THE BEST OF MANNY PACQUIAO VIDEO

OF BOXING, FISTICUFFS, AND BEATING PEOPLE UP INTO A PULP

My first experience with “boxing” came at a very young age, with my elder brother.   Two other older siblings would set us up for a fisticuff for their own amusement and we would oblige for it seemed a boy should learn how to fight as his first lesson in life, or he would grow up a sissy.  Two years older and bigger, my brother would always beat the pulp out of me and I would spend hours afterward grieving about the blatant injustice of a mismatch.   Once, I lost a tooth from a mean straight, I cried the whole day for the prospect of growing up bungi.   I was such a loser.  Perhaps, it explains my ambivalence as a grownup for boxing as a sport.  How could anyone bear the roaring applause that comes at the expense of one beaten black and blue, I often think to myself.

Yet, how could you not cheer for someone like Manny Pacquiao as with most of humanity?  The sheer artistry.   The gladiator dance.  The pure wizardry of a warrior inside the ring.  The brute force…  of a fist that come barreling down on the foe’s face and body that digs in through like a crow bar, or  a cannonball in slomo smashing on a jaw, followed by a twisting and  a shattering, you almost wish to hear a crackling sound of a skull exploding, brain tissues splattering all over and eyes popping out of their sockets, blood and saliva in delirious mix on a swirl.   Ummm, such primal ecstacy! it’s almost fucking orgasmic! Give it more, give some more, you yell on top of your lungs, until at last a body lay there convulsing on the canvass.

The savage beast and the gentle man in us: such a wonder how two diametrically opposed natures reside in one body.

Of course, in our own delirium, we forget, one day soon the hero will have his turn too on the low on the spinning wheel of fortune, when comes his turn as well to be smashed into smithereens by his better, when the wild, rapturous cheering switches on the other side and we take our turn at mourning.

One advice please:  slow down on using Pacquiao as model or inspiration for the children.  Young minds tend to pick up the wrong lesson from the rubble.   If one day your teenage kid, whom you want to become a doctor or engineer, tells you, “I’m quitting school, Dad.  I wanna be a boxer!”, do not be horrified.

YOUNG BEATLES

Before they changed the world: George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney.  Where’s Ringo?

Original image from beatlesource.com

via Wired

NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE: A DOCUMENTARY

Here’s a BBC documentary on the controversial subject Near-Death Experience or NDE.

part 2,   part 3,   part 4,    part 5,    part 6

MANNY PACQUIAO ON TIME MAGAZINE

BROWNOUT!!!

Portent of things to come in a Noynoy presidency?
I’m wicked!

GOOGLE EARTH NUMBERS AND ALPHABET

From the Flickr photostream of Thomas de Bruin.

Via boingoing.com

YOUTUBE’S GREATEST HITS

9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB?

The attack on the World Trade Center alone was unimaginably diabolical enough.   But add getting the sense that authorities in government themselves were part of the conspiracy, you need changing your definition of evil.

Watch this, make your judgment.

Related post:  Nine Eleven and the World Trade Center

TYPHOON ONDOY: VIEWS FROM ABOVE

NASA 3D map shows Typhoon Ondoy as it batters Manila.

The red areas are where the rains were heaviest.

After the rains…

Image from the Big Picture

HEROES

Heroes of the flood. Great souls.

For the people of Sta. Monica in Novaliches, this Quezon City judge on a Jet Ski who plucked dozens of residents from swirling flood waters on Saturday is “Superman.”

“I was so shocked by the situation when I heard that around 150 houses were already flooded,” said Judge Ralph Lee of Regional Trial Court Branch 83.

“I heard that so many families were already stranded on their rooftops because water from the Tullahan River was already overflowing,” Lee, 49, told the Inquirer.

Lee drove from his Fairview home for the stricken community 30 minutes away with his personal water craft, life vests and two rubber boats he used on weekend wakeboarding sorties and mobilized a rescue effort that saved 100 lives.

There were other super heroes, like Muelmar Magallanes, a powerful swimmer who braved rampaging floods to save more than 30 people, but ended up sacrificing his life in a last trip to rescue a baby girl who was being swept away on a styrofoam box.

Family members and people whom Magallanes saved hailed on Monday the 18-year-old construction worker a hero, as his body lay in a coffin at a makeshift evacuation center near their destroyed riverside village in Quezon City.

“I am going to be forever grateful to Muelmar. He gave his life for my baby. I will never forget his sacrifice,” said Menchie Peñalosa, the mother of the 6-month-old girl whom he carried to safety before being swept away himself.

