The City of the Living Dead

It's just a couple of days until All Saint's Day. Time to go to cemeteries to remember our departed loved ones. I checked Google to look at one cemetery here in Makati, the Manila South Cemetery. The graves form a grid with semblance to a real urban landscape.

 Zooming out just makes the similarity more obvious.

Zoom out some more and you'll see houses and buildings look like magnified graves.

 The city sure looks like a graveyard from up above.

Well, we're all just dead corpses scuttling around and about, getting busy dying, gradually rotting in this stinking graveyard called life. Happy Halloween!

Quantified Corruption

A bunch of senseless rants follows.

***
Corruptibility Coefficients

An amazing visualization tool to sort of understand the complex network of the pork barrel fund money flow.
http://www.rappler.com/nation/38526-visualizing-pork-barrel-scandal-ties

Consider, they were able to derive the following values from their data for each of the politicians:

Betweenness Centrality	Weighted Degree	Clustering Coefficient	Eigenvector Centrality	Closeness Centrality

From here, can we derive another number, the Corruptibility Tendency  Coefficients defined as:
 - a coefficient that indicates the possibility that the politician is taking the pork barrel funds for themselves and therefore tend to be corrupt. The closer this value to a certain threshold, the higher the possibility for corruption.

Let's call those thesholds, the Napoles Thresholds (like the Schwarzschild radius but these are more a social indicator than a universal constant.)

Political science theorist in collaboration with mathematicians, physicists can create theories.
The Napoles investigation will be the experimental proof for the hypotheses.

From accounting data, these can be generated annually and analysed.

This will not serve as an evidence, merely an advanced warning system. A precaution and then a deterrent for politicians thinking of misusing these funds.

***

Deserved Corruption

 I had an absurd idea way back that corruption should not be seen in a negative light. It is the degree of corruption and person that is doing it that should matter.

If a politician is doing great work to his people, he should be allowed a certain amount of kickbacks from the projects he is able to implement successfully. Like a 20,000 peso cellphone gift as kickback for a multi-million peso housing project that benefited a thousand homeless families. The politician deserved that cellphone didn't he. It should serve as an incentive, a motivation to do better on all his projects.

Compare corruption to the Yakult good bacteria. Bad if too many doses.

I said it was absurd, didn't I.

***

The Science of Politics

In our local government, the people running for govt positions during elections have established some kind of process, pointers, strategies for campaigning.
- tips to cover the most areas during one motorcade.
- a list of funerals, birthday parties, graduations which will be held during the campaign period (a list which is shared and distributed among running mates)
- the correct size of shorts to wear to attract men's attention without losing too much dignity (yep, the female candidates do)

They boiled the entire campaign processes to a science. Or a business.
Then;
Profit = Income - Expenses

Streetlight Astronomy

On a clear and smokeless night, if you look outside from a high building it is easy to find the beautiful network of minuscule lights forming various constellation amidst the darkness.

I'm not referring to the stars twinkling in the night sky but rather on the street lamps lining up the highways, alleyways and city streets.

I have a useless hobby, only good if you have plenty of time on your hands and if you happened to be living on some high building with a nice unobstructed view of the cityscape. Like a good astronomer, I map constellations formed by the street lights and give names based on the patterns they formed.

It's easy to find a pattern, as most street lights line up a straight road, successive lamps would more or less form a straight line of small lights. What is a little tougher is finding patterns from lights from different streets maybe those a hundred or so meters away from each other.

It's nice to find a particular pattern and name them with what you want as if you are discovering some new star or celestial object. But since you discovered them you can give something cool, something you want for their names.

Below is an image what the Downtown hemisphere, the top left area is the Skway (not included in the image) and on the right side  is the Osmena highway as seen on a vantage point on a building near the corner of Buendia Avenue and Osmena higway. This is sort of a star chart of the street,  a Streetlight Chart if you wish ( and I am a streetlight astronomer).

I have labeled some of the constellations that I discovered (I'm not planning on labeling them all). The image is a crappy capture, low res. The actual view much more radiant, the lights are much more visible. Some of the constellations I found in real view can't be found in the image because some lights are displayed very faintly to distinguish.

