My Brothers And A Grenade Explosion

     In my earlier piece, Too Young To Die, I wrote,“… in the mid 80’s, Davao was a city in turmoil. The entire city became the battleground of a typical urban guerrilla warfare like what you see on TV in other parts of the world. There was a semblance of normalcy during the day. After sunset, commercial establishments were already closed. At night, under the cover of darkness, armed communist forces roam the streets ready to eliminate any perceived enemies. The government forces returned in kind. Dozens of killings perpetrated by both sides happened during the night while some occurred even in broad daylight.”                                          

    This was the situation my brothers Chito and Joey were into. My brothers were working as  radio broadcasters of Radio Bombo. Chito was in Radyo Patrol  with a codename of  Apollo Uno roaming around the city reporting news on the spot. Joey, on the other hand, worked as an anchorman and news commentator.

     Because of the rampant lawlessness, Lt. Col Franco Calida, the chief of the military’s Metropolitan District Command (Metrodiscom), my brothers, together with 2 other radiomen Jun Pala of station DXOW and Leo Palo of DXRA with the political backing of then Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte organized the Alsa Masa (literally, “People’s Uprising”) against the communists. While Calida was directing the military operations, the four radiomen were the mouthpiece of incessant psychological propaganda on the airwaves exposing the communists’ atrocities. The Alsa Masa members became the eyes and ears of the military.  Their involvement was not without peril.

     On the early evening of January 17, 1987, Chito, his day’s assignment done, was having dinner at the food canteen beside the radio station when he saw three strange-looking men approaching. Chito’s gut instinct immediately alerted him: communist hitmen!  The men  entered the canteen and  asked the uniformed security guard of where Chito Herbolingo was. Without waiting for the guard to point at him, he told the men to go up the second floor because Chito was in the announcer’s booth thus giving him time to escape. The men left hurriedly, but he regretted immediately what he told the men because, he realized, it was his brother Joey who was in the announcer’s booth that time. Frantically, he looked for a phone so that he could call them and warn them, but before he could speak to the technician, he heard gunfires followed by a loud explosion.

     From the announcer’s booth, Joey saw the three men coming with guns drawn. As they fired at him, he dove under the table. As the men peppered the announcer’s booth with bullets, the broadcast was on-air so that the gunfires were heard over the radio After a round of gunfires, one of the men tossed a fragmentation grenade into the booth through the broken glass openings created by the gunfires and the  men hurriedly left. Luckily, the grenade was snagged between the double glass walls and exploded from there. The explosion was so powerful that the ceiling above the booth caved in and the manual Olympia typewriter was thrown off the table. The explosion was heard on the radio before the station ceased broadcasting.    

     Finally Chito got hold of the lady technician who told him over the phone: “Chito, binaril nila si Joey, at tinapunan pa nila ng granada ang booth. Lahat kami tinamaan. Si Joey, patay na!”.  (“Chito, they shot Joey and tossed a grenade into the booth. We are all wounded here. Joey is already dead!”) But Joey answered from his extension line: “Dong, (Chito’s monicker), buhay pa ako…may mga tama nga lang.” (“Dong, I’m hit but I’m still alive.”)

     Moments later, the police arrived. The police and Chito brought Joey and two other wounded station personnel to the hospital. The doctors extracted 15 shrapnel pieces from Joey’s body.  

 

Isotopes And Half-lives

 

    

    In our earlier discussion, we know that everything in the universe is composed of atoms as proposed by Democritus centuries ago. Further research showed that the atom is not as unbreakable as initially thought of,  but rather composed of still smaller particles---protons and electrons. The early model of the atom consisted of a positively charged protons inside a nucleus surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged electrons. They reasoned correctly that for these atoms to continue to exist, the positive nucleus must have the same amount of electrical charge as the cloud of negative electrons orbiting around it, otherwise these atoms disintegrated long time ago. 

     Different configurations of these particles differentiate one element from another. They assigned these elements symbols and atomic numbers. The atomic symbol is a one- or two- alphabetic characters and the number corresponds to the number of protons which is also the same as the number of electrons. Scientists started constructing the Periodic Table, a 2-dimensional array consisting of cubicles where to place the atomic symbols relative to each other.

    The smallest and the lightest element is the hydrogen (symbol: H). It has an atomic number 1 because it has only one proton and one electron orbiting around it. The electron is so tiny that its mass is almost negligible and the mass of the atom is mostly due to the nucleus. The heaviest naturally occurring element is uranium (symbol: U). It is assigned atomic number 92 because it has 92 protons in its nucleus and 92 electrons around it.

     The next lightest element is helium (symbol: He) with 2 protons in its nucleus and 2 electrons orbiting around it. In the periodic table, they assigned helium an atomic number 2. Because it has 2 protons, they assumed that helium atom is twice as heavy as hydrogen. But when they compared the two elements, they found out that helium is 4 times heavier than hydrogen! It means that helium has 4 proton-like particles inside the nucleus but only two have positive charges to balance the two negatively charged electrons! That is how neutrons were discovered. The neutron is a particle as heavy as the proton but without electrical charge. The scientists assign a new number to describe an element. They call it atomic mass unit (amu). Hydrogen has an atomic number of 1 and an amu of 1. Helium has atomic number 2 and an amu of 4 (2 protons plus two neutrons). The natural uranium has an atomic number of 92 and an amu of 238 because it has 92 protons and 146 neutrons.

