Once Upon A TYPE…

BEIJING (AP) — A powerful earthquake trapped nearly 900 students in central China on Monday after their school collapsed and at least 107 people were killed across several provinces, state media reported.

The 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck central China, but sent thousands of people rushing out of buildings and into the streets hundreds of miles away in Beijing and Shanghai. The temblor was felt as far away as Pakistan, Vietnam and Thailand.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported that four of the dead were ninth-grade students killed when their high school collapsed. Photos showed heavy cranes trying to remove rubble from the ruined school. Xinhua did not say how many of the students were feared dead.

It said its reporters in Juyuan township, about 60 miles from the epicenter, saw buried teenagers struggling to break loose from underneath the rubble of the three-story building “while others were crying out for help.”

Two girls were quoted by Xinhua as saying they escaped because they had “run faster than others.”

The Ministry of Civil Affairs told Xinhua that the 107 dead had been killed in Sichuan, Gansu and Yunnan provinces and in the municipality of Chongqing. It said many had died in collapsed buildings but did not give details.

The earthquake comes less than three months before the start of the Beijing Summer Olympics, when China hopes to use to showcase its rise in the world.

The earthquake struck in the middle of the afternoon when classes and office towers were full, about 60 miles northwest of Chengdu. There were several smaller aftershocks, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site.

Calls into the city did not go through as panicked residents quickly overloaded the telephone system. The quake affected telephone and power networks, and even state media appeared to have few details of the disaster.

“In Chengdu, mobile telecommunication convertors have experienced jams and thousands of servers were out of service,” said Sha Yuejia, deputy chief executive officer of China Mobile.

Although it was difficult to telephone Chengdu, an Israeli student, Ronen Medzini, sent a text message to The Associated Press saying there were power and water outages there.

“Traffic jams, no running water, power outs, everyone sitting in the streets, patients evacuated from hospitals sitting outside and waiting,” he said.

Xinhua said an underground water pipe ruptured near the city’s southern railway station, flooding a main thoroughfare. Reporters saw buildings with cracks in their walls but no collapses, Xinhua said.

The earthquake also rattled buildings in Beijing, some 930 miles to the north, less than three months before the Chinese capital was expected to be full of hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors for the Summer Olympics.

Many Beijing office towers were evacuated, including the building housing the media offices for the organizers of the Olympics, which start in August.

“I’ve lived in Taipei and California and I’ve been through quakes before. This is the most I’ve ever felt,” said James McGregor, a business consultant who was inside the LG Towers in Beijing’s business district. “The floor was moving underneath me.”

In Fuyang, 660 miles to the east, chandeliers in the lobby of the Buckingham Palace Hotel swayed. “We’ve never felt anything like this our whole lives,” said a hotel employee surnamed Zhu.

Patients at the Fuyang People’s No. 1 Hospital were evacuated. An hour after the quake, a half-dozen patients in blue-striped pajamas stood outside the hospital. One was laying on a hospital bed in the parking lot.

Closer to the epicenter in Chongqing, Lai Dequn was napping while her mother watched TV on the 19th floor of a hotel.

“I suddenly felt the bed shaking and then realized it must be an earthquake,” said the 42-year-old Lai. “So I just put on slippers and helped my mother down to the ground floor.”

In Shanghai, skyscrapers swayed and most office occupants went rushing into the streets.

The airport in the provincial capital, Chengdu, was closed and roads were clogged with traffic after the earthquake, state television reported.

In the Taiwanese capital of Taipei, 100 miles off the southeastern Chinese coast, buildings swayed when the quake hit. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

The quake was felt as far away as the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, where some people hurried out of swaying office buildings and into the streets downtown. A building in the Thai capital of Bangkok also was evacuated after the quake was felt there.

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake is considered a major event, capable of causing widespread damage and injuries in populated areas.

The last serious earthquake in China was in 2003, when a 6.8-magnitude quake killed 268 people in Bachu county in the west of Xinjiang.

China’s deadliest earthquake in modern history struck the northeastern city of Tangshan on July 28, 1976, killing 240,000 people.

Post taken from AP News. My condolences to all who lost their family and love ones

This is Aaron earlier at the office after I left him for a meeting. Funny when I arrived my colleagues told me how pity Aaron looks like when they saw him. Good thing Nico was there to bring him upstairs but before he lift him he took a photo first so he could show it to me

Mama, Inah, Benok and Andrea left this afternoon to Ho Chi Minh City to take the rest of their vacation there. We’ll miss them a lot for the house will be quiet without Andrea dancing her ‘Get Low’ song

By the way, Bigboy has been kind enough to give me the link for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) that will prepare and support future human exploration to the moon. Names will be collected and placed onboard the LRO spacecraft for its historic mission bringing NASA back to the moon. You will receive a certificate showcasing your support of the mission I have my certificate already by signing up on their webby and if you like to get yours simply click here.

last night the we watched this documentary film by former vice president al gore. it’s just now i’ve learnt that it is the 4th highest-grossing-documentary film to date in the US, after fahrenheit 9/11, march of the penguins and sicko.

