Fight for a Cause, a peerless chance.

                                  Fight for a Cause, a peerless chance. 

Dr Abe V Rotor

                                            No, not a mob adrift with the current;

fight for a Cause, a peerless chance;

 death the cost, but the meaning of your life,

while you walk here on earth but once. 

   Acknowledgement: Internet photo

Spontaneity in Art Reveals Natural Beauty

Living with Nature 

Spontaneity in Art Reveals Natural Beauty 

"Spontaneous art reveals Nature's beauty,

with man's conscious and sub-conscious state,

at peace and quiet, reverence and piety."- avr

Paintings and Verses by Dr Abe V Rotor

A flower in its demise, dies that a new life emerges - in fact a whole offspring many times over in number. Nature's art sets the theme of many a work of artists, they themselves would never have thought of before.  

"Light - its particle-wave property

enables the eye to see

the universe's great mystery."

 - avr

A maze is but a scene gone wild and when captured on canvas or screen suggests an idea akin to one's experience and imagination, such as these galactic representations somewhere in the universe - or under the microscope.   

"With red, blue, and yellow,

   nature creates the rainbow,

  with prism of light through,

  that an image comes true."

 - avr

What is black is not emptiness, but the result in proportional ratio of the primary colors - red, blue, yellow - combined by the power light.  In the process these colors create limitless possible combinations seen by the eye, depending on the organism, invisible rays, mirage, auroras affecting vision, notwithstanding.  

"Travel inside a leaf, other than into space, 

 One small step for man,

a giant leap for mankind - 

      the farther you go into an unknown place." - avr

A leaf in the palm of your hand, or seen as chloroplasts under a powerful lens, freshness of spring, green meadow and hill - captured and nestled in the mind, heart and soul, reflect true peace, "Peace is always beautiful," says Walt Whitman

"A Blade of Grass, Whitman says,

     magnificence of Nature's ways." - avr

"The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection." - Michelangelo

How superstitious are you? "People with large ears live long."

  How superstitious are you? Here is a checklist.

  "The balete tree (Ficus benjamina)  is home of bad spirits." 

Dr Abe V Rotor 

             Vampire bat

Check those items which have scientific bases to qualify them outside the realm of superstition. 

1. Angalo is the legendary friendly giant among the Ilocanos.
2. Avoid laughing when planting kamote otherwise the roots will become liplike.
3. Bathing the cat will cause rain.
4. Bats swoop on unwary people.
5. Bite your finger after you have pointed at somebody, so that the blame will not boomerang.
6. Black ants on lansones means the fruit is sweet.
7. 
   Bringing salt under a sour fruit-bearing tree will cause the fruits to fall.
8. One can read how nature intended plants to be used by examining their resemblances and other physical characteristics.
9. Cassava grown from inverted cutting is poisonous.
10. Cat grooming at the doorway tells of visitors coming. 
11. Cockroaches eat on anything - almost.
12. Conceiving mother who gets near a fruiting tree causes its fruits to fall prematurely.
13. Eating shark influences human character with the animal’s behavior.
14. Food offering on special occasions is homage to the spirits.
15. Fruit trees watered with sugar solution bear sweet fruits.
16. Garlic drives the aswang away.
17. Hanging bottles on the trellis of gourd plants induces fruiting.
18. Harelip or cleft lip is the result of an accident when the baby was still in the womb.
19. If a Fortune plant received as a gift bears flowers, it is a sign of good luck.
20. Inadvertently wearing reverse clothes leads one to marry a widow or an old maid.
21. It’s customary to first spill a little of your wine in deference to the spirits. 
22. It’s lucky to find a four-leaf clover.
23. Kugtong or giant lapulapu – does exist in deep rivers and lakes.  
    
24. Mother who eats twin bananas will bear twin children.
25. Mothers place the extracted tooth of their children under the pillow or mat so that the good tooth fairy will come and replace it.
26. Nakakapagpagaling ang laway sa nausog (A little saliva relives someone who was chanced upon by the unseen.)
27. Old folk’s advice: Don’t forget to spit on the spot where you answered the call of nature. 
28. One who is fond of rice crust (tutong) is lazy.
29. Papaya planted in front of a house brings bad luck.
30. People with large ears live long.
31. Place the first fruits harvested from a plant in a large container and pretend to carry them as if they were very heavy so that the plant will be heavy with fruits.
32. When planting a tree seedling, avoid looking up so that the plant will not grow very tall. Stoop when planting coconut so it bears nuts early.
    