     The universe is indeed a dynamic place. Billions of stars are continuously burning themselves, their nuclear furnaces spewing out charged and uncharged particles and rays of energies in all directions. In this pretty busy place, an atom or a group of atoms may catch extra neutrons or lose some.  So it is not unusual that atoms of the same element may not have the same neutrons in their nuclei. Atoms of the same element but don’t have the same number of neutrons are called isotopes. Every element found in the periodic table has isotopes. Isotopes of an element are described by the atomic symbol and the amu which is slightly higher or lower than the amu of the natural element. For example, natural carbon atom has 6 protons and 6 neutrons and is usually referred to as C-12. But some carbon atoms hold 2 more neutrons and it is referred to as C-14. Another good example is hydrogen. Some hydrogen atoms contain an exra neutron and are designated 2H while some contain 2 neutrons and are designated 3H. Hydrogen isotopes are given special names. Thus 2H is called deuterium and 3H is called tritium.

     Most isotopes are unstable. As such, they try to eject excess particles and radiate energies until they return to a stable state. The  process of ejecting those excess particles and energies is called radioactivity.

    The transformation from being an unstable isotope to a stable substance  is called a decay. The time it takes for a radioactive element to decay to half of its original amount is called half-life. The half life of a radioactive isotope is constant regardless of what the original amount was and is a distinct characteristic of that particular isotope. For example, Iodine 131 has a half-life of 8 days. If at the start you have 2 grams, 8 days later, what is left is 1 gram, another 8 days, one-half gram is left, another 8 days later, one-fourth gram is left, and so on… Radium 226, on the other hand has a half-life of 1,600  years!

     Radioisotopes have many uses in our modern world. The half-life of an isotope in a substance can be used to measure long periods of time that help our scientists determine events that happened thousands or even millions of years ago.

The Birthday Girl In The Land Of Roses

 

    Sat, 03 Mar 2007 10:38:40 -0500--- Last Sunday, the 25^th of February, we were invited to a party at Agnes’ home in celebration of her nth birthday. That was my first time to reach that part of Alabama which is situated midway between Ashville and Rainbow City. Her home, the seventh in a row on the right from the main gate, is simply beautiful and cozy. It was not a grand celebration. True to her style, she just invited a few friends for a small get-together. Having known her for only about a year, I felt honored to be invited to her home and probably being considered now as belonging to her inner circle. The food was plentiful and we never ran out of eager karaoke singers.

     I first met Agnes during one gathering at our home more than a year ago. Being new in Alabama at the time, I tried to meet and greet every guest while trying to memorize their names and the faces. Agnes was sitting on a chair  in the dining area and when I approached her, she introduced herself to me as someone from Zamboanga City. We met several times after that on various occasions.

     Last August 25, she sent me a “smile” in my friendster site with a request that I add her to my roster of friendster friends. That I obliged right away and gladly. From that time on I know more about her personality and her thoughts through reading her blogs.

     Today, Agnes, whose friendster name is Annette, is one of the most prolific bloggers in Friendster that I know of. Considering that English is not her native tongue--- it’s her fourth language, actually--- she wrote with such fluidity and mastery that I will not be surprised if one of these days, she will become a syndicated columnist or a novel writer. Casting all future possibilities aside, Annette is a true friend. Someone who makes you feel comfortable and at ease in her presence.        

 

 

A Relaxing Week

June 25, 2007. Moody, Alabama --- I had a very relaxing week. An elderly couple friend of mine gave me an advanced birthday gift --- a 5-day stay at their beachfront condominium unit in Orange Beach. But in spite on the abundance of the sun and the fun, something was missing in my life--- no Internet! I brought with me my laptop with a roaming capability. But when I got there, there was no WiFi  in the vicinity and I wondered how come all those people who were there were only interested in swimming and water surfing and sunbathing.

 I did not know that Alabama has beautiful beaches down there along the Gulf of Mexico. I initially thought that Alabama is a landlock state. But a simple peruse of the map would show that it has a very short strip of shoreline squeezed between Florida and Mississippi. And that short strip happens to be a very beautiful shoreline. I had to see it to believe it. And the sand, oh my! It was as white as the sands in Boracay.

 It was also my first time to dip in the blue-green waters of the Atlantic. The first time that I stepped on the shores of the  Gulf of Mexico was way back in 1992 when we had a 5-week tour in South Texas, courtesy of Rotary International. The high point of that tour was our one-week R & R at the resort island of South Padre. The first thing that I noticed then was that the color of the water in Atlantic was greenish while Pacific Ocean is pure blue. Maybe it has something to do with the kind of algae and other microorganisms that thrive in each ocean.

 Six years ago this week, I was at the opposite end of the US mainland. Together with Shinar, Manang Vi, Shinar’s sister Pilar and Shinar’s nephew Svend, we drove for about 12 hours from Shinar’s place in Missouri before we reached the northernmost tip of Michigan where you can see four of the five great lakes stretched out in different directions. Canada was just a bridge apart. I wrote about that experience and  posted it in My Notes titled “At The GreatLakes On The First Day of Summer 20001. ”

 Time passed by so swiftly. All I did was riding the waves if not backstroking in the swimming pool and it was time to go home. I did not even find time to use my fishing gear. Seashells were very abundant and we have gathered quiet a large collection. By Thursday, we left the place for another 5 hour drive back to our home in Birmingham.                                                    

From the Land of the Amish to the Lake of the Ozarks and other exotic places

 

    July 1, 2001. Bridgewood, CT.  My one-month stint in Shinar‘s place brought me to places I never dreamed to set foot on, many of them I only read in books and magazines.