And below are the enlarged versions of the labelled constellations.

It is interesting to realise that the lamps form a very different pattern aside from their geographical location. Though seemingly unrelated, a lamp on the corner of Batangas St. for example is actually connected to a streetlight somewhere in Libertad by an arbitrary pattern created by an observer above, just as the stars Betelgeuse and Aldebaran are actually connected by a pattern perceived by an observer millions of light years away them. Extreme pattern finding on its highest level.

Yeah, it's sort of a useless hobby as there is no real-life application of the streetlight chart whatsoever. Although similar to a star chart, the streetlight chart can serve as an alternative map, a location pointer only applicable if viewed on the exact place where the map is created. It can serve as a coded map, one only need to give names to the individual streetlights forming the constellations to be usable.

I'll meet you at the Daenerys star in the Laser Sword constellation. 3'oclock sharp.

The Commercialization and Entertainmentization of Space

Doing science for the sake of gaining knowledge itself is a mantra every scientist cannot deny. And the pursuit of knowledge is an end itself. Does this imply that any means to achieve this end is a valid means? The end justifies the means, that is the common saying.

I began thinking about this after reading some articles about some space exploration/missions with added twists. Some major projects actually incorporate entertainment and commercialization to achieve the actual goal.

Welcome to the Big Brother Planet

Consider the MARS One Project.
http://www.mars-one.com/en/mission/mission-and-vision 

The project aims to establish a permanent human colony on Mars by 2023. The organization will be taking applications, who will undergo selection, training and finally will be sent to Mars at around year 2022.

Their website says:
Not unlike the televised events of the Olympic Games, Mars One intends to maintain an on-going, global media event, from astronaut selection to training, from lift-off to landing, to provide primary funding for this next giant leap for mankind.

Norbert Kraft, former Sr. Research Associate at NASA and Chief Medical Director for Mars One states, “In my former work with NASA we established strict criteria for the selection and training of astronauts on long duration space flights. Gone are the days when bravery and the number of hours flying a supersonic jet were the top criteria. Now, we are more concerned with how well each astronaut works and lives with the others, in the long journey from Earth to Mars and for a lifetime of challenges ahead. Psychological stability, the ability to be at your best when things are at their worst is what Mars One is looking for. If you are the kind of person that everyone chooses to have on their island, then we want you to apply too.”

It's actually like Big Brother Mars edition. The global reality-TV media event is actually expected to be the major source of the funding for the entire project, which definitely costs a lot. Which means we will be seeing official Mars cereals, official Mars pajamas, official Mars beer etc on our TV not very long now.

Astronauts should have nice-smelling underarms

Another project  is the Axe Apollo Space Academy.

One can sign up for the AXE Apollo Space Academy in their website . Users will be voting for the candidates online. The people with the most votes will advance to their National Challenge where the top-voted candidates will compete with other qualifiers in their country. The top recruits will advance to Global Space Camp, where the qualifiers will again compete for a chance to join the international crew and be sent to space.

This campaign was launched in January 2013 to promote the Axe Apollo deodorant brand. It came with a slew of TV commercials depicting an astronaut's awesome status, higher than firemen or lifeguards with their catch phrase 'Nothing beats an astronaut'.

https://www.axeapollo.com/

Round trip tickets to space

Other companies offer a more direct approach to space travel.
Virgin Galactic direct sells reservation for a seat in their spaceship bound to lower outer space.

Tickets are priced at US$250,000 (deposits are refundable).
Many celebrities have already signed up, including Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, X-en director Bryan Singer, Paris Hilton among others.

http://www.virgingalactic.com/booking/

The company Space XC is offering something similar. Their program also includes undergoing astronaut training prior to the actual space flight. The ticket prices range from 95,000 to 100,000 US Dollars. Their flight will reach 60 to 100 km altitude in space.

http://www.spacexc.com/en/bookings/

Grounded

Of course these endeavors would gather a lot of criticisms, all great endeavors do. Space Tourism, in particular, were cited to speed up global warming and other environmental effects. There were also legal issue raised, like licensing et cetera.

Others say the very steep price of tickets is very impractical and will only be attainable by the wealthy. Some criticise that funding through sponsorship and advertisements is a very risky proposition.

