My 2009 in Five Chapters

Chapter 1 

I run into a narrow path under tall trees and thick vines in a vaguely familiar forest. I don’t know what lies ahead but I still keep on running and come to a deep ravine. I fall in; I feel lost – helpless, my judgment became clouded by my foolishness. I feel it will take forever to find my way out. But I feel it is not my fault. I believe I just did the right thing.

Chapter II

I run into the same narrow path under tall trees and thick vines in a vaguely familiar forest. I still keep on running and come to a deep ravine. I pretend I do not see it, and fall in again. I hate myself for being on that same place. I can’t believe I did it again. It will be a long time again to get out. But I feel it is not my responsibility.

Chapter III 

I walk into the same narrow path under tall trees and thick vines in a vaguely familiar forest. I see the deep ravine ahead – but I still fall in. I realize it becomes a habit. I take caution and now my eyes are open. I now know where I am. I get out immediately and take full responsibility.

Chapter IV

I walk down the same path under tall tress and thick vines in a vaguely familiar forest and come to a deep ravine ahead. I walk around it.

Chapter V

I’m looking for another path.     

Here and There - Sudden Wisdom on a Hell Day

While trying to finish my usual 2-page To-Do list today, I suddenly stopped, gave a deep frustrated sigh, stared at all the papers in front of me, and thought of quitting... yes, resigning from this job... I don't know but I'm contemplating on this idea for almost a week now.

Like a choreographed emo moment, the next song played by my player was "I Will Get There" by Boyz II Men...

I will get there, 
I will get there somehow, 
Cross that river, 
Nothing's stoppin' me now, 
I will get through the night, 
And make it through to the other side

But...

How can I be sure that "there" is a better place than "here." I know myself, when my "there" has become a "here", I will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here."

Ahhhhh, hell day it is!

__________________
Image Source: Kamicarus by Egil Paulsen

Yodz Guide To Interpreting Profile Photo on Social Networking Sites

Do you have a photo of your dog as your profile pic on Facebook, Friendster or Multiply? What about a picture of you and your ex-girlfriend or ex-boyfriend? One buddy I went to college with has an image of his penis (that is what he says) as his profile pic. Every time my female college classmates see it, it weirds them out.

Some believe that having a profile picture… a good profile picture… is one of the most important aspects of online surfing or Facebook profile.

However, I do always think that a profile is not as important as your first approach message… but it is a key element if you are selling yourself (looking for relationship or sex online.)

I don’t know what a lot of netizens think when a “no-face” tries to talk to them on the internet without a picture? Maybe they are thinking… Wow, what a creep. What’s he/she got to hide? He/She probably looks like a disgusting mutant. Gross! Even worse… they might also think you’re just down-right unconfident and insecure.

But, are the impressions of those strangers important? 

So what kind of pictures should I be using?

The study entitled “Is Your Profile Picture Worth 1000 Words? Photo Characteristics Associated with Personality Impression Agreement,” explored the characteristics of the profile photographs and their association with impression agreement. It concludes that the more information the photos contained about the personality of the profile owners, the higher the impression agreement from zero-acquaintance visitors. Profile photos of a human being rather than an animal or non-human object were associated with higher impression agreement. Impression agreement was also higher when the photos revealed facial features (such as smiling) and hairstyles (not obscured by hats), which have been shown in past research to be used appropriately to gauge Extraversion and Agreeableness in strangers (Zebrowitz and Collins 1997).

By the way, here is a supposed-to-be guide for interpreting the profile pictures of your unknown "friends" in Myspace, Facebook, Friendster, etc.

EXAMPLE	PHOTO TYPE	WHAT THEY WANT YOU TO THINK	THE TRUTH
	BLURRY	Artistic	Has acne, possibly mustache if female, nearsighted, cross-eyed.
	ANIME	Eccentric, possibly Japanese	Computer geek, Can't leave childhood
	Holding some sort of alcoholic beverage	Funny, laid back	There was never been a photograph taken of them where they weren't holding an alcoholic beverage
	Very closely cropped	Enigmatic	Fat
	Jamming on Guitar	He's in a popular band and rocks out all the time	Unemployed
	Close-up breasts	Sexy and Naughty	Fat
	Face at strange, usually downward angle	Eccentric possibly super model	Ugly; this is the only good picture of them ever taken
	Dark brooding	Doesn't care	Dangerous, possibly a pirate or a terrorist
	Cartoon character, such as Tweety Bird or Bugs Bunny	Cute, playful	Immature, probably fat or ugly
	Guy with beard sitting on couch	Sits on a couch a lot, has a beard	Sits on a couch a lot, has a beard

Sand and Stone

A story tells that two friends were walking through the desert. During some of the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one face.

