Before 2012 comes

I don't care much if it's really the end of the world. If the Long Count Calendar of the Ancient Mayans ends on Dec 21 2012 is true. With or without evidence, my apprehensions will not change.    There is no assurance or even insurance with this thing. LOL. I can do nothing about it. But with my life? I can do so many things. 

I will write as many articles as I could.

I will read more as Sir Gabby told me. 

I will eat a lot of pasta, cinnamon breads and apple juice!

I will hug my parents together at the same time! For the first time!

I will sleep less, study more!

I will make up times that I've missed not being with my friends!

I will cry my sadness and laugh of my happiness! 

I will smile to death! 
These are just some but here is the last: 

Lastly, I'm going to party like it's the end of the world with this song: 

About a Fist’s Size

    As the book of Ecclesiastes Chapter 3:1-15 puts it, there is a time for everything, a time for very affair under the heavens, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to dance and a time to mourn, a time to laugh and a time to weep, a time to love and a time to hate, a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to be silent, and a time to speak. Ladies and gentlemen, now is the time to speak about a treasure, a temple, an earthen vessel, the human body. 

          We will be testing human perspective, how we perceive our bodies through answering this very question: What is the most important body part? 

          Through the years we took guesses and thought of varying answers as true and correct. We never figure out what the answer was. 

          When we were younger, we thought sound was very important to us as humans, so we said: the ears for without this our world will be of silence and nothing more but silence. How could we possibly enjoy the sound of life without ears? Then we soon found out that there are many deaf people so it was wrong. We continued to think. 

          Several years passed before we asked again. Since making our first attempt, we had contemplated the correct answer. So this time we told to ourselves: Hey! It is the sight for it is important to everybody, so it must be our eyes. There are many things in life that our eyes would catch. Yet how could we possibly see the beauty of life without eyes? Indeed, we are learning fast, but the answer is incorrect because there are many people who are blind. 

          Some say it’s the feet. We claim these to be important for without these nothing will bring us to where we want to go- to a destination we longed to be or even to the summit of our dreams. Let us admit it; we often pay attention to our feet thus it is the most neglected part. More so, it is visible that some people don't walk normally, some are on wheel chairs, and some don't even have feet at all. So, how can we say that it is the feet if not all of us can walk along a pavement or a garden? Again, the answer is no. 

          What about the genitals? Didn't God say, "Go forth and multiply."? Isn't it because of the genitals, how humanity came to be? But aren't our genitals the reason why we were banished by God from the Garden of Eden? Isn't it one of the reasons why one of the seven deadly sins, which is Lust, was born? Again, humankind was erroneous.

          Look at this. This is a hand, a multi-fingered extremity located at the end of our arms, a chief organ for physically manipulating the environment, used for grasping a large object and as fine as picking up a small pebble. Unfortunately, some people have deformities with theirs and some, for the worst, born handless. Consider these people. Could they touch the tangible feature of life? Together with us?  No. 

          Stumped again, we continued our quest for knowledge. Over the years, we continued to interrogate ourselves a couple more times and always answer: No, but at least, we are getting smarter as time passes by. 

          Ladies and gentlemen, let’s try to look on our shoulders? Why? Is it important because it can hold our own head? Or because it does the same for a friend or a loved one when they cry? Everybody needs a shoulder to cry on sometime in life. This part is not a selfish one. It is sympathetic to the pain of others. A close one, but again, this was not what we were searching for.

          What about the mouth? The mouth that we use to eat our favorite mouth-watering foods, tastes our milks and sodas? Talk to the people we love to chat with, face to face, over the phone? But then again, there are mute people. So again, humanity made a mistake.

          Covered by the skull, we have our brains, an important body part controlling the functions of our bodies, including the involuntary functions, like the way we breathe. It stores information. Of importance to geniuses, but what about those who are not gifted with such intelligence? Again, there's no equity, we cannot all walk to the road of the wise. Once again, it is a no.

          After all these years, it was the heart, the heart, which governs all of our body parts. Our ears, when we want to listen, or not to listen. Our eyes when we want to see something, anything, or not to see at all. Our mouth, when we want to say something nice, or scream out profanities. Our feet when we want to go somewhere, or just laze about. Our hands when we want to hold someone, to not let them go, or when we point fingers and push someone away. Our shoulders when we let someone lean on it, or shrug it to ignore someone. Our mind, when we use it for the benefit of someone or oneself, or to harm someone or ourselves. 

          The heart hears what the other heart says. It can see what is invisible to the eyes. Heart can say what the mouth can't utter. A heart leads us to where feet can't cross. Our heart touches what hands can't. Our hearts can understand freely more than the mind can. Above all, our heart feels emotions what can other parts can't- love. 

On Student Council Election

On March 11, the Colegio shall be having the Student Council Election 2011. The current officers will be stepping down from their positions after 10 months of showing the kind of governing skills they have - diplomacy, honesty, and passion for leadership. The Letranites will decide again whom to choose to lead for the next school year. 

Every year, Letranites elect its new set of officers for the Letran Student Council to represent the student body. Their main objective is student governance. Furthermore, it acts as the umbrella organization covering all of the Recognized Student Organizations (RSO’s).