These are all valid criticisms and are matters that should be discussed.

What I'm particularly thinking about is the one question  I posited in the beginning of this article. Does the end justify the means? Space Exploration and experimentation is the end itself, so is it okay if it is funded by a deodorant company, or by cereal ads etc?

Personally, it gives a bad taste in my mouth if I am a scientist doing science and funded by Axe for example. Note that I don't think it is about company interests/conflicts since a deodorant company clearly has no interest on whatever findings you might find in your space experiments (or is there? hmmm...)

Having said that, as a scientist, I think it may just feel wrong or awkward in the beginning but when you are already out there doing your experiments or walking in space, all those hesitations will disappear. You are in space! That's all that should matter. And if it is your dream, the ultimate vision of your end realized, then everything else will just feel trivial.

The Great Slum City

One aspect of the Sherlock (TV series) which interests me is how the protagonist utilizes a vast connection of vagrant persons (aptly called the 'homeless network') to gather various information for the hero's benefit in exchange for a few bucks. It depicts a bunch of seemingly inutile members of the society performing critical functions in a formal society, which as Sherlock boasts, is more efficient than the police in terms of intelligence gathering.

Sometime later, I would find myself researching on 'informal' citizens with defined purposes in a thriving city. 0ne such website (URL) has a project called Informal City Dialogues:

Informal City Dialogues is a global, multi-stakeholder project fostering a conversation about the role of informality in creating inclusion and resilience in future cities. The informal city encompasses diverse activities and actors whose livelihoods and dwellings are usually neither regulated nor protected by the state (e.g., waste pickers, street vendors, slums, etc.), and yet often accounts for a large percentage of GDP, housing, and transport. 

Informal living

They cover many interesting topics in this site. Slum technology is one.
They solicited a competition where they ask what can 100,000 dollars do to improve the slum community. The end goal is to have a better city where a waste picker and a businessman can ride a bus together, drink coffee together etc without any pretense. The winner suggested the establishment of a slum techno hub where the residents can play around with the provided materials and tools to solve their own problems. (Site)

Another contributor argues that slums are a necessary part of a city as it serves as an opening for opportunities where the less fortunate from outside can come in and try their luck to move up the ladder. On one hand, he could be wrong in implying that even in a perfect city, poverty still exists and is a way of life. On the other hand, realistically he has  point. I'll explain.

If the elite on a very successfully city suddenly felt philanthropic due to some divine intervention, what should they do to alleviate the poverty-stricken lives of the people from areas outside of their paradise?
1. They may go to the poor rural towns and create opportunities in those areas. But what are the chances that a few establishments (malls, factories) would make the life of everyone around it to be better. Economically, the poor town is in a financial black hole and putting money there is hopeless.
2. They can invite a sizable bunch of the poor residents from those areas and just get them to live inside the city. Give them few opportunities of work. Someday, if they are diligent, they will reap the fruits of the city, the same fruits that the formal citizens get until they climb a step on that ladder. Then invite more folks inside. Rinse and repeat. Divide and conquer.

Soon the city will be bigger and more vibrant and its blessing will spread.
(This of course is just wistful thinking and purely theoretical and no proof whatsoever, so feel free to argue otherwise.)

The urban poor dilemma

In a third-world country like the Philippines, accept it or not it is practically impossible to eradicate the poverty which causes the informal citizens to flourish in the city. Street vendors, peddlers, hawkers, squatters, garbage pickers, cart-dwellers, shantytowns, grease-people (taong grasa). They are members of this urban society as valid as people on suits and ties.

The sooner we accept this fact, the faster we can think of solutions to make things better or at least more livable for the informal and formal citizens alike (solutions that may even remove the distinction between the two).

The Makeshift solution

Knowing that these citizens are on the fringes of the formal government, we might as well form an entirely different body to 'govern' them from people who will come from their ranks as they are the ones with full knowledge of their situation.

The Central Slum Government as we will christen it which will be based on the squatter towns on the mountains of Payatas or along the PNR rails. With the initial help of educated lawmakers and change-agents, the CSG will have legislative, executive and judicial arms just like real government but the CSG system will be specific to the informal citizens.