     On my first Sabbath in the Midwest, we attended a camp meeting held at the campus of Graceland University in the town of Lamoni situated on the state boundary between Missouri and Iowa. A camp meeting is similar to our association rally in the Philippines except that ours is done by district while theirs is conference-wide. The principal speaker was the President of the North American Division. In the afternoon, we took a side trip to visit Jamesport---an Amish country. That was my first time to see the Amish with all their primitive way of life---no electricity, no motorized vehicles, no TV, no nothing. Previously, my Amish knowledge consisted only of occasional articles I read from newspapers and magazines and the movie, The Witness, starring Harrison Ford.

    On Sunday of the following week we made a 3-hour drive to Saint Louis, a city known for its magnificent Gateway Arch. This is also the home of the first aviator to cross the Atlantic, Charles Lindberg---his plane, Spirit of St. Louis, was named after the patron saint of this city. St. Louis lie along the Mississippi River on the boundary of Illinois. From the summit of the Arch you can see the entire St. Louis on the west and a large portion of Illinois on the east. Beneath the ground level of the arch is the Museum of Westward Expansion. From there we went to St. Louis Science Center and the Purina Farms. On our way home, we made a stopover at the tomb of that famous American pioneer Daniel Boone in Marthasville.

    Last June 13 we went to the legendary Lake of the Ozarks. It was the most scenic place in Missouri. We made a stop-over at one 5-star resort hotel, loitered in their spacious terrace then went to the marina and took turns feeding those gigantic carps and catfish with the remnants of hand-baked breads we bought at an Amish bakery the week before. Before reaching the Ozarks, we made a brief stopover at the Harry S. Truman Dam

    The Truman Lake is one of the tributaries to the Lake of the Ozarks before it empties its waters to the snake-winding Missouri River. I learned that President Truman, one of the greatest personalities that Missouri has ever produced was born in Independence a city not far from Kansas.

    On our way back from our Great Lakes Escapades we made a 2-day stopover at the Saldias in Berrien Springs. In the afternoon of June 23 we made a side trip to the Amish Acres, another amish colony in Northern Indiana. We were rather quite a big group consisting of Amy and her 2 kids: Amythst and Don, Shinar, Manang Vi, Shinar’s sister Pilar and Danish nephew Svend together with Pilar’s childhood friends from Chicago, Nenett and Twoots and her son Dwaine.

    Leaving Berrien Springs on our way home to Sweet Springs last Sunday (June 24) we made a brief stopover at Springfield, the state capital of Illinois and the birthplace of President Abraham Lincoln. Shinar’s 11-year old Danish nephew, Svend, contended that that was the place of the Simpson Family (one popular carton series) but considering that there are so many Springfields in the US, we reserved our judgment on the validity of his contention. We posed for some photos with the statue of the 6th US president.

     Reaching Missouri using the northern route we made a stopover at Hannibal, that sleepy little town by the Mississippi which was put on the map of world literature by its most famous resident by the name of Mark Twain. Samuel Clemens in real life, Twain created the two famous fictional characters Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn in his book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. All the fictional characters in that book were based on real people living in Hannibal during his time. We joined the guided tour inside the historical Mark Twain Cave which was a maze of passageways and cracks. What an experience that was!

Going Under

    Last Friday, March 16, 2018, I went under the knife at the G.I. Lab of the Loma Linda University Medical Center. No, not really, I am simply exaggerating a bit. I just went under the gaze of a specialist through a colonoscope. While on our way to the hospital, my sidekick, Trent, asked me “what time is your endoscopy, Kuya?” I told him, “Trent, endoscopy is on the front end, mine is rear-end.” I guess that’s the best way to describe colonoscopy. Trent was supposed to drive my car back to the house once I get to the hospital but decided at the last minute to stay with me throughout the procedure so we parked our car at Building P3 and walked our way to the main building which is just adjacent to it.

    I presented myself to the receptionist at the lobby. Her name is Regina and she and my wife are friends. Earlier that day, she was already informed by my wife that I am coming. As I was standing before her, she asked for my name and birthday while looking at the computer monitor. “Herbolingo!” I said, “H-E-R-B-O…” She looked at me and said, “So, you are…,” “Yes! I am…” She smiled and extended her hand to me. She completed the registration and handed me that gadget that beeps or vibrates when your turn is come.

     A male orderly guided me and Trent to the second floor, brought me to a cubicle with a bed and I was given a hospital gown and a pair of non-slip socks and told me to undress. Trent put away all my personal belongings in a laundry bag and helped me put on the gown. As I laid down on the bed, the pre-op began. My left arm was inserted into a blood pressure cuff, several cold sensors were attached to my chest and back, a tiny clear plastic tube was attached at the end of my right middle finger to measure my body’s oxygen level. “Ninety-six percent!” somebody shouted.

     A nurse was negotiating to find a vein on my left arm where she could poke a needle and create a small opening into my body for the medicines to flow through later. She was not successful. A second nurse came to help. They tried a second location, poked again. Still they could not find any willing vein. Finally, a third nurse came. She must be the best vein finder in their team because I can sense that she exuded confidence. Her confidence soon decimated. She had a hard time either. Then they moved to my right arm and tried several locations. Finally, they found one solitary vein in the middle of my inner arm, grabbed it, punctured it and attached the device that kept it open. After they left, my left arm was still sore and a little numb.

     Another nurse put a mask on my face and told me to breathe deeply under the mask. That I did almost in cadence and what followed next was unforgettable. I can see several people looking down on me. Then gradually, my vision became darker and darker just like a computer monitor whose brightness was gradually adjusted to dark by turning a button. At the same time my hearing became fainter and fainter as if the people around me were getting farther and farther away. It was a battle between my consciousness and the anesthesia concoction that started seeping into my system. Time and again, human consciousness always gives way.

