Fire in the Firetree

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Firetree in acrylic by the author c.2009

Rage with fire, burn the sky, bled the heart,

Fire the kiss of life, fire the kiss of death;

And when your petals fall, so with your seed,

Fire the kiss of death, fire the kiss of life;

And beauty the brief passing of time and grief.~

A verse of wisdom from an owl

Dr Abe V Rotor

Owl in a makeshift cage, San Fernando, La Union

Half prison, half freedom, seeing the world beyond 

through a window ripped by neglect and time;

if only the world takes a view the other way around

would man admit and amend for his crime?

Yes, you can be young twice!

Dr Abe V Rotor

Join children's parties and feel as young as they are .

And don't look beyond your age.

"Yes, you can be young twice,
if the child in you doesn't grow old;
for being with the young your prize -
they look up to you their mould." ~ avr

Under the Old Sampalok Tree

Dr Abe V Rotor

Century old tamarind. Iboy, San Ildefonso, Ilocos Sur.
NOTE: Tree was toppled by strong typhoon in c. 2005.  
It was made into furniture and firewood.

It matters not if it's the past, present or future
To believe in the trees that talk and laugh and cry;
To believe in spirits in them as their soul,
Our ancestors said, and sages would tell you why.

Time doesn't change, it only moves on and on,
Like the sun and moon, not even the steeled mind;
The earth that nourishes the living - tree or man
For change catches only those at the edge of time.

And here man creates another world of his own,
He cuts the trees, levels the hills, rapes the forest,
Drains the swamps, a Tower of Babel he builds
Where a tree once stood cradling a bird's nest.

It's a noosphere of lust and pride against order
Of the universe, the unity of all creation
In prayer and song, in dynamic balance supreme,
That spells salvation and eternity - or oblivion. ~

Reviving Old Folk Technologies. Here are 10 traditional practices.

“Get around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.”

- Robert Ruark, Something of Value

Dr Abe V Rotor

1. Smudging induces flowering of fruit trees and protects fruits from pests. 

This is a common practice on many common fruit trees, especially mango. Old folks gather dried leaves, grass, rice hull, corn stalk and the like, and burn them slowly under the trees.  The smoke is directed to the branches and leaves early every morning until flowers come out, and is later resumed to protect the fruits from insects and fungi. Smudging is preferred over potassium nitrate spraying used to force mangoes to flower out of season.  Repeated chemical spraying reduces the life span of the tree, which is not the case in smudging.

 2. To control coconut beetles broadcast ordinary sand into the leaf axils.

This insect, Oryctes rhinoceros, is a scourge of coconut, the larva and adult burrow into the bud and destroy the whole top or crown of the tree. There is scientific explanation to this practice of throwing sand into the axis of the leaves.  Sand which is silica, the raw material in making glass, penetrates into the conjunctiva - the soft skin adjoining the hard body plates, in effect injuring the insect.  As the insect moves, the silica penetrates deeper into the delicate tissues of the insect. As a result the insect dies from dehydration and infection. Thus we observe that this beetle seldom attacks coconut trees growing along the seashore. 

3. Wounding a tree induces it to fruit.

There are trees that tend to grow luxuriantly, bearing few or no fruits at all.  Imagine a disappointed a farmer reaching for his bolo, but instead of cutting down the whole tree, he inflicts wounds on its trunks and branches, resulting in multiple staggered wounds. As the wounds start to heal the tree starts to bloom.

What could be the explanation to this?  Nature has provided a coping up mechanism for organisms subjected to stress so that they can successfully pass on their genes to the next generation – reproduction. We may be surprised to see plants under dry condition profusely blooming.  Some bamboo species flower during the El Niño.  Starved caterpillar transforms into pupa, skipping one or two moultings, and soon metamorphoses into butterfly, diminutive it may become. Early sexual maturity is also observed in many animals that are under stress compared to their normal counterparts.      

To the mango tree, the effect is the same, a phenomenon that is not clearly understood. Physiologically the stored food in the wounded plant will shift to be used for reproduction, rather than continued vegetative growth, which explains sudden blooming. This is the same principle in pruning grapevines to induce fruiting. 

mango tree

4. Pruning induces growth and development of plants. 

Farmers prune the leaves of rice seedlings before they are transplanted to quicken recovery.  Cuttings such as cassava, sweet potato, sugar cane, and even ornamental like croton (San Francisco), are planted by first removing all the leaves attached to the stem.  This reduces transpiration or loss of water through the stomata (breathing organ) located on the leaves, that would otherwise lead to the drying of the planting material. For sugarcane tops, with the older leaves trimmed the bud can come out more easily and start to photosynthesize.

5   5.To increase corn yield “decapitate” the standing crop. (detasseling)

Detasseling or removal of the male flower of the standing corn plant reduces the chances of corn borers (Pyrausta nobilales and Heliothes armigera) infestation by almost one-half. Detasseling is done when one-half to three-fourths of the tassel has emerged.  Pulling out the tassel or cutting it at the base of the peduncle does it.  This technique has been found effective when performed to 75 percent of the plants or in three to every four corn rows.  Detasseling at this level does not significantly affect pollination and subsequent yield.

Farmers know plant physiology, a major subject in botany and agriculture.

6. “Blind” the eyes of the Cavendish banana sucker before transplanting it, otherwise it will die.

