Friday, January 9, 2015
A Bamboo World
Dr Abe V Rotor
Bamboo grove becomes a children's playground.
Santo Domingo, Ilocos Sur
To see the world in a grove of bamboo
is seeing our ancestors in their time,
in the rustic world of Amorsolo
far, far away from the city scene,
hidden by a curtain of green .
It’s an arena of wit and skill and joy,
in laughter that fills the pure air
echoed by the swaying bamboo
that played with children in scary creak
the original game of hide-and-seek.
Here nobody wins or loses in the game
because there are no walls, no fences,
and there is no time to gain or to lose;
it’s a world to men children shall grow,
simple and true like the bamboo. ~
in the rustic world of Amorsolo
far, far away from the city scene,
hidden by a curtain of green .
It’s an arena of wit and skill and joy,
in laughter that fills the pure air
echoed by the swaying bamboo
that played with children in scary creak
the original game of hide-and-seek.
Here nobody wins or loses in the game
because there are no walls, no fences,
and there is no time to gain or to lose;
it’s a world to men children shall grow,
simple and true like the bamboo. ~
Monday, January 5, 2015
Decorative baskets from leaflets
Dr Abe V Rotor
Don't refuse those colorful
leaflets at the mall. Gather them instead. Have a second round.
Tell the kind fellow you need more for your friends. And neighbors. Put a smile to show your
(good) intentions.
Now you have a bagful of
colorful leaflets - housing, food, appliance, fashion, party, promo of many
kinds. Get them all. The giver will be just too happy. You
are his potential customer.
Of course you are.
Who knows someday you will patronize any of
those advertised products and services? Or someone in the
family or in the office will be curious about it.
You see, you are a great
help in getting rid of litters. You make something useful before it is
thrown into the garbage. You turn garbage to beauty. You give life
to a short-lived leaflet. That’s more than recycling. You make a table
alive, a corner filled, a shelf attractive. You make something functional for
pencils, laces, ribbons, hankies, in fact you can use it as flower base other
than just a receptacle.
You make children curious.
They want to know how you do it? You are now a mentor, a teacher.
You are now an environmentalist. An artist, not only for art sake,
but to make this world a better place to live in. ~
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Animals can tell the coming of a natural calamity
Dr Abe V Rotor
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1.When earthworms crawl out of their holes, a flood is coming.
This subterranean annelid has built-in sensors, a biblical Noah’s sense of a coming flood, so to speak. Its small brain is connected to clusters of nerve cells, called ganglia, running down the whole body length. These in turn are connected to numerous hair-like protrusions on the cuticle, which serve as receptor. When rain saturates the soil, ground water rises and before it reaches their burrows, they crawl out to higher grounds where they seek refuge until the flood or the rainy season is over. The more earthworms abandoning their burrows, the more we should take precaution.
Giant earthworm, UST campus. Photo taken
before Typhoon Lupit, October 17, 2009.
The poor creature was crossing a concrete
pavement on its way to higher ground. I
helped it find a safe home.
2. Animals become uneasy before an earthquake occurs.
It is because they are sensitive to the vibrations preceding an earthquake. They perceive the small numerous crackling of the earth before the final break (tectonic), which is the earthquake. As a means of self-preservation they try to escape from stables and pens, seek shelter, run to higher grounds, or simply escape to areas far from the impending earthquake. Snakes come out of their abode, reptiles move away from the water, horses neigh and kick around, elephants seem to defy the command of their masters (like in the case of the 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka). We humans can only detect such minute movements on our inventions such as the Richter Scale.
3.Dogs howl in the night at unseen spirits.
Dogs have keen sense of seeing, smelling and hearing, many times more sensitive than ours. Many animals such as members of the cat family - lions, tigers, and the domesticated cat – are equally, if not more sensitive, in the dark. They also have infrared vision that enhances their predatory habits. The limitation of our senses is the mother of many of our beliefs or superstitions.