The one who got slappedwas hurt, but without saying anything, wrote the sand: “TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE.”

They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one, who had been slapped, got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but friend saved him. After the friend recovered from the near drowning, he wrote a stone: “TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE.”

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, “After I hurt you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?” The other friend replied:

“When someone hurts us, we should write it down in where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it.”

Wealth, Success or Love?

A woman came out of her house and saw 3 old men with long white beards sitting in her front yard.

She did not recognize them.

She said "I don't think I know you, but you must be hungry. Please come in and have something to eat."

"Is the man of the house home?" they asked.

"No", she replied. "He's out."

"Then we cannot come in", they replied.

In the evening when her husband came home, she told him what had happened.

"Go tell them I am home and invite them in!"

The woman went out and invited the men in.

"We do not go into a house together," they replied.

"Why is that?" she asked.

One of the old men explained: "His name is Wealth," he said pointing to one of his friends, and said pointing to another one, "He is Success, and I am Love." Then he added, "Now go in and discuss with your husband which one of us you want in your home."

The woman went in and told her husband what was said.

Her husband was overjoyed. "How nice!!" he said. "Since that's the case, let's invite  Wealth. Let him come and fill our home with wealth!"

His wife disagreed. "My dear, why don't we invite Success?"

Their daughter was listening from the other corner of the house. She jumped in with her own suggestion: "Would it not be better to invite Love? Our home will then be filled with love!"

"Let us heed our daughter's advice," said the husband to his wife.

"Go out and invite Love to be our guest."

The woman went out and asked the 3 old men, "Which one of you is Love? Please come in and be our guest."

Love got up and started walking toward the house. The other 2 also got up and followed him. Surprised, the lady asked Wealth and Success: "I only invited Love, why are you coming in?"

The old men replied together: "If you had invited Wealth or Success, the other two of us would've stayed out, but since you invited Love, wherever he goes, we go with him. Wherever there is Love, there is also Wealth and Success!"

Ten Stupid Things Men Do To Mess Up Their Lives

While reading the book "10 Stupid Things Men Do To Mess Up Their Lives" by Dr. Laura Schlessinger, I received these cute pictures via forwarded e-mail entitled "Why Men Need Parents"

I was about to write a short book note for posting here and thought that these pictures are worth sharing together with the short summary of the book.

Would you agree with these?

1. STUPID CHIVALRY.

    By getting involved with the wrong woman (weak, flaky, damaged, needy, desperate, stupid, untrustworthy, immature, etc.) you think that your love will save/transform her.

 2. STUPID INDEPENDENCE 

     Unwilling to admit “need” for bonding and intimacy, you hide in excesses of work, play, drink, drugs, porn, and meaningless sex. 

3. STUPID AMBITION 

    Unable to comfortably and proudly accept your inherent importance to society and family as husband and father, you bow to the false idols of money, toys, power and status.

4. STUPID STRENGTH  

   Uncomfortable with feeling weak, vulnerable, useless, powerless, or rejected,you use intimidation, force, or passive-aggressiveness to regain control.

 5. STUPID SEX 

     Taking an attraction, opportunity, or erection as a “sign,” you measure your masculinity and power by sexual conquests, infidelities, and orgasms. 

 

 6. STUPID MATRIMONY 

      Lacking a mature sense of the purpose, meaning, or value of marriage, you realize too late you’ve gone down the aisle with the wrong woman for the wrong reasons and feel helpless to “fix it."

 

 7. STUPID HUSBANDING 

     Thinking that marriage is the honorable discharge from loving courtship, you continue to live as thought you were single and your “mommy-wife” will take care of everything else.

 

 8. STUPID PARENTING 

     Believing that only women/mothers nurture children, you withdraw from hands-on parenting to assert your masculine importance, missing out on the true “soul food” of a child’s hug. 

9. STUPID BOYISHNESS 

    Having not yet worked out a comfortable emotional and social understanding with your mother, you form relationships with women that become geared to avenge, resolve, or protect you from your ties to Mommy. 

 

  10. STUPID MACHISMO 

         Understanding the true and meaningful difference between being male and a man, you can become a man.

