Two Schools of Art,Two Generations Apart

Two Schools of Art, Two Generations Apart 

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Baby swan called flapper or cygnet keeps close to its mother. (The female swan is called a pen and the male is a cob.) Water-based drawing by Mark Gene Rotor then 7, on wood. (Circa 1990)

Doves and Parrots Roosting Together in a Tree in acrylic  

on wood with paint brush and palette knife, by the author 2020

Everything evolves, devolves, in a continuing cycle,

      through time and space, through generations,

periodicity dictates when and where an artist comes 

      into this unique world of endless expressions.

Those in the bandwagon of an era may rise to fame 

     and glory when art is but a contest or game;

On the less trodden road the young dare with ideas

     beyond his time, sans the promise of fame. ~   

Catch the Passing Wind

Catch the Passing Wind

"Wind, sail and keel make a perfect trio,

only if they have a common direction to follow." avr

Painting and Verses by Dr Abe V Rotor

Lost time, lost opportunity and lost gain,

like passing wind that may not come again.

Who sees silver lining of clouds dark and bold

seeks not at rainbow's end a pot of gold.

A clenched fist softens under a blue sky

like high waves, after tempest, die.

When a flock of wild geese takes into the air

a leader must get ahead to break the barrier.

Even to a strong man, a little danger may create

the impression he's small or the problem is great.

In the doldrums or during sudden gusts,

the ship is much safer with a bare mast.

Wind, current and keel make a perfect trio

only if they have one direction to follow.

You really can't tell where a sailboat goes

without keel, but to where the wind blows.

The sound of a yes may be deep or hollow,

and knowing it only by its own echo.

Walk, don't run, to see better and to know

the countryside, Mother Nature and Thou. ~

Enigma is beauty, too.

Enigma is beauty, too. 

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Maguey (Agave cantala) looks menacing to browsing animals and intruders. 

The leaves are radially arranged and spiked at the tip like the sea urchin. 

Nature's art can be beautiful and painful, 

enigma is beauty, too;

like a rose beneath its petals are thorns,

life's like that in the same view. 

Powderpuff lily (Scadoxus multiflorus) has lost its "fire" shortly after its full bloom. 

Skeleton of a mysterious flower 

reveals the Sequence of Fibonacci* 

 the world has yet to know Nature's order,

the enigma of its essential beauty.

* Italian mathematician who discovered natural patterns include symmetries, trees, spirals, meanders, waves, foams, tessellations, cracks and stripes. Early Greek philosophers studied pattern, with Plato, Pythagoras and Empedocles attempting to explain order in nature.

People's Technology: Natural Vinegar has 101 Uses

 People's Technology: Natural Vinegar has 101 Uses

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog [avrotor.blogspot.com]

Photo: Vigan Empanada dipped in Ilocos Vinegar is a specialty of the place, and a favorite of tourists. 

• What commercial products can be substituted with natural vinegar?  Specify.
• Using as reference a simple and popular household item like the vinegar, cite other people's technologies that make living less expensive and complicated, and therefore ease out the burden of living in a highly capitalistic society.  

Vinegar is the most popular food conditioner – for seasoning, marinating, as spice, appetizer, and the like. Outside of the kitchen vinegar has many uses, from deodorizer to weed killer, sore throat remedy to first aid to insect bite.

