iSTORYA.NET - Blogs - Ink | Pen | Paper by rodsky https://www.istorya.net/forums/blog.php?39071-Ink-Pen-Paper en Sun, 17 May 2026 07:38:04 GMT vBulletin 300 https://www.istorya.net/forums/images/metro/blue/misc/rss.jpg iSTORYA.NET - Blogs - Ink | Pen | Paper by rodsky https://www.istorya.net/forums/blog.php?39071-Ink-Pen-Paper Support the House and Senate Bills to Enact the Philippine Space Agency https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2794-Support-the-House-and-Senate-Bills-to-Enact-the-Philippine-Space-Agency Tue, 25 Oct 2016 10:56:35 GMT
Quote Originally Posted by rodsky View Post
http://www.congress.gov.ph/legisdocs...17/HB03637.pdf

http://www.senate.gov.ph/lisdata/2503221557!.pdf

"A space program can help us tackle some of our most urgent problems. For example, our efforts in disaster risk reduction and management will greatly benefit from a space program. Having our own satellite will make it easier for us to take high-resolution images; these images, in turn, can help us plan for and manage the effects of natural disasters. Imagine the number of lives that can be saved.

Having our own space program will let us benefit more from the programs of our neighbors. If we want to gain from what the Vietnamese or Indonesians are learning, we need to have technologies and infrastructures similar to theirs.

A cohesive space program has the potential to start a positive ripple effect. Aside from hiring engineers and scientists, a space program will also need lawyers, accountants, and a host of other professionals. Studies done in other countries show that for every space program job created, nearly a dozen support jobs emerge."

(by Pecier Decierdo)


"The initial efforts should be tied with arming the general populace with basic scientific concepts and principles aimed at improving public awareness of events such as natural disasters, so as to improve their reaction and coping levels to such calamities that constantly plague our country. Hand in hand with this effort is the hope that the public realizes the value of science, and thus become the first steps towards freeing their minds of mysticism and backward traditionalist thinking that is ungrounded and unscientific.

I believe with space sciences as the beacon, the men and women of science in this country will be armed, equipped and inspired to carry the flame of reason and freethinking across our country."

(by Rodion Herrera)

Link to the petition: https://www.change.org/p/philippine-...e-space-agency
]]> rodsky https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2794-Support-the-House-and-Senate-Bills-to-Enact-the-Philippine-Space-Agency I Am A Star Wars Kid https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2584-I-Am-A-Star-Wars-Kid Fri, 18 Dec 2015 01:11:32 GMT With *Star Wars: The Force Awakens*, the seventh Star Wars film, showing in the cinemas, I see my Facebook newsfeed awash with Star Wars related posts from both friends and some advertising and promo sites. One would also see a vast number of Star Wars related memorabilia and items, such as toys (action figures, lightsabers, Millenium Falcon replicas) to fashion items such as hoodies, T-shirts and so on, and there are also movie tie-in comics and books. All this being shared by proud owners on their Facebook walls. It’s almost as if these people are trying to say, “See? I’m a Star Wars kid! I’m a dyed in the wool Star Wars die-hard since I was 8 years old!” Well, I personally don’t own a lot of Star Wars related mementos and collectibles. However, I did see the original Star Wars: A New Hope in the cinema, back in 1977. My parents took me to the movie house with them to see the movie, and it forever etched a deep and lasting memory in me. I was just six years old then, but I remember the experience vividly, as if I watched it with them yesterday. Star Wars is partly responsible for my fascination and interest in things related to space exploration and technology, and I’m thankful that my parents were also geeky about it in a way, and allowed me to join them in seeing the film. One day, a few years later after seeing Star Wars, my father came home with a gift. It was a Pop-up Book featuring Star Wars. The following images you will see are of the book, but our copy, while still in existence, is already quite battered and worn, so I won’t be showing our actual copy of the book. These images are of the same book (taken off Amazon.com) to give you an idea what the book looks like. Image: http://i.imgur.com/zJ77cvv.jpg Basically, it tells the story of Star Wars, but in a very abbreviated fashion; only a very basic summary of events, with a “pop up” scene depicting memorable scenes found in the movie. The reason why it was called a pop-up book, is because a Star Wars spaceship or vehicle would suddenly “pop up” out when you open a page, making it almost like a 3D representation of the scene. This is the opening page, and it shows the Rebel Corvette being chased by an Imperial Star Destroyer, both spacecraft appearing to float or pop out of the book (this particular book is also showing signs of its age--the tab on the left is supposed to be attached to the Star Destroyer, but it appears to have been detached or torn off). Image: http://i.imgur.com/KJYeN9F.jpg Here we see a Jawa Sandcrawler popping up from the middle of the book. It’s quite a feat of origami, how the makers of this book designed the pop-up mechanism. Aside from the pop-ups, one can also find “interactive activities ” on the pages. On the right side you can see an image of R2D2, which you can push up, acting out how he got sucked up via vacuum into the crawler, as seen in the film. Image: http://i.imgur.com/VNfVgty.jpg What is Star Wars without an X-Wing Fighter? Here the pop up X-Wing graces the middle of the page. As a kid, I would open up this page, then “fly” the X-Wing fighter around the living room. Image: http://i.imgur.com/88P8zr8.jpg Every time I go back home to our cottage at MSU Marawi, I always try and find the book, and browse the pages; it’s like talking to an old friend. Doing this ritual brings back so many vivid memories of childhood. Even though we Herrera kids didn’t get to own a lot of Star Wars stuff, we can really say that we are in fact, Star Wars kids. This simple little book is testament to the fact that we became fans way before most of other people became followers of this venerable sci-fi (or space opera, to be more accurate) series and franchise. Image: http://i.imgur.com/9sX71yO.jpg With Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the seventh Star Wars film, showing in the cinemas, I see my Facebook newsfeed awash with Star Wars related posts from both friends and some advertising and promo sites. One would also see a vast number of Star Wars related memorabilia and items, such as toys (action figures, lightsabers, Millenium Falcon replicas) to fashion items such as hoodies, T-shirts and so on, and there are also movie tie-in comics and books. All this being shared by proud owners on their Facebook walls. It’s almost as if these people are trying to say, “See? I’m a Star Wars kid! I’m a dyed in the wool Star Wars die-hard since I was 8 years old!”

Well, I personally don’t own a lot of Star Wars related mementos and collectibles. However, I did see the original Star Wars: A New Hope in the cinema, back in 1977. My parents took me to the movie house with them to see the movie, and it forever etched a deep and lasting memory in me. I was just six years old then, but I remember the experience vividly, as if I watched it with them yesterday. Star Wars is partly responsible for my fascination and interest in things related to space exploration and technology, and I’m thankful that my parents were also geeky about it in a way, and allowed me to join them in seeing the film.