Now this is a paradox, for how can a blinded creature have a better chance to survive?  But this traditional practice is not to be taken literally.  Actually the eyes being referred to are the developing suckers on the base (corm) of the sucker to be transplanted.  The scientific explanation is that, these very young suckers compete with the transplanted sucker drawing out the nutrients it needs.  Thus “blinding” is actually aborting the small suckers, which appear like eyes on closer look. (Note: This practice is done only to Cavendish or tumok variety and not to other banana varieties.) 

7.  Pinag-aasawa ang bulaklak ng kalabasa. (Pollination)

Squash (Cucurbita maxima), being monoecious has both male and female flowers in the same plant.  Old folks believe that in order for the female flower (the one with a bulbous bottom) to develop into a fruit, it must be pollinated (lagyan ng semilya) with the male flower. It is usually in the early morning that the patient farmer pick a stamen loaded with pollen from the same or nearby plant and insert it into a receptive female flower, ceremoniously folding the petals inward after. While pollination is mainly the work of insects and wind,  man’s intervention often yields better results. 

8. It is a common practice of farmers to cover fruits with ash, sand or sawdust to delay their ripening and minimize losses.   

In the countryside where there are no modern facilities for storage farmers have devised methods of storage to increase the shelf life of fruits, and allow them to ripen properly. One method is to cover the fruits, such as tomatoes, mango and bananas with ash or sawdust.

To validate the effectiveness of this practice, scientists at UPLB tried storing tomatoes (Pope variety), for the duration of one to two weeks, in rice hull ash in two preparations – moist and dry.  Tomatoes stored in dry ash ripened faster, while tomatoes stored in moist ash ripened slower and showed a more uniform and deeper red color.  The tomatoes were also heavier and firmer than those stored in dry ash.  Tomatoes that were simply stored in pile suffered significant losses and ripening was uneven. The colors of the fruits were pale red and predominantly yellow.

It was an old practice I observed among vegetable traders who ship green Pope tomatoes grown in Claveria (Cagayan de Oro) all the way to La Trinidad Valley in Benguet by boat and truck. The tomatoes were laid open in the cool air, until they ripened into bright red color.  They were then individually wiped with waxed cloth, assorted and returned to their crates and branded Baguio tomatoes. Tomatoes that ripened on the way, which normally took about a week, turned into yellow to orange color and were priced much less than those ripened under a temperate climate in the highland.

There is now a substitute to this practice.  Tomatoes can be delayed in ripening and ripen uniformly into red color when stored in moist rice hull ash.  We can only imagine the high cost and difficulty of shipping the fruits all the way from Mindanao via Manila pier to the Benguet, then transporting the commodity back to Manila where they are sold.     

9. Apply lime or alum on the butt end of cabbage to stay fresh and longer in the shelf.

To validate this practice, an experiment was conducted at UPLB using common lime (CaO) or apug. The powder was applied on the butt end of cabbage after trimming it together with the two or three wrapper leaves. This simple practice prevented soft rot caused by the bacterium Erwina carotovora by 70 percent.  The use of alum (tawas) on the other hand reduced rotting by 53 percent. It has one disadvantage though – the aluminum salt cause black spots.  Lime-treated cabbage had better appearance after four days in storage than those treated with alum, borax or sodium hypochlorite (Ordinary household bleach) and salt (sodium chloride).     

                                              

10. Water remains cool in earthen pot (calamba or caramba) even in hot weather.

Notice that the earthen pot “perspires” because it is porous.  Like sweat it keeps the body cool. Cooling is the after effect of evaporation. Fanning increases the rate of evaporation, so with cooling. ~

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

Trivia: Prefer brown eggs over the white ones.

Brown eggs come from native fowls that subsist mainly on farm products. They are very resistant to the elements and diseases that they simply grow on the range. White eggs on the other hand, come from commercial poultry farms and are highly dependent on antibiotics and formulated feeds. Another advantage of brown eggs is that they have thicker shells. Besides, their yolk is brighter yellow as compared to that of white eggs.

Preference to natural, and organically grown, food is gaining popularity worldwide. It is because many ailments, from allergy to cancer, are traced to the kinds of food we eat. Many kinds of allergies have evolved from genetically engineered food, for which they have gained the reputation of Frankenfood, after the novel, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, published in 1818.

Acknowledgement: Wikipedia, Internet Images

Happy Mothers' Day! "A boy's best friend is his mother."

"A boy's best friend is his mother." 

There has never been, nor will there ever be, anything quite so special as the love between the mother and a son. (Unknown)

Dr Abe V Rotor

Markus 4, and his mom.

Mother - the sweetest sound: 

mommy, mama, mom, nanay, inay; 

there's mother in all languages, 

her breath, whisper the same thing, 

her face, smile, all her images. 

Mother Earth, motherland, 

universal, living and non-living, 

mother's forever, in everything; 

when in comfort, when lost, 

there's always a mother calling. 

Great men, a mother behind,

angel on earth or hereafter, 

mother, first word in the cradle, 

mother, last word on the dying bed, 

first and last rays of the candle. 

A Song for Mama, Ave Maria, 

on her birthday, on Mothers' Day; 

to Ceres, mother of good harvest, 

with Gaia, goddess of the earth, 

Rhea, mother of all goddesses. 