    When I opened my eyes, the anesthesiologist who met with me two days earlier for a pre-anesthesia assessment was beside me smiling. “Hi Hermes, you remember me?” “Oh, yes, I remember you.” I said. He was that boyish looking doctor with a Chinese face. During our pre-anesthesia conference, I asked him, “Are you Chinese?” He said, “Yes, I am Chinese but my last name is Thai.” Feeling confident that my anesthesiologist was already there, I asked him, “So, when will the procedure start?” He smiled again and told me, “The procedure is finished. You were deeply sedated so you did not remember anything.  Shortly, a nurse will hand to you a report. Read it so that you will know the result of the procedure.” Then he looked at the wall clock and said, “You’re good to go now.” The nurses started removing all the attachments to my body. “I’m glad, I am wireless again!” I told them. Everybody smiled.   

Measuring The Unmeasurable

 

“The heart of science is measurement.” - Erik Brynjolfsson

    More than  2,000 years ago,   Eratosthenes  calculated  the size of the Earth  with   reasonable accuracy.  Calculating the Earth’s circumference  (the distance around a circle  or sphere) was his most lasting achievement. He computed this by using simple geometry and trigonometry and by recognizing Earth as a sphere in  space.  Most Greek scholars at the time agreed that   Earth was a sphere,  but none knew how big it was.

   How did Greek scholars know the Earth was a sphere? They observed that departing ships disappeared over the horizon while their masts were still visible. They saw the curved shadow of the Earth on the Moon during lunar eclipses. And they noticed the changing positions of the stars in the sky.

     Eratosthenes heard about a famous well in the Egyptian city of Swenet (Syene in Greek, and now known as Aswan), on the Nile River. At noon one day each year — the summer solstice (between June 20 and June 22) — the Sun’s rays shone straight down into the deep pit. They illuminated only the water at the bottom, not the sides of the well as on other days, proving that the Sun was directly overhead. Syene was located very close to what we call the Tropic of Cancer, about 23.5 degrees north, the northernmost latitude at which the Sun is ever directly overhead at noon.

     Eratosthenes erected a pole in Alexandria, and on the summer solstice he observed that it cast a shadow, proving that the Sun was not directly overhead but slightly south. Recognizing the curvature of the Earth and knowing the distance between the two cities would enable Eratosthenes to calculate the planet’s circumference. To determine the distance between Syene and Alexandria, Eratosthenes hired bematists, professional surveyors trained to walk with equal length steps. They found that Syene lies about 5000 stadia from Alexandria.

     Knowing the vertical height of the pole and the horizontal distance of its shadow as two legs of a right triangle, Eratosthenes determined the angle of the sun’s rays to be 7.2 degrees. That angle is one-fiftieth (1/50) of 360 degrees---the full angle of a circle. Multiplying the distance of the two cities by 50 (5000 x 50)  gave him the circumference of the Earth to be 250,000 stadia or 25,000 miles or 40,000 kilometers!

     Today, orbiting satellites routinely measure the earth’s circumference to be 24,901 miles. Eratosthenes’ ancient calculation  is only 00.4% off the modern measurement which is a remarkable feat considering the crude technology of his time.

A diagram showing how Eratosthenes measured the Earth

 

The Search For Truth

 

“Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” – John 18:38.

    Every time I come across the biblical passage in John 18:38, I have some feelings of regret. I would play the scenario in my mind: what if, Pilate lingered a little more to hear what would be Jesus’ answer to his philosophical question? Of course, the Bible is replete with Jesus’ expositions of what truth is. And yet, I am still interested on what Jesus would have said on this occasion. But Pilate, being a typical politician was not really interested in finding the truth. He was more concerned with pleasing the mob to improve his approval rating. 

     So, what is truth? That’s the first question that came to mind once I decided to write a book about truth. The dictionary defines truth as “the state or quality of being true.” Not a very satisfying definition. So I researched some more and unknowingly entered into an unfamiliar territory, an area of knowledge called philosophy and epistemology where I encountered many exotic terminologies so foreign to me. Anyways, my brief incursions and wanderings paid off by giving me a deeper understanding about truth.

     Accordingly, there are quite a number of views or theories of truth. But since I am not writing a treatise on philosophy, but just a simple book for the average man on the street, I would limit our discussion to only two views of truth: (1) Correspondence View, and (2) Coherence View.

     Correspondence View states that a proposition must correspond with a fact or event in order to be acknowledged as truth. If I say, “two plus two equals four!” nobody will disagree with me because I can always produce two bananas and another two bananas to make it four bananas! Mathematical truths are good illustrations of this view. Another area which is a good example of this view is history. When I say that “The World Trade Center in New York was destroyed on September 11, 2001 by smashing commercial jetliners on its towers”  I am stating a historical fact, never mind the conspiracy theorists’ claim that it was perpetrated by the deep state.

     Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969. But did it really happen? Quite lately, a certain group of people circulated a story about how we never landed on the Moon. The questioning intensified after the Fox television network aired ''Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?'' Those who doubt the Apollo moon landings maintained the United States lacked the technology to send humans to the Moon and was so desperate to appear to win the space race against the Soviet Union that it faked the moon mission on movie sets. They suggested that the shooting was done at a desert in Nevada.

     The doubters said the fake was done so poorly that there is ample evidence of fraud, including a picture of astronauts planting the American flag that allegedly shows the flag rippling in the wind. The skeptics contended there can be no breeze on the moon, so the picture must have been faked.

