MikeLigalig.com

Quote from: Lorenzo on September 16, 2013, 12:03:08 AM
hehehe! he can't help it, its part of his Salesian ubringing. To Love, it is the greatest sacrifice and the greatest act a man or woman can do to manifest Christ in his or her life.

From the words of the powerful St. Francis De Sales.

Diba, Nong?

Exactly...

Quote from: islander on September 15, 2013, 11:58:50 PM
buotan lagi ka karon.  is it because it's sunday?

Buotan ko permi, oi. Di lang magpadaogdaog...

Quote from: islander on September 15, 2013, 06:31:52 PM
this thread is Whispers of the Heart
another thread is Korog my Heart
still another is Fill your Heart with Love

Try this: For Heart, read Balls...

"I stay put here, just like this."

Looks like Bol-anon is the original version...

Quote from: chicogon on September 15, 2013, 01:25:29 PM

Jetski! Ing-ing-ing... James Bond in action!

Quote from: islander on September 15, 2013, 11:56:29 PM
aguy.  molansar sad ka, bai hubs?

Aw, kon ako pay milyonir...

Look at his face! So kind and remorseful...

ProGrow, on the other hand, assists the farmer to ensure good harvest by monitoring PH levels of the soil, watering the plants, and dispensing plant food. It also comes with a wireless video surveillance system.

All three robots connect to one robot that acts as the central control system aptly called Basyang. It is an interactive book that tells stories of the history of the famed Hagdan-hagdang Palayan and of the many ways to protect it.

The team is comprised of King Johnnel Olgado, Anne Jazpher Raz, and Rey Allen Infante won the 12th Philippine Robotics Olympiad against eight other schools from around the country.
They will be representing the Philippines in the World Robotics Competition in Jakarta, Indonesia this year. â€" Kim Luces / KDM, GMA News

The second robot was inspired by the Bul-ul, a creature that, legend says, keeps watch over the Ifugao rice terraces, and the protectors of where harvested rice grains is storied. The Bul-ul is a carved wooden figurine that can take the form of a man, a woman, or sometimes an animal.

The third is the ProGrow, a robot inspired by Wigan, the Ifugao god of good harvest. In Ifugao folklore, Wigan is the god of the Skyworld from which all Ifugao-kind is descended.

Legend says that Wigan and Bugan came down to earth from the heavens and populated the believed cradle of Ifugao civilization, the Kiyyangan village.

The first robot, called the ProTrek, was inspired by the native purse of the Ifugao called the pakising. It was designed to store things that a navigator might need in exploring the terraces, such as an umbrella, a headlight, a Swiss knife, a compass, and a map.

It has secure compartments that are only accessible through a registered tourist’s card. The robot is also a tour guide, automatically orienting tourists through a built-in speaker and is equipped with a tracker similar to a GPS.

The ProTek, like its name suggests, functions as a “caretaker.” It's like a miniature weather station that monitors rainfall, atmospheric pressure, wind gust, and temperature. It also has a built-in pest control system that can drive away destructive rats and insects. It can also function as a manager for a proposed irrigation system and an indicator of harvest time.

“Mayroon po siyang robotic hand na kumukuha ng sample ng rice grain. Yung nagco-control po sa kanya pwde niya pong tingnan yung palay kung pwde na pong i-harvest,” said King Johnnel Olgado, one of the participating students, as he presented his robot to GMA News' SONA.

GMA News Online â€" 11 hours ago


Ifugao culture-inspired robots are the Philippines' entries in the World Robotics Olympiad in Jakarta, Indonesia this November, accoding to a report on State of the Nation.

These unique creations are made by students from Dr. Yanga’s Colleges High School in Bocaue, Bulacan. The system of four robots is called the P3 (Protection, Promotion, and Propagation) System, and it aims to promote the legends of the Banaue Rice Terraces, as well as help in its preservation. The robots also aim to promote farming.

“[Ang] mga youth ngayon, they're mainly engaged sa mga gadgets,” said Romyr Cruz, Head Coach of the Dr. Yangas Colleges High School Robotics Center, in a report by Dano Tingcungco. “So, parang nawawalan [na] sila ng interes na magtanim or doon sa mga usual activities na pinamana pa ng mga ancestors nila,”

Kumustamos, folks! Looks like Bay Tigs has extended his vacation leave. Well, kini ang inyong alagad nga si Ondoy Tagatigbotoy to bring you the latest weather update.



Tropical storm skirts PH, heads for Japan, but brings rain to Luzon, Visayas
Philippine Daily Inquirer
3:10 am | Monday, September 16th, 2013



MTSAT ENHANCED-IR Satellite Image 2 a.m., 16 September 2013


MANILA, Philippinesâ€"Tropical Storm “Man-Yi” is heading for Japan but is expected to continue to enhance the southwest monsoon (habagat) and bring moderate to heavy rains over portions of Luzon and the Visayas on Monday.

The weather bureau alerted residents of Metro Manila as well as Central and southern Luzon to possible flash floods and landslides that may be triggered by the rains.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) is tracking a low pressure area (LPA) east of Luzon.
The LPA was monitored at 4 p.m. Sunday to be 1,010 kms east of Luzon. “Based on our assessment, it could develop into a tropical depression as long as it remains over the Pacific Ocean,” forecaster Buddy Javier said, adding that the LPA was not anticipated to intensify into a tropical cyclone within the next 48 hours.