Their architects will study how to build sturdy shanties enhanced to withstand extreme weathers, minimize fires and prevent cave-ins. This while making sure that materials are available from nearby garbage dumps and junkyards. They will create easily retractable bed-enclosures for the wandering homeless.

Their nutritionists will research how to repurpose throwaway pagpag and botya meat to make them edible and not harmful to hungry stomachs to lessen the sickly from their ranks who collect and eat these food everyday.

Their chemists will find ways to make readily available ingredients into makeshift medicines against infection for their picker-gatherer bunch.

They will create recycled gloves, masks and HAZMAT suits for their waste-picker-scavengers.

All these will be performed in the makeshift laboratory in the center of the slums, akin to 'Next City's Slum techno hub.

The central government will pass laws to register each and every citizens who are part of their network (meaning they are not in the real government's database/radar/registry). ID's will be given to each homeless citizen and their roaming zone will be declared, as such, going outside that zone after the curfew or sleeping outside that zone will be answerable to the law of the slums.

Beggars will be assigned to designated zones as they will now be professional beggars working in their own cubicles. Same will be for the hawkers, peddlers, street vendors, cart stores.

Speaking of work, the homeless network model from Sherlock will be imitated so that the homeless will serve as the CIA which can be another source of income for them. They could provide valuable information to the formal government for a fee.

Economically, they will not rely too much on money. Their means of purchase will be made of those necessity for them; food, shelter materials, clothes.

All these are monitored by the CSG to ensure that they do not encroach the rights of the formal citizens and that formal citizens do not encroach on theirs. Regular intergovernmental talks and status reports will make sure that both governments are in accord.

With the model established, here will now be a system for an otherwise hardly monitored aspect of urban living. They govern themselves, they regulate themselves and they are responsible for the thriving of their great city. This will soon be a city within a city. A great city lining the pathways of another city the way a vine hugs a bamboo trellis. A city running along the railways of another city, under bridges, atop garbage dumps, roaming the alleyways,stuffed in container vans, in makeshift mansions on junkyards, abandoned buildings, in a hapless fixtures of scrap card boards and ply woods -- the Great Slum City.


Edit: These could actually clear-up Manila's notoriety as being the Gates of Hell! I wonder if I get a lot of hits if I mention that? Dan Brown  (Inferno) versus MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino. LOL.

Edit2: The informal settlers are getting a lot of heat recently. Demolitions here and there on squatter areas, fires razing a slum neighborhood thought of as conspiracy etc...

Divine Forensics

Some months ago, there was news about an alleged miracle which happened in the town of Nasugbu, Batangas. According to reports, the statue of Mary of Mediatrix was seen shedding tears of blood. This prompted Dr. Erwin Erfe of Public Attorney’s Office to investigate the matter. Unfortunately, the family who owned the statue refused for it to be examined.

Dr. Erfe is a forensic expert in the best sense of the word. His job description is as follows:

Dr. Erwin Erfe is a Certified Forensic Physician of the American College of Forensic Examiners (ACFEI) and is a Diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Medicine (ABFM) and the American Board of Forensic Examiners. He specializes in Forensic Medicine, Forensic Osteology, Bloodstain Pattern Analysis and Crime Scene Reconstruction. He currently consults with with government agencies, lawyers and law firms on forensics, evidence and medical malpractice.

Why bring his credentials to this article, you might ask? I am just curious with the process of investigation for the aforementioned phenomenon. For the report above, he will have to prove if the miracle is a false claim or genuine in nature. Proving that it is a hoax is a simple task; simply get a blood sample, check if it is true human blood, check if it is not blood from any person from the town, etc... A simple positive result will invalidate the claim.

I'm more concerned with the other possibility. How do you really prove that it is indeed a miracle? If the blood sample returns negative match with any person in town, it will not have proven anything. If the sample returns a very different cell structure, it will just mean that it is not a blood structure as we know it. So how then do we prove it? It should match Mama Mary's blood. Right.

