Friday, July 3, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Smile, Smile, Smile, Smile
What happens when you smile and when you not?
Click on the colored link
Monday, June 22, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
What is that?
Gee, life can be simple and complicated.
But it can be over-come by what is quite familiar with us. Watch the 5-minutes film.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Weird festivals
A middle age man jumping over lines of infants?
Snorkeling in a bog?
Toe wrestlinng?
Weird festivals.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Thomas Friedman and the Middle East
Read his analysis on the Middle East and the electoral behavior. Read how celphones, Facebook, electronic technology now available to young people are shaping the events towards democracy.
Be a follower of this blog.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Words to live by
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Your job would not take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You do not have to win every argument. Agree to disagree..
7. Cry with someone. It is more healing than crying alone.
8. It is OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it would not screw up the present.
12. It is OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Do not compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you should not be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But do not worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that is not useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever does not kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It is never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, do not take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Do not save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Do not wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Do not take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or did not do.
35. Do not audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's,we'd grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
42. The best is yet to come.
43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
44. Yield.
45. Life is not tied with a bow, but it is still a gift."
Remember that I will always share my spoon with you!
Friends are the family that we choose for ourselves.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
Statistics to make you smile
He takes on the HIV situation in the global scenario and showed statistical visuals to provide meaning on how a phenomena like HIV can be understood.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Kaki King gives music to the world.
English our second language
This is a TED video clip.
Debunking myths
This is a TED video clip.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Chicken-a-la-carte
Click here: Chicken-a-la-carte
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Web and Semantics
Developers are moving from syntax recognition to semantics, the meaning dimension of the words. In the future computers will be taught to read through the words and create meaning.
The implication of this is that search engines are more adept in searching articles you want to read. This has also implications on other areas of development like travel, sports, lifestyles and other aspects of human activities.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Electric cars
I am hoping that electric cars will prove to be a success and will be accessible to common people.
Slapping women is OK - Judge
Saudi judge: It's OK to slap spendthrift wives
By Mohammed Jamjoom
CNN
(CNN) -- Husbands are allowed to slap their wives if they spend lavishly, a Saudi judge said recently during a seminar on domestic violence, Saudi media reported Sunday.
It is OK to slap Saudi women who spend too much, a judge has told an audience.
Arab News, a Saudi English-language daily newspaper based in Riyadh, reported that Judge Hamad Al-Razine said that "if a person gives SR 1,200 [$320] to his wife and she spends 900 riyals [$240] to purchase an abaya [the black cover that women in Saudi Arabia must wear] from a brand shop and if her husband slaps her on the face as a reaction to her action, she deserves that punishment."
Women in the audience immediately and loudly protested Al-Razine's statement, and were shocked to learn the remarks came from a judge, the newspaper reported.
Arab News reported that Al-Razine made his remark as he was attempting to explain why incidents of domestic violence had increased in Saudi Arabia. He said that women and men shared responsibility, but added that "nobody puts even a fraction of blame" on women, the newspaper said.
Al-Razine "also pointed out that women's indecent behavior and use of offensive words against their husbands were some of the reasons for domestic violence in the country," it added.
Domestic violence, which used to be a taboo subject in the conservative kingdom, has become a hot topic in recent years. Groups like the National Family Safety Program have campaigned to educate the public about the problem and help prevent domestic abuse.
Saudi women's rights activist Wajeha Al-Huwaider told CNN that Saudi women routinely face such attitudes.
"This is how men in Saudi Arabia see women," she said in a telephone interview from the Saudi city of Dahran. "It's not something they read in a book or learned from a friend. They've been raised to see women this way, that they're less than a person."
Al-Huwaider added that "I'm not surprised to see a judge or a religious man saying that - they've been raised in the same culture - a culture that tells them it's ok to raise your hand to a woman that this works."
Another Saudi judge, in the city of Onaiza, was the source of a separate recent controversy: he twice denied a request from the mother of an 8-year-old girl that the girl be granted a divorce from her 47-year-old husband.
Last month, after human-groups condemned the union, the girl was granted the divorce.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Pope tells the miss-use of religion
Friday, May 8, 2009
Hunger, Food, Obesity
Author also claims that the FDA food pyramid is also causing obesity in the land of the plenty.
Click on link.
Link between Education and Health
Click link for full article.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Rethinking Boxing
It's about the pain in boxing. Matthew Syed wrote an incisive critique on the pain, on the image of Hatton's girlfriend.
True we were not the one on the canvass, it was Hatton.
The money will flow for both fighters and their associates and the media.
But where has civilization been going when we see these things? Can we separate the enjoyment of those Romans when this group called Christians as they find themselves standing on the dreadful sands of the coliseum? Are we different?
After the fight, are we better humans? Was it able to lift the human condition?
Rethinking China
To some it is a mix of First, Second and Third world.
To official pronouncements it is still a developing country.