The weather agency said the current rainy weather was due to storm Man-Yi, which skirted the Philippine area of responsibility.â€"Jeannette I. Andrade



That's all for this morning, kaberks! Have a pleasant, resentment-free Monday!

Yataps...

Milyonir's dog...

Johnston later removed the explicit Christian language after complaints. But the commitments to "reduce physical [and] social/economic barriers to relationships," "promote sharing," and "promote a simpler life" remain at Agritopia's heart. Construction on a senior living center will begin this year, and a business village of shops, lofts, and professional offices will open in October 2013.

Johnston's passion for serving people began long before Agritopia. In 1989, he and a church friend founded Coffee Plantation, which grew to four coffee shops and 150 employees, but eventually Johnston felt, "I was just dealing with employees. " In 1995, on sabbatical, he joined Life on Purpose Ministries, which helped the fashionable restaurateur discern his gift as a visionary. Three years later, the Johnstons met with land planners and architects to design a neighborhood "to honor God and the area's agricultural heritage." Johnston drafted "Agritopia's foundational principles," which began, "We, the Johnston brothers, are Christians who believe the Bible is the unchanging and perfect Word of God …. [W]e believe that biblical principles applied to the design of the physical infrastructure will have a positive impact on all residents."

"People tend to be segregated by income level and station in life," says Johnston. "That's okay, but it's not a vibrant neighborhood. We wanted to create 'village life'â€"the kind of life people had in biblical times and in European villages. God is concerned about people, so we wanted this design to be about people."

Residents also have ample opportunity to grow community. Every aspect of Agritopia is intended to frustrate the isolationist: Homes are built close to the sidewalk so neighbors can easily interact from their porches. Each of the 450 home plots includes space for a bungalow for extended family or home businesses. And, most unusual for the suburbs, Agritopia is designed so that a construction worker and CEO can live next door to each other: The homes range from $180,000 to $950,000 in price and from 1,600 to 5,000 square feet in size, yet all are designed to look the same size from the outside.

This Eden is called Agritopia, and the man who calls it very good is Joe Johnston. A Stanford-trained engineer, Johnston has turned his family's decades-old farm into a thriving mixed-use community at the center of Gilbert, a southeast suburb of Phoenix. Since construction began in 2001, Agritopia has become one of the best-known "New Ruralism" projects in the United States, placing commercial, civic, and residential plots close together and a 15-acre working farm at the center of it all. "We didn't want to build a sea of houses," says Johnston. "We wanted to preserve the agricultural heritage of Gilbert in a way that serves a suburban community." The 1,500 residents of Agritopia can pick from crops like citrus fruits, beets, herbs, lettuce, carrots, and tomatoes directly, buy them at on-site stands, or grow their own crops at the 42-plot community garden.

The Village Genius
Joe Johnston's residential community is designed for, well, community.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/
Katelyn Beaty [ posted 9/20/2012 3:42AM ]


There's a village in the East Valley of Phoenix that beckons as a little slice of Eden. Rows of perky sunflowers, trees hanging heavy with olives and dates, and raspberry bushes greet you as you walk down a tree-lined sidewalk. There's a Christian school and a church, a pool, plenty of parks, and a restaurant that serves burgers made of natural, local beef and organic greens grown on the property. And at the center of this Eden is a treeâ€"well, lots of trees, and bushes, and pastures that feed the village and the people beyond it with food for belly and spirit alike.

Can you recall an incident triggered by another person that left you with resentment? If so, put yourself in their position and see if you can understand how their primal instincts may have triggered their initial attack.

Forgive Yourself â€" Forgive yourself for having had thoughts of retaliation, resentment, regret or grievance. Forgive yourself for exposing your inner caveman.
Forgive Others â€" After the exercise of breathing and gratitude (see Finding Peace via Focused Attention above), continue to keep your eyes closed. Now, let go of all resentment and regret. You can imagine each of these separately. Imagine all the people who you hold a grudge against. Optionally you may see their harmless face smiling at you. Recognize that we are all trying our hardest in our current state of consciousness. Tell them in your imagination that you forgive them. Have the intention of forgiving others and ourselves for any actions that may have resulted in pain. You can also repeat the mantra from A Course in Miracles:

“Every decision I make is a choice between a grievance and a miracle. I relinquish all resentments, grievances and regrets. I choose the miracle.“

3. Forgiveness

“Not forgiving someone is like drinking poison
and expecting the other person to die.“
~ Unknown

Forgiveness is a gradual process, and understanding will eventually take us there. However, if we do not attempt forgiveness, the only person we are harming is ourselves.

The goal here is to find peace with the situation and to move on with our lives. Life is too short to dwell on the past, or to dwell on other people’s opinions of us. Give yourself a gift of freedom: forgive them with grace, compassion and understanding.

The Painful “Enemy” â€" Seek out the scenarios and perspectives which may have triggered them to treat you in a manner that hurts you. They may be in such a deap seated state of frustration and emotional disturbance that they have lost the capacity to communicate rationally and with consideration of your feelings. Seek to understand that people, by nature, do not want to harm others, but circumstances that trigger their inner caveman cause them to act out in self-defense.

Freedom of Expression â€" Accept that it is okay for them to have negative thoughts or feelings towards you. They have the same freedom of thought and freedom of choice as do you. Choose understanding. Choose compassion. Choose doing the right thing by staying honest to yourself. Outside of that, don’t worry about it, let them go. We cannot control other people’s actions, so why should we exert energy trying? Let others be, and find peace with that.