33. Chicken soup is best for convalescent. 
34. Rice is the first thing to carry with when moving to a new house.
35. The balete (Ficus benjamina) PHOTO is the home of bad spirits which cause those who go near the tree to become sick. ~

All of the above items are superstitious beliefs.

The Garden - Microcosm of the Insect World ( "The smallest creatures often hold the key to the grandest mysteries of our ecosystems." )

 The Garden - Microcosm of the Insect World

"If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate... If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos." — E.O. Wilson

                                                         Abercio V Rotor PhD

     Retired Professor in Entomology

       UST-GS, DLSAU, DLSU-D, SPU-QC

Entomology (study of insects) is best studied in the field in order to gain on-site and hands-on experience. A school garden, such as the UST Botanical Garden Manila serves the purpose for regular field work. Ideally, schools with sprawling campuses are ideal. Ateneo de Manila University for one, and University of the Philippines Diliman, and of course, UP Los Banos in Laguna. 

Daddy-long-legs, relative of the mosquito, quakes continuously when at rest by swaying its body back and forth in all directions, causing blurred view to a would-be attacker, and mesmerizing a potential prey. In the open, such optical illusion is enhanced by the shadow of the moving organism. Note the hind pair of wings reduced into halteres or balancer, characteristic of Dipterans. There is another kind of daddy-long-legs which belongs to Arachnida.

With increasing population, traffic and commerce all around a community, there is one place, a garden, that offers a wildlife sanctuary, specially insects. Here they live freely in the trees and shrubs, on annuals, inside the greenhouses, around the ponds, in loamy soil, and in the shade of buildings, and even visit homes seeking a suitable abode.

I have the feeling that of all animals, insects are the most adapted to the varied aspects of human activities, from the sound of hurrying feet to soft echoes of prayer and hymns – and loud music. When there are humans around, insects feed on morsels, paper and crayons, drink on fruit juices and beer. They aestivate in flower pots and boxes to tide with the harsh summer months. Or hibernate when the cold Siberian High comes. I think Pavlov’s conditioned learning works with insects as well.

Interestingly, as an entomologist, I have been monitoring the insects in some gardens, listing down a good number of species that include those not readily found elsewhere. These include a giant click beetle, a rhinoceros beetle with horns resembling a triceratops, Ficus pollinating wasp, leaf-curling thrips of ikmo, long horned grasshoppers, sulfur and Papilio butterflies.

Well, it is a fact that there is no escape from insects - good or bad ones. In terms of species, there are 7 insects out of 10 animal organisms of earth. Insects comprise 800,000 kinds and scientists estimate that their kin - lobster shrimps, spiders, ticks, centipedes, millipedes and scorpions if these were to be added, the phylum to which they all belongs, Phylum Arthropoda, would comprise 80 percent of all animals organisms. To compare, plants make up only one-half million species.

What secrets have insects in dominating the animal world, and surpassing the geologic history of dinosaurs, fishes, mammals and even some mollusks?

Well look at the ants, termites, and bees, the so-called social insects. Their caste system is so intact and strict that is was long regarded as a model of man’s quest for a perfect society. It inspired the building of highly autocratic empires like Egyptian and Roman Empires, and the monarchial Aztecs,       Inca and Mayan civilizations.

Antlion's traps. The predatory larva of this Neuropteran (Dendroleon obsoletum) lies buried at the bottom of the pit waiting for an unwary ant to fall and become its meal. The adult resembles the damselfly.

Take the case of the butterflies and moths. Their active time is not only well defined - diurnal or nocturnal, but their food is highly specific to a plant or group of plants and their parts. Their life cycles allow either accelerated or suspended metamorphosis depending on the prevailing conditions of the environment, a feat no other animal can do more efficiently.

In an outdoor lecture around a garden pond, I explained  the bizarre life of the dragonfly, once a contemporary of the dinosaur. Its young called nymph is a fearful hunter in water as the adult is in air. Apparently this is mainly  the reason on how it got its legendary name. I showed our visitors mainly students about the weapons of insects: the preying mantis carries a pair of ax-and-vise, a bee brandishes a poisonous dagger, while a tussock moth is cloaked with stinging barbs, a stink bug sprays corrosive acid on eyes or skin. The weevil has an auger snout, the grasshopper grins with shear-like mandibles, and the mosquito tucks in a long, contaminated needle.