From 4 p.m. to midnight, Judge Lee combed the neighborhood 10 feet under water for trapped residents, each time loading at least three people on his machine and taking them to a bakery on high ground at the Palmera 4 subdivision, where his rescue effort was centered.

He personally took 32 people, mostly women and children, to safety.

“It probably took me around 20 plus trips to do that,” Judge Lee said.

“In the evening, the residents were able to help me rescue more people when the rubber boats came … We had no light except a flashlight provided by a homeowner,” he added.

With his son Ram and other homeowners, the effort brought some 100 people to safer ground.

Hero in his own right

Judge Lee recalled that at one point, the current was so strong that the Jet Ski flipped over, sending him and his passengers into the water.

“Luckily, I was able to get on my feet and turn it over again. Sometimes debris and trash would jam the Jet Ski and it would stop functioning,” Lee said, adding that he had to clean it out several times.

“They applauded later. One even called me ‘Superman,’” he said. “I was so carried away by the very sad situation. I could have probably saved more if the Jet Ski’s propeller didn’t get clogged, but I’m happy that I’ve done something.”

Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. called the judge “a hero in his own right.”

“He really sprang into action and got the residents moving to save their neighbors,” said the Quezon City mayor.

Trapped on rooftops

Magallanes was at home in Barangay Bagong Silangan on Saturday with his family when the heaviest rains in more than 40 years hit Metro Manila.

At first the family, long used to heavy rains, paid little attention to the storm.

But Magallanes and his father quickly decided to evacuate the family once they realized the river 800 meters away had burst its banks.

With the help of an older brother, Magallanes tied a string around his waist and attached it one-by-one to his three younger siblings, whom he took to higher ground. Then he came back for his parents.

But Magallanes, a strong swimmer, decided to go back for neighbors trapped on rooftops.

He ended up making many trips, and eventually saved more than 30 people from drowning, witnesses and survivors said.

One last rescue

Tired and shivering, Magallanes was back on higher ground with his family when he heard Peñalosa screaming as she and her baby were being swept away on the styrofoam box they were using in an attempt to cross the swift currents.

He dived back in after the mother and daughter, who were already a few meters away and bobbing precariously among the debris floating on the brown water.

“I didn’t know that the current was so strong. In an instant, I was under water. We were going to die,” Peñalosa said, her eyes welling with tears and voice choking with emotion.

“Then this man came from nowhere and grabbed us. He took us to where the other neighbors were, and then he was gone,” Peñalosa said.

She and other witnesses said an exhausted Magallanes was simply washed away amid the torrent of water.

Incredibly brave

Neighbors found his body on Sunday, along with 28 others who perished in the flooding.

Standing next to his coffin, Magallanes’ parents paid tribute to their son.

“He always had a good heart,” said his father, Samuel.

His mother, Maria Luz, wept as she described her son as incredibly brave.

“He saved so many people, but ended up not being able to save himself.”

IMMORTALITY IN 20 YEARS?

Should I get excited?

Human immortality  could be as close as twenty years away, says scientist Ray Kurzweil.

“I and many other scientists now believe that in around 20 years we will have the means to reprogramme our bodies’ stone-age software so we can halt, then reverse, ageing. Then nanotechnology will let us live for ever.”Ultimately, nanobots will replace blood cells and do their work thousands of times more effectively.

“Within 25 years we will be able to do an Olympic sprint for 15 minutes without taking a breath, or go scuba-diving for four hours without oxygen.

“Heart-attack victims – who haven’t taken advantage of widely available bionic hearts – will calmly drive to the doctors for a minor operation as their blood bots keep them alive.

“Nanotechnology will extend our mental capacities to such an extent we will be able to write books within minutes.

“If we want to go into virtual-reality mode, nanobots will shut down brain signals and take us wherever we want to go. Virtual sex will become commonplace. And in our daily lives, hologram like figures will pop in our brain to explain what is happening.

“So we can look forward to a world where humans become cyborgs, with artificial limbs and organs.”

Image from www.cyberartsweb.com

BEST NOVELS

Time Magazine’s 100 best novels of all time.

UNDERSTANDING MEN

Got this from Malaya’s Dahli Aspillera, a guide for understanding men.

These are guy rules!

Please note…these are all deliberately numbered “1.”

