FINEST KIND CLINIC AND FISHMARKET.... Discussing medicine, culture, and the joys of cooking Pansit.
it is Thanksgiving day, a day that traditionally families in the USA gather together and eat traditional foods such as cranberries, and turkey.
actually we won't be having turkey (it is available in Manila, but not here).
But in the USA, I had a large roasting pan that held a medium size turkey that we made for our family.
So let's have some turkey related items:
The Trump-Vance transition team announced that Stanford Professor Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, author of "The Great Barrington Declaration," is his pick to lead the National Institutes of Health.
This is a terrific choice; Dr. Bhattacharya is highly respected and was right about the negative effects of lockdowns during the COVID pandemic when so many others were wrong. He didn't back down despite numerous attempts to silence him.
good news.
His opinions were censored, and this meant few realized the problems: Mainly that the economic shutdown was causing more problems than ordinary quarantine, and later about the problems of the vaccines.
Here is an interview from OCT 2021.
the economic damage to third world countries was huge: People here were afraid to go to the hospital so died at home of other things, cancer patients delayed treatment, and a lot of money spent for testing our drivers to deliver rice to Manila made our profit selling rice lower and probably increased the price of food, leading to malnutrition.
Omicron pretty well stopped the epidemic, and most of the use of masks etc was stopped.
But the huge outlay of money for protective equipment, quarantine, etc. meant less money for other things, such as spraying for mosquitoes: so we now have a Dengue epidemic going on.
in other words, his holisitic view remembered that other things can kill: like Poverty and social isolation.
Incredible man who invented an ultra simple hydration formula for people with cholera - 0.5L water, 1 fistfull of sugar, 1 pinch of salt. Number of kids dying of diarrhea fell by 90% even as population went up 70% https://t.co/Ln0hXWiw55
— Aaron M. Renn 🇺🇸 (@aaron_renn) November 10, 2024
few Americans know that the Mexican air force fought in World War II: in the Philippines
The links are because of the Spanish, and yes there are many similarities in the two cultures.
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..more Philippine history here:
more here:
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and here is how you can make it at home:
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.... we do have tomatoes: But they are small and are about the size of an egg, and oval not round. They are a bit sweeter than store bought US versions, and similar to Roma Tomatoes.
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...often veggies are grown organically in plastic greenhouses, so you don't have to spray them with insecticide. But ours come from local farms, so we don't ask....
this is a followup of the previous post on the famous Japanese painting (actually a print) of the Wave.
a few videos on how the Japanese woodblock printing of the Edo period made picture books.
the YOUTUBE video has this explanation:
Master printer Keizaburo Matsuzaki visited the Art Gallery of New South Wales in March 2010 in conjunction with the exhibition ‘Hymn to beauty: the art of Utamaro’. He brought the woodblocks to create a print of ‘Takashima Ohisa, the teahouse waitress’, designed by Kitagawa Utamaro (1754–1806) in the 1790s. Matsuzaki hails from Arakawa-ku in Tokyo and has been a printer since he was fifteen years old. Gallery visitors were amazed to witness Matsuzaki's deft touch as he applied 17 colours with perfect alignment. Each colour was rubbed with the printer's most precious tool, the baren. The final touch was a dusting of mica.
another series on how to make a woodblock print: LINK
and a summary here:
Instructables has a written tutorial of this method but only of a one tone design.
The MetropolitanMuseum has an article on the history of the commercial side of woodblock printing.
each print required the collaboration of four experts: the designer, the engraver, the printer, and the publisher...Polychrome prints were made using a separate carved block for each color, which could number up to twenty. To print with precision using numerous blocks on a single paper sheet, a system of placing two cuts on the edge of each block to serve as alignment guides was employed. Paper made from the inner bark of mulberry trees was favored, as it was strong enough to withstand numerous rubbings on the various woodblocks and sufficiently absorbent to take up the ink and pigments. Reproductions, sometimes numbering in the thousands, could be made until the carvings on the woodblocks became worn.
was an artist of cheap illustrated books in Japan the original inspiration of Manga?
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English: Portrait of Katsushika Hokusai by his disciple Keisai Eisen. from Wikipedia commons |
The history of Manga discusses this in the beginning of the film.
what I found interesting was that one of the pioneers for pamphlets of drawings and watercolours of ordinary life was the same one who became famous as the artist behind the WAVE.
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| Katsushika Hokusai (Japanese, 1760–1849). Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as The Great Wave, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjurokkei), ca. 1830–32. Japan, Edo period (1615–1868). Polychrome woodblock print; ink and color on paper, |
the Met Museum has an essay on the technical aspects of this iconic woodcut.