2. Understanding

Now that we’ve put our inner caveman aside, we can objectively look at the situation for what it is. We can seek to understand what is causing the other person to act in this particular way.

In most cases, once we’ve figured out the cause for their behavior, we will find that it is often not an attack on us, but a reflection of their primal instinct to protect themselves.

What’s more, as we gain perspective into their position, we might find that we’ve learned something valuable that will contribute towards our wellbeing and happiness in the future.

It’s Not Personal â€" When people are in pain, they sometimes cannot help but to spread that energy onto others. When people communicate in ways that are hurtful to you, it is not meant to be personal, but rather a reflection of their internal state.

Exercise: Finding Peace via Focused Attention â€" This has been the most effective tool for me when clarity and inner peace is needed: First, find a comfortable seat and close your eyes. Bring your focus onto your breath. Focus all of your attention on your inhales and exhales. Do this for about five minutes. Next, bring your attention to your heart (the center of your chest). Focus on all the things you are grateful for in your life, right now. You can either visualize each person or thing, or you can hear the sound of these things spoken in your mind. As you see them, or hear them, experience the feelings of gratitude in your heart.

“You are In Control” â€" Remind yourself that you are in control of your thoughts and actions. You are never as helpless or in as pitiful a state as your ego would have you believe. Remind yourself of the responsible person that you are â€" using the real definition of responsibility: the ability to respond, or the ability to control our responses. Map out the worst case scenario and accept it. You’ll often find that the worst case scenario isn’t as bad as the dreadful scenario that you have dreamt up in your mind.

Okay, let’s dive deeper into each major step in overcoming these bothersome feelings:

1. Clarity

In this step, the goal is to feel well again. When our minds are frazzled with random thoughts of pain and resentment, it is nearly impossible to overcome anything. Therefore, we need to first find peace within ourselves.

When we seek peace and clarity, we are ultimately creating the space within ourselves for alternative possibilities and healing. Without which, we will remain in a never-ending cycle of unnecessary pain and suffering.

Exercise: Express Your Emotions -Fully express your emotions without physically harming anyone (including yourself). If you feel angry, express that anger verbally (while you are alone) with the intent of releasing it completely out of your system. You can jump up and down, cry out loud or exert unusual sounds. Listen to your body as to how it wants to release this negative energy. Give yourself a time limit of say 5 to 10 minutes in which you must express all your anger, either verbally or in writing. Additionally or alternatively, go for a run, a hike, a workout or a swim. Many people find exercise to be an effective way to release toxic energy.

Technique for Overcoming Resentment

I am not suggesting that we suppress or deny these feelings. But rather, use responsible methods for dealing with these uncomfortable and unpleasant emotions so that we are no longer slaves to the emotional reflexes of our animalistic instincts.

As hard as it might seem while we are experiencing anger towards someone, the keys to overcoming the emotion lie first in understanding and finally in forgiving. This seems counter-intuitive, since our instincts tell us that we need to defend ourselves, and possibly come up with ways to hurt the other person.

Understanding gives us insight into what the other person is feeling. Even before we reach the stage of forgiveness, understanding will automatically ease some of the emotional burden we’ve been carrying.

Before seeking to understand, we need to find a place of clarity within ourselves. Clarity means that we are not acting out of our emotions or our caveman instincts. When we can step out of our inner caveman, we are able to see the situation for what it is. It will quickly become clear that the other person was acting out of the instincts of their inner caveman, and thus blinded by their own emotions.

Infused Anger - The more I thought about how I’d been wronged, the deeper I fell into feelings of resentment, and even feelings of despair.

“Cave Man Survives in a Tribe” â€" As tribal animals, our inner caveman cares about what others think of us, since if others didn’t like us, we might be kicked out of the tribe. And for a caveman, life outside of a tribe means instant hardship and death. And so, when we learn that others think badly of us, we become unbalanced, unwell and very bothered.

Defending Our Ego is Like Fighting Other Cave Men â€" When a caveman fights with another caveman in our modern age (ie. Now), nobody wins. We fight out of an instinct to survive, and to protect our ego-driven pride. In the end, nobody wins, since we no longer live in the stone-age and killing each other is no longer necessary.

Observing Resentment

When we drill deep into the root of resentment and anger, the cause always revolves around our ego and the mind’s attempt to protect it from extinction. Here is a series of thoughts I observed myself experiencing while confronted with such a scenario:

Ego Shock â€" feelings of shock, followed by increased heart rate. I could sense that my ego was hurt.

Animal Instincts - when my ego is hurt, my inner caveman quickly jumps out in attack mode. Even if I logically know that it is unnecessary to be in attack mode, caveman will still be there and I will experience feelings of animal instinct. In caveman days, if we didn’t retaliate against others who hurt us, we would eventually be killed. So, this instinct serves as a survival mechanism and is a natural response to an attack. I believe that understanding this is vitally important to accepting our own reactive tendencies and to finally controlling these instincts.

Defense â€" In an attempt to defend my ego, for having been wrongfully accused, my inner caveman strategized a battle plan of defense and attack. This included a list of harmful things I could say to the attacker.