_______________________________ 

Summarized & Compiled by Yodz Insigne

Source: Schlessinger, Laura, "10 Stupid Things Men Do To Mess Up Their Lives" New York:Harper Collins, 2002.

Image Source:  via forwarded e-mail (if you own the above pictures Contact Yodz for image deletion request or proper source citation)

Warning:Browsing Yahoo Answers can cause Semi-Deep Thoughts Syndrome

To kill my terrible boredom today, I tried searching for some weird stuff using google but it’s just returning junk search results – maybe because I was searching for weird stuff.

Then this question caught my attention “Are there any blind optometrists? Can I sell fire extinguishers in hell?” – It caught my attention because I’m the one who posted this question in Yahoo Answers during one of my bored-to-death-days.   

Yes, I admit, I am guilty of posting crazy questions in Yahoo Answers – because I get crazy answers and it’s fun. To my surprise, I am not the only one doing this. Yahoo Answers has lots of unanswerable, nonsensical, illogical yet funny questions.

While browsing I came across these probing questions, which makes me smile:

WARNING:You should not attempt to do scientific research to answer these questions - semi-deep thoughts syndrome can cause silliness!

• What do we say to God when he sneezes?
• How many Americans are currently frozen in the hope of one day coming back to life?
• What is the percentage of nuts do squirrels lose because they forget where they put them?
• Why do frogs keep trying to cross the road after seeing what happened to their buddies when they tried?
• Where does the fat go when someone loses 30 lbs?
• In what type of container is Styrofoam shipped?
• Who hears the Pope confession?
• Did bald eagles ever have hair?
• Why did Kamikaze pilots wear helmets?
• Is there a split between mind and body, and, if so, which is better to have?
  

After reading these questions I felt this semi-deep thoughts swirling in my head - I actually like it because it effectively killed my boredom.

Any answer to these questions? 
Any probing question you want to share in the comments section?

By the way, if there are semi-deep thought questions, there are also semi-deep thought best answers. Check this out:

Q. Name the four seasons
A. Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar

 

Q. Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to drink
A. Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it removes large  pollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists

Q. How is dew formed
A. The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire

Q. What causes the tides in the oceans
A. The tides are a fight between the earth and the moon. All water tends to flow towards the moon, because there is no water on the moon, and nature abhors a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins the fight

Q. What guarantees may a mortgage company insist on
A. If you are buying a house they will insist that you are well endowed

Q. In a democratic society, how important are elections
A. Very important. Sex can only happen when a male gets an election

Q. What are steroids
A. Things for keeping carpets still on the stairs

Q. What happens to your body as you age
A. When you get old, so do your bowels and you get intercontinental

 

Q. What happens to a boy when he reaches puberty
A. He says goodbye to his boyhood and looks forward to his adultery         

Q Name a major disease associated with cigarettes
A. Premature death

 

Q. What is artificial insemination
A. When the farmer does it to the bull instead of the cow

Q. How can you delay milk turning sour
A. Keep it in the cow                                    (Simple, but brilliant)

Q. How are the main 20 parts of the body categorised (e.G. The abdomen)
A. The body is consisted into 3 parts – the brainium, the borax and the abdominal cavity. The brainium contains the brain, the borax contains the heart and lungs and the abdominal cavity contains the five bowels: A, E, I, O and U                        

Q.. What is the fibula?
A. A small lie

Q. What does ‘varicose’ mean?
A. Nearby

 

Q. What is the most common form of birth control
A. Most people prevent contraception by wearing a condominium  

Q. Give the meaning of the term ‘Caesarean section’
A. The caesarean section is a district in Rome

 

Q. What is a seizure?
A. A Roman Emperor.        (Julius Seizure, I came, I saw, I had a fit)

Q. What is a terminal illness
A. When you are sick at the airport.     

Q. Give an example of a fungus. What is a characteristic feature?
A. Mushrooms. They always grow in damp places and they look like umbrellas

 

Q. Use the word ‘judicious’ in a sentence to show you understand its meaning
A. Hands that judicious can be soft as your face.                

Q. What does the word ‘benign’ mean?
A. Benign is what you will be after you be eight

 

Q. What is a turbine?
A. Something an Arab or Shreik wears on his head

BRILLIANT! BRILLLIANT! 

Starting Today, Be Afraid that Your Life Will Never Begin

As I go on with this crazy life, I learned that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let me down probably will.

