Ms. SLSU snags Ms.SCUAA 2008 title

The alluring beauties of the candidates captivated everyone's attention during the Ms. SCUAA pageant held at SLSU covered court, last October 26, 2008. It serves as one of the highlights of the 24th SCUAA Meet.
Ms. Kristin Ortega, the former Ms. SCUAA had bequeathed her title to her new successor, the bubbly, sweet and beautiful Ms. SLSU, Noemi Touzo Nacinopa. She had surfaced out the battle of beauty and brain against nine gorgeous candidates from different State Colleges and Universities (SUCs) in Region VIII. The newly-crowned beauty queen is a 20 year old senior student, taking up Bachelor of Secondary Education major in English. In an interview with her, she said that, she deserves the crown because it's her pride to bring the name of her beloved university.
As a recapped, the pageant night began with the melodious voices of the SLSU Glee Club, brief presentation about Southern Leyte, introduction of the members of the board of judges and reading of criteria. All these presentations were coupled with technology-based preparations.
The ten lovely candidates competed in five minor awards, these included Best in Production, Best in Swimwear, Best in Casual Wear, Best in Long Gown and Best in Talent, wherein the talent search was prejudged last October 24, 2008. The beautiful ladies introduced themselves with their festival costumes symbolizing their respective provinces. Then, the beauties appeared in their fascinating casual attire. Later on, they faced the questions in the preliminary interview. These questions were all taken from their personal data. And, amidst tension, they substantially answered the questions given to them.
The activities of the candidates in the recent days were shown in the VTR. It also showed how these beautiful ladies flourished in their swim wear. And once again, they flaunt their captivating bodies live on stage during the search proper.
While the candidates brandished their elegant long gown, they were given certificates of participation. These were handed to them by their university president or sports director.Then, the moment of truth came. For the special awards, Ms. Noemi T. Nacinopa (SLSU) garnered the Ms. Photogenic and Ms. Natasha award; Ms.Jennifer C. Doroja (SSCAF) chosen as Ms. Congeniality; Ms. Toni Rose T. Valenzuela (UEP) for the Mr. Donut Choice award; and, Ms. Kristhea M. Dalut (EVSU) as Ms. Goldlife. The special awardees received a cash prize, sash, bouquet and a trophy courtesy of the pageant sponsors.
The following are the results of the 5 Minor awards: Ms. Noemi T. Nacinopa (SLSU), awarded as Best in Production and Best in Casual Wear; Ms. Toni Rose T. Valenzuela (UEP) as Best in Swimwear and Best in Long Gown; and Ms. Lawrence D. Camandao (VSU), as Best in Talent. Each of these special awards has a 10% bearing on the candidates’ total performance.
Half of the ten candidates made it to the crucial question and answer portion. They were asked to pick the name of the judge who will ask them the final question. During this round, ratings of the previous categories were not included. The top five were: Toni Rose T. Valenzuela (UEP), Jennylyne S. Torcinco (TTMIST), Laurence Comandao (VSU), Brizha Raey B. Beley (PIT), and Noemi T. Nacinopa (SLSU).
The quest for Ms. SCUAA 2008 ended when the winners were revealed by the masters of ceremony. Toni Rose Valenzuela (UEP) was proclaimed second-runner up, followed by Brizha Raey Baldos Beley (PIT) as first runner up. Finally, this year’s titlist for Ms. SCUAA is Noemi T. Nacinopa of Southern Leyte State University.
Although the pageant was successful, the pageant committee was not able to control the crowd considering the number of their student police.