One day, a few years later after seeing Star Wars, my father came home with a gift. It was a Pop-up Book featuring Star Wars. The following images you will see are of the book, but our copy, while still in existence, is already quite battered and worn, so I won’t be showing our actual copy of the book. These images are of the same book (taken off Amazon.com) to give you an idea what the book looks like.



Basically, it tells the story of Star Wars, but in a very abbreviated fashion; only a very basic summary of events, with a “pop up” scene depicting memorable scenes found in the movie. The reason why it was called a pop-up book, is because a Star Wars spaceship or vehicle would suddenly “pop up” out when you open a page, making it almost like a 3D representation of the scene.

This is the opening page, and it shows the Rebel Corvette being chased by an Imperial Star Destroyer, both spacecraft appearing to float or pop out of the book (this particular book is also showing signs of its age--the tab on the left is supposed to be attached to the Star Destroyer, but it appears to have been detached or torn off).



Here we see a Jawa Sandcrawler popping up from the middle of the book. It’s quite a feat of origami, how the makers of this book designed the pop-up mechanism. Aside from the pop-ups, one can also find “interactive activities ” on the pages. On the right side you can see an image of R2D2, which you can push up, acting out how he got sucked up via vacuum into the crawler, as seen in the film.



What is Star Wars without an X-Wing Fighter? Here the pop up X-Wing graces the middle of the page. As a kid, I would open up this page, then “fly” the X-Wing fighter around the living room.


Every time I go back home to our cottage at MSU Marawi, I always try and find the book, and browse the pages; it’s like talking to an old friend. Doing this ritual brings back so many vivid memories of childhood.

Even though we Herrera kids didn’t get to own a lot of Star Wars stuff, we can really say that we are in fact, Star Wars kids. This simple little book is testament to the fact that we became fans way before most of other people became followers of this venerable sci-fi (or space opera, to be more accurate) series and franchise.

]]> rodsky https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2584-I-Am-A-Star-Wars-Kid The Philippine National Space Development Program https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2517-The-Philippine-National-Space-Development-Program Wed, 09 Sep 2015 23:32:13 GMT A few years ago, in this blog, I wrote an entry that expresses my wish that the Philippines should have its own space agency. You can read that blog entry here:

http://www.istorya.net/forums/blogs/...ce-agency.html

On September 1, 2015, the seeds of that dream have been planted. There is now a government-funded program called the National Space Development Program.



This is the first major effort of the Philippines to develop a long-term space program. Based on the National Space Development and Utilization Policy, the NSDP is tasked to establish the necessary frameworks and foundations necessary for the future National Space Agency.

Visit their Facebook Page.
https://www.facebook.com/nsdp.ph/pho...pe=1&source=11 ]]> rodsky https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2517-The-Philippine-National-Space-Development-Program Write it Down https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2453-Write-it-Down Wed, 31 Dec 2014 07:17:23 GMT (I may have written something like this before, in this blog, but I just want to express these thoughts once again)

Before the year ends, I have a simple bit of advice to everyone who isn't doing it on a regular basis yet.

Learn to write down your thoughts.

You don't have to do this using the English language, you may write down your thoughts and observations in any language or dialect you are comfortable with, but do make sure you use proper punctuation and grammar. To realize why this is important, think of what you're writing as something you're doing, not because you're just ranting or "just letting off steam". Think of it as an important means to communicate who you are to the world, and if you don't communicate your thoughts properly, the misinterpretations brought about by your clunky writing might paint you in the wrong light.

So write down your thoughts, because frankly, one day you will die (you can't write if you're dead, obviously), and it would be a pity if no one has any idea of what you go through on a daily basis, if you don't have any personal thoughts written down someplace. Whether that "place" be a Facebook status post or note, an internet blog, a carefully prepared real-world diary, a run-down notebook, an expensive organizer, or a slab of yellow pad paper--the important thing is you write it down.

It doesn't have to be formal either. It also doesn't have to involve something "life-changing" that you may have observed, or something awe-inspiring that you feel you want to share. It could be just that trip to the local barbershop or beauty parlor and the casual observations you made while having your hair or nails done. It also doesn't even matter whether you believe or not in the divine, or the afterlife, nor does whatever political or philosophical leanings you passionately support or despise matter or not--the important thing is you do something NOW, when you have the time to do it.

The first process of any scientific pursuit is observation. When humans started observing the world around them many thousands of years ago, one of the probable reasons why people kept failing to remember some of the things they observed (and thus fail to learn from certain mistakes), is because they failed to RECORD them, via a written note or some other form of data capture. By you recording your ideas and thoughts, no matter how mundane, erroneous or trivial they may be, you are STILL contributing to the data set. History or scientific analysis will later judge whether your thoughts and observations are correct or flawed, but in the first place, if you DIDN'T write anything down, there is no data to process in the first place.

So do it--learn to write down your thoughts starting this 2015, and contribute to this grand struggle of recording the human experience. ]]> rodsky https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2453-Write-it-Down The Parable of the Stick https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2405-The-Parable-of-the-Stick Tue, 02 Sep 2014 02:42:36 GMT The Parable of the Stick
By Rodion M. Herrera

Once upon a time, two boys chanced upon a long straight stick on the river bank. The stick was quite long, almost twice as high as a person, so they decided to break it in two. However, the stick didn't exactly break in the middle, so that one of the sticks was longer than the other one. The taller boy decided to give the shorter stick to the other boy, who was shorter than him. The short boy merely smiled and shrugged. Then they started playing with the sticks, using them as mock swords, as fighting staves and eventually using them as fishing poles to catch fish from the river, which they promptly threw back in after. As sundown neared, they both ended up lazily doodling on the sand with their sticks. Then, as the sun slipped below the horizon, they both went home towards their village in the twilight, happy with the sticks they got.

Many, many, many years later, the boys reunited as old men. They decided to go to the river they once played in as boys. Interestingly enough, they found the sticks they used to play with as kids, and took them along on their trip down memory lane, down to the river of their youth. They were both in their 60's now, and the shorter man revealed that he was dying of cancer. The tall man's face turned pale and gray as he learned about this, but the shorter man just smiled at him and said "It's all right. We all have to go sometime." Then, after a long silence, they found themselves doodling on the sand by the river bank using their sticks again.

The tall man said, "Why is it that you can shrug off your condition like that, you're so free of worry." The short man said, "Why is it that you worry so much about me, when you should be worrying about yourself and the life you are leading and headed to?" Distraught and a little bit insulted, the tall man said, "Excuse me, but I'm not the man who is struggling to pay his debts, and has very little to call his own." It is revealed that the taller man had become a highly successful businessman, and even entered politics, and became a mayor of a town for several years. He had lived an exemplary life. Meanwhile, we find out that the shorter man joined the circus, and lived a life on the edge of poverty and simple living.