An Inconvenient Truth focuses on Al Gore and his travels in support of his efforts to educate the public about the severity of the climate crisis. Gore says, “I’ve been trying to tell this story for a long time and I feel as I’ve failed to get the message across.” The film closely follows a Keynote presentation (dubbed “the slide show”) that Gore presented throughout the world. It intersperses Gore’s exploration of data and predictions regarding climate change and its potential for disaster with Gore’s life story.

It weaves in events that changed his worldview, including his college education with early climate expert Roger Revelle at Harvard University, his sister’s death from lung cancer, and his young son’s near-fatal car accident. Throughout the film, Gore makes comments regarding his loss to George W. Bush in the 2000 United States presidential election. For comic effect, Gore also uses a clip from the Futurama episode “Crimes of the Hot” to explain global warming.

In the slide show Gore reviews the scientific opinion on climate change, discusses the politics and economics of global warming, and describes the consequences he believes global climate change will produce if the amount of human-generated greenhouse gases is not significantly reduced in the very near future. A centerpoint of the film is his examination of the annual temperature and CO₂ levels for the past 650,000 years in Antarctic ice core samples.

The film includes many segments intended to refute critics who say that global warming is unproven or that warming will be insignificant. For example, Gore discusses the possibility of the collapse of a major ice sheet in Greenland or in West Antarctica, either of which could raise global sea levels by approximately 20 feet (6m), flooding coastal areas and producing 100 million refugees. Melt water from Greenland, because of its lower salinity, could then halt the currents that keep northern Europe warm and quickly trigger dramatic local cooling there. The documentary ends with Gore arguing that if appropriate actions are taken soon, the effects of global warming can be successfully reversed by releasing less CO2 and planting more vegetation to consume existing CO₂. Gore calls upon his viewers to learn how they can help him in these efforts.

Gore’s book of the same title was published concurrently with the theatrical release of the documentary. The book contains additional information, scientific analysis, and Gore’s commentary on the issues presented in the documentary. A 2007 documentary entitled An Update with Former Vice President Al Gore features Gore discussing additional information that came to light after the film was completed, such as Hurricane Katrina, coral reef depletion, glacial earthquake activity on the Greenland ice sheet, wildfires, and trapped methane gas release associated with permafrost melting.

this film earned number of awards worldwide and as a teacher i find this film very helpful especially that i am teaching chemistry. rating this film, i’ll give it a 2-thumbs up for a very good watch

My last week in Vietnam was very stressful! Papa & I arranged the dogs papers thinking that they’ll be able to come with me last Friday here in PI. Up to the last minute, the agent gave nothing but headache. Problems arise one by one keeping us behind to our schedule. And in the end, the efforts were wasted! I came home without my dogs & I still dunno if they’re still coming or not!

I saw Jeff once last week and I know that I’ll miss him so much. Enough of him for a while…I’ll still see him when I get back there, soon!

Jake arrived last Thursday from Bangkok (he’s on his SE Asia tour for the ASEAN’s 40th anniversary & he’s the one covering the book! great eh?). I was thrilled knowing that finally I’ll be able to meet him. Wasted Thursday - that’s what about to happen but sadly he needed to fly to Dak Lak in the evening…sad Joyce! (darn, why VN air don’t have AM flights, huh???) Anyway, I’m still happy though! Time isn’t enough but it’s worth remembering!

The next day I flew to PI…got so impatient while on the plane. All I wanna do is go home soon and I can’t wait anymore! My bum’s painful and I just wanna rest! Mama was the one who fetched me from the airport then the next best thing happened is that I am HOME!

HUGS and KISSES from my angels! that’s what I received when I arrived, then facial muscles came back to their senses and put a BIG CHEESY SMILE. Nothing beats Andrea and Aaron’s power to heal tiredness, haha!

Saturday was family day, we went out and did some shopping, woot! Andrea got her new big bag! It is so big that it looks like a traveling bag already.

Sunday was REGADA! Water guns are filled, cams are charged up and we’re all ready to be wet and wild, yihooo! We headed to Poell’s crib and started our march with the rest of the gang going to the center of the Festival. Music were loud, heaps of people were dancing and drinks were overflowing! Truly it was a HIT! I love it. The day ended by getting wasted with Ramsey, Allen, Nyol and Albert. Poell was so naive not to drink because of his job interview for the next day! Tito Nick’s lambanog was a sensational one! Guys we should do this again anytime soon, hihi!

 Sex expert Tracey Cox, author of Supersex, challenges the four most popular myths about men and their bodies. Take a guess—are these commonly held beliefs about sex true or false?

