inFINITE Fate

Browsing through status updates in Facebook, I saw Ate Nice's post: "beating the heat with halo-halo from neighborhood store." I decided to make a quick search of halo-halo in Wikipedia for my TILT: Halo-halo was featured as a Quickfire Challenge dish in the seventh episode of the fourth season of the American reality television series Top Chef. Video game Dead or Alive 4 secret character Nicole lists this food as her favorite, which is probably a pun on the Halo video game universe she is from. The Black Eyed Peas make a reference to halo-halo in their song, "Mare", taken from their fifth studio album, The E.N.D.. That's all. Now I'm off to find a neighborhood halo-halo...

This day marks the 1st anniversary of Facebook's LIKE button that can be installed in your website (or blog post)! Try it below: UPDATE (4/23/2011): For those asking how to place the like button in your blog post, the long answer is here , while the short answer is to copy-paste the following code in the HTML editor of your blog (for Blogger, click the "Edit HTML" in the new/edit post page): <iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=[ replace this with your blog URL] &amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;font&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;height=80" style="border: none; height: 80px; overflow: hidden; width: 450px;"></iframe> Make sure to replace the value of the href tag with the URL (web address) of your blog post!

Amazingly, today's TILT is from Disney Channel! =) During a commercial of Phineas and Ferb, it was mentioned that the platypus is the only mammal that lays egg. So I made a little research and came out with the following: Technically, it is one of the five species of monotremes (mammals that lay eggs) It has the bill of  a duck The tail of a beaver And the feet of an otter It is venomous, capable of causing severe pain to humans

Project TILT for today: difference between Blogger's Stats and Google Analytics. One of the reasons I switched to Blogger is the built-in stats function where I can see number of page views in the different posts, sources of traffic, and demographics of my visitors. Sample screenshot:  Blogger's stats functions, however, pale in comparison with Google Analytic's very rich features. Among my favorites are: Statistics for Absolute Unique Visitors Statistics for New and Returning Visitors Average Time on Site per Visitor Keywords used in Search Engine that leads to my site and many more! One prerequisite for Google Analytics, however, is to have your own domain name, which is really cheap nowadays.

LTE Modem from Samsung Bombarded by so many "launching of 4G technology" news today, I decided to research more on the subject. Here are a few things that I learned: Obviously, 4G is the successor of the 3G and 2G family of standards. ITU (International Telecommunication Union) established International Mobile Telecommunications Advanced (IMT-Advanced) Standard which defines the peak speed requirements for 4G standards, as follows: 100 Mbit per second for high mobility communication (e.g., trains, cars) 1 Gbit per second for low mobility communiaction (e.g., walking, stationary) Technically, only two standards under development have been accorded the official designation of "IMT-Advanced": LTE Advanced and WirelessMan Advanced. As the most advanced technology for wireless communication, IMT-Advanced is considered as "4G", however, current versions of LTE, WiMax, and other evolved 3G Technologies could be considered as "4G" provided that ...

Got this one from Vic's Facebook post. Since I have no TILT for yesterday, I will ante-date this post to make up for the gap. An April 13, 2011 article  in New York Times featured a story about P&G and Unilever in Europe being fined due to price-fixing. Another company, Henkel, escaped the fine by being the whistle-blower of the cartel. The cartel operated from 2002 to 2005 and affected the price of laundry detergents in Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. In exchange for a 10% reduction in fine, P&G and Unilever admitted involvement in the cartel. I'm just shocked that even in progressive countries in Europe, where there are strict anti-trust laws, the cartel was able to operate for more than three years. I wouldn't be surprise if cartels in various industries are operating here in our country for decades now.

Smart's Fun Familia once again treated us with free tickets to Enchanted Kingdom! I took this opportunity to get the name of EK's mascot which I already knew before but have already forgotten. His name is Eldar and his face can be seen in almost all the gift shop items inside the park. Eldar, in Hebrew, means "god resides", while in Norse, means "warrior who fights with fire". I have no idea why EK chose this name for their mascot.

