MikeLigalig.com

the letter also sounds sanctimonious.

(post erased by poster for technical reasons.)

Vaccines definition

[/color]The body's immune system helps protect against pathogens that cause infection. Most of the time, it's an efficient system. It either keeps microorganisms out or tracks them down and gets rid of them.

[/color]However, some pathogens can overwhelm the immune system. When this happens, it can cause serious illness.[/size]The pathogens most likely to cause problems are the ones the body doesn't recognize. Vaccination is a way to "teach" the immune system how to recognize and eliminate an organism. That way, your body is prepared if you're ever exposed.[/size][/size]However, some pathogens can overwhelm the immune system. When this happens, it can cause serious illness.[/size]The pathogens most likely to cause problems are the ones the body doesn't recognize. Vaccination is a way to "teach" the immune system how to recognize and eliminate an organism. That way, your body is prepared if you're ever exposed.Vaccinations are an important form of primary prevention. That means they can protect people from getting sick. Vaccinations have allowed us to control diseases that once threatened many lives, such as:
 

• [/size]measles
• [/size]polio
• [/size]tetanus
• [/size]whooping cough

[/size]It's important that as many people as possible get vaccinated. Vaccinations don't just protect individuals. When enough people are vaccinated, it helps protect society.This occurs through herd immunity. Widespread vaccinations make it less likely that a susceptible person will come into contact with someone who has a particular disease.

Charcoal Purifies Air And Removes Odors

Did you know that you do not have to spend on expensive air purifiers? All you need is some activated bamboo charcoal. It is good for removing allergens and bacteria. Simply place them in mesh bags and put them in the area you want. Say goodbye to foul odors!

Random Jean Buttons[/color]We all wear jeans, so you must have noticed the extra buttons added to the seams of the pants. Did you know what they are for? Called rivets, they are added to stop the seams from wearing out and popping open. Levi Strauss is the person who patented the invention. In 1829, he came up with it after hearing of miners complaining about wearing out their jeans.[/color][/font]
[/color]

Colored Toothpaste Squares

Have you ever noticed that blue, red, black, or green square at the end of the toothpaste tube? We bet you have no idea what they are for. Called eye marks, they are important for the assembly line machines. These marks indicate where the packaging should be cut and folded! How cool is this little fun fact?

Shirt Loops

We are sure that you have noticed this on your nice collared shirts! This is a practice that started in the Navy. When you are on a boat, closet space is very limited. In the past, sailors like to hang up their shirts through this. In the ‘60s, college kids did the same thing at the gym. It is now a sign of class and quality.

Wine Bottle Dip

Many people like to drink wine to unwind. If you belong to this group, you probably know about the dip at the end of the bottle. Why did they design it this way? Known as the punt or kick-up, it gives the bottle the stability it needs to prevent falling down after a gust of wind passes by. It also lends it the strength to hold sparkling wine. Lastly, it distributes steam during cleaning, right before the wine is poured in.

But the truth is, the Marcos tragedy is not a petit narrative; it is, still, part of the dominant one. As long as the Marcos family retains its political and economic power, the country remains locked in a life-or-death struggle between the powers of corruption and despotism and the forces (however imperfect) of freedom and reform.

All that Aquino’s erudite temporizing in the face of truth does is put the faithful at risk; if meta-narratives trump truth, the ground on which religion rests collapses. What was the warning in Matthew? “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”

On Twitter: @jnery_newsstand, email: jnery@inquirer.com.ph
https://opinion.inquirer.net/

He continued: “One of the grand narratives is that Ninoy Aquino returned to the Philippines to save the country, and that Cory restored democracy. These are not necessarily false, but they are reconstructions of history based on the selection of certain data, and the exclusion of others.”

He concludes: “[Deconstruction] brackets grand narratives to allow petit narratives to be heard and then offers us alternative readings of reality and of history, and this is a salutary movement, yes, even for theology and for the Church.”

Truly, charity, even disguised as scholarly argument, covers a multitude of sins. The “petit” (small) narrative that Aquino wants to be heard is that Marcos was not the evil man history has portrayed him to be. Never mind the thousands of killings he ordered, the billions of dollars he looted, the generations of Filipinos he impoverished. He (in Aquino’s argument) deserves an alternative reading of reality and history.

For a scholar who is invested in the power of narratives (or, in Derridean terms, meta-narratives), Aquino does not seem that much interested in language per se. Or in truly understanding the criticism directed at him. Imagine a convert’s earnest, anxious question about the nature of the New Testament: “Aren’t the testimonies of those who lived at the time of Jesus enough?” Now imagine a priest answering in this way: “I never said anything about that. I am campaigning for deconstructive readings.”

The real question is a variation on a theme already struck by Pontius Pilate. “What is (the) truth?” What, really, is the truth about Marcos? Aquino, a priest of long standing, cannot offer a direct reply. Instead, he wrote this long thread on Twitter: “But the point, however, is that when you deal with constructs, there are rival constructs, rival interpretations, rival selections of data considered significant. But some constructs prevail and are favored. These become the dominant constructs. These are the grand narratives.”

Aquino did deny that he was guilty of any such denial. One of his replies scolded a critic for allegedly “equating revisionism” with deconstruction. But in fact, the logical relationship between his first words, that the youth “never experienced Marcos” and their condemnation was directed only at “their construct of Marcos,” and the inevitable conclusion, that he was denying the reality of the dictatorship, is not akin to an equal sign on a blackboard, but the broken grass on a slippery slope.

The Bloomberg journalist and Chevening scholar Ryan Edward Chua (see, not all of his commenters were propagandists) asked the right follow-up question: “So what’s the purpose of learning history if we should disregard the mistakes and evils of the past just because we ‘never experienced’ them? Aren’t the testimonies of those who lived through them enough?” Aquino could only rush an answer: “I never said anything about disregarding, i [sic] am campaigning fro [sic] deconstructive readings.”

He spent the following day, a Saturday, defending his position â€" by attacking, derogating, his many critics. At 7:34 a.m., for instance, he tweeted: “It is obvious from the dismal comments I get by propagandists that ‘constructs’ and ‘deconstruction’ are not understood.” But in fact this was not true. (It was also ungrammatical: He meant “from,” not “by.”) By no means were all the comments from “propagandists.” By no means were the comments all uncomprehending of the obtuse language of deconstruction.