Click on link.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Financial Crisis, Explanation
Monday, April 27, 2009
Who are the Pastafarians
And what is the "Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monsters?"
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Radicals and Housing
Read.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Where are the Moldovan youth?
I think that is a question that you should now be answering.
Recently, violence erupted at the capital city wherein it was led by thousands of young people against the communist government. It started with a blog "I am not a communist". Young people used Facebook and Twitter.
The article tells a lot of perception and mis-perception. And the youth should be listened to not just in Moldova but around the world.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Good in math but poor in history
Cartoons and freedom to express.
The 73-year got tired of hiding. Read his reflection.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Greed and Stupidity
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Slydini - Magician
Click on colored link of the one below.
http://cavett.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/conjuring-slydini/?scp=1&sq=slydini&st=cse
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Praying and saving a plane
Click on link for whole article.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
Using words and license
He immediately apologized for this remark but it fuelled more discussion about using the word.
Click on colored link for the full article.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Epidural Hematoma
Click on the colored link.
Head injury
Article on colored link tells us about head injuries that seem to be "ok" but not "ok" at all.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Trials, Mistrials and the Web.
As Jurors Turn to Web, Mistrials Are Popping Up
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
NEW YORK TIMES Published: March 17, 2009
Last week, a juror in a big federal drug trial in Florida admitted to the judge that he had been doing research on the case on the Internet, directly violating the judge’s instructions and centuries of legal rules. But when the judge questioned the rest of the jury, he got an even bigger shock.
Eight other jurors had been doing the same thing. The federal judge, William J. Zloch, had no choice but to declare a mistrial, a waste of eight weeks of work by federal prosecutors and defense lawyers.
“We were stunned,” said a defense lawyer, Peter Raben, who was told by the jury that he had been on the verge of winning the case. “It’s the first time modern technology struck us in that fashion, and it hit us right over the head.”
It might be called a Google mistrial. The use of BlackBerrys and iPhones by jurors gathering and sending out information about cases is wreaking havoc on trials around the country, upending deliberations and infuriating judges.
Last week, a building products company asked an Arkansas court to overturn a $12.6 million judgment, claiming that a juror used Twitter to send updates during the civil trial.
And on Monday, defense lawyers in the federal corruption trial of a former Pennsylvania state senator, Vincent J. Fumo, demanded before the verdict that the judge declare a mistrial because a juror posted updates on the case on Twitter and Facebook. The juror had even told his readers that a “big announcement” was coming on Monday. But the judge decided to let the deliberations continue, and the jury found Mr. Fumo guilty. His lawyers plan to use the Internet postings as grounds for appeal.
Jurors are not supposed to seek information outside of the courtroom. They are required to reach a verdict based on only the facts the judge has decided are admissible, and they are not supposed to see evidence that has been excluded as prejudicial. But now, using their cellphones, they can look up the name of a defendant on the Web or examine an intersection using Google Maps, violating the legal system’s complex rules of evidence. They can also tell their friends what is happening in the jury room, though they are supposed to keep their opinions and deliberations secret.
A juror on a lunch or bathroom break can find out many details about a case. Wikipedia can help explain the technology underlying a patent claim or medical condition, Google Maps can show how long it might take to drive from Point A to Point B, and news sites can write about a criminal defendant, his lawyers or expert witnesses.
“It’s really impossible to control it,” said Douglas L. Keene, president of the American Society of Trial Consultants.
Judges have long amended their habitual warning about seeking outside information during trials to include Internet searches. But with the Internet now as close as a juror’s pocket, the risk has grown more immediate — and instinctual. Attorneys have begun to check the blogs and Web sites of prospective jurors.
Mr. Keene said jurors might think they were helping, not hurting, by digging deeper. “There are people who feel they can’t serve justice if they don’t find the answers to certain questions,” he said.
But the rules of evidence, developed over hundreds of years of jurisprudence, are there to ensure that the facts that go before a jury have been subjected to scrutiny and challenge from both sides, said Olin Guy Wellborn III, a law professor at the University of Texas.
“That’s the beauty of the adversary system,” said Professor Wellborn, co-author of a handbook on evidence law. “You lose all that when the jurors go out on their own.”
There appears to be no official tally of cases disrupted by Internet research, but with the increasing adoption of Web technology in cellphones, the numbers are sure to grow. Some courts are beginning to restrict the use of cellphones by jurors within the courthouse, even confiscating them during the day, but a majority do not, Mr. Keene said. And computer use at home, of course, is not restricted unless a jury is sequestered.
In the Florida case that resulted in a mistrial, Mr. Raben spent nearly eight weeks fighting charges that his client had illegally sold prescription drugs through Internet pharmacies. The arguments were completed and the jury was deliberating when one juror contacted the judge to say another had admitted to her that he had done outside research on the case over the Internet.
The judge questioned the juror about his research, which included evidence that the judge had specifically excluded. Mr. Raben recalls thinking that if the juror had not broadly communicated his information with the rest of the jury, the trial could continue and the eight weeks would not be wasted. “We can just kick this juror off and go,” he said.