We examined a beetle. Our thought brought us to the medieval age. A knight in full battle gear! Chitin, which makes up its armor called exoskeleton, has not been successfully copied in the laboratory. So with the light of the firefly, the most efficient of all lights on earth.

Wait until you hear this! Aphids, scale insects and some dipterans, are capable of paedogenesis, that is, the ability of insects to produce young even before reaching maturity!

Numbers, numbers, numbers. This is the secret of survival and dominance in the biological world. King Solomon is wise indeed in halting his army so that another army - an army of ants can pass. Killer ants and killer bees destroy anything that impedes their passage, including livestock - and human.

Invisibility is another key to insect survival and dominance. Have you examined the inside of leaf galls in santol, Ficus and ikmo? Well, you need a microscope to see the culprit - thrips or red mites. I demonstrated to guests how insects, being very small, can ride on the wind and current, find easy shelter, and are less subjected to injury when they fall. Also, insects require relatively less energy than bigger organisms do. All of these contribute to their persistence and worldwide distribution. Insects surely are among the ultimate survivors of a disaster.

In an article I wrote, A Night of Music in a Garden I described Nature’s musicians, the cricket and the katydid. While their sounds are music to many of us they are totally coded sounds similar to our communications. 

A Walking Stick, a perfect example of mimicry.

Cicadas, beetles, grasshopper, have their own “languages”, and in the case of termites and bees, their language is in the form of chemical signals known as pheromones. It is from them that we are learning pheromones in humans.

"The smallest creatures often hold the key to the grandest

mysteries of our ecosystems." — Rachel Carson

Without insects, we are certain to miss our sweetest sugar which is honey, the finest fabric which is silk, the mysterious fig (Smyrna fig) which is an exotic fruit. We would be having less and less of luscious fruits, succulent vegetables, the reddest dye, unique flavor in cheese, and most likely we will not have enough food to eat because insects are the chief pollinators, and main food of fishes and other animals. They are major links in the food chains and food webs, the columns of a biological Parthenon.

Without insects, the earth would be littered with dead bodies of plants and animals. Insects are the co-workers of decomposition with bacteria and fungi as they prepare for the life of the next generation by converting dead tissues into organic materials and ultimately into their inorganic forms. Together they help bridge the living and the non-living world.

                                                         Green Bug

A garden without bees and butterflies mirrors a scenario of the biblical fall. And if the other creatures in that garden strayed away from its beautiful premises as our first forebears began their wandering, they too, must have learned the true values of life, which they share to us today.

Beautiful is the verse from A Gnat and a Bee, an Aesop fables. To wit:

“The wretch who works not for his daily bread,

Sighs and complains, but ought not to be fed.

Think, when you see stout beggars on their stand,

The lazy are the locusts of the land.”

In The Ant and the Grasshopper, Aesop, acting like a father with a rod in hand, warns. He was referring to the happy-go-lucky grasshopper.

“Oh now, while health and vigour still remain,

Toil, toil, my lad, to purchase honest again!

Shun idleness! Shun pleasure’s tempting snare!

A youth of rebels breeds age of care.”

Ecologically insects are the barometer of the kind of environment we live in. A pristine environment attracts beneficial insects, while a spoilt one breeds pests and diseases

. 

I have yet to see a firefly in a city garden. I remember an article in Renato Constantino’s series of publications, Issues Without Tears. Its title is, You don’t See Fireflies Anymore, a prophesy of doom, a second to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.