But what does an election concern about? Two things. 

First, an election must be clean and just, which is a duty of every Letranite to conduct such as we are ardent lovers of truth. Though we study in a modernized school and have had election automation, it didn’t actually lead to clean election. A systematic, fair, and honest election must be observed since this affair will affect our college life as we vote for the candidates that we know can govern us well. 

Just like in reality, Letranites were either coerced to vote for certain candidates or scared away and their ballots used. 

So securing our student numbers is of importance for this serves as our voting IDs. We must not let anyone use them; otherwise our votes will be null and void. Campaigning period was scheduled March 7, giving an ample time for us to decide who's who, and for us to get to know the candidates aiming to be elected in the Student Council. Letranites must disregard those who, while in the voting period, campaigns for their respective candidates. Voting period is the time we decide whom to choose based on the qualities we’ve seen from them.

Second, the candidates: we must look forward for two or more parties voluntarily submitting their selves for candidacy and without being strained by anyone in authority. 

Truly, we have seen qualifications posted all over the campus but if we think further, we will see that these words are incomparable with actions. Some Letranites have the guts, determination, passion, and the effective leadership skills but with the qualification set before hand, it becomes hindrances for them to serve. Letran Student Council’s primary aim is to voice out what Letranites says and because of this fact, we don’t give them a chance to prove so. Skills and knowledge in leadership are of course, the primary criteria for a student-leader to govern the organization well, but these qualities aren't all we need. All we need are students who are sensitive enough to the needs of the studentry. We actually don't need promises because as mature beings in the process of achieving our goals in life, we must be wise enough to be not easily persuaded by unrealistic and impossible promises.

Are we looking now for someone who became a president of one of the RSO’s and didn’t actually manage it properly? To the extent that its members disseminated and the organization, almost dissolved? We must choose leaders who will strive for the betterment of its organization, more so, the student council.

The freedom given to us to vote for the new student-leaders that will represent us in the Student Council has its limits, thus not absolute. Electing the next leaders and choosing the best may be hard. Let's depend on the concrete platforms a candidate proposes and the qualities he/she possess not on mere instincts and falsehoods. We must use this opportunity to voice out what we think is best for ourselves and for the Letranites as a whole.

We will not vote for the sake of ourselves alone but for the whole studentry and institution as well so we must take into considerations the necessary qualities a student-leader must possess. As educated citizens of the country and a truth-loving Letranite, we must strive to elect our next leaders in a clean and peaceful way this March 11.

-end-

Next Stop: Human Zombies!

I was about to open my yahoo mail when I saw this article. I was really exaggerately shouting "Oh my Goshh!!". I told Pinky to look at it. He has no reaction but I suddenly wondered... so what's next? Human Zombies?

 

LiveScience.com livescience.com – Thu Mar 3, 5:45 pm ET

photo taken from: www.guiradian.co.uk

The world just got a little weirder: Scientists have identified four new species of brain-controlling fungi that turn ants into zombies that do the parasite's bidding before it kills them.
Identified from samples collected at two sites in Brazil's tropical rain forest, each of the four species specializes in controlling a different species of carpenter ant.

The original zombie-ant fungus, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, was first identified in 1865, and it seems to exist around the world. [Mind-Controlling Parasites Date Back Millions of Years]
"So we knew, right off the bat, there was a range of other species within that," said study researcher David Hughes, an entomologist at Pennsylvania State University. "I think it will turn out to be in the hundreds."
Once it infects an ant, the fungus uses as-yet-unidentified chemicals to control the ant's behavior, Hughes told LiveScience. It directs the ant to leave its colony (a very un-ant-like thing to do) and bite down on the underside of a leaf — the ant's soon-to-be resting place. Once it is killed by the fungus, the ant remains anchored in place, thanks to its death grip on the leaf.

Ultimately, the fungus produces a long stalk that protrudes from the ant's head, shooting spores out in the hopes of infecting other ants. Two of the four newly discovered species also sprouted smaller stalks elsewhere, including from the victim's feet and lower leg joints – the equivalent of knees.
The spores of the four species also had distinct features and germination processes.

Hughes is concerned that one of the four fungus species, O. camponoti-novogranadensis, may not be around for much longer. During their visits to Brazil, Hughes and his colleagues saw that the high-elevation site where the species was found had become markedly drier and hotter. Hughes attributed the change in conditions at the Parque Estadual de Itacolomi, which is near the World Heritage Site Ouro Preto, to global warming.

The ants can survive this shift in the local climate, but "the fungus can't," he said. "What we think we will see is the extinction event of the fungus we just managed to describe." (Hughes said fungi are essential aquatic organisms living in terrestrial environments, making them extra-sensitive to a drying climate.)

Isn't weird how some people foresee human becoming zombies? And now, soon it will be. Not being exaggerated, but in few years time, these parasites will grow and be stronger enough to control humans. Humans will now see what those featured in horror movies. LOL.

Isn't amazing that scientists unravel this phenomena in our ecosystem? Thank to them.
Keep on reading. Updates are always on the go. :))