I had my heart broken more than once and it's harder every time. I learn to break hearts too – only to regret it because it always reminds me how it felt when mine was broken.

I fight with my friends. I blame a new relationship for things an old one did.

I can’t understand why time is passing too fast: I'll eventually lose someone I love.

So, starting today, I will take too many pictures, I will blog too much, I will laugh too much, and love like I’ve never been hurt because every sixty seconds I spend upset is a minute of happiness I'll never get back.

To those who are taking time reading my posts, don’t commit the mistakes I did.

Don't be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin.

What will you do if someone throw shits on you?

Maybe you already came across this story, but I like to share it here anyway and add a few comments.

The story goes like this:

One day a farmer's donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do.

Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn't worth it to retrieve the donkey.

He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement he quieted down.

A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up.

As the farmer's neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up.

Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!

They say this is the moral of the story:

People love shoveling dirt on us, all kinds of dirty stuff. The trick: shake it off and take a step up – make each trouble a steppingstone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.

But of course, if they throw shits on you, you just cannot shake it off and step on it. 

Now here’s my own version of the story’s ending

The donkey later came back, and bit the farmer who had tried to bury him. The gash from the bite got infected and the farmer eventually died in agony from septic shock.

The true moral of the story:

When you do something wrong, and try to cover your ass, it always comes back to bite you.

I want to hear your own story or any thoughts on how you deal with those who loves throwing dirty stuff on you – hope you didn’t bite them!

Illuminated By Blindness

There was a blind girl who hated herself because she was blind. She hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He was always there for her. She told her boyfriend, “If I could only see the world, I will marry you.”

One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her. When the bandages came off, she was able to see everything, including her boyfriend.

He asked her, “Now that you can see the world, will you marry me?” The girl looked at her boyfriend and saw that he was blind. The sight of his closed eyelids shocked her. She hadn’t expected that. The thought of looking at them the rest of her life led her to refuse to marry him.

Her boyfriend left in tears and days later had a note sent to her saying, “Take good care of your eyes, my dear, for before they were yours, they were mine.”

This is often how our human nature works when our status changes. Only a very few remember what life was like before, and who was always by their side in the most painful situations.

Life is a gift.
Today, before you say an unkind word, think of someone who can’t speak.
Before you complain about the taste of your food, think of someone who has nothing to eat.
Before you complain about your husband or wife, think of someone who’s crying out to God for a companion.
Today, before you complain about life, think of those who may have died before their time.
Before whining about the distance you drive, think of those who walk the same distance on foot.
When you are tired and complain about your job, think of the unemployed, the disabled, and those who wish they had your job.
And, when depressing thoughts seem to get you down, put a smile on your face and think: you’re alive and still around for a reason.

What Happens to I.T. Professionals After They Die

Death is one those subjects we tend not to like talking about, however it still comes to us all in the end. Most people believe in the importance of graves for mourning and remembrance. A headstone, tombstone, or gravestone is always used as a marker, normally carved from stone, placed over or next to the site of a burial in a cemetery or elsewhere. Sometimes it is not only a marker but also carries the personality of the person buried under it.

It starts with a geek coffin

Then the tombstones, which haven’t changed much over the last few centuries and I think these geek ideas of tombstones are cool: 

The Networking Expert

The Programmer

 

The Web Designer

The Blogger

 

And of course, the DIGITAL TOMBSTONE

 

The digital tombstone has a built in weather proof LCD screen which is activated via an infra red sensor when a mourner stops in front of the grave. The screen could then play a history of the deceased life or a recording of the memorial service. It’s not often that gadgets help the grieving process but I do feel that this one could.

Thinking about it, I had an idea about an online virtual graveyard where relatives even when far apart could mourn together yet enjoy watching the life that once was. 

 

Of course we already have e-Burol, a pioneering program by St. Peter Memorial Chapels, which is an online viewing facility that is specifically designed and created to  allow families  and  relatives abroad to participate in the wake  of  a  deceased loved one minus the cost of traveling to where the remains lie.

I’m now waiting for the first wi-fi tombstone where you can watch in the car if it’s raining.

Unto Dust Returnest: How You Want Your Body Disposed

I know this is morbid but I’m just curious what others want done with their bodies after they die. Naturally, we don’t have any control on how our body will be disposed by our family or relatives. However, what if you are lucky to have your final wish – a specific instruction on how they will disposed your body without any legal, religious and cultural hindrance.