I still have to read all the comments, but I think it is fair to say that much of the criticism Aquino received was driven by shock and disgust: Here was a priest, who had lived through the Marcos years, denying the tragic reality of the dictatorship.

Through the one tweet, Aquino said many things at once: That the “present generation” does not know what it is talking about. That the rant against Marcos is misdirected. That experience trumps theory, and personal knowledge of Marcos takes precedence over the youth’s “construct” of the dictator. That the youth should seek enlightenment, through further study. And that the French thinkers Jacques Derrida and Jean-François Lyotard can help us catch the truth about Marcos.

His tweet (one of only two he posted that day) was retweeted and liked many times (of course, social media validation is at best a construct, too, and a fleeting one), but he also reaped a harvest of indignant criticism.

NEWSSTAND

The Unfortunate Ranhilio Aquino,
Marcos Apologist

John Nery
Philippine Daily Inquirer
September 15, 2020

On Sept. 11, the 103rd birth anniversary of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, the priest and legal scholar Ranhilio Aquino marked the milestone by tying a millstone around his neck. The millstone came in the form of an intemperate tweet: “The present generation that is loud in its condemnation of Marcos never experienced Marcos. So that rant is directed at their construct of Marcos. Shouldn’t they be studying Derrida and Lyotard more?”

It is clear, from Aquino’s diction and logic and tone, that the tweet wasn’t a compliment. In fact, in its own erudite way, it was as loud in its condemnation of the “present generation” as that generation was of Marcos.

arang saktoha jamo. 

"Sadly though, many conservation efforts are losing funding and our competition exists to keep raising awareness, a smile and hopefully support wild animals around the world," he added.

Joining Sullam and his co-founder Paul Joynson-Hicks on this year's judging panel are wildlife television presenter Kate Humble, comedian Hugh Dennis, along with wildlife experts, photographers and journalists.

Members of the public can also vote for their favorite photo as part of the People's Choice Award, with all the winners due to be announced on October 22.


CNN's Amy Woodyatt contributed to this report.

https://edition.cnn.com/

A Royal Bengal tiger plays "peekaboo" in Ranthambhor National Park, India.
Jagdeep Rajput/Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2020

One Atlantic puffin seems to have had a successful time hunting for fish in Scotland, UK.
Krisztina Scheeff/Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2020

Langurs play together on some bicycles in Hampi, India.
Yevhen Samuchenko/Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2020

As well as offering some comfort to the public, the awards also aim to promote wildlife conservation, working in conjunction with the Born Free Foundation, an international wildlife charity.

In a statement issued earlier this year, Tom Sullam, a professional photographer and co-founder of the competition, said the entries in 2020 were "particularly poignant."

"The world is experiencing unprecedented upheaval, but the single brightest light coming out of the gloom is the positive impact on the climate that our self-imposed lockdown has created," Sullam explained.

A kestrel takes a break from chasing dragonflies on Huntington Beach, California.
Mike Lessel/Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2020

A young common seal looks as if it is enjoying itself in Caithness, Scotland.
Ken Crossan/Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards 2020

A raccoon's legs and tail poke out of a tree in Newport News, Virginia, US.
Charlie Davidson/Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards 2020

From a smiley fish to a dangling raccoon, Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards offer some light relief


Rory Sullivan, CNN • Published 12th September 2020

(CNN) â€" A colorful Mediterranean parrotfish "smiles" at the camera, a raccoon's hind legs and tail poke out of a tree and a young seal appears to be having a great time while resting on some wood.

These are three of the 44 hilarious photos from around the globe that have been announced as the finalists in the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2020.

The competition, which is now in its sixth year, is sure to offer some light relief amid the doom and gloom through its selection of unusually expressive wildlife images.

why man wa na lang ni sila kaona? hunit na tingali sa?

What Is a Banana Republic? Definition and Examples

By Robert Longley
November 19, 2019

[/size]A banana republic is a politically unstable country with an economy dependent entirely on revenue from exporting a single product or resource, such as bananas or minerals. It is generally considered a derogatory term describing countries whose economies are controlled by foreign-owned companies or industries.

[/size]Key Takeaways: Banana Republic

-A banana republic is any politically unstable country that generates most or all of its revenue from exporting a single product, such as bananas.[/font]

-The economiesâ€"and to an extent the governmentsâ€"of banana republics are controlled by foreign-owned companies. [/font]

[/size]-Banana republics are characterized by highly stratified socioeconomic structure, with unequal distribution of wealth and resources.

[/size]-The first banana republics were created in the early 1900s by multinational American corporations, such as the United Fruit Company, in depressed Central American countries.

What is a Banana Republic?

In political science, the term banana republic describes a politically unstable country with an economy dependent upon the exportation of a limited-resource product, such as bananas or minerals. (wikipedia)

he knows social distancing. arf!

Kuala Lumpur

A resident using an improvised face shield made from a plastic water tank to protect him from the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic walks in his neighbourhood in Manila. (Image: AFP)

A person wearing a mask walks down a street in Vienna, Austria. (Image: Reuters)

People wearing masks of pigs were seen at a shopping district in Tokyo, Japan. (Image: Reuters)

Filipino artist Leeroy New poses with a makeshift mask he designed with recycled materials as he adapts to the effects of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in the art industry, in his studio in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines (Image: Reuters)

A man in Pimpri-Chinchwad district of Pune made headlines for wearing a mask made entirely of gold worth 2.89 Lakhs. Reportedly, Shankar Kurade said that the mask is made of gold but is pretty thin and has very minute holes in it to help him breathe. He then admitted that he isn't too sure if the mask is going to be very effective in preventing coronavirus. (Image: Special Arrangement)

His colleagues said he would be missed.

Jon Benjamin, director of the department’s Diplomatic Academy, wished him a “very happy retirement.″

“He left us a slightly chewed dead mouse next to my desk in @UKDipAcademy once,″ he tweeted, adding “we were of course not very grateful.”


https://www.huffpost.com/

Palmerston, who is named after the longest-serving British Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, arrived in April 2016 as a rescue cat. He had plenty of company, though sometimes less than smooth diplomatic relations with Larry, cat-in-residence at nearby 10 Downing Street. The two were sometimes seen fighting in the street outside the British prime minister’s home.