1. Men are NOT mind readers.

1. Learn to work the toilet seat. You’re a big girl. If  it’s up, put it down. We need it up, you need it down. You don’t hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

1. Sunday sports.  It’s like the full moon or the changing of the tides.  Let it be.

1. Crying is blackmail.

1. Ask for what you want. Let us be clear on this one: Subtle hints do not work! Strong hints do not work! Obvious hints do not work! Just say it!

1. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

1. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That’s what we do.  Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument.In fact, all comments become null and void after 7 days.

1. If you think you’re fat, you probably are. Don’t ask us.

1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one.

1. You can either ask us to do something. Or tell us how you want it done.  Not both. If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

1. Whenever possible, Please say whatever you have to say during commercials.

1. Christopher Columbus did NOT need directions and neither do we.

1. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not a color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

1. If it itches, it will be scratched.  We do that.

1. If we ask what is wrong and you say “nothing,”  we will act like nothing’s wrong.  We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.

1. If you ask a question you don’t want an answer to, expect an answer you don’t want to hear.

1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine… really.

1. Don’t ask us what we’re thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as baseball, or golf.

1. You have enough clothes.

1. You have too many shoes.

1. I am in shape. Round IS a shape!

1. Thank you for reading this.  Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight; but did you know men really don’t mind that? It’s like camping.

(Thanks, Ms. Dahli!)

CONFESSIONS OF A SUICIDE SURVIVOR

“Dead is just a four-letter word.”

A NAUGHTY YOUTUBE

I loved to draw as a kid.   I grew up a pervert.  No wonder I get drawn to videos like this.

KRIS AND BONGBONG

I came across this interesting encounter between scions of political arch-enemies, Marcos and Ninoy, by accident.  Obviously an old video several years back but can’t situate what year this was.

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

AHA! SO THIS IS HOW THEY BUILD SKYSCRAPERS

Have always been baffled by how they manage to build those tall buildings. I had my education on this animation.

AMAZING CROP CIRCLES

Crop circles are a big mystery.   Man-made hoaxes or messages from out there, they make excellent design ideas for carpets, tattoos, T-shirts, tapestry, even company logos.

Part 2

Part 3

THIS BOY LIVED BEFORE?

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

POVERTY IN THE PHILIPPINES (IN MUSIC VIDEO)

GIANT CARNIVOROUS PLANTS OF THE PHILIPPINES

A new species of giant carnivorous plant has been discovered in the highlands of the central Philippines.

The pitcher plant is among the largest of all pitchers and is so big that it can catch rats as well as insects in its leafy trap.

Link.

WE EAT AND DRINK, YOU PAY!

via ellentordesillas.com

FAREWELL, PRESIDENT CORY!

YAHOO! NO MORE

Yahoo! is selling out to Microsoft finally, reports Businessweek.

The battle for supremacy between Google and Microsoft is heating up fast. I am partial for Google. I don’t know why.

THE GHOST OF AN AIRPORT IS BACK

The horrible ghost of the Naia Terminal 3 is back to haunt the pickpockets.

Why do I feel extremely delighted?

I remember I have an old related post.

(via ellentordesillas.com.  Thanks Tongue!)

WAR ON DRUGS, AGAIN?

A reported kidnap and rape of a drug agent’s daughter has sparked outrage and re-ignited calls for an all-out war against drugs— again.  Turned out, the report was wrong.    So now, the expected bloodbath resulting from another full-scale confrontation between law enforcers and the armed forces of the underground is put on hold yet until the next flare up.

It’s not new:  impassioned law enforcers promising total wipe out of all the agents of  the trade backed up by an outraged citizenry and a furious government.   Lightning arrests sure to follow, dozens dead in dark alleys and more in far away places in days, confiscations and seizures, executions…Then the lull– as usual.  Until the next outbreak.   Like a gangster movie played, replayed, rewritten, reconstructed, replayed over and over again and again, same beginning, plot and ending.  See what do we have:  a trade even more vigorous and much more prosperous than ever before.  It’s like the industry itself loves the periodic bloodletting, the blood of some of its own its very nourishment.

When shall we learn to face the reality that the war on drugs is totally wasted?!

BARACK OBAMA UP CLOSE

US President Barack Obama by The Big Picture.

A UFO DOCUMENTARY

“I Know What I Saw” is a  film documentary on the controversial topic UFO.  The director assembled the most credible witnesses from around the globe to reveal their accounts at the National Press Club in Washington.

Watch the trailer.

IT IS WAR: WINDOWS VS. CHROME

Tech giants Google and Microsoft are headed for a major collision with the launching of Google Chrome OS in an open challenge to Windows OS.