This was supposed to be my post for yesterday. However, since I have many TILT materials yesterday, I decided to post this topic for today. So tecchnically, this is not a TILT, rather a YILT (Yesterday, I learned that...). Hehe. Anyway, on to the topic. Early this morning, my officemates and I were talking about one of our other officemate's child who is suspected to have Kawasaki Syndrome. Not knowing what this sickness is, we decided to check it out it the Internet. Salient points about it: Symptoms: Persistent fever higher than 39 degrees Celsius and lasting for more than 5 days Severe redness in the eyes Stomach, chest, or genital rash Red, dry, cracked lips Swollen nymph-nodes Cause: unknown Effect: if the symptoms are recognized early, fully recovery can be attained within a few days. Untreated, it can lead to serious complications that can affect the heart. Other information: Most common among children of Japanese and Korean descent, but can affect all ethnic gro...

Once again, my TILT for today came from Ibyang . Here are a few words with their origins: Salary - comes from the word "salarium" which, during Roman Empire, is thought to be an allowance given to soldiers for the purchase of salt. Based on my trusted friend Wikipedia, however, salarium may also refer to money given to soldiers for conquering salt supplies and guard the Salt Roads. Pencil - comes from the Latin word penis, which means "tail". Cappuccino - this word is inspired by a Catholic Order of Monks known as Capuchin. They earned this name because of the long and pointy hood, called "capuche", that they wear. The brown shade of the hood gave rise to the name of the coffee drink.

While reading Mockingjay (Book 3 of the Hunger Games Trilogy), I encountered this word -- wherewithal. Come again? Where-with-al? It is literally my first time to see this word, so I instantly know what my TILT for today would be. According to Wiktionary, wherewithal is a noun representing the ability and means required to accomplish some task. In the book, it was used to illustrate the knowledge, opportunity, and courage needed by one of the characters to warn the protagonist of the impending danger.

The first thief in the Bible is Eve. Theft is defined as the illegal taking of a property without the owner's freely-given consent. Of course, in the creation story, the fruit of knowledge is the "property" taken without the owner's (God) consent.  Thieving, stealing, and pilfering are common action items in the different Final Fantasy games. Aside from these, many movies have stealing as the main plot involving the story's protagonists (e.g., Ocean's 11). While playing those games and watching those movies, it is quite "cool" to do/view these acts because we are looking at the taker's perspective. I learned the hard way that it is definitely "not cool" if you are the person whose items are stolen.

In preparation for the upcoming Thor movie, I bought a norse mythology book and browsed marvel's site for information about Thor. Although I'm an avid mythology fan, most stories that I know are from Greek, Roman, and Philippine myths. What I know about Norse mythology, which makes it unique from other cuture's myth, is that the gods in Norse mythology are doomed to die during Ragnarok or the final battle. Back to Thor, Marvel's version is very interesting to read based from the short outline of his timeline in their website. Starting from his banishment to Earth, to his eventual rulership of Asgard. Of course, these did not actually happen in the original Norse mythology, wherein he killed and was killed by Jormungand (the serpent). Thor is set to hit the big screens on May 6, 2011. Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

All biological creatures die. Even if one survives predators, diseases, malnutrition, and accident, it is inevitable that one would die due to senescence. Senescence, or biological aging , is the change in the biology of an organism as it ages after its maturity ( Wikipedia ). In other words, it is simply dying from old age. However, there are at least two beings that may  not be susceptible to senescence: (a) the Turritopsis nutricula  (immortal jellyfish), and (b) the simple fresh-water genus  hydra . As such, these creatures are deemed biologically immortal !