Mother, guardian and teacher, 

to her own, orphans, abandoned, 

faith is but one, so with love, 

old and young, any brethren 

are seen as mothers Above. ~

Markus, on his 3rd birthday, with his mom. During the first 3 years of life, a child’s brain develops at an astonishing rate. By age 3, the brain has reached 80% of its adult size. Developmental experiences determine the organizational and functional status of the mature brain. It is therefore critical during this time to focus on quality care taking and building a strong and healthy attachment, particularly with the mother (or guardian who takes care of the child as a biological mother does. NOTE: Markus is now 4, He is now a kinder.


A boy's best friend is his mother.

- Joseph Stefano (Screenwriter, Black Orchid, and Hitchcock's Psycho)Sons are the anchors of a mother's life. - Sophocles (Ancient Greek writer-dramatist, 
Oedipus the King)

A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest. Irish ProverbHappy is the son whose faith in his mother remains unchallenged. Louisa May Alcott (author of The Little Women)

There is an endearing tenderness in the love of a mother to a son that transcends all other affections of the heart. - Washington Irving (author, Rip Van Winkle, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow)

Mothers are inscrutable beings to their sons, always. - A.E. Coppard (author, The Collected Tales)

A good son will never allow sorrow to befall her mother...and act as if he is an only child that cares...protects when no one dares...serves with his life in return...and most of all finds a wife that will love his mother too. - Helen Rebibis Ramos (Philippine author, Bluemoon of Memories)

If a man has been his mother's undisputed darling he retains throughout life the triumphant feeling, the confidence in success, which not seldom brings actual success along with it. - Sigmund Freud (Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis)

To a mother, a son is never a fully grown man; and a son is never a fully grown man until he understands and accepts this about his mother. Unknown ~

Quote for Election 2019: "I AM LOOKING FOR AN HONEST MAN." - Diogenes

Quote for Election 2019: 
"I AM LOOKING FOR AN HONEST MAN." - Diogenes  
The life of Diogenes was a relentless campaign to debunk the social values and institutions of what he saw as a corrupt society. 

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature - School on Blog [avrotor.blogspot.com]

Author imitates the Greek philosopher Diogenes with  the latter's 
famous pose holding a lamp at midday uttering his words
of wisdom, "I am looking for an honest man."

Light the old lamp, light the way 
through the crowd, over mean faces,
for in the night,
sleep deadens the sense of honesty;

but neither day nor night
makes the difference for the man
long sought for, and Diogenes
put it off and sighed.

and I took the same old lamp and failed, too;
for either the man isn't born yet,
or has long been dead on a Cross,
and in between, goes the crowd.~ avrotor

Diogenes was a Greek philosopher (born 412 or 404 BCE and died at Corinth in 323 BCE) and one of the founders of Cynic philosophy. Diogenes was one of the few men to ever publicly mock Alexander the Great and live. He intellectually humiliated Plato and was the only pupil ever accepted by Antisthenes, whom he saw as the true heir of Socrates. Diogenes taught his philosophy of Cynicism to Crates who taught it to Zeno of Citium who fashioned it into the school of Stoicism, one of the most enduring branches of Greek philosophy.

His life was a relentless campaign to debunk the social values and institutions of what he saw as a corrupt society. None of his many writings have survived, but details of his life come in the form of anecdotes (chreia), especially from Diogenes Laërtius, in his book Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers. (Wikipedia)

Notes: Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early 3rd century BC. The Stoics taught that destructive emotions resulted from errors in judgment, and that a sage, or person of "moral and intellectual perfection," would not suffer such emotions.

Stoics were concerned with the active relationship between cosmic determinism and human freedom and the belief that it is virtuous to maintain a will called prohairesis that is in accord with nature. Because of this, the Stoics presented their philosophy as a way of life, and they thought that the best indication of an individual's philosophy was not what a person said but how he behaved.

Later Stoics, such as Seneca and Epictetus  emphasized that because "virtue is sufficient for happiness", a sage was immune to misfortune. This belief is similar to the meaning of the phrase "stoic calm", though the phrase does not include the "radical ethical" Stoic views that only a sage can be considered truly free, and that all moral corruptions are equally vicious.

From its founding, Stoic doctrine was popular with a following in Greece and throughout the Roman Empire — including the Emperor Marcus Aurelius — until the closing of all philosophy schools in AD 529 by order of the Emperor Justinian I, who perceived their pagan character as being at odds with the Christian faith. (From Wikipedia)

DIOGENES AND ALEXANDER THE GREAT

http://de.du.lv/angluvaloda/ang1/ang1.html

  

Diogenes was one of the few men to ever publicly mock Alexander the Great and live.

There lived a wise man in ancient Greece whose name was Diogenes. Men came from all parts of the land to see him and talk to him.

Diogenes was a strange man. He said that no man needed much, and so he did not live in a house but slept in a barrel, which he rolled about from place to place. He spent his days sitting in the sun and saying wise things to those who were around him.

When Alexander the Great came to that town he went to see the wise man. He found Diogenes outside the town lying on the ground by his barrel. He was enjoying the sun.

When he saw the king he sat up and looked at Alexander. Alexander greeted him and said:

Diogenes, I have heard a great deal about you. Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Yes," said Diogenes, "you can step aside a little so as not to keep the sunshine from me."

The king was very much surprised. But this answer did not make him angry. He turned to his officers with the following words:

"Say what you like, but if I were not Alexander, I should like to be Diogenes."