In the end, my rational self knew that engaging with her would only trigger more negativity, so I didn’t. I woke up the next morning with defensive thoughts running through my head, like a dark cloud, hovering over me. Thoughts of retaliation had been dancing around in my mind in what seemed to be a never-ending cycle.

I hated this feeling. In fact, I hated the feeling of hating this feeling. Even though, I knew rationally and intuitively that I was getting nowhere by feeling upset, annoyed, and wronged, it felt impossible to control these thoughts and to not be bothered by them. I knew I had to release this energy to set myself free. The key to mental freedom was within me and nowhere else.

What can one do to overcome these negative thought patterns?

What can we do to relinquish ourselves from feelings conjured up by other people’s actions? This article takes a detailed look at how we can free ourselves from negative feelings of resentment and anger resulting from personal episodes of injustice.

How to Overcome Resentment
http://thinksimplenow.com/


“Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds
on the heel that has crushed it.“
~ Mark Twain


Can you recall the last time you held a grudge against someone? Perhaps it was a friend who betrayed you, a stranger who wronged you, a lover who left, or a parent who unintentionally hurt you. Perhaps this has happened recently and feelings of regret, resentment, and injustice are fresh enough that it still stings. What can we do to overcome these feelings and painful memories?

I recently received an abrasive and angry email from someone falsely accusing me of something on a personal level. I was shocked and hurt. The “Cave Woman” in me jumped out and my initial instinct was to write something hurtful back to her, in an act of self defense. My second instinct was to give her a list of reasons why she was wrong, in an attempt to refute her false accusations, thus defending my ego.

Quote from: islander on September 15, 2013, 06:25:29 PM
true gyod.  ka-cute!   arigatou gozaimasu, bag-hu.

Nihongo, ha? Itashi machete irawumu panete, Ayrandiru!

Quote from: Lorenzo on September 15, 2013, 12:59:37 PM
perhaps included in that list would be business investors ?

Hmm, the successful ones or the failures?

The resentful person has bitterness over injustices suffered. He has an open “case” against others and the hurt they caused and over which he has “stewed” over. Such nursing of wounds may offer a limited amount of satisfaction to man but it produces poison to his soul. He becomes oversensitive to that which touches his open wounds, and easily finds things similar to that which originally offend them, and which reinforces the original complaint, while marginalizing and not being mindful of positive things. This condition can even lead to death, that of others or the person holding a grudge.

More at: http://peacebyjesus.witnesstoday.org/HurtAndResentment.html

“I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity” (Acts 8:23).

The word for “gall”  is understood to mean bile, or by analogy, poison. A modern definition is “An open sore ... caused by chafing. A feeling of deep and bitter anger and ill-will” (Word Web). This well describes what a personal grievance, or grudge, and it's resentment is, a wound suffered by an injustice(s) that is kept festering by one going back to it, nursing it, with it's poison affecting the whole body. To the degree that one yields to it's desire â€" which is vengeance, and or recompense for wounds, getting what one feels is due him for his injustices â€" it robs one of joy and fulfillment, colors one's perception of others and of life, repels and hurts others, and grieves and limits the Holy Spirit. The Simon of Acts 8 (above verse) could not have the power of the Holy Spirit because his heart was not right with God.

As You Pray

Pray in this manner:

Father, I acknowledge that I've held resentment and bitterness against _______________. I confess this as sin and ask you to forgive me. I forgive __________________. Remind me, Lord, to not hold any more resentments, but rather to love this person. Father, I ask you to also forgive ______________________.

Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. In Jesus' name, Amen.

If you are already a Christian, you should still ask God to forgive you for being bitter and resentful. Then ask Him to forgive anyone who may have hurt you, and toward whom you are bitter or resentful, even as He forgives you.

Seek to be baptized with the Holy Spirit if you are not already. Look for opportunities to demonstrate love to the person who offended you.

God forgives and forgets sin. However, you may have made your best effort to forgive and forget and find that you cannot. God can help you to cleanse your memory. Instead of remembering with malice and hurt, remember with forgiveness. Then go one step further and ask God to forgive your offender. By forgiving and then asking God to forgive your offender, you release God to bless you and the other person.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and Resentment

Life depression and other emotional stress, bitterness and resentment can aggravate or cause physical problems such as arthritis. You can be affected mentally, spiritually and otherwise. Your relationships will always suffer.

God can free you from this sin. It is an oppressive and destructive emotion having its root in hate, which is likened to murder. You must repent. No one can have peace and happiness with such emotions tearing at him. If you have not done so, ask God to forgive you and to come into your life right now. He will deliver you from the power of the enemy (Psalm 91:3).

"Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' says the Lord. On the contrary: 'If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.' Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good" (Romans 12:14-21).

What Scripture Says

"Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many" (Hebrews 12:14,15).

"Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you" (Ephesians 4:31,32).

"When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly" (I Peter 2:23).

"Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing..." (Luke 23:34).

"For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins" (Matthew 6:14,15).

By CBN.com
      

CBN.com â€" When you are offended or disappointed by others and allow the hurt to germinate in your heart, bitterness and resentment will take root. Characterized by an unforgiving spirit and generally negative, critical attitudes, bitterness and resentment are sinful and self-defeating. They will color your conscious and unconscious thoughts and actions. Allowed to fester, they will destroy and kill (Galatians 5:19-21).

However, they can be dispelled with love.

Let us all fill our hearts with love...