A. Kitchen Uses

1. When boiling meat, add a spoonful of vinegar to the water to make it more tender.
2. Marinate tough meat in vinegar overnight to tenderize.
3. Pickles in natural vinegar will last longer and taste better. 
4. Make butter milk. Add a tablespoon of vinegar to a cup of milk and let it stand 5 minutes to thicken.
5. Tenderize meat. Soak in vinegar overnight.
6. Cook fish and meat as paksiw.
7. Freshen vegetables. Soak wilted vegetables in a quart of cold water and a tablespoon of vinegar.
8. Deodorize the kitchen drain. Pour a cup down the drain once a week.  Let stand 30 minutes and then flush with cold water.
9. Eliminate onion odor.  Rub on your fingers before and after slicing.
10. Clean and disinfect wood cutting boards.  Wipe with full strength vinegar.
11. Remove fruit stains from hands. Rub with vinegar.
12. Cut grease and odor on dishes.  Add a tablespoon of vinegar to hot soapy water.
13. Clean a teapot.  Boil a mixture of water and vinegar in the teapot.  Wipe away the grime.
14. Freshen a lunchbox.  Soak a piece of bread in vinegar and let it sit in the lunchbox overnight.
15. Clean the refrigerator.  Wash with a solution of equal parts of water and vinegar.
16. Unclog a drain.  Pour a handful of baking soda down the brain and add ½ cup of vinegar.  Rinse with hot water.
17. Replace a lemon.  Substitute ¼ teaspoon of vinegar for 1 teaspoon of lemon juice.
18. Firm up gelatin. Add a teaspoon of vinegar for every box of gelatin used to keep those molded desserts from sagging in the summer heat.
19. Boil better eggs.  Add 2 tablespoons of vinegars of vinegar to each quart of water before boiling eggs, keeps them from cracking.
20. Prepare fluffier rice.  Add a teaspoon of vinegar to the water when it boils.
21. Make wine-vinegar.  Mix 2 tablespoons of vinegar with 1 tablespoon of dry red wine.
22. Debug fresh vegetables.  Wash leafy greens in water with vinegar and salt.  Bugs floats off.
23. Sour fruits with vinegar.  Try eating young tamarind with vinegar and salt, so with santol.   
24. Scale fish more easily.  Rub with vinegar 5 minutes before scaling.
25. Pickle green papaya, botolan (seeded banana).  Add  carrot, onion and the like.
26. Vinegar as “mother liquor” in making new vinegar.  Principle of inoculation. .
27. Clean and deodorize the garbage disposal.  Make vinegar ice cubes and feed them down the disposal.  After grinding, run cold water through a minute.
28. Clean and deodorize jars.  Rinse mayonnaise, peanut butter, and mustard jars with vinegar when empty.
29. Clean the dishwasher.  Run a cup of vinegar through the whole cycle once a month to reduce soap build up on the inner mechanisms and on glassware.
30. Clean stainless steel.  Wipe with a vinegar dampened cloth.
31. Clean china and fine glassware.  Add a cup pf vinegar to a sink of warm water.  Gently dip the glass or china in the solution and let dry.
32. Get stains out of pots.  Fill pot with a solution of 3 tablespoons of vinegar to a pint of water.  Boil until stain loosens and can be washed away.
33. Clean the microwave.  Boil a solution of ¼ cup of vinegar and 1 cup of water in the microwave.  Will loosen splattered food and deodorize.
34. Get rid of cooking smells.  Let simmer a small pot of vinegar and water solution.
35. Mix some vinegar with salt.  It will clean dishes, pots, glasses, windows, brass, copper, bronze, pans. Skillets.  Rinse well with warm water,
36. When boiling eggs, add a tablespoon of vinegar to the water to prevent white from leaking out of a cracked egg and also keep the yolk in the center of the egg,
37. Use vinegar instead of lemon on fried and broiled foods.  It gives a tangy flavor. 
38. Remove the lime deposits.  Add vinegar to warm water and soak your tea kettle overnight.  .  This will also work on your glass coffee pot.  Put three ounces of vinegar in the pot and fill rest with warm water.
39. Wipe jars of preserves and canned food with vinegar to prevent mold producing bacteria.
40. Clean jars with vinegar and water to remove odor.
41. Prevent discoloration of peeled potatoes by adding a few drops of vinegar in water.  They will keep fresh for days in the refrigerator.