"I'm NOT the failure here." stressed the taller man. "Aren't you regretful of the life you have led, which might even have been the cause of your ill health?" The short man looked at him and smiled, "Causes are not important. In life, it's like we are given sticks, and sometimes one is given a longer stick, and sometimes we are given a shorter stick." They both pondered for a bit, and started doodling with their sticks in the sand again. The old man replied, "I still can't fathom why you could be so happy in your condition. It's for a long life that we all strive for..."

"Long?" the short man interrupted. "Is that how we really have to gauge life?" He then took the tall man's long stick and walking along the river bank for a few paces, he drew a long thin line on the sand. "This," he said, "...is how you lived your life...a long, thin line, that you want to continually extend for as long as you wish...it might be long, but it's thin and frail. But it's because you had a goal, so your line was straight and narrow, and had no option to bend."

He then dropped his own shorter stick on the sand, and holding it in the very middle, he dragged it on the sand sideways, leaving a short, but very, very wide line.

"This..." he smiled and looked at the tall man, "...this is how I lived mine." ]]> rodsky https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2405-The-Parable-of-the-Stick Going CrayZ with DayZ https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2320-Going-CrayZ-with-DayZ Sat, 08 Mar 2014 14:53:35 GMT Last night my brother Ivan and I managed to find a Day Z Standalone (SA) server that had a decent ping for both of us. This was important, considering that he's living and working in KSA, and I'm here in the Philippines. For if I chose a server in Singapore or West Coast US, my ping will be low, but his will be high, and if he choses a server closer to him (say, France or Germany), then my ping will be high, but his will be low. We eventually found middle ground in a China-based server. We were using TeamSpeak to communicate.

When we finally both got into the server, we were surprised that his character/avatar was already well-equipped and I was a total "bambi" (a player that practically just started, no gear, just a flashlight and "hungry" status). I realized that, since I had been using his Steam account to play the game (I just recently bought DayZ SA for my own Steam account), I left my most recent avatar with some pretty decent gear, and this presented a great situation, because my brother can now practice some of the game's actions while decked with good gear. I got an M4A1 for that avatar and so he practiced using it, learning how to load ammo into the magazines, and inserting mags into the carbine. Meanwhile, I was busy with my own character, finding food, additional clothing--I spawned near Elektro, and my brother spawned where I last was....wayyyy over at the other end of the map, at the Northwest Airfield. After about 30 minutes of getting decent weapons, clothing, food and water, I then proceeded on the loooong trek north, to rendezvous with my brother at that airfield.

So, while I was running towards his position, we kept talking on TeamSpeak, and I was tutoring him on some tips and tricks I learned in DayZ, so he can use it to his own advantage. I also gave him the link to an online Chernarus map, so he can track my progress as I ran towards him.

The uneventful run took almost 30 minutes (well, not exactly uneventful--had to deal with zombies along the way, but if you're used to killing zombies, that event is really a non-event at this stage of DayZ SA development). By the time I arrived at the airport, my brother was already getting the hang of manipulating objects like clothing and ammo, reloading his weapon etc. He was still unaware of the fact that one's character had to be at the "peak of health" (having the status Energized and Hydrated in his profile) so that issues like blood loss or food poisoning wouldn't be an issue or affect his "vision". Take note that it took an entire hour for us just to meet up with each other on this land known as Chernarus (map here: DayZ Standalone Chernarus+ Map - DayZDB).

While I was still running towards his position, my brother was already scavenging around the airport, and found a decent M4A1. He picked this up, with the intent of giving it to me when I arrived. When I reached the southern fence of the Northwest airfield, I immediately saw my brother's silhouette at the airport's firestation, indicating that yes, if one is not careful about cover, you are sniper-fodder, just standing around in front of buildings, especially at the northwest airfield, a known sniper's haven. I ran towards him, and pretty soon, he spotted me on his ACOG scope.


When we finally rendezvoused inside the fire station, we took inventory of all items we had, and tried to share them equally. He gave me the M4A1 he found, along with some ammo. We discovered a bug with the M4--as soon as he dropped it on the ground, it looked messed up, missing the handguard, buttstock and magazine. But after picking it up, a few seconds later, it was visible again. We then proceeded to continue our scavenging run around the airport area.


After a few minutes of picking up food and ammo, we decided to cross the airfield and head to a cluster of additional airport buildings southeast of the control tower. While enroute, I taught him additional basics, such as crouching low, weapon stances, etc. We were also careful of moving around the area, for that China-based server had, at that moment, about 18 people on, so we were getting cautious of possible ambushes and general PvP encounters.

After getting our bearings using a compass, we then proceeded to a military base about 5 minutes away from the airport. When we arrived at this base, I taught my brother how to refill a used plastic water bottle with water from a nearby fresh water well.

Then, like clockwork, we continued our scavenging run, with priority on finding better backpacks (mine was "damaged"), clothing, and of course, food and drinks. It was at this base when we encountered our first zombies together. We quickly dispatched of them quiety using our fire axes.


Remember again, that, at this point, about two hours have already passed, and yet we haven't yet encountered other HUMAN players, but we've been having fun just fooling around with our equipment and gear, swapping this headgear with that, and repairing some damaged stuff. After another compass sighting, we then decided to proceed to a pair of towns situated halfway between the military base and the South airport near Balota.

It was after we arrived in one of these two towns (Pogorevka) when the fun began. We started to use our M4's against the zombies. This triggered a wave of zombie attacks on us, which was good opportunity for Ivan to practice using his M4, as one zombie arrived after another. While we scavenged, he found a clown mask inside a church!


Like a pair of post-apocalyptic tourists, we started fooling around by taking "souvenir photos" around Pogorevka, beside a stream, in front of the church.





After refilling our water bottles at Pogorevka's water pump, we then proceeded to cross several forests towards our eventual goal--Balota airfield, where more loot (and Chinese human players dying to kill both of us LOL) can be found. One of our main goals was to acquire a sniper rifle (Mosin) and a good long range scope for it.

As we arrived at the edge of a forest, we could already spot a series of tall condominium buildings (at Chapaevsk), which were part of Chernogorsk City. And to the right of that, Balota airfield. We stopped, ate/drank and rested here, and we then contemplated on how to best approach the airfield.



I asked Ivan for his opinion. He offered that we should go to the nearest condo, climb up to the roof, and use that as observation post to monitor the airport. I reluctantly agreed, knowing that that condo complex was a known hiding spot for ambushers and snipers. Buti nalang, may dala kaming FOODS! :D

We approached the base of the Chapaevsk condo units carefully, scanning our sectors well, watching out for them pesky Chinese players (who SHOT ON SIGHT...shoot first, ask questions later).


Was a very tense situation. It was an uneventful climb to the roof, but I had to teach Ivan how to use ladders in the elevator shaft, because the stairwell was destroyed in several sections. I told him to be careful using the ladders, because lag can cause one to slip and fall. We both arrived at the rooftop safely...