The cynic philosopher replied, "If I were not Diogenes, I would also wish to be Diogenes." 
(Last line is based on other versions such as that in the above illustration.)

Below is another excerpt of a dialogue between Diogenes and Alexander. 

Wake Up! Habagat (Monsoon) Season is here!

Hibernation and Aestivation
- Survival Adaptations of Organisms

Dr Abe.V. Rotor 

"Sleep, so called, is a thing which makes man weep, 

And yet a third of life is passed in sleep. "

- Lord Byron, Don Juan 

Who is not fascinated by the first heavy rain in May, the start of the monsoon season or habagat? The fields come alive, transformed from scorched landscape into vast greenery. What brings about this sudden transformation?

Rainwater breaks the dormancy of seeds lying in the ground. It wakes up the sleeping little plant in a poem we learned in the elementary, which starts with these lines.

“In the heart of a seed buried deep so deep, 

Lies a little plant, lying fast asleep.” 

                                                                       

Seeds of many annual plants like saluyot (Corchorus olitorius) and wild Amaranthus wake up to the rain. The same stimulus touches dormant buds like a magic wand, and in a short time become new and fresh crowns of trees that had been in deciduous state. Tubers and corms come alive simultaneously with tillers and stolons and take their first peep above ground. Bulbs send out their first shoots. There is rejuvenation everywhere.

Thunder and lightning accompany rain and send old folks to hunt for mushrooms the day after. There is scientific explanation to this, although much of the mystery remains. Lightning directly fixes atmospheric nitrogen into nitrate (NO3), which being soluble, is brought down by rain. It is then absorbed by plants, protists - and fungi to which mushrooms belong. How is dormancy of fungi explained? Is it the same as in green plants?

Basically, it is. While plants photosynthesize their food in the presence of sunlight, fungi on the other hand are saprophytic, and draw energy from decomposition of organic matter. But the conditions that break dormancy is the same – the supply of nitrates and other nutrients, sufficient water, suitable foothold and substrate, and favorable temperature. The mycelia of fungi which appear as white, threadlike mass may remain dormant, then springs to life, rapidly spreading all over its growing medium until it is time to produce fruiting bodies, which are the mushrooms.

Dormancy of Seeds

Seeds are masters of the art of dormancy – the temporary stoppage of life processes. Nature has precisely made dormancy as a means of adaptation, and adaptation is a means of survival. Adaptation is the key to fitness defined in Charles Darwin’s law of natural selection. The failure of seeds to grow immediately after maturity – even though conditions of the environment may be favorable – is generally an advantage of many plants.

This phenomenon is demonstrated by plants which are highly sensitive to photoperiodism. These are classified as short-day and long-day species and varieties. For example, the traditional rice variety, wagwag, produces grains only during the short-day period, usually in the last quarter. If it is planted late and does not have chance to mature within the period, it will remain in its vegetable stage and will flower only in October in the following year.

Many desert plants exhibit superb resistance to punishing heat and dryness. They produce seeds that lay dormant in the hot desert soil for as long as there is no rain. Then, when rain finally comes, these seeds sprout immediately, grow and mature as fast as water in the soil is lost. Before the desert reverts to its arid condition, the plants have completed their life cycle, and their seeds once more lie dormant waiting as long as they could for the next unpredictable rain.

Many seeds of cereals and other annual remain dormant for a few days to some weeks under natural condition. However at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Baños, the seeds of more than 80,000 rice varieties kept in the institute’s Germplasm Bank can remain viable for 20 years. It is necessary to germinate the seeds before they lose viability to replace the gene collection.

Most farm crop seeds are probably dead after 25 years, even under favorable storage conditions. The alleged germination of seeds after prolonged storage in ancient tombs is known to be a myth. I had a chance to examine some authentic seeds recovered from a pharaoh’s tomb at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The seeds were highly carbonized and have completely lost their viability. There are however, seeds of some plants in the wild that retain their vitality for 50 years or more. Dry arctic lupine seeds found buried in lemming burrows under 10 to 20 feet of frozen soil in the Yukon Territory in Canada, were able to germinate. Their assumed age is about 14,000 years.

Vernalization – Overwintering of Crops

The term vernalization was first introduced by my professor in Plant Physiology in the late fifties. The technology had just began to revolutionize farming in countries where winter is long and harsh. Formerly in these areas, it was almost impossible to grow wheat and other crops because of the very short growing season. Even if planting is done in early spring, by the time the grains start to mature, frost has already set in.

The Russians found out that by pre-germinating wheat seeds and keeping them safe and healthy during the long winter, the young seedlings will resume growth immediately as the snow thaws. Much time is saved for the crop to grow, while its life cycle is significantly shortened. Before the winter sets in, the crop is already harvested.

Thousands of hectares have been placed under cultivation following this procedure. Seeds of wheat, oats and barley are planted in late autumn. They germinate and remain dormant under snow for the whole winter (overwintering), then resume growth in spring and harvested at the end of the short summer. Researches on the application of vernalization have successfully made other crops adapted to this kind of environment. Former wastelands in Siberia and Northern Canada are now productive farmlands.

Breaking the Dormancy of Wildlife Species

Aestivating snails, crustaceans and frogs ensconced in the bottom of rice fields are similarly liberated by the monsoon rains. Together with hito and dalag which aestivate in mud like the lungfish, they stir with the first contact with rain water, wiggling out to freedom in the flooded fields where they resume active life – growing, mating and reproducing – and migrating while the monsoon persists and whole fields are one contiguous lake.