The letter from Palmerston, or @DiploMog’ as he is known on Twitter, said his service showed that “even those with four legs and fur have an important part to play in the U.K.’s global effort.”

“I have been delighted to meet representatives from all over the world, and I hope I have done you proud in putting the U.K.’s best foot or paw forward in such interaction,’’ the letter said.

Palmerston, UK's Top Diplomat And 'Chief Mouser,' Retires

08/07/2020, Huffpost

The British feline made it official in a resignation letter signed with two paw prints.




LONDON (AP) â€" Time spent in lockdown was just superb for Palmerston, the chief mouser at the U.K. Foreign Office.

It was so good, in fact, that the cat has decided to leave sorting out international affairs to the human diplomats and retire to the countryside after four long, hard years on the job.

Palmerston made it official in a letter sent in his name to Simon McDonald, the office’s permanent under-secretary, which explained that he wanted more time “away from the limelight.’’

“I have found life away from the front line relaxed, quieter, and easier,” a letter signed with two paw prints said. It was posted on Twitter.

Quote from: islander on August 03, 2020, 02:02:15 PM
Marcoleta supported the dual citizenship law, the same law he had questioned on Gabby Lopez’s citizenship. He had also authored the franchises of Bohol Chronicle Radio Corp., Rajah Broadcasting Network, TV5, GMA Network, and other networks that have been in operation for more than 50 years.

the name sounds familiar.

What was it again that he once said? “I am very affected that rules can be easily twisted.”

We carry a cross each time we vote into office congressmen who bend the law according to the will and welfare of their oligarchic patrons. In developing spiritual forbearance, we are often told to embrace our cross. That is true. But in electing officials who crucify us with their astonishing ability to sink our spirits, we don’t embrace them. We vote them out of office to spare the nation from crucifixion.

https://opinion.inquirer.net/

Winning under 1-Sagip in 2016, he joined the administration “supermajority.” Marcoleta shocked the public when in 2018 he authored the motion to give the Commission on Human Rights a paltry 1,000-peso budget. On interpellation, Marcoleta slammed the CHR for supposedly acceding “more to the United Nations special rapporteur” rather than protect the human rights of President Duterte in the bloody war on drugs. His church, the Iglesia ni Cristo, has been known to oppose former justice secretary and detained political prisoner Sen. Leila de Lima.

Marcoleta supported the dual citizenship law, the same law he had questioned on Gabby Lopez’s citizenship. He had also authored the franchises of Bohol Chronicle Radio Corp., Rajah Broadcasting Network, TV5, GMA Network, and other networks that have been in operation for more than 50 years.

Is he being dictated upon? Consider his political affiliations. He started his congressional seat as representative of the party list Alagad (2004-2007, 2009-2013). In the 2016 elections, Marcoleta ran under another party named 1-Sagip, also associated with his sect. That was the time of the Legitimate 8 when he objected to the election of Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez as a fake minority leader. And then he bolted the 8. Asked why, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said, “His church wanted him to join the majority.”

That is quite a powerful church then, able to decree the legislative agenda of a member. “Unity is part of the church’s doctrine,” explained Marcoleta.

Religious tolerance is a reality in many Mindanao hospitals where patients can be of the Islamic faith. Nurses, many of whom are now trained in transcultural health praxis, know what to do when a patient expresses insecurity at the presence of the crucifix or cross. When a request is made for such to be removed, the patient’s wish is followed out of religious respect. After all, love begets love. There begins interfaith dialogue.

Marcoleta’s bill calls for a removal of crucifixes, however optional. That is contrarian to religious freedom.

“In our country, where people are ultra-sensitive about their faith, a minor swipe at their religion is such a major slight. Hence, a non-Catholic patient would be ill at ease to find a crucifix hovering in his or her room.”

If Marcoleta’s bill becomes law, the freedom of those who want to hang crucifixes in their places of confinement will be infringed. Healing is an act of religious view freely chosen. Instead of fostering tolerance, religious intolerance for diverse beliefs would be fostered.

Some hospitals are sectarian-owned (Catholic, Seventh-Day Adventist, Protestant), many are not. A crucifix or cross on the wall is a choice of the hospital proprietor. A patient freely chooses the hospital.

Kris-Crossing Mindanao


Marcoleta's Cross

Antonio J. Montalvan II
August 3, 2020

The Honorable Rodante D. Marcoleta, said to be eyeing a seat as senator in the 2022 elections, once said in a July 2016 interview: “Affected na affected ako na ang rule ay puwedeng baluktutin (I am very affected that rules can be easily twisted)!” That was way back when he was with the “Legitimate 8,” the protest group that called themselves the “true fiscalizers” when a pseudo minority House leader was elected. So who is Marcoleta fiscalizing for?Let us begin with his House Bill No. 4633 that aims to remove crucifixes in hospitals. His explanatory note reasons thus: “Presence of crucifixes in many hospital suites appears normal but it raises serious interfaith issues. First of all, the crucifix is the most salient representation of the Catholic church. Its existence in these health care institutions presupposes singular church membership.”

Fourth, it’s less than two years from the end of President Duterte’s term. It’s the last chance for the administration to realistically attain the objective of changing the country’s fundamental law. Even before he won the presidency, Mr. Duterte had made known that amending the Constitution was one of his avowed dreams. While Malacañang has denied involvement in this latest push for Charter change, the disavowal gives no comfort at all. The Palace also denied involvement in the plot against ABS-CBN, only for the President to gloat later on in Jolo, Sulu, that he supposedly ended the oligarchy, in the same speech where he cursed ABS-CBN.

All the administrations of the past 28 years have brought out a species of Charter change that’s a multiheaded monster. The people succeeded in beheading one head of the monster each time. The Filipino people must prepare for another ritual of decapitation.

https://opinion.inquirer.net/

There are more reasons to be on guard.

The third reason is that there’s a sense of desperation on the part of government, as shown by the enticement given to mayors by administration ally Chavit Singson, president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP). Singson declared that he will push for five-year terms with unlimited reelection for mayors under an amended Constitution. This administration is no longer sugar-coating Charter change as being beneficial for ordinary people. It’s dangling outright the bait that local politicians who will work to get the votes for Charter change will ensure a dynastic future for their families.