4. Raining while the sun is out breeds insects.
Now and then we experience simultaneous rain and sunshine, and may find ourselves walking under an arch of rainbow, a romantic scene reminiscent of the movie and song, Singing in the Rain. Old folks would rather grim with a kind of sadness on their faces, for they believe that such condition breeds caterpillars and other vermin that destroy their crops.
What could be the explanation to this belief? Thunderstorm is likely the kind of rain old folks are referring to. Warmth plus moisture is vital to egg incubation, and activation of aestivating insects, fungi, bacteria and the like. In a few days, they come out in search of food and hosts. Armyworms and cutworms (Spodoptera and Prodina), named after their huge numbers and voracious eating habit, are among these uninvited guests
5. When house lizards (butiki) are noisy, there is a guest coming.
My father used to tell me when I was a child, that if house lizards make loud and crispy calls, it’s likely that a visitor is coming.
How do lizards know? Some people attribute this to the house lizard’s habit of “kissing” the ground at dusk. But this has nothing to do with predicting a guest’s arrival. But we know that when a person is anticipating a guest he is extraordinarily keen, and thus become aware of anything happening in his surroundings – including the mating calls of lizards.
House lizards take a drink on the ground and return to their dwellings on top of trees, on ceilings and roofs where water is scarce. By the way lizards are common where there is a lot of insects they can feed on, such as areas around fluorescent lamps and street lights.
6. When jellyfish come to the surface of the sea there is an earthquake or tsunami coming. It is when the epicenter of an earthquake occurs under the sea that tsunami may follow. Marine animals as well as land animals can detect minute tremors preceding an earthquake. Because of this they seek for safe areas usually moving upward shallower waters. (NOTE: Such vibrations are generally imperceptible to humans. They are monitored by his invention, the Seismograph, instead.)
7. When cockroaches are flying about, there are plenty of fish to catch. This is not limited to cockroaches. Other insects do swarm at certain stages or seasons of the year. For example, termites swarm at the onset of the heavy rains (monsoon or habagat); honeybees swarm when the queen bee dies, or when a new queen is produced from an old hive. Gnats or gamu-gamu swarm when their population shoot up due to freedom from predators. Locusts coalesce and migrate if driven by drought that destroys their source of food. Fish are abundant when there are plenty of insects since insects constitute their main food.
8. Numerous leafhoppers (Nepothettix spp., Order Homoptera) smashed on the windshield while driving at night on the highway, means there is population buildup of this pest in the area. Leafhoppers attack rice and other crops in their growing and early maturing periods.
Unusual behavior of a school of fish is a sign of a coming earthquake. Bangkok, Thailand
9· Ants move into the house for shelter of a coming strong rain or a typhoon. They even carry with them their young and eggs. Oftentimes some of the members of the colony bear wings. These are soldiers and workers ants which have grown wings in preparation for swarming.
10. A tree surrounded by fireflies during the night brings good luck.
Fireflies are biological indicators of a pristine environment and good weather. Letizia Constantino once wrote in Issues without Tears, a moving article –You don’t see fireflies anymore. It is reminiscent of Rachel Carson’s winning novel, Silent Spring, a story when the birds did not return one spring. It is all about man’s growing indifference in protecting the environment from pollution and many other abuses. ~
.jpg)
1.When earthworms crawl out of their holes, a flood is coming.
This subterranean annelid has built-in sensors, a biblical Noah’s sense of a coming flood, so to speak. Its small brain is connected to clusters of nerve cells, called ganglia, running down the whole body length. These in turn are connected to numerous hair-like protrusions on the cuticle, which serve as receptor. When rain saturates the soil, ground water rises and before it reaches their burrows, they crawl out to higher grounds where they seek refuge until the flood or the rainy season is over. The more earthworms abandoning their burrows, the more we should take precaution.
Giant earthworm, UST campus. Photo taken
before Typhoon Lupit, October 17, 2009.
The poor creature was crossing a concrete
pavement on its way to higher ground. I
helped it find a safe home.