The Catholic Church actually has a proper scientific commission to investigate such matters; proving or disproving miracles, that is. The  so-called miracle commission employs many experts; scientists, physicians not necessarily Catholic to investigate. This is part of the routine process to canonize someone to sainthood. (A miracle is one of the qualifications to be canonized as a saint).

See: http://sciencenordic.com/pope%E2%80%99s-scientists-study-miracles

'Miracles' such as healing of the sick are vigorously and meticulously studied by the commission  They look for facts, evidences or scientific explanations for the phenomenon using the scientific method. If the commission can't find any sufficient scientific explanation, they forward the matter to the theologians, meaning the experts have no explanation for the matter and thus might be due to divine intervention.

Which I don't have any problem with, whatsoever. Religion is anyway based on faith on something unexplainable by science and science as we know it can't explain everything-- or at least we humans still don't have a scientific explanation to everything yet. I'm sure there's a lot of debate on these topics elsewhere.

The thing is,  what if the Vatican declare that the phenomenon is not divine in nature, (i.e. they can't, with their best methods, conclude what caused the 'miracle' to happen) what does it make of the phenomenon?

Well, we can say that it is probably caused by some unfathomably advanced technology (maybe by aliens or by future people whatever). And as St. Arthur Clarke puts it, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

To sum up, in proving a phenomenon, it may be a scientific breakthrough. Or it could be a miracle. Or it could be magic.

Pinoy Pangkalawakan: Philippines Joining the Space Race

Apparently, there were some proposals for the creation of a Philippine Space Agency, our Pinoy counterpart of NASA. I have many things to say about this. But I'm in no mood for a a long write-up, so just refer to my previous post for some insights.

Going Up!: Farewell to a Space-faring Legacy


And here are some news clips about this topic.

Bill eyes space agency for Philippines
Campaign for creation of Phl Space Agency launched today
Galactic Pinoy? Scientists push for PHL space agency
Gov’t space agency pushed
Pinoy astronomers, scientists to launch Phl Space Agency


Also check their fan page for more info.

I Support the Philippine Space Agency Bill


Some more references, including the actual bill.

A Fight for Philippine Space Agency
HB 6725 Philippine Space Act of 2012



Actually, we're quite close to having our first Filipino astronaut. If you can just ignore the blatant commercialism and advertisement, this is a sort of a good campaign.
Philippines to launch the first Filipino into space
http://www.axeapollo.com/


Here's what made me research all these things.
I was making a paper plane trying to model it from a US Space Shuttle with some customizations to make it Pinoy.

Die Cast Dreaming

It's been a hobby of mine to go to malls, cornershop stores or some deserted kiosk looking for good stuff to buy (I specifically lookout for die cast cars or action figures). And like the MARS Curiosity rover, I find it fulfilling if after landing on an unknown world, I find something special to add to my collection.

Yesterday, I went to Makati Cinema Square and passed by a hobby store (forgot the name) in one of the stalls inside. And speaking of the Mars rover, guess what I found?

A Hotwheels 2012 Mars Curiosity rover die cast replica!

The Mars Curiosity rover (the real one) created such a large buzz in the media when it touched down on Mars surface last August. It sort of became this generation's Moon landing, with Mohawk guy becoming this generation's Neil Armstrong. (When you think about it, Neil Armstrong's death seem to signal a passing of the space torch- a farewell to the golden age of space travel and a welcome to the modern age.)


Okay enough of the space pondering. Along with the die cast Curiosity rover, I also found a Hotwheels 1:65 scale 2007 edition of the 1960's Batmobile (designed by George Barris) to add to my collection of batmobiles and other famous die cast cars. This would be my second 1966 batmobile. My first one, a 1:50 model went missing last Christmas after some children got access to my display cabinet and played with the cars. I've been looking for a 1966 batmobile since then (it has a sentimental value to me because of being one of the firsts in my collection).

So finding this one made me feel like a wound has been healed finally.

I recently got another batmobile in the toys section in  Landmark Makati. I tried to search in the net where it was based from to no avail. (If there's any one out there who knows, please share the knowledge.) The package has an image of Batman which looks similar to Neal Adams' Batman but that's the only  information I got from it. It seems like part of a 2011 series of Hotwheels devoted to DC Universe characters. There's also one for Catwoman, Bane and Joker and also for Wonderwoman and Green Lantern.