...and at that very moment, Ivan spotted a player on the roof of the other condo, with a weapon out and seemingly aiming at our direction! His reaction ("May tao sa kabilang roof!!! May tao sa kabilang roof!!!") made me quicky drop down prone, and he frantically shouted into the mike, "Ano? Ano? Barilin ko? Ano? Ano?!" (What? Should I shoot now?!" And I said, "Sige! (Okay!)"


And I heard shots (I was hiding behind the elevator shaft recess, so I could not observe Ivan shooting at the player) and Ivan said, "He's down! Pero teka, gumagalaw pa!" We waited for a full minute, before we both decided that the guy was indeed down/unconscious/dead. But I was still scared of standing up. So Ivan decided to come out of the elevator shaft by climbing up the ladder again. And while doing this...

...he slipped and fell, and died.

I was in the process of finding his body (in the hopes of possibly reviving him, I had an epi-pen and morphine), while descending the condo ladder and stairs, when all of a sudden, out of the corner of the stairwell, a crouched figure in camo pointed his M4 at me, and everything went black...ambush!

...and that's how our five-hour adventure ended...but what a blast! ]]> rodsky https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2320-Going-CrayZ-with-DayZ Random Thoughts on a Gloomy Thursday Morning https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2313-Random-Thoughts-on-a-Gloomy-Thursday-Morning Fri, 14 Feb 2014 05:10:14 GMT Today, I woke up during that period of time considered to be the “ungodly hours of predawn.” Try as I might, I couldn’t bring myself to sleep. Thus, I decided to watch one of the movies I downloaded off the web last week. This movie, I believe, is a critically-acclaimed film, that tells the story of a young girl who lived in Germany during the Second World War. I found the plot of the film to be slightly similar to that of yet another film set in postwar Germany, called “The Reader.” However, while watching the film, I couldn’t help but realize that, I was drawn more to the girl than the storyline. I don’t know who this young actress is, but she had large, mesmerizing eyes, puffy lips, and long, curly locks. I guess if I were a movie critic, I would say she was probably too pretty for the role of the protagonist, Liesl. However, I think choosing her for the role was right in the fact that she had the power to draw my attention in each and every scene where she appeared. But this fixation I had for the girl, pulled and somehow insulated me from the larger perspective that the story had to offer. The story is actually told from the point of view of an entity which can only be described as an embodiment of death, although it wasn’t really represented as a visible, tangible being, only a disembodied voice. It somehow struck me, that this entity wasn’t exactly death, but something more encompassing and timeless, and I realized what it was—it was actually the universe. If the universe could somehow address humans directly, I guess it would talk in the same manner as how “death” narrated certain events that transpired in the movie. For the nature of the universe is not unlike that of death—it is a point of beginning, of birth. Furthermore, it is encompassing, and ultimately, an eventuality. I guess longing to be one with the universe is quite similar to a longing for the state of death. We do not consider the universe to be alive, thus it is only naturally to associate it with death. It is a non-living entity. The great irony lies in the fact, that, it takes a living, sentient entity, like us humans, to actually come up with a means to describe the death that we all occupy and inhabit. It has been said, and usually, more eloquently, by writers a lot more verbose and descriptive than myself, throughout the ages, that sleep is something like that of a temporary death. We slip into that dark fabric of unconsciousness, and time practically stops for us in the state of sleep, while the rest of the living world continues the clockwork that it constructed for itself, as a means for it to continue its cyclic existence. Today, I woke up during that period of time considered to be the “ungodly hours of predawn.” Try as I might, I couldn’t bring myself to sleep. Thus, I decided to watch one of the movies I downloaded off the web last week. This movie, I believe, is a critically-acclaimed film, that tells the story of a young girl who lived in Germany during the Second World War.

I found the plot of the film to be slightly similar to that of yet another film set in postwar Germany, called “The Reader.” However, while watching the film, I couldn’t help but realize that, I was drawn more to the girl than the storyline. I don’t know who this young actress is, but she had large, mesmerizing eyes, puffy lips, and long, curly locks. I guess if I were a movie critic, I would say she was probably too pretty for the role of the protagonist, Liesl. However, I think choosing her for the role was right in the fact that she had the power to draw my attention in each and every scene where she appeared. But this fixation I had for the girl, pulled and somehow insulated me from the larger perspective that the story had to offer. The story is actually told from the point of view of an entity which can only be described as an embodiment of death, although it wasn’t really represented as a visible, tangible being, only a disembodied voice. It somehow struck me, that this entity wasn’t exactly death, but something more encompassing and timeless, and I realized what it was—it was actually the universe.

If the universe could somehow address humans directly, I guess it would talk in the same manner as how “death” narrated certain events that transpired in the movie. For the nature of the universe is not unlike that of death—it is a point of beginning, of birth. Furthermore, it is encompassing, and ultimately, an eventuality.

I guess longing to be one with the universe is quite similar to a longing for the state of death. We do not consider the universe to be alive, thus it is only naturally to associate it with death. It is a non-living entity. The great irony lies in the fact, that, it takes a living, sentient entity, like us humans, to actually come up with a means to describe the death that we all occupy and inhabit.

It has been said, and usually, more eloquently, by writers a lot more verbose and descriptive than myself, throughout the ages, that sleep is something like that of a temporary death. We slip into that dark fabric of unconsciousness, and time practically stops for us in the state of sleep, while the rest of the living world continues the clockwork that it constructed for itself, as a means for it to continue its cyclic existence. ]]> rodsky https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2313-Random-Thoughts-on-a-Gloomy-Thursday-Morning <![CDATA[What 'Summer' Means In the Philippines]]> https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2302-What-Summer-Means-In-the-Philippines Sun, 02 Feb 2014 08:33:06 GMT NOTE: Before you read this entry, take note that I am only talking about the northern hemisphere here--there's a totally opposite thing going on in the southern hemisphere, below the equator, but to avoid confusion, I shall not mention about that in this entry, so please also don't comment about that fact below, because I shall tackle that specific point in a later entry.

I've fond memories of summer in the Philippines as a child. They were ones filled with long hours of gung-ho bicycle-riding, lazy kite-flying, swimming pool cavorting, reading adventure classics such as Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe, and the Narnia Chronicles. There was the never-ending cartoon watching, both on broadcast television and Betamax. The day would then be topped off and concluded with warm, star-filled nights armed with a pair of binoculars. However, we Filipinos have a difference concept of what 'summertime' is. On first glance, it is virtually identical to the 'summertime' that Americans and Europeans have, beng a time of vacation, a long break from the daily grind of school and work. It is associated with warm weather, blue skies, sunshine and long, lazy days of doing absolutely nothing. That's precisely how we Pinoys also envision summer. But the thing is, the 'Western' concept of summer, which we Filipinos effectively 'borrowed', occurs at a different time frame than ours.