These are biological feats that feed man’s fantasy to live long and postpone death.

1. The African lungfish buries in mud up to two feet deep in order to escape extreme drought and heat in the desert. It curls into a ball and seals its chamber with its own mucus secretion and there it aestivates for as long as four years in the absence of rain.

2. Garter snakes survive the long Canadian winter while remaining in burrows, or in extreme cases, encrust in ice. They are liberated only when the ice thaws in spring, and soon resume their normal activities. They grow, mate and reproduce before they hibernate again come next winter.

3. Snakes and other reptiles easily go for long periods without food. Snakes have been kept alive without food for almost two years. A python in captivity has been observed to go without food for a period of 13 months. Frogs can fast for 16 months and fishes for 20 months; land tortoise for a year and salamander for one and one-half years.

4. The most popular mammals that hibernate is the bear. Sustained by large amounts of stored fat, it sleeps in the entire winter in its den. Its normal body temperature remains the same in spite of its heartbeat reduced from 40 to 10 times per minute. Beware, a sleeping bear may be provoked at the slightest disturbance.

5. Bats in hibernation hang in caves, eat nothing, their hearts feebly beating and their breathing scarcely imperceptible. Through collective body heat the colony survives extreme cold and long winter.

The Myth of Rip van Winkle

The story of Rip van Winkle, the man who slept for twenty long years, may be better remembered for its sociological, rather than its biological significance. Rip found solace on some mountaintop and there he fell into deep slumber. When he woke up he was a very old man. The way Washington Irving, the author described him must be true. Of course, it is only fiction, but it raises the question, “Do we really preserve youthfulness in sleep?” What really happens in prolonged sleep?

We know that life processes slow down when we are asleep, and in the process our body gets the needed rest. When we wake up we feel recharged. Surely sleeping is still the best way to be fit and healthy - and young, too.

But his is not the case of Rip van Winkle, or that of Sleeping Beauty, the beautiful maid who remained asleep until “a prince came and woke her with a kiss.” These cases point out to the similarity of prolonged sleeping with coma. The body operates at low metabolism, but gets no replenishment. After the reserve fat is exhausted, the only source of energy are the muscles and other connective tissues. It is no wonder a bear emerges from hibernation weak and hungry.

The Virus that Sleeps for 20 Years

One of the wonders of biology is the virus. The tobacco mosaic virus, Marmor tabaci, for one, can remain dormant for as long as twenty years even if the tobacco leaves are subjected to flue-curing and re-drying. The virus remains in the cigar or cigarette, so that a smoker can transmit it unknowingly to a living tobacco plant by mere contact. Unlike obligate parasites which can not survive outside of their hosts, the virus may remain as an infective particle after its host is dead or gone.

The virus wakes up once it is inside a living host. By dictating the host, the latter multiplies the virus. Now in countless numbers, the virus spreads throughout the plant. The infected plant, in turn, infects nearby plants and threatens to spread throughout the whole field. Like other viruses that infect animals or other plants, tobacco mosaic virus may cause an epidemic. The seriousness of the disease in the farming community can only be imagined since it is capable of infecting other crops that include those belonging to the same family, Solanaceae, to which tomato, pepper, eggplant and Irish potato are members.

Is the virus then, a living thing? Scientists look at it differently from true living things because it lacks the vital processes of life. It is not recognized to belong to any of the sub-kingdoms of the biological world. As a chemical particle however, it is endowed with the same universal property of living things, Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid or DNA. It is this code of life that it uses as a tool in communicating with a host cell once it has gained entry. The host cell then decodes the virus’ DNA messages. Thus it is the host that actually duplicates the virus because the latter can not reproduce by itself alone.

The Physiology of Hibernation

To hibernate is to pass winter in a suspended, dormant, or torpid condition. In this state of lethargy, organisms have a better change to survive cold and food shortage. During hibernation metabolic activity is greatly reduced and body temperature is lowered. A hibernating mammal spends most of the winter in a state close to death; in fact the animal may appear to be dead. Some have body temperature close to that of freezing; respiration is brought down to only a few breaths per minute; and the heartbeat is so slow and gradual as to be barely perceptible. Among mammals, true hibernators are found in the Orders of Chiroptera (bats), Insectivora (hedgehogs), and Rodentia (ground squirrels). There are mammal hibernator that do not only rely on reserve body fat. At intervals of several weeks the animal elevates its body temperature, awakens, moves about, feeds, and then returns to its state of torpor.

Cold-blooded animals hibernate, too. The largest is the North American Alligator which hibernates very much like frogs. Frogs burrow in mud and exists for months in their sun baked chambers.

Aestivation

Aestivation is the counterpart of hibernation in the tropics, or where high temperature and dryness characterize the environment. The physiology involved is also the reduction of metabolic rate while the organism is protected from the harsh environment. Aestivation also applies to plants and animals, and also among protists. These are examples of animals that are known to aestivate.

1. Crocodiles dig into the mud and remain there virtually lifeless.

2. South American alligators bury themselves in mud while the earth above them is baked into a hard crust.

3. Certain Australian frogs become distended with water during the wet season and use this stored water during the aestivating period.