Step 6: Go On Automatic

Another thing you can do is to transform certain high-bandwidth activities into low-bandwidth ones by making them "automatic." When you first began brushing your teeth, the activity took a lot of time and concentration. But as you did it over and over, you no longer had to think about getting the toothpaste on the brush (without squirting it all over the counter) and moving that big plastic tool over all your teeth (including the back side of incisors). You can certainly do the same, repeating responsibilities at work or at home until they are, if not mindless, then less mindful. Serve the same breakfast for 30 days. Send an email in the same way 60 times (i.e. write, spell check, reread, send).

Moving, unfortunately, isn't something most us can do with sufficient repetition to make automatic. So what was the solution for this social scientist, other than to have a quick fix after he'd already erred? "I should have done as I teach others," he says with a sheepish laugh. "It wouldn't have taken much to keep me from losing my glasses. All I needed was an hour to recover from the move the next morning. In other words, I needed to sleep in a little later, eat breakfast and rest my bandwidth." In other, other words: The next time you get your brain drunk, consider giving it time to recover from the hangover.

The meeting with a boss, however, takes a lot of bandwidth. You have to come up with a whole new ad campaign. Worse, at 11:40 a.m., you start thinking "I really need to prepare for that lunch!" So you stop listening and generating new ideas. You then race to the lunch, now at midbandwidth and with even less creative and analytical skills. There, you also lose the last 20 minutes, because, in your mind you are preparing the 2:30 p.m. pickup and are worried that you won't get back to the office in time and that you might forget the tutu for your daughter. "It's all doable, I have the time planned," you think, driving your kids first to ballet, then to hockey, then to pottery. Only to find the tutu in your backseat once you pull into the driveway.

What we need to do, Mullainthan says, is stop managing time and start managing our bandwidth. Of course, we can't just cut out activities and and obligations. But when we sit down to plan our week, we can think about our schedules in terms of what our brains can reasonably handle -- no matter what our bodies are capable of. For example, we can give ourselves just as many high-bandwidth activities but space them out differently or stagger them with low-bandwidth activities.

Step 5: Revamp Your Calendar -- Or Throw It Out

Recognizing times of low bandwidth and dealing with common errors is helpful. But a more efficient solution might keep you from getting low bandwidth in the first place -- in other words, keep from getting "drunk." It would be nice, of course, if we could just increase our bandwidth capacity, but research, Mullainathan says, has yet to prove a way to effectively do so. Our ability to focus simply has a limit.

Most of us think we can cope with our mentally taxing lives by managing our time. Let's say you're looking at your calendar for next week, the way that he did with the move. Most of us think in terms of hours about what we can fit into our days. We have the morning free, so we fill it with the big meeting with the boss (10 a.m. to 12 p.m.). Then we have an intense lunch with the possible new client. (12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m.). Then at 2:30 p.m., we're getting off early to take all three kids to all three after-school activities. Timewise, this should work fine.

Step 4: Identify Your Repeaters

Now you know when you're going to make mistakes. But which mistakes? Shockingly, Mullainathan says, about 80 percent of the time we make the same handful of errors. Take leaving your glasses in your hotel room. You have done this before in some other form. You've left them at your friend's house. Or at the restaurant. Forgetting the glasses -- or losing the car keys in the trunk of the car or sending an email to the wrong person -- is what's known as a repeater. Once you've identified a time you'll be at low bandwidth, try making a list of specific things that will probably go wrong simply based on your history of errors.

By telling yourself about a specific thing that may go wrong, Mullainathan says, it probably won't. Furthermore, you can also prepare yourself. One year before the move, Mullainathan had identified losing his glasses as a "repeater," and so had bought two identical pairs that last time he went in for new ones -- an act that allowed him to read the writing on his moving boxes and unpack once he'd finally arrived.

Step 3: Plan Your Mistakes In Advance

The first step is looking ahead -- the same way you would with drinking before a party. You know that there are certain tasks that take large amounts of focus and energy. For example, take packing up an apartment. After putting everything you own into boxes, you're going to have low bandwidth and be more liable to make small mistakes. In a perfect world, of course, you could give yourself some time to recover. But if you can't, just recognizing that you'll be "drunk" before, say, you hit the road in the van, will reduce the number of mistakes you do make, say Mullainathan, because your brain moves into a more conscious thought process about the problem.

Step 2: Understand When You're Drunk

So what's going on? Though you might not realize it, you might well be "drunk" in terms of your brain's ability to process information. Let's say you've been working on an intense project -- moving apartments or finishing a big presentation for work or finishing the fundraising plan for your child's school. In order to complete it, you focus on the project to the fullest extent possible, putting aside anything not related to its responsibilities.

For your brain, this takes tremendous concentration and "bandwidth." Bandwidth as Mullainathan explains, is (a) your cognitive ability (your ability to think) and (b) your cognitive control (your ability to regulate impulses). After focusing on any kind of task for a long time, you run out of bandwidth, so much so that, according to his most recent research, the effect on the brain is significantly greater than several glasses of beer. "You wouldn't think of getting in your car after having three glasses of wine," Mullainathan says, "but if you've just used up all your bandwidth, you hop right in and grab the wheel. But you're equally as comprised."