Maybe. But I have not lost hope. Someday, a flicker in the night may yet come from a firefly and not from a car or cigarette - if only others will share with me the same optimism. ~

Ficus pseudopalma and its exclusive wasp pollinator, a classical example of co-evolution. Only this species of wasp can pollinate and subsequently fertilize the introverted flower of this fig plant. Wasp is magnified 20x under a stereo microscope.~

"In the intricate dance of nature, insects are the choreographers of biodiversity." — E.O. Wilson

Movie Parade at UST, 2011 Grand Quadricentennial Celebration (1611-2011)

                                    Movie Parade at UST, 2011

 Grand Quadricentennial Celebration (1611-2011)

The Quadricentennial Celebration of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) was a multi-year series of religious, cultural, academic, and infrastructural events held from December 18, 2009, to January 27, 2012, commemorating the 400th anniversary of the pontifical university's founding on April 28, 1611, by Archbishop Miguel de Benavides, O.P., as Asia's oldest existing institution of higher learning.[1][2] As the largest Catholic university in the world by enrollment on a single campus and a key center of Dominican scholarship, the celebration emphasized UST's enduring mission to integrate faith, reason, and service, while highlighting its historical role in Philippine education, including as the sole higher learning institution during Spanish colonial rule and its designation as a National Historical Landmark. AI Overview
                      

     Photographs and Verse by Abercio V Rotor, PhD

Professor (Retired), UST Graduate School and Faculty of Arts and Letters

     

                              Local movie on the life of Rizal, an alumnus of UST                                     

Movies took over the stage,

created make-believe players;

from arena to theaters,

cinema to home screen

these hundred years.

How technology spanned

live drama and celluloid,

Charlie Chaplin and Lucas,

Carl Jung and Simon Freud,

the young and the very old.

Hollywood to Bollywood,

white actors to colored,

aristocracy giving way

to realism on the road,

in stories simply told.

This is not all. It is just

the start of the future

which we live in today -

postmodern culture

in cyber adventure.

Movies, movies, movies

defy classification,

on Internet, television,

from studio to home video,

AI and virtual animation.

Quo vadis, movie?

where are you headed for?

for whom are you made

as we had known before,

at the local shore?

Is this a sign of demise,

of the movie, the classical,

movie, the great adventure,

movie, the historical,

true and ideal?

Movie does not speak,

or we just can't hear anymore,

under the heap of this strayed art

yearning not for more,

but for some quality score. ~

A popular movie animae

Scary theme, musical treatment

Witches walk the campus

Alice in Wonderland

"Good triumphs over evil."

Shrek and Company

2012 - Year of the Dragon

Pirates of the Caribbean

Avatar

The University of Santo Tomas (UST) in the Philippines is known as Asia's oldest university (founded 1611), a prestigious Catholic research institution with Pontifical and Royal titles, a massive campus, and a reputation for producing influential alumni, strong performance in licensure exams, and vibrant cultural life, especially its dance troupes like Salinggawi. AI Overview

United Nations Parade at UST, 2011 Quadricentennial Grand Celebration (1611-2011)

 United Nations Parade at UST, 2011   Quadricentennial Grand Celebration (1611-2011)

Photographs by Abercio V Rotor, PhD

Retired Professor, UST Graduate School and Faculty of Arts and Letters

Can you identify the country each costume represents?

The 2011 United Nations Parade at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) was a highlight of the year-long, grand celebration of the university's 400th founding anniversary (1611–2011). 

Held as part of the Quadricentennial festivities, this vibrant event featured students in cultural attire representing various nations, highlighting the university's 400-year history as the oldest existing institution of higher education in Asia.

The main events, including grand parades, officially centered around January 27, 2011, marking the 400th year of the university's establishment.

 The UN Parade highlighted international unity, cultural diversity, and the global reach of the Dominican institution.

The celebration was honored with a video message from Pope Benedict XVI, recognizing the university's long history and contribution to education.

The 2011 celebrations were a major milestone for UST, 

founded in 1611 by Archbishop Miguel de Benavides, O.P.

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The United Nations (193 member states) remains focused on maintaining international peace, security, and human rights, with intense current efforts on humanitarian crises in Gaza, Sudan, and Ukraine. Key 2026 focus areas include climate change mitigation, supporting a two-state solution for Palestine, and combating human rights abuses in Libya. AI Overview Internet

Applied Chronobiology: Take Heed of Your Biological Clock

Applied Chronobiology:

Take Heed of Your Biological Clock

The secret of the inner clock has led to the science of  chronobiology which provides a new approach to self analysis and therapy. 

"Living organisms take heed of their biological clock - except humans, in many cases." avr

Abercio V. Rotor, Ph.D.

Each one of us is governed by a built-in clock within. Everything we do is “timed;” it has a schedule. 

Author (left) and his students in the UST Graduate School

take time out in a field lecture. 