Bald men have stronger sex drives. True. We do know that testosterone is linked with hair loss. And of course testosterone is the chemical responsible for the male sex drive.

Having sex negatively affects athletic performance. False. There is absolutely no evidence to support this one. In fact, it could help because sex can help release those pre-game nerves.

Big hands, big nose, big feet = big penis. False. There’s no scientific proof of this whatsoever. African-American men have the biggest penises. True. Research confirms that Asian men are the smallest, followed by Caucasians, with African-American men being the largest.

Even More Sex Trivia…

• The average man can keep an erection for around 40 minutes, even though he might not last that long. The average woman takes about 20 minutes to climax from oral sex.
• The average man gets around seven erections a day. Sadly, five of those are in his sleep.
• The average speed of ejaculation is 28 mph.
• Sex is healthy. There’s more protein in the average ejaculation than there is in a medium-sized pork chop.

A dream is the experience of envisioned images, sounds, or other sensations during sleep. The events of dreams are often impossible or unlikely to occur in physical reality, and are usually outside the control of the dreamer. The exception is lucid dreaming, in which a dreamer realizes that they are dreaming, and they are sometimes capable of changing the oneiric reality around him or her and controlling various aspects of the dream, in which the suspension of disbelief is often broken. Dreamers may experience strong emotions while dreaming. Frightening or upsetting dreams are referred to as nightmares. The discipline of dream research is oneirology.

For the past nights, I kept on dreaming of falling. I got bothered by it so I researched on the internet for a possible explanation why I experience it.

“I’m Falling”

Falling dreams are another theme that is quite common in the world of dreams. Contrary to a popular myth, you will not actually die if you do not wake up before your hit the ground during a fall.

According to biblical interpretations, dreams about falling have a negative overtone and suggest that man is acting and walking according to his own way of thinking and not those of the Lord.

And there’s another dream that I had some time ago. It’s when I saw myself fishing lots of fish. In front of me are hundreds or even thousand of fishes, I was so happy upon seeing them that I don’t know what to do. What I could remember is that I took a pail with me and start to get as many fish as I can. Here’s the interpretation of my dream

Since I’m a Chemistry teacher I love reading articles connected with Science. While consuming my free time, I found this article from ‘Reader’s Digest” an interesting one.

Find, fall and stay in love. Your ultimate guide to relationships!

Here are 12 scientifically proven ways to increase your chances of finding the perfect partner. (Yes, academics actually get paid to research interpersonal attraction, as psychologists rather drearily dub this thing called love.) These findings dispel many clichés beloved of romantic fiction – from opposites attracting to absence making the heart grow fonder – while confirming others.

1 Like Seeks Like 
Look for someone as much like you as possible, because chances are, he or she is looking for you too. We prefer mates with similar backgrounds, interests, values and beliefs because they validate our own. We even gravitate towards people who look like us. Eminent scientist Sir Francis Galton drew attention to this phenomenon a century ago, and since then it has been confirmed by numerous studies on the resemblances between spouses.

2 Declare Your Desire 
Ditch the strong and silent act because a major turn-on, according to social psychologist Dr Arthur Aron, is the simple realisation that someone fancies you. It makes you feel good about yourself, which, in turn, overflows into feeling good about them. We warm to those who flatter and are nice to us, which is why the stereotypical Byronic hero trading barbs with his love interest (until near the end when they eventually melt into one another’s arms) is a romantic cliché that does not bear close examination.

3 The Eyes Have It 
On one point, however, the bodice rippers are right: there can be such a thing as love at first sight. It’s been shown that the longer a pair of prospective partners lock eyes upon meeting, the more they like what they see. It helps if you have dilated pupils because these are the single most attractive physical attribute, according to research conducted by the late Eckhard Hess, who was a professor at the University of Chicago’s psychology department. He found that subjects shown two pictures of a member of the opposite sex – identical save for pupil size – were twice as likely to pick the larger-pupils photo as the more attractive, even when they could not spot the difference. Enlarged pupils signal intense arousal.

4 Body Language
Run out of sweet nothings to say? Fall back on body language, a form of non-verbal communication understood by both sexes. The most obvious – and effective – overture is simply staring at the prospective partner and smiling; then there are ”preening” gestures, such as playing with your hair.

According to Allan Pease, author of The Definitive Guide to Body Language, what really turns men on is female ‘’submission” gestures, which include exposing vulnerable areas such as the wrists or neck, as well as the leg twine (the manoeuvre at which Princess Diana, that premier flirt, excelled: it involves crossing the legs and hooking the upper leg’s foot behind the lower leg’s ankle).

Men typically make themselves look more dominant by taking up space and engaging in ”crotch display” – thumbs hooked in pockets, fingers ”pointing” at the genitals (worked for Michael Jackson . . . for a while, anyway).