 B. Uses on Health and as Home Remedy

42. Drinking apple cider vinegar mixed with cold water will help you lose weight.  Vinegar helps to burn fat.
43. Dampen your appetite.  Sprinkle a little vinegar on prepared food to take the edge off your appetite.
44. Apply ice cold vinegar right away for fast relief of sunburn or other minor burns.  It will help prevent burn blisters,
45. Soothe a bee or jellyfish sting.  Douse with vinegar.  Will soothe irritation and relieve itching.
46. Relieve sunburn.  Lightly rub white or cider vinegar on skin.  Reapply as needed.
47. Conditions hair.  Add a tablespoon of vinegar to your rinse to dissolve sticky residue left by shampoo.
48. Relieve dry and itchy skin. Add 2 tablespoons of vinegar to your bath water.
49. Fight dandruff.  After shampooing, rinse with a solution of ½ cup vinegar and 2 cups of warm water.
50. Soothe a sore throat.  Put a teaspoon of vinegar in a glass of water.  Gurgle. The shallow.  For another great gargle: 1 cup hot water, 2 tbsp honey; 1 tbsp vinegar, gargle then drink.
51. Clear up warts.  Apply a lotion of half cider vinegar and half glycerin.
52. Treat sinus infections and chest colds.  Add ¼ cup or more vinegar to the vaporizer.
53. Feel good.  A teaspoon of apple cider vinegar in a glass of water, with a bit of honey added for flavor, will take the edge off your appetite and give you an overall healthy feeling.
54. Cure hangover.  Combine two raw eggs, a tablespoon of vinegar and black pepper.  Blend well.
55. Catch insect specimens with vinegar.  Vinegar attracts drosophila flies, common houseflies and blue bottle flies. Fly maggots can be culture in diluted vinegar for laboratory experiments.  

 C. Uses in the Shop and Working Area

56. Unclog steam iron.  Pour equal amounts of vinegar and water into the iron’s water chamber.  Turn to steam and leave the iron on for five minutes in an upright position.  Then unplug and allow to cool.  Any loose particles should come out when you empty the water.    
57. Clean a scorched iron plate.  Heat equal parts vinegar and salt in a small pan.  Rub solution on the cooled iron surface to remove dark or burned stains.
58. Keep colors from running.  Immerse clothes in full strength vinegar before washing.
59. Get rid of lint in clothes.  Add ½ cup of vinegar to the rinse cycle.
60. Freshen up the washing machine.  Periodically, pour a cup of vinegar in the machine and let in run through a regular cycle (no clothes added).  Will dissolve soap residue.
61. Brighten fabric colors.  Add a ½ cup vinegar to the rinse cycle.
62. Take grease off suede.  Dip a toothbrush in vinegar and gently brush over grease spot.
63. Remove tough stains.  Gently rub on fruit, jam, mustard, coffee, tea.  Then was as usual.
64. Get smoke smell out of clothes.  Add a cup of vinegar to a bath tub of hot water.  Hang clothes above the steam.
65. Remove decals.  Brush with a couple coats of vinegar.  Allow to soak in.  Wash off.
66. Clean eyeglasses.  Wipe each lens with a drop of vinegar.
67. Freshen cut flowers.  Add 2 tbsp vinegar and 1 tbsp sugar for each quart of water.
68. Keep car windows frosty free.  Coat the windows the night before with a solution of three parts vinegar to one part water.
69. Polish car chrome.  Apply full strength vinegar with a soft cloth.
70. Soak new propane lantern wicks in vinegar for several hours. Let dry before using. Will burn longer and brighter.
71. Dissolve rust from bolts and other metals.  Soak in full strength vinegar.
72. Clean windows with vinegar and water.
73. Rub vinegar on the cut end of uncooked ham to prevent mold.  It will not change the taste of your ham.
74. Add vinegar to laundry rinse water.  This will remove all soap and prevent yellowing.
75.  Remove hairspray and other p[product buildups from your hair. Massage one ounce of full strength vinegar into hair and leave on for about 20 minutes.  Rinse with warm water.  The shampoo and rinse your hair as usual.
76. Boil vinegar and water in pots to remove stains.
77. Pour undiluted vinegar in coffee maker to remove sediments.  Run through like you are brewing coffee.  Let cool and run through again if your coffee maker is full of sediment.  When done, run in plain water through to rinse a few times.
78. Remove berry stains from hands with vinegar.
79. Wash hands with diluted vinegar after working with cement. This will restore smoothness and color of your hands.
80. Artists use vinegar for etching and blending paint materials.
81. Soak your fingernails in vinegar for 20 minutes two times a week to strengthen them.  They will grow longer a lot faster than normal.
82. Bring vinegar to a boil in an old saucepan.  Reduce to shimmer and place paint brushes with hardened paint on them in the pan.  Leave until you see paint loosen.  Wash brushes with soapy water to soften the brushes.
83. Dampen a cloth with vinegar and wipe counters, canisters and other containers to keep them smelling fresh and clean.
84. Place small containers of vinegar all around the house to take out cigarette smoke smell.  Or wave a cloth you soaked in vinegar around the house to clean the air odors.
85. Pour baking soda down clogged drain.  Add boiling vinegar to it and your drain should unclog.  If not, your clog is needing a commercial drain opener.
86. Clean fireplace bricks with undiluted vinegar.
87. To tighten cane bottom or caneback chairs sponge them with a hot solution of half vinegar and half water.  Place the chairs out in the hot sun to dry.  They will tighten back into shape.
88. To eliminate mildew. Dust and odors. Wipe down walls with vinegar-soaked cloth.