This is strikingly evident in the towering wave that breaks over the leftmost boat. When Eijudo's anonymous printing masters laid down the outlines of the design, they printed the dark vertical stripes first, using a mixture of Prussian blue and indigo to create a dark gunmetal blue. Then they printed the hollow of the wave, applying a pure Prussian blue over the initially printed stripes, and filling the white spaces left between them. The transition—from the deep blue, produced by the double printing, to the bright and saturated pure Prussian blue—animates the surface of the wave, adding visual depth and movement. This simple technique allows for a more suggestive, three-dimensional rendering of the wave and heightens the impact of the print.ArtInContext article about the artist: and how western art and pigments influenced his art, but also how his woodblock art influenced the west. Many of his scetches are on that site
The British museum however notes his wood prints went beyond influencing high art:
The vast phenomenon of popular manga publishing in Tokyo, as we enter the Reiwa era (from 1 May 2019) of new Emperor Naruhito, is startlingly reminiscent of the vast phenomenon of popular print and illustrated books published in Edo in the late 1700s and early 1800s....
Between the ages of 16 and 19, Hokusai was training to cut the woodblocks used to print popular books and prints. He's famously supposed to have cut the last six pages of text for a novel about the Edo brothel district, Yoshiwara, published in 1775. From about the age of 20 he switched to being a print artist, and quite a few of his early designs of kabuki actors have survived.
The point is that Hokusai knew the popular print industry inside out – as a block cutter, author and artist. In the 1780s and 1790s he was regularly designing illustrations for the so-called 'yellow cover' or kibyōshi genre of popular comic fiction; and sometimes writing the stories for them too. In the Manga exhibition catalogue, scholar Adam Kern calls these 'comic books'...
Hokusai was an incredibly inventive artist, always trying different genres and subjects, sometimes creating new ones. In the early 1800s, he collaborated with the leading author of long adventure stories, Bakin, to develop the wildly popular genre of popular fiction known as yomihon (literally, 'books for reading'). Hokusai developed a new style of action-packed illustrations that were filled, often literally, with explosive drama.
In the 1810s, Hokusai was particularly busy producing 'picture manuals' (e-dehon), commercially printed drawing manuals full of pictures to copy, that spread his style widely in the general population throughout Japan, not just in Edo (Tokyo). The most famous of these, was Hokusai manga (15 volumes, 1814 – 1878).
The preface to volume one makes it clear that this title was suggested by Hokusai himself, a still unusual use of the word manga, which can playfully be translated as 'brush running away with itself'...
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| Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), Strange Tales of the Bow Moon, 1807. |
again, if you are interested, go to the link and view the wonderful illustrations.
Coffee and the Wellbeing of MiceIt is concluded that caffeinated coffee increases… inhibition in mood-related areas bolstering wellbeing of both males and females, with increased sociability in males and hierarchy struggling and self-care in females.”
so could coffee help the blue haired cat ladies adjust to today's world?
Glenn Miller plays an Irving Berlin tune from the depression days of 1932 right before FDR turned things around and raised the morale of the country.
hmm... those lyrics could be about today's changing mood in the US to optimism. And check the second verse is in Spanish. Heh.
and maybe add some Oreos to that snack:
Explaining a strange idea: The Oreo Cookies Diet
the typhoon went north of here, so we had very very heavy rains all night but the wind was not bad: Even the banana trees are still standing (two fell in the last typhoon). I haven't been outside to see if the streets are flooded. This morning I woke up with the dawn: The sun is shining and it is partly cloudy.
So we survived another typhoon. Later this morning Kuya will check if it destroyed the remaining rice left that hasn't been harvested yet, and if the packed rice is okay and not wet.
....however, the cook says a lot of the Christmas lights and decorations in the Plaza nearby were blown down. Sigh.TROPICAL CYCLONE BULLETIN NR. 19
— PAGASA-DOST (@dost_pagasa) November 17, 2024
Super Typhoon #PepitoPH (MAN-YI)
Issued at 5:00 PM, 17 November 2024
Valid for broadcast until the next bulletin at 8:00 PM today.
SUPER TYPHOON “PEPITO” HAS MADE ITS SECOND LANDFALL IN THE VICINITY OF DIPACULAO, AURORA AND IS NOW OVER QUIRINO… pic.twitter.com/MMqliPnIpE
News about the rice farmers was bad;
Pepito wind signals cover areas from Luzon to Mindanao https://t.co/HlV5maKLLz
— Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) November 16, 2024
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the bad news? Might hit us Sunday afternoon.