     Now, this may sound a trivial issue to some but come to think of it. Did man really land on the moon on July 20, 1969? If you believe so, what is the basis of your belief? Did you ever make a critical, unbiased study on whether this event really happened? Personally, I believe that it happened because I saw it on TV and heard it over the radio. But is it enough evidence? Can you believe everything you see on TV and hear on radio? Fortunately, I can enumerate some more proofs to back up my claim of its truthfulness:

1.     The astronauts who landed on the moon have returned and can testify that they were there and they are still with us.

2.     Both the NASA and the Soviet Space Agency staffed by hundreds of scientists and engineers have monitored the entire process of the moon landing and they have records of that activity in their archives.

3.     The astronauts have brought with them moon rocks and those rocks were studied and scrutinized by hundreds of scientists throughout the world.

4.     The moon landing was not a single event. It was repeated several times. Apollo 11 was followed by Apollo 12, 14, 15 and 16 and all have been successful. Twelve people in all.

     But what amazed me was the fact that, in spite of the overwhelming evidence of the truthfulness about the moon landing, there are still a group of people who sincerely believe it did not take place.

     It happened in LA a few years ago. One of those unbelievers by the name Bart Sibrel confronted astronaut Buzz Aldrin at a Beverly Hills hotel and demanded that Aldrin swear on a Bible that he had in fact walked on the moon. Aldrin, the second man ever to touch the lunar surface, who was already in his 70s by this time, punched the 37-year-old Sibrel in the face. Sibrel asked that assault charges be filed, but Los Angeles County prosecutors declined. A videotape of the incident showed Sibrel following Aldrin on the street with a Bible and calling him a ''thief, liar and coward,'' one prosecutor said.

     The second view, the Coherence View states that a belief or a proposition is true if it “coheres” or is consistent with the other things a person believes to be true. ^[1] Let me illustrate. Last year, there was a picture of a father from the Philippines which made rounds in Facebook. The picture showed him holding a placard which said “My daughters (2 doctors, 2 nurses) are working in America,” followed by the pictures and names of his daughters. At the bottom, he scribbled: “I’m an old man now. Send me food. I worked hard in Saudi [Arabia] to send you to school.”

     That picture generated so much sympathy for the father and ignited hatred and contempt towards the four “ungrateful” daughters among Facebook users. I, too, was incensed when I first saw it. But then, I came to my better senses and said to myself: Wait a minute, something is not right here. There must be a very grave reason why all the four daughters abandoned their father. Such despicable act runs counter against the fabric of the hollowed culture and tradition among Filipinos. It is simply not believable! So I withheld my judgment on the issue.

     The following day, one of the daughters spoke up also in Facebook. This was her version of the story: Their father abandoned them when they were still small and went away with a younger woman. It was their god-fearing mother who raised them alone and worked hard to put all of them to school. When they finished college and already working as medical professionals, their father, who was already old, contacted them asking for financial support so they took turns giving him financial allowance on a regular basis. But the father complained that the amount they were giving is not enough and he wanted his daughters to also provide financial support to his still small children with the other woman because he is no longer capable of working. Moreover, he threatened them that if they will not support his other children, he would embarrass them in Facebook.

     Now, who is telling the truth: the father or the daughter? Weighing the claims of both sides, I can immediately say that the daughter is telling the truth because her explanation is more coherent. Later on, the daughter’s claim was re-enforced by the concurrence and public testimonies from friends and relatives who know the family well.

     Today, pebbles of truth, mixed with clumps of lies, half-truths and falsehood are scattered all around---including the social media. It is our moral obligation to gather the pebbles to build our own structure of reality.

Falling Apples And Ocean Tides

    Up to the 17th century, our scientific knowledge was largely influenced by the Aristotelian thought. Aristotle's worldview can be summarized by the following fundamental principles:

§  Geocentric. The Earth is stationary and is at the center of the universe or cosmos. The moon, planets and the sun revolve around the Earth, completing a revolution about every 24 hours.

§  The universe is divided into two regions. The region between the Earth and the Moon (including the Earth itself) is called the sublunar region and the region beyond the Moon is the superlunar region.

§  In the sublunar region, there are four basic elements, these being earth, water, air, and fire. 

§  Objects in the superlunar region like the sun and planets are composed of a fifth basic element called ether.

     In Aristotle’s geocentric model, the basic elements move toward their “natural place.” To accomplish this, the universe is divided into four concentric spheres. The first sphere is the Earth itself. Surrounding the Earth is a concentric sphere that is the natural realm of water, surrounded by the natural realm of air, and  then  the  natural realm  of  fire above that.  Thus,  Earth sinks in water,  water sinks in the air,  and flames rise above  air.  Everything gravitates  toward  its natural  place  in Aristotle’s worldview,  and  it comes  across as fairly consistent with our intuitive understanding and basic observations about how the world works.

     In 1608, a Dutch spectacle maker, Hans Lippershey, announced a new lens-based instrument that made distant objects appear much closer.  The instrument would later be called “telescope.” The following year, Galileo Galilei heard about the Dutch “perspective glasses” and within days had designed one of his own---without ever seeing one.  Other astronomers and natural philosophers followed suit and trained the sights of their new instrument to the heavens. The telescope enabled them to see more objects in space. Galileo was able to make out mountains and craters on the moon, as well as a ribbon of diffuse light arching across the sky — the Milky Way. He also discovered the rings of Saturn, sunspots and four of Jupiter's moons. But the most profound and startling discovery was that the Earth is not the center of the universe. The observers discovered that all planets revolve around the sun---including Earth itself. Thus Aristotle’s worldview was proven wrong!