Maranatha is an Aramaic (Syriac, see also Aramaic of Jesus) phrase occurring once only in the New Testament and also in the Didache which is part of the Apostolic Fathers collection. It is transliterated into Greek letters rather than translated, and is found at the end of Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor 16:22) as a farewell. The NRSV translates it as: "Our Lord, come!" but notes that it could also be translated as: "Our Lord has come"; the NIV translates: "Come, O Lord"; the NAB notes:
"As understood here ("O Lord, come!"), it is a prayer for the early return of Christ. If the Aramaic words are divided differently (Maran atha, "Our Lord has come"), it becomes a credal declaration. The former interpretation is supported by what appears to be a Greek equivalent of this acclamation in Rev 22:20 "Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!""
The phrase seems to have been used as a greeting between Early Christians, and it is probably in this way that it was used by the Apostle Paul. However, the preceding word is the curse "anathema", and because the original texts of the Greek New Testament contained no punctuation at all, or indeed any word or sentence separation, early readers took the two words together and construed the passage as, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha". It was therefore believed that "anathema maranatha" must be some exceptionally severe kind of curse. The phrase was in use in this sense at least by the 7th Century, when Pope Silverius pronounced anyone who deceives a bishop as "anathema maranatha" (see the Catholic Encyclopedia article referenced below). One possible understanding of this is that the offender would be excluded from communion with the Church until the return of Christ, tying the punishment to the term Maranatha. John Wesley in his Notes on the Bible comments that, "It seems to have been customary with the Jews of that age, when they had pronounced any man an Anathema, to add the Syriac expression, Maran - atha, that is, "The Lord cometh;" namely, to execute vengeance upon him." The negative understanding of maranatha began to die out by the late 19th Century; Jamiesen, Fausset and Brown's commentary of 1871 separates Maranatha from anathema in the same way as modern scholars. However the traditional interpretation is still occasionally found among some of the more extreme conservative Christians to-day (e.g. [1]).
It is worth noting that, perhaps as a consequence of this interpretation, it has been maintained by some scholars that "Maranatha" is a mis-translation of the Hebrew phrase "mohoram atta", which means "you are put under the ban"[1]. If the original usage is understood as a greeting, however, this interpretation seems gratuitous.

love struck

Love is a constellation of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection or profound oneness.[1] The meaning of love varies relative to context. Romantic love is seen as an ineffable feeling of intense attraction shared in passionate or intimate attraction and intimate interpersonal and sexual relationships.[2] Though often linked to personal relations, love is often given a wider connection, a love of humanity, of nature, with life itself, or a oneness with the universe, a universal love or karma. Love can also be construed as Platonic love,[3] religious love,[4] familial love, and, more casually, great affection for anything considered strongly pleasurable, desirable, or preferred, to include activities and foods.[5][2] This diverse range of meanings in the singular word love is often contrasted with the plurality of Greek words for love, reflecting the concept's depth, versatility, and complexity.

In a recent short story I wrote, a writer is told by a young critic that he doesn't understand love. "It's neither noble nor eternal, as you would have your audience believe," she says.
"Nobody understands love," the writer admits. "It seems to be Universal. Timeless. Yet, it's also very individual, filtered by our own lives and expectations. I don't understand love, and can't understand love, because it's a different thing for each of us."
These love poems are Universal. Timeless. And yet very much a different thing for each of us. We hope you enjoy them...

geNEtic enGiNeeriNG+++++++

Genetic engineering, Recombinant DNA Technology, genetic modification (GM) and gene splicing are terms for the process of manipulating genes, generally implying that the process is outside the organism's natural reproductive process. It involves the isolation, manipulation and reintroduction of DNA into cells or model organisms, usually to express a protein. The aim is to introduce new characteristics or attributes physiologically or physically, such as making a crop resistant to herbicide, introducing a novel trait, or producing a new protein or enzyme, along with altering the organism to produce more of certain traits. Examples can include the production of human insulin through the use of modified bacteria, the production of erythropoietin in Chinese Hamster Ovary cells, and the production of new types of experimental mice such as the OncoMouse (cancer mouse) for research, through genetic modification.
Since a protein is specified by a segment of DNA called a gene, future versions of that protein can be modified by changing the gene's underlying DNA. One way to do this is to isolate the piece of DNA containing the gene, precisely cut the gene out, and then reintroduce (splice) the gene into a different DNA segment. Daniel Nathans and Hamilton Smith received the 1978 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their isolation of restriction endonucleases, which are able to cut DNA at specific sites. Together with ligase, which can join fragments of DNA together, restriction enzymes formed the initial basis of recombinant DNA technology.
Some groups have argued[citation needed] genetic engineering is wrong and is "doing the work of God", but most scientists believe that genetic engineering is essential to help future medical discoveries.