The desperation is also shown by Jonathan Malaya, undersecretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government. The LMP stated that Charter change is meant to “institutionalize” the Supreme Court decision in “Mandanas v. Executive Secretary,” which has the effect of giving local governments a bigger share in national revenues. This was meant again to entice mayors, but only the gullible ones should believe this because the bigger share of cities and municipalities in national revenues is already guaranteed by a final Supreme Court decision. There’s absolutely no more need for Charter change.

The two reasons that stopped previous administrations from pursuing Charter change don’t bother the current leadership. First, the winning track record of the Duterte administration in the current Supreme Court gives it the confidence that it will not encounter the kind of judicial intercession that stopped two previous administrations. Its confidence is bolstered by the fact that President Duterte has appointed a supermajority of the high court’s current compositionâ€"12 of the 15 justices.

Second, with the public debilitated by the current pandemic, the Duterte administration has shown that it has no qualms disregarding intense public opposition. This was shown in the maneuvering to deny the renewal of ABS-CBN’s franchise, despite strong public clamor to the contrary. Between the ABS-CBN and Charter change issues, it’s not unreasonable to venture that ordinary masses feel more strongly about the former. If the government had no scruples disregarding intense public anger on the ABS-CBN issue, all the more that it will disregard a less forceful opposition to Charter change.

Charter change: The multiheaded monster

Joel Ruiz Butuyan / Flea Market of Ideas
July 27, 2020

Immediately after the House of Representatives hammered down the final nail in the coffin of ABS-CBN, news came out that the government will once again pursue Charter change. There have been consistent attempts to change the Constitution in all the past administrations after Cory Aquino. All these efforts failed because of either of two reasons. One, the Supreme Court invalidated the procedures that were initiated, which was the case for the Ramos and Arroyo presidencies. Two, the ruling president (Estrada) or Congress (under the Noynoy Aquino presidency) sensed the strong public opposition, so the initiatives fizzled out.

Should the people be complacent now given the consistent failed attempts? On the contrary, and because of the prevailing circumstances, people should be paranoid and worried.

Some reports said Fuentes’ surgery was “botched.” He reportedly died of a heart attack hospital after undergoing liposuction and plastic surgery.

Some reports suspected the involvement of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration saying “the drug lord, whose net worth was estimated at $25bn, may have been killed by a lethal injection, or an almohadazo, suffocation by a pillow held over him by a bodyguard.”

Bodies of his plastic surgeons were later found stuffed inside oil drums filled with cement.


(The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of VERA Files)

https://verafiles.org/

There’s also the 2016 report about David Garza Ávila, known as El Diablo or The Devil for the executions he had performed in Mexico, who was arrested on his way to Mexico City hospital to undergo plastic surgery on his face.

The most publicized was about Amado Carrillo Fuentes, also known as “The Lord of the Skies,” because he trafficked cocaine from Mexico to America using fleets of aircrafts, who died while undergoing plastic surgery in 1997to alter his appearance.

The surgery took place at early morning of July 4 in Mexico City's private Santa Monica hospital where the drug lord took over an entire floor and a maternity wing and posted automatic weapons-wielding-bodyguards.

Chat groups are filled with scenarios what to expect next inspired by past reports of plastic surgeries drug lords in Colombia and Mexico underwent to evade authorities.

There was the report about a former Colombian drug lord, Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia, who testified in the trial of the notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in November 2018, with distorted facial features.

He admitted in court that he had undergone at least three surgeries that altered his jawbone, cheekbones, eyes, mouth, ears, and nose.

Despite the distortion of his face, U.S. authorities still got him.

“I'd heard that there are black market morgues where unidentified people are brought in and kept on ice and then death fraudsters will go to the morgues and buy these bodies very cheaply, have them cremated immediately and then try to pass off the cremains as their own. So I was very excited to visit the Philippines,” she said..

She related: “While I was there, I was able to acquire my own death certificate and accident report detailing my fatal car crash. And the whole way leading up to that moment I wasn't that nervous. And then when I actually opened up that manila envelope and held this very clinical government document in my hands that said I'd died on arrival at this hospital on this date, it was very, very chilling. And it really all kind of became very real. In a way, it had just been theoretical up until then.”

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra has ordered and investigation of the infamous’ inmates’ death but no one is really expecting anything to dispel their doubts.

Immediately after the news report came out, ABS-CBN ran a December 2017 article published in the United Kingdom’s The Telegraph titled, “Faking your own death: How the Philippines became the global leader for a macabre trade.”

The article is a feature on the book by Elizabeth Greenword titled,” Playing Dead: A Journey Through the World of Death Fraud” published in 2016.

An August 2016 article by Greenword at npr.org titled“3 Steps To Faking Your Own Death “ said she has heard of the Philippines all through her research for her book.

What’s next for those high-profile inmates who ‘died’ of Covid-19?

[/size]ELLEN TORDESILLASJULY 21, 2020Doubts that were raised in reaction to news reports about the death of nine high-profile inmates of the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa due to Covid-19 reflect on the zero credibility of the agency that has been embroiled in a number of scandals, the most recent of which was the “freedom for sale” scheme.News reports said among those who died and whose body was immediately cremated was Jaybee Sebastian, a government witness and also a co-respondent in the drug trafficking cases filed against Sen. Leila de Lima.Others who were reported to have died due to Covid-19 were Benjamin Marcelo, leader of Chinese inmates at NBP; Zhang Zhu Li, Jimmy Kinsing Hung, Francis Go, Jimmy Yang, Eugene Chua, Ryan Ong and Amin Imam Buratong, convicted operator of the shabu tiangge in Pasig City in 2009.

If any politician talks of Charter change in terms of strengthening the Bill of Rights, implementing social justice provisions to the hilt, and at long last dismantling political dynasties and local oligarchies, then that campaign deserves a listen. Anything less, and the Cha-cha is a rigged dance. Beware.


https://opinion.inquirer.net/

No, economic reforms may well be had along the way, but they’re only a handy pretext for the main task legislators would set for themselves once the Charter-change gravy train gets going: To further feather their nests, whether that means extending or lifting altogether term limits, while correspondingly not lifting a finger to flesh out the already Constitutionally mandated injunction against political dynasties. That was so in the proposed federal Constitution the previous House under Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had championed (thankfully derailed by an uninterested Senate), and it would be so in any other attempt, whether prodded by mayors or whichever other designated cheerleaders, where the proponents themselves conspicuously fail to take their vested interests out of the equation.