     The geocentric model was not the only prevailing view at the time. As early as the third century BC, Aristarchus of Samos proposed heliocentrism---the idea that the Earth and the planets revolve around the Sun. But Aristarchus’ heliocentrism attracted little attention---possibly because of the loss of scientific works of the Hellenistic period.  Aristotle was so influential that his geocentric model was embraced by the Roman Catholic Church and became part of her doctrines.

     When Galileo began proclaiming that geocentrism is wrong, that the planets, including Earth revolve around the Sun, he was arrested and accused of being a heretic for opposing church’s teachings. In 1633, he was tried and condemned before the Roman Catholic Inquisition. The crime of heresy was punishable by death. But because of Galileo’s stature in the scientific community, he was cleared of charges of heresy, but was placed under house arrest and told that he should no longer publicly state his belief that Earth moved around the Sun. He was under house arrest for 8 years until his death in1642 at the age of 77. It took the Church more than 350 years before Pope John Paul II issued an apology in 1996 to rectify one of the Church’s most infamous wrongs. 

     During Newton’s time, Aristotle’s geocentric worldview was practically debunked and the heliocentric model became the accepted norm in the scientific world. But for serious thinkers, a scientific question remains: Why do planets revolve around the sun? Isaac Newton was still a young university student when he began pondering on the problem. He understood that the planets revolve around the Sun because the Sun pulls them toward itself. But why don’t they just fall in and burned up? It is because these planets are initially in sideward motion. Just like when you tie an object with a string, when you swing around while holding the other end of the string, the object orbits around you. The force that pulls the planets toward the Sun is called gravity.

     In 1665 the Great Plague epidemic hit London in which a quarter of the city's population would die. Just like what we do today, they practiced "social distancing" to contain the outbreak. Schools were closed and students were sent home. Young Isaac Newton went home to Woolsthorpe Manor, his family's estate about 60 miles northwest of Cambridge. The epidemic lasted 18 months which gave Newton ample time to work on the gravity problem in the comfort of home.

     One late afternoon he was in the garden when he saw an apple drop from a tree. There’s no evidence to suggest the fruit actually landed on his head. But it was an “aha moment” for Newton.  He came to the realization that the force that pulls the apple to the earth is the same kind of force that keeps the planets in orbit around the sun. And while the Earth is pulling the apple, the apple is also pulling the Earth but since the Earth is so massive and the apple so relatively tiny, it’s the apple that comes to the Earth and not the Earth to the apple. Just like a small boat and a large ship floating stationary on the ocean pulling each other. Eventually, it’s the boat that moves toward the ship and not the other way around. Each object in the universe pulls every other object! That’s how Newton came up with the Universal Law of Gravitation.

     The universal law of gravitation  became  one of the prime movers  in the rapid advances of science and technology.  But the law is far from perfect.  Newton’s  mathematical model fails  when the objects are too massive and/or the distances are infinitesimally small. It took more than 200 years before Albert Einstein  came  up with his Theory of Relativity  effectively  superseding  Newton’s law.  Although  the theory of  relativity  is  more precise,  it is cumbersome  and  unwieldy to apply.  Today,  engineers  and scientists  still use  Newton’s law  in  space exploration  and  when calculating  trajectories  of  ballistic missiles or passing comets.

 

 

 

This one’s for the movies... but what a scary experience for my family

    Monday, December 2, 2019.  Our house in the village of Calaitan lies alongside the road that connects the city of Bayugan to some towns of Surigao del Sur due east traversing through a lumber-rich mountainous forest. It is a proposed national highway but during the mid 80s, it was still a private road owned and maintained by the logging company that operated in the area. During this time, I was teaching at the state university in Marawi and my two brothers were working as radio broadcasters in Davao City. Only my younger sisters, a nephew and a niece were in the house with my parents.

     Let me quote what I have written earlier titled ‘Mother’s Day Musings:’ “In those days, no public transport reached our place. But the mobility problem of the farmer residents was somehow eased by the generosity of the company drivers who gave rides to people they pass by hiking on the side of the road or waiting at some designated areas. On many instances you can see a comical but scary sight of dozens of people sitting on top of logs or on top of mounds of gravel of trucks racing at breakneck speed along the unpaved winding road risking lives and limbs. Seat belts were unheard of in our village.”

     One day, an Army sergeant passed by hiking. He was accompanied by a civilian paramilitary man which also served as his close-in security aide.  About one kilometer away from our house, the duo was ambushed by a band of communist rebels. Though they were wounded they were able to return fire and radioed their base in Bayugan for re-enforcement.  The base assured them that re enforcement is coming shortly. A helicopter gunship was also dispatched from the 4th ID headquarters in Cagayan de Oro toward our place.

     On the opposite side of the road fronting our house was a water canal that became so deep at the passing of time due to erosion caused by the constant flow of water in a sloping terrain towards the river below.  At that time the canal was already around 7 feet deep covered with vegetation on the sides. Without the knowledge of my parents and our neighbors, dozens of communist rebels were hiding there that day. They were part of the larger group that ambushed the sergeant an hour earlier.

     When the army soldiers arrived, the rebels engaged them to a firefight right in front of our house. My family dove into the foxhole under our house. That foxhole was dug by my father solely for protection in the event something like this happens. When the helicopter gunship arrived, the rebels scattered and retreated to higher grounds toward the banana plantation and the wooded wilderness beyond where they were methodically and surgically cut down by the helicopter’s automatic fire.

     After the gunbattle, my father checked everyone and thankfully no one was harmed. But our family dog was missing. I forgot the name of that dog now. Perhaps my nephew, Inggo, can help me jog my memory.

