Young Professionals Environmental Club (YPEC)
By Naysan Albaytar and Homar Murillo
(blogsite: http://ypec.wordpress.com/)
YPEC: The Beginning
Bringing Back the Christmas Breeze: A Look at Global Warming, Greenhouse Effect, and the Simple Solutions that We Can Offer… It all started with a blog post, a post that has turned the spark into a flame and fueled the desire to do something for the rescue of Mother Earth.
A lot of articles about the environment have already been written and published – its present condition and the problems it faces in the midst of technological developments. Realizing that something has to be done beyond words and print, several young professionals have joined together to take steps towards saving the environment. The Young Professionals Environmental Club (YPEC) was born.
The young professionals in our society are the ones who will take the place of our leaders in the future. They are the ones who will be the future foundations of families, the prime movers of change. Therefore, young professionals should be aware of our society’s pressing problems. They should develop the spirit of initiative in facing and solving these problems. It is only then can they be really prepared to take the place of the leaders, ready to provide the people direction towards a better life. It is only then can they be really ready to become strong foundations of families, capable of preparing their children to take on responsibilities as able successors in leading the society and founding families when their turn comes.
Adding a Blogger/Blogspot Menu Bar
Basically, a menu bar is a horizontal navigation tool that is typicaly found on the header area of a web page. Menu bars are actually just links that lead to other pages within a site or to other sites. You can easily create menu bars for your Blogger/Blogspot blogs by following the instructions on this site: Web Basics
Site Within a Site
Do you want your favorite site to be displayed within your blog? There are Javascript codes that you can create and copy-paste on your website or blogsite to enable you to create i-frames. An i-frame is actually like a picture frame contained within another picture frame. It may also be compared to a window within a window. An i-frame allows you to view other sites within your own site. Hence, there is no need to navigate away from your site. You can simultaneously view two sites. For instance, if you scroll down to the footer area of this blogsite, you will see an i-frame displaying my Wordpress blog (Philippine Affairs). This is made possible by the i-frame codes that I have embedded on this site.
Embedding PowerPoint Slides in Blogs
Have you noticed that the Blogger/Blogspot post editor only offers photo and video upload? The illustration below shows the icons that you should click if you want to upload photos or videos from your hard desk. However, what if you want to upload PowerPoint or PDF files? There are no straightforward options that you can choose. Hence, the best option would be to first convert the files into some sort of codes and copy-paste or embed them onto your blog in similar manner that YouTube videos are embedded on blog posts. (Read more… Web Basics)
Displaying HTML Tags
Displaying HTML tags as texts in a web post such as this has been a challenge for me lately. Whenever I include HTML tags intended to be displayed as texts, the tags do not appear in my published posts. Although I know that I simply have to replace the close arrow bracket with this: & gt (without the space) and the open arrow bracket with this & lt (without the space), Blogger is still unable to display my HTML tags as texts.
If someone reading this knows the solution to my problem, please post a comment on this. You may also post a comment on this blogsite: Web Basics. Any helpful comments would be greatly appreciated.
Religions and Chain Letters
All religions are mere superstitions. The fundamental mechanism that sustains the continued belief in religion is fundamentally flawed. Like many superstitions, religion relies on the promise of reward and threat of punishment. Other superstitions work in the same manner. Take for example the phenomenon of chain letters. It is quite surprising that even in the age of the internet and instantaneous distant communications, chain letters persist even on the web. Typically, a chain letter has this basic command format: “Make copies of this letter and send it to certain number of people to avoid certain misfortunes or gain luck.”
I am not saying that people who believe in chain letters are not intelligent people. Intelligence sometimes has nothing to do with gullibility. The same is true about religion. People believe in religion in the same manner that some people believe in chain letters. If you think about it, the bible and other so-called sacred books are nothing but convoluted and sophisticated chain letters pass down from one generation to the next across vast geographical distances and across time.
All Roads Led to Naga
All roads led to Naga City last September 15. As expected, the traditional annual Peñafrancia fiesta has attracted people of all walks of life to converge in the little city of Naga. You could almost mistake downtown Naga as Divisoria or Baclaran. The crowds could hardly move. Vendors are everywhere, occupying even the sidewalks. Consequently, the pedestrians occupied the streets. You could easily get lost among the sea of people. Plaza Rizal became a camp for all sorts of traders. The products that are being sold range from imitation watches to abaca handicrafts. Most of these ambulant entrepreneurs have been occupying their respected tents and booths for at least a week. Some even made reservations months ahead.