2. Animals become uneasy before an earthquake occurs.
3.Dogs howl in the night at unseen spirits.
Dogs have keen sense of seeing, smelling and hearing, many times more sensitive than ours. Many animals such as members of the cat family - lions, tigers, and the domesticated cat – are equally, if not more sensitive, in the dark. They also have infrared vision that enhances their predatory habits. The limitation of our senses is the mother of many of our beliefs or superstitions.
4. Raining while the sun is out breeds insects.
Now and then we experience simultaneous rain and sunshine, and may find ourselves walking under an arch of rainbow, a romantic scene reminiscent of the movie and song, Singing in the Rain. Old folks would rather grim with a kind of sadness on their faces, for they believe that such condition breeds caterpillars and other vermin that destroy their crops.
What could be the explanation to this belief? Thunderstorm is likely the kind of rain old folks are referring to. Warmth plus moisture is vital to egg incubation, and activation of aestivating insects, fungi, bacteria and the like. In a few days, they come out in search of food and hosts. Armyworms and cutworms (Spodoptera and Prodina), named after their huge numbers and voracious eating habit, are among these uninvited guests
5. When house lizards (butiki) are noisy, there is a guest coming.
My father used to tell me when I was a child, that if house lizards make loud and crispy calls, it’s likely that a visitor is coming.
How do lizards know? Some people attribute this to the house lizard’s habit of “kissing” the ground at dusk. But this has nothing to do with predicting a guest’s arrival. But we know that when a person is anticipating a guest he is extraordinarily keen, and thus become aware of anything happening in his surroundings – including the mating calls of lizards.
House lizards take a drink on the ground and return to their dwellings on top of trees, on ceilings and roofs where water is scarce. By the way lizards are common where there is a lot of insects they can feed on, such as areas around fluorescent lamps and street lights.
6. When jellyfish come to the surface of the sea there is an earthquake or tsunami coming. It is when the epicenter of an earthquake occurs under the sea that tsunami may follow. Marine animals as well as land animals can detect minute tremors preceding an earthquake. Because of this they seek for safe areas usually moving upward shallower waters. (NOTE: Such vibrations are generally imperceptible to humans. They are monitored by his invention, the Seismograph, instead.)
7. When cockroaches are flying about, there are plenty of fish to catch. This is not limited to cockroaches. Other insects do swarm at certain stages or seasons of the year. For example, termites swarm at the onset of the heavy rains (monsoon or habagat); honeybees swarm when the queen bee dies, or when a new queen is produced from an old hive. Gnats or gamu-gamu swarm when their population shoot up due to freedom from predators. Locusts coalesce and migrate if driven by drought that destroys their source of food. Fish are abundant when there are plenty of insects since insects constitute their main food.
8. Numerous leafhoppers (Nepothettix spp., Order Homoptera) smashed on the windshield while driving at night on the highway, means there is population buildup of this pest in the area. Leafhoppers attack rice and other crops in their growing and early maturing periods.
Unusual behavior of a school of fish is a sign of a coming earthquake. Bangkok, Thailand
9· Ants move into the house for shelter of a coming strong rain or a typhoon. They even carry with them their young and eggs. Oftentimes some of the members of the colony bear wings. These are soldiers and workers ants which have grown wings in preparation for swarming.
Fireflies are biological indicators of a pristine environment and good weather. Letizia Constantino once wrote in Issues without Tears, a moving article –You don’t see fireflies anymore. It is reminiscent of Rachel Carson’s winning novel, Silent Spring, a story when the birds did not return one spring. It is all about man’s growing indifference in protecting the environment from pollution and many other abuses. ~
Saturday, December 27, 2014
The Lighter Side of Human Nature: To reach your destination fast, go slow.
The Lighter Side of Human Nature
To reach your destination fast, go slow.
Dr Abe V Rotor
A young man was driving a caleza (horse drawn cart) PHOTO loaded with coconuts on a market day. “I’ll be late and won’t be able to sell all my coconuts,” he said to himself. Whereupon he saw an old man on the roadside, stopped and asked, “How I can reach the marketplace the soonest I can, Apo Lakay (old man)?”