Some months ago, I've been wanting to buy a Batpod Hotwheels model but my wallet seem to stop me from doing so. But by June, during the hype of the Nolan's finale to this Batman trilogy I decided to buy--sort of to serve as a commemoration token for the movie. When I went to the toy store (Toy Kingdom), I saw there were a lot of new supplies on the rack for the Batpod (and other batmobiles). When I checked the price, I was shocked that they more than doubled their previous price. Good thing, when I went to the hobby store in MCS, there were old supplies (there's just 2 when I went there) and the prices are still the original, so I got to buy it in time for the movies release a few weeks later.

There is this small collectibles shop in the ground floor of SM Megamall. It's on the Shaw end of the mall right before the SM supermarket. The last time I went there, I got an official DC movie merchandise die cast batmobile from Burton's Batman movie. I've been meaning to go back there, they also sell action figures from comics, anime etc. The toys are arrange in a haphazard manner on the shelves which made me feel like searching for hidden treasures while looking around.

In the Toy Kingdom SM Makati branch, I got  a Greenlight The Fast and the Furious Dodge Charger. It's the car that Dom Torreto fears in the first movie. It's the one driven by Dom and eventually crashed. (Looking back, when I was watching that first installment, I never thought it would be a franchise that will go on for another 4 more movies and another one more coming).

There's also the Fast Five Dodge Charger (The ash colored one) but that would be a buy for the next time.

Still in the topic of movies, I got the DMC DeLorean from Back to the Future, I think it was from MCS also. The Back to the Future trilogy is one (or three) of my most favorite movies of all time. It's just so fun to watch agin and again. The movies contributed a lot to the pop culture of the 80's and even today. This car is one the aspects of the movie that made a great impression. (as well as Michael J. Fox's futuristic Nike Mag shoes which just had a revival some years back.) Anyway, the DeLorean time machine is one of the coolest time travel devices ever built in movies or TV.

Just a few more images.

Here's the batmobile from that Batman movie-that-must-not be named. The car actually looks cool. It looks sleek and fun (unlike the movie where it is from).

Here's the batmobile from the Batman: The Animated Series which is one of the best interpretation of Batman in any media. (And also has one of the most amazing Joker interpretations of all time, through the voice of Mark Hamill). This batmobile looks brooding, dark and gothic (perfect adjectives for the Batman).

This one is from the Batman: Arkham Asylum video game. I haven't played it yet but I hear its an incredible game.

For my Christmas wishlist, I want to have a die cast model of Men In Black 1987 Ford LTD Crown Victoria (the rocket  is optional), Green Hornet's Black Beauty (Guns and spikes optional), the Ghostbusters van (so I wont be afraid of no ghosts) and the Tumbler.

Here ends my overlong enumeration of some of the die cast cars in my possession.

Dot - Words of wisdom from Asin and Sagan

Tuldok (Dot)

Ang tuldok ay may salaysay at may kahulugan
Na dapat mapansin at maintindihan
Kahit sino ka man ay dapat malaman
Na dito sa mundo ikaw ay tuldok lang

(A dot has a story and a meaning
That should be noticed and understood
Whoever you are  you should know
That in this world you are just a dot)

Kahit na ang araw sa kalangitan
Siya ay tuldok lamang sa kalawakan
Lahat ng bagay ay tuldok ang pinanggalingan
At kung masdang mabuti, tuldok ang uuwian

(Even the sun in the sky
is just a dot in space
Everything came from a dot
and if you look closely, will end in a dot.)

Tingnan mong mabuti ang 'sang katauhan
Maraming nag-aaway, tuldok lang ang dahilan
Sa aking nakita, ako'y natawa lang
'Pagkat ang nangyayari'y malaking kahibangan

(Look closely at humanity
People fight, because of a dot
What I saw I just laughed
Because what is happening is a big insanity)

Kaya wala kang dapat na ipagmayabang
Na ikaw ay mautak at maraming alam
Dahil kung susuriin at ating iisipin
Katulad ng lahat, ikaw ay tuldok rin

(So you have nothing to brag about
that you are wise and knows everything
because if you look at it and think
like everything else, you are just a dot.)