Step 1: Realize It's Not You

Let's start from the beginning of Mullainathan's story. In order to start his job teaching this fall at Harvard, he had to move from New York to Boston. Because he had a small apartment, he allotted 24 hours for the project. The day of, he spent from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. supervising the movers and packing. From 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., he drove up to Boston in the full van. Then he parked the van, spent the night in a hotel, woke up at 8 a.m., brushed his teeth, washed his face and left his very-much-needed glasses on the counter.

Every time we do something like this, says Mullainathan, we think, "I’m stupid!" Mostly this happens because we realize that we're the only one who could have done it. There is no else one to blame. But (a) you're not stupid, and (b) feeling stupid is not the problem and will only cause you to feel discouraged and, frequently, to make more mistakes.

That last phrase is one that so many of us say to ourselves. We didn't used to send our critical business email to the members of our mommy group. We didn't used to forget to add the eggs to the banana-bread batter. We didn’t used to put anti-freeze in the oil tank of the car -- or commit any of those other, mindless mistakes that now impact our lives.

This is why I turned to Sendhil Mullainathan, a professor of economics at Harvard. Though an authority in behavioral science, just last week, this illustrious thinker forgot his glasses in his motel bathroom -- a mishap that not only supports his theory about why all of us keep slipping up, but also how to prevent it.

How To Stop Making Tiny Mistakes That Make You Look Stupider Than You Really Are
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Posted: 09/13/2013 10:25 am EDT
By Leigh Newman


Columnist Leigh Newman finds out a new way to fix our mental glitches with the help of Sendhil Mullainathan, the co-author of the new book Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much.

Last Saturday night while cleaning the house, I was talking to an old friend. We agreed to have dinner on Sunday. Twenty-four hours later, I was surprised when my old friend called. "I'm almost there," she said.

"Where?" I said.

"The restaurant. Where we're meeting."

"Oh no," I said, looking down at my pajamas, which I was not only already wearing but had also splattered with the spaghetti sauce I'd just made. In a split, heart-sinking second, I knew what I was going to have to say, because I'd already said it so many times this year that it was laughable -- and humiliating. "I forgot. I'm sorry. I don't know what happened. I didn't used to be like this."

A veritable work of art...

Asparagus

To test for freshness, rub two stalks together. If they squeak, buy 'em. Fresh asparagus still has a waxy coating that creates the sound.

Onions

Go for the ones that bring on the tears. In a lab study, extracts from strong-tasting onions were more effective at killing liver cancer cells than those from mild onions.

Carrots

Say no to baby carrots. Since their outer layer is stripped away, they lose one-third of the antioxidants. Buy a bunch with the greens attached and cut them into sticks yourself.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/





Cauliflower

Opt for purple Graffiti and green Romanesco cauliflower -- they can contain twice the antioxidants as the white kind we commonly buy.

One-way ticket to the red...

vetstreet.com | Pets â€" 14 hours ago
By Dr. Marty Becker


Q. How much does a dog normally drink every day?

A. The daily water intake for a dog is about three to six ounces of water for every five pounds of body weight - so a 25-pound dog would drink between a pint and almost two pints per day under average conditions. The amount goes up if the weather is hot, the dog is exercising or both. Depending on whether or not a pet eats canned or dry food, up to half of a pet's daily water consumption can come from food.

It's important to have an idea of what's normal for your own pet, so you can spot when water intake has changed and talk to your veterinarian about this. Such changes are often a sign of illness, so don't ignore them.

Savant syndrome is poorly understood. No widely accepted cognitive theory explains savants' combination of talent and deficit. It has been suggested that individuals with autism are biased towards detail-focused processing and that this cognitive style predisposes individuals either with or without autism to savant talents. Another hypothesis is that savants hyper-systemize, thereby giving an impression of talent. Hyper-systemizing is an extreme state in the empathizingâ€"systemizing theory that classifies people based on their skills in empathizing with others versus systemizing facts about the external world. Also, the attention to detail shown by many savants is a consequence of enhanced perception or sensory hypersensitivity in these unique individuals. It has also been confirmed that some savants operate by directly accessing low-level, less-processed information that exists in all human brains but is normally unavailable to conscious awareness. --Wiki

According to psychiatrist Darold Treffert, almost all savants have prodigious memory which he describes as "very deep, but exceedingly narrow". It is narrow in the sense that savants may exhibit exceptional memory but have difficulty putting it to use. Some individuals with savant syndrome also have keen sense of priority, which can involve a broad understanding of politics, law, and a conceivably heightened vocabulary. Savant skills are usually found in one or more of five major areas: art, musical abilities, calendar calculation, mathematics and spatial skills. 50% of savants have autism; the other 50% often have some other forms of central nervous system injury or disease. --Wiki

+ kan-on ug kape, solb na ang pamahaw ni Botoy!

Asha Mandela, 47, says she will never cut her 55ft (17 meters) long dreadlocks that she has been growing for 25 years! They weigh around 42 pounds and she has to wind them into a child sling when going out so she can move around easier. -- http://thechive.com/

+ kan-on ug kape, solb na ang pamahaw ni Botoy!

http://firsttoknow.com/
JUL 3 2013
by Jen Engevik



Peggy Hill, 62, was arrested by Sgt. Randy Lamb in Manatee County after she kissed him against his will.


After consuming three glasses of wine, the Florida woman got a little frisky. “She approached him and kissed him on his nose. He stepped away from her, wiped off the saliva from his nose, attempted to take her into custody, and she started to struggle with him,” stated the officer’s written report.