Pokemon's thirty-eight episode entitled  Dennō Senshi Porygon (Computer/Electric Soldier Porygon) caused seizures to at least 658 Japanese viewers when it was aired on December 16, 1997. The seizure was caused by red and blue flashes at extremely fast rate, triggering photosensitive seizures in which the stimuli can cause altered consciousness (Wikipedia). Because of this incident, this episode was not rebroadcasted worldwide. So, if you're watching cartoons/anime, and there are flashing lights (even if it is not red), it's better to look away from the screen until the flashing stops. =)

Another history-related TILT. Ever wonder what is the name of our archipelago (or at  least, a significant part of it), before the Spaniards came and named it Las Islas Felipinas? Well, here is a short list of probable  names that ancient people used to refer to our country. Please note, however, that these are not 100% authoritative as most of these were derived based on assumptions and reasonable conclusions. Ophir - place where King Solomon obtained the gold he used to build his temple (Friar Aganduru Morris) Maniolas (Ptolemy). According to José Rizal, "Maniolas" was what Ptolemy used when he referred to the city of Manila itself, Tawalisi for the whole Philippines, and Baroussai when referring to the Visayas. Liu-Kiu (Suis) Ma-i (Sung Dynasty). During the Ming Dynasty, according to the Chinese Annals, Ma-i (or Ma-yi) refers either to Mindoro or Manila. Scattered Islands of the South Pacific (Marco Polo) I personally like the idea of the Philippines being "Oph...

Taking a break from studying for my Finance Exams tomorrow, I grabbed Ambeth Ocampo's Death by Garrote, Looking Back 3 and started reading some articles. What struck me most is the love story between one of our national heroes, Andres Bonifacio, and his wife Gregoria de Jesus. In 1983, Andres (almost 30 years old at that time), was already a widower. His first wife, Monica, was a leper. He started courting Gregoria who was just 18 years old at that time. Within six months, Andres was able to swept Gregoria off her feet and they planned to get married. Gregoria's parents, however, did not agree to their wedding plans and they locked up Gregoria in a safehouse in Binondo. Gregoria even wrote to the Gobernadorcillo asking for help. Her letter reads: "I am Gregoria de Jesus from Caloocan, a dalagang Tagalog, minor. I wish to contract marriage with my fiance Andres Bonifacio of 11-E Sagunto Street, Tondo. When my parents found out of our good intentions, I was brought here,...

To avoid the perils of having stagnant brain (and blog), I'm going to start a daily project I will call Project TILT. This is an acronym for "Today, I Learned That". Basically, I would blog one new learning that I gained for the day, everyday. Hopefully, this will ensure that I do learn something new every time I wake up and face the world out there. I got the idea of having a daily project from Armel who currently has his Project Lookbook and Daily Doodle . Since suiting up and creative drawing are both not my forte, I decided doing something that is close to my heart. Beside, if I'm planning to do this everyday, I need to make sure that I will not eventually get bored. BTW, although today is the official first day for this, I will create two Project TILT posts for yesterday and the other day. Those trivia actually helped me in deciding what daily project I would work on. For now, I will end this post and hopefully have my TILT post for today before going to ...

Ibyang forwarded an email this morning regarding the [erroneous] use of the word full-pledged . Based on the email, the correct term is full-fledged . Doing a quick search of "full-pledged" in google resulted in: Apparently, Google already knows that it is wrong. Quote from the original email: The term has its roots in the  adjective   fledged , which means a young bird having wing feathers that are large enough for flight. On a figurative level, the term  fledged  refers to a person or thing that have just taken on the role specified.  Example : Our discipline is so new fledged that the FBI had to take its cases to the Smithsonian for analysis. By the way, the email was sent to Ibyang by their speaker (Ms. Janet Villa) in Effective Business Writing.

While conversing with my dear kambal , she gave out the trivia that the Christmas story (birth of Christ) is mentioned only in two out of the four Gospels, particularly in Matthew and Luke. Digging deeper into this trivia, I learned that: Luke's story takes place mostly before the birth of Jesus and centers on Mary Matthew's story takes place mostly after the birth of Jesus and centers on Joseph The birth and life of Christ as a child comprises around 10% of the text of Luke In Luke, Jesus was visited by the shepherds In Matthew, Magi coming the East visited to worship Christ