The seasons as defined in the higher latitudes (temperate zones) are known as the 'calendar seasons', namely, Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall/Autumn. These seasons are actually astronomical, in the sense that the climate is affected by the 23° tilt of the earth's axis. From March 21 to June 21, this tilt is towards where the earth came from in its counterclockwise orbit around the sun. Thus when facing the sun, this tilt is towards the 'left' side. But, since the earth is spinning around its axis, it acts like a gyroscope, maintaining this tilt while going around the sun. When it reaches a point when the date is June 21, the axis now effectively leans towards the sun. This means the northern hemisphere of the earth gets more sunshine than the southern hemisphere. And thus, officially, 'summer' begins in the northern hemisphere on June 21 or 22, and NOT on March/April.

However, since we are a tropical country, and not temperate, we do not experience the calendar seasons. For one thing, even towards winter (September 22 to December 21), our latitude is not high enough that it will allow us to experience icing and snowfall. That alone is clearly an indicator that we experience a rather different kind of climate adjustment. We in the tropics experience a 'dry' season (which sometimes is also confusing, because it does still rain from March to September) and a 'wet' season. The dry season in the Philippines roughly begins sometimes as early as February, up to July or August. Then, when September comes, it brings torrential, sometimes all-day-long rains with it (Monsoon), and this lasts until February or March again. The lessening of rainfall after February or March, increases the air and ground temperature in the Philippines, substantially, that it is noticeable and brings discomfort, and thus, this is the moment that makes Filipinos nonchalantly (but erroneously) utter "SUMMER NA!"

So as you can see, we Filipinos have been using the term 'summer' erroneously since forever. But then, when we say 'summer', we are of course not referring to an astronomical season, but rather, we are referring to THAT SEASON of hot, lazy vacation days, which, even though is a good excuse, is still unfortunately wrong. ]]> rodsky https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2302-What-Summer-Means-In-the-Philippines Update https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2297-Update Wed, 22 Jan 2014 13:52:53 GMT Yes, I'm still alive, but really busy down south in Davao City. Considering that I don't live in Cebu City anymore, then I don't really have anything to contribute much to the forum anymore, save for intermittent blog entries about whatnot. However, I still wish to utilize this little corner as part of my toolbox for science advocacy. I've noticed that my entries that are more or less related to science and technology have been getting a good number of views, so I have decided to keep posting more stuff along those lines.

Also, this year, I might be visiting Cebu City again, and stay for about a month there later this year, for some activities and projects related to science education and astronomy. If you want to be a part of those projects, leave me a message. Time frame for these projects is between August-October 2014. ]]> rodsky https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2297-Update Science Facts about the Recent Bohol/Cebu Quake https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2246-Science-Facts-about-the-Recent-Bohol-Cebu-Quake Tue, 15 Oct 2013 10:53:46 GMT
Quote Originally Posted by rodsky View Post
- Technically, the intensity of the tremor in Cebu City itself is NOT 7.2--it was between 5-6 (the closer to Bohol that part of the city is, the higher the intensity). The area that received the highest intensity rating is none other than the epicenter, which was in Bohol island itself. Just want to clarify. If Cebu City was hit by a 7+ intensity quake, you'd see major damage (i.e. toppling of some skyscrapers, like what happened in Baguio in the 1990's) to large buildings due to the low frequency waves, and not just cracked walls/post and/or destroyed balconies and parapets.


- People are also wondering why this building got damaged and then this one didn't. Or, this part of the building got damaged but this part didn't. The usual layman explanation is that the building that got heavily damaged wasn't built well, and that the ones that didn't have damage or had very little damage was built well. Actually, it's not that simple. The damage inflicted by an earthquake on a building depends on a property oscillation and if applied to earthquakes, the term engineers use is resonance.

Resonance is the up-and-down or back-and-forth motion caused by a seismic wave. During an earthquake, buildings oscillate. Not all buildings respond to an earthquake equally. If the frequency of an oscillation is close to the natural frequency of the building, resonance may cause severe damage. How do we define natural frequency? When a force is introduced on a building it will sway within a set time period. If the building has more mass and/or is stiffer (less flexible), then the natural frequency is lower, because the swaying will be lesser. So as a rule, smaller buildings usually have a higher natural frequency. However, there are many kinds of earthquake waves--there are high frequency ones and there are low frequency waves too. Now, imagine a small boat on the ocean. If there are large but slow waves headed towards it, it isn't affected much--this is analogous to a building experiencing low frequency earthquake waves. However if the same boat is battered by smaller waves coming in fast, then it's bound to capsize--this is analogous to smaller but high frequency earthquake waves. Now if it's a large ship, the same smaller but high frequency waves will not affect it much, but the large, slow waves have the potential to capsize the large ship, because the natural frequency of the larger slow waves are "in synch" with the dimensions of the ship.

Now every earthquake has both high and low frequency waves. So if a high frequency waves passes through an area with relatively small buildings, those buildings will experience damage, but the larger ones will not (however, if the large building has smaller appendages that are not built well, like a balcony etc, that balcony can be damaged because it's natural frequency might match the smaller freq waves). But if the area experiences long slow waves, then larger, high rise buildings will sway and can topple.

This is why damage during an earthquake seems random or without pattern, but if you can trace where the high frequence and low frequency passed, you can actually also pinpoint the areas where damage can be high, depending on what kind of buildings are in the area.

- Can earthquakes be predicted? The obvious answer now is, no we can't. But can it happen? Will the practical prediction of earthquakes occur in the future? This is my say.

Earthquakes occur due to shifts in tectonic plates. These plates are sections of earth's crust, "floating" on a sea of semi-solid mantle. The reason why it's difficult to predict when earthquakes will occur or where they will occur, is because we cannot see the stress building up in faults, which are sections where two plates collide or meet. Now think...if there was just a way to follow the flow of convective currents in the earth's mantle beneath these plates, then we can easily compute stress build up per major plate (and subplates). I think this is the reason why a several billion dollar mission is about to take place, to reach the earth's mantle. This mission will attempt to dig deeper than anyone has dug before, to reach the earth's mantle. Perhaps one of the objectives of the mission is to check mantle convective actions and see if there is a way to measure its convective flows. Perhaps this is the key to finally finding a way to predict earthquakes, but this is just a guess on my part. Billion-dollar mission to drill into the Earth's mantle planned (Wired UK)

- If not reinforced via modernization methods (i.e. internal steel bracing, steel trusses etc), old churches will be the most affected structures during quakes, simply because when they were built hundreds of years ago, the engineering methods to build them were still not sophisticated, and thus they are unreinforced. I just hope people didn't flee into a church during such quakes--it would be a disaster. even if reinforced, their building materials (stone) are really too heavy and will eventually collapse due to the weight alone, leaving the "skeletal" structure (the internal steel bracing) the only parts standing. I see this sort of damage to churches now in my FB newsfeed, re reinforced ones.

