Mosquitoes like relaxed people

I'm back and for this entry my comeback entry would be about mosquitoes. Yeah, those annoying species of insects that you wish are extinct. They would suck you dry and then leave you with itchy blotches on your skin. Those pesky things that don't let you sleep during hot summer days.

But do not despair. Some scientists who, like us, hates these creatures have conducted studies on how to discourage mosquitoes from biting. And one of their findings was that stressed people don't get bitten as often as relaxed people. Interesting, right? It turns out that the body chemicals released by stressed people makes mosquitoes "think" that they are diseased or sick and "not a good quality blood meal." And who would want to suck the blood of sick people? Not Ms. Mosquito...

So that's why there are mobs of mosquitoes in Pinas. Pinoys are one of the most relaxed race in the world and no amount of problems can stress us enough. I lol'd at the idea...

Gundam Invasion

I was in highschool when gundam invasion happened. My brothers were hit and was assembling gundam models they bought from manong sidewalk vendor (Mom was too cheap to buy us the real thing). The real fun for me is assembling the mobile suit models. For my brother it as putting on the stickers and designing the look. For our youngest brother it would be the fun of destroying the mobile suit after assembly. I miss those days...

Well, for some crazy reason, some Japanese individuals decided to assemble a mobile suit model in Tokyo. My friend showed this to me and this is F-ing awesome. This is what I like about Japan and Japanese. Creativity and boldness. They are not afraid to release their inner child. Anyway, these guys assembled a model complete with lights and effects. I just wish it has a real-life cockpit as well as movement. When I became an engineer, my initial dream hobby was to create a cross between a mobile suit and C3PO. The dream was ruined by the endless search for money. Someday... Enjoy the videos...

Mayweather-Marquez Postponed

The somehow predictable thing has just happened. I'm not saying that this is a farce since I'm not by PBF's side but this does not surprise me. After retirement, one cannot expect PBF to be actually in shape. If this is really an injury, it's not how hard he trained but rather how his body was unprepared for the training. Boxers train hard all the time and to be injured during training tells much about how unprepared the boxer's mind and body is.

On the other hand, if this is one of PBF's delaying tactics then the same can be said. PBF is not yet ready for his comebacks. This might be one of his mind-games where he wait it out because he has an X% chance of losing.

I'm wondering what's actually the real score. But whatever the real reason is, PBF is not yet ready. If he wasn't injured, Marquez would probably injure him on June 18. The big question is what could be the implication of this to the possible fight between Pacman and PBF considering that Manny might run for Congress. We'll see...

Speaking of Congress... If con-ass pushes through and Manny Pacquiao win a congressional seat next election, there is a slim chance that we would have Pacman as prime minister... I shudder at the thought...

Best day evaaa!

I haven't blogged for awhile due to my busy schedule but today is special. This day is one of of happiest days so far this year. Why?

First,



I know... The Celtics would find it diffucult to compete with the Cavs or the Lakers without their defense leader Kevin Garnett (still you don't know what will happen. BIG BABY GOGOGO). But heck, this series has been a heart stopper. With several OT games, these two teams are arguably the most tired teams in the playoffs. I hope the finals would live up to this series. This for me is the series of the year so far. Even if the Celts lose in the conference semi-finals, at least they will forever be immortalized in highlight reels for this series.

Second,



This fight made me nervous. Frankly, I didn't believe that Manny can pull this one off as easy as this. No offense to Hatton fans, but this fight made it appear that the Pacquiao-Dela Hoya fight was a difficult fight for Manny. I was actually 50/50 in who I thought would win (syempre manok pa rin si Manny kahit may kaba. >8< Pinoy Pride FTW). Next stop, Floyd Mayweather Jr. Manny silenced the Senior's cockiness (so how's the amateur now?), now its Junior's turn.

Scholars Wanted

Year 2009 Korean Government
Scholarship Program for Graduate Students

1. Program Objective
The objective of the Korean Government scholarship program is to provide international students with the opportunities to conduct advanced studies at higher educational institutions in the Republic of Korea in order to promote international exchange in education and mutual friendship between countries.

2. Total Candidates for Selection : 30 persons

3. Academic Programs & Institutions
(1) Academic degree program : master’s degree and doctoral degree (Ph.D.)
(2) Institutions : all graduate schools in Korea
※ Those who want to enter specific graduate schools, such as MBA, international studies, medical, dental, or law schools, should get a separate permission from NIIED.
(3) Applicants who will major in science and engineering will have priority.

4. Duration
Master's course : 3 years (1 year of Korean language course & 2 years of master's course)
Doctoral course : 4 years (1 year of Korean language course & 3 years of doctoral course)

6. Qualifications
- Both applicant and his/her parents must possess the citizenship of a foreign country.
* Applicants and his/her parents should not hold the Korean citizenship.
- Applicants should have an adequate health, both mentally and physically, to stay in a foreign country for a long period of time
* Persons who are pregnant or having serious illness are not eligible.
- Persons who can contribute to promoting the mutual friendship between Korea and the country of origin
- Should be under 40 years of age as of September 1, 2009
- Hold a bachelor degree for the master's course, or a master’s degree for the doctoral course as of September 1, 2009
- Obtain a grade point average (G.P.A.) above 85% or 5% in rank from the top, from the last institution attended

