and paid for!

Well i just can't express how I feel about this total waste and I've compiled some brilliant comments from other people who seem to perfectly see that this is nothing but serious humiliation for mankind.

Comments:

"This look like something I would find in a pile of trash in New York City with a bulimic person stuck to it"

"Actually, I think your send up of this latest bit of ridiculous cultural ephemera is one of your cleverest yet....in the fact that the art world is every bit as pretentious and vapid as the celebrity scene, I'm sure you could parlay this idea into a gallery show..."

"What the hell is wrong with people??? 150K for a bag is a house for a family. 45K a small condo...this just goes to show how truly material these people are. I bet you after a few wears it will be in the back of some girl's closet...so last season. I wander what they will come up with next. I agree I hope the proud owners are giving 2 x the amount to a needy charity."

"What's really sad is that the same dumb bitches who buy this sort of ugly crap purse can't be bothered to plunk down $9.99 at Costco for a six pack of cotton undies.
And then they have to go find some paparazzi to take pictures of their naked cooches to prove it to us."


Best comment of all..

"Civilisations rise and fall. This one will eventually,(probably not as soon as soon as the present carbon farting war monkies seem to want it to), but it will end. My main worry is that future archaeologists won't unearth a copy of "The Theory Of Relativity", Stevie Wonder's "Innervisions", or even a really good computer (Mac or P.C,no preference)...

...instead they'll find , a DVD of the "Simple Life" (series one), David Hasselhof's mummified body and this fucking bag.

They will then declare this epoch as unworthy of study, and deserving of whatever fate befell it." - Christina T.