D. Uses on Farms and Gardens

89. Kill grass on walks and driveways.  Pour full strength on unwanted grass.
90. Kill weeds.  Spray full strength on tops of weeds.  Reapply on any new growth until plants have starved.
91. Increase soil acidity.  In hard water areas, add a cup of vinegar to a gallon of water for watering acid loving plants like rhododendrons, gardenia and azaleas.  The vinegar will release iron in the soil for the plant to use.
92. Neutralize garden lime.  Rinse your hands liberally with vinegar after working with garden lime to avoid rough and flaking skin. Clean pots before repotting, rinse with vinegar to remove excess lime.
93. Deter ants.  Spray vinegar around door and window frames, under appliances, and along other known ant trails.
94. Clean milking equipment. Rinse with vinegar to leave system clean, odorless, and bacteria free without harmful chemical residue.

E. Uses on Animals and Pets

95. Remove skunk odor from a dog. Rub fur with vinegar.
96. Keep cats away. Sprinkle vinegar on an area to discourage cats from walking, sleeping, or scratching on it.
97. Keep dogs from scratching ears. Clean the inside of the ears with a soft cloth dipped in diluted vinegar.
98. Rub down your dogs and cats with vinegar if they get sprayed by a skunk.
99. Keep away fleas and mange. Add a little vinegar to your pet’s drinking water.

100.Keep chickens from pecking each other. Add cider vinegar to their drinking water.

101.Substitute of deodorant such as creosol, lysol, etc. Add little vinegar in final flushing. 
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Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid Ka Abe Rotor and Melly C Tenorio, 738 DZRB AM, 8 to 9 Evening Class, Monday to Friday 

Local Fruits - Fresh and Preserved

Local Fruits - Fresh and Preserved 

Dr Abe V Rotor

 Fresh and preserved food: (Top, clockwise) Banana (Saba variety), jumbo papaya, Native santol, Calamansi, mango halves,  karamay preserve, sampaloc sweet, and santol preserve (center)    

 

Homemade preserved Karamay and Sampaloc

Typical fruit stand in the city sells imported and local varieties.

Can you identify the fruits? 

It's mushroom season. Shelf Fungi

It's mushroom season.  Shelf Fungi 
Dr Abe V Rotor 

Shelf mushrooms are scientifically known as Polypore Fungi or polypores for their large fruiting bodies or tubes on the underside.  Framed model by the author, on display at the San Vicente (IS) Botanical Garden 2020

Monsoon is mushroom season.  Mushrooms are practically everywhere.  You don't have to go far to find one.- on the fields, limbs of trees, garbage dumps, even in damp corners of your house.  When you find one growing on old shoes, you think a fairy lives there.  Fairy tales are associated with mushroom.  It is because of the stories of the Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Anderson, Mga Kwento ni Lola Basyang, notwithstanding.  

Mushrooms belong to Family Basidiomycetes, which together with Phycomycetes* (molds) and Fungi  imferpecti (Penicillium)**  occupy a fifth kingdom in the biological world - Mycophyta. Fungi are Nature's converter of organic compounds back to elements after the organism dies. That is why they are called decomposers.  The chemical elements are then re-assembled once again into organic compounds by plants through photosynthesis, essential for the next generation of  living things.  The cycle is repeated ad infinitum.

