Brook Lopez with his back to the basket

Merry Christmas boys and girls!

I have for you this year, a compilation from the November 30 Nets/Knicks game of what happened every time Brook Lopez got a touch with his back to the basket. 

More lies from my youth

If you used a fundamentalist Christian textbook in your high school science class, chances are it will have pointed out how stupid scientists are by the fact that a fish they though was extinct and was in the fossil record was still found alive today. That fish of course is the coelacanth.

Upon reading this, I could immediately relate to this chunk of text:

 I've mentioned before that I went to fundamentalist Baptist high school. My first introduction to the Coelacanth was through a heavily biased (and flawed) biology texbook from Bob Jones University, which (to the best of my memory) described the Coelacanth as a "living fossil" and took that description literally. Evolution couldn't possibly be real, I was told, because here was this Coelacanth, utterly unchanged 65 million years (air quotes implied) after it was supposed to be extinct. If evolution were real, why would it ignore the Coelacanth?

The truth: It didn't. What Courtenay-Latimer found wasn't a fleshed-out, swimming fossil at all. Coelacanth isn't a single species. It's an order—comprising multiple extinct species, and two living ones. The living Coelacanths aren't the same as the fossil Coelacanths, and there's nothing that looks exactly like a living Coelacanth in the fossil record. The order survived. But it didn't survive untouched by evolution.

Kids, I don't care what anyone says to you; be informed and find things out for yourselves.

The Daily Links

• The Kung Fu Panda 2 teaser
• There is so much prejudice against wearing a stocking on your head
• Simon Pegg and Nick Frost reunite once again for Paul
• Logo redesigns of 2010
• Demi Lovato following in the footsteps of Lindsay Lohan
• Tron meets Ron Jeremy
• In China, barrier hurdle you!

Why we should increase the price of the MRT/LRT

A lot of hubbub has been made about proposed increases of the fares of the MRT and LRT. I never understood it. Does no one realize how criminally low our current fares are?

What My Christmas Wishlist Looks Like

Now that Thanksgiving is over and we are definitely in the Christmas season, here's a peek into the things I want this holiday season. I understand this is quite vain, but whatever, this is how I get my thoughts organized.

In no particular order:

A Microplane zester

Quite possibly the best zester and fine grater your money will buy. It's no replacement for a standard box grater, but for quick grating jobs, taking this out will be much more convenient than hauling out the box.

The KFC Double Down

I couldn't believe it, but the KFC double down has actually made it to Manila!

I have just finished eating it and I have to say, it is definitely the single saltiest thing I have ever eaten in my entire life. I seriously could not eat that entire thing alone. It's fried chicken, bacon, and cheese. But lost in all of the shock from the double down is that it actually tastes good. It'll kill you, but it tastes good. The thing here is to not treat it as a sandwich, but treat it as an ulam. In our case, get an order of rice to eat with it; as well as a buddy to eat it with, because you'll be needing it.

At the end of the day, the KFC double down is what it is, a horrifying yet tasty publicity move. It gets 2 stars out of 5 in my book.

A Beka Books and Pensacola Christian College: The Truth

If you studied in Grace Christian High School (now Grace Christian College), your textbooks would have undoubtedly been by A Beka Books. And if you ever looked at your books in detail, you would remember the name Pensacola Christian College (PCC), in Pensacola, Florida. But what do we really know about A Beka Books and PCC?

Well today you're going to find out.

I'm Talking Scorched Earth

I write a second post in two days today because of the sheer idiocy of some people. Please read this article to see what I am talking about. In her feature article entitled, "No Winnie, Filipinos who go overseas are not traitors", Dr. Joy Marcaida attempts to rebuff Winnie Monsod's lecture to her students that leaving the country is traitorous, but only accomplishes to show that she did not understand at all what Prof. Monsod was talking about. Details after the jump.

Winnie Monsod: The Chuck Norris of Common Sense

I'm back! Finally, the semester is over and I have some time that is not occupied by a incoming deadline. Without further ado, the post:

By now, you've no doubt heard of or viewed the video of Winnie Monsod addressing her class on their last meeting. If not, YOU HAVE TO! Here's the video:



As a former student of Prof. Monsod, I've listened to one of those last meeting lectures first hand. As a fan of common sense, I've watched her analysis on QTV for certain government issues. If there's one thing to like about her, she makes understanding things seem so easy. It is a joy to watch her videos because they make so much sense. It's like a explosion of common sense in your mind mixed with disbelief that everyone else isn't understanding it. A few of her gems after the jump.

