OFFBEAT MAIL

Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile The heated exchange of harsh words between the younger Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and the octagenarian Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile at the plenary session in the Philippine Senate on Wednesday , came as a surprise to their colleagues in the chamber, and to the millions of Filipinos around the world. This is the first time in the history of Philippine politics that a younger legislator has to stand up and engaged a Senate President in a word-war. Many people are asking as to what triggered the exchange of heated words between the two legislators? Did Trillanes by-pass his boss at the Senate? Media reports and other sources said the verbal tussles stemmed from the sensitive issue of deliberating on a bill that would split Camarines Sur into two and the backdoor negotiations initiated by Senator Trillanes with China over the Scarborough Shoal in the West Philippine Seas. Sen. A. Trillanes IV Trillanes, a graduate of the Philippine M...

Which embryos have the best opportunity to develop into a viable pregnancy?             A new technology provides a surprising answer or challenge in the field of IVF is selecting the single best embryo which is likely to result in a live birth. Currently, embryologists must remove the embryo from a standard incubator to perform 2 or 3 short evaluations of the developing embryo under the microscope, at fixed time-points over 3-5 days, in order to assess embryo quality prior to transferring an embryo to the patient.    The EmbryoScope(R) Time-lapse system generates a movie allowing embryologists to monitor various characteristics of the embryo development over the entire incubation period, while maintaining optimum incubation conditions in a state-of-the-art incubator. According to breakthrough scientific results, embryos which exhibit irregular division patterns have a much lower pregnancy potential. The results w...

The question as to whether undocumented youths should be eligible to share in the benefits of President Obama's universal healthcare program. Some people tend to misunderstand the situation by saying that they shouldn't be accorded such benefits because they had violated immigration laws. However, many others simply were humble enough to say that the undocumented youths are human beings who should have the right to enjoy the federal health care program because they needed it. While it is true that the undocumented youths, most of them students, are draining the coffers of state and federal governments, they are entitled to such benefits considering that it wasn't their choice to come to America. Pro-immigration advocates said that these youths are not paying their taxes, and it is natural that they shouldn't be allowed to enjoy the health care program of the government. That's true. As studens, they don't have the means to earn a living, unless some of t...