Peñafrancia fiesta is supposed to be a religious festivity, but like Christmas and other Christian festivities, the commercial aspect was more emphasized. The religious ceremonies and traditions just became the excuses for merry-making and over-eating. Peñafrancia fiesta is a colonial heritage of the former Spanish masters. The celebration might be religiously shallow but it is culturally rich.
My favorite tokua recipe
I just want to share this tokua (tofu) recipe that I dug up from the yellowing pages of my grandmother’s cook book. As far as I know, there are no other postings on the net about this recipe. Well, not unless the keywords that I typed on Google search were wrong, I haven’t found any similar tofu recipe. I already tried this recipe and it was gastronomically satisfying (at least as far as my wife’s and my own judgments are concerned). This recipe is a healthy substitute for meat recipes. However, you do not have to be a vegetarian to enjoy this recipe.
The picture that you see here is not the actual photograph of the cooked version of the recipe. This picture is just for visual purposes. Anyway, without further adieu, here is the recipe:
TOKUA FRICASSEE
Ingredients:
- Tokua, 7 cakes
- Tomatoes (big), 3
- Bread crumbs, 3 cups
- Vegetable fat, 2 tablespoons
- Water, 1 cup
- Onion, 1
- Garlic, as desired
- Red pepper (sweet, chopped), 1
- Green pepper (sweet, chopped), 1
- Soy sauce, 2 tablespoons
- Vetsin, 1 teaspoon
- Salt, to taste
Procedure:
Dice the potatoes, and fry them. Sprinkle the tokua with salt, and fry it until it turns a golden brown. Cut the tukua into cubes of desired size. Sauté the garlic, onion, and tomatoes in the vegetable fat (butter may also be used). Then add soy sauce and tokua. Cover the mixture and let it boil a few minutes. Add 1 cup of water (or rice water), salt, peppers, and fried potatoes. Boil the mixture for a few minutes, and thicken it with bread crumbs. Serve it hot.
Burden of Proof
Logically speaking, when a positive assertion or proposition is asserted, the burden of proof always lies on the one who is making the proposition. We, atheists, do not need to present any proof when we say that gods (including the Judeo-Christian god) and the supernatural do not exist. The positive assertion is always made by the believers and not by the unbelievers.
However, some would say that the “absence of proof is not the proof of absence.” If this reasoning is valid, then, it follows that all beliefs and assertion, no matter how ridiculous and improbable can be considered truthful. For instance, I could assert that there is actually a little green dragon that is living inside my ear. This assertion is true simply because I declare it to be true and I do not have any shred of evidence to support it. If this reasoning is true, then, all religions are equally valid. For instance, Hinduism is as truthful as Christianity. There is actually a triune god. The names of these persons in the triune god are Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva – also known as the creator, preserver, and destroyer, respectively. However, I do not think that the so-called Christians would agree, in spite of the similarities in concepts.
Creation or Evolution?
Basically, there are two conflicting theories about the origin of the universe and the origin of life. The most popular theory is the theory of creationism. This theory is believed by many to be the most truthful explanation about the cosmos and about ourselves. Creationism theory is an ancient theory. It is a well-established theory. Many powerful and respectable institutions (namely churches) were founded based on the creationism theory. Fundamentally, creationism theory proposes that the universe and life were created and being sustained by a supreme being. Most great world religions such as Christianity, Islam and Judaism firmly believe in the existence of a supreme creator. This creator or god is called by many names and endowed with many absolute characteristics such as omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, and omni-benevolence. In other words, this supreme being is the most perfect being.
However, do his so-called creations and the mechanism involved reflect the supposed perfect nature of god? If the Judeo-Christian faith is to be consulted, it asserts that human life was especially created for a special purpose. Hence, human beings are the pinnacle of god’s creation. Humans are even said to be created from the image of god. This concept is truly inspiring. However, it is very doubtful. The creation story stated in the bible has all the characteristics of mythology. Some scholars even discovered that the entire book of genesis was based on the more ancient Epic of Gilgamesh that was written by the Babylonians.