  

Being decomposers, fungi are the first step in food chains. Many organisms benefit from the process, - monerans (bacteria)  and protists (single-celled organisms), animals and plants.  It is a world in itself.  A world of transition, without it our world would not be what it is today.  

Fungi provide a habitat of their own, which help in the regeneration of ecosystems such as grasslands and forests, and even our own gardens. They live but briefly, emerging suddenly as a colony, then disappear. But many mushrooms live long, perhaps even for many years, often remaining incognito in their mycellial

(microscopic) stage, only to "fruit" again in the next season.   

What is probably the longest life of a shelf mushroom?  In my research I found out that a tree bracket fungus with twenty rings may be twenty years old (just like the annular rings of a tree), but it could vary depending on the seasons. There have been reports of shelf mushrooms with forty rings and weigh up to three hundred pounds. 

As long as the host plant survives, the shelf will continue to grow, so the simplest answer to how long a bracket fungus lives is — as long as the tree it infects. 

Standing dead tree serves as host to a colony of mushrooms, as well as other saprophytes, until it finally falls down and decomposes into organic matter and becomes part of the soil. Photo taken at the former Ecological Sanctuary of St Paul University QC
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While there are mushrooms which are edible and commercially produced as food, the general rule is: Don't eat those you don't know, and those you are in doubt. Do not eat any bracket fungi that have not been properly identified by a qualified professional, some are DEADLY. And remember, there is no antidote for mushroom poisoning.
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Ganoderma Tea, Ganoderma Coffee

Ganoderma lucidum.  Little is known about the safety of ganoderma. Ganoderma may cause a number of side-effects, including dizziness, stomach upset, and skin irritation. You should talk to your doctor before trying ganoderma. There have been a few case reports of people who have developed hepatitis after the use of Ganoderma lucidum products. (Internet)
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 Common edible mushrooms: Cultured Pleurotus and wild Volvariella mushroom

 *Phycomycetes has been abolished and in its place exists Zygomycetes, Chytridiomycetes, Plasmodiophoromycetes, Hyphochytridiomycetes, Trichomycetes and Oomycetes.

**Fungi  imperfecti or Deuteromycota, are fungi which do not fit into the commonly established taxonomic classifications of fungi

Hidden Valley

Hidden Valley 
Painting and Poem by Abe V Rotor

Hidden Valley in acrylic, AVR 2011

Let time stand still in these lovely huts
By the gentle streams and rivulets;
Let the breeze comb the green slopes,
And sing with the hills and rocky cliffs;

The birds fly over the meandering brook
And come to rest from across the bay;
Let the wild call the language of the free, 
And signal the coming of night and day.

Here Beethoven composed a lovely song ,
And Schumann added a poetic flare;
Rustic would be Amorsolo’s version
Of this hidden valley fair.

Here by the pond Henry Thoreau
wrote a treatise, Man and Nature;
Here Schumacher praised the small,
Small, he said, is beautiful.

Here is respite, here is retreat,
Where the sky and hills ever meet;
Here’s life far, far from the busy lane, 
A resort for tired souls and feet.

If life has not been lived well enough
And freedom like a genie chained;
Take it from Milton in his blindness,
He saw a Paradise regained.

And here as in our ancestor’s time
Lies an Eden, lofty yet sublime,
Where there is no need of calendar
To mark the passing of time. ~

Witty Humor - Key to Cheerful Disposition

Witty Humor - Key to Cheerful Disposition 
Researched and edited by Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature - School on Blog [avrotor.blogspot.com]

1.  Authorship 
An English teacher, having read some of John Milton's poetry to her young class one day, mentioned to them that the great poet was blind.  One question asked on the examination the next  day was:

"What was Milton's great affliction?"

On one paper was scribbled, simply: "He was a poet."

2. Statistics

 "What are the chances of my recovering, doctor?" 

"One hundred per cent.  Medical records show that nine out of ten die of the disease which you have, Yours in the tenth case I've treated. The others all died.  So you see, you're bound to get well.  Statistics are statistics."