-RODION
]]> rodsky https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2246-Science-Facts-about-the-Recent-Bohol-Cebu-Quake <![CDATA[Newton Be Your Homie (or How to Enjoy and Appreciate the Movie "Gravity" While Still Grimacing at the Inaccuracies)]]> https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2240-Newton-Be-Your-Homie-%28or-How-to-Enjoy-and-Appreciate-the-Movie-Gravity-While-Still-Grimacing-at-the-Inaccuracies%29 Sun, 06 Oct 2013 08:42:58 GMT First off however, I would like to tell those who haven't seen the film, not to read this entry because obviously, it may spoil the movie for you. That being said, I wish to say that if you don't know anything about the movie, the best thing you can do is not to watch any of the trailers! Really, don't watch them. The trailers alone already somewhat spoiled the movie for me--considering what I know about space exploration and space simulations, watching the trailers practically told me half the story.

For me, the biggest problem in the film has something to do with the proximities or the nearness of objects in low earth orbit (LEO) from each other. At the beginning of the movie, you see the Shuttle-plus-Hubble (the shuttle "Explorer" was fixing the Hubble Space Telescope, so the Hubble was docked to it), and surprisingly, the International Space Station (ISS), and the Chinese Tiangong-1 space station, were in somewhat close proximity of each other. Like, really close, to the point that George Clooney's character Matt, can actually point them out in the distance. Now you might say, "What? You call that close? Why, it took Clooney and Bullock a LONG time to get to the ISS during the first escape scene--that seems pretty far!" Err, nope. That was very, very, very close, in fact, they were so close to each other, that if you were watching those three objects FROM THE GROUND, they would appear as "three tiny moving stars close to each other, crossing the sky".

In reality, objects in LEO usually lie in different orbital planes, meaning, their orbits don't even cross each other, so just seeing them in that situation, from someone who knows orbital mechanics, is downright silly. Imagine orbital paths to be "highways"--most objects up in low earth orbit do not have the same, or do not share the same orbits, which is why our situation of Clooney saying "Now, we have the ISS over there, and the Tiangong over there..." is really silly--the ISS and the Tiangong wouldn't have been visible, let alone be reachable.

Ok the next problem is about the time it takes to do certain procedures or tasks in space. When Sandra Bullock's character, Dr. Stone, enters the airlock in the ISS, it only took a few seconds to get the airlock pressurized, so that she could take off her helmet and her suit. In reality, this repressurization usually takes around an hour (or even more), and it takes two or three people to help someone put on or get out of a spacesuit (Dr. Stone does it alone, and with relative ease). And then, it also takes hours to put on the suit, just to check if all the systems are fully functional, then comfort level and physical condition of the astronaut about to go on a lengthy (up to six hours) EVA or extra vehicular activity. Those who watch live NASA spacewalk feeds already know this fact, and were probably shaking their heads or snickering when they saw this scene in the movie. Another questionable point that is related to time issues--there was absolutely no reason for Clooney's character to refuse a rendezvous-rescue via the Soyuz--his air supply wasn't critical (he only ran out of propellant for his Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), and his rate of separation from the ISS wasn't that high (compared to Dr. Frank Poole's in "2001: A Space Odyssey"...now that one was FAST), so Dr. Stone could have really aimed for a rendezvous vector and she could have gotten to him. The excuse given to us was, Dr. Stone didn't know where he was, because he refused to answer Dr. Stone when she attempted to contact him (I assume he could still hear her, but refused to reveal his coordinates or vector so that Dr. Stone will not attempt to rescue him) which was a little too "lazy" in my opinion.

I can mention two scenes which are copies off some other well-known "space exploration movies". The scene in which George Clooney untethered himself from Sandra Bullock, that scene was straight out of "Mission to Mars", only in that movie, it was Connie Nielsen and Tim Robbins in the same situation. What bothered me about the situation in "Gravity" was why did Matt (Clooney) assume that the parachute cords wouldn't hold? By the time they were in that position, there was already a significant amount of slowdown, so that Dr. Stone could actually have indeed pulled Matt back towards the ISS. Again, another point that made me say "What?"

The other copycat scene? Sandra doing a "WALL-E"--using the fire extinguisher as a means to propel onesself through space--too funny that she did that :) But yes, that procedure CAN actually be done. Newton's third law (for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction).Okay, maybe I am using the term "copycat" in a heavy handed manner. I think the better description is, these scenes were nods to such movies, done to honor those memorable scenes.

Although I enjoyed how the space debris was depicted, I think they were moving far too slow to be believable. We expect them to be travelling at around 28,000 kilometers per hour in low earth orbit--that's around 7.7 kilometers per second--over seven times faster than a bullet!. But even if NASA Mission Control ("houston", voiced by Ed Harris...those who have seen "Apollo 13" would smile, this is another nod) kept saying "24,000 kmh", the speed of the debris could actually be even higher, considering plane-intersecting orbits, and imagining the final (totaled) velocity from the reference point of the structures.

Overheard inside the theater, from a girl on the row in front of us: "Why doesn't she stop spinning?" It's all about Newton's First Law of Motion, which states that an object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. So Dr. Stone kept spinning around when she got detached from the Shuttle and the arm, because there is no external force acting upon her to stop her from spinning. Notice that she only stopped spinning when Clooney managed to drift towards her (remember, he is using an MMU pack, which allows him to "fly" around) and tethers his suit to hers.

Now let's talk about the things I liked about the film.

First, most of the physics depicted in the movie are correct--that is how things behave in space. Some of the people who watched it with me were wondering why the astronauts seemed to have a hard time going around. Well, that's microgravity for you. We human beings are so accustomed to life with gravity (see? see? Hence the movie's title), that without it, we're really 8-month old babies trying desperately to walk, but can only crawl. You see Dr. Stone and Kowalsky trying desperately to literally grasp their surroundings amidst disaster, and they really look helpless as they do it. This for me is important, in conveying to the general public that yes, space exploration IS HARD. This is why it is EXPENSIVE, and this is why WE NEED to KEEP DOING IT, so that we can MASTER it. A baby won't be able to walk if it keeps crawling. At some point, it has to learn to stand up and start walking, even though it will indeed stumble from time to time.

Another thing I liked about the movie is how Cuaron planned the camera movements--it was just simply majestic. I believe his philosophy was this--in space, you cannot have a fixed anchor point for a camera, so you cannot just let a camera appear to be fixed in some point, you have to make the camera dynamic, to convey the impression that space is really the space all around you, and the earth is just one part of that space, a large blue, green and brown ball off one corner of your visual field. So I really was impressed by the cinematography and the angles chosen by Cuaron. One fantastic moment was when the camera actually "penetrated" Dr. Stone's helmet, so we can see the inside of the helmet from her perspective, and then seamlessly the camera pulled back and magically went out of her helmet again. That was superb. And in connection with this helmet dive, the camera sometimes would switch to a highly claustrophobic, nausea-inducing first person view, in which you become Sandra Bullock herself, trying to find handholds, clambering across the superstructure of the the vessel you're trying to get into. Just fantastic.