Let me give you some ideas:

1. Let the Tomb Raiders find you   

Have your remains be entombed or buried. This is very common and traditional – you will have your mausoleum, a cross and an angel and a nice R.I.P. sign with your name on it. If you are rich maybe the tomb raiders will try to desecrate your tomb – so don’t forget those nasty curse.

Useful curses you might consider:

• A donkey shall violate him, a donkey shall violate his wife -- (Deir el-Bahri Graffito No. 11, Dyn. 20)
• A child be within you forever unborn!--Irish curse
• May the fleas of a thousand camels lodge in your armpit.--Arab curse
• May your life be filled with lawyers!--Mexican curse
• May every day of it be wet for ye.--Saint Patrick of Oreland
• He should have a large store, and whatever people ask for he shouldn’t have, and what he does have shouldn’t be requested.--Yiddish curse
  

Of course you can always make your custom-made and era-appropriate curse like “May all your files be infected by all kinds of viruses and all your social networking sites, blogs and e-mails be deleted -- yodz curse.” 

2. Sail Away! Sail Away!

Burial At Sea. The tradition of burial at sea is an ancient one. As far as anyone knows this has been a practice as long as people have gone to sea. In earlier times, the body was sewn into a weighted shroud, usually sailcloth. The body was then sent over the side, usually with an appropriate religious ceremony. Many burials at sea took place as recently as World War II when naval forces operated at sea for weeks, and months at a time. Since World War II many service members, veterans, and family members have chosen to be buried at sea.

3. Become a Space Dust

Space Burial. A burial procedure in which a small sample of the cremated ashes of the deceased are placed in a capsule the size of a tube of lipstick and are launched into space using a rocket. Or you can have your ashes buried in the moon like Dr. Eugene Merle Shoemaker

4. Farewell by Fire

Cremation. Under the 1917 Code of Canon Law, there were penal provisions for people who asked to have their body cremated, or for anyone who ordered the cremation of a body, including being denied a Christian burial and blessing. But in 1963, shortly after the Vatican II or the period of intense study and renewal of its teachings and practices, the Catholic Church “determined that cremation was no longer absolutely forbidden.” What this meant was that the restrictions and penalties of the 1917 Code would only apply “when it was certain that cremation was chosen because of the denial of Christian dogmas, or because of a sectarian spirit, or through hatred of the Christian religion and the Church.

In the New Code of Canon Law (1983) these prohibitions was lifted, as well as the penalties, as it states “The Church earnestly recommends that the pious custom of burial be retained; but it does not forbid cremation, unless it is chosen for reasons which are contrary to Church teachings.”

So, for the devout Catholics out there, no more guilt if you choose this one.

5. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice be Beetleized

Part of “natural burial” movement or green burial common for ecology-minded scientists. It is a shallow burial in a forest where the body could be recycled by nature’s most commonplace undertakers mainly burial beetles. 


6. Freeze me before going to hell!

Promession is another ecologically-conscious method for disposing of human remains by freeze drying. It was invented and patented in 1999 by the Swedish biologist Susanne Wiigh-Mäsak. It is achieved by submerging the body in liquid nitrogen, making the remains so brittle that they shatter into a powder as the result of slight vibrations.

7. Chop Chop your Body

Organ Donation.  If you want to live in somebody else’s body, or save a life then you might consider organ donation. You will not need your body anyway, not unless if you believe you will not be resurrected if your body parts are scattered.       

8. In the name of Science

Body Donation. Your body can still be useful even after your death. You can donate it to a university and science laboratory for medical research and education. Your body will be useful for understanding the human body and for advancing science.
 
9. Become a tourist attraction

Preserve your body in a refrigerated crypt for viewing like the dictator Ferdinand Marcos. However, this requires you to be famous or have done something of historical value before you die – it doesn’t matter if it is heroic or evil, as long as it captures world’s attention.

If your name only appears on Facebook then just consider being beetleized.   

10. Your body as a scandalous work of art

Have your body preserve in a process called plastination and be part of the “Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies.” Plastination is a technique used in anatomy to preserve bodies or body parts invented by Dr. Gunther von Hagens. The water and fat are replaced by certain plastics, yielding specimens that can be touched, do not smell or decay, and even retain most properties of the original sample

I am considering cremation for myself, my ashes to be scattered in the sea during sunset (I personally think that’s poetic.)

YOU?