Kuya is busy drying the rice he harvested yesterday before the rains hit.
This harvest has not been good because they were dredging the irrigation canal so we had to wait for the monsoon to plant, and that delayed planting for a month. Then the late harvest was damaged by heavy rains.
The problem is that this typhoon might not just be rain but might go right over us late Sunday afternoon/evening. Sigh.
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TROPICAL CYCLONE BULLETIN NR. 3
— PAGASA-DOST (@dost_pagasa) November 15, 2024
Typhoon #PepitoPH (MAN-YI)
Issued at 11:00 AM, 15 November 2024
Valid for broadcast until the next bulletin at 5:00 PM today.
“PEPITO” INTENSIFIES INTO A TYPHOON AS IT UNDERGOES RAPID INTENSIFICATION
Links:
➣ TC Bulletin for Pepito:… pic.twitter.com/8OICEdP3lr
None of @RobertKennedyJr 's views "have any value whatsoever," say the media. But even the author admits RFK's right about fluoride, raw milk, and the danger of Big Pharma. Elites are freaking out because they know RFK will hold them accountable for their gross abuses of power. pic.twitter.com/wHFbRTzVC0
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) November 14, 2024
,,,,,,,,,
this is both good and bad.
often medical studies push the expensive drugs but the old ones work. Or in the name of saving money they push and older drug that has a side effect (sedation, impotence) that no one wants to notice. But the censorship of Ivermectin and HCQ during the covid epidemic using bad studies (given too late was a major flaw in studies showing they didn't work) while pushing expensive drugs that worked but not too well. But no feedback allowed? That is what annoyed me.
as for food: Yes the chemicals in the environment induce metabolic syndrome (Plastics) and allergies, but if the alternative is short shelf life that causes food shortages, is this good? We sell organic rice. it is healthier. But the shelf life is shorter than white rice, which in the past caused beriberi epidemics. Older methods used to keep food from spoilage (smoking, salting) has side effects: stomach cancer, which was once common in the USA and is still common in Japan comes to mind. And in Japan and the Philippines, high blood pressure from the high salt diet is common.
in other words: will healthy food result in massive famines that kill more people than are saved from the chronic diseases of the obese late middle age folk?
But the pendulum has to swing back.
I see every day commercials on TV pushing junk food or expensive milk supplements. And now we see fat kids even here in the rural Philippines.
so let the discussion begin.
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the reason that I quoted Bob Dylan the times they are a a changing is something that few in the MSM or even the alternative press has noted: a lot of the folks being picked by Trumpieboy are the MotherEarth types from the 1960s: not the radicals who have since hijacked the Democratic party, but those opposed to unnecessary wars and against a materialistic lifestyle.
For example:
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸pic.twitter.com/bR8rPfQoOi
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) November 14, 2024
another opinion: Is Trump's policies good or bad for wars around the world?
the themes they discuss is what is missing in the Amazon distortion of the Rings of Power: that power corrupts, the long defeat of civilization, how ordinary people respond to war, and that hope continues even when in defeat. They also point out the echoes of the Bombing of England during the war.
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| https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/ Remembrance960.jpg |
why poppies? From this poem:
That war seems distant for GenXer or even baby boomers.
So Peter Jackson took old silent films and combined them with interviews of the soldiers done in the 1930s, and colorized the film as a way to remember the ordinary soldier.
In the UK, the war dead are remembered today but in the USA, November 11 is Veterans day, and not a major holiday.
The day to remember those who died in wars in the US is Memorial day, which started to remember those who died in the Civil War.
but here in the Philippines, the day of rememberance is the Day of Valor: The day remembers the Bataan Death march.
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Our Plaza has two war memorials: One to a hero of the revolution, and another to the veterans of World War II.
Lolo's brother and cousin fought as guerillas in WWII, and his cousin captured and killed. The aunts have a memorial shrine in their house as a memory.
Lolo was just a kid, but after Mac Arthur invaded and urged the Philippines to rise up, he joined his brother...so the Philippines recognized him as a veteran, but not the Americans, since his service was short.
He wouldn't talk about the war, but only said he mainly was tasked to patrol the area to keep civilians safe.
Every year, he would return for the town fiesta, and his friends and him would sit together and drink and play cards and tell stories. They would march in the front of the fiesta parade. Then one by one they got frailer, and rode in a car. Then they all were too old or had passed. Sigh.
The importance of these days is to remember that war is not a good thing, but to remember that those fighting were doing so to protect the civilians and their country.