And this living clock controls our actions and behaviors. It is the key to survival; a tool in evolution ingrained in our genes. If that is so, are our biological clocks then synchronized?

Generally, yes. And that is why we all respond to common rules that society has set for us. We respond to the seasons of the year, each characterized by events we celebrate. We have standard working hours, and curfew. Weekends are set aside for rest and leisure. Summer means vacation. We observe three meals a day, coffee breaks, siestas, and the like.

Menstrual cycle, estrus periods, stages in growth and development – all these are controlled by inner rhythms dictated by that biological clock. So patterned are our laws and rules that we know well the best season to plant or to hunt, to plan weddings and inaugurations, to travel, to go to school, to have a date, to meditate, to be merry.

--------------------------

“There is a time for all things.” William Shakespeare

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There’s time for everything.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to
     every purpose under the heaven.
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant,
     and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to
     break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to
     mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to
     gather stones together; a time to embrace,
     and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep,
     and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep
     silence, and time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war,
     and a time of peace.
                                                                     - Ecclesiastes

Chronobiologists classify this inner clock into five categories. However, the life span of a person should be viewed on this perspective* (AVR).

1. Ultradian - Less than a heartbeat

• Fluctuation of energy
• Attention span
• Brain waves

2. Circadian (daily) day

• Blood pressure level
• Sleep wake cycle
• Cell division

3. Circaseptan (weekly ) about a week

• Rejection of kidney, heart, and pancreas transplants

4. Circatrigintan (monthly) about a month

• Menstrual Cycle

5. Circannual (annual) about a year

• Seasonal depression
• Susceptibility to some diseases

*6. Vitae cyclum (life cycle)

• Rapid development in Infancy to childhood 
• Transformation to aadolescence 
• Youthfulness - peak of vitae cyclum 
• Physiologic decline into senility

Applied chronobiology. Let's take a look at these examples.  How do these apply to you?

1. Mental block. Memory lapses. Get focused, relax and free yourself of distractions.

2. Spark of genius. Learn from Archimedes (Eureka!), Handel (composer of Alleluia)

3. Surpassing ones record. What's your score? Athletes are keen at establishing new records of their own, such as in track and field, swimming, and shooting.

4. Compatibility. Formula of team work, applies to "love chemistry," too.

5. Topping a board examination. Or failing. Ride on life's high tide and low ebb.

6. Monday blues. Also morning blues, a sad feeling or just "lazy bones."

7. Glowing. Wow! You look specially pretty today. Beware of the opposite image.

8. Exceptional performance. The audience roars, Bravo, Encore. It's your show!

9. Carpe diem. Seize the moment. Opportunity knocks but once. Enjoy the day.

10. Not in the mood. Change to a favorable one. Have some respite. 

11. Accident prone. Be careful, be mindful always. It's Friday, the 13.

12. Postpone major decisions for better judgment.  Let a restful weekend pass.

13.  Hold your horses! Don't get emotional, specially on trivia matters. 

14. Misplaced your reading glass?  It's hanging on your forehead. Car key locked up?  It's in your other pocket.   

15. Incontinence is a sign of old age. But you must see your doctor.

16. What's your name again? Gina, Lolo. This is for you, Carol. Gina, Lolo.  

17. Sprained ankle,  dislocated finger bones, torn kneecap. Too much basketball, and you are not getting younger. Shift to golf, or just walking. 

18. Blurred vision and you're wearing 250 grade eyeglass. Hours of computer games. have worse consequences at old age. 

19. Tantrums are not unusual in childhood, not in adulthood. There's something wrong if this is not the case. 

20 Surprise, surprise. Things are changing fast. Be amazed, thrilled. Rejoice. 

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Since ancient time human activities have been guided by a calendar based on a 365-day cycle with fractions adjusted to re-set its original reckoning. The Mayan calendar had 265.247 days, more accurate than the Gregorian calendar. The short lived French Revolution calendar gave way to the universally accepted calendar. A wall calendar today marks the months, weeks, seasons, relative length of day and night, phases of the moon, high tide and low tide. It carries important reminders of names and events, electronic timepiece, indicators of environmental conditions, other messages notwithstanding. All these have tremendous effects on our inner clock, which therefore make the calendar an important daily guide. 
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