Sgt. Lamb jailed and charged Hill with felony battery of a law enforcement officer. This all occurred after Hill and one of her neighbors got into an argument. The unfortunate woman is still in custody for the asking price of $5,000, the cost of her bond.

By Ric V. Obedencio (The Freeman) | Updated September 15, 2013 - 12:00am



TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines â€" Alejandro Alberca takes on the position of regional director of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA)-Region 7, replacing Diosdado Rosales, after a turnover ceremony held on Friday at regional office in this city.

The turnover rites was attended by Gov. Edgar Chatto, Rep. Aris Aumentado (2nd dist., Bohol), former NIA-7 director Modesto Membreve, Reynaldo Concordia who represented Agriculture Sec. Proseso Alcala, Rene Espinoza who represented Rep. Arthur Yap (3rd dist.) and NIA-Bohol manager Olimpio Galagala, among others.

Membreve in his brief remarks said Alcala had ordered the reshuffling of NIA officials across the country, as an offshoot of President Aquino's disgust over the agency's "poor performance."

Membreve however was quick to point out that in the case of Central Visayas could not be likened to others with unsatisfactory performances to show.

Chatto, for his part, cited NIA-7's contribution to rice sufficiency in Bohol. He said Rosales was succeeded by another good director because the regional office has been a performing one.

Besides the increased palay harvest in recent years, Bohol is still the food basket of the region due to close coordination and commitment exerted by NIA-7 in the province, said the governor.

Rosales was cited before as Outstanding Irrigation Management Office (IMO) head, covering Cebu and Bohol, while Alberca was a 3-time Hall of Fame awardee while assigned in Mindanao.

Under Rosales watch, NIA-7 earned P40 million in income, as of August this year, which is higher than the P36 million earnings last year.

NIA-7 has a total of 371 communal irrigation systems and 138 of these are in Bohol, such as in Talibon, Ubay and Pilar towns, another 78 are located in Negros Oriental and 14 in Siquijor, said Rosales.  (FREEMAN)

Can I see another's woe,
And not be in sorrow too?
Can I see another's grief,
And not seek for kind relief?

Can I see a falling tear,
And not feel my sorrow's share?
Can a father see his child
Weep, nor be with sorrow filled?

Can a mother sit and hear
An infant groan, an infant fear?
No, no! never can it be!
Never, never can it be!
And can He who smiles on all
Hear the wren with sorrows small,
Hear the small bird's grief and care,
Hear the woes that infants bear --

And not sit beside the next,
Pouring pity in their breast,
And not sit the cradle near,
Weeping tear on infant's tear?

And not sit both night and day,
Wiping all our tears away?
Oh no! never can it be!
Never, never can it be!
He doth give his joy to all:
He becomes an infant small,
He becomes a man of woe,
He doth feel the sorrow too.

Think not thou canst sigh a sigh,
And thy Maker is not by:
Think not thou canst weep a tear,
And thy Maker is not near.

Oh He gives to us his joy,
That our grief He may destroy:
Till our grief is fled an gone
He doth sit by us and moan.

Tailless Rats

Note: I am a biologist, not a rat breeder, therefore, this is not a section about tailless rats as pets. This is an article about tailless rat biology.

There are at least two mutations that cause taillessness in rats: Tail-anomaly lethal (Tal) and stub (st).

• Tail-anomaly lethal (Tal): The autosomal dominant mutation Tal is lethal in its homozygous state (when the rat gets two copies of the gene): Tal/Tal embryos die between days 9 and 10 of gestation (Hoshino et al. 1979). In heterozygotes, (the rat has one Tal copy and one normal copy of the gene), Tal causes taillessness.

Tal/tal heterozygoes vary widely: tail length ranges from zero to normal, and the number of kinks in the tail ranges from one to six per tail, and the kink severity ranges from barely perceptible to complete hooks and corkscrews. Tailless rats also have lower body weight than normal rats (Schaid et al 1982, Hoshino et al 1979). This size difference between normal and tailless rats is greater when taillessness came from the mother than the father, possibly because the tailless mother's small size affects her ability to rear her young. Some heterozygotes have normal tails yet can produce tailless offspring, thus taillessness may skip generations (Schaid et al 1982).

This variation in phenotype indicates incomplete penetrance of the Tal mutation. Genetic penetrance -- the liklihood that an individual carrying a mutation will develop the characteristics caused by that mutation -- is estimated to be between 81.8% and 90.6% (Schaid et al. 1982).

• Stub (st): The second mutation known to affect tail length is the recessive mutation stub. Homozygous rats (st/st) usually die at birth (Ratcliffe and King, 1941), indicating that stub's action is different from that of Tal. The stub mutation is now believed to be exinct within the population of laboratory rats (Schaid et al. 1982).

Tailless rats and thermoregulation

The rat's tail helps to regulate its body temperature. Tailless rats do not lose heat as well as tailed rats -- their core body temperatures rise higher and it takes longer for their high temperatures to come down. For example, Spiers et al. (1982) found that when tailless and tailed rats were warmed, the body temperature of tailless rats rose 0.2-0.5 degrees higher than that of tailed rats. Afterwards, it took the tailless rats nearly an hour longer to cool down to a normal temperature than the tailed rats.