The old man glanced at the loaded caleza, smiled and said, “Just go slow anak (child), and you will reach your destination.”
The young man thought he was talking to an ulyanin (a forgetful person). Actually he was asking something he did not have to ask in the first place. So he cracked the whip and his horse galloped even if the road is rough and rutted. The nuts kept falling along the way so that he had to stop now and then to pick them up.
The old man is after all right.
This story is relevant to us living on the fast lane, and in keeping up with the Joneses, for that matter. I can only imagine how the simple folk philosopher would give us the same advice.~
The old man glanced at the loaded caleza, smiled and said, “Just go slow anak (child), and you will reach your destination.”
The young man thought he was talking to an ulyanin (a forgetful person). Actually he was asking something he did not have to ask in the first place. So he cracked the whip and his horse galloped even if the road is rough and rutted. The nuts kept falling along the way so that he had to stop now and then to pick them up.
The old man is after all right.
This story is relevant to us living on the fast lane, and in keeping up with the Joneses, for that matter. I can only imagine how the simple folk philosopher would give us the same advice.~
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Who is Who in agriculture, medicine and life science?
Who is Who in agriculture, medicine and life science?
Researched by Dr Abe V Rotor
1. If there is a Luther Burbank, the American plant wizard, who is our own in the Philippines (___________________________, foremost plant breeder of the Philippines)
2. The greatest and most popular authority of medicinal plants in the Philippines (___________________________, Medicinal Plants of the Philippines)
3. Filipino scientist who occupied the highest position in the UN FAO? (________________________, Regional chief of UN-FAO for Asia and the Pacific)
4. Her name is an institution in children health care, founder of Children's Hospital and inventor of nursery incubation chamber, among other invention (___________________)
5. His discovery of the cause of cadang-cadang disease of coconut lead to effective control of the disease threatening to wipeout the coconut industry in the Philippines (________________________________)
6. First director or International Institute for Rural Reconstruction, author of Alternative Medicine, anti-smoking in public places, school and advertisement. (_____________________________)
7. Man behind food self-sufficiency, M-99 that led the Philippine among the top rice producers in the 70s and 80s. (_______________________, Secretary of agriculture)
8. First Filipino allergologist, discovered a syndrome named after him, internationally adapted in hospitals and medical schools around the world, served as executive secretary of presidents Quezon and Osmeña, discovered orchids also named after him. (___________________________).
9. Founder of the Nursing profession, brought into the profession respectability and dignity, service and selflessness, (_________________________, nationality ________________)
10. The greatest woman who ever lived in our times - epitome of love, compassion, faith, selflessness and dedication, a living saint (though less popular than Marilyn Monroe and Princess Diana, In fact there were far less number people who paid their respects to her than Princess Diana who died and was buried at the same time.) _______________________ of ________________.
ANSWERS:
1. Nemesio Mendiola 2.Eduardo Quisumbing 3.Dioscorro Umali 4. Fe del Mundo 5. Gerardo Ocfemia 6.Juan Flavier 7. Arturo Tanco Jr 8.Arturo B Rotor 9. Florence Nightingale 10.Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Palette Board Speaks: Neo-Darwinism Evolution of Life
Palette Board Speaks
Neo-Darwinism Evolution of Life
Paintings and Verses by Dr Abe V Rotor
Speleology and tourism, what a combination;
though both exploit the secrets of the past,
trace the beginning of human's civilization,
and Plato's allegory of the escaped outcast.
Linnaeus, if alive today, would wonder,
how he missed in his study
organisms posthumously emerged
from science and technology.
Coral reef of deceiving beauty,
red for warning, black for death;
white as skeleton; blue-green,
invasion of the primitive scum
that once ruled the early earth.
If you can decipher what life forms these are,
you must be an artist, like Picasso or Matisse,
masters of abstract art - not the ideal, the real,
the form and order of God's creation remised. ~
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