4. Small mammals like the aardvark and some lemurs are not known to aestivate but undergo periods of quiescence.

5. The Australian snails plug the mouth of their shell with a morsel of clay before entering upon the period of aestivation. Land snails secrete several diaphragms across the opening of their shells which protect them from desiccation and enemies.

6. The African snail (Helix desertorum) and the California desert snail (Helix veatchii) may remain in aestivation for as long as five and six years, respectively.

7. Slugs bury themselves in the ground in the season and emerge on the arrival of rain.

8. Bivalve mollusks dig into the mud, thus they can survive in pools and patches of water.

9. Nymphs of dragonfly which are normally aquatic may be forced to aestivate on dry land.

10. Opposite to aestivation the Egyptian jerboa is so closely adapted to dry conditions of the desert that rain and damp atmosphere induce it to pass into a dormant condition.

Unique characteristics of organisms that under dormancy
For both cases of hibernation and aestivation, these are the general conditions that scientists have observed among organisms that are undergoing either state.

1. Organisms in dormancy, especially large animals, fast during the period.

2. There is a certain stage or stages a certain organisms can remain dormant.

3. There is a reduction in metabolic rate. Heartbeat slows down. There is a reduction in body temperature among warm-blooded animals.

4. Reserve food is used during dormancy. As a general rule, cold-blooded animals have more food reserve and that they use it more economically than do warm-blooded animals.

5. Survival time without food is usually greater among cold-blooded than among warm-blooded animals, since the former do not “burn fuel” in order to maintain a high body temperature.

Fasting – A Third Adaptive Mechanism

Fasting is a means of meeting exigencies of life. It is one of nature’s best methods of dealing with physiological problems. Take the hibernating bear, the aestivating alligator, the sick elephant, the wounded dog – these fast in order to meet the problems before them. Fasting is indeed a very useful means of adaptation.

But how long can animals abstain from food? Let us look into these examples.

1. There were dogs that remained alive for 38 days without food. The longest survival record is 117 days.

2. Rats may survive after 5 to 6 days. Guinea pigs may last for 7 to 8 days without food, while rabbits can live for 15 days under strict fasting.

3. Spiders undergo incredible fasting, spinning webs daily from substances generated by their bodies. Spiders have been observed to exist without food for 17 months.

4. Unicellular organisms such as amoebae and paramecia can exist without food
 from 4 to 24 days. As a result they undergo diminution in size.

5. The larvae of a beetle, Trogoderma tarsale, that infest cereals can live for as long as five years without food.

6. The condor, like all other vultures, is capable of fasting for days. It gorges itself however, when it finds food.

7. Scorpions are known to have starved for 368 days.

8. A freshwater fish, Amia calva, can fast for 20 months.

9. Ticks can exist in an active state for as long as four years without eating anything.

10. A boa constrictor may remain inactive for months after a full meal. So with the anaconda in the Amazon jungle.

Deeper mystery shrouds our knowledge of Dormancy

It is practice to irradiate potato and onion before they are stored in order to retard sprouting. If radiation does not kill the embryo how does it induce dormancy?

Locusts may suddenly group and coalesce into a swarm. Like birds and other animals, migration is an adaptive mechanism to escape extreme conditions of the environment. Are these organisms not equipped with the gene for dormancy?

Deciduousness (complete shedding of leaves) of certain trees like the narra, occurs periodically but not necessarily jibed with the dormancy period. In fact some trees are even more luxuriant when other plants are dormant. We have little knowledge about the biological clock that dictates dormancy among different species of organisms.

Episodes of the Red Tide phenomenon caused by dinoflagellates, such as Pyrodinium, Peridinium, and Gonyaulax, are unpredictable. What predispose these organisms to bloom? How do they stay dormant in between seasons of occurrence?

This leads us to the epidemic cycles of certain human diseases. How do influenza viruses stay “alive” during off-season? How does HIV remain passive in an HIV positive patient? Bubonic plague devastated medieval Europe in three major waves killing one-third of the population. How do we explain alternate virulence and dormancy of the causal organism?

What really induce flowering? How does potassium nitrate induce flowering of mango during off-season? Why is it that old folk cut notches on the trunk of trees that are “lazy” to bloom? Then for whatever reason, the wounded trees come alive with flowers and fruits.

As I was writing this article, some birds came flying by and perched on a nearby talisay tree singing melodious songs that herald a new season - amihan. The Siberian winds have arrived. In the Northern hemisphere it is time for hibernation, in the South hemisphere it is aestivation. For many birds and animals, it is time for migration.

Except for humans, all living things take heed of Nature’s call. xxx

*From Living with Nature in Our Times, by AV Rotor 2007 UST Publishing House Manila  

Epic: Life Of Lam-ang (Biag ni Lam-ang)

Biag ni Lam-ang is an epic drawn out from oral tradition handed down through countless generations in the same way the Greek’s Iliad and Odyssey were handed down through centuries to the modern world.
Researched by Dr Abe V Rotor

The theme of the epic revolves around the bravery and courage of the main character portrayed by Lam-ang, who was gifted with speech as early as his day of birth, who embarked on a series of adventures which culminated in his heroic death and subsequent resurrection.