My favorite part of the movie is towards the end of the film. After re-entry and landing in the water of the Shenzhou, it sank (usually, Russian and Chinese re-entry modules do not land on water--they land on land)! And Sandra Bullock had to swim out of it, get out of her spacesuit and swim towards the surface, and crawled her way back to land (see? Crawling again, the metaphor...and adds to the suspense and thrill of the ending). She was crawling because her body was not yet accustomed to the 1G (one gravity) environment of earth. But she stood up AGAINST gravity, so she can stand tall and proud and walk out of the water. To me, the subliminal message in this scene is, evolution. The hint was the frog that swam up, as seen in the frames after she struggled out of her spacesuit. Her act of emerging on to the dry land, was also a metaphor for the process of how amphibians crawled out of the water millions of years ago, to dry land, and became land dwellers, and eventually led to creatures like us. This ending teared me up--I cried. It's the "Ape With Bone Tool" (in 2001: A Space Odyssey) moment of "Gravity", the shining moment of realization, of where we, humankind come from. She then looks up the sky, not with contempt, but she smiled, knowing that she will explore space again, one day, for all of us, are made of stardust, and we just want to go home, back to the stars. ]]> rodsky https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2240-Newton-Be-Your-Homie-%28or-How-to-Enjoy-and-Appreciate-the-Movie-Gravity-While-Still-Grimacing-at-the-Inaccuracies%29 Am I Any Better at Dealing with Life Now? https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2200-Am-I-Any-Better-at-Dealing-with-Life-Now Tue, 23 Jul 2013 02:17:18 GMT Perhaps people wonder if I have somehow 'changed' my outlook on life, ever since I've been more vocal about my atheism (or 'agnostic atheism' if others want a more 'thin-sliced' version...personally I don't really think there is a major distinction). Actually, not much has changed--I have to admit that haven't really improved much on anything. Despite all that I 'preach' about the scientific method and the power of 'data collection and analysis', I would have to say that I'm a rather poor example of a person who has managed a certain degree of efficiency, effectiveness and skill at 'living'--I find that I am still quite clumsy with certain things or activities. I still make the usual mistakes. I still tend to misread people's intentions at times, and I let my guard down far too often than I would like. And I still suck at math.

Perhaps this is because of the fact that for most of my teenage and adult life, this mindset has always been my 'default state', but instead of having a well-defined and clear cut idea of my open-mindedness, this tendency has always been cluttered and snagged by attempts to 'blend into' society, and trying to 'adapt' to its nuances and norms. However, I am basically, at the core, remain to be the same old me. This 'default state' is mainly the result of having parents who raised their children to be freethinkers, even though they themselves perhaps admitted (indirectly), that they weren't that much of freethinkers themselves. See the difference there? There are people who are not really open-minded, but they still do try to teach open-mindedness to their offspring, perhaps as a means to allow them to adapt better to an ever-changing the world.

Do I ever get lonely? Of course I do. As a human being, I am not devoid of wants or needs. I admit that at most times, I consciously strive to suppress emotion whenever I can, because based on experience, there are times when suppressing emotion can be useful in circumstances that demand your utmost concentration and decision-making (not that decisions I made during those moments were the ideal or right ones). But do know, that I do suffer moments when I feel a lack of empathy, a lack of support, and a lack of warmth--yes, I do get miserable. Perhaps I just like taking pride at being able to weather the doldrum of nothing, and emerging less scarred or less traumatized. But that's precisely why, whenever I take a look back at those moments and see myself ending the day unscathed, there is a moment I can actually smile and even chuckle, and realize I can be happy.

So am I a better human being? Honestly, I don't really think much has changed. But, that is not an excuse to stop trying to be better. ]]> rodsky https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2200-Am-I-Any-Better-at-Dealing-with-Life-Now Back in the Saddle https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2112-Back-in-the-Saddle Tue, 12 Mar 2013 15:15:20 GMT After almost nine years of not riding bicycles, I'm now getting back into road cycling. I'll be blogging and/or photo-blogging about my road/mountain bike adventures in and around Davao City (and perhaps soon, even Cebu City).

To help me plot my bike courses and trails around Davao, I recently installed an Android app called MapMyRide (http://www.mapmyride.com) into my Sony Xperia S. With it, I can share my routes...



...and also show videos (recorded via Google Earth) of the areas I recently biked in. Here's an example of one such video, a short 13 kilometer ride from Plantacion Solariega in Puan, to SM City Davao, and back:



Well, looks like that piece of Facebook video embedding code actually worked. :)

More stuff soon, stay tuned. ;)

-RODION ]]> rodsky https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2112-Back-in-the-Saddle Untitled #2 https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2086-Untitled-2 Wed, 06 Feb 2013 18:01:08 GMT It's truly ironic that most people who adopt the "No Fear" slogan or mantra, are actually spiritual or religious. True fearlessness is accepting a universe that has no intent, no purpose, and no grand design by some great designer, and GETTING ALONG FINE WITH THAT IDEA, and not terrified that there is absolutely no meaning to life.

Not that I am declaring that I'm fearless--I fear a lot of things, but then, in a way, fear is a HEALTHY thing--it is a natural mechanism, an innate ability to trigger certain impulses or actions to hopefully allow someone to overcome obstacles, threats that can effectively shorten your existence. The fear that I talk about however, is of a different level and scale--it is about a fear that encompasses the very nature of being--being scared that everything will fall into utter chaos once everyone realizes that there is no grand design in existence at all.

Well, admittedly perhaps if all people were stupid, I'd have to agree that it's a frightening situation indeed--the fear that everyone will discard morality and effectively try to get at each other's throats. But me of all pessimists still is surprisingly optimistic that not all people are stupid--the smart ones actually FULLY accept an existence with NO grand design, and are quite happy with it. These people believe that a universe without design is not necessarily a universe without morals, but a universe that has morals guided by logic and reason and the pleasure of finding out how things work, in small, baby steps. These people are called Humanists. I don't necessarily categorize myself as a humanist, yet, but perhaps one day someone else will consider me as such, if I indeed fulfill the character traits of such an individual.