Politicians who advocate changing the Constitution supposedly for the country’s advancement, and who want to be taken seriously by the public, must hurdle a simple but defining challenge: Their positions must not in any way benefit from the amendments they advance. Otherwise, that is basic and blatant conflict of interestâ€"bastardizing the critical task of reviewing the country’s fundamental law for their narrow, expedient ends, and all the more deplorable at a time of great hunger and disease across the land.

One could imagine the winks all around: Mga pare, I gave the cue, bahala na kayo. Even at face value, the Mandanas argument for tinkering with the Charter sounds tendentious at best. The Supreme Court ruling mandating that the “just share” of LGUs must come from all national taxes is already part of the law of the land; what it needs, once it starts in 2022, is honest-to-goodness implementationâ€"correct and unhampered allotment on the national government’s part, and commitment on the LGUs’ part to use the budget honestly and transparently for their constituencies’ betterment. Also, it’s not as if a provision’s mere presence or categorical mention in the Constitution exacts faithful compliance by the government, this administration in particular (hello, Bill of Rights).

As for the push to open certain sectors of the economy to full foreign ownership, that would be a richly ironic position to take for an administration that had tied itself in knots preachifying over the supposed foreign control invested by Philippine Depositary Receipts on entities such as Rappler and ABS-CBN (the shutdown of the latter, the biggest media network in the country and the oldest in Southeast Asia, resulting in actual considerable economic loss).

Rigged dance


Editorial, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 05:07 AM July 25, 2020


Well, that didn’t take long. Just days after top brass of the Department of the Interior and local Government tried, with the straightest of faces, to make the earnest case that the latest push for Charter amendmentsâ€"supposedly spearheaded by the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP), headed by Narvacan, Ilocos Sur Mayor Luis “Chavit” Singsonâ€"was all about the need to spread economic prosperity to the countryside by institutionalizing higher revenue allotments for local government units, Singson himself let the cat out of the bag with a none-too-surprising reveal: The mayors also want not only term extensions, but the wholesale lifting of term limits for local chief executives.

In a radio interview, Singson said elections for LGU officials should be held every five years (the 1987 Constitution sets it at three), and that the current ban on officials running after three consecutive three-year terms should be junked. “Why limit the terms of performing mayors? There’s no difference; limit their terms and their spouses or their children will succeed them,” he argued, as quoted in a Philippine Star report.Per the DILG statement trumpeting the league’s support for the Duterte administration’s Charter-change drive, the LMP resolution made mention of only two amendments it wants to pursue: “to institutionalize the so-called Mandanas ruling of the Supreme Court in the Constitution and the lifting of restrictions on foreign investment in industries currently limited to Filipinos.” (Interior Secretary Eduardo M. Año: “This is a welcome development. The municipal mayors themselves have spoken and recognized the urgency of amending the Constitution because they recognize the greater need for regional development, particularly in terms of health infrastructure, facilities and equipment, especially now that we are in the middle of a health crisis.”) But in the radio interview, Singson cannily left it to lawmakers to decide whether the issue of term limits for elected officials should be taken up along with other amendments that may be proposed.

-CANCELLED-

We were saved from the almost certain disaster of a festering kleptocracy, thanks to the sacrifice and heroic courage of activists and progressives who gave our democratic aspirations a second chance.

Ninoy Aquino’s self-sacrifice marked the beginning of the end of a morally and financially bankrupt regime. To deliberately besmirch his legacy is not only morally repugnant, but is also an insult to our national struggle. Few things are as preposterous as holding the two Aquino presidencies solely responsible for all our national predicaments. Yes, Cory should have aggressively renegotiated Marcos’ odious debt. And yes, the Aquinos should have pushed harder for, among others, land reform, especially in Hacienda Luisita. It’s a long list.

But let’s not forget that each of them replaced two deeply flawed predecessors that oversaw years of systematic corruption and brazen misrule. And while in power, neither P-Noy nor Cory ended up as Guinness Book of World Records-level thieves, enthusiastic supporters of mass atrocities, and slavish enablers of the big bully that has been ravaging our resources in the West Philippine Sea. Never.

rheydarian@inquirer.com.ph

https://opinion.inquirer.net/

Contrary to common wisdom, it’s not the millennials who have been itching for a return to a supposed “golden age” under Marcos. The greatest demographic base, both quantitatively and qualitatively, of the ancien régime are the Boomers and their younger Gen X ideological pals, who often wax poetic about the iron discipline and supposed economic success of “the good old days.”

Luckily for us millennials, we don’t mind checking Google or, for the more scholarly types, peer-reviewed academic works, which reveal a diametrically opposed record: a devastating war in Mindanao, total economic collapse by the early 1980s, and gross human rights violations.

Almost all of us have also seen memes and quotations by great leaders, including Lee Kuan Yew. As the late Singaporean prime minister bluntly put it, “Marcos might have started off as a hero but ended up as a crook.”

And this is precisely where we should show at least basic respect, if not full recognition, for the sacrifices of men and women who have led our struggle for democracy. And the Aquinos, despite all their human imperfections and political shortcomings, have been an integral component of this most noble struggle for a better Philippines.

Like most millennials, I was born after the people power revolt, which toppled the Marcos dictatorship in 1986. I have no direct memory of the dark days of martial law, or the broadly peaceful mass uprisings that ended the Cold War.

My first and among the most defining memories is the 1990 earthquake in Baguio, which devastated my family and almost drove us to destitution. Thus, I have been broadly immune to the “autocratic nostalgia” that has poisoned the political consciousness of the older generations.

Over the past decade, however, we also managed to rank among the most promising economies on earth. And the 2012 Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro, and the Bangsamoro referendum last year, have laid the foundation for just peace in Mindanao.

Above all, our economic dynamism has gone hand in hand with a boisterous media and a robust civil society. We should not turn a blind eye to the dark underbelly of our deeply flawed and imperfect democracy. But we shouldn’t also discount our hard-fought collective achievements by succumbing to mindless cynicism.

As imperfect and hopeless as things seem, especially in recent years, we should also never forget that at least we have had, and hopefully still have, the opportunity to attain true democracy.

And this is precisely where we should show at least basic respect, if not full recognition, for the sacrifices of men and women who have led our struggle for democracy. And the Aquinos, despite all their human imperfections and political shortcomings, have been an integral component of this most noble struggle for a better Philippines.