This series of adventures started with his search for his lost father who was murdered by the head-hunting Igorots in the Igorot country. While on his way, he met a certain Sumarang, whose name connotes obstruction, who tried to dissuade him from proceeding and who taunted him into a fight. The fight that ensued proved fatal to Sumarang as he was blown "three kingdoms" away with a spear pierced through his stomach. This encounter led to another when he met a nine-headed serpent who, like Sumarang earlier, tried to dissuade him from going any further. The serpent having been ignored challenged him into a fight which cost the serpent its heads.

Lam-ang went on until he found it necessary to rest and take a short nap. While asleep, he dreamed of his father's head being an object of festivities among the Igorots. He immediately arose and continued his journey until he found the Igorots indeed feasting over his father's head. He asked the Igorots why they killed his father, but the Igorots instead advised him to go home if he did not want to suffer the same fate which his father suffered. This was accompanied by a challenge to a fight, despite their obvious numerical superiority.

But Lam-ang, armed with supernatural powers, handily defeated them, giving the last surviving Igorot a slow painful death by cutting his hands and his ears and finally carving out his eyes to show his anger for what they had done to his father.

Satisfied with his revenge, he went home. At home, he thought of taking a swim in the Cordan River with the com¬pany of Cannoyan and her lady-friends. So he proceeded to Cannoyan's place in the town of Calanutian, disregarding her mother's advice to the contrary. On his way, he met a woman named Saridandan, whose name suggests that she was a woman of ill repute. He resisted her blandishments, for his feeling for Cannoyan was far greater for anyone to take.

When he reached Cannoyan's house, he found a multitude of suitors futilely vying for her hand. With the help of his pets - the cock and the dog - he was able to catch Cannoyan's attention. He asked her to go with him to the river along with her lady-friends. She acceeded. While washing himself in the river, the river swelled, and the shrimps, fishes and other creatures in the river were agitated for the dirt washed from his body was too much. As they were about to leave the river, Lam-ang noticed a giant crocodile. He dove back into the water and engaged with the creature in a fierce fight until the creature was subdued. He brought it ashore and instructed the ladies to pull its teeth to serve as amulets against danger during journeys.

Back at Cannoyan's house, he was confronted by her parents with an inquiry as to what his real intention was. He had to set aside his alibi that he went there to ask Cannoyan and her friends to accompany him to the river, and told them, through his spokesman - the cock - that he came to ask for Cannoyan's hand in marriage. He was told that if he desired to marry Cannoyan, he must first be able to match their wealth, for which he willingly complied. Having satisfied her parents, he went home to his mother and enjoined her and his townspeople to attend his wedding which was to take place in Cannoyan's town.

The wedding was elaborate, an event that involved prac¬tically everyone in town. There were fireworks, musical band, and display of attractive items like the glasses, the mirror, the slippers, clothes and nice food. After the wedding, Lam-ang's party plus his wife and her townmates went back to their town of Nalbuan, where festivities were resumed. The guests expressed a desire to taste a delicacy made of rarang fish. Lam-ang was obliged to go to the sea and catch the fish.

Before going, however, his rooster warned that something unpleasant was bound to happen. This warning proved true, as Lam-ang was swallowed by a big bercacan, or shark-like fish. Cannoyan mourned and for a while she thought there was no way to retrieve her lost husband. But the rooster indicated that if only all the bones could be gathered back, Lam-ang could be brought to life again. She then enlisted the aid of a certain diver named Marcus, who was ready to come to her aid to look for the bones. When all of Lam-ang's bones were gathered, the rooster crowed and the bones moved. The dog barked, and Lam-ang arose and was finally resurrected.

Cannoyan embraced him. For his deep appreciation for the help of his pets - the cock and the dog - and of Marcus the diver, he promised that each other would get his or its due reward. And they lived happily ever after. ~

This synopsis is based on the transcription made by Jose Llanes from a recitation by memory of the poem by an old farmer, one Francisco Magana, from Bangui, Ilocos Norte, sometime in 1947. Of the six old versions of the epic which include a zarzuela (folk stage play) written by Eufemio L. Inofinada, the Llanes version ( 206 stanzas) and that of Leopoldo Yabes (305 stanzas) are the most popular. Many believe that the author of the epic is Pedro Bucaneg, a blind Ilocano poet who lived during the early part of Spanish colonization. On close examination the farmer’s (Magana) version pre-dates the Bucaneg’s “Hispanized” version, because the former clings more closely to ethnical culture, and is richer with indigenous and pagan influences. Historians believe that Biag ni Lam-ang is an epic drawn out from oral tradition handed down through countless generations in the same way the Greek’s Iliad and Odyssey were handed down through centuries to the modern world. Historians like H. Otley Beyer, Fox, Fay-Cooper Cole and Jose R. Calip believe in the pre-Hispanic origin of the poem. Calip in his doctoral dissertation, University of Santo Tomas, 1957, further stated that “it is not a product of any single mind but as a property of the people – a floating wisdom from the centuries into the generations.” Through a long, slow evolutionary process, it floated from one century to another, and grew into several versions retaining a lucid mirror of the people of the past, reflecting their own values, environment and culture. Reference: Lam-ang in Transition by Kenneth E. Bauzon, Philippine Social Sciences and Humanities Review, Vol XXXVIII, No. 3-4.

Watch out, you are being watched!

Privacy is dying
Watch out, you are being watched!

Dr Abe V Rotor

“Someone is watching your every move – at the bank, on the Internet, even walking down the street. Our right to be left alone is disappearing bit by bit in Little Brotherly steps,” says Time magazine in a special issue on The Death of Privacy. We are headed for an even wired unregulated, over intrusive privacy-deprived planet. Privacy is dying.