3. Romance
A shapely young girl had just married a man of wealth who was more than twice her age.

"I don't believe in these May and December marriages," declared a critical friend.

"Why not?" asked the bride.

"Well, said the friend.  "December is going to find in May the youth, beauty and freshness of spring, but what is May going to find in December?"

The bride's logical answer was, "Santa Claus."

4. A Fisherman's Lament
A three-pound pull, and a five-pound bite; an eight-pound jump, and a ten-pound fight; a twelve-pound bend to your pole - but alas!  When you got him aboard he's a half-pound bass.  

FISHERMAN: "I tell you it was THAT long!  I never saw such a fish."
FRIEND: "I believe you."

5.  Age
The young co-ed brought a friend home from college, an extremely attractive curvaceous honey-blonde. 

Introducing her friend to her grandfather, the girl added: "And just think, Beverly, he's in his nineties.

"Early nineties, that is," the old gent added. 

6. Importance of Punctuation
A grade school student was having trouble with punctuation.  

"Never mind, Sonny," said the visiting school board president, consolingly. "It's foolish to bother about commas; they don't amount too much, anyway." 

"Elizabeth Ann," said the teacher. "Please write this sentence on the board: The president of the board says the teacher is misinformed." 

"Now," she continued, "put a comma after the board, and another after teacher."

7. Big Fish Caught
A fellow in a lunatic asylum sat fishing over a flower bed.  A visiting doctor, wishing to be friendly asked.

"How many have you caught?"

Answered the not-so-dumb fisherman, "You are the ninth."

8. Maximum Punishment
A judge in sentencing a criminal recently said, "I am giving you the maximum punishment - I am letting you go free to worry about taxes, inflation, and everything else, just like the rest of us."
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TOASTS 

Drink! for you know not when you come, nor why;

Drink! for you know not why you go, nor where.                      - Omar Khayyam                                             

Here is to Life! The first half is ruined by our parents and the second half by our children.  

Acknowledgement: Speaker's Encyclopedia of Humor by Jacob M Braude; Philippine Literature Today, by Rotor AV and KM Doria

LESSON on Former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air)
738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday [www.pbs.gov.ph]

Quo vadis, Homo sapiens? To where is Man going?

Quo vadis, Homo sapiens?

(To where is Man going?)

"Of all God’s creatures, there is no species more guilt-ridden, confused and self-destructive than man." Dr Arturo B Rotor, Men Who Play God

 Dr Abe V Rotor

The Thinker at the Gates of Hell by Auguste Rodin (Internet)

A young man who was in love asked the computer, “What is love?”

Whereupon, came a prompt answer – in a number of definitions, technical and literary.

“How does it feel to be in love?” the young man continued. This time the computer did not respond. He entered his query once more, but still there was no response. After several attempts, the computer finally gave up, and printed: I cannot feel.

Spending more time with the computer deprives millions, mostly children, of participating in health promoting games and resistance-building exposure to nature.
Our children are no longer children of nature; they are captives of education and media, of malls and cafes.

They like to think that the mind is like the computer, that the more information it acquires the better it is to the person.

This is not so. Not when it pertains to health, not with the ability to arrive at correct decisions, not when and where survival is needed. And not when it comes to matters of love.

And here are our children spending most of their waking hours with an “intelligent” thing in the shape of a box, a thing that has no feeling at all!

Even when the computer can tell us of all kinds of ailments in the world, it cannot comfort us. It cannot cure us. It will only worsen our allergies, our asthma.

It cannot reciprocate our friendship, our love, our compassion. Because a robot is a robot is a robot.

Diseases and many forms of human misery are masked by the so-called Good Life.These are surreptitiously spreading around the world causing many complications, untold sufferings, and death. They turn into pandemic as they merge with other diseases – HIV-AIDS, obesity, diabetes, accidents, are becoming common cases.

The success of human beings and all living things today depends on fitness acquired through Evolution and Adaptation. Evolution refers to the “Survival of the Fittest,” through eons of time; while Adaptation is the ability of organisms to adjust to dynamic changes of the environment.