Researched & compiled by yodz insigne

With Great Blog Comes Great Responsibility

This December, world leaders are meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark to draft a new global climate treaty - one that has the potential to turn the tide on global warming and get our planet back on a brighter path.

The problem:
Most world leaders, their negotiators and businessmen aren't getting it. They’re not planning to do enough to avert the climate crisis.

My little contribution

Aside from participating in the Blog Action Day, I am also supporting the International Day of Climate Action organized by 350.org and the Copenhagen Seal the Deal Campaign.   

I know as a blogger, I can help in raising awareness about this important issue. I am not able to attend direct action activities of Greenpeace due to hectic schedule (sorry guys!), so I’m just writing related posts to draw new people into this global grassroots movement and somehow help change the course of climate history.   

A personal experience

  

This is also my personal response to what happened to our house due to typhoon “Ondoy.” Climate change affects us all. 

I strongly believe that that disaster is climate related. 

More frequent floods, storms, landslides and earthquake affect thousands of Filipino’s lives. They are blaming the dams, the clogged waterways, corruption and lack of political will. Yes, they maybe right and even if we are lucky to solve this problems we are still facing Climate Change, the greatest threat which can instantly undo what we achieved.

Blogger’s Power

I believe awareness is power! I encourage all bloggers, especially those with great and famous blogs, that it is of high importance that we inform the world, Seal the Deal in Copenhagen this year. 

Let’s show them our power to wire a truly global awareness campaign – because Mother Earth is our responsibility.

____________________________________________


Post Addendum : as of 23 October 2009

Quick Facts: UN Climate Change Conference-Copenhagen

As per request of my reader Rishi and DMJapan, I am adding these quick facts to this post for an overview of what the Copenhagen Deal is. Thanks also to PeenkFrik for the first comment.

The Convention and the Protocol

Over a decade ago, most countries joined an international treaty -- the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) -- to begin to consider what can be done to reduce global warming and to cope with whatever temperature increases are inevitable. More recently, a number of nations approved an addition to the treaty: the Kyoto Protocol, which has more powerful (and legally binding) measures.

World leaders have called for a comprehensive, ambitious and fair international climate change deal to be clinched at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 15) in Copenhagen, 7-18 December 2009.

The process leading to Copenhagen was launched in Bali, December 2007, when all Parties agreed on the Bali Action Plan - a two-year process leading to an agreed outcome on climate change action in Copenhagen.

Agreement Essentials

Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in an interview with Environment & Energy Publishing (E&E), clarifies that the four essentials calling for an international agreement in Copenhagen are:

1. How much are the industrialized countries willing to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases?
 
2. How much are major developing countries such as China and India willing to do to limit the growth of their emissions?
 
3. How is the help needed by developing countries to engage in reducing their emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change going to be financed?
 
4. How is that money going to be managed?

This new climate treaty will be replacing the Kyoto Protocol, which was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005.

They need pressure

We can now see that it will be a political thriller on an international scale, and it is not sure whether a future agreement can be reached.

That is why we can now see a lot of actions and campaigns around the world, including bloggers, launching an awareness campaign to tell their own leaders, businessmen and politicians to support and participate in the Copenhagen Conference.

What we can do is to put pressure to our leaders for them to participate, act and sign a new fair treaty. 

Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes: Notes on the Spears of God

In the early decades of the twenty-first century, the most commonly held truth is that knowledge is power. Yet a select few men and women begin to suspect what few will admit: we know nothing at all.

The world’s oil resources have dwindled. The rich are turning richer and the power-mongers are becoming more powerful. China and the United States dominate the globe in a geopolitical chess match. The human mind has merged with the cybergrid, yet the human race seems not to have evolved much at all.

Then, on a remote South American mountain, two scientists stumble on a grisly scene. Here, while trying to protect an ancient sacred rock, a primitive tribe has been slaughtered. No witnesses remain to reveal what could have inspired such carnage. Or so it would seem.

In the international arena, meanwhile, a new global race is on: a weapon capable of tipping the balance of power is discovered. Among the competitors are a National Security Agency director who is playing at an elaborate doublecross within his own agency and a vengeance-seeking Israeli meteor hunter. Shamans and zealots, geniuses and madmen–all seek to unlock mysteries that fell to earth millennia ago. But the key lies with four mute children who may unwittingly hold the secret to the planet’s survival–or its destruction.