     After three days, you could smell the stench of rotting and decaying human flesh from the direction of the banana plantation and beyond. Then they saw our dog weakly coming up from the direction of the river. He looked so emaciated, shivering and was dripping wet.

     Looking back through those tumultuous years, I cannot help but be amazed at times at how my family suffered and survived. I lost a brother, almost lost my mother and a sister. I even almost lost my two other brothers. Each of these episodes have their own story, some are yet to be written.                                      

                                    

A Robbery That Happened In Bohol

     Tiya Leoning was my father’s elder sister. In her younger days, she studied at the Rafael Palma College in Tagbilaran, Bohol. Years later, when the school attained university status, it was renamed the University of Bohol which is still existing until this day. During weekends and other non-school days, Tiya Leoning would stay at her first cousin’s home in Calunasan in the town of Calape to help the family tend their their sari-sari store at the ground floor of their two-storey house which is the largest in the village. Her cousin, Isidoro and his wife, Felomina, had two college-age daughters Demy and Winnie who were  at  home  that time. A third daughter, Lily was in Cebu studying Medicine.

    On the evening of March 29, 1963, after a busy day, the family retired in their respective bedrooms in the upper floor after closing the doors and windows and extinguishing off all the available lights. Not long after, Isidoro heard a noise somewhere in the house. He called on Filomena who was in the adjoining room and requested her to light up the gas lamp nearby to check what’s happening. As soon as the light brightened the room, she realized that she was facing a gun pointed at her by an unknown man. The man asked Filomena for her money. Filomina gave the man her cash box with ten pesos inside. When the man saw that the cash box only contained  ten pesos, he got mad, pointed the gun closer and even pulled her blouse violently. Then the man entered the adjoining room where Isidoro was standing with hands raised and shot him. He also shot Filomina but missed. He then pushed Felomina out of the room.

    Another  man outside demanded that the door be opened. The intruder inside ordered Filomena to open the door and came in the second man with a revover and a flashlight. There was a third man outside acting as a look-out who would fire his gun every now and then to scare away any neighbor that might come to the family’s aid.

    Filomena and the rest of the house occupants: her two daughters, Tiya Leoning, her niece named Anastacia and a 10-year old nephew Cesario were all herded in the living room while the two men ransacked all the rooms, drawers and cupboards, looking for money and other valuables. After a while, the look-out outside shouted to his companions, “Let’s go, na, Bai, I am running low on ‘seeds’ (meaning, ‘bullets’).”

    After the men left, they checked on each other and thanked God that nothing happened to them physically except for Filomena who was sustaining a head wound caused by the butt of the gun inflicted on her by the first intruder. But Isidoro was not there among them. So they searched the whole house. In one corner, was a mound of  clean laundry while the basket which used to contain them  was overturned nearby. The daughters began to pick up the laundry. That’s when they discovered that those laundry were used by the killers to hide the body of Isidoro sprawled on the floor, bloody and dead. 

    A few days later, the robbers were nabbed by the authorities in the nearby town of Ubay. The police identified them through the physical descriptions provided by Filomena. They were thrown in jail and the protracted legal battle began.

     Isidoro has a cousin in Cebu who is a lawyer. He was the only lawyer of the family at that time. He finished law in the University of the Philippines a few years earlier and passed the bar exam the previous year. The task of assisting the government lawyers prosecute the case fell on his shoulders.

    On July 26 of that year, the Court of First Instance of Bohol, Branch 1 convicted the three robbers. They were meted the harshest penalty: death by electric chair.  Fourteen years later, on October 18, 1977, the Supreme Court of the Philippines en banc affirmed the decision of the lower court.

    The family lawyer who helped prosecute the case gradually rose to prominence. Eventually, he would become the 20^th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. On June 30, 2004, he officiated the swearing in of President Gloria Arroyo after Erap Estrada was ousted by the People’s Power, Part 2. After his retirement, he was appointed by Arroyo as the Philippines’ Permanent Representative to the United Nations. His name is Hilario Gelbolingo Davide Jr.

 

A pose with the 20th Chief Justice when I visited him at his residence in Cebu in 2016 with cousin Estrella Herbolingo Melgazo from Australia

Courtesy call on Governor Hilario Davide III at his office in Cebu Provincial Capitol. Beside me is Atty. Orvi Ortega, provincial legal officer. At the governor's left side is Jessie Melgazo, my childhood friend and neighbor.

The Bonfire, the singing and...the fall, ugh!

 

    I left Loma Linda a little past noon of August 26, 2011 gearing for a long drive.  At 2:15 pm, I stopped in front of Mommy Rebing Galope and Manong Ananaias' place along Robertson Blvd in downtown LA. They were already waiting for me. It took just a few minutes to put their belongings into the trunk of my car and off we went.

     It was a Friday and traffic was quite heavy along Highway 101. As I drove on this familiar route, memories flooded back in my mind. I have been traversing this route countless times when I was teaching in Oxnard and spending my weekends in Loma Linda. That was long time ago. After nine years, our church's camping in Lake Casitas gave me more than enough reason to traverse this strip of highway again.

     We arrived at around 5 PM at the entrance of the Recreation Area. The Osprey campground where we were assigned is situated at an elevated area along the northern shore giving us a spectacular view of the lake around 500 feet below. We were the second group to arrive. The first to arrive at around 3 PM was John Shue and Christina Brown,  Liza's friends who drove all the way from the San Francisco Bay area. In a few minutes, Brian, the musician, arrived with the the Amoras: Rudy, Glady and Joy.

     While Mommy Rebing prepared our dinner, we set up our tents. I had brought with me a new tent good for 4 persons but since I decided to sleep in my car, I gave my tent to Brian. Later on, Keni, Robert and Dan would join Brian in that tent throughout the duration of the camping. Since we were still very few, we held our vesper service around a table and dinner followed.