But then the judge found that eight other jurors had done the same thing — conducting Google searches on the lawyers and the defendant, looking up news articles about the case, checking definitions on Wikipedia and searching for evidence that had been specifically excluded by the judge. One juror, asked by the judge about the research, said, “Well, I was curious,” according to Mr. Raben. “It was a heartbreak,” Mr. Raben added.
Information flowing out of the jury box can be nearly as much trouble as the information flowing in; jurors accustomed to posting regular updates on their day-to-day experiences and thoughts can find themselves on a collision course with the law.
In the Arkansas case, Stoam Holdings, the company trying to overturn the $12.6 million judgment, said a juror, Johnathan Powell, had sent Twitter messages during the trial. Mr. Powell’s messages included “oh and nobody buy Stoam. Its bad mojo and they’ll probably cease to Exist, now that their wallet is 12m lighter” and “So Johnathan, what did you do today? Oh nothing really, I just gave away TWELVE MILLION DOLLARS of somebody else’s money.”
Mr. Powell, 29, the manager of a one-hour photo booth at a Wal-Mart in Fayetteville, Ark., insisted in an interview that he had not sent any substantive messages about the case until the verdict had been delivered and he was released from his obligation not to discuss the case. “I was done when I mentioned the trial at all,” he said. “They’re welcome to pull my phone records.”
But juror research is a more troublesome issue than sending Twitter messages or blogging, Mr. Keene said, and it raises new issues for judges in giving instructions.
“It’s important that they don’t know what’s excluded, and it’s important that they don’t know why it’s excluded,” Mr. Keene said. The court cannot even give a full explanation to jurors about research — say, to tell them what not to look for — so instructions are usually delivered as blanket admonitions, he said.
The technological landscape has changed so much that today’s judge, Mr. Keene said, “has to explain why this is crucial, and not just go through boilerplate instructions.” And, he said, enforcement goes beyond what the judge can do, pointing out that “it’s up to Juror 11 to make sure Juror 12 stays in line.”
It does not always work out that way. Seth A. McDowell, a data support specialist who lives in Albuquerque and works for a financial advising firm, said he was serving on a jury last year when another juror admitted running a Google search on the defendant, even though she acknowledged that she was not supposed to do so. She said she did not find anything, Mr. McDowell said.
Mr. McDowell, 35, said he thought about telling the judge, but decided against it. None of the other jurors did, either. Now, he said, after a bit of soul-searching, he feels he may have made the wrong choice. But he remains somewhat torn.
“I don’t know,” he said. “If everybody did the right thing, the trial, which took two days, would have gone on for another bazillion years.”
Mr. McDowell said he planned to attend law school in the fall.
______________________________
Atty. Sonny Pulgar
Katataspulong - http://www.sonnypulgar.com
Unconventional school
Please click on the colored link.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
The Party and a culture that stays.
Click on the colored link for the full article.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Cops in pay of killers gets life.
The two cops were partners in receiving pays from the gang.
Click on the link for the article.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Welcome Darwin, Welcome Vatican
Trying to find a common ground on evolution and creation?
Click on colored to link and read details.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Lots of unsold cars
Toyota has decided to cut down production. Good for Toyoto for now, but how about if they decide to lay off workers? Not good.
Click on colored link to see those cars.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
What is Xenophobia?
Is this a case of xenophobia?
Click on the colored link and read the whole article.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Friendliest countries.
Click colored link and read the article.
Elderly, New working class, out of jobs
Read on colored link.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Elk Feeding creates a debate
Follow the colored link to land on the article.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Aging and financial crisis in NY
Click on colored link for the article.
Speed in looking for "God Particle"
Sunday, February 15, 2009
100 Billion earths!
Please clik on colored link for the article.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Losing the Pope
It was a time when Pope Benedict welcome back Bishop Williamson who denied that the holocaust (Shoah) never happened.
Click on the colored link for the full article.
Pope and the Jews
Click on the colored link for the article.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Charles Darwin leading
Colored link will lead you to the article. Click on it.
Obama calls Wallstreet bonuses shameful
In the Philippines, Intel has laid off 1,600 employees. Where are they going to get the next meal?
Thousands more will be going on the same line.
Read the discussion. Click on colored link.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Who will you write for?
Evidence is coming out that there are more writers than readers.
Click on colored to lead you to article.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Science rightful place
The word science again was sparked in the speech of Barack Obama last 20 January.
Obama wants "to restore science in its rightful place."
Where would that be in our society?
Click on the colored link
What life asks of us
As I read it through, it was like a very good piece on institutional behavior in which my students will be reading. Well, I think It is more than that. It gives a penetrating energy that infiltrates the sinews of our muscles. It confronts us with who we are in the first place.
Click on the colored link.
Monday, January 26, 2009
University without walls.
He continued that Universities and teachers have to evolve given the present state of technology.
Click on the link to lead you to the article.