Summary

Latin America features ecological "islands" called "tepuis," jungle realms so isolated from their neighbors that evolution proceeds in unique ways. In one such pocket biosphere lives a tribe called the Mawari. They are possessed of a strange meteorite that fell to Earth generations ago. This worshipped object carried biological agents that infected the Mawari and gave them strange mental powers. Now, their existence made known to outsiders, the tribe will become the focus of the First World's greed. But what the Westerners don't realize is that by breaking the isolation of the Mawari they are infecting the whole world with the germs of a potential apocalypse (or salvation, if the two can even be distinguished).

Central to the fate of the Mawari are two scientists, Michael Miskulin and Susan Yamada. They are on an expedition to the region, backed by the finances of Miskulin's rich uncle, Paul Larkin. When they arrive, they find all the adult Mawaris slaughtered and only four children left in hiding. The scientists bring the orphan children back to America and the refuge of Larkin's home.

It eventuates that the slaughter was engineered by one Gen. Retticker, who is in charge of a military project to create the perfect soldier. He wants to reverse-engineer the mental powers of the Mawari for his own uses, and has his own pet scientist, Darla Pittman, in his employ. Darla doesn't know about the genocide necessary to secure her a certain meteorite sample, and she goes to work eagerly.

But Retticker's strings are being pulled in turn by a weird cabal: Doctor Vang, leader of a conspiracy to boost mankind onto a new evolutionary plateau, and his associates, evangelist George Otis and adventurer Victor Fremdkunst. This cabal plans to trigger the End Times by stoking war in the Middle East. And the last major player is Jim Brescoll, head of the NSA, who has his own designs on the Mawari survivors.

But the wild card is that the four Mawari children—Alii, Aubrey, Ebu and Ka-dalun—have plugged into the global infosphere and are about to start pulling cosmic strings of their own.


MY THOUGHTS AND PERSONAL OPINION 

The truth behind the fiction

Technology has always been an important factor in war. The latest breakthroughs within bio and nanotechnology is being converted and transferred for defense purposes. The shift from dependence on military hardware to dependence on scientists show the diffusion of military power.

Today’s military strategy is heavily based on reconnaissance, surveillance and earth observation systems fed into pattern recognition systems that scan for military movements or troop enforcement.

Moreover, human body is now being used for weaponization. Bionic implants enhancing physical strengths shows great potential in biodesign soldier systems. Robotic retinas and “listening boosters” could give extrasensory powers. Bioengineering human tissue for extra strength, nanomedicine or genetheraphy that increase key vital soldier parameters.

The future of biotechnology and the use of human body for weaponization blurs the line between hard science and science fiction.


War and the future generation

War is a regrettable attribute of the international system. While it is not always inevitable, its frequency has caused states to remain armed and ready to defend national interests. Technology has played a leading role in extending the scope of the battlefield as well as its scale.

While we may not be able to totally banish war as an instrument of state policy, new influences may move us in directions which will allow us to limit and control – perhaps even to avert unnecessary violence and death as a result of state actions.

In all these research to enhance human capabilities, and the never-ending search for defense advancement, new opportunities arise for every nation to capture, to incorporate significant new military capabilities

How we respond to these new technologies will have profound effect on how we will see the future and how far we will evolve, and what its legacy will be for future generations.

Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes : Who will guard the guards?

We are now standing at the threshold of an era, which will see the introduction of a new class of weapons and technologies – those designed primarily for destruction and greater lethality. The adoption of these new capabilities will mark not just the beginning of a new technological revolution in warfare, but also a new era in the elaboration and clarification of war.

National defense is a must for every nation – to protect its territories, and to implement law and order in their respective nation.

The use of human body for weaponization - bionic implants enhancing physical strengths (biodesign soldier systems), robotic retinas and “listening boosters” for extrasensory powers, bioengineering human tissue for extra strength, nanomedicine or genetheraphy – means that technology is making us less human.

We must wake up. To restore the glory and purpose of creation. To make all humanity see the need to plan for the long-term survival of our species. To rouse us from our drive to self-destruction.

The question before us then is : Do we have the power to adopt not only to these new systems but to control and regulate their use for the purpose of long-term human survival and not for human extinction.

I leave you this question, Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?

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My book notes and personal opinion about technology and war. Submitted as part of the requirements in MIT – 502, Technological Change, Master in Information Technology under Prof. Enrico R. Hilario.

Book Citation:

Hendrix, Howard V. Spears of God. Del Rey Books:New York, 2006

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