Heavy rain and a thick cloud layer here. It is so dark that I didn't wake up at dawn: The dogs woke me to say hey where's breakfast.
we are signal one or two as the typhoon is far north of us. We might be flooded if the run off from the mountains gets excess.
Well, Undas is over (All Saint's day/day of the dead when we visit our relatives graves every year).
The city has put up their Christmas lights etc and last night had the official lighting ceremony, complete with fireworks (and all the dogs hiding under my bed in fear).
This is, after all, the Philippines and partying is important: it is not the party per se, but because celebrations enhance community and family ties, and we are a family oriented culture.
No, I didn't go...too crowded for me, and we can watch the fireworks from our second floor.
This morning, Joy is flying to her home province for her 50th grade school reunion. She tore a ligament in her knee but it seems to be healing, but I told her to wear the brace and not walk too much: she should request a wheel chair if needed (but she won't ask for it)...Hopefully she will fly home before the next typhoon/tropical storm hits. Right now we are signal one but it is due to hit tomorrow... but the sun is shining.
Kuya is busy drying the rice we harvested last week (it is partly dry, but needs to be drier for long term storage). As for me, I am as well as ever but not up to jogging yet
Here’s the reason why Donald Trump won by the largest margin of any President in modern history. He’s not an ideologue. He’s not a policy wonk. He’s an American badass. They tried to DQ him, jail him, kill him (twice). None of it worked. Our self-appointed “betters” in the media…
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) November 6, 2024
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WHen I pointed out to my son that I couldn't vote for Harris because of her extreme pro abortion policies (abortion up to nine months, forcing doctors to perform abortions, something I fought when I was in medical school) he agreed, saying she talked about abortion and Gender issues but not about the economy, food prices etc. (We are both registered Democrats and minorities)
In other words, her emphsis on manipulating society to allow her social agenda, which the privacy of ordinary Americans would not tolerate, was a mistake, and her failure to address the problems that most ordinary American were worried about was probably why she lost a lot of votes.
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For all the talk of DEI, people forget that this is something that benefits elites, not ordinary folk. Ironically, DEI would benefit Harris, the daughter of two professors, over Vance, the son of a nurse and from a broken family who worked his way up from his bootstraps.
All the DEI policies at college level admissions works against Asians of course, while letting people ignore the real problem: Crappy public schools. School choice? might help. It says a lot that both Bill Clinton (who like Vance came from a dysfunctional family), and Clarence Thomas (raised by his grandfather) were educated in Catholic schools.
Alas, the Vatican II reforms persuaded nuns that they should do social work instead of teaching kids, so lots of nuns quit. So Catholic school enrollment went down as prices went up, but on the other hand, homeschools and small Protestant church schools helped fill in the gap for alternative education that was cheap enough for ordinary folk.
Which brings me to another possible change:
if the deplorables are changing governments, will the next change be against the Pope and his minions who like the uniparty in the US are trying to manipulate a fake consensus to change things by a very unpopular synodality scam ?
World leaders praise Trump as he claims US election win https://t.co/BxmCECHMNq
— Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) November 6, 2024
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hopefully this will break the government harassment of pro life people as terrorists, and allow an investigation into gain of function research in Wuhan lab funded by US taxpayer funds via Ecohealth.
and those around Trumpieboy remind me of the 1970s Democrats.
and kudos to Musk for breaking open the government manipulation of science covering up the Wuhan virus origina and vaccine problems. And then showing giving us a way to break through the propaganda war of the MSM and deep state.If Elon hadn’t bought Twitter, who knows what would’ve happened tonight. Enabling the American people to exercise our first amendment rights may be the most consequential event which led to Trump’s win. The fake news media couldn’t spread their hoaxes, lies, and propaganda as…
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) November 6, 2024
to quote a Bloomberg headline, “The World Bank Somehow Lost Track of at Least $24 Billion.”In fact, that may understate the reality: the World Bank’s “accounting gap” could be as big as $41 billion. The missing funds in question were for “climate finance” projects, “financed by taxpayer dollars from its member countries, the biggest being the US.”According to the Oxfam report that was the source for the Bloomberg story, “There is no clear public record showing where this money went or how it was used, which makes any assessment of its impacts impossible.” It is possible that much, maybe even most, of the missing money went to the intended people and purposes. But only the hopelessly naïve would dismiss the probability of rampant waste, malfeasance, graft, and outright theft as explanations for that “gap.” Spending of such magnitude and velocity with sloppy oversight is an invitation to thieves.
well, duh. Everyone knows that aid money tends to get stolen. So does profit from oil and mining projects in Africa. Al J expose here. So what else is new?
headsup via Instapundit.
