Monday, April 27, 2015

Allergy-Proof Your Home


Dr Abe V Rotor
 An ecology-designed home

These are fairly quick, simple, and inexpensive methods of making your home friendlier to your asthma and allergies.

1. Build house on spacious lot and surroundings
2. Free house of carpet and wall paper
3. Knock on wood. Wood is preferable to any construction material.
4. Prefer shiny floors, materials of low-gas ingredients
5. Provide good natural ventilation
6. Let sunshine in, façade towards the east
7. Integrate house plan with garden
8. Screen out plants that are allergen potential
9. Design home in unity and harmony with natural environment, not vice versa
  
10.Always maintain cleanliness and orderliness at all times.

Brick farmhouse, painting by the author

Friday, April 10, 2015

Rich Flora of Guimaras Ialand

Dr Abe V Rotor






Fancy-leaved Caladium (Caladium humboltii)
 Euphorbia (Euphorbia splendens)

Red kalachuchi (Plumera rubra)
Pandakaking tsina (Ervatamia divaricata)

 Water plant (Philodendron hastatum)
 
 Fire tree (Delonix regia)
Daisy (Gerbera jamesonii)


Doña Aurora (Mussaenda philippica var aurorarae)

 Lantana (Lantana camara)



Yellow  gummamela (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis)
Red gummamela (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis)

Gummamela (Hibiscus schizopetalus)
 
 Variegated gummamela (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis)


Lobsterclaw (Heliconia acuminata)
 
Anahaw (Livistonia acuminata)
 Powderpuff lily (Haemanthus multiflorus)
 

Beach hymenocallis (Hymenocallis litoralis) / Spider lily (Crinum asiaticum)


  Garden asparagus (Asparagus officinales)

Croton (Codiaeum variegatum)
Croton (Codiaeum variegatum)

Ripe fruits of pandakaki (Tabernamontana pandakaki)




Monday, April 6, 2015

Green Mango, anyone?

Dr Abe V Rotor

Pickled green mango, homemade.

It's mango season - mangoes everywhere: green, ripe, or about; dried, juice      and jam.
The biggest and sweetest, our native variety; wild or pahutan, now rare and endangered.
Take the back seat, apple, pear, persimmon; join the fun, pineapple, guava and orange.
When green fruits fall, waste them not: pickle with vinegar, salt and sugar in glass jar. .
Serve straight, to each his own take, at anytime, before, during and after every meal.
For green mango juice: blend with sugar, crushed ice and cream, and serve in tall glass.
A mother stock in the ref: concentrated juice, ready to mix for the kids after school. ~    

Warning to the Moth

Dr Abe V Rotor

Mimicry is the secret of the moth to escape its enemies, blending 
with the surroundings (camouflage), mimicking fearful creatures 
with false eyes, spreading their wings to appear huge, and other 
deceitful ways. 

 Moth, master of camouflage, don’t be dumb: 
When you lose your art, you lose your freedom.





Rice Hull (ipa) ash protects mungbeans from bean weevil

Practical Technology with Nature 
Rice Hull (ipa) ash protects mungbeans 
from bean weevil

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog 
Upper photos, mungbean (Vigna radiata L.) showing the extent of infestation by the bean weevil. Closeup of the weevil, and stages of its life cycle. Mungbean is one of the most important edible legume crops, grown on more than 6 million hectares worldwide and consumed by most households in Asia. Its nutritional value is very high, not only as staple food, but ingredients of a wide variety of food preparations, its health benefits notwithstanding.*

Burnt rice hull (ipa) contains silica crystals that are microscopic glass shards capable of penetrating into the conjunctiva of the bean weevil (Callosobruchus maculatus).  Once lodged, the crystal causes more damage as the insect moves and struggles, resulting in infection and desiccation, and ultimately death.

This is the finding of Ethel Niña Catahan in her masteral thesis in biology at the University of Santo Tomas.  Catahan tested two types of rice hull.  One is partly carbonized (black ash) and the other oven-burned (white ash).

Both are applied independently in very small amount as either mixed with the beans or as protectant placed at the mouth of the container.  In both preparations and methods, mungbeans - and other beans and also, cereals, for that matter - can be stored for as long as six months without being destroyed by this Coleopterous insect.

The bean weevil is a cosmopolitan insect whose grub lives inside the bean, eating the whole content and leaving only the seed cover at the end of its life cycle.  When it is about to emerge the female lays eggs for the next generation.  Whole stocks of beans may be rendered unfit not only for human consumption, but for animal feeds as well.  It is because the insect leaves a characteristic odor that come from the insect's droppings (frass) and due to fungal growth that accompanies infestation. ~
--------------------------
*Mungbean Nutrition facts
Sources include: USDA
Mung beans, raw
347 Calories - 100 grams

Nutrient Amount(g) DV(%)
Total Fat 1.2 g 1%
Cholesterol 0 mg 0%
Sodium 15 mg 0%
Potassium 1,246 mg 35%
Total Carbohydrate 63 g 21%
Protein 24 g 48%

Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs. 
Acknowledgement with thanks: Internet photos
Reference: Living with Folk Wisdom, AV Rotor (UST Publishing House 2008

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Reconstruct and identify which of these cities is not in Europe

Dr Abe V Rotor
  1. SHANYE
  2. WOOCSM
  3. LINAM
  4. GATHWONNS
  5. GAIWN
  6. ORME
  7. IRAPS 
  8. MDAIDR
  9. ATEMSADRM
  10. OLNODN




Note: Answers to be posted in a week's time. TY