Cellular tower

Our letters are no longer private on e-mail dispatch. IDs are also for time record, entry pass, emergencies, discounts. We carry USP (removable disc) which contains a library of information indistinguishable whether for private or public consumption. And who cares, if you too, get access to the same unsolicited materials?

Don’t forget to lock up your personal computer; even then, be sure no one knows your PIN (personal identification number). One moment everything it contains is copied without your knowing it. For hackers it worst; you can’t keep your own files anymore.

Go to the mall, drop at the Post Office, pick up grocery, visit an ITM. Waiting for a ride, speeding on a highway, practicing in a gym, promenading? Anything you do, even in your rented bedroom, in the hotel, someone is looking at you through the electronic eye, a n-generation of the conventional camera, complete with sounds, and special effects, versatility likened to Hubs telescope or Skylab’s.

In fact your organs are monitored on TV during diagnosis, more so during operation. I saw my kidney bombarded by laser. “Oh, you are awake,” my doctor was surprised. “See, the stone is gone, the fragments are being flushed out.” It’s me I was seeing. I don’t know if I passed out afterward that.

Cell phone. Yes, it’s a magnificent invention. You can be at any place at anytime. And with modern hybrids, you send and receive information to whomever without full control. That is why clever people make a dummy of them and hide their reality. This is your Second Person, your avatar, your clone, but you are soon to be discovered, and little by little your second person becomes your first person – you.

Surveillance cameras Good if it’s the real you as you would like to put your best foot forward, so to speak. Somebody did some anatomical experiment, putting your face on another body, doing a thing you don’t like in a place you find impossible to be, attired differently, if at all. And your dignity? “Oh, it’s not me,” you deny, but it’s your face people see. And this monster runs on the wire and soon you find yourself an international figure (disfigure). You are lost.

Melly, my partner in Paaralang Bayan (school-on-air), asked me if it’s all right to have a digital ID system. Why not, who does not have one nowadays? Even a kinder child has one around the neck; college students enter the school premises by swiping their ID to show their face and number on the monitor, otherwise you are trapped and questioned. Remember terrorists are also in white.

But the worst and ultimate loss of privacy is in having a Personal Gene Map. Since HGP (Human Genome Project) was launched and published, there will come a time each of us will be wearing a mini disc that contains the map of our chromosomes and their corresponding genes, and each gene carrying a specific trait from the color of your hair to your temperament. In short, genetic cartography reveals all our traits which doctor, insurance companies, prospective employers and spouses are, and likely, to know. “Will the map also show loyalty, infidelity?” asked Melly. I was speechless. I was nodding my head in disbelief. Why not? Hasn’t holism been re-defined by science and technology. Now what chromosome or chromosomes, and what gene or genes can we view the so-called inner self – conscience? God, where is the soul to be found?

How are you spied on?

• Bank machines – Every time you use an automated teller; the bank records the time, date and location of your transaction.

• Prescription drugs – If you use your company health insurance to purchase drugs, your employer may have access to the details. Browsing on the web – Many sites tag visitors with magic cookies that record what you’re looking at and when you have been surfing.
• Cellular telephone – Your calls can be intercepted and your access numbers cribbed by eavesdroppers with police scanners.
• Credit cards – Everything you charge is in a database that police, among others, can look at.
• Registering to Vote – Voter registration records are publis and online – if computerized. They typically list your address and birth date.
• Making a phone call – The phone company does not need a court order to note the number you’re calling – or who is calling you.
• Supermarket scanners – Many grocery stores let you register for discount coupons that are used to track what you purchase.
• Sweepstakes – In the US these are bonanzas for marketers. Every time you enter one, you add an electronic brushstroke to your digital portrait.
• Satellites – Commercial satellites are coming online that are eagle-eyed enough to spot you – and maybe a companion – in a hot tub.
• Electronic tools – In many places, drivers can pay tolls electronically with passes that tip off your whereabouts.
• Surveillance cameras – They’re in banks, federal office buildings, 7-elevens, even houses of worship; New Yorkers are on camera up to 20 times a day. How about us in Metro Manila?
• Mail-order transactions – Many companies, including mail-order houses and publishers, sell lists of their customers. Why do you think you’re getting those catalogs?
• Sending e-mail – In offices, E-mail is considered part of your work. Your employer is allowed is allowed to read it – and many bosses do.

Protect Yourself

1. Keep you signature, PIN, portrait photo, and other personal identification marks secured. Its only you who should have access to them.

2. Just say no to telemarketers. Say, “I don’t take phone solicitations.”

3. Consider removing your name from many direct-mail and telemarketing lists.

4. Pay cash whenever possible.

5. Be wary about buying mail order.

6. Give your Social Security number only when required by law.

7. Think twice before filling warranty cards or entering sweepstakes.

8. Be careful when using “free blood pressure clinics.”

9. Avoid leaving footprints on the Net.

10. Surf the Web anonymously.

If you can make it, disarm yourself of any electronic device on a weekend, and stay home. Take a vacation away from electronic devices. It could be the best way of restoring a part of your privacy. Set mailbox on, or switch off, your cell phone to enjoy your weekend or vacation.

NOTE: List down other means we preserve or restore personal privacy to enrich this article.