      An hour later, Dan Belding called me asking for direction. They have already entered the Recreation Area but could not locate our exact position. Together with Dan in his vehicle were: Elder Bobby Gevera, Robert, Keni and Junjun. Liza and  Farid, with their dog Wrinkle, arrived next followed by Pastor Ace. Dan was requested by Bobby to return to LA to fetch Sister Elsie, Keni, and Robert. They were able to arrive at the camp before the 10:00 PM closing time.

    Sabbath morning, we had our sunrise worship at a designated place with Elder Bobby as the devotional speaker. More campers arrived early morning. Pastor Ace's daughter together with 2 cousins of Liza arrived in a white Toyota Corolla. Pastor Ace drove back to Camarillo early morning to pick up his parents. Aileen and Aldrin arrived in a blue Mustang. Melody and her 4-year old daughter, Ela arrived, too, in a red car .

    During the Sabbath School, John Shue shared a mission story and I moderated the lesson discussion about true worship. The divine service speaker was Pastor Ace. Brian, the Amoras, Aileen and Aldrin and the young ladies took turns giving the special songs.

    It was very heartwarming and so inspiring worshiping God in the midst of His vast creation. While singing or listening messages, we could not help but gaze on the serene lake below disturbed only by occasional boaters cruising every now then. A couple of model airplanes in attractive colors displayed their acrobatic prowess, rising high in spiral path and diving so low that they almost touch the water and still managed to land safely in their miniature runway complete with white lines and markings just beside the lake.

     In the afternoon, the Santa Ana winds started blowing non-stop. The model airplanes returned to their miniature hangars and the birds took their place, gliding effortlessly above the lake powered by the warm winds but ready to swoop down when a fish was spotted.

    Our youth program led by Liza consisted of singing, Bible games and a group dynamics titled The Life Saving Station which I introduced. Treasure hunting was originally planned but was scrapped because of the ferocious wind. During the sundown devotional, I talked about the earth, moon, planets, solar system, galaxies and the great God who created all these.

    After dinner, we started gathering around a bonfire. Brian started singing the familiar country songs mostly by John Denver. He even accepted special requests that I dubbed him The Non-stop Country Station. All the while, I was moving around taking photos experimenting with low light from the bonfire and in combination with the flash. Then it happened.

     I was going to the other side when my right foot stepped upon nothing. My left knee suddenly bearing my entire weight twisted as my left foot reluctantly followed my right foot. My left hand was still holding my camera while my right hand tried to grab on to something solid to hold on. There was nothing solid but thorny thickets.

     I was still in a state of shock when I realized I stopped falling and all around me was darkness. I heard a commotion of voices above me and I heard my name being called a number of times. I tried to stand only to realize that my two feet have nothing to stand on and I slid again into a seemingly bottomless pit. That was when I realized that I fell in the ravine toward the lake some 500 feet below. I could feel the loose gravel grinding at my back and the thorny thickets brushing on my right arm while the voices above me were receding. Then suddenly my sliding stopped again. But I learned my lesson and I laid still. I know that the moment I started moving I would slide down further.

     When everything seemed to stand still, I realized that the darkness was gone. A number of flashlights were pointed in my direction but still I dared not to look down what's below me. I was afraid that if I turn my head downward, I would start rolling down. Then they called me if I was not hurt. I answered that I am okay. I told them that if someone can take the camera from my left hand and they could throw me a rope, I can use both my hands to raise myself up using the rope. They told me to lay still because they were calling for help. Then I heard Farid telling me that he was coming down toward me.

    When Farid came within arm's distance, I gave him my camera and he slid a little further below perhaps positioning himself to catch me if I slid down further. I asked him what is below us and he told me that a rock surface was protruding slightly and there's a big shrub on the side and that was where he anchored himself.

     The paramedics and the fire engine Rescue 22 from the Ventura County Fire Department arrived. A firefighter whose name I would know later as Shanon climbed down to my location to visually assess my situation whether I was hurt. He asked me several questions testing my coherence and alertness. I told him that there were some bruises in my arms because of the thorny thickets and the loose gravel and I felt some cramps on my left knee probably because of non-movement. Then he helped me stand on my feet on a 75 degree incline with loose gravel. He asked me to move my arms and knees, shift my weight from left leg to right leg and vice versa, wiggle my toes.

     Another firefighter climbed down, and a harness was lowered. The two firefighters helped strap the harness around me, the harness was then attached to a rope and I climbed as the rope was pulled up. Farid was also thrown a rope and he climbed after me. After I reached the top, another paramedic attended to me, examining different parts of my body and offered to bring me to the hospital for test and observation which I graciously declined.

     It took me a while to realize after the paramedics left that my left knee was sprained and I mistook the pain as cramps. Mommy Rebing and Manong Ananaias took out their muscle rub and massaged my knee while applying the ointment liberally. That night, I slept very little in my car probably because my body was still awash with adrenalin. In the morning, the pain in my knee was getting intense that I could hardly get out of the car. I had to keep it moving sideward where it did not hurt to keep the blood circulating and very gradually I got out of the car to join the morning worship where we thanked the Lord that in spite of the scary happening the night before, the Lord did not forsake His children.

     After breakfast, we broke camp. We were ready to leave behind the scenic place that became our home for two days. The shared experiences, the communion with God amidst nature, the songs, the laughter and the camaraderie, the mental images of the serene lake, the birds and the model airplanes, including my scary fall into the dark ravine will forever be part of our collective memory.