5 Be Beautiful 
Ignore everything your mum told you about inner beauty – good-looking people are almost universally viewed as smarter, sexier and more successful than their homelier counterparts.

According to evolutionary social theorists, we value those attributes that improve the chances of successful reproduction, which is why men prefer younger women with long, shiny hair and hip measurements a third larger than their waists (all markers of youth, health and fertility), while women prefer taller, older men because they’re most likely to have the most resources to invest in offspring.

6 Home Is Where It’s At 
Forget about long-distance romances: proximity rules. Being situated close to your potential love object – whether at the next desk or in the next street – ensures repeated exposure, beneficial because the more we see someone, the more we like them (unless we strongly disliked them at first exposure, in which case the opposite is true). That’s why we so often end up with workmates or the boy/girl next door.

7 Avoid Comparisons 
All that said, it seems that we gauge prospective partners against the prevailing norms, if the findings of Sara Gutierres and Douglas Kenrick of Arizona State University’s psychology department are to be believed. The researchers asked men to rate their dates’ looks after viewing Playboy centrefolds or watching a TV show with pretty female stars. You guessed it: the dates rated worse after the show or centrefolds than before.

This demonstrates a phenomenon called the contrast effect, whereby our perception of relative differences is distorted according to the order in which things are viewed. For example, if you look at a dark object after a light one, it will appear much darker than if you’d looked at it first or by itself.

8 Love at First Fright 
In the 1994 film Speed, Sandra Bullock tells Keanu Reeves, ”I’ve heard relationships based upon intense experiences never work out,” to which he replies, ”We’ll have to base ours on sex, then.”

The truth lies somewhere in between. The more aroused we are in the presence of a potential partner, the more attractive we’re likely to find them, as psychologists Cindy Meston and Penny Frohlich, of the University of Texas, found when they asked subjects to rate members of the opposite sex before and after riding on roller coasters. This effect – known as excitation transfer – is a misattribution of arousal; regardless of the cause of our thumping heart, if we ascribe it to the person we’re with, we feel attracted to her or him.

9 Naming Game 
Dr Albert Mehrabian of the University of California’s psychology department has discovered that many names – such as Darcy, Roxanne or Bertha – are linked with negative attributes. And if you share a first name with a well-known person, you’re considered to share their traits – bad news for people called Adolf, Homer or Saddam.

10 Beer Goggles 
Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker, as poet Ogden Nash once said. Studies have shown that single people seeking partners in pubs are less choosy closer to closing time, a finding dubbed ”the beer-goggles effect.”

It was identified by Professor Jamie Pennebaker of the University of Texas, who decided to test the premise of a song whose lyrics claimed ”girls get prettier at closing time.” He asked bar patrons to rate potential partners three times over an evening (at 9 pm, 10.30 pm and midnight) and yes, both sexes looked best at midnight. This doesn’t mean you’re too drunk to notice someone has two heads; just that as the time available to find a mate runs out, whoever’s still around starts to look good.

11 Keep Them Happy 
The better we feel, the more we like whomever we’re with, so if your date isn’t in a good mood, cheer them up fast or you haven’t a hope. This doesn’t mean you must be directly responsible for engendering the desired positive emotion; simply being in the vicinity while they’re experiencing it will imbue you with an associated glow. This is why you should be very selective of the venue where you meet or take your date. And avoid taking them to stressful places. The resulting anxiety will be forever associated with you.

12 Choose Your Words
The gender differences mentioned above are reflected in the wording of personal  ads. Research shows that ads placed by women emphasise their appearance, those by men their resources; and that the older a woman admits to being the fewer replies she’ll receive, while the opposite applies to men.

However, it should be some consolation for all those Plain Janes and
penniless men out there to know that there is one word that’s always worth including in any personal ad: ”warm.” People who are described as warm are believed to be happy, sociable, wise and popular.

Put It All Together
So here’s the bottom line: If you really want to score a perfect partner, take your date bungy-jumping or sky diving to ensure they are well aroused, catch a movie featuring lots of ugly actors, then finish the evening in a dimly lit bar. Even if the beer-goggles effect doesn’t kick in, the darkness should dilate your pupils and enhance your chances.

Goosebumps are known to doctors as a manifestation of the pilometer reflex. The reflex, triggered by cold and the adrenaline rush of strong emotions, involves the arrector pili muscles. There is one muscle for each hair that connects a hair follicle to skin tissue. When touched by cold, the muscle contracts, causing the hair to stand on end, trapping precious body heat. However, there is a difference between these tiny muscles on the body and those on the face. The arrector pili muscles in the body are attached to one side of the hair and they yank the hairs aloft when they contract. In 1993 a Japanese researcher found that the muscles surround facial hair, but when they contract, no net movement is produced. However, there is still some debate as to whether the face actually has any arrector pili muscles.