bisexuality v.s. homosexuality

Bisexuality is a sexual orientation which refers to the aesthetic, romantic, and/or sexual attraction of individuals to other individuals of either their own or the opposite gender or sex. Most bisexuals are not equally attracted to men and women, and may even shift between states of finding either sex exclusively attractive over the course of time.[1] However, some bisexuals are and remain fairly static in their level of attraction throughout their adult life.
In the mid-1950s, Alfred Kinsey devised the Kinsey scale in an attempt to measure sexual orientation. The 7 point scale has a rating of 0 ("exclusively heterosexual") to 6 ("exclusively homosexual"). Bisexuals cover most of the scales' values (1-5) which ranges between "predominantly heterosexual, only incidentally homosexual" (1) to "predominantly homosexual, only incidentally heterosexual" (5). In the middle of the scale (3) is "equally heterosexual and homosexual".[1]
Although observed in a variety of forms in human societies and in the animal kingdom throughout recorded history[citation needed], the term "bisexuality" (like the terms "hetero-" and "homosexuality") was only coined in the 19th century.[2]

Bisexual people are not necessarily attracted equally to both genders. [1]. Due to the nature of bisexuality as an often ambiguous position between homosexuality and heterosexuality, those who identify, or are identified, as bisexuals form a heterogenous group.
Some view that bisexuality is a distinct sexual orientation on a par with heterosexuality or homosexuality.[3] This views bisexuality as something clearly distinct from these other two sexualities, with a clear attraction to both men and women required.
Others view bisexuality as more ambiguous. Some people who might be classified by others as bisexual on the basis of their sexual behavior self-identify primarily as homosexual. Equally, otherwise heterosexual people who engage in occasional homosexual behaviour could be considered bisexual, but may not identify as such. For some who believe that sexuality is a distinctly defined aspect of the character, this ambiguity is problematic. It is sometimes argued that the behaviour of bisexuals may be explained by a subconscious homophobia or peer pressure.[citation needed] On the other hand, some believe that the majority of people contain aspects of homosexuality and heterosexuality, but that the intensities of these can vary from person to person.[citation needed] Some people who engage in bisexual behavior may be supportive of lesbian and gay people, but still self-identify as straight; others may consider any labels irrelevant to their positions and situations.
Some bisexuals make a distinction between gender and sex. Gender is defined in these situations as social or psychological category, characterised by the normal practices of men and women. For example, the fact that women wear dresses in Western Society whilst men traditionally do not is a gender issue. Sex is defined as the biological difference between males and females, prior to any social conditioning. Bisexuals in this sense may be attracted to more than one gender but only to one sex. For example, a male bisexual may be attracted to aspects of men and masculinity, but not to the male body. Such a person's attractions may manifest themselves through sexual activities other than anal sex with other males.

Bisexuality is often misunderstood as a form of adultery or polyamory, and a popular misconception is that bisexuals must always be in relationships with men and women simultaneously. Rather, individuals attracted to both males and females, like people of any other orientation, may live a variety of sexual lifestyles. These include: lifelong monogamy, serial monogamy, polyamory, polyfidelity, casual sexual activity with individual partners, casual group sex, and celibacy. For those with more than one sexual partner, these may or may not all be of the same gender.