Like most millennials, I was born after the people power revolt, which toppled the Marcos dictatorship in 1986. I have no direct memory of the dark days of martial law, or the broadly peaceful mass uprisings that ended the Cold War.

My first and among the most defining memories is the 1990 earthquake in Baguio, which devastated my family and almost drove us to destitution. Thus, I have been broadly immune to the “autocratic nostalgia” that has poisoned the political consciousness of the older generations.

Over the past decade, however, we also managed to rank among the most promising economies on earth. And the 2012 Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro, and the Bangsamoro referendum last year, have laid the foundation for just peace in Mindanao.

Above all, our economic dynamism has gone hand in hand with a boisterous media and a robust civil society. We should not turn a blind eye to the dark underbelly of our deeply flawed and imperfect democracy. But we shouldn’t also discount our hard-fought collective achievements by succumbing to mindless cynicism.

As imperfect and hopeless as things seem, especially in recent years, we should also never forget that at least we have had, and hopefully still have, the opportunity to attain true democracy.

HORIZONS

From Aquino to Aquino: Redemptive presidencies

By: Richard Heydarian - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer  June 30, 2020

Contrary to Lee Kuan Yew’s likely apocryphal comment on the supposed problem of “too much democracy” in the Philippines, our fundamental crisis is one of completing the spirit of the Edsa People Power Revolution. A democratic nation fails when it fails to make the most out of its hard-earned freedom â€" and not because of that freedom per se. For three decades, we have had the golden opportunity to translate our political freedoms into social justice and economic prosperity. Without a question, we have had many shortcomings, with soul-shattering iniquities still bedeviling our still feudalistic nation. A tiny elite (40 richest families, to be precise) has gobbled up much of recently-created growth, our peripheries are still sprinkled with violent insurgencies, and our state institutions are broadly hollow.

“How massive and humongous a loot Marcos took can be deduced from the losses he left behind. The known losses he left behind at the Central Bank included $1.2 billion in missing reserves and $6 billion in special accounts, as documented in the Manapat book. On Feb. 15, 1986, Marcos fled the Philippines, leaving behind a foreign debt of $27 billion and a bureaucracy gone mad.”

As for President Duterte being a minor incident in history, I am inclined to agree with my friend. The way I see it, the President’s health is not good and might even be deteriorating. His claim to history might just be his failed antidrug campaign, the Philippines becoming a vassal of China, and the fact that he allowed former president Ferdinand Marcos to be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

As for the current ABS-CBN, I think the company and its owners are better than the cronies of Marcos under martial law. The Marcos oligarchs were the greedy capitalists. ABS-CBN, with its public service projects, may be an oligarch, but it is an oligarch with a conscience. By dragging their feet on its franchise renewal, the Duterte minions in Congress are trying to stifle press freedom. Let us not skirt the issue.

https://opinion.inquirer.net/

“Manapat explained that crony corporations were provided liberal government incentives, granted tax exemptions, and got lucrative government contracts. They were granted monopolies and captive markets through presidential decrees. They were given easy access to credit from financial institutions. They monopolized access to valuable market information available only to the government.

“Cronyism meant giving loans to friends with little or no collateral, whose corporations were undercapitalized, continued Manapat. Marcos, his family and cronies used the national coffers, the resources of private banks, and even international loans from multinational banks for their businesses. Aid money from the US and Japan were placed at the disposal of Marcos’ money-making network. Until today we are still paying for these loans squandered by the Marcos regime.

“The corruption reached such a massive scale that it took its toll on the Philippine economy and the lives of the average Filipino. By 1986, just before People Power I, the number of Filipinos living below the poverty line doubled from 18 million in 1965 to 35 million, according to Manapat.

Then he adopted other oligarchs, like Benedicto, Floirendo, Cojuangco, and Tan. Marcos fed the oligarchy and amassed his megafortune with their help. My source is Ricardo Manapat’s 615-page book, “Some Are Smarter than Others: The History of Marcos’ Crony Capitalism,” published in 1991 by Aletheia Publications, NY. The New York Times described the book as “impressively documented.”

I reviewed Manapat’s work in my book, “Never Again (To Martial Law),” published in 2019. To quote from my book: “The Manapat book is based on 11 years of research and writing and is the authoritative source on the economic plunder of the Philippines under Marcos. He was harassed and persecuted for his work and spent three years as a semi-hermit and recluse in the US to finish the book.

“The major cronies, as documented in Manapat’s meticulously researched book, were: Roberto Benedicto who controlled the sugar industry, Antonio Floirendo who cornered the banana industry, Danding Cojuangco who monopolized the coconut industry, Hans Menzi who lorded over the mining and paper industries, Juan Ponce Enrile, Manuel Elizalde, Lucio Tan, and the Romualdez and Marcos families, who took over the rest of the country.

Marcos, Duterte not minor incidents in history

By: Crispin C. Maslog @inquirerdotnet
June 27, 2020

The ABS-CBN issue seems to have touched a raw nerve in many people, including Frankie Sionil Jose, Philippine Star columnist.

Much as I admire my friend, however, I have to disagree with him when he says that Marcos, Duterte---they are minor incidents in our history, but the oligarchic families will be with us much longer and will most likely be replaced by heirs who will continue to exploit our country and our people."

Marcos is not a minor incident in our history, for sure. Marcos had his chance to wipe out the oligarchy with the proclamation of martial law in 1972, but he squandered it. He did punish those who criticized him---the Lopez, Soriano, and Roces dynasties, but allowed Menzi and Elizalde to continue.

Terror is a complicated word, but I’ll give you the other word for it, one less bound by politics and privilege. The word is fear. Fear makes you faint in a police office, in front of your sobbing son. Fear comes when you’re kneeling on a linoleum floor mopping up your own boy’s blood, saying sorry you can’t fight back. Sometimes it makes you apologize to coffins and withdraw witness statements and refuse to testify. Sometimes it stops you from asking questions. Or writing Facebook posts. Or sharing the story of a boy who said, please, arrest me instead.

Isn’t that strange, a killer once asked me, that it’s the families of the dead who have to run?

The old laws didn’t protect these families from terror. The new law, enforced by the same people under whose watch thousands were killed, will make everyone else who dissents a possible target. The government is correct that this new law is about terror, but it isn’t one that will end it.