- Asin


Pale Blue Dot

We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.

The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

—Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, p. 6

Project NOAH

I could imagine Noah's desperation when he saw the futility of his efforts as he lift that first plank of wood. How can he build an ark from scratch which can carry thousands of animals to salvation and sustain their survival for 10, 20 30, 40 days? How can he build something great from this small piece of stick?

Yet we all know the story-- we know that he persevered, he moved forward, even if he started with just a piece of wood, even if he only seem to have built a raft at the start.

Sometimes, a raft is enough to save a life. or a floating piece of wood. Or a log.

July 2012, Project NOAH was launched with a very energetic vibe. Here is a system which can save thousands of lives, the proponents asserted. Here is the solution to our countries perennial problems. Here is our ark aginst our enemy, the flood.

The project has a robust mission:

The Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards (NOAH) program team will collaborate with government agencies to promote and integrate advanced science and technology to enhance disaster management and prevention capacity of the Philippine government. These include: the deployment of instruments and state-of-the-art methods to construct high resolution hazard maps that are relevant to the community and local government units; delivery of readily accessible, timely and accurate hazards information through various media and communication platforms; disaster research and development; integration of disaster efforts by the national government, academe and civil society organizations; and application of a bottom-up approach by communities to resilience against disasters.

That's a mouthful.

Even grander is its vision.

To assure homeland security by reducing casualties and property loss from extreme hazard events and build disaster resilient communities in the Philippines by way of establishing research and development platforms and the promotion of frontier science and technology in disaster efforts.

To become a world leader in programs that leverage on advanced science and technology to mitigate the impacts of natural hazards.

I am almost in tears, and that is not in a sarcastic negative manner. I admire the effort that the government is giving into this kind of project. Having a background in the physical science, I know how it feels when a science project you propose to the higher ups geta go signal and recieves a funding. It's not even the money that you get from it. It's the fact that you get the opportunity to create something that you envision would become something great. It is a great feeling of satisfaction.

Tinkering a bit with the application, I'm quite overwhelmed by the amount of information they are providing in almost real time period.

Perhaps one of the most useful layer is the Probaility of Rain. As covered in their FAQ, it answers the question:

Q. Is it going to rain today?

A. Check the Probability of Rain option under the Weather Outlook tab. Click on an icon on the map located around your area to see the percent chance of rain within an hour, 3, and 6 hours.

There's an almost 50% chance that it would rain within our hour in my area. I should bring my umbrella if I'm going out.

Another useful layer, albeit not immediately but for long term plans is Flood Map. It shows the flood height and its extent given a particular rainfall scenario.

I chose a scenario with light rainfall (5 year flood map) and I get the image below. Which means I should not build my house in the red and orange areas. Those are flooded easily.

See that legend on the right? The humanoid figure is the average height of a Filipino (5'5"). The red means that if you are an average Filipino you will be submerged. And you'll be dead.

There are many other things you can find here. (I think if I want to write a scientific paper, I can create one by just using historical and real-time updated data in this page.)

There is a layer for Weather Stations which show the amount of rainfall, temperature, wind speed, wind direction, air pressure, and humidity of a geographic area for the last 24 hours. There's stream gauge and rain gauge. MTSAT, Processed MTSAT. Rainfall, Temperature, and Pressure Contours. I don't how they are used at the moment but that is just because I don't want to delve deeper. But I know that they all have their applications.

This program is a collaboration of many agencies. I commend this kind of joint work. I know it's not much right now but it is a building block for something bigger and better. It may be best if the government gives a lot of support into these endeavors. We are a country not endowed with a magnificent space program. Or a collosal particle physics accelerator project.

Yet, we can still strive to be great at some things. And the things worth doing are those that benefit our countrymen. Stepping on the moon will not help us feed our fellows. Discovering a new particle will not give a comfortable roof to our homeless. Let those rich nations conquer space.

I tend to think Project NOAH is just a log. It is a tool and information dissemination system to arm us, make us aware of the situation, to alert us. But it is a start of something huge. It is a sign just like an olive leaf, that even with all these literal and metaphorical flood around us, we are not beyond saving.