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...

Market share of mobile industry in South East Asia to reach US1 billion by 2015. AdaptiveMobile, the world leader in mobile security, today reveals a sharp rise in the scope and complexity of mobile threats in South-East Asia. With India recently reported to receive 8% of all global malware and adware - the highest across the globe - and China and Malaysia also in the top ten regions, the need for action is clear. With a rapidly growing subscriber base, operators in this region are recognising the need to keep subscribers safe and preserve trust in both new and existing mobile services. "Cellular subscriptions have quadrupled in the last decade across South-East Asia and operators are already beginning to think about how to keep their user base secure. Hackers will follow the opportunities, so with more subscribers come more threats," says John White, VP Sales Asia Pacific, AdaptiveMobile. "There have been a number of highly evolved malware attacks, such as the r...

It was early morning Friday when Carson Mayor Jim Dear walked into one of the houses along Moneta Avenue, not to campaign for votes in one of Los Angeles' cities where 47 percent of the residents are Filipino-Americans. The mayor's action was part of his love for his thousands of constituents, especially the Filipino-Americans, who had contributed a great deal in giving him the much-needed edge to win the last elections for the mayoralty posts in Los Angeles county. With leaflets in hand, the mayor was out early to distribute to his constituents an important announcement. The leaflet reads: "Finally, he is here! Celebrate the unveiling of the "Rizal Monument." After many months of delay, the unveiling of such marker came true. The Rizal monument may not be as elegant as the one at Luneta Park in Manila, but a simple pedestal where Filipino-Americans can still revere the late national hero's accomplishments during the more than four decades of Spanish o...

The strong typhoons that hit some parts of the Philippines late this year were testaments to the unquestionable tempest of nature’s fury. In fact, these had resulted to the loss of many lives and brought extensive damages to properties and agricultural lands worth billions of pesos. Eventually, these natural calamities gave trauma to many Filipinos, especially those whose houses are still under water in Central Luzon. Yet, many of us continue to ignore the signs of dangers, especially during the rainy season, when most water tributaries would have the tendency to overflow during heavy downpours. As gleaned from news reports, most of the victims and fatalities were reportedly living along or close to the rivers and creeks, where debris, effluents, flotsam and water hyacinths are abundant because of the dwellers’ uncaring attitude toward the environment. Obliviously, they make the water tributaries their depots for wastes, instead of throwing them where these garbage are supposed to...

One wonders how those ancient pyramids in Egypt and South America, stonehenge, and monoliths were constructed. Were they built with the aid of aliens who came down from the sky to help human in exchange for something? Nobody has the correct answers to these questions. But if we make a thorough research on whether the earth's ancient civilization had attracted other beings from outerspace, we may be able to find theories and codes that will make us stitch together some facts which will make believe that some extra terristrial beings had visited the earth thousands of years ago. A closer look at the oldest monuments that have pockmarked some strategic places on earth made us believed that it could be possible. Looking at those gigantic ancient structures, it would be impossible for ordinary humans, with crude instruments and technology, would ever succeed in constructing such monumental feats, without the help of beings from other planets who must have come down for curiosity or ...