I am, as always, just content to accept that there is no grand design and no grand designer, and always eager and joyful at having the pleasure to find out about how things work, every once and a while. ]]> rodsky https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2086-Untitled-2 Why We Need a National Space Agency https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2070-Why-We-Need-a-National-Space-Agency Sat, 26 Jan 2013 14:08:27 GMT (long overdue blog entry but found time to post it here now. This now appears as an article at PATAS.CO, Why We Need a National Space Agency? | Philippine Atheists and Agnostics Society (PATAS). The entire text is actually too long to post here as a blog entry, so I will only post an excerpt. You can read the entire article via the link)
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The mid-1990’s arrived and with it, a new need that would be demanded of from the academe—capable and qualified registered nurses, for deployment overseas. And once again, like the previous computer and IT education boom, all over the Philippines, the new phenomenon swept schools and institutions — universities and colleges felt a need to open (or beef up their existing) health sciences departments and colleges, to serve the needs of a multitude of young men and women who were adamant to become nurses due to the “demand” for nurses and equivalent or related health services abroad.
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Looking back at all this, it seems that our local educational institutions are practicing some kind of “knee-jerk” reaction to the demands of the learning (or degree-wanting) public—there seems to be a kind of “11th hour” style hodge-podge pooling of academic resources to somehow come up with offerings that would be deemed “competitive” to the course offerings of educational institutions abroad. I would imagine that these last-minute efforts could have sometimes ended up with institutions and schools coming up with mediocre or ill-contrived programs that perhaps lack certain standardization protocols, such that they don’t effectively serve the needs of the learners well. This in turn could have led to actually jeopardizing their chances of graduates securing jobs related to the courses they took. This in effect, I believe led also to the beefing up of accreditation schemes and efforts which I observe were heavily implemented also during this period of our country’s educational history.


Now all of these wouldn’t really be much of a problem if elementary and high schools around the country also had undergone some kind of standardization process. I have to admit that I’m not much familiar with a history of the Philippine Department of Education’s efforts on standardizing elementary and high school education in the country, to really have a concrete say on the matter, but I am sure you are familiar with what I’m talking about when discussing about education standards in both elementary and high school, especially comparing public and private schools. It made one wonder if back then, an average Filipino high school graduate had a good chance of passing a college entrance exam, and then actually getting the course they wanted once they enrolled in local colleges and universities, esp. if their courses of interest lie in the two aforementioned fields (IT and nursing).
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So how do we begin this effort? Although the obvious initial steps the country could make is to prepare its schools and institutions by beefing up science and engineering courses even further, there are also other ways that doesn’t have to directly involve the academe. One of these ideas is a nationwide campaign for the popularization of space travel and space exploration.
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Already, several departments in distinguished Philippine universities plus private groups and individuals have already begun efforts on this avenue, even without prior motivation from the national government, primarily due to the fact that the people involved in these efforts are passionate about astronomy and space exploration. Dr. Rogel Mari Sese (standing center, photo above), the designated Focal Person for the Philippine Space Science Education Program, already has begun efforts in advocating thrusts in education towards appreciation and greater understanding of space science and space exploration, that would hopefully lead to papers and research projects that would focus on these fields. He has appeared on national television in several talk shows, showcasing basic concepts in physics and rocketry, for public awareness and in the hopes of getting young people interested in this field. This kind of popularization is along the lines of what I envision to be a sort of “reprogramming” of certain aspects of local media, especially of government TV and radio stations.


On October 10, 2007, Expedition 16 of the International Space Station launched via the Soyuz TMA-11, and with it, Malaysia’s first astronaut, Sheik Muszaphar Shukor. Shukor is a medical doctor (and part time ramp model), and one of four finalists in Malaysia’s national search for their first astronaut, done in the style of “Pinoy Big Brother”. The candidates were part of the Malaysian Ankasawan (spaceman) Program, designed to select the country’s first ever astronaut, a project spearheaded by the Malaysian National Space Agency (ANKASA). Shukor spent 10 days aboard the ISS, performing various experiments, including studying the growth of liver cancer and leukemia cells, and also conducted goodwill interviews in the aim of boosting interest in space sciences in his home country. I believe it would be refreshing to see a kind of TV programming that would aim to select the best and brightest that our country can have, instead of just the populace choosing people based on looks, talent and popularity on national television.

By boosting public awareness in space travel and space sciences, it is hoped that parents therefore, wouldn’t discourage their children in terms of selecting a college course after graduating from high school. I feel that perhaps, in our country, there had too many of the instances wherein a high school graduate who had a longing to pursue physics, engineering or even astronomy and astronomy-related courses, but were discouraged by their parents, the reason being that the courses he/she should enroll in are those that would provide a better chance of landing a job that is considered “in demand” at the time, i.e. in the field of computers, nursing, or marketing/communication (i.e. call center jobs), for a better and more stable economic future. I envision therefore, a series of national public awareness campaigns aimed specifically to de-myth the notion that astronomy or space-related sciences are “useless” or “economically unattractive”.
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[img]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rU8-ISeVITw/UNfnygAGZUI/AAAAAAAABv4/pDdGU4H8R28*******2+custer+deocaris.JPG[/img]
Now, if there are now indeed “baby steps” in the pursuit of popularizing space sciences in the country, such as those being spearheaded by Dr. Sese, what more if our other competent professionals in these related fields joined forces to promote the cause, and actually politicize the aim to put up a body that would be at the center of all these efforts? Good thing, the story of the struggle to put up a national body aimed at promoting the space sciences isn’t new. I was told by Philippine astronomer Bamm Gabriana that the space movement in the Philippines started sometime in 2005 and 2007. Dr. Edgardo Aban (now teaching at the Universiti Brunei Darussalam) organized the National Congress on Space Technology Applications and Research (NC-STAR). They made feasibility studies on making our own satellites and starting a space agency. Unfortunately, considering that at the time there was still very little reason and cause for such a body, the movement didn’t get the necessary funding and the effort fizzled. However, only very recently was the advocacy revived when Dr. Custer Deocaris (pictured above), the country’s only astrobiologist (Ph.D. in Chemistry & Biotechnology from Tokyo University), met Dr. Aban. Together they drafted a bill creating the space agency and submitted it to Rep. Angelo Palmones. House Bill 6725, to be known as the Philippine Space Act, was filed on Dec. 3, 2012 and got First Reading on Dec. 5, 2012.
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So what are the key benefits to an initial effort in these fields? First and foremost, as Filipino amateur astronomer Armando Lee put it, “Science is the candle that lights up the darkness of ignorance.” The initial efforts should be tied up with arming the general populace with basic scientific concepts and principles aimed at improving public awareness of events such as natural disasters (i.e earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and typhoons), so as to improve their reaction and coping levels to such calamities that constantly plague our country. Hand in hand to this effort is the hope that the public therefore will realize how valuable science knowhow is, and thus be the first steps towards freeing their minds of mysticism and backward traditionalist thinking that is ungrounded and unscientific. I believe with space sciences as the beacon leading the thousand lights that aim to bring light and banish ignorance among our countrymen, the men and women of science in this country will be armed and equipped and inspired to carry the flame of reason and freethinking across our country.

The questions we need to ask, are we indeed ready for this challenge, are you willing to support the effort in coming up with a Philippine National Space Agency and contribute something to attain the goal?

We need this country to become interested in space exploration, and I believe the time to act is now.

-RODION ]]> rodsky https://www.istorya.net/forums/entry.php?2070-Why-We-Need-a-National-Space-Agency