The Best Cake in Town

For my entire 21 years of existence, I have tasted a lot of cakes. There have been good ones and bad ones, but there has only been one constant - Hizon's mocha cake. More after the jump.

Rumor - bad, Ramen - good

As I lustily imagined myself with a heaping bowl of instant noodle soup (with an egg added in, of course) from the stall beside the uni's main library, that thought inevitably entered my mind. The thought that you always think about before eating instant noodles.

"I can't keep eating instant noodles, I'll die of cancer!"

We all have this drilled into our heads by over-protective mothers who say that the chemicals in the noodles will kill us. After I got home, I realized that I was a 21 year old guy with a high speed internet connection. I have the collective knowledge of the entire human race at my fingertips. I must find out if any of this is actually true. Findings after the jump.

The Philippines and the Chinese Mestizo

Hostilities have recently been going on between the Philippines and Hong Kong over the Mendoza hostage taking. Protests have been made, people have been condemned, websites have been hacked, old issues like Filipinos killed in Tiananmen Square brought back up. And some people have the audacity to bring a racial undertone to the whole thing. Which is mystifying to me since the Chinese mestizo was as much a part of creating the Filipino nation as any Filipino.

Some of the most prominent people in the history of the Philippines had Chinese blood running through their veins.

Sergio Osmena, Jose P. Laurel, Elpidio Quirino, Ramon Magsaysay, Ferdinand Marcos, Corazon Aquino, and your current President Noynoy Aquino are all Presidents with Chinese blood.

Carlos P. Romulo, Roberto Ongpin, Supreme Court Justice Claudio Teehankee, Jaime Cardinal Sin, UP President Vidal A. Tan, Teodoro M. Kalaw; all prominent Filipinos with Chinese blood.

Some of the most prominent pieces of the Philippine revolution were descended from or were Chinese mestizos - Jose Rizal, Marcelo H. Del Pilar, Emilio Aguinaldo, Father Jose Burgos, Father Mariano Gomez, Father Jacinto Zamora, Pedro Paterno, Apolinario Mabini. The La Liga Filipina was founded in the house of one Doroteo Ongjungco.

The Chinese Mestizos had a much larger role in building the Filipino identity and the Filipino nation than most of realize. It was not confined merely to these prominent individuals. It was the education and influence that the middle class Chinese mestizo had that allowed them to plant the seeds of liberal and subversive ideas.

If you want to know more about this, allow me to redirect you to Antonio S. Tan's excellent work, The Chinese Mestizos and the Formation of the Filipino Identity.

Dedication

Thanks to this awesome good post on Techcrunch, I've decided to actually use this blog.

Most of the time I don't have the time to write anything since I'm busy trying to juggle deadlines for six different classes that all decided to have their deadlines at around the same time. But then you ask yourself, what do you really remember writing from your tweets or facebook status messages? You aren't gonna be able to look back on all of those after 60 years.

These blogs, they're not just a place to be able to voice out what you think. They're a record of your life. What makes you you is what's up there inside your head. Your opinions, your thoughts, your ideas. If you put yourself out in your blog, your children and your grandchildren will be able to read it and know you long after you're gone just by being able to read about what you think.

So, I resolve to put something in here at least once a week, as long as I have a topic or idea to talk about.

Ciao, bella

It's all new!

So here I am, the proverbial Vince Carter of blogging, after being invisible for the longest time I'm here looking for a fresh start in a new environment. So here it is.

I've decided to take my talents to South Beach Rebuilding on the Fly.

I will be talking about a huge variety of topics here (I hope), anything from sports to philosophy to video games, sooo I hope you stay along for the ride. Updates will be completely random, as will the topics of said updates.

So hopefully you follow this blog as religiously as a fat kid follows the ice cream truck. Do I need to include a completely inspiring piece of North Korean propaganda to motivate you?



It's a giant red North Korean soldier smashing the White House! If that doesn't inspire you, nothing will.