“MP4″ Player

Yesterday I received a package from a friend working in a local tech magazine. When I opened it up, I was surprised to find a small portable “MP4″ player branded as CD-R King MP4 Player M1820. The packaging is the usual blister pack that you need to have the strength of Samson to open it up, with scissors of course, unless you wanted to be cut up by very sharp plastic.
The tiny device can hold 1GB of anything, and supports MP3 and WMA. Since I have most of my music collection in OGG, this posed a bit of a problem, so I loaded most of the MP3s that I have on the device and decided to give it a go.
For a cheap device, its not so bad, it gives music as I want to, but I couldn’t use my favorite headset because the input jack is much smaller (I don’t know the exact size, but I might try looking for an adapter later). The device also supports images and small video (probably AMV, which isn’t really MP4), as well as simple text files that would fall under “E-book” category. Battery life isn’t really great, but suitable for a few hours of continuous playback. The 1.8″ TFT screen is bright, albeit the firmware having a clunky interface, which strangely works after getting used to.
Navigating through the music collection is a chore, as you need to pause playback first before selecting a folder. It doesn’t seem to have support for playlists or creating one on the fly. This would be nice to have, but most of the flash-based players I had before, good brands and otherwise, don’t have such support either. Upon close scrutiny of the firmware functionality, this is very much like an S1 MP3 device, only with more functionality (although useless most of the time).
Plugging it to a computer shows it as a USB flash device, so a simple drag and drop of the files work. Ubuntu shows this with a flash player icon and is even detected by audio specific software like Rhythmbox and Amarok.
Going over the details online, the real brand of this unit is Allfine developed by BTL International Development Ltd. For its price, I can only imagine how cheap this thing is to mass produce to its target markets. Heck the TFT screen might even cost less than $1USD. If some large-scale manufacturers can produce this with very cheap Bill-of-Materials, I can only imagine how much these things will cost in 5 years.

UNIBERSIDAD NG PILIPINAS

The University of the Philippines was established in 1908 with three initial colleges, the College of Fine Arts, the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Medicine and Surgery occupying buildings distributed along Padre Faura and R. Hidalgo in Manila as well as a School of Agriculture in Los Banos, Laguna. The succeeding years saw the establishment of additional colleges: the College of Law and the College of Engineering in Manila, as well as units in Los Baos for the College of Agriculture and Forestry.The student population had shot up from the original 67 to 7849 in 1928, and continued to rise in the succeeding years. With the outbreak of World War II and the invasion of Japanese troops in 1942, the university had to close some of its colleges while maintaining only some units such as the Colleges of Medicine, Engineering and Pharmacy operational.When the war ended in 1946, the College of Law and College of Liberal Arts buildings were left with extensive damages. UP President Bienvenido Gonzales immediately sought a grant of P13 million from the US-Philippines War Damage Commission, and this amount was used for an intensive rehabilitation and construction effort during the post war years. Meanwhile, the rest of the colleges and administrative offices had to make do with temporary shelters, quonset huts made of sawali and galvanized iron.By february 1949, administrative functions of the whole university were already relocated to the new campus, and the governance of UP's regional units in Manila, Los Baos, Baguio, and Cebu were also located in Diliman.One reform introduced into the university in 1959 was the General Education Program, a series of core courses prescribed for all students at the undergraduate level. President Vicente Sinco created the University College and the College of Arts and Sciences and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, which would offer major courses in the humanities, natural sciences and social sciences.By the
Who I Want to Meet:The MRC report led to the wide-ranging reorganization of the UP system, most importantly, the further decentralization of UP administration and the declaration of UP Diliman as an autonomous unit in March 23, 1983. UP College Baguio was then placed under the supervision of UP Diliman.By 1997, UP Diliman had 18,935 students distributed among 12 pre-baccalaureate, 74 baccalaureate and 8 post-baccalaureate programs, which in turn are handled by 2,441 faculty members.Today, the University of the Philippines is composed of six constituent universities and one autonomous college. Together, these have an aggregate of 48 colleges. From an initial enrollment of 50 in 1909, the total count of students has risen to 36,774 in the first semester of 1994-95.

I can see the pain...

I still see your face in my dreams
It hurts and it doesn't help at all
I still want you in my life as crazy as that seems
I want you to catch me when I fall

I still remember the first time we met
There was something so different about you
Your friendship was something I wanted to get
That smile when you said hi to me was so new

Out of no where you called me on the phone
I wanted to sit there and talk to you forever
You were so new, so crazy and unknown
I just knew that our friendship would never sever

Two years and we are barely holding it together
What happened to the way this all used to be
I never wanted you out of my like ever
I sat there for a long time pretending not to see

We decided to go out and make it all all right
It didn't work out of course we knew it couldn't
We couldn't even really stand each others sight
It shouldn't end this way but it did and I shouldn't

I miss you and everything you were to me
Ten years from now we will look back on it all
We will be older and finally be able to see
That love will stand the test of time and never fall ...

simply me: arvin