7. Scholarship Payment
(1) Scholarship Period : 1 year of Korean language course and 2 years of master’s degree course, or 3 years of doctoral degree course
(2) Payment
-Airfare : A round-trip economy class ticket
-Monthly Allowance : 900,000 won per month
-Research Allowance : 210,000 won for students in humanities and social sciences; 240,000 won for students in natural and mechanic sciences per semester
-Settlement Allowance : 200,000 won upon arrival

8. Schedule
- Submission Deadline: May 15, 2009
- Final selection by NIIED : end of June
- Result notice : beginning of July
- Entry to Korea : August 25~28, 2009
- Korean language course : September 1, 2009
- Entrance to graduate school : September 1, 2010

Note:
• Applicant’s Requirement Submission deadline: May 15, 2009
• For submission of Required Documents and other inquiries, contact JP Torregoza at jp_kulit@yahoo.com or keitaro310@gmail.com.
• If you need help on filling up of prescribed forms you can also email JP.

Research Topics:
• Cognitive Radio Optimization
• Game Theory Distributed Decision-making
• Possible implementation of a Cognitive Radio Testbed
• Other IT topics may also be suggested.

For details, email jp_kulit@yahoo.com or keitaro310@gmail.com. Or you can download here if its still up...

April Fools Day

Yesterday, tricksters let loose their creative minds to performs some of the wildest and most innovative tricks on unsuspecting victims (well some are paranoid but still get tricked). In this modern age, people have brought April Fools Day to what else but the world wide web.

For example, on one anime streaming site I visit frequently, what they did was they hid a flash music player on their page and played some annoying music while you're on the page. The trick is you have to find how to turn it off or just settle to muting your PC. The result you cannot watch anime if you cannot turn it off.

Google, on the other hand, victimized people by introducing an AI(Artificial Intelligence) named CADIE and an "autopilot" tool for its gmail. There's also the Google Brain Search Tool that supposedly uses CADIE to scan and index the user's brain. CREEPY and FUNNY.

And finally, who can forget Youtube. This year, their prank is that when you view the video everything would be upside down. Even text for comments and titles are upside down. Smart people those Youtube web designers. To emulate the April fools joke, just add &flip=1 to the end of the URL you are trying to view. They even put up a page on how to view these flipped videos.

These ideas are how I like April Fool tricks to be. Simple but funny.

Cheap Chow

This weekend, news was shown about this journalist named Cheap Chow, errr... Chip Tsao who released an article about his views on the Spratly Ownership Issue between China and the Philippines. In the article, he called our country a "nation of servants".

This morning I was doing my morning routine of looking at news in inquirer and reading blogs of people and I saw a copy of the article posted in Gerry's blog (this guy has some interesting blog entries). The article has been taken down but you can read it at Gerry's.

This guys has written many "satire" articles which readers might call racists. This was actually at least the second time he has made racist remarks against Filipinos. The other one that I know of, also from the same publication, was made as an insult to Chinese made products. This was at the height of the poisoned milk controversy. You can read the full article here. In this article, he has made remarks of Pinoy nurses. Another article was about Western foreigners in China and how they are now not "fashionable" for HK women. You can read it from Friskodude's entry.

This guy just doesn't learn, doesn't he? I hope your Pinay maids are kind enough to not retaliate on your Cheap Chow, Mr. Tsao.

Barack's budget priorities and Pinoy's Stagnancy

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

I just watched Obama's second prime-time news conference and there was this question that gave me nostalgia of how our country was decades ago.

The question voices out the critic on White House budget which focus on education, health-care, and energy. The answer of Obama clearly shows what made him win the presidential elections: improving education, health-care and energy makes people grow.

This made me remember of how we were as a country. Decades ago, I remember going to IRRI for our field trip. I remember seeing the research done by the institute. I remember seeing many Thai and other foreigners that were at the institute to learn about IRRI's findings. Now, Thailand is one of the leading exporter of rice in the world. We, however, have become one of the biggest importers. The "teacher" has been surpassed by her "student". What happened?

Let's face it. One of the reasons for this is that Filipinos have gone stagnant. Science and technology evolved around us while we are concerned with politics. There are two reasons that I believed caused this. One, the government priorititized giving people food (not to mention robbing people's money lol) and Two, people became too contented of living the way they were living. In very simple terms, the people and the government have focused on picking food from the tree and not how to plant the tree. We rely on the "environment" providing us our food rather than producing it ourselves. When food runs out and no one helps us, we are dead.
For instance, I believe that signing international business agreements to find our workers jobs is not a good idea. We are now a country running on OFW remittance because of this. I hate that we are the world's source of laborers, maids and factory workers. We've become soooo dependent to other countries.

I just dread the day when our country becomes a bunch of "stone-age" people watching political drama in TV after a day of being slaves to "high-tech" foreigners.

R.I.P Master Rapper

Thank you for "Mga Kababayan ko" , "Kaleidoscope World" etc and all the good things you did for our country. Rest in peace Kiko.

Slumdug Celebration

As I remember the plot of Slumdog Millionaire, I wonder if some of my fellow Pinoys felt the same way as the contestant while watching the 6/49 Lotto draw. To the two people who won, congratulations. Use the money well. Ingat sa nanghihingi ng balato.