I write this as protest. I say no too.

https://medium.com/@kill.list.lit/what-terror-looks-like-ea1fda9a96d9

Isn’t that strange, one vigilante asked me, that it’s the families of the dead who have to run?

Last year, I spoke to a woman whose son had been shot by the police. Witnesses said he raised his arms. Please, he said, arrest me instead. The woman filed a case. The cops tried to settle. She refused, even as her own frightened family begged her to move on. On the day the courts decided in her favor, she went to her son’s grave with a copy of the resolution. She read him every word.

I don’t live with terror every day. They do. They have for years. One wake was empty of mourners, because every neighbor was afraid to be seen paying respects. One teenager quit school to trail her mother, terrified Mama would be shot next. A woman who had already buried one son stood guard outside a police station until dawn. Another of her sons had been arrested, and she was afraid he wouldn’t live through the night.

This government would like to tell us terror is a function of guilt. Do not be afraid of the new law, they say. Only terrorists have reason to be afraid. Trust the cops. Trust us to know who the enemy is. Trust us to define what public safety requires. The law is on your side.

What Terror Looks Like

Patricia Evangelista
June 6 at 3:27 PM

I’ll tell you what terror looks like.

Four years ago, I stood across a house where five men had been killed. The families crowded outside. There were many people in that narrow alley, mostly women. Please, they pleaded, tell us who the dead men are. The cops refused, yelled at one mother, shoved another daughter. Then it rained, hard and heavy. People ran. The cops laughed. See, said one cop. He pointed at the sky. See, God is listening to me.

Three years ago, I went door to door to speak to families whose sons had been killed. They named a police officer. They called the deaths executions. One father refused to put his name on the record. His wife told me to use hers. She said it was the least she could do for her dead son.

Two years ago, I sat across vigilantes who told me cops gave them orders to kill. I couldn’t interview the cop they named, because the cop refused to comment. I couldn’t find the families of the dead. They had gone into hiding.

2. Black Deathâ€"The Invention of Quarantine

A couple suffering from the blisters of the Black Death, the bubonic plague that swept through Europe in the Middle Ages. From the Swiss manuscript the Toggenburg Bible, 1411.
VCG Wilson/Corbis/Getty Images

The plague never really went away, and when it returned 800 years later, it killed with reckless abandon. The Black Death[/url], which hit Europe in 1347, claimed an astonishing 200 million lives in just four years.[/font][/size][/font]
As for how to stop the disease, people still had no scientific understanding of contagion, says Mockaitis, but they knew that it had something to do with proximity. That’s why forward-thinking officials in Venetian-controlled port city of Ragusa decided to keep newly arrived sailors in isolation until they could prove they weren’t sick.[/font][/size][/color]
At first, sailors were held on their ships for 30 days, which became known in Venetian law as a trentino[/font][/size]. As time went on, the Venetians increased the forced isolation to 40 days or a quarantino, the origin of the word quarantine and the start of its practice in the Western world.
[/color]“That definitely had an effect,” says Mockaitis.

1. Plague of Justinian---No One Left to Die


Yersinia pestis, formerly pasteurella pestis, was the bacteria responsible for the plague. Here it's seen under optical microscopy X 1000. BSIP/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

Three of the deadliest pandemics in recorded history were caused by a single bacterium, Yersinia pestis, a fatal infection otherwise known as the plague.

The Plague of Justinian arrived in Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, in 541 CE. It was carried over the Mediterranean Sea from Egypt, a recently conquered land paying tribute to Emperor Justinian in grain. Plague-ridden fleas hitched a ride on the black rats that snacked on the grain.

The plague decimated Constantinople and spread like wildfire across Europe, Asia, North Africa and Arabia killing an estimated 30 to 50 million people, perhaps half of the world's population.

People had no real understanding of how to fight it other than trying to avoid sick people, says Thomas Mockaitis, a history professor at DePaul University. As to how the plague ended, the best guess is that the majority of people in a pandemic somehow survive, and those who survive have immunity.

How 5 of History's Worst Pandemics Finally ended

Dave Roos
March 27, 2020

As human civilizations flourished, so did infectious disease. Large numbers of people living in close proximity to each other and to animals, often with poor sanitation and nutrition, provided fertile breeding grounds for disease. And new overseas trading routes spread the novel infections far and wide, creating the first global pandemics.

Here's how five of the world's worst pandemics finally ended.

"We've got to take action now so that we avoid a shutdown in the future," said Lina Hidalgo, the head of government in Harris County, Texas -- the third most populous county in the United States.

Like many parts of the country, Harris County has seen surges in Covid-19 hospitalizations since Memorial Day weekend.

"That only continues to grow," Hidalgo said Friday.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said "the best thing to do is to avoid crowded areas."

"But if you're not going to do that," he said, "please wear a mask."

CNN's Amanda Watts contributed to this report.

https://edition.cnn.com/

How Americans can prevent another round of shutdowns

While states try to revive the economy, the fate of this pandemic is largely up to individuals.

"People must observe the safety guidelines," top White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said.

"Social distancing must be observed. Face coverings in key places must be observed."

Wearing a face mask is critical to slowing the spread of coronavirus because of how easy it is to infect others -- even without any symptoms.

It's happened before

Second shutdowns aren't just possible -- they've already happened in some parts of the world during this pandemic.

Hong Kong and Singapore seemed to have coronavirus under control and started easing restrictions -- only to have major resurgences that led to stricter rules.

Japan's second-largest island, Hokkaido, also shut down to control the spread of coronavirus. "But they opened too quickly," Reiner said, leading to a Covid-19 comeback.

"They shut down again. And that's how they extinguished the virus."

And the consequences of another shutdown would be wide-ranging, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.

"We can't shut down the economy again," Mnuchin told CNBC. "I think we've learned that if you shut down the economy, you're going to create more damage. And not just economic damage, but ... medical problems and everything else that get put on hold."

But the federal government hasn't been in control of shutdowns and reopenings. Those have been at the discretion of each state.

"If you run out of hospital beds, and you run out of ICU beds ... (states would) have to shut down," said Reiner.

The economic toll from one round of shutdowns has been staggering. More than 44 million people in the United States have filed for initial unemployment benefits since mid-March.