The Four Attributes of Man

• Homo sapiens “Man the Wise”
• Homo faber "Man the Maker” or “Working Man"
• Homo ludens “Playing Man”
• Homo spiritus “Praying Man”

(Deus faber “God the Creator”) Should Man also play the role of God?

Homo sapiens, the Patient
(From The Men Who Play God by Dr Arturo B Rotor)

“Of all God’s creatures, there is no species more guilt-ridden, confused and self-destructive than man. Fear, remorse and frustration underlie his basic behavior probably as a result of his forbears having been driven out of the Garden of Eden…”

“Man kills not for food, he eats when he is not hungry, he mates in and out of season. His suicidal tendencies are unique. While the lemmings drown themselves as a result of reduced food supplies, man will willingly cultivate cancer of his lungs by smoking poisonous plants, convert his liver into a hobnailed atrophic mass of dead tissues with alcohol, or remove himself from the control of his mind with narcotics…

“An important feature of his personality is that the more developed the creature and the more successful, the more likely is he to suffer of neurosis.”
The genes bearing these characteristics have not been identified, but seems to be transmitted paternally and maternally.

“While among all other species, infection heads mortality and morbidity lists, among Homo sapiens, neurosis is the underlying cause of ninety percent of all illnesses.”

"As a matter of fact, in the big cities and centers of population, the archetype of the successful executive in the hypertensive, the ulcer-patient, the tranquilizer-dependent. We believe that for an in-depth study of tension or anxiety, in all its typical and atypical manifestations, man is a better subject to study than any other organism.” ~

Entomology: Twelve reasons I love insects

Entomology: Twelve reasons I love insects

Dr Abe V Rotor

Cottony moth

                                                      Coconut or rhinoceros beetle; enigmatic firefly

1. I love insects for their honey, the sweetest sugar in the world, elixir, energy-packed, aphrodisiac, therapeutic, the culinary and confectionery arts it makes;

2. I love insects for their silk no human fabric can equal - cool in summer, warm in winter, velvety to the touch, flowing and free, friendly to the wind and sun, lovely in the night, royal on the throne, smooth to the skin, hypoallergenic, dynamic to fashion and casual wear;

3. I love insects for their shellac, the best varnish that lasts for years, unequaled by synthetic substitutes; their wax, the best lubricant and natural polish that makes the dancing floor alive and schoolrooms happy.

4. I love insects for the resin they produce with certain plants which is used in worships, to bring the faithful to their knees, similarly to calm down fowls on their roost, drive vermin or keep them at bay, pacify and make peace with the unseen spirits;

5. I love insects for the amber, transparent rock originally from resin, which forever entrapped fossils of insects and other organisms, complete with their genes and attendant evidences of natural history, enabling us to read the past, turning back the hands of time in visual imagery;

  Green beetle; leaf insect

6. I love insects for their crimson dye produced by certain scale insects that made the robes of kings and emperors, and only they were privileged to wear; likewise for their phosphorescence like the wing scales of butterflies that make the most beautiful and expensive paint for cars today;

7. I love insects for their medicinal substances they produce - antibiotics from fly maggot and soldier ants, cantharidin from blister beetle, formic acid for weak heart, bee sting for rheumatism;

8. I love insects as food, high in protein and minerals, elixir and stimulant, not only in times of famine but as exotic food in class restaurants, and on occasions that bring closer bonding among members of communities and cultures;

9. I love insects for all the fruits and vegetables, the multiplication of plants, geographically and seasonally, through their being the world's greatest pollinators; and in effect make the ecosystems wholesome, complete and alive;

10. I love insects for disposing garbage, of bringing back to nature organic compounds into elemental forms ready to be used again by the succeeding generations of living things.

11. I love insects for play, and for lessons in life - how they jump and fly, carry tremendous load which I wish I could, how they practice frugality, patience, fraternity, and how they circle a candle one lonely night and singed into its flame that inspires heroism and martyrdom;

Leaf insects resemble the leaves of their host plant

12. I love insects for whatever nature designed them to be, their role in health and sickness, , sorrow and joy, ugliness and beauty, deprivation and abundance, even in life and death, for I have learned that without insects, we humans - so with many other organisms - would not be here on earth.~