Savant syndrome is a condition in which a person with serious mental disabilities, including autistic disorder, demonstrates profound and prodigious capacities or abilities far in excess of what would be considered normal. People with savant syndrome may have neurodevelopmental disorders, notably autism spectrum disorders or brain injuries. The most dramatic examples are seen in individuals who score very low on IQ tests, while demonstrating exceptional skills or brilliance in specific areas, such as rapid calculation, art, memory, or musical ability. --Wiki

Quote from: islander on September 12, 2013, 04:32:02 PM
lisod gyod ning lahi ang tinan-awan sa kaugalingon uy.  sobrang bilib sa sarili, tsk, tsk.

Like idol, like fan...

Enrile's former chief of staff already out of PH
ANC â€" Fri, Sep 13, 2013



Former Chief of Staff of Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, Atty. Gigi Reyes, is already out of the country. That is according to the records of the Bureau of Immigration (BI).

The BI said Reyes left Manila on August 31 aboard a Cebu Pacific flight bound for Macau.

Records of BI showed Reyes departed alone and listed no return ticket at the time of her departure.

Pork scam key whistleblower Benhur Luy said Thursday in his appearance during a Senate hearing on the pork barrel scam that chiefs of staff of lawmakers personally received cash from Janet Lim Napoles.

Enrile is among the legislators implicated in the alleged pork barrel scam wherein legislators allegedly funneled their pork to Napoles’ bogus non-government organizations.

Gigi Reyes

Although running on fewer toes takes some getting used to, people can modify their style, train their muscles and practice balance exercises to compensate for a lost toe.

The importance of individual toes has actually been studied in some depth at Northwick Park Hospital in the U.K., and was the subject of a research paper by one of my mom's former colleagues at the Royal Liverpool Hospital, "The Importance Of The Toes In Walking."

The study ranks the toes, in order of the work they're doing.

What the paper doesn't investigate, however, is whether the little toes are doing a disproportionately large amount of the work relative to their size and strength, or if there are other consequences for losing them.

Rather than recommend a solid answer to the kidnapper dilemma, the authors chickened out when they wrote their conclusion:

The implication for clinical practice is that the toes play an important part in increasing the weight-bearing area during walking; every effort should be made to preserve their function.

This makes me think that perhaps my mom has nailed this one: The little toe is an extremity that's there for a reason, as is the big toe. So compromise and let them have No. 4.

To summarize: the first finger on the hand you don't use for writing is the least important finger, and the fourth toe on the foot you don't use to kick a soccer ball is probably your least important toe.

When you talk about utensilsâ€"like knives and forksâ€"most of that stuff is fine manipulation rather than strength, so you're typically using the other three digits. You use the thumb, the index and the middle fingers in order to hold a spoon, or to hold a fork, or even to hold a pen and write things.

Take this test: Try doing pull-ups without using your little fingers, and then do the same without your first fingers, and you'll get an idea of how disabling it is to lose the pinky. A New York Times writer described the experience in 2008. It's not fun.

That raises a question: What if the kidnappers offer you the choice of losing a toe?

There's a bit of a debate here. My mom says that the little toe is analogous to the little finger, and as it is situated on the outside of your foot it does a disproportionate amount of work in maintaining your balance. The big toe, however, is obviously the strongest, and you need it to propel yourself while walking. "I'd probably go for third or fourth toe. You need the others for balance and for thrust," my mom reckons.

Scientific American took an optimistic view of the situation, and concluded that losing even a big toe isn't that disabling:

A nine-toed gait is less efficient, slower and shorter, but no less effective. "You're going to look choppier," Dugan says.

I asked my mom, a retired doctor who practised surgical anesthesia for years in the Liverpool, U.K., area, which finger you give to the kidnappers. In terms of patients with actual severed fingers, she's seen a "couple of dozen fingers maybe, and an ear" in her career.

She says you want to give up the first finger on the hand you don't use for writing.

A lot of people think the first, pointing finger is the most important one they have. Wrong! Once it's gone, the other three compensate for it quite well. The second finger, for instance, is already pretty similar to the first finger.

The pinky is actually incredibly important, and it's a keeper.

Basically, the reason humans have "opposable" thumbs â€" the springboard of our evolution from being just another ape â€"  is that the thing doing the most opposing is the little finger.

According to the assistant chief of hand surgery at the NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases, the little finger does a disproportionate amount of gripping, while all the other guys are its helpers:

The other three digitsâ€"the index, the thumb and the middle fingerâ€"they fine tune where the tool goes. So if you have your little finger amputated, you're going to lose a significant amount of grip strength when holding everyday small objects.

If Kidnappers Chop Off One Of Your Fingers, Here's Which Finger You Should Sacrifice
Business Insider
By Jim Edwards | Business Insider â€" 10 hours ago


Apple's new iPhone 5S has a fingerprint security detector, called Touch ID, which unlocks the phone only if it detects your fingerprint.

Immediately, people wanted to know â€" if someone chopped off your finger and stole your iPhone 5S, could they use the severed digit to unlock your phone? (The answer is no, apparently, but the question is even more ghoulish once you consider that its premise is that safeguarding the phone is more important than the finger.)

Of course, there's an even more crucial question that ought to be asked before you get to the iPhone 5S:

If someone â€" kidnappers, for instance â€" is going to chop off one of your fingers, which finger should you sacrifice? This actually happened to a British man kidnapped in Syria this year, so it's not simply a fanciful dilemma.

Many people get this wrong. They assume that the little finger, the pinky, is the one to say goodbye to.