But the pandemic is far from over. More than 115,000 Americans have died from coronavirus, and hundreds more are dying from the virus every day.

"Covid's not taking a summer vacation," said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert and professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

"It's actually having new opportunities to spread."

Murray said the "biggest and most difficult choice" states could face in the coming months is managing a potential second shutdown.

Why a 2nd shutdown over coronavirus might be worse than the 1st -- and how to prevent it

Holly Yan, CNN
June 15, 2020


(CNN) It's an outcome no one wants, but could become a "harsh reality": a second wave of shutdowns. Weeks after, some states are seeing thousands more Americans get infected every day.

We're going to have to face the harsh reality in some states that we may need to shut down again," said Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a professor at George Washington University School of Medicine.

And the second wave of state shutdowns could be more damaging than the first.

"Because of quarantine fatigue, because of the economic effects of quarantine, another round of shutdowns might have even larger effects on businesses that may be on the edge of not being able to stay solvent," said Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.

if i fail sa klase, nahagbong. depende ba sa akong tapad? way klaro...

hinaot wa sila daog-daoga.

Which Generation are You?

The Lost Generation,
The Generation of 1914             
Births Start: 1890
Births End: 1915
Youngest/Age today*: 105
Oldest/Age today*: 130

The Interbellum Generation   
Births Start: 1901
Births End: 1913
Youngest/Age today: 107
Oldest/Age today: 119

The Greatest Generation             
Births Start: 1910
Births End: 1924
Youngest/Age today: 96
Oldest/Age today: 110

The Silent Generation             
Births Start: 1925
Births End: 1945
Youngest/Age today: 75
Oldest/Age today: 95

Baby Boomer Generation   
Births Start: 1946
Births End: 1964
Youngest/Age today: 56
Oldest/Age today: 74

Generation X (Baby Bust)     
Births Start: 1965
Births End: 1979
Youngest/Age today: 41
Oldest/Age today: 55

Xennials                             
Births Start: 1975
Births End: 1985
Youngest/Age today: 35
Oldest/Age today: 45

Millennials/Generation Y/Gen Next             
Births Start: 1980
Births End: 1994
Youngest/Age today: 26
Oldest/Age today: 40

iGen/Gen Z                         
Births Start: 1995
Births End: 2012
Youngest/Age today: 8
Oldest/Age today: 25

Gen Alpha                         
Births Start: 2013
Births End: 2025
Youngest/Age today: 1 
Oldest/Age today: 7


*age if still alive today


https://www.careerplanner.com/

The same element of display can be seen with emojis, Dodds said — think 100 crying-laughing emojis — but they weren't part of the study.

"They are a whole different set of stretchable animals."

https://www.cnnphilippines.com/

And the amount of stretch (that is the number of times each letter is repeated) is the same for "g" and "o" and "a" and "l" in a 70-character version of "goal" as what you'd see in a 140-character version.

While the study found that it was often the "articulable" parts of words that get stretched a lot, mimicking speech, there was also repeating of letters that couldn't be articulated — such as the final "p" in "pleeeeaaasee hhhheeeellllpppp."

The researchers suggested that this could be because stretchable words stand out more online, becoming a "visual cue." For example, the authors said they saw tweets where the author was pleading for a single celebrity to follow back in a message where every single letter was stretched.

The authors said their work showed how everyday linguistic patterns differed from formal written language and could pave the way for elongated words to be included in dictionaries.

They found that words that people tend to stretch aren't just a "big disorganized mess." In fact, they have a regular distribution in terms of how much a word stretches and which part of the word is stretched.

For example, "ha" has a high degree of balance with the "h" and the "a" repeated just about equally. While "goal" as a whole word is stretchy, it's less balanced, with the "g" not stretched as much and the "o" repeated more than any other letter in the word.

It turns out that we stretch words online for largely the same reasons as we do in real life. These colorful variations can convey feelings such as sarcasm ("suuuuuurrrrre") and sports-induced euphoria ("Gooooaaaaaaalllllllllll!").

Stretched or elongated words are also found across different languages: "kkkkkkkk" indicates laughter in Brazilian Portuguese while "wkwkwkwkwkwk" does in Indonesian, the researchers said.

They looked at words that had letters that repeated 15 times or more in a row or pairs of letters that repeated 30 times — allowing them to capture "gooooaaaalllll" as well as "hahahaha." The results were published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One.

It's only since the rise of social media that we have had an opportunity to study these elongated exclamations, said scientists at the University of Vermont Burlington, who started collecting tweets back in 2008 when they first noticed that stretched words like "hahaha" and "duuuuude" were being used quite commonly.

Since then with the aid of computers, they have analyzed some 100 billion tweets generated between September 2008 and December 2016 to catalog drawn-out words and discover whether there are any patterns in the way we use them.

"We were doing something a bit silly and playful, and that's part of science. You never know what you might find," said Peter Dodds, a professor at the University of Vermont's department of mathematics and statistics.

Duuuuude? Scientists studied 100 billion tweets to find out why we stretch our words

By Katie Hunt, CNN
May 28, 2020



(CNN) — When we speak, we routinely stretch our words to convey an emotion or to strengthen their meaning.

Excitement: "Yessssssss!"

Fear: "Noooooo!"

Confusion: "Whaaaattt?"

We've probably been doing this since humans began to speak, but such informal language has rarely left a written record.

There are definitely countless challenges that must be met before humans can travel to Mars and back, much less successfully live there. We must find ways to protect astronauts from cosmic and solar radiation, which is more potent in deep space than in a space station. Researchers are hard at work designing radiation-shielding spacesuits that must be perfected before any would-be Mars traveler departs.

"We'll get to Martian orbit first, safe to say," suggests Dava Newman, NASA's innovative deputy administrator. "Or perhaps to a Martian moon ... and then the absolute goal is boots on Mars."

Technology is playing a huge role — not only in sending Mars pictures back to Earth — but helping us to understand the planet's landscape as a cohesive whole. Google has even mapped the entire planet to enable us grounded here on our home planet an interactive Mars experience — without all the radiation.

https://allthatsinteresting.com/

The dark, stick-shaped features clustered on this Martian rock are about the size of grains of rice. The origin of the stick-shaped features is uncertain.
NASA


Large impact craters have central hills or mountains because the tremendous shock waves from the impact first compress the ground, then rebound.
NASA